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14291	----	[Illustration: Arms granted to SEBASTIAN DEL CANO, Captain of the _Victoria_, the first vessel that circumnavigated the Globe [_For a description, see pp._ 129-30]] The Story of Geographical Discovery How the World Became Known By Joseph Jacobs With Twenty-four Maps, &c. PREFACE In attempting to get what is little less than a history of the world, from a special point of view, into a couple of hundred duodecimo pages, I have had to make three bites at my very big cherry. In the Appendix I have given in chronological order, and for the first time on such a scale in English, the chief voyages and explorations by which our knowledge of the world has been increased, and the chief works in which that knowledge has been recorded. In the body of the work I have then attempted to connect together these facts in their more general aspects. In particular I have grouped the great voyages of 1492-1521 round the search for the Spice Islands as a central motive. It is possible that in tracing the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries to the need of titillating the parched palates of the mediævals, who lived on salt meat during winter and salt fish during Lent, I may have unduly simplified the problem. But there can be no doubt of the paramount importance attached to the spices of the East in the earlier stages. The search for the El Dorado came afterwards, and is still urging men north to the Yukon, south to the Cape, and in a south-easterly direction to "Westralia." Besides the general treatment in the text and the special details in the Appendix, I have also attempted to tell the story once more in a series of maps showing the gradual increase of men's knowledge of the globe. It would have been impossible to have included all these in a book of this size and price but for the complaisance of several publishing firms, who have given permission for the reproduction on a reduced scale of maps that have already been prepared for special purposes. I have specially to thank Messrs. Macmillan for the two dealing with the Portuguese discoveries, and derived from Mr. Payne's excellent little work on European Colonies; Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., of Boston, for several illustrating the discovery of America, from Mr. J. Fiske's "School History of the United States;" and Messrs. Phillips for the arms of Del Cano, so clearly displaying the "spicy" motive of the first circumnavigation of the globe. I have besides to thank the officials of the Royal Geographical Society, especially Mr. Scott Keltie and Dr. H. R. Mill, for the readiness with which they have placed the magnificent resources of the library and map-room of that national institution at my disposal, and the kindness with which they have answered my queries and indicated new sources of information. J. J. CONTENTS CHAP. PREFACE LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS INTRODUCTION I. THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS II. THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD III. GEOGRAPHY IN THE DARK AGES IV. MEDIÆVAL TRAVELS--MARCO POLO, IBN BATUTA V. ROADS AND COMMERCE VI. TO THE INDIES EASTWARD--PORTUGUESE ROUTE--PRINCE HENRY AND VASCO DA GAMA VII. TO THE INDIES WESTWARD--SPANISH ROUTE--COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN VIII. TO THE INDIES NORTHWARD--ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN ROUTES IX. PARTITION OF AMERICA X. AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS--TASMAN AND COOK XI. EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA--PARK, LIVINGSTON, AND STANLEY XII. THE POLES--FRANKLIN, ROSS, NORDENSKIOLD, AND NANSEN ANNALS OF DISCOVERY LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS COAT-OF-ARMS OF DEL CANO (from Guillemard, _Magellan_. By kind permission of Messrs. Phillips).--It illustrates the importance attributed to the Spice Islands as the main object of Magellan's voyage. For the blazon, see pp. 129-30. THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE WORLD (from the Rev. C. J. Ball's _Bible Illustrations_, 1898).--This is probably of the eighth century B.C., and indicates the Babylonian view of the world surrounded by the ocean, which is indicated by the parallel circles, and traversed by the Euphrates, which is seen meandering through the middle, with Babylon, the great city, crossing it at the top. Beyond the ocean are seven successive projections of land, possibly indicating the Babylonian knowledge of surrounding countries beyond the Euxine and the Red Sea. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY.--It will be observed that the Greek geographer regarded the Indian Ocean as a landlocked body of water, while he appears to have some knowledge of the so ces of the Nile. The general tendency of the map is to extend Asia very much to the east, which led to the miscalculation encouraging Columbus to discover America. THE ROMAN ROADS OF EUROPE (drawn specially for this work).--These give roughly the limits within which the inland geographical knowledge of the ancients reach some degrees of accuracy. GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS (from an early edition of Mandeville's _Travels_).--Most of the mediæval maps were dotted over with similar monstrosities. THE HEREFORD MAP.--This, one of the best known of mediæval maps, was drawn by Richard of Aldingham about 1307. Like most of these maps, it has the East with the terrestrial paradise at the top, and Jerusalem is represented as the centre. PEUTINGER TABLE, WESTERN PART.--This is the only Roman map extant; it gives lines of roads from the eastern shores of Britain to the Adriatic Sea. It is really a kind of bird's-eye view taken from the African coast. The Mediterranean runs as a thin strip through the lower part of the map. The lower section joins on to the upper. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO IBN HAUKAL (from Lelewel, _Géographie du mon age_).--This map, like most of the Arabian maps, has the south at the top. It is practically only a diagram, and is thus similar to the Hereford Map in general form.--Misr=Egypt, Fars=Persia, Andalus=Spain. COAST-LINE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN (from the _Portulano_ of Dulcert, 1339, given in Nordenskiold's _Facsimile Atlas_).--To illustrate the accuracy with which mariners' charts gave the coast-lines as contrasted with the merely symbolical representation of other mediæval maps. FRA MAURO MAP, 1457 (from Lelewel, _loc. Cit._).--Here, as usual, the south is placed at the top of the map. Besides the ordinary mediæval conceptions, Fra Mauro included the Portuguese discoveries along the coast of Africa up to his time, 1457. PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA (from E. J. Payne, _European Colonies_, 1877).--Giving the successive points reached by the Portuguese navigators during the fifteenth century. PORTUGUESE INDIES (from Payne, _loc. Cit._).--All the ports mentioned in ordinary type were held by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. THE TOSCANELLI MAP (from Kretschmer, _Entdeckung Amerikas_, 1892).--This is a reconstruction of the map which Columbus got from the Italian astronomer and cartographer Toscanelli and used to guide him in his voyage across the Atlantic. Its general resemblance to the Behaim Globe will be remarked. THE BEHAIM GLOBE.--This gives the information about the world possessed in 1492, just as Columbus was starting, and is mainly based upon the map of Toscanelli, which served as his guide. It will be observed that there is no other continent between Spain and Zipangu or Japan, while the fabled islands of St. Brandan and Antilia are represented bridging the expanse between the Azores and Japan. AMERIGO VESPUCCI (from Fiske's _School History of the United States_, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.) FERDINAND MAGELLAN (from Fiske's _School History of the United States_, by kind permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.) MAP OF THE WORLD, from the Ptolemy Edition of 1548 (after Kretschmer's _Entdeckungsgeschichte Amerikas_).--It will be observed that Mexico is supposed to be joined on to Asia, and that the North Pacific was not even known to exist. RUSSIAN ASIA (after the Atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1737, by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette). Japan is represented as a peninsula. AUSTRALIA AS KNOWN IN 1745 (from D'Anville's _Atlas_, by kind permission of Messrs. Hachette).--It will be seen that the Northern and Western coasts were even by this time tolerably well mapped out, leaving only the eastern coast to be explored by Cook. AUSTRALIA, showing routes of explorations (prepared specially for the present volume). The names of the chief explorers are given at the top of the map. AFRICA AS KNOWN IN 1676 (from Dapper's _Atlas_).--This includes a knowledge of most of the African river sand lakes due to the explorations of the Portuguese. AFRICA (made specially for this volume, to show chief explorations and partition).--The names of the explorers are given at the foot of the map itself. NORTH POLAR REGIONS, WESTERN HALF (prepared specially for the present volume from the _Citizen's Atlas_, by kind permission of Messrs. Bartholomew).--This gives the results of the discoveries due to Franklin expeditions and most of the searchers after the North-West Passage. NORTH POLAR REGIONS, EASTERN HALF.--This gives the Siberian coast investigated by the Russians and Nordenskiold, as well as Nansen's _Farthest North_. CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE (prepared specially for this volume). Giving in graphic form the names of the chief Arctic travellers and the latitude N. reached from John Davis (1587) to Nansen (1895). THE STORY OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY INTRODUCTION How was the world discovered? That is to say, how did a certain set of men who lived round the Mediterranean Sea, and had acquired the art of recording what each generation had learned, become successively aware of the other parts of the globe? Every part of the earth, so far as we know, has been inhabited by man during the five or six thousand years in which Europeans have been storing up their knowledge, and all that time the inhabitants of each part, of course, were acquainted with that particular part: the Kamtschatkans knew Kamtschatka, the Greenlanders, Greenland; the various tribes of North American Indians knew, at any rate, that part of America over which they wandered, long before Columbus, as we say, "discovered" it. Very often these savages not only know their own country, but can express their knowledge in maps of very remarkable accuracy. Cortes traversed over 1000 miles through Central America, guided only by a calico map of a local cacique. An Eskimo named Kalliherey drew out, from his own knowledge of the coast between Smith Channel and Cape York, a map of it, varying only in minute details from the Admiralty chart. A native of Tahiti, named Tupaia, drew out for Cook a map of the Pacific, extending over forty-five degrees of longitude (nearly 3000 miles), giving the relative size and position of the main islands over that huge tract of ocean. Almost all geographical discoveries by Europeans have, in like manner, been brought about by means of guides, who necessarily knew the country which their European masters wished to "discover." What, therefore, we mean by the history of geographical discovery is the gradual bringing to the knowledge of the nations of civilisation surrounding the Mediterranean Sea the vast tracts of land extending in all directions from it. There are mainly two divisions of this history--the discovery of the Old World and that of the New, including Australia under the latter term. Though we speak of geographical discovery, it is really the discovery of new tribes of men that we are thinking of. It is only quite recently that men have sought for knowledge about lands, apart from the men who inhabit them. One might almost say that the history of geographical discovery, properly so called, begins with Captain Cook, the motive of whose voyages was purely scientific curiosity. But before his time men wanted to know one another for two chief reasons: they wanted to conquer, or they wanted to trade; or perhaps we could reduce the motives to one--they wanted to conquer, because they wanted to trade. In our own day we have seen a remarkable mixture of all three motives, resulting in the European partition of Africa--perhaps the most remarkable event of the latter end of the nineteenth century. Speke and Burton, Livingstone and Stanley, investigated the interior from love of adventure and of knowledge; then came the great chartered trading companies; and, finally, the governments to which these belong have assumed responsibility for the territories thus made known to the civilised world. Within forty years the map of Africa, which was practically a blank in the interior, and, as will be shown, was better known in 1680 than in 1850, has been filled up almost completely by researches due to motives of conquest, of trade, or of scientific curiosity. In its earlier stages, then, the history of geographical discovery is mainly a history of conquest, and what we shall have to do will be to give a short history of the ancient world, from the point of view of how that world became known. "Became known to whom?" you may ask; and we must determine that question first. We might, of course, take the earliest geographical work known to us--the tenth chapter of Genesis--and work out how the rest of the world became known to the Israelites when they became part of the Roman Empire; but in history all roads lead to Rome or away from it, and it is more useful for every purpose to take Rome as our centre-point. Yet Rome only came in as the heir of earlier empires that spread the knowledge of the earth and man by conquest long before Rome was of importance; and even when the Romans were the masters of all this vast inheritance, they had not themselves the ability to record the geographical knowledge thus acquired, and it is to a Greek named Ptolemy, a professor of the great university of Alexandria, to whom we owe our knowledge of how much the ancient world knew of the earth. It will be convenient to determine this first, and afterwards to sketch rapidly the course of historical events which led to the knowledge which Ptolemy records. In the Middle Ages, much of this knowledge, like all other, was lost, and we shall have to record how knowledge was replaced by imagination and theory. The true inheritors of Greek science during that period were the Arabs, and the few additions to real geographical knowledge at that time were due to them, except in so far as commercial travellers and pilgrims brought a more intimate knowledge of Asia to the West. The discovery of America forms the beginning of a new period, both in modern history and in modern geography. In the four hundred years that have elapsed since then, more than twice as much of the inhabited globe has become known to civilised man than in the preceding four thousand years. The result is that, except for a few patches of Africa, South America, and round the Poles, man knows roughly what are the physical resources of the world he inhabits, and, except for minor details, the history of geographical discovery is practically at an end. Besides its interest as a record of war and adventure, this history gives the successive stages by which modern men have been made what they are. The longest known countries and peoples have, on the whole, had the deepest influence in the forming of the civilised character. Nor is the practical utility of this study less important. The way in which the world has been discovered determines now-a-days the world's history. The great problems of the twentieth century will have immediate relation to the discoveries of America, of Africa, and of Australia. In all these problems, Englishmen will have most to say and to do, and the history of geographical discovery is, therefore, of immediate and immense interest to Englishmen. [_Authorities:_ Cooley, _History of Maritime and Inland Discoveries_, 3 vols., 1831; Vivien de Saint Martin, _Histoire de la Géographie_, 1873.] CHAPTER I THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS Before telling how the ancients got to know that part of the world with which they finally became acquainted when the Roman Empire was at its greatest extent, it is as well to get some idea of the successive stages of their knowledge, leaving for the next chapter the story of how that knowledge was obtained. As in most branches of organised knowledge, it is to the Greeks that we owe our acquaintance with ancient views of this subject. In the early stages they possibly learned something from the Phoenicians, who were the great traders and sailors of antiquity, and who coasted along the Mediterranean, ventured through the Straits of Gibraltar, and traded with the British Isles, which they visited for the tin found in Cornwall. It is even said that one of their admirals, at the command of Necho, king of Egypt, circumnavigated Africa, for Herodotus reports that on the homeward voyage the sun set in the sea on the right hand. But the Phoenicians kept their geographical knowledge to themselves as a trade secret, and the Greeks learned but little from them. The first glimpse that we have of the notions which the Greeks possessed of the shape and the inhabitants of the earth is afforded by the poems passing under the name of HOMER. These poems show an intimate knowledge of Northern Greece and of the western coasts of Asia Minor, some acquaintance with Egypt, Cyprus, and Sicily; but all the rest, even of the Eastern Mediterranean, is only vaguely conceived by their author. Where he does not know he imagines, and some of his imaginings have had a most important influence upon the progress of geographical knowledge. Thus he conceives of the world as being a sort of flat shield, with an extremely wide river surrounding it, known as Ocean. The centre of this shield was at Delphi, which was regarded as the "navel" of the inhabited world. According to Hesiod, who is but little later than Homer, up in the far north were placed a people known as the _Hyperboreani_, or those who dwelt at the back of the north wind; whilst a corresponding place in the south was taken by the Abyssinians. All these four conceptions had an important influence upon the views that men had of the world up to times comparatively recent. Homer also mentioned the pigmies as living in Africa. These were regarded as fabulous, till they were re-discovered by Dr. Schweinfurth and Mr. Stanley in our own time. It is probably from the Babylonians that the Greeks obtained the idea of an all-encircling ocean. Inhabitants of Mesopotamia would find themselves reaching the ocean in almost any direction in which they travelled, either the Caspian, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, or the Persian Gulf. Accordingly, the oldest map of the world which has been found is one accompanying a cuneiform inscription, and representing the plain of Mesopotamia with the Euphrates flowing through it, and the whole surrounded by two concentric circles, which are named briny waters. Outside these, however, are seven detached islets, possibly representing the seven zones or climates into which the world was divided according to the ideas of the Babylonians, though afterwards they resorted to the ordinary four cardinal points. What was roughly true of Babylonia did not in any way answer to the geographical position of Greece, and it is therefore probable that in the first place they obtained their ideas of the surrounding ocean from the Babylonians. [Illustration: THE EARLIEST MAP OF THE WORLD] It was after the period of Homer and Hesiod that the first great expansion of Greek knowledge about the world began, through the extensive colonisation which was carried on by the Greeks around the Eastern Mediterranean. Even to this day the natives of the southern part of Italy speak a Greek dialect, owing to the wide extent of Greek colonies in that country, which used to be called "Magna Grecia," or "Great Greece." Marseilles also one of the Greek colonies (600 B.C.), which, in its turn, sent out other colonies along the Gulf of Lyons. In the East, too, Greek cities were dotted along the coast of the Black Sea, one of which, Byzantium, was destined to be of world-historic importance. So, too, in North Africa, and among the islands of the Ægean Sea, the Greeks colonised throughout the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., and in almost every case communication was kept up between the colonies and the mother-country. Now, the one quality which has made the Greeks so distinguished in the world's history was their curiosity; and it was natural that they should desire to know, and to put on record, the large amount of information brought to the mainland of Greece from the innumerable Greek colonies. But to record geographical knowledge, the first thing that is necessary is a map, and accordingly it is a Greek philosopher named ANAXIMANDER of Miletus, of the sixth century B.C., to whom we owe the invention of map-drawing. Now, in order to make a map of one's own country, little astronomical knowledge is required. As we have seen, savages are able to draw such maps; but when it comes to describing the relative positions of countries divided from one another by seas, the problem is not so easy. An Athenian would know roughly that Byzantium (now called Constantinople) was somewhat to the east and to the north of him, because in sailing thither he would have to sail towards the rising sun, and would find the climate getting colder as he approached Byzantium. So, too, he might roughly guess that Marseilles was somewhere to the west and north of him; but how was he to fix the relative position of Marseilles and Byzantium to one another? Was Marseilles more northerly than Byzantium? Was it very far away from that city? For though it took longer to get to Marseilles, the voyage was winding, and might possibly bring the vessel comparatively near to Byzantium, though there might be no direct road between the two cities. There was one rough way of determining how far north a place stood: the very slightest observation of the starry heavens would show a traveller that as he moved towards the north, the pole-star rose higher up in the heavens. How much higher, could be determined by the angle formed by a stick pointing to the pole-star, in relation to one held horizontally. If, instead of two sticks, we cut out a piece of metal or wood to fill up the enclosed angle, we get the earliest form of the sun-dial, known as the _gnomon_, and according to the shape of the gnomon the latitude of a place is determined. Accordingly, it is not surprising to find that the invention of the gnomon is also attributed to Anaximander, for without some such instrument it would have been impossible for him to have made any map worthy of the name. But it is probable that Anaximander did not so much invent as introduce the gnomon, and, indeed, Herodotus, expressly states that this instrument was derived from the Babylonians, who were the earliest astronomers, so far as we know. A curious point confirms this, for the measurement of angles is by degrees, and degrees are divided into sixty seconds, just as minutes are. Now this division into sixty is certainly derived from Babylonia in the case of time measurement, and is therefore of the same origin as regards the measurement of angles. We have no longer any copy of this first map of the world drawn up by Anaximander, but there is little doubt that it formed the foundation of a similar map drawn by a fellow-townsman of Anaximander, HECATÆUS of Miletus, who seems to have written the first formal geography. Only fragments of this are extant, but from them we are able to see that it was of the nature of a _periplus_, or seaman's guide, telling how many days' sail it was from one point to another, and in what direction. We know also that he arranged his whole subject into two books, dealing respectively with Europe and Asia, under which latter term he included part of what we now know as Africa. From the fragments scholars have been able to reproduce the rough outlines of the map of the world as it presented itself to Hecatæus. From this it can be seen that the Homeric conception of the surrounding ocean formed a chief determining feature in Hecatæus's map. For the rest, he was acquainted with the Mediterranean, Red, and Black Seas, and with the great rivers Danube, Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, and Indus. The next great name in the history of Greek geography is that of HERODOTUS of Halicarnassus, who might indeed be equally well called the Father of Geography as the Father of History. He travelled much in Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, and on the shores of the Black Sea, while he was acquainted with Greece, and passed the latter years of his life in South Italy. On all these countries he gave his fellow-citizens accurate and tolerably full information, and he had diligently collected knowledge about countries in their neighbourhood. In particular he gives full details of Scythia (or Southern Russia), and of the satrapies and royal roads of Persia. As a rule, his information is as accurate as could be expected at such an early date, and he rarely tells marvellous stories, or if he does, he points out himself their untrustworthiness. Almost the only traveller's yarn which Herodotus reports without due scepticism is that of the ants of India that were bigger than foxes and burrowed out gold dust for their ant-hills. One of the stories he relates is of interest, as seeming to show an anticipation of one of Mr. Stanley's journeys. Five young men of the Nasamonians started from Southern Libya, W. of the Soudan, and journeyed for many days west till they came to a grove of trees, when they were seized by a number of men of very small stature, and conducted through marshes to a great city of black men of the same size, through which a large river flowed. This Herodotus identifies with the Nile, but, from the indication of the journey given by him, it would seem more probable that it was the Niger, and that the Nasamonians had visited Timbuctoo! Owing to this statement of Herodotus, it was for long thought that the Upper Nile flowed east and west. After Herodotus, the date of whose history may be fixed at the easily remembered number of 444 B.C., a large increase of knowledge was obtained of the western part of Asia by the two expeditions of Xenophon and of Alexander, which brought the familiar knowledge of the Greeks as far as India. But besides these military expeditions we have still extant several log-books of mariners, which might have added considerably to Greek geography. One of these tells the tale of an expedition of the Carthaginian admiral named Hanno, down the western coast of Africa, as far as Sierra Leone, a voyage which was not afterwards undertaken for sixteen hundred years. Hanno brought back from this voyage hairy skins, which, he stated, belonged to men and women whom he had captured, and who were known to the natives by the name of Gorillas. Another log-book is that of a Greek named Scylax, who gives the sailing distances between nearly all ports on the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and the number of days required to pass from one to another. From this it would seem that a Greek merchant vessel could manage on the average fifty miles a day. Besides this, one of Alexander's admirals, named Nearchus, learned to carry his ships from the mouth of the Indus to the Arabian Gulf. Later on, a Greek sailor, Hippalus, found out that by using the monsoons at the appropriate times, he could sail direct from Arabia to India without laboriously coasting along the shores of Persia and Beluchistan, and in consequence the Greeks gave his name to the monsoon. For information about India itself, the Greeks were, for a long time, dependent upon the account of Megasthenes, an ambassador sent by Seleucus, one of Alexander's generals, to the Indian king of the Punjab. While knowledge was thus gained of the East, additional information was obtained about the north of Europe by the travels of one PYTHEAS, a native of Marseilles, who flourished about the time of Alexander the Great (333 B.C.), and he is especially interesting to us as having been the first civilised person who can be identified as having visited Britain. He seems to have coasted along the Bay of Biscay, to have spent some time in England,--which he reckoned as 40,000 stadia (4000 miles) in circumference,--and he appears also to have coasted along Belgium and Holland, as far as the mouth of the Elbe. Pytheas is, however, chiefly known in the history of geography as having referred to the island of Thule, which he described as the most northerly point of the inhabited earth, beyond which the sea became thickened, and of a jelly-like consistency. He does not profess to have visited Thule, and his account probably refers to the existence of drift ice near the Shetlands. All this new information was gathered together, and made accessible to the Greek reading world, by ERATOSTHENES, librarian of Alexandria (240-196 B.C.), who was practically the founder of scientific geography. He was the first to attempt any accurate measurement of the size of the earth, and of its inhabited portion. By his time the scientific men of Greece had become quite aware of the fact that the earth was a globe, though they considered that it was fixed in space at the centre of the universe. Guesses had even been made at the size of this globe, Aristotle fixing its circumference at 400,000 stadia (or 40,000 miles), but Eratosthenes attempted a more accurate measurement. He compared the length of the shadow thrown by the sun at Alexandria and at Syene, near the first cataract of the Nile, which he assumed to be on the same meridian of longitude, and to be at about 5000 stadia (500 miles) distance. From the difference in the length of the shadows he deduced that this distance represented one-fiftieth of the circumference of the earth, which would accordingly be about 250,000 stadia, or 25,000 geographical miles. As the actual circumference is 24,899 English miles, this was a very near approximation, considering the rough means Eratosthenes had at his disposal. Having thus estimated the size of the earth, Eratosthenes then went on to determine the size of that portion which the ancients considered to be habitable. North and south of the lands known to him, Eratosthenes and all the ancients considered to be either too cold or too hot to be habitable; this portion he reckoned to extend to 38,000 stadia, or 3800 miles. In reckoning the extent of the habitable portion from east to west, Eratosthenes came to the conclusion that from the Straits of Gibraltar to the east of India was about 80,000 stadia, or, roughly speaking, one-third of the earth's surface. The remaining two-thirds were supposed to be covered by the ocean, and Eratosthenes prophetically remarked that "if it were not that the vast extent of the Atlantic Sea rendered it impossible, one might almost sail from the coast of Spain to that of India along the same parallel." Sixteen hundred years later, as we shall see, Columbus tried to carry out this idea. Eratosthenes based his calculations on two fundamental lines, corresponding in a way to our equator and meridian of Greenwich: the first stretched, according to him, from Cape St. Vincent, through the Straits of Messina and the island of Rhodes, to Issus (Gulf of Iskanderun); for his starting-line in reckoning north and south he used a meridian passing through the First Cataract, Alexandria, Rhodes, and Byzantium. The next two hundred years after Eratosthenes' death was filled up by the spread of the Roman Empire, by the taking over by the Romans of the vast possessions previously held by Alexander and his successors and by the Carthaginians, and by their spread into Gaul, Britain, and Germany. Much of the increased knowledge thus obtained was summed up in the geographical work of STRABO, who wrote in Greek about 20 B.C. He introduced from the extra knowledge thus obtained many modifications of the system of Eratosthenes, but, on the whole, kept to his general conception of the world. He rejected, however, the existence of Thule, and thus made the world narrower; while he recognised the existence of Ierne, or Ireland; which he regarded as the most northerly part of the habitable world, lying, as he thought, north of Britain. Between the time of Strabo and that of Ptolemy, who sums up all the knowledge of the ancients about the habitable earth, there was only one considerable addition to men's acquaintance with their neighbours, contained in a seaman's manual for the navigation of the Indian Ocean, known as the _Periplus_ of the Erythræan Sea. This gave very full and tolerably accurate accounts of the coasts from Aden to the mouth of the Ganges, though it regarded Ceylon as much greater, and more to the south, than it really is; but it also contains an account of the more easterly parts of Asia, Indo-China, and China itself, "where the silk comes from." This had an important influence on the views of Ptolemy, as we shall see, and indirectly helped long afterwards to the discovery of America. [Illustration: PTOLEMAEI ORBIS] It was left to PTOLEMY of Alexandria to sum up for the ancient world all the knowledge that had been accumulating from the time of Eratosthenes to his own day, which we may fix at about 150 A.D. He took all the information he could find in the writings of the preceding four hundred years, and reduced it all to one uniform scale; for it is to him that we owe the invention of the method and the names of latitude and longitude. Previous writers had been content to say that the distance between one point and another was so many stadia, but he reduced all this rough reckoning to so many degrees of latitude and longitude, from fixed lines as starting-points. But, unfortunately, all these reckonings were rough calculations, which are almost invariably beyond the truth; and Ptolemy, though the greatest of ancient astronomers, still further distorted his results by assuming that a degree was 500 stadia, or 50 geographical miles. Thus when he found in any of his authorities that the distance between one port and another was 500 stadia, he assumed, in the first place, that this was accurate, and, in the second, that the distance between the two places was equal to a degree of latitude or longitude, as the case might be. Accordingly he arrived at the result that the breadth of the habitable globe was, as he put it, twelve hours of longitude (corresponding to 180°)--nearly one-third as much again as the real dimensions from Spain to China. The consequence of this was that the distance from Spain to China _westward_ was correspondingly diminished by sixty degrees (or nearly 4000 miles), and it was this error that ultimately encouraged Columbus to attempt his epoch-making voyage. Ptolemy's errors of calculation would not have been so extensive but that he adopted a method of measurement which made them accumulative. If he had chosen Alexandria for the point of departure in measuring longitude, the errors he made when reckoning westward would have been counterbalanced by those reckoning eastward, and would not have resulted in any serious distortion of the truth; but instead of this, he adopted as his point of departure the Fortunatæ Insulæ, or Canary Islands, and every degree measured to the east of these was one-fifth too great, since he assumed that it was only fifty miles in length. I may mention that so great has been the influence of Ptolemy on geography, that, up to the middle of the last century, Ferro, in the Canary Islands, was still retained as the zero-point of the meridians of longitude. Another point in which Ptolemy's system strongly influenced modern opinion was his departure from the previous assumption that the world was surrounded by the ocean, derived from Homer. Instead of Africa being thus cut through the middle by the ocean, Ptolemy assumed, possibly from vague traditional knowledge, that Africa extended an unknown length to the south, and joined on to an equally unknown continent far to the east, which, in the Latinised versions of his astronomical work, was termed "terra australis incognita," or "the unknown south land." As, by his error with regard to the breadth of the earth, Ptolemy led to Columbus; so, by his mistaken notions as to the "great south land," he prepared the way for the discoveries of Captain Cook. But notwithstanding these errors, which were due partly to the roughness of the materials which he had to deal with, and partly to scientific caution, Ptolemy's work is one of the great monuments of human industry and knowledge. For the Old World it remained the basis of all geographical knowledge up to the beginning of the last century, just as his astronomical work was only finally abolished by the work of Newton. Ptolemy has thus the rare distinction of being the greatest authority on two important departments of human knowledge--astronomy and geography--for over fifteen hundred years. Into the details of his description of the world it is unnecessary to go. The map will indicate how near he came to the main outlines of the Mediterranean, of Northwest Europe, of Arabia, and of the Black Sea. Beyond these regions he could only depend upon the rough indications and guesses of untutored merchants. But it is worth while referring to his method of determining latitude, as it was followed up by most succeeding geographers. Between the equator and the most northerly point known to him, he divides up the earth into horizontal strips, called by him "climates," and determined by the average length of the longest day in each. This is a very rough method of determining latitude, but it was probably, in most cases, all that Ptolemy had to depend upon, since the measurement of angles would be a rare accomplishment even in modern times, and would only exist among a few mathematicians and astronomers in Ptolemy's days. With him the history of geographical knowledge and discovery in the ancient world closes. In this chapter I have roughly given the names and exploits of the Greek men of science, who summed up in a series of systematic records the knowledge obtained by merchants, by soldiers, and by travellers of the extent of the world known to the ancients. Of this knowledge, by far the largest amount was gained, not by systematic investigation for the purpose of geography, but by military expeditions for the purpose of conquest. We must now retrace our steps, and give a rough review of the various stages of conquest. We must now retrace our steps, and give a rough review of the various stages of conquest by which the different regions of the Old World became known to the Greeks and the Roman Empire, whose knowledge Ptolemy summarises. [_Authorities:_ Bunbury, _History of Ancient Geography,_ 2 vols., 1879; Tozer, _History of Ancient Geography,_ 1897.] CHAPTER II THE SPREAD OF CONQUEST IN THE ANCIENT WORLD In a companion volume of this series, "The Story of Extinct Civilisations in the East," will be found an account of the rise and development of the various nations who held sway over the west of Asia at the dawn of history. Modern discoveries of remarkable interest have enabled us to learn the condition of men in Asia Minor as early as 4000 B.C. All these early civilisations existed on the banks of great rivers, which rendered the land fertile through which they passed. We first find man conscious of himself, and putting his knowledge on record, along the banks of the great rivers Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris, Ganges and Yang-tse-Kiang. But for our purposes we are not concerned with these very early stages of history. The Egyptians got to know something of the nations that surrounded them, and so did the Assyrians. A summary of similar knowledge is contained in the list of tribes given in the tenth chapter of Genesis, which divides all mankind, as then known to the Hebrews, into descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japhet--corresponding, roughly, to Asia, Europe, and Africa. But in order to ascertain how the Romans obtained the mass of information which was summarised for them by Ptolemy in his great work, we have merely to concentrate our attention on the remarkable process of continuous expansion which ultimately led to the existence of the Roman Empire. All early histories of kingdoms are practically of the same type. A certain tract of country is divided up among a certain number of tribes speaking a common language, and each of these tribes ruled by a separate chieftain. One of these tribes then becomes predominant over the rest, through the skill in war or diplomacy of one of its chiefs, and the whole of the tract of country is thus organised into one kingdom. Thus the history of England relates how the kingdom of Wessex grew into predominance over the whole of the country; that of France tells how the kings who ruled over the Isle of France spread their rule over the rest of the land; the history of Israel is mainly an account of how the tribe of Judah obtained the hegemony of the rest of the tribes; and Roman history, as its name implies, informs us how the inhabitants of a single city grew to be the masters of the whole known world. But their empire had been prepared for them by a long series of similar expansions, which might be described as the successive swallowing up of empire after empire, each becoming overgrown in the process, till at last the series was concluded by the Romans swallowing up the whole. It was this gradual spread of dominion which, at each stage, increased men's knowledge of surrounding nations, and it therefore comes within our province to roughly sum up these stages, as part of the story of geographical discovery. Regarded from the point of view of geography, this spread of man's knowledge might be compared to the growth of a huge oyster-shell, and, from that point of view, we have to take the north of the Persian Gulf as the apex of the shell, and begin with the Babylonian Empire. We first have the kingdom of Babylon--which, in the early stages, might be best termed Chaldæa--in the south of Mesopotamia (or the valley between the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates), which, during the third and second millennia before our era, spread along the valley of the Tigris. But in the fourteenth century B.C., the Assyrians to the north of it, though previously dependent upon Babylon, conquered it, and, after various vicissitudes, established themselves throughout the whole of Mesopotamia and much of the surrounding lands. In 604 B.C. the capital of this great empire was moved once more to Babylon, so that in the last stage, as well as in the first, it may be called Babylonia. For purposes of distinction, however, it will be as well to call these three successive stages Chaldæa, Assyria, and Babylonia. Meanwhile, immediately to the east, a somewhat similar process had been gone through, though here the development was from north to south, the Medes of the north developing a powerful empire in the north of Persia, which ultimately fell into the hands of Cyrus the Great in 546 B.C. He then proceeded to conquer the kingdom of Lydia, in the northwest part of Asia Minor, which had previously inherited the dominions of the Hittites. Finally he proceeded to seize the empire of Babylonia, by his successful attack on the capital, 538 B.C. He extended his rule nearly as far as India on one side, and, as we know from the Bible, to the borders of Egypt on the other. His son Cambyses even succeeded in adding Egypt for a time to the Persian Empire. The oyster-shell of history had accordingly expanded to include almost the whole of Western Asia. The next two centuries are taken up in universal history by the magnificent struggle of the Greeks against the Persian Empire--the most decisive conflict in all history, for it determined whether Europe or Asia should conquer the world. Hitherto the course of conquest had been from east to west, and if Xerxes' invasion had been successful, there is little doubt that the westward tendency would have continued. But the larger the tract of country which an empire covers--especially when different tribes and nations are included in it--the weaker and less organised it becomes. Within little more than a century of the death of Cyrus the Great the Greeks discovered the vulnerable point in the Persian Empire, owing to an expedition of ten thousand Greek mercenaries under Xenophon, who had been engaged by Cyrus the younger in an attempt to capture the Persian Empire from his brother. Cyrus was slain, 401 B.C., but the ten thousand, under the leadership of Xenophon, were enabled, to hold their own against all the attempts of the Persians to destroy them, and found their way back to Greece. Meanwhile the usual process had been going on in Greece by which a country becomes consolidated. From time to time one of the tribes into which that mountainous country was divided obtained supremacy over the rest: at first the Athenians, owing to the prominent part they had taken in repelling the Persians; then the Spartans, and finally the Thebans. But on the northern frontiers a race of hardy mountaineers, the Macedonians, had consolidated their power, and, under Philip of Macedon, became masters of all Greece. Philip had learned the lesson taught by the successful retreat of the ten thousand, and, just before his death, was preparing to attack the Great King (of Persia) with all the forces which his supremacy in Greece put at his disposal. His son Alexander the Great carried out Philip's intentions. Within twelve years (334-323 B.C.) he had conquered Persia, Parthia, India (in the strict sense, _i.e._ the valley of the Indus), and Egypt. After his death his huge empire was divided up among his generals, but, except in the extreme east, the whole of it was administered on Greek methods. A Greek-speaking person could pass from one end to the other without difficulty, and we can understand how a knowledge of the whole tract of country between the Adriatic and the Indus could be obtained by Greek scholars. Alexander founded a large number of cities, all bearing his name, at various points of his itinerary; but of these the most important was that at the mouth of the Nile, known to this day as Alexandria. Here was the intellectual centre of the whole Hellenic world, and accordingly it was here, as we have seen, that Eratosthenes first wrote down in a systematic manner all the knowledge about the habitable earth which had been gained mainly by Alexander's conquests. Important as was the triumphant march of Alexander through Western Asia, both in history and in geography, it cannot be said to have added so very much to geographical knowledge, for Herodotus was roughly acquainted with most of the country thus traversed, except towards the east of Persia and the north-west of India. But the itineraries of Alexander and his generals must have contributed more exact knowledge of the distances between the various important centres of population, and enabled Eratosthenes and his successors to give them a definite position on their maps of the world. What they chiefly learned from Alexander and his immediate successors was a more accurate knowledge of North-West India. Even as late as Strabo, the sole knowledge possessed at Alexandria of Indian places was that given by Megasthenes, the ambassador to India in the third century B.C. Meanwhile, in the western portion of the civilised world a similar process had gone on. In the Italian peninsula the usual struggle had gone on between the various tribes inhabiting it. The fertile plain of Lombardy was not in those days regarded as belonging to Italy, but was known as Cisalpine Gaul. The south of Italy, as we have seen, was mainly inhabited by Greek colonists, and was called Great Greece. Between these tracts of country the Italian territory was inhabited by three sets of federate tribes--the Etrurians, the Samnites, and the Latins. During the 230 years between 510 B.C. and 280 B.C. Rome was occupied in obtaining the supremacy among these three sets of tribes, and by the latter date may be regarded as having consolidated Central Italy into an Italian federation, centralised at Rome. At the latter date, the Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus, attempted to arouse the Greek colonies in Southern Italy against the growing power of Rome; but his interference only resulted in extending the Roman dominion down to the heel and big toe of Italy. If Rome was to advance farther, Sicily would be the next step, and just at that moment Sicily was being threatened by the other great power of the West--Carthage. Carthage was the most important of the colonies founded by the Phoenicians (probably in the ninth century B.C.), and pursued in the Western Mediterranean the policy of establishing trading stations along the coast, which had distinguished the Phoenicians from their first appearance in history. They seized all the islands in that division of the sea, or at any rate prevented any other nation from settling in Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. In particular Carthage took possession of the western part of Sicily, which had been settled by sister Phoenician colonies. While Rome did everything in its power to consolidate its conquests by admitting the other Italians to some share in the central government, Carthage only regarded its foreign possessions as so many openings for trade. In fact, it dealt with the western littoral of the Mediterranean something like the East India Company treated the coast of Hindostan: it established factories at convenient spots. But just as the East India Company found it necessary to conquer the neighbouring territory in order to secure peaceful trade, so Carthage extended its conquests all down the western coast of Africa and the south-east part of Spain, while Rome was extending into Italy. To continue our conchological analogy, by the time of the first Punic War Rome and Carthage had each expanded into a shell, and between the two intervened the eastern section of the island of Sicily. As the result of this, Rome became master of Sicily, and then the final struggle took place with Hannibal in the second Punic War, which resulted in Rome becoming possessed of Spain and Carthage. By the year 200 B.C. Rome was practically master of the Western Mediterranean, though it took another century to consolidate its heritage from Carthage in Spain and Mauritania. During that century--the second before our era--Rome also extended its Italian boundaries to the Alps by the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, which, however, was considered outside Italy, from which it was separated by the river Rubicon. In that same century the Romans had begun to interfere in the affairs of Greece, which easily fell into their hands, and thus prepared the way for their inheritance of Alexander's empire. This, in the main, was the work of the first century before our era, when the expansion of Rome became practically concluded. This was mainly the work of two men, Cæsar and Pompey. Following the example of his uncle, Marius, Cæsar extended the Roman dominions beyond the Alps to Gaul, Western Germany, and Britain; but from our present standpoint it was Pompey who prepared the way for Rome to carry on the succession of empire in the more civilised portions of the world, and thereby merited his title of "Great." He pounded up, as it were, the various states into which Asia Minor was divided, and thus prepared the way for Roman dominion over Western Asia and Egypt. By the time of Ptolemy the empire was thoroughly consolidated, and his map and geographical notices are only tolerably accurate within the confines of the empire. [Illustration: EUROPE. Showing the principal Roman Roads.] One of the means by which the Romans were enabled to consolidate their dominion must be here shortly referred to. In order that their legions might easily pass from one portion of this huge empire to another, they built roads, generally in straight lines, and so solidly constructed that in many places throughout Europe they can be traced even to the present day, after the lapse of fifteen hundred years. Owing to them, in a large measure, Rome was enabled to preserve its empire intact for nearly five hundred years, and even to this day one can trace a difference in the civilisation of those countries over which Rome once ruled, except where the devastating influence of Islam has passed like a sponge over the old Roman provinces. Civilisation, or the art of living together in society, is practically the result of Roman law, and this sense all roads in history lead to Rome. The work of Claudius Ptolemy sums up to us the knowledge that the Romans had gained by their inheritance, on the western side, of the Carthaginian empire, and, on the eastern, of the remains of Alexander's empire, to which must be added the conquests of Cæsar in North-West Europe. Cæsar is, indeed, the connecting link between the two shells that had been growing throughout ancient history. He added Gaul, Germany, and Britain to geographical knowledge, and, by his struggle with Pompey, connected the Levant with his northerly conquests. One result of his imperial work must be here referred to. By bringing all civilised men under one rule, he prepared them for the worship of one God. This was not without its influence on travel and geographical discovery, for the great barrier between mankind had always been the difference of religion, and Rome, by breaking down the exclusiveness of local religions, and substituting for them a general worship of the majesty of the Emperor, enabled all the inhabitants of this vast empire to feel a certain communion with one another, which ultimately, as we know, took on a religious form. The Roman Empire will henceforth form the centre from which to regard any additions to geographical knowledge. As we shall see, part of the knowledge acquired by the Romans was lost in the Dark Ages succeeding the break-up of the empire; but for our purposes this may be neglected and geographical discovery in the succeeding chapters may be roughly taken to be additions and corrections of the knowledge summed up by Claudius Ptolemy. CHAPTER III GEOGRAPHY IN THE DARK AGES We have seen how, by a slow process of conquest and expansion, the ancient world got to know a large part of the Eastern Hemisphere, and how this knowledge was summed up in the great work of Claudius Ptolemy. We have now to learn how much of this knowledge was lost or perverted--how geography, for a time, lost the character of a science, and became once more the subject of mythical fancies similar to those which we found in its earliest stages. Instead of knowledge which, if not quite exact, was at any rate approximately measured, the mediæval teachers who concerned themselves with the configuration of the inhabited world substituted their own ideas of what ought to be.[1] This is a process which applies not alone to geography, but to all branches of knowledge, which, after the fall of the Roman Empire, ceased to expand or progress, became mixed up with fanciful notions, and only recovered when a knowledge of ancient science and thought was restored in the fifteenth century. But in geography we can more easily see than in other sciences the exact nature of the disturbing influence which prevented the acquisition of new knowledge. [Footnote 1: It is fair to add that Professor Miller's researches have shown that some of the "unscientific" qualities of the mediæval _mappoe mundi_ were due to Roman models.] Briefly put, that disturbing influence was religion, or rather theology; not, of course, religion in the proper sense of the word, or theology based on critical principles, but theological conceptions deduced from a slavish adherence to texts of Scripture, very often seriously misunderstood. To quote a single example: when it is said in Ezekiel v. S, "This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations... round about her," this was not taken by the mediæval monks, who were the chief geographers of the period, as a poetical statement, but as an exact mathematical law, which determined the form which all mediæval maps took. Roughly speaking, of course, there was a certain amount of truth in the statement, since Jerusalem would be about the centre of the world as known to the ancients--at least, measured from east to west; but, at the same time, the mediæval geographers adopted the old Homeric idea of the ocean surrounding the habitable world, though at times there was a tendency to keep more closely to the words of Scripture about the four corners of the earth. Still, as a rule, the orthodox conception of the world was that of a circle enclosing a sort of T square, the east being placed at the top, Jerusalem in the centre; the Mediterranean Sea naturally divided the lower half of the circle, while the Ægean and Red Seas were regarded as spreading out right and left perpendicularly, thus dividing the top part of the world, or Asia, from the lower part, divided equally between Europe on the left and Africa on the right. The size of the Mediterranean Sea, it will be seen, thus determined the dimensions of the three continents. One of the chief errors to which this led was to cut off the whole of the south of Africa, which rendered it seemingly a short voyage round that continent on the way to India. As we shall see, this error had important and favourable results on geographical discovery. [Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL MONSTERS] Another result of this conception of the world as a T within an O, was to expand Asia to an enormous extent; and as this was a part of the world which was less known to the monkish map-makers of the Middle Ages, they were obliged to fill out their ignorance by their imagination. Hence they located in Asia all the legends which they had derived either from Biblical or classical sources. Thus there was a conception, for which very little basis is to be found in the Bible, of two fierce nations named Gog and Magog, who would one day bring about the destruction of the civilised world. These were located in what would have been Siberia, and it was thought that Alexander the Great had penned them in behind the Iron Mountains. When the great Tartar invasion came in the thirteenth century, it was natural to suppose that these were no less than the Gog and Magog of legend. So, too, the position of Paradise was fixed in the extreme east, or, in other words, at the top of mediæval maps. Then, again, some of the classical authorities, as Pliny and Solinus, had admitted into their geographical accounts legends of strange tribes of monstrous men, strangely different from normal humanity. Among these may be mentioned the Sciapodes, or men whose feet were so large that when it was hot they could rest on their backs and lie in the shade. There is a dim remembrance of these monstrosities in Shakespeare's reference to "The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders." In the mythical travels of Sir John Maundeville there are illustrations of these curious beings, one of which is here reproduced. Other tracts of country were supposed to be inhabited by equally monstrous animals. Illustrations of most of these were utilised to fill up the many vacant spaces in the mediæval maps of Asia. One author, indeed, in his theological zeal, went much further in modifying the conceptions of the habitable world. A Christian merchant named Cosmas, who had journeyed to India, and was accordingly known as COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES, wrote, about 540 A.D., a work entitled "Christian Topography," to confound what he thought to be the erroneous views of Pagan authorities about the configuration of the world. What especially roused his ire was the conception of the spherical form of the earth, and of the Antipodes, or men who could stand upside down. He drew a picture of a round ball, with four men standing upon it, with their feet on opposite sides, and asked triumphantly how it was possible that all four could stand upright? In answer to those who asked him to explain how he could account for day and night if the sun did not go round the earth, he supposed that there was a huge mountain in the extreme north, round which the sun moved once in every twenty-four hours. Night was when the sun was going round the other side of the mountain. He also proved, entirely to his own satisfaction, that the sun, instead of being greater, was very much smaller than the earth. The earth was, according to him, a moderately sized plane, the inhabited parts of which were separated from the antediluvian world by the ocean, and at the four corners of the whole were the pillars which supported the heavens, so that the whole universe was something like a big glass exhibition case, on the top of which was the firmament, dividing the waters above and below it, according to the first chapter of Genesis. [Illustration: THE HEREFORD MAP.] Cosmas' views, however interesting and amusing they are, were too extreme to gain much credence or attention even from the mediæval monks, and we find no reference to them in the various _mappoe mundi_ which sum up their knowledge, or rather ignorance, about the world. One of the most remarkable of these maps exists in England at Hereford, and the plan of it given on p. 53 will convey as much information as to early mediæval geography as the ordinary reader will require. In the extreme east, _i.e._ at the top, is represented the Terrestrial Paradise; in the centre is Jerusalem; beneath this, the Mediterranean extends to the lower edge of the map, with its islands very carefully particularised. Much attention is given to the rivers throughout, but very little to the mountains. The only real increase of actual knowledge represented in the map is that of the north-east of Europe, which had I naturally become better known by the invasion of the Norsemen. But how little real knowledge was possessed of this portion of Europe is proved by the fact that the mapmaker placed near Norway the Cynocephali, or dog-headed men, probably derived from some confused accounts of Indian monkeys. Near them are placed the Gryphons, "men most wicked, for among their misdeeds they also make garments for themselves and their horses out of the skins of their enemies." Here, too, is placed the home of the Seven Sleepers, who lived for ever as a standing miracle to convert the heathen. The shape given to the British Islands will be observed as due to the necessity of keeping the circular form of the inhabited world. Other details about England we may leave for the present. It is obvious that maps such as the Hereford one would be of no practical utility to travellers who desired to pass from one country to another; indeed, they were not intended for any such purpose. Geography had ceased to be in any sense a practical science; it only ministered to men's sense of wonder, and men studied it mainly in order to learn about the marvels of the world. When William of Wykeham drew up his rules for the Fellows and Scholars of New College, Oxford, he directed them in the long winter evenings to occupy themselves with "singing, or reciting poetry, or with the chronicles of the different kingdoms, or with the _wonders of the world_." Hence almost all mediæval maps are filled up with pictures of these wonders, which were the more necessary as so few people could read. A curious survival of this custom lasted on in map-drawing almost to the beginning of this century, when the spare places in the ocean were adorned with pictures of sailing ships or spouting sea monsters. When men desired to travel, they did not use such maps as these, but rather itineraries, or road-books, which did not profess to give the shape of the countries through which a traveller would pass, but only indicated the chief towns on the most-frequented roads. This information was really derived from classical times, for the Roman emperors from time to time directed such road-books to be drawn up, and there still remains an almost complete itinerary of the Empire, known as the Peutinger Table, from the name of the German merchant who first drew the attention of the learned world to it. A condensed reproduction is given on the following page, from which it will be seen that no attempt is made to give anything more than the roads and towns. Unfortunately, the first section of the table, which started from Britain, has been mutilated, and we only get the Kentish coast. These itineraries were specially useful, as the chief journeys of men were in the nature of pilgrimages; but these often included a sort of commercial travelling, pilgrims often combining business and religion on their journeys. The chief information about Eastern Europe which reached the West was given by the succession of pilgrims who visited Palestine up to the time of the Crusades. Our chief knowledge of the geography of Europe daring the five centuries between 500 and 1000 A.D. is given in the reports of successive pilgrims. [Illustration: THE PEUTINGER TABLE--WESTERN PART.] This period may be regarded as the Dark Age of geographical knowledge, during which wild conceptions like those contained in the Hereford map were substituted for the more accurate measurements of the ancients. Curiously enough, almost down to the time of Columbus the learned kept to these conceptions, instead of modifying them by the extra knowledge gained during the second period of the Middle Ages, when travellers of all kinds obtained much fuller information of Asia, North Europe, and even, as, we shall see, of some parts of America. It is not altogether surprising that this period should have been so backward in geographical knowledge, since the map of Europe itself, in its political divisions, was entirely readjusted during this period. The thousand years of history which elapsed between 450 and 1450 were practically taken up by successive waves of invasion from the centre of Asia, which almost entirely broke up the older divisions of the world. In the fifth century three wandering tribes, invaded the Empire, from the banks of the Vistula, the Dnieper, and the Volga respectively. The Huns came from the Volga, in the extreme east, and under Attila, "the Hammer of God," wrought consternation in the Empire; the Visigoths, from the Dnieper, attacked the Eastern Empire; while the Vandals, from the Vistula, took a triumphant course through Gaul and Spain, and founded for a time a Vandal empire in North Africa. One of the consequences of this movement was to drive several of the German tribes into France, Italy, and Spain, and even over into Britain; for it is from this stage in the world's history that we can trace the beginning of England, properly so called, just as the invasion of Gaul by the Franks at this time means the beginning of French history. By the eighth century the kingdom of the Franks extended all over France, and included most of Central Germany; while on Christmas Day, 800, Charles the Great was crowned at Rome, by the Pope, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which professed to revive the glories of the old empire, but made a division between the temporal power held by the Emperor and the spiritual power held by the Pope. One of the divisions of the Frankish Empire deserves attention, because upon its fate rested the destinies of most of the nations of Western Europe. The kingdom of Burgundy, the buffer state between France and Germany, has now entirely disappeared, except as the name of a wine; but having no natural boundaries, it was disputed between France and Germany for a long period, and it may be fairly said that the Franco-Prussian War was the last stage in its history up to the present. A similar state existed in the east of Europe, viz. the kingdom of Poland, which was equally indefinite in shape, and has equally formed a subject of dispute between the nations of Eastern Europe. This, as is well known, only disappeared as an independent state in 1795, when it finally ceased to act as a buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe. Roughly speaking, after the settlement of the Germanic tribes within the confines of the Empire, the history of Europe, and therefore its historical geography, may be summed up as a struggle for the possession of Burgundy and Poland. But there was an important interlude in the south-west of Europe, which must engage our attention as a symptom of a world-historic change in the condition of civilisation. During the course of the seventh and eighth centuries (roughly, between 622 and 750) the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula burst the seclusion which they had held since the beginning, almost, of history, and, inspired by the zeal of the newly-founded religion of Islam, spread their influence from India to Spain, along the southern littoral of the Mediterranean. When they had once settled down, they began to recover the remnants of Græco-Roman science that had been lost on the north shores of the Mediterranean. The Christians of Syria used Greek for their sacred language, and accordingly when the Sultans of Bagdad desired to know something of the wisdom of the Greeks, they got Syriac-speaking Christians to translate some of the scientific works of the Greeks, first into Syriac, and thence into Arabic. In this way they obtained a knowledge of the great works of Ptolemy, both in astronomy--which they regarded as the more important, and therefore the greatest, Almagest--and also in geography, though one can easily understand the great modifications which the strange names of Ptolemy must have undergone in being transcribed, first into Syriac and then into Arabic. We shall see later on some of the results of the Arabic Ptolemy. The conquests of the Arabs affected the knowledge of geography in a twofold way: by bringing about the Crusades, and by renewing the acquaintance of the west with the east of Asia. The Arabs were acquainted with South-Eastern Africa as far south as Zanzibar and Sofala, though, following the views of Ptolemy as to the Great Unknown South Land, they imagined that these spread out into the Indian Ocean towards India. They seem even to have had some vague knowledge of the sources of the Nile. They were also acquainted with Ceylon, Java, and Sumatra, and they were the first people to learn the various uses to which the cocoa-nut can be put. Their merchants, too, visited China as early as the ninth century, and we have from their accounts some of the earliest descriptions of the Chinese, who were described by them as a handsome people, superior in beauty to the Indians, with fine dark hair, regular features, and very like the Arabs. We shall see later on how comparatively easy it was for a Mohammedan to travel from one end of the known world to the other, owing to the community of religion throughout such a vast area. Some words should perhaps be said on the geographical works of the Arabs. One of the most important of these, by Yacut, is in the form of a huge Gazetteer, arranged in alphabetical order; but the greatest geographical work of the Arabs is by EDRISI, geographer to King Roger of Sicily, 1154, who describes the world somewhat after the manner of Ptolemy, but with modifications of some interest. He divides the world into seven horizontal strips, known as "climates," and ranging from the equator to the British Isles. These strips are subdivided into eleven sections, so that the world, in Edrisi's conception, is like a chess-board, divided into seventy-seven squares, and his work consists of an elaborate description of each of these squares taken one by one, each climate being worked through regularly, so that you might get parts of France in the eighth and ninth squares, and other parts in the sixteenth and seventeenth. Such a method was not adapted to give a clear conception of separate countries, but this was scarcely Edrisi's object. When the Arabs--or, indeed, any of the ancient or mediæval writers--wanted wanted to describe a land, they wrote about the tribe or nation inhabiting it, and not about the position of the towns in it; in other words, they drew a marked distinction between ethnology and geography. [Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO IBN HAUKAL.] But the geography of the Arabs had little or no influence upon that of Europe, which, so far as maps went, continued to be based on fancy instead of fact almost up to the time of Columbus. Meanwhile another movement had been going on during the eighth and ninth centuries, which helped to make Europe what it is, and extended considerably the common knowledge of the northern European peoples. For the first time since the disappearance of the Phoenicians, a great naval power came into existence in Norway, and within a couple of centuries it had influenced almost the whole sea-coast of Europe. The Vikings, or Sea-Rovers, who kept their long ships in the _viks_, or fjords, of Norway, made vigorous attacks all along the coast of Europe, and in several cases formed stable governments, and so made, in a way, a sort of crust for Europe, preventing any further shaking of its human contents. In Iceland, in England, in Ireland, in Normandy, in Sicily, and at Constantinople (where they formed the _Varangi_, or body-guard of the Emperor), as well as in Russia, and for a time in the Holy Land, Vikings or Normans founded kingdoms between which there was a lively interchange of visits and knowledge. They certainly extended their voyages to Greenland, and there is a good deal of evidence for believing that they travelled from Greenland to Labrador and Newfoundland. In the year 1001, an Icelander named Biorn, sailing to Greenland to visit his father, was driven to the south-west, and came to a country which they called Vinland, inhabited by dwarfs, and having a shortest day of eight hours, which would correspond roughly to 50° north latitude. The Norsemen settled there, and as late as 1121 the Bishop of Greenland visited them, in order to convert them to Christianity. There is little reason to doubt that this Vinland was on the mainland of North America, and the Norsemen were therefore the first Europeans to discover America. As late as 1380, two Venetians, named Zeno, visited Iceland, and reported that there was a tradition there of a land named Estotiland, a thousand miles west of the Faroe Islands, and south of Greenland. The people were reported to be civilised and good seamen, though unacquainted with the use of the compass, while south of them were savage cannibals, and still more to the south-west another civilised people, who built large cities and temples, but offered up human victims in them. There seems to be here a dim knowledge of the Mexicans. The great difficulty in maritime discovery, both for the ancients and the men of the Middle Ages, was the necessity of keeping close to the shore. It is true they might guide themselves by the sun during the day, and by the pole-star at night, but if once the sky was overcast, they would become entirely at a loss for their bearings. Hence the discovery of the polar tendency of the magnetic needle was a necessary prelude to any extended voyages away from land. This appears to have been known to the Chinese from quite ancient times, and utilised on their junks as early as the eleventh century. The Arabs, who voyaged to Ceylon and Java, appear to have learnt its use from the Chinese, and it is probably from them that the mariners of Barcelona first introduced its use into Europe. The first mention of it is given in a treatise on Natural History by Alexander Neckam, foster-brother of Richard, Coeur de Lion. Another reference, in a satirical poem of the troubadour, Guyot of Provence (1190), states that mariners can steer to the north star without seeing it, by following the direction of a needle floating in a straw in a basin of water, after it had been touched by a magnet. But little use, however, seems to have been made of this, for Brunetto Latini, Dante's tutor, when on a visit to Roger Bacon in 1258, states that the friar had shown him the magnet and its properties, but adds that, however useful the discovery, "no master mariner would dare to use it, lest he should be thought to be a magician." Indeed, in the form in which it was first used it would be of little practical utility, and it was not till the method was found of balancing it on a pivot and fixing it on a card, as at present used, that it became a necessary part of a sailor's outfit. This practical improvement is attributed to one Flavio Gioja, of Amalfi, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. [Illustration: THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST IN THE PORTULANI.] When once the mariner's compass had come into general use, and its indications observed by master mariners in their voyages, a much more practical method was at hand for determining the relative positions of the different lands. Hitherto geographers (_i.e._, mainly the Greeks and Arabs) had had to depend for fixing relative positions on the vague statements in the itineraries of merchants and soldiers; but now, with the aid of the compass, it was not difficult to determine the relative position of one point to another, while all the windings of a road could be fixed down on paper without much difficulty. Consequently, while the learned monks were content with the mixture of myth and fable which we have seen to have formed the basis of their maps of the world, the seamen of the Mediterranean were gradually building up charts of that sea and the neighbouring lands which varied but little from the true position. A chart of this kind was called a Portulano, as giving information of the best routes from port to port, and Baron Nordenskiold has recently shown how all these _portulani_ are derived from a single Catalan map which has been lost, but must have been compiled between 1266 and 1291. And yet there were some of the learned who were not above taking instruction from the practical knowledge of the seamen. In 1339, one Angelico Dulcert, of Majorca, made an elaborate map of the world on the principle of the portulano, giving the coast line--at least of the Mediterranean--with remarkable accuracy. A little later, in 1375, a Jew of the same island, named Cresquez, made an improvement on this by introducing into the eastern parts of the map the recently acquired knowledge of Cathay, or China, due to the great traveller Marco Polo. His map (generally known as the Catalan Map, from the language of the inscriptions plentifully scattered over it) is divided into eight horizontal strips, and on the preceding page will be found a reduced reproduction, showing how very accurately the coast line of the Mediterranean was reproduced in these portulanos. With the portulanos, geographical knowledge once more came back to the lines of progress, by reverting to the representation of fact, and, by giving an accurate representation of the coast line, enabled mariners to adventure more fearlessly and to return more safely, while they gave the means for recording any further knowledge. As we shall see, they aided Prince Henry the Navigator to start that series of geographical investigation which led to the discoveries that close the Middle Ages. With them we may fairly close the history of mediæval geography, so far as it professed to be a systematic branch of knowledge. We must now turn back and briefly sum up the additions to knowledge made by travellers, pilgrims, and merchants, and recorded in literary shape in the form of travels. [_Authorities:_ Lelewel, _Géographie du Moyen Age_, 4 vols. and atlas, 1852; C. R. Beazley, _Dawn of Geography_, 1897, and Introduction to _Prince Henry the Navigator_, 1895; Nordenskiold, _Periplus_, 1897.] CHAPTER IV MEDIÆVAL TRAVELS In the Middle Ages--that is, in the thousand years between the irruption of the barbarians into the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the discovery of the New World in the fifteenth--the chief stages of history which affect the extension of men's knowledge of the world were: the voyages of the Vikings in the eighth and ninth centuries, to which we have already referred; the Crusades, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and the growth of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The extra knowledge obtained by the Vikings did not penetrate to the rest of Europe; that brought by the Crusades, and their predecessors, the many pilgrimages to the Holy Land, only restored to Western Europe the knowledge already stored up in classical antiquity; but the effect of the extension of the Mongol Empire was of more wide-reaching importance, and resulted in the addition of knowledge about Eastern Asia which was not possessed by the Romans, and has only been surpassed in modern times during the present century. Towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, Chinchiz Khan, leader of a small Tatar tribe, conquered most of Central and Eastern Asia, including China. Under his son, Okkodai, these Mongol Tatars turned from China to the West, conquered Armenia, and one of the Mongol generals, named Batu, ravaged South Russia and Poland, and captured Buda-Pest, 1241. It seemed as if the prophesied end of the world had come, and the mighty nations Gog and Magog had at last burst forth to fulfil the prophetic words. But Okkodai died suddenly, and these armies were recalled. Universal terror seized Europe, and the Pope, as the head of Christendom, determined to send ambassadors to the Great Khan, to ascertain his real intentions. He sent a friar named John of Planocarpini, from Lyons, in 1245, to the camp of Batu (on the Volga), who passed him on to the court of the Great Khan at Karakorum, the capital of his empire, of which only the slightest trace is now left on the left bank of the Orkhon, some hundred miles south of Lake Baikal. Here, for the first time, they heard of a kingdom on the east coast of Asia which was not yet conquered by the Mongols, and which was known by the name of Cathay. Fuller information was obtained by another friar, named WILLIAM RUYSBROEK, or Rubruquis, a Fleming, who also visited Karakorum as an ambassador from St. Louis, and got back to Europe in 1255, and communicated some of his information to Roger Bacon. He says: "These Cathayans are little fellows, speaking much through the nose, and, as is general with all those Eastern people, their eyes are very narrow.... The common money of Cathay consists of pieces of cotton paper; about a palm in length and breadth, upon which certain lines are printed, resembling the seal of Mangou Khan. They do their writing with a pencil such as painters paint with, and a single character of theirs comprehends several letters, so as to form a whole word." He also identifies these Cathayans with the Seres of the ancients. Ptolemy knew of these as possessing the land where the silk comes from, but he had also heard of the Sinæ, and failed to identify the two. It has been conjectured that the name of China came to the West by the sea voyage, and is a Malay modification, while the names Seres and Cathayans came overland, and thus caused confusion. Other Franciscans followed these, and one of them, John of Montecorvino, settled at Khanbalig (imperial city), or Pekin, as Archbishop (ob. 1358); while Friar Odoric of Pordenone, near Friuli, travelled in India and China between 1316 and 1330, and brought back an account of his voyage, filled with most marvellous mendacities, most of which were taken over bodily into the work attributed to Sir John Maundeville. The information brought back by these wandering friars fades, however, into insignificance before the extensive and accurate knowledge of almost the whole of Eastern Asia brought back to Europe by Marco Polo, a Venetian, who spent eighteen years of his life in the East. His travels form an epoch in the history of geographical discovery only second to the voyages of Columbus. In 1260, two of his uncles, named Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, started from Constaninople on a trading venture to the Crimea, after which they were led to visit Bokhara, and thence on to the court of the Great Khan, Kublai, who received them very graciously, and being impressed with the desirability of introducing Western civilisation into the new Mongolian empire, he entrusted them with a message to the Pope, demanding one hundred wise men of the West to teach the Mongolians the Christian religion and Western arts. The two brothers returned to their native place, Venice, in 1269, but found no Pope to comply with the Great Khan's request; for Clement IV. had died the year before, and his successor had not yet been appointed. They waited about for a couple of years till Gregory X. was elected, but he only meagrely responded to the Great Khan's demands, and instructed two Dominicans to accompany the Polos, who on this occasion took with them their young nephew Marco, a lad of seventeen. They started in November 1271, but soon lost the company of the Dominicans, who lost heart and went back. They went first to Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, then struck northward through Khorasan Balkh to the Oxus, and thence on to the Plateau of Pomir. Thence they passed the Great Desert of Gobi, and at last reached Kublai in May 1275, at his summer residence in Kaipingfu. Notwithstanding that they had not carried out his request, the Khan received them in a friendly manner, and was especially taken by Marco, whom he took into his own service; and quite recently a record has been found in the Chinese annals, stating that in the year 1277 a certain Polo was nominated a Second-Class Commissioner of the PrivyCouncil. His duty was to travel on various missions to Eastern Tibet, to Cochin China, and even to India. The Polos amassed much wealth owing to the Khan's favour, but found him very unwilling to let them return to Europe. Marco Polo held several important posts; for three years he was Governor of the great city of Yanchau, and it seemed likely that he would die in the service of Kublai Khan. But, owing to a fortunate chance, they were at last enabled to get back to Europe. The Khan of Persia desired to marry a princess of the Great Khan's family, to whom he was related, and as the young lady upon whom the choice fell could not be expected to undergo the hardships of the overland journey from China to Persia, it was decided to send her by sea round the coast of Asia. The Tatars were riot good navigators, and the Polos at last obtained permission to escort the young princess on the rather perilous voyage. They started in 1292, from Zayton, a port in Fokien, and after a voyage of over two years round the South coast of Asia, successfully carried the lady to her destined home, though she ultimately had to marry the son instead of the father, who had died in the interim. They took leave of her, and travelled through Persia to their own place, which they reached in 1295. When they arrived at the ancestral mansion of the Polos, in their coarse dress of Tatar cut, their relatives for some time refused to believe that they were really the long-lost merchants. But the Polos invited them to a banquet, in which they dressed themselves all in their best, and put on new suits for every course, giving the clothes they had taken off to the servants. At the conclusion of the banquet they brought forth the shabby dresses in which they had first arrived, and taking sharp knives, began to rip up the seams, from which they took vast quantities of rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, into which form they had converted most of their property. This exhibition naturally changed the character of the welcome they received from their relatives, who were then eager to learn how they had come by such riches. In describing the wealth of the Great Khan, Marco Polo, who was the chief spokesman of the party, was obliged to use the numeral "million" to express the amount of his wealth and the number of the population over whom he ruled. This was regarded as part of the usual travellers' tales, and Marco Polo was generally known by his friends as "Messer Marco Millione." Such a reception of his stories was no great encouragement to Marco to tell the tale of his remarkable travels, but in the year of his arrival at Venice a war broke out between Genoa and the Queen of the Adriatic, in which Marco Polo was captured and cast into prison at Genoa. There he found as a fellow-prisoner one Rusticano of Pisa, a man of some learning and a sort of predecessor of Sir Thomas Malory, since he had devoted much time to re-writing, in prose, abstracts of the many romances relating to the Round Table. These he wrote, not in Italian (which can scarcely be said to have existed for literary purposes in those days), but in French, the common language of chivalry throughout Western Europe. While in prison with Marco Polo, he took down in French the narrative of the great traveller, and thus preserved it for all time. Marco Polo was released in 1299, and returned to Venice, where he died some time after 9th January 1334, the date of his will. Of the travels thus detailed in Marco Polo's book, and of their importance and significance in the history of geographical discovery, it is impossible to give any adequate account in this place. It will, perhaps, suffice if we give the summary of his claims made out by Colonel Sir Henry Yule, whose edition of his travels is one of the great monuments of English learning:-- "He was the first traveller to trace a route across the whole longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen with his own eyes: the deserts of Persia, the flowering plateaux and wild gorges of Badakhshan, the jade-bearing rivers of Khotan, the Mongolian Steppes, cradle of the power that had so lately threatened to swallow up Christendom, the new and brilliant court that had been established by Cambaluc; the first traveller to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, its huge cities, its rich manufactures, its swarming population, the inconceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and its inland waters; to tell us of the nations on its borders, with all their eccentricities of manners and worship; of Tibet, with its sordid devotees; of Burma, with its golden pagodas and their tinkling crowns; of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin China, of Japan, the Eastern Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces; the first to speak of that museum of beauty and wonder, still so imperfectly ransacked, the Indian Archipelago, source of those aromatics then so highly prized, and whose origin was so dark; of Java, the pearl of islands; of Sumatra, with its many kings, its strange costly products, and its cannibal races; of the naked savages of Nicobar and Andaman; of Ceylon, the island of gems, with its sacred mountain, and its tomb of Adam; of India the Great, not as a dreamland of Alexandrian fables, but as a country seen and personally explored, with its virtuous Brahmans, its obscene ascetics, its diamonds, and the strange tales of their acquisition, its sea-beds of pearl, and its powerful sun: the first in mediæval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian empire of Abyssinia, and the semi-Christian island of Socotra; to speak, though indeed dimly, of Zanzibar, with its negroes and its ivory, and of the vast and distant Madagascar, bordering on the dark ocean of the South, with its Ruc and other monstrosities, and, in a remotely opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, of dog-sledges, white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses." [Illustration: FRA MAURO'S MAP, 1457.] Marco Polo's is thus one of the greatest names in the history of geography; it may, indeed, be doubted whether any other traveller has ever added so extensively to our detailed knowledge of the earth's surface. Certainly up to the time of Mr. Stanley no man had on land visited so many places previously unknown to civilised Europe. But the lands he discovered, though already fully populated, were soon to fall into disorder, and to be closed to any civilising influences. Nothing for a long time followed from these discoveries, and indeed almost up to the present day his accounts were received with incredulity, and he himself was regarded more as "Marco Millione" than as Marco Polo. Extensive as were Marco Polo's travels, they were yet exceeded in extent, though not in variety, by those of the greatest of Arabian travellers, Mohammed Ibn Batuta, a native of Tangier, who began his travels in 1334, as part of the ordinary duty of a good Mohammedan to visit the holy city of Mecca. While at Alexandria he met a learned sage named Borhan Eddin, to whom he expressed his desire to travel. Borhan said to him, "You must then visit my brother Farid Iddin and my brother Rokn Eddin in Scindia, and my brother Borhan Eddin in China. When you see them, present my compliments to them." Owing mainly to the fact that the Tatar princes had adopted Islamism instead of Christianity, after the failure of Gregory X. to send Christian teachers to China, Ibn Batuta was ultimately enabled to greet all three brothers of Borhan Eddin. Indeed, he performed a more extraordinary exploit, for he was enabled to convey the greetings of the Sheikh Kawan Eddin, whom he met in China, to a relative of his residing in the Soudan. During the thirty years of his travels he visited the Holy Land, Armenia, the Crimea, Constantinople (which he visited in company with a Greek princess, who married one of the Tatar Khans), Bokhara, Afghanistan, and Delhi. Here he found favour with the emperor Mohammed Inghlak, who appointed him a judge, and sent him on an embassy to China, at first overland, but, as this was found too dangerous a route, he went ultimately from Calicut, via Ceylon, the Maldives, and Sumatra, to Zaitun, then the great port of China. Civil war having broken out, he returned by the same route to Calicut, but dared not face the emperor, and went on to Ormuz and Mecca, and returned to Tangier in 1349. But even then his taste for travel had not been exhausted. He soon set out for Spain, and worked his way through Morocco, across the Sahara, to the Soudan. He travelled along the Niger (which he took for the Nile), and visited Timbuctoo. He ultimately returned to Fez in 1353, twenty-eight years after he had set out on his travels. Their chief interest is in showing the wide extent of Islam in his day, and the facilities which a common creed gave for extensive travel. But the account of his journeys was written in Arabic, and had no influence on European knowledge, which, indeed, had little to learn from him after Marco Polo, except with regard to the Soudan. With him the history of mediæval geography may be fairly said to end, for within eighty years of his death began the activity of Prince Henry the Navigator, with whom the modern epoch begins. Meanwhile India had become somewhat better known, chiefly by the travels of wandering friars, who visited it mainly for the sake of the shrine of St. Thomas, who was supposed to have been martyred in India. Mention should also be made of the early spread of the Nestorian Church throughout Central Asia. As early as the seventh century the Syrian Christians who followed the views of Nestorius began spreading them eastward, founding sees in Persia and Turkestan, and ultimately spreading as far as Pekin. There was a certain revival of their missionary activity under the Mongol Khans, but the restricted nature of the language in which their reports were written prevented them from having any effect upon geographical knowledge, except in one particular, which is of some interest. The fate of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel has always excited interest, and a legend arose that they had been converted to Christianity, and existed somewhere in the East under a king who was also a priest, and known as Prester John. Now, in the reports brought by some of the Nestorian priests westward, it was stated that one of the Mongol princes named Ung Khan had adopted Christianity, and as this in Syriac sounded something like "John the Cohen," or "Priest," he was identified with the Prester John of legend, and for a long time one of the objects of travel in the East was to discover this Christian kingdom. It was, however, later ascertained that there did exist such a Christian kingdom in Abyssinia, and as owing to the erroneous views of Ptolemy, followed by the Arabs, Abyssinia was considered to spread towards Farther India, the land of Prester John was identified in Abyssinia. We shall see later on how this error helped the progress of geographical discovery. The total addition of these mediæval travels to geographical knowledge consisted mainly in the addition of a wider extent of land in China, and the archipelago of Japan, or Cipangu, to the map of the world. The accompanying map displays the various travels and voyages of importance, and will enable the reader to understand how students of geography, who added on to Ptolemy's estimate of the extent of the world east and west the new knowledge acquired by Marco Polo, would still further decrease the distance westward between Europe and Cipangu, and thus prepare men for the voyage of Columbus. [_Authorities:_ Sir Henry Yule, _Cathay and the Way Thither_, 1865; _The Book of Ser Marco Polo_, 1875.] CHAPTER V ROADS AND COMMERCE We have now conducted the course of our inquiries through ancient times and the Middle Ages up to the very eve of the great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and we have roughly indicated what men had learned about the earth during that long period, and, how they learned it. But it still remains to consider by what means they arrived at their knowledge, and why they sought for it. To some extent we may have answered the latter question when dealing with the progress of conquest, but men did not conquer merely for the sake of conquest. We have still to consider the material advantages attaching to warfare. Again when men go on their wars of discovery, they have to progress, for the most part, along paths already beaten for them by the natives of the country they intend to conquer; and often when they have succeeded in warfare, they have to consolidate their rule by creating new and more appropriate means of communication. To put it shortly, we have still to discuss the roads of the ancient and mediæval worlds, and the commerce for which those roads were mainly used. A road may be, for our purposes, most readily defined as the most convenient means of communication between two towns; and this logically implies that the towns existed before the roads were made; and in a fuller investigation of any particular roads, it will be necessary to start by investigating why men collect their dwellings at certain definite spots. In the beginning, assemblies of men were made chiefly or altogether for defensive purposes, and the earliest towns were those which, from their natural position, like Athens or Jerusalem, could be most easily defended. Then, again, religious motives often had their influence in early times, and towns would grow round temples or cloisters. But soon considerations of easy accessibility rule in the choice of settlements, and for that purpose towns on rivers, especially at fords of rivers, as Westminster, or in well-protected harbours like Naples, or in the centre of a district, as Nuremberg or Vienna, would form the most convenient places of meeting for exchange of goods. Both on a river, or on the sea-shore, the best means of communication would be by ships or boats; but once such towns had been established, it would be necessary to connect them with one another by land routes, and these would be determined chiefly by the lie of the land. Where mountains interfered, a large detour would have to be made--as, for example, round the Pyrenees; if rivers intervened, fords would have to be sought for, and a new town probably built at the most convenient place of passage. When once a recognised way had been found between any two places, the conservative instincts of man would keep it in existence, even though a better route were afterwards found. The influence of water communication is of paramount importance in determining the situation of towns in early times. Towns in the corners of bays, like Archangel, Riga, Venice, Genoa, Naples, Tunis, Bassorah, Calcutta, would naturally be the centre-points of the trade of the bay. On rivers a suitable spot would be where the tides ended, like London, or at conspicuous bends of a stream, or at junctures with affluents, as Coblentz or Khartoum. One nearly always finds important towns at the two ends of a peninsula, like Hamburg and Lubeck, Venice and Genoa; though for naval purposes it is desirable to have a station at the head of the peninsula, to command both arms of the sea, as at Cherbourg, Sevastopol, or Gibraltar. Roads would then easily be formed across the base of the peninsula, and to its extreme point. At first the inhabitants of any single town would regard those of all others as their enemies, but after a time they would find it convenient to exchange some of their superfluities for those of their neighbours, and in this way trade would begin. Markets would become neutral ground, in which mutual animosities would be, for a time, laid aside for the common advantage; and it would often happen that localities on the border line of two states would be chosen as places for the exchange of goods, ultimately giving rise to the existence of a fresh town. As commercial intercourse increased, the very inaccessibility of fortress towns on the heights would cause them to be neglected for settlements in the valleys or by the river sides, and, as a rule, roads pick out valleys or level ground for their natural course. For military purposes, however, it would sometimes be necessary to depart from the valley routes, and, as we shall see, the Roman roads paid no regard to these requirements. The earliest communication between nations, as we have seen, was that of the Phoenicians by sea. They founded factories, or neutral grounds for trade, at appropriate spots all along the Mediterranean coasts, and the Greeks soon followed their example in the Ægean and Black Seas. But at an early date, as we know from the Bible, caravan routes were established between Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, and later on these were extended into Farther Asia. But in Europe the great road-builders were the Romans. Rome owed its importance in the ancient world to its central position, at first in Italy, and then in the whole of the Mediterranean. It combined almost all the advantages necessary for a town: it was in the bend of a river, yet accessible from the sea; its natural hills made it easily defensible, as Hannibal found to his cost; while its central position in the Latian Plain made it the natural resort of all the Latin traders. The Romans soon found it necessary to utilise their central position by rendering themselves accessible to the rest of Italy, and they commenced building those marvellous roads, which in most cases have remained, owing to their solid construction. "Building" is the proper word to use, for a Roman road is really a broad wall built in a deep ditch so as to come up above the level of the surface. Scarcely any amount of traffic could wear this solid substructure away, and to this day throughout Europe traces can be found of the Roman roads built nearly two thousand years ago. As the Roman Empire extended, these roads formed one of the chief means by which the lords of the world were enabled to preserve their conquests. By placing a legion in a central spot, where many of these roads converged, they were enabled to strike quickly in any direction and overawe the country. Stations were naturally built along these roads, and to the present day many of the chief highways of Europe follow the course of the old Roman roads. Our modern civilisation is in a large measure the outcome of this network of roads, and we can distinctly trace a difference in the culture of a nation where such roads never existed--as in Russia and Hungary, as contrasted with the west of Europe, where they formed the best means of communication. It was only in the neighbourhood of these highways that the fullest information was obtained of the position of towns, and the divisions of peoples; and a sketch map like the one already given, of the chief Roman roads of antiquity, gives also, as it were, a skeleton of the geographical knowledge summed up in the great work of Ptolemy. But of more importance for the future development of geographical knowledge were the great caravan routes of Asia, to which we must now turn our attention. Asia is the continent of plateaux which culminate in the Steppes of the Pamirs, appropriately called by their inhabitants "the Roof of the World." To the east of these, four great mountain ranges run, roughly, along the parallels of latitude--the Himalayas to the south, the Kuen-Iun, Thian Shan, and Altai to the north. Between the Himalayas and the Kuen-lun is the great Plateau of Tibet, which runs into a sort of cul-de-sac at its western end in Kashmir. Between the Kuen-lun and the Thian Shan we have the Gobi Steppe of Mongolia, running west of Kashgar and Yarkand; while between the Thian Shan and the Altai we have the great Kirghiz Steppe. It is clear that only two routes are possible between Eastern and Western Asia: that between the Kuen-lun and the Thian Shan via Kashgar and Bokhara, and that south of the Altai, skirting the north of the great lakes Balkash, Aral, and Caspian, to the south of Russia. The former would lead to Bassorah or Ormuz, and thence by sea, or overland, round Arabia to Alexandria; the latter and longer route would reach Europe via Constantinople. Communication between Southern Asia and Europe would mainly be by sea, along the coast of the Indies, taking advantage of the monsoons from Ceylon to Aden, and then by the Red Sea. Alexandria, Bassorah, and Ormuz would thus naturally be the chief centres of Eastern trade, while communication with the Mongols or with China would go along the two routes above mentioned, which appear to have existed during all historic time. It was by these latter routes that the Polos and the other mediæval travellers to Cathay reached that far-distant country. But, as we know from Marco Polo's travels, China could also be reached by the sea voyage; and for all practical purposes, in the late Middle Ages, when the Mongol empire broke up, and traffic through mid Asia was not secure, communication with the East was via Alexandria. Now it is important for our present inquiry to realise how largely Europe after the Crusades was dependent on the East for most of the luxuries of life. Nothing produced by the looms of Europe could equal the silk of China, the calico of India, the muslin of Mussul. The chief gems which decorated the crowns of kings and nobles, the emerald, the topaz, the ruby, the diamond, all came from the East--mainly from India. The whole of mediæval medical science was derived from the Arabs, who sought most of their drugs from Arabia or India. Even for the incense which burned upon the innumerable altars of Roman Catholic Europe, merchants had to seek the materials in the Levant. For many of the more refined handicrafts, artists had to seek their best material from Eastern traders: such as shellac for varnish, or mastic for artists' colours (gamboge from Cambodia, ultramarine from lapis lazuli); while it was often necessary, under mediæval circumstances, to have resort to the musk or opopanax of the East to counteract the odours resulting from the bad sanitary habits of the West. But above all, for the condiments which were almost necessary for health, and certainly desirable for seasoning the salted food of winter and the salted fish of Lent. Europeans were dependent upon the spices of the Asiatic islands. In Hakluyt's great work on "English Voyages and Navigations," he gives in his second volume a list, written out by an Aleppo merchant, William Barrett, in 1584, of the places whence the chief staples of the Eastern trade came, and it will be interesting to give a selection from his long account. Cloves from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboyna, by way of Java. Nutmegs from Banda. Maces from Banda, Java, and Malacca. Pepper Common from Malabar. Sinnamon from Seilan (Ceylon). Spicknard from Zindi (Scinde) and Lahor. Ginger Sorattin from Sorat (Surat) within Cambaia (Bay of Bengal). Corall of Levant from Malabar. Sal Ammoniacke from Zindi and Cambaia. Camphora from Brimeo (Borneo) near to China. Myrrha from Arabia Felix. Borazo (Borax) from Cambaia and Lahor. Ruvia to die withall, from Chalangi. Allumme di Rocca (Rock Alum) from China and Constantinople. Oppopanax from Persia. Lignum Aloes from Cochin, China, and Malacca. Laccha (Shell-lac) from Pegu and Balaguate. Agaricum from Alemannia. Bdellium from Arabia Felix. Tamarinda from Balsara (Bassorah). Safran (Saffron) from Balsara and Persia. Thus from Secutra (Socotra). Nux Vomica from Malabar. Sanguis Draconis (Dragon's Blood) from Secutra. Musk from Tartarie by way of China. Indico (Indigo) from Zindi and Cambaia. Silkes Fine from China. Castorium (Castor Oil) from Almania. Masticke from Sio. Oppium from Pugia (Pegu) and Cambaia. Dates from Arabia Felix and Alexandria. Sena from Mecca. Gumme Arabicke from Zaffo (Jaffa). Ladanum (Laudanum) from Cyprus and Candia. Lapis Lazzudis from Persia. Auripigmentum (Gold Paint) from many places of Turkey. Rubarbe from Persia and China. These are only a few selections from Barrett's list, but will sufficiently indicate what a large number of household luxuries, and even necessities, were derived from Asia in the Middle Ages. The Arabs had practically the monopoly of this trade, and as Europe had scarcely anything to offer in exchange except its gold and silver coins, there was a continuous drain of the precious metals from West to East, rendering the Sultans and Caliphs continuously richer, and culminating in the splendours of Solomon the Magnificent. Alexandria was practically the centre of all this trade, and most of the nations of Europe found it necessary to establish factories in that city, to safeguard the interests of their merchants, who all sought for Eastern luxuries in its port Benjamin of Tudela, a Jew, who visited it about 1172, gives the following description of it:-- "The city is very mercantile, and affords an excellent market to all nations. People from all Christian kingdoms resort to Alexandria, from Valencia, Tuscany, Lombardy, Apulia, Amalfi, Sicilia, Raguvia, Catalonia, Spain, Roussillon, Germany, Saxony, Denmark, England, Flandres, Hainault, Normandy, France, Poitou, Anjou, Burgundy, Mediana, Provence, Genoa, Pisa, Gascony, Arragon, and Navarre. From the West you meet Mohammedans from Andalusia, Algarve, Africa, and Arabia, as well as from the countries towards India, Savila, Abyssinia, Nubia, Yemen, Mesopotamia, and Syria, besides Greeks and Turks. From India they import all sorts of spices, which are bought by Christian merchants. The city is full of bustle, and every nation has its own fonteccho (or hostelry) there." Of all these nations, the Italians had the shortest voyage to make before reaching Alexandria, and the Eastern trade practically fell into their hands before the end of the thirteenth century. At first Amalfi and Pisa were the chief ports, and, as we have seen, it was at Amalfi that the mariner's compass was perfected; but soon the two maritime towns at the heads of the two seas surrounding Italy came to the front, owing to the advantages of their natural position. Genoa and Venice for a long time competed with one another for the monopoly of this trade, but the voyage from Venice was more direct, and after a time Genoa had to content itself with the trade with Constantinople and the northern overland route from China. From Venice the spices, the jewels, the perfumes, and stuffs of the East were transmitted north through Augsburg and Nürnberg to Antwerp and Bruges and the Hanse Towns, receiving from them the gold they had gained by their fisheries and textile goods. England sent her wool to Italy, in order to tickle her palate and her nose with the condiments and perfumes of the East. The wealth and importance of Venice were due almost entirely to this monopoly of the lucrative Eastern trade. By the fifteenth century she had extended her dominions all along the lower valley of the Po, into Dalmatia, parts of the Morea, and in Crete, till at last, in 1489, she obtained possession of Cyprus, and thus had stations all the way from Aleppo or Alexandria to the north of the Adriatic. But just as she seemed to have reached the height of her prosperity--when the Aldi were the chief printers in Europe, and the Bellini were starting the great Venetian school of painting--a formidable rival came to the front, who had been slowly preparing a novel method of competition in the Eastern trade for nearly the whole of the fifteenth century. With that method begins the great epoch of modern geographical discovery. [_Authorities:_ Heyd, _Commerce du Levant_, 2 vols., 1878.] CHAPTER VI TO THE INDIES EASTWARD--PRINCE HENRY AND VASCO DA GAMA Up to the fifteenth century the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula were chiefly occupied in slowly moving back the tide of Mohammedan conquest, which had spread nearly throughout the country from 711 onwards. The last sigh of the Moor in Spain was to be uttered in 1492--an epoch-making year, both in history and in geography. But Portugal, the western side of the peninsula, had got rid of her Moors at a much earlier date--more that 200 years before--though she found it difficult to preserve her independence from the neighbouring kingdom of Castile. The attempt of King Juan of Castile to conquer the country was repelled by João, a natural son of the preceding king of Portugal, and in 1385 he became king, and freed Portugal from any danger on the side of Castile by his victory at Aljubarrota. He married Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt; and his third son, Henry, was destined to be the means of revolutionising men's views of the inhabited globe. He first showed his mettle in the capture of Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar, at the time of the battle of Agincourt, 1415, and by this means he first planted the Portuguese banner on the Moorish coast. This contact with the Moors may possibly have first suggested to Prince Henry the idea of planting similar factory-fortresses among the Mussulmans of India; but, whatever the cause, he began, from about the year 1418, to devote all his thoughts and attention to the possibility of reaching India otherwise than through the known routes, and for that purpose established himself on the rocky promontory of Sagres, almost the most western spot on the continent of Europe. Here he established an observatory, and a seminary for the training of theoretical and practical navigators. He summoned thither astronomers and cartographers and skilled seamen, while he caused stouter and larger vessels to be built for the express purpose of exploration. He perfected the astrolabe (the clumsy predecessor of the modern sextant) by which the latitude could be with some accuracy determined; and he equipped all his ships with the compass, by which their steering was entirely determined. He brought from Majorca (which, as we have seen, was the centre of practical map-making in the fourteenth century) one Mestre Jacme, "a man very skilful in the art of navigation, and in the making of maps and instruments." With his aid, and doubtless that of others, he set himself to study the problem of the possibility of a sea voyage to India round the coast of Africa. [Illustration: PROGRESS OF PORTUGUESE DISCOVERY] We have seen that Ptolemy, with true scientific caution, had left undefined the extent of Africa to the south; but Eratosthenes and many of the Roman geographers, even after Ptolemy, were not content with this agnosticism, but boldly assumed that the coast of Africa made a semicircular sweep from the right horn of Africa, just south of the Red Sea, with which they were acquainted, round to the north-western shore, near what we now term Morocco. If this were the fact, the voyage by the ocean along this sweep of shore would be even shorter than the voyage through the Mediterranean and Red Seas, while of course there would be no need for disembarking at the Isthmus of Suez. The writers who thus curtailed Africa of its true proportions assumed another continent south of it, which, however, was in the torrid zone, and completely uninhabitable. Now the north-west coast of Africa was known in Prince Henry's days as far as Cape Bojador. It would appear that Norman sailors had already advanced beyond Cape Non, or Nun, which was so called because it was supposed that nothing existed beyond it. Consequently the problems that Prince Henry had to solve were whether the coast of Africa trended sharply to the east after Cape Bojador, and whether the ideas of the ancients about the uninhabitability of the torrid zone were justified by fact. He attempted to solve these problems by sending out, year after year, expeditions down the north-west coast of Africa, each of which penetrated farther than its predecessor. Almost at the beginning he was rewarded by the discovery, or re-discovery, of Madeira in 1420, by João Gonsalvez Zarco, one of the squires of his household. For some time he was content with occupying this and the neighbouring island of Porto Santo, which, however, was ruined by the rabbits let loose upon it. On Madeira vines from Burgundy were planted, and to this day form the chief industry of the island. In 1435 Cape Bojador was passed, and in 1441 Cape Branco discovered. Two years later Cape Verde was reached and passed by Nuno Tristão, and for the first time there were signs that the African coast trended eastward. By this time Prince Henry's men had become familiar with the natives along the shore and no less than one thousand of them had been brought back and distributed among the Portuguese nobles as pages and attendants. In 1455 a Venetian, named Alvez Cadamosto, undertook a voyage still farther south for purposes of trade, the Prince supplying the capital, and covenanting for half profits on results. They reached the mouth of the Gambia, but found the natives hostile. Here for the first time European navigators lost sight of the pole-star and saw the brilliant constellation of the Southern Cross. The last discovery made during Prince Henry's life was that of the Cape Verde Islands, by one of his captains, Diogo Gomez, in 1460--the very year of his death. As the successive discoveries were made, they were jotted down by the Prince's cartographers on portulanos, and just before his death the King of Portugal sent to a Venetian monk, Fra Mauro, details of all discoveries up to that time, to be recorded on a _mappa mundi_, a copy of which still exists (p. 77). The impulse thus given by Prince Henry's patient investigation of the African coast continued long after his death. In 1471 Fernando de Poo discovered the island which now bears his name, while in the same year Pedro d'Escobar crossed the equator. Wherever the Portuguese investigators landed they left marks of their presence, at first by erecting crosses, then by carving on trees Prince Henry's motto, "Talent de bien faire," and finally they adopted the method of erecting stone pillars, surmounted by a cross, and inscribed with the king's arms and name. These pillars were called _padraos_. In 1484, Diego Cam, a knight of the king's household, set up one of these pillars at the mouth of a large river, which he therefore called the Rio do Padrao; it was called by the natives the Zaire, and is now known as the River Congo. Diego Cam was, on this expedition, accompanied by Martin Behaim of Nürnberg, whose globe is celebrated in geographical history as the last record of the older views (p. 115). Meanwhile, from one of the envoys of the native kings who visited the Portuguese Court, information was received that far to the east of the countries hitherto discovered there was a great Christian king. This brought to mind the mediæval tradition of Prester John, and accordingly the Portuguese determined to make a double attempt, both by sea and by land, to reach this monarch. By sea the king sent two vessels under the command of Bartholomew Diaz, while by land he despatched, in the following year, two men acquainted with Arabic, Pedro di Covilham and Affonso de Payba. Covilham reached Aden, and there took ship for Calicut, being the first Portuguese to sail the Indian Ocean. He then returned to Sofala, and obtained news of the Island of the Moon, now known as Madagascar. With this information he returned to Cairo, where he found ambassadors from João, two Jews, Abraham of Beja and Joseph of Lamejo. These he sent back with the information that ships that sailed down the coast of Guinea would surely reach the end of Africa, and when they arrived in the Eastern Ocean they should ask for Sofala and the Island of the Moon. Meanwhile Covilham returned to the Red Sea, and made his way into Abyssinia, where he married and settled down, transmitting from time to time information to Portugal which gave Europeans their first notions of Abyssinia. The voyage by land in search of Prester John had thus been completely successful, while, at the same time, information had been obtained giving certain hopes of the voyage by sea. This had, in its way, been almost as successful, for Diaz had rounded the cape now known as the Cape of Good Hope, but to which he proposed giving the title of Cabo Tormentoso, or "Stormy Cape." King João, however, recognising that Diaz's voyage had put the seal upon the expectations with which Prince Henry had, seventy years before, started his series of explorations, gave it the more auspicious name by which it is now known. For some reason which has not been adequately explained, no further attempt was made for nearly ten years to carry out the final consummation of Prince Henry's plan by sending out another expedition. In the meantime, as we shall see, Columbus had left Portugal, after a mean attempt had been made by the king to carry out his novel plan of reaching India without his aid; and, as a just result, the discovery of a western voyage to the Indies (as it was then thought) had been successfully accomplished by Columbus, in the service of the Catholic monarchs of Spain, in 1492. This would naturally give pause to any attempt at reaching India by the more cumbersome route of coasting along Africa, which had turned out to be a longer process than Prince Henry had thought. Three years after Columbus's discovery King João died, and his son and successor Emmanuel did not take up the traditional Portuguese method of reaching India till the third year of his reign. By this time it had become clear, from Columbus's second voyage, that there were more difficulties in the way of reaching the Indies by his method than had been thought; and the year after his return from his second voyage in 1496, King Emmanuel determined on once more taking up the older method. He commissioned Vasco da Gama, a gentleman of his court, to attempt the eastward route to India with three vessels, carrying in all about sixty men. Already by this time Columbus's bold venture into the unknown seas had encouraged similar boldness in others, and instead of coasting down the whole extent of the western coast of Africa, Da Gama steered direct for Cape Verde Islands, and thence out into the ocean, till he reached the Bay of St. Helena, a little to the north of the Cape of Good Hope. For a time he was baffled in his attempt to round the Cape by the strong south-easterly winds, which blow there continually during the summer season; but at last he commenced coasting along the eastern shores of Africa, and at every suitable spot he landed some of his sailors to make inquiries about Covilham and the court of Prester John. But in every case he found the ports inhabited by fanatical Moors, who, as soon as they discovered that their visitors were Christians, attempted to destroy them, and refused to supply them with pilots for the further voyage to India. This happened at Mozambique, at Quiloa, and at Mombasa, and it was not till he arrived at Melinda that he was enabled to obtain provisions and a pilot, Malemo Cana, an Indian of Guzerat, who was quite familiar with the voyage to Calicut. Under his guidance Gama's fleet went from Melinda to Calicut in twenty-three days. Here the Zamorin, or sea-king, displayed the same antipathy to his Christian visitors. The Mohammedan traders of the place recognised at once the dangerous rivalry which the visit of the Portuguese implied, with their monopoly of the Eastern trade, and represented Gama and his followers as merely pirates. Vasco, however, by his firm behaviour, managed to evade the machinations of his trade rivals, and induced the Zamorin to regard favourably an alliance with the Portuguese king. Contenting himself with this result, he embarked again, and after visiting Melinda, the only friendly spot he had found on the east coast of Africa, he returned to Lisbon in September 1499, having spent no less than two years on the voyage. King Emmanuel received him with great favour, and appointed him Admiral of the Indies. The significance of Vasco da Gama's voyage was at once seen by the persons whose trade monopoly it threatened--the Venetians, and the Sultan of Egypt. Priuli, the Venetian chronicler, reports: "When this news reached Venice the whole city felt it greatly, and remained stupefied, and the wisest held it as the worst news that had ever arrived"--as indeed they might, for it prophesied the downfall of the Venetian Empire. The Sultan of Egypt was equally moved, for the greatest source of his riches was derived from the duty of five per cent. which he levied on all merchandise entering his dominions, and ten per cent. upon all goods exported from them. Hitherto there had been all manner of bickerings between Venice and Egypt, but this common danger brought them together. The Sultan represented to Venice the need of common action in order to drive away the new commerce; but Egypt was without a navy, and had indeed no wood suitable for shipbuilding. The Venetians took the trouble to transmit wood to Cairo, which was then carried by camels to Suez, where a small fleet was prepared to attack the Portuguese on their next visit to the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese had in the meantime followed up Vasco da Gama's voyage with another attempt, which was, in its way, even more important. In 1500 the king sent no less than thirteen ships under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, with Franciscans to convert, and twelve hundred fighting men to overawe, the Moslems of the Indian Ocean. He determined on steering even a more westerly course than Vasco da Gama, and when he arrived in 17° south of the line, he discovered land which he took possession of in the name of Portugal, and named Santa Cruz. The actual cross which he erected on this occasion is still preserved in Brazil, for Cabral had touched upon the land now known by that name. It is true that one of Columbus's companions, Pinzon, had already touched upon the coast of Brazil before Cabral, but it is evident from his experience that, even apart from Columbus, the Portuguese would have discovered the New World sooner or later. It is, however, to be observed that in stating this, as all historians do, they leave out of account the fact that, but for Columbus, sailors would still have continued the old course of coasting along the shore, by which they would never have left the Old World. Cabral lost several of his ships and many of his men, and, though he brought home a rich cargo, was not regarded as successful, and Vasco da Gama was again sent out with a large fleet in 1502, with which he conquered the Zamorin of Calicut and obtained rich treasures. In subsidiary voyages the Portuguese navigators discovered the islands of St. Helena, Ascension, the Seychelles, Socotra, Tristan da Cunha, the Maldives, and Madagascar. Meanwhile King Emmanuel was adopting the Venetian method of colonisation, which consisted in sending a Vice-Doge to each of its colonies for a term of two years, during which his duty was to encourage trade and to collect tribute. In a similar way, Emmanuel appointed a Viceroy for his Eastern trade, and in 1505 Almeida had settled in Ceylon, with a view to monopolising the cinnamon trade of that place. [Illustration: PORTUGUESE INDIES] But the greatest of the Portuguese viceroys was Affonso de Albuquerque, who captured the important post of Goa, on the mainland of India, which still belongs to Portugal, and the port of Ormuz, which, we have seen, was one of the centres of the Eastern trade. Even more important was the capture of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, which were discovered in 1511, after the Portuguese had seized Malacca. By 1521 the Portuguese had full possession of the Spice Islands, and thus held the trade of condiments entirely in their own hands. The result was seen soon in the rise of prices in the European markets. Whereas at the end of the fifteenth century pepper, for instance, was about 17s. a pound, from 1521 and onwards its average price grew to be 25s., and so with almost all the ingredients by which food could be made more tasty. One of the circumstances, however, which threw the monopoly into the hands of the Portuguese was the seizure of Egypt in 1521 by the Turks under Selim I., which would naturally derange the course of trade from its old route through Alexandria. From the Moluccas easy access was found to China, and ultimately to Japan, so that the Portuguese for a time held in their hands the whole of the Eastern trade, on which Europe depended for most of its luxuries. As we shall see, the Portuguese only won by a neck--if we may use a sporting expression--in the race for the possession of the Spice Islands. In the very year they obtained possession of them, Magellan, on his way round the world, had reached the Philippines, within a few hundred miles of them, and his ship, the _Victoria_, actually sailed through them that year. In fact, 1521 is a critical year in the discovery of the world, for both the Spanish and Portuguese (the two nations who had attempted to reach the Indies eastward and westward) arrived at the goal of their desires, the Spice Islands, in that same year, while the closure of Egypt to commerce occurred opportunely to divert the trade into the hands of the Portuguese. Finally, the year 1521 was signalised by the death of King Emmanuel of Portugal, under whose auspices the work of Prince Henry the Navigator was completed. It must here be observed that we are again anticipating matters. As soon as the discovery of the New World was announced, the Pope was appealed to, to determine the relative shares of Spain and Portugal in the discoveries which would clearly follow upon Columbus's voyage. By his Bull, dated 4th May 1493, Alexander VI. granted all discoveries to the west to Spain, leaving it to be understood that all to the east belonged to Portugal. The line of demarcation was an imaginary one drawn from pole to pole, and passing one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, which were supposed, in the inaccurate geography of the time, to be in the same meridian. In the following year the Portuguese monarch applied for a revision of the _raya_, as this would keep him out of all discovered in the New World altogether; and the line of demarcation was then shifted 270 leagues westward, or altogether 1110 miles west of the Cape Verdes. By a curious coincidence, within six years Cabral had discovered Brazil, which fell within the angle thus cut off by the _raya_ from South America. Or was it entirely a coincidence? May not Cabral have been directed to take this unusually westward course in order to ascertain if any land fell within the Portuguese claims? When, however, the Spice Islands were discovered, it remained to be discussed whether the line of demarcation, when continued on the other side of the globe, brought them within the Spanish or Portuguese "sphere of influence," as we should say nowadays. By a curious chance they happened to be very near the line, and, with the inaccurate maps of the period, a pretty subject of quarrel was afforded between the Portuguese and Spanish commissioners who met at Badajos to determine the question. This was left undecided by the Junta, but by a family compact, in 1529, Charles V. ceded to his brother-in-law, the King of Portugal, any rights he might have to the Moluccas, for the sum of 350,000 gold ducats, while he himself retained the Philippines, which have been Spanish ever since. By this means the Indian Ocean became, for all trade purposes, a Portuguese lake throughout the sixteenth century, as will be seen from the preceding map, showing the trading stations of the Portuguese all along the shores of the ocean. But they only possessed their monopoly for fifty years, for in 1580 the Spanish and Portuguese crowns became united on the head of Philip II., and by the time Portugal recovered its independence, in 1640, serious rivals had arisen to compete with her and Spain for the monopoly of the Eastern trade. [_Authorities_: Major, _Prince Henry the Navigator_, 1869; Beazeley, _Prince Henry the Navigator_, 1895; F. Hummerich, _Vasco da Gama_, 1896.] CHAPTER VII TO THE INDIES WESTWARD--THE SPANISH ROUTE--COLUMBUS AND MAGELLAN While the Portuguese had, with slow persistency, devoted nearly a century to carrying out Prince Henry's idea of reaching the Indies by the eastward route, a bold yet simple idea had seized upon a Genoese sailor, which was intended to achieve the same purpose by sailing westward. The ancients, as we have seen, had recognised the rotundity of the earth, and Eratosthenes had even recognised the possibility of reaching India by sailing westward. Certain traditions of the Greeks and the Irish had placed mysterious islands far out to the west in the Atlantic, and the great philosopher Plato had imagined a country named Atlantis, far out in the Indian Ocean, where men were provided with all the gifts of nature. These views of the ancients came once more to the attention of the learned, owing to the invention of printing and the revival of learning, when the Greek masterpieces began to be made accessible in Latin, chiefly by fugitive Greeks from Constantinople, which had been taken by the Turks in 1453. Ptolemy's geography was printed at Rome in 1462, and with maps in 1478. But even without the maps the calculation which he had made of the length of the known world tended to shorten the distance between Portugal and Farther India by 2500 miles. Since his time the travels of Marco Polo had added to the knowledge of Europe the vast extent of Cathay and the distant islands of Zipangu (Japan), which would again reduce the distance by another 1500 miles. As the Greek geographers had somewhat under-estimated the whole circuit of the globe, it would thus seem that Zipangu was not more than 4000 miles to the west of Portugal. As the Azores were considered to be much farther off from the coast than they really were, it might easily seem, to an enthusiastic mind, that Farther India might be reached when 3000 miles of the ocean had been traversed. [Illustration: TOSCANELLI'S MAP (_restored_)] This was the notion that seized the mind of Christopher Columbus, born at Genoa in 1446, of humble parentage, his father being a weaver. He seems to have obtained sufficient knowledge to enable him to study the works of the learned, and of the ancients in Latin translations. But in his early years he devoted his attention to obtaining a practical acquaintance with seamanship. In his day, as we have seen, Portugal was the centre of geographical knowledge, and he and his brother Bartolomeo, after many voyages north and south, settled at last in Lisbon--his brother as a map-maker, and himself as a practical seaman. This was about the year 1473, and shortly afterwards he married Felipa Moñiz, daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrello, an Italian in the service of the King of Portugal, and for some time Governor of Madeira. Now it chanced just at this time that there was a rumour in Portugal that a certain Italian philosopher, named Toscanelli, had put forth views as to the possibility of a westward voyage to Cathay, or China, and the Portuguese king had, through a monk named Martinez, applied to Toscanelli to know his views, which were given in a letter dated 25th June 1474. It would appear that, quite independently, Columbus had heard the rumour, and applied to Toscanelli, for in the latter's reply he, like a good business man, shortened his answer by giving a copy of the letter he had recently written to Martinez. What was more important and more useful, Toscanelli sent a map showing in hours (or degrees) the probable distance between Spain and Cathay westward. By adding the information given by Marco Polo to the incorrect views of Ptolemy about the breadth of the inhabited world, Toscanelli reduced the distance from the Azores to 52°, or 3120 miles. Columbus always expressed his indebtedness to Toscanelli's map for his guidance, and, as we shall see, depended upon it very closely, both in steering, and in estimating the distance to be traversed. Unfortunately this map has been lost, but from a list of geographical positions, with latitude and longitude, founded upon it, modern geographers have been able to restore it in some detail, and a simplified sketch of it may be here inserted, as perhaps the most important document in Columbus's career. Certainly, whether he had the idea of reaching the Indies by a westward voyage before or not, he adopted Toscanelli's views with enthusiasm, and devoted his whole life henceforth to trying to carry them into operation. He gathered together all the information he could get about the fabled islands of the Atlantic--the Island of St. Brandan, where that Irish saint found happy mortals; and the Island of Antilla, imagined by others, with its seven cities. He gathered together all the gossip he could hear--of mysterious corpses cast ashore on the Canaries, and resembling no race of men known to Europe; of huge canes, found on the shores of the same islands, evidently carved by man's skill. Curiously enough, these pieces of evidence were logically rather against the existence of a westward route to the Indies than not, since they indicated an unknown race, but, to an enthusiastic mind like Columbus's, anything helped to confirm him in his fixed idea, and besides, he could always reply that these material signs were from the unknown island of Zipangu, which Marco Polo had described as at some distance from the shores of Cathay. He first approached, as was natural, the King of Portugal, in whose land he was living, and whose traditional policy was directed to maritime exploration. But the Portuguese had for half a century been pursuing another method of reaching India, and were not inclined to take up the novel idea of a stranger, which would traverse their long-continued policy of coasting down Africa. A hearing, however, was given to him, but the report was unfavourable, and Columbus had to turn his eyes elsewhere. There is a tradition that the Portuguese monarch and his advisers thought rather more of Columbus's ideas at first; and attempted secretly to put them into execution; but the pilot to whom they entrusted the proposed voyage lost heart as soon as he lost sight of land, and returned with an adverse verdict on the scheme. It is not known whether Columbus heard of this mean attempt to forestall him, but we find him in 1487 being assisted by the Spanish Court, and from that time for the next five years he was occupied in attempting to induce the Catholic monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, to allow him to try his novel plan of reaching the Indies. The final operations in expelling the Moors from Spain just then engrossed all their attention and all their capital, and Columbus was reduced to despair, and was about to give up all hopes of succeeding in Spain, when one of the great financiers, a converted Jew named Luis de Santaguel, offered to find means for the voyage, and Columbus was recalled. [Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE. 1492.] On the 19th April 1492 articles were signed, by which Columbus received from the Spanish monarchs the titles of Admiral and Viceroy of all the lands he might discover, as well as one-tenth of all the tribute to be derived from them; and on Friday the 3rd August, of the same year, he set sail in three vessels, entitled the _Santa Maria_ (the flagship), the _Pinta_, and the _Nina_. He started from the port of Palos, first for the Canary Islands. These he left on the 6th September, and steered due west. On the 13th of that month, Columbus observed that the needle of the compass pointed due north, and thus drew attention to the variability of the compass. By the 21st September his men became mutinous and tried to force him to return. He induced them to continue, and four days afterwards the cry of "Land! land!" was heard, which kept up their spirits for several days, till, on the 1st October, large numbers of birds were seen. By that time Columbus had reckoned that he had gone some 710 leagues from the Canaries, and if Zipangu were in the position that Tostanelli's map gave it, he ought to have been in its neighbourhood. It was reckoned in those days that a ship on an average could make four knots an hour, dead reckoning, which would give about 100 miles a day, so that Columbus might reckon on passing over the 3100 miles which he thought intervened between the Azores and Japan in about thirty-three days. All through the early days of October his courage was kept up by various signs of the nearness of land--birds and branches--while on the 11th October, at sunset, they sounded, and found bottom; and at ten o'clock, Columbus, sitting in the stern of his vessel, saw a light, the first sure sign of land after thirty-five days, and in near enough approximation to Columbus's reckoning to confirm him in the impression that he was approaching the mysterious land of Zipangu. Next morning they landed on an island, called by the natives Guanahain, and by Columbus San Salvador. This has been identified as Watling Island. His first inquiry was as to the origin of the little plates of gold which he saw in the ears of the natives. They replied that they came from the West--another confirmation of his impression. Steering westward, they arrived at Cuba, and afterwards at Hayti (St. Domingo). Here, however, the _Santa Maria_ sank, and Columbus determined to return, to bring the good news, after leaving some of his men in a fort at Hayti. The return journey was made in the _Nina_ in even shorter time to the Azores, but afterwards severe storms arose, and it was not till the 15th March 1493 that he reached Palos, after an absence of seven and a half months, during which everybody thought that he and his ships had disappeared. He was naturally received with great enthusiasm by the Spaniards, and after a solemn entry at Barcelona he presented to Ferdinand and Isabella the store of gold and curiosities carried by some of the natives of the islands he had visited. They immediately set about fitting out a much larger fleet of seven vessels, which started from Cadiz, 25th September 1493. He took a more southerly course, but again reached the islands now known as the West Indies. On visiting Hayti he found the fort destroyed, and no traces of the men he had left there. It is needless for our purposes to go through the miserable squabbles which occurred on this and his subsequent voyages, which resulted in Columbus's return to Spain in chains and disgrace. It is only necessary for us to say that in his third voyage, in 1498, he touched on Trinidad, and saw the coast of South America, which he supposed to be the region of the Terrestrial Paradise. This was placed by the mediæval maps at the extreme east of the Old World. Only on his fourth voyage, in 1502, did he actually touch the mainland, coasting along the shores of Central America in the neighbourhood of Panama. After many disappointments, he died, 20th May 1506, at Valladolid, believing, as far as we can judge, to the day of his death, that what he had discovered was what he set out to seek--a westward route to the Indies, though his proud epitaph indicates the contrary:-- A Castilla y á Leon | To Castille and to Leon Nuevo mondo dió Colon. | A NEW WORLD gave Colon.[1] [Footnote 1: Columbus's Spanish name was Cristoval Colon.] To this day his error is enshrined in the name we give to the Windward and Antilles Islands--West Indies: in other words, the Indies reached by the westward route. If they had been the Indies at all, they would have been the most easterly of them. Even if Columbus had discovered a new route to Farther India, he could not, as we have seen, claim the merit of having originated the idea, which, even in detail, he had taken from Toscanelli. But his claim is even a greater one. He it was who first dared to traverse unknown seas without coasting along the land, and his example was the immediate cause of all the remarkable discoveries that followed his earlier voyages. As we have seen, both Vasco da Gama and Cabral immediately after departed from the slow coasting route, and were by that means enabled to carry out to the full the ideas of Prince Henry; but whereas, by the Portuguese method of coasting, it had taken nearly a century to reach the Cape of Good Hope, within thirty years of Columbus's first venture the whole globe had been circumnavigated. The first aim of his successors was to ascertain more clearly what it was that Columbus had discovered. Immediately after Columbus's third, voyage, in 1498, and after the news of Vasco da Gama's successful passage to the Indies had made it necessary to discover some strait leading from the "West Indies" to India itself, a Spanish gentleman, named Hojeda, fitted out an expedition at his own expense, with an Italian pilot on board, named Amerigo Vespucci, and tried once more to find a strait to India near Trinidad. They were, of course, unsuccessful, but they coasted along and landed on the north coast of South America, which, from certain resemblances, they termed Little Venice (Venezuela). Next year, as we have seen, Cabral, in following Vasco da Gama, hit upon Brazil, which turned out to be within the Portuguese "sphere of influence," as determined by the line of demarcation. But, three months previous to Cabral's touching upon Brazil, one of Columbus's companions on his first voyage, Vincenta Yanez Pinzon, had touched on the coast of Brazil, eight degrees south of the line, and from there had worked northward, seeking for a passage which would lead west to the Indies. He discovered the mouth of the Amazon, but, losing two of his vessels, returned to Palos, which he reached in September 1500. This discovery of an unknown and unsuspected continent so far south of the line created great interest, and shortly after Cabral's return Amerigo Vespucci was sent out in 1501 by the King of Portugal as pilot of a fleet which should explore the new land discovered by Cabral and claim it for the Crown of Portugal. His instructions were to ascertain how much of it was within the line of demarcation. Vespucci reached the Brazilian coast at Cape St. Roque, and then explored it very thoroughly right down to the river La Plata, which was too far west to come within the Portuguese sphere. Amerigo and his companions struck out south-eastward till they reached the island of St. Georgia, 1200 miles east of Cape Horn, where the cold and the floating ice drove them back, and they returned to Lisbon, after having gone farthest south up to their time. [Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI.] This voyage of Amerigo threw a new light upon the nature of the discovery made by Columbus. Whereas he had thought he had discovered a route to India and had touched upon Farther India, Amerigo and his companions had shown that there was a hitherto unsuspected land intervening between Columbus's discoveries and the long-desired Spice Islands of Farther India. Amerigo, in describing his discoveries, ventured so far as to suggest that they constituted a New World; and a German professor, named Martin Waldseemüller, who wrote an introduction to Cosmography in 1506, which included an account of Amerigo's discoveries, suggested that this New World should be called after him, AMERICA, after the analogy of Asia, Africa, and Europe. For a long time the continent which we now know as South America was called simply the New World, and was supposed to be joined on to the east coast of Asia. The name America was sometimes applied to it--not altogether inappropriately, since it was Amerigo's voyage which definitely settled that really new lands had been discovered by the western route; and when it was further ascertained that this new land was joined, not to Asia, but to another continent as large as itself, the two new lands were distinguished as North and South America. It was, at any rate, clear from Amerigo's discovery that the westward route to the Spice Islands would have to be through or round this New World discovered by him, and a Portuguese noble, named Fernao Magelhaens, was destined to discover the practicability of this route. He had served his native country under Almeida and Albuquerque in the East Indies, and was present at the capture of Malacca in 1511, and from that port was despatched by Albuquerque with three ships to visit the far-famed Spice Islands. They visited Amboyna and Banda, and learned enough of the abundance and cheapness of the spices of the islands to recognise their importance; but under the direction of Albuquerque, who only sent them out on an exploring expedition, they returned to him, leaving behind them, however, one of Magelhaens' greatest friends, Francisco Serrao, who settled in Ternate and from time to time sent glowing accounts of the Moluccas to his friend Magelhaens. He in the meantime returned to Portugal, and was employed on an expedition to Morocco. He was not, however, well treated by the Portuguese monarch, and determined to leave his service for that of Charles V., though he made it a condition of his entering his service that he should make no discoveries within the boundaries of the King of Portugal, and do nothing prejudicial to his interests. [Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN.] This was in the year 1517, and two years elapsed before Magelhaens started on his celebrated voyage. He had represented to the Emperor that he was convinced that a strait existed which would lead into the Indian Ocean, past the New World of Amerigo, and that the Spice Islands were beyond the line of demarcation and within the Spanish sphere of influence. There is some evidence that Spanish merchant vessels, trading secretly to obtain Brazil wood, had already caught sight of the strait afterwards named after Magelhaens, and certainly such a strait is represented upon Schoner's globes dated 1515 and 1520--earlier than Magelhaens' discovery. The Portuguese were fully aware of the dangers threatened to their monopoly of the spice trade--which by this time had been firmly established--owing to the presence of Serrao in Ternate, and did all in their power to dissuade Charles from sending out the threatened expedition, pointing out that they would consider it an unfriendly act if such an expedition were permitted to start. Notwithstanding this the Emperor persisted in the project, and on Tuesday, 20th September 1519, a fleet of five vessels, the _Trinidad, St. Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria_, and _St. Jago_, manned by a heterogeneous collection of Spaniards, Portuguese, Basques, Genoese, Sicilians, French, Flemings, Germans, Greeks, Neapolitans, Corfiotes, Negroes, Malays, and a single Englishman (Master Andrew of Bristol), started from Seville upon perhaps the most important voyage of discovery ever made. So great was the antipathy between Spanish and Portuguese that disaffection broke out almost from the start, and after the mouth of the La Plata had been carefully explored, to ascertain whether this was not really the beginning of a passage through the New World, a mutiny broke out on the 2nd April 1520, in Port St. Julian, where it had been determined to winter; for of course by this time the sailors had become aware that the time of the seasons was reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. Magelhaens showed great firmness and skill in dealing with the mutiny; its chief leaders were either executed or marooned, and on the 18th October he resumed his voyage. Meanwhile the habits and customs of the natives had been observed--their huge height and uncouth foot-coverings, for which Magelhaens gave them the name of Patagonians. Within three days they had arrived at the entrance of the passage which still bears Magelhaens' name. By this time one of the ships, the _St Jago_, had been lost, and it was with only four of his vessels--the _Trinidad_, the _Victoria_, the _Concepcion_. and the _St. Antonio_--that, Magelhaens began his passage. There are many twists and divisions in the strait, and on arriving at one of the partings, Magelhaens despatched the _St. Antonio_ to explore it, while he proceeded with the other three ships along the more direct route. The pilot of the _St. Antonio_ had been one of the mutineers, and persuaded the crew to seize this opportunity to turn back altogether; so that when Magelhaens arrived at the appointed place of junction, no news could be ascertained of the missing vessel; it went straight back to Portugal. Magelhaens determined to continue his search, even, he said, if it came to eating the leather thongs of the sails. It had taken him thirty-eight days to get through the Straits, and for four months afterwards Magelhaens continued his course through the ocean, which, from its calmness, he called Pacific; taking a north-westerly course, and thus, by a curious chance, only hitting upon a couple of small uninhabited islands throughout their whole voyage, through a sea which we now know to be dotted by innumerable inhabited islands. On the 6th March 1520 they had sighted the Ladrones, and obtained much-needed provisions. Scurvy had broken out in its severest form, and the only Englishman on the ships died at the Ladrones. From there they went on to the islands now known as the Philippines, one of the kings of which greeted them very favourably. As a reward Magelhaens undertook one of his local quarrels, and fell in an unequal fight at Mactan, 27th April 1521. The three vessels continued their course for the Moluccas, but the _Concepcion_ proved so unseaworthy that they had to beach and burn her. They reached Borneo, and here Juan Sebastian del Cano was appointed captain of the _Victoria_. At last, on the 6th November 1521, they reached the goal of their journey, and anchored at Tidor, one of the Moluccas. They traded on very advantageous terms with the natives, and filled their holds with the spices and nutmegs for which they had journeyed so far; but when they attempted to resume their journey homeward, it was found that the _Trinidad_ was too unseaworthy to proceed at once, and it was decided that the _Victoria_ should start so as to get the east monsoon. This she did, and after the usual journey round the Cape of Good Hope, arrived off the Mole of Seville on Monday the 8th September 1522--three years all but twelve days from the date of their departure from Spain. Of the two hundred and seventy men who had started with the fleet, only eighteen returned in the _Victoria_. According to the ship's reckoning they had arrived on Sunday the 7th, and for some time it was a puzzle to account for the day thus lost. Meanwhile the _Trinidad_, which had been left behind at the Moluccas, had attempted to sail back to Panama, and reached as far north as 43°, somewhere about longitude 175° W. Here provisions failed them, and they had to return to the Moluccas, where they were seized, practically as pirates, by a fleet of Portuguese vessels sent specially to prevent interference by the Spaniards with the Portuguese monopoly of the spice trade. The crew of the _Trinidad_ were seized and made prisoners, and ultimately only four of them reached Spain again, after many adventures. Thirteen others, who had landed at the Cape de Verde Islands from the _Victoria_, may also be included among the survivors of the fleet, so that a total number of thirty-five out of two hundred and seventy sums up the number of the first circumnavigators of the globe. The importance of this voyage was unique when regarded from the point of view of geographical discovery. It decisively clinched the matter with regard to the existence of an entirely New World independent from Asia. In particular, the backward voyage of the _Trinidad_ (which has rarely been noticed) had shown that there was a wide expanse of ocean north of the line and east of Asia, whilst the previous voyage had shown the enormous extent of sea south of the line. After the circumnavigation of the _Victoria_ it was clear to cosmographers that the world was much larger than had been imagined by the ancients; or rather, perhaps one may say that Asia was smaller than had been thought by the mediæval writers. The dogged persistence shown by Magelhaens in carrying out his idea, which turned out to be a perfectly justifiable one, raises him from this point of view to a greater height than Columbus, whose month's voyage brought him exactly where he thought he would find land according to Toscanelli's map. After Magelhaens, as will be seen, the whole coast lines of the world were roughly known, except for the Arctic Circle and for Australia. [Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY OF 1548.] The Emperor was naturally delighted with the result of the voyage. He granted Del Cano a pension, and a coat of arms commemorating his services. The terms of the grant are very significant: _or_, two cinnamon sticks _saltire proper_, three nutmegs and twelve cloves, a chief _gules_, a castle _or; crest_, a globe, bearing the motto, "Primus circumdedisti me" (thou wert the first to go round me); _supporters_, two Malay kings crowned, holding in the exterior hand a spice branch proper. The castle, of course, refers to Castile, but the rest of the blazon indicates the importance attributed to the voyage as resting mainly upon the visit to the Spice Islands. As we have already seen, however, the Portuguese recovered their position in the Moluccas immediately after the departure of the _Victoria_, and seven years later Charles V. gave up any claims he might possess through Magelhaens' visit. But for a long time afterwards the Spaniards still cast longing eyes upon the Spice Islands, and the Fuggers, the great bankers of Augsburg, who financed the Spanish monarch, for a long time attempted to get possession of Peru, with the scarcely disguised object of making it a "jumping-place" from which to make a fresh attempt at obtaining possession of the Moluccas. A modern parallel will doubtless occur to the reader. There are thus three stages to be distinguished in the successive discovery and delimitation of the New World:-- (i.) At first Columbus imagined that he had actually reached Zipangu or Japan, and achieved the object of his voyage. (ii.) Then Amerigo Vespucci, by coasting down South America, ascertained that there was a huge unknown land intervening even between Columbus' discoveries and the long-desired Spice Islands. (iii.) Magelhaens clinches this view by traversing the Southern Pacific for thousands of miles before reaching the Moluccas. There is still a fourth stage by which it was gradually discovered that the North-west of America was not joined on to Asia, but this stage was only gradually reached and finally determined by the voyages of Behring and Cook. [_Authorities:_ Justin Winsor, _Christopher Columbus_, 1894; Guillemard, _Ferdinand Magellan_, 1894.] CHAPTER VIII TO THE INDIES NORTHWARD--ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND RUSSIAN ROUTES The discovery of the New World had the most important consequences on the relative importance of the different nations of Europe. Hitherto the chief centres for over two thousand years had been round the shores of the Mediterranean, and, as we have seen, Venice, by her central position and extensive trade to the East, had become a world-centre during the latter Middle Ages. But after Columbus, and still more after Magelhaens, the European nations on the Atlantic were found to be closer to the New World, and, in a measure, closer to the Spice Islands, which they could reach all the way by ship, instead of having to pay expensive land freights. The trade routes through Germany became at once neglected, and it is only in the present century that she has at all recovered from the blow given to her by the discovery of the new sea routes in which she could not join. But to England, France, and the Low Countries the new outlook promised a share in the world's trade and affairs generally, which they had never hitherto possessed while the Mediterranean was the centre of commerce. If the Indies could be reached by sea, they were almost in as fortunate a position as Portugal or Spain. Almost as soon as the new routes were discovered the Northern nations attempted to utilise them, notwithstanding the Bull of Partition, which the French king laughed at, and the Protestant English and Dutch had no reason to respect. Within three years of the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Henry VII. employed John Cabot, a Venetian settled in Bristol, with his three sons, to attempt the voyage to the Indies by the North-West Passage. He appears to have re-discovered Newfoundland in 1497, and then in the following year, failing to find a passage there, coasted down North America nearly as far as Florida. In 1534 Jacques Cartier examined the river St. Lawrence, and his discoveries were later followed up by Samuel de Champlain, who explored some of the great lakes near the St. Lawrence, and established the French rule in Canada, or Acadie, as it was then called. Meanwhile the English had made an attempt to reach the Indies, still by a northern passage, but this time in an easterly direction. Sebastian Cabot, who had been appointed Grand Pilot of England by Edward VI., directed a voyage of exploration in 1553, under Sir Hugh Willoughby. Only one of these ships, with the pilot (Richard Chancellor) on board, survived the voyage, reaching Archangel, and then going overland to Moscow, where he was favourably received by the Czar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible. He was, however, drowned on his return, and no further attempt to reach Cathay by sea was attempted. The North-West Passage seemed thus to promise better than that by the North-East, and in 1576 Martin Frobisher started on an exploring voyage, after having had the honour of a wave of Elizabeth's hand as he passed Greenwich. He reached Greenland, and then Labrador, and, in a subsequent voyage next year, discovered the strait named after him. His project was taken up by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on whom, with his brother Adrian, Elizabeth conferred the privilege of making the passage to China and the Moluccas by the north-westward, north-eastward, or northward route. At the same time a patent was granted him for discovering any lands unsettled by Christian princes. A settlement was made in St. John's, Newfoundland, but on the return voyage, near the Azores, Sir Humphrey's "frigate" (a small boat of ten men), disappeared, after he had been heard to call out, "Courage, my lads; we are as near heaven by sea as by land!" This happened in 1583. Two years after, another expedition was sent out by the merchants of London, under John Davis, who, on this and two subsequent voyages, discovered several passages trending westward, which warranted the hope of finding a northwest passage. Beside the strait named after him, it is probable that on his third voyage, in 1587, he passed through the passage now named after Hudson. His discoveries were not followed up for some twenty years, when Henry Hudson was despatched in 1607 with a crew of ten men and a boy. He reached Spitzbergen, and reached 80° N., and in the following year reached the North (Magnetic) Pole, which was then situated at 75.22° N. Two of his men were also fortunate enough to see a mermaid--probably an Eskimo woman in her _kayak_. In a third voyage, in 1609, he discovered the strait and bay which now bear his name, but was marooned by his crew, and never heard of further. He had previously, for a time, passed into the service of the Dutch, and had guided them to the river named after him, on which New York now stands. The course of English discovery in the north was for a time concluded by the voyage of William Baffin in 1615, which resulted in the discovery of the land named after him, as well as many of the islands to the north of America. Meanwhile the Dutch had taken part in the work of discovery towards the north. They had revolted against the despotism of Philip II., who was now monarch of both Spain and Portugal. At first they attempted to adopt a route which would not bring them into collision with their old masters; and in three voyages, between 1594 and 1597, William Barentz attempted the North-East Passage, under the auspices of the States-General. He discovered Cherry Island, and touched on Spitzbergen, but failed in the main object of his search; and the attention of the Dutch was henceforth directed to seizing the Portuguese route, rather than finding a new one for themselves. The reason they were able to do this is a curious instance of Nemesis in history. Owing to the careful series of intermarriages planned out by Ferdinand of Arragon, the Portuguese Crown and all its possessions became joined to Spain in 1580 under Philip II., just a year after the northern provinces of the Netherlands had renounced allegiance to Spain. Consequently they were free to attack not alone Spanish vessels and colonies, but also those previously belonging to Portugal. As early as 1596 Cornelius Houtman rounded the Cape and visited Sumatra and Bantam, and within fifty, years the Dutch had replaced the Portuguese in many of their Eastern possessions. In 1614 they took Malacca, and with it the command of the Spice Islands; by 1658 they had secured full possession of Ceylon. Much earlier, in 1619, they had founded Batavia in Java, which they made the centre of their East Indian possessions, as it still remains. The English at first attempted to imitate the Dutch in their East Indian policy. The English East India Company was founded by Elizabeth in 1600, and as early as 1619 had forced the Dutch to allow them to take a third share of the profits of the Spice Islands. In order to do this several English planters settled at Amboyna, but within four years trade rivalries had reached such a pitch that the Dutch murdered some of these merchants and drove the rest from the islands. As a consequence the English Company devoted its attention to the mainland of India itself, where they soon obtained possession of Madras and Bombay, and left the islands of the Indian Ocean mainly in possession of the Dutch. We shall see later the effect of this upon the history of geography, for it was owing to their possession of the East India Islands that the Dutch were practically the discoverers of Australia. One result of the Dutch East India policy has left its traces even to the present day. In 1651 they established a colony at the Cape of Good Hope, which only fell into English hands during the Napoleonic wars, when Napoleon held Holland. Meanwhile the English had not lost sight of the possibilities of the North-East Passage, if not for reaching the Spice Islands, at any rate as a means of tapping the overland route to China, hitherto monopolised by the Genoese. In 1558 an English gentleman, named Anthony Jenkinson, was sent as ambassador to the Czar of Muscovy, and travelled from Moscow as far as Bokhara; but he was not very fortunate in his venture, and England had to be content for some time to receive her Indian and Chinese goods from the Venetian argosies as before. But at last they saw no reason why they should not attempt direct relations with the East. A company of Levant merchants was formed in 1583 to open out direct communications with Aleppo, Bagdad, Ormuz, and Goa. They were unsuccessful at the two latter places owing to the jealousy of the Portuguese, but they made arrangements for cheaper transit of Eastern goods to England, and in 1587 the last of the Venetian argosies, a great vessel of eleven hundred tons, was wrecked off the Isle of Wight. Henceforth the English conducted their own business with the East, and Venetian and Portuguese monopoly was at an end. [Illustration: RUSSIAN MAP OF ASIA, 1737.] But the journeys of Chancellor and Jenkinson to the Court of Moscow had more far-reaching effects; the Russians themselves were thereby led to contemplate utilising their proximity to one of the best known routes to the Far East. Shortly after Jenkinson's visit, the Czar, Ivan the Terrible, began extending his dominions eastward, sending at first a number of troops to accompany the Russian merchant Strogonof as far as the Obi in search of sables. Among the troops were a corps of six thousand Cossacks commanded by one named Vassili Yermak, who, finding the Tartars an easy prey, determined at first to set up a new kingdom for himself. In 1579 he was successful in overcoming the Tartars and their chief town Sibir, near Tobolsk; but, finding it difficult to retain his position, determined to return to his allegiance to the Czar on condition of being supported. This was readily granted, and from that time onward the Russians steadily pushed on through to the unknown country of the north of Asia, since named after the little town conquered by Yermak, of which scarcely any traces now remain. As early as 1639 they had reached the Pacific under Kupilof. A force was sent out from Yakutz, on the Lena, in 1643, which reached the Amur, and thus Russians came for the first time in contact with the Chinese, and a new method of reaching Cathay was thus obtained, while geography gained the knowledge of the extent of Northern Asia. For, about the same time (in 1648), the Arctic Ocean was reached on the north shores of Siberia, and a fleet under the Cossack Dishinef sailed from Kolyma and reached as far as the straits known by the name of Behring. It was not, however, till fifty years afterwards, in 1696, that the Russians reached Kamtschatka. Notwithstanding the access of knowledge which had been gained by these successive bold pushes towards north and east, it still remained uncertain whether Siberia did not join on to the northern part of the New World discovered by Columbus and Amerigo, and in 1728 Peter the Great sent out an expedition under VITUS BEHRING, a Dane in the Russian service, with the express aim of ascertaining this point. He reached Kamtschatka, and there built two vessels as directed by the Czar, and started on his voyage northward, coasting along the land. When he reached a little beyond 67° N., he found no land to the north or east, and conceived he had reached the end of the continent. As a matter of fact, he was within thirty miles of the west coast of America; but of this he does not seem to have been aware, being content with solving the special problem put before him by the Czar. The strait thus discovered by Behring, though not known by him to be a strait, has ever since been known by his name. In 1741, however, Behring again set out on a voyage of discovery to ascertain how far to the east America was, and within a fortnight had come within sight of the lofty mountain named by him Mount St. Elias. Behring himself died upon this voyage, on an island also named after him; he had at last solved the relation between the Old and the New Worlds. These voyages of Behring, however, belong to a much later stage of discovery than those we have hitherto been treating for the last three chapters. His explorations were undertaken mainly for scientific purposes, and to solve a scientific problem, whereas all the other researches of Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Dutch were directed to one end, that of reaching the Spice Islands and Cathay. The Portuguese at first started out on the search by the slow method of creeping down the coast of Africa; the Spanish, by adopting Columbus's bold idea, had attempted it by the western route, and under Magellan's still bolder conception had equally succeeded in reaching it in that way; the English and French sought for a north-west passage to the Moluccas; while the English and Dutch attempted a northeasterly route. In both directions the icy barrier of the north prevented success. It was reserved, as we shall see, for the present century to complete the North-West Passage under Maclure, and the North-East by Nordenskiold, sailing with quite different motives to those which first brought the mariners of England, France, and Holland within the Arctic Circle. The net result of all these attempts by the nations of Europe to wrest from the Venetians the monopoly of the Eastern trade was to add to geography the knowledge of the existence of a New World intervening between the western shores of Europe and the eastern shores of Asia. We have yet to learn the means by which the New World thus discovered became explored and possessed by the European nations. [_Authorities:_ Cooley and Beazeley, _John and Sebastian Cabot_, 1898.] CHAPTER IX THE PARTITION OF AMERICA We have hitherto been dealing with the discoveries made by Spanish and Portuguese along the coast of the New World, but early in the sixteenth century they began to put foot on _terra firma_ and explore the interior. As early as 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa ascended the highest peak in the range running from the Isthmus of Panama, and saw for the first time by European eyes the great ocean afterwards to be named by Magellan the Pacific. He there heard that the country to the south extended without end, and was inhabited by great nations, with an abundance of gold. Among his companions who heard of this golden country, or El Dorado, was one Francisco Pizarro, who was destined to test the report. But a similar report had reached the ears of Diego Velasquez, governor of Cuba, as to a great nation possessed of much gold to the north of Darien. He accordingly despatched his lieutenant Hernando Cortes in 1519 to investigate, with ten ships, six hundred and fifty men, and some eighteen horses. When he landed at the port named by him Vera Cruz, the appearance of his men, and more especially of his horses, astonished and alarmed the natives of Mexico, then a large and semi-civilised state under the rule of Montezuma, the last representative of the Aztecs, who in the twelfth century had succeeded the Toltecs, a people that had settled on the Mexican tableland as early probably as the seventh century, introducing the use of metals and roads and many of the elements of civilisation. Montezuma is reported to have been able to range no less than two hundred thousand men under his banners, but he showed his opinion of the Spaniards by sending them costly presents, gold and silver and costly stuffs. This only aroused the cupidity of Cortes, who determined to make a bold stroke for the conquest of such a rich prize. He burnt his ships and advanced into the interior of the country, conquering on his way the tribe of the Tlascalans, who had been at war with the Mexicans, but, when conquered, were ready to assist him against them. With their aid he succeeded in seizing the Mexican king, who was forced to yield a huge tribute. After many struggles Cortes found himself master of the capital, and of all the resources of the Mexican Empire (1521). These he hastened to place at the feet of the Emperor Charles V., who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of Mexico. It is characteristic throughout the history of the New World, that none of the soldiers of fortune who found it such an easy prey ever thought of setting up an empire for himself. This is a testimony to the influence national feeling had upon the minds even of the most lawless, and the result was that Europe and European ideas were brought over into America, or rather the New World became tributary to Europe. As soon as Cortes had established himself he fitted out expeditions to explore the country, and himself reached Honduras after a remarkable journey for over 1000 miles, in which he was only guided by a map on cotton cloth, on which the Cacique of Tabasco had painted all the towns, rivers, and mountains of the country as far as Nicaragua. He also despatched a small fleet under Alvarro de Saavedra to support a Spanish expedition which had been sent to the Moluccas under Sebastian del Cano, and which arrived at Tidor in 1527, to the astonishment of Spanish and Portuguese alike when they heard he had started from New Castile. In 1536, Cortes, who had been in the meantime shorn of much of his power, conducted an expedition by sea along the north-west coast of Mexico, and reached what he considered to be a great island. He identified this with an imaginary island in the Far East, near the terrestrial paradise to which the name of California had been given in a contemporary romance. Thus, owing to Cortes, almost the whole of Central America had become known before his death in 1540. Similarly, at a much earlier period, Ponce de Leon had thought he had discovered another great island in Florida in 1512, whither he had gone in search of Bayuca, a fabled island of the Indians, in which they stated was a fountain of eternal youth. At the time of Cortes' first attempt on Mexico, Pineda had coasted round Florida, and connected it with the rest of the coast of Mexico, which he traversed as far as Vera Cruz. The exploits of Cortes were all important in their effects. He had proved with what ease a handful of men might overcome an empire and gain unparalleled riches. Francisco Pizarro was encouraged by the success of Cortes to attempt the discovery of the El Dorado he had heard of when on Balboa's expedition. With a companion named Diego de Almegro he made several coasting expeditions down the northwest coast of South America, during which they heard of the empire of the Incas on the plateau of Peru. They also obtained sufficient gold and silver to raise their hopes of the riches of the country, and returned to Spain to report to the Emperor. Pizarro obtained permission from Charles V. to attempt the conquest of Peru, of which he was named Governor and Captain-General, on condition of paying a tribute of one-fifth of the treasure he might obtain. He started in February 1531 with a small force of 180 men, of whom thirty-six were horsemen. Adopting the policy of Cortes, he pushed directly for the capital Cuzco, where they managed to seize Atahualpa, the Inca of the time. He attempted to ransom himself by agreeing to fill the room in which he was confined, twenty-two feet long by sixteen wide, with bars of gold as high as the hand could reach. He carried out this prodigious promise, and Pizarro's companions found themselves in possession of booty equal to three millions sterling. Atahualpa was, however, not released, but condemned to death on a frivolous pretext, while Pizarro dismissed his followers, fully confident that the wealth they carried off would attract as many men as he could desire to El Dorado. He settled himself at Lima, near the coast, in 1534. Meanwhile Almegro had been despatched south, and made himself master of Chili. Another expedition in 1539 was conducted by Pizarro's brother Gonzales across the Andes, and reached the sources of the Amazon, which one of his companions, Francisco de Orellana, traversed as far as the mouth. This he reached in August 1541, after a voyage of one thousand leagues. The river was named after Orellana, but, from reports he made of the existence of a tribe of female warriors, was afterwards known as the river of the Amazons. The author spread reports of another El Dorado to the north, in which the roofs of the temples were covered with gold. This report afterwards led to the disastrous expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh to Guiana. By his voyage Orellana connected the Spanish and Portuguese "spheres of influence" in the New World of Amerigo. By the year 1540 the main outlines of Central and South America and something of the interior had been made known by the Spanish adventurers within half a century of Columbus' first voyage. Owing to the papal bull Portugal possessed Brazil, but all the rest of the huge stretch of country was claimed for Spain. The Portuguese wisely treated Brazil as an outlet for their overflowing population, which settled there in large numbers and established plantations. The Spaniards, on the other hand, only regarded their huge possessions as exclusive markets to be merely visited by them. Rich mines of gold, silver, and mercury were discovered in Mexico and Peru, especially in the far-famed mines of Potosi, and these were exploited entirely in the interests of Spain, which acted as a sieve by which the precious metals were poured into Europe, raising prices throughout the Old World. In return European merchandise was sent in the return voyages of the Spanish galleons to New Spain, which could only buy Flemish cloth, for example, through Spanish intermediaries, who raised its price to three times the original cost. This short-sighted policy on the part of Spain naturally encouraged smuggling, and attracted the ships of all nations towards that pursuit. We have already seen the first attempts of the French and English in the exploration of the north-east coast of North America; but during the sixteenth century very little was done to settle on such inhospitable shores, which did not offer anything like the rich prizes that Tropical America afforded. Neither the exploration of Cartier in 1534, or that of the Cabots much earlier, was followed by any attempt to possess the land. Breton fishermen visited the fisheries off Newfoundland, and various explorers attempted to find openings which would give them a north-west passage, but otherwise the more northerly part of the continent was left unoccupied till the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first town founded was that of St. Augustine, in Florida, in 1565, but this was destroyed three years later by a French expedition. Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to found a colony in 1584 near where Virginia now stands, but it failed after three years, and it was not till the reign of James I. that an organised attempt was made by England to establish plantations, as they were then called, on the North American coast. Two Chartered Companies, the one to the north named the Plymouth Company, and the one to the south named the London Company (both founded in 1606), nominally divided between them all the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. These large tracts of country were during the seventeenth century slowly parcelled out into smaller states, mainly Puritan in the north (New England), High Church and Catholic in the south (Virginia and Maryland). But between the two, and on the banks of the Hudson and the Delaware, two other European nations had also formed plantations--the Dutch along the Hudson from 1609 forming the New Netherlands, and the Swedes from 1636 along the Delaware forming New Sweden. The latter, however, lasted only a few years, and was absorbed by the Dutch in 1655. The capital of New Netherlands was established on Manhattan Island, to the south of the palisade still known as Wall Street, and the city was named New Amsterdam. The Hudson is such an important artery of commerce between the Atlantic and the great lakes, that this wedge between the two sets of English colonies would have been a bar to any future progress. This was recognised by Charles II., who in 1664 despatched an expedition to demand its surrender, even though England and Holland were at that time at peace. New Amsterdam was taken, and named New York, after the king's brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II. New Sweden, which at the same time fell into the English hands, was sold as a proprietary plantation to a Jersey man, Sir George Carteret, and to a Quaker, William Penn. By this somewhat high-handed procedure the whole coast-line down to Florida was in English hands. Both the London and Plymouth Companies had started to form plantations in 1607, and in that very year the French made their first effective settlements in America, at Port Royal and at Nova Scotia, then called Arcadie; while, the following year, Samuel de Champlain made settlements at Quebec, and founded French Canada. He explored the lake country, and established settlements down the banks of the St. Lawrence, along which French activity for a long time confined itself. Between the French and the English settlements roved the warlike Five Nations of the Iroquois Indians, and Champlain, whose settlements were in the country of the Algonquins, was obliged to take their part and make the Iroquois the enemies of France, which had important effects upon the final struggle between England and France in the eighteenth century. The French continued their exploration of the interior of the continent. In 1673 Marquette discovered the Mississippi (Missi Sepe, "the great water"), and descended it as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, but the work of exploring the Mississippi valley was undertaken by Robert de la Salle. He had already discovered the Ohio and Illinois rivers, and in three expeditions, between 1680 and 1682, succeeded in working his way right down to the mouth of the Mississippi, giving to the huge tract of country which he had thus traversed the name of Louisiana, after Louis XIV. France thenceforth claimed the whole _hinterland_, as we should now call it, of North America, the English being confined to the comparatively narrow strip of country east of the Alleghanies. New Orleans was founded at the mouth of the Mississippi in 1716, and named after the Prince Regent; and French activity ranged between Quebec and New Orleans, leaving many traces even to the present day, in French names like Mobile, Detroit, and the like, through the intervening country. The situation at the commencement of the eighteenth century was remarkably similar to that of the Gold Coast in Africa at the end of the nineteenth. The French persistently attempted to encroach upon the English sphere of influence, and it was in attempting to define the two spheres that George Washington learned his first lesson in diplomacy and strategy. The French and English American colonies were almost perpetually at war with one another, the objective being the spot where Pittsburg now stands, which was regarded as the gate of the west, overlooking as it did the valley of the Ohio. Here Duquesne founded the fort named after himself, and it was not till 1758 that this was finally wrested from French hands; while, in the following year, Wolfe, by his capture of Quebec, overthrew the whole French power in North America. Throughout the long fight the English had been much assisted by the guerilla warfare of the Iroquois against the French. By the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the whole of French America was ceded to England, which also obtained possession of Florida from Spain, in exchange for the Philippines, captured during the war. As a compensation all the country west of the Mississippi became joined on to the Spanish possessions in Mexico. These of course became, nominally French when Napoleon's brother Joseph was placed on the Spanish throne, but Napoleon sold them to the United States in 1803, so that no barrier existed to the westward spread of the States. Long previously to this, a Chartered Company had been formed in 1670, with Prince Rupert at its head, to trade with the Indians for furs in Hudson's Bay, then and for some time afterwards called Rupertsland. The Hudson Bay Company gradually extended its knowledge of the northerly parts of America towards the Rocky Mountains, but it was not till 1740 that Varenne de la Varanderye discovered their extent. In 1769-71 a fur trader named Hearne traced the river Coppermine to the sea, while it was not till 1793 that Mr. (after Sir A.) Mackenzie discovered the river now named after him, and crossed the continent of North America from Atlantic to Pacific. One of the reasons for this late exploration of the north-west of North America was a geographical myth started by a Spanish voyager named Juan de Fuca as early as 1592. Coasting as far as Vancouver Island, he entered the inlet to the south of it, and not being able to see land to the north, brought back a report of a huge sea spreading over all that part of the country, which most geographers assumed to pass over into Hudson Bay or the neighbourhood. It was this report as much as anything which encouraged hopes of finding the north-west passage in a latitude low enough to be free from ice. As soon as the United States got possession of the land west of the Mississippi they began to explore it, and between 1804 and 1807 Lewis and Clarke had explored the whole basin of the Missouri, while Pike had investigated the country between the sources of the Mississippi and the Red River. We have already seen that Behring had carried over Russian investigation and dominion into Alaska, and it was in order to avoid her encroachments down towards the Californian coast that President Monroe put forth in 1823 the doctrine that no further colonisation of the Americas would be permitted by the United States. In this year Russia agreed to limit her claims to the country north of 54.40°. The States subsequently acquired California and other adjoining states during their war with Mexico in 1848, just before gold was discovered in the Sacramento valley. The land between California and Alaska was held in joint possession between Great Britain and the States, and was known as the Oregon Territory. Lewis and Clarke had explored the Columbia River, while Vancouver had much earlier examined the island which now bears his name, so that both countries appear to have some rights of discovery to the district. At one time the inhabitants of the States were inclined to claim all the country as far as the Russian boundary 54.40°, and a war-cry arose "54.40° or fight;" but in 1846 the territory was divided by the 49th parallel, and at this date we may say the partition of America was complete, and all that remained to be known of it was the ice-bound northern coast, over which so much heroic enterprise has been displayed. The history of geographical discovery in America is thus in large measure a history of conquest. Men got to know both coast-line and interior while endeavouring either to trade or to settle where nature was propitious, or the country afforded mineral or vegetable wealth that could be easily transported. Of the coast early knowledge was acquired for geography; but where the continent broadens out either north or south, making the interior inaccessible for trade purposes with the coasts, ignorance remained even down to the present century. Even to the present day the country south of the valley of the Amazon is perhaps as little known as any portion of the earth's surface, while, as we have seen, it was not till the early years of this century that any knowledge was acquired of the huge tract of country between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. It was the natural expansion of the United States, rendered possible by the cession of this tract to the States by Napoleon in 1803, that brought it within the knowledge of all. That expansion was chiefly due to the improved methods of communication which steam has given to mankind only within this century. But for this the region east of the Rocky Mountains would possibly be as little known to Europeans, even at the present day, as the Soudan or Somaliland. It is owing to this natural expansion of the States, and in minor measure of Canada, that few great names of geographical explorers are connected with our knowledge of the interior of North America. Unknown settlers have been the pioneers of geography, and not as elsewhere has the reverse been the case. In the two other continents whose geographical history we have still to trace, Australia and Africa, explorers have preceded settlers or conquerors, and we can generally follow the course of geographical discovery in their case without the necessity of discussing their political history. [_Authorities:_ Winsor, _From Cartier to Frontenac_; Gelcich, in _Mittheilungen_ of Geographical Society of Vienna, 1892.] CHAPTER X AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH SEAS--TASMAN AND COOK If one looks at the west coast of Australia one is struck by the large number of Dutch names which are jotted down the coast. There is Hoog Island, Diemen's Bay, Houtman's Abrolhos, De Wit land, and the Archipelago of Nuyts, besides Dirk Hartog's Island and Cape Leeuwin. To the extreme north we find the Gulf of Carpentaria, and to the extreme south the island which used to be called Van Diemen's Land. It is not altogether to be wondered at that almost to the middle of this century the land we now call Australia was tolerably well known as New Holland. If the Dutch had struck the more fertile eastern shores of the Australian continent, it might have been called with reason New Holland to the present day; but there is scarcely any long coast-line of the world so inhospitable and so little promising as that of Western Australia, and one can easily understand how the Dutch, though they explored it, did not care to take possession of it. [Illustration: TERRES AUSTRALES. d'après d'Anville. 1746.] But though the Dutch were the first to explore any considerable stretch of Australian coast, they were by no means the first to sight it. As early as 1542 a Spanish expedition under Luis Lopez de Villalobos, was despatched to follow up the discoveries of Magellan in the Pacific Ocean within the Spanish sphere of influence. He discovered several of the islands of Polynesia, and attempted to seize the Philippines, but his fleet had to return to New Spain. One of the ships coasted along an island to which was given the name of New Guinea, and was thought to be part of the great unknown southern land which Ptolemy had imagined to exist in the south of the Indian Ocean, and to be connected in some way with Tierra del Fuego. Curiosity was thus aroused, and in 1606 Pedro de Quiros was despatched on a voyage to the South Seas with three ships. He discovered the New Hebrides, and believed it formed part of the southern continent, and he therefore named it Australia del Espiritu Santo, and hastened home to obtain the viceroyalty of this new possession. One of his ships got separated from him, and the commander, Luys Vaz de Torres, sailed farther to the south-west, and thereby learned that the New Australia was not a continent but an island. He proceeded farther till he came to New Guinea, which he coasted along the south coast, and seeing land to the south of him, he thus passed through the straits since named after him, and was probably the first European to see the continent of Australia. In the very same year (1606) the Dutch yacht named the _Duyfken_ is said to have coasted along the south and west coasts of New Guinea nearly a thousand miles, till they reached Cape Keerweer, or "turn again." This was probably the north-west coast of Australia. In the first thirty years of the seventeenth century the Dutch followed the west coast of Australia with as much industry as the Portuguese had done with the west coast of Africa, leaving up to the present day signs of their explorations in the names of islands, bays, and capes. Dirk Hartog, in the _Endraaght_, discovered that Land which is named after his ship, and the cape and roadstead named after himself, in 1616. Jan Edels left his name upon the western coast in 1619; while, three years later, a ship named the _Lioness_ or _Leeuwin_ reached the most western point of the continent, to which its name is still attached. Five years later, in 1627, De Nuyts coasted round the south coast of Australia; while in the same year a Dutch commander named Carpenter discovered and gave his name to the immense indentation still known as the Gulf of Carpentaria. But still more important discoveries were made in 1642 by an expedition sent out from Batavia under ABEL JANSSEN TASMAN to investigate the real extent of the southern land. After the voyages of the _Leeuwin_ and De Nuyts it was seen that the southern coast of the new land trended to the east, instead of working round to the west, as would have been the case if Ptolemy's views had been correct. Tasman's problem was to discover whether it was connected with the great southern land assumed to lie to the south of South America. Tasman first sailed from Mauritius, and then directing his course to the south-east, going much more south than Cape Leeuwin, at last reached land in latitude 43.30° and longitude 163.50°. This he called Van Diemen's Land, after the name of the Governor-General of Batavia, and it was assumed that this joined on to the land already discovered by De Nuyts. Sailing farther to the eastward, Tasman came out into the open sea again, and thus appeared to prove that the newly discovered land was not connected with the great unknown continent round the south pole. But he soon came across land which might possibly answer to that description, and he called it Staaten Land, in honour of the States-General of the Netherlands. This was undoubtedly some part of New Zealand. Still steering eastward, but with a more northerly trend, Tasman discovered several islands in the Pacific, and ultimately reached Batavia after touching on New Guinea. His discoveries were a great advance on previous knowledge; he had at any rate reduced the possible dimensions of the unknown continent of the south within narrow limits, and his discoveries were justly inscribed upon the map of the world cut in stone upon the new Staathaus in Amsterdam, in which the name New Holland was given by order of the States-General to the western part of the "terra Australis." When England for a time became joined on to Holland under the rule of William III., William Dampier was despatched to New Holland to make further discoveries. He retraced the explorations of the Dutch from Dirk Hartog's Bay to New Guinea, and appears to have been the first European to have noticed the habits of the kangaroo; otherwise his voyage did not add much to geographical knowledge, though when he left the coasts of New Guinea he steered between New England and New Ireland. As a result of these Dutch voyages the existence of a great land somewhere to the south-east of Asia became common property to all civilised men. As an instance of this familiarity many years before Cook's epoch-making voyages, it may be mentioned that in 1699 Captain Lemuel Gulliver (in Swift's celebrated romance) arrived at the kingdom of Lilliput by steering north-west from Van Diemen's Land, which he mentions by name. Lilliput, it would thus appear, was situated somewhere in the neighbourhood of the great Bight of Australia. This curious mixture of definite knowledge and vague ignorance on the part of Swift exactly corresponds to the state of geographical knowledge about Australia in his days, as is shown in the preceding map of those parts of the world, as given by the great French cartographer D'Anville in 1745 (p. 157). These discoveries of the Spanish and Dutch were direct results and corollaries of the great search for the Spice Islands, which has formed the main subject of our inquiries. The discoveries were mostly made by ships fitted out in the Malay archipelago, if not from the Spice Islands themselves. But at the beginning of the eighteenth century new motives came into play in the search for new lands; by that time almost the whole coast-line of the world was roughly known. The Portuguese had coasted Africa, the Spanish South America, the English most of the east of North America, while Central America was known through the Spaniards. Many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean had been touched upon, though not accurately surveyed, and there remained only the north-west coast of America and the north-east coast of Asia to be explored, while the great remaining problem of geography was to discover if the great southern continent assumed by Ptolemy existed, and, if so, what were its dimensions. It happened that all these problems of coastline geography, if we may so call it, were destined to be solved by one man, an Englishman named JAMES COOK, who, with Prince Henry, Magellan, and Tasman, may be said to have determined the limits of the habitable land. His voyages were made in the interests, not of trade or conquest, but of scientific curiosity; and they were, appropriately enough, begun in the interests of quite a different science than that of geography. The English astronomer Halley had left as a sort of legacy the task of examining the transit of Venus, which he predicted for the year 1769, pointing out its paramount importance for determining the distance of the sun from the earth. This transit could only be observed in the southern hemisphere, and it was in order to observe it that Cook made his first voyage of exploration. There was a double suitability in the motive of Cook's first voyage. The work of his life could only have been carried out owing to the improvement in nautical instruments which had been made during the early part of the eighteenth century. Hadley had invented the sextant, by which the sun's elevation could be taken with much more ease and accuracy than with the old cross-staff, the very rough gnomon which the earlier navigators had to use. Still more important for scientific geography was the improvement that had taken place in accurate chronometry. To find the latitude of a place is not so difficult--the length of the day at different times of the year will by itself be almost enough to determine this, as we have seen in the very earliest history of Greek geography--but to determine the longitude was a much more difficult task, which in the earlier stages could only be formed by guesswork and dead reckonings. But when clocks had been brought to such a pitch of accuracy that they would not lose but a few seconds or minutes during the whole voyage, they could be used to determine the difference of local time between any spot on the earth's surface and that of the port from which the ship sailed, or from some fixed place where the clock could be timed. The English government, seeing the importance of this, proposed the very large reward of £10,000 for the invention of a chronometer which would not lose more than a stated number of minutes during a year. This prize was won by John Harrison, and from this time onward a sea-captain with a minimum of astronomical knowledge was enabled to know his longitude within a few minutes. Hadley's sextant and Harrison's chronometer were the necessary implements to enable James Cook to do his work, which was thus, both in aim and method, in every way English. James Cook was a practical sailor, who had shown considerable intelligence in sounding the St. Lawrence on Wolfe's expedition, and had afterwards been appointed marine surveyor of Newfoundland. When the Royal Society determined to send out an expedition to observe the transit of Venus, according to Halley's prediction, they were deterred from entrusting the expedition to a scientific man by the example of Halley himself, who had failed to obtain obedience from sailors on being entrusted with the command. Dalrymple, the chief hydrographer of the Admiralty, who had chief claims to the command, was also somewhat of a faddist, and Cook was selected almost as a _dernier ressort_. The choice proved an excellent one. He selected a coasting coaler named the _Endeavour_, of 360 tons, because her breadth of beam would enable her to carry more stores and to run near coasts. Just before they started Captain Wallis returned from a voyage round the world upon which he had discovered or re-discovered Tahiti, and he recommended this as a suitable place for observing the transit. Cook duly arrived there, and on the 3rd of June 1769 the main object of the expedition was fulfilled by a successful observation. But he then proceeded farther, and arrived soon at a land which he saw reason to identify with the Staaten Land of Tasman; but on coasting along this, Cook found that, so far from belonging to a great southern continent, it was composed of two islands, between which he sailed, giving his name to the strait separating them. Leaving New Zealand on the 31st of March 1770, on the 20th of the next month he came across another land to the westward, hitherto unknown to mariners. Entering an inlet, he explored the neighbourhood with the aid of Mr. Joseph Banks, the naturalist of the expedition. He found so many plants new to him, that the bay was termed Botany Bay. He then coasted northward, and nearly lost his ship upon the great reef running down the eastern coast; but by keeping within it he managed to reach the extreme end of the land in this direction, and proved that it was distinct from New Guinea. In other words, he had reached the southern point of the strait named after Torres. To this immense line of coast Cook gave the name of New South Wales, from some resemblance that he saw to the coast about Swansea. By this first voyage Cook had proved that neither New Holland nor Staaten Land belonged to the great Antarctic continent, which remained the sole myth bequeathed by the ancients which had not yet been definitely removed from the maps. In his second voyage, starting in 1772, he was directed to settle finally this problem. He went at once to the Cape of Good Hope, and from there started out on a zigzag journey round the Southern Pole, poking the nose of his vessel in all directions as far south as he could reach, only pulling up when he touched ice. In whatever direction he advanced he failed to find any trace of extensive land corresponding to the supposed Antarctic continent, which he thus definitely proved to be non-existent. He spent the remainder of this voyage in rediscovering various sets of archipelagos which preceding Spanish, Dutch, and English navigators had touched, but had never accurately surveyed. Later on Cook made a run across the Pacific from New Zealand to Cape Horn without discovering any extensive land, thus clinching the matter after three years' careful inquiry. It is worthy of remark that during that long time he lost but four out of 118 men, and only one of them by sickness. Only one great problem to maritime geography still remained to be solved, that of the north-west passage, which, as we have seen, had so frequently been tried by English navigators, working from the east through Hudson's Bay. In 1776 Cook was deputed by George III. to attempt the solution of this problem by a new method. He was directed to endeavour to find an opening on the north-west coast of America which would lead into Hudson's Bay. The old legend of Juan de Fuca's great bay still misled geographers as to this coast. Cook not alone settled this problem, but, by advancing through Behring Strait and examining both sides of it, determined that the two continents of Asia and America approached one another as near as thirty-six miles. On his return voyage he landed at Owhyee (Hawaii), where he was slain in 1777, and his ships returned to England without adding anything further to geographical knowledge. Cook's voyages had aroused the generous emulation of the French, who, to their eternal honour, had given directions to their fleet to respect his vessels wherever found, though France was at that time at war with England. In 1783 an expedition was sent, under François de la Pérouse, to complete Cook's work. He explored the north-east coast of Asia, examined the island of Saghalien, and passed through the strait between it and Japan, often called by his name. In Kamtschatka La Pérouse landed Monsieur Lesseps, who had accompanied the expedition as Russian interpreter, and sent home by him his journals and surveys. Lesseps made a careful examination of Kamtschatka himself, and succeeded in passing overland thence to Paris, being the first European to journey completely across the Old World from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. La Pérouse then proceeded to follow Cook by examining the coast of New South Wales, and to his surprise, when entering a fine harbour in the middle of the coast, found there English ships engaged in settling the first Australian colony in 1787. After again delivering his surveys to be forwarded by the Englishmen, he started to survey the coast of New Holland, but his expedition was never heard of afterwards. As late as 1826 it was discovered that they had been wrecked on Vanikoro, an island near the Fijis. We have seen that Cook's exploration of the eastern coast of Australia was soon followed up by a settlement. A number of convicts were sent out under Captain Philips to Botany Bay, and from that time onward English explorers gradually determined with accuracy both the coast-line and the interior of the huge stretch of land known to us as Australia. One of the ships that had accompanied Cook on his second voyage had made a rough survey of Van Diemen's Land, and had come to the conclusion that it joined on to the mainland. But in 1797, Bass, a surgeon in the navy, coasted down from Port Jackson to the south in a fine whale boat with a crew of six men, and discovered open sea running between the southernmost point and Van Diemen's Land; this is still known as Bass' Strait. A companion of his, named Flinders, coasted, in 1799, along the south coast from Cape Leeuwin eastward, and on this voyage met a French ship at Encounter Bay, so named from the _rencontre_. Proceeding farther, he discovered Port Philip; and the coast-line of Australia was approximately settled after Captain P. P. King in four voyages, between 1817 and 1822, had investigated the river mouths. [Illustration: THE EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIA.] The interior now remained to be investigated. On the east coast this was rendered difficult by the range of the Blue Mountains, honeycombed throughout with huge gullies, which led investigators time after time into a cul-de-sac; but in 1813 Philip Wentworth managed to cross them, and found a fertile plateau to the westward. Next year Evans discovered the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers, and penetrated farther into the Bathurst plains. In 1828-29 Captain Sturt increased the knowledge of the interior by tracing the course of the two great rivers Darling and Murray. In 1848 the German explorer Leichhardt lost his life in an attempt to penetrate the interior northward; but in 1860 two explorers, named Burke and Wills, managed to pass from south to north along the east coast; while, in the four years 1858 to 1862, John M'Dowall Stuart performed the still more difficult feat of crossing the centre of the continent from south to north, in order to trace a course for the telegraphic line which was shortly afterwards erected. By this time settlements had sprung up throughout the whole coast of Eastern Australia, and there only remained the western desert to be explored. This was effected in two journeys of John Forrest, between 1868 and 1874, who penetrated from Western Australia as far as the central telegraphic line; while, between 1872 and 1876, Ernest Giles performed the same feat to the north. Quite recently, in 1897, these two routes were joined by the journey of the Honourable Daniel Carnegie from the Coolgardie gold fields in the south to those of Kimberley in the north. These explorations, while adding to our knowledge of the interior of Australia, have only confirmed the impression that it was not worth knowing. [_Authorities:_ Rev. G. Grimm, _Discovsry and Exploration of Australia_ (Melbourne, 1888); A. F. Calvert, _Discovery of Australia_, 1893; _Exploration of Australia_, 1895; _Early Voyages to Australia_, Hakluyt Society.] CHAPTER XI EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA: PARK--LIVINGSTONE--STANLEY We have seen how the Portuguese had slowly coasted along the shore of Africa during the fifteeenth century in search of a way to the Indies. By the end of the century mariners _portulanos_ gave a rude yet effective account of the littoral of Africa, both on the west and the eastern side. Not alone did they explore the coast, but they settled upon it. At Amina on the Guinea coast, at Loando near the Congo, and at Benguela on the western coast, they established stations whence to despatch the gold and ivory, and, above all, the slaves, which turned out to be the chief African products of use to Europeans. On the east coast they settled at Sofala, a port of Mozambique; and in Zanzibar they possessed no less than three ports, those first visited by Vasco da Gama and afterwards celebrated by Milton in the sonorous line contained in the gorgeous geographical excursus in the Eleventh Book-- "Mombaza and Quiloa and Melind." --_Paradise Lost_, xi. 339. It is probable that, besides settling on the coast, the Portuguese from time to time made explorations into the interior. At any rate, in some maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth century there is shown a remarkable knowledge of the course of the Nile. We get it terminated in three large lakes, which can be scarcely other than the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, and Tanganyika. The Mountains of the Moon also figure prominently, and it was only almost the other day that Mr. Stanley re-discovered them. It is difficult, however, to determine how far these entries on the Portuguese maps were due to actual knowledge or report, or to the traditions of a still earlier knowledge of these lakes and mountains; for in the maps accompanying the early editions of Ptolemy we likewise obtain the same information, which is repeated by the Arabic geographers, obviously from Ptolemy, and not from actual observation. When the two great French cartographers Delisle and D'Anville determined not to insert anything on their maps for which they had not some evidence, these lakes and mountains disappeared, and thus it has come about that maps of the seventeenth century often appear to display more knowledge of the interior of Africa than those of the beginning of the nineteenth, at least with regard to the sources of the Nile. [Illustration: DAPPER'S MAP OF AFRICA, 1676.] African exploration of the interior begins with the search for the sources of the Nile, and has been mainly concluded by the determination of the course of the three other great rivers, the Niger, the Zambesi, and the Congo. It is remarkable that all four rivers have had their course determined by persons of British nationality. The names of Bruce and Grant will always be associated with the Nile, that of Mungo Park with the Niger, Dr. Livingstone with the Zambesi, and Mr. Stanley with the Congo. It is not inappropriate that, except in the case of the Congo, England should control the course of the rivers which her sons first made accessible to civilisation. We have seen that there was an ancient tradition reported by Herodotus, that the Nile trended off to the west and became there the river Niger; while still earlier there was an impression that part of it at any rate wandered eastward, and some way joined on to the same source as the Tigris and Euphrates--at least that seems to be the suggestion in the biblical account of Paradise. Whatever the reason, the greatest uncertainty existed as to the actual course of the river, and to discover the source of the Nile was for many centuries the standing expression for performing the impossible. In 1768, James Bruce, a Scottish gentleman of position, set out with the determination of solving this mystery--a determination which he had made in early youth, and carried out with characteristic pertinacity. He had acquired a certain amount of knowledge of Arabic and acquaintance with African customs as Consul at Algiers. He went up the Nile as far as Farsunt, and then crossed the desert to the Red Sea, went over to Jedda, from which he took ship for Massowah, and began his search for the sources of the Nile in Abyssinia. He visited the ruins of Axum, the former capital, and in the neighbourhood of that place saw the incident with which his travels have always been associated, in which a couple of rump-steaks were extracted from a cow while alive, the wound sewn up, and the animal driven on farther. Here, guided by some Gallas, he worked his way up the Blue Nile to the three fountains, which he declared to be the true sources of the Nile, and identified with the three mysterious lakes in the old maps. From there he worked his way down the Nile, reaching Cairo in 1773. Of course what he had discovered was merely the source of the Blue Nile, and even this had been previously visited by a Portuguese traveller named Payz. But the interesting adventures which he experienced, and the interesting style in which he told them, aroused universal attention, which was perhaps increased by the fact that his journey was undertaken purely from love of adventure and discovery. The year 1768 is distinguished by the two journeys of James Cook and James Bruce, both of them expressly for purposes of geographical discovery, and thus inaugurating the era of what may be called scientific exploration. Ten years later an association was formed named the African Association, expressly intended to explore the unknown parts of Africa, and the first geographical society called into existence. In 1795 MUNGO PARK was despatched by the Association to the west coast. He started from the Gambia, and after many adventures, in which he was captured by the Moors, arrived at the banks of the Niger, which he traced along its middle course, but failed to reach as far as Timbuctoo. He made a second attempt in 1805, hoping by sailing down the Niger to prove its identity with the river known at its mouth as the Congo; but he was forced to return, and died at Boussa, without having determined the remaining course of the Niger. Attention was thus drawn to the existence of the mysterious city of Timbuctoo, of which Mungo Park had brought back curious rumours on his return from his first journey. This was visited in 1811 by a British seaman named Adams, who had been wrecked on the Moorish coast, and taken as a slave by the Moors across to Timbuctoo. He was ultimately ransomed by the British consul at Mogador, and his account revived interest in West African exploration. Attempts were made to penetrate the secret of the Niger, both from Senegambia and from the Congo, but both were failures, and a fresh method was adopted, possibly owing to Adams' experience in the attempt to reach the Niger by the caravan routes across the Sahara. In 1822 Major Denham and Lieutenant Clapperton left Murzouk, the capital of Fezzan, and made their way to Lake Chad and thence to Bornu. Clapperton, later on, again visited the Niger from Benin. Altogether these two travellers added some two thousand miles of route to our knowledge of, West Africa. In 1826-27 Timbuctoo was at last visited by two Europeans--Major Laing in the former year, who was murdered there; and a young Frenchman, Réné Caillié, in the latter. His account aroused great interest, and Tennyson began his poetic career by a prize-poem on the subject of the mysterious African capital. It was not till 1850 that the work of Denham and Clapperton was again taken up by Barth, who for five years explored the whole country to the west of Lake Chad, visiting Timbuctoo, and connecting the lines of route of Clapperton and Caillié. What he did for the west of Lake Chad was accomplished by Nachtigall east of that lake in Darfur and Wadai, in a journey which likewise took five years (1869-74). Of recent years political interests have caused numerous expeditions, especially by the French to connect their possessions in Algeria and Tunis with those on the Gold Coast and on the Senegal. The next stage in African exploration is connected with the name of the man to whom can be traced practically the whole of recent discoveries. By his tact in dealing with the natives, by his calm pertinacity and dauntless courage, DAVID LIVINGSTONE succeeded in opening up the entirely unknown districts of Central Africa. Starting from the Cape in 1849, he worked his way northward to the Zambesi, and then to Lake Dilolo, and after five years' wandering reached the western coast of Africa at Loanda. Then retracing his steps to the Zambesi again, he followed its course to its mouth on the east coast, thus for the first time crossing Africa from west to east. In a second journey, on which he started in 1858, he commenced tracing the course of the river Shiré, the most important affluent of the Zambesi, and in so doing arrived on the shores of Lake Nyassa in September 1859. Meanwhile two explorers, Captain (afterwards Sir Richard) Burton and Captain Speke, had started from Zanzibar to discover a lake of which rumours had for a long time been heard, and in the following year succeeded in reaching Lake Tanganyika. On their return Speke parted from Burton and took a route more to the north, from which he saw another great lake, which afterwards turned out to be the Victoria Nyanza. In 1860, with another companion (Captain Grant), Speke returned to the Victoria Nyanza, and traced out its course. On the north of it they found a great river trending to the north, which they followed as far as Gondokoro. Here they found Mr. (afterwards Sir Samuel) Baker, who had travelled up the White Nile to investigate its source, which they thus proved to be in the Lake Victoria Nyanza. Baker continued his search, and succeeded in showing that another source of the Nile was to be found in a smaller lake to the west, which he named Albert Nyanza. Thus these three Englishmen had combined to solve the long-sought problem of the sources of the Nile. The discoveries of the Englishmen were soon followed up by important political action by the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, who claimed the whole course of the Nile as part of his dominions, and established stations all along it. This, of course, led to full information about the basin of the Nile being acquired for geographical purposes, and, under Sir Samuel Baker and Colonel Gordon, civilisation was for a time in possession of the Nile from its source to its mouth. Meanwhile Livingstone had set himself to solve the problem of the great Lake Tanganyika, and started on his last journey in 1865 for that purpose. He discovered Lakes Moero and Bangweolo, and the river Nyangoue, also known as Lualaba. So much interest had been aroused by Livingstone's previous exploits of discovery, that when nothing had been heard of him for some time, in 1869 Mr. H. M. Stanley was sent by the proprietors of the _New York Herald_, for whom he had previously acted as war-correspondent, to find Livingstone. He started in 1871 from Zanzibar, and before the end of the year had come across a white man in the heart of the Dark Continent, and greeted him with the historic query, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Two years later Livingstone died, a martyr to geographical and missionary enthusiasm. His work was taken up by Mr. Stanley, who in 1876 was again despatched to continue Livingstone's work, and succeeded in crossing the Dark Continent from Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo, the whole course of which he traced, proving that the Lualaba or Nyangoue were merely different names or affluents of this mighty stream. Stanley's remarkable journey completed the rough outline of African geography by defining the course of the fourth great river of the continent. But Stanley's journey across the Dark Continent was destined to be the starting-point of an entirely new development of the African problem. Even while Stanley was on his journey a conference had been assembled at Brussels by King Leopold, in which an international committee was formed representing all the nations of Europe, nominally for the exploration of Africa, but, as it turned out, really for its partition among the European powers. Within fifteen years of the assembly of the conference the interior of Africa had been parcelled out, mainly among the five powers, England, France, Germany, Portugal, and Belgium. As in the case of America, geographical discovery was soon followed by political division. [Illustration: EXPLORATION AND PARTITION OF AFRICA.] The process began by the carving out of a state covering the whole of the newly-discovered Congo, nominally independent, but really forming a colony of Belgium, King Leopold supplying the funds for that purpose. Mr. Stanley was despatched in 1879 to establish stations along the lower course of the river, but, to his surprise, he found that he had been anticipated by M. de Brazza, a Portuguese in the service of France, who had been despatched on a secret mission to anticipate the King of the Belgians in seizing the important river mouth. At the same time Portugal put in claims for possession of the Congo mouth, and it became clear that international rivalries would interfere with the foundation of any state on the Congo unless some definite international arrangement was arrived at. Almost about the same time, in 1880, Germany began to enter the field as a colonising power in Africa. In South-West Africa and in the Cameroons, and somewhat later in Zanzibar, claims were set up on behalf of Germany by Prince Bismarck which conflicted with English interests in those districts, and under his presidency a Congress was held at Berlin in the winter of 1884-85 to determine the rules of the claims by which Africa could be partitioned. The old historic claims of Portugal to the coast of Africa, on which she had established stations both on the west and eastern side, were swept away by the principle that only effective occupation could furnish a claim of sovereignty. This great principle will rule henceforth the whole course of African history; in other words, the good old Border rule-- "That they should take who have the power. And they should keep who can." Almost immediately after the sitting of the Berlin Congress, and indeed during it, arrangements were come to by which the respective claims of England and Germany in South-West Africa were definitely determined. Almost immediately afterwards a similar process had to be gone through in order to determine the limits of the respective "spheres of influence," as they began to be called, of Germany and England in East Africa. A Chartered Company, called the British East Africa Association, was to administer the land north of Victoria Nyanza bounded on the west by the Congo Free State, while to the north it extended till it touched the revolted provinces of Egypt, of which we shall soon speak. In South Africa a similar Chartered Company, under the influence of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, practically controlled the whole country from Cape Colony up to German East Africa and the Congo Free State. The winter of 1890-91 was especially productive of agreements of demarcation. After a considerable amount of friction owing to the encroachments of Major Serpa Pinto, the limits of Portuguese Angola on the west coast were then determined, being bounded on the east by the Congo Free State and British Central Africa; and at the same time Portuguese East Africa was settled in its relation both to British Central Africa on the west and German East Africa on the north. Meanwhile Italy had put in its claims for a share in the spoil, and the eastern horn of Africa, together with Abyssinia, fell to its share, though it soon had to drop it, owing to the unexpected vitality shown by the Abyssinians. In the same year (1890) agreements between Germany and England settled the line of demarcation between the Cameroons and Togoland, with the adjoining British territories; while in August of the same year an attempt was made to limit the abnormal pretensions of the French along the Niger, and as far as Lake Chad. Here the British interests were represented by another Chartered Company, the Royal Niger Company. Unfortunately the delimitation was not very definite, not being by river courses or meridians as in other cases, but merely by territories ruled over by native chiefs, whose boundaries were not then particularly distinct. This has led to considerable friction, lasting even up to the present day; and it is only with reference to the demarcation between England and France in Africa that any doubt still remains with regard to the western and central portions of the continent. Towards the north-east the problem of delimitation had been complicated by political events, which ultimately led to another great exploring expedition by Mr. Stanley. The extension of Egypt into the Equatorial Provinces under Ismail Pasha, due in large measure to the geographical discoveries of Grant, Speke, and Baker, led to an enormous accumulation of debt, which caused the country to become bankrupt, Ismail Pasha to be deposed, and Egypt to be administered jointly by France and England on behalf of the European bondholders. This caused much dissatisfaction on the part of the Egyptian officials and army officers, who were displaced by French and English officials; and a rebellion broke out under Arabi Pasha. This led to the armed intervention of England, France having refused to co-operate, and Egypt was occupied by British troops. The Soudan and Equatorial Provinces had independently revolted under Mohammedan fanaticism, and it was determined to relinquish those Egyptian possessions, which had originally led to bankruptcy. General Gordon was despatched to relieve the various Egyptian garrisons in the south, but being without support, ultimately failed, and was killed in 1885. One of Gordon's lieutenants, a German named Schnitzler, who appears to have adopted Mohammedanism, and was known as Emin Pasha, was thus isolated in the midst of Africa near the Albert Nyanza, and Mr. Stanley was commissioned to attempt his rescue in 1887. He started to march through the Congo State, and succeeded in traversing a huge tract of forest country inhabited by diminutive savages, who probably represented the Pigmies of the ancients. He succeeded in reaching Emin Pasha, and after much persuasion induced him to accompany him to Zanzibar, only, however, to return as a German agent to the Albert Nyanza. Mr. Stanley's journey on this occasion was not without its political aspects, since he made arrangements during the eastern part of his journey for securing British influence for the lands afterwards handed over to the British East Africa Company. All these political delimitations were naturally accompanied by explorations, partly scientific, but mainly political. Major Serpa Pinto twice crossed Africa in an attempt to connect the Portuguese settlements on the two coasts. Similarly, Lieutenant Wissmann also crossed Africa twice, between 1881 and 1887, in the interests of the Congo State, though he ultimately became an official of his native country, Germany. Captain Lugard had investigated the region between the three Lakes Nyanza, and secured it for Great Britain. In South Africa British claims were successfully and successively advanced to Bechuana-land, Mashona-land, and Matabele-land, and, under the leadership of Mr. Cecil Rhodes, a railway and telegraph were rapidly pushed forward towards the north. Owing to the enterprise of Mr. (now Sir H. H.) Johnstone, the British possessions were in 1891 pushed up as far as Nyassa-land. By that date, as we have seen, various treaties with Germany and Portugal had definitely fixed the contour lines of the different possessions of the three countries in South Africa. By 1891 the interior of Africa, which had up to 1880 been practically a blank, could be mapped out almost with as much accuracy as, at any rate, South America. Europe had taken possession of Africa. One of the chief results of this, and formally one of its main motives, was the abolition of the slave trade. North Africa has been Mohammedan since the eighth century, and Islam has always recognised slavery, consequently the Arabs of the north have continued to make raids upon the negroes of Central Africa, to supply the Mohammedan countries of West Asia and North Africa with slaves. The Mahdist rebellion was in part at least a reaction against the abolition of slavery by Egypt, and the interest of the next few years will consist in the last stand of the slave merchants in the Soudan, in Darfur, and in Wadai, east of Lake Chad, where the only powerful independent Mohammedan Sultanate still exists. England is closely pressing upon the revolted provinces, along the upper course of the Nile; while France is attempting, by expeditions from the French Congo and through Abyssinia, to take possession of the Upper Nile before England conquers it. The race for the Upper Nile is at present one of the sources of danger of European war. While exploration and conquest have either gone hand in hand, or succeeded one another very closely, there has been a third motive that has often led to interesting discoveries, to be followed by annexation. The mighty hunters of Africa have often brought back, not alone ivory and skins, but also interesting information of the interior. The gorgeous narratives of Gordon Cumming in the "fifties" were one of the causes which led to an interest in African exploration. Many a lad has had his imagination fired and his career determined by the exploits of Gordon Cumming, which are now, however, almost forgotten. Mr. F. C. Selous has in our time surpassed even Gordon Cumming's exploits, and has besides done excellent work as guide for the successive expeditions into South Africa. Thus, practically within our own time, the interior of Africa, where once geographers, as the poet Butler puts it, "placed elephants instead of towns," has become known, in its main outlines, by successive series of intrepid explorers, who have often had to be warriors as well as scientific men. Whatever the motives that have led the white man into the centre of the Dark Continent--love of adventure, scientific curiosity, big game, or patriotism--the result has been that the continent has become known instead of merely its coast-line. On the whole, English exploration has been the main means by which our knowledge of the interior of Africa has been obtained, and England has been richly rewarded by coming into possession of the most promising parts of the continent--the Nile valley and temperate South Africa. But France has also gained a huge extent of country covering almost the whole of North-West Africa. While much of this is merely desert, there are caravan routes which tap the basin of the Niger and conduct its products to Algeria, conquered by France early in the century, and to Tunis, more recently appropriated. The West African provinces of France have, at any rate, this advantage, that they are nearer to the mother-country than any other colony of a European power; and the result may be that African soldiers may one of these days fight for France on European soil, just as the Indian soldiers were imported to Cyprus by Lord Beaconsfield in 1876. Meanwhile, the result of all this international ambition has been that Africa in its entirety is now known and accessible to European civilisation. [_Authorities:_ Kiepert, _Beiträge zur Entdeckungsgeschichte Afrikas_, 1873; Brown, _The Story of Africa_, 4 vols., 1894; Scott Keltie, _The Partition of Africa_, 1896.] CHAPTER XII THE POLES--FRANKLIN--ROSS--NORDENSKIOLD--NANSEN Almost the whole of the explorations which we have hitherto described or referred to had for their motive some practical purpose, whether to reach the Spice Islands or to hunt big game. Even the excursions of Davis, Frobisher, Hudson, and Baffin in pursuit of the north-west passage, and of Barentz and Chancellor in search of the north-east passage, were really in pursuit of mercantile ends. It is only with James Cook that the era of purely scientific exploration begins, though it is fair to qualify this statement by observing that the Russian expedition under Behring, already referred to, was ordered by Peter the Great to determine a strictly geographical problem, though doubtless it had its bearings on Russian ambitions. Behring and Cook between them, as we have seen, settled the problem of the relations existing between the ends of the two continents Asia and America, but what remained still to the north of _terra firma_ within the Arctic Circle? That was the problem which the nineteenth century set itself to solve, and has very nearly succeeded in the solution. For the Arctic Circle we now possess maps that only show blanks over a few thousand square miles. This knowledge has been gained by slow degrees, and by the exercise of the most heroic courage and endurance. It is a heroic tate, in which love of adventure and zeal for science have combated with and conquered the horrors of an Arctic winter, the six months' darkness in silence and desolation, the excessive cold, and the dangers of starvation. It is impossible here to go into any of the details which rendered the tale of Arctic voyages one of the most stirring in human history. All we are concerned with here is the amount of new knowledge brought back by successive expeditions within the Arctic Circle. This region of the earth's surface is distinguished by a number of large islands in the eastern hemisphere, most of which were discovered at an early date. We have seen how the Norsemen landed and settled upon Greenland as early as the tenth century. Burrough sighted Nova Zembla in 1556; in one of the voyages in search of the north-east passage, though the very name (Russian for Newfoundland) implies that it had previously been sighted and named by Russian seamen. Barentz is credited with having sighted Spitzbergen. The numerous islands to the north of Siberia became known through the Russian investigations of Discheneff, Behring, and their followers; while the intricate network of islands to the north of the continent of North America had been slowly worked out during the search for the north-west passage. It was indeed in pursuit of this will-of-the-wisp that most of the discoveries in the Arctic Circle were made, and a general impetus given to Arctic exploration. It is with a renewed attempt after this search that the modern history of Arctic exploration begins. In 1818 two expeditions were sent under the influence of Sir Joseph Banks to search the north-west passage, and to attempt to reach the Pole. The former was the objective of John Ross in the _Isabella_ and W. E. Parry in the _Alexander_, while in the Polar exploration John Franklin sailed in the _Trent_. Both expeditions were unsuccessful, though Ross and Parry confirmed Baffin's discoveries. Notwithstanding this, two expeditions were sent two years later to attempt the north-west passage, one by land under Franklin, and the other by sea under Parry. Parry managed to get half-way across the top of North America, discovered the archipelago named after him, and reached 114° West longitude, thereby gaining the prize of £5000 given by the British Parliament for the first seaman that sailed west of the 110th meridian. He was brought up, however, by Banks Land, while the strait which, if he had known it, would have enabled him to complete the north-west passage, was at that time closed by ice. In two successive voyages, in 1822 and 1824, Parry increased the detailed knowledge of the coasts he had already discovered, but failed to reach even as far westward as he had done on his first voyage. This somewhat discouraged Government attempts at exploration, and the next expedition, in 1829, was fitted out by Mr. Felix Booth, sheriff of London, who despatched the paddle steamer _Victory_, commanded by John Ross. He discovered the land known as Boothia Felix, and his nephew, James C. Ross, proved that it belonged to the mainland of America, which he coasted along by land to Cape Franklin, besides determining the exact position of the North Magnetic Pole at Cape Adelaide, on Boothia Felix. After passing five years within the Arctic Circle, Ross and his companions, who had been compelled to abandon the _Victory_, fell in with a whaler, which brought them home. We must now revert to Franklin, who, as we have seen, had been despatched by the Admiralty to outline the north coast of America, only two points of which had been determined, the embouchures of the Coppermine and the Mackenzie, discovered respectively by Hearne and Mackenzie. It was not till 1821 that Franklin was able to start out from the mouth of the Coppermine eastward in two canoes, by which he coasted along till he came to the point named by him Point Turn-again. By that time only three days' stores of pemmican remained, and it was only with the greatest difficulty, and by subsisting on lichens and scraps of roasted leather, that they managed to return to their base of operations at Fort Enterprise. Four years later, in 1825, Franklin set out on another exploring expedition with the same object, starting this time from the mouth of the Mackenzie river, and despatching one of his companions, Richardson, to connect the coast between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine; while he himself proceeded westward to meet the Blossom, which, under Captain Beechey, had been despatched to Behring Strait to bring his party back. Richardson was entirely successful in examining the coast-line between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine; but Beechey, though he succeeded in rounding Icy Cape and tracing the coast as far as Point Barrow, did not come up to Franklin, who had only got within 160 miles at Return Reef. These 160 miles, as well as the 222 miles intervening between Cape Turn-again, Franklin's easternmost point by land, and Cape Franklin, J. C. Ross's most westerly point, were afterwards filled in by T. Simpson in 1837, after a coasting voyage in boats of 1408 miles, which stands as a record even to this day. Meanwhile the Great Fish River had been discovered and followed to its mouth by C. J. Back in 1833. During the voyage down the river, an oar broke while the boat was shooting a rapid, and one of the party commenced praying in a loud voice; whereupon the leader called out: "Is this a time for praying? Pull your starboard oar!" Meanwhile, interest had been excited rather more towards the South Pole, and the land of which Cook had found traces in his search for the fabled Australian continent surrounding it. He had reached as far south as 71.10°, when he was brought up by the great ice barrier. In 1820-23 Weddell visited the South Shetlands, south of Cape Horn, and found an active volcano, even amidst the extreme cold of that district. He reached as far south as 74°, but failed to come across land in that district. In 1839 Bellany discovered the islands named after him, with a volcano twelve thousand feet high, and another still active on Buckle Island. In 1839 a French expedition under Dumont d'Urville again visited and explored the South Shetlands; while, in the following year, Captain Wilkes, of the United States navy, discovered the land named after him. But the most remarkable discovery made in Antarctica was that of Sir J. C. Ross, who had been sent by the Admiralty in 1840 to identify the South Magnetic Pole, as we have seen he had discovered that of the north. With the two ships _Erebus_ and _Terror_ he discovered Victoria Land and the two active volcanoes named after his ships, and pouring forth flaming lava, amidst the snow. In January 1842 he reached farthest south, 76°. Since his time little has been attempted in the south, though in the winter of 1894-95 C. E. Borchgrevink again visited Victoria Land. [Illustration: NORTH POLAR REGION--WESTERN HALF.] On the return of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ from the South Seas the government placed these two vessels at the disposal of Franklin (who had been knighted for his previous discoveries), and on the 26th of May 1845 he started with one hundred and twenty-nine souls on board the two vessels, which were provisioned up to July 1848. They were last seen by a whaler on the 26th July of the former year waiting to pass into Lancaster Sound. After penetrating as far north as 77°, through Wellington Channel, Franklin was obliged to winter upon Beechey Island, and in the following year (September 1846) his two ships were beset in Victoria Strait, about twelve miles from King William Land. Curiously enough, in the following year (1847) J. Rae had been despatched by land from Cape Repulse in Hudson's Bay, and had coasted along the east coast of Boothia, thus connecting Ross's and Franklin's coast journeys with Hudson's Bay. On 18th April 1847 Rae had reached a point on Boothia less than 150 miles from Franklin on the other side of it. Less than two months later, on the 11th June, Franklin died on the _Erebus_. His ships were only provisioned to July 1848, and remained still beset throughout the whole of 1847. Crozier, upon whom the command devolved, left the ship with one hundred and five survivors to try and reach Back's Fish River. They struggled along the west coast of King William Land, but failed to reach their destination; disease, and even starvation, gradually lessened their numbers. An old Eskimo woman, who had watched the melancholy procession, afterwards told M'Clintock they fell down and died as they walked. By this time considerable anxiety had been roused by the absence of any news from Franklin's party. Richardson and Rae were despatched by land in 1848, while two ships were sent on the attempt to reach Franklin through Behring Strait, and two others, the _Investigator_ and the _Enterprise_, under J. C. Ross, through Baffin Bay. Rae reached the east coast of Victoria Land, and arrived within fifty miles of the spot where Franklin's two ships had been abandoned; but it was not till his second expedition by land, which started in 1853, that he obtained any news. After wintering at Lady Pelly Bay, on the 20th April 1854 Rae met a young Eskimo, who told him that four years previously forty white men had been seen dragging a boat to the south on the west shore of King William Land, and a few months later the bodies of thirty of these men had been found by the Eskimo, who produced silver with the Franklin crest to confirm the truth of their statement. Further searches by land were continued up to as late as 1879, when Lieutenant F. Schwatka, of the United States army, discovered several of the graves and skeletons of the Franklin expedition. Neither of the two attempts by sea from the Atlantic or from the Pacific base, in 1848, having succeeded in gaining any news, the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, which had previously attempted to reach Franklin from the east, were despatched in 1850, under Captain R. Collinson and Captain M'Clure; to attempt the search from the west through Behring Strait. M'Clure, in the _Investigator_, did not wait for Collinson, as he had been directed, but pushed on and discovered Banks Land, and became beset in the ice in Prince of Wales Strait. In the winter of 1850-51 he endeavoured unsuccessfully to work his way from this strait into Parry Sound, but in August and September 1851 managed to coast round Banks Land to its most north-westerly point, and then succeeded in passing through the strait named after M'Clure, and reached Barrow Strait, thus performing for the first time the north-west passage, though it was not till 1853 that the _Investigator_ was abandoned. Collinson, in the _Enterprise_, followed M'Clure closely, though never reaching him, and attempting to round Prince Albert Land by the south through Dolphin Strait, reached Cambridge Bay at the nearest point by ship of all the Franklin expeditions. He had to return westward, and only reached England in 1855, after an absence of five years and four months. From the east no less than ten vessels had attempted the Franklin sea search in 1851, comprising two Admiralty expeditions, one private English one, an American combined government and private party, together with a ship put in commission by the wifely devotion of Lady Franklin. These all attempted the search of Lancaster Sound, where Franklin had last been seen, and they only succeeded in finding three graves of men who had died at an early stage, and had been buried on Beechey Island. Another set of four vessels were despatched under Sir Edward Belcher in 1852, who were fortunate enough to reach M'Clure in the _Investigator_ in the following year, and enabled him to complete the north-west passage, for which he gained the reward of £10,000 offered by Parliament in 1763. But Belcher was obliged to abandon most of his vessels, one of which, the _Resolute_, drifted over a thousand miles, and having been recovered by an American whaler, was refitted by the United States and presented to the queen and people of Great Britain. Notwithstanding all these efforts, the Franklin remains have not yet been discovered, though Dr. Rae, as we have seen, had practically ascertained their terrible fate. Lady Franklin, however, was not satisfied with this vague information. She was determined to fit out still another expedition, though already over £35,000 had been spent by private means, mostly from her own personal fortune; and in 1857 the steam yacht _Fox_ was despatched under M'Clintock, who had already shown himself the most capable master of sledge work. He erected a monument to the Franklin expedition on Beechey Island in 1858, and then following Peel Sound, he made inquiries of the natives throughout the winter of 1858-59. This led him to search King William Land, where, on the 25th May, he came across a bleached human skeleton lying on its face, showing that the man had died as he walked. Meanwhile, Hobson, one of his companions, discovered a record of the Franklin expedition, stating briefly its history between 1845 and 1848; and with this definite information of the fate of the Franklin expedition M'Clintock returned to England in 1859, having succeeded in solving the problem of Franklin's fate, while exploring over 800 miles of coast-line in the neighbourhood of King William Land. The result of the various Franklin expeditions had thus been to map out the intricate network of islands dotted over the north of North America. None of these, however, reached much farther north than 75°. Only Smith Sound promised to lead north of the 80th parallel. This had been discovered as early as 1616 by Baffin, whose farthest north was only exceeded by forty miles, in 1852, by Inglefield in the _Isabel_, one of the ships despatched in search of Franklin. He was followed up by Kane in the _Advance_, fitted out in 1853 by the munificence of two American citizens, Grinnell and Peabody. Kane worked his way right through Smith Sound and Robeson Channel into the sea named after him. For two years he continued investigating Grinnell Land and the adjacent shores of Greenland. Subsequent investigations by Hayes in 1860, and Hall ten years later, kept alive the interest in Smith Sound and its neighbourhood; and in 1873 three ships were despatched under Captain (afterwards Sir George) Nares, who nearly completed the survey of Grinnell Land, and one of his lieutenants, Pelham Aldrich, succeeded in reaching 82.48° N. About the same time, an Austrian expedition under Payer and Weyprecht explored the highest known land, much to the east, named by them Franz Josef Land, after the Austrian Emperor. [Illustration: NORTH POLAR REGION--EASTERN HALF.] Simultaneously interest in the northern regions was aroused by the successful exploit of the north-east passage by Professor (afterwards Baron) Nordenskiold, who had made seven or eight voyages in Arctic regions between 1858 and 1870. He first established the possibility of passing from Norway to the mouth of the Yenesei in the summer, making two journeys in 1875-76. These have since been followed up for commercial purposes by Captain Wiggins, who has frequently passed from England to the mouth of the Yenesei in a merchant vessel. As Siberia develops there can be little doubt that this route will become of increasing commercial importance. Professor Nordenskiold, however, encouraged by his easy passage to the Yenesei, determined to try to get round into Behring Strait from that point, and in 1878 he started in the _Vega_, accompanied by the _Lena_, and a collier to supply them with coal. On the 19th August they passed Cape Chelyuskin, the most northerly point of the Old World. From here the _Lena_ appropriately turned its course to the mouth of its namesake, while the _Vega_ proceeded on her course, reaching on the 12th September Cape North, within 120 miles of Behring Strait; this cape Cook had reached from the east in 1778. Unfortunately the ice became packed so closely that they could not proceed farther, and they had to remain in this tantalising condition for no less than ten months. On the 18th July 1879 the ice broke up, and two days later the _Vega_ rounded East Cape with flying colours, saluting the easternmost coast of Asia in honour of the completion of the north-east passage. Baron Nordenskiold has since enjoyed a well-earned leisure from his arduous labours in the north by studying and publishing the history of early cartography, on which he has issued two valuable atlases, containing fac-similes of the maps and charts of the Middle Ages. General interest thus re-aroused in Arctic exploration brought about a united effort of all the civilised nations to investigate the conditions of the Polar regions. An international Polar Conference was held at Hamburg in 1879, at which it was determined to surround the North Pole for the years 1882-83 by stations of scientific observation, intended to study the conditions of the Polar Ocean. No less than fifteen expeditions were sent forth; some to the Antarctic regions, but most of them round the North Pole. Their object was more to subserve the interest of physical geography than to promote the interest of geographical discovery; but one of the expeditions, that of the United States under Lieutenant A. W. Greely, again took up the study of Smith Sound and its outlets, and one of his men, Lieutenant Lockwood, succeeded in reaching 83.24° N., within 450 miles of the Pole, and up to that time the farthest north reached by any human being. The Greely expedition also succeeded in showing that Greenland was not so much ice-capped as ice-surrounded. Hitherto the universal method by which discoveries had been made in the Polar regions was to establish a base at which sufficient food was cached, then to push in any required direction as far as possible, leaving successive caches to be returned to when provisions fell short on the forward journey. But in 1888, Dr. Fridjof Nansen determined on a bolder method of investigating the interior of Greenland. He was deposited upon the east coast, where there were no inhabitants, and started to cross Greenland, his life depending upon the success of his journey, since he left no reserves in the rear and it would be useless to return. He succeeded brilliantly in his attempt, and his exploit was followed up by two successive attempts of Lieutenant Peary in 1892-95, who succeeded in crossing Greenland at much higher latitude even than Nansen. [Illustration: CLIMBING THE NORTH POLE] The success of his bold plan encouraged Dr. Nansen to attempt an even bolder one. He had become convinced, from the investigations conducted by the international Polar observations of 1882-83, that there was a continuous drift of the ice across the Arctic Ocean from the north-east shore of Siberia. He was confirmed in this opinion, by the fact that debris from the _Jeannette_, a ship abandoned in 1881 off the Siberian coast, drifted across to the east coast of Greenland by 1884. He had a vessel built for him, the now-renowned _Fram_, especially intended to resist the pressure of the ice. Hitherto it had been the chief aim of Arctic explorations to avoid besetment, and to try and creep round the land shores. Dr. Nansen was convinced that he could best attain his ends by boldly disregarding these canons and trusting to the drift of the ice to carry him near to the Pole. He reckoned that the drift would take some three years, and provisioned the _Fram_ for five. The results of his venturous voyage confirmed in almost every particular his remarkable plan, though it was much scouted in many quarters when first announced. The drift of the ice carried him across the Polar Sea within the three years he had fixed upon for the probable duration of his journey; but finding that the drift would not carry him far enough north, he left the _Fram_ with a companion, and advanced straight towards the Pole, reaching in April 1895 farthest north, 86.14°, within nearly 200 miles of the Pole. On his return journey he was lucky enough to come across Mr. F. Jackson, who in the _Windward_ had established himself in 1894 in Franz Josef Land. The rencontre of the two intrepid explorers forms an apt parallel of the celebrated encounter of Stanley and Livingstone, amidst entirely opposite conditions of climate. Nansen's voyage is for the present the final achievement of Arctic exploration, but his Greenland method of deserting his base has been followed by Andrée, who in the autumn of 1897 started in a balloon for the Pole, provisioned for a long stay in the Arctic regions. Nothing has been heard of him for the last twelve months, but after the example of Dr. Nansen there is no reason to fear just at present for his safety, and the present year may possibly see his return after a successful carrying out of one of the great aims of geographical discovery. It is curious that the attention of the world should be at the present moment directed to the Arctic regions for the two most opposite motives that can be named, lust for gold and the thirst for knowledge and honour. [_Authorities:_ Greely, _Handbook of Arctic Discoveries_, 1896.] ANNALS OF DISCOVERY B.C. _cir._ 600. Marseilles founded. 570. Anaximander of Miletus invents maps and the gnomon. 501. Hecatæus of Miletus writes the first geography. 450. Himilco the Carthaginian said to have visited Britain. 446. Herodotus describes Egypt and Scythia. _cir._ 450. Hanno the Carthaginian sails down the west coast of Africa as far as Sierra Leone. _cir._ 333. Pytheas visits Britain and the Low Countries. 332. Alexander conquers Persia and visits India. 330. Nearchus sails from the Indus to the Arabian Gulf. _cir._ 300. Megasthenes describes the Punjab. _cir._ 200. Eratosthenes founds scientific geography. 100. Marinus of Tyre, founder of mathematical geography. 60-54. Cæsar conquers Gaul; visits Britain, Switzerland, and Germany. 20. Strabo describes the Roman Empire. First mention of Thule and Ireland. _bef._ 12. Agrippa compiles a _Mappa Mundi_, the foundation of all succeeding ones. A.D. 150. Ptolemy publishes his geography. 230. The Peutinger Table pictures the Roman roads. 400-14. Fa-hien travels through and describes Afghanistan and India. 499. Hoei-Sin said to have visited the kingdom of Fu-sang, 20,000 furlongs east of China (identified by some with California). 518-21. Hoei-Sing and Sung-Yun visit and describe the Pamirs and the Punjab. 540. Cosmas Indicopleustes visits India, and combats the sphericity of the globe. 629-46. Hiouen-Tshang travels through Turkestan, Afghanistan, India, and the Pamirs. 671-95. I-tsing travels through and describes Java, Sumatra, and India. 776. The _Mappa Mundi_ of Beatus. 851-916. Suláimán and Abu Zaid visit China. 861. Naddod discovers Iceland. 884. Ibn Khordadbeh describes the trade routes between Europe and Asia. _cir._ 890. Wulfstan and athere sail to the Baltic and the North Cape. _cir._ 900. Gunbiörn discovers Greenland. 912-30. The geographer Mas'udi describes the lands of Islam, from Spain to Further India, in his "Meadows of Gold." 921. Ahmed Ibn Fozlan describes the Russians. 969. Ibn Haukal composes his book on Ways. 985. Eric the Red colonises Greenland. _cir._1000. Lyef, son of Eric the Red, discovers Newfoundland (Helluland), Nova Scotia (Markland), and the mainland of North America (Vinland). 1111. Earliest use of the water-compass by Chinese. 1154. Edrisi, geographer to King Roger of Sicily, produces his geography. 1159-73. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the Persian Gulf; reported on India. _cir._1180. The compass first mentioned by Alexander Neckam. 1255. William Ruysbroek (Rubruquis), a Fleming, visits Karakorum. 1260-71. The brothers Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, father and uncle of Marco Polo, make their first trading venture through Central Asia. 1271-95. They make their second journey, accompanied by Marco Polo; and about 1275 arrived at the Court of Kublai Khan in Shangfu, whence Marco Polo was entrusted with several missions to Cochin China, Khanbalig (Pekin), and the Indian Seas. 1280. Hereford map of Richard of Haldingham. 1284. The Ebstorf _Mappa Mundi_. _bef._1290. The normal Portulano compiled in Barcelona. 1292. Friar John of Monte Corvino, travels in India, and afterwards becomes Archbishop of Pekin. 1325-78. Ibn Batuta, an Arab of Tangier, after performing the Mecca pilgrimage through N. Africa, visits Syria, Quiloa (E. Africa), Ormuz, S. Russia, Bulgaria, Khiva, Candahar, and attached himself to the Court of Delhi, 1334-42, whence he was despatched on an embassy to China. After his return he visited Timbuctoo. 1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone, a Minorite friar, travelled through India, by way of Persia, Bombay, and Surat, to Malabar, the Coromandel coast, and thence to China and Tibet. 1320. Flavio Gioja of Amalfi invents the compass box and card. 1312-31. Abulfeda composes his geography. 1327-72. Sir John Mandeville said to have written his travels in India. 1328. Friar Jordanus of Severac. Bishop of Quilon. 1328-49. John de Marignolli, a Franciscan friar, made a mission to China, visited Quilon in 1347, and made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas in India in 1349. 1339. Angelico Dulcert of Majorca draws a Portulano. 1351. The Medicean Portulano compiled. 1375. Cresquez, the Jew, of Majorca, improves Dulcert's Portulano (Catalan map). _cir._1400. Jehan Bethencourt re-discovers the Canaries. 1419. Prince Henry the Navigator establishes a geographical seminary at Sagres (died 1460). 1419-40. Nicolo Conti, a noble Venetian, travelled throughout Southern India and along the Bombay coast. 1420. Zarco discovers Madeira. 1432. Gonsalo Cabral re-discovers the Azores. 1442. Nuño Tristão reaches Cape de Verde. 1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak, during an embassy to India, visited Calicut, Mangalore, and Vijayanagar. 1457. Fra Mauro's map. 1462. Pedro de Cintra reaches Sierra Leone. 1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin, a Russian, travelled from the Volga, through Central Asia and Persia, to Gujerat, Cambay, and Chaul, whence he proceeded inland to Bidar and Golconda. 1471. Fernando Poo discovers his island. 1471. Pedro d'Escobar crosses the line. 1474. Toscanelli's map (foundation of Behaim globe and Columbus' guide). 1478. Second printed edition of Ptolemy, with twenty-seven maps--practically the first atlas. 1484. Diego Cam discovers the Congo. 1486. Bartholomew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope. 1487. Pedro de Covilham visits Ormuz, Goa, and Malabar, and afterwards settled in Abyssinia. 1492. Martin Behaim makes his globe. 1492. 6th September. Columbus starts from the Canaries. 1492. 12th October. Columbus lands at San Salvador (Watling Island). 1493. 3rd May. Bull of partition between Spain and Portugal issued by Pope Alexander VI. 1493. September. Columbus on his second voyage discovers Jamaica. 1494-99. Hieronimo di Santo Stefano, a Genoese, visited Malabar and the Coromandel coast, Ceylon and Pegu. 1497. Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape, sees Natal (Christmas Day) and Mozambique, lands at Zanzibar, and crosses to Calicut. 1497. John Cabot re-discovers Newfoundland. 1498. Columbus on his third voyage discovers Trinidad and the Orinoco. 1499. Amerigo Vespucci discovers Venezuela. 1499. Pinzon discovers mouth of Amazon, and doubles Cape St. Roque. 1500. Pedro Cabral discovers Brazil on his way to Calicut. 1500. First map of the New World, by Juan de la Cosa. 1500. Corte Real lands at mouth of St. Lawrence, and re-discovers Labrador. 1501. Vespucci coasts down S. America and proves that it is a New World. 1501. Tristan d'Acunha discovers his island. 1501. Juan di Nova discovers the island of Ascension. 1502. Bermudez discovers his islands. 1502-4. Columbus on his fourth voyage explores Honduras. 1503-8. Travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Further India. 1505. Mascarenhas discovers the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius. 1507. Martin Waldseemüller proposes to call the New World America in his _Cosmographia_. 1509. Malacca visited by Lopes di Sequira. 1512. Molucca, or Spice Islands, visited by Francisco Serrão. 1513. Strasburg Ptolemy contains twenty new maps by Waldseemüller, forming the first modern atlas. 1513. Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. 1513. Vasco Nuñez de Balbao crosses the Isthmus of Panama, and sees the Pacific. 1517. Sebastian Cabot said to have discovered Hudson's Bay. 1517. Juan Diaz de Solis discovers the Rio de la Plata, and is murdered on the island of Martin Garcia. 1518. Grijalva discovers Mexico. 1519. Fernando Cortez conquers Mexico. 1519. Fernando Magellan starts on the circumnavigation of the globe. 1519. Guray explores north coast of Gulf of Mexico. 1520. Schoner's second globe. 1520. Magellan sees Monte Video, discovers Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and traverses the Pacific. 1520-26. Alvarez explores the Soudan. 1521. Magellan discovers the Ladrones (Marianas), and is killed on the Philippines. 1522. Magellan's ship _Victoria_, under Sebastian del Cano, reaches Spain, having circumnavigated the globe in three years. 1524. Verazzano, on behalf of the French King, coasts from Cape Fear to New Hampshire. 1527. Saavedra sails from west coast of Mexico to the Moluccas. 1529. Line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese fixed at 17° east of Moluccas. 1531. Francisco Pizarro conquers Peru. 1532. Cortez visits California. 1534. Jacques Cartier explores the gull and river of St. Lawrence. 1535. Diego d'Almagro conquers Chili. 1536. Gonsalo Pizarro passes the Andes. 1537-58. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto travels to Abyssinia, India, the Malay Archipelago, China, and Japan. 1538. Gerhardt Mercator begins his career as geographer. (Globe, 1541; projection, 1569; died 1594; atlas, 1595). 1539. Francesco de Ulloa explores the Gulf of California. 1541. Orellana sails down the Amazon. 1542. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos discovers New Philippines, Garden Islands, and Pelew Islands, and takes possession of the Philippines for Spain. 1542. Cabrillo advances as far as Cape Mendocino. 1542. Japan first visited by Antonio de Mota. 1542. Gaetano sees the Sandwich Islands. 1543. Ortez de Retis discovers New Guinea. 1544. Sebastian Munster's _Cosmographia_. 1549. Bareto and Homera explore the lower Zambesi. 1553. Sir Hugh Willoughby attempts the North-East Passage past North Cape, and sights Novaya Zemlya. 1554. Richard Chancellor, Willoughby's pilot, reaches Archangel, and travels overland to Moscow. 1556-72. Antonio Laperis' atlas published at Rome. 1558. Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Bokhara. 1567. Alvaro Mendaña discovers Solomon Islands. 1572. Juan Fernandez discovers his island, and St. Felix and St. Ambrose Islands. 1573. Abraham Ortelius' _Teatrum Orbis Terrarum_. 1576. Martin Frobisher discovers his bay. 1577-79. Francis Drake circumnavigates the globe, and explores the west coast of North America. 1579. Yermak Timovief seizes Sibir on the Irtish. 1580. Dutch settle in Guiana. 1586. John Davis sails through his strait, and reaches lat. 72° N. 1590. Battel visits the lower Congo. 1592. The Molyneux globe. 1592. Juan de Fuca imagines he has discovered an immense sea in the north-west of North America. 1596. William Barentz discovers Spitzbergen, and reaches lat. 80° N. 1596. Payz traverses the Horn of Africa, and visits the source of the Blue Nile. 1598. Mendaña discovers Marquesas Islands. 1598. Hakluyt publishes his _Principal Navigations_. 1599. Houtman reaches Achin, in Sumatra. 1603. Stephen Bennett re-discovers Cherry Island, 74.13° N. 1605. Louis Vaes de Torres discovers his strait. 1606. Quiros discovers Tahiti and north-east coast of Australia. 1608. Champlain discovers Lake Ontario. 1609. Henry Hudson discovers his river. 1610. Hudson passes through his strait into his bay. 1611. Jan Mayen discovers his island. 1615. Lemaire rounds Cape Horn (Hoorn), and sees New Britain. 1616. Dirk Hartog coasts West Australia to 27° S. 1616. Baffin discovers his bay. 1618. George Thompson, a Barbary merchant, sails up the Gambia. 1619. Edel and Houtman coast Western Australia to 32-1/2° S. (Edel's Land). 1622. Dutch ship _Leeuwin_ reaches south-west cape of Australia. 1623. Lobo explores Abyssinia. 1627. Peter Nuyts discovers his archipelago. 1630. First meridian of longitude fixed at Ferro, in the Canary Islands. 1631. Fox explores Hudson's Bay. 1638. W. J. Blaeu's _Atlas_. 1639. Kupiloff crosses Siberia to the east coast. 1642. Abel Jansen Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and Staaten Land (New Zealand). 1642. Wasilei Pojarkof traces the course of the Amur. 1643. Hendrik Brouwer identifies New Zealand. 1643. Tasman discovers Fiji. 1645. Michael Staduchin reaches the Kolima. 1645. Nicolas Sanson's atlas. 1645. Italian Capuchin Mission explores the lower Congo. 1648. The Cossack Dishinef sails between Asia and America. 1650. Staduchin reaches the Anadir, and meets Dishinef. 1682. La Salle descends the Mississippi. 1696. Russians reach Kamtschatka. 1699. Dampier discovers his strait. 1700. Delisle's maps. 1701. Sinpopoff describes the land of the Tschutkis. 1718. Jesuit map of China and East Asia published by the Emperor Kang-hi. 1721. Hans Egédé re-settles Greenland. 1731. Hadley invented the sextant. 1731. Krupishef sails round Kamtschatka. 1731. Paulutski travels round the north-east corner of Siberia. 1735-37. Maupertuis measures an arc of the meridian. 1739-44. Lord George Anson circumnavigates the globe. 1740. Varenne de la Véranderye discovers the Rocky Mountains. 1741. Behring discovers his strait. 1742. Chelyuskin discovers his cape. 1743-44. La Condamine explores the Amazon. 1745-61. Bourguignon d'Anville produces his maps. 1761-67. Carsten Niebuhr surveys Arabia. 1764. John Byron surveys the Falkland Islands. 1765. Harrison perfects the chronometer. 1767. First appearance of the _Nautical Almanac_. 1768. Carteret discovers Pitcairn Island, and sails through St. George's Channel, between New Britain and New Ireland. 1768-71. Cook's first voyage; discovers New Zealand and east coast of Australia; passes through Torres Strait. 1769-71. Hearne traces river Coppermine. 1769-71. James Bruce re-discovers the source of the Blue Nile in Abyssinia. 1770. Liakhoff discovers the New Siberian Islands. 1771-72. Pallas surveys West and South Siberia. 1776-79. Cook's third voyage; surveys North-West Passage; discovers Owhyhee (Hawaii), where he was killed. 1785-88. La Pérouse surveys north-east coast of Asia and Japan, discovers Saghalien, and completes delimitation of the ocean. 1785-94. Billings surveys East Siberia. 1787-88. Lesseps surveys Kamtschatka and crosses the Old World from east to west. 1788. The African Association founded. 1789-93. Mackenzie discovers his river, and first crosses North America. 1792. Vancouver explores his island. 1793. Browne reaches Darfur, and reports the existence of the White Nile. 1796. Mungo Park reaches the Niger. 1796. Lacerda explores Mozambique. 1797. Bass discovers his strait. 1799-1804. Alexander von Humboldt explores South America. 1800-4. Lewis and Clarke explore the basin of the Missouri. 1801-4. Flinders coasts south coast of Australia. 1805-7. Pike explores the country between the sources of the Mississippi and the Red River. 1810-29. Malte-Brun publishes his _Géographic Universelle_. 1814. Evans discovers Lachlan and Macquarie rivers. 1816. Captain Smith discovers South Shetland Isles. 1817-20. Spix and Martius explore Brazil. 1817. First edition of Stieler's atlas. 1817-22. Captain King maps the coast-line of Australia. 1819-22. Franklin, Back, and Richardson attempt the North-West Passage by land. 1819. Parry discovers Lancaster Strait and reaches 114° W. 1820-23. Wrangel discovers his land. 1821. Bellinghausen discovers Peter Island, the most southerly land then known. 1822. Denham and Clapperton discover Lake Tchad, and visit Sokoto. 1822-23. Scoresby explores the coast of East Greenland. 1823. Weddell reaches 74.15° S. 1826. Major Laing is murdered at Timbuctoo. 1827. Parry reaches 82.45° N. 1827. Réné Caillié visits Timbuctoo. 1828-31. Captain Sturt traces the Darling and the Murray. 1829-33. Ross attempts the North-West Passage; discovers Boothia Felix. 1830. Royal Geographical Society founded, and next year united with the African Association. 1831-35. Schomburgk explores Guiana. 1831. Captain Biscoe discovers Enderby Land. 1833. Back discovers Great Fish River. 1835-49. Junghuhn explores Java. 1837. T. Simpson coasts along the north mainland of North America 1277 miles. 1838-40. Wood explores the sources of the Oxus. 1838-40. Dumont d'Urvilie discovers Louis-Philippe Land and Adélie Land. 1839. Balleny discovers his island. 1839. Count Strzelecki discovers Gipps' Land. 1840. Captain Sturt travels in Central Australia. 1840-42. James Ross reaches 78.10° S.; discovers Victoria Land, and the volcanoes Erebus and Terror. 1841. Eyre traverses south of Western Australia. 1842-62. E. F. Jomard's _Monuments de la Géographie_ published. 1843-47. Count Castelnau traces the source of the Paraguay. 1844. Leichhardt explores Southern Australia. 1845. Huc explores Tibet. 1845. Petermann's _Mittheilungen_ first published. 1845-47. Franklin's last voyage. 1846. First edition of K. v. Spruner's _Historische Handatlas_. 1847. J. Rae connects Hudson's Bay with east coast of Boothia. 1848. Leichhardt attempts to traverse Australia, and disappears. 1849-56. Livingstone traces the Zambesi and crosses South Africa. 1850-54. M'Clure succeeds in the North-West Passage. 1850-55. Barth explores the Soudan. 1853. Dr. Kane explores Smith's Sound. 1854. Rae hears news of the Franklin expedition from the Eskimo. 1854-65. Faidherbe explores Senegambia. 1856-57. The brothers Schlagintweit cross the Himalayas, Tibet, and Kuen Lun. 1856-59. Du Chaillu travels in Central Africa. 1857-59. M'Clintock discovers remains of the Franklin expedition, and explores King William Land. 1858. Burton and Speke discover Lake Tanganyika, and Speke sees Lake Victoria Nyanza. 1858-64. Livingstone traces Lake Nyassa. 1859. Valikhanoft reaches Kashgar. 1860. Burke travels from Victoria to Carpentaria. 1860. Grant and Speke, returning from Lake Victoria Nyanza, meet Baker coming up the Nile. 1861-62. M'Douall Stuart traverses Australia from south to north. 1863. W. G. Palgrave explores Central and Eastern Arabia. 1864. Baker discovers Lake Albert Nyanza. 1868. Nordenskiold reaches his highest point in Greenland, 81.42°. 1868-71. Ney Elias traverses Mid-China. 1868-74. John Forrest penetrates from Western to Central Australia. 1869-71. Schweinfurth explores the Southern Soudan. 1869-74. Nachtigall explores east of Tchad. 1870. Fedchenko discovers Transalai, north of Pamir. 1870. Douglas Forsyth reaches Yarkand. 1871-88. The four explorations of Western China by Prjevalsky. 1872-73. Payer and Weiprecht discover Franz Josef Land. 1872-76. H.M.S. _Challenger_ examines the bed of the ocean. 1872-76. Ernest Giles traverses North-West Australia. 1873. Colonel Warburton traverses Australia from east to west. 1873. Livingstone discovers Lake Moero. 1874-75. Lieut. Cameron crosses equatorial Africa. 1875-94. Élisée Reclus publishes his _Géographie Universelle._ 1876. Albert Markham reaches 83.20° N. on the Nares expedition. 1876-77. Stanley traces the course of the Congo. 1878-82. The Pundit Krishna traces the course of the Yangtse, Pekong, and Brahmaputra. 1878-79. Nordenskiold solves the North-East Passage along the north coast of Siberia. 1878-84. Joseph Thomson explores East-Central Africa. 1878-85. Serpa Pinto twice crosses Africa. 1879-82. The _Jeannette_ passes through Behring Strait to the mouth of the Lena. 1880. Leigh Smith surveys south coast of Franz Josef Land. 1880-82. Bonvalot traverses the Pamirs. 1881-87. Wissmann twice crosses Africa, and discovers the left affluents of the Congo. 1883. Lockwood, on the Greely Mission, reaches 83.23° N., north cape of Greenland. 1886. Francis Garnier explores the course of the Mekong. 1887. Younghusband travels from Pekin to Kashmir. 1887-89. Stanley conducts the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition across Africa, and discovers the Pigmies, and the Mountains of the Moon. 1888. F. Nansen crosses Greenland from east to west. 1888-89. Captain Binger traces the bend of the Niger. 1889. The brothers Grjmailo explore Chinese Turkestan. 1889-90. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orléans traverse Tibet. 1890. Selous and Jameson explore Mashonaland. 1890. Sir W. Macgregor crosses New Guinea. 1891-92. Monteil crosses from Senegal to Tripoli. 1892. Peary proves Greenland an island. 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Littledale travel across Central Asia. 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin explores Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and Mongolia. 1893-97. Dr. Nansen is carried across the Arctic Ocean in the _Fram_, and advances farthest north (86.14° N.). 1894-95. C. E. Borchgrevink visits Antarctica. 1894-96. Jackson-Harmsworth expedition in Arctic lands. 1896. Captain Bottego explores Somaliland. 1896. Donaldson Smith traces Lake Rudolph. 1896. Prince Henri D'Orleans travels from Tonkin to Moru. 1897. Captain Foa traverses South Africa from S. to N. 1897. D. Carnegie crosses W. Australia from S. to N. EUROPE. GREAT BRITAIN.--B.C. 450. Himilco. _Circa_ 333. Pytheas. 60-54. Cæsar. FRANCE.--B.C. _circa_ 600. Marseilles founded. 57. Cæsar. RUSSIA.--A.D. 1554. Richard Chancellor. BALTIC.--A.D. 890. Wulfstan and Othere. ICELAND.--A.D. 861. Naddod. ASIA. INDIA.--B.C. 332. Alexander. 330. Nearchus. _Circa_ 300. Megasthenes. A.D. 400-14. Fa-hien. 518-21. Hoei-Sing and Sung-Yun. 540. Cosmas Indicopleustes. 629-46. Hiouen-Tshang. 671-95. I-tsing. 1159-73. Benjamin of Tudela. 1304-78. Ibn Batuta. 1327-72. Mandeville. 1328. Jordanus of Severac. 1328-49. John de Marignolli. 1419-40. Nicolo Conti. 1442-44. Abd-ur-Razzak. 1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin. 1487. Pedro de Covilham. 1494-99. Hieronimo di Santo Stefano. 1503-8. Ludovico di Varthema. FARTHER INDIA.--A.D. 1503. Ludovico di Varthema. 1509. Lopes di Sequira. 1886. Francis Garnier. CHINA.--A.D. 851-916. Suláimán and Abu Zaid. 1292. John of Monte Corvino. 1316-30. Odorico di Pordenone. 1328-49. John de Marignolli. 1537-58. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto. 1868-71. Ney Elias. 1871-88. Prjevalsky. 1878-82. Pundit Krishna. 1889. Grjmailo brothers. 1896. Prince Henri d'Orléans. JAPAN.--A.D. 1542. Antonio de Mota. 1785-88. La Pérouse. ARABIA.--A.D. 1761-67. Carsten Niebuhr. 1863. Palgrave. PERSIA.--B.C. 332. Alexander. A.D. 1468-74. Athanasius Nikitin. MONGOLIA.--A.D. 1255. Ruysbroek (Rubruquis). 1260-71. Nicolo and Maffeo Polo. 1271. Marco Polo. 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin. TIBET.--A.D. 1845. Huc. 1856-7. Schlagintweit. 1878. Pundit Krishna. 1887. Younghusband. 1889-90. Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orléans. 1893-97. Dr. Sven Hedin. CENTRAL ASIA.--A.D. 1558. Anthony Jenkinson. 1642. Wasilei Pojarkof. 1838-40. Wood. 1859. Valikhanoff. 1870. Douglas Forsyth. 1870. Fedchenko. 1880. Bonvalot. 1893. Littledale. SIBERIA.--A.D. 1579. Timovief. 1639. Kupiloff. 1644-50. Staduchin. 1648. Dshineif. 1701. Sinpopoff. 1731. Paulutski. 1742. Chelyuskin. 1771-72. Pallas. 1785-94. Billings. KAMTSCHATKA.--A.D. 1696. Russians. 1731. Kru pishef. 1787-88. Lesseps. AFRICA. A.D. _circa_ 450. Hanno. 1420. Zarco. 1462. Pedro de Cintra. 1484. Diego Cam. 1486. Bartholomew Diaz. 1497. Vasco da Gama. 1520. Alvarez. 1549. Bareto and Homera. 1590. Battel. 1596. Payz. 1618. Thompson. 1623. Lobo. 1645. Italian Capuchins. 1769-71. Bruce. 1793. Browne. 1796. Mungo Park. 1796. Lacerda. 1822. Denham and Clapperton. 1826. Laing. 1827. Réné Caillié. 1849-73. Livingstone. 1850-55. Barth. 1854-65. Faidherbe. 1856-59. Du Chaillu. 1858. Burton and Speke. 1860. Grant and Speke. 1864. Baker. 1869-71. Schweinfurth. 1869-74. Nachtigall. 1874-75. Cameron. 1876-89. Stanley. 1878-84. Thomson. 1878-85. Serpa Pinto. 1881-87. Wissmann. 1888-89. Binger. 1890. Selous and Jameson. 1891-92. Monteil. 1896. Bottego. 1896. Donaldson Smith. 1897. Foa. NORTH AMERICA. A.D. 499. Hoei-Sin. _Circa_ 1000. Lyef. 1497, 1517. John and Sebastian Cabot. 1500. Corte Real. 1513. Ponce de Leon. 1524. Verazzano. 1532. Cortez. 1534. Cartier. 1539. Ulloa. 1542. Cabrillo. 1516. Frobisher. 1586. Davis. 1592. Juan de Fuca. 1608. Champlain. 1609, 10. Hudson. 1631. Fox. 1682. La Salle. 1740. Varenne de la Véranderye 1741. Behring. 1789-93. Mackenzie. 1792. Vancouver. 1800-4. Lewis and Clarke. 1805-7. Pike. 1837. Simpson. SOUTH AMERICA. A.D. 1498. Columbus. 1499-1501. Amerigo Vespucci. 1499. Pinzon. 1500. Pedro Cabral. 1517. Juan Diaz de Solis. 1519-20. Magellan. 1531. Francisco Pizarro. 1535. D'Almagro. 1536. Gonsalo Pizarro. 1541. Orellana. 1572. Juan Fernandez. 1580. Dutch in Guiana. 1615. Lemaire. 1743-44. La Condamine. 1764. John Byron. 1799-1804. Humboldt. 1817-20. Spix and Martius. 1831-35. Schomburgk. 1843-47. Castelnau. CENTRAL AMERICA. A.D. 1502. Columbus. 1513. Vasco Nuñez de Balbao. 1518. Grijalva. 1519. Fernando Cortez. 1519. Guray. AUSTRALIA. A.D. 1605. Torres. 1606. Quiros. 1616. Hartog. 1619. Edel and Houtman. 1622. The _Leeuwin_. 1627. Nuyts. 1699. Dampier. 1770. Cook. 1797. Bass. 1801-4. Flinders. 1814. Evans. 1817-22. King. 1828-40. Sturt. 1839. Strzelecki. 1841. Eyre. 1844-48. Leichhardt. 1860. Burke. 1861-62. MacDouall Stuart. 1868-74. Forrest. 1872-76. Giles. 1873. Warburton. 1897. Carnegie. NEW ZEALAND. A.D. 1642. Tasman. 1643. Brouwer. 1768-79. Cook. POLYNESIA. A.D. 1512. Francisco Serrão. 1520, 21. Magellan. 1527. Saavedra. 1542. Gaetano 1542. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. 1543. Ortez de Retis. 1567-98. Alvaro Mendaña. 1599. Houtman. 1643. Tasman. 1768. Carteret. 1776-79. Cook. 1835-49. Junghuhn. 1890. Macgregor. NORTH POLE. A.D. _circa_ 900. Gunbiörn. 985. Eric the Red. 1553. Willoughby. 1596. Barentz. 1603. Bennett. 1611. Jan Mayen. 1616. Baffin. 1721. Egédé. 1769-71. Hearne. 1819-22. Franklin, Back, and Richardson. 1819-27. Parry. 1820-23. Wrangel. 1822-23. Scoresby. 1829-33. Ross. 1833. Back. 1845-47. Franklin. 1847-54. Rae. 1850-54. M'Clure. 1853. Kane. 1857-59. M'Clintock. 1868-79. Nordenskiöld. 1872-73. Payer and Weiprecht. 1876. Markham. 1879-82. The _Jeannette_. 1880. Leigh Smith. 1883. Lockwood. 1888-97. Nansen. 1892. Peary. 1894-96. Jackson-Harmsworth expedition. SOUTH POLE. A.D. 1816. Capt. Smith. 1821. Bellinghausen. 1823. Weddell. 1831. Biscoe. 1838-40. Dumont d'Urville. 1839. Balleny. 1840-42. James Ross. 1894-95. Borchgrevink. CIRCUMNAVIGATORS. A.D. 1522. Sebastian del Cano. 1577-79. Drake. 1739-44. Lord George Anson. ATLANTIC OCEAN. A.D. 1400. Jehan Bethencourt. 1432. Cabral. 1442. Nuño Tristão. 1471. Pedro d'Escobar. 1471. Fernando Po. 1492-93. Columbus. 1501. Juan di Nova. 1501. Tristan d'Acunha. 1502. Bermudez. INDIAN OCEAN. A.D. 1505. Mascarenhas. PROGRESS OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. B.C. 570. Anaximander of Miletus. 501. Hecatæus of Miletus. 446. Herodotus. _Circa_ 200. Eratosthenes. 100. Marinus of Tyre. 20. Strabo. Before 12. Agrippa. A.D. 150. Ptolemy. 230. Peutinger Table. 776. Beatus. 884. Ibn Khordadbeh. 912-30. Mas'udi. 921. Ahmed Ibn Fozlan. 969. Ibn Haukal. 1111. Water-compass. 1154. Edrisi. _Circa_ 1180. Alexander Neckam. 1280. Hereford map. 1284. Ebstorf map. 1290. The normal Portulano. 1320. Flavio Gioja. 1339. Dulcert. 1351. Medicean Portulano. 1375. Cresquez. 1419. Prince Henry the Navigator. 1457. Fra Mauro. 1474. Toscanelli. 1478. 2nd ed. Ptolemy. 1492. Behaim. 1500. Juan de la Cosa. 1507-13. Waldseemüller. 1520. Schoner. 1538. Mercator. 1544. Munster. 1556-72. Laperis. 1573. Ortelius. 1592. Molyneux globe. 1598. Hakluyt. 1630. Ferro meridian fixed. 1638. Blaeu. 1645. Sanson. 1700. Delisle. 1718. Jesuit map of China. 1731. Hadley. 1735-37. Maupertuis. 1745-61. Bourguiguon d'Anville. 1765. Harrison. 1767. Nautical Almanac. 1788. African Association. 1810-29. Malte-Brun. 1817. Stieler. 1830. Royal Geographical Society founded. 1842. Jomard 1845. Petermann. 1846. Spruner. 1875-94. Élisée Reclus. 1872-76. The _Challenger_. 
22116	----	DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS BY EDWARD R. SHAW _Dean of the School of Pedagogy_ _New York University_ NEW YORK :: CINCINNATI :: CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY Copyright 1900 By EDWARD R. SHAW. PREFACE. The practice of beginning the study of geography with the locality in which the pupil lives, in order that his first ideas of geographical conceptions may be gained from observation directed upon the real conditions existing about him, has been steadily gaining adherence during the past few years as a rational method of entering upon the study of geography. After the pupil has finished an elementary study of the locality, he is ready to pass to an elementary consideration of the world as a whole, to get his first conception of the planet on which he lives. His knowledge of the forms of land and water, his knowledge of rain and wind, of heat and cold, as agents, and of the easily traced effects resulting from the interaction of these agents, have been acquired by observation and inference upon conditions actually at hand; in other words, his knowledge has been gained in a presentative manner. His study of the world, however, must differ largely from this, and must be effected principally by representation. The globe in relief, therefore, presents to him his basic idea, and all his future study of the world will but expand and modify this idea, until at length, if the study is properly continued, the idea becomes exceedingly complex. In passing from the geography of the locality to that of the world as a whole, the pupil is to deal broadly with the land masses and their general characteristics. The continents and oceans, their relative situations, form, and size, are then to be treated, but the treatment is always to be kept easily within the pupil's capabilities--the end being merely an elementary world-view. During the time the pupil is acquiring this elementary knowledge of the world as a whole, certain facts of history may be interrelated with the geographical study. According to the plan already suggested, it will be seen that the pupil is carried out from a study of the limited area of land and water about him to an idea of the world as a sphere, with its great distribution of land and water. In this transference he soon comes to perceive how small a part his hitherto known world forms of the great earth-sphere itself. Something analogous to this transition on the part of the pupil to a larger view seems to be found in the history of the western nations of Europe. It is the gradual change in the conception of the world held during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to the enlarged conception of the world as a sphere which the remarkable discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought about. The analogy serves pedagogically to point out an interesting and valuable _interrelation_ of certain facts of history with certain phases of geographical study. This book has been prepared for the purpose of affording material for such an interrelation. The plan of interrelation is simple. As the study of the world as a whole, in the manner already sketched, progresses, the appropriate chapters are read, discussed, and reproduced, and the routes of the various discoverers and explorers traced. No further word seems to the writer necessary in regard to the interrelation. DRESDEN, July 15, 1899. CONTENTS. PAGE BELIEFS AS TO THE WORLD FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO . . 9 MARCO POLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 COLUMBUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 VASCO DA GAMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGES . . . . . . . . 44 AMERIGO VESPUCCI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 PONCE DE LEON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 BALBOA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 MAGELLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 HERNANDO CORTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 FRANCISCO PIZARRO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 FERDINAND DE SOTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 THE GREAT RIVER AMAZON, AND EL DORADO . . . . . . 92 VERRAZZANO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 THE FAMOUS VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE--1577 . . . 108 HENRY HUDSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS. BELIEFS AS TO THE WORLD FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Four hundred years ago most of the people who lived in Europe thought that the earth was flat. They knew only the land that was near them. They knew the continent of Europe, a small part of Asia, and a strip along the northern shore of Africa. [Illustration: The World as Known Four Hundred Years ago.] They thought this known land was surrounded by a vast body of water that was like a broad river. Sailors were afraid to venture far upon this water, for they feared they would fall over the edge of the earth. Other seafaring men believed that if they should sail too far out upon this water their vessels would be lost in a fog, or that they would suddenly begin to slide downhill, and would never be able to return. Wind gods and storm gods, too, were supposed to dwell upon this mysterious sea. Men believed that these wind and storm gods would be very angry with any one who dared to enter their domain, and that in their wrath they would hurl the ships over the edge of the earth, or keep them wandering round and round in a circle, in the mist and fog. It is no wonder that the name "Sea of Darkness" was given to this great body of water, which we now know to be the Atlantic Ocean; nor is it surprising that the sailors feared to venture far out upon it. These sailors had no dread at all of a sea called the Mediterranean, upon which they made voyages without fear of danger. This sea was named the Mediterranean because it was supposed to be in the middle of the land that was then known. On this body of water the sailors were very bold, fighting, robbing, and plundering strangers and foes, without any thought of fear. They sailed through this sea eastward to Constantinople, their ships being loaded with metals, woods, and pitch. These they traded for silks, cashmeres, dyewoods, spices, perfumes, precious stones, ivory, and pearls. All of these things were brought by caravan from the far Eastern countries, as India, China, and Japan, to the cities on the east coast of the Mediterranean. This caravan journey was a very long and tiresome one. Worse than this, the Turks, through whose country the caravans passed, began to see how valuable this trade was, and they sent bands of robbers to prevent the caravans from reaching the coast. [Illustration: A Caravan.] As time went on, these land journeys grew more difficult and more dangerous, until the traders saw that the day would soon come when they would be entirely cut off from traffic with India and the rich Eastern countries. The Turks would secure all their profitable business. So the men of that time tried to think of some other way of reaching the East. Among those who wished to find a short route to India was Prince Henry of Portugal, a bold navigator as well as a studious and thoughtful man. He was desirous of securing the rich Indian trade for his own country. So he established a school for navigators at Lisbon, and gathered around him many men who wanted to study about the sea. Here they made maps and charts, and talked with one another about the strange lands which they thought might be found far out in that mysterious body of water which they so dreaded and feared. It is probable that they had heard some accounts of the voyages of other navigators on this wonderful sea, and the beliefs about land beyond. There was Eric the Red, a bold navigator of Iceland, who had sailed west to Greenland, and planted there a colony that grew and thrived. There was also Eric's son Leif, a venturesome young viking who had made a voyage south from Greenland, and reached a strange country with wooded shores and fragrant vines. This country he called Vinland because of the abundance of wild grapes. When he returned to Greenland, he took a load of timber back with him. [Illustration: Eric the Red in Vinland.] Some of the people of Greenland had tried to make a settlement along this shore which Leif discovered, but it is thought that the Indians drove them away. It may now be said of this settlement that no trace of it has ever been found, although the report that the Norsemen paid many visits to the shore of North America is undoubtedly true. Another bold sea rover of Portugal sailed four hundred miles from land, where he picked up a strangely carved paddle and several pieces of wood of a sort not to be found in Europe. St. Brandon, an Irish priest, was driven in a storm far, far to the west, and landed upon the shore of a strange country, inhabited by a race of people different from any he had ever seen. All this time the bold Portuguese sailors were venturing farther and farther down the coast of Africa. They hoped to be able to sail around that continent and up the other side to India. But they dared not go beyond the equator, because they did not know the stars in the southern hemisphere and therefore had no guide. They also believed that beyond the equator there was a frightful region of intense heat, where the sun scorched the earth and where the waters boiled. Many marvelous stories were told about the islands which the sailors said they saw in the distance. Scarcely a vessel returned from a voyage without some new story of signs of land seen by the crew. The people who lived on the Canary Islands said that an island with high mountains on it could be seen to the west on clear days, but no one ever found it. Some thought these islands existed only in the imagination of the sailors. Others thought they were floating islands, as they were seen in many different places. Every one was anxious to find them, for they were said to be rich in gold and spices. You can easily understand how excited many people were in regard to new lands, and how they wished to find out whether the earth was round or not. There was but one way to find out, and that was to try to sail around it. For a long time no one was brave enough to venture to do so. To start out and sail away from land on this unknown water was to the people of that day as dangerous and foolhardy a journey as to try to cross the ocean in a balloon is to us at the present time. MARCO POLO. In the middle of the thirteenth century, about two hundred years before the time of Columbus, a boy named Marco Polo lived in the city of Venice. [Illustration: Marco Polo.] Marco Polo belonged to a rich and noble family, and had all the advantages of study that the city afforded. He studied at one of the finest schools in the city of Venice. This city was then famous for its schools, and was the seat of culture and learning for the known world. When Marco Polo started for school in the morning, he did not step out into a street, as you do. Instead, he stepped from his front doorstep into a boat called a gondola; for Venice is built upon a cluster of small islands, and the streets are water ways and are called canals. The gondolier, as the man who rows the gondola is called, took Marco wherever he wished to go. Sometimes, as they glided along, the gondolier would sing old Venetian songs; and as Marco Polo lay back against the soft cushions and listened and looked about him, he wondered if anywhere else on earth there was so beautiful a city as Venice. For the sky was very blue, and often its color was reflected in the water; the buildings were graceful and beautiful, the sun was warm and bright, and the air was balmy. [Illustration: A Scene in Venice.] In this delightful city Marco Polo lived until he was seventeen years of age. About this time, his father, who owned a large commercial house in Constantinople, told Marco that he might go with him on a long journey to Eastern countries. The boy was very glad to go, and set out with his father and his uncle, who were anxious to trade and gain more wealth in the East. This was in the year 1271. The three Polos traveled across Persia into China, and across the Desert of Gobi to the northwest, where they found the great ruler, Kublai Khan. This monarch was a kind-hearted and able man. He wanted to help his subjects to become civilized and learned, as the Europeans were. So Kublai Khan assisted the two elder Polos in their business of trading, and took Marco into his service. Soon Marco learned the languages of Asia, and then he was sent by the khan on errands of state to different parts of the country. He visited all the great cities in China, and traveled into the interior of Asia to places almost unknown at the present time. At length the three Polos expressed a desire to return to Venice. The great khan did not wish to part with them, but he at last consented; for he found that by going they could do him a service. The service required was their escort for a beautiful young princess who was to be taken from Peking to Tabriz, where she was to marry the Khan of Persia. It was difficult to find any one trustworthy enough to take charge of so important a person on so long and dangerous a journey. But Kublai Khan had faith in the Polos. They had traveled more than any one else he knew, and were cautious and brave. So he gave them permission to return to their home, and requested them to take the princess to Tabriz on the way. It was decided that the journey should be made by sea, as the land route was so beset by robbers as to be unsafe. Besides, the Polos were fine sailors. They started from the eastern coast of China, and continued their voyage for three years, around the peninsula of Cochin China, and through the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf. Here they went ashore, and then proceeded by land across Persia to Tabriz. They left the princess in that city, and resumed their journey by way of the Bosporus to Venice. When they reached Venice they found that they had been forgotten by their friends. They had been away twenty-four years, and in that time everything had changed very much. They themselves had grown older, and their clothes differed from those worn by the Venetians; for fashions changed even in the thirteenth century, although not so often as they change at the present time. It is no wonder that the Polos were not known until they recalled themselves to the memory of their friends. One evening they invited a few of their old friends to dinner, and during the evening they brought out three old coats. These coats they proceeded to rip apart, and out from the linings dropped all kinds of precious stones--diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies. In this way these wary travelers had hidden their wealth and treasure while on their perilous journey. The visitors were astonished at the sight of so great riches, and listened eagerly to the accounts of the countries from which they came. Soon after the return of Marco Polo to Venice, he took part with his countrymen in a battle against the Genoese. The city of Genoa, like the city of Venice, had a large trade with the East. These two cities were rivals in trade, and were very jealous of each other. Whenever Venetian ships and those of the Genoese met on the Mediterranean Sea, the sailors found some way of starting a quarrel. The quarrel quickly led to a sea fight, and it was in one of these combats that Marco Polo engaged. The Venetians were defeated, and Marco Polo was taken prisoner and cast into a dungeon. Here he spent his time in writing the wonderful book in which he described his travels. [Illustration: A Sea Fight.] The descriptions Polo gave of the East were as wonderful as fairy tales. He told of countries rich in gold, silver, and precious stones, and of islands where diamonds sparkled on the shore. The rulers of these countries wore garments of rich silk covered with glittering gems, and dwelt in palaces, the roofs of which were made of gold. He described golden Cathay, with its vast cities rich in manufactures, and also Cipango, Hindustan, and Indo-China. He knew of the Indies Islands, rich in spices, and he described Siberia, and told of the sledges drawn by dogs, and of the polar bears. The fact that an ocean washed the eastern coast of Asia was proved by him, and this put at rest forever the theory that there was an impassable swamp east of Asia. This book by Marco Polo was eagerly read, and the facts that it stated were so remarkable that many people refused to believe them. It stirred others with a desire to travel and see those lands for themselves. Traveling by land, however, was very dangerous, because of the bands of robbers by which the country was occupied. These outlaws robbed every one whom they suspected of having any money, and often murdered travelers in order to gain their possessions. Sea travel, too, was just as dangerous, but in a different way. You will remember why sailors dared not venture far out upon the ocean and search for a water route to the Eastern countries and islands. The time was soon coming, however, when they would dare to do so, and two wonderful inventions helped navigators very much. One came from the finding of the loadstone, or natural magnet. This is a stone which has the power of attracting iron. A steel needle rubbed on it becomes magnetized, as we say, and, when suspended by the center and allowed to move freely, always swings around until it points north and south. Hung on a pivot and inclosed in a box, this instrument is called the mariners' compass. It was of great importance to sailors, because it always told them which way was north. On cloudy days, and during dark, stormy nights, when the sun and stars could not be seen, the sailors could now keep on their way, far from land, and still know in which direction they were going. [Illustration: Mariners' Compass.] The other invention was that of the astrolabe. This was an instrument by means of which sailors measured the height of the sun above the horizon at noon, and could thus tell the distance of the ship from the equator. It is in use on all the ships at the present time, but it has been greatly improved, and is now called the quadrant. The compass and the astrolabe, together with improved maps and charts, made it possible for navigators to tell where their ship was when out of sight of land or in the midst of storm and darkness. This made them more courageous, and they ventured a little farther from the coast, but still no one dared to sail far out upon the Sea of Darkness. COLUMBUS. One day a man appeared in Portugal, who said he was certain that the earth was round, and that he could reach India by sailing westward. Every one laughed at him and asked him how he would like to try. He answered that he would sail round the earth, if any one would provide him with ships. [Illustration: Christopher Columbus.] People jeered and scoffed. "If the earth is a sphere," they said, "in order to sail round it you must sail uphill! Who ever heard of a ship sailing uphill?" But this man, whose name was Christopher Columbus, remained firm in his belief. When a boy, Columbus had listened eagerly to the stories the sailors told about strange lands and wonderful islands beyond the water. He was in the habit of sitting on the wharves and watching the ships. Often he would say, "I wish, oh, how I wish I could be a sailor!" At last his father, who was a wool comber, said to him, "My son, if you really wish to become a sailor, I will send you to a school where you will be taught navigation." Columbus was delighted at this, and told his father that he would study diligently. He was sent to the University of Pavia, where he learned all the geography that was then known, as well as how to draw maps and charts. He became a skillful penman, and also studied astronomy, geometry, and Latin. But he did not spend a long time at his studies, for at the age of fourteen he went to sea. What he had learned, however, gave him an excellent groundwork, and from this time forward he made use of every opportunity to inform himself and to become a scholarly man. His first voyage was made with a distant relative, who was an adventurous and daring man, and who was ever ready to fight with any one with whom he could pick a quarrel. In course of time Columbus commanded a ship of his own, and became known as a bold and daring navigator. He made a voyage along the coast of Africa as far south as Guinea, and afterwards sailed northward to Iceland. At an early day he became familiar with the wildest kind of adventure, for at this time sea life on the Mediterranean was little more than a series of fights with pirates. Some say that during one of these conflicts Columbus's ship caught fire. In order to save his life, he jumped into the water and swam six miles to shore, reaching the coast of Portugal. Others say that he was attracted to that country by the great school of navigation which Prince Henry had established. However that may be, he appeared at Lisbon at the age of thirty-five, filled with the idea of sailing westward to reach those rich Eastern countries in which every one was so much interested. He was laughed at for expressing such an idea. It is not pleasant to be laughed at, but Columbus was courageous and never wavered in his belief. "The earth is a sphere," he said; "those foolish stories of its being flat and supported on a turtle's back cannot be true." But those persons to whom he talked only laughed the more. "Is there anything more foolish," they asked, "than to believe that there are people who walk with their heels up and with their heads hanging down?" "Think of a place where the trees grow with their branches down, and where it snows, hails, and rains upward!" Everybody thought him an idle dreamer. Columbus tried to persuade King John to furnish him with ships and allow him to test his belief. But King John cruelly deceived Columbus; for, after obtaining his maps and charts, he sent off an expedition of his own. He hoped in this way to gain the glory of the discovery. The sailors whom he sent, however, were not brave enough to continue the voyage, and returned, frightened by a severe storm. Columbus was so disgusted by the treachery of King John that he made up his mind to leave Portugal and go to Spain. So, taking his little son, Diego, with him, he started on his journey. He traveled from place to place, trying to find some person who would help him make his ideas known to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He thought that if he could talk with them he could persuade them to furnish him with ships. [Illustration: Convent of La Rabida.] One day he came to a convent called La Rabida. Here Diego, who was weary and thirsty, begged his father to stop and ask for a drink of water. Columbus knocked at the big iron gate, and while he was conversing with the attendant a priest approached. This priest was attracted by the noble bearing and refined speech of Columbus, and saw at once that he was not a beggar. He asked him what he wished, and Columbus related his story. The good priest believed in him and said he would try to influence the king and queen to furnish him with ships. The priest brought the matter before the king; but at this time Spain was at war with the Moors, and King Ferdinand had no time to attend to anything else. Columbus was patient and waited. But as year after year passed and brought no prospect of obtaining the ships he wished, his hopes fell. After seven long, weary years of waiting, he was about to leave Spain in despair. Just as he was leaving, however, a message was brought to him from the queen, asking him to explain his plans to her once more. Columbus did so, and the queen was so fully convinced that she exclaimed: "I will provide ships and men for you, if I have to pledge my jewels in order to do so!" [Illustration: Columbus before Ferdinand and Isabella.] Three ships were fitted out for the voyage. These ships were very different from those we see to-day. They were light, frail barks called caravels, and two of them, the _Pinta_ and _Nina_, had no decks. The third, the _Santa Maria_, had a deck. It was upon this largest caravel that Columbus placed his flag. On the 3d of August, 1492, the little fleet set sail from Palos, entering upon the most daring expedition ever undertaken by man. The people of the town gathered on the wharf to see the departure of the vessels. Many of them had friends or relatives on board whom they expected never to look upon again. Sad indeed was the sight as the little caravels sailed out of the harbor and faded from view. After sailing a few days, the _Pinta_ broke her rudder. This accident the sailors took to be a sign of misfortune. They tried to persuade Columbus to put back to Palos, but he would not listen to such a suggestion. Instead of sailing back, he pushed on to the Canary Islands. Here his ships were delayed three weeks, after which they continued the voyage into unknown waters. After they had sailed westward for many days, the sailors began to show signs of alarm, and they implored Columbus to return. He tried to calm their fears. He described the rich lands he hoped to find, and reminded them of the wealth and fame this voyage would bring to them. So they agreed to venture a little farther. [Illustration: The Pinta.] At last the compass began to point in a different direction, and the sailors became almost panic-stricken. They thought they were sailing straight to destruction, and when they found that Columbus would not listen to their entreaties they planned a mutiny. Though Columbus knew what the sailors were plotting, he kept steadily on his course. Fortunately, signs of land soon began to appear. A branch with berries on it floated past, a rudely carved paddle was picked up, and land birds were seen flying over the ships. A prize had been offered to the sailor who first saw land, and all eagerly watched for it night and day. At last, early one morning, a gun was fired from the _Pinta_, and all knew that land had been sighted. The sailors were filled with the wildest joy, and crowded around Columbus with expressions of gratitude and admiration, in great contrast to the distrustful manner in which they had treated him a few days before. The land they were approaching was very beautiful. It was a green, sunny island with pleasant groves in which birds were singing. Beautiful flowers were blooming all around and the trees were laden with fruit. The island was inhabited, too, for groups of strange-looking men were seen running to the shore. At length the ships cast anchor, the boats were lowered, and Columbus, clad in rich scarlet and carrying in his hand the royal banner of Spain, was taken ashore. As soon as he stepped on the beach, Columbus knelt down and gave thanks to God. He then planted the banner of Spain in the ground and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella. [Illustration: The Landing of Columbus.] This island he called San Salvador, because he and his crew had been saved from a watery grave, and also because October 12 was so named in the Spanish calendar. Columbus supposed San Salvador to be one of the islands near the coast of Asia, but it is one of the Bahamas. Thus was America discovered on the 12th of October, 1492. The natives of this island were different from any people the Spaniards had ever seen. They were of a reddish-brown color, and had high cheek bones, small black eyes, and straight black hair. They were entirely naked, and their bodies were greased and painted. Their hair was decorated with feathers, and many of them were adorned with curious ornaments. They were at first very much afraid of the white men and kept far away. But gradually they lost their fear and brought the Spaniards presents of bananas and oranges. Some of them gathered courage enough to touch the Spaniards and pass their hands over them, as if to make certain that they were real beings. These men, whose skin was so white, they thought to be gods who had come down from the sky. When Columbus asked them where they found the gold of which many of their ornaments were made, they pointed toward the south. Then Columbus took some of them with him to search for the land of gold. The next land he reached was the island of Cuba. Thinking that this was a part of India, he called the natives Indians. He then sailed to Haiti, which he called Hispaniola, or "Little Spain." For more than three months Columbus cruised among these islands, where the air was always balmy, the sky clear, and the land beautiful. The sailors believed these new lands were Paradise, and wanted to live there always. At length, however, they thought of returning to their home and friends. So, taking several Indians with them, and many curious baskets and ornaments, they set out on their return voyage. This voyage proved to be very stormy, and at one time it seemed certain that the ships would go down; but after a time the sea grew quiet, and on the 15th of March they sailed again into the little harbor of Palos. You can imagine the excitement. "What! has Columbus returned?" asked the people. "Has he really found the East by sailing westward?" "Yes, he has," was the answer. "He has found India." Columbus was given a royal welcome. The king and queen held a great celebration in his honor at Barcelona; and when the Indians marched into court the astonishment of every person was great. The Indians were half naked; their dark bodies were painted, and their heads were adorned with feathers. They carried baskets of seed pearls, and wore strange ornaments of gold. Some carried the skins of wild animals, and others carried beautiful birds of brilliant plumage. Every inhabitant of Barcelona rejoiced, and the bells were rung in honor of the great discoverer. It was a happy time for Columbus. He felt repaid for all his suffering and trouble. [Illustration: The Return of Columbus.] King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella now wished Columbus to go again to these newly discovered islands and search for the gold that was thought to be there. You may be sure Columbus was willing to go. So they fitted out seventeen vessels, manned by fifteen hundred men, and placed Columbus in command of this fleet. It was no trouble to find men who were willing to go on this voyage. All wanted to see the new world that had been found. During this second voyage, which was made in 1493, Columbus discovered Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and some small islands in the Caribbean Sea. On the island of Jamaica the Spaniards came upon the footprints of some strange animal which they thought to be a dragon. This dragon they believed was guarding the gold which they supposed was on the island. So they ran back to their ships in fear. Later on they became used to seeing these footprints, and found that they were those of alligators. At Puerto Rico they suffered from a savage attack made by the natives, who shot poisoned arrows and threw javelins at them. But in most other places the natives were very friendly. Columbus thought this land was a part of the east coast of Asia, and he could not understand why he did not find cities such as Marco Polo had described. Columbus then sailed to Hispaniola, where he planted a colony, of which he was made governor. It was not an easy matter to govern this island, because of the jealousies and quarrels of the Spaniards. At length Columbus returned to Spain, ill and discouraged. Columbus made a third voyage in 1498, during which he sailed along the coast of Brazil, and discovered Trinidad Island. Here his ships encountered currents of fresh water which flowed with great force into the ocean. This led Columbus to think that so large a river must flow across a great continent, and strengthened his opinion that the land was a part of the great continent of Asia. [Illustration: Map Showing how Columbus Discovered America.] After sailing farther north along the Pearl Coast, which was so called because of the pearls found there, he returned to Hispaniola. Here he found the Spaniards engaged in an Indian war, and quarreling among themselves. Some officials became jealous of him, bound him with chains, and sent him back to Spain a prisoner. Ferdinand and Isabella were much displeased at this treatment of Columbus, and set him free. A fourth voyage was made by Columbus in 1502, during which he explored the coast of Honduras in search of a strait leading to the Indian Ocean. In this venture he was unsuccessful. On his return to Spain he found his friend Queen Isabella very ill, and nineteen days after his arrival she died. After Isabella's death the king treated Columbus cruelly and ungratefully. The people had become jealous of him, and his last days were spent in poverty and distress. He never knew that he had discovered a new continent, but supposed that he had found India. Seven years after his death the king repented of his ingratitude, and caused the remains of Columbus to be removed from the little monastery in Valladolid to a monastery in Seville, where a magnificent monument was erected to his memory. In 1536 his bones were removed to the Cathedral of San Domingo in Hispaniola, and later they were taken to the cathedral in Havana. When the United States took possession of Cuba, the Spanish disinterred the bones of Columbus again and carried them to Spain, placing them in the cathedral of Seville, where they now are. VASCO DA GAMA. Both the Spaniards and the Portuguese were cut off from trade with the East, because the Turks had taken possession of Constantinople. In consequence of this, the navigators of both countries were making earnest efforts to find a water route to India. [Illustration: Vasco da Gama.] Spain, as you know, had faith in Columbus, and helped him in his plan of trying to reach India by sailing westward. But the Portuguese had a different idea. They spent their time and money in trying to sail round the African coast, in the belief that India could be reached by means of a southeast passage. This southeast passage could be found only by crossing the "burning zone," as the part of the earth near the equator was called; and all sailors feared to make the attempt. It was thought almost impossible to cross this burning zone, and the few navigators who had ventured as far as the equator had turned back in fear of steaming whirlpools and of fiery belts of heat. In 1486, six years before Columbus discovered America, the King of Portugal sent Bartholomew Diaz, a bold and daring navigator, to find the end of the African coast. Bartholomew Diaz sailed through the fiery zone without meeting any of the dreadful misfortunes which the sailors so feared. When he had sailed beyond the tropic of Capricorn, a severe storm arose. The wind blew his three vessels directly south for thirteen days, during which time he lost sight of land. When the sun shone again, Diaz headed his vessels eastward, but as no land appeared, he again changed the direction, this time heading them toward the north. After sailing northward a short time, land was reached about two hundred miles east of the Cape of Good Hope. Diaz now pushed on four hundred miles farther along the coast of Africa, and saw the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean before him. Here the sailors refused to go any farther, and Diaz, although he wanted very much to go ahead and try to reach India, was obliged to return. On the way home, the vessels passed close to the cape which projects from the south coast of Africa, and Diaz named it Stormy Cape, in memory of the frightful storm which hid it from view on the way down. When they reached Lisbon, however, King John said that it should be called the Cape of Good Hope, because they now had hope that the southern route to India was found. Diaz won much praise for his bravery and patience in making this voyage. He had proved that the stories about the fiery zone were false, and that the African coast had an end. [Illustration: Spanish and Portuguese Vessels.] It remained, however, for Vasco da Gama, then a young man of about twenty years of age, to prove that India could be reached in this way. In 1497 Da Gama sailed from Lisbon to the Cape of Good Hope, doubled the cape, and proceeded across the Indian Ocean to Hindustan. He returned to Lisbon in 1499, his ships loaded with the rich products of the East, including cloves, spices, pepper, ginger, and nutmeg. He also brought with him rich robes of silk and satin, costly gems, and many articles made of carved ivory, or of gold and of silver. The King of Portugal was greatly pleased with what Da Gama had accomplished, and his successful voyage was the wonder of the day. [Illustration: Costume of Explorers.] The same year that Da Gama returned from India by a route around the south end of Africa, with his ships loaded with rich produce, Sebastian Cabot returned from a fruitless voyage to the strange, barren coast of North America. It was no wonder that the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots were thought unsuccessful as compared with the voyage Da Gama had just finished. No one then dreamed of a New World; all were searching for the Orient--for golden Cathay. JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGES. John Cabot was a Venetian merchant, and a bold seafaring man. For purposes of trade he had taken up his home in Bristol, England. Bristol at that time was the most important seaport of England, and carried on a large fishing trade with Iceland. [Illustration: Sebastian Cabot.] When the news of the voyage of Columbus reached Bristol, Cabot begged the English king, Henry VII., to let him go and see if he could find a shorter route to the Indies. The king gave his consent, and told Cabot to take possession of any land he might discover for England. Cabot fitted out his vessel and, taking his son Sebastian and a crew of eighteen men with him, set sail in 1497. He headed his ship westward, hoping to reach the Spice Islands and that part of Asia which was so rich in gold, and which Columbus had failed to find. At last, one sunny morning in June, land was sighted in the distance. This land, which was probably a part of Nova Scotia, proved to be a lonely shore with dense forests. Cabot called it "Land First Seen." It was entirely deserted, not a human being nor a hut of any kind being in sight. Here Cabot and his son Sebastian and some of his crew went ashore, and were the first white men, excepting the Norsemen, to step upon the mainland of America. Up to this time, Columbus had discovered only islands of the West Indies. A year later than this he discovered the continent of South America. Cabot and his companions erected a large cross on the shore, and planted two flagpoles in the ground, from which they unfurled the English and Venetian flags. Then they returned to their ships, and, after sailing about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, went back to England. King Henry and the people received John Cabot with great honor. Everybody thought that Cabot had reached Asia, and he also believed that he had. He was called the "Great Admiral," and the people of Bristol ran after him on the street, shouting his name and trying in every way to show him how much they admired and honored him. The king gave him fifty dollars in money, which seems to us in these days a small sum for so long and dangerous a voyage. Besides this, the king urged him to undertake another voyage. About a year later Sebastian Cabot made the second voyage, and this time the gloomy shore of Labrador was reached. Sebastian on his voyage sailed far north, passing many icebergs, and seeing many strange and wonderful sights. On great blocks of ice that floated past the ship he saw immense white bears. These bears were fine swimmers, and would often leap into the water and bring out fish, which they would devour greedily. The waters were filled with fish, and, as the ship neared the shore, they grew so numerous as almost to retard the sailing of the vessel. "Now," said Cabot, "the English will not have to go to Iceland any more for fish." But Cabot knew that the lands he was seeking were warm lands. So he turned his vessel south, hoping to reach some opening which would lead to them. To his great surprise, he found the coast very long and without any opening, and he sailed on and on as far as Maryland, taking possession of the land for England. At places along this shore were seen Indians, clad in skins and furs of wild animals, fishing from little canoes. Stags much larger than any in England were seen in great numbers, and wild turkeys and game of all sorts abounded. Then Sebastian Cabot began to think that this was a part of Asia never known before, and he set sail for home to tell the wonderful news. When he reached Bristol he found everybody still interested in India. It was a water route to India that was wanted, and not a new country. People cared more about reaching golden Cathay than about finding new, barren lands. So, although King Henry was proud to know that the new land belonged to England, it was eleven years before he made any further attempt to send ships there to take possession. AMERIGO VESPUCCI. Amerigo Vespucci was a native of Florence, Italy, and a friend of Columbus. He was an educated man and very fond of study. [Illustration: Amerigo Vespucci.] At the time in which he lived it was difficult to find the latitude and longitude of places, and few people were able to calculate either correctly. Vespucci was skillful in the work of computing longitude, and he was also well versed in the history of all the voyages that had been made. He was familiar with the facts of astronomy and geography then known, and was well able to conduct the sailing of a ship into strange waters. It is believed that Vespucci made six voyages. He did not command his own vessels, as Columbus did, but he went with the expedition as assistant or adviser to the captain, keeping records of the voyage and making maps and charts. In his first voyage, made in 1497, Vespucci reached the coast of Honduras, and sailed into the Gulf of Mexico. Here he found, probably on the coast of Yucatan, a queer little sea village which reminded him of the great city of Venice near his home. [Illustration: A Queer Little Sea Village.] The houses in this village were made of wood, and were built on piles running out into the water. These houses were connected with the shore by bridges, which were constructed in such a manner that they could be drawn up, thus cutting off all connection with the land. In one house Vespucci found six hundred people. A very large family, was it not? Continuing the voyage around the Gulf of Mexico, Vespucci saw many strange and wonderful things. The natives roasted and ate frightful animals, which from the description given us we now know to have been alligators. They also made cakes, or patties, out of fish, and baked them on red-hot coals. The Spaniards were invited to taste these dainties, and those of the sailors who did so found the strange food very palatable. After sailing round the coast of Florida, the ships headed northeast, landing every now and then for the purpose of trading with the Indians. The Spaniards, finding but little gold and none of the rich spices for which they were looking, at last decided to return home. Just before sailing, some friendly Indians helped the Spaniards to make an attack upon a cannibal island. The attack was successful, and about two hundred cannibals were taken prisoners and carried to Spain, where they were sold as slaves. Vespucci made a second voyage in 1499, in which he sailed down the African coast to the Cape Verde Islands, and then headed his ship almost directly west. He sighted land at Cape St. Roque, and then sailed northwest, exploring the north coast of South America, then called the Pearl Coast. After this he returned to Spain. Shortly after the return of Vespucci to Spain, he accepted an offer to take service under the Portuguese flag. In 1501 he set sail from Lisbon with three caravels, under this flag. He reached the coast of South America near Cape St. Roque, and sailed south as far as the South Georgia Islands. As he proceeded southward, he found the country was inhabited by fierce Indians, who ate their fellow-creatures. He did not like the natives, as you may suppose; but he thought the country was beautiful, with the wonderful verdure and foliage of the tropics, and the queer animals and bright-colored birds. Great was the joy of Vespucci when he discovered in the forests large quantities of a sort of red dyewood which was prized very highly by Europeans. This wood, which had hitherto been found only in Eastern countries, was called brazil wood; and because of its abundance there, he gave the name Brazil to that part of the country. The expedition sailed slowly on and at length lost sight of land. It is thought that Vespucci headed the ships southeast because he wished to find out whether there was land or not in the Antarctic Ocean. As they sailed farther and farther south, the climate became very disagreeable. The winds grew cold and forbidding, fields of floating ice hindered the progress of the vessel, and the nights became very long. The sailors grew frightened, fearing that they were entering a land of constant darkness. Their fear became greater when a terrific storm arose. The sea grew rough, and the fog and sleet prevented the sailors from seeing whether land was near or not. The land which they had hoped to find now became an added danger. One day, through the sleet and snow, the sailors saw with terror a rocky, jagged coast in front of them. This land proved to be the South Georgia Islands, and was a wretched and forlorn country composed of rocks and glaciers, and entirely deserted. For a day and a half they sailed in sight of this frightful shore, fearing each moment that their ship would be cast on the rocks and that they would all perish. As soon as the weather permitted, therefore, Vespucci signaled his fleet, and the ships were headed for home, reaching Portugal in 1502. This voyage secured Brazil for Portugal, and added greatly to the geographical knowledge of the day. The ancients had said that no continent existed south of the equator. But the great length of coast along which Vespucci had sailed proved that the land was not an island. It was plainly a continent, and south of the equator. Vespucci called the land he found the New World. For a time it was also called the Fourth Part of the Earth, the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 1507 a German writer published an account of the discovery, in which he called the new country America, in honor of Americus Vespucius,[1] the discoverer. [Footnote 1: Americus Vespucius is the Latin form of Amerigo Vespucci.] This land was not connected in any way with the discovery of Columbus, for he was supposed to have found Asia. The name America was at first applied only to that part of the country which we now call Brazil, but little by little the name was extended until it included the whole of the Western Continent. You will be glad to know that Vespucci, in the time of his success, did not forget his old friend Columbus, who was then poor and in disgrace. Vespucci visited him and did all he could to assist him. After Vespucci had made three other voyages to the New World, he was given an important government position in Spain, which he held during the remainder of his life. PONCE DE LEON. You have heard many surprising things which the people of the fifteenth century believed. It seems almost impossible for us to think that those people really had faith in a Fountain of Youth; yet such is the case. [Illustration: Ponce de Leon.] This fountain was supposed to exist somewhere in the New World, and it was thought that if any one should bathe in its waters, he would become young and would never grow old again. In 1513 Ponce de Leon, who was then governor of Puerto Rico, sailed from that island in search of this Fountain of Youth. De Leon was an old man, and he felt that his life was nearly over, unless he should succeed in finding this fountain. At the same time De Leon wished to gain gold, for, though he had already made a fortune in Puerto Rico, he was still very greedy. The expedition under his guidance sailed among the Bahamas and other islands near them, and at length reached a land beautiful with flowers, balmy with warm breezes, and cheerful with the song of birds. Partly because this discovery was made on Easter Sunday, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida, and partly because of the abundance of flowers, De Leon called the land Florida. He took possession of this delightful country for Spain, and then spent many weeks exploring its coast. After sailing north as far as St. Augustine, and finding neither gold nor the fabled Fountain of Youth, De Leon turned his vessels and proceeded south, doubling the Florida Cape. Shortly afterwards he became discouraged and returned to Puerto Rico. In 1521 De Leon went again to Florida, this time for the purpose of planting a colony. The Indians were very angry that the white men should try to take their land, and they made a fierce attack upon De Leon and his party. In this attack De Leon received a severe wound, which compelled him to go to Cuba for care and rest. There he died after much suffering. De Leon never found the Fountain of Youth, nor were the fabled waters discovered afterwards. BALBOA. The Spanish colonists on the island of Hispaniola made frequent visits to the mainland, searching for the rich cities of which Marco Polo had written. Word reached the colonists that some of these gold hunters were starving at a place called Darien, and a ship was immediately sent to their relief. The cargo of the ship consisted of barrels of provisions and ammunition. Imagine, if you can, the amazement of the commander of the expedition when, after his ships were under sail, a young and handsome man stepped out of one of the barrels. The young man was Vasco Nunez Balboa. He had chosen this way to escape from Cuba, where he owed large sums of money which he could not pay. The commander was angry, and threatened to leave Balboa on a desert island; but at length he took pity on the young man, and allowed him to remain on board the ship. When the mainland was reached, the Spaniards who were already there, having heard of the cruelty of the commander, refused to let him land. He therefore put off to sea, and was never heard of again. Balboa then took command of the men and began immediately to explore the country. He made a friendly alliance with an Indian chief, who presented him with gold and slaves. The Spaniards were delighted at the sight of so much riches. They began to melt and weigh the gold, and at last fell to quarreling desperately about the division of it. This the Indians could not understand. They knew nothing of money, and valued the metal only because it could be made into beautiful ornaments. An Indian boy who had heard the dispute told the Spaniards that if they cared so much about that yellow stuff, it would be wise for them to go to a country where there was enough of it for all. The Spaniards eagerly questioned him regarding this place. The boy then described a country across the mountains and to the south, on the shores of a great sea, where the metal was so plentiful that the natives used it for their ordinary drinking cups and bowls. Balboa immediately started southward across the mountains in search of this rich country. On his way he came upon a tribe of hostile Indians, who attacked him, but who fled in alarm from the guns of the Spaniards. [Illustration: Balboa Crossing the Isthmus.] Taking some Indians as guides, Balboa pushed on through the mountains, and on September 25, 1513, from one of the highest peaks, looked down upon the Pacific Ocean. [Illustration: Balboa Discovering the Pacific.] With his Spaniards he descended the mountain, and in four days reached the shore of that magnificent body of water. Balboa waded out into it with his sword in his hand, and formally took possession of it for the King of Spain. He called it the South Sea, because he was looking toward the south when he first saw it; and the Pacific Ocean was known by this name for many years afterward. On this shore he met an Indian who repeated to him the same story that the Indian boy had told about the rich country on the border of this sea and farther to the south. Balboa then made up his mind to find this country. Accordingly he returned to Darien, and sent word to the Spanish king of his great discovery of the South Sea. He then began to take his ships apart, and to send them, piece by piece, across the mountains to the Pacific coast. This was an enormous undertaking. The journey was a very difficult one, and hundreds of the poor Indians who carried the burdens dropped dead from exhaustion. At length, after long months of labor, four ships were thus carried across the mountains and rebuilt on the Pacific coast. These were the first European vessels ever launched on the great South Sea. Three hundred men were in readiness to go with Balboa on his voyage in search of the rich country of the South. A little iron and a little pitch were still needed for the ships, and Balboa delayed his departure in order to get these articles. The delay gave his enemies, who were jealous because of his success, time to carry out a plot against him. They accused him of plotting to set up an independent government of his own, and caused him to be arrested for treason. In less than twenty-four hours this brave and high-spirited leader was tried, found guilty, and beheaded. So ended all his ambitious plans. MAGELLAN. One of the boldest and most determined of all the early explorers was Ferdinand Magellan, a young Portuguese nobleman. He felt sure that somewhere on that long coast which so many explorers had reached he would find a strait through which he would be able to pass, and which would lead into the Indian Ocean; and so Magellan formed the idea of circumnavigating the globe. [Illustration: Ferdinand Magellan.] He applied to the King of Portugal for aid; but as the Portuguese king was not willing to help him, he went to Spain, where his plan found favor. The Spanish king gave him a fleet of five vessels, and on September 20, 1519, he set sail for the Canary Islands. Continuing the voyage toward Sierra Leone, the vessels were becalmed, and for a period of three weeks they advanced only nine miles. Then a terrific storm arose, and the sailors, who had grumbled and found fault with everything during the entire voyage, broke into open mutiny. This mutiny Magellan quickly quelled by causing the principal offender to be arrested and put in irons. The voyage was then continued, and land was at last sighted on the Brazilian coast, near Pernambuco. The fleet then proceeded down the coast as far as Patagonia, where the weather grew so very cold that it was decided to seek winter quarters and postpone the remainder of the journey until spring. This was done, Magellan finding a sheltered spot at Port St. Julian, where plenty of fish could be obtained and where the natives were friendly. These native Patagonians Magellan described as being very tall, like giants, with long, flowing hair, and dressed scantily in skins. Great hardships had been endured by the crew. Food and water had been scarce, the storms had been severe, and suffering from cold was intense. The sailors did not believe there was any strait, and they begged Magellan to sail for home. It was useless to try to influence this determined man. Danger made him only the more firm. Magellan told them that he would not return until he had found the opening for which he was looking. Then the mutiny broke out anew. But Magellan by his prompt and decisive action put it down in twenty-four hours. One offender was killed, and two others were put in irons and left to their fate on the shore when the ships sailed away. As soon as the weather grew warmer the ships started again southward. After nearly two months of sailing, most of the time through violent storms, a narrow channel was found, in which the water was salt. This the sailors knew must be the entrance to a strait. Food was scarce, and the men again begged Magellan to return; but he firmly refused, saying: "I will go on, if I have to eat the leather off the ship's yards." So the ships entered and sailed through the winding passage, which sometimes broadened out into a bay and then became narrow again. Among the twists and windings of this perilous strait, one of the vessels, being in charge of a mutinous commander, escaped and turned back. On both sides of the shore there were high mountains, the tops of which were covered with snow, and which cast gloomy shadows upon the water below them. [Illustration: Strait of Magellan.] Think of the feelings of the crew when, after sailing five weeks through this winding channel, they came out into a calm expanse of water. Magellan was overcome by the sight, and shed tears of joy. He named the vast waters before him Pacific, which means "peaceful," because of their contrast to the violent and stormy Atlantic. The fleet now sailed northwest into a warmer climate and over a tranquil ocean, and as week after week passed and no land was seen, the sailors lost all hope. They began to think that this ocean had no end, and that they might sail on and on forever. These poor men suffered very much from lack of food and water, and many died of famine. The boastful remark of Magellan was recalled when the sailors did really begin to eat the leather from the ship's yards, first soaking it in the water. Anxiously these worn and haggard men looked about for signs of land, and at length they were rewarded. The Ladrone Islands were reached, and supplies of fresh vegetables, meats, and fruits were obtained. From the Isles de Ladrones, or "Isles of Robbers," the fleet proceeded to the Philippines. Here Magellan knew that he was near the Indian Ocean, and realized that if he kept on in his course he would circumnavigate the globe. It was on one of the Philippine Islands that this "Prince of Navigators" lost his life in a skirmish with the natives. He was, as usual, in the thickest of the fight, and while trying to shield one of his men was struck down by the spear of a native. One of his ships, the _Victoria_, continued the voyage around Cape of Good Hope, and on September 6, 1522, with eighteen weary and half-starved men on board, succeeded in reaching Spain. Great hardships had been endured, but the wonderful news they brought made up in some measure for their suffering. This was the greatest voyage since the first voyage of Columbus, and the strait still bears the name of the remarkable man whose courage and strength of purpose led to the accomplishment of one of the greatest undertakings ever recorded in history. This wonderful voyage of Magellan's proved beyond doubt that the earth is round. It also proved that South America is a continent, and that there is no short southwest passage. After this voyage all the navigators turned their attention to the discovery of a northwest passage. HERNANDO CORTES. The Spaniards who lived on the island of Hispaniola sent frequent expeditions to the mainland in the hope of finding gold. Hernando Cortes, a dashing young Spaniard with a love of adventure and a reckless daring seldom seen, was given command of one of these expeditions. [Illustration: Hernando Cortes.] In March, 1519, he landed on the coast of Central America, with about six hundred men, ten heavy guns, and sixteen horses. Here Cortes found the natives in large numbers arrayed against him. A fierce battle was fought. But the firearms of the Spaniards frightened the barbarians, and when the cavalry arrived the Indians fled in terror. The Indians, who had never seen horses before, thought the man riding the horse was a part of the animal, and that these strange creatures were sent by the gods. Fear made the Indians helpless, and it was easy for Cortes to gain a victory over them. After this victory Cortes sailed northward along the coast of San Juan de Ulloa. The natives of that region had heard of the wonderful white-skinned and bearded men who bore charmed lives, and they thought that these men were gods. They, therefore, treated the Spaniards in a friendly manner, and brought gifts of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, and also ornaments of gold and silver to Cortes. Here Cortes landed and founded the city of Vera Cruz, which is to-day an important seaport of Mexico. The native Indians in this place were called Aztecs. Some of their chiefs, who paid a visit to Cortes, told him of the great Emperor Montezuma, who was rich and powerful, and who lived inland, in a wonderful city built in a lake. By these chiefs Cortes sent to Montezuma presents of collars, bracelets, and ornaments of glass, an armchair richly carved, and an embroidered crimson cap. In return, Montezuma sent shields, helmets, and plates of pure gold, sandals, fans, gold ornaments of exquisite workmanship, together with robes of fine cotton interwoven with feather work, so skillfully done that it resembled painting. The cap which Cortes had sent was returned filled with gold dust. The great Montezuma also sent a message to Cortes, saying that he would be glad to meet so brave a general, but that the road to the Mexican capital was too dangerous for an army to pass over. He also promised to pay a yearly tribute to the Spanish king if Cortes and his followers would depart and leave him in peace. [Illustration: Aztecs.] The Spaniards were jubilant when they saw the superb gifts. They felt certain that this great emperor must have enormous wealth at his command, and in spite of the warning message, most of them wished to start immediately for the Mexican capital. Some, however, thought such a course very unwise; Montezuma, they said, was so powerful a ruler that it was absurd to attack him with their small force, and they advised returning to Cuba for a large number of soldiers. But Cortes had his own ideas on the subject. So he secretly ordered his ships to be sunk, and then, all chance of retreat being cut off, the entire force proceeded toward Mexico, August 16, 1519. After a long march, the Spaniards began to ascend the plateau on which the city of Mexico is situated, and finally reached the top of it, seven thousand feet high. They found the climate on this plateau temperate and balmy. The fields were cultivated, and beautiful flowers grew wild in profusion. During the march the Spaniards passed many towns containing queer houses and temples. They entered many of the temples, threw down the idols, and took possession of ornaments of value. At length they saw in the distance a city which was built in a salt lake. Three avenues, built of stone, led across the water to it. These avenues, which were four or five miles in length, were guarded on both sides by Indians in canoes. The avenues continued through the city, meeting in the center, where the great temple was situated. The temple was inclosed by a huge stone wall, and contained twenty pyramids, each a hundred feet in height. Nearly all of the houses were two stories high, and were built of red stone. The roofs were flat, with towers at the corners, and on top of the roofs there were beautiful flower gardens. Into this remarkable town Cortes and his followers marched. Montezuma received his unwelcome guests with every mark of friendship, and with much pomp and ceremony. The great emperor was carried on a litter, which was richly decorated with gold and silver. The nobles of his court surrounded him, and hundreds of his retainers were drawn up in line behind him. [Illustration: Meeting of Cortes and Montezuma.] The first thing, when Cortes and Montezuma met, was the customary exchange of presents. Cortes presented Montezuma with a chain of colored glass beads, and in return the Aztec ruler gave Cortes a house which was large enough to accommodate all of the Spaniards. For ten days these two men met each other and exchanged civilities, Cortes pretending to be paying a friendly visit, and Montezuma feeling puzzled and uncertain. At length Cortes induced Montezuma to go to the house where the Spaniards were living, and then, when he got him there, refused to allow him to leave, thus keeping him a prisoner in his own city. This daring act aroused the suspicions of the Aztecs. But Cortes used all his cunning to deceive these simple-hearted people and to make them continue to think that the Spaniards were gods. Still, the Aztecs were beginning to feel very bitter toward Cortes and his followers because of the disrespect with which they treated the Aztec temples and gods. The Spaniards were constantly throwing these gods out of the temples. Even their great god of war was not safe. Cortes openly derided this image, calling it trash, and proposing to erect the emblems of the Spanish religion in its place in the Aztec temples. Now, the Aztec god of war was a frightful image with golden serpents entwined about the body. The face was hideous, and in its hand was carried a plate upon which were placed human hearts as sacrifices. But to the Aztecs the image was sacred, and this insult, together with many others which had been offered their gods, made the natives very angry. One day the Aztecs discovered that some of the Spaniards had died. This knowledge dispelled the fear that their unbidden visitors were gods, and they attacked the Spaniards with great fury. The Aztec warriors wore quilted cotton doublets and headdresses adorned with feathers. They carried leather shields, and fought fiercely with bows and arrows, copper-pointed lances, javelins, and slings. Though by comparison few in numbers, the Spaniards, who were protected by coats of mail, made great havoc with their guns and horses. The battle between these unequal forces raged with great fury, and for a time the result was uncertain. Cortes compelled Montezuma, his prisoner, to show himself on the roof of his house and try to persuade the Aztecs to stop fighting. The Indians, however, no longer feared their emperor, and instead of obeying him, they made him a target for their arrows and stones. In the midst of the fight, the great Montezuma was finally knocked down and killed by one of his former subjects. After a desperate struggle, the Spaniards were forced to retreat. While making their escape over the bridges of the city they were attacked by Indian warriors in canoes, and more than half of their number were killed. [Illustration: Aztec Ruins.] Notwithstanding this defeat and the loss of so many men, Cortes did not give up his design of conquering Mexico. He made an alliance with hostile tribes of Indians, and again attacked the city. The Aztecs had now a new king, named Gua-te-mot-zin, who was as brave and determined as Cortes himself. Guatemotzin made preparations to oppose Cortes, and during the terrible siege which followed never once thought of surrendering or of asking for peace. The Spaniards made attack after attack, and terrible battles were fought, in which the loss on both sides was very great. During one of these battles Cortes was nearly captured, and it seemed as though the war god was to be avenged upon the man who had so insulted him. But a young Spaniard rushed to the assistance of Cortes, and with one blow of his sword cut off the arms of the Indian who had dared to seize the Spanish leader. After a time the Aztecs found themselves prisoners within their own city. The Spaniards had cut off all means of escape, and the Indians were starving to death. Their sufferings were terrible, and hundreds dropped down daily in the streets. Yet the proud king Guatemotzin refused to submit, and Cortes ordered a final attack. After furious fighting Guatemotzin was captured, and the Aztecs surrendered. Their cruel religion, with its strange gods and human sacrifices, was now overthrown. Cortes, with his few followers, never more than one thousand trained soldiers, had succeeded in conquering a country larger than Spain. Over a million Mexicans had perished, and those that remained left the city and fled to the mountains. In this way the magnificent civilization of the ancient Mexicans was destroyed. Shiploads of treasures were sent by Cortes to the Spanish king, Charles V., who rejoiced at the glory gained for his country. FRANCISCO PIZARRO. Among the men who had been with Balboa, and who had heard of the wonderful country of the Incas, was Francisco Pizarro. He determined to find this rich country and to conquer it. [Illustration: Francisco Pizarro.] Securing a band of about two hundred men, well armed and mounted on strong horses, he led them, in spite of terrible hardships, over mountains, through valleys, and across plateaus to Cajamarca, the city where the Inca, or king, was then staying. The natives gazed at the Spaniards in wonder and dread. These simple people thought that the white-faced, bearded strangers, who carried thunderbolts in their hands, and who rode such frightful-looking animals, were gods. In spite of their fear, the Indians received the strangers kindly, and gave them food and shelter. That evening, Pizarro and De Soto, taking with them thirty-five horsemen, visited the Inca and arranged with him for a meeting next day in the open square. It was a strange visit. The Inca was surrounded by his slaves and chieftains, and was very polite to the strangers. But the Spaniards began to feel very uneasy. An army composed of thousands of Indians was encamped only two miles away; and compared with it, the two hundred men of Pizarro appeared powerless. The situation of the Spaniards, should the Inca decide to oppose them, seemed without hope. Pizarro scarcely slept that night. He lay awake planning how he might take the Inca prisoner. The next day, about noon, the Indian procession approached the market place. First came attendants who cleared the way; then followed nobles and men of high rank, richly dressed, and covered with ornaments of gold and gems. Last came the Inca, carried on a throne of solid gold, which was gorgeously trimmed with the plumes of tropical birds. The Indian monarch wore rich garments adorned with gold ornaments, and around his neck was a collar of superb emeralds of great size and brilliancy. He took his position near the center of the square, his escort, numbering several thousand, gathered around him. Looking about, the Inca failed to see any of the Spaniards. "Where are the strangers?" he asked. Just then Pizarro's chaplain, with his Bible in his hand, approached the Inca. The chaplain said that he and his people had been sent by a mighty prince to beg the Inca to accept the true religion and consent to be tributary to the great emperor, Charles V., who would then protect them. The Inca grew very angry at this, and declared that he would not change his faith nor be any man's tributary. He then indignantly threw the sacred book upon the ground, and demanded satisfaction from the Spaniards for this insult to him. At this the priest gave the signal, and the Spaniards rushed from their hiding-places and attacked the panic-stricken Indians. The Inca and his attendants were wholly unprepared, being unarmed and utterly defenseless. The Spaniards charged through them, showing no mercy, their swords slashing right and left, and their prancing horses trampling the natives under foot. The guns and firearms of the Spaniards made such havoc and confusion that the terrified Indians offered no resistance. Indeed, they could not offer any. In the vicinity of the Inca the struggle was fierce. The Indians, faithful to the last to their beloved monarch, threw themselves before him, shielding him with their naked bodies from the swords of the Spaniards. At last, as night drew near, the Spaniards, fearing that the Inca might escape, attempted to kill him. [Illustration: The Spaniards Attacking the Inca's Escort.] But Pizarro desired that he should be taken alive, and in a loud voice ordered his followers, as they valued their own lives, not to strike the Inca. Stretching out his arm to save the monarch, Pizarro received a wound on his hand, This was the only wound received by a Spaniard during the attack. At length the Inca was cast from his throne, and, falling to the ground, was caught by Pizarro. He was then imprisoned and placed under a strong guard. As soon as the news of the capture of the Inca spread, all resistance ceased. Many of the Indians fled to the mountains, leaving untold wealth at the disposal of their conquerors, while others remained, hoping to be able to assist their fallen ruler. As soon as the Inca had an opportunity, he tried to think of some way of obtaining his freedom. The room in which he was confined was twenty-two feet in length by seventeen feet in width. Raising his hand as high as he could, the Inca made a mark upon the wall, and told Pizarro that gold enough to fill the room to that mark would be given as a ransom for his release. Pizarro agreed to this bargain, and the natives began to send gold to the Inca to secure his release. Some of the treasures in the temples were buried and hidden by the priests; but ornaments of all kinds, vases, and plate were collected, and in a few months gold amounting to fifteen millions of dollars in our money was divided among the Spaniards. Millions of dollars' worth of gold and silver were shipped to Spain, and the Spanish nation grew very wealthy. Pizarro himself returned to Spain to take Charles V. his share of the plunder. During Pizarro's absence the Spaniards caused the Inca to be killed, notwithstanding the large ransom which they had accepted. The richer the Spanish people grew, the more careless they became in their treatment of other nations and of those under their rule. They grew more cruel and more merciless and more greedy for gold. They flocked in great numbers to South America, a reckless, adventurous, unprincipled horde, ready to commit any crime in order to secure gold. FERDINAND DE SOTO. Among the men who had been with Pizarro in Peru was Ferdinand de Soto, a bold and dashing Spanish cavalier. [Illustration: Ferdinand de Soto.] De Soto was appointed governor of Cuba in 1537, and at the same time received permission from the Spanish king to conquer Florida. This permission to conquer Florida was received by De Soto with great delight. He felt certain that in the interior of Florida there were cities as large and as wealthy as those of Peru. To conquer these cities, obtain their treasure, and win for himself riches and fame, was the dream of De Soto. Strange as it may seem to you, De Soto was also anxious to convert the natives to his own religion. He intended to take from them all their possessions, but he meant to save their souls, if possible. So, leaving his young and beautiful wife Isabella to rule over Cuba in his absence, De Soto, in May, 1539, started from Havana with nine vessels, about six hundred men, and two hundred and twenty-three horses. After a safe voyage, the expedition landed on the coast of Florida, at Tampa Bay. Before starting on the march to the interior of the country, De Soto sent all the vessels back to Cuba. In this way he cut off all hope of retreat, in case the men should become discouraged. But no one thought of wanting to return now. Everybody was in high spirits. The soldiers wore brilliant uniforms, their caps were adorned with waving plumes, and their polished armor glistened and sparkled in the sunshine. In the company were twelve priests, who were expected to convert the prisoners which De Soto meant to capture. The Spaniards carried with them chains to secure these prisoners, and bloodhounds to track them in case any escaped. It was a gay company which marched off into the interior of Florida with prancing horses, waving flags and banners, and beating drums. At first De Soto marched directly north, plunging into a wilderness which proved to be almost impassable. The country was full of swamps, through which the horses could scarcely travel. The large trees were bound together by tangled vines; and their roots, which protruded from the earth, were like traps, catching the feet of the travelers and throwing them to the ground. Besides all this, the heavy baggage which the men and horses carried weighed them down and made the journey almost impossible. De Soto, however, kept bravely on, encouraging his men as best he could, and at last reached the Savannah River. Here he changed his course to westward, hoping to find gold in that direction. Week after week, month after month, the Spaniards traveled on through a dense wilderness, enduring great hardships and finding nothing but tribes of hostile Indians. De Soto asked one of these Indian chiefs to give him slaves enough to carry his baggage through the forest. The chief refused; whereupon De Soto and his men attacked the tribe and took many prisoners. These prisoners De Soto caused to be chained together and placed in front of the expedition, where they were made to act as guides as well as slaves. Then De Soto asked the Indians where the great cities with gold and silver treasures were. One Indian said he did not know of any. At this reply De Soto caused the Indian to be put to death with frightful torture. This made the Indians untruthful, and they told De Soto many different stories of places where they thought gold might be found. So the expedition wandered on, searching for the gold which they never found; and the men grew discouraged and heartsick, and longed for home. [Illustration: De Soto Marching through the Forest.] The Indian tribes, angry at the cruel treatment of the Spaniards, attacked them frequently, and De Soto and his men scarcely ever enjoyed a peaceful rest at night. The Spaniards were unused to Indian warfare, and were no match for the quick, nimble savages, who glided through the forests silently and swiftly. These Indians never came to open battle, but hid themselves behind rocks and trees, and were scarcely ever seen. Two or three would suddenly appear, send a shower of arrows at the Spaniards, and then dart away again into the woods. The Indians scarcely ever missed their aim, and the Spaniards never knew when they were near. One day De Soto captured some Indians who said that they knew where gold was to be found and that they would show the way to the place. De Soto only half trusted them, but he allowed them to lead the way. The cunning savages led the Spaniards into an ambush, where other Indians attacked them fiercely, killing their horses and many of their men. As punishment for this act, De Soto ordered that these Indians should be torn to pieces by the bloodhounds. Sometimes the Spaniards, in their wanderings, passed camps where the Indians were gathered round huge bonfires, singing, dancing, yelling, and shouting the terrible Indian war whoop. Under shelter of this noise the Spaniards would steal quietly away and avoid the Indians for a time. At length, after wandering for two years, De Soto came, in 1541, to the shore of a large river. This river was wide and muddy, and had a strong current which carried much driftwood along with it. De Soto learned from the Indians that it was called Mississippi, or the "Father of Waters." [Illustration: De Soto Discovers the Mississippi River.] He had reached it near the spot where the city of Memphis now stands, and here his company halted and camped. At this place the Spaniards built rafts, striking the fetters from their captives in order to use the iron for nails, and so crossed the river. They hoped in this way to escape from their savage foes; but on the other side of the river they found Indians who were just as fierce. So the Spaniards traveled south, hoping by following the course of the river to reach the sea. This De Soto soon found to be impossible, as the country was a wilderness of tangled vines and roots, and his followers could not cross the many creeks and small rivers which flowed into the Mississippi. The horses traveled through this country with difficulty, often being up to their girths in water. Each day saw the little band grow less in numbers. At length they returned to the banks of the river, being guided back by their horses. The men lost their way in the dreadful forest, but the instinct of the noble animals directed them aright. Food was growing scarce, and De Soto himself was taken ill. He knew that unless something should be done soon to make the Indians help them, all would perish. So he sent word to an Indian chief saying that he was the child of the sun, and that all men obeyed him. He then declared that he wanted the chief's friendship, and ordered him to bring him food. The chief sent back word that if De Soto would cause the river to dry up he would believe him. This, of course, De Soto could not do. He was disappointed and discouraged at not being able to get food. The illness from which he was suffering grew worse, and he died soon afterwards. His followers were anxious to hide his death from the natives, who were very much afraid of him. So they placed his body in the hollow of a scooped out tree, and sunk it at midnight in the water. Those of his followers who were left decided to try to reach home by following the river to its mouth. These men were in a wretched condition. Their clothing was nearly all gone. Few of them had shoes, and many had only the skins of animals and mats made of wild vines to keep them warm. They built seven frail barks and sailed down the Mississippi, avoiding Indians all the way, and in seventeen days they came to the Gulf of Mexico. In fifty days more they succeeded in reaching a Spanish settlement on the coast of Mexico, where they were received with much joy. Of the gay company of six hundred and twenty who had set out with such high hopes, only three hundred and eleven men returned. THE GREAT RIVER AMAZON, AND EL DORADO. As you may imagine, there was great excitement and curiosity in Spain, after the voyages of Columbus, about the new lands beyond the Western Ocean. Several of the men who had sailed with Columbus were ready to undertake new voyages of discovery. Among them was Yanez Pinzon. You will remember that when Columbus made his first voyage he set out with three vessels. One of these was the _Nina_. It was commanded by Yanez Pinzon. [Illustration: The Nina.] After Columbus had returned from his second voyage, Yanez Pinzon succeeded in fitting out a fleet to go to the New World. In 1499 he sailed with four caravels from Palos, the same port from which Columbus had sailed. Pinzon took with him some of the sailors who had been with Columbus, and also his three principal pilots. These pilots were men who understood how to use the astrolabe and to tell the course of the ship at sea. Pinzon's fleet sailed toward the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, and after passing them its course was southwest across the Atlantic. At length the fleet crossed the equator, and Pinzon was the first explorer to cross the line in the western Atlantic. The fleet sailed on for nearly five hundred miles to the southward. Here Pinzon met a terrific storm, which came very near sending his whole fleet to the bottom. He was now not far from the coast, and after the storm was over he discovered land. The land proved to be the most eastern point of South America. This was in the month of January, in the year 1500. Pinzon and a company of his men went ashore. They did not remain long, however, as they found the Indians very hostile. The Indians attacked the Spaniards and killed several of their number. They were so furious that, after chasing the Spaniards to their boats, they waded into the sea and fought to get the oars. The Indians captured one of the rowboats, but the Spaniards at last got off to their vessels. Pinzon then set sail and steered northward along the coast. When his fleet came near the equator, he noticed that the water was very fresh. Accordingly he gave orders to fill the water casks of his fleet. The freshness of the water of the sea led him to sail in toward the shore. At length he discovered whence the large volume of fresh water came. It flowed out of the mouth of a great river. It was the mouth of the river Amazon, and so great is the volume of water which it pours into the sea that its current is noticed in the ocean two hundred miles from the shore. This fact is not so surprising when we learn that the main mouth of this great river is fifty miles wide, that the river is four thousand miles long, including its windings, and that, besides many smaller branches, it has five tributaries, each over a thousand miles long, and one over two thousand miles long, flowing into it. Pinzon anchored in the mouth of the river, and found the natives peaceful. In this respect they were unlike those he had met farther south. They came out to his ships in a friendly way in their canoes. But when Pinzon, a short time later, left the river, he cruelly carried off thirty-six of the Indians who had been friendly to him. While Pinzon's fleet was in the mouth of the river, it came a second time near being wrecked. Pinzon was, of course, in strange waters. He did not know that twice each month the tide does not rise in the usual way, but rushes up the mouth of the Amazon with great force. The tide, as a rule, is about six hours in rising and six hours in falling. In the mouth of the Amazon, however, at new moon and at full moon the tide swells to its limit in two or three minutes. It comes as a wall of water, twelve or fifteen feet high, followed by another wall of the same height. Often there is a third wall of water, and at some seasons of the year there is a fourth wall. This peculiar rising of the tide is called the _bore_. The noise of this rushing flood can be heard five or six miles off. It comes with tremendous force, and sometimes uproots great trees along the banks. During the few days when the tide rushes up the river in this way vessels do not remain in the main channel, but anchor in coves and protected places. Pinzon, as we have said, did not know about the sudden rising of the tide. His fleet was anchored in the main channel when the bore came, and it dashed his vessels about like toy boats and almost wrecked them. After repairing the damage done to his fleet, he made up his mind that there was little gold to be found in those parts, and so he sailed out of the mouth of the great river, and then turned northward along the coast. It may be of interest to know what befell Pinzon after he left the mouth of the Amazon. We will tell you briefly. He sailed along the coast to the northwest, and passed the mouth of the Orinoco, another large river of South America. About a hundred and fifty miles beyond the Orinoco, he entered a gulf and landed. Here he cut a large quantity of brazil wood to take back to Spain. [Illustration: Scene on the Orinoco River.] Then he sailed for the island of Hispaniola, now called Haiti. From this island he sailed to the Bahama Islands. It was July when he reached the Bahamas. Misfortune again came to his fleet. While anchored in the Bahamas a hurricane came up, and two of his vessels were sunk. A third was blown out to sea. The fourth vessel rode out the storm, but the crew, thinking all the while she would sink, took to their small boats and at length reached the shore. The Indians came to them when they landed, and proved friendly. After the hurricane was over, the vessel that had been carried out to sea drifted back. As soon as the sea was smooth enough Pinzon and his men went on board the two remaining vessels and set sail for Hispaniola. At Hispaniola he repaired his vessels, and then sailed back to Spain. He reached Palos in September. About three months after Pinzon sailed away from the mouth of the Amazon it was visited by a Portuguese navigator named Cabral. Although the Portuguese were not so fortunate as to discover America, yet they had been very active in making discoveries for seventy years and more before Columbus's first voyage. In 1420 they discovered the Madeira Islands. In 1432 they discovered the Azore Islands, which lie eight hundred miles west of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean. Their vessels, from time to time, had been pushing farther and farther down the west coast of Africa. In the middle of the century as many as fifty-one of their caravels had been to the Guinea coast, or the Gold Coast, as it was more often called. In 1484, eight years before Columbus discovered America, they had discovered the mouth of the Kongo River on the African coast. It is not surprising, then, that their navigators were pushing out across the Atlantic soon after Columbus had led the way. But though Cabral sailed along the whole coast of Brazil, and took possession of it in the name of the King of Portugal, he did not learn any more about the great river at the mouth of which he anchored than did Pinzon. Had he waited a few months, or had he returned to the river, he might easily have explored its course. For from July to December of each year the east wind blows steadily up the Amazon, and Cabral could have spread his sails and kept them spread as he sailed up the river for two thousand miles or more to the eastern foot of the great mountains of South America, the Andes. The exploration of the Amazon, however, fell to the lot of another man, Francisco Orellana by name. Orellana did not sail up the river from its mouth, but came down it from one of its sources. This was in 1540, many years, as you see, after Pinzon and Cabral had anchored at the mouth. Orellana was one of Pizarro's men, and had been with him when the Inca of Peru was taken and afterwards put to death. It was Francisco Pizarro, as you well know, who conquered Peru. After Francisco Pizarro had conquered the country, he made his brother, Gonzalo Pizarro, governor of Quito. This brother, while at Quito, made up his mind to cross the Andes Mountains and explore the country beyond. So he got ready an expedition, and made Orellana his lieutenant; Orellana was, therefore, second in command of the expedition. The army was made up of three hundred and fifty Spaniards, four thousand Indians, and one thousand bloodhounds for hunting down the natives. They had a hard march over the Andes, and suffered very much in crossing. When they were over the mountains, they discovered a river flowing toward the southeast. This was the river Napo. Pizarro had had so hard a march across the Andes that he felt his men could not stand it to go back by the same way. He therefore encamped by the Napo River, and spent seven months in building a vessel to hold his baggage and those of his men who were ill. He put Orellana in charge of the vessel, and ordered him to float slowly down the river while the other part of the army marched along the shore. The march was very slow and toilsome, and after a few weeks the food began to get low. At this time Pizarro heard of a rich country farther down the stream, where the Napo flowed into a larger river. This country he wished to reach. So he sent Orellana in the vessel, with fifty soldiers, down the Napo to the larger river. There Orellana was to get food and supplies for the army and then return. Pizarro waited and waited in vain for Orellana to return, and at last he and his men had to find their way back across the Andes with scanty food and undergo great hardships. Orellana and the soldiers with him were carried by the current swiftly down the Napo, and in three days they came into the great river. It was indeed a great river, for the Amazon at the place where the Napo flows into it is a mile in width. Orellana expected to find here many people and plenty of food. He found, however, only a wilderness. It was about like the country where Pizarro and his army were encamped. Orellana could barely get food for himself and the men with him, much less enough for Pizarro and his army. To return against the swift current would be a heavy task. After thinking the matter over, he decided to follow the great river to the sea. But he must first win the soldiers who were with him over to his plan. This he soon succeeded in doing, and they started down the Amazon. It was no easy journey. He and the soldiers suffered greatly. But in August, 1541, after seven months of hardships, they reached the ocean, and a short time after this they sailed to Spain. When Orellana reached Spain, he gave a glowing account of a wonderful country, rich in precious metals, through which he had passed. According to his story, it was far richer in gold than Peru. The name El Dorado, "The Golden," was given to this fabled country; and for a score or more of years after Orellana had told his story, efforts were made to find it. Expedition after expedition set out in search of El Dorado. An explorer named Philip von Hutten, who led a party southward into the country from the northern part of South America, believed he caught sight of a city whose golden walls glistened far away in the distance. But he never reached the shining city which he thought he saw, nor was the fabled El Dorado ever found. VERRAZZANO. Verrazzano was a native of Florence, Italy, and a pirate like many other sailors of that time. Being known as a daring seaman, he was asked by Francis I., King of France, to take command of a fleet of four vessels and try to find a western passage to rich Cathay. For Francis had become very jealous of the Spaniards, and felt that his country ought to have a share in the riches of the New World. [Illustration: Verrazzano.] Verrazzano sailed from France full of hope and joy; but he had gone only a short distance when a severe storm arose, and two of his vessels were lost sight of forever. The two remaining vessels were obliged to return to France. After some delay Verrazzano started again, with one vessel called the _Dauphine_. With this vessel he reached the island of Madeira, and from this island he sailed, January 17, 1524, for the unknown world. The voyage lasted forty-nine days, after which time a long, low coast was sighted in the distance. This coast, which was probably North Carolina, afforded no landing place, and for some time Verrazzano sailed north and then south, searching for one. The search proved unsuccessful, and as the crew were in need of fresh water, Verrazzano decided to send a boat ashore. So a small boat was manned, and the sailors tried very hard to reach the shore, but the surf was so high that they were unable to do this. At last one brave sailor jumped from the boat into the foaming breakers and swam toward the shore. He carried in one hand presents for the Indians, who were standing at the water's edge watching the strange sight. At length the sailor succeeded in swimming so close to the shore that he was able to throw the presents to the Indians. His courage then deserted him, and in terror he tried to swim back to his vessel. The surf, however, dashed him on the sandy beach, and he would have been drowned had not some of the Indians waded in and dragged him ashore. These Indians quickly stripped him of all his clothing and began to build an immense bonfire. The poor sailor thought his end had come, and his former companions looked on from their ship in horror at the preparations. [Illustration: Indians Rescuing the Sailor.] All of them thought that the Indians meant to burn him alive or else to cook and eat him. To their great relief, the Indians treated him very gently and kindly; they dried his clothes by the fire and warmed him. These kind Indians looked very savage. Their skin was copper colored, their long, straight hair was tied and worn in a braid, and their faces were very stern; for, you know, an Indian never laughs or smiles. In spite of their fierce looks, however, they were very good to the pale-faced stranger, and when he was strong again they led him back to the shore, and he swam out to his ship. Verrazzano was glad to see his sailor return in safety from this dangerous trip. The man had risked his life, but no water had been obtained for the crew. So Verrazzano started northward, and along the coast of Maryland he made a landing and secured the much-needed fresh water. At this place the Frenchmen had an opportunity to return the kindness that the Indians had shown their companion, but I am sorry to have to tell you that they did not do so. While searching for the water, Verrazzano and his followers came suddenly upon a little Indian boy, whom they seized and carried off to their ship. The mother of the boy came quickly from some bushes to rescue her son, and they would also have stolen her, but she made so much noise that they were obliged to run in order to escape from the rest of the tribe, who came to help her. The Frenchmen reached their ship in safety with the poor little Indian boy, and quickly set sail. Verrazzano proceeded northward, following the shore, and at length came to a very narrow neck of water, with rising land on both sides. Through this strait Verrazzano sailed, and, to his surprise, came out into a broad and beautiful bay which was surrounded on all sides by forests, and was dotted here and there with the canoes of Indians who were coming out from the land to meet him. You have, of course, guessed that this strait was the Narrows, which separates Staten Island from Long Island, and that the bay was the beautiful New York Bay. Verrazzano followed the shore of Long Island to a small island, which was likely Block Island. From this island he sailed into a harbor on the mainland, probably Newport, where he remained fifteen days. Here the Indians received their pale-faced visitors with great dignity and pomp. Two of the Indian chiefs, arrayed in painted deer skins and raccoon and lynx skins, and decorated with copper ornaments, paid Verrazzano a visit of state. Soon after this Verrazzano sailed away, again northward. The climate grew cooler and the country more rugged, and the vegetation changed. Instead of the sweet-scented cypress and bay trees which the sailors had admired along the Carolina coast, there were dark forests of stately pines, which were grand but gloomy. Great cliffs of rock extended along the shores, and from these heights the natives looked down upon the lonely little ship in fear, anger, and amazement. At length they consented to trade with the pale-faces; but they lowered a cord from the rocks and drew up the knives, fishhooks, and pieces of steel which they demanded in exchange for furs and skins. Once Verrazzano and a few of his men tried to land. But the Indians fiercely attacked them, and a shower of arrows and the sound of the dreaded war whoop caused the Europeans to fly to their ship for safety. So Verrazzano gave up the plan of landing among these fierce Indians, and continued his voyage northward as far as Newfoundland. Here provisions grew scarce, and Verrazzano decided to sail for home. The return voyage was a safe one, and Verrazzano was greeted with joy when he arrived in France. Upon his discoveries the French based their claim to all the country in the New World between Carolina and Newfoundland, extending westward as far as land continued. Verrazzano wished very much to go again to this new land and try to plant a colony and to convert the Indians to the Christian religion. But France at this time was plunged into war at home, and all trace of Verrazzano is lost. Some say that he made a second voyage, and that while exploring a wild country he was taken prisoner and killed by a savage tribe of Indians. The story that is most likely true is that he did return to the New World, and that while there he was taken prisoner by the Spaniards and hanged as a pirate. THE FAMOUS VOYAGE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE--1577. Under the rule of Queen Elizabeth England became noted for her bold and daring seamen. These seamen were really pirates, or sea robbers; but their occupation in those days was looked upon as a lawful one by all except the people whom they plundered. [Illustration: Sir Francis Drake.] Queen Elizabeth encouraged the seafaring men to make voyages to the New World, and also to attack the Spanish ships, because she was displeased at the way the Spaniards were behaving. The Spaniards had grown very rich and powerful by means of the wealth they had obtained in America, and in their pride they did not treat the other nations properly. They had no idea of fairness. They were selfish and wanted everything for Spain. The English people thought that the best place to attack the Spaniards was in the New World. They well knew that if they could cut off the supply of gold and silver which the Spanish nation was receiving from South America and the Indies, that nation would suffer. Sir Francis Drake, a brave young knight of Elizabeth's court, formed a plan to teach the Spaniards a lesson. This plan was approved by the queen, and Drake was promised glory and riches if he should succeed in carrying it out. In November, 1577, Drake sailed from Plymouth, England, with a fleet of five vessels and one hundred and sixty-four men. He told every one that he was going to make a voyage to Alexandria, as he did not wish the Spaniards to know that he intended to cross the Atlantic. After a voyage of about five months, as they were sailing quietly along one evening, the crew saw strange fires in the distance. At first the sailors were alarmed; but on sailing nearer they saw that the fires were on the shore of a strange country, which Drake knew to be South America. The natives had built these immense bonfires near the water and were preparing for some religious rites. These natives were friendly, and Drake, after procuring some fresh supplies, sailed on, as he was in haste to reach Peru. The fleet soon entered the Strait of Magellan, and sailed through without any mishap. On an island in the strait they found a great number of fowl of the size of geese, which could not fly. The crew shot about three thousand of these birds, and now, having plenty of provisions, they began the journey up the west coast of South America. The Spaniards, never dreaming that any one would have the courage to try to reach their lands by way of the Strait of Magellan, had made no attempt to defend themselves from attack from the south. They feared that their enemies might come down upon them by way of the isthmus, and strong forces had been placed there to prevent any one from crossing; but all the southern ports were defenseless. So Drake and his men sailed up the coast, dropping in at different harbors, boldly taking everything of value that they saw, and then gayly sailing away, laughing at the surprise they left behind them. At one place Drake found a Spanish ship laden with spoils, ready to sail to Spain. The English quickly took possession of her, set her crew ashore, and carried her out to sea. There they found that she had on board pure gold amounting to thirty-seven thousand Spanish ducats, stores of good wine, and other treasure. At one place where they landed Drake himself found a Spaniard lying asleep near the shore, with thirteen bars of silver by his side. The Englishmen took the silver and went quietly away, leaving the man to finish his nap. [Illustration: Drake and the Sleeping Spaniard.] Farther on they met a Spaniard and an Indian boy driving eight llamas, as the sheep of that country are called, toward Peru. Each llama had on its back two bags of leather, and in each bag was fifty pounds of silver. This silver Drake ordered to be placed on his ship, and then he sailed away. Many other places were visited in this manner, and much treasure was collected; but it was not until Drake reached Lima that the English understood the great wealth of that country. About twelve ships were in the harbor, some fully laden, and all unprotected, as the Spaniards never dreamed of attack. These ships Drake proceeded to lighten of their cargo by removing it to his own ships. He then gave chase to another vessel, which he heard was laden with still greater treasure. This vessel he soon found, and the cargo proved to be very valuable. Thirteen chests of plate, many tons of gold and silver, jewels, precious stones, and quantities of silk and linen were taken. As you may suppose, after continuing this work for some time Drake's ships were very well loaded, and he and his companions began to think about returning to England. Drake felt that it would not be safe for him to return through the Strait of Magellan, as he knew the Spaniards would be expecting him. So he decided to sail across the Pacific Ocean to the Molucca Islands, and complete his journey by circumnavigating the globe. He was at this time becalmed in the tropics, and therefore headed his ships north, hoping to find the trade wind, which would carry him across the Pacific. After proceeding north along a strange coast for nearly a month, during which time the weather gradually became colder and colder, Drake decided to enter a harbor and anchor his vessels. The people of the country were friendly, and as the English treated them well, they remained so. They admired the brave Sir Francis Drake so much that they begged him to stay with them and be their king. But Drake had no desire to be king over an Indian tribe. He wanted to get back to his own good Queen Elizabeth and tell her of all the wonderful things that had happened to him. So he took possession of this country for England, and called it New Albion. New Albion was the land which is at present known as California, and the bay in which Drake anchored is just north of San Francisco Bay. Then Drake prepared his ships for the voyage home, hoisted anchor, and was soon sailing away in the direction of the Moluccas. These islands he reached after a long voyage, and after visiting several of the Indies he proceeded across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope and thence northward to England. He reached home in September, 1580, after an absence of three years. How glad Queen Elizabeth was to see him! She granted him the honor of knighthood, and in other ways showed her pride in her brave subject. Drake's ship, the _Golden Hind_, was placed in a dock at Deptford, where it stood for many years. People used to take their children to see it, and they would tell them about the _Golden Hind_, the good ship in which sailed the brave general, Sir Francis Drake, when he taught the Spaniards a lesson. When the timber of the ship began to decay, a chair was made of some of it and given to Oxford University, where it may be seen to this day. HENRY HUDSON. Henry Hudson was one of the best sea captains in all England. He loved the ocean, and he did not know the word "fear." [Illustration: Henry Hudson.] In 1607 a company of London merchants sent him to look for a northwest passage to China. These merchants knew that if such a passage could be found, the journey to China would be much shorter than by the overland route then used. It would take less time to sail around the earth near the pole than to sail around the earth near the equator. Besides, every one who had attempted to reach China by sailing west had reached, instead, that long coast of the New World, through which but one opening had ever been found. The route through this opening, the Strait of Magellan, had been proved by its discoverer, Ferdinand Magellan, to be too long for use in commerce, so traders were trying hard to find a northwest passage. Captain Hudson proceeded northwest from England, and tried to pass between Greenland and Spitzbergen and sail across the north pole into the Pacific. Failing in this attempt, he made a second voyage, during which he tried to pass between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. This voyage also was unsuccessful, and Hudson returned to England. He had found no northwest passage, but he had sailed past mountains of snow and ice and had been nearer the north pole than any man had ever been before. Captain Hudson was not discouraged by his two failures. He still believed a northwest passage could be found; and when the Dutch people asked him to make a voyage for them in search of a passage to the Pacific Ocean, he was quite willing to accept the offer. In 1609 Hudson sailed from Amsterdam in a small craft of eighty tons, called the _Half Moon_. After sailing many days through fog and ice, the sailors refused to go farther in that direction, and then Hudson headed his ship across the Atlantic toward America. You may think it strange that Hudson should change his plans so quickly, but he knew what he was about. He had received a letter from his friend Captain John Smith, who was then in Virginia, telling him that a northwest passage was to be found along the coast of North America, north of Chesapeake Bay. This letter Hudson had in mind when he started on his voyage. He reached Chesapeake Bay, but did not enter it, as the weather was stormy. Instead, he proceeded up the coast, looking for an opening. At length, in September, he entered a beautiful bay. Into this bay a wide river flowed which Hudson thought might be a strait that would lead into the Pacific Ocean. The water in this opening was salt, and this strengthened Hudson in the belief that it was the strait for which he had been searching so long. At the mouth of the river there was a beautiful island, long and narrow, and wooded to the shore. At first the island seemed deserted, but soon the sailors saw here and there slender curling columns of smoke rising from among the trees. This smoke showed them that the island was inhabited, and presently an Indian appeared on the shore. [Illustration: The Half Moon on the Hudson River.] This Indian looked for a moment in astonishment at the ship, and then, shouting the war whoop, bounded back into the forest. In a few minutes he reappeared, bringing other Indians with him. All were amazed at the sight of the strange ship, and they gazed in wonder and fear at it and at the white-faced, bearded strangers. Little by little, however, they lost their fear and talked with Captain Hudson. These Indians told Hudson that the name of the beautiful island was Manhattan, and that the stream led far, far to the north. So Hudson entered the river and sailed slowly north, enjoying the charming scenery, and stopping now and then to trade and to talk with the Indians. For twenty miles he sailed along a great wall of rock about five hundred feet high, which we now know as the Palisades. This name was given to the rocky wall because it looks like a palisade, or high fence of stakes set close together and upright in the ground. Soon after this the river became very winding, and high mountains arose on all sides. The _Half Moon_ now entered the beautiful Highlands, and her crew were the first white men to see this enchanting spot. The vessel sailed on, and at length it came to the place where the city of Hudson now stands. Here an Indian chief invited the captain to go ashore. Hudson did so, and the Indians prepared a great feast in his honor. They gave him roast pigeons and a roast dog to eat. Hudson did not like the dog meat very much, but the Indians insisted upon cooking it for him. [Illustration: Hudson Feasting with the Indians.] The Indians wanted him to stay overnight with them, and one Indian arose, and gathering together all the arrows, broke them and threw them into the fire. By this act he meant to show Hudson that he and his tribe would do him no harm. Hudson felt that he had no time to lose, but must go on and find out whether this wonderful body of water would lead him into the Pacific. So he bade the Indians good-by and sailed away. He went on up the river until the place was reached where Albany now stands. Here the little _Half Moon_ was anchored. Indians came running down to the shore in wonder at the sight of the strange vessel. They brought with them strings of beaver skins, which they gave Hudson in exchange for pieces of gold lace, glass beads, and other trinkets. Hudson was quick to see the importance of this fur trade, and took back with him many valuable furs. Here the stream had become narrow, and was so shallow that the captain feared his vessel might run aground. He knew at last that the water was a river and not a strait, and that he was not likely to find here a passage to China. So Hudson, turning back, started down the river. On the way down, an Indian who was in a canoe stole something from the ship. One of the crew saw the Indian commit the theft, and, picking up a gun, shot and killed him. This made the other Indians very angry, and Hudson had several fights with them. Nevertheless the expedition reached the mouth of the river in safety, and early in October Hudson returned to Amsterdam. He had not found a northwest passage, but he had secured a large tract of country in the New World for Holland. He told the Dutch about the rich furs to be found there, and they immediately began to build trading posts where the cities of New York and Albany now stand. The next year Hudson made another voyage in search of a passage to Asia. This time he sailed far north into Hudson Bay. Here his crew mutinied and refused to obey him. They seized him and put him, together with his son, into an open boat, and set them adrift in the icy water. As Hudson was never heard of again, it is supposed that he perished in the waters of the great bay which he discovered, and which still bears his name. 
23643	----	GUDRID THE FAIR A Tale of the Discovery of America BY MAURICE HEWLETT Author of "The Forest Lovers," "The Life and Death of Richard Yea and Nay," "Love and Lucy," etc. NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1918 Copyright, 1918, By Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc. PREFACE This tale is founded upon two sagas, which have been translated literally and without attempt to accord their discrepancies by York Powell and Vigfussen in their invaluable _Origines Icelandicae_. As well as those versions I have had another authority to help me, in Laing's _Sea-Kings of Norway_. I have blent the two accounts into one, and put forward the result with this word of explanation, which I hope will justify me in the treatment I have given them. I don't forget that a "saga" is history, and that these sagas in particular furnish an account of the first discovery of America, no less a thing. Nevertheless, while I have been scrupulous in leaving the related facts as I found them, I have not hesitated to dwell upon the humanity in the tales, and to develop that as seemed fitting. I don't think that I have put anything into the relation which is not implied in the few words accorded me by the text. I believe that everything I give Gudrid and Freydis, Karlsefne and Leif and Eric Red to say or to do can be made out from hints, which I have made it my business to interpret. Character makes plot in life as well as in fiction, and a novelist is not worthy of his hire who can't weave a tale out of one or two people to whom he has been able to give life. All romantic invention proceeds from people or from atmosphere. Therefore, while I have shown, I hope, due respect to the exploration of America, I admit that my tale turns essentially upon the explorers of it. My business as a writer of tales has been to explore them rather than Wineland the Good. I have been more interested in Gudrid's husbands and babies than I had need to be as an historian. I am sure the tale is none the worse for it--and anyhow I can't help it. If I read of a woman called Gudrid, and a handsome woman at that, I am bound to know pretty soon what colour her hair was, and how she twisted it up. If I hear that she had three husbands and outlived them all I cannot rest until I know how she liked them, how they treated her; what feelings she had, what feelings they had. So I get to know them as well as I know her--and so it goes on. Wineland does not fail of getting discovered, but meantime some new people have been born into the world who do the business of discovering while doing their own human business of love and marriage and childbirth. All this, I say, is implicit in the saga-history. So it is, but it has to be looked for. The saga listeners, I gather, took character very much for granted, as probably Homer's audience did. Odysseus was full of wiles, Achilles was terrible, Paris "a woman-haunting cheat," Gunnar of Lithend a poet and born fighter, Nial a sage, and so on. The poet gave them more than that, of course. Poetry apart, he did not disdain psychology. There is plenty psychology in both _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_--less in the sagas, but still it is there. And when you come to know the persons of these great inventions there is as much psychology as any one can need, or may choose to put there--as much as there is in _Hamlet_, as much as there is in _La Guerre et La Paix_. In Kormak's Saga, for instance, which I put forward some years ago as _A Lover's Tale_, is there no psychology? It is no way out of it to put down Kormak's tergiversations to sorcery. I doubt if that was good enough for the men who first heard the tale; it is certainly no good to us. In the strange barbaric recesses of the tale of Gunnar Helming and Frey's wife, what are we to make of it all unless we reckon with the states of poor Sigrid's soul, married to a gog-eyed wooden god? How came Halgerd to betray Gunnar to his foes, how came Nial to be burned in his bed? Can one read _Laxdale_ and not desire to read through it into the proud heart of Gudrun? And having once begun with them one could go on, I believe, until the hearts of all those fine, straight-dealing people were as plain to us as those of our superfine, sophisticated moderns. For Nature is still our mother and mistress, no less now than she ever was--and that's a good thing for the story-reader as well as for the story-teller. Out of the Saga of Thorgils, which is a tale of Greenland's exploration, I hope that I drew a portrait of a good Icelander. Out of Eric's Saga and Karlsefne's Saga combined I believe there is a no less faithful picture of a good Icelandish woman. Gudrid was wise as well as fair, if I have read her truly; she was a good woman, wife and mother. The discovery of Wineland is to my own feelings quite beside the mark where she is involved; but I have put it all in, and wish there had been more of it. Psychology and romantic imagination will not help us much there. We want the facts, and they fail us. All that can be made out is that Karlsefne sailed up the Hudson. His Scraelings were Esquimaux. But who was the black-kirtled woman who appeared to Gudrid and gave herself the same name? And where was the Maggoty Sea? And what goaded Freydis to her dreadful deeds? I admire Freydis myself; I think she was a _femme incomprise_. I have taken pains with Freydis, though personally I had rather been Gudrid's fourth husband than Freydis's first. I am not afraid of the accusation of vulgarising the classics. It is good that they should be loved, and if simplification and amplification humanise them I can stand the charge with philosophy. Of all classics known to me the sagas are the most unapproachable in their naked strength. Their frugality freezes the soul; they are laconic to baldness. I admire strength with anybody, but the starkness of the sagas shocks me. When Nial lies down by his old wife's side with the timbers roaring and crackling over his head, and Skarphedin, his son, says, "Our father goes early to bed, but that was to be expected, as he is an old man," Professor Ker, exulting in his strength, finds it admirable. I say it is inadequate, and not justified to us by what else the saga tells us of the speaker. I am sure that Skarphedin had more to say, or that if he had not the poet could have expressed him better. It recalls the humorous callousness of our soldiers, which, nakedly rendered, is often shocking. This is, however, not really the point. Terseness may be dramatic--it often is, as in "Cover her face--mine eyes dazzle--She died young"--but in narrative it may check instead of provoke the imagination. But if it provoke, is it not reasonable to let the imagination go to work upon it? If Skarphedin indeed took his father's death in that manner, is one not justified in going to work with Skarphedin, to find out what manner of man he was who could so express himself in supreme crisis? I trace a great deal of our soldiers' crude jesting at death to their Scandinavian blood; and nothing more intensely and painfully interesting has ever been given to the imagination to work upon than their conduct in the face of horror and sin of late, so dauntless, so blithe and so grim as it is. Where heroism has been so shown on all sides of us in these three dreadful years, it is no longer possible to pick and choose heroic nations. One might otherwise have said that no such heroes were ever given to the world as the heroes of Iceland. That they are not accepted as such on all hands is no fault of the literature which presents them; for that literature, like all great art, makes demands upon its readers. It hands over the key, but if the lock is stiff it will not give you oil for the wards. That you must find for yourself. Oil for the wards is all I can pretend to here; and if I may say that I have humanised a tale of endurance, and clothed demigods and shadows in flesh and blood, I shall feel that I have done useful work, and bear charges of vulgarisation with a philosophy which assures me that the two terms are much of a muchness. The great gestures, the large-scale maps, the grand manner are for history and epic, but genre for the novel--and what _genre_ is so momentous to it as the human? Let Homer describe the wrath of Achilles and the passion of Hektor and Andromache. The novelist will want to know what Briseïs felt when she was handed from hero to hero, will pore upon the matronly charity of Theano, the agony of the two young men Achilles slew by Skamander, and find the psychology of these pawns in the great game as enthralling as that of the high movers. I confess that to me Gudrid, the many times a wife and the always sweet and reserved, is more absorbing a tale than the discovery of Wineland. I like the two running Scots better than their country, would barter all Greenland for the tale of the winter sickness in Thorstan Black's house. So much apology I feel moved to offer for having put down Exploration from the chief place in the tale, and put up a wife and mother. As for the verse--Gudrid's Wardlock chant is adapted from the Lay of Swipday and Merglad in _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, I, 92 _seq_., and Thorstan's Song of Helgi and Sigrun is a partial version of that epic (_ibid_. 131). GUDRID THE FAIR I Thorbeorn was old when this tale begins. His face was lean, his beard was grey, he stooped somewhat in the saddle. But he had a fiery mind, a high spirit, and was so rich, or believed so, that men said he could buy off Death more likely than any other man, seeing he would neither fail of hardihood nor money. By this time, old age apart, he had done very well for himself, having not only buried a wife, but married another; having not only seen three sons out into the world and become a grandfather twice over; but having had also, by his second wife, whose name was Hollweg, a daughter, and an estate of Bathbrink which could be hers by and by, if he so pleased. This daughter was by name Gudrid, and by all men's consent Gudrid the Fair. Iceland has always been famous for handsome women; but three are chiefly commemorated as "the Fair." The first is Gudrun, who was daughter of Oswif; but she was now old. The second is Stangerd, daughter of Thorkel of Tongue, and at this time the wife of Battle-Berse of Sowerby in the north-west parts. This Gudrid, Thorbeorn's daughter, is the third, and was, at the moment, of marriageable age, being full fifteen years old. She was a tall girl, well and beautifully made, with carriage so graceful and look so courteous that men used to stop in the road and gaze after her as she walked. Her hair was very nearly black, and made a plait which she could easily sit upon. She was no talker, but had the best of manners, whereby it happened that those who talked with her were eloquent and believed that she had been so. She had a beautiful voice and notable skill in singing. Men heard her songs, and rushed out into the dark emulous of desperate work, and the sooner the better, to deserve well of her. Thorbeorn was very proud of her; but it had been her mother's work to have her carefully trained. If she had lived this tale might not have been written; but she did not. She died a year before it begins, and left her old husband to a peck of troubles. Thorbeorn was the last man to cope with trouble. He was too proud, too vain, and too idle--too proud to confide, too vain to accept, too idle to repair. He had always kept a great table and had a hall full of guests. He had them still, though he had not the money to pay for them. He borrowed on his property, and borrowed again to repay the first loans; he had ventures at sea, which failed him. He might have had help from his sons, but would not ask them. When Gudrid was fifteen years old these things vexed him sadly; but what vexed him more was that young men came to Bathbrink to see if they could get speech with her; and that some of them put forward friends with proposals to marry her. So far he had refused to treat with any. "It is not to be thought of," he generally said; sometimes, "It is very unsuitable"; and once, "I am greatly offended." Not that he did not fully intend to have her married--rather it was that he had a rooted belief in the greatness of his family and in the girl's merits, and could find none of the suitors at all equal to them. He was one of those men who rather wish to believe in themselves than do it. He was always on the look-out for flaws upon his mettle. He thought that Gudrid was unapproachable, and when he found that she was not, fretted to make her so. But Gudrid herself was not at all unapproachable. She liked the company of her equals in age, and saw no reason why young men should not be anxious to talk to her, or why, if they hung about with the generality at the lower end of the hall, they should not be invited to the fire. With the girls in the bower she talked freely of courtships, and of young men. Thorbeorn would have been cut to the heart to hear her. It might have been better for him to have such a wound than the wound which actually he did receive. He was riding home late one autumn evening. The weather was still mild and warm. Nearing home, he turned his horse on to the turf and walked him, with the reins hanging loose. Presently he was aware of two figures together under a clump of trees. One of them he saw at once for Gudrid. The other was a man, he knew not whom. Immediately hot water sprang into his eyes and veiled their sight, but he saw enough to guess more. The pair were taking leave of each other. Their hands were clasped, their arms at length. They were far apart, the man talking, Gudrid listening. Then presently the strain on the arms relaxed, their clasped hands fell; they were near together. Gudrid, he saw, hung her head--and then, suddenly, the man put his other arm about her neck, and drew her to him and kissed her cheek. At that she broke away and ran towards the house. The man, looking after her for a little, then vaulted the turf wall and ran down the hillside towards the river, making great skips and jumps over the tussocks and boulders, as if he were as happy as a man could be. That was what Thorbeorn saw in the autumn dusk. He went home in a dreadful state of mind, and could hardly bear to be served supper by his desecrated daughter. To think that those soft cheeks had been profaned by a strange youth, that those grave young eyes had looked kindly upon another than himself, that that fair hand had clasped another's in kindness--all this seemed to him horrible. He thought her a hypocrite; he thought himself insulted. Yet even he had to admit that the kiss was sudden, and she evidently surprised and (since she ran away at once) probably frightened. He judged that she was a novice at such work, but for all that was very much afraid that she took kindly to it. He spent a great part of the night thinking it over, and before he went to sleep had made up his mind. Early in the morning he was out and about; before the day-meal he sent for Gudrid. She came, singing to herself, fresh as a rose and as fair. She asked his pleasure--and he had not the heart to tell her his displeasure. What he did say was this: "Put your gear together as soon as you can. I am taking you to Erne Pillar, where you will be put in fostership with Orme." Gudrid looked up startled, and saw in her father's eyes what she had not seen before. Her own eyes fell, she coloured up, turned and went away, to do as she was told. It may be said at once that she had done very little harm, and none knowingly. The young man, who was one of the several who came to the house, was the son of a neighbour, a man of repute. Gudrid favoured him no more than any of the others, but it had so happened that he had been there that afternoon, talking with the girls, and that Gudrid had walked with him as far as the trees on his way home. He had protracted the farewells, and had snatched a kiss; she had been frightened and run away. That might have happened to anybody--but she knew now that Arnkel had had no business at the house when her father was not there. That could not be denied. She went soberly about her preparations, and the girls were full of pity. They talked it over and over, but there was nothing to be done. Her bundles and bales were corded upon the sumpter's back. She embraced and kissed her housemates. There were wet cheeks and trembling lips involved, but they were not hers. Then she was put up before her father, and away she went. As for young Arnkel, he no more comes into the tale than he had stayed in Gudrid's mind. II Orme was a friend of Thorbeorn's, and a prosperous man. He lived at Erne Pillar, which is below Snaefellness, and near the sea. There was a haven there and a town. Moreover it was a Christian settlement, with a church and a priest. Most of the houses and land there belonged to Orme, who lived in a good house of his own with his wife Halldis. They had no children, which was a grief to them. Thorbeorn brought Gudrid to the house, and had a good reception from the goodman and his wife. "Take her with you, good wife, into your bower," he said, "while I have a word with Orme. He will tell you all about it, or I will. It is good for me to be sure that it makes no matter which of us tells you." Halldis said, it was easy to see that Gudrid was not making a short stay, and took her with her through the house into the bower. There, it was not long before she knew all that Thorbeorn or Orme could have to say, and may be more still. Meantime, Thorbeorn, after much unnecessary havers, said to Orme: "The matter is this, neighbour. I ask you and the goodwife to take Gudrid here in fostership. It will suit me in every way, and I hope you will agree to it." Orme said that it would suit him too very well. "Nothing the mistress would like better than to see herself reflected in a young pair of eyes." Thorbeorn accepted that as a matter of course; but presently he asked whether they saw much company at Erne Pillar. Not such a deal of company, Orme said. Now and again a ship came in, and there was a bustle, with men coming and going, cheapening the goods. "Nothing to you at Bathbrink, I daresay," he added. "They tell me that you keep a great house up there--as is fitting you should." "I have to remember what is expected of me," Thorbeorn said, and felt that he was no nearer what he wanted to say than he had been. "Gudrid is young," he said, beginning again. "She's a beauty, it's evident," Orme said briskly, and instantly Thorbeorn felt himself bristling down the backbone. "She is sought after on all hands--but not by any who is to my liking. I hope that Halldis will look after her well." "She will look after her like one of her own," said Orme. Thorbeorn had rather he had said more than that. He could not understand that Orme did not see what was at stake, and yet could not enlighten him further. The good wife then came springing in. "She will be happy, and so shall we be," she said. "I have a roomy heart, too long empty, woe's me. She will soon be singing about the house, and then we old folks will fall to it. It will be like a nest of linnets. She will scour our rusty pipes for us. Excellent!" Thorbeorn was put out that they seemed to think it pure pleasure to have his daughter on their hands instead of great responsibility and a call to duty. "Well," he said, "you have helped me with a serious trouble. I leave her to you with confidence. Where is she now? For I must be going." "She is with the girls in the wash-house," said Halldis. "All chattering together like starlings on a thatch. All talking at once, and none listening. Do you wish her fetched?" "No," said Thorbeorn, waving his hand. "She will do better where she is." He felt the impossibility of saying what he wished. Then he took his way homewards, and the couple looked at each other. "A love affair," Halldis said. "It looks like it," said Orme. "And there will be love affairs. She's a paragon." "That remains to be seen," Halldis said. "She's a beauty at least. But a baby as yet. Wait till she's cut her teeth." "I hope she won't cut them here," said Orme; but his wife said briskly, "Better here than there." Halldis could see through Thorbeorn and pity his barren pride. Gudrid was happy at Erne Pillar, and soon very much at home. She had found her voice at once, and now she began to find herself. Her discoveries were made in the appreciative eyes of her foster-parents, for that is the first place in which we get our notion of ourselves. The portrait encouraged her. She became interesting to herself. Then there were the neighbours, often in and out of the house, but always under the heedful eyes of the good wife. Then there were the ships. Last there were the priest, and his little church. All the people at Erne Pillar had been christened, as had Thorbeorn himself been; but there was a great difference when you had a priest and a church. The priest at Erne Pillar was a serious priest. He said Mass every day, and expected you, or some of you, to be there. Now Thorbeorn, Christian though he were, had never been to Mass in his life. His Christianity consisted in turning his back on Frey. Frey had been the chief God at Bathbrink and in all the country round. Thorbeorn had been Frey's priest at one time, but now would have nothing to say to him; and as for Gudrid, she had never known anything herself about Frey or the other gods, but had been sprinkled as soon as she could be carried down to Erne Pillar. That, so far, had been the utmost of her Christianity. But she had heard plenty of talk about the old gods; and now she was to hear more about them, and something of the new gods too. Orme and Halldis had both been heathens and knew a deal about Frey and Redbeard, as they called Thor. Orme was not interested in religion at all; but Halldis was. Halldis kept well with the priest, but on certain nights of the year--on the night they called The Mother Night, for instance--she was restless, and used to go to the door and stand there looking out at the moonlight, as if she would be off with the others if she dared. That, too, was what plenty other women at Erne Pillar were doing; but none of them went. The priest saw to it. Halldis taught Gudrid numberless songs--charms, incantations, love spells, and long, terrible tales about Valkyrs and their human lovers. The girl came to understand that love might become a tearing, wringing business, and marriage a tame road for life to take. Halldis's songs were seldom about marriage, but always about love. The two only came together in the same song when it was a case of a giant with a woman for his wife, or a Valkyr with a man for her husband. These cases, it seems, had often occurred. They were exciting and ended in tears--but not often in marriage as well. She went to Mass first of all with Halldis, but afterwards, as often as not, she went alone. Halldis had plenty to do at home. If she kept to what was of obligation she thought she did very well. But Gudrid liked the quiet and darkness; she used to stare at the lights till they multiplied themselves and danced like shooting stars. She liked the murmur of the words, and the mysterious movements and shiftings of the priest. When he lifted up the Host, she bowed her head, and used to hear her heart beating. She supposed that something was happening overhead, and used to listen for the rushing sound of wings. This was a constantly renewed excitement; it never failed her when she was well--and that was always. The priest, who was a serious priest, and came from the south, was interested in Gudrid, and wanted her to confess and communicate; but she would not. "No, I couldn't do that," she said, "without asking my foster-mother." "Ask her, then, my daughter," said the priest. "But she would have to ask my father," said Gudrid, "who would not allow it." "But your father is a Christian, surely?" said the priest. "Certainly he is a Christian. He went into the river to be one." "Then he will order you to do your duty." Gudrid shook her head. "No, no. He would not like it at all." The priest spoke to Halldis about it, and scared her. "It is not the custom here," she said, "but I will ask Orme." The priest himself asked Orme, who rubbed his chin. "One thing at a time is a good rule," he said. "We in Iceland are not much given to private talks between men and women. Husband and wife is all very well. And Thorbeorn is a peculiar man. I recommend you to wait for a little. These are early days for new customs." The priest was vexed. He did not care to be called a man. III The second summer after Gudrid came to Erne Pillar a fine ship came in from Norway with a full cargo. She came in late in the evening, and everybody was on the shore to see her. Orme knew whose she was and all about her. She was Einar's ship, he said, and overdue. In the morning she would discharge her cargo in his warehouse, "and then," he said to Gudrid, "there will be matters for you to see to, which will last you a good while. Fine cloth, Einar always brings, and embroidered lengths from Russia. We shall have you going as gay as a kingfisher about the ways." Nothing was done that night except that Orme was rowed out to the ship and stayed drinking with the master till late. But in the morning, when Gudrid went to Mass, she saw men bringing up the cargo from the quay; and when she came back from Mass, there, at the door of Orme's warehouse, was Orme himself talking to a stranger who had foreign clothes on him, a gold chain round his loins, from which hung a goodly knife in a sheath, and rings in his ears. Gudrid, being well brought up, looked neither to the right nor left, but dipped her head to her foster-father as she went by. She had on her sea-blue gown, and a blue silk handkerchief knotted in her hair. The handkerchief was there in obedience to the priest, who had told her she must not come to church bare-headed, even in the summer-time. The morning being fresh, her cheeks were a-flower with roses. Orme greeted her with a happy word as she sped by him, but Einar, who was the stranger present, the master of the ship, looked after her, and presently said, "Tell me, who is that beautiful person?" Orme told him who she was and of what stock. Einar's colour was high. "She is a prize for a good man indeed," he said. "And many and many a man has tried after her, beyond doubt?" "Many and many a man," said Orme; "you are right there. But she is not for the first comer, nor yet for the second. I won't answer for herself, if herself had anything to say in it--which isn't likely. But for her father the Franklin, I will say as much as this, that he's a great man, and knows it, though not so well to do as he was. And he will be hard to come at in the matter of Gudrid." Einar said no more about her just then, but turned to his affairs and was busy all day long. Then, at supper-time, Orme took him home to his house, where he was to stay so long as his occasions kept him in the country. Halldis made him very welcome, and then Gudrid came into the hall, and he had a greeting for her. He was young and fresh-coloured, and showed fine white teeth when he smiled, which was often. He produced his bales, presents for Halldis and Orme; and presently, while they were all pulling over the things, he held up a jointed girdle of wrought silver with crystals set in every square of it. This he offered to Gudrid. "For you, lady, if you will accept of it," he said. Gudrid drew back and blushed. Then she looked at Halldis. "Oh, may I?" she asked. Halldis, who had her hands full of scarlet cloth, looked at the glittering thing. "It is too good to refuse," she said. "And why should you refuse it?" "You will make me proud and contented if you will take it," Einar said. "It will be a kind action on your part." "Einar speaks well," said Orme. "Put it about you, Gudrid." Gudrid put the belt round her waist and fastened it. "That's a good fit," said Halldis. "It might have been made for you." Einar was still looking at Gudrid, and smiling all the time. "Does it please you, lady?" he said. "It is beautiful," said Gudrid. "It ought to be," Einar said. Then she thanked him fairly, and turned and ran away to show herself to the maids in the bower. Einar was very thoughtful for a time; but brightened up when Gudrid and the girls brought in the meal, and served it. He told tales of his voyages and entertained the company. A very good tale he told of a friend of his called Biorn--Biorn Heriolfsson--who was a ship-man like himself, and had come home to Iceland two winters back expecting to find his father at home. But his father in the meantime had up-stick with everything and gone off to Greenland after Eric Red. That put Biorn out, because he was a man who liked old customs. It had always been his way to spend the winters at home with his father, and now here was his father flitted to Greenland. So Biorn stood on the deck of his ship, very much put out. "Shall we break bulk?" somebody asked him. "No," says Biorn, "you will not do that. Let me think." When he had thought he told the ship's company that he was minded to go to Greenland after his father, and they agreed to make the voyage. He fastened down his cargo again, refitted, and away. But it was one thing to resolve upon Greenland, and another thing to hit it off. He had not sailed those seas before, and falling in with bad weather, was driven out of his course; and then--to make matters worse--there came down upon him with a northerly wind a thick blanket of white fog in which he could get no hint of his whereabouts and drifted upon a strong current, fairly smothered up. He knew no more where he was than Einar himself could tell them; he lost count of days and nights, but estimated that he was three weeks at sea before the fog lifted and he saw the stars. In the morning the sun rose fair out of the sea, and he got a bearing. More than that, he saw before him--like a low bank of cloud--a strange coast lying on his starboard bow. He could not tell where he wag got to, or what land that might be, but was sure it was not Greenland. The land lay low, and was dark with woods. The shore was sandy, with hummocks of blown sand upon it, covered with grass; the surf very heavy. He coasted that country for two days and nights with a good wind off-shore, but would not try for a landing anywhere, being set upon Greenland and sure that he was not there. Other lands he saw, and a great island covered with snow, and ice-mountains rising sheer out of the sea--but still he kept on his course. After that he had a spell of heavy weather with green seas over him constantly; and last of all he saw another land, on his port bow, which he said was Greenland. A great ness ran out far into the sea, which he made with safety, and found smooth water, a town, an anchorage, and a man in a boat fishing. Biorn drew alongside, feeling for his anchorage, and laughed to himself when the man looked up from his fishing and presently raised his hand and sawed the air once or twice. "Hail to you, father," said Biorn. "I thought you would be coming along," said his father. "You have hit me off to a nicety." Biorn said, "I don't know about the nicety of it. I have been seven weeks at sea since I left Iceland, and no man alive knows where I have been--least of all myself." "Be careful of my lines," said his father. "I am in the way to catch monsters, and have pots down and out all round me." At that Biorn threw his head up and laughed till he cried. "A scurvy on your monster pots," he said. "Here am I come from beating round the watery world to seek you, and you think only of pots." Gudrid was thrilled to hear of the new lands; but Orme, who knew Heriolf, Biorn's father, was tickled to death with the old man's quirks. "That is Heriolf all over," he said. "And to say that such a man could get on with Eric Red. Greenland is not wide enough to hold those two." But Gudrid held Einar with the most beautiful pair of eyes in Iceland. "And what country was it that Biorn found first?" she asked. Einar said, "I can't tell you. He must have drifted south of Greenland, south and by west. I believe that he crossed the western ocean, which no man has ever yet done. It is a notable deed--but a thousand pities that he made no landing." But Gudrid still gazed at him, and into him. "And will you not go yourself, and seek out that new country?" Einar said, "I have often thought of it. It would be a fine adventure. But just now I have another adventure in my mind, which may delay me. "And what adventure is that?" Einar said, "I cannot tell you at the moment. It is not a settled thing by any means." Halldis looked at Orme, and Orme nodded his head. After that Einar saw much of Gudrid, and used to tell her tales of the sea. He was busy, of course, most of the day, but found time in the evenings; and in the mornings, too, he had the habit of going to church at Mass-time and kneeling behind her. She was pleased to find him there, and the first time showed it plainly. After that she was more than pleased, but careful not to show it. They used to walk home together, and sometimes did not go the straight road, but went round by the frith and looked at Einar's ship lying out at her moorings, swaying with the tide. One day, looking at the ship there, Gudrid asked him again what his adventure was, and whether anything was settled. No, he said, nothing was settled; but he hoped it might be settled soon. "It does not depend altogether upon me," he said. "My mind was made up at once." "But," said Gudrid, "if that adventure were settled and done with, would you not then think of seeking the new country which Biorn saw?" "Well, I might do that," Einar replied. "But a man tires of the sea after a time, and I have had plenty of it. I am very well off, you must know. I might set up my house-pillars, and find me a wife." "But you would not do that?" "Ah," said Einar, "but I am sure that I would." She kept her gaze for the tide in the frith, feeling it would be indiscreet to say more. A little later on he told her what the adventure was on which his heart was set, and when she had heard it she gave him her hand. But she told him that it did not rest with her--as he knew very well it did not. They sat together on the brae in the sun, and her hand remained in his keeping. Presently she said, "If my father says that we may, we will go out to find the new country together." "We will go where you will," said Einar. "It will be all one to me." Again she thought, with her face set towards the sea. Then she turned suddenly and put her arms round his neck. IV Einar spoke to Orme about the affair, and Orme put on a scared look, though he had been expecting something of the kind. "You will find Thorbeorn hard to deal with," he said. Einar replied, "Hard or not, I intend to come at him, for I love Gudrid, and she loves me. She is worth fighting for, being as good as she is fair." "She is so," said Orme; "but, to tell you the truth, I don't know how you will set about it." "I shall ask you to be my friend in it," Einar said. "He will listen to you sooner than any one." Orme put his head on one side. "I don't care much about your errand. You will get me into hot water with Thorbeorn. Don't I tell you that he is a great man, an old settler and what-not? He knows his forefathers back to Baldur the Beautiful." "You are telling me what I know already," said Einar, who was rather red, and showed a frown. "My own birth is no such thing. My father was a freedman. Well, I couldn't help that." "If I am telling you stale news, neighbour," said Orme, "it is only that you may see what I have to tell Thorbeorn." "Yes, yes, I know," Einar said. "He is a man of rank, and I no such thing. I grant it. But I have money, do you see? I am well off both in ships and credit; my name stands well in the world. And I am young, and he is old. I think I could be useful to Thorbeorn, if he would allow it--and I need not tell you I set no bounds in reason upon what I would put down for the sake of the match." "Well," said Orme, "I will go and see him." Gudrid could hear nothing of this until the morning; but then Einar told her what he had arranged with Orme. She now considered herself as pledged to Einar, though she was nothing of the kind. Loyalty to him persuaded her of it, and he found that very sweet, and was touched. They sat close together on the brae; she allowed him her hand, and rested her cheek on his shoulder. Einar, who was an honest young man, began to fear that he was doing wrong to allow it. But he could not resist a word or two for himself. He told her of his birth, saying that his father, Thorgar, of Thorgar's Fell, had been a freedman, but had done well since. "It is right you should know these things," he said. Gudrid said that it was nothing to her; but Einar warned her that it might be much to her father. He went on: "To you perhaps it is enough that I love you dearly--and to me it is enough. But who knows? Maybe I shall not have the right to talk to you after to-morrow or next day. Now I wish to say this to you, that I shall never look at another woman, and will bind myself to you if you will accept it of me." She sat erect at that and looked gravely at him. "You ought not to bind yourself," she said, "since I cannot." "You cannot. I know that," he said. "But I both can and will." Thereupon he brought out a handful of money from his breast and chose a gold coin of thin soft gold, with the head of a ragged old king on it. He told her where it came from, and how he had had it from a dead man after a battle in the mouth of a great river in Russia. Then he bit it in the middle with his teeth, and indented it fairly. He bent it to and fro until it was broken in half; and next he bored a hole in each portion, and gave one to Gudrid. "Now I have tokened myself to you, my love," he said. "Do you wear that upon a chain which I will give you presently, and remember when you look at it, or take it in your hands, that I wear the fellow. If ever you want me, you have only to let that half-moon of gold come into Orme's hands, and sooner or later you will see me again. And so let it be between us from henceforward if you will." She took the coin, and closed her hand upon it until he should give her the chain, but having it, she could not be to him as she had been before. She sat up straight and looked at the sea. Her hand was free for him; but he did not take it, and she felt sure he would not. A constraint fell upon them; neither could find anything to say. Fate was between them. So it was until Orme came back with his news. He had nothing good to report. Thorbeorn had heard him with impatience, and as soon as he had ended put himself into a rage. His thin neck stiffened, his faded eyes showed fire. "Do you offer for my daughter on behalf of a thrall's son? Well for him he put you forward instead of a smaller man. But I take it ill coming from you whom I have always treated as a friend." Orme had excused himself on the score of Einar's merits--for which he could answer, he said--and well-being. "He has two ships at sea in the Norway trade. His credit stands high on each side the water. There's many a worse man than he well married--and he loves your Gudrid beyond price. There is nothing he will not put down for her." But that had wounded Thorbeorn in his most sensitive part. He knew that he was ruined and could not bear that other men should know it also. "It is hard that his money should tempt you to insult a poor man," he said. "I am what I am, and that is a man not so poor but he can keep his honour clear. You must think me poor indeed in other things than goods when you ask me to trade my own flesh and blood. Let me hear no more of it for fear I may get angry. It is the case, I see, that I rate my daughter's marriage more highly than you seem able to conceive of. I made a great mistake when I left her in your charge precisely to avoid what you have brought upon me. Now she shall come home, where she can be valued at the worth of her name and person. That is what I have to say to you, Orme." With that he had looked Orme straight in the face, and there had been no more to urge. Einar heard it from Orme, but it was Halldis who told Gudrid the news. Gudrid received it in silence, but put her hand up and laid it over the token which fluttered in her bosom. "My pretty one," said Halldis, "I blame myself." "No, no," Gudrid said, "you must not do that. Nobody is at fault." But Halldis thought Einar had been much to blame. She would have comforted Gudrid and made much of her if she had been able--but Gudrid would not have that. She served the table as before, and sat by Halldis afterwards while the men talked and passed the mead about. She was pale and silent, but did not give way, nor leave them till her usual time. When she was in her bed she sobbed, and buried her hot face in the bolster; but even then she did not cry. She was always impatient of deeds which led nowhere--and crying is a great deed. In the morning they parted. "I shall sail as soon as may be now," he told her. "Iceland will be hateful to me if it hold us two apart." "Maybe you will seek out the new country," she said, with a bleak smile. "Maybe," he said. "But it may be you who see it first." She shook her head sadly. "We do foolishly when we talk of my fate," she said, and then there was a silence which was like a winter fog. She broke it by throwing herself into his arms. "Listen," she said with passion, "listen. They will give me to another man, but I shall be yours all the while. They might give me to two men, one on the heels of another, but it would be nothing. Do you believe it? You must believe it, you must." "I believe it," said Einar; "but it is dreadful to talk about." "No, it is not dreadful, because I tell you it is nothing," she said. "You are free to do what you will, and you offer me yourself. I did not like to accept it, because I thought I could give you nothing. But now I know I can. Tell me that you believe me, and then I must go." He told her as he kissed her that he believed her--but it was not true. He did not believe her because he could not. Then they parted. She went back to Orme's house, and he went his way along the shore of the frith. V Gudrid did not see Einar again. Kettle, the reeve of Bathbrink, came down to fetch her away, and by now she was behind him on his pad, while Einar was far into the fells. He did not return until late, and then he told Orme that he should sail with the first tide. "Whither will you go?" He said that he must go back to Norway to discharge, and after that did not know what he should do. "I am in heavy trouble over the way this has turned out. At such times a man cares little what may become of him." "Yes, but men get over it," Orme said. "I think that I shall not. There is that in her which will prevent me." "She is like all women, I fancy," Orme said; "very tender where they are loved. They set more store upon love than men do, and whosoever offers it to them, it is a valuable thing, and enhances the offerer." "That is not Gudrid's way," said Einar. Orme felt sorry for him. "Thorbeorn will make a marriage for Gudrid, you may be sure," he said. "And I dare swear she will be a good wife to the man who gets her." "It is certain," said Einar. Early next day he weighed his anchor and went down the frith. Now he leaves the tale. But he did not leave Gudrid's mind, who now had little else to think of. Her father said nothing to her of the reason which had brought her home. He was stately and remote. Nor did he mention his difficulties, which were gathering so close about his house. But they were common knowledge at Bathbrink, and Gudrid heard of little else from morning till night. There was scarcity there, not of provision, but of guests. No young men came about the house, or filled the great table in the hall. Other men came, who wanted money, and went grumbling away, with voices which rose higher in complaint as they went further from the house. Thorbeorn himself was often away, and used to come back more silent and proud than he had gone out. The winter set in with wind and drifting snow. Darkness drew closer about the country; the sky was lemon colour, the fells were black. It was the time of great fires, and long festivals within-doors; but Thorbeorn's hall remained empty. In the face of such manifest misery the love she had given to Einar and received from him shone far off like a winter star, which had no warmth for the blood. She used to look fondly at her token and try to make herself believe that his strong teeth had bitten the deep gauffres into its edge. When she succeeded the scene came back to her, she felt again as she had when he had been standing there beside her on the brae overlooking the racing water. Her eyes grew misty as she looked away into the dark, holding her relic clenched in her hand. But it was not real; these were only dreams of him. So the winter came upon Bathbrink and lapped it in snow, and love grew numb with cold. VI Towards winter's end Thorbeorn roused himself. He had made up his mind to face his troubles, and now saw a way of doing so with nobility. He would break up his homestead, sell his estates, pay his debts, and go abroad. That would be at once just and of good appearance in the world. But he would not go east where he would find a life ready made for him, with the same state to maintain, and be no better off than he had been at home. It was for Greenland he intended, a new country with but few settlers in it yet. An old friend of his, one Eric Red, had gone out there for good reasons some years ago, and had often sent him messages begging him to join his colony. Now he would do it. The thought warmed him. He set the business afoot at once, and sold the whole of his estate for a good price. When he had paid his creditors, which he did very particularly and with a great air, he had a good sum over and above the cost of his ship. His spirits rose, his taste for splendid hospitality revived. He resolved to give a great feast to all his friends and acquaintances, such a feast as should make men say that nobody had ever confronted misfortune more gallantly than Thorbeorn of Bathbrink. It was a noble feast, lasting three days and nights; the greatest there had been made within the memory of men. Everybody came, for enmities were all forgotten. Orme was there from Erne Pillar, and Halldis was with him. Good Halldis embraced Gudrid, kissed her on both cheeks, and held her closely, very ready to revive memories. "And what have you to say to it? And how will you face the hardships of the strange land?" Gudrid was very guarded in her answers. "I shall like to see Greenland," she said; "we used to talk about it at Erne Pillar." It was true, Einar had told them of it, and of his friend Biorn who had found his father out there after seven weeks at sea. "And you go out there without a husband?" said Halldis, with sympathy ready and waiting in her kindly eyes. Gudrid said, "Why not? It is not I who have the wedding of myself." She would not meet Halldis half-way, nor any part of the way. Halldis felt the chill. But Gudrid and her maidens did the last hospitalities of Bathbrink sweetly and diligently. They say that the qualities of the mistress are reflected in the maids. Gudrid was owned a beauty on all hands, but it was agreed that her manners enhanced her good looks, as a fair setting will show off a jewel. To see her at her service, you would have thought her without a care in the world. She could laugh and talk with one and all, she could be grave with the grave and gentle with those who mourned. But she would not let any know that she mourned herself. Any hint towards Einar turned her to smooth stone. She had that kind of pride from her father, the kind that is tender of itself. As for Thorbeorn, he was splendid, and the more splendid he was the more he felt himself to be so. On the last night of his feast, when the hall was full, the horns nearly empty, and the torchlight getting low, he thumped the high table with the hilt of his dagger, and stood up in a dead silence. "Neighbours," he said, "it is time I should bid you farewell. In this good land, where my fathers have lived before me, I too have lived my life out, and kept my customs, and good faith with all men; and have made many friends, and no enemies that I know of. As I have served mankind, so has mankind served me. To you, friends and guests, I say that we have proved each other and seen good days. But now, so it is that I at least must see some doubtful days. I have been pinched and straitened in many ways. I have had to consider whether I should stay on here in a mean way of life or move out into freer quarters. Old as I am, I choose to go abroad; nor do I think you will blame me if I can go away honourably, leaving no man the worse for my departure. Now my good friend Eric Red has asked me to share quarters with him in Greenland, where he has a settlement and keeps a great train--and thither I intend to go. And I shall go this very summer, if all turn out as I expect, and take, as I hope, your friendship with me. In any case let this feast stand to you as a token of my goodwill to every man here." He stood for a moment looking forth upon the crowded tables, and at the women clustered about the doors. He was much moved by the force and plainness of his own words, and for a while every one kept silence, thinking that he had more to say. But he had not, and presently sat down in his seat. That was the signal for uproar. The men stood on the benches and shouted "Hail" to him; they helped the women up, too, who waved their hands or scarves, or whatever came handy. Gudrid saw Orme's hand held out to her, and took it, standing with the rest, with Orme's arm round her. In the excitement of everybody the emotions get loose. Orme held Gudrid closely to him and whispered in her ear, "If he would let you stay with us, Gudrid, how happy we should be!" She turned him her pale face, smiling into his; but Fate held her fast, and she did not even answer him. "Shall I have at him again, for Einar's sake?" said the good Orme, eager to procure happiness for somebody. At that she shook her head. "He would not have it. I am sure of that." So was Orme in his sober mind. Meantime the neighbours were thronging about Thorbeorn, pledging him in horns of mead and ale. Many of them offered him stock or provision for the voyage; many cried that they would go with him to the new settlement. They would never thole a new master, they said, and fully believed it. Some thirty souls did actually go on the voyage. This was the greatest day of Thorbeorn's life so far. VII Thorbeorn's ship lay ready for him in Rawnhaven; but there was much to do, what with hay and corn harvest, to get in, before he could leave. He sailed, then, fully late in the year--himself and his household, thirty or more of his friends beside, his house-pillars and all the stock he had left beside. He was burning to be off, the old adventurer that he was, but Gudrid was not of his way of feeling about it. The Icelanders were a race of stoics. What was to be held them spellbound. Far from hindering adventure, it promoted it; for you never knew but what Fate intended you to succeed. But Gudrid had seen how she might have been happy, and could not understand how otherwise she could be. The last night at home, so she fondly called Iceland, was spent with Orme and Halldis, to whose kindness she thawed at last. She cried upon Halldis's broad bosom, and revealed herself. "You see how it is with me now," she said. "If I never meet him again I shall never love another man. And I see no way of meeting him--and so I must be wretched." Then she fairly wailed: "I might have been so happy--I might have been!" till it was pity to hear her. Presently she took out her token and showed it to Halldis. "That is all I have of Einar's," she said. Halldis said that she had the girdle he had given her. "Yes," she said, "but this has his teeth-marks in it." Then she sat up on Halldis's lap and looked shyly at her, saying, "I am going to ask you something." "Ask, my child." "If it should happen ever that I come home again, and want to see Einar, will you give him this from me? He will know then what to do." Halldis promised. "He is mostly here every year," she said. "But there's no saying how it may find him." "It will find him waiting for me," Gudrid said. "He promised me that." "Oh, my dear, my dear," cried Halldis, "to be sure he did! What else could he say or feel at such a time?" But Gudrid held to her opinion, and to her token too. She said that she should always wear it; and Halldis had not the heart to exclaim. They sailed with a fair wind, having waited for it, and were soon out of sight of land; but it did not hold. Bad weather overtook them, contrary winds, driving rain, fog--that overhanging curse of Greenland. They ran far out of their course and had to beat back again; cattle died, provision ran short; to crown all a sickness broke out among the company, whereof near half died. Thorbeorn kept hale and hearty throughout; and Gudrid took no harm. The wet, the clinging cold, the wild weather did not prevent her attending the sick, or doing the work which they should have done, had they been able. She had no time to be happy or unhappy, and was never afraid of anything. It was hard upon the winter; the days were short, the nights bitter cold. The fog, thick and white like a fleece, seemed incapable of lifting. The wind came in short spells, the sea was lumpy. But one day as they were labouring and rolling, the ship straining and cordage creaking, Thorbeorn lifted his head, and bore hard upon the helm. "Breakers!" he shouted, and the crew sprang to the rail. A dark form seemed to lift out of the fog, like a core of blackness, and clouds of sea-birds wheeled overhead with harsh clamour. They were come unawares to Greenland the White, and within an ace of breaking up against her cliffs. None on board knew what headland this might be; but Thorbeorn knew it was not Ericsfrith, which he had intended to make. They rounded it, however, without mishap, and had a fair wind when they were beyond it. At last they could see a shore with a rough breakwater of stones; and presently upon that shore some men standing together. They cast anchor and let down their sails, and before all was shipshape a boat came rowing out to them, with a man in the stern in a blue cloak. The boat came alongside, and they were hailed. "Who and whence are you?" Thorbeorn told his name and port of origin. "I hoped to make Ericsfrith," he said. "You have made a poor business of it," said the master of the boat. "This is Heriolfsness, a good ten hours' sailing from the frith; and I am Heriolf at your service." Gudrid's heart leapt. This was the father of Biorn, of whom Einar had told her in the days of her happiness. That seemed for a moment to bring Einar within touching distance. Meantime Heriolf came on board and greeted Thorbeorn fairly. He was a hale old man, with white hair and beard, and twinkling blue eyes. "You will do well," he said, "to stay with me through the winter. This is an unchancy country in winter time, what with fog and scurvy and one thing and another. In Iceland you do better, because you have the wind--but here the fog smothers everything. If my son Biorn were at home he could tell you of a new country, my word! But he's away, and no telling when he will be here again. Now, if you are willing, we will be going. My people will see to the housing of yours, and the stock shall be looked after as if it was my own. But you and your girl here will be happy to be by a hearth again." So it was done. They found Heriolf a good host, his house well built and well stored. He had a comely wife, too, who took kindly to Gudrid. "That's a paragon of a girl you have there," Heriolf said. "If my son were at home I don't know how it would turn out." "She's not for every one," said Thorbeorn, on his dignity at once. "But my son Biorn is some one, let me tell you," said Heriolf. "He is a traveller who has seen more of the world than any man living, I dare say. And here in Greenland, you must know, a woman is a precious piece of goods. There was a woman brought in here last summer with a sick man who died before he had been a week in bed. Before he was buried there were six men fighting who should be her next. And two of them were killed outright; but none of them got her." "Would she have none of them?" Thorbeorn asked, though he was not at all interested. "She had no opportunity," said Heriolf. "For another man came and took her away before they had done fighting." Thorbeorn held his head stiffly. "But my daughter is greatly descended," he said. "And Eric Red is of my friends." "All that may be," said Heriolf, "but your daughter is a woman, and Eric Red himself no more than a man. In this country you have to deal with people as God made them. But there is a wise woman in the town, and maybe she will tell us what is written in the book of life." "My daughter is a Christian," said Thorbeorn, but old Heriolf's mouth twitched. "I dare swear she will be wanting to know what the book of life says, for all that. Let me tell you that a marriage is not over when the priest has said his say. No, nor yet begun, maybe." Nobody could have been more easy to quarrel with than Heriolf upon the subject of his son, except Thorbeorn upon that of his daughter; yet there was no quarrel. It may be that Thorbeorn was too happy to stretch his thin legs towards a driftwood fire again, or again, that he recognised the sweet kernel of his host under the cruddled husk. However it was, he let the talk of wise women and the Book of Fate float over his head as the spume of the sea passes over the tangle far below. The spume creams and surges, then disparts; but the sea-tangle sways to the deep currents of the tide undisturbed. All well and good--but there was a Wise Woman. VIII Thorberg was the Wise Woman's name. She was the last alive of a family of nine, all women and all wise in the art of reading the days to come. It was supposed that she had come from Iceland, but nobody remembered to have brought her, nor knew of her origin. In these days she lived by herself in a hut of the Settlement at the Ness, and crouched over a peat fire all the winter, singing songs to herself which nobody could understand. In the summer she was often seen about among the pastures below the hills, but always by herself. When she was asked she might go out and show herself at men's houses where there was a feast going on; if she was treated according to her fancy she might foretell the fortune of the householder or of some guest of his, or the upshot of the coming harvest, whether of the sea or of the land. But everything must be exactly as she pleased. There was no telling what she would do or say. Heriolf was the greatest man at the Ness, and kept the best table. He seldom lacked of guests during the dark months. He was a most hospitable man--loving, as he said, everything on two legs. He had never accepted the new religion, and stood well with Thorberg, but had such respect for her that he would never ask her to come to a feast unless the entertainment were what he thought worthy of her. This year, with Thorbeorn and Gudrid in the house, he felt that she ought to be asked up, so sent a man out to invite her, naming the day when the feast would be ready. Thorberg returned word that she would come, but made no promises of what she would say. Immediately, Heriolf set about his preparations and, immediately, there was trouble with Thorbeorn. He did not like it at all. He took it ill that there should be such a fuss. Thorberg, it seemed, must have a high seat; she must be escorted to the feast; she must have her particular food, dressed just so; she must be treated with great respect, let alone, never crossed, never importuned. And he a Christian! "Heathen customs!" he said. "Friend, you shall have me excused. These things smell of brimstone. I could not be present by any means, and don't desire that Gudrid should be involved." But Heriolf scouted him. "Hey," he said, "please yourself! But as for Gudrid, let her alone. Why should she not hear what the world has to say to her? What harm can come to a good girl? All kinds make this world." Gudrid, whose hair he pulled, as he spoke, in a very friendly way, seeing his eyes twinkling and his lips twitching, coloured, but said that she should like to be at the feast. It was true, but apart from the truth, she would not hurt Heriolf's feelings. "Of course you would like it," said Heriolf, greatly pleased. "I never knew a handsome girl yet who did not like to be told about it. Thorberg thinks a deal of handsome persons. You will find that she has a wonder-deal to tell about you. And perhaps we shall learn what my son Biorn means to do with himself when he comes home here, and finds a flower in the garth." Gudrid coloured more than ever at this; but she liked it. Thorbeorn waved his hand before him as though to brush gossamer from his path, and stalked away with his chin in the air, and his beard jutting out like a willow in the wind. He kept his word, though; and took himself to bed when the feast began. These were the preparations made for Thorberg's visit. A high seat was set for her at the right hand of Heriolf's own, and upon it a cushion worked with runes and dragons in knots, stuffed with hen's feathers. That had to be wherever she went. Then she must sit in the chief place at the table, beside the giver of the feast, and her food must be seen to. First she must have a mess of oats seethed in kids' milk; then, for her meat, a dish made of the hearts of animals. Gizzards, too, of birds, and their livers, must be in it. There were to be set for her a brass spoon, and an ivory-hilted knife with rings of bronze upon the handle. She had a great horn for a beaker, adorned with silver; and then her drink was to be hot mead, with spices and apples floating in it. Heriolf saw to everything. When all was ready, and the guests expected, a man was sent out to her house to bring Thorberg to the feast; and when all the guests were gathered, but by no means before, in she came. She was a tall fair woman, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered and of large presence. She had a wild, rich, comely face. She was dressed in a black robe which gleamed and reflected light. It clung to her as if she had been dipped in water. Silver clasps held it under the bosom, and from neck to foot it was set with large blue stones. Round her neck she had a string of beads, of red amber, as large as seagulls' eggs. She walked with a staff, knotted with amber; on her head was a hood of black lambskin, lined with white. There was a girdle round her loins made of dried puff-balls strung together, and a fishskin pouch hung from that, in which were the charms she used in her prophesying. Her shoes were calfskin with the hair outside, and were bound to her ankles with broad leather thongs. She had gloves on when she came in--catskin gloves with the hair turned inwards. So dressed, holding herself high and queenly, she stood in the doorway, and said, "Hail to this house," in a deep voice, like a bell. Then she took off her hood and gloves and gave them to him who attended upon her, while Heriolf came up to her, took her hands and kissed them, saying, "Sibyl, you are welcome." After Heriolf all the company came crowding about her and saluted her as if she were a princess. To some she was gracious, at some she stared as if she could see through them to the wall beyond, at some she muttered with her lips and looked about, as if she were uneasy till they were gone. All the women curtseyed and kissed her hand, and presently Heriolf brought Gudrid to her. Gudrid did not kiss her hand, but curtseyed and spoke her fairly. Thorberg frowned, not unkindly. "And who art thou, my child?" Gudrid said, "I am a stranger, not long come to Greenland. I am Thorbeorn's daughter, of Bathbrink in Iceland." "You have a good face, and a fair one," said Thorberg, "and yet you will not kiss my hands." Gudrid coloured and looked down. "Perhaps the day will come when you will kiss them," Thorberg said. "It would be no shame to you to do it." Gudrid then said, "I will do it now if you will let me." But Thorberg patted her cheek and said, "By and by." The people thought that Gudrid had shown good manners by offering and that Thorberg was pleased with her. They spread the table for the feast, and Gudrid served the guests with the other girls of the house. Thorberg sat by Heriolf, and said very little, which was all to the good, since it made men treasure what she did say, and find more in it than may have been there. Then, when the tables had been cleared, Heriolf stood up and asked her if she had been well-treated. Thorberg said, "You have given me your best, Franklin. No one can look for more." "Would it please you, then, to reveal certain things to the company?" She stared before her. "What do you desire to know?" "Why," said Heriolf, "we should like to know how it stands with this house, and with those who are in it, and those who are of it; and how long these plagues of sickness and death are to oppress us; and other things which you may read out of the dark, and be moved to tell us." She thought for a while, looking down the hall above the heads of those who stood to hear her. Just below the dais Gudrid was standing with the house-girls. After a time Thorberg said, "Set me the spell-seat," and remained abstracted while it was being done. Heriolf set up the spell-seat, and then Thorberg opened her pouch of magic and took out certain small flat stones covered with writing, and some tufts of feathers, a lump of brown amber, a ring of jet, and some teeth of a great sea-beast. All these she laid round the seat in a circle, except the ring of jet, which she kept in her hand. Then she sat upon the spell-seat, and said to Heriolf, "Bring me the woman who is to sing the Ward-locks." Those were the charms which had to be sung, not so much to invoke the spirits with whom she was familiar as to keep away those who were adverse. Every man looked at his neighbour; the women whispered together, but all shook their heads. In and out among his guests Heriolf ran in a great taking. "Heard any one the like of this, that I should think of everything, and fail for one?" But nobody knew the songs. In his naked bed behind the wall lay old Thorbeorn with the blanket up to his nose, and jerked his thin legs, losing not one tittle of all this. Presently, with Heriolf hot and flustered and at his wits' end, with women scouring the kitchen and the bower to find some one not counted yet, Gudrid turned round about to face the Wise Woman. She was pale, but her eyes were bright. "Whisht now," Thorberg cried in her deep tones; "heed the fair girl." The hush then was dreadful, but Gudrid said what was in her. "I am not a sorceress, and know nothing of magic, but Halldis my foster-mother taught me some songs which she said were Ward-locks and charms." Heriolf clapped his hands, and Thorberg smiled and said, "I believed thee wise when I saw thee first. And now perhaps it is for me to kiss thy hands, or even for the most of this company, for thou art timely as well as wise." But Gudrid looked troubled. She did not at all wish to sing. "The songs," she said, "were sung idly at home while we sat at needlework. They did not mean anything to me. I thought no harm of them." "Nor is there harm, my child," said Thorberg. Gudrid said, "But this is a rite, and the song is part of it. I think I ought not to sing, because I am a Christian." Thorberg was still smiling, but her eyes glittered. "It may be that thou canst serve the company here, and do no harm to thyself. Who should think the worse of thee? Certainly not I. But this is for our host to see about. It is he who made me sit here." Now it was Heriolf's turn, and he pressed Gudrid hard. The girls too, and all the women who were there, were closely about her, asking with eyes and voices. Gudrid could not resist them, though she knew Thorbeorn would be angry, and believed herself that she ought not to have anything to do in magic. But she promised. The women made a circle about her; she thought for a little while, then lifted her head, and sang loud and clear-- "To Vala sang Vrind, The first charm I wind-- What evil thou meetest Let drop it behind. Thyself for guide, The ghost is defied-- Look forth To what thou shalt find. Next charm I call-- If despair thee befall As thou goest thy journey, May the Good Folk wall With wings, with wings Thy wayfarings-- Look forth, Fear not at all. This third charm I make-- If the dark thee take On the road thou goest For this man's sake, May the hags of night Do thee no spite. Look forth, My heart is awake. The fourth charm I tell Is the loosing spell-- Though they bind thee in fetters And cast thee in cell, No walls shall clip thee, The irons shall slip thee-- Look forth, All shall go well." The song was to a strange wild air, very beautiful, known to many, of whom many had tears in their eyes to hear it again, and sung so well. Thorberg sat with her eyes closed, and nodded her head to the beats of it. It made a great effect, and Gudrid was praised by everybody. When it was over, Thorberg, being squarely on the spell-seat, said to her: "I thank you for the song, and for the good heart which was in it. I tell you that many beings besides those whom you see have been drawn in by the sound of your voice, beings who without it would have passed over our heads and paid no heed to us and our concerns. They have been here, they are here now all about us, and by their means I see many things clearly. And first, you, Heriolf, need not fear the death nor the sickness which are rife at this time. They will pass with the winter, and return again with another winter; and for a long time the winter will be hard upon you men in Greenland." So much she said to Heriolf, but she had not ended her soothsay. Her eyes returned to Gudrid, who stood just below her. "As for you, my daughter," she said, "I can read what is in store for you as if it was written in a book. You will have three husbands here in Greenland, and shall not go far to get them. All will be honourable men. One will be a famous man, and one an ugly man; but he will be kind. With all of them you will go great journeys over sea, but they will not all last long. One journey you will go, to a country far from here, which will be of the greatest length, and have hardships in it, and wonders, and a good gift for you. But all your ways lead to Iceland, and thither you will return. Out of you will come a great race of men, and you shall end your life-days in the way that pleases you best." Then her eyes grew less blank, and seemed able to see more clearly. She held out her hand towards Gudrid, who stood rooted, staring up with great eyes. "Farewell, daughter, and I give you hail," she said. Gudrid ran up the steps and kissed her hand. IX Gudrid's fortune was envied by the girls of the house, who expressed themselves freely about it. "With your looks," they said, "it was to be expected she would take notice of you. But to see so much, and to tell you all!" The poor girl herself, however, took it very hard, and saw herself punished for impiety. She felt as if she was branded for ever--the girl who was to kill two men, and perhaps a third. In her mind's eye she could see that doomed first husband of hers, the shadow coldly upon him, herself looking sorrowfully at him, seeing him in the shadow but not able to speak of it. Her heart gave a leap of gratitude that Einar had been sent away by her father. It might have been he in the shadow. But would he be the second? Ah, no, she vowed he should not. Or would he be the third? Not if the third was to be an ugly man. Then there was the promise of the end: "Your ways tend to Iceland . . . thither you will return . . . you shall end your life-days in the way that pleases you best." Could that mean that Einar----? But after three honourable men had received death at her hand! She shuddered and hugged herself against the cold. Not even the promise of Einar seemed fortification enough for that. Nevertheless, there was comfort in the last days. She told her bedfellow stoutly that she did not believe a word of it, but the girl merely stared at her. Then she said: "I know who your first husband will be if he can persuade Thorbeorn. It is Skeggi of Whitewaterstrand." After that Gudrid had to be told all about it. She told her father too--but not so stoutly--that she did not believe it; but in her heart she felt that it must be true. As for Thorbeorn, who had heard it all through the wall, whatever he may have thought, he was very indignant, and angry with her too. "Put such mummery out of your head. We are not Christians for nothing, I should hope. A scandalous hag with her bell-wether voice and airs of a great lady! What has she to do with good women, well brought up? A woman's duty is to leave match-making to her parents, and the future to God and His Angels. Who can foretell his end? Can the priest? Can the bishop? No. And who would wish to know it? Ask yourself. I am vexed that we should have fallen upon a heathen house, and much more that you should have lent yourself to its wicked customs." Gudrid excused herself. "I couldn't help myself. They are kind people. It would have been ungracious. And I did know the songs. How could I have said I did not?" "And who taught you such songs?" "Halldis sang them," she said; "I learnt them of her." He had to allow for much that she urged. "Well, think no more of it," he bade her. "No, I must not," she said. "When the time comes, when we are settled by Eric Red, I shall find a good husband for you, beyond a doubt." "Yes," said Gudrid. "Then we shall have the laugh of these mystery-mongers." "Yes." "As for me, I never heard such nonsense in my days." "No," said Gudrid, looking about for a way of escape. She could neither put it out of her head, nor believe it nonsense. Fate hung heavy on her like a pall of smoke. She had Skeggi of Whitewaterstrand pointed out to her by her room-mate, and recognised him as a young man she had often seen at the house. Now immediately she looked upon him with tenderness, and received his advances to acquaintance with such kindness that he conceived high hopes and went about with his chest swelling with pride. But all the time he was talking to her, or at her, rather, with the other girls, her heart was calling to him, "Do not marry me, do not, do not----" which he, unfortunately, interpreted in the opposite sense. Oddly enough, though every one in the Settlement had heard the soothsay, and nobody doubted it, she was the only person concerned who took it closely to heart. Young Skeggi was earnest to have her to wife, and asked Heriolf to put his case forward to Thorbeorn. Thorbeorn, however, would have nothing to say to him. Skeggi disappeared, and Gudrid had a moment's ease. The first things foretold by Thorberg came about with the quickening of the year. With the first blowing of the warm wet wind of the west, the fogs began to roll away off the land and pile themselves upon the flanks of the mountains. Then, when the earth had warmth enough in her body to thaw the iron mail about her ribs, the sickness in the Settlement abated. Men felt the light, and saw whence it came. The sun showed himself, first like a silver coin, then with sensible heat. The cattle were put out to pasture, the sheep could move and nibble about the foothills. Hens began to lay, cows to give milk, sheep to drop lambs. Thorbeorn made ready to sail to Ericsfrith, and Gudrid was able to forget that she was marked with a curse. So the day for sailing came, a bright spring day with a soft wind, which crisped the waters of the bay and heaped froth upon the stones. At parting, old Heriolf twinkled his kind and frosty eyes upon Gudrid. "Farewell, my child," he said; "you are a notable woman who will do great things." She smiled, but sadly. "It seems I am to bring unhappiness to many," she said. "No, no, that's not how I look at it," said Heriolf. "Men must die, we all know. But more than one are to have your love and kindness while they live--and that is more than they ought to expect. If I were not so old, or my son Biorn were at home, we would keep you in the family. Who wants a long life? Not I, though I have had it. But who wants a good wife? Who does not?" Gudrid said, "To be good is the least I can do. It seems very easy. But to be happy is difficult." "I never found it so," said old Heriolf. And so they parted, she whither Fate beckoned her, and he to go fishing. X Eric Red, who lived at Brattalithe in Ericsfrith, had been a notable man all his life, and a man of mettle. In Earl Hakon's day in Norway he had been a Viking, had made a few friends and many enemies; then he had gone out to Iceland and founded a family in the west country, which might have endured to this day if it had not been for his headstrong way of doing. But, as before, he made more enemies than friends; and when he killed the son of Thorgest the Old, and was pursued for the slaughter at the Thing, he found that there was more feeling against him than he had reckoned on, and that Iceland could not hold him much longer. By what shifts a ship was hidden for him among the islands, and how his friends got him down by night, and rowed him aboard, and how he slipped his cable and escaped pursuit, cannot be told here. Enough to say that he found his way to Greenland, and chose out a fair haven for himself and his company. When he was settled in, and had his town of Ericshaven marked out, and his house built, he felt himself like a king and cast about for alliances. He sent out messengers to Iceland calling upon all men who had been his friends to rally about him. Many came, and by the time his friend Thorbeorn had decided to join him there was a strong settlement at Ericshaven. Eric was now grown old, and was very fat. He thought himself that his work was over, but had hopes to see it continued in his sons. He had three sons by his wife Theodhild; the eldest was Leif, who was abroad at this time, supposed to be in Orkney. Leif was a fine tall man who took after his mother, and had none of Eric's fiery colour; the second son was Thorstan, who was as red as a fox; the third was Thorwald, and resembled Leif, but was of slighter build. Then there was a tempestuous daughter, named Freydis, a strongly made, fierce girl, who was fated to do terrible things. She was married to one of Eric's vassals, a man called Thorward of Garth, but treated him with great contempt and did just what she pleased. As for Theodhild, Eric's wife, she was a Christian at this time, and had taken herself out of Brattalithe for religion's sake. She had built a church in Ericshaven and found a priest to serve it; and now she lived in a small house hard by and practised austerities. She was a very stately woman, and held in great estimation all over the settled country. Eric Red was uneasy with her, because he believed that she scorned him; but her sons used to go to see her. She had quarrelled with Freydis irrevocably, and if she met her anywhere would never take any notice. Thorbeorn was made welcome at Brattalithe and great attention shown to his fair daughter. Women were scarce in Greenland. Eric's two sons, Thorstan and Thorwald, immediately wanted her; but Thorstan was the elder and stronger, and soon came to terms with Thorwald. "My mind," he said, "is set upon Gudrid, and I am older than you by a good deal. I advise you to be my friend in the affair, otherwise no one knows how it may turn out." Thorwald said that that was fair enough: "But I advise you to be sharp about it." "Why so?" said Thorstan. Thorwald told him that he would be only one of many. He named one or two, and Thorstan frowned. Thorstan was a very honest man; he was a good poet and a great man for dreams, but slow and heavy minded. "A man must not be driven in such a matter," he said. "A man should not need it," Thorwald replied. "As you have spoken to me, so do you speak to Gudrid's old iron father. Hammer him smartly; knock sparks out of him. If you do not, some one else will, and I shall have wasted benevolence upon you. If you are not to be the lucky man, why am I to be thrown aside?" This was in the very early days, before Thorbeorn had taken up lands in the Settlement. He was all that summer the guest of Eric at Brattalithe, and there was a great deal to do. Eric and Thorbeorn rode about the country, talking of this land and that. Gudrid fell into the ways of the house and made herself useful. She was taken to see Theodhild, and became friends with the stern, lonely woman. Theodhild spent much of her time in the little dark church she had had built. Until Gudrid came, she and the priest had had it pretty much to themselves, for the people in the Settlement stood by Eric, their great man. But Gudrid went to church with Theodhild, and renewed her emotions. She seemed to escape from her shadow in there. One little twinkling light before the altar shone to her through the fog and bade her still to hope. Then there was Freydis. Oddly enough Freydis took to her, though she pretended to despise her. "You are one of those women whom men go mad about--one of the meek, still women who madden men," she said. "But I am one whom men madden rather; for I hate them and detest their ways, and yet cannot get on without them." Gudrid denied her maddening qualities, and denied that she was meek or still. She assured Freydis that she herself could get on very well without marriage. "I used not to think about it at all until I came to this country where, it seems to me, nobody thinks of anything else. The first thing that happened to me was dreadful. It is no wonder if I think about it now." Freydis wished to hear what dreadful thing it was, and with a little pressing Gudrid told her what Thorberg had prophesied. Freydis stared. "Is that all? You have only to live in Greenland and live to be a hundred and you might have as many husbands. People die here in the winter like tadpoles in a dry summer. Three! Her moderation alarms me." "But I must be sure of the death of two men!" said poor Gudrid. "You must be sure of the death of every man in the world," said Freydis. "It may be that you will be glad enough to be sure of it before you have done with them. I am sure that I should be." That was all the comfort she got out of Freydis; but happily she had a diversion of her thoughts. Biorn Heriolfsson, who had come round the Ness soon after Thorbeorn sailed, now came up to see Eric Red. He was a brisk, vivacious man, with a good conceit of himself, and had much that was interesting to say of the new countries he had visited. Gudrid was rapt in attention, for every word he said seemed to make Einar visible to her, with his bright eyes, his ear-rings, his soft eager voice and his white teeth. Einar now stood for all sorts of things besides himself to Gudrid. He stood for home; he stood for Halldis and Orme who had loved her well; and he stood for the days when no heavy fate hung between her and the blue sky. He stood to her as to us the song of a lark may stand, when we are shut up within the walls of a town. She would have married him gladly, but for the Fate; but she no longer thought of him as a lover. Therefore on account of all that he stood for--home, freedom, loving-kindness, hopefulness--she was enthralled by Biorn's talk, and could not hear enough of the new countries which he had seen. Einar's account of what he had done and where been was quite true. A fair wind took him out from Reekness, and he sailed before it until he had lost the land for two days. Two more days it held, then veered to the northward and blew down upon them the dense Greenland fog. He was now helpless, and for a week or more had no knowledge of his course; but he observed that a strong current was bearing him, as he thought, westward. That might be all to the good, he judged, forgetting how far south he had run before the thick weather caught him; anyhow, there was nothing to be done except to keep a sharp look-out for land a-starboard. He passed several icebergs and had a touch-and-go business with some of them, he said. At last the fog lifted a little, and a light and fitful wind began to blow--from what quarter they had no means of knowing, but it was a chill wind. Biorn guessed it was northerly. He saw the stars before he saw the sun, and got his bearings. Next day it was fair. The sun rose out of the sea. The ship was heading nor'-nor'-west. He hoisted all sail, and made brave work of it. In the course of that day they saw land ahead, a long low line of dark, like a bank of rain-cloud. Biorn ran on, heading straight for it, but he had his doubts from the first, and when they could make out the country better he said to his mate, "That's never Greenland." Sounding carefully, they came within two miles of the land, and could hear the thunder of the surf, and see it too. The sea was like a hilly country with troughs between the rollers like broad ghylls, Biorn said. He would be a bold man who tried to land there from a boat. The country looked to be low-lying, with a sandy shore blown into small pointed hills. Behind those, so far as the eye could reach, there was a dense woodland--most of it black, or looking so, but with patches and belts of red and rose-colour; like flames, said Biorn. No mountains, no snow at all, though by now it was winter in Iceland. Biorn said, "I knew very little about it, to be sure, but knew it was not Greenland the White." Eric asked him why he had not landed. "How should I land in a surf like that? And what was I to do in the country with my Norway merchandise still aboard, and my father God knew where? I knew he was not there--and that was enough for me." "But, Biorn," said Gudrid, flushed and eager, "that was a new country you had found. How could you pass it by?" "All very well," said Biorn, "but I'll trouble you to remember that Greenland was a new country to me--and my father in it moreover. And one new country at a time is enough, I suppose." He went on to say that he coasted those flat wooded shores for the better part of two days and nights, keeping the land on his port bow, but when, as it seemed to him, the coast-line turned westward as if to make a great bay, thinking he would cut across it, he held on his course. It was another two-three days before they made land again, and then it was the same thing as before--woods, swamps, sand, driving rain, or good sunshine; and still no snow. Now he had trouble with his crew, who were for running into the land. They wanted wood and water, they said; but Biorn wouldn't have it. "I wanted my father," he said, "and besides there was abundance of water." "What you wanted your father for beats me," said Eric, and Gudrid's bright eyes sparkled their approval of his judgment. "A man may want to see his father more than a foreign country, I suppose," said Biorn. "You forget that I have seen a deal of foreign countries--Russia, Sweden, Dantzick and what-not." Well, then they sailed for three days and nights before a spanking breeze from the southwest, and ran into the true winter cold, and presently saw land for the third time--snow mountains wreathed with cloud, snow upon the sea-beach itself. Biorn said it was an unchancy, inhospitable kind of country where his father would never choose to live. It was deep water so that they could come close in. There were no signs of habitancy; but there were white bears to be seen, in plenty. That was an island, he said. They held on their course, which was N.E. by E., the breeze stiffened into a gale; and then it came on to blow hard. They had more than enough of it under shortened sail, and shipping green seas every fourth wave. Then, for the fourth time, they sighted land, and a great ness which ran far out into the sea. "Greenland!" said Biorn; and Greenland it was. On the lee side of that ness was the very town about his father's house; and the very first man he saw was his father, with lobster-pots all round him. That, he said, was how it had been, and anybody was welcome to the news. As for himself, he was a trader, and had no mind for fancy voyages. Eric said that he might take the adventure up himself, but at any rate his son Leif would take it up. Thorwald said that he intended to go if Leif would take him. "I want to see that country where there is no winter. That's the place for me. Will you come too, Thorstan?" But Thorstan was looking at Gudrid and did not hear him. XI Biorn stayed on some time longer with Eric Red, and had some talk with Gudrid. He had had his eye on her from the beginning, with curious, considering looks. After several attempts, swallowed down by himself with abrupt decision, he did manage to speak out. "It was of you that Thorberg prophesied at the Ness, I expect," he said. "Yes, it was," said rueful Gudrid. He tossed his foot from the knee, and looked at it swinging. "Such things as that make a man thoughtful." Gudrid bent over her needlework. "You may be sure that she made me thoughtful." "Well," said Biorn, "it is a glory to a woman to hear the like of that. But it makes a man think twice. Now, I daresay my father spoke to you about me, with a nod and wink, as we say? He is fond of me, is my father." "And you, certainly, of him," Gudrid said. "You seem to be a loving couple." "He spoke to me about you," Biorn went on, pursuing his own thoughts. "He was much taken with you, and seemed to think you were singled out for great honour. And clearly you are. But I value my life--and so I told my father. And then he spoke scornfully to me, and hurt my feelings." Gudrid found something to smile at in this. But while she scared Biorn she attracted the brothers at Brattalithe, and others besides them. Thorstan Ericsson was exceedingly shy, and would never go into the bower to talk to the girls, nor into kitchen or wash-house when they were working there if he could help it. So he saw very little of Gudrid, and had nothing to say to her when he did see her. Yet he loved her deeply within himself, in an honourable way of worship, with no jealousy about it. Thorwald, his younger brother, was always in and out of the women's quarters, teasing the girls, getting in their way, and making them laugh. He was often outrageous, but they all liked him, and Thorstan trusted in his loyalty. He told Gudrid that Thorstan thought a great deal about her; but she knew that already. She used to sing in the evenings when the hall was full, and everybody praised her except Thorstan; yet she knew that he was more affected than any one. She felt his heavy eyes on her, and used to think of songs which would please him. But Thorstan was dumb, and others were not. One day in the spring Gudrid was sent for. She was in the wash-house, up to the elbows in lather and foam, in no state for company. All the girls stopped work, and one said, "A wooer for Gudrid," and another, "Thorstan has found his voice." But they all helped her to make herself tidy, and wished her joy. She went out with all her colours flying. Her father was by the fire in the hall; Eric Red with him; and another man was standing there, tall and heavily made, in a red cloak. She had not seen him before. He was a dark-hued man, with bent brows, rather shaggy, and had a black beard. He kept his head bent, and his hands behind his back, but looked at her as she came in. So did Eric, in a kindly way. Thorbeorn only looked at the fire. She went up to her father and put her hand on his shoulder. There was a short silence--but not enough time for her to collect her thoughts. Indeed, she had no thoughts. "Gudrid," said Thorbeorn, "we think it is time for you to be settled, and have here an honourable man who has asked for you. He is our friend, Thore Easterling. He is well-descended and of good estimation with our host. His family is of Ramfirth in Iceland, and he has a fine estate here in Ericshaven. He has the new faith which we believe to be the true faith. Now we think you ought to feel yourself happy, being sure that you have every reason to be so. It will be a good marriage for you." Gudrid said nothing, and kept her eyes fixed on the ground. Presently she removed her hand from her father's shoulder, let it fall to her side, and stood alone. It was a painful pause, felt to be so by all four, and broken presently by Thore himself. "Lady," he said, "I hope to have your good will in this. I have few pretentions to a lady's liking, but believe I am an honest and friendly man. If you will accept of my love and service I am content to trust myself to win yours." Gudrid's throat was dry. She had difficulty in speaking. "I shall do my duty," she said. And then, "I shall obey my father in all things, as I ought." Eric went over to her and took her hand. "I won't deny I shall be sorry to see you leave Brattalithe," he said. "I tell Thore here that if my Leif had been at home there's no saying what might have happened--but as it is, he's the lucky one. He will have a sweet wife, and owe it to us that she is as happy as she is good." She gave him a swift and searching look, a flash of gratitude in it for his humanity, but resumed her searching of the floor. Thorbeorn rose from his chair and said to Eric that they had better leave the pair together--but then Gudrid looked wild. "May I not go now? Must I stay here?" Her eyes asked so of Eric, but he only smiled. She caught at her father's sleeve. Then Thorbeorn kissed her forehead and said a few words of blessing. He and Eric went out together. When they were gone Thore went over to Gudrid and put his arm firmly round her. "I see, my dear, that you are upset by this news of ours. Be sure that I understand it. My belief is, that you will be happy with me. I have a good house, warm and dry. You will see company, you will have your maids to see after; and when we have settled down together--maybe before the end of the summer, we will take ship to Iceland and pay a visit to my old mother who is in charge of my property out there. Now let me hear your voice. I know how sweetly you can talk--for I've heard you. And your singing makes me younger: a dreamer of dreams." He seemed kind; his arm was strong and temperate. She imagined him much older than he was. But she didn't in the least know what to say to him. He waited for her, still holding her close, but she said nothing. So then: "Come, come," he said, "just a word or two"; and when she looked up and saw him laughing, she laughed too; and then he kissed her. "There," he said, "that is better," and drew her closer. "You seem kind," she said. "Ah," said Thore, "you will find me so. The fonder I grow the kinder I shall be." He gave her a very friendly squeeze, and she began at once to be sorry for this strong, gentle-hearted man as she thought him. Her face was now against his shoulder, his black beard brushed and tickled her forehead. She was rather breathless, but quite determined to tell him her trouble. "There is something which I ought to tell you." "Is there, indeed? I thought that you might find your tongue perhaps, if I gave you time." "But I should have found it before," she said, "if it had not been for my trouble." "Well," he said, "and now for your trouble. Mind you, I've seen a good deal of the world, and don't expect miracles out of the church. So if you have had a sweetheart or two, think no more about it. Bless you--do you think I don't know?" "No," she said, "it's not that. But it is that I have heard prophecies about myself. I am not a fortunate woman at all." "Hum," he said. "Perhaps we had better clear up that. Now, you come and sit on my knee by the fire, and let me hear all about it." She did not decline that seat, but still she chose another. He sat in Eric's great chair, and she brought up a stool. He noticed that, and approved of it. "This is a girl who is not for the mere asking," he thought. When she had told him all about Thorberg, he did not scoff, nor laugh, nor take it seriously either. He just considered it, with one large hand grasping his beard. "Well," he said, "some people have the gift, there's no doubt, and if your Thorberg had it not, all her mummeries would avail her nothing. You set them up for a deal, I fancy, but they are little to me. I am willing to believe her story, but what then? So long as I am the first husband you have you may have twenty when I am gone. Likely enough that you will see to the burying of me. I must be twice your age. So much for your trouble, my dear." "It was horrible to me," said Gudrid; "I have been unhappy ever since. It seemed to me that I was accursed, and that no man ought to look at me." "But how can they help looking at you, foolish girl, and you like a rose!" That gave her roses indeed, and a good deal more too. "You are certainly very kind," she said, and he replied that if that was kindness, there need be no end to it. She went away after a time, so free of her shadowy load that she sang as soon as she was out of the hall. She accepted the exuberant greeting of the girls with evident pleasure. Her colour was clear, her eyes shone like stars. They had plenty to tell her of Thore. He was very rich, they said, and a widower. He had had a querulous and sick wife, and had always treated her well. He was not exactly "near," but thought twice about what he spent. He had a stone-built house up the country. A just man, and one who did not bend his knee to any one. Eric Red had often quarrelled with him. Except Theodhild he was the only Christian among the great men. It was a pity he was so much older, with such a great beard. They wanted to know if it scratched you, but Gudrid wouldn't say. It was all very pleasant, except for one small matter. Thorstan immediately went away, and stopped away for ten days or a fortnight. No one knew exactly where he was except Thorwald his brother. He was teasing about it, when Gudrid asked him where Thorstan was. "I shall tell him you asked me," he said. That made her sorry she had asked, but she did not like to say tell him by all means, nor beg him not to tell. It turned out that Thorwald did tell him. Freydis said, "If you must marry, that is the man you should choose. Not a half-skald like my brother Thorstan, nor a pranking pie like Thorwald. You will have a master in Thore, and most women like that. He might beat you." "I think he will not," said Gudrid. Freydis looked at her with narrowed eyes. "And I think that you are right. You know how to make yourself respected, I believe. But many women like to be beaten. I know that I should love the man who could beat me. But he would have to fight with me first. My husband is as timid as a Norway rat. You don't see him here often." Gudrid had never seen him. "He comes when I send for him," said Freydis. After that she saw Theodhild at Mass, and went home with her to her hermitage and told her the news. Theodhild said little, but one thing she said struck Gudrid. She said: "You will have much trouble, and give more of yourself than you can afford. But you will leave something to give to God at the end--more than I have left." Gudrid said: "It is foretold of me that I shall have three husbands, then go to Iceland and live as pleases me best." "It may well be so," said Theodhild. "Love is all to women, but if they can love God they are happiest. Love of man is more sorrow than joy. Love of God is pure joy. You will find it so." Gudrid was young enough to wonder if that was true. XII Thore was very good to her, as he had promised, but he had to be obeyed. Directly he saw the token which she wore, he wanted to know about it. "What is that which you wear round your neck? It looks to be gold." She said it was a token. "A token! And what kind of a token?" She said she had had it when she was a child. "Let me look at it," said he. He held it near to the light. "Rats have been at this," he said. "Here are teeth-marks. Hungry rats, too, they must have been. And that was a good coin of England once--and valueless now. There's the half of a king for you. That was Knut King of England--a rare man I have heard my father say. And rats have bitten him in half. Take it off, my girl. You don't want such things now." She thought that reasonable, and took it off, to be laid aside. She had not much feeling about it now, and yet could not bear it should be lost. She put it carefully away in her chest next day. By and by she told Thore that she had not spoken the truth. She had not been really a child when it was given her. "I never thought so," said Thore. "And it was not rats that bit it." "Rats, indeed! Never in the world." Then she told him the whole story, which he took very good-humouredly. "So that's it, is it? And when I take you to Iceland I suppose you will call him up with that?" "Not unless I want to see him," she said. "Not unless _I_ want to see him, you would say?" "I think you will be as pleased with him as I shall be," said Gudrid. So all went well except for Einar perhaps, whose prospects certainly were not enhanced by being talked about. The stronghold of a lover is to be so deeply hid that he is never talked of. It was the fact that Gudrid was happy with her blunt blackbeard of a man. He was easy to live with, always much the same, and did not ask for more than he was able to give. He was very thrifty, and taught her to be so, for she was anxious to please. He was never jealous, though Thorstan had a way of coming to the house. At the same time, he told her one night that he wouldn't have him there when he himself was away. He was often from home two and three days together. "It has a bad look," he said. "The neighbours look pityingly at a man. I won't have that. Not that there is any harm in Thorstan. He is the son of a friend of mine, and a very honest young man, though I call him dull. A man ought to be able to talk. I think him hot-tempered, too. He killed a lover of his sister Freydis once, and might as well have left it alone. She could have looked after herself. Besides, we are not so handy with our weapons as our fathers were in Iceland. Life is hard enough in this country without cold steel. Now remember--" and he pinched her cheek--"no men here when I am away." Certainly she did not love Thore as she believed she had loved Einar the sailor. Thore never made her heart beat, or brought mist over her eyes. But she was happy and proud of her great house and many maids and young men. And she was happy enough to be sorry for Thorstan, who followed her about with a dog's patient eyes, and evidently worshipped her shadow. He told her that he went down to Heriolfsness when he heard that she was promised to Thore. When there he had gone to see Thorberg. What did she tell him? Gudrid wanted to know; but he wouldn't answer. He said, however, that she had told him that he himself had the sight. "I had thought as much," he said, "and now I know that I have." Gudrid became very much interested, but not enough to dare probe any further. Indeed, she asked him not to tell her what he had seen. Thorstan looked away. "I would not tell you even if I knew anything," he said; "I would die sooner." She felt that she might become very fond of this moody and melancholy Thorstan, as a woman readily will of a man who, through no fault of his own, seems marked out for misfortune. She could not find that he had any faults. While very manly, and of great strength and courage--for he was untiring at hunting, could swim like a seal, and was believed to be afraid of nothing--with all this he was as gentle as a woman. She knew that he was a poet, though he would not sing her any of the verses he made. She thought to herself, "I could make him if I cared"; and the thought gave her joy. She told herself that if ever she loved a man again, as she had once understood love, it would be this man. And upon the heels of that thought came another, which she instantly put away, What and if Thorstan was to be her second husband? She put that out of her mind for Thore's sake--Thore's, who had freed her and made her happy. It was odd that Thore, whom she could never love, had made her happy, while Thorstan whom she could have loved, it was certain, would never do that. In the course of that year the great event was the home-coming of Leif, Eric Red's eldest son. He sailed up the frith in the early morning of a June day, and when Eric came out of doors, there was Leif's fine ship in the anchorage, and many boats about it. He had been away more than two years, adventuring greatly; but those adventures of his do not belong to this tale. He had been in Orkney for some time, and had fallen in love with a high lady whose name was Thorgunna. He knew her to be of great descent, and that she had the gift. He was much taken with her and she with him, and they set no bounds upon their intercourse, it is understood. When it came to the day before he sailed, Thorgunna said that she would go with him. Leif said that could not be, because her kindred would never allow it. "Maybe my people are as good as yours," he said, "but yours would not believe it, and I have to make my way in the world." "Think nothing of my people," she said, "but take me." But Leif would not. So then she told him the truth, that she was with child, and the child his. "If that's the case, then I stay here till the child is born. Him I will take, for it is the best thing for you." But Thorgunna said that she would bring up the child, and send him out to Greenland as soon as he was old enough. "I will accept him," Leif said. He sailed, then, as he had intended, and went to Norway. There he fell in with King Olaf Tryggvasson, and was made a Christian. The King put great trust in him, and when he heard that he was going home to Greenland, gave it in his charge to change the people's religion. Leif said that would be a hard matter. "My mother is a Christian, I know; but my father is not, and never will be, and my brothers are of no account." But King Olaf was in earnest about it, and Leif promised that it should be as he wished. Thore and Gudrid went to Brattalithe to see Leif. Gudrid thought that she had never seen so fine-looking a man. He was about thirty-five years old, and six feet four inches high. He looked as broad as a bull. He had golden hair and beard, and blue eyes. His face was burned to a hot brown colour. He was frank and open in speech, and full of fun and jokes. No secret was made of his intentions towards the religion of the people in Greenland. He told his father what he had undertaken; and he set about it at once. Theodhild, his mother, helped him, and Gudrid made Thore give money to increase the church. Thorstan and Thorwald were among the first to be sprinkled, but Freydis would have nothing to do with it, and Eric Red said that he was too old to change. Leif took that good-humouredly and laughed at his father. "If I were to tell you where was a great store of gold and silver coins, to be had for a little cold water on your back, you would strip to the skin in midwinter. But you will believe in no treasure which you cannot handle and run through your hands. Where do you expect to go when you die, with all that wickedness on your shoulders? You will come to a bad end, and ask me then to help you. I know how it will be. But go your way." He spent that summer preaching to the people in the Settlement up and down the frith. Most of the people accepted what he told them, because it was he who told it. Others said that if the King of Norway was of that way of thinking it was more likely to be the right than the wrong way. There was another matter very much in Leif's mind, and that was the voyage of Biorn Heriolfsson. He had to hear all about that, and he heard it first from Gudrid. Her face glowed and her eyes showed fire as she spoke of it. Leif watched her and thought her a lovely woman. "If you and I were to go out there together," he said, "we should never come back again. But your good man would take it in bad part." Gudrid said, "Yes, he would. But to go with us would seem to him still worse. Yet you will go." Leif considered. "Yes," he said, "I shall go, and as soon as may be. But first I must know what course Biorn took, and next I must have his ship to go in. I would not take my own--she is neither roomy enough, nor strong enough built for such great seas." Gudrid had by heart the figures and bearings of Biorn's voyage, for first Einar had drawn them on Orme's table, then Heriolf on his own, and then Biorn on Eric's table. She fetched a charcoal from the kitchen and drew the map, with all the company crowded about her. Leif was absorbed in it and her eager explanations. "I see just what he did," he said. "He drifted far south of Greenland, and didn't know it. Then when he got a wind he sailed south-south-west, and made that low-lying forest country. Then he steered north with a wind off the land, and came into the winter which we have here. He followed the coast along, and then, when it came on to blow from the south-west, he ran before it, and made Greenland. That's what he did. And that's what I will do." "It is what I would do if I were a man," said Gudrid. "Good for me that you are not a man," said Thore, who sat by the wall. Before that summer was over Thore told Gudrid that he should take her to Iceland, as he had business there. They would go almost at once. "How long shall we be there?" she asked him. He said that there was no telling. "A year and more, I expect." Her face fell. "Then we shall miss Leif's sailing." "No harm in that," said Thore. "What have you to do with Leif and his affairs? Enough for you that you have made him go." He was not angry with her; but he thought Leif altogether too fine-looking a man. That was a man's reason--no woman would have reasoned so. XIII Leif bought Biorn's ship from him that winter, and busied himself stocking her with tools, weapons and spare gear for his voyage. As soon as the weather was open he was ready, and then it was a question whether Eric Red would go with him. Eric was in two minds about it, old as he was, and extremely fat. He had been a great traveller in his youth, and was averse from exertion in these latter days, but he was uncomfortable at home, with no wife in the house, and all his sons holding the new faith. So he wavered until the last minute, and then said that he would not go at all. Leif was not sorry. He had a crew of five-and-thirty with him, and sailed his ship as near to S.S.W. as might be. She ran for six days before a fair wind, and on the afternoon of the sixth they made land on the starboard bow. There were mountains with snow upon them, and much fog; but Leif said that he would land in the morning, whatever kind of country it was. "It shall never be said against me, as it has been against Biorn, that I travel six days over the sea and leave the land I reach because it is not Greenland," he said. They found a good anchorage, waited the night through, and then rowed off in their boat and ran her up on to the beach. It was a naked country of broken rock and shale. No grass was to be seen, and hardly any trees, except a few stunted silver birch. They walked inland for a mile or more to where the snow began, and then saw, as it were, one vast unwrinkled sheet of snow stretching upwards into a bank of cloud. The ground was all scree of slate and shaly rock. They saw no signs of habitancy, and few tracks of animals. Then presently they looked at each other, and Leif laughed. "I think there is something to be said for Biorn; but although this is a barren land there is no reason why it should not have a name. I will call it Helloland, for such it is." [1] Then they returned to their ship, and up-anchor, and away along the coast, so far as that allowed, but always keeping a straight course. They came to another land, lying low in the sea, and sailed in towards it. Here also they landed, but on a shore of fine white sand, very level towards the sea, but blown into hummocks, whereon grass grew, towards the land. That was a flat country, and swampy, with trees so far as they could see, in some places dense and in others more open; but where the country lay open there were the swamps. "This country pleases me more than the last," Leif said. "The least it deserves is to be named. We will name it after its quality, and call it Markland," he said.[2] But nobody wanted to stay there very long, and there seemed nothing better to do than to get back to the ship again and sail. Leif considered the timber that he saw of little worth to them. It was mostly small wood, and soft or of open texture. They sailed, then, once more, with a fresh north-easterly wind blowing off the shore, and were two days at sea without sight of land. But then they made an island in the sea, and south of that saw the mainland, and a great frith striking up into it. There was no snow hereabouts, and the air was balmy and scented, blowing from the island. "Here," said Leif, "is a land worth visiting, I believe. Let us cast anchor in the lew of the island for the night; and to-morrow we will row up the frith yonder and see what we shall see." They found good holding-ground under the island, and then, as the light was good for several hours yet, launched the boat and rowed to the shore. The place lay peaceful in the level afternoon light, with trees softly rustling, and birds calling to each other from thickets. They wandered about, singing as they went, or calling to each other to see some new thing. Gradually the sun sank and the light began to draw in. One of them by chance stooped down and felt the grass. There was dew upon it. He put his finger into his mouth; and then he said, "This is a holy place. The dew tastes sweet." They all tried it that were there, and believed it. This filled them with wonder, and some of them walked about on tiptoe, as if they had no business to be there. They slept on board ship, and in the morning very early found that the tide had gone down and that she lay on her side, high and dry. The tide went back so far that it was possible to walk from the island to the mainland. As for the frith, it had shrunk to a dribble of water. But all this made no matter, so eager were they to savour the country which was heralded by so fair an island. They jumped off the ship's side on to the sand, which was firm and white, and ran to shore, and up the frith, where the going was easy for a mile or two. They found that it issued from a great lake, many miles in length, and many in width. It was shallow at the edges, but in the midst looked to be deep enough. On the shores of this lake were fine trees growing, of such wood as none of them had ever seen before; flowers, shrubs, birds were alike new to them. In the pools of the river left by the tide they saw great fish lying, which Leif thought were salmon. They wandered about all the forenoon, and when it was time to eat something and they went back to the shore, the river was filling fast, and their ship was afloat. They hailed her, and saw one of the hands row off for them in the boat. Leif then said that they would tow up the river and cast anchor in the lake, and that was done when they had made their meal. They found good anchorage there and a snug berth out of all troubles of wind or water. Next day they took off all their stores, and pitched tents for themselves in a glade, for it was Leif's meaning that they should pass a winter there. He was very much in love with the country, and said that in all his travels he had never been in a place so little likely to be vexed by cruel weather. "In my belief," he said, "we should have no need to store fodder for the stock against the winter. It seems to me that there should be grazing here the year through--but we will prove that, if you are willing." Everybody agreed. In a little time they had established order in their camp, for Leif was a strong and wise leader, a tall and fine man of wisdom and good manners, and all obeyed him cheerfully. Duties were assigned to the men in order; some were to fish, some to hunt--for they found deer as well as birds in plenty--and some to explore. Leif made a rule that no more than half his party should be away at one time, and that none should wander so far as that he could not win back by nightfall, nor separate himself from hail of the others who were with him. So the time wore on and the seasons changed. A mellow autumn gave way to a mild winter in which came no iron frost, and very little snow. If they had had cattle with them, as Leif had foretold, they could have kept them out all the winter. They found the light very different from Iceland or Greenland. On the shortest day they saw the sun between the afternoon meal and the day-meal. What puzzled Leif very much was this, that in so fair a country there was no sign of habitancy. They saw no men, nor any traces of men--and yet it was hardly to be believed that such a country was empty. It was late in the autumn when a great discovery was made. [1] York Powell and Vigfussen translate this as Shale or Slate-land; and Laing says that it is believed to have been Newfoundland. [2] That is, Bush or Scrubland. Believed to be Nova Scotia, according to Laing. XIV It happened one day that Leif had not gone out with the exploring party, but was by the tents expecting it to come home. When the men returned late in the evening he saw at once that a man was missing, and a man, too, of whom he was very fond. His name was Dirk, and he came from the south--that is, from beyond the Baltic Sea, from some distant part of Germany which no Icelander had seen. Eric Red had found him in his younger days in Bremen and shipped him for a voyage. Dirk had made himself useful, and desired to remain in Iceland. When it became necessary for Eric to leave home, Dirk went with him to Greenland. So it was that Leif had known him since he was a boy, and that there was much love between them. Dirk was as ugly a man as there could well be in the world, short, bandy and mis-shapen, with a small flat face, high forehead, little eyes, no nose to speak of; but yet he was active and clever with his hands and feet. The men told Leif that they had not missed him before the call had gone about to assemble for the return. They had looked all ways for him--but no Dirk. They had called--no answer. There was nothing for it, since it was growing dark, but to go home. Leif was troubled. "You are good men all," he said, "and yet I will tell you that I would rather have missed any two of you than Dirk. I have known him all my life, and grown up, as you may say, between his knees. It shall go hard with me but I find him before another sunset." With that they took their meal, and turned in for the night, all but Leif. He had Dirk in his mind and no way of thinking of sleep. Instead, he wandered up the shore of the lake in the moonlight, and presently was aware of a whooping sound among the trees, as it might be of a coursing owl. As he listened, it seemed to waver from place to place, now high, now low; and then in the pause he heard something like a chuckling noise; and then last of all a great guffaw. "There is Dirk, as I live," he said to himself, and plunged into the woodland to find him. He had not far to go. Some bowshot within the forest, in a glade, he saw Dirk plainly under the moon, dancing and waving his arms, curtseying to his own shadow. "Ho, Dirk!" he cried out sharply, and Dirk stopped short and looked about him. Leif watched him. Dirk stared into the dark, then shook his head. "I made sure somebody called Dirk," he said, and then--"But I don't care," and fell to his dancing and whooping again. Leif stepped into the moonlight, and Dirk saw him, but without ceasing to caper. "Dancing," he said, and went on. Leif went to him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Are you drunk, then?" Dirk nodded. "I am very drunk. That is just what I am." "Come you with me," said Leif, "and you shall be no more drunk." Then it was that Dirk said, "Let us sit down. I'll tell you where I've been." So they sat down together in the moonlight. Then Dirk told him that he had outwalked the others and passed out of the forest belt and reached a ridge of low hills. When he came to them he found that they were a tangle of wild vines. "And I know what vines are very well," he stopped to say, "for in my country there is no lack of them." Now these vines, he said, were loaded with grapes, some still ripe, but mostly over-ripe and fallen; and in a hollow of the rocks he had come to a pool of water wherein the grapes had fallen and fermented. "There," said he, "was my wine-vat, and there was I. The rest, master, you know." "Can you take me to that place to-morrow?" Leif asked him. Dirk said that he could. "Well," Leif said, "here is our work then. We will collect what we can of your grapes, and load our ship with timber. That will fill up the winter for us; and in the spring we will go home." And that was the way of it. The timber which they got was fine wood, and fit for building. They stored what grapes they could, and having a good-sized meal-tub on board, they made wine in it. They had samples of self-sown grain, too, and the skins of animals which they had trapped or shot with bows. When the spring came, they loaded their ship and sailed out of the lake into the open sea; but they left on shore the huts which they had made, meaning to return. At parting Leif said: "That country deserves a good name, and shall have one. I call it Wineland the Good." XV Leif in after days had his name of The Lucky, not for the great country which he had explored, nor for what he brought back from it, nor for the good passage home which he made, but for another reason altogether. It was the fact that the wind never failed them from the day they set out until that one on which they first saw plainly in the sea the snow mountains of Greenland. Everybody on board was in high spirits. Leif himself at the helm, and the look-out man was waiting for the first view of the great headland beyond which Ericsfrith with its two rocks would open up, and a straight course for the haven. And then, suddenly, Leif put down the helm, hard, and the ship veered several points off the land. "What will you do, master?" one asked him, and Leif replied, "Look out and see what I will do. Do you see nothing on the water?" The man said that he saw nothing out of the common. "Well," said Leif, "look again. I see a rock, or else a ship--and if a ship, then a ship on a rock." They all saw the rock now. "Yes," said Leif, "and there's a ship too, or a piece of a ship; for there are men on the rock." That was true too, but before they were near enough to count the survivors of a wreck, pieces of the wreck itself, and baulks of timber, which they supposed her cargo, came drifting by them; and then presently a drowned man with a white face turned upwards. Leif ran on, as near to the rock as he dared, near enough at least to see the men huddled on the ridge of it, and their hands up signalling to them. There, too, were the bows of a good ship rising high into the air like a seal. The rock was a sort of shelf in the sea, and stood out some ten furlongs from the great headland. Leif brought up his ship and cast anchor. He had the boat out, and himself rowed out to the wreck. "They can do us no harm, whoever they are," he said; "but I think they are friends of ours." Some fifteen men were huddled together, and apart from them was a woman in a blue cloak, with a man lying beside her, his head on her lap, and a cloth over his face. She did not move as the boat drew in, but all the others came scrambling down the shelf to the water's edge. Leif shouted. "Who are ye? And of what country?" "Thore's people--from Ramfirth." "Where is Thore?" They pointed to the woman. "Yonder he lies hurt. That is his wife." "And you are for Ericshaven?" They said that they were. "Then you are well met," said Leif, and stepped on to the rock. Gudrid's eyes were great and serious. Leif came to her and took her hands. "I little thought we should meet again like this." "We must have died without you," she said. Then he asked to look at poor Thore. He was unconscious, and had a great wound in his temple, cut open almost to the bone. Gudrid told him that when they struck, Thore, who had been at the helm, was thrown out upon the edge of the rock. One of his men, thrown out also, had pulled him up out of the sea. Gudrid herself had been below, sleeping. She did not know how she had been saved. She awoke at the shock to find herself in water. Then Leif saw that she was wet through and almost rigid with cold. He did not believe Thore was dead, nor did she. "No, no, he won't die so. He will die in my arms." So Gudrid said. They took off the sick man first, and Gudrid with him. Both of them were put to bed, where Gudrid, who was now in a fever, soon became light-headed. Leif attended to her like a woman. It was wonderful to see so big a man so gentle and light in the hand. He brought them all in safely, and Thore and Gudrid were taken up to Brattalithe, to lodge with Eric until one at least of them was well again. Gudrid very soon recovered, and seemed none the worse, but in all her glow of beauty and health. Thore was much slower. His wound pained him a great deal. Cold had got into it and inflamed it. The pain made him fretful; he seemed much older than a year and a half's absence could account for, and was anxious to get home. Gudrid wished to go also. Everybody was very kind to her at Brattalithe. She was a great favourite with Eric Red, who used to tell her that she ought to have married one of his sons. "Then I should have been sure that things would go right here when I am out of the way." Gudrid once replied to that that none had asked her, whereupon the old man looked slyly about him, and then said: "There was one at least was thinking of you--and so he is now." She knew that too well. Thorstan was consumed by love, and must always be with her if he could. She was gentle with him, as she was with everybody, and had to own to herself that it was Thorstan who now possessed her thoughts. That may have been going by contraries, for if Leif paid her nothing but the good-humoured civility he had ready for everybody, Thorstan, on his part, seemed afraid of her, and was speechless in her company. But there's all the difference in the world between a man completely easy in your company and one completely uneasy. Leif was a young giant, the best-tempered giant in the world; but it was clear to Gudrid that he had other things to think about besides love. He was full of the exploration he had made, determined to get more of the good timber over, and with more than half a mind to go out and settle in Wineland. Dirk made wine of the grapes which they had brought back. There was a great feast, and everybody got very drunk. If Eric Red had not died and left the Greenland settlement on his hands there is little doubt but Leif would have colonised Wineland. Meantime, Thorwald, the third of the brothers, was on fire with the thought of going. He said that he should go out next spring if Leif would let him have his boat. Thore--to the surprise of all--said that he would go too, but nobody seemed to want him. Leif said: "I don't think you a lucky man, Thore. And I don't think your wife will care about so long and rough a voyage, seeing what you made of her last." The laugh went against Thore. "Gudrid shall stay with her father," said he; but Gudrid said, "I shall go if you do." Thorstan's face fell, and Eric Red burst into a great shout of laughter. "Oh, sour face," he cried out, "let us hear what you have to say about all this." Thorstan was very hot, but he answered his father. "I think that Gudrid should not go, nor Thore either"--which made Eric chuckle. When he was with her the next day, after a long time of brooding, Thorstan said that he hoped she would not go to Wineland. "I must go if Thore goes," she said over her needlework. "If Thore goes, I shall go myself," Thorstan said after a pause. Gudrid looked up, but said nothing. "He is not a lucky man--that is to be seen," Thorstan said then. "And he has no great knowledge of the sea, and is moreover infirm. It would come to this, that he would hurt himself, and you would have the care of him as you did upon the rock out beyond the head." She answered him gravely. "It may be as you say, that he is not lucky. Indeed, I know it too well. For it was told me before ever I saw or heard of him, that he would die before me." Thorstan was now strongly moved. He wrung his hands together. "I beg you to tell me just what was said about that." She coloured deeply. "No, I cannot tell you." But Thorstan said: "I know what it was. It was said that you would have two husbands. Was it not so?" She could not tell him the truth; so she said, "Yes." Then Thorstan said in a voice which did not sound like his, "That is another reason why I must go." And then they looked at each other for a measurable space of time--and then Thorstan got up and left her. When they met again he was as he had always been before; but Gudrid was frightened, and insisted on going home to Stockness. It was hard to persuade Eric Red to let her leave him. He had grown very fond of her, and the more so because he hated his own daughter Freydis. But Gudrid held to her determination, and won her own way. At parting old Eric took her in his arms. "I am loth to let thee go, dear child," he said, "and afraid lest I lose thee altogether. But thou art between two old men who love thee, and Thore has the first claim. Promise me this, that if he die before me thou wilt come back to Brattalithe and be a daughter to me." "Yes," Gudrid said, "I promise you that." "Right," said old Eric. "Then I shall live to see thee again." With that he kissed her and let her go. XVI Thorwald told Leif that he had been too faint-hearted in his explorations of Wineland. "You were bolder than Biorn, I grant you," he said; "but you only nibbled at the rind after all. I promise you I will dig down deeper into the meat." "Dig," said Leif, "dig by all means. But look that you don't dig your grave. I saw no men the length and breadth of the land; and yet it is unreasonable to think that no men have been engendered to live in such a fine and fruitful country. If our father were not so old and hard to move, I tell you I should be for cutting adrift from Greenland and settling out there. But then I would go in a larger way than you intend. I would take a wife first of all----" "So would Thorstan, our brother, if he could get her," said Thorwald. "But he cannot get her," Leif said, and then Thorwald, "He won't move from her until he does get her." Leif said: "He will go if Thore takes her out with you. But never mind all that. You will need a stock of cattle if you are for settling, and a strong body of men. It is not the way of our people to live in tents and eat only of the beasts that we chance to take. We are too fond of the earth to care to live without what she can give us. And if by incessant toil you win a sustenance out of this frozen land, consider what you could do in Wineland, where there is no frost, and but a sprinkling of snow, and where the soil is four feet deep, or double that for all I know." "You are talking of one thing, and I thinking of another," Thorwald said. "Time enough to settle when I have discovered the country for you. That's what I mean to do." Leif helped his brother with a ship and good advice; and Thorwald sailed west in the spring with a sufficient crew. Thore did not go; for that winter there had been a great deal of sickness, and old Thorbeorn took it badly, and died of it. Thore himself had the sickness, and Gudrid nursed him through it; but he was not fit for a long voyage. And Thorstan would not go either, though he kept away from Stockness, and saw nothing of Gudrid. Thorwald would have been glad of his help, for Thorstan was very strong and a man who could be depended upon; but he saw the trouble in his eyes and forbore to urge him. It came to this, then, that Thorwald was in sole command. He was young and full of spirit; he did not doubt himself the least in the world: but Leif doubted him, and threw away much sound advice upon him. They sailed out of the frith one fine afternoon, and were lost to sight. They had a prosperous voyage throughout, and no trouble in picking up the Island of Sweet Dew, the river and the lake. There, in a glade of the forest and in full view of the lake, they saw the booths still standing, which Lief and his men had set up. They were intact, the bolts seemingly not drawn, and not much the matter with the goods within, but what fresh air and sunlight could amend it. They spent the better part of six weeks in and about those shores, but then, leaving a garrison at the booths, Thorwald and the rest of the crew went far and wide over the land, travelling mainly by boat up the great river which fed the lake on the west. They did not return till late in the autumn. They reported to their friends that so far as they had been the forest land extended, with timber in it of incredible size and height. It increased in density the further they went, and the country all level, with no mountains to be seen. In the river were many shallows, and islands too; the shores were white sand and firm to walk upon. They had met with few animals, and no signs of men at all. Thorwald, who was unaccustomed to a forest country, said that he should never settle there, and that he should go further north, where a man might perhaps see where he was going. But they stayed out the winter where they were. In the spring they made their preparations to depart. They sailed east in the first place, but always north of the land, but encountered rough weather off a great headland which drove them on to the beach and broke the ship's back. That gave them a great deal of work, and involved a long stay while they mended her. There was abundance of timber, and of good quality, and they were well stocked with tools; but there was much building to be done before they could get at their work, and it took them the best part of the summer. But they were away about the time of harvest, and still sailing north, and being east of the mainland, the country appeared to grow more open, the trees were sparse, and they could see hills to the far west of them. So presently, when there opened out to them the mouth of a great frith, Thorwald sailed up it some distance till he came to a place where there were bluffs standing up sheer in the water, and beyond a headland a broad bay. Thereabouts, standing close inshore he berthed his ship, and was able to run out gangways and walk from ship to land. He himself with a party went into the country to look about them. It was fine open land, with a good deal of wood growing on it, but well-watered and with pasture of fine quality. "This country suits me," Thorwald said. "I shall stay here and make a homestead in it." As it turned out he spoke more truly than he thought for. On their way back to the ship they struck the frith nearer to the mouth than where the anchorage was. They jumped down the cliffs to the beach, and in the very act to jump Thorwald saw something move between two hummocks of sand. He collected his men together and advanced quietly. There behind the hummocks they saw men. Three hide-boats lay at the water's edge. There were three men to each. Thorwald said, "We must rush upon them suddenly. Let each of us make sure of one man." There were twelve men with Thorwald, counting himself. The men, who were short and very dark, with black hair, in which were feathers, had bows with them; but Thorwald gave them no chance of using them. At a signal his party sprang with cries from behind the hummocks, and fell upon them. Three fell at once; the others took to the water and were slain there, all but one. He, as he went, slid out a boat, and scrambling in, made off at a great pace, and was soon out of sight behind the cliffs. Thorwald took the hide-boats and the weapons, but left the dead men where they lay. Then he went back to the ship, uneasy, thinking what he had better do. It was everybody's advice that they should seek an anchorage further from the shore--and that they did. Setting a watch, they went to bed. Nothing disturbed them until the grey hour of the morning; but then the watchman called loudly to Thorwald: "Thorwald, Thorwald, arm yourself, and come up!" Thorwald leapt to his feet and ran out to look. The water was very smooth and still, but listening intently, he could hear countless paddle-strokes; and by and by in the mist the water appeared to be moving, so many and close together were the boats, and so shadowy-grey the men in them. "Out with your war-wall," Thorwald cried, and all the crew, now wide awake, obeyed him. The war-wall was run up and made fast. Every man took spear and shield and stood behind it, ready for the worst. The natives came within easy shooting range and rained showers of arrows at the ship. They did not venture to get at closer quarters, but held on until they had shot all their arrows; then made off with cries. The Icelanders looked at each other, and Thorwald, who was very pale, said, "Is any man here wounded?" They told him No. Then Thorwald, smiling rather queerly, said: "There slipped in an arrow between the rails of the board and my shield and struck me under the arm. You shall take it out, one of you, but I declare it my death-wound. I feel the venom working in me; and now I see how wisely I spoke when I said that my homestead should be out yonder. So it will be, but a smaller one than I thought to have put up. Now," he said, lying down upon a skin which they had spread for him, "pull me out this accursed dart, and listen to what I say. You shall bury me there where my homestead is to be, and put up a Cross over me. For though I am not long christened I know that I belong to the true faith. Call that place Crossness in memory of me, and when you go home tell my people where I lie, in case any of them come out and are minded to see if I need anything." He bore the pulling out of the dart with great cheerfulness, and composed himself for his end. The poison worked swiftly. He was soon discoloured, and rambled much in his talk. Towards the end they had to hold him, and at sunset he died. Everything was done as he had ordered it. They dug him a grave, rather than piled a cairn about him as the custom had always been; but sat him up in it with his weapons, thinking that more honourable. There were no Christians among them to say any prayer over the grave; but they made a great Cross and carved runes upon it. Then they went back to the ship and got the anchor up, being ill-disposed to stay there another day. The night passed without attack, and by daylight they rowed out of the frith, and out to sea. They beat their way back to Eric's booths in Wineland and found them unmolested. There they remained for the autumn and winter following; and then went home to tell Eric Red and Lief the fate of young Thorwald. XVII Thorbeorn of Stockness died of the winter sickness the winter before Thorwald sailed for Wineland. Thore himself had been very sick too, but he recovered and was almost himself that summer. Not altogether so, for he had lost his lightness of heart, and with that his decision and blunt common sense. Gudrid, who had fought, as it seemed to her, against fate, and prevailed, was unhappy that he should care so little to be with her. She did not know that he avoided her. But it was so. He spent most of his time at Brattalithe, where he had taken a great fancy for Thorstan. He did not tell her, and Gudrid did not know, what he and Thorstan could have to say to each other--but the two were great friends. The fact of the matter was that Thore had now got it into his head that Gudrid had cast a spell upon both himself and Thorstan, and that the prediction concerning her was less prophecy than a gift of magic power. He found that Thorstan would let him talk about his hard fate by the hour together--nay, more, he found that Thorstan did not at all avoid being cast in the same lot. Thorstan, indeed, was quite open about it. "I have so much love in me for Gudrid," he said, "that you may say whatever you please about her to me, and I shall hear you gladly. Talk evil of her, sooner than not talk at all. I shall never believe you, but I shall hear her name, and name her myself. That will be enough for me." So Thore grumbled away about his troubles, and Thorstan listened to him. He himself saw Gudrid seldom, because he believed that it made her uneasy to have him there. Nevertheless he prevailed upon Thore to bring her to Brattalithe very often; and when she was there he would take himself off cheerfully to work about the estate. Eric Red always made much of her, and even Freydis liked her well enough. She was the only woman for whom Freydis had a civil word. Freydis used to frown upon her, with her arms folded under her bosom. "You have soft ways," she said, "and can make men do as you want; but all that is nothing to me. I see that you are made of steel underneath, for all that. I see that you are no fool, and no doll. One of these days you will fall in with a man worthy of you, and then I should like to see the pair of you at work." Another time she said, "Good for you, Gudrid, that you have no child." Gudrid said, "That is not my opinion. I wish with all my heart I had." "Wait," said Freydis, "until you have a man for a mate." But that made Gudrid's eyes bright. "You must not scorn my husband to my face," she said. "Pooh!" said Freydis; "he's not here for long." Then Gudrid turned pale, and grew very grave. "You know that, then?" "Why," said Freydis, "it is common knowledge. We have all had to do with Thorberg. She has the second sight." "That is dreadful to me," Gudrid said, but Freydis took it easily. "You are woman enough to bear what you must bear," she said. "One of you must die before the other. I hope you don't want to share graves with such an old man as Thore? Well, then, suppose it had been you that were to die first--do you suppose that Thore would have left you for some other girl? What do you take him for? Not he. He's man enough to have his pleasure. Trust him for that." Such was Freydis, who treated her own husband with a high hand, and sent for him when she wanted him. Freydis spoke of the marriage of Thorstan and Gudrid as of an appointed thing. "You will suit each other," she said. "There is good mettle in Thorstan." Gudrid could say nothing to that. The fate hung heavy upon her. She felt that she was killing Thore, and had the knife in readiness with which to kill--not Thorstan but herself. For she knew that she had given Thorstan her heart, and that his death would be more certainly her own. Meantime, with a dreadful fascination, she watched the doom settling like a storm about her husband Thore. She only saw it; he himself, now that he was better, was unconscious of anything impending. He talked hopefully of what he should do when Thorwald came home with news of Wineland, having forgotten his dark commerce with Thorstan. But Thorstan had not forgotten, and seemed to be waiting, like a raven on a rock, until he should be dead. Gudrid, who was fanciful, saw herself and him in that guise--silent and watchful, each on a rock, made patient by certainty. All this was terrible to her, and made her old before her time. She was not more than three-and-twenty even now. Thorstan avoided her, which made matters no better, but worse, rather; for she knew why he did it, and felt spotted, and longed to see him, and felt that she was accursed. So life drew along for that summer and autumn; and then the long Greenland winter began, with the dark and the clinging, frozen fog. Thore seemed to make no stand against it, but took to his bed, from which Gudrid knew he would never rise. She waited on him hand and foot; he lay there watching her with his aching eyes, and wounded her to the heart. He hardly ever spoke, and seldom asked for anything. Thorstan used to come up most days to ask how he did. Gudrid knew quite well when he was on the road, and would tell Thore. "Here is Thorstan Ericsson coming. Will you not see him?" "Nay, nay, not yet," was Thore's answer. Then there came a day when, being very ill, and nearly blind with fever, Thore asked to see Thorstan. So Gudrid opened the door to him, and her colour came back to her when she said, "Thore has asked for you. Come in, then." Thorstan, glowing in his health and strength, came into the hall. Gudrid took his furs from him to dry them by the fire, for the fog was frozen thick upon them. Thorstan sat on the edge of the bed, and asked Thore how he did. "I do badly," said Thore, "but before long it will be better with me." Gudrid was turning away when he said to her, "Nay, do you stop here. I shall need you." So she stood where she was, a little way from the bed, half dreading and half glorying in what was to come. Thore shut his eyes and seemed to wander in sleep. They heard him talking very fast to himself--counting the same things over and over again, and always failing at a certain number. They thought he was counting sheep--but it was salmon in a net. Thorstan watched him attentively, while Gudrid stood in a spell; but presently Thorstan got up and fetched a stool for her to sit upon. She could not look at him to thank him. So the time passed in silence, broken only by the feverish whispering of the sick man. The thoughts of the man were deeply upon the woman, and the joy of her nearness made his heart beat. As for her thoughts, if there was no joy in them, there was great content, and a sense of peace which she had not known for a long while. She thought that a word from him might have broken down her peace. "What need of speech between us two?" she thought. "I would live with him and know all his thoughts, and tell him all mine without speech at all." Presently Thore woke up with a start and asked what time it was. "It is late," Gudrid said. "I will bring you your broth, and maybe you will sleep a little." She turned away to the fire, but Thore said sharply, "Stay; there is no need for broth now." Then he said, "Are you there, Thorstan? I cannot see you." Thorstan said, "Here I am." Thore spoke again. "Take the hand of Gudrid, and tell me that you have it." He faltered for a moment, but then looked at Gudrid, and called her with that look. She went over and gave him her hand. "Is it done?" said Thore. "Yes, it is done," he was told. "Her father was too quick when he married her to me, and you, maybe, were over-slow," Thore said. "She would have married you at first if you had asked her. Now you must make the most of your time, for it won't be long. And I knew what the matter was between you from the first, but in those days I loved her dearly and could not let her go. Now do you two be married soon, and take it not amiss with me that I have outstayed my time." "You do wrong to speak so," Thorstan said. "Gudrid has been faithful and loving to you; and it is no fault of hers that she knew how it would turn out." "No, no," said Thore. "She has been good to me." "Now I will tell you," said Thorstan, "that I have the second sight myself, and know what my fate is, and that she must take a third husband. But if it were my fate to die the day after my wedding with Gudrid, I would wed her if she would take me. You, Thore, are dying a Christian. See to it, then, that you do not die with hard judgments of Gudrid in your heart." Thore lay still, breathing very short. They believed he was struggling with his thoughts. Presently he called her, and she went to him, and kneeled by the bedhead, and put her cheek against his. He lay very still, and she remained patiently waiting. So then he had a great convulsion, and struggled in it; and then turned violently in his bed and sat up. He saw Gudrid kneeling, and smiled at her. It was as if he had newly awoken out of sleep, and was himself again as she had first known him. She, as if knowing his mind, leaned towards him. He kissed her forehead, and lay down again. In a few moments more he was dead. When they had laid him out, and lighted tapers about him, Thorstan said: "Do you now go and sleep, and I will sit up with him." She asked with the eyes that she might stay, but he would not have it. So she went away and made a bed by the fire, and slept long. He did not touch her, would not look at her. They neither kissed when they parted, nor at all until Thore was buried. But after that, when she was at Brattalithe, and he found her there, he took her in his arms. XVIII There were many things about her marriage with Thorstan which she did not understand at the time--Thorstan's urgency for it was one, a kind of feverish haste about getting through with preliminaries; and another was his opposition to living anywhere but at Brattalithe. He would not go to her father's house, nor to that which had been Thore's, and which was now hers for life. He put a reeve in each of them and took her to Brattalithe. Afterwards she understood everything, and was confounded by her former blindness; but it is the truth that Thorstan's love for her was of a sort to forbid thinking. She was carried off her feet and out of her common sense by his passion. He, so dumb and still a man, was by the touch of passion set on fire. And fire caught fire. The pair of them lived in each other, and the world seemed empty of all other men and women. As for Thorstan himself, knowing what he knew, it is not wonderful that his love burned at white heat. Passion with him was in a trap and fighting for an hour of life. What is wonderful is, that he never betrayed in any other way that he had the end in sight from the beginning. It was "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" with him. But Gudrid did not see it. She was too happy to see it. Her doom was flooded out by sunlight, as it were. He made songs for her from the time of Thore's death onwards, and in these his secret might have been revealed if she had been able to read below the surface. He sang her one night as she lay in his arms the terrible Song of Helgi and Sigrun. Certainly Death and Love embrace in that. Helgi was a Wolfing, the son of Sigmund and Borghild. He was forecast a hero by the Norns, and at fifteen slew Hunding, who had slain his father. The sons of Hunding gathered themselves--Alf and Eywolf, Hiorward and Haward--and the hosts met in the plain under Lowfell. There was war in heaven while those armies made it on earth. Out of the lightning flare came the Valkyrs, daughters of Odin, choosers of the slain. They rode grey horses; they wore helms and coats of mail; their spear-heads gleamed like fire. Helgi sat by the Eagle Rock and cried out to them to stay. And one--it was Hogni's daughter, Sigrun--turned him her fire-hued face and answered: "Other business have we in hand than to pledge you in horns. My father has plight me to King Hodbrord, whom I hold no better than the son of a cat. Yet he will come for me soon unless you deliver me." Then love grew between them as they looked at each other; and Helgi said: "Fear not Hodbrord, for I will meet him unless I am dead." King Hodbrord called up his levies and mustered a host. The ships flocked about Brandey, but still he waited, and warriors came to him, hundreds of them, from Hedinsey and other islands. Then said Helgi to Hiorleif, "Is the host called?" And Hiorleif nodded his head and pointed them out over sea, high-beaked ships, hemmed with shields, thick on the water like wild swans. They fought in a storm, and the waves played their part in the battle. The waters drank as much blood as the swords; from on high Sigrun the Valkyr guided the warriors of Helgi. Now King Hodbrord stood in the gate of his house, hooded and helmed, his spear in his hands. He saw far off in the valley horsemen riding with speed, whose cloaks flew out in the wind they made. Who come here? Whose is the host? And Godmund, his housewife, told him of the sea-fight, and that the Wolfings were coming against his house. Then looking, he saw the helm-bright Valkyrs coursing the air, keeping pace with the horsemen below. They met in a crash by the Wolf rock; the swords flamed, the spears were like flying stars. Over the dead Hodbrord Sigrun the Valkyr cried in triumph, "Never for your arms is Sigrun of Sevafell," and as she spoke the arm of Helgi the hero held her fast. Their love was fierce, but it was short. Helgi is dead of countless wounds, and laid in his barrow with his weapons beside him. Sigrun of Sevafell keeps the house; she sits by the fire; her eyes are hard. She says to herself-- "Now had been here Had he been minded Sigmund's son, The hero Helgi, Out of the halls of Odin; But the eagles roost On the high ash-boughs, All the household Falleth to dreams-- Faint is my hope of him now." But her handmaid at the window sees a man riding in armour. He rides a grey horse, his face is pale and streaked with blood. She speaks to herself, and then to the dead-- "What wraith rideth? Is Doomsday come? Shall dead men ride, Shall they drive spurs in? Ho, pale rider, Hast thou leave homeward to fare?" It is Helgi who answers her as he rides by upon a noiseless horse-- "This is no wraith, This is not World's Doom Though a dead man rides, Though he pricks with spurs, Leave I have homeward to fare." And then he cries aloud, so that Sigrun hears him, and looks up, listening-- "Ha, come thou forth, Sigrun of Sevafell! Here is thy lord If thou wouldst see him; The cairn is open, Helgi is here With the sword-wounds bleeding--staunch thou the blood! For I must ride soon The reddening roads, My good horse climb The ways of the air; West of the sky-bridge Needs I must be Before the grey cock cry to the sun." Sigrun is up now, and at the door. She pants as she pulls at the bobbin of the latch. Her eyes are on fire with eagerness. But the maid cries to her-- "Go not, go not, Sigrun of Sevafell, Sister of kings, Seek not the house of the dead! For the night is abroad When the dead are mighty; Await bright dawn, thou shalt be stronger." But Sigrun is out in the moonlight, and Helgi is upon his feet. Now she has him in her arms; now she holds his pale face between her hands and speaks to him close-- "The hawks of Odin Greet not the Storm-lord, Scenting the slain, their smoking quarry, Not more eagerly Cry they the dawn dew Than I cry thee, dead King Helgi. Now I kiss thee, dead King Helgi, Ere thou castest Thy blood-clutter'd mail-shirt. Bloody the dew On thy dauntless body, Heavy the rime On thy raven love-locks; Cold are thy hands, Helgi, my king's son, How shall I loose thee, lover and lord?" But Helgi puts her hands away from his face and holds her apart-- "The death-dew is dank on me, Sigrun of Sevafell, This is thy doing, O sun-fraught lady, Golden woman, the tears thou sheddest Upon thy bed stay not beside thee; Like blood they fall, cold and deathly, Like sobs they stab me Through the breast!" Then, seeing her despair, he throws up his white face towards the moon and laughs without joy-- "Ho, let us drink Deep draughts of joy, We that have lost Land and life! Let no man keen us, Let no man pity The wounds shining upon my body." He clasps her close in his arms, and speaks as it were between his teeth. "Now is a queen, Sigrun of Sevafell, Now is a queen Shut in the cairn, Living and warm with the cold dead." But she strains him to her and cries aloud-- "Helgi, Helgi, here is thy bed made, Thou son of Wolfings, a warm bed, a gentle-- Fast in arms, Helgi, enfold me; As when thou livedst Clip me in death sleep." And then the maid sees the cairn open, and Sigrun lying in it in the dead man's arms. Helgi lifts up his face to the moonlight, and sings-- "Never on Sevafell A great marvel-- No more wondrous That hill of magic-- For Hogni's white daughter Lies with a dead man; A king's daughter Alive in the arms of the dead." There is no more terrible song than that, nor one in which love is brought so close to death. When she remembered it after-wards Gudrid saw well that she had indeed been lying with a dead man when that song was sung to her. For if she could have had the wits she would have felt at the time the death-dew on his face. But love had then bereft her of all wits. She called that year afterwards the Little Summer, as well because of the glory and promise of it as for the few days it held. By the end of June she knew herself with child. Thorstan gave a sort of sobbing gasp when she told him and pressed her to his heart. She felt the wet from his eyes upon her cheek, looked at him and saw tears. "You weep at my news?" "It is because I am happy, my love." She herself was softly elated by the gift she was to be enabled to make him, but not otherwise. All her love was centred in him just then. But in July the ship came home from Wineland the Good without Thorwald, and with the heavy news. Eric, who had been ageing, was very much cast down by it. He wished Lief to go out and fetch back the body; but Lief did not seem inclined to move. He told Thorstan his reason. "If we can move out, house and homestead, gear and cattle, man, woman and child, well and good. It is a finer country than this. I will settle there gladly. But you see how it is with our father. He won't last long, and you will see he will refuse to move. This is his Settlement; he has made it for himself. He is king of all this country, and he feels it. Now if we go and leave him here, he will die--and what then? The end of Eric's kingdom. No, I shall stay here and take up the government after him. But I think that you should go--you and Gudrid." Thorstan said: "I think so too. I will speak to Gudrid. But I shall wait till after harvest." He told Gudrid what he thought. "They have buried him heathenwise, sitting with his weapons, looking out to sea, and heaped the stones over him. True, they have set up a cross atop. But he should have the rites. I must see to that. We will go, my love, if you are willing--but maybe we shall not come back." She looked at him fondly. "I will go wherever you bid me. But we shall come back." It is wonderful that she did not remember what had been predicted of her; but she did not. Thorstan did not meet her eyes. "We will go, then. But not till after harvest." "Harvest!" said she. "You will not go in the winter?" "No, no," he said. "The harvest will not be done." Then she knew that he did not speak of the corn-harvest, but of their own. The year sped quickly, as happy years will do; the harvest of the earth was gathered, the winter fell, the clinging mists, the still and deadly cold. But they were a happy household at Brattalithe, for Gudrid was found to be a solvent of much domestic ferment. Her sweet manners drew even Theodhild to come in and out of the house, and hushed the storms which periodically swept over Freydis the Wild. At Yule there was a feast of many days, singing, eating and drinking, and games in the snow for the young men. Gudrid sat apart and watched it, Thorstan never far away from her. Still she didn't guess what lent such fervour to their loves. Foolish with happiness, she thought it was the first of many Yules--whether here in this frost-locked country or in the forests of Wineland mattered little to her. She saw them all in years to come as they were now and felt her heart high in her breast. And then at the end of March, when men began to talk again of the ice breaking up, and the thawing of the passages, her child was born. It was a girl, and christened Walgerd. And now Thorstan looked about him at the still sheeted lands and knew that his hour was at hand. He told nobody, he never betrayed himself; but went to work silently and methodically. XIX It was the end of summer again before they were ready to sail. The ship which brought home Thorwald's crew had gone a voyage to Iceland and not come back. It was necessary to find and furnish another; no crew would ship until the harvest was over; and though Gudrid was willing to follow Thorstan at a word, Eric had not wanted her to leave him yet; so she saw one more high summer. They fared badly from the start, with heavy weather as soon as they were off the land. After a week of blustering south-west gales and rain the wind went round to the north. Then from the N.N.W. there began a storm the like of which none of them had ever known, and for week after week they were buried in it, not knowing where they were. They lost men, tackle, stores; there was not a dry rag on the ship; every day Thorstan expected the snow. Instead of that, after a few days of sunny weather, the wind dropped in a clear sky; it began to freeze, and then came the white blanket to cling about sheets and spars, and hold them close, a blur drifting upon a sea like oil. Gudrid sat like a ghost in the after deckhouse, nursing her baby and trying to keep it warm. It did not thrive and could not be expected to thrive. She was sure it would die. And so it did--died in its sleep while she was suckling it. She felt the cold upon its legs; and then it grew heavy. She looked down--its eyelids were blue. But she did not move. Thorstan came down to see her. He knew at once. He went to her and covered her breast in the blanket. He said nothing, but was very gentle. "Oh, husband, speak to me! Our little baby----" "Hush, my dear one--it is better. She is not cold now." He made her lie down, with a hot stone for her feet and another for her arms to hold instead of her Walgerd. When she was asleep he said a prayer over the child and sank it in the sea. Then he comforted her as only he could have done it. There was a good deal of sickness on board and plenty for Gudrid to do. The wind blew gaps in the fog, and as it stiffened tore it into flying shreds and rags. The ship heaved and lurched in water now inky-black. They got steerage way, and ran before a gale which they judged came from the south-west; they held this course for many days, hoping to get a sight of land. And land was nearer than they thought, for one morning Thorstan saw a darkening in the fog, a kind of shape, and then, quick as the thought, he put the ship about. She came round slowly, and at that moment the spars and rigging seemed alive with sea-birds. As the ship went round a huge black wall reared itself a-starboard, and he heard the waves at its foot. As nearly as might be he had broken up his ship on the rocks. Thorstan ran out to sea for half a mile or more and stood off until the weather cleared a little. When it did they all saw the crags and headlands of an iron coast. The only thing to do was to keep within hail of it until they found some sort of haven. Thorstan said he would spend the winter there, whatever country it might be. Already it was cold, and wherever the land stooped low enough there was snow to be seen lying. An opening in the land was reported next day, and as they drew near they could make out a firth and a muffled ship lying at anchor within it. The tide serving, Thorstan ran in between low hills all smothered in snow. A settlement of white, muffled houses lay on the shore of a bay, a deserted quay, a few boats drawn up on the beach: not a soul was to be seen; the winter swoon was over all. He drew up within hail of the silent ship and anchored in that black water. The rattling of the chain and splash of the anchor echoed among the hills, but awoke no man. "Are we, dying, come to a city of the dead?" he thought. The chill lay on his heart like lead; the thought of Gudrid gave him a dull ache; even the passion of desire to save her was dead within him. He did what came up before him to be done, but could not provide nor foresee. "Here we must see the winter out," he said, and had the boat out so that he might go ashore and seek quarters. First he went below to see Gudrid. He found her in the bed, rigid with cold, almost too cold to shiver. He leaned over her in an agony of pity. "Oh my heart! Oh my poor heart!" She looked up at him and smiled in his face. She was not able to speak. "I shall see the winter out here," he told her. "I must find out where we are--I believe that we have beaten back to Greenland. If that be so, then we may be able to reach home; but if that is not possible, then we stay here. I will get quarters for the men, and for ourselves, please God. My love, trust me to do for the best--and wait for me here." She nodded her head two or three times, but her eyes were shut and she did not look at him again. He dared not kiss her for fear of finding out how cold she was. How could it be that men were allowed to suffer so? He found some more covering for her bed before he left her. The boat took him ashore; he went to the nearest house he saw and thumped on the door. There was no light to be seen, and for long there was no sound to be heard inside; but at last he heard the bolts drawn back. A white-faced woman peered at him through a crack. "Let me in, for the love of God," said Thorstan. Then she beckoned him in. A sick man lay muttering in a bed; children huddled about a turf fire. The place was very nearly dark, but he made out some six souls to be there. He found out that he was come to Lucefrith in West Greenland; the winter sickness was heavy on the place. The woman did not refuse to take one of his men, and did not agree. She seemed stupid with misery. He told her that he should send her a man, and went out. In every house in the Settlement was much the same story. Sickness and death on all hands, but no refusals. At the end of his rounds he had managed to place out all hands. There remained himself and Gudrid. There was no place for them--not room enough to die in. He had asked if there were no headman in Lucefrith, and was told of one Thorstan Black; but he, it seemed, lived far off--over the hills, they said--and no way of getting at him through the snow. Then he went back to the ship and told his men to get ready to go ashore. He took them off by companies in the boat, and saw them all indoors before he left them. The last man under cover, he rowed back alone to the ship. At this extremity, with frozen death and silence all about him, he felt a strange uplifting of the heart in the thought that he and Gudrid were now alone indeed--they two and Love. And what if Death were a fourth in the party? Ah, he was welcome too. But before Death came Love should be there. He rowed gaily, fiercely, that he might be with her the sooner. He was warmed by his exercise when he was on deck again, and wildly happy in the thought which possessed him. He went below and saw his love watching for him. "My heart, I am coming to you," he said. He took off his furs and most of his clothes and got into the bed with her. He held her close to him, with a passion which despair may have quickened into flame. Wildly as he had loved her since she had given him herself, he never loved her as he did now, when the end seemed close upon them. For a week they lived so, the supreme week of Thorstan's and Gudrid's lives. They were utterly alone, and they never left each other's arms, but when Thorstan was busy mending the brasier fire, or getting food. They cherished each other, the fire in them at least never went out; they loved and slept, they loved again and slept. It was the last leap of their fire, it was the swan-song of their love maybe; but it was beautiful, and as strong as if they were breasting a great flight through space. Thorstan sang to Gudrid, he told her tales of lovers, he put their joint lives into verses; but he had not a word to say of the future. Here fate was too heavy for either love or religion. Fate stood with stretched-out arms holding a black curtain over what was to come. Thorstan had seen behind it. He knew. But Gudrid had forgotten, and he would not tell her. As for Gudrid herself, the glory was to have Thorstan find her so lovely, and her love so full, was enough for her. She lived on his needs. To fill them was her utmost desire, and to be to him a never-failing well was a crown of stars. She seldom spoke; she was as silent as the earth below the rains and heats of heaven, and as receptive. She neither asked nor pondered what was to be the end of this rapturous dream. If she had, her utmost desire would have been that they should die together in some nuptial sleep, and lie still, folded under the snow. But Fate ordered it otherwise. The day came when they heard the knocking of oars, and then while they lay clasped, listening, a great voice hailing the ship. They looked at each other. "The dream is over," Thorstan said. "My love, the world is about us again." She clung to him. "Let us stay here--let nobody forbid us that." "Nay, but I must go out and see who is coming." He dressed and went on deck. A large man muffled to the eyes in a bearskin was below him in a boat, standing up in it holding on to the side. He pulled open his hood and showed a red face, black beard and a pair of merry eyes. The two hailed each other, and then the new-comer said, "They told me in the Settlement that you were under the weather here. It will have gone hard with you, I doubt. And your lady with you! Now I make known to you that I am Thorstan of this place, called commonly Thorstan Black, and at your service." Thorstan said: "Then I must be Thorstan Red, for Thorstan is my name, and the red is of Nature's doing, and my father's. I am Eric's son of Ericsfrith. I was making the western voyage, but was driven out of my course in a gale, and forced to beat up here against my will. My men are in the Settlement, but I and the good wife could find no better quarters than these." "I will show you better," said Thorstan Black. "I knew nothing of your coming till last night when a man came up asking for fuel. You shall come off with me now if you will. In a week's time you will be able to walk ashore. My mistress will be glad of your company, and so shall I be." "Thank you for that," said Thorstan. "We take your offer gladly." He asked him up, but Thorstan Black said he was very well where he was. Gudrid was dressed when he came down for her. The dream was broken, and neither of them spoke of it. Their preparations were soon made, and then they left the ship. Thorstan Black rowed them ashore with strong and leisurely strokes. He told them that he lived over the ridge beyond the Settlement. He had a sleigh of dogs waiting for him, packed up Gudrid, put Thorstan one side of her and himself the other, cracked a great whip, uttered a harsh cry; and they were off. The dogs panted and strained at the ropes; sometimes one yelped in his excitement. And so they came to a broad-eaved house, and were welcomed by the good wife, whose name was Grimhild. XX The winter fell upon them in bitter earnest within the next fortnight. The snow was up to the top of the windows, and being there, froze hard, and had to be cut away with an axe. That was how they made a road to the byres where the stock were, and where they must be fed. The two Thorstans worked hard at this and at fuel-getting, and hewing of wood. Gurth the reeve helped them, but he was ailing already with the sickness, and not much use. Grimhild, a strong-faced, huge woman, managed all the house, but Gudrid helped her now willingly. There were no maids there. In the evenings they sat by the fire and told tales. It was as merry as might be, and with Thorstan Black there was always some fun to be had. He was the lightest-hearted man and the happiest whom Gudrid had seen in Greenland, where mostly, it seemed, men had to fight with life at too long odds to have any heart left over for pastime. Thorstan Black owned to it. "There is no people but ours of Iceland, I do believe, who would hold out against this white death," he said. "So fast as we come we die of it. Then come others, and so the game goes on. It is the fighting we love; we were always fighters--what with horses, or our young men. But here we fight with the earth, sea and sky, and do little slaughter of our own kind." "It is the fog that kills us," said Grimhild; and Gurth smothered his cough and hugged himself over the fire. Gudrid said: "Why should you stay here? I think it is a terrible country. We shall go to Wineland as soon as the spring comes." Then she told them of that good country--of the tall trees, and the clear sky, of the dew which was sweet to the taste, of the vines tumbling over the hot rocks, the birds' voices in the forest, and the strange stars at night. Grimhild was moved by the recital. "Ay," she said, "I have heard tell of such lands, and you may see them, being young. But this place has made me old, and almost broken my heart. In a little while I shall ask no better than to be laid in the snow." Thorstan Black patted her on the back. "Courage, old lass," he said. "You and I have seen the worst of it. I think it may be better hereafter. As for your land of summer all round the year, I know not that it would suit Icelanders. If you take our hardihood from us, what have we left? That which swills and eats heavily, and plays the mischief. Nay, give me a dark ghyll in Iceland, with a river racing down its length, and the sea never far off. That means more to me than your vines and soft winters. As for this stricken land, we shall beat the sickness yet. A man tempers himself. There should be a fine race here one day, of them who have got through." Gurth turned up the whites of his eyes. He was very sick. By and by they had news from the Settlement, where things were going badly. The sickness was very rife. Many of Thorstan's men from Ericsfrith were dead of it. They took down stores in the sleigh, and were much concerned at what they saw and heard. The strangers from the east were all sick; six were dead, and could only be buried in the snow. Thorstan promised that he would take all the bodies back to Ericsfrith if he had to heap the ship with dead men. When they returned to the homestead the first thing they heard was that Gurth was dead. Gradually, as the winter thickened, gloom began to fall upon the housemates. The hall grew cold; it was as if there were no heat in the burning coals; as if the cold was become master of the fire. Grimhild grew strange in her ways. She was always listening, waiting for something. She said she expected a visitor, but would never say who it was. She became very silent, and tried to avoid the others. Thorstan Black told Thorstan Red that he feared the worst. "The trustiest woman!" he said. "She has stood by me in sickness and health for twenty years--and now she turns her back on me--hunches her poor shoulders and will take no comfort from me. That's a sure sign of the sickness. You distrust your old friends first." "Is that the way of it?" said our Thorstan, with fear in his heart. Grimhild grew more and more remote, but remained on terms with Thorstan Red, in whom she confided some of her growing fancies. "The dead are unquiet," she told him when she had him out of range of the others, "and how should I be quiet? They are all about us. So soon as it grows dusk they come out of the snow. I hear them quarrelling, murmuring, and some of them grieve. I shall be with them soon--and perhaps you will see me there. It has been bad enough other winters, but none so bad as this. There are strangers here--that's how it is. We shall never quiet them till we have burned the bodies. That's the only way." "They shall be burned, mistress," said Thorstan. "I will see to it." She looked at him queerly, with one eyebrow arching into her hair. "You?" she said, then turned away her face. "Well, well--Christ have mercy on us." When the fever took her and seemed to stretch her skin to cracking-point, she would not go to bed, and nobody could persuade her. She huddled by the fire, rocking herself, until the evening; but directly it was dusk she was restless. The wind used to moan about the house, and she heard in it the voices of the dead. She thought she could distinguish one from the other. "Gurth is railing--hark to him. . . . That was Wigfus answering, and that deep one is Kettleneb. Oh, let me rest--have done!" She wandered forth and back, but was mostly in the kitchen, listening at the door. Thorstan Black grieved for her and used to try to coax her back to the fire. She scowled at him as if he were a stranger, and would not let him touch her. Gudrid was afraid to go near her. Once when she was out there on a wild moon-lit night, the others by the fire heard her cry aloud; and then she called on Thorstan. The two Thorstans looked at each other. Thorstan Black said, "It's you she wants. Go and talk to her." Thorstan Red went out. Grimhild had the kitchen door open; dry snow was sweeping in upon her; the front of her gown was white with it. "Look at them there," she said; "look at them. Gurth is whipping them round the garth. See how they huddle--heed their crying. There, there--and there go I among them, wringing my hands." She clutched his arm. "Hush--and there go you." Thorstan's heart jumped, and then fell quiet. "Do you see me there, mistress?" "You are standing there in the shadow of the byre. He will not touch you. Round and round. No rest in the snow." Then she turned to him and screamed: "Don't let him touch me!" She caught at him and he tried to draw her into the house; but she struggled fiercely, and before he could stop her she was outdoors racing through the snow. Thorstan shouted to his host, who came to him in a hurry. "She's gone," said Thorstan Red. Thorstan Black and he went out together, but by now she had passed through the garth and was deep in the snow beyond. They got her home at last, but she was quite mad and fought against them all the way. They put her to bed and kept her there by main force until she was exhausted. They were up with her all night, and she died in the small hours of the morning. There was nothing for it but to bury her in the snow. Gudrid laid her out while Thorstan and his host were making the coffin. She put candles at her head and feet in the Christian fashion, with a cross of wood between her hands. Then she knelt by the bed to watch the corpse. It was piercingly cold, and she grew numb with it, and then drowsy. It is likely that she dropped off to sleep as she lay, for she came to herself with a start and saw the corpse sitting up, staring with open and glassy eyes. Her heart stood still, she neither felt nor thought. How long they were, the living and the dead, staring at each other, Gudrid could never have told--she was incapable of moving, being frozen with terror and cold. Presently the dead woman's mouth opened, as if she were going to speak; and then her head fell forward and she dropped. Gudrid staggered to her feet and ran out of the house. She found the men in the outhouse, and caught Thorstan Black by the wrist. Her face told her story; it was no longer that of a sane woman. Thorstan went back with her. That night they buried Grimhild in the snow; and Thorstan Red took the sickness. He told Gudrid of it when they were in bed. He held her closely in his arms and spoke with passion: "My love, I am sick, and it may go hard with me. Remember now what I say--that the thing which I may be is not I. Be not afraid of it. You have had the best I could be--and it was you who made me. Remember what we have been, and think of me as dead already. And when I am dead, take my body back to Ericsfrith." She clung to him, but not with tears. Tears were denied her now. The cold had mastered even them. For now she knew what must come. XXI The Greenland sickness took mainly the same course, varying with the patient's personal quality. It began with a high fever, intense surface irritation; there ensued violent rheumatic pains, mental alienation, delirium, madness and death. It was characteristic, as has been said, that the sufferer turned from his kind, and turned markedly from whom he knew best. Thorstan made his preparations carefully, and instructed Gudrid. As a wife who may be allowed a last word with her husband condemned to die, she took and gave her kisses. The time was too great for tears, the heart too faint for strong embraces. All she could do she did. She would obey him, she would not show herself; but she would be always at hand. She sat mostly at the head of his bed in the wall, hidden by a curtain, but ready to fetch and carry; to bring him food which Thorstan Black could give him; hot stones for his feet, hot rags to ease the pain in his limbs. He hardly opened his eyes, hardly ever groaned; but when the fever ran high he talked incessantly, in fierce and rapid whispers--and she heard told over again the week of rapture and dream under the snow in the empty ship. She suffered greatly under this affliction, both by the memories it evoked and the knowledge that such things could never be again. Her modesty might have been offended; but Thorstan Black was very kind to her. He used to go gently away when the sufferer began to speak, and would contrive his returns so as not to intrude on any privacy. Her heart was full of gratitude to the black-bearded giant, so huge and so gentle. The fever seemed to eat Thorstan up; he became so thin that his cheeks sank away into hollows, and his bones stuck out so sharply that the skin cracked. Gudrid began to have horror of him. She thought that her lover was dead, and that this was some terrible mock-image of him sent there to haunt her. She seemed to become younger as he grew more like an old man. She was afraid to be left alone with him. Love had been frightened out of her, and even pity scarce dared to be there. She could not believe that this was the man who had so keenly loved and worshipped her body, and by his music had uplifted her soul. She had seen Thore die and had been compassionate to the end. She remembered how she had kissed him in the very article of death, and shuddered as she thought of kissing this living corpse. Her eyes besought Thorstan Black not to leave her, and he rarely did--for by this time her husband's weakness was such that, whatever he may have said in his fever, he could hardly be heard. Towards the end--as Thorstan Black knew it must be--he persuaded Gudrid to lie down at night while he kept watch by the bed. And so she did. The poor girl was worn out, and went to sleep almost at once. About midnight she was awakened. Thorstan Black stood by the bed with a taper. She gaped at him, cold to the bones. "Come, my dear," he said. "He is asking for you." She said nothing. Then in the silence she heard her husband's voice, calling "Gudrid, Gudrid, Gudrid." She fell trembling, and knew not what she said. Thorstan Black put his cloak over her, and helped her out of bed. Her knees shook. "Is he dead? Is he dead? Oh, don't leave me. I'm frightened--he looks so strange--don't leave me, Thorstan." "No, my dear, I won't leave you," he said, and put his arm round her, for she seemed about to fall. "Come," he said, "I'll take you, and stay by you." She mastered her fear. "Yes," she said, "I must go. Oh, but you are so good to me." "Don't go if you are afraid," said Thorstan. "He may be dead by now." "No, no," she said, "not yet. I must hear what he says, for it may be he knows what the course of my life must be. If God will help me, I will go. But you will come too--you promised." Thorstan thereupon lifted her up in his arms, and carried her into the room where Thorstan Ericsson lay. He went to the side of the bed and sat down, holding Gudrid on his knee. So they waited fearfully for the dead man to speak. Thorstan Ericsson sat up in his bed; his eyes were so deep in his head that nothing showed of them but dark caves. His mouth was open, as if his jaw had dropped. But no sound came from him. Then Thorstan Black said: "My namesake, you called to Gudrid, and I have her here beside you. What do you desire of her?" The dead man spoke. "Gudrid, are you there?" "Yes, Thorstan," she said quaking. "I will tell you, my wife, that you need not grieve for me, nor fear me, for I shall never hurt you now--nor could I have the heart. I am come to a good place, and am at peace. Now you are to know that you will be married to an Icelander who will be kind to you, and give you what your heart desires. But your life will be longer than his, and your end will be pious--and that, too, you will desire before you reach it. And I pray you to take my body back to Ericsfrith and give me holy burial. Farewell, Gudrid, and have no fear for me." Gudrid, cold as a stone, sat on Thorstan Black's knee as if she had been a child, and stared at the figure of her love. She could not say anything to him, she dared not touch him. His head sank forward, and he fell back in the bed and lay still. Thorstan Black touched him. He was stone cold. The good giant thought now of Gudrid only, and talked to her gently for a long while, comforting her. He promised that he would never forsake her until he had brought her safely home to Ericsfrith. He would take Thorstan Ericsson to his own ship, and all the bodies of the crew who were dead should be put with him there until such time as they could sail. "And as for you, dear child," he said, "remember that you and that true man have had the best that life can give you--for than wedded love there is no more blessed thing. Think of me, my child, who lived happily with my good wife a twenty years, and think that you are better off maybe than I. For love such as yours is not a thing that can live--no, but it must needs change as it grows older. You change, and the world comes in between; and so it changes too. Now you have had love at the full--and it is ended at the full. You should be thankful for that. And be thankful too that he is at peace, and his fate rounded--and nothing for him now but folded hands and quiet sleep. Why, look at him now, Gudrid. Even now he smiles quietly, as who should say, I have done with it all. Look at him, and have no more fear of so gentle a thing." Gudrid turned her haunted eyes towards the dead man. It was true. Thorstan smiled to himself wisely. And now she could see that his eyes were shut. She slipped off Thorstan Black's knee and knelt beside the bed. She looked at her dead lover, and without remembering her fear or thinking what she did, she put his hair off his forehead and tidied it. Then she leaned over him, looking tenderly down at him, and stooped and put her lips to his forehead. Thorstan Black left her, and returned presently with candles and a cross which he had made. So they laid out Thorstan Ericsson, and Thorstan Black watched him all the rest of the night. XXII She stayed out the long and bitter winter alone in the house with Thorstan Black. No man could have been kinder to her than he was. She felt with him the happy relation which there is between a father and his married child, when you have the equality which comes of experiences shared and have not lost the old sense of degrees--but that lingers still like a scent which recalls times past. He was as good as his word, when the spring came. The bodies of all the crew were redeemed from the snow and put aboard ship; the settlement at Lucefrith was broken up. He gave the survivors their freedom, and free passage to Ericsfrith; for he himself intended to settle there when he had restored Gudrid to Brattalithe. So they set sail, and made a good passage, and came into the frith on a day of fresh southerly wind and strong sunshine. Gudrid, standing on the afterdeck, looked at the little town and the green fields about it, at the snow-peaks whose shapes she knew well, whereunder, as she felt, her life had been passed; and then she saw old Eric in his red cloak being helped into his boat, and Freydis, bareheaded, with her yellow hair flying in the wind, and her strong arms folded over her chest--and felt the comfort of home growing about her, and the dew of happy tears in her eyes. Eric's eyes looked anxiously up at her. "Is all well, daughter?" he called out in a brave voice--but she could only answer with her own wet eyes. He was hauled on ship-board, and soon had her in his arms. Her hidden voice and shaking shoulders told him the rest. "There then, my sweetheart, it is done. Yet cry your fill. I have a fine son left--and you into the bargain. Come home now, and leave me no more." So said old Eric Red, a man not easily downed by fate. He made Thorstan Black free of Brattalithe for as long as he would, and promised him the best land that he had. So they all went ashore, and Freydis hailed Gudrid and made much of her. Freydis was not changed at all. She was very fond of Gudrid, and for her sake put up with her father and mother who, without Gudrid, would have fretted her to a rag. Leif came in that evening and embraced Gudrid like a sister. He heard her dreadful story and shook his head over his brother's fate. "Thorstan was born to misfortune," he said. "He had the second sight, and there is no worse gift for a man than that. Brave as he was, that foreknowledge always baulked his effort. But he was a fine man. You have had the best of us, Gudrid." "I love you all so much," she said, "that I must have been happy with any one of you, since he would have made me free of the others. I would not have my Thorstan back again. He told me that he was at rest--and how can you look for rest in this life?" She went to see Theodhild in her hermitage. To her only she told Thorstan's prediction, that she should be married yet again, and outlive her husband, and then find the life that she loved the best. Theodhild nodded her head. "That was a true saying of my son's. You will find the only rest there can be in this life." Gudrid asked her more, but she would not tell her. "I know, I see," said Theodhild, "but God will reveal it to you when the time comes." Gudrid, who had left Ericshaven still a girl in her bloom, had come back to it a woman, made so by pity and terror. Her beauty was now ripe, and her mind in accord with it. They held her at Brattalithe for the fairest and wisest of women. She was rich, too, for she had her father's and Thore's estates, as well as her share of Eric's wealth which had been Thorstan's. She sold her father's house and land to Thorstan Black, who settled down there, and came to great honour in Ericshaven, as he deserved to do. XXIII The spring and summer of that year passed quietly enough at Brattalithe, but after harvest a fine ship from Norway came into the haven and the owner came ashore. Eric Red, Lief and Gudrid rode down to town to meet him and hear the news. He soon explained himself, for he had a copious flow of speech. He treated Gudrid with great deference, thinking her the lady of the land, and when it was explained to him that she was nobody's wife, but a widow, he smiled, saying, "So much the better," and continued to treat her as before. He was a large man, broad-faced and broad-shouldered, with light-blue eyes, and much fun in them. He looked at you when he spoke as if he wished to make you laugh, but hardly hoped it. His friends called him Karlsefne, which means "a proper man," and his real name was Thorfinn Thordsson. "Thord of Head was my father," he told Gudrid, "and was called Horsehead, not without reason, for I will tell you that no man born could be more like a horse to look at than my father was. He was the son of Snorre who was a Viking in Earl Hakon's day; and that Snorre was the son of Thord, the first of Head." It seemed that he was well-to-do, and that he had on board his vessel, besides a crew of forty hands, a notable cargo of goods. He offered Gudrid what she pleased to take of it. "I do that," he told her, "to win your good will, for I see very well that you rule the roost here--and rightly enough. I have never been to Greenland before, and tell you fairly that I never knew there was the like of yourself to be found here. If I had known that I should have been here long ago--and then, who knows? Maybe you would not be a widow this day." He said it as if in joke, but yet he meant it. He was greatly taken with her beauty. Eric offered him winter quarters at Brattalithe and he accepted it gladly. His goods were landed, and stood in Eric's warehouse, his ship was laid up for the winter, his men boarded in Ericshaven. As for himself, he was very soon at home in Brattalithe, and everybody liked him well. He was a good poet, and sang his own songs; he told tales, he made jokes--but was always good-tempered. Towards Christmas Eric Red, who was now very much aged and apt to worry himself over trifles, became sad and depressed. They thought that he was grieving for the two sons he had lost, but he would not talk to any of them of his troubles. Karlsefne asked Gudrid what was the matter with his host. He always talked to her when he had a chance. She told him what she thought: "He is an old man now, and cannot help remembering his two sons." "That is not like an Icelander," said Karlsefne. "You yourself, lady, show the spirit of our people better. You don't fret yourself vainly. You were wedded to a good man. You were happy in him; he died. Well, you have had what you have had, and if there is to be no more, you will wait your turn. Is it not so?" "It may be," Gudrid said. "I have learned not to build too high, by falling so far. And I think my Thorstan is at rest. He would not be if he were here now." "Very likely not," said Karlsefne, "if he was of a jealous turn. Moreover he was a poet, one who can always see in his mind a state much better than that he lives in. That's no way to be happy. But I will talk to Eric Red. He is friendly to me." And so he did. "What is it, host, which makes you so heavy? Your friends say you brood over the past, but I tell them that is not likely." "No, no," said Eric, "that's not the way of it at all. The present is bad enough." "You are treating me nobly," said Karlsefne. "I should be a churl if I did not tell you so. What else do you need?" Then Eric said that he was aware how his house was diminished by misfortune. "I had a wife, but she has cut herself adrift; I have a daughter, but she has turned sour to me. Two of my sons are dead, look you. Now the time was when with a great houseful I could give a feast with the best. A man is best judged by his children. If they are free and high-hearted, he is judged a good man. But now I must receive you with broken rites, and it hurts me to the heart that you shall sail away in the spring of the year, and say to your friends: 'Old Eric is down in the world. A sadder Yule than that have I never spent.' I do what I can, but that is heavy on my mind." "Nay, nay, friend," said Karlsefne, "that will never be the way of it. I am better off than I hoped for--you are treating me like an earl. Now if we are to do better and all be kings together, remember that I have a well-found ship out yonder, with stores of corn and meal, and malt for brewing; mead also, and smoked salmon are on board--whereof you shall make as free as you will, and provide such a feast as Greenland knows nothing of yet. But what a man you are to be fretted by such a thing as that!" Eric said that he had lived in a great way all his life, and had not been used to stint his friends of hospitality. He thanked Karlsefne heartily, shook hands with him, and said, "Ask of me what you will, friend, and it shall be agreed to." Karlsefne laughed. "Maybe I shall ask a great thing of you before I go to sea." He had made up his mind that he would have Gudrid from him if he could get her, but did not wish to precipitate matters and risk a refusal. "That fair woman has a delicate mind," he thought, "and is very religious. It will be well to make myself her friend before I offer to be her sweetheart." The talk at the feast turned again to Wineland, and Leif Ericsson was eloquent about the sweetness of the air, the fertility of the soil, and the open winter weather which he had found there. Then Karlsefne asked Gudrid whether she would not like to go thither. She shook her head. "Not now. Thorstan and I were on our way when the fate turned against us, and he died. It has brought us no luck yet. Two of Eric's sons have died for the sake of Wineland. But you," she said, looking in his face, "you will go. I think you are a lucky man. You have luck in your face." "Eh," said Karlsefne, "I have thought myself pretty lucky so far; but now I am not so sure. I have been building on my luck since I came here. But I may get a fall." She laughed. "You are bold, I can see, but yet you are careful too. You do not build except on good footings." "If you think me bold, lady," he said, with raised brows, "you will think me too bold perhaps presently. Remember, when that time comes, that if a man sees his profit within his reach he is a fool if he don't stretch out his hand." "He may be a fool," she said, "to think it so near." Her colour was high, her eyes shone. His own, narrowed and intense, held them. "Do you know the name I give you in my private mind?" he asked her. She shook her head. "I call you Constant-Kind." "And why do you call me that? Do you think I am kind to every one?" "I think that you have been," said Karlsefne, "and I believe that you would not willingly deny a service if you could do it." "And what service do you ask of me?" "Ah, I ask none as yet. But maybe I shall." Certainly she knew what he wanted, and wondered whether he was the man predicted. Thorberg had prophesied an ugly man for one of her husbands. That could not be said of Karlsefne. He was not handsome by any means, but so full of fun that he would pass anywhere as well-looking. She had no love to give him; all that was buried with her doomed Thorstan; and yet she could see life to be a very pleasant thing with him beside her--a warm, sheltered, pleasant thing. She was rather of Freydis's opinion after an experience of two kinds of life, that a woman was happier in being loved than in loving. She had not thought so when Thorstan was her lover. Then her triumph and pride had been that she could give him inexhaustibly what he needed--but look how that had ended. She said to herself: "He will be kind to me, because he is kind by nature. I believe that is my nature too. Therefore I can give him what he wants, and find some comfort in it. I have known the highest, and that is enough for me. That will never come again. Let the other suffice, if it will satisfy him." With that she put the thought away in her heart, wishing to leave it there; yet she could not resist taking it out and looking at it now and again. It was still good to be loved, good to be desired, good to be the centre of a man's thoughts. Every time she looked at her hoard it seemed a little brighter. Karlsefne took his time. It was close upon the spring when he asked her if she would have him. She met his looks calmly, and told him what she felt about it. "I am not very old yet," she said, "but I have had a great deal of experience. I have been married twice, and loved deeply once. That can never be again." "Nay," he said, "I don't ask impossibilities of you. But I have love enough in my heart for the two of us. Do you trust me?" "Yes," she said, "I do trust you." "Why then," said Karlsefne, "will you give yourself to me?" She thought. "You shall ask Eric if he is willing," she told him. "He loves me, and he is an old man. Since my father died he has been father to me. I have had nothing but love and kindness from him and his family. I will not leave him now, if he needs me--for he knows, and I know, that if I leave him again it will be for the last time." Karlsefne drew near her and put his arm about her. "I will ask him--but if he agrees you will come?" She smiled and nodded her head. Then, "Will you kiss me?" he said. "Is that in the bargain?" He drew her close to him. "Oh, Gudrid, kiss me once. I'm on fire." So then she kissed him. Eric looked rather chap-fallen. "You are asking me for the jewel on my breast," he said. "That I know very well," said Karlsefne. "She is not only a fair woman, but a wise and good woman. She is sweet-mannered, and sweet-natured. The soothsay about her is that she will rear a great race." "She shall, if I have anything to do with it," said Karlsefne. "You know the name they give me." "I think highly of you," Eric allowed. "Everything speaks well for you. But I will tell you this. If my son Leif were not entangled with a foreign woman, an earl's daughter by whom he has got a son, it would have been my joy to see him take Gudrid and rear that great race to my name. But it may well be that she will fulfil her destiny with you rather." "I believe she will," said Karlsefne. "The moment I clapped eyes on her I said to myself, 'There stands before you the sweetest woman that lightens the world.' And I have had no other thought or desire since which has not drawn me to her. If you will give her to me you will do me the utmost service one man can do another. And she will come to me if you say the word. I tell you that." Eric said it should be as he wished. The last feast that fine old man was ever to see was that which he made for Gudrid's wedding with Karlsefne. XXIV Directly he was married Karlsefne began to talk about the Wineland voyage, first to Gudrid, and then to the company at Brattalithe, where he still lived. Gudrid was eager to go. She had always wanted that; and when she found herself with child, that did not deter her--nor her husband either. "I am a prosperous man," he said, "and bring good fortune with me. If you are not afraid, why should I be? Let us trust to our luck, my Gudrid." She believed in him more than in any man she had had to do with yet. He seemed to her a more fortunate man than Leif himself. So it was agreed upon. Whether it was the lucky star of Karlsefne or not which prevailed, there was more stir about this expedition than had been about any. There were to be two ships fitted for it. First of all, Freydis said that she intended for it--she and her husband Thorhall; then another Thorhall, him they called the Huntsman, offered himself--a tall, oldish, glum fellow, liked by nobody and trusted by few, but a man of great strength and courage, too able to be refused. Then came up Biorn from Heriolfsness offering himself and his ship. Altogether there were some hundred and forty people to be carried, of whom five only were women, and goods in proportion. Karlsefne, saying that you never knew how things would go, carried livestock in the holds of both ships. He took ten head of cows, a score sheep, some goats, and a bull. He took ducks and hens, a dog or two, and some ponies for the women to ride. But he had some stranger stock yet, human stock, which Leif gave him. They were two Scots, a male and a female, whom he had had from Thorgunna's father in Orkney and had kept ever since, hoping they would breed; but they did not. They were wild, small, shaggy creatures, about the same height--the man was called Hake, the woman Haekia. They were said to be incredibly swift in running, and were certainly hardier than most human kinds. Summer and winter they wore but one garment, a long, sleeveless garment with a hood, which fell straight from the shoulders, and, being slit from the thighs, was fastened between their legs. It had no sleeves; their arms were bare to the shoulder. They called it in their own tongue _gioball_. You never saw one of these creatures without the other; they were inseparable--and yet they were never seen to speak to each other, or to use any kind of endearments. They would not eat if any one were looking at them, nor sleep except they were alone and in the dark. Gudrid tried to make friends with them. They sat still, looking down or beyond her; but never would meet her eyes. So much for the company which, when all preparations were done, sailed at mid-summer from Ericshaven, with Karlsefne as leader. Gudrid shed tears at the parting with old Eric Red, knowing that she would never see him again. "Farewell, sweetheart," he said to her; "you leave this world the better for having had you in it." He rode his old white pony down to the quay, and sat there watching the ships go out with the tide. His red cloak was the last she saw of the haven. The voyage was smooth, with a fair wind all the way. First they went round to the West Settlement, and Gudrid looked out for Lucefrith where her darkest days had also been her brightest. She could not have told it for herself, but Karlsefne showed it to her. The black cliffs now looked warm grey in the sun, the sea was green, sparkling with light; the creek was smooth flowing water lipping on silver sands. Karlsefne told her that nobody lived there now. "Mariners run in there in summer-time for water, and see the green flats and the mountains in a haze of heat. They say: 'This is a sweet and wholesome country. We will dwell here and work and be happy.' Then the winter comes upon them suddenly, white fogs, madness and death. You, my child, know as much of that as you ought." She shivered, and leaned her head against him. There was great store of comfort in Karlsefne; she esteemed him, she trusted him, she believed in his star; but Thorstan Ericsson had given her wings, and she had shed them into his grave. She would never fly again among the stars. They took in water from the West Settlement and then sailed to the Bear Islands--small rocky, flat lands lying low in the great western surges. Thence with a north wind they came into the ocean and were two days without sight of land. But on the morning of the third day they saw land ahead, and came within reach of it, and cast anchor in a broad bay. This was the country to which Leif had been before and called Helloland.[1] Karlsefne had boats manned from either ship, and stayed a couple of days to explore. It was a litter of rock, very barren, and full of white foxes. They found plenty of fish, and laid in a good store; but that was no country in which to settle, so they left it, going south before a good northerly wind. In two days' sailing they made out a land ahead, full of trees and dense undergrowth. That was certainly Leif's _Markland_. South-east of it, at no great distance, there was a large island. They saw a great bear prowling the shore, and gave his dwelling-place the name of Bear Island, out of compliment to him. Karlsefne did not stay to explore it. They ran on still before the wind for another two days or three, saw land again, and made for it. This was a headland running far out into the sea, which they made and passed, then ran in close to the shore and coasted for some days without finding any haven. This was a very long strand, great stretches of white sand with nothing to break them up. Behind the dunes they could see the tops of great trees. It was judged that the whole country was low-lying and probably swampy. Ferly Strands was the name they gave to this interminable shore. But yet it was not interminable, for it broke up at last into bays and creeks, with many islands which had beautiful trees on them, and rich herbage down to the sea-line, Karlsefne said that they would run in hereabouts and live ashore for a while. "We will send out our runners, to see what they can find out for us," he said. That was agreed upon. [1] Believed to be Newfoundland. XXV They landed on the mainland on hard white sand, but beyond that there was turf, with patches of tall waving grass, then a belt of timber, and beyond them, as they soon made out, an infinite rolling country of woods and clothed hills, with lakes here and there. Gudrid was enchanted: the nimble and sweet air, trees taller than she had ever dreamed of, space, emptiness, silence: she stood with a finger to her lip, looking up and all about, and sometimes at her companions to see if they were not under the same spell as she. But the men were too busy choosing a good place for the camp, and Freydis was with them. Karlsefne had no mind to be surprised by savages, so sent out men to cut wood. He intended to have a stockade round his camp in which at least the women could be defended. There were but five of them, it is true, but they were all married, and therefore precious. The men who were not married always hoped that they might be. Who could say what might be the lot of any adventurer? Let a married man die by all means--but not a wife. Tents were put up, a double stockade fixed round them; hammocks were slung. Very soon they had a fire going, and a pot over it. Gudrid, Freydis and the rest of the women saw to that. Karlsefne arranged for the watch. The ships were left well manned, and a company from the landing-party put into each boat, and each boat at a sufficient distance from its companion. These crews were to be relieved by watches. Sentries also were posted about the stockade. They had found no signs of inhabitancy; but Karlsefne was very careful. They had their meal in the open under a clear sky. The stars came out--larger, wetter stars, Gudrid said, than they had at home. Far off in the forest they heard beasts bellowing, and supposed them wild cattle. The bull from Karlsefne's ship thundered his answer to the challenge. They heard wolves at dusk, a chorus of them, and the barking of wild dogs. No sound of men came near them, nor were they disturbed in the night. In the morning Karlsefne sent a boat over to fetch the Scots. They came, and fixed Karlsefne with intent blue eyes while he told them what they had to do. He showed them the sun, and with a sweep of his arm drew his course into the south. He made them understand that they were to run due south for three days, and then work back to the camp with whatever they could carry out of the country. They followed every sign he made, they looked at each other and spoke together, fierce, curt speeches. It was certain that they knew what they had to do, for without hesitation they began to do it at once. They looked at each other, then set off at a trot towards the creek below the stockade. Arrived there, they stripped off their single garments, folded them and put them on their heads; they swam the creek, which was a good half-mile broad, clothed themselves on the further shore, and then began to run towards the south. They ran like deer, incredibly fast, with high and short bounds, as if exulting in their legs, and very soon they were out of sight. They waited for them three full days which were spent by the men in hunting and fishing. Game of all kinds was plenty. Karlsefne had a pony out and put Gudrid upon it. He took her a long way into the forest and made her happy. She said to him: "You are kinder to me than I deserve, my friend." His answer was: "It is not hard to be kind to you, for you answer to the touch like an instrument of music. I win melody from you that way which enchants me." She said: "Believe me to be grateful. Believe that I give you in return all I have." "My dear love," said Karlsefne, "I know that. You have given me of your life. I never forget it." And then it was her turn to say: "It is not hard to give you that." So they were a happy couple. Freydis too was expecting a child, but took it hardly, as she did everything else. At sunset on the third day from starting the Scots came back. Their faces and arms were glistening with sweat, but they breathed easily and were not at all distressed. One of them carried a fine bunch of grapes, the other some ears of corn. It was wheat, but redder than what they had in any country which Karlsefne or his friends knew about. They collected from the Scot that it was wild wheat, and that the country where it grew was fruitful and good. There was a debate about this expedition, the first of many. Karlsefne was sure that the scouts had found Wineland where Leif had once been; Thorhall the Huntsman thought not. Karlsefne was for going up the creek as far as a ship could go, and there to land their stock and spend the winter. Biorn, who was afraid of attack by natives, desired to keep to the open sea. It was compromised finally. Biorn's ship would remain in her present anchorage, but Thorhall would go up with Karlsefne. Thorhall was a man ill to deal with in any event. Neither company wanted him, but Karlsefne's company wanted him least--therefore he chose for that. Most of the stock and all the women but one were of that ship. Gudrid's child should be born about Christmas time. Her husband was keen to have a good harbourage for her, and all settled down before the time came. So for a while the two ships parted company, and Karlsefne, having all his party safe aboard, hauled up his anchor, spread his canvas, and sailed into the creek on a flowing tide. XXVI Right in the mouth of the creek there was an island which they named Streamsey, because the currents about it were so many and so strong. It fairly swarmed with sea-birds, which hung over it like a cloud. It was very difficult to find a passage, but they managed that with hard rowing, and once past it, found plenty of water, and a noble country on either hand. They went up three days sailing, and there, where the woods fell more sparse and there seemed plenty of herbage for cattle, Karlsefne decided to make his winter quarters. The stock was disembarked; the stores, and the tents. They built themselves a stockade all round the camp, and hoped to have a good winter of it. The winter came late, but was severe. There was great scarcity of pasture, the fishing fell off; they had to kill some of their cattle, but dared not depend upon that. There was trouble with some of the crew, begun by Thorhall the Huntsman, who began to preach heathenry to them, getting a few at a time in the woods and talking, and singing old songs. Karlsefne was full of business all this time, with parties out exploring the country, and so did not see what was going on in and about the camp. Then, one day, news was brought him that a whale had come into the creek and was stranded in shoal water. The men, short as they were of food, were eager to get at it. Karlsefne went out to see it--a huge beast, greyish and arched in the back. He did not know what sort of a whale it was, but the men were set upon it, and Thorhall vehement. "Get at it, get at it--what do you fear, man? I tell you it is a godsend," he said. He had been very queer in his ways for a week or more, and one day had been found upon a cliff overhanging the water, with his arms stiffly out, his chin towards the sky. His eyes had been shut, his mouth open, his nostrils splayed out. He had writhed and twisted about, talking in a strange tongue. They were some time bringing him to his senses, and had no thanks from him for doing it; but they had fetched him home and put him to bed. He had lain there with his head covered up until the news of the whale was brought in. That caused him to leap out of his bed. He was the most eager of them all to cut up the great beast. Karlsefne gave the word, and they fell on the whale with hatchets and knives. Soon the pots were bubbling and the steam filling their nostrils. Karlsefne would not eat of it, and would not allow Gudrid any; but the rest made a feast. It was rich and savoury, very fat; this was the hour of Thorhall's triumph. He came and stood by the messes as they ate, with gleaming eyes. "Does this not prove to you that Redbeard was your friend? What had your white Christ brought you but death and misery? Now by my incantations I have brought Thor round to look on you with favour again. This is my doing, and your leader here thought I was mad and tied me down to a bed." Some men stopped eating as they heard him; some turned away and would not begin to eat. Karlsefne, when he knew what was going on, came down like a flame of fire. "What is this he says? That this is his doing--with prayers to Thor? And you of the new faith and the true faith, eat of what he offers to his idols! Cast that beastliness to the sea, and be done with it." Some of the eaters were ill already, and many were to be so; but Karlsefne was obeyed. The cauldrons were emptied over the cliffs, and the birds gathered from all quarters. They went hungry, and suffered much that winter; but by leading the cattle far into the woods they managed to keep them alive, and Gudrid did not fail of milk. Her boy was born on Christmas Eve, and christened by Karlsefne himself. He named him Snorre after his own grandfather. After that things went better. There came rain which broke up the ice and thinned off all the snow. They began to get fish again; mild westerly winds enabled them to go farther afield. Biorn came up from his anchorage to see Karlsefne, and debates about the future were renewed. Karlsefne was now bent on going south, and Biorn, with Thorhall, equally set upon the north. It was clear that the two ships must part company; and so they did as soon as the spring weather was come. The tale has little more to say of Biorn and his party. It is supposed that they fell in with bad weather in the north, and that they were driven over the ocean. Thorhall was heard of long afterwards in Ireland, as having fought and died there. XXVII But Karlsefne, the prosperous man, did well. He sailed along the land in and out of beautiful wooded islands until he came to the mouth of a great river.[1] He entered that on the flood and sailed up for many days. It was a broad and noble river which came, as they discovered, out of a lake. Here was such a land as they had never seen before, so beautiful, so fruitful that they had no desire to seek further. They called this land Hope, for here was the utmost they had dreamed of. There were broad acres of wheat growing here, self-sown; upon the slopes of the hills wild vines were thick and full of bud; the streams were full of fish; there were deer in the woods, and everywhere in the early mornings the piping of birds. Karlsefne said: "My Gudrid, we have found Wineland the Good. Here we will stay awhile." She was happy to be in so good a place. They made their camp on the shores of the lake, and built themselves houses of timber, with a stockade and trench about the whole Settlement. There was abundance of food for the animals, abundance for themselves, with promise of a harvest both of corn and of wine. No signs of human occupation had been found as yet. They began to think that they had Wineland to themselves, and used to go far afield, even to being out for days together and sleeping in the open. But Karlsefne kept his eyes wide for some possible attack, and was proved to be right. Early one morning when he went down to the lake shore he saw boats upon the quiet water. He counted nine of them. They kept close company and came on steadily. He looked beyond them but could see no more. "With no more than nine of them, this won't be a long affair," he thought to himself; but he went back to the Settlement and called out his men. Then he went into his own house and called Gudrid to come. "Are you minded to see some of the Winelanders, my Gudrid? Bring your baby with you, and I will show them to you. I don't think they mean us any harm." Gudrid went with him without question. By this time the settlers had lined the shore, and the hide-boats had drawn up within bowshot and were making signals. A man stood up in each boat and waved a pole over his head. He swept it round in circles, and moved it from east to west, following the course of the sun. "What do they want with us?" says Karlsefne. "Not war, I think. Now who will come out to meet them with me? We will show them a white shield, but there shall be weapons at the bottom of the boat." He soon had a crew, and was soon afloat. The native boats scattered out in a half-moon as the adventurers came on. Karlsefne saw that he was being hemmed in, but having the notion fixed in his head that no harm was intended, he did not give orders to cease rowing, and stood up in the bows himself with his white shield displayed. When he was within speaking distance he bade his men rest on their oars. By and by, as he had expected, curiosity did his work for him. The hide-boats came in and in, each of them holding five or six men. In one at least he saw a woman with a baby. "If they bring their babies out to see us, it's no more than I have done," Karlsefne said. "They mean peace, and they shall have it." He invited them forward with open arms, and all signs of friendliness, and presently they were all crowded about. Small people they were, very dark brown, very ugly, with flat faces, coarse black hair twisted and tortured into peaks and knots. They had broad fat cheeks and enormous eyes. Their talk was like the chattering of birds. Karlsefne invited them to shore, and very cautiously their boats followed his. They landed and were induced to mingle with the large company they found there. Gudrid and her baby were the great attractions. The first man who saw her suckling it stared and jumped about. He called shrilly to his friends behind, and a body of them came to join him. They pushed forward the brown woman with her child. Gudrid, not at all put out or frightened, held out her hand. The woman stared hard at her white breast, then opened her gown and showed her own. She gave her baby suck and grinned community of nature in Gudrid's face. Gudrid, with one of those happy motions of hers, looked round to see if Karlsefne was by, and finding that he was, put up her hand into his. That shot told. There was much commotion among the brown people, much bickering and stirring; and presently they pushed one of their own men forward, and joined his hand with that of the mother. Joyful murmurings arose. Everybody understood. Now it was Freydis's turn. She stood disdainfully apart, with folded arms, but her colouring and shape betrayed her. Here was plainly to be another mother soon, as they did not fail to tell each other. Then nothing would do but her husband must be found for her. His friends dragged him out and put him beside her, no more willing to go than she was to have him. "Handfast her, you dog," said Karlsefne. "How else will they believe you?" So that was done. Freydis fumed and burned, as handsome and furious a young woman as you could have hoped to see. All went so well that Karlsefne was moved to hospitality, sending a man off for milk and fish. They crowded about for their share, and growing bold by degrees handled the women's gowns, the men's weapons, and were for spying into the stockade. The bull, who was feeding in there, snorted and puffed up the dust; presently, wagging his head, he came towards them and sent them flying back. Karlsefne, by signs, tried to make them understand that he was ready to barter if they were. He touched the fur with which they were all clad, and pointed to the milk bowls. When they saw what he would be at, they in turn fingered the weapons which every man had about him. Clearly they had not the art of forging steel. It was long before they would leave the shore, and when they did go it was with one consent, without any words passing. Quite suddenly they turned about and ran down to the shore, launched their canoes and were out in the water like a horde of rats. They rowed down the lake, as if towards the sea. Nothing more was seen of them for some time, but presently they began to come in numbers, always very friendly and willing to barter. They brought furs with them--fox and marten, beaver, as well as coarser kinds, bear and wolf and elk. Karlsefne would exchange no weapons; but milk he offered, and that they drank greedily and on the spot, and cloth too, of which he had a good store. Red cloth took their fancy most; they seemed as if they must have it, it was a kind of lust. The breadths he could spare them grew narrower and narrower; they pushed out their furs for it with no consideration of what they got in exchange. At last it became a kind of madness, and Karlsefne said it had better stop. "They take it like strong water; one of these days they will be killing men for it." It was a prophecy on his part--for they came in greater and greater numbers, and when there was no more red cloth for them, they howled and chattered and looked dangerous. Karlsefne and the men with him faced them with the best heart they had, but he ordered a retreat to the stockade, and when he was pretty near the entrance bade a man go in and bring out the bull. That answered. The great beast stood in the doorway pawing the ground and breathing hard. When he saw what was in front of him, down went his head, and he charged. The savages scattered all ways and saved themselves. In a few moments the lake was black with canoes; it was, the tale says, as though the water was covered with floating charcoal. Karlsefne did not like the look of things at all. He doubled the watch on the ship and strengthened the stockade; but did not wish to frighten Gudrid, who was so happy with her child, and beginning, as he could see, to love himself. He knew that she loved him, because at all sorts of times he found out that she had been looking at him while he moved about, busy over something or other. He taxed her with it one day. "I think that you love me, Gudrid." She put her head on one side. "What makes you think so?" He told her; so then she owned to it, and he wished to know why. She said that she could not tell, but in such a way that he saw that she could, and wished him to know. So then he pressed her. "Tell me, Gudrid, why you love me." She touched her child's head. "Because you are strong, and good, and brave. And because you gave me this. A woman must love her child's father." "Ask Freydis that," said Karlsefne; and she answered him; "Freydis loves more than she chooses to say. When Freydis has a child, you will see that she will love it." "But not her man on that account," he said. "It is only a heart like yours, my Gudrid, that can love because it loves. For I see very well that you love me because you love this boy, and did not until he came." She looked gently at him, half excusing herself. "I liked you well, and was grateful." "Ah, yes, maybe," he said, "but that was not how you loved Thorstan Ericsson." She said: "I was younger then, and I loved him so much because our time was short. But I love you better than I loved Thorstan, because of the peace you have put in my heart." [1] The Hudson River. XXVIII There was no further visitation from the savages for some time. The leaves fell, the nights grew short, and there came a spell of cold; but if this were winter it was one which no Greenlander could fear. The sky was blue, the sun warm on the skin; there was no snow, and the frost a mere white rime which melted in an hour. Their cattle never failed of feed, and as for themselves, they had so well harvested the wild wheat and the grapes that they had nothing to fear. The winter, to call it so, was well advanced before the savages came; but one day they were reported in large numbers on the lake, and Karlsefne gave orders how they were to be received. None were to be let inside the stockade; all the men were to have their weapons; such stuff as they had for barter was to be held up from within the defences and thrown over in exchange. He himself with a few of the best men should stand in the entry. Now while they were waiting for the savages and could still see some of them out on the water, while others were disembarking on the shore, Gudrid was sitting just inside the door of her house with her child asleep on her lap. She sat full in the sun, and was quiet and happy, as she generally was. Presently there passed a dark shadow across the open door. Gudrid looked up quickly. A woman stood there inside the pillars of the porch and looked fixedly at her. She was dressed in black, drawn very tightly across her; she was about Gudrid's own height, and had a ribbon over her hair--which was of a light-brown colour, and not coarse as most of the savages' was. She was a pale, grave woman, and had the biggest eyes Gudrid had ever seen. They were wide open, grey, and had a world of sorrow in them. Gudrid was not at all afraid, because she thought the woman looked too sad to be wicked or ill-disposed; besides, she did not believe that any one could be ill-disposed to her. So she smiled up in her face and waited for her to speak. When she did speak it did not seem at all remarkable that she should be perfectly understood. "What is your name?" she said plainly. Gudrid answered her simply, "My name is Gudrid. And what is your name?" "My name is Gudrid," said the woman, and the real Gudrid laughed softly. "Come then, Gudrid, and sit by me," she said, and held out her hand. The woman stared mournfully at her, and seemed to have trouble in speaking again. She turned her head about as if her throat hurt her. Then she said, "No, I cannot--I may not." Again she struggled, as she said, "Go from here. Do not stay." There came a loud cry from the stockade, and Gudrid started and got up. She went to the door and looked out. The woman was not there. By that time she was very much frightened, and saw them fighting at the entry. The outside of the fence seemed thick with savages, and presently some of them rushed the opening and came in. Freydis was at the door of her hut and saw them. Her face flamed. "Have at you, devils!" she shouted, and snatched up a double-handed sword. With this she went stumbling towards them, being so far on with child that she could scarcely walk. She had the long sword in one hand, but needed two to swing it. Her shift incommoded her, so she ripped it open and let it fall behind her. Then bare-breasted she whirled the great sword over her head and began to lay about her like a man. Her yellow hair flew out behind her like a flag; her face was flame-red, and her eyes glittering like ice. The savages fell back before her, and at the entry were caught by Karlsefne, returning from chasing a horde of them, and all killed. The others had gone or been driven off. Two of the Icelanders had been killed, and many were hurt. After this they had a council what had best be done. Gudrid told her story. Nobody had seen the woman but she, and nobody could make anything of it. Freydis thought that she was a ghost, but Gudrid was sure of her reality. "I think myself," she said, "that she was a woman of our own people either stolen by the savages from a ship, or cast ashore from a wreck, or lost by some adventurers of a former day. I never saw any woman with so much horror in her face. I would do a great deal if I could find her again. But the fighting began, and she went away without my seeing her go." "I should like more to know how she came in," said Karlsefne, "than how she went out. But whether she lives or is dead she had a warning which we had best take heed of. I am for going home myself." Freydis said that she should stay. She liked the country and was minded to live in it. Others were of her mind. About a hundred chose to settle there with her and her husband. There arose then the question of a ship, and Karlsefne said that he could not go home and leave them there with no means of escape. He said that he would go out in his own ship and look for the others, but Freydis would not have that. "Leave us here; we shall do well enough," she said. "As for the ship that has Thorhall the Huntsman in it, I would far sooner have none than his, with him in it." "We have tools enough here, and timber enough," Karlsefne said. "We will build you a ship as soon as look at you." So it was settled they were to build a new ship before they left. That night Freydis's child was born. It was a girl, and she called it Walgerd. That had been the name of Thorstan's daughter, who had not lived. Gudrid wondered why she chose that name. She could never understand Freydis--nobody could; yet she had been right about her in one thing. Freydis loved the child more than life itself. She was so jealous of it that she was uneasy when any one came in to see her, and used to lean right over it and hide it out of sight. Her yellow hair fell over her face, her eyes showed fire. She was like a wild beast guarding her young. As for Thorhall, her husband, she warned him out of the house, and he never dared put his head inside the door. She allowed Gudrid the entry, sulkily, it is true; but that was only her way of doing things. She was glad of her in her heart. "I am even with you now," she said, with her face to the wall. "I am glad of it," Gudrid said. "I always wished you happy." "I have never been so, since I became a woman," said Freydis, and Gudrid did not know what she meant. "I was happy enough," she went on, in a grumbling, even voice--as even it was as the constant running of water in a drain--"when I was a child, running and sporting with the boys. I loved all the things that they loved--I could swim as well as any, and ride, and fight with stones. But when they began to find me a girl, and to hold me and try to be alone with me, I had horror. They made me ashamed. And worse was to come--and I almost killed a young man for it--and after that I hated men, as I do still." "They mean no harm," said Gudrid. "They do after their kind." "But their kind is not mine. To be held in a man's arm is horrible to me." "It is good to me, sometimes," said Gudrid. "But when I saw you with Thorstan's child about to be born--and saw how rich and sedate you walked the ways, and how peace sat upon your forehead like a wreath, then I grudged you." Freydis turned round in the bed and showed her burning face. "And I said, 'This woman has a secret joy, and for all she is so quiet and still she is stronger than I.' And when the child died I was glad. I said, 'Now we are level again, but I will be better than you, for I will have a child which shall live and be strong like me.' But you have had yours first, and it is a boy. So you are better than me still." Then her eyes filled with hot tears, which made her eyelids blink. "Oh, Freydis," Gudrid said, "you don't grudge me my boy?" "No, no, it is not that. It is that I am ashamed. You are good, and I am very bad. I hate myself now." Gudrid kissed her. "Tell me, Freydis, now," she said, "why did you call your girl Walgerd?" Freydis did not want to answer, but presently she said: "I should have called her Gudrid if that had been lucky. But we must not use the names of living persons for the new-born, so I called her Walgerd, because yours had been called so. I went as near to you as I could." It seemed to hurt Freydis to talk about it, but Gudrid kissed her again, and went away feeling happy about her. "It is good to be loved, even by Freydis," she said to Karlsefne, whose answer was, "Who could help loving you?" XXIX But before the ship-building was began Freydis changed her mind, and said that she would go home with the rest. Nobody caring to stop alone out there without some chieftain over them, it came to it that all must go home in one ship. They killed what stock they could not take alive, and sailed out of the river at the beginning of summer. Gudrid's boy Snorre was just two years old, and Karlsefne was anxious to be safe at home before he had a brother or sister. They waited about at the river's mouth for a fair wind, then set all sail and ran before it northerly along the coast. So they came again to Markland and stayed there for certain days. It was there that Karlsefne and some of the crew, on shore after game, surprised some savages in a hollow of the woods: a bearded man, two women and two children. He saw them, unperceived himself, stalked them with art, and made a dash into the midst of them. He caught the two children, but the others disappeared into the earth. He brought them home with him and gave them to Gudrid. "Can you have too many children? I don't think so." She took them gladly and brought them up. They were brown all over and naked; they had black eyes round and staring as beads, but a ring of blue all about them, as blue as that on a thrush's egg. In time she taught them her own tongue, and in time had them baptized--but that was not until she went to Iceland. When they sailed from Markland the wind still held good, and they came safely into Ericsfrith, and picked up their moorings in the haven. It was as if they had never been away. Leif came down to welcome them, and they stayed with him the rest of the year. Eric Red was dead, and Leif not married. He had his son with him born in Orkney, but Thorgunna herself had not come, and Leif would not marry any other woman. Theodhild his mother kept house for him--it was no longer the great hospitality which old Eric had loved to maintain. They heard of the fate of Thorhall the Huntsman lost in Ireland, and of Biorn who had sailed with him. Their ship had been driven out of her course by tempest, and had drifted into a strange sea which they called The Maggoty Sea. Here the water was full of worms, which fastened on the ship and ate the timbers, so that she became rotten under them. They had a boat with them which the worms would not touch, and cast lots which should go in her and which remain. Thorhall drew a good lot and Biorn another; half the crew got into the boat. But then, as they were casting off, a young man who had been with Biorn in Iceland and on many voyages looked over the side and said, "Biorn, do you leave me here?" Biorn said, "Why, what can I do?" "You should keep the promise you made to me when I left my father's house to go along with you," the young man said. Biorn looked about. "Well," he said, "what would you have?" The young man answered, "I would have you take me in the boat." "Would you have my place? Do you mean that?" The young man did not answer him, but said, "Well, I am young to die." Then Biorn said, "In with you, then. Death is a hard thing for young men." So they changed places, and Biorn saw the boat out of sight. It was wrecked on the coast of Ireland, and many of the company drowned. Gudrid's son Biorn was born at Brattalithe and named after a brave man; and then it became a question for Karlsefne what he had better do. He had had from Gudrid a fine estate in Greenland, but he had one of his own at Rowanness in Iceland, and wanted to take her there. He told her: "I had the only good thing in Greenland when I had you; and you were not born here, and do not belong here either. But it shall be as you please." She said at once, "Let us go home to Iceland," and as she said it her face fell and she looked sorrowfully at him. "What is it now, sweetheart?" "I remember," she said, "what was foretold of me when first I came to Greenland, and all of it has been fulfilled but two things. Now I am afraid again, though it was so long ago." Karlsefne laughed. "And one was that you should end your days in Iceland?" She nodded, fearing the rest; but he went on-- "And the other was that you should outlive me?" She nodded again; but he looked at her and laughed, until she did too, but ruefully. "Let be all that, my dear," he said. "Death is not so fearful a thing--and the longer we live the less fearful it is. But I will tell you this, my Gudrid: I should be a miserable man were you to die first. And what would these children do without you? I call that comfortable soothsay, for my part--but I am not for dying yet awhile." He was not; for the rest of his tale is as prosperous as its beginning. He settled down in Iceland upon his own land, and did well by Gudrid and her children before his time came. As for her, it is said that when she had seen her sons out in the world, and married her daughters seemly, she turned to religion. A pilgrimage to Rome is reported, and that she became a nun. Thorberg had predicted of her that she should find the life which she loved best, and may have meant that of religion. The fact appears to be that Gudrid was a sweet nature and could be happy anywhere if she were allowed to love. And if it is not permitted always to love men, a woman can always love God. 
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18038	----	[Illustration: "'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'"--_Frontispiece_] _GREAT DAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES_ DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS BY L. LAMPREY _Author of "In the Days of the Guild", "Masters of the Guild", etc._ ILLUSTRATED BY FLORENCE CHOATE and ELIZABETH CURTIS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS _Copyright, 1921, by_ FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages_ _Made in the United States of America_ TO FORESTA Upon the road to Faerie, O there are many sights to see,-- Small woodland folk may one discern Housekeeping under leaf and fern, And little tunnels in the grass Where caravans of goblins pass, And airy corsair-craft that float On wings transparent as a mote,-- All sorts of curious things can be Upon the road to Faerie! Along the wharves of Faerie-- There all the winds of Christendie Are musical with hawk-bell chimes, Carillons rung to minstrels' rimes, And silver trumpets bravely blown From argosies of lands unknown, And the great war-drum's wakening roll-- The reveillé of heart and soul-- For news of all the ageless sea Comes to the quays of Faerie! Across the fields to Faerie There is no lack of company,-- The world is real, the world is wide, But there be many things beside. Who once has known that crystal spring Shall not lose heart for anything. The blessing of a faery wife Is love to sweeten all your life. To find the truth whatever it be-- That is the luck of Faerie! _Above the gates of Faerie There bends a wild witch-hazel tree. The fairies know its elfin powers. They wove a garland of the flowers, And on a misty autumn day They crowned their queen--and ran away! And by that gift they made you free Of all the roads of Faerie!_ CONTENTS PAGE _To Foresta_ v I ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL (1348) 1 _The Viking's Secret_ 17 II THE RUNES OF THE WIND-WIFE (1364) 18 _The Navigators_ (1415-1460) 34 III SEA OF DARKNESS (1475) 35 _Sunset Song_ 48 IV PEDRO AND HIS ADMIRAL (1492) 50 _The Queen's Prayer_ 65 V THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE (1493-1494) 66 _The Escape_ 80 VI LOCKED HARBORS (1497) 81 _Gray Sails_ 93 VII LITTLE VENICE (1500) 94 _The Gold Road_ 104 VIII THE DOG WITH TWO MASTERS (1512) 105 _Cold o' the Moon_ (1519) 117 IX WAMPUM TOWN (1508-1524) 121 _The Drum_ 133 X THE GODS OF TAXMAR (1512-1519) 134 _The Legend of Malinche_ 148 XI THE THUNDER BIRDS (1519-1520) 150 _Moccasin Flower_ 165 XII GIFTS FROM NORUMBEGA (1533-1535) 167 _The Mustangs_ 181 XIII THE WHITE MEDICINE MAN (1528-1536) 182 _Lone Bayou_ (1542) 195 XIV THE FACE OF THE TERROR (1564) 197 _The Destroyers_ 214 XV THE FLEECE OF GOLD (1561-1577) 215 _A Watch-dog of England_ (1583) 237 XVI LORDS OF ROANOKE (1584) 238 _The Changelings_ 250 XVII THE GARDENS OF HELÊNE (1607-1609) 252 _The Wooden Shoe_ 269 XVIII THE FIRES THAT TALKED (1610) 270 _Imperialism_ 282 XIX ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND (1600-1614) 284 _The Discoverers_ 299 BIBLIOGRAPHY 300 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'" (in color) _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats'" (in color) 4 "Nils marked out an inscription in Runic letters" 30 "The miniature globe took form as the children watched, fascinated" 44 "He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the Spanish captain had brought" 78 "A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously hidden" 86 "The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness" (in color) 132 "Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak" 146 "Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard" (in color) 162 "Cartier read from his service-book" 176 "The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as the eye could see" 190 "'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'" 204 "Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard" 226 "If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be golden" 244 "The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall" 266 DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS I ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL A red fox ran into the empty church. In the middle of the floor he sat up and looked around. Nothing stirred--not the painted figures on the wooden walls, nor the boy who now stood in the doorway. This boy was gray-eyed and flaxen-haired, and might have been eleven or twelve years old. He was looking for the good old priest, Father Ansgar, and the wild shy animal eyeing him from the foot of the altar made it only too clear that the church, like the village, was deserted. Father Ansgar was dead of the strange swift pestilence that was called in 1348 the Black Death. So also were the sexton, the cooper, the shoemaker, and almost all the people of the valley. A ship had come into Bergen with the plague on board, and it spread through Norway like a grass-fire. Only last week Thorolf Erlandsson[1] had had a father and mother, a grandmother, two younger sisters and a brother. Now he was alone. In the night the dairy woman and the plowmen at Ormgard farm had run away. Other farms and houses were already closed and silent, or plundered and burned. Ormgard being remote had at first escaped the sickness. Thorolf turned away from the church door and began to climb the mountain. At the lane leading to his home he did not stop, but kept on into the woods. It was not so lonely there. Up and up he climbed, the thrilling scent of fir-balsam in his nostrils, the small friendly noises of the forest all about him. Only a few months ago he had come down this very road with his father, driving the cattle and goats home from the summer pasture. All the other farmers were doing the same, and the clear notes of the lure, the long curving horn, used for calling the cattle and signaling across valleys, soared from slope to slope. There was laughter and shouting and joking all the way down. Now the only persons abroad seemed to be thieving ruffians whose greed for plunder was more than their fear of the plague. A thought came to the boy. How could he leave his father's cattle unfed and uncared for? What if he were to drive the cows himself to the saeter and tend them through the summer? He faced about, resolutely, and began to descend the hill. Within sight of the familiar roofs he heard some one coming from the village, on horseback. It proved to be Nils the son of Magnus the son of Nils who was called the Bear-Slayer, with a sack of grain and a pair of saddlebags on a sedate brown pony. Nils was lame of one foot and no taller than a boy of nine, although he was thirteen this month and his head was nearly as large as a man's. He had been an orphan from baby-hood, and for the last three years had lived in the priest's house learning to be a clerk. "Hoh!" called Nils, "where are you going?" "To the farm to get our cattle and take them to the saeter. There is no one left to do it but me." "Cattle?" queried the other interestedly, "She will be glad of that." "She!" said Thorolf, "who?" "The Wind-wife[2]--Mother Elle, who used to sell wind to the sailors--the Finnish woman from Stavanger. She has gathered up a lot of children who have no one to look after them and is leading them into the mountains. She has Nikolina Sven's daughter Larsson, and Olof and Anders Amundson, and half a score of younger ones from different villages. She says that if it is God's will for the plague to come to the saeter it will come, but it is not there now, and it is in the valleys and the towns. She has gone on with the small ones who cannot walk fast, and left Olof and Anders and me to bring along the ponies with the loads. I'll help you drive your beasts." Without trouble the lads got the animals out of the byres and headed them up the road. Norway is so sharply divided by precipitous mountain ranges and deeply-penetrating fiords, that it may be but a few miles from a farm near sea level to the high grassy pastures three or four thousand feet above it where the cattle are pastured in summer. The saeter maidens live there in their cottages from June to September, making butter and cheese, tending the herds and doing such other work as they can. The saeter belonging to Ormgard and its neighbors was the one chosen by Mother Elle as a refuge for her flock. The forest of magnificent firs through which the road passed presently grew less somber, beginning to be streaked with white birches whose bright leaves twinkled in the sun. Then it reached the height at which evergreens cease to grow. The birches were shorter and sparser, and through the thinning woodland appeared glimpses of a treeless pasture dotted with scrubby low bushes and clumps of rushes. A glint of clear green water betrayed a small lake in a dip of the hills. And now were heard sounds most unusual in that lonely place, the high sweet voices of children. Birch trees, little trees, dwarfed by sharp winds and poor soil, encircled a level space perhaps ten feet across, carpeted with new soft grass, reindeer moss and cupped lichens. Here sat seven or eight children eagerly listening to a story told by an older child as she divided the ration of fladbrod,[3] wild strawberries from a small basket of birchbark, and brown goat's-milk cheese. "And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats--" Nikolina the daughter of Sven Larsson of the Trolle farm was known through all the valley, not only as the sole child of its richest farmer, but for the bright blonde hair that covered her shoulders with its soft abundance and hung to her waist. Her father would not have it cut or braided or even covered save by such a little embroidered cap as she wore now. Her scarlet bodice, and blue-black skirt bordered with bright woven bands, were of the finest wool; the full-sleeved white linen under-dress had been spun and woven and embroidered by skilful and loving fingers. Nikolina had lost the roof from over her head, and a great deal more than that. Now she was giving her whole mind to the little ones of all ages from four to eight, crowding close about her. [Illustration: "'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats'"--_Page_ 4] "Hi!" called Nils, "where is Mother Elle? See what Thorolf and I have got!" The children scrambled to their feet and gazed with round eyes, their small hungry teeth munching their morsels of hard bread. Nikolina plucked a bunch of grass for Snow, the foremost cow, and patted her as she ate it. "The little ones were so tired and hungry," she said, "that Mother Elle said they might have their supper now, while she and Olof and Anders went on to the saeter. This is wonderful! She was saying only this morning that she feared all the cattle were dead or stolen." Within an hour they came in sight of the log huts with turf-covered roofs that sloped almost to the ground in the rear. A broad plain stretched away beyond, and the new grass was of that vivid green to be found in places which deep snow makes pure. Hills enclosed it, and beyond, a gleaming network of lake and stream ended in range above range of blue and silver peaks. The clear invigorating air was like some unearthly wine. The cows at the scent of fresh pasture moved more briskly; the pony tossed his head and whinnied. Not far from the cottages there came to meet them a little old woman, dark and wiry, with bright searching eyes. Her face was wrinkled all over in fine soft lines, but her hair was hardly gray at all. She wore a pointed hood and girdled tunic of tanned reindeer hide, with leggings and shoes of the same. A blanket about her shoulders was draped into a kind of pouch, in which she carried on her back a tow-headed, solemn-eyed baby. "Welcome to you, Thorolf Erlandsson," she said, just as if she had been expecting him. "With this good milk we shall fare like the King." No king, truly, could have supped on food more delicious than that enjoyed by Nils and Thorolf on this first night in the saeter. It is strange but true that the most exquisite delights are those that money cannot buy. No man can taste cold spring water and barley bread in absolute perfection who has not paid the poor man's price--hard work and keen hunger. When Nikolina, Karen and Lovisa came up with the smaller children the place had already an inhabited, homelike look. There was even a wise old raven, almost as large as a gander, whom Nils had christened Munin, after Odin's bird. The little ones had all the new milk they could drink from their wooden bowls, and were put to bed in the movable wooden bed-places, on beds of hay covered with sheepskins and blankets. All were asleep before dark, for at that season the night lasted only two or three hours. The last thing that Thorolf heard was a happy little pipe from the five-year-old Ellida,-- "Now we shall live in Asgard forever and ever." For all it had to do with the experience of many of the children the saeter might really have been Asgard, the Norse paradise. The youngest had never before been outside the narrow valley where they were born. Ellida and Margit, Didrik and little Peder, could not be convinced that they were anywhere but in Asgard the Blest. Norway had long since become Christian, but the old faith was not forgotten. The legends, songs and customs of the people were full of it. In the sagas Asgard was described as being on a mountain at the top of the world. Around the base of this mountain lay Midgard, the abode of mankind. Beyond the great seas, in Utgard, the giants lived. Hel was the under-world, the home of evil ghosts and spirits. Tales were told in the long winter evenings, of Baldur the god of spring, Loki the crafty, Odin the old one-eyed beggar in a hooded cloak, with his two ravens and his two tame wolves, Freya the lovely lady of flowers, Elle-folk dancing in the moonlight, and little rascally Trolls. The songs and legends repeated by the old people or chanted by minstrels or skalds were more than idle stories--they were the history of a race. Children heard over and over again the family records telling in rude rhyme the story of centuries. In distant Iceland, Greenland, the Shetlands, the Faroes or the Orkneys, a Norseman could tell exactly what might be his udall right, or right of inheritance, in the land of his fathers. On Nils and Thorolf, Anders, Olof, Nikolina, Karen and Lovisa, who were all over ten years old, rested great responsibility. Mother Elle always managed to solve her own problems and expected them to attend to theirs without constant direction from her. She told them what there was to be done and left them to attend to it. All were hardy, active youngsters who took to fending for themselves as naturally as a day-old chick takes to scratching. In ordinary seasons the work at the saeter was heavy, for the maidens must not only follow the herds over miles of pasture land, but make butter and cheese for the winter from their milking. The few cows that were here now could be tethered near by; the milk, when the children had had all they wanted, was mostly used in soups, pudding or gröt (porridge). A net or weir stretched across the outlet of the lake would fill with fish overnight. The streams were full of trout. Mother Elle knew how to make fish-hooks of bone, bows and arrows, ropes, and baskets of bark, how to weave osiers, how to cure bruises and cuts, how to trap the wild hares, grouse and plover and cook them over an open fire. The children found plover's eggs and the eggs of other wild fowl. They raised pulse, leeks, onions and turnips in a little garden patch. They gathered strawberries, cranberries, crowberries, wild currants, black and red, the cloudberry and the delicious arctic raspberry which tastes of pineapple. Some stores of salt and grain were already at the saeter and the grain-fields had been sowed, before the pestilence appeared in the valley. In the long summer days of these northern mountains, one has the feeling that they will never end, that life must go on in an infinite succession of still, sunshiny, fragrant hours, filled with the songs of birds, the chirr of insects and the distant lowing of cattle. There is time for everything. At night comes dreamless slumber, and the morning is like a birth into new life. There was a great deal of singing and story-telling at odd times. A group of children making mats or baskets, gathering pease or going after berries would beg Nils or Nikolina to tell a story, or Karen would lead them in some old song with a familiar refrain. But some of the songs the Wind-wife crooned to the baby were not like any the children had heard. They were not even in Norwegian. Thorolf was a silent lad, who would rather listen than talk, and hated asking questions. But one day, when he and Nikolina were hunting wild raspberries, he asked her if she thought Mother Elle meant to stay in the mountains through the winter. Nikolina did not know. "'Tis well to be wise but not too wise, 'Tis well that to-morrow is hid from our eyes, For in forward-looking forebodings rise," she added quaintly. "I have heard her say that it is colder in Greenland than it is here." "Has she been in Greenland?" "Her father and mother were on the way there when she was little, and the ship was wrecked somewhere on the coast. The Skroelings found her and took her to live in their country. That is how she learned so much about trees and herbs, and how to make bows and arrows and moccasins." "Moccasins?" "The little shoes she made for Ellida. And she made a little boat for Peder, like their skiffs." This was interesting. For a private reason, Thorolf held Greenland to be the most fascinating of all places. "Can she speak their language?" "Of course. I asked her to teach me, and she said that perhaps she would some day. The songs that she sings to the little ones are some that the Skroeling woman who adopted her used to sing to her when she cried for her own mother. One of them begins like this: "'Piche Klooskap pechian Machieswi menikok.'" "What does it mean?" "'Long ago Klooskap came to the island of the partridges.' Klooskap was like Odin, or Thor. The priests in Greenland told her he was a devil and wouldn't let her talk about him, but the Skroelings had runes for everything just like the people in the sagas,--runes for war, and healing, and the sea." "How did she ever get away?" "Some men came from Westbyrg to cut wood in the forest, and when they saw that she was not really a Skroeling they bought her for an iron pot and one of them married her. But he was drowned a long time ago." "I wish I knew the Skroelings' language. Some day I mean to go to Greenland." "Perhaps Mother Elle will teach you. I'll ask her." The Wind-wife was rather chary of information about the country of the Skroelings until Nikolina's coaxing and Thorolf's silent but intense interest had taken effect. The country, she said, was rather like Norway, with mountains and great forests, lakes and streams, but far colder. There were no fiords, and no cities. The people lived in tents made of poles covered with bark, or hides. They dressed in the hides of wild animals and lived by hunting and fishing. They had no reindeer, horses, cattle, sheep or goats, no fowls, no pigs. They could not work iron, nor did they spin or weave. The man and woman who had adopted her treated her just like their own child. The stories she had learned from these people were intensely interesting to her listeners. There was one about a battle between the wasps and the squirrels, and another about the beaver who wanted wings. One was about a girl who was married to the Spirit of the Mountain and had a son beautiful and straight and like any other boy except that he had stone eyebrows. Then there was the tale about Klooskap tying up the White Eagle of the Wind so that he could not flap his wings. After a short time everything was so dirty and ill-smelling and unhealthy that Klooskap had to go back and untie one wing, and let the wind blow to clear the air and make the earth once more wholesome. Wild apples fell, grain ripened, nights lengthened. Long ago the twin-flower, violet, wild pansy, forget-me-not and yellow anemone had left their fairy haunts, and there remained only the curving fantastic fronds of the fern,--the dragon-grass. Then had come brilliant spots and splashes of color on the summer slopes--purple butterwort, golden ragweed, aconite, buttercup, deep crimson mossy patches of saxifrage, rosy heather, catchfly, wild geranium, cinnamon rose. These also finished their triumphal procession and went to their Valhalla. Then one September morning the children woke to hear the wind screaming as if the White Eagle had escaped his prison, and the rain pelting the world. All summer they had been out, rain or shine, like water-ouzels, but now they were glad to sit about the fire with the shutters all closed, and the smoke now and then driven down into the room by the storm. Before evening the little ones were begging for stories. "I wish I could remember a saga I heard last Yule," Nikolina said at last. "It was about a voyage the Vikings made to a country where the people had never seen cattle. When they heard the cattle bellowing they all ran away and left the furs they had come to sell." "Tell all you remember and make up the rest," suggested Karen, but Nikolina shook her head. "One should never do that with a saga." "I know that tale," spoke up Thorolf suddenly, although he had never in his life repeated a saga. "Grandmother used to tell it. In the beginning Bjarni Heriulfson the sea-rover, after many years came home to Iceland to drink wassail in his father's house. But strangers dwelt there and told him that his father was gone to Greenland, and he set sail for that land. Soon was the ship swallowed up in a gray mist in which were neither sun nor stars. They sailed many days they knew not where, but suddenly the fog lifted and the sun revealed to them a coast of low hills covered with forest. By this Bjarni thought that it was not Greenland but some southerly coast. Therefore turned he northward and sailed many days before he sighted the mountains of Greenland and his father's house. "Years afterward returned Bjarni to Iceland, and in his telling of that voyage it came to the ears of Leif Ericsson, who asked him many questions about the land he had seen. There grew no trees in Iceland or Greenland, fit for house-timber, and Leif was minded to find out this place of great forests. Thus it came that Leif sailed from Brattahlid in Greenland with five and thirty men in a long ship upon a journey of discovery. "First came they to a barren land covered with big flat stones, and this Leif named Helluland, the slate land. Southward sailed he for many days until he saw a coast covered with wooded hills, and there he landed, calling it Markland, the land of woods. Then southward again they bore and came to a place where a river flowed out of a lake and fell into the sea. The country was pleasant, with good fishing. Leif said that they would spend the winter there, and they built wooden cabins well-made and warm. "Then at the season when the leaves are blood-red and bright gold came in from the woods Thorkel the German, smacking his lips and making strange faces and jabbering in his own language. When they asked what ailed him he said that he had found vines loaded with grapes, and having seen none since he left his own country, which was a land of vineyards, he was out of his senses with delight. Therefore was that country named Vinland the Fair. In the spring went Leif home, well pleased, with a cargo of timber, but his father being dead he voyaged no more to Vinland, but remained to be head of his house. "Next went Thorvald, Leif's brother, to Vinland and stayed two winters in the booths that Leif built, until he was slain in a fight with the men of that land. His men buried him there and returned sorrowfully to their own land. "Next went Thorestein, Leif's second brother, forth, with Gudrid his wife, to get the body of Thorvald but he died on the voyage and his widow returned to Brattahlid. "Next came to Brattahlid Thorfin Karlsefne, the Viking from Iceland, who loved and married Gudrid and from her heard the story of Vinland, and desired it for his own. In good time went he forth in a long ship with his wife, and there went with him three other valiant ships. They had altogether one hundred and sixty men and five women, with cattle, grain and all things fit for a settlement. This was seven years after Leif Ericsson found Vinland. Among the stores for trading was scarlet cloth, which the Skroelings greatly covet, insomuch that one small strip of scarlet would buy many rich furs. But when they came to trade, hearing a bull bellow, with a great squalling they all ran away and left their packs on the ground, nor did they show their faces again for three weeks. Snorre, the son of Thorfin Karlsefne, born in Vinland, was three years old when the Northmen left that land. They had found the winter hard and cold, and in a fight with the Skroelings many had been killed, so that they took ship and returned to Iceland. "They had gone but a little way when one of the ships, which was commanded by Bjarni Grimulfsson, lagged so far behind that it lost sight of the others. The men then discovered that shipworms[4] had bored the hull so that it was about to sink. None could hope to be saved but in the stern boat, and that would not hold half of them. "Then stood Bjarni Grimulfsson forth, and said to his men that in this matter there should be no advantage of rank, but they would draw lots, who should go in the boat and who remain in the ship. When this had been done it was Bjarni's lot to go in the boat. After all had gone down into the boat who had the right, an Icelander who had been Bjarni's companion made outcry dolefully saying, 'Bjarni, Bjarni, do you leave me here to die in the sea? It was not so you promised me when I left my father's house.' Then said Bjarni, for the lot was fairly cast, 'What else can be done?' Then said the Icelander, 'I think that you should come up into the ship and let me go down into the boat.' And indeed no other way might be found for him to live. Then answered Bjarni making light of the matter, 'Let it be so, since I see that you are so anxious to live and so afraid of death; I will return to the ship.' This was done, and the men rowing away looked back and saw the ship go down in a great swirl of waves with Bjarni and those who remained. "This tale my grandmother heard from her father, and he from his, and so on until the time of that Thorolf Erlandsson who sailed with Bjarni Grimulfsson and went down into the sea by his side singing, for he feared nothing but to be a coward." Thorolf's eyes were as proud and his head as high as were his Viking forefather's when the worm-riddled galley went to her grave with more than half her crew, three hundred and forty years before. In the little silence which followed the fire crackled and whistled, the gusty rain-drenched wind beat upon the little hut. And then Nils repeated musingly the ancient saying from the Runes of Odin, "'Cattle die, Kings die, Kindred die, we also die,-- One thing never dies, The fair fame of the valiant.'" Some one knocked at the door. A real Viking in winged helmet and scale-armor would hardly have surprised them just then. But it was only a tall man in a traveler's cloak and hat, and they made quickly room for him to dry himself by the fire, and brought food and drink for him to refresh himself. "I thought that I knew the way to the old place," he said, looking about, "but in this tempest I nearly lost myself. Which of you is Thorolf Erlandsson?" The stranger was Syvert Thorolfson, a merchant of Iceland, Thorolf's uncle. He brought messages from Nikolina's grandmother in Stavanger, and from the Bishop, who was ready to see that all the children who had no relatives should be taken care of in Bergen. Within three days Asgard the Beautiful was left to the lemming and the raven. Yet the long bright summer lived always in the hearts of the children. Years after Thorolf remembered the words of the Wind-wife,-- "Make friends with the Skroelings--make friends. Friendship is a rock to stand on; hatred is a rock to split on. In the land of Klooskap shall you be Klooskap's guest." NOTES [1] In old Norse families names alternated from father to son. For example, Thorolf Erlandsson (Thorolf the son of Erland) would name his son after his own father, and the boy would be known as Erland Thorolfsson. A daughter was known by her given name and her father's, as Sigrid Erlandsdatter. In the case of the farm being of sufficient importance for a surname the name might be added, as "Elsie Tharaldsdatter Ormgrass." [2] Northern sailors regard the Finns as wizards. [3] Fladbrod is the coarse peasant-bread of Norway, made from an unfermented dough of barley and oatmeal rolled out into large thin cakes and baked. It will keep a long time. [4] The teredo or shipworm was a serious peril in the days before the sheathing of ships. Even tar sheathing was not used until the sixteenth century. THE VIKING'S SECRET In the days of jarl and hersir, while yet the world was young, And sagas of gods and heroes the grim-lipped minstrel sung, With the beak of his open galley in the sunset's scarlet flame, Over the wild Atlantic the Norseland Viking came. Life was a thing to play with,--oh, then the world was wide, With room for man and mammoth, and a goblin life beside. Now we have slain the mammoths, and we have driven the ghosts away, And we read the saga of Vinland in the light of a new-born day. We have harnessed the deadly lightnings; we have ridden the restless wave. We have chased the brood of the werewolf back to their noisome cave. But far in the icy Northland, with weird witch-lights aglow, Locked in the Greenland glaciers, is a tale we do not know. Out of Brattahlid's portal, southward from Herjulfsness, They came to their new-found kingdom, their Vinland to possess. Armored with careless laughter, strong with a stubborn will, The Vikings found it and lost it--it is undiscovered still! Where did they beach their galleys? How were their cabins planned? Who were the fearful Skroelings? What was the Fürdürstrand? What were the grapes of Tyrker? For all that is written or said, The Rune Stones hold the secret of the days of Eric the Red! II THE RUNES OF THE WIND-WIFE Salt and scarred from the northern seas, the _Taernan_, deep-laden with herring, nosed in at the Hanse quay in Bergen. Thorolf Erlandsson looked grimly up at the huge warehouses. Since the Hanseatic League secured a foothold in Norway, in 1343, most Norwegian ports had been losing trade, and Bergen, or rather the Hanse merchants in Bergen, had been getting it. Between the Danes and the Germans it looked rather as if Norwegians were to be crowded out of their own country. The Hanse traders not only received and sold fish for the Friday markets of northern Europe, but sold all kinds of manufactured goods. It was said that they had two sets of scales--one for buying and one for selling. Norwegians had either to adapt themselves to the new methods or give their sons to the ceaseless battle of the open sea. From the Baltic and Icelandic fisheries, the North Sea and the Lofoden Islands, their ships got the heaviest and the hardest of the sea-harvesting. But it takes more than hardship to break a Norseman. In his four years at sea Thorolf had become tall, broad-shouldered and powerful, and at eighteen he looked a grown man. He did more than he promised, and listened oftener than he talked, and his only close friend was Nils Magnusson, who was now coming down to the wharf. They had known each other from boyhood. Nils had been for three years a clerk in Syvert Thorolfsson's warehouse. While not tall he was neither stunted nor crippled, and easily kept pace with Thorolf. As he set out the silver-bound horn cups to drink _skal_[1] with his friend in his own lodging, the croak and sputter of German talk sounded in the street below. "Behold a new Bergen," observed Nils whimsically. "Let us drink to the founding of a new Iceland. Did you go to Greenland?" "We touched at Kakortok with letters for the Bishop. The people are sick and savage with fighting against the Skroelings." "Now," said Nils, rubbing his long nose, "it is odd that you say that, for I was just going to tell you some news. The King has given Paul Knutson leave to raise a company to fight against the Skroelings in Greenland--and parts beyond. He sails in a month." "I wish I had known of it." "I thought you would say that. This is between us two and the candle, but Anders Amundson is going, and I am going, and you may go if you will." Thorolf's gray eyes flamed. "What is Knutson like?" "Well, they may call him Chevalier, but he has the old Viking way with him. I said that I had a friend who had long wished to lay his bones in a strange land, and he answered, 'If your friend sails with me I would prefer to have him bring his bones home again.' He kept a place for you." Three weeks later Thorolf, looking backward as the _Rotge_, (little auk or sea-king) stood out to sea, saw the familiar outline of Snaehatten against the sunrise and wondered when he should see it again. Like a questing raven his mind returned to the summer spent at the saeter, and recalled that dark saying of the Wind-wife,-- "In the land of Klooskap shall you be Klooskap's guest." The galley[2] rode the waves with the bold freedom of her kind. Her keel was carved out of a single great tree. Her seasoned oaken timbers, overlapping, were riveted together by iron bolts, with the round heads outside. Where a timber touched a rib, a strip was cut out on each side, forming a block through which a hole was bored. Another hole was bored in the rib to match and a rope twisted of the inner bark of the linden was put through both holes and knotted. In surf or heavy sea, this construction gave the craft a supple strength. Calking was done with woolen cloth steeped in pitch. The mast, of a chosen trunk of fir, was set upright in a log with ends shaped like a fishtail. The long oarlike rudder was on the board or side of the ship to the right of the stern, called the starboard or steerboard. The lading was done on the opposite side, the larboard or ladderboard. There were ten oars to a side, and a single large triangular sail. Long and narrow, hardly ten feet above the water-line at her lowest, her curved prow glancing over the waves like the head of a swimming snake, she was no more like the tumbling cargo-ships than a shark is like a porpoise. When they were two days out, Nils said to Thorolf, "A Viking in such a galley would sail to the end of the world. By the way, did the Skroelings in Greenland understand that language the Wind-wife spoke?" "I was not there long enough to find out. I once asked a man who knows their talk well, and he said it was no tongue that ever he heard." The Greenland folk welcomed them heartily. Finding that the white men had not after all been forgotten by their own people, the natives drew off and gave them no more trouble. The Northmen spent the winter in sleep, talk, song, and hunting with native guides. Besides the old man in white fur, as the polar bear was respectfully called, Arctic foxes, walrus, whales and seal abounded. Many of the new-comers became skilful in the making and the use of the skin-covered native boats called Kayaks. Nils had some skill in carving wood and stone, and could write in the Runic script of Elfdal. In the long evenings when winds from the cave of the Great Bear buffeted the low huts, he taught Thorolf and Anders what he knew, and talked with the Skroelings. But none of them understood the runes of the Wind-wife. Their speech was quite different. Spring came with brief, hot sunshine, and the creeping birches budded on the pebbly shore. Encouraged by the reports from Greenland, new colonists ventured out, and house-building went on briskly. One day Thorolf was summoned to Knutson's headquarters. "Erlandsson," began the Chevalier, "they say that you have information about Vinland[3] and the Skroelings there, from an old woman who lived among them. What can you tell me?" Thorolf told the story of the Wind-wife. Knutson looked interested but doubtful. "I have talked with the oldest colonists," he said, "and they know nothing of any Skroelings but those hereabouts. They say also that Vinland is hard to come at. Boats venturing south return with tales of heavy winds, dense fogs and dangerous cliffs and skerries--or do not return at all. One was caught and crushed in the ice, and the crew were found on the floe half starved and gnawing bits of hide. In the sagas of Vinland the Skroelings are spoken of as fierce and treacherous. To hold such a land would need a strong hand. The old woman may have forgotten--or the stories may be those of her own people." Thorolf shook his head. "Nay, my lord. She was not a forgetful person--and the language is neither Lapp nor Finn." "She was very old, you say?" "I think so. I do not know how old." "Old people sometimes confuse what they have heard with what they have seen. But I shall remember what you have said." "If he had known the Wind-wife," said Nils when told of this conversation, "he would have no doubt." Knutson wrote to the King, but got no reply for a long time. A ship with a cargo of trading stores was sent for, and was wrecked on the Faroes. But in the following spring an expedition to Vinland was really planned. There was no general desire to take part in it. Many of Knutson's party now longed for their native land, where the mountains were drawn swords flashing in the sun, and the malachite and silver waters and flowery turf, the jeweled scabbards. They dreamed of the lure sounding over the valleys, of bright-paired maidens dancing the _spring dans_. Nevertheless in due season the _Rotge_ left the Greenland shore and pointed her inquiring beak southeast by south. In the _Gudrid_ sailed Knutson and his immediate following, with the trading cargo and most of the provisions. By keeping well out to sea at first the commander hoped to escape the perils of the coast. This hope was dashed by an Atlantic gale which drove them westward. For two days and two nights they were tossed between wind and tide. Toward the end of the second night the sound of the waves indicated land to starboard. In the growing light they saw a harbor that seemed spacious enough for all the ships in the world, sheltered by wooded hills. If this were Vinland, it was greater than saga told or skald sang. They landed to take in fresh water, mend a leak and see the country, but found no grapes, no Skroelings nor any sign of Northmen's presence. On the rocks grew vineberries, or mountain cranberries, and Knutson thought that perhaps these and not true grapes were the fruit found in Vinland. He sent a party of a dozen men, Anders and Thorolf leading, to explore the forest, ascend some hill if possible and return the same day. He himself remained with the ships and kept Nils by him. He rather expected that the natives, learning of the strangers' arrival, would be drawn by curiosity to visit the bay. The scouting party followed the banks of the little stream that had given them fresh water, Anders leading, Thorolf just behind him. Wind stirred softly in the leaves overhead, unseen birds fluttered and chirped, sunshine sifting through the maple undergrowth turned it to emerald and gold and jasper. Once there was a discordant screech from the evergreens, but it was only a brilliant blue jay with crest erect, scolding at them. A striped squirrel flashed up the trunk of a tree to his hole. Then sudden as lightning, from the bushes they had just passed, came a flight of arrows. Two men were slightly wounded, but most of the arrows were turned by the light strong body armor of the Norsemen. The foe remained unseen and unheard. Nothing stirred, though the men scanned the woods about them with the keen eyes of seamen and hunters. Thorolf was seized with an inspiration. He went forward a step or two, lifted his hand in salutation, and called,-- "Klooskap mech p'maosa?"[4] (Is Klooskap yet alive?) There was a silence stiller than death. The Norsemen faced the ominous thicket without moving a muscle. Some one within it called out something which Thorolf did not understand. But no more arrows came. He tried another sentence. "Klooskap k-chi skitap, pechedog latogwesnuk." (Klooskap was a great man in the country far to the northward.) This time he made out the answer. In a swift aside he explained to his comrades,-- "'K'putuswin' means 'let us take council.' They want to have a talk." He managed to convey his assent to the unseen listeners, and every tree, rock and log sprouted Skroelings. They were quite unlike the natives of Greenland, though of copper-colored complexion.[5] These men--there were no women among them,--were tall and sinewy, and wore their coarse black hair knotted up on the head with a tuft of feathers. They were naked to the waist, and wore fringed breeches of deerskin, and soft shoes embroidered in bright colors. Some had necklaces of bears' claws, beads or shells, but the only weapons seemed to be the bow and arrow and a stone-headed hatchet or club. They stared at the white man half curiously and half threateningly. Then began the queerest conversation that any one present had ever heard. Thorolf discovered the wild men's language to be so nearly like that learned from the Wind-wife that he could understand it when spoken slowly, and in a halting fashion could make them comprehend him. His companions listened in wonder. Not even Anders had really believed in that language. At last Thorolf held out his hand, and the leader of the Skroelings came forward in a very gingerly manner and took it. Then walking in single file, toes pointed straight forward, the savages melted into the forest as frost melts in sunshine. With a broad grin, the first he had worn for some time, Thorolf translated. "He asked why we came here. I told him, to see the country and trade with his people. He says that white men have come here before, very long ago. I think they were killed and he did not wish to say so. He says that the Sagem, the jarl of his people, lives in a castle over there somewhere. I told him to give the Sagem greeting from our commander, and invite him to visit the place where our ships are. He says that it will not be safe for us to go further into the forest until the Skroelings have heard who we are and what we are doing here." "That is very good advice," said Anders with a wry face, as he plucked some moss to stanch the wound in his arm. The arrow-head which had made it was a shaped piece of flint bound to the shaft with cords of fine sinew. "We are too few to get into a general fight. Besides, that is not in our orders." They accordingly went back to the ships, arriving a little before sundown. Knutson was greatly interested. "You have done well," he said. "A boat was hovering about soon after you left. This may have been a scouting party sent through the forest to cut you off." All the next day they waited, but nothing happened. On the morning after, a large number of boats appeared rounding the headland to the south. In the largest sat the Sagem, a very old man wrapped in furs. The boats were made of birchbark laced on a wooden framework with fibrous roots, like the toy skiff Mother Elle had made for little Peder. The Skroelings landed, and advanced with great dignity to meet Knutson, who was equally ceremonious. Nils and Thorolf had all they could do to interpret the old chief's long speech, although many phrases were repeated again and again, which made it easier. Knutson made one in reply, briefer but quite as polite, and brought out beads, little knives, and scarlet cloth from his trading stores. The red cloth and beads were received with eagerness, the knives with interest, and after a young chief had cut himself, with some awe. The Sagem in his turn presented the stranger with skins of the sable, the silver fox and the bear. He and a few of the warriors tasted of the food offered them, and all the white men were asked to a feast in the village the next day. So friendly were the Skroelings, in fact, that Knutson determined to return to Greenland and see what could be done toward founding a settlement here. He would leave part of the men in winter quarters, with the _Rotge_ as a means of further explorations, or if necessary, of escape. Her captain, Gustav Sigerson, was a cautious, wise and experienced seaman. Anders Amundson, as the best hunter of the expedition, was to stay, with Nils as clerk and Thorolf as interpreter. Booths were erected, stores landed, and on a brilliant day in late summer some forty Norsemen and Gothlanders on the shore watched the _Gudrid_ slowly fading out of sight. In talking with the natives Nils and Thorolf observed that their world seemed to be infested with demons--particularly water-fiends. A reason for this appeared in time. Half a dozen men one day took the stern-boat and went a-fishing. They came back white-faced, with a story of a giant squid with arms four times as long as the boat, that had risen out of the sea and tried to pull them under. Only their skill as rowers had saved them. Nils remembered the kraken, of ancient legends, and thought he could see why the Skroelings never ventured out to sea in their frail canoes. This put an end to plans for exploring along the coast. The winter was colder than they had expected. This land, so much further south than Norway, was bitten by frost as Norway never was. There is something in intense cold which is inhuman. When men are shut up together in exile by it, all that is bad in them is likely to crop out. It might have been worse but for the fortunate friendliness of the Skroelings. When scurvy appeared in the camp, their first acquaintance, Munumqueh (woodchuck) had his women brew a drink which cured it. He showed the white men also how to make pemmican, the compressed meat ration of native hunters, and how to construct and use a birch canoe, a pair of snowshoes, and a fire-drill. Gustav Sigerson died in the spring, and Nils was chosen captain. He and Munumqueh became great cronies, and exchanged names, Nils being thereafter known to his native friends as the Woodchuck, and bestowing upon Munumqueh the proud name of his grandfather, Nils the Bear-Slayer. "It will never do for us to sit quiet here until Knutson returns," said Nils when at Midsummer nothing had been seen of the ships. "We shall be at one another's throats or quarreling with the savages." He had been inquiring about the nature of the country, and had learned that westward a great river led to five inland seas, so connected that canoes could go from one to another. Along this chain of waters lived tribes who spoke somewhat the same language and traded with one another. Southward lived a warlike people who sometimes attacked the lake tribes. Beyond the last of the lakes they did not know what the country was like. The waters inland were not troubled with the water-demon so far as they knew. Nils, Anders and Thorolf held a council and decided to explore the wilderness as far as they could go in the _Rotge_. It was nothing more than all their ancestors had done. Often, in their invasions of England, France and other unknown regions Vikings had gone up one river and come down another, and the _Rotge_, for all her iron strength, was no more than a wooden shell when stripped.[6] They set forth, escorted by a flotilla of small canoes, on a clear summer morning, and found their progress surprisingly easy. Fish, game and berries were plentiful, the villages along the river supplied corn and beans, and though it was not always easy to drag the _Rotge_ around the carrying-places pointed out by their native guides, they did not have to turn back. It was a proud moment when the undefeated crew launched their "water-snake" as the Skroelings called her, on the shining waters of a great inland sea. The journey had been a far longer one than they expected, and to natives of any other country would have been much more exciting than it was to the Norsemen.[7] They had seen cliffs a thousand feet high, cataracts, rapids, a multitude of wooded islands, narrow valleys where floating misty clouds came and went and the sky looked like a riband. But the precipice above Naero Fiord rises four thousand perpendicular feet, and the water which laps its base is thousands of feet in depth. The Skjaeggedalsfos is loftier than Niagara, and the mist-maidens dance along the perilous pathways of a hundred Norwegian cliffs. Nils and Thorolf agreed that the Wind-wife was right when she said that the country of the Skroelings was like Norway but had no end. "The trouble is," reflected Nils as he set down the day's happenings on a birch-bark scroll, "that nobody will believe us when we tell how great the land is." At the end of the fifth and largest lake they found people with some knowledge of the country beyond. It seemed that after crossing the Big Woods one came to great open plains where a ferocious and cruel race of warriors hunted animals as large as the moose, with hoofs and short horns and curly brown fur. This sounded like a cattle country. The lake tribes evidently stood in great fear of the plains people, but in spite of their evident alarm the Norsemen determined to go and see for themselves.[8] Leaving the boat with ten of their company to guard it they struck off southwestward through a country of forests, lakes and streams. After fourteen days they stopped to make camp and go a-fishing, for dried fish would be the most convenient ration for a quick march, and they did not intend to spend much more time in exploring. It seemed to Nils and Thorolf that some mark or monument should be left to show how far they had really come. A small natural column of dark trap rock was chosen, and while the others fished, or made a seine after the native fashion, Nils marked out an inscription in Runic letters, which are suited to rough work. Not far from the place where they found the stone, and about a day's journey from camp, was a small high island in a little lake, the kind of place usually chosen by Vikings for a first camp. The stone, set in the middle of this island, would be easily seen by any one looking for it, and savages would not see it at all. When finished it was rafted across to the island and set up, the inscription covering about half of it on both sides. While Nils and several others were thus busy, the remainder of the party were trying the seine. They reached camp after dark to find their booths in ashes, and Nils with his men murdered a little way off, as they had come up from the Rune Stone.[9] [Illustration: "NILS MARKED OUT AN INSCRIPTION IN RUNIC LETTERS."--_Page_ 30] With fury and horror the Norsemen looked upon the destruction. It was all Thorolf and the cooler heads could do to keep the rest from attacking the first Skroelings they saw. But the mischief had been done, without doubt, by the unknown warriors of the plains, who had been perhaps watching their advance. They sadly prepared to return to their boat. But before they went, Thorolf paddled out to the island on two logs, while the others kept guard, and added some lines to the inscription on the stone. They never saw their Vinland again. Knutson, finding the King fighting hard against the Danes, gave no further thought to the wilderness. Thorolf and a handful of his men finally reached Bergen; Anders stayed in Greenland. More than five centuries afterward, a Scandinavian farmer, grubbing for stumps in a Minnesota marsh, found overgrown by the roots of a tulip tree a stone with an inscription in Runic letters, took it to learned men and had it translated. "8 Goths and 22 Norsemen upon journey of discovery from Vinland westward. We had camp by two rocks one day's journey from this stone. We were out fishing one day. When we returned home we found ten men red with blood and dead. AVM save us from evil. have ten men by the sea to look after our ship 14 days journey from this island. Year 1362." NOTES [1] Skal or skoal was the Norwegian word used in drinking a health. [2] The description of the Norse galley is taken from Du Chaillu's "Land of the Midnight Sun," in which the construction of one which was unearthed at Nydam in Jutland is described (Vol. I. 380). The galley "Viking" built in Norway on the model of an actual Viking ship of the early Middle Ages, was taken across the Atlantic in 1893 by a Norwegian crew of fourteen, anchoring in Lake Michigan, after a voyage in which they had no shelter except an awning and cooked their own food as best they could. [3] The question of the actual whereabouts of Leif Ericsson's booths and Thorfin Karlsefne's later settlement has never been positively decided. The Knutson expedition to Greenland is an historical fact. It left Norway about 1354 and returned about 1364. It is not positively known that Knutson attempted the rediscovery of Vinland, unless what is known as the Kensington Rune Stone is evidence of it. The writer has adopted the theory that he did take a party southward, landing at Halifax, and left a part of his men there, intending to return with more colonists; that on returning to Norway he found the country in the throes of war and abandoned any thought of further settlement, leaving his men to find their way back as they could. [4] The Indian phrases and legends referred to as learned by the Wind-wife are Abenaki. [5] According to historians the region along the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes was for a long time inhabited by tribes belonging to the great Ojibway nation. Their territory extended nearly to the western boundary of what is now Minnesota. Southward were the tribes later known as Iroquois. [6] Accounts of the open galleys of the Northmen agree in describing them as small and light compared with the later decked ships. The open "sea-serpent" of forty-two feet, with her mast unshipped was heavier but not much bigger than the largest Indian carrying-canoes such as were used in the fur-trade, and these were taken from the St. Lawrence through the Great Lakes. Vikings landing in Europe were prepared not only to return by a new route but even to take their boats apart or build new ones if necessary. [7] Bayard Taylor, visiting the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence immediately after a sojourn in Norway, speaks of his inability to be impressed as others had been, by the height of the cliffs and waterfalls of Canada, although fully appreciating the beauty of the scenery. [Footnote 8: The Sioux or Dakotas, who occupied the Great Plains, were hereditary enemies of the Ojibways. In the Ojibway language one name for these Plains Indians indicated that they were in the habit of mutilating their victims.] [9] The monument known as the Kensington Rune Stone was found near Kensington, Minnesota, and is fully described in the reports of the Minnesota Historical Society. It was the subject of many arguments at first. Well known authorities pronounced it a forgery, while other well known authorities declared it genuine. It was pointed out that the language used was not that of the time of Leif Ericsson, but much more modern; but later it was found that the inscription was exactly such as would have been written about the middle of the fourteenth century, when Knutson's expedition was in Greenland. Aside from the obvious lack of motive for a forgery, investigation showed that neither the farmer nor any one who might have been in a position to bury the stone where it was found had any knowledge of Runic writing. Moreover, if the stone had been a forgery it would seem that the forger would have used the name of some well known leader, whereas no name is mentioned. If Knutson had been with the expedition he would certainly have seen to it that his presence was recorded. Otter Tail Lake, just north of the place where the stone was discovered, was one of the points marking the boundary between the Ojibway and Dakota country. The position of the runes on the stone is precisely what it would be if the inscription had been finished, or nearly finished, as a guide to future exploration, and the account of the massacre added as a warning. A song commonly sung at the time of the Black Death contains the lines: "The Black Plague sped over land and sea And swept so many a board. That will I now most surely believe, It was not with the Lord's will. Help us God and Mary, Save us all from evil." THE NAVIGATORS We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,-- His gentlemen were we, To dare the gods of Heathendom, Whoever they might be,-- To do our master's sovereign will Upon a trackless sea. We were Prince Henry's gentlemen, And undismayed we went To fight for Lusitania Wherever we were sent,-- The stars had laid our course for us, And we were well content. We were Prince Henry's gentlemen, And though our flagship lie Where white the great-winged albatross Came wheeling down the sky, Or black abysses yawned for us, We could not fear to die. We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,-- Around the Cape of Wrath We sailed our wooden cockleshells-- Great pride the pilot hath To voyage to-day the Indian Sea-- But we marked out his path! III SEA OF DARKNESS "Those things that you say cannot be true, Fernao! How do you know that the sea turns black and dreadful just behind those heavenly clouds? If there are hydras, and gorgons, and sea-snakes that can swallow a ship, and a great black hand reaching up out of a whirlpool to drag men down, why do we never see them here? Look at that sea, can there be anything in the world more beautiful?" The vehement small speaker waved her slender hand with a gesture that seemed to take in half the horizon. The old Moorish garden, overrun with the brilliant blossoms that drink their hues from the sea, overlooked the harbor. Across the huddled many-colored houses the ten-year-old Beatriz and her playfellow Fernao could see the western ocean in a great half-circle, bounded by the mysterious line above which three tiny caravels had just risen. The sea to-day was exquisite, bluer than the heavens that arched above it. The wave-crests looked like a flock of sea-doves playing on the sunlit sparkling waters. Fernao from his seat on the crumbling wall watched the incoming ships with the far-sighted gaze of a sailor. Portuguese through and through, the son and grandson of men who had sailed at the bidding of the great Prince Henry, he felt that he could speak with authority.[1] "Of course I am telling you the truth. You are very wise about the sea--you who never saw it until two weeks ago! Gil Andrade has been to places that you Castilians never even heard of. He has seen whales, and mermaids, and the Sea of Darkness itself! He has been to the Gold Coast beyond Bojador, where the people are fried black like charcoal, and the rivers are too hot to drink." "Then why didn't he die?" inquired the unbelieving Beatriz. "Because he didn't stay there long enough. And there are devils in the forest, stronger than ten men, and all covered with shaggy hair--" "I will not listen to such nonsense! Do you think that because I am Spanish, and a girl, I am without understanding? Tio Sancho, is it true that there is a Sea of Darkness?" Sancho Serrao was an old seaman, as any one would know by his eyes and his walk. For fifty years he had used the sea, as ship-boy, sailor, and pilot. His daughter Catharina had been the nurse of Beatriz, and he had brought coral, shells and queer toys to the little thing from the time she could toddle to his knee. "What has Fernao been saying to thee, pombinha agreste?" (little wood-dove) he asked soberly, though his eyes twinkled ever so little. He seated himself as he spoke, on an ancient bench that rested its back against the wall just where the wind was sweetest. Under the fragrances of ripening vineyards and flowering shrubs there was always the sharp clean smell of the sea. "He believes all that Gil Andrade and Joao Pancado tell him as if it were the Credo," Beatriz began, her words flung out like sparks from a little crackling fire. "He says that there is a Sea of Darkness out away beyond the Falcon Islands, where ships are drawn into a great pit under the edge of the world. And he says that ships cannot go too far south because the sun is so near it would burn them, and they cannot go too far north because the icebergs will catch them and crush them. If I were a man, I would sail straight out there, into the sunset, and show them what my people dared to do!" Old Sancho was not all Portuguese. In his veins ran the blood of the three great seafaring races of southern Europe--the Genoese, the Lusitanian and the Vizcayan--and their jealousies and rivalries amused him. He had spent most of his life in the feluccas and caravels of Lisbon and Oporto, because when he was young they went where no other ships dared even follow; but he did not believe that the last word in discovery had been said even by Dom Henriques at Sagres, or the Mappe-Monde of Fra Mauro in Venice. "Not so fast there, velinha (small candle)" he cautioned, raising a whimsical forefinger. "So said many of us in our youth. And when we had sailed for weeks, and all our provisions were mouldy or weevilly, and our water-casks warped and leaking so that we had to catch the rain in our shirts, we began to wonder what it was we had come for. The sea won't be mocked or threatened. She has ways of her own, the old witch, to tame the vainglorious. And 't is true enough," the old pilot went on with a quizzing look at Fernao on his insecure perch, "that sailors have a bad habit of doubling and trebling their recollections when they find anybody who will listen. I don't know why they do it. Maybe it is because having told a perfectly true tale which nobody believed, they think that a little more or a little less will do no harm. For this you must remember, my children,--that at sea many things happen which when told no one believes to be true." "I would believe anything you told me, Tio Sancho," promised Beatriz, all love and confidence in her little glowing face. "Ay, would you now? What if I said that I have seen a ship with all sail set coming swiftly before the wind, in a place where no wind was, to stir our hair who beheld it--and sailing moreover through the air at the height of a tall mast-head above the sea? And a mountain of ice half a league long and as high as the Giralda at Seville, floating in a sea as blue as this one, and as warm? And islands with mountains that smoke, appearing and disappearing in broad daylight? Yet all of these are common sights at sea." "But is there a Sea of Darkness, verily, verily, tio caro?" persisted Beatriz. The old man shook his head, with a little quiet smile. "I'll not say there is not. And I'll not say there is. I saw a Sea of Darkness on the second voyage that ever I made, but that's all." "Oh, tell us all the story!" begged Beatriz, and Fernao silently slid from the wall and came closer. "The commander of our ship was Gonsales Zarco, one of Dom Henriques' gentlemen. Years before he'd been caught by a gale on his way to Africa, and driven north on to an island that he named because of that, Puerto Santo (Holy Haven). So when he came that way again he stopped to see how the settlement that was planted there prospered, and found the people in great trouble of mind. They showed him that a thick black cloud hung upon the sea to the northwest of the island, filling the air to the very heavens and never going away; and out of this cloud, they said, came strange noises, not like any they had heard before. They dared not sail far from their island, for they said that if a man lost sight of land thereabouts it was a miracle if he ever returned. They believed that place to be the great abyss, the mouth of hell. But learned men held the opinion that this cloud hid the island of Cipango, where the Seven Bishops had taken refuge from the Moors and the Saracens. "Certainly the cloud was there, for we all saw it, and when the Commander said that he would stay to see whether it would change when the moon changed, we liked it not, I can tell you. And when we learned that he was minded to sail straight into the darkness and see what lay behind it, why, there were some who would have run away--if they could have run anywhere but into the sea. "But we had a Spanish pilot, Morales, who had once been a prisoner in Morocco, and there he knew two Englishmen who had sailed these seas in time past. Their ship had been lying ready to sail for France, when late at night Robert Macham, a gentleman of their country, came hurriedly aboard with his lady love whom he had carried off from her home in Bristol, and between dark and dawn the captain weighed anchor and was off. Then being driven from the course the ship was cast on a thickly wooded island with a high mountain in the middle, where they dwelt not long, for the lady died, and Macham died of grief. The crew left the island and were wrecked in Morocco and made slaves. All this was many years before, for the Englishmen had grown old in slavery, and Morales himself had grown old since he heard the tale. "It was the belief of Morales that this was the island of which they told, and that the cloud which hung above the waters was the mist arising from those dense woods which covered it. The upshot was that the commander set sail one morning early and steered straight for the cloud. "The nearer we came the higher and thicker looked the darkness that spread over the sea, and we heard about noon a great roaring of the waves. Still Gonsales held his course, and when the wind failed he ordered out the boats to tow the ship into the cloud, and I was one of those who rowed. As we got closer it was not quite so dark, but the roaring was louder, although the sea was smooth. Then through the darkness we beheld tall black objects which we guessed to be giants walking in the water, but as we came nearer we saw that they were great rocks, and before us loomed a high mountain covered with thick woods. "We found no place to land but a cave under a rock that overhung the sea, and that was trodden all over the bottom by the sea-wolves, so that Gonsales named it the Camera dos Lobos. The island, because of its forests, he called Madeira. When we came back, having taken possession of the island for the King, he sent a colony to settle upon it, and the first boy and girl born there were named Adam and Eva. The people set fire to the trees, which were in their way, and could not put out the fire, so that it burned for seven years and all the trees were destroyed. And the King gave our commander the right to carry as supporters on his coat-of-arms two sea-wolves." Beatriz drew a long breath. "Weren't you very scared, Tio Sancho?" "Sailors must not be scared, little one. Or if they are, they must never let their arms and legs be scared. We knew that we had to obey orders or be dead, so we obeyed. I have been glad many a time since that I sailed with Gonsales and old Morales to the discovery of Madeira." "What are sea-wolves?" asked Fernao. "Like no beast that ever you saw, my son. They have the fore part of the body like a dog or bear, the hind part ending in a tail like a fish, but with hair, not scales, on the body; the head has a thick mane, and the jaws are large and strong. They are no more seen on that island, for they went there only because it was never visited by men." "Did they try to drive the people away?" "No; they do not fight men unless men attack them. But the settlers were once driven off Puerto Santo by animals, and not very fierce animals at that." The old pilot grinned. "They were driven away by rabbits. Somebody brought rabbits there and let them loose, and in a few years there were so many that everything that was planted was eaten green. The people who live on that island now have made a strict rule about rabbits." The children's laughter echoed the dry chuckle of the old man. Then Fernao, unwilling to abandon his authorities,-- "But if the Sea of Darkness and the great abyss are not in the western ocean, why haven't they found out what really is there?" "That, my son, is more than I can tell you," said Sancho Serrao, getting up. "I sailed where I was told, and I never was told to sail due west from Lisbon. But here is a man who can answer your question, if any one can. Welcome to my humble dwelling, Senhor Colombo! Shall we go into the house, or will you find it pleasanter in the garden?" The new-comer was a tall man of middle age, although at first sight he looked older, because of his white hair. The fresh complexion, alert walk, and keen thoughtful blue eyes were those of a man not old in either mind or body. He smiled in answer to the greeting, and replied with a quick wave of the hand. "Do not disturb yourself, I beg of you, my friend. The garden is very pleasant. I have come on an errand of my own this time. Did you ever see, in your voyages to Africa or elsewhere, any such carving as this?" He held out a curious worm-eaten bit of reddish brown wood, rudely ornamented with carved figures in relief. Old Sancho took it and turned it about, examining it with narrowed attentive eyes. "Where did it come from?" he asked, finally. "From the beach at Puerto Santo. My little son Diego picked it up, the day before I came away from the island." "Now that is curious. I was just telling the young ones about an adventure of my youth, when Gonsales Zarco touched there on his way to Madeira. With your good permission I will leave you for a few minutes and rummage in an old sea-chest, and see whether there is any flotsam in it to compare with this." Left alone with the stranger, Fernao and Beatriz looked at him with shy curiosity. They had seen him before, and knew him to be a mapmaker in the King's service, but he had never before been within speaking distance. He seemed to like children, for he smiled at them very kindly and spoke to them almost at once. "And you were hearing about the discovery of Madeira?" "Ay, Senhor," Beatriz answered with demure dignity. "I live not very far from that island. It seems like living on the western edge of the world." "Senhor," asked Fernao with sudden daring, "what is beyond the edge of the world?" "There is no edge, my boy. The world is round--like an orange."[2] In all their fancies they had never thought of such a thing as that. Beatriz looked at the tall man with silent amazement, and Fernao looked as if he would like to ask who could prove the statement. The stranger's smile was amused but quite comprehending, as if he was not at all surprised that they should doubt him. "See," he went on, taking an orange from the basket that stood by, "suppose this little depression where the stem lost its hold to be Jerusalem, the center of our world; then this is Portugal--" he traced with the point of a penknife the outline of the great western peninsula. "Here you see are the capes--Saint Vincent, Finisterre, the great rock the Arabs call Geber-al-Tarif--the Mediterranean--the northern coast of Africa--so. Beyond are Arabia and India, and the Spice Islands which we do not know all about--then Cathay, where Marco Polo visited the Great Khan--you have heard of that? Yes? On the eastern and southern shore of Cathay is a great sea in which are many islands--Cipangu here, and to the south Java Major and Java Minor. We are told in the Book of Esdras that six parts of the earth are land and one part water, so here we cut away the skin where there is any sea,--" The miniature globe took form, like fairy mapmaking, under the cosmographer's skilful fingers, and the children watched, fascinated. [Illustration: "THE MINIATURE GLOBE TOOK FORM AS THE CHILDREN WATCHED, FASCINATED."--_Page_ 44] "But," cried Beatriz wonderingly, "a ship could sail around the world!" Colombo nodded and smiled. "So it was written in the 'Travels of Sir John Maundeville' more than a hundred years ago. But no ship has done so." "Why not?" asked Fernao. "Chiefly, perhaps, because of tales like that of the Sea of Darkness and Satan's hand. And it is true that a ship venturing very far westward is drawn out of its course, as if the earth were not a perfect round, but sloped upward to the south. My own belief is,"--he seemed for a moment to forget that he was talking to children, "that it is not perfectly round, but somewhat like this pear,--" he selected a short chubby pear from the basket, "and that on this mountain may be a cool and lovely region which was once Paradise." "Oh!" cried Beatriz, her face alight with the glory of the thought. The geographer smiled at her and went on. "Also you see that the ocean is on this side of the earth very much greater than the Mediterranean. We do not know how long it would take to cross it. I have lately received a map from the famous Florentine Toscanelli which--ah!" he interrupted himself, "here comes our good friend Master Serrao." It had taken the pilot longer than he expected to hunt over his relics of old voyages, and there was nothing, after all, like the piece of wood cast ashore by the Atlantic waves. Old Sancho turned it over, examined the edges of the carving, and shook his head. "No; that is not African work; at least it is not like any work of the black men that I have ever seen. They can all work iron, and this was made without the use of iron tools; that I am sure of. Some of our men were shipwrecked once where they had to make stone and shells serve their turn, and I know the look of wood that has been worked with such tools. And the wood itself is not like anything I have from Africa. It is more like the timber of the East." Now the stranger's eyes lighted with keener interest. "You think it may be Indian, do you?" "It may. But how in the name of Sao Cristobal did it come here? Besides, the people of India understand the use of metal as well as we do, or better." "May there not be wild men in remote islands of the Indian seas?" "That might be. Gil Andrade has been in those parts, and he says there are more islands than he could count. I have sometimes had occasion to take his stories with a pinch of salt, but if there are islands where wild people live they would make such things as this. And now I think of it, I once picked up a paddle myself, floating off the Azores, that was some such wood as this, but not carved. But the queerest thing I ever found was this nut. Look at it." It was part of a nutshell as big as a man's head and as hard as wood. "The inside was quite spoiled," went on the old seaman, "but so far as I could judge it was no kin to the palm nuts we get. I kept the shell, and I have never found any merchant who could match it. Now the current sets toward our coast from the west at a certain point, and that is where all these odd things come ashore." The guest nodded. "My brother-in-law and I have talked much of these matters. One of his captains saw some time ago the floating bodies of two men, brown-skinned, with straight black hair, not like the natives of any part of Europe or Africa. Another thing which is strange, though I hold it not as important as they do, is that the people of Madeira persistently declare that they see a great island appear and disappear to the westward. According to their description it has lofty mountains and wooded valleys, and some say it is Atlantis and some Saint Brandan's Isle. No ship sailing that way has ever landed there, however." Sancho's eyes turned seaward. "It is marvelous," he said after a pause, "what things men think they see. And you think, senhor, that the world is not yet all known to us?'" "I do not know." Colombo stood up to take his departure. "If God hath reserved any great work to be done, He hath also chosen the man who is to do it. His tasks are not done by accident, or left to the blind or the selfish. Toscanelli thinks that since the world is round, we should reach the Indies by sailing due west from this coast, but in that case India would seem to be far greater than we have believed. If I had the ships and the men I would venture it. But at this time the King is altogether taken up with the eastward route to the Indies. It was said of old time, 'He that believeth shall not make haste.'" "But you will sail to Paradise some day, will you not, senhor?" asked Beatriz, treasuring the tiny globe in one careful hand while the other shaded her eyes from the level rays of the evening sun. "There is only one way to Paradise, little maid. That is by the will of our Lord. And if you, my lad, are the first to sail round the world, remember that the sea is His, and He made it. Man makes his own Sea of Darkness by ignorance, and hate, and fear." NOTES [1] Prince Henry of Portugal, often called "Henry the Navigator" built the first naval observatory in Europe at Sagres. He may be said to have laid the foundation of the Portuguese and later Spanish discoveries. In the time of Columbus the Mappe-Mondo or Map of the World of a Venetian monk was considered the most complete map yet made. [2] The statement has been carelessly made in some juvenile books dealing with the age of discovery, that in the time of Columbus nobody knew that the world was round. This of course is not even approximately the case. The conception of the earth as a sphere was generally set forth in what might be called books of science, and even in some popular works like that of Sir John Maundeville, who died in 1372. Its acceptance by the public, however, may be said to have followed somewhat the course of the Darwinian theory in the nineteenth century. Long after evolution was admitted as a truth by scientific men there were schools and even colleges which refused to teach it, and in fact it was not accepted by the public until the generation which first heard of it had died. SUNSET SONG Down upon our seaward light, Swept by all the winds that blow, Birds come reeling in their flight-- (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) Petrels tossing on the gale, Falcons daring sleet and hail, Curlews whistling high and far, Waifs that cross the harbor bar Borne from isles we do not know-- (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) Round our island haven blest Waves like drifted mountain snow Break from out the shoreless West-- (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) Cast ashore a broken spar Born beneath some alien star, Broken, beaten by the wave-- In what far-off unknown grave Lie the hands that shaped it so? (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) Sails upon the gray world's edge Like mute phantoms come and go,-- Life and honor men will pledge-- (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) For the pearls and gems and gold That the burning Indies hold. Or the Guinea coast they dare With its fever-poisoned air For the slaves they capture so (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) In our chamber small to-night, Fair as love's immortal glow, Shines our silver censer-light-- (_Ay de mi, Cristofero_!) What is this that holds thee fast In old histories of the past? Put the time-stained parchments by, Men have sought where dead men lie For the secret thou wouldst know-- All too long, Cristofero! IV PEDRO AND HIS ADMIRAL Juan de la Cosa, captain of the _Santa Maria_, was prowling about the beach of Gomera in a thoroughly dissatisfied frame of mind. His own ship, the _Gallego_ before the Admiral re-christened her and made her his flagship, was riding trim as a mallard within sight of his eye. She would never have kept the fleet waiting in the Canaries for a little thing like a broken rudder. It was the _Pinta_ that had done this, and it was the veteran pilot's private opinion that she would behave much better if her owners, Gomez Rascon and Christoval Quintero, had been left behind in Palos. But what can you do when you have seized a ship for the service of the Crown, and turned her over to a captain who is a rival ship-owner, and her owners wish to serve in her crew and not elsewhere? They cannot be blamed for liking to keep an eye on their property! "Capitano!" piped a voice at his elbow. He looked around, and then he looked down. An undersized urchin with not much on but a pair of ragged breeches stared up at him boldly, hands behind his back. "Do you know what ails your ship over there?" He nodded sideways at the disgraced _Pinta_. The accent was that of Bilbao in the captain's own native province, Vizcaya. Ordinarily he would have cuffed the speaker heels over head for impudence, but the dialect made him pause. Besides, he wanted to hear something to confirm his suspicions. "She is no ship of mine," he growled, "and anyway, what do you know about it?" "I know much more than they think I do. The calkers did not half do their work before she left port. I'd like to sail in her if she were properly looked after. But when a man goes out on the dolphins' track he likes to come home again, you know." "A man! Do babes take a ship round Bojador? And who may you call yourself, zagallo (strong youth)?" "I am Pedro, son of Pedro who was an escaladero (climber) at the siege of Alhama. He was killed on the way home, and my mother died of grief, so that I get my bread where the saints put it. People say that they unlocked all the jails to get you your crew for the Indies, and now I see that it is true." Juan de la Cosa knew the untamable sauciness of the Vizcayan breed, and knew as well the loyalty that went with it. "Son," he said seriously, "what do you know of this matter?" The boy put aside his insolence and spoke gravely. "I know that these fellows who have been commanded to serve your Admiral hate him, and will make him lose his venture if they can. I would sooner put to sea in a meal-tub with myself that I can trust, than in a Cadiz galley manned with plotters. When they hauled this fine ship up on the beach I asked for a job, and the lazy fellows were glad enough of help. I never minded doing their work if they hadn't kicked me. When I heard them planning I said to myself, 'Pedro, mi hidalgo, a crow in hand is worth two buzzards in the bush waiting to pick your bones.' Your Admiral may have to go back to Castile and eat crow. "They have agreed that they will sail seven hundred leagues and no more, since that is the distance from here to the Indies if your map is true. If the Admiral refuse to turn back in case land is not found they will pitch him into the sea and tell the world that he was star-gazing and fell overboard, being an old man and unused to perilous voyages. He should get him another crew--if he can." This was important information. Yet to go back might be more dangerous than to go on. The expedition had already been delayed a fortnight with making a rudder for the _Pinta_, stopping her leaks, and replacing the lateen sails of the _Nina_ with square ones, that she might be able to keep up with the others. Another week must pass before they could sail. If they returned to Palos it was doubtful whether they could get any men at all to replace the disloyal ones. Too much delay might cause the withdrawal of Martin Pinzon and his brother Vicente, owners of the _Nina_; and if they went, most of the seamen who were worth their salt would go also. La Cosa himself in the Admiral's place would go on and take the chance of mutiny, trusting in his own power to prevent or subdue it. "Pedro," he said, "have you told this to any one else?" "Not a soul." "Would you like to sail with us?" "Will a wolf bite? Why do you suppose I told you all this?" "Bite your tongue then, wolf-cub, until I have seen the Admiral. Where shall I find you if I want you?" "Tia Josefa over there lets me sleep in the courtyard." "Very well--now, off with you." The Admiral said exactly what the pilot had thought he would say. He knew himself to be looked upon with envy and dislike, as a Genoese, and the Spaniards who made up his three crews had been collected as with a rake from the unwilling Andalusian seaports. It was decided that the mutinous sailors should be scattered so that they could not easily act together. Pedro was taken on as cabin-boy, for he was thirteen, and wiser than his age. On that May day when Christoval Colón,[1] the hare-brained foreigner whom the King and Queen had made an Admiral, read the royal orders in the Church of San Jorge in Palos, there was amazement, wrath and horror in that small seaport. Queen Ysabel had indeed been so rash as to pledge her jewels to meet the cost of this expedition; but the royal treasurers, looking over their accounts, noted that Palos owed a fine to the Crown which had never been paid. Very good; let Palos contribute the use and maintenance of two ships for two months, and let the magistrates of the Andalusian ports hunt up shipmasters and crews and supplies. The officers of the government came with Colón to enforce this order. In vain did the Pinzon brothers, who had really been convinced by the arguments of Colón, use all their influence to secure him a proper equipment. Even after they had themselves enlisted as captains, with their own ship the _Nina_, they could not get men enough to go on so doubtful a venture. The royal officers finally took to the reckless course of pardoning all prisoners guilty of any crime short of murder or treason, on condition of their shipping for the voyage. At least half the sailors of the three ships were pressed men. The _Santa Maria_, largest of the three caravels, was ninety feet long and twenty broad. She was a decked ship; the others had only the tiny cabin and forecastle. A caravel was never intended for long voyages into unknown seas. Her builders designed her for coasting trade, not for a quick voyage independent of wind and tide; but on the other hand she was cheaper to build and to sail than a Genoese galley. The Admiral believed that in the end the smallness of the ships would be no disadvantage. Among the estuaries, bays and groups of islands which he expected to find, they could go anywhere. Including shipmasters, pilots and crews the fleet carried eighty-seven men and three ship-boys, besides the personal servants of the Admiral, a physician, a surgeon, an interpreter and a few adventurers. The interpreter was a converted Jew who could speak not only several European languages but Arabic and Chaldean. "A retinue of servants indeed!" observed Fonseca, the bishop, when the door had closed upon the Admiral of the Indies. "Since all enlisted in the expedition are at his service, why does he demand lackeys?" But the head of the Genoese navigator had not been turned by his honors. No man cared less for display than he did, personally. He knew very well, however, that unless he maintained his own dignity the rabble under his command might be emboldened to cut his throat, seize the ships and become pirates. The men whom he could trust were altogether too few to control those he could not, if it came to an open fight,--but it must not be allowed to come to that. It was not agreeable to squabble with Fonseca about the number of servants he was allowed to have, but he must have personal attendants who were not discharged convicts. On the open seas, removed from their lamenting and despondent relatives, the crews gradually subsided into a state of discipline. The quarter-deck is perhaps the severest test of character known. Despite themselves the sailors began to feel the serene and kindly strength of the man who was their master. With a tact and understanding as great as his courage and self-command Colón told his men more than they had ever known of the Indies. The East had for generations been the enchanted treasure-house of Europe. Arabic, Venetian, Genoese and Portuguese traders had brought from it spices, rare woods, gold, diamonds, pearls, silk, and other foreign luxuries. But the wide and varied reading of the Admiral had given him more definite information. He told of the gilded temples of Cipangu, the porcelain towers of Cathay, rajahs' elephants in gilded and jeweled trappings, golden idols with eyes of great glowing gems, thrones of ebony inlaid with patterns of diamonds, emeralds and rubies, rich cargoes of spices, dyewood, fine cotton and silk, pearl fisheries, the White Feast of Cambalu and the Khan's great hall where six thousand courtiers gathered. Portugal already was reaching out toward these Indies, groping her way around the African coast. Were they, Spaniards and Christians, to be outdone by Portuguese and Arab traders? No men ever had so great a future. Not only the wealth of the Indies, but the glory of winning heathen empires to abandon their idols for the Christian faith, was the adventure to which they were pledged; and he strove to kindle their spirits from his own. To Pedro the cabin-boy, listening in silence, it was like an entrance into another world. When he asked to be taken on he had been moved simply by a boy's desire to go where he had not been before. Now he served a demigod, who led men where none had dared go. The Admiral might have the glory of rediscovering the western route to the Indies; his cabin-boy was discovering him. The sea was beautifully calm, and there was time for talk and speculation. A drifting mast, to which nobody would have given two thoughts anywhere else, was pointed out as an evil omen. Pedro grinned cheerfully and elevated his nose. "Do you not believe in omens, Pedro?" asked the Admiral, somewhat amused. He had not found many Spaniards who did not. "One does not believe all one hears, my lord," the youngster answered, coolly. "Tia Josefa saw ill omens a dozen times a week, all sure death; and she is ninety years old. A mast drifting with the current is usual. When I see one drifting against it I will begin to worry." The jumpy nerves of the sailors were easily upset. They might have been calmer if the sea had been less calm. It is hard for Spanish blood to endure inaction and suspense together. Day after day a soft strong wind wafted them westward. Ruiz, one of the pilots, bluntly declared that he did not see how they could ever sail back to Spain against this wind, whether they reached the Indies or not. "Pedro," said the Admiral quietly, "what do you think?" Pedro hesitated only an instant. "My lord," he answered boldly, "if we cannot go back we must go on--around the world." "So we can," smiled the Admiral. "But it will not come to that." And Ruiz, reassured and rather ashamed of his fears, told the other grumblers if they had seen as much rough weather as he had they would know when they were well off. But after a time even the pilots took fright. The compass needle no longer pointed to the North Star, but half a point or more to the northwest of it. They had visions of the fleet helplessly drifting without a guide upon a vast unknown sea. It was not then known that the action of the magnetic pole upon the needle varies in different parts of the earth, but the quick mind of the Admiral found an explanation which quieted their fears. He told them that the real north pole was a fixed point indeed, but not necessarily the North Star. While this star might be in line with the pole when seen from the coast of Spain, it would not, of course, be in the same relative position when seen from a point hundreds of miles to the west. On September 15 a meteor fell, which might be another omen--nobody could say exactly what it meant. Then about three hundred and sixty leagues from the Canaries the ships began to encounter patches of floating yellow-green sea-weed, which grew more numerous until the fleet was sailing in a vast level expanse of green like an ocean meadow. Tuna fish played in the waters; on one of the patches of floating weed rested a live crab. A white tropical bird of a kind never known to sleep upon the sea came flying toward them, alighting for a moment in the rigging. The owners of the _Pinta_ predicted that they would all be caught in this ocean morass to starve, or die of thirst, for the light winds were not strong enough to drive the ships through it as easily as they had sailed at first. The Admiral, quite undisturbed, suggested that in his experience land-birds usually meant land not very far away. Colón always answered frankly the questions put to him, but there was one secret which he kept to himself from the beginning. Knowing that he would be likely to have trouble when he reached the seven-hundred-league limit his crews had set for him, he kept two reckonings. One was for his private journal, the other was for all to see. He took the actual figures of each day's run as set down in his private record, subtracted from them a certain percentage and gave out this revised reckoning to the fleet. He, and he alone, knew that they were nearly seven hundred leagues from Palos already, instead of five hundred and fifty. According to Toscanelli's calculation, by sailing west from the Canaries along the thirtieth parallel of latitude he should land somewhere on the coast of Cipangu; but the map of Toscanelli might be incorrect. If the ocean should prove to be a hundred or more leagues wider than the chart showed it, they would have to go on, all the same. Even after they were out of the seaweed there was something weird and unnatural in the sluggish calm of the sea. Light winds blew from the west and southwest, but there were no waves, as by all marine experience there should have been. On September 25 the sea heaved silently in a mysterious heavy swell, without any wind. Then the wind once more shifted to the east, and carried them on so smoothly that they could talk from one ship to another. Martin Pinzon borrowed the Admiral's chart, and it seemed to him that according to this they must be near Cipangu. He tossed the chart back to the flagship on the end of a cord, and gave himself to scanning the horizon. Ten thousand maravedis had been promised by the sovereigns to the first man who actually saw land. Suddenly Pinzon shouted, "Tierra! Tierra!" There was a low bank of what seemed to be land, about twenty-five leagues away to the southwest. Even for this Colón hesitated to turn from his pre-arranged course, but at last he yielded to the chorus of pleading and protest which arose from his officers, set his helm southwest and found--a cloud-bank. Again and again during the following days the eager eyes and strained nerves of the seamen led to similar disappointments. Land birds appeared; some alighted fearlessly on the rigging and sang. Dolphins frolicked about the keels. Flying-fish, pursued by their enemy the bonito (mackerel), rose from the water in rainbow argosies, and fell sometimes inside the caravels. A heron, a pelican and a duck passed, flying southwest. By the true reckoning the fleet had sailed seven hundred and fifty leagues. Colón wondered whether there could be an error in the map, or whether by swerving from their course they had passed between islands into the southern sea. Pedro, as sensitive as a dog to the moods of his master, watched the Admiral's face as he came and went, and wondered in his turn. The pilots and shipmasters were cautious in expressing their fears within hearing of the sailors, for by this time every one in authority knew that open mutiny might break out at any moment. On the evening of October 10 a delegation of anxious officers came to explain to the Admiral that they could not hold the panic-stricken crews. If no land appeared within a week their provisions would not last until they reached home; they had not enough water to last through the homeward voyage even now. The Admiral knew as well as they the horrors of thirst and famine at sea, particularly with a crew of the kind they had been obliged to ship. What did he intend to do? The Admiral, seated at his table, finished the sentence he was adding in his neat, legible hand to his log, put it aside, put the pen in the case which hung at his belt, closed his ink-horn. His quiet eyes rested fearlessly on their uneasy faces. "This expedition," he said calmly, "has been sent out to look for the Indies. With God's blessing we shall continue to look for them until we find them. Say to the men, however, that if they will wait two or three days I think they will see land." Next morning Pedro was engaged in polishing his master's steel corslet and casque, while near by two or three sailors conferred in low tones. "We have had enough of promises," growled one. "As Rascon says, we are like Fray Agostino's donkey, that went over the mountain at a trot, trying to reach the bunch of carrots hung on a staff in front of his nose." There was a half-hearted snicker, and one of the men pointed a warning thumb at Pedro. "Oh!" said the speaker. "You heard, you little beggar?" "I did," said Pedro. "Well?" "Well, I was waiting for the end of the story. As I heard it the Abbot charged the old friar with deceiving the dumb beast, and he said he had to, because he was dealing with a donkey!" Pedro slung the pieces of gleaming plate-mail to his shoulder and added as he turned to go, "You need not be afraid that I shall tell the Admiral what you were saying. I am not a fool, and he knows how scared you are, already." More signs of land appeared--river weeds, a thorny branch with fresh berries like rose-hips, a reed, a piece of wood, a carved staff. As always, the vesper hymn to the Virgin was sung on the deck of the flagship, and after service the Admiral briefly addressed the men. He reminded them of the singular favor of God in granting them so quiet and safe a voyage, and recalled his statement made on leaving the Canaries, that after they had made seven hundred leagues he expected to be so near land that they should not make sail after midnight. He told them that in his belief they might find land before morning. Nobody slept that night. About ten o'clock the Admiral, gazing from the top of the castle built up on the poop of the _Santa Maria_, thought that far away in the warm darkness he saw a glancing light. "Pedro," he said to the boy near him, "do you see a light out there? Yes? Call Señor Gutierrez and we will see what he makes of it. I have come to the pass where I do not trust my own eyes." Gutierrez saw it, but when Sanchez of Segovia came up, the light had vanished. It seemed to come and go as if it were a torch in a fishing-boat or in the hand of some one walking. But at two in the morning a gun boomed from the _Pinta_. Rodrigo de Triana, one of the seamen, had seen land from the mast-head. The sudden sunrise of the tropics revealed a green Paradise lapped in tranquil seas. The ships must have come up toward it between sunset and midnight. No one had been able to imagine with any certainty what morning would show. But this was no seaport, or coast of any civilized land. People were coming down to the shore to watch the approach of the ships, but they were wild people, naked and brown, and the sight was evidently perfectly new to them. The Admiral ordered the ships to cast anchor, and the boats were manned and armed. He himself in a rich uniform of scarlet held the royal banner of Castile, while the brothers Pinzon, commanders of the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_, in their boats, had each a banner emblazoned with a green cross and the crowned initials of the sovereigns, Fernando and Ysabel. The air was clear and soft, the sea was almost transparent, and strange and beautiful fruits could be seen among the rich foliage of the trees along the shore. The Admiral landed, knelt and kissed the earth, offering thanks to God, with tears in his eyes; and the other captains followed his example. Then rising, he drew his sword, and calling upon all who gathered around him to witness his action, took possession of the newly-discovered island in the name of his sovereigns, and gave it the name of San Salvador (Holy Savior). The wild people, terrified at the sight of men coming toward them from these great white-winged birds, as they took the ships to be, ran away to the woods, but they presently returned, drawn by irresistible curiosity. They had no weapons of iron, and one of them innocently took hold of a sword by the edge. They were delighted with the colored caps, glass beads, hawk-bells and other trifles which were given to them, and brought the strangers great balls of spun cotton, cakes of cassava bread, fruits, and tame parrots. Pedro went everywhere, and saw everything, as only a boy could. Later, when the flagship was cruising among the islands, and the Admiral, worn out by long anxiety, lay asleep in his cabin, the helmsman, smothering a mighty yawn, called Pedro to him. "See here, young chap," he said, "we are running along the shore of this island and there is no difficulty--take my place will you, while I get a nap?" The boy hesitated. He would have asked his master, but his master was asleep, and must not be awakened. This helmsman, moreover, was one of the men who had been kind to him, ready to answer his questions regarding navigation, and loyal to the Admiral. Moreover it was not quite the first time that Pedro had been allowed to take this responsibility. He accepted it now. The man staggered away and lost himself in heavy sleep almost before he lay down. It was one of the still, breathless nights of the tropic seas. Pedro's small strong hands had not grasped the helm for a half-hour before the wind freshened, and then a tremendous gust swept down upon the flagship hurling her right upon the unknown shore. Pedro strove desperately with the fearful odds, but before the half-awakened sailors heard his call the _Santa Maria_ was past repair. No lives were lost, but the Admiral decided that it would be necessary to leave a part of the men on shore as the beginning of a settlement. He would not have chosen to do this but for the disaster, for the men who made up these crews were not promising material for a colony in a wild land. But he had no choice in the matter. The two smaller ships would not hold them all. Pedro, shaken with sobs, cast himself at the feet of his master and begged forgiveness. "No one blames you, my son," said the Admiral, more touched than he had been for a long time. "Be not so full of sorrow for what cannot be helped. The wild people are friendly, the land is kind, and when we have sailed back to Spain with our news there will be no difficulty in returning with as many ships as we may need. Nay, I will not leave thee here, Pedro. I think that now I could not do without thee." NOTE [1] The name of Columbus took various forms according to the country in which he lived. In his native Genoa it would be Cristofero Colombo. In Portugal, where he dwelt for many years, it would be Cristobal Colombo, and in Spanish Christoval or Cristobal Colón. In Latin, which was the common language of all learned men until comparatively recent times, the name took the form Christopherus Columbus, which has become in modern English Christopher Columbus. In each story the discoverer is spoken of as he would have been spoken of by the characters in that particular story. THE QUEEN'S PRAYER In this Thy world, O blessed Christ, I live but for Thy will, To serve Thy cause and drive Thy foes Before Thy banner still. In rich and stately palaces I have my board and bed, But Thou didst tread the wilderness Unsheltered and unfed. My gallant squadrons ride at will The undiscover'd sea, But Thou hadst but a fishing-boat On windy Galilee. In valiant hosts my men-at-arms Eager to battle go, But Thou hadst not a single blade To fend Thee from the foe. Great store of pearls and beaten gold My bold seafarers bring, But Thou hadst not a little coin To pay for Thy lodging. The trust that Thou hast placed in me, O may I not betray, Nor fail to save Thy people from The fires of Judgment Day! Be strong and stern, O heart, faint heart-- Stay not, O woman's hand, Till by this Cross I bear for Thee I have made clean Thy land! V THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE "Nombre de San Martin! who is that up there like a cat?" "Un gato! Cucarucha en palo!" "If Alonso de Ojeda hears of your calling him a cockroach on a mast, he will grind your ribs to a paste with a cudgel (os moliesen las costillas a puros palos)!" observed a pale, sharp-faced lad in a shabby doublet. The sailor who had made the comparison glanced at him and chuckled. "Your pardon--hidalgo. I have been at sea so much of late that the comparison jumped into my mind. Is he a caballero then?" "One of the household of the Duke of Medina Coeli. He is always doing such things. If he happened to think of flying, he would fly. Every one must be good at something." The performance which they had just been watching would fix the name of Ojeda very firmly in the minds of those who saw. Queen Ysabel, happening to ascend the tower of the cathedral at Seville with her courtiers and ladies, remarked upon the daring and skill of the Moorish builders. Everywhere in the newly conquered cities of Granada were their magnificent domes and lofty muezzin towers, often seeming like the airy minarets of a mirage. The next instant Alonso de Ojeda had walked out upon a twenty-foot timber projecting into space two hundred feet above the pavement, and at the very end he stood on one leg and waved the other in the air. Returning, he rested one foot against the wall and flung an orange clean over the top of the tower. He was small, though handsome and well-made, and he had now shown a muscular strength of which few had suspected him. It was natural that the sailor should be interested in the people of the court, for he had business there. The Admiral of the Indies was making his arrangements for his second voyage, and he had desired Juan de la Cosa to meet him at Seville. As the pilot stood waiting for the Admiral to come out from an interview with Fonseca he had a good look at many of the persons who were to join in this second expedition. "There will be no unlocking the jail doors to scrape together crews for this fleet, I warrant you," thought the old sailor exultantly as he stood in the shadow of the Giralda watching Castile parade itself before the new hero. Here were Diego Colón, a quiet-looking youth, the youngest brother of the Admiral; Antonio de Marchena the astronomer, a learned monk; Juan Ponce de León, a nobleman from the neighborhood of Cadiz with a brilliant military record; Francisco de las Casas with his son Bartolomé; and the valiant young courtier whom all Seville had seen flirting with death in mid-air. "Oh, it was nothing," La Cosa heard Ojeda say when Las Casas made some kindly compliment on his daring. "I will tell you," he added in a lower voice, pulling something small out of his doublet, "I have a sure talisman in this little picture of the Virgin. The Bishop gave it to me, and I always carry it. In all the dangers one naturally must encounter in the service of such a master as mine, it has kept me safe. I have never even been wounded." The Duke of Medina Coeli was in fact a stern master in the school of arms. He was always at the front in the wars just concluded between Spaniard and Moor, and where he was, there he expected his squires to be. There was no place among the youths whose fathers had given him charge of their military training, for a lad with a grain of physical cowardice. Ojeda moreover had a quick temper and a fiery sense of honor, and it really seemed to savor of the miraculous that he had escaped all harm. At any rate he had reached the age of twenty-one with unabated faith in the little Flemish painting. "These youngsters--" the veteran seaman said to himself as he looked at the straight, proud, keen-faced squires and youthful knights marching along the streets of the temporary capital, "now that the Moors are vanquished what won't they do in the Indies! I think the golden days must be come for Christians. And shall you be a soldier also, my lad?" he asked of the sharp-faced boy, who still stood near him. "My father says not. He wants me to be a lawyer," said the youngster indifferently. Then he slipped away as some companions of his own age, or a little older, came by, and one said enviously, "Where have you been, Hernan' Cortes? Lucky you were not with us. My faith--" the speaker wriggled expressively, "we caught a drubbing!" "Told you so," returned the lad addressed, with cool unconcern. "Why can't you see when to let go the cat's tail?" "He has a head on him, that one," the seaman chuckled. "There is always one of his sort in every gang of boys. But that young gallant Ojeda! A fine young fellow, and as devoted as he is brave." Juan de la Cosa had conceived at first sight an admiration and affection for Ojeda which was to last as long as they both should live. The fleet that stately sailed from Cadiz on September 25, 1493, was a very different sight from the three shabby little caravels that slipped down the Tinto a year and a half before. The Admiral now commanded fourteen caravels and three great carracks or store-ships, on board of which were horses, mules, cattle, carefully packed shoots of grape-vines and sugar-cane, seeds of all kinds, and provisions ready for use. The fleet carried nearly fifteen hundred persons,--three hundred more than had been arranged for, but the enthusiasm in Spain was boundless. It carried also the embittered hatred of Fonseca. The Bishop, having been the Queen's confessor, naturally became head of the Department of the Indies in order to forward with all zeal the conversion of the native races. But when he tried to assert his authority over the Admiral and appealed to Fernando and Ysabel to support him, he was told mildly but firmly that in the equipment and command of the fleet Colón's judgment was best. This royal snub Fonseca never forgave, and he was one of those persons who revenge a slight on some one else rather than the one who inflicted it. It was also his nature never to forgive any one for succeeding in an undertaking which he himself had prophesied would fail. All seemed in order on the morning of the embarkation. At this time of year storms were unlikely, and there was no severity of climate to be feared. Half Castile and Aragon had come to see the expedition off. The young cavaliers' heads were filled with visions of rich dukedoms and principalities in the golden empire upon whose coast the discovered islands hung, like pendants of pearl and gold upon the robe of a monarch. The first incident of the voyage was not, however, romantic. The fleet touched at the Canary Islands to take on board more animals--goats, sheep, swine and fowls, for the Admiral had seen none of these in any of the islands he had visited. In fact the people had no domestic animal whatever except their strange dumb dogs. The cavaliers, glad of a chance to stretch their legs in a space a little greater than the deck of a crowded ship, strolled about discussing past and future with large freedom. Ojeda was asking Juan de la Cosa about the nature of the country. It seemed to him the ideal field for a man of spirit and high heart. How glorious a conquest would it be to abolish the vile superstitions of the barbarians and set up the altars of the true faith! The pilot was a little amused and somewhat doubtful; he knew something of savages, and Ojeda and the priests on board did not. It was not, he suggested, always easy to convert stubborn heathen. A pig was a small animal, but Ojeda would remember that to the Moslem it was as great an object of aversion as a lion. "Ho!" said Ojeda superbly, "that is quite--" He was interrupted by a blow that knocked his legs out from under him and landed him on the ground in a sitting position with his hat over his eyes. "Who did that?" he cried, leaping to his feet, hand on sword. "Only a pig, my lord," the sailor answered choking with half-swallowed laughter. It was a pig, which the sailors had goaded to such a state of desperation that it had bolted straight into the group as a pig will, and was now galloping away, pursued by a great variety of maledictions and persons. "They have got the creature now," he added, "You are not hurt?" for Ojeda was actually pale with indignation and disgust. "No," sputtered the youth, "but that pig--that p-pig--" He looked around him with an eye which seemed to challenge any beholder of whatever condition, to laugh and be instantly run through. Fortunately most of those on the wharf had been too much occupied to see Ojeda fall before the pig, and just then the trumpets blew, and all hastened to get back on board ship. When an expedition is composed largely of hot-headed youths trained to the use of arms, each of whom has a code of honor as sensitive as a mimosa plant and as prickly as a cactus, the lot of their commanders is not happy. It may have been Ojeda's treasured talisman which saved him from several sudden deaths during the following weeks, but Juan de la Cosa privately believed it was partly the memory of the pig. The young man had what might in another time and civilization have developed into a sense of humor. It would not do for a hero with the world before him to get himself sent back to Spain because of some trivial personal quarrel. On reaching Hispaniola the adventurers found plenty of real occupation awaiting them. The little colony which the Admiral had left at Navidad on his first voyage had been wiped out. The natives timidly explained that a fierce chief from the interior, Caonaba, had killed or captured all the forty men of the garrison and destroyed their fort. Colón was obliged to remodel all his plans at a moment's notice. Instead of finding a colony well under way, and in control of the wild tribes or at least friendly with them, he found the wreck of a luckless attempt at settlement, and the kindly native villagers turned aloof and suspicious, and living in dread of a second raid by Caonaba. He chose a site for a second settlement on the coast, where ships could find a harbor, not far from gold-bearing mountains which the natives described and called Cibao. This sounded rather like Cipangu. Ojeda led an exploring party into the mountains, and found gold nuggets in the beds of the streams. In March a substantial little town had been built, with a church, granary, market-square, and a stone wall around the whole. The Admiral then organized an expedition to explore the interior. On March 12, 1494, Colón with his chief officers went out of the gate of the settlement, which had been named for the Queen, at the head of four hundred men, many of whom were mounted, and all armed with sword, cross-bow, lance or arquebus. With casques and breastplates shining in the sun, banners flying, pennons fluttering, drums and trumpets sounding, they presented a sight which should have brought ambassadors from any monarch of the Indies who heard of their approach. But although a multitude of savages came from the forest to see, no signs of any such capital as that of the Great Khan appeared. At the end of the first day's march they camped at the foot of a rocky mountain range with no way over it but a footpath, winding over rocks and through dense tropical jungles. There appeared to be no roads in the country. But this was not an impossible situation to the young Spanish cavaliers, for in the Moorish wars it had often been necessary to construct a road over the mountains. A number of them at once volunteered for the service, and with laborers and pioneers, to whom they set an example by working as valiantly as they were ready to fight, they made a road for the little army, which was named in their honor El Puerto de los Hidalgos, the Gentlemen's Pass. When they reached the top of this steep defile and could look down upon the land beyond they saw a vast and magnificent plain, covered with forests of beautiful trees, blossoming meadows and a network of clear lakes and rivers, and dotted here and there with thatch-roofed villages. Near the top of the pass a spring of cool delicious water bubbled out in a glen shaded by palms and one tall and handsome tree of an unknown variety, with wood so hard that it turned the ax of a laborer who tried to cut a chip of it. Colón gave the plain the name of the Vega Reál or Royal Plain. Of all the events, exploits and intrigues of those first years in the Spanish Indies, no one historian among those who accompanied the expedition ever found time to write. Where all was so new, and every man, whether priest, cavalier, soldier, sailor, clerk or artisan, had his own reasons and his own aims in coming to this land of promise, nothing went exactly according to anybody's plans. The Admiral was soon convinced that in Hispaniola at least no civilized capital existed. To their amazement and amusement the Spaniards found that the savages feared their horses more than their weapons. It was discovered after a while that horse and rider were at first supposed to be one supernatural animal. When the white men dismounted the people fled in horror, believing that the ferocious beasts were going to eat them. It became evident that with the fierce chief Caonaba to reckon with, military strength and capacity would be the only means of holding the country. The commander could not count on patriotism, religious principle or even self-interest to keep the colonists united. In this tangled situation one of the few persons who really enjoyed himself was Alonso de Ojeda. Instead of spending his time in drinking, quarreling or getting himself into trouble with friendly natives, the young man seemed bent on proving himself an able and sagacious leader of men. A little fortress of logs had been built about eighteen leagues from the settlement, in the mining country, defended on all sides but one by a little river, the Yanique, and on the remaining side by a deep ditch. Gold dust, nuggets, amber, jasper and lapis lazuli had been found in the neighborhood, and it was the Admiral's intention to send miners there as soon as possible, protected by the fort, which he called San Tomás. Ojeda happened to be in command of the garrison, in the absence of his superior, when Caonaba came down from his mountains with an immense force of hostile tribes. The young lieutenant in his rude eyrie, perched on a hill surrounded by the enemy, held off ten thousand savages under the Carib chief for more than a month. Finally the chief, whose people had never been trained in warfare after the European fashion, found them deserting by hundreds, tired of the monotony of the siege. Ojeda did not merely stand on the defensive. He was continually sallying forth at the head of small but determined companies of Spaniards, whenever the enemy came near his stronghold. He never went far enough from his base to be captured, but killed off so many of the best warriors of Caonaba that the chief himself grew tired of the unprofitable undertaking and withdrew his army. During the siege provisions ran short, and when things were looking very dark a friendly savage slipped in one night with two pigeons for the table of the commander. When they were brought to Ojeda, in the council chamber where he was seated consulting with his officers, he glanced at the famine-pinched faces about him, took the pigeons in his hands and stroked their feathers for an instant. "It is a pity," he said, "that we have not enough to make a meal. I am not going to feast while the rest of you starve," and he gave the birds a toss into the air from the open window and turned again to his plans. When some one reported the incident to the Admiral his eyes shone. "I wish we had a few more such commanders," he said. Caonaba's next move was to form a conspiracy among all the caciques of Hispaniola, to join in a grand attack against the white men and wipe them out, as he had wiped out the little garrison at Navidad. A friendly cacique, Guacanagari, who had been the ally of the Admiral from the first, gave him information of this plot, and the danger was seen by Colón's acute mind to be desperate indeed. He had only a small force, torn by jealousy and private quarrels, and a defensive fight at this stage of his enterprise would almost surely be a losing one. The territory of Caonaba included the most mountainous and inaccessible part of the island, where that wily barbarian could hold out for years; and as long as he was loose there would be no safety for white men. To the Admiral, who was just recovering from a severe illness, the prospect looked very gloomy. Pedro the Vizcayan cabin-boy, who was his confidential servant, was crossing the plaza one day with a basket of fruit, when Alonso de Ojeda stopped him to inquire after his master's health. "His health," said Pedro, "would improve if I had Caonaba's head in this basket. I wish somebody would get it." Ojeda laughed, showing a flash of white teeth under his jaunty mustachios. Then he grew thoughtful. "Wait a moment, Pedro," he said. "Will you ask the Admiral if he can see me for a few minutes, this morning?" When Ojeda appeared Colón detected a trace of excitement in the young man's bearing, and tactfully led the conversation to Caonaba. He frankly expressed his perplexity. "Have you a plan, Ojeda?" he asked with a half smile. "It has been my experience, that you usually have." Ojeda felt a thrill of pleasure, for the Admiral did not scatter his compliments broadcast. He admitted that he had a plan. "Let me hear it," said Colón. But as the youthful captain unfolded his scheme the cool gray eye of the Genoese commander betrayed distinct surprise. It seemed only yesterday that this youngster had been a little monkey of a page in the great palace of the Duke of Medina Coeli, when he was entertained there, on arriving in Spain. "You see," Ojeda concluded, "I have observed in fighting these people that if their leader is killed or captured, they seem to lose their heads completely. I think that with a dozen men I can get Caonaba and bring him in. If I do not--the loss will not be very great." "I should not like to lose you," said the Admiral, with his hand on the young man's shoulder. "Go, if you will,--but do not sacrifice your own life if you can help it." Ojeda had faith in his talisman, and he also believed that if any man could go into Caonaba's territory and come back alive, he was that man. He knew that he himself, in the place of the chief, would respect a man whom he had not been able to beat. With ten soldiers he rode up into the mountains, his blood leaping with the wild joy of an adventure as great as any in the Song of the Cid. To be sure, Caonaba would not in his mountain camp have any such army as when he surrounded the fort, for then he commanded whole tribes of allies. In case of coming to blows Ojeda believed that he and his men with their superior weapons could cut their way out. Still, the odds were beyond anything that he had ever heard of. He found the Carib chief, and began by trying diplomacy. He said that his master, the Guamaquima or chief of the Spaniards, had sent him with a present. Would he not consent to make a visit to the colony, with a view of becoming the Admiral's ally and friend? If he would, he should be presented with the bell of the chapel, the voice of the church, the wonder of Hispaniola. Caonaba had heard that bell when he was prowling about the settlement, and the temptation to become its owner was great. He finally agreed to accompany Ojeda and his handful of Spaniards back to the coast. But when they were ready to start, the force of warriors in Caonaba's escort was out of all proportion to any peaceful embassy. Ojeda turned to his original plan. He proposed that Caonaba, after bathing in the stream at the foot of the mountain, and attiring himself in his finest robe, should put on the gift the Spanish captain had brought, a pair of metal bracelets, and return to his followers mounted with Ojeda on his horse. The chief's eyes glittered as he saw the polished steel of the ornaments Ojeda produced. He knew that nothing could so impress his wild followers with his power and greatness as his ability to conquer all fear of the terrible animals always seen in the vanguard of the white men's army. He consented to the plan, and after putting on his state costume, and being decorated with the handcuffs, he cautiously mounted behind the young commander, and his followers, in awe and admiration, beheld their cacique ride. [Illustration: "HE PROPOSED THAT CAONABA SHOULD PUT ON THE GIFT THE SPANISH CAPTAIN HAD BROUGHT."--_Page_ 78] Ojeda, who was a perfect horseman, made the horse leap, curvet and caracole, taking a wider circuit each time, until making a long sweep through the forest the two disappeared from the view of the Carib army altogether. Ojeda's own men closed in upon him, bound Caonaba hand and foot, behind their leader, and thus the chief was taken into the Spanish settlement. The conspiracy fell to pieces and the colony was saved. Caonaba showed no respect to Colón or any one else in the camp while a prisoner there, except Ojeda. When Ojeda entered he promptly rose to his feet. They had many conversations together, and Caonaba, who evidently rather admired the stratagem by which he had been captured, agreed with his captor that Ojeda was The Man Who Could Not Die. NOTE The career of Alonso de Ojeda is one of the most picturesque and adventurous in early Spanish-American history, and his character is typical of the young Spanish cavalier of the age just following the discovery of America. The episodes here used, with many others quite as dramatic, are described at length in Irving's "Life of Columbus." THE ESCAPE Why do you come here, white men, white men? Why do you bend the knee When your priests before you, singing, singing, Lift the cross, the cross of tree? Flashing in the sunlight, rainbows waking, Move your mighty oars keeping time. Sailors heave your anchors, chanting, chanting Some strange and mystic rime. Pearls and gold we bring you, feathers of our wild birds, Glowing in the sunshine like flowers. Houses we will build you, food and clothing find you, You shall share in all that is ours. Why do you frighten us, white men, white men? Can you not be friends for a day? Souls are like the sea-birds, flying, flying, Borne by the sea-wind away. Why do you chain us in the mines of the mountains? Why do you hunt us with your hounds? We who were so free, are we evermore to be Prisoned in your narrow hateful bounds? One escape is left us, white men, white men,-- You cannot forbid our souls to fly To the stars of freedom, far beyond the sunset,-- We whom you have captured can die! VI LOCKED HARBORS "But of what use is a King's patent," said Hugh Thorne of Bristol, "if the harbors be locked?" The Italian merchant glanced up from his papers and smiled, which was all the answer the Englishman seemed to expect, for he stormed on, "Here have we better fleeces than Spain, better wheat than France, finer cattle than the Netherlands, the tin of Cornwall, the flax of Kent and Durham, and our people starve or live rudely because of the fettering of our trade." "'T is a sad misfortune," said the merchant. "In a world so great as this there is surely room for all to work and all to get reward for their labor. But so long as the English merchant guilds wear away their time and substance in fighting one another I fear 't will be no better." Thorne flung his cloak about him with an impatient gesture. "That's true," he answered, "the Spaniards hold by Spain, and all the Hanse merchants by one another, but our English go every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. I speak freely to you, friend, because you have cast in your lot with us West Country folk and are content to be called John Cabot." The other smiled again, his quick childlike smile, and went with his guest to the door. When he entered again his small private room a dark-eyed boy of five was crawling out from under the table. "Dad," he inquired solemnly, "vat is a locked harbor?" John Cabot laughed and swung his little son to his shoulder. "That is a great question for a little brain," he said fondly. "But see thee here; suppose I put thee in the chest and shut the lid and turn the key; thou art locked in and canst not get out--so! But now I put thee out of door and set the bandog to guard it; thou art locked out though the door be wide open, seest thou? And when I forbid thee to pick up the plums that fall on the grass from the Frenchman's damson tree, they are as safe as if I locked them in the dresser here, are they not? So 't is when the King forbids his people to send their goods to some harbor; it is the same as if a great chain were stretched across that harbor with a great lock upon it. Now run and play with Ludovico and Santo, Sebastiano mio, and be glad thou art free of a pleasant garden." But Sebastian still hung back, his dark head rubbing softly against his father's shoulder. "When I am a great merchant," he announced, "the King will let me send my ships all over the world." John Cabot stroked the wavy dark hair with a lingering, tender touch. "God grant thee thy wish, little one," he said. And Sebastian, with a shout in answer to a call from the sunny out-of-door world, scampered away. John Cabot, who had been born in Genoa, married while a merchant in Venice, and had now lived for many years in Bristol, felt sometimes that the life of a trader was like that of a player at dice. And the dice were often loaded. He was a good navigator, or he would not have been a true son of the Genoese house of Caboto--Giovanni Caboto translated meant John the Captain, and in a city full of sea-captains a man must know more than a little of the sea to win that title. He had made a place for himself in Venice as Zuan Gaboto, and now he was a known and respected man in the second greatest seaport of England, with a house in the quarter of Bristol known as "Cathay," the only part of the city where foreigners were allowed to live. It had its nickname from the fact that the foreign trade of Bristol was largely with the Orient. English trade in those days was hampered by a multitude of restrictions. There were monopolies, there were laws forbidding the export of this and that, or the making of goods by any one outside certain guilds, there were arrangements favoring foreign traders who had got their foothold during the War of the Roses,--when kings needed money from any source that would promise it. The Hanse merchants at the Steelyard alone controlled the markets of more than a hundred towns. Their grim stone buildings rose like a fort commanding London Bridge, and they paid less both in duties and customs than English merchants did. They employed no English ships, and could underbuy and undersell the English manufacturer and the English trader. Their men were all bachelors, with no families to found or houses to keep up in England. The farmer might get half price for his wool and pay more than one price for whatever he was obliged to buy. There was plenty of private exasperation, but no open fighting, against this ruling of the London markets by Hamburg, Lübeck, Antwerp and Cologne. Cabot's clear head and wide experience plainly showed him the enormous waste of such a system, but he did not see how to unlock the harbors. Neither, at present, did the King, whose shrewd brain was at work on the problem. Henry Tudor had the thrift of a youth spent in poverty, and the turn for finance inherited from Welsh ancestors, but his kingdom was not rich, and his throne not over-secure. He was prejudiced against doing anything rash, both by nature and by the very limited income of the crown. He had given an audience to Bartholomew Columbus while the older brother was still haunting the court of Castile with his unfulfilled plans, and had gone so far as to tell the Genoese captain to bring his brother Christopher to England that he might talk with him. Had it not been for Queen Isabella's impulsive decision England instead of Spain might have made the lucky throw in the great game of discovery. But by the time Bartholomew could get the message to his brother the matter had been settled and the expedition was already taking shape. Henry VII. always kept one foot on the ground, and until he could see some other way to bring wealth into the royal treasury he let the monopolies go on. In 1495 he took a chance. He gave to John Cabot and his sons a license to search "for islands, provinces or regions in the eastern, western or northern seas; and, as vassals of the King, to occupy the territories that might be found, with an exclusive right to their commerce, on paying the King a fifth part of the profits." It will be noted that this license did not say anything about the southern ocean. Already troops of Spanish cavaliers were pouring into the seaports, eager to make discoveries by the road of Columbus, and Spain would regard as unfriendly any attempt to send English ships in that direction. Whatever could be got from the Spanish territories Henry would try another way of getting. The year before he had arranged to have Prince Arthur, the heir to his throne, marry the fourth daughter of the King of Aragon, Catherine, then a little Princess of eleven. Prince Arthur died while still a boy, and Catherine became the first wife of Henry, afterward Henry VIII. With a Spanish Princess as queen of England, there might be an alliance between the two countries. That would be better than quarreling with Spain over discoveries which were at best uncertain. If Cabot really found anything valuable in the northern seas the move might turn out to be a good one. It would make England a more powerful member of the Spanish alliance, without taking anything which Spain appeared to value. In May, 1497, properly furnished with provisions and a few such things as might show what England had to barter, the little _Matthew_ sailed from Bristol under the command of John Cabot with his nineteen-year-old son Sebastian and a crew of eighteen--nearly all Englishmen, used to the North Atlantic. The King's permission was for five ships, but the wise Cabot had heard something of the hardships of the first expeditions to Hispaniola, and preferred to keep within his means, and sail with men whom he could trust. But on this voyage they found locked harbors not closed by the order of any King but by natural causes,--harbors without inhabitants or means of supporting life, and so far north as to be blocked by ice for half the year. They sailed seven hundred leagues west and came at last to a rocky wooded coast. Now in all the books of travel in Asia, mention had been made of an immense territory ruled by the Grand Cham of Tartary, whose hordes had nearly overrun Eastern Europe in times not so very long ago. The adventures of Marco Polo the Venetian, in a great book sent to Cabot by his wife's father, had been the fairy-tale of Sebastian and his brothers from the time they were old enough to understand a story. In this book it was written how Marco Polo and his companions passed through utterly uninhabited wilds in the Great Khan's empire, and afterward came to a region of barbarians, who robbed and killed travelers. These fierce people lived on the fruits and game of the forest, cultivating no fields; they dressed in the skins of wild animals and used salt for money. Could this be the place? If so it behooved the little party of explorers to be careful. As yet, nobody dreamed that any mainland discovered by sailing westward from northern Europe could be anything but Asia. Cautiously they sailed along the rugged shore, but not a human being was to be seen. It was the twenty-fourth of June, when by all accounts the people of any civilized country should be coasting along from port to port fishing or engaged in traffic. The sun blazed hot and clear, but the inquisitive noses of the crew scented no cinnamon, cloves or ginger in the air. All of these, according to Marco Polo, were in the wilderness he crossed, and also great rivers. On crossing one of these rivers he had found himself in a populous country with castles and cities. Were there no people on this desolate shore--or were they lying in wait for the voyagers to land, that they might seize and kill them and plunder the ship? One thing was certain, the air of this strange place made them all more thirsty than they ever had been in England, and their water-supply had given out. Sebastian and a crew of the younger men tumbled into a boat, cross-bow and cutlass at hand, and went ashore to fill the barrels, while John Cabot kept an anxious eye on the land. Sebastian himself rather relished the adventure. They found a stream of delicious water,--pure, cold and clear as a fountain of Eden. Among the rocks they found creeping vines with rather tasteless, bright red berries, in the woods little evergreen herbs with leaves like laurel and scarlet spicy berries, dark green mossy vines with white berries--but no spice-trees. The forest in fact was rather like Norway, according to Ralph Erlandsson, who was a native of Stavanger. Sebastian, who was ahead, presently came upon signs of human life. A sapling, bent down and held by a rude contrivance of deerhide thong and stakes, was attached to a noose so ingeniously hidden that the young leader nearly stepped into it. He took it off the tree and looked about him. A minute later, from one side and to the rear, a startled exclamation came from Robert Thorne of Bristol, who had stepped on a similar snare and been jerked off his feet. This was quite enough. The party retreated to the ship. On the way back they saw trees that had been cut not very long since, and Sebastian picked up a wooden needle such as fishermen used in making nets, yet not like any English tool of that sort. [Illustration: "A SAPLING, BENT DOWN, WAS ATTACHED TO A NOOSE INGENIOUSLY HIDDEN."--_Page_ 87] They saw nothing more of the kind, although they sailed some three hundred leagues along the coast, nor did they see any sort of tilled land. This certainly could not be Cipangu or Cathay with their seaports and gilded temples. Whatever else it was, it was a land of wild people, savage hunters. John Cabot left on a bold headland where it could not fail to be seen, a great cross, with the flag of England and the Venetian banner bearing the lion of Saint Mark. There was wild excitement in Bristol when it was known that the little _Matthew_ had come safely into port, after three months' voyaging in unknown seas. August of that year found the two Cabots at Westminster with their story and their handful of forest trophies, and the excited and suspicious Spanish Ambassador was framing a protest to the King and a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella. Henry VII. fingered the wooden needle, pulled the rawhide thong meditatively through his fingers, and ate a little handful of the wintergreen berries and young leaves. Their pungent flavor wrinkled his long nose. This was certainly not any spice that came from the Indies. "This country you found," he remarked at last, "is not much like New Spain." "Nay, Sire," answered John Cabot simply. "And I understand,"--the King put the collection of curiosities back into the wallet that had held them, "that this represents one fifth at least of the gains of the voyage." Cabot bowed. As a matter of fact there had been no profits. "My lord,"--the King handed the wallet over to the uneasy Ambassador, who had been invited to the conference, "you have heard what our good Captain says. If, as you say, Spain claims this landfall, we willingly make over to you our--ahem!--share of the emolument." And the Spaniard, looking rather foolish, saw nothing better to do than to bow his thanks and retire from the presence. The King turned again to the Cabots. "Nevertheless," he went on meditatively, "we will not be neglectful of you. In another year, if it is still your desire to engage in this work, you may have--" a pause--"ten ships armed as you see fit, and manned with whatever prisoners are not confined for--high treason. Fish, I think you said, abound in those waters? Bacalao--er--that is cod, is it not? Now it seems to me that our men of Bristol can go a-fishing on those banks without interference from the Hanse merchants, and we shall be less dependent on--foreign aid, for the victualing of our tables. And there may be some way to Asia through these Northern seas--in which case our brother of Spain may not be so nice in his scruples about trespass. The Spice Islands are not his but Portugal's. And for your present reward,--" the King reached for his lean purse and waggled his gaunt foot in its loose worn red shoe "this, and the title of Admiral of your new-found land." He dropped some gold pieces into the hand of John Cabot. In the accounts of his treasurer for that year may be seen this item: "10th August, donation of £10 to him that found the new isle." In May of the next year another voyage was undertaken by Sebastian, John Cabot having died. This time there was a small fleet from Bristol with some three hundred men. Sebastian sailed so far north as to be stopped by seas full of icebergs, then turning southward discovered the island of Newfoundland, landed further south on the mainland, and went as far toward the Spanish possessions as the great bay called Chesapeake. Meanwhile shoals of little fishing boats, from Bristol, Brittany, Lisbon, Rye, and the Vizcayan ports on the north of Spain, crept across the gray seas to fish for cod. They held no patent and carried no guns, but they made a floating city off the Grand Banks for a brief season, settling their own disputes. The people at home found salt fish good cheap and wholesome. When Sebastian told the Bristol folk that the fish were so thick in these new seas that he could hardly get his ships through, they would not believe it. But when Robert Thorne and a dozen others had seen the little caplin, the fish which the cod feeds upon, swimming inshore by the acre, crowded by the cod behind them, and by seal, shark and dogfish hunting the cod, when cod were caught and salted down and shown in Bristol, four and five feet long, then Bristol swallowed both story and cargo and blessed the name of Cabot. Sebastian Cabot shook the dust of Bristol off his restless feet more than once in the years that followed. Within five years after his voyage to the Arctic regions he was cruising about the Caribbean. In 1517 he was at the entrance of the great bay on the north coast of Labrador. In 1524 he was in the service of Spain, and coasting along the eastern shores of South America ascended the great river which De Solis had named Rio de la Plata, came within sight of the mountains of Peru. But for orders from Spain, where Pizarro had secured the governorship of that land, Cabot might have been its conqueror. In 1548, after some years spent in Spain as pilot major, he came back to England, where he was appointed to the position of superintendent of naval affairs. It was his work to examine and license pilots, and make charts and maps, and some ten years later he died, having founded the company of Merchant Adventurers in 1553. This company was entitled to build and send out ships for discovery and trade in parts unknown. By uniting merchant traders in one body, governed by definite rules, and backed by their combined capital, it broke the monopoly of the Hanseatic League and finally drove the Hanse merchants out of England. Sebastian Cabot was its first governor, holding the office until he died, and has rightly been called the father of free trade. He had unlocked the harbors of the world to his adopted country, England. NOTE The rules drawn up by Cabot for the merchant adventurers, to be read publicly on board ship once a week, are interesting as showing the character of the man and the great advance made in welding English trade into a company to be guided by the best traditions. For the first time captains were required to keep a log, and this one thing, by putting on record everything seen and noted by those who sailed strange waters, made an increasing fund of knowledge at the service of each navigator. Some of the points in the instructions are as follows: 7. "That the merchants and other skilful persons, in writing, shall daily write, describe and put in memorie the navigation of each day and night, with the points and observations of the lands, tides, elements, altitude of the sunne, course of the moon and starres, and the same so noted by the order of the master and pilot of every ship to be put in writing; the captain-general assembling the masters together once every weeke (if winde and weather shall serve) to conferre all the observations and notes of the said ships, to the intent it may appeare wherein the notes do agree and wherein they dissent, and upon good debatement, deliberation and conclusion determined to put the same into a common ledger, to remain of record for the companie; the like order to be kept in proportioning of the cardes, astrolabes, and other instruments prepared for the voyage, at the charge of the companie. 12. "That no blaspheming of God, or detestable swearing, be used in any ship, or communication of ribaldrie, filthy tales, or ungodly talk to be suffered in the company of any ship, neither dicing, tabling, nor other divelish games to be permitted, whereby ensueth not only povertie to the players, but also strife, variance, brauling, fighting and oftentimes murther. 26. "Every nation and region to be considered advisedly, and not to provoke them by any distance, laughing, contempt, or such like; but to use them with prudent circumspection, with all gentleness and courtesie." These and other instructions form an ideal far beyond anything found in the merchant shipping of any other land at that time, and the wisdom which inspired them undoubtedly laid the foundation of the fine and noble tradition which formed the best officers of the navy not yet born. There was no British navy in the modern sense until a hundred years after Cabot's day. In time of war the King impressed all suitable ships into his service, if they were not freely offered by private owners. In time of peace the monarch was a ship-owner like any other, and such a thing as a standing navy was not thought of. Hence the brave, generous, and courteous merchant adventurer, when such a man was abroad, was the upholder of the honor of his country as well as the upbuilder of her commerce. GRAY SAILS Gray sails that fill with the winds of the morning, Out upon the Channel or the bleak North sea, Neither cross nor fleur-de-lis goes to your adorning,-- Arctic frost and southern gale your tirewomen shall be. Yet when you come home again--home again--home again, Gray sails turn to silver when the keel runs free. Gray sails of Plymouth, 'ware the wild Orcades, Gray sails of Lisbon, 'ware the guns of Dieppe. Cross-bows of Genoa, 'ware the wharves of Gades,-- You that sail the Spanish Seas may neither trust nor sleep. Yet when you come home again--home again--home again, You shall make the covenant for Kings to keep! Gray sails are crowding where the sea-fog sleeping Masks the faces of the folk that throng and traffic there. When the winds are free again and the cod are leaping, All the tongues of Pentecost wake the laughing air. And when they come home again--home again--home again, They shall bring their freedom for the world to share! VII LITTLE VENICE "Translators," observed Amerigo Vespucci, "are frequently traitors. Now who is to be surety that yonder interpreter does not change your words in repeating them?" Alonso de Ojeda touched the hilt of his poniard. "This," he said. "Toledo steel speaks all languages." The Florentine's black eyebrows lifted a little, but he did not pursue the subject. Ojeda was not the sort of man likely to be convinced of anything he did not believe already, and Vespucci was having too good a time to waste it in argument. This middle-aged, shrewd-looking individual had for half his life been chained to the desk, for he had been many years a clerk in the great merchant houses of the Medici. Until he was forty years old he had hardly gone outside his native city. In the latter half of the fifteenth century each Italian city was a little world in itself, with its own standards, customs and traditions. The fact that Vespucci spent most of his leisure and all of his spare ducats in the collection and study of maps and globes and works on geography, was regarded as a proof of mild insanity. When he paid one hundred and thirty gold pieces for a particularly fine map made by Valsequa in 1439, even his intimate friend Soderini called him a fool. Vespucci was himself an expert mapmaker. This may have been a reason why, about 1490, the Medici sent him to Barcelona to look after their interests in Spain. In Seville he secured a position as manager in the house of Juanoto Berardi, who fitted out ships for Atlantic voyages. In 1497 he himself sailed for the newly discovered islands of the West, and spent more than a year in exploration. This taste of travel seemed to have whetted his appetite for more, for he was now acting as astronomer and geographer in the expedition which Ojeda had organized and Juan de la Cosa fitted out, to the coast which Colón had discovered and called Tierre Firme. In the seven years since the first voyage of the great Admiral it had become the custom to have on board, for expeditions of discovery, a person who understood astronomy, the use of the astrolabe and navigation in general, and the making of charts and maps. Vespucci was exactly that sort of man. However queer it might seem to the young Ojeda to find in a clerk forty years old such a fresh and youthful delight in travel, both he and La Cosa knew that they had in him a valuable assistant. It was generally understood that he meant to write a book about it all. Vespucci was in fact thinking of his future book when he made that speech about translators. He was planning to write the book not in Latin, as was usual, but in Italian, making if necessary another copy in Latin. The party had sailed from Puerto Santa Maria on May 20, 1499, taking with them a chart which Bishop Fonseca, head of the Department of the Indies, furnished. It had been the understanding when Colón received the title of Admiral of the Indies that no expedition should be sent out without his authority. This understanding Fonseca succeeded in persuading the King and Queen to take back, and another order was issued, to the effect that no independent expedition was to go out without the royal permission. This, practically, meant Fonseca's leave. The Bishop signed the permit for Ojeda's undertaking with double satisfaction. He was doing a favor for his friend, Bishop Ojeda, cousin to this young man, and he was aiming a blow at the hated Genoese Admiral, whose very chart he was turning over to the young explorer. All sorts of stories had been set afloat about the unfitness of the Admiral to hold such an important office. Fonseca had managed to influence the Queen so far against him that one Bobadilla had been sent to Hispaniola with power to depose Colón and treat him as a criminal,--so cunningly were his instructions framed. When the great discoverer was actually thrown into prison and sent to Spain manacled like a felon, it might have added a few drops of bitterness to his reflections if he had known what Ojeda was doing. This youth, whom he had trusted and liked, was now looking forward to the conquest of the very region which the Admiral had discovered, and using what was supposed to be the Admiral's private chart to guide him. It is not likely, however, that the fiery and impatient Ojeda gave any thought to the feelings of the older man. Juan de la Cosa was a leader in the expedition, many sailors were enlisted, who had served in former voyages of discovery, and above all, Fonseca approved. Ojeda would never have dreamed of setting up any personal opinion contrary to the views of the Church. In twenty-four days the fleet arrived upon a coast which no one on board had ever seen. It was in fact two hundred leagues further to the south than Paria, where the Admiral had touched. The people were taller and more vigorous than the Arawaks of Hispaniola, and expert with the bow, the lance and the shield. Their bell-shaped houses were of tree-trunks thatched with palm leaves, some of them very large. The people wore ornaments made of fish-bones, and strings of white and green beads, and feather headdresses of the most gorgeous colors. The interpreter told Ojeda that the Spaniards' desire of gold and pearls was very puzzling to these simple folk, who had never considered them of any especial value. In a harbor called Maracapana the fleet was unloaded and careened for cleaning. Under the direction of Ojeda and La Cosa a small brigantine was built. The people brought venison, fish, cassava bread and other provisions willingly, and seemed to think the Spaniards angels. At least, that was the version of their talk which reached Ojeda. It was here that Amerigo Vespucci made that remark about translators. He had not studied accounts of Atlantic voyages for the last few years without drawing a few conclusions regarding the nature of savages. When it was explained that the natives had neighbors who were cannibals, and that they would greatly value the strangers' assistance in fighting them, Vespucci came very near making a suggestion. He finally made it to Juan de la Cosa instead of to Ojeda. The old pilot chuckled wisely. "I've got past warning my young gentleman of danger ahead," he said good-naturedly. "He can do without fighting just as well as a fish can do without water. If I die trying to get him out of some scrape he has plunged into head-first, it will be no more than I expect." Ojeda was, in fact, spoiling for adventure, and joyfully set sail in the direction of the Carib Islands. Seven coast natives were on board as guides, and pointed out the island inhabited by their especial enemies. The shore was lined with fierce-faced savages, painted and feathered, armed with bows and arrows, lances and darts and bucklers. Ojeda launched his boats, in each of which was a paterero, or small cannon, with a number of soldiers crouching down out of sight. The armor of the Spaniards protected them from the Indian arrows, while the cotton armor of the savages and their light shields were no defense against cannon-balls or crossbow-bolts. When the barbarians leaped into the sea and attacked the boats the cannon scattered them, but they rallied and fought more fiercely on land. The Spaniards won that day's battle, but the dauntless islanders were ready to renew the fight next morning. With his fifty-seven men Ojeda routed the whole fighting force of the tribe, made many prisoners, plundered and set fire to the villages, and returned to his ships. A part of the spoil was bestowed on the seven friendly natives. Ojeda, who had not received so much as a scratch, anchored in a bay for three weeks to let his wounded recover. There were twenty-one wounded and one Spaniard had been killed. Sailing westward along the coast the fleet presently entered a vast gulf like an inland sea, on the eastern side of which was a most curious village. Ojeda could hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes. Twenty large cone-shaped houses were built on piles driven into the bottom of the lake, which in that part was clear and shallow. Each house had its drawbridge, and communicated with its neighbors and with the shore by means of canoes gliding along the water-ways between the piles. The interpreters said it was called Coquibacoa. "That is no proper name for so marvelous a place," said Ojeda after he had tried to pronounce the clucking many-syllabled word. "Is it like anything you have seen, Vespucci?" The Italian had been comparing it with a similar village he had seen on his first voyage, on a part of the coast called Lariab. He had an instinct, however, that it would not be well to mix his own discoveries with those of the present expedition. "It is rather like Venice," he said demurely. "That is the name for it," cried Ojeda in high delight,--"Venezuela--Little Venice!" "It would be interesting," observed Vespucci, "to know what names they are giving to us. How they stare!" The people of the village on stilts were evidently as much astonished at the strangers as the strangers were at them. They fled into their houses and raised the draw-bridges. The men in a squadron of canoes which came paddling in from the sea were also terrified. But this did not last long. The warriors went into the forest and returned with sixteen young girls, four of whom they brought to each ship. While the white men wondered what this could mean, several old crones appeared at the doors of the houses and began a furious shrieking. This seemed to be a signal. The maidens dived into the sea and made for the shore, and a storm of arrows came from the canoemen. The fight, however, was not long, and the Spaniards won an easy victory, after which they had no further trouble. They found a harbor called Maracaibo, and twenty-seven Spaniards at the earnest request of the natives were entertained as guests among the inland villages for nine days. They were carried from place to place in litters or hammocks, and when they returned to the ships every man of them had a collection of gifts--rich plumes, weapons, tropical birds and animals--but no gold. The monkeys and parrots were very amusing, but they did not make up, in the minds of some of the crew, for the gold which had not been found. Ojeda returned from an exploring journey one day with a ruffled temper. "A gang of poachers," he sputtered,--"rascally Bristol traders. We shall have to teach these folk their place." "What really happened?" Vespucci inquired privately of Juan de la Cosa. The old mariner's eyes twinkled. "It was funny. You see, we were coming down to the shore, ready to return to the ships, when we spied an English ship and some sailors on the beach, dancing after they'd caught their fish and eaten 'em. Up marches our young caballero with hand on hilt and asks whose men they are. But they answered him in a language he can't understand, d'ye see, and after some jabbering he makes them understand that he wants to go on board to see their captain. I went along, for I'd no mind to leave him alone if there should be trouble. "So soon as I set eyes on the captain I knew him for a chap I'd seen years ago in Venice. He did me a good turn there, too, though he was but a lad. I knew he was a Bristol man, but I hadn't expected to see him or his ship so far from home. He could talk Spanish nearly as well as you do. "'What are you doing here?' asks our worshipful commander. "'Looking at the sky,' said the other man, cool as a cucumber. 'I think we are going to have a storm.' "'Don't bandy words with me,' says Ojeda. 'You are trespassing on my master's dominions.' "'Your master is the Admiral of the Indies, no?' says the stranger, and that pretty near shut our young gentleman's mouth for a minute, for between you and me I think he knows that Colón has not been well treated. But he only got the more furious. "'Do you insult me?' says he, and whips out his Toledo blade and bends it almost double, to show the quality. "'Wait a minute, my young hornet,' says the captain--he wasn't much more than a boy, himself,--'didn't your master the Duke of Medina Coeli teach you better than to irritate a man on the deck of his own ship? Mine can sail two leagues to your one, and I'm just leaving for home, so, unless you would like to go with me, perhaps you will let this conversation end without any more pointed remarks. If I chose, you know, I could drop you overboard in sight of your men, to swim ashore. My guns would stave your longboat all to pieces. But I've stayed long enough to give the lads a chance to have a good meal and a bit of fun--nothing's better than dancing, for the spirits, dad always said it was better than either fighting or dicing on shipboard. Before we part, though, I'm going to give you one piece of advice. Don't stir up these coast natives too often. If you do, they'll eat you. They use poisoned arrows in some of these parts, and there's no cure for that but a red-hot iron.' "The caballero's temper is like gunpowder--it flashes up in a second, or not at all. He must ha' seen that the captain meant him kindness. Anyway, he slips his sword back in the scabbard and says cool as you please, "'Señor, pardon my hasty conclusion. You have of course a perfect right to look at the sky, and to dance, if that is your diversion. I should be extremely sorry to interfere with your departure. But you will understand that when a commander in the service of the sovereigns of Aragon and Castile finds intruders within their territory it is his duty to make it his affair. I thank you for your warning. Adios,' and he makes a little stiff bow and goes over the side, me after him. I looked back just as I went over the rail, and the skipper was watching me, and I may be mistaken but I believe he winked. I tell you, our little captain can do things that would get him run through the body if he were any other man." Vespucci smiled thoughtfully. But this incident may have had something to do with his later decision to part company with Ojeda. Vespucci continued to explore the coast, and Ojeda sailed northward to the islands, where he kidnaped some Indians for slaves. When he returned to Cadiz the young adventurer found to his intense disgust that after all expenses were paid there remained but five hundred ducats to be divided among fifty-five men. This was all the more mortifying because, two months before, Pedro Alonso Nino, a captain of Palos, and Christoval Guerra of Seville, had come in from a trading voyage in the Indies with the richest cargo of gold and pearls ever seen in Cadiz. Vespucci wrote his book some years later, and as it was the first popular account of the new Spanish possessions and was written in a lively and entertaining style it had a great reputation. It gave to the natives of the country the name which they have ever since borne--Indians. A German geographer who much admired the work suggested that an appropriate mark of appreciation would be to name the new continent America, after Vespucci, and this was done. Vespucci described all that he saw and some things of which he heard, using care and discretion, and if he suspected that the captain of the Bristol ship was Sebastian Cabot, later pilot-major of Spain, he did not say so. NOTE Amerigo Vespucci has been unjustly accused of endeavoring to steal the glory of Columbus, but there is no evidence that he ever contemplated anything of the kind. It was a German geographer's suggestion that the continent be named America. THE GOLD ROAD O the Gold Road is a hard road, And it leads beyond the sea,-- Some follow it through the altar gates And some to the gallows tree. And they who squander the gold they earn On kin-folk ill to please Go soon to the grave, but he toils in the grave-- The miner upon his knees. The Gold Road is a dark road-- No bird by the wayside sings, No sun shines into the cañons deep, No children's laughter rings. They are slaves who delve in the stubborn rocks For the pittance their labor brings. Their bread is bitter who toil for their own, But they starve who toil for Kings. The Gold Road is a small road,-- A man must tread it alone, With none to help if he faint or fall, And none to hear his groan. The weight of gold is a weary weight When we toil for the sake of our own-- But our masters are branding our hearts and souls With a Christ that is carved in stone! VIII THE DOG WITH TWO MASTERS "They fight among themselves too much. They need the man with the whip." "_Bough! wough!_" "_Yar-r-rh! arrh!--agh!_" A spirited and entertaining dog-fight was going on just outside the house of the governor of Darien. The deep sullen roar of Balboa's big hound Leoncico was as unmistakable as the snarling, snapping, furious bark of Cacafuego, who belonged to the Bachelor Enciso. The two hated each other at sight, months ago. Now they were having it out. The man with the whip evidently came on the scene, for there was a final crescendo of barks, yelps and growls, followed by silence. Pizarro's remark, however, did not refer to the dogs but to the settlers, who had been rioting over the governorship of the colony. The outcome of this disturbance had been the practical seizure of the office of captain-general by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. Pizarro himself, and Juan de Saavedra, to whom he addressed his comment, had supported Balboa. Saavedra did not commit himself further than to answer, with a shrug, "Balboa can use the whip on occasion, we all know that. Ah, here he comes now." The man and the dog would have attracted attention anywhere, separately or together. The man was well-made and vigorous, with red-brown hair and beard, and clear merry eyes, a leader who would rather lead than command. The dog was of medium size but very powerful, tawny in color with a black muzzle, and the scars on his compact body recorded many battles, not with other dogs but with hostile Indians. He had been his master's body-guard in several fights, and Balboa sometimes lent him to his friends, the dog receiving the same share of plunder that would have been due to an armed man. Leoncico is said to have brought his captain in this way more than a thousand crowns. "You called him off, eh, General?" Saavedra asked, bending to stroke the terrible head. He and Vasco Nuñez had been friends for years; in fact it was Saavedra who had managed the smuggling of Balboa on board the ship in a cask, to escape his creditors, when the expedition set out. They were intimate, as men are intimate who are different in character but alike in feeling and tradition. Pizarro was an outsider and knew it. "Yes; Enciso's dog would be better for a whipping, perhaps, but I had no mind to make the Bachelor any more an enemy than he is. Pizarro,--" he turned to the soldier of fortune, with a frank smile, "I have work for you to do. It is dangerous, but I know that you do not care for that. Pick out six good men, and be ready to see if there is any truth in those stories about the Coyba gold mines." Pizarro's black brows unbent. Nothing could have suited him better than just these orders. He was, like Balboa, a native of the province of Estremadura in Spain, and being shut out by his low birth from advancement in his own land, had come to the colonies in the hope of gaining wealth and position by the sword. His reckless courage, iron muscle, and a certain cold stubbornness had given him the reputation of an able man, but though nearly ten years older than Balboa, he had never held any but a subordinate position. He had nearly made up his mind that his chance would never come. These hidalgos wanted all the glory as well as all the power for themselves. He could not see why Balboa should turn the possible discovery of a rich new province over to him, but if the gold should be there, Pizarro would get it. He bowed, thanked the general, and took his leave. "General," said Saavedra, "I never like to put my neck in a noose, but if you were only Vasco Nuñez I would ask you why you made exactly that choice." Balboa laughed and pulled the ears of Leoncico, who had laid his head in full content on his master's knee. "I am always Vasco Nuñez to you, _amigo_," he said easily, "as you very well know. Pizarro is a bulldog for bravery, and he has a head on his shoulders. Also he is ambitious, and this will give him a chance to win renown." "And keeps him out of mischief for the time being," put in Saavedra dryly. Balboa laughed again. "Why do you ask me questions when you know my mind almost as well as I do? You see, now that Enciso is about to go, we shall have some freedom to do something besides quarrel among ourselves. Gold is an apology for whatever one does, out here. If there is as much of it as they say, in this Coyba, the King may be able to gild the walls of another salon, and if he puts Pizarro's portrait in it in the place of honor I shall not weep over that. There is glory enough for all of us, who choose to earn it." Pizarro and his men had not gone ten miles from Darien before they ran into an ambush of Indians armed with slings. The seven Spaniards charged instantly, and actually put the enemy to flight, then beat a quick retreat. Every man of them despite their body armor had wounds and bruises, and one was left disabled upon the field. Balboa met them as they limped painfully in. His quick eye took in the situation. "Only six of you? Where is Francisco Hernan?" "He was crippled and could not walk," answered Pizarro sulkily; he saw what was coming. Balboa's eyes blazed. "What! You--Spaniards--ran away from savages and left a comrade to die? Go back and bring him in!" Pizarro turned in silence, took his men back over the road just traversed, and brought Hernan safely in. This was one of the many incidents by which the colony learned the mettle of the new captain-general. Under his direction exploration of the neighboring provinces was undertaken. Balboa with eighty men made a friendly visit to Comagre, a cacique who could put three thousand fighting men in the field. Comagre and his seven sons entertained the white men in a house larger and more like a palace of the Orient than any they had before seen. It was one hundred and fifty paces long by eighty paces broad, the lower part of the walls built of logs, the floors and upper walls of beautiful and ingenious wood-work. The son of this cacique presented to Balboa seventy slaves, captives taken by himself, and golden ornaments weighing altogether four thousand ounces. The gold was at once melted into ingots, or bars of uniform size, for purposes of division. One-fifth of it was weighed out for the Crown, the rest divided among the members of the expedition. The young cacique stood by watching with scornful curiosity as the Spaniards argued and squabbled over the allotment. Suddenly he struck up the scales with his fist, and the shining treasure tumbled over the porch floor like spilt corn. "Why do you quarrel over this trash?" he asked. "If this gold is so precious to you that you leave your homes, invade the land of peaceable nations and endure desperate perils, I will tell you where there is plenty of it." The Spaniards' attention was instantly caught and held. The young Indian went on, with the same careless contempt, "You see those mountains over there? Beyond them is a great sea. The people who dwell on the border of that sea have ships almost as big as yours, with sails and oars as yours have. The streams in their country are full of gold. The King eats from golden dishes, for gold is as common there as iron is among you,"--he glanced at the cumbrous armor and weapons of his guests. Indeed the panoply of the Spaniards, made necessary by the constant possibility of attack, and the weight of their cross-bows and other weapons, was a source of continual wonder to the light and nimble Indians, and of much weariness and suffering to themselves. Many in time adopted the quilted cotton body armor of the natives, and used pikes when they could in place of the musketoun, which was like a hand-cannon. This was not the first time that Balboa and many of the others had heard of the Lord of the Golden House, but no one else had told the story with such boldness. The young cacique said that to invade this land, a thousand warriors would be none too many. He offered to accompany Balboa with his own troops, if the white men would go. Here indeed was an enterprise with glory enough for all. Balboa returned to Darien and began preparations. Valdivia, the regidor of the colony, had been sent to Hispaniola for provisions, but the supply he brought back was absurdly small. One of the serious difficulties encountered by all the first settlers in the New World was this matter of provisioning the camps. For the Indians the natural fruits and produce of the country were sufficient, and they seldom laid up any great store. The small surplus of any one chief was soon exhausted by a large body of guests. Moreover, the country had no cattle, swine, fowls, goats, no domestic food animals whatever, no grain but the maize. The supply of meat and grain was thus very small until Spanish planters could clear and cultivate their estates. On the march the troops could and did live off the country with less trouble. Balboa decided to send Valdivia back to Hispaniola for more supplies. He also sent by him a letter to Diego Colón, son of the great Admiral and governor of the island, explaining his need for more troops in view of what he had just learned about a new and wealthy kingdom not far away. He frankly requested the Governor to use his influence with the King to make this discovery possible without delay. Weeks passed, and Valdivia did not come back. Provisions again became scarce. Then a letter from Balboa's friend Zamudio, who had gone to Spain in the same ship with the Bachelor Enciso, in order to defend Balboa's course. Everything, it seemed, had gone wrong. The King had listened to the eloquence of the Bachelor, and would probably send for Balboa to come to Spain to answer criminal charges. It was said that he meant to send out as governor of Darien, in the place of Balboa, an old and wily courtier, one of Fonseca's favorites, named Pedro Arias de Avila, and usually called Pedrarias. "That," said Balboa, handing the letter over to Saavedra to read, "seems to mean that the fat has gone into the fire." "What shall you do?" "If the King's summons arrives," said Balboa reflectively, "I think I will be on the top of that mountain range looking for the sea the cacique spoke of." "I will go at once and make my preparations," assented the other. "Did you know that Pizarro has adopted that dog--the Spitfire--Enciso's brute?" "Has the dog adopted him?" laughed Balboa, extracting a thorn with the utmost care from the paw of Leoncico. "That is a shrewd question. You know I have a theory that a man is known by his dog. This beast seems to have changed character when he changed masters. When Enciso had him he was little more than a puppy, and then he was thievish and cowardly. Now he will attack an Indian as savagely as Leoncico himself. Pizarro must have put the iron into him." "Pizarro can," said Balboa carelessly. "He does it with his men. I think there is more in that fellow than we have supposed. We shall see--this expedition will be a kind of test." Saavedra, as he went to his own quarters, wondered whether Balboa were really as unconscious and unsuspicious as he seemed. "Like dog, like master," he said to himself. "Cacafuego shifted collars as easily as any mongrel does--as readily as Pizarro himself would. I think that Leoncico, left here without Balboa, would die. Neither a dog or a man has any business with two masters. I wonder whether in the end we shall conquer this land, or find that the land has conquered us?" Balboa set forth with one hundred and ninety picked men and a few bloodhounds. Half the company remained on shore at Coyba to guard the brigantine and canoes, and with the others Balboa began the ascent of the range of mountains from whose heights he hoped to view the sea. In no other time and country have discoverers encountered the obstacles and dangers which confronted the Spaniards who first explored Central America. Precipitous mountains, matted jungles, barren deserts, deep and swift streams, malarious bogs, and hostile natives often armed with poisoned weapons, all were in their way, and they had to make their overland journeys on foot, fully armed and often in tropical heat. Even when accompanied by Indians familiar with the country, they could count on little or nothing in the way of game or other provisions. Balboa's friendly ways with the natives had secured him Indian guides and porters, but it was difficult work, even so. In four days they traveled no more than ten leagues, and it took them from the sixth to the twenty-fifth of September to cover the ground between the coast of Darien and the foot of the last mountain they must climb. One-third of the men had been sent back from time to time, because of illness and exhaustion. The party remained for the night in the village of Quaraqua at the foot of the mountain, and at dawn they began their ascent, hoping to reach the summit before the hottest time of the day. About ten o'clock they came out of the thick forest on a high and airy slope of the mountain, and the Indians pointed out a hill, from which they said the sea was visible. Then Balboa commanded the others to rest, while he went alone to the top. "And this," muttered Pizarro to the man next him, "is the man who is always saying that there is enough glory for all!" Saavedra's quick ear caught the remark. He smiled rather satirically. He, and he alone, knew the true reason for this action of Balboa's. "Juan," the commander had said to him while they were wading through their last swamp, "when we are somewhere near the summit I shall go on alone. I want no one with me when I look down the other side of that range. Whether I see a mere lake, which these savages may call a sea, or--something greater, I am not sure I shall be able to command my feelings. I will not be a fool before the men." Balboa's heart was thumping as he climbed, more with excitement than exertion. No one but Saavedra had so much as an inkling of the importance his success or failure would have for him personally. The whole of his future lay on the unknown other side of that hill. He shut his eyes as he reached the top--then opened them upon a glorious view. A vast blue sea sparkled in the sunshine, only a few leagues away. From the mountain top to the shore of this great body of water sloped a wild landscape of forest, rock, savanna and winding river. Balboa knelt and gave thanks to God. Then he sprang to his feet and beckoned to his followers, who rushed up the hill, the great hound Leoncico bounding far ahead. When all had reached the summit Father Andreas de Varo, motioning them to kneel, began the chant of Te Deum Laudamus, in which the company joined. The notary of the expedition then wrote out a testimonial witnessing that Balboa took possession of the sea, all its islands and surrounding lands, in the name of the sovereign of Castile; and each man signed it. Balboa had a tall tree cut down and made into a cross, which was planted on the exact spot where he had stood when he first looked upon the sea. A mound of stones was piled up for an additional monument, and the names of the sovereigns were carved on neighboring trees. Then Balboa, leading his men down the southern slope of the mountain, sent out three scouting parties under Francisco Pizarro, Juan de Escaray and Alonso Martin to discover the best route to the shore. Martin's party were first to reach it, after two days' journey, and found there two large canoes. Martin stepped into one of them, calling his companions to witness that he was the first European who had ever embarked upon those waters; Blas de Etienza, who followed, was the second. They reported their success to Balboa, and with twenty-six men the commander set out for the sea-coast. The Indian chief Chiapes, whom Balboa had fought and then made his ally, accompanied the party with some of his followers. On Michaelmas they reached the shore of a great bay, which in honor of the day was christened Bay de San Miguel. The tide was out, leaving a beach half a league wide covered with mud, and the Spaniards sat down to rest and wait. When it turned, it came in so fast that some who had dropped asleep found it lapping the bank at their feet, before they were fairly roused. Balboa stood up, and taking a banner which displayed the arms of Castile and Leon, and the figure of the Madonna and Child, he drew his sword and marched into the sea. In a formal speech he again took possession, in the names of the sovereigns, of the seas and lands and coasts and ports, the islands of the south, and all kingdoms and provinces thereunto appertaining. These rights he declared himself ready to maintain "until the day of judgment." While another document was receiving the signatures of the members of the expedition, Saavedra, who was standing near the margin of the bay, took up a little water in his hand and tasted it. It was salt. In the excitement of actually reaching the coast of so broad and beautiful a sea, no one had happened to think of finding out whether the water was fresh or salt. This discovery made it certain that they had found, not a great inland lake, but the ocean itself. Pizarro scowled; he wished that he had not missed this last chance of fame. Since he had discovered nothing it was not likely that his name should be mentioned in Balboa's report to the King, at all. But Balboa, high in expectation of the change which this fortunate adventure would make in his career, went on triumphantly exploring the neighboring country, gaining here and there considerable quantities of gold and pearls. Saavedra, who had inherited an estate in Spain just before the expedition started, and expected on his return to Darien to go home to look after it, watched Pizarro with growing distrust and anxiety. "I think you are ready to accuse him of witchcraft," said Balboa lightly when Saavedra hinted at his suspicions. "You have not given me one positive proof that the man is anything but a rather sulky, unhappy brute who has had ill luck." "He is ill-bred, I tell you," said Saavedra stubbornly. "He is making up to the Indians, and that is not like him. We shall have trouble there yet." Balboa laughed and went to his hut, there to fling himself into a hammock and take a much-needed nap. Saavedra, coming back in the twilight, spied an Indian creeping through the forest toward a window in the rear of the hut. He was about to challenge the man when there was a yelp from the bushes, and Cacafuego leaped upon the prowler and bore him to earth, tearing savagely at his throat and receiving half a dozen wounds from the arrows the Indian carried in his hand and in his belt. He had been trained by Pizarro to fly at an Indian, and made no distinctions. Within an hour or two the poison in the arrow-points began to take effect, and the dog died. Whether he had been prowling about in search of food--for Pizarro kept him hungry with a view to making his temper more touchy--or was looking for his old enemy Leoncico, no one would ever know. Balboa looked grave and said nothing. "The dog is dead--that is all that is absolutely certain," said Saavedra grimly. "I wish it had been his master." NOTE It is recorded that when Pizarro met Balboa with the order for his arrest Balboa thus addressed him: "It is not thus, Pizarro, that you were wont to greet me!" Pizarro's jealousy and ill-will are evident in the recorded facts, though he does not appear to have been actually guilty of treachery to his general. COLD O' THE MOON Alone with all the stars that rule mankind Ruy Faleiro sought to read the fate Of his close friend--now by the King's rebuke Sent stumbling out of Portugal to seek His fortune on the sea-roads of the world. But when Faleiro read the horoscope It seemed to point to glory--and a grave Beyond the sunset. When Magalhaens heard The prophecy, he smiled, and steadfastly Held on his way to that young Emperor, The blond shy stripling with the Austrian face, And in due time was Admiral of the Fleet To sail the seas that lay beyond the world. Mid-August was it when the fleet set forth, December, when in that Brazilian bay, Santa Lucia, they dropped anchor,--then Set up a little altar on the beach And knelt at Mass in that gray solitude. Carvagio the pilot knew the place, And said the folk were kindly,--brown, straight-haired, Wore feather mantles, used no poisoned flints, And only ate man's flesh on holidays. Whereat a little daunted, not with fear, The mariners met them running to the shore, Bought swine of them, and plantains, cassava, And for one playing card, the king of clubs, The wild men gave six fowls! There were brown roots Formed like the turnip, chestnut-like in taste And called patata in ship-Spanish--cane Wherefrom is made the sugar and the wine Of Hispaniola, and the pineapple That was like nectar to their sea-parched throats. And thus they feasted and were satisfied. Like an enchanted Eden seemed the land, For birds on dazzling many-colored wings Made the trees blossom--parrots red, green, blue, Humming-birds like live jewels in the air, Strange ducks with spoon-shaped bills,--and overhead Like some fantastic frieze of living gold, The little yellow monkeys leaped and swung Chattering of Setebos in their unknown tongue. The old men lived beyond their sevenscore years-- Or so the people said. They made canots Of logs that they carved out with heated stones. They slept in hamacs, woven cotton swings. Their chiefs were called cacichas--you may find All this put down in the thrice precious book Written by Pigafetta of Vicenza For a queen's pleasure when the voyage was done. Then from that shore they sailed, and southward bent, And as the long days lengthened, till the nights Were but star-circled midnight intervals, They wondered of what race and by what seas They should find kings at the antipodes. Where a great river flowed into the sea They found sea-lions,--on another isle Strange geese, milk-white and sable, with no wings, Who swam instead of flying, and they called The place the Isle of Penguins. Then they found A desolate harbor called San Juliano, Where the fierce flame of mutiny broke forth, Spaniard on Portuguese turned treacherously Till in the red midwinter sunrise towered The place of execution, and an end Was made of the two traitors. Outward flashed the sail And left the sea-birds there to tell the tale. Beyond there lay a bleak and misty shore, And in the fog a wild gigantic form White-haired, a savage, called a greeting to them. Friendly the huge men were, and took these men, Bearded and strange, for kinfolk of their god, Setebos, from his home beyond the moon, And from their great shoes filled with straw for warmth Magalhaens named them men of Patagonia. Westward they steered, and buffeted by winds, They found a narrow channel, where the fleet Halted for council. One returned to Spain Laden with falsehood and with mutiny. On sailed the others valiantly, their hearts Remembering their Admiral's haughty words Flung at his craven captain, "I will see This great voyage to the end, though we should eat The leather from the yards!" And thus they reached The end of that strait path of Destiny, And saw beyond the shining Western Sea. Northward the Admiral followed that long coast Past Masafuera--then began his flight Across the great uncharted shining sea. And surely there was never stranger voyage. The winds were gentle toward him, and no more The dreadful laughter of the tempest shrilled, Or down upon them pounced the hurricane. Therefore Magalhaens, giving thanks to God, Named it Pacific, and the lonely sea. Still bore him westward where his heart would be. Alone with all the stars of Christendom He set his course,--if he had known his fate Would he have stayed his hand? Before the end Fate the old witch, who often loves to turn A man's words on him, kept the ships becalmed Even to thirst and famine; when instead They fed on leather, gnawed wood, and ate mice As did the Patagonian giants, when They begged such vermin for a savage feast. Then Fate, her jest outworn, blew them to shore On the green islands called the Isles of Thieves, And brought them to more islands--and still more, A kingdom of bright lands in sunny seas. Here did the Admiral land, and raise the Cross Above that heathen realm,--and here went down In battle for strange allies in strange lands. So ended his adventure. Yet not so, For the Victoria, faithful to his hand That laid her charge upon her, southward sailed Around the Cape and westward to Seville. El Cano brought her in, and her strange tale Told to the Emperor. "And the Admiral said," He ended, "that indeed these heathen lands God meant should all be Christian, for He set A cross of stars above the southern sea, A passion-flower upon the southern shore, To be a sign to great adventurers. These be two marvels,--and upon the way We gained a kingdom, but we lost a day!" IX WAMPUM TOWN "Elephants' teeth?" "A fair lot, but I am sick of the Guinea coast. The Lisbon slavers get more of black ivory than we do of the white." The good Jean Parmentier, who asked the question, and the youth called Jean Florin, who answered it, were looking at a stanch weather-beaten little cargo-ship anchored in the harbor of Dieppe. She had been to the Gold Coast, where wild African chiefs conjured elephants' tusks out of the mysterious back country and traded them for beads, trinkets and gay cloth. In Dieppe this ivory was carved by deft artistic fingers into crucifixes, rosaries, little caskets, and other exquisite bibelots. African ivory was finer, whiter and firmer than that of India, and when thus used was almost as valuable as gold. But within the last ten years the slave trade had grown more profitable than anything else. A Portuguese captain would kidnap or purchase a few score negroes, take them, chained and packed together like convicts, to Lisbon or Seville and sell them for fat gold moidores and doubloons. The Spanish conquistadores had not been ten years in the West Indies before they found that Indian slavery did not work. The wild people, under the terrible discipline of the mines and sugar plantations, died or killed themselves. Planters of Hispaniola declared one negro slave worth a dozen Indians. "I do not wonder that the cacique Hatuey told the priest that he would burn forever rather than go to a heaven where Spaniards lived," said Jean Florin. "To roast a man is no way to change his religion." "Some of our folk in Rochelle are of that way of thinking," agreed Captain Parmentier dryly. "What say you to a western voyage?" "Not Brazil? Cabral claims that for Portugal." "No; the northern seas--the Baccalaos. Of course codfish are not ivory, and it is rough service, but Aubert and some of the others think that there may be a way to India. Sebastian Cabot tried for it and found only icebergs, but Aubert says there is a gulf or strait somewhere south of Cabot's course, that leads westward and has never been explored." "I am tired of the Guinea trade," the youth repeated; "Cape Breton at any rate is not Spanish." "Not yet," said Jean Parmentier with emphasis. Thus it came about that when Aubert, in 1508, poked the prow of his little craft into open water to the west of the great island off which men fished for cod, there stood beside him a young man who had been learning navigation under his direction, and was now called Jean Verassen. His real name was Giovanni Verrazzano, but nobody in Dieppe knew who the Florentine Verazzani might be, and during his apprenticeship there he had been known as Florin--the Florentine. In his boyhood the magnificent Medici, the merchant princes, had ruled Florence. After the fall of Constantinople he had seen the mastery of the sea pass from Venice to Lisbon. When he left Florence he followed the call of the sea-wind westward until now he had cast his lot with the seafarers of northern France, the only bit of the Continent that was outside the shadow of the mighty power of Spain. That shadow was growing bigger and darker year by year. The heir to the Spanish throne, Charles, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, would be emperor of Germany, ruler of the Netherlands, King of Aragon, Castile, Granada and Andalusia, and sovereign of all the Spanish discoveries in the West; and no one knew how far they might extend. France might have to fight for her life. Meanwhile Norman and Breton fishermen went scudding across the North Atlantic every year, like so many petrels. Honfleur, Saint Malo, La Rochelle and Dieppe owed their modest prosperity to the cod. Baccalao, codfish or stockfish, all its names referred to the beating of the fish while drying, with a stick, to make it more tender; it was cheaper and more plentiful than any other fish for the Lenten tables and fast-days of Europe. The daring French captains found the fishing trade a hard life but a clean one. From the fishermen Aubert and Verrazzano had learned something of the nature of the country. Bears would come down to steal fish from under the noses of the men. Walrus and seal and myriads of screaming sea-gulls greeted them every season. The natives were barbarous and unfriendly. North of Newfoundland were two small islands known as the Isles of Demons, where nobody ever went. Veteran pilots told of hearing the unseen devils howling and shrieking in the air. "Saint Michael! tintamarre terrible!" they said, crossing themselves. The young Florentine listened and kept his thoughts to himself. He had never seen any devils, but he had seen men go mad in the hot fever-mist of African swamps, thinking they saw them. Aubert was not sure whether this was an inlet, a strait or a river behind the great barren island. When he had sailed westward for eighty leagues the water was still salt. The banks had drawn closer together and rude fortifications appeared on the heights. Canoes put forth from the wooded shores and surrounded the sailing ship. They were filled with copper-colored warriors of threatening aspect. The French commander did not like what he saw. He was not provisioned for a voyage around the world, and if these waters were the eastern entrance to a strait he might emerge upon a vast unknown ocean. If on the other hand he was at the mouth of a river, to ascend it might result in being cut off by hostile savages, which would be most unpleasant. A third consideration was that the inhabitants were said to live on fish, game, and berries, none of which could be secured, either peaceably or by fighting, in an enemy's country. Making hostages of seven young savages who climbed his bulwarks without any invitation, he put about and sailed away. During the following year the seven wild men were exhibited at Rouen and elsewhere. Aubert had made sure of one thing at least; the land to the west was not in the least like the rich islands which the Spanish held in the tropics. Except in the brief season when the swarming cod filled the seines of the fishermen, it yielded no wealth, not even in slaves, for the fierce and shy natives would be almost uncatchable and quite impossible to tame. Francis of Angoulême, the brilliant, reckless and extravagant young French King, was hard pushed to get money for his own Court, and was not interested in expeditions whose only result might be glory. He jested over the threatening Spanish dominion as he did over everything else. Italian dukedoms were overrun by troops from France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, and Francis welcomed Italian artists, architects and poets to his capital. When the plague attacked Paris he removed to one of the royal châteaux in the country or paid visits to great noblemen like his cousin Charles de Bourbon. It was in 1522 at Moulins, the splendid country estate of the Duc de Bourbon, that the monarch met a captain of whom he had heard a great deal--all of it gratifying. He had in mind a new enterprise for this Verrazzano. During the last seven or eight years Verrazzano, like many other captains, had been engaged in the peculiar kind of expedition dubbed piracy or privateering according to the person speaking. France and Spain were neither exactly at peace nor openly at war. The Florentine had gone out upon the high seas in command of a ship fitted out and armed at his own risk, and fought Spanish galleons wherever he met them. This helped to embarrass the King of Spain in his wars abroad. Galleons eastward bound were usually treasure-ships. The colonial governors, planters, captains and common soldiers took all the gold they could get for themselves, and the gold, silver and pearls that went as tribute to the royal master in Spain had to run the gauntlet of these fierce and fearless sea-wolves. The wealth of the Indies was really a possession of doubtful value. It attracted pirates as honey draws flies. When these pirates turned a part of their spoils over to kings who were not friendly to Spain, it was particularly exasperating. Francis had asked Verrazzano to come to Moulins because, from what he had heard, it seemed to him that here was a man who could take care of himself and hold his tongue, and he liked such men. The experience reminded the Florentine of the great days of the Medici. Charles de Bourbon's palace at Moulins was fit for a king. Unlike most French châteaux, which were built on low lands among the hunting forests, it stood on a hill in a great park, and was surrounded with terraces, fountains, and gardens in the Italian style. Moreover its furniture was permanent, not brought in for royal guests and then taken away. The richness and beauty of its tapestries, state beds, decorations, and other belongings was beyond anything in any royal palace of that time. The duke's household included five hundred gentlemen in rich suits of Genoese velvet, each wearing a massive gold chain passing three times round the neck and hanging low in front; they attended the guests in divisions, one hundred at a time. The feasting was luxurious, and many of its choice dishes were supplied by the estate. There were rare fruits and herbs in the gardens, and a great variety of game-birds and animals in the park and the forest. But there were also imported delicacies--Windsor beans, Genoa artichokes, Barbary cucumbers and Milan parsley. The first course consisted of Médoc oysters, followed by a light soup. The fish course included the royal sturgeon, the dorado or sword-fish, the turbot. Then came heron, cooked in the fashion of the day, with sugar, spice and orange-juice; olives, capers and sour fruits; pheasants, red-legged partridges, and the favorite roast, sucking-pig parboiled and then roasted with a stuffing of chopped meats, herbs, raisins and damson plums. There were salads of fruit,--such as the King's favorite of oranges, lemons and sugar with sweet herbs,--or of herbs, such as parsley and mint with pepper, cinnamon and vinegar. For dessert there were Italian ices and confectionery, and the Queen's favorite plum, Reine Claude, imported from Italy; the white wine called Clairette-au-miel, hypocras, gooseberry and plum wines, lemonade, champagne. There was never a King who could appreciate such artistic luxury more deeply than Francis I. This may be one reason for his warm welcome of Verrazzano, who seemed to be able to increase the wealth of his country and his King. "I have had a very indignant visit from the Spanish ambassador," said Francis when they were seated together in a private room. "He says that there has been piracy on the high seas, my Verrazzano." The Italian met the laughing glance of the King with a somber gleam in his own dark eyes. "Does one steal from a robber?" he asked. "Not a quill of gold-dust nor an ingot of silver nor a seed-pearl comes honestly to Spain. It is all cruelty, bribery, slavery. Savonarola threatened Lorenzo de' Medici with eternal fires, prince as he was, for sins that were peccadilloes beside those of Spanish governors." "There is something in what you say," assented Francis lightly. "If we get the treasure of the Indies without owning the Indies we are certainly rid of much trouble. I never heard of Father Adam making any will dividing the earth between our brother of Spain and our brother of Portugal. Unless they can find such a document--" the laughing face hardened suddenly into keen attention, "we may as well take what we can get where we can find it. And now about this road to India; what have you to suggest?" Verrazzano outlined his plans in brief speech and clear. The proposed voyage might have two objects; one, the finding of a route to Asia if it existed; the other, the discovery of other countries from which wealth might be gained, in territory not yet explored. Verrazzano pointed out the fact that, as the earth was round, the shortest way to India ought to be near the pole rather than near the equator, yet far enough to the south to escape the danger of icebergs. "Very well then,"--the King pondered with finger on cheek. "Say as little as possible of your preparations, use your own discretion, and if any Spaniards try to interfere with you--" the monarch grinned,--"tell them that it is my good pleasure that my subjects go where they like." The Spanish agents in France presently informed their employer that the Florentine Verrazzano was again making ready to sail for regions unknown. Perhaps he did not himself know where he should go; at any rate the spies had not been able to find out. Two months later news came that before Verrazzano had gone far enough to be caught by the squadron lying in wait for him, he had pounced on the great carrack which had been sent home by Cortes loaded with Aztec gold. In convoying this prize to France he had caught another galleon coming from Hispaniola with a cargo of gold and pearls, and the two rich trophies were now in the harbor of La Rochelle, where the audacious captain was doubtless making ready for another piratical voyage. Verrazzano made a second start a little later, but was driven back by a Biscay storm. Finally, toward the end of the year 1523, he set out once more with only one ship, the _Dauphine_, out of his original fleet of four, and neither friend nor foe caught a glimpse of him during the voyage. In March, 1524, having sailed midway between the usual course of the West Indian galleons and the path of the fishers going to and from the Banks of Newfoundland, he saw land which he felt sure had not been discovered either by ancient or modern explorers. It was a low shore on which the fine sand, some fifteen feet deep, lay drifted into hillocks or dunes. Small creeks and inlets ran inland, but there seemed to be no good harbor. Beyond the sand-dunes were forests of cypress, palm, bay and other trees, and the wind bore the scent of blossoming trees and vines far out to sea. For fifty leagues the _Dauphine_ followed the coast southward, looking for a harbor, for Verrazzano knew that pearl fisheries and spices were far more likely to be found in southern than in northern waters. No harbor appeared. The daring navigator knew that if he went too far south he ran some risk of encountering a Spanish fleet, and that after his getting two of the most valuable cargoes ever sent over seas, they would be patroling all the tropical waters in the hope of catching him. He turned north again. On the shore from time to time little groups of savages appeared moving about great bonfires, and watching the ship. They wore hardly any clothing except the skin of some small animal like a marten, attached to a belt of woven grass; their skins were russet-brown and their thick straight black hair was tied in a knot rather like a tail. "One thing is certain," said young François Parmentier cheerfully, "these folk have never seen Spaniards--or Portuguese. Even on the Labrador the people ran from us, after Cortereale went slave-stealing there." Verrazzano smiled. Young Parmentier was always full of hope and faith. A little later the youth volunteered to be one of a boat's crew sent ashore for water, and provided himself with a bagful of the usual trinkets for gifts. The surf ran so high that the boat could not land, and François leaped overboard and swam ashore. Here he scattered his wares among the watching Indians, and then, leaping into the waves again, struck out for the boat. But the surf dashed him back upon the sand into the very midst of the natives, who seized him by the arms and legs and carried him toward the fire, while he yelled with astonishment and terror. Verrazzano was if anything more horrified than François himself; this was the son of his oldest friend. The Indians were removing his clothing as if they were about to roast him alive. But it appeared presently that they only wished to dry his clothes and comfort him, for they soon allowed him to return to the boat, seeing this was his earnest desire, and watched him with the greatest friendliness as he swam back. No strait appeared, but at one point Verrazzano, landing and marching into the interior with an exploring party, found a vast expanse of water on the other side of what seemed a neck of land between the two seas, about six miles in width. If this were the South Sea, the same which Balboa had seen from the Isthmus of Darien, so narrow a strip of land was at least as good or better than anything possessed by Spain. Verrazzano continued northward, and found a coast rich in grapes, the vines often covering large trees around which the natives kept the ground clear of shrubs that might interfere with this natural vineyard. Wild roses, violets, lilies, iris and many other plants and flowers, some quite unknown to Europe, greeted the admiring gaze of the commander. His quick mind pictured a royal garden adorned with these foreign shrubs and herbs, the wainscoting and furniture to be made by French and Italian joiners from these endless leagues of timber, the stately churches and castles which might be built by skilful masons from the abundant stone along these shores. Here was a province which, if it had not gold, had the material for many luxuries which must otherwise be bought with gold, and his clear Italian brain perceived that ingots of gold and silver are not the only treasure of kings. At last the _Dauphine_ came into a harbor or lake three leagues in circumference, where more than thirty canoes were assembled, filled with people. Suddenly François Parmentier leaped to his feet and waved his cap with a shout. "Now what madness has taken you?" queried Verrazzano. "I know where we are, that's all. This is Wampum Town,--L'Anormé Berge--the Grand Scarp. This is one of their great trading places, Captain. Father heard about it at Cape Breton from some south-country savages." "And what may wampum be?" asked Verrazzano coolly. "'T is the stuff they use for money--bits of shell made into beads and strung into a belt. There is an island in this bay where they make it out of their shell-fish middens--two kinds--purple and white. On my word, this big chief has on a wampum belt now!" This was interesting information indeed, and the natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness. Verrazzano found upon investigation that on the north of this bay a very large river, deep at the mouth, came down between steep hills. Afterward, following the shore to the east, he discovered a fine harbor beyond a three-cornered island. Here he met two chiefs of that country, a man of about forty, and a young fellow of twenty-four, dressed in quaintly decorated deerskin mantles, with chains set with colored stones about their necks. He stayed two weeks, refitting the ship with provisions and other necessaries, and observing the place. The crew got by trading and as gifts the beans and corn cultivated by the people, wild fruits and nuts, and furs. Further north they found the tribes less friendly, and at last came so near the end of their provision that Verrazzano decided to return to France. He reached home July 8, 1524, after having sailed along seven hundred leagues of the Atlantic coast. [Illustration: "The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness"--_Page_ 132] Francis I. was in the thick of a disastrous war with Spain, and had not time just then to consider further explorations. The war was not fairly over when a Cadiz warship, in 1527, caught Verrazzano and hanged him as a pirate. NOTE The not unnatural conclusion of Verrazzano that what he saw was an ocean or a great inland sea led to extraordinary misconceptions in the maps and charts of the time. It was not until the early part of the seventeenth century that the region was actually explored, by Newport and Smith, and found to be only Chesapeake Bay. THE DRUM I wake the gods with my sullen boom-- I am the Drum! They wait for the blood-red flowers that bloom In the heart of the sacrifice, there in the gloom With terror dumb-- I sound the call to his dreadful doom-- I am the Drum! I was the Serpent, the Sacred Snake-- Wolf, bear and fox By the silent shores of river and lake Tread softly, listening lest they wake My voice that mocks The rattle that falling bones will make On barren rocks. My banded skin is the voice of the Priest-- I am the Drum! I sound the call to the War-God's feast Till Tezcatlipoca's power hath ceased And the White Gods come Out of the fire of the burning East-- Hear me, the Drum! X THE GODS OF TAXMAR If the Fathers of the Church had ever been on the other side of the world, they would have made new rules for it. So thought Jerónimo Aguilar, on board a caravel plying between Darien and Hispaniola. It was a thought he would hardly have dared think in Spain. He was a dark thin young friar from the mountains near Seville. In 1488 his mother, waiting, as women must, for news from the wars, vowed that if God and the Most Catholic Sovereigns drove out the Moors and sent her husband home to her, she would give her infant son to the Church. That was twenty-four years ago, and never had the power of the Church been so great as it now was. When the young Fray Jerónimo had been moved by fiery missionary preaching to give himself to the work among the Indians, his mother wept with astonishment and pride. But the Indies he found were not the Indies he had heard of. Men who sailed from Cadiz valiant if rough and hard-bitted soldiers of the Cross, turned into cruel adventurers greedy for gold, hard masters abusing their power. The innocent wild people of Colón's island Eden were charged by the planters with treachery, theft, murderous conspiracy, and utter laziness. With a little bitter smile Aguilar remembered how the hidalgo, who would not dig to save his life, railed at the Indian who died of the work he had never learned to do. It was not for a priest to oppose the policy of the Church and the Crown, and very few priests attempted it, whatever cruelty they might see. Aguilar half imagined that the demon gods of the heathen were battling against the invading apostles of the Cross, poisoning their hearts and defeating their aims. It was all like an evil enchantment. These meditations were ended by a mighty buffet of wind that smote the caravel and sent it flying northwest. Ourakan was abroad, the Carib god of the hurricane, and no one could think of anything thereafter but the heaving, tumbling wilderness of black waves and howling tempest and hissing spray. Valdivia, regidor of Darien, had been sent to Hispaniola by Balboa, the governor, with important letters and a rich tribute of gold, to get supplies and reinforcements for the colony. Shipwreck would be disastrous to Balboa and his people as well as to the voyagers. Headlong the staggering ship was driven upon Los Viboros, (The Vipers) that infamous group of hidden rocks off Jamaica. She was pounded to pieces almost before Valdivia could get his one boat into the water, with its crew of twenty men. Without food or drink, sails or proper oars, the survivors tossed for thirteen dreadful days on the uncharted cross-currents of unknown seas. Seven died of hunger, thirst and exposure before the tide that drifted northwest along the coast of the mainland caught them and swept them ashore. None of them had ever seen this coast. Valdivia cherished a faint hope that it might be a part of the kingdom of walled cities and golden temples, of which they had all heard. There were traces of human presence, and they could see a cone-shaped low hill with a stone temple or building of some kind on the top. Natives presently appeared, but they broke the boat in pieces and dragged the castaways inland through the forest to the house of their cacique. That chief, a villainous looking savage in a thatched hut, looked at them as if they had been cattle--or slaves--or condemned heretics. What they thought, felt or hoped was nothing to him. He ordered them taken to a kind of pen, where they were fed. So great is the power of the body over the mind that for a few days they hardly thought of anything but the unspeakable joy of having enough to eat and drink, and nothing to do but sleep. The cacique visited the enclosure now and then, and looked them over with a calculating eye. Aguilar was haunted by the idea that this inspection meant something unpleasant. All too soon the meaning was made known to them. Valdivia and four other men who were now less gaunt and famine-stricken than when captured, were seized and taken away, to be sacrificed to the gods. It was the custom of the Mayas of Yucatan to sacrifice human beings, captives or slaves for choice, to the gods in whose honor the stone pyramids were raised. When the victim had been led up the winding stairway to the top, the central figure in a procession of priests and attendants, he was laid upon a stone altar and his heart was cut out and offered to the idol, after which the body was eaten at a ceremonial feast. The eight captives who remained now understood that the food they had had was meant merely to fatten them for future sacrifice. Half mad with horror, they crouched in the hot moist darkness, and listened to the uproar of the savages. A strong young sailor by the name of Gonzalo Guerrero, who had done good service during the hurricane, pulled Jerónimo by the sleeve, "What in the name of all the saints can we do, Padre?" he muttered. "José and the rest will be raving maniacs." Aguilar straightened himself and rose to his feet where the rays of the moon, white and calm, shone into the enclosure. Lifting his hands to heaven he began to pray. All he had learned from books and from the disputations and sermons of the Fathers fell away from him and left only the bare scaffolding, the faith of his childhood. At the familiar syllables of the Ave Maria the shuddering sailors hushed their cries and oaths and listened, on their knees. This was a handful of castaways in the clutch of a race of man-eaters who worshiped demons. But above them bent the tender and pitiful Mother of Christ who had seen her Son crucified, and Christ Himself stood surrounded by innumerable witnesses. Among the saints were some who had died at the hands of the heathen, many who had died by torture. The poor and ignorant men who listened were caught up for the moment into the vision of Fray Jerónimo and regained their self-control. When the prayer was ended Gonzalo Guerrero sprang up, and rallied them to furious labor. Under his direction and Aguilar's they dug and wrenched at their cage like desperate rats, until they broke away enough of it just to let a man's body through. Aguilar was the last to go. He closed the hole and heaped rubbish outside it, as rubbish and branches had been piled where they were used to sleep, to delay as long as possible the discovery of their escape. They got clear away into the depths of the forest. But for men without provisions or weapons the wilderness of that unknown land was only less dreadful than death. Trees and vines barren of fruit, streams where a huge horny lizard ate all the fish--El Lagarto he was called by the discoverers,--no grain or cattle which might be taken by stealth--this was the realm into which they had been exiled. When they ventured out of the forest, driven by famine, they were captured by Acan Xooc, the cacique of another province, Jamacana. Here they were made slaves, to cut wood, carry water and bear burdens. Water was scarce in that region. There had been reservoirs, built in an earlier day, but these were ruined, and water had to be carried in earthern jars. The cacique died, and another named Taxmar succeeded him. Year after year passed. The soul of one worn-out white man slipped away, followed by another, and another, until only Aguilar and Guerrero were left alive. Taxmar sent the sailor as a present to a friend, cacique of Chatemal, but kept Aguilar for himself, watching his ways. The cacique was a sagacious heathen of considerable experience, but he had never seen a man like this one. Jerónimo was now almost as dark as an Indian and had not a scrap of civilized clothing, yet he was unlike the other white men, unlike any other slave. He had a string of dried berries with a cross made of reeds hung from it, which he sometimes appeared to be counting, talking to himself in his own language. Taxmar had once seen a slave from the north who had been a priest in his own country and knew how to remember things by string-talk, knotting a string in a peculiar fashion; but he was not like this man. When the white slave saw the crosses carved on their old walls he had eagerly asked how they came there, and Taxmar gathered that the cross had some meaning in the captive's own religion. He never lied, never stole, never got angry, never tattled of the other slaves, never disobeyed orders, never lost his temper. Taxmar could not remember when he himself had ever been restrained by anything but policy from taking whatever he wanted. Here was a man who could deny himself even food at times, when he was not compelled to. Taxmar could not understand. What he did not know was, that when he had escaped from the cannibals Aguilar had made a fresh vow to keep with all strictness every vow of his priesthood, and to bear his lot with patience and meekness until it should be the will of God to free him from the savages. He had begun to think that this freedom would never be his in his lifetime, but a vow was a vow. He no more suspected that Taxmar was taking note of his behavior, than a man standing in front of the lion's cage at the menagerie can translate the thoughts behind the great cat's intent eyes. Taxmar began to try experiments. He invented temptations to put in the way of his slave, but Aguilar generally did not seem to see them. One day the Indians were shooting at a mark. One came up to Aguilar and seized him by the arm. "How would you like to be shot at?" he said. "These bowmen hit whatever they aim at--if they aim at a nose they hit a nose. They can shoot so near you that they miss only by the breadth of a grain of corn--or do not miss at all." Aguilar never flinched, although from what he knew of the savages he thought nothing more likely than his being set up for a San Sebastian. He answered quietly, "I am your slave, and you can do with me what you please. I think you are too wise to destroy one who is both useful and obedient." The suggestion had been made by the order of Taxmar, and the answer was duly reported to him. It took a long time to satisfy the chief that this man who seemed so extraordinary was really what he seemed. He came at last to trust him wholly, even making him the steward of his household and leaving him to protect his women in his absence. Finding the chief thus disposed, Aguilar ventured a suggestion. Guerrera had won great favor with his master by his valor in war. Aguilar was shrewd enough to know that though it was very pleasant to have his master's confidence, if anything happened to Taxmar he might be all the worse off. The only sure way to win the respect of these barbarians was by efficiency as a soldier. Taxmar upon request gave his steward the military outfit of the Mayas--bow and arrows, wicker-work shield, and war-club, with a dagger of obsidian, a volcanic stone very hard and capable of being made very keen of edge, but brittle. Jerónimo when a boy had been an expert archer, and his old skill soon returned. He also remembered warlike devices and stratagems he had seen and heard of. Old soldiers chatting with his father in the purple twilight had often fought their battles over again, and nearly every form of military tactics then known to civilized armies had been used in the war in Granada. Naturally the young friar had heard more or less discussion of military campaigns in Darien. His suggestions were so much to the point that Taxmar had an increased respect for the gods of that unknown land of his. If they could do so much for this slave, without even demanding any offerings, they must be very different from the gods of the Mayas. In reply to Taxmar's questions, Aguilar, who now spoke the language quite well, endeavored to explain the nature of his religion. Not many of the Spaniards who expected to convert the Indians went so far as this. If they could by any means whatever make their subjects call themselves Christians and observe the customs of the Church, it was all they attempted. Taxmar was not the sort of person to be converted in that informal way. He demanded reasons. If Aguilar advised him against having unhappy people murdered to bribe the gods for their help in the coming campaign, he wished to know what the objection was, and what the white chiefs did in such a case. The idea of sacrificing to one's god, not the lives of men, but one's own will and selfish desires, was entirely new to him. While Jerónimo was still wrestling with the problem of making the Christian faith clear to one single Indian out of the multitudes of the heathen, a neighboring cacique appeared on the scene,--jealous, angry and suspicious. He had heard, he said, that Taxmar sought the aid of a stranger, who worshiped strange gods, in a campaign directed against his neighbors. He wished to know if Taxmar considered this right. In his own opinion this stranger ought to be sacrificed to the gods of the Mayas after the usual custom, or the gods would be angry,--and then no one knew what would happen. Aguilar thought it possible that Taxmar might reply that the conduct of an army was no one's business but the chief's. That would be in line with the cacique's character as he knew it. He did not expect that any chief in that ancient land would dare to defy its gods openly. Taxmar did not meet the challenge at once. His deep set opaque black eyes and mastiff-like mouth looked as immovable as the carving on the basalt stool upon which he sat. The cacique thought he was impressed, and concluded triumphantly, "Who can resist the gods? Let the altar drink the blood of the stranger; it is sweet to them and they will sleep, and not wake." "I shall do nothing of the kind," said Taxmar, the clicking, bubbling Maya talk dropping like water on hot stones. "When a man serves me well, I do not reward him with death. My slave's wisdom is greater than the craft of Coyotl, and if his gods help me it is because they know enough to do right." The other chief went home in rage and disappointment and offended dignity. No one, who has not tried it, can imagine the sensation of living in a hostile land, removed from all that is familiar. Until his captivity began Aguilar had never been obliged to act for himself. He had always been under the authority of a superior. He had questioned and wondered, seen the injustice of this thing and that, but only in his own mind. When everything in his past life had been swept away at one stroke, his faith alone was left him in the wrecked and distorted world. He had never dreamed that Taxmar was learning to respect that faith. The neighboring cacique now joined Taxmar's enemies with all his army, and the councilors took alarm and repeated the suggestion that Aguilar should be sacrificed to make sure of the help of the gods. Taxmar again spoke plainly. "Our gods," he said, "have helped us when we were strong and powerful and sacrificed many captives in their honor. This man's gods help him when he is a slave, alone, far from his people, with nothing to offer in sacrifice. We will see now what they will do for my army." In the battle which followed, the cacique adopted a plan which Aguilar suggested. That loyal follower was placed in command of a force hidden in the woods near the route by which the enemy would arrive. The hostile forces marched past it, and charged upon the front of Taxmar's army. It gave way, and they rushed in with triumphant yells. When they were well past, Aguilar's division came out of the bushes and took them in the rear. At the same instant Taxmar and his warriors faced about and sprang at them like a host of panthers. There was a great slaughter, many prisoners were taken, among them the cacique himself and many men of importance; and Taxmar made a little speech to them upon the wisdom of the white man's gods. In the years that passed the captive's hope of escape faded. Once he had thought he might slip away and reach the coast, but he was too carefully watched. Even if he could get to the sea from so far inland, without the help of the natives, he could not reach any Spanish colony without a boat. There were rumors of strange ships filled with bearded men, whose weapons were the thunder and the lightning. Old people wagged their heads and recalled a prophecy of the priest Chilam Cambal many years ago, that a white people, bearded, would come from the east, to overturn the images of the gods, and conquer the land. Hernando de Córdova's squadron came and went; Grijalva's came and went; Aguilar heard of them but never saw them. At last, seven long years after he came to Jamacana, three coast Indians from the island of Cozumel came timidly to the cacique with gifts and a letter. The gifts were for Taxmar, to buy his Christian slaves, if he had any, and the letter was for them. Hernando Cortes, coming from Cuba with a squadron to discover and conquer the land ruled by the Lord of the Golden House, had stopped at Cozumel and there heard of white men held as captives somewhere inland. He had persuaded the Indians to send messengers for them, saying that if the captives were sent to the sea-coast, at the cape of Cotoche, he would leave two caravels there eight days, to wait for them. While Aguilar read this letter the Indians were telling of the water-houses of the strangers, their sharp weapons, their command of thunder and lightning, and the wonderful presents they gave in exchange for what they wanted. Aguilar's account of the squadron was even more complete. He described the dress of the Spaniards, their weapons and their manner of life without having seen them at all, and the Indians, when asked, said it was so. Taxmar's acute mind was adjusting itself to this event, which was not altogether unexpected. He had heard more than Aguilar had about the previous visits of the Spaniards to that coast. He asked Aguilar if he thought that the strange warriors would accept him, their countryman, as ambassador, and deal mildly with Taxmar and his people, if they let him go. Aguilar answered that he thought they would. Now freedom was within his grasp, and only one thing delayed him. He could not leave his comrade Guerrero behind. The sailor had married the daughter of a chief and become a great man in his adopted country. Aguilar sent Indian messengers with the letter and a verbal message, and waited. Guerrero had never known much about reading, and he had forgotten nearly all he knew. He understood, however, that he could now return to Spain. Before his eyes rose a picture of the lofty austere sierras, the sunny vineyards, the wine, so unlike pulque, the bread, so unlike flat cakes of maize, the maidens of Barcelona and Malaga, so very different from tattooed Indian girls. And then he surveyed his own brawny arms and legs, and felt of his own grotesquely ornamented countenance. To please the taste of his adopted people he had let himself be decorated as they were, for life,--with tattooed pictures, with nose-ring, with ear-rings of gold set with rudely cut gems and heavy enough to drag down the lobe of the ear. He would cut a figure in the streets of Seville. The little boys would run after him as if he were a show. He grinned, sighed mightily, and sent word to Aguilar that he thought it wiser to stay where he was. Aguilar set out for the coast with the Cozumel Indians, but this delay had consumed all of the eight days appointed, and when they reached Point Cotoche the caravels had gone. But a broken canoe and a stave from a water-barrel lay on the beach, and with the help of the messengers Aguilar patched up the canoe, and with the board for a paddle, made the canoe serve his need. Following the coast they came to the narrowest part of the channel between the mainland and Cozumel, and in spite of a very strong current got across to the island. No sooner had they landed when some Spaniards rushed out of the bushes, with drawn swords. The Indians were about to fly in terror, but Aguilar called to them in their own language to have no fear. Then he spoke to the Spaniards in broken Castilian, saying that he was a Christian, fell on his knees and thanked God that he had lived to hear his own language again. The Spaniards looked at this strange figure in absolute bewilderment. He was to all appearance an Indian. His long hair was braided and wound about his head, he had a bow in his hand, a quiver of arrows on his back, a bag of woven grass-work hung about his neck by a long cord. The pattern of the weaving was a series of interwoven crosses. Cortes, giving up hope of rescuing any Christian captives, had left the island, but one of his ships had sprung a leak and he had put back. When he saw an Indian canoe coming he had sent scouts to see what it might be. They now led Jerónimo Aguilar and his Indian companions into the presence of the captain-general and his staff. Aguilar saluted Cortes in the Indian fashion, by carrying his hand from the ground to his forehead as he knelt crouching before him. But Cortes, when he understood who this man was, raised him to his feet, embraced him and flung about his shoulders his own cloak. Aguilar became his interpreter, and thus was the prophecy fulfilled concerning the gods of Taxmar. [Illustration: "CORTES FLUNG ABOUT HIS SHOULDERS HIS OWN CLOAK."--_Page_ 146] NOTE The story of Jerónimo Aguilar follows the actual facts very closely. The account of his adventures will be found in Irving's "Life of Columbus" and other works dealing with the history of the Spanish conquests. A LEGEND OF MALINCHE O sorcerer Time, turn backward to the shore Where it is always morning, and the birds Are troubadours of all the hidden lore Deeper than any words! There lived a maiden once,--O long ago, Ere men were grown too wise to understand The ancient language that they used to know In Quezalcoatl's land. Though her own mother sold her for a slave, Her own bright beauty as her only dower, Into her slender hands the conqueror gave A more than queenly power. Between her people and the enemy-- The fierce proud Spaniard on his conquest bent-- Interpreter and interceder, she In safety came and went. And still among the wild shy forest folk The birds are singing of her, and her name Lives in that language that her people spoke Before the Spaniard came. She is not dead, the daughter of the Sun,-- By love and loyalty divinely stirred, She lives forever--so the legends run,-- Returning as a bird. Who but a white bird in her seaward flight Saw, borne upon the shoulders of the sea, Three tiny caravels--how small and light To hold a world in fee! Who but the quezal, when the Spaniards came And plundered all the white imperial town, Saw in a storm of red rapacious flame The Aztec throne go down! And when the very rivers talked of gold, The humming-bird upon her lichened nest Strange tales of wild adventure never told Hid in her tiny breast. The mountain eagle, circling with the stars, Watched the great Admiral swiftly come and go In his light ship that set at naught the bars Wrought by a giant foe. Dull are our years and hard to understand, We dream no more of mighty days to be, And we have lost through delving in the land The wisdom of the sea. Yet where beyond the sea the sunset burns, And the trees talk of kings dead long ago, Malinche sings among the giant ferns-- Ask of the birds--they know! XI THE THUNDER BIRDS "Glory is all very well," said Juan de Saavedra to Pedro de Alvarado as the squadron left the island of Cozumel, "but my familiar spirit tells me that there is gold somewhere in this barbaric land or Cortes would not be with us." Alvarado's peculiarly sunny smile shone out. He was a ruddy golden-haired man, a type unusual in Spaniards, and the natives showed a tendency to revere him as the sun-god. Life had treated him very well, and he had an abounding good-nature. "It will be the better," he said comfortably, "if we get both gold and glory. I confess I have had my doubts of the gold, for after all, these Indians may have more sense than they appear to have." "People often do, but in what way, especially?" "_Amigo_, put yourself in the place of one of these caciques, with white men bedeviling you for a treasure which you never even troubled yourself to pick up when it lay about loose. What can be more easy than to tell them that there is plenty of it somewhere else--in the land of your enemies? That is Pizarro's theory, at any rate." Saavedra laughed. "Pizarro is wise in his way, but as I have said, Cortes is our commander." "What has that to do with it?" "If you had been at Salamanca in his University days you wouldn't ask. He never got caught in a scrape, and he always got what he was after." "And kept it?" "Is that a little more of Pizarro's wisdom? No; he always shared the spoils as even-handedly as you please. But if any of us lost our heads and got into a pickle he never was concerned in it--or about it." "He will lose his, if Velasquez catches him. Remember Balboa." "Now there is an example of the chances he will take. Cortes first convinces the Governor that nobody else is fit to trust with this undertaking. Córdova failed; Grijalva failed; Cortes will succeed or leave his bones on the field of honor. No sooner are we fairly out of harbor than Velasquez tries to whistle us back. He might as well blow his trumpets to the sea-gulls. All Cortes wanted was a start. You will see--either the Governor will die or be recalled while we are gone, or we shall come back so covered with gold and renown that he will not dare do anything when we are again within his reach. Somebody's head may be lost in this affair, but it will not be that of Hernan' Cortes." The man of whom they were speaking just then approached, summoning Alvarado to him. Saavedra leaned on the rail musing. "Sometimes," he said to himself, "one hastens a catastrophe by warning people of it, but then, that may be because it could not have been prevented. Cortes is inclined to make that simple fellow his aide because they are so unlike, and so, I suspect, are others. At any rate I have done my best to make him see whose leadership is safest." The fleet was a rather imposing one for those waters. There were eleven ships altogether, the flagship and three others being over seventy tons' weight, the rest caravels and open brigantines. These were manned by one hundred and ten sailors, and carried five hundred and fifty-three soldiers, of whom thirty-two were crossbowmen and thirteen arquebusiers. There were also about two hundred Indians. Sixteen horses accompanied the expedition, and it had ten heavy cannon, four light field-guns, called falconets, and a good supply of ammunition. The horses cost almost more than the ships that carried them, for they had been brought from Spain; but their value in such an undertaking was great. Hernando Cortes had come out to Cuba when he was nineteen, and that was fifteen years ago. Much had been reported concerning an emperor in a country to the west, who ruled over a vast territory inhabited by copper-colored people rich in gold, who worshiped idols. Cortes had observed that Indian tribes, like schoolboys, were apt to divide into little cliques and quarreling factions. If the subject tribes did not like the Emperor, and were jealous of him and of each other, a foreign conqueror had one tool ready to his hand, and it was a tool that Cortes had used many times before. The people of this coast, however, were not at all like the gentle and childlike natives Colón had found. From the rescued captive Aguilar, the commander learned much of their nature and customs. On his first attempt to land, his troops encountered troops of warriors in brilliant feathered head-bands and body armor of quilted white cotton. They used as weapons the lance, bow and arrows, club, and a curious staff about three and a half feet long set with crosswise knife-blades of obsidian. Against poisoned arrows, such as the invaders had more than once met, neither arquebus nor cannon was of much use, and body armor was no great protection, since a scratch on hand or leg would kill a man in a few hours. After some skirmishing and more diplomacy, at various points along the coast, Cortes landed his force on the island which Grijalva had named San Juan de Ulloa, from a mistaken notion that Oloa, the native salutation, was the name of the place. The natives had watched the "water-houses," as they called them, sailing over the serene blue waters, and this tribe, being peaceable folk, sent a pirogue over to the island with gifts. There were not only fruits and flowers, but little golden ornaments, and the Spanish commander sent some trinkets in return. In endeavoring to talk with them Cortes became aware of an unusual piece of luck. Aguilar did not understand the language of these folk. But at Tabasco, where Cortes had had a fight with the native army, some slaves had been presented to him as a peace-offering. Among them was a beautiful young girl, daughter of a Mexican chief, who after her father's death had been sold as a slave by her own mother, who wished to get her inheritance. During her captivity she had learned the dialect Aguilar spoke, and the two interpreters between them succeeded in translating Cortes's Castilian into the Aztec of Mexico from the first. The young girl was later baptized Marina. There being no "r" in the Aztec language the people called her Malintzin or Malinche,--Lady Marina, the ending "tzin" being a title of respect. She learned Castilian with wonderful quickness, and was of great service not only to Cortes but to her own people, since she could explain whatever he did not understand. Cortes learned that the name of the ruler of the country was Moteczuma. His capital was on the plateau about seventy miles in the interior. This coast province, which he had lately conquered, was ruled by one of his Aztec governors. Gold was abundant. Moteczuma had great store of it. Cortes decided to pitch his camp where afterward stood the capital of New Spain. The friendly Indians brought stakes and mats and helped to build huts, native fashion. From all the country round the people flocked to see the strange white men, bringing fruit, flowers, game, Indian corn, vegetables and native ornaments of all sorts. Some of these they gave away and some they bartered. Every soldier and mariner turned trader; the place looked like a great fair. On Easter Day the Aztec governor arrived upon a visit of ceremony. Cortes received him in his own tent, with all courtesy, in the presence of his officers, all in full uniform. Mass was said, and the Aztec chief and his attendants listened with grave politeness. Then the guests were invited to a dinner at which various Spanish dishes, wines and sweetmeats were served as formally as at court. After this the interpreters were summoned for the real business of the day. The Aztec nobleman wished to know whence and why the strangers had come to this country. Cortes answered that he was the subject of a monarch beyond seas, as powerful as Moteczuma, who had heard of the Aztec Emperor and sent his compliments and some gifts. The governor gracefully expressed his willingness to convey both to his royal master. Cortes courteously declined, saying that he must himself deliver them. At this the governor seemed surprised and displeased; evidently this was not in his plan. "You have been here only two days," he said, "and already demand an audience with the Emperor?" Then he expressed his astonishment at learning that there was any other monarch as great as Moteczuma, and sent his attendants to bring a few gifts which he himself had chosen for the white chief. These tributes consisted of ten loads, each as much as a man could carry, of fine cotton stuff, mantles of exquisite feather-work, and a woven basket full of gold ornaments. Cortes expressed his admiration and appreciation of the gifts, and sent for those he had brought for Moteczuma. They consisted of an arm-chair, richly carved and painted, a crimson cloth cap with a gold medal bearing the device of San Jorge and the dragon, and some collars, bracelets and other ornaments of cut glass. To the Aztec, who had never seen glass, these appeared wonderful. He ventured the remark that a gilt helmet worn by one of the Spanish soldiers was like the casque of their god Quetzalcoatl, and he wished that Moteczuma could see it. Cortes immediately sent for the helmet and handed it to the chief, with the suggestion that he should like to have it returned full of the gold of the country in order to compare it with the gold of Spain. Spaniards, he said, were subject to a complaint affecting the heart, for which gold was a remedy. This was not entirely an invention of the commander's fertile brain. Many physicians of those days did regard gold as a valuable drug; but only Cortes ever thought of making use of the theory to get the gold. During this polite and interesting conversation Cortes observed certain attendants busily making sketches of all that they saw, and on inquiry was told that this "picture-writing" would give the Emperor a far better idea of the appearance of the strangers than words alone. Upon this the Spanish general ordered out the cavalry and artillery and put them through their evolutions on the beach. The cannon, whose balls splintered great trees, and the horsemen, whose movements the Aztecs followed with even more terror than those of the gunners, made a tremendous impression. The artists, though scared, stuck to their duty, and the strange and terrible beasts, and the thunder-birds whose mouths breathed destruction, were drawn for the Emperor to see. After this the governor, assuring Cortes that he should have whatever he needed in the way of provisions until further orders were received from the Emperor, made his adieux and went home. Then began a diplomatic game between Cortes and the Emperor and the various chiefs of the country. The couriers of the imperial government, who traveled in relays, could take a message to the capital and return in seven or eight days. In due time two ambassadors arrived from Moteczuma, with gifts evidently meant to impress the strangers with his wealth and power. The embassy was accompanied by the governor of the province and about a hundred slaves. Some of these attendants carried burning censers from which arose clouds of incense; others unrolled upon the ground fine mats on which to place the presents. Nothing like this had ever been offered to a Spanish conqueror, even by Moors, to say nothing of Indians. There were two collars of gold set with precious stones; a hundred ounces of gold ore just as it came from the mines; a large alligator's-head of gold; six shields covered with gold; helmets and necklaces of gold. There were birds made of green feathers, the feet, beaks and eyes of gold; a box of feather-work upon leather, set with a gold plate weighing seventy ounces; pieces of cloth curiously woven with feathers, and others woven in various designs. Most gorgeous of all were two great plates as big as carriage wheels, one of gold and one of silver, wrought with various devices of plants and animals rather like the figures of the zodiac. The wildest tales of the most imaginative adventurer never pictured such magnificence. If Moteczuma's plan had been to induce the strangers to respect his wishes and go home without visiting his capital, it was a complete failure. After this proof of the wealth and splendor of the country Cortes had no more idea of leaving it than a hound has of abandoning a fresh trail. When the envoys gave him Moteczuma's message of regret that it would not be possible for them to meet, Cortes replied that he could not think of going back to Spain now. The road to the capital might be perilous, but what was that to him? Would they not take to the Emperor these slight additional tokens of the regard and respect of the Spanish ruler, and explain to him how impossible it would be for Cortes to face his own sovereign, with the great object of his voyage unfulfilled? There was nothing for the embassy to do but to take the message. While waiting for results, Cortes received a visit from some Indian chiefs of the Totonacs, a tribe lately conquered by the Aztecs. Their ruler, it seemed, had heard of the white cacique and would like to receive him in his capital. Cortes gave them presents and promised to come. In the meantime his own men were quarreling, and both parties were threatening him. The bolder spirits announced that if he did not make a settlement in the country, with or without instructions from the governor of Cuba who had sent him out, they would report him to the King. The friends of Velazquez accused Cortes of secretly encouraging this rebellion, and demanded that as he had now made his discovery, he should return to Cuba and report. Cortes calmly answered that he was quite willing to return at once, and ordered the ships made ready. This caused such a storm of wrath and disappointment that even those who had urged it quailed. Seeing that the time was ripe, the captain-general called his followers together and made a speech. He declared that nobody could have the interests of the sovereigns and the glory of the Spanish race more at heart than he had. He was willing to do whatever was best. If they, his comrades, desired to return to Cuba he would go directly. But if they were ready to join him, he would found a colony in the name of the sovereigns, with all proper officers to govern it, to remain in this rich country and trade with the people. In that case, however, he would of course have to resign his commission as captain-general of an expedition of discovery. There was a roar of approval from the army at this alluring suggestion. Before most of them fairly knew what they were about they had voted to form a colony under the royal authority, elected Cortes governor as soon as he resigned his former position, and seen the new governor appoint a council in proper form, to aid in the government. "I knew it," said Saavedra to himself as he went back, alone, to his quarters. "Just as people have made up their minds they have got him between the door and the jamb, he is somewhere else. When he resigned his commission he slipped out from under the government of Cuba, and that has no authority over him. He has appointed a council made up of his own friends, and now he can hang every one of the Velasquez party if they make any trouble. But they won't." They did not. Cortes sent his flagship to Spain with some of his especial friends and some of his particular enemies on board, the enemies to get them out of his way, the friends to defend him to the King against their accusations. He founded a city which he named Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, the Rich Town of the True Cross. Then, as the next step toward the invasion of the country, he proceeded to play Indian politics. First he accepted the invitation of the chief of the Totonacs, and Moteczuma, hearing of it, sent the tax-gatherers to collect tribute and also to demand twenty young men and women to sacrifice to the gods as an atonement for having entertained the strangers. Cortes expressed lively horror, and advised the chief of the Totonacs to throw the tax-gatherers into prison. Then he secretly rescued them and telling them how deeply he regretted their misfortunes as innocent men doing their duty to their ruler, he sent them on board his own ships for safe-keeping. When the Emperor heard what had happened he was enraged against the Totonacs. If they wished to escape his vengeance now their only chance was to become allies of Cortes. Thus within a few days after landing, the commander had got all of his own followers and a powerful native tribe so bound up with his fortunes that they could not desert him without endangering their own skins. He now suggested to two of the pilots that they should report five of the ships to be in an unseaworthy condition from the borings of the teredos--in those days sheathing for hulls had not been invented, and the ship-worm was a constant danger, in tropical waters especially. At the pilots' report Cortes appeared astonished, but saying that there was nothing to do but make the best of it, ordered the ships to be dismantled, the cordage, sails and everything that could be of use brought on shore, and the stripped hulls scuttled and sunk. Then four more were condemned, leaving but one small ship. There was nearly a riot in the army, marooned in an unknown and unfriendly land. Cortes made another speech. He pointed out the fact that if they were successful in the expedition to the capital they would not need the ships; if they were not, what good would the ships do them when they were seventy leagues inland? Those who dared not take the risk with him could still return to Cuba in the one ship that was left. "They can tell there," he added in a tone which cut the deeper for being so very quiet, "how they deserted their commander and their friends, and patiently wait until we return with the spoils of the Aztecs." An instant of breathless silence followed, then somebody shouted. A hundred voices took up the cry,-- "To Mexico! To Mexico!" Of the adventures, the fighting, the wonderful sights and the narrow escapes of the march to the capital, Bernal Diaz, who was with the army, wrote afterward in bulky volumes. On the seventh day of November, 1519, the compact little force of Spaniards, little more than a battalion in all, with their Indian allies from the provinces which had rebelled against the Emperor, came in sight of the capital. The moment at which Cortes, at the head of his followers, rode into the city of Mexico is one of the most dramatic in all history. Nothing in any novel of adventure compares with it in amazing contrast or tragic possibilities. The men of the Age of Cannon met the men of the Age of Stone. The mighty Catholic Church confronted a nation of snake-worshiping cannibals. The sons of a race that lived in hardy simplicity, a race of fighters, had come into a capital where life was more luxurious than it was in Seville, Paris or Rome--a heathen capital rich in beauty, wealth and all the arts of a barbarian people. The city had been built on an island in the middle of a salt lake, reached by three causeways of masonry four or five miles long and twenty or thirty feet wide. At the end near the city each causeway had a wooden drawbridge. There were paved streets and water-ways. The houses, built around large court-yards, were of red stone, sometimes covered with white stucco. The roofs were encircled with battlements and defended with towers. Often they were gardens of growing flowers. In the center of the city was the temple enclosure, surrounded by an eight-foot stone wall. Within this were a score of teocallis, or pyramids flattened at the top, the largest, that of the war-god, being about a hundred feet high. Stone stairs wound four times around the pyramid, so that religious processions appeared and disappeared on their way to the top. On the summit was a block of jasper, rounded at top, the altar of human sacrifice. Near by were the shrines and altars of the gods. Outside the temple enclosure was a huge altar, or embankment, called the tzompantli, one hundred and fifty-four feet long, upon which the skulls of innumerable victims were arranged. The doorways and walls everywhere were carved with the two symbols of the Aztec religion--the cross and the snake. Among the birds in the huge aviary of the royal establishment were the humming-birds which were sacred to one of the most cruel of the gods, and in cages built for them were the rattlesnakes also held sacred. Flowers were everywhere--in garlands hung about the city, in the hands of the people, on floating islands in the water, in the gardens blazing with color. The Spanish strangers were housed in a great stone palace and entertained no less magnificently than the gifts of the Emperor had led them to expect. The houses were ceiled with cedar and tapestried with fine cotton or feather work. Moteczuma's table service was of gold and silver and fine earthenware. The people wore cotton garments, often dyed vivid scarlet with cochineal, the men wearing loose cloaks and fringed sashes, the women, long robes. Fur capes and feather-work mantles and tunics were worn in cold weather; sandals and white cotton hoods protected feet and head. The women sometime used a deep violet hair-dye. Ear-rings, nose-rings, finger-rings, bracelets, anklets and necklaces were of gold and silver. Moteczuma himself, a tall slender man about forty years old, came to meet them in a palanquin shining with gold and canopied with feather-work. As he descended from it his attendants laid cotton mats upon the ground that he might not soil his feet. He wore the broad girdle and square cloak of cotton cloth which other men wore, but of the finest weave. His sandals had soles of pure gold. Both cloak and sandals were embroidered with pearls, emeralds, and a kind of stone much prized by the Aztecs, the chalchivitl, green and white. On his head he wore a plumed head-dress of green, the royal color. When Cortes with his staff approached the building set apart for their quarters, Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard. From a vase of flowers held by an attendant he took a massive gold collar, in which the shell of a certain crawfish was set in gold and connected by golden links. Eight golden ornaments a span long, wrought to represent the same shell-fish, hung from this chain. Moteczuma hung the necklace about the neck of Cortes with a graceful little speech of welcome. [Illustration: "Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard"--_Page_ 162] The Aztec Emperor was making the best of a situation which he did not like at all. In other Mexican cities Cortes had ordered the idols cast headlong down the steps of the teocalli, the temples cleansed, and a crucifix wreathed in flowers to be set up in place of the red altar stained with human blood. He was attended by some seven thousand native allies from tribes considered by the Aztecs as wild barbarians. His daring behavior and military successes had all been reported to Moteczuma by the picture-writing of his scribes. There was a tradition among the Aztecs that some day white bearded strangers would come, destroy the worship of the old gods of blood and terror, and restore the worship of the fair god Quetzalcoatl. Before the white men landed there had been earthquakes, meteors and other omens. Would the old gods destroy the invaders and all who joined them, or was this the great change which the prophets foretold? Who could say? In the beautiful, terrible city Cortes moved alert and silent, courteous to all, every nerve as sensitive to new impressions as a leaf to the wind. He knew that strong as the priesthood of the fierce gods undoubtedly was, there was surely an undercurrent of rebellion against their cruelty and their unlimited power. In a fruitless attempt to keep the Spaniards out of the city by the aid of the gods, three hundred little children had been sacrificed. If Cortes failed to conquer, by peaceful means or otherwise, nothing was more certain than that he and all of his followers not killed in the fighting would be butchered on the top of those terrible pyramids sooner or later. Yet he looked about him and said, under his breath, "This is the most beautiful city in the world." "And you think we shall win it for the Cross and the King?" asked Saavedra in the same quiet tone. "We must win," said Cortes, with a spark in his eyes like the flame in the heart of a black opal. "There is nothing else to do." NOTE In the spelling of the Aztec Emperor's name Cortes' own form is used,--"Moteczuma," instead of the commoner "Montezuma." One must read Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" for even an approximately adequate account of this extraordinary campaign. MOCCASIN FLOWER Klooskap's children, the last and least, Bidden to dance at his farewell feast, Under the great moon's wizard light, Over the mountain's drifted white, The Winag'mesuk, the wood-folk small, Came to the feasting the last of all! Magic snowshoes they wore that night, Woven of frostwork and sunset light, Round and trim like the Master's own,-- Their lances of reed, with a point of bone, Their oval shields of the woven grass, Their leader the mighty Kaktugwaas. The Winag'mesuk, the forest folk, They fled from the words that the white man spoke. They were so tired, they were so small, They hardly could find their way back at all, Yet bravely they rallied with shield and lance To dance for Klooskap their Snowshoe Dance! Light and swift as the whirling snow They leaped and fluttered aloft, alow. Silent as owls in the white moonlight They pounced and grappled in mimic fight. When they chanted to Klooskap their last farewell He laid on the forest a fairy spell. From Little Thunder, from Kaktugwaas, He took the buckler of woven grass, The lance of reed with a point of bone, The rounded footgear like his own, And bade them grow there under the pines While the snowdrifts melt and the sunlight shines! The sagamore pines are dark and tall That guard the Norumbega wall. When the clear brooks dance to the flute of spring, And veery and catbird of Klooskap sing, The Winag'mesuk for one short hour Come back for their token of Klooskap's power-- Moccasin Flower! XII GIFTS FROM NORUMBEGA "What shall I bring thee then, from the world's end, Reine Margot?" asked Alain Maclou. The small girl in the deep fireside recess of a Picardy castle-hall considered it gravely. "There should be three gifts," she said at last, "for so it always is in Mère Bastienne's stories. I will have the shoes of silence, the girdle of fortune, and diamonds from Norumbega. Tell me again about Norumbega." "Nay, little one, I must go, to see after the lading of the ship. Fare thee well for this time," and the young man bent his tall head above the hand of his seven-year-old lady. The graceful, quick-witted and imaginative child had been his pet and he her loyal servant these three years. It was understood between them that she was really the Queen of France, barred from her throne by the Salic Law that forbade any woman to rule that country in her own right. Some day he was to discover for her a kingdom beyond seas, in which she alone should reign. Of all the tales, marvelous, fanciful or tragic, which he or her old nurse had told her, she liked best the legend of Norumbega, the city in the wilderness which no explorer had ever found. Wherever French, Breton or English fishermen had become at all familiar with the Indians they heard of a city great and populous, with walls of stone, ruled by a king richer than any of their chiefs, but no two stories agreed on the location. Some had heard that it was an island, west of Cape Breton; others that it was on the bank of a great river to the southward. Maclou had seen at a fair one of the Indians brought to France ten years before in the _Dauphine_, and spoken to him. According to this Indian the chief town of his people was on an island in the mouth of a river where high gray walls of rock arose, longer and statelier than the walls of Dieppe. In describing these walls the Indian did not indeed say that they encircled the city, but no Frenchman could have imagined rock palisades built for any other purpose. On the other hand Maclou knew a pilot who had been caught in a storm and blown down the coast southwest from the fisheries, and he and his crew had seen, from ten or twelve leagues out at sea, white and shining battlements on the crest of a mountain far inland. When they asked their Indian guides what city it was the slaves trembled and showed fear, and declared that none of their people ever went there. Had only one man seen the glittering walls it might have been a vision, but they had all seen. If Norumbega really existed, the expedition of Jacques Cartier in 1535 seemed likely to find it. He had made a voyage the year before with two ships and a hundred and twenty men, of whom Maclou had been one. Not being prepared to remain through the winter, they had been obliged to turn back before they had done more than discover a magnificent bay which Cartier named the Bay of Chaleur on account of the July heat, and a squarish body of water west of Cape Breton which seemed to be marked out on their map as the Square Gulf. Now the veteran of Saint Malo had instructions to explore this gulf and see whether any strait existed beyond it which might lead to Cathay. On general principles he was to find out how great and of what nature the country was. The maps of the New World were fairly complete in their outline of the southern continent and islands discovered by Spain; it was hoped that this expedition might give an equally definite outline to the northern coast. Cartier had on his previous voyage caught two young Indians who had come from far inland to fish, and brought them back to France. They had since learned enough Breton to make themselves understood, and from what they said it seemed to Cartier that there might be a far greater land west of the fisheries than the mapmakers had supposed. The King, on the other hand, was inclined to hope that the lands already found were islands, among which might be the coveted route to Cathay. Maclou bent his brows over the map and pondered. If Norumbega were found it would be the key to the situation, for the people of a great inland city would know, as the people of Mexico did, all about their country. Did it exist, or was it a fairy tale, born of mirage or a lying brain? On Whitsunday the sixteenth of May, Carrier and his men went in solemn procession to the Cathedral Church of Saint Malo, confessed themselves, received the sacrament, and were blessed by the Bishop in his robes of state, standing in the choir of the ancient sanctuary. On the following Wednesday they set sail with three ships and one hundred and ten men. Cartier had been careful to explain to the King that it would be of no use to send an expedition to those northern shores unless it could live through the winter on its own supplies. The summer was brief, the winter severe, and there was no possibility of living on the country while exploring it. As such voyages went, the three ships were well provisioned. Late in July they came through the Strait of Belle Isle, and on Saint Laurence's Day, August 10, found themselves in a small bay which Cartier named for that saint. Rounding the western point of a great island the little fleet came into a great salt water bay. "I believe," said Cartier to Maclou as the flagship sailed gaily on over the sunlit sparkling waves, "that this must be the place from which all the whales in the world come." The great creatures were spouting and diving all around the fleet, frolicking like unwieldy puppies. Every one was alert for what might be discovered next. None were more lively and full of pleased expectation than the two Indian youths. Captives had been taken by the white men before, but none had ever returned. Their people were undoubtedly mourning them as dead, but would presently see them not only alive but fat and happy. They had crossed the great waters in the white men's canoe, and lived in the white men's villages, and learned their talk. They had been christened Pierre and Kadoc, French tongues finding it hard to pronounce their former names. Cartier called them to him and began to ask questions. He learned that the northern coast of the gulf, along which they were sailing, was that of a land called Saghwenay, in which was found Caignetdaze, called by the white men copper. This gulf led to a great river called Hochelaga. They had never heard of any one going all the way to the head of it, but the old men might remember. What the name of the country to the south of the gulf was, Cartier could not make out. It sounded something like Kanacdajikaouah. "Kaou-ah" meant great, or large, and Cartier finally set down the rest of the word as Canada, as nearly as the French alphabet could spell out the gutturals. The youths in fact belonged to a tribe in the great confederacy of the Kanonghsionni, the People of the Long House--or rather the lengthened house, Kanonsa being the word for house, and "ionni" meaning lengthened or extended.[1] Five tribes, many generations ago, had united under the leadership of the great Ayonhwatha--"he who made the wampum belt."[2] They had adopted weaker tribes when they conquered them, exactly as, upon the marriage of a daughter, the father built an addition to his house for the newly wedded couple. The captives had picked up the Breton patois rather easily, but there was nothing in France which was at all like an Iroquois bark house, and they had to use the Indian word for it. Maclou, who had been studying the native language at odd times during the voyage, found that it had no b, f, m, or v, and on the other hand it had some noises which were not in any Breton, French or English words, though the Indian "n" was rather like the French "nque." Some fifteen leagues from the salt gulf the water became so fresh that Cartier finally gave up the idea that the channel he had entered might be a strait. It was still very wide, and if it really was a river it was the biggest he had ever seen. Three islands now appeared, opposite the mouth of a swift and deep river which came from the northern territory called Saghwenay. Cartier sailed up this river for some distance, finding high steep hills on both sides, and then continued up the great river to find the chief city of the wilderness empire, if it was an empire. No sign had been seen of Norumbega. Presently the keen expectant eye of Cartier caught sight of something which went far to shake his faith in that romantic citadel. It was a bold headland on the right, which would certainly have been chosen by any civilized king in Europe as a site for a fortress. Those mighty cliffs would almost make other defenses needless. Yet the heights were occupied by nothing more than a wooden village, which the interpreters called Stadacona, saying that their chief, Daghnacona, was its ruler. Shouts arose from the water's edge as some one among the excited Indians recognized on the deck of a great winged canoe their own lost countrymen. The interpreters answered with joyous whoops. A dozen canoes came paddling out, filled with young warriors, and a rapid interchange of guttural Indian talk went on between Pierre and Kadoc and their kinfolk. The enthusiasm rose to a still higher pitch when strings of beads of all colors were handed down to the Indians in the canoes, and presently Daghnacona himself appeared to welcome the white men to his country, with dignified Indian eloquence and an escort of twelve canoes. This was clearly a good place to stop and refit the ships. Cartier took his fleet into a little river not far away, and prepared to learn all he could of the country before going on. The information he got from Daghnacona was not encouraging. This was not, it appeared, the chief town of the country. That was many miles up the river, and was called Hochelaga. It would not be safe for the white men to go there. Their ships might be caught between ice-floes, and the falling snow would blind and bewilder them. Cartier glanced at the blue autumn sky and smiled. No one is quicker than an Indian to read faces. Daghnacona saw that the white chief intended to go, all the same. Cartier decided to leave the larger ships where they were, and proceed up the great river to Hochelaga with a forty-ton pinnace, two boats, and about fifty men. Early in the morning, before he was quite ready to start, a canoe came down stream, in which were three weird figures resembling the devils in a medieval miracle-play. Their faces were jet black, they were clothed in hairy skins, and on their heads were great horns. As they passed the ships they kept up a monotonous and appalling chant, and as their canoe touched the beach all three fell upon their faces. Indians, rushing out of the woods, dragged them into a thicket, and a great hubbub followed, not a word of which was understood by the white men, for the Indian interpreters were there with the rest. Presently the interpreters appeared on the beach yelling with fright. "Pierre! Kadoc!" the annoyed commander called from his quarter-deck, "what is all this hullabaloo about?" "News!" gasped Pierre. "News from Canghyenye! He says white men not come to Hochelaga!" And Kadoc chimed in eagerly, "Not go! Not go!" "Coudouagny?" Cartier repeated to Maclou, completely mystified. "Who can that be?" Further questioning drew out information which sounded as if Coudouagny, or Canyengye, were a tribal god. In reality this was the word for "elder brother." In that region it was applied to the Tekarihokens, the eldest of the five nations in the league of the Long House. They were afterward dubbed by their enemies the Mohawks or man-eaters, and the fear for the white men's safety which the interpreters expressed may very well have been quite genuine. But the Breton captain had not come across the Atlantic to give up his plans for fear of an Indian god, if it was a god, and his reply to the warning was to the effect that Coudouagny must be a numskull. More seriously he explained to the interpreters that although he had not himself spoken with the God of his people his priests had, and he fully trusted in the power of his God to protect him. The party set forth at the appointed time. In about two weeks they reached the greatest Indian town that any of them had ever seen. It was not the walled city of the Norumbega legend, but both Maclou and Cartier had ceased to expect anything of that kind. The Indian guides had said that the town was near, and all were dressed in their best. A thousand Indians, men, women and children, were on the shore to receive them, and the commander at the head of his little troop marched into Hochelaga to pay their respects to the chief. The Indian city was inhabited by several thousand people, living in wigwams about a hundred and fifty feet long by fifty wide, built of bark over a frame of wood, and arranged around a large open space. The whole was surrounded by a stockade of three rows of stakes twelve or fifteen feet high. The middle row was set straight, the other two rows five or six feet from it and inclining toward it like wigwam-poles. The three rows, meeting at the top, were lashed to a ridgepole. Half way down and again at the bottom cross-braces were fastened diagonally, making a strong wall. Around the inside, near the top, was a gallery reached by ladders, on which were piles of stones to be thrown at invaders. Instead of being square, or irregular with many angles and outstanding towers, like a French walled town, it was perfectly round. The interpreters afterward explained that each of the houses was occupied by several families, as the head of each house shared his shelter with his kinfolk. When a daughter was married she brought her husband home, as a rule, and her father added an apartment to his house by the simple device of taking out the end wall of bark and building on another section. Each household had its own stone hearth, the smoke escaping through openings in the roof. A common passage-way led through the middle of the house. On the sides were rows of bunks covered with furs. Weapons hung on the walls, and meat broth or messes of corn and beans simmered fragrantly in their kettles. Some of these long houses held fifty or sixty people each, and there were over fifty of them in all. In that climate, with warlike neighbors, the advantage of such an organized community over scattered single wigwams was very great. All around were cleared fields dotted with great yellow pumpkins, where corn and beans had grown during the past summer. To the sons of Norman and Breton peasants it was evident that these fields had not been cultivated for centuries, like those of France, any more than the wall around Hochelaga was the work of stone-masons toiling under generations of feudal lords. If this were the chief city of these people, they had no Norumbega. But it was very picturesque in its sylvan barbaric way, among the limitless forests of scarlet and gold and crimson and deep green, which stretched away over the mountains. Upon the rude cots in the wigwams as they passed, Cartier's men saw rich and glossy furs of the silver fox, the beaver, the mink and the marten, which princesses might be proud to wear. Curious bead-work there was also on the quivers, pouches, moccasins and belts of these wild people, done in white and purple shell beads made and polished by hand and not more than a quarter of an inch long and an eighth of an inch thick. These were sewn in patterns of animals, birds, fishes and other things not unlike the emblems of old families in France. Belts of these beads were worn by those who seemed to be the chief men of Hochelaga. Porcupine quills were also used in embroidery and head-bands. The people thronged into the open central space, which was about a stone's throw across, some carrying their sick, some their children, that the strangers might touch them for healing or for good fortune. The old chief, who was called Agouhana, was brought in, helpless from paralysis, upon a deerskin litter. When Cartier understood that his touch was supposed to have some mysterious magic he rubbed the old man's helpless limbs with his own hands, read from his service-book the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint John and other passages, and prayed that the people who listened might come to know the true faith. Then, after beads, rings, brooches and other little gifts had been distributed, the trumpets blew, and the white men took their leave. Before they returned to their boats the Indians guided them to the top of the hill which rose behind the town, from which the surrounding country could be seen. Cartier named it Montreal--the Royal Mountain. [Illustration: "CARTIER READ FROM HIS SERVICE-BOOK."--_Page_ 176] It was now the first week in October, and the rapids in the river above Hochelaga blocked further exploration with a sailing vessel. As for going on foot, that was out of the question with winter so near. The party returned to Stadacona and went into winter quarters. While they had been gone their comrades had built a palisaded fort beside the little river where the ships lay moored. They were hardly settled in this rude shelter before snow began to fall, and seemed as if it would go on forever, softly blanketing the earth with layer on layer of cold whiteness. It was waist-deep on the level; the river was frozen solid; the drifts were above the sides of the ships, and the ice was four inches thick on the bulwarks. The glittering armor of the ice incased masts, spars, ropes, and fringed every line of cordage with icicles of dazzling brightness. Never was such cold known in France. Maclou thought, whimsically, while his teeth chattered beside the fire, of a tale he had once told Marguerite of the palace of the Frost King. That fierce monarch, and not the guileless Indian chief, was the foe they would have to fight for this kingdom. Their provisions were those of any ship sent on a voyage into unknown lands in those days--dried and salted meat and fish, flour and meal to be made into cakes or porridge, dried pease, dried beans. For a time the Indians visited them, in the bitterest weather, but in December even this source of a game supply was cut off, for they came no more. The dreaded scurvy broke out, and before long there were hardly a dozen of the whole company able to care for the sick. Besides the general misery they were tormented by the fear that if the savages knew how feeble they were the camp might be attacked and destroyed. Cartier told those who had the strength, to beat with sticks on the sides of their bunks, so that prowling Indians might believe that the white men were busy at work. But the wild folk were both shrewder and more friendly than the French believed. Their medicine-men told Cartier one day that they cured scurvy by means of a drink made from the leaves and bark of an evergreen. Squaws presently came with a birch-bark kettle of this brew and it proved to have such virtues that the sick were cured of scurvy, and in some cases of other diseases which they had had for years. Cartier afterward wrote in his report that they boiled and drank within a week all the foliage of a tree, which the Indians called aneda or tree of life, as large as a full-grown oak.[3] Many had died before the remedy was learned, and when the weather allowed the fleet to sail for home, there were only men enough for two of the ships. The Indians had told of other lands where gold and rubies were found, of a nation somewhere in the interior, white like the French, of people with but one leg apiece. But as it was, the country was a great country, and well worth the attention of the King of France. Leaving the cross and the fleur-de-lis to mark the place of their discovery, the expedition sailed for France, and on July 16, 1536, anchored once more in the port of Saint Malo. "And there is no Norumbega really?" asked little Margot rather dolefully, when the story of the adventure had been told. "And your hair is all gray, here, on the side." "None the less I have gifts for thee, little queen, and such as no Queen of France hath in her treasury." Maclou's smile, though a trifle grave, had a singular charm as he opened his wallet. Margot nestled closer, her eyes bright with excitement. The first gift was a little pair of shoes of deer-skin dyed green and embroidered with pearly white beads on a ground of black and red French brocade. They had no heels and no heavy leather soles, and were lined with soft white fur; and they fitted the little maid's foot exactly. The second gift was a girdle of the same beads, purple and white, in a pattern of queer stiff sprays. "That," said Alain Maclou, "is the Tree of Life that cured us all of the sickness." The third was a cluster of long slender crystals set in a fragment of rock the color of a blush rose.[4] "'Tis a magic stone, sweetheart. Keep it in the sunshine on thy window-ledge, and when summer is over 't will be white as snow. Leave it in a snowbank, or in a cellar under wet moss, and 't will turn again to rose-color. This I have seen. In the winter nights the Frost King hangs his ice-diamonds on every twig and rope and eave, and when they shine in the red sunrise they look like these crystals. And I have seen all the sky from the zenith to the horizon at midnight full of leaping rose-red flames above such a world of ice. 'Tis very beautiful there, Reine Margot, and fit kingdom for a fairy queen." Marguerite turned the strange quartz rock about in her small hands with something like awe. "And the shoes are shoes of silence, for an Indian can go and come in them so softly that even a rabbit does not hear. They were made by a kind old squaw who would take no pay, and a young warrior gave me the wampum belt, and I found the stone one day while I was hunting in the forest, so that all three of thy gifts are really gifts from Norumbega." "I think--I'm rather glad it is not a real city," said Margot with a long breath. "It is more like fairyland, just as it is,--and the Frost King and the terrible sickness are the two ogres, and the good medicine man is a white wizard. It is a very beautiful kingdom, Alain, and I think you are the Prince in disguise!" NOTES [1] Kanonghsionni was the name which the Iroquois gave themselves. It appears that at this time they occupied the country along the St. Lawrence held some centuries before by the Ojibways and later, in the time of Champlain, by the Hurons. [2] Hiawatha is generally said to have founded the league of the Five Nations. Although these nations were united against any attack from outside they were not always free from interior enmities and dissensions, and the Mohawks in particular were objects of the fear and dislike of their neighbors, as the significance of their sobriquet clearly shows. [3] Aneda is said to be the Iroquois word for spruce. When Champlain's men were attacked by scurvy in the same neighborhood half a century later, the Iroquois no longer lived there, and this remedy was not suggested. [4] Rose quartz has this property. THE MUSTANGS Bred to the Game of the World as the Kings and the Emperors played it, Fate and our masters hurled us over the terrible sea. When the sails of the carracks were furled the Game was the Game that we made it,-- We that were horses in Spain were gods in a realm to be! Swift at the word we sped, we fought in the front of the battle,-- Ah, but the wild men fled when they heard us neigh from afar! The field was littered with dead, cut down like slaughtered cattle --Ah, but the earth is red where the Conquistadores are! Now does the desert wake and croon of hidalgos coming-- Now for her children's sake she is whetting her sword to slay, And the armored squadrons break, and our iron-shod hoofs are drumming On the rocks of the mountain pass--we are free, we are off and away! Hush--did a man's foot fall in the pasture where we go straying? Listen--is that the call of a man aware of his right? Hearken, my comrades all--once more the Game they are playing! Masters, we come, we come, to be one with you in the fight! XIII THE WHITE MEDICINE MAN "Cavalry without horses, in ships without sailors, built by blacksmiths without forges and carpenters without tools. Now who in Spain will believe that?" commented Cabeça de Vaca. It was the evening of the twenty-first of September, 1528. Five of the oddest looking boats ever launched on any sea were drawn up on the shore of La Baya de Cavallos, where not a horse was in sight, though there had been twoscore a fortnight ago. On the morrow the one-eyed commander of the Spaniards, Pamfilo de Narvaez, would marshal his ragamuffin expedition into those boats, in the hope of reaching Mexico by sea. "We shall tell of it when we are grandfathers--if the sea does not take us within a week," said Andres Dorantes with a sigh. "I think that God does not waste miracles on New Spain." "Miracles? It is nothing less than a miracle that this fleet was built," said Cabeça de Vaca valiantly. And indeed he had some reason for saying so. Narvaez, with a grant from the King which covered all the territory between the Atlantic and the Rio de los Palmas in Mexico, had staked his entire private fortune on this venture. He had landed in Baya de le Cruz--now Tampa Bay--on the day before Easter. The Indians had some gold which they said came "from the north." Cabeça, who was treasurer of the expedition, strongly advised against proceeding through a totally unknown country on this very sketchy information. But Narvaez consulted the pilot, who said he knew of a harbor some distance to the west, ordered the ships to meet him there, and with forty horsemen and two hundred and sixty men on foot, struck boldly into the interior. It was an amazing country. It had magnificent forests and almost impassable swamps, gorgeous tropical flowers and black bogs infested with snakes, alligators and hostile Indians, game of every kind and dense jungles into which it retreated. There seemed to be no towns, no grain-land and no gold-bearing mountains. The persevering explorers crossed half a dozen large rivers and many small ones, wading when they could, building rafts or swimming when the water was deep. After between three and four months of this, half-starved, shaken with swamp fever, weary and bedraggled, they reached the first harbor they had found upon the coast they followed, but no ships were there. Whether the ships had been wrecked, or put in somewhere only to meet with destruction at the hands of the Indians, they never knew. Narvaez called his officers into consultation, one at a time, as to the best course to pursue in this desperate case. They had no provisions, a third of the men were sick and more were dropping from exhaustion every day, and all agreed that unless they could get away and reach Mexico while some of them could still work, there was very little chance that they would ever leave the place at all. But they had no tools, no workmen and no sailors, and nothing to eat while the ships were a-building, even if they knew how to build them. They gave it up for that night and prayed for direction. Next day one of the men proved to have been a carpenter, and another came to Cabeça de Vaca with a plan for making bellows of deerskin with a wooden frame and nozzle, so that a forge could be worked and whatever spare iron they had could be pounded into rude tools. The officers took heart. Cross-bows, stirrups, spurs, horse-furniture, reduced to scrap-iron, furnished axes, hammers, saws and nails. There was plenty of timber in the forests. Those not able to do hard work stripped palmetto leaves to use in the place of tow for calking and rigging. Every third day one of the horses was killed, the meat served out to the sick and the working party, the manes and tails saved to twist into rope with palmetto fiber, and the skin of the legs taken off whole and tanned for water bottles. At four different times a selected body of soldiers went out to get corn from the Indians, peaceably if possible, by force if necessary, and on this, with the horse-meat and sometimes fish or sea-food caught in the bay, the camp lived and toiled for sixteen desperate days. A Greek named Don Theodoro knew how to make pitch for the calking, from pine resin. For sails the men pieced together their shirts. Not the least wearisome part of their labor was stone-hunting, for there were almost no stones in the country, and they must have anchors. But at last the boats were finished, of twenty-two cubits in length, with oars of savin (fir), and fifty of the men had died from fever, hardship or Indian arrows. Each boat must carry between forty-five and fifty of those who remained, and this crowded them so that it was impossible to move about, and weighted them until the gunwales were hardly a hand's breadth above the water. It would have been madness to venture out to sea, and they crept along the coast, though they well knew that in following all the inlets of that marshy shore the length of the voyage would be multiplied several times over. When they had been out a week they captured five Indian canoes, and with the timbers of these added a few boards to the side of each galley. This made it possible to steer in something like a direct line toward Mexico. On October 30, about the time of vespers, Cabeça de Vaca, who happened to be in the lead, discovered the mouth of what seemed to be an immense river. There they anchored among islands. They found that the volume of water brought down by this river was so great that it freshened the sea-water even three miles out. They went up the river a little way to try to get fuel to parch their corn, half a handful of raw corn being the entire ration for a day. The current and a strong north wind, however, drove them back. When they sounded, a mile and a half from shore, a line of thirty fathoms found no bottom. After this Narvaez with three of the boats kept on along the shore, but the boat commanded by Castillo and Dorantes, and that of Cabeça de Vaca, stood out to sea before a fair east wind, rowing and sailing, for four days. They never again saw or heard of the remainder of the fleet. On November 5 the wind became a gale. All night the boats drifted, the men exhausted with toil, hunger and cold. Cabeça de Vaca and the shipmaster were the only men capable of handling an oar in their boat. Near morning they heard the tumbling of waves on a beach, and soon after, a tremendous wave struck the boat with a force that hurled her up on the beach and roused the men who seemed dead, so that they crept on hands and knees toward shelter in a ravine. Here some rain-water was found, a fire was made and they parched their corn, and here they were found by some Indians who brought them food. They still had some of their trading stores, from which they produced colored beads and hawk-bells. After resting and collecting provisions the indomitable Spaniards dug their boat out of the sand and made ready to go on with the voyage. They were but a little way from shore when a great wave struck the battered craft, and the cold having loosened their grip on the oars the boat was capsized and some of the crew drowned. The rest were driven ashore a second time and lost literally everything they had. Fortunately some live brands were left from their fire, and while they huddled about the blaze the Indians appeared and offered them hospitality. To some of the party this seemed suspicious. Were the Indians cannibals? Even when they were warmed and fed in a comfortable shelter nobody dared to sleep. But the Indians had no treacherous intentions whatever, and continued to share with the shipwrecked unfortunates their own scanty provision. Fever, hunger and despair, reduced the eighty men who had come ashore, to less than twenty. All but Cabeça and two others who were helpless from fever at last departed on the desperate adventure of trying to find their way overland to Mexico. One of the two left behind died and the other ran away in delirium, leaving Cabeça de Vaca alone, as the slave of the Indians. He discovered presently that he was of little use to them, for though he could have cut wood or carried water, this was squaws' work, and should a man be seen doing it every tradition of the tribe would be upset. He was of no use as a hunter, for he had not the hawk-like sight of an Indian or the Indian instinct for following a trail. He could dig out the wild roots they ate, which grew among canes and under water, but this was laborious and painful work, which made his hands bleed. With tools, or even metal with which to make them, he might have made himself the most useful member of the tribe, but as it was, he was even poorer than the wretched people among whom he lived, for they knew how to make the most of what was in the country, and he had no such training. The lonely Spaniard studied their language and customs diligently. He found that they made knives and arrows of shell, and clothing of woven fibers of grass and leaves, and deerskin. They went from one part of the country to another according to the food supply. In prickly pear time they went into the cactus region to gather the fruit, on which they mainly lived during the season. When pinon nuts were ripe they went into the mountains and gathered these, threshing them out of the cones to be eaten fresh, roasted, or ground into flour for cakes baked on flat stones. They had no dishes except baskets and gourd-rinds, and their houses were tent-poles covered with hides. When a squaw wished to roast a piece of meat she thrust a sharp stick through it. When she wished to boil it she filled a large calabash-rind with water, put in it the materials of her stew, and threw stones into the fire to heat. When very hot these stones were raked out with a loop of twisted green reed or willow-shoots and put into the water. When enough had been put in to make the water boil, it was kept boiling by changing the cooled stones for hotter ones until the meat was cooked. Many of the baskets made by the squaws were curiously decorated, and made of fine reed or fiber sewed in coils with very fine grass-thread, so that they were both light and strong. There were cone-shaped carrying-baskets borne on the back with a loop passed around the forehead; in these the squaws carried grain, fruit, nuts or occasionally babies. There were baskets for sifting grain and meal, and a sort of flask that would hold water. The materials were gathered from mountains, valleys and plains over a range of hundreds of miles--grasses here, bark fiber there, dyes in another place, maguey leaves in another, and for black figures in decoration the seed-pods called "cat's claws" or the stems of maiden-hair fern. A design was not copied exactly, but each worker made the pattern in the same general form and sometimes improved on it. There was a banded pattern in a diamond-shaped criss-cross almost exactly like the shaded markings on a rattlesnake-skin. The Indians believed in a goddess or Snake-Mother, who lived underground and knew about springs; and as water was the most important thing in that land of deserts, they showed respect to the Snake-Mother by baskets decorated in her honor. Another design showed a round center with four zigzag lines running to the border. This was intended for a lake with four streams flowing out of it, widening as they flowed; but it looked rather like a cross or a swastika. There was a design in zigzags to represent the lightning, and almost all the patterns had to do in some way with lakes, rivers, rain, or springs. As the exile of Spain began to know the country he sometimes ventured on journeys alone, without the tribe, to the north, away from the coast. In these wanderings he met with tribes whose language was not wholly strange, but whose customs and occupations were not exactly like those of his own Indians. Once he found a village of deerskin tents where the warriors were painting themselves with red clay, for a dance. He remembered that the squaws, when he came away some days before, were in great lamentation because they had no red paint for their baskets. He took out a handful of shells and found that these Indians were only too pleased to pay for them in red earth, deerskin, and tassels of deer hair dyed red. They would hardly let him go till he promised to come again and bring them more shells and shell beads. This suggested to him a way in which he might make himself of use and value. Longer and longer journeys he took, trading shells for new dyes, flint arrow-heads, strong basket-reeds, and hides and furs of all sorts, learning more and more of the country as he trafficked. Once he found families living in a house built of stone and mud bricks, in the crevice of a cliff, getting water from a little brook at the base of it, and raising corn and vegetables along the waterside. Their houses had no real doors. They had trap-doors in the roof, reached by a notched tree-trunk inside and one outside. The corn that grew in the little farm at the foot of the cliff was of different colors, red, yellow, blue and white. Each kind was put in a separate basket. Each kind of meal was made separately into thin cakes cooked on a very hot flat stone. A handful of the batter was slapped on with the fingers so deftly that though the cake was thin, crisp and even, the cook never burned herself. The people were always on their guard against roving bands of Indians who lived in tipis, or wigwams, and were likely to attack the cliff-dwellers at any moment. Cabeça de Vaca became interested in these wandering tribes, and moved north to see what they were like. He found them quite ready to trade with him and extremely curious about his wares. They had hides upon their tipis of a sort he had not seen before, not smooth, but covered with curly brown fur like a big dog's. It was some time before the Spanish trader made out what sort of animal wore such a skin, though he knew at first sight that it must be a very large one. Finally the old medicine man with whom he was talking began to make sketches on the inside of one of the great robes. The Spaniard in his turn made sketches, drawing a horse, a goat, a bear, a wolf, a bull. When he drew the bull the old Indian got excited. He declared that that was very like the animal they hunted, but that their bulls had great humped shoulders like this--he added a high curved line over the back. Cabeça came to the conclusion that it must be some sort of hunchbacked cow, but whatever it was, the curly furry hide was comforting on cold nights. The old Indian told him a few days after that some of the young men had just come in with news of a herd of these great animals moving along one of their trails, and if the white men cared to travel with them he could see them for himself. It did not take the trader long to make up his mind. He went with the Indians at the slow trot which covers so many miles in a day, and sooner than they had expected, they saw from a little rise in the ground a vast herd of slowly moving animals which at first the white man took for black cattle. But they were not cattle. There was the huge hump with the curly mane, and there were the short horns and slender, neat little legs which had seemed so out of proportion in the old Indian's sketch. From their point of view they could see the hunters cut out one animal and attack him with their arrows and lances without arousing the fears of the rest. The creatures moved quietly along, grazing and pawing now and then, darkening the plain almost as far as the eye could see. The trader spent several days with the tribe, and when he went south again he had a bundle of hides so large that he had to drag it on a kind of hurdle made of poles. He had helped the Indians decorate some of the hides they had, and whenever he did this he wrote his own name, the date, and a few words, somewhere on the skin. [Illustration: "THE CREATURES DARKENED THE PLAIN ALMOST AS FAR AS EYE COULD SEE."--_Page_ 191] "Why do you do this?" asked the medicine man, putting one long bronze finger on the strange marks. "It is a message," said Cabeça de Vaca. "If any of my own people see it they will know who made the pictures." The Indian looked at him thoughtfully. "You are very clever," he said. "You ought to be a medicine-man." This put another idea into the exile's head. He had seen much of the medicine-men in his wanderings, and had studied their ways. Like most men of his day who traveled much, he had a rough-and-ready knowledge of medicine and surgery. He had sometimes been able to be of service to sick and wounded Indians, and whether it was their faith in him, or in the virtues of his treatment, his patients usually got well. In comparing notes they found that he often prayed and sang in his own language while watching with them. In the end he gained a great reputation as a sort of combined priest and doctor. He was not too proud to adopt some of the methods of the medicine-men when he found them effective, especially as regards herbs and other healing medicaments, used either in poultices or drinks. From being a poor slave and a burden to his masters, he became their great man. He had been for more than five years among the Indians when another tribe of Indians met with his tribe, perhaps drawn by the fame of the white medicine-man, and among their captives he recognized with joy three of his own comrades--Castillo, Dorantes, and a Barbary negro called Estevanico (Little Stephen). He told them of his experience, and found them glad to have him teach them whatever of the arts of the medicine-man he himself knew. After that, the four friends traveled more or less in company, and persuaded the Indians to go westward, where they thought that there might be a chance of meeting with some of their own people. They finally reached a point at which the Indians explained that they dared not go further, because the tribe which held the country further west was hostile. "Send to them," suggested Cabeça, "and tell them we are coming." After some argument the Indians sent two women, because women would not be harmed even in the enemy's country. Then the four comrades set out into the new land. Among them they knew six Indian dialects, and could talk with the people after a fashion, wherever they went. Even when two tribes were at war, they made a truce, so that they might trade and talk with the strangers. At last Castillo saw on the neck of an Indian the buckle of a sword-belt, and fastened to it like a pendant the nail of a horse-shoe. His heart leaped. He asked the Indian where he got the things. The Indian answered, "They came from heaven." "Who brought them?" asked Cabeça. "Men with beards like you," the Indian answered rather timidly, "seated on strange animals and carrying long lances. They killed two of our people with those lances, and the rest ran away." Then Cabeça knew that his countrymen must have passed that way. His feelings were a strange mixture of joy and grief. As they went on they came upon more traces of Spaniards, parties of slave-hunters from the south. Everywhere they themselves were well treated, even by people who were hiding in the mountains for fear of the Christians. When Cabeça told the Indians that he was himself a Christian they smiled and said nothing; but one night he heard them talking among themselves, not knowing that he could understand their talk. "He is lying, or he is mistaken," they said. "He and his friends come from the sunrise, and the Christians from the sunset; they heal the sick, the Christians kill the well ones; they wear only a little clothing, as we do, the Christians come on horses, with shining garments and long lances; these good men take our gifts only to help others who need them; the Christians come to rob us and never give any one anything." The next day Cabeça told the Indians that he wished to go back to his own people and tell them not to kill and enslave the natives. He explained to them that this wickedness was not in any way part of his religion, and that the founder of that religion never injured or despised the poor, but went about doing good. When he was sure that there were Spaniards not many miles away, he took Estevanico, leaving the other two Spaniards to rest their tired bones, and with an escort of eleven Indians went out to look for his countrymen. When he found them, they were greatly astonished. Their astonishment did not lessen when he told them how he came to be where he was. He sent Estevanico back to tell the rest of the party to come, and himself remained to talk with Diego de Alcaraz, the leader of the Spanish adventurers, and his three followers. They were slave-hunters, like the other Spaniards. When, five days afterward Estevanico, Castillo and Dorantes came on with an escort of several hundred Indians, all Cabeca's determination and diplomacy were taxed to keep the slavers from making a raid on the confiding natives then and there. To buy Alcaraz off cost nearly all the bows, pouches, finely dressed skins, and other native treasures he had gained by trading or received as gifts. In this collection were five arrowheads of emerald or something very like that stone. It was not in Cabeça de Vaca to break his word to people who trusted him. He had suffered every sort of privation; he had traveled more than ten thousand miles on foot in his six years among the Indians of the Southwest; now he had lost most of his profit from that long exile; but he went back to Spain with faith unbroken and honor clear as a white diamond. In May, 1536, he and his companions reached Culiacan in the territory of Spain. All the way to the City of Mexico they were feasted and welcomed as honored guests. The account which Cabeça de Vaca wrote of his travels was the first written description of the country now called Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. NOTE This story follows closely the "Relacion of Cabeca de Vaca." It illustrates the resourcefulness, bravery and ingenuity of Spanish cavaliers of the heroic age as hardly any other episode does. LONE BAYOU De Soto was a gentleman of Spain In those proud years when Spanish chivalry From fierce adventure never did refrain,-- Ruler of argosies that ruled the sea, She looked on lesser nations in disdain, As born to trafficking or slavery. In shining armor, and with shot and steel Abundantly purveyed for their delight, Banners before whose Cross the foe should kneel, His company embarked--how great a light Through men's perversity to stoop and reel Down through calamity to endless night! Yet unsubmissive, obdurately bold, The savages refused to serve their need. They would not guide the conquerors to their gold, Nor though cast in the fire like a weed Or driven by stern compulsion to the fold, Would they abandon their unhallowed creed. The forest folk in terror broke and fled Like fish before the fierce pursuing pike. The stubborn chiefs as hostages were led-- And in the wilderness, a grisly dyke Of slaves and captives, lay the heathen dead, And the black bayou claims all dead alike. Then southward through the haunted bearded trees The Spaniards fought their way--Mauila's fires Devoured their vestments and their chalices, Their sacramental wine and bread--the choirs No longer sang their requiems, and the seas Lay between them and all their sacred spires. At last in a lone cabin, where the cane Hid the black mire before the lowly door, De Soto died--although they sought to feign By some pretended magic mirror's lore That still he lived, a gentleman of Spain,-- And the dread flood rolled onward to the shore! XIV THE FACE OF THE TERROR "Paris is no place in these times for a Huguenot lad from Navarre," said Dominic de Gourgues, of Mont-de-Marsan in Gascony. "His father, François Debré, did me good service in the Spanish Indies. One of these days, Philip and his bloodhounds will be pulled down by these young terriers they have orphaned." "If the Jesuits have their way all Huguenots will be exterminated, men, women and children," said Laudonnière, with a gleam of melancholy sarcasm in his dark pensive eyes. "Life to a Jesuit is quite simple." "My faith," said Gascon, twisting his mustache, "they may find in that case, that other people can be simple too. But I must be off. I thank you for making a place for Pierre." In consequence of this conversation, when Ribault's fleet anchored near the River of May, on June 25, 1564, Pierre Debré was hanging to the collars of two of Laudonnière's deerhounds and gazing in silent wonder at the strange and beautiful land. "The fairest, fruitfullest and pleasantest land in all the world," Jean Ribault had said in his report two years before to Coligny the Great Admiral of France. Live-oaks and cedars untouched for a thousand years were draped in luxuriant grape-vines or wreathed with the mossy gray festoons of "old men's beard." Cypress and pine mingled with the shining foliage of magnolia and palm. From the marsh arose on sudden startled wings multitudes of water-fowl. The dogs tugged and whined eagerly as if they knew that in these vast hunting-forests there was an abundance of game. In this rich land, thus far neglected by the Spanish conquistadores because it yielded neither gold nor silver, surely the Huguenots might find prosperity and peace. Coligny was a Huguenot and a powerful friend, and if the French Protestants now hunted into the mountains or driven to take refuge in England, could be transplanted to America, France might be spared the horrors of religious civil war. Pierre was thirteen and looked at least three years older. He could not remember when his people and their Huguenot neighbors had not lived in dread of prison, exile or death. When he was not more than ten years old he had guided their old pastor to safety in a mountain cave, and seen men die, singing, for their faith. After the death of his father and mother he had lived for awhile with his mother's people in Navarre, and since they were poor and bread was hard to come by he had run away the year before and found his way to Paris, where Dominic de Gourgues had found him. If the Huguenots had a safe home he might be able to repay the kindness of his cousins. Meanwhile the country, the wild creatures, the copper-colored people and the hard work of landing colonists and supplies were full of interest and excitement for Pierre. Satouriona, the Indian chief, showed the French officers the pillar which Ribault's party had set up on their previous visit to mark their discovery. The faithful savages had kept it wreathed with evergreens and decked with offerings of maize and fruits as if it were an altar. Unfortunately not all the colonists were of heroic mind. Most who had left France to seek their fortunes were merchants, craftsman and young Huguenot noblemen whose swords were uneasy in time of peace. French farm-laborers were mainly serfs on Catholic estates, and landowners did not wish to come to the New World. Thus the people of the settlement were city folk with little experience or inclination for cultivating the soil. The Indians grew tired of supplying the wants of so large a number of strangers. Quarrels arose among the French. A discontented group of adventurers mutinied and went off on a wild attempt at piracy. They plundered two ships in the Spanish Indies and were caught by the Spanish governor. The twenty-six who escaped his clutches fled back to the fort, which Laudonnière had built and named Carolina. His faithful lieutenant La Caille arrested them and dragged them to judgment. "Say what you will," said one of the culprits ruefully, "if Laudonnière does not hang us I will never call him an honest man." The four leaders were promptly sentenced to be hanged, but the sentence was commuted to shooting. After that order reigned, for a time. Some of the tradesmen ranged the wilderness, bringing back feather mantles, arrows tipped with gold, curiously wrought quivers of beautiful fur, wedges of a green stone like beryl. There were reports of a gold mine somewhere in the northern mountains. Ribault did not return with the expected supplies, the Indians had mostly left the neighborhood, and misery and starvation followed, for the game, like the Indians fled the presence of the white men. The Governor began to think of crowding the survivors into the two little ships he had and returning to France. Matters were in this unsatisfactory state when Captain John Hawkins in his great seven-hundred-ton ship the _Jesus_, with three smaller ones, the _Solomon_, the _Tiger_ and the _Swallow_, put in at the River of May for a supply of fresh water. He gave them provisions, and offered readily to take them back to France on his way to England, but this offer Laudonnière declined. "Monsieur Hawkins is a good fellow," he observed dryly to La Caille, "and I am grateful to him, but that is no reason why I should abandon this land to his Queen, and that is what he is hoping that I may do." Others were not so long-sighted. The soldiers and hired workmen raised a howl of wrath and disappointment when they heard that they were not to sail with Hawkins, and openly threatened to desert and sail without leave. Laudonnière answered this threat by the cool statement that he had bought one of the English ships, the _Tiger_, with provisions for the voyage, and that if they would have a little patience they might soon sail for France in their own fleet. Somewhat taken aback they ceased their clamor and awaited a favoring wind. Before it came, Ribault came sailing back with seven ships, plenty of supplies, and three hundred new colonists. The fleet approached as cautiously as if it were coming to attack the colony instead of relieving it, and Laudonnière, who saw many of his friends among the new arrivals, presently learned that his enemies among the colonists had written to Coligny describing him as arrogant and cruel and charging that he was about to set up an independent monarchy of his own. The Admiral, three thousand miles away, had decided to ask the Governor to resign. Ribault advised him to stay and fight it out, but Laudonnière was sick and disheartened. Life was certainly far from simple when to use authority was to be accused of treason, and not to use it was to foster piracy, and he had had enough of governing colonies in remote jungles of the New World. He was going home. To most of the colonists, however, Ribault's arrival promised an end of all their troubles. Stores were landed, tents were pitched, and the women and children were bestowed in the most comfortable quarters which could be found for them just then. To his great satisfaction Pierre found among the arrivals his cousin Barbe and her husband, a carpenter, and her three children, Marie, Suzanne and little René. The two young girls regarded Cousin Pierre as a hero, especially when they learned that the bearskin on the floor of their palmetto hut had but a few months ago been the coat of a live black bear. It had been caught feasting in the maize-fields of the Indians, by their cousin and another youth, and shot with a crossbow bolt by Pierre. They thought the roast corn and stewed clams of their first meal ashore the most delicious food they had ever tasted, and the three-cornered enclosure in the forest with the wilderness all about it, the most wonderful place they had seen. Little did these innocent folk imagine what was brewing in Spain. The raid of French pirates upon the Jamaican coast had promptly been reported by the Adelantado of that island. Spanish spies at the French court had carefully noted the movements of Coligny and Ribault. Pedro Menendez de Avila, raising money and men in his native province of Asturia in Spain for the conquest of all Florida, learned with horror and indignation that its virgin soil had already been polluted by heretic Frenchmen. Menendez had in that very year gained permission from the King of Spain to conquer and convert this land at his own cost. In return he was to have free trade with the whole Spanish empire, and the title of Adelantado or governor of Florida for life--absolute power over all of America north of Mexico, for Spain had never recognized any right of France or England in the region discovered by Cabot, Cartier, Verrazzano or others. Menendez was allowed three years for his tremendous task. He was to take with him five hundred men and as many slaves, a suitable supply of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and provisions, and sixteen priests, four of whom were to be Jesuits. He had also to find ships to convey this great expedition. But Menendez had been playing for big stakes all his life. He was only ten years old when he ran away and went to sea on a Barbary pirate ship. While yet a lad he was captain of a ship of his own, fighting pirates and French privateers. He had served in the West Indies and he had commanded fleets. King Philip had never really understood the enormous possibilities of Florida until Menendez explained them to him. The soil was fertile, the climate good, there might be valuable mines, and there were above all countless heathen whom it was the deepest desire of Menendez to convert to the true faith. In this last statement he was as sincere as he was in the others. He expected to do in Florida what Cortes had done in Mexico. Now heresy, the unpardonable sin, burned out and stamped out in Spain, had appeared in the province which he had bound himself at the cost of a million ducats to make Spanish and Catholic. With furious energy he pushed on the work of preparation. He had assembled in June, 1565, a fleet of thirty-four ships and a force of twenty-six hundred men. Arciniega, another commander, was to join him with fifteen hundred. On June 29 he sailed from Cadiz in the _San Pelayo_, a galleon of nearly a thousand tons, a leviathan for those days. Ten other ships accompanied him; the rest of the fleet would follow later. It was the plan of Menendez to wipe out the garrison at Fort Caroline before Ribault could get there, plant a colony there and one on the Chesapeake, to control the northern fisheries for Spain alone. On the way a Caribbean tempest scattered the ships and only five met at Hispaniola, but Menendez did not wait for the rest. When he reached the Florida coast he sent a captain ashore with twenty men to find out exactly where on that long, lonely shore line the French colony had squatted. About half past eleven on the night of September 4, the watchman on one of the French ships anchored off shore saw the huge _San Pelayo_, the Spanish banner lifting sluggishly in the slow wind, coming up from the south. Ribault was in the fort, so were most of the troops, and three of the ships were anchored inside the bar. The strange fleet came steadily nearer, the great flagship moved to windward of Ribault's flagship the _Trinity_, and dropped anchor. The others did likewise. Not a word was spoken by friend or foe. The Spanish chaplain Mendoza afterward wrote: "Never since I came into the world did I know such a stillness." A trumpet sounded on the _San Pelayo_. A trumpet sounded on the _Trinity_. Menendez spoke, politely. [Illustration: "'GENTLEMEN, WHENCE DOES THIS FLEET COME?'"--_Page_ 204] "Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?" "From France." "What is it doing here?" "Bringing soldiers and supplies to a fort of the King of France in this country--where he soon will have many more," flung back the Breton captain defiantly. "Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" This time a score of clear voices reinforced the Captain's--"Lutherans--Huguenots--the Reformed Faith--The Religion!" And the Captain added, "Who are you yourself?" "I am Pedro Menendez de Avila, General of the fleet of the King of Spain, Don Felipe the Second, who come hither to hang and behead all Lutherans whom I find by land or sea, according to instructions from his Majesty, which leave me no discretion. These commands I shall obey, as you will presently see. At daybreak I shall board your ships. If I find there any Catholic he shall be well treated. But every heretic shall die." The reply to the rolling sonorous ultimatum was a shout of derision. "Ah, if you are a brave man, don't put it off till daylight! Come on now and see what you will get!" Menendez in black fury snapped out a command. Cables were slipped, and the towering black hulk of the _San Pelayo_ bore down toward the _Trinity_. But the Breton captain was already leading the little fleet out of danger, and with all sail set, went out to sea, answering the Spanish fire with tart promptness. In the morning Menendez gave up the chase and came back to find armed men drawn up on the beach, and all the guns of the ships inside the bar pointed in his direction. He steered southward and found three ships already unloading in a harbor which he named San Augustin and proceeded to fortify. In Fort Caroline, Pierre Debré, awakened by the sound of firing, ran down to the beach, where a crowd was gathering. No one could see anything but the flashes of the guns; who or what was attacking the ships there was no way of knowing. The first light of dawn showed the two fleets far out at sea, and Ribault at once ordered the drums to beat "To arms!" They saw the great galleon approach, hover about awhile, and bear away south. When the French fleet came back later, one of the captains, Cosette, reported that trusting in the speed of his ship he had followed the Spaniards to the harbor where they were now landing and entrenching themselves. The terror which haunted the future of every Huguenot in France now menaced the New World. Ribault gave his counsel for an immediate attack by sea, before Menendez completed his defense or received reinforcements. Laudonnière was ill in bed. The fleet sailed as soon as it could be made ready, and with it nearly every able fighting man in the settlement. Pierre, nearly crying with wrath and disappointment, was left among the non-combatants at the fort. In vain did old Challeux the carpenter try to console him. It might be, as Challeux said, that there would be plenty of chances to fight after his beard was grown, but now he was missing everything. That night a terrible storm arose and continued for days. The marshes became a boundless sea; the forests were whipped like weeds in the wind. Where had the fleet found refuge? or had it been hurled to destruction by the rage of wind and sea? Laudonnière, in the driving rain, came from his sick-bed to direct the work on the defenses, which were broken down in three or four places. Besides the four dog-boys, the cook, the brewer, an old cross-bow maker, and the old carpenter, there were two shoemakers, a musician, four valets, fourscore camp-followers who did not know the use of arms, and the crowd of women and children. The sole consolation that could be found in their plight was that in such a storm no enemy would be likely to attack them by sea or land. Nevertheless Laudonnière divided his force into two watches with an officer for each, gave them lanterns and an hour glass for going the rounds, and himself, weak with fever, spent each night in the guard-room. On the night of the nineteenth the tempest became a deluge. The officer of the night took pity on the drenched and gasping sentries and dismissed them. But on that night five hundred Spaniards were coming from San Augustin through almost impassable swamps, their provisions spoiled and their powder soaked, under the leadership of the pitiless Menendez. The storm had caught Ribault's fleet just as it was about to attack on the eleventh, and Menendez had determined to take a force of Spaniards overland and attack the fort while its defenders were away. With twenty Vizcayan axemen to clear the way and two Indians and a renegade Frenchman, François Jean, for a guide, he had bullied, threatened and exhorted them through eight days of wading through mud waist-deep, creeping around quagmires and pushing by main force through palmetto jungles, until two hours before daylight the panting, shivering, sullen men stood cursing the country and their commander, under their breath, in a pine wood less than a mile from Fort Caroline. It was all that Menendez could do to get them to go a rod further. All night, he said, he had prayed for help; their provisions and ammunition were gone; there was nothing to do but to go on and take the fort. They went on. In the faint light of early morning a trumpeter saw them racing down the slope toward the fort and blew the alarm. "Santiago! Santiago!" sounded in the ears of the half-awakened French as the Spaniards came through the gaps in the defenses and over the ramparts. Fierce faces and stabbing pikes were everywhere. Laudonnière snatched sword and buckler, rallied his men to the point of greatest danger, fought desperately until there was no more hope, and with a single soldier of his guard escaped into the woods. Challeux, chisel in hand, on his way to his work, swung himself over the palisade and ran like a boy. In the edge of the forest he and a few other fugitives paused and looked down upon the enclosure of the fort. It was a butchery. Some of the Huguenots in the woods decided to return and surrender rather than risk the terrors of the wilderness. The Spaniards, they said, were at least men. Six of them did return, and were cut down as they came. Pierre Debré side by side with a few desperate men who had one of the two light cannon the fort possessed, was fighting like a tiger in defense of a corner where a group of women and children were crouching. When Menendez could secure the attention of his maddened men he gave an order that women, children and boys under fifteen should be spared. This order and the instant's pause it gave came just as the last of the men in Pierre's corner went down before the halberds of the Spaniards. Pierre leaped the palisade and ran for the forest. Looking back, he saw the trembling women and children herded into shelter, but not killed. Fifteen of the captured Huguenots were presently hanged; a hundred and forty-two had been cut down and lay heaped together on the river bank. Pierre plunged into the forest and after days of wandering reached a friendly Indian village. The carpenter and the other fugitives who escaped were taken to France in the two small ships of Ribault's fleet which had not gone to attack the Spanish settlement. Menendez returned at leisure to San Augustin, where he knelt and thanked the Lord. The fate of the men of Ribault's fleet became known through the letters which the Spaniards themselves wrote in course of time to their friends at home, but chiefly through Menendez's own report to the King. Dominic de Gourgues heard of it from Coligny, and his eyes burned with the still anger of a naturally impetuous man who has learned in stern schools how to keep his temper. "As I understand it," he said grimly and quietly, "Menendez, in the disguise of a sailor, found Ribault and his men shipwrecked and starving, some in one place, some in another. He promised them food and safety on condition that they should surrender and give up their arms and armor. He separated them into lots of ten, each guarded by twenty Spaniards. When each lot had been led out of sight of the rest he explained that on account of their great numbers and the fewness of his own followers he should be compelled to tie their hands before taking them into camp, for fear they might capture the camp. At the end of the day, when all had reached a certain line which Menendez marked out with his cane in the sand, he gave the word to his murderers to butcher them." Coligny bowed his noble gray head. "And he offered them life if they would renounce their religion, whereupon Ribault repeating in French the psalm, 'Lord, remember thou me,' they died without other supplication to God or man. On this account did Menendez write above the heads of those whom he hanged, 'I do this not as to Frenchmen but as to Lutherans.' And no demand for redress has as yet been made?" "One," said the Admiral coolly. "A demand was made by Philip of Spain. He has required his brother of France to punish one Gaspé Coligny, sometimes known as Admiral, for sending out a Huguenot colony to settle in Florida." The Gascon sprang to his feet muttering something between his teeth. "I crave your pardon, my lord," he added with a courteous bow. "I am but a plain rough soldier unused to the ways of courts, but it seems to me that things being as they are, my duty is quite simple." He bowed himself out and left Coligny wondering. During the following months it was noted that in choosing the men for his coming expedition Gourgues appeared to be unusually select. He sold his inheritance, borrowed some money of his brother, and fitted out three small ships carrying both sails and oars. He enlisted, one by one, about a hundred arquebusiers and eighty sailors who could fight either by land or sea if necessary. He secured a commission from the King to go slave-raiding in Benin, on the coast of Africa. On August 22, 1567, he set sail from the mouth of the Charente. "I should like to know," said one of the trumpeters, Lucas Moreau, "whether we are really going slave-catching, or not." "Why do you think we are not?" asked the pilot, to whom he spoke. "Because I have seen nothing on board that looks like it. Moreover, he was very particular to ask me if I had been in the Spanish Indies, and when he heard that I had been in Florida he took me on at once. I was out there, you know, when you were, two years ago." "And you would like to go back?" asked the other, gruffly. "If there were a chance of killing Menendez, yes," answered Moreau with a fierce flash of white teeth. The trumpeter's guess was a shrewd one. When the tiny fleet reached the West Indies, the commander took his men into his confidence and revealed the true object of his voyage--to avenge the massacre at Fort Caroline. The result proved that he had not misjudged them. Fired by his spirit they became so eager that they wanted to push on at once instead of waiting for moonlight to pass the dangerous Bahama Channel. They came through it without mishap, and at daybreak were anchored at the mouth of a river about fifteen leagues north of Fort Caroline. In the growing light an Indian army in war paint and feathers, bristling with weapons, could be seen waiting on the shore. "They may think we are Spaniards," said Dominic de Gourgues. "Moreau, if you think they will understand you, it might be well for you to speak to them." No sooner had the trumpeter come near enough in a small boat for the Indians to recognize him, than yells of joy were heard, for the war party was headed by Satouriona himself, who well remembered him. When Moreau explained that the French had returned with presents for their good friends there was great rejoicing. A council was appointed for the next day. In the morning Satouriona's runners had scoured the country, and the woods were full of Indians. The white men landed in military order, and in token of friendliness laid aside their arquebuses, and the Indians came in without their bows and arrows. Satouriona met Gourgues with every sign of friendliness, and seated him at his side upon a wooden stool covered with the gray "Spanish moss" that curtained all the trees. In the clearing the chiefs and warriors stood or sat around them, ring within ring of plumed crests fierce faces and watchful eyes. Satouriona described the cruelty of the Spaniards, their abuse of the Indians and the miseries of their rule, saying finally, "A French boy fled to us after the fort was taken, and we adopted him. The Spaniards wished to get him to kill him, but we would not give him up, for we love the French." He waved his hand, and from the woods at one side came, in full Indian costume, bronzed and athletic, Pierre Debré. Greatly as he was surprised and delighted, Gourgues dared not show it too plainly, and Pierre had grown almost as self-contained as a veteran of twice his years. When the French commander suggested fighting the Spaniards Satouriona leaped for joy. He and his warriors asked only to be allowed to join in that foray. "How soon?" asked Gourgues. Satouriona could have his people ready in three days. "Be secret," the Gascon cautioned, "for the enemy must not feel the wind of the blow." Satouriona assured him that there was no need of that warning, for the Indians hated the Spaniards worse than the French did. "Pierre," said Gourgues, when he had the lad safe on board ship, "they said you were killed." "I stayed alive to fight Spaniards," said the boy with a flash of the eye. "'Sieur Dominic, there are four hundred of them behind their walls, where they rebuilt our fort. I have hidden in the trees and counted. But you can trust Satouriona. The Spaniards have stolen women, enslaved and tortured men, and killed children, and the tribe is mad with hate." Twenty sailors were left to guard the ships, Gourgues with a hundred and sixty Frenchmen took up their march along the seashore; their Indian allies slipped around through the forest. With the French went Olotoraca, the nephew of the chief, a young brave of distinguished reputation, a French pike in his hand. The French met their allies not far from the fort, and pounced upon the garrison just as it finished dinner, Olotoraca being the first man up the glacis and over the unfinished moat. The fort across the river began to cannonade the attacking party, who turned four captured guns upon them, and then crossed, the French in a large boat which had been brought up the river, the Indians swimming. Not one Spaniard escaped. Fifteen were kept alive, to be hanged on the very trees from which Menendez had hanged his French captives, and over them was set an inscription burned with a hot poker on a pine board: "Not as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers." When not one stone was left upon another in either fort, Dominic de Gourgues bade farewell to his Indian allies, and taking with him the lad so strangely saved from death and exile, went back to France. NOTE The full history of this dramatic episode is to be found in Parkman's "The Pioneers of France in the New World." THE DESTROYERS The moon herself doth sail the air As we do sail the sea, Where by Saint Michael's Mount we fare Free as the winds are free. Our keels are bright with elfin gold That mocks the tyrant's gaze, That slips from out his greedy hold And leaves him in amaze. White water creaming past her prow The little _Golden Hynde_ Bears westward with her treasure now-- We'd ship and follow blind, But that he never did require-- Our Captain hath us bound Only by force of his desire-- The quarry hunts the hound! The hunt is up, the hunt is up To the gray Atlantic's bound,-- The health of the Queen in a golden cup!-- The quarry is hunting the hound! Like steel the stars gleam through the night On armored waves beneath,-- As England's honor cold and bright We bear her sword in sheath! When that great Empire dies away And none recall her place, Men shall remember our work to-day And tell of our Captain's grace,-- How never a woman or child was the worse Wherever our foe we found, Nor their own priests had cause to curse The quarry that hunted the hound! XV THE FLEECE OF GOLD White fog, the thick mist of windless marshes, masked the Kentish coast. The Medway at flood-tide from Sheerness to Gillingham Reach was one maze of creeks and bends and inlets and tiny bays. Nothing was visible an oar's length overside but shifting cloudy shapes that bulked obscurely in the fog. But although this was Francis Drake's first voyage as master of his own ship, he knew these waters as he knew the palm of his hand. His old captain, dying a bachelor, had left him the weather-beaten cargo-ship as reward for his "diligence and fidelity", and at sixteen he was captain where six years before he had been ship's-boy. Scores of daring projects went Catherine-wheeling through his mind as he steered seaward through the white enchanted world. In 1561 Spain was the bogy of English seaports, most of whose folk were Protestants. There was no knowing how long the coast-wise trade would be allowed to go on. Out of the white mist flashed a whiter face, etched with black brows and lashes and a pointed silky beard--the face of a man all in black, whose body rose and dipped with the waves among the marsh grass of an eyot. So lightly was it held that it might have slipped off in the wake of the boat had not Tom Moone the carpenter caught it with a boat-hook. But when they had the man on board they found that he was not dead. Ten minutes before, the young captain would have said that every dead Spaniard was so much to the good, but he had the life-saving instinct of a Newfoundland dog. He set about reviving the rescued man without thinking twice on the subject. "'T is unlucky," grumbled Will Harvest under his breath. "Take a drownded man from the sea and she get one of us--some time." "Like enough," agreed his master blithely. "But this one's not drownded--knocked on the head and robbed, I guess. D'you think we might take him to Granny Toothacre's, Tom?" "I reckon so," returned Tom with a wide grin, "seein' 't is you. If I was the one to ask her I'd as lief do it with a brass kittle on my head. She don't like furriners." Drake laughed and brought his craft alongside an old wharf near which an ancient farm-house stood, half-hidden by a huge pollard willow. Here, when he had seen his guest bestowed in a chamber whose one window looked out over the marshes, he stayed to watch with him that night, sending the ship on to Chatham in charge of the mate. "Now what's the lad up to?" queried Will as they caught the ebbing tide. "D'ye think he'll find out anything, tending that there Spanisher?" "Not him. He don't worm secrets out o' nobody. But he's got his reasons, I make no doubt. You go teach a duck to swim--and leave Frankie alone," said Moone. The youth did not analyze the impulse that kept him at the bedside of the injured man, but he felt that he desired to know more of him. The stranger was gaunt, gray and without jewel, gold chain or signet ring to show who he was, but it was the same man who had spoken to him at Gravesend five years ago. A barge-load of London folk had come down to see the launching of the _Serchthrift_, the new pinnace of the Muscovy Company, and among them was the venerable Sebastian Cabot. Alms were freely distributed that the spectators might pray for a fortunate voyage, but Frankie Drake was gazing with all his eyes at the veteran navigator. A hand was laid on his shoulder, and a friendly voice inquired, "Did you get your share of the plunder, my son?" The lad shook his head a trifle impatiently. "I be no beggar," he answered. "I be a ship's boy." "Ay," said the man, "and you seek not the Golden Fleece?" His eyes laughed, and his long fingers played with a strange jewel that glowed like Mars in the midnight of his breast. It was of gold enamel, with a splendid ruby in the center, and hanging from it a tiny golden ram. Could he mean that? But the crowd surged between them and left the boy wondering. He had never spoken to a Spaniard before. As the fluttering pulse grew stronger and the man roused from his stupor, disjointed phrases of sinister meaning fell from his lips. No names were used, and much of his talk was in Spanish, but it suggested a foul undercurrent of bribery, falsehood and conspiracy hidden by the bright magnificence of the young Queen's court. The queer fact seemed to be that the speaker appeared himself to be the victim of some Spanish plot. Now why should that be, and he a Spaniard? The young captain turned from the window, into which through the clearing air the moon was shining, to find the stranger looking at him with sane though troubled eyes. "The _Golden Fleece_?" he asked in English. Drake shook his head. "You've had a bad hurt, sir," he said, and briefly explained the circumstances. "Ah," said the man frowning, and was silent. "If you would wish to send any word to your friends,--" Drake began, and hesitated. "I have no friends here, save my servant Sancho. The _Golden Fleece_ will sail on Saint James's Eve for Coruna, and he was to meet me at Dover and return with me to our own country. In Alcala they know what to expect of a Saavedra." The last words were spoken with a proud assurance that gave the listener a tingling sense of something high and indomitable. Saavedra's dark eyes were searching his face. "I fear I trespass on your kindness," he added courteously, "and that I have talked some nonsense before I came to myself." "Nothing of any account, sir," answered the lad quickly. "Mostly it was Spanish--and I don't know much o' that. You'll miss your ship if she sails so soon, but you're welcome here so long as you like to stay." "I thank you," said the Spaniard in a relieved tone, adding half to himself, "No friends--but one cannot break faith--even with an enemy." He dropped asleep almost at once after swallowing the cordial which Drake held to his lips. The moon came up over the flooded meadows that were all silvery lights and black shadow like a fairy realm. The lad had never spent a night like this, even when he had seen his master die. When the pearl and rose of a July morning overspread the sky he descended, to splash and spatter and souse his rough brown head in a bucket of fresh-drawn water, and wheedle the old dame into a good humor. "What ye hate and fear's bound to come to ye, sooner or later," Granny Toothacre grumbled as she stirred her savory broth, "My old man said so and I never beleft it--here be I at my time o' life harborin' a Spanisher." "Ah, now, mother,"--Drake laid a brown hand coaxingly on her old withered one,--"you'll take good care of him for me, and we'll share the ransom." "Ransom," the old woman muttered, looking after the straight, sturdy young figure as it strode down to the wharf, "not much hope o' that. Not but what he's a grand gentleman," she admitted, turning the contents of her saucepan into her best porringer. "He don't give me a rough word no more than if I was a lady." Drake spent all his leisure during the next fortnight with the Spaniard, whose recovery was slow but steady. It was tacitly understood that the less said of the incident which had left him stunned and half-drowned the better. If those who had sought to kill him knew him to be alive, they might try again. The young seaman had never known a man like this before. In his guest's casual talk of his young days one could see as in a mirror the Spain of a half-century since, with its audacious daring, its extravagant chivalry and its bulldog ferocity. "They have outgrown us altogether, these young fellows," he said once with his quaint half-melancholy smile. "When the King and Queen rode in armor at the head of their troops in Granada, our cavaliers dreamed of conquering the world--now it has all been conquered." "Not England," Drake put in quickly. "Not England--I beg your pardon, my friend. But we have grown heavy with gold in these days--and gold makes cowards." "It never made a coward o' me," laughed the lad. "Belike it'll never have the chance." Through the shadows the old ship's-lantern cast in the rude half-timbered room seemed to move the wild figures of that marvellous pageant of conquest which began in 1492. Saavedra spoke little of himself but much of others--Ojeda, Nicuesa, Balboa, Cortes, Alvarado, Pizarro. In his soft slow speech they lived again, while by the stars outside, unknown uncharted realms revealed themselves. This man used words as a master mariner would use compass and astrolabe. "Those days when we followed Balboa in his quest for the South Sea," he ended, "were worth it all. Gold is nothing if it blinds a man to the heavens. You too, my son, may seek the Golden Fleece in good time. May the high planets fortify you!" What room was left for a knight-errant in the Spain of to-day, ruling by steel and shot and flame and gold? It must be rather awful, the listener reflected, to see your own country go rotten like that in a generation. Yet there was no bitterness in the old hidalgo's tranquil eyes. "I have been a fool," he said smiling, "but somehow I do not regret it. The wound from a poisoned arrow can be seared with red-hot iron, but for the creeping poison of the soul--the loss of honor--there is no cure." When the seamen came to get orders from their young captain, Saavedra observed with surprise the lad's clear knowledge of his own trade. Francis Drake's old master had seen King Henry's shipwrights discarding time-honored models to build for speed, speed and more speed. He had seen Fletcher of Rye, in 1539, prove to all the Channel that a ship could sail against the wind. All that he knew he had taught his young apprentice, and now the boy was free to use it for his own work--whatever that should be. Unlike the gilded and perfumed courtiers, these men of the sea showed little respect toward the tall ships of Spain. Saavedra, pleased that they spoke without reserve in his presence, watched the rugged straightforward faces, and wondered. The time came when they took him and his stocky, silent old servant to board a Vizcayan boat. As they caught his last quick smile and farewell gesture Will Harvest heaved a rueful sigh. "I never thought to be sorrowful at parting with a Don," he said reflectively, "but I be." "God made men afore the Devil made Dons," growled Tom Moone. "Yon's a man." Drake had gone down the wharf with John Hawkins of Plymouth, a town that was warmly defiant of Spain's armed monopoly of sea-trade. Privateers were dodging about the trade-routes where Spanish and Portuguese galleons, laden with ingots of gold and silver, dyewoods, pearls, spices, silks and priceless merchandise, moved as menacing sea-castles. Huger and huger galleasses were built, masted and timbered with mighty trunks from the virgin forests of the Old World, four and five feet thick. The military discipline of the Continent made a warship a floating barrack; the decks of a Spanish man-of-war were packed with drilled troops like marching engines of destruction, dealing leaden death from arquebus and musquetoun. The little ships of Cabot, Willoughby and William Hawkins had not exceeded fifty, sixty, at most a hundred tons; Philip's leviathans outweighed them more than ten to one. What could England do against the landing of such an army? An English Admiral would be Jack the Giant-Killer with no magic at his command. Yet in the face of all this, under the very noses of the Spanish patrol, Protestant craftsmen were escaping from the Inquisition in the Netherlands to England, where Elizabeth had contrived to let it be known that they were quite welcome. To a perfectly innocent and lawful coasting trade Drake and his crew now added this hazardous passenger service. They were braving imprisonment, torture and the stake, for in 1562 no less than twenty-six Englishmen were burned alive in Spain, and ten times as many lay in prison. Before Drake was twenty all Spanish ports were closed to English trade. He sold his ship and joined Hawkins in his more or less contraband trade with the West Indies. With every year of adventure upon the high seas his hatred of the tyranny of Spain deepened and strengthened. Yet though Spanish ferocity might soak the world in blood, he would not have his men tainted with the evil inheritance of the idolaters. It came to be known that El Draque did not kill prisoners. His crews fought like demons, but they slew no unarmed man, they molested no woman or child. On these terms only would he accept allies. Tons of plunder he took, but never a helpless life. He landed the shivering crews of his prizes on some Spanish island or with a laugh returned to them their empty ships. "A dead man's no mortal use to anybody," he would say cheerily, and go on using his cock-boats to sink or capture galleys. At twenty-seven, beholding for the first time the shining Pacific, he vowed that with God's help he would sail an English ship on that sea. Alone upon the platform built in a great tree with steps cut in its trunk, to which his negro allies the Maroons had guided him, he conceived the sublimely audacious plan which he was one day to unfold to Walsingham and the Queen. The air was thick with rumors of war with Spain when Drake arrived in London years later, in the company of a new friend, Thomas Doughty,--courtier, soldier, scholar, familiar with every shifting undercurrent of European court life. Never at a loss for a phrase, ready of wit and quick of understanding, Doughty could put into words what the frank-hearted young sea-captain had thought and felt and dreamed. Both knew the peace with Philip to be only deceptive. Walsingham and Leicester were for war; Burleigh for peace; between the two the subtle Queen played fast and loose with her powerful enemy. Drake avowed to Doughty his belief that to strike effectively at the gigantic power of Spain, England must raid the colonies--not the West Indies alone, but the rich western provinces of Peru and Chili. No one had been south of Patagonia since its discovery, sixty years before. Geographers still held that beyond the Straits of Magellan a huge Antarctic continent existed. From that unknown region of darkness and tempest came the great heaving ground-swell, the tidal wave and the hurricane. Even Spanish pilots never used the perilous southern route. Treasure went overland across the Isthmus. Every year an elephantine treasure-ship sailed from Panama westward through the South Sea; and there was a rich trade between the American mines and the Orient and the Spanish peninsula, by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Doughty's imagination was fired by the gorgeous possibilities of the idea, and when he became the secretary of Christopher Hatton, the Queen's handsome Captain of the Guard, he laid the plan before him with all the eloquence of his persuasive tongue. Hatton finally obtained from Elizabeth a promise to contribute a thousand crowns to the cost of an expedition to penetrate the South Seas. This, however, was only on condition that the affair should be kept secret, above all from Burleigh, who was certain to use every effort to stop it. She had already, in a private audience with Drake, been informed of the main features and even the details of the scheme, and had assured him that when the time was ripe he should be chosen to avenge the long series of injuries which Philip had inflicted upon England's honor and her own. When in mid-November, 1577, Drake ran out of Plymouth with his tiny fleet, he had with him all told one hundred and fifty seamen and fourteen boys, enlisted for a voyage to Alexandria, although it was pretty well known that this was a blind. His flagship, the _Pelican_, afterward re-christened the _Golden Hynde_ for Hatton's coat-of-arms, was a hundred-ton ship carrying eighteen guns. The _Marygold_, a barque of thirty tons and fifteen guns, and the _Swan_, a provision ship of fifty tons, were commanded by two of the gentlemen volunteers, Mr. John Thomas and Mr. John Chester. Captain John Wynter commanded the _Elizabeth_, a new eighty-ton ship, and a fifteen-ton pinnace called the _Christopher_ in honor of Hatton, was commanded by Tom Moore. Thomas Doughty was commander of the land-soldiers, and his brother John was enlisted among the gentlemen adventurers. All of Drake's experience and sagacity had gone to the fitting out of the ships. There were less than fifty men on board besides the regular crews, and among them were special artisans, two trained surveyors, skilled musicians furnished with excellent instruments, and the adventurous sons of some of the best families in England. As page the Admiral had his own nephew, Jack Drake. There were stores of wild-fire, chain-shot, arquebuses, pistols, bows, and other weapons. The Queen herself had sent packets of perfume breathing of rich gardens, and Drake's table furniture was of silver gilt, engraved with his arms; even some of the cooking utensils were of silver. Nothing was spared which became the dignity of England, her Admiral and her Queen. On calm nights the sea was alive with music. And on board the little flagship Doughty and Drake talked together as those do whose minds answer one another like voices in a roundelay. Men who have time and again run their heads into the jaws of death are often inclined to fatalism. Drake had never expressed it in words, but he had a feeling that whatever he was meant to do, God would see that he did, so long as he gave himself wholly to the work. One evening when the Southern Cross was lifting above the darkling sea, and the violins were crooning something with a weird burden to it, Doughty mused aloud. "'T is the strangest thing in life, that whatever we are most averse to, that we are fated to do." "Eh?" said Drake with a laugh, looking up from Eden's translation of Pigafetts. "Accordin' to that you can't even trust yourself. D'you look to see me set up an image to be worshiped?" Then he added in a lower tone, "That's foolish, Tom. God don't shape us to be puppets." "That sounds like old Saavedra," was Doughty's idle comment. "He had great store of antiquated sentiments--like those in the chronicles of the paladins. I knew his nephew well--a witty fellow, but visionary. He laughed at the old cavalero, but he was fond of him, and our affections rule us and ruin us. A man should have no loves nor hates if he would get on at court." Sheer surprise kept the other silent for the moment, and Doughty went on,-- "The old man had been in Mexico with Cortes, and might have risen to Adelantado in some South American province if he had not been too scrupulous to join Pizarro. He was in London, ten or fifteen years before I knew him, and I believe he was the destruction of a well-considered Spanish plot for the assassination of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth--the assassins nearly killed him. He was left for dead and was picked up by some sailors." "He was in luck." Drake's eyes twinkled. "They would have been luckier--if they had let the Spanish agents in London know they had him. He paid them well of course, but he gave them credit for the most exalted motives. All his geese were swans." "Maybe they acted out o' pure decency," Drake said dryly. "My Admiral, this is not Utopia." Doughty stroked his beard with a light complacent hand. "Seriously, it is not a kindness to expect of men without traditions more than they are capable of doing. 'E meglio cade dalle fenestre che del tetto.'" (It is better to fall from the window than from the roof.) Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard with the blade inlaid with gold and the great ruby in the top of the hilt, which lay on the table between them. The shipmaster came in just then with some question, and the conversation dropped. [Illustration: "DRAKE WAS SILENT, FINGERING THE SLENDER MILANESE PONIARD."--_Page_ 227] It was not often that Francis Drake attempted to analyze the character and behavior of those about him. Mostly he judged men by a shrewd instinct; but that night he lay long awake, watching the witch-lights upon the waves from the dancing lanterns. He was acute enough to see that Doughty had hit slyly at him over Saavedra's shoulders. Doughty had not liked it that Moone should be raised to the rank of captain; he had already shown that he regarded himself as second only to Drake in command, and the champion of the gentlemen as distinct from the mariners. The second officer of every English ship was a practical shipmaster whose authority held in all matters concerning navigation. The soldiers and their officers were passengers. This was unavoidable in view of the new method of English sea-fighting, which depended quite as much on the skill of the seamen as on the armed and trained soldier. English gunners could give the foe a broadside and slip away before their huge adversary could turn. Drake now had two factions to deal with, and he bent his brows and set his jaw as he pondered the situation. If discord arose, the gentlemen would have to come to order. There was no room here for old ideas of caste. Any man too good to haul on a rope might go to--Spain. Doughty had a way of taking it for granted that Drake and he, as gentlemen, shared thoughts and feelings not to be comprehended by common men. On land this had not seemed offensive, but on blue water, with the old sea-chanteys in his ears, in the intimate association of a long voyage, Drake found himself resenting it. What was there about the man that made his arguments so plausible when one heard them, so false when his engaging presence was withdrawn? And yet how devoted, how sympathetic, how witty and companionable he could be! Drake found himself excusing his friend as if he were a woman,--laughed, sighed, and went to sleep. Presently he began to hear of John Doughty's amusing himself by reading palms and playing on the superstitions of the sailors with strange prophecies, in which his brother sometimes joined. Drake summoned the two to a brief interview in which Thomas Doughty learned that his friend on land, frank, boyish and unassuming, was a different person from the Admiral of the Fleet. Yet as this impression faded, the brothers perversely went on encouraging discord between the gentlemen adventurers and the sailors, and foretelling events with sinister aptness. It grew colder and colder. It should be summer,--but as they crept southward they encountered cold and wind beyond that of the North Sea in January. The nights grew long; the battering of the gales never ceased; the ships lost sight of one another. It was whispered that not only had the uncanny brothers foretold the evil weather, but Thomas Doughty had boasted of having brought it about. "We'll ha' no luck till we get rid of our prophet," said blunt Tom Moone, "and the Lord don't provide no whales for the likes o' he." Drake warned his comrade with an ominous quiet. "Doughty," he said, "if you value your neck you keep your reading and writing to what a common man can understand--you and your brother. A man can't always prophesy for himself, let alone other folk." "You heard what he said," commented Wynter grimly when the Admiral was in his cabin behind closed doors. "Better not raise the devil unless you know for sure what he'll do. There's been one gallows planted on this coast." "Sneck up!" laughed Doughty, "he would not dare hang a gentleman!" but he felt a creeping chill at the back of his neck. On the desolate island where the stump of Magellan's gallows stood black against a crimson dawn, they landed and the tragedy of estrangement and suspicion ended. Thomas Doughty was tried for mutiny and treason before a jury of his peers. Every man there held him a traitor, yet he was acquitted for lack of evidence. Thus encouraged, Doughty boldly declared that they should all smart for this when Burleigh heard of it. What he had done to hinder the voyage, he averred, was by Burleigh's orders, for before they sailed he had gone to that wily statesman and told him the entire scheme. In a flash of merciless revelation Drake saw the truth. He left Doughty to await the verdict, called the companies down to the shore, and there told them the story of the expedition from first to last, not overlooking the secret orders of the Queen. "This man was my friend," he said with a break in his voice such as they had not heard save at the suffering of a child. "I would not take his life,--but if he be worthy of death, I pray you hold up your hands." There was a breathless instant when none stirred; then every hand was raised. On the next day but one they all sat down to a last feast on that bleak and lonely shore; the two comrades drank to each other for the last time, shared the sacrament, and embracing, said their farewells. Doughty proved that if he could not live a true man he could die like a gentleman; the headsman did his work, and Drake pronounced the solemn sentence, "Lo! this is the death of traitors!" In that black hour the boyish laughter went forever from the eyes of the Admiral, and the careless mirth from his voice. When after a while young Jack Drake, unable to bear the silence that fell between them, began some phrase of blundering boyish affection, the sentence trailed off into a stammer. "He's dead and at peace, Jack," the master said, the words dropping wearily, like spent bullets. "He couldn't help being as he was,--I reckon. If I'd known he was like that I could ha' stopped him, but I never knew--till too late." Discord among the crews continued, until Drake, rousing from his fitful melancholy, called them all together on a Sunday, and mounted to the place of the chaplain. "I am going to preach to-day," he said shortly. Then he unfolded a paper and began to read it aloud. "My masters, I am a very bad orator, for my bringing up hath not been in learning; but what I shall speak here let every man take good notice of and let him write it down. For I will speak nothing but what I will answer it in England, yea, and before Her Majesty." He reminded them of the great adventure before them and went on. "Now by the life of God this mutiny and dissension must cease. Here is such controversy between the gentlemen and the sailors that it doth make me mad to hear it. I must have the gentleman to haul with the mariner and the mariner with the gentleman. I would know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope--but I know there is not any such here. "Any who desire to go home may go in the _Marygold_, but let them take care that they do go home, for if I find them in my way I will sink them." Then beginning with Wynter he reduced every officer to the ranks forthwith, reprimanded known offenders, and wound up with this appeal: "We have set by the ears three mighty sovereigns, and if this voyage have not success we shall be a scorning unto our enemies and a blot on our country forever. What triumph would it not be for Spain and Portugal! The like of this would never more be tried!" Then he gave every man his former rank and dismissed them. Moone, meeting Will Harvest that night by the light of a bonfire, was the only man who dared venture a comment. "We was spoilin' for a lickin'," he said, "and we got it. I do hope and trust we'll keep out o' mischief till Frankie gets us home to Plymouth, Hol'." Will grinned back cheerfully, and there was a subdued laugh from the group about the fire. The fleet was itself again. Adventure after adventure succeeded, wilder than minstrel ever sang. The _Marygold_ went down with all hands; Wynter in the _Elizabeth_, believing the Admiral lost, turned homeward; the _Christopher_ and the _Swan_ had already been broken up. All alone the little _Golden Hynde_, blown southward, sailed around Cape Horn and proved the Antarctic continent a myth. Then Drake steered northward after more than two month's tossing on the uncharted seas, to revictual his ship in Spanish ports, fill his hold with the rich cargoes of one prize ship after another, and capture at last the great annual treasure-ship _Nuestra Señora de la Concepçion_, nicknamed the _Spitfire_ because she was better armed than most of the ships plying on that coast. As they ballasted the _Golden Hynde_ with silver from her huge hulk the jesting seamen dubbed her the _Spit-silver_. The little flagship was literally brimful of silver bars, ingots of gold, pieces of eight, and jewels whose value has never been accurately known. The Spanish Adelantados, accustomed to trust in their remoteness for defense, frantically looked for Drake everywhere except where he was. Warships hung about the Patagonian coast to catch him on his way home--surely he could not stay at sea forever! But Drake had other plans. Navigators were still searching for the northern passage, the Straits of Anian, and he coasted northward until his men were half paralyzed with cold and the creeping chill of the fog. From the latitude of Vancouver he turned south again, and put into a natural harbor not far from the present San Francisco, which he named New Albion because of the white cliffs like the chalk downs of England. Here he landed and made camp to refit and repair his flagship. He had captured on one prize, two China pilots in whose possession were all the secret charts of the Pacific trade. Indians ventured down from the mountains to the little fort and dockyard, wondering and admiring. Parson Fletcher presently came to the Admiral with the extraordinary news that they were worshiping the English as gods. Horror and laughter contended among the Puritans when they found themselves set up as idols of the heathen, and the chaplain endeavored by signs to teach the simple savages that the God whom all men should worship was invisible in the heavens. "'T only shows," remarked Moone, with a nail in one corner of his mouth, after vehemently dissuading a persistent adorer, "that a man never knows what he'll come to. Granny Toothacre used to say that if there's a thing you fight against all your life it'll come to you sooner or later." "So she did," said Drake with a grim smile as he passed. "Takes a woman to tell a fortune, after all." "D'you ever hear what become of the old Don we picked up that time?" Moone asked in a lowered voice. "Not since he sent Frankie the dagger with the gold work and the jewel. Why?" "'Cause the pilot o' the _Spit-silver_ he knowed un. He say the plague broke out in the Low Countries, and the old Don took and tended that Gallego servant o' his and then he died--not o' the pestilence--just wore out like. I reckon maybe he told Mus' Drake. I didn't." Silence fell. Then Will said thoughtfully, "He won't be Mus' Drake much longer--by rights--but you never know what a woman'll do. She keep her presents and her favors for them that ha'n't earned 'em--as a rule." Moone presently hummed half aloud, "When I served my master I got my Sunday pudden, When I served the Company I got my bread and cheese. When I served the Queen I got hanged for a pirate, All along o'sailin' on the Carib Seas!" It was a reckless jest, for every one knew that if Elizabeth were dead or married to a Catholic or at peace with Spain when they saw England again, it was extremely likely that the gallows would be their reward. But here, at any rate, was one spot not yet haunted by the Spanish spectre. The Indians, persuaded at last that the white chief was not a god, insisted on making him their King. They crowned him with a headdress of brilliant feathers, in all due ceremony, hung a chain of beads about his neck, and looked on with the utmost reverence while Drake fixed to a large upright post a tablet claiming the land for the Queen of England, and a silver sixpence with the portrait of Elizabeth and the Tudor rose. Securely hidden under the tablet in a hollow of the wood were memoranda concerning the direction in which, according to the Indians, gold was to be found in the streams,--plenty of gold. When she was ready to the last rope's end the little ship spread her wings and sailed straight across the Pacific, round the Cape of Good Hope, home to England. Battered and scarred but still seaworthy the _Golden Hynde_ crept into Plymouth Sound, where Drake heard that the plague was in the seaport. Using this for excuse not to land until he knew his footing, he anchored behind Saint Nicholas Island and sent letters to Court. The sea-dogs who patrolled the Narrow Seas in Elizabeth's time understood her better than her courtiers did. To Drake she was still the keen-minded woman who, like the jeweled silent birds he had seen in tropical jungles, sat in her palace, with enemies all about her alert and observant, and ready to seize her if she came within their grasp. He knew her waywardness to be half assumed, since to let an enemy know what he can count on is fatal. He had not much doubt of her action, but he must wait for her to give him his cue. Within a week came her answer. She demurely suggested that she should be pleased to see any curiosities which her good Captain had brought home. Drake went up to London, and with him a pack train laden with the cream of his spoil. The Spanish Ambassador Mendoza came with furious letters from Philip demanding the pirate's head. A Spanish force landed that very week in Ireland. Burleigh and the peace party were desperate. All that Mendoza could get out of Elizabeth was an order to Edmund Tremayne at Plymouth to register the cargo of the _Golden Hynde_ and send it up to London that she might see how much the pirate had really taken. At the same time Drake himself went down with her private letter to Tremayne telling him to look another way while her captain got his share of the bullion. Meanwhile she suggested that Philip call his Spaniards out of Ireland. Philip snarled that they were private volunteers. Elizabeth replied, so was Drake. An inquiry was held, and not a single act of cruelty or destruction of property could be proved against any of Drake's crews. The men were richly rewarded by their Admiral; the _Golden Hynde_ came up to Deptford; a list of the plunder was returned to Mendoza; and London waited, excited and curious. Out of this diplomatic tangle Elizabeth took her own way, as she usually did. On April 4, 1581, she suggested to Drake that she would be his guest at a banquet on board the little, worm-eaten ship. All the court was there, and a multitude of on-lookers besides, for those were the days when royalty sometimes dined in public. After the banquet, the like of which, as Mendoza wrote his master, had not been seen in England since the time of her father, Elizabeth requested Drake to hand her the sword she had given him before he left England. "The King of Spain demands the head of Captain Drake," she said with a little laugh, "and here am I to strike it off." As Drake knelt at her command she handed the sword to Marchaumont, the envoy of her French suitor, asking that since she was a woman and not trained to the use of weapons, he should give the accolade. This open defiance of Philip thus involved in her action the second Catholic power of Europe before all the world. Then, as Marchaumont gave the three strokes appointed the Queen spoke out clearly, while men thrilled with sudden presage of great days to come,-- "Rise up,--Sir Francis Drake!" A WATCH-DOG OF ENGLAND Where the Russian Bear stirs blindly in the leash of a mailéd hand, Bright in the frozen sunshine, the domes of Moscow stand, Scarlet and blue and crimson, blazing across the snow As they did in the Days of Terror, three hundred years ago. Courtiers bending before him, envoys from near and far, Sat in his Hall of Audience Ivan the Terrible Tsar, (He of the knout and torture, poison and sword and flame) Yet unafraid before him the English envoy came. And he was Sir Jeremy Bowes, born of that golden time When in the soil of Conquest blossomed the flower of Rhyme. Dauntless he fronted the Presence,--and the courtiers whispered low, "Doth Elizabeth send us madmen, to tempt the torture so?" "Have you heard of that foolhardy Frenchman?" Ivan the Terrible said,-- "He came before me covered,--I nailed his hat to his head." Then spoke Sir Jeremy Bowes, "I serve the Virgin Queen,-- Little is she accustomed to vail her face, I ween. "She is Elizabeth Tudor, mighty to bless or to ban, Nor doth her envoy give over at the bidding of any man! "Call to your Cossacks and hangmen,--do with me what ye please, But ye shall answer to England when the news flies over seas." Ivan smiled on the envoy,--the courtiers saw that smile, Glancing one at the other, holding their breath the while. Then spoke the terrible Ivan, "His Queen sits over sea, Yet he hath bid me defiance,--would ye do as much for me?" XVI LORDS OF ROANOKE Primrose garlands in Coombe Wood shone with the pale gold of winter sunshine. Violets among dry leaves peered sedately at the pageant of spring. In the royal hunting forest of Richmond, venerable trees unfolded from their tiny buds canopies like the fairy pavilion of Paribanou. Philip Armadas and Arthur Barlowe, coming up from Kingston, beheld all this April beauty with the wistful pleasure of those who bid farewell to a dearly beloved land. Within a fortnight Sir Walter Ralegh's two ships, which they commanded, would be out upon the gray Atlantic. The Queen would lie at Richmond this night, and the two young captains had been bidden to court that she might see what manner of men they were.[1] Armadas, though born in Hull, was the son of a Huguenot refugee. Barlowe was English to the back-bone. Both knew more of the ways of ships than the ways of courts. Yet for all her magnificence and her tempers Elizabeth had a way with her in dealing with practical men. She welcomed merchants, builders, captains and soldiers as frankly as she did Italian scholars or French gallants. Her attention was as keen when she was framing a letter to the Grand Turk securing trade privileges to London or Bristol, as when she listened to the graceful flatteries of Spenser or Lyly. In this year 1584 she had granted a patent to Ralegh for further explorations of the lands north of Florida discovered half a century since by Sebastian Cabot. She heaped upon it rights and privileges which made Hatton and her other court gallants grind their teeth. Ralegh knew well that this was no time for him to be wandering about strange coasts. He was therefore fitting out an expedition to make a preliminary voyage and report to him what was found. "'T is like this," Armadas was saying with the buoyant confidence which endeared him alike to his patron and his comrade. "North you get the scurvy and south the fever, but midway is the climate for a new empire. There Englishmen may have timber for their shipyards, and pasture for their sheep and cattle, and meadows for their corn. There Flemings and Huguenots may live and work in peace. Our sons may be lords and princes of a new world, Arthur lad." "Aye; but there's the Inquisition in the Indies to reckon with," answered Barlowe with his grim half-smile. "And if what we hear of the barbarians be true, the men who make the first plantation may be forced to plant and build with their left hand and keep their right for fighting." "Oh, the barbarians,--" Armadas began, and paused, for the chatter of young voices broke forth in a copse. "I tell thee salvages be hairy men with tails like monkeys. My uncle he has seen them on the Guinea coast." "Dick, if thou keep not off my heels in the passamezzo--" "Be not so cholerical, Tom Poope, or the Master'll give thee a tuning. Thou'rt not Lord of the Indies yet." "Faith," chuckled Barlowe, "here be some little eyasses practising a fantasy for the Queen's pleasure. Hey, lads, what's all the pother about?"[2] The company emerged half-shamefacedly from the shrubbery, a group of youngsters between ten and fourteen, in fanciful costumes of silk and brocade, or mimic armor and puffed doublets. The central figure of the group was a handsome little lad in a sort of tunic of hairy undressed goatskin, a feather head-dress and gilded ornaments. His dark face had a sullen look, and he grasped his lance as if about to use it. Another urchin, whose great arched eyebrows, rolling eyes and impish mouth marked him as the clown of the company, made answer boldly, "'T is Tom Poope, your lordships, who mislikes the dress he must wear, and says if we have but a king and queen of the monkeys to welcome the discoverers, the Queen will only laugh at us, and 'a will not stay to be laughed at. 'T is a masque of the ventures of Captain Cabot, look you, and Tom's the King of the salvages and makes all the long speeches." "Upon my word, coz," laughed Armadas, "I think we have stumbled upon a pretty conceit intended to do honor to our master. Methinks His Royal Highness here has the right on't--the man who made that costume never saw true Indians." "Have you seen them, then, sir? Are you a voyager?" asked Tom Poope eagerly, his face brightening. "And will you look on and tell us if we do it right?" Barlowe grinned good-humoredly, and Armadas waved a laughing assent. They seated themselves upon a grassy bank and the play began. Before half a dozen speeches had been said it was quite clear that the dark-eyed child who played the Indian King was the heart and fire of the piece. They were all clever children and well trained, but he alone lived his part. His small figure moved with a grace and dignity that even his grotesque apparel could not spoil. The costumer had evidently built his design for the costume of an Indian chief upon legends of wild men drawn from the history of Hanno and his gorillas, adding whatever absurdities he had gathered from sailors of the Gold Coast and the Caribbean Sea. Armadas, who had made a voyage to Newfoundland and seen the stately figure of a sachem outlined against a sunset sky, thought that the boy's instinct was truer than the costumer's tradition. "Let me arrange thy habit, lad," he said when the first scene ended and the clown began his dance. With a few deft touches, ripping down one side of the tunic and wreathing a girdle of ivy and bracken, he changed the whole outline of the figure. With the hairy tunic draped as a cloak, and the ungainly plumed head-dress arranged as a warrior's crest, the character which had been almost ridiculous became heroic, as the author of the masque evidently had intended. The little King's beautiful voice changed like the singing of a Cremona violin as he spoke his lines to the white stranger: "To this our wild domain we welcome thee In honorable hospitality. If Thou dost come as the great Lord of Life, The Lord of bear and wolf, and stag and fox, Leopard and ape, and rabbits of the rocks, We are thy children, as our brothers are,-- The furry folk of forest fastnesses, The bright-winged birds that wanton with the breeze, The seal that sport amid the sapphire seas. We worship gods of lightning and of thunder, Of winds and hissing waves, the rainbow's wonder, The fruits and grains, borne by the kindly earth, And all the mysteries of death and birth. Say who you are, and from what realm you hail, White spirits that in winged peraguas sail? If ye be angels, tell us of your heaven. If ye be men, tell us who is your King." It was not a long play, and had been written by a court poet especially for the children, of whose acting the Queen was fond. There were dances and songs--a sailor's contra-dance to the music of a horn pipe, a stately passamezzo by the Indian court, a madrigal and an ode in compliment to the Queen.[3] Finally the leader of the white men planted the banner of England on the little knoll, and in the name of his sovereign received the homage of the Indians. The last notes of the final chorus had just died away when trumpets called from the Thames, and the scene melted into chaos. Off ran the players, cramming costumes and properties into their wallets as they went, to see the Queen land at the water-gate. Amadas and Barlowe took the same direction less hurriedly. "I wonder now," said Armadas thoughtfully, "how much of prophecy there may have been in that mascarado? Do you know, old lad, we may be taken for gods ourselves in two months' time? God grant they think us not devils before we are done!" "We need have no fear if no Spaniards have landed on that coast before us," said Barlowe stolidly. "If they have--no poetical speeches will help our cause." The Queen's great gilded barge with its crimson hangings came sweeping up the river just as they joined the company drawn up to receive her. The tall graceful figure of Ralegh was nearest her, and when she set her small neat foot upon the stone step it was his hand which she accepted to steady her in landing. She was a sovereign every inch even in her traveling cloak, but when dinner was over, and she took her seat in the throne-room, she dazzled the eye with the splendor of gold and pearl network over brilliant velvets, the glitter of diamonds among the frost-work of Flanders lace. Elizabeth knew how to stage the great Court drama as well as any Master of the Revels. Moreover, what the Queen did, set the fashion for all the courtiers, to the profit and prosperity of merchants and craftsmen. Earls might secretly writhe at the prospect of entertaining their sovereign with suitable magnificence, but the tradesmen and purveyors rubbed their hands. When a company of Flemings was employed for four years on the carving of the beams and panels of the Middle Temple Hall, or noblemen to be in the fashion built new banquet-rooms in the Italian style, with long windows and galleries, English, Flemish and Huguenot builders flocked to the kingdom. If she took with one hand she gave with the other, and it was not without reason that the common folk of England long after she was dead called their daughters after "good Queen Bess." To Armadas and Barlowe it was a novel and splendid pageant. After they were presented to the Queen, and expressed their modest thanks for the honor of being sent upon her service, they withdrew to a window-recess to watch the company. The gentlemen pensioners in gold-embroidered suits and lace-edged ruffs, the dignified councilors in richer if darker robes, the maids of honor, bright as damask roses moving in the wind, all circled around one pale woman with keen gray-blue eyes that never betrayed her. A little apart, speaking now and then to some courtier or councilor, stood the Spanish Ambassador in somber black and gold, like a watchful spider in a garden of rich flowers. Ralegh, careless and debonair, gave him a frank salutation as he came to speak to his captains. "You may repent of the venture and wish to stay at Court," he said smiling. "The Queen thinks well of ye." "Not I," growled Barlowe, and Armadas laughed, "My Lord, do you think so ill of us as to deem us weathercocks in the wind?" "You must take care to avoid the clutches of the Inquisition," Ralegh added, not lowering his voice noticeably, yet not speaking loud enough to be heard by others. "I have hastened the fitting out of the ships and delayed your coming to Court lest Philip's ferrets be set on you. The life of Kings and Queens is like to a game of chess." "Of primero rather, it seems to me," said Armadas, "or the game the Spanish call ombre. Chess is brain against brain, fair play. In the other one may win the game by the fall of the cards--or by cheatery."[4] "A good simile, Philip," said Ralegh, with shining eyes. "'T is all very well to say, as some do, that if old King Harry were alive he'd have our Englishmen out of Spanish prisons. But in his day Spain had hardly begun her conquests over seas, and the Inquisition had not tasted English blood. It was Philip that taught our men primero--and the best player is he who can bluff, so playing his hand that his enemy guesses not the truth. And the stake in this game is--Empire." Ralegh's head lifted as if he saw visions. In silence the three joined the company now assembling to see the masque of the children. Bravely it went, nimbly the dancers footed it, sweetly rang the choruses, and well did the little chief and captain play their parts. At the end the Queen, saying in merry courtesy that she could do no less for him who had found her a kingdom and him who freely gave it, presented a ring set with a carnelian heart to Hal Kempe who played Cabot, but about the neck of Tom Poope she hung a golden chain, for if he had to wear her fetters, she said, they should at least be golden. And so the play came to an end, and work began. [Illustration: "IF HE HAD TO WEAR HER FETTERS, THEY SHOULD AT LEAST BE GOLDEN."--_Page_ 245] On April 27, with a fair wind, the two ships of Ralegh's venture went down to the Channel and out upon the western ocean. They had good fortune, for not a Spaniard crossed their course. Nine weeks later they sighted the coast which the French had once called Carolina. Before they were near enough to see it well they caught the scent of a wilderness of flowering vines and trees blown seaward, and as they neared the shore they saw tall cedars and goodly cypresses, pines and oaks and many other trees, some of them quite unknown to English soil. It is written in Armadas's journal that the wild grapes were so abundant near the sea that sometimes the waves washed over them; and the sands were yellow as gold. The first time that an arquebus was fired, great flocks of birds rose from the trees, screaming all together like the shouting of an army, but there seemed to be no fierce beasts nor indeed any large animals. "With kine, sheep, cattle, and poultry, and such herbs and grain as can be brought from England," said Armadas, "this land would sure be a paradise on earth." "You forget the serpent," returned Barlowe, who had been reared by a Puritan grandfather and knew his Bible. "I am not likely to forget our great enemy while the name of Ribault or Coligny remains unforgotten," said the other. "All the more reason why this land should be kept for the Religion." Indeed when they landed they found little in the country or the people to recall Adam's doom. They set up their English standard upon an island and took possession of the domain in the name of Elizabeth of England. This island the Indians called Wocoken, and the inlet where the ships lay, Ocracoke. They went inland as the guests of the native chiefs, and on the island of Roanoke they were entertained by the people of Wingina the king, most kindly and hospitably. The sea remained smooth and pleasant and the air neither very hot nor very cold, but sweet and wholesome. Manteo and Wanchese, two of the Indian warriors, chose to sail away with the white men, and in good time the ships returning reached Plymouth harbor, early in September of that year. Manteo was made Lord of Roanoke, the first and the last of the American Indians to bear an English title to his wild estate. The new province was named Virginia, with the play upon words favored in that day, for it was a virgin country, and its sovereign was the Virgin Queen. When the two captains came again to London they found the air full of the intriguings of Spain. In that year Santa Cruz had organized a plot against the Queen's life, discovered almost by chance; in that year it became clear that Philip's long chafing against the growing sea-power of England and his hatred of such rangers as Drake and Hawkins must sooner or later blaze up in war. And by chance also Armadas learned how narrow had been their own escape from a Spanish prison. He had been the guest of a friend at the acting of Master Lyly's new masque by the Children of the Chapel at Gray's Inn. Little Tom Poope sang Apelles's song and ruffled it afterward among the ladies of the court, as lightly as Essex himself. Armadas came out into the dank Thames air humming over the dainty verses,-- "'At last he staked her all his arrows. His mother's doves, and team of sparrows--'" A small hand slid into his own and pulled him toward a byway. "Why, how is it with thee, Master Poope? Didst play thy part bravely, lad." "Come," said the boy in a low breathless voice. "I have somewhat to tell thee. In here," and he drew Armadas toward a doorway. "'T is my mother's lodging--there is nothing to fear." A woman let them in as if she had been watching for them, opened the door into a small plainly furnished private room and vanished. "Art not going on any more voyages to the Virginias?" asked the boy, his eager eyes on the Captain's face. "Not for the present, my boy. Why? Wouldst like to sail with us, and learn more of the ways of Indian Princes?" "Nay, I have no time for fooling--they'll miss me," said the youngster impatiently. "The Spanish Ambassador has his spies upon thee, and thou must leave a false scent for them to smell out. He sent his report on thee, eight months ago." "Before we sailed to Roanoke?" queried Armadas with lifted brows. "Before thou went to Richmond that day. His Excellency quizzed me after the masque and asked me did I know when the ships sailed and whither they were bound, believing me to be cozened by his gold. I told him they were for Florida to find the fountain of youth for the Queen, and would sail on May-day!" A grin of pure delight widened the boy's face, and he wriggled in gleeful remembrance where he perched, on a tall oaken chair. "Oh, they will swallow any bait, those gudgeons, and some day their folly will be the end of them. I would not have them catch thee if they could be fooled, and well did I fool them, I tell thee!" "For--heaven's--sake!" stammered Armadas in amazement. "Little friend," he added gently, "it seems to me that we owe thee life and honor. But why didst do it?" "Why?" The boy's fine dark brows bent in a quick frown. "What a pox right had they to be tempting me to be false to the salt that I and they had eaten? I hate all Spaniards. I'd ha' done it any way," he added shyly, "for to win our game, but I did it for love o' thee because thou took my part about the mascarado." "I think," said Armadas as he took from his wallet a bracelet of Indian shell-work hung with baroque pearls, "that all our fine plans would ha' come to naught but for thy wise head, young 'un. These be pearls from the Virginias, and if you find 'em scorched, that's only because the heathen know no other way of opening the oyster-shell but by fire. The beads are such as they use for money and call roanoke. The gold of the Spanish mines can buy men maybe, but it does not buy such loyalty as thine, that's sure. I have no gold to give, lad,--but wear this for a love-token. And I think that could the truth be known, the Queen herself would freely name thee Lord of Roanoke." NOTES [1] The name is variously spelled Armadas, Amidas and Amadas. The form here used is that of the earliest records. The same is true of the spelling "Ralegh." [2] Companies of children under various names were often employed in the acting of plays in the time of Elizabeth. These are the "troops of children, little eyasses" alluded to by Shakespeare in "Hamlet." They sometimes acted in plays written for them by Lyly and others, and sometimes in the popular dramas of the day. Ben Jonson wrote a charming epitaph on Salathiel Pavy, one of these little actors, who died at thirteen. [3] The passamezzo, passy-measure or half-measure was a popular Elizabethan dance, like the coranto and lavolta. [4] Primero, or ombre, is said to be the ancestor of our modern game of poker. An interesting account of its origin and variations will be found in Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer's "Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards." THE CHANGELINGS Out on the road to Fairyland where the dreaming children go, There's a little inn at the Sign of the Rose, that all the fairies know, For Titania lodged in that tavern once, and betwixt the night and the day The children that crowded about her there, she stole their hearts away! Peaseblossom, Moth and Mustardseed, Agate and Airymouse too, Once were children that laughed and played as children always do, But when Titania kissed their lips, and crowned them with daffodil gold They never forgot what she whispered them, they never knew how to grow old! Mothers that wonder why little lads forget their homely ways, And little maids put their dolls aside and take to acting plays, Ah, let them be kings and queens awhile, for there's nothing sad or mean In their innocent thought, and their crowns were wrought by the touch o' the Fairy Queen! Close to the heart o' the world they come, the children who know the way To the little low gateway under the rose, where 't is neither night nor day. They see what others can never guess, they hear what we cannot hear, And the loathly dragons that waste our life they never learn to fear. The little inn at the Sign of the Rose,--ah, who can forget the place Where Titania danced with the children small and lent them her elfin grace? And wherever they go and whatever they do in the years that turn them gray They never forget the charm she said when she stole their hearts away! XVII THE GARDENS OF HELÊNE "Is there not any saint of the kitchen, at all?" asked the serious-eyed little demoiselle sorting herbs under the pear-tree. Old Jacqueline, gathering the tiny fagots into her capacious apron, chuckled wisely. "There should be, if there isn't. Perhaps the good God thinks that the men will take care that there are kitchens, without His help." She hobbled briskly into the house. Helêne sat for a few minutes with hands folded, her small nose alert as a rabbit's to the marvelous blend of odors in the hot sunshiny air. It was a very agreeable place, that old French garden. There had been a kitchen-garden on that very spot for more than five hundred years; at least, so said Monsieur Lescarbot the lawyer, and he knew all about the history of the world. A part of the old wall had been there in the days of the First Crusade, and the rest looked as if it had. When Henry of Navarre dined at the Guildhall, before Ivry, they had come to Jacqueline for poultry and seasoning. She could show you exactly where she gathered the parsley, the thyme, the marjoram, the carrots and the onion for the stuffing, and from which tree the selected chestnuts came. A white hen proudly promenading the yard at this moment was the direct descendant of the fowl chosen for the King's favorite dish of _poulet en casserole_. But the common herbs were far from being all that this garden held. Besides the dozen or more herbs and as many vegetables which all cooks used, there were artichokes, cucumbers, peppers of several kinds, marigolds, rhubarb, and even two plants of that curious Peruvian vegetable with the golden-centered creamy white flowers, called po-té-to. Jacqueline's husband, who had been a sea-captain, had brought those roots from Brazil, and she,--Helêne,--who was very little then, had disgraced herself by gathering the flowers for a nosegay. It was after that that Jacqueline had begun to teach her what each plant was good for, and how it must be fed and tended. Helêne had grown to feel that every plant, shrub or seedling was alive and had thoughts. In the delightful fairy tales that Monsieur Marc Lescarbot told her they were alive, and talked of her when they left their places at night and held moonlight dances. Lescarbot's thin keen face with the bald forehead and humorous eyes appeared now at the grille in the green door. He swept off his béret and made a deep bow. "Mademoiselle la bien-aimée de la bonne Sainte Marthe," he said gravely, "may I come in?" He had a new name for her every time he came, usually a long one. "But why Sainte Marthe?" she asked, running to let him in. "She is the patron saint of cooks and housewives, petite. A good cook can do anything. Sainte Marthe entertained the blessed Lord in her own home, and was the first nun of the sisterhood she founded. Moreover when she was preaching at Aix a fearful dragon by the name of Tarasque inhabited the river Rhone, and came out each night to devastate the country until Sainte Marthe was the means of his--conversion." "Oh, go on!" cried Helêne, and Lescarbot sat down on the old bench under the pear-tree and began to help with the herbs. "Sainte Marthe was an excellent cook, and the first thing she did when she founded her convent was to plant a kitchen-garden. On Saint John's Eve she went into the garden and watered each plant with holy water, blessing it in the use of God. People came from miles around to get roots and seeds from the garden and to ask for Sainte Marthe's recipes for broths and cordials for the sick. Often they brought roots of such plants as rhubarb and--er--marigold, which had been imported from heathen countries, to be blessed and made wholesome." Lescarbot's eye rested on the potato plant, which he distrusted. "Well. The dragon prowled around and around the convent walls, but of course he could not come in. At last he pretended to be sick and sent for Sainte Marthe to come and cure him. As soon as she set eyes on him she knew what a wicked lie he had told, and resolved to punish him for his impudence. Of course all he wanted of her was to get her recipes for sauces and stews so that he might cook and eat his victims without having indigestion--which is what a good sauce is for. Sainte Marthe promised to make him some broth if he would do no harm while she was gone, and just to make sure he kept his promise she made him hold out his fore-paws and tied them hard and fast with her girdle, while he sat with his fore-legs around his--er--knees, and her broomstick thrust crosswise between. Then she got out her largest kettle and made a good savory broth of all the herbs in her garden--there were three hundred and sixty-five kinds. She knew that if he drank it all, the blessed herbs would work such a change in his inside that he would be like a lamb forever after. "But one thing neither she nor Tarasque had thought of, and that was, that the broth was hot. Of course he always took his food and drink very cold. When he smelled its delicious fragrance he opened his mouth wide, and she poured it hissing hot down his throat, and it melted him into a famous bubbling spring. People go there to be cured of colic." Helêne drew a long breath. She did not believe that Lescarbot had found that story in any book of legends of the saints, but she liked it none the worse for that. "I wonder if Sainte Marthe blessed this garden?" she said. "I have no doubt she did, and that is why it flourishes from Easter to Michaelmas. But I came to-day for a potato. Sieur de Monts desires to see one and to understand the method of its cultivation." "Oh, I know that," cried Helêne, eagerly, and she took one of the queer brown roots from the willow basket by the wall. "See, these are its eyes, one, two, three--seven eyes in this one. You must cut it in pieces, as many pieces as it has eyes, and plant each piece separately; and from each eye springs a plant." "Ah!" said Lescarbot gravely, and he put the potato in his wallet. For two years Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, and the valiant gentlemen Samuel de Champlain, Bienville de Poutrincourt, and others of his company, had been striving to maintain a settlement in the grant of La Cadie or L'Acadie, between the fortieth and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude in the New World, of which the King had made De Monts Lieutenant-General. De Monts engaged Champlain, who had already explored those coasts, as chief geographer, and the merchant Pontgravé was in charge of a store-ship laden with supplies. Fearing the severe winter of the St. Lawrence, the party steered south along the coast and anchored in a tranquil and beautiful harbor surrounded with forest, green lowlands, and hills laced with waterfalls. In his delight with the place Poutrincourt declared that he would ask nothing better than to make it his home; and he received a grant of the harbor, which he named Port Royal. The expedition finally came to rest on an island in a river flowing into Passamaquoddy Bay, where they began their settlement. Their wooden buildings--a house for their viceroy, one for Champlain and other gentlemen, barracks, lodgings, workshops and storehouses,--surrounded a square in the middle of which one fine cedar was left standing, while a belt of them remained to hedge the island from the north winds. The work done, Poutrincourt set sail for France, leaving seventy-nine men to spend the winter at Ile Sainte-Croix. Scurvy broke out, and before spring almost half the company were in their graves. Spring came, but no help from France. It was June 16 before Poutrincourt returned with forty men, and two days later Champlain set sail in a fifteen-ton barque with De Monts and several others, to explore the coast and discover if possible a better place for the colony. They went as far south as Nauset Harbor, and Champlain made charts and kept a journal quaintly illustrated with figures drawn and painted; but De Monts found no place that suited him. Then he bethought himself of the deep sheltered harbor of Port Royal, and they removed everything to that new site, on the north side of the basin below the mouth of a little river which they called the Équille. Even parts of the buildings were taken across the Bay of Fundy. But a ship from France brought news to De Monts that enemies at court were working against his Company, and leaving Pontgravé in command he and Poutrincourt returned home, to see what they could do to further the interests of the colony in Paris. Among other things Champlain, who had tried without success to make a garden in the sandy soil of the island, begged them to provide the settlers with seeds, roots, cuttings and implements by which they might raise grain and vegetables and other provisions for themselves. This would improve the health and also reduce the expenses of the colony, and the land about the new site was well adapted for cultivation. Poutrincourt, foregathering with his friend Lescarbot soon after the lawyer had lost nearly all he possessed in a suit, recounted to him the woes of the colony, and found with pleasure that in spite of the doleful history of the last two years Lescarbot was eager to seek a new career in New France. Helêne came running in one morning in the early spring of 1606, to find old Jacqueline on the steps of the root-cellar with a heap of sprouting potatoes beside her. Lescarbot was packing away in a panier such as she gave him, while under the whitening pear-tree a donkey stood, sleepily shaking his ears as he waited for orders. "Oh, what are you doing, Uncle Marc?" she cried. "Making ready to go to the land beyond the sunset, Mademoiselle la Princesse du Jardin de Paradis," he said smiling. "Sit down while the good mother gets the packets of seeds she promised me, and I will tell you a story." All curiosity and wonder, the little maid settled herself on the ancient worm-eaten bench, and Lescarbot began. "It happened one day that men came and told the King that a great realm lay beyond the seas, where only wild men and animals lived, and that this realm was all his. Now the wild men were not good for anything, for they had never been taught anything, but since the winters in that country were very cold the animals wore fur coats. The King called to him a Chief Huntsman and told him that he might go and collect tribute from the fur coats of the animals, and that after he had given the King his share, the fur coats of all the animals belonged to him." "Did the animals know it?" "I think they did, for they were accustomed to having men try to take away their fur coats. All the other hunters were very angry when they found that the King had given this order, but the Chief Huntsman told them that they might have a share in the hunting, only they must ask his permission and pay tribute to the King; and that satisfied them for a while. "The Chief Huntsman sailed to the far country and built a castle for himself and his men, and when winter came they found that it was indeed very cold--so cold that the wine and the cider froze and had to be given out by the pound instead of the pint. But that was not the worst of it. There was a dragon." Helêne's blue eyes grew round with interest. "A dragon whose poisonous breath tainted the food and caused a terrible plague. They prayed to Saint Luke the Physician for help, and he appeared to them in a vision and said, 'I cannot do anything for you so long as you eat not good food. God made man to live in a garden, not to fill himself with salt fish and salt meat and dry bread.' But they could not plant a garden in the middle of winter, and they had to wait. When the ship went back to France a gallant captain--named Samuel de Champlain--sent a letter to a friend of his in France, praying him to send a gardener with seeds, roots and cuttings that there might be good broths and tisanes and sauces to work magic against the dragon that he slay no more of their folk. And, little Helêne, I am filling a pair of paniers with those roots and those seeds, and I am going to be a gardener beyond the sunset." Helêne looked grave. To find her friend and playfellow suddenly dropped away from her into the middle of a fairy-tale was rather terrifying, but it was also thrilling. She slipped down from the bench. "You shall have cuttings from my very own rose-bushes," said she; and at her direction Lescarbot took up very carefully small rose-shoots that had rooted themselves around the great bushes,--bushes that bore roses white with a faint flush, white with a golden-creamy heart, pure snow-white, sunrise pink and deep glowing crimson with a purple shade. If Lescarbot had been a superstitious man, he might have been inclined to gloom during his first sea-voyage, for the ship in which he and Poutrincourt set sail from Rochelle on the thirteenth of May, 1606, was called the _Jonas_. But instead he joined in all the diversions possible in their two months' voyage--harpooning porpoises, fishing for cod off the Banks, or dancing on the deck in calm weather,--and in his leisure kept a lively and entertaining journal of the adventure. They ran into dense fog in which they could see nothing; they saw, when the mist cleared, a green and lovely shore, but before it fierce and dangerous rocks on which the breakers pounded. Then a storm broke, with rolling thunder like a salute of cannon. At last on July 27 they sailed into the narrow channel at the entrance of the harbor of Port Royal. The flag of France, with its golden lilies on a white ground, gleamed in the noon sunlight as they came up the bay toward the little group of wooden buildings in the edge of the forest. Not a man was to be seen on the silent shore; a birch canoe, with one old Indian in it, hovered near the landing. A great fear gripped the hearts of Bienville de Poutrincourt and Marc Lescarbot. Were Pontgravé and Champlain all dead with their people? Had help come too late? Then from the bastion of the rude fortifications a cannon barked salute, and a Frenchman with a gun in his hand came running down to the beach. The ship's guns returned the salute, and the trumpets sang loud greeting to whoever might be there to hear. When they had landed they learned what had happened. There were only two Frenchmen in the fort; Pontgravé and the others, fearing that the supply ship would never arrive, had gone twelve days before in two small ships of their own building to look for some of the French fishing fleet who might have provisions. The two who remained had volunteered to stay and guard the buildings and stores. There was a village of friendly Indians near by, and the chief, Membertou, who was more than a hundred years old, had seen the distant sail of the _Jonas_ and come to warn the white men, who were at dinner. Not knowing whether the strange ship came in peace or war, one of the comrades had gone to the platform on which the cannon were mounted, and stood ready to do what he could in defense, while the other ran down to the shore. When they saw the French flag at the mast-head the cannon spoke joyfully in salute. All was now eager life and activity. Poutrincourt sent out a boat to explore the coast, which met the two little ships of Pontgravé and Champlain and told the great news. Lescarbot, exploring the meadows under the guidance of some of Membertou's people, saw moose with their young feeding peacefully upon the lush grass, and beavers building their curious habitations in a swamp. Pontgravé took his departure for France in the _Jonas_, and Champlain and Poutrincourt began making plans. The winter in Port Royal had been less severe than the terrible first winter of the settlement, on the St. Croix, but the two leaders decided to take one of the ramshackle little ships and make another exploring voyage along the coast, to see whether some more comfortable site for the colony could not be found. There was plenty of leeway to the southward, for De Monts was supposed to control everything as far south as the present site of Philadelphia; but the coast had never been accurately charted by the French further south than Cape Cod. Lescarbot, who was to command at Port Royal in their absence, had already laid out his kitchen-garden and set about spading and planting it. The kitchen, the smithy and the bakery were on the south side of the quadrangle around which the wooden buildings stood; east of them was the arched gateway, protected by a sort of bastion of log-work, from which a path led to the water a few paces away; and west of them another bastion matched it, mounting the four cannon. The storehouses for ammunition and provisions were on the eastern side; on the west were the men's quarters, and on the north, a dining-hall and lodgings for the chief men of the company, who now numbered fifteen. Lescarbot set some of the men to burning over the meadows that they might sow wheat and barley; others broke up new soil for the herbs, roots and cuttings he had brought, and he himself, hoe in hand, was busiest of all. "Do not overtask yourself," warned Poutrincourt, pausing beside the thin, pale-faced man who knelt in the long shadows of the rainy dawn among his neatly-arranged plots. "If you are too zealous you may never see France again." Lescarbot laughed and dug a little grave in his plantation. "What in heaven's name are those?" "Potatoes," answered the lawyer-gardener. "The Peruvian root they are planting in Ireland." "But you do not expect to get a crop this year--and in this climate?" "I don't expect anything at all. I am making the experiment. If they come up, good; if they do not, I have seed enough for next year." The potatoes came up. It was an unusually hot summer, and the situation was favorable. If Lescarbot had known the habits of the vegetable he might not have thought of putting them into the ground on the last day of July, but they grew and flourished, and their odd ivory-and-gold blossoms were charming. Lescarbot worked all day in the bracing sunlit air, and now and then he hoed and transplanted by moonlight. In the evening he read, wrote, or planned out the next day's program. September came, with cool bright days and a hint of frost at night; the lawyer marshalled his forces and harvested the crops. The storehouses, already stocked with Pontgravé's abundant provision, were filled to overflowing, and they had to dig a makeshift cellar or root-pit under a rough shelter for the last of their produce. The potatoes were carefully bestowed in huge hampers provided by Membertou's people, who were greatly interested in all that the white men did. Old Jacqueline had said that they needed "room to breathe," and Lescarbot was taking no chances on this unknown American product. October came; the Indians showed the white men how to grind corn, and the carpenters planned a water-mill to be constructed in the spring, to take the place of the tedious hand-mill worked by two men. Wild geese flew overhead, recalling to the Frenchmen the legends of Saint Gabriel's hounds. The forests robed themselves in hues like those of a priceless Kashmir shawl, and the squirrels, martens, beavers, otters, weasels, which the hunters brought in were in their winter coats. But the exploring party had not returned. Lescarbot, who had occupied spare moments in preparing a surprise for them when they did return, and carefully drilled the men in their parts, began to be secretly anxious. But on the morning of November 14, old Membertou, who had appointed himself an informal sentinel to patrol the waters near the fort, appeared with the news that the chiefs were coming back. All was excitement in a moment, although Lescarbot privately had to admit that he could not even see a sail, to say nothing of recognizing the boat or its occupants. But the long-sighted old sagamore was right. The party of adventurers, their craft considerably the worse for the journey, steering with a pair of oars in place of a rudder, reached the landing-place and battered, weary and dilapidated, came up to the fort. They were surprised and disappointed to see no one about except a few curious Indians peeping from the woods. As they neared the wooden gateway it was suddenly flung open, and out marched a procession of masquers, headed by Neptune in full costume of shell-fringed robe, diadem, trident, and garlands of kelp and sea-moss, attended by tritons grotesquely attired, and fauns, reinforced by a growing audience of Indians, squaws and papooses. This merry company greeted the wanderers with music, song and some excellent French verse written by Lescarbot for the occasion. Refreshed with laughter and the relief of finding all so well conducted, Champlain, Poutrincourt and their men went in to have something to eat and drink. Then they spent the rest of the day hearing and telling the story of the last three months. It is written down, adorned with drawings, in the journals of Champlain, and it was all told over as the men sat around their blazing fires and talked, all together, while a light November snow flurried in the air outside. "So you see we lost our rudder in a storm off Mount Désert--" "And the autumn gales drove us back before we had fairly passed Port Fortuné--" "It came near being Port Malheur for us, and it was for Pierre and Jacques le Malouin, poor fellows. They and three others stayed ashore for the night and hundreds of Indians attacked them,--oh, but hundreds. Well, we heard the uproar--naturally it waked us in a hurry--and up we jumped and snatched any weapon that was handy, and piled into the boat in our shirts. Two of the shore party were killed and we saw the other three running for their boat for dear life, all stuck over with arrows like hedgehogs, my faith! So then we landed and charged the Indians, who must have thought we were ghosts, for they left off whooping and ran for the woods. Our provisions were so far spent that we thought it best to return after that, and in any case--it would be as bad, would it not, to die of Indians as to die of scurvy?" "But tell me, my dear fellow," said Champlain when the happy hubbub had a little subsided, "how have your gardens prospered? Truly I need not ask, in view of the abundance of the dinner you gave us." Lescarbot smiled. "I think that the saints must have whispered to the little plants," he said whimsically, "or else they knew that they must grow their best for the honor of France. But perhaps it is not strange. I had the seeds and roots from the garden of Helêne." "And who is Helêne?" asked Champlain with interest. Lescarbot explained. "It was really wonderful," he said in conclusion, "to see how careful she was to remember every herb and plant which might be useful, and to ask Jacqueline for some especial recipes for cordials and tisanes for the sick. And by the way, Jacqueline told me that the sea-captains regard potatoes as especially good to prevent or cure scurvy." In any case the potato was popular among the exiled Frenchmen. They ate it boiled, they ate it parboiled, sliced and fried in deep kettles of fat, they ate it in stews, and they ate it--and liked it best of all--roasted in the ashes. Jacqueline had said that the water in which the root was boiled must always be thrown away, which showed that there was something uncanny about it, but whether it was due to the potatoes or the general variety of the bill of fare, there was not a case of scurvy in the camp all winter. Soon after his return Champlain broached a plan which he had been perfecting during the voyage. The fifteen men of rank formed a society, to be called "L'Ordre de Bon-Temps." Each man became Grand-Master in turn, for a single day. On that day he was responsible for the dinner,--the cooking, catering, buying and serving. When not in office he usually spent some days in hunting, fishing and trading with the Indians for supplies. He had full authority over the kitchen during his reign, and it was a point of honor with each Grand Master to surpass, if possible, the abundance, variety and gastronomic excellence of the meals of the day before. There was no market to draw upon, but the caterer could have steaks and roasts and pies of moose, bear, venison and caribou; beavers, otters, hares, trapped for their fur, also helped to feed the hunters. Ducks, geese, grouse and plover were to be had for the shooting. Sturgeon, trout and other fish might be caught in the bay, or speared through the ice of the river. The supplies brought from France, with the addition of all this wilderness fare, held out well, and Lescarbot expressed the opinion, with which nobody disagreed, that no epicure in Paris could dine better in the Rue de l'Ours than the pioneers of Port Royal dined that winter. Ceremony was not neglected, either. At the dinner hour, twelve o'clock, the Grand Master of the day entered the dining-hall, a napkin on his shoulder, his staff of office in his hand, and the collar of the Order, worth about four crowns, about his neck. After him came the Brotherhood in procession, each carrying a dish. Indian chiefs were often guests at the board; old Membertou was always made welcome. Biscuit, bread and many other kinds of food served there were new and alluring luxuries to the Indians, and warriors, squaws and children who had not seats at table squatted on the floor gravely awaiting their portions. [Illustration: "THE GRAND MASTER OF THE DAY ENTERED THE DINING HALL."--_Page_ 266] The evening meal was less formal. When all were gathered about the fire, the Grand Master presented the collar and staff of office to his successor, and drank his health in a cup of wine. The winter was unusually mild; until January they needed nothing warmer than their doublets. On the fourteenth, a Sunday, they went boating on the river, and came home singing the gay songs of France. A little later they went to visit the wheat fields two leagues from the fort, and dined merrily out of doors. When the snow melted they saw the little bright blades of the autumn sowing already coming up from the rich black soil. Winter was over, and work began in good heart. Poutrincourt was not above gathering turpentine from the pines and making tar, after a process invented by himself. Then late in spring a ship came into harbor with news which ended everything. The fur-traders of Normandy, Brittany and the Vizcayan ports had succeeded in having the privilege of De Monts withdrawn. Hardly more than a year after his arrival Lescarbot left his beloved gardens, and in October all the colonists were once more in France. Membertou and his Indians bewailed their departure, and held them in long remembrance. Wilderness houses soon go back to their beginnings, and it was not long before all that was left of the brave and gay French colony was a little clearing where the herb of immortality, the tansy of Saint Athanase, lifted its golden buttons and thick dark green foliage above the remnant of the garden of Helêne. Yet the experience of that year was not lost. It was the first instance of a company of settlers in that northern climate passing the winter without illness, discord or trouble with the Indians. Later, in the little new settlements of Quebec and Montreal, some of the colonists met again under the wise and kindly rule of Champlain. Little Helêne lived to bring her own roses to a garden in New France, and teach Indian girls the secrets which old Jacqueline taught her. And it is recorded in the history of the voyageurs, priests and adventurers of France in the New World that wherever they went they were apt to take with them seeds and plants of wholesome garden produce, which they planted along their route in the hope that they might thus be of service to those who came after them. THE WOODEN SHOE Amsterdam's the cradle where the race was rocked-- All the ships of all the world to her harbor flocked. Rosy with the sea-wind, solid, stubborn, sweet, Played the children by canals, up and down the street. Neltje, Piet and Hendrik, Dirck and Myntje too,-- Little Nick of Leyden sailed his wooden shoe. "Quarter-deck and cabin--rig her fore-and-aft,"-- Thus he murmured wisely as he launched his craft. "Cutlass, pike and musquetoun, howitzer and shot-- But our knives and mirrors and beads are worth the lot." Room enough for cargo to last a year or two, In the round amidships of a wooden shoe! Bobbing on the waters of the Nieuwe Vlei See the bantam galleot, short and broad and high. Laden for the Indies, trading all the way, Frank and shrewd and cautious, fiery in a fray,-- Sagamore and mandarin are all the same to you, Little Nick of Leyden with your wooden shoe! XVIII THE FIRES THAT TALKED All along the coast of Britain, from John o' Groat's to Beachey Head, from Saint Michael's Mount to Cape Wrath, twinkled the bonfires on the headlands. Henry Hudson, returning from a voyage among icebergs, guessed at once what this chain of lights meant. The son of Mary Queen of Scots had been crowned in London.[1] Hudson's keen eyes were unusually grave and thoughtful as the _Muscovy Duck_ sailed up to London Pool on the incoming tide. The sailors looked even more sober, for most of them were English Protestants, with a few Flemings, and John Williams the pilot was an Anabaptist. It was he who asked the question of which all were thinking. "Master Hudson, d'ye think the new King will light them other fires--the ones at Smithfield?" Hudson shook his head. "That's a thing no man can say for certain, John. But there's the Low Countries and the Americas to run to. 'T is not as it was in Queen Mary's day." "Aye, but Spain has got all of America, pretty near, and the French are nabbing the rest," said the pilot doubtfully. "Nay, that's a bigger place than you guess, over yonder. Ever see the map that Doctor Dee made for Queen Bess near thirty years ago? I remember him showing it to my grandsire with the ink scarce dry on it. The country Ralegh's people saw has got room for the whole of France and England, and plenty timber and corn-land. Sir Walter he knew that." There was plague in London when they landed, and all sought their families in fear and trembling, not knowing what might have come and gone in their absence. Hudson's house was at Mortlake on the Thames above London, and there he was rejoiced to find all well. Young John Hudson was brimful of Mr. Brereton's new Relacion of the Voyage of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and Captain Bartholomew Gilbert to the North part of Virginia by permission of the honorable Knight Sir Walter Ralegh. Strawberries bigger than those of England, and cherries in clusters like grapes, blackbirds with carnation-colored wings, Indians who painted their eyebrows white and made faces over mustard, were mixed higgledy-piggledy in his bubbling talk. Hudson, turning the pages of the new book, saw at once that on this voyage around Cape Cod the little ship _Concord_ had sailed seas unknown to him. "Why won't the Company send you to the Americas, Dad?" the boy asked eagerly. "When will I be old enough to go to sea?" "Wait till ye're fourteen at least, Jack," his father answered. "There's much to learn before ye're a master mariner." In the next few years things were not so well with English mariners as they had been. Cecil and Howard, picking a quarrel with Ralegh, had him shut up in the Tower. The Dutch were trading everywhere, seizing the chances King James missed. But Hudson was in the employ of the Muscovy Company like his father and grandfather, and the Russian fur trade was making that Company rich. Captain John Smith, a shrewd-faced soldier with merry eyes, appeared at the house one day and told entertaining stories of his campaigns under Prince Sigismund of Bohemia. He and the boy John drove the neighbors nearly distracted with curiosity, one winter evening, signalling with torches from the house to the river.[2] To anxious souls who surmised a new Guy Fawkes conspiracy Captain Smith showed how he had once conveyed a message to the garrison of a beleaguered city in this way. Here was the code. The first half of the alphabet was represented by single lights, the second half by pairs. To secure attention three torches were shown at equal distances from one another, until a single light flashed in response to show that the signal was understood. For any letter from A to L a single light was shown and hidden one or more times according to the number of the letter from the beginning; thus, three flashes meant C; four meant D, and so on. For a letter between M and Z the same plan was followed using two torches. The end of a word was signified by three lights. In this way Smith had spelled out the message, "On Thursday night I will charge on the east; at the alarum, sally you." He had, however, translated it into Latin, to make it short. John Hudson found new interest in Latin. When Captain Smith began to talk of joining a new colony to go to Virginia the boy begged hard to be allowed to go. But just at this time the Muscovy Company was sending Henry Hudson to look for a way round through northern seas to the Spice Islands. The Dutch were already trading in the Portuguese Indies. If England could reach them by a shorter route, it would be a very pleasant discovery for the Muscovy Company. Even in 1607 geographers believed in an open polar sea north of Asia. Hudson tried the Greenland route. Sailing east of Greenland he found himself between that country and the islands named "Nieuwland" by William Barents the Dutch navigator in 1596. Their pointed icy mountains seemed to push up through the sea. Icebergs crowded the waters like miniature peaks of a submerged range. Hudson returned to report to the company "no open sea." In 1608 he was again sent out on the same errand. This time he steered further east, between those islands and another group named by Barents Nova Zembla. He sailed nearer to the pole than any man had been before him, and found whales bigger, finer and more numerous than anywhere else. Rounding the North Cape on his way home he made the first recorded observation of a sun-spot. In August, when he returned and made his report, there was a sensation in the seafaring world. The Dutch promptly sent whaling ships into the arctic seas, and suggested, through Van Meteren the Dutch consul in London, a friend of Hudson, that the English navigator should come to Amsterdam and talk of entering their service. While there, he received an offer from the French Ambassador, suggesting that his services would be welcome to a proposed French East India Company. Hearing this, the Dutch hastened to secure him, and on April 4, 1609, he sailed from Amsterdam in a yacht of eighty tons called the _Half Moon_ and shaped rather like one, manned by a crew of twenty, half English and half Netherlanders, and John as cabin-boy. John was in such a state of bliss as a boy can know when sailing on the venture of his dreams. His father had told him in confidence that as his sailing orders were almost the same as the year before, he did not expect to find the northern route to India in that direction. Failing this the _Half Moon_ would look for it in the western seas. Of this plan he had said nothing in Holland. He found, as he had expected, that the arctic waters were choked with ice, and turning southward he headed for the Faroe Isles. While in Holland he had had a letter from Captain John Smith, who had explored the regions about Chesapeake Bay. No straits leading to the western ocean had been discovered there, and no Sea of Verrazzano. Captain Smith's opinion was that if such a passage existed it would be somewhere about the fortieth parallel. Explorations had already been made farther north. Davis Strait had been discovered some years before by John Davis, now dead. Martin Frobisher had found another strait leading northwest. Both of these were so far north that they were likely to be ice-bound by the time the little _Half Moon_ could reach them. Hudson meant to look along the coast further south, and see what could be found there. The _Half Moon_ took in water at the Faroes and anchored some seven weeks later, on July 18, in Penobscot Bay. Her foremast was gone and her sails ripped and rent by the gales of the North Atlantic, and the carpenter with a selected crew rowed ashore and chose a pine tree for a new mast. While this was a-making and the sails were patched up, the crew not otherwise engaged went fishing. "I say," presently observed John Hudson, who knew Brereton's Relacion by heart, "this must ha' been the place where they caught so many fish that they were 'pestered with Cod' and threw numbers of 'em overboard. This makes twenty-seven, Dad, so far." During that week they caught fifty cod, a hundred lobsters and a halibut which John declared to be half as big as the ship. Two French boats appeared, full of Indians ready to trade beaver skins for red cloth. The strawberry season was past, but John found wild cherries, small, deep red, in heavy bunches. When he tried to eat them, however, they were so sour that he nearly choked. Cautiously he tasted the big blue whortleberries that grew on high bushes; near water, and found them delicious. He had been eating them by the handful for some time when he became aware that there was a feaster on the other side of the thicket. Receiving no reply to his challenge he went to investigate and saw a brown bear standing on his hind legs and raking the berries off the twigs with both forepaws, into his mouth. At sight of John he dropped on all fours and cantered off. Leaving the bay they cruised along the coast past Cape Cod, and then steered southwest for the fortieth parallel. Wind and rain came on in the middle of August, and they were blown toward an inlet which Hudson decided to be the James. Not knowing how the English governor of Jamestown might regard an intrusion by a Dutch ship, he turned north again, and on the twenty-eighth of August entered a large bay and took soundings. More than once the _Half Moon_, light as she rode, grounded on sand-banks, and Hudson shook his head in rueful doubt. "D' you think the straits are here, Dad?" asked John when he had a chance to speak with his father alone. "Hardly. This is fresh water. It's the mouth of a river."[3] "Yes, but might there be an isthmus--or the like?" "A big river with as strong a current as this would not rise on a narrow, level strip of land, son. It's bringing down tons of sand to make these banks we run into. There's a great wide country inland there." The chanteys of the sailors were heard at daybreak in the lonely sea, as the _Half Moon_ went on her way northward. On September 3 the little ship edged into another and bigger bay to the north. Whether it was a bay or a lake Hudson was at first rather doubtful. The shores were inhabited, for little plumes of smoke arose everywhere, and soon from all sides log canoes came paddling toward the ship. These Indians were evidently not unused to trading, for they brought green tobacco, hemp, corn and furs to sell, and some of them knew a few words of French. By this, and by signs, they gave Hudson to understand that three rivers, or inlets, came into this island-encircled sea, the largest being toward the north. Hudson determined to follow this north river and see where it led. As he sailed cautiously into the channel, taking soundings and observing the shores, he was puzzled. The tide rose and fell as if this were an inlet of the sea, and it was far deeper than an ordinary river. In fact it was more like a Norwegian fiord.[4] It might possibly lead to a lake, and this lake might have an outlet to the western ocean. That it was a strait he did not believe. Even in the English Channel the meeting tides of the North Sea and the Atlantic made rough water, and the _Half Moon_ was drifting as easily as if she were slipping down stream. In any event, nothing else had been found, either north or south of this point, which could possibly be a strait, and Hudson meant to discover exactly what this was before he set sail for Amsterdam. They passed an Indian village in the woods to the right, and according to the Indians who had come on board the place was called Sapokanican,[5] and was famous for the making of wampum or shell beads. A brook of clear sweet water flowed close by. Presently Hudson anchored and sent five men ashore in a boat to explore the right-hand bank of the channel. Night came on, and it began to rain, but the boat had not returned. Hudson slept but little. In the morning the missing men appeared with a tale of disaster. After about two leagues' travel they had come to a bay full of islands. Here they had been attacked by two canoes carrying twenty-six Indians, and their arrows had killed John Colman and wounded two other men. It grew so dark when the rain began that they dared not seek the ship, and the current was so strong that their grapnel would not hold, so that they had had to row all night. Sailing only in the day time and anchoring at night the little Dutch ship went on to the north, looking between the steep rocky banks like a boat carved out of a walnut-shell, in the wooden jaws of a nutcracker. After dark, fires twinkled upon the heights, and the lapping waters about the quiet keel were all shining with broken stars. The flame appeared and vanished like a signal, and John Hudson wondered if the Indians knew John Smith's trick of sending a message as far as a beacon light could be seen. One night he climbed up on the poop with the ship's great lantern and tried the flashing signals he remembered. Before many minutes two of the wild men had drawn near to watch, and although John could not make out the meaning of the light that came and went upon the cliffs, it was quite clear that they could. One of them waved his mantle in front of the lantern, and turning to the boy nodded and grinned good-naturedly. The signal fires must have talked to some purpose, for the next day a delegation paddled out from the shore to invite the great captain, his son and his chief officers to a feast. When the party arrived at the house of the chief, which was a round building, or pavilion, of saplings sheathed with oak bark, mats were spread for them to sit upon, and food was served in polished red wooden bowls. Two hunters were sent out to bring in game, and returned almost at once with pigeons which were immediately dressed and cooked by the women. One of the hunters gave John one of the arrowheads used for shooting small birds; it was no bigger than his least fingernail and made of a red stone like jasper. A fat dog had also been killed, skinned and dressed with shell knives, and served as the dish of honor. Hudson hastily explained in English to his companions that whether they relished dog or not, it would never do to refuse it, as this was a special dish for great occasions. "Dad," said John that night, "do you think any ship with white men ever came up here before?" "No," said Hudson. "I hope they'll call this the Hudson." The water was now hardly more than seven feet deep, and the tide rose only a few inches. Hudson came reluctantly to the conclusion that there was no proceeding further in a ship. He sent a boatload of men several leagues up-stream, but they came back with the report that the river was much the same so far as they had gone. During the voyage they had often seen parties of the savages, usually friendly but sometimes hostile. Flights of arrows occasionally were aimed at the _Half Moon_, and the crew replied with musket-shots which sometimes but not always hit the mark. The painted warriors had a way of disappearing into the woods like elves. Once, in spite of all endeavors to shake him off, a solitary Indian in a small canoe followed along under the stern till he saw the chance of climbing up the rudder to the cabin window. He stole the pillow off the commander's bed, two shirts, and two bandoliers (ammunition-belts), the tinkle of which betrayed him. The mate saw him making off with his plunder and shot him, whereupon the other Indians paddled off at top speed, some even leaping from their canoes to swim ashore. A boat put out and recovered the stolen property, and when a swimming Indian caught the side of it to overturn it the cook valiantly beat him off with a sword. These with many other adventures were duly written down by Robert Juet the mate. To John Hudson the voyage was a journey of enchantment. Nothing he had ever seen was in the least like the glory of the autumn forests, mantling the mountains in scarlet, gold, malachite, russet, orange and purple. He had been in the gardens at Lambeth where Tradescant the famous gardener ruled, but there was more color in a single vivid maple standing blood-red in a bit of lowland than in all his Lancaster roses. And the great river had its flowers as well. A tall plant like an elfin elm covered with thick-set tiny blossoms yellow as broom, grew wild over the pastures, and interspersed with this fairy forest were thickets of deep lavender daisies with golden centers. In lowland glades were tall spikes of cardinal blossoms, and clusters of deep blue flowers like buds that never opened. Vines loaded with bunches of scarlet and orange berries like waxwork, and others bearing fluffy bunches of silky gray down curly as an old man's beard, climbed the trees that overhung the stream. The mountains in the upper river came right down to the water like the glacis of a giant fort, and fitful winds pounced upon the _Half Moon_ and rocked her like a cradle. Once there was a late thunder-shower, and the noise of the thunder among the humped ranges was for all the world like balls rolling in a great game of bowls played by goblins of the mountains. On the fourth of October, the _Half Moon_ left the island which the Indians called Manahatta, passed through the Narrows and sailed for Europe. Looking back at those green shores with their bronze feather-crowned people watching to see the flight of their strange guest, John Hudson felt that when he was a man, he would like nothing better than to have an estate on the shores of the noble river, which no white boy had ever before set eyes on. Where a great terrace rose, some fifty miles above Manahatta, walled around by mountains and almost two hundred feet above the river, there should be a fort, of which Captain John Smith should be the commander; and in the broadening of the river below to form an inland sea, his father's squadron should ride, while the Indians of all the upper reaches of the river should come to pay tribute and bring wampum, furs and tobacco in exchange for trinkets. And on the island at the mouth of the river there would be a great city, greater than Antwerp, to which all the ships of the world should come as they came now to Antwerp and to London. So dreaming, John Hudson saw the shores of this new world vanish in the blue line, where earth and sky are one. NOTES [1] The kindling of bonfires and beacon lights on the accession of a sovereign or any other occasion of national rejoicing is a very old custom in Britain and is still kept up. At the time of Queen Victoria's jubilee trees were planted closely to form a great V on the side of the Downs, and when the fires were lighted on Ditchling Beacon and other heights the letter stood out black against the close turf of the hillside. [2] The account of Smith's campaigns and signalling code is given in his autobiography. [3] The Delaware. [4] Some authorities consider the Hudson River to be actually a fiord or fjord and not a true river. [5] Greenwich Village. IMPERIALISM The Tailor sat with his goose on the table-- (Table of Laws it was, he said) Fashioning uniforms dyed in sable, Picked out with gold and sanguine red. "This," he said as he snipped and drafted, "Sublimely foreshadowing cosmic Fate With world-dominion august, resplendent, Will wear, as nothing can wear but Hate! "Chimerical dreams of souls romantic Are out of date as an old wife's rune. Britain is doomed as Plato's Republic--" When in at the door came a lilting tune! _"Here to-day and gone to-morrow-- All in the luck of the road! Didn't come to stay forever, But we'll take our share of the load!"_ Highlanders, Irish, Danes, Egyptians, Norman or Slav the dialects ran; Something more than a board-school shaped them-- Drill and discipline never made man! Once they knew Crecy, Hastings, Drogheda, Moscow, Assaye, Khartoum or Glencoe,-- Now the old hatreds are tinder for campfires. England has only her world to show! They are not dreamers, these men of the Empire, Guarding their land in the old-time way, And this is the style that prevails in the Legions,-- "The foe of the past is a friend to-day." _"It's a long, long road to the Empire (From Beersheba even to Dan) And the time is rather late for a chronic Hymn of Hate,-- And we know the tailor doesn't make the man!"_ XIX ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND Barefoot and touzle-headed, in the coarse russet and blue homespun of an apprentice, a small boy sidled through the wood. Like a hunted hedgehog, he was ready to run or fight. Where a bright brook slid into the meadows, he stopped, and looked through new leaves at the infinite blue of the sky. Words his grandfather used to read to him came back to his mind. "Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountain." The Bible which old Joseph Bradford had left to his grandson had been taken away, but no one could take away the memory of it. If he had dared, Will would have shouted aloud then and there. For all his hunger and weariness and dread of the future the strength of the land entered into his young soul. He drank of the clear brook, and let it wash away the soil of his pilgrimage. Then he curled himself in a hollow full of dry leaves, and went to sleep. When he woke, it was in the edge of the evening. Long shadows pointed like lances among the trees. A horse was cropping the grass in a clearing, and some one beyond the thicket was reading aloud. For an instant he thought himself dreaming of the old cottage at Austerfield--but the voice was young and lightsome. "Where a man can live at all, there can he live nobly." The reader stopped and laughed out. A lively snarling came from a burrow not far away, where two badgers were quarrelling conscientiously. "Just like folks ye be, a-hectorin' and a-fussin'. What's the great question to settle now--predestination or infant baptism?--Why, where under the canopy did you come from, you pint o' cider?" "I be a-travelin'," Will said stoutly. "Runaway 'prentice, I should guess. I was one myself at fifteen." "I'm 'leven, goin' on twelve," said the boy, standing as straight as he could. "Any folks?" "I lived with granddad until he died, four year back." "And so you're wayfarin', be you? What can you do to get your bread?" The urchin dug a bare toe into the sod. "I can work," he said half-defiantly. "Granddad always said I should be put to school some day, but my uncle won't have that. I can read." "Latin?" "No--English. Granddad weren't college-bred." "Nor I--they gave me more lickings than Latin at the grammar school down to Alvord, 'cause I would go bird's-nesting and fishing sooner than study my _hic_, _haec_, _hoc_. And now I've built me a booth like a wild man o' Virginia and come out here to get my Latin that I should ha' mastered at thirteen. All the travel-books are in Latin, and you have to know it to get on in foreign parts." "Have you been in foreign parts?" "Four year--France and Scotland and the Low Countries. But I got enough o' seeing Christians kill one another, and says I to myself, John Smith, you go see what they're about at home. And here I found our fen-sludgers all by the ears over Bishops and Papists and Brownists and such like. In Holland they let a man read's Bible in peace." "Is that the Bible you got there?" "Nay--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus--a mighty wise old chap, if he was an Emperor. And I've got Niccolo Macchiavelli's seven books o' the Art o' War. When I'm weary of one I take to t' other, and between times I ride a tilt." He waved his hand toward a ring fastened on a tree, and a lance and horse-furniture leaning against the trunk. "Our folks be Separatists," the boy said. "Well, and what of it?" laughed the young man. "As I was a-reading here--a man is what his thoughts make him. Be he Catholic or Church Protestant or Baptist, he's what he's o' mind to be, good or bad. Other folk's say-so don't stop him--no more than them badgers' worryin' dams the brook." This was a new idea to Will. His hunger for books was so keen that it had seemed to him that without them, he would be stupid as the swine. John Smith seemed to understand it, for he added, "You bide here with me awhile, lad. Maybe there's a way for you to get learning, yet." Will shared the leafy booth and simple fare of his new friend for a fortnight, doing errands, rubbing down the black horse, Tamlane, and at odd times learning his conjugations. When John Smith left his hermitage and went to fight against the Turks in Transylvania, he placed a little sum of money with a Puritan scholar at Scrooby to pay for the boy's schooling for a year or two. The yeoman uncle had a family of his own to provide for, and was glad to have Will off his hands. Transylvania in 1600 was on the very frontier of Christendom. John Smith needed all the philosophy he had learned from his favorite author when, after many adventures, he was taken prisoner and sent to the slave-market of Axopolis to be sold. Bogal, a Turkish pacha, bought the young Englishman to send as a gift to his future wife, Charatza Tragabigzanda, in Constantinople. Chained by the neck in gangs of twenties the slaves entered the great Moslem city. John Smith was left at the gate of a house exactly like all the others in the narrow noisy street. The beauty of an Oriental palace is inside the walls. Within the blank outer wall of stone and mud-brick, arched roofs, painted and gilded within, were upheld by slender round pillars of fine stone--marble, jasper, porphyry, onyx, red syenite, highly polished and sometimes brought from old palaces and temples in other lands. Intricate carving in marble or in fine hard wood adorned the doorways and lattices, and the balconies with their high lattice-work railings where the women could see into a room below without being seen. In the courtyards fountains plashed in marble basins, and from hidden gardens came the breath of innumerable roses. On floors of fine mosaic were silken many-hued rugs, brought in caravans from Bagdad, Moussoul or Ispahan, and the soft patter of bare feet, morocco shoes and light sandals came from the endless vistas of open arches. A silken rustling and once a gurgle of soft laughter might have told the Englishman that he was watched, but he knew no more what it meant than he understood the Arabic mottoes, interwoven with the decoration of the blue-and-gold walls. Charatza's curiosity was aroused at the sight of a slave so tall, ruddy and handsome. She sent for him to come into an inner room where she and her ladies sat, closely veiled, upon a cushioned divan. Bogal's letter said that the slave was a rich Bohemian nobleman whom he had captured in battle, and whose ransom would buy Charatza splendid jewels. But when spoken to in Bohemian the captive looked perfectly blank. He did not seem to understand one word. Arabic and Turkish were no more successful. At last the young princess asked a question in Italian and found herself understood. It did not take long for her to find out that the story her lover had written had not a word of truth in it. She was as indignant as a spirited girl would naturally be. In one way and another she made opportunities to talk with the Englishman and to inquire of others about his career. She presently discovered that he was the champion who had beheaded three Turkish warriors, one after another, before the walls of the besieged city Regall. She made up her mind that when she was old enough to control her own fortune, which would be in the not very distant future, she would set him free and marry him. Such things had been done in Constantinople, and doubtless could be done again. But meantime Charatza's mother, learning that her daughter had been talking to a slave, was not at all pleased and threatened, since he was no nobleman and would not be ransomed, to sell him in the market. Charatza was used to having her way sooner or later, and managed to have him sent instead to her brother, a pacha or provincial governor in Tartary. She sent also a letter asking the pacha to be kind to the young English slave and give him a chance of learning Turkish and the principles of the Koran. This was far from agreeable to a brother who had already heard of his sister's liking for the penniless stranger,--especially as he found that the Englishman had no intention of turning Moslem. The slave-master was told to treat him with the utmost severity, which meant that his life was made almost unbearable. A ring of iron, with a curved iron handle, was locked around his neck, his only garment was a tunic of hair-cloth belted with undressed hide, he was herded with other Christian slaves and a hundred or more Turks and Moors who were condemned criminals, and, as the last comer, had to take the kicks and cuffs of all the others. The food was coarse and unclean, and only extreme hunger made it possible to eat it. John Smith was not the man to sit down hopelessly under misfortune, and he talked with the other Christians whenever chance offered, about possible plans of escape. None of them saw any hope of getting away, even by joining their efforts. It may be that some of this talk was overheard; at any rate Smith was sent after a while to thresh wheat by himself in a barn two or three miles from the stone castle where the governor lived. The pacha rode up while he was at work and began to abuse him, taunting him with being a Christian outcast who had tried to set himself above his betters by winning the favor of a Turkish lady. The Englishman flew at him like a wildcat, dragged him off his horse and broke his skull with the club which was used instead of a flail for threshing. Then he dressed himself in the Turk's garments, hid the body under a heap of grain, filled a bag with wheat for all his provision, mounted the horse of his late master, and rode away northward. He knew that Muscovy was in this general direction, and coming to a road marked by a cross, rode that way for sixteen days, hiding whenever he heard any sound of travelers for fear the iron slave-ring should betray him. At last he came to a Russian garrison on the River Don, where he found good friends. In 1604, after some other adventures, he came again to England. All London was talking of the doings of King James, who in one short year had managed to dissatisfy both Catholics and Protestants. Since the voyages of Gosnold, Pring and Weymouth there was much interest in Virginia. Ralegh was a prisoner in the Tower. There was talk of a trading association to be called the London Company, and it was said that this company planned a new plantation somewhere north of Roanoke. Smith could see the great future which might await an English settlement in that rich land. He decided to join the adventurers going out in the fleet of Captain Christopher Newport. Before sailing, he went to Lincolnshire to bid farewell to his own people, and in the shadow of the Tower of Saint Botolph's he espied a tall lad whose look recalled something. "Why," he cried with a hearty clasp of the hand. "'t is thyself grown a man, Will! And how goes the Latin?" "I love it well," the youth answered shyly. "Master Brewster hath also instructed me in the Greek. If--if I had known where to send it I would have repaid the money you was so kind as to spare." "Nay, think no more o't--or rather, hand it on to some other young book-worm," laughed the bearded and bronzed captain. "And how be all your folk?" The lad's eyes rested wistfully upon the quaint old seaport streets. "The Bishop rails upon our congregation," he said. "Holland is better than a prison, and we shall go there soon." Smith's practical mind saw the uselessness of trying to get any Non-Conformist taken on by a royal colony in Virginia just then. "'Tis a hard case," he said sympathetically, "but we may meet again some day. There's room enough in the Americas, the Lord knows, for all the honest men England can spare." Thus they parted, and on April 26, 1607, the Virginia voyagers saw land at the mouth of the Chesapeake. The company was rather top-heavy. Out of the hundred who were enrolled, fifty-two were gentlemen adventurers, each of whom thought himself as good as the rest and even a little better. No sooner had the ship dropped anchor than thirty of them went ashore to roam the forest, laughing and shouting as if they had the country to themselves. The appearance of five Indians sent them scurrying back to the ship with two of their number wounded, for they had no weapons with them. That night the sealed orders of the London Company were opened, and it was found that the directors had appointed a council of seven to govern the colony and choose a president for a year. The colonists were charged to search for gold and pearls and for a passage to the East Indies. Nothing more original in the way of a colonial enterprise had occurred to the directors. Success in these undertakings meant immediate profits with which the new Company could compete with Bristol, Antwerp, and the Muscovy Company's rich fur trade. In the list of names for the council appeared that of Captain John Smith, which was somewhat embarrassing, since a scandalous tale had been set going during the voyage, that he intended to lead a mutiny and make himself governor of the colony. This was so far believed that he was kept a prisoner through the last part of the voyage. The other councilors, Newport, Gosnold, Wingfield, Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall, held their election without him and chose Wingfield president. Next day the carpenters began work on the shallop, which had been shipped in sections, and Wingfield ordered Smith inland with a party of armed men, to explore. They saw no Indians, but found a fire where oysters were still roasting, and made a good meal off them, though some of the luscious shellfish were so large that they had to be cut in pieces before they were eaten. Coasting along the bay they discovered a river, which was explored when the shallop was launched. Upon this river they saw an Indian canoe forty feet long, made of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, Indian fashion, with hot stones and shell gouges. They found also oysters in abundance and in some of them fresh-water pearls. After spending seventeen days in examining the country, they chose for their settlement a peninsula on the north side of the river called the Powhatans by the Indians, from the tribe living on its banks. This site was about forty miles from the sea, and here, on May 13, they moored their ships to trees in six fathom of water and named the place Jamestown, and the river the King's River. Thus far the Indians had been friendly, and Wingfield would not have any fortifications built, or any military drill, for fear of arousing their anger. Captain Kendall, despite orders, constructed a crescent-shaped line of fence of untrimmed boughs, but most of the weapons remained in packing-cases on board ship. Wingfield, who regarded Smith as a rather dangerously outspoken man to have about just then, sent him with Newport and twenty others, to explore the river to its head. On the sixth day they passed the chief town of the Powhatans. On May 24 they reached the head of the river, set up a cross, and proclaimed in the wilderness the sovereignty of King James Stuart. The thrifty eye of the Lincolnshire yeoman observed many things with satisfaction during this march. There might not be any gold mines, but there was unlimited timber, and the meadows would make as good pasture for cattle as any in England. In the forests were red deer and fallow deer, bears, otters, beavers, and foxes, besides animals unknown in Europe. One moonlight night, while examining deer tracks near a little stream, Smith saw humped on a fallen log above it a furry beast about the size of a badger, with black face and paws like a bear, and a bushy tail with crosswise rings of brown and black. This queer animal was eating something, and dipping the food into the water before each mouthful. When Smith described it to the Indians he could make nothing of the name they gave it, but wrote it down as best he could--Araughcoune. Another new kind of creature was of the size of a rabbit, grayish white, with black ears and a tail like a rat. It would hang by its tail from a tree, until knocked off with a stick, and then curl up with shut eyes and pretend to be dead. It was excellent eating when roasted with wild yams,--rather like a very small suckling pig, the colonists later discovered. For the most part, however, Smith was inclined to think they would have to depend upon their provisions and the corn they could buy from the Indians. On returning to Jamestown they found that the Indians had been raiding the settlement, the colonists at the time being all at work and taken completely by surprise. Seventeen men had been wounded, and a boy killed. After this, the men were drilled each day, the guns were unpacked and a palisade was begun. Newport was in a hurry to return to England, and Wingfield now suggested that Smith, who was still supposed to be under arrest, should go with him and save any further trouble. This did not suit Smith at all. He demanded an open trial, got it, and was triumphantly cleared of all charges. Of the privation, dissensions and sickness which followed Newport's departure, the bad water, rotten food, constant trouble with savages, and the unreasonable demands of the directors of the London Company, all historians have told. One story, which Smith was wont to tell with keen relish, deals with the instructions of the Company that the Indian chief, "King Powhatan," should be crowned with all due ceremony, just at a time of year when every hand in the colony was needed for attending to the crops. Smith and Newport had just come to a reasonable understanding with that astute savage, by which he treated them with real respect; and the attention paid him by his "brother James," as he proceeded to call the King of England, rather turned his head. He liked the red cloak sent him, but had no idea what a crown meant. The raccoon skin mantle which he removed when robed in the royal crimson was sent to England and is now in a museum at Oxford. After some years of strenuous toil and adventure John Smith went back to London. An explosion of powder, whether accidental or intentional was never known, wounded him seriously just before he left Jamestown, and he did not recover from it for some time. "And what is in your mind to do next, Captain?" asked Master William Simons the geographer when they had finished, between them, the new map of Virginia. Smith's eyes twinkled as he snapped the cover on his inkhorn. "Why, 't is hard for an old rover like me to lie abed when there's man's work to be done. You know, the London Company holds only the southern division of the King's Patent for Virginia; the north's given to Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. And that's never been settled yet." "There was a colony of Captain George Popham and Ralegh Gilbert went out, five year ago," said Simons doubtfully. "They said they could not endure the bitter climate." "Sho," said Smith impatiently, one stubbed forefinger on the map, "'t is in almost the same latitude as France. Maybe they chose the wrong place for their plantation. Why, the French trade furs with the savages, all up and down the Saint Laurence, and mind the cold no more than nothing at all. The first thing we know, the Dutch will be out here finding a road to the Indies." Both men laughed. They had lost faith in that road to fortune. "Anyhow Hudson didn't find it when they sent him to look for it the year afore he died," said Simons, "or they'd be into it now. But what are you scheming?" "First make a voyage of exploration," said Smith. "I ha' talked with one and another that told me they taken a draught of the coast, and I ha' six or seven of the plots they drew, so different from one another and out of proportion they do me as much good as so much waste paper--though they cost me more," added the veteran grimly. "With a true map o' the coast, we'd know whereabouts we were." "No gold nor silver, I hear." "Maybe not. But what commodity in England decays faster than wood? And where will you find better forest than along that shore? Build shipyards there, and our English folk would make a living off'n that and the fisheries. I know how 't was in Boston--the Flemings would salt their fish down right aboard the ships when the fleets came in. But men for work like this must be men--not tyrants, nor slaves." John Smith's eyes flashed, and his lips closed so tightly that his thick mustaches and beard stuck straight out like a lion's. He had seen a plenty of both slavery and tyranny in his life. In fact there was a neck-and-neck race between the Plymouth Company and the Dutch West India Company, for the control of the northern province. Dutch fur traders were already on Manhattan Island living in makeshift wooden huts, and Adrian Block was exploring Long Island Sound, when John Smith went out to map the coast north of Cape Cod for Sir Ferdinando Gorges of the Plymouth Company in 1614. The two little English ships reached the part of the coast called by the Indians Monhegan in April of that year. They had general instructions to meet the cost of the expedition, if possible, by whaling, fishing and fur-trading. No true whales were found, however, and by the time the ships reached the fishing grounds the cod season was nearly past. Mullet and sturgeon were plentiful in summer, and while the sailors fished, Smith took a few men in a small boat and ranged the coast, trading for furs. Within a distance of fifty or sixty miles they got in exchange for such trifles as were prized by the Indians, more than a thousand beaver skins, a hundred or more martens and as many otter-pelts. On a rocky island four leagues from shore, in latitude 431/2, he made a garden in May which gave them all salad vegetables through June and July. Not a man of the twenty-five was ill even for a day. Cod, they learned, were abundant from March to the middle of June, and again from September to November, for cor-fish--salt fish or Poor John. The Indians said that the herring were more than the hairs of the head. Sturgeon, mullet, salmon, halibut and other fish were plentiful. Smith had a vision of comfortable independent mariners settled on farms all along the coast, sending their fish to market the year round, and sleeping every night at home. It seemed to him that here, in a hardy thrifty province which gold-seekers and gentlemen adventurers might scorn, he could contentedly end his days. There was a pleasant inlet on the coast of a bold headland, north of Cape Cod, which he thought would be his choice for his plantation. This headland he had named Cape Tragabigzanda. There were three small round islands to be seen far to seaward, which he called the Three Turks' Heads. One Sunday, "a faire sunshining day," he climbed a green height above Anusquam, and sitting on a huge boulder surveyed the bright and peaceful landscape and chose the site for his house. Good stone there would be in abundance, and mighty timbers that had been growing for him since the days of Noah. In this Province of New England a strong and fearless race would found new towns with the old names--Boston, Plymouth, Ipswich, Sandwich, Gloucester. So he dreamed until the sun went down under a canopy of crimson and gold, while the boat rocked in the little bay where he would have his wharf. In 1619, when English Puritans began preparations for the founding of a new colony, he offered his services, but the older men would have none of him. He was a "Church of England Protestant" and one of the unregenerate with whom they had no fellowship. They took his map as a guide, and settled, not on Cape Tragabigzanda, which Prince Charles had re-named Cape Anne, but in the bay which he had called Plymouth. He spent some years in London writing an account of his adventures, and died in 1631 at the age of fifty-two--Captain John Smith, Admiral of New England. NOTE The account of Captain John Smith's adventures among the Turks was at one time considered apocryphal, but good authorities now see no reason to regard his narrative of his own career as in any way inaccurate. The perils and strange chances which an adventurous man encountered in such times often seem almost incredible in a more peaceful age, but there is really no more reason to doubt them than to discredit authentic accounts of men like Daniel Boone, Francis Drake, or other men of similar disposition. THE DISCOVERIES Through tangled mysteries of old romance Knights, Latin, Celt or Saxon, pass a-dream, Seeking the minarets of magic towers Through the witched woods that gleam. Stately in trappings thick with gold and gems, Stern-browed and stubborn-eyed, they wandered forth, As children credulous, as strong men brave, To South, and West, and North. Our venturous pilots map the windy skies; To serve our pleasure, huger galleons wait. Aflame with more than magic lights, our walls Guard the Manhattan Gate! BIBLIOGRAPHY Among the sources of information from which the historical material of this book are drawn are the following works: Voyages, HAKLUYT The Discovery of America. JOHN FISKE Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. JOHN FISKE The Conquest of Mexico. PRESCOTT Two Voyages in New England. J. JOSSELYN Adventures and Conquests of Magellan. GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE Narrative and Critical History of America. (Edited by JUSTIN WINSOR) The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote. WARNER The Romance of Colonization. G. BARNETT SMITH Life of Columbus. WASHINGTON IRVING The Voyage of the Vega. NORDENSKIOLD The Land of the Midnight Sun. DU CHAILLU The Court of France. LADY JACKSON Sailors' Narratives of New England Voyages. (Edited by GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP) Indian Basketry. GEORGE WHARTON JAMES The Iroquois Book of Rites. HALE Drake. ALFRED NOYES (_poem_) Crusaders of New France. WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO Elizabethan Sea-dogs. WILLIAM WOOD Young Folks' Book of American Explorers. HIGGINSON Paradise Found. WILLIAM F. WARREN Ferdinand and Isabella. PRESCOTT Pioneers of France in the New World. PARKMAN Sir Francis Drake. JULIAN CORBETT Henry the Navigator. MEN OF ACTION SERIES THE END [Transcriber's Notes: Page Problem Change/Comment 8 "Helene" "Helêne" to match rest of text 26 same awe some awe 55 Inserted a comma after 'jeweled trappings'. 85 superfluous comma in "Catherine, became" removed 85 valauble valuable 90 good cheap and wholesome. As in image 108 comrad comrade 133 'And the White Gods come' Line indented to match other stanzas. 150 sqadron squadron 162 religon religion 178 exicitement excitement 194 slaves slavers 194 Cabeca 'Cabeça' as elsewhere 230 'like spent bullets" 'like spent bullets.' 232 two month's As in image 239 exploratioins explorations 247 Amadas Armadas 300 Inserted '(' before 'Edited by Justin Winsor)' The following variant spellings in the text have been left unmodified: "Bacalao" and "Baccalao" "Mappe-Mondo" and "Mappe-Monde" "'T is" and "'Tis" The following variant hyphenations in the text have been left unmodified: "arrow-heads" and "arrowheads" "birch-bark" and "birchbark" "cross-bow" and "crossbow-bolts" "court-yards" and "courtyards" "deer-skin" and "deerskin" "frost-work" and "frostwork" "Grand-Master" and "Grand Master" "ink-horn" and "inkhorn" "kin-folk" and "kinfolk" "sea-weed" and "seaweed" "shell-fish" and "shellfish" "ship-worm" and "shipworms"] 
11948	----	This file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions ** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y'e = the; y't = that; w't = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. Additional notes on corrections, etc. are signed 'KTH' ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION. COLLECTED BY RICHARD HAKLUYT. PREACHER AND EDITED BY EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. X. ASIA. PART III. NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN ASIA. The manner of the entring of Soliman the great Turke, with his armie into Aleppo in Syria, marching towards Persia against the Great Sophie, the fourth day of Nouember, 1553, noted by Master Anthony Ienkinson, present at that time. There marched before the Grand Signior, otherwise called the great Turke, 6000 Esperes, otherwise called light horsemen very brave, clothed all in scarlet. After, marched 10000 men, called Nortans, which be tributaries to the Great Turke, clothed all in yellow veluet, and hats of the same, of the Tartary fashion, two foote long, with a great role of the same colour about their foreheads, richly decked, with their bowes in their hands, of the Turkish fashion. After them marched foure Captaines, men of armes, called in Turkish Saniaques, clothed all foure in crimson veluet, euery one hauing vnder his banner twelue thousand men of armes well armed with their morrions vpon their heads, marching in good order, with a short weapon by their sides, called in their language, Simiterro. After came 16000 Ianizaries, called the slaues of the Grand Signior, all a foote, euery one hauing his harquebush, who be his gard, all clothed in violet silke, and apparelled vpon their heads with a strange forme, called Cuocullucia, fashioned in this sort: the entering in of the forehead is like a skull made of white veluet, and hath a traine hanging downe behind, in manner of a French hoode, of the same, colour, and vpon the forepart of the said skull, iust in the middes of his forehead there is standing bolt vpright like a trunke of a foote long of siluer, garnished most richly with Goldsmiths worke, and precious stones, and in the top of the said trunke a great bush of fethers, which waueth vp and downe most brauely when he marcheth. After this, there cam 1000. pages of honour; all clothed in cloth of gold, the halfe of them carying harquebushes, and the other halfe, Turkish bowes, with the trusses of arrowes, marching in good order. Then came three men of armes well armed, and vpon their harnesse coates of the Turkes fashion, of Libard skinnes, and murrions vpon their heads, their speares charged, and all the end of their staffe hard by the head of the speare, a horse taile died in a bloody colour, which is their ensigne: they be the chalengers for the Turkes owne person. After them came seuen pages of honour in cloth of siluer, vpon seuen white horses, which horses were couered with cloth of siluer, all embrodered and garnished with precious stones, emerauds, diamonds, and rubies most richly. After them also came sixe more pages of honour, clothed in cloth of gold, euery one hauing his bowe in his hand, and his fawchine of the Turkes fashion by his side. Immediately after them came the great Turke himselfe with great pompe and magnificence, vsing in his countenance and gesture a wonderfull maiestie, hauing onely on each side of his person one page clothed with cloth of gold: he himselfe was mounted vpon a goodly white horse, adorned with a robe of cloth of gold, embrodered most richly with the most precious stones, and vpon his head a goodly white tucke, containing in length by estimation fifteene yards, which was of silke and linnen wouen together, resembling something Callicut cloth, but is much more fine and rich, and in the top of his crowne, a litle pinnach of white Ostrich feathers, and his horse most richly apparelled in all points correspondent to the same. After him folowed sixe goodly yong ladies, mounted vpon fine white hackneis, clothed in cloth of siluer, which were of the fashion of mens garments, embrodered very richly with pearle and precious stones, and had vpon their heads caps of Goldsmiths worke, hauing great flackets of haire, hanging out on each side, died as red as blood, and the nailes of their fingers died of the same colour, euery of them hauing two eunuches on each side, and litle bowes in their hands, after an Antike fashion. After marched the great Basha chiefe conductor of the whole army, clothed with a robe of Dollymant crimson, and vpon the same another short garment very rich, and about him fiftie Ianizaries afoote, of his owne gard, all clothed in crimson veluet, being armed as the Turks owne Ianizaries. Then after ensued three other Bashas, with slaues about them, being afoote, to the number of three thousand men. After came a companie of horsemen very braue, and in all points well armed, to the number of foure thousand. All this aforesayd army, most pompous to behold, which was in number foure score and eight thousand men, encamped about the citie of Aleppo, and the Grand Signior himselfe was lodged within the towne, in a goodly castle, situated vpon a high mountaine: at the foote whereof runneth a goodly riuer, which is a branch of that famous riuer Euphrates. The rest of his armie passed ouer the mountaines of Armenia called now the mountaines of Camarie, which are foure dayes iourney from Aleppo, appointed there to tary the comming of the Grand Signior, with the rest of his army, intending to march into Persia, to giue battel to the great Sophie. So the whole armie of the Grand Signior, containing as well those that went by the mountaines, as also those that came to Aleppo in company with him, with horsemen and footemen, and the conductors of the camels and victuals, were the number of 300000 men. The camels which carried munition and vitailes for the said army, were in number 200000. * * * * * A note of the presents that were giuen at the same time in Aleppo, to the grand Signior, and the names of the presenters. First the Basha of Aleppo, which is as a Viceroy, presented 100. garments of cloth of gold, and 25. horses. The Basha of Damasco, presented 100. garments of cloth of gold, and twentie horses, with diuers sorts of comfits, in great quantitie. The Basha of Aman presented 100. garments of cloth of gold, 20. horses, and a cup of gold, with two thousand duckets. The Saniaque of Tripolis presented six camels, charged all with silkes, 20. horses, and a little clocke of gold, garnished with precious stones, esteemed worth two hundred duckets. The Consul of the company of the Venetians in Tripolis, came to kisse the grand Signiors hand, and presented him a great basin of gold, and therein 4000. duckets Venetians. * * * * * The safeconduct or priuiledge giuen by Sultan Solyman the great Turke, to master Anthony Ienkinson at Aleppo in Syria, in the yeere 1553. Sultan Solyman, &c. to all Viceroyes, Saniaques, Cadies, and other our Iusticers, Officers, and subiects of Tripolis in Syria, Constantinople, Alexandria in Ægypt, and of all other townes and cities vnder our dominion and iurisdiction: We will and command you, that when you shall see Anthony Ienkinson, bearer of these present letters, merchant of London in England, or his factor, or any other bearing the sayd letter for him, arriue in our ports and hauens, with his ship or ships, or other vessels whatsoeuer, that you suffer him to lade or vnlade his merchandise wheresoeuer it shall seeme good vnto him, traffiking for himselfe ['himelfe' in source text--KTH] in all our countreys and dominions, without hindering or any way disturbing of him, his ship, his people or merchandise, and without enforcing him to pay any other custome or toll whatsoeuer, in any sort, or to any persons whatsoeuer they be, saue onely our ordinarie duties contained in our custome houses, which when he hath paied, we will that he be franke and free, as well for himselfe as for his people, merchandise, ship or ships, and all other vessels whatsoeuer: and in so doing that he may traffike, bargaine, sell and buy, lade and vnlade, in all our foresayd Countreys, lands and dominions, in like sort, and with the like liberties and priuiledges, as the Frenchmen and Venetians vse, and enioy, and more if it be possible, without the hinderance or impeachment of any man. And furthermore, wee charge and commaund all Viceroyes, and Consuls of the French nation, and of the Venetians, and all other Consuls resident in our Countreys, in what port or prouince soeuer they be, not to constraine, or cause to constraine, by them, or the sayd Ministers and Officers whatsoeuer they be, the sayd Anthony Ienkinson, or his factor, or his seruants, or deputies, or his merchandise, to pay any kind of consullage, or other right whatsoeuer, or to intermeddle or hinder his affaires, and not to molest nor trouble him any manner of way, because our will and pleasure is, that he shall not pay in all our Countreys, any other then our ordinarie custome. And in case any man hinder and impeach him, aboue, and besides these our present letters, wee charge you most expressly to defend and assist him agaynst the sayd Consuls, and if they will not obey our present commandement, that you aduertise vs thereof, that we may take such order for the same, that others may take example thereby. Moreouer we commaund all our Captaines of our Gallies, and their Lieutenants, be they Foister or other Vessels, that when they shall finde the sayd Ienkinson, or his factor, his ship or ships, with his seruaunts and merchandise, that they hurt him not neither in body nor goods, but that rather they assist and defend him agaynst all such as seeke to doe him wrong, and that they ayde and helpe him with vitailes, according to his want, and that whosoeuer shall see these presents, obey the same, as they will auoyd the penaltie in doing the contrary. Made in Aleppo of Syria, the yeere 961. of our holy prophet Mahomet, and in the yeere of Iesus, 1553. signed with the scepter and signet of the grand Signior, with his owne proper hand. * * * * * Letters concerning the voyage of M. John Newbery and M. Ralph Fitch, made by the way of the Leuant Sea to Syria, and ouerland to Balsara, and thence into the East Indies, and beyond, In the yeere 1583. A letter written from the Queenes Majestie, to Zelabdin Echebar, King of Cambaia, and sent by Iohn Newbery. In February Anno 1583. Elizabeth by the grace of God &c. To the most inuincible, and most mightie prince, lord Zelabdim Echebar king of Cambaya. Inuincible Emperor, &c. The great affection which our Subjects haue, to visit the most distant places of the world, not without good will and intention to introduce the trade of marchandize of al nations whatsoeuer they can, by which meanes the mutual and friendly trafique of marchandize on both sides may come, is the cause that the bearer of this letter Iohn Newbery, ioyntly with those that be in his company, with a curteous and honest boldnesse, doe repaire to the borders and countreys of your Empire, we doubt not but that your imperiall Maiestie through your royal grace, will fauourably and friendly accept him. And that you would doe it the rather for our sake, to make vs greatly beholding to your Maiestie; wee should more earnestly, and with more wordes require it, if wee did think it needful. But by the singular report that is of your imperial Maiesties humanitie in these vttermost parts of the world, we are greatly eased of that burden, and therefore we vse the fewer and lesse words: onely we request that because they are our subiects, they may be honestly intreated and receiued. And that in respect of the hard iourney which they haue vndertaken to places so far distant, it would please your Maiestie with some libertie and securitie of voiage to gratifie it, with such priuileges as to you shall seeme good: which curtesie if your Imperiall maiestie shal to our subiects at our requests performe, wee according to our royall honour, wil recompence the same with as many deserts as we can. And herewith we bid your Imperial Maiestie to farewel. * * * * * A letter written by her Maiestie to the King of China, in Februarie 1583. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, &c. Most Imperial and inuincible prince, our honest subiect Iohn Newbery the bringer hereof, who with our fauour hath taken in hand the voyage which now hee pursueth to the parts and countreys of your Empire, not trusting vpon any other ground then vpon the fauour of your Imperiall clemencie and humanitie, is moued to vndertake a thing of so much difficultie, being perswaded that hee hauing entered into so many perils, your Maiestie will not dislike the same, especially if it may appeare that it be not damageable vnto your royall Maiestie, and that to your people it will bring some profite: of both which things he not doubting, with more willing minde hath prepared himselfe for his destinated voyage vnto vs well liked of. For by this meanes we perceiue, that the profit which by the mutual trade on both sides, al the princes our neighbors in the West do receiue, your Imperial maiestie and those that be subiect vnder your dominion, to their great ioy and benefit shal haue the same, which consisteth in the transporting outward of such things whereof we haue plenty, and in bringing in such things as we stand in need of. It cannot otherwise be, but that seeing that we are borne and made to haue need one of another, and that wee are bound to aide one another, but that your imperial Maiestie wil wel like of it, and by your subiects with like indeuor wil be accepted. For the increase whereof, if your imperial Maiestie shall adde the securitie of passage, with other priuileges most necessary to vse the trade with your men, your maiestie shall doe that which belongeth to a most honorable and liberal prince, and deserue so much of vs, as by no continuance or length of time shalbe forgotten. Which request of ours we do most instantly desire to be taken in good part of your maiestie, and so great a benefit towards vs and our men, we shall endeuor by diligence to requite when time shal serue thereunto. The God Almighty long preserue your Imperial Maiestie. * * * * * A letter of M. Iohn Newbery, written from Alepo, to M. Richard Hakluyt of Oxford, the 28 of May, Anno 1583. Right wellbeloued, and my assured good friend, I heartily commend me vnto you, hoping of your good health, &c. After we set saile from Grauesend, which was the 13. day of February last, wee remained vpon our coast vntill the 11. day of March, and that day we set saile from Falmouth, and neuer ankered till wee arriued in the road of Tripolie in Syria, which was the last day of Aprill last past, where wee stayed 14. dayes: and the twentie of this present we came hither to Alepo, and with Gods helpe, within fiue or sixe dayes goe from hence towards the Indies. [Sidenote: Abilfada Ismael his Cosmographie.] Since my comming to Tripolis I haue made very earnest inquirie both there and here, for the booke of Cosmographie of Abilfada Ismael, but by no meanes can heare of it. Some say that possibly it may be had in Persia, but notwithstanding I will not faile to make inquirie for it, both in Babylon, and in Balsara, and if I can finde it in any of these places, I wil send it to you from thence. The letter which you deliuered me for to copy out, that came from M. Thomas Steuens in Goa, as also the note you gaue mee of Francis Fernandas the Portugal, I brought thence with me among other writings vnawares, the which I haue sent you here inclosed. Here is great preparation for the warres in Persia, and from hence is gone the Bassa of a towne called Rahemet, and shortly after goeth the Bassa of Tripolis, and the Bassa of Damasco, but they haue not all with them aboue 6000. men from hence, and they goe to a towne called Asmerome, which is three dayes iourney from Trapezunde, where they shal meete with diuers captaines and souldiers that come from Constantinople and other places thereabout, which goe altogether into Persia. This yeere many men goe into the warres, and so hath there euery yeere since the beginning thereof, which is eight yeeres or thereabouts, but very fewe of them returne againe. Notwithstanding, they get of the Persians, and make castles and holds in their countrey. I pray you make my hearty commendations to master Peter Guillame, and master Philip Iones, and to M. Walter Warner, and to all the rest of our friends. Master Fitch hath him heartily commended vnto you: and so I commit you to the tuition of the Almightie, who blesse and keepe you, and send vs a ioyfull meeting. From Alepo, the 28. of May 1583. Your louing friend to command in all that I may. Iohn Newberie. * * * * Another letter of the said M. Newberie, written to Master Leonard Poore of London from Alepo. Right welbeloued, my very heartie commendations vnto you, and the rest of my friends remembred. [Sidenote: March 11.] My last I sent you was the 25. of February last, from Dele out of the Downes, after which time with contrary windes wee remained vpon our owne coast, vntill the 11. day of March, and then wee set saile from Falmouth, and the thirteenth day the winde came contrary with a very great storme, which continued eight dayes, and in this great storme wee had some of our goods wette, but God bee thanked no great hurt done. [Sidenote: The last of April.] After which time we sailed with a faire wind within the Streights, and so remained at Sea, and ankered at no place vntil our comming into the roade of Tripolis in Syria, which was the last day of April. This was a very good passage. God make vs thankfull for it. The fourteenth day of this present wee came from Tripolis, and the twentieth day arriued here in Alepo, and with the helpe of God tomorrowe or next day, wee beginne our voyage towards Babylon and Balsara, and so into India. Our friend Master Barret hath him commended to you, who hath sent you in the Emanuel a ball of Nutmegs for the small trifles you sent him, which I hope long since you haue receiued. Also hee hath by his letter certified you in what order hee solde those things, whereof I can say nothing, because I haue not seene the accompt thereof, neither haue demaunded it: for euer since our comming hither hee hath bene still busie about the dispatch of the shippe, and our voyage, and I likewise in buying of things here to cary to Balsara, and the Indies. [Sidenote: Currall. Amber greese. Sope. Broken glasse.] Wee haue bought in currall for 1200. and odde ducats, and amber for foure hundreth ducates, and some sope and broken glasse, with all other small trifles, all which things I hope will serue very wel for those places that wee shall goe vnto. All the rest of the accompt of the Barke Reinolds was sent home in the Emanuel, which was 3600. ducats, which is 200. pound more then it was rated. For master Staper rated it but 1100. li. and it is 1300. pound, so that our part is 200. pound, besides such profit as it shall please God to sende thereof: wherefore you shall doe very well to speake to M. Staper for the accompt. And if you would content your selfe to trauell for three or foure yeeres, I would wish you to come hither or goe to Cairo, if any goe thither. For wee doubt not if you had remained there but three or foure moneths, you would like so well of the place, that I thinke you would not desire to returne againe in three or foure yeeres. And, if it should be my chance to remaine in any place out of England, I would choose this before all other that I know. My reason is, the place is healthfull and pleasant, and the gaines very good, and no doubt the profit will bee hereafter better, things being vsed in good order: for there should come in euery ship the fourth part of her Cargason in money, which would helpe to put away our commodities at a very good price. Also to haue two very good ships to come together, would doe very well: for in so doing, the danger of the voyage might be accompted as little as from London to Antwerpe. Master Giles Porter and master Edmund Porter, went from Tripolis in a small barke to Iaffa, the same day that we came from thence, which was the 14 day of this present, so that no doubt but long since they are in Ierusalem: God send them and vs safe returne. At this instant I haue received the account of M. Barret, and the rest of the rings, with two and twentie duckats, two medines in readie money. So there is nothing remaining in his hands but a few bookes, and with Thomas Bostocke I left certaine small trifles, which I pray you demaund. And so once againe with my hearty commendations I commit you to the tuition of the almightie, who alwayes preserue vs. From Aleppo the 29 of May 1583. Yours assured, Iohn Newberie. * * * * * Another letter of Master Newberie to the aforesaide M. Poore, written from Babylon. My last I sent you, was the 29 of May last past from Aleppo, by George Gill the purser of the Tiger, which the last day of the same moneth came from thence, and arriued at Feluge the 19 day of Iune, which Feluge is one dayes iourney from hence. Notwithstanding some of our company came not hither till the last day of the last moneth, which was for want of Camels to cary our goods: for at this time of the yeere, by reason of the great heate that is here, Camels are very scant to be gotten. And since our comming hither we haue found very small sales, but diuers say that in the winter our commodities will be very well sold, I pray God their words may prooue true. I thinke cloth, kersies and tinne, haue neuer bene here at so low prices as they are now. Notwithstanding, if I had here so much readie money as the commodities are woorth, I would not doubt to make a very good profite of this voiage hither, and to Balsara, and so by Gods helpe there will be reasonable profite made of the voiage. [Sidenote: The best sort of spices at Babylon. Balsara. Ormus.] But with halfe money and halfe commoditie may be bought here the best sort of spices, and other commodities that are brought from the Indies, and without money there is here at this instant small good to be done. With Gods helpe two days hence, I minde to goe from hence to Balsara, and from thence of force I must goe to Ormus for want of a man that speaketh the Indian tongue. At my being in Aleppo I hired two Nazaranies, and one of them hath bene twise in the Indies, and hath the language very well, but he is a very lewde fellow, and therefore I will not take him with me. Here follow the prices of wares as they are worth here at this instant. Cloues and Maces, the bateman, 5 duckats. Cynamon 6 duckats, and few to be gotten. Nutmegs, the bateman, 45 medins, and 40 medins maketh a duckat Ginger, 40 medins. Pepper, 75 medins. Turbetta, the bateman, 50 medins. Neel the churle, 70 duckats, and a churle is 27 rottils and a halfe of Aleppo. Silke, much better then that which commeth from Persia, 11 duckats and a halfe the bateman, and euery bateman here maketh 7 pound and 5 ounces English waight. From Babylon the 20 day of Iuly, 1583. Yours, Iohn Newberie. * * * * * Master Newberie his letter from Ormus, to M. Iohn Eldred and William Shals at Balsara. Right welbeloued and my assured good friends, I heartily commend me vnto you, hoping of your good healths, &c. To certifie you of my voiage, after I departed from you, time wil not permit: but the 4 of this present we arriued here, and the 10 day I with the rest were committed to prison, and about the middle of the next moneth, the Captaine wil send vs all in his ship for Goa. The cause why we are taken, as they say, is, for that I brought letters from Don Antonio. But the trueth is, Michael Stropene was the onely cause, vpon letters that his brother wrote him from Aleppo. God knoweth how we shall be delt withall in Goa, and therefore if you can procure our masters to send the king of Spaine his letters for our releasement, you should doe vs great good: for they cannot with iustice put vs to death. It may be that they will cut our throtes, or keepe vs long in prison: Gods will be done. All those commodities that I brought hither, had beene very well sold, if this trouble had not chanced. You shall do well to send with all speed a messenger by land from Balsara to Aleppo, for to certifie of this mischance, although it cost thirtie or fortie crownes, for that we may be the sooner released, and I shalbe the better able to recouer this againe which is now like to be lost: I pray you make my heartie commendations, &c. from out of the prison in Ormuz, this 21 of September, 1583. * * * * * His second letter to the foresaid Master Iohn Eldred and William Shales. The barke of the Iewes is arriued here two daies past, by whom I know you did write, but your letters are not like to come to my handes. This bringer hath shewed me here very great courtesie, wherefore I pray you shew him what fauor you may. About the middle of the next moneth I thinke we shall depart from hence, God be our guide. I thinke Andrew will goe by land to Aleppo, wherein I pray you further him what you may: but if he should not goe, then I pray you dispatch away a messenger with is much speede as possible you may. I can say no more, but do for me as you would I should do for you in the like cause, and so with my very hearty commendations, &c. From out of the prison in Ormuz, this 24 day of September, 1583. Yours, Iohn Newberie. * * * * * His third Letter to Maister Leonard Poore, written from Goa. [Sidenote: Michael Stropine an Italian accused our men to be spies.] My last I sent you was from Ormuz, whereby I certified you what had happened there vnto me, and the rest of my company, which was, that foure dayes after our arriuall there, we were all committed to prison, except one Italian which came with me from Aleppo, whom the Captaine never examined, onely demaunded what countryman he was, but I make account Michael Stropene, who accused vs, had informed the Captaine of him. The first day we arriued there, this Stropene accused vs that we were spies sent from Don Antonio, besides diuers other lies: nothwithstanding if we had beene of any other countrey then of England, we might freely haue traded with them. And although we be Englishmen, I know no reason to the contrary, but that we may trade hither and thither as well as other nations, for all nations doe, and may come freely to Ormuz, as Frenchmen, Flemmings, Almains, Hungarians, Italians, Greekes, Armenians, Nazaranies, Turkes and Moores, Iewes and Gentiles, Persians, Moscouites, and there is no nation that they seeke for to trouble, except ours: wherefore it were contrary to all iustice and reason that they should suffer all nations to trade with them, and to forbid vs. But now I haue as great liberty as any other nation, except it be to go out of the countrey, which thing as yet I desire not But I thinke hereafter, and before it be long, if I shall be desirious to go from hence, that they wil not deny me licence. Before we might be suffered to come out of prison, I was forced to put in suerties for 2000 pardaus, not to depart from hence without licence of the viceroy Otherwise except this, we haue as much libertie as any other nation, for I haue our goods againe, and haue taken an house in the chiefest streete in the towtte, called the Rue dreete, where we sell our goods. [Sidenote: Two causes of our mens imprisonment at Ormus.] There were two causes which moued the captaine of Ormus to imprison vs, and afterwards to send vs hither. The first was, because Michael Stropene had accused vs of many matters, which were most false. And the second was for that M. Drake at his being at Maluco, caused two pieces of his ordinance to be shot at a gallion of the kings of Portugall, as they say. But of these things I did not know at Ormus: and in the ship that we were sent in came the chiefest justice in Ormus, who was called Aueador generall of that place, he had been there three yeeres, so that now his time was expired: which Aueador is a great friend to the captaine of Ormus, who, certaine dayes after our comming from thence, sent for mee into his chamber, and there beganne to demaund of me many things, to the which I answered: and amongst the rest, he said, that Master Drake was sent out of England with many ships, and came to Maluco, and there laded cloues, and finding a gallion there of the kings of Portugall, hee caused two pieces of his greatest ordinance to be shot at the same: and so perceiuing that this did greatly grieue them, I asked, if they would be reuenged of me for that which M. Drake had done: To the which he answered, No: although his meaning was to the contrary. He said moreouer, that the cause why the captaine of Ormus did send me for Goa, was, for that the Viceroy would vnderstand of mee, what newes there was of Don Antonio, and whether he were in England, yes or no, and that it might be all for the best that I was sent hither, the which I trust in God wil so fall out, although contrary to his expectation: for had it not pleased God to put into the minds of the archbishop and other two Padres or Iesuits of S. Pauls college to stand our friends, we might haue rotted in prison. The archbishop is a very good man, who hath two yong men to his seruantes, the one of them was borne at Hamborough, and is called Bernard Borgers: [Sidenote: The author of the book of the East Indies.] and the other was borne at Enchuysen, whose name is Iohn Linscot, who did vs great pleasure; for by them the archbishop was many times put in minde of vs. [Footnote: He was really born at Haarlem about 1563, and left the Texel in 1579 to go to Seville. Thence he went to Lisbon, where he entered the service of Vicenzo Fonseca, archbishop of Goa, where he arrived in 1583. He returned to Europe in 1589, having visited most of Southern Asia. His principal work is his "Relation", published first in Dutch at the Hague in 1591. Curiously enough, the place erroneously named as his birth place in the text, is where he died in 1611.] And the two good fathers of S. Paul, who trauelled very much for vs, the one of them is called Padre Marke, who was borne in Bruges in Flanders, and the other was borne in Wiltshire in England, and is called [Marginal note: This is he whose letters to his father from Goa are before put downe, and he was sometimes of New colledge in Oxford.] Padre Thomas Steuans. Also I chaunced to finde here a young man, who was borne in Antwerpe, but the most part of his bringing vp hath beene in London, his name is Francis de Rea, and with him it was my hap to be acquainted in Aleppo, who also hath done me great pleasure here. In the prison at Ormus we remained many dayes, also we lay a long time at sea comming hither, and forthwith at our arriual here were caried to prison, and the next day after were sent for before the Aueador, who is the chiefest justice, to be examined: and when we were examined, he presently sent vs backe againe to prison. [Sidenote: Iames Storie their painter.] And after our being here in prison 13. dayes, Iames Storie went into the monastery of S. Paul, where he remaineth, and is made one of the company, which life he liketh very well. [Sidenote: They arriued at Goa the 20 of Nouember 1583.] And vpon S. Thomas day (which was 22 dayes after our arriuall here) I came out of prison, and the next day after came out Ralph Fitch, and William Bets. If these troubles had not chanced, I had beene in possibility to haue made as good a voyage as euer any man made with so much money. Many of our things I haue solde very well, both here and at Ormus in prison, notwithstanding the captaine willed me (if I would) to sell what I could before we imbarked: and so with officers I went diuers times out of the castle in the morning, and solde things, and at night returned againe to the prison, and all things that I solde they did write, and at our imbarking from thence, the captain gaue order that I should deliuer all my mony with the goods into the hands of the scriuano, or purser of the ship, which I did, and the scriuano made a remembrance, which he left there with the captaine, that my selfe and the rest with money and goods he should deliuer into the hands of the Aueador generall of India: but at our arriuall here, the Aueador would neither meddle with goods nor money, for that he could not proue any thing against vs: wherefore the goods remained in the ship 9 or 10 daies after our arriual, and then, for that the ship was to saile from thence, the scriuano sent the goods on shore, and here they remained a day and a night, and no body to receiue them. In the end they suffered this bringer to receiue them, who came with me from Ormus, and put them into an house which he had hired for me, where they remained foure or fiue daies. But afterward when they should deliuer the money, it was concluded by the justice, that both the money and goods should be deliuered into the positors hands, where they remained fourteene dayes after my comming out prison. At my being in Aleppo, I bought a fountaine of siluer and gilt, sixe kniues, sixe spoones, and one ['oue' in source text--KTH] forke trimmed with corall for fiue and twentie chekins, which the captaine of Ormus did take, and payed for the same twentie pardaos, which is one hundred larines, and was worth there or here one hundred chekins. Also he had fiue emrauds set in golde, which were woorth fiue hundred or sixe hundred crownes, and payed for the same an hundred pardaos. Also he had nineteene and a halfe pikes of cloth, which cost in London twenty shillings the pike, and was worth 9 or 10 crownes the pike, and he payed for the same twelue larines a pike. Also he had two pieces of greene Kersies, which were worth foure and twentie pardaos the piece, and payd for them sixteene pardaos a piece: besides diuers other trifles, that the officers and others had in the like order, and some for nothing at all. But the cause of all this was Michael Stropene, which came to Ormus not woorth a penie, and now hath thirtie or fortie thousand crownes, and he grieueth that any other stranger should trade thither but himselfe. But that shall not skill, for I trust in God to goe both thither and hither, and to buy and sell as freely as he or any other. Here is very great good to be done in diuers of our commodities, and in like manner there is great profite to be made with commodities of this countrey, to be carried to Aleppo. It were long for me to write, and tedious for you to read of all things that haue passed since my parting from you. But of all the troubles that haue chanced since mine arrinal in Ormus, this bringer is able to certifie you. I mind to stay here: wherefore if you will write vnto me, you may send your letters to some friend at Lisbone, and from thence by the ships they may be conueyed hither. Let the direction of your letters be either in Portuguise or Spanish, whereby they may come the better to my hands. From Goa this 20 day of Januarie. 1584. * * * * * A Letter written from Goa by Master Ralph Fitch to Master Leonard Poore abouesaid. Louing friend Master Poore, &c. Since my departure from Aleppo, I haue not written vnto you any letters, by reason that at Babylon I was sicke of the fluxe, and being sicke, I went from thence for Balsara, which was twelue dayes joumey downe the riuer Tygris, where we had extreame hot weather, which was good for my disease, ill fare, and worse, lodging, by reason our boat was pestered with people. In eight daies, that which I did eate was very small, so that if we had stayed two dayes longer vpon the water, I thinke I had died: but comming to Balsara, presently I mended, I thanke God. There we stayed 14 dayes, and then we imbarked our selues for Ormuz, where we arriued the fifth of September, and were put in prison the ninth of the same moneth, where we continued vntill the 11 of October, and then were shipt for this citie of Goa in the captaines ship, with an 114 horses, and about 200 men: [Sidenote: Diu. Chaul.] and passing by Diu and Chaul, where we went on land to water the 20 of Nouember, we arriued at Goa the 29 of the said moneth, where for our better intertainment we were presently put into a faire strong prison, where we continued vntill the 22 of December. It was the will of God that we found there 2 Padres, the one an Englishman, the other a Flemming. The Englishmans name is Padre Thomas Steuens, the others Padre Marco, of the order of S. Paul. These did sue for vs vnto the Viceroy and other officers, and stood vs in as much stead, as our liues and goods were woorth: for if they had not stucke to vs, if we had escaped with our liues, yet we had had long imprisonment. After 14 dayes imprisonment they offered vs, if we could put in sureties for 2000 duckats, we should goe abroad in the towne: which when we could not doe, the said Padres found sureties for vs, that we should not depart the countrey without the licence of the Viceroy. [Sidenote: The Italians our great enemies for the trade in the East.] It doth spite the Italians to see vs abroad: and many maruell at our deliuery. The painter is in the cloister of S. Paul, and is of their order, and liketh there very well. While we were in prison, both at Ormuz and here, there was a great deale of our goods pilfered and lost, and we haue beene at great charges in gifts and otherwise, so that a great deale of our goods is consumed. There is much of our things which wil sell very well and some we shall get nothing for. I hope in God that at the returne of the Viceroy, which is gone to Chaul and to Diu, they say, to winne a castle of the Moores, whose returne, is thought will be about Easter, then we shall get our libertie, and our sureties discharged. Then I thinke it will be our best way, either one or both to returne, because our troubles haue bene so great, and so much of our goods spoyled and lost. But if it please God that I come into England, by Gods helpe, I will returne hither againe. It is a braue and pleasant countrey, and very fruitfull. The summer is almost all the yeere long, but the chiefest at Christmas. The day and the night are all of one length, very litle difference, and marueilous great store of fruits. For all our great troubles, yet are we fat and well liking, for victuals are here plentie and good cheape. And here I will passe ouer to certifie you of strange things, vntill our meeting, for it would be too long to write thereof. And thus I commit you to God, who euer preserue you and vs all. From Goa in the East Indies the 25 of Ianuarie 1584. Yours to command, Ralph Fitch. * * * * * The voyage of M. Ralph Fitch marchant of London by the way of Tripolls in Syria, to Ormus, and so to Goa in the East India, to Cambaia, and all the kingdome of Zelabdim Echebar the great Mogor, to the mighty riuer Ganges, and downe to Bengala, to Bacola, and Chonderi, to Pegu, to Imahay in the kingdome of Siam, and backe to Pegu, and from thence to Malacca, Zeilan, Cochin, and all the coast of the East India: begunne in the yeere of our Lord 1583, and ended 1591, wherin the strange rites, maners, and customes of those people, and the exceeding rich trade and commodities of those countries are faithfully set downe and diligently described, by the aforesaid M. Ralph Fitch. In the yeere of our Lord 1583, I Ralph Fitch of London merchant being desirous to see the countreys of the East India, in the company of M. Iohn Newberie marchant (which had beene at Ormus once before) of William Leedes Ieweller, and Iames Story Painter, being chiefly set fourth by the right worshipful Sir Edward Osborne knight, and M. Richard Staper citizens and marchants of London, did ship my selfe in a ship of London called the Tyger, wherein we went for Tripolis in Syria: and from thence we tooke the way for Aleppo, which we went in seuen dayes with the Carouan. Being in Aleppo, and finding good company, we went from thence to Birra, which is two dayes and an halfe trauaile with Camels. Birra is a little towne, but very plentifull of victuals: and neere to the wall of the towne runneth the riuer of Euphrates. Here we bought a boate and agreed with a master and bargemen, for to go to Babylon. The boats be but for one voiage: for the streame doth runne so fast downewardes that they cannot returne. They carie you to a towne which they call Felugia, and there you sell the boate for a litle money, for that which cost you fiftie at Birra you sell there for seuen or eight. From Birra to Felugia is sixteene dayes iourney, it is not good that one boate goe alone, for if it should chance to breake, you should haue much a doe to saue your goods from the Arabians, which be alwayes there abouts robbing: and in the night when your boates be made fast, it is necessarie that you keepe good watch. For the Arabians that bee theeues, will come swimming and steale your goods and flee away, against which a gunne is very good, for they doe feare it very much. In the riuer of Euphrates from Birra to Felugia there be certaine places where you pay custome, so many Medines for a some or Camels lading, and certaine raysons and sope, which is for the sonnes of Aborise, which is Lord of the Arabians and all that great desert, and hath some villages vpon the riuer. Felugia where you vnlade your goods which come from Birra is a little village: from whence you goe to Babylon in a day. Babylon is a towne not very great but very populous, and of great traffike of strangers, for that it is the way to Persia, Turkia and Arabia: and from thence doe goe Carouans for these and other places. Here are great store of victuals, which come from Armenia downe the riuer of Tygris. They are brought vpon raftes made of goates skinnes blowne full of winde and bordes layde vpon them: and thereupon they lade their goods which are brought downe to Babylon, which being discharged they open their skinnes and carry them backe by Camels, to serue another time. Babylon in times past did belong to the kingdome of Persia, but nowe is subiecte to the Turke. Ouer against Babylon there is a very faire village from whence you passe to Babylon vpon a long bridge made of boats, and tyed to a great chaine of yron, which is made fast on either side of the riuer. When any boates are to passe vp or downe the riuer, they take away certaine boates vntill they be past. [Sidenote: The tower of Babel.] The tower of Babel is built on this side the riuer Tygris, towardes Arabia from the towne about seuen or eight miles, which tower is ruinated on all sides, and with the fall thereof hath made as it were a litle mountaine, so that it hath no shape at all: it was made of brickes dried in the sonne, and certain canes and leaues of the palme tree layed betwixt the brickes. There is no entrance to be seene to goe into it. It doth stand vpon a great plaine betwixt the riuers of Euphrates and Tygris. [Sidenote: Boyling pitch continually issuing out of the earth.] By the riuer Euphrates two dayes iourney from Babylon at a place called Ait, in a fielde neere vnto it, is a strange thing to see: a mouth that doth continually throwe fourth against the ayre boyling pitch with a filthy smoke: which pitch doth runne abroad into a great fielde which is alwayes full thereof. The Moores say that it is the mouth of hell. By reason of the great quantitie of it, the men of that countrey doe pitch their boates two or three inches thicke on the outside, so that no water doth enter into them. Their boates be called Danec. When there is great store of water in Tigris you may goe from Babylon to Basora in 8 or 9 dayes: if there be small store it will cost you the more dayes. Basora in times past was vnder the Arabians, but now is subiecte to the Turke. But some of them the Turke cannot subdue, for that they holde certaine Ilandes in the riuer Euphrates which the Turke cannot winne of them. They be theeues all and haue no setled dwelling, but remoue from place to place with their Camels, goates, and horses, wiues and children and all. They haue large blew gownes, their wiues eares and noses are ringed very full of rings of copper and siluer, and they weare rings of copper about their legs. Basora standeth neere the gulfe of Persia, and is a towne of great trade of spices, and drugges which come from Ormus. Also there is great store of wheate, ryce, and dates growing thereabout, wherewith they serue Babylon and all the countrey, Ormus, and all the partes of India. I went from Basora to Ormus downe the gulfe of Persia in a certaine shippe made of bourdes, and sowed together with cayro, which is threede made of the huske of Cocoes, and certaine canes or strawe leaues sowed vpon the seames of the bordes which is the cause that they leake very much. And so hauing Persia alwayes on the left hande, and the coast of Arabia on the right hande we passed many Ilandes, and among others the famous Ilande Baharim from whence come the best pearles which be round and Orient. Ormus is an Island in circuit about fiue and twentie or thirtie miles, and is the driest Island in the world: for there is nothing growing in it but onely salte; for their water, wood, or victuals, and all things necessary came but of Persia, which is about twelue miles from thence. All the Illands thereabout be very fruitful, from whence all kinde of victuals are sent vnto Ormus. The Portugales haue a castle here which standeth neere vnto the sea, wherein there is a Captaine for the king of Portugale hauing vnder him a conuenient number of souldiers, whereof some part remaine in the castle, and some in the towne. In this towne are marchants of all Nations, and many Moores and Gentiles. Here is very great trade of all sortes of spices, drugs, silke, cloth of silke, fine tapestrie of Persia, great store of pearles which come from the Isle of Baharim, and are the best pearles of all others, and many horses of Persia, which serue all India; They haue a Moore to their king, which is chosen and gouerned by the Portugales. Their women are very strangely attyred, wearing on their noses, eares, neckes, armes and legges many rings, set with jewels, and lockes of siluer and golde in their eares, and a long barre of golde vpon the side of their noses. Their eares with the weight of theie [sic--KTH] iewels be worne so wide, that a man may thrust three of his fingers into them. Here very shortly after our arriuall wee were put in prison, and had part of our goods taken from vs by the Captaine of the castle, whose name was Don Mathias de Albuquerque; and from hence the eleuenth of October he shipped vs and sent vs for Goa vnto the Viceroy, which at that time was Don Francisco de Mascarenhas. The shippe wherein we were imbarked for Goa belonged to the Captaine, and carried one hundred twentie and foure horses in it. All marchandise carried to Goa in a shippe wherein are horses pay no custome in Goa. The horses pay custome, the goods pay nothing; but if you come in a ship which bringeth no horses, you are then, to pay eight in the hundred for your goods. The first citie of India that we arriued at vpon the fift of Nouember, after we had passed the coast of Zindi, is called Diu, which standeth in an Iland in the kingdome of Cambaia, and is the strongest towne that the Portugales haue in those partes. It is but litle, but well stored with marchandise; for here they lade many great shippes with diuerse commodities for the streits of Mecca, for Ormus, and other places, and these be shippes of the Moores and of Christains. But the Moores cannot passe, except they haue a passeport from the Portugales. Cambaietta is the chiefe citie of that prouince, which is great and very populous, and fairely builded for a towne of the Gentiles: but if there happen any famine, the people will sell their children for very little. The last king of Cambaia was Sultan Badu, which was killed at the seige of Diu, and shortly after his citie was taken by the great Mogor, which is the king of Agra and of Delli, which are fortie dayes iourney from the country of Cambaia. Here the women weare vpon their armes infinite numbers of rings made of Elephants teeth, wherein they take so much delight, that they had rather be without their meate then without their bracelets. Going from Diu we come to Daman the second towne of the Portugales in the countrey of Cambaia which is distant from Diu fortie leagues. Here is no trade but of corne and rice. They haue many villages vnder them which they quietly possesse in time of peace, but in time of warre the enemie is maister of them. From thence we passed by Basaim, and from Basaim to Tana, at both which places is small trade but only of corn and rice. The tenth of Nouember we arriued at Chaul which standeth in the firm land. There be two townes, the one belonging to the Portugales, and the other to the Moores. That of the Portugales is neerest to the sea, and commaundeth the bay, and is walled round about. A little aboue that is the towne of the Moores which is gouerned by a Moore king called Xa Maluco. Here is great traffike for all sortes of spices and drugges, silke, and cloth of silke, sandales, Elephants teeth, and much China worke, and much sugar which is made of the nutte called Gagara: the tree is called the palmer; which is the profitablest tree in the worlde: it doth alwayes beare fruit, and doth yeeld wine, oyle, sugar, vineger, cordes, coles, of the leaues are made thatch for the houses, sayles for shippes, mats to sit or lie on: of the branches they make their houses, and broomes to sweepe, of the tree wood for shippes. The wine doeth issue out of the toppe of the tree. They cut a branch of a bowe and binde it hard, and hange an earthen pot vpon it, which they emptie euery morning and euery euening, and still it and put in certaine dried raysins, and it becommeth very strong wine in short time. Hither many shippes come from all partes of India, Ormus, and many from Mecca: heere be manie Moores and Gentiles. They haue a very strange order among them, they worshippe a cowe, and esteeme much of the cowes doung to paint the walles of their houses. They will kill nothing not so much as a louse; for they holde it a sinne to kill any thing. They eate no flesh, but liue by rootes, and ryce, and milke. And when the husbande dieth his wife is burned with him, if shee be aliue: if shee will not, her head is shauen, and then is neuer any account made of her after. They say if they should be buried, it were a great sinne, for of their bodies there would come many wormes and other vermine, and when their bodies were consumed, those wormes would lacke sustenance; which were a sinne, therefore they will be burned. In Cambaia they will kill nothing, nor haue any thing killed: in the towne they haue hospitals to keepe lame dogs and cats, and for birds. They will giue meat to the Ants. Goa is the most principal citie which the Portugals haue in India, wherein the Viceroy remaineth with his court. It standeth in an Iland, which may be 25. or 30. miles about. It is a fine citie, and for an Indian towne very faire. The Iland is very faire, full of orchards and gardens, and many palmer trees, and hath some villages. Here bee many marchants of all nations. And the Fleete which commeth euery yeere from Portugal, which be foure, fiue, or sixe great shippes, commeth first hither. And they come for the most part in September, and remaine there fortie or fiftie dayes; and then goe to Cochin, where they lade their Pepper for Portugall. Oftentimes they lade one in Goa, the rest goe to Cochin which is from Goa an hundred leagues southward. Goa standeth in the countrey of Hidalcan, who lieth in the countrey sixe or seuen dayes iourney. His chiefe citie is called Bisapor. [Sidenote: This wa the 20 of Nouember.] At our comming we were cast into prison, and examined before the Iustice and demanded for letters, and were charged to be spies, but they could prooue nothing by vs. We continued in prison vntill the two and twentie of December, and then we were set at libertie, putting in sureties for two thousand duckets not to depart the towne; which sureties father Steuens an English Iesuite which we found there, and another religious man a friend of his procured for vs. Our sureties name was Andreas Taborer, to whom we paid 2150. duckats, and still he demaunded more: whereupon we made sute to the Viceroy and Iustice to haue our money againe, considering that they had had it in their hands neere fiue moneths and could prooue nothing against vs. The Viceroy made vs a very sharpe answere, and sayd we should be better sifted before it were long, and that they had further matter against vs. Whereupon we presently determined rather to seeke our liberties, then to bee in danger for euer to be slaues in the countrey, for it was told vs we should haue the strapado. Wherupon presently, the fift day of April 1585. in the morning we ranne from thence. And being set ouer the riuer, we went two dayes on foote not without feare, not knowing the way nor hauing any guide, for we durst trust none. [Sidenote: Bellergan a towne.] One of the first townes which we came vnto, is called Bellergan, where there is a great market kept of Diamants, Rubies, Saphires, and many other soft stones. [Sidenote: Bisapor.] From Bellergan we went to Bisapor which is a very great towne where the king doeth keepe his court. Hee hath many Gentiles in his court and they be great idolaters. And they haue their idols standing in the Woods, which they call Pagodes. Some bee like a Cowe, some like a Monkie, some like Buffles, some like peacockes, and some like the deuill. Here be very many elephants which they goe to warre withall. Here they haue good store of gold and siluer: their houses are of stone very faire and high. [Sidenote: Gulconda.] From hence we went for Gulconda, the king whereof is called Cutup de lashach. Here and in the kingdome of Hidalcan, and in the countrey of the king of Decan, bee the Diamants found in the olde water. It is a very faire towne, pleasant, with faire houses of bricke and timber, it aboundeth with great store of fruites and fresh water. Here the men and the women do go with a cloth bound about their middles without any more apparell. We found it here very hote. [Sidenote: Masulipatan.] The winter beginneth here about the last of May. In these partes is a porte or hauen called Masulipatan, which standeth eight dayes iourney from hence toward the gulfe of Bengala, whether come many shippes out of India, Pegu, and Sumatra, very richly laden with Pepper, spices, and other commodities. The countrie is very good and fruitfull. [Sidenote: Seruidore.] From thence I went to Seruidore which is a fine countrey, and the king is called, the king of Bread. The houses here bee all thatched and made of lome. Here be many Moores and Gentiles, but there is small religion among them. [Sidenote: Bellapore.] From thence I went to Bellapore, and so to Barrampore, which is in the country of Zelabdim Echebar. In this place their money is made of a kind of siluer round and thicke, to the value of twentie pence, which is very good siluer. It is marueilous great and a populous countrey. In their winter which is in Iune, Iuly, and August, there is no passing in the streetes but with horses, the waters be so high. The houses are made of lome and thatched. Here is great store of cotton cloth made, and painted clothes of cotton wooll: here groweth great store of corne and Rice. [Sidenote: Strange mariages.] We found mariages great store both in townes and villages in many places where wee passed, of boyes of eight or ten yeeres, and girles of fiue or six yeeres old. They both do ride vpon one horse very trimly decked, and are caried through the towne with great piping and playing, and so returne home and eate of a banket made of Rice and fruits, and there they daunce the most part of the night and so make an ende of the marriage. They lie not together vntill they be ten yeeres old. They say they marry their children so yoong, because it is an order that when the man dieth, the woman must be burned with him: so that if the father die, yet they may haue a father in lawe to helpe to bring vp the children which bee maried: and also that they will not leaue their sonnes without wiues, nor their daughters without husbands. [Sidenote: Mandoway a very strong town.] From thence we went to Mandoway, which is a very strong towne. It was besieged twelue yeeres by Zelabdim Echebar before he could winne it. It standeth vpon a very great high rocke as the most part of their castles doe, and was of a very great circuite. [Sidenote: Vgini.] From hence wee went to Vgini and Serringe, where we ouertooke the ambassadour of Zelabdim Echebar with a marueilous great company of men, elephants, and camels. Here is great trade of cotton and cloth made of cotton, and great store of drugs. From thence we went to Agra passing many riuers, which by reason of the raine were so swollen, that wee waded and swamme oftentimes for our liues. [Sidenote: Agra a great citie.] Agra is a very great citie and populous, built with stone, hauing faire and large streetes, with a faire riuer running by it, which falleth into the gulfe of Bengala. It hath a faire castle and a strong with a very faire ditch. [Sidenote: The great Mogor.] Here bee many Moores and Gentiles, the king is called Zelabdim Echebar: the people for the most part call him The great Mogor. From thence we went for Fatepore, which is the place where the king kept his court. The towne is greater then Agra, but the houses and streetes be not so faire. Here dwell many people both Moores and Gentiles. The king hath in Agra and Fatepore as they doe credibly report 1000. elephants, thirtie thousand horses, 1400. tame Deere, 800. concubines: such store of Ounces, Tigers, Buffles, Cocks and Haukes, that is very strange to see. He keepeth a great court, which they call Dericcan. Agra and Fatepore are two very great cities, either of them much greater then London and very populous. [Sidenote: The like is reported of the cities of China.] Betweene Agra and Fatepore are 12. miles, and all the way is a market of victuals and other things, as full as though a man were still in a towne, and so many people as if a man were in a market. They haue many fine cartes, and many of them carued and gilded with gold, with two wheeles which be drawen with two litle Buls about the bignesse of our great dogs in England, and they will runne with any horse, and carie two or three men in one of these cartes: they are couered with silke or very fine cloth, and be vsed here as our Coches be in England. Hither is great resort of marchants from Persia and out of India, and very much marchandise of silke and cloth, and of precious stones, both Rubies, Diamants, and Pearles. The king is apparelled in a white Cabie made like a shirt tied with strings on the one side, and a litle cloth on his head coloured oftentimes with red or yealow. None come into his house but his eunuchs which keepe his women. Here in Fatepore we staied all three vntill the 28. of September 1585. and then master Iohn Newberie tooke his iourney toward the citie of Lahor, determining from thence to goe for Persia and then for Aleppo or Constantinople, whether hee could get soonest passage vnto, and directed me to goe for Bengala and for Pegu, and did promise me, if it pleased God, to meete me in Bengala within two yeeres with a shippe out of England. [Sidenote: Wil. Leades serued the king of Cambaia.] I left William Leades the ieweller in seruice with the king Zelabdim Echebar in Fatepore, who did entertaine him very well, and gaue him an house and fiue slaues, an horse, and euery day sixe S. S. in money. I went from Agra to Satagam in Bengala, in the companie of one hundred and fourescore boates laden with Salt, Opium, Hinge, Lead, Carpets, and diuers other commodities, downe the riuer Iemena. The chiefe marchants are Moores and Gentiles. [Sidenote: The superstitious ceremonies of the Bramanes.] In these countries they haue many strange ceremonies. The Bramanes which are their priests, come to the water and haue a string about their necks made with great ceremonies, and lade vp water with both their hands, and turne the string first with both their hands within, and then one arme after the other out. Though it be neuer so cold, they will wash themselues in cold water or in, warme. These Gentiles will eate no flesh nor kill any thing. They liue with rice, butter, milke, and fruits. They pray in the water naked, and dresse their meat and eate it naked, and for their penance they lie flat vpon the earth, and rise vp and turne themselues about 30. or 40. times, and vse to heaue vp their hands to the sunne, and to kisse the earth, with their armes and legs stretched along out, and their right leg alwayes before the left. Euery time they lie downe, they make a score on the ground with their finger to know when their stint is finished. The Bramanes marke themselues in the foreheads, eares and throates with a kind of yellow geare which they grind, and euery morning they doe it. And they haue some old men which go in the streetes with a boxe of yellow poudre, and marke men on their heads and neckes as they meet them. And their wiues do come by 10. 20. and 30. together to the water side singing, and there do wash themselues, and then vse their ceremonies, and marke themselues in their foreheds and faces, and cary some with them, and so depart singing. Their daughters be marred, at, or before the age of 10 yeres. The men may haue 7. wiues. They be a kind of craftie people, worse then the Iewes. When they salute one another, they heaue vp their hands to their heads, and say Rame, Rame. [Sidenote: Ganges.] From Agra I came to Prage, where the riuer Iemena entreth into the mightie river Ganges, and Iemena looseth his name. Ganges commeth out of the Northwest, and runneth East into the gulfe of Bengala. In those parts there are many Tigers and many partriges and turtledoues, and much other foule. Here be many beggars in these countries which goe naked, and the people make great account of them: they call them Schesche. Here I sawe one which was a monster among the rest. He would haue nothing vpon him, his beard was very long, and with the haire of his head he couered his priuities. The nailes of some of his fingers were two inches long, for he would cut nothing from him, neither would he speake. He was accompanied with eight or tenne, and they spake for him. When any man spake to him, he would lay his hand vpon his brest and bowe himselfe, but would not speake. Hee would not speake to the king. We went from Prage downe Ganges, the which is here very broad. Here is great store of fish of sundry sorts, and of wild foule, as of swannes, geese, cranes, and many other things. The country is very fruitfull and populous. The men for the most part haue their faces shauen, and their heads very long, except some which bee all shauen saue the crowne: and some of them are as though a man should set a dish on their heads, and shaue them round, all but the crowne. In this riuer of Ganges are many Ilands. His water is very sweete and pleasant, and the countrey adioyning very fruitfull. From thence wee went to Bannaras which is a great towne, and great store of cloth is made there of cotton, and Shashes for the Moores. In this place they be all Gentiles, and be the greatest idolaters that euer I sawe. [Sidenote: A pilgrimage of the Gentiles.] To this towne come the Gentiles on pilgrimage out of farre countreys. Here alongst the waters side bee very many faire houses, and in all of them, or for the most part they haue their images standing, which be euill fauoured, made of stone and wood, some like lions, leopards, and monkeis, some like men and women, and pecocks, and some like the deuil with foure armes and 4. hands. They sit crosse legged, some with one thing in their hands, and some another, and by breake of day and before, there are men and women which come out of the towne and wash themselues in Ganges. And there are diuers old men which vpon places of earth made for the purpose, sit praying, and they giue the people three or foure strawes, which they take and hold them betweene their fingers when they wash themselues: and some sit to marke them in the foreheads, and they haue in a cloth a litle Rice, Barlie, or money, which, when they haue washed themselues, they giue to the old men which sit there praying. Afterwards they go to diuers of their images, and giue them of their sacrifices. And when they giue, the old men say certaine prayers, and then is all holy. And in diuers places there standeth a kind of image which in their language they call Ada. And they haue diuers great stones carued, whereon they poure water, and throw thereupon some rice, wheate, barly, and some other things. This Ada hath foure hands with clawes. Moreouer, they haue a great place made of stone like to a well with steppes to goe downe; wherein the water standeth very foule and stinketh: for the great quantitie of flowers, which continually they throwe into it, doe make it stinke. There be alwayes many people in it: for they say when they wash themselues in it, that their sinnes be forgiuen them, because God, as they say, did wash himselfe in that place. They gather vp the sand in the bottome of it, and say it is holy. They neuer pray but in the water, and they wash themselues ouerhead, and lade vp water with both their handes, and turne themselues about, and then they drinke a litle of the water three times, and so goe to their gods which stand in those houses. Some of them will wash a place which is their length, and then will pray vpon the earth with their armes and legs at length out, and will rise vp and lie downe, and kisse the ground twentie or thirtie times, but they will not stirre their right foote. And some of them will make their ceremonies with fifteene or sixteene pots litle and great, and ring a litle bel when they make their mixtures tenne or twelue times: and they make a circle of water round about their pots and pray, and diuers sit by them, and one that reacheth them their pots: and they say diuers things ouer their pots many times, and when they haue done, they goe to their gods, and strowe their sacrifices which they thinke are very holy, and marke many of them which sit by, in the foreheads, which they take as a great gift. There come fiftie and sometime an hundred together, to wash them in this well, and to offer to these idols. They haue in some of these houses their idoles standing, and one sitteth by them in warme weather with a fanne to blowe winde vpon them. And when they see any company comming, they ring a litle bell which hangeth by them, and many giue them their almes, but especially those which come out of the countrey. Many of them are blacke and haue clawes of brasse with long nayles, and some ride vpon peacocks and other foules which be euill fauoured, with long haukes bils, and some like one thing and some another, but none with a good face. Among the rest there is one which they make great account of: for they say hee giueth them all things both foode and apparell, and one sitteth alwayes by him with a fanne to make wind towards him. Here some bee burned to ashes, some scorched in the fire and throwen into the water, and dogges and foxes doe presently eate them. The wiues here doe burne with their husbands when they die, if they will not their heads be shauen, and neuer any account is made of them afterward. The people goe all naked saue a litle cloth bound about their middle. Their women haue their necks, armes and eares decked with rings of siluer, copper, tinne, and with round hoopes made of Iuorie, adorned with amber stones, and with many agats, and they are marked with a great spot of red in their foreheads, and a stroke of red vp to the crowne, and so it runneth three manor of wayes. In their Winter, which is our May, the men weare quilted gownes of cotton like to our mattraces and quilted caps like to our great Grocers morters, with a slit to looke out at, and so tied downe beneath their eares. If a man or woman be sicke and like to die, they will lay him before their idols all night, and that shall helpe him or make an ende of him. And if he do not mend that night, his friends will come and sit with him a litle and cry, and afterwards will cary him to the waters side and set him vpon a litle raft made of reeds, and so let him goe downe the riuer. When they be maried the man and the woman come to the water side, and there is an olde man which they call a Bramane, that is a priest, a cowe and a calfe, or a cowe with calfe. Then the man and the woman, cowe and calfe, and the olde man goe into the water together, and they giue the olde man a white cloth of foure yards long, and a basket crosse bound with diuers things in it: the cloth he laieth vpon the backe of the cowe, and then he taketh the cowe by the ende of the taile, and saieth certaine wordes: and she hath a copper or a brasse pot full of water, and the man doeth hold his hand by the olde mans hand, and the wiues hand by her husbands, and all haue the cowe by the taile, and they poure water out of the pot vpon the cowes taile, and it runneth through all their hands, and they lade vp water with their handes, and then the olde man doeth tie him and her together by their [Marginal note: This tying of new maried folks together by the clothes, was vsed by the Mexicans in old time.] clothes. Which done, they goe round about the cowe and calfe, and then they giue somewhat to the poore which be alwayes there, and to the Bramane or priest they giue the cowe and calfe, and afterward goe to diuers of their idoles and offer money, and lie downe flat vpon the ground and kisse it diuers times, and then goe their way. Their chiefe idoles bee blacke and euill fauoured, their mouthes monstrous, their eares gilded, and full of jewels, their teeth and eyes of gold, siluer, and glasse, some hauing one thing in their handes and some another. You may not come into the houses where they stand, with your shooes on. They haue continually lampes burning before them. From Bannaras I went to Patenaw downe the riuer of Ganges: where in the way we passed many faire townes, and a countrey very fruitfull: and many very great riuers doe enter into Ganges, and some of them as great as Ganges, which cause Ganges to bee of a great breadth, and so broad that in the time of rain, you cannot see from one side to the other. These Indians when they bee scorched and throwen into the water, the men swimme with their faces downewards, the women with their faces vpwards, I thought they tied something to them to cause them to do so: but they say no. There be very many thieues In this countrey, which be like to the Arabians: for they haue no certaine abode, but are sometime in one place and sometime in another. Here the women bee so decked with siluer and copper, that it is strange to see, they use no shooes by reason of the rings of siluer and copper, which they weare on their toes. [Sidenote: Gold found.] Here at Patanaw they finde gold in this maner. They digge deepe pits in the earth, and wash the earth in great holies, and therein they finde the gold, and they make the pits round about with bricke, that the earth fall not in. Patenaw is a very long and a great towne. In times past it was a kingdom, but now it is vnder Zelabdim Echebar, the great Mogor. The men are tall and slender, and haue many old folks among them: the houses are simple, made of earth and couered with strawe, the streetes are very large. In this towne there is a trade of cotton, and cloth of cotton, much sugar, which they cary from hence to Bengala and India, very much Opium and other commodities. He that is chiefe here vnder the king is called Tipperdas, and is of great account among the people. Here in Patenau I saw a dissembling prophet which sate vpon an horse in the market place, and made as though he slept, and many of the people came and touched his feete with their hands, and then kissed their hands. They tooke him for a great man, but sure he was a lasie lubber. I left him there sleeping. The people of these countries be much giuen to such prating and dissembling hypocrites. From Patanaw I went to Tanda which is in the land of Gouren. It hath in times past bene a kingdom, but now is subdued by Zelabdim Echebar. Great trade and traffique is here of cotton, and of cloth of cotton. The people goe naked with a litle cloth bound about their waste. It standeth in the countrey of Bengala. Here be many Tigers, wild Bufs, and great store of wilde foule: they are very great idolaters. Tanda standeth from the riuer Ganges a league, because in times past the riuer flowing ouer the bankes, in time of raine did drowne the countrey and many villages, and so they do remaine. And the old way which the riuer Ganges was woont to run, remaineth drie, which is the occasion that the citie doeth stand so farre from the water. From Agra downe the riuer Iemena, and downe the riuer Ganges, I was fiue moneths comming to Bengala, but it may be sailed in much shorter time. I went from Bengala into the countrey of Couche, [Marginal note: Couche: this seemeth to be Quicheu, accounted by some among the prouinces of China.] which lieth 25. daies iourny Northwards from Tanda. The king is a Gentile, his name is Suckel Counse: his countrey is great, and lieth not far from Cochin China: for they say they haue pepper from thence. The port is called Cacchegate. All the countrie is set with Bambos or Canes made sharpe at both the endes and driuen into the earth, and they can let in the water and drowne the ground aboue knee deepe, so that men nor horses can passe. They poison all the waters if any wars be. Here they haue much silke and muske, and cloth made of cotton. The people haue eares which be marueilous great of a span long, which they draw out in length by deuises when they be yong. Here they be all Gentiles, and they will kil nothing. They haue hospitals for sheepe, goates, dogs, cats, birds, and for all other liuing creatures. When they be old and lame, they keepe them vntil they die. If a man catch or buy any quicke thing in other places and bring it thither, they wil giue him mony for it or other victuals, and keepe it in their hospitals or let it go, They wil giue meat to the Ants. Their smal mony is almonds, [Marginal note: In Mexico they vse likewise for small money the fruit Cacao which are like almonds.] which oftentimes they vse to eat. From thence I returned to Hugeli, which is the place where the Portugals keep in the country of Bengala which standeth in 23. degrees of Northerly latitude, and standeth a league from Satagan: they cal it Porto Piqueno. We went through the wildernes, because the right way was full of thieues, where we passed the countrey of Gouren, where we found but few villages, but almost all wildernes, and saw many buffes, swine and deere, grasse longer then a man, and uery [sic--KTH] many Tigers. [Sidenote: Porto Angeli.] Not far from Porto Piqueno south westward, standeth an hauen which is called Angeli, in the countrey of Orixa. It was a kingdom of it selfe, and the king was a great friend to strangers. Afterwards it was taken by the king of Patan which was their neighbour, but he did not enioy it long, but was taken by Zelabdim Echebar, which is king of Agra, Delli, and Cambaia. Orixi standeth 6. daies iourney from Satagan, south westwards. [Sidenote: The like cloth may be made of the long grasse in Virginia.] In this place is very much Rice, and cloth made of cotton, and great store of cloth which is made of grasse, which they call Yerua, it is like a silke. They make good cloth out of it which they send for India and diuers other places. To this hauen of Angeli come, euery yeere many ships out of India, Negapatan, Sumatra, Malacca, and diuers other places; and lade from thence great store of Rice, and much cloth of cotton wooll, much sugar, and long pepper, great store of butter, and other victuals for India. Satagam is a faire citie for a citie of the Moores, and very plentifull of all things. Here in Bengala they haue euery day in one place or other a great market which they call Chandeau, and they haue many great boats which they cal pericose, wherewithall they go from place to place and buy Rice and many other things: these boates haue 24. or 26. oares to rowe them, they be great of burthen, but haue no couerture. Here the Gentiles haue the water of Ganges in great estimation, for hauing good water neere them, yet they will fetch the water of Ganges a great way off, and if they haue not sufficient to drinke, they will sprinkle a litle on them, and then they thinke themselues well. From Satagam I trauelled by the countrey of the king of Tippara or porto Grande, with whom the Mogores or Mogen haue almost continuall warres. The Mogen which be of the kingdom of Recon and Rame, be stronger then the king of Tippara, so that Chatigan or porto Grande is oftentimes vnder the king of Recon. There is a country 4. daies iourney from Couche or Quicheu before mentioned, which is called Bottanter and the citie Bottia, the king is called Dermain; the people whereof are very tall and strong, and there are marchants which come out of China, and they say out of Muscouia or Tartarie. And they come to buy muske, cambals, agats, silke, pepper and saffron like the saffron of Persia. The countrey is very great, 3. moneths iourney. There are very high mountains in this countrey, and one of them so steep that when a man is 6. daies iourney off it, he may see it perfectly. Vpon these mountains [Marginal note: These seeme to be the mountains of Iamus, called by the people Cumao.] are people which haue eares of a spanne long: if their eares be not long, they call them apes. They say that when they be vpon the mountaines, they see ships in the Sea sayling to and fro; but they know not from whence they come, nor whether they go. There are marchants which come out of the East, they say, from vnder the sunne, which is from China, which haue no beards, and they say there it is something warme. But those which come from the other side of the mountains which is from the North, say there it is very cold. [Sidenote: The apparel of the Tartarie marchants.] These Northern merchants are apparelled with woollen cloth and hats, white hosen close, and bootes which be of Moscouia or Tartarie. They report that in their countrey they haue very good horses, but they be litle: some men haue foure, fiue, or sixe hundred horses and kine: they liue with milke and fleshe. [Sidenote: Cowe tailes in great request.] They cut the tailes of their kine, and sell them very deere, for they bee in great request, and much esteemed in those partes. The haire of them is a yard long, the rumpe is aboue a spanne long: they vse to hang them for brauerie upon the heades of their Elephantes: they bee much vsed in Pegu and China: they buie and sell by scores vpon the ground. The people be very swift on foote. From Chatigan in Bengala, I came to Bacola; the king whereof is a Gentile, a man very well disposed and delighteth much to shoot in a gun. His countrey is very great and fruitful, and hath store of Rice, much cotton cloth, and cloth of silke. The houses be very faire and high builded, the streetes large, the people naked, except a litle cloth about their waste. The women weare great store of siluer hoopes about their neckes and armes, and their legs are ringed with siluer and copper, and rings made of elephants teeth. From Bacola I went to Serrepore which standeth vpon the riuer of Ganges, the king is called Chondery. They be all hereabout rebels against their king Zelabdim Echebar: for here are so many riuers and Ilands, that they flee from one to another, whereby his horsemen cannot preuaile against them. Great store of cotton cloth is made here. Sinnergan is a towne sixe leagues from Serrepore, where there is the best and finest cloth made of cotton that is in all India. The chiefe king of all these countries is called Isacan, and he is chiefe of all the other kings, and is a great friend to all Christians. The houses here, as they be in the most part of India, are very litle, and couered with strawe, and haue a fewe mats round about the wals, and the doore to keepe out the Tygers and the Foxes. Many of the people are very rich. Here they will eate no flesh, nor kill no beast: they liue of Rice, milke, and fruits. They goe with a litle cloth before them, and all the rest of their bodies is naked. Great store of Cotton cloth goeth from hence, and much Rice, wherewith they serue all India, Ceilon, Pegu, Malacca, Sumatra, and many other places. I went from Serrepore the 28. of Nouember 1586. for Pegu in a small ship or foist of one Albert Carauallos, and so passing downe Ganges, and passing by the Island of Sundiua, porto Grande, or the countrie of Tippera, the kingdom of Recon and Mogen, leauing them on our left side with a faire wind at Northwest: our course was South and by East, which brought vs to the barre of Negrais in Pegu: if any contrary wind had come, we had throwen many of our things ouer-boord: for we were so pestered with people and goods, that there was scant place to lie in. From Bengala to Pegu is 90. legues. We entred the barre of Negrais, which is a braue barre and hath 4. fadomes water where it hath least. Three dayes after we came to Cosmin, which is a very pretie towne, and standeth very pleasantly, very well furnished with all things. [Sidenote: Ladders vsed to auoyd the danger of wild beasts.] The people be very tall and well disposed; the women white, round faced, with little eies: the houses are high built, set vpon great high postes, and they go vp to them with long ladders for feare of the Tygers which be very many. The countrey is very fruitful of all things. Here are very great Figs, Orenges, Cocoes, and other fruits. [Sidenote: Dwelling in boats.] The land is very high that we fall withall, but after we be entred the barre, it is very lowe and full of riuers, for they goe all too and fro in boates, which they call paroes, and keepe their houses with wife and children in them. From the barre of Nigrais to the citie of Pegu is ten dayes iourney by the riuers. Wee went from Cosmin to Pegu in Paroes or boates, and passing vp the riuers wee came to Medon, which is a prety towne, where there be a wonderfull number of Paroes, for they keepe their houses and their markets in them all vpon the water. They rowe too and fro, and haue all their marchandizes in their boates with a great Sombrero or shadow ouer their heads to keepe the sunne from them, which is as broad as a great cart wheele made of the leaues of the Coco trees and fig trees, and is very light. From Medon we went to Dela, which is a very faire towne, and hath a faire port into the sea, from whence go many ships to Malacca, Mecca, and many other places. Here are 18. or 20. very great and long houses, where they tame and keep many elephants of the kings: for thereabout in the wildernesse they catch the wilde elephants. It is a very fruitfull countrey. From Dela we went to Cirion, which is a good towne, and hath a faire porte into the sea, whither come many ships from Mecca, Malacca, Sumatra, and from diuers other places. And there the ships staie and discharge, and send vp their goods in Paroes to Pegu. [Sidenote: Coches caried on mens shoulders.] From Cirion we went to Macao, which is a prettie towne, where we left our boates or Paroes, and in the morning taking Delingeges, which are a kind of Coches made of cords and cloth quilted, and caried vpon a stang betweene 3. or 4. men: we came to Pegu the same day. Pegu is a citie very great, strong, and very faire, with walles of stone, and great ditches round about it. There are two townes, the old towne and the newe. In the olde towne are all the marchants strangers, and very many marchants of the countrey. All the goods are sold in the olde towne which is very great, and hath many suburbes round about it, and all the houses are made of Canes which they call Bambos, and bee couered with strawe ['srawe' in source text--KTH]. In your house you haue a Warehouse which they call Godon, which is made of bricke to put your goods in, for oftentimes they take fire and burne in an houre foure or fiue hundred houses: so that if the Gordon [sic--KTH] were not, you should bee in danger to haue all burned, if any winde should rise, at a trice. In the newe towne is the king, and all his Nobilitie and Gentrie. It is a citie very great and populous, and is made square and with very faire walles, and a great ditch roundabout it full of water, with many crocodiles in it: it hath twenty gates, and they bee made of stone, for euery square fiue gates. There are also many Turrets for Centinels to watch, made of wood, and gilded with golde very faire. The streets are the fairest that euer I saw, as straight as a line from one gate to the other, and so broad that tenne or twelue men may ride a front thorow them. On both sides of them at euery mans doore is set a palmer tree which is the nut tree: which make a very faire shew and a very commodious shadow, so that a man may walke in the shade all day. The houses be made of wood, and couered with tiles. The kings house is in the middle of the city, and is walled and ditched round about: and the buildings within are made of wood very sumptuously gilded, and great workmanship is vpon the forefront, which is likewise very costly gilded. And the house wherein his Pagode or idole standeth is couered with tiles of siluer, and all the walles are gilded with golde. Within the first gate of the kings house is a great large roome, on both sides whereof are houses made for the kings elephants, which be marveilous great and faire, and are brought vp to warres and in seruice of the king. [Sidenote: Foure white elephants.] And among the rest he hath foure white elephants, which are very strange and rare: for there is none other king which hath them but he: if any other king hath one, hee will send vnto him for it. When any of these white elephants is brought vnto the king, all the merchants in the city are commanded to see them, and to giue him a present of halfe a ducat, which doth come to a great summe: for that there are many merchants in the city. After that you haue giuen your present you may come and see them at your pleasure, although they stand in the kings house. [Sidenote: The king of the white elephants.] This king in his title is called the king of the white elephants. If any other king haue one, and will not send it him, he will make warre with him for it: for he had rather lose a great part of his kingdome, then not to conquere him. They do very great seruice vnto these white elephants: euery one of them standeth in an house gilded with golde, and they doe feede in vessels of siluer and gilt. One of them when he doth go to the riuer to be washed, as euery day they do, goeth vnder a canopy of cloth of golde, or of silke carried ouer him by sixe or eight men, and eight or ten men goe before him playing on drummes, shawmes, or other instruments: and when he is washed and commeth out of the riuer, there is a gentleman which doth wash his feet in a siluer basin: which is his office giuen him by the king. There is no such account made of any blacke elephant, be he neuer so great. And surely there be woonderfull faire and great, and some be nine cubites in height. And they do report that the king hath aboue fiue thousand elephants of warre, besides many other which be not taught to fight. This king hath a very large place wherein he taketh the wilde elephants. It standeth about a mile from Pegu, builded with a faire court within, and is in a great groue or wood: and there be many huntsmen, which go into the wildernesse with she elephants: for without the she they are not to be taken. And they be taught for that purpose: and euery hunter hath fiue or sixe of them: and they say that they annoint the she elephants with a certaine ointment, which when the wild elephant doth smell, he will not leaue her. When they haue brought the wilde elephant neere vnto the place, they send word vnto the towne, and many horse men and footmen come out and cause the she elephant to enter into a strait way which doeth go to the palace, and the she and the he do runne in: for it is like a wood: and when they be in, the gate doth shut. Afterward they get out the female: and when the male seeth that he is left alone, he weepeth and crieth, and runneth against the walles, which be made of so strong trees, that some of them doe breake their teeth with running against them. Then they pricke him with sharpe canes, and cause him to go into a strait house, and there they put a rope about his middle and about his feet, and let him stand there three or foure dayes, without eating or drinking: and then they bring a female to him, with meat and drinke, and within a few dayes he becommeth tame. The chiefe force of the king is in these elephants. And when they goe into the warres they set a frame of wood vpon their backes, bound with great cordes, wherein sit foure or sixe men, which fight with gunnes, bowes, and arrowes, darts and other weapons. And they say that their skinnes are so thicke that a pellet of an harquebush will scarse pearce them, except it be in some tender place. Their weapons be very badde. They haue gunnes, but shoot very badly in them, darts and swords short without points. The king keepeth a very great state: when he sitteth abroad as he doth euery day twise, all his noblemen which they call Shemines sit on ech side, a good distance off, and a great guard without them. The Court yard is very great. If any man will speake with the king, he is to kneele downe, to heaue vp his hands to his head, and to put his head to the ground three times, when he entreth, in the middle way, and when he commeth neere to the king: and then he sitteth downe and talketh with the king: if the king like well of him, he sitteth neere him within three or foure paces: if he thinke not well of him, he sitteth further off. When he goeth to warre, he goeth very strong. [Sidenote: Odia a city in Siam.] At my being there he went to Odia in the countrey of Siam with three hundred thousand men, and fiue thousand elephants. Thirty thousand men were his guard. These people do eate roots, herbs, leaues, dogs, cats, rats, serpents, and snakes; they refuse almost nothing. When the king rideth abroad, he rideth with a great guard, and many noblemen, oftentimes vpon an elephant with a fine castle vpon him very fairely gilded with gold; and sometimes vpon a great frame like an horsliter, which hath a little house vpon it couered ouer head, but open on the sides, which is all gilded with golde, and set with many rubies and saphires, whereof he hath infinite store in his country, and is caried vpon sixteene or eighteene mens shoulders. [Sidenote: This maner of cariage on mens shoulders is vsed in Pegu, and in Florida.] This coach in their language is called Serrion. Very great feasting and triumphing is many times before the king both of men and women. This hath little force by sea, because he hath but very few ships. He hath houses full of golde and siluer, and bringeth in often, but spendeth very little, and hath the mines of rubies and saphires, and spinelles. Neere vnto the palace of the king, there is a treasure woonderfull rich; the which because it is so neere, he doth not account of it: and it standeth open for all men to see in a great walled court with two gates, which be alwayes open. There are foure houses gilded very richly, and couered with lead: in euery one of them are Pagodes or Images of huge stature and great value. In the first is the picture of a king in golde with a crowne of golde on his head full of great rubies and saphires, and about him there stand foure children of golde. In the second house is the picture of a man in siluer, woonderfull great, and high as an house; his foot is as long as a man, and he is made sitting, with a crowne on his head very rich with stones. In the third house is the picture of a man greater then the other, made of brasse, with a rich crowne on his head. In the fourth and last house doth stand another, made of brasse, greater then the other, with a crowne also on his head very rich with stones. In another court not farre from this stand foure other Pagodes or idoles, maruellous great, of copper, made in the same place where they do stand; for they be so great that they be not to be remoued: they stand in foure houses gilded very faire, and are themselues gilded all ouer saue their heads, and they shew like a blacke Morian. Their expenses in gilding of their images are wonderfull. The king hath one wife and aboue three hundred concubines, by which they say he hath fourescore or fourescore and ten children. He sitteth in iudgement almost euery day. [Sidenote: Paper of the leaues of a tree.] They vse no speech, but giue vp their supplications written in the leaues of a tree with the point of an yron bigger then a bodkin. These leaues are an elle long, and about two inches broad; they are also double. He which giueth in his supplication, doth stand in a place a little distance off with a present. If his matter be liked of, the king accepteth of his present, and granteth his request: if his sute he not liked of, he returneth with his present; for the king will not take it. In India there are few commodities which serue for Pegu, except Opium of Cambaia, painted cloth of S. Thome, or of Masulipatan, and white cloth of Bengala, which is spent there in great quantity. [Sidenote: An excellent colour with a root called Saia.] They bring thither also much cotton, yarne red coloured with a root which they call Saia, which will neuer lose his colour: it is very wel solde here, and very much of it commeth yerely to Pegu. By your money you lose much. The ships which come from Bengala, S. Thome, and Masulipatan, come to the bar of Nigrais and to Cosmin. To Martauan a port of the sea in the kingdome of Pegu come many ships from Malacca laden with Sandall, Porcelanes, and other wares of China, and with Camphora of Borneo, and Pepper from Achen in Sumatra. [Sidenote: Woollen cloth and scarlets solde in Pegu.] To Cirion a port of Pegu come ships from Mecca with woollen cloth, Scarlets, Veluets, Opium, and such like. There are in Pegu eight Brokers, whom they call Tareghe, which are bound to sell your goods at the price which they be woorth, and you giue them for their labour two in the hundred: and they be bound to make your debt good, because you sell your merchandises vpon their word. If the Broker pay you not at his day, you may take him home, and keepe him in your house: which is a great shame for him. And if he pay you not presently, you may take his wife and children and his slaues, and binde them at your doore, and set them in the Sunne; for that is the law of the countrey. [Sidenote: The money of Pegu.] Their current money in these partes is a kinde of brasse which they call Gansa, wherewith you may buy golde, siluer, rubies, ronske, and all other things. The golde and siluer is marchandise, and is worth sometimes more, and sometimes lesse, as other wares be. This brazen money doeth goe by a weight which they call a biza; and commonly this biza after our account is worth about halfe a crowne or somewhat lesse. [Sidenote: The seuerall marchandises of Pegu.] The marchandise which be in Pegu, are golde, siluer, rubies, saphires, spinelles, muske, beniamin or frankincense, long pepper, tinne, leade, copper, lacca whereof they make hard waxe, rice, and wine made of rice, and some sugar. The elephants doe eate the sugar canes, or els they would make very much. [Sidenote: The forme of their Temples or Varellaes.] And they consume many canes likewise in making of their Varellaes or Idole Temples, which are in great number both great and small. They be made round like a sugar loafe, some are as high as a Church, very broad beneath, some a quarter of a mile in compasse: within they be all earth done about with stone. They consume in these Varellaes great quantity of golde; for that they be all gilded aloft: and many of them from the top to the bottome: and euery ten or twelue yeeres they must be new gilded, because the raine consumeth off the golde: for they stand open abroad. If they did not consume their golde in these vanities, it would be very plentifull and good cheape in Pegu. About two dayes iourney from Pegu there is a Varelle or Pagode, which is the pilgrimage of the Pegues: it is called Dogonne, and is of a woonderfull bignesse, and all gilded from the foot to the toppe. [Sidenote: The Tallipoies or Priests of Pegu.] And there is an house by it wherein the Tallipoies which are their priests doe preach. This house is fiue and fifty paces in length, and hath three pawnes or walks in it, and forty great pillars gilded, which stand betweene the walks; and it is open on all sides with a number of small pillars, which be likewise gilded: it is gilded with golde within and without. There are houses very faire round about for the pilgrims to lie in: and many goodly houses for the Tallipoies to preach in, which are full of images both of men and women, which are all gilded ouer with golde. It is the fairest place as I suppose, that is in the world: it standeth very high, and there are foure wayes to it, which all along are set with trees of fruits, in such wise that a man may goe in the shade aboue two miles in length. And when their feast day is, a man can hardly passe by water or by land for the great presse of people; for they come from all places of the kingdome of Pegu thither at their feast. In Pegu they haue many Tallipoies or priests, which preach against all abuses. Many men resort vnto them. When they enter into their kiack, that is to say, their holy place or temple, at the doore their is a great iarre of water with a cocke or a ladle in it, and there they wash their feet; and then they enter in, and lift vp their hands to their heads, first to their preacher, and then to the Sunne, and so sit downe. [Sidenote: The apparell of their priests.] The Tallipoies go very strangly apparelled with one cambaline or thinne cloth next to their body of a browne colour, another of yellow doubled many times vpon their shoulder: and those two be girded to them with a broad girdle: and they haue a skinne of leather hanging on a string about their necks, whereupon they sit, bare headed and bare footed: for none of them weareth shoes; with their right armes bare and a great broad sombrero or shadow in their hands to defend them in the Summer from the Sunne, and in the Winter from the raine. When the Tallipoies or priests take their Orders, first they go to schoole vntill they be twenty yeres olde or more, and then they come before a Tallipoie appointed for that purpose, whom they call Rowli: he is of the chiefest or most learned, and he opposeth them, and afterward examineth them many times, whether they will leaue their friends, and the company of all women, and take vpon them the habit of a Tallipoie. If any be content, then he rideth vpon an horse about the streets very richly apparelled, with drummes and pipes, to shew that he leaueth the riches of the world to be a Tallipoie. In few dayes after, he is caried vpon a thing like an horsliter, which they call a serion, vpon ten or twelue mens shoulders in the apparell of a Tallipoie, with pipes and drummes, and many Tallipoies with him, and al his friends, and so they go with him to his house which standeth without the towne, and there they leaue him. Euery one of them hath his house, which is very little, set vpon six or eight posts, and they go vp to them with a ladder of twelue or foureteene staues. Their houses be for the most part by the hie wayes side, and among the trees, and in the woods. And they go with a great pot made of wood or fine earth, and couered, tied with a broad girdle vpon their shoulder, which cometh vnder their arme, wherewith they go to begge their victuals which they eate, which is rice, fish, and herbs. They demand nothing but come to the doore, and the people presently doe giue them, some one thing, and some another: and they put all together in their potte: for they say they must eate of their almes, and therewith content themselues. [Sidenote: Obseruation of new moones.] They keepe their feasts by the Moone: and when it is new Moone they keepe their greatest feast: and then the people send rice and other things to that kiack or church of which they be; and there all the Tallipoies doe meete which be of that Church, and eate the victuals which are sent them. When the Tallipoies do preach, many of the people cary them gifts into the pulpit where they sit and preach. And there is one which sitteth by them to take that which the people bring. It is diuided among them. They haue none other ceremonies nor seruice that I could see, but onely preaching. I went from Pegu to Iamahey [Marginal note: Iamahey fiue and twenty dayes iourney Northeastward from Pegu.] which is in the countrey of the Langeiannes, whom we call Iangomes; it is fiue and twenty dayes iourney Northeast from Pegu. In which iourney I passed many fruitfull and pleasant countreys. The countrey is very lowe, and hath many faire riuers. The houses are very bad, made of canes, and couered with straw. Heere are many wilde buffes and elephants. Iamahey is a very faire and great towne, with faire houses of stone, well peopled, the streets are very large, the men very well set and strong, with a cloth about them, bare headed and bare footed: for in all these countreys they weare no shoes. The women be much fairer then those of Pegu. Heere in all these countreys they haue no wheat. They make some cakes of rice. Hither to Iamahey come many marchants out of China, and bring great store of muske, golde, siluer, and many other things of China worke. Here is great store of victuals: they haue such plenty that they will not milke the buffles, as they doe in all other places. Here is great store of copper and beniamin. In these countreys when the people be sicke they make a vow to offer meat vnto the diuell, if they escape: and when they be recouered they make a banket with many pipes and drummes and other instruments, and dansing all the night, and their friends come and bring gifts, cocos, figges, arrecaes, and other fruits, and with great dauncing and reioycing they offer to the diuell, and say, they giue the diuel to eat, and driue him out. When they be dancing and playing they will cry and hallow very loud; and in this sort they say they driue him away. And when they be sicke a Tallipoy or two euery night doth sit by them and sing, to please the diuell that he should not hurt them. [Sidenote: They burne their dead.] And if any die he is caried vpon a great frame made like a tower, with a couering all gilded with golde made of canes caried with foureteene or sixteene men, with drummes and pipes and other instruments playing before him to a place out of the towne and there is burned. He is accompanied with all his friends and neighbours, all men: and they giue to the tallipoies or priests many mats and cloth: and then they returne to the house and there make a feast for two dayes: and then the wife with all the neighbours wiues and her friends go to the place where he was burned, and there they sit a certaine time and cry and gather the pieces of bones which be left vnburned and bury them, and then returne to their houses and make an end of all mourning. And the men and women which be neere of kin do shaue their heads, which they do not vse except it be for the death of a friend: for they much esteeme of their haire. Caplan [Marginal note: Caplan is the place the rubies and other precious stones are found.] is the place where they finde the rubies, saphires, and spinelles: it standeth sixe dayes iourney from Aua in the kingdome of Pegu. There are many great high hilles out of which they digge them. None may go to the pits but onely those which digge them. In Pegu, and in all the countreys of Aua, Langeiannes, Siam, and the Bramas, the men weare bunches or little round balles in their priuy members: some of them ware two and some three. They cut the skin and so put them in, one into one side and another into the other side; which they do when they be 25 or 30 yeeres olde, and at their pleasure they take one or more of them as they thinke good. When they be maried the husband is for euery child which his wife hath, to put in one vntill he come to three and then no more: for they say the women doe desire them. They were inuented because they should not abuse the male sexe. For in times past all those countries were so giuen to that villany, that they were very scarce of people. It was also ordained that the women should not haue past three cubits of cloth in their nether clothes, which they binde about them; which are so strait, that when they go in the streets, they shew one side of the leg bare aboue the knee. [Sidenote: Anthony Galuano writeth of these bals.] The bunches aforesayd be of diuers sorts: the least be as big as a litle walnut, and very round: the greatest are as big as a litle hennes egge: some are of brasse and some of siluer: but those of siluer be for the king, and his noble men. These are gilded and made with great cunning, and ring like a litle bell. There are some made of leade, which they call Selwy because they ring but litle: and these be of lesser price for the poorer sort. The king sometimes taketh his out, and giueth them to his noblemen as a great gift: and because he hath vsed them, they esteeme them greatly. They will put one in, and heale vp the place in seuen or eight dayes. The Bramas which be of the kings countrey (for the king is a Brama) haue their legs or bellies, or some part of their body, as they thinke good themselues, made black with certaine things which they haue: they vse to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kinde of anile or blacking, which doth continue alwayes. And this is counted an honour among them: but none may haue it but the Bramas which are of the kings kinred. [Sidenote: The people of Pegu weare no beards.] These people weare no beards: they pull out the haire on their faces with little pinsons made for that purpose. Some of them will let 16 or 20 haires grow together, some in one place of his face and some in another, and pulleth out all the rest: for he carieth his pinsons alwayes with him to pull the haires out assoone as they appeare. If they see a man with a beard they wonder at him. They haue their teeth blacked both men and women, for they say a dogge hath his teeth white, therefore they will blacke theirs. The Pegues if they haue a suite in the law which is so doubtfull that they cannot well determine it, put two long canes into the water where it is very deepe: and both the parties go into the water by the poles, and there sit men to iudge, and they both do diue vnder the water, and he which remaineth longest vnder the water doth winne the sute. The 10 of January I went from Pegu to Malacca, passing by many of the ports of Pegu, as Martauan, the Iland of Taui, from whence commeth great store of tinne, which serueth all India, the Ilands of Tanaseri, Iunsalaon, and many others; and so came to Malacca the 8 of February, where the Portugals haue a castle which standeth nere the sea. And the countrey fast without the towne belongeth to the Malayos, which is a kinde of proud people. They go naked with a cloth about their middle, and a litle roll of cloth about their heads; Hither come many ships from China and from the Malucos, Banda, Timor, and from many other Ilands of the Iauas, which bring great store of spices and drugs, and diamants and other iewels. The voyages into many of these Ilands belong vnto the captaine of Malacca: so that none may goe thither without his licence: which yeeld him great summes of money euery yeere. The Portugals heere haue often times warres with the king of Achem which standeth in the Iland of Sumatra: from whence commeth great store of pepper and other spices euery yeere to Pegu and Mecca within the Red sea, and other places. [Sidenote: The voyage to Iapan.] When the Portugals go from Macao in China to Iapan, they carry much white silke, golde, muske, and porcelanes: and they bring from thence nothing but siluer. They haue a great caracke which goeth thither euery yere, and she bringeth from thence euery yere abouve sixe hundred thousand crusadoes: and all this siluer of Iapan, and two hundred thousand crusadoes [Marginal note: Eight hundred thousand crusadoes in siluer imployed yerely by the Portugals in China.] more in siluer which they bring yeerely out of India, they imploy to their great aduantage in China: and they bring from thence golde, muske, silke, copper, porcelanes, and many other things very costly and gilded. When the Portugales come to Canton in China to traffike, they must remaine there but certaine dayes: and when they come in at the gate of the city, they must enter their names in a booke, and when they goe out at night they must put out their names. They may not lie in the towne all night, but must lie in their boats without the towne. And their dayes being expired, if any man remaine there, they are euill vsed and imprisoned. The Chinians are very suspitious, and doe not trust strangers. It is thought that the king doth not know that any strangers come into his countrey. And further it is credibly reported that the common people see their king very seldome or not at all, nor may not looke vp to that place where he sitteth. And when he rideth abroad he is caried vpon a great chaire or serrion gilded very faire, wherein there is made a little house, with a latice to looke out at: so that he may see them, but they may not looke vp at him: and all the time that he passeth by them, they heaue vp their hands to their heads, and lay their heads on the ground, and looke not vp vntil he be passed. The order of China is when they mourne, that they weare white thread shoes, and hats of straw. The man doth mourne for his wife two yeeres, the wife for her husband three yeeres: the sonne for his father a yeere, and for his mother two yeres. And all the time which they mourne they keepe the dead in the house, the bowels being taken out and filled with chownam or lime, and coffined: and when the time is expired they carry them out playing and piping, and burne them. And when they returne they pull off their mourning weeds, and marry at their pleasure. A man may keepe as many concubines as he will, but one wife onely. [Sidenote: The writing of the people of China &c.] All the Chineans, Iaponians, and Cauchin Chineans do write right downwards, and they do write with a fine pensill made of dogs or cats haire. Laban is a Iland among the Iauas from whence come the diamants of the New water. And they finde them in the riuers: for the king will not suffer them to digge the rocke. Iamba is an Iland among the Iauas also, from whence come diamants. And the king hath a masse of earth which is golde; it groweth in the middle of a riuer: and when the king doth lacke gold, they cut part of the earth and melt it, whereof commeth golde. This masse of earth doth appeare but once in a yere; which is when the water is low: and this is in the moneth of April. Bima is another Iland among the Iauas, where the women trauell and labour as our men do in England, and the men keepe house and go where they will. The 29 of March 1588, I returned from Malacca to Martauan, and so to Pegu, where I remained the second time vntill the 17 of September, and then I went to Cosmin, and there tooke shipping; and passing many dangers by reason of contrary windes, it pleased God that we arriued in Bengala in Nouember following: where I stayed for want of passage vntill the third of February 1589, and then I shipped my selfe for Cochin. In which voyage we endured great extremity for lacke of fresh water: for the weather was extreme hote, and we were many marchants and passengers, and we had very many calmes, and hote weather. Yet it pleased God that we arriued in Ceylon the sixth of March, where we stayed fiue dayes to water, and to furnish our selues with other necessary prouision. This Ceylon is a braue Iland, very fruitfull and faire; but by reason of continuall warres with the king thereof, all things are very deare: for he will not suffer any thing to be brought to the castle where the Portugals be: wherefore often times they haue great want of victuals. Their prouision of victuals commeth out of Bengala euery yere. The king is called Raia, and is of great force: for he commeth to Columbo, which is the place where the Portugals haue their fort, with an hundred thousand men, and many elephants. But they be naked people all of them; yet many of them be good with their pieces which be muskets. When the king talketh with any man, he standeth vpon one legge, and setteth the other foot vpon his knee with his sword in his hand: it is not their order for the king to sit but to stand. His apparell is a fine painted cloth made of cotton wooll about his middle: his haire is long and bound vp with a little fine cloth about his head: all the rest of his body is naked. His guard are a thousand men, which stand round about him, and he in the middle; and when he marcheth, many of them goe before him, and the rest come after him. They are of the race of the Chingalayes, which they say are the best kinde of all the Malabars. Their eares are very large; for the greater they are, the more honourable they are accounted. Some of them are a spanne long. The wood which they burne is Cinamom wood, and it smelleth very sweet. There is great store of rubies, saphires, and spinelles in this Iland: the best kinde of all be here; but the king will not suffer the inhabitants to digge for them, lest his enemies should know of them, and make warres against him, and so driue him out of his countrey for them. They haue no horses in all the countrey. The elephants be not so great as those of Pegu, which be monstrous huge: but they say all other elephants do feare them, and none dare fight with them, though they be very small. Their women haue a cloth bound about them from their middle to their knee: and all the rest is bare. All of them be blacke and but little, both men and women. Their houses are very little, made of the branches of the palmer or coco-tree, and couered with the leaues of the same tree. The eleuenth of March we sailed from Ceylon, and so doubled the cape of Comori. Not far from thence, betweene Ceylon and the maine land of Negapatan, they fish for pearles. And there is fished euery yere very much; which doth serue all India, Cambaia, and Bengala, it is not so orient as the pearle of Baharim in the gulfe of Persia. From cape de Comori we passed by Coulam, which is a fort of the Portugals: from whence commeth great store of pepper, which commeth for Portugall: for oftentimes there ladeth one of the caracks of Portugall. Thus passing the coast we arriued in Cochin the 22 of March, where we found the weather warme, but scarsity of victuals: for here groweth neither corne nor rice: and the greatest part commeth from Bengala. They haue here very bad water, for the riuer is farre off. [Sidenote: People with swollen legges mentioned also by Ioh. Huygen.] This bad water causeth many of the people to be like lepers, and many of them haue their legs swollen as bigge as a man in the waste, and many of them are scant able to go. These people here be Malabars, and of the race of the Naires of Calicut: and they differ much from the other Malabars. These haue their heads very full of haire, and bound vp with a string: and there doth appeare a bush without the band wherewith it is bound. The men be tall and strong, and good archers with a long bow and a long arrow, which is their best weapon: yet there be some caliuers among them, but they handle them badly. [Sidenote: How pepper groweth.] Heere groweth the pepper; and it springeth vp by a tree or a pole, and is like our iuy berry, but something longer like the wheat eare: and at the first the bunches are greene, and as they waxe ripe they cut them off and dry them. The leafe is much lesser then the iuy leafe and thinner. All the inhabitants here haue very little homes couered with the leaues of the coco-trees. The men be of a reasonable stature; the women little; all blacke, with a cloth bound about their middle hanging downe to their hammes; all the rest of their bodies be naked: they haue horrible great eares with many rings set with pearles and stones in them. The king goeth incached, as they do all; he doth not remaine in a place aboue fiue or sixe dayes: he hath many houses, but they be but litle: his guard is but small: he remooueth from one house to another according to their order. All the pepper of Calicut and course cinamom groweth here in this countrey. The best cinamom doth come from Ceylon, and is pilled from fine yoong trees. Here are very many palmer or coco trees, which is their chiefe food: for it is their meat and drinke: and yeeldeth many other necessary things, as I haue declared before. [Sidenote: Or Calicut or Cananor.] The Naires which be vnder the king of Samorin, which be Malabars, haue alwayes wars with the Portugals. The king hath alwayes peace with them; but his people goe to the sea to robbe and steale. Their chiefe captaine is called Cogi Alli; he hath three castles vnder him. When the Portugals complaine to the king, he sayth he doth not send them out: but he consenteth that they go. They range all the coast from Ceylon to Goa, and go by foure or fiue parowes or boats together: and haue in euery one of them fifty or threescore men, and boord presently. They do much harme on that coast, and take euery yere many foists and boats of the Portugals. Many of these people be Moores. This kings countrey beginneth twelue leagues from Cochin, and reacheth neere vnto Goa. I remained in Cochin vntill the second of Nouember, which was eight moneths; for that there was no passage that went away in all that time: if I had come two dayes sooner I had found a passage presently. From Cochin I went to Goa, where I remained three dayes. From Cochin to Goa is an hundred leagues. From Goa I went to Chaul, which is threescore leagues, where I remained three and twenty dayes: and there making my prouision of things necessary for the shippe, from thence I departed to Ormus; where I stayed for a passage to Balsara fifty dayes. From Goa to Ormus is foure hundred leagues. Here I thought good, before I make an end of this my booke, to declare some things which India and the countrey farther Eastward do bring forth. The pepper groweth in many parts of India, especially about Cochin: and much of it doeth grow in the fields among the bushes without any labour: and when it is ripe they go and gather it. The shrubbe is like vnto our iuy tree: and if it did not run about some tree or pole, it would fall down and rot. When they first gather it, it is greene; and then they lay it in the Sun, and it becommeth blacke. The ginger groweth like vnto our garlick, and the root is the ginger: it is to be found in many parts of India. The cloues doe come from the Iles of the Moluccoes, which be diuers Ilands: their tree is like to our bay tree. The nutmegs and maces grow together, and come from the Ile of Banda: the tree is like to our walnut tree, but somewhat lesser. The white sandol is wood very sweet and in great request among the Indians; for they grinde it with a litle water, and anoynt their bodies therewith: it commeth from the Isle of Timor. Camphora is a precious thing among the Indians, and is solde dearer than golde. I thinke none of it commeth for Christendome. That which is compounded commeth from China: but that which groweth in canes and is the best, commeth from the great Isle of Borneo. Lignum Aloes commeth from Cauchinchina. The beniamin commeth out of the countreys of Siam and Iangomes. The long pepper groweth in Bengala, in Pegu, and in the Ilands of the Iauas. The muske commeth out of Tartarie, and is made after this order, by report of the marchants which bring it to Pegu to sell; In Tartarie there is a little beast like vnto a yong roe, which they take in snares, and beat him to death with the blood: after that they cut out the bones, and beat the flesh with the blood very small, and fill the skin with it: and hereof commeth the muske. Of the amber they holde diuers opinions; but most men say it commeth out of the sea, and that they finde it vpon the shores side. The rubies, saphires, and spinnelles are found in Pegu. The diamants are found in diuers places, as in Bisnagar, in Agra, in Delli, and in the Ilands of the Iauas. The best pearles come from the Iland of Baharim in the Persian sea, the woorser from the Piscaria neere the Isle of Ceylon, and from Aynam a great Iland on the Southermost coast of China. Spodium and many other kindes of drugs come from Cambaia. Now to returne to my voyage; from Ormus I went to Balsara or Basora, and from Basora to Babylon: and we passed the most part of the way by the strength of men by halling the boat vp the riuer with a long cord. From Babylon I came by land to Mosul, which standeth nere to Niniue, which is all ruinated and destroyed: it standeth fast by the riuer of Tigris. From Mosul I went to Merdin, which is in the countrey of the Armenians; but now there dwell in that place a people which they call Cordies or Curdi. From Merdin I went to Orfa, which is a very faire towne, and it hath a goodly fountaine full of fish, where the Moores hold many great ceremonies and opinions concerning Abraham: for they say he did once dwell there. From thence I went to Bir, and so passed the riuer of Euphrates. From Bir I went to Aleppo, where I stayed certaine moneths for company; and then I went to Tripolis; where finding English shipping, I came with a prosperous voyage to London, where by Gods assistance I safely arriued the 29 of April 1591, hauing bene eight yeeres out of my natiue countrey. * * * * * The report of Iohn Huighen van Linchoten concerning M. Newberies and M. Fitches imprisonment, and of their escape, which happened while he was in Goa. In the moneth of December, Anno 1583, there arriued in the towne and Iland of Ormus, foure English men, which came from Aleppo in the countrey of Syria, hauing sailed out of England, and passed thorow the straights of Gibralter to Tripoli a towne and hauen lying on the coast of Syria, where all the ships discharge their wares and marchandises, and from thence are caried by land vnto Aleppo, which is nine dayes iourney. In Aleppo there are resident diuers marchants and factours of all nations, as Italians, French men, English men, Armenians, Turks and Moores, euery man hauing his religion apart, paying tribute vnto the great Turke. In that towne there is great traffique, for that from thence euery yeere twise, there trauell two Caffyls, that is, companies of people and camels, which trauell vnto India, Persia, Arabia, and all the countreys bordering on the same, and deale in all sorts of marchandise, both to and from those countreys, as I in another place haue already declared. Three of the sayd English men aforesayd, were sent by a company of English men that are resident in Aleppo, to see if in Ormus they might keepe any factours, and so traffique in that place, like as also the Italians do, that is to say, the Venetians which in Ormus, Goa, and Malacca haue their factours, and traffique there, aswell for stones and pearles, as for other wares and spices of those countreyes, which from thence are caried ouer land into Venice. [Sidenote: Iohn Newbery had beene in Ormus before. Anno. 1581.] One of these English men had bene once before in the sayd towne of Ormus, and there had taken good information of the trade, and vpon his aduise and aduertisement, the other were as then come thither with him, bringing great store of marchandises with them, as Clothes, Saffron, all kindes of drinking glasses, and Haberdashers wares, as looking glasses, kniues, and such like stuffe: and to conclude, brought with them all kinde of small wares that may be deuised. And although those wares amounted vnto great summes of money, notwithstanding it was but onely a shadow or colour, thereby to giue no occassion to be mistrusted, or seen into: for that their principall intent was to buy great quantities of precious stones, as Diamants, Pearles, Rubies, &c. to the which end they brought with them a great summe of money and golde, and that very secretly, not to be deceiued or robbed thereof, or to runne into any danger for the same. They being thus arriued in Ormus, hired a shoppe, and beganne to sell their wares: which the Italians perceiuing, whose factours continue there (as I sayd before) and fearing that those English men finding good vent for their commodities in that place, would be resident therin, and so dayly increase, which would be no small losse and hinderance vnto them, did presently inuent all the subtile meanes they could to hinder them: and to that end they went vnto the Captaine of Ormus, as then called Don Gonsalo de Meneses, telling him that there were certaine English men come into Ormus, that were sent onely to spie the countrey; and sayd further, that they were heretikes: and therefore they sayd it was conuenient they should not be suffered so to depart without being examined, and punished as enemies, to the example of others. The Captaine being a friend vnto the English men, by reason that one of them which had bene there before, had giuen him certaine presents, would not be perswaded to trouble them, but shipped them with all their wares in a shippe that was to saile for Goa, and sent them to the Viceroy, that he might examine and trie them, as he thought good: where when they were arriued, they were cast into prison, and first examined whether they were good Christians or no: and because they could speake but badde Portugall, onely two of them spake good Dutch, as hauing bene certaine yeres in the Low countreyes, and there traffiked, there was a Dutch Iesuite born in the towne of Bruges in Flanders, that had bene resident in the Indies for the space of thirty yers, sent vnto them, to vndermine and examine them: wherein they behaued themselues so well, that they were holden and esteemed for good Catholicke Christians: yet still suspected, because they were strangers, and specially English men. The Iesuites still tolde them that they should be sent prisoners into Portugall, wishing them to leaue off their trade of marchandise, and to become Iesuites, promising them thereby to defend them from all trouble. The cause why they sayd so, and perswaded them in that earnest maner, was, for that the Dutch Iesuite had secretly bene aduertised of great summes of money which they had about them, and sought to get the same into their fingers, for that the first vowe and promise they make at their entrance into their Order, is to procure the welfare of their sayd Order, by what meanes soeuer it be. But although the English men denied them, and refused the Order, saying, that they were vnfit for such places, neuerthelesse they proceeded so farre, that one of them, being a Painter that came with the other three for company, to see the countreys, and to seeke his fortune, and was not sent thither by the English marchants, partly for feare, and partly for want of meanes to relieue himselfe, promised them to become a Iesuite: and although they knew and well perceiued he was not any of those that had the treasure, yet because he was a Painter, whereof there are but few in India, and that they had great need of him to paint their Church, which otherwise would cost them great charges, to bring one from Portugall, they were very glad thereof, hoping in time to get the rest of them with all their money into their fellowship: so that to conclude, they made this Painter a Iesuite, where he remained certaine dayes, giuing him good store of worke to doe, and entertaining him with all the fauour and friendship they could deuise, and all to winne the rest, to be a pray for them: but the other three continued still in prison, being in great feare, because they vnderstood no man that came to them, nor any man almost knew what they sayd: till in the end it was tolde them that certaine Dutch men dwelt in the Archbishops house, and counsell giuen them to send vnto them, whereat they much reioyced, and sent to me and an other Dutch man, desiring vs at once to come and speake with them, which we presently did, and they with teares in their eyes made complaint vnto vs of their hard vsage, shewing vs from point to point (as it is sayd before) why they were come into the countrey, withall desiring vs for Gods cause, if we might by any meanes, to helpe them, that they might be set at liberty vpon sureties, being ready to endure what iustice should ordaine for them, saying, that if it were found contrary, and that they were other then trauelling marchants, and sought to finde out further benefit by their wares, they would be content to be punished. With that we departed from them, promising them to do our best: and in the end we obtained so much of the archbishop, that he went vnto the Viceroy to deliuer our petition, and perswaded him so well, that he was content to set them at libertie, and that their goods should be deliuered vnto them againe, vpon condition they should put in sureties for two thousand pardawes, not to depart the countrey before other order should be taken with them. Thereupon they presently found a Citizen of the towne that was their surety for two thousand pardawes, to whom they payed in hand one thousand and three hundred pardawes, and because they sayd they had no more ready money, he gaue them credit, seeing what store of marchandise they had, whereby at all times if need were, he might be satisfied: and by that meanes they were deliuered out of prison, and hired themselues an house, and beganne to set open shoppe: so that they vttered much ware, and were presently well knowen among all the marchants, because they alwayes respected gentlemen, specially such as bought their wares, shewing great courtesie and honour vnto them, whereby they woon much credit, and were beloued of all men, so that euery man favoured them, and was willing to doe them pleasure. To vs they shewed great friendship, for whose sake the Archbishop fauoured them much, and shewed them very good countenance, which they knew well how to increase, by offering him many presents, although he would not receiue them, neither would euer take gift or present at any mans hands. Likewise they behaued themselues so discreetly that no man caried an euill eye, no, nor an euill thought towards them. Which liked not the Iesuites, because it hindred them from that they hoped for, so that they ceased not still by this Dutch Iesuite to put them in feare, that they should be sent into Portugall to the King, counselling them to yeeld themselues Iesuits into their Cloister, which if they did, he sayd they would defend them from all troubles, saying further, that he counselled them therein as a friend, and one that knew for certaine that it was so determined by the Viceroyes Priuy councell: which to effect he sayd they stayed but for shipping that should saile for Portugall, with diuers other perswasions, to put them in some feare, and so to effect their purpose. The English men to the contrary, durst not say any thing to them, but answered, that as yet they would stay a while, and consider thereof, thereby putting the Iesuites in comfort, as one among them, being the principall of them (called Iohn Newbery) complained vnto me often times, saying that he knew not what to say or thinke therein, or which way he might be ridde of those troubles: but in the end they determined with themselues to depart from thence, and secretly by meanes of other friendes they imployed their money in precious stones; which the better to effect, one of them was a Ieweller, and for the same purpose came with them. Which being concluded among them, they durst not make knowen to any man, neither did they credite vs so much, as to shew vs their mindes therein, although they tolde vs all whatsoeuer they knew. But on a Whitsunday they went abroad to sport themselues about three miles from Goa, in the mouth of the riuer in a countrey called Bardes, hauing with them good store of meate and drinke. And because they should not be suspected, they left their house and shoppe, with some wares therein vnsolde, in custody of a Dutch boy, by vs prouided for them, that looked vnto it. This boy was in the house not knowing their intent, and being in Bardes, they had with them a Patamar, which is one of the Indian postes, which in the Winter times carieth letters from one place to the other, whom they had hired to guide them: and because that betweene Bardes and the firme land there is but a little riuer, in a maner halfe drie, they passed ouer it on foot, and so trauelled by land, being neuer heard of againe: but it is thought they arriued in Aleppo, as some say, but they know not certainely. [Sidenote: The Arabian tongue generall in the East.] Their greatest hope was that Iohn Newbery could speake the Arabian tongue, which is vsed in all those countreys, or at the least vnderstood: for it is very common in all places there abouts, as French with vs. Newes being come to Goa, there was a great stirre and murmuring among the people, and we much woondered at it: for many were of opinion that we had giuen them counsell so to do: and presently their surety seised vpon the goods remaining, which might amount vnto aboue two hundred pardawes; and with that and the money he had received of the English men, he went vnto the Viceroy, and deliuered it vnto him: which the Viceroy hauing receiued forgaue him the rest. This flight of the English men grieued the Iesuites most, because they had lost such a praye, which they made sure account of: whereupon the Dutch Iesuite came to vs to aske vs if we knew thereof, saying, that if he had suspected so much, he would haue dealt otherwise, for that he sayd, he once had in his hands of theirs a bagge wherein was forty thousand veneseanders (ech veneseander being two pardawes) which was when they were in prison. And that they had alwayes put him in comfort to accomplish his desire: vpon the which promise he gaue them their money againe, which otherwise they should not so lightly haue come by, or peraduenture neuer, as he openly sayd: and in the ende he called them hereticks, and spies, with a thousand other railing speeches, which he vttered against them. The English man that was become a Iesuite, hearing that his companions were gone, and perceiuing that the Iesuites shewed him not so great fauour, neither vsed him so well as they did at the first, repented himselfe; and seeing he had not as then made any solemne promise, and being counselled to leaue the house, and tolde that he could not want a liuing in the towne, as also that the Iesuites could not keepe him there without he were willing to stay, so they could not accuse him of any thing, he tolde them flatly that he had no desire to stay within the Cloister. And although they vsed all the meanes they could to keepe him there, yet he would not stay, but hired an house without the Cloister, and opened shoppe, where he had good store of worke: and in the end married a Mestizos daughter of the towne, so that he made his account to stay there while he liued. By this English man I was instructed of all the wayes, trades, and voyages of the countrey, betweene Aleppo and Ormus, and of all the ordinances and common customes which they vsually holde during their voyage ouer the land, as also of the places and townes where they passed. And since those English mens departures from Goa, there neuer arriued any strangers, either English or others, by land, in the sayd countreys, but onely Italians which dayly traffique ouer land, and vse continuall trade going and comming that way. * * * * * The voyage of M. Iohn Eldred to Trypolis in Syria by sea, and from thence by land and riuer to Babylon and Balsara. 1583. I departed out of London in the ship called the Tiger, in the company of M. Iohn Newbery, M. Ralph Fitch, and sixe or seuen other honest marchants vpon Shroue munday 1583, and arriued in Tripolis of Syria the first day of May next insuing: at our landing we went on Maying vpon S. Georges Iland, a place where Christians dying aboord the ships, are woont to be buried. In this city our English marchants haue a Consull, and our nation abide together in one house with him, called Fondeghi Ingles, builded of stone, square, in maner like a Cloister, and euery man hath his seuerall chamber, as it is the vse of all other Christians of seuerall nations. [Sidenote: the description of Tripolis in Syria.] This towne standeth vnder a part of the mountaine of Libanus two English miles distant from the port: on the side of which port, trending in forme of an halfe Moone, stand fiue blocke houses or small forts, wherein is some very good artillery, and the forts are kept with about an hundred Ianisaries. Right before this towne from the seaward is a banke of mouing sand, which gathereth and increaseth with the Western winds, in such sort, that, according to an olde prophesie among them, this banke is like to swallow vp and ouerwhelme the towne: for euery yere it increaseth and eateth vp many gardens, although they vse all policy to diminish the same, and to make it firme ground. The city is about the bignesse of Bristow, and walled about, though the walles be of no great force. The chiefe strength of the place is in a Citadell, which standeth on the South side within the walles, and ouerlooketh the whole towne, and is strongly kept with two hundred Ianisaries and good artillery. [Sidenote: Store of white silke.] A riuer passeth thorow the midst of the city, wherewith they water their gardens and mulbery trees, on which there grow abundance of silke wormes, wherewith they make great quantity of very white silke, which is the chiefest naturall commodity to be found in and about this place. This rode is more frequented with Christian marchants, to wit, Venetians, Genouois, Florentines, Marsilians, Sicilians, Raguses, and lately with English men, then any other port of the Turks dominions. [Sidenote: The city of Hammah.] From Tripolis I departed the 14 of May with a carauan, passing three dayes ouer the ridge of mount Libanus, at the end whereof we arriued in a city called Hammah, which standeth on a goodly plaine replenished with corne and cotton wooll. On these mountaines which we passed grow great quantity of gall trees, which are somewhat like our okes, but lesser and more crooked: on the best tree a man shall not finde aboue a pound of galles. This towne of Hammah is fallen and falleth more and more to decay, and at this day there is scarse one halfe of the wall standing, which hath bene very strong and faire: but because it cost many mens liues to win it, the Turke will not haue it repaired; and hath written in the Arabian tongue ouer the castle gate, which standeth in the midst of the towne, these words: Cursed be the father and the sonne that shall lay their hands to the repairing hereof. Refreshing our selues one day here, we passed forward with camels three dayes more vntill we came to Aleppo, where we arriued the 21 of May. This is the greatest place of traffique for a dry towne that is in all those parts: for hither resort Iewes, Tartarians, Persians, Armenians, Egyptians, Indians, and many sorts of Christians, and enioy freedome of their consciences, and bring thither many kinds of rich marchandises. In the middest of this towne also standeth a goodly castle raised on high, with a garrison of foure or fiue hundred Ianisaries. Within four miles round about are goodly gardens and vineyards and trees, which beare goodly fruit neere vnto the riuers side, which is but small; the walles are about three English miles in compasse, but the suburbs are almost as much more. The towne is greatly peopled. We departed from thence with our camels the last day of May with M. Iohn Newbery and his company, and came to Birrah in three dayes, being a small towne situated vpon the riuer Euphrates, where it beginneth first to take his name, being here gathered into one chanell, whereas before it commeth downe in manifolde branches, and therefore is called by the people of the countrey by a name which signifieth a thousand heads. Here is plenty of victuals, whereof we all furnished our selues for a long iourney downe the aforesayd riuer. And according to the maner of those that trauell downe by water, we prepared a small barke for the conueyance of our selues and of our goods. [Sidenote: Euphrates shallow.] These boates are flat bottomed, because the riuer is shallow in many places: and when men trauell in the moneth of Iuly, August, and September, the water being then at the lowest, they are constrained to cary with them a spare boat or two to lighten their owne boates, if they chance to fall on the sholds. [Eight and twenty days iourney by riuer.] We were eight and twenty dayes vpon the water betweene Birrah and Felugia, where we disimbarked our selues and our goods. Euery night after the Sun setteth, we tie our barke to a stake, go on land to gather sticks, and set on our pot with rice or brused wheat, and hauing supped, the marchants lie aboord the barke, and the mariners vpon the shores side as nere as they can vnto the same. [Sidenote: Arabians vpon the riuer of Euphrates.] In many places vpon the riuers side we met with troops of Arabians, of whom we bought milke, butter, egges, and lambs, and gaue them in barter, (for they care not for money) glasses, combes, corall, amber, to hang about their armes and necks, and for churned milke we gaue them bread and pomgranat peeles, wherewith they vse to tanne their goats skinnes which they churne withall. [Sidenote: The Arabian women weare golde rings in their nostrels.] Their haire, apparell, and colour are altogether like to those vagabond Egyptians, which heretofore haue gone about in England. Their women all without exception weare a great round ring in one of their nostrels, of golde, siluer, or yron, according to their ability, and about their armes and smalles of their legs they haue hoops of golde, siiuer or yron. All of them as wel women and children as men, are very great swimmers, and often times swimming they brought vs milke to our barke in vessels vpon their heads. These people are very theeuish, which I prooued to my cost: for they stole a casket of mine, with things of good value in the same, from vnder my mans head as he was asleepe: and therefore trauellers keepe good watch as they passe downe the riuer. [Sidenote: Euphrates described.] Euphrates at Birrah is about the breadth of the Thames at Lambeth, and in some places narrower, in some broader: it runneth very swiftly, almost as fast as the riuer of Trent: it hath diuers sorts of fish in it, but all are scaled, some as bigge as salmons, like barbils. We landed at Felugia the eight and twentieth of Iune, where we made our abode seuen dayes, for lacke of camels to cary our goods to Babylon: the heat at that time of the yere is such in those parts, that men are loth to let out their camels to trauell. This Felugia is a village of some hundred houses, and a place appointed for discharging of such goods as come downe the riuer: the inhabitants are Arabians. Not finding camels here, we were constrained to vnlade our goods, and hired an hundred asses to cary our marchandises onely to New Babylon ouera short desert, in crossing whereof we spent eighteene houres trauelling by night, and part of the morning, to auoid the great heat. [Sidenote: The ruines of olde Babylon.] In this place which we crossed ouer, stood the olde mighty city of Babylon, many olde ruines whereof are easily to be seene by day-light, which I Iohn Eldred haue often beheld at my good leasure, hauing made three voyages betweene the new city of Babylon and Aleppo ouer this desert. Here also are yet standing the ruines of the olde tower of Babel, which being vpon a plaine ground seemeth a farre off very great, but the nerer you come to it, the lesser and lesser it appeareth; sundry times I haue gone thither to see it, and found the remnants yet standing aboue a quarter of a mile in compasse, and almost as high as the stone worke of Pauls steeple in London, but it sheweth much bigger. The bricks remaining in this most ancient monument be halfe a yard thicke, and three quarters of a yard long, being dried in the Sunne onely, and betweene euery course of bricks there lieth a course of mattes made of canes, which remaine sound and not perished, as though they had bene layed within one yeere. The city of New Babylon ioineth vpon the aforesayd small desert where the Olde city was, and the riuer of Tigris runneth close vnder the wall, and they may if they will open a sluce, and let the water of the same runne round about the towne. It is aboue two English miles in compasse, and the inhabitants generally speake three languages, to wit, the Persian, Arabian and Turkish Tongues: the people are of the Spaniards complexion: and the women generally weare in one of the gristles of their noses a ring like a wedding ring, but somewhat greater, with a pearle and a Turkish stone set therein: and this they do be they neuer so poore. [Sidenote: Rafts borne vpon bladders of goat skins.] This is a place of very great traffique, and a very great thorowfare from the East Indies to Aleppo. The towne is very well furnished with victuals which come downe the riuer of Tigris from Mosul which was called Niniuie in olde time. They bring these victuals and diuers sorts of marchandises vpon rafts, borne vpon goats skins blowenvp full of wind in maner of bladders. And when they haue discharged their goods, they sel the rafts for fire, and let the wind out of their goats skins, and cary them home againe vpon their asses by land, to make other voyages downe the riuer. The building here is most of bricke dried in the Sun, and very litle or no stone is to be found: their houses are all flat-roofed and low. [Sidenote: Seldome rain.] They haue no raine for eight moneths together, nor almost any clouds in the skie night nor day. Their Winter is in Nouember, December, Ianuary and February, which is as warme as our Summer in England in a maner. This I know by good experience, because my abode at seuerall times in this city of Babylon hath bene at the least the space of two yeeres. As we come to the city, we passe ouer the riuer of Tigris on a great bridge made with boats chained together with two mighty chaines of yron. [Sidenote: Eight and twenty dayes iourney more by riuer, from Babylon to Balsara.] From thence we departed in flat bottomed barks more strong and greater then those of Euphrates, and were eight and twenty dayes also in passing downe this riuer to Balsara, but we might haue done it in eighteene or less, if the water had bene higher. Vpon the waters side stand by the way diuer townes resembling much the names of the olde prophets: the first towne they call Ozeah, and another Zecchiah. Before we come to Balsara by one dayes iourney, the two riuers of Tigris and Euphrates meet, and there standeth a castle called Curna, kept by the Turks, where all marchants pay a small custome. Here the two riuers ioyned together begin to be eight or nine miles broad: here also it beginneth to ebbe and flow, and the water ouerflowing maketh the countrey all about very fertile of corne, rice, pulse, and dates. The towne of Balsara is a mile and an halfe in circuit: all the buildings, castle and wals, are made of bricke, dried in the Sun. The Turke hath here fiue hundred Ianisaries, besides other souldiers continually in garison and pay, but his chiefe strength is of gallies which are about fiue and twenty or thirty very faire and furnished with goodly ordinance. To this port of Balsara come monethly diuers ships from Ormuz, laden with all sorts of Indian marchandise, as spices, drugs, Indico and Calecut cloth. These ships are vsually from forty to threescore tunnes, hauing their planks sowed together with corde made of the barke of Date trees, and in stead of Occam they vse the shiuerings of the barke of the sayd trees, and of the same they also make their tackling. [Sidenote: Ships made without yron in the Persian gulfe.] They haue no kind of yron worke belonging to these vessels, saue only their ankers. From this place six dayes sailing downe the gulfe, they goe to a place called Baharem in the mid way to Ormus: there they fish for pearles foure moneths in the yeere, to wit, in Iune, Iuly, August, and September. [Sidenote: Zelabdim Echebar king of Cambaia.] My abode in Balsara was iust sixe moneths, during which time I receiued diuers letters from M. Iohn Newberry from Ormus, who as he passed that way with her Maiesties letters to Zelabdim Echebar king of Cambaia, and vnto the mighty emperour of China, was traiterously there arrested, and all his company, by the Portugals, and afterward sent prisoner to Goa; where after a long and cruell imprisonmeat, he and his companions were deliuered vpon sureties, not to depart the towne without leaue, at the sute of one father Thomas Steuens, an English religious man which they found there: but shortly after three of them escaped, whereof one, to wit, M. Ralph Fitch, is since come into England. The fourth, which was a painter called Iohn Story, became religious in the college of S. Paul in Goa, as we vnderstood by their letters. [Sidenote: He returneth from Balsara to Aleppo.] I and my companion William Shales hauing dispatched our businesse at Balsara, imbarked our selues in company of seuenty barks all laden with marchandise, hauing euery barke 14. men to draw them, like our Westerne bargemen on the Thames, and we were forty foure dayes comming vp against the streame to Babylon, [Sidenote: Their provision of victuals.] where arriuing and paying our custome, we with all other sorts of marchants bought vs camels, hired vs men to lade and driue them, furnished our selues with rice, butter, bisket, hony made of dates, onions and dates: and euery marchant bought a proportion of liue muttons, and hired certaine shepheards to driue them with vs: we also bought vs tents to lie in and to put our goods under: [Sidenote: A Carauan of foure thousand Camels.] and in this our carauan were foure thousand camels laden with spices, and other rich marchandises. These camels will liue very well two or three dayes without water: their feeding is on thistles, wormewood, magdalene, and other strong weeds which they finde vpon the way. The gouernment and deciding of all quarels and dueties to be payed, the whole carauan commiteth to one speciall rich marchant of the company, of whose honesty they conceiue best. In passing from Babylon to Aleppo, we spent forty dayes, trauelling twenty, or foure and twenty miles a day, resting ourselues commonly from two of the clocke in the afternoone, vntill three in the morning, at which time we begin to take our iourney. Eight dayes iourney from Babylon toward Aleppo, neere vnto a towne called Heit, as we crosse the riuer Euphrates by boates, about 3. miles from the town there is a valley wherein are many springs throwing out abundantly at great mouths, a kinde of blacke substance like vnto tarre, which serueth all the countrey to make stanch their barkes and boates: euery one of these springs maketh a noise like vnto a Smiths forge in the blowing and puffing out of this matter, which neuer ceaseth night nor day, and the noise may be heard a mile off continually. This vale swalloweth vp all heauie things that come vpon it. The people of the countrey call it in their language Babil gehenham, that is to say, Hell doore. As we passed through these deserts, we saw certaine wild beasts, as wild asses all white, Roebucks, wolfes, leopards, foxes, and many hares, whereof we chased and killed many. Aborise the king of the wandring Arabians in these deserts hath a dutie of 40. s. sterling, vpon euery Camels lode, which he sendeth his officers to receiue of the Carauans, and in consideration hereof, he taketh vpon him to conduct the sayd Carauans if they need his helpe, and to defend them against certaine prowling thieues. [Sidenote: William Barret Consul in Aleppo.] I and my companion William Shales came to Aleppo with the Carauan the eleuenth of Iune, 1584. where we were ioyfully receiued 20. miles distant from the towne by M. William Barret our Consull, accompanied with his people and Ianissaries, who fell sicke immediately and departed this life within 8. dayes after, and elected before his death M. Anthonie Bate Consul of our English nation in his place, who laudably supplied the same roome 3. yeeres. [Sidenote: Two voyages more made to Babylon.] In which meane time I made two voyages more vnto Babylon, and returned by the way aforesayd, ouer the deserts of Arabia. And afterwards, as one desirous to see other parts of the countrey, I went from Aleppo to Antioch, which is thence 60. English miles, and from thence went downe to Tripolis, where going aboord a small vessell, I arriued at Ioppe, and trauelled to Rama, Lycia, Gaza, Ierusalem, Bethleem, to the riuer of Iordan, and the sea or lake of Zodome, and returned backe to Ioppe, and from thence by sea to Tripolis, of which places because many others haue published large discourses, I surcease to write. Within few dayes after imbarking my selfe at Tripolis the 22. of December, I arriued (God be thanked) in safety here in the riuer of Thames with diuers English marchants, the 26. of March, 1588, in the Hercules of London, which was the richest ship of English marchants goods that euer was knowen to come into this realme. * * * * * The second letters Patents graunted by the Queenes Maiestie to the Right worshipfull companie of the English Marchants for the Leuant, the seuenth of Ianuarie 1592. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France, and Irelande, defender of the faith &c. To all our Officers, ministers and subiects, and to all other people aswell within this our Realme of England, as else where vnder our obeysance and iurisdiction or otherwise vnto whom these our letters shal be seene, shewed, or read greeting. Where our well beloued subiects Edward Osborne knight Alderman of our citie of London, William Hareborne Esquire, and Richard Staper of our saide citie Marchant, haue by great aduenture and industrie with their great cost and charges by the space of sundry late yeeres trauelled, and caused trauell to be taken aswell by secrete and good meanes, as by daungerous wayes and passages both by lande and sea to finde out and set open a trade of marchandize and traffike into the landes, Ilandes, Dominions, and territories of the great Turke, commonly called the Grand Signior, not before that time in the memorie of any man now liuing knowen to be commonly vsed and frequented by way of marchandize by any the marchantes or other subiects of vs or our progenitors: And also haue by their like good meanes and industrie and great charges procured of the sayde Grand Signior in our name, amitie, safetie and freedome for trade and traffike of marchandize to be vsed and continued by our subiects within his sayd dominions, whereby we perceiue and finde that both many good actions haue beene done and performed, and hereafter are likely continually to be done and performed for the peace of Christendome: Namely by the reliefe and discharge of many Christians which haue beene, and which hereafter may happen to be in thraldome and bondage vnder the sayde Grand Signior and his vassals or subiects. And also good and profitable vent and vtterance of the commodities of our Realme, and sundrie other great benefites to the aduancement of our honour and dignitie Royall, the maintenance of our Nauie, the encrease of our customes, and the reuenues of our Crowne, and generally the great wealth of our whole Realme. And whereas we are enformed of the sayd Edward Osborne knight, William Hareborne and Richard Staper, that George Barne, Richard Martine, Iohn Harte knights, and other marchants of our sayd Citie of London haue by the space of eight or nine yeeres past ioyned themselues in companie, trade and traffike with them the sayd Edward Osborne knight, William Hareborne and Richard Staper, into the sayde dominions of the sayd great Turke, to the furtherance thereof and the good of the Realme. And whereas further it is made knowen vnto vs, that within fewe yeeres how past our louing and good subjects, Thomas Cordall, Edward Holmeden, William Garraway and Paul Banning, and sundry other merchants of our said Citie of London, haue likewise at their great costes and charges, builded and furnished diuerse good and seruiceable shippes and therewith to their like costs and charges haue traded and frequented, and from time to time doe trade and frequent and traffike by sea with the commodities of our Realme to Venice, Zante, Candie, and Zephalonia, and other the dominions of the Segniorie and State of Venice, and thereby haue made and mainteyned, and doe make and continually maintains diuers good shippes with mariners skilfull and fitte and necessarie for our seruice: and doe vent out of our Realme into those partes diuerse commodities of our Realme, and returne hither into our sayde Realme many good and necessarie commodities for the common wealth thereof: All which traffike, as well inward as outward vntill it hath beene otherwise brought to passe by the sayde endeuours, costs, and charges of our sayde subiects, was in effect by our subiectes wholy discontinued. Knowe yee, that hereupon we greatly tendring the wealth of our people and the encouragement of them and other our louing subiects in their good enterprises for the aduancement of lawfull traffike to the benefite of our common wealth, haue of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion giuen and graunted, and by these presents for vs, our heyres, and successours, doe giue and graunt vnto our sayd trustie and welbeloued subiectes Edwarde Orborne Knight, George Barne Knight, George Bonde knight, Richard Martine knight, Iohn Harte knight, Iohn Hawkins knight, William Massam, Iohn Spencer, Richard Saltonstall, Nicholas Mosley Alderman of our sayde Citie of London, William Hareborne, Edwarde Barton, William Borrough Esquires, Richard Staper, Thomas Cordall, Henrie Paruis, Thomas Laurence, Edwarde Holmeden, William Garraway, Robert Dowe, Paul Banning, Roger Clarke, Henrie Anderson, Robert Offley, Philip Grimes, Andrewe Banning, Iames Staper, Robert Sadler, Leonarde Power, George Salter, Nicholas Leate, Iohn Eldred, William Shales, Richard May, William Wilkes, Andrewe Fones, Arthur Iackson, Edmund Ansell, Ralph Ashley, Thomas Farrington, Roberte Sandie, Thomas Garraway, Edwarde Lethlande, Thomas Dalkins, Thomas Norden, Robert Bate, Edward Sadler, Richard Darsall, Richard Martine Iunior, Ralph Fitch, Nicholas Pearde, Thomas Simons, and Francis Dorrington, [Marginal note: The marchants aboue named be made a fellowship and companie for 12 yeeres by the name of the Gouernor and companie of the marchants of the Leuant.] that they and euery of them by the name of Gouernour and company of Marchants of the Leuant shall from hence foorth for the terme of twelue yeeres next ensuing the date hereof bee one bodie, fellowshippe and companie of themselues, both in deede and in name: And them by the name of Gouernour and companie of marchantes of the Leuant wee doe ordayne, incorporate, name, and declare by these presentes, and that the same fellowshippe and companie from hence foorth shall and may haue one Gouernour. [Sidenote: Sir Edward Osborne appointed the first Gouernour.] And in consideration that the sayde Edwarde Osborne Knight hath beene of the chiefe setters foorth and actors in the opening and putting in practise of the sayde trade to the dominions of the sayde Grand Signor: Wee doe therefore specially make, ordaine, and constitute the sayde Edwarde Osborne Knight, to bee nowe Gouernour during the time of one whole yeere nowe next following, if hee so long shall liue: and after the expiration of the sayde yeere, or decease of the sayde Edward Osborne the choyse of the next Gouernour, and so of euery Gouernour from time to time during the sayde terme of twelue yeeres to be at the election of the sayde fellowshippe or companie of marchantes of the Leuant or the more part of them yeerely to be chosen, [Sidenote: A priuiledge for the East Indies.] and that they the sayde Sir Edward Osborne, and all the residue of the sayde fellowshippe or companie of Marchantes of the Leuant and euerie of them, and all the sonnes of them and of euery of them, and all such their apprentises and seruants of them and of euery of them, which haue beene or hereafter shall be imployed in the sayde trade by the space of foure yeeres or vpwardes by themselues, their seruantes, factors or deputies, shall and may by the space of twelue yeeres from the day of the date of these our letters Patents freely traffike, and vse the trade of Marchandize as well by sea as by lande into and from the dominions of the sayde Grand Signor, and into and from Venice, Zante, Candie and Zephalonia, and other the dominions of the Signiorie and State of Venice, and also by lande through the Countries of the sayde Grand Signor into and from the East India, lately discouered by John Newberie, Ralph Fitch, William Leech, and Iames Storie, sent with our letters to that purpose at the proper costs and charge of the sayde Marchants or some of them: and into and from euerie of them in such order, manner, forme, libertie and condition fo all intentes and purposes as shall be betweene them of the sayde fellowshippe or companie of Marchantes of the Leuant or the more part of them for the time being limited and agreed, and not otherwise, without any molestation, impeachment, or disturbance; any lawe, statute, vsage, or diuersitie of Religion or faith, or any other cause or matter whatsoeuer to the contrarie notwithstanding. And that the sayde Governour and companie of Marchantes of the Leuant, or the greater part of them for the better gouernement of the sayde fellowshippe and companie, shall and may within fortie dayes next and immediatly following after the date hereof, and so from hence foorth yeerely during the continuance of this our graunt, assemble themselues in some conuenient place, and that they or the greater parte of them being so assembled, shall and may elect, ordaine, nominate, and appoint twelue discreete and honest persons of the sayde companie to be assistants to the sayde Gouernour, and to continue in the sayde office of assistants, vntill they shall die or bee remoued by the sayde Gouernour and companie or the greater part of them. And if it happen the sayde assistantes or any of them to die, or be remooued from their sayde office at anie time during the continuance of this our graunt: that then and so often it shall and may bee lawfull to and for the sayde Gouernour and companie of marchantes of the Leuant, or the greater part of them to elect and chuse one or more other persons of the sayd companie into the place or places of euery such person or persons so dying or happening to be remooued, as is aforesayde. And wee will and ordaine that the same person or persons so as is aforesaide to be elected shall be of the sayd number of assistants of the sayde companie. And this to be done so often as the case shall so require. And that it shall and may be lawfull to and for the sayde Edwarde Orborne Knight, George Barne Knight, George Bonde knight, Richard Martine knight, Iohn Hart knight, Iohn Hawkins knight, William Massam, Iohn Spencer, Richard Saltonstall, Nicholas Mosley, William Hareborne, Edwarde Barton, William Borrough, Richard Staper, Thomas Cordall, Henrie Paruis, Thomas Laurence, Edwarde Holmeden, William Garraway, Robert Dowe, Paul Banning, Roger Clarke, Henrie Anderson, Robert Offley, Philip Grimes, Andrewe Banning, Iames Staper, Robert Sadler, Leonarde Power, George Salter, Nicholas Leate, John Eldred, William Shales, Richard May, William Wilkes, Andrewe Fones, Arthur Iackson, Edmund Ansell, Ralph Ashley, Thomas Farrington, Robert Sandie, Thomas Garraway, Edwarde Lethlande, Thomas Dalkins, Thomas Norden, Robert Bate, Edward Sadler, Richard Darsall, Richard Martine Iunior, Ralph Fitch, Nicholas Pearde, Thomas Simons, and Francis Dorrington aforesayde, or any of them to assemble themselues for or about any the matters, causes or affaires or businesses of the sayde trade in any place or places for the same conuenient from time to time during the sayde terme of twelue yeeres within our dominions or else where. And that also it shall and may be lawfull for them or the more part of them to make, ordaine and constitute reasonable lawes and orders for the good gouernment of the sayde companie, and for the better advancement and continuance of the sayde trade and traffike: the same lawes and ordinances not being contrarie or repugnant to the lawes, statutes or customes of our Realme: And the same lawes and ordinances so made to put in vse, and execute accordingly, and at their pleasures to reuoke and alter the same lawes and ordinances or any of them as occasion shall require. And we doe also for vs, our heyres and successors of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion graunt to and with the sayd Gouernour and companie of marchantes of the Leuant, that when and as often at any time during the sayde terme and space of twelue yeeres as any custome, pondage, subsidie or other duetie shall be due and payable vnto vs, our heires, or successors for any goods or marchandize whatsoeuer, to be carried or transported out of this our port of London into any the dominions aforesayde, or out of or from any the sayde dominions vnto our sayde port of London, that our Customers, and all other our officers for receites of custome, pondage, subsidie or other duetie vnto whom it shall appertaine, shall vpon the request of the sayde Gouernour for the time being, giue vnto the sayde companie three monethes time for the payment of the one halfe, and other three monethes for the payment of the other halfe of their sayde custome, pondage, or other subsidie or duetie for the same, receiuing good and sufficient bonde and securitie to our vse for the payment of the same accordingly. And vpon receipt of the sayde bonde to giue them out their cockets or other warrants to lade out and receiue in the same their goods by vertue hereof without any disturbance. And that also as often as at any time during the sayde terme of twelue yeeres any goods or marchandize of any of the sayde companie laden from this our port of London in any the dominions beforesayde shall happen to miscarie before their safe discharge in the partes for and to the which they be sent: That then and so often so much custome, pondage, and other subsidie as they answered vs for the same, shall after due proofe made before the Treasurour of England for the time being of the sayde losse, and the iust quantitie thereof, be by the vertue hereof allowed vnto them, by warrant of the sayde Treasurour to the sayde Customers in the next marchandize that they shall or may shippe for those partes, according to the true rates of the customes, pondage, or subsidies heretofore payde for the goods so lost or any part or parcell thereof. And for that the sayde companie are like continually to bring into this our Realme a much greater quantitie of forren commodities from the forren Countreyes, places, or territories aforesaide, then here can be spent for the necessarie vse of the same, which of necessitie must be transported into other countreyes, and there vented, we for vs, our heires and successors of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion doe graunt to and with the sayd Gouernour and companie that at all times from time to time during the space of thirteene moneths next after the discharge of any the sayde goods so brought in, and the subsidies, pondage, customes and other duties for the same being before hande payde or compounded for as aforesayd, it shall be lawfull for them or any of them or any other person or persons whatsoeuer being naturall subiects of the Realme which may or shall buy the same of them or any of them to transport the same in English bottomes freely out of this Realme without payment of any further custome, pondage, or other subsidie to vs, our heires or successors for the same, whereof the sayde subsidies, pondage, or customes or other duties shall be so formerly payde and compounded for, as aforesayd, and so proued. And the sayd customer by vertue hereof shall vpon due and sufficient proofe thereof made in the custome house giue them sufficient cocket or certificate for the safe passing out thereof accordingly. And to the ende no deceipt be vsed herein to vs our heires, and successors, certificate shall be brought from our collector of custome inwardes to our customer outwardes that the sayd marchandizes haue within the time limited answered their due custome, subsidie, pondage and other duties for the same inwards. And furthermore we of our ample and aboundant grace, meere motion, and certaine knowledge haue graunted, and by these presents for vs our heyres and successours doe graunt vnto the said Gouernours and companie of marchantes of the Leuant, that they and such onely as be and shall be of that companie, shall for the sayd terme of twelue yeeres haue, vse, and enioy the whole and onely trade and traffike, and the whole entire and onely libertie, vse, and priuilege of trading and traffiking, and vsing feate of marchandise by and through the Leuant seas otherwise called the Mediterran seas into and from the sayd dominions of the Grand Signor, and dominions of the state of Venice; and by and through the sayd Grand Signors dominions to and from such other places in the East Indies discouered as aforesayd. And that they the sayd Gouernour and companie of marchants of the Leuant and euery particular and seuerall person of that companie their and euery one of their servants, factors, and deputies shall haue full and free authoritie, libertie, facultie, licence, and power to trade and trafficke by and through the sayde Leuant seas into and from all and euery the sayd dominions of the sayde Grand Signor, and the dominions of the state of Venice, and the sayde Indies, and into and from all places where by occasion of the sayd trade they shall happen to arriue or come, whither they be Christians, Turkes, Gentiles, or others: And by and through the sayd Leuant seas into and from all other seas, riuers, portes, regions, territories, dominions, coastes and places with their ships, barkes, pinases and other vessels, and with such mariners and men as they will leade or haue with them, or sende for the sayde trade as they shall thinke good at their owne costes and expenses. And for that the shippes sayling into the sayde Countreyes must take their due and proper times to proceede in these voyages, which otherwise as we well perceiue cannot be performed in the rest of the yeere following: Therefore we of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, for vs, our heyres and successors doe graunt to and with the sayd Gouernour and companie of Marchantes of the Leuant, that foure good shippes well furnished with ordinance and other munition for their defence, and two hundred mariners English men to guide and sayle in the same four shippes at all times during the sayde twelue yeeres shall quietly bee permitted and suffered to depart and goe in the sayde voyages, according to the purport of these presents, without any stay or contradiction by vs, our heyres and successors, or by the Lorde high Admirall or any other officer or subject of vs, our heires or successours in any wise: Any restraint, lawe, statute, vsage or matter whatsoeuer to the contrarie notwithstanding. Prouided neuerthelesse, that if wee shall at any time within the sayde twelue yeeres haue iust cause to arme our Nauie in warrelike manner in defence of our Realme, or for offence of our enemies: and that it shall be founde needefull and conuenient for vs to ioyne to our Nauie the shippes of our subjects to be also armed for warres to such number as cannot bee supplied if the sayd foure shippes should be permitted to depart as aboue is mentioned; then vpon knowledge giuen by vs or our Admirall to the sayde Gouernour or companie about the fifteenth day of the moneth of March, or three moneths before the saide companie shall beginne to make readie the same foure shippes that we may not spare the sayd foure ships and the marriners requisite for them to be out of our Realme during the time that our Nauie shal be vpon the seas, that then the sayde companie shall forbeare to send such foure shippes for their trade of marchandise vntill that we shall retake our sayd Nauie from the sayd service. And further our will and pleasure is, and wee doe by these presentes graunt that it shall be lawfull to and for the sayd Gouernour and companie of Marchantes of the Leuant to haue and vse in and about the affaires of the sayde companie a common seale for matters concerning the sayde companie and trade. And that also it shall be lawfull for the Marchants, Mariners, and Sea men, which shall be vsed and imployed in the sayde trade and voyage to set and place in the toppes of their ships or other vessels the Armes of England with the redde-crosse in white ouer the same as heretofore they haue vsed. And we of our further Royall fauour and of our especiall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion haue graunted and by these presents for vs, our heyres and successors doe graunt to the sayd Gouernour and companie of Marchants of the Leuant, that the sayde landes, territories, and dominions of the sayde Grand Signor, or the dominions of the Signiorie of Venice, or any of them within the sayde Leuant or Mediterran seas shall not be visited, frequented, or haunted by the sayde Leuant sea by way of marchandize by any other our subiects during the saide terme of twelue yeeres contrarie to the true meaning of these presentes. And by vertue of our prerogatiue Royall, which wee will not in that behalfe haue argued or brought in question, wee straightly charge, commaunde and prohibite for vs, our heyres and successours all our subiects of what degree or qualitie soeuer they bee, that none of them directly or indirectly doe visite, haunt, frequent, trade, traffike or aduenture by way of marchandise into or from any of the sayd dominions of the sayd Grand Signor, or the dominions of the saide Segniorie of Venice, by or through the sayde Leuant sea other then the sayd Gouernour and companie of marchants of the Leuant, and such particular persons as be or shall be of that companie, their factors, agents, seruants and assignes. And further for that wee plainely vnderstande that the States and Gouerours of the citie and Segniorie of Venice haue of late time set and raysed a newe impost and charge ouer and besides their auncient impost, custome, and charge of and vpon all manner of marchandize of our Realme brought into their dominions, and also of and vpon all marchandise caried or laden from their sayd Countrey or dominions by our subiectes or in the ships or bottoms of any of our subiectes to the great and intollerable charge and hinderance of our sayd subiects trading thither, wee therefore minding the redresse thereof, doe also by these presents for vs, our heires and successors further straightly prohibite and forbid not onely the subiects of the sayde State and Segniorie of Venice, but also of all other Nations or Countries whatsoeuer other then the sayd Gouernour and companie of marchants of the Leuant, and such onely as be or shall be of that companie, their factors, agents, seruantes, and assignes: That they or any of them during the sayde terme of twelue yeeres, shall bring or cause to be brought into this our Realme of Englande, or any part thereof anie manner of small fruites called corrants, being the raysins of Corinth, or wine of Candie, vnlesse it be by and with the licence, consent, and agreement of the sayde Gouernour and companie in writing vnder their sayd common seale first had and obteyned vpon paine vnto euery such person and persons that shall trade and traffike into any the sayde dominions of the State and Segniorie of Venice by sea, or that shall bring or cause to be brought into our saide Realme any of the said corrants being the raysins of Corinth, or wines of Candia, other then the sayd companie in paine of our indignation, and of forfaiture and losse as well of the shippe and ships with the furniture thereof, as also of the goods, marchandize, and thinges whatsoeuer they be of those which shall attempt or presume to commit or doe any matter or thing contrarie to the prohibition aforesayd. The one half of all the saide forfeitures to be to vs, our heires and successours, and the other halfe of all and euery the sayde forfeitures we doe by these presents, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion clearely and wholie for vs, our heires and successors, giue and graunt vnto the saide Gouernour and companie of marchantes of the Leuant. And further all and euery the sayde offendours for their sayde contempt to suffer imprisonment during our pleasures, and such other punishment as to vs for so high a contempt shall seeme meete and conuenient, and not to be in any wise deliuered vntill they and euery of them shall be come bounde vnto the sayd Gouernour for the time being in the summe of one thousand poundes or lesse at no time, then after to sayle or traffike by sea into any the dominions aforesaide, or to bring or cause to be brought from any the places aforesayde any corrants, raysins of Corinth, or wines of Candia contrarie to our expresse commaundement in that behalfe herein set downe and published. Prouided alwayes, and our expresse will is notwithstanding the premisses that if our sayde subiects shall at any time hereafter be recompensed of and for all such newe impostes and charges as they and euery of them shall pay, and likewise be freely discharged of and from the payment of all manner of newe imposte or taxe for any of their marchandise which they hereafter shall bring into or from any the dominions of the sayde State or Segniorie of Venice, and from all bondes and other assurances by them or any of them to be made for or in that behalfe, that then immediatly from and after such recompence and discharge made as aforesayde our sayde prohibition and restraint in these presentes mentioned, shall not be of any strength or force against the sayde Citie or State of Venice, or any the subiects thereof, but for and during such time onely and in such case when hereafter the sayde State of Venice shall againe beginne to taxe or leuie any manner of newe imposte within the sayde dominions vpon any the goods or marchandizes of our sayde subiects heereafter to be brought into any the dominions of the said State or Segniorie of Venice. Any thing in these our letters Patents contayned to the contrarie thereof in any wise notwithstanding. And further wee straightly charge and commaunde, and by these presentes prohibite all and singular Customers and Collectors of our Customes, pondage, and subsidies, and all other Officers within our porte and Citie of London and else where, to whom it shall appertaine and euery of them, That they or any of them by themselues, their clarkes, or substitutes shall not receiue or take, or suffer to be receiued or taken for vs in our name, or to our vse, or in the name, or vnto the vse of our heires or successors of any person or persons, any summe or summes of money, or other consideration during the sayde terme of twelue yeeres for any custome, pondage, taxe or subsidie of any corrants, raysins of Corinth, or wines of Candie aforesayd saue onely of and in the name of the sayde Gouernour and companie of marchantes of the Leuant, or of some of that companie without the consent of the sayde Gouernour and companie in writing vnder their sayd common seale, first had and obteyned, and vnto them shewed for the testifying their sayd consent. And for the better and more sure obseruation thereof wee will and graunt for vs, our heires or successors by these presentes, that our Treasurour and Barons of the Exchequer for the time being by force of these presentes, and the inrollment thereof in the sayde Court of our Exchequour, at all and euery time and times during the sayde terme of twelue yeeres, at and vpon the request of the sayde Gouernour and companie, their Attourney or Attourneys, Deputies or assignes, shall and may make and direct vnder the seale of the sayde Court one or more sufficient writte or writtes close or patent, vnto euery or any of the sayd Customers, or other Officers to whom it shall appertaine, commaunding them and euery of them thereby, that neither they nor any of them at any time or times during the sayd space of twelue yeeres shall take entrie of any corants, raisins of Corinth, or wines of Candia, or take or make any agreement for any custome, pondage, or other subsidie for any of the sayd corants, raisins of Corinth, or wines of Candie, with any person or persons whatsoeuer, other then with, or in the name and by the priuitie of the sayd gouernour and company or some of the same company. And further of our special grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion we haue condescended and graunted, and by these presents for vs our heires and successours doe condescend and graunt to the sayd Gouernour and company of merchants of Leuant, that wee, our heires and successours, during the sayd terme, will not graunt libertie, licence, or power to any person or persons whatsoeuer contrary to the tenour of these our letters patents, to saile, passe, trade, or traffique by the sayd Leuant Sea, into, or from the sayde dominions of the sayd Grand Signior or the dominions of the State of Venice or any of them, contrary to the true meaning of these presents, without the consent of the sayd Gouernour and Companie or the most part of them. And whereas Henry Farrington and Henry Hewet haue not yet assented to bee incorporated into the sayd societie of Gouernour and companie of marchants of Leuant, neuerthelesse sithence, as we be informed, they haue bene traders that way heretofore; our will and pleasure is, and we doe hereby expressely commaund and charge that if it happen at any time within two moneths next following after the date hereof, the sayd Henry Farrington and Henry Hewet or either of them, do submit themselues to be of the sayd companie, and doe giue such assurance as the sayd Gouernour and companie, or the more part of them shall allow of, to beare, pay, and performe such orders, constitutions, paiments and contributions, as other of the sayd company shall be ordered to beare, pay, and performe, that then euery of the sayd Henry Farrington and Henry Hewet so doing and submitting himselfe, shall vpon his or their request vnto the sayd Gouernour bee admitted into the sayd companie and corporation of Gouernour and companie of marchants of Leuant, and haue and enioy the same, and as great liberties, priuileges, and preheminences, as the rest of the sayde corporation or companie may, or ought to haue by vertue of this our graunt. Any thing in these presents contained to the contrary notwithstanding. And our will and pleasure is, and hereby wee doe also ordaine that it shall and may bee lawfull, to, and for the sayde Gouernour and company of marchants of Leuant or the more part of them, to admit into, and to be of the sayd companie, any such as haue bene or shall bee employed as seruants, factors, or agents in the trade of marchandise by the sayd Leuant seas, into any the countreys, dominions or territories of the sayd Grand Signior or Signiorie or State of Venice, according as they or the most part of them shall thinke requisite. And where Anthony Ratcliffe, Steuen Some, and Robert Brooke Aldermen of the saide Citie of London, Simon Laurence, Iohn Wattes, Iohn Newton, Thomas Middleton, Robert Coxe, Iohn Blunt, Charles Faith, Thomas Barnes, Alexander Dansey, Richard Aldworth, Henry Cowlthirste, Cæsar Doffie, Martine Bonde, Oliuer Stile and Nicholas Stile Marchants of London for their abilities and sufficiencies haue bene thought fit to be also of the sayd Company of the saide gouernour and Company of Marchants of Leuant: Our will and pleasure and expresse commaundement is, and wee doe hereby establish and ordeine, that euery such of the same Anthony Radcliffe, Steuen Some, Robert Brooke, Simon Laurence, Iohn Wattes, Iohn Newton, Thomas Midleton, Robert Coxe, Iohn Blunt, Charles Faith, Thomas Barnes, Alexander Dansey, Richard Aldworth, Henry Cowlthirste, Cæsar Doffie, Martine Bonde, Oliuer Style, and Nicholas Style, as shall pay vnto the saide Gouernour and company of Marchants of Leuante the summe of one hundred and thirtie poundes of lawfull English money within two monethes next after the date hereof towards the charges that the same Company haue already bene at in and about the establishing of the sayde trades shall from hencefoorth bee of of the same company of the Marchants of Leuant as fully and amply and in like maner, as any other of that societie or Company. Prouided also, that wee, our heires and successours at any time during the sayd twelue yeeres may lawfully appoynt and authorize two other persons exercising the lawfull trade of marchandize, and being fit men to bee of the sayd companie of Gouernour and companie of marchants of Leuant, so that the sayd persons to bee nominated or authorized, shall aide, doe, beare, and paie such payments and charges touching and concerning the same trade and Companie of marchants of Leuant, ratablie as other of the sayd Companie of marchants of Leuant shall, and doe, or ought to beare and pay: and doe also performe and obserue the orders of the sayd Companie allowable by this our graunt, as others of the same doe or ought to doe; And that such two persons so to bee appoynted by vs our heires or successours, shall and may with the sayd Company vse the trade and feate of marchandise aforesayd, and all the liberties and priuileges herein before granted, according to the meaning of these our letters patents, any thing in these our letters patents contained to the contrary notwithstanding. Prouided also, that if any of the marchants before by these presents named or incorporated, to bee of the said fellowship of Gouernour and companie of the merchants of Leuant, shall not bee willing to continue or bee of the same companie, and doe giue notice thereof, or make the same knowen to the sayd Gouernour, within two moneths next after the date hereof, that then such person so giuing notice, shall no furthur or any longer be of that companie, or haue trade into those parties, nor be at any time after that of the same corporation or companie, or vse trade into any territories or countries aforesayd. Prouided alwayes neuerthelesse, that euery such person so giuing notice and hauing at this present any goods or marchandises in any the Territories or countreys of the sayd Grand Signior, or Segniorie or State of Venice, may at any time within the space of eighteene moneths next, and immediately following after the date hereof, haue free libertie, power and authoritie to returne the same or the value thereof into this Realme, without vsing any traffique there, but immediately from thence hither, paying, bearing, answering, and performing all such charges, dueties, and summes of money ratably as other of the same corporation or company doe or shall pay, beare, answere, or performe for the like. Prouided also, that if any of the persons before by these presents named or incorporated to bee of the sayd fellowship of Gouernour and Companie of the marchants of Leuant, or which hereafter shall bee admitted to bee of the sayde Corporation or Companie, shall at any time or times hereafter refuse to be of the sayd Corporation or Companie, or to beare, pay or be contributorie to, or not beare and pay such ratable charges and allowances, or to obserue or performe such ordinances to bee made as is aforesayd, as other of the same company are, or shall bee ordered, to beare, paie, or performe, that then it shall and may bee lawfull for the rest of the sayd Gouernour and companie of marchants of Leuant, presently to expell, remooue, and displace euery such person so refusing, or not bearing or paying out, of, and from the sayd Corporation, and companie, and from all priuilege, libertie, and preheminence which any such person should, or might claime, or haue by vertue of this our graunt, and in place of them to elect others exercising the lawfull trade of marchandise to bee of the sayd Company. And that euery such person so expelled, remooued, or displaced by consent of the sayd Gouernour and companie of marchants of Leuant, or the more part of them, shall bee from thencefoorth vtterly disabled to take any benefite by vertue of this priuilege, or any time after to bee admitted or receiued againe into the same, any thing in these presents contained to the contrary notwithstanding. Provided alwayes, that if it shall hereafter appears to vs, our heires and successours, that this graunt or the continuance thereof in the whole or in any part thereof, shall not bee profitable to vs, our heires and successours, or to this our realme, that then and from thencefoorth, vpon and after eighteene moneths warning to bee giuen to the sayd companie by vs, our heires and successours, this present graunt shall cease, bee voyd, and determined to all intents, constructions and purposes. And further of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, we haue condescended and graunted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successors, doe condescend and graunt to the sayde Gouernour and companie of marchants of Leuant, that if at the ende of the sayd terme of twelue yeeres it shall seeme meete and conuenient to the sayde Gouernour and Companie, or any the parties aforesayd, that this present graunt shall bee continued: And if that also it shall appear vnto vs, our heires and successours, that the continuance thereof shall not bee preiudiciall or hurtfull to this our realme, but that wee shall finde the further continuance thereof profitable for vs, our heires and successours and for our realme with such conditions as are herein mentioned, or with some alteration or qualification thereof, that then wee, our heires and successours at the instance and humble petition of the sayde Gouernour and Companie, or any of them so suing for the same, and such other person and persons our subiectes as they shall nominate and appoint, or shall bee by vs, our heires and successours newly nominated, not exceeding in number twelue, new letters patents vnder the great seale of England in due forme of lawe with like couenants, graunts, clauses, and articles, as in these presents are contained, or with addition of other necessarie articles or changing of these in some partes, for, and during the full terme of twelue yeeres then next following. Willing now hereby, and straightly commannding and charging all and singular our Admirals, Vice-admirals, Iustices, Maiors, Shiriffes, Escheators, Constables, Bailiffes, and all and singular other our Officers, Ministers, Liege-men and subiects whatsoeuer, to bee aiding, fauouring, helping, and assisting vnto the sayd companie and their successours, and to their Deputies, Officers, Factors, seruants, assignes and ministers, and euery of them, in executing and enioying the premisses as well on land as on Sea, from time to time, and at all times when you or any of you shal thereto bee required, any Statute, Acte, ordinance, Prouiso, Proclamation or restraint heretofore had, made, set foorth, ordained or prouided, or any other matter, cause or thing whatsoeuer to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. Although expresse mention of the true yeerely value or certaintie of the premisses, or any of them, or of any other gifts or graunts by vs, or any of our progenitours to the sayde Gouernour and Companie of the marchants of Leuant before this time made, in these presents is not made: Or any Statute, Acte, Ordinance, prouision, proclamation or restraint to the contrary thereof before this time had, made, done, or prouided, or any other matter, thing or cause whatsoeuer, in any wise notwithstanding. In witnesse whereof we haue caused these our letters to be made patents. Witnesse our selfe at Westminster the seuenth day of Ianuarie in the foure and thirtieth yeere of our raigne. Per breue de priuato Sigillo. Bailie. * * * * * Voyage D'outremer et Retour de Jérusalem en France par la voie de terre, pendant le cours des années 1432 et 1433, par Bertrandon de la Brocquière, conseiller et premier écuyer tranchant de Philippe-le-bon, duc de Bourgogne; ouvrage extrait d'un Manuscript de la Bibliothèque Nationale, remis en Français Moderne, et publié par le citoyen Legrand d'Aussy. Discours Prèliminaire. Les relations de voyages publièes par nos Français remontent fort haut. Des les commencemens du V'e siècle, Rutilius Claudius Numatianus en avoit donné une, qui ne nous est parvenue qu'incomplète, parce que apparemment la mort ne lui permit pas de l'achever. L'objet étoit son retour de Rome dans la Gaule, sa patrie. Mais, comme il n'avoit voyagé que par mer, il ne put voir et décrire que des ports et des cotes; et de là nécessairement a resulté pour son ouvrage, une monotonie, qu'un homme de génie auroit pu vaincre sans doute, mais qu'il étoit au dessus de ses forces de surmonter. D'ailleurs, il a voulu donner un poème: ce qui l'oblige à prendre le ton poétique, et à faire des descriptions poétiques, ou soi-disant telles. Enfin ce poème est en vers élégiaques. Or qui ne sait que cette sorte de versification, dont le propre est de couper la pensée de deux en deux vers et d'assujettir ces vers au retour continuel d'une chute uniforme, est peut être celle de toutes qui convieent le moins en genre descriptif? Quand l'imagination a beaucoup à peindre; quand sans cesse elle a besoin de tableaux brillans et variés, il lui faut, pour développer avantageusement toutes ses richesses, une grande liberté; et elle ne peut par conséquent s'accommoder d'une double entrave, dont l'effet infaillible seroit d'éteindre son feu. Payen de religion, Rutilius a montré son aversion pour la religion chrétienne dans des vers où, confondant ensemble les chrétiens et les Juifs, il dit du mal des deux sectes. C'est par une suite des mêmes sentimens qu'ayant vu, sur sa route, des moines dans lile Capraia, il fit contre le monachisme ces autres vers, que je citerai pour donner une idée de sa manière. Processu pelagi jam se Capraria tollit; Squalet lucifugis insula plena viris. Ipsi se monachos, Graio cognomine, dicunt, Quòd, soli, nullo vivere teste, volunt. Munera fortunæ metuunt, dum damna verentur: Quisquam sponte miser, ne miser esse queat. Quænam perversi rabies tam crebra cerebri, Dum mala formides, nec bona posse pati? [Footnote: "He afterwards," says Gibbon, "mentions a religious madman on the isle of Gorgona. For such profane remarks, Rutilius and his accomplices, are styled, by his commentator, Barthius, rabiosi canes diaboli."] Son ouvrage contient des détails précieux pour le géographe; il y en a même quelques uns pour l'antiquaire et l'historien: tels par exemple, que sa description d'un marais salant, et l'anecdote des livres Sibyllins brûlés à Rome par l'ordre de Stilicon. [Footnote: The verses relating to Stilicho are very spirited and elegant. I will transcribe them. Quo magis est facinus diri Stilichonis acerbum, Proditor arcani qui fuit imperii, Romano generi dum nititur esse superstes, Crudelis summis miscuit ima furor. Dumque timet, quicquid se fecerat ipse timeri, Immisit Latiæ barbara tela neci. Visceribus nudis armatum condidit hostem, Illatæ cladis liberiore dolo. Ipsa satellitibus pellitis Roma patebat, Et captiva prius, quam caperetur, erat. Nec tantum Geticis grassatus proditor armis: Ante Sibyllinæ fata cremavit opis. Odimus Althæam consumti funere torris: Niseum crinem flere putantur aves: At Stilicho æterni fatalia pignora regni; Et plenas voluit præcipitare colus. Omnia Tartarei cessent tormenta Neronis, Consumat Stygias tristior umbra faces. Hic immortalem, mortalem perculit ille: Hic mundi matrem perculit, ille suam. Claudian draws a very different portrait of Stilicho. Indeed, as Gibbon observes, "Stilicho, directly or indirectly, is the perpetual theme of Claudian."] Enfin on y remarque quelques beaux vers, et particulièrement celui-ci sur une ville ruinée. Cernimus exemplis oppida posse mori. Mais il pèche par la composition, Ses tableaux sont secs et froids; sa manière petite et mesquine. Du reste, point de génie, point d'imagination, et par conséquent, point d'invention ni de coloris. Voilà ce qu'il présente, ou au moins ce que j'ai cru y voir; et ce sont probablement ces défauts qui ont fait donner à son poeme le nom dégradant d'Itinéraire, sous lequel il est connu. Nous en avons une traduction Française par le Franc de Pompignan. [Footnote: Mélanges de littér. de poés. et d'hist. par l'Acad. de Montauban. p.81.] Vers 505, Arculfe, évôque Gaulois, étoit allé en pélerinage à Jérusalem. A son retour, il voulut en publier la relation; et il chargea de cette rédaction un abbé écossais, nommé Adaman, auquel il donna des notes tant manuscrites que de vive voix. La relation composée par Adaman, intitulée: De locis sanctis, est divisée en trois livres: a été imprimée par Gretser, puis, plus complète encore, par Mabillon. [Footnote: Acta ord. S. Bened. sec. 3.1.2 p. 502.] Arculfe, aprés avoir visité la Terre Sainte, sétoit embarqué pour Alexandrie. D'Alexandrie, il avoit passé à l'île de Cypre, et de Cypre à Constantinople, d'où il étoit revenu en France. Un pareil voyage promet assurément beaucoup; et certes l'homme qui avoit à décrire la Palestine, l'Egypte et la capitale de l'Empire d'Orient pouvoit donner une relation intéressante. Mais pour l'exécution d'un projet aussi vaste il falloit une philosophie et des connoissance que son siècle étoit bien loin d'avoir. C'est un pélerinage, et non un voyage, que publie le prélat. Il ne nous fait connoitre ni les lois, ni les moeurs, ni les usages des peuples, ni ce qui concerne les lieux et la contrée qu'il parcourt, mais les reliques et les objets de dévotion qu'on y révéroit. Ainsi dans son premier livre, qui traite de Jérusalem, il vous parlera de la colonne où Jésus fut flagellé, de la lance qui lui perça le coté, de son suaire, d'une pierre sur laquelle il pria et qui porte l'empreinte de ses genoux, d'une autre pierre sur laquelle il étoit quand il monta au ciel, et qui porte l'empreinte de ses pieds, d'un linge tissu par la Vierge et qui le représente: du figuier où se pendit Judas; enfin de la pierre sur laquelle expira saint Etienne, etc etc. Dans son second livre, où il parcourt les divers lieux de la Palestine que visitoient les pélerins, il suit les mêmes erremens. A Jéricho, il cite la maison de la courtisane Raab; dans la vallée de Mambré, les tombeaux d'Adam, d'Abraham, d'Isaac, de Jacob, de Sara, de Rébecca, de Lia; à Nazareth, l'endroit où l'ange vint annoncer à Marie qu'elle seroit mère en restant vierge; à Bethléem, la pierre sur laquelle Jésus fut lavé à sa naissance; les tombeaux de Rachel, de David, de saint Jérôme, de trois des bergers qui vinrent à l'adoration, etc. Le troisième livre enfin est consacré en grand partie à Constantinople; mais il n'y parle que de la vraie croix, de saint George, d'une image de la Vierge, qui, jettée par un Juif dans les plus dégoûtantes ordures, avoit été ramassée par un chretien et distilloit une huile miraculeuse. Pendant bien des siècles, les relations d'outre mer ne continrent que les pieuses et grossières fables qu'imaginoient journellement les Orientaux pour accréditer certains lieux qu'ils tentoient. d'ériger en pélerinages, et pour soutirer ainsi à leur profit l'argent des pélerins. Ceux-ci adoptoient aveuglément tous les contes qu'on leur débitoit; et ils accomplissoient scrupuleusement toutes les stations qui leur étoient indiquées. A leur retour en Europe, c'étoitlà tout ce qu'ils avoient à raconter; mais cétoitlà aussi tout ce qu'on leur demandoit. Cependant notre saint (car à sa mort il a été déclaré tel, ainsi que son rédacteur Adaman) a, dans son second livre, quelques phrases historiques sur Tyr et sur Damas. Il y parle également et avec plus de détails encore d'Alexandrie; et je trouve même sous ce dernier article deux faits qui m'ont paru dignes d'attention. L'un concerne les crocodiles, qu'il répresente comme si multipliés dans la partie inférieure du Nil, que dès l'instant où un boeuf, un cheval, un âne, s'avançoient sur les bords du fleuve, ils étoient saisis par eux, entraînés sous les eaux, et dévorés; tandis qu'aujourd'hui, si l'on en croit le rapport unanime de nos voyageurs modernes, il n'existe plus de crocodiles que dans la haute Egypte; que c'est un prodige d'en voir descendre un jusqu'au Caire, et que du Caire à la mer on n'en voit pas un seul. L'autre a rapport à cet île nommée Pharos, dans laquelle le Ptolémée-Philadelphe fit construire une tour dont les feux servoient de signal aux navigateurs, et qui porta également le nom de Phare. On sait que, postérieurement à Ptolémée, l'île fut jointe au continent par un mole qui, à chacune de ses deux, extrémités, avoit un pont; que Cléopatre acheva l'isthme, en détruisant les ponts et en faisant la digue pleine; enfin qu'aujourd'hui l'île entière tient à la terre ferme. Cependant notre prélat en parle comme si, de son temps, elle eût été île encore: "in dextera parte portûs parva insula habetur, in qua maxima turris est quam, in commune, Græci ac Latini, ex ipsius rei usu, Pharum vocitaverunt." Il se trompe sans doute. Mais, probablement, à lépoque où il la vît, elle n'avoit que sa digue, encore: les atterrissemens immenses qui en ont fait une terre, en la joignant au continent, sont postérieurs à lui; et il n'aura pas cru qu'un môle fait de main d'homme empêchât une ile d'être ce que l'avoit faite la nature. Au neuvième siècle, nous eûmes une autre sorte de Voyage par Hetton, moine et abbé de Richenou, puis évéque Bàle. Cet homme, habile dans les affaires, et employé comme tel par Charlemagne, avoit été en 811 envoyé par lui en ambassade à Constantinople. De retour en France, il y publia, sur sa mission, une relation, que jusqu'ici l'on n'a pas retrouvée, et que nous devons d'autant plus regretter qu'infailliblement elle nous fourniroit des détails curieux sur un Empire dont les rapports avec notre France etoient alors si multipliés et si actifs. Peut être au reste ne doit on pas la regarder comme tout-à-fait perdue; et il seroit possible qu'après être restée pendant plusieurs siècles ensevelie dans un manuscrit ignoré, le hasard l'amenât un jour sous les yeux de quelqu'un de nos savans, qui la donneroit au public. C'est ce qui est arrivé pour celle d'un autre moine Français nommé Bernard; laquelle, publiée en 870, a été retrouvée par Mabillon et mise par lui au [Footnote: Ubi supra. p. 523.] jour. Ce n'est, comme celle d'Arculfe, qu'un voyage de Terre Sainte à la vérité beaucoup plus court que le sien, écrit avec moins de prétention, mais qui, à l'exception de quelques details personnels à l'auteur, ne contient de même qu'une sèche énumération des saints lieux: ce qui l'a fait de même intituler: De locis sanctis. Cependant la route des deux pélerins fut différente. Arculfe étoit allé directment en Palestine, et de là il s'etoit embarqué une seconde fois pour voir Alexandrie. Bernard, au contraire, va d'abord débarquer à Alexandrie. Il remonte le Nil jusqu'à Babylone, redescend à Damiette, et, traversant le désert sur des chameaux, il se rend par Gaza en Terre Sainte. Là, il fait, comme saint Arculfe, différens pélerinages, mais moins que lui cependant, soit que sa profession ne lui eût point permis les même dépenses, soit qu'il ait négligé de les mentionner tous. Je remarquerai seulement que dans certaines églises on avoit imaginé, depuis l'évèque, de nouveaux miracles, et qu'elles en citoient dont il ne parle pas, et dont certainement il eût fait mention s'ils avoient eu lieu de son temps. Tel étoit celui de l'église de Sainte-Marie, où jamais il ne pleuvoit, disoit-on, quoiqu'elle fût sans toit. Tel celui auquel les Grecs ont donné tant de célébrité, et qui, tous les ans, la veille de Pâques, s'opéroit dans l'églisè du Saint-Sépulcre, ou un ange descendoit du ciel pour allumer les cierges: ce qui fournissoit aux chrétiens de la ville un feu nouveau, qui leur étoit communiqué par le patriarche, et qu'ils emportoient réligieusement chez eux. Bernard rapporte, sur son passage du désert, une anecdote qui est à recueillir: c'est que, dans la traversée de cette immense mer de sable, des marchands païens et chrétiens avoient formé deux hospices, nommés l'un Albara, l'autre Albacara, où les voyageurs trouvoient à se pourvoir de tous les objets dont ils pouvoient avoir besoin pour leur route. Enfin l'auteur nous fait connoitre un monument formé par Charlemagne dans Jérusalem en faveur de ceux qui parloient _la langue Romane_, et que les Français, et les gens de lettres spécialement, n'apprendront pas, sans beaucoup de plaisir, avoir existé. Ce prince, la gloire de l'Occident, avoit, par ses conquêtes et ses grandes qualités, attiré l'attention d'un homme qui remplissoit également l'Orient de sa renommée: c'étoit le célèbre calife Haroun-al-Raschild. Haroun, empressé de témoigner à Charles l'estime et la considération qu'il lui portoit, lui portoit, lui avoit envoyé des ambassadeurs avec des présens magnifiques; et ces ambassadeurs, disent nos historiens, étoient même chargés de lui présenter, de la part de leur maître, les clés de Jérusalem. Probablement Charles avoit profité de cette faveur pour établir dans la ville un hôpital ou hospice, destiné aux pélerins de ses états Français. Tel étoit l'esprit du temps. Ces sortes de voyages étant réputés l'action la plus sainte que put imaginer la dévotion, un prince qui les favorisoit croyoit bien mériter de la religion. Charlemagne d'ailleurs avoir le gout des pélerinages; et son historien Eginhard [Footnote: Vita Carol. Mag. Cap. 27.] remarque avec surprise que, malgré la prédilection qu'il portoit à celui de Saint-Pierre de Rome, il ne l'avoit fait pourtant que <i>quatre fois</i> dans sa vie. Mais souvent le grand homme se montre grand encore jusqu'au sein des prejugés qui l'entourent. Charles avoit été en France le restaurateur des lettres; il y avoit rétabli l'orthographe, régénéré l'écriture, formé de belles bibliothèques: il voulut que son hospice de Jérusalem eût une bibliothèque aussi à l'usage des pélerins. L'établissement la possédoit encore tout entière, au temps de Bernard: "nobilissimam habens bibliothecam, studio Imperatoris;" et l'empereur y avoit même attaché, tant pour Pentretien du depôt et celui du lieu, que pour la nourriture des pélerins, douze manses situées dans la vallée de Josaphat, avec des terres, des vignes et un jardin. Quoique notre historien dût être rassasie de pélerinages, il fit néanmoins encore, à son retour par l'Italie, celui de Rome: puis quand il fut rentré en France, celui du mont Saint-Michael. Sur ce dernier, il observe que ce lieu, situé au milieu d'une grève des côtes de Normandie, est deux fois par jour, au temps du flux, baigné des eaux de la mer. Mais il ajoute que, le jour de la fête du saint l'accés du rocher et de la chapelle reste libre; que l'Océan y forme, comme fit la Mer rouge, au temps de Moise, deux grands murs, entre lesquels on peut passer à pied sec; et que ce miracle, que n'a lieu que ce jour-là, dure tout le jour. Notre littérature nationale possédoit quatre voyages; un des cotes d'Isalie, un de Constantinople, deux de Terre-Sainte. Au treizième siècle, une cause fort étrange lui en procura deux de Tartarie. Cette immense contrée dont les habitans, en divers temps et sous différens noms, ont peuplé, conquis, ou ravagé la très-grande partie de l'Europe et de l'Asie, se trouvoit pour ainsi dire tout entière en armes. Fanatisés par les incroyables conquêtes d'un de leurs chefs, le fameux Gengis-Kan; persuadés que la terre entière devoit leur obéir, ces nomades belliqueux et féroces étoient venus, après avoir soumis la Chine, se précipiter sur le nord-est de l'Europe. Par tout où s'étoient portées leurs innombrables hordes, des royaumes avoient été ravagés; des nations entières exterminées ou trainées en esclavage; la Hongrie, la Pologne, la Bohème, les frontières de l'Autriche, dévastées d'une manière effroyable. Rien n'avoit pu arrêter ce débordement qui, s'il éprouvoit, vers quelque côte, une résistance, se jetoit ailleurs avec plus de fureur encore. Enfin la chrétienté fut frappée de terreur, et selon l'expression d'un de nos historiens, elle trembla jusqu'à l'Océan. Dans cette consternation générale, Innocent IV voulut se montrer le père commun des fidèles. Ce tendre père se trouvoit à Lyon, ou il étoit venu tenir un concile pour excommunier le redoutable Frédéric II, qui trois fois déja l'avoit été vainement par d'autres papes. Là, en accablant l'empereur de toutes ses foudres, Innocent forme un projet dont l'idée seule annonce l'ivresse de la puissance; celui d'envoyer aux Tartares des lettres apostoliques, afin de les engager à poser les armes et à embrasser la religion chrétienne: "ut ab hominum strage desistement et fidei veritatem reciperent." [Footnote: Vincent Bellovac. Spec histor. lib. xxxii. cap. 2.] Il charge de ses lettres un ambassadeur; et l'ambassadeur est un Frère-mineur nommé Jean du Plan de Carpin (Joannes de Plano Carpini,) qui le jour de Pâques, 1245, part avec un de ses camarades, et qui en chemin se donne un troisiéme compagnon, Polonois et appelé Benoit. Soit que l'ordre de Saint-Dominique eût témoigné quelque déplaisir de voir un pareil honneur déféré exclusivement à l'ordre de Saint François; soit qu'Innocent craignit pour ses ambassadeurs les dangers d'un voyage aussi pénible; soit enfin par quelque motif que nous ignorons, il nomma une seconde ambassade, à laquelle il fit prendre une autre route, et qui fut composée uniquement de Frères-prêcheurs. Ceux-ci, au nombre de cinq, avoient pour chef un nommé Ascelin, et parmi eux étoit un frère Simon, de Saint-Quentin, dont j'aurai bientot occasion de parler. Ils étoient, comme les Frères-mineurs, porteurs de lettres apostoliques, et avoient auprès des Tartares la même mission, celle de déterminer ce peuple formidable à s'abstenir de toute guerre et à recevoir le baptême. De Carpin cependant avoit, avec la sienne, reçu l'ordre particulier et secret d'examiner attentivement et de recueillir avec soin tout ce qui chez ce peuple lui paroitroit digne de remarque. Il le fit; et à son retour il publia une relation, qui est composée dans cet esprit, et qu'en conséquence il a intitulée Gesta Tartarorum. Effectivement il n'y emploie, en détails sur sa route et sur son voyage, qu'un seul chapitre. Les sept autres sont consacrés à décrire tout ce qui concerne les Tartares; sol, climat, moeurs, usages, conquêtes, manière de combattre, etc. Son ouvrage est imprimé dans la collection d'Hakluyt. J'en ai trouvé parmi les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale (No. 2477, à la page 66) un exemplaire plus complet que celui de l'édition d'Hakluyt, et qui contient une assez longue préface de l'auteur, que cette édition n'a pas. Enfin, à l'époque où parut ce Voyage, Vincent de Beauvais l'avoit inséré en grande partie dans son Speculum historiale. Ce frére Vincent, religieux dominicain, lecteur et prédicateur de saint Louis, avoit été invité par ce prince à entreprendre différens ouvrages, qu'en effet il mit au jour, et qui aujourd'hui forment une collection considérable. De ce nombre est une longue et lourde compilation historique, sous le titre de Speculum historiale, dans laquelle il a fait entrer et il a fondu, comme je viens de le dire, la relation de notre voyageur. Pour rendre celle-ciplus intéressante et plus complète, il y a joint, par une idée assez heureuse, certains détails particuliers que lui fournit son confrère Simon de Saint-Quentin, l'un des associés d'Ascelin dans la seconde ambassade. Ayant eu occasion de voir Simon à son retour de Tartarie, il apprit de lui beaucoup de choses qu'il a insérées en plusieurs endroits de son Miroir et spécialement dans le 32'e et dernier livre. Là, avec ce qu'avoit écrit et publié de Carpin, et ce que Simon lui raconta de vive voix, il a fait une relation mixte, qu'il a divisée en cinquante chapitres; et c'est celle que connoissent nos modernes. Bergeron en a donné une traduction dans son recueil des voyages faits pendant le douzième siècle et les trois suivans. Cependant il a cru devoir séparer ce qui concernoit de Carpin d'avec ce qui appartient à Simon, afin d'avoir des mémoires sur la seconde ambassade comme on en avoit sur la première. Il a donc détaché du récit de Vincent six chapitres attribués par lui à Simon; et il en a fait un article à part, qu'il a mis sous le nom d'Ascelin, chef de la seconde légation. C'est tout ce que nous savons de celle ci. Quant au succès qu'eurent les deux ambassades, je me crois dispensé d'en parler. On devine sans peine ce qu'il dut être; et il en fut de même de deux autres que saint Louis, quoique par un autre motif, envoya peu après dans la même contrée. Ce monarque se rendoit en 1248 à sa désastreuse expédition d'Egypte, et il venoit de relacher en Cypre avec sa flotte lorsqu'il reçut dans cette ile, le 12 Décembre, une députation des Tartares, dont les deux chefs portoient les noms de David et de Marc. Ces aventuriers se disoient délégués vers lui par leur prince, nouvellement converti à la foi chrétienne, et qu'ils appeloient Ercalthay. Ils assuroient encore que le grand Kan de Tartarie avoit également reçu le baptême, ainsi que les principaux officiers de sa cour et de son armée, et qu'il desiroit faire alliance avec le roi. Quelque grossière que fut cette imposture, Louis ne put pas s'en défendre. Il résolut d'envoyer, au prince et au Kan convertis une ambassade pour les féliciter de leur bonheur et les engager à favoriser et à propager dans leurs états la religion chrétienne. L'ambassadeur qu'il nomma fut un Frère-prêcheur nommé André Longjumeau ou Longjumel, et il lui associa deux autres Dominicains, deux clercs, et deux officiers de sa maison. David et Marc, pour lui en imposer davantage, affectèrent de se montrer fervens chrétiens. Ils assistèrent avec lui fort dévotieusment aux offices de Noel; mais ils lui firent entendre que ce seroit une chose fort agréable au Kan d'avoir une tente en écarlate. C'étoit-là que vouloient en venir les deux fripons. Et en effet le roi en commanda une magnifique, sur laquelle il fit broder l'Annonciation, la Passion, et les autres mystères du christianisme. A ce présent il en ajouta, un autre, celui de tout ce qui étoit nécessaire, soit en ornemens soit en vases et argenterie pour une chapelle. Enfin il donna des reliques et du bois de la vraie croix: c'est-à-dire ce que, dans son opinion, il estimoit plus que tout au monde. Mais une observation que je ne dois point omettre ici, parce qu'elle indique l'esprit de cette cour Romaine qui se croyoit faite pour commander à tous les souverains: c'est que le légat que lé pape avoit placé dans l'armée du roi pour l'y représenter et ordonner en son nom, écrivit, par la voie des ambassadeurs, aux deux souverains Tartares, et que dans sa lettre il leur annonçoit qu'il les adoptoit et les réconnoissoit enfans de l'église. Il en fut pour ses prétentions et les avances de sa lettre, ainsi que le roi, pour sa tente, pour sa chappelle et ses reliques. Longjumeau, arrivé en Tartarie, eut beau chercher le prince Ercalthay et ce grand Kan baptisé avec sa cour; il revint comme il étoit parti. Cependant il devoit avoir, sur cette contrée, quelques renseignemens. Déja il y avoit voyagé, disoit-on; et même quand David parut devant lui en Cypre, il prétendit le reconnoitre, comme l'ayant vu chez les Tartares. Ces circonstances nous ont été transmises par les historiens du temps. Pour lui, il n'a rien laissé sur sa mission. On diroit qu'il en a eu honte. Louis avoit été assez grossiérement dupé pour partager un peu ce sentiment, ou pour en tirer au moins une leçon de prudence. Et néanmoins très-peu d'années après il se laissa tromper encore: c'étoit en 1253; et il se trouvoit alors en Asie. Quoique au sortir de sa prison d'Egypte tout lui fit une loi de retourner en France, où il avoit tant de plaies à fermer et tant de larmes à tarir, une devotion mal éclairée l'avoit conduit en Palestine. Là, sans songer ni à ses sujets ni à ses devoirs de roi, non seulement il venoit de perdre deux années, presque uniquement occupé de pélerinages; mais malgré l'épuisement des finances de son royaume, il avoit dépensé des sommes très-considérables à relever et à fortifier quelques bicoques que les chrétiens de ces contrées y possédoient encore. Pendant ce temps, le bruit courut qu'un prince Tartare nommé Sartach avoit embrassé le christianisme. Le baptême d'un prince infidèle étoit pour Louis une de ces béatitudes au charme desquelles il ne savoit pas résister. Il résolut d'envoyer une ambassade à Sartach pour le féliciter, comme il en avoit envoyé une à Ercalthay. Sa première avoit été confiée à des Frères-prêcheurs; il nomma, pour celle-ci, des Franciscains, et pour chef frère Guillaume Rubruquis. Déja Innocent avoit de même donné successivement une des deux siennes à l'un des deux autres. Suivre cet exemple étoit pour Louis une grande jouissance. Il avoit pour l'un et pour l'autre une si tendre affection, que tout son voeu, disoit-il, eut été de pouvoir se partager en deux, afin de donner à chacun des deux une moitié de luimême. Rubruquis, rendu près de Sartach, put s'y convaincre sans peine combien étoient fabuleux les contes que de temps en temps les chrétiens orientaux faisoient courir sur ces prétendues conversions de princes Tartares. Pour ne pas perdre tout-à-fait le fruit de son voyage il sollicita près de ce chef la permission de prêcher l'évangile dans ses états. Sartach répondit qu'il n'osoit prendre sur lui une chose aussi extraordinaire; et il envoya le convertisseur à son père Baathu, qui le renvoya au grand Kan. Pour se présenter devant celui-ci, Rubruquis et ses deux camarades se revêtirent chacun d'une chape d'église. L'un d'eux portoit une croix et un missel, l'autre un encensoir, lui une bible et un psautier et il s'avance ainsi entre eux deux en chantant des cantiques. Ce spectacle, que d'après sès préjugés monastiques, il croyoit imposant, et qui n'étoit que burlesque, ne produisit rien, pas même la risée du Tartare; et peu content sans doute d'un voyage très-inutile il revint en rendre compte au roi. Louis n'étoit plus en Syrie. La mort de Blanche sa mère l'avoit rappelé enfin en France, d'où il n'auroit jamais du sortir, et où néanmoins il ne se rendit qu'après une année de retard encore. Rubruquis s'apprêtoit à l'y suivre quand il reçut de son provincial une défense de partir, avec ordre de se rendre au couvent de Saint-Jean d'Acre, et là d'écrire au roi pour l'instruire de sa mission. Il obéit. Il envoya au monarque une relation, que le temps nous a conservée, et qui, comme la précédente, se trouve traduite dans Bergeron; mais c'est à la contrariété despotique d'un supérieur dur et jaloux que nous la devons. Peut-être que si le voyageur avoit obtenu permission de venir à la cour, il n'eut rien ecrit. Ainsi des quatre ambassadeurs monastiques envoyés en Tartarie tant par Innocent que par le roi, il n'y a que les deux Franciscains de Carpin et Rubruquis, qui aient laissé dés mémoires; et ces ouvrages, quoiqu'ils se ressentent de leur siècle et particulièrement de la profession de ceux qui les composèrent, sont cependant précieux pour nous par les détails intéressans qu'ils contiennent sur une contrée lointaine dont alors on connoissoit à peine le nom, et avec laquelle nous n'avons depuis cette époque conservé aucun rapport. On y admirera sur tout le courage de Rubruquis, qui ne craint pas de déclarer assez ouvertement au roi que David étoit un imposteur qui l'avoit trompé. Mais Louis avoit le fanatisme du prosélytisme et des conversions; et c'est-là chez certains esprits une maladie incurable. Dupé deux fois, il le fut encore par la suite pour un roi de Tunis qu'on lui avoit représenté comme disposé à se faire baptiser. Ce baptême fut long-temps sa chimère. Il regardoit comme le plus beau jour de sa vie celui où il seroit le parrain de ce prince. Il eut consenti volontiers, disoit-il, à passer le reste de sa vie dans les cachots d'Afrique, si à ce prix il eut pu le voir chrétien. Et ce fut pour être le parrain d'un infidèle qu'il alla sur les côtes de Tunis perdre une seconde flotte et une seconde armée, déshonorer une seconde fois les armes Françaises qu'avoit tant illustrées la journée de Bovines, enfin perir de la peste au milieu de son camp pestiféré, et mériter ainsi, par les malheurs multipliés de la France, d'être qualifié martyr et saint. Quant à Bergeron, il n'est personne qui ne convienne qu'en publiant sa traduction il a rendu aux lettres et aux sciences un vrai service, et je suis bien loin assurément de vouloir en déprécier le mérite. Cependant je suis convaincu qu'elle en auroit d'avantage encore s'il ne se fut point permis, pour les différens morceaux qu'il y a fait entrer, une traduction trop libre, et surtout s'il s'y fut interdit de nombreux retranchemens qui à la vérité nous épargnent l'ennui de certains détails peu faits pour plaire, mais qui aussi nous privent de l'inestimable avantage d'apprécier l'auteur et son siècle. Lui-même, dans la notice préliminaire d'un des voyages qu'il a imprimés, il dit l'avoir tiré d'un Latin assez grossier où il étoit écrit selon le temps, pour le faire voir en notre angue avec un peu plus d'élégance et de clarté. [Footnote: Tome I. p. 160, à la suite du Voyage de Rubruquis.] Dé-là il est arrivé qu'en promettant de nous donner des relations du treizième et du quatorzième siéecle [sic--KTH], il nous en donne de modernes, qui toutes ont la même physionomie à peu près, tandis que chacune devroit avoir la sienne propre. Le recueil de Bergeron, bon pour son temps, ne l'est plus pour le notre. Composé d'ouvrages qui contiennent beaucoup d'erreurs, nous y voudrions des notes critiques, des discussions historiques, des observations savantes; et peut-être seroit-ce aujourd'hui une entreprise utile et qui ne pourroit manquer d'être accueillie très-favorablement du public, que celle d'une édition nouvelle des voyages anciens, faite ainsi, surtout si l'on y joignoit, autant qu'il seroit possible, le texte original avec la traduction. Mais cette traduction, il faudrait qu'elle fut très-scrupuleusement fidèle. Il faudroit avant tout s'y interdire tout retranchement, ou au moins en prévenir et y présenter en extrait ce qu'on croiroit indispensable de retrancher. Ce n'est point l'agrément que s'attend de trouver dans de pareils ouvrages celui qui entreprend la lecture; c'est l'instruction. Dès le moment où vous les dénaturerez, où vous voudrez leur donner une tournure moderne et ètre lu des jeunes gens et des femmes, tout est manqué. Avez-vous des voyages, quels qu'ils soient, de tel ou tel siècle? Voilà ce que je vous demande, et ce que vous devez me faire connoitre. Si parmi ceux de nos gens de lettres qui avec des connoissances en histoire et en géographie réunissent du courage et le talent des recherches, il s'en trouvoit quelqu'un que ce travail n'effrayât pas, je là préviens que, pour ce qui concerne le Speculum hîstoriale, il en existe à la Bibliothéque nationale quatre exemplaires manuscrits, sous les numéros 4898, 4900, 490l, et 4902. Les deux Voyageurs du quatorzième siècle qui ont publié des relations ne sont point nés Français; mais tous deux écrivirent primitivement dans notre langue: ils nous appartiennent à titre d'auteurs, et sous ce rapport je dois en parler. L'un est Hayton l'Arménien; l'autre, l'Anglais Mandeville. Hayton, roi d'Arménie; avoit été dépouillé de ses états par les Sarrasins. Il imagina d'aller solliciter les secours des Tartares, qui en effet prirent les armes pour lui et le rétablirent. Ses négociations et son voyage lui parurent mériter d'être transmis à la postérité, et il dressa des mémoires qu'en mourant il laissa entre les mains d'Hayton son neveu, seigneur de Courchi. Celui-ci, après avoir pris une part très-active tant aux affaires d'Arménie qu'aux guerres qu'elle eut à soutenir encore, vint se faire Prémontré en Cypre, où il apprit la langue Française, qui portée là par les Lusignans, y étoit devenue la langue de la cour et celle de tout ce qui n'étoit pas peuple. De Cypre, le moine Hayton ayant passé à Poitiers, voulut y faire connoitre les mémoires de son oncle, ainsi que les événemens dans lesquels lui-même avoit été, ou acteur, ou témoin. Il intitula ce travail Histoire d'Orient, et en confia la publication à un autre moine nommé de Faucon, auquel il le dicta de mémoire en Français. L'ouvrage eut un tel succès que, pour en faire jouir les peuples auxquels notre langue étoit étrangère, Clement V. chargea le même de Faucon de le traduire en Latin. Celui-ci fit paroitre en 1307, sa version, dont j'ai trouvé parmi le les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale trois exemplaires sous les numéros 7514, 7515--A, et 6041. (Page 180) à la fin du numéro 7515, on lit cette note de l'éditeur, qui donne la preuve de ce que je viens de dire du livre. "Explicit liber Historiarum Parcium [Partium] Orientis, à religioso, viro fratre Haytono, ordinis beati Augustini, domino Churchi, consanguineo regis Armeniæ, compilato [compilatus] ex mandato summi pontificis domini Clementis papæ quinti, in civitate pictaviensi regni Franchiæ: quem ego Nicolaus Falconi, primò scripsi in galico ydiomate, sicut idem frater H. michi [mihi] ore suo dictabat, absque nota sive aliquo [Footnote: L'exemplaire no. 5514 ajoute a verbo ad verbum.] exemplari. Et de gallico transtuli in latinum; anno domini M°CCC°. septimo, mense Augusti." Bergeron a publié l'histoire d'Hayton. Mais, au lieu donner le texte Français original, au ou moins la version Latine de l'éditeur, il n'a donné qu'une version Française de ce Latin: de sorte que nous n'avons ainsi qu'une traduction de traduction. Pour ce qui regarde Mandeville, il nous dit que ce voyageur composa son ouvrage dans les trois langues, Anglaise, Française et Latine. C'est une erreur. J'en ai en ce moment sous les yeux un exemplaire manuscrit de la Bibliothèque nationale, no. 10024 [Footnote: Il y en a dans la même bibliothèque un autre exemplaire noté 7972; mais celui-ci, mutilé, incomplet, trèsdifficile à lire, par la blancheur de son encre, ne peut guères avoir de valeur qu'en le collationant avec l'autre.] écrit en 1477 ainsi que le porte une note finale du copiste. Or, dans celui-ci je lis ces mots: Je eusse mis cest livre en latin, pour plus briefment délivrez (pour aller plus vite, pour abréger le travail). Mais pour ce que plusieurs ayment et endendent mîeulx romans [le français] que latin, l'ai-ge [je l'ai] mis en Romans, affin que chascun l'entende, et que les seigneurs et les chevaliers et aultres nobles hommes qui ne scèvent point de latin, ou petit [peu] qui ont esté oultre-mer, saichent se je dy voir [vrai], ou non. D'ailleurs, au temps de Mandeville, c'étoit la langue Française qu'on parloit en Angleterre. Cette langue y avoit été portée par Guillaume-le-Conquérant. On ne pouvoit enseigner qu'elle dans les écoles. Toutes les sentences des Tribunaux, tous les actes civils devoient être en Français; et quand Mandeville écrivoit en Français, il écrivoit dans sa langue. S'il se fût servi de la Latine, c'eût été pour être lu chez les nations qui ne connoissoient pas la nôtre. A la vérité, son Français se ressent du sol. Il a beaucoup d'anglicismes et de locutions vicieuses; et la raison n'en est pas difficile à deviner. On sait que plus un ruisseau s'éloigne de sa source, et plus ses eaux doivent s'altérer. Mais c'est là, selon moi, le moindre défaut de l'auteur. Sans goût, sans jugement, sans critique, non seulement il admet indistinctement tous les contes et toutes les fables qu'il entend dire; mais il en forge lui-même à chaque instant. A l'entendre il s'embarqua l'an 1332, jour de Saint-Michel; il voyagea pendant trente-cinq ans, et parcourut une grande partie dé l'Asie et de l'Afrique. Eh bien, ayez comme moi le courage de le lire; et si vous lui accordez d'avoir vu peut-être Constantinople, la Palestine et l'Egypte (ce que moi je me garderois bien de garantir), à coup sûr au moin vous resterez convaincu que jamais i, ne mit le pied dans tous ces pays dont il parle à l'aveugle; Arabie, Tartarie, Inde, Ethiopie, etc. etc. Au moins, si les fictions qu'il imagine offroient ou quelque agrément ou quelque intérêt! s'il ne faisoit qu'user du droit de mentir, dont se sont mis depuis si long-temps en possession la plupart des voyageurs! Mais chez lui ce sont des erreurs géographiques si grossières, des fables si sottes, des descriptions de peuples et dé contrées imaginaires si ridicules, enfin des âneries si révoltantes, qu'en vérité on ne sait quel nom lui donner. Il en coûteroit d'avoir à traiter de charlatan un écrivain. Que seroit-ce donc si on avoit à la qualifier de hâbleur effronté? Cependant comment désigner le voyageur qui nous cite des géans de trente pieds de long; des arbres dont les fruits se changent en oiseaux qu'on mange; d'autres arbes qui tous les jours sortent de terre et s'en élèvent depuis le lever du soleil jusqu'à midi, et qui depuis midi jusqu'au soir y rentrent en entier; un val périlleux, dont il avoit près la fiction dans nos vieux romans de chevalerie, val ou il dit avoir éprouvé de telles aventures qu'infalliblement il y auroit péri si précédemment il n'auoit reçeu Corpus Domini (s'il n'avoit communié); un fleuve qui sort du paradis terrestre et qui, au lieu d'eau, roule des pierres précieuses; ce paradis qui, dit-il, est au commencement de la terre et placé si haut qu'il touche de près la lune; enfin mille autres impostures ou sottisses de même espèce, qui dénotent non l'erreur de la bêtise et de la crédulité, mais le mensonge de la réflexion et de la fraude? Je regarde même comme tels, ces trente-cinq ans qu'il dit avoir employés à parcourir le monde sans avoir songé à revenir dans sa patrie que quand enfin la goute vint le tourmenter. Quoiqu'il en existe trois éditions imprimées, l'une en 1487 chez Jean Cres, l'autre en 1517 chez Regnault, la troisième en 1542 chez Canterel, on ne le connoît guère que par le court extrait qu'en a publié Bergeron. Et en effet cet éditeur l'avoit trouvé si invraisemblable et si fabuleux qu'il l'a réduit à douze pages quoique dans notre manuscrit il en contienne cent soixante et dix-huit. Dans le quinzième siècle, nous eûmes deux autres voyages en Terre-Sainte: l'un que je publie aujourd'hui; l'autre, par un carme nommé Huen, imprimé en 1487, et dont je ne dirai rien ici, parce qu'il est posterieur à l'autre. La même raison m'empêchera de parler d'un ouvrage mis au jour par Mamerot, chantre et chanoine de Troyes. D'ailleurs celui-ci, intitulé passages faiz oultre-mer par les roys de France et autres princes et seigneurs François contre les Turcqs et autres Sarrasins et Mores oultre-marins, n'est point, à proprement parler, un voyage, mais une compilation historique des différentes craisades qui ont eu lieu en France, et que l'auteur, d'après la fausse Chronique de Turpin et nos romans de chevalerie, fait commencer à Charlemagne. La Bibliothèque nationale possède de celui-ci un magnifique exemplaire, orné d'un grand nombre de belles miniatures et tableaux. Je viens à l'ouvrage de la Brocquière; mais celui-ci demande quelque explication. Seconde Partie. La folie des Croisades, comme tous les genres d'ivresse, n'avoit eu en France qu'une certaine durée, ou, pour parler plus exactement, de même que certaines fièvres, elle s'étoit calmée après quelques accès. Et assurément la croisade de Louis-le-Jeune, les deux de saint Louis plus désastreuses encore, avoient attiré sur le royaume assez de honte et de malheurs pour y croire ce fanatisme éteient à jamais. Cependent la superstition cherchoit de temps à le rallumer. Souvent, en confession et dans certains cas de pénitence publique, le clergé imposoit pour satisfaction un pélerinage à Jérusalem, ou un temps fixe de croisade. Plusieurs fois même les papes employèrent tous les ressorts de leur politique et l'ascendant de leur autorité pour renouer chez les princes chrétiens quelqu'une de ces ligues saintes, où leur ambition avoit tant à gagner sans rien risquer que des indulgences. Philippe-le-Bel, par hypocrisie de zèle et de religion, affecta un moment de vouloir en former une nouvelle pour la France. Philippe-de-Valois, le prince le moins propre à une enterprise si difficile et qui exigeoit tant de talens, parut s'en occuper pendant quelques années. Il reçut une ambassade du roi d'Arménie, entama des négociations avec la cour de Rome, ordonna même des préparatifs dans le port de Marseille. Enfin dans l'intervalle de ces mouvemens, l'an 1332, un dominicain nommé Brochard (surnommé l'Allemand, du nom de son pays), lui présenta deux ouvrages Latins composés à dessein sûr cet objet. L'un, dans lequel il lui faisoit connoître la contrée qui alloit être le but de la conquête, étoit une description de la Terre-Sainte; et comme il avoit demeuré vingt-quatre ans dans cette contrée en qualité de missionnaire et de prédicateur, peu de gens pouvoient alléguer autant de droits que lui pour en parler. L'autre, devisé en deux livres, par commémoration des deux épées dont il est mention dans l'Evangile, sous-divisé en douze chapitres à l'honneur des douze apôtres, traitoit des différentes routes entre lesquelles l'armée avoit à choisir, des précautions de détail à prendre pour le succès de l'entreprise, enfin des moyens de diriger et d'assurer l'expédition. Quant à celui-ci, dont les matières concernent entièrement la marine et l'art militaire, on est surpris de voir l'auteur l'avoir entrepris, lui qui n'étoit qu'un simple religieux. Mais qui ne sait que, dans les siècles d'ignorance, quiconque est moins ignorant que ses contemporains, s'arroge le droit d'écrire sur tout? D'ailleurs, parmi les conseils que Brochard donnoit au roi et à ses généraux, son expérience pouvoit lui en avoir suggéré quelquesuns d'utiles. Et après tout, puisque dans la classe des nobles auxquels il eut appartenu de traiter ces objets, il ne se trouvoit personne peut-être qui put offrir et les mêmes connoissances locales que lui et un talent égal pour les écrire, pourquoi n'auroit-il pas hasardé ce qu'ils ne pouvoient faire? Quoiqu'il en soit du motif et de son excuse, il paroît que l'ouvrage fit sur le roi et sur son conseil une impression favorable. On voit au moins, par la continuation de la Chronique de Nangis, que le monarque envoya <i>in terram Turcorum</i> Jean de Cépoy et l'évêque de Beauvais avec quelque peu d'infanterie <i>ad explorandos portus et passus, ad faciendos aliquas munationes et præparationes victualium pro passagio Terre Sanctæ</i>; et que la petite troupe, après avoir remporté quelques avantages aussi considérables que le permettoient ses foibles forces, revint en France l'an 1335. [Footnote: Spicil. t. II. p. 764.] Au reste tout ce fracas d'armemens, de préparatifs et de menaces dont le royaume retentit pendant quelques années, s'évanouit en un vain bruit. Je ne doute point que, dans les commencemens, le roi ne fut de bonne foi. Sa vanité s'étoit laissée éblouir par un projet brillant qui alloit fixer sur lui les yeux de l'Asie et de l'Europe; et les esprits médiocres ne savent point résister à la séduction de pareilles chimères. Mais bientôt, comme les caractères foibles, fatigué des difficultés, il chercha des prétextes pour se mettre à l'écart; et dans ce dessein il demanda au pape des titres et de l'argent, que celui-ci n'accorda pas. Alors on ne parla plus de l'expédition; et tout ce qu'elle produisit fut d'attirer la colère et la vengeance des Turcs sur ce roi d'Arménie, qui étoit venu en France solliciter contre eux une ligue et des secours. Au siècle suivant, la même fanfaronnade eut lieu à la cour de Bourgogne, quoique avec un début plus sérieux en apparence. L'an 1432, cent ans après la publication des deux ouvrages de Brochard, plusieurs grands seigneurs des états de Bourgogne et officiers du duc Philippe-le-Bon font le pélerinage de la Terre-Sainte. Parmi eux est son premier écuyer tranchant nommé la Brocquière. Celui-ci, après plusieurs courses dévotes dans le pays, revient malade à Jérusalem, et pendant sa convalescence il y forme le hardi projet de retourner en France par la voie de terre. C'étoit s'engager à traverser toute la partie occidentale d'Asie, toute l'Europe orientale; et toujours, excepté sur la fin du vovage, à travers la domination musulmane. L'exécution de cette entreprise, qui aujourd'hui même ne seroit point sans difficultés, passoit alors pour impossible. En vain ses camarades essaient de l'en détourner: il s'y obstine; il part, et, après avoir surmonté tous les obstacles, il revient, dans le cours de l'année 1433, se présenter au duc sous le costume Sarrasin, qu'il avoit été obligé de prendre, et avec le cheval qui seul avoit fourni à cette étonnante traite. Une si extraordinaire aventure ne pouvoit manquer de produire à la cour un grand effet. Le duc voulut que le voyageur en rédigeat par écrit la relation. Celui-ci obéit; mais son ouvrage ne parut que quelques années après, et même postérieurement à l'année 1438, puisque cette époque y est mentionnée, comme on le verra ci-dessous. Il n'étoit guère possible que le duc eut journellement sous les yeux son écuyer tranchant sans avoir quelquefois envie de le questionner sur celte terre des Mécréans; et il ne pouvoit guère l'entendre, sur-tout à table, sans que sa tête ne s'échauffat, et ne format aussi des chimères de croisade et de conquête. Ce qui me fait présumer qu'il avoit demandé à la Brocquière des renseignemens de ce genre, c'est que celui-ci a inséré dans sa relation un long morceau sur la force militaire des Turcs, sur les moyens de les combattre vigoureusement, et, quoiqu'avec une armée médiocre mais bien conduite et bien organisée, de pénétrer sans risques jusqu'à Jérusalem. Assurément un épisode aussi étendu et d'un résultat aussi important est à remarquer dans un ouvrage présenté au duc et composé, par ses ordres; et l'on conviendra qu'il n'a guère pu y être placé sans un dessein formel et une intention particulière. En effet on vit de temps en temps Philippe annoncer sur cet objet de grands desseins; mais plus occupé de plaisirs que de gloire, ainsi que le prouven les quinze batards connus qu'il a laissés, toute sa forfanterie s'évaporoit en paroles. Enfin cependant un moment arriva ou la chrétienté, alarmée des conquêtes rapides du jeune et formidable Mahomet II. et de l'armement terrible qu'il préparoit contre Constantinople, crut qu'il n'y avoit plus de digue à lui opposer qu'une ligue générale. Le duc, qui, par l'étendue et la population de ses états, étoit plus puissant que beaucoup de rois, pouvoit jouer dans la coalition un rôle important. Il affecta de se montrer en scène un des premiers; et pour le faire avec éclat, il donna dans Lille en 1453 une fête splendide et pompeuse, ou plutôt un grand spectacle à machines, fort bizarre dans son ensemble, fort disparate dans la multitude de ses parties, mais le plus étonnant de ceux de ce genre que nous ait transmis l'histoire. Ce spectacle dont j'ai donné ailleurs la description, [Footnote: Hist. de la vie privée des Français, t. III, p. 324.] et qui absorba en pur faste des sommes considérables qu'il eut été facile dans les circonstances d'employer beaucoup mieux, se termina par quelques voeux d'armes tant de la part du duc que de celle de plusieurs seigneurs de sa cour: et c'est tout ce qui en résulta. Au reste il eut lieu en février, et Mahomet prit Constantinople en Mai. La nouvelle de ce désastre, les massacres horribles qui avoieni accompagné la conquête, les suites incalculables qu'elle pouvon avoir sur le sort de la chrétienté, y répendirent la consternation. Le duc alors crut qu'il devoit enfin se prononcer autrement que par des propos et des fêtes. Il annonça une croisade, leva en conséquence de grosses sommes sur ses sujets, forma même une armée et s'avança en Allemagne. Mais tout-à-coup ce lion fougueux s'arrêta. Une incommodité qui lui survint fort à propos lui servit de prétexte et d'excuse; et il revint dans ses états. Néanmoins il affecta de continuer à parler croisades comme auparavant. Il chargea même un de ses sujets, Joseph Miélot, chanoine de Lille, de lui traduire en Français les deux traités de Brochard dont j'ai parlé ce-dessus. Enfin, quand le Pape Pie II. convoqua dans Mantoue en 1459, une assemblée de princes chrétiens pour former une ligue contre Mahomet, il ne manqua pas d'y envoyer ses ambassadeurs, à la tête desquels étoît le duc de Clèves. Mielot finit son travail en 1455, et le court préambule qu'il à mis en tête l'annonce. Les deux traductions se trouvent dans un de ces manuscrits que la Bibliothèque nationale a reçus récemment de la Belgique. Elles sont, pour l'écriture, de la même main que le voyage de la Brocquière; mais quoique des trois ouvragés celui-ci ait du paroître avant les deux autres, tout trois cependant, soit par economie de reliure, soit par analogie de matières, ont été réunis ensemble; et ils forment ainsi un gros volume in-folio, numéroté 514, relié en bois avec basane rouge, et intitulé au dos, Avis directif de Brochard. Ce manuscrit, auquel son écriture, sa conservation, ses miniatures, et le beaux choix de son vélin donnent déjà beaucoup de prix, me paroît en acquérir d'avantage encore sous un autre aspect, en ce qu'il est composé, selon moi, des traités originaux présentés par leurs auteurs à Philippe-le-Bon, ou de l'exemplaire, commandé par lui à l'un de ses copistes sur l'autographe des auteurs, pour être placé dans sa bibliothèque. Je crois voir la preuve de cette assertion non seulement dans la beauté du manuscrit, et dans l'écusson du prince, qui s'y trouve armorié en quatre endroits, et deux foix avec sa devise <i>Aultre n'aray</i>; mais encore dans la vignette d'un des deux frontispices, ainsi que dans la miniature de l'autre. Cette vignette, qui est en tête du volume, représente Miélot à genoux, faisant l'offrande de son livre au duc, lequel est assis et entouré de plusieurs courtisans, dont trois portent, comme lui, le collier de la Toison. Dans la miniature qui précède le Voyage, on voit la Brocquière faire de la même manière son offrande. Il est en costume Sarrasin, ainsi qu'il a été dit ci-dessus, et il a auprès de lui son cheval, dont j'ai parlé. Quant à ce duc Philippe qu'on surnomma le Bon, ce n'est point ici le lieu d'examiner s'il mérita bien véritablement ce titre glorieux, et si l'histoire n'auroit pas à lui faire des reproches de plus d'un genre. Mais, comme littérateur, je ne puis m'empêcher de remarquer ici, à l'honneur de sa mémoire, que les lettres au moins lui doivent de la reconnoissance; que c'est un des princes qui, depuis Charlemagne jusqu'à François I'er, ait le plus fait pour elles; qu'au quinzième siècle il fut dans les deux Bourgognes, et dans la Belgique sur-tout, ce qu'au quatorzième Charles V. avoit été en France; que comme Charles, il se créa une bibliothèque, ordonna des traductions et des compositions d'ouvrages, encouragea les savans, les dessinateurs, les copistes habile; enfin qu'il rendit peut-être aux sciences plus de services réels que Charles, parce qu'il fut moins superstitieux. Je donnerai, dans l'Histoire de la littérature Française, à laquelle je travaille, des détails sur ces différens faits. J'en ai trouvé des preuves multipliées dans les manuscrits, qui de la Belgique ont passé à la Bibliothèque nationale, ou, pour parler plus exactement, dans les manuscrits de la bibliothèque de Bruxelles, qui faisoient une des portions les plus considérables de cet envoi. Cette bibliothèque, pour sa partie Française, qui est spécialement confiée à ma surveillance, et qu'à ce titre j'ai parcourue presque en entier, étoit composée de plusieurs fonds particuliers, dont les principaux sont: 1°. Un certain nombre de manuscrits qui précédemment avoient formé la bibliothèque de Charles V, celle de Charles VI, celle de Jean, duc de Berri, frère de Charles V, et qui pendant les troubles du royaume sous Charles VI, et dans les commencemens du règne de son fils, furent pillés et enlevés par les ducs de Bourgogne. Ceux de Jean sont reconnoissables à sa signature, apposée par lui à la dernière page du volume et quelquefois en plusieurs autres endroits. On reconnoit ceux de deux rois à l'écu de France blasonné qu'on y a peint, à leurs épitres dédicatoires, à leurs vignettes, qui représentent l'offrande du livre fait au monarque, et le monarque revêtu du manteau royal. Il en est d'autres, provenus de ces deux dépots, sur l'enlèvement desquels je ne puis alléguer des preuves aussi authentiques, parce que dans le nombre il s'en trouvoit beaucoup qui n'étoient point ornés de miniatures, ou qui n'avoient point été offerts au roi, et qui par conséquent ne peuvent offrir les mêmes signalemens que les premiers; mais j'aurois, pour avancer que ceux-là ont été pris également, tant de probabilités, tant de conjectures vraisemblables, qu'elles équivalent pour moi à une preuve positive. 2°. Les manuscrits qui appartinrent légitimement aux ducs de Bourgogne, c'est-à-dire qui furent, ou acquis par eux, ou dédiés et présentés à eux, ou commandés par eux, soit comme ouvrages, soit comme simples copies. Dans la classe des dédiés, le très-grand nombre l'a été à Philippe-le-Bon; dans celle des faits par ordre, presque tous furent ordonnés par lui: et c'est là qu'on voit, comme je l'ai dit plus haut, l'obligation qui lui ont les lettres et tout ce qu'il fit pour elles. 3°. Les manuscrits qui, après avoir appartenu à des particuliers, ou à de grands seigneurs des estats de Bourgogne, ont passé en différens temps et d'une manière quelconque dans la bibliothèque de Bruxelles. Parmi ceux-ci l'on doit distinguer specialenient ceux de Charles de Croy, comte de Chimay, parrain de Charles-Quint, chevalier de la toison, fait en 1486 prince de Chimay par Maximilien. Les siens sont assez nombreux, et ils portent pour signe distinctif ses armoiries et sa signature, apposé par lui-même. De tout ceci il résulte, quant au mérite de la collection Française de Bruxelles, qu'elle ne doit guère offrir que des manuscrits modernes. J'en ai effectivement peu vu qui soient précieux par leur ancienneté, leur rareté, la nature de l'ouvrage; mais beaucoup sont curieux par leur écriture, leur conservation, et spécialement par leurs miniatures; et ces miniatures seront un objet intéressant pour les personnes qui, comme moi, entreprendont l'histoire des arts dans les bas siècles. Elles leur prouveront qu'en Belgique l'état florissant de certaines manufactures y avôit fort avancé l'art de la peinture et du dessin. Mais je reviens aux trois traités de notre volume. Je ne dirai qu'un mot sur la description de la Palestine par Brochard, parce que l'original Latin ayant, été imprimé elle est connue, et que Miélot, dans le préambule de sa traduction, assure, ce dont je me suis convaincu, n'y avoir adjousté rien de sien. Brochard, de son côté, proteste de son exactitude. Non seulement il a demeuré vingt-quatre ans dans le pays, mais il l'a traversé dans son double diamètre du nord au sud, depuis le pied de Liban jusqu'à Bersabée; et du couchant au levant, depuis la Mediterranée jusqu'à la mer Morte. Enfin il ne décrit rien qu'il n'ait, pour me servir des termes de son traducteur, veu corporellement, lui, estant en iceulx lieux. La traduction commence au folio 76 de notre volume, et elle porte pour titre: Le livre de la description de la Terre-Saincte, fait en l'onneur et loenge de Dieu, et completé jadis, l'an M.III'e.XXXII, par frère Brochard, l'Aleman, de l'ordre des Preescheurs. Son second ouvrage étant inédit, j'en parlerai plus au long, mais uniquement d'après la traduction de Miélot. Le volume est composé de deux parties, et porte pour titre, Advis directif (conseils de marche et de direction) pour faire le passage d'oultremer. On a pour ce passage, dit Brochard, deux voies différentes, la terre et la mer; et il conseille au roi de les employer toutes les deux à la fois, la première pour l'armée, la seconde pour le transport des vivres, tentes, machines, et munitions de guerre, ainsi que pour les personnes qui sont accoutumées à la mer. Celle-ci exigera dix à douze galères, qu'on pourra, par des négociations et des arrangemens, obtenir des Génois et des Vénitiens. Les derniers possèdent Candie, Négrepont et autres îles, terres, ou places importantes. Les Génois ont Péra, près de Constantinople, et Caffa, dans la Tartarie. D'ailleurs les deux nations connoissent bien les vents et les mers d'Asie, de même que la langue, les îles, côtes et ports du pays. Si l'on choisit la voie de mer, on aura le choix de s'embarquer, soit à Aigues-Mortes soit à Marseille ou à Nice: puis on relâchera en Cypre, comme fit Saint Louis. Mais la mer et le séjour des vaisseaux ont de nombreux inconvéniens, et il en résulte de fâcheuses maladies pour les hommes et pour les chevaux. D'ailleurs on dépend des vents: sans cesse on est réduit à craindre les tempêtes et le changement de climat. Souvent même, lorsqu'on ne comptoit faire qu'une relâche, on se voit forcé de séjourner. Ajoutez à ces dangers les vins de Cypre, qui de'leur nature sont trop ardents. Si vous y mettez de l'eau, ils perdent toute leur saveur; si vous n'en mettez point, ils attaquent le cerveau et brûlent les entrailles. Quand Saint Louis hiverna dans l'île, l'armée y éprouva tous ces inconvéniens. Il y mourut deux cens et cinquante, que contes, que barons, que chevaliers, des plus noble qu'il eust en son ost. Il est un autre passage composé de mer et de terre, et celui-ci offre deux routes; l'une, par l'Afrique, l'autre par l'Italie. La voie d'Afrique est extrêmement difficile, à raison des châteaux fortifiés qu'on y rencontrera, du manque de vivres auquel on sera exposé, de la traversée des déserts et de l'Egypte qu'il faudra franchir. Le chemin d'ailleurs est immense par sa longueur. Si l'on part du détroit de Gibraltar, on aura, pour arriver à deux petites journées de Jérusalem, 2500 milles à parcourir; si l'on part de Tunis, on en aura 2400. Conclusion: la voie d'Afrique est impracticable, il faut y renoncer. Celle d'Italie présente trois chemins divers. L'un par Aquilée, par l'Istrie, la Dalmatie, le royaume de Rassie (Servie) et Thessalonique (Salonique), la plus grande cité de Macédoine, laquelle n'est qu'à huit petites journées de Constantinople. C'est la route que suivoient les Romains quand ils alloient porter la guerre en Orient. Ces contrées sont fertiles; mais le pays est habité de gens non obeïssans à l'église de Rome. Et quant est de leur vaillance et hardiesse à résister, je n'en fais nulle mention, néant plus que de femmes. Le second est par la Pouille. On s'embarqueroit à Brandis (Brindes), pour débarquer à Duras (Durazzo) qui est à monseigneur le prince de Tarente. Puis on avanceroit par l'Albanie, par Blaque et Thessalonique. La troisième traverse également la Pouille: mais il passe par Ydronte (Otrante), Curpho (Corfou) qui est à mondit seigneur de Tarente, Desponte, Blaque, Thessalonique. C'est celui qu'à la première croisade prirent Robert, comte de Flandre; Robert, duc de Normandie; Hugues, frère du roi Philippe I'er, et Tancrède, prince de Tarente. Après avoir parlé du passage par mer et du passage composé de terre et de mer, Brochard examine celui qui auroit lieu entièrement par terre. Ce dernier traverse l'Allemagne, la Hongrie et la Bulgarie. Ce fut celui qu'à la même première expédition suivit une grande partie de l'àrmée de France et d'Allemagne, sous la conduite de Pierre l'hermite, et c'est celui que l'auteur conseille au roi. Mais quand on est en Hongrie on a deux routes à choisir: l'une par la Bulgarie, l'autre par l'Esclavonie, qui fait partie du royaume de Rassie. Godefroi de Bouillon, ses deux frères, et Baudouin, comte de Mons, prirent la première. Raimond, comte de Saint-Gilles, et Audemare, évêque du Puy et légat du Saint-Siège, prirent la seconde, quoique quelques auteurs prétendent qu'ils suivirent celle d'Aquilée et de Dalmatie. Si le roi adoptoit ce passage par terre, l'armée, arrivée en Hongrie, pourrait se diviser en deux; et alors, pour la plus grande commodité des vivres, chacune des deux parties suivroit un des deux chemins; savoir, l'une, celui de là Bulgarie; l'autre, celui de l'Esclavonie. Le roi prendroit la première route, comme la plus courte. Quant aux Languedociens et Provençaux, qui sont voisins de l'Italie, il leur seroit permis d'aller par Brindes et Otrante. Leur rendezvous seroit à Thessalonique, où ils trouveroint le corps d'armée, qui auroit pris par Aquilée. A ces renseignemens sur les avantages et les inconvéniens des des divers passages, le dominicain en ajoute quelques autres sur les princes par les états desquels il faudra passer, et sur les ressources que fourniront ces états. La Rassie est un pays fertile, dit il; elle a en activité cinq mines d'or, cinq d'argent, et plusieurs autres qui portent or et argent. Il ne faudroit pour la conquête de cette contrée que mille chevaliers et six mille hommes d'infanterie. Ce seroit un joyel (joyau) gracieux et plaisant à acquérir. L'auteur veut qu'on ne fasse aucun traité d'alliance ni avec ce roi ni même avec l'empereur Grec; et, pour mieux motiver sont assertion, il rapporte quelques détails sur le personnel de ces princes, et principalement sur le premier, qu'il dit être un usurpateur. Quant à l'autre, il demande non seulement qu'on ne fasse avec lui ni paix ni trève, mais encore qu'on lui déclare la guerre. En conséquence il donne des moyens pour assiéger Constantinople, Andrinople et Thessalonique. Et comme, d'après ce qui es-arrivé, il ne doute nullement de ce qui doit arriver encore, c'est-à dire de la prise de Constantinople, il propose divers réglemens pour gouverner l'empire d'Orient quand on l'aura conquis une seconde fois, et pour le ramener à la religion Romaine. Il termine ses avis directifs par avertir les croisés de se mettre en garde contre la prefidie des Grecs, ainsi que contre les Syriens, les Hassassins et autres habitans de l'Asie. Il leur détaille une partie des piéges qu'on leur tendra, et leur enseigne à s'en garantir. Brochard, dans sa première partie, a conduit par terre jusqu'à Constantinople l'ost de Nostre Seigneur, et il lui a fait prendre cette ville. Dans la seconde il lui fait passer le détroit et le mène en Asie. Au reste il connoissoit très-bien ces contrées; et indépendamment de ses vingt-quatre ans de séjour dans la Palestine, il avoit parcouru encore l'Arménie, la Perse, l'empire Grec, etc. Selon lui, ce qui, dans les croisades précédentes, avoit fait échouer les rois de France et d'Angleterre, c'est que mal adroitement on attaquoit à la fois et les Turcs et le soudan d'Egypte. Il propose de n'attaquer que les premiers, et de n'avoir affaire qu'à eux seuls. Pour le faire avec succès il donne des renseigemens sur la Turquie, nommée Anachély (Anotolie) par les Grecs; sur la manière de tirer par mer des vivres pour l'armée; sur l'espoir bien fondé de réussir contre un peuple nécessairement abandonné de Dieu, parce que sa malice est accomplie; contre un peuple qui intérieurement est affoibli par des guerres intestines et par le manque de chefs; dont la cavalerie est composée d'esclaves; qui, avec peu de courage et d'industrie n'a que des chevaux petits et foibles, de mauvaises armes, des arcs Turquois et des haubergeons de cuir qu'on pourrait appeler des cuirasses [Footnote: Le haubert et le haubergeon (sorte de haubert plus léger et moins lourd) étoient une sorte de chemise en mailles de fer, laquelle descendoit jusqu'à micuisse. Les haubergeons Turcs, au contraire, étoient si courts qu'on pouvoit selon l'auteur, les qualifier du nom de cuirasses.]; contre un peuple enfin qui ne combat qu'en fuyant, et qui, après les Grecs et les Babyloniens, est le plus vil de tout Orient, en fais d'armes. L'auteur déclare en finissant que dans tout cet Orient il n'est presque aucune nation qu'il n'ait veue aller en bataille, et que la seule puissance de France, sans nuls aydes quelsconques, peut défaire, non seulement les Turcs et les Egyptiens [Footnote: Les Turcs et les Egyptiens! frère Brochard, vous oubliez Louise-le-Jeune et saint Louis.], mais encore les Tartres (Tatars) fors (excepté) les Indiens, les Arabes, et les Persains. La collection de Bruxelles contient un autre exemplaire de l'Advis directif, in fol pap miniat. No. 352. Celui-ci forme un volume à part. Sa vignette représente Brochard travaillant à son pupitre. Vient ensuite une miniature où on le voit présentant son livre au roi: puis une autre où le roi est en marche avec son armée pour la Terre Sainte. J'ai également trouvé dans la même collection les deux traités Latins de l'auteur, réunis en un seul volume in fol. pap. No. 319, couvert en basane rouge. Le premier porte en titre: Directorium ad passagium faciendum, editum per quemdam fratrem ordinis Predicatorum, scribentem experta et visa potiùs quàm audita; ad serenissimum principemet dominum Philippum, regem Francorum, anno Domini M.CCC'mo. xxxii°. Le second est intitulé: Libellus de Terrâ Sanctâ, editus à fratre Brocardo, Theutonico, ordinis fratrum predicatorum. A la fin de celui-ci on lit qu'il a été écrit par Jean Reginaldi, chanoine de Cambrai. Comme l'autre est incontestablement de la même main, je de doute nullement qu'il ne soit aussi de Reginaldi. Il me reste maintenant à faire connoître notre troisième ouvrage Français, ce Voyage de la Brocquière que je publie aujourd'hui. L'auteur étoit gentilhomme, et l'on s'en aperçoit sans peine quand il parle de chevaux, de châteaux forts et de joutes. Sa relation n'est qu'un itinéraire qui souvent, et surtout dans la description du pays, et des villes, présente un peu de monotonie et des formes peu variées; mais cet itinéraire est intéressant pour l'histoire et la géographie du temps. Elles y trouveront des matériaux très-précieux, et quelquefois même des tableaux et dés aperçus qui ne sont pas sans mérite. Le voyageur est un homme d'un esprit sage et sensé, plein de jugement et de raison. On admirera l'impartialité avec laquelle il parle des nations infidèles qu'il a occasion de connoître, et spécialement des Turcs, dont la bonne foi est bien supérieure, selon lui, à celle de beaucoup de chrétiens. Il n'a guère de la superstition de son siècle que la dévotion pour les pélerinages et les reliques; encore annonce-t-il souvent peu de foi sur l'authenticité des reliques qu'on lui montre. Quant aux pélerinages, on verra en le lisant combien ils étoient multipliés en Palestine, et son livre sera pour nous un monument qui, d'une part, constatera l'aveugle crédulité avec laquelle nos dévots occidentaux avoient adopté ces pieuses fables; et de l'autre l'astuce criminelle des chrétiens de Terre-Sainte, qui pour soutirer l'argent des croisés et des pélerins, et se faire à leurs dépens un revenu, les avoient imaginées. La Brocquière écrit en militaire, d'un style franc et loyal qui annonce de la véracité et inspire la confiance; mais il écrit avec négligence et abandon; de sorte que ses matières n'ont pas toujours un ordre bien constant, et que quelquefois il commence à raconter un fait dont la suite se trouve à la page suivante. Quoique cette confusion soit rare, je me suis cru permis de la corriger et de rapprocher ce qui devoit être réuni et ne l'étoit pas. Notre manuscrit a, pour son orthographe, le défaut qu'ils ont la plupart, c'est que, dans certains noms, elle varie souvent d'une page à l'autre, et quelquefois même dans deux phrases qui se suivent. On me blâmeroit de m'astreindre à ces variations d'une langue qui, alors incertaine, aujourd'hui est fixée. Ainsi, par exemple, il écrit Auteriche, Autherice, Austrice, Ostrice. Je n'emploierai constamment que celui d'Autriche. Il en sera de même des noms dont l'orthographe ne varie point dans le manuscrit, mais qui en ont aujourd'hui une différente. J'écrirai Hongrie, Belgrade, Bulgarie, et non Honguerie, Belgrado, Vulgarie. D'autres noms enfin ont changé en entier et ne sont plus les mêmes. Nous ne disons plus la mer Majeure, la Dunoë; mais la mer Noire, le Danube. Quant à ceux-ci je crois intéressant pour cela de les citer une fois. Ainsi la première fois que dans la relation le mot Dunoë s'offrira, j'écrirai Dunoë; mais par la suite je dirai toujours Danube et il en sera de même pour les autres. On m'objectera, je m'y attends, qu'il est mal de prêter à un auteur des expressions qui n'étoient ni les siennes ni souvent même celles de son siècle; mais, après avoir bien pesé les avantages et les inconvéniens d'une nomenclature très-littérale, j'ai cru reconnoitre que cette exactitude rigoureuse rendroit le texte inintelligible ou fatigant pour la plupart des lecteurs; que si l'on veut qu'un auteur soit entendu, il faut le faire parler comme il parleroit lui-même s'il vivoit parmi nous; enfin qu'il est des choses que le bon sens ordonne de changer ou de supprimmer, et qu'il seroit ridicule, par exemple, de dire, comme la Brocquière, un seigneur hongre, pour un seigneur Hongrois; des chrétiens vulgaires, pour des chrétiens Bulgares, etc. * * * * * VOYAGE DE LA BROCQUIERE. Cy commence le voyage de Bertrandon de la Brocquière en la Terre d'Oultre Mer l'an de grace mil quatre cens et trente deux. Pour animer et enflammer le coeur des nobles hommes qui desirent voir le monde; Et par l'ordre et commandement de très-haut, très-puissant et mon très-redouté seigneur, Philippe, par la grace de Dieu, duc de Bourgogne, de Lothrik (Lorraine), de Brabant et de Limbourg; comte de Flandres, d'Artois et de Bourgogne; [Footnote: La Bourgogne étoit divisée en deux parties, duché et comté. Cette dernière, qui depuis fut connue sous le nom de Franche-Comté, commença dès-lors à prendre ce nom; voilà pourquoi l'auteur désigne à la fois Philippe et comme duc de Bourgogne, et comme comte de Bourgogne.] palatin de Hainaut, de Hollande, de Zélande et de Namur; marquis du Saint-Empire; seigneur de Frise, de Salins et de Malines: Je, Bertrandon de la Brocquière, natif du duché de Guienne, seigneur de Vieux-Chateau, conseiller et premier écuyer tranchant de mondit très-redouté seigneur; D'après ce que je puis me rappeler et ce que j'avoîs consigné en abrégé dans un petit livret en guise de mémorial, j'ai rédigé par écrit ce peu de voyage que j'ai fait; Afin que si quelque roi ou prince chrétien vouloit entreprendre la conquête de Jérusalem et y conduire par terre une armée, ou si quelque noble homme vouloit y voyager, les uns et les autre pussent connoître, depuis le duché de Bourgogne jusqu'à Jérusalem, toutes les villes, cités, régions, contrées, rivières, montagnes et passages du pays, ainsi que les seigneurs auxquels ils appartiennent. La route d'ici à la cité sainte est si connue que je ne crois pas devoir m'arrêter à la décrire. Je passerai donc légèrement sur cet article, et ne commencerai à m'étendre un peu que quand je parlerai de la Syrie. J'ai parcouru ce pays entier, depuis Gazère (Gaza), qui est l'entrée de l'Egypte, jusqu'à une journée d'Halep, ville située au nord sur la frontière et où j'on se rend quand on veut aller en Perse. J'avoîs résolu de faire le saint pélerinage de Jérusalem. Déterminé à l'accomplir, je quittai, au mois de Février l'an 1432, la cour de mon très-redoute seigneur, qui alors étoit à Gand. Après avoir traversé la Picardie, la Champagne, la Bourgogne, j'entrai en Savoie où je passai le Rhône, et arrivai à Chambéri par le Mont-du-Chat. Là commence une longue suite de montagnes, dont la plus haute, nommée mont Cénis, forme un passage dangereux dans les temps de neige. Par-tout la route, étant couverte et cachée, il faut avoir, si l'on ne veut pas se perdre, des guides du pays, appelés marrons. Ces gens vous recommandent de ne faire en chemin aucune sorte de bruit qui puisse étonner la montagne, parce qu'alors la neige s'en détache et vient très-impétueusement tomber au bas. Le mont Cénis sépare l'Italie de la France. Descendu de là dans le Piémont, pays beau et agréable, qui par trois côtés est clos de hautes montagnes, je passai par Turin, où je traversai le Pô; par Ast, qui est au duc d'Orléeans; par Alexandrie, dont la plupart des habitans sont usuriers, dit-on; par Plaisance, qui appartient au nuc de Milan; enfin par Bologne-la-Grasse, qui est au pape. L'empereur Sigismond étoit dans Plaisance. Il venoit de Milan, ou il avoit reçu sa seconde couronne, et alloit à Rome chercher la troisième. [Footnote: En 1414, Sigismond, élu empereur, avoit reçu la couronne d'argent à Aix-la-Chapelle. Au mois de Novembre 1431, peu avant le passage de notre voyageur, il avoit reçu à Milan la couronne de fer. Ce ne fut qu'en 1443 qu'il reçut à Rome, des mains du pape, celle d'or.] De Bologne, pour arriver dans l'état des Florentins, j'eus à passer une autre chaine de montagnes (l'Apennin). Florence est une grande ville où la commune se gouverne par ellemême. De trois en trois mois elle se choisit, pour son administration, des magistrats qu'elle appelle prieurs, et qui sont pris dans diverses professions. Tant qu'ils restent en place on les honore; mais, quand leurs trois mois sont expirés, chacun retourne à son état. [Footnote: Pour donner une idée favorable du talent de la Brocquière, ne pourroit-on pas citer le court et bel éloge qu'il fait ici du gouvernmement représentatif et républicain qu'avoit alors Florence?] De Florence j'allai à Mont-Poulchan (Monte-Pulciano), château bâti sur une hauteur et entouré de trois côtés par un grand lac (le lac de Pérouse); à Espolite (Spoléte); à Mont-Flaschon (Monte Fiascone); enfin à Rome. Rome est connue. On sait par des écrits véridiques que pendant sept cents ans elle a été maîtresse du monde. Mais quand ces écrits, ne l'attesteroient pas, on n'en auroit pas moins la preuve dans tous ces beaux édifices qu'on y voit encore, dans ces grands palais, ces colonnes de marbre, ces statues et tous ces monumens aussi merveilleux à voir qu'à décrire. Joignez à cela l'immense quantité de belles reliques qu'elle possède, tant de choses qui N. S. a touchées, tant de saints corps d'apôtres, de martyrs, de confesseurs et de vierges; enfin plusieurs églises, où les saints pontifes ont accordé plein pardon de peine et de coulpe (indulgence plénière). J'y vis Eugène IV, Vénitien, qui venoit d'être élu pape.[Footnote: On va voir que la Brocquière sortit de Rome le 25 Mars, et Eugène avoît été élu dans les premiers jours du mois.] Le prince de Salerne lui avoit déclaré la guerre. Celui-ci étoit un Colonne, et neveu du pape Martin.[Footnote: Martin V, prédécesseur d'Eugène, étoit de la maison des Colonne, et il y avoit inimitié declarée entre cette famille et celle des Ursins. Eugène, dès qu'il se vît établi sur le Saint-Siège, prit parti entre ces deux maisons. Il se déclara pour la seconde contre la première, et sur-tout contre ceux des Colonne, qui étoient neveux de Martin. Ceux ci prirent les armes et lui firent la guerre.] Je sortis de Rome le 25 Mars, et passant par une ville du comte de Thalamoné, parent du cardinal des Ursins, par Urbin; par la seigneurie des Malatestes, par Reymino (Rimini), par Ravenne, qui est aux Vénitiens, je traversai trois fois le Pô (trois branches de l'embouchure du Pô), et vins à Cloge (Chiosa), ville des Vénitiens qui autrefois avoit un bon port, lequel fut détruit par eux quand les Jennevois (Génois) vinrent assiéger Venise. [Footnote: Jennevois ou Gennevois. Les auteurs de ce temps appellent toujours ainsi les Génois. Je n'emploierai désormais que cette dernière dénomination, l'autre étant aujourd'hui exclusivement consacrée aux habitans de Genève.] Enfin, de Cloge je me rendis à Venise, qui en est distante de vingt-cinq milles. Venise, grande et belle ville, ancienne et marchande, est bâtie au milieu de la mer. Ses divers quartiers, séparés par les eaux, forment des iles; de sorte qu'on ne peut aller de l'une à l'autre qu'en bateau. On y posséde le corps de sainte Hélène, mère de l'empereur Constantin, ainsi que plusieurs autres que j'ai vus, et spècialement plusieurs des Innocens, qui sont entiers. Ceux-ci se trouvent dans une ile qu'on appelle Réaut (Realto), ile renommée par ses fabriques de verre. Le gouvernement de Venise est sage. Nul ne peut être membre du conseil ou y posséder quelque emploi s'il n'est noble et né dans la ville. Il y a un duc qui sans cesse, pendant le jour, est tenu d'avoir avec lui six des anciens du conseil les plus remarquables. Quand il meurt, on lui donne pour successeur celui qui a montré le plus de sagesse et le plus de zèle pour le bien commun. Le 8 Mai je m'embarquai, pour accomplir mon voyage, sur une galée (galère) avec quelques autres pélerins. Elle côtoya l'Esclavonie, et relâcha successivement à Pole (Pola), Azarre (Zara), Sébénich (Sebenico) et Corfo (Corfou). Pola me parut avoir été autrefois une grande et forte ville. Elle a un très-beau port. On voit à Zara le corps de ce saint Siméon à qui N. S. fut présenté dans le temple. Elle est entourée de trois côtés par la mer, et son port, également beau, est fermé d'une chaîne de fer. Sebenico appartient aux Vénitiens, ainsi que l'île et la ville de Corfou, qui, avec un très-beau port, a encore deux châteaux. De Corfou nous vînmes à Modon, bonne et belle ville de Morée, qu'ils possèdent aussi; à Candie, ile très-fertile, dont les habitans sont excellens marins et où la seigneurie de Venise nomme un gouverneur qui porte le titre de duc, mais qui ne reste en place que trois ans; à Rhodes, où je n'eus que le temps de voir la ville; à Baffe, ville ruinée de l'ile de Cypre; enfin à Jaffe, en la sainte terre de permission. C'est à Jaffa, que commencent les pardons de ladite sainte terre. Jadis elle appartint aux chrétiens, et alors elle étoit forte; maintenant elle est entièrement détruite, et n'a plus que quelques cahuttes en roseaux, où les pélerins se retirent pour se défendre de la chaleur du soleil. La mer entre dans la ville et forme un mauvais havre peu profond, où il est dangereux de rester, parce qu'on peut être jeté à la côte par un coup de vent. Elle a deux sources d'eau douce, dont l'une est couverte des eaux de mer quand le vent de Ponent souffle un peu fort. Dès qu'il débarque au port quelques pélerins, aussitôt des truchemens et autres officiers du soudan [Footnote: C'est du Soudan d'Egypte, qu'il s'agit ici. C'étoit à lui qu'obéissoient alors la Palestine et la Syrie. Il en sera souvent mention dans le cours du voyage.] viennent pour s'assurer de leur nombre, pour leur servir de guides, et recevoir en son nom le tribut d'usage. Rames (Ramlé), où nous nous rendimes de Jaffe, est une ville sans murailles, mais bonne et marchande, sise dans un canton agréable et fertile. Nous allâmes dans le voisinage visiter ung village où monseigneur saint Georg fu martirié; et de retour à Rames, nous reprimes notre route, et arrivâmes en deux jours en la sainte cité de Jhérusalem, où nostre Seigneur Jhésu Crist reçut mort et passion pour nous. Après y avoir fait les pélerinages qui sont d'usage pour les pélerins, nous fîmes ceux de la montagne où Jésus jeûna quarante jours; du Jourdain, où il fut baptisé; de l'église de Saint-Jean, qui est près du fleuve; de celle de Sainte-Marie-Madelaine et de Sainte-Marthe, où notre Seigneur ressuscita le Ladre (Lazare); de Bethléem, où il prit naissance; du lieu où naquit Saint-Jean-Baptiste; de la maison de Zacharie; enfin de Sainte-Croix, où crût l'arbre de la vraie croix: après quoi nous revînmes à Jérusalem. Il y a dans Bethléem des cordeliers qui ont une église où ils font le service divin; mais ils sont dans une grande sujétion des Sarrasins. La ville n'a pour habitans, que des Sarrasins et quelques chrétiens de la ceinture. [Footnote: L'an 235 de l'hégire, 856 de l'ère chrétienne, le calife Motouakkek astreignit les chrétiens et les Juifs à porter une large ceinture de cuir, et aujourd'hui encore ils la portent dans l'Orient. Mais depuis cette époque les chrétiens d'Asie, et spécialement ceux de Syrie, qui sont presque tous Nestoriens ou Jacobites, furent nommés chrétiens de la ceinture.] Au lieu de la naissance de sainte Jean Baptiste, on montre une roche qui, pendant qu'Hérode persécutoit les innocens, s'ouvrît miraculeusement en deux. Sainte Elisabeth y cacha son fils; aussitôt elle se ferma, et l'enfant y resta, dit-on, deux jours entiers. Jérusalem est dans un fort pays des montagnes, et c'est encore aujourd'hui une ville assez considérable, quoiqu'elle paroisse l'avoir été autrefois bien davantage. Elle est sous la domination du soudan; ce qui doit faire honte et douleur à la chrétienté. Il n'y a de chrétiens Francs que deux cordeliers qui habitent au Saint-Sépulcre, encore y sont ils bien vexés des Sarrasins; et je puis en parler avec connoissance de cause, moi qui pendant deux mois en ai été le témoin. Dans l'église du Sépulcre se trouvent aussi d'autres sortes de chrétiens: Jacobites, Erménins (Arméniens), Abécins (Abyssins), de la terre du prêtre Jehan, et chrétiens de la ceinture; mais de tous ce sont les Francs qui éprouvent la sujétion la plus dure. Après tous ces pélerinages accomplis, nous en entreprîmes un autre également d'usage, celui de Sainte-Catherine au mont Sinaï; et pour celui-ci nous nous réunîmes dix pélerins: messire André de Thoulongeon, messire Michel de Ligne, [Footnote: On sait que le nom de messire ou de monseigneur étoit un titre qu'on donnoit aux chevaliers.] Guillaume de Ligne son frère, Sanson de Lalaing, Pierre de Vaudrey, Godefroi de Thoisi, Humbert Buffart, Jean de la Roe, Simonnet (le nom de la famile est en blanc), et moi. [Footnote: Ces noms, dont le cinq premiers sont ceux de grands seigneurs des états du duc de Bourgogne, attestent que plusieurs personnes de la cour du duc s'étoient réunies pour le voyage d'outremer, et ce sont probablement celles qui s'embarquèrent à Venise avec notre auteur, quoique jusquà présent il ne les ait pas nommées. Toulongeon, cette même année 1432, fut créé chevalier de la toison d'or; mais il ne reçut pas l'ordre, parce qu'il étoit pélerin et qu'il mourut en route.] Pour l'instruction de ceux qui, comme moi, voudroient l'entreprendre, je dirai que l'usage est de traiter avec le grand trucheman de Jérusalem; que celui-ci commence par percevoir un droit pour le soudan et un autre pour lui, et qu'alors il envoie prévenir le trucheman de Gaza, qui à son tour traite du passage avec les Arabes du désert. Ces Arabes jouissent du droit de conduire les pélerins; et comme ils ne sont pas toujours fort soumis au soudan, on est obligé de se servir de leurs chameaux, qu'ils louent à deux ducats par bête. Le Sarrasin qui remplissoit alors l'emploi de grand trucheman se nommoit Nanchardin. Quand il eut reçu la réponse des Arabes, il nous assembla devant la chapelle qui est à l'entrée et à la gauche de l'église de Saint Sépulcre. Là il prit par écrit nos âges, noms, surnoms et signalemens très-détaillés, et en envoya le double au grand trucheman du Caire. Ces précautions ont lieu pour la sûreté des voyageurs, afin que les Arabes ne puissent en retenir aucun; mais je suis persuadé qu'il y entre aussi de la méfiance, et qu'on craint quelque échange ou quelque substitution qui fasse perdre le tribut. Prêts à partir, nous achetames du vin pour la route, et fîmes notre provision de vivre, excepté celle de biscuit, parce que nous devions en trouver à Gaza. Nanchardin nous fournit, pour notre monture et pour porter nos provisions, des anes et des mulets. Il nous donna un trucheman particulier, nommé Sadalva, et nous partîmes. Le premier lieu par lequel nous passâmes est un village, jadis beaucoup plus considérable et maintenant habité par des chrétiens de la ceinture, qui cultivent des vignes. Le second est une ville appellée Saint-Abraham; et située dans la vallée d'Hebron, où Notre Seigneur forma premièrement Adam, notre premier père. Là sont inhumés ensemble Abraham, Isaac et Jacob, avec leurs femmes. Mais ce tombeau est aujourd'hui enfermé dans une mosquée de Sarrasins. Nous desirions fort d'y entrer, et nous avançâmes même jusqu'à la porte; mais nos guides et notre trucheman nous dirent qu'ils n'oseroient nous y introduire de jour, à cause des risques qu'ils courroient, et que tout chrétien qui pénètre dans une mosquée est, mis à mort, à moins qu'il ne renonce à sa foi. Après la vallée d'Hébron nous en traversâmes une autre fort grande, près de laquelle on montre la montagne où saint Jean Baptiste fit sa pénitence. De là nous vînmes en pays désert loger dans une de ces maisons que la charité a fait bâtir pour les voyageurs, et qu'on appelle kan, et du kan nous nous rendîmes à Gaza. Gaza, située dans un beau pays, près de la mer et à l'entrée du désert, est une forte ville, quoique sans fermeture aucune. On prétend quelle appartint jadis au fort Sanson. On y montre encore son palais, ainsi que les colonnes de celui qu'il abbattit; mais je n'oserois garantir que ce sont les mêmes. Souvent les pélerins y sont traités durement, et nous en aurions fait l'épreuve sans le seigneur (le gouverneur), homme d'environ soixante ans et né Chercais (Circassien), qui reçut nos plaintes et nous rendit justice. Trois fois nous fûmes obligés de parôitre devant lui: l'une à raison de nos épées que nous portions; les deux autres pour des querelles que nous cherchoient les Moucres Sarrasins du pays. Plusieurs de nous vouloient acheter des ânes, parce que le chameau a un branle très-dur qui fatigue extrêmement quand on n'y est pas accoutumé. Un âne à Gaza se vendoit deux ducats; et les Moucres vouloient, non seulement nous empêcher d'en acheter, mais nous forcer d'en louer des leurs, et de les louer cinq ducats chacun jusqu'à Sainte Catherine. Le procès fut porté devant le seigneur. Pour moi, qui jusque-là n'avoîs point cessé de monter un chameau, et qui me proposois de ne point changer, je leur demandai de m'apprendre comment je pourrois monter un chameau et un âne tout à la fois. Le seigneur prononça en notre faveur, et il décida que nous ne serions obligés de louer des ânes aux Moucres qu'autant que cela nous conviendroit. Nous achetâmes les nouvelles provisions qui nous étoient nécessaires pour continuer notre voyage; mais, la veille de notre départ, quatre d'entre nous tombèrent malades, et ils retournèrent à Jérusalem. Moi, je partis avec les cinq autres, et nous vînmes à un village situé à l'entré du désert, et le seul qu'on trouve depuis, Gaza jusqu'à Sainte Catherine. Là messire Sanson de Lalaing nous quitta et s'en retourna aussi; de sort que je restai dans la compagnie de messire André (de Toulongeon), Pierre de Vaudrei, Godefroi (de Toisi) et Jean de la Roe. Nous voyageâmes ainsi deux journées dans le désert, sans y rien voir absolument qui mérite d'être raconté. Seulement un matin, avant le lever du soleil, j'aperçus courir un animal à quatre pattes, long de trois pieds environ, et qui n'avoit guère en hauteur plus qu'une palme. A sa vue nos Arabes s'enfuirent, et la bête alla se cacher dans une broussaille qui se trouvoit là. Messire André et Pierre de Vaudrey mirent pied à terre, et coururent à elle l'épée en main. Elle se mit à crier comme un chat qui voit approcher un chien. Pierre de Vaudrey la frappa sur le dos de la pointe dé son épée; mais il ne lui fit aucun mal, parce qu'elle est couverte de grosses écailles, comme un esturgeon. Elle s'élança sur messire André, qui d'un coup de la sienne lui coupa la cou en partie, la tourna sur le dos, les pieds en l'air, et la tua. Elle avoit la tête d'un fort lièvre, les pieds comme les mains d'un petit enfant, et une assez longue queue, semblable à celle des gros verdereaux (lézards verts). Nos Arabes et notre trucheman nous dirent qu'elle étoit fort dangereuse. [Footnote: D'après la description vague que donne ici la Brocquière, il paroît que l'animal dont il parle est le grand lézard appelé monitor, parce qu'on prétend qu'il avertit da l'approche du crocodile. Quant à la terreur qu'en avoient les Arabes, elle n'étoit point fondée.] A la fin de la seconde journée je fus saisi d'une fièvre ardente, si forte qu'il me fut impossible d'aller plus loin. Mes quatre compagnons, bien désolés de mon accident, me firent monter un âne, et me recommandèrent à un de nos Arabes, qu'ils chargèrent de me reconduire à Gaza, s'il étoit possible. Cet homme eut beaucoup soin de moi; ce qui ne leur est point ordinaire vis-à-vis des chrétiens. Il me tint fidèle compagnie, et me mena le soir passer la nuit dans un de leurs camps, qui pouvoit avoir quatre-vingts et quelques tentes, rangées en forme de rues. Ces tentes sont faites avec deux fourches qu'on plante en terre par leur gros bout à une certaine distance l'une de l'autre. Sur les deux fourches est posée en traverse une perche et sur la perche une grosse couverture en laine ou en gros poil. Quand j'arrivai, quatre ou cinq Arabes de la connoissance du mien vinrent au devant de nous. Ils me descendirent de mon âne, me firent coucher sur un matelas que je portois, et là, me traitant à leur guise, ils me pétirent et me pincèrent tant avec les [Footnote: C'est ce que nous appelons masser. Cette méthode est employée dans beaucoup de contrées de l'Orient pour certaines maladies.] mains que, de fatigue et de lassitude, je m'endormis et reposai six heures. Pendant tout ce temps aucun d'eux ne me fit le moindre déplaisir, et ils ne me prirent rien. Ce leur étoit cependant chose bien aisée; et je devois d'ailleurs les tenter, puisque je portois sur moi deux cents ducats, et que j'avois deux chameaux chargés de provisions et de vin. Je me remis en route avant le jour pour regagner Gaza: mais quand j'y arrivai je ne retrouvai plus ni mes quatre compagnons, ni même messire Sanson de Lalaing. Tous cinq étoient retournés à Jérusalem, et ils avoient emmené avec eux le truceman. Heureusement je trouvai un Juif Sicilien de qui je pus me faire entendre. Il fit venir près de moi un vieux Samaritain qui, par un remède qu'il me donna, appaisa la grande ardeur que j'endurois. Deux jours après, me sentant un peu mieux, je partis dans la compagnie d'un Maure. Il me mena par le chemin de la marine (de là côte.) Nous passâmes près d'Esclavonie (Ascalon), et vînmes, à travers un pays toujours agréable et fertile, à Ramlé, d'où je repris le chemin de Jérusalem. La première journée, je rencontrai sur ma route l'amiral (commandant) de cette ville. Il revenoit d'un pélerinage avec une troupe de cinquante cavaliers et de cent chameaux, montés presque tous par des femmes et des enfans qui l'avoient accompagné au lieu de sa dévotion. Je passai la nuit avec eux; et, le lendemain, de retour a Jérusalem, j'allai loger chez les cordeliers, à l'église du mont de Sion, où je retrouvai mes cinq camarades. En arrivant je me mis au lit pour me faire traiter de ma maladie, et je ne fus guéri et en état de partir que le 19 d'Août. Mais pendant ma convalescence je me rappelai que plusieurs fois j'avois entendu différentes personnes dire qu'il étoit impossible à un chrétien de revenir par terre de Jérusalem en France. Je n'oserois pas même, aujourd'hui que j'ai fait le voyage, assurer qu'il est sûr. Cependant il me sembla qu'il n'y a rien qu'un homme ne puisse entreprendre quand il est assez bien constitué pour supporter la fatigue, et qu'il possède argent et santé. Au reste, ce n'est point par jactance que je dis cela; mais, avec l'aide de Dieu et de sa glorieuse mère, qui jamais ne manque d'assister ceux qui la prient de bon coeur, je résolus de tenter l'aventure. Je me tus néanmoins pour le moment sur mon projet, et ne m'en ouvris pas même à mes compagnons. D'ailleurs je voulois, avant de l'entreprendre, faire encore quelques autres pélerinages, et spécialement ceux de Nazareth et du mont Thabor. J'allai donc prévenir de mon dessein Nanchardin, grand trucheman du soudan à Jérusalem, et il me donna pour mon voyage un trucheman particulier. Je comptois commerce par celui du Thabor, et déjà tout étoit arrangé; mais quand je fus au moment de partir, le gardien chez qui je logeois m'en détourna, et s'y opposa même de toutes ses forces. Le trucheman, de son coté, s'y refusa, et il m'annonça que je ne trouverois dans les circonstances personne pour m'accompagner, parce qu'il nous faudroit passer sur le territoire de villes qui étoient en guerre, et que tout récemment un Vénitien et son trucheman y avoient été assassinés. Je me restreignis done au second pélerinage, et messire Sanson de Lalaing voulut m'y accompagner, ainsi que Humbert. Nous laissames au mont de Sion messire Michel de Ligne, qui étoit malade. Son frère Guillaume resta près de lui avec an serviteur pour le garder. Nous autres nous partimes le jour de la mi-août, et notre intention étoit de nous rendre à Jaffa par Ramlé, et de Jaffa à Nazareth; mais avant de me mettre en route, j'allai au tombeau de Notre Dame implorer sa protection pour mon grand voyage. J'entendis aux cordeliers le service divin, et je vis là des gens qui se disent chrétiens, desquels il y en a de bien estranges, selon nostre manière. Le gardien de Jérusalem nous fit l'amitié de nous accompngner jusqu'à Jaffa, avec un frère cordelier du couvent de Beaune. La ils nous quittèrent, et nous prîmes une barque de Maures qui nous conduisit au port d'Acre. Ce port est beau, profond et bien fermé. La ville elle-même paroît avoir été grande et forte; mais il n'y subsiste plus maintenant que trois cent maisons situées à l'une de ses extrémités, et assez loin de la marine. Quant à notre pélerinage, nous ne pûmes l'accomplir. Des marchands Vénitiens que nous consultames nous en détournèrent, et nous primes le parti d'y renoncer. Il nous apprirent en même temps qu'on attendoit à Barut une galére de Narbonne. Mes camarades voulurent en profiter pour retourner en France, eten conséquence nous prîmes le chemin de cette ville. Nous vîmes en route Sur, ville fermée et qui a un bon port, puis Saïette (Séyde), autre port de mer assez bon. [Footnote: Sur est l'ancienne Tyr; Saiette, l'ancienne Sidon; Barut, l'ancienne Bérite.] Pour Barut, elle a été plus considérable qu'elle ne l'est aujourd'hui; mais son port est beau encore, profond et sûr pour les vaisseaux. On voit à l'une de ses pointes les restes d'un chateau fort qu'elle avoit autrefois, et qui est détruit. [Footnote: Les notions que nous donne ici la Brocquière sont intéressantes pour la géographie. Elles prouvent que tous ces ports de Syrie, jadis si commerçans et si fameux, aujourd'hui si dégradés et si complétement inutiles, étoient de son temps propres encore la plupart au commerce.] Moi qui n'étois occupé que de mon grand voyage, j'employai mon séjour dans cette ville à prendre sur cet objet des renseignemens et j'ai m'adressai pour cela à un marchand Génois nommé Jacques Pervézin. Il me conseilla d'aller à Damas; m'assura que j'y trouverois des marchands Vénitiens, Catalans, Florentins, Génois et autres, qui pourroient me guider par leurs conseils, et me donna même, pour un de ses compatriotes appelé Ottobon Escot, une lettre de recommendation. Résolu de consulter Escot avant de rien entreprendre, je proposai à messire Sanson d'aller voir Damas, sans cependant lui rien dire de mon projet. Il accepta volontiers la proposition, et nous partimes, conduit par un moucre. J'ai déja dit qu'en Syrie les moucres sont des gens dont le métier est de conduire les voyageurs et de leur louer des anes et des mulets. Au sortir de Barut nous eûmes à traverser de hautes montagnes jusqu'à une longue plaine appelée vallée de Noë, parce que Noë, dit-on, y batit son arche. La vallée a tout au plus une lieue de large; mais elle est agréable et fertile, arrosée par deux rivières et peuplée d'Arabes. Jusqu'à Damas on continue de voyager entre des montagnes au pied desquelles on trouve beaucoup de villages et de vignobles. Mais je préviens ceux qui, comme moi, auront à les traverser, de songer à se bien munir pour la nuit; car de ma vie je n'ai eu aussi froid. Cette excessive froidure a pour cause la chute de la rosée; et il en est ainsi par toute la Syrie. Plus la chaleur a été grande pendant le jour, plus la rosée est abondante et la nuit froide. II y a deux journées de Barut à Damas. Par toute la Syrie les Mahométans ont établi pour les chrétiens une coutume particulière qui ne leur permet point d'aller à cheval dans les villes. Aucun d'eux, s'il est connu pour tel, ne l'oseroit, et en conséquence notre moucre, avant d'entrer, nous fit mettre pied à terre, messire Sanson et moi. A peine étions nous entrés qu'une douzaine de Sarrasins s'approcha pour nous regarder. Je portois un grand chapeau de feutre, qui n'est point d'usage dans le pays. Un d'eux vint le frapper par dessous d'un coup de baton, et il me le jeta par terre. J'avoue que mon premier mouvement fut de lever le poing sur lui. Mais le moucre, se jetant entre nous deux, me poussa en arrière, et ce fut pour moi un vrai bonheur; car en un instant trente ou quarante autres personnes accoururent, et, si j'avois frappé, je ne sais ce que nous serions devenus. Je dis ceci pour avertir que les habitans de cette ville sont gens méchants qui n'entendent pas trop raison, et que par conséquent il faut bien se garder d'avoir querrelle avec eux. Il en est de même ailleurs. J'ai éprouvé par moi-même qu'il ne faut vis-à-vis d'eux ni faire le mauvais, ni se montrer peureux; qù'il ne feut ni paroitre pauvre, parce qu'ils vous mépriseroient; ni riche, parce qu'ils sont très avides, ainsi que l'expérimentent tous ceux qui débarquent à Jaffa. Damas peut bien contenir, m'a-t-on dit, cent mille âmes. [Footnote: Il y dans le texte cent mille hommes. Si, par ce mot hommes, l'auteur entend les habitans mâles, alors, pour comprendre les femmes dans la population, il faudroit compter plus de deux cent mille individus au lieu de cent mille. S'il entend les personnes en état de porter les aimes, son état de population est trop fort et ne peut être admis.] La ville est riche, marchande, et, après le Caire, la plus considérable de toutes celles que possède le soudan. Au levant, au septentrion et au midi, elle a une grande plaine; au ponant, une montagne au pied de laquelle sont batis les faubourgs. Elle est traversée d'une rivière qui s'y divise en plusieurs canaux, et fermée dans son enceinte seulement de belles murailles; car les faubourgs sont plus grands que la ville. Nulle part je n'ai vu d'aussi grands jardins, de meilleurs fruits, une plus grande abondance d'eau. Cette abondance est telle qu'il y a peu de maisons, m'a-t-on dit, qui n'aient leur fontaine. Le seigneur (le gouverneur) n'a, dons toute la Syrie et l'Egypte, que le seul soudan qui lui soit supérieur en puissance. Mais comme en différens temps quelques-uns d'eux se sont revoltés, les soudans ont pris des précautions pour les contenir. Du côté de terre est un grand et fort chateau qui a des fossés larges et profonds. Ils y placent un capitaine à leur choix, et jamais ce capitaine n'y laisse entrer le gouverneur. En 1400 Damas fut détruite en cendres par le Trambulant (Tamerlan). On voit encore des vestiges de ce désastre; et vers la porte qu'on appelle de Saint-Paul, il y a un quartier tout entier qui n'est pas rebâti. Dans la ville est un kan destiné à servir de dépôt de sûreté aux négocians pour leurs marchandises. On l'appelle kan Berkot, et ce nom lui a été donné, parce qu'il fut originairement la maison d'un homme nommé ainsi. Pour moi, je crois que Berkot étoit Français; et ce qui me le fait présumer, c'est que sur une pierre de sa maison sont sculptées des fleurs de lis qui paroissent aussi anciennes que les murs. Quoi qu'il en soit de son origine, ce fut un très-vaillant homme, et qui jouit encore dans le pays d'une haute renommée. Jamais, pendant tout le temps qu'il vécut et qu'il eut de l'autorité, les Persiens et Tartres (Persans et Tatars) ne purent gagner en Syrie la plus petite portion de terrain. Dès qu'il apprenoit qu'une de leurs armés y portoit les armes, il marchoit contre elle jusqu'à une rivière au-delà d'Alep, laquelle sépare la Syrie de la Perse, et qu'à vue de pays je crois être celle qu'on appelle Jéhon, et qui vient tomber à Misses en Turcomanie. On est persuadé à Damas que, s'il eût vécu, Tamerlan n'auroit pas osé porter ses armes de ce côté-là. Au reste ce Tamerlan rendit honneur à sa mémoire quand il prit la ville. En ordonnant d'y tout mettre à feu, il ordonna de respecter la maison de Berkot; il la fit garder pour la défendre de l'incendie, et elle subsiste encore. Les chrétiens ne sont vus à Damas qu'avec haine. Chaque soir on enferme les marchands dans leurs maisons. Il y a des gens préposés pour cela, et le lendemain ils viennent ouvrir les portes quand bon leur semble. J'y trouvai plusieurs marchands Génois, Vénitiens, Catalans, Florentins et Français. Ces derniers étoient venus y acheter différentes choses, spécialement des épices, et ils comptoient aller à Barut s'embarquer sur la galère de Narbonne qu'on y attendoit. Parmi eux il y avoit un nommé Jacques Coeur, qui depuis a joué un grand rôle en France et a été argentier du roi. Il nous dit que la galère étoit alors à Alexandrie, et que probablement messire André viendroit avec ses trois camarades la prendre à Barut. Hors de Damas et près des murs on me montra le lieu où saint Paul, dans une vision, fut renversé de cheval et aveuglé. Il se fit aussitôt conduire à Damas pour y recevoir le baptême, et l'endroit où on le baptisa est aujourd'hui une mosquée. Je vis aussi la pierre sur laquelle saint George monta à cheval quand il alla combattre le dragon. Elle a deux pieds en carré. On prétend qu'autrefois les Sarrasins avoient voulu l'enlever, et que jamais, quelques moyens qu'ils aient employés, ils n'ont pu y réussir. Après avoir vu Damas nous revinmes à Barut, messire Sanson et moi: nous y trouvâmes messire André, Pierre de Vaudrey, Geoffroi de Thoisi et Jean de la Roe, qui déja s'y étoient rendus, comme me l'avoit annoncé Jacques Coeur. La galère y arriva d'Alexandrie trois ou quatre jours après; mais, pendant ce court intervalle, nous fûmes témoins d'une fête que les Maures célébrèrent à leur ancienne manière. Elle commença le soir, au coucher du soleil. Des troupes nombreuses, éparses ça et la, chantoient et poussoient de grands cris. Pendant ce temps on tiroît le canon du château, et les gens de la ville lançoient en l'air, bien haut et bien loin, une manière de feu plus gros que le plus gros fallot que je visse oncques allumé. Ils me dirent qu'ils s'en servoient quelquefois à la mer pour brûler les voiles d'un vaisseau ennemi. Il me semble que, comme c'est chose bien aisée et de une petite despense, on pourroit l'employer également, soit à consumer un camp ou un village couvert en paille, soit dans un combat de cavalerie, à épouvanter les chevaux. Curieux d'en connoître la composition, j'envoyai vers celui qui le faisoit le valet de mon hôte, et lui fis demander de me l'apprendre. Il me répondit qu'il n'oseroit, et que ce seroit pour lui une affaire trop dangereuse, si elle étoit sue; mais comme il n'est rien qu'un Maure ne fasse pour de l'argent, je donnai à celui-ci un ducat, et, pour l'amour du ducat, il m'apprit tout ce qu'il savoit, et me donna même des moules en bois et autres ingrédiens que j'ai apportés en France. La veille de l'embarquement je pris à part messire André de Toulongeon, et après lui avoir fait promettre qu'il ne s'opposeroit en rien à ce que j'allois lui révéler, je lui fis part du projet que j'avois formé de retourner par terre. Conséquemment à sa parole donnée, il ne tenta point de m'en empêcher; mais il me représenta tout ce que j'allois courir de dangers, et celui sur-tout de me voir contraint à renier la foi de Jésus-Christ. Au reste j'avoue que ses représentations étoient fondées, et que de tous les périls dont il me menacoit il n'en est point, excepté celui de renier, que je n'aie éprouvés. II engagea également ses camarades à me parler; mais ils eurent beau faire, je les laissai partir et demeurai. Après leur départ je visitai une mosquée qui jadis avoit été une très-belle église, bâtie, disoit-on, par sainte Barbe. On ajoute que quand les Sarrasins s'en furent emparés, et que leurs crieurs voulurent y monter pour annoncer la prière, selon leur usage, ils furent si battus que depuis ce jour aucun d'eux n'a osé y retourner. II y a aussi un autre bâtiment miraculeux qu'on a changé en église. C'étoit auparavant une maison de Juifs. Un jour que ces gens-là avoient trouvé une image de Notre Seigneur, ils se mirent à la lapider, comme leurs pères jadis l'avoient lapidé lui-même; mais l'image ayant versé du sang, ils furent tellement effrayés du miracle, qu'ils se sauvèrent, allèrent s'accuser à l'évêque, et donnèrent même leur maison en réparation du crime. On en a fait une église, qui aujourd'hui est desservie par des cordeliers. Je logeai chez un marchand Vénitien nommé Paul Barberico; et comme je n'avois nullement renoncé à mes deux pélerinages de Nazareth et du Thabor, malgré les obstacles que j'y avois rencontrés et tout ce qu'on m'avoit dit pour m'en détourner, je le consultai sur ce double voyage. Il me procura un moucre qui se chargea de me conduire, et qui s'engagea même pardevant lui à me mener sain et sauf jusqu'à Damas, et à lui en rapporter un certificat signé par moi. Cet homme me fit habiller en Sarrasin; car les Francs, pour leur sûreté, quand ils voyagent, ont obtenu du soudan de prendre en route cet habillement. Je partis donc de Barut avec mon moucre le lendemain du jour où la galère avoit mis à la voile, et nous primes le chemin de Saïette, entre la mer et les montagnes. Souvent ces montagnes s'avancent si près du rivage qu'on est obligé de marcher sur la grève, et quelquefois elles en sont éloignées de trois quarts de lieue. Après une heure de marche je trouvai un petit bois de hauts sapins que les gens du pays conservent bien précieusement. Il est même sévèrement défendu d'en abattre aucun; mais j'ignore la raison de ce règlement. Plus loin étoit une rivière assez profonde. Mon moucre me dit que c'étoit celle qui vient de la vallée de Noë, mais qu'elle n'est pas bonne à boire. Elle a un pont de pierre, près duquel se trouve un kan où nous passâmes la nuit. Le lendemain je vins à Séyde, ville située sur la marine (sur la mer), et fermée du côté de terre par des fossés peu profonds. Sur, que les Maures nomment Four, est située de même. Il est abreuvé par une fontaine qu'on trouve à un quart de lieue vers le midi, et dont l'eau, très-bonne, vient, par-dessur des arches, se rendre dans la ville. Je ne fis que la traverser, et elle me parut assez belle; cependant elle n'est pas forte, non plus que Séyde, toutes deux ayant été détruites autrefois, ainsi qu'il paroît par leurs murailles, qui ne valent pas, à beaucoup près, celles de nos villes. La montagne, vers Sur, s'arrondît en croissant, et s'avance par ses deux pointes jusqu'à la mer. L'espace vide entre l'une et l'autre n'a point de villages; mais il y en a beaucoup le long de la montagne. Une lieue au-delà on trouve une gorge qui vous oblige de passer sur une falaise au haut de laquelle est une tour. Les cavaliers qui vont de Sur à Acre n'ont point d'autre route que ce passage, et la tour a été construite pour le garder. Depuis ce défilé jusqu'à Acre les montagnes sont peu élevées, et l'on y voit beaucoup d'habitations qui, pour la plupart, sont remplies d'Arabes. Près de la ville je rencontrai un grand seigneur du pays nommé Fancardin. Il campoit en plein champ, et portoit avec lui ses tentes. Acre, entourée de trois côtés par des montagnes, quoique avec une plaine d'environ quatre lieues, l'est de l'autre par la mer. J'y fis connoissance d'un marchand de Venise, nommé Aubert Franc, qui m'accueillit bien et qui me procura sur mes deux pélerinages des renseignemens utiles dont je profitai. A l'aide de ses avis je me mis en route pour Nazareth, et, après avoir traversé une grande plaine, je vins à la fontaine dont Notre Seigneur changea l'eau en vin aux noces d'Archétéclin; [Footnote: Architriclinus est un mot Latin formé du Grec, par lequel l'Evangile désigne le maître d'hôtel ou majordôme qui présidoit aux noces de Cana. Nos ignarans auteurs des bas siècles le prirent pour un nom d'homme, et cet homme ils en firent un saint, qu'ils appelèrent saint Architriclin. Dans la relation de la Brocquière, Architriclin est le marié de Cana.] elle est près d'un village où l'on dit que naquit saint Pierre. Nazareth n'est qu'un autre gros village bâti entre deux montagnes; mais le lieu où l'ange Gabriel vint annoncer à la vierge Marie qu'elle seroit mère fait pitié à voir. L'église qu'on y avoit bâtie est entièrement détruite, et il n'en subsiste plus qu'une petite chose (case), là où Nostre-Dame estoit quand l'angèle lui apparut. De Nazareth j'allai au Thabor, où fut faite la transfiguration de Notre Seigneur, et plusieurs autres miracles. Mais comme les paturages y attirent beaucoup d'Arabes qui viennent y mener leurs bêtes, je fus obligé de prendre pour escorte quatre autres hommes, dont deux étoient Arabes eux-mêmes. La montée est trés-rude parce qu'il n'y a point de chemin; je la fis à dos de mulet, et j'y employai deux heures. La cime se termine par un plateau presque rond, qui peut avoir en longeur deux portées d'arc et une de large. Jadis il fut enceient d'une muraille dont on voit encore des restes avec des fossés, et dans le pourtour, en dedans du mur, étoient plusieurs églises, et spéciàlement une où l'on gagne encore, quoiqu'elle soit ruinée, plain pardon de paine et de coulpe. Au levant du Thabor, et au pied de la montagne, on aperçoit Tabarie (Tibériade), au-delà de laquelle coule le Jourdain; au couchant est une grande plaine fort agréable par ses jardins remplis de palmiers portant dattes, et par de petits bosquets d'arbres, plantés comme des vignes, et sur lesquels croit le coton. Au lever du soleil ceux-ci présentent un aspect singulier. En voyant leurs feuilles vertes couvertes de coton, on diroit qu'il a neigé sur eux. [Footnote: Il est probable qu'ici le voyageur s'est trompe. Le cotonnier a par ses feuilles quelque ressemblance avec celles de la vigne. Elles sont lobées de même; mais le coton naît dans des capsules, et non sur des feuilles. On connoît en botanique plusieurs arbres dont les feuilles sont couvertes à leur surface extérieure d'un duvet blanc; mais on n'en connoît aucune qui produise du coton.] Ce fut dans cette plaine que je descendis pour me reposer et diner; car j'avois apporté des poulets crus et du vin. Mes guides me conduisirent dans une maison dont le maître, quand il vit mon vin, me prit pour un homme de distinction et m'accueillit bien. Il m'apporta une écuelle de lait, une de miel, et une branche chargée de dattes nouvelles. C'étoit la première fois de ma vie que j'en voyois. Je vis encore comment on travailloit le coton, et pour ce travail les ouvriers étoient des hommes et des femmes. Mais là aussi mes guides voulurent me rançonner, et, pour me reconduire à Nazareth où je les avois pris, ils exigèrent de moi un marché nouveau. Je n'avois point d'épée, car j'avoue que je l'aurois tirée, et c'eût été folie à moi, comme c'en seroit une à ceux qui m'imiteroient. Le résultat de la querelle fut que, pour me débarrasser d'eux, il me fallut leur donner douze drachmes de leur monnoie, lesquelles valent un demi-ducat. Dès qu'ils les eurent reçues ils me quittèrent tous quatre; de sorte que je fus obligé de m'en revenir seul avec mon moucre. Nous avions fait peu de chemin, quand nous vimes venir à nous deux Arabes armés à leur manière et montés sur de superbes chevaux. Le moucre, en les voyant, eut grande peur. Heureusement ils passèrent sans nous rien dire; mais il m'avoua que, s'ils m'eussent soupçonné d'être chrétien, nous étions perdus, et qu'ils nous eussent tués tous deux sans rémission, ou pour le moins dépouillés en entier. Chacun d'eux portoit une longue et mince perche ferrée par les deux bouts, don't l'un étoit tranchant, l'autre arrondi, mais garni de plusieurs taillans, et long d'un empan. Leur écu (bouclier) étoit rond, selon leur usage, convexe dans la partie du milieu, et garni au centre d'une grosse pointe de fer; mais depuis cette pointe jusqu'au bas il étoit orné de longues franges de soie. Ils avoient pour vêtement des robes dont les manches, larges de plus d'un pied et demi, dépassoient leur bras, et pour toque un chapeau rond terminé en pointe, de laine cramoisie, et velu; mais ce chapeau, au lieu d'avoir sa toile tortillée tout autour, comme l'ont les autres Maures, l'avoit pendante fort bas des deux côtés, dans toute sa largeur. Nous allâmes de là loger à Samarie, parce que je voulois visiter la mer de Tabarie (lac de Tibériade), où l'on dit que saint Pierre pèchoit ordinairement, et y a aucuns (quelques) pardons; c'étoient les quatre-temps de Septembre. Le moucre me laissa seul toute la journée. Samarie est située sur la pointe d'une montagne. Nous n'y entrames qu'à la chute de jour, et nous en sortimes à minuit pour nous rendre au lac. Le moucre avoit préféré cette heure, afin d'esquiver le tribut que paient ceux qui s'y rendent; mais la nuit m'empêcha de voir le pays d'alentour. J'allai ensuite au puits qu'on nomme puits de Jacob, parce que Jacob y fut jeté par ses frères. Il y a là une belle mosquée, dans laquelle j'entrai avec mon moucre, parce que je feignis d'être Sarrasin. Plus loin est un pont de pierre sur lequel on passe le Jourdain, et qu'on appelle le pont de Jacob, à cause d'une maison qui s'y trouve, et qui fut, dit-on, celle de ce patriarche. Le fleuve sort d'un grand lac situé au pied d'une montagne vers le nordouest (nord-ouest), et sur la montagne est un beau chateau possédé par Nancardin. Du lac je pris le chemin de Damas. Le pays est assez agréable, et quoiqu'on y marche toujours entre deux rangs de montagnes, il a constamment une ou deux lieues de large. Cependant on y trouve un endroit fort étrange. Là le chemin est réduit uniquement à ce qu'il faut pour le passage des chevaux tout le reste, à gauche, dans une largeur et une longueur d'une lieue environ, ne présente qu'un amas immense de cailloux pareils à ceux de rivière, et dont la plupart sont gros comme des queues de vin. Au débouché de ce lieu est un très-beau kan, entouré de fontaines et de ruisseaux. A quatre ou cinq milles de Damas il y en a un autre, le plus magnifique que j'aie vu de ma vie. Celui-ci est près d'une petite rivière formée par des sources; et en général plus on approche de la ville et plus le pays est beau. Là je trouvai un Maure tout noir qui venoit du Caire à course de chameau, et qui étoit venu en huit jours, quoiqu'il y eût, me dit-on, seize journées de marche. Son chameau lui avoit échappé: à l'aide de mon moucre je parvins à le lui faire reprendre. Ces coureurs ont une selle fort singulière, sur laquelle ils sont assis les jambes croisées; mais la rapidité des chameaux qui les conduisent est si grande que, pour résister à l'impression de l'air, ils se font serrer d'un bandage la tête et le corps. Celui-ci étoit porteur d'un ordre du soudan. Une galère et deux galiotes du prince de Tarente avoient pris devant Tripoli de Syrie une griperie [Footnote: Griperie, grip, sorte de bâtiment pour aller en course, vaisseau corsaire.] de Maures: le soudan, par représailles, envoyoit saisir à Damas et dans toute la Syrie tous les Catalans et les Génois qui s'y trouvoient. Cette nouvelle, dont je fus instruit par mon moucre, ne m'effraya pas. J'entrai hardiment dans la ville avec les Sarrasins, parce que, habillé comme eux, je crus n'avoir rien à craindre. Mon voyage avoit duré sept jours. Le lendemain de mon arrivée je vis la caravane qui revenoit de la Mecque. On la disoit composée de trois mille chameaux: et en effet elle employa pour entrer dans la ville près de deux jours et deux nuits. Cet événement fut, selon l'usage, une grande fête. Le seigneur de Damas, ainsi que les plus notables, allèrent au devant de la caravane, par respect pour l'Alkoran qu'elle avoit. Ce livre est la loi qu'a laissée aux siens Mahomet. Il étoit enveloppé d'une étoffe de soie peinte et chargée de lettres morisque, et un chameau le portoit, couvert lui-même également de soie. En avant du chameau marchoient quatre ménestrels (musiciens) et une grande quantité de tambours et de nacquaires (timbales) qui faisoient ung hault bruit. Devant et autour de lui étoient une trentaine d'hommes dont les uns portoient des arbalètes, les autres des épées nues, d'autres de petits canons (arquebuses) qu'ils tiroient de temps en temps. [Footnote: L'auteur ne dit pas si ces arquebuses étoient à fourchette, à mèche, à rouet; mais il est remarquable que nos armes à feu portatives; dont l'invention étoit encore assez récente en Europe, fussent dès-lors en usage chez les Mahométans d'Asie.] Par derrière suivoient huit vieillards, qui montoient chacun un chameau de course près duquel on menoit en lesse leur cheval, magnifiquement couvert et orné de riches selles, selon la mode du pays. Après eux enfin venoit une dame Turque, parente de grand-seigneur: elle étoit dans une litière que portoient deux chameaux richement parés et couverts. Il y avoit plusieurs de ces animaux couverts de drap d'or. La caravane étoit composée de Maures, de Turcs, Barbes (Barbaresques), Tartres (Tatars), Persans et autres sectateurs du faux prophète Mahomet. Ces gens-là prétendent que, quand ils ont fait une fois le voyage de la Mecque, ils ne peuvent plus être damnés. Cest ce que m'assura un esclave renégat. Vulgaire (Bulgare) de naissance, lequel appartenoit à la dame dont je viens de parler. Il s'appeloit Hayauldoula, ce qui en Turc signifie serviteur de Dieu, et prétendoit avoir été trois fois à la Mecque. Je me liai avec lui, parce qu'il parloit un peu Italien, et souvent même il me tenoit compagnie la nuit ainsi que le jour. Plusieurs fois, dans nos entretiens, je l'interrogeai sur Mahomet, et lui demandai où reposoit son corps. Il me répondit que c'étoit à la Mecque; que la fiertre (chasse) qui le renfermoit se trouvoit dans une chapelle ronde, ouverte par le haut: que c'étoit par cette ouverture que les pélerins alloient voir la fiertre, et que parmi eux il y en avoit qui, après l'avoir vue, se faisoient crever les yeux, parce qu'après cela le monde ne pouvait rien offrir, disoient-ils, qui méritat leur regards. Effectivement il y en avoit deux dans la troupe, l'un d'environ seize ans, l'autre de vingt-deux à vingt-trois, qui c'étoient fait aveugler ainsi. Hayauldoula me dit encore que c'nest point à la Mecque qu'on gagne les pardons, mais à Méline (Médine), ville où saint Abraham fist faire une maison qui y est encoires. [Footnote: Notre voyageur a confondu: c'est à Médine, et non à la Mecque, qu'est le tombeau de Mahomet; c'est à la Mecque, et non à Médine, qu'est la prétendue maison d'Abraham, que les pélerins gagnent les pardons et que se fait le grand commerce.] La maison est en forme de cloitre, et le pélerins en font le tour. Quant à la ville, elle est sur le bord de la mer. Les hommes de la terre du prêtre Jean (les Indiens) y apportent sur de gros vaisseaux les épices et autres marchandises que produit leur pays. C'est là que les Mahométans vont les acheter. Ils les chargent sur des chameaux ou sur d'autres bêtes de somme, et les portent au Caire, à Damas et autres lieux, ainsi qu'on sait. De la Mecque à Damas il y a quarante journées de marche à travers le désert; les chaleurs y sont excessives, et la caravane avoit eu plusieurs personnes étouffées. Selon l'esclave renégat, celle de Médine doit annuellement être compossée de sept cent mille personnes; et quand ce nombre n'est pas complet, Dieu; pour le remplir, y envoie des agnes. Au grand jour du jugement Mahomet fera entrer en paradis autant de personnes qu'il voudra, et la ils auront à discrétion du lait et des femmes. Comme sans cesse j'entendois parler de Mohomet, je voulus savoir sur lui quelque chose, et m'adressai pour cela à un prêtre qui dans Damas étoit attaché au consul des Vénitiens, qui disoit souvent la messe à l'hôtel confessoit les marchands de cette nation, et, en cas de danger, régloit leurs affaires. Je me confessai à lui, je réglai les miennes, et lui demandai s'il connoissoit l'historie de Mahomet. Il me dit que oui, et qu'il savoit tout son Alkoran. Alors je le suppliai le mieux qu'il me fut possible de rédiger par écrit ce qu'il en connoissoit, afin que je pusse le présenter à monseigneur le duc. [Footnote: Le duc de Bourgogne, auquel étoit attaché la Brocquière. Par tout ce que cit ici le voyageur on voit combien peu étoit connu en Europe le fondateur de l'Islamisme et l'auteur du Koran.] Il le fit avec plaisir, et j'ai apporté avec moi son travail. Mon projet étoit de me rendre à Bourse. On m'aboucha en conséquence avec un Maure qui s'engagea dam'y conduire en suivant la caravane. Il me demandoit trente ducats et sa dépense: mais on m'avertit de me défier des Maures comme gens de mauvaise foi, sujets à fausser leur promesse, et je m'abstins de conclure. Je dis ceci pour l'instruction des personnes qui auroient affaire à eux; car je les crois tels qu'on me les a peints. Hayauldoula me procura de son côté la connoissance de certains marchands du pays de Karman (de Caramanie). Enfin je pris un autre moyen. Le grand-Turc a pour les pélerins qui vont à la Mecque un usage qui lui est particulier, au moins j'ignore si les autres puissances Mahométanes l'observent aussi: c'est que, quand ceux de ses états partent, il leur donne à son choix un chef auquel ils sont tenus d'obéir ainsi qu'à lui. Celui de la caravane s'appeloit Hoyarbarach; il étoit de Bourse, et c'étoit un des principaux habitans. Je me fis présenter à lui par mon hôte et par une autre personne, comme un homme qui vouloit aller voir dans cette ville un frère qu'il y avoit, et ils le prièrent de me recevoir dans sa troupe et de m'y accorder sûreté. Il demanda si je savois l'Arabe, le Turc, l'Hébreu, la langue vulgaire, le Grec; et comme je répondis que non: Eh bien, que veut-il donc devenir? reprit-il. Cependant, sur la répresentation qu'on lui fit que je n'osois, à cause de la guerre, aller par mer, et que s'il daignoit m'admettre je ferois comme je pourrois, il y consentit, et après s'être mis les deux mains sur sa tête et avoir touché sa barbe, il dit en Turc que je pouvois me joindre à ses esclaves; mais il exigea que je fusse vêtu comme eux. D'après cela j'allai aussitôt, avec un de mes deux conducteurs, au marché qu'on appelle bathsar (bazar). J'y achetai deux longues robes blanches qui me descenoient jusqu'au talon, une toque accomplie (turban complet), une ceinture de toile, une braie (caleçon) de futaine pour y mettre le bas de ma robe, deux petits sacs ou besaces, l'un pour mon usage, l'autre pour suspendre à la tête de mon cheval quand je lui ferois manger son orge et sa paille: une cuiller et une salière de cuir, un tapis pour coucher; anfin un paletot (sorté de pour-point) de panne blanche que je fis couvrir de toile, et qui me servit beaucoup la nuit J'achetai aussi un tarquais blanc et garni (sorte de carquois), auquel pendoient une épée et des couteaux: mais pour le tarquais et l'épée je ne pus en faire l'acquisition que secrètement; car, si ceux qui ont l'administration de la justice l'avoient su, le vendeur et moi nous eussions couru de grands risques. Les épées de Damas sont le plus belles et les meilleures de tout la Syrie; mais c'est une chose curieuse de voir comment ils les brunissent. Cette opération se fait avant la trempe. Ils ont pour cela une petite pièce de bois dans laquelle est enté un fer; ils la passent sur la lame et enlévent ainsi se; inégalités de même qu'avec un rabot on enlève celles du bois; ensuite ils la trempent, puisla polissent. Ce poli est tel que quand quelqu'un veut arranger son turban, il se sert de son épée comme d'un mirior. Quant à la trempe, elle est si parfaite que nulle part encore je n'ai vu d'épée trancher aussi bien. On fait aussi à Damas et dans le pays des miroirs d'acier qui grossissent les objets comme un miroir ardent. J'en ai vu qui, quand on les exposoit au soleil, percoient, à quinze ou seize pieds de distance, une planche et y mettoient le feu. J'achetai un petit cheval, qui se trouva très-bon. Avant de partir je le fis ferrer à Damas; et de là jusqu'à Bourse, quoiqu'il y ait près de cinquante journées, je n'eus rien à fair à ses pieds, excepté à l'un de ceux de devant, où il prit une enclosure qui trois semaines après le fit boiter. Voici comme ils ferrent leurs chevaux. Les fers sont légers, très-minces, allongés sur les talons, et plus amincis encore là que vers la pince. Ils n'ont point de retour [Footnote: Je crois que par retour la Brocquière a entendu ce crochet nommé crampon qui est aux nôtres, et qu'il a voulu dire que ceux de Damas étoient plats.] et ne portent que quartre trous, deux de chaque côté. Les clous sont carrés, avec une grosse et lourde tête. Faut-il appliquer le fer: s'il est besoin qu'on le retravaille pour l'ajuster, on le bat à froid sans le mettre au feu, et on le peut à cause de son peu d'épaisseur. Pour parer le pied du cheval on se sert d'une serpette pareille à celle qui est d'usage en-de-çà de la mer pour tailler la vigne. Les chevaux de ce pays n'ont que le pas et le galop. Quand on en achète, on choisit ceux qui ont le plus grand pas: comme en Europe on prend de préférence ceux qui trottent le mieux. Ils ont les narines très-fendues courent très bien, sont excellens, et d'ailleurs coûtent très-peu, puisqu'ils ne mangent que la nuit, et qu'on ne leur donne qu'un peu d'orge avec de la paille picquade (hachée). Jamais ile ne boivent que l'après-midi, et toujours, même à l'écurie, on leur laisse la bride en bouche, comme aux mules. La ils sont attachés par les pieds de derrière et confondus tous ensemble, chevaux et jumens. Tous sont hongres, excepté quelques'uns qu'on garde comme étalons. Si vous avez affaire à un homme riche, et que vouz alliez le trouver chez lui, il vous menera, pour vous parler, dans son écurie: aussi sont-elles tenues très-fraîches et très-nettes. Nous autres, nous aimons un cheval entier, de bonne race; les Maures n'estiment que les jumens. Chez eux, un grand n'a point honte de monter une jument que son poulain suit par derrière. [Footnote: Ce trait fait allusion aux préjugés alors en usage chez les chevaliers d'Europe. Comme ils avoient besoin, pour les tournois et les combats, de chevaux très-forts, ils ne se servoient que de chevaux entiers, et se seroient crus dêshonorés de monter une jument.] J'en ai vu d'une grande beauté, et qui se vendoient jusqu'a deux et trois cents ducats. Au reste, leur coutume est de tenir leurs chevaux sur le maigre (de ne point les laisser engraisser). Chez eux, les gens de bien (gens riches, qui ont du bien) portent tons, quand ils sont à cheval, un tabolcan (petit tambour), dont ils se servent dans les batailles et les escarmouches pour se rassembler et se rallier; ils l'attachent à arçon de leur selle, et le frappent avec une baguette de cuir plat. J'en achetai un aussi, avec des éperons et des bottes vermeilles qui montoient jusqu'aux genoux, selon la coutume du pays. Pour témoigner ma reconnoissance à Hoyarbarach j'allai lui offrir un pot de gingembre vert. Il le refusa, et ne ce fut qu'à force d'instances et de prières que je vins à bout de le lui faire accepter. Je n'eus de lui d'autre parole et d'autre assurance que celle dont j'ai parlé cidessus. Cependant je ne trouvai en lui que franchise et layauté, et plus peut-être que j'en aurois éprouvé de beaucoup de chrétiens. Dieu, qui me favorisoit en tout dans l'accomplissement de mon voyage, me procura la connoissance d'un Juif de Caffa qui parloit Tartare et Italien; je le priai de m'aider à mettre en écrit dans ces deux langues toutes les choses dont je pouvois avoir le plus de besoin en route pour moi et pour mon cheval. Dès notre première journée, arrivé à Ballec, je tirai mon papier pour savoir comment on appeloit l'orge et la paille hachée que je voulois faire donner à mon cheval. Dix ou douze Turcs qui étoient autour de moi se mirent à rire en me voyant. Ils s'approchèrent pour regarder mon papier, et parurent cussi étonnés de mon écriture que nous le sommea de la leur; néanmoins ils me prirent en amitié, et firent tous leurs efforts pour m'apprendre à parler. Ils ne se laissoient point de me répéter plusieurs fois la même chose, et la redisoient si souvent et de tant de manières, qu'il falloit bien que je la retinsse; aussi, quand nous nous séparâmes, savois-je déja demander pour moi et pour mon cheval tout ce qui m'étoit nécessaire. Pendant le séjour qué fit à Damas la caravane, j'allai visiter un lieu de pélerinage, qui est à seize milles environ vers le nord, et qu'on nomme Notre-Dame de Serdenay. Il faut, pour y arriver, traverser une montagne qui peut bien avoir un quart de lieue, et jusqu'à laquelle s'étendent les jardins de Damas; on descend ensuite dans une vallée charmante, remplie de vignes et de jardins, et qui a une belle fontaine dont l'eau est bonne. Là est une roche sur laquelle on a construit un petit château avec une église de callogero (de caloyers), où se trouve une image de la Vierge, peinte sur bois: sa tête, dit-on est portée par miracle; quant à la manière, je l'ignore. On ajoute qu'elle sue toujours, et que cette sueur est une huile. [Footnote: Plusieurs de nos cuteurs du treizième siècle font mention de cette vierge de Serdenay, devenue fameuse pendant les croisades, et ils parlent de sa sueur huileuse, qui passoit pour faire beaucoup de miracles. Ces fables d'exsudations, miraculeuses étoient communes en Asie. On y vantoit entre autres celle qui découloit du tombeau de l'evêque Nicolas, l'un de ces saints dont l'existence est plus que douteuse. Cette liqueur prétendue de Nicolas etoit même un objet de culte; et nous lisons qu'en 1651, un curé de Paris en ayant reçut une phiole, il demanda et obtint de l'archevêque la permission de l'exposer à la vénération des fidèles, (Hist. de la ville et du diocèse de Paris, par Lebeuf. t. I., part. 2, p. 557.)] Tout ce que je puis dire, c'est que quand j'y allai on me montra, au bout de l'église, derrière le grand autel, une niche pratiquée dans le mur, et que là je vis l'image, qui est une chose plate, et qui peut avoir un pied et demi de haut sur un de large. Je ne puis dire si elle est de bois ou de pierre, parce qu'elle étoit couverte entièrement de drapeaux. Le devant étoit fermé par un treillis de fer, et au-dessous il y avoit un vase qui contenoit de l'huile. Une femme qui étoit là vint à moi; elle remua les drapeaux avec une cuillère d'argent, et voulut me faire, le signe de la croix au front, aux tempes et sur la poitrine. Il me sembla que tout cela étoit une pratique pour avoir argent; cependant je ne veux point dire par-là que Notre-Dame n'ait plus de pouvoir encore que cette image. Je revins à Damas, et, la ville du départ, je réglai mes affaires et disposai ma conscience, comme si j'eusse dû mourir; mais tout-à-coup je me vis dans l'embarras. J'ai parlé du courier qu'avoit envoyé le Soudan pour faire arrêter les marchands Génois et Catalans qui se trouvoient dans ses Etats. En venu de cet ordre, on prit mon hôte, qui étoit Génois; ses effets furent saisis, et l'on plaça chez lui un Maure pour les garder. Moi, je cherchai à lui sauver tout ce que je pourrois, et afin que le Maure ne s'en aperçût pas, je l'enivrai. Je fus arrêté à mon tour, et conduit devant un des cadis, gens qu'ils regardent comme nous nos évêques, et qui sont chargés d'administrer la justice. Le cadi me renvoya vers un autre, qui me fit conduire en prison avec les marchands. Il savoit bien pourtant que je ne l'étois pas; mais cette affaire m'étoît suscitée par un trucheman qui vouloit me rançonner, comme il l'avoit déjà tenté à mon premier voyage. Sans Autonine Mourrouzin, consul de Venise, il m'eut fallu payer; mais je restai en prison, et pendant ce temps la caravane partit. Pour obtenir ma liberté, le consul et quelques autres personnes furent obligés dé faire des démarches auprès du roi (gouverneur) de Damas, alléguant qu'on m'avoit arrêté à tort et sans cause, et que le trucheman le savoit bien. Le seigneur me fit venir devant lui avec un Génois nommé Gentil Impérial, qui étoit un marchand de par le Soudan, pour aller acheter des esclaves à Caffa. Il me demanda qui j'étois, et ce que je venois faire à Damas; et, sur ma réponse que j'étois Français, venu en pélerinage à Jérusalem, il dit qu'on avoit tort de me retenir, et que je pouvois partir quand il me plairoit. Je partis donc, le lendemain 6 Octobre, accompagné d'un moucre, que je chargeai d'abord de transporter hors de la ville mes habillemens Turcs, parce qu'il n'est point permis à un chrétien d'y paroître avec la toque blanche. A peu de distance est une montagne où l'on montre une maison qu'on dit avoir été celle de Caïn; et, pendant la première journée, nous n'eumes que des montagnes, quoique le chemin soit bon; mais à la seconde nons trouvames un beau pays, et il continua d'etre agréable jusqu'à Balbec. C'est là que mon moucre me quitta, et que je trouvai la caravane. Elle étoit campée près d'une rivière, à cause de la chaleur qui régne dans le pays; et cependant les nuits y sont très-froides (ce qu'on aura peine a croire), et les rosées très-abondantes. J'allai trouver Hoyarbarach, qui me confirma la permission qu'il m'avoit donnée de venir avec lui, et qui me recommenda de ne point quitter la troupe. Le lendemain matin, à onze heures, je fis boire mon cheval, et lui donnai la paille et l'avoine, selon l'usage de nos contrées. Pour cette fois les Turcs ne me dirent rien; mais le soir, à six heures, quand, après l'avoir fait boire, je lui attachai sa besace pour qu'il mangeât, ils s'y opposèrent et détachèrent le sac. Telle est leur coutume: leur chevaux ne mangent qu'à huit, et jamais ils n'en laissent manger un avant les autres, à moins que ce ne soit pour paitre l'herbe. Le chef avoit avec lui un mamelus (mamelouck) du soudan, qui étoit Cerquais (Circassien), et qui alloit dans la pays de Karman chercher un de ses frères. Cet homme, quand il me vit, seul, et ne sachant point la langue du pays, volut charitablement me servir de compagnon, et il me prit avec lui. Cependant, comme il n'avoit point de tente, nous fûmes souvent obligés de passer la nuit dans des jardins sous des arbres. Ce fut alors qu'il me fallut apprendre à coucher sur la dure, à ne boire que de l'eau, à m'asseoir à terre, les jambes croisées. Cette posture me coûta d'abord beaucoup; mais ce à quoi j'eus plus de peine encore à m'accoutumer, fut d'être à cheval avec des étriers courts. Dans le commencemens je souffrois si fort, que, quand j'étois descendu, je ne pouvois remonter sans aide, tant les jarrets me faisoient mal; mais lorsque j'y fus accoutumé, cette manière me parut plus commode que la nôtre. Dès le jour même je soupai avec mon mamelouck, et nous n'eumes que du pain, du fromage et du lait. J'avois, pour manger, une nappe, à la mode des gens riches du pays. Elles ont quatre pieds de diamètre, et sont rondes, avec des coulisses tout autour; de sorte qu'on peut les fermer comme une bourse. Veulent-ils manger, ils les étendent; ont-ils mangé, ils les resserrent, et y renferment tout ce qui reste, sans vouloir rien perdre, ni une miette de pain, ni un grain de raisin. Mais ce que j'ai remarqué, c'est qu'après leur repas, soit qu'il fut bon, soit qu'il fut mauvais, jamais ils ne manquoient de remercier Dieu tout haut. Balbec est une bonne ville, bien fermée de murs, et assez marchande. Au centre étoit un château, fait de très-grosses pierres. Maintenant il renferme une mosquée dans laquelle est, dit-on, une tête humaine qui a des yeux si énormes, qu'un homme passeroit aisément la sienne à travers leur ouverture. Je ne puis assurer le fait, attendu que pour entrer dans la mosquée il faut être Sarrasin. De Balbec nous allâmes à Hamos, et campâmes sur une rivière. Ce fut là que je vis comment ils campent et tendent leurs pavillons. Les tentes ne sont ni très-hautes ni très-grandes; de sorte qu'il ne faut qu'un homme pour les dresser, et que six à huit personnes peuvent s'y tenir à l'aise pendant les chaleurs du jour. Dans le cours de la journée ils en ôtent le bas, afin de donner passage à l'air. La nuit, ils le remettent pour avoir plus chaud. Un seul chameau en porte sept ou huit avec leurs mâts. Il y en a de très-belles. Mon compagnon, le mamelouck, et moi, qui n'en avions point, nous allâmes nous établir dans un jardin. Il y vint aussi deux Turquemans (Turcomans) de Satalie, qui revenoient de la Mecque, et qui soupèrent avec nous. Mais quand ces deux hommes me virent bien vêtu, ayant bon cheval, belle épée, bon tarquais, ils proposèrent au mamelouck, ainsi que lui-même me l'avoua par la suite lorsque nous nous séparâmes, de se défaire de moi, vu que j'étois chrétien et indigne d'être dans leur compagnie. II répondît que, puisque j'avois mangé avec eux le pain et le sel, ce seroit un crime; que leur loi le leur défendoit, et qu'après tout Dieu faisoit les chrétiens comme les Sarrasins. Néanmoins ils persistèrent dans leur projet; et comme je témoignois le desir de voir Halep, la ville la plus considérable de Syrie après Damas, ils me pressèrent de me joindre à eux. Moi qui ne savois rien de leur dessein, j'acceptai; et je suis convaincu, aujourd'hui qu'ils ne vouloient que me couper la gorge. Mais le mamelouck leur défendit de venir davantage avec nous, et par-là il me sauva la vie. Nous étions partis de Balbec deux heures avant le jour, et notre caravane étoit compsée de quatre à cinq cents personnes, et de six ou sept cents chameaux et mulets, parce qu'elle portoit beaucoup d'épices. Voici leur manière de se mettre en marche. Il y a dans la troupe une très-grande nacquaire (très grosse timbale). Au moment où le chef veut qu'on parte, il fait frapper trois coups. Aussitôt tout le monde s'apprête, et à mesure que chacun est prêt, il se met à la file sans dire un seul mot: Et feront plus de bruit dix d'entre nous que mil de ceux-là. On marche ainsi en silence, à moins que ce ne soit la nuit, et que quelqu'un ne veuille chanter une chanson de gestes.[Footnote: On appeloit en France chansons de gestes celles qui célébroient les gestes et belles actions des anciens héros.] Au point du jour, deux ou trois d'entre eux, fort éloignés les uns des autres, crient et se répondent, comme on le fait sur les mosquées aux heures d'usage. Enfin, peu après, et avant le lever du soleil, les gens dévots font leurs prières et ablutions ordinaires. Pour ces ablutions, s'ils sont auprès d'un ruisseau, ils descendent de cheval, se mettent les pieds nus, et se lavant les mains, les pieds, le visage et tous les conduits du corps. S'ils n'ont pas de ruisseau, ils passent la main sur ces parties. Le dernier d'entre eux se lave la bouche et l'ouverture opposée, après quoi il se tourne vers le midi. Tous alors lèvent deux doigts en l'air; ils se prosternent et baisent la terre trois fois, puis ils se relèvent et font leurs prières. Ces ablutions leur ont été ordonnées en lieu de confession. Les gens de distinction, pour n'y point manquer, portent toujours en voyage des bouteilles de cuir pleines d'eau: on les attache sous le ventre des chameaux et des chevaux, et ordinairement elles sont très-belles. Ces peuples s'accroupissent, pour uriner, comme les femmes; après quoi ils se frottent le canal contre une pierre, contre un mur ou quelque autre chose. Quant à l'autre besoin, jamais après l'avoir satisfait ils ne s'essuient. Hamos (Hems), bonne ville, bien fermée de murailles avec des fossés glacés (en glacis), est située dans une plaine sur une petite rivière. Là vient aboutir la plaine de Noë, qui s'étend, dit-on, jusqu'en Berse. C'est par elle que déboucha ce Tamerlan qui prit et détruisit tant de villes. A l'extrémité de la ville est un beau château, construit sur une hauteur, et tout en glacis jusqu'au pied du mur. De Hamos nous vinmes à Hamant (Hama). Le pays est beau; mais je n'y vis que peu d'habitans, excepté les Arabes qui rebâtissoient quelques-uns des villages détruits. Je trouvai dans Hamant un marchand de Venise nommé Laurent Souranze. Il m'accueillit, me logea chez lui, et me fit voir la ville et le chateau. Elle est garnie de bonnes tours, close de fortes et épaisses murailles, et construite, comme le chateau de Provins, sur une roche, dans laquelle on a creusé au ciseau des fossés fort profonds. A l'une des extrémités se voit le château, beau et fort, tout en glacis jusqu'au pied du mur, et construit sur une élévation. Il est entouré d'une citadelle qu'il domine, et baigné par une rivière qu'on dit être l'une des quatre qui sortent du paradis terrestre. Si le fait est vrai, je l'ignore. Tout ce que je sais, c'est qu'elle descend entre le levant et le midi, plus près du premier que du second, (est-sud-est), et qu'elle va se perdre à Antioche. Là est la roue la plus haute et la plus grande que j'aie vue de ma vie. Elle est mise en mouvement par la rivière, et fournit à la consommation des habitans, quoique leur nombre soit considérable, la quantité d'eau qui leur est nécessaire. Cette eau tombe en une auge creusée dans la roche du chateau; de là elle se porte vers la ville et en parcourt les rues dans un canal formé par de grands piliers carrés qui ont douze pieds de haut sur deux de large. Il me manquoit encore différentes choses pour être, en tout comme mes compagnons de voyage. Le namelouck m'en avoit averti, et mon hôte Laurent me mena lui-même au bazar pour en faire l'acquisition. C'étoient de petites coiffes de soie à la mode des Turcomans, un bonnet pour mettre sous la coiffe, des cuillères Turques, des couteaux avec leur fusil, un peigne avec son étui, et un gobelet de cuir. Tout celle s'attache et se suspend à l'épée. J'achetai aussi des pouçons [Footnote: Sorte de doigtier qu'on mettoit au pouce, afin de le garantir et de le défendra de l'impression de la corde.] pour tirer de l'arc, un tarquais nouveau tout garni, pour épargner le mien, qui étoit très-beau, et que je voulois conserver; enfin un capinat: c'est une robe de feutre, blanche, très-fine, et impénétrable à la pluie. En route je m'étois lié avec quelques-uns de mes compagnons de caravane. Ceux ci, quand ils surent que j'étois logé chez un Franc, vinrent me trouver pour me demander de leur procurer du vin. Le vin leur est défendu par leur loi, et ils n'auroient osé en boire devant les leurs; mais ils espéroient le faire sans risque chez un Franc, et cependant ils revenoient de la Mecque. J'en parlai à mon hôte Laurent, qui me dit qu'il ne l'oseroit, parce que, si la chose étoit sue, il courroit les plus grands dangers. J'allai leur rendre cette réponse; mais ils en avoient déja cherché ailleurs, et venoient d'en trouver chez un Grec. Ils me proposèrent donc, soit par pure amitié, soit pour être autorisé, auprès du Grec à boire, d'aller avec eux chez lui, et je les y accompagnai. Cet homme nous conduisit dans une petite galerie, où nous nous assîmes par terre, en cercle, tous les six. Il posa d'abord au milieu de nous un grand et beau plat de terre, qui eût pu contenir au moins huit lots (seize pintes); ensuite il apporta pour chacun de nous un pot plein de vin, le versa dans le vase, et y mit deux écuelles de terre qui devoient nous servir de gobelets. Un de la troupe commença la premier, et il but à son compagnon, selon l'usage du pays. Celui-ci en fit de même pour son suivant, et ainsi des autres. Nous bûmes de cette manière, et sans manger, pendant fort long-temps. Enfin, quand je m'aperçus que je ne pouvois pas continuer davantage sans m'incommoder, je les suppliai a mains jointes de m'en dispenser; mais ils se fachèrent beaucoup, et se plaignirent, comme si j'avois résolu d'interrempre leurs plaisirs et de leur faire tort. Heureusement il yen avoit un parmi eux qui étoit plus lié avec moi, et qui m'aimoit tant qu'il m'appeloit kardays, c'est-à-dire frère. Celui-ci s'offrit à prendre ma place, et à boire pour moi quand ce seroit mon tour. Cette offre les satisfit; ils l'acceptèrent, et la partie continua jusqu'au soir, où-il nous fallut retourner au kan. Le chef étoit en ce moment assis sur un siége de pierre, et il avoit devant lui un fallot allumé. Il ne lui fut pas difficile de diviner d'où nous venions: aussi y eut-il quatre de mes camarades qui s'esquivèrent; il n'en resta qu'un avec moi. Je dis tout ceci, afin de prévenir les personnes qui, demain ou un jour quelconque, voyageroient, ainsi que moi, dans leur pays, qu'elles se gardent bien de boire avec eux, à moins qu'elles ne veuillent être obligées d'en prendre jusqu'à ce qu'elles tombent à terre. Le mamelouck ne savoit rien de ma débauche. Pendant ce temps il avoit acheté une oie pour nous deux. Il venoit de la faire bouillir, et, au défaut de verjus, il l'avoit accommodée avec des feuilles vertes de porreaux. J'en mangeai avec lui, et elle nous dura trois jours. J'aurois bien desiré voir Alep; mais la caravane n'y allant point et se rendant directement à Antioche, il fallut y renoncer. Cependant, comme elle ne devoit se mettre en marche que deux jours après, le mamelouck fut d'avis que nous prissions tous deux les devants, afin de trouver plus aisément à nous loger. Quatre autres camarades, marchands Turcs, demandèrent à être des nôtres, et nous partîmes tous six ensemble. A une demi-lieue de Hama, nous trouvames la rivière et nous la passames sur un pont. Elle étoit débordée, quoiqu'il n'eût point plu. Mois, je voulus y faire boire mon cheval; mais la rive étoit escarpée et l'eau profonde, et infailliblement je m'y serois noyé si le mamelouck n'étoit venu à mon secours. Au delà du fleuve est une longue et vaste plaine qui dure toute une journée. Nous y rencontrames six à huit Turcomans accompagnés d'une femme. Elle portoit la tarquais ainsi qu'eux; et, à ce sujet, on me dit que celles de cette nation sont braves et qu'en guerre elles combattent comme les hommes. On ajouta même, et ceci m'étonna bien davantage, qu'il y en a environ trente mille qui portent ainsi le tarquais, et qui sont soumises à un seigneur nommé Turcgadiroly, lequel habite les montagnes d'Arménie, sur les frontières de la Perse. La seconde journée fut à travers un pays de montagnes. Il est assez beau quoique peu arrosé; mais par tout on ne voyoit que des habitations détruites. Tout en le traversant, mon mamelouck m'apprit à tirer de l'arc, et il me fit acheter des pouçons et des anneaux pour tirer. Enfin nous arrivâmes à un village riche en bois, en vignobles, en terres à blé, mais qui n'avoit d'autres eaux que celles de citernes. Ce canton paroissoit avoir été habité autrefois par des chrétiens, et j'avoue qu'on me fit un grand plaisir quand on me dit que tout cela avoit été aux Francs, et qu'on me montra pour preuve des églises abattues. Nous y logeames; et ce fut la première fois que je vis des habitations de Turcomans, et des femmes de cette nation à visage découvert. Ordinairement elles le cachent sous un morceau d'étamine noire, et celles qui sont riches y portent attachées des pièces de monnoie et des pierres précieuses. Les hommes sont bons archers. J'en vis plusieurs tirer de l'arc. Ils tirent assis et à but court: ce peu d'espace donne à leurs flèches une grande rapidité. Au sortir de la Syrie on entre dans la Turcomanie, que nous appellons Arménie. La capitale est une très-grande ville qu'ils nomment Antéquayé, et nous Antioche. Elle fut jadis très-florissante et a encore de beaux murs bien entiers, qui renferment un très-grand espace et même des montagnes. Mais on n'y compte point à présent plus de trois cents maisons. Au midi elle est bornée par une montagne, au nord par un grand lac, au-delà duquel on trouve un beau pays bien ouvert. Le long des murs coule la rivière qui vient de Hama. Presque tous les habitans sont Turcomans ou Arabes, et leur état est d'élever des troupeaux, tels que chameaux, chèvres, vaches et brebis. Ces chèvres, les plus belles que j'aie jamais vues, sont la plupart blanches; elles n'ont point comme celles dé Syrie, les oreilles pendantes, et portent une laine longue douce et crépue. Les moutons ont de grosses et larges queues. On y nourrit aussi des ânes sauvages qu'on apprivoise et qui, avec un poil, des oreilles et une tête pareils à ceux de cerf, ont comme lui la pied fendu. J'ignore s'ils ont son cri, car je ne les ai point entendus crier. Ils sont beaux, fort grands, et vont avec les autres bêtes; mais je n'ai point vu qu'on les montat. [Footnote: Cet animal ne peut être un âne, puisqu'il a le pied fendu et que l'âne ne l'a point. C'est probablement une espèce de gazelle, ou plutôt un bubale.] Pour le transport de leurs marchandises, les habitans se servent de boeufs et de buffles, comme nous nous servons de chevaux. Ils les emploient aussi en montures; et j'en ai vu des troupes dans lesquelles les uns étoient chargés de marchandises, et les autres étoient montés. Le seigneur de ce pays étoit Ramedang, prince riche, brave et puissant. Pendant longtemps il se rendit si redoutable que le soudan le craignois et n'osoit l'irriter. Mais le soudan voulut le détruire, et dans ce dessein, il s'entendit avec le karman, qui pouvoit mieux que personne tromper Ramedang, puisqu'il lui avoit donné sa soeur en mariage. En effet, un jour qu'ils mangoient ensemble, il l'arrêta et le livra au soudan, qui le fît mourrir et s'empara de la Turcomanie, dont cependant il donna un portion au karman. Au sortir d'Antioche, je repris ma route avec mon mamelouck; et d'abord nous eûmes à passer une montagne nommée Nègre, sur laquelle on me montra trois ou quatre beaux châteaux ruinés, qui jadis avoient appartenu à des chrétiens. Le chemin est beau et sans cesse on y est parfumé par les lauriers nombreux qu'elle produit; mais la descente en est une fois plus rapide que la montée. Elle aboutit au golfe qu'on nomme d'Asacs, et que nous autres nous appellons Layaste, parce qu'en effet c'est la ville d'Ayas qui lui donne son nom. Il s'étend entre deux montagnes, et s'avance dans les terres l'espace d'environ quinze milles. Sa largeur à l'occident m'a paru être de douze; mais sur cet article je m'en rapporte à la carte marine. Au pied de la montagne, près du chemin et sur le bord de la mer, sont les restes d'un château fort, qui du côté de la terre étoit défendu par un marécage; de sorte qu'on ne pouvoit y aborder que par mer, ou par une chaussée étroite qui traversoit le marais. Il étoit inhabité, mais en avant s'étoient établis des Turcomans. Ils occupoient cent vingt pavillons, les uns de feutre, les autre de coton bleu et blanc, tous très-beaux, tous assez grands pour loger à l'aise quinze ou seize personnes. Ce sont leurs maisons, et, comme nous dans les notres, ils y font tout leur ménage, à l'exception du feu. Nous nous arrêtames chez eux. Ils vinrent placer devant nous une de ces nappes à coulisses dont j'ai parlé, et dans laquelle il y avoit encore des miettes de pain, des fragmens de fromage et des grains de raisin. Après quoi ils nous apportèrent une douzaine de pains plats avec un grand quartier de lait caillé, qu'ils appellent yogort. Ces pains, larges d'un pied, sont ronds et plus mince que des oublies. On les plie en cornet, comme une oublie à pointes, et on les mange avec le caillé. Une lieue au-delà étoit une petit karvassera (caravanserai) où nous logeâmes. Ces établisemens consistent en maisons, comme les kans de Syrie. En route, dans le cours de la journée j'avois rencontré un Ermin (Arménien) qui parloit un peu Italien. S'étant aperçu que j'étois chrétien, il se lia de conversation avec moi, et me conta beaucoup de détails, tant sur le pays et les habitans, que sur le soudan et ce Ramedang, seigneur de Turchmanie, dont je viens de faire mention. Il me dit que ce dernier étoit un homme de haute taille, très-brave, et le plus habile de tous les Turcs à manier la masse et l'épée. Sa mère étoit une chrétienne, qui l'avoit fait baptiser à la loi Grégoise (selon le rît des Grecs) "pour lui oster le flair et la senteur que ont ceulx qui ne sont point baptisez." [Footnote: Les chrétiens d'Asie croyoient de bonne foi que les infidèles avoient une mauvaise odeur qui leur étoit particulière, et qu'ils perdoient par le baptême. Il sera encore parlé plus bas de cette superstition. Ce baptême étoit, selon la loi Grégoise, par immersion.] Mais il n'étoit ni bon chrétien ni bon Sarrasin; et quand on lui parloit des deux prophètes Jésus et Mahomet, il disoit: Moi, je suis pour les prophètes vivans, il me seront plus utiles que ceux qui sont morts. Ses Etats touchoient d'un côté à ceux du karman, dont il avoit épousé la soeur; de l'autre à la Syrie, qui appartenoit au soudan. Toutes les fois que par son pays passoit un des sujets de celui-ci, il en exigeoit des péages. Mais enfin le soudan obtint du karman, comme je l'ai dit, qu'il le lui livreroit; et aujourd'hui il possède toute la Turcomanîe jusqu'à Tharse et même une journée par-de-là. Ce jour-là nous logeâmes de nouveau chez des Turcomans, où l'on nous servit, encore du lait; et l'Arménien nous y accompagna. Ce fut là que je vis faire par des femmes ces pains minces et plats dont j'ai parlé. Voici comment elles s'y prennent. Elles ont une petite table ronde, bien unie, y jettent un peu de farine qu'elles détrempent avec de l'eau et en font une pâte plus molle que celle du pain. Cette pâte, elles la partagent en plusieurs morceaux ronds, qu'elles aplatissent autant qu'il leur est possible avec un rouleau en bois, d'un diamètre un peu moindre que celui d'un oeuf, jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient amincis au point que j'ai dit. Pendant ce temps elles ont une plaque de fer convexe, qui est posée sur un trépied et échauffée en dessous par un feu doux. Elles y étendent la feuille de pâte et la retournent tout aussitôt, de sorte qu'elles ont plus-tôt fait deux de leurs pains qu'un oublieur chez nous n'a fait une oublie. J'employai deux jours à traverser le pays qui est autour du golfe. Il est fort beau, et avoit autrefois beaucoup de châteaux qui appartenoient aux chrétiens, et qui maintenant sont détruits. Tel est celui qu'on voit en avant d'Ayas, vers le levant. Il n'y a dans la contrée que des Turcomans. Ce sont de beaux hommes, excellens archers et vivant de peu. Leurs habitations sont rondes comme des pavillons et couvertes de feutre. Ils demeurent toujours en plein champ, et ont un chef auquel ils obéissent; mais ils changent souvent de place, et alors ils emportent avec eux leurs maisons. Leur coutume dans ce cas est de se soumettre au seigneur sur les terres duquel ils s'établissent, et même de le servir de leurs armes s'il a guerre. Mais s'ils quittent ses domaines et qu'ils passent sur ceux de son ennemi, ils serviront celui-ci à son tour contre l'autre, et on ne leur en sait pas mauvais gré, parce que telle est leur coutume et qu'ils sont errans. Sur ma route je rencontrai un de leurs chefs qui voloit (chassoit au vol) avec des faucons et prenoit des oies privées. On me dit qu'il pouvoit bien avoir sous ses ordres dix mille Turcomans. Le pays est favorable pour la chasse, et coupé par beaucoup de petites rivières qui descendent des montagnes et se jettent dans le golfe. On y trouve sur-tout beaucoup de sangliers. Vers le milieu du golfe, sur le chemin de terre, est un défilé formé par une roche sur laquelle on passe, et qui se trouve à deux portées d'arc de la mer. Jadis ce passage étoit défendu par un château qui le rendoit très-fort. Aujourd'hui il est abandonné. Au sortir, de cette gorge on entre dans une belle et grande plaine, peuplée de Turcomans. Mais l'Arménien mon compagnon me montra sur une montagne un château où il n'y avoit, disoit-il, que des gens de sa nation, et dont les murs sont arrosés par une rivière nommée Jéhon. Nous côtoyâmes la rivière jusqu'à une ville qu'on nomme Misse-sur-Jehon, parce qu'elle la traverse. Misse, située à quatre journées d'Antioche, appartint à des chrétiens et fut une cité importante. On y voit encore plusieurs églises à moitié détruites et dont il ne reste plus d'entier que le choeur de la grande, qu'on a converti en mosquée. Le pont est en bois, parce que le premier a été détruit, aussi. Enfin, des deux moitiés de la ville, l'une est totalement en ruines; l'autre a conservé ses murs et environ trois cents maisons qui sont remplies par des Turcomans. De Misse à Adève (Adène) le pays continue d'être uni et beau; et ce sont encore des Turcomans qui l'habitent. Adène est à deux journées de Misse, et je me proposois d'y attendre la caravane. Elle arriva. J'allai avec le mamelouck et quelques autres personnes, dont plusieurs étoient de gros marchands, loger près du pont, entre la rivière et les murs; et ce fut là que je vis comment les Turcs font leurs prières et leurs sacrifices; car non seulement ils ne se cachoient point de moi, mais ils paroissoient même contens quand "je disois mes patrenostre, qui leur sambloit merveilles. Je leur ouys dire acunes fois leus heures en chantant, à l'entrée de la nuit, et se assiéent à la réonde (en rond) et branlent le corps et la teste, et chantent bien sauvaigement." Un jour ils me menèrent avec eux aux étuves et aux bains de la ville; et comme je refusai de me baigner, parce qu'il eût fallu me déshabiller et que je craignois de montrer mon argent, ils me donnèrent leurs robes à garder. Depuis ce moment nous fûmes très-liés ensemble. La maison du bain est fort élevée et se termine par un dôme, dans lequel a été pratiquée une ouverture circulaire qui éclaire tout l'interieur. Les étuves et les bains sont beaux et très-propres. Quand ceux qui se baignent sortent de l'eau, ils viennent s'asseoir sur de petites claies d'osier fin, où ils s'essuient et peignent leur barbe. C'est dans Adène que je vis pour la première fois les deux jeunes gens qui à la Mecque s'étoient fait crever les yeux après avoir vu la sépulture de Mahomet. Les Turcs sont gens de fatigue, d'une vie dure, et à qui il ne coute rien, ainsi que je l'ai vu tout le long de la route, de dormir sur la terre commes les animaux. Mais ils sont d'humeur gaie et joyeuse, et chantent volontiers chansons de gestes. Aussi quelqu'un qui veut vivre avec eux ne doit être ni triste ni rêveur, mais avoir toujours le visage riant. Du reste, ils sont gens de bonne foi et charitables les uns envers les autres. "J'ay veu bien souvent, quant nous mengions, que s'il passoit ung povre homme auprès d'eulx, faisoient venir mengier avec nous: ce que nous, ne fésiesmes point." Dans beaucoup d'endroits j'ai trouvé qu'ils ne cuisent point leur pain la moitié de ce que l'est le nôtre. Il est mou, et à moins d'y être accoutumé, on a bien de la peine à le mâcher. Pour leur viande, ils la mangent crue, séchée au soleil. Cependant quand une de leurs bêtes, cheval ou chameau, est en danger de mort ou sans espoir, ils l'égorgent et la mangent non crue, un peu cuite. Ils sont très-propres dans l'apprêt de leurs viandes; mais ils mangent très-salement. Ils tiennent de même fort, proprement leur barbe; mais jamais ils ne se lavent les mains que quand ils se baignent, qu'ils veulent faire leur prière, ou qu'ils se lavent la barbe ou le derrière. Adène est une assez bonne ville marchande, bien fermée de murailles, située en bon pays et assez voisine de la mer. Sur ses murs passe une grosse rivière qui vient des hautes montagnes d'Arménie et qu'on nomme Adena. Elle a un pont fort long et le plus large que j'aie jamais vu. Ses habitans et son amiral (son seigneur, son prince) sont Turcomans: cet amiral est le frère de ce brave Ramedang que le soudan fit mourir ainsi que je l'a raconté. On m'a dit même que le soudan a entre les mains son fils, et qu'il n'ose le laisser retourner en Turcomanie. D'Adène j'allai à Therso que nous appellons Tharse. Le pays, fort beau encore, quoique voisin des montagnes, est habité par des Turcomans, dont les uns logent dans des villages et les autres sous des pavillons. Le canton ou est bâtie Tharse abonde en blé, vins, bois et eaux. Elle fut une ville fameuse, et l'on y voit encore de très-anciens édifices. Je crois que c'est celle qu'assiégea Baudoin, frère de Godefroi de Bouillon. Aujourd'hui elle a un amiral nommé par le soudan, et il y demeure plusieurs Maures. Elle est défendue par un château, par des fossés à glacis et par une double enceinte de murailles, qui en certains endroits est triple. Une petite rivière la traverse, et à peu de distance il en coule une autre. J'y trouvai un marchand de Cypre, nomme Antoine, qui depuis long-temps demeuroit dans le pays et en savoit bien la languei. Il m'en parla pertinemment; mais il me fit un autre plaisir, celui de me donner de bon vin, car depuis plusieurs jours je n'en avois point bu. Tharse n'est qu'à soixante milles du Korkène (Curco), château construit sur la mer, et qui appartient au roi de Cypre. Dans tout ce pays on parle Turc, et on commence même à le parler dès Antioche, qui est, comme je l'ai dit, la capitale de Turcomanie. "C'est un très-beau langaige, et brief, et bien aisié pour aprendre." Comme nous avions à traverser les hautes montagnes d'Arménie, Hoyarbarach, le chef de notre caravane, voulut qu'elle fût toute réunie; et dans ce dessein il attendit quelques jours. Enfin nous partîmes la veille de la Toussaint. Le mamelouck m'avoit conseillé de m'approvisioner pour quatre journées. En conséquence j'achetai pour moi une provision de pain et de fromage, et pour mon cheval une autre d'orge et de paille. Au sortir de Tharse je fis encore trois lieues Françaises à travers un beau pays de plaines, peuplé de Turcomans; mais enfin j'entrai dans les montagnes, montagnes les plus hautes que j'aie encore vues. Elles enveloppent par trois côtés tout le pays que j'avois parcouru depuis Antioche. L'autre partie est fermée au midi par la mer. D'abord on a des bois à traverser. Ce chemin dure tout un jour, et il n'est pas malaisé. Nous logeâmes le soir dans un passage étroit où il me parut que jadis il y avoît eu un château. La seconde journée n'eut point de mauvaise route encore, et nous vînmes passer la nuit dans un caravanserai. La troisième, nous côtoyâmes constamment une petite rivière, et vîmes dans les montagnes une multitude immense de perdrix griaches. Notre halte du soir fut dans une plaine d'environ une lieue de longueur sur un quart de large. Là se rencontrent quatre grandes combes (vallées). L'une est celle par laquelle nous étions venus; l'autre, qui perce au nord, tire vers le pays du seigneur, qu'on appelle Turcgadirony, et vers la Perse; la troisième s'étend au Levant, et j'ignore si elle conduit de même à la Perse; la dernière enfin est au couchant, et c'est celle que j'ai prise, et qui m'a conduit au pays du karman. Chacune des quatre a une rivière, et les quatre rivières se rendent dans ce dernier pays. Il neigea beaucoup pendant la nuit. Pour garantir mon cheval, je le couvris avec mon capinat, cette robe de feutre qui me servoit de manteau. Mais moi j'eus froid, et il me prit une maladie qui est malhonnête (le dévoiement): j'eusse même été en danger, sans mon mamelouck, qui me secourut et qui me fit sortir bien vite de ce lieu. Nous partîmes donc de grand matin tous deux, et entrâmes dans les hautes montagnes. Il y a là un château nommé Cublech, le plus élevé que je connoisse. On le voit à une distance de deux journées. Quelquefois cependant on lui tourne le dos, à cause des détours qu'occasionnent les montagnes; quelquefois aussi on cesse de le voir, parce qu'il est caché par des hauteurs: mais on ne peut pénétrer au pays du karman qu'en passant au pied de celle où il est bâti. Le passage est étroit. Il a fallu même en quelques parties l'ouvrir au ciseau; mais par-tout il est dominé par le Cublech. Ce château, le dernier [Footnote: Ce mot dernier signifie probablement ici le plus reculé, le plus éloigné à la frontière.] de ceux qu'ont perdus les Arméniens, appartient aujourd'hui au karman, qui l'a eu en partage à la mort de Ramedang. Ces montagnes sont couvertes de neige en tout temps, et il n'y a qu'un passage pour les chevaux, quoiqu'on y trouve de temps en temps de jolies petites plaines. Elles sont dangereuses, par les Turcomans qui y sont répandus; mais pendant les quatre jours de marche que j'y ai faite, je n'y ai pas vu une seule habitation. Quand on quitte les montagnes d'Arménie pour entrer dans le pays du karman, on en trouve d'autres qu'il faut traverser encore. Sur l'une de celles-ci est une gorge avec un château nommé Lève, où l'on paie au karman un droit de passage. Ce péage étoit affermé à un Grec, qui, en me voyant, me reconnut à mes traits pour chrétien, et m'arrêta. Si j'avois été obligé de retourner, j'étois un homme mort, et on me l'a dit depuis: avant d'avoir fait une demi lieue j'eusse été égorgé; car là caravane étpit encore fort loin. Heureusement mon mamelouk gagna le Grec, et, moyennant deux ducats que je lui donnai, il me livra passage. Plus loin est le château d'Asers, et par-de-là le château une ville nommée Araclie (Erégli). En débouchant des montagnes on entre dans un pays aussi uni que la mer; cependant on y voit encore vers la trémontane (le nord) quelques hauteurs qui, semées d'espace en espace, semblent des îles au milieu des flots. C'est dans cette plaine qu'est Erégli, ville autrefois fermée, et aujourd'hui dans un grand délabrement. J'y trouvai au moins des vivres; car, dans mes quatre jours de marche depuis Tharse, la route ne m'avoit offert que de l'eau. Les environs de la ville sont couverts de villages habités en très-grande partie par des Turcomans. Au sortir d'Erégli nous trouvâmes deux gentilshommes du pays qui paroissoient gens de distinction; ils firent beaucoup d'amitié au mamelouck, et le menèrent, pour le régaler à un village voisin dont les habitations son toutes creusées dans le roc. Nous y passâmes la nuit; mais moi je fus obligé de passer dans une caverne le reste du jour, pour y garder nos chevaux. Quand le mamelouck revint, il me dit que ces deux hommes lui avoient demandé qui j'étois, et qu'il leur avoit répondu, en leur donnant le change, que j'étois un Circassien qui ne savoit point parler Arabe. D'Erégli à Larande, où nous allâmes, il y a deux journées. Cette ville-ci, quoique non close, est grande, marchande et bien située. Il y avoit autrefois au centre un grand et fort château dont on voit encore les portes, qui sont en fer et très-belles; mais les murs sont abbatus. D'une ville à l'autre on a, comme je l'ai dit, un beau pays plat; et depuis Lève je n'ai pas vu un seul arbre qui fût en rase campagne. Il y avoit à Larande deux gentilshommes de Cypre, dont l'un s'appelloit Lyachin Castrico; l'autre, Léon Maschero, et qui tous deux parloient assez bien Français. [Footnote: Les Lusignan, devenus rois de Cypre sur la fin du douzième siècle, avoient introduit dans cette île la langue Française. C'est en Cypre, au passage de saint Louis pour sa croisade d'Egypte que fut fait et publié ce code qu'on appela Assises de Jérusalem, et qui devint le code des Cypriots. La langue Française continua d'être celle de la cour et des gens bien élevés.] Ils me demandèrent quelle étoit ma patrie, et comment je me trouvais là. Je leur répondis que j'étois serviteur de monseigneur de Bourgogne, que je venois de Jérusalem et de Damas, et que j'avoîs suivi la caravane. Ils me parurent très-emerveillés de ce que j'avois pu passer; mais quand ils m'eurent demandé où j'allois, et que j'ajoutai que je retournois par terre en France vers mondit seigneur, ils me dirent que c'étoit chose impossible, et que, quand j'aurois mille vies, je les perdrois toutes. En conséquence ils me proposèrent de retourner en Cypre avec eux. Il y avoit dans l'ile deux galères qui étoient venues y chercher la soeur de roi, accordé en mariage au fils de monseigneur de Savoie, [Footnote: Louis, fils d'Amédée VIII. duc de Savoie. Il épousa en 1432 Anne de Lusignan fille de Jean II, roi de Cypre, mort au mois de Juin, et soeur de Jean III, qui alors étoit sur le trône.] et ils ne doutoient point que le roi, par amour et honneur pour monseigneur de Bourgogne, ne m'y accordât passage. Je leur répondis que puisque Dieu m'avoit fait la grace d'arriver à Larande, il me feroit probablement celle d'aller plus loin, et qu'au reste j'étois résolu d'achever mon voyage ou d'y mourir. A mon tour je leur demandai où ils alloient. Ils me dirent que leur roi venoit de mourir; que pendant sa vie il avoit toujours entretenu trève avec le grand karman, et que le jeune roi et son conseil les envoyoit vers lui pour renouveller l'alliance. Moi, qui étois curieux de connoître ce grand prince que sa nation considère comme nous notre roi, je les priai de permettre que je les accompagnasse; et ils y consentirent. Je trouvai à Larande un autre Cypriot. Celui-ci, nommé Perrin Passerot, et marchand, demeuroit depuis quelque temps dans le pays. Il étoit de Famagouste, et en avoit été banni, parce qu'avec un de ses frères il avoit tenté de remettre dans les mains du roi cette ville, qui étoit dans celles des Génois. Mon mamelouck venoit de recontrer aussi cinq ou six de ses compatriotes. C'étoient de jeunes esclaves Circassiens que l'on conduisoit au soudan. Il voulut à leur passage les régaler; et comme il avoit appris qu'il se trouvoit à Larande des chrétiens, et qu'il soupçonnoit qu'ils auroient du vin, il me pria de lui en procurer. Je cherchai tant que, moyennant la moitié d'un ducat, je trouvai à en acheter demi-peau de chèvre (une demi-outre), et je la lui donnai. Il montra en la recevant une joie extrême, et alla aussitôt trouver ses camarades, avec lesquelles il passa la nuit tout entière à boire. Pour lui, il en prit tant que le lendemain, dans la route, il manqua d'en mourir; mais il se guérit par une méthode qui leur est propre: dans ces cas-là, ils ont une très-grande bouteille pleine d'eau, et à mesure que leur estomac se vide et se débarrasse, ils boivent de l'eau tant qu'ils peuvent en avaler, comme s'ils vouloient rincer une bouteille, puis ils la rendent et en avalent d'autre. Il employa ainsi à se laver tout le temps de la route jusqu'à midi, et il fut gueri entièrement. De Larande nous allâmes à Qulongue, appelée par les Grecs Quhonguopoly. [Footnote: Plus bas le copiste a écrit Quohongue et Quhongue. J'écrirai désormais Couhongue.] Il y a d'un lien à l'autre deux journées. Le pays est beau et bien garni de villages; mais il manque d'eau, et n'a, ni d'autres arbres que ceux qu'on a plantés près des habitations pour avoir du fruit, ni d'autre rivière que celle qui coule près de la ville. Cette ville, grande, marchande, défendue par des fossés en glacis et par de bonnes murailles garnies de tours, est la meilleure qu'ait le karman. Il lui reste un petit château. Jadis elle en avoit un très-fort, qui étoit construit au centre. On l'a jeté bas pour y bâtir le palais du roî. [Footnote: L'auteur, d'après ses préjugés Européens, emploie ici le mot roi pour désigner le prince, le souverain du pays.] Je restai là quatre jours, afin de donner le temps à l'ambassadeur de Cypre, et à la caravane d'arriver. Il arriva, ainsi qu'elle. Alors j'allai demander à l'ambassadeur que, quand il iroit saluer le karman, il me permît de me joindre à sa suite, et il me promit. Cependant il avoit parmi ses esclaves quatre Grecs de Cypre renégats, dont l'un étoit son huissier d'armes, et qui tous quatre firent auprès de lui des efforts pour l'en détourner; mais il leur répondit qu'il n'y voyoit point d'inconvénient: d'ailleurs j'en avois témoigné tant d'envie qu'il se fit un plaisir de m'obliger. On vint le prévenir de l'heure à laquelle il pourroit faire sa révérence au roi, lui exposer le sujet de son ambassade, et offrir ses présens; car c'est une coutume au-delà des mers qu'on ne paroit jamais devant un prince sans en apporter quelques-uns. Les siens étoient six pièces de camelot de Cypre, je ne sais combien d'aunes d'écarlate, une quarantaine de pains de sucre, un faucon pélerin et deux arbalètes, avec une douzaine de vires. [Footnote: Vives, grosses flèches qu se lançoient avec l'arbalète.] On envoya chez lui des genets pour apporter les présens; et, pour sa monture ainsi que pour sa suite, les chevaux qu'avoient laissés à la porte du palais ceux des grands qui étoient venus faire cortège au roi pendant la cérémonie. Il en monta un, et mit pied à terre à l'entrée du palais; après quoi, nous entrâmes dans une très-grande salle où il pouvoit y avoir environ trois cents personnes. Le roi occupoit la chambre suivante, autour de laquelle étoient rangés trente esclaves, tous debout. Pour lui, il étoit dans un coin, assis sur un tapis par terre, selon la coutume du pays, vêtu de drap d'or cramoisi, et le coude appuyé sur un carreau d'une autre sorte de drap d'or. Près de lui étoit son épée; en avant, son chancelier debout, et autour, à peu de distance, trois hommes assis. D'abord on fit passer sous ses yeux les présens, qu'il parut à peine regarder; puis l'ambassadeur entra accompagné d'un trucheman, parce qu'il ne savoit point la langue Turque. Quand il eut fait sa révérence, le chancelier lui demanda la lettre dont il étoit porteur, et la lut tout haut. L'ambassadeur alors dit au roi, par son trucheman, que le roi de Cypre envoyoit le saluer, et qu'il le prioit de recevoir avec amitié les présens qu'il lui envoyoit. Le roi ne lui répondît pas un mot. On le fit asseoir par terre, à leur manière, mais audessous des trois personnes assises, et assez loin du prince. Alors celui-ci demanda comment se portoit son frère le roi de Cypre, et il lui fut répondu qu'il avoit perdu son père, qu'il envoyoit renouveler l'alliance qui du vivant du mort, avoit subsisté entré les deux pays, et que pour lui il la desiroit fort. Je la souhaite également, dit le roi. Celui-ci demanda encore à l'ambassadeur quand étoit mort le défunt, quel âge avoit son successeur, s'il étoit sage, si son pays lui obéissoit bien; et comme à ces deux dernières questions la réponse fut un oui, il témoigna en être bien-aise. Après ces paroles on dit à l'ambassadeur de se lever. Il obéit, et prit congé du roi, qui ne se remua pas plus à son départ qu'il ne l'avoit fait à son arrivée. En sortant il trouva devant le palais les chevaux qui l'avoient amené. On lui en fit de nouveau monter un pour le reconduire à sa demeure; mais à peine y fut-il arrivé que les huissiers d'armes se présentèrent à lui. En pareilles cérémonies, c'est la coutume qu'on leur distribue de l'argent, et il en donna. Il alla ensuite saluer le fils aîné du roi, et lui présenter ses présens et ses lettres. Ce prince étoit, comme son père, entouré de trois personnes assises. Mais quand l'ambassadeur lui fit la révérence, il se leva, se rassit, le fit asseoir à son tour au-dessus des trois personnages. Pour nous autres qui l'accompagnions, on nous plaça bien en arrière. Moi j'avois apperçu à l'écart un banc, sur lequel j'allai me mettre sans façon; mais on vint m'en tirer, et il me fallut plier le jarret et m'accroupir à terre avec les autres. De retour à l'hôtel, nous vîmes arriver un huissier d'armes du fils, comme nous avions vu du père. On lui donna aussi de l'argent, et au reste ces gens-là se contentent de peu. À leur tour, le roi et son fils en'envoyèrent à l'ambassadeur pour sa dépense; et c'est encore là une coutume. Le premier lui fit passer cinquante aspres, le second trente. L'aspre est la monnoie du pays: il en faut cinquante pour un ducat de Venise. Je vis le roi traverser la ville en cavalcade. C'étoit un Vendredi jour de fête pour eux, et il alloit faire sa prière. Sa garde étoit composée d'une cinquantaine de cavaliers, la plupart ses esclaves, et d'environ trente archers à pied qui l'entouroient. Il portoit une épée à sa ceinture et un tabolcan à l'arçon de sa selle, selon l'usage du pays. Lui et son fils ont été baptisés à la Grecque, pour ôter le flair (la mauvaise odeur), et l'on m'a dit même que la mère de son fils étoit chrétienne. Il en est ainsi de tous les grands, ils se font baptiser afin qu'ils ne puent point. Ses états sont considérables; ils commencent à une journée en-de-çà de Tarse; et vont jusqu'au pays d'Amurat-Bey, cet autre karman dont j'ai parlé, et que nous appelons le grand-Turc. Dans ce sens, leur largeur est, dit-on, de vingt lieues au plus; mais ils ont seize journées de long, et je le sais, moi qui les ai traversées. Au nord est, ils s'étendent, m'a-t-on dît, jusqu'aux frontières de Perse. Le karman possède aussi une côte maritime qu'on nomme les Farsats. Elle se prolonge depuis Tharse jusqu'à Courco, qui est au roi de Cypre, et à un port nommé Zabari. Ce canton produit les meilleurs marins que l'on connaisse; mais ils se sont révoltés contre lui. Le karman est un beau prince, âgé de trente-deux ans, et qui a épousé la soeur d'Amurat-Bey. Il est fort obéi dans ses états; cependant j'ai entendu des gens qui disent de lui qu'il est très-cruel, et qu'il passe peu de jours sans faire couper des nés, des pieds, des mains, ou mourir quelqu'un. Un homme est-il riche, il le condamne à mort pour s'emparer de ses biens; et j'ai oui dire qu'il s'étoit ainsi défait des plus grands de son pays. Huit jours avant mon arrivée il en avoit fait étrangler un par des chiens. Deux jours après cette exécution il avoit fait mourir une de ses femmes, la mère même de son fils aîné, qui, quand je le vis, ne savoit rien encore de ce meurtre. Les habitans de ce pays sont de mauvaises gens, voleurs, subtils et grands assassins. Ils se tuent les uns les autres, et la justice qu'il en fait ne les arrête point. Je trouvai dans Cohongue Antoine Passerot, frère de ce Perrin Passerot que j'avois vu à Larande, qui tous deux accusés d'avoir voulu remettre Famagouste sous la puissance du roi de Cypre, en avoient été bannis, ainsi que je l'ai dit; et ils s'étoient retirés dans le pays du karman, l'un à Larande, l'autre à Couhongue. Mais Antoine venoit d'avoir une mauvaise aventure. Quelquefois péché aveugle les gens: on l'avoit trouvé avec une femme de la loi Mahométane; et sur l'ordre du roi, il avoit été obligé, pour échapper à la mort, de renier la foi catholique, quoiqu'il m'ait paru encore bon chrétien. Dans nos conversations, il me conta beaucoup de particularités sur le pays, sur le caractère et le gouvernement du seigneur, et principalement sur la manière dont il avoit pris et livré Ramedang. Le karman, me dit-il, avoit un frère qu'il chassa du pays, et qui alla se réfugier et chercher asile près du soudan. Le soudan n'osoit lui déclarer la guerre; mais il le fit prévenir que s'il ne lui livroit Ramedang, il enverroit son frère avec des troupes la lui faire. Le karman n'hésita point, et plutôt que d'avoir son frère à combattre, il fit envers son beau-frère une grande trahison. Antoine me dit aussi qu'il étoît lâche et sans courage, quoique son peuple soit le plus vaillant de la Turquie. Son vrai nom est Imbreymbas; mais on l'appelle karman, à cause qu'il est seigneur de ce pays. Quoiqu'il soit allié au grand-Turc, puisqu'il a épousé sa soeur, il le hait fort, parce que celui-ci lui a pris une partie du Karman. Cependant il n'ose l'attaquer, vu que l'autre est trop fort; mais je suis persuadé que s'il le voyoit entrepris avec succès de notre côté, lui, du sien, ne le laisseroit pas en paix. En traversant ses états j'ai côtoyé une autre contrée qu'on nomme Gaserie. Celle-ci confine, d'une part au Karman, et de l'autre à la Turcomanie, par les hautes montagnes qui sont vers Tharse et vers la Perse. Son seigneur est un vaillant guerrier appelé Gadiroly, lequel a sous ces ordres trente mille hommes d'armes Turcomans, et environ cent mille femmes, aussi braves et aussi bonnes pour le combat que les hommes. Il y a là quatre seigneurs qui se font continuellement la guerre; c'est Gadiroly, Quharaynich, Quaraychust et le fils de Tamerlan, qui, m'a-t-on dit, gouverne la Perse. Antoine m'apprit qu'en débouchant des montagnes d'Arménie par dé-là Erégli, j'avois passé à demi-journée d'une ville célèbre où repose le corps de saint Basile; il m'en parla même de manière à me donner envie de la voir. Mais on me représenta si bien ce que je perdois d'advantages en me séparant de la caravane, et ce que j'allois courir de risques en m'exposant seul, que j'y renonçât. Pour lui, il m'avoua que son dessein étoit de se rendre avec moi auprès de monseigneur le duc; qu'il ne se sentoit nulle envie d'être Sarrasin, et que s'il avoit pris quelque engagement à ce sujet, c'étoit uniquement pour éviter la mort. On vouloit le circoncire; il s'y attendoit chaque jour, et le craignoit fort. C'est un fort bel homme, âgé de trente six ans. Il me dit encore que les habitans font, dans leurs mosquées, des prières publiques, comme nous, dans les paroisses, nous en faisons tous les dimanches pour les princes chrétiens et pour autres objets dont nous demandons à Dieu l'accomplissement. Or une des choses qu'ils lui demandent, c'est de les préserver de la venue d'un homme tel que Godefroi de Bouillon. Le chef de la caravane s'apprêtoît à repartir, et j'allai en conséquence prendre congé des ambassadeurs du roi de Cypre. Ils s'étoient flattés de m'emméner avec eux, et ils renouvelèrent leurs instances en m'assurant que jamais je n'acheverois mon voyage; mais je persistai. Ce fut à Couhongue que quittèrent la caravane ceux qui la composoient. Hoyarbarach n'amenoit avec lui que ses gens, sa femme, deux de ses enfans qu'il avoit conduits à la Mecque, une ou deux femmes étrangères, et moi. Je dis adieu à mon mamelouck. Ce brave homme, qu'on appeloit Mahomet, m'avoit rendu des services sans nombre. Il étoit très-charitable, et faisoit toujours l'aumône quand on la lui demandoit au nom de Dieu. C'étoit par un motif de charité qu'il m'obligeoit, et j'avoue que sans lui je n'eusse pu achever mon voyage qu'avec de très-grandes peines, que souvent j'aurois été exposé au froid et à la faim, et fort embarrassé pour mon cheval. En le quittant je cherchai à lui témoigner ma reconnoissance; mais il ne voulut rien accepter qu'un couvre-chef de nos toiles fines d'Europe, et cet objet parut lui faire grand plaisir. Il me raconta toutes les occasions venues à sa connoissance, où sans lui, j'aurois couru risque d'être assassiné, et me prévint d'être bien circonspect dans les liaisons que je ferois avec les Sarrasins, parce qu'il s'en trouvoit parmi eux d'aussi mauvais que les Francs. J'écris ceci pour rappeler que celui qui, par amour de Dieu, m'a fait tant de bien, étoit "ung homme hors de nostre foy." Le pays que nous eûmes à parcourir après être sortis de Couhongue est fort beau, et il a d'assez bons villages; mais les habitans sont mauvais: le chef me défendit même, dans un des villages où nous nous arrêtâmes, de sortir de mon logement, de peur d'être assassiné. Il y a près de ce lieu un bain renommé, où plusieurs malades accourent pour chercher guérison. On y voit des maisons qui jadis appartinrent aux hospitaliers de Jérusalem, et la croix de Jérusalem s'y trouve encore. Après trois jours de marche nous arrivâmes à une petite ville nommé Achsaray, située au pied d'une haute montagne, qui la garantit du midi. Le pays est uni, mais mal-peuplé, et les habitans passent pour méchans: aussi me fut-il encore défendu de sortir la nuit hors de la maison. Je voyageai la journée suivante entre deux montagnes dont les cimes sont couronnées d'un peu de bois. Le canton, assez bien peuplé, l'est un partie par des Turcomans; mais il y a beaucoup d'herbages et de marais. Là je traversai une petite rivière qui sépare ce pays de Karman d'avec l'autre Karman que possède Amurat-Bey, nommé par nous le Grand-Turc. Cette portion ressemble à la première; elle offre comme elle un pays plat, parsemé çà et là de montagnes. Sur notre route nous côtoyâmes une ville à château, qu'on nomme Achanay. Plus loin est un beau caravanserai où nous comptions passer la nuit; mais il y avoit vingt-cinq ânes. Notre chef ne voulut pas y entrer, et il préféra retourner une lieue on arrière sur ses pas, jusqu'à un gros village où nous logeâmes, et où nous trouvâmes du pain, du fromage et du lait. De ce lieu je vins à Karassar en deux jours. Carassar, en langue Turque, signifie pierre noire. C'est la capitale de ce pays, dont s'est emparé de force Amurat-Bey. Quoiqu'elle ne soit point fermée, elle est marchande, et a un des plus beaux châteaux que j'aie vus, quoiqu'il n'ait que de l'eau de citerne. Il occupe la cime d'une haute roche, si bien arrondie qu'on la croiroit taillée au ciseau. Au bas est la ville, qui l'entoure de trois côtés; mais elle est à son tour enveloppée, ainsi que lui, par une montagne en croissant, depuis grec jusqu'à mestre (depuis le nord-est jusqu'au nord-ouest). Dans le reste dé la circonférence s'ouvre une plaine que traverse une rivière. Il y avoit peu de temps que les Grecs s'étoient emparés de ce lieu; mais ils l'avoient perdu par leur lâcheté. On y apprête les pieds de mouton avec une perfection et une propreté que je n'ai vues nulle part. Je m'en régalai d'autant plus volontiers que depuis Couhongue je n'avois pas mangé de viande cuite. On y fait aussi, avec des noix vertes, un mets particulier. Pour cela on les pelé, on les coupe en deux, on les enfile avec une ficelle, et on les arrose de vin cuit, qui se prend tout autour et y forme une gelée comme de la colle. C'est une nourriture assez agréable, sur-tout quand on a faim. Nous fûmes obligés d'y faire une provision de pain et de fromage pour deux jours; et je conviens que j'étois dégoûté de chair crue. Ces deux jours furent employés à venir de Carassar à Cotthay. Le pays est beau, bien arrosé et garni de montagnes peu élevées. Nous traversâmes un bout de forêt qui me parut remarquable en ce qu'elle est composée entièrement de chênes, et que ces arbres y sont plus gros, plus droits et plus hauts que ceux que j'avois été à portée dé voir jusque-là. D'ailleurs ils n'ont, comme les sapins, de branches qu'à leurs cimes. Nous vinmes loger dans un caravanserai qui étoit éloigné de toute habitation. Nous y trouvâmes de l'orge et de la paille, et il eût été d'autant plus aisé de nous en approvisionner, qu'il n'y avoit d'autre gardien qu'un seul valet. Mais on n'a rien de semblable à craindre dans ces lieux-là, et il n'est point d'homme assez hardi pour oser y prendre une poignée de marchandise sans payer. Sur la route est une petite rivière renommée pour son eau Hoyarbarch alla en boire avec ses femmes; il voulut que j'en busse aussi, et lui-même m'en présenta dans son gobelet de cuir. C'étoit la première fois de toute la route qu'il me faisoit cette faveur. Cotthay, quoique assez considérable, n'a point de murs; mais elle a un beau et grand château composé de trois forteresses placées l'une au-dessus de l'autre sur le penchant d'une montagne, lequel a une double enceinte. C'est dans cette place qu'étoit le fils aîné du grand-Turc. La ville possède un caravanserai où nous allâmes loger. Déja il y avoit des Turcs, et nous fûmes obligés d'y mettre tous nos chevaux pêle-mêle, selon l'usage; mais le lendemain matin, au moment où j'apprêtois le mien pour partir, je m'aperçus qu'on m'avoit pris l'une des courroies qui me servoit à attacher derrière ma selle le tapis et autres objets que je portoîs en trousse. D'abord je criai et me fâchai beaucoup. Mais il y avoit là un esclave Turc, l'un de ceux du fils aîné, homme de poids et d'environ cinquante ans, qui, m'entendant et voyant que je ne parlois pas bien la langue, me prit par la main et me conduisit à la porte du caravanserai. Là il me demanda en Italien qui j'étois. Je fus stupéfait d'entendre ce langage dans sa bouche. Je répondis que j'etois Franc. "D'où venez-vous? ajouta-t-il.--De Damas, dans la compagnie d'Hoyarbarach, et je vais à Bourse retrouver un de mes frères.--Eh bien, vous êtes un espion, et vous venez chercher ici des renseignemens sur le pays. Si vous ne l'étiez pas, n'auriez-vous pas dû prendre la mer pou; retourner chez vous?" Cette inculpation à laquelle je ne m'attendois pas m'interdit; je répondis cependant que les Vénitiens et les Génois se faisoient sur mer une guerre si acharnée que je n'osois m'y risquer. Il me demanda d'où j'étois. Du royaume de France, repartis-je. Etes-vous des environs de Paris? reprit il. Je dis que non, et je lui demandai à mon tour s'il connoissoit Paris. Il me répondit qu'il y avoit été autrefois avec un capitaine nommé Bernabo. "Croyez-moi, ajouta-t-il, allez dans le caravanserai chercher votre cheval, et amenez-le moi ici; car il y a là des esclaves Albaniens qui acheveroient de vous prendre ce qu'il porte encore. Tandis que je le garderai, vous irez déjeuner, et vous ferez pour vous et pour lui une provision de cinq jours, parce que vous serez cinq journées sans rien trouver." Je profitai du conseil; j'allai m'approvisionner, et je déjeunai avec d'autant plus de plaisir que depuis deux jours je n'avois gouté viande, et que je courois risque de n'en point tâter encore pendant cinq jours. Sorti du caravanserai, je pris le chemin de Bourse, et laissai à gauche, entre l'occident et le midi, celui de Troie-la-Grant. [Footnote: L'auteur, en donnant ici à la fameuse Troie la dénomination de grande, ne fait que suivre l'usage de son siècle. La historiens et les romanciers du temps la désignoient toujours ainsi, "histoire de Troye-la-Grant," "destruction de Troie-la-Grant," etc.] Il y a d'assez hautes montagnes, et j'en eus plusieurs à passer. J'eus aussi deux journées de forêts, après quoi je traversai une belle plaine dans laquelle il y a quelques villages assez bons pour le pays. A demi-journée de Bourse il en est un où nous trouvâmes de la viande et du raisin; ce raisin étoit aussi frais qu'au temps des vendanges: ils savent le garder ainsi toute l'année; c'est un secret qu'ils ont. Les Turcs m'y régalèrent de rôti; mais il n'étoit pas cuit à moitié. A mesure que la viande se rôtissoit, nous la coupions à la broche par tranches. Nous eûmes aussi du kaymac; c'est de la crême de buffle. Elle étoit si bonne et si douce, et j'en mangeai tant que je manquai d'en crever. Ayant d'entrer dans le village nous vîmes venir à nous un Turc de Bourse qui étoit envoyé à l'épouse de Hoyarbarach pour lui annoncer la mort de son père. Elle témoigna une grande douleur, et ce fut à cette occasion que s'étant découvert le visage, j'eus le plaisir de la voir; ce qui ne m'étoit pas encore arrivé de toute-la route. C'étoit une fort belle femme. Il y avoit dans le lieu un esclave Bulgare renégat, qui, par affectation de zèle et pour se montrer bon Sarrasin, reprocha aux Turcs de la caravane de me laisser aller dans leur compagnie, et dit que c'étoit un péché à eux qui revenoient du saint pélerinage de la Mecque: en conséquence ils me notifièrent qu'il falloit nous séparer, et je fus obligé de me rendre à Bourse. Je partis donc le lendemain, une heure avant le jour, avec l'aide de Dieu qui jusque-là m'avoit conduit; il me guida encore si bien que dans la route je ne demandai mon chemin qu'une seule fois. En entrant dans la ville je vis beaucoup de gens qui en sortoient pour aller au-devant de la caravane. Tel est l'usage; les plus notables s'en font un devoir; c'est une fête. Il y en eut même plusieurs qui, me croyant un des pélerins, me baisèrent les mains et la robe. En y entrant je me vis embarrassé, parce que d'abord on trouve une place qui s'ouvre par quatre rues, et que je ne savois laquelle prendre. Dieu me fir encore choisir la bonne, laquelle me conduisit au bazar, où sont les marchandises et les marchands. Je m'adressai au premier chrétien que j'y vis, et ce chrétien se trouva heureusement un des espinolis de Gênes, celui-là même pour qui Parvésin de Baruth m'avoit donné des lettres. Il fut fort étonné de me voir, et me conduisit chez un Florentin où je logeai avec mon chevall. J'y restai dix jours, temps que j'employai à parcourir la ville, conduit par les marchands, qui se firent un plaisir de me mener par-tout eux-mêmes. De toutes celles que possède le Turc, c'est la plus considérable; elle est grande, marchande, et située au pied et au nord du mont Olimpoa (Olympe), d'où descend une rivière qui la traverse et qui, se divisant en plusieurs bras, forme comme un amas de petites villes, et contribue à la faire parôitre plus grande encore. C'est à Burse que sont inhumées les seigneurs de Turquie (les sultans). On y voit de beaux édifices, et surtout un grand nombre d'hôpitaux, parmi lesquels il y en a quatre où l'on distribue souvent du pain, du vin et de la viande aux pauvres, qui veulent les prendre pour Dieu. A l'une des extrémités de la ville, vers le ponent, est un beau et vaste château bâti sur une hauteur, et qui peut bien renfermer mille maisons. Là est aussi le palais du seigneur, palais qu'on m'a dit être intérieurement un lieu très-agréable, et qui a un jardin avec un joli étang. Le prince avoit alors cinquante femmes, et souvent, dit-on, il va sur l'étang s'amuser en bateau avec quelqu'une d'elles. Burse étoît aussi le séjour de Camusat Bayschat (pacha), seigneur, ou, comme nous autres nous dirions, gouverneur et lieutenant de la Turquie. C'est un très-vaillant homme, le plus entreprenant qu'ait le Turc, et le plus habile à conduire sagement une enterprise. Aussi sont-ce principalement ces qualités qui lui ont fait donner ce gouvernement. Je demandai s'il ténoit bien le pays et s'il savoit se faire obéir. On me dit qu'il étoit obéi et respecté comme Amurat lui-même, qu'il avoit pour appointemens cinquante mille ducats par an, et que, quand le Turc entroit en guerre, il lui menoit à ses dépens vingt mille hommes; mais que lui, de son côté, il avoit également ses pensionnaires qui, dans ce cas, étoient tenus de lui fournir à leurs frais, l'un mille hommes, l'autre deux mille, l'autre trois, et ainsi des autres. Il y a dans Burse deux bazars; l'un où l'on vend des étoffes de soie de toute espèce, de riches et belles pierreries, grande quantité de perles, et à bon marché, des toiles de coton, ainsi qu'une infinité d'autres marchandises dont l'énumération sèroit trop longue; l'autre où l'on achète du coton et du savon blanc, qui fait là un gros objet de commerce. Je vis aussi dans une halle un spectacle lamentable: c'étoient des chrétiens, hommes et femmes, que l'on vendoit. L'usagé est de les faire asseoir sur les bancs. Celui qui veut les acheter ne voit d'eux que le visage et les mains, et un peu le bras des femmes. A Damas j'avois vu vendre une fille noire, de quinze à seize ans; on la menoit au long des rues toute nue, "fors que le ventre et le derrière, et ung pou au-desoubs." C'est à Burse que, pour la première fois, je mangeai du caviare [Footnote: Caviaire, caviar, cavial, caviat, sorte de ragoût ou de mets compose d'oeufs d'esturgeons qu'on a saupoudrés de sel et séchés au soleil. Les Grecs en font une grande consommation dans leurs différens carêmes.] à l'huile d'olive. Cette nouriture n'est guère bonne que pour des Grecs, ou quand on n'a rien de mieux. Quelques jours après qu'Hoyarbarach fut arrivé j'allai prendre congé de lui et le remercier des moyens qu'il m'avoit procurés, de faire mon voyage. Je le trouvai au bazar, assis sur un haut siége de pierre avec plusieurs des plus notables de la ville. Les marchands s'étoient joints à moi dans cette visite. Quelques-uns d'entre eux, Florentins de nation, s'intéressoient à un Espagnol qui, après avoir été esclave du Soudan, avoit trouvé le moyen de s'échapper d'Egypte et d'arriver jusqu'à Burse. Ils me prièrent de l'emmener, avec moi. Je le conduisis à mes frais jusqu'à Constantinople, où je le laissai; mais je suis persuadé que c'étoit un renégat. Je n'en ai point eu de nouvelles depuis. Trois Génois avoient acheté des épices aux gens de la caravane, et ils se proposoient d'aller les vendre à Père (Péra), près de Constantinople, par-delà le détroit que nous appelons le Bras-de-Saint-George. Moi qui voulais profiter par leur compagnie, j'attendis leur départ, et c'est la raison qui me fit rester dans Burse; car, à moins d'être connu, l'on n'obtient point de passer le détroit. Dans cette vue ils me procurèrent une lettre du gouverneur. Je l'emportai avec moi; mais elle ne me servit point, parce que je trouvai moyen de passer avec eux. Nous partîmes ensemble. Cependant ils m'avoient fait acheter pour ma sûreté un chapeau rouge fort élevé, avec une huvette [Footnote: Huvette, sorte d'ornement qu'on mettoit au chapeau.] en fil d'àrchal, que je portai jusqu'à Constantinople. Au sortir de Burse nous traversâmes vers le nord une plaine qu'arrose une rivière profonde qui va se jetter, quatre lieues environ plus bas, dans le golfe, entre Constantinople et Galipoly. Nous eûmes une journée de montagnes, que des bois et un terrain argileux rendirent très-pénible. Là est un petit arbre qui porte un fruit un peu plus gros que nos plus fortes cerises, et qui a la forme et le goût de nos fraises, quoiqu'un peu aigrelet. Il est fort agréable à manger; mais si on en mange une certaine quantité, il porte à la tête et enivre. On le trouve en Novembre et Décembre. [Footnote: La description de l'auteur annonce qu'il s'agit ici de l'arbousier.] Du haut de la montagne on voit le golfe de Galipoly. Quand on l'a descendu on entre dans une vallée terminée par un très-grand lac, autour duquel sont construites beaucoup de maisons. C'est là que j'ai vu pour la première fois faire des tapis de Turquie. Je passai la nuit dans la vallée. Elle produit beaucoup de riz. Au-delà on trouve, tantôt un pays de montagnes et de vallées, tantôt un pays d'herbages, puis une haute forêt qu'il seroit impossible de traverser sans guide, et où les chevaux enfoncent si fort qu'ils ont grande peine à s'en tirer. Pour moi je crois que c'est celle dont il est parlé dans l'histoire de Godefroi de Bouillon, et qu'il eut tant de difficulté à traverser. Je passai la nuit par-delà, dans un village qui est à quatre lieues en-deçà de Nichomède (Nichomédie). Nichomédie est une grande ville avec havre. Ce havre, appelé le Lenguo, part du golfe de Constantinople et s'étend jusqu'à la ville, où il a de largeur un trait d'arc. Tout ce pays est d'un passage très-difficultueux. Par-delà Nicomédie, en tirant vers Constantinople, il devient très-beau et assez bon. Là on trouve plus de Grecs que de Turcs; mais ces Grecs ont pour les chrétiens (pour les Latins) plus d'aversion encore que les Turcs eux-mêmes. Je côtoyai le golfe de Constantinople, et laissant le chemin de Nique (Nicée), ville située au nord, près de la mer Noire, je vins loger successivement dans un village en ruine, et qui n'a pour habitans que des Grecs; puis dans un autre près de Scutari; enfin à Scutari même, sur le détroit, vis-à-vis de Péra. Là sont des Turcs auxquels il faut payer un droit, et qui gardent le passage. Il y a des roches qui le rendroient très-aisé à défendre si on vouloit le fortifier. Hommes et chevaux peuvent s'y embarquer et débarquer aisément. Nous passâmes, mes compagnons et moi, sur deux vaisseaux Grecs. Ceux à qui appartenoit celui que je montois me prirent pour Turc, et me rendirent de grands honneurs. Mais quand ils m'eurent descendu à terre, et qu'ils me virent, en entrant dans Péra, laisser à la porté mon cheval en garde, et demander un marchand Génois nommé Christophe Parvesin, pour qui j'avois des lettres, ils se doutèrent que j'étois chrétien. Deux d'entre eux alors m'attendirent à la porte, et quand je vins y reprendre mon cheval ils me demandèrent plus que ce que j'étois convenu de leur donner pour mon passage, et voulurent me rançonner. Je crois même qu'ils m'auroient battu s'ils l'avoient osé; mais j'avois mon épée et mon bon tarquais: d'ailleurs un cordonnier Génois qui demeuroit près de là vint à mon aide, et ils furent obligés de se retirer. J'écris ceci pour servir d'avertissement aux voyageurs qui, comme moi, auroient affaire à des Grecs. Tous ceux avec qui j'ai eu à traiter ne m'ont laissé que de la défiance. J'ai trouvé plus de loyauté en Turquie. Ce peuple n'aime point les chrétiens qui obéissent à l'église de Rome; la soumission qu'il a faite depuis à cette église étoit plus intéressée que sincère. [Footnote: En 1438, Jean Paléologue II vint en Italie pour réunir l'église Grecque avec la Latine, et la réunion eut lieu l'année suivante au concile de Florence. Mais cette démarche n'étoit de la part de l'empereur, ainsi que le remarque la Brocquière, qu'une opération politique dictée par l'intérêt, et qui n'eut aucune suite. Ses états se trouvoient dans une situation si déplorable, et il étoit tellement pressé par les Turcs, qu'il cherchoit à se procurer le secours des Latins; et c'est dans cet espoir qu'il étoit venu leurrer le pape. Cette époque de 1438 est remarquable pour notre voyage. Elle prouve que la Brocquière, puisqu'il la cite, le publia postérieurement à cette année-là.] Aussi m'a-t-on dit que, peu avant mon passage, le pape, dans un concile général, les avoit déclarés schismatiques et maudits, en les dévouant à être esclaves de ceux qui étoîent esclaves. [Footnote: Fait faux. Le concile général qui eut lieu peu avant le passage de l'auteur par Constantinople est celui de Bále en 1431. Or, loin d'y maudire et anathématiser les Grecs, on s'y occupa de leur réunion. Cette prétendue malédiction étoit sans doute un bruit que faisoient courir dans Constantinople ceux qui ne vouloient pas de rapprochement, et le voyageur le fait entendre par cette expression, l'on m'a dit.] Péra est une grande ville habitée par des Grecs, par des Juifs et par des Génois. Ceux-ci en sont les maîtres sous le duc de Milan, qui s'en dit le seigneur; ils y ont un podestat et d'autres officiers qui la gouvernent à leur manière. On y fait un grand commerce avec les Turcs; mais les Turcs y jouissent d'un droit de franchise singulier: c'est que si un de leurs esclaves s'échappe et vient y chercher un asile, on est obligé de le leur rendre. Le port est le plus beau de tous ceux que j'ai vus, et même de tous ceux, je crois, que possèdent les chrétiens, puisque les plus grosses caraques Génoises peuvent venir y mettre échelle à terre. Mais comme tout le monde sait cela, je m'abstiens d'en parler. Cependant il m'a semblé que du côté de la terre, vers l'église qui est dans le voisinage de la porte, à l'extrémité du havre, il y a un endroit foible. Je trouvai à Péra un ambassadeur du duc de Milan, qu'on appeloit messire Benedicto de Fourlino. Le duc, qui avoit besoin de l'appui de l'empereur Sigismond contre les Vénitiens, et qui voyoit Sigismond embarrassé à défendre des Turcs son royaume de Hongrie, envoyoit vers Amurat une ambassade pour négocier un accommodement entre les deux princes. Messire Benedicto me fit, en l'honneur de monseigneur de Bourgogne, beaucoup d'accueil; il me conta même que, pour porter dommage aux Vénitiens, il avoit contribué à leur faire perdre Salonique, prise sur eux par les Turcs; et certes en cela il fit d'autant plus mal que depuis j'ai vu des habitans de cette ville renier Jésus-Christ pour embrasser la loi de Mahomet. Il y avoit aussi à Péra un Napolitain nommé Piètre de Naples avec qui je me liai. Celui-ci se disoit marié dans la terre du prêtre Jean, et il fit des efforts pour m'y emmener avec lui. Au reste, comme je le questionnai beaucoup sur ce pays, il m'en conta bien des choses que je vais écrire. J'ignore s'il me dit vérité ou non, mais je ne garantis rien. Nota. La manière dont notre voyageur annonce ici la relation du Napolitain, annonce combien peu il y croyoit; et en cela le bon sens qu'il a montré jusqu'à présent ne se dément pas. Ce récit n'est en effet qu'un amas de fables absurdes et de merveilles révoltantes qui ne méritent pas d'être citées, quoiqu'on les trouve également dans certains auteurs du temps. Laissons l'auteur reprendre son discours. Deux jours après mon arrivée à Péra je traversai le havre pour aller à Constantinople et visiter cette ville. C'est une grande et spacieuse cité, qui a la forme d'un triangle. L'un des côtés regarde le détroit que nous appelons le Bras-de-Saint-George; l'autre a au midi un gouffre (golfe) assez large, qui se prolonge jusqu'à Galipoly. Au nord est le port. Il existe sur la terre, dit-on, trois grandes villes dont chacune renferme sept montagnes; c'est Rome, Constantinople et Antioche. Selon moi, Rome est plus grande et plus arrondie que Constantinople. Pour Antioche, comme je ne l'ai vue qu'en passant, je ne puis rien dire sur sa grandeur; cependant ses montagnes m'ont paru plus hautes que celles des deux autres. On donne à Constantinople, dans son triangle, dix-huit milles de tour, dont un tiers est situé du côté de terre, vers le couchant. Elle a une bonne enceinte de murailles, et surtout dans la partie qui regarde la terre. Cette portion, qu'on dit avoir six milles d'une pointe à l'autre, a en outre un fossé profond qui est en glacis, excepté dans un espace de deux cents pas, à l'une de ses extrémités, près du palais appelé la Blaquerne; on assure même que les Turcs ont failli prendre la ville par cet endroit foible Quinze ou vingt pieds en avant du fosse est une fausse braie d'un bon et haut mur. Aux deux extrémités de ce côté il y avoit autrefois deux beaux palais qui, si l'on en juge par les ruines et les restes qui en subsistent encore, étoient très-forts. On m'a conté qu'ils ont été abattus par un empereur dans une circonstance où, prisonnier du Turc, il courut risque de la vie. Celui-ci exigeoit qu'il lui livrât Constantinople, et, en cas de refus, il menaçoit de le faire mourir. L'autre répondit qu'il préféroit la mort à la honte d'affliger la chrétienté par un si grand malheur, et qu'après tout sa perte ne seroit rien en comparaison de celle de la ville. Quand le Turc vit qu'il n'avanceroit rien par cette voie, il lui proposa la liberté, à condition que la place qui est devant Sainte-Sophie seroit abattue, ainsi que les deux palais. Son projet étoit d'affoiblir ainsi la ville, afin d'avoir moins de peine à la prendre. L'empereur consentit à la proposition, et la preuve en existe encore aujourd'hui. Constantinople est formée de diverses parties séparées: de sorte qu'il y a plus de vide que de plein. Les plus grosses caraques peuvent venir mouiller sous ses murs, comme à Péra; elle a en outre dans son intérieur un petit havre qui peut contenir trois ou quatre galères. Il est au midi, près d'une porte où l'on voit une butte composée d'os de chrétiens qui, après la conquête de Jérusalem et d'Acre, par Godefroi de Bouillion, revenoient par le détroit. A mesure que les Grecs les passoient, ils les conduisoient dans cette place, qui est éloignée et cachée, et les y égorgeoient. Tous quoiqu'en très-grand nombre, auroient péri ainsi, sans un page qui, ayant trouvé moyen de repasser en Asie, les avertit du danger qui les menaçoit: ils se répandirent le long de la mer Noire, et c'est d'eux, à ce qu'on prétend, que descendent ces peuples gros chrétiens (d'un christianisme grossier) qui habitent là: Circassiens, Migrelins, (Mingreliens), Ziques, Gothlans et Anangats. Au reste, comme ce fait est ancien, je n'en sais rien que par ouï-dire. Quoique la ville ait beaucoup de belles églises, la plus remarquable, ainsi que la principale, est celle de Sainte-Sophie, où le patriarche se tient, et autres gens comme chanonnes (chanoines). Elle est de forme ronde, située près de la pointe orientale, et formée de trois parties diverses; l'une souterraine, l'autre hors de terre, la troisième supérieure à celle-ci. Jadis elle étoit entourée de cloîtres, et avoit, dit-on, trois milles de circuit; aujourd'hui elle est moins étendue, et n'a plus que trois cloîtres, qui tous trois sont pavés et revêtus en larges carreaux de marbre blanc, et ornés de grosses colonnes de diverses couleurs. [Footnote: Deux de ces galeries ou portiques, que l'auteur appelle cloîtres, subsistent encore aujourd'hui, ainsi que les colonnes. Celles-ci sont de matières différentes, porphyre, marbre, granit, etc.; et voilà pourquoi le voyageur, qui n'étoit pas naturaliste, les représente comme étant de couleurs diverses.] Les portes, remarquables par leur largeur et leur hauteur, sont d'airain. Cette église possède, dit on, l'une des robes de Notre-Seigneur, le fer de la lance qui le perça, l'éponge dont il fut abreuvé, et le roseau qu'on lui mit en main. Moi je dirai que derrière le choeur on m'a montré les grandes bandes du gril où fut rôti Saint-Laurent, et une large pierre en forme de lavoir, sur laquelle Abraham fit manger, dit-on, les trois anges qui alloient détruire Sodome et Gomorre. J'étois curieux de savoir comment les Grecs célébroient le service divin, et en conséquence je me rendis à Sainte-Sophie un jour où le patriarche officoit. L'empereur y assistoit avec sa femme, sa mère et son frère, despote de Morée. [Footnote: Cet empereur étoit Jean Paléologue II; son frère, Démétrius, despote ou prince du Péloponnèse; sa mère, Irène, fille de Constantin Dragasès, souverain d'une petite contrée de la Macédoine; sa femme, Marié Comnène, fille d'Alexis, empereur de Trébisonde.] On y représenta un mystère, dont le sujet étoit les trois enfans que Nabuchodonosor fit jeter dans la fournaise. [Footnote: Ces farces dévotes étoient d'usage alors dans l'église Grecque, ainsi que dans la Latine. En France on les appeloit mystères, et c'est le nom que le voyageur donne à celle qu'il vit dans Sainte-Sophie.] L'impératrice, fille de l'empereur de Traséonde (Trébisonde), me parut une fort belle personne. Cependant, comme je ne pouvois la voir que de loin, je voulus la considérer de plus près: d'ailleurs j'étois curieux de savoir comment elle montoit à cheval; car elle étoit venue ainsi à l'église, accompagnée seulement de deux dames, de trois vieillards, ministres d'état, et de trois de ces hommes à qui les Turcs confient la garde de leurs femmes (trois eunuques). Au sortir de Sainte-Sophie elle entra dans un hôtel voisin pour y dîner; ce qui m'obligea d'attendre là qu'elle sortît, et par conséquent de passer toute la journée sans boire ni manger. Elle parut enfin. On lui apporta un banc sur lequel elle monta. On fit approcher du banc son cheval, qui étoit superbe et couvert d'une selle magnifique. Alors un des veillards prit le long manteau qu'elle portoit, et passa de l'autre côté du cheval, en le tenant étendu sur ses mains aussi haut qu'il pouvoit. Pendent ce temps elle mit le pied sur l'étrier, elle enfourcha le cheval comme le font les hommes, et dès qu'elle fut en selle le vieillard lui jeta le manteau sur les épaules; après quoi il lui donna un de ces chapeaux longs, à pointe, usités en Grèce, et vers l'extrémité duquel étoient trois plumes d'or qui lui séyoient très-bien. J'étois si près d'elle qu'on me dit de m'èloigner: ainsi je pus la voir parfaitement. Elle avoit aux oreilles un fermail (anneau) large et plat, orné de plusieurs pierres précieuses, et particulièrement de rubis. Elle me parut jeune, blanche, et plus belle encore que dans l'église; en un mot, je n'y eusse trouvé rien à redire si son visage n'avoit été peint, et assurément elle n'en avoit pas besoin. Les deux dames montèrent à cheval en même temps qu'elle; elles étoient belles aussi, et portoient comme elle manteau et chapeau. La troupe retourna au palais de la Blaquerne. Au devant de Sainte Sophie est une belle et immense place, entourée de murs comme un palais, et où jadis on faisoit des jeux. [Footnote: L'hippodrome Grec, aujourd'hui l'atméïdan des Turcs.] J'y vis le frère de l'empereur, despote de Morée, s'exercer avec une vingtaine d'autres cavaliers. Chacun d'eux avoit un arc: ils couroient à cheval le long de l'enceinte, jetoient leurs chapeaux en avant; puis, quand ils l'avoient dépassé, ils tiroient par derrière, comme pour le percer, et celui d'entre eux dont la flèche atteignoit le chapeau de plus près étoit réputé le plus habile. C'est-là un exercice qu'ils ont adopté des Turcs, et c'est un de ceux auxquels ils cherchent à se rendre habiles. De ce côté, près de la pointe de l'angle, est la belle église de Saint-George, qui a, en face de la Turquie, [Footnote: Il s'agit ici de la Turquie d'Asie. On n'avoit point encore donné ce nom aux provinces que les Turcs possedoient en Europe.] une tour à l'endroit où le passage est le plus étroit. De l'autre côté, à l'occident, se voit une très-haute colonne carrée portant des caractères tracés, et sur laquelle est une statue de Constantin, en bronze. Il tient un sceptre de la main gauche, et a le bras droit et la main étendus vers la Turquie et le chemin de Jérusalem, comme pour marquer que tout ce pays étoit sous sa loi. Près de cette colonne il y en a trois autres, placées sur une même ligne, et d'un seul morceau chacun. Celles-ci portoient trois chevaux dorés qui sont maintenant à Venise. [Footnote: Ils sont maintenant à Paris, et il y en a quatre.] Dans la jolie église de Panthéacrator, occupée par des religieux caloyers, qui sont ce que nous appellerions en France moines de l'Observance, on montre une pierre ou table de diverses couleurs que Nicodème avott fait tailler pour placer sur son tombeau, et qui lui servit à poser le corps de Notre-Seigneur quand il le descendit de la croix. Pendant ce temps la Vierge pleuroit sur le corps; mais ses larmes, au lieu d'y rester, tombèrent toutes sur la pierre, et on les y voit toutes encore. D'abord je crus que c'étoient des gouttes de cire, et j'y portai la main pour les tâter; je me baissai ensuite, afin de la regarder horizontalement et à contre jour, et me sembla que c'estoient gouttes d'eau engellées. C'est là une chose que plusieurs personnes ont pu voir comme moi. Dans la même église sont les tombeaux de Constantin et de sainte Hélène sa mère, placés chacun à la hauteur d'environ huit pieds, sur une colonne qui se termine comme un diamant pointu à quatre faces. On dit que les Vénitiens, pendant qu'ils eurent à Constantinople une grande puissance, tirèrent du tombeau de sainte Hélène son corps, qu'ils emportèrent à Venise, où il est encore tout entier. Ils tentèrent, dit-on, la même chose pour celui de Constantin, mais ils ne purent en venir à bout; et le fait est assez vraisemblable, puisqu'on y voit encore deux gros morceaux brisés à l'endroit qu'on vouloit rompre. Les deux tombeaux sont couleur de jaspre sur le vermeil, comme une brique (de jaspe rouge). On montre dans l'église de Sainte-Apostole un tronçon de la colonne à laquelle fut attaché Notre-Seigneur pour être battu de verges chez Pilate. Ce morceau, plus grand que la hauteur d'un homme, est de la même pierre que deux autres que j'ai vus, l'une à Rome, l'autre à Jérusalem; mais ce dernier excède en grandeur les deux autres ensemble. Il y a encore dans la même église, et dans des cercueils de bois, plusieurs corps saints qui sont entiers: les voit qui veut. L'un d'eux avoit eu la tête coupée; on lui en a mis une d'un autre saint Au reste les Grecs ne portent point à ces reliques le même respect que nous. Il en est de même pour la pierre de Nichodème et la colonne de Notre-Seigneur: celle-ci est seulement couverte d'une enveloppe en planches, et posée debout près d'un pilier, à main droite quand on entre dans l'église par la porte de devant. Parmi les belles églises je citerai encore comme une des plus remarquables celle qu'on nomme la Blaquerne, parce-qu'elle est près du palais impérial, et qui, quoique petite et mal couverte, a des peintures avec pavé et revêtemens en marbre. Je ne doute pas qu'il n'y en ait plusieurs autres également dignes d'être vantées; mais je n'ai pu les visiter toutes. Les marchands (marchands Latins) en ont une où tous les jours on dit la messe à la romaine. Celle-ci est vis-à-vis le passage de Péra. La ville a des marchands de plusieurs nations; mais aucune n'y est aussi puissante que les Vénitiens. Ils y ont un baille (baile) qui connoît seul de toutes leurs affaires, et ne dépend ni de l'empereur ni de ses officiers. C'est-là un privilège qu'ils possèdent depuis longtemps: [Footnote: Depuis la conquête de l'empire d'Orient par les Latins, en 1204, conquête à laquelle les Vénitiens avoient contribué en grande partie.] on dît même que par deux fois ils ont, avec leurs galères, sauvé des Turcs la ville; pour moi je croy que Dieu l'a plus gardée pour les saintes reliques qui sont dedans que pour autre chose. Le Turc y entretient aussi un officier pour le commerce qu'y font ses sujets, et cet officier est, de même que le baile, indépendant de l'empereur; ils y ont même le droit, quand un de leurs esclaves s'échappe et s'y réfugie, de le redemander, et l'empereur est obligé de le leur rendre. Ce prince est dans une grande sujétion du Turc, puisque annuellement il lui paie, m'à-t-on dit, un tribut de dix mille ducats; et cette somme est uniquement pour Constantinople: car au-delà de cette ville il ne possède rien qu'un château situé à trois lieues vers le nord, et en Grèce une petite cité nommée Salubrie. J'étois logé chez un marchand Catalan. Cet homme ayant dit à l'un des gens du palais que j'étoîs à monseigneur de Bourgogne, l'empereur me fit demander s'il étoit vrai que le duc eût pris la pucelle, ce que les Grecs ne pouvoient croire. [Footnote: La pucelle d'Orléans, après avoir combattu avec gloire les Anglais et le duc de Bourgogne ligués contre la France, avoit été faite prisonnière en 1430, par un officier de Jean de Luxembourg, général des troupes du duc, puis vendue par Jean aux Anglais, qui la firent brûler vive l'année suivante. Cette vengeance atroce avoit retenti dans toute l'Europe. A Constantinople le bruit public l'attribuoit au duc; mais les Grecs ne pouvoient croire qu'un prince chrétien eût été capable d'un pareille horreur, et leur sembloit, dit l'auteur, que c'estoit une chose impossible.] Je leur en dys la vérité tout ainsi que la chose avoit esté; de quoy ils furent bien esmerveilliés. Le jour de la Chandeleur, les marchands me prévinrent que, l'après-dinée, il devoit y avoir au palais un office solennel pareil à celui que nous faisons ce jour-là; et ils m'y conduisirent. L'emperenr étoit à l'extrémité d'une salle, assis sur une couche (un coussin): l'impératrice vit la cérémonie d'une pièce supérieure; et sont les chappellains qui chantent l'office, estrangnement vestus et habilliés, et chantent par cuer, selon leurs dois. Quelques jours après, on me mena voir également une fête qui avoit lieu pour le mariage d'un des parens de l'empereur. Il y eut une joute à la manière du pays, et cette joute me parut bien étrange. La voici: Au milieu d'une place on avoit planté, en guise de quintaine, un grand pieu auquel étoit attachée une planche large de trois pieds, sur cinq de long. Une quarantaine de cavaliers arrivèrent sur le lieu sans aucune pièce quelconque d'armure, et sans autre arme qu'un petit bâton. D'abord ils s'amusèrent à courir les uns après les autres, et cette manoeuvre dura environ une demi-heure. On apporta ensuite soixante à quatre-vingts perches d'aune, telles et plus longues encore que celles dont nous nous servons pour les couvertures de nos toits en chaume. Le marié en prit une le premier, et il courut ventre à terre vers la planche, pour l'y briser. Elle plioit et branloit dans sa main; aussi la rompit-il sans effort. Alors s'élevèrent des cris de joie, et les instrumens de musique, qui étoient des nacaires, comme chez les Turcs, se firent entendre. Chacun des autres cavaliers vint de même prendre sa perche et la rompre. Enfin le marié en fit lier ensemble deux, qui à la vérité n'étoient pas trop fortes, et il les brisa encore sans se blesser. [Footnote: La Brocquière devoit trouver ces joutes ridicules, parce qu'il étoit accoutumé aux tournois de France, où des chevaliers tout couverts de fer se battoient avec des épées, des lances, des massues, et où très-fréquemment il y avoit des hommes tués, blessés ou écrasés sous les pieds des chevaux. C'est ce qui lui fait dire par deux fois que dans la joute des perches il n'y eut personne de blessé.] Ainsi finit la fête, et chacun retourna chez soi sain et sauf. L'empereur et son épouse étoient à une fenêtre pour la voir. Je m'étois proposé de partir avec ce messire Bénédict de Fourlino, qui, comme je l'ai dit, étoit envoyé en ambassade vers le Turc par le duc de Milan. Il avoit avec lui un gentilhomme du duc, nommé Jean Visconti, sept autres personnes, et dix chevaux de suite, parce que, quand on voyage en Grèce, il faut porter sans exception tout ce dont on peut avoir besoin. Je sortis de Constantinople le 23 Janvier 1433, et traversai d'abord Rigory, passage jadis assez fort, et formé par une vallée dans laquelle s'avance un bras de mer qui peut bien avoir vingt milles de longueur. Il y avoit une tour que les Turcs ont abattue. Il y reste un pont, une chaussée et un village de Grecs. Pour arriver à Constantinople par terre on n'a que ce passage, et un autre un peu plus bas que celui-ci, plus fort encore, et sur une rivière qui vient là se jeter dans la mer. De Rigory j'allai à Thiras, habité pareillement par des Grecs, jadis bonne ville, et passage aussi fort que le précédent, parce qu'il est formé de même par la mer. A chaque bout du pont étoit une grosse tour. La tour et la ville, tout a été détruit par les Turcs. De Thiras je me rendis à Salubrie. Cette ville, située à deux journées de Constantinople, a un petit port sur le golfe, qui s'étend depuis ce dernier lieu jusqu'à Galipoly. Les Turcs n'ont pu la prendre, quoique du côté de la mer elle ne soit pas forte. Elle appartient à l'empereur, ainsi que le pays jusque-là; mais ce pays, tout ruiné, n'a que des villages pauvres. De là je vins à Chourleu, jadis considérable, détruit par les Turcs et peuplé de Turcs et de Grecs; De Chourleu a Mistério, petite place fermée: il n'y a que des Grecs, avec un seul Turc à qui son prince l'a donnée; De Mistério à Pirgasy, où il ne demeure que des Turcs, et dont les murs sont abattus; De Pirgasy à Zambry, également détruite; De Zambry à Andrenopoly (Andrinople), grande ville marchande, bien peuplée, et située sur une très-grosse rivière qu'on nomme la Marisce, à six journées de Constantinople. C'est la plus forte de toutes celles que le Turc possède dans la Grèce, et c'est celle qu'il habite le plus volontiers. Le seigneur ou lieutenant de Grèce (le gouverneur) y fait aussi son séjour, et l'on y trouve plusieurs marchands Vénitiens, Catalans, Génois et Florentins. Depuis Constantînople jusque là, le pays est bon, bien arrosé, mais mal peuplé; il a des vallées fertiles, et produit de tout, excepté du bois. Le Turc étoit à Lessère, grosse ville en Pyrrhe, près du lieu de Thessalie où se livra la bataille entre César et Pompée, et messire Benedicto prit cette route pour se rendre auprès de lui. Nous passâmes la Marisce en bateaux, et rencontrâmes, a peu de distance, cinquante de ses femmes, accompagnées d'environ seize eunuques, qui nous apprirent qu'ils les conduisoient à Andrinople, où lui-même se proposoit de venir bientôt. J'allaià Dymodique, bonne ville, fermée d'une double enceinte de murailles. Elle est fortifiée d'un côté par une rivière, et de l'autre par un grand et fort château construit sur une hauteur presque ronde, et qui, dans son circuit, peut bien renfermer trois cents maisons. Le château a un donjon où le Turc, m'a-t-on dit, tient son trésor. De Dymodique je me rendis à Ypsala, assez grande ville, mais totalement détruite, et où je passai la Marisce une seconde fois. [Footnote: Ici le copiste écrit la Maresce, plus haut il avoit mis Maresche, et plus haut encore Marisce. Ces variations d'orthographe sont infiniment communes dans nos manuscrits, et souvent d'une phrase à l'autre. J'en ai fait la remarque dans mon discours préliminaire.] Elle est à deux journées d'Andrinople. Le pays, dans tout cet espace, est marécageux et difficile pour les chevaux. Ayne, au-delà d'Ypsala, est sur la mer, à l'embouchure de la Marisce, qui a bien en cet endroit deux milles de large. Au temps de Troye-la-Grant, ce fut une puissante cité, qui avoit son roi: maintenant elle a pour seigneur le frère du seigneur de Matelin, qui est tributaire du Turc. Sur une butte ronde on y voit un tombeau qu'on dit être celui de Polydore, le plus jeune des fils de Priam. Le père, pendant le siège de Troie, avoit envoyé son fils au roi d'Ayne, avec de grands trésors; mais, après la destruction de la ville, le roi, tant par crainte des Grecs que par convoitise des trésors, fit mourir le jeune prince. A Ayne je passai la Marisce sur un gros bâtiment, et me rendis à Macry, autre ville maritime à l'occident de la première, et habitée de Turcs et de Grecs. Elle est près de l'ile de Samandra, qui appartient au seigneur d'Ayne, et elle paroit avoir été autrefois très-considérable; maintenant tout y est en ruines, à l'exception d'une partie du château. Caumissin, qu'on trouve ensuite après avoir traversé une montagne, a de bons murs, qui la rendent assez forte, quoique petite. Elle est sur un ruisseau, en beau et plat pays, fermé par d'autres montagnes à l'occident, et ce pays s'étend, dans un espace de cinq à six journées, jusqu'à Lessère. Missy fut également et forte et bien close: mais une partie de ses murs sont abattus; tout y a été détruit, et elle n'a point d'habitans. Péritoq, ville ancienne et autrefois considérable, est sur un golfe qui s'avance dans les terres d'environ quarante milles, et qui part de Monte-Santo, où sont tant de caloyers. Elle a des Grecs pour habitans, et pour défense de bonnes murailles, qui cependant sont entamées par de grandes brêches. De là, pour aller à Lessère, le chemin est une grande plaine. C'est près de Lessère, dit-on, que se livra la grande bataille de Thessale (de Pharsale). Je n'allai point jusqu'à cette dernière ville. Instruits que le Turc étoit en route, nous l'attendîmes à Yamgbatsar, village construit par ses sujets. Il n'arriva que le troisième jour. Son escorte, quand il marchoit, étoit de quatre à cinq cents chevaux; mais comme il aimoit passionnément la chasse au vol, la plus grande partie de cette troupe étoit composée de fauconniers et d'ostriciers (autoursiers), gens dont il faisoit un grand cas, et dont il entretenoit, me dit-on, plus de deux mille. Avec ce goût il ne faisoit que de petites journées, et ses marches n'étoient pour lui qu'un objet d'amusement et de plaisir. Il entra dans Yamgbatsar avec de la pluie, n'ayant pour cortége qu'une cinquantaine de cavaliers avec douze archers, ses esclaves, qui marchoient à pied devant lui. Son habillement étoit une robe de velours cramoisi, fourrée de martre zibeline, et sur la tête il portoit, comme les Turcs, un chapeau rouge; mais, pour se garantir de la pluie, par-dessus sa robe il en avoit mis une autre de velours, en guise de manteau, selon la mode du pays. Il campa sous un pavillon qu'on avoit apporté; car nulle part on ne trouve à loger, nulle part on ne trouve de vivres que dans les grandes villes, et, en voyage, chacun est obligé de porter tout ce qui lui est nécessaire. Pour lui, il avoit un grand train de chameaux et d'autres bêtes de somme. L'après-dinée il sortit pour aller prendre un bain, et je le vis à mon aise. Il étoit à cheval, avec son même chapeau et sa robe cramoisie, accompagné de six personnes à pied; je l'entendis même parler à ses gens, et il me parut avoir la parole lourde. C'est un prince de vingt-huit à trente ans, qui déja devient très-gras. L'ambassadeur lui fit demander par un des siens s'il pourroit avoir de lui une audience et lui offrir les présens qu'il apportoit. Il fit réponse qu'allant à ses plaisirs il ne vouloit point entedre parler d'affaires; que d'ailleurs ses bayschas (bachas) étoient absens, et que l'ambassadeur n'avoit qu'à les attendre ou aller l'attendre lui-même dans Andrinople. Messire Bénédict prit ce dernier parti. En conséquence nous retournâmes à Caumissin, et de là, après avoir repassé la montagne dont j'ai parlé, nous vînmes gagner un passage formé par deux hautes roches entre lesquelles coule une rivière. Pour le garder on avoit construit sur l'une des roches un fort château nommé Coulony, qui maintenant est détruit presque en entier. La montagne est en partie couverte de bois, et habité par des hommes méchans et assassins. J'arrivai ainsi à Trajanopoly, ville bâtie par un empereur nommé Trajan, lequel fit beaucoup de choses dignes de mémoire. Il étoit fits de celui qui fonda Andrénopoly. Les Sarrasins disent qu'il avoit une oreille de mouton. [Footnote: Trajanopoly ne fut point nommée ainsi pour avoir été construite, par Trajan, mais parce qu'il y mourut. Elle existoit avant lui, et se nommoit Sélinunte. Adrien ne fut pas le père de Trajan, mais au contraire son fils adoptif, et c'est par-là qu'il devint son successeur. Andrinople n'a pas plus été fondée par Adrien que Trajanopoly par Trajan. Un tremblement de terre l'avoit ruinée; il la fit rebâtir et lui donna son nom. On doit excuser ces erreurs dans un auteur du quinzième siècle. Quant à l'oreille de mouton, il en parle comme d'une fable de Sarrasins.] Sa ville, qui étoit très-grande, est dans le voisinage de la mer et de la Marisce. On n'y voit plus que des ruines, avec quelques habitans. Elle a une montagne au levant et la mer au midi. L'un des ses bains porte le nom d'eau sainte. Plus loin est Vyra, ancien château qu'on a demoli en plusieurs endroits. Un Grec m'a dit que l'église avoit trois cents chanoines. Le choeur en subsiste encore, et les Turcs en ont fait une mosquée. Ils ont aussi construit autour du château une grande ville, peuplée maintenant par eux et par des Grecs. Elle est sur une montagne près de la Marisce. Au sortir de Vyra nous recontrâmes le seigneur (gouverneur) de la Grèce, qui, mandé par le Turc, se rendoit apprès de lui avec une troupe de cent vingt chevaux. C'est un bel homme, natif de Bulgarie, et qui a été esclave de son maître; mais comme il a le talent de bien boire, le dit maître lui a donné le gouvernement de Grèce, avec cinquante mille ducats de revenu. Dymodique, où je revins, me parut plus belle et plus grande encore qu'à mon premier passage; et s'il est vrai que le Turc y a déposé son trésor, assurément il a raison. Nous fûmes obligés de l'attendre onze jours dans Adrinople. Enfin il arriva le premier de carême. Le grand calife (le muphti), qui est chez eux ce qu'est le pape chez nous, alla au-devant de lui avec tous les notables de la ville: ce qui formoit une troupe très-nombreuse. Il en étoit déja assez près lorsqu'ils le rencontrèrent, et néanmoins il s'arrêta pour boire et manger, envoya en avant une partie de ces gens, et n'y entra qu'à la nuit. J'ai eu occasion de me lier, pendant mon séjour à Andrinople, avec plusieurs personnes qui avoient vécu à sa cour, et qui, à portée de le bien connoître, m'ont donné sur lui quelques détails; et d'abord, moi qui l'ai vu plusieurs fois, je dirai que c'est un petit homme, gros et trapu, à physionomie Tartare, visage large et brun, joues élevées, barbe ronde, nez grand et courbé, petits yeux; mais il est, m'a-t-on dit, doux, bon, libéral, distribuant volontiers seigneuries et argent. Ses revenus sont de deux millions et demi de ducats, y compris vingt-cinq mille qu'il perçoit en tributs. [Footnote: Il y a ici erreur de copiste sur ces vingt-cinq mille ducats de tributs; la somme est trop foible. On verra plus bas que le despote de Servie en payoit annuellement cinquante mille à lui seul.] D'ailleurs, quand il leve une armée, non seulement elle ne lui coûte rien; mais il y gagne encore, parce que les troupes qu'on lui amène de Turquie en Grèce [Footnote: J'ai déja remarqué que l'auteur appelle Turquie les états que possédoient en Asie les Turcs, et qu'il désigne sous le nom de Grèce ceux qu'ils avoient en-deçà du détroit, et que nous nommons aujourd'hui Turquie d'Europe.] paient à Gallipoly le comarch, qui est de trois aspres par homme et de cinq par cheval. Il en est de même au passage de la Dunoë (du Danube). D'ailleurs, quand ses soldats vont en course et qu'ils font des esclaves, il a le droit d'en prendre un sur cinq, à son choix. Cependant il passe pour ne point aimer la guerre, et cette inculpation me paroît assez fondée. En effet il a jusqu'à présent éprouvé de la part de la chrétienté si peu de resistance que s'il vouloit employer contre elle la puissance et les revenus dont il jouit, ce lui seroit chose facile d'en conquérir une très grande partie. [Footnote: Le Sultan dont la Brocquière fait ici mention, et qu'il a désigné ci-devant sous le non d'Amourat-Bay, est Amurat II, l'un des princes Ottomans les plus célèbres. L'histoire cite de lui plusieurs conquêtes qui à la vérité sont la plupart postérieures au temps dont parle ici la relation. S'il n'en a point fait davantage, c'est qu'il eut en tête Huniade et Scanderberg. D'ailleurs sa gloire fut éclipsée par celle de son fils, le fameux Mahomet II, la terreur des chrétiens, surnommé le grand par sa nation, et qui, vingt ans après, en 1453, prit Constantinople, et détruisit le peau qui subsistoit encore de l'empire Grec.] Un de ses goûts favoris est la chasse aux chiens et aux oiseaux. Il a, dit-on, plus de mille chiens et plus de deux mille oiseaux dressés, et de diverses espèces; j'en ai vu moi-même une très-grande partie. Il aime beaucoup à boire, et aime ceux qui boivent bien. Pour lui, il va sans peine jusqu'à dix ou douze grondils de vin: ce qui fait six ou sept quartes. [Footnote: La quarte s'appeloit ainsi, parce qu'elle étoit le quart du chenet, qui contenoit quatre pots et une pinte. Le pot étoit de deux pintes, et par conséquent la quarte faisoit deux bouteilles, plus un demi-setier; et douze grondils, vingt-trois bouteilles.] C'est quand il a bien bu qu'il devient libéral et qu'il distribue ses grands dons: aussi ses gens sont-ils très-aises de le voir demander du vin. L'année dernière il y eut un Maure qui s'avisa de venir le prêcher sur cet objet, et qui lui représenta que cette liqueur étant défendue par le prophète, ceux qui en buvoient n'étoient pas de bons Sarrasins: pour toute réponse il le fit mettre en prison, puis chasser de ses états, avec défense d'y jamais remettre les pieds. Au goût pour les femmes il joint celui des jeunes garçons. Il a trois cents des premières et une trentaine des autres; mais il se plaît devantage avec ceux-ci. Quand ils sont grands il les récompense par de riches dons et des seigneuries: il y en a un auquel il a donné en mariage l'une de ses soeurs, avec vingt-cinq mille ducats de revenu. Certains personnes font monter son trésor à un demi-million de ducats, d'autres à un million. Il en a en outre un second, qui consiste en esclaves, en vaisselle, et principalement en joyaux pour ses femmes. Ce dernier article est estimé seul un million d'or. Moi, je suis convaincu que s'il tenoit sa main fermée pendant un an, et qu'il s'abstint de donner ainsi à l'aveugle, il épargneroit un million de ducats sans faire tort à personne. De temps en temps il fait de grands exemples de justice bien remarquables; ce qui lui procure d'être parfaitement obéi tant dans son intérieur qu'au-dehors. D'ailleurs il sait maintenir son pays dans un excellent état de défense, et il n'emploie vis-à-vis de ses sujets Turcs ni taille ni aucun genre d'extorsion. [Footnote: Ceci est une satire indirecte des gouvernemens d'Europe, où chaque jour les rois, et même les seigneurs particuliers, vexoient ce qu'ils appéloient leurs hommes ou leurs sujets par des tailles arbitraires et des milliers d'impôts dont les noms étoient aussi bizarres que l'assiette et la perception en étoient abusives.] Sa maison est composée de cinq mille personnes tant à pied qu'à cheval; mais à l'armée il n'augmente en rien leurs gages: de sorte qu'en guerre il ne depense pas plus qu'en paix. Ses principaux officiers sont trois baschas ou visiers-bachas (visirs-bachas.) Le visir est un conseiller; le bâcha, une sorte de chef ou ordonnateur. Ces trois personnages sont chargés de tout ce qui concerne sa personne ou sa maison, et on ne peut lui parler que par leur entremise. Quand il est en Grèce, c'est le seigneur de Grèce (le gouverneur) qui a l'inspection sur les gens de guerre; quand il est en Turquie, c'est le seigneur de Turquie. Il a donné de grandes seigneuries; mais il peut les retirer à son gré. D'ailleurs ceux auxquels il les accorde sont tenus de le servir en guerre avec un certain nombre de troupes à leurs frais. C'est ainsi que, tous les ans, ceux de Grèce lui fournissent trente mille hommes qu'il peut employer et conduire par-tout où bon lui semble; et ceux de Turquie dix mille, auxquels il n'a que des vivres à fournir. Veut-il former une armée plus considérable, la Grèce seule, m'a-t-on dit, peut alors lui donner cent vingt mille hommes; mais ceux-ci, il est obligé de les soudoyer. La paie est de cinq aspers pour un fantassin, de huit pour un cavalier. Cependant j'ai entendu dire que sur ces cent vingt mille hommes il n'y en avoit que la moitié, c'est-à-dire les gens de cheval, qui fussent en bon état, bien armés de tarquais et d'épée; le reste est composé de gens de pied mal équippés. Celui d'entre eux qui a une épée n'a point d'arc, celui qui a un arc n'a ni épée ni arme quelconque, beaucoup même n'ont qu'un bâton. Et il en est ainsi des piétons que fournit la Turquie: la moitié n'est armée que de bâtons; cependant ces piétons Turcs sont plus estimés que les Grecs, et meilleurs soldats. D'autres personnes dont je regarde le témoignage comme véritable m'ont dit depuis que les troupes qu'annuellement la Turquie est obligée de fournir quand le seigneur veut former son armée, montent à trente mille hommes, et celles de Grèce à vingt mille, sans compter deux ou trois mille esclaves qui sont à lui, et qu'il arme bien. Parmi ces esclaves il y a beaucoup de chrétiens. Il y en a aussi beaucoup dans les troupes Grecques: les uns Albaniens, les autres Bulgares ou d'autres contrées. C'est ainsi que dans la dernière armée de Grèce il se trouva trois mille chevaux de Servie, que le despote de cette province envoya sous le commandement d'un de ses fils. C'est bien à regret que tous ces gens-là viennent le servir; mais ils n'oseroient refuser. Les bâchas arrivèrent à Andrinople trois jours après leur seigneur, et ils y amenoient avec eux une partie de ses gens et de son bagage. Ce bagage consiste en une centaine de chameaux et deux cent cinquante, tant mulets que sommiers, parce que la nation ne fait point usage de chariots. Messire Bénédict, qui desiroit avoir de lui une audience, fit demander aux bachas s'il pouvoit les-voir, et ils répondirent que non. La raison de ce refus etoit qu'ils avoient bu avec leur seigneur, et qu'ils etoient ivres ainsi que lui. Cependant ils envoyèrent le lendemain chez l'ambassadeur pour le prévenir qu'ils étoient visibles, et il se rendit aussitôt chez chacun d'eux avec des présens: telle est la coutume; on ne peut leur parler sans apporter quelque chose, et il en est de même pour les esclaves qui gardent leurs portes. Je l'accompagnai dans cette visite. Le jour suivant, dans l'après-dînée, ils lui firent dire qu'il pouvoit venir au palais. Il monta aussitôt à cheval pour s'y rendre avec sa suite, et je me joignis à elle: mais nous étions tous à pied; lui seul avoit un cheval. Devant la cour nous trouvâmes une grande quantité d'hommes et de chevaux. La porte étoit gardée par une trentaine d'esclaves sous le gouvernement d'un chef, et armés de bâtons. Si quelqu'un se présente pour entrer sans permission, ils lui disent de se retirer; s'il insiste, ils le chassent à coups de bâton. Ce que nous appelons la cour du roi, les Turcs l'appellent porte du seigneur. Toutes les fois que le seigneur reçoit un message ou ambassade, ce qui lui arrive presque tous les jours, il fait porte. Faire porte est pour lui ce qu'est pour nos rois de France tenir état royal et cour ouverte, quoique cependant il y ait entre les deux cérémonies beaucoup de différence, comme je le dirai tout-à-l'heure. Quand l'ambassadeur fut entré on le fit asseoir près de la porte avec beaucoup d'autres personnes qui attendoient que le maître sortit de sa chambre pour faire porte. D'abord les trois bachas entrèrent avec le gouverneur de Grèce et autres qu'ils appellent seigneurs. Sa chambre donnoit sur une très-grande cour. Le gouverneur alla l'y attendre. Il parut. Son vêtement étoit, selon l'usage, une robe de satin cramoisi, par-dessus laquelle il en avoit, comme manteau, une autre de satin vert à figures, fourrée de martre zibeline. Ses jeunes garçons l'accompagnoient; mais ils ne le suivirent que jusqu'à l'entrée de la pièce, et rentrèrent. Il ne resta près de lui qu'un petit nain et deux jeunes gens qui faisoient les fous. [Footnote: L'usage l'avoir des nains et des fous étoit très ancien dans les cours d'Orient. Il avoît passé avec les croisades dans celles des princes chretiens d'Europe, et dura en France, pour les fous, jusqu'à Louis XIV.] Il traversa l'angle de la cour, et vint dans une galerie où l'on avoit préparé un siège pour lui. C'étoît une sorte de couche couverte en velours (un sopha), où il avoit quatre ou cinq degrés à monter. Il alla s'y asseoir à la manière Turque, comme nos tailleurs quand ils travaillent, et aussitôt les trois bachas vinrent prendre place à peu de distance de lui. Les autres officiers qui dans ces jours-là font partie de son cortège entrèrent également dans la galerie, et ils allèrent se ranger le long des murs, aussi loin de lui qu'ils le purent. En dehors, mais en face, étoient assis vingt gentilshommes Valaques, détenus à sa suite comme otages du pays. Dans l'intérieur de la salle on avoit placé une centaine de grands plats d'étain, qui chacun contenoient une pièce de mouton et du riz. Quand tout le monde fut placé on fit entrer un seigneur du royaume de Bossène (Bosnie), lequel prétendoit que la couronne de ce pays lui apparteroit: en conséquence il étoit venu en faire hommage au Turc et lui demander du secours contre le roi. On le mena prendre place auprès des bachas; on introduisit ses gens, et l'on fit venir l'ambassadeur du duc de Milan. Il partit suivi de ses présens, qu'on alla placer près des plats d'étain. Là, des gens préposés pour les recevoir, les purent et les levèrent au-dessus de leurs têtes aussi haut qu'ils le purent, afin que le seigneur et sa cour pussent les voir. Pendant ce temps, messire Bénédict avançoit lentement vers la galerie. Un homme de distinction vint au-devant de lui pour l'y introduire. En entrant il fit une révérence sans ôter l'aumusse qu'il avoit sur la tête; arrivé près des degrés, il en fit une autre très-profonde. Alors le seigneur se leva: il descendit deux marches pour s'approcher de l'ambassadeur et le prit par la main. Celui-ci voulut lui baiser la sienne; mais il s'y refusa, et demanda par la voie d'un interprète Juif qui savoit le Turc et l'Italien, comment se portoit son bon frère et voisin le duc de Milan. L'ambassadeur répondit à cette question; après quoi on le mena prendre place près du Bosnien, mais à reculons, selon l'usage, et toujours le visage tourné vers le prince. Le seigneur attendit, pour se rasseoir, qu'il fût assis. Alors les diverses personnes de service qui étoient dans la salle se mirent par terre, et l'introducteur qui l'avoit fait entrer alla nous chercher, nous autres qui formions sa suite, et il nous plaça près des Bosniens. Pendant ce temps on attachoit au seigneur une serviette en soie; on plaçoit devant lui une pièce de cuir rouge, ronde et mince, parce que leur coutume est de ne manger que sur des nappes de cuir; puis on lui apporta de la viande cuite, sur deux plats dorés. Lorsqu'il fut servi, les gens de service allèrent prendre les plats d'étain dont j'ai parlé, et ils les distribuèrent par la salle aux personnes qui s'y trouvoient: un plat pour quatre. Il y avoit dans chacun un morceau de mouton et du riz clair, mais point de pain et rien à boire. Cependant j'aperçus dans un coin de la cour un haut buffet à gradins qui portoit un peu de vaisselle, et au pied duquel étoit un grand vase d'argent en forme de calice. Je vis plusieurs gens y boire; mais j'ignore si c'étoit de l'eau ou du vin. Quant à la viande des plats, quelques-uns y goûtèrent; d'autres, non: mais, avant qu'ils fussent tous servis, il fallut desservir, parce que le maitre n'avoit point voulu manger. Jamais il ne prend rien en public, et il y a très-peu de personnes qui puissent se vanter de l'avoir entendu parler, ou vu manger ou boire. Il sortit, et alors se firent entendre des ménestrels (musiciens) qui étoient dans la cour, près du buffet. Ils touchèrent des instrumens et chantèrent des chansons de gestes, dans lesquelles ils célébroient les grandes actions des guerriers Turcs. A mesure que ceux de la galerie entendoient quelque chose qui leur plaisoit, ils poussoient à leur manière des cris épouvantables. J'ignorois quels étoient les instrumens dont on jouoit: j'allai dans la cour, et je vis qu'ils étoient à cordes et fort grands, Les ménestrels vinrent dans la salle, où ils mangèrent ce qui s'y trouvoit. Enfin on desservit: chacun se leva, et l'ambassadeur se retira sans avoir dit un mot de son ambassade: ce qui, pour la première audience, est de coutume. Une autre coutume encore est que quand un ambassadeur a été présenté au seigneur, celui-ci, jusqu'à ce qu'il ait fait sa réponse, lui envoie de quoi fournir à sa dépense; et cette somme est de deux cents aspers. Le lendemain donc un des gens du trésorier, celui-là même qui étoit venu prendre messire Bénédict pour le conduire à la cour, vint lui apporter la somme: mais peu après les esclaves qui gardent là porte vinrent chercher ce qu'en pareil cas il est d'usage de leur donner, et au reste ils se contentent de peu. Le troisième jour, les bachas lui firent savoir qu'ils étoient prêts à apprendre de lui le sujet qui l'amenoit. Il se rendit aussitôt à la cour, et je l'y accompagnai. Déja le maître avoit tenu son audience; il venoit de se retirer, et les bachas seuls étoient restés avec le béguelar ou seigneur de Grèce. Quand nous eûmes passé la porte nous les trouvâmes tous quatre assis en dehors de la galerie, sur un pièce de bois qui se trouvoit là. Ils envoyèrent dire à l'ambassadeur d'approcher. On mit par terre, devant eux, un tapis, et ils l'y firent asseoir comme un criminel qui est devant son juge. Cependant il y avoit dans le lieu une assez grande quantité de monde. Il leur exposa le sujet de sa mission, qui consistoit, m'a-t-on dit, à prier leur maitre, de la part du duc de Milan, de vouloir bien abandonner à l'empereur Romain Sigismond la Hongrie, la Valaquie, toute la Bulgarie jusqu'à Sophie, le royaume de Bosnie, et la partie qu'il possédoit d'Albanie dépendante d'Esclavonie. Ils répondirent qu'ils ne pouvoient pour le moment en instruire leur seigneur, parce qu'il étoit occupé; mais que dans dix jours ils feroient connoitre sa réponse, s'il la leur avoit donnée. C'est encore là une chose d'usage, que dès le moment où un ambassadeur est annoncé tel, il ne peut plus parler au prince; et ce règlement a lieu depuis que le grand-père de celui-ci a péri de la main d'un ambassadeur de Servie. L'envoyé étoit venu solliciter auprès de lui quelque adoucissement en faveur de ses compatriotes, que le prince vouloit réduire en servitude. Désespéré de ne pouvoir rien obtenir, il le tua, et fut lui-même massacré à l'instant. [Footnote: Le grand-père d'Amurath II est Bajazet I'er, qui mourut prisonnier de Tamerlan, soit qu'il ait été traite avec égards par son vainqueur, comme le veulent certains écrivains, soit qu'il ait péri dans une cage de fer, comme le prétendent d'autres: ainsi l'historiette de l'ambassadeur de Servie ne peut le regarder. Mais on lit dans la vie d'Amurath I'er, père de Bajazet, et par conséquent bisaleul d'Amurath II, un fait qui a pu donner lieu à la fable de l'assassinat. Ce prince, en 1389, venoit de remporter sur le despote de Servie une victoire signalée dans laquelle il l'avoit fait prisonnier, et il parcouroit le champ de bataille quand, passant auprès d'un soldat Tréballien blessé à mort, celui-ci le reconnoit, ranime ses forces et le poignarde. Selon d'autres auteurs, le despote, qui se nommoit Lazare ou Eléazar Bulcowitz, se voit attaqué par une puissante armée d'Amurath. Hors d'état de résister, il emploie la trahison: il gagne un des grands seigneurs de sa cour, qui feint de passer dans le parti du sultan, et l'assassine. (Ducange, Familiæ Bisant p. 334.) Enfin, selon une autre relation, Amurath fut tué dans le combat; mais Lazare, fait prisonnier par les Turcs, est par eux coupé en morceaux sur le cadavre sanglant de leur maître. Il paroit, d'après le récit de là Brocquière, que la version de l'assassinat du sultan par le Servien est la véritable. C'est au moins ce que paroissent prouver les précautions prises à la cour Ottomane contre les ambassadeurs étrangers. Aujourd'hui encore, quand ils paroissent devant le souverain, on les tient par la manche.] Le dixième jour, nous allâmes à la cour chercher réponse. Le seigneur étoit, comme la première fois, sur son siége; mais il n'y avoit avec lui dans la galerie que ceux de ses gens qui lui servoient à manger. Je n'y vis ni buffet, ni ménestrels, ni le seigneur de Bosnie, ni les Valaques; mais seulement Magnoly, frère du duc de Chifalonie (Céphalonie), qui se conduit envers le prince comme un serviteur bien respectueux. Les bachas eux-même étoient en dehors, debout et fort loin, ainsi que la plupart des personnes que j'avois vues autrefois dans l'intérieur; encore leur nombre étoit-il beaucoup moindre. On nous fit attendre en dehors. Pendant ce temps, le grand cadi, avec ses autres associés, rendoit justice à la porte extérieure de la cour, et j'y vis venir devant lui des chrétiens étrangers pour plaider leur cause. Mais quand le seigneur se leva, les juges levèrent aussi leur séance, et se retirèrent chez eux. Pour lui, je le vis passer avec tout son cortége dans la grande cour; ce que je n'avois pu voir la première fois. Il portait une robe de drap d'or, verte et peu riche, et il me parut avoir la démarche vive. Dès qu'il fut rentré dans sa chambre, les bachas, assis, comme la fois précédente, sur la pièce de bois, firent venir l'ambassadeur. Leur réponse fut que leur maitre le chargeoit de saluer pour lui son frère le duc de Milan; qu'il desireroit faire beaucoup en sa faveur, mais que sa demande en ce moment n'étoit point raisonnable; que, par égard pour lui, leur dit seigneur s'étoit souvent abstenu de faire dans le royaume de Hongrie de grandes conquêtes, qui d'ailleurs lui eussent peu coûté, et que ce sacrifice devoit suffire; que ce seroit pour lui chose fort dure de rendre ce qu'il avoit gagné par l'épée; que, dans les circonstances présentes, lui et ses soldats n'avoient, pour occuper leur courage, que les possessions de l'empereur, et qu'ils y renoncoient d'autant moins que jusqu'alors ils ne s'étoient jamais trouvés en présence sans l'avoir battu ou vu fuir, comme tout le monde le savoit. En effet, l'ambassadeur étoit instruit de ces détails. A la dernière défaite qu'éprouva Sigismond devant Couloubath, il avoit été témoin de son désastre; il avoit même, la veille de la bataille, quitté son camp pour se rendre auprès du Turc. Dans nos entretiens il me conta sur tout cela beaucoup de particularités. Je vis également deux arbalétriers Génois qui s'étoient trouvés à ce combat, et qui me racontérent comment l'empereur et son armée repassèrent le Danube sur ces galères. Après avoir reçu la réponse des bachas, l'ambassadeur revint chez lui; mais à peine y étoit-il arrivé qu'il reçut, de la part du seigneur, cinq mille aspres avec une robe de camocas cramoisi, doublée de boccassin jaune. Trente-six aspres valent un ducat de Venise; mais sur les cinq mille le trésorier qui les délivra en retint dix par cent pour droits de sa charge. Je vis aussi pendant mon séjour à Andrinople un présent d'un autre genre, fait également par le seigneur à une mariée, le jour de ses noces. Cette mariée étoit la fille du béguelarbay, gouverneur de la Grèce, et c'étoit la fille d'un des bachas qui, accompagnée de trente et quelques autres femmes, avoit été chargée de le présenter. Son vêtement étoit un tissu d'or cramoisi, et elle avoit le visage couvert, selon l'usage de la nation, d'un voile très-riche et ornée de pierreries. Les dames portoient de même de magnifiques voiles, et pour habillement les unes avoient des robes de velours cramoisi, les autres des robes de drap d'or sans fourrures. Toutes étoient à cheval, jambe de-ça, jambe de là, comme des hommes, et plusieurs avoient de superbes selles. En ayant et à la tete de la troupe marchoient treize ou quatorze cavaliers et deux ménestrels, également à cheval, ainsi que quelques autres musiciens qui portoient une trompette, un très-grand tambour et environ huit paires de timbales. Tout cela faisoit un bruit affreux. Après les musiciens venoit le présent, et après le présent, les dames. Ce présent consistoit en soixante-dix grands plateaux d'etain chargés de différentes sortes de confitures et de compotes, et vingt-huit autres dont chacun portoit un mouton écorché. Les moutons étoient peints en blanc et en rouge, et tous avoient un anneau d'argent suspendu au nez et deux autres aux oreilles. J'eus occasian de voir aussi dans Andrinople des chaînes de chrétiens qu'on amenoit vendre. Ils demandoient l'aumône dans les rues. Mais le coeur saigne quand on songe à tout ce qu'ils souffrent de maux. Nous quittâmes la ville le 12 de Mars, sous la conduite d'un esclave que le seigneur avoit donné à l'ambassadeur pour l'accompagner. Cet homme nous fut en route d'une grande utilité, surtout pour les logemens; car par-tout où il demandoit quelque chose pour nous, à l'instant on s'empressoit de nous l'accorder. Notre première journée fut à travers un beau pays, en remontant le long de la Marisce, que nous passâmes à un bac. La seconde, quoiqu'avec bons chemins, fut employée à traverser des bois. Enfin nous entrâmes dans le pays de Macédoine. Là je trouvai une grande plaine entre deux montagnes, laquelle peut bien avoir quarante milles de large, et qui est arrosée par la Marisce. J'y rencontrai quinze hommes et dix femmes enchaînés par le cou. C'étoient des habitans du royaume de Bosnie que des Turcs venoient d'enlever dans une course qu'ils avoient faite. Deux d'entre eux les menoient vendre dans Andrinople. Peu après j'arrivai à Phéropoly, [Footnote: C'est une erreur de copiste: lui-même, quelques lignes plus bas, a écrit l'hélippopoly, et en effet c'est de Philippopoli qu'il est mention.] capitale de la Macédoine, et bâtie par le roi Philippe. Elle est sur la Marisce, dans une grande plaine et un excellent pays, où l'on trouve toutes sortes de vivres et à bon compte. Ce fut jadis une ville considérable, et elle l'est encore. Elle renferme trois montagnes, dont deux sont à une extrémité vers le midi, et l'autre au centre. Sur celle-ci étoit construit un grand château en forme de croissant allongé; mais il a été détruit. On me montra l'emplacement du palais du roi Philippe, qu'on a de même démoli, et dont les murs subsistent encore. Philippopoli est peuplée en grande partie de Bulgares qui tiennent la loi Grégoise (qui suivent la religion Grecque). Pour en sortir je passai la Marisce sur un pont, et chevauchai pendant une journée toute entière à travers cette plaine dont j'ai parlé; elle aboutit à une montagne longue de seize à vingt milles, et couverte de bois. Ce lieu étoit autrefois infesté de voleurs, et très-dangereux à passer. Le Turc a ordonné que quiconque y habiteroit fut Franc, et en conséquence il s'y est élevé deux villages peuplés de Bulgares, et dont l'un est sur les confins de Bulgarie et de Macédoine. Je passai la nuit dans le premier. Après avoir traversé la montagne, on trouve une plaine de six milles de long sur deux de large; puis une forêt qui peut bien en avoir seize de longueur; puis une autre grande plaine totalement close de montagnes, bien peuplée de Bulgares, et où l'on a une rivière à traverser. Enfin j'arrivai en trois jours à une ville nommée Sophie, qui fut autrefois très-considérable, ainsi qu'on le voit par les débris de ses murs rasés jusqu'à terre, et qui aujourd'hui encore est la meilleure de la Bulgarie. Elle a un petit château, et se trouve assez près d'une montagne au midi, mais située au commencement d'une grande plaine d'environ soixante milles de long sur dix de large. Ses habitans sont pour la plupart des Bulgares, et il en est de même des villages. Les Turcs n'y forment que le très-petit nombre; ce qui donne aux autres un grand desir de se tirer de servitude, s'ils pouvoient trouver qui les aidât. J'y vis arriver des Turcs qui venoient de faire une course en Hongrie. Un Génois qui se trouvoit dans la ville, et qu'on nomme Nicolas Ciba, me raconta qu'il avoit vu revenir également ceux qui repassèrent le Danube, et que sur dix il n'y en avoit pas un qui eût à la fois un arc et une épée. Pour moi, je dirai que parmi ceux-ci j'en trouvai beaucoup plus n'ayant ou qu'un arc ou qu'une épée seulement, que de ceux qui eussent les deux armes ensemble. Les mieux fournis portoient une petite targe (bouclier) en bois. En vérité, c'est pour la chrétienté une grande honte, il faut en convenir, qu'elle se laisse subjuguer par de telles gens. Ils sont bien au-dessous de ce qu'on les croit. En sortant de Sophie je traversai pendant cinquante milles cette plaine dont j'ai fait mention. Le pays est bien peuplé, et les habitans sont des Bulgares de religion Grecque. J'eus ensuite un pays de montagnes, qui cependant est assez bon pour le cheval; puis je trouvai en plaine une très-petite ville nommée Pirotte, située sur la Nissave. Elle n'est point fermée; mais elle a un petit château qui, d'une part est défendu par la rivière, et de l'autre par un marais. Au nord est une montagne. Il n'y a d'habitans que quelques Turcs. Au-delà de Pirotte on retrouve un pays montagneux; après quoi l'on revient sur ses pas pour se rapprocher de la Nissave, qui traverse une belle vallée entré deux assez hautes montagnes. Au pied d'une des deux étoit la ville d'Ysvourière, aujourd'hui totalement détruite, ainsi que ses murs. On côtoie ensuite la rivière, en suivant la vallée; on trouve une autre montagne dont le passage est difficile, quoiqu'il y passe chars et charrettes. Enfin on arrive dans une vallée agréable qu'arrose encore la Nissave; et après avoir traversé la rivière sur un pont, on entre dans Nisce (Nissa). Cette ville, qui avoit un beau château, appertenoit au despote de Servie. Le Turc l'a prise de force il y a cinq ans, et il l'a entièrement détruite; elle est dans un canton charmant qui produit beaucoup de riz. Je continuai par-delà Nissa de côtoyer la rivière; et le pays, toujours également beau, est bien garni de villages. Enfin je la passai à un bac, où je l'abandonnai. Alors commencèrent des montagnes. J'eus à traverser une longue forêt fangeuse, et, après dix journées de marche depuis Andrinople, j'arrivai à Corsebech, petite ville à un mille de la Morane (Morave.) La Morave est une grosse rivière qui vient de Bosnie. Elle, séparé la Bulgarie d'avec la Rascie ou Servie, province qui porte également ces deux noms, et que le Turc a conquise depuis six ans. Pour Corsebech, il avoit un petit château qu'on a détruit. Il a encore une double enceinte de murs; mais on en a démoli la partie supérieure jusqu'au-dessous des créneaux. J'y trouvai Cénamin-Bay, capitaine (commandant) de ce vaste pays frontière, qui s'étend depuis la Valaquie jusqu'en Esclavonie. Il passe dans la ville une partie de l'année. On m'a dit qu'il étoit né Grec, qu'il ne boit point de vin, comme les autres Turcs, et que c'est un homme sage et vaillant, qui s'est fait craindre et obéir. Le Turc lui a confié le commandement de cette contrée, et il en possède en seigneurie la plus grande partie. Il ne laisse passer la rivière qu'à ceux qu'il connoît, à moins qu'ils ne soient porteurs d'une lettre du maître, ou, en son absence, du seigneur de la Grèce. Nous vîmes là une belle personne, genti-femme du royaume de Hongrie, dont la situation nous inspira bien de la pitié. Un renégat Hongrois, homme du plus bas état, l'avoit enlevée dans une course, et il en usoit comme de sa femme. Quand elle nous aperçut elle fondit en larmes; car elle n'avoit pas encore renoncé à sa religion. Au sortir de Corsebech, je traversai la Morave à un bac, et j'entrai sur les terres du despote de Rassie ou de Servie, pays beau et peuplé. Ce qui est en-deçà de la rivière lui appartient, ce qui se trouve au-delà est au Turc; mais le despote lui paie annuellement cinquante mille ducats de tribut. Celui-ci possède sur la rivière et aux confins communs de Bulgarie, d'Esclavonie, d'Albanie et de Bosnie, une ville nommée Nyeuberge, qui a une mine portant or et argent tout à la fois. Chaque année elle lui donne plus de deux cent mille ducats, m'ont dit gens qui sont bien instruits: sans cela il ne seroit pas longtemps à être chassé de son pays. Sur ma route je passai près du château d'Escalache, qui lui appartenoit. C'étoit une forte place, sur la pointe d'une montagne au pied de laquelle la Nissane se jette dans la Morave. On y voit encore une partie des murs avec une tour en forme de donjon; mais c'est tout ce qui en reste. A cette embouchure des deux rivières le Turc tient habituellement quatre-vingts ou cent fustes, galiottes et gripperies, pour passer, en temps de guerre, sa cavalerie et son armée. Je n'ai pu les voir, parce qu'on ne permet point aux chrétiens d'en approcher; mais un homme digne de foi m'a dit qu'il y a toujours, pour les garder, un corps de trois cents hommes, et que ce corps est renouvelé de deux en deux mois. D'Escalache au Danube il y a bien cent milles, et néanmoins, dans toute la longueur de cet espace, il n'existe d'autre forteresse ou lieu de quelque défense qu'un village et une maison que Cénaym-Bay a fait construire sur le penchant d'une montagne, avec une mosquée. Je suivis le cours de la Morave; et, à l'exception d'un passage très-boueux qui dure près d'un mille, et que forme le resserrement de la rivière par une montagne, j'eus beau chemin et pays agréable et bien peuplé. Il n'en fut pas de même à la seconde journée: j'eus des bois, des montagnes, beaucoup de fange; néanmoins le pays continua d'être aussi beau que peut l'être un pays de montagnes. Il est bien garni de villages, et par tout on y trouve tout ce dont on a besoin. Depuis que nous avions mis le pied en Macédoine, en Bulgarie et en Rassie, sans cesse sur notre passage j'avois trouvé que le Turc faisoit crier son ost, c'est-à-dire qu'il faisoit annoncer que quiconque est tenu de se rendre à l'armée, se tînt prêt à marcher. On nous dit que ceux qui, pour satisfaire à ce devoir, nourrissent un cheval sont exempts du comarch; que ceux des chrétiens qui veulent être dispensés de service paient cinquante aspres par tête, et que d'autres y marchent forcés; mais qu'on les prend pour augmenter le nombre. L'on me dit aussi, à la cour du despote, que le Turc a partagé entre trois capitaines la garde et défense de ces provinces frontières. L'un, nommé Dysem-Bay, a depuis les confins de la Valaquie jusqu'à la mer Noire; Cénaym-Bay, depuis la Valaquie jusqu'aux confins de Bosnie; et Ysaac-Bay, depuis ces confins jusqu'à l'Esclavonie, c'est-à-dire tout ce qui est par delà la Morave. Pour reprendre le récit de ma route, je dirai que je vins à une ville, ou plutôt à une maison de campagne nommée Nichodem. C'est là que le despote, a fixé son séjour, parce que le terroir en est bon, et qu'il y trouve bois, rivières et tout ce qu'il lui faut pour les plaisirs de la chasse et du vol, qu'il aime beaucoup. Il étoit aux champs et alloit voler sur la rivière, accompagné d'une cinquantaine de chevaux, de trois de ses enfans et d'un Turc qui, de la part du maître, étoit venu le sommer d'envoyer à l'armée un de ses fils avec son contingent. Indépendamment du tribut qu'il paie, c'est-là une des conditions qui lui sont imposées. Toutes les fois que le seigneur lui fait passer ses ordres, il est obligé de lui envoyer mille ou huit cents chevaux sous le commandement de son second fils. Il a donné à ce maitre une de ses filles en mariage, et cependant il n'y a point de jour qu'il ne craigne de se voir enlever par lui ses Etats; j'ai même entendu dire qu'on en avoit voulu inspirer de l'envie à celui-ci, et qu'il avoit répondu: "J'en tire plus que si je les possédois. Dans ce cas je serois obligé de les donner à l'un de mes esclaves, et je n'en aurois rien." Les troupes qu'il levoit étoient destinées contre l'Albanie, disoit-on. Déjà il en avoit fait passer dans ce pays dix mille; et voilà pourquoi il avoit près de lui si peu de monde à Lessère quand je l'y vis: mais cette première armée avoit été détruite. [Footnote: C'est en effet dans cette même année 1433 que le célèbre Scanderberg, après être rentré par ruse en possession de l'Albanie, dont ses ancêtres étoient souverains, commença contre Amurath cette guerre savante qui le couvrit de gloire et qui ternit les dernières années du sultan.] Le seigneur despote est un grand et bel homme de cinquante-huit à soixante ans; il a cinq enfans, trois garçons et deux filles. Des garçons, l'un a vingt ans, l'autre quatorze, et tous trois sont, comme leurs pere, d'un extérieur très-agréable. Quant aux filles, l'une est mariée au Turc, l'autre au comte de Seil; mais je ne les ai point vues, et ne puis rien en dire. [Footnote: Le despote dont il s'agit se nommoit George Brancovitz ou Wikovitz. On trouve dans Ducange (Familiæ Bisant p. 336) quelques détails sur lui et sa famille.] Lorsque nous le rencontrâmes aux champs, ainsi que je l'ai dit, l'ambassadeur et moi nous lui prîmes la main et je la lui baisai, parce que tel est l'usage. Le lendemain nous allâmes le saluer chez lui. Sa cour, assez nombreuse, étoit composée de très-beaux hommes qui portent longs cheveux et longue barbe, vu qu'ils sont de la religion Grecque. Il y avoit dans la ville un évêque et un maître (docteur) en théologie, qui se rendoient à Constantinople, et qui étoient envoyés en ambassade vers l'empereur par le saint concile de Bâle. [Footnote: Ce saint concile, qui finit par citer à son tribunal et déposer le pape, tandis que le pape lui ordonnit de se dissoudre et en convoquoit un autre à Ferrare, puis à Florence, avoit entrepris de réunir l'église Grecque à la Latine; et c'est dans ce dessein qu'il députoit vers l'empereur. Celui-ci se rendit effectivement en Italie, et il signa dans Florence cette réunion politique et simulée dont il a été parlé plus haut.] De Coursebech j'avois mis deux jours pour venir à Nicodem; de Nicodem à Belgrado j'en mis un demi. Ce ne sont jusqu'à cette dernière ville que grands bois, montagnes et vallées; mais ces valées foisonnent de villages dans lesquels on trouve beaucoup de vivres, et spécialement de bons vins. Belgrade est en Rascie, et elle appartenoit au despote, mais depuis quatre ans il l'a cédée au roi de Hongrie, parce qu'on a craint qu'il ne la laissât prendre au Turc, comme il a laissé prendre Coulumbach. Cette perte fut un grand malheur pour la chrétienté. L'autre en seroit un plus grand encore, parce que la place est plus forte, et qu'elle peut loger jusqu'à cinq à six mille chevaux. [Footnote: On sera étonné de voir l'auteur, en parlant de la garnison d'une place de guerre, ne faire mention que de chevaux. Ci-dessus, lorsqu'il a spécifié le contingent que le despote étoit obligé de fournir à l'armée Turque, il n'a parlé que de chevaux. Sans cesse il parle de chevaux. C'est qu'alors en Europe on ne faisoit cas que de la gendarmerie, et que l'infanterie ou piétaille, presque toujours mal composée et mal armée, etoit comptée pour trés-peu.] Le long de ses murs, d'un côté, coule une grosse rivière qui vient de Bosnie, et qu'on nomme la Sanne; de l'autre elle a un château près ququel [sic--KTH] passe le Danube, et là, dans ce Danube; se jette la Sanne. C'est sur la pointe formée par les deux rivières qu'est bâtie la ville. Dans le pourtour de son enceinte son terrain a une certaine hauteur, excepté du côté de terre, où il est tellement uni qu'on peut par là venir de plain pied jusqu'au bord du fossé. De ce côté encore, il y a un village qui, s'étendant depuis la Sanne jusqu'au Danube, enveloppe la ville à la distance, d'un trait d'arc. Ce village est habité par des Rascîens. Le jour de Pâques, j'y entendis la messe en langue Sclavonne. Il est dans l'obédience de l'église Romaine, et leurs cérémonies ne diffèrent en rien des nôtres. La place, forte par sa situation et par ses fossés, tous en glacis, a une enceinte de doubles murs bien entretenus, et qui suivent très-exactement les contours du terrain. Elle est composée de cinq forteresses, dont trois sur le terrain élevé dont je viens de parler, et deux sur la rivière. De ces deux-ci, l'une est fortifiée contre l'autre; mais toutes deux sont commandées par les trois premières. Il y a aussi un petit port qui peut contenir quinze à vingt galères, et qui est défendu par une tour construite à chacune de ses extrémités. On le ferme avec une chaîne qui va d'une tour à l'autre. Au moins c'est ce qu'on m'a dit; car les deux rives sont si éloignées que moi je n'ai pu la voir. Je vis sur la Sanne six galères et cinq galiottes. Elles étoient près l'une des cinq forteresses, la moins forte de toutes. Dans cette forteresse sont beaucoup de Rasciens; mais on ne leur permet point d'entrer dans les quatre autres. Toutes cinq sont bien garnies d'artillerie. J'y ai remarqué sur-tout trois bombardes de métail (canons de bronze) dont deux étoient de deux pièces, [Footnote: La remarque que l'auteur fait ici sur ces trois canons sembleroit annoncer que ceux de bronze étoient rares encore, et qu'on les regardoit comme une sorte de merveille. Louis XI en fit fondre une douzaine, auxquels il donna le nom des douze pairs. (Daniel, Mil. Franc, t. I, p. 825.)] et l'une d'une telle grosseur que jamais je n'en ai vu de pareille: elle avoit quarante-deux pouces de large dedans où la pierre entre (sa bouche avoit quarante-deux pouces de diamètre); mais elle me parut courte pour sa grosseur. [Footnote: La mode alors étoit de faire des pièces d'artillerie d'une grosseur énorme. Peu dé temps après l'époque où écrivoit notre auteur, Mahomet II, assiégeant Constantinople, en employa qui avoient été fondues sur les lieux, et qui portoient, dit on, deux cents livres de balle. La Chronique Scandaleuse et Monstrelet parlent d'une sorte d'obus que Louis XI fit fondre à Tours, puis conduire à Paris, et qui portoit des balles de cinq cents livres. En 1717, le prince Eugène, après sa victoire sur les Turcs, trouva dans Belgrade un canon long de près de vingt-cinq pieds, qui tiroit des boulets de cent dix livres, et dont la charge étoit de cinquante-deux livres de poudre (Ibid p. 323.) C'étoit encore un usage ordinaire de faire les boulets en grès ou en pierre, arrondis et taillés de calibre pour la pièce. Et voilà pourquoi la Brocquière, parlant de l'embouchure du canon, emploie cette expression, "dedens où LA PIERRE entre."] Le capitaine (commandant) de la place étoit messire Mathico, chevalier de Aragouse (d'Arragon), et il avoit pour lieutenant un sien frère, qu'on appeloit le seigneur frère. Sur le Danube, deux journées au-dessous de Belgrade, le Turc possède ce château de Coulombach, qu'il a pris au despote. C'est encore une forte place, dit-on, quoique cependant il soit aisé de l'attaquer avec de l'artillerie et de lui fermer tout secours; ce-qui est un grand désavantage. Il y entretient cent fustes pour passer en Hongrie quand il lui plaît. Le capitaine du lieu est ce Ceynam-Bay dont j'ai parlé ci-devant. Sur le Danube encore, mais à l'opposite de Belgrade, et dans la Hongrie, le despote possède également une ville avec château. Elle lui a été donnée par l'empereur, [Footnote: Sigismond, roi de Bohême et de Hongrie. On prétend que Sigîsmond ne les donna qu'en échange de Belgrade.] avec plusieurs autres, qui lui font un revenu de cinquante mille ducats, et c'étoit à condition qu'il deviendroit son homme [Footnote: Deviendroit son homme. Cette expression de la féodalité du temps indique l'obligation du service militaire et de la fidélité que le vassel devoit à son suzerain.] mais il obéit plus au Turc qu'à l'empereur. Deux jours après mon arrivée dans Belgrade j'y vis entrer vingt-cinq hommes armés à la manière du pays, que le gouverneur comte Mathico y faisoit venir pour demeurer en garnison. On me dit que c'étoient des Allemands pour garder la place, tandis qu'on avoit si près des Hongrois, et des Serviens. On me répondit que les Serviens, étant sujets et tributaires du Turc, on se garderoit bien de la leur confier; et que quant aux Hongrois, ils le redoutoient tant que s'il paroissoit, ils n'oseroient la défendre contre lui, quelque forte qu'elle fût. Il falloit donc y appeler des étrangers; et cette mesure devenoit d'autant plus nécessaire que c'étoit la seule place que l'empereur possédât pour passer sur l'autre rive du Danube, ou pour le repasser en cas de besoin. Ce discours m'étonna beaucoup; il me fit faire des réflexions sur l'étrange sujettion où le Turc tient la Macédoine et la Bulgarie, l'empereur de Constantinople et les Grecs, le despote de Rascie et ses sujets. Cette dépendance me parut chose lamentable pour la chrétienté. Et comme j'ai vécu avec les Turcs, que je connois leur manière de vivre et de combattre, que j'ai hanté des gens notables qui les ont vus de près dans leurs grandes entreprises, je me suis enhardi à écrire, selon mes lumières, quelque chose sur eux, et à montrer, sauf correction de la part de ceux qui sont plus instruits que moi, comment il est possible de reprendre les états dont ils se sont emparés, et de les battre sur un champ de bataille. Et d'abord, pour commencer par leur personnel, je dirai que ce sont d'assez beaux hommes, portant tous de longues barbes, mais de moyenne taille et de force médiocre. Je sais bien que, dans le langage ordinaire, on dit fort comme un Turc; cependant j'ai vu une infinité de chrétiens qui, dans les choses où il faut de la force, l'emportoient sur eux; et moi-même, qui ne suis pas des plus robustes, j'en ai trouvé, lorsque les circonstances exigeoient quelque travail, de plus foibles que moi encore. Ils sont gens diligens, se lèvent matin volontiers, et vivent de peu en compagne; se contentant de pain mal cuit, de chair crue séchée au soleil, de lait soit caillé soît non caillé, de miel, fromage, raisins, fruits, herbages, et même d'une poignée de farine avec laquelle ils feront un brouet qui leur suffira pour un jour à six ou huit. Ont-ils un cheval ou un chameau malade sans espoir de guérison, ils lui coupent la gorge et le mangent. J'en ai été témoin maintes fois. Pour dormir ils ne sont point embarassés, et couchent par terre. Leur habillement consiste en deux ou trois robes de coton l'une sur l'autre, et qui descendent jusqu'aux pieds. Par-dessus celles-là ils en portent, en guise de manteau, une autre de feutre qu'on nomme capinat. Le capinat, quoique léger, résiste à la pluie, et il y en a de très-beaux et de très-fins. Ils ont des bottes qui montent jusqu'aux genoux, et de grandes braies (caleçons), qui pour les uns sont de velours cramoisi, pour d'autres de soie, de futaine, d'étoffes communes. En guerre ou en route, pour n'être point embarrassés de leurs robes, ils les relèvent et les enferment dans leurs caleçons; ce qui leur permet d'agir librement. Leurs chevaux sont bons, coûtent peu à nourir, courent bien et longtemps; mais ils les tiennent très-maigres et ne les laissent manger que la nuit, encore ne leur donnent-ils alors que cinq ou six jointées d'orge et le double de paille picade (hachée): le tout mis dans une besace qu'ils leur pendent aux oreilles. Au point du jour, ils les brident, les nettoient, les étrillent; mais ils ne les font boire qu'à midi, puis l'après-diner, toutes les fois qu'ils trouvent de l'eau, et le soir quand ils logent ou campent; car ils campent toujours de bonne heure, et près d'une rivière, s'ils le peuvent. Dans cette dernière circonstance ils les laissent bridés encore pendant une heure, comme les mules. Enfin vient un moment où chacun fait manger le sien. Pendant la nuit ils les couvrent de feutre ou d'autres étoffes, et j'ai vu de ces couvertures qui étoient très-belles; ils en ont même pour leurs lévriers, [Footnote: Le mot lévrier n'avoit pas alors l'acception exclusive qu'il a aujourd'hui; il se prenoit pour le chien de chase ordinaire.] espèce dont ils sont très-curieux, et qui chez eux est belle et forte, quoiqu'elle ait de longues oreilles pendantes et de longues queues feuillées (touffues), que cependant elle porte bien. Tous leurs chevaux sont Hongres: ils n'en gardent d'entiers que quelques-uns pour servir d'étalons, mais en si petit nombre que je n'en ai pas vu un seul. Du reste ils les sellent et brident à la jennette. [Footnote: Les mors et les selles à la genette avoient été adoptés en France, et jusqu'au dernier siècle ils furent d'usage dans nos manéges. On disoit monter à la genette quand les jambes étoient si courtes que l'éperon portoit vis-à-vis les flancs du cheval. Le mors à la genette étoit celui qui avoit sa gourmette d'une seule pièce et de la forme d'un grand anneau, mis et arrêté au haut de la liberté de la langue.] Leurs selles, ordinairement fort riches, sont très-creuses. Elles n'ont qu'un arçon devant, un autre derrière, avec de courtes étrivières et de larges étriers. Quant à leurs habillemens de guerre, j'ai été deux fois dans le cas de les voir, à l'occasion des Grecs renégats qui renonçoient à leur religion pour embrasser le Mahométisme: alors les Turcs font une grande fête; ils prennent leurs plus belles armes et parcourent la ville en cavalcade aussi nombreuse qu'il leur est possible. Or dans ces circonstances, je les ai vus porter d'assez belles brigandines (cottes d'armes) pareilles aux nôtres, à l'exception que les écailles en étoient plus petites. Leur garde-bras (brassarts) étoient de même. En un mot ils ressemblent à ces peintures où l'on nous représente les temps de Jules César. La brigandine descend presqu'à mi-cuisse; mais à son extrémité est attachée circulairement une étoffe de soie qui vient jusqu'à mi-jambe. Sur la tête ils portent un harnois blanc qui est rond comme elle, et qui, haut de plus d'un demi-pied, se termine en pointe. [Footnote: Harnois, dans la langue du temps, étoit un terme général qui signifioit à la fois habillement et armure; ici il désigne une sorte de bonnet devenu arme défensive.] On le garnit de quatre clinques (lames), l'une devant, l'autre derrière, les deux autres sur les côtés, afin de garantir du coup d'épée la face, le cou et les joues. Elles sont pareilles à celles qu'ont en France nos salades. [Footnote: Salades, sorte de casque léger alors en usage, et qui, n'ayant ni visière ni gorgerin, avoit besoin de cette bande de fer en saillie pour défendre le visage.] Outre cette garniture de tête ils en ont assez communément une autre qu'ils mettent par-dessus leurs chapeaux ou leurs toques: c'est une coiffe de fil d'archal. Il y a de ces coiffes qui sont si riches et si belles qu'elles coûtent jusqu'à quarante et cinquante ducats, tandis que d'autres n'en coûtent qu'un ou deux. Quoique celles-ci soient moins fortes que les autres, elles peuvent résister au coup de taille d'une épée. J'ai parlé de leurs selles: ils y sont assis comme dans un fauteuil, bien enfoncés, les genoux fort haut et les étriers courts; position dans laquelle ils ne pourroient pas supporter le moindre coup de lance sans être jetés bas. L'arme de ceux qui ont quelque fortune est un arc, un tarquais, une épée et une forte masse à manche court, dont le gros bout est taillé à plusieurs carnes. Ce bâton a du danger quand on l'assène sur des épaules ou des bras dégarnis. Je suis même convaincu qu'un coup bien appuyé sur une tête armée de salade étourdiroit l'homme. Plusieurs portent de petits pavois (boucliers) en bois, et ils savent très-bien s'en couvrir à cheval quand ils tirent de l'arc. C'est ce que m'ont assuré gens qui les ont long-temps pratiqués, et ce que j'ai vu par moi-même. Leur obéissance aux ordres de leur seigneur est sans bornes. Pas un seul n'oseroit les transgresser quand il s'agiroit de la vie, et c'est principalement à cette soumission constante qu'il doit les grandes choses qu'il a exécutées et ces vastes conquêtes qui l'ont rendu maître d'une étendue de pays beaucoup plus considérable que n'est la France. On m'a certifié que quand les puissances chrétiennes ont pris les armes contre eux, ils ont toujours été avertis à temps. Dans ce cas, le seigneur fait épier leur marche par des hommes qui sont propres à cette fonction, et il va les attendre avec son armée à deux ou trois journées du lieu où il se propose de les combattre. Croit-il l'occasion favorable, il fond sur eux tout-à-coup, et ils ont pour ces circonstances une sorte de marche qui leur est propre. Le signal est donné par un gros tambour. Alors ceux qui doivent être en tête partent les premiers et sans bruit; les autres suivent de même en silence, sans que la file soit jamais interrompue, parce que les chevaux et les hommes sont dressés à cet exercice. Dix mille Turcs, en pareil cas, font moins de tapage que ne feroient cent hommes d'armes chrétiens. Dans leurs marches ordinaires, ils ne vont jamais qu'au pas; mais dans celles-ci ils emploient le galop, et comme d'ailleurs ils sont armés légèrement, ils font du soir au matin autant de chemin qu'en trois de leurs journées communes; et voilà pourquoi ils ne pourroient porter d'armures complètes, ainsi que les Français et les Italiens: aussi ne veulent-ils en chevaux que ceux qui ont un grand pas ou qui galopent long-temps, tandis que nous il nous les faut trottant bien et aisés. C'est par ces marches forcées qu'ils ont réussi, dans leurs différentes guerres, à surprendre les chrétiens et à les battre si complétement; c'est ainsi qu'ils ont vaincu le duc Jean, à qui Dieu veuille pardonner, [Footnote: Jean, comte de Nevers, surnommé Sans-peur et fils de Philippe le Hardi, duc de Bourgogne. Sigismond ayant formé une ligue pour arretêr les conquêtes de Bajazet, notre roi Charles VI lui envoya un corps de troupes dans lequel il y avoit deux mille gentilshommes, et qui étoit conduit par le comte Jean. L'armée chrétienne fut défaite à Nicopolis en 1396, et nos Français tués ou faits prisonniers. On sait qu'avant la bataille, pour se débarrasser de captifs Turcs qu'ils avoient reçus à rançon, ils eurent l'indignité de les égorger, et qu'après la victoire le sultan n'ayant accordé la vie qu'aux principaux d'entre eux, il fit par représailles massacrer devant eux leurs camarades. Jean, devenu duc de Bourgogne, fit lâchement assassiner dans Paris le duc d'Orléans, frère du roi. Il fut tué à son tour par Tannegui du Châtel, ancien officier du duc. On voit par ces faits que la Brocquière avoit grande raison, en parlant de Jean, de demander que Dieu lui pardonnât.] et l'empereur Sigismond, et tout récemment encore cet empereur devant Coulumbach, où périt messire Advis, chevalier de Poulaine (Pologne). Leur manière de combattre varie selon les circonstances. Voient-ils un lieu et une occasion favorables pour attaquer, ils se divisent en plusieurs pelotons, selon la force de leur troupe, et viennent ainsi assailir par différens côtés. Ce moyen est surtout celui qu'ils emploient en pays de bois et de montagnes, parce qu'ils ont l'art de se réunir sans peine. D'autres fois ils se mettent en embuscade et envoient à la découverte quelques gens bien montés. Si le rapport est que l'ennemi n'est point sur ses gardes, ils savent prendre leur parti sur-le-champ et tirer avantage des circonstances. Le trouvent-ils en bonne ordonnance, ils voltigent autour de l'armée à la portée du trait, caracollent ainsi en tirant sans cesse aux hommes et aux chevaux, et le font si long-temps qu'enfin ils la mettent en désordre. Si l'on veut les poursuivre et les chasser, il fuient, et se dispersent chacun de leur côté, quand même on ne leur opposeroit que le quart de ce qu'ils sont; mais c'est dans leur fuite qu'ils sont redoutables, et c'est presque toujours ainsi qu'ils ont déconfi les chrétiens. Tout en fuyant ils ont l'àrt de tirer de l'arc si adroitement qu'ils ne manquent jamais d'atteindre le cavalier ou le cheval. D'ailleurs chacun d'eux porte attaché à l'arçon de sa selle un tabolcan. Si le chef ou quelqu'un des officiers s'aperçoit que l'ennemi qui poursuit est en désordre, il frappe trois coups sur son instrument; chacun de son côté et de loin en loin en fait autant: en un instant tous se rassemblent autour du chef, "comme pourceaux au cry l'un de l'autre," et, selon les circonstances, ils reçoivent en bon ordre les assaillans ou fondent sur eux par pelotons, on les attaquant de toutes parts. Dans les batailles rangées ils emploient quelquefois une autre sorte de stratagème, qui consiste à jeter des feux à travers les chevaux de la cavalerie pour les épouvanter; souvent encore ils mettent en tête de leur ligne un grand nombre de chameaux ou de dromadaires forts et hardis; ils les chassent en avant sur les chevaux, et y jettent le désordre. Telles sont les manières de combattre que les Turcs ont jusqu'à présent mises en usage vis-à-vis des chrétiens. Assurément je ne veux point en dire du mal ni les déprécier; j'avouerai au contraire que, dans le commerce de la vie, je les ai trouvés francs et loyaux, et que dans les occasions où il falloit du courage ils se sont bien montrés: mais cependant je n'en suis pas moins convaincu que, pour des troupes bien montées et bien commandées, ce seroit chose peu difficile de les battre; et quant à moi je déclare qu'avec moitié moins de monde qu'eux je n'hésiterois pas à les attaquer. Leurs armées, je le sais, sont ordinairement de cent à deux cent mille hommes; mais la plupart sont à pied, et la plupart manquent, comme je l'ai dit, de tarquais, de coiffe, de masse ou d'épée; fort peu ont une armure complète. D'ailleurs ils ont parmi eux un très-grand nombre de chrétiens qui servent forcément: Grecs, Bulgares, Macédoniens, Albanois, Esclavons, Valaques, Rasciens et autres sujets du despote de Rascie. Tous ces gens-là détestent le Turc, parce qu'il les tient dans une dure servitude; et s'ils voyoient marcher en forces contre lui les chrétiens, et sur-tout les Français, je ne doute nullement qu'ils ne lui tournassent le dos et ne le grevassent beaucoup. Les Turcs ne sont donc ni aussi terribles, ni aussi formidables que je l'ai entendu dire. J'avoue pourtant qu'il faudroit contre eux un général bien obéi, et qui voulût spécialement prendre et suivre les avis de ceux qui connoissent leur manière de faire la guerre. C'est la faute que fit à Coulumbach, m'a-t-on-dit, l'empereur Sigismond lorsqu'il fut battu par eux. S'il avoit voulu écouter les conseils qu'on lui donna, il n'eût point été obligé de lever honteusement le siége, puisqu'il y avoit vingt-cinq à trente mille Hongrois. Ne vit-on pas deux cents arbalêtriers Lombards et Génois arrêter seuls l'effort des ennemis, les contenir, et favoriser sa retraite pendant qu'il s'embarquoit dans les galères qu'il avoit sur le Danube; tandis que six mille Valaques, qui, avec le chevalier Polonois dont j'ai parlé ci-dessus, s'étoient mis à l'écart sur une petite hauteur, furent tous taillés en pièces? Je ne dis rien sur tout ceci que je n'aie vu ou entendu. Ainsi donc, dans le cas où quelque prince où général chrétien voudroit entreprendre la conquête de la Grèce ou même pénétrer plus avant, je crois que je puis lui donner des renseignemens utiles. Au reste je vais parler selon mes facultés; et s'il m'échappoit chose qui déplût à quelqu'un, je prie qu'on m'excuse et qu'on la regarde comme nulle. Le souverain qui formeroit un pareil projet devroit d'abord se proposer pour but, non la gloire et la renommée, mais Dieu, la religion, et le salut de tant d'âmes qui sont dans la voie de perdition. Il faudroit qu'il fût bien assuré d'avance du paiement de ses troupes, et qu'il n'eût que des corps bien famés, de bonne volonté, et sur-tout point pillards. Quant aux moyens de solde, ce seroit, je crois, à notre saint-père le pape qu'il conviendroit de les assurer; mais jusqu'au moment où l'on entreroit sur les terres des Turcs on devroit se fair une loi de ne rien prendre sans payer. Personne n'aime à se voir dérober ce qui lui appartient, et j'ai entendu dire que ceux qui l'ont fait s'en sont souvent mal trouvés. Au reste je m'en rapporte sur tous ces détails aux princes et à messeigneurs de leur conseil; moi je ne m'arrête qu'à l'espèce de troupes qui me paroît la plus propre à l'enterprise, et avec laquelle je desirerois être, si j'avois à choisir. Je voudrois donc, 1°. de France, gens d'armés, gens de trait, archers et arbalêtriers, en aussi grand nombre qu'il seroit possible, et composés comme je l'ai dit ci dessus; 2°. d'Angleterre, mille hommes d'Armes et dix mille archers; 3°. d'Allemagne, le plus qu'on pourroit de gentilshommes et de leurs crennequiniers à pied et a cheval. [Footnote: Cranquiniers, c'étoît le nom qu'en Autriche et dans une partie de l'Allemagne on donnoit aux archers.] Assemblez en gens de trait, archers et crennequiniers quinze à vingt mille hommes de ces trois nations, bien unis; joignéz-y deux à trois cents ribaudequins, [Footnote: Ribaudequins, sortes de troupes légères qui servoient aux escarmouches et représentoient nos tirailleurs d'aujourd'hui.] et je demanderai à Dieu la grace de marcher avec eux et je réponds bien qu'on pourra les mener sans peine de Belgrade à Constantinople. Il leur suffiroit, ainsi que je l'ai remarqué, d'une armure légère, attendu que le trait Turc n'a point de force. De près, leurs archers tirent juste et vite; mais ils ne tirent point à beaucoup près aussi loin que les nôtres. Leurs arcs sont gros, mais courts, et leurs traits courts et minces. Le fer y est enfoncé dans le bois, et ne peut ni supporter un grand coup, ni faire plaie que quand il trouve une partie découverte. D'après ceci, on voit qu'il suffiroit à nos troupes d'avoir une armure légère, c'est-à-dire un léger harnois de jambes, [Footnote: Harnois de jambes, sorte d'armure défensive en fer qui emboîtoit la jambe, et qu'on nommoit jambards ou grèves.] une légère brigandine ou blanc-harnois, et une salade avec bavière et visière un peu large. [Footnote: J'ai déjà dit que la salade étoit un casque beaucoup moins lourd que le heaume. Il y en avoit qui laissoient le visage totalement découvert; d'autres qui, pour le garantir, portoient en avant une lame de fer; d'autres qui, comme le heaume, le couvroient en entier, haut et bas: ce qu'on appeloit visière et bàvière.] Le trait d'un arc Turc pourrait fausser un haubergon; [Footnote: Haubergeon, cotte de mailles plus légère que le haubert. Etant en mailles, elle pouvoit être faussée plus aisément que la brigandine, qui étoit de fer plein ou en écailles de fer.] mais il sémoussera contre une brigandine ou blanc-harnois. J'ajouterai qu'en cas de besoin nos archers pourroient se servir des traits des Turcs, et que les leurs ne pourroient se servir des nôtres, parce que la coche n'est pas assez large, et que les cordes de leurs arcs étant de nerfs, sont beaucoup trop grosses. Selon moi, ceux de nos gens d'armes qui voudroient être à cheval devroient avoir une lance légère à fer tranchant, avec une forte épée bien affilée. Peut-être aussi leur seroit-il avantageux d'avoir une petite hache à main. Ceux d'entre eux qui seroient à pied porteroient guisarme, [Footnote: Guisarme, hache à deux têtes.] ou bon épieu tranchant [Footnote: Epieu, lance beaucoup plus forte que la lance ordinaire.]; mais les uns et les autres auroient les mains armées de gantelets. Quant a ces gantelets, j'avoue que pour moi j'en connois en Allemagne qui sont de cuir bouilli, dont je ferais autant de cas que de ceux qui sont en fer. Lorsqu'on trouvera une plaine rase et un lieu pour combattre avec avantage on en profitera; mais alors on ne fera qu'un seul corps de bataille. L'avant garde et l'arriere-garde seront employées à former les deux ailes. On entremêlera par-ci par-là tout ce qu'on aura de gens d'armes, à moins qu'on ne préférât de les placer en dehors pour escarmoucher; mais on se gardera bien de placer ainsi les hommes d'armes. En avant de l'armée et sur ses ailes seront épars et semés çà et là les ribaudequins; mais il sera défendu à qui que ce soit, sous peine de la vie, de poursuivre les fuyards. Les Turcs ont la politique d'avoir toujours des armées deux fois plus nombreuses que celles des chrétiens. Cette supériorité de nombre augmente leur courage, et elle leur permet en même temps de former différens corps pour attaquer par divers côtés à la fois. S'ils parviennent à percer, ils se précipitent en foule innombrable par l'ouverture, et alors c'est un grand miracle si tout n'est pas perdu. Pour empêcher ce malheur on placera la plus grande quantité de ribaudequins vers les angles du corps de bataille, et l'on tâchera de se tenir serré de manière à ne point se laisser entamer. Au reste, cette ordonnance me paroit d'autant plus facile à garder qu'ils ne sont point assez bien armés pour former une colonne capable par son poids d'une forte impulsion. Leurs lances ne valent rien. Ce qu'ils ont de mieux ce sont leurs archers, et ces archers ne tirent ni aussi loin ni aussi fort que les nôtres. Ils ont aussi une cavalerie beaucoup plus nombreuse; et leurs chevaux, quoique inférieurs en force aux nôtres, quoique moins capables de porter de lourds fardeaux, courent mieux, escarmouchent plus long-temps et ont plus d'haleine. C'est une raison de plus pour se tenir toujours bien serré, toujours bien en ordre. Si l'on suit constamment cette méthode ils seront forcés, ou de combattre avec désavantage, et par conséquent de tout risquer, ou de faire retraite devant l'armée. Dans le cas où ils prendroient ce dernier parti, on mettra de la cavalerie à leurs trousses; mais il faudra qu'elle ne marche jamais qu'en bonne ordonnance, et toujours prête à combattre et à les bien recevoir s'ils reviennent sur leurs pas. Avec cette conduite il n'est point douteux qu'on ne les batte toujours. En suivant le contraire, ce seront eux qui nous battront, comme il est toujours arrivé. On me dira peut-être que rester ainsi en présence et sur la défensive vis-à-vis d'eux, seroit une honte pour nous. On me dira que, vivant de peu et de tout ce qu'ils trouvent, ils nous affameroient bientôt si nous ne sortoins de notre fort pour aller les combattre. Je répondrai que leur coutume n'est point de rester en place; qu'aujourd'hui dans un endroit, demain éloignés d'une journée et demie, ils reparoissent tout-à-coup aussi vite qu'ils ont disparu, et que, si l'on n'est point continuellement sur ses gardes, on court de gros risques. L'important est donc, du moment où on les a vus, d'être toujours en défiance, toujours prêt à monter à cheval et à se battre. Si l'on a quelque mauvais pas à passer, on ne manquera pas d'y envoyer des gens d'armes et des gens de trait autant que le lieu permettra d'en recevoir pour combattre, et l'on aura grand soin qu'ils soient constamment en bon ordre de bataille. Jamais n'envoyez au fourrage, ce seroit autant d'hommes perdus; d'ailleurs vous ne trouveriez plus rien aux champs. En temps de guerre les Turcs font tout transporter dans les villes. Avec toutes ces précautions, la conquête de la Grèce [Footnote: On a déja vu plus haut que par le mot Grèce l'auteur entend les états que les Turcs possédoient en Europe.] ne sera pas une entreprise extrêmement difficile, pourvu, je le répète, que l'armée fasse toujours corps, qu'elle ne se divise jamais, et ne veuille point envoyer de pelotons à la poursuite de l'ennemi. Si l'on me demande comment on aura des vivres, je dirai que la Grèce et la Rassie ont des rivières navigables, et que la Bulgarie, la Macédoine et les provinces Grecques sont fertiles. En avançant ainsi toujours en masse, on forcera les Turcs à reculer, et il faudra qu'ils choisissent entre deux extrémités, comme je l'ai déja dit, ou de repasser en Asie et d'abandonner leurs biens, leurs femmes et leurs enfans, puisque le pays n'est point de défense, ainsi qu'on l'a pu voir par la description que j'en ai donnée, ou de risquer une bataille, comme ils l'ont fait toutes les fois qu'ils ont passé le Danube. Je conclus qu'avec de bonnes troupes composées des trois nations que j'ai nommées, Français, Anglais et Allemands, on sera sûr du succès, et que si elles sont en nombre suffisant, bien unies et bien commandées, elles iront par terre jusqu'à Jerusalem. Mais je reprends mon récit. Je traversai le Danube à Belgrade. Il étoit en ce moment extraordinairement gonflé, et pouvoit bien avoir douze milles de large. Jamais, de mémoire d'homme, on ne lui avoit vu une crue pareille. Ne pouvant me rendre à Boude (Bude) par le droit chemin, j'allai à une ville champêtre (un village) nommée Pensey. De Pensey j'arrivai par la plaine la plus unie que je connoisse, et après avoir traversé en bac une rivière à Beurquerel, ville qui appartient au despote de Rassie, et où je passai deux autres rivières sur un pont. De Beurquerel je vins à Verchet, qui est également au despote, et là je passai la Tiste (la Teisse), rivière large et profonde. Enfin je me rendis à Ségading (Ségédin) sur la Tiste. Dans toute la longueur de cette route, à l'exception de deux petits bois qui étoient enclos d'un ruisseau, je n'ai pas vu un seul arbre. Les habitans n'y brûlent que de la paille ou des roseaux qu'ils ramassent le long des rivières ou dans leurs nombreux marécages. Ils mangent, au lieu de pain, des gâteaux tendres; mais ils n'en ont pas beaucoup à manger. Ségédin est une grande ville champêtre, composée d'une seule rue qui m'a paru avoir une lieue de longueur environ. Elle est dans un terroir fertile, abondant en toutes sortes de denreés. On y prend beaucoup de grues et de bistardes (outardes), et j'en vis un grand marché tout rempli; mais on les y apprête fort malproprement, et on les mange de même. La Teisse fournit aussi quantité de poissons, et nulle part je n'ai vu rivière en donner d'aussi gros. On y trouxe également une grande quantité de chevaux sauvages à vendre; mais on sait les domter et les apprivoiser, et c'est une chose curieuse à voir. On m'a même assuré que qui en voudroit trois ou quatre mille, les trouveroit dans la ville. Ils sont à si bon marché que pour dix florins de Hongrie on auroit un très-beau roussin (cheval de voyage). L'empereur, m'a-t-on dit, avoit donné Ségédin à un évêque. J'y vis ce prélat, et me sembla homme de grosse conscience. Les cordelîers ont dans la ville une assez belle église. J'y entendis le service. Ils le font un peu à la Hongroise. De Ségédin je vins à Paele (Pest), assez bonne ville champêtre sur le Danube, vis-à-vis Bude. D'une ville à l'autre le pays continue d'être, bon et uni. On y trouve une quantité immense de haras de jumens, qui vivent abandonnées à elles-mêmes en pleine campagne, comme les animaux sauvages; et telle est la raison qui fait qu'on en voit tant au marché de Ségédin. A Pest je traversai le Danube et entrai dans Bude sept jours après mon départ de Belgrade. Bude, la principale ville de Hongrie, est sur une hauteur beaucoup plus longue que large. Au levant elle a le Danube, au couchant un vallon, et au midi un palais qui commande la porte de la ville, palais qu'a commencé l'empereur, et qui, quand on l'aura fini, sera grand et fort. De ce côté, mais hors des murs, sont de très beaux bains chauds. Il y en a encore au levant, le long du Danube, mais qui ne valent pas les autres. La ville est gouvernée par des Allemands, tant pour les objets de justice et de commerce que pour ce qui regarde les différentes professions. On y voit beaucoup de Juifs qui parlent bien Français, et dont plusieurs sont de ceux qu'on a chassés de France. J'y trouvai aussi un marchand d'Arras appelé Clays Davion; il faisoit partie d'un certain nombre de gens de métier que l'empereur Sigismond avoit amenés de France. Clays travailloit en haute-lice. [Footnote: Sigismond, dans son voyage en France, avoit été à portée d'y voir nos manufactures, et spécialement celles de Flandre, renommées dès-lors par leurs tapisseries. Il avoit voulu en établir de pareilles dans sa capitale de Hongrie, et avoit engagé des ouvriers de différentes professions à l'y suivre.] Les environs de Bude sont agréables, et le terroir est fertile en toutes sortes de denrées, et spécialement en vins blancs qui ont un peu d'ardeur: ce qu'on attribue aux bains chauds du canton et au soufre sur lequel les eaux coulent. A une lieue dé la ville se trouve le corps de saint Paul, hermite, qui s'est conservé tout entier. Je retournai à Pest, où je trouvai également six à huit familles Françaises que l'empereur y avoit envoyées pour construire sur le Danube, et vis-à-vis de son palais une grande tour. Son dessein étoit d'y mettre une chaîne avec laquelle il pût fermer la rivière. On seroit tenté de croire qu'il a voulu en cela imiter la tour de Bourgogne qui est devant le château de l'Ecluse; mais ici je ne crois pas que le projet soit exécutable: la rivière est trop large. J'eus la curiosité d'aller visiter la tour. Elle avoit déja une hauteur d'environ trois lances, et l'on voyoit à l'entour une grande quantité de pierres taillées; mais tout étoit resté là, parce que les premiers maçons qui avoient commencé l'ouvrage étoient morts, disoit-on, et que ceux qui avoient survécu n'en savoient pas assez pour le continuer. Pest a beaucoup de marchands de chevaux, et qui leur en demanderoit deux mille bons les y trouveroit. Ils les vendent par écurie composée de dix chevaux, et chaque écurie est de deux cents florins. J'en ai vu plusieurs dont deux ou trois chevaux seuls valoient ce prix. Ils viennent la plupart des montagnes de Transylvanie, qui bornent la Hongrie au levant. J'en achetai un qui étoit grand coureur: ils le sont presque tous. Le pays leur est bon par la quantité d'herbages qu'il produit; mais ils ont le défaut d'être un peu quinteux, et spécialement mal aisés à ferrer. J'en ai même vu qu'on étoit alors obligé d'abattre. Les montagnes dont je viens de parler ont des mines d'or et de sel qui tous les ans rapportent au roi chacune cent mille florins de Hongrie. Il avoit abandonné celle d'or au seigneur de Prusse et au comte Mathico, à condition que le premier garderoit la frontière contre le Turc, et le second Belgrade. La reine s'étoit réservé le revenu de celle du sel. Ce sel est beau. Il se tire d'une roche et se taille en forme de pierre, par morceaux d'un pied de long environ, carrés, mais un peu convexes en dessus. Qui les verroit dans un chariot les prendroit pour des pierres. On le broie dans un mortier, et il en sort passablement blanc, mais plus fin et meilleur que tous ceux que j'ai goûtés ailleurs. En traversant la Hongrie j'ai souvent rencontré des chariots qui portoient six, sept ou huit personnes, et où il n'y avoit qu'un cheval d'attelé; car leur coutume, quand ils veulent faire de grandes journées, est de n'en mettre qu'un. Tous ont les roues de derrière beaucoup plus hautes que celles de devant. Il en est de couverts à la manière du pays, qui sont très-beaux et si légers qu'y compris les roues un homme, ce me semble, les porteroit sons peine suspendus à son cou. Comme le pays est plat et très-uni, rien n'empêche le cheval de trotter toujours. C'est à raison de cette égalité de terrain que, quand on y laboure, on fait des sillons d'une telle longueur que c'est une merveille à voir. Jusqu'à Pest je n'avois point eu de domestique; là je m'en donnai un, et pris à mon service un de ces compagnons maçcons [sic--KTH] Français qui s'y trouvoient. Il étoit de Brai-sur-Sommé. De retour à Bude j'allai, avec l'ambassadeur de Milan, saluer le grand comte de Hongrie, titre qui répond à celui de lieutenant de l'empereur. Le grand comte m'accueillit d'abord avec beaucoup de distinction, parce qu'à mon habit il me prit pour Turc; mais quand il sut que j'étois chrétien il se refroidit un peu. On me dit que c'étoit un homme peu sûr dans ses paroles, et aux promesses duquel il ne falloit pas trop se fier. C'est un peu là en général ce qu'on reproche aux Hongrois; et, quant à moi, j'avoue que, d'après l'idée que m'ont donnée d'eux ceux que j'ai hantés, je me fierois moins à un Hongrois qu'à un Turc. Le grand comte est un homme âgé. C'est lui, m'a-t-on dit, qui autrefois arrêta Sigismond, roi de Behaigne (Bohême) et de Hongrie, et depuis empereur; c'est lui qui le mit en prison, et qui depuis l'en tira par accommodement. Son fils venoit d'épouser une belle dame Hongroise. Je le vis dans une joute qui, à la manière du pays, eut lieu sur de petits chevaux et avec des selles basses. Les jouteurs étoient galamment habillés, et ils portoient des lances fortes et courtes. Ce spectacle est très-agréable. Quand les deux champions se touchent il faut que tous deux, ou au moins l'un des deux nécessairement, tombent à terre. C'est là que l'on connoît sûrement ceux qui savent se bien tenir en selle. [Footnote: En France, pour les tournois et les joutes, ainsi que pour les batailles, les chevaliers montoient de ces grands et fort chevaux qu'on appeloit palefrois. Leurs selles avoient par-devant et par-derrière de hauts arçons qui, par les points d'appui qu'ils leur fournissoient, leur donnoient bien plus de moyens de résister au coup de lance que les petits chevaux et les selles basses des Hongrois; et voilà pourquoi notre auteur dit que c'est dans les joutes Hongroises qu'on peut reconnoître le cavalier qui sait bien se tenir en selle.] Quand ils joutent à l'estrivée pour des verges d'or, tous les chevaux sont de même hauteur; toutes les selles sont pareilles et tirées au sort, et l'on joute par couples toujours paires, un contre un. Si l'un des deux adversaires tombe, le vainqueur est obligé de se retirer, et il ne joute plus. Jusqu'à Bude j'avois toujours accompagné l'ambassadeur de Milan; mais, avant de quitter la ville, il me prévint qu'en route il se sépareroit de moi pour se rendre auprès du duc. D'après cette annonce j'allai trouver mon Artésien Clays Davion, qui me donna, pour Vienne en Autriche, une lettre de recommendation adressée à un marchand de sa connoissance. Comme je m'étois ouvert à lui, et que je n'avois cru devoir lui cacher ni mon état et mon nom, ni le pays d'où je venois, et l'honneur que j'avois d'appartenir à monseigneur le duc (duc de Bourgogne), il mit tout cela dans la lettre à son ami, et je m'en trouvai bien. De Bude je vins à Thiate, ville champêtre où le roi se tient volontiers, me dit-on; puis, à Janiz, en Allemand Jane, ville sur le Danube. Je passai ensuite devant une autre qui est formée par une île du fleuve, et qui avoit été donnée par l'empereur à l'un des gens de monseigneur de Bourgogne, que je crois être messire Rénier Pot. Je passai par celle de Brut, située sur une rivière qui sépare le royaume de Hongrie d'avec le duché d'Autriche. La rivière coule à travers un marais où l'on a construit une chaussée longue et étroite. Ce lieu est un passage d'une grande importance; je suis même persuadé qu'avec peu de monde on pourroit le défendre et le fermer du côté de l'Autriche. Deux lieues par-delà Brut l'ambassadeur de Milan se sépara de moi: il se rendit vers le duc son maître, et moi à Vienne en Autriche, où j'arrivai après cinq jours de marche. Entré dans la ville, je ne trouvai d'abord personne qui voulût me loger, parce qu'on me prenoit pour un Turc. Enfin quelqu'un, par aventure, m'enseigna une hôtellerie où l'on consentit à me recevoir. Heureusement pour moi le domestique que j'avois pris à Pest savoit le Hongrois et le haut Allemand, et il demanda qu'on fit venir le marchand pour qui j'avois une lettre. On alla le chercher. Il vint, et non seulement il m'offrit tous ces services, mais il alla instruire monseigneur le duc Aubert, [Footnote: Albert II, duc d'Autriche, depuis empereur, à la mort de Sigismond.] cousin-germain de mondit seigneur qui aussitôt dépêcha vers moi un poursuivant, [Footnote: Poursuivant d'armes, sorte de héraut en usage dans les cours des princes.] et peu après messire Albrech de Potardof. II n'y avoit pas encore deux heures que j'étois arrivé quand je vis messire Albrech descendre de cheval à la porte de mon logis, et me demander. Je me crus perdu. Peu avant mon départ pour les saints lieux, moi et quelques autres nous l'avions arrêté entre Flandres et Brabant, parce que nous l'avions cru sujet de Phédérich d'Autriche, [Sidenote: Frédéric, duc d'Autriche, empereur après Albert II.] qui avoit défié mondit seigneur; et je ne doutai pas qu'il ne vînt m'arrêter à mon tour, et peut-être faire pis encore. Il me dit que mondit seigneur d'Autriche, instruit que j'étois serviteur de mondit seigneur le duc, l'envoyoit vers moi pour m'offrir tout ce qui dépendoit de lui; qu'il m'invitoit à le demander aussi hardiment que je le ferois envers mondit seigneur, et qu'il vouloit traiter ses serviteurs comme il feroit les siens même. Messire Albrech parla ensuite en son nom: il me présenta de l'argent, m'offrit des chevaux et autres objets; en un mot il me rendit le bien pour le mal, quoiqu'après tout cependant je n'eusse fait envers lui que ce que l'honneur me permettoit et m'ordonnoit même de faire. Deux jours après, mondit seigneur d'Autriche m'envoya dire qu'il vouloit me parler; et ce fut encore messire Albrech qui vint me prendre pour lui faire la révérence. Je me présentai à lui au moment où il sortoit de la messe, accompagné de huit ou dix vieux chevaliers notables. A peine l'eus-je salué qu'il me prit la main sans vouloir permetter que je lui parlasse à genoux. Il me fit beaucoup de questions, et particulièrement sur mondit seigneur; ce qui me donna lieu de présumer qu'il l'aimoit tendrement. C'étoit un homme d'assez grande taille et brun; mais doux et affable, vaillant et libéral, et qui passoit pour avoir toutes sortes de bonnes qualités. Parmi les personnes qui l'accompagnoient étoient quelques seigneurs de Bohème que les Houls en avoient chassés parce qu'ils ne vouloient pas être de leur religion. [Footnote: Houls, Hussites, disciples de Jean Hus (qu'on prononçoit Hous), sectaires fanatiques qui dans ce siècle inondèrent la Bohème de sang, et se rendirent redoutables par leurs armes.] Il se présenta également à lui un grand baron de ce pays, appelé Paanepot, qui, avec quelques autres personnes, venoit, au nom des Hussites, traiter avec lui et demander la paix. Ceux-ci se proposoient d'aller au secours du roi de Pologne contre les seigneurs de Prusse, et ils lui faisoient de grandes offres, m'a-t-on dit, s'il vouloit les seconder; mais il répondit, m'a-t-on encore ajouté, que s'ils ne se soumettoient à la loi de Jésus-Christ, jamais, tant qu'il seroit en vie, il ne feroit avec eux ni paix ni trêve. En effet, au temps où il leur parloit les avoit déja battus deux fois. Il avoit repris sur eux toute la Morane (Moravie), et, par sa conduite et sa vaillance, s'étoit agrandi à leurs dépens. Au sortir de son audience je fus conduite à celle de la duchesse, grande et belle femme, fille de l'empereur, et par lui héritière du royaume de Hongrie et de Bohème, et des autres seigneuries qui en dépendent. Elle venoit tout récemment d'accoucher d'une fille; ce qui avoit occasionné des fêtes et des joutes d'autant plus courues, que jusque-là elle n'avoit point eu d'enfans. Le lendemain mondit seigneur d'Autriche m'envoya inviter à dîner par messire Albrech, et il me fit manger à sa table avec un seigneur Hongrois et un autre Autrichien. Tous ses gens sont à gages, et personne ne mange avec lui que quand on est en prévenu par son maître d'hôtel. La table étoit carrée. La coutume est qu'on n'y apporte qu'un plat à la fois, et que celui qui s'en trouve le plus voisin en goûte le premier. Cet usage tient lieu d'essai. [Footnote: Chez les souverains on faisoit l'essai des viandes à mesure qu'on les leur servoit, et il y avoit un officier chargé de cette fonction qui, dans l'origine, avoit été une précaution prise contre le poison.] On servit chair et poisson, et sur-tout beaucoup de différentes viandes fort épicées, mais toujours plat à plat. Après le dîner on me mena voir les danses chez madame la duchesse. Elle me donna un chapeau de fil d'or et de soie, un anneau et un diamant pour mettre sur ma tête, selon la coutume du pays. Il y avoit là beaucoup de noblesse en hommes et en femmes; j'y vis des gens très-aimables, et les plus beaux cheveux qu'on puisse porter. Quand j'eus été là quelque temps, un gentilhomme nommé Payser, qui, bien qu'il ne fût qu'écuyer, [Footnote: Qui n'étoit pas encore chevalier.] étoit chambellan et garde des joyaux de mondit seigneur d'Autriche, vint de sa part me prendre pour me les montrer. Il me fit voir la couronne de Bohème, qui a d'assez belles pierreries, et entr'autres un rubis, le plus considérable que j'aie vu. Il m'a paru plus gros qu'une grosse datte; mais il n'est point net, et offre quelques cavités dans le fond desquelles on aperçoit des taches noires. De là ledit garde me mena voir les waguebonnes, [Footnote: Waguebonne, sorte de chariot ou de tour ambulante pour les combats.] que mondit seigneur avoit fait construire pour combattre les Bohémiens. Je n'en vis aucun qui pût contenir plus de vingt hommes; mais on me dit qu'il y en avoit un qui en porteroit trois cents, et auquel il ne falloit pour le traîner que dix-huit chevaux. Je trouvai à la cour monseigneur de Valse, gentil chevalier, et le plus grand seigneur de l'Autriche après le duc; j'y vis messire Jacques Trousset, joli chevalier de Zoave (Souabe): mais il y en avoit un autre, nommé le Chant, échanson né de l'Empire, qui, ayant perdu à la bataille de Bar un sien frère et plusieurs de ses amis, et sachant que j'étois à monseigneur le duc, me fit épier pour savoir le jour de mon départ et me saisir en Bavière lorsque j'y passerois. Heureusement pour moi monseigneur d'Autriche fut instruit de son projet. Il le congédia, et me fit rester à Vienne plus que je ne comptois, pour attendre le départ de monseigneur de Valse et de messire Jacques, avec lesquels je partis. Pendant mon séjour j'y vis trois de ces joutes dont j'ai parlé, à petits chevaux et à selles basses. L'une eut lieu à la cour, et les deux autres dans les rues; mais à celles-ci, plusieurs de ceux qui furent renversés tombèrent si lourdement qu'ils se blessèrent avec danger. Mondit seigneur d'Autriche me fit offrir en secret de l'argent. Je reçus les même offres de messire Albert et de messire Robert Daurestof, grand seigneur du pays, lequel, l'année d'auparavant, étoit allé en Flandre déguisé, et y avoit vu mondit seigneur le duc, dont il disoit beaucoup de bien. Enfin j'en reçus de trèsvives d'un poursuivant Breton-bretonnant (Bas-Breton) nommé Toutseul, qui, après avoir été au service de l'amiral d'Espagne, étoit à celui de mondit seigneur d'Autriche. Ce Breton venoit tous les jours me chercher pour aller à la messe, et il m'accompagnoit par-tout où je voulois aller. Persuadé que j'avois dû dépenser en route tout ce que j'avois d'argent, il vint, peu avant mon départ, m'en présenter cinquante marcs qu'il avoit en émaux. Il insista beaucoup pour que je les vendisse à mon profit; et comme je refusois également de recevoir et d'emprunter, il me protesta que jamais personne n'en sauroit rien. Vienne est une ville assez grande, bien fermée de bons fossés et de hauts murs, et où l'on trouve de riches marchands et des ouvriers de toute profession. Au nord elle a le Danube qui baigne ses murs. Le pays aux environs est agréable et bon, et c'est un lieu de plaisirs et d'amusemens. Les habitans y sont mieux habillés qu'en Hongrie, quoiqu'ils portent tous de gros pourpoints bien épais et bien larges. En guerre, ils mettent par-dessus le pourpoint un bon haubergeon, un glaçon, [Footnote: Glaçon ou glachon, sorte d'armure défensive. Les Suisses estoient assez communément habillez de jacques, de pans, de haubergerie, de glachons et de chapeaux de fer à la façon d'Allemagne. (Mat. de Coucy, p. 536.) En Français on appeloit glaçon une sorte de toile fine qui sans doute étoit glacée. Je soupçonne que le glaçon Allemand étoit une espèce de cotte d'armes faite de plusieurs doubles de toile piquée, comme nos gambisons. Peut-être aussi n'étoit-ce qu'une cuirasse.] un grand chapeau de fer et d'autres harnois à la mode du pays. Ils ont beaucoup de crennequiniers. C'est ainsi qu'en Autriche et en Bohème on nomme ceux qu'en Hongrie on appelle archers. Leurs arcs sont semblables à ceux des Turcs, quoiqu'ils ne soient ni si bons ni si forts; mais ils ne les manient point aussi bien qu'eux. Les Hongrois tirent avec trois doigts, et les Turcs avec le pouce et l'anneau. Quand j'allai prendre congé de mondit seigneur d'Autriche et de madame, il me recommanda lui-même à mes deux compagnons de voyage, messire Jacques Trousset et mondit seigneur de Walsce, qui alloit se rendre sur la frontière de Bohème où il commandoit. Il me fit demander de nouveau si j'avois besoin d'argent. Je lui répondis, comme je l'àvois déja fait à ceux qui m'en avoient offert, qu'à mon départ mondit seigneur le duc m'en avoit si bien pourvu qu'il m'en restoit encore pour revenir auprès de lui; mais je lui demandai un saufconduit, et il me l'accorda. Le Danube, depuis Vienne jusqu'à trois journées pardelà, a son cours dirigé vers le levant; depuis Bude et même au-dessus, jusqu'à la pointe de Belgrade, il coule au midi. Là, entre la Hongrie et la Bulgarie, il reprend sa direction au levant, et va, dit-on, se jeter dans la mer Noire à Mont-Castre. Je partis de Vienne dans la compagnie de mondit seigneur de Valse et de messire Jacques Trousset. Le premier se rendit à Lints, auprès de son épouse; la second dans sa terre. Après deux journées de marche nous arrivâmes à Saint-Polquin (Saint Pelten), où se font les meilleurs couteaux du pays. De là nous vînmes à Mélich (Mæleh) sur le Danube, ville où l'on fabrique les meilleures arbalètes, et qui a un très-beau monastère de chartreux; puis à Valse, qui appartient audit seigneur, et dont le château, construit sur une roche élevée, domine le Danube. Lui-même me montra les ornemens d'autel qu'a le lieu. Jamais je n'en ai vu d'aussi riches en broderie et en perles. J'y vis aussi des bateaux qui remontoient le Danube, tirés par des chevaux. Le lendemain de notre arrivée, un gentilhomme de Bavière vint saluer mondit seigneur de Valse. Messire Jacques Trousset, averti de sa venue, annonça qu'il alloit le faire pendre à une aubépine qui étoit dans le jardin. Mondit seigneur accourut aussitôt, et le pria de ne point lui faire chez lui un pareil affront. S'il vient jusqu'à moi, répondit messire, il ne peut l'échapper, et sera pendu. Ledit seigneur courut donc au devant du gentilhomme; il lui fit un signe, et celui-ci se retira. La raison de cette colère est que messire Jacques, ainsi que la plupart des gens qu'il avoit avec lui, étoit de la secrète compagnie, et que le gentilhomme, qui en étoit aussi, avoit méusé. [Footnote: Probablement il s'agit ici de franc-maçonnerie, et le Bavarois que Trousset vouloit faire pendre étoit un faux frère qui avoit révélé les mystères de la compagnie secrète.] De Valse nous allâmes à Oens (Ens), sur la rivière de ce nom; à Evresperch, qui est sur le même rivière, et du domaine de l'évêque de Passot (Passau); puis à Lins (Lintz), très-bonne ville, qui a un château sur le Danube, et qui n'est pas éloignée de la frontière de Bohème. Elle appartient à monseigneur d'Autriche, et a pour gouverneur ledit seigneur de Valse. J'y vis madame de Valse, très-belle femme, du pays de Bohème, laquelle me fit beaucoup d'accueil. Elle me donna un roussin d'un excellent trot, un diamant pour mettre sur mes cheveux, à la mode d'Autriche, et un chapeau de perles orné d'un anneau et d'un rubis. [Footnote: Ces chapeaux, qu'il ne faut pas confondre avec les nôtres, n'étoient que des cercles, des couronnes en cerceau.] Mondit seigneur de Valse restant à Lintz avec son épouse, je partis dans la compagnie de messire Jacques Trousset, et vins à Erfort, qui appartient au comte de Chambourg. Là finit l'Autriche, et depuis Vienne jusque-là nous avions mis six journées. D'Erfort nous allâmes à Riet, ville de Bavière, et qui est au duc Henri; à Prenne, sur la rivière de Sceine; à Bourchaze, ville avec château sur la même rivière, ou nous trouvâmes le duc; à Mouldrouf, où nous passâmes le Taing. Enfin, après avoir traversé le pays du duc Louis de Bavière, sans être entrés dans aucune de ses ville, nous arrivâmes à Munèque (Munich), la plus jolie petite ville que j'aie jamais vue, et qui appartient au duc Guillaume de Bavière. A Lanchperch je quittai la Bavière pour entrer en Souabe, et passai par Meindelahan (Mindelheim), qui est au duc; par Mamines (Memingen), ville d'Empire, et de là à Walpourch, l'un des châteaux de messire Jacques. Il ne s'y rendit que trois jours après moi, parce qu'il vouloit aller visiter dans le voisinage quelques-uns de ses amis; mais il donna ordre à ses gens dé me traiter comme ils le traiteroient lui-même. Quand il fut revenu nous partîmes pour Ravespourch (Rawensburg), ville d'Empire; de là à Martorf, à Mersporch (Mersbourg), ville de l'évêque de Constance, sur le lac de ce nom. Le lac en cet endroit peut bien avoir en largeur trois milles d'Italie. Je le traversai et vins à Constance, où je passai le Rhin, qui commence à prendre là son nom en sortant du lac. C'est dans cette ville que se sépara de moi messire Jacques Trousset. Ce chevalier, l'un des plus aimable et des plus vaillans de l'Allemagne, m'avoit fait l'honneur et le plaisir de m'accompagner jusque-là pour égard pour mondit seigneur le duc; il m'eût même escorté plus loin, sans un fait d'armes auquel il s'étoit engagé: mais il me donna pour le suppléer un poursuivant, qu'il chargea de me conduire aussi loin que je l'exigerois. Ce fait d'armes étoit une enterprise formée avec le seigneur de Valse. Tous deux s'aiment comme frères, et il devoient jouter à fer de lance, avec targe et chapeau de fer, selon l'usage du pays, treize contre treize, tous amis et parens. Il est parfaitement muni d'armes pour joutes et batailles. Lui-même me les avoit montrées dans son château de Walporch. Je pris congé de lui, et le quittai avec bien du regret. De Constance je vins à Etran (Stein), où je passai le Rhin; à Chaufouze (Schaffouse), ville de l'empereur; à Vualscot (Waldshutt); à Laufemberg (Lauffembourg); à Rinbel (Rhinfeld), toutes trois au duc Frédéric d'Autriche, et à Bâle, autre ville de l'Empereur où il avoir envoyé comme son lieutenant le duc Guillaume de Bavière, parce que le saint concile y étoit assemblé. Le duc voulut me voir, ainsi que madame la duchesse son épouse. J'assistai à une session du concile où furent présens monseigneur le cardinal de Saint-Ange, légat de notre saint père la pape Eugène; sept autres cardinaux, plusieurs patriarches, archevêques et évêques. J'y vis des gens de mondît seigneur le duc, messire Guillebert de Lannoy, seigneur de Villerval, son ambassadeur; maître Jean Germain, et l'évêque de Châlons. J'eus un entretien avec ledit légat, qui me fit beaucoup de questions sur les pays que j'avois vus, et particulièrement sur la Grèce; il me parut avoir fort à coeur la conquête de ce pays, et me recommanda de répéter à mondit seigneur, touchant cette conquête, certaines choses que je lui avois racontées. A Bâle je quittai mon poursuivant, qui retourna en Autriche; et moi, après avoir traversé la comté de Férette, qui est au duc Frédéric d'Autriche, et passé par Montbéliart, qui est à la comtesse de ce nom, j'entrai dans la comté de Bourgogne (la Franche-comté), qui appartient à monseigneur le duc, et vins à Besançon. Je le croyois en Flandre, et en conséquence, voulant me rendre près de lui par les marches (frontières) de Bar et de Lorraine, je pris la route de Vésou; mais à Villeneuve j'appris qu'il étoit à l'entrée de Bourgogne, et qu'il avoit fait assiéger Mussi-l'Evêque. Je me rendis donc par Aussonne à Dijon, où je trouvai monseigneur le chancelier de Bourgogne, avec qui j'allai me présenter devant lui. Ses gens étoient au siége, et lui dans l'abbaye de Poitiers. Je parus en sa présence avec les mêmes habillemens que j'avois au sortir de Damas, et j'y fis conduire le cheval que j'avois acheté dans cette ville, et qui venoit de m'amener en France. Mondit seigneur me reçut avec beaucoup de bonté. Je lui présentai mon cheval, mes habits, avec le koran et la vie de Mahomet en Latin, que m'avoit donnés à Damas, le chapelain du consul de Venise. Il les fit livrer à maître Jean Germain pour les examiner; mais onc depuis je n'en ai entendu parler. Ce maître Jean étoit docteur en théologie: il a été évêque de Châlons-sur-Saone et chevalier de la toison. [Footnote: Jean Germain, né à Cluni, et par conséquent sujet du duc de Bourgogne, avoit plu, étant enfant, à la duchesse, qui l'envoya étudier dans l'Université de Paris, où il se distingua. Le duc, dont il sut gagner la faveur par la suite, le fit, en 1431, chancelier de son ordre de la toison d'or (et non chevalier, comme le dit la Brocquière). L'année suivante il le nomme à l'évêché de Nevers; l'envoya, l'an 1432, ambassadeur à Rome, puis au concile de Bâle, comme l'un de ses représentans. En 1436 il le transféra de l'évèché de Nevers à celui de Châlons-sur-Saone. Ce que la Brocquière dit de cet évéque annonce de l'humeur, et l'on conçoit que n'entendant point parler des deux manuscrits întéressans qu'il avoit apportés d'Asie, il devoit en avoir. Cependant Germain s'en occupa; mais ce ne fut que pour travailler à les réfuter. A sa mort, arrivée en 1461, il laissa en manuscrit deux ouvrages dont on trouve des copies dans quelques bibliothèques, l'un intitulé, De conceptione beatæ Mariæ virginis, adversus mahometanos et infideles, libri duo; l'autre, Adversus Alcoranum, libri quinque.] Je me suis peu étendu sur la description du pays depuis Vienne jusqu'ici, parce qu'il est connu; quant aux autres que j'ai parcourus dans mon voyage, si j'en publie la relation j'avertis ceux qui la liront que je l'ai entreprise, non par ostentation et vanité, mais pour instruire et guider les personnes qu'un même desir conduiroit dans ces contrées, et pour obéir à mon très-redouté seigneur monseigneur le duc, qui me l'a ordonné. J'àvois rapporté un petit livret où en route j'écrivois toutes mes aventures quand j'en avois le temps, et c'est d'après ce mémorial que je l'ai rédigée. Si elle n'est pas composée aussi bien que d'autres pourroient le faire, je prie qu'on m'excuse. * * * * * The description of a voyage made by certaine ships of Holland into the East Indies, with their aduentures and successe; together with the description of the countries, townes, and inhabitantes of the same: who set forth on the second of Aprill, 1595, and returned on the 14 of August, 1597. Translated out of Dutch into English, by W. P. [Footnote: London, imprinted by iohn wolfe, 1598.] To the right worshipfull Sir Iames Scudamore, Knight. Right worshipfull, this small treatie (written in Dutch, shewing a late voyage performed by certain Hollanders to the islandes of Iaua, part of the East Indies) falling into my handes, and in my iudgement deserving no lesse commendation then those of our Countreymen, (as Captaine Raimonde in the Penelope, Maister Foxcroft in the Marchant Royall, and M. Iames Lancaster in the Edward Bonauenture, vnto the said East Indies, by the Cape de Bona Sperance, in Anno 1591, as also M. Iohn Newbery, and Raphael Fich ouer land through Siria from Aleppo vnto Ormus and Goa, and by the said Raphael Fitch himselfe to Bengala, Malocca, Pegu, and other places in Anno 1583. as at large appeareth in a booke written by M. RICHARD HACLUTE a Gentleman very studious therein, and entituled the English voyages, I thought it not vnconuenient to translate the same into our mother tongue, thereby to procure more light and encouragement to such as are desirous to trauell those Countries, for the common wealth and commoditie of this Realme and themselues. And knowing that all men are not like affected, I was so bold to shrowd it vnder your worships protection, as being assured of your good disposition to the fauoring of trauell and trauellers, and whereby it hath pleased God to aduance you to that honourable title, which at this present you beare, and so not fitter for the protection of any then your selfe: and as a poore friend wishing all happines and prosperity in all your valiant actions. Which if it please your worshippe to like and accept, it may procure the proceeding in a more large and ample discourse of an East Indian voyage, lately performed and set forth by one Iohn Hughen of Linschoten, to your further delight. Wherewith crauing your fauor, and beseeching God to blesse your worship, with my good Ladie your wife, I most humbly take my leaue: This 16. of Ianuarie. 1597. Your Worships to commaunde. W. PHILLIP. To the Bayliefes, Burghemaisters, and Counsell of the town of Middelborgh in Zeelande. It may well bee thought (Right-worshipfull) as many learned men are of opinion, that the actions and aduentures of the ancients long since done, and performed, haue beene set forth with more show of wonder and strangenesse then they in truth deserued: the reason as I think was, because that in those daies there were many learned and wise men, who in their writings sought by all meanes they could to excell each other, touching the description of Countries and nations: And againe to the contrarie, for want of good Historiographers and writers, many famous actes and trauels of diuers nations and Countries lie hidden, and in a manner buried vnder ground, as wholly forgotten and vnknowne, vnlesse it were such as the Grecians and Romanes for their owne glories and aduantages thought good to declare. But to come to the matter of voyages by sea, it is euident to all the world, what voyage Iason with certaine yong Grecian Princes made to Colchos in the Oriental Countries to winne the golden Fleece, as also the trauels by Hercules performed into Libia in the West partes, to winne the Aurea Mala, or golden apples of Hesperides, which notwithstanding neither for length, daunger, nor profite, are any thing comparable to the nauigations and voyages, that of late within the space of one hundreth years haue been performed and made into the East and West Indies, whereby in a manner there is not one hauen on the sea coast, nor any point of land in the whole world, but hath in time beene sought and founde out. I will not at this present dispute or make an argument, whether the Countries and nations of late yeares found out and discouered, were knowne to the auncients, but this is most certaine, that not any strange worke or aduenture was, or euer shall be performed, but by the speciall grace, fauour and mightie hand of God, and that such are worthy perpetual memory, as with noble minds haue sought to effect, and be the first enterprisers thereof, and with most valiant courages and wisedomes, haue performed such long and dangerous voyages into the East and West Indies, as also such Kinges and Princes, as with their Princely liberalities haue imployed their treasures, shippes, men and munitions to the furtherance and performance of so worthy actes, which notwithstanding in the end turned to their great aduancementes and inriching with great treasures, which by those meanes they haue drawn, and caused in great aboundance to be brought from thence, in such manner, that the King of Spaine nowe liuing, (hauing both the Indies in his possession, and reaping the abundant treasures which yearly are brought out of those countries) hath not only (although couertly) sought all the means he could to bring all Christendome vnder his dominion, but also (that which no King or country whatsoeuer although of greater might then he hath euer done) hee is not ashamed to vse this posie, Nec spe, nec metu. And although the first founders and discouerers of those Countries haue alwayes sought to hinder and intercept other nations from hauing any part of their glorie, yet hereby all nations, and indifferent persons may well know and perceiue the speciall policie, and valour of these vnited Prouinces, in trauelling into both the Indies, in the faces, and to the great grief of their many and mightie enemies. Whereby it is to be hoped, that if they continue in their enterprises begun, they will not onely draw the most part of the Indian treasures into these Countries, but thereby disinherite and spoyle the Countrie of Spayne of her principall reuenues, and treasures of marchandises and traffiques, which she continually vseth and receyueth out of these countries, and out of Spayne are sent into the Indies, and so put the King of Spaine himselfe in minde of his foolish deuise which he vseth for a posie touching the new world, which is, Non sufficit orbis, like a second Alexander magnus, desiring to rule ouer all the world, as it is manifestly knowne. And because this description is fallen into my handes, wherein is contayned the first voyage of the Low-countrymen into the East Indies, with the aduentures happened vnto them, set downe and iustified by such as were present in the voyage, I thought it good to put it in print, with many pictures and cardes, whereby the reader may the easilier perceyue and discerne, the natures, apparels, and fashions of those Countries and people, as also the manner of their shippes, together with the fruitfulnesse and great aboundance of the same, hoping that this my labour will not onely be acceptable vnto all Marchants and Saylers, which hereafter meane to traffique into those Countries, but also pleasant and profitable to all such as are desirous to looke into so newe and strange things, which neuer heretofore were knowne vnto our nation. And againe for that all histories haue their particular commoditie, (specially such as are collected and gathered together) not by common report, from the first, seconde, or thirde man, but by such as haue seene and beene present in the actions, and that are liuing to iustifie and verifie the same: And although eloquence and words well placed in shewing a history, are great ornamentes and beautifyinges to the same, yet such reports and declarations are much more worthy credite, and commendabler for the benefit of the commonwealth, which are not set down or disciphered by subtill eloquence, but showne and performed by simple plaine men, such as by copiousnesse of wordes, or subtiltie do not alter or chaunge the matter from the truth thereof, which at this day is a common and notorious fault in many Historiographers: And thinking with myselfe to whome I were best to dedicate the same, I found it not fitter for any then for the right worshipfull Gouernours of this famous Towne of Middelborgh, wherein for the space of 19 yeares I haue peaceably continued, specially because your worships do not onely deale with great store of shipping, and matter belonging to nauigation, but are also well pleased to heare, and great furtherers to aduance both shipping and traffiques, wherein consisteth not onely the welfare of all marchants, inhabitants, and cittizens of this famous City, but also of all the commonwealth of the vnited Prouinces, hoping your worships wil not onely accept this my labour, but protect and warrantise the same against all men: Wherewith I beseech God to blesse you with wisedome, and godly policie, to gouerne the Commonwealth: Middleborgh this 19 of October 1597. Your worships seruant to command BERNARDT LANGHENEZ. A briefe description of a voyage performed by certaine Hollanders, to and from the East Indies, with their aduentures and successe. The ancient Historiographers and describers of the world haue much commended, and at large with great prayse set downe the diuers and seuerall voyages of many noble and valiant Captains (as of Alexander Magnus, Seleucus, Antiochus, Patrocles, Onesecritus) into the East Indies, which notwithstanding haue not set downe a great part of those coontries [sic--KTH], as not being as then discouered, whereby it is thought and iudged by some men, that India is the full third part of all the world, because of the great Prouinces, mighty citties and famous Islands (full of costly marchandises, and treasures from thence brought into all partes of the worlde) that are therein: Wherein the auncient writers were very curious, and yet not so much as men in our age: They had some knowledge thereof, but altogether vncertaine, but we at this day are fully certified therein, both touching the countreys, townes, streames and hauens, with the trafiques therein vsed and frequented, whereby all the world, so farre distant and seperated from those strange nations, are by trade of marchandises vnited therevnto, and therby commonly knowne vnto them: The Portingalles first began to enterprise the voyage, who by art of nauigation (in our time much more experienced and greater then in times past, and therefore easilier performed) discouered those wild Countries of India, therein procuring great honour to their King, making his name famous and bringing a speciall and great profite of all kindes of spices into their Countrie, which thereby is spread throughout all the worlde, yet that sufficed not, for that the Englishmen (not inferiour to any nation in the world for arte of nauigation) haue likewise vndertaken the Indian voyage, and by their said voyages into those Countries, made the same commonly knowne vnto their Country, wherein Sir Frances Drake, and M. Candish are chiefly to bee commended, who not onely sayled into the East Indies, but also rounde about the world, with most prosperous voyages, by which their voyages, ours haue beene furthered and set forwarde, for that the condition of the Indies is, that the more it is sayled into, the more it is discovered, by such as sayle the same, so strange a Countrey it is: So that besides the famous voyages of the Countries aforesaid, in the ende certain people came into Holland (a nation wel known) certifying them, that they might easily prepare certaine shippes to sayle into the East Indies, there to traffique and buy spyces etc. By sayling straight from Hollande, and also from other countries bordering about it, with desire to see strange and rich wares of other Countries, and that should not be brought vnto them by strangers, but by their owne countrey men, which some men would esteeme to be impossible, considering the long voyage and the daungers thereof, together with the vnaccustomed saylinges and little knowledge thereof by such as neuer sayled that way, and rather esteeme it madnesse, then any point of wisedome, and folly rather then good consideration. But notwithstanding wee haue seene foure ships make that voyage, who after many dangers hauing performed their voyage, returned againe and haue brought with them those wares, that would neuer haue beene thought coulde haue beene brought into these countries by any Holland ships; but what shoulde I herein most commende eyther the willingnesse and good performance of the parties, or the happinesse of their voyage? whereof that I may giue the reader some knowledge, I will shew what I haue hearde and beene informed of, concerning the description of the Countries, customes, and manners of the nations, by them in this voyage seene and discouered, which is as followeth. In the yeere of our Lord 1595. vpon the 10. day of the month of March, there departed from Amsterdam three ships and a Pinnace to sayle into the East Indies, set forth by diuers rich Marchantes: The first called Mauritius, of the burthen of 400. tunnes, hauing in her sixe demie canon, fourteene Culuerins, and other peeces, and 4. peeces to shoot stones, and 84. men: the Mayster Iohn Moleuate, the Factor Cornelius Houtman: The second named Hollandia, of the burthen of 400. tunnes, having 85. men, seuen brasse peeces, twelue peeces for stones, and 13. iron peeces, the Mayster Iohn Dignums, the Factor Gerrit van Buiningen, the thirde called Amsterdam, of the burthen of 200. tuns, wherein were 59. men, sixe brasse peeces, ten iron peeces, and sixe peeces for stones, the Mayster Iohn Iacobson Schellinger, the Factor Reginer van Hel: The fourth being a Pinnace called the Doue, of the burthen of 50. tunnes, with twenty men, the Mayster Simon Lambertson: [Sidenote: When and how the ships set saile.] Which 4. ships vpon the 21. of the same moneth came vnto the Tassel, where they stayed for the space of 12. daies to take in their lading, and the seconde of Aprill following, they set saile with a North east winde and following on their course the fourth of the same moneth they ['the' in source text--KTH] passed the heades; The sixt they saw Heyssant, the 10. of April they passed by the Barles of Lisbon: With an East and North East wind, the 17. of Aprill they discouered two of the Islands of Canaries: The 19. Palm, and Pic, Los Romeros, and Fero: The 25. of Aprill they saw Bona visita, the 16. they ankered vnder Isole de May: The 27. they set sayle againe and held their course South Southeast. The 4. of May, we espied two of the King of Spaines ships, that came from Lisbone, and went for the East Indies, about 1000. or 1200. tunnes each ship, with whom we spake, and told them that we were bound for the straights of Magellanes, but being better of sayle then they wee got presently out of their sight. The 12. of May being vnder fiue degrees on this side the Equinoctiall line, we espyed fiue ships laden with Sugar, comming from the Island of S. Thomas, and sayled for Lisbone, to whome we gaue certaine letters, which were safely deliuered in Holland. [Sidenote: Their victuailes stunke and spoyled.] Departing from them and keeping on our course, vpon the fourth of Iune we passed the Equinoctial line, where the extreame heat of the ayre spoyled all our victuailes: Our flesh and fishe stunke, our Bisket molded, our Beere sowred, our water stunke, and our Butter became as thinne as Oyle, whereby diuers of our men fell sicke, and many of them dyed; but after that we learned what meat and drinke we should carrie with vs that would keepe good. [Sidenote: They passed the sandes of Brasilia.] The 28 of Iune we passed the sandes of Brasill, by the Portingalles called Abrolhos, which are certaine places which men must looke warely vnto, otherwise they are very dangerous. These sandes lie vnder 18. degrees, and you must passe betweene the coast of Guine and the sandes aforesaid, not going too neer eyther of them, otherwise close by the Coast there are great calmes, thunders, raines and lightnings, with great stormes, harde by the sands men are in daunger to be cast away: and so sayling on their course, first East South East, then East and East and by North. Vpon the seconde of Iuly wee passed Tropicus Cancri, vnder 23. degrees, and 1/2. The 13. of the same Month, we espied many blacke birdes. [Sidenote: Tokens of the Cape de bona Sperance.] The 19. great numbers of white birdes, and the 20. a bird as bigge as a Swan, whereof foure or fiue together is a good signe of being neere the Cape de bona Sperance. These birdes are alwaies about the said Cape, and are good signes of being before it. The second of August we saw the land of the Cape de bona Sperance, and the fourth of the same Month we entered into a hauen called Agne Sambras, where wee ankered, and found good depth at 8. or 9. fadome water, sandy ground. The 5. day we went on shore to gather fruite, therewith to refresh our sicke men, that were thirty to 33 in one shippe. In this bay lyeth a smal Islande, wherern are many birdes called Pyncuius and sea Wolues that are taken with mens handes: we went into the countrey and spake with the inhabitants, who brought diuers fresh victuailes aborde our shippes, for a knife or small peece of Iron, etc. giuing vs an Oxe, or a sheepe etc. The sheepe in those Countries haue great tayles, and are fat and delicate. Their ozen [sic--KTH] are indifferent good, hauing lumps of flesh vpon their backes, and are as fat as any of our good brisket beefe: the inhabitantes are of small stature, well ioynted and boned, they goe naked, couering their members with Foxes and other beastes tayles: they seeme cruell, yet with vs they vsed all kind of friendship, but are very beastly and stinking, in such sort, that you may smell them in the wind at the least of a fadome from you: They are apparelled with beastes skinnes made fast about their neckes: some of them, being of the better sort, had their mantles cut and raysed checkerwise, which is a great ornament with them: They eate raw flesh, as it is new killed, and the entrailes of beastes without washing or making cleane, gnawing it like dogs, vnder their feet they tye peeces of beastes skinnes, in steed of shooes, that they trauel in the hard wayes: We could not see their habitations, for wee saw no houses they had, neither could wee vnderstande them, for they speake very strangely, much like the children in our Countrey with their pipes, and clocking like Turkey Cockes: At the first wee saw about thirtie of them, with weapons like pikes, with broade heades of Iron, about their armes they ware ringes of Elpen bones: There wee coulde finde neyther Oringes nor Lemons, which we purposely sought for. [Sidenote: With what wind they sailed to S. Laurence.] The 11. of August we hoysed anker, sayling towards the Island of S. Laurence, and the 22. of the same month we had a contrary wind that blew North East: the 25. a West winde, and so held our course East North East: The 28. there blew a South East wind, and the 30. a South West winde, and our course lay North North East to sayle to the Isle of S. Laurence. The first of September wee discouered the point of the Islande of S. Laurence, vnder 16 degrees, and the third day we saw the Island being very desirous to go on land, for that many of our men were sicke, whereby wee coulde hardly rule our shippes, or bring them farther without healing or refreshing of our men. [Sidenote: They had great store of fish for 2 or 3 kniues.] The 9. of September Iohn Schellinger sent out his boate to rowe to lande, where they founde three Fishermen, of whome for two or three kniues they had great store of fishes. The 13. we entered into a small Bay, but because wee founde no good anker ground, as also being very foule we sayled out againe. The 14. we sayled vnder a small Island about a mile or 2. great, by the Hollanders called their Church yarde, or the dead Island, because many saylers dying in that place, were buried in the African earth, and the 29. of the same Month died Iohn Dignumsz Mayster of the Lyon of Holland, and was buried the next day after. There Iohn Peters of Delft Sayler of the Hollandia, and Koelken van Maidenblick of the Amsterdam were set on shore vpon the Island of S. Laurence, where they were left because they had committed certaine notorious crimes. Meane time the Pinnace was sent out to looke for fresh water, which hauing found, the boat returned to bring vs newes, and therewith the fleete sayled thither, and the 10. of October the shippes ankered before the Riuer, and went on shore, where we found good prouision of all necessaries, the inhabitants being very willing thereunto, bringing vs of al things that we needed, where for a Pewter Spoone wee had an Oxe, or three sheepe. [Sidenote: How the wilde men assailed them, and forced them to insconce themselues.] The 11. of October we went on shore with a boat full of sicke men and the next day we were assayled by a company of wild men, against whom our weapons little preuayled, for they hurt one of our men and tooke all that we had from vs, whereby vpon the thirteenth of the same Month, wee were forced to insconse our selues with pieces of wood and braunches of trees, making Cabins within our Sconse, for that the 15. of October they came againe, but then we tooke one, and slew another of them. The 19. of Nouember our Pilot Claes Ianson was intrapped and murthered by the wild people, although we vsed all the means we could to helpe him, but they feared no weapons, about ten or twelue dayes after we tooke one of them that paide for his death. [Sidenote: The maner and custome of the wild people.] The first of December our men hauing for the most part recouered their healthes, were all carryed aborde the ships: in that parte of Madagascar the people are of good condition, and goe naked, onely with a Cotton cloth before their priuie members, and some from their breasts downward: Their ornaments are Copper ringes about their armes, but Tin rings are more esteemed with them, and therefore tinne with them is good marchaundise. Their Oxen haue great lumpes of fat vpon their backes: Their sheepes tayles way at the least twelue pound, being of an elle long, and two and twentie inches thick. They gaue vs six of those sheepe for a tinne Spoone: They dwel in cottages and liue very poorely: they feare the noyse of a peece, for with one Caliuer you shall make an hundred of them runne away: Wee coulde not perceyue any religion they had, but after wee were informed that they helde the law of Mahomet, for the two boyes that wee tooke from of the land, shewed vs their circumcision: There we found no fruit of Tambaxiumes, but great numbers of Parrats, Medicats, and Turtle Doues, whereof we killed and eat many. The second of December we burned our sconse, and fourteene of our men going further into the Islande brought certaine of the countreymen prisoners, and being abord our ships taught them what they shoulde doe. The thirteenth of December wee hoysed anker, minding to holde on our course for the Islands of Iaua, and for that by reason of the pleasantnesse of the ayre we had in a manner all recouered our healthes, we set our course East and by North, and East Northeast. The nineteenth of the same Month wee were separated by foule weather, and the 22. with great ioy we met againe. The tenth of Ianuarie Vechter Willemson dyed, being a verie honest man, and Pilot in Molenaers shippe, for whome we were much grieued, and the same day we determined to put backe againe for the Islande of S. Laurence, for as then wee began againe to haue a great scouring among our men, and many of them fell sicke: [Sidenote: The wilde men brought things aborde to comfort them.] But presently therevpon we espied the Islande of Saint Mary, and the next day being arriued there, some of the inhabitants came abord our shippes with a basket of Ryce, Sugar canes, Citrons, Lemons, and Hens, whereof we were very glad, as being phisicke for vs. The 13. 14. 15. 16. and 17. dayes we were on land, where we bought Ryce, Hens, Sugar-canes, Citrons and Lemons in great aboundance, and other kinde of fruites to vs vnknowne, also good fish, and greene Ginger: There we tooke a Fish, which thirteen men could hardly pull into our shippe, and because the Island was little, and we had many men, wee entred into the Bay of the firme land with our Pinnace, where for a string of Beades of small value we had a tunne of Ryce: [Sidenote: The description of one of their kings.] The King came abord our Pinnace to see it, and was as blacke as a Deuill, with two hornes made fast vpon his heade, and all his body naked like the rest of the countrey people. This Island lyeth about a small mile from Madagascar, about 19 degrees Southward from the Equinoctiall line (Madagascar or S. Laurence is an Islande belonging to the Countrey of Africa, and lyeth Southwarde vnder 26 degrees, ending Northwarde vnder 11 degrees by the inhabitants it is called Madagascar, and by the Portingalles the Islande of S. Laurence, because it was discouered on S. Laurence day: The riches of this Island is great, it aboundeth in Ryce, Honnie, Waxe, Cotton, Lemons, Cloues, etc. The inhabitants are blacke and go naked, but the haire vpon their heades is not so much curled as those of the Mosambique, and they are not ful so blacke.) The 23. of Ianuary we ankered before a Riuer where likewise we had all kind of necessaries, and after that we went to lie vnder a small Islande within the same Bay. [Sidenote: The wilde people came on borde their ships and seemed very friendly.] The 25. Ianuarie there came some of the wild people aborde our ships, making signes to haue vs go on land, which we did, and there we had good Ryce and other fruits in great abundance. On the left side of the entry of the Riuer lyeth one of their Townes, and on the right hand two townes, where we had most of our trafique. The 26. of Ianuarie wee had interpreters, whom we made to drink wine, wherewith they were as drunk as beastes. The manner and condition of the people inhabiting in the great Bay of Antogil, on this side the Equinoctiall line vnder 16 degrees, on the South side of the Island Madagascar. It is a very great Bay, about ten mile broade, behind it lyeth a high Island, and three small Islands: there is good harbour against all windes. The Island is inhabited, and therein groweth all kindes of fruites, it hath a great fall of water that commeth down out of the hilles, where we laded all our water, and halfe a mile from thence within the land, there runneth a great Riuer, wherein likewise there is much water to be had, when you enter into the Riuer about a quarter of a mile inward on the left hand, ther is a smal towne or village, not closed nor fortified, in it there is about 200. houses, and on the right hand where the Riuer diuideth it selfe, there is two other such Townes: They were all compassed with palles, and the houses were placed about two foote aboue the ground, vpon foure or fiue palles or stakes of wood, and all the vpper partes of reede and strawe. [Sidenote: Why their houses stand so high aboue the earth.] The cause why their houses are made so high from the ground is to auoide the danger of venemous beastes that are there in great aboundance, as Serpents, Snakes, Camelions, and other kindes of beastes. The people are very blacke, but their hayre and beardes are not so much curled as the right Mores, nor their noses nor lippes so great nor flat. They are subtill and strong people, much addicted to drinking, for they will bee as drunke as Swine, with a kind of drinke made of Honie and Ryce. [Sidenote: The maner of the wilde men in that countrey.] They go naked, onely that about their midles they weare a cloth made of the barke of a tree, drawne in small threedes: they make and use very fine Mats to sitte vppon: They haue no great store of weapons, for that halfe of them are vnprouided, and that they vse is a speare of nine ten foote long with a great wooden Target: They are very fearefull of our Caliuers, for 5. or sixe men with Caliuers will cause great numbers of them to flie away: We taught them what our peeces ment for wee perceyued that they knew them not, before they had proued them: at the first they thought they coulde carry no further then their owne lengthes, for they knew not what they were: Their Kinges ornamentes were ten or twelue Copper Rings about his armes: if we had had such Ringes with vs, wee might haue sold them at what prices wee woulde. They likewise vse beades of Glasse, which they weare about their armes and neckes, by them esteemed for great ornaments: for a boxe of beades of small value, we had an Oxe, or three or foure Sheepe; rounde about this Bay are townes and villages, where you may haue of all things to refresh your selues, Lemons and Citrons are there greater and better then in Portingall: Likewise Oringes, Ryce, Hennes, Goats, Honie, and many other sortes of fruites, and to conclude it is the best Bay in all the world to refresh ships. Being on land we were wel entertayned, and must of force drink with them of their drinke made of Hony and Ryce: There we trafiqued with them, and had sufficient of euery thing, but euery night we went aborde our shippes. The third of February we had so great a storme, that most of our ankers were lost, and we ran vpon the land in great daunger to cast our ships away, but God holpe vs, for the storme ceased, and then we went to hoyse vp our lost ankers, and so againe went to anker vnder the Island, glad that we had so well escaped that daunger. The fift of February we went to seeke for our boats, but the wild men had smitten them in peeces, and taken out the nailes, thinking likewise that our shippes woulde haue beene cast away vpon the shore, which they still expected: and when we came thither, they stood vpon the shore with their weapons in hand and threw stones at vs, and we perceyuing them in that minde, made towardes our shippes, for we desired not to reuenge our selues, nor once to fight with them without commission from our Generall, whom we certified thereof. The eyght of February we rowed into the Riuer to buy cattle, and other things, but they were become our enemies, threatning and casting stones at vs, wherevpbn we put out two shalops to run a shore close to the land, and made our Caliuers and other weapons ready. Wherewith we shut at them, but they feared not our shot, for they knew not what they ment, they thought likewise that the peeces coulde carrie no further then they were long: but when they sawe eight or nine of their fellowes dead, they fled into the woodes, and wee entering vpon the lande set fire on their houses, whereof we burnt about twentie or thirtie. The 9. of Februarie we sailed on the other side to buy cattle, and other necessaries, but they seemed vnwilling to deale with vs, but we threatning to burne their houses, they brought vs Cattle and fruites inough, with all things else to our desires. The 12. of Februarie wee hoised anker, and set sayle out of the great Bay of Antongill, being well prouided of all necessaries, we put out with a North wind, the Bay stretching Northeast and Southwest: The 2. of March we had a West winde, our course being East and East and by North towards Iaua. In March and Aprill about the Islande of Brandawe, we found that our Compasses helde two Strikes to farre Northwarde, and we coulde not perceiue the sands that are set downe in the Portingalles sea Cards, but we saw many turnings of streames, and we were much troubled, with calmes, but with the new Moone we had winde enough out of the West and North West. The 27. of May we found the water abord our shippes to bee much lessened, and therefore euery mans portion was but halfe as much as he was wont to haue; so that each man was allowed but foure draughts euery day, which was but a small quantitie. Whereby through the extreame heat we endured great thirst, so that at that time a draught of water abord our ship was worth a Riall of 8. The first of Iuly we saw the Islande of Emgano, whereat we much reioyced, because of the great thirst wee endured in our shippe, and when wee made neerer to it, we perceyued it to be an Islande lying before the straightes of Sonda, vnder 9. degrees on the South side of the line. The sixt of Iuly we put somewhat nearer to the land, and there we saw sixe or seuen canoes, lying vnder the shore but farre off, and durst not make toward vs: in the end we manned out a shalop and rowed to land, but they made from vs, and when our men were hard by the shore, there we saw about 40. or 50. of them standing vpon the shore with their bowes; wherewith our men durst not land, for they seemed to be a cruell kind of people, and altogether wild, for they went all naked, not hauing any thing before their priuy members. They were of a reddish colour, but when our men saw no aduantage they turned again vnto their shippes. The seuenth of Iuly we saw the point of the land of Sumatra, which is a verie high land descending downewarde with a long end. The 11. of the same Month we were close vnder the land, where there lay an Island, and there we ankered. The 12. of Iuly in the morning we saw certaine ships, whereof one came vnto vs, wee rowed vnto it with a shalop, and spake with it, but we could not vnderstand them, but they shewed vs where we should haue water, which made vs glad, that wee might once againe haue our bellies full of water: it being almost foure Monthes that wee had not seene any land, nor taken in any fresh victuailes. We sent our Pinace to the firme land of Sumatra, there to seeke for some reliefe: for that where we lay there dwelt not any man. [Sidenote: The maner of the Gouernor of Soumatras comming on bord.] The 13. of July the Captain or principall ruler of Sumatra came abord our ships to see them, which was done with great solemnitie, hee being apparelled after the Turkish manner, with a wreath about his heade, and a fearefull countenance, small eyes, great eye browes, and little beard, for a man might tell all the haires vpon his chinne: he brought vs a present of Betele, which are leaues which they continually chaw, and eat it with chalke. This Island of Sumatra or Taprobana (as it is saide) is the greatest of all the Orientall Islandes, it is diuided from the firme land of Malacca by a straight and dangerous sea, by reason of many Islandes and cliffes that are within it: Out of this Island as some men are of opinion, Salomon had his Gold wherewith he beautified the Temple, and his owne pallace, and then in the Bible it should be named Orphir, for certainly Sumatra is rich of mynes of Golde, Siluer, and Mettall, and the inhabitants thereof are very expert in melting of brasse peeces: Therein is a fountaine of pure Balsame, the Portingalles haue no fortresse therein, yet they traffique in certaine hauens, specially in Pedir and Campar: There is also in this Island a place called Manancabo, where they make poinyardes and daggers, by them calde cryses, which are much esteemed in those Countries, and those of Malacca and Iaua, hold them for their best weapons, and with them are very bold. The same day our Pinnace returned againe vnto vs, bringing vs good news, that wee were welcome vnto the Countrey people, and brought vs certaine Indian Nuttes or Cocus, Melons, Cocombers, Onions, Garlicke, and a sample of Peper and other spices, which liked vs well. The fourteenth of June we laded in some fresh water. Right ouer against Sumatra, on the South side of the Equinoctiall lyeth the Islande of Iaua Maior, or great Iaua, and these two Islandes are deuided by a straight commonly called the straight of Sunda, which lyeth between these two Islands, bearing the name of the principall hauen of Iaua called Sunda: In this channel there runneth a great streame, and course of narrow waters, through this straight M. Condlish an Englishman passed with his ship, comming out of the South sea from new Spaine. Iaua beginneth vnder seuen degrees on the South side, and so stretcheth East and South 150. miles long, it is very fruitfull, specially of Ryce, Catle Hogges, Sheepe, Hennes, Onions, Garlike, Indian Nuttes, and all kinde of Spices, as Cloues, Nutmegges, Mace, etc. Which they carrie to Malacca. The chiefe hauen in the Islande is Sunda Calapa, there you have much Pepper, better then that of India, or of Malabar, and there you may yearely lade 4. or 5000. Quintales of Pepper Portingall waight, there likewise you haue great store of frankencense, Camphora, and some Diamants: but they haue no other kinde of money but a certaine peece called Caixa, as bigge as a Hollands Doibt, but not so thicke, with a hole in the middle to hang it vpon a string, in which manner they commonly hange hundrethes or thousandes together, and with them they know how to make their accountes, which is two hundred Caixas make a Sata, and fiue Satas make a thousand Caixas, which is as much as one Crusado of Portingall, or three Carolus Gilderns, Flemish money: Pepper is solde by the sacke, each sacke waying 45. Catten waight of China, each Catte as much as 20. ounces Portingall waight, and each sacke is worth in that Country at the least 5000. Caixas, and when it is highest at 6. or 7000. Caixas: Mace, Cloues, Nutmegs, white and blacke Beniamin, Camphora, are sold by the Bhar, each barre waying 350. Catten of China: Mace that is faire and good is commonly worth from 100. to 120. thousande Caixas: Good Cloues accordingly, and foure Cloues called Bastan are worth 70. and 80. thousand Caixas the Bhar: Nutmegs are alwaies worth 20. and 25 thousand Caixas the Bhar: White and blacke Beniamin is worth 150. and 180. thousand Caixas, and sometimes 200. thousand. The wares that are there desired and exchanged for spices, are diuers sortes and colours of Cotton Linnen, which come out of seuerall Prouinces; and if our Cambricke or fine Hollande were carryed thither, it would peraduenture bee more esteemed then the Cotton linnen of India. The 15. of Iune there rowed a scute called a Prawen harde vnder the lande by vs, wee called him, but not against his will, and shewed him siluer, and other wares that liked him well, he bad vs make towards the strand, and told vs of Bantam, saying that there we should haue al kinds of Marchandise. Then we made signs vnto him that if he wold bring vs to Bantam, we wold pay him for his labor, he asked vs 5. rialles of 8. and a redcap, which we graunted vnto, and so one of the men in the scute came on bord the Mauritius, and was our Pilot to Bantam, where we passed by many Islandes. The nineteenth of Iuly as wee sailed by a towne, many Portingalles borded vs, and brought vs certaine Cocus and Hens to sell, which wee bought for other wares. The 22. of the same Month wee came before the towne of Bantam, within three miles of it, and there ankered vnder an Island. The same day about euening a scute of Portingals borded vs that were sent by the Gouernour to see what ships we were, and when we shewed them that wee came thither to traficke with them, they told vs, that there was the right Pepper country, and that there we might haue our lading, that new Pepper was readie to be gathered, and would be ripe within two Monthes after, which pleased vs well, for wee had already beene fifteene Monthes and twelue daies vppon our voyage, hauing endured great daungers, miseries and thirst, many of our men by sicknesse being dead. The 23. of Iune wee hoysed our ankers, and went close to the towne of Bantam, and ankered harde by 4. small Islands, that lie right North from the Towne: the same day the Sabander (who is there one of the greatest officers next the King) came abord our shippes, asking vs what we would haue, we said we were come to buy Pepper and other spyces, and that wee had readie money, and certaine wares, whereof we shewed him some parte, which hee liked well, saying that there wee might haue lading enough, shewing vs great countenance. The same day likewise there came a great number of scutes vnto our ships, bringing all kinds of victuailes to sel, as Hennes, Egges, Cocus, Bonanas, sugar canes, Cakes of Ryce baked, and many other thinges. The 24. of Iune there came many men aborde our ships, bringing diuers wares to sell, shewing vs great friendshippe, and as it seemed were very glad of our arriuall there, telling vs that there we might haue Pepper enough, and new Pepper within two Monthes after, and that Pepper was then as good cheap as it had beene any time within ten yeares before, that wee might buy 5. or 6. sackes for one Catti, (being about 20. Guilderns) which was ordinarily sold but one sacke for that price: euery sacke wayeth 54. pounde Hollandes waight, so that a pounde would be worth about a brasse penie Hollands money. The same day about noone the Sabander borded vs once againe, willing Cornelis Houtman to go on land to speake with the Gouernour, for as then there was no King, for about a Month before our arriuall there, the King was gone with a great armie before the towne of Palimbam, which he thought to take, and had almost gotten it, but there he was stricken with a great Peece by a Renigado of the Portingalles, and so was slaine. His death was much lamented by the straungers that dwelt at Bantam, for he was a good king, being about 25. yeares of age: he left behind him foure wives, whereof the eldest was not aboue 15. yeares of age, and a yong sonne of three Monthes olde, that was to succeed him in his Kingdome; and they had chosen a Protector or Gouernor to rule in his minoritie, whom they call Kipate, and when the Kipate by the Sabandar sent to our Sargeant Maior to come vnto him into the towne, he made him answer that he had no such commission, but he desired the Gouernor first to come abord his ship, and then he would go on shore, he likewise desired vs to go neerer to the towne with our shippes. And therevpon wee sayled somewhat neerer to the Island that lay next vnto the towne, within halfe a mile from it, and there we ankered at 4 fadome clay grounde, the towne lying South from vs, where wee had a good roade: [Sidenote: The Gouernor of Bantam came abord their ships.] The next morning the Gouernor sent aborde, and the men that came spake not onely good Portingal, but other languages: he let our Sargeant Maior vnderstand that he would come aborde, and desired that hee would with a shalop meet him halfe the way, which was done about noone, and the Gouernour came aborde with a great company of men, where we shewed him all our wares, which liked him well, desiring vs to come on land, saying that we should be welcome, promising vs much fauour, wherewith he returned to the land with certaine rich presents that we gaue him. The 26. Barent Heijn Factor of the ship called the Mauritius, died very sodainly. The 27. and 28. great numbers of people borded our shippes bringing all sortes of necessaries and victuails to sell. [Sidenote: The Emperour came aborde and secretly conspired with the Portingals against them.] The 29. there came an Emperour abord our shippe, whose father in time past had beene Emperour of all Iaua, and commanded all the Kings of Iaua, but this man because of his badde life was not much accounted of: he spake good Portingall, for his mother was a Portingall woman borne in Malacca: This Emperour had conspired against vs with the Portingalles, but as then we knew it not. The 30. of Iune Cornelis Houtman tooke a boate: and went into the towne, and there spake with the Gouernour about certaine affaires, touching a contract to bee made with him. [Sidenote: A contract to buy and sell in the towne.] The first of Iuly Houtman went again into the towne, and when he returned he brought with him a certaine contract made and signed by the Gouernor himself, who most willingly consented therevnto, and saide vnto him, Go now and buy what you will, you haue free liberty; which done, the said Houtman with his men went to see the towne, apparelled in the best manner they coulde, in veluet, Satin, and silkes, with rapiers by their sides: The Captaine had a thing borne ouer his head to keep him from the Sun, with a Trumpet before him, which certaine times he caused to bee sounded: There the Emperour bad them to a banket after the Indian manner: From thence we went to the Portingalles, that made much account of Houtman, and made him a banket, saying that they had seene him in Lisbone. The 2. of Iuly many Marchants came abord, profering vs Pepper verie good cheape, but because we were vnskilfull in the waight and other thinges wee tooke respite to answere them. The 3. of Iuly the Sabander came abord, and he was our great friend, for that after we found it so, hee tolde vs what waight the sackes of Pepper were, and what prises they bare, counselling vs to buy. The 7. of Iuly the Gouernour sent vs a man secretly by night willing vs to looke vnto our selues, and not to trust the Emperour, with whom all the Marchantes conspired, and went to inuade our ships, and that hee ment to rob vs, being very licentious and euill minded. [Sidenote: The Emperour ment to fall vpon the ships to rob them.] The 8. of Iuly the Emperour sent vnto our ships, and offered to make them a banket, bidding all the Captaines, maisters, Pilots, Gentlemen, Officers, Trumpets, and Gunners to come into the towne to him, and there he woulde make merrie with them: This was done by the Portingalles aduise, thereby to haue all the chiefe and principall men out of our ships, but we perceiued their intent. The 11. of Iuly the Emperour perceyuing that his deuise would not take place; hee went from Bantam to Iacatra. The 12. of Iuly wee had a house offered vs within the towne. The 13. of the same month Reyner van Hel with eyght Gentlemen went into the towne, taking certaine wares with him, of euery thing a little, and laid it in the house appointed for the purpose: there to keep a ware house and to sel our marchandise, and presently both Gentlemen and Marchants came thither to buy and to sell vs Pepper. The 15. and 16. many Gentlemen, Marchants, Chinars, and Arabians came to out warehouse and into our ships, offering vs Pepper, but our Factor offered them to little a price. The 25. of Iuly the Gouernour came againe aborde our shippes, and there looked vppon certaine of our wares, whereof hee bought some, and counselled vs to buy Pepper: [Sidenote: The hatred of the Portingalles against them.] About the same time the Portingalles made great sute vnto the Gouernour, promising him many giftes to deny vs traffike, and to constraine vs to depart from thence, saying we were no marchantes, but that we came to spie the countrie, for they said that they had seene many Fleminges in Lisbone, but none like vs: Among the Portingalles there was one that was borne in Malacca, of the Portingalles race, his name was Pedro Truide, a man well seene in trauayling, and one that had beene in all places of the world: He was our good friend, and euery day came to talke with our Captaines, saying, you do not well that you make no more haste to take in your lading, you shall haue no better cheape wares, and withall shewed vs many other things: wherevpon the Portingalles hated him, and not long after he was murthered in his bed. In August we did little, and tooke no great store of lading in seeking to haue Pepper better cheape, which the Portingalles liked not well of, and saide vnto the Gouernour, that we desired not to buy; which the Gouernour began to hearken vnto, for they offered great summes of money that hee shoulde not permit vs traffique, so that in the end hee commaunded that no man shoulde carrie any Ryce aborde our shippes, whereby we were abashed, and thereupon we sent vnto the Gouernour for our money which hee ought for the wares hee had bought, which moued him. The 26. of Iuly hee sent one of our Gentlemen with some of his men and nine slaues abord our ships. The situation of the towne of Bantam, the principall towne of traffique in the Island of Iaua, their strength and manner of building, with their traffique, what people come thither, what wares are there most desired, what nations bring them thither, or come to fetch them, together with their religion, customes and manner of house keeping. Bantam lyeth in the Islande of Iaua maior, about 25. miles to sea ward within the Isle, between Sumatra and Iaua: On both sides of the Towne there runneth a Riuer, about 3 foot and a half deep, so that no shippes can enter into them: The towne is compassed about with a Riuer: The towne is almost as great in compasse as the olde towne of Amsterdam: The wals are made with flankers: They haue great numbers of Peeces therein, but they knowe not how to vse them, for they feare them much: all their Peeces are of brasse, and they haue many brazen bases. Their walles are not aboue two foote thicke made of brickes: euery flanker hath diuers mastes and peeces of wood, which they vse when they are besieged by their enemies. The houses are made of straw and reedes, standing vpon 4. woodden postes. The rich haue their chambers all hanged with silken Curtins, or els with cotton linnen: Their houses are most placed vnder Cocus trees, whereof the towne is full: Without the walles are many houses, wherein strangers for the most part haue their dwellinges. The towne hath three great market places, wherein dayly there is markets holden, where you may buy all kindes of wares, and where there commeth a great number of people, very strange to beholde: Within the towne there is a great church or muske of wood, wherein they obserue the law of Mahomet: Gentlemen and men of any qualitie haue their owne muskes in their houses. The towne is not built with streetes, nor the houses placed in order, but very foule lying full of filthy water, which men must passe through, or leape ouer, for they haue no bridges: In the towne there is great resort of diuers Countries and nations, as of Malacca, Bengala, Malabar, Guihereters of Pegu, Sani Malicas, Banda, China and of many Kingdomes that haue great traffique for Pepper, that groweth rounde about Bantam, which in August and September is ripe, there you haue nutmegs, out of the Island of Banda, and Cloues from Moluca, which the Portingalles doe most buy vp: Wee bought Nutmegs there for a blank a pound: All victuailes and necessaries are there in great aboundance to be had, as Hennes, Hartes, Fish, and Ryce, and diuers kindes of fruites, as Auanas, Cocus, Bonanas, Manges, Doroyens, Iacca, Pruna, Grapes, Oranges, Lemons, Pomegarnets, Cocombers, Melons, Onions, Garlicke: but breade they haue none, but in steade of it they eate Ryce: Beefe is there the dearest victuaile, for an Oxe in that place is worth 7. 8. or 9. Rialles of 8. The Chinars have the greatest and most trafficke in that towne. They come thither in the Month of Ianuarie, with 8. or 9. great shippes, bringing all sorts of Porseline, silks, Damaske, gold thread, Iron pannes, and Iauas money called Caixas, whereof 12000 make a Ryall of eight: They are hanged vpon stringes by two hundred together, for the which they both buy and sel al kinds of marchandises, and there they lade Pepper which they carrie into China: Without the towne they haue a great place wherein they commonly vse to sell their wares, and there they dwell, and haue greater and better houses then any are within the towne, all made of reedes, onely that in euery house they haue a square place made of stone, wherein they put their wares to keepe them from burning, as some riche men in the towne likewise haue: The Chinars are very subtill and industrious people, and will refuse no labour nor paynes to yearne money, there they make much Aqua vitæ of Ryce and Cocus, and trafficke much therewith, which the Iauars by night come to buy, and drinke it secretly, for by Mahomets law it is forbidden them. The Chinars liue there with free libertie: When they come to remaine there for a yeare or more as they thinke good, they buy themselues a wife or two, or more as they thinke good, and liue together like man and wife, and when they meane to depart, they sell their wiues again, but if they haue children they take them with them and so returne to China: They haue no special religion, but pray vnto the Deuill, that he would not hurt them, for they know that the Deuill is wicked, and that God is good, and hurteth no man, therefore they thinke it needlesse to pray to God. They acknowledge not the resurrection of the deade, but when a man dyeth they thinke he neuer riseth again: In their houses they have great painted Deuils, before the which they place wax candles, and sing vnto them, praying them not to hurt them, and the more monstrous that their shapes be, the more they honour them. These people liue very hardly and poorely within Bantam, for there is not any work or labour how filthy soeuer it be, but they will do it to get money, and when they haue gotten something they returne againe to China. They are verie like Iewes in our country, for they neuer goe without a paire of ballances, and all thinges is good wares with them, and are ready to do any seruice. When we came first, before Bantam, they came euery day in great companies into our shippes, and there set out their wares to sel, as silkes, sowing silkes, and porselines, so that our vpper deckes were full of pedlers, that wee could hardly walke vpon the hatches. The manner, condition, custome, going, standing, apparell, housekeeping, wares, and behauiour of the Iauars in Bantam. The Iauars and inhabitants of Bantam, are proude and obstinate, with a very stately pace, they hold the law of Mahomet, which they haue not had aboue 35. yeares, for as yet there are many heathens among them that neuer were made Mores: it is a very lying and theeuish kind of people, not in any sort to bee trusted. Their apparell both of rich and poore is a cotton cloth, and some of silke about their middles, which they tie about them with a girdle, the vpper parte and from the knees downeward all naked: most of them goe bareheaded, but the principallest of them haue a wreath or Turkish roule about their heades, and some little cappes: Their priestes come out of Meca in Arabia, and are yellowe of colour: [Sidenote: What weapons they wear.] Their weapon is a poinyard, which they call Crisis: it is made with hilts, and the handle is a Deuil cut out of wood or bone: the sheathes are of wood: with them they are very bolde, and it is accounted for a great shame with them if they haue not such a Dagger, both yong, old, rich and poore, and yong children of fiue or sixe yeares olde, and when they go to the warres they haue targets, and some long speares, but most of them such poinyardes: The vse neyther great shotte nor caliuers when they go against their enemies: for a small matter one King wil make warre against another. When we came first before Bantam, we offered to make a contract with the Gouernour and the counsell of the towns, that they should deliuer vs a certaine quantitie of Pepper, and wee would goe with our shippes before Palimbam, and helpe them to reuenge the death of their Kings vppon their enemies, for (as they said) we might goe within a bowe shot of the towne with our shippes, and the Towne is but of wood without walles, so that we would presently haue beaten it downe to the ground. They offered vs some of their principall Gouernours to be left for pledges in our shippes, and their men woulde sayle in their fustes, such as shoulde go on land, and we should doe nothing els but shoote out of our shippes, but our Captaines would not do it, considering our small number of men. [Sidenote: How many wiues they haue.] The Iauars take as many wiues as they will and are able maintaine; but the common people haue but one, and some two married wiues, and some 10. 20. and 30. concubines: For a small matter they will send their married wiues home agayne vnto their fathers, when they haue layne fiue or sixe dayes with them, saying they like them not, and so their marriage is vndone, when they desire it. The manner, custome, housholding, childbearing, sporting and cleanlinesse of the women in Bantam. The women of the towne are well kept from such as are circumcised, whereof the riche men haue many, and from other men or their friendes, for their owne sonnes may not come into the house where the women are. They lie all naked and chaw Betelle, and haue a slauish woman that continually scratcheth their bodies, that is, such as are married women, but such as are concubines are as waiting Gentlewomen, to the married women, when they goe out to giue them more maiestie, and those that haue the greatest number are of most estimation: The Concubines haue but fewe children, for the married women poyson their children, and these concubines are bought and solde: by their apparell a man can hardly discerne the riche from the poore, for they goe all with a Cotton cloth about their bodies vp to their breastes, and bounde about their middles with an other cloth, bare footed and their heads vncouered, their hayre bound right vpon the top of their heads in a heape, but when they are in their pride, they weare crownes vpon their heads, whereof some of them are of pure golde, and ringes of golde, and some of siluer about their armes, euery one according to their abilitie. They are very curious about their bodyes, for they washe themselues at the least fiue or sixe times euery day: they neuer ease themselues nor haue the company of their husbandes, but they presently leape into the water and wash their bodies, and therefore the water that runneth through Bantam is very vnwholesome; for euery one washeth themselues in it, as well pockie as other people, whereby wee lost some of our men that drunke of the water: The women are verie idle, for they do nothing all the day but lie downe; the poore slaues must doe all the drudgerie, and the men sit all day vpon a mat, and chaw Betele, hauing ten or twentie women about them, and when they make water, presenly one of the women washeth their member, and so they sit playing all the day with their women: Many of them haue slaues that play vppon instrumentes much like our Shakebois, [Footnote: Musical instruments mentioned in Nichol's Coronation of Anne Boleyn, p. 2. Probably Sackbuts.] they haue likewise great basons whereon they strike, and therewith know how to make good musicke, whereat the women daunce, not leaping much, but winding and drawing their bodies, armes and shoulders, which they vse all night long, so that in the night time they make a great noyse with basons and other instruments, and the man he sitteth and looketh vpon them, euerie one of the women striuing to doe her best that she may get her husbands fauour and her secreat pleasure. [Sidenote: How pepper groweth in that countrey.] The Gentlemen, Citizens, and marchantes haue their Gardens, and fieldes without the towne, and slaues for the purpose to labour in them, and bring their maisters all kindes of fruit, Rice and Hennes in the towne, also the Pepper that groweth there, which runneth vp by another tree, as Hoppes with vs, and groweth in long bunches like Grapes, so that there is at the least 200. graines in one bunch: it is first greene, and after it becommeth blacke, and is there in great aboundance, so that it is the right Pepper countrey; for when we came thither they said vnto vs, Aqui ai tanta Pimienta, como terra, that is, here is as much Pepper as earth, and so we found it, and yet we departed from thence by our owne follies, without our lading of Pepper: Wee staide for new Pepper, meane time the Portingalles sent their letters into euery place seeking to hinder our trade: At the first we might haue sufficient, for there we founde enough both to buy for money or to barter. We likewise had money and wares sufficient: we might easily have had sixe or eight hundred tunnes, as we were aduertised by some of the countrey, that we should presently buy, for that the Portingalles sought by all the meanes they could to hinder vs, as after it appeared; and therefore he that thinketh to come soone enough, commeth oftentimes too late, and we vsed not our time so well as it fell out. [Sidenote: A letter sent by our men in the town that were kept prisoners.] The 29. of August we had a letter sent vs by night from our men that were in the towne, that lay in a maner as prisoners, to will vs to let our pledge go a shore, otherwise they feared they shoulde hardly escape with their liues, and great danger might fall vpon them: this pledge came aborde with the 9. slaues. The 30. of August we sent the pledge and the rest of our Iauars to land, with promise that he would do the best he might to get our men leaue to come aborde: about euening of the same day wee had newes from our men by foure of our saylers that as then they were better vsed, saying they thought they should come aborde when two shippes were gone that ment to saile for Malacca, being laden with Nutmegs and other things. The first of September, and the 2. 3. and 4. wee sent many letters to the Gouernour and hee to vs, and likewise to our men that were in the towne, being nine in number, all our best marchants and captains, hauing with them about 6. or 7000. Guildernes in marchandise, and they againe to vs. [Sidenote: They went nearer to the town.] The 5. of September when wee perceyued that delayes were dangerous wee went close to the towne with all our 4. shippes, and so neere that we had but two fadome muddie grounde, and presently with two of our boates for our securitie wee set vppon three Iauan shippes, whereof two were laden with fish and Cocus, wherein wee founde a man of China, being of some account. The third ship was laden with 20. tunnes of Cloues, 6. tunnes of Pepper, and some Benioni, and Piementa da Rauo, wherein we founde fiue Malabardes slaues to the Portingalles, whom wee likewise tooke, and they were very willing to goe with vs, thereby to bee eased of the slauery wherevnto the Portingals put them, and perceyuing that the Portingalles went often to and from another shippe that lay not farre from vs, we took our Pinace and made towardes it, and being harde by it, the Portingals left it and set it on fire: This ship had the richest wares in it as the Portingalles slaues tolde vs, for it was laden with fiftie tunnes of Cloues, which were burnt in it. The sixt and seuenth of September we hearde no newes, so that wee went close to the Towne agayne, shooting with our great Peeces into it, slaying diuers of the people (as after we were informed:) They likewise shot with their Peeces agaynst vs, which the Portingalles did, for that the Iauars haue little or no skill at all therein, and are very fearefull of them, and although they had many peeces in the towne, yet they did vs no other hurt then onely shot one of Molenares halfe masts in peeces. [Sidenote: A skirmish betweene the Pinace and 24. boats.] The seuenth of September wee had a skirmish, which was in this manner, we perceyuing a Iauan ship vnder sayle, sent our Pinace with sixe and twentie men in her to fetch it in, which the Iauan shippe perceyuing fledde behinde an Islande, where our Pinace followed him so fast that shee fell a grounde, which the townes men perceyuing, made them readie with foure and twentie boates full of men, all armed after their manner, and set forwarde in good order, being diuided in two companies, seuen on starre bord, and 17. on lardde bord of the Pinace, in order like a halfe Moone, threatning vs with great speares, they thought by reason of their great number of men that they had already taken it, but it fell out otherwise, for they in the Pinace, perceyuing them comming, shotte among them: and when they were harde by the Pinace, shee gotte a flote, as they thought to take her, hauing cast out an anker in good time, and thereby wounde themselues off the grounde, but for haste they were forced to cutte their Cable, because they had not time enough to winde it vppe, and with all they shotte one of their boates vnder water. The Pinace drawing her boate after her, the Iauans presently leapt into it, and cutte a sunder the roape that helde it, which they immediately stole from vs, thrusting with their Speares in at the loope holes. Seuen of their Boates being round about vs were so sharpely paide with the iron peeces, stone peeces, and Caliuers, that the 17. others durst not come so neere vs: I thinke there were at the least 100. of them that neuer carryed newes how they sped in that skirmish, for euery boate had at the least 60. men in it, and they were so thicke in them, that they could not help themselues, nor did any thing els but shake their speares, and they shot but one base: their arrowes hurt vs not, and so the Pinace returned agayne vnto our shippes, sayling close before the towne, and shooting into it with her ordinance: They shot out of the towne, but it hit her not, because they shot with stone pellets, wherewith you cannot shoote so certainly as with iron bullets. The 8. 9. and 10. of September we had letters from our men out of Bantam, by the which they willed vs not to shoot any more, for that the Gouernour threatned to set them vpon stakes: Houtman wrote they were in good hope that they shoulde bee put to raunsome, which wee counselled them to doe as well as they might. [Sidenote: The contents of the Gouernours letter.] The 11. of September we had a letter from Houtman, and one from the Gouernour wherein hee wrote that he would set our men at libertie, so we would be quiet, but if we desired warre, he would once againe come and visite vs in another sort: wee aunswered him that there he should find vs, that wordes were but wind, and that he should set our men at a reasonable ransome, and thereof send us an answere the next day. The 12. and 13. of September wee had no answere out of the towne, and we had want of water, and could get none thereabouts but that which came out of the towne, for that the Gouernour had taken order that we should get no water about the towne, so that we hoised ankers to go seeke some. The 17. of September we came before 3. or 4. Islands which Molenare and Shellenger sayled betweene, and for that the streame ranne so strong there, they were forced to goe so nigh the shore, that they might almost leape on lande, whereby they escaped great danger, but the other shippe and the Pinace sayled about the Islands, and so met with the other two, and casting forth their ankers, went on shore, where wee spake with men that saide they would shew vs where wee shoulde haue water, so we would giue them two Caliuers. The 18. 19. 20. 23. and 24. we sayled to lade water, for it was hard to get, and we were forced to keep good watch, which done hoysing ankers againe, wee sayled towardes Bantam, holding our course Eastwarde. The 27. we sayled Northeast towardes the lande of Iaua maior. The 28. setting sayle agayne, we kept East Northeast along by the coast of Iaua, and about noone because of the great streame that runneth in the straight, wee were forced to anker, and the 30. day wee set sayle againe. The first of October in the euening wee came to a great Islande, being three miles from the towne, and there we ankered finding good clay ground. The 2. of October wee had a letter from our men, how they were separated one from the other, and kept by the Gentlemen of the towne, and their wares parted among them. The 3. 4. and 5. when wee were againe before the towne, we had other letters, that by our comming they were better vsed, and hoped to bee set at a reasonable ransome, and that they promised that one of our men should come aborde, so he would returne againe into towne, that shoulde by worde of mouth certifie vs what hope they were in, and the cause thereof, that we might the better believe it. [Sidenote: How the Iauars vsed our men being prisoners.] The 6. of October in the night, one of our men came aborde, and shewed vs what had past, when we shotte into the towne, how they were separated and kept close prisoners, and cruelly threatned by the Iauars, whereby they still expected when they should bee put to death, and howe they sought all the meanes they coulde to make them to deny their faith, and become Mores, but they remayned constant, and saide they woulde rather die, and that they had by force shauen three of our men after the Morish manner, and how the Portingals had sought all the meanes they coulde to buy them for slaues, offering money for them that they might sende them to Malacca, how they were set at libertie againe, and might goe where they woulde within the towne, and so they hoped all would be well, and that they shoulde bee set at libertie for some small ransome, and that the Gouernour asked them 3000. Rialles of 8. but they hoped to bring him to 2000. whereat we much reioyced. The 8. 9. and 10. of October we passed ouer to make some agreement with them that we might be quiet. [Sidenote: The maner of the ransome.] The 11. of October they agreede vppon a ransome of 2000. Ryalles of eyght, and were content, that what goodes, soeuer we had taken from them, wee shoulde keepe as our owne, and for our goodes that they had stolen, and forcibly taken from our men within the towne, they would keepe them, and so exchange one for the other, they likewise were content to quit vs of all our debts, that we ought within the towne eyther to the Gouernour or to any other man, and that from thence forwarde we should be free, and traffique in the towne, both to buy and sell when it pleased vs, and with their good willes as we had done, and before we paide our money, the towne was to sende two men aborde our ships, which done we were to pay the halfe of our ransome, which was 1000. Ryalles of eyght; which being performed, their two men, and their other halfe of our men were on both sides to bee deliuered and sette free, and without contradiction it was performed. The 12. and 13. this agreement being ended, diuers victuailers came aborde our shippes to sell vs Hennes, Egges, and all other kind of victuailes. The 14. we gaue certaine presentes in signe of good will, to such as had shewed vs fauour when we were in contention with them. The 15. 16. 17 and 18. some of our Factors went into the towne, where they bought certaine Pepper, and brought it abord our ships. [Sidenote: Why the Gouernour forbad us trafficke.] The 19. they went again into the towne, and bought a greater quantitie at 5. sackes for one Catti, minding in that sorte euery day to take in our lading, but it fell not out as wee desired, for the Portingalles that coulde not brooke our company, made such means to the Gouernour, that he gave commandment that we should buy no more Pepper, before we had paide 1400. Rialles of 8. which he challenged of vs because we had cast anker within his streame, wherevpon our Marchantes went and agreed with him, which done wee thinking to buy Pepper as we did before, the Gouernour againe commanded to the contrarie, whereby we perceyued their deceipt, in that he wold not hold his word. The countrymen would gladly haue solde their Pepper, as also the Chinars, Arabians, Mahometitians, and secretly some Portingalles, but when we saw wee could not get it out but with great daunger, wee thought it not conuenient to buy: and when we spake vnto the Gouernour, touching the holding of his worde, he made vs answere, that he had no bones in his tongue, and that therefore he coulde not speake that which he ment not to doe: and to say the truth most part of the Iauars are a kind of deceitfull people, for whatsoeuer they say and presently performe, that shall you be sure of and no more. The 25. of October there came an Ambassador into Bantam sent from Malacca to the Gouernour with a present of 10000. Rials of 8. desiring him to forbid vs both his towne and streame, that wee might not traffique there. Whereof wee were aduertised by the Sabander and other of our friendes counselling our men to get them out of the towne, and not to returne againe, otherwise they would be in daunger to be stayed againe, and we hauing sent a man into the towne to saue him from being holden prisoner, our host where we lay being on shore was forced to bring him out couered with certaine mattes; so that vppon the 26. of the same month all our trafficke and friendship with them ceased: but our hoast being our friende, came secretly aborde our ships, and shewed vs that he and his company had two ships lying before the towne, laden with Nutmegges and Mace that came from Banda, for the which hee agreed with vs at a price, vpon condition that we should seeme to take them by force; that thereby he might colour his dealing with vs: [Sidenote: How they tooke two Iauan ships.] wherevpon the first of Nouember we sailed close to the towne with all our ships, and set vpon to two Iauan shippes, wherein we found to the number of 30. slaues, that knew nothing of their maisters bargaine made with vs, so that they began to resist vs, wherewith we shot among them, and presently slew 4. or 5. of them, the rest leapt ouer borde, and swamme to land, which done we tooke the two ships, and put their lading into ours; [Sidenote: They fought with a Portingall shippe.] The Portingalles shippe that brought their Ambassadour, lay close vnder the shore, wherevnto we sent two of our boats, but the Portingals that were in her shot so thicke with their peeces vppon our men, that our boates were forced to leaue them with losse of one of our men, but our shippes shot in such sorte with their ordinance vppon the Portingall shippe, that they spoyled and brake it in peeces, wherein their Captaine was slaine, and the victuailers that stil brought vs victuailes to sell, told vs that with our peeces we had slain three or foure men within the towne, and that the townes men began to make an armie of ships to set vpon vs. [Sidenote: They fought with a Iauan shippe.] The 2. of Nouember we espyed a shippe that came towards Bantam, which we ioyned vnto with our boats, and being neere vnto it, they spread their fights, which were of thicke mattes, and began to defend themselues; our men shot among them with stone peeces and Caliuers, and they defended themselues with great courage, hauing halfe pikes wherewith they thrust at vs, and that serued likewise to blow arrows out of them, for they were like trunkes, out of the which trunkes they shot so great numbers of arrowes, that they fell as thick as hayle, and shot so certaineiy, that therewith they hurt at the least eyght or nine of our men, but the arrowes are thinne and light, so that their blaste coulde not make them enter into the flesh aboue the thicknes of two fingers, onely the head of the arrowe (which is made of reede, and loose stayeth in the flesh) when we shot with our Caliuers they ranne behind their fightes, but when they perceiued that their matted fights could not defende them, and that they were killed through them, they entered into their boate, and by strength of oares rowed from vs, leauing their shippe, wherein we founde two dead men, and we slew three more of them as we rowed after their boat, so that in all they lost fiue men, as we after heard, and that they were to the number of 40. which done, wee brought their shippe to ours, wherein we found good store of Ryce and dryed fish. The 6. of Nouember, perceyuing not any hope of more trafficke for vs with those of Bantam, wee hoised anker and set sayle, setting our course towardes the straight of Sunda. [Sidenote: The marchants follow them with wares.] The seuenth of Nouember wee came and ankered before a Riuer of freshe water, about sixe miles from Bantam, where wee tooke in our prouision of water: thither certaine Merchants followed vs with Porseline, telling vs that they were sory for our departure, and that they longed for our returne againe. The thirteenth of Nouember we set sayle, and about euening wee came before Iacatra, in time past called Sunda Calapa, which hath beene a rich Towne of marchandise, but vppon some occasions and by reason of their hard vsage the Marchants had withdrauen themselues from thence, therefore at this present there is little or nothing to doe. Iohn Hughen in his booke saith this to be the principal towne of trafficke; but that is long sithence, for now there is not any trade of marchandise. The fourteenth of Nouember wee sent two of our men into the towne, hauing some of theirs in pawne, who tolde vs that many of the inhabitants were gone out of the towne with all their goodes, being in great feare of our peeces, and there wee had great store of victuailes, and much more then wee required brought abord our ships. The 18. wee set saile from Iacatra, and being about two miles from the towne, our shippe called Amsterdam fell vppon a cliffe, but it got offe again without any hurt, and therewith wee presently made towardes the straight. The 2. of December we passed by 3. townes which we might easily perceiue, we likewise passed by Tubam, and ankered vnder Sidaya. The 5. of December there came men out of the towne, and desired vs to stay, saying that there we might haue Cloues and Nutmegs as many as we woulde, bringing certaine banketting stuffe (as a present from their king) vnto Schelengers ship, because it lay nearest to the land, and they came most abord it. The 4. of December they came again into Schellengers ship, bringing certaine presentes with them, and among the rest a certayne birde that coulde swallowe fyer, which is a very strange fowle, and was brought aliue to Amsterdam, which after was giuen to the states of Hollande lying in the Hage, and some good fruites, willing vs to sende a man on shore, to see their spices, whereof they said they had great store: wherevpon we sent a man out of the Amsterdam, and with him an interpreter, one of the Portingalles slaues, they leauing three or foure of their men aborde our shippes, for pawnes till his returne: when our men came to lande hee was well vsed, and there they shewed him fortie or fiflie bals of Cloues; which done they brought him before the King, that promised him great fauor, and told him that the next day he wold himselfe come abord our ships, and deale with our Captaines, and with that he let our man depart. [Sidenote: How the Indians betrayed them.] The 5. of December we expected the Kings comming aborde, putting out all our flagges and streamers, and about noone there came 8. or 9. indifferent great shippes full of men from off the shore, wherein wee thought the King to bee, but when they were almost at vs, they diuided themselues, three of them rowing to Shellengers ship, and when they borded him, they thinking the King had been there, Reymer van Hel as Factor and the Maister came forth to receyue him and the Iauars entering all at once, Reymer van Hel said, What will all these people do aborde the shippe, for there was at the least two hundred men, who all at one time drewe out their poinyardes, and stabbed our men that neuer suspected them, so that presently they had slaine twelue of the shippe, and two sore wounded, that boldly withstoode them: the rest of our men being vnder hatches presently tooke their pikes, and thrust so fast out at the grates, that the Iauars woulde haue forced the middle part of the ship, wherein was two entries, but our men standing at them with their swordes in hand draue them out, not ceasing still to thrust vp with their pikes, meane time they kindled fier, lighted their matches, and shot off their stone peeces that lay aboue the hatches, wherwith they began presently to flie, most of them leaping ouer bord, and swam to their two boates, that lay harde by our shippes, whereof one with a great peece was presently stricken in peece: The rest of our shipps hearing vs shoote in that manner, entered into their boats, and made towardes them, rowing harde to the three Indian fustes, wherein were at the least 100. men, and shotte among them with their peeces, wherewith they leapt into the water, euery man swimming to shore, and we with two boates after them, hewing and killing them as our deadly enemies, who vnder pretence of friendshippe sought to murther vs, and wee handled them in such sort, that of two hundred men there got not aboue thirty of them to lande, the rest of their fustes lay farre off and beheld the fight: Three of their fustes thought to rowe to the Pinnace to take her, which they might easily haue done, as hauing not aboue 7. or 8. men in her, being busie to set vp a newe maste, but when they perceyued their men to bee so handeled in the Amsterdam, and that they leapt ouer horde, they turned backe againe, and in great haste rowed to land, so that at that time they got not much by the bargaine, and no small griefe to vs, for there wee lost 12. men, that were all stabbed with poinyards, [Sidenote: The names of the men that were stabbed.] their names were Iohn Iacobson Schellenger, maister of the ship, Reymer Van Hel Factor, Gielis Gieleson Gentleman, Barent Bonteboter, Arent Cornedrager, Cornelis van Alcmuer, Simon Ianson, Wiltschut Ioos the Carpenter, Adrian de Metselar, one of the Portingalles slaues, and two boyes, whereof one was but twelue yeares olde, whereby wee perceyued them to be a kinde of cruell people, for they had giuen the little boy and all the rest of our men at the least 12 stabbes a peece after they were dead. The same day about euening we hoysed ankers, and set saile, hauing manned the Amsterdam with men out of our other shippes, and so helde our course Eastward. The 6. of December we came to a great Island called Madura, where we ankered, and in the evening two of their men came aborde our shippes, with message from their Gouernour, saying that we were welcome, desiring vs to stay there, for he would trafficke with vs, and sell vs some Pepper, as they saide, but wee belieued them not. The 7. of December there came another boat abord, bringing certaine fruites, saying that the next day their Gouernour would come to see our shippes. The 8. there came a great fuste and three smal boats, from off the land all full of men, saying their Gouernour was among them: we willed them not to goe to the Amsterdam, but to the Mauritius, but they woulde not, but made to the Amsterdam, thinking because there had beene so many murthered in her, there was not many men aborde her at that time, and when they were within a pykes length of her, (although they were directed to the other shippes) they remembering their late mischance, shotte off three or foure stone Peeces full laden, wherewith they slew and hurt many of the Indians, wherevpon they presently leapt ouer board, and wee with our boates, followed after and slew diuers of them, taking ten or twelue, thinking by them to know what their intent was to doe, but they could not certifie vs, and therefore we let them go againe onely keeping two boyes, who long after stole out of the shippe, and swamme to lande: They tolde vs that the Gouernour being a Bishoppe or chiefe instructor of the countrey, was within the boate and slaine among the rest, hee had therein likewise a little boy one of his sonnes who wee likewise tooke, and sent to lande: The Bishoppe was of Meca, and much esteemed of among them, a great Clearke, and Gouernour ouer all the rest of the Countrey: There was a Iewell found about him, which as yet is kept. About euening we hoysed ankers, and set sayle, and the 11. of December we came to two small Islands, where wee ankered, there wee founde none but poore people and fishermen, that brought vs fish, Hens, and other fruit to sell. [Sidenote: How farre they were from Moluccas.] The 13. wee set sayle, and the 14. wee had a West winde, which they call the passage winde, that would haue serued vs well to saile to Moluccas, from whence wee were not distant aboue two hundred miles, and as then it was a good yeare for Cloues, which happeneth euery three yeares: It was told vs that we might there haue a Cabbin laden full of Cloues, wherevpon we determined to sayle thither, but because wee had already indured a long and troublesome voyage, and but ill manned, we woulde not, longing to bee at home: This contrary wind holding vppon the foure and twentie of December wee came to an Islande where we had beene before. The 25. of December Iohn Molenaer maister of the Mauritius, dyed sodainely, for an hower before hee was well, and in good health. The 28. 29. 30. and 31. of December wee were busied to take all the wares, sayles, and other things out of the Amsterdam, her victuailes and furnitures seruing for our voyage homewarde, and lying vnder that Island, we had victuailes brought vs euery day as much as wee needed, both fish, Hens, venison and fruit, and at reasonable price, but there we could get no water. [Sidenote: The Amsterdam set on fire.] The 11. of Ianuary when we had vnladen the Amsterdam we set her on fier, letting her burne, taking her men in our shippes. The 12. of Ianuarie we set sayle again, some desiring to sayle Eastward, others Westward, but in fine wee set Westwarde to sayle once againe to Bantam, wherewith the Mauritius sayled Southeastwarde, to gette about the Island of Iaua, and we followed her. The 14. of Ianuary we once againe perceyued the East point of the Island of Madura, and held our course Southward: on that side of Madura there lyeth many small Islandes, through which we sayled. [Sidenote: The Pinace on ground.] The 16. in the morning our Pinace fell on grounde vpon the coast of Iaua, not far from Pannorocan, where she shotte off three peeces, at the which warning wee made thither with our boates, and by the helpe of God got her off againe: There we saw a high hil that burnt, vnder and aboue the fire hauing a great smoake, most strange to behold. The 18. of Ianuary we entered into the straight that runneth betweene Iaua and Baly, and by reason of the hard and contrary streame that ran therin, we were forced to anker vpon the coast of Iaua, where wee found good anker ground. The 19. wee set sayle, and when wee came neere to the coast of Baly, we entered into a rough streame, and our shippes draue backeward, as swiftly as an arrow out of a bow, and there we found no anker ground, nor any anker could haue holden vs, but Molenaer got the coast of Iaua and ankered, which in the ende wee likewise did, and ankered at the least three miles from him, and so much we had driuen backe in the space of halfe an houre. The 20. of Ianuarie wee went and lay by our other ships. The 21. of Ianuarie there came two barkes to the Mauritius, wherein there was one that coulde speake good Portingall, who tolde vs that the towne of Ballaboam was besieged by a strange King, that had marryed the King of Ballaboams daughter, and after he had laine with her he caused her to bee slaine, and then came to besiege her father. This towne of Ballaboam lyeth on the East end of the Island of Iaua, and is the same towne where M. Candish was when hee passed that way, and the old King wherof he writeth was as then yet liuing, being at the least 160. years of age. There we saw great numbers of Battes, that flew ouer our shippes, and were as bigge as Crowes, which in that Countrey they vse to eat, as they say: About noone we came before the towne of Ballaboam, so neare vnto it, that we might easily see it, and there we lay behind a high point of lande, thinking to take in water. The 22. of Ianuarie we tooke our Pinace, and sayled about the shore as neere the land as possible we might, to seeke for fresh water, but we found none, for the Riuer that ran through the towne was paled vp (by them that lay before it) so that no man might passe either out or in, but onely on the lande side, and that with great daunger: The same day there came 2. or 3. men abord our shippe, that stole out of the towne by night, and came from the King, to desire our help with our great shot, which wee could not doe; because that thereabouts it was very shallow, and we might not go neere it with our shippes; they tolde vs they had great want of victuailes within the towne, whereby many of them were already deade for hunger, and much desired our aide, but it was not in vs to doe. Those that besieged the towne were Mores, but they in the towne were heathens, and as yet had not receyued Mahomets lawe and that (as wee heard after) was the cause of their warre: There wee sawe many Storkes flying and sitting in the fielde: with vs we cannot imagine where the Storkes remaine in winter time, but here wee sawe them in the winter time. The 24. of Ianuarie we sayled from thence, perceyuing nothing for vs to get, and tooke our course right ouer to the Island of Bally. The 25. we came to Bally, where one of their barks borded vs, telling vs that there we should find a Riuer of fresh water, and of all thinges els sufficient to serue our necessities, wherevpon we ankered. The 26. of Ianuarie our Pinace sent her boat to land, to see the Riuer, and there one of our men was sent on shore, but when he was on land he found nothing, but an armie of ten thousand men, that ment to relieue the towne of Ballaboam, and the Riuer was nothing worth to lade water, wherevpon our men came on borde againe: Their Generall thought to haue gotten some great pray out of our shippes. The 27. of Ianuarie we set sayle to finde a conuenient place to refresh vs with water and other prouision, for wee were informed by a man of Bengala, that of his owne will sayled with vs, and that had beene in Bally, that there wee should finde water and other thinges to serue our necessities, so that by night wee ankered vnder a high pointe of lande on the South West ende of Bally. The 28. of Ianuarie one of their boates borded vs with sixe or seuen men, saying that their King was desirious to deale with vs for such wares as hee had, and sent to know from whence we came, and we said wee came out of Holland. The 29. and 30. there came more men aborde our shippes, but as wee suspected that was not the right hauen, for the people came rowing in great haste a far off, and the man of Bengala could not tell what to say, but the King was thereabout, and euery day sent vs some fruit. The first of February wee had two hogges brought aborde our shippes, that wee bought for two Ryalles of eyght, and we eate them very sauerly. The 2. of Februarie, we set saile that wee might get aboue the point, where wee thought to finde a better place for freshe water, but by reason the winde was contrary, wee could not doe it, but were forced to anker againe. The 3. of February we set saile againe, and then wee had a storme, so that our saile blew euery way, and because of the contrarie winde we could not reach aboue the point, but were constrained to anker, but the Mauritius and the Pinace got past it, although thereby the Mauritius was in no little daunger, but because the Pilot had laid a wager of 6. Rialles of 8. that hee woulde get aboue it, hee would passe, what daunger soeuer it might be, and sayled close along by the cliffes, whereby wee lay at anker without companie. The 4 and 5. we set saile once againe to get aboue the point but could not reach it. The 6. we had a letter from Rodenburgh, that certified vs how the Mauritius lay at anker at the least 7. or 8. miles beyond the point, and he that brought the letter came with it ouer land; and at the same time there was a man sent on lande with a small present for the King, that we might winne his fauour. The 7. our man came on borde againe, and brought vs newes how Rodenburgh with one of the Portingalles slaues, being on lande were against their willes led before the King, but the saylors of the Mauritius had gotten men for pledges. The 8. of Ianuarie, the same man went on land out of our shippe with more presentes of veluet and a caliuer, the better to get the Kinges fauour, which liked him well, and desired vs to bring the ship nearer to the towne, saying he would send vs water, and other things sufficient to supply our wants. The 9. we sayled into the cheeke with our shippe, and ankered about a small halfe mile from the land, and being ankered there came at the least 70. boates of the Countrey to see our ship, and the King sent vs word that hee was desirous to heare vs shoote off 5. or 6. of our great peeces, and the King stoode vppon the shore to see them. The 10. we had a letter from Cornelis Houtman, to wil vs to come to them, for that there they had founde a good place for water, and all other necessaries, so that about euening wee set sayle, leauing two of our men and a Portingall slaue among the Indians, whome the King promised should come vnto vs ouer land, yet that night wee could not reach aboue the point, meane time we perceyued our Pinace that came to helpe vs. The 16. we got by the Mauritius, that had already laden in her water, and hooped her vessels, wherevpon we began presently to do the like, and to visite our vessels that were almost spoyled. The 17. our men whome wee left with the King came ouer land vnto our shippes, and then we bought great store of cattle and fruit. The 18. 19. 20. and 21. wee imployed our time to lade water, which wee had verie easily, and refreshed our selues with Cattle, Hogges, fruit, and Lemons sufficient. There came one of the Kinges principall officers with our men ouer land, to pleasure vs in all things we desired, he was very desirous to haue some present of vs. [Sidenote: Two of our men stayed with the Indians.] The 24. of Ianuarie two of our men that sayled in the Mauritius stayed on lande, but wee knewe not the cause: it should seeme some great promises had beene made vnto them, for as we vnderstoode the King was very desirous to haue all sortes of strange nations about him, but our people were therein much ouerseene, for there they liued among heathens, that neyther knewe God nor his commandements, it appeared that their youthes and wilde heades did not remember it, one of their names was Emanuel Rodenburgh of Amsterdam, the other Iacob Cuyper of Delft: within a day or two they sent vnto vs for their clothes, but wee sent them not. The 23. 24. and 25. we made a voyage on land, and fetcht as many Hogges abord our shippes as we could eate. The 25. of Februarie we hoysed ankers, minding to set saile and so go homeward, leauing our two men aforesaid on land, but because it was calme weather we ankered, and went once againe on lande, and the 26. of the same Month wee set saile and helde our course West South West, but we had a calme. The situation of the Island of Baly The Island of Baly lying at the East end of Iaua, is a verie fruitfull Islande of Ryce, Hennes, Hogges, that are very good, and great store of cattle: but they are very drie and leane beastes. They haue many horses: the inhabitants are heathens, and haue no religion, for some pray to Kine, others to the Sunne, and euerie man as hee thinketh good. [Sidenote: How 50 women burnt them selues with one man.] When a man dyeth his wife burneth her selfe with him: there were some of their men aborde our shippes, that told vs, that when some man dyeth in that Countrey, that sometimes there are at the least fifty women that will burne themselues with him, and she that doth not so is accounted for a dishonest woman: so that it is a common thing with them: The apparel both of men and women is for the most part like those of Bantam, nothing but a cloth about their middles: Their weapons is, each man a poinyarde at their backes, and a trunke with an iron point like a speare, about a fadom and a halfe long, out of the which they blowe certaine arrowes, whereof they haue a case full; it is an euil weapon for naked men: they are enemies to the Mores and Portingalles. This Iland yeeldeth no spice, nor any other costly ware, onely victuailes and clothes which they weare about their bodies, and slaues that are there to be solde. The King went with more state then the King of Bantam: all his garde had pikes with heades of fine gold, and he sate in a wagon that that was drawen by two white Buffles. The first of March we had a calme. The third we got a good wind, that blew Southeast, holding our course West South West. The fourteenth the wind blew stil South East, sometimes more Southwarde, and sometimes Eastward, being vnder 14. degrees, and a good sharpe gale, holding our course West Southwest: [Sidenote: The situation of Iaua.] There we found that Iaua is not so broade, nor stretcheth it selfe not so much Southwarde, as it is set downe in the Carde: for if it were, we should haue passed clean through the middle of the land. The 22. of March the winde helde as it did, being vnder 19. degrees, holding our course West South West. The 19. of April our ship had no more bread left, but for our last partition euery man had seuen pound, both good and badde breade, and from that time forwarde our meate was Rice sodden in water, and euery man had a canne of water euery day, with three romers of wine, and weekely each man three romers or glasses of oyle and that very strong, and nothing els. The 20. we had a calme, the 21. a calme with a Northerne aire. The 23. a good wind that blew Southwest. The 24. we saw the firme lande of Æthiopia, being vnder 33. degrees, and as wee gessed, wee were then about an hundred miles from the Cape de bona Sperance, yet we thought we had been at the least three hundred miles from it, so that wee may say, that God wrought wonderfully for vs: for that if wee had fallen by night vpon the land, we had surely runne vpon it: wee had a good winde out of the West, and West Southwest. The 25. of Aprill in the morning wee had a calme, with a very hollow water, and at euening we had a good winde, that came North and Northeast, and although wee had so good a wind yet our shippe bare but little sayle, although the other two shippes of our company were at the least two mile before vs, for most part of the night wee sayled with our schouer saile, holding our course Southwest and by West. The 26. of Aprill in the morning we coulde not see our shippes, which pleased not our men, besides that our shippe was very weake, whereby her ribs shoke, and her ioynts with the force of the water opened and shut, so that as then our shippe was very leake, hauing the winde Northwest, holding our course as neere as wee could West Southwest, and then we put out our maine sayles, at noone the winde came West, with a great storme, so that most of our sayles blew in peeces, and so wee draue forward with out sayles. The 27. of Aprill still driuing without sayle with a West winde, wee were vnder thirty sixe degrees, so that we found that the streame draue vs South and South West. The 28. of Aprill still driuing without sailes, we had the height of 36. degrees and 20. minutes, and about euening we hoised saile againe, the winde being West Southwest, and we held our course Northwest with very hollow water. The 29. of April we could not as yet see our shippes, the wind being West. The 30. of Aprill we had fayre weather with a West and West South West wind, and then we saw many great birdes with white billes, which is a signe not to bee far from the Cape de bona Sperance, we likewise saw certain small birdes, speckled on their backes, and white vpon their breastes. The first of May wee had a South winde with fayre weather hauing 34 degrees and a halfe, holding our course West Southwest. The seconde of May wee were vnder 35. degrees, and 1/2. holding our course West and West and by North. The fourth of May we found our selues to be vnder 37. degrees South South East winde, our course being West and by North, and West North West. The 5. and 6. of May we had all one winde at noone being vnder 35. degrees, wee thought wee had passed the Cape, and held our course Northwest, towardes Saint Helena, still without sight of our ships. The 8. of May with a South wind wee helde North West and by West. The 9. we had a calme with a gray sky, and were vnder 31. degrees and twentie minutes, and then our portion of oyle was increased a glasse more euery weeke, so that euery man had foure glasses. The 10. we had stil South winds, and were vnder 29 deg. [Sidenote: Signes of the Cape de bona Speranza.] The 14. of May twice or thrice we saw reedes, called Trombos driuing on the water, being such as driue about the the Cape de bona Speranza, which wee thought verie strange, for that the Portingals write, that they are seen but thirtie myles from the Cape, and wee gest our selues to be at the least 200. beyond it. The 15. we still had a South East wind, and helde our course Northwest. The 16. of May in the morning we saw two ships, whereat we much reioyced, thinking they had beene our companie, we made to leewarde of them, and the smallest of them comming somewhat neere vs, about the length of the shotte of a great peece, shee made presently toward her fellow, whereby we perceiued them to bee Frenchmen, yet we kept to leeward, thinking they would haue come and spoken with vs, but it should seeme they feared vs, and durst not come, but held their course Northeast; at noone we had the height of 22. degrees, and 50. minutes with a Southeast wind, holding our course Northwest. The 17. of May wee were vnder 21. degrees and a halfe: the 18. the wind being Southerly, we were vnder 19. degrees and a halfe. The 19. and 20. we had a calme with a Southern aire. The 21. the ayre comming Southwest, we held our course Northwest: and were vnder 17. degrees and 2/3 partes: There we found the compasse to decline three quarters of a strike or line North eastward, after noone we had a Southeast wind, and our course West Northwest. The 22. of May we had still a Southeast winde, and were vnder the height of 16. degrees and 40. minutes, holding our course West Northwest. The 23. of May, by reason of the cloudy sky, about noone we could not take the height of the Sunne, but as we gest we had the height of the Island of S. Helena, and held our course West and by South to keepe vnder that height, for there the compasses decline a whole strike or line: in the euening we found that we were vnder 16. degrees. The 24. of May in the morning wee discouered a Portingall ship, that stayed for vs, and put out a flagge of truce, and because our flagge of truce was not so readie as theirs, and we hauing the wind of him, therefore he shot two shootes at vs, and put forth a flagge out of his maine top, and we shot 5 or 6. times at him, and so held on our course without speaking to him, hauing a South East winde, holding our course West and by South to find the Island of S. Helena, which the Portugal likewise sought. The 25. of May we discouered the Island of S. Helena, but we could not see the Portingal ship, still sayling with a stiffe Southeast wind, and about euening we were vnder the Island, which is very high lande, and may be seene at the least 14. or 15. miles off, and as we sayled about the North point, there lay three other great Portingal ships, we being not aboue half a mile from them, wherevpon wee helde in the weather and to seawarde Northeast as much as we might. The Portingalles perceyuing vs, the Admiral of their fleet shot off a peece to call their men that were on land to come aborde, [Sidenote: Foure Portingal ships richly laden.] and then wee saw foure of their shippes together, that were worth a great summe of money, at the least 300. tunnes of gold, for they were all laden with spices, precious stones, and other rich wares, and therefore wee durst not anker vnder the Island, but lay all night Northeastwarde, staying for our company. The 26. of May in the morning wee made towardes the Island againe, with a good Southeast winde, and about noone or somewhat past we discried two shippes, and about euening as we made towards them, we knew them to be our company, which made vs to reioyce, for we had been asunder the space of a whole Month, and so we helde together and sayled homeward, holding our course Northwest: for as yet our men were well and in good health, and we found a good Southeast winde, and had water enough for foure or fiue monthes. The 27. 28. 29. and 30. of May wee had a Southeast winde, with faire weather, and the 27. day we were vnder 14. degrees. The first of Iune we were vnder 6. degrees, with a Southeast wind, holding our course North West, but by means of the Compasse that yeelded North eastward, we kept about Northwest and by North. The 6. of Iune wee were vnder one degree on the South side of the line, there wee founde that the streame draue vs fast into the West, and therefore wee helde our course more Northernely and sayled Northwest and by North, with an East and South East wind. [Sidenote: They passed the Equinoctiall line.] The 7. of Iune wee past the Equinoctiall line, with an East winde, holding our course North Northwest. The 10. of Iune in the euening we were vnder 5. degrees and a halfe on the North side of the line, and then we began again to see the North star, which for the space of 2. years we had not seene, holding our course North Northwest, there we began to haue smal blasts, and some times calmes, but the aire all South and South east. The 11. of Iune we had a calme, and yet a darke sky, that came Southeastwarde. The 12. of Iune wee had a close sky with raine, and the same euening our fore top maste fell downe. The 13. we strake all our sailes and mended our ship. The 14. we had the wind Northward, holding our course West Northwest as neare as we coulde, but by reason of the thick sky wee could not take height of the Sun. The 15. of Iune we had the wind North, and North Northwest. The 16. of Iune wee had the height of 9. degrees and 10. minutes, the winde being Northeast and North Northeast. The 17. the winde was Northeast with fair weather, and we held Northwest, and Northwest and by North till after noone. [Sidenote: They tooke a great fish.] The 15. we tooke a great fish called an Aluercour, which served vs all for 3. meals, which wee had not tasted of long time before. The 26. we had still a Northeast winde, and sometimes larger, holding our course North Northwest with large saile, and were vnder 17. degrees and 1/2. The same day there came much dust flying into our shippe, as if we had past hard by some sandie towne, and we gest the nearest land to vs might be the Island of S. Anthony, and wee were as then at the least 40. or 50. miles from it: The same day likewise there came a flying fish into our shippe, which we eat. The 28. of Iune wee had the height of 20. degrees, with a East Northeast wind and East and by West, with full sayle, there we saw much Sargosse, driuing on the water. The last of Iune we had the Sun right ouer our heades, and yet we felt no heat, for that by reason of the cold ayre we had a fine coole weather. The same day we passed Tropicus Cancri, still hauing the winde East Northeast, and in the euening we were vnder 24. degr. The second of Iuly we saw Sargosse driuing vpon the water, and had the wind somewhat lower North Northeast with a calme. The thirde of Iuly the winde came againe East Northeast, and wee helde our course North and by West. The 8. of Iuly wee were vnder 33. degrees and 1/2. with an East wind, holding our course North and by East, and yet we saw much Sargosse driuing, but not so thicke as it did before. The 10 of Iuly we had a good wind that blew south and South and by East, and hoysted vp our maine tops, that for the space of 26. daies were neuer touched, and held our course North Northeast, there we were in no little feare to fall among the Spanish fleet, which at that time of the yeare keepeth about the Flemmish Islands. The same day one of our boyes fell ouer bord, and was carried away with a swift streame before the wind, but to his great good fortune, the Pinace saued him, that was at the least a quarter of a mile from vs: this euening we found the height of 36. degrees. The 12. of Iuly we had a Southwest wind, holding our course Northeast and by North: Our Pilot and the Pilot of the Pinnace differed a degree in the height of the Sunne, for ours had 38. degrees, and theirs but 37. We gest to be about the Islands of Corbo and Flores, but the one held more easterly and the other more Westerly. The 13. of Iuly wee had still a Southwest winde, and after noone wee thought wee had seene land, but we were not assured thereof, for it was somewhat close. The 14. of Iuly we had a calme, and saw no land, and then our men began to be sicke. The 17. of Iuly wee had a South Southeast winde, with faire weather, and were vnder 41. degrees, holding our course East Northeast. The 18. 19. 20. and 21. it was calme. The 22. of Iuly the winde came North, and wee held our course East Southeast. The 23. of Iuly the wind was North North East and Northeast, and we held as near as we could East and East Southeast, the same day our steward found a barrell of stockfish in the roming, which if we had beene at home we would haue cast it on the dunghil, it stunke so filthily, and yet we eat it as sauerly as the best meat in the world. The 24. we had a West wind, and that with so strong a gale, that wee were forced to set two men at helme, which pleased vs well. The 25. of Iuly we had a storme that blew West and West Northwest, so that we bare but two sailes, holding our course Northeast and by East. The first of August we were vnder 45. degrees with a North West wind, holding our course Northeast and by East. The second of August one of our men called Gerrit Cornelison of Spijckenes died, being the first man that dyed in our voyage homeward. The 4. of August we had a Northwest wind. The 5. of August in the morning the winde came Southwest, and we were vnder 47. degrees, holding our course Northeast and the North Northeast, and wee gest that wee were not farre from the channell, those dayes aforesaid we had so great colde in our shippes, as if had beene in the middle of winter: We could not be warme with all the clothes wee had. The same day we saw Sargosse driue vpon the water. [Sidenote: They saw a shippe with the Prince of Oranges flagge.] The 6. of August we had a West wind, in the morning we cast out our lead and found grounde at 80. fadome, and about noone we saw a shippe that bare the Princes flagge, yet durst not come neare vs, although we made signes vnto him, and after noone wee saw the land of Heissant, whereat we all reioyced. The 7. of August in the morning we saw the land of Fraunce, and held our course North Northeast, and likewise we saw a small shippe, but spake not with it. The 8. of August in the morning we saw the Kiskas, and had a South wind and somewhat West, holding our course East Northeast. [Sidenote: They saw a man of war.] The 9. of August we entered the heades, and past them with a Southwest wind, sayling Northeast. After noone we past by a man of warre being a Hollander, that lay at anker, and he hoysed anker to follow vs, about euening wee spake with him, but because of the wind wee could hardly heare what hee said, yet hee sailed on with vs. [Sidenote: The man of war gaue them victuailes.] The 10. of August the man of warre borded vs with his boat, and brought vs a barrell of beere, some bread and cheese, shewing vs what news he could touching the state of Holland, and presently wee sawe the land of Holland, and because it blew very stiffe and a great storme, after noone wee ankered about Petten to stay for better weather, and some new Pilots, and that was the first time we had cast anker for the space of 5. monthes together, about euening it beganne to blow so stifle, that wee lost both an anker and a cable. [Sidenote: They cut down their main mast.] The 11. of August we had still a Southerly winde, and therefore about noone the Mauritius set saile, and wee thought likewise to saile, but our men were so weake that we could not hoyse vp our anker, so that we were constrained to lie still till men came out to helpe vs, about euening the winde came Southwest, and with so great a storme, that we thought to haue run vpon the strand, and were forced to cut downe our maine maste. The 12. and 13. we had a hard South West wind, and sometimes West, so that no Pilots came abord our ship, but the 13. day about euening it began to be faire weather. The 14. of August about breake of day in the morning, there came two boats with Pilots and men abord our ship, that were sent out by our owners, and brought vs some fresh victuailes, which done they hoysed vp our ankers, and about noone we sayled into the Tessel, and ankered in the channell, where we had fresh victuailes enough, for we were all weake. This was a great noueltie to all the Marchantes and inhabitantes of Hollande, for that wee went out from thence the second of April 1595. and returned home again vpon the 14. of August 1597. there you might haue bought of the Pepper, Nutmegs, Cloues, and Mace, which wee brought with vs. Our saylors were most part sicke, being but 80. men in all, two third partes of their company being dead, and lost by diuers accidentes, and among those forescore such as were sicke, as soone as they were on land and at their ease presently recouered their healthes. The copper money of Iaua commeth also out of China, and is almost as thicke, great and heauy, as a quarter of a Doller, and somewhat thicker, in the middle hauing a square hole, 2000. of them are worth a Riall of 8. but of these there are not ouer many, they vse to hang them vpon stringes, and pay them without telling, they stand not so narrowly vpon the number, for if they want but 25. or 50. it is nothing. The leaden money of Iaua, (being of bad Leade is very rough) hath in the middle a foure square hole, they are hanged by two hundred vppon a string, they are commonly 10. 11. and 12. thousand to a Riall of 8. as there commeth great quantitie out of China, where they are made, and so as there is plentie or scarcitie they rise and fal. * * * * * A true report of the gainefull, prosperous, and speedy voiage to Iaua in the East Indies, performed by a fleete of 8. ships of Amsterdam: which set forth from Texell in Holland the first of Maie 1598. Stilo Nouo. Whereof foure returned againe the 19. of Iuly anno 1599. in lesse then 15. moneths; the other foure went forward from Iaua for the Moluccas. [Footnote: At London: printed by P. S. for W. Aspley, and are to be sold at the signe of the Tygers Head in Paules Church-yard, (1600).] Whereas in the yeare of our Lord 1595. a certaine company of substantial merchants of Amsterdam in Holland did build and set forth for the East Indies four well appointed shippes, whereof three came home An. 1597. with small profit (as already in sundry languages is declared) [Footnote: See above.] Yet neuerthelesse the aforesaid company, in hope of better successe, made out the last years 1598. for a seconde voiage, a fleete of eight gallant ships, to wit. The shippe called the Mauritius, lately returned from that former voyage, being of burden two hundreth and thirty last, or foure hundreth and sixty tunnes, or thereabouts. This shippe was Admirall of the fleete. The master whereof was Godevart Iohnson, the Commissarie or factor Cornelius Heemskerck, and the Pilot Kees Collen. The second ship called the Amsterdam, was of the burden of four hundreth and sixty tuns. The Master's name was Claes Iohnson Melcknap; The factor or commissarie Iacob Heemskerck. The third was named Hollandia, about the burden of sixe hundreth tuns: which had likewise been in the former voiage. The Master was Symon Lambertson or Mawe, the Factor Master Witte Nijn, who died in the voyage before Bantam, and in his roome succeeded Iohn Iohnson Smith. The name of the fourth ship was Gelderland, of burden about foure hundreth tuns. Master wherof was Iohn Browne, factor or commissarie Hans Hendrickson. The fift was called Zeelandia, of the burden of three hundreth and sixtie tuns. The Master was Iohn Cornelison, the Commissary or factor N. Brewer. The sixt ship named Utrecht of the burden of two hundreth and sixtie tuns. The Master was Iohn Martsen, the Factor or commissary Adrian Veen. The seuenth a pinnas called Frisland, of burden about seuenty tuns. The Master Iacob Cornelison, the Factor Walter Willekens. The eighth a pinnas that had been in the former voiage called the Pidgeon, now the Ouerijssel, of the burden of fifty tuns. The Master Symon Iohnson. The Factor Arent Hermanson. Of this fleete was General and Admirall Master Iacob Neck, Viceadmirall Wybrand van Warwick: and Rereadmirall Iacob Heemskerck. With this fleet of eight ships we made saile from Texell the first of May 1598. Stilo Nouo, being the 21. of Aprill, after the account of England and sailed with good speed vnto the Cabo de bona Speranza: as further shal appeare by a Iournal annexed vnto the end of this discourse. Being past the Cape, the 7. and 8. of August, by a storme of weather fiue ships were separated from the Admirall, who afterwardes came together againe before Bantam. [Sidenote: They meete with a ship of Zealand.] The 26. of August with three shippes wee came within the view of Madagascar, and the 29. wee met with a ship of Zeeland, called the Long barke, which had put to sea before vs, and now kept aloofe from us, supposing we were enemies: but at length perceiuing by our flagges what we were, they sent their Pinnas aboord vs, reioycing greatly to haue met with vs, because that diuers of their men were sicke, and ten were already dead: and they had in all but seuen men aboord the shippe that were meat-whole, and eleuen mariners to guide the shippe. Wee agreed to relieue them with some supplie of men: but through darkenesse and great winde wee lost them againe. [Sidenote: The Isle of Santa Maria.] After this, we the Admiral Mauritius, the Hollandia, and the pinnas Ouerijssel keeping together, came to the Island of Santa Maria, before the great bay of Antogil in Madagascar: where wee got a small quantity of Rice. We tooke the King prisoner, who paide for his ransome a Cow and a fat calfe. In this Island we found no great commodity: for being the month of September, the season was not for any fruits: the Oranges had but flowers: Lemons were scant: of Sugarcanes and Hens there was some store, but the Inhabitants were not very forward in bringing them out. [Sidenote: Killing of the whale.] Heere we sawe the hunting of the Whale, (a strange pastime) certaine Indians in a Canoa, or boate following a great Whale, and with a harping Iron, which they cast forth, piercing the whals body, which yron was fastned to a long rope made of the barkes of trees, and so tied fast to their Canoa. All this while pricking and wounding the whale so much as they could, they made him furiously to striue too and fro, swiftly swimming in the sea, plucking the canoa after him: sometimes tossing it vp and downe, as lightly as if it had been a strawe. The Indians in the meane time being cunning swimmers taking small care though they were cast ouerboord, tooke fast hold by the boat stil, and so after some continuance of this sport, the whale wearied and waxing faint, and staining the sea red with his bloud, they haled him toward the shore, and when they had gotten him so neare shore on the shallowe that the most part of him appeared aboue water, they drew him aland and hewed him in pieces, euery one taking thereof what pleased them, which was to vs a strange sight. It is reported that the Indians of Terra Florida vse the like fishing for the Whale. Our men might haue taken some part thereof, but refused it: the pieces thereof were so like larde or fat bacon. [Sidenote: The Bay of Antogill.] From thence we made toward the great Bay of Antogill and ankered vnder the Island, where wee tooke in fresh water. Our Indians that were brought from thence by them of the former voiage (the names of whome were Madagascar the one, and the other Laurence) wee offered to set there on land, but they refused, chusing rather to tarry with vs and to be apparelled, then to go naked in their owne countrey: working and moyling for a miserable liuing, opposing their bare skins to the vehemency of the sunne and weather: and their excuse was, that in that place they were strangers and had none acquaintance. [Sidenote: How long their beere continued good.] Our beere continued good vntill we were passed the Cape de bona speranza: from thence we began to mingle it with water hauing a portion of wine allowed vs twise a day, and this allowance continued vntill our returne into Holland. We went with our boates vp the riuer seeking refreshing: but the Inhabitants gaue vs to vnderstand by signes that wee might returne, for there was nothing to be had. Wee rowed into the riuer about three leagues, and found their report to bee true. The cause was, that the Kings made warre there one against an other, and so all the victuals were in manner destroied, insomuch that the Inhabitants themselues many of them perished for hunger, and in one of these battailes one of their Kings was lately slaine. Wherfore after fiue daies abode and no longer, we departed, and in Gods name made to sea again, directing our course the sixteenth of September for Iaua. [Sidenote: They arriue at Bantam.] About the nineteenth of Nouember we came within sight of Sumatra, and the 26. of the same moneth 1598. wee in the three shippes aforesaid, to wit, the Mauritius, our Admirall, the Hollandia, and the Ouerissell, arriued before the citty of Bantam in Iaua. Presently vpon this our arriuall, our Admirall and Generall Master Iacob Van Neck, sought with all friendship to traffique with the people of the saide towne of Bantam, sending Master Cornelis Heemskerck on land to shew them what we were, for they thought vs to be the very same men that had been there the yeare before, and al that while guarded the sea cost, as being assuredly persuaded that we were pirates and sea rouers. [Sidenote: They present their letters and gifts.] But we, to make them vnderstand the contrary, sent on lande one Abdoll of China, a captiue of theirs, whom we brought from them in our first voyage; by whose meanes we got audience and credite: and so we presented our gifts and presents to the King, which was but a childe: and the chiefe gouernour called Cephat, hauing the kingly authority, most thankfully receiued the same in the name of his King. The said presents were a faire couered cup of siluer and gilt, certaine veluets and clothes of silke, with very fine drinking glasses and excellent looking glasses, and such other gifts more. Likewise we presented our letters sealed very costly with the great seale of the noble and mighty lords the Estates generall of the united Prouinces, and of Prince Mauritz, whome they termed their Prince. [Sidenote: Trade licensed.] Which letters were by them receiued with great reuerence, creeping vpon their knees: and (the same being well perused, read and examined) they found thereby our honest intent and determination for traffike: insomuch that a mutuall league of friendship and alliance was concluded, and we were freely licensed to trade and traffike in such wise, that euen the fourth day of our arriuall we began to lade; and within foure or fiue weekes all our foure ships hauing taken in their full fraight, were ready to depart. When our three shippes aforesaid had remained there welnigh a moneth, about Newyears-tide arriued the other fiue shippes of our company before mentioned in very good manner, and well conditioned. [Sidenote: The whole fleet meet before Bantam.] And so our whole fleete of eight ships ioyfully met together, and had none or very fewe sicke persons among them, hauing lost by death in the whole fleete but 35. men in all, of which number some perished through their own negligence. Vpon this happy meeting we displaied our flags, streamers and ensignes after the brauest manner, honouring and greeting one another with volleis of shot, making good cheere, and (which was no small matter) growing more deeply in fauour with the townesmen of Bantam. Vnto vs were daily brought aboord in Prauwes or Indian boats great quantity of hens, egs, Cocos, bonanos, sugar-canes, cakes, made of rice, and a certaine kinde of good drinke which is there made by the men of China. Thus the people daily bartered with vs for pewter and other wares, giuing so much victuals for a pewter spoone, as might well suffice one man for an whole weeke. Wee trucked likewise for diuers other things, as for porcellan dishes and such like. [Sidenote: The price of pepper inhanced.] Howbeit, that which our Indian Abdoll declared (namely, that more ships were comming besides the three aforesaid, and that others beside them were also sent out of Zeland) little tended to our commodity: for thereupon the Iauans tooke occasion to inhance the price of their pepper, insomuch that we were forced to pay for 55. pounds of pepper first three, and afterward four Reals of eight: neither did they demaund or call for any thing so much as for the said Reals of eight. Mercery or haberdashers wares were in no such request as money. Also we much marueiled, how the Iauans should tell vs of more shippes to come, making signes with their foure fingers and thumb, that foure Lyma (which word in their language signifieth shippes) were comming. And here you are to vnderstand, that our Generall Master Van Neck, together with the commissaries or factors, thought good, besides the three forsaid ships that came first, to lade one other, to wit, the greater pinnasse called Frisland, whereof was Master Iacob Cornelison, and factor Walter Willekens. [Sidenote: Foure ships laden.] These foure ships hauing receiued their ful freight, and giuen notice on land of their departure (to the end that none of their creditours might bee vnpaid) and also having well prouided themselues of rice and water, departed the thirteenth of Ianuary 1599. and sayled to Sumatra, where they tooke in fresh water; for that the water of Bantam first waxeth white, and afterward crawleth full of magots. Vpon the land of Sumatra we bartered kniues, spoones, looking-glasses, bels, needles and such like, for sundry fruits, to wit, melons, cucumbers, onions, garlike, and pepper though little in quantity, yet exceeding good. We had to deale with a notable Merchant of Bantam, named Sasemolonke, whose father was a Castilian, which sold vs not much lesse then an hundreth last of pepper. He was most desirous to haue traueiled with vs into Holland: but misdoubting the displeasure and euil will of the king, and fearing least his goods might haue bin confiscated, he durst not aduenture vpon the voiage. [Sidenote: The four other ships sent to Moluccas.] Certaine daies before our departure from Bantam were the other foure shippes dispatched to go for the Moluccas, and ouer them was appointed as Admirall and Generall Master Wybrant van Warwicke in the shippe called Amsterdam, and Iacob Heemskerck Viceadmirall in the shippe Gelderland, the other two shippes in consort with them being Zeland and Vtrecht before mentioned. These foure made saile towards the Moluccas, and parted from vs the 8. of Ianuary in the night, and in taking of our leaues both of vs together, made such a terrible thundering noise with our ordinance, that the townsemen were vp in alarme, vntill they knewe the reason thereof. The people were glad of their departure, hauing some mistrust of vs, remaining there so strong with 8. ships. And they asked daily when we should depart, making great speed to help vs vnto our lading, and shewing themselues most seruiceable vnto vs. The 11. of Ianuary 1599. we in the foure shippes laden with pepper departed from Bantam homeward. The 13. we arriued at Sumatra. The 19. we shaped our course directly for Holland. The 3. of April we had sight of Capo de buona esperanza. The 8. of Aprill we doubled the said Cape, proceeding on for the Isle of Saint Helena, whither we came the twenty sixt of the same month, and there refreshed our selues for the space of eight daies. In this Island we found a church with certaine boothes or tents in it, and the image of Saint Helena, as likewise a holy water fat, and a sprinkle to cast or sprinkle the holy water: but we left all things in as good order as we found them. Moreouer here we left behinde vs some remembrances in writing, in token of our being there. At this place died of the bloody flixe, the Pilot of our Admirall Kees Collen of Munickendam, a worthy man, to our great griefe. This Island (as Iohn Huighen van Linschotten describeth it) is replenished with manifold commodities, as namely with goates, wilde swine, Turkies, partridges, pidgeons, &c. But by reason that those which arriue there vse to discharge their ordinance, and to hunt and pursue the saide beastes and fowles, they are now growen exceedingly wilde and hard to be come by. Certaine goates whereat we shotte fled vp to the high cliffes, so that it was impossible to get them. Likewise fishes wee could not catch so many as wee needed; but wee tooke in fresh water enough to serue vs till our arriuall in Holland. [Sidenote: A man left on land at Saint Helena.] Here we left on land as a man banished out of our society, one Peter Gisbrecht the masters mate of the great pinasse, because hee had stroken the Master. Very penitent hee was, and sorie for his misdemeanour, and all of vs did our best endeuour to obtain his pardon: but (the orders and ordinances wherevnto our whole company was sworne being read before vs) we were constrained to surcease our importunate suit, and he for the example of others to vndergo the seuere doome that was allotted him. There was deliuered vnto him a certaine quantity of bread, oile, and rice, with hookes and instruments to fish withall, as also a hand gun and gunpowder. Hereupon we bad him generally farewell, beseeching God to keepe and preserue him from misfortunes, and hoping that at some one time or other he should finde deliuerance; for that all shippes sailing to the West Indies must there of necessity refresh themselues. Not far from this place we descried a saile which wee iudged to be some Frenchmen, by whom peraduenture the saide banished party might bee deliuered. The fourth of May we set saile from Saint Helena, and the tenth of the same moneth wee passed by the Isle of Ascension. The 17. day wee passed the line. The 21. we saw the Polle-starre. The 10. and 11. of Iune we had sight of the Canaries. About the Azores wee stood in feare to meete with some Spanish Armada, because our men were growen faint and feeble by reason of their long voiage. The 27. of Iune we entered the Spanish sea. The 29. we found our selues to be in fortie foure degrees of northerly latitude. The 6. of Iuly our Admirall the Mauritius had two of his mastes blowne ouerboord: for which cause we were contrained to towe him along. The 11. of Iuly we passed the sorlings. The 13. we sayled by Falmouth, Dartmouth, and the Quasquets. The 17. we passed by Douer. The 19. meeting with some stormes and rainy weather we arriued at Texell in our owne native countrey, without any great misfortune, saue that the Mauritius once stroke on ground. Thus hauing attained to our wished home, we gaue God thankes for this our so happy and prosperous voiage: because their neuer arriued in Holland any shippes so richly laden. [Sidenote: The particulars of their rich lading.] Of pepper we brought eight hundreth tunnes, of Cloues two hundreth, besides great quantity of Mace, Nutmegs, Cinamom, and other principall commodities. To conclude this voiage was performed in one yeare, two monethes, and nineteene daies. We were sailing outward from Texell to Bantam seuen moneths, we remained there sixe weekes to take in our lading, and in six monethes we returned from Bantam in Iaua to Holland. The performance of this long and daungerous voiage in so short time we ascribed to Gods deuine and wonderfull prouidence, hauing sailed at the least 8000. leagues, that is to say, twenty four thousand English miles. The ioye of the safe arriuall of these shippes in Holland was exceeding great: and postes were dispatched to euery principall towne and citty to publish these acceptable newes. The merchants that were owners of these ships went straight toward Texell for the refreshing of their men, and for other necessary considerations. [Sidenote: Friendly letters and presents from the King of Iaua.] The Commissary or Factor master Cornelis Heemskerck together with Cornelis Knick, hied them with all speed towardes the Estates generall and prince Mauritz his excellency, not onely to carry the saide good newes, but withal to present the letters of the King of Iaua importing mutuall alliance, friendship and free intercourse of traffike in consideration of their honourable, liberal, and iust dealings: They brought gifts also from the said King of great price and value. The 27. of Iuly the Mauritius our Admirall together with the Hollandia came before Amsterdam: where they were ioyfully saluted with the sound of eight trumpettes, with banqueting, with ringing of bels, and with peales of ordinance, the Generall and other men of command being honourably receiued and welcommed by the citty. The merchants that aduentured in these voyages being in number sixeteene or seuenteene (notwithstanding the foure shippes gone from Iaua to the Moluccas, as it is before mentioned) haue sent this last spring 1599. [Marginal Note: A new supply of foure Hollandish ships sent this last spring 1599. to the East Indies.] foure ships more to continue this their traffique so happely begun: intending moreouer the next spring to send a newe supply of other ships. [Marginal note: An intent of the marchants of Amsterdam to send more ships the next spring 1600.] And diuers other Marchants are likewise determined to enter into the same action. Of them that departed from Zeland these bring no newes, otherwise then is aforesaide. Neither doe they report any thing of the two fleetes or companies, that went from Roterdam the last sommer 1598, shaping their course for the streites of Magellan. Wee haue before made mention of an Indian called Abdoll, which was brought from Bantam, in the first voiage, and had continued an whole winter or some eight months at Amsterdam in Holland. Where during that space (being a man of good obseruation and experience, and borne about China) hee was well entreated, cherished, and much made of. [Sidenote: The relation of Abdull an Indian, concerning the Netherlands.] This Abdoll vpon his returne to Iaua being demanded concerning the state of the Netherlands, made vnto the principall men of Bantam a full declaration thereof, with all the rarities and singularities which he had there seen and obserued. Which albeit to the greatest part of readers, who haue trauailed those countries may seeme nothing strange, and scarce worthy the relation: yet because the report was made by so meere a stranger, and with the Iauans that heard it wrought so good effect, I thought it not altogether impertinent here in this place to make rehearsall thereof. First therefore he tolde them (to their great admiration in that hoat climate) That hee had seene aboue a thousand sleds drawen, and great numbers of horsemen riding vpon the frozen water in winter time, and that he had beheld more then two hundreth thousand people trauailing on foote and on horseback vpon the yce, as likewise that the said sleds were by horses drawen so swiftly, that they made more way in three houres than any man could go on foote in tenne. And also that himselfe for pleasure had beene so drawen, the horses being brauely adorned with bels and cymbals. Howbeit they would hardly be induced to beleeue that those countries should be so extreamely colde, and the waters so mightely frozen, as to beare such a hugh waight. Hee tolde them moreouer, that Holland was a free countrey, and that euery man there was his owne Master, and that there was not one slaue or captiue in the whole land. Moreover, that the houses, in regarde of their beautifull and lofty building, resembled stately pallaces, their inward rich furniture being altogether answerable to their outward glorious shew. Also, that the Churches (which he called Mesquitas), were of such bignesse and capacity, as they might receiue the people of any prety towne. He affirmed likewise, that the Hollanders with the assistance of their confederates and friendes, maintained warres against the King of Spaine, whose mighty puissance is feared and redoubted of all the potentates of Europa. And albeit the said warres had continued aboue thirty yeares, yet that during all that time the saide Hollanders increased both in might and wealth. In like sort he informed them of the strange situation of Holland, as being a countrey driuing vpon the water, the earth or ground whereof, they vse instead of fewell, and that he had oft times warmed himselfe, and had seene meat dressed with fires made of the same earth. In briefe, that it was a waterish and fenny countrey, and full of riuers, chanels, and ditches, and that therein was an innumerable multitude of boates and small shippes, as likewise great store of tall and seruiceable ships, wherewith they sailed vnto all quarters of the world, etc. This man Abdoll wee found to bee a captiue or slaue, and sawe there his wife and children in very poore estate dwelling in a little cottage not so bigge as an hogsty: but by oure meanes he was made free and well rewarded. Notwithstanding he did but euil recompence vs: for he was charged to be the cause why pepper was solde dearer than ordinary vnto vs by a penny in the pound: for hee tolde them that certaine shippes of Zeland and of other places were comming thitherwardes. [Sidenote: The Portugals go about to hinder the trade of the Hollanders.] And here the reader is to vnderstand, that some foure moneths before the said three ships arriued at Bantam, the Portugales came with an Armada of gallies and fustes, being set foorth by the Viceroy of Goa and the gouernour of Molucca, to intercept the traffique of the Hollanders vnto those partes, and to made them loose all their expenses, labour, and time which they had bestowed: and also that their great and rich presentes which they gaue vnto the Iauans the yeare before, to bring them into vtter detestation of the Hollanders, might not be altogether in vaine. The Generall of them that came from Goa was Don Luis, and of those that came from Molucca Don Emanuell: who brought their Armada before Bantam, intending to surprize the citty, vnder pretence that the same preparation was made to resist certaine pirates that came thither out of Holland the last yeare, and were determined this yeare also to come againe. Vnder these colours they sought to take the towne and to fortifie the same, and they built certaine sconces in the countrey, committing great outrages, rauishing the Women, with many other villanies. [Sidenote: The Portugals vanquished.] Hereupon the townsemen of Bantam very secretly provided certaine gallies and fustes in great hast, and sodainly assailed the Portugales before they were well aware of them: for which cause finding but small resistance, they tooke 3. Portugale gallies with certaine shippes, and slewe about 300. of them, taking 150. Portugales prisoners, of which we daily saw some going vp and downe the streetes of Bantam like slaues and captiues. Besides these they tooke about 900. gallie slaues prisoners. Vpon this hard successe the rest of the Portugals betooke themselues to flight: but whither they bee arriued at Goa or Molucca, or what is become of them since, we are not able to auouch. The foresaid attempt and ouerthrowe, bred greater enmity betweene the Portugales and them of Bantam, and gaue an especiall occasion for the aduancement of our traffique. The fiue ships (whereof we haue before signified that foure were dispatched by the whole companie for the Moluccas) being seuered beyonde the Cape of Buona Speranza [Marginal Note: The course which the fiue ships tooke after they were separated from their three consorts about the Cape of bouona esperanza.] from the other three of their company, and hauing quite lost them, came all of them shortly after vnder an Island called (as it is thought) by the Portugals Isola de Don Galopes: but they named it the Island of Mauritius. Here they entered into an hauen, calling the same Warwicke, after the name of their Viceadmirall, wherin they found very good harborow in twenty degrees of southerly latitude. [Sidenote: The Isle of Mauritius described.] This Island being situate to the East of Madagascar, and containing as much in compasse as all Holland, is a very high, goodly and pleasant land, full of green and fruitfull vallies, and replenished with Palmito-trees, from the which droppeth holesome wine. [Sidenote: Great store of Ebenwood.] Likewise here are very many trees of right Ebenwood as black as iet, and as smooth and hard as the very Iuory: and the quantity of this wood is so exceeding, that many ships may be laden herewith. For to saile into this hauen you must bring the two highest mountaines one ouer the other, leauing sixe small Islands on your right hand, and so you may enter in vpon 30. fadomes of water. Lying within the bay, they had 10. 12. and 14. fadomes. On their left hand was a litle Island which they named Hemskerk Island, and the bay it selfe they called Warwick bay, as is before mentioned. Here they taried 12. daies to refresh themselues, finding in this place great quantity of foules twise as bigge as swans, which they called Walghstocks or Wallowbirdes being very good meat. But finding also aboundance of pidgeons and popiniayes, they disdained any more to eat of those great foules, calling them (as before) Wallowbirds, that is to say, lothsome or fulsome birdes. Of the said Pidgeons and Popiniayes they found great plenty being very fat and good meate, which they could easily take and kil euen with little stickes: so tame they are by reason that the Isle is not inhabited, neither be the liuing creatures therein accustomed to the sight of men. Here they found rauens also, and such abundance of fish, that two men were able to catch enough for all fiue ships. Tortoises they found so huge, that tenne men might sit and dine in one of their shelles, and one of them would creepe away, while two men stood vpon the backe thereof. Here was founde waxe also whiter then any of ours, lying about the strande, bleached (as it is like) by the sunne: and in some of this waxe there were Arabian letters or characters printed: whereby it is probable, that some Arabian ship might bee cast away thereabout, out of which the said waxe might be driuen on land. They found likewise Corall on this land, and many trees which we call Palmitos, whereout droppeth wine as out of the Coco-tree: which wine being kept hath his operation as our new prest wine, but after some time it commeth vnto the ful vertue and perfection. The said Palmitos they esteemed to bee a kinde of wilde date-trees. We sought all the Island ouer for men, but could find none, for that it was wholly destitute of Inhabitants. Vpon this Island we built an house with a pulpit therein, and left behind vs certaine writings as a token and remembrance of our being there, and vpon the pulpit we left a Bible and a psalter lying. [Sidenote: A good watering place.] Thus after 12. daies aboad at this Island, being well refreshed, they tooke in excellent fresh water being easie to get, and very sweet and sauory to drinke, and then set saile, meeting the three other ships their consorts at the time and place before mentioned. * * * * * A briefe description of the voiage before handled, in manner of a Iournall. The first of Maie 1598. with the eight shippes before mentioned, we set saile in the name of God from Texell in Holland. The third of May we passed along the coast of England, descrying some of her Maiesties ships, and they vs, whom we honoured with discharge of our artillery. The fourteenth we had sight of the Isle of Porto Santo lying in thirty two degrees. The sixteenth, wee came within sight of the Canaries. The twenty two, we first saw flying fishes. The twenty three, we passed by the Isle Dell Sall. The thirty one, we had a great storme, so that we lost sight one of another: but by night we came together againe. The eighth of Iune wee crossed the Equinoctiall line. The twenty foure we sayled by the sholdes of Brasile lying vnder eighteene degrees of Southerly Latitude. The twenty one of Iuly we got to the height of the Cape of buona esperanza. From the thirtith of Iuly till the second of August, we continually sayled in sight of the land of the aforesaid Cape. The seuenth and eighth of August wee had such foule and stormy weather, that fiue ships of our company were separated from vs, whom we saw no more vntill they came to vs before Bantam. The twenty sixt we descryed the Island of Madagascar. The twenty nine came by us the ship called the Long barke of Zeland, hauing in her but nine sound men, tenne dead, and the rest all sicke: but the same night we lost the sight of her againe. The seauenth of September, we came before the Island of Santa Maria, and afterward wee put into the great bay of Antogill. The sixteenth of September, wee set saile from thence, directing our course for Iaua. The first of October, wee got to the heighth of Bantam. The fifteenth, died the first man in our Admirall. The nineteenth of November, we came within sight of Sumatra. The twenty-ninth, we road before the citty of Bantam: And the thirtieth, we payed our toll to the gouernour. And vpon Newyeares daie 1599. Stilo Nouo, we began to take in our lading. Then came vnto vs before Bantam, with great ioie and triumph, our fiue separated shippes, all the people standing vpon the shore gazing, and suspecting some harme intended against them. The eighth of Ianuary, foure of the said 5. newcome shippes (God send them a prosperous voyage) set saile toward the Moluccas. Moreouer our foure shippes being well and richly laden at Bantam made saile homewarde the eleuenth of Ianuary, and the thirteenth, wee were shot as farre as the Isles of Sumatra. The nineteenth, we proceeded thence on our voige, and the same day, to the great griefe of vs all died the Pilot of our Admirall. The third of Aprill, we descried the land of Capo de buona esperanza. The eighth, wee doubled the same Cape, thence shaping our course for the Island of Saint Helena, where the twenty sixt we happily arriued, and departed from thence vpon the fourth of Maie. The tenth of Maie, wee sailed by the Isle of Ascension. The seuenteenth, we passed the Equinoctiall line. The twenty one, we saw the North starre. The ninth and tenth of Iune, we had sight of the Canaries. The twenty seauen, wee sayled vpon the Spanish Sea. The twenty nine, we were in fortie four degrees. The fourth of Iuly, we saw behind vs two sailes, one before the other, which were the first that we had seene for a long time. The sixt of Iuly our Admirall had both his foremast and mainemast blowne ouer boord. The eleuenth, we passed the Sorlings, the thirteenth, Falmouth, Plimmouth and the Quasquets. The seauenteenth, we came before Dover. The nineteenth, wee had foule and stormy weather, at what time by Gods good blessing wee arriued in our natiue countrey at Texell in Holland, hauing performed in the short space of one yeare, two moneths and nineteene daies, almost as long a voiage, as if we should haue compassed the globe of the earth, and bringing home with vs our full fraight of rich and gainfull Marchandize. END OF VOL. X. 
18757	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations and maps. See 18757-h.htm or 18757-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/8/7/5/18757/18757-h/18757-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/8/7/5/18757/18757-h.zip) PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR * * * * * Heroes of the Nations. PER VOLUME, CLOTH, $1.50.--HALF MOROCCO, $1.75. I.--Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor," etc. II.--Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence. By C.R.L. FLETCHER, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. III.--Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. IV.--Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilisation. By THOMAS HODGKIN, author of "Italy and Her Invaders," etc. V.--Sir Philip Sidney: Type of English Chivalry. By H.R. FOX BOURNE. VI.--Julius Cæsar, and the Organisation of the Roman Empire. By WARDE FOWLER, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. VII.--Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen and First of the English Reformers. By LEWIS SERGEANT. VIII.--Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler; and the Military Supremacy of Revolutionary France. By WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS. IX.--Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots in France. By P.F. WILLERT, M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. X.--Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic. By J.L. STRACHAN-DAVIDSON, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. XI.--Abraham Lincoln, and the Downfall of American Slavery. By NOAH BROOKS. XII.--Prince Henry (of Portugal) the Navigator, and the Age of Discovery. By C.R. BEAZLEY, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. XIII.--Julian the Philosopher, and the Last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity. By ALICE GARDNER, Lecturer on Ancient History, Newnham College. XIV.--Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. By ARTHUR HASSALL, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. (For titles of volumes next to appear and for further details of this Series see prospectus at end of volume.) G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON * * * * * Heroes of the Nations Edited by Evelyn Abbot, M.A. Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE GLORIA RERUM.--OVID, IN LIVIAM, 265. THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON FAME SHALL LIVE. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR THE HERO OF PORTUGAL AND OF MODERN DISCOVERY 1394-1460 A.D. With an Account of Geographical Progress Throughout the Middle Ages As the Preparation for His Work by C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A., F.R.G.S. Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Geographical Student in the University of Oxford, 1894 Venient annis sæcula seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Tethys que novos detegat orbes, Nec sit terris ultima Thule. SENECA, _Medea_ 376/380. [Illustration: GATEWAY AT BELEM. WITH STATUE, BETWEEN THE DOORS, OF PRINCE HENRY IN ARMOUR.] G. P. Putnam's Sons New York 27 West Twenty-Third Street London 24 Bedford Street, Strand The Knickerbocker Press 1895 Copyright, 1894 by G. P. Putnam's Sons Entered at Stationers' Hall, London Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by The Knickerbocker Press, New York G. P. Putnam's Sons CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE xvii INTRODUCTION. THE GREEK AND ARABIC IDEAS OF THE WORLD, AS THE CHIEF INHERITANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE AGES IN GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. 1 CHAPTER I. EARLY CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS (CIRCA 333-867) 29 CHAPTER II. VIKINGS OR NORTHMEN (CIRCA 787-1066) 50 CHAPTER III. THE CRUSADES AND LAND TRAVEL (CIRCA 1100-1300) 76 CHAPTER IV. MARITIME EXPLORATION (CIRCA 1250-1410) 106 CHAPTER V. GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE IN CHRISTENDOM FROM THE FIRST CRUSADES (CIRCA 1100-1460) 114 CHAPTER VI. PORTUGAL TO 1400 (1095-1400) 123 CHAPTER VII. HENRY'S POSITION AND DESIGNS AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST VOYAGES, 1410-15 138 CHAPTER VIII. PRINCE HENRY AND THE CAPTURE OF CEUTA (1415) 147 CHAPTER IX. HENRY'S SETTLEMENT AT SAGRES AND FIRST DISCOVERIES (1418-28) 160 CHAPTER X. CAPE BOJADOR AND THE AZORES (1428-41) 168 CHAPTER XI. HENRY'S POLITICAL LIFE (1433-41) 179 CHAPTER XII. FROM BOJADOR TO CAPE VERDE (1441-5) 192 CHAPTER XIII. THE ARMADA OF 1445 228 CHAPTER XIV. VOYAGES OF 1446-8 240 CHAPTER XV. THE AZORES (1431-60) 250 CHAPTER XVI. THE TROUBLES OF THE REGENCY AND THE FALL OF DON PEDRO (1440-9) 257 CHAPTER XVII. CADAMOSTO (1455-6) 261 CHAPTER XVIII. VOYAGES OF DIEGO GOMEZ (1458-60) 289 CHAPTER XIX. HENRY'S LAST YEARS AND DEATH (1458-60) 299 CHAPTER XX. THE RESULTS OF PRINCE HENRY'S WORK 308 INDEX 325 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE MAIN GATE OF THE MONASTERY CHURCH AT BELEM, _Frontispiece_ Built on the site of an old sailor's chapel, existing in Prince Henry's day, and used by his men. In the niche between the two great entrance doors, is a statue of Prince Henry in armour. THE MONASTERY CHURCH AT BATALHA[1] 132 West front of church in which Prince Henry and his House lie buried. This church was founded by the Prince's father, King John, in memory of his victory over Castille at Aljubarrota. BATALHA CHURCH--PORTUGAL'S WESTMINSTER[1] 136 The aisle containing the tombs of Prince Henry and his brothers, the Infants of the House of Aviz. EFFIGIES OF KING JOHN THE GREAT AND QUEEN PHILIPPA 148 Henry's father and mother, from their tomb in the Abbey of Batalha. GATEWAY OF THE CHURCH AT THOMAR 154 The Mother Church of the Order of Christ, of which Henry was Grand-Master. HENRY IN MORNING DRESS[2] 258 The original forms the frontispiece to the Paris MS. of Azurara's _Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_. COIMBRA UNIVERSITY 298 THE RECUMBENT STATUE OF PRINCE HENRY 306 From his tomb in Batalha Church; with his escutcheons (1) as titular King of Cyprus; (2) as Knight of the Garter of England; (3) as Grand Master of the Order of Christ. ALLEGORICAL PIECE[3] 310 Supposed to represent Columbus, as St. Christopher, carrying across the ocean the Christian faith, in the form of the infant Christ. From the map of Juan de la Cosa, 1500. VASCO DA GAMA[4] 314 From a portrait in the possession of the Count of Lavradio. AFFONSO D'ALBUQUERQUE[5] 318 [Footnote 1: From a water-colour.] [Footnote 2: From Major's _Life of Henry the Navigator_.] [Footnote 3: From the Hakluyt Society's _Select Letters of Columbus_.] [Footnote 4: From the Hakluyt Society's edition of _Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama_.] [Footnote 5: From the Hakluyt Society's edition of Albuquerque's _Commentaries_.] LIST OF MAPS.[6] PAGE THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY 2 From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas THE WORLD ACCORDING TO EDRISI. _c._ 1150 24 As reconstructed by M. Reinaud from the written descriptions of the Arabic geographer. This illustrates the extremely unreal and untrue conception of the earth among Moslem students, especially those who followed the theories of Ptolomy--_e.g._, in the extension to Africa eastward, so as practically or actually to join China, making the Indian Ocean an inland sea. THE MAPPE-MONDE OF ST. SEVER 48 (B. Mus., Map room, shelf 35 [5], sheet 6). Of uncertain date, between _c._ 780-980 but probably not later than the 10th century. One of the earliest examples of Christian map-making. THE ANGLO-SAXON MAP 54 (B. Mus., Cotton mss., Tib. B.V., fol. 59). This gives us the most interesting and accurate view of the world that we get in the pre-Crusading Christian science. The square, but not conventional outline is detailed with considerable care and precision. The writing, though minute, is legible; but the Nile, which, like the Red Sea in Africa, is coloured _red_, in contrast to the ordinary _grey_ of water in this example, is made to wander about Africa from side to side, with occasional disappearances, in a thoroughly mythical fashion. This map, from a ms. of Priscian's _Peviegesis_, appears to have been executed at the end of the 10th century; it is on vellum, highly finished, and has been engraved, in outline, in Playfair's _Atlas_ (Pl. I), and more fully in the _Penny Magazine_ (July 22, 1837). In the reign of Henry II., it appears to have belonged to Battle Abbey. THE TURIN MAP OF THE 11TH CENTURY 76 (B. Mus., Map room. From Ottino's reproduction). One of the oldest and simplest of Christian Mappe-Mondes, giving a special prominence to Paradise, (with the figures of Adam, Eve, and the serpent), to the mountains and rivers of the world, and to the four winds of heaven. It is to be associated with the Spanish map of 1109, and the Mappe-Monde of St. Sever. THE SPANISH-ARABIC MAP OF 1109 84 (B. Mus., Add. mss., 11695). The original, gorgeously coloured, represents the crudest of Christian and Moslem notions of the world. Even more crude than in the Turin map and the Mappe-Monde of St. Sever, both of which offer some resemblances to this. The earth is represented as of quadrangular shape, surrounded by the ocean. At the E. is Paradise with the figures of the Temptation. A part of the S. is cut off by the Red Sea, which is straight (and coloured red), just as the straight Mediterranean, with its quadrangular islands, divides the N.W. quarter, or Europe, from the S.W. quarter, or Africa. The Ægean Sea joins the Mediterranean at a right angle, in the centre of the map. In the ocean, bordering the whole, are square islands, _e.g._, Tile (Thule), Britania, Scocia, Fu(o)rtunarum insula. The Turin map occurs in another copy of the same work--_A Commentary on the Apocalypse_. THE PSALTER MAP OF THE 13TH CENTURY 92 (B. Mus., Add. mss., 28, 681). A good illustration of the circular type of mediæval map, which is sometimes little better than a panorama of legends and monsters. Christ at the top; the dragons crushed beneath him at the bottom; Jerusalem, the navel of the earth, in the middle as a sort of bull's-eye to a target, all show a "religious" geography. The line of queer figures, on the right side, figuring the S. coast of Africa, suggests a parallel with the still more fanciful Mappe-Monde of Hereford. (For copy see Bevan and Phillott's edition of the Hereford map). THE S.W., OR AFRICAN SECTION OF THE HEREFORD MAP _c._ 1275-1300 106 (B. Mus., King's Lib., XXIII). The S. coast of Africa, as in the Psalter map, is fringed with monstrous tribes; monstrous animals fill up a good deal of the interior; half of the wheel representing Jerusalem in the middle of the world appears in the N.E. corner; and the designer's idea of the Mediterranean and Atlantic islands is specially noteworthy. The Hereford map is a specimen of the thoroughly traditional and unpractical school of mediæval geographers who based their work on books, or fashionable collections of travellers' tales--such as Pliny, Solinus, or Martianus Capella--and who are to be distinguished from the scientific school of the same period, whose best works were the Portolani, or coast-charts of the early 14th century. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MARINO SANUTO. _c._ A.D. 1306 114 (B. Mus., King's Lib., 149 F. 2 p. 282). The shape of Africa in this map is supposed by some to be valuable in the history of geographical advance, as suggesting the possibility of getting round from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean. SKETCH MAP OF DULCERT'S PORTOLANO OF 1339 116 (From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas). This illustrates the accuracy of the 14th century coast-charts, especially in the Mediterranean. THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO OF 1351 120 (From the Medicean Lib. at Florence; reproduced in B. Mus., Map room, shelf 158, 22, 23). This is the most remarkable of all the Portolani of the 14th century, as giving a view of the world, and especially Africa, which is far nearer the actual truth than could be expected. Especially its outline of S. Africa and of the bend of the Guinea coast, is surprisingly near the truth, even as a guess, in a chart made one hundred and thirty-five years before the Cape of Good Hope was first rounded. N.W. SECTION OF THE CATALAN MAP OF 1375-6 124 (B. Mus., Map room, 13, 14). This gives the British Islands, the W. coasts of Europe, N. Africa as far as Cape Boyador, and the Canaries and other islands in the Atlantic. The interior of Africa is filled with fantastic pictures of native tribes; the boat load of men off Cape Boyador in the extreme S.W. of the map probably represents the Catalan explorers of the year 1346, whose voyage in search of the "River of Gold" this map commemorates. CHART OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA, BY BARENTSZOON 128 (Engraved in copper 1595. Almost an unaltered copy of a Portolano from the 14th century. From Nordenskjöld's fac-simile atlas). This illustrates the remarkable correctness in the drawing of the Mediterranean basin and the coasts of W. Europe, reached by the Italian and Balearic coast-charts, or Portolani, in the 14th century. THE BORGIAN MAP OF 1450 290 (B. Mus., Map room, shelf 2 [6], 13, 14; copy of 1797). This map was executed just before the fall of Constantinople (1453), and gives a view of the world as imagined in the 15th century. It is very fantastic and unscientific, but remarkable among its kind for its comparative freedom from ecclesiastical influence. WESTERN SECTION OF THE MAPPE-MONDE OF FRA MAURO, 1457-9 302 (_Cf._ reproduction in B. Mus., Add. mss., 11267, and photographic copy in Map room). This map of Fra Mauro of Murano, (near Venice), is usually understood to be a sort of picture, not merely of the world as then known, but of Prince Henry's discoveries in particular on the W. African coast. From this point of view it is perhaps disappointing; the inlet of the Rio d'Ouro(?), to the S. of the Sahara, is exaggerated beyond all recognition; at the S. Cape (of Good Hope) a great island is depicted, separated from the mainland by a narrow channel--possibly Madagascar displaced. SKETCH-MAP OF FRA MAURO'S MAPPE-MONDE 304 As reduced and simplified in Lelewel's _Atlas_. The corners of the table are filled up with four small circles representing: (1) The Ptolemaic System in the Spheres. (2) The lunar influences over the tides. (3) The circles described in the terrestial globe. (4) A picture of the expulsion from Eden, with the four sacred rivers. MAP OF 1492 322 (B. Mus., Add. mss. 15760). This gives a general view of the Portuguese discoveries along the whole W. coast of Africa, and just beyond the Cape of Good Hope, which was rounded in 1486. [Footnote 6: **Missing.** Please see the Transcriber's Note at the foot of the text.] PREFACE This volume aims at giving an account, based throughout upon original sources, of the progress of geographical knowledge and enterprise in Christendom throughout the Middle Ages, down to the middle or even the end of the fifteenth century, as well as a life of Prince Henry the Navigator, who brought this movement of European Expansion within sight of its greatest successes. That is, as explained in Chapter I., it has been attempted to treat Exploration as one continuous thread in the story of Christian Europe from the time of the conversion of the Empire; and to treat the life of Prince Henry as the turning-point, the central epoch in a development of many centuries: this life, accordingly, has been linked as closely as possible with what went before and prepared for it; one third of the text, at least, has been occupied with the history of the preparation of the earlier time, and the difference between our account of the eleventh-and fifteenth-century Discovery, for instance, will be found to be chiefly one of less and greater detail. This difference depends, of course, on the prominence in the later time of a figure of extraordinary interest and force, who is the true hero in the drama of the Geographical Conquest of the Outer World that starts from Western Christendom. The interest that centres round Henry is somewhat clouded by the dearth of complete knowledge of his life; but enough remains to make something of the picture of a hero, both of science and of action. Our subject, then, has been strictly historical, but a history in which a certain life, a certain biographical centre, becomes more and more important, till from its completed achievement we get our best outlook upon the past progress of a thousand years, on this side, and upon the future progress of those generations which realised the next great victories of geographical advance. The series of maps which illustrate this account, give the same continuous view of the geographical development of Europe and Christendom down to the end of Prince Henry's age. These are, it is believed, the first English reproductions in any accessible form of several of the great charts of the Middle Ages, and taken together they will give, it is hoped, the best view of Western or Christian map-making before the time of Columbus that is to be found in any English book, outside the great historical atlases. In the same way the text of this volume, especially in the earlier chapters, tries to supply a want--which is believed to exist--of a connected account from the originals known to us, of the expansion of Europe through geographical enterprise, from the conversion of the Empire to the period of those discoveries which mark most clearly the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern World. * * * * * The chief authorities have been: For the Introductory chapter: (1) Reinaud's account of the Arabic geographers and their theories in connection with the Greek, in his edition of Abulfeda, Paris, 1848; (2) Sprenger's Massoudy, 1841; (3) Edrisi, translated by Amédée Jaubert; (4) Ibn-Batuta (abridgment), translated by S. Lee, London, 1829; (5) Abulfeda, edited and translated by Reinaud; (6) Abyrouny's _India_, specially chapters i., 10-14; xvii., 18-31; (7) texts of Strabo and Ptolemy; (8) Wappäus' _Heinrich der Seefahrer_, part 1. I. For Chapter I. (Early Christian Pilgrims): (1) _Itinera et Descriptiones Terræ Sanctæ_, vols. i. and ii., published by the Société de l'Orient, Latin, Geneva, 1877 and 1885, which give the original texts of nearly all the Palestine Pilgrims' memoirs to the death of Bernard the Wise; (2) the Publications of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society; (3) Thomas Wright's _Early Travels in Palestine_ (Bohn); (4) Avezac's _Recueil pour Servir à l'histoire de la géographie_; (5) some recent German studies on the early pilgrim records, _e.g._, Gildemeister on Antoninus of Placentia. II. For Chapter II. (The Vikings): (1) Snorro Sturleson's _Heimskringla_ or Sagas of the Norse Kings; (2) Dozy's essays; (3) the, possibly spurious, _Voyages of the Zeni_, with the Journey of Ivan Bardsen, in the Hakluyt Society's Publications. III. For Chapter III. (The Crusades and Land Travel): (1) Publication of the Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society; (2) Avezac's edition of the originals in his _Recueil pour Sevir à l'histoire de la géographie_; (3) Yule's _Cathay and the Way Thither_; (4) Yule's Marco Polo; (5) Benjamin of Tudela and others in Wright's _Early Travels in Palestine_; (6) Yule's _Friar Jordanus_; (7) Sir John Mandeville's _Travels_. IV. For Chapter IV. (Maritime Exploration): (1) The Marino Sanuto Map of 1306; (2) the Laurentian Portolano of 1351; (3) The Catalan Map of 1375-6; (4) scattered notices collected in early chapters of R.H. Major's _Prince Henry the Navigator_; (5) Béthencourt's _Conquest of the Canaries_ (Hakluyt Society, ed., Major); (6) Wappäus' _Heinrich der Seefahrer_, part 2. V. For Chapter V. (Geographical Science): (1) Neckam's _De Naturis Rerum_; (2) the seven chief Mappe-Mondes of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries; (3) the leading Portolani; (4) scattered notices, _e.g._, from Guyot de Provins' "Bible," Brunetto Latini, Beccadelli of Palermo, collected in early chapters of Major's _Henry the Navigator_; (5) Wauwerman's _Henri le Navigateur_. VI. For Chapter VI. (Portugal to 1400): (1) _The Chronicle of Don John I._; (2) Oliveiro Martins' _Sons of Don John I._; (3) A. Herculano's _History of Portugal_; (4) Osbernus de Expugnatione Lixbonensi. VII. For Chapter VII. (Henry's position in 1415): Azurara's _Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_. VIII. For Chapter VIII. (Ceuta): (1) Azurara's _Chronicle of the Conquest of Ceuta_; (2) Azurara's _Discovery of Guinea_. IX. For Chapter IX. (Henry's Settlement at Sagres): (1) Azurara's _Guinea_; (2) De Barro's _Asia_; (3) Wauwerman's _Henri le Navigateur et l'École Portugaise de Sagres_. X. For Chapter X. (Cape Bojador and the Azores): (1) Azurara's _Guinea_; (2) O. Martins' _Sons of Don John I._ XI. For Chapter XI. (Henry's Political Life, 1433-41): (1) Pina's _Chronicle of King Edward_; (2) O. Martins' _Sons of Don John I._; (3) Azurara's _Chronicle of John I._; (4) Pina's _Chronicle of Affonso V._ XII. For Chapter XII. (From Boyador to Cape Verde).--(1) Azurara's _Guinea_; (2) De Barros; (3) Pina's _Chronicle of Affonso V._; (4) O. Martins' _Sons of Don John I._ For Chapters XIII. to the end.--(1) Azurara's _Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_; (2) Narratives of Cadamosto and Diego Gomez; (3) Pina's _Chronicle of Affonso V._; (4) Prince Henry's Charters. The three modern lives of Prince Henry which I have chiefly consulted are: R.H. Major's _Henry the Navigator_, Wappäus' _Heinrich der Seeffahrer_, and De Weer's _Prinz Heinrich_, with O. Martins' _Lives of the Infants of the House of Aviz_ in his _Sons of Don John I._ The maps and illustrations have been planned in a regular series. I. As to the former, they are meant to show in an historical succession the course of geographical advance in Christendom down to the death of Prince Henry (1460). Setting aside the Ptolemy, which represents the knowledge of the world at its height in the pre-Christian civilisation, and the Edrisi which represents the Arabic followers of Ptolemy, whose influence upon early Christian geography was very marked, all the maps reproduced belong to the science of the Christian ages and countries. The two Mappe-mondes above referred to are both placed in the introductory chapter, and are treated only as the most important examples of the science which the Græco-Roman Empire bequeathed to Christendom, but which between the seventh and thirteenth centuries was chiefly worked upon by the Arabs. Among early Christian maps, that of St. Sever, possibly of the eighth century, the Anglo-Saxon map of the tenth century, the Turin Map of the eleventh, and the Spanish map of the twelfth (1109), represent very crude and simple types of sketches of the world, in which within a square or oblong surrounded by the ocean a few prominent features only, such as the main divisions of countries, are attempted. The Anglo-Saxon example, though greatly superior to the others given here, essentially belongs to this kind of work, where some little truth is preserved by a happy ignorance of the travellers' tales that came into fashion later, but where there is only the vaguest and most general knowledge of geographical facts. On the other hand, in the next group, to which the Psalter map is allied, and in which the Hereford map is our best example, mythical learning--drawn from books like Pliny, Solinus, St. Isidore, and Martianus Capella, which collected stories of beasts and monsters, stones and men, divine, human, and natural marvels on the principle _Credo quia impossible_--has overpowered every other consideration, and a map of the world becomes a great picture-book of curious objects, in which the very central and primary interest of geography is lost. But by the side of and almost at the same time as these specimens of geographical mythology, geographical science had taken a new start in the coast charts or portolani of Balearic and Italian seamen, some specimens of which form our next set of maps. Dulcert's portolano of 1339 and the Laurentian of 1351 are two of the best examples of this kind of work, which gave us our first really accurate map of any part of the globe, but which for some time was entirely confined to coast drawing, and was meant to supply the practical wants of captains, pilots, and seamen. The Catalan atlas of 1375-6 shows the portolano type extended to a real Mappa Mundi; the elaborate carefulness and sumptuousness of this example prepares us for the still higher work of Andrea Bianco and of Benincasa in the fifteenth century. As the Laurentian portolano of 1351 commemorates the voyage of 1341 and marks its discoveries in the Atlantic islands, so the Catalan map of 1375-6 commemorates the Catalan voyage of 1346, and gives the best and most up-to-date picture of the N.W. African coast as it was known before Prince Henry's discoveries. Last of these groups of maps is that of examples from Henry's own age, such as the Fra Mauro map of 1459 or the maps of Andrea Bianco and Benincasa (_e.g._, 1436, 1448, 1468), among which the first-named is the only one we have been able to give here. The Borgian map of 1450 is given as an extraordinary specimen of what could be done as late as 1450, not as an example of geographical progress; and the map of 1492, recording Portuguese discoveries down to the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope, is added to illustrate the advance of explorers in the years closely following Henry's death, as it was realised at the time. The maps have in most cases been set from the modern standpoint, but, as will readily be seen by the position of the names, the normal mediæval setting was quite different, with the S. or E. at the top. II. The illustrations aim at giving portraits or pictures of the chief persons and places connected with the life of Prince Henry. There are three of the Prince himself; one from the Paris MS. of Azurara, one from the gateway of the great convent church of Belem, one from the recumbent statue over his tomb at Batalha. Two others give: (1) The whole group of the royal tombs of Henry's house,--of his father, mother, and brothers in the aisle at Batalha, and (2) the recumbent statues of his father and mother, John and Philippa, in detail; the exterior and general effect of the same church--Portugal's Westminster, and the mausoleum of the Navigator's own family of Aviz--comes next, in a view of this greatest of Portuguese shrines. Coimbra University, with which as rector or chancellor or patron Prince Henry was so closely connected, for which he once provided house room, and in which his benefactions earned him the title of "Protector of the studies of Portugal" is given to illustrate his life as a student and a man of science; the mother church of the order of Christ at Thomar may remind us of another side of his life--as a military monk, grand master of an order of religious chivalry which at least professed to bind its members to a single life, and which under his lead took an active part in the exploration and settlement of the African coasts and the Atlantic islands. The portraits of Columbus, Da Gama, and Albuquerque, which conclude this set of illustrations, are given as portraits of three of Prince Henry's more or less conscious disciples and followers, of three men who did most to realise his schemes. The first of these, who owed to Portuguese advance towards the south the suggestion of corresponding success in the west, and who found America by the western route to India,--as Henry had planned nearly a century before to round Africa and reach Malabar by the eastern and southern way,--was the nearest of the Prince's successful imitators in time, the greatest in achievement; he was not a mere follower of the Portuguese initiative, for he struck out a new line or at least a neglected one, made the greatest of all geographical additions to human knowledge, and took the most daring plunge into the unknown that has ever been taken--but Columbus, beside his independent position and interest, was certainly on one side a disciple of Henry the Navigator, and drew much of his inspiration from the impulse that the Prince had started. Da Gama, the first who sailed direct from Lisbon to India round Africa, and Albuquerque, the maker, if not the founder, of the Portuguese empire in the East, were simply the realisers of the vast ambitions that take their start from the work and life of Prince Henry, and he has a right to claim them as two leading champions of his plans and policy. In many points Albuquerque, like Columbus, is more than a follower; but in the main outline of his achievement he follows upon the work of other men, and, among these men, of none so much as the Hero of Portugal and of modern discovery. Lastly. I have to thank many friends generally for their constant kindness and readiness to assist in any way, and in particular several for the most generous and valuable help in certain parts. Mr. T.A. Archer, besides the benefit of his suggestions throughout, has given special aid in Chapters I., III., V., and the Introductory Chapter, especially where anything is said of the connection of geographical progress with the Crusades.[7] [Footnote 7: Compare Archer and Kingsford, _The Crusades_, in the _Stories of the Nations_.] Mr. F. York Powell has revised Chapter II. on the Vikings, and Professor Margoliouth has done the same for the Introductory Chapter on Greek and Arabic geography; Mr. Coote has not only given me every help in the map room of the British Museum, but has read the proofs of Chapter V. Mr. H. Yule-Oldham in Chapter XVIII. on the Voyage of Cadamosto, and Mr. Prestage in Chapters VIII. and IX. on Prince Henry's capture of Ceuta and settlement at Sagres, have been most kind in offering suggestions. For several hints useful in Chapter I.--the early Christian pilgrims--I have also to thank Professor Sanday; and for revision of a great part of the proof-sheets of the entire book, Mr. G.N. Richardson and the Rev. W.H. Hutton. As to the illustrations, of portraits and monuments, etc., I am especially obliged to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (Dr. Boyd), who has allowed his water-colour paintings of Portuguese subjects to be reproduced; and to the Rev. R. Livingstone of Pembroke, and Sir John Hawkins of Oriel, for their loan of photographs. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR. The Lusitanian Prince who, heaven-inspired, To love of useful glory roused mankind, And in unbounded commerce mixed the world. THOMSON: _Seasons, Summer, 1010-2._ INTRODUCTION. THE GREEK AND ARABIC IDEAS OF THE WORLD, AS THE CHIEF INHERITANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE AGES IN GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. Arabic science constitutes one of the main links between the older learned world of the Greeks and Latins and the Europe of Henry the Navigator and of the Renaissance. In geography it adopted in the main the results of Ptolemy and Strabo; and many of the Moslem travellers and writers gained some additional hints from Indian, Persian, and Chinese knowledge; but, however much of fact they added to Greek cartography, they did not venture to correct its postulates. And what were these postulates? In part, they were the assumptions of modern draughtsmen, but in some important details they differed. And first, as to agreement. Three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa, an encircling ocean, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Caspian, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, the South Asiatic, and North and West European coasts were indicated with more or less precision in the science of the Antonines and even of Hannibal's age. Similarly, the Nile and Danube, Euphrates and Tigris, Indus and Ganges, Jaxartes and Oxus, Rhine and Ebro, Don and Volga, with the chief mountain ranges of Europe and Western Asia, find themselves pretty much in their right places in Strabo's description, and are still better placed in the great chart of Ptolemy. The countries and nations from China to Spain are arranged in the order of modern knowledge. But the differences were fundamental also. Never was there a clearer outrunning of knowledge by theory, science by conjecture, than in Ptolemy's scheme of the world (_c._ A.D. 130). His chief predecessors, Eratosthenes and Strabo, had left much blank space in their charts, and had made many mistakes in detail, but they had caught the main features of the Old World with fair accuracy. Ptolemy, in trying to fill up what he did not know from his inner consciousness, evolved a parody of those features. His map, from its intricate falsehood, backed as it was by the greatest name in geographical science, paralysed all real enlargement of knowledge till men began to question, not only his facts, but his theories. And as all modern science, in fact, followed the progress of world-knowledge, or "geography," we may see how important it was for this revolution to take place, for Ptolemy to be dethroned. [Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PTOLEMY. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] The Arabs, commanding most of the centres of ancient learning (Ptolemy's own Alexandria above all), riveted the pseudo-science of their predecessors on the learned world, along with the genuine knowledge which they handed down from the Greeks. In many details they corrected and amplified the Greek results. But most of their geographical theories were mere reproductions of Ptolemy's, and to his mistakes they added wilder though less important confusions or inventions of their own. The result of all this, by the tenth century A.D., was a geography, based not on knowledge, but on ideas of symmetry. It was a scheme fit for the _Arabian Nights_. And how did Ptolemy lend himself to this? His chief mistakes were only two;--but they were mistakes from which at any rate Strabo and most of the Greek geographers are free. He made the Indian Ocean an inland sea, and he filled up the Southern Hemisphere with Africa, or the unknown Antarctic land in which he extended Africa.[8] The Dark Continent, in his map, ran out on the one side to the south-east of China, and on the other to the indefinite west, though there was here no hint of America or an Atlantic continent. It was a triumph of learned imagination over humdrum research. Science under Hadrian was ambitious to have its world settled and known; it was not yet settled or fully known; and so a great student constructed a _mélange_ of fact and fancy mainly based on a guess-work of imaginary astronomical reckonings. On the far east, Ptolemy joined China and Africa; and on this imaginary western coast, fronting Malacca and Further India, he placed various gratuitous towns and rivers. Coming to smaller matters, he cut away the whole of the Indian peninsula proper, though preserving the Further or "Golden" Chersonesus of the Malays, and he enlarged Taprobane, or Ceylon, to double the size of Asia Minor. Thus the southern coast of Asia from Arabia to the Ganges ran almost due east, with a strait of sea coming through the modern Carnatic, between the continent and the Great Spice Island, which included most of the Deccan. The Persian Gulf, much greater on this map than the Black Sea, was made equal in length and breadth; the shape of the Caspian was, so to say, turned inside out and its length given as from east to west, instead of from north to south; while the coast line, even of the familiar Euxine, Ægean, and Southern Mediterranean, was anything but true. Scandinavia was an island smaller than Ireland; Scotland represented a great eastern bend of Britain, with the Shetlands and Färoes (Thule) lying a short distance to the north, but on the left-hand side of the great island. The Sea of Azov, hardly inferior to the Euxine, stretched north half way across Russia. All Central Africa and the great Southern or Antarctic continent was described as pathless desert--"a land uninhabitable from the heat"; and the sources of the Nile were accounted for by the marshes and Mountains of the Moon. [Footnote 8: Rejecting the old idea of an encircling ocean as the girdle or limit of the known world, and replacing it with a new fancy of unbounded continent (on all sides except the north-west)--a fancy which the vast extension of Roman Dominion under the Empire may have fostered.] Thus all the problems of ancient geography were explained: where Ptolemy's knowledge failed him altogether, no Western of that time had ever been, or was likely to go. The whole realised and unrealised world was described with such clearness and consistency, men thought, that what was lacking in Aristotle was now supplied. Yet it is worth while observing how, centuries before Ptolemy, in the ages nearer to Aristotle himself, the geography of Eratosthenes and Strabo, by a more balanced use of knowledge and by a greater restraint of fancy, had composed a far more reliable chart.[9] [Footnote 9: In using the expressions "Chart," or "Map" of Strabo's description (_c._ A.D. 20), it is not meant to imply that Strabo himself left more than a written description from which a plan was afterwards prepared: "The world according to Strabo." The same applies to Eratosthenes (_c._ B.C. 200) and all pre-Ptolemaic Greek geographers. Ptolemy's Atlas, probably, and the Peutinger Table, more certainly, are maps really drawn by ancient designers; but these are the only ones that have survived from a much larger number.] This earlier and discredited map avoided all the more serious perversions of Ptolemy. Africa was cut off at the limit of actual knowledge, about Cape Non on the west and Cape Guardafui on the east; and the "Cinnamon-bearing Coast," between these points, was fringed by the Mountains of Æthiopia, where the Nile rose. This was the theory which revived on the decline of the Ptolemaic, and which encouraged the Portuguese sailors with hopes of a quick approach to India round Africa, as the great eastern bend of the Guinea coast seemed to suggest. Further, on this pre-Ptolemaic map the Southern Ocean was left untouched by a supposed Southern Continent, and except for an undue shrinkage of the Old World in general as an island in the midst of the vast surrounding ocean, a reliable description of Western Asia and Central Europe and North Africa was in the hands of the learned world two hundred years before Christ. It is true that Strabo's China is cramped and cut short; that his Ceylon (Taprobane) is even larger than Ptolemy's; that Ireland (Ierne) appears to the _north_ of Britain; and that the Caspian joins the North Sea by a long and narrow channel; but the true shape of India, of the Persian Gulf and the Euxine, of the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean, is marked rightly enough in general outline. This earlier chart has not the elaborate completeness of Ptolemy's, but it is free from his enormous errors, and it has all the advantage of science, however imperfect, over brilliant guessing. Of course, even in Ptolemy, this guess-work pure and simple only comes in at intervals and does not so much affect the central and, for his day, far more important tracts of the Old World, but we have yet to see how, in the mediæval period and under Arabic imagination, all geography seemed likely to become an exercise of fancy. The chief Greek descriptions of the world, we must clearly remember, were before the mediæval workers, Christian and Moslem, from the first; these men took their choice, and the point is that they, and specially the Arabs, chose with rare exceptions the last of these, the Ptolemaic system, because it was the more ambitious, symmetrical, and pretty. Let us trace for a moment the gradual development of this geographical mythology. Starting with the notion of the world as a disc, or a ball, the centre of the universe, round which moved six celestial circles, of the Meridian, the Equator, the Ecliptic, the two Tropics, and the Horizon, the Arab philosophers on the side of the earth's surface worked out a doctrine of a Cupola or Summit of the world, and on the side of the heavens a pseudo-science of the Anoua or Settings of the Constellations, connected with the twelve Pillars of the Zodiac and the twenty-eight Mansions of the Moon. With Arabic astrology we are not here concerned; it is only worth noting in this connection as the possible source of early Christian knowledge of the Southern Cross and other stars famous in the story of exploration, such as Dante shows in the first canto of his _Purgatorio_. But the geographical doctrines of Islam, compounded from the Hebrew Pentateuch and the theoretical parts of Ptolemy, had a more immediate and reactionary effect on knowledge. The symmetrical Greek divisions of land into seven zones or climates; and of the world's surface,[10] into three parts water and one part _terra firma_; the Indian fourfold arrangement of "Romeland" and the East; the similar fourfold Chinese partition of China, India, Persia, and Tartary: all these reappeared confusedly in Arabic geography. From India and the Sanscrit "Lanka," they seem to have got their first start on the myth of Odjein, Aryn, or Arim, "the World's Summit"; from Ptolemy the sacred number of 360 degrees of longitude was certainly derived, beautifully corresponding to the days of the year, and neatly divided into 180 of land or habitable earth and 180 of sea, or unharvested desert. With the seven climates they made correspond the great Empires of the world--chief among which they reckoned the Caliphate (or Bagdad), China, Rome, Turkestan, and India. [Footnote 10: In which the habitable quarter of the world, situated mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, was just about twice as long as it was broad.] The sacred city of Odjein had been the centre of most of the earlier Oriental systems; in the Arabic form of Arim ("The Cupola of the Earth"), it became the fixed point round which circled mediæval theories of the world's shape. "Somewhere in the Indian Ocean between Comorin and Madagascar," became the compromise when the mountain could not be found off any of the known coast-lines; it was mixed up with notions of the Roc, and the Moon Mountains in Africa, of the Magnet Island and of the Eastern Kingdom made out of one vast pearl; and even in Roger Bacon it serves as an algebraic sign for a mathematical centre of the world. The enlargement of knowledge, though forcing upon Arabic science a conviction of Ptolemy's mistake in over-extending the limits of the world known to him, only led to the invention of a scholastic distinction between the real and the traditional East and West, while the confusion was made perfect by the travestied history always so popular among Orientals. The "Gades of Alexander and Hercules," the farthest points east and west, were named after the mythical conquests of the real Iskander and the mythical hero of Greeks and Phoenicians. Arim in the middle, with the pillars of Hercules and Alexander, and the north and south poles at equal distance from it--the centre and the four corners of the world as neatly fixed as geometry could define--this was the map, first of the Arabs, and then of their Christian scholars. To form any idea of the complete spell thus cast over thought both in Islam and Christendom, we may look at the words of European scholars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, living far from Islam, long after its intellectual glory had begun to decay, and at a time when Christian scholastic philosophy had reached an independent position. Gerard of Cremona and Adelard of Bath (the translator of the great Arabic geographer, Mohammed Al-Kharizmy) in the twelfth century, Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus in the later thirteenth, are all as clear about their geographical postulates as about their theological or ethical rules. And what concerns us here is that they exactly reflect the mind of the Arabic science or pseudo-science of the time just preceding, so that their words may represent to us the state of Mohammedan thought between the eighth and twelfth centuries, between the writers at the Court of Caliph Almamoun (813-833) and Edrisi at the Court of King Roger of Sicily (1150). (1.) _Adelard_, summarising Mohammed Al-Kharizmy with the results of his Paris education, tells us of the Arabic "Examination of planets and of time, starting from the centre of the world, called _Arim_, from which place to the four ends of the earth the distance is equal, viz., ninety degrees, answering to the fourth part of the world's circumference. It is tedious and unending to attempt to place all the countries of the world and to fix all the marks of time. So the meridian is taken as the measure of the latter and _Arim_ of the former, and from this starting-point it is not hard to fix other countries." "Arim," he concludes, "is under the equator, at the point where there is no latitude," and he plainly implies that there were then existing among the Arabs tables calculating all the chief places of every country from the meridian of _Arim_. (2.) _Gerard_ of Cremona, who, though for some time a resident at Toledo, is essentially an Italian, tells us about the "Middle of the World," from which longitudes were calculated, "called Arim," and "said to be in India," whose longitude from west to east or from east to west is ninety degrees. In his _Theory of the Planets_ Gerard tells us still more wonderful things. Arim was a geographical centre known and used by Hermes Trismegistus and by Ptolemy, as well as by the great Arab geographers; Alexander of Macedon marched just as far to the east of Arim as Hercules to the west; both reached the encircling ocean, and accordingly "Arim is equidistant from both the Gades, 90 degrees; likewise from each pole, north and south, the same, 90 degrees." This all recurs in the tables of Alphonso the Wise of Castille about A.D. 1260, and two of the greatest of mediæval thinkers, Albert and Roger Bacon, reproduced the essential points of this doctrine, its false symmetry, and its balance of the true and the traditional, with variations of their own. (3.) _Albert the Great_, Albertus Magnus, second only to Aquinas among the Continental Schoolmen, in his _View of Astronomy_, repeats Adelard upon the question of Arim, "where there is no latitude," while (4) _Roger Bacon_ discusses not only the true and the traditional East and West, but even a twofold Arim, one "under the solstice, the other under the equinoctial zone." Arim he finds not to be in the centre of the real world, but only of the traditional. In another passage of the _Opus Majus_, Bacon, our first English worker in the exact sciences, allows the world-summit not to be exactly 90 degrees from the east, although so placed by mathematicians. Yet there is no contradiction, he urges, because the men of theory are "speaking of the habitable world known to them, according to the true understanding of latitude and longitude," and this "true understanding" is "not as great as has been realised in travel by Pliny and others." "The longitude of the habitable world is more than half of the whole circuit." This, reproduced in the _Imago Mundi_ of Cardinal Peter Ailly (1410), fell into the hands of Columbus and helped to fix his doctrines of the shape of the world ("in the form of a pear") of the terrestrial paradise, and of the earth's circumference,--so enormously contracted as practically to abolish the Pacific.[11] [Footnote 11: In Columbus' letters to Queen Isabella in 1498, we catch, as it were, the last echo of the Arabic _mélange_ of Moses and Greek geography, along with the results of Roger Bacon's corrections of Ptolemy. "The Old Hemisphere," he writes "which has for its centre the isle of Arim, is spherical, but the other (new) Hemisphere has the form of the lower half of a pear. Just one hundred leagues west of the Azores the earth rises at the Equator and the temperature grows keener. The summit is over against the mouth of the Orinoco."] To return to the Arabs: We have seen how they not merely followed Greek theories, which their own experience as conquerors in the Further East went to discredit, but, in the great outlines of geography, added to earlier errors, put prejudice in the place of knowledge, and handed on to Christendom a half-fanciful map of the world. It only remains for us to illustrate their leading fault, of a too vivid fancy, with a few details on minor points. (1.) Ptolemy's "Habitable Quarter" of the world, amounting to just half the longitude of the globe, was literally accepted by the Moslem world, as it accepted the Pentateuch from the moment when it began its study of science at the Court of Almamoun (813-833). But, as the conquests of the Caliphs disclosed districts in the east far beyond Ptolemy's limits, it was necessary, in case of keeping his data for the whole, to compress the part which alone was to be found fully described in his chart: "On the west, unhappily, there were no countries newly discovered to compensate for this abridgment." By Massoudy's time,--by the tenth century,--fact and theory were thus hopelessly at variance. (2.) On the shape of Africa, the mass of Arabic opinion confirmed Ptolemy, but among the more enlightened there is traceable from Massoudy's time a tendency either to react towards Strabo's partly agnostic position, or to invent some new theory rather more in harmony with the known facts. That is, either their later map-makers cut off Africa at Cape Non or Bojador and Cape Guardafui, and gave away the rest to the "Green Sea of Darkness," or, like Massoudy, they sketched a great Southern Continent, divided from Africa by a narrow channel, which connected the Western Ocean with the Sea of Habasch--of Abyssinia or India. In either case Africa was left an island. (3.) The words "Gog and Magog" from Jeremiah, describing the nomades of Central Asia, appear in the Koran as Yadjoudj and Madjoudj. The complete story, in the tenth century and in Edrisi's day, connects them with Alexander the Great, who is also found in the Koran as Doul-Carnain, and with the Wall of China. "When the Conqueror," said the Arabs, "reached the place near where the sun rose, he was implored to build a wall to shut off the marauders of Yadjoudj and Madjoudj from the rich countries of the South." So he built a rampart of iron across the pass by which alone Touran joined Iran, and henceforth Turks and Tartars were kept outside. Till the Arabs reached the Caucasus, they generally supposed this to answer to Alexander's wall; when facts dispelled this theory, the unknown Ural or Altai Mountains served instead; finally, as the Moslems became masters of Central Asia, the Wall of China, beyond the Gobi desert, alone satisfied the conditions of shadowy but historic grandeur, beyond all practical danger of verification. (4.) In striking contrast with the steady advance of Arabic exploration and trade in the Eastern Sea is the Moslem horror of the Western Ocean beyond Europe and Africa, the "Green Sea of Darkness" or the Atlantic. And what we have to note is that they imparted much of this paralysing cowardice to the Christian nations. Only the Northmen of Scandinavia, living a life apart, and forced to make their way over the wild North Sea, were untouched by this southern superstition, and ventured across the ocean by the Färoes, Iceland, and Greenland, to the coast of Labrador. The doctors of the Koran indeed thought that a man mad enough to embark for the unknown, even on a coasting voyage, should be deprived of civil rights. Ibn Said goes further, and says no one has ever done this: "whirlpools always destroy any adventurer." As late as the generation immediately before Henry the Navigator, about A.D. 1390, another light of Moslem science declared the Atlantic to be "boundless, so that ships dare not venture out of sight of land, for even if the sailors knew the direction of the winds, they would not know whither those winds would carry them, and as there is no inhabited country beyond, they would run a risk of being lost in mist, fog, and vapour. The limit of the West is the Atlantic Ocean." This was the final judgment of the Arabic race and its subject allies upon the western limits of the world, and in two ways they helped to fix this belief, derived from the timid coasting-traders of the Roman Empire on Greek and Latin Christendom. First, the Spanish Caliphate cut off all access to the Western Sea beyond the Bay of Biscay, from the eighth to the twelfth centuries. Not till the capture of Lisbon in 1147, could Christian enterprise on this side gain any basis, or starting-point. Not till the conquest of the Algarve in the extreme south-west of the peninsula, at the end of the twelfth century, was this enterprise free to develop itself. Secondly, in the darkest ages of Christian depression, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, the tenth centuries, when only the brief age of Charlemagne offered any chance of an independent and progressive Catholic Empire in the west, the Arabs became recognised along with the Byzantines as the main successors of Greek culture. The science, the metaphysic, the abstract ideas of these centuries came into Germany, France, and Italy from Cordova and from Bagdad, as much as from Byzantium. And on questions like the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean, or the shape of Africa,--where Islam had all the field to itself, and there was no positive and earlier discovery which might contradict a natural reluctance to test tradition by experiment--Christendom accepted the Arabic verdict with deference. In the same way, on still more difficult points, such as the theory of a canal from the Caspian to the Black Sea, or from the Caspian to the Arctic circle, or from the Black Sea to the Baltic, Paris and Rome and Bologna and Oxford accepted the Arabic descriptions. It has been necessary for us to attend to the defects of Arabic geography, in order to understand how in the long Saracen control of the world's trade routes and of geographical tradition, science and seamanship were so little advanced. Between Ptolemy and Henry of Portugal, between the second and the fifteenth centuries, the only great extension of men's knowledge of the world was: (1) in the extreme north, where the semi-Christian, semi-Pagan Vikings reached perhaps as far as the present site of New York and founded, on another side, the Mediæval Kingdom of Russia; (2) on the south-east coast of Africa, from Cape Guardafui to Madagascar, which was opened up by the trading interest of the Emosaid family (800-1300); (3) in the far east, in Central and Further Asia, by the discoveries of Marco Polo and the Friar preachers following on the tracks of the earlier Moslem travellers. The first of these was a Northern secret, soon forgotten, or an abortive development, cut short by the Tartars; the second was an Arabic secret, jealously guarded as a commercial right; the third alone added much direct new knowledge to the main part of the civilised world. But throughout their period of commercial rule from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, the Arabs took a keen interest in land traffic, conquest, and exploration. They were of small account at sea; it took them some time to turn to their own purposes Hippalus' discovery (in the second century A.D.) of the monsoon in the Indian Ocean; but, on land, Moslem travellers and writers--generally following in the wake of their armies, but sometimes pressing on ahead of them--did not a little to enlarge the horizon of the Mohammedan world, though it was not till Marco Polo and the Franciscan missionaries of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, that Christian Europe shared in this gain. As the early Caliphs conquered, they made surveys of their new dominions. Thus after Tarik and Mousa had overrun Spain, Walid at Damascus required from them an account of the land and its resources. The universal obligation of the Mecca pilgrimage compelled every Moslem to travel once in his life; and many an Arab, after the Caliphate was settled in power from the Oxus to the Pyrenees, journeyed to and fro with the joy of a master going over vast estates, shewing his dreaded turban to subjects of every nation. This, however, was not geographical science, or even pseudo-science. Before Mohammed the Arabs had possessed some knowledge of the stars and used it for astrology; but it was at the Court of Almamoun (813-833) that their inquiring spirits first set themselves to answer the great question of geography--Where? Through the ninth and tenth centuries there arose a succession of travellers and thinkers who, with all their wild dreamings, preserved the best results of Greek maps and would have made much greater advances but for their helplessness in original work. As they could not recast Aristotle in philosophy, so they could not with all their new knowledge of the Further East recast the geography of Ptolemy and Strabo. A few great ages, the age for instance of Almamoun in Bagdad (A.D. 830), of Mahmoud in Ghazneh (A.D. 1000), of Abderrahman III. in Cordova (A.D. 950), give us the history of Arabic geography. Beginning in the latter years of the eighth century, Moslem science was reformed and organised, in the New Empire, by the patronage of the Caliphs of the ninth. Itineraries of victorious generals, plans and tables prepared by governors of provinces, and a freshly acquired knowledge of Greek and Indian and Persian thought, made up the subject-matter of study. The barbarism of the first believers was passing away, and Mohammed's words were recalled: "Seek knowledge, even in China." By the end of the eighth century Ptolemy's Geography and the now lost work of Marinus of Tyre had already been translated. Almamoun drew to his Court all the chief "mathematicians" or philosophers of Islam, such as Mohammed Al-Kharizmy, Alfergany, and Solyman the merchant. Further he built two observatories, one at Bagdad, one at Damascus, and procured a chart fixing the latitude and longitude of every place known to him or his savants. Al-Kharizmy interpolated the new Arabic Ptolemy with additions from the Sanscrit, and made some use of Indian trigonometry. Alfergany wrote the first Arab treatise on the Astrolabe and adopted the Greek division of the seven Climates to the new learning. Solyman, at the time of closest intercourse between China, India, and the Caliphate, travelled in every country of the Further East, sailed in the "Sea of Pitchy Darkness" on the east coast of Asia, and by his voyages became the prototype of Sinbad the Sailor. The impulse given by Almamoun did not die with him. About 850 Alkendy made a fresh version of Ptolemy; as early as 840 the Caliph Vatek-Billah sent to explore the countries of Central Asia, and his results have been preserved by Edrisi. A few years later (_c._ 890) Ibn-Khordadbeh, "Son of the Magi," described the principal trade-routes, the Indian by the Red Sea from Djeddah to Scinde, the Russian by the Volga and North Caspian, the Persian by way of Balkh to China. It was by this last that some have thought the envoys of the English King Alfred went in 883, till they turned south to seek India and the Christians of San Thomé. The early scientific movement in Islam reached its height in Albateny and Massoudy at the beginning of the tenth century. The former determined, more exactly than before, various problems of astronomical geography.[12] The latter visited every country from Further India to Spain;--even China and Madagascar seem to have been within the compass of his later travels; and his voyages in the Indian Ocean bring us to the real Sinbad Saga of the tenth century. [Footnote 12: "The Obliquity of the Ecliptic, the Eccentricity of the Sun, the Precession of the Equinoxes."] Sinbad, as his story appears in the _Arabian Nights_, has been traced to an original in the Indian tales of _The Seven Sages_, in the voyages of the age of Chosroes Nushirvan or of Haroun-Al-Rashid, but the tale appears to be an Arabic original, the real account, with a little more of mystery and exaggeration than usual, of the ninth-and tenth-century travellers, from Solyman to Massoudy, reproduced in form of a series of novels.[13] [Footnote 13: "With the Sinbad story is connected the historical extension of the Arab settlements in the East African coast through the enterprise of the Emosaid family."] With Massoudy begins also the formal discussion of geographical problems affecting Islam. Was the Caspian a land-locked sea? Did it connect with the Euxine? Did either or both of these join the Arctic Ocean? Was Africa an island? If so, was there also an unknown Southern Continent? What was the shape of South-Eastern Asia? Was Ptolemy's longitude to be wholly accepted, and if not, how was it to be bettered? By a use of Strabo and of Albateny rather than of Ptolemy, Massoudy arrived at fairly accurate and very plausible results. His chief novelties were the long river channel from the Sea of Azov to the North Sea, and the strait between South Africa and the shadowy Southern Continent. On his scheme the Indian Ocean, or Sea of Habasch, contains most of the water surface of the world, and the Sea of Aral appears for the first time in Moslem geography. Lastly his account of the Arab coasting voyages from the Persian Gulf to Socotra and Madagascar proves, implicitly, that as yet there was no use of the compass. Massoudy cut down the girth of the world even more than Ptolemy. The latter had left an ocean to the west of Africa: the former made the Canaries or Fortunate Islands, the limit of the known Western world, abut upon India, the limit of the Eastern. The first age of Arabic geography ends with Massoudy, its greatest name, in the middle of the tenth century. The second age is summed up in the work of the Eastern sage Albyrouny and of Edrisi, the Arabic Ptolemy (A.D. 1099-1154), who found a home at the Christian Court of Roger of Sicily. In the far East and West alike, in Spain and Morocco, in Khorassan and India, Moslem science was now driven to take refuge among strangers on the decay of the Caliphates of Bagdad and Cordova. The Ghaznevides Mahmoud and Massoud in the first half of the eleventh century, attracted to their Court not only Firdusi and Avicenna, but Albyrouny, whose "Canon" became a text-book of Mohammedan science, and who, for the range of his knowledge and the trained subtlety of his mind, stands without a rival for his time.[14] The Spanish school, as resulting directly in Edrisi, half Moslem, half Christian, like his teachers, is of still more interest. One of its first traces may be found in the Latin translation of the Arab _Almanack_ made by Bishop Harib of Cordova in 961. It was dedicated and presented to Caliph Hakem--one of our clearest proofs of the conscious interworking of Catholic and Mahometan philosophy in the age of Pope Sylvester II. and of our own St. Dunstan. A century later, on the recapture of Toledo by Alfonso VI. (1084), an observatory was built, served by Jews and Moslems, who had been steadily producing, through the whole of the eleventh century, astronomical and geographical tables and dictionaries. A whole tribe of commentators on place-names, on the climates and constellations, and on geographical instruments was at work in this last age of the Spanish Caliphate, and their results are brought together by Abou Hamid of Granada and by Edrisi. [Footnote 14: The school of Persian mathematicians who produced the maps of Alestakliry-Ibn-Hankal, the book of latitudes and longitudes, ascribed by Abulfeda to Alfaraby the Turk, was the immediate descendant of Albyrouny.] Born at Ceuta in 1099, this great geographer travelled through Spain, France, the Western Mediterranean, and North Africa before settling at the Norman Court of Palermo. Roger, the most civilised prince in Christendom, the final product of the great race of Robert Guiscard and William the Conqueror, valued Edrisi at his proper worth, refused to part with him, and employed men in every part of the world to collect materials for his study. Thus the Moor gained, not only for the Moslem world but for Southern Europe as well, an approximate knowledge even of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the coasts of the White Sea. His work, dedicated to Roger and called after him, _Al-Rojary_, was rewarded with a peerage, and it was as a Sicilian Count that he finished his Celestial Sphere and Terrestrial Disc of silver, on which "was inscribed all the circuit of the known world and all the rivers thereof." Each of his great Arabic predecessors, along with Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, and Strabo, was welded into his system--the result of fifteen years of abstract study, following some thirty of practical activity in travel.[15] [Footnote 15: The world he divided by climates in the Greek manner, taking no account of political divisions, or of those resting on language or religion. Each climate was further subdivided into ten sections. In the shape of Africa he followed Ptolemy.] A special note may be made on Edrisi's account of the voyage of the Lisbon "Wanderers" ("Maghrurins") some time before 1147, the date of the final Christian capture of the Portuguese capital. For this is the earliest recorded voyage, since the rise of Islam, definitely undertaken on the Western Ocean to learn what was on it and what were its limits. The Wanderers, Edrisi tells us, were eight in number, all related to one another. They built a transport boat, took on board water and provisions for many months, and started with the first east wind. After eleven days, they reached a sea whose thick waters exhaled a fetid odour, concealed numerous reefs, and were but faintly lighted. Fearing for their lives, they changed their course, steered southwards twelve days, and so reached an island, possibly Madeira,--which they called El Ghanam from the sheep found there, without shepherd or anyone to tend them. On landing, they found a spring of running water and some wild figs. They killed some sheep, but found the flesh so bitter that they could not eat it, and only took the skins. Sailing south twelve more days, they found an island with houses and cultivated fields, but as they neared it they were surrounded, made prisoners, and carried in their own boats to a city on the sea-shore, to a house where were men of tall stature and women of great beauty. Here they stayed three days, and on the fourth came a man, the King's interpreter, who spoke Arabic, and asked them who they were and what they wanted. They replied they were seeking out the wonders of the ocean and its limits. At this the King laughed heartily, and said to the interpreter: "Tell them my father once ordered some of his slaves to venture out on that sea and after sailing across the breadth of it for a month, they found themselves deprived of the light of the sun and returned without having learnt anything." Then the Wanderers were sent back to their prison till a west wind arose, when they were blindfolded and put on board a boat, and after three days reached the mainland of Africa. Here they were put ashore, with their hands tied, and so left. They were released by the Berbers, and after their reappearance in Spain, a "street at the foot of the hot bath in Lisbon," concludes Edrisi, "took the name of Street of the Wanderers." On the other extremity of the Moslem world, on the south-east coast of Africa, there was more real progress. By Edrisi's day that important addition of Arabic travellers and merchants to the geographical knowledge of the world, by the remarkable trade-ventures of the Emosaids, had been already made. It had taken long in the making. [Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO EDRISI. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] About A.D. 742, ten years after the battle of Tours, the Emosaid family, descended from Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet, tried to make Said, their clan-chieftain, Ali's great-grandson, Caliph at Damascus. The attempt was foiled, and the whole tribe fled, sailed down the Red Sea and African coast, and established themselves as traders in the Sea of India. First of all, Socotra seems to have been their mart and capital, but before the end of the tenth century they had founded merchant colonies at Melinda, Mombasa, and Mozambique, which, in their turn, led to settlements on the opposite coasts of Asia. Thus the trade of the Indian Ocean was secured for Islam, the first Moslem settlements arose in Malabar, and when the Portuguese broke into this _mare clausum_, in 1497-8, they found a belt of "Moorish" coast towns, from Magadoxo to Quiloa, controlling both the Indian and the inland African trades, as Ibn Batuta had found in 1330. By Edrisi's day, moreover, the steady persistence and self-evident results of Arabic overland exploration had become recognised by a sort of "Traveller's Doctorate." It was not enough for the highest knowledge to study the Koran, and the Sunna, and the Greek philosophers at home; for a perfect education, a man must have travelled at least through the length and breadth of Islam. All the successors of Edrisi, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, shew this mingling of science and religion, of practical and speculative energy. Tradition still governed Moslem thought, but there had come into being a sort of half-acknowledged appendix to tradition, made up of real observations on men and things. And in these observations, geographical interest was the main factor. The Life of Al Heravy of Herat (1173-1215), the "Doctor Ubiquitus" of Islam in the age of the Crusades, gives us a picture of another Massoudy. The friend of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus, the "first man among Christians," Heravy seems able in his own person to break down the partition wall of religious feud by the common interest of science. In 1192 he was offered the patronage of the Crusading princes, and Richard Coeur de Lion begged for the favour of an interview, and begged in vain. Heravy, who had been on one of his exploring journeys, angrily refused to see the King whose men had broken his quiet and wasted his time. Before his death, he had run over the world (men said) from China to the Pyrenees and from Abyssinia to the Danube, "scribbling his name on every wall," and his survey of the Eastern Empire was the single matter in which Turks and "Romans" made common cause,--for Greeks and Latins at Byzantium alike read Heravy, like a Christian doctor. Another example of the same catholic spirit is "Yacout the Roman,"[16] whose _Dictionary_, finished in the earlier half of the thirteenth century, was a summary of geographical advance since Edrisi, like the similar work of Ibn Said, of the same period. [Footnote 16: Yacout "the ruby," originally a Greek slave, who made a brave but fruitless attempt to change his name into Yacoub or Jacob, became one of the greatest of Arab encyclopædists, was checked by the hordes of Genghiz-Khan in his exploration of Central Asia, and died 1229.] But as a matter of fact, the balance both of knowledge and power was now shifting from Islam to Christendom. The most daring and successful travellers after the rise of the Mongols were the Venetian Marco Polo and the Friar Preachers who revived Chinese Christianity (1270-1350); Madeira and the Canaries (off Moslem Africa) were finally rediscovered not by Arabic enterprise, but by the Italian Malocello in 1270, by the English Macham in the reign of our Edward III., and by Portuguese ships under Genoese captains in 1341; in 1291 the Vivaldi ventured beyond Cape Bojador, where no Moor had ever been, except by force of storm, as in the doubtful story of Ibn Fatimah, who "first saw the White Headland," Cape Blanco, between Cape Bojador and Cape Verde. In the fourteenth century the map of Edrisi was superseded by the new Italian plans and coast-charts, or Portolani. As the Moslem world fell into political disorder, its science declined. "Judicial astrology" seemed gaining a stronger and stronger hold over Islam, and the irruption of the Turks gradually resulted in the ruin of all the higher Moslem culture. Superstition and barbarism shared the honour and the spoils of this victory. But two great names close the five hundred years of Arab learning. 1. Ibn Batuta (_c._ 1330), who made himself as much at home in China as in his native Morocco, is the last of Mohammedan travellers of real importance. Though we have only abridgments of his work left to us, Colonel Yule is well within his rights in his deliberate judgment, "that it must rank at least as one of the four chief guide books of the Middle Ages," along with the _Book of Ser Marco Polo_ and the journals of the two Friar-travellers, Friar Odoric and Friar William de Rubruquis. 2. With _Abulfeda_ the Eastern school of Moslem geography comes to an end, as the Western does with Ibn Batuta. In the early years of the fourteenth century he rewrote the "story and description of the Land of Islam," with a completeness quite encyclopædic. But his work has all the failings of a compilation, however careful, in that, or any, age. It is based upon information, not upon inspection; it is in no sense original. As it began in imitation, so it ended. If it rejects Ptolemy, it is only to follow Strabo or someone else; on all the mathematical and astronomical data its doctrine is according to the Alexandrians of twelve hundred years before, and this last _précis_ of the science of a great race and a great religion can only be understood in the light of its model--in Greek geography. CHAPTER I. EARLY CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS. CIRCA 333-867. The special interest of the life and work of Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) lies in the relation it bears to the general expansion of Europe and Christendom--an expansion that had been slowly gathering strength since the eleventh century. But even before the tide had turned in the age of Hildebrand and the First Crusade, even from the time that Constantine founded the Christian Empire of Rome, the Christian Capital on the Bosphorus, and the State Church of the Western World,--pilgrimage, trade, conquest, and colonisation had been successively calling out the energies of the moving races, "the motor muscles" of Europe. It is through the "generous Henry, Prince of Portugal," that this activity is brought to its third and triumphant stage--to the time of Columbus and Da Gama and Magellan,--but it is only by tracing the earlier progress of that outward movement, which has made Europe the ruling civilisation of the world, that we can fairly grasp the import of that transition in which Henry is the hero. More than any other single man he is the author of the discovering movement of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries,--and by this movement India has been conquered, America repeopled, the world made clear, and the civilisation which the Roman Empire left behind has conquered or utterly overshadowed every one of its old rivals and superiors--Islam, India, China, Tartary. But before the fifteenth century, before the birth of Prince Henry, Christendom, Greek and Latin, was at best only one of the greater civilising and conquering forces struggling for mastery; before the age of the Crusades, before the eleventh century, it was plainly weaker than the Moslem powers; it seemed unable to fight against Slav or Scandinavian Heathendom; it was only saved by distance from becoming a province of China; India, the world's great prize, was cut off from it by the Arabs. Even before the rise of Islam, under Constantine or Theodosius or Justinian, the Church-State of the Byzantine Cæsars, though then ruling in almost every province of Trajan's empire, was in a splendid but sure decline from the exhaustion of the southern races. Our story then begins naturally with the worst time and climbs up for a thousand years, from the Heathen and Mohammedan conquests of the fifth and seventh centuries, to the reversal of that judgment, of those conquests, in the fifteenth. The expansion of Europe is going on all this time, but at our beginning, in the years before and after Pope Gregory the Great, even the legacy of Greece and Rome, in wide knowledge of the world and practical exploring energy, seemed to have passed from sight. And in the decline of the old Empire, while Constantine and Justinian are said to receive and exchange embassies with the Court of China, there is no real extension of geographical knowledge or outlook. Christian enterprise in this field is mainly one of pilgrimage, and the pilgrims only cease to be important when the Northmen, first Heathen, then Christian, begin to lead, in a very different manner, the expansion of Europe. Into this folk-wandering of the Vikings, the first great outward movement of our Europe in the Middle Ages, is absorbed the reviving energy of trade, as well as the ever-growing impulse of pilgrimage. The Vikings are the highest type of explorers; they do not merely find out new lands and trade with them, but conquer and colonise them. They extend not merely the knowledge, but the whole state and being of Europe, to a New World. Lastly, the partial activity of commerce and religion made universal and "political" by the leading western race--for itself only--is taken up by all Christendom in the Crusades, borrowed in idea from Spain, but borrowed with the spirit of the Norse rovers, and made universal for the Latin world, for the whole federation of Rome. In the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries we have the preparation for the discovery and colonisation of the outside world by Europeans in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries of the Christian era. From the conversion of Constantine to the Reformation the story of Christendom is unbroken; the later Roman Empire is the Church-State of a Christian Prince, as modern Europe is the Church-State of a nominally Christian society. Mediæval Europe thought of itself as nothing but the old world-state under religion; from Spain to Russia men were living under a Holy Roman Empire of an Italian, or Teutonic, or Byzantine, or independent type. England and Russia were not parts of the Germanic revival of Charlemagne, but they had just the same two elements dominant in their life: the classical tradition and the Christian Church. And so throughout this time, the expansion of this society--by whatever name we may call it, discovery, exploration, geographical knowledge--has a continuous history. But before the rise of Islam, in the seventh century, throws Christendom into its proper mediæval life, before the new religion begins the really new age, at the end of which lived Henry himself, we are too far from our subject to feel, for instance in the fourth and fifth-century pilgrims and in Cosmas Indicopleustes, anything but a remote preparation for Henry's work. It is only with the seventh century, and with the time of our own Bede and Wilfrid, that the necessary introduction to our subject really begins. Yet as an illustration of the general idea, that discovery is an early and natural outlet of any vigorous society and is in proportion to the universal activity of the State, it is not without interest to note that Christian Pilgrimage begins with Constantine. This, the first department of exploring energy, at once evidences the new settlement of religion and politics. Helena, the Emperor's mother, helped, by her visit to Palestine, her church at Bethlehem, and her discoveries of relics in Jerusalem, to make a ruling fashion out of the custom of a few devotees; and eight years after the council of Nicæa, in 333, appeared the first Christian geography, as a guide-book or itinerary, from Bordeaux to the Holy Places of Syria, modelled upon the imperial survey of the Antonines. The route followed in this runs by North Italy, Aquileia, Sirmium, Constantinople, and Asia Minor, and upon the same course thousands of nameless pilgrims journeyed in the next three hundred years, besides some eight or nine who have left an account mainly religious in form, but containing in substance the widest view of the globe then possible among Westerns. Most of the pilgrims, like Jerome's friend Paula, Bishop Eucherius, and Melania, tread the same path and stop at the same points, but three or four of them distinctly add some fresh knowledge to the ordinary results. St. Silvia, of Aquitaine (_c._ 385), not only travels through Syria, she visits Lower Egypt and Stony or Sinaitic Arabia, and even Edessa in Northern Mesopotamia, on the very borders of hostile and heathen Persia. "To see the monks" she wanders through Osrhöene, comes to Haran, near which was "the home of Abraham and the farm of Laban and the well of Rachel," to the environs of Nisibis and Ur of the Chaldees, lost to the Roman Empire since Julian's defeat; thence by "Padan-aram" back to Antioch. When crossing the Euphrates the pilgrims saw the river "rush down in a torrent like the Rhone, but greater," and on the way home by the great military road, then untravelled by Saracens, between Tarsus and the Bosphorus, Silvia makes a passing note on the strength and brigand habits of the Isaurian mountaineers, who in the end saved Christendom from the very Arabs with whom our pilgrim couples them. Again, Cosmas Indicopleustes, in the time of Justinian, is at the end, as Silvia is at the beginning, of a definite period, the period of the Christian empire of Rome, while still "Cæsarean" and not merely Byzantine, "patrician" and not papal, "consular" and not Carolingian. And contemporary with Cosmas are two of the chief among the earlier or primitive pilgrims, Theodosius and Antoninus the Martyr. The first-named indulges in a few excursions--in fancy--beyond his known ground of Palestine, going as far east as Susa and Babylon, "where no one can live for the serpents and hippo-centaurs," and south to the Red Sea and its two arms, "of which the eastern is called the Persian Gulf," and the western or Arabian runs up to the "thirteen cities of Arabia destroyed by Joshua,"--but, for the rest, his knowledge is not extensive or peculiar. Antoninus of Placentia, on the other hand, is very interesting, a sort of older Mandeville, who mixes truth and its opposite in fairly even proportions and with a sort of resolute partiality to favourite legends. He tells us how Tripolis has been ruined by the late earthquake (July 9, 551); how silk and various woven stuffs are sold at Tyre; how the pilgrims scratched their names on the relics shewn in Cana of Galilee--"and here I, sinner that I am, did inscribe the names of my parents"; how Bethshan, the metropolis of Galilee, "is placed on a hill," though really in the plain; how the Samaritans hate Christians and will hardly speak to them; "and beware of spitting in their country, for they will never forgive it"; how "the dew comes down upon Hermon the Little, as David says, 'The dew of Hermon that fell upon the hill of Zion'"; how nothing can live or even float in the Dead Sea, "but is instantly swallowed up"--as exact an untruth as was ever told by traveller; how the Jordan opens a way for pilgrims "and stands up in a heap every year at the Epiphany during the baptism of Catechumens, as David told, 'The sea saw that and fled, Jordan was driven back'"; how at Jericho there is a Holy Field "sown by the Lord with his own hand." A report had been spread that the salt pillar of Lot's wife had been "lessened by licking"; "it was false," said Antoninus, the statue was just the same as it had always been. In Jerusalem the pilgrims first went up the Tower of David, "where he sang the Psalter," and into the Basilica of Sion, where among other marvels they saw the "Corner-stone that the builders rejected," which gave out a "sound like the murmuring of a crowd." We come back again to fact with rather a start when told in the next section of the Hospitals for 3000 sick folk near the Church of St. Mary, close to Sion; then with the footprints and relics of Christ, and the miraculous flight of the Column of Scourging--"carried away by a cloud to Cæsarea," we are taken through a fresh set of "impressions." The same wild notions of place and time and nature follow the Martyr through Galilee to Gilboa, "where David slew Goliath and Saul died, where no dew or rain ever falls, and where devils appear nightly, whirled about like fleeces of wool or the waves of the sea"--to Nazareth, where was the "Beam of Christ the Carpenter"--to Elua, where fifteen consecrated virgins had tamed a lion and trained it to live with them in a cell--to Egypt, where the Pyramids become for him the "_twelve_ Barns of Joseph," for the legend had not yet insisted that the actual number should be made to fit the text of the seven years of plenty. But with all this Antoninus now and then gives us glimpses of a larger world. In Jerusalem he meets Æthiopians "with nostrils slit and rings about their fingers and their feet." They were so marked, they told him, by the Emperor Trajan "for a sign." In the Sinai desert he tells us of "Saracen" beggars and idolaters; in the Red Sea ports he sees "ships from India" laden with aromatics; he travels up the Nile to the Cataracts and describes the Nilometer at Assouan, and the crocodiles in the river; Alexandria he finds "splendid but frivolous, a lover of pilgrims but swarming with heresies." But far more wonderful than the practical jumble of Antoninus Martyr is the systematic nonsense of Cosmas, who invented or worked out a theory and scheme of the world, a "Christian topography," which required nothing more than a complete disuse of human reason. His assurance was equal to his science. It may have been his voyage to India, or his monastic profession, or his study of Scripture, or something unknown that made him take up the part of a Christian Aristotle; in any case he felt himself called into the field to support the cause of St. Augustine against infidelity, and to refute the "anile fable" of the Antipodes. Cosmas referred men back to Revelation on such matters, and his system was "demonstrated from Scripture, concerning which a Christian is not allowed to doubt." Man by himself could not understand the world, but in the Bible it was all clear enough. And from the Bible this much was beyond dispute. The universe is a flat parallelogram; and its length is exactly double of its breadth. In the centre of the universe is our world surrounded by the ocean, and by an outer world or ring where men lived before the Flood. Noah and his Ark came over sea from this to the present earth. To the north of our world is a great hill, like the later Moslem and older Hindu "Cupola of the Earth," which perhaps was Cosmas' own original. Round this the sun and moon revolve, making day and night as they appear or disappear behind it. The sky consists of four walls meeting in the "dome of heaven" over the floor on which we live, and this sky is "glued" to the edges of the outer world, the world of the Patriarchs. But this heaven is also cut in two by the firmament, lying between our atmosphere and that "New Heaven and New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness"; and the floor of this upper world is covered by the "waters that be above the firmament"; above this is Paradise, and below the firmament live the angels, as "ministers" and "flaming fires" and "servants of God to men." The proofs of this are simple, mainly resting on some five texts from the Old Testament and two passages of St. Paul. First the Book of Genesis declared itself to be the "Book of the Generation of the Heaven and the Earth"--that is, of everything in the heavens, and the earth. But the "old wives' fable of the Antipodes" would make the heaven surround and contain the earth, and God's word would have to be changed "These are the generations of the sky." For the same truth--the twofold and independent being of heaven and earth--Cosmas quotes the additional testimony of Abraham, David, Hosea, Isaiah, Zachariah, and Melchisedek, who clenched the case against the Antipodes. "For how indeed could even rain be said to 'fall' or to 'descend,' as in the Psalms and the Gospels, in those regions where it could only be said to 'come up'?" Again, the world cannot be a globe, or sphere, or be suspended in mid-air, or in any sort of motion, for what say the Scriptures? "Earth is fixed on its foundations"; "Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth and it abideth"; "Thou hast made the round world so sure, that it cannot be moved"; "Thou hast made all men to dwell upon the face of the whole earth"--not "upon every face," or upon any more than one face--"upon _the_ face," not the back or the side, but the broad flat face we know. "Who then with these passages before him, ought even to speak of Antipodes?" So much against false doctrine; to establish the truth is simpler still. For the same St. Paul, who disposes of science falsely so called, does not he speak, like David, like St. Peter and St. John, of our world as a tabernacle? "If our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved," "We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened," which points to the natural conclusion of enlightened faith, that Moses' tabernacle was an exact copy of the universe. "See thou make all things according to the pattern shewn thee in the Mount." So the four walls, the covered roof, the floor, the proportions of the Tent of the Wilderness, shewed us in small compass all that was in nature. If any further guidance were needed, it was ready to hand in the Prophet Isaiah and the Patriarch Job. "That stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in"; "Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds or the noise of his tabernacle?" The whole reasoning is like the theological arguments on the effects of man's fall upon the stars and the vegetable world, or the atmospheric changes due to angels. But though Cosmas states his system with the claims of an article of faith, there were not wanting men, and even saints, who stood out on the side of reason in geography in the most traditional of times. Isidore of Seville, and Vergil, the Irish missionary of the eighth century, both maintained the old belief of Basil and Ambrose, that the question of the Antipodes was not closed by the Church, and that error in this point was venial and not mortal. For the positive tabernacle-system of "the man who sailed to India" there was never much support; his work was soon forgotten, though it has been called by some paradox-makers "the great authority of the Middle Ages"--in the face of the known facts, that this was the real position of Ptolemy and Strabo, that no one can speak of the "Middle Ages" in this unqualified way any more than of the Modern or Ancient worlds; and that Cosmas is almost unnoticed in the great age of mediæval science, from the twelfth century. And whatever we may think of Cosmas and his _Christian System of the Whole World, Evolved out of Holy Scripture_, he is of interest to us as the last of the old Christian geographers, closing one age which, however senile, had once been in the truest sense civilised, and preparing us to enter one that in comparison is literally dark. From the age of Justinian, and from the rise of Islam in the early years of the seventh century, the geographical knowledge of Christendom is on a par with its practical contraction and apparent decline. There are travellers; but for the next five hundred years there are no more theorists, cosmographers, or map-makers of the Universe or Habitable Globe. From the time that Islam, after a century of world-conquest, began to form itself into an organised state, or federation of states, in the later eighth and earlier ninth centuries A.D.,--thus making itself until the thirteenth century the principal heir of the older Eastern culture,--Christendom was content to take its geography, its ideas of the world in general, from the Arabs, who in their turn depended upon the pre-Christian Greeks. The relation of Ptolemy and Strabo to modern knowledge is best seen through the work of the Arabic geographers, but the Saracens did much to destroy before they began to build up once more. As the northern barbarians of the fifth century interrupted the hope of a Christian revival of Pagan literature and science, so the Moslems of the seventh and eighth cut short the Catholic and Roman revival of Justinian and Heraclius, in which the new faith and the old state had found a working agreement. Between Cosmas and the Viking-Age, "Christian," "Roman," "Western" exploration falls within very narrow limits: the few pilgrims whose recollections represent to us the whole literature of travel in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, add nothing fresh even of practical discovery; theory and theoretical work has ceased altogether, and the first stirrings of the new life in the commerce and voyages of Amalphi, and in the sudden and splendid outburst of Norse life in its age of piracy, are not yet, are not really before the world until the time of Alfred of England, of Charles the Bald, of Pope Nicholas I. "the Great." Yet such as it is, this pilgrim stage of European development stands for something. Religion, as it is the first agent in forming our modern nations, is the first impulse towards their expansion. And to us there is a special interest. For the best known of western travellers in this darkest of the Christian ages (600-870 A.D.), Arculf and Willibald, are both connected with England and the beginnings of English science in the age of Bede. Arculf, a Frank or Gallican Bishop, who about 690 visited, first of "Latin" writers since the Mohammedan conquest, Jerusalem, the Jordan valley, Nazareth, and the other holy places of Syria, was driven by storms on his return to the great Irish monastery of Iona. There he described his wonders to the Abbot Adamnan, who then sat in the seat of the Irish Apostles Patrick and Columba, and by Adamnan this narrative was presented and dedicated to Aldfrith the Wise, last of the great Northumbrian Kings, in his Court at York (_c._ A.D. 701). Not only does the original remain to us, but we have also two summaries of it, one longer, another shorter, made by Baeda, the Venerable Bede, as a useful manual for Englishmen, _Concerning the Holy Sites_. We are again reminded by this how constantly fresh life is growing up under an appearance of death. The conversion of England, which Gregory the Great, Theodore, and the Irish monks had carried through in the seventh, that darkest of Christian centuries, was now bearing its fruit in the work of Bede, who was really the sign of a far more permanent intellectual movement than his own, and in that of Boniface, Wilbrord, and Willibald, who began to win for Christendom in Germany more than a counterpoise for her losses in the South and East, from Armenia to Spain. Arculf is full of the mystical unscientific spirit of the time. He notes in Jerusalem "a lofty column, which at mid-day casts no shadow, thus proving itself to be the centre of the earth for as David says, 'God is my king of old, working salvation _in the midst of the_ earth.'" "At the roots of Lebanon" he comes to the place "where the Jordan has its rise from two fountains Jor and Dan, whose waters unite in the single river Jordan." In the Dead Sea a lighted lamp would float safely, and no man could sink if he tried; the bitumen of this place was almost indissoluble; the only fruit here about were the apples of Sodom, which crumbled to dust in the mouth. The three churches on the top of Tabor were "according to the three tabernacles described by Peter." From Damascus Arculf made for the port of Tyre, and so came by Jaffa to Egypt. Alexandria he found so great that he was one entire day in merely passing through. Its port he thought "difficult of access and something like the human body in shape, with a narrow mouth and neck, then stretching out far and wide." The great Pharos tower was still lit up every night with torches. Here was the "Emporium of the whole world"; "countless merchants from all parts": the "country rainless and very fertile." The Nile was navigable to the Town of Elephants; beyond this, at the Cataracts, the river "runs in a wild ruin down a cliff." Its embankments, its canals, and even its crocodiles, "not so large as ravenous," are all described, and Arculf, returning home by Constantinople, concludes with an account of the capital of Christendom, "beyond doubt the metropolis of the Roman Empire, and by far the greatest city therein"; lastly, as the pilgrim sails by Sicily he sees the "isle of Vulcan vomiting smoke by day and flame by night, with a noise like thunder, which is always fiercer on Fridays and Saturdays." Willibald, a nephew of St. Boniface and related through his mother to King Ina of Wessex, started for the East about 721, passed ten years in travel, and on his return followed his countrymen to mission work and to death among the heathen of Upper Germany. He went out by Southampton and Rouen, by Lucca and the Alps, to Naples and Catania, "where is Mount Etna; and when this volcano casts itself out they take St. Agatha's veil and hold it towards the fire, which ceases at once." Thence by Samos and Cyprus to Antaradus and Emesda, "in the region of the Saracens," where the whole party, who had escaped the Moslem brigands of Southern Gaul, were thrown into prison on suspicion of being spies. A Spaniard made intercession for them and got their release; but Willibald went up country one hundred miles, and cleared himself of all suspicion before the Caliph at Damascus. "We have come from the West, where the sun has his setting, and we know of no land beyond--nothing but water." This was too far for spies, he pleaded, and the Caliph agreed, and gave him a pass for all the sites of Palestine, with which he traversed the length and breadth of the Holy Land four times, finding the same trouble in leaving as he had found in entering. Like Arculf, he saw the fountains of Jor-Dan, the "glorious church" of Helena at Bethlehem, the tombs of the Patriarchs at Hebron, the wonders of Jerusalem. Especially was he moved at the sight of the columns in the Church of the Ascension on Olivet, "for that man who can creep between those columns and the wall is freed from all his sins." Tyre and Sidon he passed again and again "on the coast of the Adriatic Sea (as he calls the Levant), _six_ miles from one another"; at last he got away to Constantinople, with some safely smuggled trophies of pilgrimage, and some "balsam in a calabash, covered with petroleum," but the customs officers would have killed all of them if the fraud had been found out--so Willibald believed. After two years of close intercourse with the Greek Christians of New Rome, living in a "cell hollowed out of the side of a church" (possibly Saint Sophia), the first of English-born travellers returned to Old Rome, as Arculf had done, by sea, noticing, like him, "Theodoric's Hell" in the Liparis. He could not get up the mountain, though curious to see "what sort of a hell it was" where the Gothic "Tyrant" was damned for the murder of Böethius and Symmachus, and for his own impenitent Arianism. But though he could not be seen or heard, all the pilgrims remarked how the "pumice that writers use was thrown up by the flame from the hell, and fell into the sea, and so was cast upon the shore and gathered up." Such was the philosophy of Catholicism about the countries of the known world in the eighth century, for Willibald's account was published with the imprimatur of Gregory III., and, with Arculf's, took rank as a satisfactory comment on the old Bordeaux Itinerary of four hundred years ago. Again, the impression given by our two chief Guide-Books, Arculf and Willibald, is confirmed by the monk Fidelis, who travelled in Egypt about 750, and by Bernard the Wise of Mont St. Michel, who went over all the pilgrim ground a century later (867). Fidelis, sailing up the Nile, was astonished at the sight of the "Seven Barns of Joseph, (the Pyramids) looking like mountains, but all of stone, square at the base, rounded in the upper part and twisted at the summit like a spire. On measuring a side of one of them, it was found to be four hundred feet." From the Nile Fidelis sailed by the freshwater canal of Necho, Hadrian, and Amrou, not finally blocked up till 767, direct to the Red Sea, "near where Moses crossed with the Israelites." The pilgrim wanted to go and look for Pharaoh's chariot-wheels, but the sailors were obstinate, and took him round the Peninsula of Sinai, down one arm of the sea and up another, to Eziongeber and Edom. Bernard, "the French Monk" of Mont St. Michel, took the straight route overland by Rome to Bari, then a Saracen city, whose Emir forwarded the pilgrims in a fleet of transports carrying some nine thousand Christian slaves to Alexandria. Here, like Willibald, Bernard found himself "suspect"--thrown into prison till Backsheesh had been paid, then only allowed to move stage by stage as fees were prompt and sufficient, for a traveller must pay, as an infidel, not only the ordinary tribute of the subject Christians of Egypt, but the "money of the road" as well. Islam has always made of strangers a fair mark for extortion. Safe at last in Jerusalem, the party (Bernard himself and two friends, one a Spaniard, the other a monk of Beneventum) were lodged "in the Hostel of the glorious Emperor Charles, founded for all the pilgrims who speak the Roman tongue," and after making the ordinary visits of devotion, and giving us their account of the Easter Miracle of the Holy Fire at the Church of the Sepulchre, they took ship for Italy, and landed at Rome after sixty days of misery at sea. Bernard's account closes with the Roman churches--the Lateran, where the "keys of the whole city are given every night into the hands of the Apostolic Pope," and St. Peter's on the "West side of Rome, that for size has no rival in the world." At the same time, or a little earlier than the Breton traveller (_c._ 808-850), another Latin had written a short tract _On the Houses of God in Jerusalem_, which, with Bernard's note-book, is our last geographical record before the age of the Northmen. A new time was coming--a time not of timid creeping pilgrims only, but of sea-kings and seamen, who made the ocean their home, and, for the North of Europe at least, broke the tradition of land journeys and coasting voyages. But the early pilgrims after all have their place. It is of no use insisting that the mental outlook of these men is infantile;--that is best proved by their own words, their own scale of things; but it is necessary to insist that in these travellers we have comparatively enlarged experience and knowledge; and as comparison is the only test of any age, or of any man therein, the very blunders and limitations of the past, as we see them to be, have a constant, as well as an historical, value to us. That is, we are always being reminded, first, how we have come to the present mastery over nature, over ourselves, over all being; and, secondly, how imperfect, how futile, our work is still, and seems always doomed to be, if judged from a really final standpoint, or rather from our own dreams of the ultimately possible. So if in the case of our mediæval travellers their interests are the very reverse of ours; if they take delight in brooding over thoughts which to us do not seem worth the thinking; if their minds seem to rest as much on fable implicitly accepted as on the little amount of experienced fact necessary for a working life, it will not be for us to judge, or to pity, or to despise the men who were making our world for us, and through whose work we live. [Illustration: THE MAPPE-MONDE OF ST. SEVER. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] Especially we cannot afford to forget this as we reach the lowest point of the fortunes, the mental and material work and position and outlook, of Europe and Christendom. A half-barbarised world had entered upon the inheritance of a splendid past, but it took centuries before that inheritance was realised by the so altered present. In this time of change we have men writing in the language of Cæsar and Augustine, of Alexander and Plato and Aristotle, who had been themselves, or whose fathers had been, pirates, brigands, nomades,--"wolves of the land or of the sea"--to Greeks or Romans of the South; who had been even to the Romanised provincials of the North, as in Britain, mere "dogs," "whelps from the kennel of barbarism," the destroyers of the order of the world. The boundless credulity and servile terror, the superstition and feudal tyranny of the earlier Middle Ages, mark the first stage of the reconstruction of society, when savage strong men who had conquered were set down beside the overworked and outworn masters of the Western world, to learn of them, and to make of them a more enduring race. CHAPTER II. VIKINGS OR NORTHMEN. CIRCA 787-1066. The discoveries and conquests and colonies of the Norse Vikings, from the White Sea to North America, are the first glimpses of light on the sea of darkness round the little island of the known world that made up Christendom. And from the needs of the time these were the natural, the only natural beginnings of European expansion. From the rise of Islam, Saracens controlled the great trade-routes of the South and East. It was only on the West and North that the coast was clear--of all but natural dangers. In the Moslem Caliphate men were now busy in following up the old lines of trade, the immemorial traditions of the East, or as in southern Africa, extending the sphere of commercial activity and so of civilisation; men of science were commenting on the ancient texts of Greeks and Latins, or adapting them to enlarged knowledge. But in Christendom, in the atrophy both of mental and physical activity, broken for short periods and in certain lands by the revivals of Charles the Great, of the Isaurian Emperors, of Otto I., of Alfred and his House, the practical energy of Heathen enemies,--for the Northmen were not seriously touched by Christianity till about the end of the first millennium,--was the first sign of lasting resurrection. After the material came the spiritual revival; the whole life of the Middle Ages awoke on the conversion of the Northern nations and of Hungary; but in the abundant and brilliant energy of the eleventh, the twelfth, the thirteenth centuries, we must recognise the offspring of the irrepressible Norsemen as well as of the Irish and Frank and English missionaries, who in the Dark Ages of Christendom were working out the empire of Innocent III. In exploration, especially, it was true that theory followed achievement. Flavio Gioja, of Amalphi, did not apply the magnet to navigation--did not "give sailors the use of the magnet"--till navigation itself had begun to venture into the unknown Atlantic. The history of geographical advance in the earlier Middle Ages is thus rather a chronicle of adventure than of science. But the Norse discoveries are not only the first, they are the leading achievements of Western travel and enterprise in the true Unknown, between the time of Constantine and the Crusades. The central fact of European expansion in the Dark Ages (from the seventh to the eleventh century) is the advance of the Vikings to the Arctic Continent and to America about the year 1000. All that precedes this on the same line is doubtful and unimportant. For, of the other voyages to the West in the sixth, the eighth, the tenth centuries, which, on Columbus' success, turned into prior claims to the finding of the New World, there is not one that deserves notice. St. Brandon in 565, the Seven Spanish Bishops in 734, the Basques in 990 may or may not have sighted their islands of "Antillia," of "Atlantis," of the "Seven Cities." They cannot be verified or valued, any more than the journeys of the Enchanted Horse or the Third Calendar. We only know for certain a few unimportant, half-accidental facts, such as the visits of Irish hermits to Iceland and the Färoes during the eighth century, and the traces of their cells and chapels--in bells and ruins and crosses--found by the Northmen in the ninth. It was in 787 that the Vikings first landed in England; by the opening of the next century they were threatening the whole coast line of Christendom, from Gallicia to the Elbe; in 874 they began to colonise Iceland; in 877 they sighted Greenland; in 922 Rolf the Ganger won his "Normandy" from Charles the Simple, by the Treaty of Clair-sur-Epte; as early as 840 was founded the first Norse or Ostman kingdom in Ireland, and in 878 the Norse earldom of the Orkneys, while about the same time the first Vikings seem to have reached the White Sea and the extreme North of Europe. This advance is almost as rapid as that of the early Saracens; within a hundred years from the first disturbance of Danes and Northmen by the growing, all-including power of the new national kingdoms,--within three generations from Halfdan the Black,--first the flying rebels, and then the royalists in pursuit of them, had reached the farthest western and northern limits of the known world, from Finisterre in "Spanland" to Cape Farewell in Greenland, from the North Cape in Finland to the Northwest Capes of "Irland," from Novgorod or "Holmgard" in Russia to "Valland," between the Garonne and the Loire. The chief lines of Northern advance were three--by the north-west, south-west, and north-east, but each of these divided, after a time, with important results. The first sea-path, running by Caithness, Orkneys, Shetlands, and Färoes, reached Iceland, Greenland, and at last Vinland on the North American Continent; but from the settlements on the coasts and islands of northern Scotland, a fresh wave of pirate colonists swept down south-west into the narrow seas of St. George's Channel and beat upon the east and north and south of Ireland and the western coasts of England and of "Bretland." The second invasion ran along the North German coast, and on reaching the Straits of Dover, fell upon both sides of the English Channel, according as the resistance was stronger or weaker in Wessex or in Frankland. The advanced guard reunited with Ostmen and Orkneyers in the Scilly Isles, and in Cornwall, and pressed on to the plunder of the Bay of Biscay and its coasts. The most restless of all were not long in finding out the wealth of the Moslem Caliphate of Cordova, and trying to force their way up the Douro and the Tagus. The expansion on this side was not to stop till it had founded, from the Norman colony on the Seine, a Norman kingdom of England, and a dominion in the Two Sicilies, but this was the work of the eleventh century, the time of organisation and settled empire. On the third side of northern expansion, to east and north-east, there were two separate roads from the first; one taking the Baltic for its track, and dividing northwards to Finland, up the Gulf of Bothnia, eastwards to Russia and Novgorod ("Gardariki" and "Holmgard"), the other coasting along "Halogaland" to Biarmaland, along Lapland to Perm and the Archangel of later time. Of these three lines of movement by far the most vital to our subject is the first, which is also the earliest; the second, to south and south-west, hardly gives any direct results for our story; and the third, to east and north, is mainly concerned with Russian history. While King Alfred was yet unborn, Norse settlements had been permanently founded in the outlying points, coasts, and islands of Scotland and Ireland, and in the years of his boyhood, about 860, Nadodd the Fäeroe Jarl sighted Iceland, which had been touched at by the Irish monks in 795 but was now to be first added as a lasting gain to Europe, as a new country, "Snowland"--something more than a hermitage for religious exiles from the world. Four years later (in 864) Gardar the Swede reached this new Ultima Thule, and re-named it from himself "Gardar's Holm." Yet another Viking, Raven Floke, followed the track of the first explorer in 867, before Iceland got its final name and earliest colonisation from the Norsemen Ingolf and Leif and the sheep-farmers of the Färoes in 874, the third year of Alfred's reign in Wessex. [Illustration: THE ANGLO-SAXON MAP. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] Three years later, 877-8, at the very time of the farthest Danish advance in England, when Guthrum had driven the English King into the Isle of Athelney, the Norsemen reached their farthest point of northern advance in Europe; Gunnbiorn sighted a new land to the north-west, which he called "White Shirt," from its snow-fields, and which Red Eric a century later re-named Greenland--"for there is nothing like a good name to attract settlers." By this the Old World had come nearer than ever before to the discovery of a new one. Geographically, this side of the Arctic Continent falls to the share of North America, and once its fiords had been made in their turn centres of colonisation and of further progress, the actual reaching of Newfoundland and Cape Cod was natural enough. The real voyage lay between Cape Farewell and the European mainland; it was a stormy and dangerous passage from the Greenland Bays to Labrador, but not a long one, and, as far as can be judged from scanty records, neither so cold nor so icebound as at present. But exploration had outrun settlement. It was not till 986, more than one hundred years after Gunnbiorn's discovery, that Eric the Red, one of the chiefs of the Iceland colonists, led a band of followers and friends into a permanent exile in the unknown land. The beginnings of several villages were made in the next few years, and the first American discoveries followed at once. About 989 one Bjarni Herjulfson, following his father from Iceland to Eric's Fiord in Greenland, was driven west by storms first to a flat, well-wooded country, then to a mountainous island, covered with glaciers. He bore away with a fresh breeze and reached his home in Eric's Fiord in four days. But his report aroused great interest; the time had come, and the men, and Norse rovers, who after so much in the past were ready to dare anything in the future, eagerly volunteered to follow up the new route; Bjarni himself visiting Norway and telling his story, was blamed for his slackness, and when he went back to Greenland there was "much talk of finding unknown lands." In the year 1000 Leif, a son of Red Eric, started with a definite purpose of discovery. He bought Bjarni's ship, manned it with five and twenty men and put out. First they came to the land Bjarni had sighted last, and went on shore. There was no grass to be seen, but great snowy ridges far inland, "and all the way from the coast to these mountains was one field of snow, and it seemed to them a land of no profit,"--so they left, calling it Helluland, or Slate-land, perhaps the Labrador of the sixteenth century. They put to sea again and found another land, flat and wooded, with a white sand shore, low-lying towards the sea. This, said Leif, we will call after its nature, Markland (Woodland). Thence driving for two days before a north-east wind, they came to an island, where they landed to wait for good weather. They tasted the dew on the grass and thought they had never known anything so sweet. Sailing on again into a sound between the island and a ness, they reached a place where a river came out of a lake; into this they towed the ship and anchored, carrying their beds out on the shore and setting up their tents, with a large hut in the middle, and made all ready for wintering there. There was no want of fish food--"the largest salmon in the lake they had ever seen"--and the country seemed to them so good that they would need no fodder for cattle in the winter. There was no frost; the grass seemed fresh enough all the year round, and day and night were more equal than in Iceland or in Greenland. The crew were divided in two parts: one worked at the huts and the other explored the country, returning every night to the camp. From the wild vines found by the foragers, the whole district was called Vinland, and samples of these, enough to fill the stern boat, and of the trees and "self-sown wheat" found in the fields were taken back to Eric's Fiord. Thereafter Leif was called the Lucky, and got much wealth and fame, but Thorwald Ericson, his brother, thought he had not explored enough, and "determined to be talked about" even more than the first settler of Vinland. He put to sea with thirty men and came straight to Leif's Booths in Vinland, where he stayed the winter. On the first signs of spring Thorwald ordered his vessel to be rigged, and sent his longboat on ahead to explore. All alike thought the land beautiful and well-wooded; they noticed that the distance was small between the forest and the sea, that the beach was all of white sand, and that there were many islands off the shore and very shallow water; but they saw no trace of man or beast, except a wooden corn-barn on an island far to the west. After coasting all the summer they came back in the autumn to the booths. The next spring Thorwald went eastwards, and "towards the north along the land they drove upon a cape and broke their keel and stayed long to repair, and called the place Keel-Ness (Kjalarness) from this." Then they sailed away eastwards along the country, everywhere thickly wooded, till at one place Thorwald drew up his ships to the land and laid out gangways to the shore, saying, "I would gladly set up my farm here." But now they came upon the first traces of other men; far off upon the white sandy beach three specks were sighted--three skin boats of the Skrælings or Esquimaux, with three men hiding under each. Thorwald's men captured and killed eight of them, but one escaped "to where within the fiord were several dwellings like little lumps on the ground." A heavy drowsiness now fell upon the Norsemen, in the Saga, till a "sudden scream came to them, and a countless host from up the fiord came in skin boats and laid themselves alongside." The Vikings put up their shield-wall along the gunwale and kept off the arrows of the Esquimaux till they had shot them all away, and "fled off as fast as they could," leaving Thorwald with a mortal wound under the arm. He had time just to bid his men "carry him to the point he had wished to dwell at, for it was true that he would stay there awhile, but with a cross at head and feet; and so died and was buried as he had said." The place was called Crossness from the dead chief, but the crew stayed all the winter and loaded the ship with vines and grapes, and in the spring came back to Eric in Greenland. And now, after the first mishap, discovery became more serious--not to be undertaken but by strong and well-armed fleets. It was this that checked the expansion of these Arctic colonies; at their best they were too small to do more than hold their own against nature and the Skræling savages in their tiny settlements along the coast, where the ice-fields have long since pushed man slowly but surely into the sea, with his painfully won patches of hay and corn and pasturage. But the colonists would never say die till they were utterly worn out; now they only roused themselves to conquer the new lands they had found, and found disputed. First a third son of Red Eric, Thorstein, bethought him to go to Vinland for his brother Thorwald's body. He put to sea and lost all sight of land, beating about in the ocean the whole summer, till he came back to Greenland in the first week of winter. (1004-6.) He was followed by the greatest of the Vinland sailors, Thorfinn Karlsefne, who really took in hand the founding of a new settlement over the Western Sea. He came from Norway to Iceland soon after Thorwald's death in 1004, passed on to Greenland about 1005, "when, as before, much was talked about a Vinland voyage," and in 1006 made ready to start with one hundred and sixty men and five women, in three ships. They had with them all kinds of cattle, meaning to settle in the land if they could, and they made an agreement, Karlsefne and his people, that each should have an equal share in the gain. Leif lent them his houses in Vinland, "for he would not give them outright," and they sailed first to Helluland (Labrador), where they found a quantity of foxes, then to Markland, well-stocked with forest animals, then to an island at the mouth of a fiord, unknown before, covered with eyder ducks. They called the new discoveries Stream Island and Stream Fiord, from the current that here ran out into the sea, and sent off a party of eight men, in search of Vinland, in a stern boat. This was driven by westerly gales back to Iceland, but Thorfinn, with the rest, sailed south till he came to Leif Ericson's "river that fell into the sea from a lake, with islands lying off the mouth of the stream, low grounds covered with wheat growing wild, and rising grounds clad with vines." Here they settled, re-named the country "Hope, from the good hope they had of it," and began to fell the wood, to pasture their cattle in the upland, and to gather the grapes. After the first winter the Skrælings came upon them, at first to traffic with furs and sables against milk and dairy produce, and then to fight; for as neither understood the other, and the natives tried to force their way into Thorfinn's houses, and to get hold of his men's weapons, a quarrel was bound to come. Fearing this, Karlsefne put a fence round the settlement and made all ready for battle, "and at this very time was a child born to him in the village, called Snorre, of Gudrid his wife, the widow of Thorstein Eric-son, whom he had brought with him." Then the Esquimaux came down upon them, "many more than before, and there was a battle, and Thorfinn's men won the day and saved the cattle," and their enemies fled into the forest. Thorfinn stayed all the winter, but towards spring he grew tired of his enterprise, and returned to Greenland, "taking much goods," vines, wood for timber, and skin-wares, and so came back to Eric's Fiord in the summer of 1008. Thus ends the story of the last serious effort to colonise Vinland, and the Saga, while giving no definite cause for this failure upon failure, seems to show that even the trifling annoyance of the Skrælings was enough to turn the scale. Natural difficulties were so immense, men were so few, that a pigmy enemy had all the power of the last straw in a load, the odd man in a council. The actual resistance of American natives to European colonists was never very serious in any part of the continent, but the distance from the starting-point and the difficulties of life in the new country were able, even in the time of Raleigh and De Soto, to keep in check men who far more readily founded and kept up European empires in the Indian seas. So now, though on Thorfinn's return the "talk began to turn again upon a Vinland voyage, as both gainful and honourable," and a daughter of Red Eric, named Freydis, talked men over--especially two brothers, Helge and Finnboge--to a fresh attempt in the country where all the House of Eric had tried and failed; though Leif lent his booths as before, and sixty able-bodied men, besides women, were found willing to go, the colony could never be firmly planted. Freydis and her allies sailed in 1011, reached the settlement, which was now for the third time recolonised, and wintered there;--but jealousies soon broke up the camp, Helge and Finnboge were murdered with all their followers, and the rest came back in 1013 to Greenland, "where Thorfinn Karlsefne was just ready for sailing back to Norway, and it was common talk that never did a richer ship leave Eric's Fiord than that which he steered." It was that same Karlsefne who gave the fullest account of all his travels, concludes the Saga, but whether Thorfinn ever returned to Vinland, whether there were any more attempts to settle at Leif's Booths or elsewhere, whether the account we have of these voyages is really an Eric Saga, only telling the deeds of Red Eric and his House--for after Bjarni, almost every Vinland leader is of this family--we cannot tell. We can only fancy that all these suggestions are probable, by the side of the few additional facts known to the Norse Skalds or Bards. The first of these is, that in 983-4, Are Marson of Reykianes in Iceland was driven by storms far West to White Man's Land, where he was followed by Bjarni Asbrandson in 999, and by Gudleif Gudlangson in 1029. This was the tale of his friend Rafn, "the Limerick trader," and of Are Frode, his great-great-grandson, who called the unknown land Great Ireland.[17] True or untrue, in whatever way, this would be a later discovery than those of Eric and his sons, if the news of it did not come into Iceland or Norway till after Thorfinn Karlsefne's voyage, as is generally supposed. Again, the length of the voyage is a difficulty, and the whole matter has a doubtful look--an attempt to start a rival to the Eric Saga, by a far more brilliant success a few years earlier. [Footnote 17: By some supposed to be S. Carolina, by others the Canaries.] We seem to be on more certain ground in our next and last chapter of Viking exploration in the north-west, in the fragmentary notices of Greenland and Vinland voyages to the middle of the fourteenth century, and in the fairly clear and continuous account of the two Greenland settlements of the western and the eastern Bays. We hear, for instance, of Bishop Eric going over from Eric's Fiord to Vinland in 1121; of clergy from the Eastern Bay diocese of Gardar sailing to lands in the West, far north of Vinland, in 1266; of the two Helgasons discovering a country west of Iceland in 1285; of a voyage from Greenland to Markland in 1347 by a crew of seventeen men, recorded in 1354. Unless these are pure fabrications, they would seem to prove something of constant intercourse between the mother and daughter colonies of north-west Europe and north-east America, and something of a permanent Christian settlement of Northmen in the New Continent is made probable by assuming such intercourse. Between 981-1000, both Iceland and Greenland had become "Catholic in name and Christian in surname"; in 1126 the line of Bishops of Gardar begins with Arnold, and the clergy would hardly have ventured on the Vinland voyage to convert Skrælings in an almost deserted country. The later story of the Greenland colonies, interesting as it is, and traceable to the year 1418, is not part of the expansion but of the contraction of Europe and Christendom. And the voyages of the Zeni in 1380-95 to Greenland and the Western islands Estotiland and Drogeo, belong to another part; they are the last achievements of mediæval discovery before Henry of Portugal begins his work, and form the natural end of an introduction to that work. But it is curious to notice that just as the ice and the Esquimaux between them were bringing to an end the last traces of Norse settlement in the Arctic Continent, and just as all intercourse between Vinland, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway entirely ceases--at any rate to record itself--the Portuguese sailors, taking up the work of Eric and Leif and Thorfinn, on another side, were rounding Cape Verde and nearing the southern point of Africa, and so providing for the mind of Columbus suggestions which resulted in the lasting discovery of the world that the Vikings had sighted and colonised, but were not able to hold. The Venetian, Welsh, and Arabic claims to have followed the Norsemen in visits to America earlier than the voyage of 1492, belong rather to the minute history of geographical controversy. It is a fairly certain fact that the north-west line of Scandinavian migration reached about A.D. 1000 to Cape Cod and the coasts of Labrador. It is equally certain that on this side the Norsemen never made any further advance, lasting or recorded. Against all other mediæval discoveries of a Western Continent, one only verdict can stand:--Not Proven. The other lines of Northern advance, though marked by equal daring and far greater military exploits, have less of original discovery. There was fighting in plenty, the giving and taking of hard knocks with every nation from Archangel to Cordova and from Limerick to Constantinople; and the Vikings, as they reached fresh ground, re-named most of the capes and coasts, the rivers and islands and countries of Europe, of North Africa, of Western Asia. Iberia became "Spanland"; Gallicia, "Jacobsland"[18]; Gallia, "Frankland"; Britannia, "England," "Scotland," "Bretland"; Hibernia, "Irland"; Islam, outside "Spanland," passed into "Serkland" or Saracenland. Greece was "Grikland"; Russia, "Gardariki"; the Pillars of Hercules, the Straits of Gibraltar, were "Norva's Sound," which later days derived from the first Northman who passed through them. The city of Constantine was the Great Town--"Miklagard"; Novgorod was "Holmgard," the town of all others that most touched and influenced the earlier, the Viking age, of Northern expansion. For was it not their own proudest and strongest city-state, and "Who can stand before God, or the Great Novgorod?" except the men who had built it, and would rush to sack it if it turned against them? [Footnote 18: From St. James of Compostella.] But all this was only the passing of a more active race over ground which had once been well known to Rome and to Christendom, even if much of this was now being forgotten. It was only in upland Russia and in the farthest North that the Norsemen sensibly enlarged the Western world to east or north-east, as they did through their Iceland settlements on the north-west. On the south and south-west no Vikings or Royalist followers of Vikings, like Sigurd the Crusader, sailed the seas beyond Norva's Sound and Serkland,[19] and as pilgrims, traders, travellers, and conquerors in the Mediterranean, their work was of course not one of exploration. They bore a foremost share in breaking down the Moslem incubus on southern Europe; they visited the Holy sites "When sacred Hierosolyma they'd relievèd And fed their eyes on Jordan's holy flood Which the dear body of Lord God had lavèd";[20] they fought as Varangian body-guards in the armies of the great Byzantines, Nikephoros Phokas, John Tzimiskes, Basil II. or Maniakes; but in all this they discovered for themselves rather than for Europe. [Footnote 19: Unless White Man's Land and Great Ireland are the Canaries. See above, p. 63.] [Footnote 20: Camoëns, _Lusiads_, (Barton's trans.).] But Russia, that is, Old Russia round Novgorod and Kiev, the White Sea, the North Cape and Finland coasts, as well as the more outlying parts of Scotland and Ireland, were first clearly known to Europe through the Northmen. The same race did much to open up the modern Lithuania and Prussia, and the conversion of the whole of Scandinavia, mother country and colonies alike, in the tenth and eleventh centuries added our Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, with all the Viking settlements, to the civilised world and church of Rome. First, on the eastern side, it was in 862 that the Russians invited help from their less dreaded neighbours around Upsala against their more vexatious neighbours around Kiev, and in September of the same year Ruric arrived at Novgorod and founded the Mediæval Kingdom of Russia, which in the tenth century under Oleg, Igor, and Vladimir was first the plunderer, then the open enemy, and finally the ally in faith and in arms of the Byzantine Empire. All through this time and afterwards, till the time of the Tartar deluge, the intercourse of Swedes, Danes, and Northmen with Gardariki was constant and close, and not least in the time of the Vinland voyages, when Vladimir and Jaroslav reigned at Novgorod, and the two Olafs, the son of Trygve and the Saint, found refuge at their court before and after their hard rule in Norway. Olaf Trygveson's uncle had grown old in exile at Novgorod when young Olaf and his mother fled from Norway to join him there and were captured by Vikings in the Baltic and kept six years in the Gulf of Riga before they got to Holmgard (972). In 1019 Ingigerd of Sweden was married to Jaroslav; ten years later St. Olaf was driven from Norway by revolt, and flying into Russia, was offered a Kingdom called Volgaria--the modern Casan, whose old metropolis of Vulghar was known to the Arab travellers of the ninth century, and whose ruins can still be seen. Olaf hesitated between this and a pilgrim's death in Jerusalem and at last preferred to fight his way back to Norway. The next King of the Norsemen, Magnus the Good, came from Novgorod by Ladoga to Trondhjem, when Olaf's son Harold Hardrada fled back to his father's refuge, to the court of Jaroslav; while Magnus had been in exile, men had asked news of him from all the merchants that traded to Novgorod. Last of these earlier kings, Harold Hardrada, during all the time of his wild romance in East and South, before he went to Miklagard, and after his flight, and all the time of his service in the Varangian Guard of the Empress Zoe, made Novgorod his home. His pilgrim relics from Holy Land and his war spoils from Serkland--Africa and Sicily--were all sent back to Jaroslav's care till their master could come and claim them, and when he came at last, flying from Byzantine vengeance across the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov and "all round the Eastern Realm" of Kiev, he found his wealth untouched and Princess Elizabeth ready to be his wife and to help him with Russian men and money to win back Norway and to die at Stamford Bridge for the Crown of England (1066). Harold is the type of all Vikings, of the Norse race in its greatest, most restless energy. William the Conqueror, or Cnut the Great, or Robert Guiscard, or Roger of Sicily, are all greater and stronger men, but there is no "ganger," no rover, like the man who in fifty years, after fighting in well-nigh every land of Christians or of the neighbours and enemies of Christendom, yet hoped for time to sail off to the new-found countries and so fulfil his oath and promise to perfect a life of unmatched adventure by unmatched discovery. He had fought with wild beasts in the Arena of Constantinople; he had bathed in the Jordan and cleared the Syrian roads of robbers; he had stormed eighty castles in Africa; he had succoured the Icelanders in famine and lived as a prince in Russia and Northumberland; by his own songs he boasts that he had sailed all round Europe; but he fell, the prototype of sea-kings like Drake or Magellan, without one discovery. Men of his own nation and time had been before him everywhere, but he united in himself the work and adventures, the conquests and discoveries of many. He was the incarnation of Northern spirit, and it was through the lives and records of such as he that Europe became filled with that new energy of thought and action, that new life and knowledge, which was the ground and impulse of the movement led by Henry the Navigator, by Columbus, and the Cabots. Harold's wars kept him from becoming a great explorer, but Norse captains who took service under peaceful kings did something of what he aimed at doing. We must retrace our steps to the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan under King Alfred about the year 890, about the time when a Norse King, Harold Fair-hair, was first seen in the Scotch and Irish seas. Their discovery of the White Sea, the North Cape, and the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland was followed up by many Norsemen, such as Thorer Hund under St. Olaf, in the next one hundred and fifty years,[21] but Ohthere's voyage was the first and chief of these adventures both in motive and result. [Footnote 21: And a certain number of Viking sailors seem to have preceded Ohthere on his voyage to the Dwina.] "He told his lord King Alfred that he dwelt northmost of all Northmen on the land by the Western Sea and he wished to find how far the land lay right north, or whether any man dwelt north of the waste. So he went right north near the land;--for three days he left the waste land on the right and the wide sea on the left, as far as the whale hunters ever go"; and still he kept north three days more (to the North Cape of Europe). "Then the land bent right east, and with a west wind he sailed four days till the land bent south, and he sailed by it five days more to a great river--the Dwina--that lay up into the land, and where beyond the river it was all inhabited"--the modern country of Perm and Archangel. Here he trafficked with the people, the first he had met, except the Finn hunters, since leaving his fiord. Besides his wish to see the country, he was looking for walrus-ivory and hides. The Finns and Biarma-men (men of Archangel), it seemed to him, spoke nearly the same language, but between his home and this Biarmaland no human being lived in any fixed dwelling, and all the Northman's land was long and narrow and thinly peopled, decreasing in breadth as it stretched northward, from sixty to three days' journey. Again Alfred told how Ohthere, sailing south for a month from his house, having _Ireland_ on his right and coasting Norway all the time on his left, came to Jutland, "where a great sea runs up into the land, so vast that no man can see across it," whence in five days more he reached the coast, "from which the English came to Britain." Wulfstan, in the service of the same king, told him how he sailed in seven days from Sleswick to Truso and the Vistula, having Wendland (or Pomerania and Prussia) on his right all the way. He described "Witland near the Vistula and Estland and Wendland and Estmere and the Ilfing running from the Truso lake into Eastmere," but neither the king nor his captains knew enough to contradict the old idea, found in Ptolemy and Strabo, of Scandinavia as one vast island. Thus it was for the satisfaction of their Saxon Lord that Wulfstan and Ohthere, by their voyages along the coasts of Norway and Lapland, of Pomerania and Prussia, round the White Sea and the Gulf of Riga and southern Finland, added a more coherent view of north-east Europe, and specially of the Baltic Gulf, to Western geography; but these Norse discoveries, though in the service of an English king, were scarcely used save by Norsemen, and they must partly go to the credit of Vikings, as well as of Alfred the Great. Thus in 965 King Harold Grayskin of Norway "went and fought with the folk on the banks of the Dwina," and plundered them, and in 1026 Thorer Hund joined himself to a fleet sent by St. Olaf to the White Sea, pillaged the temple of the idol Jomala, and destroyed his countrymen by treachery on their way home. Where two expeditions are recorded they may well stand for twenty unknown and uneventful ones, and the same must be equally granted as to the gradual advance of knowledge through the unceasing attacks of the Norse kings and pirates on the lands to the south of the Baltic, where lived the Wends. Thus on the west and east, north-west and north-east, the Northmen could and did make a definite advance into the unknown; even the south-west lines of Northern invasion and settlement, though they hardly yield any general results to discovery, certainly led to a more thorough inclusion of every part of the British isles in the civilised West, through the Viking earldoms in Caithness, in the Orkneys and the Shetlands, in Man and the Hebrides, and on the coast of Ireland, where the Ostman colonies grew into kingdoms. From about 840, when the first of these settlements was fairly and permanently started, to the eleventh century, when a series of great defeats,--by Brian Boru at Clontarf in 1014, by Godwine and Harold in England from 1042 to 1066, and by the Norman and Scottish kings in the next generation,--practically destroyed the Norse dominion outside the Orkneys,--for those two hundred years, Danes and Northmen not only pillaged and colonised, but ruled and reorganised a good half of the British isles. By the time of Alfred the Viking principalities were scattered up and down the northern and western coasts of the greater of our two islands, and were fringing three sides of the lesser. About A.D. 900 the pioneer of the Norse kings, Harold Fair-hair, pursued his traitors, first to Shetlands and Orkneys, then to Caithness, the Hebrides, and Man. His son Eric, who followed him, ranged the Northern seas from Archangel to Bordeaux, and so Hakon the Good in 936 and other Norse princes in 946, 961, 965, above all, the two great Kings Olaf in 985-9 and 1009-14, fought and triumphed through most of the world as known to the Northmen. Thus, Frankland, England, Ireland, Scotland were brought into a closer unity through the common danger, while as the sea-kings founded settled states, and these grew by alliance, first with one another and then with their older Christian victims, as the Norse kingdoms themselves became parts of Latin Christendom, after Latin Christendom had itself been revived and re-awakened by their attacks, the full value of the time of trial came out on both sides, to conquered and to conquerors. For the effects--formative, invigorative, provocative,--of the Northern invasions had a most direct bearing on the expansion that was to come in the next age even for those staid and sober Western countries, England and France and Italy, which had long passed through their time of migration, and where the Vikings could not, as in the far north-east and north-west, extend the area of civilisation or geographical knowledge. Lastly, the new start made by England in exploration, and trade, and even in pilgrimage, is plainly the result--in action and reaction--of the Norse and Danish attacks, waking up the old spirit of a kindred race, of elder cousins that had sunk into lethargy and forgotten their seamanship. But from the Peace of Wedmore (878) Alfred first of all began to build an English navy able to meet and chase and run down the Viking keels; then established a yearly pilgrimage and alms-giving at the Threshold of the Apostles in Rome; then sent out various captains in his service to explore as much of the world as was practicable for his new description of Europe. His crowning effort in religious extension was in 883, when Sigehelm and Athelstan bore Alfred's gifts and letters to Jerusalem and to India, to the Christians of San Thomé; the corresponding triumph of the King's scientific exploration, the discoveries in the White Sea and the Baltic, seem to have happened nearer the end of the reign, somewhere before 895. CHAPTER III. THE CRUSADES AND LAND TRAVEL. CIRCA 1100-1300. The pilgrims were the pioneers of the growth of Europe and of Christendom until Charlemagne, in one sense, in another and a broader sense until the Crusades. Their original work, as far as it can be called original at all, was entirely overshadowed by the Vikings, who made real discoveries of the first importance in hunting for new worlds to conquer; but when first the Viking rovers themselves, and then the Northmen, settled in the colonies and the old home, took up Christianity as the Arabs had taken up Islam, the pilgrim spirit was translated, as it were, into new and more powerful forms. Through the conversion of Hungary and of Scandinavia,[22]--Europe, Christian Europe, was compacted together in a stronger Empire than that of Constantine or of Charlemagne--a spiritual federation, not a political unity--one and undivided not in visible subordination, but in a common zeal for a common faith. This was the state of the Latin world, and in a measure of the Greek and Russian world as well, by the middle of the eleventh century, when the Byzantine Emperors had broken the strength of the Eastern Caliphate, and recovered most of the realm of Heraclius; when the Roman Papacy under Leo IX., Hildebrand, and Urban began its political stage, aiming, and in great part successfully aiming, at an Imperial Federation of Europe under religion; when on every side, in Spain, in France, in England, in Germany, and in Italy, the nations that had been slowly built into that _Domus Dei_ were filled with fresh life and purpose from the Norsemen, who, as pirates, or conquerors, or brothers, had settled among them. The long crusade that had gone on for four hundred years in Spain and in southern Italy and in the Levant, which had raged round the islands of the Mediterranean, or the passes of the Alps and Pyrenees, or the banks of the Loire and the Tiber,--was now, on the eve of the first Syrian Crusade of 1096, rapidly tending to decisive victory. Toledo was won back in 1084; the Norman dominion in the Two Sicilies had already taken the place of a weak and halting Christian defence against Arab emirs; pilgrims were going in thousands where there had been tens or units by the reopened land route through Hungary; only in the far East the first appearance of the Turks as Moslem champions,[23] threatened an ebb of the tide. Christendom had seen a wonderful expansion of the Heathen North; now that it had won the Northmen to itself, it was ready to imitate their example. The deliberate purpose of the Popes only gave direction to the universal feeling of restless and abundant energy longing for wider action. But it was not the crusading movement itself which brought so much new light, so much new knowledge of the world, to Europe, as the _results_ of that impulse in trade, in travel, and in colonisation. [Footnote 22: As completed about A.D. 1000-1040.] [Footnote 23: As in 1071, when they crushed Romans and the Byzantines in the battle of Manzikert.] [Illustration: THE TURIN MAP OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] (1) From the eleventh century, from the beginning of this period, all the greater pilgrims, Sæwulf the English-merchant, King Sigurd of Norway, Abbot Daniel of Kiev, and their followers, have something more in view than piety; they have a general interest in travel; some of them a special interest in trade; most of them go to fight as well as to pray. (2) But as the warlike spirit of the Church Militant seems to grow tired, and its efforts at founding new kingdoms--in Antioch, in Jerusalem, in Cyprus, in Byzantium--more and more fruitless, the direct expansion of European knowledge, begins in scientific travel. Vinland and Greenland and the White Sea and the other Norse discoveries were discoveries made by a great race for itself; unconnected as they were with the main lines of trade or with religious sentiment, they were unrealised by the general consciousness of the West. A full account of the Norse voyages to America was lying at the Vatican when Columbus was searching for proofs of land within reach,--of India, as he expected, in the place where he found an unknown continent and a new world. But no one knew of these; even the Greenland colony had been lost and forgotten in the fifteenth century; in 1553 the English sailors reached the land of Archangel without a suspicion that Ohthere or Thorer Hund had been there six hundred years before; Russia from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries was almost out of sight and mind under the Tartar and Moslem rule; but the missionaries and merchants and travellers who followed the crusading armies to the Euphrates, and crept along the caravan routes to Ceylon and the China Sea, added Further and Central Asia--"Thesauri Arabum et divitis Indiæ"--to the knowledge of Christendom. And as this knowledge was bound up with gain; as the Polos and their companions had really opened to the knowledge of the West those great prizes of material wealth which even the Rome of Trajan had never fully grasped, and which had been shared between Arabs and natives without a rival for so long; it was not likely to be easily forgotten. From that time, at the end of the thirteenth century, to the success of the Portuguese on another road, at the end of the fifteenth, European interest was fairly engaged in pressing in upon the old land-routes and getting an ever larger share of their profits. (3) There was another side of the same problem, a still brighter hope for men who could dare to try it. By finding a sea-path to the Indian store-house, mariners like the Venetians and Genoese, or their Spanish pupils, might cut into the treasuries of the world at their very source, found a trade-empire for their country, and gain the sole command of heaven on earth, of the true terrestrial paradise. Then masters of the wealth of the East and of the fighting power of the West, the Christian nations might crush their old enemy, Islam, between two weights, hammer and anvil; might fairly strike for the rule of the entire habitable globe. It was with thoughts of this kind, vaguely inspired by the Crusades and their legacy of discovery from Bagdad to Cathay, that the Vivaldi left Genoa to find an ocean way round Africa in 1281-91, "with the hope of going to the parts of the Indies"; that Malocello reached the Canary Islands about 1270; and that volunteers went on the same quest nearly twenty times in the next four generations before their spasmodic efforts were organised and pressed on to achievement by Henry and his Portuguese (1412-1497). (4) Lastly, the renaissance of Europe in the crusading age was not only practical but spiritual. Science was at last touched and changed by the new life scarcely less than the art of war, or the social state of the towns, or the trade of the commercial republics. And geography and its kindred were not long in feeling some change, though it was very slowly realised and made useful. The first notice of the magnet in the West is of about 1180; the use of this by sailors is perhaps rightly dated from the thirteenth century and the discoveries of Amalphi. But to return. We must trace more definitely the preparation which has been generally described for the work of Prince Henry first in the pilgrim-warriors, and the travellers of the New Age, merchants or preachers or sight-seers, who follow out the Eastern land-routes; next in the seamen who begin to break the spell of the Western Ocean and to open up the high seas, the true high-roads of the world; lastly in the students who most of all, in their maps and globes and instruments and theories, are the trainers and masters and spiritual ancestors of the Hero of Discovery. The first of these classes supplied the matter, the attractions and rewards of the exploring movement; the others may be said to provide the form by which success was reached, genius in seamanship. And the one was as much needed as the other. Human reason did its work so well because of a reasonable hope; men crept round Africa in face of the Atlantic storms because of the golden East beyond. It was as we have seen the land travellers of the twelfth and thirteenth and fourteenth centuries who laid open that golden East to Europe, and added inspiring knowledge to a dream and a tradition. And of these land travellers the first worth notice are Sæwulf of Worcester, Adelard of Bath, and Daniel of Kiev, three of that host of peaceful pilgrims who followed the conquerors of the First Crusade (1096-9). All of these left their recollections and all of them are of the new time, in sharp contrast with the hordes of earlier pilgrims, even the most recent, like Bishop Ealdred of Worcester and York, who crowned William the Conqueror, or Sweyn Godwineson or Thorer Hund, whose visits are all mere visits of penitence. Every fresh conversion of the Northern nations brought a fresh stream of devotees to Italy and to Syria, a fresh revival of the fourth century habit of pilgrimage; but when mediæval Christendom had been formed, and religious passion was more steady and less unworldly, the discoverer and observer blends with the pilgrim in all the records left to us. Sæwulf was a layman and a trader, who went on a pilgrimage (1102), and became a monk at the instance of his confessor, Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester. But though his narrative has been called an immense advance on all earlier guide-books, it ends with the Holy Land and does not touch even the outlying pilgrim sites, in Mesopotamia or Egypt, visited and described by Silvia or Fidelis. Starting some three years after the Latin capture of Jerusalem in 1099, the English traveller takes us up six different routes from Italy to Syria, evidence of the vast development of Mediterranean intercourse and of practical security against pirates, gained very largely since the second millennium began. His own way, by Monopoli, Corfu, Corinth, and Athens, took him to Rhodes "which once had the Idol called Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but destroyed by the Persians, with nearly all the land of Roumania, on their way to Spain. These were the Colossians to whom St. Paul wrote." Thence to Myra in Lycia, "the port of the Adriatic as Constantinople is of the Ægean." Landing at Jaffa, after a sail of thirteen weeks, Sæwulf was soon among the wonders of Jerusalem, that had not grown less since Arculf's day. At the head of the Sepulchre Church was the famous Navel of the Earth, "now called Compas, which Christ measured with his own hands, working salvation in the midst, as say the Psalms." For the same legends were backed by the same texts as in the sixth or seventh century. Going down to the Jordan, "four leagues east of Jericho," Arabia was seen beyond "hateful to all who worship God, but having the Mount whence Elias was carried into Heaven in a chariot of fire." Eighteen days journey from the Jordan is Mount Sinai, by way of Hebron, where "Abraham's Holm Oak" was still standing, and where, as pilgrims said, he "sat and ate with God," but Sæwulf himself did not go outside Palestine, on this side. After travelling through Galilee and noting the House of Saint Archi-Triclin (Saint "Ruler-of-the-Feast"), at Cana, he made his way to Byzantium by sea, escaping the Saracen cruisers and weathering the storms that wrecked in the roads of Jaffa before his eyes some twenty of the pilgrim and merchant fleet then lying at anchor. But not only can we see from this how the religious and commercial traffic of the Mediterranean had been increased by the Crusades; the main lines of that traffic had been changed. Since the Moslem conquest, visitors had mostly come to Palestine through Egypt; the Christian conquest of Syria re-opened the direct sea route as the conversion of Hungary and north-east Europe had re-opened the direct land route one hundred years before (_c._ 1000-1100). The lines of the Danube valley and of the "Roman Sea" were both cleared, and the West again poured itself into the East as it had not done since Alexander's conquest, since the Oriental reaction had set in about the time of the Christian era, rising higher and higher into the full tide of the Persian and Arabian revivals of Asiatic Empire. Among the varied classes of pilgrim-crusaders in Sæwulf's day were student-devotees like Adelard and Daniel from the two extremes of Christendom, England and Russia, Bath and Kiev; northern sea-kings like Sigurd, or Robert of Normandy; even Jewish travellers, rabbis, or merchants like Benjamin of Tudela. All these, as following in the wake of the First Crusade, and for the most part stopping at the high-water mark of its advance, belong to the same group and time and impulse as Sæwulf himself, and are clearly marked off from the great thirteenth century travellers, who acted as pioneers of the Western Faith and Empire rather than as camp-followers of its armies. But except Abbot Daniel (_c._ 1106) and Rabbi Benjamin (_c._ 1160-73) who stand apart, none of our other pilgrim examples of twelfth century exploration have anything original or remarkable about them. Adelard or Athelard, the countryman of Sæwulf and Willibald, is still more the herald of Roger Bacon and of Neckam. He is a theorist far more than a traveller, and his journey through Egypt and Arabia (_c._ 1110-14) appears mainly as one of scientific interest. "He sought the causes of all things and the mysteries of Nature," and it was with "a rich spoil of letters," especially of Greek and Arab manuscripts, that he returned to England to translate into Latin one of the chief works of Saracen astronomy, the Kharizmian tables. We have already met with him in trying to follow the transmission of Greek and Indian geography or world-science through the Arabs to Europe and to Christendom. [Illustration: THE SPANISH-ARABIC MAP OF 1109. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] Abbot Daniel of Kiev in himself is a very ordinary and rather mendacious traveller, a harmless, devout pilgrim, as careless in all matters of fact as Antonine the Martyr. But, as representing the beginnings of Russian expansion, he is of almost unique interest and value. His tract upon the Holy Road is one of the first proofs of his people's interest in the world beyond their steppes, and of that nation's readiness and purpose to expand Christian civilisation in the East as the Franks, after breaking through the Western Moslems, were now doing. Mediæval Russia, Russia before the Tartars, after the Northmen, was now a very different thing from the "people fouler than dogs" of the Arab explorers. The House of Ruric had guided and organised a nation second to none in Europe, till it had fallen into the general lines of Christian development. Jury trial and justices in assize it had taken from the West; its church and faith and architecture, its manners and morals came to it from the court of the Roman Empire on the Bosphorus. Daniel and the other Russians, who passed through that Empire in the age of Nestor for trade or for religion, were the vanguard of a great national and race expansion that is now just beginning to "bestride the world." In 1022 and 1062 two monks of Kiev are recorded, out of a crowd of the unknown, as visitors to Syria, and about 1106, probably through the news of the Frankish conquest, Daniel left his native river, the Snow, in Little Russia, and passed through Byzantium and by way of the Archipelago and Cyprus to Jaffa and Jerusalem, describing roughly in versts or half-miles the whole distance and that of every stage. His tone is much like Sæwulf's and his mistakes are quite as bad, though he tells of "nothing but what was seen with these self-same eyes." The "Sea of Sodom exhales a burning and fetid breath that lays waste all the country, as with burning sulphur, for the torments of Hell lie under it." This, however, he did not see; Saracen brigands prevented him, and he learnt that "the very smell of the place would make one ill." His measurements of distance are all his own. Capernaum is "in the desert, not far from the Great Sea (Levant) and eight versts (four miles) from Cæsarea," half the distance given in the next chapter as between Acre and Haifa, and less than half the breadth of the Sea of Tiberias. The Jordan reminds Daniel of his own river, the Snow, especially in its sheets of stagnant water. Samaria, or "Sebastopol," he confuses with Nablous; Bethshan with Bashan; Lydda with Ramleh; Cæsarea Philippi with the greater Cæsarea on the coast. Not far from Capernaum and the Jordan is "another large river that comes out of the Lake of Gennesaret, and falls into the Sea of Tiberias, passing by a large _town_ called Decapolis." From Mt. Lebanon "six rivers flow east into the Lake of Gennesaret and six west towards great Antioch, so that this is called Mesopotamia, or the land between the rivers, and Abraham's Haran is between these rivers that feed the Lake of Gennesaret." Daniel has left us also an account of his visits to Mar Saba Convent in the Kedron gorge near the Dead Sea, to Damascus in the train of Prince Baldwin, and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to witness the miracle of the Holy Fire, noticed by Bernard the Wise, as a sort of counterpart to the wonder of Beth-Horon, also retold by Daniel "when the sun stood still while Joshua conquered King Og of Bashan." It is not in outlook nor in knowledge nor even in the actual ground traversed that these later pilgrims shew any advance on the chief of the earlier travellers; it is in the new life and movement, in the new hope they give us of greater things than these. This is the interest--to us--in King Sigurd of Norway (1107-11), a Crusader-Norseman in the new age that owed so much of its very life to the Northmen, but who is only to be noticed here as a possible type of the explorer-chief--possible, not actual--for his voyage added nothing definite to the knowledge or expansion of Christendom. His campaign in Jacob's Land or Gallicia, and his attack on Moslem Lisbon, some forty years before it became the head and heart of Portugal, like his exploits in the Balearics, shew us a point in the steady decline of western Islam, and so far may be called a preparation for Prince Henry's work, but properly as a chapter of Portuguese, not of general European, growth. There were many others like Sigurd,--Robert of Normandy, Godric the English pirate, who fought his way through the Saracen fleets with a spear-shaft for his banner, Edgar the Ætheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, the Dartmouth fleet of 1147 which retook Lisbon,--but the Latin conquest of Syria has now brought us past the Crusades, in the narrower sense, to their results, in the exploration of the Further East. The first great name of this time, of our next main chapter of Preparation, is Benjamin of Tudela, but standing as he does well within the earlier age, when the primary interest was the Holy War itself, he is also the last of the Palestine travellers--of those Westerns whose real horizon was the sacred East of Syria. He is a little before the awakening of universal interest in the unknown world, for the Christian Northmen lost with the new definiteness of the new faith much of their old infinite unrest and fierce inquisitive love of wandering, and their spirit, though related to the whole Catholic West by the crusading movement, was not fully realised till the world had been explored and made known, till the men of Europe were at home in every country and on every sea. Benjamin, as a Jew and a rabbi, has the interest of a sectary, and his work was not of a kind that would readily win the attention of the Christian world. So the value of his travels was hidden till religious divisions had ceased to govern the direction of progress. He visited the Jewish communities from Navarre to Bagdad, and described those beyond from Bagdad to China, but he wrote for his own people and none but they seem to have cared about him. What he discovered (_c._ 1160-73) was for himself and for Judaism, and only his actual place in the twelfth century makes him a fore-runner of the Polos or of Prince Henry. We may see this from his hopeless strangeness and confusion in Rome, like a Frank in Pekin or Delhi. "The Church of St. Peter is on the site of the great palace of Julius Cæsar, near which are eighty Halls of the eighty Kings called Emperors from Tarquin to Pepin the father of Charles, who first took Spain from the Saracens.... In the outskirts of the city is the palace of Titus, who was deposed by three hundred senators for wasting three years over the siege of Jerusalem which he should have finished in two." And so on--with the "Hall of Galba, three miles round and having a window for each day in the year," with St. John Lateran and its Hebrew trophies, "two copper pillars from the temple of Solomon, that sweat at the anniversary of the burning of the Temple," and the "statues of Samson and of Absalom" in the same place. So with Sorrento, "built by Hadarezer when he fled before King David," with the old Roman tunnel between Naples and Pozzuoli, "built by Romulus who feared David and Joab," with Apulia, "which is from King Pul of Assyria"--in all this we have as it were Catholic mythology turned inside out, David put into Italy when the West put Trajan at the sources of the Nile. It was not likely that writing of this sort would be read in the society of the Popes and the Schoolmen, the friars and the crusaders, any more than the Buddhist records of missionary travel from China one thousand years before. The religious passion which had set the crusaders in motion, would keep Catholics as long as it might from the Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics they conquered and among whom they settled. But with the final loss of Jerusalem by the Latins, and the overthrow of the Bagdad Caliphate by the Mongol Tartars (1258), the barrier of fanatic hatred was weakened, and Central Asia became an attraction to Christendom instead of a dim horror, without form and void, except for Huns and Turks and demons. The Papal court sent mission after mission to convert the Tartars, who were wavering, as men supposed, between Islam and the Church, and with the first missionaries to the House of Ghenghiz went the first Italian merchants who opened the court of the Great Khan to Venice and to Genoa. As early as 1243 an Englishman is noticed as living among the Western Horde, the conquerors of Russia; but official intercourse begins in 1246 with John de Plano Carpini. This man, a Franciscan of Naples, started in 1245 as the Legate of Pope Innocent IV. to the Tartars, took the northern overland route through Germany and Poland, reached Kiev, "the metropolis of Russia," through help of the Duke of Cracow, and at last appeared in the camp of Batou, on the Volga. Hence by the Sea of Aral, "of moderate size with many islands," to the court of Batou's brother, the Great Khan "Cuyuc" himself, where the Christian stranger found himself one of a crowd of four thousand envoys from every part of Asia (1246). After sixteen months Carpini made his way back by the same route, "over the plains" and through Kiev, to give at Rome the first genuine account of Tartary, in its widest sense, from the Dnieper to China (1247). The great rivers and lakes and mountains of Russia and Turkestan, the position and distribution of the land and its peoples, "even from the Caspian to the Northern Ocean, where men are said to have dogs' faces," are now first described by an honest and clear-headed and keen-eyed observer, neither timid nor credulous. Carpini really begins the reliable western map of Further Asia. His personal knowledge did not reach China or India, but in his _Book of the Tartars_, Europe was told nearly the whole truth, and almost nothing but the truth, about the vast tract and the great races between the Carpathians and the Gobi Desert. In the same was included the first fair account of the manners and history of the "Mongols whom we call Tartars," and the simple truthfulness of the Friar stands out in all the allusions that make his work so human;--his interviews with the Tartar Chiefs and with brother-travellers, his dangers and difficulties from Lettish robbers and abandoned or guarded ferries, his passage of the Dnieper on the ice, his last three weeks on "trotting"[24] hacks over the steppes. [Footnote 24: "_Tartari fecerunt equos nostros trotare._"] We have gone a good way from Abbot Daniel, for in John de Plano Carpini Christian Europe has at last a real explorer, a real historian, a genuine man of science, in the service of the Church and of discovery. Carpini was followed after six years by William de Rubruquis, a Fleming sent by St. Louis of France on the same errand of conversion and discovery (1253), but by a different route, through the Black Sea, and Cherson, over the Don "at the Head of Azov, that divides Europe and Asia, as the Nile divides Asia and Africa," to the great camp on the Volga, "the greatest river I had ever seen, which comes from Great Bulgaria in the north and falls into a lake (the Caspian Sea), that would take four months to journey round." Higher in their course the Don and the Volga "are not more than ten days' journey apart, but diverge as they run south." The Caspian is "made out of the Volga and the rivers that flow into it from Persia." Thence through the Iron Gates of Derbend, between the Caspian and the Caucasus, "which Alexander made to shut the barbarians out of Persia." Helped by a Nestorian, who possessed influence at the Tartar Court, like so many of his Church, Rubruquis reached the "Alps" of the Altai country, where he found a small Nestorian lordship, governed like the Papal States, by a priest, who was at least one original of the great mediæval phantom--Prester John. Crossing the great steppes of eastern "Tartary," "like the rolling sea to look at," Rubruquis at last reached the Mongol headquarters at Caracorum, satisfied on the way that the Caspian had no northern outlet, as Strabo and Isidore had imagined. Thence he made his way home without much fresh result. [Illustration: THE PSALTER MAP OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] Though Rubruquis is well called the most brilliant and literary of the mediæval travellers, his mission was fruitless, and the interest of his work lay rather in recording custom and myth--in sociology--than in adding anything definite to the geographical knowledge of the West. John de Plano had already been over the ground to Caracorum, and recorded all the main characteristics of the lands west of the Gobi Desert. The further advance, east to China, south to India, was yet to come. But while Rubruquis was still among the Tartars, Nicolo and Matteo Polo, the uncles of the more famous Marco, were trading (1255-65) to the Crimea and the districts of southern Russia that were now under the Western Horde,--and soon after, following the caravans to Bokhara, they were drawn on to the court of Kublai Khan, then somewhere near the wall of China. After a most friendly reception they were sent back to Europe with presents and a letter to Pope Clement IV., offering a welcome and maintenance to Christian teachers. Kublai "had often questioned the Polos of the Western lands," and now he asked for one hundred "Latins, to shew him the Christian faith, for Christ he held to be the only God." Furnished with the imperial passport of the Golden Tablet, our merchants made their way back to Acre in April, 1269. They found the old pope dead, Gregory X. in his place, and he shewed a coolness in answering the Khan's requests, but in 1271 they set out on their second journey to the furthest East, taking with them two friar preachers and their nephew Marco, now nineteen years of age. In Armenia the friars took alarm at the troubled state of the nearer East and turned back, just as Augustine of Canterbury tried to find a way out of the mission to the English that Pope Gregory I. laid upon him in 597. For the Church it was perhaps as momentous a time now as then; the thirteenth century, if it had ended in the Christianising of the Mongol Empire, would have turned the Catholic victory of the fourth and sixth centuries in the West, the victory that had been worked out in the next seven hundred years to fuller and fuller realisation, into a world empire,--which did come at last for European civilisation, but not for Christendom. The Polos however kept on their way north-east for more than "one thousand days," three years and a half, till they stood in the presence of Kublai Khan; beyond Gobi and the Great Wall and the mountain barriers of China, in Cambaluc or Pekin, "princess encrowned of cities capital." Their journey was first through Armenia Lesser and Greater, then through Mosul (Nineveh) to Bagdad, where the last "Caliph and Pope of the Saracens" had been butchered by Holgalu and his Tartars, sewn in a sack and thrown into the Tigris by one account, walled up alive by another, in 1258. But though the stories in Marco's journal are a main interest of his work, as a summary and reflection of the science and history and general culture of the Christian world of his time, we must not here look outside his geography. And his first place-note of value is on the Caspian, "which containeth in circuit twenty-eight hundred miles and is like a lake, having no union with other seas and in which are many islands, cities, and castles." The extent of the Nestorian missions, "through all parts of India and to Cairo and Bagdad, and wherever Christians dwell," strikes him even now at the beginning of his travels--much more when he finds their churches on the Hoang Ho and the Yang-Tse-Kiang--declining indeed, but still living to witness to the part which that great heresy had played as an intermediary between the further and the nearer East--a part which history has never yet worked out. Entering Persia as traders, the Polos went naturally to Ormuz, already the great mart of Islam for the Indian trade, where Europeans really entered the third, and, to them, unknown belt of the world, after passing from a zone of known home-land through one of enemies' country, known and only known as such. Failing to take the sea route at Ormuz for China, as they had hoped, our Italians were obliged to strike back north-east, through Persia and the Pamir, the Kashgar district and the Gobi steppes, to Cathay and the pleasure domes of Kublai, visiting Caracorum and the Altai country on the way, by a turn due north. In 1275 they were in Shang-tu, the Xanadu[25] of Coleridge--the summer capital of Kublai Khan--and not till 1292 did they get leave to turn their faces to the West once more. [Footnote 25: In Xanadu did Kublai Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, Through caverns measureless to man, Down to a sacred sea. COLERIDGE: _Kublai Khan_.] Here the Polos became what may be called consulting engineers to the Mongol Court; Marco was even made in 1277 a commissioner of the Imperial Council, and soon after sent upon government missions to Yunnan in extreme south-west China and to Yangchow city. The greater part of Marco's own memoirs is taken up with his account of the thirty-four provinces of the Tartar Empire that centred round the "six parts of Cathay and the nine parts of Mangi," the districts of northern and southern China as we know them,--an account of the roads, rivers, and towns, the trade, the Court and the Imperial Ports, the customs and manner of life among the subject peoples in that Empire, perhaps the largest ever known. Especially do the travellers dwell on the public roads from Pekin or Cambaluc through all the provinces, the ten thousand Royal inns upon the highways, the two hundred thousand horses kept for the public service, the wonderful speed of transit in the Great Khan's embassages, "so that they could go from Pekin to the wall of China in two days." But scarcely less is said about the great rivers--the arteries of Chinese commerce, even more than the caravan routes,--above all, the Yang-Tse-Kiang, "the greatest stream in the world, like an arm of the sea, flowing above one hundred days' journey from its source into the ocean, and into which flow countless others, making it so great that incredible quantities of merchandise are brought by this river. It flows," exclaims Marco, "through sixteen provinces, past the quays of two hundred cities, at one of which I saw at one time five thousand vessels, and there are other marts that have more." The breadth and depth and length and merchandise of the Pulisangan and the Caramaran are only less than the Kiang's; from the point where Marco crossed the second of these, there was not another bridge till it reached the ocean, hundreds of miles away, "by reason of its exceeding greatness." Lastly Pekin, the capital of the Empire, with Quinsai and the other provincial capitals of Mangi and Cathay, call out the unbounded admiration of the Polos as of every other Western traveller, from the Moslem Ibn Batuta to the Christian friars of the fourteenth century. Pekin, two days' journey from the ocean, the residence of the Court in December, January, and February, in the extreme north-east of Cathay, had been lately rebuilt in a "central square of twenty-four miles in compass, and twelve suburbs, three or four miles long, adjoining each of the twelve gates," where merchants and strangers lived, each nation with separate "burses" or store-houses, where they lodged. From this centre to the land of Gog and Magog and the champaign-land of Bargu, the Great Khan travelled every year in midsummer for the fresh air of the plateau country of central Asia, as well as for a better view of the great Russian and Bactrian sub-kingdoms of his House. The six months of spring and autumn were spent in slow progresses through central and southern China to Thibet on one side, and to Tonquin on the other. But greater even than Pekin, Quinsai, or Kansay, the City of Heaven, in southern China, though no longer the capital even of a separate Kingdom of Mangi, was the crowning work of Chinese civilisation. It surpassed the other cities of Kublai, as much as these overshadowed the Rome or Venice of the thirteenth century. "In the world there is not its like, for by common report it is one hundred miles in circuit, with a lake on one side and a river on the other, divided in many channels and upon these and the canals adjoining twelve thousand bridges of stone; there are ten market places, each half a mile square; great store-houses of stone, where the Indian merchants lay by their goods; palaces and gardens on both sides of the main street, which, like all the highways in Mangi, is paved with stone on each side, and in the midst full of gravel, with passages for the water, which keeps it always clean." Salt, silk, fruit, precious stones, and cloth of gold are the chief commodities; the paper money of the Great Khan is used everywhere; all the people, except a few Nestorians and Moslems, are "idolaters, so luxurious and so happy that a man would think himself in Paradise." It was only in recent years that Kublai, or his general, Baian, had captured Quinsai and driven out the King of Mangi with his seraglio and his friends. The exile till then had only thought of pleasure, of wine, women, and song, the "sweet meat which cost him the sour sauce ye have heard," on the approach of danger, had fled on board the ships he had prepared to "certain impregnable isles in the ocean," and if these impregnable islands may be identified with Zipangu or Japan, the conquerors pursued him even here. There is nothing more interesting in Polo's book than his story of the Mongol failure in the Eastern islands, fifteen hundred miles from the coast of Mangi, now first discovered to Christian knowledge. This country of Japan, "very great, the people white, of gentle manners, idolaters in religion, under a King of their own," was attacked by Kublai's fleet in 1264 for the gold they had, and had in such plenty that "the King's house, windows, and floors were covered with it, as churches here with lead, as was reported by merchants--but these were few and the King allowed no exportation of the gold." The expedition was as disastrous a failure as the old Athenian attack upon Sicily, and was not repeated, although fleets were sent by the Great Khan after this into the Southern Seas, which were supposed to have made a discovery of Papua, if not of the Australian Continent. "In this Sea of China, over against Mangi," Marco reported, from hearsay "of mariners and expert pilots, are 7440 islands, most of them inhabited, whereon grows no tree that yields not a pleasant smell--spices, lignum-aloes, and pepper, black and white." The ships of Zaitum (the great Chinese mart for Indian trade) knew this sea and its islands, "for they go every winter and return every summer, taking a year on the voyage, and all this though it is far from India and not subject to the Great Khan." But not only did Polo in these sections of his Guide Book or Memories of Travel, record the main features of a coast and ocean scarcely guessed at by Europeans, and flatly denied by Ptolemy and the main traditional school of Western geography. In his service under Kublai, and in his return by sea to Aden and Suez, he opened up the eight provinces of Thibet, the whole of south-east Asia from Canton to Bengal, and the great archipelago of further India. Four days' journey beyond the Yang-Tse-Kiang, Marco entered "the wide country of Thibet, vanquished and wasted by the Khan for the space of twenty days' journey, and become a wilderness wanting inhabitants, where wild beasts are excessively increased." Here he tells us of the Yak-oxen and great Thibetan dogs as great as asses, of the musk deer, and spices, "and salt lakes having beds of pearls," and of the cruel and bestial idolatry and social customs of the people. Still farther to the south-west, Commissioner Polo came to the Cinnamon river, called Brius, on the borders of the province of Caindu, to the porcelain-making districts of Carazan, governed by Kublai's son, and so to Bengal, "which borders upon India," and where Marco laughs at the tattoo customs of "flesh embroidery for the dyeing of fools' skins." Thence back to China, the richest and most famous country of all the East, where was "peace so absolute that shops could be left open full of wares all night and travellers and strangers could walk day and night through every part, untouched and fearing none." But the Polos wearied even of the Court favours and their celestial home; they longed to come back to earth, to Frankland and Christendom, where life was so rough, and poor, and struggling, but for whose sake they had come so far and braved so much. But the Khan was hurt at the least hint of their wishes, and it was only a fortunate chance that restored them to Europe. Twenty years after their outward start, they were dismissed for a time and under solemn promise of return, as the guides of an embassy in charge of a Mongol bride for a Persian Khan, living at Tabrez and related to Kublai himself. So, in 1292, they embarked for India at Zaitum, "one of the fairest ports in the world, where is so much pepper that what comes by Alexandria to the West is little to it, and, as it were, one of a hundred." Then striking across the Gulf of Cheinan, for fifteen hundred miles, and passing "infinite islands, with gold and much trade,"--a gulf "seeming in all like another world"--they reached Ziambar and, after another run of the same distance, Java, then supposed by mariners to be the greatest island in the world, "above three thousand miles round and under a king who pays tribute to none, the Khan himself not offering to subject it, because of the length and danger of the voyage." One hundred miles south-east the fleet touched at Java the Less "in compass about two thousand miles, with abundance of treasure and spices, ebony, and brazil, and so far to the south that the North Star cannot be seen, and none of the stars of the Great Bear." Here they were in great fear of "those brutish man eaters," with whom they traded for victuals and camphire and spices and precious stones, being forced to stay for five months by stress of weather--till they got away into the Bay of Bengal, the extreme point of European knowledge until this time, "where there are savages living in the deep sea islands with dogs' heads and teeth, as I was told, all naked, both men and women, and living the life of beasts (Andamans)."[26] [Footnote 26: Probably the Andamans.] Sailing hence a thousand miles to the west, adds Marco, is Ceylon, "the finest island in the world, 2400 miles in circuit, and once 3600, as is seen in old maps, but the north winds have made great part of it sea." Again west for sixty miles, to Malabar, "which is firm continent in India the Greater," and where the Polos re-entered as it were the horizon of Western knowledge, at the shrine of St. Thomas, the Apostle of India. Here we must leave the Venetians, with only a bare mention of their homeward route from Malabar by Murfili and the Valley of Diamonds, by Camari, where they had a glimpse of the Pole-Star once more, and by Guzerat and Cambay to Socotra, where Marco, in his stay, heard and wrote down the first news ever brought to Europe of the "great isle Magaster," or Madagascar, and of Zensibar or Zanzibar.[27] [Footnote 27: This new knowledge had been really gained from the gradual spread of the Arab settlements down the south-east coast of Africa, during four centuries, from Guardafui, the Cape of spices, to the Channel of Mozambique.] Of Polo's account of Hindu customs,--self-immolation and especially Suttee, of Caste, of the Brahminical "thread with one hundred and four beads by which to pray"; of their etiquette in eating, drinking, birth, marriage, and death--only the simple fact can be noticed here, that the first serious and direct Christian account of India, as of China, is also among the most accurate and well judged, and that both in what he says and what he leaves unsaid, Messer Marco is a true Herodotus of the Middle Ages. But not only does his account discover for Europe the extreme east and south of Asia; in his last chapter he returns to the Tartars, and after adding a few words on the nomades of the central plains, gives us our first "Latin" account of Siberia, "where are found great white bears, black foxes, and sables; and where are great lakes, frozen except for a few months in the year, and crossed in sledges by the fur-traders." Beyond this the Obscure Land reaches to the furthest North, "near which is Russia, where for the most of winter the sun appears not, and the air is thick and dark as betimes in the morning with us, where the men are pale and squat and live like the beasts, and where on the East men come again to the Ocean Sea and the islands of the Falcons." The work of Marco Polo is the high-water mark of mediæval land travel; the extension of Christendom after him was mainly by the paths of the sea; the Roman missions to the Tartars and to Malabar, vigorously and stubbornly pressed as they were, ended in unrelieved collapse; only by the revolt and resurrection of the Russian kingdom did the European world permanently and markedly expand on the side of Asia. But a crowd of missionaries followed the first traders to Cathay and to Mangi--Friar Odoric, John de Monte Corvino, John de Cora; statesmen like Marignolli the Papal Legate, sight-seers like Mandeville followed these; Bishop Jordanus of Capua worked for years in Coulam near Cape Comorin (_c._ 1325-35); the martyrdom of four friars on April 1, 1322, at Tana, in India, became one of the great commemorations of the Latin Church; there seemed no cause why Christian missions which had won north and north-east Europe should not win central and eastern Asia, whose peoples seemed as indifferent, as agnostic, as our own Norse or English pagans. "The fame of the Latins," says Jordanus, about 1330--and he is borne out by Marino Sanuto--"is greater in India than among ourselves. Here our arrival is always looked for, and said to be predicted in their books. Once gain Egypt and launch a fleet even of two galleys on this sea and the battle is won." As Egypt could not be gained by arms, it was turned by seamanship. Before Polo returned from China, the coasting of Africa had begun, and Italian mariners were already in search of the longer way to the East. But there is no work of land travel after that of Messer Marco which really adds anything decisive to European knowledge before the fifteenth century; the advance of trade intercourse between India and the Italian Republics, the gradual liberation of Russia the use made of the caravan routes by some of the most active of the Western clergy, are the chief notes of the time between the Polos and Prince Henry; and the flimsy fabrications of Mandeville--"of all liars that type of the first magnitude"--would be fairly left without a word even in a minute history of discovery, if he had not, like Ktesias with Herodotus, won a hearing for himself and drawn men's minds away from the truth-telling original that he travestied, by the sheer force of impudence. The Indian travels of the Italian Nicolo Conti and the Russian merchant Athanasius Nikitin belong to a later time, to the age of the Portuguese voyages; they are not part of the preparation for our central subject, they are only a somewhat obscure parallel to that subject. For in the later Middle Ages the chief interest lies elsewhere. The expansion of Christendom in the fourteenth century, and still more in the fifteenth (Prince Henry's own), is the story of the ventures and the successes, not so much of landsmen, as of mariners. CHAPTER IV. MARITIME EXPLORATION. CIRCA 1250-1410. Italian, Catalan, French, and English sailors were the forerunners of the Portuguese in the fourteenth century, and the latter years of the thirteenth. And as in land travel, so in maritime, the republics of Italy, Amalphi, Pisa, Venice, and Genoa, were the leaders and examples of Europe. Just as the Italian Dante is the first great name in the new literatures of the West, so the Italian Dorias and Vivaldi and Malocelli are the first to take up again the old Greek and Phoenician enterprise in the ocean. Since Hanno of Carthage and Pharaoh Necho's Tyrians, there had been nothing in the nature of a serious trial to find a way round Africa, and even the knowledge of the Western or Fortunate Islands, so clear to Ptolemy and Strabo, had become dim. The Vikings and their crusader-followers had done nothing south of Gibraltar Straits. [Illustration: THE S.W., OR AFRICAN SECTION OF THE HEREFORD MAP. C. 1275-1300. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] But while the Crusades were still dragging along a weary and hopeless warfare under St. Louis of France and Prince Edward of England, discovery began again in the Atlantic. In 1270 Lancelot Malocello found the Canaries; in 1281 or 1291 the Genoese galleys of Tedisio Doria and the Vivaldi, trying to "go by sea to the ports of India to trade there," reached Gozora or Cape Non in Barbary, the southern Ultima Thule, and according to a later story "sailed the Sea of Ghinoia (Guinea) to a city of Æthiopia," where even legend lost sight of them, for in 1312 nothing more had been heard. From the frequent and emphatic references to this attempt in the literature of the later Middle Ages, it is clear that the daring Genoese drew upon themselves the attention of the learned and mercantile worlds, as much as one would naturally expect. For these men are the pioneers of Christian explorations in the southern world--the precursors of all the ocean voyages that led to the discoveries of Prince Henry, Da Gama, Columbus, and Magellan,--the first who directly challenged the disheartening theories of geographers, such as Ptolemy, the inaction and traditionalism of the Arabs, and the elaborate falsities of story tellers, who, in the absence of real knowledge, had a grand opening for terrible fairy tales. The first age, if so it may be called, of South Atlantic and African voyages was purely Italian; the second was chiefly marked by the efforts of the Spanish States to equip fleets and send out explorers under Genoese captains. In 1317 the Genoese Emmanuel Pessanha became Admiral of Portugal; in 1341 three ships manned by Portuguese and "other Spaniards" with some Italians put out from Lisbon in search of Malocello's "Rediscovered" islands, granted by the Pope to Don Luis of Spain in a Bull of November 15, 1334, and now described, from the original letters of Florentine merchants and partners in the venture of 1341, by Boccaccio. "Land was found on the fifth day after leaving the Tagus" (July 1); the fleet stayed till November, and then brought back four natives and products of the islands. The chief pilot thought these were near nine hundred miles from Seville, and we may fully suppose that the archipelago of thirteen, now first explored and described, represents the Fortunate Islands of Greek geography, the Canaries of modern maps, and that the five chief islands with their naked but not quite savage people, with excellent wood houses, and flocks of goats, palms, and figs, gardens and corn patches, rocky mountains and pine forests, were our Ferro, Palma, Gomera, Grand Canary, and Teneriffe. The last they took to be thirty thousand feet high, with its white scarped sides looking like a fortress, but terrified at signs of enchantment they did not dare to land, and returned to Spain, leaving the Islands of the Rediscovered to be visited as a convenient slave depot by merchants and pirates from the Peninsula till the Norman Conquest of Béthencourt in 1402. The voyage of 1341 gained much by attempting little; the Catalan voyage of 1346, which followed close upon it, was something of a return to the wilder and larger schemes of the first Genoese. On August 10, 1346, Jayme Ferrer left Majorca "to go to the River of Gold," but of the said galley, says the Catalan map of 1375, no news has since been heard. On the same map, however, the explorers' boat is sketched off the "Cape Finisterre of west Africa," and there is, after all, some ground for supposing this to be nothing more than a mercantile venture to the Gold Coast of Guinea, which was becoming known to the traders of Nismes, Marseilles, and the Christian Mediterranean by the caravan traffic across the Sahara. Even Prince Henry began in the same way; Guinea was his half-way house for India. About the same date (_c._ 1350) as the Catalan voyage is the Book of the Spanish Friar, "of the voyage south to the River of Gold," which gives a more than half fabulous story of travel, first by sea beyond Capes Non and Bojador, then by land across the heart of Africa to the Mountains of the Moon, the city of Melli, where dwelt Prester John, and "the Euphrates, which comes from the terrestrial Paradise," where behind some real notes of Barbary coasting, perhaps gained from the Catalans of 1346, there is little but a confused transcript of Edrisi's geography. Yet this was one of the books which helped to fix the notion of a double Nile, Northern and Western, a Nile of Egypt and a Nile of the Blacks, with a common source in the Mountains of the Moon, upon the Christian science of the time, as the Arab geographers had fixed it upon Islam. The next piece of Atlantic exploration was a romantic accident. In the reign of Edward III., an Englishman named Robert Machin eloped with Anne d'Arfet from Bristol (_c._ 1370), was driven from the coast of France by a north-east wind, and after thirteen days sighted an island, Madeira, where he landed. His ship was swept away by the storm, his mistress died of terror and exhaustion, and five days after Machin was laid beside her by his men, who had saved the ship's boat and now ran her upon the African coast. They were enslaved, like other Christian captives of the Barbary corsairs, but in 1416 a fellow-prisoner, one Morales of Seville, an old pilot, was ransomed with others and sent back to Spain. On his way Morales was captured by a Portuguese captain, Zarco, the servant of Prince Henry, the rediscoverer of Madeira, and through this the full story of Machin and his island, came to be known in the court of the Navigator Prince, who promptly made his gain of the new knowledge a lasting one, by the voyage of Zarco in 1420. Last among the immediate predecessors of Prince Henry's seamen come the French. In the seventeenth century it was claimed, on newly found evidence, that between 1364 and 1410 the men of Dieppe and Rouen opened a regular trade in gold, ivory, and malaguette pepper with the coast of Guinea, and built stations at Petit Paris, Petit Dieppe, and La Mine, which they named from the precious metal found there. But all this is more than doubtful, and the genuine Norman voyage of De Béthencourt in 1402 shows us nothing but the Canaries and the north-west coast of Morocco. Cape Non, or Cape Bojador, was still the European Furthest on the African coast. The French Seigneur was stirred up to attack the Fortunate Islands by two events. First in 1382 one Lopez, a captain of Seville sailing to Gallicia, was driven by a tempest to Grand Canary, and lived among the natives seven years till he and his men were denounced for writing home and inviting rescue. To stop this intrigue they, the "thirteen Christian brothers" whose testament reached Béthencourt twelve years later, were all massacred. News of this and of the voyage of a Spaniard named Becarra to the same islands at the same time, reached Rochelle about 1400, and found several French adventurers ready for a trial. The chief of these, Jean de Béthencourt, Lord of Grainville, and Gadifer de la Salle, a needy knight, started in July, 1402, to conquer in the sea a new kingdom for themselves. Though the leaders quarrelled and Grand Canary beat off all attacks, the enterprise was successful in the main, and several of the islands became Christian colonies,--a first step towards the colonial empires of the great European expansion, as the record of Béthencourt's chaplains is the first chapter of modern colonial history. But nothing is clearer in this tract than its limitations. The French colonists as late as 1425 seem to know nothing of the African coast beyond Cape Bojador; they look upon the Canaries rather as an extension of Spain and of Europe than as the beginning of a new world. They are anxious to get to the River of Gold and traffic there, but they do not know the way, save by report. De Béthencourt had been to Bojador himself, and "if things in that country are such as they are described in the Book of the Spanish Friar," he meant to open a way to the River of Gold, for, the Friar says, "it is only one hundred and fifty leagues from Cape Bojador, and the map proves the same--which is only a three days' voyage for sailing boats--whereby access would be gained to the land of Prester John, whence come so many riches." But as yet our Normans are only "eager to know the state of the neighbouring countries, both islands and _terra firma_:" they do not know the coast beyond the "Utmost Cape" of Bojador, which had taken the place of the first Arab Finisterre, Cape Non,[28] Nun, or Nam, as the limit of navigation. [Footnote 28: Cape Non = Fish Cape. But Latini took it as = Not, "from the fact that beyond it there is _no_ return possible." And so the rhyme "Who pass Cape Non--Must turn again, _or else begone_" (lit. "_or not_," _i.e._, will not be able to return).] We are now at the very time of Prince Henry himself; his first voyage was in 1412. De Béthencourt died in 1425, and it is quite needless to follow out at length the stories, however interesting, of sporadic navigation in other parts of the European Seas. Between 1380-95 the Venetian Zeni sailed in the service of Henry Sinclair, Earl of the Orkneys, to Greenland, and brought back fisher stories, which read like those of Central America, of its man-eating Caribs and splendid barbarism. Somewhat earlier, about 1349, Ivar Bardsen of Norway paid one of the last of Christian visits to the Arctic colonies of Greenland, the legacy of the eleventh century, now sinking into ruin; but neither of these voyages gives us any new knowledge of the Unknown which was now being pierced, not from the North and East, but from the South and West. Both in land travel and sea voyages we have traced the progress of Western exploration and discovery up to its Hero, the real central figure both in the history of Portugal and of the European expansion. A little remains to be said on the other lines of preparation for his work in scientific theory and national development from the Age of the Crusades. CHAPTER V. GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE IN CHRISTENDOM FROM THE FIRST CRUSADES. CIRCA 1100-1460. Before the Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the scientific geography of Christendom, as we have seen, was mainly a borrowed thing. From the ninth century to the time of the Mediæval and Christian Renaissance, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, the Arabs were the recognised heirs of Greek science, and what Franks or Latins knew of Ptolemy or Strabo was either learnt or corrected in the schools of Cordova and Bagdad. But when the Northmen and the Holy War with Islam had once thoroughly aroused the practical energies of Christendom, it began to expand in mind as well as in empire, and in the time of Prince Henry, in the fifteenth century, a Portuguese could say: "Our discoveries of coasts and islands and mainland were not made without foresight and knowledge. For our sailors went out very well taught, and furnished with instruments and rules of _astrology_ and geometry, things which all mariners and map-makers must know." [Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MARINO SANUTO. C. 1306. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] In fact, compass, astrolabe, timepiece, and charts, were all in use on the Mediterranean about 1400, just as they were to be found among the Arab traders of the Indian Ocean. In this section it will be enough to glance hastily at the later and growingly independent science of Christendom, from the time that it ceased merely to follow the lead of Islam, and thought and even invented for itself. In another chapter we have seen something of the lasting and penetrating influence of Greek and Moslem and Hindu tradition upon the Western thought, which has conquered by absorbing all its rivals; we must not forget that some original self-reliant work in geographical theory not less than in practical exploration is absolutely needed to explain the very fact of Prince Henry and his life--a student's life, far more even than a statesman's. And after all, the invention of instruments, the drawing of maps and globes, the reckoning of distances, is not less practical than the most daring and successful travel. For navigation, the first and prime demand is a means of safety, some power of knowing where you stand and where to go, such as was given to sailors by the use of the magnet. "Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalphis," says Beccadelli of Palermo, but the earliest mention of the "Black ugly stone" in the West is traced to an Englishman. Alexander Neckam, a monk of St. Albans, writing about 1180 on "The Natures Of Things," tells us of it as commonly used by sailors, not merely as the secret of the learned. "When they cannot see the sun clearly in cloudy weather, or at night, and cannot tell which way their prow is tending, they put a Needle above a Magnet which revolves till its point looks North and then stops." So the satirist, Guyot de Provins, in his _Bible_ of about 1210, wishes the Pope were as safe a point to steer by in Faith as the North Star in sailing, "which mariners can keep ahead of them, without sight of it, only by the pointing of a needle floating on a straw in water, once touched by the Magnet." It might be supposed from this not merely that the magnet was in use at the end of the twelfth century, but that it had been known to a few _savants_ much earlier; yet when Dante's tutor, Brunetto Latini, visits Roger Bacon at Oxford about 1258, and is shown the black stone, he speaks of it as new and wonderful, but certain, if used, to awake suspicion of magic. "It has the power of drawing iron to it, and if a needle be rubbed upon it and fastened to a straw so as to swim upon water, the needle will instantly turn towards the Pole-Star. But no master mariner could use this, nor would the sailors venture themselves to sea under his command if he took an instrument so like one of infernal make." [Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF DULCERT'S PORTOLANO OF 1339. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] It was possibly after this that the share of Amalphi came in; it may have been Flavio Gioja, or some other citizen of that earliest commercial republic of the Middle Ages, which filled up so large a part of the gap between two great ages of progress, who fitted the magnet into a box, and by connecting it with the compass-card, made it generally and easily available. This it certainly was before Prince Henry's earliest voyages, where he takes its use for granted even by merchant coasters, "who, beyond hugging the shore, know nothing of chart or needle." In any case it would seem that prejudice was broken down, and the mariner's compass taken into favour, at least by Italian seamen and their Spanish apprentices, in the early years of the fourteenth century, or the last years of the thirteenth, and that when the Dorias set out for India by the ocean way in 1291, and the Lisbon fleet sailed for the western islands in 1341, they had some sort of natural guide with them, besides the stories of travellers and their own imaginings. About the same time (_c._ 1350) mathematics and astronomy began to be studied in Portugal, and two of Henry's brothers, King Edward and the Great Regent Pedro, left a name for observations and scientific research. Thus Pedro, in his travels through most of Christendom, collected invaluable materials for discovery, especially an original of Marco Polo and a map given him at Venice, "which had all the parts of the earth described, whereby Prince Henry was much furthered." Good maps indeed were almost as valuable to him as good instruments, and they are far clearer landmarks of geographical knowledge. There are at least seven famous charts (either left to us or described for us) of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, which give a pretty clear idea of what Henry's own age and his father's thought and knew of the world--some of which we believe to have been used by the Prince himself, and each of which follows some advance in actual exploration. First of all comes the Venetian map of Marino Sanuto, drawn about 1306, and putting into map-form the ideas that inspired the first Italian voyages in the Atlantic. On this the south of Africa is washed by the sea as the Vivaldi had hoped to find it, but the old story of a central zone "uninhabitable from the heat" still finds a place, helping to keep up the notion of the Tropical Seas, "always kept boiling by the sun," that held its own so long. Besides this, in Sanuto's map there is no evidence that anyone had really been coasting Africa; Henry is not anticipated and can hardly have been much helped by this very hypothetical leap in the dark. But the Florentine map of 1351, called the Laurentian Portolano, is to all appearance a record of the actual discoveries of 1341 and 1346, and a wonderful triumph of guess-work if it is nothing better. For Africa is not only made an island, but the main outline of its coast is fairly drawn; in its western corner the headlands, bays, and rivers are laid down as far as Bojador, and the three groups of Atlantic islands, Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, appear together for the first time. Beyond this names grow scarce, and on the great indent of the Gulf of Guinea, enormously exaggerated as it is, there is nothing to show for certain any past discovery, which suggests that this map was made for two purposes. First, to record the results of recent travel; secondly, and chiefly, to put forward geographical theories based upon tradition and inference, what men of old had told and what men of the present could fancy. Long after the Italian leadership in exploration had passed westward, Italian science kept control of geographical theory; the Venetian maps of the brothers Pizzigani in 1367, and of the Camaldolese convent at Murano in 1380 and 1459, and the work of Andrea Bianco in 1436 and 1448, are the most important of mediæval charts, after the Laurentian, and along with these must be reckoned that mentioned above as given in 1425-8 to Henry's brother, Don Pedro, on his visit to Venice. This treasure has disappeared, but it was said by men of Henry's day and aftertime, who saw it in the monastery of Alçobaça, to show "as much or more discovered in time past than now." If their account is even an approach to the truth, it was in itself proof sufficient of the supremacy and almost monopoly of Italians in geographical theory. With 1375 and the Catalan map of that year, which specially refers to the Catalan voyage of 1346 and may be taken as one result of the same, we come to Spanish parallels; but until the death of Henry in 1460, Italian draughtsmen were in possession, and Fra Mauro's great map of 1459, the evidence and result, in great measure, of the Navigator's work, could only be drawn by Venetians for the men whose discoveries it recorded. But there is one other point in Italian map-science which is worth remembering. At a time when most schemes of the world were covered with monsters and legends, when cartography was half mythical and half miscalculated, the coasting voyagers of the Mediterranean had brought their _Portolani_ or sea charts to a very different result. And how was this? Did they get right, as it were, by chance? "They never had for their object," says the great Swedish explorer and draughtsman, Baron Nordenskjold, "to illustrate the ideas of some classical author, of some learned prelate, or the legends and dreams of feats of Chivalry within the Court circle of some more or less lettered feudal lord." They were simply guides to mariners and merchants in the Mediterranean seaports; they were seldom drawn by learned men, and small enough, in return, was the attention given them by the learned geographers, the men of theory, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But these plans of practical seamen are a wonderful contrast in their almost present-day accuracy to the results of theory let loose, as we see them in Ptolemy and the Arabian geographers, and in such fantastics as the Hereford Mappa Mundi, so well known in England. Map-sketches of this sort, were unknown to Greeks and Romans, as far as we can tell. The old Peripli were sailing directions, not drawn but written, and the only Arabian coast-chart known to us was copied from an Italian one. But from the opening of the twelfth century, if not before, the western Mediterranean was known to Christian seamen--to those at least concerned in the trade and intercourse of the great inland sea,--by the help of these practical guides. [Illustration: THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO OF 1351. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] From the middle of the thirteenth century, when the use of the compass began on the coasts of southern Europe, the Portolani began to be drawn with its aid, and by the end of the same century, by the time of our Hereford map (_c._ 1300), these charts had reached the finish that we see and admire in those left to us from the fourteenth century. For, of the 498 specimens of this kind of practical map now left to us, there is not one of earlier date than the year 1311. Among these specimens not merely the mass of materials, but the most important examples, not merely 413 out of 498, but all the more famous and perfect of the 498 are Italian. The course begins with Vesconte's chart, of the year 1311, and with Dulcert's of 1339, and the outlines of these two are faithfully reproduced, for instance, in the great Dutch map of the Barentszoons (_c._ 1594), for the type once fixed in the fourteenth century, recurs steadily throughout the fifteenth, and sixteenth. The type was so permanent because it was so reliable; every part of the Mediterranean coast was sketched without serious mistake or disproportion, even from a modern point of view, while the fulness and detail of the work gave everything that was wanted by practical seamen. Of course this detail was in the coast lines, river mouths, and promontories; it only touched the land features as they touched the seas. For the Portolani were never meant to be more than mariners' charts, and became less and less trustworthy if they tried to fill up the inland spaces usually left blank. For this, we must look to the highest class of mediæval theoretical maps, those founded on Portolani, but taking into their view land as well as water and coast line. And such were the celebrated examples[29] we have noticed already. [Footnote 29: _Of_ 1306, 1351, 1367, 1375, 1380, 1436, 1448, 1459.] * * * * * NOTE.--It was a man of theory, Raymond Lulli (1235-1315), of Majorca, the famous Alchemist, who is credited with the first suggestion of the idea of seeking a way to India by rounding Africa on the West and South. CHAPTER VI. PORTUGAL TO 1400. 1095-1400. Henry the Navigator is the Hero of Portugal, as well as of discovery, the chief figure in his country's history, as well as the first leader of the great European expansion; and the national growth of three hundred years is quite as much a part of his life, quite as much a cause of his forward movement, as the growth of Christendom towards a living interest in the unknown or half-known world around. The chief points of interest in the story of Portugal are first the stubborn restless independence of the people, always rising into fresh vigour after a seeming overthrow, and secondly their instinct for seamanship, which Henry was able to train into exploring and colonising genius. There was no physical justice in the separate nationality of the Western Kingdom of Lisbon any more than of the Eastern Kingdom of Barcelona. Portugal[30] was essentially part of Spain, as the United Provinces of William of Orange were essentially part of the Netherlands; in both cases it was only the spirit and endurance of the race that gave to some provincials the right to become a people, while that right was denied to others. [Footnote 30: See Note 1, page 137.] And Portugal gained that right by a struggle of three hundred years, which was first a crusade against Islam; then a war of independence against brother Christians of Castille; last of all a civil strife against rebels and anarchists within. In the twelfth century the five kingdoms of Spain were clearly marked off from the Moslem States and from one another; by the end of the fifteenth there is only the great central Realm of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the little western coast-kingdom of Emanuel the Fortunate, the heir of Prince Henry. Nations are among our best examples of the survival of the fittest, and by the side of Poland and Aragon we may well see a meaning in the bare and tiresome story of the mediæval kingdom of Portugal. The very fact of separate existence means something for a people which has kept on ruling itself for ten generations. Though its territory was never more than one fourth of the peninsula, nor its numbers more than one third of the Spanish race--from the middle of the twelfth century, Portugal has stood alone, with less right to such independence from any distinction of place or blood, than Ireland or Navarre, fighting incessantly against foes without, from north, east, and south, and keeping down the still worse foes of its own household. [Illustration: N.W. SECTION OF THE CATALAN MAP OF 1375-6. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] But the meaning of the growth of the Portuguese power is not in its isolation, its stubbornly defended national distinction from all other powers, but in its central and as it were unifying position in modern history--as the guide of Europe and Christendom into that larger world which marks the real difference between the Middle Ages and our own day. For Henry the Navigator breathed into his countrymen the spirit of the old Norse rovers, that boundless appetite for new knowledge, new pleasures, new sights and sounds, which underlay the exploration of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries--the exploration of one half of the world's surface, the finding of a new continent in the south and in the west, and the opening of the great sea-routes round the globe. The scientific effects of this, starting from the new proof of a round world won by a Portuguese seaman, Magellan; and the political effects, also beginning with the first of modern colonial empires, founded by Da Gama, Cabral, and Albuquerque, are too widespread for more than a passing reference in this place, but this reference must be connected with the true author of the movement. For if the industrial element rules modern development; if the philosophy of utility, as expressing this element, is now our guide in war and peace; and if the substitution of this for the military spirit[31] is to be dated from that dominion in the Indian seas which realised the designs of Henry--if this be so, the Portuguese become to us, through him, something like the founders of our commercial civilisation, and of the European empire in Asia. [Footnote 31: W.H. Lecky, _Rationalism_.] By the opening years of the fifteenth century, Portugal--in a Catholic rather than a Classical Renaissance--had already entered upon its modern life, some three generations before the rest of Christendom. But its mediæval history is very much like that of any other of the Five Spanish Kingdoms. Like the rest, Portugal had joined in driving the Moors from the Asturias to Andalusia, in the two hundred years of successful Western Crusade (1001-1212). In the same time, between the death of the great vizier Almanzor, the last support of the old Western Caliphate (1001), and the overthrow of the African Moors, who had supplanted that Western Caliphate,--between those two points of Moslem triumph and Christian reaction, the Portuguese kingdom had been formed out of the County granted in 1095 by Alfonso VI. of Leon to the free-lance Henry of Burgundy. For the next three hundred years (1095-1383), under his descendants who reigned as kings in Guimaraëns or Lisbon, we may trace a gradual but chequered national rise, to the Revolution of 1383 with two prominent movements of expansion and two relapses of contraction and decline. First comes the formation of a national spirit by Count Henry's widow Donna Theresa and her son Affonso Henriquez, who from a Lord of Coimbra and Oporto, dependent on the Kingdom of Gallicia or of Leon, becomes the first free King of Portugal. His victories over the Moors in taking Lisbon (1147) and winning the day of Ourique (1139), are followed by the first wars with Castille and by the time of quiet organisation in his last years under the regency of his son Sancho, the City Builder. The building and planting of Sancho is again followed by the first relapse, into the weakness of Affonso II., and the turbulent minority of Sancho II. Constitutional troubles begin with the First Sancho's quarrel with Innocent III. and with the appearance of the first national Cortés under Chancellor Julian. The second forward movement starts with Affonso III., "of Boulogne," who saves the kingdom from anarchy and conquers the Algarves, on the south coast, from Islam; who first organises the alliance of Crown and people against nobles and clergy, and, in the strength of this, defies the interdict of Urban IV. Diniz, his bastard son, for whose legitimation he had made this same struggle with Rome, follows Affonso III., in 1279, and with him begins the wider life of Portugal, her navy and her literature, her agriculture, justice, and commerce. The second relapse may be dated from the Black Death (1348), which threatened the very life of the nation, and left behind a sort of chronic weakness. National spirit seemed worn out; Court intrigue and political disaster the order of the day; the Church and Cortés alike effete and useful only against themselves. But in the revival under a new leader, John, the father of Prince Henry, and a new dynasty--the House of Aviz--and its "Royal Race of Famous Infants," in the years that follow the Revolution of 1383, the older religious and crusading fervour is joined with the new spirit of enterprise, of fierce activity, and the Portugal thus called into being is a great State because the whole nation shares in the life and energy of a more than recovered liberty. Before the age of King Diniz, before the fourteenth century, there is little enough in the national story to suggest the first state-profession of discovery and exploration in Christian history. But we must bring together a few of the suggestive and prophetic incidents of the earlier time, if we are to be fully prepared for the later. (1.) Oporto, the "port" of Gallicia, from the formation of the county or "march" of Henry of Burgundy, seems to have given the district its name of "Portugallia," at one time as a military frontier against Islam, then as an independent State, lastly as an imperial Kingdom. Also, as the earliest centre of Portugal was a harbour, and its earliest border a river, there was a sort of natural, though slumbering, fitness for seamanship in the people. (2.) Again, in the alliance of the Crown with the towns, first formed by Count Henry's wife Theresa in her regency after his death, 1114-28, and renewed by her grandson Sancho, the City Builder, and by Affonso III., the "Saviour of the Kingdom," we have an early example of the power of that class, which was the backbone of the great movement of expansion, when the meaning of this was fairly brought home to them. (3.) In the capture of Lisbon, in 1147, by Affonso Henriquez, Theresa's son, at the head of the allied forces of native militia and northern Crusaders--Flemish, French, German, and English--we have brought clearly before us, not merely the facts of the gain of a really great city by a rising Christian State, not merely the result of this in the formation of a kingdom out of a county, but the more general connection of the crusading spirit with the new nations of Europe. Portugal is the most lasting monument of crusading energy; it was this that strengthened the "Lusitanians" to make good their stand both against the Moors and against Castille; and it was this which brought out the maritime bent of the little western kingdom, and drew out its interest on the one and only side where that could be of great and general usefulness. The Crusades without and the policy of statesmen within, we may fairly say, made the Portuguese ready to lead the expansion of Christendom, made possible the work of Henry the Navigator. The foreign help given at Lisbon in 1147 was only a repetition on a grand scale of what had long been done on a smaller, and it was offered again and again till the final conquest of the southern districts, between Cape St. Vincent and the Guadiana (_c._ 1250), left the European kingdom fully formed, and the recovery of Western Spain from the Moslem had been achieved. [Illustration: Chart of the Mediterranean Sea by WILLEM BARENTSZOON. Engraved in copper 1595. Almost unaltered copy of a Portolano from the 14th century. (Orig. size 418 x 855 m.m.). (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] (4.) And when the Crusading Age passed away, it left behind an intercourse of Portugal with England, Flanders, and the North Sea coasts, which was taken up and developed by Diniz and the kings of the fourteenth century, till under the new Royal House of Aviz, in the boyhood of Henry the Navigator, this maritime and commercial element had clearly become the most important in the State, the main interest even of Government. So, from the first mercantile treaty of 1294, between the traders of Lisbon and London, we feel ourselves beyond the mere fighting period, and before the death of Diniz (1325), there is a good deal more progress in the same direction. The English treaty of exchange is followed by similar ones with France and with Flanders, while for the protection of this commerce, as well as to prove his fellowship or his rivalry with the maritime republics of Italy, Diniz,[32] the "Labourer King," built the first Portuguese navy, founded a new office of state for its command, and gave the post to a great Genoese sailor, Emanuel Pessanha, 1317. With the new Lord High Admiral begins the Spanish-Italian age of ocean voyages, and the rediscovery of the Canaries in 1341 is the first result of the alliance. In 1353 the old treaty of 1294 is enlarged and safeguarded by fresh clauses signed in London, as if to guard against future trouble in the dark days then hanging over Portugal. [Footnote 32: See Note 2, page 137.] For the next generation (1350-1380), the national politics are bound up with Spanish intrigues and lose nearly all reference to that larger world, to which the kingdom was recalled by the Revolution of 1383, the overthrow of Castille on the battle-field of Aljubarrota, and the accession of John of Aviz. Once more intensely, narrowly national, one might almost say provincial, in peninsular matters, Portugal then returned to its older ambition of being, not a make weight in Spanish politics, but a part of the greater whole of commercial and maritime Europe. Almost ceasing to be Spanish, she was, by that very transfer of interest from land to sea, fitted for her special part,-- "to open up those wastes of tide No generation openèd before." It was through a love affair that the crisis came about. Ferdinand the Handsome, the last of the House of Burgundy to reign in Lisbon, became the slave of the worst of his subjects, the evil genius of himself and his kingdom, Leonora Telles. For her sake he broke his marriage treaty with Castille (1372), and brought down the vengeance of Henry of Trastamara, whom the Black Prince of England had fought and seemed to conquer at Navarette, but who in the end had foiled all his enemies--Pedro the Cruel, Ferdinand of Portugal, and Prince Edward of Creçy and Poictiers. For Leonor's sake Ferdinand braved the great riot of the Lisbon mob, when Fernan Vasquez the Tailor led his followers to the palace, burst in the gates, and forced from the King an oath to stand by the Castilian marriage he had contracted. For her sake he broke his word to his artisans, as he had broken it to his nobles and his brother monarch. Leonor herself the people hunted for in vain through the rooms and corridors of the palace; she escaped from their lynch law to Santarem. The same night Ferdinand joined her. Safe in his strongest fortress, he gathered an army and forced his way back into the capital. The mob was scattered; Vasquez and the other leaders beheaded on the spot. Then at Oporto, without more delay, the King of Portugal married his paramour, in the face of her husband, of Castille, and of his own people. "Laws are nil," said the rhyme, "when kings will," but though nobles and people submitted in the lifetime of Ferdinand, the storm broke out again on his death in October, 1383. During the last ten years the Queen had practically governed, and the kingdom seemed to be sinking back into a province of Spain. Ferdinand's bastard brother, John, Master of the Knights of Aviz, and father of Henry the Navigator, was the leader of the national party, and Leonor had in vain tried to get rid of him, silent and dangerous as he was. She forged some treasonable letters in his name, and procured his arrest; then as the King would not order him to execution without trial, she forged the warrant, too, and sent it promptly to the Governor of Evora Castle, where the Master lay in prison. But he refused to obey without further proof, and John escaped to lead the national restoration. On the death of Ferdinand his widow took the regency in the name of her daughter Beatrice, just married to the King of Castille. It was only a question of time, this coming subjection of Portugal, unless the whole people rose and made monarchy and government national once more. And in December, 1383, they did so. Under John of Aviz the patriots cut to pieces the Queen's friends, and made ready to meet her allies from Castille. On the battle field of Aljubarrota (August 14, 1385), the struggle was decided. Castille was finally driven back, and the new age, of the new dynasty, was fairly started. The Portuguese people under King John I. and his sons Edward, Pedro, Henry, and Ferdinand, passed out of the darkness of their slavery into the light and life of their heroic age. [Illustration: WEST FRONT OF THE MONASTERY CHURCH OF BATALHA WHERE PRINCE HENRY LIES BURIED.] The founder of the House of Aviz, John, the King of Good Memory, is the great transition figure in his country's history, for in his reign the age of the merely European kingdom is over, and that of discovery and empire begins. That is, the limits of territory and of population, as well as the type of government and of policy, both home and foreign, secured by his victory and his reign, are permanent in themselves, and as the conditions of success they lie at the root of the development of the next hundred years. Even the drift of Portuguese interests, seawards and southwards, is decided by his action, his alliance with England, his encouragement of trade, his wars against the Moors. For, by the middle of his reign, by the time of the Ceuta conquest (1415), his third son, Prince Henry, had grown to manhood. Yet, King John's personal work (1383-1433) is rather one of settlement and the providing of resources for future action than the taking of any great share in that action. His mind was practical rather than prophetic, common-sense rather than creative; but in his regeneration of the Court and trade and society and public service of the kingdom, he fitted his people to play their part, to be for a time the "very foremost men of all this world." First of all, he founded a strong centralised monarchy, like those which marked the fifteenth century in France and England and Russia. The spirit, the aim of Louis XI., of the Tudors, of Ivan III., was the same as that of John I. of Portugal--to rule as well as govern in every department, "over all persons, in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil, within their dominions supreme." The Master of Aviz had been the people's choice; the Lisbon populace and their leaders had been among the first who dared to fight for him; but he would not be a simple King of Parliaments. He preferred to reign with the help of his nobles. For though he distrusted feudalism, he dreaded Cortés still more. So, while in most of the new monarchies of Europe the subjection or humiliation of the baronage was a primary article of policy, John tried to win his way by lavish gifts of land, while resolutely checking feudalism in government, curtailing local immunities, and guarding the liberties of the towns against noble usurpers. We shall see the results of this in the life of Prince Henry; at present there is only space to notice the general fact. The other lines of John's home government--his reform of criminal procedure, his sanction of the vernacular in legal and official business in place of Latin, his attempt to publish the first collection of Portuguese laws, his settlement of the Court in the true national capital of Lisbon--are only to be linked with the life of his son, as helping one and all of them towards that conscious political unity on which Henry's work was grounded. The same was the result of his foreign policy, which was nothing more than the old state-rules of Diniz. Systematic neutrality in Spain and a commercial alliance with England and the northern nations, were but the common-sense securities of the restored kingdom; but they played another part than one of mere defence, in drawing out the seamanship and worldly knowledge, and even the greed of Portuguese traders. In the marts of Bruges and London, "the Schoolmasters of Husbandry to Europe," Henry's countrymen met the travellers and merchants of Italy and Flanders and England and the Hanse Towns, and gained some inkling of the course and profits of the overland trade from India and the further East, first as in Nismes and Montpellier they saw the Malaguette pepper and other merchandise of the Sahara and Guinea caravans. The Windsor and Paris treaties of 1386 and 1389; the marriage of John himself with Philippa, daughter of old "John of Gaunt, time-honoured" and time-serving "Lancaster," and the consequent alliance between the House of Aviz and the House of our own Henry IV., are proofs of an unwritten but well understood Triple Alliance of England, Flanders, and Portugal, which had been fostered by the Crusades and by trade and family politics. And through this friendship had come into being what was now the chief outward activity of Portuguese life, an interest in commerce, which was the beginning of a career of discovery and colonisation. Lastly, besides good government, besides saving the kingdom and keeping it safely in the most prosperous path, Portugal owed to King John and his English wife the training of their five sons, Edward the Eloquent, Pedro the Great Regent, Henry the Navigator, John the Constable, Ferdinand the Saint--the cousins of our own Henry V., Henry of Azincourt. Edward, the heir of John the Great and his unfortunate successor (1433-8), unlucky as most literary princes, but deserving whatever courage and honesty and the best gifts can deserve, was a good ruler, a good son, a good brother, a good lawyer, and one of the earliest writers in his own Portuguese. As a pupil of his father's great Chancellor, John of the Rules, he has left a tract on the _Ordering of Justice_; as a king, two others, on _Pity_ and _A Loyal Councillor_; as a cavalier, _A Book of Good Riding_. Still more to our purpose, he was always at the side of his brother Henry, helped him in his schemes and brought his movement into fashion at a critical time, when enterprise seemed likely to slacken in the face of unending difficulties. But the Navigator's right-hand man was his next brother Pedro the Traveller, who, after visiting all the countries of Western Europe and fighting with the Teutonic knights against the heathen Prussians, brought back to Portugal for the use of discovery that great mass of suggestive material, oral and written, in maps and plans and books, which was used for the first ocean voyages of Henry's sailors. On his judgment and advice, more than of any other man, Henry relied, and after Edward's death it was due to him as Regent that the generous support of the past was more than kept up, that so many ships and men were found for the rounding of Cape Verde, and that Edward's son and heir Affonso V., was trained in the mind of his father and his uncle, to be their successor in leading the expansion of Portugal and of Christendom. [Illustration: AISLE IN BATALHA CHURCH CONTAINING THE TOMBS OF HENRY AND HIS BROTHERS.] John and Ferdinand, Henry's two younger brothers, are not of much importance in his work, though they were both of the same rare quality as the elder Infantes, and the worst disaster of Henry's life, the Tangier campaign, is closely bound up with the fate of "Fernand the Constant Prince," but as we pass from the earlier story of Portugal to the age of its great achievements, it would be hard to doubt or to forget that the mother of the Navigator was also of some account in the shaping of the heroes of her house. Through her at least the Lusitanian Prince of Thomson's line is half an Englishman: "The Lusitanian prince, who, Heaven-inspired, To love of useful glory roused mankind, And in unbounded commerce mixed the world." [NOTE 1.--The Old Roman Lusitania, but with a wider stretch on the North, and a narrower stretch on the East. So the Portuguese are "Lusians," "Lusitanians," etc., in poetry. _Cf._ Camoëns, _Lusiads_.] [NOTE 2.-- What Diniz willèd He ever fulfillèd --said the popular rhyme.] CHAPTER VII. HENRY'S POSITION AND DESIGNS AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST VOYAGES, 1410-15. Then from ancient gloom emerged The rising world of trade: the genius then, Of Navigation, held in hopeless sloth, Had slumbered on the vast Atlantic deep For idle ages, starting, heard at last The Lusitanian Prince, who, Heaven-inspired, To love of useful glory roused mankind, And in unbounded commerce mixed the world. THOMSON, _Seasons, Summer, 1005-1012_. The third son of John the Great and of Philippa was the Infant Henry, Duke of Viseu, Master of the Order of Christ, Governor of the Algarves, born March 4, 1394, who might have travelled from Court to Court like his brother Pedro, but who refused all offers from England, Italy, and Germany, and chose the life of a student and a seaman,--retiring more and more from the known world that he might open up the unknown. After the capture of Ceuta, in 1415, he planted himself in his Naval Arsenal at Sagres, close to Lagos town and Cape St. Vincent, and for more than forty years, till his death in 1460, he kept his mind upon the ocean that stretched out from that rocky headland to the unknown West and South. Twice only for any length of time did he come back into political life; for the rest, though respected as the referee of national disputes and the leader and teacher of the people, his time was mainly spent in thinking out his plans of discovery--drawing his maps, adjusting his instruments, sending out his ships, receiving the reports of his captains. His aims were three: to discover, to add to the greatness and wealth of Portugal, and to spread the Christian Faith. (1.) First of all, he was trying to find a way round Africa to India for the sake of the new knowledge itself and for the power which that knowledge would give. As his mind was above all things interested in the scientific question, it was this side which was foremost in his plans. He was really trying to find out the shape of the world, and to make men feel more at home in it, that the dread of the great unknown round the little island of civilised and habitable world might be lightened. He was working in the mist that so long had hung round Christendom, chilling every enterprise. Thus the whole question of the world and its shape, its countries and climates, its seas and continents, on every side of practical exploration, was bound to be before Prince Henry as a theorist; the practical question which he helped to solve was only a part of this wider whole. Did this Africa stretching opposite to him in his retreat at Sagres never end till it reached the Southern pole, or was it possible to get round into the Eastern ocean? Since Ptolemy's map had held the field, it had been heresy to suppose this; but in the age of Greek and Phoenician voyages it had been guessed by some, and perhaps even proved by others. The Tyrians whom Pharaoh Necho sent down the Red Sea more than six hundred years before Christ, brought back after three years a story of their finding Africa an island, and so returning by the west and north through the Straits of Gibraltar. The same tradition, after a long time of discredit, was now reviving upon the maps of the fourteenth century, and, in spite of the terrible stories of the Arabs, Henry was able in the first years of the fifteenth to find men who would try the forlorn hope of a direct sea-route from Europe to the Indies. We have seen how far the charts and guide-books of the time just before this had advanced Christian knowledge of the world; how the southern coastline of Asia is traced by Marco Polo, and how even Madagascar is named, though not visited, by the same traveller; the Florentine map of 1351 proves that a fairly true guess of the shape of Africa could be made even before persistent exploration began with Henry of Portugal; the Arab settlements on the east coast of Africa and their trade with the Malabar coast, though still kept as a close monopoly for Islam, had thoroughly opened up a line of navigation, that was ready, as it were, for the first Europeans who could strike into it and press the Moorish pilots into a new service. Discovery was thus anticipated when the coasts of West and South had once been rounded. Beyond this, the vague knowledge of the Guinea coast already gained through the Sahara Caravan Trade was improved by the Prince himself, during his stay at Ceuta, into the certainty that if the great western hump of Africa beyond Bojador could be passed, his caravels would come into an eastern current, passing the gold and ivory coast, which might lead straight to India, and at any rate would be connected by an overland traffic with the Mediterranean. (2.) Again, Henry was founding upon his work of exploration an empire for his country. At first perhaps only thinking of the straight sea-passage as the possible key of the Indian trade, it became clearer with every fresh discovery that the European kingdom might and must be connected by a chain of forts and factories with the rich countries for whose sake all these barren coasts were passed. In any case, and in the eyes of ordinary men, the riches of the East were the plain and primary reason of the explorations. Science had its own aims, but to gain an income for its work it must promise some definite gain. And the chief hope of Henry's captains was that the wealth now flowing by the overland routes to the Levant would in time, as the prize of Portuguese daring, go by the water way, without delay or fear of plunder or Arab middlemen, to Lisbon and Oporto. This would repay all the trouble and all the cost, and silence all who murmured. For this Indian trade was the prize of the world, and for the sake of this Rome had destroyed Palmyra, and attacked Arabia and held Egypt, and struggled for the mastery of the Tigris. For the same thing half the wars of the Levant had been waged, and by this the Italian republics, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, had grown to greatness. (3.) Lastly, Henry was a Crusader with Islam and a missionary with the heathen. Of him fully as much as of Columbus, it may be said, that if he aimed at an empire, it was a Christian one, and from the time of the first voyages his captains had orders not merely to discover and to trade, but to convert. Till his death he hoped to find the land of Prester John, the half-true, half-fabulous Christian Priest-King of the outer world, so long cut off from Christendom by the Mohammedan states. At this time many things were drawing western Europe towards the East and towards discovery. The progress of science and historic knowledge, the records and suggestions of travellers, the development of the Christian nations, the position of Portugal and the spirit of her people,--all these lines met, as it were, in Henry's time and nation and person, and from that meeting came the results of Columbus and Da Gama and Magellan. In the earlier chapters we have tried to trace the preparation along these slowly converging paths, for the discoveries of the fifteenth century. We started with that body of knowledge and theory about the world which the Roman Empire bequeathed to Christendom, and which in the earlier Middle Ages was worked upon by the Arabs, and we gained some idea, from the sayings of Moslem geographers and from the doings of Moslem warriors, of the hindrance as well as of the help that Islam gave to European expansion. We saw that during the great struggle of Christianity and of the old Order with barbarism, the chief energy of our Western world in discovery or extension of any sort took the shape of pilgrimage. Then, as time went on, it was possible to see that the Saracens, who had begun as destroyers in the South, were acting as teachers and civilisers upon Europe, and that the Vikings, who as pirates in the North seemed raised up to complete the ruin of Latin civilisation, were really waking it into a new activity. In the Crusades this activity, which had already founded the kingdom of Russia on one side and touched America on the other, seemed to pass from the Northern seamen into every Christian nation and every class of society, and with the conversion of the Northmen their place as the discoverers and leaders of the Christian world fitted in with the other movements of Mediterranean commerce and war and devotion. Even the pilgrims of the Crusading Age were now no longer distinctive: they were often, as individuals, members of other classes, traders, fighters, or travellers who, after gaining a firm foothold in Syria, began the exploration of the further East. The three great discovering energies of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries--in land-travel, navigation, and science--were all seen to be results, in whole or in part, of the Crusades themselves, and in following the more important steps of European travel and trade and proselytism from the Holy Land to China, it became more and more evident that this practical finding out of the treasures of Cathay and the Indies was the necessary preparation for the attempts of Genoese and Portuguese to open up the sea route as another and a safer way to the source of the same treasures. Lastly, the intermittent and uncertain ventures of the fourteenth-century seamen, Italian, Spanish, French, or English, to coast round Africa or to find the Indies by the Southern route--to reach a definite end without any clear plan of means to that end--and the revival in theoretical geography, which was trying at the same time to fill up the gaps of knowledge by tradition or by probability--seemed to offer a clear contrast and a clear foreshadowing also of Prince Henry's method. Even his nearest forerunners, in seamanship or in map-making[33] were strikingly different from himself. They were too much in the spirit of Ptolemy and of ancient science; they neglected fact for hypothesis, for clever guessing, and so their work was spasmodic and unfruitful, or at least disappointing. [Footnote 33: Except the draughtsmen of the Portolani.] It was true enough that each generation of Christian thought was less in fault than the one before it; but it was not till the fifteenth century, till Henry had set the example, that exploration became systematic and continuous. To Marco Polo and men like him we owe the beginnings of the art and science of discovery among the learned; to the Portuguese is due at least the credit of making it a thing of national interest, and of freeing it from a false philosophy. To find out by incessant and unwearying search what the world really was, and not to make known facts fit in with the ideas of some thinker on what the world ought to be, this we found to be the main difference between Cosmas or even Ptolemy and any true leader of discovery. For a real advance of knowledge, fancy must follow experiment, and no merely hypothetical system or Universe as shewn in Holy Scripture, would do any longer. We have come to the time when explorers were not Ptolemaics or Strabonians or Scripturists, but Naturalists--men who examined things afresh, for themselves. These various objects are all involved in the one central aim of discovery, but they are not lost in it. To know this world we live in and to teach men the new knowledge was the first thing, which makes Henry what he is in universal history; his other aims are those of his time and his nation, but they are not less a part of his life. And he succeeded in them all; if in part his work was for all time and in part seemed to pass away after a hundred years, that was due to the exhaustion of his people. What he did for his countrymen was realised by others, but the start, the inspiration, was his own. He persevered for fifty years (1412-60) till within sight of the goal, and though he died before the full result of his work was seen, it was none the less his due when it came. We find these results put down to the credit of others, but if Columbus gave Castille and Leon a new world in 1492, if Da Gama reached India in 1498, if Diaz rounded the Cape of Tempests or of Good Hope in 1486, if Magellan made the circuit of the globe in 1520-2, their teacher and master was none the less Henry the Navigator. CHAPTER VIII. PRINCE HENRY AND THE CAPTURE OF CEUTA. 1415. We have seen how the kingdom of Portugal itself was almost an offspring of the Crusades. They had left behind them a thirst for wealth and for a wider life on one side, and a broken Moslem power on the other, which opened the way and stirred the enterprise of every maritime state. We know that Lisbon had long been an active centre of trade with the Hanse Towns, Flanders, and England. And now the projected conquest of Ceuta and the appeal of the conqueror of Aljubarrota for a great national effort found the people prepared. A royal prince could do what a private man could not; and Portugal, more fully developed than any other of the Christian kingdoms, was ready to expand abroad without fear at home. Even before the conquest of Ceuta, in 1410 or 1412, Henry had begun to send out his caravels past Cape Non, which had so long been with C. Bojador the Finisterre of Africa. The first object of these ships was to reach the Guinea coast by outflanking the great western shoulder of the continent. Once there, the gold and ivory and slave trade would pass away from the desert caravans to the European coasters. Then the eastern bend of Africa, along the bights of Benin and Biafra, might be followed to the Indies, if this were possible, as some had thought; if not, the first stage of the work would have to be taken up again till men had found and had rounded the Southern Cape. The outflanking of Guinea proved to be only a part of the outflanking of Africa, but it was far more than half the battle; just as India was the final prize of full success, so the Gold Coast was the reward of the first chapter in that success. But of these earlier expeditions nothing is known in detail; the history of the African voyages begins with the war of 1415, and the new knowledge it brought to Henry of the Sahara and the Guinea Coast and of the tribes of tawny Moors and negroes on the Niger and the Gambia. In 1414, when Edward was twenty-three, Pedro twenty-two, and Henry twenty, King John planned an attack on Ceuta, the great Moorish port on the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar. The three princes had all asked for knighthood; their father at first proposed to celebrate a year of tournaments, but at the suggestion of the Treasurer of Portugal, John Affonso de Alemquer, he decided on this African crusade instead. For the same strength and money might as well be spent in conquests from the Moslem as in sham-fights between Christians. So after reconnoitring the place, and lulling the suspicions of Aragon and Granada by a pretence of declaring war against the Count of Holland, King John gained the formal consent of his nobles at Torres Vedras, and set sail from Lisbon on St. James' Day, July 25, 1415, as foretold by the dying Queen Philippa, twelve days before. [Illustration: KING JOHN THE GREAT AND QUEEN PHILIPPA. FROM THEIR TOMB AT BATALHA.] That splendid woman, who had shared the throne for eight and twenty years, and who had trained her sons to be fit successors of her husband as the leaders of Portugal and the "Examples of all Christians," was now cut off by death from a sight of their first victories. Her last thought was for their success. She spoke to Edward of a king's true vocation, to Pedro of his knightly duties in the help of widows and orphans, to Henry of a general's care for his men. On the 13th, the last day of her illness, she roused herself to ask "What wind was blowing so strong against the house?" and hearing it was the north, sank back and died, exclaiming, "It is the wind for your voyage, that must be about St. James' Day." It would have been false respect to delay. The spirit of the Queen, the crusaders felt, was with them, urging them on. By the night of the 25th of July the fleet had left the Tagus; on the 27th the crusaders anchored in the bay of Lagos and mustered all their forces: "33 galleys, 27 triremes, 32 biremes, and 120 pinnaces and transports," carrying 50,000 soldiers and 30,000 mariners. Some nobles and merchant adventurers from England, France, and Germany took part. It was something like the conquest of Lisbon over again; a greater Armada for a much smaller prey. On the 10th of August they were off Algeziras, still in Moorish hands, as part of the kingdom of Granada, and on the 12th the lighter craft were over on the African coast; a strong wind nearly carried the heavier into Malaga. Ceuta, the ancient Septa,[34] once repaired by Justinian, was the chief port of Morocco and a centre of commerce for the trade routes of the South and East, as well as a centre of piracy for the Barbary corsairs. It had long been an outpost of Moslem attack on Christendom; now that Europe was taking the offensive, it would be an outpost of the Spanish crusade against Islam. [Footnote 34: City of "Seven" Hills, as some have derived it.] The city was built on the ordinary model, in two parts: a citadel and a port-town, which together covered the neck of a long peninsula running out some three miles eastward from the African mainland, and broadening again beyond the eastern wall of Ceuta into a hilly square of country. It was here, just where the land began to spread and form a natural harbour, that the Portuguese had planned their landing, and to this point Prince Henry, with great trouble, brought up the heavier craft. The strong currents that turned them off to the Spanish coast, proved good allies of the Europeans after all. For the Moors, who had been greatly startled at the first signs of attack, and had hurried to get all the help they could from Fez and the upland, now fancied the Christian fleet to be scattered once for all, and dismissed all but their own garrison; while the Portuguese had been roused afresh to action by the fiery energy of King John, Prince Henry, and his brothers. On the night of the 15th of August, the Feast of the Assumption, the whole armada was at last brought up to the roads of Ceuta; Henry anchored off the lower town with his ships from Oporto, and his father, though badly wounded in the leg, rowed through the fleet in a shallop, preparing all his men for the assault that was to be given at daybreak. Henry himself was to have the right of first setting foot on shore, where it was hoped the quays would be almost bared of defenders. For the main force was brought up against the castle, and every Moor would rush to the fight where the King of Portugal was leading. While these movements were being settled in the armada, all through that night Ceuta was brilliantly lighted up, as if _en fête_. The Governor in his terror could think of nothing better than to frighten the enemy with the show of an immensely populous city, and he had ordered a light to be kept burning in every window of every house. As the morning cleared and the Christian host saw the beach and harbour lined with Moors, shouting defiance, the attack was begun by some volunteers who forgot the Prince's claim. One Ruy Gonsalvez was the first to land and clear a passage for the rest. The Infantes, Henry and Edward, were not far behind, and after a fierce struggle the Moslems were driven through the gate of the landing-place back to the wall of the city. Here they rallied, under a "negro giant, who fought naked, but with the strength of many men, hurling the Christians to the earth with stones." At last he was brought down by a lance-thrust, and the crusaders forced their way into Ceuta. But Henry, as chief captain on this side, would not allow his men to rush on plundering into the heart of the town, but kept them by the gates, and sent back to the ships for fresh troops, who soon came up under Fernandez d'Ataide, who cheered on the Princes. "This is the sort of tournament for you; here you are getting a worthier knighthood than you could win at Lisbon." Meantime the King, with Don Pedro, had heard of Henry's first success while still on shipboard, and ordered an instant advance on his side. After a still closer struggle than that on the lower ground, the Moors were routed, and Pedro pressed on through the narrow streets, just escaping death from the showers of heavy stones off the house tops, till he met his brothers in a mosque, or square adjoining, in the centre of Ceuta. Then the conquerors scattered for plunder, and came very near losing the city altogether. But for the dogged courage of Henry, who twice broke up the Moslem rally with a handful of men, at last holding a gate on the inner wall between the lower town and the citadel, "with seventeen, himself the eighteenth," Ceuta would have been lost after it had been gained. Both Henry and Pedro were reported dead. "Such is the end a soldier must not fear," was all their father said, as he stayed by the ships under the lee of the fortress, waiting, like Edward III. at Creçy, for what his sons would do. But towards evening it was known throughout the army that the Princes were safe, that the port-town had been gained, and that the Moors were slipping away from the citadel. Henry, Edward, and Pedro held a council, and settled to storm the castle next morning; but after sunset a few scouts, sent out to reconnoitre, reported that all the garrison had fled. It was true. The Governor, who had despaired all along of holding out, was no sooner beaten out of the lower city than he set the example of a strategic movement up the country, and when the Portuguese appeared at the fortress gate with axes and began to hew it down, only two Moors were left inside. They shouted out that the Christians might save themselves that trouble, for they would open it themselves, and the standard of St. Vincent, Patron of Lisbon, was planted, before dark came, upon the highest tower of Ceuta. King John offered Henry, for his gallant leadership, the honours of the day and the right to be knighted before his brothers, but the Prince, who had offered at the beginning of the storm to resign his command to Edward, as the eldest, begged that "those who were before him in age might have their right, to be first in dignity as well," and the three Infantes received their knighthood in order of birth, each holding in his hands the bare sword that the Queen had given him on her deathbed. It was the first Christian rite held in the great Mosque of Ceuta, now purified as the Cathedral, and after it the town was thoroughly and carefully sacked from end to end. The plunder, of gold and silver and gems, stuffs and drugs, was great enough to make the common soldiers reckless of other things. The "great jars of oil and honey and spices and all provisions" were flung out into the streets, and a heavy rain swept away what would have kept a large garrison in plenty. The great nobles and the royal Princes took back to Portugal some princely spoils. Henry's half-brother, now Count of Barcellos, afterwards more famous and more troublesome as Duke of Braganza, chose for his share some six hundred columns of marble and alabaster from the Governor's palace. Henry himself gained in Ceuta a knowledge of inland Africa, of its trade routes and of the Gold Coast, that encouraged him to begin from this time the habit of coasting voyages. His earlier essays in exploration had been attempts, like the unconnected and occasional efforts of Spanish and Italian daredevils. It is from this year that continuous ocean sailing begins; from the time of his stay in Ceuta, Henry works steadily and with foresight towards a nearer goal well foreseen, a first stage in his wider scheme which had been traversed by men he had known and talked with. They had come into Ceuta from Guinea over the sea of the desert; he would send his sailors to _their_ starting-point by the longer way, over the desert of the sea. Thus the victory at Ceuta is not without a very direct influence on our subject; and for the same reason, it was important that the conquerors, instead of razing the place, decided to hold it. When most of the council of war were for a safe and quick return to Portugal, one noble, Pedro de Menezes, a trusted friend of Henry's, struck upon the ground impatiently a stick of orange-wood he had in his hands. "By my faith, with this stick I would defend Ceuta from every Morisco of them all." He was left in command, and thus kept open, as it were, to Europe and to the Prince's view, one end of a great avenue of commerce and intercourse, which Henry aimed at winning for his country. When his ships could once reach Guinea, the other end of that same line was in his hands as well. [Illustration: GATEWAY OF THE CHURCH OF THE ORDER OF CHRIST AT THOMAR.] The King and the Princes left Ceuta in September of the same year (Sept. 2, 1415), but Henry's connection with his first battle-field was not yet over. Menezes found after three years' sole command, that the Moors were pressing him very hard. The King of Granada had sent seventy-four ships to blockade the city from the sea, and the troops of Fez were forcing their way into the lower town. Henry was hurriedly sent from Lisbon to its relief, while Edward and Pedro got themselves ready to follow him, if needed, from Lagos and the Algarve coast. But Ceuta had already saved itself. As the first succours were sailing through the Straits of Gibraltar, Menezes contrived to send them word of his danger; the Berbers on the land side had mastered Almina, or the eastern part of the merchant town, while the Granada galleys had closed in upon the port itself. At this news Henry made the best speed he could, but he was only in time to see the rout of the Moors. Menezes and the garrison made a desperate sally directly they sighted the relief coming through the straits; the same appearance struck a panic into the enemy's fleet, and only one galley stayed on the African coast to help their landsmen, who were thus left alone and without hope of succour on the eastern hills of the Ceuta peninsula, cut off by the city from their Berber allies. When Henry landed, Almina had been won back and the last of the Granada Moslems cut to pieces. From that day Ceuta was safe in Christian hands. But the Prince, after spending two months in the hope that he might find some more work to do in Africa, planned a daring stroke in Europe. Islam still owned in Spain the kingdom of Granada, too weak to reconquer the old Western Caliphate, but too strong, as the last refuge of a conquered and once imperial race, to be an easy prey of the Spanish kingdoms. And in that kingdom, Gibraltar, the rock of Tarik, was the most troublesome of Moorish strongholds. The Mediterranean itself was not fully secured for Christian trade and intercourse while the European Pillar of the Western straits was a Saracen fort. If Portugal was to conquer or explore in northern Africa, Gibraltar was as much to be aimed at as Ceuta. Both sides of the straits, Calpe and Abyla, must be in her hands before Christendom could expand safely along the Atlantic coasts. So Henry, in the face of all his council, determined to make the trial on his voyage back to Lisbon. But a storm broke up the fleet, and when it could be refitted and re-formed, the time had gone by, and the Prince obeyed his father's repeated orders and returned at once to Court. For his gallantry and skill in the storm of Ceuta, he had been made Duke of Viseu and Lord of Covilham, when King John first touched his own kingdom--after the African campaign--at Tavira, on the Algarve coast. With his brother Pedro, who shared his honours as Duke of Coimbra and Lord of the lands henceforward known as the Infantado or Principality, Henry thus begins the line of Dukes in Portugal, and among the other details of the war, his name is specially joined with that of an English fleet which he had enrolled as a contingent of his armada while recruiting for ships and men in the spring of 1415. In the same way as English crusaders had passed Lisbon just in time to aid in its conquest by Affonso Henriquez, the "great first King" of Portugal in 1147, so now twenty-seven English ships on their way to Syria were just in time to help the Portuguese make their first conquest abroad. Lastly, the results of the Ceuta campaign in giving positive knowledge of western and inland Africa to a mind like Henry's already set on the finding of a sea-route to India, have been noticed by all contemporaries and followers, who took any interest in his plans, but it was not merely caravan news that he gained in these two visits of 1415 and 1418. Both Azurara, the chronicler of his voyages and Diego Gomez, his lieutenant, the explorer of the Cape Verde Islands and of the Upper Gambia, are quite clear about the new knowledge of the coast now gained from Moorish prisoners. Not only did the Prince get "news of the passage of merchants from the coasts of Tunis to Timbuctoo and to Cantor on the Gambia, which inspired him to seek the lands by the way of the sea," but also "the Tawny Moors (or Azanegues) his prisoners told him of certain tall palms growing at the mouth of the Senegal or western Nile, by which he was able to guide the caravels he sent out to find that river." By the time Henry was ready to return from Ceuta to Portugal for good and all, in 1418, there were clearly before his mind the five reasons for exploring Guinea given by his faithful Azurara: First of all was his desire to know the country beyond Cape Bojador, which till that time was quite unknown either by books or by the talk of sailors. Second was his wish that if any Christian people or good ports should be discovered beyond that cape, he might begin a trade with them that would profit both the natives and the Portuguese, for he knew of no other nation in Europe who trafficked in those parts. Thirdly, he believed the Moors were more powerful on that side of Africa than had been thought, and he feared there were no Christians there at all. So he was fain to find out how many and how strong his enemies really were. Fourthly, in all his fighting with the Moors he had never found a Christian prince to help him from that side (of further Africa) for the love of Christ, therefore he wished, if he could, to meet with such. Last was his great desire for the spread of the Christian Faith and for the redemption of the vast tribes of men lying under the wrath of God. Behind all these reasons Azurara also believed in a sixth and deeper one, which he proceeds to state with all gravity, as the ultimate and celestial cause of the Prince's work. "For as his ascendant was Aries, that is in the House of Mars and the Exaltation of the Sun, and as the said Mars is in Aquarius, which is the House of Saturn, it was clear that my lord should be a great conqueror, and a searcher out of things hidden from other men, according to the craft of Saturn, in whose House he was."[35] [Footnote 35: The attempts of Henry and his family to conquer a land-empire in northern Africa are not to be separated from the maritime and coasting explorations. They were two aspects of one idea, two faces of the same enterprise. In the same way the new bishopric of Ceuta, now founded, was a first step towards the organised conversion of the Heathen of the South. The Franciscans had founded the See of Fez and Morocco in 1233, but it had not till now been followed up.] CHAPTER IX. HENRY'S SETTLEMENT AT SAGRES AND FIRST DISCOVERIES. 1418-28. Whatever the Prince owed to his stay at Ceuta beyond the general suggestion and encouragement to take up a life-profession of discovery, it was at any rate put into practice on his second and last return (1418). From that time to the end of his life he became a recluse from the Court life of Lisbon, though he soon gathered round himself a rival Court, of science and seamanship. The old "Sacred Cape" of the Romans, then called Sagres, now the "Cape St. Vincent" of Nelson and modern maps, was his chosen home for the next forty years, though he seems to have passed a good deal of his time in his port of Lagos, close by. In 1419 King John made him Governor for life of the Algarves (the southern province of Portugal) and the new governor at once began to rebuild and enlarge the old naval arsenal, in the neck of the Cape, into a settlement that soon became the "Prince's Town." In Lagos, his ships were built and manned; and there, and in Sagres itself, all the schemes of discovery were thought out, the maps and instruments corrected, and the accounts of past and present travellers compared by the Prince himself. His results then passed into the instructions of his captains and the equipment of his caravels. The Sacred Cape, which he now colonised, was at any rate a good centre for his work of ocean voyaging. Here, with the Atlantic washing the land on three sides, he was well on the scene of action. There were buildings on Sagres headland as old as the eleventh century; Greek geography had made this the starting-point of its shorter and continental measurements for the length of the habitable world, and the Genoese, whose policy was to buy up points of vantage on every coast, were eager to plant a colony there, but Portugal was not ready to become like the Byzantine Empire, a depot for Italian commerce, and Henry had his own reasons for securing a desolate promontory. On this he now built himself a palace, a chapel, a study, an observatory--the earliest in Portugal--and a village for his helpers and attendants. "In his wish to gain a prosperous result for his efforts, the Prince devoted great industry and thought to the matter, and at great expense procured the aid of one Master Jacome from Majorca, a man skilled in the art of navigation and in the making of maps and instruments, and who was sent for, with certain of the Arab and Jewish mathematicians, to instruct the Portuguese in that science." So at least, says De Barros, the "Livy of Portugal." At Sagres was thus founded anew the systematic study of applied science in Christendom; it was better than the work of the old Greek "University" at Alexandria with which it has been compared, because it was essentially practical. From it "our sailors," says Pedro Nunes, "went out well taught and provided with instruments and rules which all map-makers should know." We would gladly know more of Henry's scientific work; a good many legends have grown up about it, and even his foundation of the Chair of Mathematics in the University of Lisbon or Coimbra, our best evidence of the unrecorded work of his school, has been doubted by some modern critics, even by the national historian, Alexander Herculano. But to Prince Henry's study and science two great improvements on this side may be traced: first in the art of map-making, secondly in the building of caravels and ocean craft. The great Venetian map of Fra Mauro of the Camaldolese convent of Murano, finished in 1459, one year before the Navigator's death, is evidence for the one; Cadamosto's words, as a practical seaman, of Italian birth, in Henry's service, that the "caravels of Portugal were the best sailing ships afloat," may be proof sufficient of the other. On both these lines, Henry took up the results of Italians and worked towards success with their aid. As Columbus and the Cabots and Verazzano in later times represented the intellectual leadership of Italy to other nations--Spain, England, and France; but had to find their career and resources not in their own commercial republics, but at the Courts of the new centralised kingdoms of the West, where a paternal despotism gave the best hope of guiding any popular movement, social or religious or political or scientific,--so in the earlier fifteenth century, mariners like Cadamosto and De Nolli, scientific draughtsmen like Fra Mauro and Andrea Bianco, looked from Venice and Genoa to the Court of Sagres and to the service of Prince Henry as their proper sphere, where they would find the encouragement and reward they sought for at home and often sought in vain. Henry's settlement on Cape St. Vincent was not long without results. The voyage of his captain, John de Trasto, to the "fruitful" district of Grand Canary in 1415 was not in any sense a discovery, as the conquest of John de Béthencourt in 1402 had made these "Fortunate" islands perfectly well known, but the finding of Porto Santo and Madeira in 1418-20 was a real gain. For the Machin story of the English landing in Madeira was a close secret, which by good fortune passed into the Prince's keeping, but not beyond, so that as far as general knowledge went, the Portuguese were now fairly embarked upon the Sea of Darkness. First came the sighting of the "Holy Haven" in 1418. In this year, says Azurara, two squires of the Prince's household, named John Gonsalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz, eager for renown and anxious to serve their lord, had set out to explore as far as the coast of Guinea, but they were caught by a storm near Lagos and driven to the island of Porto Santo. This name they gave themselves "at this very time in their joy at thus escaping the perils of the tempest." Zarco and Vaz returned in triumph to Sagres and reported the new-found island to be well worth a permanent settlement. Henry, always "generous," took up the idea with great interest and sent out Zarco and Vaz with another of his equerries, one Bartholomew Perestrello, to colonise, with two ships and products for a new country; corn, honey, the sugar cane from Sicily, the Malvoisie grape from Crete, even the rabbit from Portugal. On his first return voyage Zarco had captured the pilot Morales of Seville, and from him the Prince had gained certain news of the English landing in Madeira. So it was with a definite purpose of further discovery that his captains returned to Porto Santo in 1420, with Morales as their guide. Now, as before, Zarco appears as chief in command; he had won himself a name at Ceuta, and if the tradition be true, had just brought in the first use of ship-artillery; the finding of Porto Santo was mainly credited to him. Sailing from Lagos in June, 1420, he had no sooner reached once again the "Fair Haven" of his first success, than he was called to note a dark line, like a mark of distant land, upon the south-west horizon. The colonists he had left on his earlier visit had watched this day by day till they had made certain of its being something more than a passing appearance of sea or sky, and Morales was ready with his suggestion that this was Machin's island. The fog that hung over this part of the ocean would be natural to a thick and dank woodland like that on the island of his old adventure. Zarco resolved to try: After eight days' rest in Porto Santo he set sail, and, observing that the fog grew less toward the east of the cloud bank, made for that point and came upon a low marshy cape, which he called St. Lawrence Head. Then, creeping round the south coast, he came to the high lands and the forests of Madeira,--so named here and now, either as De Barros says, "from the thick woods they found there," or, in the form of Machico, from the first discoverer, luckless Robert Machin. For on landing the Portuguese, guided by Morales, soon found the wooden cross and grave of the Englishman and his mistress, and it was there that Zarco, with no human being to dispute his title, "took seizin" of the island in the name of King John, Prince Henry, and the Order of Christ. Embarking once more, he then coasted slowly round from the "River of the Flint" to "Jackdaw Point," and the "Chamber of the Wolves," where his men started a herd of sea-calves. So he came to the vast plain overgrown with fennel or "Funchal," where the chief town of after days grew up. A party sent inland to explore, reported that on every side the ocean could be seen from the hills; and Zarco, after taking in some specimens of the native wood and plants and birds at Funchal, put back in the last days of August to Portugal. He was splendidly received at Court, made a count--"Count of the Chamber of the Wolves,"--and granted the command of the island for his own life. A little later, the commandership was made hereditary in his family. Tristam Vaz, the second in the Prince's commission, was rewarded too: the northern half of Madeira was given him as a captaincy, and in 1425 Henry began to colonise in form. Zarco, as early as May, 1421, had returned with wife and children and attendants, and begun to build the "port of Machico," and the "city of Funchal," but this did not become a state affair until four years more had gone by. But from the first, the island, by its export of wood and dragon's blood and wheat, began to reward the trouble of discovery and settlement. Sugar and wine were brought to perfection in later years, after the great "Seven years' fire" had burnt down the forests and enriched the soil of Madeira. It was soon after Zarco's return to Funchal that he first set fire to the woods behind the fennel fields of the coast, to clear himself a way through the undergrowth into the heart of the island; the fire blazed and smouldered till it had taken well hold of the entire mass of timber that covered the upper country, nothing in the feeble resources of the first settlers could stop it, and Madeira lighted the ships of Henry on their way to the south, like a volcano, till 1428. This was at least the common story as told in Portugal, and it was often joined with another--of the rabbit plague, which ate up all the green stuff of the island in the first struggling years of Zarco's settlement, and so prevented the export of anything but timber. So much of this was brought into Portugal that Henry's lifetime is a landmark in the domestic architecture of Spain, and from the trade of the "Wood Island" is derived the lofty style of building that now began to replace the more modest fashion of the Arabs. A charter of Henry's, dated 1430, ten years after the rediscovery of Madeira, and reciting the names of some of the first settlers, and his bequest of the island, or rather of its "spiritualties," to the Order of Christ on September 18, 1460, just before his death, are the chief links between this colony and the home country in the next generation--but in the history of institutions there are few more curious facts than the insistence of the Prince on a census for his little "Nation." From the first, the family registers of the colonists were carefully kept, and from these we see something of the wonder of men who were beginning human life, as it were, in a new land. The first children born in Madeira--a son and daughter of Ayres Ferreira, one of Zarco's comrades--were christened Adam and Eve.[36] [Footnote 36: In 1418 and 1424-5 Henry purchased and tried to secure certain rights of possession in the Canaries, conceded by De Béthencourt; and these attempts were repeated in 1445 and 1446.] CHAPTER X. CAPE BOJADOR AND THE AZORES. 1428-1441. But in spite of Zarco's success, Cape Bojador had not yet been passed, though every year, from 1418, caravels had left Sagres, "to find the coasts of Guinea." In 1428, Don Pedro, Henry's elder brother, had come home from his travels, with all the books and charts he had collected to help the explorers--and it is practically certain that the Mappa Mundi given him in Venice acted as a direct suggestion to the next attempts on west and south--westward to the Azores, southward towards Guinea. Kept in the royal monastery of Alçobaça till late in the sixteenth century, though now irrecoverably lost, this treasure of Don Pedro's, like his "manuscripts of travel," would seem to have been used at the Sagres school till Prince Henry's death, and at least as early as 1431 its effect was seen in the first Portuguese recovery of the Azores. All the West African islands, plainly enough described in the map of 1428, were half within, half without the knowledge of Christendom, ever and anon being brought back or rediscovered by some accident or enterprise, and then being lost to sight and memory through the want of systematic exploration. This was exactly what the Portuguese supplied. The Azores, marked on the Laurentian Portulano of 1351, were practically unknown to seamen when, after eighty years had passed, Gonzalo Cabral was sent out from Sagres to find them (1431). He reached the Formiga group--the Ant islands,--and next year (1432) returned to make further discoveries, chiefly of the island Santa Maria. But the more important advances on this side were made between 1444-50, after the first colony had been planted twelve or fourteen years, and were the result of the Prince's theoretical correction of his captains' practical oversight. From a comparison of old maps and descriptions with their accounts, he was able to correct their line of sail and so to direct them to the very islands they had searched for in vain. But as yet these results were far distant, and the slow and sure progress of African coasting towards Cape Bojador was the chief outcome of Pedro's help. In 1430, 1431, and 1432, the Infant urged upon his captains the paramount importance of rounding the Cape, which had baffled all his caravels by its strong ocean currents and dangerous rocks. At last this became the Prince's one command: Pass the Cape if you do nothing beyond; yet the years went by, King John of good memory died in 1433, and Gil Eannes, sent out in the same year with strong hopes of success, turned aside at the Canaries and only brought a few slaves back to Portugal. A large party at Court, in the Army, and among the nobles and merchant classes, complained bitterly of the utter want of profit from Henry's schemes, and there was at this time a danger of the collapse of his movement. For though as yet he paid his own expenses, his treasury could not long have stood the drain without any incoming. Bojador, the "paunch" or "bulging Cape," 180 miles beyond Cape Non, had been, since the days of the Laurentian Portulano (1351), and the Catalan and Portuguese voyages of 1341 and 1346, the southmost point of Christian knowledge. A long circuit was needed here, as at the Cape of Good Hope, to round a promontory that stretched, men said, fully one hundred miles into the ocean, where tides and shoals formed a current twenty miles across. It was the sight or the fancy of this furious surge which frightened Henry's crews, for it plainly forbade all coasting and compelled the seamen to strike into the open sea out of sight of land. And though the discovery of Porto Santo had proved the feasibility and the gain of venturing boldly into the Sea of Darkness, and though since that time (1418) the Prince had sent out his captains due west to the Azores and south-west to Madeira, both hundreds of miles from the continent, yet in rounding Bojador there were not only the real terrors of the Atlantic, but the legends of the tropics to frighten back the boldest. Most mariners had heard it said that any Christian who passed Bojador would infallibly be changed into a black, and would carry to his end this mark of God's vengeance on his insolent prying. The Arab tradition of the Green Sea of Night had too strongly taken hold of Christian thought to be easily shaken off. And it was beyond the Cape which bounded their knowledge that the Saracen geographers had fringed the coast of Africa with sea-monsters and serpent rocks and water unicorns, instead of place names, and had drawn the horrible giant hand of Satan raised above the waves to seize the first of his human prey that would venture into his den. If God made the firm earth, the Devil made the unknown and treacherous ocean--this was the real lesson of most of the mediæval maps, and it was this ingrained superstition that Henry found his worst enemy, appearing as it did sometimes even in his most trusted and daring captains. And then again, the legends of Tropical Africa, of the mainland beyond Bojador, were hardly less terrible than those of the Tropical Ocean. The Dark Continent, with its surrounding Sea of Darkness, was the home of mystery and legend. We have seen how ready the Arabs were to write Uninhabitable over any unknown country--dark seas and lands were simply those that were dark to them, like the Dark Ages to others, but nowhere did their imagination revel in genies and fairies and magicians and all the horrors of hell, with more enthusiastic and genial interest than in Africa. Here only the northern parts could be lived in by man. In the south and central deserts, as we have heard from the Moslem doctors themselves, the sun poured down sheets of liquid flame upon the ground and kept the sea and the rivers boiling day and night with the fiery heat. So any sailors would of course be boiled alive as soon as they got near to the Torrid Zone. It was this kind of learning, discredited but not forgotten, that was still in the minds of Gil Eannes and his friends when they came home in 1433, with lame excuses, to Henry's Court. The currents and south winds had stopped them, they said. It was impossible to get round Bojador. The Prince was roused. He ordered the same captain to return next year and try the Cape again. His men ought to have learned something better than the childish fables of past time. "And if," said he, "there were even any truth in these stories that they tell, I would not blame you, but you come to me with the tales of four seamen who perhaps know the voyage to the Low Countries or some other coasting route, but, except for this, don't know how to use needle or sailing chart. Go out again and heed them not, for by God's help, fame and profit must come from your voyage, if you will but persevere." The Prince was backed by the warm encouragement of the new King, Edward, his eldest brother, who had only been one month upon the throne when he bestirred himself to shew his favour to a national movement of discovery. King John had died on August 14, 1433 (the anniversary of Aljubarrota), and on September 26th, of the same year, by a charter given from Cintra, King Edward granted the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo, with the Desertas, to Henry as Grand Master of the Order of Christ. With this encouragement the Infant sent out Gil Eannes in 1434 under the strongest charge not to return without a good account of the Cape and the seas beyond. Running far out into the open, his caravel doubled Bojador, and coming back to the coast found the sea "as easy to sail in as the waters at home," and the land very rich and pleasant. They landed and discovered no trace of men or houses, but gathered plants, "such as were called in Portugal St. Mary's roses," to present to Don Henry. Not even the southern Cape of Tempests or Good Hope was so long and obstinate a barrier as Bojador had been, and the passing of this difficulty proved the salvation of the Prince's schemes. Though again and again interrupted by political troubles between 1437 and 1449, the advance at sea went on, and never again was there a serious danger of the failure of the whole movement through general opposition and discontent. In 1435 Gil Eannes was sent out again to follow up his success with Affonso Baldaya, the Prince's cupbearer, in a larger vessel than had yet been risked in exploration, called a varinel, or oared galley. The two captains passed fifty leagues--one hundred and fifty miles--beyond the Cape, and found traces of caravans, reached as far as an inlet they named Gurnet Bay, from its shoals of fish, and again put back to Lagos, early in the year. There were still several months left for ocean sailing in 1435, and Henry at once despatched Baldaya again in his varinel, with orders to go as far as he could along the coast, at least till he could find some natives. One of these he was to bring home with him. Baldaya accordingly sailed 130 leagues--390 miles--beyond Cape Bojador, till he reached an estuary running some twenty miles up the country and promising to lead to a great river. This might prove to be the western Nile of the Negroes, or the famous River of Gold, Baldaya thought, and though it proved to be only an inlet of the sea, the name of Rio d'Ouro, then given by the first hopes of the Portuguese, has outlasted the disappointment that found only a sandy reach instead of a waterway to the Mountains of the Moon and the kingdom of Prester John. Baldaya anchored here, landed a couple of horses which the Infant had given him to scour the country, and set "two young noble gentlemen" upon them to ride up country, to look for signs of natives, and if possible to bring back one captive to the ship. Taking no body-armour, but only lance and sword, the boys followed the "river" to its source, seven leagues up the country, and here came suddenly upon nineteen savages, armed with assegais. They rode up to them and drove them out of the open up to a loose mound of stones; then as evening was coming on and they could not secure a prisoner, they rode back to the sea and reached the ship about the dawn of day. "And of these boys," says the chronicler, "I myself knew one, when he was a noble gentleman of good renown in arms. His name was Hector Homen, and you will find him in our history well proved in brave deeds. The other, named Lopez d'Almeida, was a nobleman of good presence, as I have heard from those who knew him." This first landing of Europeans on the coasts of unknown Africa, since the days of Carthaginian colonies, is one of the great moments in the story of Western expansion and discovery. For it means that Christendom on her Western side has at last got beyond the first circle of her enemies, the belt of settled Moslem ground, and has begun to touch the wider world outside, on the shore of the ocean as well as along the Eastern trade routes. And it almost seemed to be of little practical value that Marco Polo and the friars and traders who followed him had passed Islam in Asia, and reached even furthest Tartary, for it only made more clear that Asia was not Christian, and that there would have to be a deadly struggle before European influence could be restored on this side to what it had been under Alexander; but on the west, by the Atlantic coasts, once Morocco had been passed, there were only scattered savage tribes to be dealt with. Baldaya had now reached the pagans beyond Islam; the rival civilisation of the Arabs and their converts had been almost outflanked by Don Henry's ships; and the boys who rode up the Rio d'Ouro beach in 1435 were the first pickets of a great army. Their charge upon a body of grown men ten times their number, was a prophecy of the coming conquests of Christian Europe in the new worlds it was now in search of, in south and east and west. Now Baldaya instantly followed up his pioneers. He took a party in his ship's boat and rode up the stream to the scene of the fight, with the boys on horseback riding by the bank and shewing him the stone-heap where the natives had rallied on the day before. But in the night they had all fled farther up country, leaving most of their miserable goods behind. All these were carried off, and the Portuguese left the Bay of the Horses, as they called this farthest reach of the Rio d'Ouro, and pulled back to the varinel, without any further success than a wholesome disappointment. They must go farther southward if they were to find the western Nile and the way round Africa. Still Baldaya was not content. He wished to carry back a prisoner, as Henry had charged him, and so he coasted along fifty leagues more, from the Rio d'Ouro to the Port of Gallee, a rock that looked like a galley, where there was a more prominent headland than he had passed since Bojador. Here he landed once again, and found some native nets, made of the bark of trees, but none of the natives who made them. In the early months of 1436 he and his varinel were again in Portuguese waters; but the land had now been touched that lay three hundred miles beyond the old African Finisterre, and in two years (1434-6) Portugal and all the Christian nations, through Henry's work, had entered on a new chapter of history. The narrower world of the Roman Empire and the Mediæval Church was already growing into the modern globe in the break up of that old terror of the sea which had so long fixed for men the bounds that they must not pass. The land routes had been cleared to Western knowledge, though not mastered, by the Crusades; now the far more dreaded and unknown water-way was fairly entered. For up to this time there is no fair evidence that either Christian or Moorish enterprise had ever rounded Bojador, and the theoretical marking of it upon maps was a very different thing from the experience that it was just like any other cape, and no more an end of the world than Cape St. Vincent itself. Neither Genoese, nor Catalans, nor Normans of Dieppe, nor the Arab wanderers of Edrisi and Ibn Said were before Don Henry now. His discoveries of the Atlantic islands were findings, rediscoveries; his coast voyages from the year 1433 are all ventures in the true unknown. But from 1436 to 1441, from Baldaya's second return to the start of Nuno Tristam and Antam Gonsalvez for Cape Blanco, exploration was not successful or energetic. The simple cause of this was the Infant's other business. In these years took place the fatal attempt on Tangier, the death of King Edward, and the troubles of the minority of his child, Affonso V.--Affonso the African conqueror of later years. True it is, we read in our _Chronicle of the Discovery of Guinea_, that in these years there went to those parts two ships, one at a time, but the first turned back in the face of bad weather, and the other only went to the Rio d'Ouro for the skins and oil of sea wolves, and after taking in a cargo of these, went back to Portugal. And true it is, too, that in the year 1440 there were armed and sent out two caravels to go to that same land, but in that they met with contrary fortune, we do not tell any more of their voyage. CHAPTER XI. HENRY'S POLITICAL LIFE. 1433-1441. The Prince's exile from politics in his hermitage at Sagres could not be absolutely unbroken. He was ready to come back to Court and to the battle field when he was needed. So he appeared at the deathbed of his father in 1433 and of his brother in 1438, at the siege of Tangier in 1437, and during the first years of the Regency (1438-40) he helped to govern for his nephew, Edward's son Affonso. From 1436 till 1441 he did not seriously turn his attention back to discovery. What is chiefly interesting in the story of these years is the half-religious reverence paid to Henry by his brothers, by Cortés, and the whole people. He was above and beyond his age, but not so much as to be beyond its understanding. He was not a leader where there are no followers; he was one of the fortunate beings who are most valued by those who have lived on the closest terms with them, by father and by brothers. It was believed throughout the kingdom that King John's last words were "an encouragement to the Infant to persevere in his right laudable purpose of spreading the Christian faith in the lands of darkness"; whether true or not, at any rate it was felt to fit the place and the man, and Henry's brothers, Pedro and Edward, took up loyally their father's commission to keep peace at home and sailing ships on the sea. But the new reign was short and full of trouble. King Edward had scarcely been crowned when the scheme of an African war was revived by Don Ferdinand, the fourth of the "Famous Infants" of the House of Aviz (1433). Ferdinand, always a Crusader at heart, had refused a Cardinal's hat, that he might keep his strength for killing the enemies of Christ, and in Henry he found a ready listener. It was the Navigator, in fact, who planned and organised the scheme of campaign now pressed upon the King and the country. It was perfectly natural that he should do so. The war of Ceuta had been of the first importance to his work of discovery; it had been largely his own achievement, and his wish to conquer Heathens and Saracens and to make good Christians of them was hardly less strong than his natural bent for discovery and exploring settlement. He now took up Ferdinand's suggestion, made of it a definite project--for a storm of Tangier--and wrung a reluctant consent from Edward and from Cortés. The chief hindrance was lack of money; even the popularity of the Government could not prevent "sore grudging and murmuring among the people." Don Pedro himself was against the whole plan, and from respect to his wishes the question was referred to the Pope. Are we to make war on the infidels or no? If the infidels in question, answered the Curia, were in Christian land and used Christian churches as mosques of Mohammed, or if they made incursions upon Christians, though always returning to their own land, or if doing none of these things they were idolaters or sinned against nature, the Princes of Portugal would do right to levy war upon them. But this should be done with prudence and piety, lest the people of Christ should suffer loss. Further, it was only just to tax a Christian people for support of an infidel war, when the said war was of necessity in defence of the kingdom. If the war was voluntary, for the conquering of fresh lands from the Heathen, it could only be waged at the King's own cost. But before this answer arrived, the armament had been made ready, and things had gone too far to draw back; the Queen was eager for the war, and had brought King Edward to a more willing consent. So in the face of bad omens, an illness of Prince Ferdinand's, and the warning words of Don Pedro, the troops were put on board ship, August 17, 1437. On August 22d they set sail, and on the 26th landed at Ceuta, where Menezes still commanded. The European triumphs of 1415 and 1418 were still fresh in the memories of the Moors, and Don Henry was remembered as their hero. So it was to him that the tribes of the Beni Hamed sent offers of submission and tribute on the first news of the invasion. The Prince accepted their presents of gold and silver, cattle and wood, and left them in peace during the war, for the forces he had with him were barely sufficient for the siege of Tangier. Out of fourteen thousand men levied in Portugal, only six thousand answered the roll-call in Ceuta. A great number had shirked the dangers of Africa; and the room on shipboard had in itself been absurdly insufficient. The transports provided were just enough for the battalions that actually crossed, and for a fresh supply they must be sent back to Lisbon. In the council of war most were agreed upon this as the best thing on paper, but the practical difficulties were so great that Henry decided not to wait for reinforcements, but to push forward with the troops in hand. The direct road to Tangier by way of Ximera was now found impassable, and it was determined to march the army round by Tetuan, while the fleet was brought up along the coast. Ferdinand, who was still suffering and unequal to the land journey, was to go by sea, while his elder brother, as chief captain of the whole armament, undertook to force his way along the inland routes. In this he was successful. In three days he came before Tetuan, which opened its gates at once, and on September 23d, without losing a single man, he appeared before Old Tangier, where Ferdinand was already waiting his arrival. A rumour was now spread that the Moors were flying from Tangier as they had fled from Ceuta castle two and twenty years before, but Zala ben Zala, who commanded here as he had done there, now knew better how to defend a town, with the desperate courage of his Spanish foes. The attack instantly ordered by Henry on the gates of Tangier was roughly repulsed, and for the next fortnight the losses of the crusaders were so heavy that the siege was turned into a blockade. On September 30th, 10,000 horse and 90,000 foot came down from the upland to the coast for the relief of Tangier. Henry promptly led his little army into the open and ordered an attack, and the vast Moorish host which had taken up its station on a hill within sight of the camp, not daring to accept the challenge, wavered, broke, and rushed headlong to the mountains. But after three days they reappeared in greater numbers and even ventured down into the plain. Again Henry drove them back; again--next day--they returned; at last, after their force had been swollen to 130,000 men, and by overwhelming numbers had compelled the Christians to keep within their trenches, they threw themselves upon the Portuguese outposts. After a desperate struggle they were repulsed and a sally from the town was beaten back at the same time; the Europeans seemed ready to meet any odds. With these victories, Henry was confident that Tangier must soon fall; he ordered another escalade, but all his scaling ladders were burnt or broken and many of his men crushed beneath the overhanging parts of the wall, that were pushed down bodily upon the storming parties. In this final assault of the 5th of October, two Moors were taken who told Henry of immense succours now coming up under the Kings of Fez, of Morocco, and of Tafilet. They had with them, said the captives, at least 100,000 horse; their infantry was beyond count. Sure enough; on the 9th of October, the hills round Tangier seemed covered with the native armies, and it became clear that the siege must be raised. All that was left for Henry was to bring off his soldiers in safety. He tried his best. With quiet energy he issued his orders for all contingents; the marines and seamen were to embark at once; the artillery was given in charge of the Marshal of the Kingdom; Almada, the Hercules of Portugal, was to draw up the foot in line of battle; the Infant himself took his station with the cavalry on a small piece of rising ground. When the Moors charged, they were well received. In spite of all their strength, one army being held ready to take another's place, as men grew tired, the Portuguese held their own. Henry had a horse killed under him; Cabral, his Master of Horse, fell at his side with five and twenty of his men; the cowardice of one regiment, who fled to the ships, almost ruined the defence; but when night fell, the Moorish columns fell sullenly back and left the Infant one more chance of flight and safety. It was the only hope, and even this was lost through the desertion of a traitor. Martin Vieyra, the apostate priest, once Henry's chaplain, now gave up to the enemy's generals the whole plan of escape. After a long debate, it was determined, not to massacre the Christian army, but to take sureties from them that Ceuta should be restored with all the Moorish captives in the Prince's hands. These terms were accepted, for it was soon known that escape was hopeless. But next morning a large party of Moors, with more than the ordinary Moslem treachery, made a last fierce attempt to surprise the camp. For eight hours, eight separate attacks went on; when all had failed, the retreating Berbers tried to set fire to the woodwork of the entrenchments. With the greatest trouble, Henry saved his timbers, and under cover of night fortified a new and smaller camp close to the shore. Food and water had both run short, and the besiegers, who were now become the besieged, had to kill their horses and cook them, with saddles for fuel. They were saved from a fatal drought by a lucky shower of rain, but their ruin was only a matter of time, for it was hopeless to try an embarkation under the walls of the city with all the hosts of Morocco waiting for the first chance of a successful storm; but the losses of the native kings and chiefs had been so great that they were ready to sign a written truce and to keep their cut-throats to the terms of it. On the 15th of October, Don Henry, for the Portuguese, agreed that Ceuta, with all the Moorish prisoners kept in guard by Menezes, should be given up and that no further attack should be made by the King of Portugal on any side of Barbary for one hundred years. The arms and baggage of the crusaders were to be surrendered at once: directly this was done they were to embark, with none of the honours of war, and to sail back at once to Europe. Don Ferdinand was left with twelve nobles as hostages for the treaty till Ceuta was restored; on the other side Zala ben Zala's eldest son was all the security given. Even after this, a plot was laid to massacre the "Christian dogs" as they passed through the streets of Tangier, on their free passage to the harbour which the treaty secured them. Henry got wind of this just in time, and instantly embarked his men by boats from the shore outside the walls, but his rearguard was set upon just as they were leaving the land and about sixty were killed. It was a terrible disaster. Although his losses were but some five hundred killed and disabled, Henry was overcome with the disgrace. As he thought of his brother among the Moors, he refused to show his face in Portugal and shut himself up in Ceuta. Here, as he worried himself to find some means of saving Ferdinand, he fell dangerously ill, till fresh hope came to him with the arrival of Don John, whom Edward had sent to the help of his brothers with some reserves from Algarve. Henry and John consulted about Ferdinand's ransom and at last offered their chief hostage, Zala ben Zala's boy, as an exchange for the Infant. It was the only ransom, they told the Moors, that would ever be thought of; Ceuta would never be surrendered. Don John's mission was a failure, as might have been expected, and both the Princes were now recalled to Portugal, where Henry steadily refused to go to Court, staying at Sagres in an almost complete retirement from his usual interests, till King Edward's death forced him again into action. It was the unavoidable shame of the only choice given to himself and the kingdom that paralysed his energy, and made him moody and helpless through this time of inaction and disgrace. "Captive he saw his brother, bright Fernand The Saint, aspiring high with purpose brave, Who as a hostage in the Saracen's hand Betrayed himself his 'leagured host to save. Lest bought with price of Ceita's potent town To public welfare be preferred his own."[37] [Footnote 37: Camoëns' _Lusiads_, iv., 52.] The mere failure to storm Tangier was brilliantly atoned for by the bravery of the army and the repeated victories over immensely superior force. But now either Ceuta must be exchanged for Ferdinand, or the youngest and favourite brother of the House of Aviz must be left to die among the Berbers. Many, if not most of the Cortés, summoned in 1438 to Leiria to discuss the ransom, were in favour of letting Ceuta go; but all the chiefs of the Government, except the King himself, "thought it not just to deliver a whole people to the fury of the infidels for the liberty of one man." Even Henry at last agreed in this with Don Pedro and Don John. Edward was in despair; he was willing to pay almost any price to recover Ferdinand, and in hope of finding support he now appealed from his own royal house and his nobles to the Pope, the cardinals, and the crowned heads of Europe. All agreed that a Christian city must not be bartered even for a Christian Prince; Edward's offers of money and "perpetual peace" were scornfully rejected by the Moors, who held to their bond "Ceuta or nothing"--and their wretched captive, treated to all the filthy horrors of Mussulman imprisonment and slavery and torture, died under his agony in the sixth year of his living death and the forty-first of his age, 5th June, 1443. Before this his loss had dragged down to the same fate his eldest brother, King Edward, and but for the inspiration of a great purpose, which again put meaning into his life, Henry might have died of the same "illness of soul." Every Portuguese burned to revenge the Constant Prince; the Pope was called upon to approve a new crusade, levies were made and vessels built, when the plague broke out with terrible violence, and ravaged every class and every district as it had not since the days of the Black Death. The King, seized by it in his misery and weakness and bitter disappointment, fell a victim. The wreck of all his hopes left him with hardly a wish to live, and on September 9, 1438, at the age of forty-seven, and after a reign of five years, he died at Thomar, in the act of breaking open a letter, but not before Henry had come to his side. To the last he kept on working for his people, and it was in the fatigue of travelling from one plague-stricken town to another that he caught the pest. Among all the kings of Christendom there was never a better, or nobler, or more luckless, an Alfred with the fortune of "Unready" Ethelred. By his last will there was fresh trouble provided for Don Henry and Don Pedro and the Cortés. His successor--the child Affonso V., now six years of age--was strictly charged to rescue Ferdinand even at the price of Ceuta; this was nothing to practical politics; but in naming his wife, Leonor of Aragon, along with Don Pedro and Don Henry, as guardian of his children and regent of the kingdom, he put power in the wrong place. The Portuguese were always intensely suspicious of foreign government, and after the age of Leonora Telles they might well refuse a female Regent. On the other side King Edward's Queen, who had won his absolute trust as a wife and a mother, was not willing to stand aside for Pedro or for Henry. She began to organise a party, and she worked on her side, the nobles and the patriots counterworked on theirs. Don John was the first of her husband's brothers to take his natural place as a leader of the national opposition; Henry for a time seemed to waver between friendship and loyalty; all who knew the Queen loved her, but the people hated the very notion of a foreign female reign. Like John Knox they could not be fair to the Monstrous Regiment of Women, and their voices grew clearer and clearer for Don Pedro and his rights, real or supposed. The eldest of the young King's uncles, the right-hand man of the State since his return from travel in 1428, he was the proper guardian of the kingdom; Henry was a willing exile from most of Court life, though his support was the greatest moral strength of any government; John had begun the movement of discontent, but no one thought of him before his brothers; while they lived his only part was in helping them on their way. Donna Leonor recognised her chief danger in Don Pedro, and tried to win him over. When she summoned Cortés, she pressed him to sign the royal writs; then she offered to betroth his daughter Isabel to her son; Pedro secured a written promise, and waited for the opening of the National Assembly in 1439. Here a fierce outcry was raised by a party of the nobles against the marriage-settlement of their King, but Don Pedro was too strong to be put down. He moved on by slow and steady intrigue towards the Regency he claimed. Henry had now appeared as peacemaker, and in his brother's interests arranged a compromise. The Queen was to keep the actual charge of her children, and to train the little King for his duties; Pedro was to govern the state as "Defender of the Kingdom and of the King"; the Count of Barcellos, soon to be Duke of Braganza, the leader of the factious and fractious party, was to be bought off with the Administration of the Justice of the Interior. The Queen at first struggled on against this dethronement; fortified herself in Alemquer, and sent for help from her old home in Aragon. At this the mob rose in fury and only Henry was able to prevent a massacre and a war that would have stopped the expansion of Portugal abroad for many a day. He went straight to Alemquer (1439), talked Queen Leonor into reason, and brought her back with him to Lisbon, where she introduced Affonso to his people and his Parliament. For another year Henry stayed at Court, completing his work of settlement and reconciliation, and towards the end of 1440 that work seemed fairly safe. The fear of civil war was over; Don Pedro's government was well started; Henry could now go back to Sagres to his other work of discovery. It was time to do something on this side. For in the past five years scarcely any progress had been made to Guinea and the Indies. CHAPTER XII. FROM BOJADOR TO CAPE VERDE. 1441-5. But with the year 1441 discovery begins again in earnest, and the original narratives of Henry's captains, which old Azurara has preserved in his chronicle, become full of life and interest. From this point to the year 1448, where ends the _Chronica_, its tale is exceedingly picturesque, as it was written down from the remembrance of eye-witnesses and actors in the discoveries and conquests it records. And though the detail may be wearisome to a modern reader as a wordy and emotional and unscientific history, yet the story told is delightfully fresh and vivid, and it is told with a simple naïveté and truth that seems now almost lost in the self-consciousness of modern literature. "It seems to me, says our author" (Azurara's favourite way of alluding to himself), "that the recital of this history should give as much pleasure as any other matter by which we satisfy the wish of our Prince; and the said wish became all the greater, as the things for which he had toiled so long, were more within his view. Wherefore I will now try to tell of something new," of some progress "in his wearisome seedtime of preparation." "Now it was so that in this year 1441, as the affairs of the kingdom had now some repose, though it was not to be a long one, the Infant caused them to arm a little ship, which he gave to Antam Gonsalvez, his chamberlain, a young captain, only charging him to load a cargo of skins and oil. For because his age was so unformed, and his authority of needs so slight, he laid all the lighter his commands upon him and looked for all the less in performance." But when Antam Gonsalvez had performed the voyage that had been ordered him, he called Affonso Goterres, another stripling of the Infant's household and the men of his ship, who were in all twenty-one, and said to them, Brothers and friends, it seems to me to be shame to turn back to our Lord's presence, with so little service done; just as we have received the lest strict orders to do more than this, so much more ought we to try it with the greater zeal. And how noble an action would it be, if we who came here only to take a cargo of such wretched merchandise as these sea wolves, should be the first to bring a native prisoner before the presence of our Lord. In reason we ought to find some hereabout, for it is certain there are people, and that they traffic with camels and other beasts, who bear their merchandise; and the traffic of these men must be chiefly towards the sea and back again; and since they have yet no knowledge of us, they will be scattered and off their guard, so that we can seize them; with all which our Lord the Infant will be not a little content, as he will thus have knowledge of who and what sort of people are the dwellers in this land. Then what shall be our reward, you know well enough from the great expense and trouble our Prince has been at, in past years, only to this one end. The crew shouted a hearty "Do as you please; we will follow," and in the night following Antam Gonsalvez set aside nine men, who seemed to him most fit, and went up from the shore about three miles, till they came on a path, which they followed, thinking that by this they might come up with some man or woman, whom they might catch. And going on nine miles farther they came upon a track of some forty or fifty men and boys, as they thought, who had been coming the opposite way to that our men were going. Now the heat was very great and by reason of that, as well as of the trouble they had been at, the long tramp they had on foot and the failure of water, Antam Gonsalvez saw the weariness of his men, that it was very great. So let us turn back and follow after these men, said he, and turning back toward the sea, they came upon a man stark naked, walking after and driving a camel, with two spears in his hand, and of our men, as they rushed on after him, there was not one who kept any remembrance of his great weariness. As for the native, though he was quite alone, and saw so many coming down upon him, he stood on his defence, as if wishing to show that he could use those weapons of his, and making his face by far more fierce than his courage was warrant for. Affonso Goterres struck him with a dart and the Moor, frightened by his wounds, threw down his arms like a conquered thing and so was taken, not without great joy of our men. And going on a little farther they saw upon a hill the people whose track they followed. And they did not want the will to make for these also, but the sun was now very low and they very weary, and thinking that to risk more might bring them rather damage than profit, they determined to go back to their ship. But as they were going, they came upon a blackamoor woman, a slave of the people on the hill, and some were minded to let her alone, for fear of raising a fresh skirmish, which was not convenient in the face of the people on the hill, who were still in sight and more than twice their number. But the others were not so poor-spirited as to leave the matter thus, Antam Gonsalvez crying out vehemently that they should seize her. So the woman was taken and those "on the hill made a show of coming down to her rescue; but seeing our men quite ready to receive them, they first retraced their steps and then made off in the opposite direction." And so Antam Gonsalvez took the first captives. And for that the philosopher saith, resumes the next chapter of the chronicle, "that the beginning is two parts of the whole matter," great praise should be given to this noble squire, who now received his knighthood, as we shall tell. For now we have to see how Nuno Tristam, a noble knight, valiant and zealous, who had been brought up from boyhood at the Infant's Court, came to that place where was Antam Gonsalvez, bringing with him an armed caravel with the express order of his lord that he was to go to the port of Gallee and as far beyond as he could, and that he should try and make some prisoners by every means in his power. And you may imagine what was the joy of the two captains, both natives of one and the self-same realm and brought up in one and the self-same household, thus to meet so far from home. And now Nuno Tristam said that an Arab he had brought with him, a servant of the Infant, should speak with Gonsalvez' prisoners, and see if he understood their tongue, and that if he understood it, it would profit them much thus to know all the state and conditions of the people of that land. But the tongue of the Arab was very different from that of the captives, so that they could not understand each other. And when Nuno Tristam perceived that he could not learn any more of the manner of that land, he would fain be gone, but envy made him wish to do something before the eyes of his fellows that should be good for all. You know, he said to Antam Gonsalvez, that for fifteen years the Infant has been seeking in vain for certain news of this land and its people, in what law or lordship they do live. Now let us take twenty men, ten from each of the crews, and go up country in search of those that you found. Not so, said the other, for those whom we saw will have warned all the others, and peradventure when we are looking out to capture them, we may in our turn become their prisoners. But where we have gained a victory let us not return to suffer loss. Nuno Tristam said this counsel was good, but there were two squires whose longing to do well outran all besides. Gonsalo de Cintra was the first of these, whose valour we shall know more of in the progress of this history, and he counselled that as soon as it was night they should set out in search of the natives, and so it was determined. And such was their good fortune that they came early in the night to where the people lay scattered in two dwellings; now the place between the two was but small, and our men divided themselves in three parties and began to shout at the top of their voice "Portugal," "St. James for Portugal," the noise of which threw the enemy into such confusion, that they began to run without any order, as ours fell upon them. The men only made some show of defending themselves with assegais, especially two who fought with Nuno Tristam till they received their death. Three others were killed and ten were taken, of men, women, and children. But without question, many more would have been killed or taken if all our men had rushed in together at the first. And among those who were taken was one of their chiefs, named Adahu, who shewed full well in his face that he was nobler than the rest. Then, when the matter was well over, all came to Antam Gonsalvez and begged him to be made a Knight, while he said it was against reason that for so small a service he should have so great an honour, and that his age would not allow it, and that he would not take it without doing greater things than these, and much more of that sort. But at last, by the instant demand of all others, Nuno Tristam knighted Antam Gonsalvez, and the place was called from that time "Port of the Cavalier." When the party got back to the ships, Nuno Tristam's Arab was set to work again, with no better success, "for the language of the captives was not Moorish but Azaneguy of Sahara," the tongue of the great desert zone of West Africa, between the end of the northern strip of fertile country round Fez and Morocco, and the beginning of the rich tropical region at the Senegal, where the first real blacks were found. The Portuguese were in despair of finding a prisoner who could "tell the lord Infant what he wanted to know," but now the chief, "even as he shewed that he was more noble than the other captives, so now it appeared that he had seen more than they, and had been to other lands where he had learnt the Moorish tongue so that he understood our Arab and answered to whatever was asked of him." And so to make trial of the people of the land and to have of them more certain knowledge, they put that Arab on shore and one of the Moorish women their captives with him, who were to speak to the natives if they could, about the ransom of those they had taken and about exchange of merchandise. And at the end of two days there came down to the shore quite one hundred and fifty Moors on foot, and thirty-five mounted on camels and horses, and though they seemed to be a race both barbarous and bestial, there was not wanting in them a certain sharpness, with which they could cheat their enemies, for at first there only appeared three of them on the beach, and the rest lay in ambush till our men should land and they could rush out and master them, which thing they could easily have done, so many were they, if our men had been a whit less sharp than themselves. But when the Moors saw that our boats did not land, but turned back again to the ship, they discovered their treachery, and all came down in a body upon the beach, hurling stones and making gestures of defiance, shewing us the Arab we had sent to them as a captive in their hands. So our men came back to the ship and made their division of the prisoners, according to the lot of each. And Antam Gonsalvez turned back because he had now loaded his caravel with the cargo that the Infant had ordered him, but Nuno Tristam went on, as he for his part had in charge. But as his vessel was in need of repair, he put to shore and careened and refitted it as well as he could, keeping his tides as if he were before the port of Lisbon, at which boldness of his many wondered greatly. And sailing on again, he passed the port of "Gallee," and came to a cape which he called "The White" (Cape Blanco), where the crew landed to see if they could make any captures. But after finding only the tracks of men and some nets, they turned back, seeing that for that time they could not do any more than they had already done. Antam Gonsalvez came home first with his part of the booty and then arrived Nuno Tristam, "whose present reception and future reward were answerable to the trouble he had borne, like a fertile land that with but little sowing answers the husbandman." The chief, or "cavalier" as he is called, whom Antam Gonsalvez brought home was able to "make the Infant understand a great deal of the state of that land where he had been," though as for the rest, they were pretty well useless, except as slaves, "for their tongue could not be understood by any other Moors who had been in that land." But the Prince was so encouraged by the sight of the first captives that he at once began to think "how it would be necessary to send to those parts many a time his ships and crews well armed, where they would have to fight with the infidels. So he determined to send at once to the Holy Father and ask of him that he should give him of the treasures of Holy Church, for the salvation of the souls of those who in this conquest should meet their end." Pope Eugenius IV., then reigning, if not governing, in the great Apostolic See of the West, answered this appeal "with great joy" and with all the rhetoric of the Papal Register. "As it hath now been notified to us by our beloved son Henry, Duke of Viseu, Master of the Order of Christ, that trusting firmly in the aid of God, for the confusion of the Moors and enemies of Christ in those lands that they have desolated, and for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith,--and because that the Knights and Brethren of the said Order of Christ against the said Moors and other enemies of the Faith have waged war with the Grace of God, under the banner of the said Order,--and to the intent that they may bestir themselves to the said war with yet greater fervour, we do to each and all of those engaged in the said war, by Apostolic authority and by these letters, grant full remission of all those sins of which they shall be truly penitent at heart and of which they have made confession by their mouth. And whoever breaks, contradicts, or acts against the letter of this mandate, let him lie under the curse of the All-Mighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul." And besides, adds the chronicle, rather quaintly, of more temporal and material benefits, the Infant D. Pedro, then Regent of the kingdom, gave to his brother Henry a charter, granting him the whole of the fifth of the profits which appertained to the King, and, considering that it was by him alone that the whole matter of the discovery was carried out at infinite trouble and expense, he ordered further that no one should go to those parts without D. Henry's licence and express command. The chronicle, which has told us how Antam Gonsalvez made the first captives, now goes on to say how the same one of the Prince's captains made the first ransom. For the captive chief, "that cavalier of whom we spoke," Henry's first prize from the lands beyond Bojador, pined away in Europe, "and many times begged of Antam Gonsalvez that he would take him back to his own land, where, as he said, they would give for him five or six blackamoors, and he said, too, that there were two boys among the other captives for whom they would get a like ransom." So the Infant sent him back with Gonsalvez to his own people, "as it was better to save ten souls than three, for though they were black, yet had they souls like others, all the more as they were not of Moorish race, but Heathen and so all the easier to lead into the way of salvation. From the negroes too it would be possible to get news of the land beyond them. For not only of the Negro land did the Infant wish to know more certainly, but also of the Indies and of the land of Prester John." So Gonsalvez sailed with his ransom, and in his ship went a noble stranger, like Vallarte the Dane, whom we shall meet later on, one of a kind which was always being drawn to Henry's Court. This was Balthasar the Austrian, a gentleman of the Emperor's Household, who had entered the Infant's service to try his fortune at Ceuta, where he had got his knighthood, and who now "was often heard to say that his great wish was to see a storm, before he left that land of Portugal, that he might tell those who had never seen one what it was like. "And certainly his fortune favoured him. For at the first start, they met with such a storm that it was by a marvel they escaped destruction." Again they put out to sea, and this time reached the Rio d'Ouro in safety, where they landed their chief prisoner, "very well vested in the robes that the Infant had ordered to be given him," under promise that he would soon come back and bring his tribe with him. "But as soon as he got safely off, he very soon forgot his promises, which Antam Gonsalvez had trusted, thinking that his nobility would hold him fast and not let him break his word, but by this deceit all our men got warning that they could not trust any of the natives save under the most certain security." The ships now went twelve miles up the Rio d'Ouro, cast anchor, and waited seven days without a sign of anybody, but on the eighth there came a Moor, on top of a white camel, with fully one hundred others who had all joined to ransom the two boys. Ten of the tribe were given in exchange for the young chiefs, "and the man who managed this barter was one Martin Fernandez, the Infant's own Ransomer of Captives, who shewed well that he had knowledge of the Moorish tongue, for he was understood by those people whom Nuno Tristam's Arab, Moor though he was by nation, could not possibly get speech with, except only the one chief, who had now escaped." With the "Blackamoors," Antam Gonsalvez got as ransom what was even more precious, a little gold dust, the first ever brought by Europeans direct from the Guinea Coast, which more thoroughly won the Prince's cause at home and brought over more enemies and scoffers and indifferentists to his side than all the discoveries in the world. "Many ostrich eggs, too," were included in the native ransom, "such that one day men saw at the Infant's table three dishes of the same, as fresh and as good as those of any other domestic fowls." Did the Court of Sagres suppose the ostrich to be some large kind of hen? What was still more to the Prince's mind, "those same Moors related, that in those parts there were merchants who trafficked in that gold that was found there among them"--the same merchants, in fact, whose caravels Henry had already known on the Mediterranean coast, and whose starting-point he had now begun to touch. Ever since the days of the first Caliphs, this Sahara commerce had gone on under the control of Islam; for centuries these caravans had crossed the valleys and plains to the south of Morocco and sold their goods--pepper, slaves, and gold dust--in Moslem Ceuta and Moslem Andalusia; now, after seven hundred years of monopoly, this Moslem trade was broken in upon by the Europeans, who, in fifty years' time, broke into the greater monopoly of the Indian Seas, when Da Gama sailed from Lisbon to Malabar (1497-9). Next year (1443) came Nuno Tristam's turn once more. People were now eager to sail in the Infant's service, after the slaves, and still more the gold dust, had been really seen and handled in Portugal, and "that noble cavalier," for each and all of the three reasons of his fellows--"to serve his lord," "to gain honour," "to increase his profit,"--was eager to follow up his first successes. Commanding a caravel manned in great part from the Prince's household, he went out straight to Cape Blanco, the white headland, which he had been the first to reach in 1441. Passing twenty-five leagues, seventy-five miles beyond, into the bank or bight of Arguin, he saw a little island, from which twenty-five canoes came off to meet him, all hollowed out of logs of wood, with a host of native savages, "naked not for swimming in the water, but for their ancient custom." The natives hung their legs over the sides of their boats, and paddled with them like oars, so that "our men, looking at them from a distance and quite unused to the sight, thought they were birds that were skimming so over the water." As for their size, the sailors expected much greater marvels in those parts of the world, where every map and traveller's tale made the sea swarm with monsters as big as a continent. "But as soon as they saw they were men, then were their hearts full of a new pleasure, for that they saw the chance of a capture." They launched the ship's boat at once, chased them to the shore, and captured fourteen; if the boat had been stronger, the tale would have been longer, for with a crew of seven they could not hold any more prisoners, and so the rest escaped. With this booty they sailed on to another island, "where they found an infinite number of herons, of which they made good cheer, and so returned Nuno Tristam very joyfully to the Prince." This last piece of discovery was of much more value than Nuno thought. He saw in it a first-rate slave hunting-ground, but it became the starting-point for trade and intercourse with the Negro States of the Senegal and the Gambia, to the south and east. It was here, in the bay of Arguin, where the long desert coast of the Sahara makes its last bend towards the rich country of the south,--that Henry built in 1448 that fort which Cadamosto found, in the next ten years, had become the centre of a great European commerce, which was also among the first permanent settlements of the new Christian exploration, one of the first steps of modern colonisation. And now the volunteer movement had fairly begun. Where in the beginning, says Azurara, people had murmured very loudly against the Prince's enterprise, each one grumbling as if the Infant was spending some part of _his_ property, now when the way had been fairly opened and the fruits of those lands began to be seen in Portugal in much greater abundance, men began, softly enough, to praise what they had so loudly decried. Great and small alike had declared that no profit would ever come of these ventures, but when the cargoes of slaves and gold began to arrive, all were forced to turn their blame into flattery, and to say that the Infant was another Alexander the Great, and as they saw the houses of others full of new servants from the new discovered lands and their property always increasing, there were few who did not long to try their fortune in the same adventures. The first great movement of the sort came after Nuno's return at the end of 1443. The men of Lagos took advantage of Henry's settlement so near them in his town of Sagres, to ask for leave to sail at their own cost to the Prince's coast of Guinea. For no one could go without his licence. One Lançarote, a "squire, brought up in the Infant's household, an officer of the royal customs in the town of Lagos, and a man of great good sense," was the spokesman of these merchant adventurers. He won his grant very easily, "the Infant was very glad of his request, and bade him sail under the banner of the Order of Christ," so that six caravels started in the spring of 1444 on the first exploring voyage that we can call national since the Prince had begun his work. So, as the beginning of general interest in the Crusade of Discovery which Henry had now preached to his countrymen for thirty years, as the beginning of the career of Henry's chief captain, the head of his merchant allies, as the beginning, in fact, of a new and bright period, this first voyage of Lançarote's, this first Armada sent out to find and to conquer the Moors and Blacks of the unknown or half-known South, is worth more than a passing notice. And this is not for its interest or importance in the story of discovery pure and simple, but as a proof that the cause of discovery itself had become popular, and as evidence that the cause of trade and of political ambition had become thoroughly identified with that of exploration. The expansion of the European _nations_, which had languished since the Crusades, had begun again. What was more unfortunate, from a modern standpoint, the African slave trade, as a part of European commerce, begins here too. It is useless to try to explain it away. Henry's own motives were not those of the slave-driver; it seems true enough that the captives, when once brought home to Spain, were treated, under his orders, with all kindness; his own wish seems to have been to use this man-hunting traffic as a means to Christianise and civilise the native tribes, to win over the whole by the education of a few prisoners. But his captains did not always aim so high. The actual seizure of the captives--Moors and Negroes--along the coast of Guinea, was as barbarous and as ruthless as most slave-drivings. There was hardly a capture made without violence and bloodshed; a raid on a village, a fire and sack and butchery, was the usual course of things--the order of the day. And the natives, whatever they might gain when fairly landed in Europe, did not give themselves up very readily to be taught; as a rule, they fought desperately, and killed the men who had come to do them good, whenever they had a chance. The kidnapping, which some of the Spanish patriot writers seem to think of as simply an act of Christian charity, "a corporal work of mercy," was at the time a matter of profit and money returns. Negro bodies would sell well, Negro villages would yield plunder, and, like the killing of wild Irish in the sixteenth century, the Prince's men took a Black-Moor hunt as the best of sport. It was hardly wonderful, then, that the later sailors of Cadamosto's day (1450-60) found all the coast up in arms against them, and that so many fell victims to the deadly poisoned arrows of the Senegal and the Gambia. Every native believed, as they told one of the Portuguese captains in a parley, that the explorers carried off their people to cook and eat them. In most of the speeches that are given us in the chronicle of the time, the masters encourage their men to these slave-raids by saying, first, what glory they will get by a victory; next, what a profit can be made sure by a good haul of captives; last, what a generous reward the Prince will give for people who can tell him about these lands. Sometimes, after reprisals had begun, the whole thing is an affair of vengeance, and thus Lançarote, in the great voyage of 1445, coolly proposes to turn back at Cape Blanco, without an attempt at discovery of any sort, "because the purpose of the voyage was now accomplished." A village had been burnt, a score of natives had been killed, and twice as many taken. Revenge was satisfied. It was only here and there that much was said about the Prince's purpose of exploration, of finding the western Nile or, Prester John, or the way round Africa to India; most of the sailors, both men and officers, seem to know that this, or something towards this, is the "will of their Lord," but it is very few who start for discovery only, and still fewer who go straight on, turning neither to right hand nor left, till they have got well beyond the farthest of previous years, and added some piece of new knowledge to the map of the known world out of the blank of the unknown. What terrified ignorance had done before, greed did now, and the last hindrance was almost worse than the first. So one might say, impatiently, looking at the great expense, the energy, and time and life spent on the voyages of this time, and especially of the years 1444-8. More than forty ships sail out, more than nine hundred captives are brought home, and the new lands found are all discovered by three or four explorers. National interest seems awakened to very little purpose. But what explains the slow progress of discovery, explains also the fact that any progress, however slow, was made at all, apart from the personal action of Henry himself. Without the mercantile interest, the Prince's death would have been the end and ruin of his schemes for many a year. But for the hope of adventure and of profitable plunder, and the certainty of reward; but for the assurance, so to say, of such and such a revenue on the ventures of the time, Portuguese "public opinion" would not probably have been much ahead of other varieties of the same organ. In deciding the abstract question to which the Prince had given his life, the mob of Lisbon or of Lagos would hardly have been quicker than modern mobs to rise to a notion above that of personal gain. If the cause of discovery and an empire to come had been left to them, the labour leaders might have said then in Spain, as some of them have said to-day in England, "What is all this talk about the Empire? What is it to us working men? We don't want the Empire, we want more wages." And so when the great leader was dead, and the people were left to carry out his will, his spiritual foresight of great scientific discoveries, his ideas of conversion and civilisation, were not the things for the sake of which ordinary men were reconciled to his scheme and ready to finish his work. If they thought or spoke or toiled for the finding of the way to India, it was to find the gold and spices and jewels of an earthly paradise. This is not fancy. It is simply impossible to draw any other conclusion from the original accounts of these voyages in Azurara's chronicle, for Azurara himself, though one of Henry's first converts, a man who realised something of the grandeur of his master's schemes and their reach beyond a merely commercial ideal through discovery to empire, yet preserves in the speeches and actions of captains and seamen alike, proof enough of the thoroughly commonplace aims of most of the first discoverers. On the other hand, the strength of the movement lay of course in the few exceptions. As long as all or nearly all the instruments employed were simply buccaneers, with a single eye to trade profits, discovery could not advance very fast or very far. Till the real meaning of the Prince's life had impressed his nearest followers with something of his own spirit, there could be no exploration, except by accident, though without this background of material gain no national interest could have been enlisted in exploration at all. Real progress in this case was by the slow increase of that inner circle which really shared Henry's own ambition, of that group of men who went out, not to make bargains or do a little killing, but to carry the flag of Portugal and of Christ farther than it had ever been planted before, "according to the will of the Lord Infant." And as these men were called to the front, and only as they were there at all, was there any rapid advance. If two sailors, Diego Cam and Bartholomew Diaz, could within four years, in two voyages, explore the whole south-west coast of Africa from the Equator to the Cape of Tempests or of Good Hope, was it not absurd that the earlier caravels, after Bojador was once passed should hang so many years round the north-west shores of the Sahara? Even some of the more genuine discoverers, the most trusted of the Prince's household, men like Gil Eannes, the first who saw the coasts beyond the terrible Bojador, or Diniz Diaz, or Antam Gonsalvez, or Nuno Tristam, as they come before us in Azurara's chronicle, are more like their men than their master. He thought of the slaves they brought home "with unspeakable pleasure, as to the saving of their souls, which but for him, would have been for ever lost." They thought a good deal more, like the crowd that gathered at the slave market in Lagos, of the "distribution of the captives," and of the money they would get for each. At those sales, which Azurara describes so vividly, Henry had the bearing of one who cared little for amassing plunder, and was known, once and again, to give away his fifth of the spoil, "for his spoil was chiefly in the success of his great wishes." But his suite seems to have been as keenly on the look-out for such favours as their lord was easy in bestowing them. To return to Lançarote's voyage: "For that the Infant knew, by certain Moors that Nuno Tristam had carried off, that in the Isle of Naar, in the Bay of Arguin, and in the parts thereabout, were more than two hundred souls," the six caravels began with a descent on that island. Five boats were launched and thirty men in them, and they set off from the ships about sunset. And rowing all that night, we are told, they came about the time of dawn to the island that they sought. And as day was breaking they got up to a Moorish village close to the shore, where were living all the people in the island. At sight of this the boats' crews drew up, and the leaders consulted whether to go on or turn back. It was decided to attack. Thirty "Portugals" ought to be a match for five or six times as many natives; the sailors landed and rushed upon the villagers and "saw the Moors with their women and children coming out of their huts as fast as they could, when they caught sight of their enemy; and our men, crying out 'St. James, St. George, Portugal,' fell upon them, killing and taking all they could. There you might have seen mothers catch up their children, husbands their wives, each one trying to fly as best he could. Some plunged into the sea, others thought to hide themselves in the corners of their hovels, others hid their children underneath the shrubs that grew about there, where our men found them. "And at last our Lord God, who gives to all a due reward, to our men gave that day a victory over their enemies, in recompence for all their toil in His service, for they took, what of men, women, and children, one hundred and sixty-five, without counting the slain." Then finding from the captives that there were other well-peopled islands near at hand, they raided these for more prisoners. In their next descent they could not catch any men, but of women and little boys, not yet able to run, they seized seventeen or eighteen; soon after this they did meet the "Moormen bold," who were drawing together on all sides to defend themselves; a great power of three hundred savages chased another raiding party to their boats. That the whole expedition had no thought of discovery was plain enough from the fact that Lançarote did not try to go beyond the White Cape (Blanco), which had been already passed several times, but turned back directly he found the hunting grounds becoming deserted, and a descent producing no prize, except one girl, who had chosen to go to sleep when the rest of the people fled up country at the first sight of the Christian boats. The voyage was a slave chase from first to last, and two hundred and thirty-five Blacks were the result. Their landing and their sale at Lagos was a day of great excitement, a long remembered 8th of August. "Very early in the morning, because of the heat (of the later day) the sailors began to land their captives, who as they were placed all together in the field by the landing-place, were indeed a wonderful sight; for among them there were some that were almost white, of beautiful form and face; others were darker; and others again as black as moles and so hideous, alike in face and body, that they looked, to any one who saw them, the very images of a Lower Hemisphere." But what heart so stern, exclaims the chronicler, as not to be pierced with pity to see that company. For some held down their heads, crying piteously, others looked mournfully upon one another, others stood moaning very wretchedly, sometimes looking up to the height of Heaven, calling out with shrieks of agony, as if invoking the Father of Nature; others grovelled upon the ground, beating their foreheads with their hands, while others again made their moan in a sort of dirge, in their own way, for though one could not understand the words, the sense of all was plain in the agony of those who uttered it. But most terrible was that agony when came the partition and each possessor took away his lot. Wives were divided from husbands, fathers from sons, brothers from brothers, each being forced to go where his lot might send him. Parents and children who had been ranged opposite one another, now rushed forward to embrace, if it were for the last time; mothers, holding their little children in their arms, threw themselves down, covering their babes with their own bodies. And yet these slaves were treated with kindness, and no difference was made between them and other and freeborn servants. The younger captives were taught trades, and those who showed that they could manage property were set free and married. Widow ladies treated the girls they bought like their own daughters, and often left them dowries by will, that they might marry as entirely free. Never have I known one of these captives, says Azurara, put in irons like other slaves, or one who did not become a Christian. Often have I been present at the baptisms or marriages of these slaves, when their masters made as much and as solemn a matter of it as if it had been a child or a parent of their own. During Henry's life the action of buccaneers on the African coast was a good deal kept in check by the spirit and example and positive commands of the Infant, who sent out his men to explore, and could not prevent some outrages in the course of exploration. Again and again he ordered his captains to act fairly to the natives, to trade with them honourably, and to persuade them by gentler means than kidnapping to come to Europe for a time. In the last years of his life he did succeed in bettering things; by establishing a regular Government trade in the bay of Arguin he brought a good deal more under control the unchained deviltry of the Portuguese freebooters; Cadamosto and Diego Gomez, his most trusted lieutenants of this later time, were real discoverers, who tried to make friends of the natives rather than slaves. In the early days of Portuguese exploration, it may also be said, information, first-hand news of the new countries and their dangers, was absolutely needed, and if the Negroes and the Azaneguy Moors could not or would not speak some Christian tongue and guide the caravels to Guinea, they must be carried off and made fit and proper instruments for the work. It would be out of place here to justify or condemn this excuse or to enter on the wider question of the right or wrong of the slave-trade in general. It is enough to see how brutally the work of "saving the Heathen," was carried out by the average explorer, when discovery was used as a plea for traffic. No one then questioned the right of Christians to make slaves of Heathen Blacks; Henry certainly did not, for he used slavery as an education, he made captives of "Gentiles" for the highest ends, as he believed, to save their souls, and to help him in the way of doing great things for his country and for Christendom. He knew more of the results than of the incidental cruelty, more of the hundreds taken than of the hundreds more killed and maimed and made homeless in the taking. For centuries past Moors had brought back slaves from the south across the Sahara to sell on the coast of Tunis and Morocco; no Christian doubted the right and--more than the right--the merit of the Prince in bringing black slaves by sea from Guinea to Lisbon, where they might be fairly saved from the grasp of "Foul Mahumet." So if it is said that Henry started the African slave-trade of European nations, that must not be understood as the full-blooded atrocity of the West Indian planters, for the use he made of his prisoners was utterly different, though his action was the cause of incessant abuse of the best end by the worst of means. At the time the gold question was much more important than the slave-trade, and most Portuguese, most Europeans--nobles, merchants, burghers, farmers, labourers--were much more excited by the news and the sight of the first native gold dust than by anything else whatever. It was the first few handfuls of this dust, brought home by Gonsalvez in 1442, that had such a magical effect on public opinion, that spread the exploring interest from a small circle out into every class, and that brought forward volunteers on every side. For a Guinea voyage was now the favourite plan of every adventurer. But however they may be explained, however natural and even necessary they may seem to be, as things stood in Portugal and in Latin Christendom, the slave-trade and the gold hunger hindered the Prince's work quite as much as they helped it. If further discovery depended upon trade profits, native interpreters, and the attractions of material interest, there was at least a danger that the discoverers who were not disposed to risk anything, and only went out to line their own pockets, would hang about the well known coasts till they had loaded all the plunder they could hold, and would then simply reappear at Sagres with so many more souls for the good Prince to save, but without a word or a thought of "finding of new lands." And this, after all, was the end. Buccaneering on the north-west coast of Africa was not what Henry aimed at. So he gave a caravel to one of his household, Gonsalo de Cintra, "who had been his stirrup-boy," and "bade him go straight to the Land of Guinea, and that for no cause whatever should he do otherwise." But when De Cintra got to the White Cape (Blanco) it struck him that "with very little danger he could make some prisoners there." So with a cheerful impudence, in the face of the Infant's express commands, he put his ship about and landed in that bay of Arguin, where so many captures had been made, but he was cut off from the rest of the men, and killed with seven others by a host of more than two hundred Moors, and the chronicle which tells of all such details at the greatest length, stops to give seven reasons for this, the first serious loss of life the Europeans had suffered in their new African piracies. And for the rest, "May God receive the soul that He created and the nature that came forth from Him, as it is His very own. _Habeat Deus animam quam creavit et naturam, quod suum est._" (_Azurara_, ch. 27). Three other caravels, which quickly followed De Cintra, sailed with special orders to Christianise and civilise the natives wherever and however they could, and the result of this was seen in the daring venture of Joan Fernandez. This man, the pattern of all the Crusoes of after time, offered to stay on shore among the Blacks "to learn what he could of the manners and speech and customs of the people," and so was left along with that "bestial and barbarous" nation for seven months, on the shores of the Bank of Arguin, while in exchange for him an old Moor went back to Portugal. Yet a third voyage was made in this spring of 1445 by Nuno Tristam. And of this, says Azurara, I know nothing very exact or at first hand, because Nuno Tristam was dead before the time that King Affonso (D. Henry's nephew) commanded me to write this history. But this much we do know, that he sailed straight to the Isle of Herons in Arguin, that he passed the sandy wilderness and landed in the parts beyond, in a land fertile and full of palm trees; and having landed he took a score of prisoners. And so Nuno Tristam was the first to see the country of the real Blacks. In other words, Nuno reached Cape Palmar, far beyond Cape Blanco, where he saw the palms and got the all-important certainty that the desert did end somewhere, and that beyond, instead of a country unapproachable from the heat, where the very seas were perpetually boiling as if in a cauldron, there was a land richer than any northern climate, through which men could pass to the south. Still further was this proved by the next voyage, which reached the end of the great western trend of the African coast, and found that instead of the continent stretching out farther and farther to an infinite breadth, there was an immense contraction of the coast. Diniz Diaz, the eldest of that family which gave to Portugal some of her greatest men and makers, now begged a caravel from the Prince with the promise of "doing more with it than any had done before." He had done well under old King John, and now he kept his word. Passing Arguin and Cape Blanco and Cape Palmar, he entered the mouth of the Senegal, the western Nile, which was now fixed as the northern limit of Guinea, or Blackman's Land. "Nor was this a little honour for our Prince, whose mighty power was thus brought to bear upon the peoples so far distant from our land and so near to that of Egypt." For Azurara like Diaz, like Henry himself, thought not only that the Senegal was the Niger, the western Nile of the Blacks, but that the caravels of Portugal were far nearer to India than was the fact,--were getting close to the Mountains of the Moon and the sources of the Nile. But Diaz was not content with this. He had reached and passed, as he thought, the great western stream up which men might sail, in the belief of the time, to the mysterious sources of the world's greatest river, and so down by the eastern and northern course of the same to Cairo and the Christian seas. He now sailed on "to a great cape, which he named Cape Verde," a green and beautiful headland covered with grass and trees and dotted with native villages, running out into the Western Ocean far beyond any other land, and beyond which, in turn, there was no more western coast, but only southern and eastern. From this point Diaz returned to Portugal. "But great was the wonder of the people of the coast in seeing his caravel, for never had they seen or heard tell of the like, but some thought it was a fish, others were sure it was a phantom, others again said it might be a bird that had that way of skimming along the surface of the sea." Four of them picked up courage to venture out in a canoe and try to settle this doubt. Out they went in their little boat, all made from one hollow tree, but when they saw that there were men on board the caravel they fled to the shore and "the wind falling our men could not overtake. "And though the booty of Diniz Diaz was far less than what others had brought home before him, the Prince made very much of his getting to that land of Negroes and Cape Verde and the Senegal," and with reason, for these discoveries assured the success of his work, and from this time all trouble and opposition were at an end. Mariners now went out to sail to the golden country that had been found or to the spice land that was now so near; men passed at once from extreme apathy or extreme terror to an equally extreme confidence. They seemed to think the fruit was within reach for them to gather, before the tree had been half climbed. Long before Fernando Po had been reached, while the caravels were still off the coasts of Sierra Leone, men at home, from King Affonso to the common seamen of the ports, "thought the line of Tunis and even of Alexandria had been long passed." The difficult first steps seemed all. Now three volunteers, Antam Gonsalvez, and two others who had already sailed in the Prince's service, applied for the command of ships for the discovery and conquest of the lands of Guinea, and to bring back Joan Fernandez from his exile. Sailing past Cape Blanco they set up there a great wooden cross and "much would it have amazed any one of another nation that should have chanced to pass that way, not knowing of our voyages along that coast," says Azurara gleefully, giving us proof enough in every casual expression of this sort, often dropped with perfect simplicity and natural truthfulness, that to his knowledge and that of his countrymen, to the Europe of 1450, the Portuguese had had no forerunners along the Guinea Coast. A little south of the Bight of Arguin the caravels sighted a man on the shore making signals to the ships, and coming closer they saw Fernandez who had much to tell. He had completely won over the natives of that part during his seven months' stay, and now he was able to bring the caravels to a market where trinkets were exchanged for slaves and gold with a Moorish chief--"a cavalier called Ahude Meymam." Then he was taken home to tell his story to the Prince, the fleet wasting some time in descents on the tribes of the bay of Arguin. When he was first put on shore, Joan Fernandez told Don Henry, the natives came up to him, took his clothes off him and made him put on others of their own make. Then they took him up the country, which was very scantily clothed with grass, with a sandy and stony soil, growing hardly any trees. A few thorns and palms were the only relief to the barren monotony of this African prairie, over which wandered a few nomade shepherds in search of pasture for their flocks. There were no flowers, no running streams to light up the waste, so Fernandez thought at first, till he found one or two exceptions that proved the rule. The natives got their water from wells, spoke a tongue and wrote a writing that was different from that of the other Moors, though all these people, in the upland, were Moslems, like the Berbers nearer home. For they themselves were a tribe, the Azaneguy tribe, of the great Berber family, who had four times--in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries--come over to help the Moslem power in Spain. Yet, said Fernandez, these Moors of the west are quite barbarous: they have neither law nor lordship; their food is milk and the seeds of wild mountain herbs and roots; meat and bread are both rare luxuries; and so is fish for those on the upland, but the Moors of the coast eat nothing else, and for months together I have seen those I lived among, their horses and their dogs, eating and drinking only milk, like infants. 'T is no wonder they are weaker than the negroes of the south with whom they are ever at war, fighting with treachery and not with strength. They dress in leather--leather breeches and jackets, but some of the richer wear a native mantle over their shoulders--such rich men as keep good swift horses and brood mares. It was about the trade and religion of the country that Fernandez was specially questioned, and his answers were not encouraging on either point. The people were bigoted, ignorant worshippers of the abominations of Mahumet, he said, and their traffic in slaves and gold was a small matter after all. The only gold he saw in their country was in ankle rings on the women of the chiefs; the gold dust and black bodies they got from the negroes they took to Tunis and the Mediterranean coast on camels. Their salt, on which they set great store, was from the Tagazza salt quarries, far inland. The chief, Ahude Meymam, who had been so kind to Fernandez, lived in the upland; the Christian stranger had been induced to ride up from the coast, and had reached the Court only after tortures of thirst. The water failed them on the way, and for three days they had nothing to drink. Altogether, Fernandez' report discouraged any further attempts to explore by land, where all the country as far as could be reached seemed to yield nothing but desert with a few slender oases. It was not indeed till the European explorers reached the Congo on their coasting voyages to the south that they found a natural and inviting pathway into the heart of Africa. The desert of the north and west, the fever-haunted swamps and jungle of the Guinea Coast only left narrow inlets of more healthy and passable country, and these the Portuguese did their best to close by occasional acts of savage cruelty and impudent fraud in their dealings with the natives. Another expedition, and that an unlucky one, under Gonsalo Pacheco, a gentleman of Lisbon, followed this last of Antam Gonsalvez. Pacheco got leave to make the voyage, equipped a caravel that he had built for himself, and got two others to share the risk and profits with him. And so, says Azurara, hoisting the banners of the Order of Christ, they made their way to Cape Blanco. Here they found, one league from the Cape, a village, and by the shore a writing, that Antam Gonsalvez had set up, in which he counselled all who passed that way not to trouble to go up and sack the village, as it was quite empty of people. So they hung about the Bank of Arguin, making raids in various places, and capturing some one hundred and twenty natives, all of which is not of much interest to any one, though as Pacheco and his men had to pay themselves for their trouble, and make a profit on the voyage, these man-hunts were the chief thing they thought about and the main thing in their stories when they got home. Men like Pacheco and his friends were not explorers at all. They stopped far short of the mark that Diniz Diaz had made for the European Furthest, and their only discovery was of a new cape one hundred miles and more beyond the Bank of Arguin. Sailing south, because the natives fled at their approach and left the coast land all bare, "they came to a headland which they called Cape St. Anne, by which an arm of the sea ran four leagues up the country," where they hunted for more prisoners. Still in search of slaves and gold they sailed on two hundred and fifty miles--eighty leagues--to Negroland, where Diaz had been before, and where they saw a land, to the north of the Great Western Cape, all green, peopled with men and cattle, but when they tried to near the shore and land a storm drove them back. For three days they struggled against it, but at last they found themselves near Cape Blanco, more than three hundred miles to the north, where they gave up all thought of trying to push into the unknown south, and turned cheerfully to their easier work of slave-hunting. In one of these raids, a party of seven, in a boat away from all the rest, was overpowered and killed like De Cintra's men by a large body of natives, "whose souls may God in His mercy receive in the Habitation of the Saints." The Moors carried off the boat and broke it up for the sake of its nails, and Azurara was told by some that the bodies of the dead were eaten by their brutal conquerors. 'T is certain at least, he adds, that their custom is to eat the livers of their victims and to drink their blood, when they are avenging the death of parents or brothers or children, as they do it to have full vengeance on such as have so greatly injured them. CHAPTER XIII. THE ARMADA OF 1445. While Gonsalo Pacheco had been wasting time and men and the good name of Europe and Christendom in his plunderings between C. Bojador and C. Blanco, the memory of the death of Gonsalo de Cintra was kept alive in Lagos, and the men of the town came in solemn deputation to the Prince, before the summer of this same year (1445) was out, to beg him for permission to take full, perfect, and sufficient vengeance. In other words, they offered to equip the largest fleet that had ever sailed on an ocean voyage--as it now began to be called, a Guinea voyage--since the Prince began his work. As far as we know, this was also one of the greatest armadas that had been sent out into the new-discovered or re-discovered or undiscovered seas and lands since the European nations had begun to look at all beyond their own narrow limits. Neither the fleet of 1341, which found the Canaries, and of which Boccaccio tells us, nor the Genoese expedition of 1291, nor the Catalan venture of 1346, nor De Béthencourt's armament of 1402, for the conquest of the Fortunate Isles, was anything like this armada of 1445. For this last was a real sign of national interest in a work which was not only discovery, but profit and a means to more; it proved that in Portugal, in however base and narrowly selfish a way, there was now a spirit of general enterprising activity, and till this had been once awakened, there was not much hope of great results from the efforts of individuals. The first contingent now equipped in Lagos--for the Prince at once approved of his men's idea--numbered fourteen caravels--fourteen of the best sailing ships afloat, as Cadamosto said a little later; but this was only the central fleet, under Lançarote as Admiral. Three more ships came from Madeira, one of them under Tristam Vaz, the coloniser of Funchal; Diniz Diaz headed another contingent from Lisbon; Zarco, the chief partner in the discovery and settlement of Madeira, sent his own caravel in command of his nephew; in all there were seven and twenty ships--caravels, galleys, and pinnaces. Since the Carthaginians sent out their colonists under Hanno beyond the Pillars of Hercules, a larger and braver fleet had not sailed down that desolate West of Africa. Gil Eannes, who had rounded Bojador, was there, with the Diaz, who had passed the Green Headland and come first to the land of the Negroes, and the list of captains was made up of the most daring and seasoned of Spanish seamen. Scarcely a man who had ventured on the ocean voyages of the last thirty years was still alive and able-bodied who did not sail on the 10th August, 1445. At the start Cape Blanco was appointed as the rendezvous; with favouring wind and tide the ships raced out as far as Arguin. Lawrence, a younger brother of the Diaz family, drew ahead, and was the first to fall in with Pacheco's three caravels, which were slowly crawling home after their losses. Now, hearing of the great fleet that was coming after to take vengeance, they turned about to wait for them, "as it was worth while to have revenge though one had to live on short rations." So, now, thirty European ships and their crews were included in the fleet. The pioneer, Lawrence Diaz, and the rest, lay to at the Isle of Herons in the Bank of Arguin; while waiting there they saw some wonderful things in birds, and Azurara tells us what they told him, though rather doubtfully. The great beaks of the Marabout, or Prophet Bird, struck them most,--"a cubit long and more, three fingers' breadth across, and the bill smooth and polished, like a Bashaw's scabbard, and looking as if artificially worked with fire and tools,"--the mouth and gullet so big that the leg of a man of the ordinary size would go into it. On these birds particularly, says Azurara, our men refreshed themselves during their three days' stay. Slowly but surely, two by two, three by three, nine caravels mustered at C. Blanco, and as the flagship of Lançarote was among them, an attack was made at once with two hundred and seventy-eight men picked from among the crews, the footmen and lancers in one boat and the archers in another, with Lançarote himself and the men-at-arms behind. They were steered by pilots who had been on the coast before and knew it, and it was hoped they would come upon the natives of Tider Island with the first light of dawn. But the way was longer than the pilots reckoned, the night was pitchy dark, without moon or stars, the tide was on the ebb, and at last the boats were aground. It was well on in the morning before they got off on the flood and rowed along the coast to find a landing-place. The shore was manned with natives, not at all taken by surprise, but dancing, yelling, spitting, and throwing missiles in insolent defiance. After a desperate struggle on the beach, they were put to flight with trifling loss--eight killed, four taken,--but when the raiders reached the village, they found it empty; the women and children had been sent away, and all their wretched little property had gone with them. The same was found true of all the villages on that coast; but in a second battle on the next day, fifty-seven Moors were captured, and the army went back on shipboard once more. And now the fleet divided. Lançarote, holding a council of his captains, declared the purpose of the voyage was accomplished. They had punished the natives and taken vengeance for Gonsalo de Cintra and the other martyrs; now it was for each crew and captain to settle whether they would go farther. All the prisoners having now been divided like prize-money between the ships, there was nothing more to stay for. Five caravels at once returned to Portugal after trying to explore the inlet of the sea at C. Blanco; but they only went up in their boats five leagues, and then turned back. One stayed in the Bay of Arguin to traffic in slaves, and lost one of the most valuable captives by sheer carelessness,--a woman, badly guarded, slipped out and swam ashore. But there was a braver spirit in some others of the fleet. The captain of the King's caravel, which had come from Lisbon in the service of the King's uncle, swore he would not turn back. He, Gomes Pires, would go on to the Nile; the Prince had ordered him to bring him certain word of it. He would not fail him. Lançarote for himself said the same, and another, one Alvaro de Freitas, capped the offers of all the rest. He would go on beyond the Negro-Nile to the Earthly Paradise, to the farthest East, where the four sacred rivers flowed from the tree of life. "Well do you all know how our Lord the Infant sets great store by us, that we should make him know clearly about the land of the Negroes, and especially the River of Nile. It will not be a small guerdon that he will give for such service." Six caravels in all formed the main body of the Perseverants, and these coasted steadily along till they came to Diaz's Cape of Palms, which they knew was near the Senegal and the land of the Negroes, "and so beautiful did the land now become, and so delicious was the scent from the shore, that it was as if they were by some gracious fruit garden, ordained to the sole end of their delights. And when the men in the caravels saw the first palms and towering woodland, they knew right well that they were close upon the River of Nile, which the men there call the Sanaga." For the Infant had told them how little more than twenty leagues beyond the sight of those trees they would see the river, as his prisoners of the Azanegue tribes had told him. And as they looked carefully for the signs of this, they saw at last, two leagues from land, "a colour of the water that was different from the rest, for that was of the colour of mud." And understanding this to mean that there were shoals, they put farther out to sea for safety, when one took some of the water in his hand and put it to his mouth, and found that it was sweet. And crying out to the others, "Of a surety," said they, "we are now at the River of Nile, for the water of the river comes with such force into the sea as to sweeten it." So they dropped their anchors in the river's mouth, and they of the caravel of Vincent Diaz (another brother of Diniz and Lawrence) let down a boat, into which jumped eight men who pulled ashore. Here they found some ivory and elephant hide, and had a fierce battle with a huge negro whose two little naked children they carried off,--but though the chronicle of the voyages stops here for several chapters of rapturous reflection on the greatness of the Nile, and the valour and spirit of the Prince who had thus found a way to its western mouth, we must follow the captains as they coast slowly along to Cape Verde, "for that the wind was fair for sailing." Landing on a couple of uninhabited islands off the Cape, they found first of all "fresh goat-skins and other things," and then the arms of the Infant and the words of his motto, _Talan de bien faire_, carved upon trees, and they doubted, like Azurara when writing down his history from their lips; "whether the great power of Alexander or of Cæsar could have planted traces of itself so far from home," as these islands were from Sagres. For though the distance looks small enough on a full map of all the world, on the chart of the Then Known it was indeed a lengthy stretch--some two thousand miles, fully as great a distance as the whole range of the Mediterranean from the coast of Palestine to the Straits of Gibraltar. Now by these signs, adds the chronicler, they understood right well that other caravels had been there already--and it was so; for it was the ship of John Gonsalvez Zarco, Captain of Madeira, which had passed this way, as they found for a fact on the day after. And wishing to land, but finding the number of the natives to be such that they could not land by day or night, they put on shore a ball and a mirror and a paper on which was drawn a cross. And when the natives came and found them in the morning, they broke the ball and threw away the pieces, and with their assegais broke up the mirror into little bits, and tore the paper, showing that they cared for none of these things. Since this is so, said Captain Gomes Pires to the archers, draw your bows upon these rascals, that they may know we are people who can do them a damage. But the negroes returned the fire with arrows and assegais--deadly weapons, the arrows unfeathered and without a string-notch, but tipped with deadly poison of herbs, made of reed or cane or charred wood with long iron heads, and the assegais poisoned in like manner and pricked with seven or eight harpoons of iron, so that it was no easy matter to draw it out of the flesh. So they lost heart for going farther, with all the coast-land up in arms against them, and turned back to Lagos, but before they left the Cape they noticed in the desert island, where they had found the Prince's arms, trees so large that they had never seen the like, for among them was one which was 108 palms round at the foot. Yet this tree, the famous baobab, was not much higher than a walnut; "of its fibre they make good thread for sewing, which burns like flax; its fruit is like a gourd and its kernels like chestnuts." And so, we are told, all the captains put back along the coast, in a mind to enter the aforesaid River of Nile, but one of the caravels getting separated from the rest and not liking to enter the Senegal alone, went straight to Lagos, and another put back to water in the Bay of Arguin and the Rio d'Ouro estuary, where there came to them at once the Moors on board the caravel, full of confidence because they had never had any dealings before with the merchants of Spain, and sold them a negro for five doubloons, and gave them meat and water from their camels, and came in and out on board the ship, so that there was great fear of treachery, but at last without any quarrel they were all put on shore, under promise that next July their friends would come again and trade with them in slaves and gold to their hearts' content. And so, taking in a good cargo of seal-skins, they made their way straight home. Meantime two of the other caravels and a pinnace, which had been separated early in the voyage from the main body, under the pilotage of the veteran Diniz Diaz, had also made their way to C. Verde, had fought with the natives in some desperate skirmishes--one knight had his "shield stuck as full with arrows as the porcupine with quills," and had turned back in the face of the same discouragements as the rest; and so would have ended the whole of this great enterprise but for the dauntless energy of one captain and his crew. Zarco of Madeira had given his caravel to his nephew with a special charge that, come what might, he was not to think of profit and trading, but of doing the will of the Prince his lord. He was not to land in the fatal Bay of Arguin, which had been the end of so many enterprises; he was to go as Diniz Diaz had first gone, straight to the land of the Negroes, and pass beyond the farthest of earlier sailors. Now the caravel, says Azurara proudly, was well equipped and was manned by a crew that was ready to bear hard ship, and the captain was full of energy and zeal, and so they went on steadily, sailing through the great Sea of Ocean till they came to the River of Nile, where they filled two pipes with water, of which they took back one to the city of Lisbon. And not even Alexander, though he was one of the monarchs of the world, ever drank of water that had been brought from so far as this. "But now, still going on, they passed C. Verde and landed upon the islands I have spoken of, to see if there were any people there, but they found only some tame goats without any one to tend them; and it was there that they made the signs that the others found on coming after, the arms of the Infant with his device and motto. And then drawing in close to the Cape, they waited to see if any canoes would come off to them, and anchored about a mile off the shore. But they had not waited long before two boats, with ten negroes in them, put off from the beach and made straight for the caravel, like men who came in peace and friendship. And being near, they began to make signs as if for a safe-conduct, which were answered in like manner, and then at once, without any other precaution, five of them came on board the caravel, where the captain made them all the entertainment that he could, bidding them eat and drink, and so they went away with signs of great contentment, but it appeared after, that in their hearts they meditated treachery. For as soon as they got to land they talked with the other natives on shore, and thinking that they could easily take the ship, with this intent there now set out six boats, with five and thirty or forty men, arrayed as those who come to fight, but when they came close they were afraid and stayed a little way off, without daring to make any attack. And seeing this, our men launched a boat on the other side of the caravel, where they could not be seen by the enemy, and manned it with eight rowers, who were to wait till the canoes came nearer to the ship. At last the negroes were tired of waiting and watching, and one of their canoes came up closer, in which were five strong warriors, and at once our boat rowed round the caravel and cut them off. And because of the great advantage that we had in our style of rowing, in a trice our men were upon them, and they having no hope of defence, threw themselves into the water, and the other boats made off for the shore. And our men had the greatest trouble in catching those that were swimming away, for they dived not a whit worse than cormorants, so that we could scarcely catch hold of them. One was taken, not very easily, on the spot, and another, who fought as desperately as two men, was wounded, and with these two the boat returned to the caravel. "And for that they saw that it would not profit them to stay longer in that place, they resolved to see if they could find any new lands of which they might bring news to the Infant their lord. And so, sailing on again, they came to a cape, where they saw 'groves of palm trees dry and without branches, which they called the Cape of Masts.'" Here, a little farther along the coast, a reconnoitring party of seven landed and found four negro hunters sitting on the beach, armed with bows and arrows, who fled on seeing the strangers. "And as they were naked and their hair cut very short, they could not catch them," and only brought away their arrows for a trophy. This Cape of Masts, or some point of the coast a little to the south-east, was the farthest now reached by Zarco's caravel. "From here they put back and sailed direct to Madeira, and thence to the city of Lisbon, where the Infant received them with reward enough. For this caravel, of all those who had sailed at this time (1445), had done most and reached farthest." There was one contingent of the great armada yet unaccounted for, but they were sad defaulters. Three of the ships on the outward voyage which had separated from the main body and Lançarote's flagship, had the cowardice or laziness to give up the purpose of the voyage altogether; "they agreed to make a descent on the Canary Islands instead of going to Guinea at all that year." Here they stayed some time, raiding and slave-hunting, but also making observations on the natives and the different natural features of the different islands, which, as we have them in the old chronicle, are not the least interesting part of the story of the Lagos Armada of 1445.[38] [Footnote 38: The date of this voyage is brought down as late as 1447 by Santarem Oliveiro Martins.] CHAPTER XIV. VOYAGES OF 1446-8. And yet, but for the enterprise of Zarco's crew, this expedition of 1445 that began with so much promise, and on which so much time and trouble had been spent, was almost fruitless of "novelties," of discoveries, of the main end and object of all the Prince's voyages. The next attempt, made by Nuno Tristam in 1446, ended in the most disastrous finish that had yet befallen the Christian seamen of Spain. Nuno, who had been brought up from boyhood at the Prince's court, "seeing how earnest he was that his caravels should explore the land of the Negroes, and knowing how some had already passed the River of Nile, thought that if he should not do something of right good service to the Infant in that land, he could in no wise gain the name of a brave knight. "So he armed a caravel and began sail, not stopping anywhere that he might come straight to the Black Man's land. And passing by Cape Verde he sailed on sixty leagues and found a river, where he judged there ought to be some people living. So he bade them lower two small boats and put ten men in the one and twelve in the other, which pulled straight towards some huts they sighted ahead of them. But before they could jump on shore, twelve canoes came out on the other side, and seventy or eighty Blackmoors in them, with bows in their hands, who began to shoot at our people." As the tide rose, one of the Guinea boats passed them and landed its crew, "so that our men were between a fire from the land and a fire from the boats." They pulled back as hard as they could, but before they could get on board, four of them were lying dead. "And so they began to make sail home again, leaving the boats in that they were not able to take charge of them. For of the twenty-two who went to land in them there did not escape more than two; nineteen were killed, for so deadly was the poison that with a tiny wound, a mere scratch that drew blood, it could bring a man to his last end. But above and beyond these was killed our noble knight, Nuno Tristam, earnestly desiring life, that he might die not a shameful death like this, but as a brave man should." Of seven who had been left in the caravel, two had been struck by the poisoned arrows as they tried to raise the anchors, and were long in danger of death, lying a good twenty days at the last gasp, without the power to raise a finger to help the others who were trying to get the caravel home, so that only five were left to work the ship. Nuno's men were saved by the energy and skill of one--a mere boy, a page of the Infant's House--who took charge of the ship, and steered its course due north, then north by east, so that in two months' time they were off the coast of Portugal. But they were absolutely helpless and hopeless, knowing nothing of their whereabouts, for in all those two months they had had no glimpse of land,--so that when at last they caught sight of an armed fusta, they were "much troubled," supposing it to be a Moorish cruiser. When it came near and shewed itself to be a Gallician pirate, the poor fellows were almost wild with delight, still more when they found they were not far from Lagos. They had had a terrible time; first they were almost poisoned by the dead bodies of Nuno Tristam and the victims of the savages' poisoned arrows; then, when at last they had "thrown their honour to the winds and those bodies to the fishes," shamefaced and utterly broken in spirit, the five wretchedly ignorant seamen, who were now left alone, drifted, with the boundless and terrible ocean on one side, and the still more dangerous and unknown coast of Africa on the other, for sixty days. A common sailor, "little enough skilled in the art of sailing"; a groom of the Prince's chamber, the young hero who saved the ship; a negro boy, who was taken with the first captives from Guinea; and two other "little lads small enough,"--this was the crew. As for the rest, Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, cries the chronicler in that outburst of bewildered grief with which he ends his story. There were widows and orphans left for the Prince to care for, and "of these he took especial charge." But all people were not so unlucky as Nuno Tristam. The caravel of Zarco of Madeira, which under Zarco's nephew, Alvaro Fernandez, had already passed beyond every other in the year of the great armada, 1445, was sent back again on its errand "of doing service in the unknown lands of Guinea to the Lord Don Henry," in the black year, 1446. Its noble and valiant owner now "charged the aforesaid" Alvaro Fernandez, with the ship well armed, to go as far as he could, and to try and make some booty, that should be so new and so splendid that it would be a sign of his good-will to serve the Lord who had made him. So they sailed on straight to Cape Verde, and beyond that to the Cape of Masts (or Spindle Palms), their farthest of the year before, but they did not turn back here, in spite of unfriendly natives and unknown shores. Still coasting along, they found tracks of men, and a little farther on a village, "where the people came out as men who shewed that they meant to defend their homes; in front of them was a champion, with a good target on his arm and an assegai in his hand. This fellow our captain rushed upon, and with a blow of his lance struck him dead upon the ground. Then, running up, he seized his sword and spear, and kept them as trophies to be offered to the Lord Infant." The negroes fled, and the conquerors turned back to their ship and sailed on. Next day they came to a land where they saw certain of the women of those negroes, and seized one who was of age about thirty, with her child a baby of two, and another, a young girl of fourteen, "the which had a good enough presence and beauty for that country"; but the strength of the woman was so wonderful, that she gave the three men who held her trouble enough to lift her into the boat. And seeing how they were kept struggling on the beach, they feared that some of the people of the country might come down upon them. So one of them put the child into the boat, and love of it forced the mother to go likewise, without much more pushing. Thence they went on, pursues the story, till they came to a river, into which they made an entrance with a boat, and carried off a woman that they found in a house. But going up the river somewhat farther, with a mind to make some good booty, there came out upon them four or five canoes full of negroes, armed as men who would fight for their country, whose encounter our men in the boat did not wish to await in face of the advantage of the enemy, and fearing above all the great peril of poisoned arrows. So they began to pull down stream as hard as they could towards the caravel; but as one of the canoes distanced the others and came up close to them, they turned upon it and in the fight one of the negroes shot a dart, that wounded the captain, Alvaro Fernandez, in the foot. But he, as he had been already warned of the poison, drew out the arrow very quickly and bathed it with acid and oil, and then anointed it well with theriack, and it pleased God that he passed safely through a great trouble, though for some days he lay on the point of death. And so they got back to the caravel. But though the captain was so badly wounded, the crew did not stop in following the coast and went on (all this was over quite new ground) till they came to a certain sand-spit, directly in front of a great bay. Here they launched a boat, and rowed out to see the land they had come to, and at once there came out against them full 120 negroes, some with bows, others with shields and assegais, and when they reached the edge of the sea, they began to play and dance about, "like men clean wearied of all sadness, but our men in the boat wishing to be excused from sharing in that festival of theirs, turned and rowed back to the ship." Now all this was a good 110 leagues,--320 miles beyond Cape Verde, "mostly to the south of the aforesaid cape" (that is, about the place of Sierra Leone on our maps), and this caravel remained a longer time abroad and went farther than any other ship of that year, and but for the sickness of the wounded captain they would not have stopped there. But as it was they came straight back to the Bank of Arguin, "where they met that chief Ahude Meymam, of whom we have spoken before," in the story of Joan Fernandez. And though they had no interpreter, by whom they might do their business, by signs they managed so that they were able to buy a negress, in exchange for certain cloths that they had with them. And so they came safe home. There was not much trouble now in getting volunteers for the work of discovery, and a reward of 200 doubloons--100 from Prince Henry, 100 more from the Regent Don Pedro--to the last bold explorers who had got fairly round Senegambia, added zest to enterprise. In this same year 1446-7, no fewer than nine caravels sailed to Guinea from Portugal in another armada, on the track of Zarco's successful crew. At Madeira they were joined by two more, and the whole fleet sailed through the Canary island group to Cape Verde. Eight of them passed sixty leagues, 180 miles, beyond, and found a river, the Rio Grande, "of good size enough," up which they sailed, except one ship, belonging to a Bishop--the Bishop of Algarve--"for that this happened to run upon a sand-bank, in such wise, that they were not able to get her off, though all the people on board were saved with the cargo. And while some of them were busy in this, others landed and found the country just deserted by its inhabitants, and going on to find them, they soon perceived that they had found a track, which they had chanced on near the place where they landed." They followed this track recklessly enough, and nearly met the fate of Nuno Tristam. "For as they went on by that road, they came to a country with great sown fields, with plantations of cotton trees and rice plots, in a land full of hills like loaves, after which they came to a great wood," and as they were going into the wood, the Guineas came out upon them in great numbers, with bows and assegais and saluted them with a shower of poisoned arrows. The first five Europeans fell dead at once, two others were desperately wounded, the rest escaped to the ships, and the ships went no farther that year. Still worse was the fate of Vallarte's venture in the early months of 1448. Vallarte was a nobleman of the Court of King Christopher of Denmark, who had been drawn to the Court of Henry at Sagres by the growing fame of the Prince's explorations, and who came forward with the stock request, "Give me a caravel to go to the land of the negroes." A little beyond Cape Verde, Vallarte went on shore with a boat's crew and fell into the trap which had caught the exploring party of the year before. He and his men were surrounded by negroes and were shot down or captured to a man. But one escaped, swimming to the ship, and told how as he looked back over his shoulder to the shore, again and again, he saw Vallarte sitting a prisoner in the stern of the boat. "And when the chronicle of these voyages was in writing at the end of the self-same year, there were brought certain prisoners from Guinea to Prince Henry, who told him that in a city of the upland, in the heart of Africa, there were four Christian prisoners." One had died, three were living, and in these four, men in Europe believed they had news of Vallarte and his men. But between the last voyage of Zarco's caravel in 1446 and the first voyage of Cadamosto in 1455, there is no real advance in exploration. The "third armada," as it was called, that is the fleet of the nine caravels of 1446-7, the voyage of Gomes Pires to the Rio d'Ouro at the same time, the trading ventures of the Marocco coast which were the means of bringing the first lion to Portugal in 1447, the expeditions to the Rio d'Ouro and to Arguin in the course of the same year, are not part of the story of discovery, but of trade. There is hardly a suspicion of exploring interest about most of them. Even Vallarte's venture in 1448 has nothing of the novelty which so many went out to find "for the satisfaction of the Lord Henry." Guinea voyages are frequent, almost constant, during these years, and this frequency has at any rate the point of making Europeans thoroughly familiar with the coast already explored, if it did little or nothing to bring in new knowledge. But the value and meaning of Henry's life and work was not after all in commerce, except in a secondary sense; and these voyages of purely trading interest, with no design or at any rate no result of discovery, do not belong to our subject. Each one of them has its own picturesque beauty in the pages of the old chronicle of the Conquest of Guinea, but measured by its importance to the general story of the expansion of Europe, there is no lasting value in any one of the last chapters of Azurara's voyages,--his description of the Canaries, and of the "Inferno" of Teneriffe, "of how Madeira was peopled, and the other islands that are in that part, of how the caravel of Alvaro Dornellas took certain of the Canarians, of how Gomes Pires went to the Rio d'Ouro and of the Moors that he took, of the caravel that went to Meça (in Marocco) and of the Moors that were taken, of how Antam Gonsalvez received the island of Lançarote in the name of the Prince." Only the chronicler's summary of results, up to the year 1446, the year of Nuno Tristam's failure, is of wider interest. "Till then there had been fifty-one caravels to those parts, which had gone 450 leagues (1350 miles) beyond the Cape (Boyador). And as it was found that the coast ran southward with many points, the Prince ordered these to be added to the sailing chart. And here it is to be noted, that what was clearly known before of the coast of the great sea was 200 leagues (600 miles), which have been increased by these 450. Also what had been laid down upon the Mappa Mundi was not true but was by guess work, but now 't is all from the survey by the eyes of our seamen. And now seeing that in this history we have given account sufficient of the first four reasons which brought our noble Prince to his attempt, it is time we said something of the accomplishment of his fifth object, the conversion of the Heathen, by the bringing of a number of infidel souls from their lands to this, the which by count were nine hundred and twenty-seven, of whom the greater part were turned into the true way of salvation. And what capture of town or city could be more glorious than this." CHAPTER XV. THE AZORES. 1431-1460. We have now come very nearly to the end of the voyages that are described in the old _Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_, and setting aside the story of the famous Venetian Cadamosto, this is also the end of the African mainland-coasting of Henry's seamen. Though he did not die till 1460, and we have now only reached the year 1448, for Azurara's solemn catalogue of negroes brought to Europe is reckoned only up to that year--"nine hundred and twenty-seven who had been turned into the true path of salvation,"--yet there is no more exploration in the last ten years of Henry's life worth noting, except what falls into this and two of the following chapters. The first of these is Cadamosto's own record of his two voyages along the Guinea coast, in which he is supposed to have reached Cape Palmar, some five hundred miles beyond Cape Verde, and certainly reached the Gambia, whose great mouth, "like an arm of the sea," is well described in his journal. The second is the "true account of the finding of the Cape Verde islands by Diego Gomez, servant of Don Henry," who writes the story of the Prince's death and was as faithful a servant as he had at his Court. But there is one other chapter of the exploration directed from Sagres and described by Azurara, which must find its place, and is best spoken of here and now, in the interval between the two most active periods of African coasting voyages. This is the story of the colonisation of the Azores, of the Western or Hawk islands, known to map-makers at least as early as 1351, for they figure clearly enough on the great Florentine chart of that year, though not reclaimed for Europe and Christendom till somewhere about 1430. These islands were found, says a legend, on the Catalan map of 1439, by Diego de Sevill, pilot of the King of Portugal, in 1427. But these islands were after all only two groups of the Archipelago, and the rediscovery or finding of the rest fell between the years 1432 and 1450. The voyage of Diego de Sevill and Gonzalo Velho Cabral to the Azores, that is to the island of St. Mary and the Formigas, has been alluded to as among the earliest of Prince Henry's successes. But as it was out of this first attempt that the discovery of the whole group resulted, it has been necessary to refer to it again. Cabral, rewarded by his lord with the gift of his discoveries and living in St. Mary's island as "Captain Donatory" or Lord of the Land, was in charge of the colonisation of the islands he had already found, and of as many others as might come to light. He spent three years (1433-6) collecting men and means in Portugal and then settled in the "Western Isles" with some of the best families in this country. With this, discovery seemed to have come to a standstill, but years after, somewhere about 1440-1 an odd chance started exploration westward once more. There was a hunt after a runaway slave, a negro, of course, from the continent, who had escaped to the top of the highest mountain in St. Mary. The weather was of the clearest, and he fancied that he saw far off on the horizon the outline of an unknown land. Was it another island? He knew his masters were there as explorers quite as much as colonisers, and he must often have heard their talk about the finding of new lands, and the will of their Lord the Prince that those new lands should at all costs be found, was no secret. That will had sent them there; that same will would secure their slave's pardon, if he came back from hiding with the news of a real discovery. So he reasoned to himself; and he was right. The Prince, hearing the news, instantly consulted his ancient maps and found that these hinted at lands in the same direction as the slave had pointed out. He ordered Cabral to start at once in search of them. Cabral tried and missed. Then came a wonderful test of Henry's knowledge; he who had never been within a thousand miles of the place, proved to his captain that he had passed between St. Mary and the unknown land, and correcting his course sent him out again, to seek and to find. On the 8th of May, 1444, the new island was found "on the day of the apparition of St. Michael," and named after the festival. It is our modern "St. Michael of the Oranges." As with the other islands so with this, colonisation followed discovery. On the 29th of September, 1445, Cabral returned with Europeans, having before left only a few Moors to open up the country. Now on his return he found these wretched men frightened almost to death by the earthquakes that had kept them trembling since they first landed. "And if they had been able to get a boat, even the lightest, they would certainly have escaped in it." Cabral's pilot also, who had been with him before to that same island, declared that of the two great mountain peaks which he had noticed at the two ends of the island, east and west, only the Eastern was now standing. The slang name of "Azores" or "Hawks" now began to take the place of the old term of "Western" islands, from the swarms of hawks or kites that were found in the new discovered St. Michael, and in the others which came to light soon after. For the Third Group, "Terceira," was sighted between 1444-50, and added to the Portugal that was thus creeping slowly out towards the unknown West, as if in anticipation of Columbus, throwing its outposts farther and farther into the ocean, as its pioneers grew more and more sure of their ground outside the Straits of Gibraltar. Some seamen of Prince Henry's, returning from "Guinea" to Spain, some adventurer trying to "win fame for himself with the Lord Infant," some merchants sent out to try their luck on the western side as so many had tried on the southern, some African coasters driven out of sight of land by contrary winds;--it may have been any of these, it must have been some one of them, who found the rest of the Azores, Terceira or the island of Jesus, St. George, Graciosa, Fayal, Flores, and Corvo. Who were the discoverers is absolutely unknown. At this day we have only a few traces of the first colonisation, but of two things we may be pretty certain. First, that the Azores were all found and colonised in Henry's lifetime, and for the most part between 1430 and 1450. Second, that no definite purpose was formed of pushing discovery beyond this group across the waste of waters to the west, and so of finding India from the "left" hand. Henry and all his school were quite satisfied, quite committed, to the south-east route. By coasting round the continent, not by venturing across the ocean, they hoped and meant to find their way to Malabar and Cathay. As to the settlement of these islands, a copy is still left of Henry's grant of the Captaincy of Terceira to the Fleming Jacques de Bruges. The facts of the case were these. Jacques came to the Prince one day with a little request about the Hawk islands--that "within the memory of man the aforesaid islands had been under the aggressive lordship of none other than the Prince, and as the third of these islands called the island of Jesu Christ, was lying waste, he the said Jacques de Bruges begged that he might colonise the same. Which was granted to him with the succession to his daughters, as he had no heirs male." For Jacques was a rich Fleming, who had come into the Prince's service, it would seem, with the introduction of the Duchess of Burgundy, Don Henry's niece. Since then he had married into a noble house of Portugal, and now he was offering to take upon himself all the charges of his venture. Such a man was not lightly to be passed over. His design was encouraged, and more than this his example was followed. An hidalgo named Sodré--Vincent Gil Sodré--took his family and adherents across to Terceira, the island of Jesu Christ, and from thence went on and settled in Graciosa, while another Fleming, Van der Haager, joining Van der Berge or De Bruges in Terceira with two ships "fitted out at his own cost and filled with his own people and artisans, whom he had brought to work as in a new land," tried though unsuccessfully to colonise the island of St. George. The first Captain Donatory of Fayal was another Fleming--Job van Heurter, Lord of Moerkerke--and there is a special interest in his name. For it is through him that we get in 1492 the long and interesting notice of the first settlement of the Azores on the globe of Martin Behaim, now at Nuremberg, the globe which was made to play such a curious part, as undesigned as it was ungenerous, in the Columbus controversy. "These islands," says the tablet attached to them on the map, "these Hawk islands, were colonised in 1466, when they were given by the King of Portugal to his sister Isabel, Duchess of Burgundy, who sent out many people of all classes, with priests and everything necessary for the maintenance of religion. So that in 1490 there were there some thousands of souls, who had come out with the noble knight, Job de Heurter, my dear father-in-law, to whom the islands were given in perpetuity by the Duchess. "Now in 1431, Prince Henry provisioned two ships for two years and sent them to the lands beyond Cape Finisterre, and they, sailing due west for some five hundred leagues, found these islands, ten in number, all desert without quadrupeds or men, only tenanted by birds, and these so tame that they could be caught by the hand. So they called these 'the Islands of the Hawks' (Azores). "And next year (1432), by the King's orders, sixteen vessels were sent out from Portugal with all kinds of tame animals, that they might breed there." Of the first settlement of Flores and Corvo, the two remaining islands of the group, still less is known, but in any case it seems not to have been fully carried out till the last years of the Prince's life, possibly it was the work of his successor in the Grand Mastership of the Order of Christ, which now took up a sort of charge to colonise outlying and new discovered lands. For among the Prince's last acts was his bequest of the islands, which had been granted to himself by his brother, King Edward, in 1433, to Prince Ferdinand, his nephew, whom he had adopted with a view of making him his successor in aims as well as in office, in leading the progress of discovery as well as in the headship of the Order of Christ. CHAPTER XVI. THE TROUBLES OF THE REGENCY AND THE FALL OF DON PEDRO. 1440-9. Don Pedro had been nominated sole Regent of Portugal on November 1, 1439, and by the end of the next year all the unsettlement consequent on the change at court seemed to be at an end. But a deep hatred continued between the various parties. First of all, the Count of Barcellos, natural son of John I., created Duke of Braganza by Affonso V., had taken up a definite policy of supplanting the Regent. The Queen Mother had not forgotten or forgiven Don Pedro's action at Edward's death, and the young King himself, though engaged to the Regent's daughter, was already distrustful, was fitting himself to lead the Barcellos party against the Prince. On February 18, 1445, died the Queen Leonor, with suspicions of poison, diligently fostered by the malcontents. Next year (1446) Affonso, now fourteen, came of age, and his uncle proposed at once to resign all actual power and retire to his estates as Duke of Coimbra. But the King was either not yet prepared to part with him, or still felt some gratitude to his guardian, "the wisest head in Spain." He begged him to keep the chief direction of affairs, thanked him for the past, and promised to help him in the future. More than this, he protested that he wished to be married to his cousin, Pedro's daughter Isabel. They had been formally betrothed four years; now Affonso called on his nobles and the deputies of Cortés to witness the marriage. In May, 1447, this royal wedding was celebrated, but coldly and poorly, as nephew and uncle had now drifted quite apart. The more the younger disliked and suspected the elder, the more vehement became his protestations of regard. But he bitterly resented the Duke's action in holding him to his promise, and he made up his mind before the marriage that he would henceforth govern as well as reign. The Regent just prevented his dismissal by laying down his offices; the King seemed almost to relent in parting from his guardian, who had kept the kingdom in such perfect peace and now resigned so well discharged a duty; but even his wife could not prevent the coming storm. She struggled hard to reconcile her father and her husband, but the mischief-makers were too hard for her. Persuaded that the Duke was a traitor, the King allowed himself to be used to goad him into revolt. "Your father wishes to be punished," he said fiercely to the Queen, "and he shall be punished." [Illustration: HENRY IN MORNING DRESS, WITH GREAT HAT.] If Henry, who in the last six years had only once left Sagres, to knight Don Pedro's eldest son at Coimbra in 1445, had now been able, in presence as well as writing, to stand by his brother in this crisis, the Regent might have been saved. As it was, Pedro had hardly settled down in his exile at Coimbra, when he found himself charged with the secret murders of King Edward, Queen Leonor, and Prince John. The more monstrous the slander, the more absurd and self-contradictory it might be, the more eagerly it was made. Persecution as petty and grinding as that which hunted Wolsey to death, at last drove Pedro to take arms. His son, knighted by Henry himself for the high place of Constable of the Realm, had been forced into flight, the arms of Coimbra Arsenal seized for the King's use, his letters to his nephew opened and answered, it was said by his enemies, who wrote back in the sovereign's name, as he would write to an open rebel. All this the Prince bore, but when he heard that his bastard brother of Braganza, who had betrayed and maligned and ruined him, was on the march to plunder his estates, like an outlaw's, he collected a few troops and barred his way. At this Affonso was persuaded to declare war. Only one great noble stood by the fallen Regent, but this was his friend Almada, the Spanish Hercules, his sworn brother in arms and in travels, one of the Heroes of Christendom, who had been made a Count in France and a Knight of the Garter in England. It was he who now escaped from honourable imprisonment at Cintra, joined Pedro in Coimbra, and proposed to him that they should go together to Court and demand justice and a fair trial, but sword in hand and with their men at their back. Was it not better to die as soldiers than as traitors without a hearing? So on May 5, 1449, the Duke left Coimbra with his little army of vassals, 1000 horse and 5000 foot and passed by Batalha, where he stopped to revisit the great church and the tombs of his father and his brothers. Thence he marched straight on Lisbon, which the King covered from Santarem with 30,000 men. At the rivulet of Alfarrobeira the armies met; a lance thrust or a cross-bow shot killed the Infant; a common soldier cut off his head and carried it to Affonso in the hope of knighthood. Almada, who fought till he could not stand from loss of blood, died with his friend. Hurling his sword from him, he threw himself on the ground, with a scornful, "Take your fill of me, Varlets," and was cut to pieces. Though at first leave could hardly be got to bury Don Pedro's body, as time went on his name was cleared. His daughter bore a son to the King, and the proofs of his loyalty, the indignant warnings of foreign Courts, the entreaties of the Queen, at last brought Affonso to something like repentance and amendment. He buried the Regent at Batalha and pardoned his friends, those who were left from the butchery of Alfarrobeira. CHAPTER XVII. CADAMOSTO. 1455-6. We have now come to the voyages of the Venetian Cadamosto, in the service of Prince Henry. And though these were far from being the most striking in their general effect, they are certainly the most famous, the best known, of all the enterprises of these fifty years (1415-1460). It is true that Cadamosto fairly reached Sierra Leone and, passing the farthest mark of the earlier Portuguese caravels, coasted along many miles of that great eastern bend of the West African coast which we call the Gulf of Guinea. But it is to his general fame as a seaman, his position in Italy, and the interest he aroused by his written and published story that he owed his greater share of attention. When I first set my mind, begins his narrative, on sailing the ocean between the Strait of Cadiz and the Fortunate Islands, the one man who had tried to enter the aforesaid ocean, since the days of our Father Adam, was the Infant Don Henry of Portugal, whose illustrious and almost countless deeds I pass over, excepting only his zeal for the Christian faith and his freedom from the bonds of matrimony. For his father, King John, had not given up the ghost before he had warned his son Henry with saving precepts, that the aforesaid Holy Faith he should foster with a dauntless mind and not fail in his vows of warring down the foes of Christ. Therefore every year did Don Henry, as it were, challenging and hurling defiance at the Moors, persist in sending out his caravels as far as the headland called the Cape of Non (Not), from the belief that beyond the said Cape there is "_No_" return possible. And as for a long time the ships of the Prince did not dare to pass that point, Henry roused himself to accomplish this feat, seeing that his caravels did much excel all other sailing ships afloat, and strictly enjoined his captains not to return before they had passed the said Cape. Who steadily pressing on, and never leaving sight of the shore, did in truth pass near one hundred miles beyond, finding nothing but desert land. Beyond this again, for the space of one hundred and fifty miles, the Prince then sent another fleet, which fared no better, and finding no trace of men or of tillage, returned home. And Don Henry, growing ever keener for discovery, and excited by the opposition as it were of nature, sent out again and again till his sailors had reached beyond the Desert Coast to the land of the Arabs and of those new races called Azaneguys, people of a tawny colour. And finally there appeared to these bold mariners the land of Æthiopia, which lies upon the shore of the Southern ocean, and here again from day to day the explorers discovered new races and new lands. "Now I, Luigi Ca da Mosto, who had sailed nearly all the Mediterranean coasts, once leaving Venice for 'Celtogallia' (France), but being caught by a storm off C. St. Vincent, had to take refuge in the Prince's town, near the said Cape, and was here told of the glorious and boundless conquests of the Prince, whence accrued such gain that from no traffic in the world could the like be had. "The which," continues the candid trader, "did exceedingly stir my soul, eager as it was for gain above all things else; and so I made suit to be brought before the Prince, if so be that I might gain leave to sail in his service, for since the profit of this voyage is subject to his pleasure, he doth guard his monopoly with no small care." With the Prince, at last, Cadamosto made terms: either that he, the adventurer, should furnish the ships at his own cost, and take the whole risk upon himself, and of the merchandise that he might gain a fourth part to go to his lord; or that the Prince should bear the cost of equipment and should have half the profits. But in any case, if there was no profit, the whole expense should fall upon the trader. The Prince added that he would heartily welcome any other volunteers from Venice, and on Cadamosto himself he urged an immediate start. "As for me," repeats the sailor, "my age, my vigour, my skill equal to any toil, above all my passionate desire to see the world and explore the unknown, set me all on fire with eagerness. And especially the fact that no countryman of mine had ever tried the like, and my certainty of winning the highest honour and gain from such a venture, made me forward to offer myself. I only stayed to enquire from veteran Portuguese what merchandise was the most highly prized among the Æthiopians and people of the furthest South, and then went home to find the best light craft for the ocean coasting that I had in mind." Meantime the Prince ordered a caravel to be equipped, which he gave to one Vincent, a native of Lagos, as captain, and caused to be armed to the teeth, as was required, and on the 21st of March, 1455, Cadamosto sailed for Madeira. On the 25th they were off Porto Santo, and the Venetian stops to give us a description of the island, which, he says in passing, had been found and colonised by the Prince's seamen twenty-seven years before. It was worth the settling. Every kind of grain and fruit was easily raised, and there was a great trade in dragon's blood, "which is made from the tears of a tree." On March 27th, Cadamosto sailed from Porto Santo to Madeira, forty miles distant, and easily seen from the first island when the weather was cloudy, and here the narrative stops some time to describe and admire sufficiently. Madeira had been colonised under the lead and action of the Prince four and twenty years before, and was now thickly peopled by the Portuguese settlers. Beyond Portugal its existence was hardly known. Its name was "from its woodland,"--here Cadamosto repeats the traditional falsehood about the place,--but the first settlers had destroyed most of this in trying to clear an open space by fire. The whole island had once been in flames, the colonists only saved their lives by plunging into the rivers, and even Zarco, the chief discoverer, with his wife and children had to stand in a torrent bed for two whole days and nights before they could venture on dry land again. The island was forty miles round; like Porto Santo, it was without a harbour, but not without convenient roads for ships to lie in; the soil was fertile, well watered by eight rivers that flowed through the island. "Various kinds of carved wood are exported, so that almost all Portugal is now adorned with tables and other furniture made from these woods." "Hearing of the great plenty of water in the island, the Prince ordered all the open country to be planted with sugar-cane and with vines imported from Crete, which do excellent well in a climate so well suited to the grape; the vine staves make good bows, and are exported to Europe like the wine, red and white alike, but especially the red. The grapes are ripe about Easter in each year," and this vintage, as early as Cadamosto's day, was evidently the main interest of the islanders, who had all the enthusiasm of a new venture in their experiment, "for no one had ever tried his hand upon the soil before." From Madeira the caravel sailed on 320 miles to the Canaries, of which says our Venetian, there are ten, seven cultivated and three still desert; and of the seven inhabited four are Christian, three Heathen, even now, fifty years after De Béthencourt's conquest. Neither wine nor grain can be produced on this soil, and hardly any fruit, only a kind of dye, used for clothes in Portugal; goat's flesh and cheese can also be exported, and something, Cadamosto fancies, might be made of the wild asses that swarm in the islands. Each of these Canary islands being some forty miles from the next, the people of one do not understand the speech of their neighbours. They have no walls, but open villages; watch towers are placed on the highest mountains to guard the people of one village from the attacks of the next, for a guerilla warfare, half marauding, half serious civil war, is the order of the day. Speaking of the three heathen islands, "which were also the most populous," Cadamosto stops a little over the mention of Teneriffe, "wonderful among the islands of the earth, and able to be seen in clear weather for a distance of seventy Spanish leagues, which is equal to two hundred and fifty miles. And what makes it to be seen from so far, is that on the top is a great rock of adamant, like a pyramid, which stone blazes like the mountain of Ætna, and is full fifteen miles from the plain, as the natives say." These natives have no iron weapons, but fight with stones and wooden daggers; they go naked except for a defensive armour of goat-skins, which they wear in front and behind. Houses they have none, not even the poorest huts, but live in mountain caves, without faith, without God. Some indeed worship the sun and moon, and others planets, reverence certain idols; in their marriage customs the chiefs have the first right by common consent, and at the graves of their dead chiefs are most of their religious sacrifices; the islanders have only one art, that of stone-slinging, unless one were to count their mountain-climbing and skill in running and in all bodily exercises, in which nature has created these Canarians to excel all other mortals. They paint their bodies with the juice of plants in all sorts of colours and think this the highest point of perfection, to be decked out on their skins like a garden bed. From the Canaries, Cadamosto sails to the White Cape, C. Blanco, on the mainland, some way beyond Bojador, "towards Æthiopia," passing the bay and isles of Arguin on the way, where the crews found such quantities of sea-birds that they brought home two ship-loads. And here it is to be noticed, says the narrative, that in sailing from the parts of Cadiz to that Æthiopia which faces to the south, you meet with nothing but desert lands till you come to Cape Cantin, from which it is a near course to C. Blanco. These parts towards the south do run along the borders of the negroes' land, and this great tract of white and arid land, full of sand, very low lying at a dead level, it would be a quick thing to cross in sixty days. At C. Blanco some hills begin to rise out of the plain, and this cape was first found by the Portuguese, and on it is nothing but sand, no trace of grass or trees; it is seen from far, being very sharply marked, three-sided, and having on its crest three pyramids, as they may be called, each one a mile from its neighbour. A little beyond this great desert tract is a vast sea and a wondrous concourse of rivers, where only explorers have reached. At C. Blanco there is a mart of Arab traders, a station for the camels and caravans of the interior, and those pass by the cape who are coming from Negro-land and going to the Barbary of North Africa. As one might expect on such a barren stony soil, no wine or grain can be raised; the natives have oxen and goats, but very few; milk of camels and others is their only drink; as for religion, the wretches worship Mahomet and hate Christians right bitterly. What is of more interest to the Venetian merchant, the traders of these parts have plenty of camels which carry loads of brass and silver, and even of gold, brought from the negroes to the people of our parts. The natives of C. Blanco are black as moles, but dress in white flowing robes, after the Moorish fashion, with a turban wound round the head; and indeed plenty of Arabs are always hovering off the cape and the bay of Arguin for the sake of trade with the Infant's ships, especially in silver, grain, and woven stuffs, and above all in slaves and gold. To protect this commerce, the Prince some time since (1448), built a fort in the bay, and every year the Portuguese caravels that come here lie under its protection and exchange the negro slaves that they have captured farther south for Arab horses, one horse against ten or fifteen slaves, or for silks and woven stuffs from Morocco and Granada, from Tunis and the whole land of Barbary. The Arabs on their side sell slaves, that they have driven from the upland, to the Portuguese at Arguin, in all nearly a thousand a year, so that the Europeans, who used to plunder all this coast as far as the Senegal, now find it more profitable to trade. The mention of the Senegal brings Cadamosto to the next stage of his voyage, to the great river, "which divides the Azaneguys, Tawny Moors, from the First Kingdom of the Negroes." The Azaneguys, Cadamosto goes on to define more exactly as a people of a colour something between black and ashen hue, whom the Portuguese once plundered and enslaved but now trade with peacefully enough. "For the Prince will not allow any wrong-doing, being only eager that they should submit themselves to the law of Christ. For at present they are in a doubt whether they should cleave to our faith or to Mahomet's slavery." But they are a filthy race, continues the traveller, all of them mean and very abject, liars and traitorous knaves, squat of figure, noisome of breath, though of a truth they cover their mouths as of decency, saying that the mouth is a very cesspool and sewer of impurity. They oil their hair with a foul-smelling grease, which they think a great virtue and honour. Much do they make also of their gross fat women, whose breasts they deform usually, that they may hang out the more, straining their bodies (when) at seventeen years of age with ropes. Ignorant and brutal as they are, they know no other Christian people but the Portuguese, who have enslaved and plundered them now fourteen years. This much is certain, that when they first saw the ships of Don Henry sailing past, they thought them to be birds coming from far and cleaving the air with white wings. When the crews furled sail and drew in to the shore, the natives changed their minds and thought they were fishes; some, who first saw the ships sailing by night, believed them to be phantoms gliding past. When they made out the men on board of them, it was much debated whether these men could be mortal; all stood on the shore, stupidly gazing at the new wonder. The centre of power and of trade in these parts was not on the coast, but some way inland. Six days' journey up the country is the place called Tagaza, or the Gold-Market, whence there is a great export of salt and metals which are brought on the camels of the Arabs and Azaneguys down to the shore. Another route of merchants is inland to the Negro Empire of Melli and the city of Timbuctoo, where the heat is such that even animals cannot endure to labour and no green thing grows for the food of any quadruped, so that of one hundred camels bearing gold and salt (which they store in two hundred or three hundred huts) scarce thirty return home to Tagaza, for the journey is a long one, 'tis forty days from Tagaza to Timbuctoo and thirty more from Timbuctoo to Melli. "And how comes it," proceeds Cadamosto, "that these people want to use so much salt?" and after some fanciful astrological reasoning he gives us his practical answer, "to cool their blood in the extreme heat of the sun": and so much is it needed that when they unload their camels at the entrance of the kingdom of Melli, they pack the salt in blocks on men's heads and these last carry it, like a great army of footmen, through the country. When one negro race barters the salt with another, the first party comes to the place agreed on, and lays down the salt in heaps, each man marking his own heap by some token. Then they go away out of sight, about the time of midday sun, when the second party comes up, being most anxious to avoid recognition and places by each heap so much gold as the buyer thinks good. Then they too go away. The sellers come back in the evening, each one visits his pile, and where the gold is enough for the seller's wishes, he takes it, leaves the salt and goes away for good; where it is not enough, he leaves gold and salt together and only goes away to wait again till the buyers have paid a second visit. Now, the second party coming up again, take away the salt where the gold has been accepted, but where it still lies, refused, they either add more or take their money away altogether, according to what they think to be the worth of the salt. Once the King of Melli, who sent out a party with salt to exchange for gold, ordered his men to make captive some of the negroes who concealed themselves so carefully. They were to wait till the buyers should come up to put down their gold; then they were to rush out and seize all they could. In this way one man and only one was taken, who refused all food and died on the third day after his capture, without uttering a word, "whereby the King of Melli did not gain much," but which induced the men of Melli to believe that the other people were naturally dumb. The captors described the appearance of those who escaped their hands, "men of fine build and height, more than a palm's length greater than their own, having the lower lip brought out and hung down even to the breast, red and bleeding and disclosing their teeth which were larger than the common, their eyes black, prominent, and fierce-looking." For this treachery the trade was broken off three whole years, till the great want of salt compelled the injured negroes to resume, and since then the business had gone on as before. The gold thus gained is carried by the men of Melli to their city, and then portioned out in three parts; one part goes by the caravan route towards Syria, the other two thirds go to Timbuctoo, and are there divided once again, part going to Tunis, the head of Barbary, and part to the regions of Marocco, over against Granada, and without the strait of the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar). And to those parts come Christian merchants, and especially Italians, to buy the gold in exchange for merchandise of every sort. For among the negroes and Azaneguys there is no coinage of gold or of silver, no money token of metal, but the whole is simply matter for exchange. From the trade, Cadamosto changes to discourse of the politics of the natives, their manners and customs. Their government for the most part is not monarchy, but a tyranny of the richest and most powerful caste. Their wars are waged only with offensive arms, light spears and swords; they have no defensive armour, but use horses, which they sit as the Moors do. Their ordinary garments are of cotton. The plague of excessive drought during all the year, except from August to October, is aggravated at certain seasons by the worse plague of locusts, "and I myself have seen them flying by troops upon the sea and shore like an army, but of countless number." After this long digression Cadamosto comes back to the Gulf of Senegal. "And this," says he, "is the chief river of the Region of the Negroes, dividing them from the Tawny Moors." The mouth of the estuary is a mile wide, but an island lying in mid-channel divides the river into two parts just where it enters the sea. Though the central channel is deep enough, the entrance is made difficult to strangers by the shallows and sand banks on either side; every six hours the river rises and falls with the flow and ebb of the ocean, and where it pours out its waters into the sea, the flux and reflux of waters reaches to a distance of sixty miles, as say the Portuguese who have watched it. The Senegal is nearly four hundred miles beyond Cape Blanco; a sandy shore stretches between the two; up to the river the sailor sees from the shore only the wandering Azaneguys, tawny, squat, and miserable savages; across the stream to the south are the real Blacks, "well built noble-looking men," and after so long a stretch of arid and stony desert, there is now a beautiful green land, covered with fruit-bearing trees, the work of the river, which, men say, comes from the Nile, being one of the four most glorious rivers of earth that flow from the Garden of Eden and earthly paradise. For as the eastern Nile waters Egypt, so this doth water Æthiopia. Now the land of these negroes is at the entering in of Æthiopia, from which to Cape Verde the land is all level, where the King of Senegal, reigning over people that have no cities, but only scattered huts, lives by the presents that his subjects bring him. Such are oxen, goats, and horses, which are much valued for their scarceness, but used without saddle, bridle, or trappings. To these presents the King adds what he can plunder by his own strength, especially slaves, of which the Blacks have a great trade with the Azaneguys. Their horses they sell also to the Christian traders on the coast. The King can have as many wives as he likes (and always keeps well above his minimum of thirty), to each of whom is assigned a certain estate with slaves and cattle, but not equal; to some more, to others less. The King goes the round of these farms at will, and lives upon their produce. Any day you may see hosts of slaves bringing fruits of all sorts to the King, as he goes through the country with his motley following, all living at free quarters. Of the negroes of these parts most go naked, but the chiefs and great men use cotton shirts, as the country abounds in this sort of stuff. Cadamosto describes in great detail the native manufacture of garments, and the habits of the women; barefoot and bare-headed they go always, dressed in linen, elegant enough in apparel, vile in life and diet, always chattering, great liars, treacherous and deceitful to the last degree. Bloody and remorseless are the wars the princes of these barbarians carry on against one another. They have no horsemen or body armour, but use darts and spears, barbed with many poisonous fangs, and several kinds of arrows, as with us. From the beginning of the world they knew nothing of ships before the Portuguese came; they only used light canoes or skiffs, each of which can be carried by three men, and in which they fish and go from place to place on the river. The boundaries of the kingdom of Senegal are the ocean on the west, the land of Gambra on the south, the inland Blackman's country on the east, and on the north the River Niger (Senegal), which, "as I have said before, divides the Azaneguys from the First Kingdom of the Negroes. And the said river," concludes Cadamosto, "five years before my coming, had been explored by the Portuguese, who hoped to open up a great commerce in those parts. So that every year from that time their ships had been off that coast to trade." Cadamosto determined to push farther up the river than any had done before, and so to come to the land of Budomel, one of the great negro princes and kingdoms, for it was the name both of place and person. When he came there he found an "Emperor so honest that he might have been an example to any Christian," who exchanged his horses, wool-fells, and linen goods for the strangers' merchandise and slaves, with deeds as honourable as his words. Our adventurer was so taken with "Lord Budomel" that he gladly went with him two hundred and fifty miles up country, on his promising a supply of negro slaves, black but comely, and none of them more than twelve years old. On this adventurous journey, of which we are next given a full account, Cadamosto is taken charge of by Bisboror, the Prince's nephew, "through whom I saw many things worth noting." The Venetian was not anxious to put off to sea, as the weather was very rough, so rough indeed that no boat could venture off from the bank at the river's mouth to where the ships lay, and the captain had to send word to his crews by negro swimmers, who could pass any surf, "for that they excel all other living men in the water and under it, for they can dive an hour without rising." It is not worth while to follow Cadamosto in all his long account of what he saw and heard of negro life in the course of this journey; it is as unsavoury as it is commonplace. He repeats very much of what he has said before about the Azaneguys, of their servility to their Princes, "who are to them as mortal Gods"; of the everlasting progresses and wanderings of those Princes round their kingdoms, from kraal to kraal, living on the stores each wife has provided; of the kraals themselves, no towns or castles, as people at home might think, says Cadamosto, but merely collections of forty and fifty huts, with a hedge of living trees round, intertwined, and the royal palace in the middle. The Prince of Budomel has a bodyguard of two hundred men, besides the volunteer guard of his innumerable children, who are broken up in two groups, one always at Court, "and these are made the most of," the other scattered up and down the country, as a sort of royal garrison. The wretched subjects, who "suffer more from their King with a good will than they would from any stranger under force," are punished with death for the smallest things. Only two small classes have any privileges: ministers of religion share with the greatest nobles the sole right of access to the person of the "Mortal God." Cadamosto set up a mart in the upland and made what profits he could from their miserable poverty, making exchanges with cottons, cloths, oil, millet, skins, palm-leaves, and vegetables, and above all, of course, with gold, what little there was to be had. "Meantime the negroes came stupidly crowding about me, wondering at our Christian symbols; our white colour, our dress and shape of body, our Damascenes, garments of black silk and robes of blue cloth or dyed wool, all amazed them; some insisted that the white colour of the strangers was not natural but put on"; as with Cook and so many others the savages now behaved with Cadamosto. They spat upon his arm and tried to rub off the white paint; then they wondered more than ever when they found the flesh itself was white. Of gold after all not much was to be got, and the exploring party was not long in returning to the caravels and pushing on beyond Cape Verde. To the last the ships and their instruments were the chief terror and delight of the negroes and above all of the negro women; the whole thing was the work of demons, they said, not of men, seeing that our engines of war could fell one hundred men at one discharge; the trumpets sounding they took to be the yells of a living and furious beast of prey. Cadamosto gave them a trumpet that they might see it was made by art; they changed their minds accordingly, and decided that such things were directly made by God himself, above all admiring the different tones, and crying loudly that they had never seen anything so wonderful. The women looked through every part of the ship--masts, helm, anchors, sails, and oars. The eyes painted on the bow excited them: the ship had eyes and could see before it, and the men who used it must be wonderful enchanters like the demons. "This specially they wondered, that we could sail out of all sight of land and yet know well enough where we were, all which, said they, could not happen, without black art. Scarcely less was their wonder at the sight of lighted candles, as they had never before seen any light but that of fire, when I shewed them how to make candles from wax which before they had always thrown aside as worthless, they were still more amazed, saying there was nothing we did not know." And now Cadamosto was ready to put off from the coast into the ocean and strike south for the kingdom of Gambro, as he had been charged by the Prince, who had told him it was not far from the Senegal, as the negroes had reported to him at Sagres. And that kingdom, he had been told, was so rich in gold that if Christians could reach it they would gain endless riches. So with two aims, first to find the golden land, and second to make discoveries in the unknown, the Venetian was just beginning to start afresh, when he was joined by two more ships from Portugal, and they agreed to round Cape Verde together. It was only some forty miles beyond Budomel and the caravels reached it next day. Cape Verde gets its name from its green grass and trees, like C. Blanco from its white sand. Both are very prominent, lofty, and seen from a great distance, as they run out far into the sea, but Cape Verde is more picturesque, dotted as it is with little native villages on the side of the ocean, and with three small desert islands a short distance from the mainland, where the sailors found birds' nests and eggs in thousands, of kinds unknown in Europe, and, above all, enormous shell-fish (turtles), of twelve pounds' weight. Soon after passing C. Verde, the coast makes a great sweep to the east, still covered with evergreen trees, coming down in thick woods to within a bowshot of the sea, so that from a distance the forest line seems to touch the high-water mark, "as we thought at first looking on ahead from our ships. Many countries have I been in to East and West, but never did I see a prettier sight." From the place the description again changes to the people, and we are told once more with wearisome repetitions about the people beyond C. Verde, in most ways like the negroes of the Senegal but "not obedient to that kingdom and abhorring the tyranny of the negro Princes, having no King or laws themselves, worshipping idols, using poisoned arrows which kill at once, even though they drew but little blood,"--in short a most truculent folk, but very fine of stature, black and comely. The whole coast east of C. Verde was found unapproachable, except for certain narrow harbours, till "with a south wind we reached the mouth of a river, called Ruim, a bowshot across at the mouth. And when we sighted this river, which was sixty miles beyond C. Verde, we cast anchor at sunset in ten or twelve paces of water, four or five miles from the shore, but when it was day, as the look-out saw there was a reef of rocks on which the sea broke itself, we sailed on and came to the mouth of another river as large as the Senegal, with trees growing down to the water's edge and promising a most fertile country." Cadamosto determined to land a scout here, and caused lots cast among his slave-interpreters which was to land. "And of these slaves, negroes whom the native kings in the past had sold to Portuguese and who had then been trained in Europe I had many with me who were to open the country for our trade and to parley between us and the natives. Now the lot fell upon the Genoese caravel (which had joined the explorers), to draw into the shore and land a prisoner, to try the good will of the natives before any one else ventured." The poor wretch, instructed to enquire about the races living on the river and their manners, polity, King's name and capital, gold supply, and other matters of commerce, had no sooner swum ashore than he was seized and cut to pieces by some armed savages, while the ships sailed on with a south wind, making no attempt to avenge their victim, till after a lovely coast, fringed with trees, low-lying, and rich exceedingly, they came to the mouth of the Gambra, three or four miles across, the haven where they would be, and where Cadamosto expected his full harvest of gold and pepper and aromatics. The smallest caravel started at once the very next morning after the discovery to go upstream, taking a boat with it, in case the stream should suddenly get too shallow for anything larger, while the sailors were to keep sounding the river with their poles all the way. Everybody too kept a sharp look-out for native canoes. They had not long to wait. Two miles up the river three native "Almadias" came suddenly out upon them and then stopped dead, too astonished at the ship and the white men in it to offer to do more, though they had at first a threatening look and were now invited to a parley by the Europeans with every sign that could be thought of. As the natives would not come any nearer, the caravel returned to the mouth of the river, and next morning at about nine o'clock the whole fleet started together upstream to explore "with the hope of finding some more friendly natives by the kind care of Heaven." Four miles up the negroes came out upon them again in greater force, "most of them sooty black in colour, dressed in white cotton, with something like a German helmet on their heads, with two wings on either side and a feather in the middle. A Moor stood in the bow of each Almadia, holding a round leather shield and encouraging his men in their thirteen canoes to fight and to row up boldly to the caravels. Now their oars were larger than ours and in number they seemed past counting." After a short breathing space, while each party glared upon the other, the negroes shot their arrows and the caravels replied with their engines, which killed a whole rank of the natives. The savages then crowded round the little caravel and set upon her; they were at last beaten off with heavy loss and all fled; the slave interpreters shouting out to them as they rowed away that they might as well come to terms with men who were only there for commerce, and had come from the ends of the earth to give the King of Gambra a present from his brother of Portugal, "and for that we hoped to be exceeding well loved and cherished by the king of Gambra. But we wanted to know who and where their king was, and what was the name of this river. They should come without fear and take of us what they would, giving us in return of theirs." The negroes shouted back that they could not be mistaken about the strangers, they were Christians. What could they have to do with them; they knew how they had behaved to the King of Senegal. No good men could stand Christians who ate human flesh. What else did they buy negro slaves for? Christians were plundering brigands too and had come to rob them. As for their king, he was three days' journey from the river, which was called Gambra. When Cadamosto tried to come to closer quarters, the natives disappeared, and the crews refused to venture any farther upstream. So the caravels turned back, sailed down the river, and coasted away west to Cape Verde, and so home to Portugal. But before the Venetian ends his journal, he tells us how near Prince Henry's ships had now come to the Equator. "When we were in the river of Gambra, once only did we see the North Star, which was so low that it seemed almost to touch the sea." To make up for the loss of the Pole Star--sunk to "the third part of a lance's length above the edge of the water,"--Cadamosto and his men had a view of six brilliant stars, "in form of a cross," while the June night was "of thirteen hours and the day of eleven." Cadamosto only went home to refit for a second voyage. Though at first he had been baffled by the "savagery of the men of Gambra" from finding out much about them, he resolved to try again, sailed out the very next year by way of the Canaries and Cape Blanco, and found, after three days' more sailing, certain islands off Cape Verde, where no one had been before. The lookouts saw two very large islands, towards the larger of which they sailed at once, in the hope of finding good anchorage and friendly natives. But no one, friend or foe, seemed to live there. So next morning, says Cadamosto, that I might satisfy my own mind, I bade ten of my men, armed with missiles and cross-bows, to explore the inland. They crossed the hills that cut off the interior from the coast, but found nothing except doves, who were so tame that they could be caught in any number by the hand. And now from another side of the first island they caught sight of three others towards the north, and of two more towards the west, which could not be clearly seen because of the great distance. "But for the matter of that, we did not care to go out of our way to find what we now expected, that all these other islands were desolate like the first. So we went on our way (due south) and so passed another island, and, coming to the mouth of a river, landed in search of fresh water and found a beautiful and fruitful country covered with trees. Some sailors who went inland found cakes of salt, white and small, by the side of the river, and immense numbers of great turtles, with shells of such size that they could make very good shields for an army." Here they stayed a couple of days, exploring in the country and fishing in the river, which was so broad and deep that it would easily bear a ship of one hundred and fifty tons burden and a full bowshot would not carry across it. Then, naming their first discovered island Boa Vista, and the largest of the group St. James, because it was on the feast of the Apostle they found it, they sailed on along the coast of the mainland, till they came to the Place of the Two Palms, between the Senegal and Cape Verde, "and since the whole land was known to us before, we did not stay, but boldly rounded C. Verde and ran along to the Gambra." Up this they at once began to steer. No canoes came out upon them this time, and no natives appeared, except a few who hung about some way off and did not offer to stop them. Ten miles up they found a small island, where one of the sailors died of a fever, and they called the new discovered land "St. Andrew," after him. The natives were now much more approachable and Cadamosto's men conversed with the bolder ones who came close up to the caravel. Like the men of Senegal, two things above all astonished and confounded them, the white sails of the ships and the white skins of the sailors. After much debate, carried on by yelling from boat to boat, one of the negroes came on board the caravel and was loaded with presents, to make him more communicative. The ruse was successful. The string of his tongue was quite loosed and he chattered along freely enough. The country, like the river, was called "Gambra"; its king, Farosangul, lived ten days' journey toward the south, but he was himself under the Emperor of Melli, chief of all the negroes. Was there no one nearer than Farosangul? Oh, yes, there was Battimansa, "King Batti," and a good many other princes who lived quite close to the river. Would he guide them to Battimansa? Yes, safe enough, his country was only some forty miles from the mouth of the Gambra. "And so we came to Battimansa, where the river was narrowed down to about a mile in breadth," where Cadamosto offered presents to the King, and made a great speech before the negro magnates, which is abridged in the narrative, "lest the matter should become a great Iliad." King Batti returned the Portuguese presents with gifts of slaves and gold, but the Europeans were sadly disappointed with the gold. It was not at all equal to what they expected, or what the people of Senegal had talked of; "being poor themselves, they had fancied their neighbours must be rich." On the other hand, the negroes of Gambra would give almost any price for trinkets and worthless toys, because they were new. Fifteen days, or nearly that, did the Portuguese stay there trading, and immense was the variety of their visitors in that time. Most came on board simply from wonder and to stare at them, others to sell their cotton cloths, nets, gold rings, civet and furs, baboons and marmots, fruit and especially dates. Each canoe seemed to differ in its build and its crew from the last. The river, crowded with this light craft, was "like the Rhone, near Lyons," but the natives worked their boats like gondolas, standing, one rowing and another steering with oars, that were like half a lance in shape, a pace and a half long, with a round board like a trencher tied at the end. "And with these they make very good pace, being great coasting voyagers, but not venturing far out to sea or away from their own country, lest they should be seized and sold for slaves to the Christians." After the fortnight's stay in Battimansa's country, the crews began to fall ill and Cadamosto determined to drop down the river once more to the coast, noting as he did so all the habits of the natives. Most of them were idolaters, nearly all had implicit faith in charms, some worshipped "Mahmoud most vile," and some were Nomades like the Gypsies of Europe. For the most part the people of the Gambra lived like those of the Senegal, dressing in cotton and using the same food, except that they ate dog's flesh and were all tattooed, women as well as men. We need not follow Cadamosto in his accounts of the great trees, the wild elephants, great bats and "horse-fish" of the country. A chief called Gnumi-Mansa, "King Gnumi," living near the mouth of the Gambra, took him on an elephant-hunt, in which he got the trophies, foot, trunk, and skin, that he took home and presented to Prince Henry. On descending the Gambra, the caravel tried to coast along the unexplored land, but was driven by a storm into the open sea. After driving about some time and nearly running on a dangerous coast, they came at last to the mouth of a great river which they called Rio Grande, "for it seemed more like a gulf or arm of the sea than a river, and was nearly twenty miles across, some twenty-five leagues beyond the Gambra." Here they met natives in two canoes, who made signs of peace, but could not understand the language of the interpreters. The new country was absolutely outside the farthest limits of earlier exploration, and discovery would have to begin afresh. Cadamosto had no mind to risk anything more. His crew were sick and tired, and he turned back to Lisbon, observing, before he left the Ra or Rio Grande, as he noticed in his earlier voyage, that the North Star almost touched the horizon and that "the tides of that coast were very marvellous. For instead of flow and ebb being six hours each, as at Venice, the flow here was but four, and the ebb eight, the tide rising with such force that three anchors could hardly hold the caravel." CHAPTER XVIII. VOYAGES OF DIEGO GOMEZ. 1458-60. The last voyage of Henry's lifetime was that of his faithful servant, Diego Gomez, by which the Cape Verde islands first became clearly and fully known. It followed close upon Cadamosto's venture. "No long time after, the Prince equipped at Lagos a caravel, called the _Wren_, and set over it Diego Gomez, with two other caravels, of which the same Gomez was captain-in-chief. Their orders were to go as far as they could. "But after passing a great river beyond the Rio Grande, we met such strong currents in the sea that no anchor could hold. The other captains and their men were much alarmed, thinking we were at the end of the ocean, and begged me to put back. In the mid-current the sea was very clear and the natives came off from the shore and brought us their merchandise, cotton cloth, ivory, and a quart measure of malaguette pepper, in grain and in its pods as it grows, which delighted us. "As the current prevented our going farther, and even grew stronger, we put back and came to a land where there were groves of palms near the shore with their branches broken, so tall that from a distance I thought they were the masts or spars of negroes' vessels. "So we went there and found a great plain covered with hay and more than five thousand animals like stags, but larger, who shewed no fear of us. Five elephants came out of a small river that was fringed by trees, three full grown, with two young ones, and on the shore we saw holes of crocodiles in plenty. We went back to the ships and next day made our way from Cape Verde and saw the broad mouth of a great river, three leagues in width, which we entered and guessed to be the Gambia. Here wind and tide were in our favour, so we came to a small island in mid-stream and rested there the night. In the morning we went farther in, and saw a crowd of canoes full of men, who fled at the sight of us, for it was they who had killed Nuno Tristam and his men. Next day we saw beyond the point of the river some natives on the right-hand bank, who welcomed us. Their chief was called Frangazick and he was the nephew of Farosangul, the great Prince of the Negroes. There they gave us one hundred and eighty pounds worth of gold, in exchange for our goods. The lord of the country had a negro with him named Buka, who knew the tongue only of Negroland, and finding him perfectly truthful, I asked him to go with me to Cantor and promised him all he needed. I made the same promise to his chief and kept it. [Illustration: THE BORGIAN MAP OF 1450. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] "We went up the river as far as Cantor, which is a large town near the river-side. Farther than this the ships could not go, because of the thick growth of trees and underwood, but here I made it known that I had come to exchange merchandise, and the natives came to me in very great numbers. When the news spread through the country that the Christians were in Cantor, they came from Tambucatu in the North, from Mount Gelu in the South, and from Quioquun, which is a great city, with a wall of baked tiles. Here, too, I was told, there is gold in plenty and caravans of camels cross over there with goods from Carthage, Tunis, Fez, Cairo and all the land of the Saracens. These are exchanged for gold, which comes from the mines on the other side of Sierra Leone. They said that range ran southwards, which pleased me very greatly, because all the rivers coming from thence, as far as could be known, ran westward, but they told me that other very large rivers ran eastward from the other side of the ridge. "There was also, they said, East of these mountains, a great lake, narrow and long, on which sailed canoes like ships. The people on the opposite sides of this lake were always at war; and those on the eastern side were white. When I asked who ruled in those parts, they answered that one chief was a negro, but towards the East was a greater lord who had conquered the negroes a short time before. "A Saracen told me he had been all through that land and had been present at the fighting, and when I told this to the Prince, he said that a merchant in Oran had written him two months before about this very war, and that he believed it. "Such were the things told me by the negroes at Cantor; I asked them about the road to the gold country, and who were the lords of that country. They told me the King lived in Kukia, and was lord of all the mines on the right side of the river of Cantor, and that he had before the door of his palace a mass of gold just as it was taken from the earth, so large that twenty men could hardly move it, and that the King always fastened his horse to it and kept it as a curiosity on account of its size and purity. The nobles of his Court wore in their nostrils and ears ornaments of gold. "The parts to the East were full of gold mines, but the men who went into the pits to get gold did not live long, because of the foul air. The gold sand was given to women to wash the gold from it. "I enquired the road from Cantor to Kukia and was told the road ran eastward; where was great abundance of gold; as I can well believe, for I saw the negroes who went by those roads laden with it. "While I was thus trafficking with these negroes of Cantor, my men became worn out with the heat and so we returned towards the ocean. After I had gone down the river fifty leagues, they told me of a great chief living on the South side, who wished to speak with me. "We met in a great wood on the bank, and he brought with him a vast throng of people armed with poisoned arrows, assegais, swords and shields. And I went to him, carrying some presents and biscuit and some of our wine, for they have no wine except that made from the date-palm, and he was pleased and extremely gracious, giving me three negroes and swearing to me by the one only God that he would never again make war against Christians, but that they might trade and travel safely through all his country. "Being desirous of putting to proof this oath of his, I sent a certain Indian named Jacob whom the Prince had sent with us, in order that in the event of our reaching India, he might be able to hold speech with the natives, and I ordered him to go to the place called Al-cuzet, with the lord of that country, to find Mount Gelu and Timbuctoo through the land of Jaloffa. A knight had gone there with him before. "This Jacob, the Indian, told me that Al-cuzet was a very evil land, having a river of sweet water and abundance of lemons; and some of these he brought to me. And the lord of that country sent me elephants' teeth and four negroes, who carried one great ivory tusk to the ship. "Now the houses here are made of seaweed, covered with straw, and while I stayed here (at the river mouth) three days, I learned that all the mischief that had been done to the Christians had been done by a certain king called Nomimansa, who has the country near the great headland by the mouth of the river Gambia. So I took great pains to make peace with him, and sent him many presents by his own men in his own canoes, which were going for salt along the coast to his own country, for this salt is plentiful there and of a red colour. Now Nomimansa was in great fear of the Christians, lest they should take vengeance upon him. "Then I went on to a great harbour where I had many negroes come to me, sent by Nomimansa to see if I should do anything, but I always treated them kindly. When the King heard this, he came to the river side with a great force and sitting down on the bank, sent for me. And so I went and paid him all respect. There was a Bishop there of his own faith who asked me about the God of the Christians, and I answered him as God had given me to know; and then I questioned him about Mahomet, whom they believe. At last the King was so pleased with what I said that he sprang to his feet and ordered the Bishop to leave his country within three days, and swore that he would kill any one who should speak the name of Mahomet from that day forward. For he said he trusted in the one only God and there was no other but He, whom his brother Prince Henry worshipped. "Then calling the Infant his brother, he asked me to baptize him and all his lords and women. He himself would have no other name than Henry, but his nobles took our names, like James and Nuno. So I remained on shore that night with the King but did not baptize him, as I was a layman. But next day I begged the King with his twelve chief men and eight of his wives to dine with me on my caravel; and they all came unarmed and I gave them fowls and meat and wine, white and red, as much as they could drink, and they said to one another that no people were better than the Christians. "Then again on shore the King asked me to baptize him but I said I had not leave from the Pope; but I would tell the Prince, who would send a priest. So Nomimansa at once wrote to Prince Henry to send him a priest and some one to teach him the faith, and begged him to send him a falcon with the priest, for he was amazed when I told him how we carried a bird on the hand to catch other birds. And with these he asked the Prince to send him two rams and sheep and geese and ganders and a pig, and two men to build houses and plan out his town. And all these wishes of his I promised him that the Prince would grant. And he and all his people made a great noise at my going but I left the King at Gambia and started back for Portugal. One caravel I sent straight home, but with the others I sailed to Cape Verde. "And as we came near the sea-shore we saw two canoes putting out to sea; but we sailed between them and the shore, and so cut them off. Then the interpreter came to me and said that Bezeghichi, the lord of the land and an evil man, was in one of them. "So I made them come into the caravel and gave them to eat and drink with a double share of presents, and making as if I did not know him to be the chief, I said 'Is this the land of Bezeghichi?' He answered 'Yes, it is.' And I, to try him, exclaimed 'Why is he so bitter against the Christians? He would do far better to have peace with them, so that they might trade in his land and bring him horses and other things, as they do for other lords of the negroes. Go and tell your lord Bezeghichi that I have taken you and for love of him have let you go.' "At this he was very cheerful and he and his men got into their canoes, as I bade them, and as they all were standing by the side of the caravel, I called out 'Bezeghichi, Bezeghichi, do not think I did not know thee. I could have done to thee what I would, and now, as I have done to thee, do thou also to our Christians.' "So they went off, and we came back to Arguin and the Isle of the Herons, where we found flocks of birds of every kind, and after this came home to Lagos, where the Prince was very glad of our return. "Then after this for two years no one went to Guinea, because King Affonso was at war in Africa and the Prince was quite taken up with this. But after he had come back from Alcaçer, I reminded him of what King Nomimansa had asked of him; and the Prince sent him all he had promised, with a priest, the Abbot of Soto de Cassa, and a young man of his household named John Delgado. This was in 1458. "Two years afterwards King Affonso equipped a large caravel and sent me out as captain, and I took with me ten horses and went to the land of the Barbacins, which is near the land of Nomimansa. And these Barbacins had two kings, but the King of Portugal gave me power over all the shores of that sea, that any ships I might find off the coast of Guinea should be under me, for he knew that there were those who sold arms to the Moors, and he bade me to seize such and bring them bound to Portugal. "And by the help of God I came in twelve days to this land (of the Barbacins), and found two ships there,--one under Gonzalo Ferreira, of Oporto, of the Household of Prince Henry, that was conveying horses; the other was under Antonio de Noli, of Genoa. These merchants injured our trade very much, for the natives used to give twelve negroes for one horse, and now gave only six. "And while we were there, a caravel came from Gambia, which brought us news that a captain called De Prado was coming with a richly laden ship, and I ordered Ferreira to go to Cape Verde and look for that ship and seize it, on pain of death and loss of all his goods. And he did so, and we found a great prize, which I sent home with Ferreira to the King. And then I and Antonio de Noli left that coast, and sailed two days and one night towards Portugal, and we sighted islands in the ocean, and as my ship was lighter and faster than the rest, I came first to one of those islands, to a good harbour, with a beach of white sand, where I anchored. I told all my men and the other captains that I wished to be first to land, and so I did. "We saw no trace of natives, and called the island Santiago, as it is still known. There were plenty of fish there and many strange birds, so tame that we killed them with sticks. And I had a quadrant with me, and wrote on the table of it the altitude of the Arctic Pole, and I found it better than the chart, for though you see your course of sailing on the chart well enough, yet if once you get wrong, it is hard by map alone to work back into the right course. "After this we saw one of the Canary islands, called Palma, and so came to the island of Madeira; and then adverse winds drove me to the Azores, but Antonio de Noli stayed at Madeira, and, catching the right breeze, he got to Portugal before me, and begged of the King the captaincy of the island of Santiago, which I had found, and the King gave it him, and he kept it till his death. "But De Prado, who had carried arms to the Moors, lay in irons and the King ordered him to be brought out. And then they martyrised him in a cart, and threw him into the fire alive with his sword and gold." [Illustration: COIMBRA UNIVERSITY OF WHICH HENRY WAS THE OFFICIAL PATRON.] CHAPTER XIX. HENRY'S LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 1458-60. While Cadamosto and Diego Gomez were carrying the Prince's flag farther from the shores of Europe "than Alexander or Cæsar had ever ventured," the Prince himself was getting more and more absorbed in the project of a new Holy War against the Infidel. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, had at least the effect of frightening and almost of rousing Western Christendom at large. In the most miserably divided of Latin states there was now a talk about doing great things, though the time, the spirit for actually doing them, had long passed by, or was not yet come. Spain, the one part of the Western Church and State, which was still living in the crusading fervour of the twelfth century, was alone ready for action. The Portuguese kingdom in particular, under Affonso V., had been keeping up a regular crusade in Marocco, and was willing and eager to spend men and treasure in a great Levantine enterprise. So the Pope's Legate was welcomed when he came in 1457 to preach the Holy War. Affonso promised to keep up an army of twelve thousand men for war against the Ottoman, and struck a new gold coinage--the Cruzado--to commemorate the year of Deliverance. But Portugal by itself could not deliver New Rome or the Holy Land, and when the other powers of the West refused to move, Affonso had to content himself with the old crusade in Africa, but he now pushed on even more zealously than before his favourite ambition, a land empire on both sides of the Straits, and Prince Henry's last appearance in public service was in his nephew's camp in the Marocco campaign of 1458. In the siege of Alcaçer the Little, the "Lord Infant" forced the batteries, mounted the guns, and took charge of the general conduct of the siege. A breach was soon made in the walls, and the town surrendered on easy terms, "for it was not," said Henry, "to take their goods or force a ransom from them that the King of Portugal had come against them, but for the service of God." They were only to leave behind in Alcaçer their Christian prisoners; for themselves, they might go, with their wives, their children, and their property. The stout-hearted veteran Edward Menezes became governor of Alcaçer, and held the town with his own desperate courage against all attempts to recover it. When the besiegers offered him terms, he offered them in return his scaling ladders that they might have a fair chance; when they were raising the siege he sent them a message, Would they not try a little longer? It had been a very short affair. Meantime Henry, returning to Europe by way of Ceuta, re-entered his own town of Sagres for the last time. His work was nearly done, and indeed, of that work there only remains one thing to notice. The great Venetian map, known as the Camaldolese Chart of Fra Mauro, executed in the convent of Murano just outside Venice, is not only the crowning specimen of mediæval draughtsmanship, but the scientific review of the Prince's exploration. As Henry himself closes the middle age of exploration and begins the modern, so this map, the picture and proof of his discoveries, is not only the last of the older type of plan, but the first of the new style--the style which applied the accurate and careful methods of Portolano-drawing to a scheme of the whole world. It is the first scientific atlas. But its scale is too vast for anything of a detailed account: it measures six feet four inches across, and in every part it is crammed with detail, the work of three years of incessant labour (1457-9) from Andrea Bianco and all the first coasters and draughtsmen of the time. In general, there is an external carefulness as well as gorgeousness about the workmanship; the coasts, especially in the Mediterranean and along the west coast of Europe, would almost suit a modern Admiralty Chart, while its notice, the first notice, of Prince Henry's African and Atlantic discoveries is the special point of the whole work. There is a certain disposition to exaggerate the size of rivers, mountains, towns, and the whole proportion of things, as we get farther away from the well-known ground of Europe; Russia and the north and north-east of Asia are somewhat too large, but along the central belt, it is fair to say that the whole of the country west of the Caspian is thoroughly sound, the best thing yet done in any projection. No one could look at Fra Mauro's map and fail to see at a glance a picture of the Old World; and the more it is looked at, the more reliable it will prove to be, by the side of all earlier essays in this field. No one can look at the Arabic maps and their imitations in mediæval Christendom, whether conscious or unconscious (as in the Spanish example of 1109), without despair. It is almost hopeless to try and recognise in these anything of the shape, the proportions, or the distribution of the parts of the world which are named, and which one might almost fancy it was meant to represent at the time. Place the map of 1459 by the side of the Hereford map of 1300 or of Edrisi's scheme of 1130 (made at the Christian Court of Sicily), or in fact beside any of the theoretical maps of the thousand years that had gone to make the Italy and the Spain of Fra Mauro and Prince Henry, and it will seem to be almost absurd to ask the question: Do these belong to the same civilisation, in any kind of way? What would the higher criticism answer, out of its infallible internal evidence tests? Of course, these are quite different. The one is merely a collection of the scratchings of savages, the other is the prototype of modern maps. Yet the Christian world is answerable for both kinds; it had struggled through ignorance and superstition and tradition into clearer light and truer knowledge. [Illustration: WESTERN SECTION OF THE MAPPE-MONDE OF FRA MAURO. 1457-9. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] And when Greek geography came to be reprinted and revived, this was in part at least a consequence of that revival of true science which had begun in that very dark time, the night of the twelfth century, where we are not likely to see any signs of dawn till we look, not so much at what is written now, as at what the poor besotted savages of the ages of Abelard and Bernard and Aquinas and Dante have left to bear witness of themselves. Between Henry's return from Alcaçer and his death, while the great Venetian map was in making, two years went by, years in which Diego Gomez was finding the Cape Verde islands and pushing the farthest south of European discovery still farther south, but of the Prince's own working, apart from that of his draughtsmen, we have little or nothing, but a set of charters. These charters were concerned with the trade profits of the Guinea commerce and the settlers in the new found lands off the continent--Madeira, the Azores, the Canaries,--and have an interest as being a sort of last will and testament of the Prince to his nation, settling his colonies, providing for the working of the lands he had explored, before it should be too late. Already on the 7th June, 1454, Affonso had granted to the Order of Christ, for the explorations "made and to be made at the expense of the aforesaid Order," the spiritual jurisdiction of Guinea, Nubia, and Ethiopia, with all rights as exercised in Europe and at the Mother house of Thomar. Now on the 28th December, 1458, Prince Henry granted "in his town" that "the said Order should receive one twentieth of all merchandise from Guinea," slaves, gold and all other articles; the rest of the profit to fall to the Prince's successor in this "Kingdom of the Seas." In the same way on the 18th September, 1460, the Prince grants away the Church Revenues of Porto Santo and Madeira to the Order of Christ, and the temporalities to the Crown of Portugal. It was his to give, for by Royal Decree of September 15, 1448, the whole control of the African and ocean trade and colonies had been expressly conferred upon the Infant. No ships as we have seen could sail beyond Bojador without his permit; whoever transgressed this forfeited his ship; and all ships sailing with his permit were obliged to pay him one fifth or one tenth of the value of their freight. But the end was in sight. The Prince was now sixty-six, and he had spent himself too strenuously for there to be much hope of a long life in him. Of late years, pressed by the increasing claims of his work, he had borrowed enormous sums from his half brother, the millionaire Duke of Braganza. Now his body failed him like his treasures. [Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF FRA MAURO'S MAPPE-MONDE. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] What we know of his death is mainly from his body servant, Captain Diego Gomez, who was with him at the last. "In the year of Christ 1460, the Lord Infant Henry fell sick in his own town, on Cape St. Vincent, and of that sickness he died on Thursday, November 13th, in the selfsame year. And King Affonso, who was then at Evora with all his men, made great mourning on the death of a Prince so mighty, who had sent out so many fleets, and had won so much from Negro-land, and had fought so constantly against the Saracens for the Faith. "And at the end of the year, the King bade me come to him. Now till then I had stayed in Lagos by the body of the Prince my lord, which had been carried into the Church of St. Mary in that town. And I was bidden to look and see if the body of the Prince were at all corrupted, for it was the wish of the King to remove it to the Monastery of Batalha which D. Henry's father King John had built. But when I came and looked at the body, I found it dry and sound, clad in a rough shirt of horse-hair. Well doth the Church repeat 'Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.' "For how the Lord Infant had been chaste, a virgin to the day of his death, and what and how many good deeds he had done in his life, is to be remembered, though it is not for me here to speak of this. For that would be a long tale. But the King Affonso had the body of his uncle carried to Batalha and laid in the chapel that King John had built, where also lie buried the aforesaid King John and his Queen Phillipa, mother of my lord the Prince, and all the five brothers of the Infant." He was brawny and large of frame, says Azurara, strong of limb as any. His complexion was fair by nature, but by his constant toil and exposure of himself it had become quite dark. His face was stern and when angry, very terrible. Brave as he was in heart and keen in mind, he had a passion for the doing of great things. Luxury and avarice never found lodgment within him. For from a youth, he quite left off the use of wine, and more than this, as it was commonly reported, he passed all his days in unbroken chastity. He was so generous that no other uncrowned Prince in Europe had so noble a household, so large and splendid a school for the young nobles of his country. For all the best men of his nation and still more those who came to him from foreign lands were welcomed at his Court, so that often the medley of tongues and peoples and customs to be heard and seen there was a wonder. And none who worthily came to him left the Court without some proof of his kindness. [Illustration: THE RECUMBENT STATUE OF PRINCE HENRY. FROM HIS TOMB IN BATALHA CHURCH.] Only to himself was he severe. All his days were spent in work, and it would not easily be believed how often he passed the night without sleep, so that by his untiring industry he conquered the impossibilities of other men. His virtues and graces it is too much to reckon up; wise and thoughtful, of wonderful knowledge and calm bearing, courteous in language and manner and most dignified in address, yet no subject of the lowest rank could show more obedience and respect to his sovereign than this uncle to his nephew, from the very beginning of his reign, while King Affonso was still a minor. Constant in adversity and humble in prosperity, my Lord the Infant never cherished hatred or ill will against any, even though they had grievously offended him, so that some, who spoke as if they knew everything, said that he was wanting in retributive justice, though in all other ways most impartial. Thus they complained that he forgave some of his soldiers who deserted him in the attack on Tangier, when he was in the greatest danger. He was wholly given up to the public service, and was always glad to try new plans for the welfare of the Kingdom at his own expense. He gloried in warfare against the Infidels and in keeping peace with all Christians. And so he was loved by all, for he loved all, never injuring any, nor failing in due respect and courtesy towards any person however humble, without forgetting his own position. A foul or indecent word was never heard to issue from his lips. To Holy Church, above all, he was most obedient, attending all its services and in his own chapel causing them to be rendered as solemnly as in any Cathedral Church. All holy things he reverenced, and he delighted to shew honour and to do kindness to all the ministers of religion. Nearly one half of the year was passed by him in fasting, and the hands of the poor never went out empty from his presence. His heart never knew fear except the fear of sin. CHAPTER XX. THE RESULTS OF PRINCE HENRY'S WORK. Henry's own life is in one way the least important part of him. We have seen how many were the lines of history and of progress--in Christendom, in Portugal, in Science--that met in him; how Greek and Arabic geography, both knowledge and practical exploration, was as much a part of what he found to work with as the memoirs of Christian pilgrims, traders, and travellers for a thousand years; how the exploring and expanding energy which the Northmen poured into Europe, leading directly to the Crusading movement, was producing in the Portugal of the fifteenth century the very same results as in the France and Italy and England of the twelfth and thirteenth: and now, on the failure of the Syrian crusades, the Spanish counterpart of those crusades, the greatest of social and religious upheavals in the Middle Ages, had reached such a point of success that the victorious Christians of Spain could look out for new worlds to conquer. Again we have seen how the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth century progress in science, especially in geographical maps and plans, the great extension of land travel and the new beginnings of ocean voyaging during the same time, must be taken into any view of the Prince's life and work. We have now to look for a moment at the immense results of that same life which had so vast and so long a preparation. For just as we cannot see how that work of his could have been done without each and every part of that many-sided preparation in the history of the past, so it is quite as difficult to see how the great achievements of the generation that followed him and of the century, that wonderful sixteenth century, which followed the age of Henry's courtiers and disciples, could have been realised without the impetus he had given and the knowledge he had spread. For it was not merely that his seamen had broken down the middle wall of superstitious terror and had pierced through into the unknown South for a distance of nearly two thousand miles; it was not merely that between 1412 and 1460 Europeans passed the limits of the West and of the South, as legend had so long fixed them; not merely that the most difficult part of the African coast, between Bojador and the Gulf of Guinea, had been fairly passed and that the waterway to India was more than half found. This was true enough. When Vasco da Gama was once round the South Cape, he soon found himself not in an unknown and untraversed ocean, but embarked upon one of the great trade routes of the Mahometan world. The main part of the distance between the Prince's farthest and the southern Cape of Good Hope, was passed in two voyages, in four years (1482-6). But there was more than this. Henry did not only accomplish the first and most difficult steps of his own great central project, the finding of the way round Africa to India; he not only began the conversion of the natives, the civilisation of the coast tribes and the colonisation of certain trading sites; he also founded that school of thought and practice which made all the great discoveries that have so utterly eclipsed his own. From that school came Columbus, who found a western route to India, starting from the suggestion of Henry's attempt by south and east; Bartholomew Diaz, who reached and rounded the southernmost point of the old-world continent and laid open the Indian Ocean to European sailors; Da Gama, who was the first of those sailors to reap the full advantage of the work of ninety years, the first who sailed from Lisbon to Calicut and back again; Albuquerque, who founded the first colonial empire of Modern Europe, the first great out-settlement of Christendom, the Portuguese trade dominion in the East; Magellan, who finally proved what all the great discoverers were really assuming--the roundness of the world; the nameless adventurers who seem to have touched Australia some time before 1530; the draughtsmen who left us our first true map of the globe. So it is not in the actual things done by the Prince's efforts that we can measure his importance in history. It is because his work was infinitely suggestive, because he laid a right foundation for the onward movement of Europe and Christendom, because he was the leader of a true Renaissance and Reformation, that he is so much more than a figure in the story of Portugal. [Illustration: COLUMBUS AS S. CHRISTOPHER, CARRYING THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, IN THE FORM OF THE INFANT JESUS, ACROSS THE OCEAN.] There are figures which are of national interest: there are others which are less than that, figures of family or provincial importance; others again which are always dear to us as human beings, as men who felt the ordinary wants and passions and lived the ordinary life of men with a brilliancy and an intense power that was all their own; there are other men who stand out as those who have changed more or less, but changed vitally and really, the course of the world's history; without whom the whole of our modern society, our boasted civilisation, would have been profoundly different. For after all the modern Christian world of Europe has something to boast of, though its writers spend much of their time in reviling and decrying it. It is something that our Western world has conquered or worsted every other civilisation upon earth; that with the single exception of China, it has made everyone of the coveted tracts of Asia its own; that it has discovered, settled, and developed a new continent to be the equal of the old; that it has won not a complete but a good working knowledge of the whole surface of the globe. We are at home in the world now, we say, and if we would know what that means, we must look at the Europe of the tenth or even the fourteenth century, look at the theoretic maps of the Middle Ages, look at the legends and the pseudo-science of a civilisation which was shut up within itself and condemned for so long to fight in a narrowing circle against incessant attacks from without and the barbarism which this state of things kept alive within. Then perhaps we shall take things a little less for granted, and perhaps also we shall begin to think that if this great advance, the greatest thing in Modern History as we know it, that which is the distinction and glory of the last three hundred years, is at all due to the inspiration and the action of Henry of Portugal, an obscure Prince of the fifteenth century, that obscure Prince may possibly belong to the rank of the great civilisers, the men who have most altered society and advanced it, men like Alexander and Cæsar and the founders of the great world religions. It may be as well to trace out very shortly the evidence for such a claim as this and to see, how the Prince's work was followed up, first on his own lines to south and east; second, on other lines, which his own suggested, to west and north. 1. King Affonso V., Henry's nephew, though rather more of a hard fighter and tournament king than a man who could fully take up his uncle's plans, had yet caught enough of his inspiration to push on steadily, though slowly, the advance round Africa. He had already done his best to get the great map of Fra Mauro finished: this, which embodied all the achievements of the Navigator and gave the most complete and perfect view of the world that had ever yet appeared, had come out in 1459, just before Henry's death, the last tribute of science to the Prince's work. Now, in 1461, left alone to deal with the discovery and conquest of Guinea, Affonso repaired Henry's fort in the Bay of Arguin and sent one Pedro de Cintra to survey the coast beyond the Rio Grande, the farthest point of Cadamosto in his first voyage, as generally known. Pedro went six hundred miles into the Bight of Benin, passed a mountain range called Sierra Leone from the lion-like growl of the thunder on its summits, and turned back near the point afterwards known as Fort La Mina (1461). Some time in the next few years, another courtier, one Sueiro da Costa followed Pedro de Cintra to Guinea, but without any new results; when Cadamosto left Portugal (Feb. 1, 1463), he tells us "there were no more voyages to the new-found parts." The slave-trade nearer home was now, indeed, absorbing all energies and Affonso's main relation with African voyaging is to be found in his regulations for the security of this trade. But in 1471 there was another move in the line of further discovery. For exploring energy was not dead or worn out, but only waiting a leader. Fernando Po now reached the island in the farthest inlet of the Gulf of Guinea, which is still called after him, finding as he went on that the eastern bend of Africa, which men had followed so confidently since 1445, the year of the rounding of Cape Verde, now ended with a sharp turn to the south. It was a great disappointment. But in spite of this discouragement, at the very same time two of the foremost of the Portuguese pilots, Martin Fernandez and Alvaro Esteeves, passed the whole of the Guinea Coast, the Bights of Benin and of Biafra, and crossed the Equator, into a new Heaven and a new Earth, on the edge of which the caravels of Portugal had long been hovering, as they saw like Cadamosto, stars unknown in the Northern Hemisphere and more and more nearly lost sight of the Northern Pole. In 1475 Cape St. Catherine, two degrees south of the Line, was reached and then after six more years of languishing exploration and flourishing trade, King John II. succeeded Affonso V. and took up the work, in the spirit of Prince Henry the Navigator. Now in six short years, exploration carried out the main part of the design of so many years, the southern Cape of Africa was rounded and the way to India laid open. For the time had come, and the man, John, added a new chapter to discovery by the travellers he sent across the Dark Continent and the sailors he despatched to the Arctic Seas to find a north-east passage to China. He died just as he was fitting up the expedition that was to enter upon the promised land, and the glory of Da Gama's voyage fell to one who had not laboured, but entered upon the fruits of the toil of other men, the palace-king, Emanuel the Fortunate. But at least the names of Diaz, and Diego Cam, and Covilham, the rounding of the Cape of Storms, the first journey (though an overland one), straight from Lisbon to Malabar, belong to the second founder of Portuguese and European discovery, John the Perfect. [Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA. FROM THE PORTRAIT IN POSSESSION OF COUNT OF LAVRADIO.] Less than four months after his father's death, John, who as heir apparent, had drawn part of his income from the African trade and its fisheries, sent out Diego de Azambuga with ten caravels to superintend three undertakings: first the construction of a fort at St. George da Mina, to secure the trade of the Guinea Coast; second, the rebuilding of Henry's old fort at Arguin; third, the exploration of the yet unknown coast as far as possible. For this, stones, brick, wood, mortar, and tools for building were sent out with the fleet, and carved pillars were taken to be set up in all fresh discovered lands, instead of the wooden crosses that had previously done duty. Each pillar was fourteen hands high, was carved in front with the royal arms and on the sides with the names of the King and the Discoverer, with the date of discovery in Latin and Portuguese. Azambuga's fleet sailed on the 11th of December, 1480, made a treaty with the chief Bezeghichi, near Cape Verde, and reached La Mina, on the south coast of Guinea, on January 19, 1482, after a year spent in fort building and treaty making with the natives of north-west Africa. Fort and church at La Mina were finished in twenty days, and Azambuga sent back his ships with a great cargo in slaves and gold, but without any news of fresh discovery. John was not disposed to be content with this. In 1484, Diego Cam was ordered to go as far to the south as he could, and not to "wait anywhere for other matters." He passed Cape St. Catherine, just beyond the Line, which since 1475 had been the limit of knowledge, and continuing south, reached the mighty river Congo, called by the natives Zaire, and now known as the second of African rivers, the true counterpart of that western Nile, which every geographer since Ptolemy had reproduced and which, in the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Niger, the Portuguese had again and again sought to find their explanation. Cam, by agreement with the natives, took back four hostages to act as interpreters and next year returned to and passed the Congo, and sailed two hundred leagues beyond, to the site of the modern Walvisch Bay (1485). Here, as the coast seemed to stretch interminably south, though he had now really passed quite nine-tenths of the distance to the southern Cape, Cam turned back to the Congo, where he persuaded the King and people to profess themselves Christians and allies of Portugal. Already, in 1484, a native embassy to King John had brought such an account of an inland prince, one Ogane, a Christian at heart, that all the Court of Lisbon thought he must be the long lost Prester John, and the Portuguese monarch, all on fire with this hope, sent out at once in search of this "great Catholic lord," by sea and land. Bartholomew Diaz sailed in August, 1486, with two ships, first to search for the Prester, and then to explore as much new land and sea as he could find within his reach. Two envoys, Covilham and Payva, were sent on the same errand, by way of Jerusalem, Arabia, and Egypt; another expedition was sent to ascend the Senegal to its junction with the Nile; a fourth party started to find the way to Cathay by the North-east passage. Camoëns has sung of the travels of Covilham, who first saw cloves and cinnamon, pepper and ginger, and who pined away in a state of confinement at the Prester's Abyssinian Court, but the voyage of Diaz hardly finds a place in the _Lusiads_ and the very name of the discoverer is generally forgotten. Vasco da Gama has robbed him only too successfully. John Diaz had been the second captain to double Bojador; Diniz Diaz, in 1445, had been the discoverer of Senegal and of Cape Verde; now, forty years later, Bartholomew Diaz achieved the greatest feat of discovery in all history, before Columbus; for the Northmen's finding America was an unknown and transitory good fortune, while the voyage of 1486 changed directly or indirectly the knowledge, the trade, the whole face of the world at once and forever. Sailing with "two little friggits," each of fifty tons burden, in the belief that ships which sailed down the coast of Guinea might be sure of reaching the end of the continent, by persisting to the south, Diaz, in one voyage of sixteen months, performed the main task which Henry seventy years ago had set before his nation. Passing Walvisch Bay and the farthest pillar of Diego Cam, he reached a headland where he set up his first new pillar at what is still known as Diaz Point. Still coasting southwards and tacking frequently, he passed the Orange River, the northern limit of the present Cape Colony. Then putting well out to sea Diaz ran thirteen days before the wind due south, hoping by this wide sweep to round the southern point of the continent, which could not now be far off. Finding the cold become almost Arctic and buffeted by tremendous seas, he changed his course to east, and then as no land appeared after five days, to north. The first land seen was a bay where cattle were feeding, now called Flesh Bay, which Diaz named from the cows and cowherds he saw there. After putting ashore two natives, some of those lately carried from Guinea or Congo to Portugal, and sent out again to act as scouts for the European colonies, the ships sailed east, seeking in vain for the land's end, till they found the coast tend gradually but steadily towards the north. Their last pillar was set up in Algoa Bay, the first land trodden by Christians beyond the Cape. At the Great Fish River, sixty miles farther on and quite five hundred miles beyond the point that Diaz was looking for so anxiously, the crew refused to go any farther and the Admiral turned back, only certain of one thing, that he had missed the Cape, and that all his trouble was in vain. Worn out with the worry of his bitter disappointment and incessant useless labour, he was coasting slowly back, when one day the veil fell from his eyes. For there came in sight that "so many ages unknown promontory" round which lay the way to India, and to find which had been the great ambition of all enterprise since the expansion of Europe had begun afresh in the opening years of that fifteenth century. [Illustration: AFFONSO D' ALBUQUERQUE.] While Diaz was still tossing in the storms off the Great Cape, Covilham and his friends had started from Lisbon to settle the course of the future sea-route to India by an "observation of all the coasts of the Indian Ocean," to explore what they could of Upper Africa, to find Prester John, and to ally the Portuguese experiment with anything they could find of Christian power in Greater or Middle or Further India. As King John's Senegal adventurers had been exploring the Niger, the Sahara caravan routes, the city of Timbuctoo and the fancied western Nile, so the Abyssinian travellers surveyed all the ground of Africa and Malabar which the first fleet that could round the Cape of Storms must come to. "Keep southward," Covilham wrote home from Cairo after his first visit to Calicut on one side and to Mozambique on the other, "if you persist, Africa must come to an end. And when ships come to the Eastern Ocean let them ask for Sofala and the island of the Moon (Madagascar), and they will find pilots to take them to Malabar." Yet another chapter of discoveries was opened by King John's Cathay fleet. He failed to get news of a North-east passage, but beyond the north coast of Asia there was found a frozen island whose name of Novaia Zemlaia or Nova Zembla still keeps the memory of the first Portuguese attempts on the road where so many Dutch and English seamen perished in after years. The great voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497-9), the empire founded by Albuquerque (1506-15) in the Indian seas, were the other steps in the complete achievement of Prince Henry's ambition. When in the early years of the sixteenth century a direct and permanent traffic was fairly started between Malabar and Portugal, when European settlements and forts controlled the whole eastern and western coasts of Africa from the mouth of the Red Sea to the mouth of the Mediterranean, and the five keys of the Indies--Malacca, Goa, Ormuz, Aden, and Ceylon--were all in Christian hands, when the Moslem trade between east Africa and western India had passed into a possession of the Kings of Lisbon, Don Henry might see of the travail of his soul and be well satisfied. The supposed discovery of Australia about 1530, or somewhat earlier, and the travels of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto in Japan and the furthest East, the opening of the trade with China in 1517, and the complete exploration of Abyssinia, the Prester's kingdom, in 1520, by Alvarez and the other Catholic missionaries, the millions converted by Francis Xavier and the Jesuit preachers in Malabar, and the union of the old native Christian Church of India with the Roman (1599), were other steps in the same road. All of them, if traced back far enough, bring us to the Court of Sagres, and the same is true of Spanish and French and Dutch and English empires in the southern and eastern world. Henry built for his own nation, but when that nation failed from the exhaustion of its best blood, other peoples entered upon the inheritance of his work. But though he was not able himself to see the fulfilment of his plans, both the method of a South-east passage, and the men who followed it out to complete success, were his,--his workmanship and his building. Da Gama, Diego Cam, the Diaz family, and most of the great seamen who followed the path they had traced, were either "brought up from boyhood in the Household of the Infant," as the _Chronicle of the Discovery_ tells us of each new figure that comes upon the scene, or looked to him as their master, owed to the School of Sagres their training, and began their practical seamanship under his leave and protection. Even the lines upon which the national expansion and exploration went on were so strictly and exclusively the same as he had followed, that when a different route to the Indies was suggested after his death by Christopher Columbus, the Court of John II. refused to treat it seriously. And this brings us to the other, the indirect side of Henry's influence. "It was in Portugal," (says Ferdinand Columbus, in his _Life of the Admiral_, his father,) "that the Admiral began to think, that if men could sail so far south, one might also sail west and find lands in that quarter." The second great stream of modern discovery can thus be traced to the "generous Henry" of Camoëns' _Lusiads_ no less plainly, though more indirectly, than the first; the Western path was suggested by his success in the Eastern. But that success had turned the heads of his own people. When Columbus, the son of the Genoese wool-comber, who had been a resident in Lisbon since 1470, submitted to the Court of John II. some time before 1484 a proposal to find Marco Polo's Cipangu by a few weeks' sail west, from the Azores, he was treated as a dreamer. John, as Henry's disciple and successor, was, like other disciples, narrower than his master in the master's own way. He was ready for any expense and trouble, but no novelty. He would only go on as he had been taught. He had reason to be confident, and his scientific Junto of four, Martin Behaim of Nuremburg among them, to whom Columbus was referred, were too much elated with their new improvements in the astrolabe, and the now assured confidence that the Southern Cape would soon be passed. They could not endure with patience the vehement dogmatism of an unknown theorist. But as he was too full of his message to be easily shaken off, he was treated with the basest trickery. At the suggestion of the Bishop of Ceuta, Columbus was kept waiting for his answer, and asked to furnish his plans in detail with charts and illustrations. He did so, and while the Council pretended to be poring over these for a final decision, a caravel was sent to the Cape Verde islands to try the route he had suggested,--a trial with the pickings of Italian brains. The Portuguese sailed westward for several days till the weather became stormy; then, as their heart was not in the venture, they put back to Europe with a fresh stock of the legends Henry had so heartily despised. They had come to an impenetrable mist, which had stopped their progress; apparitions had warned them back; the sea in those parts swarmed with monsters; it became impossible to breathe. [Illustration: MAP OF 1492. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)] Columbus learned how he had been used, and his wife's death helped to decide him, in his disgust for place and people. Towards the end of 1484, he left Lisbon. Three years later, when he had become fully as much disgusted with the dilatory sloth and tricks of Spain, he offered himself again to Portugal. King John had repented of his meanness; on March 20, 1488, he wrote in answer to Columbus, eagerly offering on his side to guarantee him against any suits that might be taken against him in Lisbon. But the Court of Castille now became, in its turn, afraid of quite losing what might be infinite advantage; Columbus was kept in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella; and at last in August, 1492, the "Catholic Kings" sent him out from Palos to discover what he could on his own terms. What followed, the discovery of America, and all the subsequent ventures of the Cabots, of Amerigo Vespucci, of Cortés and Pizarro, De Soto and Raleigh and the Pilgrim Fathers, are not often connected in any way with the slow and painful beginnings of European expansion in the Portugal of the fifteenth century, but it is a true and real connection all the same. The whole onward and outward movement of the great exploring age was set in motion by one man. It might have come to pass without him, but the fact is simply that through him it did, as a matter of history, result. "And let him that did more than this, go before him." INDEX. A Abulfeda, 28 Adelard, of Bath, geographical postulates, 9, 10 Adelard or Athelard, 84 Affonso, comes of age, 257; marries his cousin Isabel, 258; forces Pedro into revolt, and declares war against him, 258, 259; sends out Gomez with a large caravel, 296; has the body of Prince Henry laid in chapel at Batalha, 305; carries on the work of his uncle, Prince Henry, 312, 313; is succeeded by King John II., 314 Africa, shape of, 13 Albateny, determined problems of astronomical geography, 19 Albertus Magnus, geographical postulates, 9, 11 Albuquerque, 125 Albyrouny, work of, 21 Alfarrobeira, battle of, 260 Alfred the Great, credit due to, for discoveries, 72; efforts in exploration and religious extension, 74 Al Heravy, life of, 26 Almada, the Hercules of Portugal, 184; stands by Pedro, 259; dies, 260 Almamoun, age of, 18 Almanack, Arab, Latin translation of, 21 Ant islands discovered, 160 Antoninus the Martyr, an older Mandeville, 34; legends of, 35 Arctic colonies checked, 59 Arculf, 42; travels of, 43 Arguin, fort built in the bay of, 205 Arim, "World's Summit," 8; taken as measure of places, 10; twofold, 11 Armada of Lagos, 228-239; "the third," 247 Athelard, or Adelard, 84 Aviz, House of. _See_ John, the King of Good Memory. Azambuga, Diego de, 315 Azaneguys described by Cadamosto, 269 Azores, colonisation of, 251; the entire group found, 254 Azurara, chronicler of voyages of Henry, 157 B Bacon, Roger, geographical postulates, 9, 11 Baldaya, Affonso, sent out with Gil Eannes, 173; his second voyage, 174-176 Batti, King, 285, 286 Batuta, Ibn, 27 Beginnings of the art and science of discovery, 145 Benjamin of Tudela, 88 Bernard, "the French monk," route of, 46 Bezeghichi, meets Gomez, 295; makes a treaty with Azambuga, 315 Bjarni Herjulfson driven to new country, 56 Blanco, Cape, visited by Cadamosto, 267 Boa Vista, 284 Bojador, southmost point of Christian knowledge, 170; legends concerning, 171; doubled by Gil Eannes, 173 Bruges, Jacques de, receives a grant of Captaincy of Terceira, 254 C Cabral, Gonzalo, discovers Formiga group of islands and Santa Maria, 169; Captain Donatory in St. Mary's Island, 251; settled in Western Isles, 252; sent in search of land beyond St. Mary, misses it, and is sent again, 252; discovers St. Michael, 253; returns to St. Michael with Europeans, 253 Cadamosto, record of his two voyages, 250; his narrative, 261-288; is presented to the Prince, 263; visits Madeira, 264, 265; goes on to Canaries, 265-267; to Cape Blanco, 267-269; reaches the Senegal, 269; describes Azaneguys, 269; pushes on to land of Budomel, 275-278; reaches Cape Verde, 279; describes people beyond, 280; explores the Gambra, 281, 282; goes back to Portugal, refits, and sails on second voyage, 283; explores islands off Cape Verde, 283, 284; names Boa Vista and St. James, 284; sails up the Gambra and names St. Andrew, 285; visits Battimansa, 285, 286, and Gnumimansa, 287; returns to Lisbon, 287; leaves Portugal, 313 Camaldolese chart of Fra Mauro, 301 Cam, Diego, 315; reaches the Congo and Walvisch Bay, 316 Canaries, visited by Cadamosto, 265 Cantor, visited by Gomez, 291 Cape Cod, reached by Scandinavian migration, 65 Cape St. Vincent, modern name for "Sacred Cape" and Sagres, 160 Carpini, John de Plano, 90; his _Book of the Tartars_, 92 Ceuta, King John plans an attack on, 148; situation, 150; left in command of Menezes, 155; safe in Christian hands, 156 Chart of Fra Mauro, 301 Christian pilgrimage begins with Constantine, 32 Cintra, Gonsalo de, 197; sets out for Guinea, 218; is killed by Moors, 219 Cintra, Pedro de, 313 Columbus, influenced by _Imago Mundi_, 11; at Portuguese Court, 322; at Spanish Court, 323 Constantine, Christian pilgrimage begins with, 32 Corvo, 254, 256 Cosmas Indicopleustes, 34; theory of, 37; interest to us, 40 Costa, Sueiro da, 313 Covilham, 316 Crossness, place called from dead chief, 59 Crusades and land travel, 76; results of, 144 Crusading movement, results of, 78 Cruzado, the, 300 D Daniel of Kiev, Abbot, 85 Death, Black, in Portugal, 127 De Prado, taken captive, 297; martyrised, 298 Diaz, Bartholomew, 316; makes greatest discovery in all history before Columbus, 317 Diaz, Diniz, enters mouth of the Senegal, 220; reaches Cape Verde, 221; heads a part of the fleet sent from Lagos, 229; reaches Cape Verde, 236 Diaz, Lawrence, 230 Diaz, Vincent, 233 E Eannes, Gil, makes a voyage to the Canaries, 170; rounds Cape Bojador, 173; sails with Lagos fleet, 229 Edrisi, Arabic Ptolemy, the, 21; birth and life, 22; account of voyage of Lisbon "Wanderers," 23; "Traveller's Doctorate," in time of, 25; map superseded, 27 Edward, eldest son of King John, 136; becomes King, 172; dies, 188 Emosaid, family, 24; establish themselves as traders, 25 England, Vikings first landed in, 52 English-born travellers, first of, 45 Eratosthenes, geography of, 5 Eric the Red, renames Greenland, 55; leads colonists, 56 Esteeves, Alvaro, crosses the equator, 314 Europe, compacted together in spiritual federation, 76 European development, pilgrim stage of, 42 European expansion, beginnings of, 50 Europeans, first landing of, on coasts of unknown Africa, 175; break in upon Moslem trade, 204 F Farosangul, King of Gambra, 285 Fayal, 254; first Captain Donatory of, 255 Ferdinand, fourth son of King John, 136; revives scheme of African war, 180; goes by sea to Tangier, 182; is left as hostage, 185; dies a captive, 188 Ferdinand the Handsome, last of House of Burgundy to reign in Lisbon, 131 Fernandez, Alvara, commands the caravel of his uncle, Zarco, 229; is again sent out with the caravel, 243; the voyage, 243-245 Fernandez, Joan, left as hostage at Bank of Arguin, 219; taken home, 223; his story, 223, 224 Fernandez, Martin, crosses the equator, 314 Ferrer, Jayme, explorer, 108 Fidelis, the monk, travels of, 46 Flores, 254, 256 Formigas discovered by Cabral, 169 Frangazick, nephew of Farosangul, 290 Freitas, Alvara de, 232 Freydis, daughter of Red Eric, tries to colonise Vinland, 62 G Gama, Vasco da, 125 Geographical record, last before age of Northmen, 47 Geography, first Christian, 33; of Christendom from eighth and ninth centuries, 41 Gerard of Cremona, geographical postulates, 9, 10 Gnumi, King, 287 Gog and Magog, wall to shut off, 13 Gold dust, first ever brought by Europeans direct from Guinea coast, 203; effect, 217 Gomez, Diego, 251; sets out in command of the caravel the _Wren_, 289; his narrative, 289-298; visits Cantor, 291; converts Nomimansa, 293-295; meets Bezeghichi, 295; returns to Lagos, 296; is sent out by Affonso and goes to the land of the Barbacins, 296; discovers Santiago, 297; returns to Portugal, 298; describes last illness and death of Prince Henry, 304, 305 Gonsalvez, Antam, sent out by Henry, 193; his voyage, 193-195; takes the first captives, 195; is knighted by Nuno Tristam, 198; goes back to Portugal, 199; goes back to Africa with the captive prince, 202; exchanges two boys for ten prisoners, gold dust, and ostrich eggs, 203; applies for command of ships, 222 Graciosa, 254; settled, 255 Greenland, sighted by Gunnbiorn and renamed by Eric, 55; colonised, 56 Green sea of darkness, 13, 14 Gregory X., Pope, 93 H Harold Hardrada, 68; type of all Vikings, 69 Helluland, or Slate-land, 56 Henry, the Navigator, special interest of the life and work, 29; author of discovering movement, 30; preparation for work of, 80; predecessors of seamen of, 107-112; first voyage, 112; maps used by, 117-122; Hero of Portugal, 123; inspires his countrymen with love of exploration, 125; his brother Pedro his right hand man, 136; birth, 138; his aims, 139; tries to find a way round Africa to India, 139; his work of exploration a foundation of an empire for his country, 141; a crusader and a missionary, 142; sets the example for systematic exploration, 144; the teacher and master of more successful explorers, 145; sends out caravels past Cape Non, 147; brings Portuguese fleet into harbour at Ceuta, 150; anchors off Ceuta, 151; leads in the attack on Ceuta and is reported dead, 152; is made a knight, 153; begins coasting voyages, 154; is sent to relieve Ceuta, 155; plans to get possession of Gibraltar, 156; returns to Court, 156; is made Duke of Viseu and Lord of Covilham, 157; reasons for exploring Guinea, 158; Sagres his chosen home, 160; is made Governor for life of the Algarves, 160; his buildings on Sagres, 161; his scientific work, 162; results of settlement on Cape St. Vincent, 163; sends out men and ships to colonise Porto Santo, 164; colonises Madeira, 166; directs captains to Azores, 169; impatience at superstition and fears of navigators, 172; receives charter for Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, 173; sends out Gil Eannes, 173; despatches Baldaya, 174; engaged in politics, 179; reverence paid to him, 179; plans and organises African war, 180; sets sail for Ceuta, 181; pushes forward along inland routes, 182; attacks and blockades Tangier, 183; raises the siege, 184; signs a truce with Moors, 185; shuts himself up in Ceuta, 186; is recalled to Portugal, 186; made one of the guardians of Affonso V., 189; arranges a compromise between Pedro and Leonor, 190; sends to the Holy Father for treasure to aid in crusades, 200; gives grant to sail to coast of Guinea to Lançarote, 206; his motives in slave trade, 207; keeps buccaneers in check, 216; differs from West Indian planters, 217; gives a caravel to Gonsalo de Cintra, 218; permits Lagos to equip and send out a fleet on a Guinea voyage, 229; takes special charge of widows and orphans left by Nuno Tristam's expedition, 242; gives a reward to explorers, 246; his wonderful knowledge shown in correcting Cabral's course, 252; grants captaincy of Terceira to Jacques de Bruges, 254; account of him in narrative of Cadamosto, 261; absorbed in new Holy War against the Infidel, 299; his last appearance in public service, 300; makes set of charters, 303; makes grants to the Order of Christ and to the Crown of Portugal, 304; his illness and death, 304, 305; his body is laid in the chapel at Batalha, 305; his personal appearance, 305; his character, 306; results of his life, 309-312, 321, 323 Heravy, Al, life of, 26 Hereford _Mappa Mundi_, 120 Heurter, Job van, notice of first settlement of Azores, 255 Hippalus, discovery of monsoon, 17 Hope, country re-named, 60 I Ibn Batuta, 27 Iceland, sighted by Nadodd, 54; colonised, 55 _Imago Mundi_, influence on Columbus, 11 Isidore of Seville, belief of, 40 Italian, merchants, first, who opened Court of Great Khan to Venice and Genoa, 90; age of South Atlantic and African voyages, 107 J Jacome from Majorca, 161 Japan discovered by Kublai Khan, 99 Jerusalem, loss of, 90 John de Plano Carpini, first papal legate to the Tartars, 90; gives first genuine account of Tartary, 91; first real explorer of Christian Europe, 92 John, fourth son of King John I., 136; succeeds Affonso V., adds a new chapter to discovery, dies, 314 John, the King of Good Memory, transition figure, 133; personal work and its results, 133-135; sons of, 136; plans attack on Ceuta, 148; speech when he hears of death of his two sons, 152; dies, 160 Jordanus, 104 K Karlsefne, Thorfinn, greatest of the Vinland sailors, 60 Keel-Ness (Kjalarness), 58 Kublai Khan, 93-98 L Labrador, possible discovery of, 56; reached by Scandinavian migration, 65 Lagos equips and sends out a fleet, 229 La Mina, 315 Lançarote, obtains grant to sail to coast of Guinea, 206; his voyage, 212-214; landing at Lagos and sale of slaves captured by, 214; admiral of fleet sent out from Lagos, 229; holds a council of his captains, 231; decides to go on to the Nile, 232 Latini, Brunetto, describes the magnet, 116 Leif, a son of Red Eric, starts for discovery, 56 Leonora Telles, evil genius of Ferdinand and Portugal, 131; marries King of Portugal, 132; people rise against, 132 Leonor of Aragon, attempts to be regent, 189; yields to persuasions of Henry, 190; dies, 257 Lion, first one brought to Portugal, 247 Lisbon, capture of, 128 M Machin, Robert, 110 Madagascar, first known to Europe, 102 Madeira, discovered and named by the Portuguese, 165; nature of island, 166; visited by Cadamosto, 264 Magellan, 125, 310 Magnet, earliest mention of, 115 Magnus the Good, 68 Mandeville, Sir Henry, 105 _Mappa Mundi_, Hereford, 120 Maps, of fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, 118 Marabout, or Prophet Bird, 230 Markland (Woodland), 57 Massoudy, visited various countries, 19; discussion of problems, 20; greatest name of first age of Arabic geography, 21. Masts, Cape of, 238 Mauro, Fra, Camaldolese chart of, 301 Melli, negro empire of, 270; salt trade in, 271 Menezes, Edward, 300 Menezes, Pedro de, is left in command of Ceuta, 155 Meymam, Ahude, 223, 224, 245 Mythology, geographical, gradual development of, 7 N Noli, Antonio de, sails with Gomez, 297; gets the captaincy of Santiago, 298 Nomimansa converted by Gomez, 293-295 Norse, discoveries, 50, 51; early settlements, 54; farthest point of Northern advance in Europe, 55; race, type of, 69 Northern, advance, lines of, 53; effects of invasions, 74 Northmen, countries made known to Europe through, 67; definite advances into the unknown, 72 O Odjein, Aryn, or Arim, 8 Ogane, 316 Ohthere, 70; service of, to western geography, 72 Olaf Trygveson, 68 P Pacheco, Gonsalo, unlucky expedition of, 225; meets Diaz on homeward voyage and turns back, 230 Papal Court sends missions to convert Tartars, 90 Payva, 316 Pedro the Traveller, 136; joins in attack on Ceuta, 148-153; is knighted, 153; is made Duke of Coimbra and Lord of the Principality, 157; returns from travels, 168; becomes regent, 190; gives a charter to Henry, 201; gives a reward to explorers, 246; resigns the regency, 258; takes arms against Affonso, 259; marches on Lisbon and is killed, 260 Philippa, Queen, character and death, 149 Pilgrims, primitive, 34; pioneers of growth of Europe and Christendom, 76 Pilgrim stage of European development, 42 Pires, Gomes, goes on toward the Nile, 232; attacks natives, 234 Po Fernando, 313 Polo, Marco, makes journey to the East with uncles, 94; made commissioner of Imperial Council, 96; memoirs of, 96; heard and wrote of Madagascar and Zanzibar, 102; Herodotus of Middle Ages, 103; Polo, Nicolo and Matteo, traders to Crimea and Southern Russia, 93; make second journey to farthest East, 94; consulting engineers to Mongol Court, 96; dismissed, 101 Pope, decides question of reviving African war, 181 Portolani, superseded map of Edrisi, 27; drawn with aid of compass, 121 Portolano, Laurentian, 118 Portugal, chief points in story of, 123; guide of Europe into larger world, 125; mediæval history of, 126-133 Portuguese give a value to the art and science of discovery, 145 Prado De, 297, 298 Prophet bird, or marabout, 230 Ptolemy, chart of, 2; "Habitable Quarter" of the world, 12 R Rio Grande, 246; passed by Gomez, 289 Rubruquis, William de, 92, 93 S St. George, 254, 255 St. James, 284 St. Michael, island of, discovered, 253 St. Silvia, of Aquitaine, travels of, 33 "Sacred Cape" of the Romans or Sagres, 160 Sæwulf of Worcester, 81; pilgrimage of, 82; classes of pilgrim-crusaders in time of, 84 Sagres, chosen home of Henry, 160; systematic study of applied science founded anew at, 162 Santa Maria discovered, 169 Santiago discovered by Gomez, 297 Sanuto, Marino, Venetian map of, 118 Senegal, reached by Cadamosto, 269; region about the gulf described by him, 273-275 Sinbad Saga, 19 Slate-land or Helluland, 56 Slaves, beginning of trade in, as a part of European commerce, 207; description of sale of, 214, 215; treatment of, 215; excuse for trade in, 216 Strabo, geography of, 5 T Tagaza, or the Gold-Market, 270 Tangier, siege of, 183 Tarik, the rock of (Gibraltar), 156 Terceira, sighted, 253; Jacques de Bruges becomes captain, 254 Theodosius, early pilgrim, 34 Thorfinn Karlsefne, greatest of the Vinland sailors, 60 Thorstein, third son of Red Eric, puts to sea, 59 Thorvald Ericson, puts to sea, 57; voyages of, 58; death, 59 Timbuctoo, inland route of merchants to, 270 Tristam, Nuno, meets Antam Gonsalvez, 196; assists in capturing natives, 196-199; continues voyage and returns to Portugal, 199; sets out on another voyage, 204; sails into bay of Arguin, makes captives and returns, 205; makes a third voyage, 219; reaches Cape Palmar, 220; arms a caravel and sets sail, 240; is killed by Blackmoors, 241 Trygveson, Olaf, 68 V Vallarte, his expedition and fate, 247 Vaz, Tristam, sets out to explore as far as the coast of Guinea, 163; is rewarded, 166; heads three ships from Madeira in Lagos fleet, 229 Vergil, Irish missionary, 40 Vikings, highest type of explorers, 31; Norse, discoveries, conquests, and colonies, beginning of European expansion, 50; voyages of, 52; struggle with Esquimaux, 58; rename places visited, 65; work on south and south-west not one of exploration, 66; type of all, 69; credit due, for discoveries, 72; their principalities in time of Alfred, 73 Vinland, discovery of, 57; renamed, 60; visited and abandoned by Thorfinn, 61; recolonised by Freydis, 62; fragmentary notices of, 63 W "Wanderers," Lisbon, account of, 23 William de Rubruquis, sent by St. Louis on errand of conversion and discovery, 92; interest of his work, 93 Willibald, 44 Wulfstan, 70; tells of voyages, 71; service of, to western geography, 72 Y Yacout, the Roman, _Dictionary_ of, 26 Yang-Tse-Kiang, 96 Z Zarco, John Gonsalvez, sets out to explore as far as the coast of Guinea, 163; his voyages, 164-166; returns to Madeira, 166; sends his caravel under his nephew with Lagos fleet, 229; the voyage, 236-239; same caravel sent out again, 243 The Story of the Nations. MESSRS. G. P. Putnam's Sons take pleasure in announcing that they have in course of publication, in co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic manner the stories of the different nations that have attained prominence in history. In the story form the current of each national life is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal history. It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and struggled--as they studied and wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be overlooked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. The subjects of the different volumes have been planned to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in the great STORY OF THE NATIONS; but it is, of course not always practicable to issue the several volumes in their chronological order. The "Stories" are printed in good readable type, and in handsome 12mo form. They are adequately illustrated and furnished with maps and indexes. Price, per vol., cloth, $1.50 Half morocco, gilt top, $1.75 The following volumes are now ready (Jan., 1895): THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. JAS. A. HARRISON. " " " ROME. ARTHUR GILMAN. " " " THE JEWS. Prof. JAMES K. HOSMER. " " " CHALDEA. Z.A. RAGOZIN. " " " GERMANY. S. BARING-GOULD. " " " NORWAY. HJALMAR H. BOYESEN. " " " SPAIN. Rev. E.E. AND SUSAN HALE. " " " HUNGARY. Prof. A. VÁMBÉRY. " " " CARTHAGE. Prof. ALFRED J. CHURCH. " " " THE SARACENS. ARTHUR GILMAN. " " " THE MOORS IN SPAIN. STANLEY LANE-POOLE. " " " THE NORMANS. SARAH ORNE JEWETT. " " " PERSIA. S.G.W. BENJAMIN. " " " ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. GEO. RAWLINSON. " " " ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J.P. MAHAFFY. " " " ASSYRIA. Z.A. RAGOZIN. " " " THE GOTHS. HENRY BRADLEY. " " " IRELAND. Hon. EMILY LAWLESS. " " " TURKEY. STANLEY LANE-POOLE. " " " MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z.A. RAGOZIN. " " " MEDIÆVAL FRANCE. Prof. GUSTAVE MASSON. " " " HOLLAND. Prof. J. THOROLD ROGERS. " " " MEXICO. SUSAN HALE. " " " PHOENICIA. Prof. GEO. RAWLINSON. " " " THE HANSA TOWNS. HELEN ZIMMERN. " " " EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. ALFRED J. CHURCH. " " " THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. STANLEY LANE-POOLE. " " " RUSSIA. W.R. MORFILL. " " " THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W.D. MORRISON. " " " SCOTLAND. JOHN MACKINTOSH. " " " SWITZERLAND. R. STEAD AND MRS. A. HUG. " " " PORTUGAL. H. MORSE STEPHENS. " " " THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C.W.C. OMAN. " " " SICILY. E.A. FREEMAN. " " " THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. BELLA DUFFY. " " " POLAND. W.R. MORFILL. " " " PARTHIA. Prof. GEORGE RAWLINSON. " " " JAPAN. DAVID MURRAY. " " " THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H.E. WATTS. " " " AUSTRALASIA. GREVILLE TREGARTHEN. " " " SOUTHERN AFRICA. GEO. M. THEAL. " " " VENICE. ALETHEA WIEL. " " " THE CRUSADES. T.S. ARCHER and C.L. KINGSFORD. Heroes of the Nations. EDITED BY EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD. A series of biographical studies of the lives and work of a number of representative historical characters about whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National ideals. 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CLARK Russell, author of "The Wreck of the Grosvenor," etc. Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence. By C.R.L. FLETCHER, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilisation. By THOMAS HODGKIN, author of "Italy and Her Invaders," etc. Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England. By H.R. FOX-BOURNE, author of "The Life of John Locke," etc. Julius Cæsar, and the Organisation of the Roman Empire. By W. WARDE FOWLER, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. John Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen and First of the English Reformers. By LEWIS SERGEANT, author of "New Greece," etc. Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler, and the Military Supremacy of Revolutionary France. By W. O'CONNOR MORRIS, sometime Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford. Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots in France. By P.F. 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Oliver Cromwell, and the Rule of the Puritans in England. By CHARLES FIRTH, Balliol College, Oxford. Alfred the Great, and the First Kingdom in England. By F. YORK POWELL, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. Marlborough, and England as a Military Power. By C.W.C. OMAN, A.M., Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Frederic the Second, the Wonder of the World. By A.L. SMITH, of Balliol College, Oxford. Charles the Bold, and the Attempt to Found a Middle Kingdom. By R. LODGE, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. Alexander the Great, and the Extension of Greek Rule and of Greek Ideas. By Prof. BENJAMIN I. WHEELER, Cornell University. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. LONDON 24 BEDFORD ST., STRAND * * * * * Transcriber's note: A footnote for the anchor next to the "List of Maps" was not found in the print edition. 
3752	----	VOYAGER'S TALES, FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF RICHARD HAKLUYT. INTRODUCTION. Richard Hakluyt, notwithstanding the Dutch look of his name, was of a good British stock, from Wales or the Welsh borders. At the beginning of the fourteenth century an ancestor of his, Hugo Hakelute, sat in Parliament as member for Leominster. Richard Hakluyt, born about five years before the accession of Queen Elizabeth, was a boy at Westminster School, when visits to a cousin in the Middle Temple, also a Richard Hakluyt, first planted in him an enthusiasm for the study of adventure towards a wider use and knowledge of the globe we live upon. As a student at Christ Church, Oxford, all his leisure was spent on the collection and reading of accounts of voyage and adventure. He graduated as B. A. in 1574, as M. A. in 1577, and lectured publicly upon geography, showing "both the old imperfectly composed, and the new lately reformed maps, globes, spheres, and other instruments of this art." In 1582 Hakluyt, at the age of about twenty-nine, issued his first publication: "Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America and the Lands adjacent unto the same, made first of all by our Englishmen, and afterwards by the Frenchmen and Bretons: and certain Notes of Advertisements for Observations, necessary for such as shall hereafter make the like Attempt." His researches had already made him the personal friend of the famous sea captains of Elizabeth's reign. In 1583 he had taken orders, and went to Paris as chaplain to the English ambassador, Sir Edward Stafford. From Paris he returned to England for a short time, in 1584, and laid before the Queen a paper recommending the plantation of unsettled parts of America. It was called "A particular Discourse concerning Western Discoveries, written in the year 1584, by Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford, at the request and direction of the right worshipful Mr. Walter Raleigh, before the coming home of his two barks." Raleigh and Hakluyt were within a year of the same age. To found a colonial empire in America by settling upon new lands, and by dispossessing Spaniards, was one of the grand ideas of Walter Raleigh, who obtained, on the 25th of March in that year, 1584, a patent authorising him to search out and take possession of new lands in the Western world. He then fitted out two ships, which left England on the 27th of April, under the command of Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. In June they had reached the West Indies, then they sailed north by the coasts of Florida and Carolina, and they had with them two natives when they returned to England in September, 1584. In December Raleigh's patent was enlarged and confirmed, and presently afterwards Raleigh was knighted. Richard Hakluyt's paper, in aid of this beginning of the shaping of another England in the New World, was for a long time lost. It was first printed in 1877 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, among the Collections of the Maine Historical Society. It won for its author a promise of the next vacant prebend at Bristol; the vacancy came about a year later, and the Rev. Richard Hakluyt was admitted to it in 1586. Hakluyt remained about five years at Paris as Chaplain to the English Embassy, and while there he caused the publication in 1586 of an account by Laudonniere of voyages into Florida. This he also translated and published, in London, in 1587, as "A Notable History containing Four Voyages made by certain French Captains into Florida." In 1588 Hakluyt returned to England, and in the next year, 1589, he published in one folio volume, "The Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation." In April of the next year he became rector of Witheringsett-cum-Brockford, in Suffolk. The full development of his work appeared in three volumes folio in the years 1598, 1599, and 1600, as "The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffics, and Discoveries of the English Nation," the first of these volumes differing materially from the volume that had appeared in 1589. Hakluyt became, in May, 1602, prebendary, and in 1603 archdeacon of Westminster. He was twice married, died about six months after Shakespeare, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 26th of November, 1616. H. M. VOYAGERS' TALES. THE WORTHY ENTERPRISE OF JOHN FOX, AN ENGLISHMAN, IN DELIVERING 266 CHRISTIANS OUT OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TURKS AT ALEXANDRIA, THE 3RD OF JANUARY, 1577. Among our merchants here in England, it is a common voyage to traffic to Spain; whereunto a ship called the Three Half Moons, manned with eight and thirty men, well fenced with munitions, the better to encounter their enemies withal, and having wind and tide, set from Portsmouth 1563, and bended her journey towards Seville, a city in Spain, intending there to traffic with them. And falling near the Straits, they perceived themselves to be beset round about with eight galleys of the Turks, in such wise that there was no way for them to fly or to escape away, but that either they must yield or else be sunk, which the owner perceiving, manfully encouraged his company, exhorting them valiantly to show their manhood, showing them that God was their God, and not their enemies', requesting them also not to faint in seeing such a heap of their enemies ready to devour them; putting them in mind also, that if it were God's pleasure to give them into their enemies' hands, it was not they that ought to show one displeasant look or countenance there against; but to take it patiently, and not to prescribe a day and time for their deliverance, as the citizens of Bethulia did, but to put themselves under His mercy. And again, if it were His mind and good will to show His mighty power by them, if their enemies were ten times so many, they were not able to stand in their hands; putting them, likewise, in mind of the old and ancient worthiness of their countrymen, who in the hardest extremities have always most prevailed, and gone away conquerors; yea, and where it hath been almost impossible. "Such," quoth he, "hath been the valiantness of our countrymen, and such hath been the mighty power of our God." With such other like encouragements, exhorting them to behave themselves manfully, they fell all on their knees, making their prayers briefly unto God; who, being all risen up again, perceived their enemies, by their signs and defiances, bent to the spoil, whose mercy was nothing else but cruelty; whereupon every man took him to his weapon. Then stood up one Grove, the master, being a comely man, with his sword and target, holding them up in defiance against his enemies. So likewise stood up the owner, the master's mate, boatswain, purser, and every man well appointed. Now likewise sounded up the drums, trumpets, and flutes, which would have encouraged any man, had he never so little heart or courage in him. Then taketh him to his charge John Fox, the gunner, in the disposing of his pieces, in order to the best effect, and, sending his bullets towards the Turks, who likewise bestowed their pieces thrice as fast towards the Christians. But shortly they drew near, so that the bowmen fell to their charge in sending forth their arrows so thick amongst the galleys, and also in doubling their shot so sore upon the galleys, that there were twice so many of the Turks slain as the number of the Christians were in all. But the Turks discharged twice as fast against the Christians, and so long, that the ship was very sore stricken and bruised under water; which the Turks, perceiving, made the more haste to come aboard the ship: which, ere they could do, many a Turk bought it dearly with the loss of their lives. Yet was all in vain; boarded they were, where they found so hot a skirmish, that it had been better they had not meddled with the feast; for the Englishmen showed themselves men indeed, in working manfully with their brown bills and halberds, where the owner, master, boatswain, and their company stood to it so lustily, that the Turks were half dismayed. But chiefly the boatswain showed himself valiant above the rest, for he fared amongst the Turks like a wood lion; for there was none of them that either could or durst stand in his face, till at last there came a shot from the Turks which brake his whistle asunder, and smote him on the breast, so that he fell down, bidding them farewell, and to be of good comfort, encouraging them, likewise, to win praise by death, rather than to live captives in misery and shame, which they, hearing, indeed, intended to have done, as it appeared by their skirmish; but the press and store of the Turks were so great, that they were not long able to endure, but were so overpressed, that they could not wield their weapons, by reason whereof they must needs be taken, which none of them intended to have been, but rather to have died, except only the master's mate, who shrunk from the skirmish, like a notable coward, esteeming neither the value of his name, nor accounting of the present example of his fellows, nor having respect to the miseries whereunto he should be put. But in fine, so it was, that the Turks were victors, whereof they had no great cause to rejoice or triumph. Then would it have grieved any hard heart to see these infidels so violently entreating the Christians, not having any respect of their manhood, which they had tasted of, nor yet respecting their own state, how they might have met with such a booty as might have given them the overthrow; but no remorse hereof, or anything else doth bridle their fierce and tyrannous dealing, but the Christians must needs to the galleys, to serve in new offices; and they were no sooner in them, but their garments were pulled over their ears, and torn from their backs, and they set to the oars. I will make no mention of their miseries, being now under their enemies' raging stripes. I think there is no man will judge their fare good, or their bodies unloaden of stripes, and not pestered with too much heat, and also with too much cold; but I will go to my purpose, which is to show the end of those being in mere misery, which continually do call on God with a steadfast hope that He will deliver them, and with a sure faith that He can do it. Nigh to the city of Alexandria, being a haven town, and under the dominion of the Turks, there is a road, being made very fencible with strong walls, whereinto the Turks do customably bring their galleys on shore every year, in the winter season, and there do trim them, and lay them up against the spring-time; in which road there is a prison, wherein the captives and such prisoners as serve in the galleys are put for all that time, until the seas be calm and passable for the galleys, every prisoner being most grievously laden with irons on their legs, to their great pain, and sore disabling of them to any labour; into which prison were these Christians put and fast warded all the winter season. But ere it was long, the master and the owner, by means of friends, were redeemed, the rest abiding still in the misery, while that they were all, through reason of their ill-usage and worse fare, miserably starved, saving one John Fox, who (as some men can abide harder and more misery than other some can, so can some likewise make more shift, and work more duties to help their state and living, than other some can do) being somewhat skilful in the craft of a barber, by reason thereof made great shift in helping his fare now and then with a good meal. Insomuch, till at the last God sent him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison, so that he had leave to go in and out to the road at his pleasure, paying a certain stipend unto the keeper, and wearing a lock about his leg, which liberty likewise five more had upon like sufferance, who, by reason of their long imprisonment, not being feared or suspected to start aside, or that they would work the Turks any mischief, had liberty to go in and out at the said road, in such manner as this John Fox did, with irons on their legs, and to return again at night. In the year of our Lord 1577, in the winter season, the galleys happily coming to their accustomed harbourage, and being discharged of all their masts, sails, and other such furnitures as unto galleys do appertain, and all the masters and mariners of them being then nested in their own homes, there remained in the prison of the said road two hundred three score and eight Christian prisoners who had been taken by the Turks' force, and were of fifteen sundry nations. Among which there were three Englishmen, whereof one was named John Fox, of Woodbridge, in Suffolk, the other William Wickney, of Portsmouth, in the county of Southampton, and the third Robert Moore, of Harwich, in the county of Essex; which John Fox, having been thirteen or fourteen years under their gentle entreatance, and being too weary thereof, minding his escape, weighed with himself by what means it might be brought to pass, and continually pondering with himself thereof, took a good heart unto him, in the hope that God would not be always scourging His children, and never ceasing to pray Him to further his intended enterprise, if that it should redound to His glory. Not far from the road, and somewhat from thence, at one side of the city, there was a certain victualling house, which one Peter Vuticaro had hired, paying also a certain fee unto the keeper of the road. This Peter Vuticaro was a Spaniard born, and a Christian, and had been prisoner above thirty years, and never practised any means to escape, but kept himself quiet without touch or suspect of any conspiracy, until that now this John Fox using much thither, they brake one to another their minds, concerning the restraint of their liberty and imprisonment. So that this John Fox, at length opening unto this Vuticaro the device which he would fain put in practice, made privy one more to this their intent; which three debated of this matter at such times as they could compass to meet together, insomuch that, at seven weeks' end they had sufficiently concluded how the matter should be, if it pleased God to further them thereto; who, making five more privy to this their device, whom they thought that they might safely trust, determined in three nights after to accomplish their deliberate purpose. Whereupon the same John Fox and Peter Vuticaro, and the other five appointed to meet all together in the prison the next day, being the last day of December, where this John Fox certified the rest of the prisoners what their intent and device was, and how and when they minded to bring that purpose to pass, who thereunto persuaded them without much ado to further their device; which, the same John Fox seeing, delivered unto them a sort of files, which he had gathered together for this purpose by the means of Peter Vuticaro, charging them that every man should be ready, discharged of his irons, by eight of the clock on the next day at night. On the next day at night, the said John Fox, and his five other companions, being all come to the house of Peter Vuticaro, passing the time away in mirth for fear of suspect till the night came on, so that it was time for them to put in practice their device, sent Peter Vuticaro to the master of the road, in the name of one of the masters of the city, with whom this keeper was acquainted, and at whose request he also would come at the first; who desired him to take the pains to meet him there, promising him that he would bring him back again. The keeper agreed to go with him, asking the warders not to bar the gate, saying that he would not stay long, but would come again with all speed. In the mean-season, the other seven had provided them of such weapons as they could get in that house, and John Fox took him to an old rusty sword-blade without either hilt or pommel, which he made to serve his turn in bending the hand end of the sword instead of a pommel, and the other had got such spits and glaves as they found in the house. The keeper being now come unto the house, and perceiving no light nor hearing any noise, straightway suspected the matter; and returning backward, John Fox, standing behind the corner of the house, stepped forth unto him; who, perceiving it to be John Fox, said, "O Fox, what have I deserved of thee that thou shouldest seek my death?" "Thou villain," quoth Fox, "hast been a bloodsucker of many a Christian's blood, and now thou shalt know what thou hast deserved at my hands," wherewith he lift up his bright shining sword of ten years' rust, and stroke him so main a blow, as therewithal his head clave asunder so that he fell stark dead to the ground. Whereupon Peter Vuticaro went in and certified the rest how the case stood with the keeper, and they came presently forth, and some with their spits ran him through, and the other with their glaves hewed him in sunder, cut off his head, and mangled him so that no man should discern what he was. Then marched they toward the road, whereinto they entered softly, where were five warders, whom one of them asked, saying, who was there? Quoth Fox and his company, "All friends." Which when they were all within proved contrary; for, quoth Fox, "My masters, here is not to every man a man, wherefore look you, play your parts." Who so behaved themselves indeed, that they had despatched these five quickly. Then John Fox, intending not to be barren of his enterprise, and minding to work surely in that which he went about, barred the gate surely, and planted a cannon against it. Then entered they into the jailer's lodge, where they found the keys of the fortress and prison by his bedside, and there got they all better weapons. In this chamber was a chest wherein was a rich treasure, and all in ducats, which this Peter Vuticaro and two more opening, stuffed themselves so full as they could between their shirts and their skin; which John Fox would not once touch and said, "that it was his and their liberty which he fought for, to the honour of his God, and not to make a mart of the wicked treasure of the infidels." Yet did these words sink nothing unto their stomachs; they did it for a good intent. So did Saul save the fattest oxen to offer unto the Lord, and they to serve their own turn. But neither did Saul scape the wrath of God therefor, neither had these that thing which they desired so, and did thirst after. Such is God's justice. He that they put their trust in to deliver them from the tyrannous hands of their enemies, he, I say, could supply their want of necessaries. Now these eight, being armed with such weapons as they thought well of, thinking themselves sufficient champions to encounter a stronger enemy, and coming unto the prison, Fox opened the gates and doors thereof, and called forth all the prisoners, whom he set, some to ramming up the gate, some to the dressing up of a certain galley which was the best in all the road, and was called "The Captain of Alexandria," whereinto some carried masts, sails, oars, and other such furniture, as doth belong unto a galley. At the prison were certain warders whom John Fox and his company slew, in the killing of whom there were eight more of the Turks which perceived them, and got them to the top of the prison, unto whom John Fox and his company were fain to come by ladders, where they found a hot skirmish, for some of them were there slain, some wounded, and some but scarred and not hurt. As John Fox was thrice shot through his apparel, and not hurt, Peter Vuticaro and the other two, that had armed them with the ducats, were slain, as not able to wield themselves, being so pestered with the weight and uneasy carrying of the wicked and profane treasure; and also divers Christians were as well hurt about that skirmish as Turks slain. Amongst the Turks was one thrust through, who (let us not say that it was ill-fortune) fell off from the top of the prison wall, and made such a groaning that the inhabitants thereabout (as here and there stood a house or two), came and questioned him, so that they understood the case, how that the prisoners were paying their ransoms; wherewith they raised both Alexandria, which lay on the west side of the road, and a castle which was at the city's end next to the road, and also another fortress which lay on the north side of the road, so that now they had no way to escape but one, which by man's reason (the two holds lying so upon the mouth of the road) might seem impossible to be a way for them. So was the Red Sea impossible for the Israelites to pass through, the hills and rocks lay so on the one side, and their enemies compassed them on the other. So was it impossible that the walls of Jericho should fall down, being neither undermined nor yet rammed at with engines, nor yet any man's wisdom, policy, or help, set or put thereunto. Such impossibilities can our God make possible. He that held the lion's jaws from rending Daniel asunder, yea, or yet from once touching him to his hurt, cannot He hold the roaring cannons of this hellish force? He that kept the fire's rage in the hot burning oven from the three children that praised His name, cannot He keep the fire's flaming blasts from among His elect? Now is the road fraught with lusty soldiers, labourers, and mariners, who are fain to stand to their tackling, in setting to every man his hand, some to the carrying in of victuals, some munitions, some oars, and some one thing some another, but most are keeping their enemy from the wall of the road. But to be short, there was no time misspent, no man idle, nor any man's labour ill-bestowed or in vain. So that in short time this galley was ready trimmed up. Whereinto every man leaped in all haste, hoisting up the sails lustily, yielding themselves to His mercy and grace, in Whose hands is both wind and weather. Now is this galley a-float, and out of the shelter of the road; now have the two castles full power upon the galley; now is there no remedy but to sink. How can it be avoided? The cannons let fly from both sides, and the galley is even in the middest and between them both. What man can devise to save it? There is no man but would think it must needs be sunk. There was not one of them that feared the shot which went thundering round about their ears, nor yet were once scarred or touched with five and forty shot which came from the castles. Here did God hold forth His buckler, He shieldeth now this galley, and hath tried their faith to the uttermost. Now cometh His special help; yea, even when man thinks them past all help, then cometh He Himself down from Heaven with His mighty power, then is His present remedy most ready. For they sail away, being not once touched by the glance of a shot, and are quickly out of the Turkish cannons' reach. Then might they see them coming down by heaps to the water's side, in companies like unto swarms of bees, making show to come after them with galleys, bustling themselves to dress up the galleys, which would be a swift piece of work for them to do, for that they had neither oars, masts, sails, nor anything else ready in any galley. But yet they are carrying into them, some into one galley, and some into another, so that, being such a confusion amongst them, without any certain guide, it were a thing impossible to overtake the Christians; beside that, there was no man that would take charge of a galley, the weather was so rough, and there was such an amazedness amongst them. And verily, I think their god was amazed thereat; it could not be but that he must blush for shame, he can speak never a word for dulness, much less can he help them in such an extremity. Well, howsoever it is, he is very much to blame to suffer them to receive such a gibe. But howsoever their god behaved himself, our God showed Himself a God indeed, and that He was the only living God; for the seas were swift under His faithful, which made the enemies aghast to behold them; a skilfuller pilot leads them, and their mariners bestir them lustily; but the Turks had neither mariners, pilot, nor any skilful master, that was in readiness at this pinch. When the Christians were safe out of the enemy's coast, John Fox called to them all, telling them to be thankful unto Almighty God for their delivery, and most humbly to fall down upon their knees, beseeching Him to aid them to their friends' land, and not to bring them into another danger, since He had most mightily delivered them from so great a thraldom and bondage. Thus when every man had made his petition, they fell straightway to their labour with the oars, in helping one another when they were wearied, and with great labour striving to come to some Christian land, as near as they could guess by the stars. But the winds were so contrary, one while driving them this way, another while that way, so that they were now in a new maze, thinking that God had forsaken them and left them to a greater danger. And forasmuch as there were no victuals now left in the galley, it might have been a cause to them (if they had been the Israelites), to have murmured against their God; but they knew how that their God, who had delivered Egypt, was such a loving and merciful God, as that He would not suffer them to be confounded in whom He had wrought so great a wonder, but what calamity soever they sustained, they knew it was but for their further trial, and also (in putting them in mind of their further misery), to cause them not to triumph and glory in themselves therefor. Having, I say, no victuals in the galley, it might seem one misery continually to fall upon another's neck; but to be brief the famine grew to be so great that in twenty-eight days, wherein they were on the sea, there died eight persons, to the astonishment of all the rest. So it fell out that upon the twenty-ninth day after they set from Alexandria, they fell on the isle of Candia, and landed at Gallipoli, where they were made much of by the abbot and monks there, who caused them to stay there while they were well refreshed and eased. They kept there the sword wherewith John Fox had killed the keeper, esteeming it as a most precious relic, and hung it up for a monument. When they thought good, having leave to depart from thence, they sailed along the coast till they arrived at Tarento, where they sold their galley, and divided it, every man having a part thereof. The Turks on receiving so shameful a foil at their hands, pursued the Christians, and scoured the seas, where they could imagine that they had bent their course. And the Christians had departed from thence on the one day in the morning and seven galleys of the Turks came thither that night, as it was certified by those who followed Fox and his company, fearing lest they should have been met with. And then they came afoot to Naples, where they departed asunder, every man taking him to his next way home. From whence John Fox took his journey unto Rome, where he was well entertained by an Englishman who presented his worthy deed unto the Pope, who rewarded him liberally, and gave him letters unto the King of Spain, where he was very well entertained of him there, who for this his most worthy enterprise gave him in fee twenty pence a day. From whence, being desirous to come into his own country, he came thither at such time as he conveniently could, which was in the year of our Lord God 1579; who being come into England went unto the Court, and showed all his travel unto the Council, who considering of the state of this man, in that he had spent and lost a great part of his youth in thraldom and bondage, extended to him their liberality to help to maintain him now in age, to their right honour and to the encouragement of all true-hearted Christians. THE COPY OF THE CERTIFICATE FOR JOHN FOX AND HIS COMPANY, MADE BY THE PRIOR AND THE BRETHREN OF GALLIPOLI, WHERE THEY FIRST LANDED. We, the Prior and Fathers of the Convent of the Amerciates, of the city of Gallipoli, of the order of Preachers, do testify that upon the 29th of January last past, 1577, there came into the said city a certain galley from Alexandria, taken from the Turks, with two hundred and fifty-eight Christians, whereof was principal Master John Fox, an Englishman, a gunner, and one of the chiefest that did accomplish that great work, whereby so many Christians have recovered their liberties, in token and remembrance whereof, upon our earnest request to the same John Fox, he has left here an old sword, wherewith he slew the keeper of the prison, which sword we do as a monument and memorial of so worthy a deed, hang up in the chief place of our convent house. And for because all things aforesaid, are such as we will testify to be true, as they are orderly passed, and have therefore good credit, that so much as is above expressed is true, and for the more faith thereof, we, the Prior and Fathers aforesaid, have ratified and subscribed these presents. Given in Gallipoli, the 3rd of February, 1577. I, Friar VINCENT BARBA, Prior of the same place, confirm the premises, as they are above written. I, Friar ALBERT DAMARO, of Gallipoli, sub-prior, confirm as much. I, Friar ANTHONY CELLELER, of Galli, confirm as aforesaid. I, Friar BARTLEMEW, of Gallipoli, confirm as above said. I, Friar FRANCIS, of Gallipoli, confirm as much. THE BISHOP OF ROME, HIS LETTERS IN BEHALF OF JOHN FOX. Be it known unto all men, to whom this writing shall come, that the bringer hereof, John Fox, Englishman, a gunner, after he had served captive in the Turks' galleys, by the space of fourteen years, at length, through God his help, taking good opportunity, the 3rd of January last passed, slew the keeper of the prison (whom he first stroke on the face) together with four and twenty other Turks, by the assistance of his fellow-prisoners; and with 266 Christians (of whose liberty he was the author) launched from Alexandria, and from thence arrived first at Gallipoli, in Candia, and afterwards at Tarento, in Apulia; the written testimony and credit of which things, as also of others, the same John Fox hath in public tables from Naples. Upon Easter Eve he came to Rome, and is now determined to take his journey to the Spanish Court, hoping there to obtain some relief towards his living; wherefore the poor distressed man humbly beseecheth, and we in his behalf, do in the bowels of Christ, desire you, that taking compassion of his former captivity and present penury, you do not only suffer him freely to pass through all your cities and towns, but also succour him with your charitable alms, the reward whereof you shall hereafter most assuredly receive, which we hope you will afford to him, whom with tender affection of pity we commend unto you. At Rome, the 20th of April, 1577. THOMAS GROLOS, Englishman, Bishop of Astraphen. RICHARD SILLEUN, Prior Angliae. ANDREAS LUDOVICUS, Register to our Sovereign Lord the Pope, which for the greater credit of the premises, have set my seal to these presents. At Rome, the day and year above written. MAURICIUS CLEMENT, the governor and keeper of the English hospital in the city. THE KING OF SPAIN, HIS LETTERS TO THE LIEUTENANT FOR THE PLACING OF JOHN FOX IN THE OFFICE OF A GUNNER, ETC. To the illustrious prince, Vespasian Gonsaga Colonna, our Lieutenant and Captain-General of our realm of Valencia, having consideration that John Fox, Englishman, hath served us, and was one of the most principal which took away from the Turks a certain galley, which they have brought to Taranto, wherein were two hundred and fifty-eight Christian captives. We license him to practice, and give him the office of a gunner, and have ordained that he go to our said realm there to serve in the said office in the galleys, which by our commandment are lately made. And we do command that you cause to be paid to him eight ducats pay a month, for the time that he shall serve in the said galleys as a gunner, or till we can otherwise provide for him, the said eight ducats monthly of the money which is already of our provision, present and to come, and to have regard of those which come with him. From Escurial the 10th of August, 1577.--I, the King, JUAN DEL GADO. And under that a confirmation of the Council. VERSES WRITTEN BY A. M. TO THE COURTEOUS READERS, WHO WAS PRESENT AT ROME WHEN JOHN FOX RECEIVED HIS LETTERS OF THE POPE. Leaving at large all fables vainly used, All trifling toys that do no truth import, Lo, here how the end (at length) though long diffused, Unfoldeth plain a true and rare report; To glad those minds which seek their country's wealth, By proffered pains to enlarge his happy health. At Rome I was, when Fox did there arrive, Therefore I may sufficiently express, What gallant joy his deeds did there revive In the hearts of those which heard his valiantness. And how the Pope did recompense his pains, And letters gave to move his greater gains. But yet I know that many do misdoubt, That those his pains are fables and untrue; Not only I in this will bear him out, But diverse more that did his patents view. And unto those so boldly I daresay, That nought but truth John Fox doth here bewray; Besides here's one was slave with him in thrall, Lately returned into our native land, This witness can this matter perfect all, What needeth more? for witness he may stand. And thus I end, unfolding what I know, The other man more larger proof can show. Honos alit artes, A. M. ----- THE VOYAGE MADE TO TRIPOLIS IN BARBARY, IN THE YEAR 1584, WITH A SHIP CALLED THE JESUS, WHEREIN THE ADVENTURES AND DISTRESSES OF SOME ENGLISHMEN ARE TRULY REPORTED, AND OTHER NECESSARY CIRCUMSTANCES OBSERVED. WRITTEN BY THOMAS SANDERS. This voyage was set forth by the Right Worshipful Sir Edward Osborne Knight, chief merchant of all the Turkish Company, and one Master Richard Stapers, the ship being of the burden of one hundred tons, called the Jesus; she was builded at Farmne, a river by Portsmouth. The owners were Master Thomas Thompson, Nicholas Carnabie, and John Gilman. The master (under God) was one Zaccheus Hellier, of Blackwall, and his mate was one Richard Morris, of that place; their pilot was one Anthony Jerado, a Frenchman, of the province of Marseilles; the purser was one William Thompson, our owner's son; the merchants' factors were Romaine Sonnings, a Frenchman, and Richard Skegs, servant unto the said Master Stapers. The owners were bound unto the merchants by charter party thereupon in one thousand marks, that the said ship, by God's permission should go for Tripolis in Barbary, that is to say, first from Portsmouth to Newhaven in Normandy, thence to S. Lukar, otherwise called S. Lucas, in Andalusia, and from thence to Tripolis, which is in the east part of Africa, and so to return unto London. But here ought every man to note and consider the works of our God, that (many times) what man doth determine God doth disappoint. The said master having some occasion to go to Farmne, took with him the pilot and the purser, and returning again, by means of a gust of wind, the boat wherein they were was drowned, the said master, the purser, and all the company; only the said pilot by experience in swimming saved himself, these were the beginnings of our sorrows. After which the said master's mate would not proceed in that voyage, and the owner hearing of this misfortune, and the unwillingness of the master's mate, did send down one Richard Deimond and shipped him for master, who did choose for his mate one Andrew Dier, and so the said ship departed on her voyage accordingly; that is to say, about the 16th of October, 1584, she made sail from Portsmouth, and the 18th day then next following she arrived into Newhaven, where our said last master Deimond by a surfeit died. The factors then appointed the said Andrew Dier, being then master's mate, to be their master for that voyage, who did choose to be his mates the two quarter-masters of the same ship, to wit, Peter Austine and Shillabey, and for purser was shipped one Richard Burges. Afterward about the 8th day of November we made sail forthward, and by force of weather we were driven back again into Portsmouth, where we refreshed our victuals and other necessaries, and then the wind came fair. About the 29th day then next following we departed thence, and the 1st day of December, by means of a contrary wind, we were driven to Plymouth. The 18th day then next following we made forthward again, and by force of weather we were driven to Falmouth, where we remained until the 1st day of January, at which time the wind coming fair we departed thence, and about the 20th day of the said month we arrived safely at S. Lucas. And about the 9th day of March next following we made sail from thence, and about the 18th day of the same month we came to Tripolis in Barbary, where we were very well entertained by the king of that country and also of the commons. The commodities of that place are sweet oils; the king there is a merchant, and the rather (willing to prefer himself before his commons) requested our said factors to traffic with him, and promised them that if they would take his oils at his own price they should pay no manner of custom, and they took of him certain tons of oil; and afterward perceiving that they might have far better cheap, notwithstanding the custom free, they desired the king to license them to take the oils at the pleasure of his commons, for that his price did exceed theirs; whereunto the king would not agree, but was rather contented to abate his price, insomuch that the factors bought all their oils of the king's custom free, and so laded the same aboard. In the meantime there came to that place one Miles Dickinson, in a ship of Bristol, who together with our said factors took a house to themselves there. Our French factor, Romaine Sonnings, desired to buy a commodity in the market, and, wanting money, desired the said Miles Dickinson to lend him a hundred chikinoes until he came to his lodging, which he did; and afterwards the same Sonnings met with Miles Dickinson in the street, and delivered him money bound up in a napkin, saying, "Master Dickinson, there is the money that I borrowed of you," and so thanked him for the same. He doubted nothing less than falsehood, which is seldom known among merchants, and specially being together in one house, and is the more detestable between Christians, they being in Turkey among the heathen; the said Dickinson did not tell the money presently, until he came to his lodging, and then, finding nine chikinoes lacking of his hundred (which was about three pounds, for that every chikinoe is worth seven shillings of English money), he came to the said Romaine Sonnings and delivered him his handkerchief, and asked him how many chikinoes he had delivered him. Sonnings answered, "A hundred"; Dickinson said "No"; and so they protested and swore on both parts. But in the end the said Romaine Sonnings did swear deeply with detestable oaths and curses; and prayed God that he might show his works on him, that other might take ensample thereby, and that he might be hanged like a dog, and never come into England again, if he did not deliver unto the said Dickinson a hundred chikinoes. And here behold a notable example of all blasphemers, cursers, and swearers, how God rewarded him accordingly; for many times it cometh to pass that God showeth his miracles upon such monstrous blasphemers to the ensample of others, as now hereafter you shall hear what befell to this Romaine Sonnings. There was a man in the said town a pledge, whose name was Patrone Norado, who the year before had done this Sonnings some pleasure there. The foresaid Patrone Norado was indebted unto a Turk of that town in the sum of four hundred and fifty crowns, for certain goods sent by him into Christendom in a ship of his own, and by his own brother, and himself remained in Tripolis as pledge until his said brother's return; and, as the report went there, he came among lewd company, and lost his brother's said ship and goods at dice, and never returned unto him again. The said Patrone Norado, being void of all hope and finding now opportunity, consulted with the said Sonnings for to swim a-seaboard the islands, and the ship, being then out of danger, should take him in (as was afterwards confessed), and so go to Tallowne, in the province of Marseilles, with this Patrone Norado, and there to take in the rest of his lading. The ship being ready the first day of May, and having her sails all abroad, our said factors did take their leave of the king, who very courteously bid them farewell, and when they came aboard they commanded the master and the company hastily to get out the ship. The master answered that it was impossible, for that the wind was contrary and overblowed. And he required us, upon forfeiture of our bands, that we should do our endeavour to get her forth. Then went we to warp out the ship, and presently the king sent a boat aboard of us, with three men in her, commanding the said Sonnings to come ashore, at whose coming the king demanded of him custom for the oils. Sonnings answered him that his highness had promised to deliver them customs free. But, notwithstanding, the king weighed not his said promise, and as an infidel that hath not the fear of God before his eyes, nor regard of his word, albeit he was a king, he caused the said Sonnings to pay the custom to the uttermost penny; and afterwards ordered him to make haste away, saying that the janisaries would have the oil ashore again. These janisaries are soldiers there under the Great Turk, and their power is above the king's. And so the said factor departed from the king, and came to the waterside, and called for a boat to come aboard, and he brought with him the foresaid Patrone Norado. The company, inquisitive to know what man that was, Sonnings answered that he was his countryman, a passenger. "I pray God," said the company, "that we come not into trouble by this man." Then said Sonnings angrily, "What have you to do with any matters of mine? If anything chance otherwise than well, I must answer for all." Now the Turk unto whom this Patrone Norado was indebted, missing him, supposed him to be aboard of our ship, presently went unto the king and told him that he thought that his pledge, Patrone Norado, was aboard on the English ship. Whereupon the king presently sent a boat aboard of us, with three men in her, commanding the said Sonnings to come ashore; and, not speaking anything as touching the man, he said that he would come presently in his own boat; but as soon as they were gone he willed us to warp forth the ship, and said that he would see the knaves hanged before he would go ashore. And when the king saw that he came not ashore, but still continued warping away the ship, he straight commanded the gunner of the bulwark next unto us to shoot three shots without ball. Then we came all to the said Sonnings, and asked him what the matter was that we were shot at; he said that it was the janisaries who would have the oil ashore again, and willed us to make haste away. And after that he had discharged three shots without ball he commanded all the gunners in the town to do their endeavour to sink us; but the Turkish gunners could not once strike us, wherefore the king sent presently to the Banio (this Banio is the prison whereas all the captives lay at night), and promised that if there were any that could either sink us or else cause us to come in again, he should have a hundred crown, and his liberty. With that came forth a Spaniard called Sebastian, which had been an old servitor in Flanders, and he said that, upon the performance of that promise, he would undertake either to sink us or to cause us to come in again, and thereto he would gage his life; and at the first shot he split our rudder's head in pieces, and the second shot he struck us under water, and the third shot he shot us through our foremast with a culverin shot, and thus, he having rent both our rudder and mast and shot us under water, we were enforced to go in again. This Sebastian for all his diligence herein had neither his liberty nor a hundred crowns, so promised by the said king; but, after his service done, was committed again to prison, whereby may appear the regard that a Turk or infidel hath of his work, although he be able to perform it--yea, more, though he be a king. Then our merchants, seeing no remedy, they, together with five of our company, went ashore; and they then ceased shooting. They shot unto us in the whole nine-and-thirty shots without the hurt of any man. And when our merchants came ashore the king commanded presently that they, with the rest of our company that were with them, should be chained four and four to a hundredweight of iron, and when we came in with the ship there came presently above a hundred Turks aboard of us, and they searched us and stripped our very clothes from our backs, and broke open our chests, and made a spoil of all that we had; and the Christian caitiffs likewise that came aboard of us made spoil of our goods, and used us as ill as the Turks did. And our master's mate, having a Geneva Bible in his hand, there came the king's chief gunner and took it out from him, who showed me of it; and I, having the language, went presently to the king's treasurer, and told him of it, saying that since it was the will of God that we should fall into their hands, yet that they should grant us to use our consciences to our own discretion, as they suffered the Spaniards and other nations to use theirs; and he granted us. Then I told him that the master gunner had taken away a Bible from one of our men: the treasurer went presently and commanded him to deliver up the Bible again, which he did. And within a little after he took it from the man again, and I showed the treasurer of it, and presently he commanded him to deliver it again, saying, "Thou villain! wilt thou turn to Christianity again?" for he was a relagado, which is one that was first a Christian and afterwards becometh a Turk; and so he delivered me the Bible the second time. And then I, having it in my hand, the gunner came to me, and spake these words, saying, "Thou dog! I will have the book in despite of thee!" and took it from me, saying, "If you tell the king's treasurer of it any more, by Mahomet I will be revenged of thee!" Notwithstanding I went the third time unto the king's treasurer, and told him of it; and he came with me, saying thus unto the gunner: "By the head of the Great Turk if thou take it from him again thou shalt have a hundred bastinadoes." And forthwith he delivered me the book, saying he had not the value of a pin of the spoil of the ship--which was the better for him, as hereafter you shall hear; for there was none, either Christian or Turk, that took the value of a pennyworth of our goods from us but perished both body and goods within seventeen months following, as hereafter shall plainly appear. Then came the guardian Basha, who is the keeper of the king's captives, to fetch us all ashore; and then I, remembering the miserable estate of poor distressed captives in the time of their bondage to those infidels, went to mine own chest, and took out thereof a jar of oil, and filled a basket full of white ruske, to carry ashore with me. But before I came to the Banio the Turkish boys had taken away almost all my bread, and the keeper said, "Deliver me the jar of oil, and when thou comest to the Banio thou shalt have it again;" but I never had it of him any more. But when I came to the Banio and saw our merchants and all the rest of our company in chains, and we all ready to receive the same reward, what heart is there so hard but would have pitied our cause, hearing or seeing the lamentable greeting there was betwixt us. All this happened the first of May, 1584. And the second day of the same month the king with all his council sat in judgment upon us. The first that were had forth to be arraigned were the factors and the masters, and the king asked them wherefore they came not ashore when he sent for them. And Romaine Sonnings answered that, though he were a king on shore, and might command there, so was he as touching those that were under him; and therefore said, if any offence be, the fault is wholly in myself and in no other. Then forthwith the king gave judgment that the said Romaine Sonnings should be hanged over the north-east bulwark, from whence he conveyed the forenamed Patrone Norado. And then he called for our master, Andrew Dier, and used few words to him, and so condemned him to be hanged over the walls of the westernmost bulwarks. Then fell our other factor, named Richard Skegs, upon his knees before the king, and said, "I beseech your highness either to pardon our master or else suffer me to die for him, for he is ignorant of this cause." And then the people of that country, favouring the said Richard Skegs, besought the king to pardon them both. So then the king spake these words: "Behold, for thy sake I pardon the master." Then presently the Turks shouted and cried, saying, "Away with the master from the presence of the king." And then he came into the Banio where we were, and told us what had happened, and we all rejoiced at the good hap of Master Skegs, that he was saved, and our master for his sake. But afterwards our joy was turned to double sorrow, for in the meantime the king's mind was altered: for that one of his council had advised him that, unless the master died also, by the law they could not confiscate the ship nor goods, neither make captive any of the men. Whereupon the king sent for our master again, and gave him another judgment after his pardon for one cause, which was that he should be hanged. Here all true Christians may see what trust a Christian man may put in an infidel's promise, who, being a king, pardoned a man now, as you have heard, and within an hour after hanged him for the same cause before a whole multitude; and also promised our factors their oils custom free, and at their going away made them pay the uttermost penny for the custom thereof. And when that Romaine Sonnings saw no remedy but that he should die, he protested to turn Turk, hoping thereby to have saved his life. Then said the Turk, "If thou wilt turn Turk, speak the words that thereunto belong;" and he did so. Then said they unto him, "Now thou shalt die in the faith of a Turk;" and so he did, as the Turks reported that were at his execution; and the forenamed Patrone Norado, whereas before he had liberty and did nothing, he then was condemned slave perpetual, except there were payment made of the foresaid sum of money. Then the king condemned all us, who were in number five and twenty, of which two were hanged (as you have heard) and one died the first day we came on shore by the visitation of Almighty God, and the other three and twenty he condemned slaves perpetually unto the Great Turk, and the ship and goods were confiscated to the use of the Great Turk; then we all fell down upon our knees, giving God thanks for this sorrowful visitation and giving ourselves wholly to the almighty power of God, unto whom all secrets are known, that He of His goodness would vouchsafe to look upon us. Here may all true Christian hearts see the wonderful works of God showed upon such infidels, blasphemers, and runagate Christians, and so you shall read in the end of this book of the like upon the unfaithful king and all his children, and of as many as took any portion of the said goods. But first to show our miserable bondage and slavery, and unto what small pittance and allowance we were tied, for every five men had allowance but five aspers of bread in a day, which is but twopence English, and our lodging was to lie on the bare boards, with a very simple cape to cover us. We were also forcibly and most violently shaven, head and beard, and within three days after, I and five more of my fellows, together with fourscore Italians and Spaniards, were sent forth in a galiot to take a Greek carmosel, which came into Arabia to steal negroes, and went out of Tripolis unto that place which was two hundred and forty leagues thence; but we were chained three and three to an oar, and we rowed naked above the girdle, and the boatswain of the galley walked abaft the mast, and his mate afore the mast, and each of them a whip in their hands, and when their devilish choler rose they would strike the Christians for no cause, and they allowed us but half a pound of bread a man in a day, without any other kind of sustenance, water excepted. And when we came to the place where we saw the carmosel, we were not suffered to have neither needle, bodkin, knife, or any other instrument about us, nor at any other time in the night, upon pain of one hundred bastinadoes: we were then also cruelly manacled, in such sort that we could not put our hands the length of one foot asunder the one from the other, and every night they searched our chains three times, to see if they were fast riveted. We continued the fight with the carmosel three hours, and then we took it, and lost but two of our men in that fight; but there were slain of the Greeks five, and fourteen were cruelly hurt; and they that were found were presently made slaves, and chained to the oars, and within fifteen days after we returned again into Tripolis, and then we were put to all manner of slavery. I was put to hew stones, and other to carry stones, and some to draw the cart with earth, and some to make mortar, and some to draw stones (for at that time the Turks builded a church), and thus we were put to all kinds of slavery that was to be done. And in the time of our being there the Moors, that are the husbandmen of the country, rebelled against the king, because he would have constrained them to pay greater tribute than heretofore they had done, so that the soldiers of Tripolis marched forth of the town, to have joined battle against the Moors for their rebellion, and the king sent with them four pieces of ordnance, which were drawn by the captives twenty miles into the country after them, and at the sight thereof the Moors fled, and then the captains returned back again. Then I, and certain Christians more, were sent twelve miles into the country with a cart to load timber, and we returned again the same day. Now, the king had eighteen captives, which three times a week went to fetch wood thirty miles from the town, and on a time he appointed me for one of the eighteen, and we departed at eight of the clock in the night; and upon the way, as we rode upon the camels, I demanded of one of our company who did direct us the way: he said that there was a Moor in our company which was our guide; and I demanded of them how Tripolis and the wood bare one off the other, and he said, "East-north-east and west-south-west." And at midnight, or thereabouts, as I was riding upon my camel, I fell asleep, and the guide and all the rest rode away from me, not thinking but I had been among them. When I awoke, and, finding myself alone, I durst not call nor holloa, for fear lest the wild Moors should hear me--because they hold this opinion, that in killing a Christian they do God good service--and musing with myself what were best for me to do: if I should return back to Tripolis without any wood or company I should be most miserably used; therefore, of the two evils, rather I had to go forth to the losing of my life than to turn back and trust to their mercy, fearing to be used as before I had seen others. For, understanding by some of my company before how Tripolis and the said wood did lie one off another, by the North Star I went forth at adventure, and, as God would have it, I came right to the place where they were, even about an hour before day. There altogether we rested, and gave our camels provender, and as soon as the day appeared we rode all into the wood; and I, seeing no wood there but a stick here and a stick there, about the bigness of a man's arm, growing in the sand, it caused me to marvel how so many camels should be loaded in that place. The wood was juniper; we needed no axe nor edged tool to cut it, but plucked it up by strength of hands, roots and all, which a man might easily do, and so gathered together a little at one place, and so at another, and laded our camels, and came home about seven of the clock that night following: because I fell lame and my camel was tired, I left my wood in the way. There was in Tripolis at that time a Venetian whose name was Benedetto Venetiano, and seventeen captives more of his countrymen, which ran away from Tripolis in a boat and came inside of an island called Malta, which lieth forty leagues from Tripolis right north; and, being within a mile of the shore and very fair weather, one of their company said, "In dispetto de Dio adesso venio a pilliar terra," which is as much to say: "In the despite of God, I shall now fetch the shore;" and presently there arose a mighty storm, with thunder and rain, and the wind at the north, their boat being very small, so that they were enforced to bear up room and to sheer right afore the wind over against the coast of Barbary, from whence they came, and rowing up and down the coast, their victuals being spent, the twenty-first day after their departure, they were enforced through the want of food to come ashore, thinking to have stolen some sheep. But the Moors of the country very craftily (perceiving their intent) gathered together a threescore of horsemen and hid themselves behind the sandy hill, and when the Christians were come all ashore, and passed by half a mile into the country, the Moors rode betwixt them and their boat, and some of them pursued the Christians, and so they were all taken and brought to Tripolis, from whence they had before escaped; and presently the king commanded that the foresaid Benedetto, with one more of his company, should lose their ears, and the rest to be most cruelly beaten, which was presently done. This king had a son which was a ruler in an island called Gerbi, whereunto arrived an English ship called the Green Dragon, of the which was master one M. Blonket, who, having a very unhappy boy on that ship, and understanding that whosoever would turn Turk should be well entertained of the king's son, this boy did run ashore and voluntarily turned Turk. Shortly after the king's son came to Tripolis to visit his father, and seeing our company, he greatly fancied Richard Burges, our purser, and James Smith. They were both young men, therefore he was very desirous to have them to turn Turks; but they would not yield to his desire, saying, "We are your father's slaves and as slaves we will serve him." Then his father the king sent for them, and asked them if they would turn Turks; and they said: "If it please your Highness, Christians we were born and so we will remain, and beseech the king that they might not be enforced thereunto." The king had there before in his house a son of a yeoman of our Queen's guard, whom the king's son had enforced to turn Turk; his name was John Nelson. Him the king caused to be brought to these young men, and then said unto them, "Will you not bear this, your countryman, company, and be Turk as he is?" and they said that they would not yield thereunto during life. But it fell out that, within a month after, the king's son went home to Gerbi again, being five score miles from Tripolis, and carried our two foresaid young men with him, which were Richard Burges and James Smith. And after their departure from us they sent us a letter, signifying that there was no violence showed unto them as yet; yet within three days after they were violently used, for that the king's son demanded of them again if that they would turn Turk. Then answered Richard Burges: "A Christian I am, and so I will remain." Then the king's son very angrily said unto him, "By Mahomet thou shalt presently be made Turk!" Then called he for his men and commanded them to make him Turk; and they did so, and circumcised him, and would have had him speak the words that thereunto belonged; but he answered them stoutly that he would not, and although they had put on him the habit of a Turk, yet said he, "A Christian I was born, and so I will remain, though you force me to do otherwise." And then he called for the other, and commanded him to be made Turk perforce also; but he was very strong, for it was so much as eight of the king's son's men could do to hold him. So in the end they circumcised him and made him Turk. Now, to pass over a little, and so to show the manner of our deliverance out of that miserable captivity. In May aforesaid, shortly after our apprehension, I wrote a letter into England unto my father, dwelling in Evistoke in Devonshire, signifying unto him the whole estate of our calamities, and I wrote also to Constantinople to the English ambassador, both which letters were faithfully delivered. But when my father had received my letter, and understood the truth of our mishap, and the occasion thereof, and what had happened to the offenders, he certified the Right Honourable the Earl of Bedford thereof, who in short space acquainted her Highness with the whole cause thereof; and her Majesty, like a most merciful princess tendering her subjects, presently took order for our deliverance. Whereupon the Right Worshipful Sir Edward Osborne, knight, directed his letters with all speed to the English ambassador in Constantinople to procure our delivery, and he obtained the Great Turk's commission, and sent it forthwith to Tripolis by one Master Edward Barton, together with a justice of the Great Turk's and one soldier, and another Turk and a Greek, which was his interpreter, which could speak beside Greek, Turkish, Italian, Spanish and English. And when they came to Tripolis they were well entertained, and the first night they did lie in a captain's house in the town. All our company that were in Tripolis came that night for joy to Master Barton and the other commissioners to see them. Then Master Barton said unto us, "Welcome, my good countrymen," and lovingly entertained us; and at our departure from him he gave us two shillings, and said, "Serve God, for tomorrow I hope you shall be as free as ever you were." We all gave him thanks and so departed. The next day, in the morning very early, the king having intelligence of their coming, sent word to the keeper that none of the Englishmen (meaning our company) should go to work. Then he sent for Master Barton and the other commissioners, and demanded of the said Master Barton his message. The justice answered that the Great Turk, his sovereign, had sent them unto him, signifying that he was informed that a certain English ship, called the Jesus, was by him the said king confiscated about twelve months since, and now my said sovereign hath here sent his especial commission by us unto you for the deliverance of the said ship and goods, and also the free liberty and deliverance of the Englishmen of the said ship whom you have taken and kept in captivity. And further, the same justice said, I am authorised by my said sovereign the Great Turk to see it done; and therefore I command you, by the virtue of this commission, presently to make restitution of the premises or the value thereof. And so did the justice deliver unto the king the Great Turk's commission to the effect aforesaid, which commission the king with all obedience received; and after the perusing of the same, he forthwith commanded all the English captives to be brought before him, and then willed the keeper to strike off all our irons. Which done, the king said, "You Englishmen, for that you did offend the laws of this place, by the same laws therefore some of your company were condemned to die, as you know, and you to be perpetual captives during your lives; notwithstanding, seeing it hath pleased my sovereign lord the Great Turk to pardon your said offences, and to give you your freedom and liberty, behold, here I make delivery of you unto this English gentleman." So he delivered us all that were there, being thirteen in number, to Master Barton, who required also those two young men which the king's son had taken with him. Then the king answered that it was against their law to deliver them, for that they were turned Turks; and, touching the ship and goods, the king said that he had sold her, but would make restitution of the value, and as much of the goods as came unto his hands. And so the king arose and went to dinner, and commanded a Jew to go with Master Barton and the other commissioners to show them their lodgings, which was a house provided and appointed them by the said king. And because I had the Italian and Spanish tongues, by which there most traffic in that country is, Master Barton made me his caterer, to buy his victuals for him and his company, and he delivered me money needful for the same. Thus were we set at liberty the 28th day of April, 1585. Now, to return to the king's plagues and punishments which Almighty God at his will and pleasure sendeth upon men in the sight of the world, and likewise of the plagues that befell his children and others aforesaid. First, when we were made bondmen, being the second day of May, 1584, the king had 300 captives, and before the month was expired there died of them of the plague 150. And whereas there were twenty-six men of our company, of whom two were hanged and one died the same day as we were made bondslaves, that present month there died nine more of our company of the plague, and other two were forced to turn Turks as before rehearsed; and on the 4th day of June next following, the king lost 150 camels which were taken from him by the wild Moors; and on the 28th day of the said month of June one Geffrey Malteese, a renegado of Malta, ran away to his country, and stowed a brigantine which the king had builded for to take the Christians withal, and carried with him twelve Christians more which were the king's captives. Afterwards about the 10th day of July next following, the king rode forth upon the greatest and fairest mare that might be seen, as white as any swan; he had not ridden forty paces from his house, but on a sudden the same mare fell down under him stark dead, and I with six more were commanded to bury her, skin, shoes, and all, which we did. And about three months after our delivery, Master Barton, with all the residue of his company, departed from Tripolis to Zante in a vessel called a settea, of one Marcus Segoorus, who dwelt in Zante; and, after our arrival at Zante, we remained fifteen days there aboard our vessel, before we could have Platego (that is, leave to come ashore), because the plague was in that place from whence we came, and about three days after we came ashore, thither came another settea of Marseilles, bound for Constantinople. Then did Master Barton and his company, with two more of our company, ship themselves as passengers in the same settea and went to Constantinople. But the other nine of us that remained in Zante, about three months after, shipped ourselves in a ship of the said Marcus Segoorus, which came to Zante, and was bound for England. In which three months the soldiers of Tripolis killed the said king; and then the king's son, according to the custom there, went to Constantinople, to surrender up all his father's treasure, goods, captives, and concubines unto the Great Turk, and took with him our said purser Richard Burges, and James Smith, and also the other two Englishmen which he the king's son had enforced to become Turks as is aforesaid. And they, the said Englishmen, finding now some opportunity, concluded with the Christian captives which were going with them unto Constantinople, being in number about 150, to kill the king's son and all the Turks which were aboard of the galley, and privily the said Englishmen conveyed unto the said Christian captives weapons for that purpose. And when they came into the main sea, towards Constantinople (upon the faithful promise of the said Christian captives) these four Englishmen leapt suddenly into the crossia--that is, into the middest of the galley, where the cannon lieth--and with their swords drawn, did fight against all the foresaid Turks, and for want of help of the said Christian captives, who falsely brake their promises, the said Master Blonket's boy was killed and the said James Smith, and our purser Richard Burges, and the other Englishmen were taken and bound into chains, to be hanged at their arrival in Constantinople. And, as the Lord's will was, about two days after, passing through the Gulf of Venice, at an island called Cephalonia, they met with two of the Duke of Venice, his galleys, which took that galley, and killed the king's son and his mother, and all the Turks that were there, in number 150, and they saved the Christian captives; and would have killed the two Englishmen, because they were circumcised and become Turks, had not the other Christian captives excused them, saying that they were enforced to be Turks by the king's son, and showed the Venetians how they did enterprise at sea to fight against all the Turks, and that their two fellows were slain in that fight. Then the Venetians saved them, and they, with all the residue of the said captives, had their liberty, which were in number 150 or thereabouts, and the said galley and all the Turks' treasure was confiscated to the use of the State of Venice. And from thence our two Englishmen travelled homeward by land, and in this meantime we had one more of our company which died in Zante, and afterwards the other eight shipped themselves at Zante in a ship of the said Marcus Segoorus which was bound for England. And before we departed thence, there arrived the Ascension and the George Bonaventure of London, in Cephalonia, in a harbour there called Arrogostoria, whose merchants agreed with the merchants of our ship, and so laded all the merchandise of our ship into the said ships of London, who took us eight also in as passengers, and so we came home. And within two months after our arrival at London our said purser Richard Burges, and his fellow, came home also, for the which we are bound to praise Almighty God during our lives, and, as duty bindeth us, to pray for the preservation of our most gracious Queen, for the great care her Majesty had over us, her poor subjects, in seeking and procuring of our deliverance aforesaid, and also for her Honourable Privy Council; and I especially for the prosperity and good estate of the house of the late deceased, the Right Honourable the Earl of Bedford, whose honour I must confess most diligently, at the suit of my father now departed, travailed herein--for the which I rest continually bounden to him, whose soul I doubt not but already is in the heavens in joy, with the Almighty, unto which place He vouchsafed to bring us all, that for our sins suffered most vile and shameful death upon the cross, there to live perpetually world without end. Amen. THE QUEEN'S LETTERS TO THE TURK, 1584, FOR THE RESTITUTION OF THE SHIP, CALLED THE JESUS, AND THE ENGLISH CAPTIVES DETAINED IN TRIPOLIS, IN BARBARY, AND FOR CERTAIN OTHER PRISONERS IN ALGIERS. Elizabeth, by the grace of the Most High God and only Maker of Heaven and Earth, of England, France, and Ireland Queen, and of the Christian faith, against all the idolaters and false professors of the name of Christ dwelling among the Christians, most invincible and puissant Defender; to the most valiant and invincible Prince, Sultan Murad Can, the most mighty ruler of the Kingdom of Mussulman and of the East Empire, the only and highest monarch above all, health and many happy and fortunate years, with great abundance of the best things. Most noble and puissant Emperor, about two years now past, we wrote unto your Imperial Majesty that our well-beloved servant, William Harebrown, a man of great reputation and honour, might be received under your high authority for our ambassador in Constantinople and other places, under the obedience of your Empire of Mussulman; and also that the Englishmen being our subjects might exercise intercourse and merchandise in all those provinces no less freely than the French, Polonians, Venetians, Germans, and other your confederates, which travel through divers of the East parts endeavouring that by mutual traffic the East may be joined and knit to the West. Which privileges, when as your most puissant Majesty by your letters and under your dispensation most liberally and favourably granted to our subjects of England, we could no less do but in that respect give you as great thanks as our heart could conceive, trusting that it will come to pass that this order of traffic so well ordained will bring with itself most great profits and commodities to both sides, as well to the parties subject to your Empire as to the provinces of our Kingdom. Which thing, that it may be done in plain and effectual manner, whereas some of our subjects of late at Tripolis in Barbary, and at Algiers, were by the inhabitants of those places (being perhaps ignorant of your pleasure) evil intreated and grievously vexed, we do friendly and lovingly desire your Imperial Majesty that you will understand their causes by our ambassador, and afterward give commandment to the lieutenants and presidents of those provinces, that our people may henceforth freely, without any violence or injury, travel and do their business in those places. And we again with all endeavour shall study to perform all those things which we shall in any wise understand to be acceptable to your Imperial Majesty, which God, the only Maker of the World, Most Best and Most Great, long keep in health and flourishing. Given in our Palace at London, the 5th day of the month of September, in the year of Jesus Christ our Saviour 1584, and of our reign the twenty-sixth. THE COMMANDMENT OBTAINED OF THE GRAND SIGNIOR BY HER MAJESTY'S AMBASSADOR, FOR THE QUIET PASSING OF HER SUBJECTS TO AND FROM HIS DOMINIONS, SENT IN ANNO 1584 TO THE VICEROYS, ALGIERS, TUNIS, AND TRIPOLIS IN BARBARY. To our Beglerbeg of Algiers. We certify thee by this our commandment that the right honourable William Harebrowne, ambassador to the Queen's Majesty of England, hath signified unto us that the ships of that country, in their coming and returning to and from our Empire, on the one part of the seas have the Spaniards, Florentines, Sicilians, and Maltese, on the other part our countries, committed to your charge, which above said Christians will not quietly suffer their egress and regress into and out of our dominions, but to take and make the men captives, and forfeit the ships and goods, as the last year the Maltese did one which they took at Gerbi, and to that end do continually lie in wait for them to their destruction, whereupon they are constrained to stand to their defence at any such times as they might meet with them; wherefore considering by this means they must stand upon their guard when they shall see any galley afar off, whereby if meeting with any of your galleys, and not knowing them, in their defence they do shoot at them, and yet after, when they do certainly know them, do not shoot any more, but require to pass peaceably on their voyage, which you would deny, saying, "The peace is broken, for that you have shot at us, and so do make prize of them, contrary to our privileges, and against reason:" for the preventing of which inconvenience the said ambassador hath required this our commandment. We therefore command thee that upon sight hereof then do not permit any such matter in no sort whatsoever, but suffer the said Englishmen to pass in peace, according to the tenor of our commandment given, without any disturbance or let by any means upon the way, although that, meeting with thy galleys, and not knowing them afar off, they, taking them for enemies, should shoot at them, yet shall ye not suffer them to hurt them therefor, but quietly to pass. Wherefore look thou, that they may have right according to our privilege given them, and finding any that absenteth himself and will not obey this our commandment, presently certify us to our porch, that we may give order for his punishment; and with reverence give faithful credit to this our commandment, which having read, thou shalt again return it unto them that present it. From our palace in Constantinople, the prime of June, 1584. THE TURK'S LETTER TO THE KING OF TRIPOLIS, IN BARBARY, COMMANDING THE RESTITUTION OF AN ENGLISH SHIP, CALLED THE JESUS, WITH THE MEN AND GOODS, SENT FROM CONSTANTINOPLE BY MAHOMET BEG, A JUSTICE OF THE GREAT TURK'S, AND AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, CALLED MASTER EDWARD BARTON. ANNO 1584. Honourable and most worthy Pasha Romadan Beglerbeg, most wise and prudent judge of the West Tripolis, we wish the end of all thy enterprises happy and prosperous. By these our Highness's letters we certify thee that the Right Honourable William Harebrowne, Ambassador in our most famous porch for the most excellent Queen's Majesty of England, in person and by letters hath certified our Highness that a certain ship, with all her furniture and artillery, worth two thousand ducats, arriving in the port of Tripolis, and discharged of her lading and merchandise, paid our custom according to order, and again the merchants laded their ship with oil, which by constraint they were enforced to buy of you, and having answered in like manner the custom for the same, determined to depart. A Frenchman, assistant to the merchant, unknown to the Englishmen, carried away with him another Frenchman indebted to a certain Moor in four hundred ducats, and by force caused the Englishmen and ship to depart, who, neither suspecting fraud nor deceit, hoisted sails. In the meantime, this man, whose debtor the Frenchman had stolen away, went to the Pasha with a supplication, by whose means, and force of the Castle, the Englishmen were constrained to return into the port, where the Frenchman, author of the evil, with the master of the ship, an Englishman, innocent of the crime, were hanged, and five-and-twenty Englishmen cast into prison, of whom, through famine and thirst, and stink of the prison, eleven died, and the rest were like to die. Further, it was signified to our Majesty also that the merchandise and other goods with the ship were worth seven thousand six hundred ducats. Which things, if they be so, this is our commandment, which was granted and given by our Majesty, that the English ship, and all the merchandise, and whatsoever else was taken away, be wholly restored, and that the Englishmen be let go free, and suffered to return into their country. Wherefore, when this our commandment shall come unto thee, we straightly command that the foresaid business be diligently looked unto and discharged. And if it be so that a Frenchman, and no Englishman, hath done this craft and wickedness, unknown to the Englishmen, and, as author of the wickedness, is punished, and that the Englishmen committed nothing against the peace and league, or their articles; also, if they paid custom according to order, it is against law, custom of countries, and their privilege, to hinder or hurt them. Neither is it meet their ship, merchandise, and all their goods taken should be withholden. We will, therefore, that the English ship, merchandise, and all other their goods, without exception, be restored to the Englishmen; also, that the men be let go free, and, if they will, let none hinder them to return peaceably into their country; do not commit that they another time complain of this matter, and how this business is despatched certify us at our most famous porch. Dated in the city of Constantinople, in the nine hundred and ninety-second year of Mahomet, and in the end of the month of October, and the year of Jesus 1584. A LETTER OF MASTER WILLIAM HAREBROWNE, THE ENGLISH AMBASSADOR, LEDGER IN CONSTANTINOPLE, TO THE PASHA ROMADAN, THE BEGLERBEG OF TRIPOLIS, IN BARBARY, FOR THE RESTORING OF AN ENGLISH SHIP, CALLED THE JESUS, WITH GOODS AND MEN DETAINED AS SLAVES, 1585. Right Honourable Lord, it hath been signified unto us by divers letters, what hath fallen out concerning a certain ship of ours, called the Jesus, into which, for the help of Richard Skegs, one of our merchants in the same, now deceased, there was admitted a certain Frenchman, called Romaine Sonnings, which for his ill behaviour, according to his deserts, seeking to carry away with him another Frenchman, which was indebted to certain of your people, without paying his creditors, was hanged by sentence of justice, together with Andrew Dier, the master of the said ship, who, simply and without fraud, giving credit to the said Frenchman, without any knowledge of this evil fact, did not return when he was commanded by your honourable lordship. The death of the said lewd Frenchman we approve as a thing well done, but contrariwise, whereas your lordship hath confiscated the said ship, with the goods therein, and hath made slaves of the mariners, as a thing altogether contrary to the privileges of the Grand Signior, granted four years since, and confirmed by us, on the behalf of the most excellent the Queen's Majesty of England, our mistress, and altogether contrary to the league of the said Grand Signior, who, being fully informed of the aforesaid cause, hath granted unto us his royal commandment of restitution, which we send unto your honourable lordship by the present bearer, Edward Barton, our secretary, and Mahomet Beg, one of the justices of his stately court, with other letters of the most excellent Admiral and most valiant captain of the sea, requiring your most honourable lordship, as well on the behalf of the Grand Signior as of the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, my mistress, that the men, oils, ship, furniture, money, and all other goods whatsoever, by your lordship and your order taken from our men, be restored unto this my secretary freely, without delay, as the Grand Signior of his goodness hath granted unto us, especially in regard that the same oils were bought by the commandment of our Queen's most Excellent Majesty for the provision of her Court. Which if you perform not, we protest by these our letters against you, that you are the cause of all the inconveniences which may ensue upon this occasion, as the author thereof contrary to the holy league sworn by both our princes, as by the privileges, which this our servant will show you, may appear. For the seeing of which league performed, we remain here as Ledger in this stately court, and by this means you shall answer in another world unto God alone, and in this world unto the Grand Signior, for this heinous sin committed by you against so many poor souls, which by this your cruelty are in part dead, and in part detained by you in most miserable captivity. Contrariwise, if it shall please you to avoid this mischief, and to remain in the favour of Almighty God and of our princes, you shall friendly fulfil this our just demand (as it behoveth you to show yourself a prudent governor and faithful servant unto your lord), and the same may turn to your great honour and profit by the trade of merchandise, which our men in time to come may use in that government of yours, which, generally, as well those poor men as all others which you shall meet at the sea, ought to be, according to the commandment of the Grand Signior, friendly entertained and received of your honourable lordship; and we will not fail in the duties of a special friend whatsoever you shall have occasion to use us as we desire. Almighty God grant unto your lordship (in the fulfilling of this our just request, whereby we may be delivered from further trouble in this matter and yourself from further displeasure) all true felicity and increase of honour. Given in our palace from Capamat, in Pera, the 15th of January, 1585. A BRIEF EXTRACT SPECIFYING THE CERTAIN DAILY PAYMENTS, ANSWERED QUARTERLY IN TIME OF PEACE, BY THE GRAND SIGNIOR, OUT OF HIS TREASURY, TO THE OFFICERS OF HIS SERAGLIO OR COURT, SUCCESSIVELY IN DEGREES; COLLECTED IN A YEARLY TOTAL SUM AS FOLLOWETH: For his own diet every day, one thousand and one aspers, according to a former custom received from his ancestors; notwithstanding that otherwise his diurnal expense is very much, and not certainly known, which sum maketh sterling money by the year, two thousand one hundred and ninety-two pounds, three shillings, and eightpence. The forty-five thousand janisaries, reparted into sundry places of his dominions, at five aspers a day, amounteth by the year, five hundred fourscore and eleven thousand and three hundred pounds. The azamoglans' tribute children far surmount that number, for that they are collected from among the Christians, from whom between the years of five and twelve they are pulled away yearly perforce; whereof I suppose those in service may be equal in number with the janisaries abovesaid, at three aspers a day, one with another, which is two hundred fourscore and fifteen thousand five hundred and fifty pounds. The five Pashas whereof the Viceroy is supreme, at one thousand aspers the day, besides their yearly revenues, amounteth sterling by the year, ten thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds. The five Beglerbegs, chief presidents of Greece, Hungary, and Slavonia, being in Europe, in Anatolia, and Carmania of Asia, at one thousand aspers the day; as also to eighteen other governors of provinces at five hundred aspers the day, amounteth by the year thirty thousand five hundred and threescore pounds. The Pasha, admiral of the sea, one thousand aspers the day, two thousand one hundred fourscore and ten thousand pounds. The Aga of the janisaries, general of the footmen, five hundred aspers the day, and maketh by the year in sterling money one thousand fourscore and fifteen pounds. The Imbrahur Pasha, master of his horse, one hundred and fifty aspers the day, in sterling money three hundred and eight and twenty pounds. The chief esquire under him, one hundred and fifty aspers, is three hundred and eight and twenty pounds. The Agas of the Spahi, captains of the horsemen, five at one hundred and fifty aspers to either of them, maketh sterling one thousand nine hundred threescore and eleven pounds. The Capagi Pashas, head porters, four, one hundred and fifty aspers to each, and maketh out in sterling money by the year, one thousand three hundred and fourteen pounds. The Sisinghir Pasha, controller of the household, one hundred and twenty aspers the day, and maketh out in sterling money by the year, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The Chiaus Pasha, captain of the pensioners, one hundred and twenty aspers the day, and amounteth to, by the year, in sterling money, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The Capigilar Caiafi, captain of his barge, one hundred and twenty aspers the day, and maketh out by the year, in sterling money, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The Solach Bassi, captain of his guard, one hundred and twenty aspers, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The Giebrigi Bassi, master of the armoury, one hundred and twenty aspers, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The Topagi Bassi, master of the artillery, one hundred and twenty aspers, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The Echim Bassi, physician to his person, one hundred and twenty aspers, two hundred threescore and two pounds, sixteen shillings. The forty physicians under him, to each forty aspers is three thousand eight hundred threescore and six pounds, sixteen shillings. The Mustafaracas, spearmen attending on his person, in number 500, to either threescore aspers, and maketh sterling threescore and five thousand and seven hundred pounds. The Cisingeri, gentlemen attending upon his diet, forty, at forty aspers each of them, and amounteth to sterling by the year, three thousand five hundred and four pounds. The Chiausi, pensioners, four hundred and forty, at thirty aspers, twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and eight pounds. The Capagi, porters of the Court and city, four hundred at eight aspers, and maketh sterling money by the year, seven thousand and eight pounds. The Solachi, archers of his guard, three hundred and twenty, at nine aspers, and cometh unto, in English money, the sum of six thousand three hundred and six pounds. The Spahi, men of arms of the Court and the city, ten thousand, at twenty-five aspers, and maketh of English money, five hundred forty and seven thousand and five hundred pounds. The Janisaries, sixteen thousand, at six aspers, is two hundred and ten thousand and two hundred and forty pounds. The Giebegi, furbishers of armour, one thousand five hundred, at six aspers, and amounteth to sterling money, nineteen thousand seven hundred and fourscore pounds. The Seiefir, servitors in his esquire or stable, five hundred, at two aspers, and maketh sterling money, two thousand one hundred fourscore and ten pounds. The Saefi, saddlers and bit-makers, five hundred, at seven aspers, seven thousand six hundred threescore and five pounds. The Capergi, carriers upon mules, two hundred, at five aspers, two thousand one hundred fourscore and ten pounds. The Ginegi, carriers upon camels, one thousand five hundred, at eight aspers, and amounteth in sterling money to twenty-six thousand two hundred and fourscore pounds. The Reiz, or captains of the galleys, three hundred, at ten aspers, and amounteth in English money, by the year, the sum of six thousand five hundred threescore and ten pounds. The Alechingi, masters of the said galleys, three hundred, at seven aspers, four thousand five hundred fourscore and nineteen pounds. The Getti, boatswains thereof, three hundred, at six aspers, is three thousand nine hundred forty and two pounds. The Oda Bassi, pursers, three hundred, at five aspers, maketh three thousand two hundred and fourscore pounds. The Azappi, soldiers, two thousand six hundred, at four aspers, whereof the five hundred do continually keep the galleys, two-and-twenty thousand seven hundred fourscore and six pounds. The Mariers Bassi, masters over the shipwrights and caulkers of the navy, nine, at twenty aspers the piece, amounteth to three thousand fourscore and four pounds, four shillings. The Master Dassi, shipwrights and caulkers, one thousand, at fourteen aspers, and amounteth to, by the year, thirty thousand six hundred and threescore pounds. Summa totalis of daily payments amounteth by the year sterling one million nine hundred threescore eight thousand seven hundred and thirtyfive pounds, nineteen shillings, and eight pence, answered quarterly without default with the sum of four hundred fourscore twelve thousand one hundred fourscore and four pounds, four shillings, and eleven pence, and is for every day five thousand three hundred fourscore and thirteen pounds, fifteen shillings, and ten pence. ANNUITIES OF LANDS NEVER IMPROVED FIVE TIMES MORE IN VALUE THAN THEIR SUMS MENTIONED, GIVEN BY THE SAID GRAND SIGNIOR AS FOLLOWETH: To the Viceroy for his timar or annuity, 60,000 gold ducats. To the second pasha for his annuity, 50,000 ducats. To the third pasha for his annuity, 40,000 ducats. To the fourth pasha for his annuity, 30,000 ducats. To the fifth pasha for his annuity, 20,000 ducats. To the captain of the janisaries, 20,000 ducats. To the Jou Merhor Bassi, master of his horse, 15,000 ducats. To the captain of the pensioners, 10,000 ducats. To the captain of his guard, 5,000 ducats. Summa totalis, 90,000 livres sterling. Besides these above specified be sundry other annuities, given to divers others of his aforesaid officers, as also to certain persons called Sahims, diminishing from three thousand to two hundred ducats, esteemed treble to surmount the annuity abovesaid. THE TURK'S CHIEF OFFICERS. The Viceroy is high treasurer, notwithstanding that under him be three sub-treasurers, called Testaders, which be accountable to him of the receipts out of Europe, Asia, and Africa, save their yearly annuity of lands. The Lord Chancellor is called Nissangi Pasha, who sealeth with a certain proper character such licenses, safe-conducts, passports, especial grants, etc., as proceed from the Grand Signior; notwithstanding all letters to foreign princes so firmed be after enclosed in a bag and sealed by the Grand Signior, with a signet which he ordinarily weareth about his neck, credited of them to have been of ancient appertaining to King Solomon the Wise. The Admiral giveth his voice in the election of all begies, captains of islands (to whom he giveth their charge), as also appointeth the sub-pashas, bailies or constables over cities and towns upon the sea-coasts about Constantinople and in the Archipelago, whereof he reapeth great profit. The Sub-Bassi of Pera payeth him nearly fifteen thousand ducats, and so likewise either of the others, according as they are placed. The Resistop serveth in office to the Viceroy and Chancellor as secretary, and so likewise doth the Cogy, Master of the Rolls, before which two pass all writings presented to or granted by the said Viceroy and Chancellor, offices of especial credit and like profit, moreover rewarded with annuities of lands. There be also two chief judges named Ladies Lisguire, the one over Europe and the other over Asia and Africa, which in court do sit on the bench at the left hand of the pashas. These sell all offices to the under-judges of the land called Cadies, whereof is one in every city or town, before whom all matters of controversy are by judgment decided, as also penalties and corrections for crimes ordained to be executed upon the offenders by the Sub-bassi. THE NUMBER OF SOLDIERS CONTINUALLY ATTENDING UPON THE BEGLERBEGS, THE GOVERNORS OF PROVINCES, AND SANGIACKS, AND THEIR PETTY CAPTAINS MAINTAINED OF THESE PROVINCES. The Beglerbegs of . . . Persons. Graecia 40,000 Buda 15,000 Slavonia 15,000 Anatolia 15,000 Caramania 15,000 Armenia 18,000 Persia 20,000 Usdrum 15,000 Chirusta 15,000 Caraemiti 30,000 Giersul 32,000 Bagdad 25,000 Balsara 22,000 Lassaija 17,000 Aleppo 25,000 Damascus 17,000 Cairo 12,000 Abes 12,000 Mecca 8,000 Cyprus 18,000 Tunis, in Barbary 8,000 Tripolis, in Syria 8,000 Algiers 40,000 Whose sangiacks and petty captains be three hundred and sixty-eight, every of which retaining continually in pay from five hundred to two hundred soldiers, may be, one with another, at least three hundred thousand persons. CHIEF OFFICERS IN HIS SERAGLIO ABOUT HIS PERSON BE THESE: Capiaga, high porter. Alnader Bassi, treasurer. Oda Bassi, chamberlain. Killergi Bassi, steward. Saraiaga, controller. Peskerolen, groom of the chamber. Edostoglan, gentleman of the ewer. Sehetaraga, armour-bearer. Choataraga, he that carrieth his riding cloak. Ebietaraga, groom of the stool. There be many other meaner offices, which I esteem superfluous to write. THE TURK'S YEARLY REVENUE. The Grand Signior's annual revenue is said to be fourteen millions and a half of golden ducats, which is sterling five millions eightscore thousand pounds. The tribute paid by the Christians, his subjects, is one gold ducat yearly for the redemption of every head, which may amount unto not so little as one million of golden ducats, which is sterling three hundred and threescore thousand pounds. Moreover, in time of war he exacteth manifold sums, for maintenance of his army and navy, of the said Christians. The Emperor payeth him yearly tribute for Hungary threescore thousand dollars, which is sterling thirteen thousand pounds, besides presents to the Viceroy and pashas, which are said to surmount twenty thousand dollars. AMBASSADORS' ALLOWANCES. The ambassador of the Emperor is allowed one thousand aspers the day. The ambassador of the French king heretofore enjoyed the like; but of late years, by means of displeasure conceived by Mahomet, then Viceroy, it was reduced to six crowns the day, besides the provision of his esquire of stable. The ambassador of Poland and for the State of Venice are not Ledgers as these two abovesaid. The said Polack is allowed twelve French crowns the day during his abode, which may be for a month. Very seldom do the State of Venice send any ambassador otherwise than enforced of urgent necessity; but instead thereof keep there their agent, president over their merchants, of them termed a bailiff, who hath no allowance of the Grand Signior, although his port and state is in manner as magnifical as the other aforesaid ambassadors'. The Spanish ambassador was equal with others in janisaries; but for so much as he would not, according to custom, follow the list of other ambassadors in making presents to the Grand Signior, he had no allowance. His abode there was three years, at the end whereof, having concluded a truce for six years, taking place from his first coming in November last past, he was never admitted to the presence of the Grand Signior. ----- A TRUE REPORT OF A WORTHY FIGHT, PERFORMED IN THE VOYAGE FROM TURKEY BY FIVE SHIPS OF LONDON, AGAINST ELEVEN GALLEYS AND TWO FRIGATES OF THE KING OF SPAIN'S, AT PANTALAREA, WITHIN THE STRAITS, ANNO 1586. WRITTEN BY PHILIP JONES. The merchants of London, being of the incorporation for the Turkey trade, having received intelligences and advertisements from time to time that the King of Spain, grudging at the prosperity of this kingdom, had not only of late arrested all English ships, bodies, and goods in Spain, but also, maligning the quiet traffic which they used, to and in the dominions and provinces under the obedience of the Great Turk, had given orders to the captains of his galleys in the Levant to hinder the passage of all English ships, and to endeavour by their best means to intercept, take, and spoil them, their persons and goods; they hereupon thought it their best course to set out their fleet for Turkey in such strength and ability for their defence that the purpose of their Spanish enemy might the better be prevented, and the voyage accomplished with greater security to the men and ships. For which cause, five tall and stout ships appertaining to London, and intending only a merchant's voyage, were provided and furnished with all things belonging to the seas, the names whereof were these:-- 1. The Merchant Royal, a very brave and goodly ship, and of great report. 2. The Toby. 3. The Edward Bonaventure. 4. The William and John. 5. The Susan. These five departing from the coast of England in the month of November, 1585, kept together as one fleet till they came as high as the isle of Sicily, within the Levant. And there, according to the order and direction of the voyage, each ship began to take leave of the rest, and to separate himself, setting his course for the particular port whereunto he was bound--one for Tripolis in Syria, another for Constantinople, the chief city of the Turk's empire, situated upon the coast of Roumelia, called of old Thracia, and the rest to those places whereunto they were privately appointed. But before they divided themselves, they altogether consulted of and about a certain and special place for their meeting again after the lading of their goods at their several ports. And in conclusion, the general agreement was to meet at Zante, an island near to the main continent of the west part of Morea, well known to all the pilots, and thought to be the fittest place for their rendezvous; concerning which meeting it was also covenanted on each side and promised that whatsoever ship of these five should first arrive at Zante, should there stay and expect the coming of the rest of the fleet for the space of twenty days. This being done, each man made his best haste, according as wind and weather would serve him, to fulfil his course and to despatch his business; and no need was there to admonish or encourage any man, seeing no time was ill-spent nor opportunity omitted on any side in the performance of each man's duty, according to his place. It fell out that the Toby, which was bound for Constantinople, had made such good speed, and gotten such good weather, that she first of all the rest came back to the appointed place of Zante, and not forgetting the former conclusion, did there cast anchor, attending the arrival of the rest of the fleet, which accordingly (their business first performed) failed not to keep promise. The first next after the Toby was the Royal Merchant, which, together with the William and John, came from Tripolis in Syria, and arrived in Zante within the compass of the aforesaid time limited. These ships, in token of the joy on all parts conceived for their happy meeting, spared not the discharging of their ordnance, the sounding of drums and trumpets, the spreading of ensigns, with other warlike and joyful behaviours, expressing by these outward signs the inward gladness of their minds, being all as ready to join together in mutual consent to resist the cruel enemy, as now in sporting manner they made mirth and pastime among themselves. These three had not been long in the haven but the Edward Bonaventure, together with the Susan her consort, were come from Venice with their lading, the sight of whom increased the joy of the rest, and they, no less glad of the presence of the others, saluted them in most friendly and kind sort, according to the manner of the seas. And whereas some of these ships stood at that instant in some want of victuals, they were all content to stay in the port till the necessities of each ship were supplied, and nothing wanted to set out for their return. In this port of Zante the news was fresh and current of two several armies and fleets, provided by the King of Spain, and lying in wait to intercept them: the one consisting of thirty strong galleys, so well appointed in all respects for the war that no necessary thing wanted, and this fleet hovered about the Straits of Gibraltar. The other army had in it twenty galleys, whereof some were of Sicily and some of the island of Malta, under the charge and government of John Andreas Dorea, a captain of name serving the King of Spain. These two divers and strong fleets waited and attended in the seas for none but the English ships, and no doubt made their account and sure reckoning that not a ship should escape their fury. And the opinion also of the inhabitants of the isle of Zante was, that in respect of the number of galleys in both these armies having received such strait commandment from the king, our ships and men being but few and little in comparison of them, it was a thing in human reason impossible that we should pass either without spoiling, if we resisted, or without composition at the least, and acknowledgment of duty to the Spanish king. But it was neither the report of the attendance of these armies, nor the opinions of the people, nor anything else, that could daunt or dismay the courage of our men, who, grounding themselves upon the goodness of their cause and the promise of God to be delivered from such as without reason sought their destruction, carried resolute minds notwithstanding all impediments to adventure through the seas, and to finish their navigation maugre the beards of the Spanish soldiers. But lest they should seem too careless and too secure of their estate, and by laying the whole and entire burden of their safety upon God's Providence should foolishly presume altogether of His help, and neglect the means which was put into their hands, they failed not to enter into counsel among themselves and to deliberate advisedly for their best defence. And in the end, with general consent, the Merchant Royal was appointed Admiral of the fleet, and the Toby Vice-Admiral, by whose orders the rest promised to be directed, and each ship vowed not to break from another whatsoever extremity should fall out, but to stand to it to the death, for the honour of their country and the frustrating of the hope of the ambitious and proud enemy. Thus in good order they left Zante and the Castle of Grecia, and committed themselves again to the seas, and proceeded in their course and voyage in quietness, without sight of any enemy till they came near to Pantalarea, an island so called betwixt Sicily and the coast of Africa; into sight whereof they came the 13th day of July, 1586. And the same day, in the morning, about seven of the clock, they descried thirteen sails in number, which were of the galleys lying in wait of purpose for them in and about that place. As soon as the English ships had spied them, they by-and-bye, according to a common order, made themselves ready for a fight, laid out their ordnance, scoured, charged, and primed them, displayed their ensigns, and left nothing undone to arm themselves thoroughly. In the meantime, the galleys more and more approached the ships, and in their banners there appeared the arms of the isles of Sicily and Malta, being all as then in the service and pay of the Spaniard. Immediately both the Admirals of the galleys sent from each of them a frigate to the Admiral of our English ships, which being come near them, the Sicilian frigate first hailed them, and demanded of them whence they were; they answered that they were of England, the arms whereof appeared in their colours. Whereupon the said frigate expostulated with them, and asked why they delayed to send or come with their captains and pursers to Don Pedro de Leiva, their General, to acknowledge their duty and obedience to him, in the name of the Spanish king, lord of those seas. Our men replied and said that they owed no such duty nor obedience to him, and therefore would acknowledge none; but commanded the frigate to depart with that answer, and not to stay longer upon her peril. With that away she went; and up came towards them the other frigate of Malta; and she in like sort hailed the Admiral, and would needs know whence they were and where they had been. Our Englishmen in the Admiral, not disdaining an answer, told them that they were of England, merchants of London, had been in Turkey, and were now returning home; and to be requited in this case, they also demanded of the frigate whence she and the rest of the galleys were. The messenger answered, "We are of Malta, and for mine own part, my name is Cavalero. These galleys are in service and pay to the King of Spain, under the conduct of Don Pedro de Leiva, a nobleman of Spain who hath been commanded hither by the king with this present force and army of purpose to intercept you. You shall therefore," quoth he, "do well to repair to him to know his pleasure; he is a nobleman of good behaviour and courtesy, and means you no ill." The captain of the English Admiral, whose name was Master Edward Wilkinson, now one of the six masters of Her Majesty's Royal Navy, replied and said, "We purpose not at this time to make trial of Don Pedro his courtesy, whereof we are suspicious and doubtful, and not without good cause;" using withal good words to the messenger, and willing him to come aboard him, promising security and good usage, that thereby he might the better know the Spaniard's mind. Whereupon he indeed left his frigate and came aboard him, whom he entertained in friendly sort, and caused a cup of wine to be drawn for him, which he took, and began, with his cap in his hand and with reverent terms, to drink to the health of the Queen of England, speaking very honourably of Her Majesty, and giving good speeches of the courteous usage and entertainment that he himself had received in London at the time that the Duke of Alencon, brother to the late French king, was last in England. And after he had well drunk, he took his leave, speaking well of the sufficiency and goodness of our ships, and especially of the Merchant Royal, which he confessed to have seen before, riding in the Thames near London. He was no sooner come to Don Pedro de Leiva, the Spanish General, but he was sent off again, and returned to the English Admiral, saying that the pleasure of the General was this, that either their captains, masters, and pursers should come to him with speed, or else he would set upon them, and either take them or sink them. The reply was made by Master Wilkinson aforesaid that not a man should come to him; and for the brag and threat of Don Pedro, it was not that Spanish bravado that should make them yield a jot to their hindrance, but they were as ready to make resistance as he to offer an injury. Whereupon Cavalero the messenger left bragging, and began to persuade them in quiet sort and with many words; but all his labour was to no purpose, and as his threat did nothing terrify them, so his persuasion did nothing move them to do that which he required. At the last he entreated to have the merchant of the Admiral carried by him as a messenger to the General, that so he might be satisfied and assured of their minds by one of their own company. But Master Wilkinson would agree to no such thing; although Richard Rowit, the merchant himself, seemed willing to be employed in that message, and laboured by reasonable persuasions to induce Master Wilkinson to grant it--as hoping to be an occasion by his presence and discreet answers to satisfy the General, and thereby to save the effusion of Christian blood, if it should grow to a battle. And he seemed so much the more willing to be sent, by how much deeper the oaths and protestations of this Cavalero were, that he would (as he was a true knight and a soldier) deliver him back again in safety to his company. Albeit, Master Wilkinson, who, by his long experience, had received sufficient trial of Spanish inconstancy and perjury, wished him in no case to put his life and liberty in hazard upon a Spaniard's oath; but at last, upon much entreaty, he yielded to let him go to the General, thinking indeed that good speeches and answers of reason would have contented him, whereas, otherwise, refusal to do so might peradventure have provoked the more discontentment. Master Rowit, therefore, passing to the Spanish General, the rest of the galleys, having espied him, thought, indeed, that the English were rather determined to yield than to fight, and therefore came flocking about the frigate, every man crying out, "Que nuevas? que nuevas? Have these Englishmen yielded?" The frigate answered, "Not so; they neither have nor purpose to yield. Only they have sent a man of their company to speak with our General." And being come to the galley wherein he was, he showed himself to Master Rowit in his armour, his guard of soldiers attending upon him, in armour also, and began to speak very proudly in this sort: "Thou Englishman, from whence is your fleet? Why stand ye aloof off? know ye not your duty to the Catholic king, whose person I here represent? Where are your bills of lading, your letters, passports, and the chief of your men? Think ye my attendance in these seas to be in vain, or my person to no purpose? Let all these things be done out of hand, as I command, upon pain of my further displeasure, and the spoil of you all." These words of the Spanish General were not so outrageously pronounced, as they were mildly answered by Master Rowit, who told him that they were all merchantmen, using traffic in honest sort, and seeking to pass quietly, if they were not urged further than reason. As for the King of Spain, he thought (for his part) that there was amity betwixt him and his Sovereign, the Queen of England, so that neither he nor his officers should go about to offer any such injury to English merchants, who, as they were far from giving offence to any man, so they would be loth to take an abuse at the hands of any, or sit down to their loss, where their ability was able to make defence. And as touching his commandment aforesaid for the acknowledging of duty in such particular sort, he told him that, where there was no duty owing there none should be performed, assuring him that their whole company and ships in general stood resolutely upon the negative, and would not yield to any such unreasonable demand, joined with such imperious and absolute manner of commanding. "Why, then," said he, "if they will neither come to yield, nor show obedience to me in the name of my king, I will either sink them or bring them to harbour; and so tell them from me." With that the frigate came away with Master Rowit, and brought him aboard to the English Admiral again, according to promise, who was no sooner entered in but by-and-bye defiance was sounded on both sides. The Spaniards hewed off the noses of the galleys, that nothing might hinder the level of the shot; and the English, on the other side, courageously prepared themselves to the combat, every man, according to his room, bent to perform his office with alacrity and diligence. In the meantime a cannon was discharged from out the Admiral of the galleys, which, being the onset of the fight, was presently answered by the English Admiral with a culverin; so the skirmish began, and grew hot and terrible. There was no powder nor shot spared, each English ship matched itself in good order against two Spanish galleys, besides the inequality of the frigates on the Spanish side. And although our men performed their parts with singular valour, according to their strength, insomuch that the enemy, as amazed therewith, would oftentimes pause and stay, and consult what was best to be done, yet they ceased not in the midst of their business to make prayer to Almighty God, the revenger of all evils and the giver of victories, that it would please Him to assist them in this good quarrel of theirs, in defending themselves against so proud a tyrant, to teach their hands to war and their fingers to fight, that the glory of the victory might redound to His name, and to the honour of true religion, which the insolent enemy sought so much to overthrow. Contrarily, the foolish Spaniards, they cried out, according to their manner, not to God, but to our Lady (as they term the Virgin Mary) saying, "Oh, Lady, help! Oh, blessed Lady, give us the victory, and the honour thereof shall be thine." Thus with blows and prayers on both sides, the fight continued furious and sharp, and doubtful a long time to which part the victory would incline, till at last the Admiral of the galleys of Sicily began to warp from the fight, and to hold up her side for fear of sinking, and after her went also two others in like case, whom all the sort of them enclosed, labouring by all their means to keep them above water, being ready by the force of English shot which they had received to perish in the seas. And what slaughter was done among the Spaniards the English were uncertain, but by a probable conjecture apparent afar off they supposed their loss was so great that they wanted men to continue the charging of their pieces; whereupon with shame and dishonour, after five hours spent in the battle, they withdrew themselves. And the English, contented in respect of their deep lading rather to continue their voyage than to follow in the chase, ceased from further blows, with the loss of only two men slain amongst them all, and another hurt in his arm, whom Master Wilkinson, with his good words and friendly promises, did so comfort that he nothing esteemed the smart of his wound, in respect of the honour of the victory and the shameful repulse of the enemy. Thus, with dutiful thanks to the mercy of God for His gracious assistance in that danger, the English ships proceeded in their navigation. And coming as high as Algiers, a port town upon the coast of Barbary, they made for it, of purpose to refresh themselves after their weariness, and to take in such supply of fresh water and victuals as they needed. They were no sooner entered into the port but immediately the king thereof sent a messenger to the ships to know what they were. With which messenger the chief master of every ship repaired to the king, and acquainted him not only with the state of their ships in respect of merchandise, but with the late fight which they had passed with the Spanish galleys, reporting every particular circumstance in word as it fell out in action; whereof the said king showed himself marvellous glad, entertaining them in the best sort, and promising abundant relief of all their wants; making general proclamation in the city, upon pain of death, that no man, of what degree or state soever he were, should presume either to hinder them in their affairs or to offer them any manner of injury in body or goods; by virtue whereof they despatched all things in excellent good sort with all favour and peaceableness. Only such prisoners and captives of the Spaniards as were in the city, seeing the good usage which they received, and hearing also what service they had performed against the foresaid galleys, grudged exceedingly against them, and sought as much as they could to practise some mischief against them. And one amongst the rest, seeing an Englishman alone in a certain lane of the city, came upon him suddenly, and with his knife thrust him in the side, yet made no such great wound but that it was easily recovered. The English company, hearing of it, acquainted the king of the fact; who immediately sent both for the party that had received the wound and the offender also, and caused an executioner, in the presence of himself and the English, to chastise the slave even to death, which was performed, to the end that no man should presume to commit the like part or to do anything in contempt of his royal commandment. The English, having received this good justice at the king's hands, and all other things that they wanted or could crave for the furnishing of their ships, took their leave of him, and of the rest of their friends that were resident in Algiers, and put out to sea, looking to meet with the second army of the Spanish king, which waited for them about the mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar, which they were of necessity to pass. But coming near to the said strait, it pleased God to raise, at that instant, a very dark and misty fog, so that one ship could not discern another if it were forty paces off, by means whereof, together with the notable fair Eastern winds that then blew most fit for their course, they passed with great speed through the strait, and might have passed, with that good gale, had there been five hundred galleys to withstand them and the air never so clear for every ship to be seen. But yet the Spanish galleys had a sight of them, when they were come within three English miles of the town, and made after them with all possible haste; and although they saw that they were far out of their reach, yet in a vain fury and foolish pride, they shot off their ordnance and made a stir in the sea as if they had been in the midst of them, which vanity of theirs ministered to our men notable matter of pleasure and mirth, seeing men to fight with shadows and to take so great pains to so small purpose. But thus it pleased God to deride and delude all the forces of that proud Spanish king, which he had provided of purpose to distress the English; who, notwithstanding, passed through both his armies--in the one, little hurt, and in the other, nothing touched, to the glory of His immortal name, the honour of our prince and country, and the just commendation of each man's service performed in that voyage. ----- THE UNFORTUNATE VOYAGE MADE WITH THE JESUS, THE MINION, AND FOUR OTHER SHIPS, TO THE PARTS OF GUINEA AND THE WEST INDIES, IN THE YEARS 1567 AND 1568. BY MASTER JOHN HAWKINS. The ships departed from Plymouth the 2nd day of October, anno 1567, and had reasonable weather until the seventh day, at which time, forty leagues north from Cape Finisterre, there arose an extreme storm which continued four days, in such sort that the fleet was dispersed and all our great boats lost, and the Jesus, our chief ship, in such case as not thought able to serve the voyage. Whereupon in the same storm we set our course homeward, determining to give over the voyage; but the 11th day of the same month the wind changed, with fair weather, whereby we were animated to follow our enterprise, and so did, directing our course to the islands of Grand Canaries, where, according to an order before prescribed, all our ships, before dispersed, met in one of those islands, called Gomera, where we took water, and departed from thence the 4th day of November towards the coast of Guinea, and arrived at Cape Verde the 18th of November, where we landed one hundred and fifty men, hoping to obtain some negroes; where we got but few, and those with great hurt and damage to our men, which chiefly proceeded from their envenomed arrows; although in the beginning they seemed to be but small hurts, yet there hardly escaped any that had blood drawn of them but died in strange sort, with their mouths shut, some ten days before they died, and after their wounds were whole; where I myself had one of the greatest wounds, yet, thanks be to God, escaped. From thence we passed the time upon the coast of Guinea, searching with all diligence the rivers from Rio Grande unto Sierra Leone till the 12th of January, in which time we had not gotten together a hundred and fifty negroes: yet, notwithstanding the sickness of our men and the late time of the year commanded us away: and thus having nothing wherewith to seek the coast of the West Indies, I was with the rest of our company in consultation to go to the coast of the Myne, hoping there to have obtained some gold for our wares, and thereby to have defrayed our charge. But even in that present instant there came to us a negro sent from a king oppressed by other kings, his neighbours, desiring our aid, with promise that as many negroes as by these wars might be obtained, as well of his part as of ours, should be at our pleasure. Whereupon we concluded to give aid, and sent one hundred and twenty of our men, which the 15th of January assaulted a town of the negroes of our allies' adversaries which had in it 8,000 inhabitants, and very strongly impaled and fenced after their manner, but it was so well defended that our men prevailed not, but lost six men, and forty hurt, so that our men sent forthwith to me for more help; whereupon, considering that the good success of this enterprise might highly further the commodity of our voyage, I went myself, and with the help of the king of our side assaulted the town, both by land and sea, and very hardly with fire (their houses being covered with dry palm leaves) obtained the town, and put the inhabitants to flight, where we took 250 persons, men, women, and children, and by our friend the king of our side there were taken 600 prisoners, whereof we hoped to have our choice, but the negro (in which nation is seldom or never found truth) meant nothing less; for that night he removed his camp and prisoners, so that we were fain to content us with those few which we had gotten ourselves. Now had we obtained between four and five hundred negroes, wherewith we thought it somewhat reasonable to seek the coast of the West Indies, and there, for our negroes, and other our merchandise, we hoped to obtain whereof to countervail our charges with some gains, whereunto we proceeded with all diligence, furnished our watering, took fuel, and departed the coast of Guinea, the third of February, continuing at the sea with a passage more hard than before hath been accustomed, till the 27th day of March, which day we had sight of an island, called Dominique, upon the coast of the West Indies, in fourteen degrees: from thence we coasted from place to place, making our traffic with the Spaniards as we might, somewhat hardly, because the king had straitly commanded all his governors in those parts by no means to suffer any trade to be made with us; notwithstanding we had reasonable trade, and courteous entertainment, from the Isle of Marguerite and Cartagena, without anything greatly worth the noting, saving at Cape de la Vela, in a town called Rio de la Hacha, from whence come all the pearls. The treasurer who had the charge there would by no means agree to any trade, or suffer us to take water. He had fortified his town with divers bulwarks in all places where it might be entered, and furnished himself with a hundred harquebusiers, so that he thought by famine to have enforced us to have put on land our negroes, of which purpose he had not greatly failed unless we had by force entered the town; which (after we could by no means obtain his favour) we were enforced to do, and so with two hundred men brake in upon their bulwarks, and entered the town with the loss only of eleven men of our parts, and no hurt done to the Spaniards, because after their volley of shot discharged, they all fled. Thus having the town, with some circumstance, as partly by the Spaniards' desire of negroes, and partly by friendship of the treasurer, we obtained a secret trade; whereupon the Spaniards resorted to us by night, and bought of us to the number of two hundred negroes: in all other places where we traded the Spaniards inhabitants were glad of us, and traded willingly. At Cartagena, the last town we thought to have seen on the coast, we could by no means obtain to deal with any Spaniard, the governor was so strait, and because our trade was so near finished, we thought not good either to adventure any landing or to detract further time, but in peace departed from thence the 24th of July, hoping to have escaped the time of their storms, which then soon after began to reign, the which they call Furicanos; but passing by the west end of Cuba, towards the coast of Florida, there happened to us, the twelfth day of August, an extreme storm, which continued by the space of four days, which so beat the Jesus, that we cut down all her higher buildings; her rudder also was sore shaken, and, withal, was in so extreme a leak, that we were rather upon the point to leave her than to keep her any longer; yet, hoping to bring all to good pass, sought the coast of Florida, where we found no place nor haven for our ships, because of the shallowness of the coast. Thus, being in greater despair, and taken with a new storm, which continued other three days, we were enforced to take for our succour the port which serveth the city of Mexico, called St. John de Ullua, which standeth in nineteen degrees, in seeking of which port we took in our way three ships, which carried passengers to the number of one hundred, which passengers we hoped should be a means to us the better to obtain victuals for our money and a quiet place for the repairing of our fleet. Shortly after this, the sixteenth of September, we entered the port of St. John de Ullua, and in our entry, the Spaniards thinking us to be the fleet of Spain, the chief officers of the country came aboard us, which, being deceived of their expectation, were greatly dismayed, but immediately, when they saw our demand was nothing but victuals, were recomforted. I found also in the same port twelve ships, which had in them, by the report, 200,000 livres in gold and silver, all which (being in my possession with the King's island, as also the passengers before in my way thitherward stayed) I set at liberty, without the taking from them the weight of a groat; only, because I would not be delayed of my despatch, I stayed two men of estimation, and sent post immediately to Mexico, which was two hundred miles from us, to the presidents and Council there, showing them of our arrival there by the force of weather, and the necessity of the repair of our ship and victuals, which wants we required, as friends to King Philip, to be furnished of for our money, and that the presidents in council there should, with all convenient speed, take order that at the arrival of the Spanish fleet, which was daily looked for, there might no cause of quarrel rise between us and them, but, for the better maintenance of amity, their commandment might be had in that behalf. This message being sent away the 16th day of September, at night, being the very day of our arrival, in the next morning, which was the sixteenth day of the same month, we saw open of the haven thirteen great ships, and understanding them to be the fleet of Spain, I sent immediately to advertise the general of the fleet of my being there, doing him to understand that, before I would suffer them to enter the port, there should be some order of conditions pass between us for our safe being there and maintenance of peace. Now, it is to be understood that this port is a little island of stones, not three feet above the water in the highest place, and but a bow-shot of length any way. This island standeth from the mainland two bow-shots or more. Also it is to be understood that there is not in all this coast any other place for ships to arrive in safety, because the north wind hath there such violence, that, unless the ships be very safely moored, with their anchors fastened upon this island, there is no remedy for these north winds but death; also, the place of the haven was so little, that of necessity the ships must ride one aboard the other, so that we could not give place to them nor they to us; and here I began to bewail the which after followed: "For now," said I, "I am in two dangers, and forced to receive the one of them." That was, either I must have kept out the fleet from entering the port (the which, with God's help, I was very well able to do), or else suffer them to enter in with their accustomed treason, which they never fail to execute where they may have opportunity, or circumvent it by any means. If I had kept them out, then had there been present shipwreck of all the fleet, which amounted in value to six millions, which was in value of our money 1,800,000 livres, which I considered I was not able to answer, fearing the Queen's Majesty's indignation in so weighty a matter. Thus with myself revolving the doubts, I thought rather better to abide the jutt of the uncertainty than the certainty. The uncertain doubt was their treason, which by good policy I hoped might be prevented; and therefore, as choosing the least mischief, I proceeded to conditions. Now was our first messenger come and returned from the fleet with report of the arrival of a Viceroy, so that he had authority, both in all this province of Mexico (otherwise called Nova Hispania) and in the sea, who sent us word that we should send our conditions, which of his part should (for the better maintenance of amity between the princes) be both favourably granted and faithfully performed, with many fair words how, passing the coast of the Indies, he had understood of our honest behaviour towards the inhabitants, where we had to do as well elsewhere as in the same port, the which I let pass, thus following our demand. We required victual for our money, and licence to sell as much ware as might furnish our wants, and that there might be of either part twelve gentlemen as hostage for the maintenance of peace, and that the island, for our better safety, might be in our own possession during our abode there, and such ordnance as was planted in the same island, which was eleven pieces of brass, and that no Spaniard might land in the island with any kind of weapon. These conditions at the first he somewhat misliked--chiefly the guard of the island to be in our own keeping; which, if they had had, we had soon known our fate; for with the first north wind they had cut our cables, and our ships had gone ashore; but in the end he concluded to our request, bringing the twelve hostages to ten, which with all speed on either part were received, with a writing from the Viceroy, signed with his hand and sealed with his seal, of all the conditions concluded, and forthwith a trumpet blown, with commandment that none of either part should inviolate the peace upon pain of death; and, further, it was concluded that the two generals of the fleet should meet, and give faith each to other for the performance of the promises, which was so done. Thus, at the end of three days, all was concluded, and the fleet entered the port, saluting one another as the manner of the sea doth require. Thus, as I said before, Thursday we entered the port, Friday we saw the fleet, and on Monday, at night, they entered the port; then we laboured two days, placing the English ships by themselves, and the Spanish ships by themselves, the captains of each part, and inferior men of their parts, promising great amity of all sides; which, even as with all fidelity was meant of our part, though the Spanish meant nothing less of their parts, but from the mainland had furnished themselves with a supply of men to the number of one thousand, and meant the next Thursday, being the 23rd of September, at dinner-time, to set upon us of all sides. The same Thursday, the treason being at hand, some appearance showed, as shifting of weapons from ship to ship, planting and bending of ordnance from the ship to the island where our men were, passing to and fro of companies of men more than required for their necessary business, and many other ill likelihoods, which caused us to have a vehement suspicion, and therewithal sent to the Viceroy to inquire what was meant by it, which sent immediately straight commandment to unplant all things suspicious, and also sent word that he, in the faith of a Viceroy, would be our defence from all villainies. Yet we, not being satisfied with this answer, because we suspected a great number of men to be hid in a great ship of nine hundred tons, which was moored next unto the Minion, sent again unto the Viceroy the master of the Jesus, which had the Spanish tongue, and required to be satisfied if any such thing were or not; on which the Viceroy, seeing that the treason must be discovered, forthwith stayed our master, blew the trumpet, and of all sides set upon us. Our men which were on guard ashore, being stricken with sudden fear, gave place, fled, and sought to recover succour of the ships; the Spaniards, being before provided for the purpose, landed in all places in multitudes from their ships, which they could easily do without boats, and slew all our men ashore without mercy, a few of them escaping aboard the Jesus. The great ship which had, by the estimation, three hundred men placed in her secretly, immediately fell aboard the Minion, which, by God's appointment, in the time of the suspicion we had, which was only one half-hour, the Minion was made ready to avoid, and so, loosing her headfasts, and hailing away by the sternfasts, she was gotten out; thus, with God's help, she defended the violence of the first brunt of these three hundred men. The Minion being passed out, they came aboard the Jesus, which also, with very much ado and the loss of many of our men, were defended and kept out. Then were there also two other ships that assaulted the Jesus at the same instant, so that she had hard work getting loose; but yet, with some time, we had cut our headfasts, and gotten out by the sternfasts. Now, when the Jesus and the Minion were gotten two ship-lengths from the Spanish fleet, the fight began hot on all sides, so that within one hour the admiral of the Spaniards was supposed to be sunk, their vice-admiral burned, and one other of their principal ships supposed to be sunk, so that the ships were little to annoy us. Then is it to be understood that all the ordnance upon the island was in the Spaniards' hands, which did us so great annoyance that it cut all the masts and yards of the Jesus in such sort, that there was no hope to carry her away; also it sank our small ships, whereupon we determined to place the Jesus on that side of the Minion, that she might abide all the battery from the land, and so be a defence for the Minion till night, and then to take such relief of victual and other necessaries from the Jesus as the time would suffer us, and to leave her. As we were thus determining, and had placed the Minion from the shot of the land, suddenly the Spaniards had fired two great ships which were coming directly to us, and having no means to avoid the fire, it bred among our men a marvellous fear, so that some said, "Let us depart with the Minion," others said, "Let us see whether the wind will carry the fire from us." But to be short, the Minion's men, which had always their sails in a readiness, thought to make sure work, and so without either consent of the captain or master, cut their sail, so that very hardly I was received into the Minion. The most part of the men that were left alive in the Jesus made shift and followed the Minion in a small boat, the rest, which the little boat was not able to receive, were enforced to abide the mercy of the Spaniards (which I doubt was very little); so with the Minion only, and the Judith (a small barque of fifty tons) we escaped, which barque the same night forsook us in our great misery. We were now removed with the Minion from the Spanish ships two bow-shots, and there rode all that night. The next morning we recovered an island a mile from the Spaniards, where there took us a north wind, and being left only with two anchors and two cables (for in this conflict we lost three cables and two anchors), we thought always upon death, which ever was present, but God preserved us to a longer time. The weather waxed reasonable, and the Saturday we set sail, and having a great number of men and little victual, our hope of life waxed less and less. Some desired to yield to the Spaniards, some rather desired to obtain a place where they might give themselves to the infidels; and some had rather abide, with a little pittance, the mercy of God at sea. So thus, with many sorrowful hearts, we wandered in an unknown sea by the space of fourteen days, till hunger enforced us to seek the land; for hides were thought very good meat; rats, cats, mice, and dogs, none escaped that might be gotten; parrots and monkeys, that were had in great prize, were thought there very profitable if they served the turn of one dinner. Thus in the end, on the 8th day of October, we came to the land in the bottom of the same bay of Mexico, in twenty-three degrees and a half, where we hoped to have found habitations of the Spaniards, relief of victuals, and place for the repair of our ship, which was so sore beaten with shot from our enemies, and bruised with shooting of our own ordnance, that our weary and weak arms were scarce able to defend and keep out the water. But all things happened to the contrary, for we found neither people, victual, nor haven of relief, but a place where, having fair weather, with some peril we might land a boat. Our people, being forced with hunger, desired to be set aland, whereunto I concluded. And such as were willing to land I put apart, and such as were desirous to go homewards I put apart, so that they were indifferently parted, a hundred of one side and a hundred of the other side. These hundred men we set on land with all diligence, in this little place aforesaid, which being landed, we determined there to refresh our water, and so with our little remain of victuals to take the sea. The next day, having on land with me fifty of our hundred men that remained, for the speedier preparing of our water aboard, there arose an extreme storm, so that in three days we could by no means repair our ships. The ship also was in such peril that every hour we looked for shipwreck. But yet God again had mercy on us, and sent fair weather. We got aboard our water, and departed the 16th day of October, after which day we had fair and prosperous weather till the 16th day of November, which day, God be praised, we were clear from the coast of the Indians and out of the channel and gulf of Bahama, which is between the cape of Florida and the islands of Cuba. After this, growing near to the cold country, our men, being oppressed with famine, died continually, and they that were left grew into such weakness that we were scarcely able to manoeuvre our ship, and the wind being always ill for us to recover England, determined to go to Galicia, in Spain, with intent there to relieve our company and other extreme wants. And being arrived the last day of December, in a place near unto Vigo, called Pontevedra, our men, with excess of fresh meat, grew into miserable diseases, and died a great part of them. This matter was borne out as long as it might be, but in the end, although there was none of our men suffered to go on land, yet by access of the Spaniards our feebleness was known to them. Whereupon they ceased not to seek by all means to betray us, but with all speed possible we departed to Vigo, where we had some help of certain English ships, and twelve fresh men, wherewith we repaired our wants as we might, and departing the 30th day of January, 1568, arrived in Mount's Bay in Cornwall the 25th of the same month, praised be God therefore. If all the misery and troublesome affairs of this sorrowful voyage should be perfectly and thoroughly written, there should need a painful man with his pen, and as great time as he had that wrote the "Lives and Deaths of the Martyrs." JOHN HAWKINS. ----- A DISCOURSE WRITTEN BY ONE MILES PHILLIPS, ENGLISHMAN, ONE OF THE COMPANY PUT ASHORE IN THE WEST INDIES BY MASTER JOHN HAWKINS IN THE YEAR 1568, CONTAINING MANY SPECIAL THINGS OF THAT COUNTRY AND OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT, BUT SPECIALLY OF THEIR CRUELTIES USED TO OUR ENGLISHMEN, AND AMONGST THE REST, TO HIMSELF FOR THE SPACE OF FIFTEEN OR SIXTEEN YEARS TOGETHER, UNTIL BY GOOD AND HAPPY MEANS HE WAS DELIVERED FROM THEIR BLOODY HANDS, AND RETURNED TO HIS OWN COUNTRY. ANNO 1582. THE FIRST CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWN THE DAY AND TIME OF OUR DEPARTURE FROM THE COAST OF ENGLAND, WITH THE NUMBER AND NAMES OF THE SHIPS, THEIR CAPTAINS AND MASTERS, AND OF OUR TRAFFIC AND DEALING UPON THE COAST OF AFRICA. Upon Monday, being the 2nd of October, 1567, the weather being reasonable fair, our General, Master John Hawkins, having commanded all his captains and masters to be in a readiness to make sail with him, he himself being embarked in the Jesus, whereof was appointed for master Robert Barret, hoisted sail and departed from Plymouth upon his intended voyage for the parts of Africa and America, being accompanied with five other sail of ships, as namely the Minion, wherein went for captain Master John Hampton, and John Garret, master. The William and John, wherein was Captain Thomas Bolton, and James Raunce, master. The Judith, in whom was Captain Master Francis Drake, now Knight, and the Angel, whose master, as also the captain and master of the Swallow, I now remember not. And so sailing in company together upon our voyage until the 10th of the same month, an extreme storm then took us near unto Cape Finisterre, which lasted for the space of four days, and so separated our ships that we had lost one another, and our General, finding the Jesus to be but in ill case, was in mind to give over the voyage and to return home. Howbeit, the eleventh of the same month, the seas waxing calm and the wind coming fair, he altered his purpose, and held on the former intended voyage; and so coming to the island of Gomera, being one of the islands of the Canaries, where, according to an order before appointed, we met with all our ships which were before dispersed. We then took in fresh water and departed from thence the 4th of November, and holding on our course, upon the 18th day of the same month we came to an anchor upon the coast of Africa, at Cape Verde, in twelve fathoms of water, and here our General landed certain of our men, to the number of 160 or thereabouts, seeking to take some negroes. And they, going up into the country for the space of six miles, were encountered with a great number of the negroes, who with their envenomed arrows did hurt a great number of our men, so that they were enforced to retire to the ships, in which conflict they recovered but a few negroes; and of these our men which were hurt with their envenomed arrows, there died to the number of seven or eight in very strange manner, with their mouths shut, so that we were forced to put sticks and other things into their mouths to keep them open; and so afterwards passing the time upon the coast of Guinea, until the 12th of January, we obtained by that time the number of one hundred and fifty negroes. And being ready to depart from the sea coast, there was a negro sent as an ambassador to our General, from a king of the negroes, which was oppressed with other kings, his bordering kings, desiring our General to grant him succour and aid against those his enemies, which our General granted unto, and went himself in person on land with the number of 200 of our men, or thereabouts, and the said king which had requested our aid, did join his force with ours, so that thereby our General assaulted and set fire upon a town of the said king his enemies, in which there was at the least the number of eight or ten thousand negroes, and they, perceiving that they were not able to make any resistance, sought by flight to save themselves, in which their flight there were taken prisoners to the number of eight or nine hundred, which our General ought to have had for his share; howbeit the negro king, which requested our aid, falsifying his word and promise, secretly in the night conveyed himself away with as many prisoners as he had in his custody; but our General, notwithstanding finding himself to have now very near the number of 500 negroes, thought it best without longer abode to depart with them and such merchandise as he had from the coast of Africa towards the West Indies, and therefore commanded with all diligence to take in fresh water and fuel, and so with speed to prepare to depart. Howbeit, before we departed from thence, in a storm that we had, we lost one of our ships, namely, the William and John, of which ship and her people we heard no tidings during the time of our voyage. THE SECOND CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWED THE DAY AND TIME OF OUR DEPARTURE FROM THE COAST OF AFRICA, WITH THE DAY AND TIME OF OUR ARRIVAL IN THE WEST INDIES, ALSO OF OUR TRADE AND TRAFFIC THERE, AND ALSO OF THE GREAT CRUELTY THAT THE SPANIARDS USED TOWARDS US, BY THE VICEROY HIS DIRECTION AND APPOINTMENT, FALSIFYING HIS FAITH AND PROMISE GIVEN, AND SEEKING TO HAVE ENTRAPPED US. All things being made in a readiness at our General his appointment, upon the 3rd day of February, 1568, we departed from the coast of Africa, having the weather somewhat tempestuous; which made our passage the more hard, and sailing so for the space of twenty-five days, upon the 27th March, 1568, we came in sight of an island called Dominique, upon the coast of America, in the West Indies, situated in fourteen degrees of latitude, and two hundred and twenty-two of longitude. From thence our General coasted from place to place, ever making traffic with the Spaniards and Indians, as he might, which was somewhat hardly obtained, for that the king had straitly charged all his governors in those parts not to trade with any. Yet notwithstanding, during the months of April and May, our General had reasonable trade and traffic, and courteous entertainment in sundry places, as at Marguerite, Corassoa, and elsewhere, until we came to Cape de la Vela, and Rio de la Hacha (a place from whence all the pearls do come). The governor there would not by any means permit us to have any trade or traffic, nor yet suffer us to take in fresh water; by means whereof our General, for the avoiding of famine and thirst, about the beginning of June was enforced to land 200 of our men, and so by main force and strength to obtain that which by no fair means he could procure; and so recovering the town with the loss of two of our men, there was a secret and peaceable trade admitted, and the Spaniards came in by night, and bought of our negroes to the number of 200 and upwards, and of our other merchandise also. From thence we departed for Cartagena, where the governor was so strait that we could not obtain any traffic there, and so for that our trade was near finished, our General thought it best to depart from thence the rather for the avoiding of certain dangerous storms called the huricanoes, which accustomed to begin there about that time of the year, and so the 24th of July, 1568, we departed from thence, directing our course north, leaving the islands of Cuba upon our right hand, to the eastward of us, and so sailing towards Florida, upon the 12th of August an extreme tempest arose, which dured for the space of eight days, in which our ships were most dangerously tossed, and beaten hither and thither, so that we were in continual fear to be drowned, by reason of the shallowness of the coast, and in the end we were constrained to flee for succour to the port of St. John de Ullua, or Vera Cruz, situated in nineteen degrees of latitude, and in two hundred and seventy-nine degrees of longitude, which is the port that serveth for the city of Mexico. In our seeking to recover this port our General met by the way three small ships that carried passengers, which he took with him, and so the 16th of September, 1568, we entered the said port of St. John de Ullua. The Spaniards there, supposing us to have been the King of Spain's fleet, the chief officers of the country thereabouts came presently aboard our General, where perceiving themselves to have made an unwise adventure, they were in great fear to have been taken and stayed; howbeit our General did use them all very courteously. In the said port there were twelve ships, which by report had in them in treasure, to the value of two hundred thousand pounds, all which being in our General his power, and at his devotion, he did freely set at liberty, as also the passengers which he had before stayed, not taking from any of them all the value of one groat, only we stayed two men of credit and account, the one named Don Lorenzo de Alva, and the other Don Pedrode Revera, and presently our General sent to the Viceroy to Mexico, which was threescore leagues off, certifying him of our arrival there by force of weather, desiring that forasmuch as our Queen, his Sovereign, was the King of Spain his loving sister and friend, that therefore he would, considering our necessities and wants, furnish us with victuals for our navy, and quietly to suffer us to repair and amend our ships. And furthermore that at the arrival of the Spanish fleet, which was there daily expected and looked for, to the end that there might no quarrel arise between them and our General and his company for the breach of amity, he humbly requested of his excellency that there might in this behalf some special order be taken. This message was sent away the 16th of September, 1568, it being the very day of our arrival there. The next morning, being the 17th of the same month, we descried thirteen sail of great ships; and after that our General understood that it was the King of Spain's fleet then looked for, he presently sent to advertise the General hereof of our being in the said port, and giving him further to understand, that before he should enter there into that harbour, it was requisite that there should pass between the two Generals some orders and conditions, to be observed on either part, for the better contriving of peace between them and theirs, according to our General's request made unto the Viceroy. And at this instant our General was in a great perplexity of mind, considering with himself that if he should keep out that fleet from entering into the port, a thing which he was very well able to do with the help of God, then should that fleet be in danger of present shipwreck and loss of all their substance, which amounted unto the value of one million and eight hundred thousand crowns. Again, he saw that if he suffered them to enter, he was assured they would practise all manner of means to betray him and his, and on the other side the haven was so little, that the other fleet entering, the ships were to ride one hard aboard of another; also he saw that if their fleet should perish by his keeping them out, as of necessity they must if he should have done so, then stood he in great fear of the Queen our Sovereign's displeasure; in so weighty a cause, therefore, did he choose the least evil, which was to suffer them to enter under assurance, and so to stand upon his guard, and to defend himself and his from their treasons, which we were all assured they would practise, and so the messenger being returned from Don Martine de Henriquez, the new Viceroy, who came in the same fleet, and had sufficient authority to command in all cases both by sea and land in this province of Mexico or New Spain, did certify our General, that for the better maintenance of amity between the King of Spain and our Sovereign, all our requests should be both favourably granted and faithfully performed; signifying further that he heard and understood of the honest and friendly dealing of our General towards the King of Spain's subjects in all places where he had been, as also in the said port; so that to be brief our requests were articled and set down in writing, viz.-- 1. The first was that we might have victuals for our money and license to sell as much wares as might suffice to furnish our wants. 2. The second, that we might be suffered peaceably to repair our ships. 3. The third, that the island might be in our possession during the time of our abode there, in which island our General, for the better safety of him and his, had already planted and placed certain ordnance, which were eleven pieces of brass; therefore he required that the same might so continue, and that no Spaniard should come to land in the said island having or wearing any kind of weapon about him. 4. The fourth and the last, that for the better and more sure performance and maintenance of peace, and of all the conditions, there might twelve gentlemen of credit be delivered of either part as hostages. These conditions were concluded and agreed upon in writing by the Viceroy and signed with his hand, and sealed with his seal, and ten hostages upon either part were received. And farther, it was concluded that the two Generals should meet and give faith each to other for the performance of the promises. All which being done, the same was proclaimed by the sound of a trumpet, and commandment was given that none of either part should violate or break the peace upon pain of death. Thus, at the end of three days all was concluded, and the fleet entered the port, the ships saluting each other as the manner of the seas doth require. The morrow after being Friday, we laboured on all sides in placing the English ships by themselves and the Spanish ships by themselves; the captains and inferior persons of either part offering and showing great courtesy one to another, and promising great amity upon all sides. Howbeit, as the sequel showed, the Spaniards meant nothing less upon their parts. For the Viceroy and the governor thereabout had secretly on land assembled to the number of one thousand chosen men, and well appointed, meaning the next Thursday, being the 24th of September, at dinner time to assault us, and set upon us on all sides. But before I go any further, I think it not amiss briefly to describe the manner of the island as it then was, and the force and strength that it is now of. For the Spaniards, since the time of our General's being there, for the better fortifying of the same place, have upon the same island built a fair castle and bulwark very well fortified; this port was then, at our being there, a little island of stones, not past three foot above water in the highest place, and not past a bow's shot over any way at the most, and it standeth from the mainland two bow-shots or more, and there is not in all this coast any other place for ships safely to arrive at; also the north winds in this coast are of great violence and force, and unless the ships be safely moored in, with their anchors fastened in this island, there is no remedy, but present destruction and shipwreck. All this our General, wisely foreseeing, did provide that he would have the said island in his custody, or else the Spaniards might at their pleasure have but cut our cables, and so with the first north wind that blew we had had our passport, for our ships had gone ashore. But to return to the matter. The time approaching that their treason must be put in practice, the same Thursday morning, some appearance thereof began to show itself, as shifting of weapons from ship to ship, and planting and bending their ordnance against our men that warded upon the land with great repair of people; which apparent shows of breach of the Viceroy's faith caused our General to send one to the Viceroy to inquire of him what was meant thereby, who presently sent and gave order that the ordnance aforesaid and other things of suspicion should be removed, returning answer to our General in the faith of a Viceroy that he would be our defence and safety from all villainous treachery. This was upon Thursday, in the morning. Our General not being therewith satisfied, seeing they had secretly conveyed a great number of men aboard a great hulk or ship of theirs of nine hundred tons, which ship rode hard by the Minion, he sent again to the Viceroy Robert Barret, the master of the Jesus--a man that could speak the Spanish tongue very well, and required that those men might be unshipped again which were in that great hulk. The Viceroy then perceiving that their treason was thoroughly espied, stayed our master and sounded the trumpet, and gave order that his people should upon all sides charge upon our men which warded on shore and elsewhere, which struck such a maze and sudden fear among us, that many gave place and sought to recover our ships for the safety of themselves. The Spaniards, which secretly were hid in ambush on land, were quickly conveyed over to the island in their long boats, and so coming to the island they slew all our men that they could meet with without any mercy. The Minion--which had somewhat before prepared herself to avoid the danger--hailed away, and abode the first brunt of the three hundred men that were in the great hulk; then they sought to fall aboard the Jesus, where was a cruel fight, and many of our men slain; but yet our men defended themselves, and kept them out: so the Jesus also got loose, and, joining with the Minion, the fight waxed hot upon all sides; but they having won and got our ordnance on shore, did greatly annoy us. In this fight there were two great ships of the Spaniards sunk and one burnt, so that with their ships they were not able to harm us; but from the shore they beat us cruelly with our own ordnance in such sort that the Jesus was very sore spoiled, and suddenly the Spaniards, having fired two great ships of their own, came directly against us; which bred among our men a marvellous fear. Howbeit, the Minion, which had made her sails ready, shifted for herself without consent of the General, captain, or master, so that very hardly our General could be received into the Minion; the most of our men that were in the Jesus shifted for themselves, and followed the Minion in the boat, and those which that small boat was not able to receive were most cruelly slain by the Spaniards. Of our ships none escaped save the Minion and the Judith, and all such of our men as were not in them were enforced to abide the tyrannous cruelty of the Spaniards. For it is a certain truth, that whereas they had taken certain of our men at shore, they took and hung them up by the arms upon high posts until the blood burst out of their fingers' ends; of which men so used there is one Copstowe and certain others yet alive, who, through the merciful Providence of the Almighty, were long since arrived here at home in England, carrying still about with them (and shall to their graves) the marks and tokens of those their inhuman and more than barbarous cruel dealing. THE THIRD CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWED HOW THAT, AFTER WE WERE ESCAPED FROM THE SPANIARDS, WE WERE LIKE TO PERISH WITH FAMINE AT THE SEA, AND HOW OUR GENERAL, FOR THE AVOIDING THEREOF, WAS CONSTRAINED TO PUT HALF OF HIS MEN ON LAND, AND WHAT MISERIES WE AFTER THAT SUSTAINED AMONGST THE SAVAGE PEOPLE, AND HOW WE FELL AGAIN INTO THE HANDS OF THE SPANIARDS. After that the Viceroy, Don Martin Henriques, had thus contrary to his faith and promise most cruelly dealt with our General, Master Hawkins, at St. John de Ullua, where most of his men were by the Spaniards slain and drowned, and all his ships sunk and burnt, saving the Minion and the Judith, which was a small barque of fifty tons, wherein was then captain Master Francis Drake aforesaid; the same night the said barque was lost us, we being in great necessity and enforced to move with the Minion two bow-shots from the Spanish fleet, where we anchored all that night; and the next morning we weighed anchor and recovered an island a mile from the Spaniards, where a storm took us with a north wind, in which we were greatly distressed, having but two cables and two anchors left; for in the conflict before we had lost three cables and two anchors. The morrow after, the storm being ceased and the weather fair, we weighed and set sail, being many men in number and but small store of victuals to suffice us for any long time; by means whereof we were in despair and fear that we should perish through famine, so that some were in mind to yield themselves to the mercy of the Spaniards, other some to the savages or infidels, and wandering thus certain days in these unknown seas, hunger constrained us to eat hides, cats and dogs, mice, rats, parrots, and monkeys, to be short, our hunger was so great that we thought it savoury and sweet whatsoever we could get to eat. And on the 8th of October we came to land again, in the bottom of the Bay of Mexico, where we hoped to have found some inhabitants, that we might have had some relief of victuals and a place where to repair our ship, which was so greatly bruised that we were scarce able, with our weary arms, to keep out the water. Being thus oppressed, by famine on the one side and danger of drowning on the other, not knowing where to find relief, we began to be in wonderful despair. And we were of many minds, amongst whom there were a great many that did desire our General to set them on land, making their choice rather to submit themselves to the mercy of the savages or infidels than longer to hazard themselves at sea, where they very well saw that if they should all remain together, if they perished not by drowning, yet hunger would enforce them, in the end, to eat one another. To which request our General did very willingly agree, considering with himself that it was necessary for him to lessen his number, both for the safety of himself and the rest. And, thereupon, being resolved to set half his people on shore that he had then left alive, it was a world to see how suddenly men's minds were altered, for they which a little before desired to be set on land were now of another mind, and requested rather to stay, by means whereof our General was enforced, for the more contenting of all men's minds, and to take away all occasions of offence, to take this order: first he made choice of such persons of service and account as were needful to stay, and that being done, of those which were willing to go, he appointed such as he thought might be best spared, and presently appointed that by the boat they should be set on shore, our General promising us that the next year he would either come himself or else send to fetch us home. Here, again, it would have caused any stony heart to have relented to hear the pitiful moan that many did make, and how loth they were to depart. The weather was then somewhat stormy and tempestuous, and therefore we were in great danger, yet, notwithstanding there was no remedy, but we that were appointed to go away must of necessity do so. Howbeit, those that went in the first boat were safely set ashore, but of them which went in the second boat, of which number I myself was one, the seas wrought so high that we could not attain to the shore, and therefore we were constrained--through the cruel dealing of John Hampton, captain of the Minion, and John Sanders, boatswain of the Jesus, and Thomas Pollard, his mate--to leap out of the boat into the main sea, having more than a mile to shore, and, so to shift for ourselves, and either to sink or swim. And of those that so were, as it were, thrown out and compelled to leap into the sea, there were two drowned, which were of Captain Bland's men. In the evening of the same day--it being Monday, the 8th of October, 1568--when we were all come to shore, we found fresh water, whereof some of our men drank so much that they had almost cast themselves away, for we could scarce get life in them for the space of two or three hours after. Other some were so cruelly swollen--what with the drinking in of the salt water, and what with the eating of the fruit which we found on land, having a stone in it much like an almond, which fruit is called capule--that they were all in very ill case, so that we were, in a manner, all of us, both feeble, weak, and faint. The next morning--it being Tuesday, the 9th of October--we thought it best to travel along by the sea coast, to seek out some place of habitation--whether they were Christians or savages we were indifferent--so that we might have wherewithal to sustain our hungry bodies, and so departing from a hill where we had rested all night, not having any dry thread about us, for those that were not wet being thrown into the sea were thoroughly wet with rain, for all the night it rained cruelly. As we went from the hill, and were come into the plain, we were greatly troubled to pass for the grass and woods, that grew there higher than any man. On the left hand we had the sea, and upon the right hand great woods, so that of necessity we must needs pass on our way westward through those marshes, and going thus, suddenly we were assaulted by the Indians, a warlike kind of people, which are in a manner as cannibals, although they do not feed upon man's flesh as cannibals do. These people are called Chichemici, and they used to wear their hair long, even down to their knees; they do also colour their faces green, yellow, red, and blue, which maketh them to seem very ugly and terrible to behold. These people do keep wars against the Spaniards, of whom they have been oftentimes very cruelly handled: for with the Spaniards there is no mercy. They, perceiving us at our first coming on land, supposed us to have been their enemies the bordering Spaniards; and having, by their forerunners, descried what number we were, and how feeble and weak, without armour or weapon, they suddenly, according to their accustomed manner when they encounter with any people in warlike sort, raised a terrible and huge cry, and so came running fiercely upon us, shooting off their arrows as thick as hail, unto whose mercy we were constrained to yield, not having amongst us any kind of armour, nor yet weapon, saving one caliver and two old rusty swords, whereby to make any resistance or to save ourselves; which, when they perceived that we sought not any other than favour and mercy at their hands, and that we were not their enemies the Spaniards, they had compassion on us, and came and caused us all to sit down. And when they had a while surveyed, and taken a perfect view of us, they came to all such as had any coloured clothes amongst us, and those they did strip stark naked, and took their clothes away with them; but they that were apparelled in black they did not meddle withal, and so went their ways and left us, without doing us any further hurt, only in the first brunt they killed eight of our men. And at our departure they, perceiving in what weak case we were, pointed us with their hands which way we should go to come to a town of the Spaniards, which, as we afterwards perceived, was not past ten leagues from thence, using these words: "Tampeco, tampeco, Christiano, tampeco, Christiano," which is as much (we think) as to say in English, "Go that way, and you shall find the Christians." The weapons that they use are no other but bows and arrows, and their aim is so good that they very seldom miss to hit anything that they shoot at. Shortly after they had left us stripped, as aforesaid, we thought it best to divide ourselves into two companies, and so, being separated, half of us went under the leading one of Anthony Goddard, who is yet alive, and dwelleth at this instant in the town of Plymouth, whom before we chose to be captain over us all. And those that went under his leading, of which number I, Miles Phillips, was one, travelled westward--that way which the Indians with their hands had before pointed us to go. The other half went under the leading of one John Hooper, whom they did choose for their captain, and with the company that went with him David Ingram was one, and they took their way and travelled northward. And shortly after, within the space of two days, they were again encountered by the savage people, and their Captain Hooper and two more of his company were slain. Then again they divided themselves; and some held on their way still northward, and other some, knowing that we were gone westward, sought to meet with us again, as, in truth, there was about the number of five-and-twenty or six-and-twenty of them that met with us in the space of four days again. And then we began to reckon amongst ourselves how many we were that were set on shore, and we found the number to be an hundred and fourteen, whereof two were drowned in the sea and eight were slain at the first encounter, so that there remained an hundred and four, of which five-and-twenty went westward with us, and two-and-fifty to the north with Hooper and Ingram; and, as Ingram since has often told me, there were not past three of their company slain, and there were but five-and-twenty of them that came again to us, so that of the company that went northward there is yet lacking, and not certainly heard of, the number of three-and-twenty men. And verily I do think that there are of them yet alive and married in the said country, at Sibola, as hereafter I do purpose (God willing) to discourse of more particularly, with the reasons and causes that make me so to think of them that were lacking, which were with David Ingram, Twide, Browne, and sundry others, whose names we could not remember. And being thus met again together we travelled on still westward, sometimes through such thick woods that we were enforced with cudgels to break away the brambles and bushes from tearing our naked bodies; other sometimes we should travel through the plains in such high grass that we could scarce see one another. And as we passed in some places we should have of our men slain, and fall down suddenly, being stricken by the Indians, which stood behind trees and bushes, in secret places, and so killed our men as they went by; for we went scatteringly in seeking of fruits to relieve ourselves. We were also oftentimes greatly annoyed with a kind of fly, which, in the Indian tongue, is called tequani; and the Spaniards call them musketas. There are also in the said country a number of other kind of flies, but none so noisome as these tequanies be. You shall hardly see them, they be so small: for they are scarce so big as a gnat. They will suck one's blood marvellously, and if you kill them while they are sucking they are so venomous that the place will swell extremely, even as one that is stung with a wasp or bee. But if you let them suck their fill, and to go away of themselves, then they do you no other hurt, but leave behind them a red spot somewhat bigger than a flea biting. At the first we were terribly troubled with these kind of flies, not knowing their qualities; and resistance we could make none against them, being naked. As for cold, we feared not any: the country there is always so warm. And as we travelled thus for the space of ten or twelve days, our captain did oftentimes cause certain to go up into the tops of high trees, to see if they could descry any town or place of inhabitants, but they could not perceive any, and using often the same order to climb up into high trees, at the length they descried a great river, that fell from the north-west into the main sea; and presently after we heard an harquebuse shot off, which did greatly encourage us, for thereby we knew that we were near to some Christians, and did therefore hope shortly to find some succour and comfort; and within the space of one hour after, as we travelled, we heard a cock crow, which was also no small joy unto us; and so we came to the north side of the river of Panuco, where the Spaniards have certain salines, at which place it was that the harquebuse was shot off which before we heard; to which place we went not directly, but, missing thereof, we left it about a bow-shot upon our left hand. Of this river we drank very greedily, for we had not met with any water in six days before; and, as we were here by the river's side, resting ourselves, and longing to come to the place where the cock did crow and where the harquebuse was shot off, we perceived many Spaniards upon the other side of the river riding up and down on horseback, and they, perceiving us, did suppose that we had been of the Indians, their bordering enemies, the Chichemici. The river was not more than half a bow-shot across, and presently one of the Spaniards took an Indian boat, called a canoa, and so came over, being rowed by two Indians; and, having taken the view of us, did presently row over back again to the Spaniards, who without any delay made out about the number of twenty horsemen, and embarking themselves in the canoas, they led their horses by the reins, swimming over after them; and being come over to that side of the river where we were, they saddled their horses, and being mounted upon them, with their lances charged, they came very fiercely running at us. Our captain, Anthony Goddard, seeing them come in that order, did persuade us to submit and yield ourselves unto them, for being naked, as we at this time were, and without weapon, we could not make any resistance--whose bidding we obeyed; and upon the yielding of ourselves, they perceived us to be Christians, and did call for more canoas, and carried us over by four and four in a boat; and being come on the other side, they understanding by our captain how long we had been without meat, imparted between two and two a loaf of bread made of that country wheat, which the Spaniards called maize, of the bigness of one of our halfpenny loaves, which bread is named in the Indian tongue clashacally. This bread was very sweet and pleasant to us, for we had not eaten any for a long time before; and what is it that hunger doth not make to have a savoury and delicate taste? Having thus imparted the bread amongst us, those which were men they sent afore to the town, having also many Indians, inhabitants of that place, to guard them. They which were young, as boys, and some such also as were feeble, they took up upon their horses behind them, and so carried us to the town where they dwelt, which was distant very near a mile from the place where we came over. This town is well situated, and well replenished with all kinds of fruits, as pomegranates, oranges, lemons, apricots, and peaches, and sundry others, and is inhabited by a great number of tame Indians, or Mexicans, and had in it also at that time about the number of two hundred Spaniards, men, women, and children, besides negroes. Of their salines, which lie upon the west side of the river, more than a mile distant from thence, they make a great profit, for it is an excellent good merchandise there. The Indians do buy much thereof, and carry it up into the country, and there sell it to their own country people, in doubling the price. Also, much of the salt made in this place is transported from thence by sea to sundry other places, as to Cuba, St. John de Ullua, and the other ports of Tamiago, and Tamachos, which are two barred havens west and by south above threescore leagues from St. John de Ullua. When we were all come to the town, the governor there showed himself very severe unto us, and threatened to hang us all; and then he demanded what money we had, which in truth was very little, for the Indians which we first met withal had in a manner taken all from us, and of that which they left the Spaniards which brought us over took away a good part also; howbeit, from Anthony Goddard the governor here had a chain of gold, which was given unto him at Cartagena by the governor there, and from others he had some small store of money; so that we accounted that amongst us all he had the number of five hundred pezoes, besides the chain of gold. And having thus satisfied himself, when he had taken all that we had, he caused us to be put into a little house, much like a hog sty, where we were almost smothered; and before we were thus shut up into that little cote, they gave us some of the country wheat called maize sodden, which they feed their hogs withal. But many of our men which had been hurt by the Indians at our first coming on land, whose wounds were very sore and grievous, desired to have the help of their surgeons to cure their wounds. The governor, and most of them all, answered, that we should have none other surgeon but the hangman, which should sufficiently heal us of all our griefs; and they, thus reviling us, and calling us English dogs and Lutheran heretics, we remained the space of three days in this miserable state, not knowing what should become of us, waiting every hour to be bereaved of our lives. THE FOURTH CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWED HOW WE WERE USED IN PANUCO, AND IN WHAT FEAR OF DEATH WE WERE THERE, AND HOW WE WERE CARRIED TO MEXICO TO THE VICEROY, AND OF OUR IMPRISONMENT THERE AND AT TESCUCO, WITH THE COURTESIES AND CRUELTIES WE RECEIVED DURING THAT TIME, AND HOW IN THE END WE WERE BY PROCLAMATION GIVEN TO SERVE AS SLAVES TO SUNDRY GENTLEMEN SPANIARDS. Upon the fourth day after our coming thither, and there remaining in a perplexity, looking every hour when we should suffer death, there came a great number of Indians and Spaniards armed to fetch us out of the house, and amongst them we espied one that brought a great many new halters, at the sight whereof we were greatly amazed, and made no other account but that we should presently have suffered death; and so, crying and calling to God for mercy and for forgiveness of our sins, we prepared ourselves to die; yet in the end, as the sequel showed, their meaning was not so; for when we were come out of the house, with those halters they bound our arms behind us, and so coupling us two and two together, they commanded us to march on through the town, and so along the country from place to place toward the city of Mexico, which is distant from Panuco west and by south the space of threescore leagues, having only but two Spaniards to conduct us, they being accompanied with a great number of Indians, warding on either side with bows and arrows, lest we should escape from them. And travelling in this order, upon the second day, at night, we came unto a town which the Indians call Nohele, and the Spaniards call it Santa Maria, in which town there is a house of White Friars, which did very courteously use us, and gave us hot meat, as mutton and broth, and garments also to cover ourselves withal, made of white baize. We fed very greedily of the meat and of the Indian fruit, called nochole, which fruit is long and small, much like in fashion to a little cucumber. Our greedy feeding caused us to fall sick of hot burning agues; and here at this place one Thomas Baker, one of our men, died of a hurt, for he had been before shot with an arrow into the throat at the first encounter. The next morrow, about ten of the clock, we departed from thence, bound two and two together, and guarded as before, and so travelled on our way toward Mexico, till we came to a town within forty leagues of Mexico named Mesticlan, where is a house of Black Friars, and in this town there are about the number of three hundred Spaniards, both men, women, and children. The friars sent us meat from the house ready dressed, and the friars and men and women used us very courteously, and gave us some shirts and other such things as we lacked. Here our men were very sick of their agues, and with eating of another fruit, called in the Indian tongue, Guiaccos, which fruit did bind us sore. The next morning we departed from thence with our two Spaniards and Indian guard as aforesaid. Of these two Spaniards the one was an aged man, who all the way did very courteously entreat us, and would carefully go before to provide for us both meat and things necessary to the uttermost of his power. The other was a young man, who all the way travelled with us, and never departed from us, who was a very cruel caitiff, and he carried a javelin in his hand, and sometimes when as our men with very feebleness and faintness were not able to go so fast as he required them, he would take his javelin in both his hands and strike them with the same between the neck and the shoulders so violently that he would strike them down, then would he cry and say: "Marches, marches, Engleses perros, Luterianos, enemicos de Dios;" which is as much to say in English, "March, march on you English dogs, Lutherans, enemies to God." And the next day we came to a town called Pachuca, and there are two places of that name, as this town of Pachuca, and the mines of Pachuca, which are mines of silver, and are about six leagues distant from this town of Pachuca towards the north-west. Here at this town the good old man our governor suffered us to stay two days and two nights, having compassion of our sick and weak men, full sore against the mind of the young man his companion. From thence we took our journey, and travelled four or five days by little villages and Stantias, which are farms or dairy houses of the Spaniards, and ever as we had need the good old man would still provide us sufficient of meats, fruits, and water to sustain us. At the end of which five days we came to a town within five leagues of Mexico, which is called Quoghliclan, where we also stayed one whole day and two nights, where was a fair house of Grey Friars, howbeit, we saw none of them. Here we were told by the Spaniards in the town that we had not more than fifteen English miles from thence to Mexico, whereof we were all very joyful and glad, hoping that when we came thither we should either be relieved and set free out of bonds, or else be quickly despatched out of our lives; for seeing ourselves thus carried bound from place to place, although some used us courteously, yet could we never joy nor be merry till we might perceive ourselves set free from that bondage, either by death or otherwise. The next morning we departed from thence on our journey towards Mexico, and so travelled till we came within two leagues of it, where there was built by the Spaniards a very fair church, called Our Lady Church, in which there is an image of Our Lady of silver and gilt, being as high and as large as a tall woman, in which church, and before this image, there are as many lamps of silver as there be days in the year, which upon high days are all lighted. Whensoever any Spaniards pass by this church, although they be on horseback, they will alight and come into the church, and kneel before this image, and pray to Our Lady to defend them from all evil; so that whether he be horseman or footman he will not pass by, but first go into the church and pray as aforesaid, which if they do not, they think and believe that they shall never prosper, which image they call in the Spanish tongue Nostra Signora de Guadaloupe. At this place there are certain cold baths, which arise, springing up as though the water did seethe, the water whereof is somewhat brackish in taste, but very good for any that have any sore or wound to wash themselves therewith, for as they say, it healeth many; and every year once upon Our Lady Day, the people used to repair thither to offer and to pray in that church before the image, and they say that Our Lady of Guadaloupe doth work a number of miracles. About this church there is not any town of Spaniards that is inhabited, but certain Indians do dwell there in houses of their own country building. Here we were met by a great number of Spaniards on horseback, which came from Mexico to see us, both gentlemen and men of occupations, and they came as people to see a wonder; we were still called upon to march on, and so about four of the clock in the afternoon of the said day, we entered into the city of Mexico by the way or street called La Calia Sancta Catherina; and we stayed not in any place till we came to the house or palace of the Viceroy, Don Martin Henriques, which standeth in the middest of the city, hard by the market place called La Placa dell Marquese. We had not stayed any long time at this place, but there was brought us by the Spaniards from the market place great store of meat, sufficient to have satisfied five times so many as we were; some also gave us hats, and some gave us money; in which place we stayed for the space of two hours, and from thence we were conveyed by water into large canoas to a hospital, where certain of our men were lodged, which were taken before the fight at St. John de Ullua. We should have gone to Our Lady's Hospital, but that there were also so many of our men taken before at that fight that there was no room for us. After our coming thither, many of the company that came with me from Panuco died within the space of fourteen days; soon after which time we were taken forth from that place and put all together into Our Lady's Hospital, in which place we were courteously used, and visited oftentimes by virtuous gentlemen and gentlewomen of the city, who brought us divers things to comfort us withal, as succats and marmalades and such other things, and would also many times give us many things, and that very liberally. In which hospital we remained for the space of six months, until we were all whole and sound of body, and then we were appointed by the Viceroy to be carried unto the town of Tescuco, which is distant from Mexico south-west eight leagues; in which town there are certain houses of correction and punishment for ill people called obraches, like to Bridewell here in London; in which place divers Indians are sold for slaves, some for ten years and some for twelve. It was no small grief unto us when we understood that we should be carried thither, and to be used as slaves; we had rather be put to death, howbeit there was no remedy, but we were carried to the prison of Tescuco, where we were not put to any labour, but were very straightly kept and almost famished, yet by the good providence of our merciful God, we happened there to meet with one Robert Sweeting, who was the son of an Englishman born of a Spanish woman; this man could speak very good English, and by his means we were holpen very much with victuals from the Indians, as mutton, hens, and bread. And if we had not been so relieved we had surely perished; and yet all the provision that we had gotten that way was but slender. And continuing thus straightly kept in prison there for the space of two months, at the length we agreed amongst ourselves to break forth of prison, come of it what would, for we were minded rather to suffer death than longer to live in that miserable state. And so having escaped out of prison, we knew not what way to fly for the safety of ourselves; the night was dark, and it rained terribly, and not having any guide, we went we knew not whither, and in the morning at the appearing of the day, we perceived ourselves to be come hard to the city of Mexico, which is four and twenty English miles from Tescuco. The day being come, we were espied by the Spaniards, and pursued, and taken, and brought before the Viceroy and head justices, who threatened to hang us for breaking of the king's prison. Yet in the end they sent us into a garden belonging to the Viceroy, and coming thither, we found there our English gentlemen which were delivered as hostages when as our General was betrayed at St. John de Ullua, as is aforesaid, and with them we also found Robert Barret, the master of the Jesus, in which place we remained, labouring and doing such things as we were commanded for the space of four months, having but two sheep a day allowed to suffice us all, being very near a hundred men; and for bread, we had every man two loaves a day of the quantity of one halfpenny loaf. At the end of which four months, they having removed our gentlemen hostages and the master of the Jesus to a prison in the Viceroy his own house, did cause it to be proclaimed, that what gentleman Spaniard soever was willing, or would have any Englishman to serve him, and be bound to keep him forthcoming to appear before the justices within one month after notice given, that they should repair to the said garden, and there take their choice; which proclamation was no sooner made but the gentlemen came and repaired to the garden amain, so that happy was he that could soonest get one of us. THE FIFTH CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWED IN WHAT GOOD SORT AND HOW WEALTHILY WE LIVED WITH OUR MASTERS UNTIL THE COMING OF THE INQUISITION, WHEN AS AGAIN, OUR SORROWS BEGAN AFRESH; OF OUR IMPRISONMENT IN THE HOLY HOUSE, AND OF THE SEVERE JUDGMENT AND SENTENCES GIVEN AGAINST US, AND WITH WHAT RIGOUR AND CRUELTY THE SAME WERE EXECUTED. The gentlemen that thus took us for their servants or slaves, did new apparel us throughout, with whom we abode doing such service as they appointed us unto, which was for the most part to attend upon them at the table, and to be as their chamberlains, and to wait upon them when they went abroad, which they greatly accounted of, for in that country no Spaniard will serve one another, but they are all of them attended and served by Indians weekly, and by negroes which be their slaves during their life. In this sort we remained and served in the said city of Mexico and thereabouts for the space of a year and somewhat longer. Afterwards many of us were by our masters appointed to go to sundry of their mines where they had to do, and to be as overseers of the negroes and Indians that laboured there. In which mines many of us did profit and gain greatly; for first we were allowed three hundred pezoes a man for a year, which is three score pounds sterling, and besides that the Indians and negroes which wrought under our charge, upon our well using and entreating of them, would at times as upon Saturdays when they had left work labour for us, and blow as much silver as should be worth unto us three marks or thereabouts, every mark being worth six pezoes and a half of their money, which nineteen pezoes and a half, is worth four livres, ten shillings of our money. Sundry weeks we did gain so much by this means besides our wages, that many of us became very rich, and were worth three thousand or four thousand pezoes, for we lived and gained thus in those mines some three or four years. As concerning those gentlemen which were delivered as hostages, and that were kept in prison in the Viceroy his house, after that we were gone from out the garden to serve sundry gentlemen as aforesaid, they remained prisoners in the said house, for the space of four months after their coming thither, at the end whereof the fleet, being ready to depart from St. John de Ullua to go for Spain, the said gentlemen were sent away into Spain with the fleet, where I have heard it credibly reported, many of them died with the cruel handling of the Spaniards in the Inquisition house, as those which have been delivered home after they had suffered the persecution of that house can more perfectly declare. Robert Barret also, master of the Jesus, was sent away with the fleet into Spain the next year following, whereafter he suffered persecution in the Inquisition, and at the last was condemned to be burnt, and with him three or four more of our men, of whom one was named Gregory and another John Browne, whom I knew, for they were of our general his musicians, but the names of the rest that suffered with them I know not. Now after that six years there fully expired since our first coming into the Indies in which time we had been imprisoned and served in the said countries, as is before truly declared in the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred and seventy four, the Inquisition began to be established in the Indies very much against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves, for never until this time since their first conquering and planting in the Indies, were they subject to that bloody and cruel Inquisition. The chief Inquisitor was named Don Pedro Moya de Contreres, and John de Bouilla his companion, and John Sanchis the Fischall, and Pedro de la Rios, the Secretary, they being come and settled, and placed in a very fair house, near unto the White Friars, considering with themselves that they must make an entrance and beginning of that their most detestable Inquisition here in Mexico to the terror of the whole country, thought it best to call us that were Englishmen first in question, and so much the rather for that they had perfect knowledge and intelligence, that many of us were become very rich as hath been already declared, and therefore we were a very great booty and prey to the Inquisitors, so that now again began our sorrows afresh, for we were sent for, and sought out in all places of the country, and proclamation made upon pain of losing of goods, and excommunication that no man should hide or keep secret any Englishman or any part of their goods. By means whereof we were all soon apprehended in all places, and all our goods seized and taken for the Inquisitors' use, and so from all parts of the country we were conveyed and sent as prisoners to the city of Mexico, and there committed to prison in sundry dark dungeons where we could not see but by candlelight, and were never more than two together in one place so that we saw not one another, neither could one of us tell what was become of another. Thus we remained close imprisoned for the space of a year and a half, and others for some less time, for they came to prison ever as they were apprehended. During which time of our imprisonment at the first beginning we were often called before the Inquisitors alone, and there severely examined of our faith, and commanded to say the pater noster, the Ave Maria, and the creed in Latin, which God knoweth a great number of us could not say otherwise than in the English tongue. And having the said Robert Sweeting who was our friend at Tescuco always present with them for an interpreter he made report for us in our own country speech we could say them perfectly, although not word for word as they were in Latin. Then did they proceed to demand of us upon our oaths what we did believe of the sacrament, and whether there did remain any bread or wine after the words of consecration, yea or no, and whether we did not believe that the Host of bread which the priest did hold up over his head, and the wine that was in the chalice, was the very true and perfect body and blood of our Saviour Christ, yea or no, to which if we answered not yea, then was there no way but death. Then would they demand of us what we did remember of ourselves, what opinions we had held or had been taught to hold, contrary to the same whiles we were in England; to which we for the safety of our lives were constrained to say that we never did believe, nor had been taught otherwise than as before we had said. Then would they charge us that we did not tell them the truth, that we knew to the contrary, and therefore we should call ourselves to remembrance and make them a better answer at the next time or else we should be racked and made to confess the truth whether we would or no. And so coming again before them the next time, we were still demanded of our belief whiles we were in England, and how we had been taught, and also what we thought or did know of such of our company as they did name unto us, so that we could never be free from such demands, and at other times they would promise us that if we would tell them the truth, then should we have favour and be set at liberty, although we very well knew their fair speeches were but means to entrap us to the hazard and loss of our lives; howbeit God so mercifully wrought for us by a secret means that we had that we kept us still to our first answer, and would still say that we had told the truth unto them, and knew no more by ourselves nor any other of our fellows than as we had declared, and that for our sins and offences in England against God and our Lady, or any of His blessed saints, we were heartily sorry for the same, and did cry God mercy, and besought the Inquisitors, for God's sake, considering that we came into those countries by force of weather, and against our wills, and that never in all our lives we had either spoken or done anything contrary to their laws, that therefore they would have mercy on us, yet all this would not serve, for still from time to time we were called upon to confess, and about the space of three months, before they proceeded to their severe Judgment, we were all racked, and some enforced to utter that against themselves which afterwards cost them their lives. And thus having gotten from our own mouths matter sufficient for them to proceed in judgment against us, they caused a large scaffold to be made in the midst of the market-place in Mexico, right over against the head church, and fourteen or fifteen days before the day of their judgment, with the sound of a trumpet, and the noise of their attabalies, which are a kind of drums, they did assemble the people in all parts of the city, before whom it was then solemnly proclaimed that whosoever would upon such a day, repair to the marketplace, they should hear the sentence of the Holy Inquisition against the English heretic Lutherans, and also see the same put in execution. Which being done, and the time approaching of this cruel judgment, the night before they came to the prison where we were, with certain officers of that holy hellish house, bringing with them certain fools' coats which they had prepared for us, being called in their language St. Benitos, which coats were made of yellow cotton and red crosses upon them, both before and behind; they were so busied in putting on their coats about us and in bringing us out into a large yard, and placing and pointing us in what order we should go to the scaffold or place of judgment upon the morrow, that they did not once suffer us to sleep all that night long. The next morning being come, there was given to every one of us for our breakfast, a cup of wine, and a slice of bread fried in honey, and so about eight of the clock in the morning, we set forth of the prison, every man alone in his yellow coat and a rope about his neck, and a great green wax candle in his hand unlighted, having a Spaniard appointed to go upon either side of every one of us; and so marching in this order and manner towards the scaffold in the market-place, which was a bow-shot distant or thereabouts, we found a great assembly of people all the way, and such throng, that certain of the Inquisitors' officers on horseback were constrained to make way, and so coming to the scaffold we went up by a pair of stairs, and found seats ready made and prepared for us to sit down on, every man in order as he should be called to receive his judgment. We being thus set down as we were appointed, presently the Inquisitors came up another pair of stairs, and the Viceroy and all the chief justices with them. When they were set down and placed under the cloth of estate agreeing to their degrees and calling, then came up also a great number of friars, white, black, and grey, about the number of 300 persons, they being set in the places for them appointed. Then was there a solemn Oyes made, and silence commanded, and then presently began their severe and cruel judgment. The first man that was called was one Roger, the chief armourer of the Jesus, and he had judgment to have 300 stripes on horseback, and after condemned to the galleys as a slave for ten years. After him was called John Gray, John Browne, John Rider, John Moone, James Collier, and one Thomas Browne. These were adjudged to have 200 stripes on horseback, and after to be committed to the galleys for the space of eight years. Then was called John Keies, and was adjudged to have 100 stripes on horseback, and condemned to serve in the galleys for the space of six years. Then were severally called the number of fifty-three, one after another, and every man had his several judgment, some to have 200 stripes on horseback and some 100, and some condemned for slaves to the galleys, some for six years, some for eight, and some for ten. And then was I, Miles Phillips, called, and was adjudged to serve in a monastery for five years, without any stripes, and to wear a fool's coat or San Benito, during all that time. Then were called John Storie, Richard Williams, David Alexander, Robert Cooke, and Horsewell, and Thomas Hull. These six were condemned to serve in monasteries without stripes, some for three years, and some for four, and to wear the San Benito during all the said time. Which being done, and it now drawing towards night, George Rivelie, Peter Momfrie, and Cornelius the Irishman were called, and had their judgment to be burnt to ashes, and so were presently sent away to the place of execution in the market-place, but a little from the scaffold, where they were quickly burnt and consumed. And as for us that had received our judgment, being sixty-eight in number, we were carried back that night to prison again, and the next day in the morning, being Good Friday, the year of our Lord, 1575, we were all brought into a court of the Inquisitors' Palace, where we found a horse in readiness for every one of our men which were condemned to have stripes, and to be committed to the galleys, which were in number sixty, and so they, being enforced to mount up on horseback, naked, from the middle upward, were carried to be showed as a spectacle for all the people to behold throughout the chief and principal streets of the city, and had the number of stripes to every one of them appointed, most cruelly laid upon their naked bodies with long whips, by sundry men appointed to be the executioners thereof, and before our men there went a couple of criers, which cried as they went, "Behold these English dogs, Lutherans, enemies to God," and all the way as they went, there were some of the Inquisitors themselves, and of the familiars of that rake-hell order, that cried to the executioners, "Strike, lay on those English heretics, Lutherans, God's enemies;" and so this horrible spectacle being showed round about the city, and they returned to the Inquisitors' House, with their backs all gore blood and swollen with great bumps. They were then taken from their horses and carried again to prison, where they remained until they were sent into Spain to the galleys, there to receive the rest of their martyrdom; and I, and the six other with me, which had judgment and were condemned among the rest to serve an apprenticeship in the monasteries, were taken presently and sent to certain religious houses appointed for the purpose. THE SIXTH CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWED HOW WE WERE USED IN THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES, AND THAT WHEN THE TIME WAS EXPIRED THAT WE WERE ADJUDGED TO SERVE IN THEM, THERE CAME NEWS TO MEXICO OF MASTER FRANCIS DRAKE'S BEING IN THE SOUTH SEA, AND WHAT PREPARATION WAS MADE TO TAKE HIM; AND HOW I, SEEKING TO ESCAPE, WAS AGAIN TAKEN AND PUT IN PRISON IN VERA CRUZ, AND HOW AGAIN I MADE MINE ESCAPE FROM THENCE. I, Miles Phillips, and William Lowe were appointed to the Black Friars, where I was appointed to be an overseer of Indian workmen, who wrought there in building a new church, amongst which Indians I learned their language or Mexican tongue very perfectly, and had great familiarity with many of them, whom I found to be a courteous and loving kind of people, ingenious, and of great understanding, and they hate and abhor the Spaniards with all their hearts. They have used such horrible cruelties against them, and do still keep them in such subjection and servitude, that they and the negroes also do daily lie in wait to practice their deliverance out of that thraldom and bondage that the Spaniards do keep them in. William Lowe, he was appointed to serve the cook in the kitchen; Richard Williams and David Alexander were appointed to the Grey Friars; John Storey and Robert Cooke to the White Friars; Paul Horsewell the Secretary took to be his servant; Thomas Hull was sent to a monastery of priests, where afterward he died. Thus we served out the years that we were condemned for, with the use of our fools' coats, and we must needs confess that the friars did use us very courteously, for every one of us had his chamber, with bedding and diet, and all things clean and neat; yea, many of the Spaniards and friars themselves do utterly abhor and mislike of that cruel Inquisition, and would as they durst bewail our miseries, and comfort us the best they could, although they stood in such fear of that devilish Inquisition that they durst not let the left hand know what the right doeth. Now after that the time was expired for which we were condemned to serve in those religious houses, we were then brought again before the Chief Inquisitor, and had all our fools' coats pulled off and hanged up in the head church, called Ecclesia Majora, and every man's name and judgment written thereupon with this addition--HERETIC LUTHERAN RECONCILED. And there are also all their coats hanged up which were condemned to the galleys, with their names and judgments, and underneath his coat, HERETIC LUTHERAN RECONCILED. And also the coats and names of the three that were burned, whereupon were written, AN OBSTINATE HERETIC LUTHERAN BURNT. Then were we suffered to go up and down the country, and to place ourselves as we could, and yet not so free but that we very well knew that there was a good espial always attending us and all our actions, so that we durst not once to speak or look awry. David Alexander and Robert Cooke they returned to serve the Inquisitor, who shortly after married them both to two of his negro women; Richard Williams married a rich widow of Biskay with four thousand pezoes; Paul Horsewell is married to a Mestiza, as they name those whose fathers were Spaniards and their mothers Indians, and this woman which Paul Horsewell hath married is said to be the daughter of one that came in with Hernando Cortes, the Conqueror, who had with her in marriage four thousand pezoes and a fair house; John Storie he is married to a negro woman; William Lowe had leave and licence to go into Spain, where he is now married. For mine own part I could never thoroughly settle myself to marry in that country, although many fair offers were made unto me of such as were of great ability and wealth; but I could have no liking to live in that place where I must everywhere see and know such horrible idolatry committed, and durst not once for my life speak against it; and therefore I had always a longing and desire to this my native country; and to return and serve again in the mines, where I might have gathered great riches and wealth, I very well saw that at one time or another I should fall again into the danger of that devilish Inquisition, and so be stripped of all, with loss of life also, and therefore I made my choice rather to learn to weave Groganes and Taffataes, and so compounding with a silk weaver, I bound myself for three years to serve him, and gave him one hundred and fifty pezoes to teach me the science, otherwise he would not have taught me under seven years' prenticeship, and by this means I lived the more quiet and free from suspicion. Howbeit I should many times be charged by familiars of that devilish house, that I had a meaning to run away into England, and be an heretic Lutheran again; to whom I would answer that they had no need to suspect any such thing in me, for that they knew all very well that it was impossible for me to escape by any manner of means; yet notwithstanding I was called before the Inquisitors and demanded why I did not marry. I answered that I had bound myself at an occupation. "Well," said the Inquisitor, "I know thou meanest to run away, and therefore I charge thee here upon pain of burning as an heretic relapsed, that thou depart not out of this city, nor come near to the port of St. John de Ullua, nor to any other port;" to the which I answered that I would willingly obey. "Yea," said he, "see thou do so, and thy fellows also; they shall have the like charge." So I remained at my science the full time and learned the art, at the end whereof there came news to Mexico that there were certain Englishmen landed with a great power at the port of Acapulco, upon the South Sea, and that they were coming to Mexico to take the spoil thereof, which wrought a marvellous great fear among them, and many of those that were rich began to shift for themselves, their wives and children; upon which hurly-burly the Viceroy caused a general muster to be made of all the Spaniards in Mexico, and there were found to the number of seven thousand and odd householders of Spaniards in the city and suburbs, and of single men unmarried the number of three thousand, and of Mestizies--which are counted to be the sons of Spaniards born of Indian women--twenty thousand persons; and then was Paul Horsewell and I, Miles Phillips, sent for before the Viceroy and were examined if we did know an Englishman named Francis Drake, which was brother to Captain Hawkins; to which we answered that Captain Hawkins had not any brother but one, which was a man of the age of threescore years or thereabouts, and was now governor of Plymouth in England. And then he demanded of us if we knew one Francis Drake, and we answered no. While these things were in doing, there came news that all the Englishmen were gone; yet was there eight hundred men made out under the leading of several captains, whereof two hundred were sent to the port of St. John de Ullua, upon the North Sea, under the conduct of Don Luis Suares; two hundred were sent to Guatemala, in the South Sea, who had for their captain John Cortes; two hundred more were sent to Guatelco, a port of the South Sea, over whom went for captain Don Pedro de Roblis; and two hundred more were sent to Acapulco, the port where it was said that Captain Drake had been, and they had for captain Doctor Roblis Alcalde de Corte, with whom I, Miles Phillips, went as interpreter, having licence given by the Inquisitors. When we were come to Acapulco we found that Captain Drake was departed from thence, more than a month before we came thither. But yet our captain, Alcalde de Corte, there presently embarked himself in a small ship of threescore ton, or thereabout, having also in company with him two other small barques, and not past two hundred men in all, with whom I went as interpreter in his own ship, which, God knoweth, was but weak and ill-appointed; so that for certain, if we had met with Captain Drake, he might easily have taken us all. We, being embarked, kept our course, and ran southward towards Panama, keeping still as nigh the shore as we could; and leaving the land upon our left hand, and having coasted thus for the space of eighteen or twenty days, and were more to the south than Guatemala, we met at last with other ships which came from Panama, of whom we were certainly informed that he was clean gone off the coast more than a month before; and so we returned back to Acapulco again, and there landed, our captain being thereunto forced, because his men were very sore sea-sick. All the while that I was at sea with them I was a glad man, for I hoped that if we met with Master Drake we should all be taken, so that then I should have been freed out of that danger and misery wherein I lived, and should return to mine own country of England again. But missing thereof, when I saw there was no remedy but that we must needs come on land again, little doth any man know the sorrow and grief that inwardly I felt, although outwardly I was constrained to make fair weather of it. And so, being landed, the next morrow after we began our journey towards Mexico, and passed these towns of name in our way, as first the town of Tuatepec, fifty leagues from Mexico; from thence to Washaca, forty leagues from Mexico; from thence to Tepiaca, twenty-four leagues from Mexico; and from thence to Lopueblo de Los Angelos, where is a high hill which casteth out fire three times a day, which hill is eighteen leagues directly west from Mexico; from thence we went to Stapelata, eight leagues from Mexico, and there our captain and most of his men took boat and came to Mexico again, having been forth about the space of seven weeks, or thereabouts. Our captain made report to the Viceroy what he had done, and how far he had travelled, and that for certain he was informed that Captain Drake was not to be heard of. To which the Viceroy replied and said, surely we shall have him shortly come into our hands, driven on land through necessity in some one place or other, for he, being now in these seas of Sur, it is not possible for him to get out of them again; so that if he perish not at sea, yet hunger will force him to land. And then again I was commanded by the Viceroy that I should not depart from the city of Mexico, but always be at my master's house in a readiness at an hour's warning, whensoever I should be called for. Notwithstanding that, within one month after, certain Spaniards going to Mecameca, eighteen leagues from Mexico, to send away certain hides and cuchionelio that they had there at their stantias, or dairy houses, and my master having leave of the secretary for me to go with them, I took my journey with them, being very well horsed and appointed; and coming thither, and passing the time there at Mecameca certain days, till we had certain intelligence that the fleet was ready to depart, I, not being more than three days' journey from the port of St. John de Ullua, thought it to be the meetest time for me to make an escape, and I was the bolder presuming upon my Spanish tongue, which I spake as naturally as any of them all, thinking with myself that when I came to St. John de Ullua I would get to be entertained as a soldier, and so go home into Spain in the same fleet; and, therefore, secretly one evening late, the moon shining fair, I conveyed myself away, and riding so for the space of two nights and two days, sometimes in, and sometimes out, resting very little all that time, upon the second day at night I came to the town of Vera Cruz, distant from the port of St. John de Ullua, where the ships rode, but only eight leagues; and here purposing to rest myself a day or two, I was no sooner alighted but within the space of one half hour after I was by ill hap arrested, and brought before justices there, being taken and suspected to be a gentleman's son of Mexico that was run away from his father. So I, being arrested and brought before the justices, there was a great hurly-burly about the matter, every man charging me that I was the son of such a man, dwelling in Mexico, which I flatly denied, affirming that I knew not the man; yet would they not believe me, but urged still upon me that I was he that they sought for, and so I was conveyed away to prison. And as I was thus going to prison, to the further increase of my grief, it chanced that at that very instant there was a poor man in the press that was come to town to sell hens, who told the justices that they did me wrong, and that in truth he knew very well that I was an Englishman, and no Spaniard. Then they demanded of him how he knew that, and threatened him that he said so for that he was my companion, and sought to convey me away from my father, so that he also was threatened to be laid in prison with me. He, for the discharge of himself, stood stiffly in it that I was an Englishman, and one of Captain Hawkins's men, and that he had known me wear the San Benito in the Black Friars at Mexico for three or four whole years together; which when they heard they forsook him, and began to examine me anew, whether that speech of his were true, yea or no; which when they perceived that I could not deny, and perceiving that I was run from Mexico, and came thither of purpose to convey myself away with the fleet, I was presently committed to prison with a sorrowful heart, often wishing myself that that man which knew me had at that time been further off. Howbeit, he in sincerity had compassion of my distressed state, thinking by his speech, and knowing of me, to have set me free from that present danger which he saw me in. Howbeit, contrary to his expectation, I was thereby brought into my extreme danger, and to the hazard of my life, yet there was no remedy but patience, perforce; and I was no sooner brought into prison but I had a great pair of bolts clapped on my legs, and thus I remained in that prison for the space of three weeks, where were also many other prisoners, which were thither committed for sundry crimes and condemned to the galleys. During which time of imprisonment there I found amongst those my prison fellows some that had known me before in Mexico, and truly they had compassion of me, and would spare of their victuals and anything else that they had to do me good, amongst whom there was one of them that told me that he understood by a secret friend of his which often came to the prison to him that I should be shortly sent back again to Mexico by waggon, so soon as the fleet was gone from St. John de Ullua for Spain. This poor man, my prison fellow, of himself, and without any request made by me, caused his said friend, which came often unto him to the grate of the prison, to bring him wine and victuals, to buy for him two knives which had files in their backs, which files were so well made that they would serve and suffice any prisoner to file off his irons, and of those knives or files he brought one to me, and told me that he had caused it to be made for me, and let me have it at the very price it cost him, which was two pezoes, the value of eight shillings of our money, which knife when I had it I was a joyful man, and conveyed the same into the foot of my boot upon the inside of my left leg, and so within three or four days after that I had thus received my knife I was suddenly called for, and brought before the head justice, which caused those my irons with the round bolt to be stricken off, and sent to a smith in the town, where was a new pair of bolts made ready for me of another fashion, which had a broad iron bar coming between the shackles, and caused my hands to be made fast with a pair of manacles, and so was I presently laid into a waggon all alone, which was there ready to depart, with sundry other waggons to the number of sixty, towards Mexico, and they were all laden with sundry merchandise which came in the fleet out of Spain. The waggon that I was in was foremost of all the company, and as we travelled, I being alone in the waggon, began to try if I could pluck my hands out of the manacles, and as God would, although it were somewhat painful for me, yet my hands were so slender that I could pull them out and put them in again, and ever as we went when the waggons made most noise and the men busiest, I would be working to file off my bolts, and travelling thus for the space of eight leagues from Vera Cruz we came to an high hill, at the entering up of which (as God would), one of the wheels of the waggon wherein I was brake, so that by that means the other waggons went afore, and the waggon man that had charge of me set an Indian carpenter at work to mend the wheel; and here at this place they baited at an ostrie that a negro woman keeps, and at this place for that the going up of the hill is very steep for the space of two leagues and better, they do always accustom to take the mules of three or four waggons and to place them all together for the drawing up of one waggon, and so to come down again and fetch up others in that order. All which came very well to pass, for as it drew towards night, when most of the waggoners were gone to draw up their waggons in this sort, I being alone, had quickly filed off my bolts, and so espying my time in the dark of the evening before they returned down the hill again, I conveyed myself into the woods there adjoining, carrying my bolts and manacles with me, and a few biscuits and two small cheeses. And being come into the woods I threw my irons into a thick bush, and then covered them with moss and other things, and then shifted for myself as I might all that night. And thus, by the good providence of Almighty God, I was freed from mine irons, all saving the collar that was about my neck, and so got my liberty the second time. THE SEVENTH CHAPTER. WHEREIN IS SHOWED HOW I ESCAPED TO GUATEMALA UPON THE SOUTH SEA, AND FROM THENCE TO THE PORT OF CAVALLOS, WHERE I GOT PASSAGE TO GO INTO SPAIN, AND OF OUR ARRIVAL AT THE HAVANA AND OUR COMING TO SPAIN, WHERE I WAS AGAIN LIKE TO HAVE BEEN COMMITTED PRISONER, AND HOW THROUGH THE GREAT MERCY OF GOD I ESCAPED AND CAME HOME IN SAFETY INTO ENGLAND IN FEBRUARY, 1582. The next morning (daylight being come) I perceived by the sun rising what way to take to escape their hands, for when I fled I took the way into the woods upon the left hand, and having left that way that went to Mexico upon my right hand, I thought to keep my course as the woods and mountains lay still direct south as near as I could; by means whereof I was sure to convey myself far enough from that way which went to Mexico. And as I was thus going in the woods I saw many great fires made to the north not past a league from the mountain where I was, and travelling thus in my boots, with mine iron collar about my neck, and my bread and cheese, the very same forenoon I met with a company of Indians which were hunting of deer for their sustenance, to whom I spake in the Mexican tongue, and told them how that I had of a long time been kept in prison by the cruel Spaniards, and did desire them to help me file off mine iron collar, which they willingly did, rejoicing greatly with me that I was thus escaped out of the Spaniards' hands. Then I desired that I might have one of them to guide out of those desert mountains towards the south, which they also most willingly did, and so they brought me to an Indian town eight leagues distance from thence named Shalapa, where I stayed three days; for that I was somewhat sickly. At which town (with the gold that I had quilted in my doublet) I bought me an horse of one of the Indians, which cost me six pezoes, and so travelling south within the space of two leagues I happened to overtake a Grey Friar, one that I had been familiar withal in Mexico, whom then I knew to be a zealous, good man, and one that did much lament the cruelty used against us by the Inquisitors, and truly he used me very courteously; and I, having confidence in him, did indeed tell him that I was minded to adventure to see if I could get out of the said country if I could find shipping, and did therefore pray him of his aid, direction, and advice herein, which he faithfully did, not only in directing me which was any safest way to travel, but he also of himself kept me company for the space of three days, and ever as we came to the Indians' houses (who used and entertained us well), he gathered among them in money to the value of twenty pezoes, which at my departure from him he freely gave unto me. So came I to the city of Guatemala upon the South Sea, which is distant from Mexico about 250 leagues, where I stayed six days, for that my horse was weak, and from thence I travelled still south and by east seven days' journey, passing by certain Indian towns until I came to an Indian town distant from Mexico direct south 309 leagues. And here at this town inquiring to go to the port of Cavallos in the north-east sea, it was answered that in travelling thither I should not come to any town in ten or twelve days' journey; so here I hired two Indians to be my guides, and I bought hens and bread to serve us so long time, and took with us things to kindle fire every night because of wild beasts, and to dress our meat; and every night when we rested my Indian guides would make two great fires, between the which we placed ourselves and my horse. And in the night time we should hear the lions roar, with tigers, ounces, and other beasts, and some of them we should see in the night which had eyes shining like fire. And travelling thus for the space of twelve days, we came at last to the port of Cavallos upon the east sea, distant from Guatemala south and by east 200 leagues, and from Mexico 450 or thereabouts. This is a good harbour for ships, and is without either castle or bulwark. I having despatched away my guides, went down to the haven, where I saw certain ships laden chiefly with canary wine, where I spake with one of the masters, who asked me what countryman I was, and I told him that I was born in Granada, and he said that then I was his countryman. I required him that I might pass home with him in his ship, paying for my passage; and he said yea, so that I had a safe conduct or letter testimonial to show that he might incur no danger; for, said he, "it may be that you have killed some man, or be indebted, and you would therefore run away." To that I answered that there was not any such cause. Well, in the end we grew to a price that for 60 pezoes he would carry me into Spain. A glad man was I at this good hap, and I quickly sold my horse, and made my provision of hens and bread to serve me in my passage; and thus within two days after we set sail, and never stayed until we came to the Havana, which is distant from port de Cavallos by sea 500 leagues, where we found the whole fleet of Spain, which was bound home from the Indies. And here I was hired for a soldier, to serve in the admiral ship of the same fleet, wherein the general himself went. There landed while I was here four ships out of Spain, being all full of soldiers and ordnance, of which number there were 200 men landed here, and four great brass pieces of ordnance, although the castle were before sufficiently provided; 200 men more were sent to Campechy, and certain ordnance; 200 to Florida with ordnance; and 100 lastly to St. John de Ullua. As for ordnance, there they have sufficient, and of the very same which was ours which we had in the Jesus, and those others which we had planted in the place, where the Viceroy betrayed Master Hawkins, our general, as hath been declared. The sending of those soldiers to every of those posts, and the strengthening of them, was done by commandment from the King of Spain, who wrote also by them to the general of his fleet, giving him in charge so to do, as also directing him what course he should keep in his coming home into Spain, charging him at any hand not to come nigh to the isles of Azores, but to keep his course more to the northward, advertising him withal what number and power of French ships of war and other Don Anthony had at that time at the Tercera and isles aforesaid, which the general of the fleet well considering, and what great store of riches he had to bring home with him into Spain, did in all very dutifully observe and obey; for in truth he had in his said fleet 37 sail of ships, and in every of them there was as good as 30 pipes of silver, one with another, besides great store of gold, cochineal, sugars, hides, and Cana Fistula, with other apothecary drugs. This our general, who was called Don Pedro de Guzman, did providently take order for, for their most strength and defence, if needs should be, to the uttermost of his power, and commanded upon pain of death that neither passenger or soldier should come aboard without his sword and harquebuse, with shot and powder, to the end that they might be the better able to encounter the fleet of Don Anthony if they should hap to meet with them, or any of them. And ever as the weather was fair, this said general would himself go aboard from one ship to another to see that every man had his full provision according to the commandment given. Yet to speak truly what I think, two good tall ships of war would have made a foul spoil amongst them, for in all this fleet there were not any that were strong and warlike appointed, saving only the admiral and vice-admiral. And again, over and besides the weakness and ill-furnishing of the rest, they were all so deeply laden, that they had not been able (even if they had been charged) to have held out any long fight. Well, thus we set sail, and had a very ill passage home, the weather was so contrary. We kept our course in manner northeast, and brought ourselves to the height of 42 degrees of latitude, to be sure not to meet with Don Anthony his fleet, and were upon our voyage from the 4th of June until the 10th of September, and never saw land till we fell with the Arenas Gordas hard by St. Lucar. And there was an order taken that none should go on shore until he had a licence; as for me, I was known by one in the ship, who told the master that I was an Englishman, which (as God would) was my good hap to hear; for if I had not heard it, it had cost me my life. Notwithstanding, I would not take any knowledge of it, and seemed to be merry and pleasant that we were all come so well in safety. Presently after, licence came that we should go on shore, and I pressed to be gone with the first; howbeit, the master came unto me and said, "Sirrah, you must go with me to Seville by water." I knew his meaning well enough, and that he meant there to offer me up as a sacrifice to the Holy House. For the ignorant zeal of a number of these superstitious Spaniards is such that they think that they have done God good service when they have brought a Lutheran heretic to the fire to be burnt; for so they do account of us. Well, I perceiving all this, took upon me not to suspect anything, but was still jocund and merry, howbeit I knew it stood me upon to shift for myself. And so waiting my time when the master was in his cabin asleep, I conveyed myself secretly down by the shrouds into the ship boat, and made no stay, but cut the rope wherewithal she was moored, and so by the cable hailed on shore, where I leapt on land, and let the boat go whither it would. Thus by the help of God I escaped that day, and then never stayed at St. Lucar, but went all night by the way which I had seen others take towards Seville. So that the next morning I came to Seville, and sought me out a workmaster, that I might fall to my science, which was weaving of taffaetas, and being entertained I set myself close to my work, and durst not for my life once to stir abroad, for fear of being known, and being thus at my work, within four days after I heard one of my fellows say that he heard there was great inquiry made for an Englishman that came home in the fleet. "What, an heretic Lutheran (quoth I), was it? I would to God I might know him. Surely I would present him to the Holy House." And thus I kept still within doors at my work, and feigned myself not well at ease, and that I would labour as I might to get me new clothes. And continuing thus for the space of three months, I called for my wages, and bought me all things new, different from the apparel that I did wear at sea, and yet durst not be over bold to walk abroad; and after understanding that there were certain English ships at St. Lucar, bound for England, I took a boat and went aboard one of them, and desired the master that I might have passage with him to go into England, and told him secretly that I was one of those which Captain Hawkins did set on shore in the Indies. He very courteously prayed me to have him excused, for he durst not meddle with me, and prayed me therefore to return from whence I came. Which then I perceived with a sorrowful heart, God knoweth, I took my leave of him, not without watery cheeks. And then I went to St. Mary Port, which is three leagues from St. Lucar, where I put myself to be a soldier in the King of Spain's galleys, which were bound for Majorca and coming thither in the end of the Christmas holidays I found there two English ships, the one of London, and the other of the west country, which were ready freighted, and stayed but for a fair wind. To the master of the one which was of the west country went I, and told him that I had been two years in Spain to learn the language, and that I was now desirous to go home and see my friends, for that I lacked maintenance, and so having agreed with him for my passage I took my shipping. And thus, through the providence of Almighty God, after sixteen years' absence, having sustained many and sundry great troubles and miseries, as by this discourse appeareth, I came home to this my native country in England in the year 1582, in the month of February in the ship called the Landret, and arrived at Poole. 
25815	----	[Illustration: NOMAHANNA, QUEEN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.] _London. Published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley. 1839._ A NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, IN THE YEARS 1823, 24, 25, AND 26. BY OTTO VON KOTZEBUE, POST CAPTAIN IN THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL NAVY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1830. LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY. Dorset Street, Fleet Street. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME Page KAMTSCHATKA 1 NEW-ARCHANGEL 27 CALIFORNIA, AND THE NEW RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT, ROSS 69 THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 151 THE PESCADORES, RIMSKI-KORSAKOFF, ESCHSCHOLTZ, AND BRONUS ISLANDS 267 THE LADRONES AND PHILIPPINES 279 ST. HELENA 305 ZOOLOGICAL APPENDIX BY PROFESSOR ESCHSCHOLTZ 323 LIST OF PLATES. Page Reception of Captain Kotzebue at the Island of Otdia, To face Title of Vol. I. Plan of Mattaway Bay and Village 200 Chart of the Navigators' Islands 250 Chart of the Islands of Radak and Ralik 288 Nomahanna, Queen of the Sandwich Islands, To face Title of Vol. II. KAMTSCHATKA. KAMTSCHATKA. The wind, which continued favourable to us as far as the Northern Tropic, was succeeded by a calm that lasted twelve days. The ocean, as far as the eye could reach, was as smooth as a mirror, and the heat almost insupportable. Sailors only can fully understand the disagreeableness of this situation. The activity usual on shipboard gave place to the most wearisome idleness. Every one was impatient; some of the men felt assured that we should never have a wind again, and wished for the most violent storm as a change. One morning we had the amusement of watching two great sword-fish sunning themselves on the surface of the water. I sent out a boat, in the hope that the powerful creatures would, in complaisance, allow us the sport of harpooning them, but they would not wait; they plunged again into the depths of the sea, and we had disturbed their enjoyments in vain. Our water-machine was several times let down, even to the depth of a thousand fathoms: on the surface, the temperature was 24°, and at this depth, only 2° of Reaumur. On the 22nd of May, the anniversary of our frigate's leaving Stopel, we got a fresh easterly wind, which carried us forward pretty quickly on the still smooth surface of the sea. On the 1st of June, when in latitude 42° and longitude 201°, and consequently opposite the coast of Japan, we descried a red stripe in the water, about a mile long and a fathom broad. In passing over it we drew up a pail-full, and found that its colour was occasioned by an infinite number of crabs, so small as to be scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye. We now began daily to experience increasing inconveniences from the Northern climate. The sky, hitherto so serene, became gloomy and covered with storm-clouds, which seldom threatened in vain; we were, besides, enveloped in almost perpetual mists, bounding our prospect to a few fathoms. In a short time, the temperature of the air had fallen from 24° to 3°. So sudden a change is always disagreeable, and often dangerous. We had to thank the skill and attention of our physician, Dr. Siegwald, that it did not prove so to us. Such rough weather is not common to the latitude we were in at that season; but it is peculiar to the Japanese coast even in summer. Whales and storm-birds showed themselves in great numbers, reminding us that we were hastening to the North, and were already far from the luxuriant groves of the South-Sea islands. The wind continued so favourable, that on the 7th of June we could already see the high mountains of Kamtschatka in their winter clothing. Their jagged summits reaching to the heavens, crested with everlasting snow, which glitters in the sunbeams, while their declivities are begirt with clouds, give a magnificent aspect to this coast. On the following day, we reached Awatscha Bay, and in the evening anchored in the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul. The great peninsula of Kamtschatka, stretching to the river Anadir on the North, and South to the Kurilian Islands, bathed on the east by the ocean, and on the west by the sea of Ochotsk, is, like many men, better than its reputation. It is supposed to be the roughest and most desolate corner of the world, and yet it lies under the same latitude as England and Scotland, and is equal in size to both. The summer is indeed much shorter, but it is also much finer; and the vegetation is more luxuriant than in Great Britain. The winter lasts long, and its discomforts are increased by the quantity of snow that falls; but in the southern parts the cold is moderate; and experience has repeatedly refuted the erroneous opinion, that on account of its long duration, and the consequent curtailment of the summer season, corn cannot be efficaciously cultivated here. Although the snow lies in some of the valleys till the end of May, because the high, over-shadowing mountains intercept the warm sunbeams, yet garden-plants prosper. Potatoes generally yield a triple crop, and would perfectly supply the want of bread, if the inhabitants cultivated them more diligently: but the easier mode of providing fish in super-abundance as winter food, has induced them to neglect the labour of raising potatoes, although they have known years when the fishery has barely protected them from famine. The winter, as I have already said, is very unpleasant, from the heavy snows, which, drifting from the mountains, often bury the houses, so that the inhabitants are compelled to dig a passage out, while the cattle walk on its frozen surface over their roofs. Travelling in this season is very rapid and convenient. The usual mode is in sledges drawn by six or more dogs. The only danger is from snow-storms. The traveller, surprised by this sudden visitation, has no chance for safety except in quietly allowing himself and his dogs to be buried in the snow, and relieving himself from his covering when the storm is past. This, however, is not always practicable; should the storm, or, as it is called here, "purga," overtake him in the ravine of a mountain, such an immense quantity of snow becomes heaped upon him, that he has no power to extricate himself from his tomb. These accidents, however, seldom occur; for the Kamtschatkans have acquired of necessity great foresight in meteorology, and of course never undertake a journey when they do not consider themselves sure of the weather. The principal reason why the climate of Kamtschatka is inferior to that of other places under the same latitude, is to be found in the configuration of the country. The mountains of England, for instance, are of a very moderate height, and broken by extensive plains; here, on the contrary, intersected only by a few valleys of small extent, a single chain of mountains, its broken snow-crowned summits reaching to the clouds, and in many parts far beyond them, stretches the whole length of the Peninsula, and is based upon its breadth. The panorama of Kamtschatka is a confused heap of granite blocks of various heights, thickly piled together, whose pointed, jagged forms bear testimony to the tremendous war of elements amidst which they must have burst from the bowels of the earth. The struggle is even now scarcely ended, as the smoking and burning of volcanoes, and frequent shocks of earthquake, sufficiently intimate. One of the mountains, called Kamtschatka Mountain, rivalling in height the loftiest in the world, often vomits forth streams of lava on the surrounding country. These mountains with their glaciers, and volcanoes emitting columns of fire and smoke from amidst fields of ice, afford a picturesque contrast with the beautiful green of the valleys. The most singular and indescribably-splendid effect is produced by the crystal rocks on the western coast, when illuminated by the sun; their whole refulgent surface reflecting his rays in every various tint of the most brilliant colours, resembles the diamond mountains of fairy-land, while the neighbouring rocks of quartz shine like masses of solid gold. Kamtschatka is a most interesting country to the professor of the natural sciences. Great mineral treasures will certainly be one day discovered here; the number and diversity of its stones is striking even to the most uninitiated. It abounds in hot and salutary springs. To the botanist it offers great varieties of plants, little if at all known; and the zoologist would find here, amongst the animal tribes deserving his attention, besides several kinds of bears, wolves and foxes, the celebrated sable whose skin is sold for so great a price, and the native wild sheep, which inhabits the tops of the highest mountains. It attains the size of a large goat; the head resembles that of an ordinary sheep, but is furnished with strong, crooked horns: the skin and form of the body are like the reindeer, and it feeds chiefly on moss. It is fleet and active, achieving, like the chamois, prodigious springs among the rocks and precipices, and is, consequently, with difficulty killed or taken. In preparing for these leaps, its eye measures the distance with surprising accuracy; the animal then contracts its legs, and darts forward head-foremost to the destined spot, where it alights upon its feet, nor is it ever known to miss, although the point may be so small as to admit its four feet only by their being closely pressed together. The manner in which it balances itself after such leaps is also admirable: our ballet-dancers would consider it a model of a perfect _à plomb_. The monster of the antediluvian world, the mammoth, must have been an inhabitant of this country, since many of its bones have been found here. The forests of Kamtschatka are not enlivened by singing-birds; indeed land-birds are all scarce; but there are infinite numbers of waterfowl of many species. Immense flocks of them are to be seen upon the lakes, rivers, morasses, and even the sea itself, in the vicinity of the shore. Fish is abundant, especially in the months of June and July. A single draught of the net provided us with as many as the whole crew could consume in several days. A sort of salmon, ling, and herrings, are preferred for winter stock; the latter, dried in the air, supply food for the dogs. Kamtschatka was discovered in the year 1696, by a Cossack of Yakutsh, by name Luca Semenoff, who, on a report being spread of the existence of this country, set out with sixteen companions to make a journey hither. In the following years, similar expeditions were repeated in greater force, till Kamtschatka was subjected and made tributary to the Russian crown. The conquest of this country cost many Russian lives; and from the ferocity of the conquerors, and the difficulty of maintaining discipline amongst troops so scattered, ended in nearly exterminating the Kamtschatkans. Although subsequent regulations restrained the disorders of the wild Cossacks, the population is still very thin; but under a wise and careful government it will certainly increase. The name of Kamtschatka, pronounced Kantschatka, conferred by the Russians, was adopted from the native appellation of the great river flowing through the country. This river derived its name, according to tradition, from Kontschat, a warrior of former times, who had a stronghold on its banks. It is strange that the Kamtschatkans had no designation either for themselves or their country. They called themselves simply men, as considering themselves either the only inhabitants of the earth, or so far surpassing all others, as to be alone worthy of this title. On the southern side of the peninsula, the aborigines are believed to have been distinguished by the name of Itelmen; but the signification of this word remains uncertain. The Kamtschatkans acknowledged an Almighty Creator of the world, whom they called Kutka. They supposed that he inhabited the heavens; but had at one time dwelt in human form in Kamtschatka, and was the original parent of their race. Even here the tradition of a universal deluge prevails, and a spot is still shown, on the top of a mountain where Kutka landed from a boat, in order to replenish the world with men. The proverbial phrase current in Kamtschatka, to express a period long past, is, "that was in Kutka's days." Before the expeditions of the Russians to Kamtschatka, the inhabitants were acquainted only with the neighbouring Koriacks and Tchuktchi. They had also acquired some knowledge of Japan, from a Japanese ship wrecked on their coast. They acknowledged no chief, but lived in perfect independence, which they considered as their highest good. Besides the supreme God Kutka, they had a host of inferior deities, installed by their imaginations in the forests, the mountains, and the floods. They adored them when their wishes were fulfilled, and insulted them when their affairs went amiss; like the lower class of Italians, who, when any disaster befalls them, take off their cap, enumerate into it as many saints' names as they can call to mind, and then trample it under foot. Two wooden household deities, Aschuschok and Hontai, were held in particular estimation. The former, in the figure of a man, officiated in scaring away the forest spirits from the house; for which service he was remunerated in food, his head being daily anointed with fish-soup. Hontai was half man, half fish, and on every anniversary of the purification from sin, a new one was introduced and placed beside his predecessors, so that the accumulated number of Hontais showed how many years the inhabitants had occupied their house. The Kamtschatkans believed in their own immortality, and in that of the brute creation; but they expected in a future state to depend upon their labour for subsistence, as in the present life; they only hoped that the toil would be lightened, and its reward more abundant, that they might never suffer hunger. This idea of itself sufficiently proves, that the fisheries sometimes fail in their produce. The several races of Kamtschatkans frequently waged war with each other; caused either by the forcible abduction of the women, or a deficiency in hospitality on their occasional interchange of visits, which was considered an insult to the guest, demanding a bloody revenge. Their wars were seldom carried on openly; they preferred stratagem and artifice; and the conquerors practised the greatest cruelties on the conquered. If a party was so beleaguered as to lose all hope of effectual resistance, or of securing their safety by flight, knowing that no mercy would await a surrender, their warlike spirit did not desert them; they first murdered their women and children, and then rushed furiously on the enemy, to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Their weapons were lances, and bows and poisoned arrows. To treat a guest with the utmost politeness, and leave no cause for hostility, the host was expected to heat his subterranean dwelling till it became almost insupportable: both parties then cast off all their attire, an enormous quantity of food was placed before the guest, and the fire was continually fed. When the visitor declared that he could no longer eat, or endure the heat of the place, all that courtesy required had been done, and the host expected a present in return for his hospitality. At such entertainments the moucho-more, a deleterious species of mushroom, was usually introduced, as a mode of intoxication. Taken in small quantities, it is said to excite an agreeable hilarity of spirits; but if immoderately used, it will produce insanity of several days' duration. Animated by these enjoyments, the host and guests found mutual amusement in the exercise of their peculiar talent of mimicking men and animals. The children when grown up showed little affection for their parents, neglected them in old age, and did not even consider it a violation of filial duty to kill them when they became burdensome. They also murdered their defective or weakly children, to spare them the misery of a languishing existence. They did not bury their dead, but dragged the corpse into the open air, by a thong tied about the neck, and left it a prey to dogs; under the belief, that those devoured by these animals, would in another world be drawn by the best dogs. The mode of solemnizing marriages among the Kamtschatkans was tedious, and, on the part of the bridegroom, attended with many difficulties. A man who wished to marry a girl went to the house of her parents, and without farther declaration took his share in the domestic labours. He thus became the servant of the family, and was obliged to obey all their behests, till he succeeded in winning the favour of the girl and her parents. This might continue for years, and even in the end he was liable to be dismissed, without any compensation for his trouble. If, however, the maiden was pleased, and the parents were satisfied with him, they gave him permission to catch his beloved; from this moment the girl took all possible pains to avoid being alone with him, defended herself with a fishing-net and numerous girdles, all which were to be cut through with a stone knife, while all the family were upon the watch to rescue her at the first outcry: the unfortunate lover had probably no sooner laid hands upon his bride than he was seized by her relations, beaten, and dragged away by his hair; yet was he compelled to conquer and overpower her resistance, or to continue in unrewarded servitude. When, however, the catching was accomplished, the fair one herself proclaimed the victory, and the marriage was celebrated. The present Kamtschatkans are an extremely good-natured, hospitable, timid people; in colour and features nearly resembling the Chinese and Japanese. They all profess the Christian religion; but secretly retain many of their heathen customs, particularly that of killing their deformed children. The town, or rather village, adjoining the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, where the present Governor of Kamtschatka, Captain Stanizky, resides, though the principal place in the peninsula, contains but few convenient houses. The rest, about fifty in number, are mere huts, irregularly scattered up the side of a mountain. The inhabitants of this place, which bears the same name as the harbour, are all Russians, officers of the crown, sailors, disbanded soldiers, and some insignificant traders. The Kamtschatkans live inland in little villages on the banks of the rivers, but seldom on the sea-coast. From Krusenstern's representation, Kamtschatka appears very little altered in five-and-twenty years. The only advance made in that period, consists in the cultivation of potatoes by the inhabitants of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the entire water-carriage of various goods and necessaries of life, which were formerly needlessly enhanced in price by being brought overland, through Siberia to Ochotsk. The northern part of the peninsula and the adjoining country, even to the icy sea, is inhabited by the Tschuktschi, a warlike nomad tribe, removing with celerity from place to place by means of their reindeer. They were not so easily conquered as the Kamtschatkans, and for five-and-thirty years incessantly annoyed the Russians, to whom they now only pay a small tribute in skins. Our cannon at length forced a peace upon them, which had not been long concluded, before there was reason to apprehend a breach of its conditions on their part, and an ambassador was sent to their Tajon, or chief, to discover their intentions. The chief drew a long knife from a sheath at his side, presented it to the ambassador, making him observe that it had a broken point, and addressed him as follows: "When my father died he gave me this knife, saying, 'My son, I received this broken knife from my uncle, whom I succeeded in the dignity of Tajon, and I promised him never to sharpen it against the Russians, because we never prosper in our combats with them; I therefore enjoin thee also to enter into no strife with them till this knife shall of itself renew its point.' You see that the knife is still edgeless, and my father's last will is sacred to me." According to an accurate census taken of the population of Kamtschatka in the year 1822, it amounts, with the exception of the Tschuktschi, who cannot be computed, to two thousand four hundred and fifty-seven persons of the male, and one thousand nine hundred and forty-one of the female sex. Of these, the native Kamtschatkans were only one thousand four hundred and twenty-eight males, and one thousand three hundred and thirty females; the rest were Koriaks and Russians. They possessed ninety-one horses, seven hundred and eighteen head of cattle, three thousand eight hundred and forty-one dogs, and twelve thousand reindeer, the latter belonging exclusively to the Koriaks. Unimportant as was the place where we now landed, a change is always agreeable after a long voyage; and the kind and hospitable reception we met with from the commander as well as the inhabitants, contributed greatly to our enjoyments. We were gratified with a bear-hunt, which produced much sport, and gave us the satisfaction of killing a large and powerful bear. This animal is very numerous here, and is consequently easily met with by a hunting-party. The usually timid Kamtschatkan attacks them with the greatest courage. Often armed only with a lance and a knife, he endeavours to provoke the bear to the combat; and when it rises on its hind legs for defence or attack, the hunter rushes forward, and, resting one end of the lance on the ground, plunges the other into its breast, finally dispatching it with his knife. Sometimes, however, he fails in the attempt, and pays for his temerity with his life. The following anecdote evinces the hardihood of the bears. Fish, which forms their chief nourishment, and which they procure for themselves from the rivers, was last year excessively scarce. A great famine consequently existed among them, and instead of retiring to their dens, they wandered about the whole winter through, even in the streets of St. Peter and St. Paul. One of them finding the outer gate of a house open, entered, and the gate accidentally closed after him. The woman of the house had just placed a large tea-machine,[1] full of boiling water, in the court, the bear smelt to it and burned his nose; provoked at the pain, he vented all his fury upon the kettle, folded his fore-paws round it, pressed it with his whole strength against his breast to crush it, and burnt himself, of course, still more and more. The horrible growl which rage and pain forced from him, brought all the inhabitants of the house and neighbourhood to the spot, and poor bruin was soon dispatched by shots from the windows. He has, however, immortalized his memory, and become a proverb amongst the town's people, for when any one injures himself by his own violence, they call him "the bear with the tea-kettle." On the 14th of July, M. Preuss observed an eclipse of the sun, from which he determined the geographical longitude of St. Peter and St. Paul to be 201° 10' 31". On the same day Dr. Siegwald and Messrs. Lenz and Hoffman happily achieved the Herculean task of climbing the Owatscha Mountain, which lies near the harbour. Its height, according to barometrical measurement, is seven thousand two hundred feet. An intermittent smoke arose from its crater, and a cap let down a few feet within it was drawn up burnt. The gentlemen brought back with them some pieces of crystallized sulphur, as evidence of their having really pursued their examination quite into the mouth of the crater. After having delivered all the articles which we had taken in for Kamtschatka, we left the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul on the morning of the 20th of July, and with favouring breezes sailed for the Russian settlement of New Archangel, on the north-west coast of America. At sunset the majestic mountains of Kamtschatka appeared for the last time within our horizon, and at a vast distance. This despised and desolate country may perhaps one day become a Russian Mexico. The only treasure of which we robbed it was, a swallow's nest! I mention it, because it long supplied the whole ship's company with amusement. In the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, there is sufficient depth of water close to the shore to admit of landing by means of a plank only. This proximity led a pair of swallows to mistake our frigate for a building upon terra-firma, and to the infinite delight of the sailors, who regarded it as a lucky omen, they deliberately built themselves a nest close to my cabin. Undisturbed by the noise in the ship, the loving pair hatched their brood in safety, fed their young ones with the tenderest care, and cheered them with joyous songs. But when on a sudden they saw their peaceful dwelling removing from the land, they seemed astonished, and hovered anxiously about the ship, yet still fetched food for their young from the shore, till the distance became too great. The struggle between the instincts of self-preservation and parental love then became perceptible. They flew round the vessel, then vanished for awhile, then suddenly returned to their hungry family, and stretching their open beaks towards them, seemed to lament that no food was to be found. This alternate disappearing and returning continued some time, and terminated in the parents returning no more; the sailors then took on themselves the care of the deserted orphans. They removed them from the nest where the parents warmth was necessary, to another lined with cotton, and fixed in a warm place, and fed them with flies, which seemed to please their palates very well. The system at first appeared to have perfectly succeeded, and we were in hopes of carrying them safely to America; when, in spite of the most careful attention, they fell sick, and on the eighth day, to the general sorrow, not one of our nurslings remained alive. They however afforded an additional proof how kindly the common people of Russia are interested in all that is helpless. NEW ARCHANGEL. NEW ARCHANGEL. The swallows brought us no good fortune. The very day after we left Kamtschatka, one of our best sailors fell from the mast-head into the scuttle, and immediately expired. He had climbed thither in safety in the most violent storms, and executed the most difficult tasks with ease; now, in fine weather, on a tranquil sea, he met this fate. These accidents happen most frequently to the best and cleverest sailors: they confide too much in their own ability, and consider too little the risks they run. It is impossible to warn them sufficiently. This fatal accident produced a general melancholy among us, which the cloudy, wet, cold weather we soon encountered perpetually increased, till we reached the coast of America. Fortunately, we had all the time a strong west wind; by its help we passed the southern coasts of the Aleutian Islands, and on the 7th of August already approached the American coast. On this day the sun once more smiled on us; the sky afterwards continued clear, and the air became milder and pleasanter as we neared the land. From our noon observation we were in latitude 55° 36', and longitude 140° 56'. In this region, some navigators have imagined they observed a regular current to the north; but our experience does not confirm the remark. A current carried us from twenty to thirty miles in twenty-four hours, setting sometimes north, and sometimes south, according to the impulse of the wind; close to shore only the current is regularly to the north. The inhabitants concurred in this observation. We now steered direct for the bay called by the English Norfolk Sound, and by the Russians Sitka Bay, and the island at its back, which the natives call Sitchachan, whence the Russian Sitka. This island, called by the Russians New Archangel, is at present the principal settlement of the Russian-American company. On the morning of the 9th of August, we were, according to my calculation, near land; but a thick fog concealed us from every object so much as fifty fathoms distant. At length the mid-day sun burst forth, and rapidly dispelling the curtain of cloud and fog, surprised us with a view of the American coast. We were standing right for the mouth of the above-mentioned bay, at a small distance from the Edgecumbe promontory; a table-land so elevated, that in clear weather it serves for a safe landmark at a distance of fifty miles. We were all day prevented by a calm from making the bay, and were obliged to content ourselves with admiring the wild high rocky coast, with its fir forests. Though now in a much higher latitude than in Kamtschatka, we yet saw no snow, even on the summits of the highest mountains; a proof of the superior mildness of the climate on the American, compared with the Asiatic coast. The next day we took advantage of a light wind blowing towards the bay; but so gloomy was the weather, that we could scarcely see land, and not one of our crew had ever been in the bay before. It stretches from the entrance to New Archangel twenty-five miles in length, and is full of small islands and shallows; a pilot was not to be thought of; but we happily overcame all our difficulties. We tacked through all the intricacies of this navigation amidst heavy rain and a thick gloom, till we dropped the anchor within musket-shot of the fortress. We here found the frigate Kreissac, under the command of Captain Lasaref, sent here by Government for the protection of trade, and whom we were destined to succeed. The appearance of a vessel of our native country, in so distant and desolate a corner of the earth, naturally produced much joy amongst our people. I immediately paid a visit to Captain Lasaref, and then to the Governor of the Colony, Captain Murawief, an old acquaintance, whom I had not seen for many years. At so great a distance from home, friendships are quickly formed between compatriots, even if previously unknown to each other,--how much then must their interest increase, when long ago cemented in the native land! My intercourse with this gentleman, equally distinguished for his noble character and cultivated mind, conduced much to the comfort of a tedious residence in this desert. To my enquiry, whether my vessel must now remain stationary at the colony, he replied, that until the first of March of the following year (1825), my time was at my own disposal, but that after that period my presence could not be dispensed with. I therefore proceeded to visit California and the Sandwich Islands, and returned to New Archangel on the 23rd of February 1825. The nearer we drew to the land the milder the weather became, and we were astonished, in so northern a country, to see the mountains at this season of the year entirely free from snow to a considerable height. Throughout this winter, however, which had been particularly mild, the snow in many of the vallies had never lain above a few hours together. Here, under fifty-seven degrees north latitude, the climate is much milder than in European countries similarly situated; as again the north-east coast of Asia is much colder than countries of an equal latitude in Europe. On the morning of the 24th, after passing a stormy night on this dangerous coast, we happily succeeded in reaching the harbour, and anchoring before the fortress, just before another and most violent tempest set in. We were received with great rejoicing; and on the following day placed the frigate in such a position, and at such a distance from the fortress, as was most convenient to accomplish the purpose of our mission. To explain this, we must take a short review of the Russian settlement here, and of the affairs of the original inhabitants. From the highest antiquity to the present day, examples are not wanting of men trusting themselves in small and frail vessels to the perils of the ocean, and performing astonishing voyages, without any of those aids which the improvements in science and mechanical art place within our reach. The children of the Sun in Peru, and the founders of the regular political constitution which existed in Mexico before its invasion by the Spaniards, probably floated in little canoes over the trackless surface of the ocean, as the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands do to this day. The voyages of the Phoenicians and Romans are sufficiently known; as are those of the Norman heroes who discovered Greenland, Iceland, and even North America. In vessels just as defective, destitute of the instruments requisite for observing their course, and of any fixed notion concerning the conformation or extent of the earth, often even without a compass, ignorant Russian adventurers have embarked from Ochotsk, and rounding Kamtschatka, have discovered the Aleutian Islands, and attained to the north-west coast of America. Year after year, in more numerous parties, they repeated these expeditions, tempted by the beautiful furs which were procured in the newly-discovered countries. Many of their vessels were lost,--many of those who ventured in them were attacked and murdered by savages; yet still new adventurers were found yearly encountering all these risks, for the sake of the profitable traffic in these furs, especially that of the sea-otter. By degrees they formed themselves into commercial societies, which obtained a firmer footing on the Aleutian Islands, and even on the northern parts of the western coast of America, carried on a regular trade to Siberia, but lived in a state of continual violence and dissensions. Superior to the natives by the possession of fire-arms, they became overbearing, treated the timid Aleutians in the most cruel manner, and would perhaps have quite exterminated them, had not the Emperor Paul interposed. By his order, in 1797, a Russian-American mercantile company was established, which was to supersede the trading societies hitherto existing, and possess the exclusive privilege of carrying on trade and founding settlements in these regions. The directors, in whose hands was vested the administration of the affairs and appointment of the governor of these settlements, were to reside in Petersburg, under the control of the government, to which they were responsible. At first the sea-otters were plentiful, even on the coast of Kamtschatka; but the unlimited pursuit of them diminished their numbers so rapidly, that the Company was obliged to extend their search for them over the Aleutian Islands, and even to the island of Kodiack, lying on the American coast, where they had fixed their chief settlement. From thence the chase was continued to the bay of Tschugatsk and Cook's river. The poor otters were severe sufferers, for the beauty of the skin nature had bestowed on them. They were pursued in every possible direction, and such numbers annually killed, that at length they became scarce, even in these quarters, having already almost wholly disappeared from Kamtschatka and the Aleutian Islands. The Company therefore resolved to extend their settlements farther south; and thus, in the year 1804, arose the colony on the island of Sitka, whose natives call themselves after their island, but are styled by the Russians Kalushes. The island is only separated from the mainland by a narrow inlet of the sea. It extends over three degrees and a half of latitude; and, in fact, consists of three islands, as I ascertained by personal examination in boats. The channels, however, which separate them are so narrow, that the three might easily pass for one. The coast of Sitka Bay is intersected by many deep creeks, and the neighbouring waters thickly sprinkled with little rocky islands overgrown with wood, which are a protection against storms, and present a strong wall of defence against the waves. The harbour of New Archangel is equally well defended by nature, and needs no assistance from art. A bold enterprising man of the name of Baronof, long superintended the Company's establishments. Peculiarly adapted by nature for the task of contending with a wild people, he seemed to find a pleasure in the occupation. Although the conquest of the Sitkaens, or Kalushes, was not so easily achieved as that of the more timid Aleutians and Kodiacks, he finally accomplished it. A warlike, courageous, and cruel race, provided with fire-arms by the ships of the North American United States, in exchange for otters' skins, maintained an obstinate struggle against the invaders. But Baronof at length obtained a decisive superiority over them. What he could not obtain by presents, he took by force, and, in spite of all opposition, succeeded in founding the settlement on this island. He built some dwelling-houses, made an entrenchment, and having, in his own opinion, appeased the Kalushes by profuse presents, confided the new conquest to a small number of Russians and Aleutians. For a short time matters went on prosperously, when suddenly, the garrison left by Baronof, believing itself in perfect safety, was attacked one night by great numbers of Kalushes, who entered the entrenchments without opposition, and murdered all they met there with circumstances of atrocious cruelty. A few Aleutians only, who happened to be out in their little baidars,[2] escaped by standing out to sea, and brought to Kodiack the news of the annihilation of the settlement at Sitka. This occurrence took place in the year 1804, when the present Admiral Krusenstern made his voyage round the world, and his second ship, the Neva, was bound for this colony. Baronof immediately seized so excellent an opportunity for revenging himself on the Kalushes. He armed three vessels, and sailed in company with the Neva to Sitka. When the Kalushes heard that the warrior Nonok, as they called Baronof, had returned, terror prevented their attempting to oppose his landing; and they retired in great haste to their fortification, consisting of a great quadrangle closely set round with thick, high beams, broken only by one very small and strong door. The pallisadoes were furnished with loop-holes, for the firing of muskets and falconets, with which the besieged were amply supplied. This wooden fortress, enclosing about three hundred fighting men with their families, held out several days; but no sooner had the heavy guns of the Russians effected a breach, than the besieged, finding their position no longer tenable, surrendered at discretion, and delivered over the sons of their chiefs as hostages for their submission. Though peace was now established, and they were allowed to retire unmolested, yet, mistrusting the Russians, they stole away secretly in a dark night, having first murdered all who, whether from age or infancy, might be burdensome to them in their flight. Morning discovered the cruelty perpetrated by these barbarians, who, in their fears, judged the Russians by themselves. From this time Baronof remained nominally in possession of the island, and actually of a hill upon it forming a natural fortification, and formerly inhabited by a chief of the Kalushes called Katelan. The savages thirsted for revenge; and, notwithstanding the treaties concluded with them, unceasingly sought to gratify it by secret arts and ambushes; so that the Russians, unless well armed, and in considerable numbers, could not venture beyond the shelter of their fortress without the most imminent danger of being murdered. Baronof re-founded the settlement, and having strengthened by scientific defences the high hill, which falls on every side in abrupt precipices, has rendered it perfectly safe from every attack. The necessary dwelling-houses were soon erected; and this place, under the name of New Archangel, became the capital of the Russian possessions in America, stretching from 52° of latitude to the Icy Sea, and including also two settlements lying farther south, of which I shall hereafter have occasion to speak. Baronof himself resided from this time in New Archangel, and the chase of the sea-otters proved very advantageous to the Company; but so scarce are these animals now become, even here, that the numbers caught only suffice to cover the expenses of maintaining a force sufficient for protection against the savages. For this reason, the Company have contemplated the necessity of entirely abandoning the settlement at New Archangel, and making Kodiack once more their capital. It were, however, a pity this plan should be adopted, as it would afford facilities to other nations, by settling in these regions, to disturb the trade of the Company. But the Company may possibly be compelled to give up New Archangel, by their resources not permitting them to retain it, unless they should receive some assistance from Government. The climate of Sitka is not so severe as might have been expected from its latitude. In the middle of winter the cold is not excessive, and never lasts long. Agriculture notwithstanding does not appear to be successful here. There is not perhaps a spot in the world where so much rain falls; a dry day is a perfect rarity, and this would itself account for the failure of corn; the nature of the ground is however equally inimical to it. There are no plains of any extent; the small valleys being every where surrounded by high steep rocks of granite, and consequently overshadowed the greater part of the day. Some vegetables, such as cabbages, turnips, and potatoes, prosper very well: the latter are raised even by the Kalushes, who have learned from the Russians the manner of cultivating them, and consider them as a great delicacy. Upon the continent of America, the climate, under the same latitude, is said to be incomparably better than on this island, although the cold is rather more severe. Great plains are there to be met with, where wheat could probably be successfully cultivated. The forests of Sitka, consisting principally of fir and beech, are lofty and thick. Some of their trees are a hundred and sixty feet in height, and from six to seven feet in diameter. From these noble trunks the Kalushes form their large canoes, which sometimes carry from twenty-five to thirty men. They are laboriously and skilfully constructed; but the credit their builders may claim for this one branch of industry is nearly all that belongs to a barbarous and worthless race of men. Wild and unfruitful as this country appears, the soil is rich, so that its indigenous plants, of which there are no great variety, attain a very large growth. Several kinds of berries, particularly raspberries and black currants, of an enormous size but watery taste, are met with in considerable quantities. The sea, near the coast and in the bays, abounds in fish and in mammalia. Whales, sea-hogs, seals, sea-lions, &c. are very numerous; but of the fish, which chiefly afford subsistence both to the natives and the Russians, the best are herrings, salmon, and cod, of which there is a superfluity. There is no great variety of birds native to this coast; but the beautiful white-headed eagle, and several sorts of pretty humming-birds, migrate from warmer climates to build their nests in Sitka. It is extraordinary that these tender little creatures, always inhabiting hot countries, should venture thus far northwards. Among the quadrupeds frequenting the forests is the black bear, whose skin fetches so high a price in Russia, and a species of wild sheep known to us only by the descriptions of the Kalushes, and in which our natural histories are still deficient. It differs greatly from that of Kamtschatka: its wool rivals silk in the delicacy and softness of its texture. The most remarkable animal, however, is the sea-otter, that which has allured merchants hither from distant countries, and which, if such intercourse should improve the morals and intellects of the natives, may be considered as their benefactor. This animal inhabits only the north-west coast of America, between the latitudes of 30° and 60°, in smaller numbers the Aleutian islands, and formerly the coast of Kamtschatka and the Kurile islands. Its skin makes the finest fur in the world, and is as highly prized by the Chinese as by the Europeans. Its value advances yearly, with the increasing scarceness of the animal; it will soon entirely disappear, and exist only in description to decorate our zoological works. Attempts have been made to identify the sea and river otter, because there is a considerable resemblance in their form; but the skin of the former is without comparison finer than the latter, which inhabits only lakes and rivers, where the sea-otter is never found. They are often seen on the surface of the water, many miles from land, lying asleep on their backs, with their young, of which only two are produced at a birth, lying over them sucking. The young cannot swim till they are some months old; but the mother, when she goes out to sea in search of food, carries them on her back and brings them back to her hole in the rocks, when she has satisfied her hunger. If seen by the hunter during these excursions, she is a certain prey, for she never forsakes her offspring however they embarrass her swimming, but, in common with the male, defends them courageously against every attack. The lungs of these animals are so constructed that they cannot subsist for more than a few minutes under water, but are necessitated to re-ascend to the surface for breath. These opportunities are seized by the hunters, who would seldom succeed, if the otter could remain long under water, where it swims with great rapidity and skill. Even with the above advantage, the chase is very toilsome, and sometimes dangerous. It is carried on in the following manner. The hunters row in the little Aleutian baidars round the coast, and for some miles out to sea, provided with bows, arrows, and short javelins. As soon as they see an otter they throw their javelins, or shoot their arrows. The animal is seldom struck; it immediately dives, and as it swims very rapidly, the skill of the hunter is displayed in giving the baidar the same direction as that taken by the animal. As soon as the otter re-appears on the water, it is again fired at, when it dives again; and the pursuit is continued in the same way till the creature becomes so weary that it is easily struck. They tear out with their teeth the arrows which wound them; and often, especially if their young are with them, boldly fall upon the canoes and attack their persecutors with teeth and claws; these conflicts however uniformly end in the defeat and death of the otter. The more baidars are in company, the safer is the hunt, but with experienced hunters two are enough. They often encounter great perils by venturing out too far to sea, and being overtaken by storms. I now proceed, though with some reluctance, to the description of the natives, the Kalushes. They are, as I have already said, the most worthless people on the face of the earth, and disgusting to such a degree that I must beg fastidious readers to pass over a few pages. The truth of my narrative makes it necessary for me to submit to the revolting task of showing to what point of degradation human nature may sink. The Sitka Islanders, as well as their neighbours on the continent, are large and strongly built, but have their limbs so ill-proportioned, that they all appear deformed. Their black, straight hair hangs dishevelled over their broad faces, their cheek-bones stand out, their noses are wide and flat, their mouths large, their lips thick, their eyes small, black, and fiery, and their teeth strikingly white. Their natural colour is not very dark; but they appear much more so than is natural to them, from the custom of smearing themselves daily over the face and body with ochre and a sort of black earth. Immediately after the birth, the head of the child is compressed, to give it what they consider a fine form, in which the eyebrows are drawn up, and the nostrils stretched asunder. In common with many other nations, they tear the beard out by the roots as soon as it appears. This is the business of the women. Their usual clothing consists of a little apron; but the rich wear blankets, purchased from the Russians, or from the American ships, and tied by two corners round the neck, so that they hang down and cover the back. Some of them wear bear-skins in a similar manner. The most opulent possess some European garments, which they wear on great occasions, and which would have an absurd effect were they not so disgusting as to extinguish all inclination to laugh. They never cover the head but in heavy rain, and then protect it by round caps of grass, so ingeniously and closely plaited as to exclude every drop of water. Whatever the degree of heat or cold, they never vary their costume; and I believe there is not a people in the world so hardened against the weather. In the winter, during a cold of 10° of Reaumur, the Kalushes walk about naked, and jump into the water as the best method of warming themselves. At night they lie without any covering, under the open sky, near a great fire, so near indeed as to be sometimes covered by the hot ashes. The women whom I have seen were either dressed in linen shifts reaching to their feet, or in plaited mats. The custom common to both sexes, of painting their faces in broad, black, white, and red stripes crossed in all directions, gives them a peculiarly wild and savage appearance. Although this painting is quite arbitrary, and subject to no exact rules, the different races distinguish each other by it. To give the face a yet more insane cast, their long, hanging, tangled hair is mixed with the feathers of the white eagle. When powdered and painted in this way, the repulsiveness of the Kalush women, by nature excessively ugly, may be imagined; but they have a method of still farther disfiguring themselves. As soon as they are nearly marriageable, an incision is made in the under-lip, and a bone passed through it, which is exchanged from time to time for a thicker one, that the opening may be continually widened. At length a sort of double button, of an oval form, called a kaluga, which, among the people of rank, is often four inches long, and three broad, is forced in so as to make the under lip stand forward thus much in a horizontal direction, and leave the lower teeth quite bare. The outer rim of the lip surrounding the wooden button becomes by the violent stretching as thin as a packthread, and of a dark blue colour. In running, the lip flaps up and down so as to knock sometimes against the chin and sometimes against the nose. Upon the continent, the kaluga is worn still larger; and the female who can cover her whole face with her under-lip passes for the most perfect beauty. Men and women pierce the gristle of the nose, and stick quills, iron rings, and all kinds of ornaments, through it. In their ears, which are also pierced in many places, they wear strings of bones, muscle-shells, and beads. It would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the hideousness of these people when their costume is thus complete; but the lips of the women, held out like a trough, and always filled with saliva stained with tobacco-juice, of which they are immoderately fond, is the most abominably revolting part of the spectacle. The Kalushes have no fixed residence, but hover round the coast in their large canoes, which they call the women's, carrying all their property with them. When they fix upon any spot for their temporary establishment, they build a hut with great celerity, having all the materials at hand. They drive a number of stakes into the ground in a quadrangular form, fill the interstices with thin planks, and roof in the whole with the bark of trees. With such a dwelling they are satisfied; in the severest winter the family sit in a circle, carrying on their several employments round a fire in the centre. The interior displays as much filthiness as if the inhabitants belonged to the dirtiest class of the brute creation. The smoke; the stench of bad fish, and blubber; the repulsive figures of the women, disgustingly occupied in seeking for vermin on the heads or skins of the men, and actually _eating them_ when found; the great utensil for the service of the whole family, which is also the only vessel capable of containing water to wash with; all this soon drives the most inquisitive European out of so detestable a den. Their food, sufficiently disgusting in itself, is rendered still more so by their manner of eating. It consists almost exclusively of fish, of which the whale is the chief favourite, and its blubber an especial dainty. This is sometimes cooked upon red-hot stones, but more commonly eaten raw. The skins of the sea-otters form their principal wealth, and are a substitute for money; these they barter with the ships which trade with them, to the prejudice of the Russian Company, for muskets, powder, and lead. No Kalush is without one musket at least, of which he perfectly understands the use. The richer a Kalush is, the more powerful he becomes; he has a multitude of wives who bring him a numerous family, and he purchases male and female slaves who must labour and fish for him, and strengthen his force when engaged in warfare. These slaves are prisoners of war, and their descendants; the master's power over them is unlimited, and he even puts them to death without scruple. When the master dies, two of his slaves are murdered on his grave, that he may not want attendance in the other world; these are chosen long before the event occurs, but meet the destiny that awaits them, very philosophically. The continual wars which the different races carry on against each other, with a ferocious cruelty uncommon even among savages, may account for the scanty population of this district; the fire-arms with which, to their own misfortune, they have been furnished by the American ships, have contributed to render their combats more bloody, and consequently to cause renewed and increased irritation. Bows and arrows were formerly their only weapons; now, besides their muskets, they have daggers, and knives half a yard long; they never attack their enemies openly, but fall suddenly upon them in moments of the utmost fancied security. The hope of booty, or of taking a prisoner, is a sufficient motive for one of these treacherous attacks, in which they practise the greatest barbarities; hence the Kalushes, even in time of peace, are always on their guard. They establish their temporary abodes on spots in some measure fortified by nature, and commanding an extensive view on all sides. During the night, the watch is confided to women, who, assembled round a fire outside the hut, amuse themselves by recounting the warlike deeds of their husbands and sons. Domestic occupations, even the most laborious, are also left to females; the men employing themselves only in hunting, and building their canoes. The slaves are required to assist the women, who often treat them in a most merciless manner. The females take an active part in the wars; they not only stimulate the valour of the men, but even support them in the battle. Besides the desire of booty, the most frequent occasion of warfare is revenge. One murder can only be atoned by another; but it is indifferent whether the murderer or one of his relations fall,--the custom merely requires a man for a man; should the murdered person be a female, a female is required in return. A case which would appear inconceivable has actually occurred,--that one of these most disgusting creatures has occasioned a struggle similar to that of Troy for the fair Helen, and an advantageous peace has been obtained by the cession of one of these monsters. The Kalush, who would probably look coldly on our most lovely females, finds his filthy countrywomen, with their lip-troughs, so charming, that they often awaken in him the most vehement passion. In proof of this, I remember an occurrence which took place during our residence in Sitka, among a horde of Kalushes who had encamped in the vicinity of the fortress. A girl had four lovers, whose jealousy produced the most violent quarrels: after fighting a long time without any result, they determined to end the strife by murdering the object of their love, and the resolution was immediately executed with their lances. The whole horde assembled round the funeral pile, and chanted a song, a part of which was interpreted by one of our countrymen, who had been long resident here. "Thou wast too beautiful--thou couldst not live--men looked on thee, and madness fired their hearts!" Savage as this action was, another exceeded it in ferocity. A father, irritated by the cries of his child, an infant in the cradle, snatched it up, and threw it into a vessel full of boiling whale-oil. These examples are sufficient to characterise this hateful people, who appear to be in every respect the very refuse of human nature. Their weddings are celebrated merely by a feast given to the relatives of the bride. The dead are burned, and their ashes preserved in small wooden boxes, in buildings appropriated to that purpose. They have a confused notion of immortality, and this is the only trace of religion which appears amongst them. They have neither priests, idols, nor any description of worship, but they place great faith in witchcraft; and the sorcerers, who are also their physicians, are held in high estimation, though more feared than loved. These sorcerers profess to heal the sick by conjurations of the Wicked Spirit; they are, however, acquainted with the medicinal properties of many herbs, but carefully conceal their knowledge as a profitable mystery. We often received visits on board from chiefs of the Kalushes, generally with their whole family and attendants, who came to examine the ship, receive presents, and eat their fill, expressing their gratitude for these civilities by attempting to entertain us with their horrid national dance. Before coming on board, they usually rowed several times round the ship, howling a song to the following effect: "We come to you as friends, and have really no evil intention. Our fathers lived in strife with you, but let peace be between us. Receive us with hospitality, and expect the same from us." This song was accompanied by a sort of tambourine, which did not improve its harmony. They would not climb the ship's side till we had several times repeated our invitation, as it is not their custom to accept the first offer of hospitality, probably from a feeling of distrust. On these visits, the Kalushes were more than usually particular in the decoration of their persons. Their faces were so thickly smeared with stripes of red, black, and white paint, that their natural colour could not be known. Their bodies were painted with black stripes, and their hair covered with a quantity of white down and feathers, which were scattered around with every motion of their heads. Ermine-skins are also frequently fastened into the hair. A wolf or bear-skin, or a blanket, tied round the neck, covers their bodies, and they use an eagle's wing or tail as a fan. Their feet are always bare. When on such occasions they had seen all they wished of the ship, except the cabins, (for these I would not suffer them to enter, on account of the abominable stench left behind by the rancid oil and blubber, which they used as perfumes,) they assembled upon deck to dance. The women did not dance, but assisted as musicians. Their song, accompanied by the dull music of the tambourine, consisted of a few hollow and unconnected tones, sent forth at intervals to keep time with the stamping of their feet. The men made the most extraordinary motions with their arms and bodies, varying them by high leaps into the air, while showers of feathers fell from their heads. Every dancer retained his own place, but turning continually round and round, gave the spectators an opportunity of admiring him on all sides. One only stood a little apart; he was particularly decorated with ermine-skins and feathers, and beat time for the dancing with a staff ornamented with the teeth of the sea-otter. He appeared to be the director of all the movements. At every pause we offered tobacco-leaves to the dancers and musical ladies: both sexes eagerly seized the favourite refreshment, and crammed their mouths with it, then recommencing the music and dancing with renewed alacrity. When at length downright exhaustion put an end to the spectacle, the Kalushes were entertained with a favourite mess of rice boiled with treacle. They lay down round the wooden dishes, and helped themselves greedily with their dirty hands. During the meal, the women were much inconvenienced by their lip-troughs; the weight of the rice made them hang over the whole chin, and the mouth could not contain all that was intended for it. During one of these repasts, the Kalushes were much terrified by a young bear which we had brought from Kamtschatka: breaking loose from his chain, he sprang over their heads, and seizing on the wooden vessel that contained the rice, carried it off in triumph. At parting we always gave them a dram of brandy, which they are very fond of, and can drink in considerable quantities without injury. That no vice may be wanting to complete their characters, the Kalushes are great gamblers. Their common game is played with little wooden sticks painted of various colours, and called by several names, such as, crab, whale, duck, &c., which are mingled promiscuously together, and placed in heaps covered with moss; the players being then required to tell in which heap the crab, the whale, &c. lies. They lose at this game all their possessions, and even their wives and children, who then become the property of the winner. During the whole of our residence at Sitka, we maintained peace with the Kalushes, which may be entirely attributed to the moderation and intrepidity of our sailors. Opposite our frigate, on the shore, the ship's cooper had settled under a tent, almost all our casks being in want of repair; and I allowed him three armed sailors as assistants and protectors against the Kalushes. One day ten of these savages armed with long knives came into the tent; having sat for some time contemplating the work, they became very troublesome, and, on being forbidden to pass the bounds previously prescribed, drew their knives and attacked the cooper, who would have been severely wounded had he not by good fortune parried a dangerous thrust. The three sailors now sprang forward with their loaded muskets; but as they had received the strictest injunctions not to shed blood, except in the most extreme necessity, they contented themselves with standing before the Kalushes and keeping them off with their bayonets. The savages at first continued to threaten the sailors, but on finding they were not to be intimidated, thought proper to retire to the forest. Had a skirmish really ensued, the consequences might have been serious. The Kalushes would all have united against us, and by rushing upon us from their hiding-places, whenever we left the protection of the ship or the fortress, might have done us much mischief. For this reason, Captain Murawieff, the governor of the settlement, had always exerted himself to the utmost to prevent any disputes. By his judicious regulations, he had acquired great influence over the natives, and had effected considerable improvement in their behaviour. In every respect, indeed, the administration of this excellent man has been such as to promote the true welfare of the colonies; and if the plans laid down by him for the future be adhered to, the trade of the Company will be materially benefited, and new sources of profit opened to them. I have already mentioned that no people in the world surpass the citizens of the United States in the boldness, activity, and perseverance of their mercantile speculations. This observation was confirmed by an instance we met with here. On the 16th of April 1825, a two-masted ship ran into this harbour from Boston. It had performed the voyage by Cape Horn in a hundred and sixty-six days, without having put into any intermediate port. Captain Blanchard, proprietor both of the ship, and of the whole cargo, had, upon the strength of a mere report, expended his whole capital upon certain articles of which he had heard that New Archangel was in need; and now, at the close of his immense voyage, found with dismay that not only was the colony well provided for the present, but that a ship was also daily expected from St. Petersburg laden with every thing it could desire. As, however, his offers were very reasonable, the ship and cargo were subsequently purchased of him for twenty-one thousand skins of sea-cats, (not otters) with the stipulation on his part, that he, his crew, and his skins, should be transported to the Sandwich Islands, whence he hoped to procure a passage for Canton, and there to dispose of his merchandise to advantage. These skins are usually sold in China for two Spanish dollars each. On the arrival of Captain Blanchard's ship in port, the whole crew, he himself not excepted, were in a state of intoxication; and it appeared to be mere good luck that they had escaped the dangers of so many rocks and shallows; but the North Americans are such clever sailors, that even when drunk they are capable of managing a ship. It is also probable, that these had lived more soberly during the voyage, and had been tempted by the joy of completing it, to extraordinary indulgence. On my visit to the ship, I could not help remarking the great economy of all its arrangements: no such thing, for instance, as a looking-glass was to be seen, except the one kept for measuring the angle of the sextant, and that, small as it was, assisted the whole crew in the operation of shaving. On the 30th of July, the ship Helena, belonging to the Company, arrived in New Archangel from Petersburg, bringing an ample provision of necessaries for the colony. To us this ship was particularly welcome, as the bearer of permission to leave our station and return to Russia. We immediately set to work to get our vessel in sailing order; and the 11th of August was the long wished-for day, when, favoured by a fresh north wind, we bade adieu to New Archangel, where we had passed five months and a-half surrounded by a people calculated only to inspire aversion, and without relief to the wearisomeness of our mode of life, except in the society of Captain Murawieff and the few Russian inhabitants of the fortress. I determined to return to Kronstadt by the Chinese Sea and the Cape of Good Hope. But having no intention of following Captain Blanchard's example, in wearing out my crew by a voyage of unreasonable length without any relaxation, I appointed Manilla, in the Philippine island of Luçon, for their resting-place, after having made another attempt to find the Ralik chain of islands. The medium of the astronomical observations made during these five months, gave, as the geographical longitude of New Archangel, 135° 33' 18", and the latitude as 57° 2' 57"; the declination of the needle as 27° 30' east. According to this, the promontory of Mount Edgecumbe is in the longitude 136° 1' 49"; consequently about 20' more westerly than appears on Vancouver's map. We found a similar difference between our observation of St. Francisco and his; I therefore believe that his whole survey of the north-west coast of America represents it more easterly than it really is. Our longitudes have the greater claim to confidence, as they were the results of repeated observations on land, while his were merely taken on shipboard _en passant_. The medium of our observations at New Archangel upon the difference in high tides at the new and full moon, gave thirty minutes for the time, and sixteen feet for the greatest difference in the height of the water. CALIFORNIA, AND THE RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT OF ROSS. CALIFORNIA, AND THE RUSSIAN SETTLEMENT OF ROSS. I have already mentioned, in the foregoing chapter, that I was allowed to pass the winter of 1824 in California and the Sandwich Islands. Captain Lasaref also, whom I relieved on the station, proposed to run into St. Francisco on the coast of California, on his return, in order there to lay in fresh provisions for his passage round Cape Horn. He first awaited, however, the arrival of the post from St. Petersburg, which passes between these distant points of our far-spreading monarchy only once in the year, arriving in the spring at Ochotsk by the way of Siberia, and reaching New Archangel in the autumn by sea. It was on the 10th of September 1824, that after having made the necessary preparations for our subsequent residence in New Archangel, and having properly equipped the ship, we again put to sea, and a brisk north wind soon carried us in a southerly direction towards the fertile peninsula of California. Our voyage was safe, and varied by no remarkable occurrence, except that under forty degrees of latitude we were indulged with the spectacle of a most extraordinary struggle between two opposing winds. After a few days' pretty fresh breezes from the south, clouds suddenly appeared in the north, and, by the motion of the water, we perceived that an equally strong wind was rising in that direction. The waves from the opposite regions foamed and raged against each other like hostile forces; but between them lay a path some fathoms broad, and stretching from east to west to an immeasurable length, which appeared perfectly neutral ground, and enjoyed all the repose of the most profound peace, not a single breath troubling the glassy smoothness of its surface. After a time, victory declared for Boreas, and he drove the smooth strip towards our vessel, which had hitherto been sailing in the territory of the south wind. We presently entered the calm region; and while we had not a puff to swell our sails, the wind raged with undiminished fury on both sides. This strange spectacle lasted for about a quarter of an hour; when the north wind, which had been continually advancing, reached us, and carried us quickly forward towards the point of our destination. On the 25th of September we found ourselves, by observations, in the neighbourhood of the promontory called by the Spaniards "the King," not far from the bay of St. Francisco; but a thick fog, which at this season always reigns over the coast of California, veiled the wished-for land till the 27th. At ten o'clock in the morning of this day, at a distance of only three miles, we doubled his rocky majesty, a high bold hill terminating towards the sea in a steep wall of black rock, and having nothing at all regal in its appearance,--and perceived in his neighbourhood a very strong surf, occasioned by two contrary and violent currents raging, with the vain fury of insurrection, against the tranquillity of his immoveable throne. The channel leading into the beautiful basin of St. Francisco is only half gun-shot wide, and commanded by a fortress situated on its left bank, on a high rock, named after St. Joachim. We could distinguish the republican flag, the waving signal, that even this most northern colony of Spain no longer acknowledges the authority of the mother country; we also remarked a few cavalry and a crowd of people who were watching our swiftly sailing vessel with the most eager attention. As we drew nearer, a sentinel grasped with both hands a long speaking trumpet, and enquired our nation and from whence we came. This sharp interrogatory, the sight of the cannon pointed upon our track, and the military, few indeed, but ready for battle, might have induced an opinion that the fortress had power to refuse entrance even to a ship of war, had we not been acquainted with the true state of affairs. St. Joachim, on his rocky throne, is truly a very peaceable and well-disposed saint; no one of his cannon is in condition to fire a single shot, and his troops are cautious of venturing into actual conflict: he fights with words only. I would not therefore refuse to his fortress the courtesy of a salute, but was much astonished at not finding my guns returned. An ambassador from shore soon solved the mystery, by coming to beg so much powder as would serve to answer my civility with becoming respect. As soon as we had dropped anchor, the whole of the military left the fortress without a garrison, to mingle with the assemblage of curious gazers on the shore, where the apparition of our ship seemed to excite as much astonishment as in the South Sea Islands. I now sent Lieutenant Pfeifer ashore, to notify our arrival in due form to the commandant, and to request his assistance in furnishing our vessel with fresh provisions. The commandant himself, Don Martinez Ignatio, lieutenant of cavalry, had been summoned to the capital Monterey, to attend Congress, and was absent; his deputy, the second lieutenant, Don Joseph Sanchez, received my envoy with much cordiality, and referred in a very flattering manner to my former visit to this port, in the ship Rurik. Don Sanchez was at that time a brave subaltern; but had since, under republican colours, risen in the service. He promised to lend us every assistance in his power, and proved his friendly intentions by an immediate present of fruits, vegetables, and fresh meats. As our accounts of California are few and defective, a rapid glance at the history and constitution of this unknown but beautiful country, richly endowed by Nature with all that an industrious population could require to furnish the comforts and enjoyments of life, but hitherto sadly neglected under Spanish mis-government, will probably not be unwelcome to the readers who have accompanied me thus far: I will therefore, on its behalf, defer, for a short space, the account of our residence here. The narrow peninsula on the north-west coast of America, beginning at St. Diego's Point, under thirty-two degrees of latitude, and ending with the promontory of St. Lucas, under twenty-two degrees, was first exclusively called California; but the Spaniards extended this appellation to their more recent discoveries on this coast towards the north; since which, the peninsula has been named Old, and the more northern coast to the Bay of St. Francisco, in thirty-seven degrees latitude, New California; from thence begins the so-called New Albion. Mexico did not suffice to the ambition of its restless conqueror Cortez. To extend still farther the dominion of Spain, he directed the building of large vessels on the western coast of Mexico; and thus, in the year 1534, was California first seen by Spanish navigators, and in 1537 visited by Francisco de Ulloa. When information of the new discoveries reached the Spanish government, they resolved, contrary to their proceedings in the cases of Mexico and Peru, to gain peaceable possession of the new country by converting the inhabitants to the Christian religion, and declared that this pious object was all they had in view. Only a small military force was, in fact, dispatched with a body of Jesuits, who established a settlement and began the trade of conversion. Disinterested as this rather expensive expedition appeared, its secret motive might probably be found in the fear that any other nation should establish itself in the neighbourhood of Mexico and the Spanish gold-mines. The Jesuits came and made converts. These were followed by the Dominicans, who still have settlements, called here missions, in Old California; and subsequently by the Franciscans, who have established themselves in the New. They all convert away at a great rate,--we shall soon find how. The first missions were seated on the coast of Old California, for the convenience of communication by sea with Mexico, and because the country was favourable to agriculture. The military who accompanied the monks, selected for their residence a situation from whence they could overlook several missions, and be always ready for their defence. These military posts are here called Presidios. As it was not possible to make the savage natives comprehend the doctrines of Christianity, their inculcation was out of the question; and all that these religionists thought necessary to be done with this simple, timid race, scarcely superior to the animals by whom they were surrounded, was to introduce the Catholic worship, or, more properly, the dominion of the monks, by force of arms. The missions multiplied rapidly. In New California, where we now were, the first of these, that of St. Diego, was established in 1769; now there are twenty-one in this country. Twenty-five thousand baptized Indians belong at present to these missions, and a military force of five hundred dragoons is found sufficient to keep them in obedience, to prevent their escape, or, if they should elude the vigilance of their guards, to bring them from the midst of their numerous tribes, improving the favourable opportunity of making new converts by the power of the sword. The fate of these so called Christian Indians is not preferable even to that of negro slaves. Abandoned to the despotism of tyrannical monks, Heaven itself offers no refuge from their sufferings; for their spiritual masters stand as porters at the gate, and refuse entrance to whom they please. These unfortunate beings pass their lives in prayer, and in toiling for the monks, without possessing any property of their own. Thrice a day they are driven to church, to hear a mass in the Latin language; the rest of their time is employed in labouring in the fields and gardens with coarse, clumsy implements, and in the evening they are locked up in over-crowded barracks, which, unboarded, and without windows or beds, rather resemble cows' stalls than habitations for men. A coarse woollen shirt which they make themselves, and then receive as a present from the missionaries, constitutes their only clothing. Such is the happiness which the Catholic religion has brought to the uncultivated Indian; and this is the Paradise which he must not presume to undervalue by attempting a return to freedom in the society of his unconverted countrymen, under penalty of imprisonment in fetters. The large tract of arable land which these pious shepherds of souls have appropriated to themselves, and which is cultivated by their flocks, is for the most part sown with wheat and pulse. The harvest is laid up in store; and what is not necessary for immediate consumption is shipped for Mexico, and there either exchanged for articles required by the missions, or sold for hard piastres to fill the coffers of the monks. In this way were the missionaries, and the military who depended upon them, living quietly enough in California, when the other Spanish colonies threw off their allegiance to the mother country. The insurrection having spread as far as Mexico, they were invited by the new governments, under advantageous conditions, to make common cause with them, but they remained true to their King; nor was their fidelity shaken by the total neglect of the Spaniards, who for many years appeared to have forgotten their very existence, and had not even troubled themselves to make the ordinary remittances for the pay of the military, or the support of the monks. Still their loyalty remained unshaken; they implicitly obeyed even that command of the King which closed their ports against all foreign vessels; and as the republicans were considered as foreigners, and no ships arrived from Spain, the missions, as well as the Presidios, soon began to suffer the greatest scarcity of many necessaries which the country did not produce. The soldiery, even to the commander himself, were in rags, without pay, and deriving a mendicant subsistence from the monks. The want which pressed most heavily on the latter was that of the implements of agriculture and other labour; having, with true Spanish indolence, forborne any attempt to manufacture them in the country. The very source of all their acquisitions was thus threatened with extinction; yet still they adhered to their King, with a fidelity truly honourable had it been more disinterested:--but what could they expect from a change of government, except the limitations of their hitherto unbounded power? In the discontent of the soldiers, however, smouldered a spark, dangerous to the power of the monks, which was suddenly blown into a flame by a circumstance that occurred a few years before our arrival. The only pleasure for which the baptized Indians had ever been indebted to the monks was the possession of such baubles as our sailors use in traffic with the South Sea islanders. These things of course could no longer be obtained, and their loss was regarded by the new Christians as a heavy misfortune. Their despair at length broke out into insurrection: they burst their prisons, and attacked the dwellings of the monks, but retired before the fire of musketry. The military, with very little loss on their side, defeated great numbers of the natives, and brought them again into their previous subjection. A new light dawned on the minds of the dragoons. What would have become of the monks without their valiant support? Elated by victory, and disregarding all the protestations of the ghostly fathers, whose feebleness and helplessness were now apparent, they declared themselves the first class in the country, and independent of Spain, which for so many years had abandoned them to their fate. Similar causes produced similar effects in Old California, and each country now forms a separate republic. Spain might with ease have retained these fertile provinces under allegiance. Had their fidelity received the smallest encouragement, it would probably never have been shaken; and California would have proved a most convenient support for the claims of the mother country on the revolutionized colonies, especially on Mexico, formerly the fertile source of Spanish wealth. The Philippines have not rebelled, and these rich islands could have afforded all the assistance the missions required. The neglect of California by Spain would almost seem to have been appointed by Providence, that the prosperity of the new States might suffer no interruption. One immediate result of the independence of this colony is the opening of her ports to all nations, and the consequent impetus given to commerce. The North American States have been the first to make use of the privilege. The exports of California now consist of corn, ox-hides, tallow, and the costly skins of the sea-otter. Some speculators have attempted a trade with China, but hitherto without success. A richly laden ship was entrusted to a North American captain for this purpose, who disposed of the cargo in China; but found it more convenient to retain both the money and ship for his own use, than to return to the owners. The government of New California was on our present visit administered by Don Louis Arguello, the same young man with whom I became acquainted on my voyage in the Rurik, when he was commandant of the Presidio of St. Francisco. He resided at this time in Monterey, and employed himself in devising systems of government which should bring the heterogeneous ingredients of the new republic, dragoons, monks, and Indians, into order and unity. May the destiny of the latter be ameliorated by the change! No Constitution has yet been established here; and Arguello's power, or perhaps ability, was inadequate to introducing that which he had proposed. Many changes are still necessary in the Californias before they can become the happy and flourishing countries for which Nature intended them. On the morning after our arrival, I visited old Sanchez in the Presidio. He received me with unfeigned cordiality, and related to me many things which had taken place since my visit in the Rurik eight years ago. Don Louis, he said, had become a great man, and he himself a lieutenant, which here imports a considerable rank. Nevertheless, he disapproved of all the proceedings, and felt assured that no good could accrue from them. He would rather, he said, be a petty Spanish subject, than a republican officer of state. The Presidio was in the same state in which I found it eight years before; and, except the republican flag, no trace of the important changes which had taken place was perceptible. Every thing was going on in the old, easy, careless way. Sanchez at once promised to provide the ship daily with fresh meat, but advised me to send a boat to the mission of Santa Clara for a supply of vegetables, which were there to be had in superfluity. The Presidio had, with a negligence which would be inconceivable in any other country, omitted to cultivate even sufficient for their own consumption. As I had not visited the mission of Santa Clara during my first visit to California, I now determined to proceed thither on the following day, in the long-boat. Sanchez provided a good pilot, and sent a courier overland to announce my arrival at the mission. The bay of St. Francisco is full ninety miles in circuit: it is divided by islands into two pretty equally sized basins, a northern and a southern. On the banks of the southern, which takes an easterly direction, lie the three missions, St. Francisco, Santa Clara, and St. José. Of the northern half of the bay I will speak hereafter. On the morning of the 28th of September, the Barcasse was ready, and equipped with every thing necessary for our little voyage. Favoured both by wind and tide, we sailed eastward past many charming islands and promontories, to the mission of Santa Clara, which lay at a distance of five-and-twenty miles, in a straight line from the ship. The country presented on all sides a picture of beauty and fertility: the shores are of a moderate elevation, and covered with a brilliant verdure; the hills, towards the interior, swell gently into an amphitheatre, and the background is formed by high thick woods. Groves of oaks are scattered upon the slopes, separated by lovely meadows, and forming more graceful and picturesque groups than I have ever seen as the produce of art. With very little trouble, the most luxuriant harvests might be reaped from this soil; but a happy and industrious population has not yet been established here, to profit from the prodigality of Nature. The death-like stillness of these beautiful fields is broken only by the wild animals which inhabit them; and as far as the eye can reach, it perceives no trace of human existence; not even a canoe is to be seen upon the surrounding waters, which are navigable for large vessels, and boast many excellent harbours;--the large white pelican with the bag under his bill, is the only gainer by the abundance of fish they produce. During the centuries of Spanish supremacy in California, even the exertion of procuring a net has been deemed too great. How abundantly and happily might thousands of families subsist here! and how advantageously might the emigrants to Brazil have preferred this spot for colonization! There, they have to struggle with many difficulties, are often oppressed by the government, and always suffer under a scorching sun. Here, they would have found the climate of the South of Germany, and a luxuriant soil, that would have yielded an ample recompense for the slightest pains bestowed upon it. After a few hours' sail, we came to a deep creek opening to the right, and on its shores we perceived the mission of St. Francisco rising among wooded hills. The tide by this time had ebbed, the wind had died away, and we proceeded slowly by the aid of oars: this induced us, after rowing about fifteen miles, to land, at noon, on a pleasant little island. We made a blazing fire; and as every sailor understands something of cookery, a dinner was soon dressed, which eaten in the open air in beautiful weather, under the shade of spreading oaks, appeared excellent. While the sailors were reposing, we examined the island. Its northern shore was tolerably high, and rose almost perpendicularly from the sea. Its soil, as that of all the country about the bay of St. Francisco, consists, under the upper mould, of a variegated slate; probably the foot of man had never before trodden it. But a short time since, no boat was to be found in the neighbourhood, and now each mission possesses only one large barge in which the reverend Fathers pass up and down the rivers that discharge themselves into the northern half of the bay, to seek among the Indians who are occasionally seen on their banks, for proselytes to recruit the ranks of their laborious subjects. The only canoes of the Indians are made of plaited reeds, in which they sit up to their hips in water. That no one has yet attempted to build even the simplest canoe in a country which produces a super-abundance of the finest wood for the purpose, is a striking proof of the indolence of the Spaniards, and the stupidity of the Indians. Our island was surrounded by wild ducks and other sea-fowl; the white-headed eagle hovered too over the oaks, and seemed to be pursuing a very small species of hare, and a pretty partridge, of which there are great numbers. We enjoyed for a few hours the recreation of the land, so welcome to sailors, and then continued our voyage with a favourable wind. The sun was near the horizon when we approached the eastern shore of the bay. Here the water is no longer of sufficient depth to admit large vessels, and the face of the country assumes a different character. The mountains retire to a greater distance; extensive plains slope from the hills towards the water's edge, where they become mere swamps, intersected however by a variety of natural channels, by means of which, boats may run some distance inland. It was already growing dark as we entered these channels, where, even during daylight, the assistance of a good pilot is requisite to thread the intricacies of a navigation among thick reeds that grow to such a height in the marshes on both sides, as to exclude from view every object but the sky. Our sailors plied their oars vigorously; the channels became gradually narrower, and the banks drier; at length we heard human voices behind the reeds, and at midnight we reached the landing-place. A large fire had been lighted. Two dragoons and a few half-naked Indians, sent from the mission, were waiting our arrival, with saddle-horses intended for our use. As the mission was at the distance of a good hour's ride, the night was dark, and I was not inclined to trouble the repose of the monks, I determined to await the dawn of morning. Our small tents were presently pitched, several fires lighted, and the cooks set to work. After our tedious row, (for, owing to the zigzag course we had been compelled to steer, we had passed over a distance of at least forty miles,) the camping out, in a beautiful night, was quite delightful. Although it was now the latter end of September, the air was as mild as with us during the warmest summer nights. Round our little encampment we heard an incessant barking, as of young dogs, proceeding from a species of wolf, which abounds throughout California; it is not larger than the fox; but is so daring and dexterous, that it makes no scruple of entering human habitations in the night, and rarely fails to appropriate whatever happens to suit it. This we ourselves experienced; for our provision of meat had not been sufficiently secured, and we found nothing in the morning but a gnawed and empty bag. The rising sun announced the approach of a fine day, and gave us a view of the extensive plains which formed the surrounding country. The missionaries cultivated wheat upon them, which had been already harvested, and large flocks of cattle, horses, and sheep, were seen pasturing among the stubble. The mission of Santa Clara possesses fourteen thousand head of cattle, one thousand horses, and ten thousand sheep. The greater part of these animals being left to roam undisturbed about the woods, they multiply with amazing rapidity. I now ordered the horses to be saddled, and we set off for the mission, the buildings and woods of which bounded the view over these prodigious corn-fields. Our way lay through the stubble, amongst flocks of wild geese, ducks, and snipes, so tame that we might have killed great numbers with our sticks. These are all birds of passage, spending the winter here, and the summer farther north. We fired a few shots among the geese, and brought down about a dozen: they differ but little in size from our domestic goose, and some of them are quite white. A ride of an hour and a half brought us to Santa Clara, where the monks received us in the most friendly manner, and exerted themselves most hospitably, to make our visit agreeable. The mission, which was founded in the year 1777, is situated beside a stream of the most pure and delicious water, in a large and extremely fertile plain. The buildings of Santa Clara, overshadowed by thick groves of oaks, and surrounded by gardens which, though carelessly cultivated, produce an abundance of vegetables, the finest grapes, and fruits of all kinds, are in the same style as at all the other missions. They consist of a large stone church, a spacious dwelling-house for the monks, a large magazine for the preservation of corn, and the Rancherios, or barracks, for the Indians, of which mention has already been made. These are divided into long rows of houses, or rather stalls, where each family is allowed a space scarcely large enough to enable them to lie down to repose. We were struck by the appearance of a large quadrangular building, which having no windows on the outside, and only one carefully secured door, resembled a prison for state-criminals. It proved to be the residence appropriated by the monks, the severe guardians of chastity, to the young unmarried Indian women, whom they keep under their particular superintendence, making their time useful to the community by spinning, weaving, and similar occupations. These dungeons are opened two or three times a-day, but only to allow the prisoners to pass to and from the church. I have occasionally seen the poor girls rushing out eagerly to breathe the fresh air, and driven immediately into the church like a flock of sheep, by an old ragged Spaniard armed with a stick. After mass, they are in the same manner hurried back to their prisons. Yet, notwithstanding all the care of the ghostly fathers, the feet of some of these uninviting fair ones were cumbered with bars of iron, the penal consequence, as I was informed, of detected transgression. Only on their marriage are these cloistered virgins allowed to issue from their confinement and associate with their own people in the barracks. Three times a-day a bell summons the Indians to their meals, which are prepared in large kettles, and served out in portions to each family. They are seldom allowed meat; their ordinary, and not very wholesome food, consisting of wheaten flour, maize, peas and beans, mixed together, and boiled to a thick soup. The mission of Santa Clara contains fifteen hundred male Indians, of whom about one-half are married. All these men are governed by three monks, and guarded by four soldiers and a subaltern officer. Since this force is found sufficient, it follows either that the Indians of the mission are happier than their free countrymen, or that, no way superior to the domestic animals, they are chained by their instincts to the place where their food is provided. The first supposition can hardly be well founded. Hard labour every day, Sundays only excepted, when labour is superseded by prayer; corporal chastisement, imprisonment, and fetters on the slightest demonstration of disobedience; unwholesome nourishment, miserable lodging, deprivation of all property, and of all the enjoyments of life:--these are not boons which diffuse content. Many indeed of these unfortunate victims prove, by their attempts to escape, that their submission is involuntary; but the soldiers, as I have before observed, generally hunt them from their place of refuge, and bring them back to undergo the severe punishment their transgression has incurred. To the most stupid apathy, then, must the patience of these Indians be ascribed; and in this, their distinguishing characteristic, they exceed every race of men I have ever known, not excepting the degraded natives of Terra del Fuego, or Van Diemen's Land. The Christian religion, or what the monks are pleased to call by that name, has given no beneficial spur to their minds. How indeed could it act upon their confined understandings, when their teachers were almost wholly deficient in the necessary means of communicating knowledge,--an acquaintance with their language? I have since had opportunities of observing the free Indians, who appear less stupid, and in many respects more civilized, than the proselytes of the _gente rationale_, as the Spaniards here call themselves; and I am convinced that the system of instruction and discipline adopted by the monks, has certainly tended to degrade even these step-children of Nature. If to raise them to the rank of intellectual beings had been really the object in view, rather than making them the mock professors of a religion they are incapable of understanding, they should have been taught the arts of agriculture and architecture, and the method of breeding cattle; they should have been made proprietors of the land they cultivated, and should have freely enjoyed its produce. Had this been done, _los barbaros_ might soon have stood on a level with the _gente rationale_. There are in California many different races of Indians, whose languages vary so much from each other, as sometimes to have scarcely any resemblance; in the single mission of Santa Clara more than twenty languages are spoken. These races are all alike ugly, stupid, dirty, and disgusting: they are of a middle size, weak, and of a blackish colour; they have flat faces, thick lips, broad negro-noses, scarcely any foreheads, and black, coarse, straight hair. The powers of their mind lie yet profoundly dormant; and La Pérouse does not perhaps exaggerate when he affirms, that if any one among them can be made to comprehend that twice two make four, he may pass, in comparison with his countrymen, for a Descartes or a Newton. To most of them, this important arithmetical proposition would certainly be perfectly incomprehensible. In their wild state, all these Indians lead a wandering life. It is only recently that they have begun to build huts of underwood, which they burn whenever they remove from the spot. The chase is their sole occupation and means of subsistence. Hence their skill in shooting with arrows has cost many Spanish lives. They lie in wait at night, in the forests and mountains, watching for game. Agriculture, as I have before observed, is the copious source of revenue to the monks, and they farm on an extensive scale. The yearly crop of wheat at Santa Clara alone, produces three thousand fanegos, about six hundred and twenty English quarters, or three thousand four hundred Berlin bushels; and from the extraordinary fertility of the soil, the harvest, on an average, is forty-fold, notwithstanding the roughness of their mode of cultivation. The field is first broken up with a very clumsy plough, then sown, and a second ploughing completes the work. Under the hard clods of earth thus left undisturbed, a great part of the seed perishes of course. How unexampled would be the harvest, if assisted by the capital and industry of an European farmer! The monks themselves confess that they are not good agriculturists; but they are content with their harvests. Their carelessness is however unpardonable, in having never yet erected a mill. There is not one in all California; and the poor Indians are obliged to grind their corn by manual labour between two large, flat stones. From the mission we took half an hour's walk to a _Pueblo_. This word signifies, in California, a village, inhabited by married invalids, disbanded soldiers from the Presidio, and their progeny. This Pueblo lies in a beautiful spot. The houses are pleasant, built of stone, and stand in the midst of orchards, and hedges of vines bearing luxuriant clusters of the richest grapes. The inhabitants came out to meet us, and with much courteousness, blended with the ceremonious politeness of the Spaniards, invited us to enter their simple but cleanly dwellings. All their countenances bespoke health and contentment, and they have good cause to rejoice in their lot. Unburthened by taxes of any kind, and in possession of as much land as they choose to cultivate, they live free from care on the rich produce of their fields and herds. The population of these Pueblos is every year on the increase; while, on the contrary, the numbers of the Indians dependent on the missions are continually decreasing. The mortality amongst the latter is so great, that the establishments could not continue, if their spiritual conductors did not constantly procure fresh recruits from amongst the free Indians, to fill the thinning ranks of their labourers. In Old California, many of the missions have gone to decay on account of the total extermination of the savages. The north still affords an abundant supply to New California; but if the missionaries do not economize the lives of their men more than they have hitherto done, this source also will in time be exhausted. Meanwhile the Pueblos will continue to multiply, and will become the origins of a new and improved population. After passing three days with the monks of Santa Clara, who at least possess the virtue of hospitality, we set out on our return with a provision of fruit and vegetables, purchased for very fair prices. They were carried to the place of embarkation on heavy and very badly constructed cars drawn by oxen: the wheels were made of thick planks nailed together, without any regard to mechanical science either in their form or poizing; and the machine slowly advanced with a difficult jolting motion very prejudicial to our fine melons, peaches, grapes, and figs, and to the magnificent apples, which have no equals in Europe. On reaching our Barcasse, we found all in readiness to receive ourselves and cargo. The sailors had been much disturbed in the night by the wolves. The ebb-tide favoured our navigation, and soon brought us within sight of an arm of the sea, stretching eastward, at the extremity of which the mission of St. José was built in the year 1797, on a very fertile spot. It is already one of the richest in California, and a Pueblo has arisen in its neighbourhood; the only Pueblo on the Bay of St. Francisco, except that near Santa Clara. Between St. José and Santa Clara a road has lately been made which may be traversed on horseback in about two hours. Soon after our return to the ship, a monk was observed riding along the shore in company with a dragoon, and making signs with his large hat, that he wished to come on board. We sent the boat for him, and a little, thin, lively, and loquacious Spaniard introduced himself as the Padre Thomas of the mission of St. Francisco, and offered, for a good remuneration, to furnish us daily with fresh provisions, besides two bottles of milk. He boasted not a little of being the only man in the whole Bay of St. Francisco who had succeeded, after overcoming many difficulties and obstacles, in obtaining milk from cows, of which he had a numerous herd. As the Presidio could not supply our wants, and the mission of Santa Clara lay too far off, we were very willing to accede to Padre Thomas's wish; and he left us with an invitation to visit him the following noon. Accordingly, several of my officers and myself rode the next day to the mission of St. Francisco, which I have described in the account of my former voyage, and which has remained pretty much in the same state ever since. The jovial Father Thomas was now the only monk in the mission, and, consequently, at its head; he entertained us in a very friendly manner, and with considerable expense. The repast consisted of a great number of dishes, strongly seasoned with garlic and pepper, and plenty of very tolerable wine of the Padre's own vintage; it was animated by music, partly the performance of some little naked Indian boys, upon bad fiddles, and partly of the venerable father himself on a barrel organ which stood near him. The fruits for the dessert were procured from the mission of Santa Clara, as the mists from the sea prevent their ripening at St. Francisco. Some guns from the Presidio, fired with the powder that remained after returning our salute, one morning announced the arrival of Don Ignatio Martinez, the commandant, who, after the breaking up of the congress at Monterey, had returned to his post. With him came also the commandant of the Presidio St. Diego, Don José Maria Estudillo, whom I had before known. They visited me, accompanied by Sanchez, dined with me on board, and were so well entertained, that they did not take leave of us till late at night. Indispensable business now summoned me to the establishment of the Russian-American Company called Ross, which lies about eighty miles north of St. Francisco. I had for some time been desirous of performing the journey by land, but the difficulties had appeared insurmountable. Without the assistance of the commandant, it certainly could not have been accomplished; I was therefore glad to avail myself of his friendly disposition towards me to make the attempt. We required a number of horses and a military escort; the latter to serve us at once as guides, and as a protection against the savages. Both these requests were immediately granted; and Don Estudillo himself offered to command our escort. My companions on this journey were Dr. Eschscholz, Mr. Hoffman, two of my officers, two sailors, Don Estudillo, and four dragoons, making altogether a party of twelve. On the evening previous to the day for our departure, Estudillo came to the ship with his four dragoons, the latter well armed, and accoutred in a panoply of leather. He himself, in the old Spanish costume, with a heavy sword, still heavier spurs, a dagger and pistols in his belt, and a staff in his hand, was a good personification of an adventurer of the olden time. He assured us that we could not be too cautious, since we should pass through a part of the country inhabited by "_los Indianos bravos_:" we therefore also made a plentiful provision of arms, and were ready, as soon as the first beams of morning glimmered on the tops of the mountains, to set forward in our barcasse for the mission of St. Gabriel, lying on the northern shore of the bay, whence our land journey was to commence. The weather was beautiful, the wind perfectly still, and the air enchantingly mild. An Indian named Marco, whom Estudillo had brought with him, served us as pilot; for the Spaniards here, incapable, either through indolence or ignorance, of discharging that office, always employ an experienced Indian at the helm. Don Estudillo, although advanced in life, was a very cheerful companion, and one of the most enlightened Spaniards I have met with in California. He piqued himself a little on his literary acquirements, and mentioned having read three books besides Don Quixote and Gil Blas, whilst, as he assured me in confidence, the rest of his countrymen here had hardly ever seen any other book than the Bible. Marco had grown grey in the mission: on account of his usefulness, he had been in many respects better treated than most of the Indians: he spoke Spanish with tolerable fluency; and when Estudillo endeavoured to exercise his wit upon him, often embarrassed him not a little by his repartees. This Marco affords a proof that, under favourable circumstances, the minds even of the Indians of California are susceptible of improvement; but these examples are rare in the missions. Don Estudillo spoke with much freedom of the affairs of California, where he had resided thirty years: like most of his comrades, he was no friend to the clergy. He accused them of consulting only their own interest, and of employing their proselytes as a means of laying up wealth for themselves, with which, when acquired, they return to Spain. He described to us their method of conversion. The monks, he said, send dragoons into the mountains to catch the free heathens, that they may convert them into Christian slaves. For this species of chase, the huntsman is provided with a strong leathern noose fastened to his saddle, long enough to throw to a great distance, and acquires such dexterity in the practice as seldom to miss his aim. As soon as he perceives a troop of Indians, he throws his noose over one of them before he has time to defend himself, then setting spurs to his horse, rides back to the mission with his prisoner, and is fortunate if he bring him there alive. I can myself bear witness to the skill and boldness of the dragoons, in the management of their horses, and in the use of the noose, with which two or three of them in conjunction will catch even bears and wild bulls; a single man is sufficient to capture an Indian. Estudillo declared that no Indian ever presents himself voluntarily at the missions, but that they are all either hunted in the manner above described, or tricked out of their liberty by some artifice of the monks. For this purpose, some few in every mission are extremely well treated, as for instance our pilot Marco. These are from time to time sent into distant parts of the country to exert their eloquence on their countrymen, and entice them to the missions. Once there, they are immediately baptized, and they then become for ever the property of the monks. To my observation, that affairs would now probably assume a different aspect, as the arbitrary dominion of the clergy, and the dependence of the military upon them were equally terminated, Estudillo replied, that California might certainly become a powerful state,--that she was abundantly provided by nature with all that was requisite to her political aggrandizement, but that she needed a man of ability in her councils. "Don Louis Arguello," said he, "is not the man to re-invigorate our radically disordered finances, to introduce a wholesome subordination, without which no government can flourish, and to establish a constitution upon which our future tranquillity and improvement may be founded. Our soldiers are all of one mind; whoever pays them the arrears due from the Spanish government is their master; he purchases them, and to him they belong. Induced by a knowledge of this disposition, Mexico has entered into negotiations with us; and the question whether California shall exist as an independent state, or place herself under the protection of another power, has been particularly discussed at the late congress at Monterey, and is still undecided." I confess I could not help speculating upon the benefit this country would derive from becoming a province of our powerful empire, and how useful it would prove to Russia. An inexhaustible granary for Kamtschatka, Ochotsk, and all the settlements of the American Company; these regions, so often afflicted with a scarcity of corn, would derive new life from a close connection with California. The sun rose in full magnificence from behind the mountain, at the moment when, emerging from between the islands which divide the northern from the southern half of the bay, an extensive mirror of water opened upon our view. The mission of St. Gabriel, the first stage of our journey, formed a distinguished object in the background of the prospect, sloping up the sides of the hills, the intervening flat land lying so low that it was not yet within our horizon. We had also a distant view towards the north-west of another newly founded mission, that of St. Francisco Salona, the only one situated on the northern shore of the bay except St. Gabriel. The country at this side of the bay, chiefly characterised by gently swelling hills, the park-like grouping of the trees, and the lively verdure of the meadows, is as agreeable to the eye as that of the southern coast. The water is pure and wholesome, which that at the Presidio is not; we therefore laid in our ship's store here. The whole Bay of St. Francisco, in which thousands of ships might lie at anchor, is formed by nature for an excellent harbour; but the little creeks about the north-west coast, now lying to our left, and which I have since frequently visited, are especially advantageous for repairs, being so deep that the largest vessels can lie conveniently close to the land; and an abundance of the finest wood for ship-building, even for the tallest masts, is found in the immediate neighbourhood. The whole of the northern part of the bay, which does not properly belong to California, but is assigned by geographers to New Albion, has hitherto remained unvisited by voyagers, and little known even to the Spaniards residing in the country. Two large navigable rivers, which I afterwards surveyed, empty themselves into it, one from the north, the other from the east. The land is extremely fruitful, and the climate is perhaps the finest and most healthy in the world. It has hitherto been the fate of these regions, like that of modest merit or humble virtue, to remain unnoticed; but posterity will do them justice; towns and cities will hereafter flourish where all is now desert; the waters, over which scarcely a solitary boat is yet seen to glide, will reflect the flags of all nations; and a happy, prosperous people receiving with thankfulness what prodigal Nature bestows for their use, will disperse her treasures over every part of the world. A fresh and favourable wind brought us, without much delay from the opposing ebb-tide, to the northern shore. We left the common embouchure of its two principal rivers, distinguished by the steepness of their banks to the right, and rowing up the narrow channel which has formed itself through the marsh land, reached our landing-place just as the sun's disk touched the blue summits of the mountains in the west. We were still distant a good nautical mile from the mission of St. Gabriel, which peeped from amongst the foliage of its ancient oaks. Many horses belonging to the mission were grazing on a beautiful meadow by the water-side, in perfect harmony with a herd of small deer, which are very numerous in this country. Our dragoons, who had no inclination for a long walk, took their _lassos_ in hand, and soon caught us as many horses as we wanted. We had brought our saddles with us, and a delightful gallop across the plain carried us to St. Gabriel, where we were received in a very hospitable manner by the only monk in residence. The locality of this mission, founded in 1816, is still better chosen than that of the celebrated Santa Clara. A mountain shelters it from the injurious north-wind; but the same mountain serves also as a hiding-place and bulwark for the _Indianos bravos_, who have already once succeeded in burning the buildings of the mission, and still keep the monks continually on the watch against similar depredations. In fact, St. Gabriel has quite the appearance of an outpost for the defence of the other missions. The garrison, _six men_ strong, is always ready for service on the slightest alarm. Having been driven from my bed at night by the vermin, I saw two sentinels, fully armed, keeping guard towards the mountain, each of them beside a large fire; every two minutes they rang a bell which was hung between two pillars, and were regularly answered by the howling of the little wolf I have before spoken of, as often lurking in the vicinity of the missions. That there is not much to fear from other enemies, is sufficiently proved by the small number of soldiers kept, and the total neglect of all regular means of defence. The courage of these _bravos_ seems indeed principally to consist in unwillingness to be caught, in flying with all speed to their hiding-places when pursued, and in setting fire to any property of the missions when they can find an opportunity of doing so unobserved. We saw here several of these heroes working patiently enough with irons on their feet, and in no way distinguishable in manners or appearance from their brethren of St. Francisco or Santa Clara. With the first rays of the sun we mounted our horses, and having passed the valley of St. Gabriel, and the hill which bounds it, our guide led us in a north-westerly direction further into the interior. The fine, light, and fertile soil we rode upon was thickly covered with rich herbage, and the luxuriant trees stood in groups as picturesque as if they had been disposed by the hand of taste. We met with numerous herds of small stags, so fearless, that they suffered us to ride fairly into the midst of them, but then indeed darted away with the swiftness of an arrow. We sometimes also, but less frequently, saw another species of stag, as large as a horse, with branching antlers; these generally graze on hills, from whence they can see round them on all sides, and appear much more cautious than the small ones. The Indians, however, have their contrivances to take them. They fasten a pair of the stag's antlers on their heads, and cover their bodies with his skin; then crawling on all-fours among the high grass, they imitate the movements of the creature while grazing; the herd, mistaking them for their fellows, suffer them to approach without suspicion, and are not aware of the treachery till the arrows of the disguised foes have thinned their number. Towards noon the heat became so oppressive, that we were obliged to halt on the summit of a hill: we reposed under the shade of some thick and spreading oaks, while our horses grazed and our meal was preparing. During our rest, we caught a glimpse of a troop of Indians skulking behind some bushes at a distance; our dragoons immediately seized their arms, but the savages disappeared without attempting to approach us. In a few hours we proceeded on our journey, through a country, which presenting no remarkable object to direct our course, excited my astonishment at the local memory of our guide, who had traversed it but once before. Two great shaggy white wolves, hunting a herd of small deer, fled in terror on our appearance, and we had the gratification of saving the pretty animals for this time. In several places we saw little cylindrically-shaped huts of underwood, which appeared to have been recently quitted by Indians, and sometimes we even found the still glimmering embers of a fire; it is therefore probable that the savages were often close to us when we were not aware of it; but they always took care to conceal themselves from the much dreaded dragoons and their lassos. In the evening we reached a little mountain brook, which, after winding through a ravine, falls into the sea at Port Romanzow, or Bodega. It was already dark, and though but ten miles distance from Ross, we were obliged to pass the chill and foggy night not very agreeably on this spot. In the morning we forded the shallow stream, and as we proceeded, found in the bold, wild features of the scene a striking difference from the smiling valleys through which we had travelled on the preceding day. The nearer we drew to the coast, the more abrupt became the precipices and the higher the rocks, which were overgrown with larch even to their peaked summits. We wound round the bases of some hills, and having with much fatigue climbed other very steep ascents, reached towards noon a considerable height, which rewarded us with a magnificent prospect. Amongst the remarkable objects before us, the ocean stretched to the west, with the harbour of Romanzow, which unfortunately will only afford admission to small vessels; the Russian settlement here, can therefore never be as prosperous as it might have been, had circumstances permitted its establishment on the bay of St. Francisco. To the east, extending far inland, lay a valley, called by the Indians the Valley of the White Men. There is a tradition among them, that a ship was once wrecked on this coast; that the white men chose this valley for their residence, and lived there in great harmony with the Indians. What afterwards became of them is not recorded. On the north-east was a high mountain thickly covered with fir trees, from amongst which rose dark columns of smoke, giving evidence of Indian habitations. Our soldiers said that it was the abode of a chief and his tribe, whose valour had won the respect of the Spaniards; that they were of a distinct class from the common race of Indians; had fixed their dwellings on this mountain on account of its supposed inaccessibility; were distinguished for their courage, and preferred death to the dominion of the Missionaries, into whose power no one of them has ever yet been entrapped. Is it not possible that they may owe their superiority to having mingled their race with that of the shipwrecked whites? Our road now lay sometimes across hills and meadows, and sometimes along the sands so near the ocean that we were sprinkled by its spray. We passed Port Romanzow, and soon after forded the bed of another shallow river to which the Russians have given the name of Slavianka. Farther inland it is said to be deeper, and even navigable for ships; its banks are extremely fertile, but peopled by numerous warlike hordes. It flows hither from the north-east; and the Russians have proceeded up it a distance of a hundred wersts, or about sixty-seven English miles. The region we now passed through was of a very romantic though wild character; and the luxuriant growth of the grass proved that the soil was rich. From the summit of a high hill, we at length, to our great joy, perceived beneath us the fortress of Ross, to which we descended by a tolerably convenient road. We spurred our tired horses, and excited no small astonishment as we passed through the gate at a gallop. M. Von Schmidt, the governor of the establishment, received us in the kindest manner, fired some guns to greet our arrival on Russian-American ground, and conducted us into his commodious and orderly mansion, built in the European fashion with thick beams. The settlement of Ross, situated on the sea-shore, in latitude 38° 33', and on an insignificant stream, was founded in the year 1812, with the free consent of the natives, who were very useful in furnishing materials for the buildings and even in their erection. The intention in forming this settlement was to pursue the chase of the sea-otter on the coast of California, where the animal was then numerous, as it had become extremely scarce in the more northern establishments. The Spaniards who did not hunt them, willingly took a small compensation for their acquiescence in the views of the Russians; and the sea-otter, though at present scarce even here, is more frequently caught along the Californian coast, southward from Ross, than in any other quarter. The fortress is a quadrangle, palisaded with tall, thick beams, and defended by two towers which mount fifteen cannons. The garrison consisted, on my arrival, of a hundred and thirty men, of whom a small number only were Russians, the rest Aleutians. The Spaniards lived at first on the best terms with the new settlers, and provided them with oxen, cows, horses, and sheep; but when in process of time they began to remark that, notwithstanding the inferiority of soil and climate, the Russian establishment became more flourishing than theirs, envy, and apprehension of future danger, took possession of their minds: they then required that the settlement should be abandoned,--asserted that their rights of dominion extended northward quite to the Icy Sea, and threatened to support their claims by force of arms. The founder and then commander of the fortress of Ross, a man of penetration, and one not easily frightened, gave a very decided answer. He had, he said, at the command of his superiors, settled in this region, which had not previously been in the possession of any other power, and over which, consequently, none had a right but the natives; that these latter had freely consented to his occupation of the land, and therefore that he would yield to no such unfounded pretension as that now advanced by the Spaniards, but should be always ready to resist force by force. Perceiving that the Russians would not comply with their absurd requisitions, and considering that they were likely to be worsted in an appeal to arms, the Spaniards quietly gave up all further thought of hostilities, and entered again into friendly communications with our people; since which the greatest unity has subsisted between the two nations. The Spaniards often find Ross very serviceable to them. For instance, there is no such thing as a smith in all California; consequently the making and repairing of all manner of iron implements here is a great accommodation to them, and affords lucrative employment to the Russians. The dragoons who accompanied us, had brought a number of old gunlocks to be repaired. In order that the Russians might not extend their dominion to the northern shore of the Bay of St. Francisco, the Spaniards immediately founded the missions of St. Gabriel and St. Francisco Salona. It is a great pity that we were not beforehand with them. The advantages of possessing this beautiful bay are incalculable, especially as we have no harbour but the bad one of Bodega or Port Romanzow. The inhabitants of Ross live in the greatest concord with the Indians, who repair, in considerable numbers, to the fortress, and work as day-labourers, for wages. At night they usually remain outside the palisades. They willingly give their daughters in marriage to Russians and Aleutians; and from these unions ties of relationship have arisen which strengthen the good understanding between them. The inhabitants of Ross have often penetrated singly far into the interior, when engaged in the pursuit of deer or other game, and have passed whole nights among different Indian tribes, without ever having experienced any inconvenience. This the Spaniards dare not venture upon. The more striking the contrast between the two nations in their treatment of the savages, the more ardently must every friend to humanity rejoice on entering the Russian territory. The Greek Church does not make converts by force. Free from fanaticism, she preaches only toleration and love. She does not even admit of persuasion, but trusts wholly to conviction for proselytes, who, when once they enter her communion, will always find her a loving mother. How different has been the conduct both of Catholic priests and Protestant missionaries! The climate at Ross is mild. Reaumur's thermometer seldom falls to the freezing point; yet gardens cannot flourish, on account of the frequent fogs. Some wersts farther inland, beyond the injurious influence of the fog, plants of the warmest climates prosper surprisingly. Cucumbers of fifty pounds' weight, gourds of sixty-five, and other fruits in proportion, are produced in them. Potatoes yield a hundred or two hundred fold, and, as they will produce two crops in a year, are an effectual security against famine. The fortress is surrounded by wheat and barley fields, which, on account of the fogs, are less productive than those of Santa Clara, but which still supply sufficient corn for the inhabitants of Ross. The Aleutians find their abode here so agreeable, that although very unwilling to leave their islands, they are seldom inclined to return to them. The Spaniards should take a lesson in husbandry from M. Von Schmidt, who has brought it to an admirable degree of perfection. Implements, equal to the best we have in Europe, are made here under his direction. Our Spanish companions were struck with admiration at what he had done; but what astonished them most, was the effect of a windmill; they had never before seen a machine so ingenious, and so well adapted to its purpose. Ross is blest with an abundance of the finest wood for building. The sea provides it with the most delicious fish, the land with an inexhaustible quantity of the best kinds of game; and, notwithstanding the want of a good harbour, the northern settlements might easily find in this a plentiful magazine for the supply of all their wants. Two ships had already run in here from Stapel. The Indians of Ross are so much like those of the missions, that they may well be supposed to belong to the same race, however different their language. They appear indeed by no means so stupid, and are much more cheerful and contented than at the missions, where a deep melancholy always clouds their faces, and their eyes are constantly fixed upon the ground; but this difference is only the natural result of the different treatment they experience. They have no permanent residence, but wander about naked, and, when not employed by the Russians as day-labourers, follow no occupation but the chase. They are not difficult in the choice of their food, but consume the most disgusting things, not excepting all kinds of worms and insects, with good appetite, only avoiding poisonous snakes. For the winter they lay up a provision of acorns and wild rye: the latter grows here very abundantly. When it is ripe, they burn the straw away from it, and thus roast the corn, which is then raked together, mixed with acorns, and eaten without any farther preparation. The Indians here have invented several games of chance: they are passionately fond of gaming, and often play away every thing they possess. Should the blessing of civilization ever be extended to the rude inhabitants of these regions, the merit will be due to the Russian settlements, certainly not to the Spanish missions. After a stay of two days, we took leave of the estimable M. Von Schmidt, and returned by the same way that we came, without meeting with any remarkable occurrence. Professor Eschscholtz remained at Ross, in order to prosecute some botanical researches, intending to rejoin us by means of an Aleutian baidar, several of which were shortly to proceed to St. Francisco in search of otters. This promised chase was a gratifying circumstance to me, as I had it in contemplation to examine several of the rivers that fall into the Bay of St. Francisco, for which purpose the small Aleutian vessels would probably prove extremely serviceable. The north-west wind is prevalent here during summer, and rain is unknown in that season: it was now, however, the latter end of October, and southerly gales began to blow, accompanied by frequent showers; we had therefore to wait some time for the baidars and Professor Eschscholtz. Meanwhile, to our great surprise, a boat with six oars, one day, entered the bay from the open sea, and lay to beside our ship. It belonged to an English whaler, which had been tacking about for some days, and was prevented by the contrary wind from getting into the bay. The greater part of his crew being sick of the scurvy, the captain at length resolved on sending his boat ashore, in hopes of being able to get some fresh provisions for his patients. I immediately furnished the boat with an ample supply both of fresh meat and vegetables, and having completed its little cargo, it proceeded again to sea forthwith. The next day the whaler succeeded in getting into the bay, and came to anchor close alongside. It was evident, from their manner of working the vessel, that she had but few hands on board capable of labour. The captain, who shortly afterwards visited me, was himself suffering severely, and his mates were all confined to their beds; seven months the vessel had been at sea off the Japanese coast, holding no communication with the shore; and this without having succeeded in the capture of a single whale, though numbers of them had been seen on the coast. The scurvy with which the crew was afflicted, was mainly attributable to unwholesome food, selected on a principle of unpardonable economy, and to the want of cleanliness; a vice not usual among the English, but which, during so long an absence from land, is scarcely to be avoided; not the slightest symptom of this fearful malady, formerly so fatal to seamen, manifested itself on board my vessel throughout the whole course of our tedious voyage. The captain informed me that a number of whalers frequented the Japanese coast, and often obtained rich cargoes in a short period: the principal disadvantages with which they had to contend were violent storms, and a strict prohibition against landing. The Japanese, as is well known, refuse to have any foreign intercourse except with the Chinese and Dutch, and treat all other nations as if they carried contagion with them; hoping thus to preserve their ancient manners unchanged. During my first voyage with Admiral Krusenstern, I spent seven months in Japan, and may venture to assert, that whoever has an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the people, cannot but respect them for the high degree of intellectual development to which they have attained, through their own efforts, unassisted by foreign influence. Their total isolation is probably owing to the timid policy of a despotic government, anxious to prevent the introduction of ideas that might possibly exercise a hostile influence upon the existing institutions. A whaler that had exceeded his appointed stay on the coast, had completely exhausted his stock of water and provisions. In this distress, although fully aware of the severe prohibition, the captain resolved to pay a visit to the Emperor in his capital, and accordingly, without ceremony, sailed into the Bay of Jeddo, where he cast anchor within gun-shot of the city. The hubbub among the inhabitants, who had never seen an European vessel before, may be imagined. The shore immediately swarmed with soldiers, and armed boats surrounded the ship. From these martial preparations, the crew apprehended that it was intended to make them pay for their temerity with their lives; but their fears proved unfounded. As soon as the Japanese had taken the necessary precautions to prevent the vessel either from leaving the spot where she had first anchored, or from sending a boat on shore, a handsome barge came alongside, from which two Bonjoses, dressed in silk, and each armed with two sabres, stepped on board: they were accompanied by an interpreter who spoke a little broken Dutch. They saluted the captain politely, inquiring the object of his visit, and whether he was not aware that the coast of Japan was not accessible under pain of death? The captain acknowledged himself aware of the prohibition, but stated that the emergency of the case had left him no choice: the Bonjoses thereupon searched the vessel, and having satisfied themselves that she was really destitute of provisions and water, they took leave of the captain with the same civility they had shown him on their arrival. A multitude of boats with persons of both sexes now issued from the city, to feast their eyes upon the novel spectacle, but they were not allowed to approach within the circle marked by the watch-boats. The same day, the interpreter returned, bringing water and every species of provisions, sufficient for several weeks, declaring that the Emperor furnished every thing gratuitously, as the government would deem it a disgrace to accept payment from those whom distress had driven to their shore; but as the captain's necessities were now provided for, he was ordered immediately to put to sea, and to inform his countrymen, that except in cases of the most urgent necessity, they were not permitted to approach the Japanese coast under pain of death; nor was it at all just to carry on a fishery on their coast, without the permission of the Emperor. The interpreter had brought a number of people with him, who assisted in shipping the provisions and water: the captain was then immediately obliged to weigh anchor, and the Japanese boats towed the vessel out to sea, after she had been scarcely twelve hours in the bay. On taking leave, the captain wished to make a present to the interpreter, but he hastened out of the vessel in alarm, declaring that his acceptance of the smallest trifle would cost him his head. Europeans are not so scrupulous. Soon after this, another whaler, knowing nothing about the affair in Jeddo, sent a boat ashore, a hundred miles farther south, to a little village on the coast, to try and purchase some fresh provisions. The sailors, on landing, were immediately seized and imprisoned, and their boat placed under arrest. The ship, having waited a long time in vain for the return of her boat, was at length driven by a violent storm to a distance from the coast. The prisoners were well treated; their prison was commodious, and their food excellent. In fourteen days, sentence was pronounced on them, probably at Jeddo, and proved less mild than might have been expected in Japan:--they were ordered to be replaced in their boat, and immediately sent to sea without any provisions, let the weather be what it might. After wandering on the trackless ocean for eight-and-forty hours, they had the good fortune to meet with a whaler, which took them in. These examples may serve as a warning to all navigators who may be desirous of effecting a landing in Japan. The Californian winter being now fairly set in, we had much rain and frequent storms. On the 9th of October the south-west wind blew with the violence of the West-Indian tornado, rooted up the strongest trees, tore off the roofs of the houses, and occasioned great devastation in the cultivated lands. One of our thickest cables broke; and if the second had given way, we would have been driven on the rocky shore of the channel which unites the bay with the sea, where a powerful current struggling with the tempest produced a frightful surf. Fortunately, the extreme violence of the storm lasted only a few hours, but in that short time it caused a destructive inundation: the water spread so rapidly over the low lands, that our people had scarcely time to secure the tent, with the astronomical apparatus. On comparing the time of day at St. Petersburg and St. Francisco, by means of the difference of longitude, it appears that the tremendous inundation at the former city took place not only on the same day, but even began in the same hour as that in California. Several hundred miles westward, on the Sandwich Islands, the wind raged with similar fury at the same time, as it did also still farther off, upon the Philippine Islands, where it was accompanied by an earthquake. So violent was the storm in the Bay of Manilla, (usually so safe a harbour,) that a French corvette, at anchor there, under the command of Captain Bougainville, a son of the celebrated navigator, was entirely dismasted, as we afterwards heard, on the Sandwich Islands, and at Manilla itself. This hurricane, therefore, raged at the same time over the greatest part of the northern hemisphere; the causes which produced it may possibly have originated beyond our atmosphere. Finding that our anchorage would not be secure during the winter, if we should be exposed to storms of this kind, we took advantage of the fine weather on the following day, to sail some miles farther eastward, into a little bay surrounded by a romantic landscape, where Vancouver formerly lay, and which is perfectly safe at all seasons: the Spaniards have named this bay _Herba buena_, after a sweet-smelling herb which grows on its shores. The arrival of Dr. Eschscholtz and the baidars from Ross was still delayed, and I really began to fear that some misfortune had befallen them in the tempest: my joy therefore was extreme, when at last, on the 12th of October, the baidars, twenty in number, entered the harbour undamaged, and we received our friend again safe and well. The little flotilla had indeed left Ross before the commencement of the hurricane, but had fortunately escaped any injury from it, by taking refuge at a place called _Cap de los Reges_, till its fury was expended; but the voyagers had been obliged to bivouack on the naked rock, without shelter from the weather, and with very scanty provisions. Dr. Eschscholtz, however, not in the slightest degree disheartened by the difficulties he had undergone, was quite ready to join the voyage I had meditated for the examination of the adjacent rivers. All our preparations were now completed; we again took on board our pilot Marco, and a soldier from the Presidio, who offered to accompany us. On the 18th of November the weather was favourable, and we set out with a barcasse and a shallop, both well manned and provided with every necessary, in company with the Aleutian flotilla. At first we took the same course I have before described, towards the mission of St. Gabriel; cutting through the waters of the southern basin, and working our way between the islands into the northern portion of the bay; then adopting an easterly course, so that St. Gabriel remained at a considerable distance to the left in the north-east. We reached towards noon, at a distance of thirty miles from our ship, the common mouth of the two before-mentioned rivers, which here fall into the bay. The breadth of this embouchure is a mile and a half, and the banks on both sides are high, steep, and little wooded. It is crossed by a shallow, not above two or three feet deep; but on its east side the channel will admit ships of a middling size fully laden. The current was so strong against us, that it was with much exertion our rowers accomplished crossing the shallow. We landed on the left bank in order to determine the geographical position of the mouth, and found the latitude 38° 2' 4", and the longitude 122° 4'. After finishing this task, I ascended the highest hillock on the shore, which consisted of strata of slate and quartz, to admire the beauty of the prospect. On the south lay the enviable and important Bay of St. Francisco with its many islands and creeks; to the north flowed the broad beautiful river formed by the junction of the two, sometimes winding between high, steep rocks, sometimes gliding among smiling meadows, where numerous herds of deer were grazing. In every direction the landscape was charming and luxuriant. Our Aleutians here straggled about in their little baidars, and pursued the game with which land and water were stocked: they had never seen it in such plenty; and being passionately fond of the chase, they fired away without ceasing, and even brought down some of the game with a javelin. The Aleutians are as much at home in their little leathern canoes, as our Cossacks on horseback. They follow their prey with the greatest rapidity in all directions, and it seldom escapes them. White and grey pelicans about twice the size of our geese were here in great numbers. An Aleutian followed a flock of these birds, and killed one of them with his javelin; the rest of the flock took this so ill, that they attacked the murderer and beat him severely with their wings, before other baidars could come to his assistance. The frequent appearance of the pelican on this river, proves that it abounds in fish; a remark that our pilot Marco confirmed; and we ourselves saw many large fish leap to the surface of the water. When the sailors had rested some hours, we continued our voyage up the stream; but it was ebb-tide, and both currents united allowed us to make but little progress. We landed therefore at six o'clock, after working only a few miles, and pitched our tents for the night in a pretty meadow. The river flowing as before, from the north, was here a mile broad, and deep enough for the largest ships. On the following morning we broke up our camp at break of day, and, favoured by wind and tide, sailed swiftly forward in a direction almost due north. The aspect of the river now frequently changed: its breadth varied from one to two and three miles. We often came into large reaches many miles in circumference, and surrounded by magnificent scenery. We sailed past pretty hilly islands adorned with lofty spreading trees, and every where found a sufficient depth of water to admit the largest ships. The steep banks sometimes opened to delightful plains, where the deer were grazing under the shadow of luxuriant oaks. The voyage was in fact, even at this time of year, a most agreeable excursion. When we had proceeded eighteen miles from our night camp, and twenty-three from the river's mouth, we reached the confluence of the two streams. One flows from the east, and the other from the north. The Spaniards call the first Pescadores; farther inland it receives two other rivers, which, according to our pilot, are equally broad and deep as itself: the missionaries have given them the names of St. Joachim, and Jesus Maria. Some way up these rivers, whose banks are said to have been uncommonly fertile and thickly peopled, the pious fathers have journeyed to convert the Indians and procure labourers for the missions. Now that a part of the natives have yielded to conversion, and others have fled farther into the interior to escape it, no human being is to be found in the tract of land which we were surveying; no trace remains of a numerous race called Korekines, by whom it was once inhabited. Since the river Pescadores was already known, I chose the other, which flows from the north, and is called Sacramento. Towards noon, after we had ascended it some miles, a violent contrary wind forced us ashore; latitude 38° 22'. The wind increasing every moment in strength, we were obliged to give up for this day all thoughts of making farther progress; and resolving to pass the night here, pitched our tents in a pleasant meadow on the west side of the river. I then climbed a hill, to enjoy a more extensive prospect; and observed that the country to the west swelled into hills of a moderate height, besprinkled with trees growing singly. In the east and south-east the horizon was bounded by icy mountains, the Sierra Nevada, part of the immense chain which divides America from north to south: they appeared to be covered more than half-way down with ice and snow. The distance of these mountains from my present station could not be less than forty miles. Between them and the river the country is low, flat, thickly wooded, and crossed by an infinite number of streams, which divide the whole of it into islands. We had not yet met a single Indian; but the columns of smoke which rose from this abundantly irrigated tract of land, showed that they had taken refuge where the dragoons and their lassos could not follow to convert them. It seems certain that the river Pescadores, as well as those of St. Joachim and Jesus Maria, which fall into it, take their rise in the icy mountains, since they flow from the east, and pass through the low lands, where they receive a multitude of smaller streams. On the contrary, the river Sacramento flowing from the north, from quite another region, has its source, according to the Indians of the mission, in a great lake. I myself conjecture, that the Slavianka, which falls into the sea near Ross, is an arm of it. The many rivers flowing through this fruitful country will be of the greatest use to future settlers. The low ground is exactly adapted to the cultivation of rice; and the higher, from the extraordinary strength of the soil, would yield the finest wheat-harvests. The vine might be cultivated here to great advantage. All along the banks of the river grapes grow wild, in as much profusion as the rankest weeds: the clusters were large; and the grapes, though small, very sweet, and agreeably flavoured. We often ate them in considerable quantities, and sustained no inconvenience from them. The Indians also eat them very voraciously. The chase furnished us with ample and profitable amusement. An abundance of deer, large and small, are to be met with all over the country, and geese, ducks, and cranes, on the banks of the rivers. There was such a superfluity of game, that even those among us who had never been sportsmen before, when once they took the gun in their hands, became as eager as the rest. The sailors chased the deer very successfully. When it grew dark, we kindled a large fire, that our hunters, some of whom had lost their way, might recover the camp. In the night we were much disturbed by bears, which pursued the deer quite close to our tents; and by the clear moonlight we plainly saw a stag spring into the river to escape the bear; the latter, however, jumped after him, and both swam down the stream till they were out of sight. At sunrise, as the wind had fallen a little, we continued our voyage. On the shore we met with a small rattlesnake, which might have been a dangerous neighbour. It was, however, his destiny to become our prize, and enrich the collection of Dr. Eschscholtz. The river now took a north-westerly direction. Its breadth was from two hundred and fifty to three hundred fathoms, independently of numerous branches on the east side, flowing between various small islands. The country on the west bank was of a moderate height; that on the east was low. The power of the current impeded our progress, though our rowers exerted all their strength. As the sun advanced towards the meridian, the north wind also rose again; so that with our utmost efforts we could advance but little, and at noon we were obliged to lay-to again, having proceeded only ten miles the whole day. The latitude on the western shore, where we now landed, was 38° 27', and the longitude 122° 10'. Here we had reached what proved the termination of our little voyage. The unfavourable state of the weather would not allow of our making any farther progress; and our pilot assured us that at this season the quantity of rain that falls, so much swells the river and strengthens the currents, as to make it impossible to contend with the continually increasing force of the stream. We were therefore compelled to abandon the farther prosecution of these inquiries to some future traveller, whose fate shall lead him hither in summer time, when these obstacles do not exist. The neighbourhood of our landing-place seemed to have been recently the abode of some Indians. We found a stake driven into the earth, to which a bunch of feathers was attached for a weather-cock; in several places fire had been kindled, as some burning embers still attested. There were also two Indian canoes made of reeds. The pilot gave me the names of two tribes who had formerly dwelt in this region, and probably still wandered in its vicinity--the Tschupukanes, and Hulpunes. We could now see the smoke of their fires rising from the marshy islands, the higher parts of which they inhabit. The majestic chain of mountains of the Sierra Nevada looked most beautiful from this spot. The whole eastern horizon was bounded by these masses of ice, and before them the low land lay spread out like a verdant sea. From the Bay of St. Francisco, the Sierra Nevada are nowhere visible; but they first come in sight after having passed the point where the Pescadores and the Sacramento unite. The day was again passed in sport, and we shot many stags, the meat of which proved extremely good. During the night we were again disturbed by the little wolves so common here: they stole some pieces of our venison. Early the next morning we prepared for our return, and soon quitted these lovely and fertile plains, where many thousand families might live in plenty and comfort, but which now, from their utter loneliness, leave a mournful impression on the mind, increased by the reflection that the native Indians have been nearly exterminated. During our return voyage, we were very diligent in taking soundings, and found the water in the middle of the river always as much as from fifteen to seventeen and twenty fathoms; but at its mouth not more than four or five fathoms deep. On the 23rd of November we again reached our vessel, laden with venison for the whole crew. Captain Lasaref had arrived during our absence with his frigate; having struggled with storms almost the whole way from New Archangel to St. Francisco. With the intention of sending letters home by him, I had waited for his arrival to leave California. Our vessel was therefore now immediately prepared for sailing, our camp on shore broken up, and all the instruments brought on board. During the last night our people passed on land, they killed a polecat which had slunk into the tent. This animal, of the size and form of an ordinary cat, has so abominable a smell, that its vicinity is insupportable. Dogs, when they sometimes attack and bite these creatures, cannot relieve themselves from the stench, but continue to rub their noses so violently against the ground as they run, that they leave a stream of blood on their track. Polecats may be considered in the brute creation what the Kalushes are among men. On the morning of the 25th of November, as soon as the tide ebbed, we towed out of the Bay of St. Francisco with a north-west wind, which here regularly brings fine weather. The sea was still so much agitated by the recent south-west storms, that it rolled large billows into the channel which unites it with the bay. Our vessel being dashed against these breakers by the force of the current from the channel, would no longer obey the helm, and we narrowly escaped being cast against a rock. I would therefore recommend others of my profession only to sail out of this bay when the water in the channel is tranquil, which usually happens after the wind has blown for several days from the north-west. According to repeated observations, we found the latitude of the Presidio of St. Francisco to be 37° 48' 33", and the longitude 122° 22' 30". The declination of the needle was 16° east. The medium of our observations in the bay gave us the time for high water, at the new and full moon, 11 hours and 20 minutes. The greatest difference in the height of the water was seven feet. The rivers which fall into the bay have a great influence on the times of ebb and flow, so that the ebb lasts eight hours, and the flood only four. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. On losing sight of the Californian coast, we steered southwards, to take advantage as soon as possible of the trade-wind, proposing by its means to sail direct for the Sandwich Islands. A strong and lasting north-wester favoured our intention, and on the 3rd of December we crossed the tropic of Cancer in the latitude 133° 58', gained the trade-wind, and began our run westward, supposing ourselves secure from storms in this tropical region; we were, however, mistaken: already on the 5th a high wind from the south-east compelled us to take in all sail; on the 6th it shifted to the west, and on the 7th to the north. We experienced from this quarter some violent gusts, after which the heavens cleared, the storm abated, and towards evening on the 8th, we regained the ordinary trade-wind. I mention these storms, only because they are almost unexampled at so great a distance from land, between the tropics, and especially as coming from the west; but it appears that this year was quite out of the ordinary course, and produced a number of strange phenomena of which we heard complaints wherever we went. The weather, after treating us so ill, again became friendly, and the remainder of our voyage proceeded swiftly and favourably under the magnificent tropical sky: agreeable it was sure to be; for the peculiar charm of a sail between the tropics is appreciated by all seamen. An old English captain, with whom I became acquainted during this voyage, assured me that he could imagine no greater luxury for the remainder of his life, than to possess a good quick-sailing ship, to keep a good table, and to sail between the tropics, without ever making land. I cannot, I confess, altogether participate in this true seaman-like taste: on my voyages, the mere sight of land has always been my great source of pleasure. The conduct of a vessel through distant seas, and through its conflicts with the variable element, is not indeed an uninteresting occupation; but the object which has always chiefly attracted my inclinations, is an intimate knowledge of various countries and their inhabitants; and I have always considered the time spent at sea, as a necessary hardship submitted to with this reward in view. Perhaps I was not born for a sailor: an accident, by no means calculated upon in my previous education, made me such in my fifteenth year. We sailed in the night past O Wahi, the principal of the Sandwich group, with its celebrated giant mountain Mou-na-roa. At break of day on the 13th, we saw in the west the elevated island of Muwe, and continued our course along the northern shore of this and its neighbour Morotai, to Wahu, where we intended to land. The landscape of a tropical country is always pleasing, even when, as here, high lava hills, and masses of sometimes naked rocks piled like towers upon each other, form the principal features of the coast, at first inspiring the navigator with doubts of its fertility. But how agreeably is he surprised, on reaching the southern shores of these islands, to meet with the most smiling scenery, and most luxuriant vegetation. In the middle of the channel, between the islands Muwe and Morotai, lie two small uninhabited islands, which, strange to say, are not marked on Vancouver's map. We took some pains to ascertain their exact situation. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the high yellow rock which forms the eastern point of the island of Wahu, became plainly visible above our horizon. We could not reach the secure harbour of Hanaruro, which lies on the southern side of this promontory, before nightfall, and therefore thought it advisable to lay-to between the islands Wahu and Morotai. In the morning, after doubling the conical mountain called the Diamond Mountain, we suddenly came in sight of the harbour, containing a number of ships decorated with the flags of various nations. I must here make a few remarks for the benefit of such navigators as are not well acquainted with these waters. Whoever wishes to sail in between the islands of Wahu and Morotai, must remember, that throughout the year a strong current always sets here towards the north-west; and that the eastern point of Wahu should be doubled within the distance of three miles from the coast; as farther out to sea, calms are very prevalent here, whilst in the neighbourhood of the land, a fresh breeze regularly sets, in the morning, from the land, and from noon till evening from the sea. Behind its harbour, safely sheltered by the coral reefs, lies the town of Hanaruro, consisting of irregular rows of dwellings scattered over an open plain. Here and there among the huts are seen houses built of stone in the European fashion. The former lie modestly concealed, under the cooling shade of palm-trees; the latter stand boldly forward, braving the burning sunbeams and dazzling the eye by their overpowering whiteness. Close to the shore the fortress rears its strong turreted walls in a quadrangular form, planted with cannon, and bearing the striped national flag of the Sandwich Islands. The country above the town rises in an amphitheatre, planted with tarro-root, sugar-cane, and banana, and the view to landward is bounded by precipitous mountains invading the clouds, and thickly overgrown with fine trees. In this beautiful panorama we see at once that the island of Wahu deserves the appellation it has acquired,--of the garden of the Sandwich Islands. As we approached the harbour, I made the usual signal for a pilot, and we soon after saw a boat of European construction making towards us; it was rowed by two naked _Kanachas_, as the lower class of people are here called, the pilot sitting at the rudder in an European dress. When he came on board, I recognised him for the Englishman, Alexander Adams, who on my former voyage in the Rurik had commanded the ship Kahumanna, belonging to King Tameamea; he was now chief pilot. The wind did not immediately allow us to run into the harbour, but in a few hours it became favourable, and our skilful pilot guided us safely through the intricacies of its narrow entrance. Our ship was the largest that had ever passed through this channel, which would be impracticable for first-rate vessels. Some of the ships we found in the harbour were English and American whalers, which had put in here for provisions; others were on trading voyages to the north-west coast of America for skins, or returning thence with their cargoes. Some were from Canton, laden with Chinese produce, which finds a good market in the Sandwich Islands; and one was a French ship from Bordeaux, which having carried a cargo of iron wares to Chili, Peru, and Mexico, had brought the remains of it here. All the captains visited me in the hope of hearing news from Europe; but many of them had left it later than we had, and accommodated us with their London newspapers. If we consider that scarcely fifty years have elapsed since these islands were first introduced by Captain Cook to the knowledge of the European public, and that the inhabitants were then completely what we call savages, that is, that they were wholly destitute of any conception of the arts, sciences, or habits of civilized life, we shall find with surprise that the harbour of Hanaruro already bears a character almost entirely European, reminding us only by the somewhat scanty clothing of the natives, of the briefness of their acquaintance with our customs. My readers, I think, will take some interest in a short account of this people, whose rapid progress in civilization would perhaps by this time have placed them on a level with Europeans, if unfavourable circumstances had not thrown obstacles in the way of their improvement, which it will require another such governor as Tameamea to overcome. The eleven islands named by Cook after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, but for which the natives have no common appellation, lie between the nineteenth and twenty-second degrees of north latitude. They are all high and volcanic. O Wahi, the most easterly, and by much the largest, is eighty-seven miles long and seventy-five broad: it has three mountains, which may well bear a comparison with the highest in the world. The climate of these islands is particularly beautiful and healthy. Their population is estimated by Captain King at four hundred thousand; whose colour, form, language, and manners, testify their relationship with the other islanders of this great ocean, though they have very little knowledge of them. Their earliest history consists of traditions of truths interwoven with fables, which ascend to the first peopling of the islands, and are not yet embodied in the relation of any voyage. I have collected them carefully from the accounts of the most distinguished and intelligent man in Hanaruro, my friend Karemaku, a Spaniard named Marini, who had long resided here, assisting as interpreter. According to a belief not long ago universally prevalent, the mighty spirit Etua-Rono reigned over these islands before they were inhabited by men. Ardently desirous of seeing his country peopled, he was melancholy, and shed torrents of tears on the mountain Mou-na-roa, because he had no offspring; and his loving wife, the beautiful goddess Opuna, was not in a situation to console him. At length Fate heard his prayers. On the south-east point of the island of O Wahi two boats were stranded, having on board some families, who brought with them hogs, fowls, dogs, and several edible roots. To the present day are the first footsteps of man on this land to be seen. Rono was at that time absent, catching fish on the northern islands for his wife. The fire-god, his subject, unpropitious to man, taking advantage of this circumstance, made an effort to repulse the new-comers. He approached them with terrible gestures, and asked whence they came. They answered--"We come from a country which abounds in hogs, dogs, cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit. We were overtaken by a violent storm when on a voyage to visit some neighbours; and the moon changed five times before we reached this land." They then begged permission to remain, which the fire-god cruelly refused, and continued inexorable, although they offered to sacrifice a hog to him. Rono, however, observing that a strange smell proceeded from O Wahi, suddenly returned, and was greatly surprised at the sight of the men. Encouraged by his friendly deportment, they made their petition to him, relating the harsh treatment they had endured from the fire-god. Rono, enraged at this intelligence, threw the fire-god into the crater Kairuo, on the side of the mountain Mou-na-roa, where he still chafes in vain. The men now lived tranquilly on O Wahi, increased in numbers, and sought, by great sacrifices, to prove their love and thankfulness to their protector, Etua-Rono. To his honour were established the solemn yearly games called Makahiti, in which whoever obtained the victory in running, wrestling, and warlike evolutions, was crowned with a verdant wreath and presided as king over the ensuing feast. The other islands were gradually peopled from O Wahi; the number of the gods also increased; but they all remained subject to Etua-Rono. Mankind had enjoyed a long period of peace and content under the beneficent protection of Rono, when their happiness was suddenly disturbed by a distressing occurrence. The goddess Opuna, the beautiful consort of Rono, degraded herself by a clandestine connexion with a man of O Wahi. Her husband, furious on the discovery of his wrongs, precipitated her from the top of a high rock, and dashed her to pieces; but had scarcely committed this act of violence when, in an agony of repentance, he ran wildly about the islands, bestowing blows and kicks on every one he met. The people, astonished at this frantic behaviour of the god, enquired the reason of it; on which, with the bitterest expression of grief, he exclaimed, "I have murdered her who was dearest to me!" He bore the remains of Opuna into the Marai on the Bay of Karekakua, and there remained a long time sunk in the deepest grief. At length he determined to quit the islands, where every thing reminded him of the happiness he had enjoyed with his beloved wife. The people were overwhelmed with sorrow by the communication of his intention; and he endeavoured to console them with the promise that he would one day return on a floating island, furnished with all that man could desire, and make his favourite people happy. He then embarked in a vessel of peculiar construction, and set sail for a distant country. With Rono's departure terminated the Golden Age of this island. Wars and tumults arose; the gods still increased in number; but their influence was no longer so friendly to man as when they were under the superintendence of the revered Rono. Now also commenced many evil customs, such as human sacrifices, which had been unknown in the good old time: cannibalism, however, does not appear ever to have disgraced them. A long period elapsed, of which no record remains; and the story is resumed at the landing of five white men in Karekakua Bay, near to the Marai, where the body of the goddess Opuna reposed. The inhabitants supposed them to be superior beings, and offered no opposition when they proceeded to take possession of the Marai, on which holy place they were not only exempted from persecution, but also by the offerings daily placed there before the images of the gods, from any danger of suffering a scarcity of food. Here, then, they lived very comfortably; and from their having, immediately on their arrival, taken up their abode in the Marai, the people, who were all acquainted with the story of Opuna, concluded they were sent thither by Rono, to watch over the grave of his beloved consort. To this opinion they were indebted for a veneration greater than that entertained for the gods themselves. The priests alone had the privilege of providing for their wants, which they did with the utmost care: the people were not even allowed to approach the neighbourhood of the Marai. The white men, however, soon found their time hang heavy in this entire seclusion, and formed a more intimate connexion with the priests, whom they assisted in the holy rites and ceremonies, and at length even made their appearance among the people: the latter then discovered them to be mortals like themselves, differing only in colour, but still retained a high respect for their superior knowledge and good deportment. Maidens of the highest rank were given to them for wives; and each of them was installed governor of an island. "The descendants of these strangers," said Karemaku, "may still be distinguished by their whiter colour." Here, as at Tahaiti, the Yeris differ from the lower classes in their superior size, and some also by a greater degree of fairness. The helmets and short mantles which Cook and King have described as worn by this people, were introduced by these white strangers. At first, the kings only appeared in this costume; but in Cook's time it was common also among the Yeris. Now that European fashions have quite banished those of the original inhabitants, it is only preserved and shown to strangers as a relic of the past. The helmet, of wood covered with small red and yellow feathers, and adorned with a plume, perfectly resembles those of the chivalrous knights of yore; and the short mantle, also most ingeniously made with feathers to supply the want of woven stuff, forms a complete representation of the mantles worn by those ancient heroes: hence it is sufficiently evident that the white men who landed on O Wahi were Europeans; and that we are therefore more nearly connected with, at least, a part of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, than with the other South Sea islanders. With the arrival of the white men begins the chronology of O Wahi, from the first white king to Tameamea, making seven successive reigns. During this period, but long before Cook's time, two vessels are said to have been wrecked on the north-east side of O Wahi. Tradition is not unanimous in the account of what became of the crews. According to some, they were lost in the wreck, but others say they were murdered by the natives. My informant, Karemaku, mentioned only one ship, which was seen at a distance; and although the iron anchors found at O Wahi and at Muwe prove that they must have been there, he could give no account of them. It is very probable that the Spaniards, who often made a mystery of their discoveries in the South Seas, already knew of the existence of these islands before their discovery by Cook. Their authentic history begins with this event, in 1778, when, as has already been mentioned, Cook bestowed on them the name of the First Lord of the Admiralty at that period. They were not then, as now, united under one King; but each island had its particular sovereign, called Yeri-Rahi, who possessed full power over the lives of his subjects, and to whom the proprietors of land paid tribute. The name of the monarch of O Wahi, on Cook's arrival, was Teraiopu, or, as he writes it, Terreobu. Captain King, the companion of Cook, gives the following description of the Sandwich Islanders:-- "They are in general of the middle size,[3] and well-proportioned. Their movements are graceful, they run swiftly, and are able to carry great weights. The men, however, are inferior to the Friendly Islanders, in strength and activity; and the women are not so delicately formed as those of Tahaiti: their colour is also a little browner, and they are not so handsome, but the features of both sexes are open and agreeable; the females especially have beautiful eyes and teeth, and a sweet expression of countenance. Their hair is dark-brown, not so smooth as that of the American Indians, nor so woolly as that of the negroes of Africa, but between the two. "Here, as on the other South Sea Islands, the Yeris are advantageously distinguished in form from the lower classes, and are seldom disfigured by the swellings and ulcers frequent among the latter, which we ascribed to the great use of salt in their preparations of meat and fish; the former, however, are much injured by immoderate indulgence in the Ava drink. Those who suffered most from it had their whole bodies covered with a white eruption: their eyes were red and inflamed, they trembled much, and could scarcely hold up their heads. This beverage does not shorten the lives of all who use it too freely, as Teraiopu, Kau, and several other chiefs addicted to it, were old men; but it brings on premature and diseased old age. Fortunately, this luxury is the exclusive privilege of the chiefs. The son of Teraiopu, a boy of twelve years old, often boasted of having obtained the right of drinking Ava, and showed with much complacency a spot on his loins where the eruption was already visible. "Notwithstanding the great and irreparable loss which the sudden violence of these Sandwich Islanders has occasioned us," (in the death of Cook,) "I must in justice declare, that they are usually gentle and kind, and by no means so changeable and volatile as the Tahaitians, nor so reserved and melancholy as the Friendly Islanders: they live on the best possible terms with each other, and in peace and kindness in their families. We have often admired the care and tenderness with which the women treated their children, while the men assisted them in their domestic occupations with a readiness and good-will which did them great credit. "If however we should pronounce on the degree of civilization to which they have attained by the estimation the female sex enjoys among them, they would rank but low in the scale. The women are not only forbidden to eat with the men, but the best kinds of food are denied them. They are not allowed to eat pork, turtle, or several kinds of fish and bananas; and we were informed that a poor girl had been severely beaten for having tasted of these prohibited viands on board our ship. The females seemed indeed almost to live in a state of separation from their lords; and although we never perceived that they were ill treated, it is certain they are held in little respect. "We were always received when we came ashore with the greatest friendliness and hospitality. As soon as we landed, the inhabitants vied with each other in bringing us presents, preparing food for us, and showing us every mark of kindness. The old people were much pleased when they obtained permission to touch us; and they showed much modesty and humility in the comparisons they made between us and themselves. "In mental capacity, the Sandwich Islanders do not appear at all inferior to any other people. Their progress in agriculture, and their skill in handicrafts, is fully proportionate to their means and situation. The earnest attention which they paid to the work of our smiths, and the various means they devised, even before our departure, to give any required form to the iron they obtained from us, convinced us at once of their industry and ingenuity. "Our unfortunate friend Kancena, (he was shot by one of the Englishmen whom he had always treated with the greatest friendship) had a great desire for knowledge, an admirable natural understanding and a vivacity of mind seldom met with amongst uncultivated nations. He made innumerable inquiries concerning our manners and customs, our King, our form of government, the population and produce of our country, and the manner in which our ships and houses were built. He wished to know if we waged wars, with whom, and for what cause, what God we worshipped, and many other things; which showed an extensive range of thought." This testimony of Captain King to the good disposition of the Sandwich Islanders becomes the more worthy of credit, when we consider that the English always treated them with great severity, and that Captain Cook only fell a sacrifice to his own error. King has also defended them from the imputation of being cannibals, of which Anderson and several of Cook's companions had accused them. The propensity to theft was as common among the lower classes here, as on the other South Sea islands; and this it was which occasioned the thoughtless severity of Cook, who was always judge in his own cause, and suffered himself to be hurried into unjustifiable acts of violence. Had he been a philanthropist, as well as a great navigator, he would not have lost his life at O Wahi. The custom of tattooing existed also among the Sandwich Islanders; their faces were frequently marked with lines crossing each other at right angles, and some even had their tongues tattooed; pretty drawings were frequently seen on the hands and arms of the women. The ordinary dress of both sexes was nothing more than a piece of stuff folded round their bodies. The females adorned themselves besides with necklaces of muscle-shells, or little red shining beans, and with bracelets of various ornamental materials; they sometimes wore collars of beautiful feathers ingeniously blended together; their hair was also decorated with feathers and with garlands of flowers. The Sandwich Islanders lived in villages or little hamlets of from one to two hundred dwellings, standing irregularly, pretty near each other, and communicating by a winding path. Some of them were surrounded by gardens, enclosed with hedges. The food of the lower classes consisted chiefly of fish, yams, sweet potatoes, tarro-root, bananas, sugar-canes, and bread-fruit. Those of higher rank also indulged in pork, and the flesh of dogs, prepared in the same manner as on the Society Islands. The tame poultry of Europe was also found here, but it was scarce, and not very much prized. These people were particularly clean, and their cookery was preferred by Englishmen to that of their own country. The Yeris were chiefly employed in the building of vessels and the manufacture of mats; the females prepared a stuff of the paper kind, which was so pressed and coloured as to resemble our calico; and fishing or agriculture was the chief business of the servants. These occupations, however, left leisure for various pastimes, particularly dancing, which the young people of both sexes delighted in. Drums of several sorts were their only musical instruments, but their songs were very pleasing. They often played at a game much resembling our draughts; it is played with black and white stones on a piece of board, and from the great number of pieces, seems to require much attention. In another game, a stone was hidden under a large piece of stuff, and the player was to point out the precise spot in which it lay. Running races, in which the girls took part, and apparently dangerous exercises in swimming amidst the surf, were also among their amusements. In wrestling and boxing, they did not display so much strength and skill as the Friendly Islanders. The children often handled their balls with great dexterity, throwing several at once into the air and catching them again. Their vessels were very well built; the largest, a double one, seventy feet long, twelve broad, and three and a half deep, belonged to Teraiopu. The most remarkable of their utensils were the vessels appropriated to drinking Ava; they were usually eight or ten inches in diameter, perfectly round and very well polished, and were supported by three or four little images of men in various attitudes, sometimes bearing the vessel on their heads, sometimes on their shoulders, or on their hands raised above their heads. These figures were very well executed, the proportions correctly preserved, and even the proper action of the muscles well defined. Among the arts in which the Sandwich Islanders excelled, was that of preparing salt: the English obtained from them a large quantity of the best kind. Their arms consisted of clubs, lances, and daggers, made of hard wood. War was of frequent occurrence amongst the inhabitants of the several islands; the battles were often very bloody, and usually at sea, the vessels grappling. The Yeris, when they went to battle, wore the decorated helmets already described, and the mantles covered with black, red, and yellow feathers: those of the Yerirahis, or kings, were of yellow only. Images of the god of war, cut in wood; dreadful caricatures of the human figure in a threatening posture, the mouth open and armed with dogs' teeth, were always carried before the kings into battle; and the chief aim of the enemy was to capture them, as this achievement usually put an end to the war. A part of the prisoners were sacrificed to the gods; but as the shedding of blood in this rite was forbidden, they were strangled, and laid down before the images of the gods in the Marai, with their faces turned to the earth. The burial of the dead was a very sacred ceremony, and accompanied with many forms. The corpse was laid in a pit till the flesh decayed, the bones were then cleaned, and a part of them distributed among the relations and friends to be preserved as relics, part laid in consecrated ground. Dying persons sometimes desired that their bones should be thrown into the crater of the volcano at O Wahi, which was inhabited by the revered god Pelai. It has already been mentioned, that the women were prohibited from eating many kinds of food; they were also forbidden, under pain of death, to enter a house where the men were eating, and they were entirely secluded from the Marais; with these exceptions, they enjoyed great freedom, and even had a voice in the deliberations concerning war and peace. The religious regulation of the Tabu, or interdict, existed here as well as on many other of the South Sea islands. A person declared under a Tabu was inviolable; a piece of land under a Tabu must not be trodden by any one; nor must a species of animal so declared, be injured or shot until the Tabu was again taken off. Thus Tameamea declared the diamond mountain under the Tabu, because an Englishman, finding there a piece of quartz-crystal, considered it to be diamond; and the King, finding these were of great value, supposed he possessed in the mountain an inexhaustible treasure, till he discovered his mistake, and the Tabu was taken off. The vessels first seen by the Sandwich Islanders must have been very small, for when Cook's appeared, they took her for a swimming island, and believed that Etua-Rono, for whom they always retained the most profound veneration, had at length fulfilled his promise and returned to them. The joy was universal; and it was determined to receive the beneficent god, so long absent, who was to restore the Golden Age upon the island, with all possible honours. Neither Cook nor his companion seemed to have had any notion that they were saluted with divine honours; but they considered the ceremonies enacted by the rejoicing people as marks of distinction commonly bestowed on persons of importance. His being called by them "O Rono," (the Rono) did not enlighten him on the subject, as he was unacquainted with the tradition; but he contented himself with the conjecture, that the appellation was a title of honour, signifying chief or priest. Had the conduct of Cook made it possible for the islanders to retain their beneficial error, the good understanding between them and the English would never have been interrupted; but he himself was the first to convince them that he could not be their divine benefactor. Some of the populace conceived themselves entitled to appropriate a portion of the presents which Rono, according to his promise, had brought them--a licence which was immediately punished by Cook with great severity: the offenders taken in the fact were whipped; those who fled were fired upon; and several persons, some of whom were innocent, lost their lives. Rono could not be so cruel and unjust; and _Tute_, as they called Cook, immediately sunk in their estimation to the rank of ordinary mortals. He was henceforth feared as a mighty chief, but venerated no longer. This change of sentiment was very evident when he returned hither from his voyage northward. The islanders met the ship as before, with hogs and fruits; but they set a price upon them, instead of presenting them, as formerly, in the character of offerings, and accepting the returns made them as gratuitous gifts. Finding that they obtained what appeared to them an exorbitant price for their provisions, they supposed the strangers to come from a land of scarcity for the mere purpose of satisfying their appetites; and the common people wholly ceasing to regard them with reverence, became bolder in their depredations. The King, the Priests, and many of the principal Yeris, still however continued firm in their attachment to the English. A Yeri, named Parea, gave a striking proof of this kindly disposition, which Captain King has thus related:--Some Kanackas, having stolen certain articles, were pursued with muskets; and though every thing was recovered, an English officer thought himself justified in taking possession of a canoe lying on the shore belonging to Parea, who, being perfectly innocent of the theft, reclaimed his property. The officer refused to surrender it; and in the subsequent contest, Parea received so violent a blow on the head with an oar, that he fell senseless to the ground. In the mean time the islanders had assembled, and, irritated at this undeserved outrage on a chief, began to throw stones at the English, who were obliged to swim to a neighbouring rock for safety. The victorious people, thus left in possession of the field of battle, fell upon the English boat, which they would have destroyed but for the interposition of Parea, who had now recovered his senses. He dispersed the crowd, made a signal to the English that they might return, restored their boat, and sent them back in it to their ship. Parea afterwards followed them, taking with him a midshipman's hat, and some other trifles which were missing; expressed his sorrow for the dispute that had arisen, and inquired whether O Rono desired his death, or whether he might come again to the ship.--(It appeared from this that he still looked upon Cook as the deity, or at least affected this belief to propitiate the English.)--He was assured that he had nothing to fear, and would always be welcome; he then touched the nose of the officers, in sign of amity and reconciliation, and returned to land. Since Parea had hindered his countrymen from wreaking their vengeance on one boat, they indemnified themselves by stealing another, and in the night cut through the rope which fastened it to the ship. Cook, enraged at this occurrence, determined to bring the King himself on board his ship, and detain him there as a hostage till the boat should be restored; a measure which on another island he had already successfully adopted on a similar occasion. He therefore went ashore with a party of soldiers well armed, having given orders that none of the boats belonging to the natives should be suffered to leave the bay, as it was his determination, in case gentler measures should prove ineffectual, to destroy them all. All the boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were therefore so placed as to enforce obedience to this command. Cook was received, according to King's account, with the greatest respect: the people prostrated themselves before him. He proceeded direct to the old King, and invited him on board his ship. The King immediately consented; but some of the Yeris endeavoured to dissuade him; and the more earnestly Cook pressed his going, the more strenuously they endeavoured to prevent it. Cook, at length, seized the King by the arm, and would have carried him off by force; which in the highest degree irritated the assembled multitudes. At this moment a Yeri, who in crossing the bay from the opposite side had been fired upon by the English boats, rushed with blood streaming from his wound into the presence of the King, and cried aloud to him to remain where he was, or he would certainly receive similar treatment; this incident wound up the rage of the people to its utmost pitch, and the conflict commenced, in which Cook lost his life. Karemaku, who, when a young man, had witnessed these circumstances, related them to me; and the accounts of Cook's companions upon the whole agree with his. Some isolated facts are differently stated by them; but I was assured by all the natives of Wahu, that Karemaku had strictly adhered to the truth. Even if we give entire credit to the English narrative, we shall find that they were the aggressors,--that the islanders acted only on the defensive, and that Cook's fate, however lamentable, was not entirely undeserved. John Reinhold Forster, in his preface to a journal of a voyage of discovery to the South Sea, in the years 1776 to 1780, gives an extract from a letter written to him by an Englishman in a responsible situation, in which he says of Cook--"The Captain's character is not the same now as formerly: his head seems to have been turned." Forster gives the same account concerning the change in Cook, when he says-- "Cook, on his first voyage, had with him Messrs. Banks and Solander, both lovers of art and science. On the second, I and my son were his companions, enjoying daily and familiar intercourse with him. In our presence, respect for his own character restrained him; our mode of thinking, our principles and manners influenced his, and prevented his treating the poor harmless South Sea Islanders with cruelty. The only instance of undue severity we ever witnessed in his behaviour, was when on account of some petty theft he once allowed his cannon to be fired upon the fugitive offenders; fortunately, however, no one was injured by this rash act. But having in his last voyage no other witnesses of his actions, than such as were entirely under his command, he forgot what he owed to his own great name, and was guilty in many instances of extreme cruelty. I am therefore convinced, that if Messrs. Banks and Solander, Dr. Spaarmann, or I and my son, had been with him on the last voyage, his life would not have been lost in the manner it was." The first ships which visited the Sandwich Islands after Cook's death were those of Meeres, Dickson, and Coke, in the years 1786-9. They traded in skins between China and the North-west Coast of America, and found these islands very convenient to touch at. They were well received; and some of the islanders made the voyage to America with them. Tianna, one of the first Yeris of O Wahi, went with Meeres to China. These voyages, and the continual intercourse with Europeans, which their increasing trade in fur produced, necessarily enlarged the ideas of these children of Nature; and as they were not under the dominion of that folly which, in common with the Greenlanders, possesses some of the most civilized nations in Europe, of considering themselves the first people upon earth, they soon acquired our manners, and derived all the advantage that could be expected from the opportunities of improvement thus afforded them. Vancouver found, in 1792, that many remarkable changes had taken place on these islands since Cook's time. King Teraiopu did not long survive that eminent navigator. His son Kawarao succeeded to the government of the greater part of the island of O Wahi; the rest fell to his relation Tameamea. Kawarao was a tyrant, and governed with unexampled cruelty. At certain periods of the moon, he declared himself holy, or under a Tabu: the priests alone had then the privilege of seeing him so long as the sun was above the horizon; and an immediate death of the severest torture was the melancholy lot of any individual not belonging to this sacred order, who by whatever accident should cast but a momentary glance upon the voluntarily secluded monarch. To this cruelty of disposition, Kawarao united an unbounded ambition, which prompted him to make war on his kinsman Tameamea. This young and powerful chief early distinguished himself, and soon became celebrated throughout these islands for superiority of intellect and skill in arms. Kawarao, although he had greatly the advantage in numbers, could never obtain a victory; fire-arms were not then in use here, and success long vibrated between the contending rivals. Both parties at length determined to put the final issue of the war to the test of a single combat, stipulating that the conqueror should acquire the sovereignty of the whole island. The two kings armed; their respective priests carried the images of their gods to the field, and the fight commenced. Kawarao trusted to his skill in throwing the javelin; but Tameamea could defend himself from several antagonists at once, and scarcely ever missed his aim. After some fruitless efforts of both combatants, Tameamea's spear pierced the side of his bloodthirsty enemy, who fell dead on the field. This duel, by which Tameamea became King of O Wahi and of Muwe, which had also belonged to Kawarao, took place in the year 1781. To establish his dominion on a firmer basis, Tameamea married the daughter of the vanquished monarch, and acquired the love of his subjects by his wise and moderate government. Himself endowed with uncommon powers of mind, he entrusted the important offices of state only to such as were capable of discharging them efficiently. He made a very fortunate choice in Karemaku, who, while quite a young man, entered into all the enlightened and comprehensive views of his master, forwarded them with ability and energy, and continued his faithful servant till the death of Tameamea. The English called him the Pitt of the Sandwich Islands. Several Europeans now established themselves at O Wahi; among whom Davis and John Young have been the most useful to the rising nation. Under their direction, houses and ships have been constructed in the European fashion; the island has been enriched with many useful plants; and their advice has been successfully followed in the affairs of government. With the appearance of Vancouver, arose the fortunate star of these islands. Among the innumerable benefits he conferred upon them, they are indebted to him for the possession of sheep and cattle. Tameamea declared these animals under a Tabu for ten years, which allowed time for so large an increase, that they now run wild in the forests. Had Vancouver enjoyed Cook's advantages, the islanders might still have believed him their Rono. Tameamea, during Vancouver's visit, swayed the sceptre only over the islands of O Wahi and Muwe, and was engaged in wars with his neighbour kings, whom he fought with the assistance of cannon purchased from European ships. He commanded in every battle, both by sea and land; and Karemaku, as first in authority under him, was his constant companion. The O Wahians, however, could not have well understood the use of their cannons and other fire-arms, as, after Vancouver's departure, the war was maintained for ten years. O Tuai, the most north-westerly island, even then held out, though the others had submitted. In the year 1817, Tameamea conquered this also, after many unsuccessful attempts, and thus became the supreme governor of the whole Archipelago. From this time all his efforts were directed to the education of his people, and the improvement of their trade. Salt and sandal-wood were the chief articles of exportation. The latter, though bought at rather a high price by the North-American ships, which almost exclusively monopolized this trade, sold for a large profit at Canton. I have been told, that the Americans have purchased sandal-wood here to the amount of three hundred thousand Spanish dollars a-year. Tameamea bartered this wood for some large American merchant-ships, manned them, and other ships built in the Sandwich Islands, partly with his own subjects, and partly with Europeans, and traded on his own account. He had even found means to create a small fleet of ships of war; and his warehouses, built of stone, were filled with European and American merchandise. He possessed a considerable treasure in silver money and utensils; his fortresses were planted with cannon of a large calibre, and he maintained a force of fifteen thousand men, all armed with muskets, in the use of which they had been carefully exercised. He took much pains, assisted by the Spaniard Marini, to introduce the cotton-tree, which answered very well, and yielded fine cotton; and endeavoured to improve the native flax, already much superior to that of New Zealand, and to profit by it as an article of commerce. Nothing which promised advantage to his country escaped his penetrating mind; he exerted, in short, every faculty of his mind to place the Sandwich Islands in a state of progressive assimilation to the most prosperous nations. Vessels of every nation were as secure from injustice or insult in his ports, as in those of Europe, if not more so. As soon as a strange ship arrived, criers were employed to give notice that the new comers were friends, and must be hospitably received, and that any incivility shown them would be severely punished. When Tameamea first sent a ship to Canton with sandal-wood, he was obliged to pay a considerable duty for anchorage; whereupon he argued, that what was exacted from himself, he might with a safe conscience demand from others; and every ship is now required to pay forty Spanish dollars for anchorage in the outer, and eighty in the inner harbour of Hanaruro. Wahu is the most fertile of all the islands, and the only one enjoying a secure harbour; it therefore naturally advances the most rapidly in civilization. Several European and American traders have settled in Hanaruro; shops have been opened, and houses built in the European style, of wood and stone; some of the former were made in America, and brought here to be put together. The exertions of Marini introduced here many European vegetables, the vine and other fruits, which are all in a flourishing state. He collected and tamed a herd of cows. Goats, sheep, and poultry of all kinds are common. The frequent voyages which the Sandwich islanders now made, partly in Tameamea's vessels, partly foreign ones, on board which they served as sailors, gradually familiarised them with the manners of more civilized nations. They adopted our costume, but after the Tahaitian fashion; considering a complete suit as an unnecessary luxury. Even Tameamea himself, for his usual attire, wore only a shirt, trowsers, and red waistcoat, without a coat; he possessed, however, many richly embroidered uniforms, but kept them for grand occasions. These islanders had made great progress in the English language: many of them could speak it very tolerably. Tameamea understood, but did not speak it. If any of my readers should wish for a farther acquaintance with the character of this distinguished sovereign, I must refer them to Vancouver, and to my former voyage; but for the benefit of those who may not be disposed to take this trouble, I cannot forbear repeating from the latter some of his remarks to myself. He presented me with a collar most ingeniously worked with coloured feathers, which he had sometimes worn in war, and on solemn occasions, saying, "I have heard that your monarch is a great warrior, and I love him, because I am a warrior myself; bear to him this collar, which I send as a token of my regard." Once as he embraced an image in his Marai, he said, "These are our Gods whom I adore; whether in so doing I am right or wrong, I know not, but I follow the religion of my country, which cannot be a bad one, since it commands me to be just in all my actions." On the 8th of May, in the year 1819, Tameamea terminated his meritorious career, to the great sorrow as well of the foreign settlers as of his native subjects. His remains were disposed of according to the rites of the religion he professed. After they had remained some time in the Marai, the bones were cleaned, and divided among his relatives and the most distinguished of his attendants. According to the custom of this country, two persons had long before been destined for interment with him at his death; but by his express desire this ceremony was dispensed with. His eldest son and legitimate successor, Lio Lio, or, as the English call it, _Rio Rio_,--for there is some difficulty in distinguishing between the L and the R of the Sandwich Islanders,--now assumed the government, under the name of Tameamea the Second. Unhappily, the father's talents were not hereditary; and the son's passion for liquor incapacitated him for ruling with the same splendid reputation an infant state, which, having already received so strong an impulse towards civilization, required a skilful guide to preserve it from degeneracy and error. The chiefs of some of the islands, and especially of O Tuai, had, even in Tameamea's lifetime, founded a hope of future independence, on the weakness of his successor, and immediately upon his death proceeded to attempt the accomplishment of their desires. But Karemaku, the faithful friend and counsellor of the deceased King, to whom the whole nation looked up with affection, and whose penetration easily discerned the evil consequences that would ensue from a political disunion of the islands, devoted to the son all the zeal and patriotism with which he had served the father. By the influence of his eloquence, and the force of his arms, he quelled the insurrection, and re-established peace and order; but to enthrone the new monarch in the hearts of his people exceeded his ability; and their disaffection proved that the germ of future disorders was not wholly extinct. The King chose Wahu for his residence, because this island was in the best state for defence; and giving himself up entirely to dissipation, sunk lower and lower in the estimation of his subjects. Karemaku was the good genius who watched over the welfare of the country, while its monarch was wasting his hours and his health in orgies, at which he was frequently known to empty a bottle of rum at a draught. It was not to be supposed that a king addicted to such habits should conceive any projects of utility or advantage for his people; he wished, however, to distinguish himself by some effort in their favour, or at least to relieve them from the trammels of superstition. He was a freethinker in a bad sense. He hated the religion of his country, because it laid some restraints upon his inclinations, and he determined to overthrow it; not for the purpose of introducing a better, a task to which his feeble mind was unequal, but for that of at once relieving himself and his subjects from ceremonies which he considered useless, because he undervalued the precepts of morality interwoven with them, and for the sake of which his father had always conscientiously observed them. In the fifth month of his reign, he proceeded in a violent and brutal manner, notwithstanding all the remonstrances of Karemaku, to the execution of his design. Having previously arranged his plans with some chiefs, the companions of his excesses, he invited the principal inhabitants of the islands to a sumptuous banquet. After the wine and rum had produced their wonted effects, females were introduced, and compelled to partake of the feast. These poor creatures, having no suspicion of the King's intentions, shrunk with terror from a profanation punishable with death. But their resistance was unavailing: they were not only constrained to sit down to the repast in company with the men, but even to eat pork; and thus, to the great astonishment of such guests as were not in the secret, to violate, at the royal command, a double Tabu. A murmur arose; but the greater part of the company were under the influence of liquor, and the King now openly proclaimed his intentions. His auditors inquired in alarm what crime the Gods had committed, that they should be thus unceremoniously dismissed; and besought him not to occasion his own destruction and that of the country, by provoking their indignation. The King started from his seat, and exclaimed with violent gestures, "You see we have already violated the strongest Tabus, and yet the Gods inflict no punishment, because they have no power; neither have they power to do us good. Our faith was erroneous and worthless. Come, let us destroy the Marais, and from henceforth acknowledge no religion!" The immediate dependents of the King rose to second him: the inhabitants of Hanaruro had been depraved by their intercourse with foreign sailors, and a tumultuous crowd, who held nothing sacred, soon followed the revellers. Arrived at the royal Marai, some of them, terrified by the aspect of their idols, would have receded; but when the King himself, and his friends and followers, began to maltreat them, and no divine vengeance followed, the courage of the multitude revived, and the Marais were soon utterly destroyed. This outrage to what the people at large most venerated, introduced a scene of confusion and violence, and would indeed have entailed destruction both on the King and the country, had not Karemaku again stood forward in their defence. Several Yeris who, disapproving the sentiments of the King, had retired privately from the banquet, joined the priests in exciting the people to defend their gods by force of arms. An army was raised, and, animated by the presence of the war-god, commenced hostilities against his sacrilegious opponents. When the news of the destruction of the Marais reached the other islands, insurrections also broke out in each of them. Karemaku had condemned the sacrilege, and abstained from any part in it; but as it could not now be prevented, and he foresaw the mischievous consequences of civil commotions, he assembled an army, and, victorious wherever he appeared, succeeded in restoring tranquillity. On the large island O Wahi, however, he encountered a formidable resistance; but at length, after several bloody contests, he captured the war-god: the insurgents, who had also lost their leaders in the last battle, believing themselves quite abandoned by the gods, now dispersed, and Karemaku, on the restoration of tranquillity, returned to Wahu. It is a remarkable fact, that a people who regarded their faith and their priests with so much reverence, as I had myself witnessed previously to this occurrence, should in so short a period, acquiescing in the decree which denounced their creed as error, and consigned their sanctuaries to demolition, contentedly submit to the total deprivation of all external signs of religion. Karemaku had judgment enough to perceive that this state of things would not endure, and that a religion of some kind was indispensable to the people; he therefore resolved to set his countrymen a good example, and yielding to an inclination he had long entertained, to declare himself publicly a convert to Christianity. In the same year, 1819, Captain Freycinet, on his voyage round the world, landed at Hanaruro, and a clergyman accompanying him, Karemaku and his brother Boki received the sacrament of baptism according to the forms of the Catholic Church. At this time, a society of missionaries was formed in the United States of America, for the purpose of introducing Christianity into the Sandwich Islands. Of the extinction of the ancient faith, which must of course facilitate their undertaking, they had as yet received no information. Six families of these missionaries arrived at Wahu in 1820, bringing with them two young Sandwich Islanders, who had been previously prepared in their schools. The King, hearing of their intention, would not allow them to land, but commanded them immediately to depart from his shores. Here, again, Karemaku interposed, and endeavoured to convince the King that the Christian religion would be one of the greatest benefits he could confer on his subjects. The King then assembled the most distinguished Yeris, and after fourteen days' deliberation, decreed that a piece of land should be granted to the missionaries, with permission to build a church, and to preach their doctrines, under the condition that they should immediately leave the island if the experiment should be found to have a prejudicial influence on the people. The missionaries agreed to the terms, took up their residence on Wahu, and from thence extended settlements over the other islands. Their first efforts were successfully directed to the conversion of the King, his family, and the most distinguished Yeris. When these personages had openly professed the new faith, the Missionaries considered themselves firmly established, and proceeded with more confidence to the full execution of their plan. They quickly acquired the language of the islands, which from the largest of them they called the O Wahi language, printed the first book in it, (a collection of Hymns,) in the year 1822, and instructed the natives, who proved apt scholars, in reading and writing. These missionaries were Protestants; but the Catholic Karemaku, having no notion of the points of doctrine in dispute between the Churches, joined without hesitation in communion with them; and the Christian religion spreading rapidly among the Sandwich Islanders, without any of the constraint or persecution which had disgraced it at O Tahaiti, promised the happiest effects. Notwithstanding, however, all the efforts of Karemaku, the people were not yet entirely pacified. The former faith had still many secret adherents, and the King was unable to acquire either the esteem or affection of his subjects. Insurrections were continually dreaded; and Rio Rio, not feeling sufficiently secure even in his entrenchments at Wahu, determined, by the advice of some Europeans, to make a voyage to England, in the hope that these discontents would subside during his absence. He confided the administration of the government to the faithful Karemaku, and Kahumanna, the favourite wife of his father, and in the year 1824 sailed for England in a North American ship, accompanied by his consort, Karemaku's brother Boki, and some other persons of rank; taking with him twenty-five thousand Spanish piastres from the treasure amassed by his father. Soon after the King's departure, a regular rebellion broke out in the island of O Tuai. Its former ruler, Tamari, was dead, and his son, a young man who had been brought up in the United States of America, and had unfortunately fallen into bad company, was desirous to recover for himself the independent dominion of the island. Karemaku and Kahumanna immediately hastened thither with an army, and on our arrival at Hanaruro we found the war still raging at O Tuai, though it was supposed to be near its close. The government of Wahu was entrusted, during the absence of the Regents, to another wife of Tameamea, named Nomahanna, conjointly with a Yeri called Chinau. On the morning after our arrival, I rowed ashore with some of my officers, to pay my respects to the Queen Nomahanna, and on landing was met by the Spaniard Marini, who accompanied us to her Majesty as interpreter. On the way I was recognised by several old friends, with whom I had become acquainted on my former visit. They saluted me with a friendly "_Aroha_." I cannot say there was much room for compliment on any visible improvement in their costume; for they still wore with much self-complacency some ill-assorted portions of European attire. The residence of Nomahanna lay near the fortress on the sea-shore: it was a pretty little wooden house of two stories, built in the European style, with handsome large windows, and a balcony very neatly painted. We were received on the stairs by Chinau, the governor of Wahu, in a curious dishabille. He could hardly walk from the confinement his feet suffered in a pair of fisherman's shoes, and his red cloth waistcoat would not submit to be buttoned, because it had never been intended for so colossal a frame. He welcomed me with repeated "_Arohas_," and led me up to the second floor, where all the arrangements had a pleasing and even elegant appearance. The stairs were occupied from the bottom to the door of the Queen's apartments, by children, adults, and even old people, of both sexes, who, under her Majesty's own superintendence, were reading from spelling-books, and writing on slates--a spectacle very honourable to her philanthropy. The Governor himself had a spelling-book in one hand, and in the other a very ornamental little instrument made of bone, which he used for pointing to the letters. Some of the old people appeared to have joined the assembly rather for example's sake, than from a desire to learn, as they were studying, with an affectation of extreme diligence, books held upside down. The spectacle of these scholars and their whimsical and scanty attire, nearly upset the gravity with which I had prepared for my presentation to the Queen. The doors were, however, thrown open and I entered, Chinau introducing me as the captain of the newly-arrived Russian frigate. The apartment was furnished in the European fashion, with chairs, tables, and looking-glasses. In one corner stood an immensely large bed with silk curtains; the floor was covered with fine mats, and on these, in the middle of the room, lay Nomahanna, extended on her stomach, her head turned towards the door, and her arms supported on a silk pillow. Two young girls lightly dressed, sat cross-legged by the side of the Queen, flapping away the flies with bunches of feathers. Nomahanna, who appeared at the utmost not more than forty years old, was exactly six feet two inches high, and rather more than two ells in circumference. She wore an old-fashioned European dress of blue silk; her coal-black hair was neatly plaited, at the top of a head as round as a ball; her flat nose and thick projecting lips were certainly not very handsome, yet was her countenance on the whole prepossessing and agreeable. On seeing me, she laid down the psalm-book in which she had been reading, and having, with the help of her attendants, changed her lying for a sitting posture, she held out her hand to me in a very friendly manner, with many "_Arohas!_" and invited me to take a seat on a chair by her side. Her memory was better than my own; she recognised me as the Russian officer who had visited the deceased monarch Tameamea, on the island of O Wahi. On that occasion I had been presented to the Queens; but since that time Nomahanna had so much increased in size, that I did not know her again. She was aware how highly I esteemed her departed consort; my appearance brought him vividly to her remembrance, and she could not restrain her tears, in speaking of his death. "The people," said she, "have lost in him a protector and a father. What will now be the fate of these islands, the God of the Christians only knows." She now informed me with much self-gratulation that she was a Christian, and attended the prayer-meeting several times every day. Desirous to know how far she had been instructed in the religion she professed, I inquired through Marini the grounds of her conversion. She replied that she could not exactly describe them, but that the missionary Bengham, who understood reading and writing perfectly well, had assured her that the Christian faith was the best; and that, seeing how far the Europeans and Americans, who were all Christians, surpassed her compatriots in knowledge, she concluded that their belief must be the most reasonable. "If, however," she added, "it should be found unsuited to our people, we will reject it, and adopt another." Hence it appears that the christianity of the missionaries is not regarded with the reverence which, in its purity, it is calculated to inspire in the most uncultivated minds. In conclusion, Nomahanna triumphantly informed me, that the women might now eat as much pork as they pleased, instead of being, as formerly, limited to dog's flesh. At this observation, an intrusive idea suddenly changed her tone and the expression of her features. With a deep sigh, she exclaimed--"What would Tameamea say if he could behold the changes which have taken place here? No more Gods--no more Marais: all are destroyed! It was not so in his time:--we shall never have such another king!" Then, while the tears trickled down her cheeks, she bared her right arm, and showed me, tattooed on it in the O Wahi language--"Our good King Tameamea died on the 8th of May 1819." This sign of mourning for the beloved monarch, which cannot be laid aside like our pieces of crape, but accompanies the mourner to the grave, is very frequent on the Sandwich Islands, and testifies the esteem in which his memory is held: but it is a still more striking proof of the universal grief for his loss, that on the anniversary of his death, all his subjects struck out one of their front teeth; and the whole nation have in consequence acquired a sort of whistle in speaking. Chinau had even had the above words tattooed on his tongue, of which he gave me ocular demonstration; nor was he singular in this mode of testifying his attachment. It is surprising that an operation so painful, and which occasions a considerable swelling, should not be attended with worse consequences. Nomahanna spoke with enthusiasm on the subject of writing. Formerly, she said, she could only converse with persons who were present; now, let them be ever so far distant, she could whisper her thoughts softly to them alone. She promised to write me a letter, in order, she said, that I might prove to every one in Russia that Nomahanna was able to write. Our conversation was interrupted by the rattling of wheels, and the sound of many voices. I looked from the window, and saw a little cart to which a number of active young men had harnessed themselves with the greatest complacency. I inquired of Marini what this meant, and was informed that the Queen was about to drive to church: an attendant soon after entered, and announced that the equipage was ready. Nomahanna graciously proposed my accompanying her; and rather than risk her displeasure by a refusal, I accepted the invitation with many thanks, though I foresaw that I should thus be drawn in as a party to a very absurd spectacle. The Queen now put on a white calico hat decorated with Chinese flowers, took a large Chinese fan in her hand, and, having completed her toilette by drawing on a pair of clumsy sailor's boots, we set out. In descending the stairs, she made a sign that the school was over for the present; an announcement that seemed very agreeable to the scholars, to the old ones especially. At the door below, a crowd had assembled, attracted by curiosity to see me and their Queen drive out together. The young men in harness shouted for joy, and patiently waited the signal for the race. Some delay, however, occurred in taking our seats with suitable dignity. The carriage was very small, and my companion very large, so that I was fain to be content with a seat upon the edge, with a very good chance of losing my balance, had not her Majesty, to obviate the danger, encircled my waist with her stout and powerful arm, and thus secured me on my seat; our position, and the contrast presented by our figures, had no doubt a sufficiently comical effect. When we were at length comfortably settled, the Governor Chinau came forth, and with no other addition than a round hat to the costume already described, mounted a meagre unsaddled steed, and off we all went at full gallop, the Queen taking infinite pains to avoid losing me by the way. The people came streaming from all sides, shouting "_Aroha maita!_"--our team continually increasing, while a crowd behind contended for the honour of helping to push us forward. In this style we drove the whole length of Hanaruro, and in about a quarter of an hour reached the church, which lies on an ugly flat, and exactly resembles that at O Tahaiti both in external and internal appearance. The congregation was very small. Nomahanna and an old lady were the only individuals of their sex; and Chinau, myself, and a few others, the only males present. Even the people who had drawn us did not enter the church; from which I infer, that the influence of the missionaries is by no means so considerable as at O Tahaiti; and certainly the converts are not yet driven with a stick into the house of prayer: nor would it be easy to fasten on the minds of the people the fetters so patiently endured on the Society Islands, where the labours of the missionaries are seldom interrupted by the intervention of strangers. The Sandwich Islanders are engaged in constant intercourse with foreign sailors, mostly of licentious characters, who indeed profess the Christian religion; but brought hither by the desire of gain, or the necessity of laying in provisions for their ships, are generally wholly occupied in driving crafty bargains, and certainly are no way instrumental in inspiring the islanders with ideas of religion or morality, but on the contrary, set them examples which have a direct tendency to deprave their minds. Such among these crews as have been guilty of offences on board ship, frequently run away and settle on the islands. This was severely prohibited in Tameamea's time, but is now permitted, from Christian charity. Such characters as these, reckless of every thing sacred, do not hesitate to make a jest of the missionaries, whose extraordinary plans and regulations offer many weak points to the shafts of ridicule. When Mr. Bengham had concluded a discourse in the O Wahi language, which might possibly have been highly edifying, but that it was addressed to little else than empty benches,--for I did not understand him, and the minds of the few other persons present were evidently occupied with very different matters,--we returned to the palace in the same style that we had left it. I then took my leave, having received a promise of being amply supplied with provisions: the Queen also, at my request, ordered a small house near her own to be prepared for our astronomical observations, and our astronomer, M. Preus, took possession of it on the following day. Our arrival had created a great sensation on the island. A foreign ship of war is an uncommon spectacle here--one from Russia more especially, as the attempt of the insane Dr. Scheffer, in 1816, to raise the island of O Tuai against Tameamea, in the hope of annexing it to the empire of Russia, had naturally introduced a fear of similar projects, although the absurd design was entirely discountenanced by the Emperor Alexander. The English also, even in their writings, have contributed to spread the ridiculous idea, that Russia entertained views against the independence of the Sandwich Islands; and that Rio Rio's voyage was only undertaken for the purpose of imploring the assistance of England against our government. From the air of protection which England has for some time past assumed towards these islands, it is probable that she herself secretly harbours such a design, and only waits a favourable opportunity for its execution; although the English always profess to acknowledge the sovereignty of the native monarch, and the King of England, in writing to Tameamea, calls him, "Your Majesty." I am, however, far from desiring to maintain this opinion as founded on any sufficient grounds. The alarm of the islanders, on the present occasion, had been in great measure excited by a paragraph in a Mexican newspaper, recently imported, which contained a new version of the English fiction. The mistrust, however, did not long subsist. My assurances of friendship, and the particularly good behaviour of the whole crew, by which they were advantageously distinguished from those of the other ships lying here, soon attracted towards us the confidence and esteem of the natives and their governors. During the whole of my stay on the island, I had not the slightest cause to be dissatisfied with the conduct of my men, notwithstanding the temptations to which they were exposed, from the example of other sailors. All that could be spared from the ship were, every Sunday, allowed to go ashore; this being generally known in Hanaruro, a crowd of Wahuaners were always in waiting to welcome the arrival of our boat. The friendly intercourse which at all times subsisted between our people and the islanders was truly gratifying. I observed with regret, in my daily visits to Hanaruro, that the Wahuaners had lost the simplicity and innocence of character which formerly distinguished them. The profligate habits of the settlers of all nations among them, and of the numerous foreign sailors with whom they constantly associate, have most prejudicially affected their morals. Fraud, theft, and burglary, never heard of in Tameamea's time, are now frequent. Murder implies a degree of wickedness to which they have not yet attained; but a circumstance that occurred shortly before our arrival, may perhaps become an example even for this worst of crimes. The crew of an English whaler, in which much drinking had been permitted, mutinied, and the Captain received a blow on the head, which, though it did not destroy life, produced insanity; nor could all the efforts of our physician wholly restore his reason. He had indeed lucid intervals, during which he became reconciled to his crew, and at length sailed for England; but I have reason to believe the vessel never reached its destination. One very unpleasant consequence has attended progressive civilization in Hanaruro:--painted signs, that the means of intoxication might be purchased within, hang from many of the houses: their keepers are runaway sailors, who, to increase their own profit, naturally have recourse to every means that may tempt the people to excess; and these liquor-shops accordingly enjoy a constant overflow of visitors. Others are fitted up in a superior style, for the exclusive accommodation of Yeris and ships' officers, admission being refused to Kanackas and sailors. Carousing is here also the order of the day, but billiards and whist form part of the entertainments; the latter game especially is a great favourite with the Wahuaners, who play it well. Whist parties may be seen every where seated on the ground, in the streets or in open fields, among whom large sums of money and valuable goods are at stake. The players are always surrounded by spectators, who pronounce their opinions very volubly at the close of every game. The parties themselves are extremely animated, and the affair seldom terminates without a quarrel. Many other games are also in favour; and through the prevalence of a custom which cannot be observed without regret, this once industrious and flourishing people are rapidly acquiring confirmed habits of idleness and dissipation. A great part of the well cultivated tarro-fields, which formerly surrounded Hanaruro, now lie waste. On the great market-place, horse and foot races are proceeding all day long, and give occasion to extensive gambling. The Wahuaners have as great a passion for horse-racing, as the Malays for cock-fighting, and without hesitation venture their whole stock of wealth on a race. The purchase of a horse is, indeed, the great object of their ambition; and little attention having hitherto been directed to the breeding of these animals, they are imported from California, at an expense of from two to three, or even five hundred piastres; so that many a Wahuaner is obliged to hoard his whole earnings for years together, to raise the means of indulging in this luxury. In these races the horse is not saddled, and a string supplies the place of a bit; the rider is usually quite naked, but very skilful in the management even of the wildest horse; but, as the treatment is injudicious, they are soon worn out. Large sums are also staked at the _ship-games_, as they are called, in which the islanders display their seaman-like tastes. The players are usually clever ship-builders. They build pretty little vessels, in conformity with the rules of art, and, by their good management of the keel, make them good sailers; they rig them completely, and decorate them with flags and streamers. Then assembling on the banks of some large pond, the owners spread the sails, make the helm fast, and launch the little fleet. The ship which is best built and rigged, first gains the opposite shore, and wins the prize. The spectators take great interest in the game, and a loud shout announces the victory. The children also, in imitation of their fathers, make little ships, and have sailing-matches on the smaller pieces of water. From the partiality of the Sandwich Islanders for a sea-life, and from their geographical situation, it is probable that, in time, they will become powerful at sea. Tameamea left to his successor above a dozen good ships, all manned with natives. They obtain excellent nautical educations on board the United States' vessels trading between America and Canton; and the Americans, who are equal to the English as seamen, bear witness to the abilities of the islanders. Luxury has made great advances in Wahu. Even among the lowest class of the people, some article of European clothing is universal. The females especially set their hearts upon the most fashionable mode of dress: whatever the Queen wears is their model, which they imitate to the utmost of their power. The men are importuned to gratify this feminine vanity; and if their means will not enable them to do so fairly, they will often have recourse to fraud. The love of foreign wares, and especially of such as serve for dress and ornament, is by far the most fertile source of crime. The shopkeepers are emulous to make their assortment of goods as attractive as possible, and sometimes allow their customers credit, in which case they never fail to charge double, though their profits are at all times enormous. I have myself seen young girls paying two Spanish dollars for a string of common glass-beads which would scarcely reach round the throat. The tradespeople practise every species of deception with impunity, for the laws are not yet sufficiently civilized to meet offences of this description; which therefore inflict a double injury on their dupe, by robbing him of his property, and affording him an example of successful fraud, which he will generally at least endeavour to imitate. On Sunday, the inhabitants of Wahu make their appearance at church in full dress to be admired; and if the spectacle on these occasions is not so thoroughly laughable as at O Tahaiti, it is certainly sufficiently comic. The domestic utensils, formerly in use here, have entirely disappeared even from the poorest huts; and Chinese porcelain has superseded the manufactures from the gourd or the cocoa-nut. Fourteen days after our arrival, I received a message from Karemaku, who was still at O Tuai. He assured me that he was rejoiced at my coming, stated that he had sent orders to Chinau to supply my ship with the best provisions, and added, that having happily concluded the expedition, he should soon return to Hanaruro. Meanwhile, we had no cause to complain of our situation: every thing was to be had for money; and Nomahanna overwhelmed us with presents of fat hogs and the finest fish, putting all the fishermen into requisition to provide abundantly for our table. We had all reason to be grateful for her attention and kindness, and are all therefore ready to maintain that she is not only the cleverest and the most learned, but also the best woman in Wahu, as indeed she is considered both by the natives and settlers. But I can also bear testimony to another qualification, of equal importance in her estimation--she has certainly the greatest appetite that ever came under my observation. I usually visited her in the morning, and was in the habit of finding her extended at full length upon the floor, employed in inditing her letter to me, which appeared to occasion her many a head-ache. Once, however, I called exactly at dinner-time, and was shown into the eating-room. She was lying on fine mats before a large looking-glass, stretched as usual on her prodigious stomach: a number of Chinese porcelain dishes, containing food of various kinds, were ranged in a semicircle before her, and the attendants were busily employed in handing first one and then another to her Majesty. She helped herself with her fingers from each in its turn, and ate most voraciously, whilst two boys flapped away the flies with large bunches of feathers. My appearance did not at all disturb her: she greeted me with her mouth full, and graciously nodded her desire that I should take my seat in a chair by her side, when I witnessed, I think, the most extraordinary meal upon record. How much had passed the royal mouth before my entrance, I will not undertake to affirm; but it took in enough in my presence to have satisfied six men! Great as was my admiration at the quantity of food thus consumed, the scene which followed was calculated to increase it. Her appetite appearing satisfied at length, the Queen drew her breath with difficulty two or three times, then exclaimed, "I have eaten famously!" These were the first words her important business had allowed her time to utter. By the assistance of her attendants, she then turned upon her back, and made a sign with her hand to a tall, strong fellow, who seemed well practised in his office; he immediately sprang upon her body, and kneaded her as unmercifully with his knees and fists as if she had been a trough of bread. This was done to favour digestion; and her Majesty, after groaning a little at this ungentle treatment, and taking a short time to recover herself, ordered her royal person to be again turned on the stomach, and recommenced her meal. This account, whatever appearance of exaggeration it may bear, is literally true, as all my officers, and the other gentlemen who accompanied me, will witness. M. Preuss, who lived in the neighbourhood of the lady, frequently witnessed similar meals, and maintains that Nomahanna and her fat hog were the greatest curiosities in Wahu. The latter is in particular favour with the Queen, who feeds him almost to death: he is black, and of extraordinary size and fatness: two Kanackas are appointed to attend him, and he can hardly move without their assistance. Nomahanna is vain of her tremendous appetite. She considers most people too thin, and recommends inaction as an accelerator of her admired _embonpoint_--so various are the notions of beauty. On the Sandwich Islands, a female figure a fathom long, and of immeasurable circumference, is charming; whilst the European lady laces tightly, and sometimes drinks vinegar, in order to touch our hearts by her slender and delicate symmetry. One of our officers obtained the Queen's permission to take her portrait. The limner's art is still almost a novelty here; and many persons of rank solicited permission to witness the operation. With the greatest attention, they watched every stroke of the outline, and loudly expressed their admiration as each feature appeared upon the paper. The nose was no sooner traced, than they exclaimed--"Now Nomahanna can smell!" When the eyes were finished--"Now she can see!" They expressed especial satisfaction at the sight of the mouth, because it would enable her to eat; and they seemed to have some apprehension that she might suffer from hunger. At this point, Nomahanna became so much interested, that she requested to see the picture also: she thought the mouth much too small, and begged that it might be enlarged. The portrait, however, when finished, did not please her; and she remarked rather peevishly--"I am surely much handsomer than that!" On the 17th of January, Karemaku arrived with a squadron of two and three-masted ships, and many soldiers, before the harbour of Hanaruro, after having terminated the war at O Tuai quite to his satisfaction. The fleet being unable to enter the harbour, on account of a contrary wind, was obliged to cast anchor outside. I immediately sent off an officer with my shallop, to convey to the King's deputy my congratulations on his arrival; he and his young wife (his wife, of whom I spoke in my former voyage, was since dead,) returned in the shallop, and came on board my ship. I fired a salute as he approached, which pleased him much, as he said this compliment from a Russian ship of war would tend to remove from the minds of his countrymen their injurious suspicions of the intentions of Russia. Karemaku seemed sincerely glad to see me again, and, after a most cordial embrace, presented his young and pretty wife to me. He minutely examined all parts of the ship, expressed his approbation of much that was new to him, and at length exclaimed--"How wide a difference there still is between this ship and ours!--would that they could be made to resemble it! O, Tameamea, thou wast taken from us too soon!" In my cabin, he spoke of the death of his royal friend in terms which Marini declared it impossible to translate, as no other language would express such depth of thought united with such ardent feeling. I rather apprehend that Marini, who is not a man of much education, was not competent to give effect to powerful emotion in any language: but the missionaries also declare that there is considerable difficulty in translating from the O Wahi language, which is particularly adapted to poetry. Karemaku touched also on the change that had taken place in the religion of the country.--"Our present belief," said he, "is preferable to that which it has supplanted; but the inhabitants of the mountains cannot understand its superiority; and strong measures are necessary to prevent their relapsing into idolatry. The King should not have so suddenly annihilated all that they held sacred. As a first consequence, he has been obliged to seek for safety in a foreign country. How all will end, I cannot foresee; but I look forward with fear. The people are attached to me, and I have influence over them; but my health declines, and the Government, which I have scarcely been able to keep together, will probably not survive me. Blood will be spilt, and anarchy will prevail. Already the island of O Tuai has revolted, even during my life." These fears are not without foundation: they are shared by the natives and the foreign settlers; and many of the Yeris seem persuaded that the monarchy will be dismembered on Karemaku's death. Some have already fixed upon the districts they mean to appropriate, and do not even take any pains to conceal their intentions. Yet has the aged and infirm Karemaku hitherto maintained order among these turbulent spirits, permitting no one to disturb the general tranquillity with impunity. During my former visit here, the painter Choris, who made the voyage with me, and was afterwards murdered in Mexico, took an excellent likeness of Tameamea. I now presented to the venerable Karemaku a copper-plate engraving from this picture. The joy with which he received it was really affecting; he gazed on the picture with delight, and kissed it several times, while the tears rolled down his cheeks. On taking leave, he begged that he might have the medical assistance from our physician, as he had been long indisposed. He pressed my hand, saying, "I too am a Christian, and can read and write." That a warrior, and a statesman, should pride himself on such advantages as these above all others, proves the estimation in which they are held. The Sandwich Islanders know that these are the ties which connect them with civilized nations. Karemaku and his wife were, notwithstanding the extreme heat, dressed entirely in the European fashion. He wore a dark surtout, and black waistcoat, and pantaloons, both of very fine cloth. He was still in mourning for his beloved Tameamea, and his hat was bound with crape. The lady's dress was of black silk. A crowd of people of both sexes assembled to welcome the Regent. His foot had scarcely touched the shore, when they all began to rub each other's noses, and at a given signal, to weep aloud. This is the established etiquette in welcoming a great chief. Some of the old women of rank surrounded Karemaku, under Chinau's direction, and rubbing each other's noses, sang in a plaintive tone a song to the following effect: "Where hast thou stayed so long, beloved ruler? We have wept for thee every day. Heaven be praised that thou art here again! Dost thou feel how the earth rejoices under thy footsteps? Dost thou hear how the pigs which scent thee, joyfully grunt their welcome? Dost thou smell the roasted fish that waits thy eating? Come, we will cherish thee, that thou mayest take comfort among us." It must be confessed, that if the O Wahi language be peculiarly adapted for poetry, this composition does not do it justice. Karemaku laughed at this reception, and allowed himself to be conducted in grand procession to Nomahanna, who had not condescended to meet him. The excitement lasted the whole day. Nothing was spoken of but Karemaku's heroism, and the rebel son of Tamaris, whom he had brought with him a prisoner. This young man is called Prince George; he is about five-and-twenty, and not of a prepossessing appearance. He dresses like a European; but although educated in the United States of America, he scarcely equals a common sailor in moral attainments, and is remarkable only for his vices. Karemaku never loses sight of him. Two Yeris are appointed for his keepers; and he knows that he should be strangled if he attempted to escape. Kahumanna still remained in O Tuai, to maintain the newly-restored tranquillity. This female, who had already distinguished herself in Vancouver's time, unites a clear understanding with a masculine spirit, and seems to have been born for dominion. Karemaku's arrival proved extremely useful to us. We had made the disagreeable discovery that a great part of the copper with which the ship was bottomed had become loose, and the hull thereby liable to injury from worms. To repair this damage in the ordinary way, the laborious task of unlading and keel-hauling must have been undertaken; but our noble friend, on hearing of our difficulties, put us upon an easier method of managing the business. He sent me three very clever divers, who worked under the water, and fastened new plates of copper on the hull, two of them provided with hammers to drive in the nails, while the third held the materials. We found that these men could remain at work forty-eight seconds at a time. When they emerged, their eyes were always red and starting; the effect of the violent strain upon the optic nerve which the use of the sight under water produces. We had some skilful divers among our own sailors, who, although they could not have attempted this work, were able to inspect what was done by the Wahuaners, and to report that it was properly executed. Some days after Karemaku's arrival, came an ambassador from Nomahanna, with instructions to demand an audience of me. I received him in the cabin. His only clothing, except a pocket of plaited reeds that hung round his neck, was a shirt, and a very broad-brimmed straw hat. The fellow looked important and mysterious, as if he had a mighty secret to impart; but converse with each other we could not, for he understood only his mother-tongue, of which I was entirely ignorant; he therefore informed me by signs that his pocket contained something for me, and drew from it a packet. One by one, a multitude of envelopes of the paper manufactory of the country were removed, till at length a letter came to light, which he handed to me with the words, "Aroha Nomahanna!" a salutation from Nomahanna. He then explained to me, in pantomime, that it was the Queen's intention to visit me to-day, and that she requested I would send my boat to fetch her. After saying a great deal about "Pala pala," he left me, and I summoned Marini, who gave me the following translation of the letter. * * * * * "I salute thee, Russian! I love thee with my whole heart, and more than myself. I feel, therefore, on seeing thee again in my country, a joy which our poor language is unequal to express. Thou wilt find all here much changed. While Tameamea lived, the country flourished; but since his death, all has gone to ruin. The young King is in London. Karemaku and Kahumanna are absent; and Chinau, who fills their place, has too little power over the people to receive thee as becomes thy rank. He cannot procure for thee as many hogs and sweet potatoes, and as much tarro as thou hast need of. How sincerely do I regret that my great possessions lie upon the Island of Muwe, so far away across the sea! Were they nearer, thou shouldst daily be surrounded by hogs. As soon as Karemaku and Kahumanna return, all thy wants shall be provided for. The King's brother comes with them; but he is yet only an inexperienced boy, and does not know how to distinguish good from evil. "I beg thee to embrace thine Emperor in my name. Tell him, that I would willingly do so myself, but for the wide sea that lies between us. Do not forget to carry my salutations to thy whole nation. Since I am a Christian, and that thou art also such, thou wilt excuse my indifferent writing. Hunger compels me to close my letter. I wish that thou also mayst eat thy hog's head with appetite and pleasure. I am, With royal constancy And endless love, thine, NOMAHANNA." * * * * * This curious epistle is very neatly written in a firm hand. The letters are large, well-formed, and very intelligible. The superscription bears only the words with which the letter begins--"Aroha Rukkini!" The composition had taken her many weeks to complete; she made some progress in it every day; but what was once inserted she never altered; the same clean page that had been transmitted to me, being the identical one on which the letter was commenced. It was soon known in Hanaruro that the Queen had written to me; and as all she did was imitated, I was presently in a fair way for being honoured with many similar letters. All my intended correspondents, however, would require at least as much time to express their thoughts on paper, as Nomahanna had taken; I must therefore have waited for their favours much longer than would have been convenient. According to Nomahanna's request, I sent off an officer with the shallop to fetch her: some hours, however, elapsed before she came, her Majesty's toilette having, said my officer, occupied all this time. When at length it was completed, she desired him to give her his arm and conduct her to the shallop. This is another imitation of European customs. For a lady of the Sandwich Islands, Nomahanna was this day very elegantly attired. A peach-coloured dress of good silk, trimmed at the bottom with black lace, covered her Majesty's immense figure, which a very broad many-coloured sash, with a large bow in the front, divided exactly into two halves. She had a collar round her neck of native manufacture, made of beautiful red and yellow feathers; and on her head a very fine Leghorn hat, ornamented with artificial flowers from Canton, and trimmed round the edge with a pendant flounce of black lace; her chin lying modestly hidden behind a whole bed of flowers that bloomed on her mountain bosom. In somewhat striking contrast to all this finery were the clumsily accoutred feet, and stout, ill-shaped, brown, unstockinged legs, which the shortness of her Majesty's petticoats, proportioned originally to the stature of a European belle, displayed to a rather unsightly extent. As yet, the shoemaker's craft does not flourish in the Sandwich Islands; so that all the shoes and boots worn there are imported from Europe and America. But as neither of these Continents can produce such a pair of feet as those of Queen Nomahanna, the attempt to force them into any ready-made shoes would be hopeless; and her Majesty is therefore obliged, if she would not go bare-foot, which she does not consider altogether decorous, to content herself with a pair of men's galloshes. Such trifles as these were, however, beneath her notice, and she contemplated her dress with infinite complacency, as a pattern of princely magnificence. In these splendid habiliments, with a parasol in her hand, slowly and with difficulty, she climbed the ship's stairs, on which, with some of my officers, I was in waiting to receive her; on the highest step she endeavoured already to give us a proof of her acquaintance with our customs, by making a courtesy, which was intended to accord with the most approved rules of the art of dancing, though the feet, not perfectly tutored in their parts, performed in rather a comic style. In attempting this feat, she lost her balance, and would have fallen into the water, if a couple of strong sailors had not caught her illustrious person in their arms. She was much delighted with all that she saw on board, especially with my cabin, where the sofa paid dearly for the honour of her approbation,--she sat upon it, and broke it down. The portrait of the Emperor Alexander attracted her particular attention; she sat down opposite to it upon the floor, where she could cause no farther destruction, and said, after gazing upon it for some minutes with much interest, "Maitai, Yeri nue Rukkini!" (the great Governor of the Russians is beautiful!) She told me, that she knew a great deal about Russia. A Sandwich Islander, named Lauri, who, in 1819, had made the voyage thither, in the Russian ship Kamtschatka, with Captain Golowin, and had afterwards returned to his own country, had told her many things concerning Petersburg and the Emperor. She said she would have liked to make the voyage herself, but that Lauri's fearful description of the cold had terrified her. He had told her, that it was necessary to envelope the body entirely in fur, and that even this would not obviate all danger of losing the nose and ears; that the cold changed the water into a solid substance, resembling glass in appearance, but of so much strength that it was used for a high road, people passing over it in huge chests drawn by horses, without breaking it; that the houses were as high as mountains, and so large, that he had walked three days in one of them without coming to the end of it. It was evident that Lauri had stretched a little; but Nomahanna had no notion of incredulity. She approved of our inventions for warming the inside of our houses, and thought, that if she were at Petersburg, she would not go out at all during the cold weather, but would drive her carriage about the house. She inquired how it could possibly be so warm at one season of the year, and so cold at another. I endeavoured to accommodate my answer to her powers of comprehension, and she seemed satisfied. "Lauri was in the right," she observed; "there are very clever people in Russia." Her acknowledgment of my abilities, however, proved rather inconvenient, for she now overwhelmed me with a host of questions, some of them very absurd, and which to have answered with methodical precision, would have required much time and consideration. For instance, she desired me to tell her how much wood must be burnt, every year, to warm all the countries of the earth? Whether rain enough might not fall, at some time or other, to extinguish all the fires? And whether, by means of such a rain, Wahu might not become as cold as Russia? I endeavoured to cut the matter as short as possible; and, in order to divert her thoughts to other subjects, set wine before her; she liked it very much, and I therefore presented her with a bottle; but her thirst for knowledge was not thus to be quenched, and during a visit of two hours, she asked such incessant questions, that I was not a little relieved when, at length, she proposed to depart. In taking leave, she observed, "If I have wine, I must have glasses, or how can I drink it?" So saying, she took the bottle that had been given her, in one hand, and, with the other, seizing without ceremony the glasses that stood on the table, she went upon deck. There she made a profound courtesy to all present, and again took her seat in the shallop. Thus ended this condescending visit, with the royal appropriation of my wine glasses. Nomahanna had, however, been so liberal to us, that she had a right to suppose she would be welcome to them. The illness of Karemaku had very much increased since his arrival in Wahu; he had every symptom of dropsy. Our physician, however, succeeded, in a great measure, in restoring him to health, and when I paid him a congratulatory visit, I found him very grateful for the benefit he had received, full of spirits, and very facetious. I adopted his tone, and jestingly told him, that we would certainly complete his cure, even if we should be obliged to rip open his stomach, take out the bowels, clean them, and replace them. Karemaku laughed, and said he would submit to the operation, if it was necessary to his perfect recovery. Some old women, however, who were present, took the matter in sober seriousness, and spread among the people a report of the dreadful treatment their beloved Karemaku was threatened with; a terrible disturbance in Hanaruro was the consequence. The people believed I intended to kill him, and were excessively irritated against me. Karemaku himself sent me this intelligence through Marini; adding a request, that I would not come ashore again till he had overcome this foolish idea, which was accomplished in a few days. The feeling manifested on this occasion was certainly honourable both to the governor and the governed. An epidemic disease prevailed this year throughout the Sandwich Islands. It produced a great mortality, death generally following the attack within a few days. In Hanaruro I saw many corpses daily carried to their burial; but nowhere is recovery from serious illness so improbable as here. As soon as the patient is obliged to take to his bed, he is immediately surrounded by his nearest relations, especially of the female sex, who, weeping, and singing mournful songs in a most lamentable tone, propose to themselves, by this means, to effect his recovery, or at least to procure him some relief from his sufferings. The worse he grows, the larger the assembly, and the louder the noise becomes; even his friends and acquaintances come flocking in: when there is no more room within the house, they congregate round the door, and continue mourning, crying, and howling, inside and outside, till the sufferer expires. This perpetual disturbance, the constant remembrance of death it occasions, and the infection of the air from the number of breaths in the crowded apartment, naturally produce a very prejudicial effect, and no doubt many die rather in consequence of these proofs of sympathy than of their disease. Kahumanna, having concluded her business in O Tuai, arrived at length in Hanaruro with the King's brother, a handsome boy of thirteen. I paid her a visit, and was very graciously received. She is considerably older than Nomahanna; but, though large and corpulent enough, not by much such a prodigy of size. Her countenance bears traces of former beauty; she dresses entirely like a European, and has a more intimate knowledge of our customs and manners than Nomahanna. Her house, built partly of wood and partly of stone, is larger than the one I have described as the habitation of the other Queen; like that, it has two stories and a balcony, and it is similarly furnished. Near it is the abode of the missionary Bengham. Kahumanna, as well as Nomahanna, has the date of Tameamea's death marked upon her arm; otherwise they are not tattooed, which indeed few are, and those only the most aged people. Kahumanna honoured me several times with visits on board, and condescended to write me a letter, which, Marini assured me, contained nothing but expressions so inflated and pompous that he could not understand, and therefore could not translate them. The appointed time for our return to New Archangel now approached. Our vessel had been fully prepared for encountering the violent and continued storms of the North, and I waited the return of our mineralogist, M. Hoffman, who had gone to O Wahi, for the purpose of climbing the mountain Mou-na-roa, in which however he did not succeed. By command of Queen Nomahanna, assistance had indeed been afforded him; but the two Kanackas, who accompanied him as guides, refused to proceed farther than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, or about half-way up the mountain; a height to which the most courageous O Wahian will scarcely venture, from fear partly of the spirits which haunt the summit of the mountain, partly of the cold, which is almost too severe for an inhabitant of the tropics to endure. At this point the Kanackas threw themselves flat upon the earth, nor would they stir another step, although certain of punishment for their refusal. In vain M. Hoffman tried to shake their resolution, first by offering them large presents, and then by threatening them with a loaded pistol; they were immoveable, and he was forced to return. His expedition, however, was not altogether fruitless: besides his mineralogical observations, he discovered an extraordinary cave, running at an acute angle several hundred feet deep into the mountain, where he found a sheet of water, which stretched as far as the light of the torches permitted the light to reach through the fearful darkness. It would have been interesting to have traversed this subterranean sea in a boat. It is most remarkable, that the water of this lake is salt, and that the alternate ebb and flow of the tide is as perceptible here as on the coast. M. Hoffman will probably publish other particulars respecting this natural curiosity. On the 31st of January 1825, we left the harbour of Hanaruro, having the pleasure to be accompanied by our friend Karemaku, who, by the help of our physicians, felt himself well enough to venture thus far. He brought with him several double canoes, which, as there was no wind, towed the ship quite out of the harbour, and far enough to sea to obviate any danger from the reefs; Karemaku then took leave of us with the most cordial expressions of friendship, wishing us a prosperous voyage and a speedy return. On a signal from him, the fortress fired five guns, which salute we immediately returned. Karemaku waved his hat from his boat, and continuing his "Arohas" so long as we were within hearing, was rowed back to the harbour. A fresh wind at this moment springing up, we lost sight of the beautiful island where we had passed our time so agreeably, and prepared, with far less prospect of satisfaction, to encounter the wintry storms of the North. I chose the channel between the islands of Wahu and O Tuai, as the most convenient outlet into the open ocean, for ships going northward from Hanaruro. We passed through it on the following day, and sailed direct for New Archangel. The reader will willingly spare me any particular description of this troublesome voyage: I must only mention that, on the 14th of February, in latitude 35° and 155° longitude, we sailed over a point where, according to the assertion of some whale-fishers in Wahu, an island lies; but though the horizon was perfectly clear, we could discover no sign of land. Our voyage proved safer and more expeditious than is usual at this season. Our astronomical observations on the Sandwich Islands gave the following results:-- Latitude of Hanaruro 21° 17' 57" Longitude 158° 00' 30" Longitude of the Eastern point of the island Muwe 156° 13' 10" Longitude of the Western point 156° 48' 11" Latitude of one of the small islands East of Maratai, which are not given in Vancouver's map 21° 13' 30" Longitude 156° 49' 12". The account of our residence at New Archangel is contained in the tenth Chapter. On our return voyage to Wahu, we had constantly fine weather, though but little wind, so that it was not till the 29th of August we found ourselves in latitude 34°, where we first, in a clear star-light night, saw the comet which was then visible in the neighbourhood of Aldebaran; it had a tail four degrees and a half long. On the 4th of September we sailed over a point, occupied in Arrowsmith's chart by the island Laxara, without perceiving the smallest trace of it; the existence therefore of this island, which is said to have been early discovered by the Spanish navigators, remains doubtful. When we reached the tropic, a brisk trade-wind carried us quickly to the Sandwich Islands, and on the 12th of September we already saw the Mou-na-roa quite clearly, at a distance of a hundred and twenty-four miles, rising high above the horizon. On the following morning, we again dropped anchor before the harbour of Hanaruro, after a sail of thirty-five days from New Archangel. As I only intended to take in a supply of fresh provisions and water, and then continue my voyage without farther delay, I considered it unnecessary to run into the harbour, and remained in the roads, although the south-wind to which they are exposed is sometimes dangerous to ships riding there. This wind, however, blows only at certain seasons, and is always announced by an over-clouded sky, long enough to afford time for taking shelter or standing out to sea. On the morning after our arrival, a remarkable phenomenon occurred, of which we were witnesses throughout its duration. While the heavens were quite clear, a thick, black cloud formed itself over the island, resting its lower verge on the summits of the mountains, the densest portion of the cloud hanging over the little town of Hanaruro. The wind was perfectly calm, till on a sudden a violent gust blew from the north-east, and at the same time a crashing noise proceeded from the cloud, as if many ships were firing their guns; the resemblance was so perfect, that we might have supposed we heard alternately the individual shots of the opposing broadsides. The concussion lasted some minutes; and when it ceased, two stones shot from the cloud into the street of Hanaruro, and from the violence of the fall broke into several pieces. The inhabitants collected the still warm fragments, and judging by these, the stones must have weighed full fifteen pounds each. They were grey inside, and were externally surrounded by a black burnt crust. On a chemical analysis, they appeared to resemble the meteoric stones which have fallen in many countries. In the short period of our absence, some important events had taken place. My readers will remember that the King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands arrived safely in London, and were there treated with particular attention by the English Court; and that they both died in that country, having previously expressed their desire to be buried in their native land. This wish was fulfilled by the English Government. The bodies, having been embalmed, were laid in magnificent coffins decorated with gold, and Lord Byron was appointed to carry them and the royal suite, back to Wahu. When he arrived there, and the news of the deaths of the King and Queen transpired, it produced a great but varying sensation. Some of the people lamented the loss, but the greater number rejoiced to be relieved of a ruler in whom they had no confidence; our friend Karemaku seemed much grieved, possibly from old attachment to the royal family, or from patriotism, as he had hoped that the King's visit to England would have been very advantageous to him, and no one was at the moment qualified to assume the reins of government as his successor. On the 11th of May, both coffins were carried in solemn procession to the church, the fortress and the English frigate firing their guns. The people cried and howled, as custom requires on these occasions, but all the while greatly admiring the magnificence of the coffins; some remarked that it must be a pleasure to die in England, where people were laid in such beautiful boxes. The following inscriptions in the English language were on the coffin-lids: "Tameamea II., King of the Sandwich Islands, died in London on the 24th of July 1824, in the 28th year of his age. Respected be the memory of our beloved King Jolani." (The King was sometimes known by this appellation.) "Tamehamelu, Queen of the Sandwich Islands, died in London, on the 8th of July 1824, in the 22nd year of her age." The funeral procession was arranged in the following order: Twelve Yeris, in the national costume, with beautiful coloured feather mantles and helmets, walked first; they were followed by a band of musicians playing the dead-march, and a company of soldiers from the frigate Blond. Then came the chaplain of the frigate, and with him the missionaries, immediately followed by the coffins in hearses, each drawn by forty Yeris. Directly behind the coffins came the heir to the throne, the brother of the King, a boy about thirteen, dressed in European uniform. Lord Byron, his officers, and the royal family, followed, the procession being closed by the people, who, attracted by the novelty of the spectacle, assembled in great multitudes. All wore crape as a sign of mourning, or, if they could not procure this, Tapa. In the church, which was entirely hung with black, the chaplain of the English frigate read the funeral-service, and the procession afterwards repaired, in the order above described, to a small stone chapel, where the coffins were deposited, and where they still remain. Soon after the funeral, the new King was proclaimed by the title of Tameamea the Third, at the command of Karemaku, who retained the regency during the minority, in conjunction with the Queen Kahumanna. The regents were thus nominally the same; but Karemaku was too ill to take an active share in the government, and the missionary Bengham found means to obtain such an acendency over the imperious Kahumanna, and, through her, over the nation, that in the course of only seven months an entire change had taken place:--we might have imagined ourselves in a different country. Bengham had undertaken the education of the young monarch, and was keeping him under the strictest _surveillance_. He meddles in all the affairs of government, and makes Kahumanna, and even sometimes Karemaku, the instrument of his will; pays particular attention to commercial concerns, in which he appears to take great interest; and seems to have quite forgotten his original situation and the object of his residence in the islands, finding the avocations of a ruler more to his taste than those of a preacher. This would be excusable, if his talents were of a nature to contribute to the instruction and happiness of the people; if he understood the art of polishing the rough diamond, to which the uncorrupted Sandwich Islander may aptly be compared, so as to bring out its intrinsic value, and to increase its external splendour. But the fact is widely different; and one cannot see without deep regret the spiritual and temporal weal of a well-disposed people committed to the guidance of an unenlightened enthusiast, whose ill-directed and ill-arranged designs are inimical to their true and permanent interests. Mr. Stewart, also a missionary, but more recently settled here than Bengham, is a judicious and well-informed man, and would remedy many of the evils incident to the present state of affairs; but Bengham, who has usurped the absolute control of the spiritual administration, will have every thing accommodated to his whims. Stewart therefore, finding himself unable to follow the course prescribed by his active zeal and strong understanding, for the benefit of the islanders, proposes to leave the country. That Bengham's private views may not be too easily penetrated, religion is made the cloak of all his designs, and the greatest activity and strictness prevail in its propagation, and in the maintenance of church discipline. The inhabitants of every house or hut in Hanaruro are compelled by authority to an almost endless routine of prayers; and even the often dishonest intentions of the foreign settlers must be concealed under the veil of devotion. The streets, formerly so full of life and animation, are now deserted; games of all kinds, even the most innocent, are sternly prohibited; singing is a punishable offence; and the consummate profligacy of attempting to dance would certainly find no mercy. On Sundays, no cooking is permitted, nor must even a fire be kindled: nothing, in short, must be done; the whole day is devoted to prayer, with how much real piety may be easily imagined. Some of the royal attendants, on their return from London, at first opposed these regulations, and maintained that the English, though good Christians, submit to no such restraint. Kahumanna, however, infatuated by her counsellor, will hear of no opposition; and as her power extends to life and death, those who would willingly resist are compelled to bend under the iron sceptre of this arbitrary old woman. A short time before our return, a command had issued, that all persons who had attained the age of eight years should be brought to Hanaruro, to be taught reading and writing. The poor country people, though much discontented, did not venture to disobey, but patiently abandoning their labour in the fields, flocked to Hanaruro, where we saw many families bivouacking in the streets, in little huts hastily put together, with the spelling-books in their hands. Such as could already read were made to learn passages from the Bible by heart. Every street in Hanaruro has more than one school-house: they are long huts, built of reeds, without any division. In each of these, about a hundred scholars, of both sexes, are instructed by a single native teacher, who, standing on a raised platform, names aloud every single letter, which is repeated in a scream by the whole assembly. These establishments, it may be supposed, are easily recognised afar off; no other sounds are heard in the streets; and the human figure is seldom to be seen amidst this melancholy stillness, except when the scholars, conducted by their teachers, repair to the church. Every sort of gaiety is forbidden. Lord Byron had brought with him from England a variety of magic lanterns, puppet-shows, and such like toys, and was making preparations to exhibit them in public, for the entertainment of the people, when an order arrived from Bengham to prevent the representation, because it did not become God-fearing Christians to take pleasure in such vain amusements. The nobleman, not wishing to dispute the point, gave up his good-natured intentions. That a people naturally so lively, should readily submit to such gloomy restrictions at the command of their rulers, proves how easily a wise government might introduce among them the blessings of rational civilization. Well might Karemaku exclaim, "Tameamea, thou hast died too soon!" Had this monarch doubled the usual age of man, and accorded his protection to such a reformer as Stewart, the Sandwich Islanders might by this time have acquired the respect of all other nations, instead of retrograding in the arts of civilization, and assuming under compulsion the hypocritical appearance of an affected devotion. In taking a walk with an American merchant established here, I met a naked old man with a book in his hand, whom my companion addressed, and knowing him for a determined opponent of the new system, expressed his surprise at his occupation, and enquired how long he had been studying his alphabet. With a roguish laugh which seemed intended to conceal a more bitter feeling, first looking round to make sure that he should not be overheard, he replied, "Don't think that I am learning to read. I have only bought the book to look into it, that Kahumanna may think I am following the general example; she would not otherwise suffer me to approach her, and what would then become of a poor, miserable, old man like me? What is the use of the odious B A, Ba? Will it make our yams and potatoes grow? No such thing; our country people are obliged to neglect their fields for it, and scarcely half the land is tilled. What will be the consequence? There will be a famine by and by, and "Pala, Pala" will not fill a hungry man." It is doubtless praiseworthy in a government to provide for the instruction of the people, but to force it upon them by such unreasonable measures as those adopted by Kahumanna and her counsellor must have a prejudicial effect: so far the old man was right. A striking instance of the severity with which the Queen sometimes prosecutes her purpose, fell under our observation. An old man of seventy, who rented a piece of land belonging to her, many miles distant from Hanaruro, had always paid his taxes with regularity, and hoping that the distance, and his advanced age, might dispense with his attendance at the church and the school, acted accordingly; but for this neglect, Kahumanna drove him from his home. He sought her presence, implored her compassion for his destitute condition, and represented the impossibility of learning to read at his age. But in vain! The Queen replied with an angry gesture, "If you will not learn to read, you may go and drown yourself." To such tyranny as this, has Bengham urged the Queen, and perhaps already esteems himself absolute sovereign of these islands. But he reckons without his host. He pulls the cord so tightly, that the bow must break; and I forewarn him, that his authority will, one day, suddenly vanish: already the cloud is gathering; much discontent exists. The injudicious summons of country people to Hanaruro has enhanced the price of provisions, partly on account of the increased consumption, partly because so much time spent in study and prayer leaves but little for the labours of agriculture. Thus will the approaching pressure of want be added to the slavery of the mind, and probably urge the islanders to burst their fetters. I have myself heard many of the Yeris express their displeasure, and the country people, who consider Bengham's religion as the source of all their sufferings, one night set fire to the church: the damage sustained was trifling, and the flames were soon extinguished; but the incendiaries were not discovered. Karemaku is suffering under a confirmed dropsy. Lord Byron's surgeon tapped him; but, by the time we arrived, the increase of his disorder required a repetition of the operation; it was performed with great success by our surgeon. But it is impossible he can survive long, and his death will be the signal of a general insurrection, which Bengham's folly will certainly have accelerated. Our second visit to Hanaruro was as disagreeable as the first had been pleasant: even our best friend, Nomahanna, was quite altered, and received us with coldness and taciturnity, we therefore laid in our stock of provisions and fresh water as quickly as possible, and rejoiced in being at liberty to take leave of a country from whence one wrong-headed man has banished cheerfulness and content. Several whalers were lying in the harbour, and among them the Englishman we had met with in St. Francisco, and who had then been so unsuccessful. Fortune had since been more propitious to him, and he was now returning from the coast of Japan with a rich cargo of spermaceti valued at twenty-five thousand pounds sterling: he had touched here to take in provisions for his voyage homewards. I learnt from another captain the particulars of an accident that had happened to one of his companions, which shows the dangers whale-fishers are exposed to, and is a singular example of a providential escape. A North American, Captain Smith, sailed in the year 1820 in a three-masted ship, the Albatross, for the South Sea, in pursuit of the spermaceti whale. When nearly under the Line, west of Washington's Island, they perceived a whale of an extraordinary size. The boats were all immediately lowered, and, to make the capture more sure, they were manned with the whole crew: the cook's mate alone remained at the helm, and the ship lay-to. The monster, as it peaceably floated on the surface of the water, was eagerly followed, and harpooned. On feeling the stroke of the weapon, it lashed its powerful tail with fury, and the boat nearest it was obliged to dart with all speed out of the way, to avoid instant destruction. The whale then turned its vengeance on the ship, swam several times round her with prodigious noise, and then struck her so violently on the bows, that the cook's mate could compare the effect of the blow only to the shock of an earthquake. The fish disappeared, but the tremendous leak the ship had sprung sank her in five minutes with all that she contained. Her solitary guardian was with difficulty saved. The crew were now left in four open boats, several weeks' voyage from the nearest land, and with no provision but the little biscuit they happened to have with them. After a long discussion upon the best course to pursue, they separated: two of the boats steered for the Washington or Marquesas Isles; and the other two, with the Captain in one of them, towards the south, for the island of Juan Fernandez. The former have not since been heard of; but the latter were, a fortnight afterwards, picked up by a vessel, when the captain and four only of his men were found alive: the other ten had died of hunger, and their corpses had afforded nourishment to the survivors. On the 19th of September, when the first rays of the sun were gilding the romantic mountains of Wahu, we spread our sails, and bade adieu to the Sandwich Islands, heartily wishing them what they so greatly want--another Tameamea, not in name only, but in spirit and in deed. THE PESCADORES, THE RIMSKI-KORSAKOFF, THE ESCHSCHOLTZ, AND THE BRONUS ISLES. THE PESCADORES, THE RIMSKI-KORSAKOFF, THE ESCHSCHOLTZ, AND THE BRONUS ISLES. On leaving the Sandwich Isles, we steered southward, it being my intention to sail by a track not hitherto pursued by navigators who have left us records of their voyages, to the Radack chain of islands. At Hanaruro, several captains had mentioned to me an island situated in 17° 32' latitude, and 163° 52' longitude. On the 23rd of September we crossed this point, and saw indeed birds of a description that rarely fly to any great distance from land; but the reported island itself we were unable to descry even from the mast-head, although the atmosphere was perfectly clear:--so little is the intelligence of masters of trading-vessels to be relied on. On the 26th, we were, by observation, in 14° 32' latitude, and 169° 38' longitude. During the whole of the day, large flights of such sea-birds were seen as indicate the neighbourhood of land, and even some land-birds; so that no doubt remained of our having sailed at no great distance from an island hitherto unknown, the discovery of which is reserved for some future voyager. During the whole of this course, we had frequent signs of the vicinity of land, but never to the same extent as on this day. A captain, who had frequently made the voyage from the Sandwich Isles to Canton, asserts his having discovered a shoal in 14° 42' latitude, and 170° 30' longitude. I can neither confirm nor confute this assertion; and my only motive for repeating it here is, that vessels passing near that point may be put upon their guard. On the 5th of October we reached the Udirik group, the most northern of the islands belonging to the Radack chain. We sailed past its southern point, at a distance of only three miles, for the purpose of rectifying our longitude, that, in case of discovering the Ralik chain, we might be enabled to ascertain the exact difference between that and Radack. We therefore continued our course due west, in the direction of the Pescadore Islands, to obtain ocular demonstration that these and the Udirik group are not one and the same; an opinion which is still entertained by some persons, on the ground that the discoverers of the former have mistaken their longitude. We continued our course due west throughout the day, with very fine weather, and having a man constantly upon the look-out from the mast-head. During the night we had the benefit of the full moon; we then carried but little sail; but at break of day we again set all our top-sails. At noon, the watch called from the tops that land was right ahead of us. It soon came in sight, and proved to be a group of low, thickly-wooded coral islands, forming, as usual, a circle round a basin. At one o'clock in the afternoon we reached within three miles of them, and had, from the mast-head, a clear view of their whole extent. While occupied in surveying them, we doubled their most southern point, at a distance of only half a mile from the reefs, and perceived that their greatest length is from east to west, in which direction they take in a space of ten miles. The aspect of these green islands is pleasing to the eye, and, according to appearance, they would amply supply the necessities of a population not superabundant; but though we sailed very near them, and used our telescopes, we could discover no trace of human habitation. According to accurate astronomical observations, the middle of this group lies under 11° 19' 21" latitude, and 192° 25' 3" longitude. In comparing the situation of the Pescadores, as given by Captain Wallis, their discoverer, with this observation, it is scarcely possible to believe in the identity of the groups. I have, however, left them the name of Pescadores, because the two observations nearly correspond. After having sailed round the whole group, we came, at four o'clock in the afternoon, so close to their north-western point, that every movement on land might have been distinctly seen with the naked eye; yet even here there was nothing to indicate the presence of man, though Wallis communicated with the inhabitants, if, indeed, these islands be really the Pescadores. If so, these people must have become extinct long ago, as no monument of their former existence is now visible. When we had completed our survey, we again proceeded westward, and, within half an hour, the watch again announced land in sight. The evening was now so far advanced, that we determined to lay-to, in order to avoid the danger of too near an approach to the coral reefs during the night, and deferred our survey till the following morning. At break of day we saw the islands which we have called the Pescadores, lying six miles to the eastward; whilst those which had risen on our horizon the preceding evening had wholly disappeared. We had diverged from them in the night; but, with a brisk trade-wind, we regained the sight of them in an hour. At eight o'clock in the morning we came within three miles of the nearest island, and running parallel with the land, began our examination. It was another group of coral islands connected by reefs round a basin. Here also vegetation was luxuriant, and the cocoa-trees rose to a towering height, but not a trace of man could be discerned; and we therefore concluded they were uninhabited, as we were near enough to distinguish any object with the naked eye. Favoured by a fresh breeze, we sailed westward along the islands, till nightfall, without reaching the end of this long group. During the night we had much difficulty in keeping our position, owing to a tolerably smart gale, which, in these unknown waters, would have been attended by no inconsiderable danger, but that the land lay to windward of us; and were therefore well pleased in the morning to find that the different landmarks by which we had been guided overnight, were still visible, so that we were enabled to pursue our observations without interruption. The greatest length of this group, which I named, after our second lieutenant, Rimski-Korsakoff, is from east-north-east to west-south-west, in which direction it is, fifty-four miles long. Its greatest breadth is ten miles. As we were sailing along the islands to windward of us, we could plainly distinguish from the mast-head those which lay at the other side of the basin. After having terminated our observations, we pursued a southerly course, in hopes of discovering more land, and sailed at a great rate during the whole of the day, without seeing any thing. At night we lay-to; but the following morning, the 9th of October, we had scarcely spread our sails, before the man at the mast-head discovered some low islands to the north, which we had already past, and which now lay to windward of us. I immediately changed our course, and endeavoured to approach them by dint of tacking, but a strong easterly current, which increased as we drew nearer to the land, almost baffled our efforts. We succeeded with much difficulty in getting within eleven miles and a half of the western extremity of the group, distinguished by a small round hill, which at noon lay due east, our latitude by observation being 11° 30' 32", and our longitude 194° 34'. From this point we could see the group, stretching to the verge of the horizon, in a south-easterly and north-easterly direction. We again attempted to approach them nearer; but not succeeding, we were obliged to continue our course to the westward, contenting ourselves with determining the position of the western extremity, 11° 40' 11" latitude, and 194° 37' 35" longitude, from which point they must stretch considerably to the east. These, like other coral islands, probably lie round a basin: of population we could see no trace, though there was every appearance of their being habitable. I named them, after our worthy Doctor and Professor, Eschscholtz, who was now making the second voyage with me. It is unnecessary to add any thing here respecting the situations of these three groups of isles, which have been laid down, with the greatest possible accuracy, in the chart accompanying this volume; one thing only I beg to observe, that they bear not the slightest resemblance to the Pescadores described by Wallis. He did not possess the facilities for ascertaining the longitude, which have been invented since his time. His Pescadores may be situated elsewhere; but even if one of these groups should be the Pescadores, we may justly claim the discovery of the other two. This discovery is of some value, inasmuch as these groups are no doubt the northern extremity of the Ralik chain; and their position and distance from Radak being now ascertained, there will hereafter be little difficulty in discovering the remaining groups of the chain. From the Eschscholtz Isles we steered for the Bronus Isles, it being my wish to try the accuracy of their geographical position, and to ascertain whether the interval between the two groups was wholly free of islands. On the 11th of October, at noon, being in latitude 11° 21' 39", and longitude 196° 35', the Bronus Isles were descried from the mast-head, at a distance of twenty miles. We approached within a mile and a half of the southern extremity of the group, from which point we were able to survey the whole, which we found, like other coral groups, to consist of a circle of islands connected by a reef. The Bronus Isles, however, appeared of more ancient formation than any we had yet seen; the land was somewhat more elevated, and the trees were larger and stronger. Here also we saw no appearance of inhabitants. A calm which suddenly set in exposed us to the danger of being driven by a powerful current upon the reef; but when we were already very near the breakers, the direction of the current varied, running southward parallel with the coast. By this means we were enabled to double the southern extremity of the group, and a gentle breeze soon after springing up, conveyed us to a safe distance from the land. According to our observation, this southern extremity lies in latitude 11° 20' 50", and longitude 197° 28' 30". It was my intention to have noted the position of the whole group, for which purpose I endeavoured during the night to keep the ship in its vicinity; but at daybreak the current had carried us so far to leeward, that land could scarcely be perceived from the mast-head. As it was utterly impossible to make any way against the united force of the current and trade-wind, I was obliged to abandon my design, upon which we steered for the Ladrones, or Mariana Isles, where I intended to take in fresh provisions. It is a striking phenomenon, and one not easily accounted for, that in 11° north latitude, from the Radak chain to the Bronus Isles, there should be a current of a mile and a half per hour. THE LADRONES, AND THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. THE LADRONES, AND THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. Having, in my former voyage, given a detailed account of these islands, I need not here add much concerning them. A fresh breeze, and fine weather, made our voyage agreeable and rapid. On the morning of the 25th of October, we saw the island Sarpani, which belongs to the Ladrones, lying before us at the distance of twenty-five miles, and soon after distinguished the principal island, Guaham, whither we were bound. The longitude of the eastern point of Sarpani was found to be 214° 38'. The aspect of the eastern point of Guaham, which is exposed to a constant trade-wind, does not suggest an idea of the fertility of the island; but the traveller is agreeably surprised at the sight of its western coast, where Nature has been most prodigal; and cannot but remember with sorrow the extermination of the natives by the Spaniards, on their taking possession of the islands and forcibly introducing the Catholic religion. It is remarkable that the soil of Guaham, under the first stratum of earth, consists of coral blocks not yet quite dissolved; from which it may be conjectured, that a former group of low coral islands, as well as the basin which they enclosed, were forced upwards by the power of subterranean fire; and in this manner the island of Guaham has been formed. This hypothesis is confirmed by Mr. Hoffman's discovery of a crater on the island, with a fire still burning in its abyss. The fortress, standing on what is called the Devil's Point, intended for the defence of the town of Agadna, was so peacefully disposed, that not one of its cannons was fit for use. I saw, to my great astonishment, in the harbour Caldera de Apra, ships bearing the English and North American flags. The Spaniards do not usually permit the entrance of foreign vessels; but I was informed by the captains of these, that the whalers who pursue their occupations on the coast of Japan, now frequently choose Guaham for refitting and victualling their ships. I also heard, with much pleasure, that they exclusively use our Admiral Krusenstern's chart of the Japanese coast; and they assured me, that objects even of minor importance are laid down in it with the greatest accuracy. How much cause have seamen for thankfulness to one who has provided them with such a chart! their lives frequently depend on the correctness of these guides; and an erroneous one may be worse than none at all. As I only intended stopping here a few days, and the harbour is by no means safe, I determined not to enter it, but sent an officer to the Governor, with a list of fresh provisions which I requested his assistance in procuring. On the following morning, I rowed with some of my officers ashore, and we were received by the Governor, Don Gango Errero, who had already taken measures for supplying our wants, with great civility, though not without some degree of Spanish stateliness. His government here confirms an observation repeatedly made, that a few years of a bad administration are sufficient to undo all that a good one may have effected by a long series of exertions. Eight years ago, when Medenilla was governor, the most perfect content, and prosperity to a certain extent, existed in Guaham; and now, by the fault of one man, every thing bears a totally different aspect. So much depends on the choice of the person to whom power is delegated, at such a distance from the seat of sovereignty as that the complaints of the oppressed can seldom reach it. Errero is even accused of the murder of some English and American sailors; and, on this occasion, Spanish justice has not been in vain appealed to by their comrades; for, as I afterwards learned, the order for Errero's arrest was already made out at the moment when, in perfect self-confidence and enjoyment, he was entertaining me with lively songs, accompanied by himself on the guitar; and Medenilla has been again appointed to the command, that he may endeavour to repair the evils Errero had occasioned. Of my earlier acquaintances, I now met only the estimable Don Louis de Torres, the friend of the Carolinas, who communicated to M. De Chamisso many interesting particulars respecting these amiable islanders. After our departure in the Rurik, he had again made a voyage to the Carolinas, and had persuaded several families to come and settle at Guaham. The yearly visits of these islanders to Guaham are still regularly continued; and at the time of our stay, one of their little flotillas was in the harbour. Being clever seamen, they are much employed by the Spaniards, who are very ignorant in this respect, in their voyages to the other Marian Islands, with which, unassisted by their friends of Carolina, these would hold but little communication. We had an opportunity of seeing two of their canoes come in from Sarpani, when the sea ran high, and the wind was very strong, and greatly admired the skill with which they were managed. The revolt of the Spanish colonies has not extended itself to these islands. The inhabitants of Guaham have maintained their loyalty, notwithstanding the tyranny of their governor, and unseduced by an example recently given them. A Spanish ship of the line and a frigate, with fugitive loyalists from Peru, lately touched here; they were bound for Manilla; but the crews of both ships mutinied, put the officers and passengers ashore, and returned to Peru to make common cause with the insurgents. After remaining four days before Agadna, we took in our provisions, for which ten times the price was demanded that we had paid here eight years ago, and left Guaham on the 22nd of October, directing our course for the Bashi Islands, as I intended to pass through their straits into the Chinese Sea, and then sail direct to Manilla. On the 1st of November, our noon observation gave 20° 15' latitude, and 236° 42' longitude, so that we were already in the neighbourhood of the Bashi and Babuyan Islands. We continued to sail so briskly till sunset, that we could not be then far from land; but black clouds had gathered over it, concealing it from our view, and presaging stormy weather; we did not venture therefore to advance during the night, but tacked with sails reefed, waiting the break of day. At midnight we had some violent squalls from the north with a ruffled sea, but not amounting to a storm. The rising sun discovered to us the three high Richmond rocks, rising in the middle of the strait, between the Bashi and Babuyan Islands. Soon after the island of Bantan appeared, with heavy clouds still lingering behind its cliffs. The weather was, however, at present fine, the wind blowing strongly from the north; we therefore set as much sail as the gale would permit us to carry, and pursued our course through the strait formed by the Richmond rocks, and the southern Bashi Islands. In clearing these straits, we had reason to apprehend serious damage to our rigging, or even the loss of a mast. A heavy squall from the north-east put the sea in great commotion. The billows chafed and roared as they broke over each other, and were met in the narrow channel by a current, driving from the Chinese Sea into the ocean. This furious encounter of the contending waves produced the appearance of breakers, through which we were compelled to work our dangerous way; the ship, sometimes tossed to their utmost summit, then, without the power of resistance, suddenly precipitated into the yawning gulf between them, wore, however, through all her trials, and gave me cause for exultation in the strength of her masts, and the goodness of her tackling. We passed two hours in this anxious and critical condition, but at length emerged into the Chinese Sea; where the comparative peacefulness of the waves allowed us to repose after our fatigues, and even afforded us an opportunity of ascertaining our longitudes. We found the longitude of the most easterly of the Richmond rocks 237° 50' 2" most westerly 237° 52' 0" the eastern point of the Island of Bantan 237° 55' 32" the western point of Babuyan 238° 0' 56" the western point of the Bashi Island 238° 4' 47" latitude of the eastern point 20° 15' 47". All these longitudes are determined according to our chronometers, which were tried immediately after our arrival in Manilla. They differ from those on Horsbourg's new chart by three minutes and a half, ours being so much more westerly. With a favourable wind we now sailed southwards, in sight of the western coast of Luçon, till we reached the promontory of Bajador, where we were detained some days by calms, therefore did not come in sight of Manilla bay till the 7th of November. Here the wind was violent and contrary; but as it blew from the land, could not materially swell the waves: we were therefore enabled, by tacking, to advance considerably forward; and at length contrived to run into the bay, by the southern entrance, between its shores and the island of Corregidor. A Spanish brig, which was tacking at the same time, lost both her top-masts in a sudden gust. On the morning of the 8th of November we anchored before the town of Manilla. I immediately waited on Don Mariano Ricofort, the Governor of the Philippines. He gave me a friendly reception, and granted the permission I requested, to sail to Cavite, a hamlet lying on the bay, within a few miles of the town, and possessing the advantage of a convenient dock. Our ship being greatly in want of repair, we removed thither on the following day, and immediately commenced our labours. We spent our time very pleasantly in this lovely tropical country. How richly has Nature endowed it, and how little is her bounty appreciated by the Spaniards! The whole world does not offer a more advantageous station for commerce than the town of Manilla, situated as it is in the neighbourhood of the richest countries of Asia, and almost midway between Europe and America. Spanish jealousy had formerly closed her port; but since the revolt of the American colonies, it has been opened to all nations, and the Philippines are consequently rising rapidly to importance. As yet, their export trade has been chiefly confined to sugar and indigo for Europe, and the costly Indian bird's-nest, and _Trepangs_, for China. The latter is a kind of sea-snail without a shell, which not only here, but on the Ladrones, Carolinas, and Pelew Islands, even as far as New Holland, is as eagerly sought after as the sea-otter on the north-west coast of America. The luxurious Chinese consider them a powerful restorative of strength, and purchase them as such at an exorbitant price. But what an inexhaustible store of commercial articles might not these islands export! Coffee of the best quality, cocoa, and two sorts of cotton, the one remarkably fine, the produce of a shrub, the other of a tree, all grow wild here, and with very little cultivation might be made to yield a prodigious increase of wealth. These productions of Nature are, however, so much neglected, that at present no regular trade is carried on in them. A great abundance of the finest sago trees, and whole woods of cinnamon, grow wild and unnoticed in Luçon. Nutmegs, cloves, and all the produce of the Moluccas, are also indigenous on these islands, and industry only (a commodity which, unfortunately, does not flourish here,) is wanting to make them a copious source of revenue. Pearls, amber, and cochineal, abound in the Philippines; and the bosom of the earth contains gold, silver, and other metals. For centuries past, have the Spaniards suffered all these treasures to lie neglected, and are even now sending out gold to maintain their establishments. The regular troops here, as well as the militia, are natives. The officers are Spaniards, though many of them are born here, and all, at least with few exceptions, are extremely ignorant. It is said that the soldiers are brave, especially when blessed, and encouraged by the priests. As far, however, as I have had an opportunity of observing the military force, I cannot think it would ever make a stand against an European army. Not only are the troops badly armed, but even the officers, who are in fact distinguished from the privates only by their uniforms, have no idea of discipline; any sort of precision in their manoeuvres is out of the question; and to find a sentinel comfortably asleep with his musket on his shoulder, is by no means an uncommon occurrence. I was told that Luçon contained eight thousand regular troops, and that by summoning the militia, twenty thousand could be assembled. The field of honour where the heroes of Luçon distinguish themselves is on the southern Philippine Islands, which are not yet subdued; they are inhabited by Mahommedan Indians, who are constantly at war with the Spaniards, and who, ranging as pirates over all the coasts inhabited by Christians, spread terror and desolation wherever they appear. From time to time some well manned gun-boats are sent in pursuit of these robbers; which expend plenty of ammunition with very little effect. It is said that six thousand Chinese inhabit the suburbs of Manilla, to which they are restricted. The greater part of them are clever and industrious mechanics; the rest are merchants, and some of them very rich: they are the Jews of Luçon, but even more given to cheating and all kinds of meanness than are the Israelites, and with fewer, or rather with no exceptions. They enjoy no privileges above the lowest of the people, but are despised, oppressed, and often unjustly treated. Their covetousness induces them to submit to all this; and as they are entirely divested of any feeling of honour, a small profit will console them for a great insult. The yearly tax paid by every Chinese for liberty to breathe the air in Manilla, is six piastres; and if he wishes to carry on any sort of trade, five more; while the native Indian pays no more than five reals. The Philippines also did not follow the example of the American colonies; for some disturbances among the Indians here, were not directed against the government, and an insurrection soon after attempted proved unsuccessful. The former were occasioned by a few innocent botanists wandering through the island in search of plants; and an epidemic disease breaking out among the Indians about the same time, of which many died, a report suddenly spread among them, that the foreign collectors of plants had poisoned the springs in order to exterminate them. Enraged at this idea, they assembled in great numbers, murdered several strangers, and even plundered and destroyed the houses of some of the old settlers in the town of Manilla. It has been supposed that the Spaniards themselves really excited these riots, that they might fish in the troubled waters. The late governor, Fulgeros, is accused of not having adopted measures sufficiently active for repressing the insurrection. This judicious and amiable man, who was perhaps too mild a governor for so rude a people, was murdered in his bed a year after by a native, of Spanish blood, an officer in one of the regiments here, who followed up this crime by heading a mutiny of the troops. The insurgents assembled in the market-place, but were soon dispersed by a regiment which remained faithful, and in a few hours peace was re-established, and has not since been disturbed. The present governor, Ricofort, was sent out to succeed the unfortunate Fulgeros. The King, affected by the loyalty displayed by the town of Manilla, at a time when the other colonies had thrown off their allegiance, presented it with a portrait of himself, in token of his especial favour. The picture was brought out by the new governor, and received with a degree of veneration which satisfactorily evinced the high value set by the faithful colony on the royal present. It was first deposited in a house in the suburb belonging to the Crown, and then made its entry into the town in grand procession, and was carried to the station of honour appointed for it in the castle. This important ceremony took place during our residence here, on the 6th of December; and three days previously, the King in effigy had held a court in the suburb. The house was splendidly illuminated: in front of it stood a piquet of well-dressed soldiers; sentinels were placed at all the doors; the apartments were filled with attendants, pages, and officers of every rank in gala uniforms; and the etiquette of the Spanish court was as much as possible adhered to throughout the proceedings. Persons whose rank entitled them to the honour of a presentation to the King, were conducted into the audience-chamber, which was splendidly adorned with hangings of Chinese silk: here the picture, concealed by a silk curtain, was placed on a platform raised a few steps from the floor, under a canopy of silk overhanging two gilded pillars. The colonel on duty acting as Lord Chamberlain, conducted the person to be presented before the picture, and raised the curtain. The King then appeared in a mantle lined with ermine, and with a crown upon his head; the honoured individual made a low bow; the King looked in gracious silence upon him; the curtain was again lowered, and the audience closed. On the 6th of December, the immense multitudes that had assembled from the different provinces, to celebrate the solemn entry of the portrait into the capital of the islands, were in motion at daybreak. The lower classes were seen in all kinds of singular costumes, some of them most laughable caricatures, and some even wearing masks. Rockets and Chinese fireworks saluted the rising sun, producing of course, by daylight, no other effects than noise, smoke, and confusion, while elegant equipages rolled along the streets, scarcely able to make their way through the crowd. At nine o'clock, a royal salute thundered from the cannon of the fortress; and at twelve the procession began to move, displaying a rather ludicrous mixture of Spanish and Asiatic taste. I saw it from the windows of a house on its route, which commanded a very extensive view of the line of march. The cortège was led by the Chinese. First came a body of twenty-four musicians, some striking with sticks upon large round plates of copper, producing an effect not unlike the jingling of bells, and others performing most execrably upon instruments resembling clarionets. The sound of the copper plates was too confused to allow us to distinguish either time or tune--points of no great consequence perhaps; the choir, at least, did not trouble much about them. The musicians were followed by a troop of Chinese bearing silken banners, upon which were represented their idols, and dragons of all sorts and sizes, surrounded by hieroglyphical devices. Next followed, in a kind of litter richly ornamented, a young Chinese girl with a pair of scales in her hand, and intended, as I was told, to represent Justice, a virtue for which her country-people, in these parts, have not much cause to applaud themselves. Another set of musicians surrounded the goddess, making din enough with their copper plates to drown every complaint that might endeavour to reach her ear. Then came the rest of the Chinese, in different bands, with the symbols of their respective trades represented upon banners. Four Bacchantes, somewhat advanced in age, and in an attire more loose than was consistent with modesty, followed next: from their long, black, dishevelled hair, they might have been taken for Furies; and it was only their crowns of vine-leaves, and the goblets in their hands, that enabled us to guess what they were intended to represent. Bacchus, very much resembling a Harlequin, followed with his tambourine; and after him, a body of very immodest dancers: these, as the procession moved but slowly, halting frequently, had abundant opportunities of displaying their shameless talent, for the benefit of the shouting rabble. Why the procession should be disgraced by such an exhibition, it was not easy to conceive; but there were many other inconceivable matters connected with it. A troop of Indians followed, in motley and grotesque attire, intended to represent savages: they were armed with spears and shields, and kept up a continual skirmish as they marched. Next in procession was a battalion of infantry, composed of boys armed with wooden muskets and pasteboard cartridge-boxes, and followed by a squadron of hussars, also boys, with drawn sabres of wood, not riding, but carrying pasteboard horses: each of these had a hole cut in its saddle, through which the hussar thrust his feet, relieving the charger from any actual necessity of making use of his own--though, to show its high blood and mettlesome quality, each emulated his fellow in prancing, rearing, and kicking with front and hind-legs, to the no small danger of discomfiting the parade order of the squadron. To this redoubtable army succeeded a party of giants two fathoms high, dressed in the very extremity of fashion, the upper part of their bodies being represented in pasteboard, accompanied by ladies elegantly attired, and of nearly equal dimensions, and by some very small dwarfs: the business of this whole group was to entertain the populace with pantomimic gestures, and comic dances. Next came all sorts of animals, lions, bears, oxen, &c. of a size sufficiently gigantic to conceal a man in each leg. Then, with grave and dignified deportment, marched Don Quixote and his faithful Sancho. To the question, what the honourable Knight of the Rueful Countenance was doing there, somebody replied that he represented the inhabitants of Manilla, who were just then mistaking a windmill for a giant. The hero of Cervantes was followed by a body of military, seemingly marching under his command; and after them came two hundred young girls from the different provinces of the Philippine Islands, richly and tastefully attired in their various local costumes. Fifty of these young graces drew the triumphal car, richly gilt, and hung with scarlet velvet, which contained the picture of Ferdinand. Not content with the mantle the painter had given him, they had hung round him a real mantle of purple velvet embroidered with gold. By his side, and seated on a globe, was a tall female form dressed in white, with an open book in one hand, and in the other a wand, pointing towards the portrait. This figure was to represent the Muse of History:--may she one day cast a glance of friendly retrospection on the prototype of her pictured companion! A body of cavalry followed the car, and the carriages of the most distinguished inhabitants of the place closed the procession. Several Chinese triumphal arches crossed the streets, through which the retinue passed; they were temporary erections of wood, occupying the whole breadth of the street, and were decorated in the gayest and most showy manner by the Chinese, who, on this occasion, seemed to have spared no expense in order to flatter the vanity of the Spaniards. When the royal effigy entered the town, it was received by the Governor and the whole clergy of Manilla, and the young girls were superseded by the townspeople, who had now the honour to draw the car amidst the incessant cry of "_Viva el Rey Fernando!_" The cannon thundered from the ramparts; the military bands played airs of triumph; and the troops, which were ranged in two files from the gate of the town to the church, presented arms, and joined their "Vivas" to those of the populace. The procession halted at the church; and the picture being carried in, the bishop performed the service; after which, the King was replaced on his car, and conducted to the residence of the Governor, where, at length, he was installed in peace. Three days longer the rejoicings continued: bells were rung, guns were fired, and each evening the town and suburbs were magnificently illuminated: many houses exhibiting allegorical transparencies which occupied their whole front. But the illumination of the Chinese triumphal arches in the suburbs surpassed all the show: the dragons which ornamented them spat fire; flames of various colours played around them; and large fire-balls discharged from them emulated the moon in the heavens, till, from their increasing height, they seemed to disappear among the stars. Each of these edifices was of three stories, surrounded by galleries, on which, during the day, the Chinese performed various feats for the amusement of the people: there were conjurors, rope-dancers, magic lanterns, and even dramatic representations, the multitude eagerly flocking to the sight, and expressing their satisfaction in loud huzzas! I saw a tragedy performed on one of these galleries, in which a fat Mandarin, exhibiting a comic variety of grimaces and strange capers which would have done credit to Punchinello, submitted to strangulation at the command of his sovereign. At night, the people went about the streets masked, and letting off sky-rockets and Chinese fireworks. In several parts of the town, various kinds of spectacles were exhibited for the popular amusement: the air resounded with music, and public balls were gratuitously given. This unexampled rejoicing for the reception of a testimonial of royal approbation, seems sufficiently to prove the loyalty of the Philippines, and the little probability of their revolting, especially if the mother-country does not show herself wholly a stepmother to her dutiful children. On the 10th of January our frigate was ready to sail, and we left Manilla, the whole crew being in perfect health. ST. HELENA. ST. HELENA. A fresh north-east monsoon expedited our voyage, and we cut the equator on the 21st of January, in the longitude 253° 38'; then passing between the islands of Sumatra and Java, we reached the ocean, after having safely traversed the Chinese Sea from its northern to its southern boundary, and directed our course towards the Cape of Good Hope, where we intended staying to refresh. When we had reached to longitude 256°, 12° south latitude, the east wind, contrary to all rules at this season, changed for a westerly one, and blew a strong gale; the sky was covered with black clouds, and the rain fell in torrents. At midnight, while the storm was still raging, and the darkness complete, we witnessed the phenomenon known by the name of Castor and Pollux, and which originates in the electricity of the atmosphere; these were two bright balls of the size which the planet Venus appears to us, and of the same clear light; we saw them at two distinct periods, which followed quickly upon each other in the same place, that is, some inches below the extreme point of our main-yard, and at about half a foot distance asunder. Their appearance lasted some minutes, and made a great impression on the crew, who did not understand its cause. I must confess, that in the utter darkness, amidst the howling of the storm and the roaring of the water, there was something awful in the sight. Our passage was rendered tedious by contrary winds. On the 22nd of February, we crossed the meridian of the Isle of France, three hundred and forty miles off the island, in very stormy weather, and heard afterwards at St. Helena, that a hurricane raged at this time near the Isle of France, causing great damage to many vessels, and to some of them the loss of their masts. We should have probably shared in this danger had we been a hundred miles nearer the coast. I must here recommend every navigator, if possible, to keep clear of the two isles of France and Bourbon, from the middle of January till the middle of March, as, during that season, violent hurricanes continually rage there, which are very destructive even on shore. On the following day we passed the large frigate Bombay, belonging to the English East India Company, having on board, as passengers, the Governor of Batavia, Baron vander Kapellen, and his lady, with whom we afterwards had the pleasure of forming an acquaintance in St. Helena. On the 15th of March we doubled the Cape of Good Hope. It had been my intention to anchor in Table Bay, but a storm from the north-west came just in time to remind us how dangerous the bay is at this season, and we prosecuted our voyage to St. Helena. On the 25th of the same month, having traversed 360 degrees of longitude from east to west, we had lost a day, and were therefore compelled to change our Friday into a Saturday. On the 29th we anchored at St. Helena, before the little town of St. James, the whole crew being cheerful and healthy; but our spirits were soon damped by the news of the death of the Emperor Alexander, which we now received. I must here not omit to express my most cordial thanks to the Governor of St. Helena, for his very kind reception of myself and companions, and for his constant endeavours to make our stay on the island agreeable; he gave dinners and balls for our entertainment, and was always ready to comply with our wishes; hence he granted us what it is usually difficult to obtain--permission to visit the celebrated estate of Longwood, where Napoleon closed his splendid career, in powerless and desolate loneliness. We rode thither one fine morning, on horseback. The little town of St. James lies in a ravine between two high, steep, barren lava-rocks; its pleasant situation and cheerful aspect presenting a striking contrast with the gloom of its immediate environs. By a serpentine road cut through the rock, we climbed an ascent, by nature inaccessible; this path, in some parts not three fathoms in breadth, is bounded on one side by the perpendicular rock, and on the other overlooks an abrupt precipice, from which however it is defended by a strong stone balustrade, so that however fearful in appearance, its only real danger lies in an accident which sometimes happens, that large fragments detach themselves from the superincumbent rock, and roll down the precipice, carrying before them every thing that might obstruct their passage to the bottom. Having with some difficulty reached the highest ground on the island, we found the tropical heat changed into a refreshing coolness, and enjoyed an extensive prospect over the island, which presented a totally different aspect from that under which it is viewed by passing vessels. The sailor sees only high, black, jagged, and desolate rocks, rising perpendicularly from the sea, and every where washed by a tremendous surf, prohibiting all attempts to land except at the single point of St. James: his eye vainly seeks round the adamant wall, the relief of one sprig of green; not a trace of vegetation appears, and Nature herself seems to have destined the spot for a gloomy and infrangible prison. From these heights, on the contrary, the picturesque and smiling landscape of the interior forms the most striking contrast to its external sternness, and suggests the idea of a gifted mind, compelled by painful experience to shroud its charms under a forbidding veil of coldness and reserve. This remark only, however, applies to the western part of the island, which is protected from the trade-wind. The higher eastern part, where Napoleon lived, is as dead and barren as its rocky boundary. The trade-wind to which this district is constantly exposed, brings a perpetual fog, and drives the clouds in congregated heaps to the summits of the mountain, where they frequently burst in sudden and violent showers, often producing inundations, and rendering the air damp and unwholesome for the greater part of the year. The ground is for this reason incapable of cultivation; and a species of gum-tree, the only one to be seen in the neighbourhood of Longwood, by its stunted growth of hardly six feet, and its universal bend in one direction, proves how destructive is the effect of the trade-wind to all vegetable life. The nearer we approached the boundaries of the circle within which alone the renowned prisoner was permitted to move, the less pleasant became the country and the more raw the climate, till about a German mile from the town we found ourselves on the barren spot I have already described. Here a narrow path leads down an abrupt descent into a small valley, or basin, surrounded by hills, sheltered from the wind, and offering in its verdant foliage and cheerful vegetation, a refreshing and agreeable retreat. "There rest the remains of Napoleon," said the guide given us by the governor. We dismounted, and proceeded to the grave on foot. An old invalid who watches it, and lives in a lonely hut in its vicinity, now came towards us, and conducted us to a flat, tasteless grave-stone surrounded by an iron railing, and shaded by fine willows, planted probably by the last dependents of the unfortunate prisoner. It is a melancholy thing to tread this simple grave of him who once shook all Europe with his name, and here at last closed his too eventful life on a lonely rock in a distant ocean. The stone bears no inscription, but all who behold it may imagine one. Posterity alone can pronounce a correct judgment on the man who so powerfully influenced the destinies of nations. Honesty may perhaps have been the only quality wanting to have made him the greatest man of his age. The invalid filled a common earthen jug with clear delicious water from a neighbouring spring, and handed it to us with the remark, that Napoleon, in his walks hither, was accustomed to refresh himself with cold water from the same vessel. This little valley being the only spot where he could breathe a wholesome air, and enjoy the country, he often visited it, and once expressed a wish that he might be buried there. Little as his wishes were usually attended to, this was fulfilled. After spending some time in contemplating this remarkable memorial of the vicissitudes of fortune, we inscribed our names in a book kept for the purpose, and again mounting our horses, rode to what had formerly been the abode of the deceased; where, deprived of all power, the deposed Emperor to the last permitted the voluntary companions of his exile to address him by the titles of "Sire," and "Your Majesty." On quitting the garden scenery of the pretty little valley, the country resumed its dreary and sterile character. A ride of about a German mile through this inhospitable region, uncheered either by the fragrance of flowers or the melody of birds, brought us within sight of an inconsiderable level, or table land, perfectly barren, crowning the summit of one of the highest hillocks into which this huge rock is divided. In the centre of the plain, and enveloped in so thick a fog that it was scarcely perceptible, stood a small unpretending mansion. "That," said our guide, "is Longwood, late the residence of Napoleon." We soon reached the house, expecting to find it as left at the death of its illustrious occupant; with how much interest should we not have visited it, if nothing had been changed or removed! But the English authorities had not taken our gratification into their consideration. The house is divided into two distinct portions; the smaller half, or Napoleon's sleeping apartment, has been converted into a stable, and the larger into a warehouse for sheep-skins, fat, and other produce of the island. We had been informed that Napoleon had laid out a little garden near his dwelling, in which he often worked, assisted by Madame Bertrand; and, after many fruitless attempts, had been at length rewarded by the blossoming of a few hardy flowers, and the successful plantation of some young oaks; that one of the latter was set by the hand of Napoleon himself, another by that of Madame Bertrand. As we could see nothing resembling a garden, I enquired of our guide where it lay; he pointed, with a sarcastic smile, to a spot which had been routed up by hogs, saying, "Here Napoleon was as successful in rearing flowers as he had once been in founding empires, and both have equally vanished." Some oaks are still standing beside a broken hedge, but whether planted by Napoleon or not, no one can tell. We were also shown a pretty house, which had been built for Napoleon by the King's command, but which was not complete till a very short time before his death. Though much better and more convenient than the one he inhabited, he never could be induced to remove to it; perhaps already conscious of the approach of death, he felt no farther concern for the accommodations of life. Strongly contrasted with the gloom and sterility of Longwood, is the summer residence of the Governor of St. Helena, lying on Sandy Bay, on the western shore of the island, and about half a German mile from the town. In this beautiful and healthful climate, every tropical plant flourishes in the greatest luxuriance. We were hospitably received at Plantation-house, a handsome, spacious, and convenient building, surrounded by an extensive park. In this delightful spot nature and art have combined at once to charm and to surprise; yet while breathing its pure and fragrant air, would our thoughts unconsciously revert with sympathy to the melancholy fate of the exile of Longwood. The environs of Sandy Bay would be a perfect little Switzerland, but that the glaciers are wanting to complete the resemblance. Scattered amongst the enormous masses of rock which lie confusedly heaped upon each other, a frightful wilderness and most smilingly picturesque landscape alternately present their contrasted images to the eye. Such are the traits which the hand of Nature has impressed upon the scenery in this fortunate portion of the island; while that of man, busily engaged in adding to her charms, and in correcting her ruggedness, throws an appearance of life, comfort, and civilization over the picture. Convenient roads wind up the steep ascents, and frequent openings in the cliff, present vistas of fruitful fields, tastefully built mansions surrounded by parks and plantations, and snug farm-houses embosomed in their pretty gardens. Every thing bespeaks industry and comfort. The inhabitants are all well-dressed, healthy, and contented. Of their hospitality we had the most agreeable evidences. Invited with friendly cordiality into their houses, we were entertained with the best they had, and with the kindest expressions of pleasure in welcoming the first Russians who had ever visited their country. We were invited to dinner by one of the richest land proprietors of the island, who, although considerably more than seventy years old, still retained the animation and vigour of youth. This intelligent and well-educated man had never, till his sixty-ninth year, left his beautiful home, except for an occasional and short visit to the town. Through the medium of books, and conversation with the strangers visiting St. Helena, he was well versed in the customs and localities of Europe, and felt the highest respect for the perfection to which the arts and sciences of civilized life had been carried in that quarter of the world, but without experiencing any desire to see it; suddenly, however, at this advanced period of his life, curiosity got the better of his love of ease; his wish to become personally and more accurately acquainted with the much-praised institutions, and the wonderful capital of England, was no longer to be repressed, and he determined to undertake the voyage. On landing in London, he was, as he expressed himself, astonished and dazzled by the extent and magnificence of the city. The throng in the streets, which he compared to ant-hills, far exceeded the ideas he had formed; he visited the manufactories, and observed with wonder the perfection of their machinery; the theatres enchanted him, and the succession of new sights and impressions produced an effect resembling a perpetual intoxication. After a time, however, he experienced the fatigue incident to an extreme tension of mind, and began to sigh for the calm retirement of Sandy Bay, to which he took the first opportunity of returning, never to leave it more. We passed nine very agreeable days at St. Helena, and shall always retain the liveliest remembrance of the kindness shown us by its amiable inhabitants. My crew, though healthy, had in some degree suffered from the effects of a nearly three years' voyage, and I was anxious during our stay here to strengthen them by a regimen of fresh provisions, (which, however, are very dear upon the island,) particularly as we had again to cross the line, and that in a region often considered unhealthy. On the 7th of April we sailed from St. Helena, and cut the equator on the 16th in the longitude 22° 37'. Here, delayed by calms, and oppressed by the heat and damps, notwithstanding all my precautions, a nervous fever broke out among the men; and, after having escaped so many dangers, we began to apprehend a melancholy conclusion to our voyage. This misfortune had probably been communicated to us by contagion. The homeward-bound ships of the English East India Company, which almost all touch at St. Helena, having nothing in view but a quick passage, and the profit resulting from it, do not generally, as I have myself had opportunities of observing, pay that proper attention to cleanliness and wholesome diet which is absolutely necessary to health. During our residence at St. Helena, several of these ships were lying in the roads with sick on board. It is true that, according to a standing order, no vessel is allowed anchorage there till a surgeon has examined into the state of health of her crew; but the captains find means to evade the investigation, and thus are the healthy liable to become infected by association with the diseased. Half our crew lay sick, and our skilful and active surgeon was unfortunately of the number. A favouring gale, however, sprang up, which carried us into a cooler and drier climate, our invalids quickly recovered, and we escaped with the loss of one sailor only. By the 12th of March, when we passed the Azore Islands, the crew was again in perfect health. On the 3rd of June we reached Portsmouth, where we stopped some days. On the 29th we touched at Copenhagen, and on the 10th of July joyfully dropped our anchor in the roads of Cronstadt, from whence we had sailed nearly three years before. If my readers have by this time become sufficiently acquainted with me to interest themselves in my affairs, they will not learn with indifference, that my most gracious Sovereign the Emperor has honoured me by the most condescending testimonials of his satisfaction, and that after our long separation, I had the gratification of finding my wife and children well and happy. APPENDIX. REVIEW OF THE ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTION OF FR. ESCHSCHOLTZ, PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DORPAT. It may easily be conceived, that in a sea-voyage a naturalist has fewer opportunities of enriching his collection, than when travelling by land; particularly if the vessel is obliged to pass hastily from one place to another, with a view to her arriving at her destination within a limited period. During our three years' voyage, little more than the third of our time was spent on shore. It is true, that curious animals are occasionally found in the open sea, and that a day may be pleasantly passed in examining them; but it is also true, that certain parts of the ocean appear, near the surface, to be almost wholly untenanted; and accordingly a passage of eleven weeks produced only ten species of animals: these, however, being met with only at sea, are still but partially known to the naturalist, and were the more interesting to me, as, during the preceding voyage, I had become acquainted with many remarkable productions of the ocean. My best plan will be, to arrange in a chronological order all the zoological observations which offered in the course of this voyage. The first, then, was the result of a contrary wind, by which we were detained much longer than we intended in the Baltic, and thus enabled to use our deep fishing-nets upon the great banks: these brought to light a considerable number of marine animals. Upon the branches of the _spongia dichotoma_, some of which were twelve inches in length, sat swarms of _Ophiura fragilis_, _Asterias rubens_, _Inachus araneus_, _I. Phalangium_, _I. Scorpio_, _Galathea strigosa_, and _Caprella scolopendroides Lam._ We obtained, at the same time, large pieces of _Labularia digitata_, _Sertularia abietina_, upon which nothing of the animal kind was to be seen, but attached to which was frequently found _Flustra dentata_; also _Pagurus Bernhardus_, _Fusus antiquus_, _Rostellaria pes pelecani_, _Cardium echinatum_, _Ascidia Prunum_, _Balanus sulcatus_, _Echinus saxatilis_, and _Spatangus flavescens_. Two different species of _Actiniæ_, seated on stones, were brought up, which were not to be found either in _Pennant's British Zoology_, or in the _Fauna danica_. During a calm, by which we were detained two days on the Portuguese coast, _Janthina fragilis_ and _exigua_, _Rhizophysa filiformis_, and another species, were brought up. Many specimens of the _Janthina exigua_ were found, the bladder-like mass of which was stretched out to a great length, and bent into the form of a hook at the end. On the outer side was observed a fleshy streak, bordered by a close row of small paunches: these paunches, which were externally open, contained a great quantity of brown atoms, apparently spawn, and evidently in motion. With respect to the _Rhizophysæ_, it has been discovered that they are of the same genus as the _Physsophora_, the hard part being torn away in the act of catching them; upon this occasion also, several of these separated parts, still in motion, and bearing some resemblance to salpas, were brought up, and accurately examined. Off the Cape de Verd Islands, in addition to the _Exocoetus volitans_, which abounds there, various specimens of the much larger _Exocoetus exsiliens_ of Cuvier alighted on board our vessel. The latter species is distinguished by the long black fins of the belly, and by its remarkably large eyes, differing greatly from the species described by Gmelin under the same denomination. The calms near the Equator afford an abundant harvest to the zoologist, the tranquil water presenting an immense variety of marine animals to his view, and allowing him to take them with little trouble in a net. The open woollen stuff used for flags offers the most convenient material for making these nets, as it allows the water to run through very quickly, and does not stick together. A short, wide bag should be made of this stuff, which may be stretched upon the hoop of a cask, and the whole fastened to a long, light pole. From the height on which we stand above the water, it is impossible to perceive the smaller animals; the best way therefore to catch these is, to hold the net half in the water, as if to skim off the bubbles of foam from the surface; then, after a few minutes, if the net is drawn out, and the interior rinsed in a glass of fresh sea-water, one may frequently have the pleasure of seeing little animals of strange forms swimming in the glass. In the course of ten days, I obtained, in this way, thirty-one different species of animals, among which was a small _Diodon_, eight small crustacea of forms almost wholly unknown; a sea-bug (_Halobates micans_); three species of Pteropodes, closely allied to the _Cliodora_; a small and remarkable Hyaloea; two new _Janthinæ_; _Firola hyalina_, _Pyrosoma atlanticum_, _Salpa coerulescens_, and another unknown; _Porpita glandifera_, and a new species of globular form; a _Velella_; two new species of Acalephes, of the same family as the _Diphyes_; and further _Pelagia panopyra_, and two other very small species. When the sea was a little agitated on the Brazilian coast, we frequently saw the large sea-bladder floating on the surface; here we also caught with our net a new species of small _Hyaloea_, and of the fin-footed _Steira_, which approaches the nearest to the _Limacina_. Brazil has lately been visited by eminent naturalists, who have spent years in the country, and have travelled through it in every direction; we are therefore bound to suppress the few detached observations we were able to make during the short space of four weeks. Captain Von Kotzebue having frequently sent his people to fish in the Bay of Boto Fogo, we enriched our collection by thirty-two kinds of fish, the greater part of which were very similar to those already described as tenants of the Atlantic, but still differing from them in some respects. How abundant the insects of Brazil are is generally known, particularly in the warm and moist lands along the coast, in the vicinity of Rio Janeiro. Few of them crawl on the ground; the greater part of them live on the leaves and fruits, or under the bark of trees, in flowers, and in the spongy excrescences of the trees. Among the coleoptera, the _Stachylinus_ is a rarity: the white-winged _Cicindela nivea_ of Kirby is to be found in great abundance on the sand of the beach, which is of the same colour as itself; the _Cic. nodicornis_ and _angusticollis Dej._ on the other hand, frequent the paths in the forests. _Cosnania_, which supplies the place of our _Elaphrus_, is found among the grass by the side of brooks. The little animals of the _Plochionus_ and _Coptodera_ species climb, by means of their indented claws, along the moss on the trunks of the trees: their numbers, in these extensive forests, must be immense. Of the _Cantharis_, the number is small; the strongest of which is the _Cantharis flavipes_ F. the descriptions of which vary, so that it may still be doubted whether we have a correct account of it. To show the proportion of the numerous subdivisions which we observed in the different genera, it will be sufficient to give the numbers of those which we were able to collect during the short period of our stay:--these were, _Elater_, 37; _Lampyris_, 17; _Ateuchus_, 14 (including the _Deltachilum_ and _Eurysternus_); _Passalus_, 13; _Anoplognathidæ_, 14; _Helops_, (including _Stenochia_ and _Statira_) 17; _Curculionidæ_, 108; _Cerambycidæ_, 101; _Cassida_, 24; _Haltica_, 26; _Doryphora_, 12; _Colaspis_, 15; and _Erotylus_, 12. The _Phanæus_, according to MacLeay, distinguished by the total absence of claws from the feet, is peculiar to the warmer parts of America: _Onthophagus_ is not met with along the shore, but is found in the interior. Such large _Copris_ as are seen in the old world, (_Isidis_, _Hamadrias_, _Bucephalus_,) have not been discovered here: their place is supplied by the large _Phanæi_, _Faunus_, _bellicosus_, _lancifer_, &c. A golden-green _Copris_ is a great rarity. _Onitis_ seems to be quite wanting in America: all the specimens, in this part of the world, that have been placed in that class, belong partly to the _Phanæus_, and partly to the _Eurysternus_ Dalm. a remarkable species of the genus Ateuchus. The _Ateuchi_ are not less numerous in South America than in Africa; and here is found what may be looked upon as the intermediate link between _Copris_ and _Onitis_. No part of the world is so rich in _Rutelides_ as trophical America; and according to the narrow limits within which Mac Leay confines this family, it would seem to be exclusively restricted to this continent. The greater part have not the head divided from the head-shield by a line, and the breast is lengthened in front into a spine: this extensive division is peculiar to America. In the second division, the head-shield of which is bounded by a strongly marked line, those which are provided with a breast-bone are American. South America possesses also the intermediate genus between the _Rutelides_ and _Scarabæi_, in the genus _Cyclocephala_, _Anoplognathidæ_ were hitherto known to us from New Holland, Asia, South Africa, and South America, and are characterised by the drooping form of the upper-lip, falling lowest in the middle, and by the inequality of their claws; the under-lip, at the same time, has either a projection in the centre, or consists of two parts lapping over one another. In the same way that the _Anoplognathidæ_ of New Holland have the appearance of _Rutelides_ proper, are the South American _Anoplognathidæ_ distinguished by their resemblance to _Melolonthidæ_: those of Brazil have no breast-bone, and at least one claw to each foot is cloven, which distinguishes them from those of Asia. _Chelonarium_ and _Atractocerus_ fly about in the evening, and are attracted by a light. The Brazilian jumping beetles differ, almost all of them, in their form, from those of Europe. Among the _Heteromerides_, in the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro, owing to the dampness of the soil, no unwinged beetle is to be met with; a few varieties of the species _Scotinus_ have been found upon the Organ mountains only. Owing to the excessive roughness of the weather, our passage from Rio Janeiro to the Bay of Conception afforded us but few opportunities to add to our collections. A snipe blown out to sea from the Rio de la Plata, a specimen of _Diomedea Albatros_ at Terra del Fuego, a large _Salpa_, and a _Lepas_, were all we were able to obtain. The Bay of Conception presents a rich field to the ornithologist. A kind of parrot, with a long tail, and naked round the eyes, flies about in swarms; and a smaller kind from the interior, is to be found tame in the houses; our guns frequently brought down two small kinds of doves. Of _Ambulatores_ we met some, of the genera _Cassicus_, _Motacilla_, _Muscicapa_, _Pyrgita_, _Saxicola_, _Cotile_; of birds of prey, _Percnopterus Jota Mol._, and two buzzards; of _Grallatores_, two kinds of _Hæmatopus_, both with white legs, the one with a black body, as _H. niger_ is described by Quoy and Gaimard, the other more similar to the European; a _Vanellus_ with spurs to the wings, _Numenius_, _Scolopax_, _Phalaropus_, _Ardea Nycticorax_; and lastly a small bird with remarkably short legs, digitated, and with a short thick bill, frequenting the sea-shore, and feeding on seeds of _Rumex_ and _Polygonum_, and constituting a new species, which may be called _Thinocorus_. Of aquatic birds, there were two kinds of _Sterna_ and _Larus_; many thousands of _Rynchops nigra_, which were so numerous as to appear like clouds when they rose into the air; a _Procellaria_ of the variety _Nectris_; two kinds of _Podiceps_, and an _Aptenodytes_ of the variety _Spheniscus_. The upper part of the latter was of a lead colour, and the lower part white, with a line of dullish grey running from the bill to the belly, and forming a boundary between the two colours; the bill and legs quite black. The animal was alive when brought to us. When resting, it lay upon its belly and stretched out its head. In the water it appeared unable to maintain itself afloat except by incessant paddling, the whole of the body being meanwhile under water. Of amphibia, only five kinds can be distinctly named; a brown _Coluber_, two small lizards of the family of _Scincoidea_, a small _Rana_, with a spot like an eye on the belly, and a small _Bufo_. Of fishes, the most remarkable was a _Torpedo_, with the back of a reddish brown, and smooth; and a _Callorhynchus antarcticus_: the latter may very well remain in the class of _Chimæra_. Of crustaceæ, we collected three _Canceres_, a _Portunus_, a _Porcellana_, a _Sphæroma_, and a _Ligia_. The dry land along the coast is extremely poor in insects. The number of beetles collected in 1816, together with those taken on the present occasion, amounted only to sixty seven, but they are altogether peculiar to the country. The most remarkable are a _Carabus_ of the beautiful colours of the _hispanus_, but with narrow striped cases to the wings, and a large _Prionus_: the joints of the feet, in this latter, are short and cylindrical, constituting a distinction from the whole family of the _Cerambycinæ_; in every other respect it is unquestionably a _Prionus_, and may be called _Pr. Mercurius_, on account of two wing-shaped appendages, attached to the neck-corselet. Sixteen Carabicides were found belonging to the _Calosoma_, _Pæcilus_, _Harpalus_, _Trechus_, _Dromius_, and _Peryphus_. We were surprised at finding so few dung-beetles. We met with only two large ones, namely, the _Megathopa villosa_ of _Esch_. Entomography, forming a species of the _Ateuchus_, and a _Copris torulosa_, described in the same work; this, however, is owing to the very little moisture in the atmosphere, which dries the dung almost immediately. It is curious, that all the seventeen kinds of _Copris_ of South America known to us, have but seven stripes upon each wing-case; whereas those of the Old World have eight: the larger kinds, _Hamadrias_, _Bucephalus_, and _Isidis_,[4] alone agree with the South American in the number of stripes. Of the Americans, the _C. Hesperus Oliv._ is the only one with a border to the seventh stripe, and the _C. Actæon Klug_ of Mexico is the only one that has eight stripes. Various kinds of beetles in Chili seek a shelter from the rays of the sun in the dry cow-dung: almost all the Heteromerides with wings grown together, the greater part of the beetles armed with trunks, and several Carabides, were found there. The ten kinds of Heteromerides, with distorted wings, found here, belong to five new classes: the other Heteromerides consist of a _Helops_ and a black _Lytta_ with red thighs. Of beetles furnished with a proboscis, we met with four kinds of _Listroderes_, two remarkable _Cryptorhynchi_, and a few others of the shape of a _Rhigus_. Lastly are to be noticed, a _Lucanus_ of the form of the _femoratus_, a large _Stenopterus_, and a large black _Psoa_. We found very few other species of insects, but several kinds of _Pompilus_, one two inches long, and a curious _Castnia_, were the most remarkable. Of marine animals there remain to be noticed--a small _Octopus_, a _Loligo_, two _Chiton_, _Patella_, _Crepidula_, _Pilcopsis_, _Fissurella_, _Calyptræa_; of _Concholepas_, only empty shells; a large _Mytilus_, a small _Modiola_, _Turritella_, _Turbo_, _Balanus_; and a Holothuria of the variety _Psolus_. In the vast sea between the coast of Chili and the Low Islands or the dangerous Archipelago, very few animals appear to live near the surface, at least we saw none; a quantity of flying-fish were seen, resembling the _Exocoetus volitans_, but having the rays of the breast-fins parted towards the end. During the short space of ten days that we stayed at O Tahaiti, the inhabitants, who for a trifling remuneration brought us all sorts of marine animals, enabled us to make acquaintance with all the natural productions of this much praised country. Birds are scarce in the lowlands along the coast. The little blue _Psittacus Taitianus_ frequents the top of the cocoa-palm; the _Ardea sacra_ walks along the coral reefs; but it is seldom that a tropical bird is seen on the wing. A _Gecko_ of the species _Hemidactylus_ lives about old houses; a small lizard of the family of _Scincoidea_, with a copper-coloured body and a blue tail, and a striped _Ablepharus_, are met with frequently among the rocks. Of fishes, the variety is great, many of them of splendid colours, particularly the small ones, which feed upon the coral, and seek shelter among its branches. The same place of refuge is chosen by numbers of variegated crabs, more particularly the _Grapsus_, _Portunus_, and _Galathea_. Three kinds of _Canceres_ already known were brought us, the _maculatus_, _corallinus_, and _floridus_; the two former move but little, and their shells are as hard as stones. A small _Gelasimus_ burrows under the ground, and makes himself a subterranean passage from the water to the dry land. The female has very small claws, but the male has always one very large pink claw, which is sometimes the right and sometimes the left. A large brownish _Gecarcinus_ lives entirely on the land, in holes of his own making; his gills accordingly are not open combs, but consist of rows of bags closely pressed together, and somewhat resembling bladders. _Hippa adactyla_ F. is very frequent here, and keeps itself concealed under the sands on the sea-shore. It was from these that Fabricius, who has given a wrong description of their legs, formed his species _Hippa_; Latreille mentions them by the name of _Remipes testudinarius_. Six kinds of _Pagurus_. Of Crustacea already described, _Palæmon longimanus_, _Alphæus marmoratus_, and _Squilla chiragra_; the legs of the last are red, and formed like a club; it uses them as weapons of offence or defence, and inflicts wounds in striking them out by a mechanism peculiar to itself. The number of insects collected on the low land was very small; among them the _Staphylinus erytrocephalus_, also a native of New Holland; an _Aphodius_, scarcely to be distinguished from the _limbatus Wiedem._ of the Cape of Good Hope; an _Elater_ of the species _Monocrepis_; of _Oedemera_, three varieties of the species _Dytilus_, to which belong the _Dryops livida_ and _lineata_ F.; two small varieties of _Apate_; _Anthribus_, _Cossonnus_, _Lamia_, _Sphinx pungens_, and a large _Phasma_. No place could be more convenient for the observation of the Mollusca and Radiata than Cape Venus. At a few hundred paces from the shore is a coral reef, which at low water is completely dry. In the shoal water, between the reef and the shore, is found the greatest variety of the more brittle kinds of coral, and among their sometimes thick bushes, mollusca and echinodermes lie concealed. The rapid movements of a small _Strombus_, which, when taken, beat about it with its shell, formed like a thin plate of horn, and armed with sharp teeth, were very curious. On breaking the stone which is formed by fragments of coral, a _Sternaspis_ was found burrowing in the interior. Seven classes of Holothuria were examined; three belonged to the species of _Holothuria_, called by Lamarck _Fistularia_, but which name had already been given by Linnæus to the tobacco-pipe fish; the fourth was a species newly discovered, and to which we appropriated the name of _Odontopyga_, because the fundament is armed with five calcareous teeth; the belly is furnished with small tubes, and the back covered with bumps. Two more belong to the species _Thyone_; and the seventh kind of Holothuria ought, properly speaking, to form a class apart, not having tubular feet, but adhering, by means of their sharp skin, to extraneous objects, on which account they might be called _Sinapta_; their feelers are fringed and they live concealed among stones. We found five small kinds of sea-leeches; and among three kinds of star-fish, the _Asterias Echinites_, the large radii of which easily inflict a severe wound; another had the form of the _Asterias Luna_, was eight inches in diameter, without radii, and had more the appearance of a round loaf of bread somewhat flattened. Of corals, the variety was very great, as may be judged from the circumstance of our having collected twenty-four kinds within so short a space of time. _Fungia_ is quite at home here; for, independently of _F. agariciformis_, _scutaria_, and _limacina_, a long kind was also found, having, like the two former, only one central cavity; they are found in shallow water among other corals. Of tabular corals already known, there remain to be mentioned, _Pavonia boletiformis_, _Madrepora prolifera abrotanoides_, _corymbosa_, _plantaginea_, and _pocillifera_. The inhabitants of the Navigator Isles brought us the little _Psittacus australis_, _Columba australis_, and another very prettily marked dove, having green plumage, ornamented with a dark violet line across the breast, and the feet and head of a reddish purple. It climbed about the sides and roof of its cage, did not leave its perch when it wanted to drink, but stooped down so low as merely to hang by its legs; it would not eat seed, but lived principally on fruit, particularly bananas, all which closely agreed with the habits of parrots. During our passage to the equator, _Sterna solida_ and _Dysporus Sula_ alighted frequently on our vessel, and allowed themselves to be taken. The latter, when old, has a blue beak and red feet; when young, a red bill and flesh-coloured legs. The exterior nostrils are entirely wanting; but in every part are air-cells between the skin and the muscles. Besides these animals, six varieties of _Pteropodes_ were caught; also a _Glaucus_, differing from that of the Atlantic _Janthina penicephala Per._, a _Planaria_, _Salpa vivipara Per._, a _Pyrosoma_, resembling that of the Atlantic, and a _Lepas_, attached to the shell of the _Janthina_. Our collection of Acalephi was extremely rich; of fourteen kinds taken, only one, _Physalia Lamartinieri_, was known to us. Our eight days' stay at the coral island Otdia, afforded us an opportunity to observe or collect about one hundred different kinds of marine animals. It has already been mentioned elsewhere, that the only kind of mammalia found upon this island is a middling-sized cat, which feeds on the fruit of the pandanus tree, and makes its nest in the dead branches, which it easily hollows out. Several lizards have also been found in these islands, such as the striped _Ablepharus_ of O Tahaiti, and a small _Gecko_; a large coal-black lizard was several times seen, but always escaped among the dry pandanus leaves. The fishes are remarkable for the singularity of their form, and the beauty of their colours; those brought to us by the inhabitants belonged to the _Holocentrus_, _Scarus_, _Mullus_, _Chætodon_, _Heniochus_, _Amphacanthus_, _Theutis_, and _Fistularia_. Of Crustacea we saw twenty different kinds; among them a _Gonoplax_ of the middling size, and as white as the coral-sand, among which it lives, on the shore. The _Hippopus_ found here differs from the _maculatus_ already known by the much greater elevation of its shell. The large _Tridachna_ is the _Tr. squamosa Lam._ It is very unusual to meet with an animal belonging to the family of Lepades in tubular holes made in the coral rocks, as is the case with the _Lithonaetta N._ Among the twenty kinds of tabular coral here observed, there was not one of those collected at O Tahaiti; there were three new _Distichoporæ_, _Seriatipora_, six kinds of _Madrepora_, two _Porites_, four _Astrea_, _Pocillopora cærulea_, and another kind, forming broad, yellow, leafy masses, the slime of which stings like a nettle; _Cariophyllæa glabrescens Cham._, and _Tubipora_, with red animalculæ. A calm of several days, between eighteen and twenty degrees of north latitude, during our passage to Kamtschatka, afforded opportunities for the observation of several remarkable animals. A small animal of Lamarck's family of Heteropodes, with two rows of separate fins, received the name _Tomopteris_. Secondly, a _Salpa_, of the class which lives apart and has fine long fibres projecting from the hinder part of the body. Thirdly, a small animal, nearly allied to the _Diphyes_, the soft part of the body, which contains the tube for receiving nourishment, having no air-bladder. Fourthly, a small _Beroe_, having the power of drawing in its fins. Fifthly, a very small _Porpita_. The sixth animal was a very remarkable crab, the triangular shell on the back, only two lines in length, provided with a spike from eight to ten lines long, (_Lonchophorus anceps_,) projecting both before and behind. Professor Germar has given to a species of beetle the name _Lonchophorus_, but the same had already been described by Mac Leay, under the name of _Phanæus_. Seventhly, an animal belonging to the class _Arthrodiæ_, (_Arthronema N._) the exterior consisting of stiff tubes, in the interior of which is afterwards found a skin, which eventually divides into separate parts. Eighthly, a _Clio_, about a line in length, with a projection from the globular part of the body. Ninthly, a second variety of _Appendicularia_, described by my friend and companion, on board the Rurik, A. von Chamisso, in the tenth volume of the _N. Acta Acad. Leop. Car._, which proved to be a species of Mollusca belonging to the Heteropodes of Lamarck. Tenthly, a _Pelagia_, scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished from the _Panopyra Per._ Lastly, a new kind of _Cestum_, _C. Najadis N._ In the thirty-fourth degree of latitude, renewed calms again enabled us to add to our collection, firstly, a new species of Physsophorides (_Agalma N._); secondly, a new _Diphyes_; thirdly, a new _Pelagia_, with a yellow skin on the belly, attached to which was a small Cirrhipede of the class _Cineras_; fourthly, a Medusa, with broad belly-bags, and four strong fins; fifthly, a Medusa of the same species, with five and six fins; sixthly, a very small Entomostracea of a flat form, and distinguished by its blue glossy colour, similar to that of the _Hoplia farinosa_; seventhly, a _Loligo_, probably _cardioptera Per._, remarkable on account of the largeness of its eyes; eighthly, a second species of _Phyllirhoe_, placed by Lamarck among the Heteropodes, to which class it does not, however, belong. The species found in the South Sea has no eyes, and plain feelers; on which account it was formerly considered by us as forming a distinct class, and called _Eurydice_. But, although the _Phyllirhoe_ is found to vary so remarkably in its formation, owing to the want of feet, still I consider it as nearly allied to the _Eolidia_. Ninthly, a new _Glaucus_, of a remarkably slim body, with short fins, and of a blackish-blue colour. Tenthly, a _Eucharis N._ In addition to these, no less than eight Crustacea were taken in the net. In the vicinity of Kamtschatka, the vessel sailed daily through red masses floating on the surface; on drawing up some of the water, the pail was found full of red _Calanus_, a line and a half long, with rough feelers of the same length as the body. In Kamtschatka we found the Bay of Awatscha poor in Mollusca and radiated animals, owing probably to the inconsiderable ebb and flood. The objects most frequently met with, were an ugly little _Turbo_, the empty shell of which was tenanted by a black _Pagurus_ and a _Balanus_. A large _Cyanea_ differs from the European _C. ciliata_, in the form of the stomach. Another Medusa, constituting a new kind of _Sthenonia N._, was observed; its digestive organs resemble those of the Aurelia; and about the edge, eight bunches of very long fibres project, provided, like those of the Physaliæ, with two rows of suckers. The environs of St. Peter and St. Paul, lying under fifty-three degrees of north latitude, possess an insect Fauna, such as is in Europe only found in sixty and seventy degrees of latitude; as for instance, in Lapland and Finland. A great number of species are exactly similar in both regions; others of the Kamtschatkan insects have been met with nowhere else, except in Siberia, and a small number is quite peculiar to the former country. All have not yet been subjected to a diligent examination, and only the following can be with certainty mentioned. Firstly, in the North of Europe also, are found: _Pteroloma Forstroemii Gyllh._, _Nebria arctica Dej._ (_hyperborea Schoenh._), _Blethisa multipunctata_, _Pelophila borealis_, _Elaphrus lapponicus_ and _riparius_, _Notiophilus aquaticus_, _Loricera pilicornis_, _Poecilus lepidus_, _Dyticus circumcinctus_, _Staphylinus maxillosus_, _Buprestis appendiculata_, _Elater holosericeus_, _Ptilinus pectinicornis_, _Necrophorus mortuorum_; _Silpha thoracica_, _lapponica_, _opaca_, and _atrata_; _Strongylus colon_, _Byrrhus albo-punctatus_, _dorsalis_, _varius_ and _aeneus_; _Hydrophilus scarabæoides_ and _melanocephalus_; _Cercyon aquaticum_, _Hister carbonarius_, _Psammodius sabuleti_, _Trichus fasciatus_, _Oedemera virescens_, _Apoderus Coryli_, _Leptura trifasciata_, _atra_ and _sanguinosa_, _Lema brunnea_, _Cassida rubiginosa_, _Chrysomela staphylæa_, _lapponica_, _ænea_, _viminalis_, _armoracea_ and _vitellinæ_; _Eumolpus obscurus_, _Cryptocephalus variegatus_, _Coccinella_ 7 _punctata_, 13 _punctata_, _mutabilis_, and 16 _guttata_. Secondly, such as have been hitherto found only in Siberia, though their number is but small: _Cantharis annulata Fisch._, _Dermestes domesticus Gebl._, _Aphodius ursinus N._, and _A. maurus Gebl._, and _Leptura sibirica_. Among the beetles which have as yet been met with nowhere else, and are therefore considered peculiar to the country, may be named: a _Cicindela_, between _hybrida_ and _maritima_; a _Carabus_ of the form of the _cancellatus Illig._, with black feelers and legs; _C. Clerkii N._, and another, green, with gold border, of the form of the _catenulatus_, caught near the line of perpetual snow on the volcano Awatscha: _C. Hoffmanni N._, _Nebria nitidula_, which is the same as the _Carabus nitidulus Fabr._, as appears by that preserved in Banks's Museum, hitherto the only specimen in Europe; great numbers of these are found in the valleys: a second black sort was caught on the volcano. Further, a small bright yellow _Pteroloma_, an _Elaphrus_, _Bembidia_ six kinds, _Agonum_ four kinds, an _Omaseus_, an _Amara_, _Elater scabricollis Esch. Entomogr._; an _Elater_, like _undulatus_ P., three kinds, which like _Bructeri_, live among stones; a wingless kind which is found buried in the sea-sand, and a perfectly black _Campylus_. Besides these, a beetle forming a peculiar species between _Atopa_ and _Cyphon_; _Cantharis cembricola Esch._, and one resembling the _testacea_; a _Hylecoetus_, scarcely differing from _dermestoides_; _Catops_; a _Heterocerus_, broad and covered with whitish scales; an _Elophorus_; two _Phaleriæ_ with a black ground; two kinds of _Stenotrachelis_, both larger than the European, which has hitherto borne the name of _Dryops ænea_; and in fact, the beetle in Banks's Museum, so called by Fabricius, is either the same, or a species very nearly resembling it, and it may therefore be conjectured that some mistake has accidentally occurred in the designation of its native country in that Museum. There still remain to be mentioned a Chrysomela, like the _pyritosa_, and a _Coccinella_ with five very large spots upon both wing-covers, found on the line of perpetual snow on the volcano. It is also probable that the valley of the Kamtschatka river, although lying farther north than the environs of the Awatscha, yet possesses a richer in sect Fauna, as the climate there is much milder, and adapted to agriculture. From Kamtschatka our course lay mostly eastward. At first the sea was strongly luminous every night; but when in the midst of this immense ocean, it one night happened, that while the ship was as usual surrounded by brilliant waves, a dark precipice seemed to open before it. On reaching this part of the water, it appeared that all the luminous matters, such as Zoophytes and Mollusca with their spawn, were entirely wanting, and from this point to the American coast the sea remained dark. We remarked generally of this great ocean, that on the Asiatic coast, even at a considerable distance from land, (as much as thirty degrees west from Japan,) the water is always muddy; it is made so, partly by the great numbers of small Crustacea, Zoophytes, and Mollusca, partly by the impurities of the whales and dolphins, which latter especially, as well as many other kinds of fish, are very numerous here from the abundance of food to be found. On the contrary, the sea in the neighbourhood of the north-west coast of America is clear and transparent, and nothing is found in it except here and there a single Medusa. In the principal settlement of the Russian-American Trading Company on the island of Sitcha, in Norfolk Sound, we had better opportunities of becoming acquainted with natural productions than elsewhere, as, during our stay there, in the year 1825, from March to the middle of August, we had an almost uninterrupted continuation of fine weather: we were in this respect peculiarly favoured, as in most years this island does not enjoy above one fine day to fourteen cloudy or wet ones. We ourselves experienced this sort of weather in 1824, when we passed the latter part of August and the beginning of September there. Of the Fauna of this island, about two hundred and sixty species came under our notice: from its immediate vicinity to the continent, it is not wonderful that several large _mammalia_ are to be found. Among these is the _Ursus Americanus_, of the black race; a fox; a stag, which perhaps does not differ from the _Cervus virginianus_, and the common beaver, which feeds on the large leaves of a _Pothos_, said by the inhabitants to be injurious to man. Besides these are observed a small _Vespertilio_ with short ears, a _Mustela_, and a _Phoca_. Of birds we remarked: the _Aquila leucocephala_, _Astur_, _Corvus Corone_ and _Stelleri_, and some varieties of the species _Turdus_, _Sylvia_, _Troglodytes_, _Parus_, _Alcedo_, _Picus_, _Ardea_, _Hæmatopus_, _Scolopax_, _Charadrius_, _Anas_, and _Colymbus_. _Trochilus rufus_ is not only often found here, but also under sixty degrees of latitude. A small shoal of _Procellaria furcata_ was once driven into the Bay by stormy weather. Of Amphibia, only a small kind of toad is met with. There is no great variety in the kinds of fish, but the individuals are numerous, especially a well-flavoured sort of salmon, and herrings; a _Pleuronectes_ several feet long, and a reddish yellow _Perca_ two feet long and very thick, are extremely abundant. The number of accurately examined _Annulides_ amounts to sixteen, among which are found some of very fine and unknown forms. Most of them belong to the well-known species _Cirrhatulus_, _Arenicola_, _Aceronereis_, _Nereis_, _Aphrodita_, _Serpula_, _Amphitrite_. A _Nereis_ was found swimming on the surface of the water in the middle of the bay, which measured two feet in length, and one inch in thickness; the appendages at its sides resemble round leaves. An _Aphrodita_ several inches long, and very narrow, was not rare. An animal resembling the Amphitrite kind is found enveloped in a transparent mass like jelly. Of Mollusca we observed, a _Limacina_; two _Eolidiæ_, some of which have very beautiful colours; a _Laniogerus_; a _Polycera_; four kinds of _Doris_; a _Scyllæa_; an animal which deserves the name of _Planaria_, it was three inches long, two broad, and only half a line thick; on the upper surface, half an inch from the edge, are two projecting eyes; and in the same part, on the surface beneath, the mouth may be perceived; in the middle of this under surface is another aperture, from which the animal, when in a tranquil state, frequently strecthes out four small folds of skin; this creature, like the _Planariæ_, crawls very nimbly. Besides these, a small _Onichidium_, and a new kind of shelled snail. In the mossy woods live a large, yellowish, black-spotted _Limax_, and two Helices of middling size. In the bay itself are found a few of the gilled snails with spiral shells; and a considerable number on the outward coast, which is washed by the ocean. Here are several species of the genera _Murex_, _Fusus_, _Buccinum_, _Mitra_, _Trochus_, and _Turbo_. Further, there are found here a large _Fissurella_, and six species of a genus which, from its simple, unwound shell, would be immediately taken for a _Patella_; the creature, however, closely resembles the _Fissurella_, with the difference that only one gill is visible in the fissure over the neck. It is remarkable, that on the whole north-west coast of America down to California, no _Patella_, only animals of the genus _Acmæa_, were to be met with. Of the _Chiton_ genus, six species were observed; in one, the side skin covers the edges of the shell so far as to leave only a narrow strip of it visible down the back; in others, the shell is entirely concealed under the external skin. It is worthy of remark, that these latter, as well as one similarly formed, found in California, attain the considerable length of eight inches. A third kind, to be reckoned among this subdivision, Pallas obtained from the Kurile Islands, and has described it as _Chiton amiculatus_. Among the Acephala are to be named a large _Cardium_, also found on the Californian coast; _Modiolus_, two species; _Mytilus_; _Mya_, two species; and _Teredo palmulatus_: the latter, which is brought here by the ships, is very mischievous in the harbour, and attains to the length of two feet. In this species are comprehended three _Ascidiæ_, of different forms; one _Anomia_, one _Terebratula_ attached to a _Fusus_, two _Lepas_, and a _Balanus_. Six _Holothuria_, belonging to three different species, were observed: a large _Thalassema_ gave us a long-wished for opportunity of observing, that this species belongs to the Holothuria, and not to the Annulides. Eight species of star-fish are found here, partly on the rocks, and partly at the bottom of the sea: among them, four are furnished with five _radii_, and the rest with six, ten, eleven, and eighteen: the latter sort, which is the largest, lives at the bottom of the sea, and the number of its _radii_ varies from eighteen to twenty-one. Only one _Ophiura_ was seen. Several kinds of very large _Actinia_ inhabit the rocks: all that we examined belonged to the species which is externally provided with rows of teats. A _Velella_ also was caught in the open bay: this is the first which has been observed in so high a latitude. Of _Zoophytes_, some presented themselves of the genera _Antipathes_, _Millepora_; _Cellaria_, _Flustra_ two species, _Melobesia_, _Retepora_, _Acamarchis_, _Lafoea_, _Aglaophenia_, _Dynamena_ fives species, _Clytia_ four species, and _Folliculina_, two species. The _Antipathes_ consists of a simple stem resembling wood, which grows to the length of ten feet: it grows at a great depth in the open bay, and is often accidentally drawn up in fishing. Although of all insects of this island the beetle is the most numerous, yet during the whole spring and summer, in almost daily excursions, with constant fine weather, only one hundred and six kinds were found. On the whole, it may be observed, that none among them belong to any of the species which have been hitherto considered as peculiar to America; yet there are some of them which form entirely distinct classes, and must therefore be natives of the north-west coast of America. The result of close examination was, that none of those found here are to be met with either in the north of Asia or in Europe, and only seven species are to be found even in Unalashka. The Fauna is adapted to the climate and the soil; _Nebria_, _Patrobus_ and other Carabides, find a cool abode among the stones on the banks of the ice-cold brooks which fall from the snowy summits of the mountains; in the fir-woods, live several kinds of _Xylophagi_ and some _Cerambycides_; the old mossy trunks of fallen trees afford hiding-places for several kinds of Carabides, as two _Cychrus_, _Leistus_, _Platysma_; and for _Nitidula_, _Scaphidium_, _Agyrtes_, and _Boros_. On the skirts of the woods, shrubs and tall plants nourish some insects belonging to various families; as two _Homalisus_, _Omalium_, and _Anthophagus_, _Anaspis_, _Cantharis_, and _Silis_; besides _Elater_ of eight kinds, and a ninth living under stones. The small standing waters, formed by single cavities, are proportionably rich in water-beetles, among which is found a _Dyticus_ of the form of the _sulcatus_, seven _Colymbetes_, _Hydroporus_ two species, and a _Gyrinus_. The Carabides are: _Cychrus angusticollis_ and _marginatus_, _Nebria metallica_ and three new species, _Leistus_, _Poecilus_ two, _Patrobus_, _Omaseus adstrictus_, _Platysma_ two, _Loricera_ plainly distinguished from the _pilicornis_, _Amara_, _Trechus_ three, _Bembidium_ two, and _Leja_ three species. Thirteen species of _Brachelytra_ have been found; of carrion-beetles, a _Necrophorus_, a _Silpha_, quite of the figure of the _subterranea_, and a _Catops_. Of Pentamerides are still to be mentioned the _Scydmaenus_, _Cryptophagus_, _Byrrhus_, _Cercyon_, _Psammodius_, and _Aphodius_. The number of Heteromerides amounts only to four; namely, one _Boros_ of the arched form of the _elongatus_, a small _Phaleria_, a pale yellow _Anaspis_, and a small black, flat beetle with overgrown wing-cases of a new form, which must be reckoned among the family of the Blapides. Of beetles with probosces only six were found, of Xylophagi seven, of the species _Hylurgus_ two, _Bostrichus_ three, one _Rhyzophagus_, and a larger quite red _Cucujus_. The three stag-beetles were a _Sphondylis_, a _Lamia_ with excrescences upon the sharply pointed cases of its wings, and a beetle of the flat form of a _Callidium_. Of the large class of Chrysomelides, only five varieties were to be met with; namely, two sorts of _Donacia_, a beetle of the form of a _Lema_, and two varieties, of the form of Eumolpes. Lastly, three Trimerides were discovered, namely, two _Latridii_ and a _Pselaphus_. Our stay in the Bay of St. Francisco, in California, during the months of October and November, was unfavourable to the observations of a naturalist. A perfect drought prevails during those months; vegetation appears completely dead; and all birds of passage abandon the country. The landscape along the coast is alternately formed of naked hills, of a rocky or clayey soil, and low sandy levels, covered with stunted bushes. Further inland, the soil is more fertile, but still deficient in wood. The background every where presents lofty mountains; we visited only those to the north, at the foot of which the Russian settlement Ross is situated. Here a fine forest of lofty pines, mingled with oak and horse chesnut-trees, charms the eye. Of the mammalia of this hitherto unexplored country, only a few can be cited. The light grey American bear, with a small head, abounds in unfrequented districts, but brown bears are also occasionally killed. We nearly ascertained the existence of two sorts of polecats, and succeeded in getting a skin of one; its fur is brown below, and black above: from the forehead a white stripe runs to the middle of the back, and then divides into two, which extend to the extremity of the tail. The feet of the animal show that it treads upon its entire sole, and lives in holes like a badger. The second sort is said to have three white stripes: our sailors caught one, but it got away again. The mole here is larger than in Europe; the upper part of the body is of a greyish brown, the lower part an ash grey; the legs are covered with a white fur, and the taper tail is one-fifth of the length of the body. A shrew-mouse also was caught. Two or three kinds of large cats are said to have been seen; a _mustela_, something of the nature of the _Lutreola_, was shot near the Rio Sacramento. The sea-otter still abounds here, but its hair is brownish, and not black. The _Cervus Wapiti_ is found in great numbers in hilly districts; and there are deer in all unfrequented places. The back and sides of the latter are of a reddish brown in summer, in winter of a blackish brown; the belly, breast, and inside of the legs are white; the mouth, forehead, and the exterior of the ears are black. The antlers (of the male) divide into a fork, with round smooth branches. The animal grows to the height of two feet and a half. Near the Rio Sacramento, and in the vicinity of the Russian settlement, we saw herds of animals of the shape of goats, with long hair hanging from their legs, and short straight horns; we were unfortunately unable to obtain a specimen; we saw the animal only through a telescope, and judged it to be the _Capra Columbiana_, or _Rupicapra Americana Blainville_, so often spoken of. Lastly, we have to mention a small kind of hare, not so large as a rabbit, found in great abundance among the bushes, and a dormouse seen in the southern plains. In consequence of the lateness of the season, most of the birds that breed here had already left the neighbourhood; we therefore saw only such birds as pass the winter here, and also a number of aquatic birds that were daily arriving from the north. Of the former we met with five kinds of _Icterus_; one quite black, except the shoulders, which were red; these were extremely numerous, and sleep, like the _Icterus phoenicius_, among rushes. The _Sturnus ludovicianus_ and _Picus auratus_ of the United States, are also found in California; the _Percnopterus californicus_, _Corvus mexicanus_, and _Perdix californica_, are already known. A large grey crane, probably from the north, remained here: upon the whole, the number of birds observed, amounted to forty. A few Amphibia were found concealed under stones; namely, a large _Tachydromus_, a _Tropydurus_, a _Crotalus_, a _Coluber_, and four _Salamandrides_: among the latter was one with the body covered with warts, and a narrow compressed tail, the glands of the ear wholly wanting; the others had long narrow bodies of about the thickness of a common earth-worm, with short legs, standing far apart, and toes scarcely perceptible to the naked eye. Nearly two hundred kinds of beetles were collected: with the exception of the _Lampyris corrusca Fabr._, which, according to Banks, is found on the Columbia river, all are as yet undescribed. Upon the dry ground, under stones, many Heteromerides, with distorted wing-cases, were found, and among them six new species. A large _Cychrus_ was also found, and a species closely resembling the _Manticora_, together with many other Carabides, of which we collected, in all, fifty different species. It was at the Sandwich Isles that the greatest number of fishes and Crustacea were collected: of the former the greatest variety, and the most remarkable, were kept in the fish preserves of the royal family. Of other classes of animals, but few are to be met with. Among the dense woods that cover the backs of the mountains, there must be a number of land-birds, but we met only _Melithreptus vestiarius_, and two sorts of the _Dicæum_; in the fields laid under water were the _Gallinula chloropus_ and a _Fulica_. Of corals there is but little variety; these islands being situated nearly in the highest latitude in which coral is ever found. In the vicinity of the harbour are two sorts of _Astræa_, two _Porites_, a _Pavonia_, and a _Hornera_. The number of insects is small, as is indeed the case with all land animals; it is therefore creditable to our industry, that we are able to muster twenty sorts of beetles. A small _Platynus_ is the only Carabide; in the water, two _Colymbetes_ and a _Hydrophilus_ were found. The only _Elater_ belongs to a species (_Agrypnus N._) in which we reckon various specimens found only in the Old World, such as _Elater tomentosus_, _fuscipes_, _senegalensis_, &c.; beetles which have two deep furrows in the lower part of the neck-shield, to receive the feelers, and which go in search of their food at night. They resemble many of the European springing beetles covered with scales, and included by Megerle under the name Lepidotus; such are _fasciatus_, _murinus_, _varius_. Two Aphodii were found; one, of the size of the _Psammodius porcatus_, but very flat, lives under the bark of a decayed tree, the wood of which has become soft. Another has the almost prickly shoulders of the _Aphodius stercorator_ and _asper_; of these we form the species _Stenocnemis_, and include therein four new varieties found in Brazil and Luçon. It may be here observed, that _Psammodius sabuleti_ and _cylindricus N._, must be classed with _Ægialia_, which, on account of the horny nature of their jaws, and the projection of the upper lip, enter into the same class with _Trox_; the remaining kinds of _Psammodius_, however, do not at all agree with the character given them by Gyllenhal, and ought in their turn to be classed with _Aphodius_. Among the remaining beetles, all of which dwell under the bark of trees, a _Parandra_ was the largest. During our two months' stay in the Bay of Manilla, we could only become acquainted with a small part of the natural productions, in which the large island of Luçon appears extremely rich, because it is difficult to procure them without travelling far into the interior; but the country round Manilla and Cavite being cultivated to the distance of several days' journey, the woods of the mountains alone remain in a state of nature. There dwell the gigantic snakes and crocodiles, of which every one has some tale to relate. A small _Cercopithecus_ is found in great abundance; but we were not able to meet with a good drawing, or even a tolerable description of it. Skins of _Galeopithecus_ were brought us; and we were assured that the animal allowed itself to be tamed, and would sit like a monkey, and take its food with the fore-feet. Two kinds of flying dogs, one of them apparently a _Pteropus edulis_, were shot and eaten in the neighbourhood. Two other animals, of the bat kind, belonged to the classes _Hypexodon_ and _Nycticejus_. A _Chelone_, three feet long, was brought us, remarkable for seven shields on the middle of its back. _Terrapene tricarinata_ is abundant. We obtained also a _Basilicus_, a large _Tupinambis_, and two _Geckos_, which do not as yet appear to have been described. _Achrochordus fasciatus_ lives in the sea, and is frequently brought up in the nets of the fishermen; on land, it is unable to move from the spot on which it is placed. In November and December, the months we passed at Manilla, all the insects had concealed themselves; and it was only by the assistance of several active Malays, who were all day long hunting them, that we were able to collect upwards of two hundred beetles. Upon the whole, the beetle Fauna agrees with that of Java, of which island many have already been made known. A _Tricondyla_ we had ourselves the pleasure of catching on the trunk of a tree: the inhabitants did not bring them to us, as they suppose them to be large ants, and are apprehensive of being stung by them. We obtained three sorts of _Catascopus_, nineteen aquatic _Scarabæus_, six _Hydrophilus_, five _Buprestis_, five _Melolontha_, four _Anomala_. _Scarabæus Gideon_ is found in great abundance in the thick bushes, where it climbs up the branches by means of its long legs and large claws. Of _Oryctes nasicornis_, a Malay one day brought us no less than sixty, taken out of some decayed wood. A green _Cetonia_, of the size and form of the _chinensis_, of a coppery brightness, is rare. Three small Lucanides, of those called by Mac Leay _Nigidius_ and _Figulus_, are found in the wood of living trees. Of wingless Heteromerides, we found only one _Tagenia_, and that under the dry bark of a tree. For Pimeliades the soil is unfavourable, there not being, as far as we could learn, in the country round Manilla, either stones, or low, broad-leafed plants, under which these animals can find shelter from the burning rays of the sun: they are found only under dry bark, and about the root of the _Opatrum_, _Uloma_, and similar plants. The Helopides, on the other hand, must be looked for on the dry branches in the tops of trees, but we obtained only six varieties. Of the twenty-six stag-beetles collected here, it is necessary to observe, that they are all essentially different from those found in South America. Our passage through the Chinese Sea was rapid; and as we had constantly stormy weather in the Indian Ocean, we had no opportunities of observing marine animals. In the vicinity of the Cape, we caught some Salpæ, Physaliæ, and Velellæ; but in the Northern Atlantic, after reaching the region of the _Sargassum natans_, daily opportunities for interesting observations presented themselves. From the point at which the floating sea-weed was first noticed, (eighteen degrees north latitude, and about thirty degrees of longitude west of Greenwich,) to the coast of England, forty-three kinds of animals were observed, not noticed on our outward voyage. We were able to make a very exact examination of the whole system of the _Beroe punctata_. Three new varieties of Medusa were discovered, and an animal (_Rataria N._) between _Velella_ and _Porpita_: it has the flat form of the latter, but is provided with a sail, which it can draw in at will. We also caught the animal which Le Sueur has called _Stephanomia uvæformis_. Lastly, we had the good fortune to procure a specimen of an animal which appears to form a link between the _Salpa_ and _Pyrosoma_. This species (called _Anchinia_) consists of a number of animalculæ of the Salpa form, which, by means of a stalk, are attached to a common body, all of them being turned to the same side. In the course of less than three years, 2400 kinds of animals were either examined, or only collected, consisting of the following classes:-- Species. Mammalia 28 Birds 165 Amphibia 33 Fishes 90 Annulides 40 Crustacea 127 Insects 1400 Arachnides 28 Cephalopodes 20 Gasteropodes 162 Acephali 45 Tunicati 28 Cirrhipedes 21 Echinodermates 60 Acalephi 63 Zoophytes 90 FR. ESCHSCHOLTZ. Dorpat, 7th January, 1828. THE END. LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. FOOTNOTES: [1] A kind of urn in use throughout all Russia, called a Samowar, or self-boiler. It generally stands in the middle of the tea-table, and is furnished with a large kettle for water, and a space filled with fire to keep it boiling. [2] The baidars, or canoes of the Aleutians, are generally twelve feet long and twenty inches deep, the same breadth in the middle, and pointed at each end. The smaller are suited only for one man, the larger for two or three. The skeleton and the keel are made of very thin deal planks, fastened together with the sinews of the whale, and covered with the skin of the sea-horse cleared of the hair. It has a kind of deck made of this skin, but leaving an aperture for each person the canoe is intended to carry. These sit in the bottom with their legs stretched out, and their bodies rising through the apertures, which are but just large enough to allow them to move and row conveniently. The space between their bodies and the deck being so well fitted with bladders, that no drop of water can enter. These baidars are moved very rapidly by oars, and the Aleutians put to sea with them in all weathers. [3] This applies only to the lower classes; the Yeris are nearly all as large as at Tahaiti. [4] This kind was known to Fabricius, for _Copris Midas_ is a variety of the male, and _Gigas_ is the female. The former has erroneously been deemed a native of America. 
31413	----	Team (http://www.fadedpage.com) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 31413-h.htm or 31413-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31413/31413-h/31413-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31413/31413-h.zip) THE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST by ROBERT E. ANDERSON, M.A., F.A.S. Author of Extinct Civilizations of the East [Illustration: Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) (p. 76).] [Illustration] Venient annis saecula seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus Tethys que novos detegat orbes. --SENECA. New York _McClure, Phillips & Co._ MCMIV Copyright, 1903, by D. Appleton and Company CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION 9 I. PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA 19 II. "DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN" 36 III. THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS 54 IV. AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY 71 V. MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION 88 VI. ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS 106 VII. CORTÉS AND MONTEZUMA 135 VIII. BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS 164 IX. EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU 172 X. PIZARRO AND THE INCAS 186 MAPS, ETC. PAGE Prehistoric Structure, Uxmal (Yucatan) _Frontispiece_ Imaginary Continent, South of Africa and Asia 12 Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland 21 Map of Vinland 24 The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts 27 The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2 28 Cipher Autograph of Columbus 46 Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians 87 Quetzalcoatl 93 Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco 100 Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices 105 Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1 173 Image over the Doorway shown in Fig. 1. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 2 175 The Quipu 180 Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco 182 EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE WEST INTRODUCTION Throughout all the periods of European history, ancient or modern, no age has been more remarkable for events of first-rate importance than the latter half of the fifteenth century. The rise of the New Learning, the "discovery of the world and of man," the displacement of many outworn beliefs, these with other factors produced an awakening that startled kings and nations. Then felt they like Balboa, when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise Silent, upon a peak in Darien. It was at this historical juncture that the "middle ages" came to an end, and modern Europe had its beginning. (See Chapter II.) Why was Europe so long in discovering the vast Continent which all the time lay beyond the Western Ocean? Simply because every skipper and every "Board of Admiralty" believed that this world on which we live and move is flat and level. They did not at all realize the fact that it is _ball_-shaped; and that when a ball is very large (say, as large as a balloon), then any small portion of the surface must appear flat and level to a fly or "mite" traveling in that vicinity. Homer believed that our world is a flat and level plain, with a great river, Oceanus, flowing round it; and for many ages that seemed a very natural and sufficient theory. The Pythagoreans, it is true, argued that our earth must be spherical, but why? Oh, said they, because in geometry the sphere is the "most perfect" of all solid figures. Aristotle, being scientific, gave better reasons for believing that the earth is spherical or ball-shaped. He said the shadow of the earth is always round like the shadow of a ball; and the shadow of the earth can be seen during any eclipse of the moon; therefore, all who see that shadow on the moon's disk know, or ought to know, that the earth is ball-shaped. Another reason given by Aristotle is that the altitude of any star above the horizon changes when the observer travels north or south. For example, if at London a star appears to be 40° above the northern horizon, and at York the same star at the same instant appears 42-1/2°, it is evident that 2-1/2° is the difference (increase) of altitude at York compared with London. Such an observation shows that the road from London to York is not over a flat, level plane, but over the curved surface of a sphere, the arc of a circle, in fact. Herodotus, the father of history, was a good geographer and an experienced traveler, yet his only conception of the world was as a flat, wide-extending surface. In Egypt he was told how Pharaoh Necho had sent a crew of Phenicians to explore the coast of Africa by setting out from the Red Sea, and how they sailed south till they had _the sun on their right hand_. "Absurd!" says Herodotus, in his naïve manner, "this story I can not believe." In Egypt, as in Greece or Europe generally, the sun rises on the left hand, and at noon casts a shadow pointing north; whereas in South Africa the sun at noon casts a shadow pointing south, and sunrise is therefore on the _right hand_. The honest sailors had told the truth; they had merely "crossed the line," without knowing it. If Herodotus had known that the world was spherical or ball-shaped, he could easily have understood that by traveling due south the sun must at last appear at noon to the north instead of the south. A counterpart to the story of the Phenician sailors occurs in Pliny: he tells how some ambassadors came to the Roman Emperor Claudius from an island in the south of Asia, and when in Italy were much astonished to see the sun at noon to the south, casting shadows to the north. They also wondered, he says, to see the Great Bear and other groups of stars which had never been visible in their native land (Nat. Hist., vi, 22). That there were islands or even a continent in the Western Ocean was a tradition not infrequent in classical and medieval times, as we shall presently see, but to place a continent in the Southern Ocean was a greater stretch of imagination. The great outstanding problem of the sources of the Nile probably suggested this Southern Continent to some. Ptolemy, the great Egyptian geographer, even formed the conjecture that the Southern Continent was joined to Africa by a broad isthmus, as indicated in certain maps. Such a connection of the two continents would at once dispose of the story that the Phenician sailors had "doubled the Cape." In several maps after the time of Columbus, Australia is extended westward in order to pass muster for the Southern Continent. [Illustration: Imaginary Continent, south of Africa and Asia. [The cardinal points are shown by the four winds.] Beginning of the fifteenth century. The word Brumæ = the winter solstices.] It is with a Western Continent, however, that we are now mainly concerned. What lands were imagined by the ancients in the far West under the setting sun? The mighty ocean beyond Spain was to the Greeks and Latins a place of dread and mystery. "Stout was his heart and girt with triple brass," says the Roman poet, "who first hazarded his weak vessel on the pitiless ocean." Even the western parts of the Mediterranean were shrunk from, according to the Odyssey, without speaking of the horrors of the great ocean beyond. "Beyond Gades," i. e., scarcely outside of the Pillars of Hercules, the extreme limit of the ancient world, "no man," said Pindar, "however daring, could pass; only a god might voyage those waters!" In spite of the dread which the ancient mariners felt for the great Western Ocean, their poets found it replete with charm and mystery. The imagination rested upon those golden sunsets, and the tales of marvel which, after long intervals, sea-borne sailors had told of distant lands in the West. The poets placed there the happy home destined for the souls of heroes. Thus (Odys. iv, 561): No snow Is there, nor yet great storm nor any rain, But always ocean sendeth forth the breeze Of the shrill West, and bloweth cool on men. So far Homer. His contemporary, Hesiod, thus describes the Elysian Fields as islands under the setting sun: There on Earth's utmost limits Zeus assigned A life, a seat, distinct from human kind, Beside the deepening whirlpools of the Main, In those blest Isles where Saturn holds his reign, Apart from Heaven's immortals calm they share, A rest unsullied by the clouds of care: And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crown'd Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming Ground. The poet Pindar places in the same mysterious West "the castle of Chronos" (i. e., "Old Time"), "where o'er the Isles of the Blest ocean breezes blow, and flowers gleam with gold, some from the land on glistening trees, while others the water feeds; and with bracelets of these they entwine their hands, and make crowns for their heads." _Vesper_, the star of evening, was called Hesperus by the Greeks; and hence the Hesperides, daughters of the Western Star, had the task of watching the golden apples planted by the goddess Hera in the garden of the gods, on the other side of the river Oceanus. One of the labors of Hercules was to fetch three of those mystic apples for the king of Mycenae. The poet Euripides thus refers to the Gardens of the West, when the Chorus wish to fly "over the Adriatic wave": Or to the famed Hesperian plains, Whose rich trees bloom with gold, To join the grief-attunèd strains My winged progress hold; Beyond whose shores no passage gave The Ruler of the purple wave. Of all the lands imagined to lie in the Western Ocean by the Greeks, the most important was "Atlantis." Some have thought it may possibly have been a prehistoric discovery of America. In any case it has exercised the ingenuity of a good many modern scientists. The tale of Atlantis we owe to Plato himself, who perhaps learned it in Egypt, just as Herodotus picked up there the account of the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phenician mariners. "When Solon was in Egypt," says Plato, "he had talk with an aged priest of Sais who said, 'You Greeks are all children: you know but of one deluge, whereas there have been many destructions of mankind both by flood and fire.'... In the distant Western Ocean lay a continent larger than Libya and Asia together."... In this Atlantis there had grown up a mighty state whose kings were descended from Poseidon and had extended their sway over many islands and over a portion of the great continent; even Libya up to the gates of Egypt, and Europe as far as Tyrrhenia, submitted to their sway.... Afterward came a day and night of great floods and earthquakes; Atlantis disappeared, swallowed by the waves. Geologists and geographers have seriously tried to find evidence of Atlantis having existed in the Atlantic, whether as a portion of the American continent, or as a huge island in the ocean which could have served as a stepping-stone between the Western World and the Eastern. From a series of deep-sea soundings ordered by the British, American, and German Governments, it is now very well known that in the middle of the Atlantic basin there is a ridge, running north and south, whose depth is less than 1,000 fathoms, while the valleys east and west of it average 3,000 fathoms. At the Azores the North Atlantic ridge becomes broader. The theory is that a part of the ridge-plateau was the Atlantis of Plato that "disappeared swallowed by the waves." (Nature, xv, 158, 553, xxvii, 25; Science, June 29, 1883.) Buffon, the naturalist, with reference to fauna and flora, dated the separation of the new and old world "from the catastrophe of Atlantis" (Epoques, ix, 570); and Sir Charles Lyell confessed a temptation to "accept the theory of an Atlantis island in the northern Atlantic." (Geology, p. 141.) The following account "from an historian of the fourth century B. C." is another possible reference to a portion of America--from a translation "delivered in English," 1576. Selenus told Midas that without this worlde there is a continent or percell of dry lande which in greatnesse (as hee reported) was unmeasureable; that it nourished and maintained, by the benifite of the greene meadowes and pasture plots, sundrye bigge and mighty beastes; that the men which inhabite the same climate exceede the stature of us twise, and yet the length of there life is not equale to ours. The historian Plutarch, in his Morals, gives an account of Ogygia, with an illusion to a continent, possibly America: An island, Ogygia, lies in the arms of the Ocean, about five days' sail west from Britain.... The adjacent sea is termed the Saturnian, and the continent by which the great sea is circularly environed is distant from Ogygia about 5,000 stadia, but from the other islands not so far.... One of the men paid a visit to the great island, as they called Europe. From him the narrator learned many things about the state of men after death--the conclusion being that the souls of men arrive at the Moon, wherein lie the Elysian Fields of Homer. The Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, has a similar account with curious details of an "island" which might very well have been part of a continent. Columbus believed to the last that Cuba was a continent. In the ocean, at the distance of several days' sailing to the west, there lies an island watered by several navigable rivers. Its soil is fertile, hilly, and of great beauty.... There are country houses handsomely constructed, with summer-houses and flower-beds. The hilly district is covered with dense woods and fruit-trees of every kind. The inhabitants spend much time in hunting and thus procure excellent food. They have naturally a good supply of fish, their shores being washed by the ocean.... In a word this island seems a happy home for gods rather than for men (v. 19). Another Greek writer, Lucian, in one of his witty dialogues, refers to an island in the Atlantic, that lies eighty days' sail westward of the Pillars of Hercules--the extreme limit of the ancient world, as has already been seen. Readers of Henry Fielding and admirers of Squire Westers will remember how in the London of the eighteenth century the limits of Piccadilly westward was a tavern at Hyde Park corner called the _Hercules' Pillars_, on the site of the future Apsley House.[1] Although neither Greek nor Roman navigators were likely to attempt a voyage into the ocean beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, yet a trading vessel from Carthage or Phenicia might easily have been driven by an easterly gale into, or even across, the Atlantic. Some involuntary discoveries were no doubt due to this chance, and the reports brought to Europe were probably the germs of such tales as the poets invented about the fair regions of the West. In Celtic literature, moreover, "Avalon" was placed far under the setting sun beyond the ocean--Avalon or "Glas-Inis" being to the bards the Land of the Dead, marvelous and mysterious. [Footnote 1: Tom Jones, xvi. chap. 2, 3, etc.] In English literature of the middle ages there is a remarkable passage relating to our present subject, which was written long before that rise of the New Learning mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. It is a statement made by Roger Bacon, the greatest of Oxonian scholars of the thirteenth century, who, long before the Renascence, did much to restore the study of science, especially in geography, chronology, and optics. In his Opus Majus, the elder Bacon wrote: More than the fourth part of the earth which we inhabit is still unknown to us.... It is evident therefore that between the extreme West and the confines of India, there must be a surface which comprises more than half the earth. Though Roger Bacon, to use his own words, died "unheard, forgotten, buried," our recent historians place his name first in the great roll of modern science. There now remains only one quotation to make from the ancients. We have been reserving it for two reasons--first, because it is a singularly happy anticipation of the discovery of the New World, so happy that it became a favorite stanza with the discoverer himself. This we learn from the life of the "Great Admiral," written by his son Ferdinand. Secondly, because it adorns our title-page and has been characterized as "a lucky prophecy"--written in the first century A. D. The author, Seneca, was a dramatist as well as a philosopher, the lines occurring at the end of one of his choruses--Medea, 376. We may thus translate the prophetic stanza: For at a distant date this ancient world Will westward stretch its bounds, and then disclose Beyond the Main a vast new Continent, With realms of wealth and might. CHAPTER I PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA 1 _Norse Discovery._--By glancing at a map of the north Atlantic, the reader will at once see that the natural approach from Europe to the Western Continent was by Iceland and Greenland--especially in those early days when ocean navigation was unknown. Iceland is nearer to Greenland than to Norway; and Greenland is part of America. But in Iceland there were Celtic settlers in the early centuries; and even King Arthur, according to the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, sailed north to that "Ultima Thule." During the ninth century a Christian community had been established there under certain Irish monks. This early civilization, however, was destined to become presently extinct. It was in A. D. 875, i. e., during the reign of Alfred the Great in England, that the Norse earl, Ingolf, led a colony to Iceland. More strenuous and savage than the Christian Celts whom they found there, the latter with their preaching monks soon sailed to the south, and left the Northmen masters of the island. The Norse colony under Ingolf was strongly reenforced by Norwegians who took refuge there to avoid the tyranny of their king, Harold, the Fair-haired. Ingolf built the town Ingolfshof, named after him, and also Reikiavik, afterward the capital, named from the "reek" or steam of its hot springs. So important did this colony become that in the second generation the population amounted to 60,000. Ingolf was admired by the poet James Montgomery (not to be confounded with Robert, whom Macaulay criticized so severely), who in 1819 thus wrote of him and his island: There on a homeless soil his foot he placed, Framed his hut-palace, colonized the waste, And ruled his horde with patriarchal sway --Where Justice reigns, 'tis Freedom to obey.... And Iceland shone for generous lore renowned, A northern light when all was gloom around. The next year after Ingolf had come to Iceland, Gunnbiorn, a hardy Norseman, driven in his ship westerly, sighted a strange land.... About half a century later, judging by the Icelandic sagas, we learn that a wind-tossed vessel was thrown upon a coast far away which was called "Mickle Ireland" (_Irland it Mikla_)--[Winsor's Hist. America, i, 61]. Gunnbiorn's discovery was utilized by Erik the Red, another sea-rover, in A. D. 980, who sailed to it and, after three years' stay, returned with a favorable account--giving it the fair name _Greenland_. The Norse established two centers of population on Greenland. It is now believed that after doubling Cape Farewell, they built their first town near that head and the second farther north. The former, _Eystribygd_ (i. e., "Easter Bigging"), developed into a large colony, having in the fourteenth century 190 settlements, with a cathedral and eleven churches, and containing two cities and three or four monasteries. The second town, _Westribygd_ (i. e., "Wester Bigging") had grown to ninety settlements and four churches in the same time. The germ and root of that civilization (afterward extinct, as we shall see) was due to Leif the son of Red Erik, who visited Norway, the mother-country, at the very close of the tenth century. [Illustration: Remains of a Norse Church at Katortuk, Greenland.] He found that the king and people there had enthusiastically embraced the new religion, _Christianity_. Leif presently shared their fervor, and decided to reject Woden, Thor, and the other gods of old Scandinavia. A priest was told off to accompany Leif back to Greenland, and preach the new faith. It was thus that a Christian civilization first found footing in arctic America. The ruins of those early Christian churches (see illustration above) form most interesting objects in modern Greenland; near the chief ruin is a curious circular group of large stones. The poet of "Greenland," to whom we have already referred, quotes from a Danish chronicle to the effect that, in the golden age of the colony, there were a hundred parishes to form the bishopric; and that the see was ruled by seventeen bishops from A. D. 1120 to 1408. Bishop Andrew is the last mentioned, ordained in 1408 by the Archbishop of Drontheim. From the same authority we learn that according to some of the annals "the best wheat grew to perfection in the valleys; the forests were extensive; flocks and herds were numerous and very large and fat." The Cloister of St. Thomas was heated by pipes from a warm spring, and attached to the cloister was a richly cultivated garden. After Leif, son of Erik, had introduced Christianity into Greenland, his next step was to extend the Norse civilization still farther within the American continent. News had reached him of a new land, with a level coast, lying nine days' sailing southwest of Greenland. Picking thirty-five men, Leif started for further exploration. One part of the new country was barren and rocky, therefore Leif named it _Helluland_ (i. e., "Stone Land"), which appears to have been Newfoundland. Farther south they found a sandy shore, backed by a level forest country, which Leif named _Markland_ (i. e., "Wood Land"), identified with Nova Scotia. After two days' sail, according to the saga account, having landed and explored the new continent along the banks of a river, they resolved to winter there. In one of these explorations a German called Tyrker found some grapes on a wild vine, and brought a specimen for the admiration of Leif and his party. This country was therefore named _Vinland_ (i. e., "Wine Land"), and is identified with New England, part of Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.[2] [Footnote 2: Prof. R. B. Anderson says, "The basin of the Charles River should be selected as the most probable scene of the visits of Leif Erikson, etc." [_v._ map.]] Our Greenland poet thus refers to Leif's landing: Wineland the glad discoverers called that shore, And back the tidings of its riches bore; But soon return'd with colonizing bands. The Norsemen founded a regular settlement in Vinland, establishing there a Christian community related to that of Greenland. Leif's brother, Korvald, explored the interior in all directions. With the natives, who are called "Skraelings" in the sagas, they traded in furs; these people, who seemed dwarfish to the Norsemen, used leathern boats and were no doubt Eskimos: A stunted, stern, uncouth, amphibious stock. The principal settler in Vinland was Thorfinn, an Icelander, who had married a daughter-in-law of Erik the Red. She persuaded Thorfinn to sail to the new country in order to make a permanent settlement there. In the year 1007 A. D. he sailed with 160 men, having live stock and other colonial equipments. After three years he returned to Greenland, his wife having given birth to a son during their first year in Vinland. From this son, Snorre, it is claimed by some Norwegian historians, that Thorwaldsen, the eminent Danish sculptor is descended. After the time of Thorfinn, the settlement in Vinland continued to flourish, having a good export trade in timber with Greenland. In 1121 A. D. according to the Icelandic saga, the bishop, Erik Upsi, visited Vinland, that country being, like Iceland and Greenland, included in his bishopric. The last voyage to Vinland for timber, according to the sagas, was in 1347. [Illustration: Map] Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass., finds the site of Norumbega, mentioned in various old maps, on the River Charles, near Waltham, Mass., and maintains that town to be identical with Vinland of the Norsemen. To prove his belief in this theory, the professor built a tower commemorating the Norse discoveries. He argued that Norumbega was a corruption by the Indians of the word _Norvegr_ a Norse form of "Norway." The abandonment of Vinland by the Norse settlers may be compared with that of Gosnold's expedition to the same region near the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Gosnold was sent to plant an English colony in America, after the failure of Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement at Roanoke (North Carolina); and the coast explored corresponded exactly to that which the Norse settlers had named Vinland, lying between the sites of Boston and New York. He gave the name Cape Cod to that promontory, and also named the islands Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Elizabeth group. Selecting one of these for settling a colony, he built on it a storehouse and fort. The scheme, however, failed, owing to the threats of the natives and the scarcity of supplies, and all the colonists sailed from Massachusetts, just as the Norse settlers had done many generations previously. The expedition of Gosnold to Vinland, however, bore good fruit, from the favorable report of the new country which he made at home. The merchants of Bristol fitted out two ships under Martin Pring, and in the first voyage a great part of Maine (lying north of Massachusetts) was explored, and the coast south to Martha's Vineyard, where Gosnold had been. This led to profitable traffic with the natives, and three years later Pring made a more complete survey of Maine. Vinland was also the scene of the famous landing of the Mayflower, bringing its Puritans from England. It was in Cape Cod Bay that she was first moored. After exploring the new country, just as Leif Erikson had done so many generations previously, they chose a place on the west side of the bay and named the little settlement "Plymouth," after the last English port from which they had sailed. Farther north, still in Vinland, they soon founded two other towns, "Salem" and "Boston." Those three settlements have ever since been important centers of energy and intelligence in Massachusetts, as well as memorials of the Norse occupation of Vinland. On the occasion of a public statue being erected in Boston, Mass., to the memory of Leif Erikson, a committee of the Massachusetts Historical Society formally decided thus: "It is antecedently probable that the Northmen discovered America in the early part of the eleventh century." Prof. Daniel Wilson, in his learned work Prehistoric Man (ii, 83, 85), thus gives his opinion as to the Norse colony: With all reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of details, there is the strongest probability in favor of the authenticity of the American Vinland. [Illustration: The Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts.] Of the Norse colonies in Greenland there are some undoubted remains, one being a stone inscription in _runes_, proving that it was made before the Reformation, when that mode of writing was forbidden by law. The stone is four miles beyond Upernavik. The inscription, according to Professor Rask, runs thus: Erling the son of Sigvat, and Enride Oddsoen, Had cleared the place and raised a mound On the Friday after Rogation-day; --date either 1135 or 1170. Rafn, the celebrated Danish archeologist, states as the result of many years' research, that America was repeatedly visited by the Icelanders in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; that the estuary of the St. Lawrence was their chief station; that they had coasted southward to Carolina, everywhere introducing some Christian civilization among the natives. [Illustration: The Dighton Stone. Fig. 2.] A supposed rock memorial of the Norsemen is the Dighton Stone in the Taunton River, Massachusetts; one of its sentences, according to Professor Rafn, being: "Thorfinn with 151 Norse seafaring men took possession of this land." The figures and letters (whether runic or merely Indian) inscribed on the Dighton Rock have been copied by antiquaries at the following dates: 1680, 1712, 1730, 1768, 1788, 1807, 1812. The above illustration (Fig. 2) shows the last mentioned. There have been many probable traces of ancient Norsemen found in America, besides those already given. At Cape Cod, in the last generation, a number of hearth-stones were found under a layer of peat. A more famous relic was the skeleton dug up in Fall River, Mass., with an ornamental belt of metal tubes made from fragments of flat brass; there were also some arrow-heads of the same material. Longfellow, the New England poet, naturally had his attention directed to this discovery (made, 1831), and founded on it his ballad The Skeleton in Armor, connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport. The latter, according to Professor Rafn, "was erected decidedly not later than the twelfth century." I was a Viking old, My deeds, though manifold, No Skald in song has told No Saga taught thee!... Far in the Northern Land By the wild Baltic's strand I with my childish hand Tamed the ger-falcon. Oft to his frozen lair Tracked I the grisly bear, While from my path the hare Fled like a shadow. * * * * * Scarce had I put to sea Bearing the maid with me-- Fairest of all was she Among the Norsemen! Three weeks we westward bore, And when the storm was o'er, Cloud-like we saw the shore Stretching to leeward; There for my lady's bower, Built I this lofty tower Which to this very hour Stands looking seaward! Sir Clements Markham, of the Royal Geographical Society, believes that the Norse settlers in Greenland were driven from their settlements there by Eskimos coming, not from the interior of America, but from West Siberia along the polar regions, by Wrangell Land [_v._ Journal, R, G. S., 1865, and Arctic Geography, 1875]. There was much curiosity from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century as to the site of the lost colonies of Greenland which had so long flourished. In 1568 and 1579 the King of Denmark sent two expeditions, the latter in charge of an Englishman, but no traces were found. At the beginning of the eighteenth century some light was thrown upon the problem by a missionary called Egede, who first described the ruins and relics observable on the west coast. By the success of his preaching among the Greenlanders for fifteen years, assisted by other gospel missionaries, the Moravians were induced to found their settlements in the country, principally in the southwest. It seems probable that in early times the climate of Iceland was milder than it now is. Columbus, some fifteen years before his great voyage across the Atlantic, sailed to this northern "Thule," and reports that there was no ice. If so, it is surely possible that Greenland also may have been greener and more attractive than during the recent centuries. Why should it not at one time have been fully deserving of the name by which we still know it? Some would explain the change in climatic conditions by the closing in of icepacks. At present Greenland is buried deep under a vast, solid ice-cap from which only a few of the highest peaks protrude to show the position of the submerged mountains, but at former periods, according to geologists, there were gardens and farms flourishing under a genial climate. Others suppose that, were the ice removed, we should see an archipelago of elevated islands. 2. _Celtic Discovery of America._--We have already glanced at the fact that when the Norsemen first seized Iceland they found that island inhabited by Irish Celts. These Christianized Celts made way before the savage invaders, who did not accept the Catholic religion till about the close of the tenth century. Sailing south, those dispossessed Irish probably joined their brother Celts who had already long held a district on the eastern coast of North America, which some Norse skippers called "White Man's Land," and also _Irland-it-Mikla_ (i. e., "Mickle Ireland"). Professor Rafn places this district on the coast of Carolina. A learned memoir, published 1851, attempts to prove that the mysterious "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley were of the same race as the settlers on Mickle Ireland, and related to the "white-bearded men" who established an extinct civilization in Mexico. A French antiquary, 1875, identified Mickle Ireland with Ontario and Quebec. Beauvois, in his Elysée trans-atlantique, derives the name Labrador from the _Innis Labrada_, an island mentioned in an ancient Irish romance.[3] Another Irish discoverer was St. Brandan,[4] Abbot of Cluainfert, Ireland (died May 16, 577), who was told that far in the ocean lay an island which was the land promised to the saints. St. Brandan set sail in company with seventy-five monks, and spent seven years upon the ocean in two voyages, discovering this island and many others equally marvelous, including one which turned out to be the back of a huge fish, upon which they celebrated Easter.[5] [Footnote 3: As to the Irish claim for the pre-Columbian discovery of America, see also Humboldt (Cosmos, ii, 607), and Laing (Heimsk., i, 186).] [Footnote 4: MS. Book of Lismore.] [Footnote 5: The story is given by Humboldt and D'Avezac.] Among the Celtic claimants for discovery we must also include the Welsh, who lay stress upon certain resemblances between their language and the dialects of the native Americans. A better argument is the historical account taken from their annals about the expedition of Prince Madoc, son of a Welsh chieftain, who sailed due west in the year 1170, after the rumor of the Norse discoveries had reached Britain. He landed on a vast and fertile continent where he settled 120 colonists. On his return to Wales he fitted out a second fleet of ten ships, but the annals give no report of the result. Several writers state that the place of landing was near the Gulf of Mexico: Hakluyt connecting the discovery with Mexico (1589) and again with the West Indies (edition of 1600). In the seventeenth century some authors wished to substantiate the story of Prince Madoc, in order that the British claim to America should antedate the Spanish claim through Columbus. Prince Madoc is, to most readers, only known by Southey's poem.[6] [Footnote 6: Some quotations from Southey's poem are given in Chapters V, VI.] 3. _Basque Discovery of America._--Who are the Basque people? A curious race of Spanish mountaineers, who have been as great a puzzle to ethnologists and historians as their language has been to philologists and scholars. We know, however, that in former times they were nearly all seamen, making long voyages to the north for whale and Newfoundland cod fishing. They have produced excellent navigators; and possibly preceded Columbus in discovering America. Sebastian, the lieutenant of Magellan, was one of the Basque race. Magellan did not live to complete his famous voyage, therefore Sebastian was the first actual circumnavigator of our globe. François Michel, in his work Le Pays Basque, says that the Basque sailors knew the coasts of Newfoundland a century before the time of Columbus; and that it was from one of these ocean mariners that he first learned the existence of a continent beyond the Atlantic. Other arguments are derived from comparing the peculiarities of the Basque tongue with those of the American dialects. Whitney, an American scholar, concludes that "No other dialect of the Old World so much resembles the American languages in structure as the Basque." 4. _Jewish Discovery of America._--There is one claim for the discovery of America, which, though quite improbable, if not impossible, has been upheld and sanctioned by many scholarly works in several languages. It is argued that the red Indians represent the ten "Lost Tribes" of the Hebrew people who had been deported to Assyria and Media (_v._ Extinct Civilizations of the East, p. 109). The theory was first started by some Spanish priest-missionaries, and has since been defended by many learned divines both in England and America, one leading argument being certain similarities in the languages. Catlin (_v._ Smithsonian Report, 1885) enumerates many analogies which he found among the Western Indians. The most authoritative statement is that of Lord Kingsborough in the well-known Mexican Antiquities (1830-'48), chiefly in Vol. VII. Some writers actually quote a statement made in the Mormon Bible! Leading New England divines, like Mayhew and Cotton Mather, espoused the cause with similar faith, as well as Roger Williams and William Penn. 5. _The Italian Discovery of America._--Not through Columbus the Genoese, or Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine, although they were certainly Italians, but by two Venetians, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno. In A. D. 1380 or 1390 these brothers Zeni were shipwrecked in the North Atlantic, and, when staying in Frislanda, made the acquaintance of a sailor who, after twenty-six years' absence, had returned, giving them the following report: "Being driven west in a gale, he found an island with civilized inhabitants, who had Latin books, but could not speak Norse, and whose country was called Estotiland, while a region on the mainland, farther south, to which he had also gone, was called Drogeo. Here he had met with cannibals. Still farther south was a great country with towns and temples." The two brothers Zeni finally conveyed this account to another brother in Venice, together with a map of those distant regions, but these documents remained neglected till 1558, when a descendant compiled a book to embody the information, accompanied by a map, now famous as "the Zeno map." Humboldt, with reference to this map, remarks that it is singular that the name Frislanda should have been applied by Columbus to an island south of Iceland. Washington Irving (in his Life of Columbus) explains the book by a desire to appeal to the national pride of Italy, since, if true, the discovery of the brothers would antedate that of Columbus by a century. Malte-Brun, the distinguished geographer, distinctly accepted the Zeni narrative as true, and believed that it was by colonists from Greenland that the Latin books had reached Estotiland. Another strong advocate afterward appeared in Mr. Major, an official in the map department of the British Museum, who believed that much of the map in question represented genuine information of the fourteenth century, mixed with some spurious parts inserted by the younger Zeno. Mr. Major's paper on The Site of the Lost Colony of Greenland Determined, and the pre-Columbian Discoveries of America Confirmed, appeared in R. Geog. Soc. Journal, 1873; _v_. also Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 1874. Nordenskjöld also accepted the chief results of this Italian discovery, and as an arctic explorer of experience, his opinion carries weight. Mercator and Hugo Grotius were also believers in the Zeni account. CHAPTER II "DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN" At the beginning of this book a reference was made to the great upheaval in European history called the "Renascence" (Fr. _renaissance_) or Revival of Learning. In 1453 the Turks took Constantinople, driving the Greek scholars to take refuge in Italy, which at once became the most civilized nation in Europe. Poetry, philosophy, and art thence found their way to France, England, and Germany, being greatly assisted by the invention of printing, which just then was beginning to make books cheaper than they ever had been. At the same time feudalism was ruined, because the invention of gunpowder had previously been changing the art of war. For example, the King of France, Louis XI, as well as the King of England, Henry VII, had entire disposal of the national artillery; and therefore overawed the barons and armored knights. Neither moated fortresses nor mail-clad warriors, nor archers with bows and arrows, could prevail against powder and shot. The middle ages had come to an end; modern Europe was being born. France had become concentrated by the union of the south to the north on the conclusion of the "Hundred Years' War," the final expulsion of the English, and the abolition of all the great feudatories of the kingdom. England, at the same time, had entirely swept away the rule of the barons by the recent "Wars of the Roses," and Henry had strengthened his position by alliance with France, Spain, and Scotland. Spain, by the expulsion of the Moors from Granada in A. D. 1492, was for the first time concentrated into one great state by the union of Isabella's Kingdom of Castile-Leon to Ferdinand's Kingdom of Aragon-Sicily. From the importance of the word _renaissance_ as indicating the "movement of transition from the medieval to the modern world," Matthew Arnold gave it the English form "renascence"--adopted by J. R. Green, Coleridge, and others. In Germany, this great revival of letters and learning was contemporaneous with the Reformation, which had long been preparing (e. g., in England since John Wyclif) and was specially assisted by the invention of printing, which we have just mentioned. The minds of men everywhere were expanded: "whatever works of history, science, morality, or entertainment seemed likely to instruct or amuse were printed and distributed among the people at large by printers and booksellers." Thus it was that, though the Turks never had any pretension to learning or culture, yet their action in the middle of the fifteenth century indirectly caused a marvelous tide of civilization to overflow all the western countries of Europe. Another result in the same age was the increase of navigation and exploration--the discovery of the world as well as of man. When the Turks became masters of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, the European merchants were prevented from going to India and the East by the overland route, as had been done for generations. Thus, since geography was at this very time improved by the science of Copernicus and others, the natural inquiry was how to reach India by sea instead of going overland. Columbus, therefore, sailed due west to reach Asia, and stumbled upon a "New World" without knowing what he did; then Cabot, sailing from Bristol, sailed northwest to reach India, and stumbled upon the continent of America; and during the same reign (Henry VII) the Atlantic coast of both North and South America was visited by English, Portuguese, or Spanish navigators. The third expedition to reach India by sea was under De Gama. He set out in the same year as Cabot, sailing into the South Atlantic, and ultimately did find the west coast of India at Calicut, after rounding the cape. The mere enumeration of so many events, all of first-rate importance, proves that that half century (say from A. D. 1460 to 1520) must be called "an age of marvels," _sæclum mirabile_. The concurrence of so many epoch-making results gave a great impulse, not only to the study of literature, science, and art, but to the exploration of many unknown countries in America, Africa, and Asia, and the universal expansion of human knowledge generally. I.--We shall now consider the first of these discoverers, who was also the greatest. COLUMBUS, the Latinized form of the Italian Colombo, Spanish, Colon. This Genoese navigator must throughout all history be called the discoverer of America, notwithstanding all the work of smaller men. From his study of geographical books in several languages, Columbus had convinced himself that our planet is spherical or ball-shaped, not a flat, plane surface. Till then India had always been reached by traveling overland toward the rising sun. Why not sail westward from Europe over the ocean, and thus come to the eastern parts of Asia by traveling toward the setting sun? By doing so, since our world is ball-shaped, said Columbus, we must inevitably reach Zipango (i. e., "Japan") and Cathay (i. e., "China"), which are the most eastern parts of Asia. India then will be a mere detail. Judging from the accounts of Asia and its eastern islands given by Marco Polo, a Venetian, as well as from the maps sketched by Ptolemy, the Egyptian geographer, Columbus believed that the east coast of Asia was not so very far from the west coast of Europe. Columbus was confirmed in this opinion by a learned geographer of Florence, named Paul, and henceforward impatiently waited for an opportunity of testing the truth of his theory. He convinced himself, but could not convince any one else, that a westerly route to India was quite feasible. First he laid his plans before the authorities at Genoa, who had for generations traded with Asia by the overland journey, and ought therefore to have been glad to learn of this new alternative route, since the Turks were now playing havoc with the other; but no, they told Columbus that his idea was chimerical! Next he applied to the court of France. "Ridiculous!" was the reply, accompanied with a polite sneer. Next Columbus sent his scheme to Henry VII of England, a prince full of projects, but miserly. "Too expensive!" was the Tudor's reply, though presently, after the Spanish success, he became eager to despatch expeditions from Bristol under the Cabots. Then Columbus, by the advice of his brother, who had settled in Lisbon as a map-maker, approached King John, seeking patronage and assistance, pleading the foremost position of Portugal among the maritime states. The Portuguese neglected the golden opportunity, ocean navigation not being in their way as yet; their skippers preferred "to hug the African shore." At last Columbus gained the ear of Isabella, Queen of Castile; she believed in him and tried to get the assistance of her husband, Ferdinand, King of Aragon, in providing an outfit for the great expedition. Owing to Ferdinand's war in expelling the Moors from Granada, Columbus had still to wait several years. In a previous year, 1477, Columbus had sailed to the North Atlantic, perhaps in one of those Basque whalers already referred to, going "a hundred leagues beyond Thule." If that means Iceland, as is generally supposed, it seems most probable that, when conversing with the sailors there he must have heard how Leif, with his Norsemen, had discovered the American coasts of Newfoundland and Vinland some five centuries earlier, and how they had settled a colony on the new continent. Other writers have pointed out that Columbus could very well have heard of Vinland and the Northmen before leaving Genoa, since one of the Popes had sanctioned the appointment of a bishop over the new diocese. If so, the visit of Columbus to Iceland probably gave him confirmation as to the Norse discovery of the American continent. When at last King Ferdinand had taken Granada from the Moors, Columbus was put in command of three ships, with 120 men. He set sail from the port of Palos, in Andalusia, on a Friday, August 3, 1492, first steering to the Canary Islands, and then standing due west. In September, to the amazement of all on board, the compass was seen to "vary": an important scientific discovery--viz., that the magnetic needle does not always point to the pole-star. Some writers have imagined that the compass was for the first time utilized for a long journey by Columbus, but the occult power of the magnetic needle or "lodestone" had been known for ages before the fifteenth century. The ancient Persians and other "wise men of the East" used the lodestone as a talisman. Both the Mongolian and Caucasian races used it as an infallible guide in traveling across the mighty plains of Asia. The Cynosure in the Great Bear was the "guiding star," whether by sea or land; but when the heavens were wrapped in clouds, the magic stone or needle served to point exactly the position of the unseen star. What Columbus and his terrified crews discovered was the "variation of the compass," due to the fact that the magnetic needle points, not to the North Star, but to the "magnetic pole," a point in Canada to the west of Baffin's Bay and north of Hudson Bay. If Columbus had continued steering due west he would have landed on the continent of America in Florida; but before sighting that coast the course was changed to southwest, because some birds were seen flying in that direction. The first land reached was an island of the Bahama group, which he named _San Salvador_. As the Spanish boats rowed to shore they were welcomed by crowds of astonished natives, mostly naked, unless for a girdle of wrought cotton or plaited feathers. Hence the lines of Milton: Such of late Columbus found the American, so girt With feathered cincture, naked else and wild, Among the trees on isles and woody shores. The spot of landing was formerly identified by Washington Irving and Baron Humboldt with "Cat Island"; but from the latest investigation it is now believed to have been Watling's Island. Here he landed on a Friday, October 12, 1492. So little was then known of the geography of the Atlantic or of true longitude, that Columbus attributed these islands to the _east coast of Asia_. He therefore named them "Indian Islands," as if close to Hindustan, a blunder that has now been perpetuated for four hundred and ten years. The natives were called "Indians" for the same reasons. As the knowledge of geography advanced it became necessary to say "West Indies" or "East Indies" respectively, to distinguish American from Asiatic--"Indian corn" means American, but "Indian ink" means Asiatic, etc. Even after his fourth and last voyage Columbus believed that the continent, as well as the islands, was a portion of eastern Asia, and he died in that belief, without any suspicion of having discovered a New World. A curious confirmation of the opinion of Columbus has just been discovered (1894) in the Florence Library, by Dr. Wieser, of Innsbruck. It is the actual copy of a map by the Great Admiral, drawn roughly in a letter written from Jamaica, July, 1503. It shows that his belief as to the part of the world reached in his voyages was that it was the east coast of Asia. The chief discovery made by Columbus in his first voyage was the great island of Cuba, which he imagined to be part of a continent. Some of the Spaniards went inland for sixty miles and reported that they had reached a village of more than a thousand inhabitants, and that the corn used for food was called _maize_--probably the first instance of Europeans using a term which was afterward to become as familiar as "wheat" or "barley." The natives told Columbus that their gold ornaments came from _Cubakan_, meaning the interior of Cuba; but he, on hearing the syllable _kan_, immediately thought of the "Khan" mentioned by Marco Polo, and therefore imagined that "Cathay" (the China of that famous traveler) was close at hand. The simple-minded Cubans were amazed that the Spaniards had such a love for gold, and pointed eastward to another island, which they called _Hayti_, saying it was more plentiful there than in Cuba. Thus Columbus discovered the second in size of all the West Indian islands, Cuba being the first; he, after landing on it, called it "Hispaniola," or Little Spain. Hayti in a few years became the headquarters of the Spanish establishments in the New World, after its capital, San Domingo, had been built by Bartholomew Columbus. It was in this island that the Spaniards saw the first of the "caziques," or native princes, afterward so familiar during the conquest of Mexico; he was carried on the shoulders of four men, and courteously presented Columbus with some plates of gold. In a letter to the monarchs of Spain the admiral thus refers to the natives of Hayti: The people are so affectionate, so tractable, and so peaceable that I swear to your Highnesses there is not a better race of men, nor a better country in the world; ... their conversation is the sweetest and mildest in the world, and always accompanied with a smile. The king is served with great state, and his behavior is so decent that it is pleasant to see him. The admiral had previously described the Indians of Cuba as equally simple and friendly, telling how they had "honored the strangers as sacred beings allied to heaven." The pity of it, and the shame, is that those frank, unsuspicious, islanders had no notion or foresight of the cruel desolation which their gallant guests were presently to bring upon the native races--death, and torture, and extermination! A harbor in Cuba is thus described by Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella: I discovered a river which a galley might easily enter.... I found from five to eight fathoms of water. Having proceeded a considerable way up the river, everything invited me to settle there. The beauty of the river, the clearness of the water, the multitude of palm-trees and an infinite number of other large and flourishing trees, the birds and the verdure of the plains, ... I am so much amazed at the sight of such beauty, that I know not how to describe it. Having lost his flag-ship, Columbus returned to Spain with the two small caravels that remained from his petty fleet of three, arriving in the port of Palos March 15, 1493. The reception of the successful explorer was a national event. He entered Barcelona to be presented at court with every circumstance of honor and triumph. Sitting in presence of the king and queen he related his wondrous tale, while his attendants showed the gold, the cotton, the parrots and other unknown birds, the curious arms and plants, and above all the nine "Indians" with their outlandish trappings--brought to be made Christians by baptism. Ferdinand and Isabella heaped honors upon the successful navigator; and in return he promised them the untold riches of Zipango and Cathay. A new fleet, larger and better equipped, was soon found for a second voyage. With his new ships, in 1498, Columbus again stood due west from the Canaries; and at last discovering an island with three mountain summits he named it Trinidad (i. e., "Trinity") without knowing that he was then coasting the great continent of South America. A few days later he and the crew were amazed by a tumult of waves caused by the fresh water of a great river meeting the sea. It was the "Oronooko," afterward called Orinoco; and from its volume Columbus and his shipmates concluded that it must drain part of a continent or a very large island. Where Orinoco in his pride, Rolls to the main no tribute tide, But 'gainst broad ocean urges far A rival sea of roaring war; While in ten thousand eddies driven The billows fling their foam to heaven, And the pale pilot seeks in vain, Where rolls the river, where the main. That was the first glimpse which they had of America proper, still imagining it was only a part of eastern Asia. In the following voyage, his last, Columbus coasted part of the Isthmus of Darien. It was not, however, explored till the visit of Balboa. [Illustration: Cipher autograph of Columbus. The interpretation of the cipher is probably: SERVATF Christus Maria Yosephus (Christoferens).] It was during his third voyage that the "Great Admiral" suffered the indignity at San Domingo of being thrown into chains and sent back to Spain. This was done by Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household, who had been sent out with full power to put down misrule. The monarchs of Spain set Columbus free; and soon afterward he was provided with four ships for his fourth voyage. Stormy weather wrecked this final expedition, and at last he was glad to arrive in Spain, November 7, 1504. He now felt that his work on earth was done, and died at Valladolid, May 20, 1506. After temporary interment there his body was transferred to the cathedral of San Domingo--whence, 1796, some remains were removed with imposing ceremonies to Havana. From later investigations it appears that the ashes of the Genoese discoverer are still in the tomb of San Domingo. It was in the cathedral of Seville, over his first tomb, that King Ferdinand is said to have honored the memory of the Great Admiral with a marble monument bearing the well-known epitaph: A CASTILLA Y ARAGON NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON. or, "_To the united Kingdom of Castile-Aragon Columbus gave a New World_." After the death of Columbus, it seemed as if fate intended his family to enjoy the honors and rewards of which he had been so unjustly deprived. His son, Diego, wasted two years trying to obtain from King Ferdinand the offices of viceroy and admiral, which he had a right to claim in accordance with the arrangement formerly made with his father. At last Diego began a suit against Ferdinand before the council which managed Indian affairs. That court decided in favor of Diego's claim; and as he soon greatly improved his social position by marrying the niece of the Duke of Alva, a high nobleman, Diego received the appointment of governor (not viceroy), and went to Hayti, attended by his brother and uncles, as well as his wife and a large retinue. There Diego Columbus and his family lived, "with a splendor hitherto unknown in the New World." II.--Henry VII of England, after repenting that he had not secured the services of Columbus, commissioned John Cabot to sail from Bristol across the Atlantic in a northwesterly direction, with the hope of finding some passage there-abouts to India. In June, 1497, a new coast was sighted (probably Labrador or Newfoundland), and named _Prima Vista_. They coasted the continent southward, "ever with intent to find the passage to India," till they reached the peninsula now called Florida. On this important voyage was based the claim which the English kings afterward made for the possession of all the Atlantic coast of North America. King Henry wished colonists to settle in the new land, _tam viri quam feminæ_, but since, in his usual miserly character, he refused to give a single "testoon," or "groat" toward the enterprise, no colonies were formed till the days of Walter Raleigh, more than a century later. Sebastian Cabot, born in Bristol, 1477, was more renowned as a navigator than his father, John, and almost ranks with Columbus. After discovering Labrador or Newfoundland with his father, he sailed a second time with 300 men to form colonies, passing apparently into Hudson Bay. He wished to discover a channel leading to Hindustan, but the difficulties of icebergs and cold weather so frightened his crews that he was compelled to retrace his course. In another attempt at the northwest passage to Asia, he reached latitude 67-1/2° north, and "gave English names to sundry places in Hudson Bay." In 1526, when commanding a Spanish expedition from Seville, he sailed to Brazil, which had already been annexed to Portugal by Cabrera, explored the River La Plata and ascended part of the Paraguay, returning to Spain in 1531. After his return to England, King Edward VI had some interviews with Cabot, one topic being the "variation of the compass." He received a royal pension of 250 marks, and did special work in relation to trade and navigation. The great honor of Cabot is that he saw the American continent before Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci. III.--Of the great navigators of that unexampled age of discovery, as Spain was honored by Columbus and England by Cabot, so Portugal was honored by De Gama. Vasco de Gama, the greatest of Portuguese navigators, left Lisbon in 1497 to explore the unknown world lying east of the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Calicut, May, 1498. Before that, Diaz had actually rounded the cape, but seems to have done so merely before a high gale. He named it "the stormy Cape." Cabrera, or Cabral, was another great explorer sent from Portugal to follow in the route of De Gama; but being forced into a southwesterly route by currents in the south Atlantic, he landed on the continent of America, and annexed the new country to Portugal under the name of Brazil. Cabrera afterward drew up the first commercial treaty between Portugal and India. IV.--Magellan, scarcely inferior to Columbus, brought honor as a navigator both to Portugal and Spain. For the latter country, when in the service of Charles V, he revived the idea of Columbus that we may sail to Asia or the Spice Islands by sailing _west_. With a squadron of five ships, 236 men, he sailed, in 1519, to Brazil and convinced himself that the great estuary was not a strait. Sailing south along the American coast, he discovered the strait that bears his name, and through it entered the Pacific, then first sailed upon by Europeans, though already seen by Balboa and his men "upon a peak in Darien"--as Keats puts it in his famous sonnet.[7] From the continuous fine weather enjoyed for some months, Magellan naturally named the new sea "the Pacific." After touching at the Ladrones and the Philippines, Magellan was killed in a fight with the inhabitants of Matan, a small island. Sebastian, his Basque lieutenant (mentioned in Chapter I) then successfully completed the circumnavigation of the world, sailing first to the Moluccas and thence to Spain. [Footnote 7: The poet, however, makes the clerical blunder of writing Cortez for Balboa.] V.--Of all the world-famous navigators contemporary with Colon, the Genoese, there remains only one deserving of our notice, and that because his name is for all time perpetuated in that of the New World. Amerigo (Latin _Americus_) Vespucci, born at Florence, 1451, had commercial occupation in Cadiz, and was employed by the Spanish Government. He has been charged with a fraudulent attempt to usurp the honor due to Columbus, but Humboldt and others have defended him, after a minute examination of the evidence. In a book published in 1507 by a German, _Waldseemüller_, the author happens to say: And the fourth part of the world having been discovered by Americus, it may be called Amerige, that is the land of Americus, or _America_. Vespucci never called himself the discoverer of the new continent; as a mere subordinate he could not think of such a thing. As a matter of fact, he and Columbus were always on friendly terms, attached, and trusted. Humboldt explains the blunder of Waldseemüller and others by the general ignorance of the history of how America was discovered, since for some years it was jealously guarded as a "state secret." Humboldt curiously adds that the "musical sound of the name caught the public ear," and thus the blunder has been universally perpetuated: _statque stabitque in omne volubilis ævum_. Another reason for the universal renown of Amerigo was that his book was the first that told of the new "Western World"; and was therefore eagerly read in all parts of Europe. Cuba, though the largest of the West Indian islands, and second to be discovered, was not colonized till after the death of Columbus. Thus for more than three centuries and a half, as "Queen of the Antilles" and "Pearl of the Antilles," Cuba has been noted as a chief colonial possession of Spain, till recent events brought it under the power of the United States. The conquest of the island was undertaken by Velasquez, who, after accompanying the great admiral in his second voyage, had settled in Hispaniola (or Hayti) and acquired a large fortune there. He had little difficulty in the annexation of Cuba, because the natives, like those of Hispaniola, were of a peaceful character, easily imposed upon by the invaders. The only difficulty Velasquez had was in the eastern part of the island, where Hatuey, a cazique or native chief, who had fled there from Hispaniola, made preparations to resist the Spaniards. When defeated, he was cruelly condemned by Velasquez to be burned to death, as a "slave who had taken arms against his master." The scene at Hatuey's execution is well known: When fastened to the stake, a Franciscan friar promised him immediate admittance into the joys of heaven, if he would embrace the Christian faith. "Are there any Spaniards," says he, after some pause, "in that region of bliss which you describe?" "Yes," replied the monk, "but only such as are worthy and good." "The best of them have neither worth nor goodness: I will not go to a place where I may meet with one of that accursed race." Being thus annexed in 1511, by the middle of the century all the native Indians of Cuba had become extinct. In the following century this large and fertile island suffered severely by the buccaneers, but during the eighteenth century it prospered. During the nineteenth century, the United States Government had often been urged to obtain possession of it; for example, the sum of one hundred million dollars was offered in 1848 by President Polk. Slavery was at last abolished absolutely in 1886. In recent years Spain, by ceding Cuba and the Philippines to the United States and the Carolines to Germany, has brought her colonial history to a close. Two other important events occurred when Velasquez was Governor of Cuba: first, the escape of Balboa from Hispaniola, to become afterward Governor of Darien; and, second, the expedition under Cordova to explore that part of the continent of America which lies nearest to Cuba. This expedition of 110 men, in three small ships, led to the discovery of that large peninsula now known as Yucatan. Cordova imagined it to be an island. The natives were not naked, like those of the West Indian islands, but wore cotton clothes, and some had ornaments of gold. In the towns, which contained large stone houses, and country generally, there were many proofs of a somewhat advanced civilization. The natives, however, were much more warlike than the simple islanders of Cuba and Hispaniola; and Cordova, in fact, was glad to return from Yucatan. Velasquez, on hearing the report of Cordova, at once fitted out four vessels to explore the newly discovered country, and despatched them under command of his nephew, Grijalva. Everywhere were found proofs of civilization, especially in architecture. The whole district, in fact, abounds in prehistoric remains. From a friendly chief Grijalva received a sort of coat of mail covered with gold plates; and on meeting the ruler of the province he exchanged some toys and trinkets, such as glass beads, pins, scissors, for a rich treasure of jewels, gold ornaments and vessels. Grijalva was therefore the first European to step on the Aztec soil and open an intercourse with the natives. Velasquez, the Governor, at once prepared a larger expedition, choosing as leader or commander an officer who was destined henceforth to fill a much larger place in history than himself, one who presently appeared capable of becoming a general in the foremost rank, Hernando Cortés, greatest of all Spanish explorers. CHAPTER III THE EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF THE AZTECS In the Extinct Civilizations of the East it was shown that the cosmogony of the Chaldeans closely resembles that of the Hebrews and the Phenicians, and that the account of the deluge in Genesis exactly reproduces the much earlier one found on one of the Babylonian tablets. Traces of a deluge legend also existed among the early Aztecs. They believed that two persons survived the Deluge, a man named Koksoz and his wife. Their heads are represented in ancient paintings together with a boat floating on the waters at the foot of a mountain. A dove is also depicted, with a hieroglyphical emblem of languages in his mouth.... Tezpi, the Noah of a neighboring people, also escaped in a boat, which was filled with various kinds of animals and birds. After some time a vulture was sent out from it, but remained feeding on the dead bodies of the giants, which had been left on the earth as the waters subsided. The little humming-bird was then sent forth and returned with the branch of a tree in its mouth. Another Aztec tradition of the deluge is that the pyramidal mound, the temple of Cholula (a sacred city on the way between the capital and the seaport), was built by the giants to escape drowning. Like the tower of Babel, it was intended to reach the clouds, till the gods looked down and, by destroying the pyramid by fires from heaven, compelled the builders to abandon the attempt. The hieroglyphics used in the Aztec calendar correspond curiously with the zodiacal signs of the Mongols of eastern Asia. "The symbols in the Mongolian calendar are borrowed from animals, and four of the twelve are the same as the Aztec." The antiquity of most of the monuments is proved--e. g., by the growth of trees in the midst of the buildings in Yucatan. Many have had time to attain a diameter of from six to nine feet. In a courtyard at Uxmal, the figures of tortoises sculptured in relief upon the granite pavement are so worn away by the feet of countless generations of the natives that the design of the artist is scarcely recognizable. The Spanish invaders demolished every vestige of the Aztec religious monuments, just as Roman Catholic images and paraphernalia were once treated by the "straitest sects" of Protestants, or even Mohammedans. The beautiful plateau around the lakes of Mexico, as well as other central portions of America, were without any doubt occupied from the earliest ages by peoples who gradually advanced in civilization from generation to generation and passed through cycles of revolutions--in one century relapsing, in another advancing by leaps and bounds by an infusion of new blood or a change of environment--exactly similar to the checkered annals of the successive dynasties in the Nile Valley and the plains of Babylonia. In the New World, as in the Old World, from prehistoric times wealth was accumulated at such centers, bringing additional comfort and refinement, and implying the practise of the useful arts and some applications of science. As to the legendary migrations or even those extinct races whose names still remain, Max Müller said:[8] [Footnote 8: Chips from a German Workshop, i, 327.] The traditions are no better than the Greek traditions about Pelasgians, Æolians, and Ionians, and it would be a mere waste of time to construct out of such elements a systematic history, only to be destroyed again sooner or later, by some Niebuhr, Grote, or Lewis. _Anahuac_ (i. e., "waterside" or "the lake-country"), in the early centuries of our era, was a name of the country round the lakes and town afterward called Mexico. To this center, as a place for settlement, there came from the north or northwest a succession of tribes more or less allied in race and language--especially (according to one theory) the _Toltecs_ from Tula, and the _Aztecs_ from Aztlan. Tula, north of the Mexican Valley, had been the first capital of the Toltecs, and at the time of the Spanish conquest there were remains of large buildings there. Most of the extensive temples and other edifices found throughout "New Spain" were attributed to this race and the word "toltek" became synonymous with "architect." Some five centuries after the Toltecs had abandoned Tula, the Aztecs or early Mexicans arrived to settle in the Valley of Anahuac. With the Aztecs came the Tezcucans, whose capital, Tezcuco, on the eastern border of the Mexican lake, has given it its still surviving name. The Aztecs, again, after long migrations from place to place, finally, in A. D. 1325, halted on the southwestern shores of the great lake. According to tradition, a heavenly vision thus announced the site of their future capital: They beheld perched on the stem of a prickly-pear, which shot out from the crevice of a rock washed by the waves, a royal eagle of extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in its talons, and its broad wings opened to the rising sun. They hailed the auspicious omen, announced by an oracle as indicating the sight of their future city, and laid its foundations by sinking piles into the shallows; for the low marshes were half buried under water.... The place was called Tenochtitlan (i. e. "the cactus on a rock") in token of its miraculous origin. [Such were the humble beginnings of the Venice of the Western World.][9] [Footnote 9: Prescott, i, I, pp. 8, 9.] To this day the arms of the Mexican republic show the device of the eagle and the cactus--to commemorate the legend of the foundation of the capital--afterward called Mexico from the name of their war-god. Fiercer and more warlike than their brethren of Tezcuco, the men of the latter town were glad of their assistance, when invaded and defeated by a hostile tribe. Thus Mexico and Tezcuco became close allies, and by the time of Montezuma I, in the middle of the fifteenth century, their sovereignty had extended beyond their native plateau to the coast country along the Gulf of Mexico. The capital rapidly increased in population, the original houses being replaced by substantial stone buildings. There are documents showing that Tenochtitlan was of much larger dimensions than the modern capital of Mexico, on the same site. Just before the arrival of the Spaniards, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the kingdom extended from the gulf across to the Pacific; and southward under the ruthless Ahuitzotl over the whole of Guatemala and Nicaragua. The Aztecs resembled the ancient Peruvians in very few respects, one being the use of knots on strings of different colors to record events and numbers. Compare our account of "the quipu" in Chapter X. The Aztecs seem to have replaced that rude method of making memoranda during the seventh century by picture-writing. Before the Spanish invasion, thousands of native clerks or chroniclers were employed in painting on vegetable paper and canvas. Examples of such manuscripts may still be seen in all the great museums. Their contents chiefly refer to ritual, astrology, the calendar, annals of the kings, etc. Most of the literary productions of the ancient Mexicans were stupidly destroyed by the Spanish under Cortés. The first Archbishop of Mexico founded a professorship in 1553 for expounding the hieroglyphs of the Aztecs, but in the following century the study was abandoned. Even the native-born scholars confessed that they were unable to decipher the ancient writing. One of the most ancient books (assigned to Tula, the "Toltec" capital, A. D. 660, and written by Huetmatzin, an astrologer), describes the heavens and the earth, the stars in their constellations, the arrangement of time in the official calendar, with some geography, mythology, and cosmogony. In the fifteenth century the King of Tezcuco published sixty hymns in honor of the Supreme Being, with an elegy on the destruction of a town, and another on the instability of human greatness. In the same century the three Anahuac states (Acolhua, Mexico, and Tlacopan) formed a confederacy with a constant tendency to give Mexico the supremacy. The two capitals looking at each other across the lake were steadily growing in importance, with all the adjuncts of public works--causeways, canals, aqueducts, temples, palaces, gardens, and other evidences of wealth. The horror and disgust caused by the Aztec sacrificial bloodshed are greatly increased by considering the number of the victims. The kings actually made war in order to provide as many victims as possible for the public sacrifices--especially on such an occasion as a coronation or the consecration of a new temple. Captives were sometimes reserved a considerable time for the purpose of immolation. It was the regular method of the Aztec warrior in battle not to kill one's opponent if he could be made a captive; to take him alive was a meritorious act in religion. In fact, the Spaniards in this way frequently escaped death at the hands of their Mexican opponents. When King Montezuma was asked by a European general why he had permitted the republic of Tlascala to remain independent on the borders of his kingdom, his reply was, "That she might furnish me with victims for my gods." In reckoning the number of victims Prescott seems to have trusted too implicitly to the almost incredible accounts of the Spanish. Zumurraga, the first Bishop of Mexico, asserts that 20,000 were sacrificed annually, but Casas points out that with such a "waste of the human species," as is implied in some histories, the country could not have been so populous as Cortés found it. The estimate of Casas is "that the Mexicans never sacrificed more than fifty or a hundred persons in a year." Notwithstanding the wholesale bloodshed before the shrines of their gory gods, we can still assign to the Aztecs a high degree of civilization. The history of even modern Europe will illustrate this statement, although apparently paradoxical. Consider "the condition of some of the most polished countries in the sixteenth century after the establishment of the modern Inquisition--an institution which yearly destroyed its thousands by a death more painful than the Aztec sacrifices, ... which did more to stay the march of improvement than any other scheme ever devised by human cunning.... Human sacrifice was sometimes voluntarily embraced by the Aztecs as the most glorious death, and one that opened a sure passage into paradise. The Inquisition, on the other hand, branded its victims with infamy in this world, and consigned them to everlasting perdition in the next." The difficulty with the Aztecs is how to reconcile such refinement as their extinct civilization showed with their savage enjoyment of bloodshed. "No captive was ever ransomed or spared; all were sacrificed without mercy, and their flesh devoured." The first of the four chief counselors of the empire was called the "Prince of the Deadly Lance," the second "Divider of Men," the third "Shedder of Blood," the fourth "the Lord of the Dark House." The temples were very numerous, generally merely pyramidal masses of clay faced with brick or stone. The roof was a broad area on which stood one or two towers, from forty to fifty feet in height, forming the sanctuaries of the presiding deities, and therefore containing their images. Before these sanctuaries stood the dreadful stone of sacrifice. There were also two altars with sacred fires kept ever burning. All the religious services were public, and the pyramidal temples, with stairs round their massive sides, allowed the long procession of priests to be visible as they ceremoniously ascended to perform the dread office of slaughtering the human victims. Human sacrifices had not originally been a feature of the Aztec worship. But about 200 years before the arrival of the Spanish invaders was the beginning of this religious atrocity, and at last no public festival was considered complete without some human bloodshed. Prescott takes as an example the great festival in honor of Tezcatlipoca, a handsome god of the second rank, called "the soul of the world," and endowed with perpetual youth. A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive, distinguished for his personal beauty and without a blemish on his body, was selected.... Tutors took charge of him and instructed him how to perform his new part with becoming grace and dignity. He was arrayed in a splendid dress, regaled with incense and with a profusion of sweet-scented flowers.... When he went abroad he was attended by a train of the royal pages, and as he halted in the streets to play some favorite melody, the crowd prostrated themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of their good deity.... Four beautiful girls, bearing the names of the principal goddesses, were selected, and with them he continued to live idly, feasted at the banquets of the principal nobles, who paid him all the honors of a divinity. When at length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived, ... stripped of his gaudy apparel, one of the royal barges transported him across a lake to a temple which rose on its margin.... Hither the inhabitants of the capital flocked to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad procession wound up the sides of the pyramid, the unhappy victim threw away his gay chaplets of flowers and broke in pieces his musical instruments. ... On the summit he was received by six priests, whose long and matted locks flowed in disorder over their sable robes, covered with hieroglyphic scrolls of mystic import. They led him to the sacrificial stone, a huge block of jasper, with its upper surface somewhat convex. On this the victim was stretched. Five priests secured his head and limbs, while the sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of _itzli_, and inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the palpitating heart, and after holding it up to the sun (as representing the supreme God), cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble adoration. Such was an instance of the human sacrifices for which ancient Mexico became infamous to the whole civilized world. One instance of a sacrifice differing from the ordinary sort is thus given by a Spanish historian: A captive of distinction was sometimes furnished with arms for single combat against a number of Mexicans in succession. If he defeated them all, as did occasionally happen, he was allowed to escape. If vanquished he was dragged to the block and sacrificed in the usual manner. The combat was fought on a huge circular stone before the population of the capital. Women captives were occasionally sacrificed before those bloodthirsty gods, and in a season of drought even children were sometimes slaughtered to propitiate Tlaloc, the god of rain. Borne along in open litters, dressed in their festal robes and decked with the fresh blossoms of spring, they moved the hardest hearts to pity, though their cries were drowned in the wild chant of the priests who read in their tears a favorable augury for the rain prayer. One Spanish historian informs us that these innocent victims of this repulsive religion were generally bought by the priests from parents who were poor. We may now resume the traditional settlement of the ancient Mexicans on the region called Anahuac, including all the fertile plateau and extending south to the lake of Nicaragua. The chief tribes of the race were said to have come from California, and after being subject to the Colhua people asserted their independence about A. D. 1325. Soon afterward, their first capital, Tenochtitlan, was built on the site of Mexico, their permanent center. For several generations they lived, like their remote ancestors, the Red Men of the Woods, as hunters, fishers, and trappers, but at last their prince or chief cazique was powerful enough to be called king. The rule of this Aztec prince, beginning A. D. 1440, marked the beginning of their greatness as a race. It became a rule of their kingdom that every new king must gain a victory before being crowned; and thus by the conquest of a new nation furnish a supply of captives to gratify their tutelary deity by the necessary human sacrifices. In 1502 the younger Montezuma ascended the throne. He is better known to us than the previous kings, because it was in his reign that the Spanish conquerors appeared on the scene. From the time of Cortés the history of the Aztecs becomes part of that of the Mexicans. They were easily conquered by the European troops, partly because of their betrayal by various of the neighboring nations whom they had formerly conquered. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, according to Prescott, the Aztec king ruled the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. From the scientific side of their extinct civilization it is their knowledge of astronomy that chiefly causes astonishment (see also p. 85). As in the case of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, a motive for the study of the stars and planets was the priestly one of accurately fixing the religious festivals. The tropical year being thus ascertained, their tables showed the exact time of the equinox or sun's transit across the equatorial, and of the solstice. From a very early period they had practised agriculture, growing Indian corn and "Mexican aloe." Having no animals of draft, such as the horse, or ox, their farming was naturally of a rude and imperfect sort. "The degree of civilization," says Prescott, "which the Aztecs reached, as inferred by their political institutions, may be considered, perhaps, not much short of that enjoyed by our Saxon ancestors under Alfred." In a passage comparing the Aztecs to the American Indians, we read: The latter has something peculiarly sensitive in his nature. He shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a foreign hand. Even when this foreign influence comes in the form of civilization he seems to sink and pine away beneath it. It has been so with the Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination their numbers have silently melted away. Their energies are broken. They no longer tread their mountain plains with the conscious independence of their ancestors. In their faltering step and meek and melancholy aspect we read the sad characters of the conquered race.... Their civilization was of the hardy character which belongs to the wilderness. The fierce virtues of the Aztec were all his own. Humboldt found some analogy between the Aztec theory of the universe, as taught by the priests, and the Asiatic "cosmogonies." The Aztecs, in explaining the great mystery of man's existence after death, believed that future time would revolve in great periods or cycles, each embracing thousands of years. At the end of each of the four cycles of future time in the present world, "the human family will be swept from the earth by the agency of one of the elements, and the sun blotted out from the heavens to be again rekindled." The priesthood comprised a large number who were skilled in astrology and divination. The great temple of Mexico, alone, had 5,000 priests in attendance, of whom the chief dignitaries superintended the dreadful rites of human sacrifice. Others had management of the singing choirs with their musical accompaniment of drums and other instruments; others arranged the public festivals according to the calendar, and had charge of the hieroglyphical word-painting and oral traditions. One important section of the priesthood were teachers, responsible for the education of the children and instruction in religion and morality. The head management of the hierarchy or whole ecclesiastical system, was under two high priests--the more dignified that they were chosen by the king and principal nobles without reference to birth or social station. These high priests were consulted on any national emergency, and in precedency of rank were superior to every man except the king. Montezuma is said to have been a priest. The priestly power was more absolute than any ever experienced in Europe. Two remarkable peculiarities were that when a sinner was pardoned by a priest, the certificate afterward saved the culprit from being legally punished for any offense; secondly, there could be no pardon for an offense once atoned for if the offense were repeated. "Long after the conquest, the simple natives when they came under the arm of the law, sought to escape by producing the certificate of their former confession." (Prescott, i, 33.) The prayer of the priest-confessor, as reported by a Spanish historian, is very remarkable: "O, merciful Lord, thou who knowest the secrets of all hearts, let thy forgiveness and favor descend, like the pure waters of heaven, to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor man has sinned, _not from his own free will_, but from the influence of the sign under which he was born...." After enjoining on the penitent a variety of minute ceremonies by way of penance, the confessor urges the necessity of instantly procuring a slave for sacrifice to the Deity. In the schools under the clergy the boys were taught by priests and the girls by priestesses. There was a higher school for instruction in tradition and history, the mysteries of hieroglyphs, the principles of government, and certain branches of astronomical and natural science. In the education of their children the Mexican community were very strict, but from a letter preserved by one of the Spanish historians, we can not doubt the womanly affection of a mother who thus wrote to her daughter: My beloved daughter, very dear little dove, you have already heard and attended to the words which your father has told you. They are precious words, which have proceeded from the bowels and heart in which they were treasured up; and your beloved father well knows that you, his daughter, begotten of him, are his blood and his flesh; and God our Lord knows that it is so. Although you are a woman, and are the image of your father, what more can I say to you than has already been said?... My dear daughter, whom I tenderly love, see that you live in the world in peace, tranquillity, and contentment--see that you disgrace not yourself, that you stain not your honor, nor pollute the luster and fame of your ancestors.... May God prosper you, my first-born, and may you come to God, who is in every place.[10] [Footnote 10: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva España, vi, 19.] Some trace of a "natural piety," which will probably surprise our readers, is also found in the ceremony of Aztec baptism, as described by the same writer. After the head and lips of the infant were touched with water and a name given to it, the goddess Cioacoatl was implored "that the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world might not visit the child, but that, cleansed by these waters, it might live and be born anew." In Sahagun's account we read: When all the relations of the child were assembled, the midwife, who was the person that performed the rite of baptism, was summoned. When the sun had risen, the midwife, taking the child in her arms, called for a little earthen vessel of water.... To perform the rite, she placed herself _with her face toward the west_, and began to go through certain ceremonies.... After this she sprinkled water on the head of the infant, saying, "O my child! receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, and is given for the increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash and to purify." ... [After a prayer] she took the child in both hands, and lifting him toward heaven said, "O Lord, thou seest here thy creature whom thou hast sent into this world, this place of sorrow, suffering, and penitence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and thine inspiration." The science of the Aztecs has excited the wonder of all competent judges, such as Humboldt (already quoted) and the astronomer La Place. Lord Kingsborough remarks in his great work: It can hardly be doubted that the Mexicans were acquainted with many scientifical instruments of strange invention;... whether the telescope may not have been of the number is uncertain; but the thirteenth plate of M. Dupaix's Monuments, which represents a man holding something of a similar nature to his eye, affords reason to suppose that they knew how to improve the powers of vision. References to the calendar of the Aztecs should not omit the secular festival occurring at the end of their great cycle of fifty-two years. From the length of the period, two generations, one might compare it with the "jubilee" of ancient Israel--a word made familiar toward the close of Queen Victoria's reign. The great event always took place at midwinter, the most dreary period of the year, and when the five intercalary days arrived they "abandoned themselves to despair," breaking up the images of the gods, allowing the holy fires of the temples to go out, lighting none in their homes, destroying their furniture and domestic utensils, and tearing their clothes to rags. This disorder and gloom signified that figuratively the end of the world was at hand. On the evening of the last day, a procession of priests, assuming the dress and ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital toward a lofty mountain, about two leagues distant. They carried with them a noble victim, the flower of their captives, and an apparatus for kindling the _new fire_, the success of which was an augury of the renewal of the cycle. On the summit of the mountain, the procession paused till midnight, when, as the constellation of the Pleiades[11] approached the zenith, the new fire was kindled by the friction of some sticks placed on the breast of the victim. The flame was soon communicated to a funeral-pyre on which the body of the slaughtered captive was thrown. As the light streamed up toward heaven, shouts of joy and triumph burst forth from the countless multitudes who covered the hills, the terraces of the temples, and the housetops.... Couriers, with torches lighted at the blazing beacon, rapidly bore them over every part of the country.... A new cycle had commenced its march. The following thirteen days were given up to festivity. ... The people, dressed in their gayest apparel, and crowned with garlands and chaplets of flowers, thronged in joyous procession to offer up their oblations and thanksgivings in the temples. Dances and games were instituted emblematical of the regeneration of the world. [Footnote 11: A famous group of seven small stars in the Bull constellation. The "seven sisters" appear as only _six_ to ordinary eyesight: to make out the seventh is a test of a practised eye and excellent vision.] Prescott compares this carnival of the Aztecs to the great secular festival of the Romans or ancient Etruscans, which (as Suetonius remarked) "few alive had witnessed before, or could expect to witness again." The _ludi sæculares_ or secular games of Rome were held only at very long intervals and lasted for three days and nights. The poet Southey thus refers to the ceremony of opening the new Aztec cycle, or Circle of the Years. On his bare breast the cedar boughs are laid, On his bare breast, dry sedge and odorous gums, Laid ready to receive the sacred spark, And blaze, to herald the ascending sun, Upon his living altar. Round the wretch The inhuman ministers of rites accurst Stand, and expect the signal when to strike The seed of fire. Their Chief, apart from all, ... eastward turns his eyes; For now the hour draws nigh, and speedily He look's to see the first faint dawn of day Break through the orient sky. _Madoc_, ii, 26. CHAPTER IV AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY Long before the time of Columbus and the Spanish conquest there existed on the table-land of Mexico two great races or nations, as has already been shown, both highly civilized, and both akin in language, art, and religion. Ethnologists and antiquaries are not agreed as to their origin or the development of their civilization. Many recent critics have held the theory that there had been a previous people from whom both races inherited their extinct civilization, this previous race being the "Toltecs," whom we have repeatedly mentioned in the preceding chapter. To that previous race some attribute the colossal stonework around Lake Titicaca, as well as other survivals of long-forgotten culture. Some would even class them with the "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley. Other recent antiquaries, however, while fully admitting the Aztec-Tescucan civilization to be real and historical, treat the Toltec theory as partly or entirely mythical. One writer alleges, after the manner of Max Müller, that the Toltecs are "simply a personification of the rays of light" radiating from the Aztec sun-god. Leaving abstract theories, we shall devote this chapter to the principal facts of American archeology--especially as regards the races and the monuments of their long extinct civilizations. Throughout many parts of both North and South America, and over large areas, the red-skinned natives continued their generations as their ancestors had done through untold centuries, scarcely rising above the state of rude, uncultured sons of the soil living as hunters, trappers, fishers, as had been done immemorially When wild in woods the noble savage ran, as Dryden puts it. But in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America, Colombia, and Peru there were men of the original redskin race who had distinctly attained to civilization for unknown generations before the time of Columbus. Not only so, but in many centers of wealth and population the process of social improvement and advance had been continuous for unrecorded ages; and in certain cases a long extinct civilization had over-laid a previous civilization still more remotely extinct. Some works constructed for supplying water, for example, could only have been applied to that purpose when the climate or geological conditions were quite different from what they have always been in historical times! Who is the red man? Compared in numbers with the yellow man, the white man, or even the black, he is very unimportant, being only one-tenth as great as the African race.[12] In American ethnology, however, the red man is all-important. Primeval men of this race undoubtedly formed the original stock whence during the centuries were derived all the numerous tribes of "Indians" found in either North or South America. Throughout Asia and Africa there is great diversity in type among the races that are indigenous; but as to America, to quote Humboldt: [Footnote 12: White or Caucasian 640,000,000, yellow or Mongolian 600,000,000, black or African 200,000,000, red or American 20,000,000.] The Indians of New Spain [i. e., Mexico] bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. We have the same swarthy and copper color, straight and smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upward toward the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and expression of gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look. Whence the original red men of America were derived it is impossible to say. The date is too remote and the data too few. From fossil remains of human bones, Agassiz estimated a period of at least ten thousand years; and near New Orleans, beneath four buried forests, a skeleton was found which was possibly fifty thousand years old. If, therefore, the redskins branched off from the yellow man, it must have been at a period which lies utterly beyond historic ken or calculation. Some recent ethnologists have borrowed the "glacier theory" from the science of geology, in order to trace the development of civilization among certain races. In Switzerland and Greenland the signs of the action of a glacier can be traced and recognized just as we trace the proofs of the action of water in a dry channel. Visit the front of a glacier in autumn after the summer heat has made it shrink back, you will see (1) rounded rocks, as if planed on the top, with (2) a mixed mass of stones and gravel like a rubbish-heap, scattered on (3) a mass of clay and sand, containing boulders. The same three tests are frequently found in countries where there have been no glaciers within the memory of man. Such traces, found not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in northern Germany and Denmark, prove that the mountain mass of Scandinavia was the nucleus of a huge ice-cap "radiating to a distance of not less than 1,000 miles, and thick enough to block up with solid ice the North Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic up to the 100-fathom line." In North America the same thing is proved by similar evidence. A gigantic ice-cap extending from Canada has glaciated all the minor mountain ranges to the south, sweeping over the whole continent. The drift and boulders still remain to prove the fact, as far south as only 15° north of the tropic. A warm oceanic current, like the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, would shorten a glacial period. Speaking of Scotland, one authority states that "if the Gulf Stream were diverted and the Highlands upheaved to the height of the New Zealand Alps, the whole country would again be buried under glaciers pushing out into the seas" on the west and east. The theory is that as the climate became warmer, the ice-fronts retreated northward by the shrinking of the glaciers, and therefore the animals, including man, were able to live farther north. The men of that very remote period were "Neolithic," and some of the stone monuments are attributed to them that were formerly called "Druidic." A recent writer asks; with reference to Stonehenge: Did Neolithic men slowly coming northward, as the rigors of the last glacial period abated, domicile here, and build this huge gaunt temple before they passed farther north, to degrade and dwindle down into Eskimos wandering the dismal coasts of arctic seas? Another writer, with reference to the American ice-sheet, says: During the second glacial epoch when the great boreal ice-sheet covered one-half of the North American continent, reaching as far south as the present cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis, and the glaciated portions were as unfit for human occupation as the snow-cap of Greenland is to-day, aggregations of population clustered around the equatorial zone, because the climatic conditions were congenial. And inasmuch as civilization, the world over, clings to the temperate climates and thrives there best, we are not surprised to learn that communities far advanced in arts and architecture built and occupied those great cities in Yucatan, Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American states, whose populations once numbered hundreds of thousands. An approximate date when this civilization was at the acme of its glory would be about ten thousand years ago. This is established by observations upon the recession of the existing glacier fronts, which are known to drop back twelve miles in one hundred years. With the gradual withdrawal of the glacial ice-sheet the climate grew proportionately milder, and flora and fauna moved simultaneously northward. Some emigrants went to South America and settled there, carrying their customs, arts, ceremonial rites, hieroglyphs, architecture, etc.; and an immense exodus took place into Mexico, which ultimately extended westward up the Pacific coast. In subsequent epochs when the ice-sheet had withdrawn from large areas, there were immense influxes of people from Asia via Bering Strait on the Pacific side, and from northwestern Europe via Greenland on the Atlantic side. The Korean immigration of the year 544 led to the founding of the Mexican Empire in 1325. To trace then the gradations of ascent from the native American--called "Indians" by a blunder of the Great Admiral, as afterward they were nicknamed "redskins" by the English settlers--to the Mexicans, Peruvians, or Colombians is a task far beyond our strength. Leaving the question of race, therefore, we now turn to the antiquarian remains, especially the architectural. The prehistoric civilization which was developed to the south of Mexico is generally known as "Mayan," although the Mayas were undoubtedly akin to the Aztecs or early Mexicans. The Maya tribes in Yucatan and Honduras, from abundant evidence, must have risen to a refinement in prehistoric times, which, in several respects, was superior to that of the Aztecs. In architecture they were in advance from the earliest ages not only of the Aztec peoples, but of all the American races. In Yucatan the Mayas have left some wonderful remains at Mayapan, their prehistoric capital, and near it at a place called Uxmal which has become famous from its vast and elaborate structures,[13] evidencing a knowledge of art and science which had flourished in this region for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The chief building in Uxmal is in pyramidal form, the principal design in the ancient Aztec temples (as well as those of Chaldea, etc.), consisting of three terraces faced with hewn stone. The terraces are in length 575, 545, and 360 feet respectively; with the temple on the summit, 322 feet, and a great flight of stairs leading to it. The whole building is surrounded by a belt of richly sculptured figures, above a cornice. At Chichen, also in Yucatan, there is an area of two miles perimeter entirely covered with architectural ruins; many of the roofs having apparently consisted of stone arches, painted in various colors. One building, of peculiar construction, proves an enigma to all travelers: it is more than ninety yards long and consists of two parallel walls, each ten yards thick, the distance between them being also ten yards. It has been conjectured that the anomalous construction had reference to some public games by which the citizens amused themselves in that long-forgotten period. Among other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers. A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is near the coast, at the place where Cortés and his Spanish soldiers were moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the toil of forcing a passage through such forests too laborious. The name of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures. [Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.] Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones. The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds, being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (_v._ p. 82). On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the Egyptian cross or _tau_ (T) were evidently sacred symbols to this ancient people, bearing some religious meanings derived from their own cult."[14] [Footnote 14: D. G. Brinton.] The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortés were astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to mean "the four cardinal points, the rain-bringers, the symbol of life and health"; and again, "the emblem of fire, indeed an ornamental fire-drill." Students of architecture find a rudimentary form of the arch occurring in some of the ruins, notably at Palenque. Two walls are built parallel to each other, at some distance apart, then at the beginning of the arch the layers on both sides have the inner stones slightly projecting, each layer projecting a little more than the previous one, till at a certain height the stones of one wall are almost touching those of the wall opposite. Finally, a single flat stone closes in the space between and completes the arch. In Honduras, on the banks of the Copan, the Spaniards found a prehistoric capital in ruins, on an elevated area, surrounded by substantial walls built of dressed stones, and enclosing large groups of buildings. One structure is mainly composed of huge blocks of polished stone. In several houses the whole of the external surface is covered with elaborate carved designs: The adjacent soil is covered with sculptured obelisks, pillars, and idols, with finely dressed stones, and with blocks ornamented with skilfully carved figures of the characteristic Maya hieroglyphs, which, could they be deciphered, would doubtless reveal the story of this strange and solitary city. In western Guatemala, at Utatla, the ancient capital of the Quiches, a tribe allied to the Mayas, several pyramids still remain. One is 120 feet high, surmounted by a stone wall, and another is ascended by a staircase of nineteen steps, each nineteen inches in height. The literary remains (such as Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, Manuscripts, etc.) of the Maya and Aztec races are in some respects as vivid a proof of the extinct civilizations as any of the architectural monuments already discussed. Both Aztecs and Mayans of Yucatan and Central America used picture-writing, and sometimes an imperfect form of hieroglyphics. The most elementary kind was simply a rough sketch of a scene or historical group which they wished to record. When, for example, Cortés had his first interview with some messengers sent by Montezuma, one of the Aztecs was observed sketching the dress and appearance of the Spaniards, and then completing his picture by using colors. Even in recent times Indians have recorded facts by pictographs: in Harper's Magazine (August, 1902) we read that "pictographs and painted rocks to the number of over 3,000 are scattered all over the United States, from the Dighton Rock, Massachusetts (_v_. pp. 27, 28), to the Kern River Cañon in California, and from the Florida Cape to the Mouse River in Manitoba. The identity of the Indians with their ancient progenitors is further proved by relics, mortuary customs, linguistic similarities, plants and vegetables, and primitive industrial and mechanical arts, which have remained constant throughout the ages." The pictographs of the Kern River Cañon, according to the same writer, were inscribed on the rocks there "about five thousand years ago." A more advanced form of picture-writing is frequently found in the Mayan and other inscriptions and manuscripts. Two objects are represented, whose names, when pronounced together, give a sound which suggests the name to be recorded or remembered. Thus, the name Gladstone may be expressed in this manner by two pictures, one a laughing face (i. e., "happy" or "glad"), the other a rock (i. e., "stone"). It is exactly the same contrivance that is used to construct the puzzle called a "rebus." A third form of hieroglyphic was by devising some conventional mark or symbol to suggest the initial sound of the name to be recorded. Such a mark or character would be a "letter," in fact; and thus the prehistoric alphabets were arrived at, not only among the early Mayans of Yucatan, etc., but among the prehistoric peoples of Asia, as the Chinese, the Hittites, etc., as well as the primeval Egyptians. Many of the sculptures in Copan and Palenque to which we have referred contain pictographs and hieroglyphs. A Spanish Bishop of Yucatan drew up a Mayan alphabet in order to express the hieroglyphs on monuments and manuscripts in Roman letters; but much more data are needed before scholars will read the ancient Mayan-Aztec tongues as they have been enabled to understand the Egyptian inscriptions or the cuneiform records of Babylonia. For the American hieroglyphs we still lack a second Young or Champollion. There are three famous manuscripts in the Mayan character: 1. The Dresden Codex, preserved in the Royal Library of that city. It is called a "religious and astrological ritual" by Abbé Brasseur. 2. Codex Troano, in Madrid, described in two folios by Abbé Brasseur. 3. Codex Peresianus, named from the wrapper in which it was found, 1859, which had the name "Perez." It is also known as Codex Mexicanus. In Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there are several of the Mayan manuscripts printed in facsimile, and others in a book by M. Aubin, of Paris. Each group of letters in a Mayan inscription is enclosed in an irregular oval, supposed to resemble the cross-section of a pebble; hence the term _calculiform_ (i. e., "pebble-shaped") is applied to their hieroglyphs, as _cuneiform_ (i. e., "wedge-shaped") is applied to the Babylonian and Assyrian letters. The paper which the prehistoric Mexicans (Mayas, Aztecs, or Tescucans, etc.) used for writing and drawing upon was of vegetable origin, like the Egyptian papyrus. It was made by macerating the leaves of the _maguey_, a plant of the greatest importance (_v._ p. 94). When the surface of the paper was glazed, the letters were painted on in brilliant colors, proceeding from left to right, as we do. Each book was a strip of paper, several yards long and about ten inches wide, not rolled round a stick, as the volumes of ancient Rome were, but folded zigzag, like a screen. The protecting boards which held the book were often artistically carved and painted. The topics of the ordinary books, so far as we yet know, were religious ritual, dreams, and prophecies, the calendar, chronological notes, medical superstitions, portents of marriage and birth. The written language was in common and extensive use for the legal conveyance and sale of property. One of the most remarkable facts connected with this extinct civilization was the accuracy of their calendar and chronological system. Their calendar was actually superior to that then existing in Europe. They had two years: one for civil purposes, of three hundred and sixty-five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days, besides five supplementary days; the other, a ritual or ecclesiastical year, to regulate the public festivals. The civil year required thirteen days to be added at the end of every fifty-two years, so as to harmonize with the ritual year. Each month contained four weeks of five days, but as each of the twenty days (forming a month) had a distinct name, Humboldt concluded that the names were borrowed from a prehistoric calendar, used in India and Tartary. Wilson (Prehistoric Man, i, 133) remarks: By the unaided results of native science the dwellers on the Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar time so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast, their own reckoning according to the unreformed Julian calendar, was really eleven days in error, compared with that of the barbarian nation whose civilization they so speedily effaced. In 1790 there was found in the Square of Mexico a famous relic, the Mexican Calendar Stone, "one of the most striking monuments of American antiquity." It was long supposed to have been intended for chronological purposes; but later authorities call it a votive tablet or sacrificial altar.[15] Similar circular stones have been dug up in other parts of Mexico and in Yucatan. [Footnote 15: Pp. 68-70, _v._ p. 95.] Both the Mayas and the Aztecs excelled in the ordinary arts of civilized life. Paper-making has already been spoken of. Cotton being an important produce of their soil, they understood its spinning, dyeing, and weaving so well that the Spaniards mistook some of the finer Aztec fabrics for silk. They cultivated maize, potatoes, plantains, and other vegetables. Both in Mexico and Yucatan they produced beautiful work in feathers; metal working was not so important as in some countries, being chiefly for ornamental purposes. In fact, it was the comparative plenty of gold and silver around Mexico that delayed the invasion of the Mayan country for more than twenty years. The Mayas had developed trade to a considerable extent before the Spanish invasion, and interchanged commodities with the island of Cuba. It was there, accordingly, that Columbus first saw this people, and first heard of Yucatan. Of the Mexican remains on the central plateau, the most conspicuous is the mound or pyramid of Cholula, although it retains few traces of prehistoric art. A modern church with a dome and two towers now occupies the summit, with a paved road leading up to it. It is chiefly noted, first, by antiquaries, as having originally been a great temple of Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent deity, famous in story; and, secondly, for the fierce struggle around the mound and on the slopes between the Mexicans and Spanish. (_V._ pp. 130-133.) Another mound in this district, Yochicalco, lies seventy-five miles southwest of the capital. It is considered one of the best memorials of the extinct civilization, consisting of five terraces supported by stone walls, and formerly surmounted by a pyramid. Passing from the traces of Aztec and Mayan civilization, we may now glance at the antiquities of the Colombian states. There are no temples or large structures, because the natives, before the Spanish conquest, used timber for building, but owing to the abundance of gold in their brooks and rivers, they developed skill in gold-working, and produced fine ornaments of wonderful beauty. Many hollow figures have been found, evidently cast from molds, representing men, beasts, and birds, etc. Stone-cutting was also an art of this ancient race, sometimes applied to making idols bearing hieroglyphs. When the Spaniards invaded them to take their gold and precious stones, the "Chibchas," who then held the Colombian table-land and valleys, threw large quantities of those valuables into a lake near Bogota, the capital. It was afterward attempted to recover those treasures by draining off the water, but only a small portion was found; and in the present year (1903) a new engineering attempt has been made. A Spanish writer, in 1858, asserted that evidence was found in the caves and mines that in ancient times the Colombians produced an alloy of gold, copper, and iron having the temper and hardness of steel. On a tributary of the River Magdalena there are many curious stone images, sometimes with grotesquely carved faces. Turning next to the mound-builders, in the Ohio and upper Mississippi Valley, we find traces of an extinct civilization in high mounds, evidently artificial, extensive embankments, broad deep ditches, terraced pyramids, and an interesting variety of stone implements and pottery. Some mounds were for burial-places, others for sacrificial purposes, others again as a site for building, like those we have seen in Mexico and Maya. Many enclosures contain more than fifty acres of land; and one embankment is fifty miles long. Among the relics associated with those works are articles of pottery, knives, and copper ornaments, hammered silver, mica, obsidian, pearls, beautifully sculptured pipes, shells, and stone implements. The mounds found in some of the Gulf States seem to confirm a theory that the mound-builders were the ancestors of the Choctaw Indians and their allies, and had been driven southward. In the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the seacoast, there are many large earthworks, including round and quadrilateral mounds, embankments, canals, and artificial lakes. Similar works can be traced to the southern extremity of Florida. Some were constructed as sites for large buildings. The tribes to whom they are due are now known to have been agricultural--growing maize, beans, and pumpkins; with these products and those of the chase they supported a considerable population. Among other antiquarian remains in America are the cliff-houses and "pueblos." The former peculiarity is explained by the deep cañons of the dry table-land of Colorado. Imagine a narrow deep cutting or narrow trench worn by water-courses out of solid rock, deep enough to afford a channel to the stream from 500 to 1,500 feet below the plateau above. Next imagine one of the caves which the water many ages ago had worn out of the perpendicular sides of the cañon; and in that cave a substantial, well-built structure of cut stones bedded in firm mortar. Such are the "cliff--houses," sometimes of two stories. Occasionally there is a watch-tower perched on a conspicuous point of rock near a cliff-dwelling, with small windows looking to the east and north. These curious buildings, though now prehistoric, in a sense, are believed by archeologists to be later than the Spanish conquest. Peru is very important archeologically, but some interesting points will properly fall under our general account of that country and its conquest by Spain. [Illustration: Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians.] In Peruvian architecture, we find "Cyclopean walls," with polygonal stones of five or six feet diameter, so well polished and adjusted that no mortar was necessary; sometimes with a projecting part of the stone fitting exactly into a corresponding cavity of the stone immediately above or below it. Such huge stones are of hard granite or basalt, etc. The walls are often very massive and substantial, sometimes from thirty to forty feet in thickness. The only approach to the modern "arch" in the Peruvian structures is a device similar to that which was described under the Mayan architecture. Some important buildings were surrounded with large upright stones, similar to the famous "Druidic" temple at Stonehenge. All of the chief structures were accurately placed with reference to the cardinal points, and the main entrance always faced the east. The Peruvian tombs were very elaborate, one kind being made by cutting caverns in the steep precipices of the cordillera and then carefully walling in the entrance. Another variety (the _chulpa_) was really a stone tower erected above ground, twelve to thirty feet high. The chulpas were sometimes built in groups. CHAPTER V MEXICO BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION The Aztecs and the Tescucans were the chief races occupying the great table-land of Anahuac, including, as we have seen, the famous Mexican Valley. In the preceding chapter we have set forth some of the leading points in the extinct civilization of those races, and also that of the Mayas, who in several respects were perhaps superior to the Anahuac kingdoms. Several features of the early Mexican civilization will come before us as we accompany the European conquerors, in their march over the table-land. Meantime, we glance first at the geography of this magnificent region, and secondly at the manners and institutions of the people, their industrial arts, etc., and their terrible religion. The last-mentioned topic has already been partly discussed in Chapter III. The Tropic of Cancer passes through the middle of Mexico, and therefore its southern half, which is the most important, is all under the burning sun of the "torrid zone." This heat, however, is greatly modified by the height of the surface above sea-level, since the country, taken as a whole, is simply an extensive table-land. The height of the plain in the two central states, Mexico and Puebla, is 8,000 feet, or about double the average height of the highest summits in the British Isles. On the west of the republic is a continuous chain of mountains, and on the east of the table-land run a series of mountainous groups parallel to the seacoast, with a summit in Vera Cruz of over 13,400 feet. To the south of the capital an irregular range running east and west contains these remarkable volcanoes--Colima, 14,400 feet; Jorulla, Popocatepetl, 17,800; Orizaba (extinct), 18,300, the highest summit in Mexico, and, with the exception of some of the mountains of Alaska, in North America. The great plateau-basin formed around the capital and its lakes is completely enclosed by mountains. This high table-land has its own climate as compared with the broad tract lying along the Atlantic. Hence the latter is known as the hot region (_caliente_), and the former the cold region (_fria_). Between the two climates, as the traveler mounts from the sea-level to the great plateau, is the temperate region (_templada_), an intermediate belt of perpetual humidity, a welcome escape from the heat and deadly malaria of the hot region with its "bilious fevers." Sometimes as he passes along the bases of the volcanic mountains, casting his eye "down some steep slope or almost unfathomable ravine on the margin of the road, he sees their depths glowing with the rich blooms and enameled vegetation of the tropics." This contrast arises from the height he has now gained above the hot coast region. The climate on the table-land is only cold in a relative sense, being mild to Europeans, with a mean temperature at the capital of 60°, seldom lowered to the freezing-point. The "temperate" slopes form the "Paradise of Mexico," from "the balmy climate, the magnificent scenery, and the wealth of semitropical vegetation." The Aztec and Tescucan laws were kept in state records, and shown publicly in hieroglyphs. The great crimes against society were all punished with death, including the murder of a slave. Slaves could hold property, and all their sons were freedmen. The code in general showed real respect for the leading principles of morality. In Mexico, as in ancient Egypt, the soldier shared with the priest the highest consideration. The king must be an experienced warrior. The tutelary deity of the Aztecs was the god of war. A great object of military expeditions was to gather hecatombs of captives for his altars. The soldier who fell in battle was transported at once to the region of ineffable bliss in the bright mansions of the sun.... Thus every war became a crusade; and the warrior was not only raised to a contempt of danger, but courted it--animated by a religious enthusiasm like that of the early Saracen or the Christian crusader. The officers of the armies wore rich and conspicuous uniforms--a tight-fitting tunic of quilted cotton sufficient to turn the arrows of the native Indians; a cuirass (for superior officers) made of thin plates of gold or silver; an overcoat or cloak of variegated feather-work; helmets of wood or silver, bearing showy plumes, adorned with precious stones and gold ornaments. Their belts, collars, bracelets, and earrings were also of gold or silver. Southey, in his poem, makes his Welsh prince, Madoc, thus boast: Their mail, if mail it may be called, was woven Of vegetable down, like finest flax, Bleached to the whiteness of new-fallen snow, ... Others of higher office were arrayed In feathery breastplates, of more gorgeous hue Than the gay plumage of the mountain-cock, Than the pheasants' glittering pride. But what were these Or what the thin gold hauberk, when opposed To arms like ours in battle? _Madoc_, i, 7. We learn of the ancient Mexicans, to their honor, that in the large towns hospitals were kept for the cure of the sick and wounded soldiers, and as a permanent refuge if disabled. Not only so, says a Spanish historian, but "the surgeons placed over them were so far better than those in Europe that they did not protract the cure to increase the pay." Even the red man of the woods, as we learn from Fenimore Cooper and Catlin, believes reverently in the Great Spirit who upholds the universe; and similarly his more civilized brother of Mexico or Tezcuco spoke of a Supreme Creator, Lord of Heaven and Earth. In their prayers some of the phrases were: The God by whom we live, omnipresent, knowing all thoughts, giving all gifts, without whom man is nothing, invisible, incorporeal, of perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings we find repose and a sure defense. Prescott, however, remarks that notwithstanding such attributes "the idea of unity--of a being with whom volition is action, who has no need of inferior ministers to execute his purposes--was too simple, or too vast, for their understandings; and they sought relief, as usual, in a plurality of deities, who presided over the elements, the changes of the seasons, and the various occupations of man." The Aztecs, in fact, believed in thirteen _dii majores_ and over 200 _dii minores_. To each of these a special day was assigned in the calendar, with its appropriate festival. Chief of them all was that bloodthirsty monster _Huitsilopochtli_, the hideous god of war--tutelary deity of the nation. There was a huge temple to him in the capital, and on the great altar before his image there, and on all his altars throughout the empire, the reeking blood of thousands of human victims was being constantly poured out. The terrible name of this Mexican Mars has greatly puzzled scholars of the language. According to one derivation, the name is a compound of two words, _humming-bird_ and _on the left_, because his image has the feathers of that bird on the left foot. Prescott naturally thinks that "too amiable an etymology for so ruffian a deity." The other name of the war-god, _Mexitl_ (i. e., "the hare of the aloes"), is much better known, because from it is derived the familiar name of the capital. [Illustration: Quetzalcoatl.] The god of the air, _Quetzalcoatl_, a beneficent deity, who taught Mexicans the use of metals, agriculture, and the arts of government. Prescott remarks that he was doubtless one of those benefactors of their species who have been deified by the gratitude of posterity. There was a remarkable tradition of Quetzalcoatl, preserved among the Mexicans, that he had been a king, afterward a god, and had a temple dedicated to his worship at Cholula[16] when on his way to the Mexican Gulf. Embarking there, he bade his people a long farewell, promising that he and his descendants would revisit them. The expectation of his return prepared the way for the success of the tall white-skinned invaders. [Footnote 16: The ruins were referred to in chap, iv, (_v._ p. 84, also 130.)] In the Aztec agriculture, the staple plant was of course the _maize_ or Indian corn. Humboldt tells us that at the conquest it was grown throughout America, from the south of Chile to the River St. Lawrence; and it is still universal in the New World. Other important plants on the Aztec soil were the _banana_, which (according to one Spanish writer) was the forbidden fruit that tempted our poor mother Eve; the _cacao_, whose fruit supplies the valuable chocolate; the _vanilla_, used for flavoring; and most important of all, the _maguey_, or Mexican aloe, much valued because its leaves were manufactured into paper, and its juice by fermentation becomes the national intoxicant, "pulque." The _maguey_, or great Mexican aloe, grown all over the table-land, is called "the miracle of nature," producing not only the _pulque_, but supplying _thatch_ for the cottages, _thread_ and _cords_ from its tough fiber, _pins_ and _needles_ from the thorns which grow on the leaves, an excellent _food_ from its roots, and _writing-paper_ from its leaves. One writer, after speaking of the "pulque" being made from the "maguey," adds, "with what remains of these leaves they manufacture excellent and very fine cloth, resembling holland or the finest linen." The _itztli_, formerly mentioned as being used at the sacrifices by the officiating priest, was "obsidian," a dark transparent mineral, of the greatest hardness, and therefore useful for making knives and razors. The Mexican sword was serrated, those of the finest quality being of course edged with itztli. Sculptured figures abounded in every Aztec temple and town, but in design very inferior to the ancient specimens of Egypt and Babylonia, not to mention Greece. A remarkable collection of their sculptured images occurred in the _place_ or great square of Mexico--the Aztec forum--and similar spots. Ever since the Spanish invasion the destruction of the native objects of art has been ceaseless and ruthless. "Two celebrated bas-reliefs of the last Montezuma and his father," says Prescott, "cut in the solid rock, in the beautiful groves of Chapoltepec, were deliberately destroyed, as late as the last century [i. e., the eighteenth], by order of the government." He further remarks: This wantonness of destruction provokes the bitter animadversion of the Spanish writer Martyr, whose enlightened mind respected the vestiges of civilization wherever found. "The conquerors," says he, "seldom repaired the buildings that they defaced; they would rather sack twenty stately cities than erect one good edifice." The pre-Columbian Mexicans inherited a practical knowledge of mechanics and engineering. The Calendar Stone, for example (spoken of in the preceding chapter), a mass of dark porphyry estimated at fifty tons weight, was carried for a distance of many leagues from the mountains beyond Lake Chalco, through a rough country crossed by rivers and canals. In the passage its weight broke down a bridge over a canal, and the heavy rock had to be raised from the water beneath. With such obstacles, without the draft assistance of horses or cattle, how was it possible to effect such a transport? Perhaps the mechanical skill of their builders and engineers had contrived some tramway or other machinery. An English traveler had a curious suggestion: Latrobe accommodates the wonders of nature and art very well to each other, by suggesting that these great masses of stone were transported by means of the mastodon, whose remains are occasionally disinterred in the Mexican Valley. The Mexicans wove many kinds of cotton cloth, sometimes using as a dye the rich crimson of the cochineal insect. They made a more expensive fabric by interweaving the cotton with the fine hair of rabbits, and other animals; sometimes embroidering with pretty designs of flowers and birds, etc. The special art of the Aztec weaver was in feather-work, which when brought to Europe produced the highest admiration: With feathers they could produce all the effect of a beautiful mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of the parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine down of the humming-bird, which reveled in swarms among the honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial tints that gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The feathers, pasted on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for the wealthy, hangings for apartments, and ornaments for the temples. When some of the Mexican feather-work was shown at Strasbourg: "Never," says one admirer, "did I behold anything so exquisite for brilliancy and nice gradation of color, and for beauty of design. No European artist could have made such a thing." Instead of shops the Aztecs had in every town a market-place, where fairs were held every fifth day--i. e., once a week. Each commodity had a particular quarter, and the traffic was partly by barter, and partly by using the following articles as money: bits of tin shaped like an Egyptian cross (T), bags of cacao holding a specified number of grains, and, for large values, quills of gold-dust. The married women among the Aztecs were treated kindly and respectfully by their husbands. The feminine occupations were spinning and embroidery, etc., as among the ancient Greeks, while listening to ballads and love stories related by their maidens and musicians (Ramusio, iii, 305). In banquets and other social entertainments the women had an equal share with the men. Sometimes the festivities were on a large scale, with costly preparations and numerous attendants. The Mexicans, ancient and modern, have always been passionately fond of flowers, and on great occasions not only were the halls and courts strewed and adorned in profusion with blossoms of every hue and sweet odor, but perfumes scented every room. The guests as they sat down found ewers of water before them and cotton napkins, since washing the hands both before and after eating was a national habit of almost religious obligation.[17] Modern Europeans believe that tobacco was introduced from America in the time of Queen Isabella and Queen Elizabeth, but ages before that period the Aztecs at their banquets had the "fragrant weed" offered to the company, "in pipes, mixed up with aromatic substances, or in the form of cigars, inserted in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver." The smoke after dinner was no doubt preliminary to the _siesta_ or nap of "forty winks." It is not known if the Aztec ladies, like their descendants in modern Mexico, also appreciated the _yetl_, as the Mexicans called "tobacco." Our word came from the natives of Hayti, one of the islands discovered by Columbus. [Footnote 17: Sahagun (vi, 22) quotes the precise instructions of a father to his son: he must wash face and hands before sitting down to table, and must not leave till he has repeated the operation and cleansed his teeth.] The tables of the Aztecs abounded in good food--various dishes of meat, especially game, fowl, and fish. The turkey, for example, was introduced into Europe from Mexico, although stupidly supposed to have come from Asia. The French named it _coq d'Inde_,[18] the "Indian cock," meaning American, but the ordinary hearer imagined _d'Inde_ meant from Hindustan. The blunder arose from that misapplication of the word "Indian," first made by Columbus, as we formerly explained. [Footnote 18: The Spanish named this handsome bird _gallopavo_ (Lat. _pavo_, the "peacock"). The wild turkey is larger and more beautiful than the tame, and therefore Benjamin Franklin, when speaking sarcastically of the "American Eagle," insisted that the wild turkey was the proper national emblem.] The Aztec cooks dressed their viands with various sauces and condiments, the more solid dishes being followed by fruits of many kinds, as well as sweetmeats and pastry. Chafing-dishes even were used. Besides the varieties of beautiful flowers which adorned the table there were sculptured Vases of silver and sometimes gold. At table the favorite beverage was the _chocolatl_ flavored with vanilla and different spices. The fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture of sweets and acids, supplied also various agreeable drinks, of different degrees of strength. When the young Mexicans of both sexes amused themselves with dances, the older people kept their seats in order to enjoy their _pulque_ and gossip, or listen to the discourse of some guest of importance. The music which accompanied the dances was frequently soft and rather plaintive. The early Mexicans included the Tezcucans as well as the Aztecs proper; and since their capitals were on the same lake and both races were closely akin, we may devote some space to these Alcohuans or eastern Aztecs. Their civilization was superior to that of the western Aztecs in some respects, and Nezahual-coyotl, their greatest prince, formed alliance with the western state, and then remodeled the various departments of his government. He had a council of war, another of finance, and a third of justice. A remarkable institution, under King Nezahual-coyotl, was the "Council of Music," intended to promote the study of science and the practise of art. Tezcuco, in fact, became the nursery not only of such sciences as could be compassed by the scholarship of the period, but of various useful and ornamental arts. "Its historians, orators, and poets were celebrated throughout the country.... Its idiom, more polished than the Mexican, continued long after the conquest to be that in which the best productions of the native races were composed. Tezcuco was the Athens of the Western World.... Among the most illustrious of her bards was their king himself." A Spanish writer adds that it was to the eastern Aztecs that noblemen sent their sons "to study poetry, moral philosophy, the heathen theology, astronomy, medicine, and history." [Illustration: Ancient Bridge near Tezcuco.] The most remarkable problem connected with ancient Mexico is how to reconcile the general refinement and civilization with the sacrifices of human victims. There was no town or city but had its temples in public places, with stairs visibly leading up to the sacrificial stone, ever standing ready before some hideous idol or other--as already described. In all countries there have been public spectacles of bloodshed, not only as in the gladiators in the ancient circus-- butchered to make a Roman holiday, or the tournays of the middle ages, but in the prize-ring fights and public executions by ax or guillotine, of the age that is just passing away. The thousands who perished for religious ideas by means of the Holy Roman Inquisition should not be overlooked by the Spanish writers who are so indignant that Montezuma and his priests sacrificed tens of thousands under the claims of a heathen religion. The very day on which we write these words, August 18th, is the anniversary of the last sentence for beheading passed by our House of Lords. By that sentence three Scottish "Jacobites" passed under the ax on Tower Hill, where their remains still rest in a chapel hard by. So lately as 1873, the Shah of Persia, when resident as a visitor in Buckingham Palace, was amazed to find that the laws of Great Britain prevented him from depriving five of his courtiers of their lives. They had just been found guilty of some paltry infringement of Persian etiquette. During the last generation or the previous one, both in England and Scotland, the country schoolmaster on a certain day had the schoolroom cleared so that the children and their friends should enjoy the treat of seeing all the game-cocks of the parish bleeding on the floor one after another, being either struck by a spur to the brain, or else wounded to a painful death. When James Boswell and others regularly attended the spectacles of Tyburn and sometimes cheered the wretched victim if he "died game," the philosopher will not wonder at the populace of some city of ancient Mexico crowding round the great temple and greedily watching the bloody sacrifice done with full sanction of the priesthood and the king. The primitive religions were derived from sun-worship, and as fire is the nearest representative of the sun, it seemed essential to _burn_ the victim offered as a sacrifice. At Carthage, the great Phenician colony, children were cruelly sacrificed by fire to the god Melkarth of Tyre. "Melkarth" being simply _Melech Kiriath_ (i. e., "King of the City"), and therefore identical with the "Moloch" or "Molech" of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Israelites. In the earliest prehistoric age the children of Ammon, Moab, and Israel were apparently so closely akin that they had practically the same religion and worshiped the same idols. The tribal god was originally the god of Syria or Canaan. In more than a dozen places of the Old Testament we find the Hebrews accused of burning their children or passing them through the fire to the sun-god, but the ancient Mexicans did not burn their victims, and _in no case were the victims their own children_. The victims were captives taken in war, or persons convicted of crime; and thus the Mexicans were in atrocity far surpassed by those races akin to the Hebrews who are much denounced by the sacred writers, e. g.: Josiah ... defiled Topheth that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings xxiii, 10). They have built also the high places to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings (Jer. xix, 5). Yea, they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan (Ps. cvi, 37). That a father should offer his own child as a sacrifice to the sun-god or any other, would to the mild and gentle Aztec be too dreadful a conception. It is the enormous number who were immolated that shocks the European mind, but to the populace enjoying the spectacle the victims were enemies of the king or criminals deserving execution. Perhaps it is a more difficult problem to explain how so civilized a community as the Aztec races undoubtedly were could look with complacency upon any one tasting a dish composed of some part of the captive he had taken in battle. It is not only repulsive as an idea, but seems impossible. Yet much depends on the point of view as well as the atmosphere. According to archeologists, all the primeval races of men could at a pinch feed on human flesh, but after many generations learned to do better without it. We may have simply outgrown the craving, till at last we call it unnatural, whereas those ancient Mexicans, with all their wealth of food, had refined upon it. Let us again refer to the Old Testament: Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters and these hast thou sacrificed to be devoured (Ezek. xvi, 20). ... have caused their sons to pass for them through the fire, to devour them (Ezek. xxiii, 37). We may therefore infer that to the early races of Canaan (including Israel), as well as to the primeval Aztecs, it was a privilege and religious custom to eat part of any sacrifice that had been offered. There can be little doubt, to any one who has studied the earliest human antiquities, that all races indulged in cannibalism, not only during that enormously remote age called Paleolithic, but in comparatively recent though still prehistoric times. "This is clearly proved by the number of human bones, chiefly of women and young persons, which have been found charred by fire and split open for extraction of the marrow." Such charred bones have frequently been preserved in caves, as at Chaleux in Belgium, where in some instances they occurred "in such numbers as to indicate that they had been the scene of cannibal feasts." The survival of human sacrifice among the Aztecs, with its accompanying traces of cannibalism, was due to the savagery of a long previous condition of their Indian race; just as in the Greek drama, when that ancient people had attained a high level of culture and refinement, the sacrifice of a human life, sometimes a princess or other distinguished heroine, was not unfrequent. We remember Polyxena, the virgin daughter of Hecuba, whom her own people resolved to sacrifice on the tomb of Achilles; and her touching bravery, as she requests the Greeks not to bind her, being ashamed, she says, "having lived a princess to die a slave." A better known example is Iphigenia, so beloved by her father, King Agamemnon, and yet given up by him a victim for purposes of state and religion. [Illustration: Teocalli, Aztec Temple for Human Sacrifices.] From the Greek drama, human sacrifices frequently passed to the Roman; nor does such a refined critic as Horace object to it, but only suggests that the bloodshed ought to be perpetrated behind the scenes. In Seneca's play, Medea (quoted in our Introduction), that rule was grossly violated, since the children have their throats cut by their heroic mother in full view of the audience. In the same passage (Ars Poët., 185, 186) Horace forbids a banquet of human flesh being prepared before the eyes of the public, as had been done in a play written by Ennius, the Roman poet. The religious sacrifice of human victims by the "Druids" or priests of ancient Gaul and Britain seems exactly parallel to the wholesale executions on the Mexican _teocallis_, since the wretched victims whom our Celtic ancestors packed for burning into those huge wicker images, were captives taken in battle, like those stretched for slaughter upon the Mexican stone of sacrifice. Human sacrifice was so common in civilized Rome that it was not till the first century B. C. that a law was passed expressly forbidding it--(Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxx, 3, 4). CHAPTER VI ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS The "New Birth" of the world, which characterized the end of the fifteenth century, had an enormous influence upon Spain. Her queen, the "great Catholic Isabella," had, by assisting Columbus, done much in the great discovery of the Western World. Spain speedily had substantial reward in the boundless wealth poured into her lap, and the rich colonies added to her dominion. Thus in the beginning of the sixteenth century the new consolidated Spain, formed by the union of the two kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, became the richest and greatest of all the European states. The Spanish governors in the West Indies being ambitious of planting new colonies in the name of the Spanish King, conquest and annexation were stimulated in all directions. When Cuba and Hayti were overrun and annexed to Spain, not without much unjust treatment of the simple natives, as we have seen, they became centers of operation, whence expeditions could be sent to Trinidad or any other island, to Panama, to Yucatan, or Florida, or any other part of the continent. After the marvelous experience of Grijalva in Yucatan, then considered an island, and his report that its inhabitants were quite a civilized community compared with the natives of the isles, Velasquez, the Governor of Cuba, resolved at once to invade the new country for purposes of annexation and plunder. Velasquez prepared a large expedition for this adventure, consisting of eleven ships with more than 600 armed men on board; and after much deliberation chose Fernando Cortés to be the commander. Who was this Cortés, destined by his military genius and unscrupulous policy to be comparable to Hannibal or Julius Cæsar among the ancients, and to Clive or Napoleon Bonaparte among the moderns? Velasquez knew him well as one of his subordinates in the cruel conquest of Cuba; before that Cortés had distinguished himself in Hayti as an energetic and skilled officer. Of an impetuous and fiery temper which he had learned to keep thoroughly in command, he was characterized by that quality possessed by all commanders of superior genius, the "art of gaining the confidence and governing the minds of men." As a youth in Spain he had studied for the bar at the University of Salamanca; and in some of his speeches on critical occasions one can find certain traces of his academical training in the adroit arguments and clever appeals. Other qualifications as an officer were his manly and handsome appearance, his affable manners, combined with "extraordinary address in all martial exercises, and a constitution of such vigor as to be capable of enduring any fatigue." Cortés on reviewing his commission from the Governor, Velasquez, was too shrewd not to be aware of the importance of his new position. The "Great Admiral," with reference to the discovery of the New World, had said: "I have only opened the door for others to enter"; and Cortés was conscious that now was the moment for that entrance. Filled with unbounded ambition he rose to the occasion. Velasquez somewhat hypocritically pretended that the object he had in view was merely barter with the natives of New Spain--that being the name given by Grijalva to Yucatan and the neighboring country. He ordered Cortés to impress on the natives the grandeur and goodness of his royal master; to invite them to give in their allegiance to him, and to manifest it by regaling him with such comfortable presents of gold, pearls, and precious stones as by showing their own good-will would secure his favor and protection. Mustering his forces for the new expedition, Cortés found that he had no sailors, 553 soldiers, besides 200 Indians of the island; ten heavy guns, four lighter ones, called falconets. He had also sixteen horses, knowing the effect of even a small body of cavalry in dealing with savages. On February 18, 1519, Cortés sailed with eleven vessels for the coast of Yucatan. Landing at Tabasco, where Grijalva had found the natives friendly, Cortés found that the Yucatans had resolved to oppose him, and were presently assembled in great numbers. The result of the fighting, however, was naturally a foregone conclusion, partly on account of "the astonishment and terror excited by the destructive effect" of the European firearms, and the "monstrous apparition" of men on horseback. Such quadrupeds they had never seen before, and they concluded that the rider with his horse formed one unaccountable animal. Gomara and other chroniclers tell how St. James, the tutelar saint of Spain, appeared in the ranks on a gray horse, and led the Christians to victory over the heathen. An especially fortunate thing for Cortés was that among the female slaves presented after this battle, there was one of remarkable intelligence, who understood both the Aztec and the Mayan languages, and soon learned the Spanish. She proved invaluable to Cortés as an interpreter, and afterward had a share in all his campaigns. She is generally called Marina. If the Spanish accounts are true, stating that the native army consisted of five squadrons of 8,000 men each, then this victory is one of the most remarkable on record, as a proof of the value of gunpowder as compared with primitive bows and arrows. To the simple Americans the terrible invaders seemed actually to wield the thunder and the lightning. Next day Cortés made an arrangement with the chiefs; and after confidence was restored, asked where they got their gold from. They pointed to the high grounds on the west, and said _Culhua_, meaning Mexico. The Palm Sunday being at hand, the conversion of the "heathen" was duly celebrated by pompous and solemn ceremonial. The army marched in procession with the priests at their head, accompanied by crowds of Indians of both sexes, till they reached the principal temple. A new altar being built, the image of the presiding deity was taken from its place and thrown down, to make room for that of the Virgin carrying the infant Saviour. Cortés now learned that the capital of the Mexican Empire was on the mountain plains nearly seventy leagues inland; and that the ruler was the great and powerful Montezuma. It was on the morning of Good Friday that Cortés landed on the site of Vera Cruz, which after the conquest of Mexico speedily grew into a flourishing seaport, becoming the commercial capital of New Spain. A friendly conference took place between Cortés and Teuhtlile, an Aztec chief, who asked from what country the strangers had come and why they had come. "I am a servant," replied Cortés, "of a mighty monarch beyond the seas, who rules over an immense empire, having kings and princes for his vassals. Since my master has heard of the greatness of the Mexican Emperor he has desired me to enter into communication with him, and has sent me as envoy to wait upon Montezuma with a present in token of good-will, and with a message which I must deliver in person. When can I be admitted to your sovereign's presence?" The Aztec chief replied with an air of dignity: "How is it that you have been here only two days, and demand to see the Emperor? If there is another monarch as powerful as Montezuma, I have no doubt my master will be happy to interchange courtesies." The slaves of Teuhtlile presented to Cortés ten loads of fine cotton, several mantles of that curious feather-work whose rich and delicate dyes might vie with the most beautiful painting, and a wicker basket filled with ornaments of wrought gold, all calculated to inspire the Spaniards with high ideas of the wealth and mechanical ingenuity of the Mexicans. Having duly expressed his thanks, Cortés then laid before the Aztec chief the presents intended for Montezuma. These were "an armchair richly carved and painted; a crimson cap bearing a gold medal emblazoned with St. George and the Dragon; collars, bracelets, and other ornaments of cut-glass, which, in a country where glass was unknown, might claim to have the value of real gems." During the interview Teuhtlile had been curiously observing a shining gilt helmet worn by a soldier, and said that it was exactly like that of Quetzalcoatl. "Who is he?" asked Cortés. "Quetzalcoatl is the god about whom the Aztecs have the prophecy that he will come back to them across the sea." Cortés promised to send the helmet to Montezuma, and expressed a wish that it would be returned filled with the gold-dust of the Aztecs, that he might compare it with the Spanish gold-dust! One reporter who was present says: He further told Governor Teuhtlile that the Spaniards were troubled with a disease of the heart for which gold was a specific remedy! Another incident of this notable interview was that one of the Mexican attendants was observed by Cortés to be scribbling with a pencil. It was an artist sketching the appearance of the strangers, their dress, arms, and attitude, and filling in the picture with touches of color. Struck with the idea of being thus represented to the Mexican monarch, Cortés ordered the cavalry to be exercised on the beach in front of the artists. The bold and rapid movements of the troops, ... the apparent ease with which they managed the fiery animals on which they were mounted, the glancing of their weapons, and the shrill cry of the trumpet, all filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they heard the thunders of the cannon, which Cortés ordered to be fired at the same time, and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame issuing from these terrible engines, and the rushing sound of the balls, as they dashed through the trees of the neighboring forest, shivering their branches into fragments, they were filled with consternation and wonder, from which the Aztec chief himself was not wholly free. This was all faithfully copied by the picture-writers, so far as their art went, in sketching and vivid coloring. They also recorded the ships of the strangers--"the water-houses," as they were named--whose dark hulls and snow-white sails were swinging at anchor in the bay. Meantime what had Montezuma been doing, the sad-faced[19] and haughty Emperor of Mexico, land of the Aztecs and the Tezcucans? At the beginning of his reign he had as a skilful general led his armies as far as Honduras and Nicaragua, extending the limits of the empire, so that it had now reached the maximum. [Footnote 19: The name Montezuma means "sad or severe man," a title suited to his features, though not to his mild character.] Tezcuco, the sister state to Mexico, had latterly shown hostility to Montezuma, and still more formidable was the republic of Tlascala, lying between his capital and the coast. Prodigies and prophecies now began to affect all classes of the population in the Mexican Valley. Everybody spoke of the return from over the sea of the popular god Quetzalcoatl, the fair-skinned and longhaired (p. 93). A generation had already elapsed since the first rumors that white men in great mysterious vessels, bearing in their hands the thunder and lightning, were seizing the islands and must soon seize the mainland. No wonder that Montezuma, stern, tyrannical, and disappointed, should be dismayed at the news of Grijalva's landing, and still more so when hearing of the fleet and army of Cortés, and seeing their horsemen pictured by his artists--the whole accompanied by exaggerated accounts of the guns and cannon able to produce thunder and lightning. After holding a council, Montezuma resolved to send an embassy to Cortés, presenting him with a present which should reflect the incomparable grandeur and resources of Mexico, and at the same time forbidding an approach to the capital. The governor Teuhtlile, on this second embassy, was accompanied by two Aztec nobles and 100 slaves, bearing the present from Montezuma to Cortés. As they entered the pavilion of the Spanish general the air was filled with clouds of incense which rose from censers carried by some attendants. Some delicately wrought mats were then unrolled, and on them the slaves displayed the various articles, ... shields, helmets, cuirasses, embossed with plates and ornaments of pure gold; collars and bracelets of the same metal, sandals, fans, and crests of variegated feathers, intermingled with gold and silver thread, and sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; imitations of birds and animals in wrought and cast gold and silver, of exquisite workmanship; curtains, coverlets, and robes of cotton, fine as silk, of rich and various dyes, interwoven with feather-work that rivaled the delicacy of painting.... The things which excited most admiration were two circular plates of gold and silver, as "large as carriage-wheels"; one representing the sun was richly carved with plants and animals. It was thirty palms in circumference, and was worth about £52,500 sterling.[20] [Footnote 20: Robertson, the historian, gives £5,000; but Prescott reckons a _peso de oro_ at £2 12s. 6d.; whence the 20,000 of the text gives 20,000 x 2-5/8 = 2,500 x 21 = £52,500.] Cortés was interested in seeing the soldier's helmet brought back to him full to the brim with grains of gold. The courteous message from Montezuma, however, did not please him much. Montezuma excused himself from having a personal interview by "the distance being too great, and the journey beset with difficulties and dangers from formidable enemies.... All that could be done, therefore, was for the strangers to return to their own land." Soon after Cortés, by a species of statecraft, formed a new municipality, thus transforming his camp into a civil community. The name of the new city was _Villa Rica de Vera Cruz_, i. e., "the Rich Town of the True Cross." Once the municipality was formed, Cortés resigned before them his office of captain-general, and thus became free from the authority of Velasquez. The city council at once chose Cortés to be captain-general and chief justice of the colony. He could now go forward unchecked by any superior except the Crown. It was a desperate undertaking to climb with an army from the hot region of this flat coast through the varied succession of "slopes" which form the temperate region, and at last, on the high table-land, obtain entrance upon the great enclosed valley of Mexico. Cortés found that an essential preliminary was to gain the friendship of the Totonacs, a nation tributary to Montezuma. Their subjection to the Aztecs he had already verified, since one day when holding a conference with the Totonac leaders and a neighboring cazique (i. e., "prince"), Cortés saw five men of haughty appearance enter the market-place, followed by several attendants, and at once receive the politest attention from the Totonacs. Cortés asked Marina, his slave interpreter, who or what they were. "They are Aztec nobles," she replied, "sent by Montezuma to receive tribute." Presently the Totonac chiefs came to Cortés with looks of dire dismay, to inform him of the great Emperor's resentment at the entertainment offered to the Spaniards, and demanding in expiation twenty young men and women for sacrifice to the Aztec gods. Cortés, with every look of indignation, insisted that the Totonacs should not only refuse to comply, but should seize the Aztec messengers and hold them strictly confined in prison. Unscrupulous to gain his ends, Cortés by lies and cunning duplicity managed to set the Mexican nobles free, dismissing them with a friendly message to Montezuma, while at the same time securing the confidence of the simple-minded Totonacs, urging them to join the Spaniards and make a bold effort to regain their independence. Some thought that Cortés was really the kindly divinity Quetzalcoatl, promised by the prophets to bring freedom and happiness. As an instance of the religious enthusiasm of the Spanish invaders, we may give the account of the "conversion" of Zempoalla, a city in the Totonac district. When Cortés pressed upon the cazique of Zempoalla that his mission was to turn the Indians from the abominations of their present religion, that prince replied that he could not accept what the Spanish priests had told him about the Creator and Ruler of the Universe; especially that he ever stooped to become a mere man, weak and poor, so as to suffer voluntarily persecution and even death at the hands of some of his own creatures. The cazique added that he "would resist any violence offered to his gods, who would, indeed, avenge the act themselves by the instant destruction of their enemies." Cortés and his men seized the opportunity. There is no doubt that, after witnessing some of the barbarous sacrifices of human victims followed by cannibal feasts, their souls had naturally been sickened. They now proceeded to force the work of conversion as soon as Cortés had appealed to them and declared that "God and the holy saints would never favor their enterprise, if such atrocities were allowed; and that for his own part, he was resolved the Indian idols should be demolished that very hour if it cost him his life. "Scarcely waiting for his commands the Spaniards moved toward one of the principal _teocallis_, or temples, which rose high on a pyramidal foundation with a steep ascent of stone steps in the middle. The cazique, divining their purpose, instantly called his men to arms. The Indian warriors gathered from all quarters, with shrill cries and clashing of weapons, while the priests, in their dark cotton robes, with disheveled tresses matted with blood, rushed frantic among the natives, calling on them to protect their gods from violation! All was now confusion and tumult.... Cortés took his usual prompt measures. Causing the cazique and some of the principal citizens and priests to be arrested, he commanded them to quiet the people, declaring that if a single arrow was shot against a Spaniard, it should cost every one of them his life.... The cazique covered his face with his hands, exclaiming that the gods would avenge their own wrongs. "The Christians were not slow in availing themselves of his tacit acquiescence. Fifty soldiers, at a signal from their general, sprang up the great stairway of the temple, entered the building on the summit, the walls of which were black with human gore, and dragged the huge wooden idols to the edge of the terrace. Their fantastic forms and features, conveying a symbolic meaning which was lost on the Spaniards, seemed to their eyes only the hideous lineaments of Satan. With great alacrity they rolled the colossal monsters down the steps of the pyramid, amid the triumphant shouts of their own companions and the groans and lamentations of the natives. They then consummated the whole by burning them in the presence of the assembled multitude." After the temple had been cleansed from every trace of the idol-worship and its horrors, a new altar was raised, surmounted by a lofty cross, and hung with garlands of roses. A reaction having now set in among the Indians, many were willing to become Christians, and some of the Aztec priests even joined in a procession to signify their conversion, wearing white robes instead of their former dark mantles, and carrying lighted candles in their hands, "while an image of the Virgin half smothered under the weight of flowers was borne aloft, and, as the procession climbed the steps of the temple, was deposited above the altar.... The impressive character of the ceremony and the passionate eloquence of the good priest touched the feelings of the motley audience, until Indians as well as Spaniards, if we may trust the chronicler, were melted into tears and audible sobs." Before finally marching westward toward the temperate "slopes" of the mountains, Cortés had another opportunity of proving his generalship and prompt resource at a critical moment. When Agathocles, the autocratic ruler of Syracuse, sailed over to defeat the Carthaginians, the first thing he did on landing in Africa was to burn his ships, that his soldiers might have no opportunity of retreat, and no hope but in victory. Cortés now acted on exactly the same principle. After discovering that a number of his soldiers had formed a conspiracy to seize one of the ships and sail to Cuba, Cortés, on conviction, punished two of the ringleaders with death. Soon after, he formed the extraordinary resolution of destroying his ships without the knowledge of his army. The five worst ships were first ordered to be dismantled; and, soon after, to be sunk. When the rest were inspected, four of them were condemned in the same manner. When the news reached Zempoalla, the army were excited almost to open mutiny. Cortés, however, was perfectly cool. Addressing the army collectively, he assured them that the ships were not fit for service, as had been shown by due inspection. "There is one important advantage gained to the army, viz., the addition of a hundred able-bodied recruits who were necessary to man the lost ships. Besides all that, of what use could ships be to us in the present expedition? As for me, I will remain here even without a comrade. As for those who shrink from the dangers of our glorious enterprise, let them go back, in God's name! Let them go home, since there is still one vessel left; let them go on board and return to Cuba. They can tell how they deserted their commander and their comrades, and patiently wait till they see us return loaded with the spoils of the Aztecs." Persuasion is the end of true oratory. The reply of the army to Cortés was the unanimous shout "To Mexico! To Mexico!" After beginning the gradual ascent in their march toward the table-land of Mexico, the first place noted by the invaders was Jalapa, a town which still retains its Aztec name, known to all the world by the well-known drug grown there. It is a favorite resort of the wealthier residents in Vera Cruz, and that too tropical plain which Cortés had just left. The mighty mountain Orizaba, one of the guardians of the Mexican Valley, is now full in sight, towering in solitary grandeur with its robe of snow. At last they reached a town so populous that there were thirteen Aztec temples with the usual sacrificial stone for human victims before each idol. In the suburbs the Spanish were shocked by a gathering of human skulls, many thousand in number. This appalling reminder of the unspeakable sacrifices soon became a familiar sight as they marched through that country. Cortés asked the cazique if he were subject to Montezuma. "Who is there," replied the local prince, "that is not tributary to that Emperor?" "_I_ am not," said the stranger general. Cortés assured him that the monarch whom the Spaniards served had princes as vassals, who were more powerful than the Aztec ruler. The cazique said: Montezuma could muster thirty great vassals, each master of 100,000 men. His revenues were incalculable, since every subject, however poor, paid something.... More than 20,000 victims, the fruit of his wars, were annually sacrificed on the altars of his gods! His capital stood on a lake, in the center of a spacious valley.... The approach to the city was by means of causeways several miles long; and when the connecting bridges were raised all communication with the country was cut off. The Indians showed the greatest curiosity respecting the dresses, weapons, horses, and dogs of their strange visitors. The country all around was then well wooded and full of villages and towns, which disappeared after the conquest. Humboldt remarked, when he traveled there, that the whole district had, "at the time of the arrival of the Spanish, been more inhabited and better cultivated, and that in proportion as they got higher up near the table-land, they found the villages more frequent, the fields more subdivided, and the people more law-abiding." Before entering upon the table-land, Cortés resolved to visit the republic of Tlascala, which was noted for having retained its independence in spite of the Aztecs. After sending an embassy, consisting of the four chief Zempoallas, who had accompanied the army, he set out toward Tlascala, lingering as they proceeded, so that his ambassadors should have time to return. While wondering at the delay, they suddenly reached a remarkable fortification which marked the limits of the republic, and acted as a barrier against the Mexican invasions. Prescott thus describes it: A stone wall nine feet in height and twenty in thickness, with a parapet a foot and a half broad raised on the summit for the protection of those who defended it. It had only one opening in the center, made by two semicircular lines of wall overlapping each other for the space of forty paces, and affording a passageway between, ten paces wide, so contrived, therefore, as to be perfectly commanded by the inner wall. This fortification, which extended more than two leagues, rested at either end on the bold natural buttresses formed by the sierra. The work was built of immense blocks of stone nicely laid together without cement, and the remains still existing, among which are rocks of the whole breadth of the rampart, fully attest its solidity and size. Who were the people of this stout-hearted republic? The Tlascalans were a kindred tribe to the Aztecs, and after coming to the Mexican Valley, toward the close of the twelfth century, had settled for many years on the western shore of Lake Tezcuco. Afterward they migrated to that district of fruitful valleys where Cortés found them; _Tlascala_, meaning "land of bread." They then, as a nation, consisted of four separate states, considerably civilized, and always able to protect their confederacy against foreign invasion. Their arts, religion, and architecture were the same as those of the Aztecs and Tezcucans. More than once had the Aztecs attempted to bring the little republic into subjection, but in vain. In one campaign Montezuma had lost a favorite, besides having his army defeated; and though a much more formidable invasion followed, "the bold mountaineers withdrew into the recesses of their hills, and coolly watching their opportunity, rushed like a torrent on the invaders, and drove them back with dreadful slaughter from their territories." The Tlascalans had of course heard of the redoubtable Europeans and their advance upon Montezuma's kingdom, but not expecting any visit themselves, they were in doubt about the embassy sent by Cortés, and the council had not reached a decision when the arrival of Cortés was announced at the head of his cavalry. Attacked by a body of several thousand Indians, he sent back a horseman to make the infantry hurry up to his assistance. Two of the horses were killed, a loss seriously felt by Cortés; but when the main body had discharged a volley from their muskets and crossbows, so astounded were the Tlascalan Indians that they stopped fighting and withdrew from the field. Next morning, after Cortés had given careful instruction to his army (now more than 3,000 in number, with his Indian auxiliaries), they had not marched far when they were met by two of the Zempoallans, who had been sent as ambassadors. They informed Cortés that, as captives, they had been reserved for the sacrificial stone, but had succeeded in breaking out of prison. They also said that forces were being collected from all quarters to meet the Spaniards. At the first encounter, the Indians, after some spirited fighting, retreated in order to draw the Spanish army into a defile impracticable for artillery or cavalry. Pressing forward they found, on turning an abrupt corner of the glen, that an army of many thousands was drawn up in order, prepared to receive them. As they came into view, the Tlascalans set up a piercing war-cry, shrill and hideous, accompanied by the melancholy beat of a thousand drums. Cortés spurred on the cavalry to force a passage for the infantry, and kept exhorting his soldiers, while showing them an example of personal daring. "If we fail now," he cried, "the Cross of Christ can never be planted in this land. Forward, comrades! when was it ever known that a Castilian turned his back on a foe?" With desperate efforts the soldiers forced a passage through the Indian columns, and then, as soon as the horse opened room for the movements of the gunners, the terrible "thunder and lightning" of the cannon did the rest. The havoc caused in their ranks, combined with the roar and the flash of gunpowder, and the mangled carcasses, filled the whole of the barbarian army with horror and consternation. Eight leaders of the Tlascalan army having fallen, the prince ordered a retreat. The chief of the Tlascalans, Xicotencatl, was no ordinary leader. When Cortés wished to press on to the capital, he sent two envoys to the Tlascalan camp, but all that Xicotencatl deigned to reply was that the Spaniards might pass on as soon as they chose to Tlascala, and when they reached it their flesh would be hewn from their bodies for sacrifice to the gods. If they preferred to remain in their own quarters, he would pay them a visit there the next day. The envoys also told Cortés that the chief had now collected another very large army, five battalions of 10,000 men each. There was evidently a determination to try the fate of Tlascala by a pitched battle and exterminate the bold invaders. The next day, September 5, 1519, was therefore a critical one in the annals of Cortés. He resolved to meet the Tlascalan chief in the field, after directing the foot-soldiers to use the point of their swords and not the edge; the horse to charge at half speed, directing their lances at the eyes of their enemies; the gunners and crossbowmen to support each other, some loading while others were discharging their pieces. Before Cortés and his soldiers had marched a mile they saw the immense Tlascalan army stretched far and wide over a vast plain. Nothing could be more picturesque than the aspect of these Indian battalions, with the naked bodies of the common soldiers gaudily painted, the fantastic helmets of the chiefs bright with ornaments and precious stones, and the glowing panoplies of feather-work.... The golden glitterance and the feather-mail More gay than glittering gold; and round the helm A coronal of high upstanding plumes.... ... With war-songs and wild music they came on.[21] [Footnote 21: Southey (Madoc, i, 7).] The Tlascalan warriors had attained wonderful skill in throwing the javelin. "One species, with a thong attached to it, which remained in the slinger's hand, that he might recall the weapon, was especially dreaded by the Spaniards." Their various weapons were pointed with bone or obsidian, and sometimes headed with copper. The yell or scream of defiance raised by these Indians almost drowned the volume of sound from "the wild barbaric minstrelsy of shell, atabal, and trumpet with which they proclaimed their triumphant anticipations of victory over the paltry forces of the invaders." Advancing under a thick shower of arrows and other missiles, the Spanish soldiers at a certain distance quickly halted and drew up in order, before delivering a general fire along the whole line. The front ranks of their wild opponents were mowed down and those behind were "petrified with dismay." But for the accident of dissension having arisen between the chiefs of the Tlascalans, it almost seemed as if nothing could have saved Cortés and his Spanish army. Before the battle, the haughty treatment of one of those chiefs by Xicotencatl, the cazique, provoked the injured man to draw off all his contingent during the battle, and persuade another chief to do the same. With his forces so weakened, the cazique was compelled to resign the field to the Spaniards. Xicotencatl, in his eagerness for revenge, consulted some of the Aztec priests, who recommended a night attack upon Cortés's camp in order to take his army by surprise. The Tlascalan, therefore, with 10,000 warriors, marched secretly toward the Spanish camp, but owing to the bright moonlight they were not unseen by the vedettes. Besides that, Cortés had accustomed his army to sleep with their arms by their side and the horses ready saddled. In an instant, as it were, the whole camp were on the alert and under arms. The Indians, meanwhile, were stealthily advancing to the silent camp, and, "no sooner had they reached the slope of the rising ground than they were astounded by the deep battle-cry of the Spaniards, followed by the instantaneous appearance of the whole army. Scarcely awaiting the shock of their enemy, the panic-struck barbarians fled rapidly and tumultuously across the plain. The horse easily overtook the fugitives, riding them down, and cutting them to pieces without mercy." Next day Cortés sent new ambassadors to the Tlascalan capital, accompanied by his faithful slave interpreter, Marina. They found the cazique's council sad and dejected, every gleam of hope being now extinguished. The message of Cortés still promised friendship and pardon, if only they agreed to act as allies. If the present offer were rejected, "he would visit their capital as a conqueror, raze every house to the ground, and put every inhabitant to the sword." On hearing this ultimatum, the council chose four leading chiefs to be entrusted with a mission to Cortés, "assuring him of a free passage through the country, and a friendly reception in the capital." The ambassadors, on their way back to Cortés, called at the camp of Xicotencatl, and were there detained by him. He was still planning against the terrible invaders. Cortés, in the meantime, had another opportunity of showing his resource and presence of mind. Some of his soldiers had shown a grumbling discontent: "The idea of conquering Mexico was madness; if they had encountered such opposition from the petty republic, what might they not expect from the great Mexican Empire? There was now a temporary suspension of hostilities; should they not avail themselves of it to retrace their steps to Vera Cruz?" To this Cortés listened calmly and politely, replying that "he had told them at the outset that glory was to be won only by toil and danger; he had never shrunk from his share of both. To go back now was impossible. What would the Tlascalans say? How would the Mexicans exult at such a miserable issue! Instead of turning your eyes toward Cuba, fix them on Mexico, the great object of our enterprise." Many other soldiers having gathered round, the mutinous party took courage to say that "another such victory as the last would be their ruin; they were going to Mexico only to be slaughtered." With some impatience Cortés gaily quoted a soldiers' song: Better die with honor Than live in long disgrace! --a sentiment which the majority of the audience naturally cheered to the echo, while the malcontents slunk away to their quarters. The next event was the arrival of some Tlascalans wearing white badges as an indication of peace. They brought a message, they said, from Xicotencatl, who now desired an arrangement with Cortés, and would soon appear in person. Most of them remained in the camp, where they were treated kindly; but Marina, with her "woman's wit," became somewhat suspicious of them. Perhaps some of them, forgetting that she knew their language, let drop a phrase in talking to each other, which awoke her distrust. She told Cortés that the men were spies. He had them arrested and examined separately, ascertaining in that way that they were sent to obtain secret information of the Spanish camp, and that, in fact, Xicotencatl was mustering his forces to make another determined attack on the invading army. To show the fierceness of his resentment at such treatment, Cortés ordered the fifty spy ambassadors to have their hands hacked off, and sent back to tell their lord that "the Tlascalans might come by day or night, they would find the Spaniards ready for them." The sight of their mutilated comrades filled the Indian camp with dread and horror. All thoughts of resistance to the advance of Cortés were now abandoned, and not long after the arrival of Xicotencatl himself was announced, attended by a numerous train. He advanced with "the firm and fearless step of one who was coming rather to bid defiance than to sue for peace. He was rather above the middle size, with broad shoulders and a muscular frame, intimating great activity and strength. He made the usual salutation by touching the ground with his hand and carrying it to his head." He threw no blame on the Tlascalan senate, but assumed all the responsibility of the war. He admitted that the Spanish army had beaten him, but hoped they would use their victory with moderation, and not trample on the liberties of the republic. Cortés admired the cazique's lofty spirit, while pretending to rebuke him for having so long remained an enemy. "He was willing to bury the past in oblivion, and to receive the Tlascalans as vassals to the Emperor, his master." Before the entry into Tlascala, the capital, there arrived an embassy from Montezuma, who had been keenly disappointed, no doubt, that Cortés had not only not been defeated by the bravest race on the Mexican table-land, but had formed a friendly alliance with them. As Cortés, with his army, approached the populous city, they were welcomed by great crowds of men and women in picturesque dresses, with nosegays and wreaths of flowers; priests in white robes and long matted tresses, swinging their burning censers of incense. The anniversary of this entry into Tlascala, September 23, 1519, is still celebrated as a day of rejoicing. Cortés, in his letter to the Emperor, King of Spain, compares it for size and appearance to Granada, the Moorish capital. Pottery was one of the industries in which Tlascala excelled. The Tlascalan was chiefly agricultural in his habits; his honest breast glowed with the patriotic attachment to the soil, which is the fruit of its diligent culture, while he was elevated by that consciousness of independence which is the natural birthright of a child of the mountains. Cholula, capital of the republic of that name, is six leagues north of Tlascala, and about twenty southeast of Mexico. In the time of the conquest of the table-land of Anahuac, as the whole district is sometimes termed, this city was large and populous. The people excelled in mechanical arts, especially metal-working, cloth-weaving, and a delicate kind of pottery. Reference has already been made to the god Quetzalcoatl, in whose honor a huge pyramid was erected here. From the farthest parts of Anahuac devotees thronged to Cholula, just as the Mohammedans to Mecca. The Spaniards found the people of Cholula superior in dress and looks to any of the races they had seen. The higher classes "wore fine embroidered mantles resembling the Moorish cloak in texture and fashion.... They showed the same delicate taste for flowers as the other tribes of the plateau, tossing garlands and bunches among the soldiers.... The Spaniards were also struck with the cleanliness of the city, the regularity of the streets, the solidity of the houses, and the number and size of the pyramidal temples." After being treated with kindness and hospitality for several days, all at once the scene changed, the cause being the arrival of messengers from Montezuma. At the same time some Tlascalans told Cortés that a great sacrifice, mostly of children, had been offered to propitiate the favor of the gods. At this juncture, Marina, the Indian slave interpreter, again proved to be the "good angel" of Cortés. She had become very friendly with the wife of one of the Cholula caziques, who gave her a hint that there was danger in staying at the house of any Spaniard; and, when further pressed by Marina, said that the Spaniards were to be slaughtered when marching out of the capital. The plot had originated with the Aztec Emperor, and 20,000 Mexicans were already quartered a little distance out of town. In this most critical position, Cortés at once decided to take possession of the great square, placing a strong guard at each of its three gates of entrance. The rest of what troops he had in the town, he posted without with the cannon, to command the avenues. He had already sent orders to the Tlascalan chiefs to keep their soldiers in readiness to march, at a given signal, into the city to support the Spaniards. Presently the caziques of Cholula arrived with a larger body of levies than Cortés had demanded. He at once charged them with conspiring against the Spaniards after receiving them as friends. They were so amazed at his discovery of their perfidy that they confessed everything, laying the blame on Montezuma. "That pretense," said Cortés, assuming a look of fierce indignation, "is no justification; I shall now make such an example of you for your treachery that the report of it will ring throughout the wide borders of Anahuac!" At the firing of a harquebus, the fatal signal, the crowd of unsuspecting Cholulans were massacred as they stood, almost without resistance. Meantime the other Indians without the square commenced an attack on the Spaniards, but the heavy guns of the battery played upon them with murderous effect, and cavalry advanced to support the attack. The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, were all new to the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the terrific spectacle, the flash of arms mingling with the deafening roar of the artillery, the desperate Indians pushed on to take the places of their fallen comrades. While this scene of bloodshed was progressing, the Tlascalans, as arranged, were hastening to the assistance of their Spanish allies. The Cholulans, when thus attacked in rear by their traditional enemies, speedily gave way, and tried to save themselves in the great temple and elsewhere. The "Holy City," as it was called, was converted into a pandemonium of massacre. In memory of the signal defeat of the Cholulans, Cortés converted the chief part of the great temple into a Christian church. Envoys again arrived from Mexico with rich presents and a message vindicating the pusillanimous Emperor from any share in the conspiracy against Cortés. Continuing their march, the allied army of Spaniards and Tlascalans proceeded till they reached the mountains which separate the table-land of Puebla from that of Mexico. To cross this range they followed the route which passes between the mighty Popocatepetl (i. e., "the smoking mountain") and another called the "White Woman" from its broad robe of snow. The first lies about forty miles southeast of the capital to which their march was directed. It is more than 2,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc, and has two principal craters, one of which is about 1,000 feet deep and has large deposits of sulfur which are regularly mined. Popocatepetl has long been only a quiescent volcano, but during the invasion by Cortés it was often burning, especially at the time of the siege of Tlascala. That was naturally interpreted all over the district of Anahuac to be a bad omen, associated with the landing and approach of the Spaniards. Cortés insisted on several descents being made into the great crater till sufficient sulfur was collected to supply gunpowder to his army. The icy cold winds, varied by storms of snow and sleet, were more trying to the Europeans than the Tlascalans, but some relief was found in the stone shelters which had been built at certain intervals along the roads for the accommodation of couriers and other travelers. At last they reached the crest of the sierra which unites Popocatepetl, the "great _Volcan_," to its sister mountain the "Woman in White." Soon after, at a turning of the road, the invaders enjoyed their first view of the famous Valley of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, with its beautiful lakes in their setting of cultivated plains, here and there varied by woods and forests. "In the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of pearls, the fair city with her white towers and pyramidal temples, reposing as it were on the bosom of the waters--the far-famed 'Venice of the Aztecs.'" This view of the "Promised Land" will remind some of the picturesque account given by Livy (xxi, 35) of Hannibal reaching the top of the pass over the Alps and pointing out the fair prospect of Italy to his soldiers. We may thus render the passage: "On the ninth day the ridge of the Alps was reached, over ground generally trackless and by roundabout ways.... The order for marching being given at break of day, the army were sluggishly advancing over ground wholly covered with snow, listlessness, and despair depicted on the features of all, Hannibal went on in front, and after ordering the soldiers to halt on a height which commanded a distant view, far and wide, points out to them Italy and the plains of Lombardy on both banks of the Po, at the foot of the Alps, telling them that at that moment they were crossing not only the walls of Italy but of the Roman capital; that the rest of the march was easy and downhill." The situation of Hannibal and his Carthaginians surveying Italy for the first time is in some respects closely analogous to that of Cortés pointing out the Valley of Mexico to his Spanish soldiers. CHAPTER VII CORTÉS AND MONTEZUMA We have now seen the Spanish conquerors with a large contingent of 6,000 natives surmounting the mountains to the east of the Mexican Valley and looking down upon the Lake of Tezcuco on which were built the sister capitals. Montezuma, the Aztec monarch, was already in a state of dismay, and sent still another embassy to propitiate the terrible Cortés, with a great present of gold and robes of the most precious fabrics and workmanship; and a promise that, if the foreign general would turn back toward Vera Cruz, the Mexicans would pay down four loads of gold for himself and one to each of his captains, besides a yearly tribute to their king in Europe. These promises did not reach Cortés till he was descending from the sierra. He replied that details were best arranged by a personal interview, and that the Spaniards came with peaceful motives. Montezuma was now plunged in deep despair. At last he summoned a council to consult his nobles and especially his nephew, the young King of Tezcuco, and his warlike brother. The latter advised him to "muster as large an army as possible, and drive back the invaders from his capital or die in its defense." "Ah!" replied the monarch, "the gods have declared themselves against us!" Still another embassy was prepared, with his nephew, lord of Tezcuco, at its head, to offer a welcome to the unwelcome visitors. Cortés approached through fertile fields, plantations, and maguey-vineyards till they reached Lake Chalco. There they found a large town built in the water on piles, with canals instead of streets, full of movement and animation. "The Spaniards were particularly struck with the style and commodious structure of the houses, chiefly of stone, and with the general aspect of wealth and even elegance which prevailed." Next morning the King of Tezcuco came to visit Cortés, in a palanquin richly decorated with plates of gold and precious stones, under a canopy of green plumes. He was accompanied by a numerous suite. Advancing with the Mexican salutation, he said he had been commanded by Montezuma to welcome him to the capital, at the same time offering three splendid pearls as a present. Cortés "in return threw over the young king's neck a chain of cut glass, which, where glass was as rare as diamonds, might be admitted to have a value as real as the latter." The army of Cortés next marched along the southern side of Lake Chalco, "through noble woods and by orchards glowing with autumnal fruits, of unknown names, but rich and tempting hues." They also passed "through cultivated fields waving with the yellow harvest, and irrigated by canals introduced from the neighboring lake, the whole showing a careful and economical husbandry, essential to the maintenance of a crowded population." A remarkable public work next engaged the attention of the Spaniards, viz., a solid causeway of stone and lime running directly through the lake, in some places so wide that eight horsemen could ride on it abreast. Its length is some four or five miles. Marching along this causeway, they saw other wonders; numbers of the natives darting in all directions in their skiffs, curious to watch the strangers marching, and some of them bearing the products of the country to the neighboring cities. They were amazed also by the sight of the floating gardens, teeming with flowers and vegetables, and moving like rafts over the waters. All round the margin, and occasionally far in the lake, they beheld little towns and villages, which, half concealed by the foliage, and gathered in white clusters round the shore, "looked in the distance like companies of white swans riding quietly on the waves." About the middle of this lake was a town, to which the Spaniards gave the name of Venezuela[22] (i. e., "Little Venice"). From its situation and the style of the buildings, Cortés called it the most beautiful town that he had yet seen in New Spain. [Footnote 22: Not to be confounded with the Indian village on the shore of Lake Maracaibo, to which (with similar motive) Vespucci had given that name--now capital of a large republic.] After crossing the isthmus which separates that lake from Lake Tezcuco they were now at Iztapalapan, a royal residence in charge of the Emperor's brother. Here a ceremonious reception was given to Cortés and his staff, "a collation being served in one of the great halls of the palace. The excellence of the architecture here excited the admiration of the general. The buildings were of stone, and the spacious apartments had roofs of odorous cedar-wood, while the walls were tapestried with fine cotton stained with brilliant colors. "But the pride of Iztapalapan was its celebrated gardens, covering an immense tract of land and laid out in regular squares. The gardens were stocked with fruit-trees and with the gaudy family of flowers which belonged to the Mexican flora, scientifically arranged, and growing luxuriant in the equable temperature of the table-land. In one quarter was an aviary filled with numerous kinds of birds remarkable in this region both for brilliancy of plumage and for song. But the most elaborate piece of work was a huge reservoir of stone, filled to a considerable height with water, well supplied with different sorts of fish. This basin was 1,600 paces in circumference, and surrounded by a walk." Readers must remember that at that age no beautiful gardens on a large scale were known in any part of Europe. The first "garden of plants" (to use the name afterward applied by the French) is said to have been an Italian one, at Padua, in 1545, a whole generation after the time of the arrival of Cortés in Mexico. It was only under Louis "Le Magnifique" that France created the Versailles Gardens, and not till the time of George III and his tutor Bute could we boast of the gardens at Kew, now admired by all the world. The ancient Mexicans, therefore, under their extinct civilization, had developed this taste for the beautiful many ages before the most cultivated races in Europe. Cortés took up his quarters at this residence of Iztapalapan for the night, expecting to meet Montezuma on the morrow. Mexico was now distinctly full in view, looking "like a thing of fairy creation," a city of enchantment. There Aztlan stood upon the farther shore; Amid the shade of trees its dwellings rose, Their level roofs with turrets set around And battlements all burnished white, which shone Like silver in the sunshine. I beheld The imperial city, her far-circling walls, Her garden groves and stately palaces, Her temples mountain size, her thousand roofs. And when I saw her might and majesty My mind misgave me then. _Madoc_, i, 6. That following day, November 8, 1519, should be noted in every calendar, when the great capital of the Western World admitted the conquering general from the Eastern World. The invaders were now upon a larger causeway, which stretched across the salt waters of Lake Tezcuco; and "had occasion more than ever to admire the mechanical science of the Aztecs." It was wide enough throughout its whole extent for ten horsemen to ride abreast. The Spaniards saw everywhere "evidence of a crowded and thriving population, exceeding all they had yet seen." The water was darkened by swarms of canoes filled with Indians; and here also were those fairy islands of flowers. Half a league from the capital they encountered a solid work of stone, which traversed the road. It was twelve feet high, strengthened by towers at the extremities, and in the center was a battlemented gateway, which opened a passage to the troops. Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to announce the approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country, with the cotton sash around their loins, and a broad mantle of the same material, or of the brilliant feather embroidery, flowing gracefully down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage was curiously mingled, while their ears, under lips, and occasionally their noses were garnished with pendants formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine gold. After all the caziques had performed the same formal salutation separately, there was no further delay till they reached a bridge near the gates of the capital. Soon after "they beheld the glittering retinue of the Emperor emerging from the great street leading through the heart of the city. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles preceded by three officers of state bearing golden wands, they saw the royal palanquin blazing with burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of nobles, and over it a canopy of gaudy feather-work, covered with jewels and fringed with silver, was supported by four attendants of the same rank." At a certain distance from the Spaniards "the train halted, and Montezuma, descending from the litter, came forward, leaning on the arms of the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan"--the Emperor's nephew and brother, already mentioned. "As the monarch advanced, his subjects, who lined the sides of the causeway, bent forward, with their eyes fastened on the ground, as he passed." Montezuma wore the ample square cloak common to the Mexicans, but of the finest cotton sprinkled with pearls and precious stones; his sandals were similarly sprinkled, and had soles of solid gold. His only head ornament was a bunch of feathers of the royal green color. A man about forty; tall and rather thin; black hair, cut rather short for a person of rank; dignified in his movements; his features wearing an expression of benignity not to be expected from his character. After dismounting from horseback, Cortés advanced to meet Montezuma, who received him with princely courtesy, while Cortés responded by profound expressions of respect, with thanks for his experience of the Emperor's munificence. He then hung round Montezuma's neck a sparkling chain of colored crystal, accompanying this with a movement as if to embrace him, when he was restrained by the two Aztec lords, shocked at the menaced profanation of the sacred person of their monarch and master. Montezuma appointed his brother to conduct the Spaniards to their residence in the capital, and was again carried through the adoring crowds in his litter. "The Spaniards quickly followed, and with colors flying and music playing soon made their entrance into the southern quarter." On entering "they found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of the city and the superior style of its architecture. The great avenue through which they were now marching was lined with the houses of the nobles, who were encouraged by the Emperor to make the capital their residence. The flat roofs were protected by stone parapets, so that every house was a fortress. Sometimes these roofs seemed parterres of flowers ... broad terraced gardens laid out between the buildings. Occasionally a great square intervened surrounded by its porticoes of stone and stucco; or a pyramidal temple reared its colossal bulk crowned with its tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with unextinguishable fires. But what most impressed the Spaniards was the throngs of people who swarmed through the streets and on the canals." Probably, however, the spectacle of the European army with their horses, their guns, bright swords and helmets of steel, a metal to them unknown; their weird and mysterious music--the whole formed to the Aztec populace an inexplicable wonder, combined with those foreigners who had arrived from the distant East, "revealing their celestial origin in their fair complexions." Many of the Aztec citizens betrayed keen hatred of the Tlascalans who marched with the Spaniards in friendly alliance. At length Cortés with his mixed army halted near the center of the city in a great open space, "where rose the huge pyramidal pile dedicated to the patron war-god of the Aztecs, second only to the temple of Cholula in size as well as sanctity." The present famous cathedral of modern Mexico is built on part of the same site. A palace built opposite the west side of the great temple was assigned to Cortés. It was extensive enough to accommodate the whole of the army of Cortés. Montezuma paid him a visit there, having a long conversation through the indispensable assistance of Marina, the slave interpreter. "That evening the Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the Mexican capital by a general discharge of artillery. The thunders of the ordnance reverberating among the buildings and shaking them to their foundations, the stench of the sulfureous vapor reminding the inhabitants of the explosions of the great volcano (Popocatepetl) filled the hearts of the superstitious Aztecs with dismay." Next day Cortés had gracious permission to return the visit of the Emperor, and therefore proceeded to wait upon him at the royal palace, dressed in his richest suit of clothes. The Spanish general felt the importance of the occasion and resolved to exercise all his eloquence and power of argument in attempting the "conversion" of Montezuma to the Christian faith. For this purpose, with the assistance of the faithful Marina, Cortés engaged the Emperor in a theological discussion; explaining the creation of the world as taught in the Jewish Scriptures; the fall of man from his first happy and holy condition by the temptation of Satan; the mysterious redemption of the human race by the incarnation and atonement of the Son of God Himself. "He assured Montezuma that the idols worshiped in Mexico were Satan under different forms. A sufficient proof of this was the bloody sacrifices they imposed, which he contrasted with the pure and simple rite of the mass. It was to snatch the Emperor's soul and the souls of his people from the flames of eternal fire that the Christians had come to this land." Montezuma replied that the God of the Spaniards must be a good being, and "my gods also are good to me; there was no need to further discourse on the matter." If he had "resisted their visit to his capital, it was because he had heard such accounts of their cruelties--that they sent the lightning to consume his people, or crushed them to pieces under the hard feet of the ferocious animals on which they rode. He was now convinced that these were idle tales; that the Spaniards were kind and generous in their nature." He concluded by admitting the superiority of the sovereign of Cortés beyond the seas. "Your sovereign is the rightful lord of all: I rule in his name." The rough Spanish cavaliers were touched by the kindness and affability of Montezuma. As they passed him, says Diaz, in his History, they made him the most profound obeisance, hat in hand; and on the way home could discourse of nothing but the gentle breeding and courtesy of the Indian monarch. MONTEZUMA'S CAPITAL Cortés and his army being now fairly domesticated in Mexico, and the Emperor having apparently become reconciled to the presence of his formidable guests, we may pause to consider the surroundings. The present capital occupies the site of Tenochtitlan, but many changes have occurred in the intervening four centuries. First of all, the salt waters of the great lake have entirely shrunk away, leaving modern Mexico high and dry, a league away from the waters that Cortés saw flowing in ample canals through all the streets. Formerly the houses stood on elevated piles and were independent of the floods which rose in Lake Tezcuco by the overflowing of other lakes on a higher level. But when the foundations were on solid ground it became necessary to provide against the accumulated volume of water by excavating a tunnel to drain off the flood. This was constructed about one hundred years after the invasion of the Spaniards, and has been described by Humboldt as "one of the most stupendous hydraulic works in existence." The appearance of the lake and suburbs of the capital have long lost much of the attractive appearance they had at the time of the Spanish visit; but the town itself is still the most brilliant city in Spanish America, surmounted by a cathedral, which forms "the most sumptuous house of worship in the New World." The great causeway already described as leading north from the royal city of Iztapalapan, had another to the north of the capital, which might be called its continuation. The third causeway, leading west to the town Tacuba from the island city, will be noticed presently as the scene of the Spaniards' retreat. There were excellent police regulations for health and cleanliness. Water supplied by earthen pipes was from a hill about two miles distant. Besides the palaces and temples there were several important buildings: an armory filled with weapons and military dresses; a granary; various warehouses; an immense aviary, with "birds of splendid plumage assembled from all parts of the empire--the scarlet cardinal, the golden pheasant, the endless parrot tribe, and that miniature miracle of nature, the humming-bird, which delights to revel among the honeysuckle bowers of Mexico." The birds of prey had a separate building. The menagerie adjoining the aviary showed wild animals from the mountain forests, as well as creatures from the remote swamps of the hot lands by the seashore. The serpents "were confined in long cages lined with down or feathers, or in troughs of mud and water." Wishing to visit the great Mexican temple, Cortés, with his cavalry and most of his infantry, followed the caziques whom Montezuma had politely sent as guides. On their way to the central square the Spaniards "were struck with the appearance of the inhabitants, and their great superiority in the style and quality of their dress over the people of the lower countries. The women, as in other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as the men. They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths, with highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose-flowing robes, which reached to the ankles. No veils were worn here as in some other parts of Anahuac. The Aztec women had their faces exposed; and their dark raven tresses floated luxuriantly over their shoulders, revealing features which, although of a dusky or rather cinnamon hue, were not unfrequently pleasing, while touched with the serious, even sad expression characteristic of the national physiognomy." When near the great market "the Spaniards were astonished at the throng of people pressing toward it, and on entering the place their surprise was still further heightened by the sight of the multitudes assembled there, and the dimensions of the enclosure, twice as large, says one Spanish observer, as the celebrated square of Salamanca. Here were traders from all parts; the goldsmiths from Azcapozalco, the potters and jewelers of Cholula, the painters of Tezcuco, the stone-cutters, hunters, fishermen, fruiterers, mat and chair makers, florists, etc. The pottery department was a large one; so were the armories for implements of war; razors and mirrors--booths for apothecaries with drugs, roots, and medical preparations. In other places again, blank-books or maps for the hieroglyphics or pictographs were to be seen folded together like fans. Animals both wild and tame were offered for sale, and near them, perhaps, a gang of slaves with collars round their necks. One of the most attractive features of the market was the display of provisions: meats of all kinds, domestic poultry, game from the neighboring mountains, fish from the lakes and streams, fruits in all the delicious abundance of these temperate regions, green vegetables, and the unfailing maize." This market, like hundreds of smaller ones, was of course held every fifth day--the week of the ancient Mexicans being one-fourth of the twenty days which constituted the Aztec month. This great market was comparable to "the periodical fairs in Europe, not as they now exist, but as they existed in the middle ages," when from the difficulties of intercommunication they served as the great central marts for commercial intercourse, exercising a most important and salutary influence on the community. One of the Spaniards in the party accompanying Cortés was the historian Diaz, and his testimony is remarkable: There were among us soldiers who had been in many parts of the world, Constantinople and Rome, and through all Italy, and who said that a market-place so large, so well ordered and regulated, and so filled with people, they had never seen. Proceeding next to the great _teocalli_ or Aztec temple, covering the site of the modern cathedral with part of the market-place and some adjoining streets, they found it in the midst of a great open space, surrounded by a high stone wall, ornamented on the outside by figures of serpents raised in relief, and pierced by huge battlemented gateways opening on the four principal streets of the capital. The _teocalli_ itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and pebbles, coated on the outside with hewn stones, the sides facing the cardinal points. It was divided into five stories, each of smaller dimensions than that immediately below. The ascent was by a flight of steps on the outside, which reached to the narrow terrace at the bottom of the second story, passing quite round the building, when a second stairway conducted to a similar landing at the base of the third. Thus the visitor was obliged to pass round the whole edifice four times in order to reach the top. This had a most imposing effect in the religious ceremonials, when the pompous procession of priests with their wild minstrelsy came sweeping round the huge sides of the pyramid, as they rose higher and higher toward the summit in full view of the populace assembled in their thousands. Cortés marched up the steps at the head of his men, and found at the summit "a vast area paved with broad flat stones. The first object that met their view was a large block of jasper, the peculiar shape of which showed it was the stone on which the bodies of the unhappy victims were stretched for sacrifice. Its convex surface, by raising the breast, enabled the priest to perform more easily his diabolical task of removing the heart. At the other end of the area were two towers or sanctuaries, consisting of three stories, the lower one of stone, the two upper of wood elaborately carved. In the lower division stood the images of their gods; the apartments above were filled with utensils for their religious services, and with the ashes of some of their Aztec princes who had fancied this airy sepulcher. Before each sanctuary stood an altar, with that undying fire upon it, the extinction of which boded as much evil to the empire as that of the Vestal flame would have done in ancient Rome. Here also was the huge cylindrical drum made of serpents' skins, and struck only on extraordinary occasions, when it sent forth a melancholy, weird sound, that might be heard for miles" over the country, indicating fierce anger of deity against the enemies of Mexico. As Cortés reached the summit he was met by the Emperor himself attended by the high priest. Taking the general by the hand, Montezuma pointed out the chief localities in the wide prospect which their position commanded, including not only the capital, "bathed on all sides by the salt floods of the Tezcuco, and in the distance the clear fresh waters of Lake Chalco," but the whole of the Valley of Mexico to the base of the circular range of mountains, and the wreaths of vapor rolling up from the hoary head of Popocatepetl. Cortés was allowed "to behold the shrines of the gods. They found themselves in a spacious apartment, with sculptures on the walls, representing the Mexican calendar, or the priestly ritual. Before the altar in this sanctuary stood the colossal image of Huitzilopochtli, the tutelary deity and war-god of the Aztecs. His countenance was distorted into hideous lineaments of symbolical import. The huge folds of a serpent, consisting of pearls and precious stones, were coiled round his waist, and the same rich materials were profusely sprinkled over his person. On his left foot were the delicate feathers of the humming-bird, which gave its name to the dread deity. The most conspicuous ornament was a chain of gold and silver hearts alternate, suspended round his neck, emblematical of the sacrifice in which he most delighted. A more unequivocal evidence of this was afforded by three human hearts that now lay smoking on the altar before him. "The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity. This was Tezcatlipoca, who created the world, next in honor to that invisible being the Supreme God, who was represented by no image, and confined by no temple. He was represented as a young man, and his image of polished black stone was richly garnished with gold plates and ornaments. But the homage to this god was not always of a more refined or merciful character than that paid to his carnivorous brother." According to Diaz, whom we have already quoted, the stench of human gore in both those chapels was more intolerable than that of all the slaughter-houses in Castile. Glad to escape into the open air, Cortés expressed wonder that a great and wise prince like Montezuma could have faith "in such evil spirits as these idols, the representatives of the devil! Permit us to erect here the true cross, and place the images of the Blessed Virgin and her Son in these sanctuaries; you will soon see how your false gods will shrink before them!" This extraordinary speech of the general shocked Montezuma, who, in reproof, said: "Had I thought you would have offered this outrage to the gods of the Aztecs, I would not have admitted you into their presence." Cortés, as a general, had some of the great qualities of Napoleon, but he also resembled him occasionally in a singular lack of delicacy and good taste. We do not, however, find that he ever showed such mean malignity as the French general did when persecuting Madame de Staël, because in her Germany she had omitted to mention his campaigns and administration. Within the same enclosure, Cortés and his companions visited a temple dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, a god referred to already. Other buildings served as seminaries for the instruction of youth of both sexes; and according to the Spanish accounts of the teaching and management of these institutions there was "the greatest care for morals and the most blameless deportment." SEIZURE OF MONTEZUMA After being guest of the Mexican Emperor for a week, Cortés resolved to carry out a most daring and unprecedented scheme--a purely "Napoleonic movement," such as could scarcely have entered the brain of any general ancient or modern. He argued with himself that a quarrel might at any moment break out between his men and the citizens; the Spaniards again could not remain long quiet unless actively employed; and, thirdly, there was still greater danger with the Tlascalans, "a fierce race now in daily contact with a nation that regards them with loathing and detestation." Lastly, the Governor of Cuba, already grossly offended with Cortés, might at any moment send after him a sufficient army to wrest from him the glory of conquest. Cortés therefore formed the daring resolve to seize Montezuma in his palace and carry him as a prisoner to the Spanish quarters. He hoped thus to have in his own hands the supreme management of affairs, and at the same time secure his own safety with such a "sacred pledge" in keeping. It was necessary to find a pretext for seizing the hospitable Montezuma. News had already come to Cortés, when at Cholula, that Escalante, whom he had left in charge of Vera Cruz, had been defeated by the Aztecs in a pitched battle, and that the head of a Spaniard, then slain, had been sent to the Emperor, after being shown in triumph throughout some of the chief cities. Cortés asked an audience from Montezuma, and that being readily granted, he prepared for his plot by having a large body of armed men posted in the courtyard. Choosing five companions of tried courage, Cortés then entered the palace, and after being graciously received, told Montezuma that he knew of the treachery that had taken place near the coast, and that the Emperor was said to be the cause. The Emperor said that such a charge could only have been concocted by his enemies. He agreed with the proposal of Cortés to summon the Aztec chief who was accused of treachery to the garrison at Vera Cruz; and was then persuaded to transfer his residence to the palace occupied by the Spaniards. He was there received and treated with ostentatious respect; but his people observed that in front of the palace there was constantly posted a patrol of sixty soldiers, with another equally large in the rear. When the Aztec chief arrived from the coast, he and his sixteen Aztec companions were condemned to be burned alive before the palace. The next daring act of the Spanish general was to order iron fetters to be fastened on Montezuma's ankles. The great Emperor seemed struck with stupor and spoke never a word. Meanwhile the Aztec chiefs were executed in the courtyard without interruption, the populace imagining the sentence had been passed upon them by Montezuma, and the victims submitting to their fate without a murmur. Cortés returning then to the room where Montezuma was imprisoned, unclasped the fetters and said he was now at liberty to return to his own palace. The Emperor, however, declined the offer. The instinctive sense of human sympathy must have frequently been not only repressed but extinguished by all the great conquering generals who have crushed nations under foot. Besides those of prehistoric times in Asia and Europe, we have examples in Alexander the Greek, Julius Cæsar the Roman, Cortés and Pizarro the Spaniards, Frederick the Prussian, and Napoleon the Corsican. The great French general consciously aimed at dramatic effect in his exploits, but how paltry his seizing the Duc d'Enghien at dead of night by a troop of soldiers, or his coercing the King of Spain to resign his sovereignty after inducing him to cross the border into France. In the unparalleled case of Cortés, a powerful emperor is seized by a few strangers at noonday and carried off a prisoner without opposition or bloodshed. So extraordinary a transaction, says Robertson, would appear "extravagant beyond the bounds of probability" were it not that all the circumstances are "authenticated by the most unquestionable evidence." The nephew of Montezuma, Cakama, the lord of Tezcuco, had been closely watching all the motions of the Spaniards. He "beheld with indignation and contempt the abject condition of his uncle; and now set about forming a league with several of the neighboring caziques to break the detested yoke of the Spaniards." News of this league reached the ears of Cortés, and arresting him with the permission of Montezuma, he deposed him, and appointed a younger brother in his place. The other caziques were seized, each in his own city, and brought to Mexico, where Cortés placed them in strict confinement along with Cakama. The next step taken by Cortés was to demand from Montezuma an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Spanish Emperor. The Aztec monarch and chief caziques easily granted this; and even agreed that a gratuity should be sent by each of them as proof of loyalty. Collectors were sent out, and "in a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, etc." To this Montezuma added a huge hoard, the treasures of his father. When brought into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to make three great heaps. It consisted partly of native grains, and partly of bars; but the greatest portion was in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and curious toys, together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers, executed with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were also quantities of collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, in which the gold and feather-work were richly powdered with pearls and precious stones. Montezuma expressed regret that the treasure was no larger; he had "diminished it," he said, "by his former gifts to the white men." The Spaniards gazed on this display of riches, far exceeding all hitherto seen in the New World--though small compared with the quantity of treasure found in Peru. The whole amount of this Mexican gift was about £1,417,000, according to Prescott, Dr. Robertson making it smaller. It was no easy task to divide the spoil. A fifth had to be deducted for the Crown, and an equal share went to the general, besides a "large sum to indemnify him and the Governor of Cuba for the charges of the expedition and the loss of the fleet. The garrison of Vera Cruz was also to be provided for. The cavalry, musketeers, and crossbowmen each received double pay." Thus for each of the common soldiers there was only 100 gold _pesos_--i. e., £2-5/8 X 100 = £262 10s. To many this share seemed paltry, compared with their expectations; and it required all the tact and authority of Cortés to quell the grumbling. There still remained one important object of the Spanish invasion, an object which Cortés as a good Catholic dared not overlook--the conversion of the Aztec nation from heathenism. The bloody ritual of the _teocallis_ was still observed in every city. Cortés waited on Montezuma, urging a request that the great temple be assigned for public worship according to the Christian rites. Montezuma was evidently much alarmed, declaring that his people would never allow such a profanation, but at last, after consulting the priest, agreed that one of the sanctuaries on the summit of the temple should be granted to the Christians as a place of worship. An altar was raised, surmounted by a crucifix and the image of the Virgin. The whole army ascended the steps in solemn procession and listened with silent reverence to the service of the mass. In conclusion, "as the beautiful Te Deum rose toward heaven, Cortés and his soldiers kneeling on the ground, with tears streaming from their eyes, poured forth their gratitude to the Almighty for this glorious triumph of the cross." Such a union of heathenism and Christianity was too unnatural to continue. A few days later the Emperor sent for Cortés and earnestly advised him to leave the country at once. Cortés replied that ships were necessary. Montezuma agreed to supply timber and workmen, and in a short time the construction of several ships was begun at Vera Cruz on the seacoast, while in the capital the garrison kept itself ready by day and by night for a hostile attack. Only six months had elapsed since the arrival of the Spaniards in the capital, 1519, and now the army was in more uncomfortable circumstances than ever. Meanwhile, while Cortés had been reducing Mexico and humbling the unfortunate Montezuma, the Governor of Cuba had complained to the court of Spain, but without success. Charles V, since his election to the imperial crown of Germany, had neglected the affairs of Spain; and when the envoys from Vera Cruz waited upon him, little came of the conference except the astonishment of the court at the quantity of gold, and the beautiful workmanship of the ornaments and the rich colors of the Mexican feather-work. The opposition of the Bishop of Burgos thwarted the conqueror of Mexico, as he had already successfully opposed the schemes of the "Great Admiral" and his son Diego Columbus. We shall presently see how this influential ecclesiastic was able to thwart Balboa when governor of Darien. Velasquez was now determined to wreak his revenge upon Cortés without waiting longer for assistance from Spain. He prepared an expedition of eighteen ships with eighty horsemen, 800 infantry, 120 crossbowmen, and twelve pieces of artillery. To command these Velasquez chose a hidalgo named Narvaez, who had assisted formerly in subduing Cuba and Hispaniola. The personal appearance of Narvaez, as given by Diaz, is worth quoting: He was tall, stout-limbed, with a large head and red beard, an agreeable presence, a voice deep and sonorous, as if it rose from a cavern. He was a good horseman and valiant. Meanwhile Cortés persuaded Montezuma that some friends from Spain had arrived at Vera Cruz, and therefore got permission to leave him and the capital in charge of Alvarado and a small garrison. Montezuma, in his royal litter, borne on the shoulders of his Aztec nobles, accompanied the Spanish general to the southern causeway. When Cortés was within fifteen leagues' distance of Zempoalla, where Narvaez was encamped, the latter sent a message that if his authority were acknowledged he would supply ships to Cortés and his army so that all who wished might freely leave the country with all their property. Cortés, however, with his usual astuteness, replied: "If Narvaez bears a royal commission I will readily submit to him. But he has produced none. He is a deputy of my rival, Velasquez. For myself, I am a servant of the King; I have conquered the country for him; and for him I and my brave followers will defend it to the last drop of our blood. If we fall it will be glory enough to have perished in the discharge of our duty." Narvaez and his army were meantime spending their time frivolously; and when the actual attack was begun in the dead of night, under a pouring rain-storm, it appeared that only two sentinels were on guard. Narvaez, badly wounded, was taken prisoner on the top of a _teocalli_; and in a very short time his army was glad to capitulate. The horse-soldiers whom Narvaez had sent to waylay one of the roads to Zempoalla, rode in soon after to tender their submission. The victorious general, seated in a chair of state, with a richly embroidered Mexican mantle on his shoulders, received his congratulations from the officers and soldiers of both armies. Narvaez and several others were led in chains. Cortés not only defeated Narvaez, but, after the battle, enlisted under his standard the Spanish soldiers who had been sent to attack him--reminding one of the "magnetism" of Hannibal or Napoleon, and the consequent enthusiasm caused by mere presence, looks, and words. Before the rejoicings were finished, however, tidings were brought to Cortés from the Mexican capital that the whole city was in a state of revolt against Alvarado. On his march back to the great plateau Cortés found the inhabitants of Tlascala still friendly and willing to assist as allies in the struggle against their ancient foes, the Mexicans. On reaching the camp of the Spaniards in Mexico, Cortés found that Alvarado had provoked the insurrection by a massacre of the Aztec populace. Having entered the precincts with his army, Cortés at once made anxious preparations for the siege which was threatened by the Aztecs, now assembling in thousands. As the assailants approached "they set up a hideous yell, or rather that shrill whistle used in fight by the nations of Anahuac," accompanied by the sound of shell and atabal and their other rude instruments of wild music. This was followed by a tempest of missiles, stones, darts, and arrows. The Spaniards waited until the foremost column had arrived within distance, when a general discharge of artillery and muskets swept the ranks of the assailants. Never till now had the Mexicans witnessed the murderous power of these formidable engines. At first they stood aghast, but soon rallying, they rushed forward over the prostrate bodies of their comrades. Pressing on, some of them tried to scale the parapet, while others tried to force a breach in it. When the parapet proved too strong they shot burning arrows upon the wooden outworks. Next day there were continually fresh supplies of warriors added to the forces of the assailants, so that the danger of the situation was greatly increased. Diaz, an onlooker, thus wrote: The Mexicans fought with such ferocity that if we had been assisted by 10,000 Hectors and as many Orlandos, we should have made no impression on them. There were several of our troops who had served in the Italian wars, but neither there nor in the battles with the Turks had they ever seen anything like the desperation shown by these Indians. Cortés at last drew off his men and sounded a retreat, taking refuge in the fortress. The Mexicans encamped round it, and during the night insulted the besieged, shouting, "The gods have at last delivered you into our hands: the stone of sacrifice is ready: the knives are sharpened." Cortés now felt that he had not fully understood the character of the Mexicans. The patience and submission formerly shown in deference to the injured Montezuma was now replaced by concentrated arrogance and ferocity. The Spanish general even stooped to request the interposition of the Aztec Emperor; and, at last, when assured that the foreigners would leave his country if a way were opened through the Mexican army he agreed to use his influence. For this purpose he put on his imperial robes; his mantle of white and blue flowed over his shoulders, held together by its rich clasp of the green _chalchivitl_. The same precious gem, with emeralds of uncommon size, set in gold, profusely ornamented other parts of his dress. His feet were shod with the golden sandals, and his brows covered with the Mexican diadem, resembling in form the pontifical tiara. Thus attired and surrounded by a guard of Spaniards, and several Aztec nobles, and preceded by the golden wand, the symbol of sovereignty, the Indian monarch ascended the central turret of the palace. At the sight of Montezuma all the Mexican army became silent, partly, no doubt, from curiosity. He assured them that he was no prisoner; that the strangers were his friends, and would leave Mexico of their own accord as soon as a way was opened. To call himself a friend of the hateful Spaniards was a fatal argument. Instead of respecting their monarch, though in his official robes, the populace howled angry curses at him as a degenerate Aztec, a coward, no longer a warrior or even a man! A cloud of missiles was hurled at Montezuma, and he was struck to the ground by the blow of a stone on his head. The unfortunate monarch only survived his wounds for a few days, disdaining to take any nourishment, or to receive advice from the Spanish priests. Meanwhile, Cortés and his army met with an unexpected danger. A large body of the Indian warriors had taken possession of the great temple, at a short distance from the Spanish quarters. From this commanding position they kept shooting a deadly flight of arrows on the Spaniards. Cortés sent his chamberlain, Escobar, with a body of men to storm the temple, but, after three efforts, the party had to relinquish the attempt. Cortés himself then led a storming party, and after some determined fighting reached the platform at the top of the temple where the two sanctuaries of the Aztec deities stood. This large area was now the scene of a desperate battle, fought in sight of the whole capital as well as of the Spanish troops still remaining in the courtyard. This struggle between such deadly enemies caused dreadful carnage on both sides: The edge of the area was unprotected by parapet or battlement; and the combatants, as they struggled in mortal agony, were sometimes seen to roll over the sheer sides of the precipice together. Cortés himself had a narrow escape from this dreadful fate.... The number of the enemy was double that of the Christians; but the invulnerable armor of the Spaniard, his sword of matchless temper, and his skill in the use of it, gave him advantages which far outweighed the odds of physical strength and numbers. This unparalleled scene of bloodshed lasted for three hours. Of the Mexicans "two or three priests only survived to be led away in triumph"; yet the loss of the Spaniards was serious enough, amounting to forty-five of their best men. Nearly all the others were wounded, some seriously. After dragging the uncouth monster, Huitzilopochtli, from his sanctuary, the assailants hurled the repulsive image down the steps of the temple, and then set fire to the building. The same evening they burned a large part of the town. Cortés now resolved upon a night retreat from the capital; but when marching along one of the causeways they were attacked by the Mexicans in such numbers that, when morning dawned, the shattered battalion was reduced to less than half its number. In after years that disastrous retreat was known to the Spanish chroniclers as _Noche Triste_, the "Night of Sorrows." After a hurried six days' march before the pursuers, Cortés gained a victory so signal that an alliance was speedily formed with Tlascala against Mexico. Cortés built twelve brigantines at Vera Cruz in order to secure the command of Lake Tescuco and thus attempt the reduction of the Mexican capital. On his return to the great lake he found that the throne was now occupied by Guatimozin, a nephew of Montezuma. Using their brigantines the Spanish soldiers now began the siege of Mexico--"the most memorable event in the conquest of America." It lasted seventy-five days, during which the whole of the capital was reduced to ruins. Guatimozin, the last of the Aztec emperors, was condemned by the Spanish general to be hanged on the charge of treason. Cortés was now master of all Mexico. The Spanish court and people were full of admiration for his victories and the extent of his conquests; and Charles V appointed him "Captain-General and Governor of New Spain." On revisiting Europe, the Emperor honored him with the order of St. Jago and the title of marquis. Latterly, however, after some failures in his exploring expeditions, Cortés, on his return to Spain, found himself treated with neglect. It was then, according to Voltaire's story, that when Charles asked the courtiers, "Who is that man?" referring to Cortés, the latter said aloud: "It is one, sire, that has added more provinces to your dominions than any other governor has added towns!" Cortés died in his sixty-second year, December 2, 1547. CHAPTER VIII BALBOA AND THE ISTHMUS In the Spanish conquest of America there are three great generals: Cortés, Balbao, and Pizarro. The third may to many readers seem immeasurably superior as explorer and conqueror to the second, but it must be remembered that Pizarro's scheme of discovering and invading Peru was precisely that which Balboa had already prepared. Pizarro could afford to say, "Others have labored, and I have merely entered into their labors." What, then, was the work done by Balboa, and what prevented him from taking Peru? In 1510, the year before the conquest of Cuba, Balboa was glad to escape from Hispaniola, not to avoid the Spanish cruelties, like Hatuey, the luckless cazique, but to escape from his Spanish creditors. So anxious was he to get on board that he concealed himself in a cask to avoid observation. Balboa, however, had administrative qualities, and after taking possession of the uncleared district of Darien in the name of the King of Spain, he was appointed governor of the new province. He built the town Santa Maria on the coast of the Darien Gulf; but so pestilential was the district (and still is) that the settlers were glad after a short time to remove to the other side of the isthmus. It was by mere accident that Balboa first heard of a great ocean beyond the mountains of Darien, and of the enormous wealth of Peru, a country hitherto unknown to Spain or Europe. As several soldiers were one day disputing about the division of some gold-dust, an Indian cazique called out: "Why quarrel about such a trifle? I can show you a region where the commonest pots and pans are made of that metal." To the inquiries of Balboa and his companions, the cazique replied that by traveling six days to the south they should see another ocean, near which lay the wealthy kingdom. Resolving to cross the isthmus, notwithstanding a thousand formidable obstructions, Balboa formed a party consisting of 190 veterans, accompanied by 1,000 Indians, and several fierce dogs trained to hunt the naked natives. Such were the difficulties that the "six days' journey" occupied twenty-five before the ridge of the isthmus range was reached. Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the sea stretching in endless prospect below him he fell on his knees; ... his followers observing his transports of joy rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and gratitude. That was the moment, September 25, 1513, immortalized in Keats's sonnet: When with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise, Silent, upon a peak in Darien. Balboa hurried down the western slope of the isthmus range to take formal possession in the name of the Spanish monarch. He found a fishing village there which had been named Panama (i. e., "plenty fish") by the Indians, but had also a reputation for the pearls found in its bay. In his letter to Spain, Balboa said, to illustrate the difficulties of the expedition, that of all the 190 men in his party there were never more than eighty fit for service at one time. Notwithstanding the wonderful news of the discovery of the "great southern ocean," as the Pacific was then called, Ferdinand overlooked the great services of Balboa, and appointed a new Governor of Darien called Pedrarias, who instituted a judicial inquiry into some previous transactions of Balboa, imposing a heavy fine as punishment. The new governor committed other acts of great imprudence, and at length Ferdinand felt that he had only superseded the most active and experienced officer he had in the New World. To make amends to Balboa, he was appointed "Lieutenant-Governor of the Countries upon the South Sea," with great privileges and authority. At the same time Pedrarias was commanded to "support Balboa in all his operations, and to consult with him concerning every measure which he himself pursued." Balboa, in 1517, began his preparations for entering the South Sea and conveying troops to the country which he proposed to invade. With four small brigantines and 300 chosen soldiers (a force superior to that with which Pizarro afterward undertook the same expedition), he was on the point of sailing toward the coasts of which they had such expectations, when a message arrived from Pedrarias. Balboa being unconscious of crime, agreed to delay the expedition, and meet Pedrarias for conference. On entering the palace Balboa was arrested and immediately tried on the charge of disloyalty to the King and intention of revolt against the governor. He was speedily sentenced to death, although the accusation was so absurd that the judges who pronounced the sentence "seconded by the whole colony, interceded warmly for his pardon." "The Spaniards beheld with astonishment and sorrow the public execution of a man whom they universally deemed more capable than any who had borne command in America, of forming and accomplishing great designs." This gross injustice amounting to a public scandal was accounted for by the malignant influence of the Bishop of Burgos, in Spain, who was the original cause of Balboa being superseded as Governor of Darien. The expedition designed by Balboa was now relinquished; but the removal of the colony soon afterward to the Pacific side of the isthmus may be considered a step toward the realization of an exactly similar attempt by Pizzaro. To some historical readers the word "Darien" only recalls the bitter prejudice entertained against William III, our "Dutch King," notwithstanding the special pleading of Lord Macaulay and others. Some Scottish merchants had adopted a scheme recommended by the most reliable authorities[23] of that age, viz., the settlement of a half-commercial, half-military colony on the Atlantic coast of the isthmus. Such a company, in the words of Paterson, would be masters of the "door of the seas," and the "key of the universe." The East India Companies both of England and Holland showed an envious jealousy of the Scottish merchants, and therefore no assistance was to be expected from the King, although he had given his royal sanction to the Scots Act of Parliament creating the company. The Scottish people, however, zealously continued the scheme. Some 1,200 men "set sail from Leith amid the blessings of many thousands of their assembled countrymen. They reached the Gulf of Darien in safety, and established themselves on the coast in localities to which they gave the names of New Caledonia and New St. Andrews." The Government of Spain (secretly instigated, it was believed, by the English King) resolved to attack the embryo colony. The shipwreck of the whole scheme soon followed, due undoubtedly more to the jealousy of the English merchants (who believed that any increase of trade in Scotland or Ireland was a positive loss to England) and the bad faith of our Dutch King, than to all other causes whatever. Of the colony, according to Dalrymple (ii, 103), not more than thirty ever saw their own country again. [Footnote 23: E.g., Paterson, founder of the Bank of England, Fletcher of Saltoun, the Marquis of Tweeddale, then chief Minister of Scotland, Sir John Dalrymple, etc.] In 1526 a company of English merchants was formed to trade with the West Indies and the "Spanish Main," and commanded great success. Other merchants did the same. Soon after the Spanish court instituted a coast-guard to make war upon these traders; and as they had full power to capture and slay all who did not bear the King of Spain's commission, there were terrible tales told in Europe of mutilation, torture, and revenge. The Windward Islands having been gradually settled by French and English adventurers, Frederick of Toledo was sent with a large fleet to destroy those petty colonies. This harsh treatment rendered the planters desperate, and under the name of buccaneers,[24] they continued "a retaliation so horribly savage [_v._ Notes to Rokeby] that the perusal makes the reader shudder. From piracy at sea, they advanced to making predatory descents on the Spanish territories; in which they displayed the same furious and irresistible valor, the same thirst of spoil, and the same brutal inhumanity to their captives." The pride and presumption of Spain were partly resisted by the English monarchs, but not with real effect before the time of Cromwell, strongest of all the rulers of Britain. Under his government of the seas Spain was deprived of the island of Jamaica; and the buccaneers to their disgust found that the flag of the great Protector was a check against all piracy and injustice. [Footnote 24: Named from _boucan_, a kind of preserved meat, used by those rovers. They had learned this peculiar art of preserving from the native Caribs.] Under Charles II, however, the buccaneers resumed their conflict with the Spanish, and in 1670, Henry Morgan, with 1,500 English and French ruffians resolved to cross the isthmus like Balboa, to plunder the depositories of gold and silver which lay in the city of Panama and other places on the Pacific coast. Having stormed a strong fortress at the mouth of the Chagres River, they forced their way through the entangled forests for ten days, and after much hardship reached Panama, to find it defended by a regular army of twice their number. The Spaniards, however, were beaten, and Morgan thoroughly sacked and plundered the city, taking captive all the chief citizens in order to extort afterward large ransoms. Ten years afterward the Isthmus of Darien was crossed by Dampier, another celebrated buccaneer, but his party was too small to attack Panama. They seized some Spanish vessels in the bay and plundered all the coast for some distance. The following description by the bold buccaneer is not without interest to those who consider the present importance of the place: Near the riverside stands New Panama, a very handsome city, in a spacious bay of the same name, into which disembogue many long and navigable rivers, some whereof are not without gold; besides that it is beautified by many pleasant isles, the country about it affording a delightful prospect to the sea.... The houses are chiefly of brick and pretty lofty, especially the president's, the churches, the monasteries, and other public structures, which make the best show I have seen in the West Indies. The present prosperity of Panama is due to its large transit trade, which was recently estimated at £15,000,000 a year. The pearl-fisheries, famous at the time of Balboa's visit, have now little value. The narrowest breadth of the isthmus being only thirty miles, there have naturally been many engineering proposals to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by a canal. M. de Lesseps founded a French company in 1881 for the construction of a ship-canal with eight locks, and over forty-six miles in length; but in 1889, the excavations stopped after some 48-1/2 millions of cubic meters of earth and rock had been removed. Meanwhile a railway 47-1/2 miles long connects Colon on the Atlantic with Panama on the Pacific. The Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, only 140 miles across, separates the Bay of Campeachy from the Pacific, and failing the Panama Canal some engineers were in favor of a _ship-railway_ for conveying large vessels _bodily_ from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The scheme met with great favor in the United States, but has not yet been carried out. The third proposal for connecting the two great oceans is probably the most feasible because it follows the most deeply marked depression of the isthmus. The Nicaraguan Ship-canal will, if the scheme be carried out, pass from Greytown on the Atlantic to Brito on the Pacific, about 170 miles apart, through the republic of Nicaragua, which lies north of Panama and south of Guatemala. One obvious advantage of this ship-canal is that the great lake is utilized, affording already about one-third of the waterway; only twenty-eight miles, in fact, being actual canal, and the rest river, lake, and lagoon navigation. In the latest specifications the engineers proposed to dam up the river (San Juan) by a stone wall seventy feet high and 1,900 feet long, thus raising the water to a level of 106 feet above the sea. Only three locks will be required to work the Nicaraguan Ship-canal. CHAPTER IX EXTINCT CIVILIZATION OF PERU § (A) _Peruvian Archeology_ As the extinct civilization of the Incas of Peru is the most important phase of development among all the American races, so also their prehistoric remains are extremely interesting to the archeologist. [Illustration: Monolith Doorway. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 1.] 1. _Architecture._--In the interior of the country we find many remarkable examples of stone building, such as walls of huge polygonal stones, four-sided or five-sided or six-sided, some six feet across, laid without mortar, and so finely polished and adjusted that the blade of a knife can not be inserted between them. The strength of the masonry is sometimes assisted by having the projecting parts of a stone fitting into corresponding hollows or recesses in the stone above or below it. The stones being frequently extremely hard granite, or basalt, etc., antiquarian travelers have wondered how in early times the natives could have cut and polished them without any metal tools. The ordinary explanation is that the work was done by patiently rubbing one stone against another, with the aid of sharp sand, "time being no object" in the case of the laborers among savage and primitive races. It is believed by most antiquaries that long before the period of the Incas there was a powerful empire to which we must attribute such Cyclopean ruins; especially as the construction and style differ so greatly from what is found in the Inca period. The huge stones occur at Tiahuanacu (near Lake Titicaca), Cuzco, Ollantay, and the altar of Concacha. Fig. 1 is a broken doorway at Tiahuanacu, composed of huge monoliths. Fig. 2 is an enlargement of an image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1. The doorway forms the entrance to a quadrangular area (400 yards by 350) surrounded by large stones standing on end. The gateway or doorway of Fig. 1 is one of the most marvelous stone monuments existing, being _one block of hard rock_, deeply sunk in the ground. The present height is over seven feet. The whole of the inner side "from a line level with the upper lintel of the doorway to the top" is a mass of sculpture, "which speaks to us," says Sir C. R. Markham, "in difficult riddles of the customs and art culture, of the beliefs and traditions of an ancient" extinct civilization. The figure in high relief above the doorway (Fig. 2) is a head surrounded by rays, "each terminating in a circle or the head of an animal." Six human heads hang from the girdle, and two more from the elbows. Each hand holds a scepter terminating at the lower end with the head of a condor--that huge American vulture familiar to the Peruvians. That bird of prey was probably an emblem of royalty to the prehistoric dynasty now long forgotten. [Illustration: Image over the doorway shown in Fig. 1. Near Lake Titicaca. Fig. 2.] Some older historians speak of richly carved statues which formerly stood in this enclosure, and "many cylindrical pillars." Of the masonry of these ruins generally, Squier says: "The stone is faced with a precision that no skill can excel, its right angles turned with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do not believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material considered, on this or the other continent." The fortress above Cuzco, the capital of the Incas, is considered the grandest monument of extinct American civilization. "Like the Pyramids and the Coliseum, it is imperishable.... A fortified work, 600 yards in length, built of gigantic stones, in three lines, forming walls supporting terraces and parapets.... The stones are of blue limestone, of enormous size and irregular in shape, but fitted into each other with rare precision. One stone is twenty-seven feet high by fourteen; and others fifteen feet high by twelve are common throughout the work." In all the architecture of the prehistoric Peruvians the true arch is not found, though there is an approach to the "Maya arch," formerly described, finishing the doorway overhead by overlapping stones. The immense fortresses of Ollantay and Pisac are really hills which, by means of encircling walls, have been transformed into immense pyramids with many terraces rising above each other. All large buildings, such as temples and palaces, were laid out to agree with the "cardinal points," the principal entrance always facing the rising sun. The tomb construction of the ancient Peruvians has been already noticed (_v._ chap. iv). To the south of Cuzco are the ruins of a temple, Cacha, which is considered to be of a date between the Cyclopean structures already described and the Inca architecture. The chief part is 110 yards long, built of wrought stones; and in the middle of the building from end to end runs a wall pierced by twelve high doorways. There were also two series of pillars which had formerly supported a floor. Those traces of the Cyclopean builders point to an extremely early date, but several students of the Peruvian antiquities point confidently to distinct evidence of a still more primitive race--to be compared, perhaps, with those builders of "Druidic monuments" whom it is now the fashion to call "neolithic men." Some "cromlechs" or burial-places have been found in Bolivia and other parts of Peru; and in many respects they are parallel to the stone monuments found in Great Britain as well as Brittany and other parts of Europe. Some of those Peruvian cromlechs consist of four great slabs of slate, each about five feet high, four or five in width, and more than an inch thick. A fifth is placed over them. Over the whole a pyramid of clay and rough stones is piled. Possibly that race of cromlech builders bore the same relation to the temple builders described above that the builders of Kits Coty House, between Rochester and Maidstone, bore to the temple builders of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. If they had to retreat, as the ice-sheet was driven farther from the torrid zone, then by the theory of the Glacial Period the Cromlech men in both cases would at last be simply Eskimos. 2. _Aqueducts._--The ancient Peruvians attained great skill in the distribution of water--especially for irrigation. Artificial lakes or reservoirs were formed, so that by damming up the streams in the rainy season a good supply was created for the dry season. Some great monuments still remain of their hydraulic engineering, such as extensive cisterns, solid dikes along the rivers to prevent overflow, tunnels to drain lakes during an oversupply, and, in some places, artificial cascades. 3. _Roads and Bridges._--The roads and highways of the Incas were so excellent that "in many places" they still offer by far the most convenient avenues of transit. They are from fifteen to twenty-five feet in width, bedded with small stones often laid in concrete. As the use of beasts of burden was almost unknown, the roads did not ascend a steep inclination by zigzags but by steps cut in the rock. At certain distances public shelters were erected for travelers, and some of these still offer the best lodging-houses to be found along the routes. Bridges were of wood, of ropes made from maguey fiber, or of stone. Some of the latter are still in excellent condition, in spite of the violence of the mountain torrents which they have spanned for four centuries. 4. _Sculpture._--The Maya race of Yucatan and Central America were much superior to the prehistoric Peruvians in stone sculpture. Except those examples already referred to under 1, their artists have apparently produced nothing to show skill in workmanship, much less fertility of imagination. That is largely explained by their lack of suitable tools. 5. _Goldsmith's Work._--In this branch of art the ancient Peruvians greatly excelled, especially in inlaying and gilding. Gold-beating and gilding had been prosecuted to remarkable delicacy, and the very thin layers of gold-leaf on many articles led the Spaniards at first to believe they were of the solid metal. These delicate layers showed ornamental designs, including birds, butterflies, and the like. 6. _Pottery._--In this department of industrial art the prehistoric Peruvians showed much aptitude both "in regard to variety of design and technical skill in preparing the material. Vases with pointed bottoms and painted sides recalling those of ancient Greece and Etruria are often disinterred along the coast." The merit of those artists lay in perfect imitation of natural objects, such as birds, fishes, fruits, plants, skulls, persons in various positions, faces (often with graphic individuality). Some jars exactly resembled the "magic vases" which are still found in Hindustan, and can be emptied only when held at a certain angle. 7. Though ignorant of perspective and the rules of light and shade, these ancient Peruvians had an accurate eye for color. "Spinning, weaving, and dyeing," to quote Sir C. R. Markham, "were arts which were sources of employment to a great number, owing to the quantity and variety of the fabrics.... There were rich dresses interwoven with gold or made of gold thread; fine woolen mantles ornamented with borders of small square plates of gold and silver; colored cotton cloths worked in complicated patterns; and fabrics of aloe fiber and sheep's sinews for breeches. Coarser cloths of llama wool were also made in vast quantities." [Illustration: The Quipu.] 8. The _quipu_ (i e., "knot").--Without writing or even any of the simpler forms of pictographs which some Indian races inferior to them in refinement had invented, the Peruvians had no means of sending a message relating to tribute or the number of warriors in an army, or a date, except the _quipu_. It consisted of one principal cord about two feet long held horizontally, to which other cords of various colors and lengths were attached, hanging vertically. The knots on the vertical cords, and their various lengths served by means of an arranged code to convey certain words and phrases. Each color and each knot had so many conventional significations; thus _white_ = silver, _green_ = corn, _yellow_ = gold; but in another quipu, _white_ = peace, _red_ = war, soldiers, etc. The quipu was originally only a means of numeration and keeping accounts, thus: a single knot = 10 a double knot = 100 a triple knot = 1,000 two singles = 20 two doubles = 200 etc. 9. The great stone monuments described in our first section belonged, according to some writers, to a dynasty called Pirua, who ruled over the highlands of Peru and Bolivia long before the times of the Incas. That early race had as the center of their civilization the shores of Lake Titicaca. 10. _The Ancient Capital._--Cuzco, the center of government till the time of the conquest by the Spaniards, and for a long time the only city in the Peruvian empire, deserves a paragraph under the head archeology. Its wonderful fortress has already been referred to, and there are other Cyclopean remains, such as the great wall which contains the "stone of twelve corners." Some monuments of the Inca period also attract much attention, such as the Curi-cancha temple, 296 feet long, the palace of Amaru-cancha (i. e., "place of serpents"), so called from the serpents sculptured in relief on the exterior. Of these and other buildings Squier remarks that the "joints are of a precision unknown in our architecture; the world has nothing to show in the way of stone-cutting and fitting to surpass the skill and accuracy displayed in the Inca structures of Cuzco." To obtain the site for their capital the Incas had to carry out a great engineering work, by confining two mountain torrents between walls of substantial masonry so solid as to serve even to modern times. The Valley of Cuzco was the source of the Peruvian civilization, center and origin of the empire. Hence the name, Cuzco = "navel," just as the ancient Greeks called Athens _umbilicus terræ_, and our New England cousins fondly refer to Boston, Mass., as "the hub of the universe"! [Illustration: Gold Ornament (? Zodiac) from a Tomb at Cuzco.] § (B) _Peru before the Arrival of the Spaniards_ The "national myth" of the Peruvians was that at Lake Titicaca two supernatural beings appeared, both children of the Sun. One was Manco Capac, the first Inca, who taught the people agriculture; the other was his wife, who taught the women to spin and weave. From them were lineally derived all the Incas. As representing the Sun, the Inca was high priest and head of the hierarchy, and therefore presided at the great religious festivals. He was the source from which everything flowed--all dignity, all power, all emolument. Louis le Magnifique when at the height of his power might be taken as a type of the emperor Inca: both could literally use the phrase, _L'état c'est Moi,_ "The State! I am the State!" In the royal palaces and dress great barbaric pomp was assumed. All the apartments were studded with gold and silver ornaments. The worship of the Sun, representing the Creator, the Dweller in Space, the Teacher and Ruler of the Universe,[25] was the religion of the Incas inherited from their distant ancestry. The great temple at Cuzco, with its gorgeous display of riches, was called "the place of gold, the abode of the Teacher of the Universe." An elliptical plate of gold was fixed on the wall to represent the Deity. [Footnote 25: According to Sir C. R. Markham, F. R. S.] Sufficient evidence is still visible of the engineering industry evinced by the natives before the arrival of Pizarro. We give some particulars of the two principal highways, both joining Quito to Cuzco, then passing south to Chile. First, the high level road, 1,600 miles in length, crossing the great Peruvian table-land, and conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow; with galleries cut for leagues through the living rock, rivers crossed by means of bridges, and ravines of hideous depth filled up with solid masonry. The roadway consisted of heavy flags of freestone. Secondly, the low level highway along the coast country between the Andes and the Pacific. The prehistoric engineers had here to encounter quite a different task. The causeway was raised on a high embankment of earth, with trees planted along the margin. In the strips of sandy waste, huge piles (many of them to be seen to this day) were driven into the ground to indicate the route. Another colossal effort was the conveyance of water to the rainless country by the seacoast, especially to certain parts capable of being reclaimed and made fertile. Some of the aqueducts were of great length--one measuring between 400 and 500 miles. The following table gives the Peruvian calendar for a year: I. Raymi, the _Festival of the Winter Solstice_, in honor of the Sun June 22d. Season of plowing July 22d. Season of sowing August 22d. II. _Festival of the Spring Equinox_ September 22d. Season of brewing October 22d. Commemoration of the Dead November 22d. III. _Festival of the Summer Solstice_ December 22d. Season of exercises January 22d. Season of ripening February 22d. IV. _Festival of Autumn Equinox_ March 22d. Beginning of harvest April 22d. Harvesting month May 22d. Since Quito is exactly on the equator, the vertical rays of the sun at noon during the equinox cast no shadow. That northern capital, therefore, was "held in especial veneration as the favored abode of the great deity." At the feast of Raymi, or New Year's day, the sacrifice usually offered was that of the llama, a fire being kindled by means of a concave mirror of polished metal collecting the rays of the sun into a focus upon a quantity of dried cotton. The national festival of the Aztecs we compared to the secular celebration of the Romans; so now the Raymi of the Peruvians may be likened to the Panathenæa of ancient Athens, when the people of Attica ascended in splendid procession to the shrine on the Acropolis. In Mexico the Spanish travelers often experienced severe famines; and in India, even at the present day (to the disgrace perhaps of our management) nearly every year many thousands die of hunger. It was very different under the ancient Peruvians, because by law "the product of the lands consecrated to the Sun, as well as those set apart for the Incas, was deposited in the _Tambos_, or public storehouses, as a stated provision for times of scarcity." The Spaniards found those prehistoric agriculturists utilizing the inexhaustible supply of guano found on all the islands of the Pacific. It was not till the middle of the nineteenth century that the British farmer found the value of this fertilizer. CHAPTER X PIZARRO AND THE INCAS When stout-hearted Balboa first reached the summit of the isthmus range and looked south over the Bay of Panama, he might have seen the "Silver Bell," which forms the summit of the mighty volcano Chimborazo. Still farther south in the same direction lay the "land of gold," of which he had heard. Balboa was unjustly prevented from exploring that unknown country, but among the Spanish soldiers in Panama there were two who determined to carry out Balboa's scheme. The younger, Pizarro, was destined to rival Cortés as explorer and conqueror; Almagro, his companion in the expedition, was less crafty and cruel. Sailing from Panama, the Spanish first landed on the coast below Quito, and found the natives wearing gold and silver trinkets. On a second voyage, with more men, they explored the coast of Peru and visited Tumbez, a town with a lofty temple and a palace for the Incas. They beheld a country fully peopled and cultivated; the natives were decently clothed, and possessed of ingenuity so far surpassing the other inhabitants of the New World as to have the use of tame domestic animals. But what chiefly attracted the notice of the visitors was such a show of gold and silver, not only in ornaments, but in several vessels and utensils for common use, formed of those precious metals as left no room to doubt that they abounded with profusion in the country. After his return Pizarro visited Spain and secured the patronage of Charles V, who appointed him Governor and Captain-General of the newly discovered country. In the next voyage from Panama, Pizarro set sail with 180 soldiers in three small ships--"a contemptible force surely to invade the great empire of Peru." Pizarro was very fortunate in the time of his arrival, because two brothers were fiercely contending in civil war to obtain the sovereignty. Their father, Huana Capac, the twelfth Inca in succession from Manco Capac, had recently died after annexing the kingdom of Quito, and thus doubling the power of the empire. Pizarro made friends with Atahualpa, who had become Inca by the defeat and death of his brother, and a friendly meeting was arranged between them. The Peruvians are thus described by a Spanish onlooker: First of all there arrived 400 men in uniform; the Inca himself, on a couch adorned with plumes, and almost covered with plates of gold and silver, enriched with precious stones, was carried on the shoulders of his principal attendants. Several bands of singers and dancers accompanied the procession; and the whole plain was covered with troops, more than 30,000 men. After engaging in a religious dispute with the Inca, who refused to acknowledge the authority of the Pope and threw the breviary on the ground, the Spanish chaplain exclaimed indignantly that the Word of God had been insulted by a heathen. Pizarro instantly gave the signal of assault: the martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the horse rallied out fiercely to the charge, the infantry rushed on sword in hand. The Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of the attack, dismayed with the effect of the firearms and the irresistible impression of the cavalry, fled with universal consternation on every side. Pizarro, at the head of his chosen band, soon penetrated to the royal seat, and seizing the Inca by the arm, carried him as a prisoner to the Spanish quarters. For his ransom Atahualpa agreed to pay a weight of gold amounting to more than five millions sterling. Instead of keeping faith with the Inca by restoring him to liberty, Pizarro basely allowed him to be tried on several false charges and condemned to be burned alive. After hearing of the enormous ransom many Spaniards hurried from Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua to share in the newly discovered booty of Peru, the "land of gold." Pizarro, therefore, being now greatly reenforced with soldiers, forced his way to Cuzco, the capital. The riches found there exceeded in value what had been received as Atahualpa's ransom. As Governor of Peru, Pizarro chose a new site for his capital, nearer the coast than Cuzco, and there founded Lima. It is now a great center of trade. Pizarro lived here in great state till the year 1542, when his fate reached him by means of a party of conspirators seeking to avenge the death of Almagro, his former rival, whom he had cruelly executed as a traitor. On Sunday, June 26th, at midday, while all Lima was quiet under the siesta, the conspirators passed unobserved through the two outer courts of the palace, and speedily despatched the soldier-adventurer, intrepidly defending himself with a sword and buckler. "A deadly thrust full in the throat," and the tale of daring Pizarro was told. _Raro antecedentem scelestum_ _Deseruit pede Poena claudo._ When Did Doom, though lame, not bide its time, To clutch the nape of skulking Crime? W. E. GLADSTONE. GENERAL INDEX. A. Agathocles, 119. Agassiz, 73. Alfred, King, 19. Almagro, Pizarro's rival, 186, 189. Alvarado, 158, 159. America, Discoveries of, 19-35, 38-45, 48-53. America, origin of the name, 50. American Archeology, 71-79 (_see_ also AZTEC, PERU, CIVILIZATION). Amerigo (_Americus_), (_see_ VESPUCCI). Anahuac, 56, 58, 63. Archeology, 71-88 (see under AZTEC, MEXICO, PERU, and CIVILIZATION, EXTINCT). Aristotle, shape of the earth, 10. Arthur, King, 19. Atahualpa, Inca, 187, 188. Atlantic, ridge, 15. Atlantis, island or continent, 14, 15. Avalon, 17. Aztecs, their traditions, 54, 56, 57, 62, 63. Aztecs, antiquities, 55. Aztecs, kingdom, 58; empire founded, 76. Aztecs, letters, etc., 58, 79-82. Aztecs, astronomy, 64, 65, 68, 83. Aztecs, human sacrifices, 59, 60, 62, 102, 106; how explained by comparison with Jews, Greeks, Druids, etc., 100-106. Aztecs, priesthood, 65, 67. Aztecs, religion, 92, 93; laws, 90. Aztecs, natural piety, 66-68. Aztecs, secular festival, 68-70. Aztecs, soldiery, 91, 92. Aztecs, agriculture, 94. Aztecs, markets, 97, 147. Aztecs, banquets, social amusements, 97, 99. Aztlan, 56. B. Bacon, Roger, 18. Bahamas, 41. Balboa, 9, 50, 52, 164, 168. Balboa scheme--adopted by Pizarro, 186. Balboa hears of the Land of Gold, 165. Balboa crosses the isthmus, 166, 167. Balboa unjustly treated, 167, 168. Barcelona, Columbus honored at Court, 45. Basque Discovery, 32. Boston in Vinland, 26, 182. Brandan, St. discoverer, 32. Brito, ship-canal, 172. Buccaneers, origin, etc., 169, 170. Buffon, 15. Burgos, Bishop of, 157, 168. C. Cabot, 38, 48, 49. Cabrera reaches Brazil, 49. Cakama, prince of Tezcuco, 154. Calendar Stone, 83, 84. Calicut reached by Gama, 49. Canaanites, etc., sun-worship, 102, 103. Cannibalism, 102, 103. Capac, Inca, 182, 187. Carthage, 17, 102. Cathay, 39, 43, 45. Cazique, 43, 117, etc. Celtic discoveries, 19, 30-32. Chalco, Lake, 136, 137. Charles V. and Cortés, 164. Chiapas, 77. Chibchas, 85. Cholula, 84, 94, 130, 133. Civilization, Extinct, chaps, iii, ix. Civilization, Celtic, 19. Civilization, Norse, 19-25, 27-31. Civilization, Aztec, etc., 54-70, 82, 83. Civilization, Peru, 172-185. Colon (_see_ COLUMBUS); also an Atlantic port on the isthmus of Darien, 172. Columbia, 76, 85. Columbus, 17-18, 37, 38-46, 157. Columbus, early failures, 39. Columbus, voyage to Iceland, 39. Columbus, variation of the compass, 41, 42, 49. Columbus, discovers Bahamas, Cuba, Hayti, 42-44. Columbus, discovers Trinidad and Orinoco, 45. Columbus, map by (found in 1894), 42. Columbus, autograph (cut) and epitaph, 46. Columbus, Ferdinand, 18; Bartholomew, 43. Columbus, Diego, 47, 157. Continent, supposed southern (cut), 12. Continent, Western, 13 (_see_ ATLANTIS, HESPERIDES). Condor, emblem of prehistoric Inca, 173, 175 (cuts). Copan, 79-81. Cordova lands on Yucatan, 53. Cortés appointed leader, 53, 64, 77, 80. Cortés at Cuba and Hayti, 117. Cortés at Yucatan, 109. Cortés and Teuhtile, in, 112. Cortés, generalship, 119, 124, 126, 159. Cortés, resource, 127, 128, 158. Cortés, cruelty, 129, 132, 153. Cortés at Popocatepetl, 133. Cortés and Montezuma, 141, 143-143. Cortés, lack of delicacy, 152. Cortés, arrest of Montezuma, 152-157. Cortés, personal courage, 162. Cortés, retreat, "Night of Sorrows," 163. Cortés, Mexico retaken and its emperor hanged, 164. Cortés and Charles V., 164. Cliff-houses, 86. Cotton, Az. tec., preparation of, 84, 96. Cromwell, his influence, 170. Cruz, Vera, 110, 114, 120, 156, 157, 163. Cuba, 43-45, 51-53, 84. Culhua, 110. Cuzco, 174, 176, 181, 183, 188. Cuzco, Cyclopean remains, 181, 183. Cuzco, temple, 183. Cyclopean ruins in Peru, 173, 178, 181-183. Cyclopean ruins in Peru (cuts), 173, 175. D. Dalrymple, Sir John, 169, 170. Dampier, buccaneer, 170. Darien, taken by Balboa, 169. Darien, Scottish Expedition, 169. Darien, causes of failure, 169, 170. Darien, crossed by Morgan, 170, 171. Darien, crossed by Dampier, 171. Diaz, navigator, rounds the Cape of Good Hope and names it the "Stormy Cape," 49. Diaz, historian, quoted, 148, 151, 158, 160. Dighton Stone, 28 (cuts, 27, 28). Diodorus Siculus, 16. Druid Sacrifices, 106. "Druidic," 74, 177, 178. E. Edward VI and Cabot, 48. Elysian Fields, 13, 14, 16. Erik the Red, 20. Escobar, 162. Euripides, quoted, 14. F. Feather-work, 84, 96. Ferdinand and Isabella, 40, 41. Feudalism ended, 36. G. Gama, De, 38, 58. Gardens, 138, 139. Glazier, Theory, 73-74. Gladstone quoted, 189. Gosnold's Expedition, 25, 26. Greenland, 19-25, 30, 31. Grijalva and Yucatan, 10, 53. Guatemala, 58, 76, 79. Guatimozin, 163. Gunnbiorn, 20. H. Hannibal on the Alps, 134, 135. Harold Fair-hair, 20. Hatuey, 51, 52. Hayti, 43, 98. Helluland (Newfoundland), 22. Henry VII., 48, 49. Hercules' Pillars, 13, 17. Herodotus, 10, 11. Hesiod, quoted, 13. Hesperides, Isles of the Blest, 14. Homer, quoted, 10, 13. Honduras, 76, 79. Huitzilopochtli, god of battles, 93, 94, 150, 151 (_see_ MEXITL.) Humboldt, 35, 50, 65, 73, 83, 94. I. Iceland, 19, 20. Incas, 172, 182 (_see_ PERU). "Indian," as a term applied to the New World by mistake, a blunder still perpetuated, 42 (_cf_. 98.) Indians, "Red-skins," 72-74, 80, 90. Ingolf, 19. Iphigenia, 104. Ireland, Mickle, 20, 31, 32. Italian Discovery, 34-36. Itztli (obsidian), used as a sharp flint, 95. Iztapalapan, 138. J. Jamaica, 170. Jewish "Discovery," 33. Juan, S., ship-canal, 172. K. Katortuk (Greenland), 21, 22 (cut, 21). Kingsborough, Lord, 34, 69, 82. L. Leif Erikson, 21-23. Lesseps de, 171-173. Loadstone, 41, 42. Longfellow, quoted, 29. Lucian, quoted, 17. M. Madoc, 32, 33, 70. Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean and names it, 49; killed at Matan, 50. Magnetic Pole, 41. Maguey plant, its singular value, 94. Major, Mr., on Pre-Columbian discoveries of America, and site of the Greenland colonies, 35, 36. Malte-Brun, 35. Marina, "slave-interpreter," 109, 115, 128, 131. Markham, Sir C., quoted, 30, 174, 179, 183. Markland (Nova Scotia), 22. Marvels, Age of, 38, 39. Maya, Mayapan, 76, 79. Maya, MS., 81, 82. Maya, trade, 84. _Mayflower_ lands in Vinland, 26. Medea, 18, 104. Merida, 78. Mexico, Mexicans (_see also_ AZTECS). Mexico, archeology, 72-86. Mexico, geography, 89, 90, 133-135. Mexico, valley, 134, 135. Mexico, town, 139, 142, 145-151. Mexico, wealth, 155. Mexico, siege, 160-164. Mexico, ferocity in war, 160-164. Mexitl, the god of battles, another name for Huitzilopochtli, 93. Monolith (cuts), 173, 175. Montezuma I., 57. Montezuma, 110-113. Montezuma, meaning of name, 113. Montezuma, power, 120, 121, 135, 141. Montezuma, affability, 144. Montezuma, dress, etc., 161. Montezuma, death, 162. Montgomery, James, 20, 22, 23. Morgan, buccaneer, 170. Mound builders, 31, 71, 85. Müller, Max, quoted, 56. N. Narvaez, 158, 159. Nicaragua, ship-canal, 58, 172. Norse Discovery, 19-32. Norse towns in Greenland, 20. Norumbega, 25. O. Ocean, Western, 12, 16, 17. Ocean, Southern, first name for the Atlantic (q.v.) Oceanus, river, 10. Ogygia, 16. Ollantay, Peru, 174, 176. Orinoco, discovered, 45. Orizaba, 120. Overland Route, 37. P. Pacific, first seen, 166. Pacific, first sailed upon, 50. Palenque, 77, 79, 81. Palos, 41, 45. Panama, 166, 171, 172. Panama, modern, 171. Paper (prehistoric) of Mexico, 82. Pedrarias, 167, 168. Peru and Incas, chaps. ix., x. Peru agriculture, 182, 185. Peru aqueducts, roads, etc., 177. Peru archeology, 172-182. Peru architecture, 87, 172-178. Peru calendar, 184, 185. Peru chulpas, 87 (cut). Peru quipu, 180 (cut). Peru sculpture and pottery, 178. Peru history and religion, 182. Phenicians, 11, 17. Pictograph, 80, 112. Pindar, quoted, 13. Pizarro, 164, 167. Pizarro and Atahualpha, 187, 188. Pizarro and Peru, 186-189. Pizarro, first and second voyages, 186, 187. Pizarro imitated Balboa, 165, 186. Pizarro invades Peru, 187. Pizarro, his treachery and cruelty, 188, 189. Pizarro at Cusco, 188. Pizarro founds Lima, 188. Pizarro, "Doom" at last, 189. Plato, 14, 15. Plutarch, 16. Polo, Marco, 39, 43. Polyxena, 104. Popocatepetl, 133, 134. Ptolemy, 11, 39. Pythagorean theory, 10. Q. Quetzalcoatl, 84, 93, 94, 111, 113, 130, 152. Quipu, 180, 181 (cut, 180). R. Rafn, 28, 29, 31. Raymi, Peruvian festival, 184, 185. Renascence, 9, 36, 37. Renascence influence on travel and exploration, 38. Renascence assisted the Reformation, 37. Runes in Greenland, 27, 28. S. Sebastian, Magellan's Basque lieutenant, 33, 50. Seneca, 18, 19 (title-page). "Scraelings," Vinland, 23. "Skeleton in Armor," 29. Spain, how consolidated, 37, 106. Spain, close of its colonial history, 52. Squier, quoted, 176, 181. T. Tambos, Peru, 185. Tehuantepec, isthmus, 171. Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 57. Teocalli, 106, 117, 148-151, 156 (cut, 105). Tezcatlipoca, god of youth, 61. Tezcuco, eastern capital, Mexico, 56. Tezcuco, 56, 57, 136. Tezcuco, king of, 100. Tezcuco, lake, 139-140. Thorfinn, 23. Thorwaldsen, 23. Titicaca, lake, 71, 182. Titicaca (_see_ CYCLOPEAN RUINS), 174, 175. Tlaloc, god of rain, 63. Tlascala, 113, 121-127, 130, 153, 159, 163. Tlascala, people, and siege, 130, 133. Toltecs, 56, 71. Totonacs, 115. Trinidad, 45. Tula, 56. Tumbez, Peru, 186. Turks, causing civilization, 36, 38. U. Utatla, 79. Uxmal, 55, 76 (frontispiece). V. Valladolid, 46. Velasquez, 51-53, 107, 108, 158. Vesper, 14 (_see_ HESPERIDES). Vespucci, 49, 51, 52. Vinland (New England), 23, 25. Vinland, map of, 24. Voltaire, story of Cortés, 164. W. Waldseemüller, 50. Watling's Island, 42. Welsh Discovery, 32, 33. William III. and Darien Scheme, 168-169. Wilson, "Prehistoric Man," 26, 81. World, shape of, 9-11. X. Xalapa, 120. Xicotencatl, Tlascalan, 124, 126, 127-130. Xicotencatl appearance, 129. Y. Yochicalco, 86. Yucatan, 53, 54, 75-77. Z. Zempoalla, "conversion of," 116. Zempoalla, 119, 158, 159. Zeni, Italian brothers, 34-35. Zeno map, 34, 35. Zipango (Japan), 39, 45. Zodiac, comparative, 55. Zodiac (cut) from a tomb at Cusco, 182. * * * * * Transcriber's note: The many spelling and hyphenation discrepancies in this text are as in the original. 
19765	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 19765-h.htm or 19765-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/9/7/6/19765/19765-h/19765-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/9/7/6/19765/19765-h.zip) Transcriber's note: Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces, e.g. {vi} or {99}. They have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book, in accordance with Project Gutenberg's FAQ-V-99. For its Index, page numbers have been placed only at the start of that section. VIKINGS OF THE PACIFIC The Adventures of the Explorers Who Came from the West, Eastward Bering, the Dane; the Outlaw Hunters of Russia; Benyowsky, the Polish Pirate; Cook and Vancouver, the English Navigators; Gray of Boston, the Discoverer of the Columbia; Drake, Ledyard, and Other Soldiers of Fortune on the West Coast of America by A. C. LAUT Author of "Pathfinders of the West," Etc. [Frontispiece: Seal Rookery, Commander Islands.] New York The MacMillan Company London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd. 1905 All rights reserved Copyright, 1905, by the MacMillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 1905. {vii} Foreword At the very time the early explorers of New France were pressing from the east, westward, a tide of adventure had set across Siberia and the Pacific from the west, eastward. Carrier and Champlain of New France in the east have their counterparts and contemporaries on the Pacific coast of America in Francis Drake, the English pirate on the coast of California, and in Staduchin and Deshneff and other Cossack plunderers of the North Pacific, whose rickety keels first ploughed a furrow over the trackless sea out from Asia. Marquette, Jolliet and La Salle--backed by the prestige of the French government are not unlike the English navigators, Cook and Vancouver, sent out by the English Admiralty. Radisson, privateer and adventurer, might find counterpart on the Pacific coast in either Gray, the discoverer of the Columbia, or Ledyard, whose ill-fated, wildcat plans resulted in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Bering was contemporaneous with La Vérendrye; and so the comparison might be carried on between Benyowsky, the Polish pirate of the Pacific, or the Outlaw Hunters of Russia, and the famous buccaneers of the eastern Spanish Main. The main point is--that both tides {viii} of adventure, from the east, westward, from the west, eastward, met, and clashed, and finally coalesced in the great fur trade, that won the West. The Spaniards of the Southwest--even when they extended their explorations into the Northwest--have not been included in this volume, for the simple reason they would require a volume by themselves. Also, their aims as explorers were always secondary to their aims as treasure hunters; and their main exploits were confined to the Southwest. Other Pacific coast explorers, like La Pérouse, are not included here because they were not, in the truest sense, discoverers, and their exploits really belong to the story of the fights among the different fur companies, who came on the ground after the first adventurers. In every case, reference has been to first sources, to the records left by the doers of the acts themselves, or their contemporaries--some of the data in manuscript, some in print; but it may as well be frankly acknowledged that _all_ first sources have _not_ been exhausted. To do so in the case of a single explorer, say either Drake or Bering--would require a lifetime. For instance, there are in St. Petersburg some thirty thousand folios on the Bering expedition to America. Probably only one person--a Danish professor--has ever examined all of these; and the results of his investigations I have consulted. Also, there are in the State Department, Washington, some hundred old log-books of the Russian hunters which {ix} have--as far as I know--never been turned by a single hand, though I understand their outsides were looked at during the fur seal controversy. The data on this era of adventure I have chiefly obtained from the works of Russian archivists, published in French and English. To give a list of all authorities quoted would be impossible. On Alaska alone, the least-known section of the Pacific coast, there is a bibliographical list of four thousand. The better-known coast southward has equally voluminous records. Nor is such a list necessary. Nine-tenths of it are made up of either descriptive works or purely scientific pamphlets; and of the remaining tenth, the contents are obtained in undiluted condition by going directly to the first sources. A few of these first sources are indicated in each section. It is somewhat remarkable that Gray--as true a naval hero as ever trod the quarter-deck, who did the same for the West as Carrier for the St. Lawrence, and Hudson for the river named after him--is the one man of the Pacific coast discoverers of whom there are scantiest records. Authentic histories are still written, that cast doubt on his achievement. Certainly a century ago Gray was lionized in Boston; but it may be his feat was overshadowed by the world-history of the new American republic and the Napoleonic wars at the opening of the nineteenth century; or the world may have taken him at his own valuation; and Gray was a hero of the non-shouting sort. The data on {x} Gray's discovery have been obtained from the descendants of the Boston men who outfitted him, and from his own great-grandchildren. Though he died a poor man, the red blood of his courage and ability seems to have come down to his descendants; for their names are among the best known in contemporary American life. To them my thanks are tendered. Since the contents of this volume appeared serially in _Leslie's Monthly_, _Outing_, and _Harper's Magazine_, fresh data have been sent to me on minor points from descendants of the explorers and from collectors. I take this opportunity to thank these contributors. Among many others, special thanks are due Dr. George Davidson, President of San Francisco Geographical Society, for facts relating to the topography of the coast, and to Dr. Leo Stejneger of the Smithsonian, Washington, for facts gathered on the very spot where Bering perished. WASSAIC, New York, July 15, 1905. CONTENTS PART I DEALING WITH THE RUSSIANS ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF AMERICA--BERING, THE DANE, THE SEA-OTTER HUNTERS, THE OUTLAWS, AND BENYOWSKY, THE POLISH PIRATE CHAPTER I 1700-1743 VITUS BERING, THE DANE Peter the Great sends Bering on Two Voyages: First, to discover whether America and Asia are united; Second, to find what lies north of New Spain--Terrible Hardships of Caravans crossing Siberia for Seven Thousand Miles--Ships lost in the Mist--Bering's Crew cast away on a Barren Isle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 CHAPTER II 1741-1743 CONTINUATION OF BERING, THE DANE Frightful Sufferings of the Castaways on the Commander Islands--The Vessel smashed in a Winter Gale, the Sick are dragged for Refuge into Pits of Sand--Here, Bering perishes, and the Crew Winter--The Consort Ship under Chirikoff Ambushed--How the Castaways reach Home . . . . . 37 CHAPTER III 1741-1760 THE SEA-OTTER HUNTERS How the Sea-otter Pelts brought back by Bering's Crew led to the Exploitation of the Northwest Coast of America--Difference of Sea-otter from Other Fur-bearing Animals of the West--Perils of the Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 CHAPTER IV 1760-1770 THE OUTLAW HUNTERS The American Coast becomes the Great Rendezvous for Siberian Criminals and Political Exiles--Beyond Reach of Law, Cossacks and Criminals perpetrate Outrages on the Indians--The Indians' Revenge wipes out Russian Forts in America--The Pursuit of Four Refugee Russians from Cave to Cave over the Sea at Night--How they escape after a Year's Chase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 CHAPTER V 1768-1772 COUNT MAURITIUS BENYOWSKY, THE POLISH PIRATE Siberian Exiles under Polish Soldier of Fortune plot to overthrow Garrison of Kamchatka and escape to West Coast of America as Fur Traders--A Bloody Melodrama enacted at Bolcheresk--The Count and his Criminal Crew sail to America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 PART II AMERICAN AND ENGLISH ADVENTURERS ON THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA--FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA--COOK, FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA TO ALASKA--LEDYARD, THE FORERUNNER OF LEWIS AND CLARK--GRAY, THE DISCOVERER OF THE COLUMBIA--VANCOUVER, THE LAST OF THE WEST COAST NAVIGATORS CHAPTER VI 1562-1595 FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA How the Sea Rover was attacked and ruined as a Boy on the Spanish Main off Mexico--His Revenge in sacking Spanish Treasure Houses and crossing Panama--The Richest Man in England, he sails to the Forbidden Sea, scuttles all the Spanish Ports up the West Coast of South America and takes Possession of New Albion (California) for England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 CHAPTER VII 1728-1779 CAPTAIN COOK IN AMERICA The English Navigator sent Two Hundred Years later to find the New Albion of Drake's Discoveries--He misses both the Straits of Fuca and the Mouth of the Columbia, but anchors at Nootka, the Rendezvous of Future Traders--No Northeast Passage found through Alaska--The True Cause of Cook's Murder in Hawaii told by Ledyard--Russia becomes Jealous of his Explorations . . . . . . . . . . . 172 CHAPTER VIII 1785-1792 ROBERT GRAY, THE AMERICAN DISCOVERER OF THE COLUMBIA Boston Merchants, inspired by Cook's Voyages, outfit Two Vessels under Kendrick and Gray for Discovery and Trade on the Pacific--Adventures of the First Ship to carry the American Flag around the World--Gray attacked by Indians at Tillamook Bay--His Discovery of the Columbia River on the Second Voyage--Fort Defence and the First American Ship built on the Pacific . . . . . . . . . 210 CHAPTER IX 1778-1790 JOHN LEDYARD, THE FORERUNNER OF LEWIS AND CLARK A New England Ne'er-do-well, turned from the Door of Rich Relatives, joins Cook's Expedition to America--Adventure among the Russians of Oonalaska--Useless Endeavor to interest New England Merchants in Fur Trade--A Soldier of Fortune in Paris, he meets Jefferson and Paul Jones and outlines Exploration of Western America--Succeeds in crossing Siberia alone on the Way to America, but is thwarted by Russian Fur Traders . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 CHAPTER X 1779-1794 GEORGE VANCOUVER, LAST OF PACIFIC COAST EXPLORERS Activities of Americans, Spanish, and Russians on the West Coast of America arouse England--Vancouver is sent out ostensibly to settle the Quarrel between Fur Traders and Spanish Governors at Nootka--Incidentally, he is to complete the Exploration of America's West Coast and take Possession for England of Unclaimed Territory--The Myth of a Northeast Passage dispelled Forever . . . . . . . . . . . 263 PART III EXPLORATION GIVES PLACE TO FUR TRADE--THE EXPLOITATION OF THE PACIFIC COAST UNDER THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN FUR COMPANY, AND THE RENOWNED LEADER BARANOF CHAPTER XI 1579-1867 THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN FUR COMPANY The Pursuit of the Sable leads Cossacks across Siberia; of the Sea-otter, across the Pacific as far south as California--Caravans of Four Thousand Horses on the Long Trail--Seven Thousand Miles across Europe and Asia--Banditti of the Sea--The Union of All Traders in One Monopoly--Siege and Slaughter of Sitka--How Monroe Doctrine grew out of Russian Fur Trade--Aims of Russia to dominate North Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 CHAPTER XII 1747-1818 BARANOF, THE LITTLE CZAR OF THE PACIFIC Baranof lays the Foundations of Russian Empire on the Pacific Coast of America--Shipwrecked on his Way to Alaska, he yet holds his Men in Hand and turns the Ill-hap to Advantage--How he bluffs the Rival Fur Companies in Line--First Russian Ship built in America--Adventures leading the Sea-otter Hunters--Ambushed by the Indians--The Founding of Sitka--Baranof, cast off in his Old Age, dies of Broken Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 ILLUSTRATIONS Seal Rookery, Commander Islands . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ Peter the Great . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Map of Course followed by Bering . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-21 The _St. Peter_ and _St. Paul_, from a rough sketch by Bering's comrade, Steller, the scientist . . . . . . . 29 Steller's Arch on Bering Island, named after the scientist Steller, of Bering's Expedition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 A Glacier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Sea Cows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Seals in a Rookery on Bering Island . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Mauritius Augustus, Count Benyowsky . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Sir John Hawkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 The _Golden Hind_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Francis Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 The Crowning of Drake in California . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 The Silver Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Captain James Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 The Ice Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The Death of Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Departure of the _Columbia_ and the _Lady Washington_ . . . 211 Charles Bulfinch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Medals commemorating _Columbia_ and _Lady Washington_ Cruise 215 Building the First American Ship on the Pacific Coast . . . 223 Feather Cloak worn by a son of a Hawaiian Chief, at the celebration in honor of Gray's return . . . . . . . . . . 226 John Derby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Map of Gray's two voyages, resulting in the discovery of the Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 A View of the Columbia River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 At the Mouth of the Columbia River . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Ledyard in his Dugout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Captain George Vancouver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 The _Columbia_ in a Squall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 The _Discovery_ on the Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Indian Settlement at Nootka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Reindeer Herd in Siberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Raised Reindeer Sledges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 John Jacob Astor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Sitka from the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 Alexander Baranof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 {1} PART I DEALING WITH THE RUSSIANS ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF AMERICA--BERING, THE DANE, THE SEA-OTTER HUNTERS, THE OUTLAWS, AND BENYOWSKY, THE POLISH PIRATE {3} Vikings of the Pacific CHAPTER I 1700-1743 VITUS BERING, THE DANE Peter the Great sends Bering on Two Voyages: First, to discover whether America and Asia are united; Second, to find what lies north of New Spain--Terrible Hardships of Caravans crossing Siberia for Seven Thousand Miles--Ships lost in the Mist--Bering's Crew cast away on a Barren Isle We have become such slaves of shallow science in these days, such firm believers in the fatalism which declares man the creature of circumstance, that we have almost forgotten the supremest spectacle in life is when man becomes the Creator of Circumstance. We forget that man can rise to be master of his destiny, fighting, unmaking, re-creating, not only his own environment, but the environment of multitudinous lesser men. There is something titanic in such lives. They are the hero myths of every nation's legends. We {4} somehow feel that the man who flings off the handicaps of birth and station lifts the whole human race to a higher plane and has a bit of the God in him, though the hero may have feet of clay and body of beast. Such were the old Vikings of the North, who spent their lives in elemental warfare, and rode out to meet death in tempest, lashed to the spar of their craft. And such, too, were the New World Vikings of the Pacific, who coasted the seas of two continents in cockle-shell ships,--planks lashed with deer thongs, calked with moss,--rapacious in their deep-sea plunderings as beasts of prey, fearless as the very spirit of the storm itself. The adventures of the North Pacific Vikings read more like some old legend of the sea than sober truth; and the wild strain had its fountain-head in the most tempestuous hero and beastlike man that ever ascended the throne of the Russias. [Illustration: Peter the Great.] When Peter the Great of Russia worked as a ship's carpenter at the docks of the East India Company in Amsterdam, the sailors' tales of vast, undiscovered lands beyond the seas of Japan must have acted on his imagination like a match to gunpowder.[1] Already he was dreaming those imperial conquests which Russia still dreams: of pushing his realm to the southernmost edge of Europe, to the easternmost verge of Asia, to the doorway of the Arctic, to the very threshold of the {5} Chinese capital. Already his Cossacks had scoured the two Siberias like birds of prey, exacting tribute from the wandering tribes of Tartary, of Kamchatka, of the Pacific, of the Siberian races in the northeasternmost corner of Asia. And these Chukchee Indians of the Asiatic Pacific told the Russians of a land beyond the sea, of driftwood floating across the ocean unlike any trees growing in Asia, of dead whales washed ashore with the harpoons of strange hunters, {6} and--most comical of all in the light of our modern knowledge about the Eskimo's tail-shaped fur coats--of men wrecked on the shores of Asia who might have qualified for Darwin's missing link, inasmuch as they wore "tails." And now the sailors added yet more fabulous things to Peter's knowledge. There was an unknown continent east of Asia, west of America, called on the maps "Gamaland." [2] Now, Peter's consuming ambition was for new worlds to conquer. What of this "Gamaland"? But, as the world knows, Peter was called home to suppress an insurrection. War, domestic broils, massacres that left a bloody stain on his glory, busied his hands for the remaining years of his life; and January of 1725 found the palaces of all the Russias hushed, for the Hercules who had scrunched all opposition like a giant lay dying, ashamed to consult a physician, vanquished of his own vices, calling on Heaven for pity with screams of pain that drove physicians and attendants from the room. Perhaps remorse for those seven thousand wretches executed at one fell swoop after the revolt; perhaps memories of those twenty kneeling supplicants whose heads he had struck off with his own hand, drinking a bumper of quass to each stroke; perhaps reproaches {7} of the highway robbers whom he used to torture to slow death, two hundred at a time, by suspending them from hooks in their sides; perhaps the first wife, whom he repudiated, the first son whom he had done to death either by poison or convulsions of fright, came to haunt the darkness of his deathbed. Catherine, the peasant girl, elevated to be empress of all the Russias, could avail nothing. Physicians and scientists and navigators, Dane and English and Dutch, whom he had brought to Russia from all parts of Europe, were powerless. Vows to Heaven, in all the long hours he lay convulsed battling with Death, were useless. The sins of a lifetime could not be undone by the repentance of an hour. Then, as if the dauntless Spirit of the man must rise finally triumphant over Flesh, the dying Hercules roused himself to one last supreme effort. Radisson, Marquette, La Salle, Vérendrye, were reaching across America to win the undiscovered regions of the Western Sea for France. New Spain was pushing her ships northward from Mexico; and now, the dying Peter of Russia with his own hand wrote instructions for an expedition to search the boundaries between Asia and America. In a word, he set in motion that forward march of the Russians across the Orient, which was to go on unchecked for two hundred years till arrested by the Japanese. The Czar's instructions were always laconic. They were written five weeks before his death. "(1) At {8} Kamchatka . . . two boats are to be built. (2) With these you are to sail northward along the coast. . . . (3) You are to enquire where the American coast begins. . . . Write it down . . . obtain reliable information . . . then, having charted the coast, return." [3] From the time that Peter the Great began to break down the Oriental isolation of Russia from the rest of Europe, it was his policy to draw to St. Petersburg--the city of his own creation--leaders of thought from every capital in Europe. And as his aim was to establish a navy, he especially endeavored to attract foreign navigators to his kingdom. Among these were many Norse and Danes. The acquaintance may have dated from the apprenticeship on the docks of the East India Company; but at any rate, among the foreign navigators was one Vitus Ivanovich Bering, a Dane of humble origin from Horsens,[4] who had been an East India Company sailor till he joined the Russian fleet as sub-lieutenant at the age of twenty-two, and fought his way up in the Baltic service through Peter's wars till in 1720 he was appointed captain of second rank. To Vitus Bering, the Dane, Peter gave the commission for the exploration of the waters between Asia and America. As a sailor, Bering had, of course, been on the borders of the Pacific.[5] {9} The scientists of every city in Europe were in a fret over the mythical Straits of Anian, supposed to be between Asia and America, and over the yet more mythical Gamaland, supposed to be visible on the way to New Spain. To all this jangling of words without knowledge Peter paid no heed. "You will go and obtain some reliable information," he commands Bering. Neither did he pay any heed to the fact that the ports of Kamchatka on the Pacific were six thousand miles by river and mountain and tundra and desert through an unknown country from St. Petersburg. It would take from three to five years to transport material across two continents by caravan and flatboat and dog sled. Tribute of food and fur would be required from Kurd and Tartar and wild Siberian tribe. More than a thousand horses must be requisitioned for the caravans; more than two thousand leathern sacks made for the flour. Twenty or thirty boats must be constructed to raft down the inland rivers. There were forests to be traversed for hundreds of miles, where only the keenest vigilance could keep the wolf packs off the heels of the travellers. And when the expedition should reach the tundras of eastern Siberia, there was the double danger of the Chukchee tribes on the north, hostile as the American Indians, and of the Siberian exile population on the south, branded criminals, political malcontents, banditti of {10} the wilderness, outcasts of nameless crimes beyond the pale of law. It needed no prophet to foresee such people would thwart, not help, the expedition. And when the shores of Okhotsk were reached, a fort must be built to winter there. And a vessel for inland seas must be constructed to cross to the Kamchatka peninsula of the North Pacific. And the peninsula which sticks out from Asia as Norway projects from Europe, must be crossed with provisions--a distance of some two hundred miles by dog trains over mountains higher than the American Rockies. And once on the shores of the Pacific itself, another fort must be built on the east side of the Kamchatka peninsula. And the two double-decker vessels must be constructed to voyage over the sleepy swell of the North Pacific to that mythical realm of mist like a blanket, and strange, unearthly rumblings smoking up from the cold Arctic sea, with the red light of a flame through the gray haze, and weird voices, as if the fog wraith were luring seamen to destruction. These were mere details. Peter took no heed of impossibles. Neither did Bering; for he was in the prime of his honor, forty-four years of age. "You will go," commanded the Czar, and Bering obeyed. Barely had the spirit of Peter the Great passed from this life, in 1725, when Bering's forces were travelling in midwinter from St. Petersburg to cross Siberia to the Pacific, on what is known as the First Expedition.[6] {11} Three years it took him to go from the west coast of Europe to the east coast of Asia, crossing from Okhotsk to Kamchatka, whence he sailed on the 9th of July, 1728, with forty-four men and three lieutenants for the Arctic seas.[7] This voyage is unimportant, except as the kernel out of which grew the most famous expedition on the Pacific coast. Martin Spanberg, another Danish navigator, huge of frame, vehement, passionate, tyrannical out dauntless, always followed by a giant hound ready to tear any one who approached to pieces, and Alexei Chirikoff, an able Russian, were seconds in command. They encountered all the difficulties to be expected transporting ships, rigging, and provisions across two continents. Spanberg and his men, winter-bound in East Siberia, were reduced to eating their dog harness and shoe-straps for food before they came to the trail of dead horses that marked Bering's path to the sea, and guided them to the fort at Okhotsk. Bering did exactly as Czar Peter had ordered. He built the two-deckers at Kamchatka. Then he followed the coast northward past St. Lawrence Island, which he named, to a point where the shore seemed to turn back on itself northwestward at 67 degrees 18 minutes, which proved to Bering that Asia and America were _not_ {12} united.[8] And they had found no "Gamaland," no new world wedged in between Asia and America, Twice they were within only forty miles of America, touching at St. Lawrence Island, but the fog hung like a blanket over the sea as they passed through the waters now known as Bering Straits. They saw no continent eastward; and Bering was compelled to return with no knowledge but that Russia did _not_ extend into America. And yet, there were definite signs of land eastward of Kamchatka--driftwood, seaweed, sea-birds. Before setting out for St. Petersburg in 1729, he had again tried to sail eastward to the Gamaland of the maps, but again foul weather had driven him back. It was the old story of the savants and Christopher Columbus in an earlier day. Bering's conclusions were different from the moonshine of the schools. There was no "Gamaland" in the sea. There was in the maps. The learned men of St. Petersburg ridiculed the Danish sailor. The fog was supposed to have concealed "Gamaland." There was nothing for Bering but to retire in ignominy or prove his conclusions. He had arrived in St. Petersburg in March, 1730. He had induced the court to undertake a second expedition by April of the same year.[9] {13} And for this second expedition, the court, the senate the admiralty, and the academy of sciences decided to provide with a lavish profusion that would dazzle the world with the brilliancy of Russian exploits. Russia was in the mood to do things. The young savants who thronged her capital were heady with visionary theories that were to astonish the rest of mortals. Scientists, artisans, physicians, monks, Cossacks, historians, made up the motley roll of conflicting influences under Bering's command; but because Bering was a Dane, this command was not supreme. He must convene a council of the Russian officers under him, submit all his plans to their vote, then abide by their decision. Yet he alone must carry responsibility for blunders. And as the days went on, details of instructions rolling out from admiralty, senate, and academy were like an avalanche gathering impetus to destruction from its weight. He was to establish new industries in Siberia. He was to chart the whole Arctic coast line of Asia. He was to Christianize the natives. He was to provide the travelling academicians with luxurious equipment, though some of them had forty wagon-loads of instruments and carried a peripatetic library. Early in 1733, the Second Expedition set out from St. Petersburg in detachments to cross Siberia. There were Vitus Bering, the commander, Chirikoff and Spanberg, his two seconds, eight lieutenants, sixteen mates, twelve physicians, seven priests, carpenters, {14} bakers, Cossacks, sailors,--in all, five hundred and eighty men.[10] Now, if it was difficult to transport a handful of attendants across Siberia for the first simple voyage, what was it to convoy this rabble composed of self-important scientists bent on proving impossible theories, of underling officers each of whom considered himself a czar, of wives and children unused to such travel, of priests whose piety took the extraordinary form of knouting subordinates to death, of Cossacks who drank and gambled and brawled at every stopping place till half the lieutenants in the company had crossed swords in duels, of workmen who looked on the venture as a mad banishment, and only watched for a chance to desert? Scouts went scurrying ahead with orders for the Siberian Cossacks to prepare wintering quarters for the on-coming host, and to levy tribute on the inhabitants for provision; but in Siberia, as the Russians say, "_God is high in the Heaven, and the Czar is far away_;" and the Siberian governors raised not a finger to prepare for Bering. Spanberg left St. Petersburg in February, 1733. Bering followed in March; and all summer the long caravans of slow-moving pack horses--as many as four thousand in a line--wound across the desert wastes of West Siberia. {15} Only the academists dallied in St. Petersburg, kissing Majesty's hand farewell, basking in the sudden sunburst of short notoriety, driving Bering almost mad by their exorbitant demands for luxuriously appointed barges to carry them down the Volga. Winter was passed at Tobolsk; but May of 1734 witnessed a firing of cannon, a blaring of trumpets, a clinking of merry glasses among merry gentlemen; for the caravans were setting out once more to the swearing of the Cossacks, the complaining of the scientists, the brawling of the underling officers, the silent chagrin of the endlessly patient Bering. One can easily believe that the God-speed from the Siberians was sincere; for the local governors used the orders for tribute to enrich themselves; and the country-side groaned under a heavy burden of extortion. The second winter was passed at Yakutsk, where the ships that were to chart the Arctic coast of Siberia were built and launched with crews of some hundred men. It was the end of June, 1735, before the main forces were under way again for the Pacific. From Yakutsk to Okhotsk on the Pacific, the course was down the Lena, up the Aldan River, up the Maya, up the Yudoma, across the Stanovoi Mountains, down the Urak river to the sea. A thousand Siberian exiles were compelled to convoy these boats.[11] Not a roof had been prepared to house the forces in the mountains. Men and horses were torn to pieces by the timber {16} wolves. Often, for days at a time, the only rations were carcasses of dead horses, roots, flour, and rice. Winter barracks had to be built between the rivers, for the navigable season was short. In May the rivers broke up in spring flood. Then, the course was against a boiling torrent. Thirty men could not tug a boat up the Yudoma. They stood in ice-water up to their waists lifting the barges over the turbulent places. Sores broke out on the feet of horses and men. Three years it took to transport all the supplies and ships' rigging from the Lena to the Pacific, with wintering barracks constructed at each stopping place. At Okhotsk on the Pacific, Major-General Pissarjeff was harbor master. This old reprobate, once a favorite of Peter the Great, had been knouted, branded and exiled for conspiracy, forbidden even to conceal his brand; and now, he let loose all his seventy years of bitterness on Bering. He not only had _not_ made preparation to house the explorers; but he refused to permit them inside the stockades of the miserable huts at Okhotsk, which he called his fort. When they built a fort of their own outside, he set himself to tantalize the two Danes, Bering and Spanberg, knouting their men, sending coureurs with false accusations against Bering to St. Petersburg, actually countermanding their orders for supplies from the Cossacks. Spanberg would have finished the matter neatly with a sharp sword; but Bering forbore, and Pissarjeff {17} was ultimately replaced by a better harbor master. The men set to work cutting the timber for the ships that were to cross from Okhotsk to the east shore of Kamchatka; for Bering's ships of the first voyage could now be used only as packet boats. Not till the fourth of June, 1741, had all preparations ripened for the fulfilment of Czar Peter's dying wishes to extend his empire into America. Two vessels, the _St. Peter_ and the _St. Paul_, rode at anchor at Petropaulovsk in the Bay of Avacha on the east coast of Kamchatka. On the shore was a little palisaded fort of some fifty huts, a barrack, a chapel, a powder magazine. Early that morning, solemn religious services had been held to invoke the blessing of Heaven on the voyagers. Now, the chapel bell was set ringing. Monks came singing down to the water's edge. Cannon were fired. Cheer on cheer set the echoes rolling among the white domed mountains. There was a rattling of anchor chains, a creaking of masts and yard-arms. The sails fluttered out bellying full; and with a last, long shout, the ships glided out before the wind to the lazy swell of the Pacific for the discovery of new worlds. And why not new worlds? That was the question the officers accompanying Bering asked themselves as the white peaks of Kamchatka faded on the offing. Certainly, in the history of the world, no expedition had set out with greater prestige. Eight years had it {18} taken to cross Siberia from St. Petersburg to the Pacific. A line of forts across two continents had been built for winter quarters. Rivers had been bridged; as many as forty boats knocked together in a single year to raft down the Siberian torrents. Two hundred thousand dollars in modern money had been spent before the Pacific was reached. In all, nine ships had been built on the Pacific to freight supplies across from Okhotsk to the eastern side of Kamchatka, two to carry Bering to the new continent of "Gamaland" which the savants persisted in putting on the maps, three to explore the region between Russia and Japan. Now, Bering knew there was _no_ "Gamaland" except in the ignorant, heady imaginings of the foolish geographers. So did Alexei Chirikoff, the Russian second assistant. So did Spanberg, the Dane, third in command, who had coasted the Pacific in charting Japan. Roughly speaking, the expedition had gradually focussed to three points: (1) the charting of the Arctic coast; (2) the exploration of Japan; (3) the finding of what lay between Asia and America. Some two hundred men, of whom a score had already perished of scurvy, had gone down the Siberian rivers to the Arctic coast. Spanberg, the Dane, with a hundred others, had thoroughly charted Japan, and had seen his results vetoed by the authorities at St. Petersburg because there was no Gamaland. Bering, himself, undertook the voyage to America. All the month of {19} May, council after council had been held at Avacha Bay to determine which way Bering's two ships should sail. By the vote of this council, Bering, the commander, was compelled to abide; and the mythical Gamaland proved his evil star. The maps of the D'Isles, the famous geographers, contained a Gamaland; and Louis la Croyére d'Isle, relative of the great map maker, who had knocked about in Canada and was thought to be an authority on American matters, was to accompany Chirikoff, Bering's first lieutenant. At the councils, these maps were hauled out. It was a matter of family pride with the D'Isles to find that Gamaland. Bering and Chirikoff may have cursed all scientists, as Cook, the great navigator, cursed savants at a later day; but they must bow to the decision of the council; and the decision was to sail south-southeast for Gamaland. And yet, there could have been no bitterness in Bering's feelings; for he knew that the truth must triumph. He would be vindicated, whatever came; and the spell of the North was upon him with its magic beckoning on--on--on to the unknown, to the unexplored, to the undreamed. All that the discoveries of Columbus gave to the world, Bering's voyage might give to Russia; for he did _not_ know that the La Vérendryes of New France had already penetrated west as far as the Rockies; and he did know that half a continent yet lay unexplored, unclaimed, on the other side of the Pacific. {20} [Illustration: Map of Course followed by Bering.] But with boats that carried only one hundred casks of water, and provisions for but five months, the decision to sail south-southeast was a deplorable waste of precious time. It would lead to the Spanish possessions, not to the unknown North. On Bering's boat, the _St. Peter_, was a crew of seventy-seven, Lieutenant Waxel, second in command, George William Steller, the famous scientist, Bering's friend, on board. On the _St. Paul_, under the stanch, level-headed Russian lieutenant, Alexei Chirikoff, were seventy-six men, with La Croyére d'Isle as astronomer. Not the least {21} complicating feature of the case was the personnel of the crews. For the most part, they were branded criminals and malcontents. From the first they had regarded the Bering expedition with horror. They had joined it under compulsion for only six years; and the exploration was now in its eleventh year. Spanberg, the other Dane, with his brutal tongue and constant recourse to the knout, who had gone to St. Petersburg to report on Japan, they cordially hated. Chirikoff, the Russian, was a universal favorite, and Bering, the supreme commander, was loved for his {22} kindness; but Bering's commands were subject to veto by the Russian underlings; and the Russian underling officers kept up a constant brawl of duels and gaming and drink. No wonder the bluff Dane sailed out from the snow-rimmed peaks of Avacha Bay with dark forebodings. He had carried a load of petty instructions issued by ignoramus savants for eight years. He had borne eight years of nagging from court and senate and academy. He had been criticised for blunders of others' making. He had been set to accomplish a Herculean task with tied hands. He had been threatened with fines and court martial for the delay caused by the quarrels of his under officers to whom he was subject. He had been deprived of salary for three years and accused of pilfering from public funds. His wife, who had by this time returned with the wives of the other officers to Russia, had actually been searched for hidden booty.[12] And now, after toils and hardships untold, only five months' provisions were left for the ships sailing from Kamchatka; and the blockhead underlings were compelling a waste of those provisions by sailing in the wrong direction. If the worst came, could Bering hold his men with those tied hands of his? The commander shrugged his shoulders and signalled Chirikoff, the Russian, on the _St. Paul_, to lead the way. They must find out there was no Gamaland {23} for themselves, those obstinate Russians! The long swell of the Pacific meets them as they sheer out from the mountain-girt harbor. A dip of the sails to the swell of the rising wind, and the snowy heights of Avacha Bay are left on the offing. The thunder of the surf against the rocky caves of Kamchatka coast fades fainter. The myriad birds become fewer. Steller, the scientist, leans over the rail to listen if the huge sperm whale, there, "hums" as it "blows." The white rollers come from the north, rolling--rolling down to the tropics. A gray thing hangs over the northern offing, a grayish brown thing called "fog" of which they will know more anon. The grayish brown thing means storm; and the "porps" tumbling, floundering, somerseting round the ships in circles, mean storm; and Chirikoff, far ahead there, signals back doubtfully to know if they shouldn't keep together to avoid being lost in the gathering fog. The Dane shrugs his shoulders and looks to the north. The grayish brown thing has darkened, thickened, spread out impalpably, and by the third day, a northling wind is whistling through the riggings with a rip. Sails are furled. The white rollers roll no longer. They lash with chopped-off tops flying backward; and the _St. Peter_ is churning about, shipping sea after sea with the crash of thunder. That was what the fog meant; and it is all about them, in a hurricane now, stinging cold, thick to the touch, washing out every outline but sea--sea! {24} Never mind! They are nine days out. It is the twelfth of June. They are down to 46 degrees and no Gamaland! The blockheads have stopped spreading their maps in the captain's cabin. One can see a smile wreathing in the whiskers of the Dane. Six hundred miles south of Kamchatka and no Gamaland! The council convenes again. It is decided to turn about, head north, and say no more of Gamaland. But when the fog, that has turned hurricane, lifts, the consort ship, the _St. Paul_, is lost. Chirikoff's vessel has disappeared. Up to 49 degrees, they go; but still no Chirikoff, and no Gamaland! Then the blunder-makers, as usual, blunder more. It is dangerous to go on without the sister ship. The council convenes. Bering must hark back to 46 degrees and hunt for Chirikoff. So passes the whole month of June. Out of five months' provisions, one wasted, the odium on Bering, the Dane. It was noticed that after the ship turned south, the commander looked ill and depressed. He became intolerant of opposition or approach. Possibly to avoid irritation, he kept to his cabin; but he issued peremptory orders for the _St. Peter_ to head back north. In a few days, Bering was confined to bed with that overwhelming physical depression and fear, that precede the scourge most dreaded by seamen--scurvy. Lieutenant Waxel now took command. Waxel had all a sailor's contempt for the bookful blockheads, who wrench fact to fit theory; and deadly enmity arose {25} between him and Steller, the scientist. By the middle of July, the fetid drinking water was so reduced that the crew was put on half allowance; but on the sleepy, fog-blanketed swell of the Pacific slipping past Bering's wearied eyes, there were so many signs of land--birds, driftwood, seaweed--that the commander ordered the ship hove to each night for fear of grounding. On the thirteenth of July, the council of underlings had so far relinquished all idea of a Gamaland, that it was decided to steer continuously north. Sometime between the 16th and 20th, the fog lifted like a curtain. Such a vision met the gaze of the stolid seamen as stirred the blood of those phlegmatic Russians. It was the consummation of all their labor, what they had toiled across Siberia to see, what they had hoped against hope in spite of the learned jargon of the geographers. There loomed above the far horizon of the north sea what might have been an immense opal dome suspended in mid-heaven. One can guess how the lookout strained keen eyes at this grand, crumpled apex of snow jagged through the clouds like the celestial tent peak of some giant race; how the shout of "land" went up, how officers and underlings flocked round Bering with cries and congratulations. "We knew it was land beyond a doubt on the sixteenth," says Steller. "Though I have been in Kamchatka, I have never seen more lofty mountains." The shore was broken everywhere, showing inlets and harbors. {26} Everybody congratulated the commander, but he only shrugged shoulders, saying: "We think we've done big things, eh? but who knows? Nobody realizes where this is, or the distance we must sail back. Winds may be contrary. We don't know this land; and we haven't provisions to winter." The truth is--the maps having failed, Bering was good enough seaman to know these uncharted signs of a continent indicated that the _St. Peter_ was hopelessly lost. Sixteen years of nagging care, harder to face than a line of cannon, had sucked Bering's capacity of resistance like a vampire. That buoyancy, which lifts man above Anxious Fright, had been sapped. The shadowy elemental powers--physical weakness, disease, despair--were closing round the explorer like the waves of an eternal sea. The boat found itself in a wonder world, that beggared romance. The great peak, which they named St. Elias, hung above a snowy row of lesser ridges in a dome of alabaster. Icebergs, like floating palaces, came washing down from the long line of precipitous shore. As they neared anchorage at an island now known as Kyak, they could see billows of ferns, grasses, lady's slippers, rhododendrons, bluebells, forget-me-nots, rippling in the wind. Perhaps they saw those palisades of ice, that stretch like a rampart northward along the main shore west of St. Elias. The _St. Peter_ moved slowly landward against a head wind. Khitroff and Steller put off in the small {27} boats with fifteen men to reconnoitre. Both found traces of inhabitants--timbered huts, fire holes, shells, smoked fish, footprints in the grass. Steller left some kettles, knives, glass beads, and trinkets in the huts to replace the possessions of the natives, which the Russians took. Many years later, another voyager met an old Indian, who told of seeing Bering's ship anchor at Kyak Island when he was a boy; but the terrified Indians had fled, only returning to find the presents in the huts, when the Russians had gone.[13] Steller was as wild as a child out of school, and accompanied by only one Cossack went bounding over the island collecting specimens and botanizing. Khitroff, meanwhile, filled water-casks; but on July 21, the day after the anchorage, a storm-wind began whistling through the rigging. The rollers came washing down from the ice wall of the coast and the far offing showed the dirty fog that portended storm. Only half the water-casks had been filled; but there was a brisk seaward breeze. Without warning, contrary to his custom of consulting the other officers, Bering appeared on deck pallid and ashen from disease, and peremptorily ordered anchors up. In vain Steller stormed and swore, accusing the chief of pusillanimous homesickness, "of reducing his explorations to a six hours' anchorage on an island shore," "of coming from Asia to carry home American water." The commander had had enough of {28} vacillation, delay, interference. One-third of the crew was ailing. Provisions for only three months were in the hold. The ship was off any known course more than two thousand miles from any known port; and contrary winds might cause delay or drive the vessel on the countless reefs that lined this strange coast, like a ploughed field. Dense clouds and a sleety rain settled over the sea, washing out every outline, as the _St. Peter_ began her westward course. But what baffled both Bering and the officers was the fact that the coast trended, not north, but south. They were coasting that long peninsula of Alaska that projects an arm for a thousand miles southwestward into the Pacific. The roar of the rollers came from the reefs. Through the blanketing fog they could discern, on the north, island after island, ghostlike through the mist, rocky, towering, majestic, with a thunder of surf among the caves, a dim outline of mountains above, like Loki, Spirit of Evil, smiling stonily at the dark forces closing round these puny men. All along Kadiak, the roily waters told of reefs. The air was heavy with fogs thick to the touch; and violent winds constantly threatened a sudden shift that might drive the vessel on the rocks. At midnight on August 1, they suddenly found themselves with only three feet of water below the keel. Fortunately there was no wind, but the fog was like ink. By swinging into a current, that ran a mill-race, they were carried out to eighteen fathoms {29} of water, where they anchored till daybreak. They called this place Foggy Island. To-day it is known as Ukamok. [Illustration: The _St. Peter_ and _St. Paul_, from a rough sketch by Bering's comrade, Steller, the scientist.] The underlings now came sharply to their senses and, at the repeatedly convened and distracted councils between July 25 and August 10, decided that there was only one thing to do--sail at once for the home port of Kamchatka. The _St. Peter_ was tossing about in frightful winds among reefs and hurricane fog like a cork. Half the crew lay ill and helpless of scurvy, {30} and only two months' provisions remained for a voyage of two thousand miles. The whole crew signed the resolution to go home. Only twenty-five casks of water remained. On August 30 the _St. Peter_ anchored off a group of thirteen bald, bare, treeless rocks. It was thought that if some of the scurvy-stricken sailors could be carried ashore, they might recover. One, Shumagin, died as he was lifted ashore. This was the first death, and his name was given to the islands. Bering himself was so ill he could not stand. Twenty emaciated men were laid along the shore. Steller hurried off to hunt anti-scorbutic plants, while Waxel, who had taken command, and Khitroff ordered the water-casks filled. Unfortunately the only pool they could find was connected with an arm of the sea. The water was brackish, and this afterward increased disease. A fatality seemed to hang over the wonder world where they wandered. Voices were heard in the storm, rumblings from the sea. Fire could be seen through the fog. Was this fire from volcanoes or Indians? And such a tide-rip thundered along the rocks as shook the earth and set the ship trembling. Waxel knew they must not risk delay by going to explore, but by applying to Bering, who lay in his berth unconscious of the dangers on this coast, Khitroff gained permission to go from the vessel on a yawl with five sailors; but by the time he had rowed against head winds to the scene of the fire, the Indians had {31} fled, and such beach combers were crashing ashore, Khitroff dare not risk going back to the ship. In vain Waxel ground his teeth with rage, signalled, and waited. "The wind seemed to issue from a flue," says Steller, "with such a whistling and roaring and rumbling that we expected to lose mast and rudder, or be crushed among the breakers. The dashings of the sea sounded like a cannon." The fact was, Khitroff's yawl had been smashed to kindling wood against the rocks; and the six half-drowned Russians were huddling together waiting for help when Waxel took the other small boat and went to the rescue. Barely had this been effected at the cost of four days' delay, in which the ship might have made five hundred miles toward home, when natives were seen paddling out in canoes, gesticulating for the white men to come ashore. Waxel lowered away in the small boat with nine armed men to pay the savages a visit. Close ashore, he beckoned the Indians to wade out; but they signalled him in turn to land, and he ordered three men out to moor the boat to a rock. All went well between Russians and Indians, presents being exchanged, till a chief screwed up his courage to paddle out to Waxel in the boat. With characteristic hospitality, Waxel at once proffered some Russian brandy, which, by courtesy among all Western sailors, is always known as "chain lightning." The chief took but one gulp of the liquid fire, when with a wild yell he spat it out, shouted that he had been poisoned, and dashed ashore. {32} The three Russians succeeded in gaining Waxel's boat, but the Indians grabbed the mooring ropes and seized the Chukchee interpreter, whom Waxel had brought from Siberia. Waxel ordered the rope cut, but the Chukchee interpreter called out pitifully to be saved. Quick as flash, the Russians fired two muskets in midair. At the crash that echoed among the cliffs, the Indians fell prostrate with fear, and the interpreter escaped; but six days had been wasted in this futile visit to the natives. Scarcely had they escaped this island, when such a hurricane broke over the _St. Peter_ for seventeen days that the ship could only scud under bare poles before a tornado wind that seemed to be driving north-northwest. The ship was a chip in a maelstrom. There were only fifteen casks of water fit to drink. All food was exhausted but mouldy sea-biscuits. One sailor a day was now dying of scurvy, and those left were so weak that they had no power to man the ship. The sailors were so emaciated they had to be carried back and forward to the rudder, and the underling officers were quarrelling among themselves. The crew dared not hoist sails, because not a man of the _St. Peter_ had the physical strength to climb and lower canvas.[14] {33} The rain turned to sleet. The sleet froze to the rotting sails, to the ice-logged hull, to the wan yardarms frost-white like ghosts. At every lurch of the sea slush slithered down from the rigging on the shivering seamen. The roar of the breakers told of a shallow sea, yet mist veiled the sky, and they were above waters whose shallows drop to sudden abysmal depths of three thousand fathoms. Sheets of smoking vapor rose from the sea, sheets of flame-tinged smoke from the crevasses of land volcanoes which the fogs hid. Out of the sea came the hoarse, strident cry of the sea-lion, and the walrus, and the hairy seal. It was as if the poor Russians had sailed into some under-world. The decks were slippery as glass, the vessel shrouded in ice. Over all settled that unspeakable dread of impending disaster, which is a symptom of scurvy, and saps the fight that makes a man fit to survive. Waxel, alone, held the vessel up to the wind. Where were they? Why did this coasting along unknown northern islands not lead to Kamchatka? The councils were no longer the orderly conferences of savants over cut-and-dried maps. They were bedlam. Panic was in the marrow of every man, even the passionate Steller, who thought all the while they were on the coast of Kamchatka and made loud complaint that the expedition had been misled by "unscrupulous leaders." At eight o'clock on the morning of October 30 it was seen that the ice-clogged ropes on the starboard {34} side had been snapped by the wind like dry sticks. Offerings, vows, prayers went up from the stricken crew. Piety became a very real thing. The men prayed aloud and conferred on ways to win the favor of God. The colder weather brought one relief. The fog lifted and the air was clear. The wind veered northeast, and on November 4, to their inexpressible joy, a dim outline sharpened to hard, clear horizon; and the gazing crew gradually saw a high, mountainous coast become clear beyond doubt directly ahead sixteen miles. Surely, this was Kamchatka? Surely, God had heard their vows? The sick crawled on hands and knees above the hatchway to see land once more, and with streaming eyes thanked Heaven for the escape from doom. Grief became joy; gruff, happy, hilarious laughter; for a few hidden casks of brandy were brought out to celebrate the end of their miseries, and each man began pointing out certain headlands that he thought he recognized. But this ecstasy was fool joy born of desperation. As the ship rounded northeastward, a strangeness came over the scene; a chill over the good cheer--a numbing, silent, unspeakable dread over the crew. These turbulent waters running a mill-race between reefs looked more like a channel between two islands than open coast. The men could not utter a word. They hoped against hope. They dare not voice their fears. That night, the _St. Peter_ stood off from land in case of storm. Topsails were furled, and the wind had ripped the other {35} sails to tatters, that flared and beat dismally all night against the cordage. One can imagine the anxiety of that long night with the roar of the breakers echoing angrily from shore, the whistle of the wind through the rotten rigging, the creaking of the timbers to the crash and growl and rebound of the tide. Clear, refulgent with sunshine like the light of creation's first day, the sting of ozone in the air, and the freshness of a scene never before witnessed by human eyes--dawned the morning of November 5. The shore was of black, adamant rock rising sheer from the sea in a rampart wall. Reefs, serried, rank on rank, like sentinels, guarded approach to the coast in jagged masses, that would rip the bottom from any keel like the teeth of a saw; and over these rolled the roaring breakers with a clutch to the back-wash that bade the gazing sailors beware. Birds, birds in myriads upon myriads, screamed and circled over the eerie heights of the beetling cliffs. This did not look like Kamchatka. These birds were not birds of the Asiatic home port. These cliffs were not like the snow-rimmed mountains of Avacha Bay. Waxel called a council. Officers and men dragged themselves to Bering's cabin. Waxel had already canvassed all hands to vote for a landing to winter on these shores. This, the dying Bering opposed with all his might. "We roust be almost home," he said. "We still have six casks of water, and the _foremast_. Having risked so {36} much, let us risk three days more, let us risk everything to reach Avacha Bay." Poor Bering! Had his advice been followed, the saddest disaster of northern seas might have been averted; for they were less than ten days' run from the home harbor; but inspired by fool hopes born of fear, like the old marsh lights that used to lure men to the quicksands--Waxel and Khitroff actually persuaded themselves this _was_ Kamchatka, and when one lieutenant, Ofzyn, who knew the north well from charting the Arctic coast, would have spoken in favor of Bering's view, he was actually clubbed and thrown from the cabin. The crew voted as a man to land and winter on this coast. Little did they know that vote was their own death warrant. [1] See _Life of Peter the Great_, by Orlando Williams, 1859; _Peter the Great_, by John Lothrop Motley, 1877; _History of Peter I_, by John Mottley, 1740; _Journal of Peter the Great_, 1698; Voltaire's _Pierre le Grand_; Ségur's _Histoire de Russie et de Pierre le Grand_. [2] Who this man _Gama_, supposed to have seen the unknown continent of Gamaland, was, no one knew. The Portuguese followed the myth blindly; and the other geographers followed the Portuguese. Texeira, court geographer in Portugal, in 1649 issued a map with a vague coast marked at latitude 45 degrees north, with the words "Land seen by John de Gama, Indian, going from China to New Spain." [3] These instructions were handed to Peter's admiral--Count Apraxin. [4] Born 1681, son of Jonas and Anna Bering, whom a petition describes, in 1719, as "old, miserable, decrepit people, no way able to help ourselves." [5] He fought in Black Sea wars of 1711; and from lieutenant-captain became captain of the second rank by 1717, when Russians, jealous of the foreigner, blocked his promotion. He demanded promotion or discharge, and withdrew to Finland, where the Czar's Kamchatkan expedition called him from retirement. [6] The expedition left St. Petersburg February 5th. [7] The midshipman of this voyage was Peter Chaplin, whose journal was deposited in the Naval College of the Admiralty, St. Petersburg. Berg gives a summary of this journal. A translation by Dall is to be found in _Appendix 19, Coast Survey, Washington, 1890_. [8] A great dispute has waged among the finical academists, where the Serdze Kamen of this trip really was; the Russian observations varying greatly owing to fog and rude instruments. _Lauridsen_ quarrels with _Müller_ on this score. _Müller_ was one of the theorists whose wrongheadedness misled Bering. [9] It was in 1730 that Gvozdef's report of a strange land between 65 degrees and 66 degrees became current. Whether this land was America, Gamaland, or Asia, the savants could not know. [10] It is from the works of _Gmelin_, _Müller_, and _Steller_, scientists named to accompany the expedition, that the most connected accounts are obtained. The "menagerie," some one has called this collection of scientists. [11] Many of the workmen died of their hardships at this stage of the journey. [12] Berg says Bering's two sons, Thomas and Unos, were also with him in Siberia. [13] _Sauer_ relates this incident. [14] See _Müller_, p. 93, 1764 edition: "The men, notwithstanding want, misery, sickness, were obliged to work continually in the cold and wet, and the sickness was so dreadful that the sailors who governed the rudder were obliged to be led to it by others, who could hardly walk. They durst not carry much sail, because there was nobody to lower them in case of need, and they were so thin a violent wind would have torn them to pieces. The rain now changed to hail and snow." {37} CHAPTER II 1741-1743 CONTINUATION OF BERING, THE DANE Frightful Sufferings of the Castaways on the Commander Islands--The Vessel smashed in a Winter Gale, the Sick are dragged for Refuge into Pits of Sand--Here, Bering perishes, and the Crew Winter--The Consort Ship under Chirikoff Ambushed--How the Castaways reach Home Without pilot or captain, the _St. Peter_ drifted to the swirling current of the sea along a high, rocky, forbidding coast where beetling precipices towered sheer two thousand feet above a white fret of reefs, that gave the ocean the appearance of a ploughed field. The sick crawled mutely back to their berths. Bering was past caring what came and only semiconscious. Waxel, who had compelled the crew to vote for landing here under the impression born of his own despair,--that this was the coast of Avacha Bay, Kamchatka,--saw with dismay in the shores gliding past the keel momentary proofs that he was wrong. Poor Waxel had fought desperately against the depression that precedes scurvy; but now, with a dumb hopelessness settling over the ship, the invisible hand of the scourge {38} was laid on him, too. He went below decks completely fordone. The underling officers still upon their feet, whose false theories had led Bering into all this disaster, were now quarrelling furiously among themselves, blaming one another. Only Ofzyn, the lieutenant, who had opposed the landing, and Steller, the scientist, remained on the lookout with eyes alert for the impending destruction threatened from the white fret of the endless reefs. Rocks rose in wild, jagged masses out of the sea. Deep V-shaped ravines, shadowy in the rising moonlight, seemed to recede into the rock wall of the coast, and only where a river poured out from one of these ravines did there appear to be any gap through the long lines of reefs where the surf boomed like thunder. The coast seemed to trend from northwest to southeast, and might have been from thirty to fifty miles long, with strange bizarre arches of rock overhanging endless fields of kelp and seaweed. The land was absolutely treeless except for willow brushwood the size of one's finger. Lichens, moss, sphagnum, coated the rocks. Inland appeared nothing but billowing reaches of sedges and shingle and grass. [Illustration: Steller's Arch on Bering Island, named after the scientist Steller, of Bering's Expedition.] Suddenly Steller noticed that the ebb-tide was causing huge combing rollers that might dash the ship against the rocks. Rushing below decks he besought Bering's permission to sound and anchor. The early darkness of those northern latitudes had been followed by moon-light bright as day. Within a mile of the east shore, {39} Steller ordered the anchor dropped, but by this time, the rollers were smashing over decks with a quaking that seemed to tear the ship asunder. The sick were hurled from their berths. Officers rushed on deck to be swept from their feet by blasts of salt spray, and just ahead, through the moonlight, could be seen the sharp edge of a long reef where the beach combers ran with the tide-rip of a whirlpool. There is something inexpressibly terrifying even from a point of safety in these beach combers, clutching their long arms hungrily for prey. The confusion of orders and {40} counter-orders, which no man had strength to carry out, of terrified cries and prayers and oaths--was indescribable. The numb hopelessness was succeeded by sheer panic terror. Ofzyn threw out a second anchor that raked bottom. Then, another mountain roller thundering over the ship with a crash--and the first cable snapped like a pistol shot. The ship rebounded; then drove before the back-wash of the angry sea. With no fate possible but the wall of rocks ahead, the terrorized crew began heaving the dead overboard in the moonlight; but another roaring billow smashed the _St. Peter_ squarely broadside. The second hawser ripped back with the whistling rebound of a whip-lash, and Ofzyn was in the very act of dropping the third and last anchor, when straight as a bullet to the mark, as if hag-ridden by the northern demons of sailor fear, hurled the _St. Peter_ for the reef! A third time the beach combers crashed down like a falling mountain. When the booming sheets of blinding spray had cleared and the panic-stricken sailors could again see, the _St. Peter_ was staggering stern foremost, shore ahead, like a drunken ship. Quick as shot, Ofzyn and Steller between them heaved over the last anchor. The flukes gripped--raked--then caught--and held. The ship lay rocking inside a reef in the very centre of a sheltered cove not six hundred yards from land. The beach comber had either swept her through a gap in the reef, or hurled her clear above the reefs into shelter. {41} For seven hours the ship had battled against tide and counter-current. Now, at midnight, with the air clear as day, Steller had the small boat lowered and with another--some say Waxel, others Pleneser, the artist, or Ofzyn, of the Arctic expedition--rowed ashore to reconnoitre. Sometime between the evening of November 5 and the morning of November 6, their eyes met such a view as might have been witnessed by an Alexander Selkirk, or Robinson Crusoe. The exact landing was four or five miles north of what is now known as Cape Khitroff, below the centre of the east coast of Bering Island.[1] Poor Waxel would have it, they were on the coast of Kamchatka, and spoke of sending messengers for help to Petropaulovsk on Avacha Bay; but, as they were to learn soon enough, the nearest point in Kamchatka was one hundred miles across the sea. Avacha Bay was two hundred miles away. And the Spanish possessions of America, three thousand. They found the landing place literally swarming with animal life unknown to the world before. An enormous mammal, more than three tons in weight, with hind quarters like a whale, snout and fore fins resembling a cow, grazed in herds on the fields of sea-kelp and gazed languidly without fear on the newcomer--Man. This was the famous sea-cow described by the enthusiastic Steller, but long since extinct. Blue foxes swarmed round the very feet of the {42} men with such hungry boldness that half a dozen could be clubbed to death before the others scampered. Later, Steller was to see the seal rookeries, that were to bring so much wealth to the world, the sea-lions that roared along the rocks till the surf shook, the sea-otter whose rare pelt, more priceless than beaver or sable, was to cause the exploration and devastation of the northern half of the Pacific coast. The land was as it had appeared to the ship--utterly treeless except for trailing willows. The brooks were not yet frozen, and snow had barely powdered the mountains; but where the coves ran in back between the mountains from the sea were gullies or ditches of sand and sedge. When Steller presently found a broken window casing of Kamchatka half buried in the sand, it gave Waxel some confidence about being on the mainland of Asia; but before Steller had finished his two days' reconnoitre, there was no mistaking the fact--this was an island, and a barren one at the best, without tree or shelter; and here the castaways must winter. The only provisions now remaining to the crew were grease and mouldy flour. Steller at once went to work. Digging pits in the narrow gullies of sand, he covered these over with driftwood, the rotten sail-cloth, moss, mud, and foxskins. Cracks were then chinked up with clay and more foxskins. By the 8th of November he was ready to have the crew landed; but the ship rolled helpless as a log to the tide, and the few well {43} men of the staff, without distinction of officers from sailors, had to stand waist-deep in ice-slush to steady the stretchers made of mast poles and sail-cloth, that received the sick lowered over decks. Many of the scurvy stricken had not been out of their berths for six weeks. The fearful depression and weakness, that forewarn scurvy, had been followed by the pains, the swollen limbs, the blue spots that presage death. A spongy excrescence covered the gums. The teeth loosened. The slightest noise was enough to throw the patient into a paroxysm of anguished fright; and some died on the decks immediately on contact with the cuttingly cold air. Others expired as they were lowered to the stretchers; others, as they were laid along the strip of sandy shore, where the bold foxes were already devouring the dead and could scarcely be driven off by the dying. In this way perished nine of the _St. Peter's_ crew during the week of the landing. By November 10, all was in readiness for Bering's removal from the ship. As the end approached, his irritability subsided to a quieted cheerfulness; and he could be heard mumbling over thanks to God for the great success of his early life. Wrapped in furs, fastened to a stretcher, the Dane was lowered over the ship, carried ashore, and laid in a sand pit. All that day it had been dull and leaden; and just as Bering was being carried, it began to snow heavily. Steller occupied the sand pit next to the commander; and in {44} addition to acting as cook and physician to the entire crew, became Bering's devoted attendant. By the 13th of November, a long sand pit had been roofed over as a sort of hospital with rug floor; and here Steller had the stricken sailors carried in from the shore. Poor Waxel, who had fought so bravely, was himself carried ashore on November 21. Daily, officers tramped inland exploring; and daily, the different reconnoitring parties returned with word that not a trace of human habitation, of wood, or the way to Kamchatka had been discovered. Another island there was to the east--now known as Copper Island--and two little islets of rock; but beyond these, nothing could be descried from the highest mountains but sea--sea. Bering Island, itself, is some fifty miles long by ten wide, very high at the south, very swampy at the north; but the Commander Group is as completely cut off from both Asia and America as if it were in another world. The climate was not intensely cold; but it was so damp, the very clothing rotted; and the gales were so terrific that the men could only leave the mud huts or _yurts_ by crawling on all fours; and for the first three weeks after the landing, blast on blast of northern hurricane swept over the islands. The poor old ship rode her best at anchor through the violent storms; but on November 28 she was seen to snap her cable and go staggering drunkenly to open sea. The terror of the castaways at this spectacle {45} was unspeakable. Their one chance of escape in spring seemed lost; but the beach combers began rolling landward through the howling storm; and when next the spectators looked, the _St. Peter_ was driving ashore like a hurricane ship, and rushed full force, nine feet deep with her prow into the sands not a pistol shot away from the crew. The next beach comber could not budge her. Wind and tide left her high and dry, fast in the sand. But what had become of Chirikoff, on board the _St. Paul_, from the 20th of June, when the vessels were separated by storm? Would it have been any easier for Bering if he had known that the consort ship had been zigzagging all the while less than a week's cruise from the _St. Peter_? When the storm, which had separated the vessels, subsided, Chirikoff let the _St. Paul_ drift in the hope that Bering might sight the missing vessel. Then he steered southeast to latitude 48 degrees in search of the commander; but on June 23 a council of officers decided it was a waste of time to search longer, and ordered the vessel to be headed northeastward. The wind was light; the water, clear; and Chirikoff knew, from the pilot-birds following the vessel, from the water-logged trees churning past, from the herds of seal floundering in the sea, that land must lie in this direction. A bright lookout was kept for the first two weeks of July. Two hundred and forty miles were traversed; and on a calm, {46} clear night between the 13th and 15th of July, there loomed above the horizon the dusky heights of a wooded mountainous land in latitude 55 degrees 21 minutes. Chirikoff was in the Alexander Archipelago. Daybreak came with the _St. Paul_ only four miles off the conspicuous heights of Cape Addington. Chirikoff had discovered land some thirty-six hours before Bering. The new world of mountains and forests roused the wildest enthusiasm among the Russians. A small boat was lowered; but it failed to find a landing. A light wind sprang up, and the vessel stood out under shortened sails for the night. By morning the wind had increased, and fog had blurred out all outlines of the new-found land. Here the ocean currents ran northward; and by morning of the 17th, when the sun pierced the washed air and the mountains began to appear again through jagged rifts of cloud-wraith, Chirikoff found himself at the entrance of a great bay, girt by forested mountains to the water's edge, beneath the high cone of what is now known as Mount Edgecumbe, {47} in Sitka Sound. Sitka Sound is an indentation about fifteen miles from north to south, with such depths of water that there is no anchorage except south and southwestward of Mount Edgecumbe. Impenetrable woods lined the mountains to the very shore. Great trunks of uprooted trees swept past the ship continually. Even as the clouds cleared, leaving vast forests and mountain torrents and snowy peaks visible, a hazy film of intangible gloom seemed to settle over the shadowy harbor.[2] [Illustration: A Glacier] Chirikoff wished to refill his water-casks. Also, he was ambitious to do what the scientists cursed Bering for not doing off St. Elias--explore thoroughly the land newly found. The long-boat was lowered with Abraham Dementieff and ten armed men. The crew was supplied with muskets, a brass cannon, and provisions for several days. Chirikoff arranged a simple code of signals with the men--probably a column of smoke, or sunlight thrown back by a tin mirror--by which he could know if all went well. Then, with a cheer, the first Russians to put foot on the soil of America bent to the oar and paddled swiftly away from the _St. Paul_ for the shadow of the forested mountains etched from the inland shore. The long-boat seemed smaller as the distance from the _St. Paul_ increased. Then men and boat disappeared behind an {48} elbow of land. A flash of reflected light from the hidden shore; and Chirikoff knew the little band of explorers had safely landed. The rest of the crew went to work putting things shipshape on the _St. Paul_. The day passed with more safety signals from the shore. The crew of the _St. Paul_ slept sound out in mid-harbor unsuspicious of danger. Another day passed, and another night. Not so many signals! Had the little band of Russians gone far inland for water, and the signals been hidden by the forest gloom? A wind was singing in the rigging--threatening a landward gale that might carry the _St. Paul_ somewhat nearer those rocky shores than the Russians could wish. Chirikoff sent a sailor spying from the lookout of the highest yard-arm. No signals at all this day; nor the next day; nor the next! The _St. Paul_ had only one other small boat. Fearing the jolly-boat had come to grief among the rocks and counter-currents, Chirikoff bade Sidor Savelief, the bo'swain, and six armed sailors, including carpenters to repair damages, take the remaining boat and go to Dementieff's rescue. The strictest orders were given that both boats return at once. Barely had the second boat rounded the elbow of shore where the first boat had disappeared when a great column of smoke burst from the tree-tops of the hidden shore. To Chirikoff's amazement, the second crew made no signal. The night passed uneasily. Sailors were on the watch. Ship's rigging was put in shape. Dawn was witnessed {49} by eager eyes gazing shoreward. The relief was inexpressible when two boats--a long and a short one like those used by the two crews--were seen rounding the elbow of land. The landward breeze was now straining the _St. Paul's_ hawsers. Glad to put for open sea to weather the coming gale, Chirikoff ordered all hands on deck and anchors up. The small boats came on with a bounce over the ocean swell; but suddenly one of Chirikoff's Russians pointed to the approaching crafts. There was a pause in the rattle of anchor chains. There was a pause in the bouncing of the small boats, too. They were _not_ the Russian jolly-boats. They were canoes; and the canoes were filled with savages as dumb with astonishment at the apparition of the _St. Paul_ as the Russians were at the canoes. Before the Russians had come to their senses, or Chirikoff had time to display presents to allure the savages on board as hostages, the Indians rose in their places, uttered a war-whoop that set the rocks echoing, and beating their paddles on the gun'els, scudded for shore. Gradually the meaning dawned on Chirikoff. His two crews had been destroyed. His small boats were lost. His supply of fresh water was running low. The fire that he had observed had been a fire of orgies over mutilated men. The _St. Paul_ was on a hostile shore with such a gale blowing as threatened destruction on the rocks. There Was nothing to do but scud for open sea. When the gale abated, Chirikoff returned to Sitka and cruised {50} the shore for some sign of the sailors: but not a trace of the lost men could be descried. By this time water was so scarce, the men were wringing rain moisture out of the sails and distilling sea-water. A council was called. All agreed it would be worse than folly to risk the entire crew for the twelve men, who were probably already dead. There was no small boat to land for more water; and the _St. Paul_ was headed about with all speed for the northwest.[3] Slant rain settled over the sea. The wind increased and grew more violent. The _St. Paul_ drove ahead like a ghost form pursued through a realm of mist. Toward the end of July, when the weather cleared, stupendous mountains covered with snow were seen on the northwestward horizon like walls of ice with the base awash in thundering sea. Thousands of cataracts, clear as crystal, flashed against the mountain sides; and in places the rock wall rose sheer two thousand feet from the roaring tide. Inlets, gloomy with forested mountain walls where impetuous streams laden with the milky silt of countless glaciers tore their way through the rocks to the sea, could be seen receding inland through the fog. Then the foul weather settled over the sea again; and by the first {51} week of August, with baffling winds and choppy sea, the _St. Paul_ was veering southwestward where Alaska projects a long arm into the Pacific. Chirikoff had passed the line where forests dwarf to willows, and willows to sedges, and sedges to endless leagues of rolling tundras. Somewhere near Kadiak, land was again sighted. When the fog lifted, the vapor of far volcanoes could be seen hanging lurid over the mountain tops. Wind was followed by dead calm, when the sails literally fell to pieces with rain-rot in the fog; and on the evening of September 8 the becalmed crew were suddenly aroused by the tide-rip of roaring breakers. Heaving out all anchors at once, Chirikoff with difficulty made fast to rocky bottom. In the morning, when the fog lifted, he found himself in the centre of a shallow bay surrounded by the towering cliffs of what is now known as Adakh Island. While waiting for a breeze, he saw seven canoe loads of savages put out from shore chanting some invocation. The Russians threw out presents, but the savages took no notice, gradually surrounding the _St. Paul_. All this time Chirikoff had been without any water but the stale casks brought from Kamchatka; and he now signalled his desperate need to the Indians. They responded by bringing bladders full of fresh water; but they refused to mount the decks. And by evening fourteen canoe loads of the taciturn savages were circling threateningly round the Russians. Luckily, {52} at nightfall a wind sprang up. Chirikoff at once slipped anchor and put to sea. By the third week of August, the rations of rye meal had been reduced to once a day instead of twice in order to economize water. Only twelve casks of water remained; and Chirikoff was fifteen hundred miles from Kamchatka. Cold, hunger, thirst, then did the rest. Chirikoff himself was stricken with scurvy by the middle of September, and one sailor died of the scourge. From the 26th, one death a day followed in succession. Though down, Chirikoff was not beaten. Discipline was maintained among the hungry crew; and each day Chirikoff issued exact orders. Without any attempt at steering, the ship drifted westward. No more land was seen by the crew; but on the 2d of October, the weather clearing, an observation was taken of the sun that showed them they were nearing Kamchatka. On the 8th, land was sighted; but one man alone, the pilot, Yelagin, had strength to stay at the helm till Avacha Bay was approached, when distress signals were fired from the ship's cannon to bring help from land. Poor Croyére de l'Isle, kinsman to the map makers whose mistakes had caused disaster, sick unto death of the scurvy, had kept himself alive with liquor and now insisted on being carried ashore. The first breath of clear air above decks was enough. The scientist fell dead within the home harbor. Chirikoff was landed the same day, all unaware that at times in the mist and {53} rain he had been within from fifteen to forty miles of poor Bering, zigzagging across the very trail of the afflicted sister ship. [Illustration: Sea Cows.] By December the entire crew of Bering's castaways, prisoners on the sea-girt islands of the North Pacific, were lodged in five underground huts on the bank of a stream. In 1885, when these mud huts or _yurts_ were examined, they were seen to have walls of peat three feet thick. To each man was given a pound of flour. For the rest, their food must be what they caught or clubbed--mainly, at first, the sea-otter, whose flesh was unpalatable to the taste and tough as leather. Later, Steller discovered that the huge sea-cow--often thirty-five feet long--seen pasturing on the fields of sea-kelp at low tide, afforded food of almost the same quality as the land cow. Seaweed grew in miniature forests on the island; and on this pastured the monster bovine of the sea--true fish in its hind quarters but oxlike in its head and its habits--herding together like cattle, snorting like a horse, moving the neck from side to side as it grazed, with the hind leg a fin, the fore fin a leg, udder between the fore legs, and in place of teeth, plates. Nine hundred or more sea-otter--whose pelts afterward brought a fortune to the crew--were killed for food by Steller and his companions; but two sea-cows provided the castaways with food for six weeks. On November 22d died the old mate, who had weathered northern seas for fifty {54} years. In all, out of a crew of seventy-seven, there had perished by January 6, 1742, when the last death occurred, thirty-one men. Steller's hut was next to Bering's. From that November day when he was carried from the ship through the snow to the sand pit, the commander sank without rallying. Foxskins had been spread on the ground as a bed; but the sand loosened from the sides of the pit and kept rolling down on the dying man. Toward the last he begged Steller to let the sand rest, as it kept in the warmth; so that he was soon covered with sand to his waist. White billows and a gray sky followed the hurricane gale that had hurled the ship in on the beach. All night between the evening of the 7th and the morning of the 8th of December, the moaning of the south wind could be heard through the tattered rigging of the wrecked ship; and all night the dying Dane was communing with his God. He was now over sixty years of age. To a constitution already broken by the nagging cares of eight years and by hardships indescribable, by scurvy and by exposure, was added an acute inflammation. Bering's power of resistance was sapped. Two hours before daybreak on December 8, 1741, the brave Dane breathed his last. He was interred on the 9th of December between the graves of the mate and the steward on the hillside; and the bearded Russians came down from the new-made grave that day bowed and hopeless. A plain Greek cross was placed above {55} his grave; and a copy of that cross marks the same grave to-day. The question arises--where does Bering stand among the world heroes? The world loves success better than defeat; and spectacular success better than duty plainly done. If success means accomplishing what one sets out to do in spite of almost insuperable difficulties--Bering won success. He set out to discover the northwest coast of America; and he perished doing it. But if heroism means a something more than tangible success; if it means that divine quality of fighting for the truth independent of reward, whether one is to be beaten or not; if it means setting to one's self the task of perishing for a truth, without the slightest hope of establishing that truth--then, Bering stands very high indeed among the world's heroes. Steller, who had cursed him for not remaining longer at Mount St. Elias, bore the highest testimony to his integrity and worth. It may be said that a stronger type of hero would have scrunched into nothingness the vampire blunderers who misled the ship; but it must be remembered that stronger types of heroes usually save their own skins and let the underlings suffer. While Bering _might_ have averted the disaster that attended the expedition, it must not be forgotten that when he perished, there perished the very soul of the great enterprise, which at once crumbled to pieces. On a purely material plane, what did Bering accomplish? {56} He dispelled forever the myth of the Northeast Passage if the world would have but accepted his conclusions. The coast of Japan was charted under his direction. The Arctic coast of Asia was charted under his direction. A country as large as from Maine to Florida, or Baltimore to Texas, with a river comparable only to the Mississippi, was discovered by him. The furs of this country for a single year more than paid all that Russia spent to discover it; all that the United States later paid to Russia for it. A dead whale thrown up on the shore proved a godsend to the weak and famishing castaways. As their bodies grew stronger, the spirit of merriment that gilds life's darkest clouds began to come back, and the whale was jocularly known among the Russians as "our magazine of provisions." Then parties of hunters began going out for the sea-otter, which hid its head during storm under the kelp of the sea fields. Steller knew the Chinese would pay what in modern money is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars for each of these sea-otter skins; and between nine hundred and one thousand were taken by the wrecked crew. The same skin of prime quality sells in a London auction room to-day for one thousand dollars. And in spring, when the sea-otter disappeared, there came herds--herds in millions upon millions--of another visitant to the shores of the Commander Islands--the fur seal, {57} which afforded new hunting to the crew, and new wealth to the world. [Illustration: Seals in a Rookery on Bering Island.] The terrible danger now was not from starvation, but mutiny, murder, or massacre among the branded criminals of the discontented crew. Waxel, as he recovered, was afraid of tempting revolt with orders, and convened the crew by vote to determine all that should be done. Officers and men--there was no distinction. By March of 1742 the ground had cleared of snow. Waxel called a meeting to suggest breaking up the packet vessel to build a smaller craft. A vote {58} was asked. The resolution was called, written out, and signed by every survivor, but afterward, when officers and men set themselves to the well-nigh impossible task of untackling the ship without implements of iron, revolt appeared among the workers. Again Waxel avoided mutiny. A meeting was called, another vote taken, the recalcitrants shamed down. The crew lacked more than tools. There was no ship's carpenter. Finally a Cossack, who was afterward raised to the nobility for his work, consented to act as director of the building, and on the 6th of May a vessel forty feet long, thirteen beam, and six deep, was on the stocks. All June, the noise of the planking went on till the mast raised its yard-arms, and an eight-oared single-master, such as the old Vikings of the North Sea used, was well under way. The difficulties of such shipbuilding can hardly be realized. There was no wood but the wood of the old ship, no rigging but the old hemp, no tar but such as could be melted out of the old hemp in earth pits; and very few axes. The upper part was calked with tallow of the sea-cow, the under with tar from the old hull. The men also constructed a second small boat or canoe. On the 10th of August, with such cheers as the island never heard before or since, the single-master was launched from the skids and named the _St. Peter_. Cannon balls and cartridges were thrown in bottom as ballast. Luckily, eight hundred pounds of {59} meal had been reserved for the return voyage, and Steller had salted down steaks of whale meat and sea-cow. On the evening of August 16, after solemn prayer and devotions, with one last look to the lonely crosses on the hillside where lay the dead, the castaways went on board. A sharp breeze was blowing from the north. Hoisting sail, they glided out to sea. The old jolly-boat bobbled behind in tow. Late at night, when the wind fell, the eager mariners bent to the oar. By noon next day they had rounded the southeast corner of the island. Two days afterward, rough weather set the old jolly-boat bumping her nose so violently on the heels of the _St. Peter_, that the cable had to be cut and the small boat set adrift. That night the poor tallow-calked planks leaked so badly, pumps and buckets were worked at fever heat, and all the ballast was thrown overboard. Sometime during the 25th, there shone above the silver rim where sea and sky met, the opal dome of far mountains, Kamchatka! The bearded men could control themselves no longer. Shout on shout made the welkin ring. Tears streamed down the rough, unwashed faces. The Cossacks wept like children. Men vied with each other to seize the oars and row like mad. The tide-rip bounding--lifting--falling--racing over seas for the shores of Kamchatka never ran so mad and swift a course as the crazy craft there bouncing forward over the waves. And when they saw the home harbor {60} of Petropaulovsk, Avacha Bay, on August 27, exultation knew no bounds. The men fired off guns, beat oars on the deck rail, shouted--shouted--shouted till the mountains echoed and every living soul of Avacha dashed to the waterside scarcely believing the evidence of his eyes--that the castaways of Bering's ship had returned. Then one may well believe that the monks set the chapel bells ringing and the cannon roared a welcome from Avacha Bay. Chirikoff had in May sailed in search of Bering, passing close to the island where the castaways were prisoners of the sea, but he did not see the Commander Islands; and all hope had been given up for any word of the _St. Peter_. Waxel wintered that year at Avacha Bay, crossing the mainland in the spring of 1743. In September of the same year, an imperial decree put an end to the Northern Expedition, and Waxel set out across Siberia to take the crew back to St. Petersburg. Poor Steller died on the way from exposure. So ended the greatest naval exploration known to the world. Beside it, other expeditions to explore America pale to insignificance. La Salle and La Vérendrye ascended the St. Lawrence, crossed inland plains, rafted down the mighty tide of the great inland rivers; but La Salle stopped at the mouth of the Mississippi, and La Vérendrye was checked by the barrier of the Rockies. Lewis and Clark accomplished yet more. After ascending the Missouri and crossing the plains, they traversed the Rockies; but they were {61} stopped at the Pacific. When Bering had crossed the rivers and mountains of the two continents--first Europe, then Asia--and reached the Pacific, his expedition had _only begun_. Little remains to Russia of what he accomplished but the group of rocky islets where he perished. But judged by the difficulties which he overcame; by the duties desperately impossible, done plainly and doggedly, by death heroic in defeat--Bering's expedition to northwestern America is without a peer in the annals of the New World discovery.[4] [1] I adopt the views of Dr. Stejneger, of the National Museum, Washington, on this point, as he has personally gone over every foot of the ground. [2] Dr. George Davidson, President of the Geographical Society of the Pacific, has written an irrefutable pamphlet on why Kyak Island and Sitka Sound must be accepted as the landfalls of Bering and Chirikoff. [3] Thus the terrible Sitkan massacre of a later day was preceded by the slaughter of the first Russians to reach America. The Russian government of a later day originated a comical claim to more territory on the ground that descendants of these lost Russians had formed settlements farther down the coast, alleging in proof that subsequent explorers had found red-headed and light-complexioned people as far south as the Chinook tribes. To such means will statecraft stoop. [4] Coxe's _Discoveries of the Russians between Asia and America_ (Paris, 1781) supplies local data on Siberia in the time of Bering. _Voyages from Asia to America_, by S. Müller of the Royal Academy, St. Petersburg, 1764, is simply excellent in that part of the voyage dealing with the wreck. _Peter Lauridsen's Vitus Bering translated from the Danish by Olson_ covers all three aims of the expedition, Japanese and Arctic voyages as well as American. {62} CHAPTER III 1741-1760 THE SEA-OTTER HUNTERS How the Sea-otter Pelts brought back by Bering's Crew led to the Exploitation of the Northwest Coast of America--Difference of Sea-otter from Other Fur-bearing Animals of the West--Perils of the Hunt When the castaway crew of Vitus Bering looked about for means to exist on the barren islands where they were wrecked, they found the kelp beds and seaweed fields of the North Pacific literally alive with a little animal, which the Russians called "the sea-beaver." Sailors of Kamchatka and eastern Siberia knew the sea-beaver well, for it had been found on the Asiatic side of the Pacific, and its pelt was regarded as priceless by Chinese and Tartar merchants. But where did this strange denizen of northern waters live? Only in rare seasons did the herds assemble on the rocky islets of Kamchatka and Japan. And when spring came, the sea-beaver disappeared. Asia was not its home. Where did it go? Russian adventurers who rafted the coast of Siberia {63} in crazy skiffs, related that the sea-beaver always disappeared northeastward, whence the spruce driftwood and dead whales with harpoons of strange hunters and occasionally wrecks of walrus-skin boats came washing from an unknown land. It was only when Bering's crew were left prisoners of the sea on an island barren as a billiard ball that the hunger-desperate men found the habitat of the sea-beaver to be the kelp beds of the Aleutian Islands and northwestern America. But what use were priceless pelts where neither money nor merchant was, and men mad with hunger were thrown back on the primal necessities without thought of gain? The hungry Russian sailors fell on the kelp beds, clubbing right and left regardless of pelts. What matter if the flesh was tough as leather and rank as musk? It filled the empty stomachs of fifty desperate men; and the skins were used on the treeless isle as rugs, as coats, as walls, as stuff to chink the cracks of earth pits, where the sailors huddled like animals in underground caves with no ceiling but the tattered sails. So passed a year--the most desolate year in the annals of ocean voyaging, and when the castaways rafted back to Asia on a skiff made of their wrecked ship, they were clad in the raw skins of the sea-otter, which they had eaten. In all, nearly a thousand skins were carried back; and for those skins, which the Russian sailors had scarcely valued, Chinese merchants paid what in modern money would be from {64} one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars a pelt.[1] After that, the Russians of Siberia needed no incentive to hunt the sea-beaver. Its habitat was known, and all the riffraff adventurers of Siberian exile, Tartars, Kamchatkans, Russians, criminals, and officers of royal lineage, engaged in the fur trade of western America. Danger made no difference. All that was needed was a boat; and the boat was usually rough-hewn out of the green timbers of Kamchatka. If iron bolts were lacking so far from Europe as the width of two continents, the boat builders used deer sinew, or thongs of walrus hide. Tallow took the place of tar, deerskin the place of hemp, and courage the place of caution. A Siberian merchant then chanced an outfit of supplies for half what the returns might be. The commander--officer or exile--then enlisted sailors among landsmen. Landsmen were preferable for this kind of voyaging. Either in the sublime courage of ignorance, or with the audacity of desperation, the poor landsmen dared dangers which no sailors would risk on such crazy craft, two thousand miles from a home port on an outrageous sea. England and the United States became involved in the exploitation of the Pacific coast in almost the same way. When Captain Cook was at Nootka Sound thirty years after Bering's death, his crews traded {65} trinkets over the taffrail netting for any kind of furs the natives of the west coast chose to exchange. In the long voyaging to Arctic waters afterward, these furs went to waste with rain-rot. More than two-thirds were thrown or given away. The remaining third sold in China on the home voyage of the ships for what would be more than ten thousand dollars of modern money. News of that fact was enough. Boston, New York, London, rubbed their eyes to possibilities of fur trade on the Pacific coast. As the world knows, Boston's efforts resulted in the chance discovery of the Columbia; New York's efforts, in the foundation of the Astor fortunes. East India, France, England, Spain, the United States, vied with each other for the prize of America's west coast. Just as the beaver led French voyagers westward from Quebec to the Rocky Mountains, south to Texas, north to the Athabasca, so the hunt of the sea-beaver led to the exploration of the North Pacific coast. "Sea-beaver" the Russians called the owner of the rare pelt. "Sea-otter" it was known to the English and American hunters. But it is like neither the otter nor beaver, though its habits are akin to both. Its nearest relative is probably the fur seal. Like the seal, its pelt has an ebony shimmer, showing silver when blown open, soft black tipped with white, when examined hair by hair. Six feet, the full-grown sea-otter measures from nose to stumpy tail, with a {66} beaver-shaped face, teeth like a cat, and short webbed feet. Some hunters say the sea-otter is literally born on the tumbling waves--a single pup at a time; others, that the sea-otter retire to some solitary rocky islet to bring forth their young. Certain it is they are rocked on the deep from their birth, "cradled" in the sea, sleeping on their backs in the water, clasping the young in their arms like a human being, tossing up seaweed in play by the hour like mischievous monkeys, or crawling out on some safe, sea-girt rocklet, where they shake the water from their fur and make their toilet, stretching and arranging and rearranging hair like a cat. Only the fiercest gales drive the sea-otter ashore, for it must come above water to breathe; and it must come ashore to sleep where it _can_ breathe; for the ocean wash in a storm would smother the sleeper. And its favorite sleeping grounds are in the forests of kelp and seaweed, where it can bury its head, and like the ostrich think itself hidden. A sound, a whiff--the faintest tinge--of smoke from miles away is enough to frighten the sleeper, who leaps up with a fierce courage unequalled in the animal world, and makes for sea in lightning-flash bounds. When Bering found the northwest coast of America, the sea-otter frequented all the way from what is now California to the Commander Islands, the last link of the chain from America to Asia. Sea-otter were found and taken in thousands at Sitka Sound, in Yakutat Bay, Prince William Sound, Cook's Inlet, and all {67} along the chain of eleven hundred Aleutian Islands to the Commander Group, off Kamchatka. Where they were found in thousands then, they are seen only in tens and hundreds to-day. Where they are in hundreds one year, they may not come at all the next, having been too hard hunted. This explains why there used to be returns of five thousand in a single year at Kadiak or Oonalaska or Cook's Inlet; and the next year, less than a hundred from the same places. Japan long ago moved for laws to protect the sea-otter as vigorously as the seal; but Japan was only snubbed by England and the United States for her pains, and to-day the only adequate protection afforded the diminishing sea-otter is in the tiny remnant of Russia's once vast American possessions--on the Commander Islands where by law only two hundred sea-otter may be taken a year, and the sea-otter rookeries are more jealously guarded than diamond mines. The decreasing hunt has brought back primitive methods. Instead of firearms, the primitive club and net and spear are again used, giving the sea-otter a fair chance against his antagonist--Man. Except that the hunters are few and now dress in San Francisco clothes, they go to the hunt in the same old way as when Baranof, head of the Russian Fur Company, led his battalions out in companies of a thousand and two thousand "bidarkies"--walrus-skin skiffs taut as a drumhead, with seams tallowed and an oilskin wound round each of the manholes, so that the boat {68} could turn a somerset in the water, or be pitched off a rock into the surf, and come right side up without taking water, paddler erect. The first thing the hunter had to look to was boat and hunting gear. Westward of Cook's Inlet and Kadiak was no timber but driftwood, and the tide wash of wrecks; so the hunter, who set out on the trail of the pathless sea, framed his boat on the bones of the whale. There were two kinds of boats--the long ones, for from twelve to twenty men, the little skiffs which Eskimos of the Atlantic call kyacks--with two or three, seldom more, manholes. Over the whalebone frame was stretched the wet elastic hide of walrus or sea-lion. The big boat was open on top like a Newfoundland fisherman's dory or Frenchman's bateau, the little boat covered over the top except for the manholes round which were wound oilskins to keep the water out when the paddler had seated himself inside. Then the wet skin was allowed to dry in sunshine and wind. Hot seal oil and tallow poured over the seams and cracks, calked the leaks. More sunshine and wind, double-bladed paddles for the little boats, strong oars and a sail for the big ones, and the skiffs were ready for water. Eastward of Kadiak, particularly south of Sitka, the boats might be hollowed trees, carved wooden canoes, or dugouts--not half so light to ride shallow, tempestuous seas as the skin skiff of the Aleut hunter. We supercilious civilized folk laugh at the odd dress {69} of the savage; but it was exactly adapted to the need. The otter hunter wore the fur in, because that was warmer; and the skin out, because cured in oil, that was waterproof; and the chimney-pot capote, because that tied tight enough around his neck kept the ice-water from going down his back when the bidarka turned heels up; and the skin boots, because they, too, were waterproof; and the sedge grass padding in place of stockings, because it protected the feet from the jar of rocks in wild runs through surf and kelp after the game. On land, the skin side of the coats could be turned in and the fur out. Oonalaska, westward of the Aleutian chain of islands and Kadiak, just south of the great Alaskan peninsula, were the two main points whence radiated the hunting flotillas for the sea-otter grounds. Formerly, a single Russian schooner or packet boat would lead the way with a procession of a thousand bidarkas. Later, schooners, thirty or forty of them, gathered the hunters at some main fur post, stowed the light skin kyacks in piles on the decks, and carried the Aleuts to the otter grounds. This might be at Atka, where the finest otter hunters in the world lived, or on the south shore of Oonalaska, or in Cook's Inlet where the rip of the tide runs a mill-race, or just off Kadiak on the Saanach coast, where twenty miles of beach boulders and surf waters and little islets of sea-kelp provide ideal fields for the sea-otter. Here the sweeping tides and {70} booming back-wash keep up such a roar of tumbling seas, the shy, wary otter, alert as an eagle, do not easily get scent or sound of human intruder. Surf washes out the scent of the man track. Surf out-sounds noise of the man killer; and no fires are lighted, be it winter or summer, unless the wind is straight from the southward; for the sea-otter always frequent the south shores. The only provisions on the carrying schooner are hams, rancid butter or grease, some rye bread and flour; the only clothing, what the Aleut hunters wear. No sooner has the schooner sheered off the hunting-grounds, than the Aleuts are over decks with the agility of performing monkeys, the schooner captain wishing each good luck, the eager hunters leaping into their bidarkas following the lead of a chief. The schooner then returns to the home harbor, leaving the hunters on islands bare as a planed board for two, three, four months. On the Commander Group, otter hunters are now restricted to the use of the net alone, but formerly the nature of the hunting was determined entirely by the weather. If a tide ran with heavy surf and wind landward to conceal sound and sight, the hunters lined alongshore of the kelp beds and engaged in the hunt known as surf-shooting. Their rifles would carry a thousand yards. Whoever saw the little round black head bob above the surface of the water, shot, and the surf wash carried in the dead body. If the weather was dead calm, fog or clear, bands of twenty {71} and thirty men deployed in a circle to spear their quarry. This was the spearing-surround. Or if such a hurricane gale was churning the sea so that gusty spray and sleet storm washed out every outline, sweeping the kelp beds naked one minute, inundating them with mountainous rollers that thundered up the rocks the next, the Aleut hunters risked life, scudded out on the back of the raging storm, now riding the rollers, now dipping to the trough of the sea, now scooting with lightning paddle-strokes right through the blasts of spray athwart wave wash and trough--straight for the kelp beds or rocky boulders, where the sea-otter must have been driven for refuge by the storm. This hunting is the very incarnation of the storm spirit itself, for the wilder the gale, the more sea-otter have come ashore; the less likely they will be to see or hear or smell the hunter. Gaff or paddle in hand, the Aleut leaps from rock to rock, or dashes among the tumbling beds of tossed kelp. A quick blow of the bludgeon; the otter never knows how death came. This is the club hunt. But where the shore is honeycombed with caves and narrow inlets of kelp fields, is a safer kind of hunting. Huge nets now made of twine, formerly of sinew, with wooden floaters above, iron sinkers below, are spread athwart the kelp fields. The tide sweeps in, washing the net flat. And the sea-otter swim in with the tide. The tide sweeps out, washing the net up, but the otter are enmeshed in a tangle that holds neck and feet. This is, perhaps, the {72} best kind of otter hunting, for the females and young can be thrown back in the sea. Barely has the supply schooner dipped over the offing, when the cockle-shell bidarkas skimming over the sea make for the shore of the hunting-grounds. Camping is a simple matter, for no fires are to be lighted, and the tenting place is chosen if possible on the north side of some knoll. If it is warm weather, the Aleut will turn his skin skiff upside down, crawl into the hole head first and sleep there. Or he may erect the V-shaped tent such as the prairie tepee. But if it is cold, he has a better plan yet. He will dig a hole in the ground and cover over the top with sail-cloth. Let the wind roar above and the ice bang the shore rocks, the Aleut swathed in furs sleeps sound close to earth. If driftwood lines the shore, he is in luck; for he props up the poles, covers them with furs, and has what might be mistaken for a wigwam, except that these Indians construct their tents round-topped and always turn the skin side of the fur out. For provisions, he has brought very little from the ship. He will depend on the winds driving in a dead whale, or on the fish of the shore, or on the eggs of the sea-birds that nest on these rocks millions upon millions--such myriads of birds they seem to crowd each other for foot room, and the noise of their wings is like a great wind.[2] The Aleut himself is what any race of men {73} would become in generations of such a life. His skin is more like bronze than leather. His chest is like a bellows, but his legs are ill developed from the cramped posture of knees in the manhole. Indeed, more than knees go under the manhole. When pressed for room, the Aleut has been known to crawl head foremost, body whole, right under the manhole and lie there prone between the feet of the paddlers with nothing between him and the abysmal depths of a hissing sea but the parchment keel of the bidarka, thin as paper. How do these thin skin boats escape wreckage on a sea where tide-rip washes over the reefs all summer and ice hummocks sweep out from the shore in winter tempest? To begin with, the frost that creates the ice clears the air of fog, and the steel-shod pole either sheers the bidarka off from the ice, or the ice off from the bidarka. Then, when the fog lies knife-thick over the dangerous rocks in summer time, there is a certain signal to these deep-sea plunderers. The huge Pacific walrus--the largest species of walrus in the world--lie in herds of hundreds on these danger rocks, and the walrus snorts through the gray mist like a continual fog-horn. No better danger signal exists among the rocks of the North Pacific than this same snorting walrus, who for all his noise and size is a floundering coward. The great danger to the nutshell skin's is from becoming ice-logged when the sleet storms fall and freeze; and for the rest, the sea makes small matter of a hunter more or less. {74} No landsman's still-hunt affords the thrilling excitement of the otter hunter's spearing-surrounds. Fifteen or twenty-five little skin skiffs, with two or three men in each, paddle out under a chief elected by common consent. Whether fog or clear, the spearing is done only in calm weather. The long line of bidarkas circles silently over the silver sea. Not a word is spoken, not a paddle blade allowed to click against the bone gun'els of the skiff. Double-bladed paddles are frequently used, so shift of paddle is made from side to side of the canoe without a change of hands. The skin shallops take to the water as noiselessly as the glide of a duck. Yonder, where the boulders lie mile on mile awash in the surf, kelp rafts--forests of seaweed--lift and fall with the rhythmical wash of the tide. Hither the otter hunters steer, silent as shadows. The circle widens, deploys, forms a cordon round the outermost rim of the kelp fields. Suddenly a black object is seen floating on the surface of the waters--a sea-otter asleep. Quick as flash, the steersman lifts his paddle. Not a word is spoken, but so keen is the hearing of the sleeping otter, the drip of the lifted paddle has not splashed into the sea before the otter has awakened, looked and dived like lightning to the bottom of the sea before one of the Aleut hunters can hurl his spear. Silently, not a whisper, the steersman signals again. The hunters deploy in a circle half a mile broad round the place where the sea-otter disappeared; for they know that in fifteen or twenty {75} minutes the animal must come up for breath, and it cannot run farther than half a mile under sea before it reappears. Suddenly somebody sees a round black-red head poke above water, perhaps close to the line of watchers. With a wild shout, the nearest bidarkas dart forward. Whether the spear-throw has hit or missed, the shout has done enough. The terrified otter dives before it has breath. Over the second diving spot a hunter is stationed, and the circle narrows, for the otter must come up quicker this time. It must have breath. Again and again, the little round head peeps up. Again the shout greets it. Again the lightning dive. Sometimes only a bubble gurgling to the top of the water guides the watchers. Presently the body is so full of gases from suppressed breathing, it can no longer sink, and a quick spear-throw secures the quarry. One animal against, perhaps, sixty men. Is the quest fair? Yonder thunders the surf below beetling precipices. Then the tide wash comes in with a rip like a whirlpool, or the ebb sets the beach combers rolling--lashing billows of tumbling waters that crash together and set the sheets of blinding spray shattering. Or the fog comes down over a choppy sea with a whizzing wind that sets the whitecaps flying backward like a horse's mane. The chase may have led farther and farther from land. As long as the little black head comes up, as long as the gurgling bubble tells of a struggling breather below, the hunters follow, be it {76} near or far, till, at the end of two or three hours, the exhausted sea-otter is taken. Perhaps forty men have risked their lives for a single pelt for which the trader cannot pay more than forty dollars; for he must have his profit, and the skin must be dressed, and the middlemen must have their profit; so that if it sells even for eleven hundred dollars in London--though the average is nearer one hundred and fifty dollars--the Aleut is lucky to receive forty or fifty dollars. Day after day, three months at a time, warm or cold, not daring to light fires on the island, the Aleut hunters go out to the spearing-surround, till the schooner returns for them from the main post; and whether the hunt is harder on man or beast may be judged from the fact that where the hunting battalions used to rally out in companies of thousands, they to-day go forth only in twenties and forties. True, the sea-otter has decreased and is almost extinct in places; but then, where game laws protect it, as in the Commander Islands, it is on the increase, and as for the Aleut hunters--their thousands lie in the bottom of the sea; and of the thousands who rallied forth long ago, often only a few hundred returned. But while the spearing-surround was chiefly followed in battalions under the direction of a trading company, the clubbing was done by the individuals--the dauntless hunters, who scudded out in twos and threes in the wake of the blast, lost themselves in the shattering sheets of spray, with the wind screaming mad riot in their ears {77} and the roily rollers running a mill-race against tide and wind. How did they steer their cockle-shell skiffs--these Vikings of the North Pacific; or did they steer at all, or only fly before the gale on the wings of the mad north winds? Who can tell? The feet of man leave earth sometimes when the spirit rides out reckless of land or sea, or heaven or hell, and these plunderers of the deep took no reckoning of life or death when they rode out on the gale, where the beach combers shattered up the rocks, and the creatures of the sea came huddling landward to take refuge among the kelp rafts. Tossing the skin skiffs high and dry on some rock, with perhaps the weight of a boulder to keep them from blowing away, the hunters rushed off to the surf wash armed only with a stout stick. The otters must be approached away from the wind, and the noise of the surf will deaden the hunter's approach; so beating their way against hurricane gales--winds that throw them from their feet at times--scrambling over rocks slippery as glass with ice, running out on long reefs where the crash of spray confuses earth and air, wading waist-deep in ice slush, the hunters dash out for the kelp beds and rocks where the otter are asleep. Clubbing sounds brutal, but this kind of hunting is, perhaps, the most merciful of all--to the animal, not the man. The otter is asleep. The gale conceals the approaching danger. One blow of the gaff, and the otter never awakes. In this way have three hunters killed as many as a hundred otter {78} in two hours; and in this way have the thousands of Aleutian otter hunters, who used to throng the inlets of the northern islands, perished and dwindled to a population of poverty stricken, scattered men. What were the rewards for all this risk of life? A glance at the records of the old fur companies tells why the Russian and American and English traders preferred sea-otter to the gold mines of the Spaniards in Mexico. Less than ten years after Cook's crew had sold their sea-otter for ten thousand dollars, the East India Company sold six hundred sea-otter for from sixty to one hundred dollars each. Two years later, Portlock and Dixon sold their cargo for fifty-five thousand dollars; and when it is remembered that two hundred sea-otter--twelve thousand dollars' worth at the lowest average--were sometimes got from the Nootka tribes for a few dollars' worth of old chisel iron--the profit can be estimated. In 1785 five thousand sea-otter were sold in China for one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. A capital of fifty thousand usually yielded three hundred thousand dollars; that is--if the ships escaped the dangers of hostile Indians and treacherous seas. What the Russians made from sea-otter will probably never be known; for so many different companies were engaged in the trade; and a hundred years ago, as many as fifteen thousand Indian hunters went out for the Russians yearly. One ship, the year after Bering's wreck, {79} is known to have made half a million dollars from its cargo. By definite figures--not including returns not tabulated in the fur companies--two hundred thousand sea-otter were taken for the Russians in half a century. Just before the United States took over Alaska, Russia was content with four hundred sea-otter a year; but by 1875 the Americans were getting three thousand a year. Those gathered at Kadiak have totalled as many as six thousand in a year during the heyday of the hunt, at Oonalaska three thousand, on the Prybilofs now noted for their seal, five thousand. In 1785 Cook's Inlet yielded three thousand; in 1812, only one hundred. Yakutat gave two thousand in 1794, only three hundred, six years later. Fifteen thousand were gathered at Sitka in 1804, only one hundred and fifty thirty years later. Of course the Russians obtained such results only by a system of musket, bludgeon, and outrage, that are repellent to the modern mind. Women were seized as hostages for a big hunt. Women were even murdered as a punishment for small returns. Men were sacrificed like dogs by the "promyshleniki"--riffraff blackguard Russian hunters from the Siberian exile population; but this is a story of outrageous wrong followed by its own terrible and unshunnable Nemesis which shall be told by itself. [1] The price of the sea-otter varied, falling in seasons when the market was glutted to $40 a pelt, selling as high, in cases of rare beauty, as $1000 a pelt. [2] See John Burroughs's account of birds observed during the Harriman Expedition. Elliott and Stejenger have remarked on the same phenomenon. {80} CHAPTER IV 1760-1770 THE OUTLAW HUNTERS The American Coast becomes the Great Rendezvous for Siberian Criminals and Political Exiles--Beyond Reach of Law, Cossacks and Criminals perpetrate Outrages on the Indians--The Indians' Revenge wipes out Russian Forts in America--The Pursuit of Four Refugee Russians from Cave to Cave over the Sea at Night--How they escape after a Year's Chase "_God was high in the Heavens, and the Czar was far away_," as the Russians say, and the Siberian exiles--coureurs of the sea--who flocked to the west coast of America to hunt the sea-otter after Bering's discoveries in 1741 took small thought and recked no consequences of God or the Czar. They timbered their crazy craft from green wood in Kamchatka, or on the Okhotsk Sea, or among the forests of Siberian rivers. They lashed the rude planks together, hoisted a sail of deer hide above a deck of, perhaps, sixty feet, and steering by instinct across seas as chartless as the forests where French coureurs ran, struck out from Asia for America with wilder {81} dreams of plunder than ever Spanish galleon or English freebooter hoped coasting the high seas. The crews were criminals with the brands of their crimes worn uncovered, banded together by some Siberian merchant who had provided goods for trade, and set adrift under charge of half a dozen Cossacks supposed to keep order and collect tribute of one-tenth as homage from American Indians for the Czar. English buccaneers didn't scruple as to blood when they sacked Spanish cities for Spanish gold. These Russian outlaws scrupled less, when their only hope of bettering a desperate exile was the booty of precious furs plundered, or bludgeoned, or exacted as tribute from the Indians of Northwest America. The plunder, when successful, or trade, if the crazy planks did not go to pieces above some of the reefs that cut up the North Pacific, was halved between outfitter and crew. If the cargo amounted to half a million dollars in modern money--as one of Drusenin's first trips did--then a quarter of a million was a tidy sum to be divided among a crew of, say, thirty or forty. Often as not, the long-planked single-master fell to pieces in a gale, when the Russians went to the bottom of the sea, or stranded among the Aleutian Islands westward of Alaska, when the castaways took up comfortable quarters among the Indians, who knew no other code of existence than the _rights of the strong_; and the Russians with their firearms seemed strong, indeed, to the Aleuts. As long as the newcomer demanded only furs, {82} on his own terms of trade--the Indians acquiesced. Their one hope was to become strong as the Russians by getting iron in "toes"--bands two inches thick, two feet long. It was that ideal state, which finical philosophers describe as the "survival of the fit," and it worked well till the other party to the arrangement resolved he would play the same game and become fit, too, when there resulted a cataclysm of bloodshed. The Indians bowed the neck submissively before oppression. Abuse, cruelty, outrage, accumulated on the heads of the poor Aleuts. They had reached the fine point where it is better for the weak to die trying to overthrow strength, than to live under the iron heel of brute oppression. The immediate cause of revolt is a type of all that preceded it.[1] Running out for a thousand miles from the coast of Alaska is the long chain of Aleutian Islands linking across the Pacific toward Asia. Oonalaska, the most important and middle of these, is as far from Oregon as Oregon is from New York. Near Oonalaska were the finest sea-otter fields in the world; and the Aleutians numbered twenty thousand hunters--men, women, children--born to the light skin boat as plainsmen were born to the saddle. On Oonalaska and its next-door neighbor westward were at least ten thousand of these Indian otter hunters, when Russia first sent her ships to America. Bassof came soonest after Bering's discovery; and he carried back {83} on each of three trips to the Commander Islands a cargo of furs worth from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand dollars in modern money. The effect on the Siberian mind was the same as a gold find. All the riffraff adventurers of Siberia swarmed to the west coast of America. We have only the Russian version of the story--not the Indians'--and may infer that we have the side most favorable to Russia. When booty of half a million was to be had for the taking, what Siberian exiles would permit an Indian village to stand between them and wealth? At first only children were seized as hostages of good conduct on the part of the Indians while the white hunters coasted the islands. Then daughters and wives were lured and held on the ships, only to be returned when the husbands and fathers came back with a big hunt for the white masters. Then the men were shot down; safer dead, thought the Russians; no fear of ambush or surprise; and the women were held as slaves to be knouted and done to death at their masters' pleasure. In 1745--four years after Russia's discovery of western America--a whole village in Attoo was destroyed so that the Russians could seize the women and children fleeing for hiding to the hills. The next year Russians were caught putting poison in the food of another village: the men ate first among the Indians. The women would be left as slaves to the Russians; and these same Russians carried a pagan boy home to {84} be baptized in the Christian faith; for the little convert could come back to the Aleutian Islands as interpreter. It was as thorough a scheme of subjugation as the wolf code of existence could have entailed. The culmination came with the crew of Betshevin, a Siberian merchant, in 1760. There were forty Russians, including Cossacks, and twenty other Asiatic hunters and sailors. Four of the merchant's agents went along to enforce honest returns. Sergeant Pushkareff of the Cossacks was there to collect tribute from Russia's Indian subjects on the west coast of America. The ship was evidently better than the general run, with ample room in the hold for cargo, and wide deck room where the crew slept in hammocks without cover--usually a gruff, bearded, ragged, vermin-infested horde. The vessel touched at Oomnak, after having met a sister ship, perhaps with an increase of aggressiveness toward the natives owing to the presence of these other Russians under Alixei Drusenin; and passed on eastward to the next otter resort, Oonalaska Island. Oonalaska is like a human hand spread out, with the fingers northeast, the arm end down seventy miles long toward Oomnak Island. The entire broken coast probably reaches a circuit of over two hundred miles. Down the centre and out each spur are high volcanic mountains, two of them smoking volcanoes, all pitted with caves and hot springs whose course can be traced in winter by the runnels of steam {85} down the mountain side. On the south side, reefs line all approach. North, east, and west are countless abrupt inlets opening directly into the heart of the mountains down whose black cliffs shatter plumes of spray and cataract. Not a tree grows on the island. From base to summit the hills are a velvet sward, willow shrubs the size of one's finger, grass waist high, and such a wealth of flowers--poppy fields, anemones, snowdrops, rhododendrons--that one might be in a southern climate instead of close proximity to frozen zones. Fogs wreathe the island three-quarters of the time; and though snow lies five feet deep in winter, and such blizzards riot in from the north as would tear trees up by the roots, and drive all human beings to their underground dwellings, it is never cold, never below zero, and the harbors are always open. Whaling, fishing, fur hunting--those were the occupations of the islanders then, as now. Here, then, came Pushkareff in 1762 after two years' cruising about the Aleutian Islands. The natives are friendly, thinking to obtain iron, and knives, and firearms like the other islanders who have traded with the Russians. Children are given as hostages of good conduct for the Oonalaskan men, who lead the Russians off to the hunt, coasting from point to point. Pushkareff, the Cossack, himself goes off with twenty men to explore; but somehow things go wrong at the native villages on this trip. The hostages find they are not guests, but slaves. Anyway, Betshevin's {86} agent is set upon and murdered. Two more Russians are speared to death under Pushkareff's eyes, two wounded, and the Cossack himself, with his fourteen men, forced to beat a hasty retreat back to ships and huts on the coast. Here, strange enough, things have gone wrong, too! More women and children objecting to their masters' pleasure--slavery, the knout, the branding iron, death by starvation and abuse. Two Russians have been slain bathing in the hot springs near Makushin Volcano, four murdered at the huts, four wounded; and the barrack is burned to the ground. Promptly the Cossack wreaks vengeance by slaughtering seven of the hostages on the spot; but he deems it wise to take refuge on his ship, weigh anchor and slip out to sea carrying with him by way of a lesson to the natives, two interpreters, three boys, and twenty-five women, two of whom die of cruelty before the ship is well out of Oonalaskan waters. He may have intended dropping the captives at some near island on his way westward; for only blind rage could have rendered him so indifferent to their fate as to carry such a cargo of human beings back to the home harbor of Kamchatka. Meanwhile a hurricane caught Pushkareff's ship, chopping the wave tops off and driving her ahead under bare poles. When the gale abated, the ship was off Kamchatka's shore and the Cossack in a quandary about entering the home port with proofs of his cruelty in the cowering group of Indian women huddled above the deck. {87} On pretence of gathering berries, six sailors were landed with fourteen women. Two watched their chance and dashed for liberty in the hills. On the way back to the ship, one woman was brained to death by a sailor, Gorelin; seeing which, the others on board the jolly-boat took advantage of the confusion, sprang overboard, and suicided. But there were still a dozen hostages on the ship. These might relate the crime of their companions' murder. It was an old trick out of an ugly predicament--destroy the victim in order to dodge retribution, or torture it so it would destroy itself. Fourteen had been tortured into suicide. The rest Pushkareff seized, bound, and threw into the sea. To be sure, on official investigation, Betshevin, the Siberian merchant, was subjected to penal tortures for this crime on his ship; and an imperial decree put an end to free trade among the fur hunters to America. Henceforth a government permit must be obtained; but that did not undo the wrong to the Aleutian Islanders. Primal instincts, unhampered by law, have a swift, sure, short-cut to justice; to the fine equipoise between weak and strong. It was two years before punishment was meted out by the Russian government for this crime. What did the Aleut Indian care for the law's slow jargon? His only law was self-preservation. His furs had been plundered from him; his hunting-fields overrun by brigands from he knew not where; his home outraged; his warriors poisoned, bludgeoned, done to death; his women and children {88} kidnapped to lifelong slavery; the very basic, brute instincts of his nature tantalized, baited, tortured to dare! It was from January to September of 1762, that Pushkareff had run his mad course of outrage on Oonalaska Island. It was in September of the same year, that four other Russian ships, all unconscious of the reception Pushkareff's evil doings had prepared for them, left Kamchatka for the Aleutian Islands. Each of the ships was under a commander who had been to the islands before and dealt fairly by the Indians. Betshevin's ship with Pushkareff, the Cossack, reached Kamchatka September 25. On the 6th there had come to winter at the harbor a ship under the same Alexei Drusenin, who had met Pushkareff the year before on the way to Oonalaska. Drusenin was outward bound and must have heard the tales told of Pushkareff's crew; but the latter had brought back in all nearly two thousand otter,--half sent by Drusenin, half brought by himself,--and Oonalaska became the lodestar of the otter hunters. The spring of '63 found Drusenin coasting the Aleutians. Sure enough, others had heard news of the great find of the new hunting-grounds. Three other Russian vessels were on the grounds before him, Glottoff and Medvedeff at Oomnak, Korovin halfway up Oonalaska. No time for Drusenin to lose! A spy sent out came back with the report that every part of Oomnak and {89} Oonalaska was being thoroughly hunted except the extreme northeast, where the mountain spurs of Oonalaska stretch out in the sea like a hand. Up to the northeast end, then, where the tide-rip thunders up the rock wall like an inverted cataract, posts Drusenin where he anchors his ship in Captain Harbor, and has winter quarters built before snow-fall of '63. An odd thing was--the Indian chiefs became so very friendly they voluntarily brought hostages of good conduct to Drusenin. Surely Drusenin was in luck! The best otter-hunting grounds in the world! A harbor as smooth as glass, mountain-girt, sheltered as a hole in a wall, right in the centre of the hunting-grounds, yet shut off from the rioting north winds that shook the rickety vessels to pieces! And best of all, along the sandy shore between the ship and the mountains that receded inland tier on tier into the clouds--the dome-roofed, underground dwellings of two or three thousand native hunters ready to risk the surf of the otter hunt at Drusenin's beck! Just to make sure of safety after Pushkareff's losses of ten men on this island, Drusenin exchanges a letter or two with the commanders of those other three Russian vessels. Then he laid his plans for the winter's hunt. But so did the Aleut Indians; and their plans were for a man-hunt of every Russian within the limits of Oonalaska. A curious story is told of how the Aleuts arranged to have the uprising simultaneous and certain. A bunch of sticks was carried to the chief of every tribe. {90} These were burned one a day, like the skin wick in the seal oil of the Aleut's stone lamp. When the last stick had burned, the Aleuts were to rise. Now, the northeast coast was like the fingers of a hand. Drusenin had anchored between two mountain spurs like fingers. Eastward, across the next mountain spur was another village--Kalekhta, of some forty houses; eastward of Kalekhta, again, ten miles across, another village of seventy families on the island of Inalook. Drusenin decided to divide his crew into three hunting parties: one of nine men to guard the ship and trade with the main village of Captain Harbor; a second of eleven, to cross to the native huts at Kalekhta; a third of eleven, to cross the hills, and paddle out to the little island of Inalook. To the island ten miles off shore, Drusenin went himself, with Korelin, a wrecked Russian whom he had picked up on the voyage. On the way they must have passed all three mountains, that guard the harbor of Oonalaska, the waterfalls that pour over the cliffs near Kalekhta, and the little village itself where eleven men remained to build huts for the winter. From the village to the easternmost point was over quaking moss ankle-deep, or through long, rank grass, waist-high and water-rotted with sea-fog. Here they launched their boat of sea-lion skin on a bone frame, and pulled across a bay of ten miles to the farthermost hunting-grounds. Again, the natives overwhelm Drusenin with kindness. The Russian keeps his sentinels as {91} vigilant as ever pacing before the doors of the hut; but he goes unguarded and unharmed among the native dwellings. Perhaps, poor Drusenin was not above swaggering a little, belted in the gay uniform Russian officers loved to wear, to the confounding of the poor Aleut who looked on the pistols in belt, the cutlass dangling at heel, the bright shoulder straps and colored cuffs, as insignia of a power almighty. Anyway, after Drusenin had sent five hunters out in the fields to lay fox-traps, early in the morning of December 4, he set out with a couple of Cossack friends to visit a native house. Korelin, the rescued castaway, and two other men kept guard at the huts.[2] At that time, and until very recently, the Aleuts' winter dwelling was a domed, thatched roof over a cellar excavation three or four feet deep, circular and big enough to lodge a dozen families. The entrance to this was a low-roofed, hall-like annex, dark as night, leading with a sudden pitch downward into the main circle. Now, whether the Aleut had counted burning fagots, or kept tally some other way, the count was up. Barely had Drusenin stepped into the dark of the inner circle, when a blow clubbed down on his skull that felled him to earth. The Cossack, coming second, had stumbled over the prostrate body before either had any suspicion of danger; and in a {92} second, both were cut to pieces by knives traded to the Indians the day before for otter skins. Shevyrin, the third man, happened to be carrying an axe. One against a score, he yet kept his face to the enemy, beat a retreat backward striking right and left with the axe, then turned and fled for very life, with a shower of arrows and lances falling about him, that drenched him in his own blood. Already a crash of muskets told of battle at the huts. More dead than alive, the pursued Russian turned but to strike his assailants back. Then, he was at the huts almost stumbling over the man who had probably been doing sentinel duty but was now under the spears of the crowd--when the hut door opened; and Korelin, the Russian, dashed out flourishing a yard-long bear knife under protection of the other guard's musket fire from the window, slashed to death two of the nearest Indians, cut a swath that sent the others scattering, seized the two wounded men, dragged them inside the hut, and slammed the door to the enraged yells of the baffled warriors. Some one has said that Oonalaska and Oomnak are the smelting furnaces of America. Certainly, the volcanic caves supplied sulphur that the natives knew how to use as match lighters. The savages were without firearms, but might have burned out the Russians had it not been for the constant fusillade of musketry from door and roof and parchment windows of the hut. Two of the Russians were wounded and weak {93} from loss of blood. The other two never remitted their guard day or night for four days, neither sleeping nor eating, till the wounded pair, having recovered somewhat, seized pistols and cutlasses, waited till a quelling of the musketry tempted the Indians near, then sallied out with a flare of their pistols, that dropped three Aleuts on the spot, wounded others, and drove the rest to a distance. But in the sortie, there had been flaunted in their very faces, the coats and caps and daggers of the five hunters Drusenin had sent fox trapping. Plainly, the fox hunters had been massacred. The four men were alone surrounded by hundreds of hostiles, ten miles from the shores of Oonalaska, twenty from the other hunting detachments and the ship. But water was becoming a desperate need. To stay cooped up in the hut was to be forced into surrender. Their only chance was to risk all by a dash from the island. Dark was gathering. Through the shadowy dusk watched the Aleuts; but the pointed muskets of the two wounded men kept hostiles beyond distance of spear-tossing, while the other two Russians destroyed what they could not carry away, hauled down their skin boat to the water loaded with provisions, ammunition, and firearms, then under guard of levelled pistols, pulled off in the darkness across the sea, heaving and thundering to the night tide. But the sea was the lesser danger. Once away from the enemy, the four fugitives pulled for dear life {94} across the tumbling waves--ten miles the way they went, one account says--to the main shore of Oonalaska. It was pitch dark. When they reached the shore, they could neither hear nor see a sign of life; but the moss trail through the snows had probably become well beaten to the ship by this time--four months from Drusenin's landing--or else the fugitives found their way by a kind of desperation; for before daybreak they had run within shouting distance of the second detachment of hunters stationed at Kalekhta. Not a sound! Not a light! Perhaps they had missed their way! Perhaps the Indians on the main island are still friendly! Shevyrin or Korelin utters a shout, followed by the signal of a musket shot for that second party of hunters to come out and help. Scarcely had the crash died over the snows, when out of the dark leaped a hundred lances, a hundred faces, a hundred shrieking, bloodthirsty savages. Now they realize the mistake of having landed, of having abandoned the skin boat back on the beach there! But no time to retrace steps! Only a wild dash through the dark, catching by each other to keep together, up to a high precipitous rock they know is somewhere here, with the sea behind, sheer drop on each side, and but one narrow approach! Here they make their stand, muskets and sword in hand, beating the assailants back, wherever a stealthy form comes climbing up the rock to hurl spear or lance! Presently, a well-directed fusillade drives the savages off! While night still hid {95} them, the four fugitives scrambled down the side of the rock farthest from the savages, and ran for the roadstead where the ship had anchored. As dawn comes up over the harbor something catches the attention of the runners. It is the main hatch, the planking, the mast poles of the ship, drawn up and scattered on the beach. Drusenin's ship has been destroyed. The crew is massacred; they, alone, have escaped; and the nearest help is one of those three other Russian ships anchored somewhere seventy miles west. Without waiting to look more, the three men ran for the mountains of the interior, found hiding in one of the deep-grassed ravines, scooped out a hole in the sand, covered this with a sail white as snow, and crawled under in hiding for the day. The next night they came down to the shore, in the hope, perhaps, of finding refugees like themselves. They discovered only the mangled bodies of their comrades, literally hacked to pieces. A saint's image and a book of prayers lay along the sand. Scattered everywhere were flour sacks, provisions, ships' planking. These they carried back as well as they could three miles in the mountains. A pretty legend is told of a native hunter following their tracks to this retreat, and not only refusing to betray them but secretly carrying provisions; and some such explanation is needed to know how the four men lived hidden in the mountains from December 9 to February 2, 1764. If they had known where those other Russian ships {96} were anchored, they might have struck across country to them, or followed the coast by night; but rival hunters did not tell each other where they anchored, and tracks across country could have been followed. The trackless sea was safer. There is another story of how the men hid in mountain caves all those weeks, kept alive by the warmth of hot springs, feeding on clams and shell-fish gathered at night. This, too, may be true; for the mountains inland of Oonalaska Harbor are honeycombed with caves, and there are well-known hot springs. By February they had succeeded in making a skin skiff of the leather sacks. They launched this on the harbor and, stealing away unseen, rounded the northwest coast of Oonalaska's hand projecting into the sea, travelling at night southwestward, seeking the ships of Korovin, or Medvedeff, or Glottoff. Now the majority of voyagers don't care to coast this part of Oonalaska at night during the winter in a safe ship; and these men had nothing between them and the abyss of the sea but the thickness of a leather sack badly oiled to keep out water. Their one hope was--a trader's vessel. All night, for a week, they coasted within the shadow of the shore rocks, hiding by day, passing three Indian villages undiscovered. Distance gave them courage. They now paddled by day, and just as they rounded Makushin Volcano, lying like a great white corpse five thousand feet above Bering Sea, they came on five {97} Indians, who at once landed and running alongshore gave the alarm. The refugees for the second time sought safety on a rock; but the rising tide drove them off. Seizing the light boat, they ran for shelter in a famous cave of the volcanic mountain. Here, for five weeks, they resisted constant siege, not a Russian of the four daring to appear within twenty yards of the cave entrance before a shower of arrows fell inside. Their only food now was the shell-fish gathered at night; their only water, snow scooped from gutters of the cave. Each night one watched by turn while the others slept; and each night one must make a dash to gather the shell-fish. Five weeks at last tired the Indians' vigilance out. One dark night the Russians succeeded in launching out undetected. That day they hid, but daybreak of the next long pull showed them a ship in the folds of the mountain coast--Korovin's vessel. They reached the ship on the 30th of March. Poor Shevyrin soon after died from his wounds in the underground hut, but Korovin's troubles had only begun. Ivan Korovin's vessel had sailed out of Avacha Bay, Kamchatka, just two weeks before Pushkareff's crew of criminals came home. It had become customary for the hunting vessels to sail to the Commander Islands--Bering and Copper--nearest Kamchatka, and winter there, laying up a store of sea-cow meat, the huge bovine of the sea, which was soon to be exterminated by the hunters. Here Korovin met Denis Medvedeff's {98} crew, also securing a year's supply of meat for the hunt of the sea-otter. The two leaders must have had some inkling of trouble ahead, for Medvedeff gave Korovin ten more sailors, and the two signed a written contract to help each other in time of need. In spring (1763) both sailed for the best sea-otter fields then known--Oonalaska and Oomnak, Korovin with thirty-seven men, Medvedeff, forty-nine. In order not to interfere with each other's hunt, Medvedeff stopped at Oomnak, Korovin went on to Oonalaska. Anchoring sixty yards from shore, not very far from the volcano caves, where Drusenin's four fugitives were to fight for their lives the following spring, Korovin landed with fourteen men to reconnoitre. Deserted houses he saw, but never a living soul. Going back to the ship for more men, he set out again and went inland five miles where he found a village of three hundred souls. Three chiefs welcomed him, showed receipts for tribute of furs given by the Cossack collector of a previous ship, and gave over three boys as hostages of good conduct--one, called Alexis, the son of a chief. Meanwhile, letters were exchanged with Medvedeff down a hundred miles at Oomnak. All was well. The time had not come. It was only September--about the same time that Drusenin up north was sending out his hunters in three detachments. Korovin was so thoroughly satisfied all was safe, that he landed his entire cargo and crew, and while the carpenters were building wintering huts out of {99} driftwood, set out himself, with two skin boats, to coast northeast. For four days he followed the very shore that the four escaping men were to cruise in an opposite direction. About forty miles from the anchorage he met Drusenin himself, leading twenty-five Russian hunters out from Captain Harbor. Surely, if ever hunters were safe, Korovin's were, with Medvedeff's forty-nine men southwest a hundred miles, and Drusenin's thirty sailors forty miles northeast. Korovin decided to hunt midway between Drusenin's crew and Medvedeff's. It is likely that the letters exchanged among the different commanders from September to December were arranging that Drusenin should keep to the east of Oonalaska, Korovin to the west of the island, while Medvedeff hunted exclusively on the other island--Oomnak. By December Korovin had scattered twenty-three hunters southwest, keeping a guard of only sixteen for the huts and boat. Among the sixteen was little Alexis, the hostage Indian boy. The warning of danger was from the mother of the little Aleut, who reported that sixty hostiles were advancing on the ship under pretence of trading sea-otter. Between the barracks and the sea front flowed a stream. Here the Cossack guard took their stand, armed head to foot, permitting only ten Indians at a time to enter the huts for trade. The Aleuts exchanged their sea-otter for what iron they could get, and departed without any sign. Korovin had almost concluded it was a false {100} alarm, when three Indian servants of Drusenin's ship came dashing breathless across country with news that the ship and all the Russians on the east end of Oonalaska had been destroyed. Including the three newcomers, Korovin had only nineteen men; and his hostages numbered almost as strong. The panic-stricken sailors were for burning huts and ship, and escaping overland to the twenty-three hunters somewhere southwest. It was the 10th of December--the very night when Drusenin's fugitives had taken to hiding in the north mountains. While Korovin was still debating what to do, an alarm came from beneath the keel of the ship. In the darkness, the sea was suddenly alive with hundreds of skin skiffs each carrying from eight to twenty Indian warriors. One can well believe that lanterns swinging from bow and stern, and lights behind the talc windows of the huts, were put suddenly out to avoid giving targets for the hurricane of lances and darts and javelins that came hurtling through the air. Two Russians fell dead, reducing Korovin's defence to fourteen; but a quick swing of musketry exacted five Indian lives for the two dead whites. At the end of four days, the Russians were completely exhausted. The besiegers withdrew to a cave on the mountain side, perhaps to tempt Korovin on land. Quick as thought, Korovin buried his iron deep under the barracks, set fire to the huts, and concentrated all his forces on the vessel, where he wisely carried the {101} hostages with him and sheered fifty yards farther off shore. Had the riot of winter winds not been driving mountain billows along the outer coast, he might have put to sea; but he had no proof the twenty-three men gone inland hunting to the south might not be yet alive, and a winter gale would have dashed his ship to kindling wood outside the sheltered harbor. Food was short, water was short, and the ship over-crowded with hostages. To make matters worse, scurvy broke out among the crew; and the hostiles renewed the attack, surrounding the Russian ship in forty canoes with ten to twenty warriors in each. An ocean vessel of the time, or even a pirate ship, could have scattered the assailants in a few minutes; but the Russian hunting vessels were long, low, flat-bottomed, rickety-planked craft, of perhaps sixty feet in length, with no living accommodation below decks, and very poor hammock space above. Hostages and scurvy-stricken Russians were packed in the hold with the meat stores and furs like dying rats in a garbage barrel. It was as much as a Russian's life was worth, to show his head above the hatchway; and the siege lasted from the middle of December to the 30th of March, when Drusenin's four refugees, led by Korelin, made a final dash from Makushin Volcano, and gained Korovin's ship. With the addition of the fugitives, Korovin now had eighteen Russians. The Indian father of the hostage, {102} Alexis, had come to demand back his son. Korovin freed the boy at once. By the end of April, the spring gales had subsided, and though half his men were prostrate with scurvy, there was nothing for Korovin to do but dare the sea. They sailed out from Oonalaska on April 26 heading back toward Oomnak, where Medvedeff had anchored. In the straits between the different Aleutian Islands runs a terrific tide-rip. Crossing from Oonalaska to Oomnak, Korovin's ship was caught by the counter-currents and cross winds. Not more than five men were well enough to stand upon their feet. The ship drifted without pilot or oarsmen, and driving the full force of wind and tide foundered on the end of Oomnak Island. Ammunition, sails, and skins for fresh rowboats were all that could be saved of the wreck. One scurvy-stricken sailor was drowned trying to reach land; another died on being lifted from the stiflingly close hold to fresh air. Eight hostages sprang overboard and escaped. Of the sixteen white men and four hostages left, three were powerless from scurvy. This last blow on top of a winter's siege was too much for the Russians. Their enfeebled bodies were totally exhausted. Stretching sails round as a tent and stationing ten men at a time as sentinels, they slept the first unbroken sleep they had known in five months. The tired-out sentinels must have fallen asleep at their places; for just as day dawned came a hundred savages, stealthy and silent, seeking the ship that had slipped {103} out from Oonalaska. Landing without a sound, they crept up within ten yards of the tents, stabbed the sleeping sentinels to death, and let go such a whiz of arrows and lances at the tent walls, that three of the Indian hostages inside were killed and every Russian wounded. Korovin had not even time to seize his firearms. Cutlass in hand, followed by four men--all wounded and bleeding like himself--he dashed out, slashed two savages to death, and scattered the rest at the sword point. A shower of spears was the Indians' answer to this. Wounded anew, the five Russians could scarcely drag themselves back to the tent where by this time the others had seized the firearms. All that day and night, a tempest lashed the shore. The stranded ship fell to pieces like a boat of paper; and the attacking islanders strewed the provisions to the winds with shrieks of laughter. On the 30th of April, the assailants began firing muskets, which they had captured from Korovin's massacred hunters; but the shots fell wide of the mark. Then they brought sulphur from the volcanic caves, and set fire to the long grass on the windward side of the tents. Again, Korovin sallied out, drove them off, and extinguished the fire. May, June, and half July he lay stranded here, waiting for his men to recover, and when they recovered, setting them to build a boat of skin and driftwood. Toward the third week of July, a skin boat twenty-four feet long was finished. In this were laid the wounded; and the well men took to the paddles. All {104} night they paddled westward and still westward, night after night, seeking the third vessel--that of Denis Medvedeff, who had come with them the year before from Bering Island. On the tenth day, Russian huts and a stone bath-house were seen on the shore of a broad inlet. Not a soul was stirring. As Korovin's boat approached, bits of sail, ships' wreckage, and provisions were seen scattered on the shore. Fearing the worst, Korovin landed. Signs of a struggle were on every hand; and in the bath-house, still clothed but with thongs round their necks as if they had been strangled to death, lay twenty of Medvedeff's crew. Closer examination showed Medvedeff himself among the slain. Not a soul was left to tell the story of the massacre, not a word ever heard about the fate of the others in the crew. Korovin's last hope was gone. There was no third ship to carry him home. He was in the very act of ordering his men to construct winter quarters, when Stephen Glottoff, a famous hunter on the way back from Kadiak westward, appeared marching across the sands followed by eight men. Glottoff had heard of the massacres from natives on the north shore with whom he was friendly; and had sent out rescue parties to seek the survivors on the south coast of whom the Indian spies told. The poor fugitives embraced Glottoff, and went almost mad with joy. But like the prospector, who suffers untold hardships seeking the wealth of gold, these seekers of wealth in furs could not relinquish the {105} wild freedom of the perilous life. They signed contracts to hunt with Glottoff for the year. It is no part of this story to tell how the Cossack, Solovieff, entered on a campaign of punishment for the Aleuts when he came. Whole villages were blown up by mines of powder in birch bark. Fugitives dashing from the conflagration were sabred by the Russians, as many as a hundred Aleuts butchered at a time, villages of three hundred scattered to the winds, warriors bound hand and foot in line, and shot down. Suffice it to say, scurvy slaked Solovieff's vengeance. Both Aleuts and Russians had learned the one all-important lesson--the Christian's doctrine of retribution, the scientist's law of equilibrium--that brute force met by brute force ends only in mutual destruction, in anarchy, in death. Thirty years later, Vancouver visiting the Russians could report that their influence on the Indians was of the sort that springs from deep-rooted kindness and identity of interests. Both sides had learned there was a better way than the wolf code.[3] [1] See Coxe's _Discoveries of the Russians_. [2] Some of the old records spell the name of this wrecked Russian "Korelin," as if it were "Gorelin," the sailor, of Pushkareff's crew, who brained the Indian girl; I am unable to determine whether "Korelin" and "Gorelin" are the same man or not. If so, then the punishment came home indeed. [3] It would be almost impossible to quote all the authorities on this massacre of the Russians, and every one who has written on Russian fur trade in America gives different scraps of the tragedy; but nearly all can be traced back to the detailed account in Coxe's _Discoveries of the Russians between Asia and America_, and on this I have relied, the French edition of 1781. The Census Report, Vol. VIII, 1880, by Ivan Petroff, is invaluable for topography and ethnology of this period and region. It was from Korelin, one of the four refugees, that the Russian archivists took the first account of the massacre; and Coxe's narrative is based on Korelin's story, though the tradition of the massacre has been handed down from father to child among Oonalaskans to this day, so that certain caves near Captain Harbor, and Makushin Volcano are still pointed out as the refuge of the four pursued Russians. {106} CHAPTER V 1768-1772 COUNT MAURITIUS BENYOWSKY, THE POLISH PIRATE Siberian Exiles under Polish Soldier of Fortune plot to overthrow Garrison of Kamchatka and escape to West Coast of America as Fur Traders--A Bloody Melodrama enacted at Bolcheresk--The Count and his Criminal Crew sail to America Fur hunters, world over, live much the same life. It was the beaver led French voyageurs westward to the Rocky Mountains. It was the sea-otter brought Russian coasters cruising southward from Alaska to California; and it was the little sable set the mad pace of the Cossacks' wild rush clear across Siberia to the shores of the Pacific. The tribute that the riotous Cossacks collected, whether from Siberia or America, was tribute in furs. The farther the hunters wandered, the harder it was to obtain supplies from the cities. In each case--in New France, on the Missouri, in Siberia--this compelled resort to the same plan; a grand rallying place, a yearly rendezvous, a stamping-ground for hunters and traders. Here merchants brought their goods; {107} hunters, their furs; light-fingered gentry, offscourings from everywhere, horses to sell, or smuggled whiskey, or plunder that had been picked up in ways untold. The great meeting place for Russian fur traders was on a plain east of the Lena River, not far from Yakutsk, a thousand miles in a crow line from the Pacific. In the fall of 1770 there had gathered here as lawless birds of a feather as ever scoured earth for prey. Merchants from the inland cities had floated down supplies to the plain on white and black and lemon-painted river barges. Long caravans of pack horses and mules and tented wagons came rumbling dust-covered across the fields, bells ajingle, driven by Cossacks all the way from St. Petersburg, six thousand miles. Through snow-padded forests, over wind-swept plains, across the heaving mountains of two continents, along deserts and Siberian rivers, almost a year had the caravans travelled. These, for the most part, carried ship supplies--cordage, tackling, iron--for vessels to be built on the Pacific to sail for America. Then there rode in at furious pace, from the northern steppes of Siberia, the Cossack tribute collectors--four hundred of them centred here--who gathered one-tenth of the furs for the Czar, nine-tenths for themselves: drunken brawlers they were, lawless as Arabs; and the only law they knew was the law they wielded. Tartar hordes came with horses to sell, freebooters of the boundless desert, banditti in league with the Cossacks to smuggle across the {108} borders of the Chinese. And Chinese smugglers, splendid in silk attire, hobnobbed with exiles, who included every class from courtiers banished for political offences to criminals with ears cut off and faces slit open. What with drink and play and free fights--if the Czar did not hear, it was because he was far away. On this August night half a dozen new exiles had come in with the St. Petersburg cavalcade. The prisoners were set free on parole to see the sights, while their Cossack guard went on a spree. The new-comers seemed above the common run of criminals sent to Siberia, better clothed, of the air born to command, and in possession of money. The leading spirit among them was a young Pole, twenty-eight years or thereabouts, of noble rank, Mauritius Benyowsky, very lame from a battle wound, but plainly a soldier of fortune who could trump every trick fate played him, and give as good knocks as he got. Four others were officers of the army in St. Petersburg, exiled for political reasons. Only one, Hippolite Stephanow, was a criminal in the sense of having broken law. Hoffman, a German surgeon, welcomed them to his quarters at Yakutsk. Where were they going?--To the Pacific?--"Ah; a long journey from St. Petersburg; seven thousand miles!" That was where he was to go when he had finished surgical duties on the Lena. By that they knew he, too, was an exile, practising his profession on parole. He would advise {109} them--cautiously feeling his ground--to get transferred as soon as they could from the Pacific coast to the Peninsula of Kamchatka; that was safer for an exile--fewer guards, farther from the Cossacks of the mainland; in fact, nearer America, where exiles might make a fortune in the fur trade. Had they heard of schemes in the air among Russians for ships to plunder furs in America "with powder and hatchets and the help of God," as the Russians say? [Illustration: Mauritius Augustus, Count Benyowsky.] Benyowsky, the Pole, jumped to the bait like a trout to the fly. If "powder and hatchets and the help of God"--_and an exile crew_--could capture wealth in the fur trade of western America, why not a break for freedom? They didn't scruple as to means, these men. Why should they? They had been penned in festering dungeons, where the dead lay, corrupting the air till living and dead became a diseased mass. They had been knouted for differences of political opinion. They {110} had been whisked off at midnight from St. Petersburg--mile after mile, week after week, month after month, across the snows, with never a word of explanation, knowing only from the jingle of many bells that other prisoners were in the long procession. Now their hopes took fire from Hoffman's tales of Russian plans for fur trade. The path of the trackless sea seems always to lead to a boundless freedom. In a word, before they had left Hoffman, they had bound themselves by oath to try to seize a fur-trading ship to escape across the Pacific. Stephanow, the common convict, was the one danger. He might play spy and obtain freedom by betraying all. To prevent this, each man was required to sign his name to an avowal of the conspirators' aim. Hoffman was to follow as soon as he could. Meanwhile he kept the documents, which were written in German; and Benyowsky, the Pole, was elected chief. The Cossack guards came sulkily back from their gambling bout. The exiles were placed in elk-team sleds, and the remaining thousand miles to the Pacific resumed. But the spree had left the soldiers with sore heads. At the first camping place they were gambling again. On the sixth day out luck turned so heavily against one soldier that he lost his entire belongings to the captain of the troops, flew in a towering rage, and called his officer some blackguard name. The officer nonchalantly took over the {111} gains, swallowed the insult, and commanded the other Cossacks to tie the fellow up and give him a hundred lashes. For a moment consternation reigned. There are some unwritten laws even among the Cossacks. To play the equal, when there was money to win, then act the despot when offended, was not according to the laws of good fellows among Cossacks. Before the officer knew where he was, he had been seized, bundled out of the tent, stripped naked and flogged on the bare back three hundred strokes. He was still roaring with rage and pain and fear when a coureur came thundering over the path from Yakutsk with word that Hoffman had died suddenly, leaving certain papers suspected of conspiracy, which were being forwarded for examination to the commander on the Pacific. The coureur handed the paper to the officer of the guards. Not a man of the Cossacks could read German. What the papers were the terrified exiles knew. If word of the plot reached the Pacific, they might expect knouting, perhaps mutilation, or lifelong, hopeless servitude in the chain-gangs of the mines. One chance of frustrating detection remained--the Cossack officer looked to the exiles for protection against his men. For a week the cavalcade moved sullenly on, the soldiers jeering in open revolt at the officer, the officer in terror for his life, the exiles quaking with fear. The road led to a swift, somewhat {112} dangerous river. The Cossacks were ordered to swim the elk teams across. The officer went on the raft to guard the prisoners, on whose safe delivery his own life depended. With hoots of laughter, that could not be reported as disobedience, the Cossacks hustled the snorting elk teams against the raft. A deft hoist from the pole of some unseen diver below, and the raft load was turned helter-skelter upside down in the middle of the river, the commander going under heels up! When officer and exiles came scrambling up the bank wet as water-rats, they were welcomed with shouts by the Cossacks. Officer and prisoners lighted a fire to dry clothes. Soldiers rummaged out the brandy casks, and were presently so deep in drunken sleep not a man of the guard was on his feet. Benyowsky waited till the commander, too, slept. Then the Pole limped, careful as a cat over cut glass, to the coat drying before the fire, drew out the packet of documents, and found what the exiles had feared--Hoffman's papers in German, with orders to the commander on the Pacific to keep the conspirators fettered till instructions came the next year from St. Petersburg. The prisoners realized that all must be risked in one desperate cast of the dice. "I and time against all men," says the proverb. No fresh caravan would be likely to come till spring. Meanwhile they must play against time. Burning the packet to ashes, they replaced it with a forged order instructing the commander on the Pacific to treat the exiles with all {113} freedom and liberality, and to forward them by the first boat outward bound for Kamchatka. The governor at Okhotsk did precisely as the packet instructed. He allowed them out on parole. He supplied them with clothing and money. He forwarded them to Kamchatka on the first boat outward bound, the _St. Peter and Paul_, with forty-three of a crew and ten cannon, which had just come back from punishing American Indians for massacring the Russians. A year less two days from the night they had been whisked out of St. Petersburg, the exiles reached their destination--the little log fort or _ostrog_ of Bolcheresk, about twenty miles up from the sea on the inner side of Kamchatka, one hundred and fifty miles overland from the Pacific. The rowboat conducting the exiles up-stream met rafts of workmen gliding down the current. Rafts and rowboat paused within call. The raftsmen wanted news from Europe. Benyowsky answered that exiles had no news. "Who are you?" an officer demanded bluntly. Always and unconsciously playing the hero part of melodrama, Benyowsky replied--"Once a soldier and a general, now a slave." Shouts of laughter broke from the raftsmen. The enraged Pole was for leaping overboard and thrashing them to a man for their mockery; but they called out, "no offence had been meant": they, too, were exiles; their laughter was welcome; they had suffered enough in Kamchatka to know that when men must laugh or weep, better, much better, laugh! Even as they {114} laughed came the tears. With a rear sweep, the rafts headed about and escorted the newcomers to the fortress, where they were locked for the night. After all, a welcome to exile was a sardonic sort of mirth. Kamchatka occupies very much the same position on the Pacific as Italy to the Mediterranean, or Norway to the North Sea. Its people were nomads, wild as American Indians, but Russia had established garrisons of Cossacks--collectors of tribute in furs--all over the peninsula, of whom four hundred were usually moving from place to place, three hundred stationed at Bolcheresk, the seat of government, on the inner coast of the peninsula. The capital itself was a curious conglomeration of log huts stuck away at the back of beyond, with all the gold lace and court satins and regimental formalities of St. Petersburg in miniature. On one side of a deep ravine, was the fort or _ostrog_--a palisaded courtyard of some two or three hundred houses, joined together like the face of a street, with assembly rooms, living apartments, and mess rooms on one side of a passageway, kitchens, servants' quarters, and barracks for the Cossacks on the other side of the aisle. Two or three streets of these double-rowed houses made up the fort. Few of the houses contained more than three rooms, but the rooms were large as halls, one hundred by eighty feet, some of them, with whip-sawed floors, clay-chinked log walls, parchment {115} windows, and furniture hewed out of the green fir trees of the mountains. But the luxurious living made up for the bareness of furnishings. Shining samovars sung in every room. Rugs of priceless fur concealed the rough flooring. Chinese silks, Japanese damasks,--Oriental tapestries smuggled in by the fur traders,--covered the walls; and richest of silk attired the Russian officers and their ladies, compelled to beguile time here, where the only break in monotony was the arrival of fresh ships from America, or exiles from St. Petersburg, or gambling or drinking or dancing or feasting the long winter nights through, with, perhaps, a duel in the morning to settle midnight debts. Just across a deep ravine from the fort was another kind of settlement--ten or a dozen _yurts_, thatch-roofed, circular houses half underground like cellars, grouped about a square hall or barracks in the centre. In this village dwelt the exiles, earning their living by hunting or acting as servants for the officers of the Cossacks. Here, then, came Benyowsky and his companions, well received because of forged letters sent on, but with no time to lose; for the first spring packet overland might reveal their conspiracy. The raftsmen, who had welcomed them, now turned hosts and housed the newcomers. The Pole was assigned to an educated Russian, who had been eight years in exile. "How can you stand it? Do you fear death too much to dare one blow for liberty?" Benyowsky asked the other, as they sat over their tea that first night. {116} But a spy might ask the same question. The Russian evaded answer, and a few hours later showed the Pole books of travel, among which were maps of the Philippines, where twenty or thirty exiles might go _if they had a leader_. Leader? Benyowsky leaped to his feet with hands on pistol and cutlass with which he had been armed that morning when Governor Nilow liberated them to hunt on parole. Leader? Were they men? Was this settlement, too, ready to rise if they had a leader? No time to lose! Within a month, cautious as a man living over a volcano, the Polish nobleman had enlisted twenty recruits from the exile settlement, bound to secrecy by oath, and a score more from a crew of sailor exiles back from America, mutinous over brutal treatment by their captain. In addition to secrecy, each conspirator bound himself to implicit and instant obedience to Benyowsky, their chief, and to slay each with his own hand any member of the band found guilty of betrayal. But what gave the Pole his greatest power was his relation to the governor. The coming of the young nobleman had caused a flutter in the social life of the dull little fort. He had been appointed secretary to Governor Nilow, and tutor to his children. The governor's lady was the widow of a Swedish exile; and it took the Pole but a few interviews to discover that wife and family favored the exiles rather than their Russian lord. In fact, the good woman suggested to the Pole that he {117} should prevent her sixteen-year-old daughter becoming wife to a Cossack by marrying her himself. The Pole's first move was to ask the governor's permission to establish a colony of exile farmers in the south of the peninsula. The request was granted. This created a good excuse for the gathering of the provisions that would be needed for the voyage on the Pacific; but when the exiles further requested a fur-trading vessel to transport the provisions to the new colony, their design was balked by the unsuspecting governor granting them half a hundred row boats, too frail to go a mile from the coast. There seemed no other course but to seize a vessel by force and escape, but Benyowsky again played for time. The governor's daughter discovered his plot through her servant planning to follow one of the exiles to sea; but instead of betraying him to her Russian father, she promised to send him red clippings of thread as danger signals if the governor or his chancellor got wind of the treason. Their one aim was to get away from Asia before fresh orders could come overland from Yakutsk. Ice still blocked the harbor in April, but the _St. Peter and Paul_, the armed vessel that had brought the exiles across the sea from the mainland, lay in port and was already enlisting a crew for the summer voyage to America. The Pole sent twelve of his men to enlist among the crew, and nightly store provisions in the hold. The rest of the band were set to manufacturing cartridges, and buying or borrowing all the firearms {118} they could obtain on the pretence of hunting. Word was secretly carried from man to man that, when a light was hoisted on the end of a flagstaff above the Benyowsky hut, all were to rally for the settlement across the ravine from the fort. The crisis came before the harbor had opened. Benyowsky was on a sled journey inland with the governor, when an exile came to him by night with word that one of the conspirators had lost his nerve and determined to save his own neck by confessing all to the governor. The traitor was even now hard on the trail to overtake the governor. Without a moment's wavering, Benyowsky sent the messenger with a flask of poisoned brandy back to meet the man. The Pole had scarcely returned to his hut in the exile village, when the governor's daughter came to him in tears. Ismyloff, a young Russian trader, who had all winter tried to join the conspirators as a spy, had been on the trail when the traitor was poisoned and was even now closeted with Governor Nilow. It was the night of April 23. No sooner had the daughter gone than the light was run up on the flagstaff, the bridge across the ravine broken down, arms dragged from hiding in the cellars, windows and doors barricaded, sentinels placed in hiding along the ditch between village and fort. For a whole day, no word came. Governor and chancellor were still busy examining witnesses. In the morning came a maid {119} from the governor's daughter with a red thread of warning, and none too soon, for at ten o'clock, a Cossack sergeant brought a polite invitation from the governor for the pleasure of M. Benyowsky's company at breakfast. M. Benyowsky returns polite regrets that he is slightly indisposed, but hopes to give himself the pleasure later. The sergeant winked his eyes and opined it was wiser to go by fair means than to be dragged by main force. The Pole advised the sergeant to make his will before repeating that threat. Noon saw two Cossacks and an officer thundering at the Pole's door. The door opened wide. In marched the soldiers, armed to the teeth; but before their clicking heels had ceased to mark time, the door was shut again. Benyowsky had whistled. A dozen exiles rose out of the floor. Cossacks and captors rolled in a heap. The soldiers were bound head to feet, and bundled into the cellar. Meanwhile the sentinels hidden in the ravine had captured Ismyloff, the nephew of the chancellor, and two other Russians, who were added to the captives in the cellar; and the governor changed his tactics. A letter was received from the governor's daughter pleading with her lover to come and be reconciled with her father, who had now no prejudice against the exiles; but in the letter were two or three tiny red threads such as might have {120} been pulled out of a dress sleeve. The letter had been written under force. Benyowsky's answer was to marshal his fifty-seven men in three divisions round the village; one round the house, the largest hidden in the dark on the fort side of the ravine, a decoy group stationed in the ditch to draw an attack. By midnight, the sentinels sent word that the main guard of Cossacks had reached the ravine. The decoy had made a feint of resistance. The Cossacks sent back to the fort for reinforcements. The Pole waited only till nearly all the Cossacks were on the ditch bank, then instructing the little band of decoys to keep up a sham fight, poured his main forces through the dark, across the plain at a run, for the fort. Palisades were scaled, gates broken down, guards stabbed where they stood! Benyowsky's men had the fort and the gates barricaded again before the governor could collect his senses. As Benyowsky entered the main rooms, the enraged commander seized a pistol, which missed fire, and sprang at the Pole's throat, roaring out he would see the exiles dead before he would surrender. The Pole, being lame, had swayed back under the onslaught, when the circular slash of a cutlass in the hand of an exile officer severed the governor's head from his body. Twenty-eight Cossacks were put to the sword inside the fort; but the exiles were not yet out of their troubles. Though they had seized the armed vessel at once and {121} transferred to the hold the entire loot of the fort,--furs, silks, supplies, gold,--it would be two weeks before the ice would leave the port. Meanwhile the two hundred defeated Cossacks had retreated to a hill, and sent coureurs scurrying for help to the other forts of Kamchatka. Within two weeks seven hundred Cossacks would be on the hills; and the exiles, whose supplies were on board the vessel, would be cut off in the fort and starved into surrender. No time to waste, Benyowsky! Not a woman or child was harmed, but every family in the fort was quickly rounded up in the chapel. Round this, outside, were piled chairs, furniture, pitch, tar, powder, whale-oil. Promptly at nine in the morning, three women and twelve young girls--wives and daughters of the Cossack officers--were despatched to the Cossack besiegers on the hill with word that unless the Cossacks surrendered their arms to the exiles and sent down fifty soldiers as hostages of safety for the exiles till the ship could sail--precisely at ten o'clock the church would be set on fire. The women were seen to ascend the hill. No signal came from the Cossacks. At a quarter past nine Benyowsky kindled fires at each of the four angles of the church. As the flames began to mount a forest of handkerchiefs and white sheets waved above the hill, and a host of men came spurring to the fort with all the Cossacks' arms and fifty-two hostages. {122} The exiles now togged themselves out in all the gay regimentals of the Russian officers. Salutes of triumph were fired from the cannon. A _Te Deum_ was sung. Feast and mad wassail filled both day and night till the harbor cleared. Even the Cossacks caught the madcap spirit of the escapade, and helped to load ammunition on the _St. Peter and Paul_. Nor were old wrongs forgiven. Ismyloff was bundled on the vessel in irons. The chancellor's secretary was seized and compelled to act as cook. Men, who had played the spy and tyrant, now felt the merciless knout. Witnesses, who had tried to pry into the exiles' plot, were hanged at the yard-arm. Nine women, relatives of exiles, who had been compelled to become the wives of Cossacks, now threw off the yoke of slavery, donned the costly Chinese silks, and joined the pirates. Among these was the governor's daughter, who was to have married a Cossack. On May 11, 1771, the Polish flag was run up on the _St. Peter and Paul_. The fort fired a God-speed--a heartily sincere one, no doubt--of twenty-one guns. Again the _Te Deum_ was chanted; again, the oath of obedience taken by kissing Benyowsky's sword; and at five o'clock in the evening the ship dropped down the river for the sea, with ninety-six exiles on board, of whom nine were women; one, an archdeacon; half a dozen, officers of the imperial army; one, a gentleman in waiting to the Empress; at least a dozen, convicts of the blackest dye. {123} The rest of Benyowsky's adventures read more like a page from some pirate romance than sober record of events on the west coast of America. Barely had the vessel rounded the southern cape of the peninsula into the Pacific, when Ismyloff, the young Russian trader, who had been carried on board in irons, rallied round Benyowsky such a clamor of mutineers, duels were fought on the quarter-deck, the malcontents clapped in handcuffs again, and the ringleaders tied to the masts, where knouting enough was laid on to make them sue for peace. The middle of May saw the vessel anchoring on the west coast of Bering Island, where a sharp lookout was kept for Russian fur traders, and armed men must go ashore to reconnoitre before Benyowsky dared venture from the ship. The Pole's position was chancy enough to satisfy even his melodramatic soul. Apart from four or five Swedes, the entire crew of ninety-six was Russian. Benyowsky was for sailing south at once to take up quarters on some South Sea island, or to claim the protection of some European power. The Russian exiles, of whom half were criminals, were for coasting the Pacific on pirate venture, and compelled the Pole to steer his vessel for the fur hunters' islands of Alaska. The men sent to reconnoitre Bering Island came back with word that while they were gathering driftwood on the south shore, they had heard shots and met five Russians belonging to a Saxon exile, who had {124} turned fur hunter, deposed the master of his ships, gathered one hundred exiles around him, and become a trader on his own account. The Saxon requested an interview with Benyowsky. What was the Pole to do? Was this a decoy to test his strength? Was the Saxon planning to scuttle the Pole's vessel, too? Benyowsky's answer was that he would be pleased to meet his Saxon comrade in arms on the south shore, each side to approach with four men only, laying down arms instantly on sight of each other. The two exile pirates met. Each side laid down arms as agreed. Ochotyn, the Saxon, was a man of thirty-six years, who had come an exile on fur trading vessels, gathered a crew of one hundred and thirty-four around him, and, like the Pole, become a pirate. His plan in meeting Benyowsky was to propose vengeance on Russia: let the two ships unite, go back to Siberia, and sack the Russian ports on the Pacific. But the Pole had had enough of Russia. He contented himself with presenting his brother pirate with one hundred pounds of ammunition; and the two exiles sat round a campfire of driftwood far into the night, spinning yarns of blasted hopes back in Europe, and desperate venture here on the Pacific. The Saxon's headquarters were on Kadiak, where he had formed alliance with the Indians. Hither he advised the Pole to sail for a cargo of furs. Ismyloff, the mutineer, was marooned on Bering Island. Ice-drift had seemed to bar the way {125} northward through Bering Straits. June saw Benyowsky far eastward at Kadiak on the south shore of Alaska, gathering in a cargo of furs; and from the sea-otter fields of Kadiak and Oonalaska, Benyowsky sailed southwest, past the smoking volcanoes of the Aleutians, vaguely heading for some of those South Sea islands of which he used to read in the exile village of Kamchatka. Not a man of the crew knew as much about navigation as a schoolboy. They had no idea where they were going, or where the ship was. As day after day slipped past with no sight but the heaving sea, the Russian landsmen became restive. Provisions had dwindled to one fish a day; and scarcely a pint of water for each man was left in the hold. In flying from Siberian exile, were they courting a worse fate? Stephanow, the criminal convict, who had crossed Siberia with the Pole, dashed on deck demanding a better allowance of water as the ship entered warmer and warmer zones. The next thing the Pole knew, Stephanow had burst open the barrel hoops of the water kegs to quench his thirst. By the time the guard had gone down the main hatch to intercept him, Stephanow and a band of Russian mutineers had trundled the brandy casks to the deck and were in a wild debauch. The main hatch was clapped down, leaving the mutineers in possession of the deck, till all fell in drunken torpor, when Benyowsky rushed his soldiers up the fore scuttle, snapped handcuffs on {126} the rebels, and tied them to the masts. In the midst of this disorder, such a hurricane broke over the ocean that the tossing yard-arms alternately touched water. To be sure, Benyowsky had escaped exile; but his ship was a hornets' nest. After the storm all hands were busy sewing new sails. The old sails were distributed as trousers for the ragamuffin crew. For ten days no food was tasted but soup made from sea-otter skins. Then birds were seen, and seaweed drifted past the vessel; and a wild hope mounted every heart of reaching some part of Japan. On sunset of July 15, the Pole's watch-dog was noticed standing at the bow, sniffing and barking. Two or three of the ship's hands dashed up to the masthead, vowing they would not come down till they saw land. Suddenly the lookout shouted, Land! The exiles forgot their woes. Even the mutineers tied to the masts cheered. Darker and darker grew the cloud on the horizon. By daybreak the cloud had resolved itself to a shore before the eager eyes of the watching crew. The ship had scarcely anchored before every man was overboard in a wild rush for the fresh water to be found on land. Tents were pitched on the island; and the wanderers of the sea rested. It is no part of this narrative to tell of Benyowsky's adventures on Luzon of the Philippines, or the Ladrones,--whichever it was,--how he scuttled {127} Japanese sampans of gold and pearls, fought a campaign in Formosa, and wound up at Macao, China, where all the rich cargo of sea-otter brought from America was found to be water rotted; and Stephanow, the criminal convict, left the Pole destitute by stealing and selling all the Japanese loot. This part of the story does not concern America; and the Pole's whole life has been told by Jokai, the Hungarian novelist, and Kotzebue, the Russian dramatist. Benyowsky got passage to Europe from China on one of the East India Company ships, whose captain was uneasy enough at having so many pirates on board. In France he obtained an appointment to look after French forts in Madagascar; but this was too tame an undertaking for the adventure-loving Pole. He threw up his appointment, returned to Europe, interested English merchants in a new venture, sailed to Baltimore in the _Robert Anne_ of twenty cannon and four hundred and fifty tons, interested merchants there in his schemes, and departed from Baltimore October 25, 1784, to conquer Madagascar and set up an independent commercial government. Here he was slain by the French troops on the 23d of May, 1786--to the ruin of those Baltimore and London merchants who had advanced him capital. His own account of his adventures is full of gross exaggerations; but even the Russians were so impressed with the prowess of his valor that a few years later, when Cook sailed to Alaska, Ismyloff could not be brought to mention his name; {128} and when the English ships went on to Kamchatka, they found the inhabitants hidden in the cellars, for fear the Polish pirate had returned. But like many heroes of misfortune, Benyowsky could not stand success. It turned his head. He entered Macao with the airs of an emperor, that at once discredited him with the solid people. If he had returned to the west coast of America, as a fur trader, he might have wrested more honors from Russia; but his scheme to capture an island of which he was to be king, ended in ruin for himself and his friends.[1] [1] It may as well be acknowledged that Mauritius Augustus, Count Benyowsky (pronounced by himself Be-nyov-sky), is a liar without a peer among the adventurers of early American history. If it were not that his life was known to the famous men of his time, his entire memoirs from 1741 to 1771 might be rejected as fiction of the yellow order; but the comical thing is, the mendacious fellow cut a tremendous swath in his day. The garrisons of Kamchatka trembled at his name twenty-five years after his escapades. Ismyloff, who became a famous trader in the Russian Fur Company, could not be induced to open his mouth about the Pole to Cook, and actually made use of the universal fear of Benyowsky among Russians, to keep Cook from learning Russian fur trade secrets, when the Englishman went to Kamchatka, by representing that Cook was a pirate, too. The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for June, 1772, contained a letter from Canton, dated November 19, 1771, giving a full account of the pirate's arrival there with his mutineers and women refugees. The Bishop Le Bon of Macao writes, September 24, 1771: "Out of his equipage, there remain no more than eight men in health. All the rest are confined to their beds. For two months they suffered hunger and thirst." Captain King of Cook's staff writes of Kamchatka: "We were informed that an exiled Polish officer named Beniowski had seized upon a galliott, lying at the entrance of the harbor, and had forced on board a number of Russian sailors, sufficient to navigate her; that he had put on shore a part of the crew . . . among the rest, Ismyloff." In Paris he met and interested Benjamin Franklin. Hyacinth de Magellan, a descendant of the great discoverer, advanced Benyowsky money for the Madagascar filibustering expedition. So did certain merchants of Baltimore in 1785. On leaving England, Benyowsky gave his memoirs to Magellan, who passed their editing over to William Nicholson of the Royal Society, by {129} whom they were given to the world in 1790. German, French, and Russian translations followed. This called forth Russia's account of the matter, written by Ivan Ryumin, edited by Berg, St. Petersburg, 1822. These accounts, with the facts as cited from contemporaries, enable one to check the preposterous exaggerations of the Pole. Of late years, between drama and novels, quite a Benyowsky literature has sprung up about this Cagliostro of the sea. His record in the continental armies preceding his exile would fill a book by itself; and throughout all, Benyowsky appears in the same light, an unscrupulous braggart lying gloriously, but withal as courageous as he was mendacious. [Transcriber's note: the "e" and "o" in the above "Be-nyov-sky" are actually e-macron (Unicode U+0113) and o-macron (Unicode U+014D).] {131} PART II AMERICAN AND ENGLISH ADVENTURERS ON THE WEST COAST OF AMERICA--FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA--COOK, FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA TO ALASKA--LEDYARD, THE FORERUNNER OF LEWIS AND CLARK--GRAY, THE DISCOVERER OF THE COLUMBIA--VANCOUVER, THE LAST OF THE WEST COAST NAVIGATORS {133} CHAPTER VI 1562-1595 FRANCIS DRAKE IN CALIFORNIA How the Sea Rover was attacked and ruined as a Boy on the Spanish Main off Mexico--His Revenge in sacking Spanish Treasure Houses and crossing Panama--The Richest Man in England, he sails to the Forbidden Sea, scuttles all the Spanish Ports up the West Coast of South America and takes Possession of New Albion (California) for England If a region were discovered where gold was valued less than cartloads of clay, and ropes of pearls could be obtained in barter for strings of glass beads, the modern mind would have some idea of the frenzy that prevailed in Spain after the discovery of America by Columbus. Native temples were found in Chile, in Peru, in Central America, in Mexico, where gold literally lined the walls, silver paved the floors, and handfuls of pearls were as thoughtlessly thrown in the laps of the conquerors as shells might be tossed at a modern clam-bake. Within half a century from the time Spain first learned of America, Cortés not only penetrated Mexico, but sent his corsairs up the west coast of the {134} continent. Pizarro conquered Peru. Spanish ships plied a trade rich beyond dreams of avarice between the gold realms of Peru and the spice islands of the Philippines. The chivalry of the Spanish nobility suddenly became a chivalry of the high seas. Religious zeal burned to a flame against those gold-lined pagan temples. It was easy to believe that the transfer of wedges of pure gold from heathen hands to Spain was a veritable despoiling of the devil's treasure boxes, glorious in the sight of God. The trackless sea became the path to fortune. Balboa had deeper motives than loyalty, when, in 1513, on his march across Panama and discovery of the Pacific, he rushed mid-deep into the water, shouting out in swelling words that he took possession of earth, air, and water for Spain "for all time, past, present, or to come, without contradiction, . . . north and south, with all the seas from the Pole Arctic to the Pole Antarctic, . . . both now, and as long as the world endures, until the final day of judgment." [1] Shorn of noise, the motive was simply to shut out the rest of the world from Spain's treasure box. The Monroe Doctrine was not yet born. _The whole Pacific was to be a closed sea_! To be sure, Vasco da Gama had found the way round the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian Ocean; and Magellan soon after passed through the strait of his name below South America {135} right into the Pacific Ocean; but round the world by the Indian Ocean was a far cry for tiny craft of a few hundred tons; and the Straits of Magellan were so storm-bound, it soon became a common saying that they were a closed door. Spain sent her sailors across Panama to build ships for the Pacific. The sea that bore her treasure craft--millions upon millions of pounds sterling in pure gold, silver, emeralds, pearls--was as closed to the rest of the world as if walled round with only one chain-gate; and that at Panama, where Spain kept the key. That is, the sea _was_ shut till Drake came coursing round the world; and his coming was so utterly impossible to the Spanish mind that half the treasure ships scuttled by the English pirate mistook him for a visiting Spaniard till the rallying cry, "God and Saint George!" wakened them from their dream. It was by accident the English first found themselves in the waters of the Spanish Main. John Hawkins had been cruising the West Indies exchanging slaves for gold, when an ominous stillness fell on the sea. The palm trees took on the hard glister of metal leaves. The sunless sky turned yellow, the sea to brass; and before the six English ships could find shelter, a hurricane broke that flailed the fleet under sails torn to tatters clear across the Gulf of Mexico to Vera Cruz, the stronghold of Spanish power. [Illustration: Sir John Hawkins.] But Hawkins feared neither man nor devil. He {136} reefed his storm-torn sails, had the stoppers pulled out of his cannon in readiness, his gunners alert, ran up the English ensign, and boldly towed his fleet into port directly under Spanish guns. Sending a messenger ashore, he explained that he was sorry to intrude on forbidden waters, but that he needed to careen his ships for the repair of leakages, and now asked permission from the viceroy to refit. Perhaps, in his heart, the English adventurer wasn't sorry to get an inner glimpse of Mexico's defences. As he waited for permission, there sailed into the harbor the Spanish fleet itself, twelve merchantmen rigged as frigates, loaded with treasure to the value of one million eight hundred thousand pounds. The viceroy of Mexico, Don Martin Henriquez himself, commanded the fleet. English and Spanish ships dipped colors to each other as courteous hidalgoes might have doffed hats; and the guns roared each other salutes, that set the seas churning. Master John Hawkins quaffed mug after mug of foaming beer with a boisterous boast that if the Spaniards thought to frighten _him_ with a waste of powder and smoke, he could play the same game, and "singe the don's beard." Came a messenger, then, clad in mail to his teeth, very pompous, very gracious, very profuse of welcome, with a guarantee in writing from the viceroy of security for Hawkins while dismantling the English ships. In order to avoid clashes among the common soldiers, the fortified island was assigned for the English to {137} disembark. It was the 12th of August, 1568. Darkness fell with the warm velvet caress of a tropic sea. Half the crew had landed, half the cannon been trundled ashore for the vessels to be beached next day, when Hawkins noticed torches--a thousand torches--glistening above the mailed armor of a thousand Spanish soldiers marching down from the fort and being swiftly transferred to the frigates. A blare of Spanish trumpets blew to arms! The waters were suddenly alight with the flare of five fire-rafts drifting straight where the disarmed English fleet lay moored. Hawkins had just called his page to hand round mugs of beer, when a cannon-shot splintering through the mast arms overhead ripped the tankard out of his hand.[2] "God and Saint George," thundered the enraged Englishman, "down with the traitorous devils!" No time to save sailors ashore! The blazing rafts had already bumped keels with the moored fleet. No chance to raise anchors! The Spanish frigates were already abreast in a life-and-death grapple, soldiers boarding the English decks, sabring the crews, hurling hand grenades down the hatches to blow up the powder magazines. Hawkins roared "to cut the cables." It was a hand-to-hand slaughter on decks slippery with blood. No light but the musketry fire and glare of burning masts! The little English company were fighting like a wild beast trapped, when with a {138} thunderclap that tore bottom out of hull--Hawkins's ship flew into mid-air, a flaring, fiery wreck--then sank in the heaving trough of the sea, carrying down five hundred Spaniards to a watery grave. Cutlass in hand, head over heels went Hawkins into the sea. The hell of smoke, of flaming mast poles, of blazing musketry, of churning waters--hid him. Then a rope's end flung out by some friend gave handhold. He was up the sides of a ship, that had cut hawsers and off before the fire-rafts came! Sails were hoisted to the seaward breeze. In the carnage of fire and blood, the Spaniards did not see the two smallest English vessels scudding before the wind as if fiend-chased. Every light on the decks was put out. Then the dark of the tropic night hid them. Without food, without arms, with scarcely a remnant of their crews--the two ships drifted to sea. Not a man of the sailors ashore escaped. All were butchered, or taken prisoners for a fate worse than butchery--to be torn apart in the market-place of Vera Cruz, baited in the streets to the yells of on-lookers, hung by the arms to out-of-doors scaffolding to die by inches, or be torn by vultures. The two ships at sea were in terrible plight. North, west, south was the Spanish foe. Food there was none. The crews ate the dogs, monkeys, parrots on board. Then they set traps for the rats of the hold. The starving seamen begged to be marooned. They would risk Spanish cruelty to escape starvation. Hawkins landed {139} three-quarters of the remnant crews either in Yucatan or Florida. Then he crept lamely back to England, where he moored in January, 1569. Of the six splendid ships that had spread their sails from Plymouth, only the _Minion_ and _Judith_ came back; and those two had been under command of a thick-set, stocky, red-haired English boy about twenty-four years of age--Francis Drake of Devon, one of twelve sons of a poor clergyman, who eked out a living by reading prayers for the Queen's Navy Sundays, playing sailor week days. Francis, the eldest son, was born in the hull of an old vessel where the family had taken refuge in time of religious persecution. In spite of his humble origin, Sir Francis Russell had stood his godfather at baptism. The Earl of Bedford had been his patron. John Hawkins, a relative, supplied money for his education. Apprenticed before the mast from his twelfth year, Drake became purser to Biscay at eighteen; and so faithfully had he worked his way, when the master of the sloop died, it was bequeathed to young Drake. Emulous of becoming a great sailor like Hawkins, Drake sold the sloop and invested everything he owned in Hawkins's venture to the West Indies. He was ruined to his last penny by Spanish treachery. It was almost a religion for England to hate Spain at that time. Drake hated tenfold more now. Spain had taught the world to keep off her treasure box. Would Drake accept the lesson, or challenge it? {140} Men who master destiny rise, like the Phenix, from the ashes of their own ruin. In the language of the street, when they fall--these men of destiny--they make a point of falling _up_stairs. Amid the ruin of massacre in Mexico, Drake brought away one fact--memory of Spanish gold to the value of one million eight hundred thousand pounds. Where did it come from? Was the secret of that gold the true reason for Spain's resentment against all intruders? Drake had coasted Florida and the West Indies. He knew they yielded no such harvest. Then it must come from one of three other regions--South America, Central America, Mexico. For two years Drake prospected for the sources of that golden wealth. In the _Dragon_ and _Swan_, he cruised the Spanish Main during 1570. In 1571 he was out again in the _Swan_. By 1572 he knew the secret of that gold--gold in ship-loads, in caravans of one thousand mules, in masses that filled from cellar to attic of the King's Treasure House, where tribute of one-fifth was collected for royalty. It came from the subjugated Kingdom of Peru, by boat up the Pacific to the Port of Panama, by pack-train across the isthmus--mountainous, rugged, forests of mangroves tangled with vines, bogs that were bottomless--to Nombre de Dios, the Spanish fort on the Atlantic side, which had become the storehouse of all New Spain. Drake took counsel of no one. Next year he was back on the Spanish Main, in the {141} _Pacha_, forty-seven men; his brother John commanding the _Swan_ with twenty-six of a crew, only one man older than fifty, the rest mere boys with hate in their hearts for Spanish blood, love in their hearts for Spanish gold. Touching at a hidden cove for provisions left the year before, Drake found this warning from a former comrade, stuck to the bark of a tree by a hunting knife:-- "_Captain Drake--if you do fortune into this port, haste away; for the Spaniards have betrayed this place, and taken all away that you left here--your loving friend--John Garret._" Heeding the warning, Drake hastened away to the Isle of Pinos, off the isthmus, left the ships at a concealed cove here, armed fifty-three of his boldest fellows with muskets, crossbows, pikes, and spontoons. Then he called for drummers and trumpeters, and rowed in a small boat for Nombre de Dios, the treasure house of New Spain. The small boat kept on the offing till dark, then sent ashore for some Indians--half-breeds whom Spanish cruelty had driven to revolt. This increased Drake's force to one hundred and fifty men. Silently, just as the moon emerged from clouds lighting up harbor and town, the long-boat glided into Nombre de Dios. A high platform, mounted with brass cannon, fronted the water. Behind were thirty houses, thatch-roofed, whitewashed, palisaded, surrounded by courtyards with an almost European pomp. The King's Treasure House stood at one end of the market. Near it was a chapel with high wooden steeple. {142} A Spanish ship lay furled in port. From this glided out a punt poled like mad by a Spaniard racing to reach the platform first. Drake got athwart the fellow's path, knocked him over, gagged his yells, and was up the platform before the sleepy gunner on guard was well awake. The sentry only paused to make sure that the men scrambling up the fort were not ghosts. Then he tore at the top of his speed for the alarm-bell of the chapel and, clapping down the hatch door of the steeple stairs in the faces of the pursuing Englishmen, rang the bells like a demon possessed. Leaving twelve men to hold the platform as a retreat, Drake sent sixteen to attack the King's Treasure just at the moment he himself, with his hundred men, should succeed in drawing the entire Spanish garrison to a sham battle on the market-place. The cannon on the platform were spiked and overturned. Drums beating, trumpets blowing, torches aflare, the English freebooter marched straight to the market. Up at the Treasure House, John Drake and Oxenham had burst open the doors of the store-room just as the saddled mules came galloping to carry the booty beyond danger. A lighted candle on the cellar stair showed silver piled bar on bar to the value of one million pounds. Down on the market, the English trumpeter lay dead. Drake had fallen from a sword slash and, snatched up by comrades, the wound stanched by a scarf, was carried back to the boat, where the raiders made good their escape, richer by a million pounds with the loss of only one man. {143} Drake cruised the Spanish Main for six more months. From the Indians he learned that the mule trains with the yearly output of Peruvian gold would leave the Pacific in midwinter to cross overland to Nombre de Dios. No use trying to raid the fort again! Spain would not be caught napping a second time. But Pedro, a Panama Indian, had volunteered to guide a small band of lightly equipped English inland behind Nombre de Dios, to the halfway house where the gold caravans stopped. The audacity of the project is unparalleled. Eighteen boys led by a man not yet in his thirtieth year accompanied by Indians were to invade a tangled thicket of hostile country, cut off from retreat, the forts of the enemy--the cruelest enemy in Christendom--on each side, no provisions but what each carried in his haversack! Led by the Indian Pedro, the freebooters struck across country, picked up the trail behind Nombre de Dios, marched by night, hid by day, Indian scouts sending back word when a Spaniard was seen, the English scudding to ambush in the tangled woods. Twelve days and nights they marched. At ten in the morning of February 11, they were on the Great Divide. Pedro led Drake to the top of the hill. Up the trunk of an enormous tree, the Indians had cut steps to a kind of bower, or lookout. Up clambered Francis Drake. Then he looked westward. Mountains, hills, forested valleys, rolled from his feet westward. Beyond--what? The shining {144} expanse of the fabled South Sea! The Pacific silver in the morning light! A New World of Waters, where the sun's track seemed to pave a new path, a path of gold, to the mystic Orient! Never before had English eyes seen these waters! Never yet English prow cut these waves! Where did they lead--the endlessly rolling billows? For Drake, they seemed to lead to a New World of Dreams--dreams of gold, of glory, of immortal fame. He came down from the lookout so overcome with a great inspiration that he could not speak. Then, as with Balboa, the fire of a splendid enthusiasm lighted up the mean purposes of the adventurer to a higher manhood. Before his followers, he fell on his knees and prayed Almighty God to grant him the supreme honor of sailing an English ship on that sea! That night the Indian came back with word that the mule train laden with gold was close on the trail. Drake scattered his men on each side of the road flat on their faces in high grass. Wealth was almost in their grasp. Hope beat riotous in the young bloods. No sound but the whir of wings as great tropic insects flitted through the dark with flashes of fire; or the clank of a soldier unstrapping haversack to steel courage by a drink of grog! An hour passed! Two hours before the eager ears pressed to earth detected a padded hoof-beat over grass. Then a bell tinkled, as the leader of the pack came in sight. Drunk with the glory of the day, or too much grog, some fool sailor leaped in {145} mid-air with an exultant yell! In a second the mule train had stampeded. By the time Drake came to the halfway house,[3] the gold was hidden in the woods, and the Spaniards fleeing for their lives; though an old chronicle declares "the general" went from house to house assuring the Spanish ladies they were safe. The Spaniards of Tierra Firme were simply paralyzed with fright at the apparition of pirates in the centre of the kingdom. Then scouts brought word of double danger: on the Atlantic side, Spanish frigates were searching for Drake's ships; from the Pacific, two hundred horsemen were advancing in hot pursuit. Between the two--was he trapped?--Not he! Overland went a scout to the ships--Drake's own gold toothpick as token--bidding them keep offshore; he would find means to come out to them. Then he retreated over the trail at lightning pace, sleeping only in ambush, eating in snatches, coming out on the coast far distant from Nombre de Dios and Spanish frigates. Binding driftwood into a raft, Drake hoisted sail of flour sacks. Saying good-by to the Indian, the freebooter noticed Pedro's eyes wander to the gold-embossed Turkish cimeter in his own hand, and at once presented scabbard and blade to the astonished savage. In gratitude the Indian tossed three wedges of gold to the raft now sheering out with the tide to sea. These Drake gave {146} to his men. Six hours the raft was drifting to the sails on the offing, and such seas were slopping across the water-logged driftwood, the men were to their waists in water when the sail-boats came to the rescue. On Sunday morning, August 9, 1573, the ships were once more in Plymouth. Whispers ran through the assembled congregations of the churches that Drake, the bold sea-rover, was entering port loaded with foreign treasure; and out rushed every man, woman, and child, leaving the scandalized preachers thundering to empty pews. Drake was now one of the richest men in England. At his own cost he equipped three frigates for service under Essex in Ireland, and through the young Earl was introduced to the circle of Elizabeth's advisers. To the Queen he told his plans for sailing an English ship on the South Sea. To her, no doubt, he related the tales of Spanish gold freighting that sea, closed to the rest of the world. Good reason for England--Spain's enemy--to prove that the ocean, like air, was free to all nations! The Pope's Bull dividing off the southern hemisphere between Portugal and Spain mattered little to a nation belligerently Protestant, and less to a seaman whose dauntless daring had raised him from a wharf-rat to Queen's adviser. Elizabeth could not yet wound Spain openly; but she received Drake in audience, and presented him a magnificent sword with the words--"Who striketh thee, Drake, striketh us!" [Illustration: Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake.] {147} Five ships, this time, he led out from Plymouth in November of 1577. Gales drove him back. It was December before his fleet was at sea--the _Pelican_ of one hundred tons and twenty or thirty cannon under Drake, Thomas Doughty, a courtier second to Drake, the _Elizabeth_ of eighty tons, the _Swan_, _Christopher_, and _Marygold_ no larger than fishing schooners; manned in all by one hundred and sixty sailors, mostly boys. Outward bound for trade in Egypt, the world was told, but as merchantmen, the ships were regally equipped--Drake in velvets and gold braid, served by ten young gentlemen of noble birth, who never sat or covered in his presence without permission; service of gold plate at the mess table, where Drake dined alone like a king to the music of viols and harps; military drill at every port, and provisions enough aboard to go round the world, not just to Egypt. January saw the fleet far enough from Egypt, at the islands off the west coast of Africa, where three vessels were scuttled, the crews all put ashore but one Portuguese pilot carried along to Brazil as guide. Thomas Doughty now fell in disfavor by openly acting as equal in command with Drake. Not in Egypt, but at Port St. Julian--a southern harbor of South America--anchored Drake's fleet. The scaffold where Magellan had executed mutineers half a century before still stood in the sands. The _Christopher_ had already been sent adrift as useless. The _Swan_ was now broken up as unseaworthy, {148} leaving only the _Pelican_, the _Elizabeth_, and the _Marygold_. One thing more remained to be done--the greatest blot across the glory of Drake. Doughty was defiant, a party growing in his favor. When sent as prisoner to the _Marygold_, he had angered every man of the crew by high-handed authority. Drake dared not go on to unknown, hostile seas with a mutiny, or the chance of a mutiny brewing. Whether justly or unjustly, Doughty was tried at Port St. Julian under the shadow of Magellan's old scaffold, for disrespect to his commander and mutiny; and was pronounced guilty by a jury of twelve. A council of forty voted his death. The witnesses had contradicted themselves as if in terror of Drake's displeasure; and some plainly pleaded that the jealous crew of the _Marygold_ were doing an innocent gentleman to death. The one thing Drake would not do, was carry the trouble maker along on the voyage. Like dominant spirits world over, he did not permit a life more or less to obstruct his purpose. He granted Doughty a choice of fates--to be marooned in Patagonia, or suffer death on the spot. Protesting his innocence, Doughty spurned the least favor from his rival. He refused the choice. Solemnly the two, accuser and accused, took Holy Communion together. Solemnly each called on God as witness to the truth. A day each spent in prayer, these pirate fellows, who mixed their religion with their robbery, perhaps using piety as sugar-coating for their ill-deeds. Then they dined together in the {149} commander's tent,--Fletcher, the horrified chaplain, looking on,--drank hilariously to each other's healths, to each other's voyage whatever the end might be, looked each in the eye of the other without quailing, talking nonchalantly, never flinching courage nor balking at the grim shadow of their own stubborn temper. Doughty then rose to his feet, drank his last bumper, thanked Drake graciously for former kindness, walked calmly out to the old scaffold, laid his head on the block, and suffered death. Horror fell on the crew. Even Drake was shaken from his wonted calm; for he sat apart, his velvet cloak thrown back, slapping his crossed knees, and railing at the defenders of the dead man.[4] To rouse the men, he had solemn service held for the crew, and for the first time revealed to them his project for the voyage on the Pacific. After painting the glories of a campaign against Spanish ports of the South Seas, he wound up an inspiriting address with the rousing assurance that after this voyage, "_the worst boy aboard would never nede to goe agayne to sea, but be able to lyve in England like a right good gentleman_." Fletcher, the chaplain, who secretly advocated the dead man's cause, was tied to a mast pole in bilboes, with the inscription hung to his neck--"_Falsest knave that liveth_." On August 17 they departed from "the port {150} accursed," for the Straits of Magellan, that were to lead to Spanish wealth on the Pacific.[5] The superstitious crews' fears of disaster for the death of Doughty seemed to become very real in the terrific tempests that assailed the three ships as they entered the straits. Gales lashed the cross tides to a height of thirty feet, threatening to swamp the little craft. Mountains emerged shadowy through the mists on the south. Roiling waters met the prows from end to end of the straits. Topsails were dipped, psalms of thanks chanted, and prayers held as the ships came out on the west side into the Pacific on the 6th of September. In honor of the first English vessel to enter this ocean, Drake renamed his ship "_Golden Hind_." {151} The gales continued so furiously, Drake jocosely called the sea, _Mare Furiosum_, instead of Pacific. The first week of October storms compelled the vessels to anchor. In the raging darkness that night, the explosive rip of a snapping hawser was heard behind the stern of the _Golden Hind_. Fearful cries rose from the waves for help. The dark form of a phantom ship lurched past in the running seas--the _Marygold_ adrift, loose from her anchor, driving to the open storm; fearful judgment--as the listeners thought--for the crew's false testimony against Doughty; for, as one old record states, "they could by no means help {152} spooming along before the sea;" and the _Marygold_ was never more seen. [Illustration: The Golden Hind.] Meanwhile like disaster had befallen the _Golden Hind_, the cable snapping weak as thread against the drive of tide and wind. Only the _Elizabeth_ kept her anchor grip, and her crew became so panic-stricken, they only waited till the storm abated, then turned back through the straits, swift heels to the stormy, ill-fated sea, and steered straight for England, where they moored in June. Towed by the _Golden Hind_, now driving southward before the tempest, was a jolly-boat with eight men. The mountain seas finally wrenched the tow-rope from the big ship, and the men were adrift in the open boat. Their fortunes are a story in itself. Only one of the eight survived to reach England after nine years' wandering in Brazil.[6] Onward, sails furled, bare poles straining to the storm, drifted Drake in the _Golden Hind_. Luck, that so often favors daring, or the courage, that is its own talisman, kept him from the rocks. With battened hatches he drove before what he could not {153} stem, southward and south, clear down where Atlantic and Pacific met at Cape Horn, now for the first time seen by navigator. Here at last, on October 30, came a lull. Drake landed, and took possession of this earth's end for the Queen. Then he headed his prow northward for the forbidden waters of the Pacific bordering New Spain. Not a Spaniard was seen up to the Bay of San Filipe off Chile, where by the end of November Drake came on an Indian fisherman. Thinking the ship Spanish, the fellow offered to pilot her back eighteen miles to the harbor of Valparaiso. Spanish vessels lay rocking to the tide as Drake glided into the port. So utterly impossible was it deemed for any foreign ship to enter the Pacific, that the Spanish commander of the fleet at anchor dipped colors in salute to the pirate heretic, thinking him a messenger from Spain, and beat him a rattling welcome on the drum as the _Golden Hind_ knocked keels with the Spanish bark. Drake, doubtless, smiled as he returned the salute by a wave of his plumed hat. The Spaniards actually had wine jars out to drown the newcomers ashore, when a quick clamping of iron hooks locked the Spanish vessel in death grapple to the _Golden Hind_. An English sailor leaped over decks to the Spanish galleon with a yell of "_Downe, Spanish dogges_!" The crew of sixty English pirates had swarmed across the vessel like hornets before the poor hidalgo knew what had happened. Head over heels, down the hatchway, reeled the astonished dons. Drake clapped down {154} hatches, and had the Spaniards trapped while his men went ashore to sack the town. One Spaniard had succeeded in swimming across to warn the port.[7] When Drake landed, the entire population had fled to the hills. Rich plunder in wedges of pure gold, and gems, was carried off from the fort. Not a drop of blood was shed. Crews of the scuttled vessels were set ashore, the dismantled ships sent drifting to open sea. The whole fiasco was conducted as harmlessly as a melodrama, with a moral thrown in; for were not these zealous Protestants despoiling these zealous Catholics, whose zeal, in turn, had led them to despoil the Indian? There was a moral; but it wore a coat of many colors. [Illustration: Francis Drake.] The Indian was rewarded, and a Greek pilot forced on board to steer to Lima, the great treasury of Peruvian gold. Giving up all hope of the other English vessels joining him, Drake had paused at Coquimbo to put together a small sloop, when down swooped five hundred Spanish soldiers. In the wild scramble for the _Golden Hind_, one sailor was left behind. He was torn to pieces by the Spaniards before the eyes of Drake's crew. Northling again sailed Drake, piloted inshore by the Greek to Tarapaca, where Spanish treasure was sent out over the hills to await the call of ship; and sure enough, sound asleep in the sunlight, fatigued from his trip lay a Spanish carrier, {155} thirteen bars of silver piled beside him on the sand. When that carrier wakened, the ship had called! Farther on the English moored and went inland to see if more treasure might be coming over the hills. Along the sheep trails came a lad whistling as he drove eight Peruvian sheep laden with black leather sacks full of gold. Drake's men were intoxicated with their success. It was impossible to attack Panama with only the _Golden Hind_; but what if the _Golden Hind_ could catch the _Glory of the South Seas_--the splendid Spanish galleon that yearly carried Peruvian gold up to Panama? Drake gained first news of the treasure ship being afloat while he was rifling three barks at Aricara below Lima; but he knew coureurs were already speeding overland to warn the capital against the _Golden Hind_. Drake pressed sail to outstrip the land messenger, and glided into Callao, the port of Lima, before the thirty ships lying dismantled had the slightest inkling of his presence. Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo of Lima thought the overland coureur mad. A pirate heretic in the South Seas! Preposterous! Some Spanish rascal had turned pirate; so the governor gathered up two thousand soldiers to march with all speed for Callao, with hot wrath and swift punishment for the culprit. Drake had already sacked Callao, but he had missed the treasure ship. She had just left for Panama. The _Golden Hind_ was lying outside the port becalmed {156} when Don Toledo came pouring his two thousand soldiers down to the wharves. The Spaniards dashed to embark on the rifled ships with a wild halloo! He was becalmed, the blackguard pirate,--whoever he was,--they would tow out! Divine Providence had surely given him into their hands; but just as they began rowing might and main, a fresh wind ruffled the water. The _Golden Hind_ spread her wings to the wind and was off like a bird! Drake knew no ship afloat could outsail his swift little craft; and the Spaniards had embarked in such haste, they had come without provisions. Famine turned the pursuers back near the equator, the disgusted viceroy hastening to equip frigates that would catch the English pirate when famine must compel him to head southward. Drake slackened sail to capture another gold cargo. The crew of this caravel were so grateful to be put ashore instead of having their throats cut, that they revealed to Drake the stimulating fact that the _Glory of the South Seas_, the treasure ship, was only two days ahead laden with golden wealth untold. It was now a wild race for gold--for gold enough to enrich every man of the crew; for treasure that might buy up half a dozen European kingdoms and leave the buyer rich; for gold in huge slabs the shape of the legendary wedges long ago given the rulers of the Incas by the descendants of the gods; gold to be had for the taking by the striking of one sure blow at England's enemy! Drake called on the crew to acquit {157} themselves like men. The sailors answered with a shout. Every inch of sail was spread. Old muskets and cutlasses were scoured till they shone like the sun. Men scrambled up the mast poles to gaze seaward for sight of sail to the fore. Every nerve was braced. They were now across the equator. A few hundred miles more, and the _Glory of the South Seas_ would lie safe inside the strong harbor of Panama. Drake ordered the thirty cannon ready for action, and in a loud voice offered the present of his own golden chain to the man who should first descry the sails of the Spanish treasure. For once his luck failed him. The wind suddenly fell. Before Drake needed to issue the order, his "brave boys" were over decks and out in the small boats rowing for dear life, towing the _Golden Hind_. Day or night from February twenty-fourth, they did not slack, scarcely pausing to eat or sleep. Not to lose the tremendous prize by seeing the _Glory of the South Seas_ sail into Panama Bay at the last lap of the desperate race, had these bold pirates ploughed a furrow round the world, daring death or devil! At three in the afternoon of March the 1st, John Drake, the commander's brother, shouted out from the mast top where he clung, "Sail ho!" and the blood of every Englishman aboard jumped to the words! At six in the evening, just off Cape Francisco, they were so close to the _Glory of the South Seas_, they could see that she was compelled to sail slowly, owing to the weight of her cargo. So unaware of danger was {158} the captain that he thought Drake some messenger sent by the viceroy, and instead of getting arms in readiness and pressing sail, he lowered canvas, came to anchor, and waited![8] Drake's announcement was a roaring cannonade that blew the mast poles off the Spanish ship, crippling her like a bird with wings broken. For the rest, the scene was what has been enacted wherever pirates have played their game--a furious fusillade from the cannon mouths belching from decks and port-holes, the unscathed ship riding down on the staggering victim like a beast on its prey, the clapping of the grappling hooks that bound the captive to the sides of her victor, the rush over decks, the flash of naked sword, the decks swimming in blood, and the quick surrender. The booty from this treasure ship was roughly estimated at twenty-six tons of pure silver, thirteen chests of gold plate, eighty pounds of pure gold, and precious jewels--emeralds and pearls--to the value in modern money of seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Drake realized now that he dared not return to England by the Straits of Magellan. All the Spanish frigates of the Pacific were on the watch. The _Golden Hind_ was so heavily freighted with treasure, it was actually necessary to lighten ballast by throwing spices and silks overboard. One can guess that the orchestra played a stirring refrain off Cape Francisco that night. The Northeast Passage from Asia to Europe was {159} still a myth of the geographers. Drake's friend, Frobisher, had thought he found it on the Atlantic side. After taking counsel with his ten chosen advisers, Drake decided to give the Spanish frigates the slip by returning through the mythical Northeast Passage. Stop was made at Guatalco, off the west coast of New Spain, for repairs. Here, the poor Portuguese pilot brought all the way from the islands off the west coast of Africa, was put ashore.[9] He was tortured by the Spaniards for piloting Drake to the South Seas. In the course of rifling port and ship at Guatalco, charts to the Philippines and Indian Ocean were found; so that even if the voyage to England by the Northeast Passage proved impossible, the _Golden Hind_ could follow these charts home round the world by the Indian Ocean and Good Hope up Africa. It was needless for Drake to sack more Spanish floats. He had all the plunder he could carry. From the charts he learned that the Spaniards always struck north for favorable winds. Heading north, month after month, the _Golden Hind_ sailed for the shore that should have led northeast, and that puzzled the mariners by sheering west and yet west; fourteen hundred leagues she sailed along a leafy wilderness of tangled trees and ropy mosses, beauty and decay, the froth of the beach combers aripple on the very roots of the {160} trees; dolphins coursing round the hull like greyhounds; flying fish with mica for wings flitting over the decks; forests of seaweed warning out to deeper water. Then, a sudden cold fell, cold and fogs that chilled the mariners of tropic seas to the bone. The veering coast pushed them out farther westward, far north of what the Spanish charts showed. Instead of flying fish now, were whales, whales in schools of thousands that gambolled round the _Golden Hind_. As the north winds--"frozen nimphes," the record calls them--blew down the cold Arctic fogs, Drake's men thought they were certainly nearing the Arctic regions. Where were they? Plainly lost, lost somewhere along what are now known as Mendocino, and Blanco, and Flattery. In a word, perhaps up as far as Oregon, and Washington. One record says they went to latitude 43. Another record, purporting to be more correct, says 48. The Spaniards had been north as far as California, but beyond this, however far he may have gone, Drake was a discoverer in the true sense of the word. Mountains covered with snow they saw, and white cliffs, and low shelving shores, which is more descriptive of Oregon and Washington than California; but only the sudden transition from tropic heat to chilling northern fogs can explain the crew's exaggerated idea of cold along the Pacific coast. Land was sighted at 42, north of Mendocino, and an effort made to anchor farther north; but contrary winds and a rock bottom gave insecure mooring. {161} This was not surprising, as it was on this coast that Cook and Vancouver failed to find good harborage. The coast still seemed to trend westward, dispelling hopes of a Northeast Passage, and if the world could have accepted Drake's conclusions on the matter, a deal of expenditure in human life and effort might have been saved. Two centuries before the deaths of Bering and Cook, trying to find that Passage, Drake's chronicler wrote: "_The cause of this extreme cold we conceive to be the large spreading of the Asian and American continent, if they be not fully joined, yet seem they to come very neere, from whose high and snow-covered mountains, the north and north-west winds send abroad their frozen nimphes to the infecting of the whole air--hence comes it that in the middest of their summer, the snow hardly departeth from these hills at all; hence come those thicke mists and most stinking fogges, . . . for these reasons we coniecture that either there is no passage at all through these Northerne coasts, which is most likely, or if there be, that it is unnavigable. . . . Adde there unto, that though we searched the coast diligently even unto the 48 degree, yet found we not the land to trend in any place towards the East, but rather running continually North-west, as if it went directly to meet with Asia. . . . of which we infallibly concluded rather than coniectured, that there was none._" Giving up all idea of a Northeast Passage, Drake turned south, and on June 17 anchored in a bay now {162} thoroughly identified as Drake's Bay, north of San Francisco. The next morning, while the English were yet on the _Golden Hind_, came an Indian in a canoe, shouting out oration of welcome, blowing feather down on the air as a sign of dovelike peace, and finally after three times essaying courage, coming near enough the English to toss a rush basket full of tobacco into the ship. In vain Drake threw out presents to allure the Indian on board. The terrified fellow scampered ashore, refusing everything but a gorgeous hat, that floated out on the water. For years the legend of Drake's ship was handed down as a tradition among the Indians of this bay.[10] By the 21st tents were erected, and a rude fortification of stone thrown round in protection where the precious cargo of gold could be stored while the ship was to be careened and scraped. At the foot of the hill, the poor Indians gathered and gazed spellbound at the sight of this great winged bird of the ocean, sending thirty cannon trundling ashore, and herself beginning to rise up from the tide on piles and scaffolding. As Drake sent the assembled tribe presents, the Indians laid down their bows and spears. So marvellously did the wonders of the white men grow--sticks that emitted puffs of fire (muskets), a ship so large it could have carried their tribe, clothing in velvet and gold braid gorgeous as the plumage of a {163} bird, cutlasses of steel--that by the 23d great assemblages of Indians were on their knees at the foot of the hill, offering sacrifices to the wonderful beings in the fort. Whatever the English pirate's faults, he deserves credit for treating the Indians with an honor that puts later navigators to shame. When he saw them gashing bodies in sacrifice, his superstition took fire with fear of Divine displeasure for the sacrilege; and the man who did not scruple to treat black slaves picked up among the Spaniards baser than he would have treated dogs, now fell "to prayers," as the old chronicle says, reading the Bible aloud, and setting his crew to singing psalms, and pointing to the sky, at which the Indians grunted approvals of "ho--ho!" Three days later came coureurs from the "King of the Indians"--the chief--bidding the strangers prepare for the great sachem's visit. The coureurs advanced gyrating and singing; so that the English saw in this strange people nomads like the races of Scripture, whose ceremony was one of song and dance. The warriors preceding the chief carried what the English thought "a sceptre," but what we moderns would call a peace-pipe. The chains in their hands were probably strings of bears' claws, or something like wampum; the "crowns of feathers," plumed head-dresses; the gifts in the rush baskets borne by the women to the rear, maize and tobacco. Drake drew his soldiers up in line, and with trumpets sounding and armor at gleam marched out to {164} welcome the Indian chief. Then the whole company of savages broke out in singing and dancing. Drake was signalled to sit down in the centre. Barely had he obeyed when to the shouting and dancing of the multitude, "a chain" was thrown over his neck, "a crown" placed on his head, and "the sceptre" put in his hand. According to Indian custom, Drake was welcomed by the ceremony of adoption in the tribe, "the sceptre" being a peace-pipe; "the crown," an Indian warrior's head-dress. Far otherwise the ceremony appeared to the romantic treasure hunters. "_In the name and to the use of Her Most Excellent Majesty_," records the chaplain, "_he (Drake) tooke the sceptre, crowne, and dignity of the sayd countrie into his hand;_" though, added the pious chaplain of pirates, when he witnessed the Indians bringing the sick to be healed by the master pirate's touch,--"_we groane in spirit to see the power of Sathan so farre prevails_." [Illustration: The Crowning of Drake in California.] To avert disaster for the sacrilege of the sacred touch of healing, Drake added to his prayers strong lotions and good ginger plasters. Sometime in the next five weeks, Drake travelled inland with the Indians, and because of patriotism to his native land and the resemblance of the white sand cliffs to that land, called the region "New Albion." "New Albion" would be an offset to "New Spain." Drake saw himself a second Cortés, and nailed to a tree a brass plate on which was graven the Queen's name, the year, the free surrender of the country to the {165} Queen, and Drake's own name; for, says the chaplain, quite ignorant of Spanish voyages, "_the Spaniards never had any dealing, or so much as set a foot in this country, the utmost of their discoveries reaching only many degrees Southward of this place_." Drake's misunderstanding of the Indian ceremony would be comical if it were not that later historians have solemnly argued whether an act of possession by a pirate should hold good in international law. On the 23d of July the English pirate bade farewell to the Indians. As he looked back from the sea, they were running along the hilltops burning more of the fires which he thought were sacrifices. Following the chart taken from the Spanish ship, Drake steered for the Philippines, thence southward through the East Indies to the Indian Ocean, and past Good Hope, back to Plymouth, where he came to anchor on September 26, 1580. Bells were set ringing. Post went spurring to London with word that Drake, the corsair, who had turned the Spanish world upside down, had come home. For a week the little world of England gave itself up to feasting. Ballads rang with the fame of Drake. His name was on every tongue. One of his first acts was to visit his old parents. Then he took the _Golden Hind_ round the Channel to be dry-docked in Deptford. For the once, the tactful Queen was in a quandary. Complaints were pouring in from Spain. The {166} Spanish ambassador was furious, and presented bills of sequestration against Drake, but as the amount sequestered, pending investigation, was only fifty-six thousand pounds, one may suspect that Elizabeth let Drake protect in his own way what he had taken in his own way. For six months, while the world resounded with his fame, the court withheld approval. Jealous courtiers "deemed Drake the master thief of the unknown world," till Elizabeth cut the Gordian knot by one of her defiant strokes. On April 4 she went in state to dine on the _Golden Hind_, to the music of those stringed instruments that had harped away Drake's fear of death or devil as he ploughed an English keel round the world. After the dinner, she bade him fall to his knees and with a light touch of the sword gave him the title that was seal of the court's approval. The _Golden Hind_ was kept as a public relic till it fell to pieces on the Thames, and the wood was made into a memorial chair for Oxford. [Illustration: The Silver Map of the World. Both sides of a medal struck off at the time of Drake's return to England, commemorating his voyage around the world. The faint dotted line shows the course sailed by him in the _Golden Hind_.] After all the perils Drake saw in the subsequent war--Cadiz and the Armada--it seems strange that he should return to the scene of his past exploits to die. He was with Hawkins in the campaign of 1595 against Spain in the New World. Things had not gone well. He had not approved of Hawkins's plans of attack, and the venture was being bungled. Sick of the equatorial fever, or of chagrin from failure, Drake died off Porto Bello in the fifty-first year of his age. His body {167} was placed in a leaden coffin, and solemnly committed to that sea where he had won his first glory.[11] [1] This is but a brief epitome of the Spaniard's swelling words. Only the Heavens above were omitted from Spain's claim. [2] The exact position of the English towards the port is hard to give, at the site of Vera Cruz has been changed three times. [3] This halfway station was known as Venta Cruz. Seven of the traders lost their lives in Drake's attack. [4] The _Hakluyt Society Proceedings_, 1854, give all details of this terrible crime. Fletcher, the chaplain, thought Doughty innocent; but Drake considered the chaplain "the falsest knave that liveth." [5] Don Francisco de Zarate, commander of a Spanish ship scuttled by Drake off Guatalco, gives this description to the Spanish government of the Englishman's equipage: "The general of the Englishmen is the same who five years ago took Nombre de Dios, about thirty-five years old, short, with a ruddy beard, one of the greatest mariners there are on the sea, alike for his skill and power of command. His ship is a galleon of four hundred tons, a very fast sailer, and there are aboard her, one hundred men, all skilled hands and of warlike age, and all so well trained that they might be old soldiers--they keep their harquebusses clean. He treats them with affection, they him with respect. He carries with him nine or ten gentlemen cadets of high families in England. These are his council. He calls them together, tho' he takes counsel of no one. He has no favorite. These are admitted to his table, as well as a Portuguese pilot whom he brought from England. (?) He is served with much plate with gilt borders engraved with his arms and has all possible kinds of delicacies and scents, which . . . the Queen gave him. (?) None of the gentlemen sit or cover in his presence without first being ordered once or even several times. The galleon carries thirty pieces of heavy ordnance, fireworks and ammunition. They dine and sup to the music of violins. He carries carpenters, caulkers, careeners. The ship is sheathed. The men are paid and not regular pirates. No one takes plunder and the slightest fault is punished." The don goes on to say that what troubled him most was that Drake captured Spanish charts of the Pacific, which would guide other intruders on the Pacific. [6] The eight castaways in the shallop succeeded in passing back through the straits. At Plata they were attacked by the Indians; four, wounded, succeeded in escaping. The others were captured. Reaching islands off the coast of Patagonia, two of the wounded died. The remaining two suffered shipwreck on a barren island, where the only food was fruit; the only drink, the juice of the fruits. Making a raft of floating planks ten feet long, the two committed themselves to God and steered for the mainland. Here Pilcher died two hours after they had landed from drinking too much water. The survivor, Peter Carder, lived among the savages of Brazil for eight years before he escaped and got passage to England, where he related his adventures to Queen Elizabeth. The Queen gave him twenty-two angels and sent him to Admiral Howard for employment. _Purchas' Pilgrims_, Vol. IV. [7] The plunder of this port was 60,000 pesos of gold, jewels, and goods (pesos about 8 shillings, $2); 1770 jars of wine, together with the silver of the chapel altar, which was given to Fletcher. [8] The captain was a Biscayan, one Juan de Anton. [9] Nuno Silva is the name of this pilot. It is from his story that many of the details of this part of the voyage are obtained. [10] See Professor George Davidson's pamphlet on _Drake_. [11] To give even a brief account of Drake's life would fill a small encyclopaedia. The story of his first ruin off Vera Cruz, of his campaign of vengeance, of his piratical voyage to the Pacific, of his doings with the California Indians, of his fight in the Armada--any one of these would fill an ordinary volume. Only that part of his life bearing on American exploration has been given here, and that sacrificed in detail to keep from cumbering the sweep of his adventure. No attempt has been made to pass judgment on Drake's character. Like Baranof of a later day, he was a curious mixture of the supremely selfish egoist, and of the religious enthusiast, alternately using his egoism as a support for his religion, and his religion as a support for his egoism; and each reader will probably pass judgment on Drake according as the reader's ideal of manhood is the altruist or the egoist, the Christ-type or "the great blond beast" of modern philosophic thought, the man supremely indifferent to all but self, glorying in triumph though it be knee-deep in blood. Nor must we moderns pass too hypocritical judgment on the hero of the Drake type. Drake had invested capital in his venture. He had the blessing of Church and State on what he was about to do, and what he did was _to take_ what he had strength and dexterity to take independent of the Ten Commandments, which is not so far different from many commercial methods of to-day. We may appear as unmoral in our methods to future judges as Drake appears to us. Just as no attempt has been made to analyze Drake's character--to balance his lack of morals with his courage--so minor details, that would have led off from the main current of events, have been omitted. For instance, Drake spilled very little Spanish blood and was Christian in his treatment of the Indians; but are these credit marks offset by his brutality toward the black servants whom the pirates picked up among the Spaniards, of whom one poor colored girl was marooned on a Pacific island to live or die or rot? To be sure, the Portuguese pilot taken from a scuttled caravel off the west coast of Africa on the way out, and forced to pilot Drake to the Pacific, was well treated on the voyage. At least, there is no mention to the contrary; but when Drake had finished with the fellow, though the English might have known very well what terrible vengeance Spain would take, the pilot was dumped off on the coast of New Spain, where, one old record states, he was tortured, almost torn to pieces, for having guided Drake. The great, indeed, primary and only authorities for Drake's adventures are, of course, Hakluyt, Vol. III; for the fate of the lost crews, _Purchas' Pilgrims_, Vol. III and Vol. I, Book II, and Vol. IV; and the _Hakluyt Society Proceedings_, 1854, which are really a reprint of _The World Encompassed_, by Francis Fletcher, the chaplain, in 1628, with the addition of documents contemporary with Fletcher's by unknown writers. The title-page of _The World Encompassed_ reads almost like an old ballad--"_for the stirring up of heroick spirits to benefit their countries, and eternize their names by like {168} attempts_." Kohl and Davidson's _Reports of the Coast and Geodetic Survey_, 1884 and 1886, are also invaluable as establishing Drake's land-fall in California. Miller Christy's Silver Map of the World gives a splendid facsimile of the medal issued to commemorate Drake's return, of which the original is in the British Museum. Among biographers, Corbett's _Drake_, and Barrow's _Life of Sir Francis Drake_, give full details of his early and personal life, including, of course, his great services in the Armada. Furious controversy has waged over Drake on two points: Did he murder Doughty? Did he go as far north on the west coast of America as 48 degrees? Hakluyt's account says 43 degrees; _The World Encompassed_, by Fletcher, the chaplain, says 48 degrees, though all accounts agree it was at 38 degrees he made harbor. I have not dealt with either dispute, stating the bare facts, leaving each reader to draw his own conclusions, though it seems to me a little foolish to contend that the claim of the 48th degree was an afterthought interpolated by the writer to stretch British possessions over a broader swath; for even two hundred years after the issue of the Silver Map of the World, when Cook was on this coast, so little was known of the west shores of America by Englishmen that men were still looking out for a Gamaland, or imaginary continent in the middle of the Pacific. The words of the narrative bearing on America are: "We came to 42 degree of North latitude, where on the night following (June 3) we found such alterations of heat, into extreme and nipping cold, that our men in general did grievously complain thereof, some of them feeling their health much impaired thereby; neither was it that this chanced in the night alone, but the day following carried with it not only the markes, but the stings and force of the night. . .; besides that the pinching and biting air was nothing altered, the very ropes of our ship were stiffe, and the rain which fell was an unnatural congealed and frozen substance so that we seemed to be rather in the frozen Zone than any where so neere unto the sun or these hotter climates . . . it came to that extremity in sayling but two degrees farther to the northward in our course, that though seamen lack not good stomachs . . . it was a question whether hands should feed their mouths, or rather keepe from the pinching cold that did benumme them . . . our meate as soone as it was remooved from the fire, would presently in a manner be frozen up, and our ropes and tackling in a few days were growne to that stiffnesse . . . yet would not our general be discouraged but as well by comfortable speeches, of the divine providence, and of God's loving care over his children, out of the Scriptures . . . the land in that part of America, beares farther out into the West than we before imagined, we were neerer on it than we were aware; yet the neerer still we came unto it, the more extremity of cold did sease upon us. The fifth day of June, we were forced by contrary windes to runne in with the shoare, which we then first descried, and to cast anchor in a bad bay, the best roade we could for the present meete with, where we were not without some danger by reason of the many extreme gusts and flawes that beate upon us, which if they ceased, and were still at any time . . . there followed most vile, thicke and stinking fogges against which the sea prevailed nothing {169} . . . to go further North, the extremity of the cold would not permit us and the winds directly bent against us, having once gotten us under sayle againe, commanded us to the Southward whether we would or no. "From the height of 48 degrees in which now we were to 38, we found the land by coasting alongst it, to be but low and plaine--every hill whereof we saw many but none were high, though it were in June, and the sunne in his nearest approach . . . being covered with snow. . . . In 38 deg. 30 min. we fell with a convenient and fit harborough and June 17 came to anchor therein, where we continued till the 23rd day of July following . . . neither could we at any time in whole fourteen days together find the aire so cleare as to be able to take the height of sunne or starre . . . after our departure from the heate we always found our bodies, not as sponges, but strong and hardened, more able to beare out cold, though we came out of the excesse of heate, then chamber champions could hae beene, who lye in their feather beds till they go to sea. ". . . Trees without leaves, and the ground without greennes in these months of June and July . . . as for the cause of this extremity, they seem . . . chiefest we conceive to be the large spreading of the Asian and American continent, which (somewhat Northward of these parts) if they be not fully joyned, yet seeme they to come very neere one to the other. From whose high and snow-covered mountains, the North and Northwest winds (the constant visitants of those coasts) send abroad their frozen nimphes, to the infecting of the whole aire with this insufferable sharpnesse. . . . Hence comes the generall squalidnesse and barrennesse of the countrie, hence comes it that in the midst of their summer, the snow hardly departeth . . . from their hils at all, hence come those thicke mists and most stinking fogges, which increase so much the more, by how much higher the pole is raised . . . also from these reasons we coniecture that either there is no passage at all through these Northern coasts which is most likely or if there be, that yet it is unnavigable. . . . Add here unto, that though we searched the coast diligently, even unto the 48 degree, yet found we not the land to trend so much as one point in any place towards the East, but rather running on continually Northwest, as if it went directly to meet with Asia; and even in that height, when we had a franke winde to have carried us through, had there been a passage, yet we had a smoothe and calme sea, with ordinary flowing and renewing, which could not have beene had there been a frete; of which we rather infallibly concluded, then coniectured, that there was none. "The next day, after coming to anchor in the aforesaid harbour, the people of the countrey showed themselves, sending off a man with great expedition to us in a canow, who being yet but a little from the shoare, and a great way from our ship, spake to us continually as he came rowing in. And at last at a reasonable distance, staying himself, he began more solemnly a long and tedious oration, after his manner, using in the deliverie thereof, many gestures and signes, mouing his hands, turning his head and body many wayes, and after his oration ended, with great show and reverence and submission returned backe to shoare again. He shortly came againe the second time in like manner, {170} and so the third time, when he brought with him (as a present from the rest) a bunch of feathers, much like the feathers of a blacke crowe, very neatly and artificially gathered upon a string, and drawne together into a round bundle, being verie cleane and finely cut, and bearing in length an equall proportion one with another a special cognizance (as we afterwards observed) which they . . . weare on their heads. With this also he brought a little basket made of rushes, and filled with an herbe which they called Tobah. Both which being tyed to a short rodde, he cast into our boate. Our generall intended to have recompenced him immediately with many good things he would have bestowed on him; but entering into the boate to deliver the same, he could not be drawne to receive them by any meanes, save one hat, which being cast into the water out of the ship, he took up (refusing utterly to meddle with any other thing) though it were upon a board put off unto him, and so presently made his returne. After which time our boate could row no way, but wondering at us as at gods, they would follow the same with admiration. . . . "The third day following, viz., the 21, our ship having received a leake at sea, was brought to anchor neerer the shoare, that her goods being landed she might be repaired; but for that we were to prevent any danger that might chance against our safety, our Generall first of all landed his men, with all necessary provision, to build tents and make a fort for the defence of ourselves and our goods . . . which when the people of the country perceived us doing, as men set on fire to war in defence of their countrie, in great hast and companee, with such weapons as they had, they came down unto us, and yet with no hostile meaning or intent to hurt us: standing when they drew neerer, as men ravished in their mindes, with the sight of such things, as they never had scene or heard of before that time: their errand being rather with submission and feare to worship us as Gods, than to have warre with us as mortall men: which thing, as it did partly show itselfe at that instant, so did it more and more manifest itself afterwards, during the whole time of our abode amongst them. At this time, being veilled by signs to lay from them their bowes and arrowes, they did as they were directed and so did all the rest, as they came more and more by companies unto him, growing in a little while to a great number, both of men and women. ". . . Our Generall, with all his company, used all meanes possible gently to intreate them, bestowing upon each of them liberally good and necessary things to cover their nakedness, withall signifying unto them we were no Gods but men, and had need of such things to cover our owne shame, teaching them to use them to the same ends, for which cause also we did eate and drinke in their presence, . . . they bestowed upon our Generall and diverse of our company, diverse things as feathers, cawles of networke, the quivers of their arrowes, made of faune skins, and the very skins of beasts that their women wore upon their bodies . . . they departed with joy to their houses, which houses are digged round within the earth, and have from the uppermost brimmes of the circle, clefts of wood set up, and joyned close together at the top, like our spires on the steeple of a church, which being covered with earth, . . . are very warme; the doore {171} in the most of them performs the office also of a chimney to let out the smoake; it's made in bignesse and fashion like to an ordinary scuttle in a ship, and standing slope-wise; the beds are the hard ground, onely with rushes strewed upon it and lying round about the house, have their fire in the middest, . . . with all expedition we set up our tents, and intrenched ourselves with walls of stone. . . . Against the end of two daies, there was gathered together a great assembly of men, women and children, bringing with them as they had before done, feathers and bagges of Tobah for present, or rather for sacrifices upon this persuasion that we were Gods. "When they came to the top of the hill at the bottom whereof we had built our fort, they made a stand;" . . . "this bloodie sacrifice (against our wils) being thus performed, our generall, with his companie, in the presence of those strangers, fell to prayers; and by signes in lifting up our eyes and hands to heaven, signified unto them that that God whom we did serve and whom they ought to worship, was above: beseeching God, if it were his good pleasure, to open by some meanes their blinded eyes, that they might in due time be called to the knowledge of Him, the true and everliving God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, the salvation of the Gentiles. In the time of which prayers, singing of Psalmes, and reading of certaine Chapters in the Bible, they sate very attentively, and observing the end of every pause, with one voice still cried 'oh' greatly rejoicing in our exercises." * * * * * * "Our generall caused to be set up a monument of our being there, as also of her majesties and successors right and title to that kingdom, namely a plate of brasse, fast nailed to a great and firme poste; whereon is engraven her graces' name, and the day and year of our arrival there, and of the free giving up of the province and kingdom, both by the king and people, unto her majesties' hands: together with her highnesse picture and arms, in a piece of sixpence current English monie, shewing itselfe by a hole made of purpose through the plate; underneath was likewise engraven the name of our Generall. . . . "The Spaniards never had any dealings, or so much as set a foote in this country, the utmost of their discoveries reaching onely to many degrees Southward of this place." The Spanish version of Drake's burial is, that the body was weighted with shot at the heels and heaved over into the sea, without coffin or ceremony. {172} CHAPTER VII 1728-1779 CAPTAIN COOK IN AMERICA The English Navigator sent Two Hundred Years later to find the New Albion of Drake's Discoveries--He misses both the Straits of Fuca and the Mouth of the Columbia, but anchors at Nootka, the Rendezvous of Future Traders--No Northeast Passage found through Alaska--The True Cause of Cook's Murder in Hawaii told by Ledyard--Russia becomes Jealous of his Explorations It seems impossible that after all his arduous labors and death, to prove his convictions, Bering's conclusions should have been rejected by the world of learning. Surely his coasting westward, southwestward, abreast the long arm of Alaska's peninsula for a thousand miles, should have proved that no open sea--no Northeast Passage--was here, between Asia and America. But no! the world of learning said fog had obscured Bering's observations. What he took for the mainland of America had been only a chain of islands. Northward of those islands was open sea between Asia and Europe, which might afford direct passage between East and West without circumnavigating the globe. In fact, said Dr. Campbell, {173} one of the most learned English writers of the day, "Nothing is plainer than that his (Bering's) discovery does not warrant any such supposition as that he touched the great continent making part of North America." The moonshine of the learned men in France and Russia was even wilder. They had definitely proved, _even if there were no Gamaland_--as Bering's voyage had shown--then there must be a southern continent somewhere, to keep the balance between the northern and southern hemispheres; else the world would turn upside down. And there must also be an ocean between northern Europe and northern Asia, else the world would be top-heavy and turn upside down. It was an age when the world accepted creeds for piety, and learned moonshine instead of scientific data; when, in a word, men refused to bow to fact! All sorts of wild rumors were current. There was a vast continent in the south. There was a vast sea in the north. Somewhere was the New Albion, which Francis Drake had found north of New Spain. Just north of the Spanish possessions in America was a wide inlet leading straight through from the Pacific to the Atlantic, which an old Greek pilot--named Juan de Fuca--said he had traversed for the viceroy of New Spain. Even stolid-going England was infected by the rage for imaginary oceans and continents. The Hudson's Bay Fur Company was threatened with a withdrawal {174} of its charter because it had failed to find a Northwest Passage from Atlantic to Pacific. Only four years after the death of Bering, an act of Parliament offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds to the officers and crew of any ships discovering a passage between Atlantic and Pacific north of 52 degrees. There were even ingenious fellows with the letters of the Royal Society behind their names, who affected to think that the great Athabasca Lake, which Hearne had found, when he tramped inland from the Arctic and Coppermine River, was a strait leading to the Pacific. Athabasca Lake might be the imaginary strait of the Greek pilot, Juan de Fuca. To be sure, two Hudson's Bay Company ships' crews--those under Knight and Barlow--had been totally lost fifty years before Hearne's tramp inland in 1771, trying to find that same mythical strait of Juan de Fuca westward of Hudson Bay. But so furious did public opinion wax over a Northwest Passage at the very time poor Bering was dying in the North Pacific, that Captain Middleton was sent to Hudson Bay in 1741-1742 to find a way to the Pacific. And when Middleton failed to find water where the Creator had placed land, Dobbs, the patron of the expedition and champion of a Northwest Passage at once roused the public to send out two more ships--the _Dobbs_ and _California_. Failure again! Theories never yet made Fact, never so much as added a hair's weight to Fact! Ellis, who was on board, affected to think that Chesterfield Inlet--a great arm of the sea, {175} westward of Hudson Bay--might lead to the Pacific. This supposition was promptly exploded by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company sending Captain Christopher and Moses Norton, the local governor of the company, up Chesterfield inlet for two hundred miles, where they found, not the Pacific, but a narrow river. Then the hue and cry of the learned theorists was--the Northwest Passage lay northward of Hudson Bay. Hearne was sent tramping inland to find--not sea, but land; and when he returned with the report of the great Athabasca Lake of Mackenzie River region, the lake was actually seized on as proof that there was a waterway to the Pacific. Then the brilliant plan was conceived to send ships by both the Atlantic and the Pacific to find this mythical passage from Europe to Asia. Pickersgill, who had been on the Pacific, was to go out north of Hudson Bay and work westward. To work eastward from the Pacific to the Atlantic was chosen a man who had already proved there was no great continental mass on the south, and that the world did not turn upside down, and who was destined to prove there was no great open ocean on the north, and still the world did not turn upside down. He was a man whose whole life had been based and built upon Fact, not Theory. He was a man who accepted Truth as God gave it to him, not as he had theorized it _ought_ to be; a man who had climbed from a mud cottage to the position of the greatest navigator in the world--had climbed on top of facts mastered, not {176} of schoolgirl moonshine, or study-closet theories. That man was Captain James Cook. Cook's life presents all the contrasts of true greatness world over. Like Peter the Great, of Russia, whose word had set in motion the exploration of the northwest coast of America, Cook's character consisted of elements that invariably lead to glory or ruin; often, both. The word "impossible" was not in his vocabulary. He simply did not recognize any limitations to what a man _might_ do, could do, would do, if he tried; and that means, that under stress of risk or temptation, or opposition, a man's caution goes to the winds. With Cook, it was risk that caused ruin. With the Czar of Russia, it was temptation. Born at Marton, a small parish of a north riding in the county of York, October 27, 1728, James Cook was the son of a day-laborer in an age when manual toil was paid at the rate of a few pennies a day. There were nine of a family. The home was a thatch-roofed mud cottage. Two years after Cook's birth, the father was appointed bailiff, which slightly improved family finances; but James was thirteen years of age before it was possible to send him to school. There, the progress of his learning was a gallop. He had a wizard-genius for figures. In three short years he had mastered all the Ayton school could teach him. At sixteen, his schooling was over. The father's highest ambition seems to have been for the son to become a successful shopkeeper in one of the small towns. The future {177} navigator was apprenticed to the village shop; but Cook's ambitions were not to be caged behind a counter. Eastward rolled the North Sea. Down at Hull were heard seamen's yarns to make the blood of a boy jump. It was 1746. The world was ringing with tales of Bering on the Pacific, of a southern continent, which didn't exist, of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company's illimitable domain in the north, of La Vérendrye's wonderful discoveries of an almost boundless region westward of New France toward the uncharted Western Sea. In a year and a half, Cook had his fill of shopkeeping. Whether he ran away, or had served his master so well that the latter willingly remitted the three years' articles of apprenticeship, Cook now followed his destiny to the sea. According to the world's standards, the change seemed progress backward. He was articled to a ship-owner of Whitby as a common seaman on a coaler sailing between Newcastle and London. One can see such coalers any day--black as smut, grimed from prow to stern, with workmen almost black shovelling coal or hoisting tackling--pushing in and out among the statelier craft of any seaport. It is this stage in a great man's career which is the test. Is the man sure enough of himself to leave everything behind, and jump over the precipice into the unknown? If ever he wishes to return to what he has left, he will have just the height of this jump to climb back to the old place. The old place is a certainty. The unknown may engulf in failure. He {178} must chance that, and all for the sake of a faith in himself, which has not yet been justified; for the sake of a vague star leading into the misty unknown. He knows that he could have been successful in the old place. He does not know that he may not be a failure in the new place. Art, literature, science, commerce--in all--it is the men and women who have dared to risk being failures that have proved the mainspring of progress. Cook was sure enough of himself to exchange shopkeeper's linen for the coal-heaver's blue jeans, to risk following the star of his destiny to the sea. Presently, the commonplace, grimy duties which he must fulfil are taking him to Dublin, to Liverpool, to Norway; and by the time he is twenty-two, he knows the Baltic trade well, and has heard all the pros and cons of the furious cackle which the schools have raised over that expedition of Bering's to the west coast of America. By the time he is twenty-four he is a first mate on the coal boats. Comes another vital change! When he left the shop, he felt all that he had to do to follow his destiny was to go to sea. Now the star has led him up to a blank wall. The only promotion he can obtain on these merchantmen is to a captainship; and the captaincy on a small merchantman will mean pretty much a monotonous flying back and forward like a shuttle between the ports of Europe and England. Cook took a resolution that would have cost any {179} man but one with absolute singleness of purpose a poignant effort. At the age of twenty-seven, he decided to enter the Royal Navy. Now, in a democratic age, we don't talk about such things; but there are unwritten laws and invisible lines just the same. Standing on the captain's deck of an American warship not long ago, watching the deck hands below putting things shipshape, I asked an officer--"Is there any chance for those men to rise?" "Yes, some," he answered tentatively, "but then, there is a difference between the men who have been trained for a position, and those who have worked up the line to it." If that difference exists in a democratic country and age, what was it for Cook in a country and at a time when lines of caste were hard and fast drawn? But he entered the navy on the _Eagle_ under Sir Hugh Palliser, who, almost at once, transferred him from the forecastle to the quarterdeck. What was the explanation of such quick recognition? Therein lies the difference between the man who tries and succeeds, and the man who tries and fails. Cook had qualified himself for promotion. He was so fitted for the higher position, that the higher position could not do without him. Whether rocking on the Baltic, or waiting for the stokers to heave out coal at Liverpool, every moment not occupied by seaman's duties, Cook had filled by improving himself, by increasing his usefulness, by sharpening his brain, so that his brain could better direct his hands, by {180} studying mathematics and astronomy and geography and science and navigation. As some one has said--there are lots of people with hands and no brain; and there are lots of people with brains and no hands; but the kind who will command the highest reward for their services to the world are those who have the finest combination of brains _and_ hands. [Illustration: Captain James Cook.] Four years after Cook had joined the navy, he was master on the _Mercury_ with the fleet before Quebec, making a chart of the St. Lawrence for Wolfe to take the troops up to the Heights of Abraham, piloting the boats to the attack on Montmorency, and conducting the embarkation of the troops, who were to win the famous battle, that changed the face of America. Now the Royal Society wished to send some one to the South Seas, whose reliability was of such a recognized and steady-going sort, that his conclusions would be accepted by the public. Just twenty years from the time that he had left the shop, Cook was chosen for this important mission. What manner of man was he, who in that time had risen from life in a mud hut to the rank of a commander in the Royal Navy? In manner, he was plain and simple and direct, no flourish, no unnecessary palaver of showy words, not a word he did not mean. In form, he was six feet tall, in perfect proportion, with brown hair and eyes, alertly penetrating, with features sharp rather from habit or thought than from natural shape. On this mission he left England in 1768, anchored at {181} the Society Islands of the South Seas in the spring of 1769, explored New Zealand in the fall of the same year, rounded Australia in 1770 and returned to England in 1771, the very year Hearne was trying to tramp it overland in search of a Northwest Passage. And he brought back no proof of that vast southern world which geographers had put on their maps. Promptly he was sent out on a second voyage to find or demolish that mythical continent of the southern hemisphere; and he demolished the myth of a southern continent altogether, returning from circumnavigating the globe just at the time when the furor of a Northwest Passage northward of Hudson Bay, northward even of Bering's course on the Pacific, was at its height. The third voyage was to determine finally the bounds of western America, the possibilities of a passage between Europe and Asia by way of the Pacific. Two ships--the _Resolution_, four hundred and sixty tons, one hundred and twelve men, which Cook had used before, and the _Discovery_, three hundred tons, eighty men--were purchased at Hull, the old port of Cook's boyhood dreams. To secure the good will of the crews, two months' wages were paid in advance. Captain Clerke commanded the _Discovery_; and the two crews numbered men of whom the world was to hear more in connection with the northwest coast of America--a young midshipman, Vancouver, whose doings were yet to checkmate Spain; a young American, corporal {182} of marines, Ledyard, who was to have his brush with Russia; and other ambitious young seamen destined to become famous traders on the west coast of America. The two ships left England in midsummer of 1776, crossed the equator in September when every man fresh to the episode was caught and ducked overrails in equatorial waters, rounded Good Hope, touched at the Society Islands of the first voyage, and by spring of 1778 had explored and anchored at the Sandwich Islands. Once on the Pacific, Cook mustered his crews and took them into his confidence; he was going to try for that reward of twenty thousand pounds to the crew that discovered a Northeast Passage; and even if he missed the reward, he was going to have a shy at the most northern latitude ever attempted by navigator--89 degrees; would they do it? The crew cheered. Whether they reached 89 degrees or not, they decided to preserve their grog for the intense cold to be encountered in the north; so that the daily allowance was now cut to half. By March, the ships were off from the Sandwich Islands to the long swell of the Pacific, the slimy medusa lights covering the waters with a phosphorescent trail of fire all night, the rockweed and sea leek floating past by day telling their tale of some far land. Cook's secret commission had been very explicit: "You are to proceed on as direct a course as you can to the coast of New Albion, endeavoring to fall in with it in latitude 45 degrees north . . . and are strictly enjoined {183} not to touch on any part of the Spanish dominions . . . unless driven by accident . . . and to be very careful not to give any umbrage to the subjects of his Catholic Majesty . . . and if in further progress northward . . . you find any subjects of a European prince . . . you are not to give any cause of offence . . . proceed northward to 65 degrees, carefully search for such inlets as appear pointing to Hudson Bay . . . use your utmost endeavors to pass through." The commission shows that England was unaware Spain had pushed north of 45 degrees, and Russia north of 65 degrees; for Spain jealously kept her explorations secret, and Russia's were not accepted. The commission also offered a reward for any one going within 1 degree of the Pole. It may be added--the offer is still open. For days after leaving the Sandwich Islands, not a bird was to be seen. That was a bad omen for land. Land must be far, indeed; and Cook began to fear there might be as much ocean in that northern hemisphere as the geographers of Russia and France--who actually tabulated Bering's discoveries as an island--had placed on the maps. But in the first week of March, a sea-gull came swimming over the crest of a wave. Where did she come from? Then an albatross was seen wheeling above the sea. Then, on March 6, two lonely land seals went plying past; and whales were noticed. Surely they were nearing the region that Drake, the English freebooter, had seen and named New Albion two hundred years before. {184} Suddenly, on the morning of March 7, the dim offing ahead showed thin, sharp, clear lines. The lines rose higher as the ship approached. They cut themselves against the sky in the form of mountains and hills with purple mist lying in the valleys. It was the New Albion at latitude 44 degrees 33 minutes, which Drake had discovered. The day was hazy and warm. Cook's crews wondered why Drake had complained of such cold. By night they found out. A roaring hurricane burst from the northern darkness with squalls of hail and snow and sleet, that turned the shore to one long reach of whitened cliffs straight up and down out of the sea. In commemoration, they called the first landfall, Cape Foulweather; and, in spite of the commission to sail north, drove under bare poles before the storm to 43 degrees, naming the two capes passed Perpetua and Gregory. Only by the third week of March had the storm abated enough for them to turn north again.[1] Now, whether the old Greek pilot, Juan de Fuca, lied or dreamed, or only told a yarn of what some Indian had told him, it was along this coast that he had said the straits leading to the east side of America lay; and Cook's two ships hugged the coast as close as they dared for fear of roaring breakers and a landward wind. On March 23 rocks were seen lying off a high point capped with trees, behind which might be a {185} strait; but a gale ashore and a lashing tide thundering over the rocks sent the ships scudding for the offing through fog and rain; and never a glimpse of a passage eastward could the crews obtain. Cook called the delusive point Cape Flattery and added: "It is in this very latitude (48 degrees 15 minutes) that geographers have placed the pretended Straits of Juan de Fuca; but we saw nothing like it; nor is there the least possibility that any such thing ever existed." But Cook was too far out to descry the narrow opening--but thirteen miles wide--of Juan de Fuca, where the steamers of three continents ply to-day; though the strait by no means led to Europe, as geographers thought. All night a hard gale drove them northward. When the weather cleared, permitting them to approach the coast again, high mountains, covered with snow and forests, jagged through the clouds like tent peaks. Tremendous breakers roared over sunken rocks. Point Breakers, Cook called them. Then the wind suddenly fell; and the ships were becalmed directly opposite the narrow entrance of a two-horned cove sheltered by the mountains. The small boats had all been mustered out to tow the two ships in, when a slight breeze sprang up. The flotilla drifted inland just as three canoes, carved in bizarre shapes of birds' heads and eagle claws, came paddling across the inlet. Three savages were in one, six in the other, ten in the third. They came slowly over the water, singing some song of welcome, beating time with their paddles, {186} scattering downy white feathers on the air, at intervals standing up to harangue a welcome to the newcomers. Soon thirty canoes were around the ships with some ten warriors in each. Still they came, shoals of them, like fish, with savages almost naked, the harbor smooth as glass, the grand _tyee_, or great chief of the tribes, standing erect shouting a welcome, with long elf-locks streaming down his back. Women and children now appeared in the canoes. That meant peace. The women were chattering like magpies; the men gurgling and spluttering their surprise at the white visitors. For safety's sake the guns of the two ships were pointed ready; but the natives did not know the fear of a gun. It was the end of March when Cook first anchored off what he thought was the mainland of America. It was not mainland, but an island, and the harbor was one to become famous as the rendezvous of Pacific traders--Nootka! Three armed boats commanded by Mr. King, and one under Cook, at once proceeded from the ships to explore and sound the inlet. The entrance had been between two rocky points four miles apart past a chain of sunken rocks. Except in a northwest corner of the inlet, since known as Snug Cove, the water was too deep for anchorage; so the two ships were moored to trees, the masts unrigged, the iron forge set to work on the shore; and the men began cutting timber for the new masts. And still the tiny specks dancing over the waves carrying canoe loads of savages to the English ships, {187} continued to multiply till the harbor seemed alive with warriors--two thousand at least there must have been by the first week of April after Cook's arrival. Some of the savages wore brightly painted wooden masks as part of their gala attire. Others carried totems--pieces of wood carved in the likeness of bird or beast to typify manitou of family or clan. By way of showing their prowess, some even offered the white men human skulls from which the flesh had not yet been taken. By this Cook knew the people were cannibals. Some were observed to be wearing spoons of European make as ornaments round their necks. What we desire to believe we easily accept. The white men did not ascribe the spoons to traders from New Spain on the south, or the Russian settlements to the north; but thought this place must be within trading distance of Hudson Bay, whence the Indians must have obtained the spoons. And so they cherished the hope of a Northeast Passage from this slim sign. In a few days fifteen hundred beaver and sea-otter had been obtained in trade, sixty-nine sea-otter--each of which was worth at that time one hundred dollars in modern money--for a handful of old nails. To these deep-sea wanderers of Cook's crews, the harbor was as a fairy-land. Snow still covered the mountain tops; but a tangled forest of dank growth with roots awash in the ripple of the sea, stretched down the hillsides. Red cedar, spruce, fir,--of enormous growth, broader in girth than a cart and {188} wagon in length,--cypress with twisted and gnarled knots red against the rank green; mosses swinging from branch to branch in snaky coils wherever the clouds settled and rested; islands studding the sea like emerald gems; grouse drumming their spring song through the dark underbrush; sea-mew and Mother Carey's chickens screaming and clacking overhead; the snowy summits red as wine in the sunset glow--all made up an April scene long cherished by these adventurers of the North. Early one morning in April the men cutting timber inland were startled to notice the underbrush alive with warriors armed. The first fear was of an ambush. Cook ordered the men to an isolated rock ready for defence; but the grand _tyee_ or chief explained by signs that his tribe was only keeping off another tribe that wanted to trade with the white men. The worst trouble was from the inordinate thieving propensities of the natives. Iron, nails, belaying pins, rudders, anchors, bits of sail, a spike that could be pulled from the rotten wood of the outer keel by the teeth of a thief paddling below--anything, everything was snatched by the light-fingered gentry. Nor can we condemn them for it. Their moral standard was the Wolf Code of Existence--which the white man has elaborated in his evolution--to take whatever they had the dexterity and strength to take and to keep. When caught in theft, they did not betray as much sense of guilt as a dog stealing a bone. Why should they? Their {189} code was to take. The chief of the Nootkas presented Cook with a sea-otter cloak. Cook reciprocated with a brass-hilted sword. By the end of April the ships had been overhauled, and Cook was ready to sail. Porpoise were coursing the sea like greyhounds, and the stormy petrels in a clatter; but Cook was not to be delayed by storm. Barely had the two ships cleared the harbor, when such a squall broke loose, they could do nothing but scud for open sea, turn tails to the wind, and lie helpless as logs, heads south. If it had not been for this storm, Cook would certainly have discovered that Nootka was on an island, not the coast of the mainland; but by the time the weather permitted an approach to land again, Friday, May 1, the ships were abreast that cluster of islands below the snowy cone of Mt. Edgecumbe, Sitka, where Chirikoff's Russians had first put foot on American soil. Cook was now at the northernmost limit of Spanish voyaging. By the 4th of May Cook had sighted and passed the Fairweather Range, swung round westward on the old course followed by Bering, and passed under the shadow of St. Elias towering through the clouds in a dome of snow. On the 6th the ships were at Kyak, where Bering had anchored, and amid myriad ducks and gulls were approaching a broad inlet northward. Now, just as Bering had missed exploring this part of the coast owing to fog, so Cook had failed to trace that long archipelago of islands from Sitka Sound {190} northward; but here, where the coast trends straight westward, was an opening that roused hopes of a Northeast Passage. The _Resolution_ had sprung a leak; and in the second week of May, the inlet was entered in the hope of a shelter to repair the leak and a way northeast to the Atlantic. Barely had the ships passed up the sound, when they were enshrouded in a fog that wiped out every outline; otherwise, the high coast of glacial palisades--two hundred feet in places and four miles broad--might have been seen landlocked by mountains; but Mr. Gore launched out in a small boat steering north through haze and tide-rip. Twenty natives were seen clad in sea-otter skins, by which--the white men judged--no Russians could have come to this sound; for the Russians would not have permitted the Indians to keep such valuable sea-otter clothing. The glass beads possessed by the natives were supposed to attest proximity to traders of Hudson Bay. With an almost animal innocence of wrong, the Indians tried to steal the small boat of the _Discovery_, flourishing their spears till the white crew mustered. At another time, when the _Discovery_ lay anchored, few lanterns happened to be on deck. No sailors were visible. It was early in the morning and everybody was asleep, the boat dark. The natives swarmed up the ship's sides like ants invading a sugar canister. Looking down the hatches without seeing any whites, they at once drew their knives and began to plunder. The whites dashed up the hatchway and drove the {191} plunderers over the rails at sword point. East and north the small boats skirted the mist-draped shores, returning at midnight with word the inlet was a closed shore. There was no Northeast Passage. They called the spider-shaped bay Prince William Sound; and at ten in the morning headed out for sea. Here a fresh disappointment awaited them. The natives of Prince William Sound had resembled the Eskimos of Greenland so much that the explorers were prepared to find themselves at the westward end of the American continent ready to round north into the Atlantic. A long ledge of land projected into the sea. They called this Cape Elizabeth, passed it, noted the reef of sunken rocks lying directly athwart a terrific tidal bore, and behold! not the end of the continent--no, not by a thousand miles--but straight across westward, beneath a smoking volcano that tinged the fog ruby-red, a lofty, naked spur three miles out into the sea, with crest hidden among the clouds and rock-base awash in thundering breakers. This was called Cape Douglas. Between these two capes was a tidal flood of perhaps sixty miles' breadth. Where did it come from? Up went hopes again for the Northeast Passage, and the twenty thousand pounds! Spite of driftwood, and roily waters, and a flood that ran ten miles an hour, and a tidal bore that rose twenty feet, up the passage they tacked, east to west, west to east, plying up half the month of June in rain and sleet, with the heavy pall of black smoke {192} rolling from the volcano left far on the offing! At last the opening was seen to turn abruptly straight east. Out rattled the small boats. Up the muddy waters they ran for nine miles till salt water became fresh water, and the explorers found themselves on a river. In irony, this point was called Turn-Again. The whole bay is now known as Cook's Inlet. Mr. King was sent ashore on the south side of Turn-Again to take possession. Twenty natives in sea-otter skins stood by watching the ceremony of flag unfurled and the land of their fathers being declared the possession of England. These natives were plainly acquainted with the use of iron; but "I will be bold to say," relates Cook, "they do not know the Russians, or they would not be wearing these valuable sea-otter skins." No Northeast Passage here! So out they ply again for open sea through misty weather; and when it clears, they are in the green treeless region west of Cook's Inlet. Past Kadiak, past Bering's Foggy Island, past the Shumagins where Bering's first sailor to die of scurvy had been buried, past volcanoes throwing up immense quantities of blood-red smoke, past pinnacled rocks, through mists so thick the roar of the breakers is their only guide, they glide, or drift, or move by inches feeling the way cautiously, fearful of wreck. Toward the end of June a great hollow green swell swings them through the straits past Oonalaska, northward at last! Natives are seen in green trousers {193} and European shirts; natives who take off their hats and make a bow after the pompous fashion of the Russians. Twice natives bring word to Cook by letter and sign that the Russians of Oonalaska wish to see him. But Captain Cook is not anxious to see the Russians just now. He wants to forestall their explorations northward and take possession of the Polar realm for England. In August they are in Bristol Bay, north of the Aleutians, directly opposite Asia. Here Dr. Anderson, the surgeon, dies of consumption. Not so much fog now. They can follow the mainland. Far ahead there projects straight out in the sea a long spit of land backed by high hills, the westernmost point of North America--Cape Prince of Wales! Bering is vindicated! Just fifty years from Bering's exploration of 1728, the English navigator finds what Bering found: that America and Asia are _not_ united; that no Northeast Passage exists; that no great oceanic body lies north of New Spain; that Alaska--as the Russian maps had it after Bering's death--is not an island. Wind, rain, roily, shoaly seas breaking clear over the ship across decks drove Cook out from land to deeper water. With an Englishman's thoroughness for doing things and to make deadly sure just how the two continents lay to each other, Cook now scuds across Bering Strait thirty-nine miles to the Chukchee land of Siberia in Asia. How he praises the accuracy of poor {194} Bering's work along this coast: Bering, whose name had been a target for ridicule and contempt from the time of his death; whose death was declared a blunder; whose voyage was considered a failure; whose charts had been rejected and distorted by the learned men of the world. [Illustration: The Ice Islands.] From the Chukchee villages of Asia, Cook sailed back to the American coast, passing north of Bering Straits directly in mid-channel. It is an odd thing, while very little ice-drift is met in Bering Sea, you have no sooner passed north of the straits than a white world surrounds you. Fog, ice, ice, fog--endlessly, with palisades of ice twelve feet high, east and west, far as the eye can see! The crew amuse themselves alternately gathering driftwood for fuel, and hunting {195} walrus over the ice. It is in the North Pacific that the walrus attains its great size--nine feet in length, broader across its back than any animal known to the civilized world. These piebald yellow monsters lay wallowing in herds of hundreds on the ice-fields. At the edge lay always one on the watch; and no matter how dense the fog, these walrus herds on the ice, braying and roaring till the surf shook, acted as a fog-horn to Cook's ships, and kept them from being jammed in the ice-drift. Soon two-thirds of the furs got at Nootka had spoiled of rain-rot. The vessels were iced like ghost ships. Tack back and forward as they might, no passage opened through the ice. Suddenly Cook found himself in shoal water, on a lee shore, long and low and shelving, with the ice drifting on his ships. He called the place Icy Cape. It was their farthest point north; and the third week of August they were compelled to scud south to escape the ice. Backing away toward Asia, he reached the North Cape there. It was almost September. In accordance with the secret instructions, Cook turned south to winter at the Sandwich Islands, passing Serdze Kamen, where Bering had turned back in 1728, East Cape on the Straits of Bering just opposite the American Prince of Wales, and St. Lawrence islands where the ships anchored. Norton Sound was explored on the way back; and October saw Cook down at Oonalaska, where Ledyard was sent overland across the island to conduct the {196} Russian traders to the English ships. Three Russians came to visit Cook. One averred that he had been with Bering on the expedition of 1741, and the rough adventurers seemed almost to worship the Dane's memory. Later came Ismyloff, chief factor of the Russian fur posts in Oonalaska, attended by a retinue of thirty native canoes, very suave as to manners, very polished and pompous when he was not too convivial, but very chary of any information to the English, whose charts he examined with keenest interest, giving them to understand that the Empress of Russia had first claim to all those parts of the country, rising, quaffing a glass and bowing profoundly as he mentioned the august name. "Friends and fellow-countrymen glorious," the English were to the smooth-tongued Russian, as they drank each other's health. Learning that Cook was to visit Avacha Bay, Ismyloff proffered a letter of introduction to Major Behm, Russian commander of Kamchatka. Cook thought the letter one of commendation. It turned out otherwise. Fur traders, world over, always resented the coming of the explorer. Ismyloff was neither better nor worse than his kind.[2] Heavy squalls pursued the ships all the way from Oonalaska, left on October 26, to the Sandwich Islands, reached in the new year 1779. A thousand canoes of enthusiastic natives welcomed Cook back to the sunny islands of the Pacific. Before the explorer {197} could anchor, natives were swimming round the ship like shoals of fish. When Cook landed, the whole population prostrated itself at his feet as if he had been a god. It was a welcome change from the desolate cold of the inhospitable north. Situated midway in the Pacific, the Sandwich Islands were like an oasis in a watery waste to Cook's mariners. The ships had dropped anchor in the centre of a horn-shaped bay called Karakakooa, in Hawaii, about two miles from horn to horn. On the sandy flats of the north horn was the native village of Kowrowa: amid the cocoanut grove of the other horn, the village of Kakooa, with a well and Morai, or sacred burying-ground, close by. Between the two villages alongshore ran a high ledge of black coral rocks. In all there were, perhaps, four hundred houses in the two villages, with a population of from two to three thousand warriors; but the bay was the rallying place for the entire group of islands; and the islands numbered in all several hundred thousand warriors. Picture, then, the scene to these wanderers of the northern seas: the long coral reef, wave-washed by bluest of seas; the little village and burying-ground and priests' houses nestling under the cocoanut grove at one end of the semicircular bay, the village where Terreeoboo, king of the island, dwelt on the long sand beach at the other end; and swimming through the water like shoals of fish, climbing over the ships' rigging like monkeys, crowding the decks of the _Discovery_ {198} so that the ship heeled over till young chief Pareea began tossing the intruders by the scuff of the neck back into the sea--hundreds, thousands, of half-naked, tawny-skinned savages welcoming the white men back to the islands discovered by them. Chief among the visitors to the ship was Koah, a little, old, emaciated, shifty-eyed priest with a wry neck and a scaly, leprous skin, who at once led the small boats ashore, driving the throngs back with a magic wand and drawing a mystic circle with his wizard stick round a piece of ground near the Morai, or burying-place, where the white men could erect their tents beside the cocoanut groves. The magic line was called a _taboo_. Past the tabooed line of the magic wand not a native would dare to go. Here Captain King, assisted by the young midshipman, Vancouver, landed with a guard of eight or ten mariners to overhaul the ships' masts, while the rest of the two crews obtained provisions by trade. Cook was carried off to the very centre of the Morai--a circular enclosure of solid stone with images and priests' houses at one end, the skulls of slain captives at the other. Here priests and people did the white explorer homage as to a god, sacrificing to him their most sacred animal--a strangled pig. All went well for the first few days. A white gunner, who died, was buried within the sacred enclosure of the Morai. The natives loaded the white men's boats with provisions. In ten days the wan, gaunt {199} sailors were so sleek and fat that even the generous entertainers had to laugh at the transformation. Old King Terreeoboo came clothed in a cloak of gaudy feathers with spears and daggers at his belt and a train of priestly retainers at his heels to pay a visit of state to Cook; and a guard of mariners was drawn up at arms under the cocoanut grove to receive the visitor with fitting honor. When the king learned that Cook was to leave the bay early in February, a royal proclamation gathered presents for the ships; and Cook responded by a public display of fireworks. Now it is a sad fact that when a highly civilized people meet an uncivilized people, each race celebrates the occasion by appropriating all the evil qualities of the other. Vices, not virtues, are the first to fraternize. It was as unfair of Cook's crew to judge the islanders by the rabble swarming out to steal from the ships, as it would be for a newcomer to judge the people of New York by the pickpockets and under-world of the water front. And it must not be forgotten that the very quality that had made Cook successful--the quality to dare--was a danger to him here. The natives did not violate the sacred _taboo_, which the priest had drawn round the white men's quarters of the grove. It was the white men who violated it by going outside the limit; and the conduct of the white sailors for the sixteen days in port was neither better nor worse than the conduct of sailors to-day who go on a wild spree with the lowest elements of the harbor. {200} The savages were quick to find out that the white gods were after all only men. The true story of what happened could hardly be written by Captain King, who finished Cook's journal; though one can read between the lines King's fear of his commander's rashness. The facts of the case are given by the young American, John Ledyard, of Connecticut, who was corporal of marines and in the very thick of the fight. At the end of two weeks the white seamen were, perhaps, satiated of their own vices, or suffering from the sore head that results from prolonged spreeing. At all events the thieving, which had been condoned at first, was now punished by soundly flogging the natives. The old king courteously hinted it was time for the white men to go. The mate, who was loading masts and rudder back on board the _Resolution_, asked the savages to give him a hand. The islanders had lost respect for the white men of such flagrant vices. They pretended to give a helping hand, but only jostled the mate about in the crowd. The Englishman lost his temper, struck out, and blustered. The shore rang with the shrill laughter of the throngs. In vain the chiefs of authority interposed. The commands to help the white men were answered by showers of stones directly inside the _taboo_. Ledyard was ordered out with a guard of sailors to protect the white men loading the _Resolution_. The guard was pelted black and blue. "There was nothing to do," relates Ledyard, "but move to new lands where our vices {201} were not known." At last all was in readiness to sail--one thing alone lacking--wood; and the white men dare not go inland for the needed wood. So far the entire blame rested on the sailors. Now Cook committed his cardinal error. With that very dare and quickness to utilize every available means to an end--whether the end justified the means--Cook ordered his men ashore to seize the rail fence round the top of the stone burying-ground--the sacred Morai--as fuel for his ships. Out rushed the priests from the enclosure in dire distress. Was this their reward for protecting Cook with the wand of the sacred _taboo_? Two hatchets were offered the leading priest as pay. He spurned them as too loathsome to be touched. Leading the way, Cook ordered his men to break the fence down, and proffered three hatchets, thrusting them into the folds of the priest's garment. Pale and quivering with rage, the priest bade a slave remove the profaning iron. Down tumbled the fence! Down the images on poles! Down the skulls of the dead sacred to the savage as the sepulchre to the white man! It may be said to the credit of the crew, that the men were thoroughly frightened at what they were ordered to do; but they were not too frightened to carry away the images as relics. Cook alone was blind to risk. As if to add the last straw to the Hawaiians' endurance, when the ships unmoored and sailed out from the bay, where but two weeks before they had been so royally welcomed, they carried {202} eloping wives and children from the lower classes of the two villages. It was one of the cases where retribution came so swift it was like a living Nemesis. If the weather had continued fair, doubtless wives and children would have been dumped off at some near harbor, the incident considered a joke, and the Englishmen gone merrily on their way; but a violent gale arose. Women and children were seized with a seasickness that was no joke. The decks resounded with such wails that Cook had to lie to in the storm, put off the pinnace, and send the visitors ashore. What sort of a tale they carried back, we may guess. Meanwhile the storm had snapped the foremast of the _Resolution_. As if rushing on his ruin, Cook steered back for the bay and anchored midway between the two villages. Again the tents were pitched beside the Morai under the cocoanut groves. Again the wand was drawn round the tenting place; but the white men had taught the savages that the _taboo_ was no longer sacred. Where thousands had welcomed the ships before, not a soul now appeared. Not a canoe cut the waters. Not a voice broke the silence of the bay. The sailors were sour; Cook, angry. When the men rowed to the villages for fresh provisions, they were pelted with stones. When at night-time the savages came to the ships with fresh food, they asked higher prices and would take only daggers and knives in pay. Only by firing its great guns could the {203} _Discovery_ prevent forcible theft by the savages offering provisions; and in the scuffle of pursuit after one thief, Pareea--a chief most friendly to the whites--was knocked down by a white man's oar. "I am afraid," remarked Cook, "these people will compel me to use violent measures." As if to test the mettle of the tacit threat, Sunday, daybreak, February 14, revealed that the large rowboat of the _Discovery_ had been stolen. When Captain King, who had charge of the guard repairing the masts over under the cocoanut grove came on board Sunday morning, he found Cook loading his gun, with a line of soldiers drawn up to go ashore in order to allure the ruler of the islands on board, and hold him as hostage for the restitution of the lost boat. Clerke, of the _Discovery_, was too far gone in consumption to take any part. Cook led the way on the pinnace with Ledyard and six marines. Captain King followed in the launch with as many more. All the other small boats of the two ships were strung across the harbor from Kakooa, where the grove was, to Kowrowa, where the king dwelt, with orders to fire on any canoe trying to escape. Before the fearless leader, the savages prostrated themselves in the streets. Cook strode like a conqueror straight to the door of the king's abode. It was about nine in the morning. Old Terreeoboo--peace lover and lazy--was just awake and only too willing to go aboard with Cook as the easiest way out {204} of the trouble about the stolen boat. But just here the high-handedness of Cook frustrated itself. That line of small boats stretched across the harbor began firing at an escaping canoe. A favorite chief was killed. Word of the killing came as the old king was at the water's edge to follow Cook; and a wife caught him by the arm to drag him back. Suddenly a throng of a thousand surrounded the white men. Some one stabs at Phillips of the marines. Phillips's musket comes down butt-end on the head of the assailant. A spear is thrust in Cook's very face. He fires blank shot. The harmlessness of the shot only emboldens the savages. Women are seen hurrying off to the hills; men don their war mats. There is a rush of the white men to get positions along the water edge free for striking room; of the savages to prevent the whites' escape. A stone hits Cook. "What man did that?" thunders Cook; and he shoots the culprit dead. Then the men in the boats lose their heads, and are pouring volleys of musketry into the crowds. "It is hopeless," mutters Cook to Phillips; but amid a shower of stones above the whooping of the savages, he turns with his back to the crowd, and shouts for the two small boats to cease firing and pull in for the marines. His caution came too late. His back is to his assailants. An arm reached out--a hand with a dagger; and the dagger rips quick as a flash under Cook's shoulder-blade. He fell without a groan, face in the water, and was hacked to pieces {205} before the eyes of his men. Four marines had already fallen. Phillips and Ledyard and the rest jumped into the sea and swam for their lives. The small boats were twenty yards out. Scarcely was Phillips in the nearest, when a wounded sailor, swimming for refuge, fainted and sank to the bottom. Though half stunned from a stone blow on his head and bleeding from a stab in the back, Phillips leaped to the rescue, dived to bottom, caught the exhausted sailor by the hair of the head and so snatched him into the boat. The dead and the arms of the fugitives had been deserted in the wild scramble for life. [Illustration: The Death of Cook.] Meanwhile the masts of the _Resolution_, guarded by {206} only six marines, were exposed to the warriors of the other village at the cocoanut grove. Protected by the guns of the two ships under the direction of Clerke, who now became commander, masts and men were got aboard by noon. At four that afternoon, Captain King rowed toward shore for Cook's body. He was met by the little leprous priest Koah, swimming halfway out. Though tears of sorrow were in Koah's treacherous red-rimmed eyes as he begged that Clerke and King might come ashore to parley. King judged it prudent to hold tightly on the priest's spear handle while the two embraced. Night after night for a week, the conch-shells blew their challenge of defiance to the white men. Fires rallying to war danced on the hillsides. Howls and shouts of derision echoed from the shore. The stealthy paddle of treacherous spies could be heard through the dark under the keel of the white men's ships. Cook's clothing, sword, hat, were waved in scorn under the sailors' faces. The women had hurried to the hills. The old king was hidden in a cave, where he could be reached only by a rope ladder; and emissary after emissary tried to lure the whites ashore. One pitch-dark night, paddles were heard under the keels. The sentinels fired; but by lantern light two terrified faces appeared above the rail of the _Resolution_. Two frightened, trembling savages crawled over the deck, prostrated themselves at Clerke's feet, and slowly unrolled a small wrapping of cloth that revealed a small {207} piece of human flesh--the remains of Cook. Dead silence fell on the horrified crew. Then Clerke's stern answer was that unless the bones of Cook were brought to the ships, both native villages would be destroyed. The two savages were former friends of Cook's and warned the whites not to be allured on land, nor to trust Koah, the leper priest, on the ships. Again the conch-shells blew their challenge all night through the darkness. Again the war fires danced; but next morning the guns of the _Discovery_ were trained on Koah, when he tried to come on board. That day sailors were landed for water and set fire to the village of the cocoanut groves to drive assailants back. How quickly human nature may revert to the beast type! When the white sailors returned from this skirmish, they carried back to the ships with them, the heads of two Hawaiians they had slain. By Saturday, the 20th, masts were in place and the boats ready to sail. Between ten and eleven o'clock in the morning, a long procession of people was seen filing slowly down the hills preceded by drummers and a white flag. Word was signalled that Cook's bones were on shore to be delivered. Clerke put out in a small boat to receive the dead commander's remains--from which all flesh had been burned. On Sunday, the 21st, the entire bay was tabooed. Not a native came out of the houses. Silence lay over the waters. The funeral service was read on board the _Resolution_, and the coffin committed to the deep. {208} A curious reception awaited the ships at Avacha Bay, Kamchatka, whence they now sailed. Ismyloff's letter commending the explorers to the governor of Avacha Bay brought thirty Cossack soldiers floundering through the shore ice of Petropaulovsk under the protection of pointed cannon. Ismyloff, with fur trader's jealousy of intrusion, had warned the Russian commander that the English ships were pirates like Benyowsky, the Polish exile, who had lately sacked the garrisons of Kamchatka, stolen the ships, and sailed to America. However, when Cook's letters were carried overland to Bolcheresk, to Major Behm, the commander, all went well. The little log-thatched fort with its windows of talc opened wide doors to the far-travelled English. The Russian ladies of the fort donned their China silks. The samovars were set singing. English sailors gave presents of their grog to the Russians. Russian Cossacks presented their tobacco to the English, adding three such cheers as only Cossacks can give and a farewell song. In 1779 Clerke made one more attempt to pass through the northern ice-fields from Pacific to Atlantic; but he accomplished nothing but to go over the ground explored the year before under Cook. On the 5th of July at ten P.M. in the lingering sunlight of northern latitudes, just as the boats were halfway through the Straits of Bering, the fog lifted, and for the first time in history--as far as known--the westernmost part of America, Cape Prince of Wales, and the {209} eastern-most part of Asia, East Cape, were simultaneously seen by white men. Finding it impossible to advance eastward, Clerke decided there was no Northeast Passage by way of the Pacific to the Atlantic; and on the 21st of July, to the cheers of his sailors, announced that the ships would turn back for England.[3] Poor Clerke died of consumption on the way, August 22, 1779, only thirty-eight years of age, and was buried at Petropaulovsk beside La Croyére de l'Isle, who perished on the Bering expedition. The boats did not reach England till October of 1780. They had not won the reward of twenty thousand pounds; but they had charted a strange coast for a distance of three thousand five hundred miles, and paved the way for the vast commerce that now plies between Occident and Orient.[4] [1] The question may occur, why in the account of Cook's and Bering's voyage, the latitude is not oftener given. The answer is, the latitudes as given by Cook and Bering vary so much from the modern, it would only confuse the reader trying to follow a modern map. [2] This is the Ismyloff who was marooned by Benyowsky. [3] The authority for Cook's adventures is, of course, his own journal, _Voyage to the Pacific Ocean_, London, 1784, supplemented by the letters and journals of men who were with him, like Ledyard, Vancouver, Portlock, and Dixon, and others. [4] In reiterating the impossibility of finding a passage from ocean to ocean, either northeast or northwest, no disparagement is cast on such feats as that of Nordenskjöld along the north of Asia, in the _Vega_ in 1882. By "passage" is meant a waterway practicable for ocean vessels, not for the ocean freak of a specially constructed Arctic vessel that dodges for a year or more among the ice-floes in an endeavor to pass from Atlantic to Pacific, or _vice versa_. {210} CHAPTER VIII 1785-1792 ROBERT GRAY, THE AMERICAN DISCOVERER OF THE COLUMBIA Boston Merchants, inspired by Cook's Voyages, outfit two Vessels under Kendrick and Gray for Discovery and Trade on the Pacific--Adventures of the First Ship to carry the American Flag around the World--Gray attacked by Indians at Tillamook Bay--His Discovery of the Columbia River on the Second Voyage--Fort Defence and the First American Ship built on the Pacific It is an odd thing that wherever French or British fur traders went to a new territory, they found the Indians referred to American traders, not as "Americans," but "Bostons" or "_Bostonnais_." The reason was plain. Boston merchants won a reputation as first to act. It was they who began a certain memorable "Boston Tea Party"; and before the rest of the world had recovered the shock of that event, these same merchants were planning to capture the trade of the Pacific Ocean, get possession of all the Pacific coast not already preëmpted by Spain, Russia, or England, and push American commerce across the Pacific to Asia. {211} What with slow printing-presses and slow travel, the account of Cook's voyages on the Pacific did not become generally known in the United States till 1785 or 1786. Sitting round the library of Dr. Bulfinch's residence on Bowdoin Square in Boston one night in 1787, were half a dozen adventurous spirits for whom Cook's account of the fur trade on the Pacific had an irresistible fascination. There was the doctor himself. There was his son, Charles, of Harvard, just back from Europe and destined to become famous as an architect. There was Joseph Barrell, a prosperous merchant. There was John Derby, a shipmaster of Salem, a young man still, but who, nevertheless, had carried news of Lexington to England. Captain Crowell Hatch of Cambridge, Samuel Brown, a trader of Boston, and John Marden Pintard of the New York firm of Lewis Pintard Company were also of the little coterie. [Illustration: Departure of the _Columbia_ and the _Lady Washington_. Drawn by George Davidson, a member of the Expedition. Photographed by courtesy of the present owner, Mrs. Abigail Quincy Twombly.] If Captain Cook's crew had sold one-third of a water-rotted cargo of otter furs in China for ten thousand dollars, why, these Boston men asked themselves, could not ships fitted expressly for the fur trade capture a fortune in trade on that unoccupied strip of coast between Russian Alaska, on the north, and New Spain, on the south? "There is a rich harvest to be reaped by those who are on the ground first out there," remarked Joseph Barrell. Then the thing was to be on the ground first--that {212} was the unanimous decision of the shrewd-headed men gathered in Bulfinch's study. [Illustration: Charles Bulfinch.] The sequence was that Charles Bulfinch and the other five at once formed a partnership with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, divided into fourteen shares, for trade on the Pacific. This was ten years before Lewis and Clark reached the Columbia, almost twenty years before Astor had thought of his Pacific Company. The Columbia, a full-rigged two-decker, two hundred and twelve tons and eighty-three feet long, mounting {213} ten guns, which had been built fourteen years before on Hobart's Landing, North River, was immediately purchased. But a smaller ship to cruise about inland waters and collect furs was also needed; and for this purpose the partners bought the _Lady Washington_, a little sloop of ninety tons. Captain John Kendrick of the merchant marine was chosen to command the _Columbia_, Robert Gray, a native of Rhode Island, who had served in the revolutionary navy, a friend of Kendrick's, to be master of the _Lady Washington_. Kendrick was of middle age, cautious almost to indecision; but Gray was younger with the daring characteristic of youth. In order to insure a good reception for the ships, letters were obtained from the federal government to foreign powers. Massachusetts furnished passports; and the Spanish minister to the United States gave letters to the viceroy of New Spain. Just how the information of Boston plans to intrude on the Pacific coast was received by New Spain may be judged by the confidential commands at once issued from Santa Barbara to the Spanish officer at San Francisco: "_Whenever there may arrive at the Port of San Francisco, a ship named the Columbia said to belong to General Wanghington (Washington) of the American States, under command of John Kendrick which sailed from Boston in September 1787 bound on a voyage of Discovery and of Examination of the Russian Establishments on the Northern Coast of this Peninsula, you {214} will cause said vessel to be secured together with her officers and crew._" Orders were also given Kendrick and Gray to avoid offence to any foreign power, to treat the natives with kindness and Christianity, to obtain a cargo of furs on the American coast, to proceed with the same to China to be exchanged for a cargo of tea, and to return to Boston with the tea. The holds of the vessels were then stowed with every trinket that could appeal to the savage heart, beads, brass buttons, ear-rings, calico, tin mirrors, blankets, hunting-knives, copper kettles, iron chisels, snuff, tobacco. The crews were made up of the very best class of self-respecting sea-faring men. Woodruff, Kendrick's first mate, had been with Cook. Joseph Ingraham, the second mate, rose to become a captain. Robert Haswell, the third mate, was the son of a British naval officer. Richard Howe went as accountant; Dr. Roberts, as surgeon; Nutting, formerly a teacher, as astronomer; and Treat, as fur trader. Davis Coolidge was the first mate under Gray on the _Lady Washington_. Some heroes blunder into glory. These didn't. They deliberately set out with the full glory of their venture in view. Whatever the profit and loss account might show when they came back, they were well aware that they were attempting the very biggest and most venturesome thing the newly federated states had essayed in the way of exploration and trade. To {215} commemorate the event, Joseph Barrell had medals struck in bronze and silver showing the two vessels on one side, the names of the outfitters on the other. All Saturday afternoon sailors and officers came trundling down to the wharf, carpet bags and seamen's chests in tow, to be rowed out where the Columbia and Lady Washington lay at anchor. Boston was a Sabbath-observing city in those days; but even Boston could not keep away from the two ships heaving to the tide, which for the first time in American history were to sail around an unknown world. All Saturday night and Sunday morning the sailors scoured the decks and put berths shipshape; and all Sunday afternoon the visitors thronged the decks. By night outfitters and relatives were still on board. The medals of commemoration were handed round. Health and good luck and God speed were drunk unto the heel taps. Songs resounded over the festive board. It was all "mirth and glee" writes one of the men on {216} board. But by daybreak the ships had slipped cables. The tide, that runs from round the underworld, raced bounding to meet them. A last dip of land behind; and on Monday, October 1, 1787, the ships' prows were cleaving the waters of their fate. [Illustration: Medals commemorating _Columbia_ and _Lady Washington_ cruise.] The course lay from Boston to Cape Verde Islands, from Verde Islands to the Falklands north of Cape Horn, round Cape Horn, up the west coast of South America, touching at Masafuera and Juan Fernandez, and thence, without pause, to the west coast of North America. At Cape Verde, Gray hired a valet, a colored boy, Marcus Lopez, destined to play an important part later. Crossing the equator, the sailors became hilarious, playing the usual pranks of ducking the men fresh to equatorial waters. So long did the ships rest at the Verde Islands, taking in fresh provisions, that it was January before the Falkland Islands were reached. Here Kendrick's caution became almost fear. He was averse to rounding the stormy Horn in winter. Roberts, the surgeon, and Woodruff, who had been with Cook, had become disgusted with Kendrick's indecision at Cape Verde, and left, presumably taking passage back on some foreign cruiser. Haswell, then, went over as first mate to Gray. Mountain seas and smashing gales assailed the ships from the time they headed for the Horn in April of 1788. The _Columbia_ was tossed clear up on her beam ends, and sea after sea crashed over the little {217} _Lady Washington_, drenching everything below decks like soap-suds in a rickety tub. Then came a hurricane of cold winds coating the ship in ice like glass, till the yard-arms looked like ghosts. Between scurvy and cold, there was not a sailor fit to man the decks. Somewhere down at 57 degrees south, westward of the Horn, the smashing seas and driving winds separated the two ships; but as they headed north, bright skies and warm winds welcomed them to the Pacific. At Masafuera, off Chile, the ships would have landed for fresh water; but a tremendous backwash of surf forewarned reefs; and the _Lady Washington_ stretched her sails for the welcome warm winds, and tacked with all speed to the north. A few weeks later, Kendrick was compelled to put in for Juan Fernandez to repair the _Columbia_ and rest his scurvy-stricken crew. They were given all aid by the governor of the island, who was afterward reprimanded by the viceroy of Chile and degraded from office for helping these invaders of the South Seas. Meantime the little sloop, guided by the masterful and enthusiastic Gray, showed her heels to the sea. Soon a world of deep-sea, tropical wonders was about the American adventurers. The slime of medusa lights lined the long foam trail of the _Lady Washington_ each night. Dolphins raced the ship, herd upon herd, their silver-white bodies aglisten in the sun. Schools of spermaceti-whales to the number of twenty at a time gambolled lazily around the prow. Stormy petrels, {218} flying-fish, sea-lions, began to be seen as the boat passed north of the seas bordering New Spain. Gentle winds and clear sunlight favored the ship all June. The long, hard voyage began to be a summer holiday on warm, silver seas. The _Lady Washington_ headed inland, or where land should be, where Francis Drake two centuries before had reported that he had found New Albion. On August 2, somewhere near what is now Cape Mendocino, daylight revealed a rim of green forested hills above the silver sea. It was New Albion, north of New Spain, the strip of coast they had come round the world to find. Birds in myriads on myriads screamed the joy that the crew felt over their find; but a frothy ripple told of reefs; and the _Lady Washington_ coasted parallel with the shore-line northward. On August 4, while the surf still broke with too great violence for a landing, a tiny speck was seen dancing over the waves like a bird. As the distance lessened, the speck grew and resolved itself to a dugout, or long canoe, carved with bizarre design stem and stern, painted gayly on the keel, carrying ten Indians, who blew birds' down of friendship in midair, threw open their arms without weapons, and made every sign of friendship. Captain Gray tossed them presents over the deck rail; but the whistle of a gale through the riggings warned to keep off the rock shore; and the sloop's prow cut waves for the offing. All night camp-fires and columns of smoke could be seen on shore, showing that the coast was inhabited. Under {219} clouds of sail, the sloop beat north for ten days, passing many savages, some of whom held up sea-otter to trade, others running along the shore brandishing their spears and shouting their war-cry. Two or three at a time were admitted on board to trade; but they evinced such treacherous distrust, holding knives ready to strike in their right hand, that Gray was cautious. During the adverse wind they had passed one opening on the coast that resembled the entrance to a river. Was this the fabled river of the West, that Indians said ran to the setting sun? Away up in the Athabasca Country of Canadian wilds was another man, Alexander Mackenzie, setting to himself that same task of finding the great river of the West. Besides, in 1775, Heceta, the Spanish navigator from Monterey, had drifted close to this coast with a crew so stricken with scurvy not a man could hoist anchor or reef sails. Heceta thought he saw the entrance to a river; but was unable to come within twenty miles of the opening to verify his supposition. And now Gray's crew were on the watch for that supposed river; but more mundane things than glory had become pressing needs. Water was needed for drinking. The ship was out of firewood. The live stock must have hay; and in the crew of twelve, three-quarters were ill of the scurvy. These men must be taken ashore. Somewhere near what is now Cape Lookout, or Tillamook Bay, the rowboat was launched to sound, safe anchorage found, and the _Lady Washington_ towed in harbor. {220} The _Lady Washington_ had anchored about half a mile from shore, but the curiously carved canoes came dancing over the waves in myriads. Gray noticed the natives were all armed with spears and knives, but they evinced great friendliness, bringing the crew baskets of berries and boiled crabs and salmon, in exchange for brass buttons. They had anchored at ten on the night of August 14, and by the afternoon of the 15th the Indians were about the sloop in great numbers, trading otter skins for knives, axes, and other arms--which, in itself, ought to have put the crew on guard. When the white men went ashore for wood and water, the Indians stood silently by, weapons in hand, but offered no hostility. On the third day in harbor an old chief came on board followed by a great number of warriors, all armed. Gray kept careful guard, and the old Indian departed in possession of the stimulating fact that only a dozen hands manned the _Lady Washington_. Waiting for the tide the next afternoon, Haswell and Coolidge, the two mates, were digging clams on shore. Lopez, the black man, and seven of the crew were gathering grass for the stock. Only three men remained on the sloop with Captain Gray. Only two muskets and three or four cutlasses had been brought ashore. Haswell and Coolidge had their belt pistols and swords. The two mates approached the native village. The Indians began tossing spears, as Haswell thought, to amuse their visitors. That failing to inspire these white men, {221} rash as children, with fear, the Indians formed a ring, clubbed down their weapons in pantomime, and executed all the significant passes of the famous war-dance. "It chilled my veins," says Haswell; and the two mates had gone back to their clam digging, when there was a loud, angry shout. Glancing just where the rowboat lay rocking abreast the hay cutters, Haswell saw an Indian snatch at the cutlass of Lopez, the black, who had carelessly stuck it in the sand. With a wild halloo, the thief dashed for the woods, the black in pursuit, mad as a hornet. Haswell went straight to the chief and offered a reward for the return of the sword, or the black man. The old chief taciturnly signalled for Haswell to do his own rescuing. Theft and flight had both been part of a design to scatter the white men. "They see we are ill armed," remarked Haswell to the other. Bidding the boat row abreast with six of the hay cutters, the two mates and a third man ran along the beach in the direction Lopez had disappeared. A sudden turn into a grove of trees showed Lopez squirming mid a group of Indians, holding the thief by the neck and shouting for "help! help!" No sooner had the three whites come on the scene, than the Indians plunged their knives in the boy's back. He stumbled, rose, staggered forward, then fell pierced by a flight of barbed arrows. Haswell had only time to see the hostiles fall on his body like a pack of wolves on prey, when more Indians {222} emerged from the rear, and the whites were between two war parties under a shower of spears. A wild dash was made to head the fugitives off from shore. Haswell and Coolidge turned, pistols in hand, while the rowboat drew in. Another flight of arrows, when the mates let go a charge of pistol shot that dropped the foremost three Indians. Shouting for the rowers to fire, Haswell, Coolidge, and the sailor plunged into the water. To make matters worse, the sailor fainted from loss of blood, and the pursuers threw themselves into the water with a whoop. Hauling the wounded man in the boat, the whites rowed for dear life. The Indians then launched their canoes to pursue, but by this time Gray had the cannon of the _Lady Washington_ trained ashore, and three shots drove the hostiles scampering. For two days tide and wind and a thundering surf imprisoned Gray in Murderers' Harbor, where he had hoped to find the River of the West, but met only danger. All night the savages kept up their howling; but on the third day the wind veered. All sails set, the sloop scudded for the offing, glad to keep some distance between herself and such a dangerous coast. The advantage of a small boat now became apparent. In the same quarter, Cook was compelled to keep out from the coast, and so reported there were no Straits of Fuca. By August 21 the sloop was again close enough to the rocky shore to sight the snowy, opal {223} ranges of the Olympus Mountains. By August 26 they had passed the wave-lashed rocks of Cape Flattery, and the mate records; "I am of opinion that the Straits of Fuca exist; for in the very latitude they are said to lie, the coast takes a bend, probably the entrance." [Illustration: Building the first American Ship on the Pacific Coast. Photographed by courtesy of Mrs. Abigail Quincy Twombly, a descendant of Gray.] By September, after frequent stops to trade with the Indians, they were well abreast of Nootka, where Cook had been ten years before. A terrible ground-swell of surf and back-wash raged over projecting reefs. The Indians, here, knew English words enough to tell Gray that Nootka lay farther east, and that a Captain Meares was there with two vessels. A strange sail appeared inside the harbor. Gray thought it was the belated _Columbia_ under Kendrick; but a rowboat came out bearing Captain Meares himself, who breakfasted with the Americans on September 17, and had his long-boats tow the _Lady Washington_ inside Nootka, where Gray was surprised to see two English snows under Portuguese colors, with a cannon-mounted garrison on shore, and a schooner of thirty tons, the _Northwest-America_, all ready to be launched. This was the first ship built on the northwest coast. Gray himself later built the second. Amid salvos of cannon from the _Lady Washington_, the new fur vessel was launched from her skids; and in her honor September 19 was observed as a holiday, Meares and Douglas, the two English captains, entertaining Gray and his officers. Meares had come from China in {224} January, and during the summer had been up the Straits of Fuca, where another English captain, Barclay, had preceded him. Then Meares had gone south past Flattery, seeking in vain for the River of the West. Gales and breakers had driven him off the coast, and the very headland which hid the mouth of the Columbia, he had named Cape Disappointment, because he was so sure--in his own words--"that the river on the Spanish charts did not exist." He had also been down the coast to that Tillamook, or Cape Meares, where Gray's valet had been murdered. This was in July, a month before the assault on Gray; and if Haswell's report of Meares's cruelty be accepted--taking furs by force of arms--that may have explained the hostility to the Americans. Meares was short of provisions to go to China, and Gray supplied them. In return Meares set his workmen to help clean the keel of the _Lady Washington_ from barnacles; but the Englishman was a true fur trader to the core. In after-dinner talks, on the day of the launch, he tried to frighten the Americans away from the coast. Not fifty skins in a year were to be had, he said. Only the palisades and cannon protected him from the Indians, of whom there were more than two thousand hostiles at Nootka, he reported. They could have his fort for firewood after he left. He had purchased the right to build it from the Indians. (Whether he acknowledged that he paid the Indians only two old pistols for this privilege, is not recorded.) At all events, it {225} would not be worth while for the Americans to remain on the coast. The Americans listened and smiled. Meares offered to carry any mail to China, and on the 2d was towed out of port by Gray and the other English captain, Douglas; but what was Gray's astonishment to receive the packet of mail back from Douglas. Meares had only pretended to carry it out in order that none of his crew might be bribed to take it, and then had sent it back by his partner, Douglas--true fur trader in checkmating the moves of rivals. Later on, when Meares's men were in desperate straits in this same port, they wondered that the Americans stood apart from the quarrel, if not actually siding with Spain. On September 23 appeared a strange sail on the offing--the _Columbia_, under Kendrick, sails down and draggled, spars storm-torn, two men dead of scurvy, and the crew all ill. October 1 celebrated a grand anniversary of the departure from Boston the previous year. At precisely midday the _Columbia_ boomed out thirteen guns. The sloop set the echoes rocketing with another thirteen. Douglas's ship roared out a salute of seven cannon shots, the fort on land six more, and the day was given up to hilarity, all hands dining on board the _Columbia_ with such wild fowl as the best game woods in the world afforded, and copious supply of Spanish wines. Toasts were drunk to the first United States ship on the Pacific coast of America. On October 26 {226} Douglas's ship and the fur trader, _Northwest-America_, were towed out, bound for the Sandwich Islands, and the Americans were left alone on the northwest coast, the fort having been demolished, and the logs turned over to Kendrick for firewood. [Illustration: Feather Cloak worn by a son of an Hawaiian Chief, at the celebration in honor of Gray's return. Photographed by courtesy of Mrs. Joy, the present owner.] The winter of 1788-1789 passed uneventfully except that the English were no sooner out of the harbor, than the Indians, who had kept askance of the Americans, came in flocks to trade. Inasmuch as Cook's name is a household word, world over, for what he did on the Pacific coast, and Gray's name barely known outside the city of Boston and the state of {227} Oregon, it is well to follow Gray's movements on the _Lady Washington_. March found him trading south of Nootka at Clayoquot, named Hancock, after the governor of Massachusetts. April saw him fifty miles up the Straits of Fuca, which Cook had said did not exist. Then he headed north again, touching at Nootka, where he found Douglas, the Englishman, had come back from the Sandwich Islands with the two ships. Passing out of Nootka at four in the afternoon of May 1, he met a stately ship, all sails set, twenty guns pointed, under Spanish colors, gliding into the harbor. It was the flag-ship of Don Joseph Martinez, sent out to Bering Sea on a voyage of discovery, with a consort, and now entering Nootka to take possession in the name of Spain. Martinez examined Gray's passports, learned that the Americans had no thought of laying claim to Nootka and, finding out about Douglas's ship inside the harbor, seemed to conclude that it would be wise to make friends of the Americans; and he presented Gray with wines, brandy, hams, and spices. "She will make a good prize," was his sententious remark to Gray about the English ship. Rounding northward, Gray met the companion ship of the Spanish commander. It will be remembered Cook missed proving that the west coast was a chain of islands. Since Cook's time, Barclay, an Englishman, and Meares had been in the Straits of Fuca. Dixon had discovered Queen Charlotte Island; but {228} the cruising of the little sloop, _Lady Washington_, covered a greater area than Meares's, Barclay's and Dixon's ships together. First it rounded the north end of Vancouver, proving this was island, not continent. These northern waters Gray called Derby Sound, after the outfitter. He then passed up between Queen Charlotte Island and the continent for two hundred miles, calling this island Washington. It was northward of Portland Canal, somewhere near what is now Wrangel, that the brave little sloop was caught in a terrific gale that raged over her for two hours, damaging masts and timbers so that Gray was compelled to turn back from what he called Distress Cove, for repairs at Nootka. At one point off Prince of Wales Island, the Indians willingly traded two hundred otter skins, worth eight thousand dollars, for an old iron chisel. In the second week of June the sloop was back at Nootka, where Gray was not a little surprised to find the Spanish had erected a fort on Hog Island, seized Douglas's vessel, and only released her on condition that the little fur trader _Northwest-America_ should become Spanish property on entering Nootka. Gray and Kendrick now exchanged ships, Gray, who had proved himself the swifter navigator, going on the _Columbia_, taking Haswell with him as mate. In return for one hundred otter skins, Gray was to carry the captured crew of the _Northwest-America_ to China for the Spaniards. On July 30, 1789, he left Vancouver Island. Stop was made at Hawaii for {229} provisions, and Atto, the son of a chief, boarded the _Columbia_ to visit America. On December 6 the _Columbia_ delivered her cargo of furs to Shaw & Randall of Canton, receiving in exchange tea for Samuel Parkman, of Boston. It was February, 1790, before the Columbia was ready to sail for Boston, and dropping down the river she passed the _Lady Washington_, under Kendrick, in a cove where the gale hid her from Gray. [Illustration: John Derby, from the portrait by Gilbert Stuart, by courtesy of the owner, Dr. George B. Shattuck.] On August 11, 1790, after rounding Good Hope and touching at St. Helena, Gray entered Boston. It was the first time an American ship had gone round the world, almost fifty thousand miles, her log-book showed, and salvos of artillery thundered a welcome. General Lincoln, the port collector, was first on board to shake Gray's hand. The whole city of Boston was on the wharf to cheer him home, and the explorer walked up the streets side by side with Atto, the Hawaiian boy, gorgeous in helmet and cloak of yellow plumage. Governor Hancock gave a public reception to Gray. The _Columbia_ went to the shipyards to be overhauled, and the shareholders met. Owing to the glutting of the market at Canton, the sea-otter had not sold well. Practically the venture of these glory seekers had not ended profitably. The voyage had been at a loss. Derby and Pintard sold out to Barrell and Brown. But the lure of glory, or the wilds, or the venture of the unknown, was on the others. They decided to send the _Columbia_ back at {230} once on a second voyage. Perhaps, this time, she would find that great River of the West, which was to be to the Pacific coast what the Hudson was to the East. [Illustration: Map of Gray's two voyages, resulting in the discovery of the Columbia.] Coolidge and Ingraham now left the _Columbia_ for ventures of their own to the Pacific. Haswell, whose diary, with Gray's log-book, gives all details of the voyage, went as first mate. George Davidson, an artist, Samuel Yendell, a carpenter, Haskins, an accountant of Barrell's Company, Joshua Caswell of Maiden, Abraham Waters, and John Boit were the new men to enlist for the venturesome voyage. The _Columbia_ left Boston for a second voyage September 28, 1790, and reached Clayoquot on the west coast of Vancouver Island on June 5, 1791. True to his nature, Gray lost not a day, but was off for the sea-otter harvest of the north, up Portland Canal near what is now Alaska. The dangers of the first voyage proved a holiday compared to this trip. Formerly, Gray had treated the Indians with kindness. Now, he found kindness was mistaken only for fear. Joshua Caswell, Barnes, and Folger had been sent up Portland Canal to reconnoitre. Whether ambushed or openly assaulted, they never returned. Only Caswell's body was found, and buried on the beach. Later, when the grave was revisited, the body had been stolen, in all likelihood for cannibal rites, as no more degraded savages exist than those of this archipelago. Over on Queen Charlotte Island, Kendrick, who had returned from China on the _Lady Washington_, {232} was having his own time. One day, when all had gone below decks to rest, a taunting laugh was heard from the hatchway. Kendrick rushed above to find Indians scrambling over the decks of the _Lady Washington_ like a nest of disgruntled hornets. A warrior flourished the key of the ammunition chest, which stood by the hatchway, in Kendrick's face with the words: "Key is mine! So is the ship!" If Kendrick had hesitated for the fraction of a second, all would have been lost, as on Astor's ship a few years later; but before the savages had time for any concerted signal, he had seized the speaker by the scruff of the neck, and tossed him into the sea. In a second every savage had scuttled over decks; but the scalp of Kendrick's son Solomon was found on the beach. Henceforth neither Kendrick nor Gray allowed more than ten savages on board at a time, and Kendrick at once headed south to take the harvest of furs to China. At Nootka things had gone from bad to worse between the English and the Spaniards. Though Kendrick bought great tracts of land from the Indian chiefs at Nootka for the price of a copper kettle, he judged it prudent to keep away from a Spanish commander, whose mission it was to capture the ships of rival traders; so the American sloop moored in Clayoquot, south of Nootka, where Gray found Kendrick ready to sail for China by September. At Clayoquot was built the first American fort on the Pacific coast. Here Gray erected winter quarters. {233} The _Columbia_ was unrigged and beached. The dense forest rang with the sound of the choppers. The enormous spruce, cedar, and fir trees were hewn into logs for several cabins and a barracks, the bark slabs being used as a palisade. Inside the main house were quarters for ten men. Loopholes punctured all sides of the house. Two cannon were mounted outside the window embrasures, one inside the gate or door. The post was named Fort Defence. Sentinels kept guard night and day. Military discipline was maintained, and divine service held each Sunday. On October 3 timbers were laid for a new ship, to be called the _Adventure_, to collect furs for the _Columbia_. All the winter of 1791-1792, Gray visited the Indians, sent medicines to their sick, allowed his men to go shooting with them, and even nursed one ill chief inside the barracks; but he was most careful not to allow women or more than a few warriors inside the fort. What was his horror, then, on February 18, when Atto, the Hawaiian boy, came to him with news that the Indians, gathered to the number of two thousand, and armed with at least two hundred muskets got in trade, had planned the entire extermination of the whites. They had offered to make the Hawaiian boy a great chief among them if he would steal more ammunition for the Indians, wet all the priming of the white men's arms, and join the conspiracy to let the savages get possession of fort and ship. In the history of American pathfinding, no explorer was ever in greater {234} danger. Less than a score of whites against two thousand armed warriors! Scarcely any ammunition had been brought in from the _Columbia_. All the swivels of the dismantled ship were lying on the bank. Gray instantly took advantage of high tide to get the ship on her sea legs, and out from the bank. Swivels were trundled with all speed back to the decks. For that night a guard watched the fort; but the next night, when the assault was expected, all hands were on board, provisions had been stowed in the hold, and small arms were loaded. The men were still to mid-waist in water, scraping barnacles from the keel, when a whoop sounded from the shore; but the change in the ship's position evidently upset the plans of the savages, for they withdrew. On the morning of the 20th the woods were seen to be alive with ambushed men; and Haswell had the cannon loaded with canister fired into the woods. At eleven that very morning, the chief, at the head of the plot, came to sell otter skins, and ask if some of the crew would not visit the village. Gray jerked the skins from his arms, and the rascal was over decks in terror of his life. That was the end of the plot. On the 23d the _Adventure_ was launched, the second vessel built on the Pacific, the first American vessel built there at all; and by April 2 Haswell was ready to go north on her. Gray on the _Columbia_ was going south to have another try at that great River of the West, which Spanish charts represented. {235} Without a doubt, if the river existed at all, it was down behind that Cape Disappointment where Meares had failed to go in, and Heceta been driven back. Just what Gray did between April 2 and May 7 is a matter of guessing. Anyway, Captain George Vancouver sent out from England to settle the dispute about Nootka, at six o'clock on the morning of April 29, just off the wave-lashed rocks of Cape Flattery, and within sight of Olympus's snowy sky-line, noticed a ship on the offing carrying American colors. He sent Mr. Puget and Mr. Menzies to inquire. They brought back word that Gray "had been off the mouth of a river in 46 degrees 10 minutes where the outset and reflux was so strong as to prevent entering for nine days," and that Gray had been fifty miles up the Straits of Fuca. Both facts were distasteful to Vancouver. He had wished to be the first to explore the Straits of Fuca, and on only April 27, had passed an opening which he pronounced inaccessible and not a river, certainly not a river worthy of his attention. Yet the exact words of Captain Bruno Heceta, the Spaniard, in 1775 were: "These currents . . . cause me to believe that the place is the mouth of some great river. . . . I did not enter and anchor there because . . . if we let go the anchor, we had not enough men to get it up. (Thirty-five were down with scurvy.) . . . At the distance of three or four leagues, I lay too. I experienced heavy currents, which made it impossible to enter the {236} bay, as I was far to leeward. . . . These currents, however, convince me that a great quantity of water rushed from this bay on the ebb of the tide." So the Spaniard failed to enter, and now the great English navigator went on his way, convinced there was no River of the West; but Robert Gray headed back south determined to find what lay behind the tremendous crash of breakers and sand bar. On the 7th of May, the rowboat towed the _Columbia_ into what is now known as Gray's Harbor, where he opened trade with the Indians, and was presently so boldly overrun by them, that he was compelled to fire into their canoes, killing seven. Putting out from this harbor on the 10th, he steered south, keeping close ashore, and was rewarded at four o'clock on the morning of the 11th by hearing a tide-rip like thunder and seeing an ocean of waters crashing sheer over sand bar and reef with a cataract of foam in midair from the drive of colliding waves. Milky waters tinged the sea as of inland streams. Gray had found the river, but could he enter? A gentle wind, straight as a die, was driving direct ashore. Gray waited till the tide seemed to lift or deepen the waters of the reef, then at eight in the morning, all sails set like a bird on wing, drove straight for the narrow entrance between reefs and sand. Once across the bar, he saw the mouth of a magnificent river of fresh water. He had found the River of the West. Gray describes the memorable event in these simple {237} words: "May 11th . . . at four A.M. saw the entrance of our desired port bearing east-southeast, distance six leagues . . . at eight A.M. being a little to windward of the entrance of the harbor, bore away, and ran in east-southeast between the breakers. . . . When we were over the bar, we found this to be a large river of fresh water, up which we steered. Many canoes came alongside. At one P.M. came to (anchor). . . ." [Illustration: A View of the Columbia River.] By the 14th, Gray had ascended the river twenty or thirty miles from the sea, but was compelled to turn, as he had taken a shallow channel. Dropping down with the tide, he anchored on the 19th and went ashore, where he planted coins under a tree, took {238} possession in the name of the United States, and named the river "Columbia." On the 20th, he crossed the bar and was out again on the Pacific. The most of men would have rested, satisfied with half he had done. Not so Gray. He headed the _Columbia_ north again for the summer's trade in what is now known as southern Alaska. Only damages to the _Columbia_ drove her down to Nootka in July, where Don Quadra, the new Spanish commander, and Captain Vancouver were in conference over those English ships seized by Martinez. To Quadra, Gray sold the little _Adventure_, pioneer of American shipbuilding on the Pacific, for seventy-five otter skins. From Spanish sources it is learned Gray's cargo had over three thousand otter skins, and fifteen thousand other peltries; so the second voyage may have made up for the loss of the first. [Illustration: At the Mouth of the Columbia River.] On October 3 the _Columbia_ left America for China; and on July 29, 1793, came to the home harbor of Boston. Sometime between 1806 and 1809, Gray died in South Carolina, a poor man. It is doubtful if his widow's petition to Congress ever materialized in a reward for any of his descendants. Kendrick, eclipsed by his brilliant assistant, was accidentally killed in Hawaii by the wad of a gun fired by a British vessel to salute the _Lady Washington_. From the date 1793 or 1795 the little sloop drops out of sea-faring annals. What is Gray's place among pathfinders and naval {239} heroes? Where does his life's record leave him? It was not spectacular work. It was not work backed by a government, like Bering's or Cook's. It was the work of an individual adventurer, like Radisson east of the Rockies. Gray was a man who did much and said little. He was not accompanied by a host of scientists to herald his fame to the world. Judged solely by results, what did he accomplish? The same for the United States that Cook did for England. He led the way for the American flag around the world. Measuring purely by distance, his ship's log would compare well with Cook's or Vancouver's. The same part of the Pacific coast which they {240} explored, he explored, except that he did not go to northern Alaska; and he compensated for that by discovering the great river, which they both said had no existence. And yet, who that knows of Cook and Vancouver, knows as much of Gray? Authentic histories are still written that speak of Gray's discovery doubtfully. Gray did much, but said little; and the world is prone to take a man at his own valuation. Yet if the world places Cook and Vancouver in the niches of naval heroes, Gray must be placed between them. There is a curious human side to the story of these glory seekers, too. Bulfinch was so delighted over the discovery of the Columbia, that he had his daughter christened "Columbia," to which the young lady objected in later years, so that the name was dropped. In commemoration of Don Quadra's kindness in repairing the ship _Columbia_, Gray named one of his children Quadra. The curios brought back by Ingraham on the first voyage were donated to Harvard. Descendants of Gray still have the pictures drawn by Davidson and Haswell on the second voyage. The sea chest carried round the world by Gray now rests in the keeping of an historical society in Portland; and the feather cloak worn up the street by the boy Atto, when he marched in the procession with Gray, is treasured in Boston.[1] [1] Much concerning Gray's voyages can be found in the accounts of contemporary navigators like Meares and Vancouver; but the essential facts of the voyages are obtainable from the records of Gray's log-book, and of diaries kept by his officers. {241} Gray's log-book itself seems to have passed into the hands of the Bulfinch family. From a copy of the original, Thomas Bulfinch reprinted the exact entry of the discovery on May 11, 1792, in his _Oregon and Eldorado, a Romance of the Rivers_, Boston, 1866. The log-book is now on file in the Department of State, Washington; but that part from which Bulfinch made his extract is missing; nor is it known where this section was lost as it was in 1816 that Mr. Charles Bulfinch made a copy of this section from the original. Greenhow's _Oregon and California_, Boston, 1844, issued under the auspices of Congress, gives the log-book in full from May 7th to May 21st. Hubert Howe Bancroft in his _Northwest Coast_, Volume I, 1890, reproduces the diary in full of Haswell for both voyages. It is from Haswell that the fullest account of the Indian plots are obtained; but at the time of the discovery of the Columbia, Haswell was on the little sloop _Adventure_, and what he reports is from hearsay. His words in the entry of June 14 are; "They (the _Columbia_) had very disagreeable weather but . . . good success. . . They discovered a harbor in latitude 46 degrees 53 minutes north. . . . This is Gray's Harbor. Here they were attacked by the natives, and the savages had a considerable slaughter made among them. They next entered Columbia River, and went up it about thirty miles, and doubted not it was navigable upwards of a hundred miles. . . . The ship (_Columbia_) during the cruise had collected upwards of seven hundred sea-otter skins and fifteen thousand skins of other species." The pictures made by Davidson, the artist, on the second voyage, owned by collectors in Boston, tell their own story. From all these sources, and from the descendants of Gray, the Rev. Edward G. Porter collected data for his lecture before the Massachusetts Historical Society, afterward published in the _New England Magazine_ of June, 1892. The _Massachusetts Historical Proceedings_ for 1892 have, by all odds, the most complete collection of data bearing on Gray. The archives include the medal and three of Davidson's drawings, also papers relating to the _Columbia_ presented by Barrell. The Salem Institute has also some data on the ships. The _Massachusetts Proceedings_ for 1869-1870 also give, from the Archives of California, the letter of Governor Don Pedro Fages of Santa Barbara to Don Josef Arguello of San Francisco, warning the latter against the American navigators. Greenhow obtained from the Hydrographical Office at Madrid the report of Captain Bruno Heceta's voyage in 1775, when he sighted the mouth of a river supposed to be the Columbia. {242} CHAPTER IX 1778-1790 JOHN LEDYARD, THE FORERUNNER OF LEWIS AND CLARK A New England Ne'er-do-well, turned from the Door of Rich Relatives, joins Cook's Expedition to America--Adventure among the Russians of Oonalaska--Useless Endeavor to interest New England Merchants in Fur Trade--A Soldier of Fortune in Paris, he meets Jefferson and Paul Jones and outlines Exploration of Western America--Succeeds in crossing Siberia alone on the Way to America, but is thwarted by Russian Fur Traders When his relatives banged the door in his face, turning him destitute in the streets of London, if John Ledyard could have foreseen that the act would indirectly lead to the Lewis and Clark exploration of the great region between the Mississippi and the Pacific, he would doubtless have regarded the unkindness as Dick Whittington did the cat, that led on to fortune. He had been a dreamer from the time he was born in Groton, opposite New London, Connecticut--the kind of a dreamer whose moonshine lights the path of other men to success; but his wildest dreams never dared the bigness of an empire many times greater than the original states of the Union. {243} Instead he had landed at Plymouth, ragged, not a farthing in the bottom of his pockets, not a farthing's possession on earth but his hopes. Those hopes were to reach rich relatives in London, who might give him a lift to the first rung of the world's climbers. He was twenty-five years old. He had burned his ships behind him. That is, he had disappointed all his relatives in America so thoroughly that he could never again turn for help to the home hands. They had designed him for a profession, these New England friends. If Nature had designed him for the same thing, it would have been all right; but she hadn't. The son of a widowed mother, the love of the sea, of pathless places, of what is just out of sight over the dip of the horizon, was in his blood from his father's side. Friends thought he should be well satisfied when he was sent to live with his grandfather at Hartford and apprenticed to the law; but John Ledyard hated the pettifogging of the law, hated roofed-over, walled-in life, wanted the kind of life where men do things, not just dicker, and philosophize, and compromise over the fag-ends of things other men have done. At twenty-one years of age, without any of the prospects that lure the prudent soul, he threw over all idea of law.[1] Friends were aghast. Manifestly, the boy had {244} brains. He devoured information, absorbed facts like an encyclopaedia, and observed everything. The Greek Testament and Ovid were his companions; yet he rebelled at the immured existence of the scholar. At that time (1772), Dartmouth was the rendezvous of {245} missionaries to the Indians. The college itself held lectures to the singing of the winds through the forests around it. The blowing of a conch-shell called to lessons; and a sort of wildwood piety pervaded the atmosphere. Urged by his mother, Ledyard made one more honest attempt to fit his life to a stereotyped form, and came to study at Dartmouth for the missionary's career. It was not a success. When he thought to get a foretaste of the missionary vocation by making a dugout and floating down the whole length of Connecticut River, one hundred and forty miles, the scholarly professors were shocked. And when he disappeared for four months to make a farther test by living among the Mohawks, the faculty was furious. His friends gave him up as hopeless, a ne'er-do-well; and Ledyard gave over the farce of trying to live according to other men's patterns. [Illustration: Ledyard in his dugout, from a contemporaneous print.] What now determined him was what directs the most of lives--need for bread and butter. He became a common sailor on the ship of a friend in New London, and at twenty-five landed in Plymouth, light of heart as he was light of purse. The world was an oyster to be opened by his own free lance; and up he tramped from Plymouth to London in company with an Irishman penniless as himself, gay as a lark, to the world's great capital with the world's great prizes for those with the wits to win them. A carriage with driver {246} and footman in livery wearing the armorial design of his own Ledyard ancestors rolled past in the street. He ran to the coachman, asked the address, and presented himself at the door of the ancestral Ledyards, hope beating high. The relationship was to be the key to open all doors. And the door of the ancestral Ledyards was shut in his face. The father was out. The son put no stock in the story of the ragged stranger. He did not even know that Ledyards existed in America. What was to hinder any common tramp trumping up such a story? Where were the tattered fellow's proofs? Ledyard came away with just enough wholesome human rage to keep him from sinking to despair, or to what is more unmanning, self-pity. He had failed before, through trying to frame his life to other men's plans. He had failed now, through trying to win success through other men's efforts--a barnacle clinging to the hull of some craft freighted with fortune. Perhaps, too, he fairly and squarely faced the fact that if he was to be one whit different from the beggar for whom he had been mistaken, he must build his own life solely and wholly on his own efforts. On he wandered, the roar of the great city's activities rolling past him in a tide. His rage had time to cool. Afternoon, twilight, dark; and still the tide rolled past him; _past him_ because like a stranded hull rotting for lack of use, he had put himself _outside_ the tide of human effort. He must build up his own career. That was the fact he had wrested out of his {247} rage; but unless his abilities were to rot in some stagnant pool, he must launch out on the great tide of human work. Before he had taken that resolution, the roar of the city had been terrifying--a tide that might swamp. Now, the thunder of the world's traffic was a shout of triumph. He would launch out, let the tide carry him where it might. All London was resounding with the project of Cook's third voyage round the world--the voyage that was to settle forever how far America projected into the Pacific. Recruits were being mustered for the voyage. It came to Ledyard in an inspiration--the new field for his efforts, the call of the sea that paved a golden path around the world, the freedom for shoulder-swing to do all that a man was worth. Quick as flash, he was off--going _with_ the tide now, not a derelict, not a stranded hull--off to shave, and wash, and respectable-ize, in order to apply as a recruit with Cook. In the dark, somewhere near the sailors' mean lodgings, a hand touched him. He turned; it was the rich man's son, come profuse of apologies: his father had returned; father and son begged to proffer both financial aid and hospitality--Ledyard cut him short with a terse but forcible invitation to go his own way. That the unknown colonial at once received a berth with Cook as corporal of marines, when half the young men of England with influence to back their applications were eager to join the voyage, speaks well for the sincerity of the new enthusiasm. {248} Cook left England in midsummer of 1776. He sighted the Pacific coast, northward of what is now San Francisco, in the spring of 1778. Ledyard was the first American to see the land that lay beyond the Rockies. It was not a narrow strip as men had thought, but a broad belt a thousand miles long by a thousand broad, an unclaimed world; for storms drove Cook offshore here; and the English discoverer did not land till abreast of British America. At Nootka thousands of Indians flocked round the two vessels to trade. For some trinkets of glass beads and iron, Ledyard obtained one thousand five hundred skins for Cook. Among the Indians, too, he saw brass trinkets, that must have come all the way from New Spain on the south, or from the Hudson's Bay Fur Company on the east. What were the merchants of New York and Philadelphia doing, that their ships were not here reaping a harvest of wealth in furs? If this were the outermost bound of Louisiana, Louisiana might some day be a part of the colonies now struggling for their liberties; and Ledyard's imagination took one of those leaps that win a man the reputation of a fool among his contemporaries, a hero to future generations. "If it was necessary that a European should discover the existence of the continent," he afterward wrote, "in the name of Amor Patriae let a native explore its resources and boundaries. . . It is my wish to be the man." Cook's ships passed north to Oonalaska. Only {249} twenty-five years before, the Indians of Oonalaska had massacred every white settlement on the island. Cook wished to send a message to the Russian fur traders. Not many men could be risked from the ship. Fired with the ambition to know more of the coast which he had determined to explore, Ledyard volunteered to go for the Russians with two Indian guides. The pace was set at an ambling run over rocks that had cut Ledyard's boots to tatters before nightfall. He was quite unarmed; and just at dark the way seemed to end at a sandy shore, where the waves were already chopping over on the rising tide, and spiral columns of smoke betrayed the underground mud huts of those very Indian villages that had massacred the Russians a quarter of a century before. The guides had dived somewhere underground and, while Ledyard stood nonplussed, came running back carrying a light skin boat which they launched. It was made of oiled walrus hide stretched like a drum completely round whalebones, except for two manholes in the top for the rowers. Perpheela, the guide, signalled Ledyard to embark; and before the white man could solve the problem of how three men were to sit in two manholes, he was seized head and heels, and bundled clear through a manhole, lying full length imprisoned like Jonah in the whale. Then the swish of dipping paddles, of the cold waves above and beneath, shut out by parchment thin as tissue paper, told Ledyard that he was being carried out to sea, spite of dark and storm, {250} in a craft light as an air-blown bladder, that bounced forward, through, under, over the waves, undrownable as a fish. There was nothing to do but lie still. The slightest motion might have ruptured the thin skin keel. On he was borne through the dark, the first American in history to travel by a submarine. At the end of what seemed ages--it could not have been more than two hours--after a deal of bouncing to the rising storm with no sound but the whistling of wind and rush of mountain seas, the keel suddenly grated pebbles. Starlight came through the vacated manholes; but before Ledyard could jump out, the boat was hoisted on the shoulders of four men, and carried on a run overland. The creak of a door slammed open. A bump as the boat dumped down to soft floor; and Ledyard was dazzled by a glare of light to find himself in the mess room of the Russian barracks on Captain Harbor, in the presence of two bearded Russian hunters gasping speechless with surprise to see a man emerging from the manhole like a newly hatched chicken from an egg. Fur rugs covered the floor, the walls, the benches, the berth beds lining the sides of the barnlike Russian barracks. The windows were of oiled bladder skin; the lamps, whale-oil in stone basins with skin for wick. Arms were stacked in the corner. The two Russians had been sitting down to a supper of boiled salmon, when Ledyard made his unannounced {251} entrance. By signs he explained that Captain Cook's ships were at a near harbor and that the English commander desired to confer with Ismyloff, chief factor of the Russians. Rising, kissing their hands ceremoniously as they mentioned the august name and taking off their fur caps, the Russians made solemn answer that all these parts, with a circumambient wave, belonged to the Empress of Russia; that they were her subjects--with more kissing of the hands. Russia did not want foreigners spying on her hunting-grounds. Nevertheless, Ledyard was given a present of fresh Chinese silk underwear, treated to the hottest Russian brandy in the barracks, and put comfortably to bed on a couch of otter skins. From his bed, he saw the Indians crowd in for evening services before a little Russian crucifix, the two traders leading prayers. These were the tribes, whom the Russians had hunted with dogs fifty years before; and who in turn had slain all Russians on the Island. A better understanding now prevailed. In the morning Ledyard looked over the fur establishment; galliots, cannon-mounted in the harbor for refuge in case of attack; the huge lemon-yellow, red-roofed store-room that might serve as barracks or fort for a hundred men; the brigades of eight, of nine, of eleven hundred Indian hunters sailing the surfs under the leadership of Ismyloff, the chief factor. Oonalaska was the very centre of the sea-otter hunt. Here, eighteen thousand otter a year were taken. At once, {252} Ledyard realized how he could pay the cost of exploring that unclaimed world between New Spain and Alaska: by turning fur trader as Radisson, and La Salle, and the other explorers had done. Ismyloff himself, who had been out with his brigade when Ledyard came, went to visit the Englishman; but Ismyloff had little to say, little of Benyowsky, the Polish pirate, who had marooned him; less of Alaska; and the reason for taciturnity was plain. The Russian fur traders were forming a monopoly. They told no secrets to the world. They wanted no intruders on their hunting-ground. Could Ledyard have known that the surly, bearded Russian was to blast his new-born ambitions; could Ismyloff have guessed that the eager, young, beardless corporal of marines was indirectly to be the means of wresting the Pacific coast from Russia--each might have smiled at the tricks of destiny. Ledyard had two more years to serve in the British navy when he returned from Cook's voyage. By another trick of destiny he was sent out on a battle ship to fight against his native country in the Revolutionary War. It was a time when men wore patriotic coats of many colors. His ship lay at anchor off Long Island. He had not seen his mother for seven years, but knew that the war had reduced her to opening a lodging house for British officers. Asking for a week's furlough, Ledyard went ashore, proceeded to his mother's {253} house, knocked at the door, and was taken as a lodger by her without being recognized, which was, perhaps, as well; for the house was full of British spies. Ledyard waited till night. Then he went to her private apartments and found her reading with the broad-rimmed, horn-framed spectacles of those days. He took her hands. "Look at me," he said. One glance was enough. Then he shut the door; and the door remains shut to the world on what happened there. That was the end of British soldiering for Ledyard. He never returned to the marines. He betook himself to Hartford, where he wrote an account of Cook's voyage. Then he set himself to move heaven and earth for a ship to explore that unknown coast from New Spain to Alaska. This was ten years before Robert Gray of Boston had discovered the Columbia; twenty years before the United States thought of buying Louisiana, twenty-five years before Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific. Many influences worked against him. Times were troublous. The country had not recovered sufficiently from the throes of the Revolution to think of expanding territory. Individually and collectively, the nation was desperately poor. As for private sailing masters, they smiled at Ledyard's enthusiasm. An unclaimed world? What did they care? Where was the money in a venture to the Pacific? When Ledyard told how Russia was reaping a yearly harvest of millions in furs, even his old friend, Captain Deshon, whose boat had {254} carried him to Plymouth, grew chary of such roseate prospects. It was characteristic of Ledyard that the harder the difficulties proved, the harder grew his determination to overcome. He was up against the impossible, and instead of desisting, gritted his teeth, determined to smash a breach through the wall of the impossible, or smash himself trying. For six months he besieged leading men in New York and Philadelphia, outlining his plans, meeting arguments, giving proofs for all he said of Pacific wealth, holding conference after conference. Robert Morris entered enthusiastically into the scheme; but what with shipmasters' reluctance to embark on such a dangerous voyage and the general scarcity of funds, the patience of both Ledyard and Morris became exhausted. Ledyard's savings had meanwhile dwindled down to $4.27. In Europe, Cook's voyage was beginning to create a stir. The Russian government had projected an expedition to the Pacific under Joseph Billings, Cook's assistant astronomer. These Russian plans aimed at no less than dominance on the Pacific. Forts were to be built in California and Hawaii. In England and India, private adventurers, Portlock, Dixon, Meares, Barclay, were fitting out ships for Pacific trade. Some one advised Ledyard to attempt his venture in the country that had helped America in the Revolution, France; and to France he sailed with money loaned by Mr. Sands of New York, in 1784. {255} In Paris Ledyard met two of the most remarkable men in American history, Paul Jones, the naval hero, and Jefferson. To them both he told the marvels of Pacific wealth, and both were far-sighted enough to share his dreams. It was now that Jefferson began to formulate those plans that Lewis and Clark afterward carried out. The season was too late for a voyage this year, but Paul Jones loaned Ledyard money and arranged to take out a ship of four hundred tons the following year. The two actually went over every detail together. Jones was to carry the furs to China, Ledyard with assistants, surgeon, and twenty soldiers to remain at the fur post and explore. But Paul Jones was counting on the support of the American government; and when he found that the government considered Ledyard's promises visionary, he threw the venture over in a pique. Was Ledyard beaten? Jefferson and he talked over the project day after day. Ledyard was willing to tramp it across the two Siberias on foot, and to chance over the Pacific Ocean in a Russian fur-trading vessel, if Jefferson could obtain permission from the Russian Empress. Meanwhile, true soldier of fortune, without money, or influence, he lived on terms of intimacy with the fashion of Paris. "I have but five French crowns," he wrote a friend. "The Fitzhughes (fellow-roomers) haven't money for tobacco. Such a set of moneyless rascals never {256} appeared since the days of Falstaff." Again--"Sir James Hall, on his way from Paris to Cherbourg, stopped his coach at our door. I was in bed, but having flung on my robe de chambre, met him at the door. . . . In walking across the chamber, he laughingly put his hand on a six livre piece and a louis d'or on my table, and with a blush asked me how I was in the money way. Blushes beget blushes. 'If fifteen guineas,' said he, 'will be of any service to you, here they are. You have my address in London.'" While waiting the passports from the Empress of Russia, he was invited by Sir James Hall to try his luck in England. The very daring of the wild attempt to cross Siberia and America alone appealed to the English. Half a dozen men, friends of Cook, took the venture up, and Ledyard found himself in the odd position of being offered a boat by the country whose navy he had deserted. Perhaps because of that desertion all news of the project was kept very quiet. A small ship had slipped down the Thames for equipments, when the government got wind of it. Whether the great Hudson's Bay Company of England opposed the expedition as intrusion on its fur preserve, or the English government objected to an American conducting the exploration for the expansion of American territory, the ship was ordered back, and Ledyard was in no position to confront the English authorities. Again he was checkmated, and fell back on Jefferson's plan to cross the two Siberias on foot, and chance it over {257} the Pacific. His friends in London gathered enough money to pay his way to St. Petersburg. January of 1787 saw him in Sweden seeking passage across the Baltic. Usually the trip to St. Petersburg was made by dog sleighs across the ice. This year the season had been so open, neither boats nor dog trains could be hired to make the trip. Ledyard was now thirty-six years old, and the sum of his efforts totalled to a zero. The first twenty-five years of his life he had wasted trying to fit his life to other men's patterns. The last five years he had wasted waiting for other men to act, men in New York, in Philadelphia, in Paris, in London, to give him a ship. He had done with waiting, with dependence on others. When boats and dog trains failed him now, he muffled himself in wolfskins to his neck, flung a knapsack on his back, and set out in midwinter to tramp overland six hundred miles north to Tornea at the head of the Baltic, six hundred miles south from Tornea, through Finland to St. Petersburg. Snow fell continually. Storms raged in from the sea. The little villages of northern Sweden and Finland were buried in snow to the chimney-tops. Wherever he happened to be at nightfall, he knocked at the door of a fisherman's hut. Wherever he was taken in, he slept, whether on the bare floor before the hearth, or among the dogs of the outhouses, or in the hay-lofts of the cattle sheds. No more waiting for Ledyard! Storm or shine, early and late, he {258} tramped two hundred miles a week for seven weeks from the time he left Stockholm. When he marched into St. Petersburg on the 19th of March, men hardly knew whether to regard him as a madman or a wonder. Using the names of Jefferson and Lafayette, he jogged up the Russian authorities by another application for the passport. The passport was long in coming. How was Ledyard to know that Ismyloff, the Russian fur trader, whom he had met in Oonalaska, had written letters stirring up the Russian government to jealous resentment against all comers to the Pacific? Ledyard was mad with impatience. Days slipped into weeks, weeks into months, and no passport came. He was out of clothes, out of money, out of food. A draft on his English friends kept him from destitution. Just a year before, Billings, the astronomer of Cook's vessel, had gone across Siberia on the way to America for the Russian government. If Ledyard could only catch up to Billings's expedition, that might be a chance to cross the Pacific. As if to exasperate his impatience still more, he met a Scotch physician, a Dr. William Brown, now setting out for Siberia on imperial business, who offered to carry him along free for three thousand of the seven thousand miles to the Pacific. Perhaps the proceeds of that English draft helped him with the slow Russian authorities, but at last, on June 1, he had his passport, and was off with Dr. Brown. His entire earthly possessions at this time consisted of a few guineas, a suit of {259} clothes, and large debts. What was the crack-brained enthusiast aiming at anyway? An empire half the present size of the United States. From St. Petersburg to Moscow in six days, drawn by three horses at breakneck pace, from Moscow to Kazan through the endless forests, on to the Volga, Brown and Ledyard hastened. By the autumn they were across the Barbary Desert, three thousand miles from St. Petersburg. Here Brown remained, and Ledyard went on with the Cossack mail carriers. All along the endless trail of two continents, the trail of East and West, he passed the caravans of the Russian fur traders, and learned the astonishing news that more than two thousand Russians were on the west coast of America. Down the Lena next, to Yakutsk, the great rendezvous of the fur traders, only one thousand miles more to the Pacific; and on the great plain of the fur traders near Yakutsk he at last overtook the Billings explorers on their way to America. Only one guinea was left in his pocket, and the Cossack commandant reported that the season was too far advanced for him to cross the Pacific. What did it matter? He would cross the Pacific with Billings in spring. He was nearer the realization of his hopes than ever before in his life; and surely his success in tramping twice the length of Sweden, and in crossing two continents when almost destitute augured well for his success in crossing from the Pacific to the Missouri. Not for a moment was his almost childlike confidence {260} disturbed by a suspicion of bad faith, of intentional delay in issuing the passports, of excuses to hold him back at Yakutsk till the jealous fur traders could send secret complaints to St. Petersburg. Much less was he suspicious when Billings, his old friend of Cook's voyage, himself arrived, and invited him on a sled journey of exploration up the Lena while waiting.[2] On sledges he went up the Lena River with a party of explorers. On the night of February 24 two or three of the officers and Ledyard were sitting in the mess room of Irkutsk playing cards. They might laugh _at_ Ledyard. They also laughed _with_ him. Wherever he went, went gayety. Gales of boisterous laughter were on the wind. Hopes as tenuous as the wind were in the air. One of the great Bering's sons was there, no doubt telling tales of discovery that set each man's veins jumping. Suddenly a tremendous jingling of bells announced some midnight arrival post-haste at the barracks' door. Before the card players had risen from their places, two Cossacks had burst into the room stamping snow from their feet. Marching straight over to Ledyard, they seized him roughly by the arms and arrested him for a French spy, displaying the Empress's written orders, brought all the way from St. Petersburg. To say that Ledyard was dumfounded is putting it mildly. Every man in the room knew that he was not a French spy. Every man {261} in the room knew that the arrest was a farce, instigated by the jealous fur traders whom Ismyloff's lying letters had aroused. For just a second Ledyard lost his head and called on Billings as a man of honor to confute the charge. However Ledyard might lose his head, Billings was not willing to lose his. He advised Ledyard not to provoke conflict with the Russian authorities, but to go back to St. Petersburg and disprove the charge. Was it a case of one explorer being jealous of another, or had Billings played Ledyard into the fur traders' trap? That will never be known. Certain it is, Billings made mess enough of his own expedition to go down to posterity as a failure. Some of the officers ran to get Ledyard a present of clothes and money. As he jumped into the waiting sledge and looked back over his shoulder at the group of faces smiling in the lighted doorway, he burst into a laugh, but it was the laugh of an embittered man, whose life had crumbled to ruin at one blow. The Cossacks whipped up the horses, and he was off on the long trail back, five thousand miles, every mile a sign post of blasted hopes. Without a word of explanation or the semblance of a trial on the false charge, he was banished out of St. Petersburg on pain of death if he returned. Ragged, destitute, the best years of his life gone, he reached London, heartbroken. "I give up," he told the English friends, who had backed him with money, and what was better than money--faith. "I give up," {262} he wrote Jefferson, who afterward had Lewis and Clark carry out Ledyard's plans. The men of the African Geographical Society in London tried to cheer him. When could he set out to explore the source of the Nile for them? "To-morrow," answered Ledyard, with the heedlessness of one who has lost grip on life. The salary advanced paid off the moss-grown debts of his disappointed past, but he never reached the scene of his new venture. He died on the way at Cairo, in November, 1788, for all hope had already died in his heart. The world that has entered into the heritage of his aims has forgotten Ledyard; for the public acclaims only the heroes of success, and he was a hero of defeat. All that Lewis and Clark succeeded in doing for the West, backed by the prestige of government, Ledyard, the penniless soldier of fortune, had foreseen and planned with Jefferson in the attic apartments of Paris.[3] [1] The world owes all knowledge of Ledyard's intimate life to Jared Sparks, who compiled his life of Ledyard from journals and correspondence collected by Dr. Ledyard and Henry Seymour of Hartford. [2] In Sauer's account of the Billings Expedition, some excuse is given for the conduct of Billings on the ground that Ledyard had been insolent to the Russians. [3] Ledyard's _Journal of Cook's Last Voyage_, Hartford, 1783, and Sparks's _Life of Ledyard_, Cambridge, 1829. {263} CHAPTER X 1779-1794 GEORGE VANCOUVER, LAST OF PACIFIC COAST EXPLORERS Activities of Americans, Spanish, and Russians on the West Coast of America arouse England--Vancouver is sent out ostensibly to settle the Quarrel between Fur Traders and Spanish Governors at Nootka--Incidentally, he is to complete the Exploration of America's West Coast and take Possession for England of Unclaimed Territory--The Myth of a Northeast Passage dispelled forever With Gray's entrance of the Columbia, the great drama of discovery on the northwest coast of America was drawing to a close. After the death of Bering on the Commander Islands, and of Cook at Hawaii, while on voyages to prove there was no Northeast Passage, no open waterway between Pacific and Atlantic, it seems impossible that the myth of an open sea from Asia to Europe could still delude men; but it was in hunting for China that Columbus found America; and it was in hunting for a something that had no existence except in the foolish theories of the schoolmen that the whole northwest coast of America was exploited. {264} Bering had been called "coward" for not sailing through a solid continent. Cook was accused of fur trading, "pottering in peltries," to the neglect of discovery, because his crews sold their sea-otter at profit. To be sure, the combined results of Bering's and Cook's voyages proved there was no waterway through Alaska to the Atlantic; but in addition to blackening the reputations of the two great navigators in order to throw discredit on their conclusions, the schoolmen bellicosely demanded--Might there not be a passage south of Alaska, between Russia's claim on the north and Spain's on the south? Both Bering and Cook had been driven out from this section of the coast by gales. This left a thousand miles of American coast unexplored. Cook had said there were no Straits of Fuca, of which the old Greek pilot in the service of New Spain had told legends of fictitious voyages two centuries before; yet Barclay, an East India English trader, had been up those very straits. So had Meares, another trader. So had Kendrick and Gray, the two Americans. This was the very section which Bering and Cook had left untouched; and who could tell where these straits might lead? They were like a second Mediterranean. Meares argued they might connect with Hudson Bay. Then Spain had forced matters to a climax by seizing Meares's vessels and fort at Nootka as contraband. That had only one meaning: Spain was trying to lay hands on everything from New Spain to Russian {265} territory on the north. If Spain claimed all north to the Straits of Fuca, and Russia claimed all south to the Straits of Fuca, where was England's claim of New Albion discovered by Sir Francis Drake, and of all that coast which Cook had sighted round Nootka? Captain George Vancouver, formerly midshipman with Cook, was summoned post-haste by the British Admiralty. Ostensibly, his mission was to receive back at Nootka all the lands which the Spaniards had taken from Meares, the trader. Really, he was to explore the coast from New Spain on the south, to Russian America on the north, and to hold that coast for England. That Spain had already explored the islands of this coast was a mere detail. There remained the continental shore still to be explored. Besides, Spain had not followed up her explorations by possession. She had kept her navigations secret. In many cases her navigators had not even landed. [Illustration: Captain George Vancouver.] Vancouver was still in his prime, under forty. Serving in the navy from boyhood, he had all a practical seaman's contempt for theories. This contempt was given point by the world's attitude toward Cook. Vancouver had been on the spot with Cook. He knew there was no Northeast Passage. Cook had proved that. Yet the world refused credence. For the practical navigator there remained only one course, and that course became the one aim, the consuming ambition of Vancouver's life--to destroy the {266} last vestige of the myth of a Northeast Passage; to explore the northwest coast of America so thoroughly there would not remain a single unknown inlet that could be used as a possible prop for the schoolmen's theories, to penetrate every inlet from California to Alaska--mainland and island; to demonstrate that not one possible opening led to the Atlantic. This was to be the object of Vancouver's life, and he carried it out with a thoroughness that left nothing for subsequent explorers to do; but he died before the record of his voyages had been given to the world. The two ships, _Discovery_ and _Chatham_, with a supply ship, the _Daedalus_, to follow later, were fitted out for long and thorough work. Vancouver's vessel, the _Discovery_, carried twenty guns with a crew of a hundred men. The tender, _Chatham_, under Broughton, had ten guns and forty-five men. With Vancouver went Menzies, and Puget, and Baker, and Johnstone--names that were to become place marks on the Pacific. The _Discovery_ and _Chatham_ left England in the spring of 1791. A year later found them cutting the waves from Hawaii for America, the New Albion of Drake's discovery, forgotten by England until Spain's activity stimulated memory of the pirate voyage. A swashing swell met the ships as they neared America. Phosphorescent lights blue as sulphur flame slimed the sea in a trail of rippling fire; and a land bird, washed out by the waves, told of New Albion's shore. {267} For the first two weeks of April, the _Discovery_ and _Chatham_ had driven under cloud of sail and sunny skies; but on the 16th, just when the white fret of reefs ahead forewarned land, heavy weather settled over the ships. To the fore, bare, majestic, compact as a wall, the coast of New Albion towered out of the surf near Mendocino. Cheers went up from the lookout for the landfall of Francis Drake's discovery. Then torrents of rain washed out surf and shore. The hurricane gales, that had driven all other navigators out to sea from this coast, now lashed Vancouver. Such smashing seas swept over decks, that masts, sails, railings, were wrenched away. Was it ill-luck or destiny, that caught Vancouver in this gale? If he had not been driven offshore here, he might have been just two weeks before Gray on the _Columbia_, and made good England's claim of all territory between New Spain and Alaska. When the weather cleared on April 27, the ocean was turgid, plainly tinged river-color by inland waters; but ground swell of storm and tide rolled across the shelving sandbars. Not a notch nor an opening breached through the flaw of the horizon from the ocean to the source of the shallow green. Vancouver was too far offshore to see that there really was a break in the surf wash. He thought--and thought rightly--this was the place where the trader, Meares, had hoped to find the great River of the West, only to be disappointed and to name the point Cape Disappointment. Vancouver was {268} not to be fooled by any such fanciful theories. "Not considering this opening worthy of more attention," he writes, "I continued to the northwest." He had missed the greatest honor that yet remained for any discoverer on the Pacific. Within two weeks Gray, the American, heading back to these baffling tides with a dogged persistence that won its own glory, was to succeed in passing the breakers and discovering the Columbia. As the calm permitted approach to the shore again, forests appeared through the haze--that soft, velvet, caressing haze of the dreamy, lazily swelling Pacific--forests of fir and spruce and pine and cypress, in all the riot of dank spring growth, a dense tangle of windfall and underbrush and great vines below, festooned with the light green stringy mosses of cloud line overhead and almost impervious to sunlight. Myriad wild fowl covered the sea. The coast became beetling precipice, that rolled inland forest-clad to mountains jagging ragged peaks through the clouds. This was the Olympus Range, first noticed by Meares, and to-day seen for miles out at sea like a ridge of opalescent domes suspended in mid-heaven. Vancouver was gliding into the Straits of Fuca when the slender colors of a far ship floated above the blue horizon outward bound. Another wave-roll, and the flag was seen to be above full-blown sails and a square-hulled, trim little trader of America. At six in the morning of April 29, the American saluted with a {269} cannon-shot. Vancouver answered with a charge from his decks, rightly guessing this was Robert Gray on the _Columbia_. [Illustration: The _Columbia_ in a Squall.] Puget and Menzies were sent to inquire about Gray's cruise. They brought back word that Gray had been fifty miles up the Straits of Fuca; and--most astounding to Vancouver's ambitions--that the American had been off the mouth of a river south of the straits at 46 degrees 10 minutes, where the tide prevented entrance for nine days. "The river Mr. Gray mentioned," says Vancouver, "should be south of Cape Disappointment. This we passed on the forenoon of the 27th; and if any inlet or river be found, it must be a {270} very intricate one, inaccessible . . . owing to reefs and broken water. . . . I was thoroughly convinced, as were most persons on board, that we could not possibly have passed any cape . . . from Mendocino to Classet (Flattery)." Keen to prove that no Northeast Passage existed by way of the Straits of Fuca, Vancouver headed inland, close to the south shore, where craggy heights offered some guidance through the labyrinth of islands and fog. Eight miles inside the straits he anchored for the night. The next morning the sun rose over one of the fairest scenes of the Pacific coast--an arm of the sea placid as a lake, gemmed by countless craggy islands. On the land side were the forested valleys rolling in to the purple folds of the mountains; and beyond, eastward, dazzling as a huge shield of fire in the sunrise, a white mass whiter than the whitest clouds, swimming aerially in mid-heaven. Lieutenant Baker was the first to catch a glimpse of the vision for which every western traveller now watches, the famous peak seen by land or sea for hundreds of miles, the playground of the jagged green lightnings on the hot summer nights; and the peak was named after him.--Mount Baker. For the first time in history white men's boats plied the waters of the great inland sea now variously known as Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, Hood Canal. There must be no myth of a Northeast Passage left lurking in any of the many inlets of this spider-shaped sea. {271} Vancouver, Menzies, Puget, and Johnstone set out in the small boats to penetrate every trace of water passage. Instead of leading northeast, the tangled maze of forest-hidden channels meandered southward. Savages swarmed over the water, paddling round and round the white men, for all the world like birds of prey circling for a chance to swoop at the first unguarded moment. Tying trinkets to pieces of wood, Puget let the gifts float back as peace-offerings to woo good will. The effect was what softness always is to an Indian spoiling for a fight, an incentive to boldness. When Puget landed for noon meal, a score of redskins lined up ashore and began stringing their bows for action. Puget drew a line along the sand with his cutlass and signalled the warriors to keep back. They scrambled out of his reach with a great clatter. It only needed some fellow bolder than the rest to push across the line, and massacre would begin. Puget did not wait. By way of putting the fear of the Lord and respect for the white man in the heart of the Indian, he trained the swivel of the small boat landward, and fired in midair. The result was instant. Weapons were dropped. On Monday, midday, June 4, Vancouver and Broughton landed at Point Possession. Officers drew up in line. The English flag was unfurled, a royal salute fired, and possession taken of all the coast of New Albion from latitude 39 to the Straits of Fuca, which Vancouver named Gulf of Georgia. Just a month before, Gray, the American, had preceded this act of {272} possession by a similar ceremony for the United States on the banks of the Columbia. The sum total of Vancouver's work so far had been the exploration of Puget Sound, which is to the West what the Gulf of St. Lawrence is to the East. For Puget Sound and its allied waters he had done exactly what Carrier accomplished for the Atlantic side of America. His next step was to learn if the Straits of Fuca leading northward penetrated America and came out on the Atlantic side. That is what the old Greek pilot in the service of New Spain, Juan de Fuca, had said some few years after Drake and Cavendish had been out on the coast of California. Though Vancouver explored the Pacific coast more thoroughly than all the other navigators who had preceded him,--so thoroughly, indeed, that nothing was left to be done by the explorers who came after him, and modern surveys have been unable to improve upon his charts,--it seemed his ill-luck to miss by just a hair's breadth the prizes he coveted. He had missed the discovery of the Columbia. He was now to miss the second largest river of the Northwest, the Fraser. He had hoped to be the first to round the Straits of Fuca, disproving the assumption that they led to the Atlantic; and he came on the spot only to learn that the two English traders, Meares and Barclay, the two Americans, Kendrick and Gray, and two Spaniards, Don Galiano and Don Valdes, had already proved {273} practically that this part of the coast was a large island, and the Straits of Fuca an arm of the Pacific Ocean. Fifty Indians, in the long dugouts, of grotesquely carved prows and gaudy paint common among Pacific tribes, escorted Vancouver's boats northward the second week in June through the labyrinthine passageways of cypress-grown islets to Burrard Inlet. To Peter Puget was assigned the work of coasting the mainland side and tracing every inlet to its head waters. Johnstone went ahead in a small boat to reconnoitre the way out of the Pacific. On both sides the shores now rose in beetling precipice and steep mountains, down which foamed cataracts setting the echo of myriad bells tinkling through the wilds. The sea was tinged with milky sediment; but fog hung thick as a blanket; and Vancouver passed on north without seeing Fraser River. A little farther on, toward the end of June, he was astonished to meet a Spanish brig and schooner exploring the straits. Don Galiano and Don Valdes told him of the Fraser, which he had missed, and how the Straits of Fuca led out to the North Pacific. They had also been off Puget Sound, but had not gone inland, and brought Vancouver word that Don Quadra, the Spanish emissary, sent to restore to England the fort from which Meares, the trader, had been ousted, had arrived at Nootka on the other side of the island, and was waiting. The explorers all proceeded up the straits together; but the little Spanish crafts were unable {274} to keep abreast of the big English vessels, so with a friendly cheer from both sides, the English went on alone. Strange Indian villages lined the beetling heights of the straits. The houses, square built and of log slabs, row on row, like the streets of the white man, were situated high on isolated rocks, inaccessible to approach except by narrow planking forming a causeway from rock walls across the sea to the branches of a tree. In other places rope ladders formed the only path to the aerial dwellings, or the zigzag trail up the steep face of a rock down which defenders could hurl stones. Howe's Sound, Jervis Canal, Bute Inlet, were passed; {275} and in July Johnstone came back with news he had found a narrow channel out to the Pacific. [Illustration: The Discovery on the Rocks.] The straits narrowed to less than half a mile with such a terrific tide wash that on Sunday, July 29, the ships failed to answer to the helm and waves seventeen feet high dashed over decks. Progress was made by hauling the boats alongshore with ropes braced round trees. By the first of August a dense fog swept in from the sea. The _Discovery_ crashed on a sunken rock, heeling over till her sails were within three inches of water. Ballast was thrown overboard, and the next tide-rush lifted her. By August 19 Vancouver had proved--if any doubt remained--that no Northeast Passage was to be found by way of the Straits of Fuca.[1] Then, veering out to sea at midnight through squalls {276} of rain, he steered to Nootka for the conference with Spain. Vancouver came to Nootka on the 28th of August. Nootka was the grand rallying place of fur traders on the Pacific. It was a triangular sound extending into the shores of Vancouver Island. On an island at the mouth of the sound the Spaniards had built their fort. This part of the bay was known as Friendly Cove. To the north was Snug Cove, where Cook had anchored; to the south the roadstead of the fur traders. Mountains rose from the water-line; and on a terrace of hills above the Spanish fort was the native village of Maquinna, the Indian chief. {277} Here, then, came Vancouver, met at the harbor mouth by a Spanish officer with pilot to conduct the _Discovery_ to the Spanish fort of Nootka. The _Chatham_, the _Daedalus_, Vancouver's store ship, two or three English fur-trading ships, Spanish frigates bristling with cannon, were already at anchor; and the bright Spanish pennant, red and yellow, waved to the wind above the cannon-mounted, palisaded log fort of Nootka. [Illustration: Indian Settlement at Nootka.] Donning regimentals, Lieutenant Puget marched solemnly up to the fort to inform Don Juan de la Bodega y Quadra, representative of Spain, that Captain George Vancouver, representative of England, had arrived at Nootka to await the pleasure of New Spain's commander. It was New Spain's pleasure to receive England's salute; and Vancouver's guns roared out a volley of thirteen shots to the amaze of two thousand or more savages watching from the shores. Formally accompanied by his officers, Vancouver then paid his respects to New Spain. Don Quadra returned the compliment by breakfasting next morning on board the _Discovery_, while his frigates in turn saluted England by a volley of thirteen guns. In all this solemn parade of formality, Maquinna, lord of the wild domain, began to wonder what part he was to play, and ventured to board the _Discovery_, clad in a garb of nature, to join the breakfast of the leaders; when he was summarily cuffed overboard by the guard, who failed to recognize the Indian's quality. Don Quadra then gave a grand dinner to the English, to which the irate Maquinna {278} was invited. Five courses the dinner had, with royal salutes setting the echoes rolling in the hills. Seventeen guns were fired to the success of Vancouver's explorations. Toasts were drunk, foaming toasts to glory, and the navigators of the Pacific, and Maquinna, grand chief of the Nootkas, who responded by rising in his place, glass in hand, to express regret that Spain should withdraw from the North Pacific. It was then the brilliant thought flashed on Don Quadra to win the friendship of the Indians for all the white traders on the Pacific coast through a ceremonious visit by Vancouver and himself to Maquinna's home village, twenty miles up the sound. Cutter and yawl left Friendly Cove at eight in the morning of September 4, coming to Maquinna's home village at two in the afternoon. Don Quadra supplied the dinner, served in style by his own Spanish lackeys; and the gallant Spaniard led Maquinna's only daughter to the seat at the head of the spread, where the young squaw did the honors with all the hauteur of the Indian race. Maquinna then entertained his visitors with a sham battle of painted warriors, followed by a mask dance. Not to be outdone, the whites struck up fife and drum, and gave a wild display of Spanish fandangoes and Scotch reels. In honor of the day's outing, it was decided to name the large island which Vancouver had almost circumnavigated, Quadra and Vancouver. When Maquinna returned this visit, there were fireworks, and more toasts, and more salutes. All this {279} was very pleasant; but it was not business. Then Vancouver requested Don Quadra to ratify the international agreement between England and Spain; but there proved to be a wide difference of opinion as to what that agreement meant. Vancouver held that it entailed the surrender of Spain's sovereignty from San Francisco northward. Don Quadra maintained that it only surrendered Spanish rights north of Juan de Fuca, leaving the northwest coast free to all nations for trade. With Vancouver it was all or nothing. Don Quadra then suggested that letters be sent to Spain and England for more specific instructions. For this purpose Lieutenant Broughton was to be despatched overland across Mexico to Europe. It was at this stage that Robert Gray came down from the north on the damaged _Columbia_, to receive assistance from Quadra. Within three weeks Gray had sailed for Boston, Don Quadra for New Spain, and Vancouver to the south, to examine that Columbia River of Gray's before proceeding to winter on the Sandwich Islands. The three English ships hauled out of Nootka in the middle of October, steering for that new river of Gray's, of which Vancouver had expressed such doubt. The foaming reefs of Cape Disappointment were sighted and the north entrance seen just as Gray had described it. The _Chatham_ rode safely inside the heavy cross swell, though her small boat smashed to chips among the breakers; but on Sunday, October {280} 21, such mountainous seas were running that Vancouver dared not risk his big ship, the _Discovery_, across the bar. Broughton was intrusted to examine the _Columbia_ before setting out to England for fresh orders. The _Chatham_ had anchored just inside Cape Disappointment on the north, then passed south to Cape Adams, using Gray's chart as guide. Seven miles up the north coast, a deep bay was named after Gray. Nine or ten Indian dugouts with one hundred and fifty warriors now escorted Broughton's rowboat upstream. The lofty peak ahead covered with snow was named Mt. Hood. For seven days Broughton followed the river till his provision ran out, and the old Indian chief with him explained by the signs of pointing in the direction of the sunrise and letting water trickle through his fingers that water-falls ahead would stop passage. Somehow, Broughton seemed to think because Gray, a private trader, had not been clad in the gold-braid regimentals of authority, his act of discovery was void; for Broughton landed, and with the old chief assisting at the ceremony by drinking healths, took possession of all the region for England, "having" as the record of the trip explains, "every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilized nation or state had ever entered this river before; in this opinion he was confirmed by Mr. Gray's sketch, in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray either saw or was ever within five leagues of the entrance." {281} Any comment on this proceeding is superfluous. It was evidently in the hope that the achievement of Gray--an unassuming fur trader, backed by nothing but his own dauntless courage--would be forgotten, which it certainly was for fifty years by nearly all Americans. Three days later, on November 3, Broughton was back down-stream at the _Chatham_, noting the deserted Indian village of Chinook as he passed to the harbor mouth. On November 6, in heavy rain, the ship stood out for sea, passing the _Jenny_ of Bristol, imprisoned inside the cape by surf. Broughton landed to reconnoitre the passage out. The wind calmed next day, and a breach was descried through the surf. The little trading ship led the way, Broughton following, hard put to keep the _Chatham_ headed for the sea, breakers rolling over her from stem to stern, snapping the tow-rope of the launch and washing a sailor overboard; and we cannot but have a higher respect for Gray's feat, knowing the difficulties that Broughton weathered. Meanwhile Vancouver on the _Discovery_ had coasted on down from the mouth of the Columbia to Drake's Bay, just outside the Golden Gate of San Francisco, where the bold English pirate had anchored in 1579. By nightfall of November 14 he was inside the spacious harbor of San Francisco. Two men on horseback rode out from the Spanish settlement, a mile back from the water front, firing muskets as a salute to Vancouver. The next morning, a Spanish friar and {282} ensign came aboard the _Discovery_ for breakfast, pointing out to Vancouver the best anchorage for both wood and water. While the sailors went shooting quail on the hills, or amused themselves watching the Indians floating over the harbor on rafts made of dry rushes and grass, the good Spanish padre conducted Vancouver ashore to the presidio, or house of the commandant, back from the landing on a little knoll surrounded by hills. The fort was a square area of adobe walls fourteen feet high and five deep, the outer beams filled in between with a plaster of solid mortar, houses and walls whitewashed from lime made of sea-shells. A small brass cannon gathered rust above one dilapidated carriage, and another old gun was mounted by being lashed to a rotten log. A single gate led into the fort, which was inhabited by the commandant, the guard of thirty-five soldiers, and their families. The windows of the houses were very small and without glass, the commandant's house being a rude structure thirty by fourteen feet, whitewashed inside and out, the floor sand and rushes, the furnishings of the roughest handicraft. The mission proper was three miles from the fort, with a guard of five soldiers and a corporal. Such was the beginning of the largest city on the Pacific coast to-day. Broughton was now sent overland to England for instructions about the transfer of Nootka. Puget became commander of the _Chatham_. The store ship _Daedalus_ was sent to the South Seas, and touching only {283} at Monterey, Vancouver sailed to winter in the Sandwich Islands. Here two duties awaited the explorer, which he carried out in a way that left a streak both of glory and of shame across his escutcheon. The Sandwich Islands had become the halfway house of the Pacific for the fur traders. How fur traders--riff-raff adventurers from earth's ends beyond the reach of law--may have acted among these simple people may be guessed from the conduct of Cook's crews; and Cook was a strict disciplinarian. Those who sow to the wind, need not be surprised if they reap the whirlwind. White men, welcomed by these Indians as gods, repaid the native hospitality by impressing natives as crews to a northern climate where the transition from semitropics meant almost certain death. For a fur trader to slip into Hawaii, entice women aboard, then scud off to America where the victims might rot unburied for all the traders cared--was considered a joke. How the joke caused Captain Cook's death the world knows; and the joke was becoming a little frequent, a little bold, a little too grim for the white traders' sense of security. The Sandwich Islanders had actually formed the plot of capturing every vessel that came into their harbors and holding the crews for extortionate ransom. How many white men were victims of this plot--to die by the assassin's knife or waiting for the ransom that never came--is not a part of this record. It was becoming a common thing to find white men living in a state of quasi-slavery among the {284} islanders, each white held as hostage for the security of the others not escaping. Within three years three ships had been attacked, one Spanish, one American, one English--the store ship _Daedalus_ on the way out to Nootka with supplies for Vancouver. Two officers, Hergest and Gooch of the _Daedalus_, had been seized, stripped naked, forced at the point of spears up a hill to the native village, and cut to pieces. Vancouver determined to put a stop to such attacks. Arriving at the islands, he trained his cannon ashore, demanded that the murderers of the _Daedalus's_ officers be surrendered, tried the culprits with all the solemnity and speed of English court-martial, sentenced them to death, had them tied up to the mast poles and executed. That is the blot against Vancouver; for the islanders had put up a trick. The real murderers had been leading chiefs. Not wishing to surrender these, the islanders had given Vancouver poor slaves quite guiltless of the crime. In contrast to this wrong-headed demonstration of justice was Vancouver's other act. At Nootka he had found among the traders two young Hawaiian girls not more than fifteen and nineteen years of age, whom some blackguard trader had forcibly carried off. The most of great voyagers would not have soiled their gloves interfering with such a case. Cook had winked at such crimes. Drake, two hundred years before, had laughed. The Russians outdid either Drake or Cook. They dumped the victims overboard where the {285} sea told no tales. Vancouver might have been strict enough disciplinarian to execute the wrong men by way of a lesson; but he was consistent in his strictness. Round these two friendless savages he wrapped all the chivalry and the might of the English flag. He received them on board the _Discovery_, treated them as he might have treated his own sisters, prevented the possibility of insult from the common sailors by having them at his own table on the ship, taught them the customs of Europeans toward women and the reasons for those customs, so that the young girls presently had the respect and friendship of every sailor on board the _Discovery_. In New Spain he had obtained clothing and delicacies for them that white women have; and in the Sandwich Islands took precautions against their death at the hands of Hawaiians for having been on the ship with strange men, by securing from the Sandwich Island chief the promise of his protection for them and the gifts of a home inside the royal enclosure. April of 1793 saw Vancouver back again on the west coast of America. In results this year's exploring was largely negative; but the object of Vancouver's life was a negative one--to prove there was no passage between Pacific and Atlantic. He had missed the Columbia the previous year by standing off the coast north of Mendocino. So this year, he again plied up the same shore to Nootka. No fresh instructions had {286} come from England or Spain to Nootka; and Vancouver took up the trail of the sea where he had stopped the year before, carrying forward survey of island and mainland from Vancouver Island northward to the modern Sitka or Norfolk Sound. Gray, the American, had been attacked by Indians here the year before; and Vancouver did not escape the hostility of these notoriously treacherous tribes. Up Behm Canal the ships were visited by warriors wearing death-masks, who refused everything in exchange for their sea-otter except firearms. The canal here narrowed to a dark canyon overhung by beetling cliffs. Four large war canoes manned by several hundred savages daubed with war paint succeeded in surrounding the small launch, and while half the warriors held the boat to prevent it escaping, the rest had rifled it of everything they could take, from belaying-pins and sail rope to firearms, before Vancouver lost patience and gave orders to fire. At the shot the Indians were over decks and into the sea like water-rats, while forces ambushed on land began rolling rocks and stones down the precipices. One gains some idea of Vancouver's thoroughness by his work up Portland Canal, which was to become famous a hundred years later as the scene of boundary disputes. Here, so determined was he to prove none of the passages led to the Atlantic that his small boat actually cruised seven hundred miles without going more than sixty miles from ocean front. By October of 1793 Vancouver had demolished the myth of {287} a possible passage between New Spain and Russian America; for he had examined every inlet from San Francisco to what is now Sitka. While the results were negative to himself, far different were they to Russia. It was Vancouver's voyage northward that stirred the Russians up to move southward. In a word, if Vancouver had not gone up as far as Norfolk Sound or Sitka, the Russian fur traders would have drowsed on with Kadiak as headquarters, and Canada to-day might have included the entire gold-fields of Alaska. Again Vancouver wintered in the Sandwich Islands. In the year 1794 he changed the direction of his exploring. Instead of beginning at New Spain and working north, he began at Russian America and worked south. Kadiak and Cook's Inlet were regarded as the eastern bounds of Russian settlement at this time, though the hunting brigades of the Russians scoured far and wide; so Vancouver began his survey eastward at Cook's Inlet. Terrific floods of ice banged the ships' bows as they plied up Cook's Inlet; and the pistol-shot reports of the vast icebergs breaking from the walls of the solid glacier coast forewarned danger; but Vancouver was not to be deterred. Again the dogged ill-luck of always coming in second for the prize he coveted marked each stage of his trip. Russian forts were seen on Cook's Inlet, Russian settlements on Prince William Sound, Russian flotillas of nine hundred {288} Aleutian hunters steering by instinct like the gulls spreading over the sea as far east as Bering Bay, or where the coast of Alaska dips southward. Everywhere he heard the language of Russia, everywhere saw that Russia regarded his explorations with jealousy as intrusion; everywhere observed that Russian and savage had come to an understanding and now lived as friends, if not brothers. Twice Baranof, the little Czar of the North, sent word for Vancouver to await a conference; but Vancouver was not keen to meet the little Russian potentate. One row at a time was enough; and the quarrel with Spain was still unsettled. The waters of to-day plied by the craft of gold seekers, Bering Bay, Lynn Canal, named after his birthplace, were now so thoroughly surveyed by Vancouver that his charts may still be used. [Illustration: Reindeer Herd in Siberia.] Only once did the maze of waterways seem to promise a northeast passage. It was up Lynn Canal, where so many gold seekers have rushed to have their hopes dashed, like Vancouver. Two officers had gone up the channel in a small boat to see if any opening led to the Atlantic. Boisterous weather and tremendous tide had lashed the sea to foam. The long daylight was so delusive that the men did not realize it was nearly midnight. At ten o'clock they had rowed ashore, to rest from their fight with wave and wind, when armed Indians suddenly rushed down to the water's edge in battle array, spears couched. The exhausted rowers bent to the oars all night. At one place in their {289} retreat to open sea, the fog lifted to reveal the passage between precipices only a few feet wide with warriors' canoes on every side. A crash of musketry drove the assailants off. Two or three men kept guard with pointed muskets, while the oarsmen pulled through a rolling cross swell back to the protection of the big ships outside. On August 19, as the ships drove south to Norfolk or Sitka Sound, the men suddenly recognized headlands where they had cruised the summer before. For a second they scarcely realized. Then they knew that their explorations from Alaska southward had come to the meeting place of their voyage from New Spain northward. Just a little more than fifty years from Bering's discoveries, the exploration of the northwest coast of America had been completed. Some one emitted an incoherent shout that the work was finished! The cheer was caught up by every man on board. Some one else recalled that it had been April when they set out on the fool-quest of the Northeast Passage; and a true April's fool the quest had proved! Then flags were run up; the wine casks brought out, the marines drawn up in line, and three such volleys of joy fired as those sailors alone could feel. For four years they had followed the foolish quest of the learned world's error. That night Vancouver gave a gala dinner to his crews. They deserved it. Their four years' cruise marked the close of the most heroic epoch on the Pacific coast. Vancouver had accomplished his life-work--there {290} was no northeast passage through the west coast of America.[2] [1] The legend of Juan de Fuca became current about 1592, as issued in _Samuel Purchas' Pilgrims_ in 1625, Vol. III: "A note made by Michael Lok, the elder, touching the strait of sea commonly called _Fretum Anian_ in the South Sea through the North-West Passage of Meta Incognita." Lok met in Venice, in April, 1596, an old man called Juan de Fuca, a Greek mariner and pilot, of the crew of the galleon _Santa Anna_ taken by Cavendish near southern California in 1587. The pilot narrated after his return to Mexico, he was sent by the viceroy with three vessels to discover the Strait of Anian. This expedition failing, he was again sent in 1592, with a small caravel in which "he followed the course west and northwest to latitude 47 north, there finding a broad inlet between 47 and 48, he entered, sailing therein more than twenty days . . . and found very much broader sea than was at the said entrance . . . a great island with a high pinnacle. . . . Being come into the North Sea . . . he returned to Acapulco." According to the story the old pilot tried to find his way to England in the hope of the Queen recouping him for goods taken by Cavendish, and furnishing him with a ship to essay the Northeast Passage again. The old man died before Raleigh and other Englishmen could forward money for him to come to England. Whether the story is purely a sailor's yarn, or the pilot really entered the straits named after him, and losing his bearings when he came out in the Pacific imagined he was on the Atlantic, is a dispute among savants. [2] The data of Vancouver's voyage come chiefly, of course, from the volume by himself, issued after his death, _Voyage of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean_, London, 1798. Supplementary data may be found in the records of predecessors and contemporaries like Meares's _Voyages_, London, 1790, Portlock's _Voyage_, London, 1789; Dixon's _Voyage_, London, 1789, and others, from whom nearly all modern writers, like Greenhow, Hubert Howe Bancroft, draw their information. The reports of Dr. Davidson in his Coast and Survey work, and his _Alaska Boundary_, identify many of Vancouver's landfalls, and illustrate the tremendous difficulties overcome in local topography. It is hardly necessary to refer to Begg and Mayne, and other purely local sketches of British Columbian coast lines; as Begg's _History_ simply draws from the old voyages. Of modern works, Dr. Davidson's Survey works, and the official reports of the Canadian Geological Survey (Dawson), are the only ones that add any facts to what Vancouver has recorded. {291} PART III EXPLORATION GIVES PLACE TO FUR TRADE--THE EXPLOITATION OF THE PACIFIC COAST UNDER THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN FUR COMPANY, AND THE RENOWNED LEADER BARANOF {293} CHAPTER XI 1579-1867 THE RUSSIAN AMERICAN FUR COMPANY The Pursuit of the Sable leads Cossacks across Siberia, of the Sea-Otter, across the Pacific as far South as California--Caravans of Four Thousand Horses on the Long Trail Seven Thousand Miles across Europe and Asia--Banditti of the Sea--The Union of All Traders in One Monopoly--Siege and Slaughter of Sitka--How Monroe Doctrine grew out of Russian Fur Trade--Aims of Russia to dominate North Pacific "_Sea Voyagers of the Northern Ocean_" they styled themselves, the Cossack banditti--robber knights, pirates, plunderers--who pursued the little sable across Europe and Asia eastward, just as the French _coureurs des bois_ followed the beaver across America westward. And these two great tides of adventurers--the French voyager, threading the labyrinthine waterways of American wilds westward; the Russian voyager exchanging his reindeer sled and desert caravans for crazy rafts of green timbers to cruise across the Pacific eastward--were directed both to the same region, animated by the same impulse, the capture of the Pacific coast of America. {294} [Illustration: Raised Reindeer Sledges.] The tide of adventure set eastward across Siberia at the very time (1579) Francis Drake, the English freebooter, was sacking the ports of New Spain on his way to California. Yermac, robber knight and leader of a thousand Cossack banditti, had long levied tribute of loot on the caravans bound from Russia to Persia. Then came the avenging army of the Czar. Yermac fled to Siberia, wrested the country from the Tartars, and obtained forgiveness from the Czar by laying a new realm at his feet. But these Cossack plunderers did not stop with Siberia. Northward were the ivory tusks of the frozen tundras. Eastward were precious furs of the snow-padded forests and mountains toward Kamchatka. For both ivory and furs the smugglers of the Chinese borderlands would pay a price. On pretence of collecting one-tenth tribute for the Czar, forward pressed the Cossacks; now on horseback,--wild {295} brutes got in trade from Tartars,--now behind reindeer teams through snowy forests where the spreading hoofs carried over drifts; now on rude-planked rafts hewn from green firs on the banks of Siberian rivers; on and on pushed the plunderers till the Arctic rolled before them on the north, and the Pacific on the east.[1] Nor did the seas of these strange shores bar the Cossacks. Long before Peter the Great had sent Vitus Bering to America in 1741, Russian voyagers had launched out east and north with a daredevil recklessness that would have done honor to prehistoric man. That part of their adventures is a record that exceeds the wildest darings of fiction. Their boats were called _kotches_. They were some sixty feet long, flat bottomed, planked with green timber. Not a nail was used. Where were nails to come from six thousand miles across the frozen tundras? Indeed, iron was so scarce that at a later day when ships with nails ventured on {296} these seas natives were detected diving below to pull the nails from the timbers with their teeth. Instead of nails, the Cossack used reindeer thongs to bind the planking together. Instead of tar, moss and clay and the tallow of sea animals calked the seams. Needless to say, there was neither canvas nor rope. Reindeer thongs supplied the cordage, reindeer hides the sails. On such rickety craft, "with the help of God and a little powder," the Russian voyagers hoisted sail and put to sea. On just such vessels did Deshneff and Staduchin attempt to round Asia from the Arctic into Bering Sea (1647-1650). To be sure, the first bang of the ice-floes against the prow of these rickety boats knocked them into kindling-wood. Two-thirds of the Cossack voyagers were lost every year; and often all news that came of the crew was a mast pole washed in by the tide with a dead man lashed to the crosstrees. Small store of fresh water could be carried. Pine needles were the only antidote for scurvy; and many a time the boat came tumbling back to the home port, not a man well enough to stand before the mast. Always it is what lies just beyond that lures. It is the unknown that beckons like the arms of the old sea sirens. Groping through the mists that hang like a shroud over these northern seas, hoar frosts clinging to masts and decks till the boat might have been some ghost ship in a fog world, the Cossack plunderers {297} sometimes caught glimpses far ahead--twenty, thirty, forty miles eastward--of a black line along the sea. Was it land or fog, ice or deep water? And when the wind blew from the east, strange land birds alighted on the yard-arms. Dead whales with the harpoons of strange hunters washed past the ship; and driftwood of a kind that did not grow in Asia tossed up on the tide wrack. It was the word brought back by these free-lances of the sea that induced Peter the Great to send Vitus Bering on a voyage of discovery to the west coast of America; and when the castaways of Bering's wreck returned with a new fur that was neither beaver nor otter, but larger than either and of a finer sheen than sable, selling the pelts to Chinese merchants for what would be from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars each in modern money, the effect was the same as the discovery of a gold mine. The new fur was the sea-otter, as peculiar to the Pacific as the seal and destined to lead the Cossacks on a century's wild hunt from Alaska to California. Cossacks, Siberian merchants, exiled criminals, banded together in as wild a stampede to the west coast of America as ever a gold mine caused among civilized men of a later day. The little _kotches_ that used to cruise out from Siberian rivers no longer served. Siberian merchants advanced the capital for the building of large sloops. Cargo of trinkets for trade with American Indians was supplied in the same way. What would be fifty thousand dollars in modern money, it took to build and {298} equip one of these sloops; but a cargo of sea-otter was to be had for the taking--barring storms that yearly engulfed two-thirds of the hunters, and hostile Indians that twice wiped Russian settlements from the coast of America--and if these pelts sold for one hundred and fifty dollars each, the returns were ample to compensate risk and outlay. Provisions, cordage, iron, ammunition, firearms, all had to be brought from St. Petersburg, seven thousand miles to the Pacific coast. From St. Petersburg to Moscow, Kasan, the Tartar desert and Siberia, pack horses were used. It was a common thing for caravans of four or even five thousand pack horses employed by the Russian fur traders of America to file into Irkutsk of a night. At the head waters of the Lena, rafts and flatboats, similar to the old Mackinaw boats of American fur traders on the Missouri, were built and the cargo floated down to Yakutsk, the great rendezvous of Siberian fur traders. Here exiles acting as packers and Cossacks as overseers usually went on a wild ten days' spree. From Yakutsk pack horses, dog trains, and reindeer teams were employed for the remaining thousand miles to the Pacific; and this was the hardest part of the journey. Mountains higher than the Rockies had to be traversed. Mountain torrents tempestuous with the spring thaw had to be forded--ice cold and to the armpits of the drivers; and in winter time, the packs of timber wolves following on the heels of the cavalcade could only be driven off by the hounds kept to course down grouse and hare {299} for the evening meal. If an exile forced to act as transport packer fell behind, that was the last of him. The Russian fur traders of America never paused in their plans for a life more or less. Ordinarily it took three years for goods sent from St. Petersburg to reach the Pacific; and this was only a beginning of the hardships. The Pacific had to be crossed, and a coast lined with reefs like a ploughed field traversed for two thousand miles among Indians notorious for their treachery. The vessels were usually crammed with traps and firearms and trinkets to the water-line. The crews of forty, or seventy, or one hundred were relegated to vermin-infested hammocks above decks, with short rations of rye bread and salt fish, and such scant supply of fresh water that scurvy invariably ravaged the ship whenever foul weather lengthened the passage. Having equipped the vessel, the Siberian merchants passed over the management to the Cossacks, whose pretence of conquering new realms and collecting tribute for the Czar was only another excuse for the same plunder in gathering sea-otter as their predecessors had practised in hunting the sable. Landsmen among Siberian exiles were enlisted as crew of their own free will at first, but afterward, when the horrors of wreck and scurvy and massacre became known, both exiles and Indians were impressed by force as fur hunters for the Cossacks. If the voyage were successful, half the {300} proceeds went to the outfitter, the remaining half to Cossacks and crew. The boats usually sailed in the fall, and wintered on Bering Island. Here stores of salted meat, sea-lion and sea-cow, were laid up, and the following spring the ship steered for the Aleutians, or the main coast of Alaska, or the archipelago round the modern Sitka. Sloops were anchored offshore fully armed for refuge in case of attack. Huts were then constructed of driftwood on land. Toward the east and south, where the Indians were treacherous and made doubly so by the rum and firearms of rival traders, palisades were thrown up round the fort, a sort of balcony erected inside with brass cannon mounted where a sentry paraded day and night, ringing a bell every hour in proof that he was not asleep. Westward toward the Aleutians, where driftwood was scarce, the Russians built their forts in one of two places: either a sandy spit where the sea protected them on three sides, as at Captain Harbor, Oonalaska, and St. Paul, Kadiak, or on a high, rocky eminence only approachable by a zigzag path at the top of which stood cannon and sentry, as at Cook's Inlet. Chapel and barracks for the hunters might be outside the palisade; but the main house was inside, a single story with thatch roof, a door at one end, a rough table at the other. Sleeping berths with fur bedding were on the side walls, and every other available piece of wall space bristled with daggers and firearms ready {301} for use. If the house was a double-decker, as Baranof Castle at Sitka, powder was stored in the cellar. Counting-rooms, mess room, and fur stores occupied the first floor. Sleeping quarters were upstairs, and, above all, a powerful light hung in the cupola, to guide ships into port at night. But these arrangements concerned only the Cossack officers of the early era, or the governors like Baranof, of a later day. The rank and file of the crews were off on the hunting-grounds with the Indians; and the hunting-grounds of the sea-otter were the storm-beaten kelp beds of the rockiest coast in the world. Going out in parties of five or six, the _promyshleniki_, as the hunters were called, promised implicit obedience to their foreman. Store of venison would be taken in a preliminary hunt. Indian women and children would be left at the Russian fort as hostages of good conduct, and at the head of as many as four, five hundred, a thousand Aleut Indian hunters who had been bludgeoned, impressed, bribed by the promise of firearms to hunt for the Cossacks, six Russians would set out to coast a tempestuous sea for a thousand miles in frail boats made of parchment stretched on whalebone. Sometimes a counter-tide would sweep a whole flotilla out to sea, when never a man of the hunting crew would be heard of more. Sometimes, when the hunters were daring a gale, riding in on the back of a storm to catch the sea-otter driven ashore to the kelp beds for a rest, the back-wash of a billow, or a sudden {302} hurricane of wind raising mountain seas, would crash down on the brigade. When the spray cleared, the few panic-stricken survivors were washing ashore too exhausted to be conscious that half their comrades had gone under. Absurd as it seems that these plunderers of the deep always held prayers before going off on a hunt--is it any wonder they prayed? It was in such brigades that the Russian hunters cruised the west coast of America from Bering Sea to the Gulf of California, and the whole northwest coast of America is punctuated with saints' names from the Russian calendar; for, like Drake's freebooters, they had need to pray. Fur companies world over have run the same course. No sooner has game become scarce on the hunting-grounds, than rivals begin the merry game of slitting one another's throats, or instigating savages to do the butchering for them. That was the record of the Hudson's Bay Company and Nor'westers in Canada, and the Rocky Mountain men and American Company on the Missouri. Four years after Bering's crew had brought back word of the sea-otter in 1742, there were seventy-seven different private Russian concerns hunting sea-otter off the islands of Alaska. Fifty years later, after Cook, the English navigator, had spread authentic news of the wealth in furs to be had on the west coast of America, there were sixty different fur companies on the Pacific coast carrying {303} almost as many different flags. John Jacob Astor's ships had come round the Horn from New York and, sailing right into the Russian hunting-grounds, were endeavoring to make arrangements to furnish supplies to the Russians in exchange for cargoes of the fur-seals, whose rookeries had been discovered about the time sea-otter began to be scarce. Kendrick, Gray, Ingraham, Coolidge, a dozen Boston men were threading the shadowy, forested waterways between New Spain and Alaska.[2] Ships from Spain, from France, from London, from Canton, from Bengal, from Austria, were on the west coast of America. The effect was twofold: sea-otter were becoming scarce from being slaughtered indiscriminately, male and female, young and old; the fur trade was becoming bedevilled from rival traders using rum among the savages. The life of a fur trader on the Pacific coast was not worth a pin's purchase fifty yards away from the cannon mouths pointed through the netting fastened round the deck rails to keep savages off ships. Just as Lord Selkirk indirectly brought about the consolidation of the Hudson's Bay fur traders with Nor'westers, and John Jacob Astor attempted the same ends between the St. Louis and New York companies, so a master mind arose among the Russians, grasping the situation, and ready to cope with its difficulties. [Illustration: John Jacob Astor.] This was Gregory Ivanovich Shelikoff, a fur trader {304} of Siberia, accompanied to America and seconded by his wife, Natalie, who succeeded in carrying out many of his plans after his death. Shelikoff owned shares in two of the principal Russian companies. When he came to America accompanied by his wife, Baranof, another trader, and two hundred men in 1784, the Russian headquarters were still at Oonalaska in the Aleutians. Only desultory expeditions had gone eastward. Foreign ships had already come among the Russian hunting-grounds of the north. These Shelikoff at once checkmated by moving Russian headquarters east to Three Saints, Kadiak. Savages warned him from the island, threatening death to the Aleut Indian hunters he had brought. Shelikoff's answer was a load of presents to the hostile messenger. That failing, he took advantage of an eclipse of the sun as a sign to the superstitious Indians that the coming of the Russians was noted and blessed of Heaven. The unconvinced Kadiak savages responded by ambushing the first Russians to leave camp, and showering arrows on the Russian boats. Shelikoff gathered up his men, sallied forth, whipped the Indians off their feet, took four hundred prisoners, treated them well, and so won the friendship of the islanders. From the new quarters hunters were despatched eastward under Baranof and others as far as what is now Sitka. These yearly came back with cargoes of sea-otter worth two hundred thousand dollars. Shelikoff at once saw that if the Russian traders were to hold their own against {305} the foreign adventurers of all nations flocking to the Pacific, headquarters must be moved still farther eastward, and the prestige of the Russian government invoked to exclude foreigners. There were, in fact, no limits to the far-sighted ambitions of the man. Ships were to be despatched to California setting up signs of Russian possession. Forts in Hawaii could be used as a mid-Pacific arsenal and halfway house for the Russian fleet that was to dominate the North Pacific. A second Siberia on the west coast of America, with limits eastward as vague as the Hudson's Bay Company's claims westward, was to be added to the domains of the Czar. Whether the idea of declaring the North Pacific a _closed sea_ as Spain had declared the South Pacific a _closed sea_ till Francis Drake opened it, originated in the brain of Shelikoff, or his successors, is immaterial. It was the aggrandizement of the Russian American Fur Company as planned by Shelikoff from 1784 to 1796, that led to the Russian government trying to exclude foreign traders from the North Pacific twenty-five years later, and which in turn led to the declaration of the famous Monroe Doctrine by the United States in 1823--that the New World was no longer to be the happy hunting-ground of Old World nations bent on conquest and colonization. Like many who dream greatly, Shelikoff did not live to see his plans carried out. He died in Irkutsk in 1795; but in St. Petersburg, when pressing upon {306} the government the necessity of uniting all the independent traders in one all-powerful company to be given exclusive monopoly on the west coast of America, he had met and allied himself with a young courtier, Nikolai Rezanoff.[3] When Shelikoff died, Rezanoff it was who obtained from the Czar in 1799 a charter for the Russian American Fur Company, giving it exclusive monopoly for hunting, trading, and exploring north of 55 degrees in the Pacific. Other companies were compelled either to withdraw or join. Royalty took shares in the venture. Shareholders of St. Petersburg were to direct affairs, and Baranof, the governor, resident in America, to have power of life and death, despotic as a czar. By 1800 the capital of Russian America had been moved down to the modern Sitka, called Archangel Michael in the trust of the Lord's anointed protecting these plunderers of the sea. Shelikoff's dreams were coming true. Russia was checkmating the advances of England and the United States and New Spain. Schemes were in the air with Baranof for the impressment of Siberian exiles as peasant farmers among the icebergs of Prince William Sound, for the remission of one-tenth tribute in furs from the Aleuts on condition of free service as hunters with the company, and for the employment of Astor's ships as purveyors of provisions to Sitka, when there fell a bolt {307} from the blue that well-nigh wiped Russian possession from the face of America. It was a sleepy summer afternoon toward the end of June in 1802. Baranof had left a guard of twenty or thirty Russians at Sitka and, confident that all was well, had gone north to Kadiak. Aleut Indians, impressed as hunters, were about the fort, for the fiery Kolosh or Sitkans of this region would not bow the neck to Russian tyranny. Safe in the mountain fastnesses behind the fort, they refused to act as slaves. How they regarded this invasion of their hunting-ground by alien Indians--Indians acting as slaves--may be guessed.[4] Whether rival traders, deserters from an American ship, living with the Sitkan Indians, instigated the conspiracy cannot be known. I have before me letters written by a fur trader of a rival company at that time, declaring if a certain trader did not cease his methods, that "pills would be bought at Montreal with as good poison as pills from London;" and the sentiment of the writer gives a true idea of the code that prevailed among American fur traders. The fort at that time occupied a narrow strip between a dense forest and the rocky water front a few miles north of the present site. Whether the renegade American sailors living in the forests with the Kolosh betrayed all the inner plans of the fort, or the squaws daily passing in and out with berries kept their {308} countrymen informed of Russian movements, the blow was struck when the whites were off guard. It was a holiday. Half the Russians were outside the palisades unarmed, fishing. The remaining fifteen men seem to have been upstairs about midday in the rooms of the commander, Medvednikoff. Suddenly the sleepy sentry parading the balcony noticed Michael, chief of the Kolosh, standing on the shore shouting at sixty canoes to land quickly. Simultaneously the patter of moccasined feet came from the dense forest to the rear--a thousand Kolosh warriors, every Indian armed and wearing the death-mask of battle. Before the astounded sentry could sound an alarm, such a hideous uproar of shouts arose as might have come from bedlam let loose. The Indian always imitates the cries of the wild beast when he fights--imitates or sets free the wild beast in his own nature. For a moment the Russians were too dumfounded to collect their senses. Then women and children dashed for refuge upstairs in the main building, huddling over the trapdoor in a frenzy of fright. Russians outside the palisades ran for the woods, some to fall lanced through the back as they raced, others to reach shelter of the dense forest, where they lay for eight days under hiding of bark and moss before rescue came. Medvednikoff, the commander, and a dozen others, seem to have hurled themselves downstairs at the first alarm, but already the outer doors had been rammed. The panels of the inner door were slashed out. A flare of {309} musketry met the Russians full in the face. The defenders dropped to a man, fearless in death as in life, though one wounded fellow seems to have dragged himself to the balcony where he succeeded in firing off the cannon before he was thrown over the palisades, to be received on the hostiles' upturned spears. Meanwhile wads of burning birch bark and moss had been tossed into the fort on the powder magazines. A high wind fanned the flames. A terrific explosion shook the fort. The trap-door where the women huddled upstairs gave way. Half the refugees fell through, where they were either butchered or perished in the flames. The others plunged from the burning building through the windows. A few escaped to the woods. The rest--Aleut women, wives of the Russians--were taken captive by the Kolosh. Ships, houses, fortress, all were in flames. By nightfall nothing remained of Sitka but the brass and iron of the melted cannon. The hostiles had saved loot of some two thousand sea-otter skins. All that night, and for eight days and nights, the refugees of the forest lay hidden under bark and moss. Under cover of darkness, one, a herdsman, ventured down to the charred ruins of Sitka. The mangled, headless bodies of the Russians lay in the ashes. At noon of the eighth day the mountains suddenly rocked to the echo of two cannon-shots from the bay. A ship had come. Three times one Russian ventured to the shore, and three times was chased back to the woods; {310} but he had seen enough. The ship was an English trader under Captain Barber, who finally heard the shouts of the pursued man, put off a small boat and rescued him. Three others were saved from the woods in the same way, but had been only a few days on the ship, when Michael, the Kolosh chief, emboldened by success, rowed out with a young warrior and asked the English captain to give up the Russians. Barber affected not to understand, lured both Indians on board, seized them, put them in irons, and tied them across a cannon mouth, when he demanded the restoration of all captives and loot; but the Sitkan chief probably had his own account of who suggested the massacre. Also it was to the English captain's interests to remain on good terms with the Indians. Anyway, the twenty captives were not restored till two other ships had entered port, and sent some Kolosh canoes to bottom with grape-shot. The savages were then set free, and hastening up to Kadiak, Barber levelled his cannon at the Russian fort and demanded thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars' salvage for the rescue of the captives and loot. Baranof haggled the Englishman tired, and compromised for one-fifth the demand. Two years passed, and the fur company was powerless to strike an avenging blow. Wherever the Russians led Aleuts into the Kolosh hunting-grounds, there had been ambush and massacre; but Baranof {311} bided his time. The Aleut Indian hunters, who had become panic-stricken, gradually regained sufficient courage again to follow the Russians eastward. By the spring of 1804 Baranof's men had gathered up eight hundred Aleut Indians, one hundred and twenty Russian hunters, four small schooners, and two sloops. The Indians in their light boats of sea-lion skin on whalebone, the Russians in their sail-boats, Baranof set out in April from St. Paul, Kadiak, with his thousand followers to wreak vengeance on the tribes of Sitka. Sea-otter were hunted on the way, so that it was well on in September before the brigades entered Sitka waters. Meanwhile aid from an unexpected quarter had come to the fur company. Lieutenant Krusenstern had prevailed on the Russian government to send supplies to the Russian American Company by two vessels around the world instead of caravans across Siberia. With Krusenstern went Rezanoff, who had helped the fur traders to obtain their charter, and was now commissioned to open an embassy to Japan. The second vessel under Captain Lisiansky proceeded at once to Baranof's aid at Sitka. Baranof was hunting when Lisiansky's man-of-war entered the gloomy wilds of Sitka Sound. The fur company's two sloops lay at anchor with lanterns swinging bow and stern to guide the hunters home. The eight hundred hostiles had fortified themselves behind the site of the modern Sitka. Palisades the depth of two spruce logs ran across the front of the {312} rough barricade, loopholed for musketry, and protected by a sort of cheval-de-frise of brushwood and spines. At the rear of the enemy's fort ran sally ports leading to the ambush of the woods, and inside were huts enough to house a small town. By the 28th of September Baranof's Aleut Indian hunters had come in and camped alongshore under protection of cannon sent close inland on a small boat. It was a weird scene that the Russian officers witnessed, the enemy's fort, unlighted and silent as death, the Aleut hunters alongshore dancing themselves into a frenzy of bravado, the spruce torches of the coast against the impenetrable forest like fireflies in a thicket; an occasional fugitive canoe from the enemy attempting to steal through the darkness out of the harbor, only to be blown to bits by a cannon-shot. The ships began to line up and land field-pieces for action, when a Sitkan came out with overtures of peace. Baranof gave him the present of a gay coat, told him the fort must be surrendered, and chiefs sent to the Russians as hostages of good conduct. Thirty warriors came the next day, but the whites insisted on chiefs as hostages, and the braves retired. On October the first a white flag was run up on the ship of war. No signal answered from the barricade. The Russian ships let blaze all the cannon simultaneously, only to find that the double logs of the barricade could not be penetrated. No return fire came from the Sitkans. Two small boats were then landed to destroy the enemy's {313} stores. Still not a sign from the barricade. Raging with impatience, Baranof went ashore supported by one hundred and fifty men, and with a wild halloo led the way to rush the fort. The hostile Sitkans husbanded their strength with a coolness equal to the famous thin red line of British fame. Not a signal, not a sound, not the faintest betrayal of their strength or weakness till in the dusk Baranof was within gunshot of the logs, when his men were met with a solid wall of fire. The Aleuts stopped, turned, stampeded. Out sallied the Sitkans pursuing Russians and Aleuts to the water's edge, where the body of one dead Russian was brandished on spear ends. In the sortie fourteen of the Russian forces were killed, twenty-six wounded, among whom was Baranof, shot through the shoulder. The guns of the war ship were all that saved the retreat from a panic. Lisiansky then undertook the campaign, letting drive such a brisk fire the next day that the Sitkans came suing for peace by the afternoon. Three days the cunning savages stayed the Russian attack on pretence of arranging hostages. Hailing the fort on the morning of the 6th and securing no answer, Lisiansky again played his cannon on the barricade. That night a curious sound, that was neither chant nor war-cry, came from the thick woods. At daylight carrion crows were seen circling above the barricade. Three hundred Russians landed. Approaching cautiously for fear of ambuscade, they clambered over the {314} palisades and looked. The fort was deserted. Naught of the Sitkans remained but thirty dead warriors and all their children, murdered during the night to prevent their cries betraying the retreat. New Archangel, as it was called, was built on the site of the present Sitka. Sixteen short and forty-two long cannon mounted the walls. As many as seven hundred officers and men were sometimes on garrison duty. Twelve officers frequently dined at the governor's table; and here, in spite of bishops and priests and deacons who later came on the ground, the revellers of the Russian fur hunters held high carnival. Thirty-six forts and twelve vessels the Russian American fur hunters owned twenty years after the loss of Sitka. New Archangel became more important to the Pacific than San Francisco. Nor was it a mistake to move the capital so far south. Within a few years Russian traders and their Indians were north as far as the Yukon, south hunting sea-otter as far as Santa Barbara. To enumerate but a few of the American vessels that yearly hunted sea-otter for the Russians southward of Oregon and California, taking in pay skins of the seal islands, would fill a coasting list. Rezanoff, who had failed to open the embassy to Japan and so came across to America, spent two months in Monterey and San Francisco trying to arrange with the Spaniards to supply the Russians with provisions. He was received coldly by the Spanish governor till {315} a love affair sprang up with the daughter of the don, so ardent that the Russian must depart post-haste across Siberia for the Czar's sanction to the marriage. Worn out by the midwinter journey, he died on his way across Siberia. [Illustration: Sitka from the Sea.] Later, in 1812, when the Russian coasters were refused watering privileges at San Francisco, the Russian American Company bought land near Bodega, and settled their famous Ross, or California colony, with cannon, barracks, arsenal, church, workshops, and sometimes a population of eight hundred Kadiak Indians. Here provisions were gathered for Sitka, and hunters despatched for sea-otter of the south. The massacres on the Yukon and the clashes with the Hudson's Bay traders are a story by themselves. The other doings of these "Sea Voyagers" became matters of international history when they tried to exclude American and British traders from the Pacific. The fur hunters in the main were only carrying out the far-reaching plans of Shelikoff, who originated the charter for the company; but even Shelikoff could hardly foresee that the country which the Russian government was willing to sell to the United States in 1867 for seven million dollars, would produce more than twice that during a single year in gold. To-day all that remains to Russia of these sea voyagers' plundering are two small islands, Copper and Bering in Bering Sea. [1] Coxe and Müller are the two great authorities on the early Russian fur trade. Data on later days can be found in abundance in Krusenstern's _Voyage_, London, 1813; Kohl's _History_, London, 1862; Langsdorff's _Travels_, London, 1813; Stejneger's _Contributions to Smithsonian_, 1884, and _Report on Commander Islands_; Elliott's _Our Arctic Province_; Dall's _Alaska_; Veniaminof's _Letters on Aleutians_; Cleveland's _Voyages_, 1842, Nordenskjöld's _Voyage of the Vega_; Macfie's _Vancouver Island_; Ivan Petroff's _Report on Alaska_, 1880; Lisiansky's _Voyage Round the World_; Sauer's _Geographical Account of Expedition to Northern Parts_; Kotzebue's _Voyages of Discovery_, 1819, and _New Voyage_, 1831; Chappe d'Auteroche's _Siberia_ and Kracheninnikof's _Kamchatka_, 1764; Simpson's _Voyage Round World_, 1847; Burney's _Voyages_; Gmelin's _Siberia_, Paris, 1767; Greenhow's _Oregon_; Pallas's _Northern Settlements_; Broughton's _Voyage_, 1804; Berg's _Aleutian Islands_; Bancroft's _Alaska_; _Massa. Hist. Coll._, 1793-1795; _U. S. Congressional Reports_ from 1867; Martin's _Hudson's Bay Territories_, London, 1849. [2] Over one hundred American ships had been on the Pacific coast of America before 1812. [3] Rezanoff married the fur trader's daughter. The bride did not live long, nor does the union seem to have been a love affair; as Rezanoff's infatuation with the daughter of a Spanish don later seemed to indicate a heart-free lover. [4] See Chapter XII. {316} CHAPTER XII 1747-1818 BARANOF, THE LITTLE CZAR OF THE PACIFIC Baranof lays the Foundations of Russian Empire on the Pacific Coast of America--Shipwrecked on his Way to Alaska, he yet holds his Men in Hand and turns the Ill-hap to Advantage--How he bluffs the Rival Fur Companies in Line--First Russian Ship built in America--Adventures leading the Sea-otter Hunters--Ambushed by the Indians--The Founding of Sitka--Baranof, cast off in his Old Age, dies of Broken Heart No wilder lord of the wild northland ever existed than that old madcap Viking of the Pacific, Alexander Baranof, governor of the Russian fur traders. For thirty years he ruled over the west coast of America from Alaska to southern California despotic as a czar. And he played the game single-handed, no retinue but convicts from Siberia, no subjects but hostile Indians. Whether leading the hunting brigades of a thousand men over the sea in skin canoes light as cork, or rallying his followers ambushed by hostiles repelling invasion of their hunting-ground, or drowning hardships with seas of fiery Russian brandy in midnight carousals, Baranof was supreme autocrat. Drunk or {317} sober, he was master of whatever came, mutineers or foreign traders planning to oust Russians from the coast of America. Baranof stood for all that was best and all that was worst in that heroic period of Pacific coast history when adventurers from all corners of the earth roamed the otter-hunting grounds in quest of fortune. Each man was a law unto himself. There was fear of neither man nor devil. The whole era might have been a page from the hero epic of prehistoric days when earth was young, and men ranged the seas unhampered by conscience or custom, magnificent beasts of prey, glorying in freedom and bloodshed and the warring elements. [Illustration: Alexander Baranof.] Yet in person Baranof was far from a hero. He was wizened, sallow, small, a margin of red hair round a head bald as a bowl, grotesque under a black wig tied on with a handkerchief. And he had gone up in life much the way a monkey climbs, by shifts and scrambles and prehensile hoists with frequent falls. It was an ill turn of fortune that sent him to America in the first place. He had been managing a glass factory at Irkutsk, Siberia, where the endless caravans of fur traders passed. Born at Kargopol, East Russia, in 1747, he had drifted to Moscow, set up in a shop for himself at twenty-four, failed in business, and emigrated to Siberia at thirty-five. Tales of profit in the fur trade were current at Irkutsk. Tired of stagnating in what was an absolutely safe but unutterably monotonous life, Baranof left the factory and invested all his {318} savings in the fur trade to the Indians of northern Siberia and Kamchatka. For some years all went well. Baranof invested deeper, borrowing for his ventures. Then the Chukchee Indians swooped down on his caravans, stampeded the pack horses, scuttled the goods, and Baranof was a bankrupt. The rival fur companies on the west coast of America were now engaged in the merry game of cutting each other's throats--literally and without restraint. A strong hand was needed--a hand that could weld the warring elements into one, and push Russian trade far down from Alaska to New Spain, driving off the field those foreigners whose relentless methods--liquor, bludgeon, musket--were demoralizing the Indian sea-otter hunters. Destitute and bankrupt, Baranof was offered one-sixth of the profits to become governor of the chief Russian company. On August 10, 1790, about the same time that John Jacob Astor also embarked in the fur trade that was to bring him in contact with the Russians, Baranof sailed to America. Fifty-two men the ragamuffin crew numbered, exiles, convicts, branded criminals, raggedly clad and ill-fed, sleeping wherever they could on the littered and vermin-infested decks; for what did the lives of a convict crew matter? Below decks was crammed to the waterline with goods for trade. All thought for furs, small care for men; and a few days out from port, the water-casks were found to be leaking so badly that allowance {319} of drinking water was reduced; and before the equinoctial gales, scurvy had already disabled the crew. Baranof did not turn back, nor allow the strong hand of authority to relax over his men as poor Bering had. He ordered all press of sail, and with the winds whistling through the rigging and the little ship straining to the smashing seas, did his best to outspeed disease, sighting the long line of surf-washed Aleutian Islands in September, coasting from headland to headland, keeping well offshore for fear of reefs till the end of the month, when compelled to turn in to the mid-bay of Oonalaska for water. There was no ignoring the danger of the landing. A shore like the walls of a giant rampart with reefs in the teeth of a saw, lashed to a fury by beach combers, offered poor escape from death by scurvy. Nevertheless, Baranof effected anchorage at Koshigin Bay, sent the small boats ashore for water, watched his chance of a seaward breeze, and ran out to sea again in one desperate effort to reach Kadiak, the headquarters of the fur traders, before winter. Outside the shelter of the harbor, wind and seas met the ship. She was driven helpless as a chip in a whirlpool straight for the granite rocks of the shore, where she smashed to pieces like the broken staves of a dry water-barrel. Led by the indomitable Baranof, who seemed to meet the challenge of the very elements, the half-drowned crew crawled ashore only to be ordered to save the cargo now rolling up in the wave wash. {320} When darkness settled over the sea on the last night of September, Baranof was in the same predicament as Bering--a castaway for the winter on a barren island. Instead of sinking under the redoubled blows of an adverse fate, the little Russian rebounded like a rubber ball. A messenger and some Indians were at once despatched in a skin boat to coast from island to island in an effort to get help from Kadiak. Meanwhile Baranof did not sit lamenting with folded hands; and well that he did not; for his messengers never reached Kadiak. Holes were at once scooped out of the sand, and the caves roofed over with the remnants of the wreck. These underground huts on an island destitute of wood were warmer than surface cabins, and better withstood the terrible north winds that swept down from the Arctic with such force that for two months at a time the men could go outside only by crawling under shelter of the boulders. Ammunition was distributed to the fifty castaways; salmon bought from the Indians, whom Baranof's fair treatment won from the first; once a week, rye meal was given out for soup; and for the rest, the men had to depend on the eggs of sea-birds, that flocked over the precipitous shores in myriads, or on the sea-lions roaring till the surf shook on the rocky islets along the shore. If there is one characteristic more than another that proves a man master of destiny, it is ability not only to meet misfortune but to turn it to advantage when it {321} comes. While waiting for the rescue that never came, Baranof studied the language of the Aleuts, sent his men among them to learn to hunt, rode out to sea in their frail skin boats lashed abreast to keep from swamping during storm, slept at night on the beach with no covering but the overturned canoes, and, sharing every hardship, set traps with his own hands. When the weather was too boisterous for hunting, he set his people boiling salt from sea-water to dry supplies of fish for the summer, or replenishing their ragged clothes by making coats of birds' skin. The last week before Easter, provisions were so low the whole crew were compelled to indulge in a Lenten fast; but on Easter Monday, behold a putrid whale thrown ashore by the storm! The fast was followed by a feast. The winds subsided, and hunters brought in sea-lions. It was quite apparent now no help was coming from Kadiak. Baranof had three large boats made of skin and wreckage. One he left with the men, who were to guard the remnants of the cargo. A second he despatched with twenty-six men. In the third he himself embarked, now in a raging fever from the exposure of the winter. A year all but a month from the time he had left Asia, Baranof reached Three Saints, Kadiak, on June 27, 1791. Things were black enough when Baranof landed at Kadiak. The settlement of Three Saints had been depending on the supplies of his wrecked ship; and {322} when he arrived, himself in need, discontent flared to open mutiny. Five different rival companies had demoralized the Indians by supplying them with liquor, and egging them on to raid other traders. Southward, toward Nootka, were hosts of foreign ships--Gray and Kendrick and Ingraham from Boston, Vancouver from England, Meares from East India, Quadra from New Spain, private ventures outfitted by Astor from New York. If Russia were to preserve her hunting-grounds, no time should be lost. Baranof met the difficulties like a commander of guerilla warfare. Brigades were sent eastward to the fishing-ground of Cook's Inlet for supplies. Incipient mutiny was quelled by sending more hunters off with Ismyloff to explore new sea-otter fields in Prince William Sound. As for the foreign fur traders, he conceived the brilliant plan of buying food from them in exchange for Russian furs and of supplying them with brigades of Aleut Island hunters to scour the Pacific for sea-otter from Nootka and the Columbia to southern California. This would not only add to stores of Russian furs, but push Russian dominion southward, and keep other nations off the field. That it was not all plain sailing on a summer day may be inferred from one incident. He had led out a brigade of several hundred canoes, Indians and Russians, to Nuchek Island, off Prince William Sound. Though he had tried to win the friendship of the coast Indians by gifts, it was necessary to steal from point {323} to point at night, and to hide at many places as he coasted the mainland. Throwing up some sort of rough barricade at Nuchek Island, he sent the most of his men off to fish and remained with only sixteen Aleuts and Russians. It was perfectly natural that the Alaskan Indians should resent the Aleuts intruding on the hunting-grounds of the main coast, one thousand miles from the Aleutian Islands. Besides, the mainland Indians had now learned unscrupulous brutality from foreign traders. Baranof knew his danger and never relaxed vigilance. Of the sixteen men, five always stood sentry at night. The night of June 20 was pitch dark. Terrific seas were running, and a tempest raged through the woods of the mainland. For safety, Ismyloff's ship had scudded to the offing. Baranof had undressed, thrown himself down in his cabin, and was in the deep sleep of outdoor exhaustion, when above the howling of the gale, not five steps away, so close it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe in the darkness, arose the shrill war-cry of hostiles. Leaping to his feet, Baranof rushed out undressed. His shirt was torn to shreds by a shower of flint and copper-head arrows. In the dark, the Russians could only fire blindly. The panic-stricken Aleuts dashed for their canoes to escape to Ismyloff's ship. Ismyloff sent armed Russians through the surf wash and storm to Baranof's aid. Baranof kept his small cannon pounding hot shot where the shouts sounded till daylight. Of the sixteen men, two {324} Russians and nine Aleuts were dead. Of the men who came to his aid, fifteen were wounded. The corpses of twelve hostiles lay on the beach; and as gray dawn came over the tempestuous sea, six large war canoes vanished into the morning mist, a long trail of blood over the waves showing that the hostiles were carrying off their wounded. Well might Baranof write, "I will vanquish a cruel fate; or fall under its repeated blows." The most of men would have thought they had sufficient excuse to justify backing out of their difficulties. Baranof locked grapples with the worst that destiny could do; and never once let go. Sometimes the absolute futility of so much striving, so much hardship, so much peril, all for the sake of the crust of bread that represents mere existence, sent him down to black depths of rayless despondency, when he asked himself, was life worth while? But he never let go his grip, his sense of resistance, his impulse to fight the worst, the unshunnable obligation of being alive and going on with the game, succeed or fail. Such fits of despair might end in wild carousals, when he drank every Russian under the table, outshouted the loudest singer, and perhaps wound up by throwing the roomful of revellers out of doors. But he rose from the depths of debauch and despair, and went on with the game. That was the main point. The terrible position to which loss of supplies had reduced the traders of Kadiak when his own vessel {325} was wrecked at Oonalaska on the way out, demonstrated to Baranof the need of more ships; so when orders came from his company in 1793 to construct a sailing boat on the timberless island of Kadiak without iron, without axes, without saw, without tar, without canvas, he was eager to attempt the impossible. Shields, an Englishman, in the employment of Russia, was to act as shipbuilder; and Baranof sent the men assigned for the work up to Sunday Harbor on the west side of Prince William Sound, where heavy forests would supply timber and the tide-rush help to launch the vessel from the skids. There were no saws in the settlement. Planks had to be hewn out of logs. Iron, there was none. The rusty remnants of old wrecks were gathered together for bolts and joints and axes. Spruce gum mixed with blubber oil took the place of oakum and tar below the water-line. Moss and clay were used as calking above water. For sail cloth, there was nothing but shreds and rags and tatters of canvas patched together so that each mast-arm looked like Joseph's coat of many colors. Seventy-nine feet from stem to stern, the crazy craft measured, of twenty-three feet beam, thirteen draught, one hundred tons, two decks, and three masts. All the winter of 1792-1793, just a year after Robert Gray, the American, had built his sloop down at Fort Defence off Vancouver Island, the Russian shipbuilding went on. Then in April, lest the poverty of the Russians should become known to foreign traders, Baranof sent Shields, the English {326} shipbuilder, off out of the way, on an otter-hunting venture. It was August of the next summer before the clumsy craft slipped from the skids into the rising tide. She was so badly ballasted that she bobbled like cork; and her sails so frail they flew to tatters in the gentlest wind; but Russia had accomplished her first ship in America. Bells were set ringing when the _Phoenix_ was towed into the harbor of Kadiak; and when she reached Okhotsk laden with furs to the water-line in April of 1794, enthusiasm knew no bounds. Salvos of artillery thundered over her sails, and mass was chanted, and a polish of paint given to her piebald, rickety sides that transformed her into what the fur company proudly regarded as a frigate. Before the year was out, Baranof had his men at work on two more vessels. There was to be no more crippling of trade for lack of ships. But a more serious matter than shipbuilding demanded Baranof's attention. Rival fur companies were on the ground. Did one party of traders establish a fort on Cook's Inlet? Forthwith came another to a point higher up the inlet, where Indians could be intercepted. There followed warlike raids, the pillaging of each other's forts, the capture of each other's Indian hunters, the utter demoralization of the Indians by each fort forbidding the savages to trade at the other, the flogging and bludgeoning and butchering of those who disobeyed the order--and finally, the forcible abduction of whole villages of women and children to compel the alliance of the hunters. All Baranof's work to {327} pacify the hostiles of the mainland was being undone; and what complicated matters hopelessly for him was the fact that the shareholders of his own company were also shareholders in the rival ventures. Baranof wrote to Siberia for instructions, urging the amalgamation of all the companies in one; but instructions were so long in coming that the fur trade was being utterly bedevilled and the passions of the savages inflamed to a point of danger for every white man on the North Pacific. Affairs were at this pass when Konovalof, the dashing leader of the plunderers, planned to capture Baranof himself, and seize the shipyard at Sunday Harbor, on Prince William Sound. Baranof had one hundred and fifty fighting Russians in his brigades. Should he wait for the delayed instructions from Siberia? While he hesitated, some of the shipbuilders were ambushed in the woods, robbed, beaten, and left half dead. Baranof could not afford to wait. He had no more legal justification for his act than the plunderers had for theirs; but it was a case where a man must step outside law, or be exterminated. Rallying his men round him and taking no one into his confidence, the doughty little Russian sent a formal messenger to Konovalof, the bandit, at his redoubt on Cook's Inlet, pompously summoning him in the name of the governor of Siberia to appear and answer for his misdeeds. To the brigand, the summons was a bolt out of the blue. How was he to know not a word had come from the governor of Siberia, and the summons {328} was sheer bluff? He was so terrorized at the long hand of power reaching across the Pacific to clutch him back to perhaps branding or penal service in Siberia, that he did not even ask to see Baranof's documents. Coming post-haste, he offered explanations, excuses, frightened pleadings. Baranof would have none of him. He clapped the culprit and associates in irons, put them on Ismyloff's vessel, and despatched them for trial to Siberia. That he also seized the furs of his rivals for safe keeping, was a mere detail. The prisoners were, of course, discharged; for Baranof's conduct could no more bear scrutiny than their own; but it was one way to get rid of rivals; and the fur companies at war in the Canadian northwest practised the same method twenty years later. The effect of the bandit outrages on the hostile Indians of the mainland was quickly evident. Baranof realized that if he was to hold the Pacific coast for his company, he must push his hunting brigades east and south toward New Spain. A convict colony, that was to be the nucleus of a second St. Petersburg, was planned to be built under the very shadow of Mount St. Elias. Shields, the Englishman employed by Russia, after bringing back two thousand sea-otter from Bering Bay in 1793, had pushed on down south-eastward to Norfolk Sound or the modern Sitka, where he loaded a second cargo of two thousand sea-otter. A dozen foreign traders had already coasted Alaskan shores, and southward of Norfolk Sound was a flotilla {329} of American fur traders, yearly encroaching closer and closer on the Russian field. All fear of rivalry among the Russians had been removed by the union of the different companies in 1799. Baranof pulled his forces together for the master stroke that was to establish Russian dominion on the Pacific. This was the removal of the capital of Russian America farther south. On the second week of April, 1799, with two vessels, twenty-two Russians, and three hundred and fifty canoes of Aleut fur hunters, Baranof sailed from Prince William Sound for the southeast. Pause was made early in May opposite Kyak--Bering's old landfall--to hunt sea-otter. The sloops hung on the offing, the hunting brigades, led by Baranof in one of the big skin canoes, paddling for the surf wash and kelp fields of the boisterous, rocky coast, which sea-otter frequent in rough weather. Dangers of the hunt never deterred Baranof. The wilder the turmoil of spray and billows, the more sea-otter would be driven to refuge on the kelp fields. Cross tides like a whirlpool ran on this coast when whipped by the winds. Not a sound from the sea-otter hunters! Silently, like sea-birds glorying in the tempest, the canoes bounded from crest to crest of the rolling seas, always taking care not to be caught broadsides by the smashing combers, or swamped between waves in the churning seas. How it happened is not known, but somehow between wind and tide-rip, thirty of the canoes {330} that rode over a billow and swept down to the trough never came up. A flaw of wind had caught the mountain billows; the sixty hunters went under. From where he was, Baranof saw the disaster, saw the terror of the other two hundred men, saw the rising storm, and at a glance measured that it was farther back to the sloops than on towards the dangerous shore. The sea-otter hunt was forgotten in the impending catastrophe to the entire brigade. Signal and shout confused in the thunder of the surf ordered the men to paddle for their lives inshore. Night was coming on. The distance was longer than Baranof had thought, and it was dark before the brigades landed, and the men flung themselves down, totally exhausted, to sleep on the drenched sands. Barely were the hunters asleep when the shout of Kolosh Indians from the forests behind told of ambush. The mainland hostiles resenting this invasion of their hunting-fields, had watched the storm drive the canoes to land. On one side was the tempest, on the other the forest thronged with warriors. The Aleuts lost their heads and dashed for hiding in the woods, only to find certain death. Baranof and the Russians with him fired off their muskets till all powder was used. Then they shouted in the Aleut dialect for the hunters to embark. The sea was the lesser danger. By morning the brigades had joined the sloops on the offing. Thirteen more canoes had been lost in the ambush. {331} Such was the inauspicious introduction for Baranof to the founding of the new Russian fort at Sitka or Norfolk Sound. It was the end of May before the brigades glided into the sheltered, shadowy harbor, where Chirikoff's men had been lost fifty years before. A furious storm of snow and sleet raged over the harbor. When the storm cleared, impenetrable forests were seen to the water-line, and great trunks of trees swirled out to sea. On the ocean side to the west, Mount Edgecumbe towered up a dome of snow. Eastward were the bare heights of Verstovoi; and countless tiny islets gilded by the sun dotted the harbor. Baranof would have selected the site of the present Sitka, high, rocky and secure from attack, but the old Sitkan chief refused to sell it, bartering for glass beads and trinkets a site some miles north of the present town. Half the men were set to hunting and fishing, half to chopping logs for the new fort built in the usual fashion, with high palisades, a main barracks a hundred feet long in the centre, three stories high, with trap-doors connecting each story, cabins and hutches all round the inside of the palisades. Lanterns hung at the masthead of the sloops to recall the brigades each night; for Captain Cleveland, a Boston trader anchored in the harbor, forewarned Baranof of the Indians' treacherous character, more dangerous now when demoralized by the rivalry of white traders, and in possession of the civilized man's weapons. Free distribution of liquor by unscrupulous sea-captains did not mend {332} matters. Cleveland reported that the savages had so often threatened to attack his ship that he no longer permitted them on board; concealing the small number of his crew by screens of hides round the decks, trading only at a wicket with cannon primed and muskets bristling through the hides above the taffrail. He warned Baranof's hunters not to be led off inland bear hunting, for the bear hunt might be a Sitkan Indian in decoy to trap the hunters into an ambush. Such a decoy had almost trapped Cleveland's crew, when other Indians were noticed in ambush. The new fort was christened Archangel. All went well as long as Baranof was on the ground. Sea-otter were obtained for worthless trinkets. Sentries paraded the gateway; so Baranof sailed back to Kadiak. The Kolosh or Sitkan tribes had only bided their time. That sleepy summer day of June, 1802, when the slouchy Siberian convicts were off guard and Baranof two thousand miles away, the Indians fell on the fort and at one fell swoop wiped it out.[1] Up at Kadiak honors were showering on the little governor. Two decorations of nobility he had been given by 1804; but his grief over the loss of Sitka was inconsolable. "I will either die or restore the fort!" he vowed, and with the help of a Russian man-of-war sent round the world, he sailed that summer into Sitka Sound. The Indians scuttled their barricade erected on the site of the present Sitka. Here {333} the fort was rebuilt and renamed New Archangel--a fort worthy in its palmy days of Baranof's most daring ambitions. Sixty Russian officers and eight hundred white families lived within the walls, with a retinue of two or three thousand Indian otter hunters cabined along the beach. There was a shipyard. There was a foundry for the manufacture of the great brass bells sold for chapels in New Spain. There were archbishops, priests, deacons, schools. At the hot springs twenty miles away, hospitals and baths were built. A library and gallery of famous paintings were added to the fort, though Baranof complained it would have been wiser to have physicians for his men. For the rest of Baranof's rule, Sitka became the great rendezvous of vessels trading on the Pacific. Here Baranof held sway like a potentate, serving regal feasts to all visitors with the pomp of a little court, and the barbarity of a wassailing mediaeval lord. But all this was not so much fireworks for display. Baranof had his motive. To the sea-captains who feasted with him and drank themselves torpid under his table, he proposed a plan--he would supply the Aleut hunters for them to hunt on shares as far south as southern California. Always, too, he was an eager buyer of their goods, giving them in exchange seal-skins from the Seal Islands. Boston vessels were the first to enter partnership with Baranof. Later came Astor's captains from New York, taking sealskins in trade for goods supplied to the Russians. {334} How did Baranof, surrounded by hostile Indians, with no servants but Siberian convicts, hold his own single-handed in American wilds? Simply by the power of his fitness, by vigilance that never relaxed, by despotism that was by turns savage and gentle, but always paternal, by the fact that his brain and his brawn were always more than a match for the brain and brawn of all the men under him. To be sure, the liberal measure of seventy-nine lashes was laid on the back of any subordinate showing signs of mutiny, but that did not prevent many such attempts. The most serious was in 1809. From the time that Benyowsky, the Polish adventurer, had sacked the garrison of Kamchatka, Siberian convicts serving in America dreamed of similar exploits. Peasants and officers, a score in number, all convicts from Siberia, had plotted to rise in New Archangel or Sitka, assassinate the governor, seize ships and provisions, and sailing to some of the South Sea Islands, set up an independent government. The signal was to be given when Naplavkof, an officer who was master plotter, happened to be on duty. On such good terms was the despot, Baranof, with his men, that the plot was betrayed to him from half a dozen sources. It did not trouble Baranof. He sent the betrayers a keg of brandy, bade one of them give a signal by breaking out in drunken song, and at the sound himself burst into the roomful of conspirators, sword in hand, {335} followed by half a hundred armed soldiers. The plotters were handcuffed and sent back to Siberia. There was something inexcusably cruel in the termination of Baranof's services with the fur company. He was now over seventy years of age. He was tortured by rheumatism from the long years of exposure in a damp climate. Because he was not of noble birth, though he had received title of nobility, he was subject to insults at the hands of any petty martinet who came out as officer on the Russian vessels. Against these Baranof usually held his own at Sitka, but they carried back to St. Petersburg slanderous charges against his honesty. Twice he had asked to be allowed to resign. Twice successors had been sent from Russia; but one died on the way, and the other was shipwrecked. It was easy for malignant tongues to rouse suspicion that Baranof's desire to resign sprang from interested motives, perhaps from a wish to conceal his own peculations. Though Baranof had annually handled millions of dollars' worth of furs for the Russian Company, at a distance from oversight that might have defied detection in wrong-doing, it was afterwards proved that he had not misused or misappropriated one dime's worth of property; but who was to believe his honesty in the face of false charges? In the fall of 1817 Lieutenant Hagemeister arrived at Sitka to audit the books of the company. Concealing from Baranof the fact that he was to be deposed, {336} Hagemeister spent a year investigating the records. Not a discrepancy was discovered. Baranof, with the opportunity to have made millions, was a poor man. Without explanation, Hagemeister then announced the fact--Baranof was to be retired. Between voluntarily retiring and being retired was all the difference between honor and insult. The news was a blow that crushed Baranof almost to senility. He was found doddering and constantly in tears. Again and again he bade good-by to his old comrades, comrades of revel with noble blood in their veins, comrades of the hunt, pure-blooded Indians, who loved him as a brother, comrades of his idleness, Indian children with whom he had frolicked--but he could not bear to tear himself from the land that was the child of his lifelong efforts. The blow had fallen when he was least able to bear it. His nerve was gone. Of all the Russian wreckages in this cruel new land, surely this wreck was the most pitiable--the maker deposed by the thing he had made, cast out by his child, driven to seek some hidden place where he might die out of sight. An old sea-captain offered him passage round the world to Russia, where his knowledge might still be of service. Service? That was the word! The old war-horse pricked up his ears! Baranof sailed in the fall of 1818. By spring the ship homeward-bound stopped at Batavia. There was some delay. Delay was not good for Baranof. He was ill, deadly ill, of that most deadly of all ailments, heartbreak, {337} consciousness that he was of no more use, what the Indians call "the long sickness of too much thinking." When the vessel put out to sea again, Baranof, too, put to sea, but it was to the boundless sea of eternity. He died on April 16, 1819, and was laid to rest in the arms of the great ocean that had cradled his hopes from the time he left Siberia. To pass judgment on Baranof's life would be a piece of futility. His life, like the lives of all those Pacific coast adventurers, stands or falls by what it was, not what it meant to be; by what it did, not what it left undone; and what Baranof left was an empire half the size of Russia. That his country afterward lost that empire was no fault of his. Like all those Vikings of the North Pacific, he was essentially a man _who did things_, not a theorizer on how things ought to be done, not a slug battening on the things other men have done. They were not anaemic, these old "sea voyagers" of the Pacific, daring death or devil, with the red blood of courage in their veins, and the red blood of a lawless manhood, too. They were not men of milk and water type, with little good and less bad. Neither their virtues nor their vices were lukewarm; but _they did things_, these men; added to the sum total of human effort, human knowledge, human progress. Sordid their motives may have been, sordid as the blacksmith's when he smashes his sledge on the anvil; but from the anvil of their hardships, from the clash of the {338} primordial warfare between the Spirit of the Elements and the Spirit of Man, struck out some sparks of the Divine. There was the courage as dauntless in the teeth of the gale as in the face of death. There was the yearning to know More, to seek it, to follow it over earth's ends, though the quest led to the abyss of a watery grave. What did they want, these fool fellows, following the rushlight of their own desires? That is just it. They didn't know what they sought, but they knew there was something just beyond to be sought, something new to be known; and because Man is Man, they set out on the quest of the unknown, chancing life and death for the sake of a little gain to human progress. It is the spirit of the heroic ages, and to that era belongs the history of the Vikings on the North Pacific. [1] See Chapter XI. INDEX A Adakh Island, Chirikoff at, 51. Admiralty Inlet, explored, 270-271. _Adventure_, first American ship built on Pacific, 233, 234, 238, 325. Alaska, Bering's expedition on coast of, 26 ff.; Chirikoff's arrival at, 50-51; Benyowsky's visit to, 125; Cook explores coast of, 189-194; Gray's trip to, 238; Vancouver's survey of southern coast of, 286-290; Baranof's career in, 318-337. _See_ Sitka. Aleutian Islands, Bering's voyage of discovery among, 26-41; sea-otter's habitat on, 42, 53, 56, 63, 66-67, 69-70, 82-83; fur hunters of the, 67-78, 81-84, 321-323, 328-330. Aleut Indians, as otter-hunters, 69-78; harsh treatment of, by Russians, 79, 8l-88; Russian hunters massacred by, 91-95, 100-104; punishment of, 105; in Sitka massacre, 307-310, 332; accompany Baranof on voyage of vengeance, 311-314; with Baranof in Prince William Sound, 322 ff. Alexander Archipelago, Chirikoff in the, 46-52. Alexis, Aleut Indian boy hostage, 98, 99, 102. Anderson, Dr., with Cook, 193. Anian, Straits of, 9, 279 n. Anton, Juan de, captain of _Glory of the South Seas_, 158 n. Apraxin, Count, 8 n. Archangel Michael, modern Sitka once named, 306; founding of, by Baranof, 306, 331-332; massacre at, 307-310, 332. Arguello, Don Joseph, 241. Aricara, Drake at, 155. Astor, John Jacob, 65, 212, 303, 318, 322, 333. Athabasca Lake, attempt to identify, with Northwest Passage, 174, 175. Atka, otter grounds at, 69. Atto, Hawaiian boy, 229, 233, 240. Attoo, village in, destroyed by Russian fur hunters, 83. Auteroche, Chappe d', cited, 295. Avacha Bay, Bering at, 17, 19, 23; survivors of Bering expedition return to, 59-60; vessels of Cook's expedition at, 208. B Baker, lieutenant in Vancouver's expedition, 266, 270. Baker, Mount, 270. Balboa, 134, 144. Baltimore, Benyowsky visits, 127. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, cited, 241, 290, 295. Baranof, Alexander, governor of Russian American Fur Company, 67, 167 n., 288, 301, 304, 306, 310; character of, 316-317; personal appearance of, 317; early career of, 317-318; sails to America (1790), 318; wrecked on Oonalaska, 319-320; builds boat and reaches Kadiak, 321; defeats hostile Indians at Nuchek Island, 323-324; establishes fort at Sitka, 331; loses fort by Sitka massacre, but rebuilds and founds New Archangel (modern Sitka), 332-333; in old age deposed from governorship, 335-336; death of, 337. Baranof Castle, Sitka, 301. Barber, Captain, at Sitka, 310. Barclay, English sea-captain, 224, 227, 254, 264, 272. Barnes, sailor with Gray, 230. Barrell, Joseph, 211, 215, 229, 241. Bassof, otter hunter, 82-83. Begg, cited, 290 n. Behm, Major, 196, 208. Behm Canal, 286. Benyowsky, Mauritius, Polish exile to Kamchatka, 108-110; career of, at Bolcheresk, 113-122; escapes to sea on pirate cruise, 122; meets Ochotyn at Bering Island, 123-124; visits Alaska, 125; adventures of, in Luzon, Formosa, and China, 126-127; holds French commission in Madagascar, 137; returns to Europe, goes to Baltimore, and is sent on filibustering expedition to Madagascar, 127; death of, 127-128; authorities for, 128 n. Berg, cited, 11 n., 22 n., 129, 295. Bering, Anna, 8 n. Bering, Jonas, 8 n. Bering, Thomas, 22 n. Bering, Unos, 22. Bering, Vitus Ivanovich, birth and early history of, 8; commissioned by Peter the Great to explore waters between Russia and America, 8-10; first expedition of (1725-1730), 10-12; second expedition undertaken by, 12; difficulties of, with scientists about "Gamaland," 13-15, 19, 22, 24; arrival of expedition of, at Okhotsk, 16; start of, from Avacha Bay, Kamchatka (1741), 17; cruise of, in _St. Peter_, 22-45; landfall at Kyak Island, 26-27, 47 n.; Mt. St. Elias discovered by, 26; exploration of coast of Alaskan peninsula by, 28-36; forced to winter at Commander Islands, 35-36; death of, 54; summary of work of, 55-56, 61; conclusions of, rejected by scientists, 172-173; mentioned in connection with other explorers, 183, 184 n., 239, 263, 264; Cook verifies conclusions of, 189-194. Bering Bay, 288. Bering Island, 37-45, 97, 123-124, 300, 315. Betshevin, Siberian merchant, 84, 87. Bidarkas, fur hunters' boats, 67. Billings, Joseph, 254, 258, 259-261. Boit, John, 230. Bolcheresk, capital of Kamchatka, 113-114; description of, 114; Benyowsky's career at, 114-122. Boston, interest at, in Gray's expeditions, 215-216, 229-230, 240-241. "Bostons" (_Bostonnais_), Indians call all Americans, 210. Brazil, Drake's lost sailors in, 152. Bristol Bay, 193. Broughton, Lieutenant, 266, 271, 279, 280, 281; _Voyage_ by, cited, 295 n. Brown, Samuel, of Boston, 211, 229. Brown, Dr. William, Ledyard travels with, 258-259. Bulfinch, Charles, 211, 212; daughter of, named "Columbia," 240. Bulfinch, Dr., of Boston, 211, 241. Burney, _Voyages_ by, 295 n. Burrard Inlet, 273. Burroughs, John, cited, 72 n. Bute Inlet, 274. C California, Drake's visit to, 160-165, 169-171; Vancouver's visit to, 281-282; Russian American Fur Company in, 315. _California_, vessel for exploration, 174. Callao, Drake sacks, 155-156. Campbell, Dr., quoted, 172-173. Cannibals, Cook's stay among, 187; on Portland Canal, 230. Cape Adams, 280. Cape Addington, 46. Cape Disappointment, 224, 235, 267, 269, 279, 280. Cape Douglas, 191. Cape Elizabeth, 191. Cape Flattery, 185, 223, 224, 235, 270. Cape Foulweather, 184. Cape Gregory, 184. Cape Horn, Drake discovers, 153; Gray expedition rounds, 216-217. Cape Khitroff, 41. Cape Lookout, 219. Cape Meares, 224. Cape Perpetua, 184. Cape Prince of Wales, 193, 208. Captain Harbor, 300; Drusenin at, 89; Ledyard's arrival at, 250. Carder, Peter, 152 n. Cartier, Jacques, 272. Caswell, Joshua, 230. Catherine, Empress, 7. Chaplin, Peter, 11 n. _Chatham_, Lieutenant Broughton commands, in Vancouver cruise, 266. Chesterfield Inlet, 174-175. Chinook, Indian village, 281. Chirikoff, Alexei, Bering's second in command, 11, 13, 18, 19, 20, 60; cruise of, in the _St. Paul_, 45-53. Christopher, Captain, 175. _Christopher_, Drake's vessel, 147. Christy, Silver Map of, 168. Chukchee Indians, 5, 9, 193, 194, 318. Clayoquot, Gray at, 227, 232-234. Clerke, Captain, 181, 203, 206, 207, 208; death of, 209. Cleveland, Captain, Boston trader, 295, 331-332. Collectors of tribute, Cossack, 5, 107, 294-296, 299. _Columbia_, vessel commanded by Captain Kendrick, on cruise to Pacific, 212-213, 215; Gray in command of, 228, 268-269. Columbia River, Meares searches for, 224; Vancouver misses, 235, 267-268; Heceta quoted regarding, 235-236; Gray discovers and names, 236-238, 241, 268, 269; Broughton's trip up, 280. Commander Islands, Bering expedition at, 37-45, 61; sea-otter found on, 67, 76. Cook, Captain James, 19, 64 n., 78, 127, 128 n., 161, 168, 222, 226, 263, 264, 265; boyhood and youth of, 176-177; seaman on Newcastle coaler, 177; enters Royal Navy, 178-180; before Quebec with Wolfe, 180; sent by Royal Society on voyage to South Seas (1768-1771), 180-181; makes voyage round the world, 181; starts on historic voyage of discovery and exploration, 181; John Ledyard's connection with expedition of, 181-182, 247; terms of secret commission of, 182-183; Drake's "New Albion" sighted by, 184; misses Straits of Fuca, 184-185; anchors at Nootka, 186; visits Kyak Island, 189; in Prince William Sound, 190-191; explores Cook's Inlet, 191-192; sails along coast of Alaska to Cape Prince of Wales, and crosses Bering Strait to Siberia, 193; verifies Bering's conclusions, 193-194; explores Norton Sound, 195; stops at Oonalaska, 195-196; returns to Sandwich Islands to winter, 196-197; friendly reception of, by Hawaiians, 197-199; sailors of, abuse hospitality of natives, 199-200; difficulties of, over boat stolen by natives, 203; brave stand taken by, and death of, 203-205; authorities for, 209 n.; account of voyage of, leads to sending out of Robert Gray, 211; Gray's work and its results compared with those of, 239-240. Cook's Inlet, sea-otter in, 66-67, 68, 69, 79; explored by Cook, 189-192; Vancouver's survey of, 287-288; Russian fur traders' doings in, 326-327. Coolidge, Davis, 214, 230. Copper Island, 44, 97, 315. Coquimbo, Drake at, 154. Cortés, 133-134. Coxe, William, cited, 61, 82, 105, 295. Crowning of Drake by Indians, 164. D _Daedalus_, Vancouver's supply ship, 266, 282; seized by Sandwich Islanders and two officers murdered, 284. Da Gama, Vasco, 134. Dall, cited, 11 n., 295. Dartmouth College, courses for missionaries at, 244-245. Davidson, Dr. George, x, 47 n., 162 n., 168, 290 n. Davidson, George, member of Gray's second expedition, 230, 240, 241. Dawson, cited, 290 n. Dementieff, Abraham, 47-48. Derby, John, 211, 229. Derby Sound, 228. Deshneff, explorer, vii, 296. Deshon, Captain, 253-254. _Discovery_, Vancouver's ship, 266; on rocks in Straits of Fuca, 275; Hawaiian girls onboard of, 284-285. _Discovery_, vessel commanded by Captain Clerke, in Cook's voyage, 181. D'Isles, the, geographers, 19, 20, 52. Distress Cove, 228. Dixon, George, 78, 209, 227, 254, 290 n. Dobbs, patron of exploration, 174. _Dobbs_, vessel for exploration, 174. Doughty, Thomas, 147; trial and execution of, 148-149, 168. Douglas, Captain, 223-226. _Dragon_, Drake's vessel, 140. Drake, Francis, family and boyhood of, 139; with Hawkins in West Indies, 139; cruises Spanish Main (1570-1573), 140-141; seizes one million pounds in silver from Spanish at Nombre de Dios, 141-142; first views Pacific Ocean, 143-144; attacks gold train at Venta Cruz, 144-145; returns to England, 146; Queen Elizabeth and, 146; starts on historic cruise (1577), 147; Doughty's trial and execution, 148-149, 168; enters Pacific through Straits of Magellan, 150; driven south by storm, 151-153; discovers Cape Horn, 153; piratical voyage of, up South American coast, 153-155; captures _Glory of the South Seas_, 158; plans to return home by Northeast Passage, 158-159; landfall north of California, 159-161, 168; gives up idea of Northeast Passage, 161; visits California, 161-162, 169; welcomed by Indians, 162-163, 169-170; crowning of, 164; calls region "New Albion," 164; returns to England around Cape of Good Hope (1580), 165; subsequent career of, 166; death and burial of, 166-167, 171; authorities for, 167 n. Drake, John, 141, 142, 157. Drake's Bay, 162, 281. Drusenin, Alexei, otter hunter, 81, 84; winters at Oonalaska, 88-91; murdered by natives, 91-92. E East Cape, 195, 208-209. _Elizabeth_, Drake's vessel, 147, 148; returns to England, 152. Elizabeth, Queen, and Drake, 146. Elliott, cited, 72 n., 295. Ellis, explorer, 174-175. Equator, rites on crossing, 182, 216. Eskimo Indians, Russian explorers hear about, 6. _See_ Aleut _and_ Kolosh Indians. F Fages, Don Pedro, cited, 241. Fairweather Mountains, 189. Fletcher, Francis, Drake's chaplain, 149, 154 n., 167; chronicle of, quoted, 161, 165, 167 n.-171 n. Foggy Island (Ukamok), 29, 192. Folger, sailor with Gray, 230. Formosa, Benyowsky in, 127. Fort Defence, 233, 325. Franklin, Benjamin, Benyowsky's meeting with, 128 n. Fraser River, Vancouver misses discovering, 272-273. Friendly Cove, 276, 278. Frobisher, Martin, 159. Fuca, Juan de, 173, 174, 184, 264, 272; account of legend of, concerning Northeast Passage, 275 n. Fuca Straits. _See_ Straits of Fuca. G Galiano, Don, 272-273. Gama, John de, 6 n. Gamaland, mythical continent, 6, 9, 168, 173; Bering's conclusion concerning non-existence of, 12, 18; on D'Isles' map, 19; Bering's second voyage in search of, 22-23; search for, relinquished, 24-25; Cook demolishes myth of, 181. Garret, John, 141. _Glory of the South Seas_, Spanish galleon, 155, 156, 157; captured by Drake, 158. Glottoff, Stephen, 88, 96; Korovin rescued by, 104. Gmelin, scientist, 14 n., 295 n. _Golden Hind_, Drake renames the _Pelican_ the, 150; cruise on the Pacific in, 151-165; end of, 166. Gore, Cook's lieutenant, 190. Gorelin, Russian sailor, 87, 91 n. Gray, Robert, character of, 213; sent by Boston merchants on fur-trading voyage to the Pacific coast, 213-214; departure of, from Boston (October, 1787), 215-216; rounds Cape Horn and reaches Drake's "New Albion," 216-218; adventures of, in Tillamook Bay, 219-222; sails to Nootka, 222-223; meets Captains Meares and Douglas, 223-225; in spring explores Straits of Fuca, 227, 235; takes cargo of furs to China and returns to Boston (August, 1790), 228-229; leaves Boston on second voyage (September, 1790), 230; winters at Clayoquot (1791-1792), 232-234; builds sloop _Adventure_, 233, 234, 325; meets Vancouver expedition, 235, 268-270; discovers and names Columbia River (May, 1792), 236-238, 241, 268, 269; goes to China and returns to Boston (July, 1793), 238; death of, 238; place of, among discoverers, 238-240; authorities for, 240 n.; later mention of, 264, 272, 286, 322; Lieutenant Broughton's view of explorations of, 280. Gray's Harbor, 236, 241. Greenhow, cited, 241, 290, 295. Guatalco, Drake stops at, 159. Gulf of Georgia, 271. Gvozdef, discoverer, 12 n. H Hagemeister, Lieutenant, 335-336. Hall, Sir James, and Ledyard, 256. Hancock, Clayoquot renamed, 227. Hancock, Governor, 229. Harriman Expedition, the, 72 n. Haskins, member of Gray's second expedition, 230. Haswell, Robert, in Gray's expeditions, 214, 216, 220-222, 228, 230, 234, 240, 241. Hatch, Captain Crowell, 211. Hawkins, Sir John, 135-139, 166. Hearne, Samuel, 174, 175, 181. Heceta, Captain Bruno, 219, 241; quoted regarding Columbia River, 235-236. Henriquez, Don Martin, 136. Hoffman, German exile, 108-111. Hood Canal, explored, 270-271. Howe, Richard, accountant in Gray's expedition, 214. Howe's Sound, 274. I Icy Cape, Cook names, 195. Inalook Island, 90. Indians, Californian, and Drake, 162-165, 169-171. Ingraham, Joseph, 214, 230, 240, 322. Isle, Louis la Croyére de l', 19, 20, 209; death of, 52. Isle of Pinos, 141. Ismyloff, Russian trader-spy, 118, 119, 122, 123, 124, 127, 128 n.; Cook meets, 196; treacherous letters of, 208; Ledyard's encounters with, 251, 253, 258, 260-261; in service of Russian American Fur Company, under Baranof, 322, 323. J Japan, charted by Martin Spanberg, 18; laws to protect the sea-otter moved by, 67; Benyowsky's adventures in, 126-127. Jefferson, Thomas, Ledyard and, 255, 261-262. Jervis Canal, 274. Johnstone, with Vancouver, 266, 271, 273, 275. Jokai, Maurus, Benyowsky's life told by, 127. Jones, Paul, and Ledyard, 255. Juan Fernandez, _Columbia_ repaired at, 217. K Kadiak Indians in California, 315. Kadiak Island, otter-hunting headquarters, 69, 79; Ochotyn at, 124; Benyowsky visits, 125; Baranof at, 321-329. Kakooa, Sandwich Islands, 203, 206. Kalekhta, Aleutian village, 90, 94. Kamchatka, Bering sails from, 11; Benyowsky in, 113-122. Karakakooa Bay, Cook at, 197-205. Kendrick, Captain John, 213, 214, 216, 217, 225, 226, 228, 229, 264, 272, 322; adventures of, on Queen Charlotte Island, 230-232; death of, 238. Kendrick, Solomon, murdered, 232. Khitroff, in Bering expedition, 26-27, 30-31, 36. King, Captain, with Cook, 128 n., 186, 192, 198, 200, 203, 206. Koah, Hawaiian priest, 198, 206, 207. Kohl, J. G., cited, 168, 295. Kolosh Indians, massacre by, 307-310, 332; Baranof's encounter with, 330. Konovalof, bandit, 327-328. Korelin, companion of Drusenin, 90-91, 92, 94. Korovin, Ivan, 88, 96; experiences of, at Oonalaska, 97-105. Koshigin Bay, 319. Kotches, Russian boats, 295-296, 297. Kotzebue, dramatist, takes Benyowsky for a subject, 127. Kotzebue, Otto von, works by, 295. Kowrowa, Sandwich Islands, 197, 203. Kracheninnikof, cited, 295. Krusenstern, Lieutenant, 295, 311. Kyacks, Eskimo boats, 68. Kyak Island, Bering's landfall, 26-27, 47 n.; Cook at, 189; Baranof at, 329-330. L _Lady Washington_, the, Gray sails on, to Pacific coast, 213-219; Captain Kendrick in command of, 228; last mention of, 238. Langsdorff, cited, 295. La Salle, vii, 60. Lauridsen, Peter, authority on Bering, 12 n., 61 n. La Vérendrye, vii, 7, 19, 60, 177. Ledyard, Dr., 243 n. Ledyard, John, corporal of marines with Cook, 181-182, 195-196, 200, 203, 205, 247-252; authority for Cook's voyage, 209 n.; early career of, 242-244; authorities for life of, 243 n., 262 n.; student at Dartmouth College, 245; works his way to England, 245-246; experiences of, in London, 246-247; on return of Cook expedition sent to fight against United States, 252; returns to Groton and deserts from British navy, 252-253; borrows money, goes to Paris, and meets Paul Jones and Thomas Jefferson, 254-255; in England, 256; walks fourteen hundred miles from Stockholm around Baltic Sea to St. Petersburg, 257-258; accompanies Dr. Brown three thousand miles into Siberia, 258-259; joins Joseph Billings' expedition and reaches Lena River, 260; arrested as a French spy, carried back to St. Petersburg, and expelled from the country, 260-261; reaches London and is sent to discover source of Nile, 261-262; dies at Cairo, 262. Lewis and Clark expedition, 60-61; John Ledyard's influence on, 242, 255, 262. Lincoln, General, of Boston, 229. Lisiansky, Captain, 295, 311, 313. Lok, Michael, 275 n. Lopez, Marcus, 216, 220; murder of, by Indians, 221. Lynn Canal, Vancouver's survey of, 288. M Macao, Benyowsky in, 127, 128. Macfie, _Vancouver Island_ by, 295 n. Mackenzie, Alexander, 219. Madagascar, Benyowsky's adventures and death in, 127. Magellan, explorer, 134-135. Magellan, Hyacinth de, 128 n. Makushin Volcano, 86, 96-97, 105 n. Maquinna, Indian chief, 276, 277-278. Marquette, Père, vii, 7. Martin, _Hudson's Bay Territories_ by, 295 n. Martinez, Don Joseph, 227. _Marygold_, Drake's vessel, 147, 148; loss of, 151-152. Massacre, of Russians at Oonalaska and Oomnak, 100-105; the Sitka, 307-310, 332. Mayne, cited, 290 n. Meares, English sea-captain, 223-226, 227, 235, 254, 264, 267, 272, 273, 322. _Meares' Voyages_, cited, 290 n. Medals, the Drake, 168; of Gray expedition, 215, 241. Medvedeff, Denis, 88, 96, 97-98; murder of, 104. Medvednikoff, commander at Sitka, 308. Menzies, 235, 266, 269, 271. _Mercury_, Cook on the, 180. Michael, Kolosh chief, 308, 310. Middleton, Captain, 174. Morai, the, Hawaiian burying-place, 198, 201, 202. Morris, Robert, and Ledyard, 254. Motley, John Lothrop, cited, 4 n. Mottley, John, cited, 4 n. Mount Baker, 270. Mount Edgecumbe, 46-47, 189, 331. Mount Hood, 280. Mount Olympus, 235. Mount St. Elias, 26, 189. Müller, S., scientist, 12 n., 14 n.; cited, 32, 61, 295. Murderers' Harbor, 222. N Naplavkof, conspirator, 334-335. New Albion, Drake's, 164, 173, 182, 183, 184; Gray expedition off, 218; Vancouver's expedition sights, 267; Vancouver takes possession of, 271. New Archangel, modern Sitka, 314, 333. New Zealand, explored by Cook, 181. Nicholson, William, edits Benyowsky's memoirs, 128 n. Nilow, governor of Kamchatka, 116-120. Nombre de Dios, storehouse of New Spain, 140; Drake's raid, 141-142. Nootka, Cook's vessels at, 186-189, 248; Gray at, 223-227, 232, 238; Vancouver's conference with Spanish at, 276-279. Nootka Indians, Cook visits, 185-189. Nordenskjöld, explorer, 209 n., 295 n. Norfolk Sound. _See_ Sitka Sound. Northeast Passage, the, 158-159, 172; Drake's conclusions regarding, 161; Parliament offers reward for discovery of, 174; English agitation over, 174-175, 181; Cook's efforts to discover, 182-196; Captain Clerke decides there is no, 209; Vancouver's attitude on question of, 265-266; Vancouver proves the non-existence of, 275, 286-290; the Fuca legend concerning, 275 n. _Northwest-America_, launching of, 223; seized by Spanish, 228. Norton, Moses, 175. Norton Sound, Cook explores, 195. Nuchek Island, Baranof at, 322-324. Nutting, Gray's astronomer, 214. O Ochotyn, Saxon exile, 123-124. Ofzyn, Bering's lieutenant, 36, 38, 40. Okhotsk, Bering's expedition at, 16. Olympus, Mount, 235. Olympus Range, 222-223, 268. Oomnak Island, 84-85; sulphur at, 92; sea-otter on, 98; Korovin's adventures at, 102-103; Medvedeff and crew massacred at, 104. Oonalaska, otter-hunting headquarters, 69, 79, 82, 98; sulphur at, 92, 103; Korovin's experiences at, 98-101; Cook at, 195-196; Ledyard's visit to, with Cook, 250-253. _Oregon and California_, Greenhow's, 241. _Oregon and Eldorado_, Bulfinch's, 241. Oxenham, with Drake, 142. P _Pacha_, Drake's vessel, 141. Pacific Company, 212. _See_ Astor. Pallas, _Northern Settlements_ by, 295 n. Palliser, Sir Hugh, 179. Pareea, Hawaiian chief, 198, 203. _Pelican_, Drake's vessel, 147, 148; renamed _Golden Hind_, 150. Perpheela, Ledyard's guide, 249. "Peso," defined, 154 n. Peter the Great, 4-10; analogy between Cook and, 176. Petroff, Ivan, cited, 105 n., 295. Philippine Islands, Benyowsky's visit to, 126; Drake passes by, 165. Phillips, marine with Cook, 204-205. _Phoenix_, Baranof builds, 326. Pickersgill, explorer, 175. Pilcher, sailor with Drake, 152 n. Pintard, John Marden, 211, 229. Pissarjeff, Major-General, 16. Pizarro, Francisco, 134. Pleneser, artist, 41. Point Breakers, 185. Point Possession, 271. Point Turn-Again, 192. Porter, Rev. E. G., lecture by, 241. Portland Canal, 228; Gray sails up, 230; Vancouver's exploration of, 286. Portlock, J. E., 78, 209 n., 254, 290 n. Port St. Julian, Doughty executed at, 147-149. Prince of Wales, Cape, 193, 208. Prince of Wales Island, 228. Prince William Sound, sea-otter in, 66; named by Cook, 191; Russian settlements on, 287, 306, 322-329. Prybiloff Islands, otter and seal found on, 79. Puget, Peter, 235, 266, 269, 271, 273, 277, 282. Puget Sound, explored, 270-271, 273. _Purchas' Pilgrims_, cited, 152, 167, 275. Pushkareff, Sergeant, 84-88. Q Quadra, Don, 238, 240, 273, 322; Vancouver's conference with, 277-279. Quebec, Cook with Wolfe at, 180. Queen Charlotte Island, discovered, 227; Captain Kendrick at, 230-232. R Radisson, vii, 7, 239. _Resolution_, Cook's ship, 181-209. Reward offered by Parliament for discovery of Northeast Passage, 174. Rezanoff, Nikolai, 306, 311, 314-315. _Robert Anne_, Benyowsky's vessel, 127. Roberts, Gray's surgeon, 214, 216. Ross, Russian California colony, 315. Russian American Fur Company, 67, 128 n.; chartered, 306; early vicissitudes of, 307-314; at New Archangel (Sitka), 314; in California, 315. _See_ Baranof. Ryumin, Ivan, Russian account of Benyowsky by, 129. S Saanach coast, sea-otter on, 69. St. Lawrence Island, 11, 12. _St. Paul_, Bering's vessel, 17; Chirikoff in command of, 20, 22, 24 ff., 60; voyage of, 45-53. _St. Peter_, Bering's vessel, 17, 20, 23 ff.; wreck of, 44-45. _St. Peter_, the second, 58-59. _St. Peter and Paul_, the, 113, 117; Benyowsky's cruise in, 122-126. Sands, Mr., of New York, 254. Sandwich Islands, Cook's visit to and death at, 196-205; Gray stops at, 228-229; conduct of fur traders who visited, 283-284; Vancouver's actions at, 284-285. San Francisco, Vancouver at, 281-282. Sauer, cited, 27, 260, 295. Savelief, Sidor, 48. Sea cows, 41, 53. Seals, 42, 56-57, 67. Sea-otter, 42, 53, 56; habitat of, on Aleutian Islands, 63, 66-67, 82-83; Bering's men reap a fortune from, 63-64, 79; influence of, on exploration of North Pacific, 65; description of, 65-66; methods of hunting the, 67-78; prices commanded for fur of, 76; figures of numbers killed, 79; the early hunters of, 80-105; Cook's trade in, 187; Gray's bargain, 228. Selkirk, Lord, 303. Serdze Kamen, 12 n., 195. Seymour, Henry, 243. Shelikoff, Gregory Ivanovich, 303-306, 315. Shelikoff, Natalie, 304. Shevyrin, with Drusenin, 92-97. Shields, English shipbuilder with Baranof, 325-326, 328. Shumagin Islands, 30, 192. Silva, Nuno, Drake's pilot, 159, 167 n. Silver Map of the World, 168. Simpson, _Voyage Round World_ by, 295 n. Sitka, Indians massacre Russians at, 50 n., 307-310, 332; as capital of Russian America, called Archangel Michael, 306; Russian American Fur Company founds New Archangel on site of, 314, 333; Baranof's career at, 330-336. Sitka Sound, Chirikoff in, 46-52; sea-otter in, 66, 79; Vancouver ends his explorations at, 289. Snug Cove, 186, 276. Society Islands, Cook's first visit to, 180-181; second visit, 182. Solovieff, Cossack hunter, 105. South Seas, Cook's voyage to, 180-181. Spanberg, Martin, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 21. Sparks, Jared, _Life of Ledyard_ by, 243 n., 262 n. Staduchin, explorer, 296. Stejneger, Dr. Leo, x, 41 n., 72 n., 295 n. Steller, George William, 14 n., 20, 23, 25, 26-27, 30, 33, 38-40, 41, 42, 53-55, 60. Steller's Arch, 39. Stephanow, Hippolite, 108, 110, 125, 127. Straits of Fuca, Cook's conclusion as to non-existence of, 185, 222, 264; Gray sails near, 223; Gray explores, 227, 235, 269; Vancouver's arrival at and exploration of, 268-270, 273-275. Straits of Magellan, 135; Drake's passage of, 150. Sulphur at Oonalaska, 92, 103. Sunday Harbor, 325. _Swan_, Drake's vessel, 140, 141, 147. T _Taboo_, the, 198. Tarapaca, Drake calls at, 154-155. Terreeoboo, King, 197-206. Texeira, map-maker, 6 n. Three Saints, Kadiak, Baranof's arrival at, 321-322. Tillamook Bay, _Lady Washington_ in, 219-222. Toledo, Don Francisco de, 155-156. Treat, fur trader in Gray's expedition, 214. Tribute collectors, Cossack, 5, 107, 114, 294-296, 299. U Ukamok (Foggy Island), 29. V Valdes, Don, 272-273. Valparaiso, Drake's raid on, 153-154. Vancouver, George, vii, 105, 161; midshipman with Cook, 181, 198; authority on Cook's voyage, 209 n.; meeting with Gray, 235, 268-270; Gray contrasted with, 239-240; as captain in British navy, sent to explore Pacific coast of America, 265; ideas on Northeast Passage question, 265-266; sights Drake's "New Albion," 267; misses Columbia River, 267-268, 235; explores Puget Sound, 270-272; misses Fraser River, 272; explores Straits of Fuca, 272-275; arrives at Nootka, 276; confers with Spanish representative, 277-279; sails to Columbia River, 279-280; visits California, 281-282; winters at Sandwich Islands (1792-1793), 283-285; acts of injustice and justice at, 284-285; returns to American coast and surveys Portland Canal, 286-287; in 1794 surveys Cook's Inlet, 287-289; work of, results in explosion of theory of Northeast Passage, 289-290; authorities for, 290 n. Vancouver Island, 228, 278. _Vega_, the, 209 n., 295 n. Veniaminof, _Letters on Aleutians_ by, 295 n. Venta Cruz, Drake at, 141-145. Vera Cruz, Hawkins and Drake _vs_. the Spanish at, 135-138. Vérendrye. _See_ La Vérendrye. _Voyage to the Pacific Ocean_, Cook's, 209 n. W Walrus, the Pacific, 73; Cook's men hunt, 194-195. Waters, Abraham, 230. Waxel, Lieutenant, 20, 24-25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35-36, 37-38, 41, 42, 57-58, 60. Williams, Orlando, cited, 4 n. Woodruff, mate in Gray's expedition, 214, 216. _World Encompassed, The_, by Francis Fletcher, 167 n.-171 n. Y Yakutat Bay, sea-otter in, 66, 79. Yakutsk, Bering's second expedition winters at, 15; fur traders' rendezvous near, 107, 259; Ledyard's arrival at, 259. Yelagin, Chirikoff's pilot, 52. Yendell, Samuel, 230. Yermac, Cossack robber, 294. Yukon, Russian traders on the, 314, 315. Z Zarate, Don Francisco de, quoted regarding Drake, 150 n. 
21733	----	The Giant of the North, or, Pokings Round The Pole, by R.M. Ballantyne. ________________________________________________________________________ Robert Michael Ballantyne was born in 1825 and died in 1894. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and in 1841 he became a clerk with the Hudson Bay Company, working at the Red River Settlement in Northen Canada until 1847, arriving back in Edinburgh in 1848. The letters he had written home were very amusing in their description of backwoods life, and his family publishing connections suggested that he should construct a book based on these letters. Three of his most enduring books were written over the next decade, "The Young Fur Traders", "Ungava", "The Hudson Bay Company", and were based on his experiences with the H.B.C. In this period he also wrote "The Coral island" and "Martin Rattler", both of these taking place in places never visited by Ballantyne. Having been chided for small mistakes he made in these books, he resolved always to visit the places he wrote about. With these books he became known as a great master of literature intended for teenagers. He researched the Cornish Mines, the London Fire Brigade, the Postal Service, the Railways, the laying down of submarine telegraph cables, the construction of light-houses, the light-ship service, the life-boat service, South Africa, Norway, the North Sea fishing fleet, ballooning, deep-sea diving, Algiers, and many more, experiencing the lives of the men and women in these settings by living with them for weeks and months at a time, and he lived as they lived. He was a very true-to-life author, depicting the often squalid scenes he encountered with great care and attention to detail. His young readers looked forward eagerly to his next books, and through the 1860s and 1870s there was a flow of books from his pen, sometimes four in a year, all very good reading. The rate of production diminished in the last ten or fifteen years of his life, but the quality never failed. He published over ninety books under his own name, and a few books for very young children under the pseudonym "Comus". For today's taste his books are perhaps a little too religious, and what we would nowadays call "pi". In part that was the way people wrote in those days, but more important was the fact that in his days at the Red River Settlement, in the wilds of Canada, he had been a little dissolute, and he did not want his young readers to be unmindful of how they ought to behave, as he felt he had been. Some of his books were quite short, little over 100 pages. These books formed a series intended for the children of poorer parents, having less pocket-money. These books are particularly well-written and researched, because he wanted that readership to get the very best possible for their money. They were published as six series, three books in each series. While Ballantyne had some acqaintance with the Eskimo during his years with the Hudson Bay Company, this book runs a little into the fantastical. The head of the family who are the heroes of the book has the belief that there is a sea of ever-warm water surrounding the North Pole, and that there are islands there abounding in animal life, and colonised by the Eskimos. The plan is to visit these islands, and stand upon the actual North Pole, which they find to be a low eminence near to the hut of a descendant of a seaman of the original Hudson expedition in 1611. The story is very well-told, and you find yourself almost believing the Captain's logic. The tension is maintained right up to the last chapter, so much so that we do not learn whether the family, who have by this time all become endeared to us, ever get home to England, and what the father and mother of the Captain's nephews have to say about their sons' adventures. Created as an e-Text by Nick Hodson, August 2003. ________________________________________________________________________ THE GIANT OF THE NORTH, OR, POKINGS ROUND THE POLE, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE. CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCES OUR HERO AND HIS KINDRED. The Giant was an Eskimo of the Arctic regions. At the beginning of his career he was known among his kindred by the name of Skreekinbroot, or the howler, because he howled oftener and more furiously than any infant that had ever been born in Arctic land. His proper name, however, was Chingatok, though his familiars still ventured occasionally to style him Skreekinbroot. Now it must not be supposed that our giant was one of those ridiculous myths of the nursery, with monstrous heads and savage hearts, who live on human flesh, and finally receive their deserts at the hands of famous giant-killing Jacks. No! Chingatok was a real man of moderate size-- not more than seven feet two in his sealskin boots--with a lithe, handsome figure, immense chest and shoulders, a gentle disposition, and a fine, though flattish countenance, which was sometimes grave with thought, at other times rippling with fun. We mention the howling characteristic of his babyhood because it was, in early life, the only indication of the grand spirit that dwelt within him--the solitary evidence of the tremendous energy with which he was endowed. At first he was no bigger than an ordinary infant. He was, perhaps, a little fatter, but _not_ larger, and there was not an oily man or woman of the tribe to which he belonged who would have noticed anything peculiar about him if he had only kept moderately quiet; but this he would not or could not do. His mouth was his safety-valve. His spirit seemed to have been born big at once. It was far too large for his infant body, and could only find relief from the little plump dwelling in which it was at first enshrined by rushing out at the mouth. The shrieks of pigs were trifles to the yelling of that Eskimo child's impatience. The caterwauling of cats was as nothing to the growls of his disgust. The angry voice of the Polar bear was a mere chirp compared with the furious howling of his disappointment, and the barking of a mad walrus was music to the roaring of his wrath. Every one, except his mother, wished him dead and buried in the centre of an iceberg or at the bottom of the Polar Sea. His mother--squat, solid, pleasant-faced, and mild--alone put up with his ways with that long-suffering endurance which is characteristic of mothers. Nothing could disturb the serenity of Toolooha. When the young giant, (that was to be), roared, she fondled him; if that was ineffectual, she gave him a walrus tusk or a seal's flipper to play with; if that did not suffice, she handed him a lump of blubber to suck; if that failed, as was sometimes the case, she gambolled with him on the floor of her snow-hut, and rubbed his oily visage lovingly over her not less oleaginous countenance. Need we enlarge on this point? Have not all mothers acted thus, or similarly, in all times and climes? From pole to pole a mother's soul Is tender, strong, and true; Whether the loved be good or bad-- White, yellow, black, or blue. But Toolooha's love was wise as well as strong. If all else failed, she was wont to apply corporal punishment, and whacked her baby with her tail. Be not shocked, reader. We refer to the tail of her coat, which was so long that it trailed on the ground, and had a flap at the end which produced surprising results when properly applied. But the howling condition of life did not last long. At the age of five years little Chingatok began to grow unusually fast, and when he reached the age of seven, the tribe took note of him as a more than promising youth. Then the grand spirit, which had hitherto sought to vent itself in yells and murderous assaults on its doting mother, spent its energies in more noble action. All the little boys of his size, although much older than himself, began to look up to him as a champion. None went so boldly into mimic warfare with the walrus and the bear as Chingatok. No one could make toy sledges out of inferior and scanty materials so well as he. If any little one wanted a succourer in distress, Skreekinbroot was the lad to whom he, or she, turned. If a broken toy had to be mended, Chingatok could do it better than any other boy. And so it went on until he became a man and a giant. When he was merely a big boy--that is, bigger than the largest man of his tribe--he went out with the other braves to hunt and fish, and signalised himself by the reckless manner in which he would attack the polar bear single-handed; but when he reached his full height and breadth he gave up reckless acts, restrained his tendency to display his great strength, and became unusually modest and thoughtful, even pensive, for an Eskimo. The superiority of Chingatok's mind, as well as his body, soon became manifest. Even among savages, intellectual power commands respect. When coupled with physical force it elicits reverence. The young giant soon became an oracle and a leading man in his tribe. Those who had wished him dead, and in the centre of an iceberg or at the bottom of the Polar Sea, came to wish that there were only a few more men like him. Of course he had one or two enemies. Who has not? There were a few who envied him his physical powers. There were some who envied him his moral influence. None envied him his intellectual superiority, for they did not understand it. There was one who not only envied but hated him. This was Eemerk, a mean-spirited, narrow-minded fellow, who could not bear to play what is styled second fiddle. Eemerk was big enough--over six feet--but he wanted to be bigger. He was stout enough, but wanted to be stouter. He was influential too, but wanted to reign supreme. This, of course, was not possible while there existed a taller, stouter, and cleverer man than himself. Even if Eemerk had been the equal of Chingatok in all these respects, there would still have remained one difference of character which would have rendered equality impossible. It was this: our young giant was unselfish and modest. Eemerk was selfish and vain-glorious. When the latter killed a seal he always kept the tit-bits for himself. Chingatok gave them to his mother, or to any one else who had a mind to have them. And so in regard to everything. Chingatok was not a native of the region in which we introduce him to the reader. He and the tribe, or rather part of the tribe, to which he belonged, had travelled from the far north; so far north that nobody knew the name of the land from which they had come. Even Chingatok himself did not know it. Being unacquainted with geography, he knew no more about his position on the face of this globe than a field-mouse or a sparrow. But the young giant had heard a strange rumour, while in his far-off country, which had caused his strong intellect to ponder, and his huge heart to beat high. Tribes who dwelt far to the south of his northern home had told him that other tribes, still further south, had declared that the people who dwelt to the south of them had met with a race of men who came to them over the sea on floating islands; that these islands had something like trees growing out of them, and wings which moved about, which folded and expanded somewhat like the wings of the sea-gull; that these men's faces were whiter than Eskimo faces; that they wore skins of a much more curious kind than sealskins, and that they were amazingly clever with their hands, talked a language that no one could understand, and did many wonderful things that nobody could comprehend. A longing, wistful expression used to steal over Chingatok's face as he gazed at the southern horizon while listening to these strange rumours, and a very slight smile of incredulity had glimmered on his visage, when it was told him that one of the floating islands of these Kablunets, or white men, had been seen with a burning mountain in the middle of it, which vomited forth smoke and fire, and sometimes uttered a furious hissing or shrieking sound, not unlike his own voice when he was a Skreekinbroot. The giant said little about these and other subjects, but thought deeply. His mind, as we have said, was far ahead of his time and condition. Let us listen to some of the disjointed thoughts that perplexed this man. "Who made me?" he asked in a low tone, when floating alone one day in his kayak, or skin canoe, "whence came I? whither go I? What is this great sea on which I float? that land on which I tread? No sledge, no spear, no kayak, no snow-hut makes itself! Who made all that which I behold?" Chingatok looked around him, but no audible answer came from Nature. He looked up, but the glorious sun only dazzled his eyes. "There _must_ be One," he continued in a lower tone, "who made all things; but who made _Him_? No one? It is impossible! The Maker must have ever been. _Ever been_!" He repeated this once or twice with a look of perplexed gravity. The northern savage had grasped the grand mystery, and, like all true philosophers savage or civilised who have gone before him, relapsed into silence. At last he resolved to travel south, until he should arrive at the coasts where these strange sights before described were said to have been seen. Having made up his mind, Chingatok began his arrangements without delay; persuaded a few families of his tribe to accompany him, and reached the north-western shores of Greenland after a long and trying journey by water and ice. Here he spent the winter. When spring came, he continued his journey south, and at last began to look out, with sanguine expectation, for the floating islands with wings, and the larger island with the burning mountain on it, about which he had heard. Of course, on his way south, our giant fell in with some members of the tribes through whom the rumours that puzzled him had been transmitted to the far north; and, as he advanced, these rumours took a more definite, also a more correct, form. In time he came to understand that the floating islands were gigantic kayaks, or canoes, with masts and sails, instead of trees and wings. The burning mountain, however, remained an unmodified mystery, which he was still inclined to disbelieve. But these more correct views did not in the least abate Chingatok's eager desire to behold, with his own eyes, the strange men from the unknown south. Eemerk formed one of the party who had volunteered to join Chingatok on this journey. Not that Eemerk was influenced by large-minded views or a thirst for knowledge, but he could not bear the thought that his rival should have all the honour of going forth on a long journey of exploration to the mysterious south, a journey which was sure to be full of adventure, and the successful accomplishment of which would unquestionably raise him very much in the estimation of his tribe. Eemerk had volunteered to go, not as second in command, but as an independent member of the party--a sort of free-lance. Chingatok did not quite relish having Eemerk for a companion, but, being a good-humoured, easy-going fellow, he made no objection to his going. Eemerk took his wife with him. Chingatok took his mother and little sister; also a young woman named Tekkona, who was his wife's sister. These were the only females of the exploring party. Chingatok had left his wife behind him, because she was not robust at that time; besides, she was very small--as is usually the case with giants' wives--and he was remarkably fond of her, and feared to expose her to severe fatigue and danger. The completed party of explorers numbered twenty souls, with their respective bodies, some of which latter were large, some small, but all strong and healthy. Four of the men were friends of Eemerk, whom he had induced to join because he knew them to be kindred spirits who would support him. "I go to the ice-cliff to look upon the sea," said Chingatok one morning, drawing himself up to his full height, and unconsciously brushing some of the lamp-black off the roof of his hut with the hood of his sealskin coat. At this point it may be well to explain, once for all, that our giant did not speak English, and as it is highly improbable that the reader understands the Eskimo tongue, we will translate as literally as possible--merely remarking that Chingatok's language, like his mind, was of a superior cast. "Why goes my son to the ice-cliff?" asked Toolooha in a slightly reproachful tone. "Are not the floes nearer? Can he not look on the great salt lake from the hummocks? The sun has been hot a long time now. The ice-cliffs are dangerous. Their edges split off every day. If my son goes often to them, he will one day come tumbling down upon the floes and be crushed flat, and men will carry him to his mother's feet like a mass of shapeless blubber." It is interesting to note how strong a resemblance there is in sentiment and modes of thought between different members of the human family. This untutored savage, this Polar giant, replied, in the Eskimo tongue, words which may be freely translated--"Never fear, mother, I know how to take care of myself." Had he been an Englishman, he could not have expressed himself more naturally. He smiled as he looked down at his stout and genial mother, while she stooped and drew forth a choice morsel of walrus flesh from one of her boots. Eskimo ladies wear enormous sealskin boots the whole length of their legs. The tops of these boots are made extremely wide, for the purpose of stowing away blubber, or babies, or other odd articles that might encumber their hands. Chingatok seemed the personification of savage dignity as he stood there, leaning on a short walrus spear. Evidently his little mother doted on him. So did Oblooria, a pretty little girl of about sixteen, who was his only sister, and the counterpart of her mother, hairy coat and tail included, only a few sizes smaller. But Chingatok's dignity was marred somewhat when he went down on his hands and knees, in order to crawl through the low snow-tunnel which was the only mode of egress from the snow-hut. Emerging at the outer end of the tunnel, he stood up, drew the hood of his sealskin coat over his head, shouldered his spear, and went off with huge and rapid strides over the frozen billows of the Arctic Sea. Spring was far advanced at the time of which we write, and the sun shone not only with dazzling brilliancy, but with intense power on the fields of ice which still held the ocean in their cold unyielding embrace. The previous winter had been unusually severe, and the ice showed little or no sign of breaking up, except at a great distance from land, where the heaving of the waves had cracked it up into large fields. These were gradually parting from the main body, and drifting away with surface-currents to southern waters, there to be liquefied and re-united to their parent sea. The particular part of the Greenland coast to which the giant went in his ramble is marked by tremendous cliffs descending perpendicularly into the water. These, at one part, are divided by a valley tilled with a great glacier, which flows from the mountains of the interior with a steep declivity to the sea, into which it thrusts its tongue, or extreme end. This mighty river of ice completely fills the valley from side to side, being more than two miles in width and many hundred feet thick. It seems as solid and motionless as the rocks that hem it in, nevertheless the markings on the surface resemble the currents and eddies of a stream which has been suddenly frozen in the act of flowing, and if you were to watch it narrowly, day by day, and week by week, you would perceive, by the changed position of objects on its surface, that it does actually advance or flow towards the sea. A further proof of this advance is, that although the tongue is constantly shedding off large icebergs, it is never much decreased in extent, being pushed out continuously by the ice which is behind. In fact, it is this pushing process which causes the end of the tongue to shed its bergs, because, when the point is thrust into deep water and floats, the motion of the sea cracks the floating mass off from that pail which is still aground, and lets it drift away. Now it was to these ice-cliffs that the somewhat reckless giant betook himself. Although not well acquainted with that region, or fully alive to the extent of the danger incurred, his knowledge was sufficient to render him cautious in the selection of the position which should form his outlook. And a magnificent sight indeed presented itself when he took his stand among the glittering pinnacles. Far as the eye could reach, the sea lay stretched in the sunshine, calm as a mill-pond, and sparkling with ice-jewels of every shape and size. An Arctic haze, dry and sunny, seemed to float over all like golden gauze. Not only was the sun encircled by a beautiful halo, but also by those lovely lights of the Arctic regions known as parhelia, or mock-suns. Four of these made no mean display in emulation of their great original. On the horizon, refraction caused the ice-floes and bergs to present endless variety of fantastic forms, and in the immediate foreground--at the giant's feet-- tremendous precipices of ice went sheer down into the deep water, while, away to the right, where a bay still retained its winter grasp of an ice-field, could be seen, like white bee-hives, the temporary snow-huts of these wandering Eskimos. Well might the eye, as well as the head, of the so-called savage rise upwards while he pondered the great mystery of the Maker of all! As he stood on the giddy ledge, rapt in contemplation, an event occurred which was fitted to deepen the solemnity of his thoughts. Not twenty yards from the point on which he stood, a great ice-cliff--the size of an average house--snapped off with a rending crash, and went thundering down into the deep, which seemed to boil and heave with sentient emotion as it received the mass, and swallowed it in a turmoil indescribable. Chingatok sprang from his post and sought a safer but not less lofty outlook, while the new-born berg, rising from the sea, swayed majestically to and fro in its new-found cradle. "It is not understandable," muttered the giant as he took up his new position and gazed with feelings of awe upon the grand scene. "I wonder if the pale-faced men in the floating islands think much about these things. Perhaps they dwell in a land which is still more wonderful than this, and hunt the walrus and the seal like us. It is said they come for nothing else but to see our land and find out what is in it. Why should I not go to see their land? My kayak is large, though it has no wings. The land may be far off, but am I not strong? They are pale-faced; perhaps the reason is that they are starved. That must be so, else they would not leave their home. I might bring some of the poor creatures to this happy land of ours, where there is always plenty to eat. They might send messengers for their relations to come and dwell with us. I will speak to mother about that; she is wise!" Like a dutiful son, the giant turned on his heel, descended the cliffs, and went straight home to consult with his mother. CHAPTER TWO. UNEXPECTED MEETINGS, ALARMS, AND CONFIDENCES. "Mother, I have been thinking," said Chingatok, as he crept into his hut and sat down on a raised bench of moss. "That is not news, my son; you think much. You are not like other men. They think little and eat much." The stout little woman looked up through the smoke of her cooking-lamp and smiled, but her big son was too much absorbed in his thoughts to observe her pleasantry, so she continued the cooking of a walrus chop in silence. "The Kablunets are not to be seen, mother," resumed Chingatok. "I have looked for them every day for a long time, and begin to weary. My thought is now to launch my kayak when we come to open water, load it with meat, take four spears and more lines than a strong hunter needs for a whole season; then paddle away south to discover the land of the Kablunets. They must be poor; they may be starving. I will guide them to our home, and show them this land of plenty." He paused abruptly, and looked at his mother with solemn anxiety, for he was well aware that he had given her food for profound reflection. We feel tempted here to repeat our remark about the strong resemblance between different members of the human family, but refrain. This untutored woman of the Arctic lands met her son's proposition with the well-known reply of many civilised persons. "Of what use would it be, my son? No good can come of searching out these poor lands. You cannot benefit the miserable Kablunets. Perhaps they are savage and fierce; and you are sure to meet with dangers by the way. Worse--you may die!" "Mother," returned Chingatok, "when the white bear stands up with his claws above my head and his mouth a-gape, does my hand tremble or my spear fail?" "No, my son." "Then why do you speak to me of danger and death?" Toolooha was not gifted with argumentative powers. She relapsed into silence and lamp-smoke. But her son was not to be so easily dissuaded. He adopted a line of reasoning which never failed. "Mother," he said, sadly, "it may be that you are right, and I am of too fearful a spirit to venture far away from you by myself; I will remain here if you think me a coward." "Don't say so, Chingatok. You know what I think. Go, if you must go, but who will hunt for your poor old mother when you are gone?" This was an appeal which the astute little woman knew to be very powerful with her son. She buried her head in the smoke again, and left the question to simmer. Chingatok was tender-hearted. He said nothing, but, as usual, he thought much, as he gazed in a contemplative manner at his oily parent, and there is no saying to what lengths of self-sacrifice he would have gone if he had not been aroused, and his thoughts scattered to the winds, by a yell so tremendous that it might well have petrified him on the spot. But it did nothing of the kind. It only caused him to drop on his knees, dart through the tunnel like an eel, spring into the open air like an electrified rabbit from its burrow, and stand up with a look of blazing interrogation on his huge countenance. The cry had been uttered by his bosom friend and former playmate Oolichuk, who came running towards him with frantic gesticulations. "The Kablunets!" he gasped, "the white-faces have come!--on a floating island!--alive!--smoking!--it is all true!" "Where?" demanded our giant, whose face blazed up at once. "There!" cried Oolichuk, pointing seaward towards the ice-hummocks with both hands, and glaring up at his friend. Without another word Chingatok ran off in the direction pointed out, followed hotly by his friend. Oolichuk was a large and powerful man, but, his legs were remarkably short. His pace, compared with that of Chingatok, was as that of a sparrow to an ostrich. Nevertheless he kept up, for he was agile and vigorous. "Have you seen them--have you spoken?" asked the giant, abruptly. "Yes, all the tribe was there." "No one killed?" "No, but terribly frightened; they made me run home to fetch you." Chingatok increased his speed. So did Oolichuk. While they run, let us leap a little ahead of them, reader, and see what had caused all the excitement. The whole party had gone off that morning, with the exception of Chingatok and his mother, to spear seals in a neighbouring bay, where these animals had been discovered in great numbers. Dogs and sledges had been taken, because a successful hunt was expected, and the ice was sufficiently firm. The bay was very large. At its distant southern extremity there rose a great promontory which jutted far out into the sea. While the men were busy there making preparations to begin the hunt, Oblooria, Chingatok's little sister, amused herself by mounting a hummock of ice about thirty feet high. When there, she chanced to look towards the promontory. Instantly she opened her eyes and mouth and uttered a squeal that brought her friends running to her side. Oolichuk was the first to reach her. He had no need to ask questions. Oblooria's gaze directed his, and there, coming round the promontory, he beheld an object which had never before filled his wondering eyes. It was, apparently, a monstrous creature with a dark body and towering wings, and a black thing in its middle, from which were vomited volumes of smoke. "Kablunets! white men!" he yelled. "Kablunets!--huk! huk!" echoed the whole tribe, as they scrambled up the ice-hill one after another. And they were right. A vessel of the pale-faces had penetrated these northern solitudes, and was advancing swiftly before a light breeze under sail and steam. Despite the preparation their minds had received, and the fact that they were out in search of these very people, this sudden appearance of them filled most of the Eskimos with alarm--some of them with absolute terror, insomuch that the term "pale-face" became most appropriate to themselves. "What shall we do?" exclaimed Akeetolik, one of the men. "Fly!" cried Ivitchuk, another of the men, whose natural courage was not high. "No; let us stay and behold!" said Oolichuk, with a look of contempt at his timid comrade. "Yes, stay and see," said Eemerk sternly. "But they will kill us," faltered the young woman, whom we have already mentioned by the name of Tekkona. "No--no one would kill _you_," said Eemerk gallantly; "they would only carry you off and keep you." While they conversed with eager, anxious looks, the steam yacht--for such she was--advanced rapidly, threading her way among the ice-fields and floes with graceful rapidity and ease, to the unutterable amazement of the natives. Although her sails were spread to catch the light breeze, her chief motive power at the time was a screw-propeller. "Yes, it must be alive," said Oolichuk to Akeetolik, with a look of solemn awe. "The white men do not paddle. They could not lift paddles big enough to move such a great oomiak," [see Note 1], "and the wind is not strong; it could not blow them so fast. See, the oomiak has a tail--and wags it!" "Oh! _do_ let us run away!" whispered the trembling Oblooria, as she took shelter behind Tekkona. "No, no," said the latter, who was brave as well as pretty, "we need not fear. Our men will take care of us." "I wish that Chingatok was here!" whimpered poor little Oblooria, nestling closer to Tekkona and grasping her tail, "he fears nothing and nobody." "Ay," assented Tekkona with a peculiar smile, "and is brave enough to fight everything and everybody." "Does Oblooria think that no one can fight but the giant?" whispered Oolichuk, who stood nearest to the little maid. He drew a knife made of bone from his boot, where it usually lay concealed, and flourished it, with a broad grin. The girl laughed, blushed slightly, and, looking down, toyed with the sleeve of Tekkona's fur coat. Meanwhile the yacht drew near to the floe on which our Eskimos were grouped. The ice was cracked right across, leaving a lane of open water about ten feet wide between its inner edge and the shore ice. The Eskimos stood on the land side of this crack, a hundred yards or so from it. On nearing the floe the strange vessel checked her speed. "It moves its wings!" exclaimed Eemerk. "And turns its side to us," said Akeetolik. "And wags its tail no more," cried Oolichuk. "Oh! do, _do_ let us run away," gasped Oblooria. "No, no, we will not run," said Tekkona. At that moment a white cloud burst from the side of the yacht. "Hi! hee! huk!" shouted the whole tribe in amazement. A crash followed which not only rattled like thunder among the surrounding cliffs, but went like electric fire to the central marrow of each Eskimo. With a united yell of terror, they leaped three feet into the air--more or less--turned about, and fled. Tekkona, who was active as a young deer, herself took the lead; and Oblooria, whose limbs trembled so that she could hardly run, held on to Oolichuk, who gallantly dragged her along. The terror was increased by a prolonged screech from the steam-whistle. It was a wild scramble in sudden panic. The Eskimos reached their sledges, harnessed their teams, left their spears on the ice, cracked their whips, which caused the dogs to join in the yelling chorus, and made for the land at a furious gallop. But their fear began to evaporate in a few minutes, and Oolichuk was the first to check his pace. "Ho! stop," he cried. Eemerk looked back, saw that they were not pursued, and pulled up. The others followed suit, and soon the fugitives were seen by those on board the yacht grouped together and gazing intently at them from the top of another ice-hummock. The effect of the cannon-shot on board the yacht itself was somewhat startling. The gun had been loaded on the other side of the promontory for the purpose of being fired if Eskimos were not visible on the coast beyond, in order to attract them from the interior, if they should chance to be there. When, however, the natives were discovered on the ice, the gun was, of course, unnecessary, and had been forgotten. It therefore burst upon the crew with a shock of surprise, and caused the Captain, who was in the cabin at the moment, to shoot up from the hatchway like a Jack-in-the-box. "Who did that?" he demanded, looking round sternly. The crew, who had been gazing intently at the natives, did not know. "I really cannot tell, sir," said the chief mate, touching his cap. Two strapping youths--one about sixteen, the other eighteen--leaned over the side and paid no regard to the question; but it was obvious, from the heaving motion of their shoulders, that they were not so much absorbed in contemplation as they pretended to be. "Come, Leo, Alf, you know something about this." The Captain was a large powerful man of about forty, with bushy iron-grey curls, a huge beard, and an aquiline nose. The two youths turned to him at once, and Leo, the eldest, said respectfully, "We did not see it done, uncle, but--but we think--" "Well, what do you think?" At that moment a delicate-looking, slender lad, about twelve years of age, with fair curly hair, and flashing blue eyes, stepped out from behind the funnel, which had hitherto concealed him, and said boldly, though blushingly-- "I did it, father." "Ha! just like you; why did you do it? eh!" "I can hardly tell, father," said the boy, endeavouring to choke a laugh, "but the Eskimos looked so funny, and I--I had a box of matches in my pocket, and--and--I thought a shot would make them look so very much funnier, and--and--I was right!" "Well, Benjamin, you may go below, and remain there till further orders." When Captain Vane called his son "Benjamin," he was seriously displeased. At other times he called him Benjy. "Yes, father," replied the boy, with a very bad grace, and down he went in a state of rebellious despair, for he was wildly anxious to witness all that went on. His despair was abated, however, when, in the course of a few minutes, the yacht swung round so as to present her stern to the shore, and remained in that position, enabling him to observe proceedings from the cabin windows almost as well as if he had been on deck. He was not aware that his father, knowing his son's nature, and wishing to temper discipline with mercy, had placed the vessel in that position for his special benefit! The difficulty now was, how to attract the natives, and inspire them with confidence in the good intentions of their visitors. In any case this would have been a difficult matter, but the firing of that unlucky gun had increased the difficulty tenfold. When, however, Captain Vane saw the natives cease their mad flight, and turn to gaze at the vessel, his hopes revived, and he set about a series of ingenious efforts to attain his end. First of all, he sent a boat in charge of his two nephews, Leonard and Alphonse Vandervell, to set up a small table on the ice, on which were temptingly arranged various presents, consisting of knives, beads, looking-glasses, and articles of clothing. Having done this, they retired, like wary anglers, to watch for a bite. But the fish would not rise, though they observed the proceedings with profound attention from the distant hummock. After waiting a couple of hours, the navigators removed the table and left an Eskimo dog in its place, with a string of blue beads tied round its neck. But this bait also failed. "Try something emblematic, uncle," suggested Leonard, the elder of the brothers before mentioned. "And get Benjy to manufacture it," said Alphonse. As Benjy was possessed of the most fertile imagination on board, he was released from punishment and brought on deck. The result of his effort of genius was the creation of a huge white calico flag, on which were painted roughly the figure of a sailor and an Eskimo sitting on an iceberg, with a kettle of soup between them. On one side were a pair of hands clasped together; on the other a sprig of heath, the only shrub that could be seen on the shore. "Splendid!" exclaimed Leo and Alf in the same breath, as they held the flag up to view. "You'll become a Royal Academician if you cultivate your talents, Benjy," said the Captain, who was proud, as well as fond, of this his only child. The boy said nothing, but a pleased expression and a twinkle in his eyes proved that he was susceptible to flattery, though not carried off his legs by it. The banner with the strange device was fixed to a pole which was erected on an ice-hummock between the ship and the shore, and a bag containing presents was hung at the foot of it. Still these Eskimo fish would not bite, though they "rose" at the flag. Oolichuk's curiosity had become so intense that he could not resist it. He advanced alone, very warily, and looked at it, but did not dare to touch it. Soon he was joined by Eemerk and the others. Seeing this, Captain Vane sent to meet them an interpreter whom he had procured at one of the Greenland settlements in passing. Just as this man, whose name was Anders, stepped into the boat alongside, it occurred to the Eskimos that their leader should be sent for. Oolichuk undertook to fetch him; he ran back to the sledges, harnessed a small team, and set off like the wind. Thus it came to pass that Chingatok and his mother were startled by a yell, as before mentioned. Meanwhile Anders was put on the ice, and advanced alone and unarmed towards the canal, or chasm, which separated the parties. He carried a small white flag and a bag containing presents. Innocent-looking and defenceless though he was, however, the Eskimos approached him with hesitating and slow steps, regarding every motion of the interpreter with suspicion, and frequently stooping to thrust their hands into their boots, in which they all carried knives. At last, when within hearing, Anders shouted a peaceful message, and there was much hallooing and gesticulation among the natives, but nothing comprehensible came of it. After a time Anders thought he recognised words of a dialect with which he was acquainted, and to his satisfaction found that they understood him. "Kakeite! kakeite!--come on, come on," he cried, holding up the present. "Nakrie! nakrie!--no, no, go away--you want to kill us," answered the doubtful natives. Thereupon Anders protested that nothing was further from his thoughts, that he was a man and a friend, and had a mother like themselves, and that he wanted to please them. At this Eemerk approached to the edge of the canal, and, drawing a knife from his boot, said, "Go away! I can kill you." Nothing daunted, Anders said he was not afraid, and taking a good English knife from his bag threw it across the canal. Eemerk picked it up, and was so pleased that he exclaimed, "Heigh-yaw! heigh-yaw!" joyously, and pulled his nose several times. Anders, understanding this to be a sign of friendship, immediately pulled his own nose, smiled, and threw several trinkets and articles of clothing to the other natives, who had by that time drawn together in a group, and were chattering in great surprise at the things presented. Ivitchuk was perhaps the most excited among them. He chanced to get hold of a round hox, in the lid of which was a mirror. On beholding himself looking at himself, he made such an awful face that he dropt the glass and sprang backward, tripping up poor Oblooria in the act, and tumbling over her. This was greeted with a shout of laughter, and Anders, now believing that friendly relations had been established, went to the boat for a plank to bridge the chasm. As Leo and Alf assisted him to carry the plank, the natives again became grave and anxious. "Stop!" shouted Eemerk, "you want to kill us. What great creature is that? Does it come from the moon or the sun? Does it eat fire and smoke?" "No, it is only a dead thing. It is a wooden house." "You lie!" cried the polite Eemerk, "it shakes its wings. It vomits fire and smoke. It has a tail, and wags it." While speaking he slowly retreated, for the plank was being placed in position, and the other natives were showing symptoms of an intention to fly. Just then a shout was heard landwards. Turning round they saw a dog-sledge flying over the ice towards them, with Oolichuk flourishing the long-lashed whip, and the huge form of their leader beside him. In a few seconds they dashed up, and Chingatok sprang upon the ice. Without a moment's hesitation he strode towards the plank and crossed it. Walking up to Anders he pulled his own nose. The interpreter was not slow to return the salutation, as he looked up at the giant with surprise, not unmingled with awe. In addition, he grasped his huge hand, squeezed, and shook it. Chingatok smiled blandly, and returned the squeeze so as to cause the interpreter to wince. Then, perceiving at once that he had got possession of a key to the affections of the strangers, he offered to shake hands with Leonard and his brother, stooping with regal urbanity to them as he did so. By this time the Captain and first mate, with Benjy and several of the crew, were approaching. Instead of exhibiting fear, Chingatok advanced to meet them, and shook hands all round. He gazed at Captain Vane with a look of admiration which was not at first quite accountable, until he laid his hand gently on the Captain's magnificent beard, and stroked it. The Captain laughed, and again grasped the hand of the Eskimo. They both squeezed, but neither could make the other wince, for Captain Vane was remarkably powerful, though comparatively short of limb. "Well, you _are_ a good fellow in every way," exclaimed the Captain. "Heigh, yah!" returned Chingatok, who no doubt meant to be complimentary, though we confess our inability to translate. It was obvious that two sympathetic souls had met. "Come across," shouted Chingatok, turning abruptly to his companions, who had been gazing at his proceedings in open-mouthed wonder. The whole tribe at once obeyed the order, and in a few minutes they were in the seventh heaven of delight and good-will, receiving gifts and handshakings, each pulling his own nose frequently by way of expressing satisfaction or friendship, and otherwise exchanging compliments with the no less amiable and gratified crew of the steam yacht _Whitebear_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note. The oomiak is the open boat of skin used by Eskimo _women_, and is capable of holding several persons. The kayak, or man's canoe, holds only one. CHAPTER THREE. SHOWS HOW THE ESKIMOS WERE ENTERTAINED BY THE WHITE MEN. The _Whitebear_ steam yacht, owned and commanded by Captain Jacob Vane, had sailed from England, and was bound for the North Pole. "I'll find it--I'm bound to find it," was the Captain's usual mode of expressing himself to his intimates on the subject, "if there's a North Pole in the world at all, and my nephews Leo and Alf will help me. Leo's a doctor, _almost_, and Alf's a scientific Jack-of-all-trades, so we can't fail. I'll take my boy Benjy for the benefit of his health, and see if we don't bring home a chip o' the Pole big enough to set up beside Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames embankment." There was tremendous energy in Captain Vane, and indomitable resolution; but energy and resolution cannot achieve all things. There are other factors in the life of man which help to mould his destiny. Short and sad and terrible--ay, we might even say tremendous--was the _Whitebear's_ wild career. Up to the time of her meeting with the Eskimos, all had gone well. Fair weather and favouring winds had blown her across the Atlantic. Sunshine and success had received her, as it were, in the Arctic regions. The sea was unusually free of ice. Upernavik, the last of the Greenland settlements touched at, was reached early in the season, and the native interpreter Anders secured. The dreaded "middle passage," near the head of Baffin's Bay, was made in the remarkably short space of fifty hours, and, passing Cape York into the North Water, they entered Smith's Sound without having received more than a passing bump--an Arctic kiss as it were--from the Polar ice. In Smith's Sound fortune still favoured them. These resolute intending discoverers of the North Pole passed in succession the various "farthests" of previous explorers, and the stout brothers Vandervell, with their cousin Benjy Vane, gazed eagerly over the bulwarks at the swiftly-passing headlands, while the Captain pointed out the places of interest, and kept up a running commentary on the brave deeds and high aspirations of such well-known men as Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, Ross, Parry, Franklin, Kane, McClure, Rae, McClintock, Hayes, Hall, Nares, Markham, and all the other heroes of Arctic story. It was an era in the career of those three youths that stood out bright and fresh--never to be forgotten--this first burst of the realities of the Arctic world on minds which had been previously well informed by books. The climax was reached on the day when the Eskimos of the far north were met with. But from that time a change took place in their experience. Fortune seemed to frown from that memorable day. We say "seemed," because knitted brows do not always or necessarily indicate what is meant by a frown. After the first fears of the Eskimos had been allayed, a party of them were invited to go on board the ship. They accepted the invitation and went, headed by Chingatok. That noble savage required no persuasion. From the first he had shown himself to be utterly devoid of fear. He felt that the grand craving of his nature--a thirst for knowledge--was about to be gratified, and that would have encouraged him to risk anything, even if he had been much less of a hero than he was. But if fear had no influence over our giant, the same cannot be said of his companions. Oolichuk, indeed, was almost as bold, though he exhibited a considerable amount of caution in his looks and movements; but Eemerk, and one or two of his friends, betrayed their craven spirits in frequent startled looks and changing colour. Ivitchuk was a strange compound of nervousness and courage, while Akeetolik appeared to have lost the power of expressing every feeling but one--that of blank amazement. Indeed, surprise at what they saw on board the steam yacht was the predominant feeling amongst these children of nature. Their eyebrows seemed to have gone up and fixed themselves in the middle of their foreheads, and their eyes and mouths to have opened wide permanently. None of the women accepted the invitation to go aboard except Tekkona, and Oblooria followed her, not because she was courageous, but because she seemed to cling to the stronger nature as a protection from undefined and mysterious dangers. "Tell them," said Captain Vane to Anders, the Eskimo interpreter, "that these are the machines that drive the ship along when there is no wind." He pointed down the hatchway, where the complication of rods and cranks glistened in the hold. "Huk!" exclaimed the Eskimos. They sometimes exclaimed Hi! ho! hoy! and hah! as things were pointed out to them, but did not venture on language more intelligible at first. "Let 'em hear the steam-whistle," suggested the mate. Before the Captain could countermand the order, Benjy had touched the handle and let off a short, sharp _skirl_. The effect on the natives was powerful. They leaped, with a simultaneous yell, at least a foot off the deck, with the exception of Chingatok, though even he was visibly startled, while Oblooria seized Tekkona round the waist, and buried her face in her friend's jacket. A brief explanation soon restored them to equanimity, and they were about to pass on to some other object of interest, when both the steam-whistle and the escape-valve were suddenly opened to their full extent, and there issued from the engine a hissing yell so prolonged and deafening that even the Captain's angry shout was not heard. A yard at least was the leap into the air made by the weakest of the Eskimos--except our giant, who seemed, however, to shrink into himself, while he grasped his knife and looked cautiously round, as if to guard himself from any foe that might appear. Eemerk fairly turned and fled to the stern of the yacht, over which he would certainly have plunged had he not been forcibly restrained by two stout seamen. The others, trembling violently, stood still, because they knew not what to do, and poor Oblooria fell flat on the deck, catching Tekkona by the tail, and pulling her down beside her. "You scoundrel!" exclaimed the Captain, when the din ceased, "I--I--go down, sir, to--" "Oh! father, don't be hard on me," pleaded Benjy, with a gleefully horrified look, "I really could _not_ resist it. The--the temptation was too strong!" "The temptation to give you a rope's-ending is almost too strong for _me_, Benjamin," returned the Captain sternly, but there was a twinkle in his eye notwithstanding, as he turned to explain to Chingatok that his son had, by way of jest, allowed part of the mighty Power imprisoned in the machinery to escape. The Eskimo received the explanation with dignified gravity, and a faint smile played on his lips as he glanced approvingly at Benjy, for he loved a jest, and was keenly alive to a touch of humour. "What power is imprisoned in the machinery?" asked our Eskimo through the interpreter. "What power?" repeated the Captain with a puzzled look, "why, it's boiling water--steam." Here he tried to give a clear account of the nature and power and application of steam, but, not being gifted with capacity for lucid explanation, and the mind of Anders being unaccustomed to such matters, the result was that the brain of Chingatok was filled with ideas that were fitted rather to amaze than to instruct him. After making the tour of the vessel, the party again passed the engine hatch. Chingatok touched the interpreter quietly, and said in a low, grave tone, "Tell Blackbeard," (thus he styled the Captain), "to let the Power yell again!" Anders glanced up in the giant's grave countenance with a look of amused surprise. He understood him, and whispered to the Captain, who smiled intelligently, and, turning to his son, said-- "Do it again, Benjy. Give it 'em strong." Never before did that lad obey his father with such joyous alacrity. In another instant the whistle shrieked, and the escape-valve hissed ten times more furiously than before. Up went the Eskimo--three feet or more--as if in convulsions, and away went Eemerk to the stern, over which he dived, swam to the floe, leaped on his sledge, cracked his whip, and made for home on the wings of terror. Doubtless an evil conscience helped his cowardice. Meanwhile Chingatok laughed, despite his struggles to be grave. This revealed the trick to some of his quick-witted and humour-loving companions, who at once burst into loud laughter. Even Oblooria dismissed her fears and smiled. In this restored condition they were taken down to the cabin and fed sumptuously. That night, as Chingatok sat beside his mother, busy with a seal's rib, he gradually revealed to her the wonders he had seen. "The white men are very wise, mother." "So you have said four times, my son." "But you cannot understand it." "But my son can make me understand," said Toolooha, helping the amiable giant to a second rib. Chingatok gazed at his little mother with a look of solemnity that evidently perplexed her. She became restless under it, and wiped her forehead uneasily with the flap at the end of her tail. The youth seemed about to speak, but he only sighed and addressed himself to the second rib, over which he continued to gaze while he masticated. "My thoughts are big, mother," he said, laying down the bare bone. "That may well be, for so is your head, my son," she replied, gently. "I know not how to begin, mother." "Another rib may open your lips, perhaps," suggested the old woman, softly. "True; give me one," said Chingatok. The third rib seemed to have the desired effect, for, while busy with it, he began to give his parent a graphic account of the yacht and its crew, and it was really interesting to note how correctly he described all that he understood of what he had seen. But some of the things he had partly failed to comprehend, and about these he was vague. "And they have a--a Power, mother, shut up in a hard thing, so that it can't get out unless they let it, and it drives the big canoe through the water. It is very strong--terrible!" "Is it a devil?" asked Toolooha. "No, it is not alive. It is dead. It is _that_," he pointed with emphasis to a pot hanging over the lamp out of which a little steam was issuing, and looked at his mother with awful solemnity. She returned the look with something of incredulity. "Yes, mother, the Power is not a beast. It lives not, yet it drives the white man's canoe, which is as big as a little iceberg, and it whistles; it shrieks; it yells!" A slightly sorrowful look rested for a moment on Toolooha's benign countenance. It was evident that she suspected her son either of derangement, or having forsaken the paths of truth. But it passed like a summer cloud. "Tell me more," she said, laying her hand affectionately on the huge arm of Chingatok, who had fallen into a contemplative mood, and, with hands clasped over one knee, sat gazing upwards. Before he could reply the heart of Toolooha was made to bound by a shriek more terrible than she had ever before heard or imagined. Chingatok caught her by the wrist, held up a finger as if to impose silence, smiled brightly, and listened. Again the shriek was repeated with prolonged power. "Tell me, my son," gasped Toolooha, "is Oblooria--are the people safe? Why came you to me alone?" "The little sister and the people are safe. I came alone to prevent your being taken by surprise. Did I not say that it could shriek and yell? This is the white man's big canoe." Dropping the old woman's hand as he spoke, Chingatok darted into the open air with the agility of a Polar bear, and Toolooha followed with the speed of an Arctic hare. CHAPTER FOUR. A CATASTROPHE AND A BOLD DECISION. Two days after her arrival at the temporary residence of the northern Eskimos, the steam yacht _Whitebear_, while close to the shore, was beset by ice, so that she could neither advance nor retreat. Everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, the sea was covered with hummocks and bergs and fields of ice, so closely packed that there was not a piece of open water to be seen, with the exception of one small basin a few yards ahead of the lead or lane of water in which the vessel had been imprisoned. "No chance of escaping from this, I fear, for a long time," said Alf Vandervell to his brother, as they stood near the wheel, looking at the desolate prospect. "It seems quite hopeless," said Leo, with, however, a look of confidence that ill accorded with his words. "I do believe we are frozen in for the winter," said Benjy Vane, coming up at the moment. "There speaks ignorance," said the Captain, whose head appeared at the cabin hatchway. "If any of you had been in these regions before, you would have learned that nothing is so uncertain as the action of pack ice. At one time you may be hard and fast, so that you couldn't move an inch. A few hours after, the set of the currents may loosen the pack, and open up lanes of water through which you may easily make your escape. Sometimes it opens up so as to leave almost a clear sea in a few hours." "But it is pretty tight packed just now, father, and looks wintry-like, doesn't it?" said Benjy in a desponding tone. "Looks! boy, ay, but things are not what they seem hereaway. You saw four mock-suns round the real one yesterday, didn't you? and the day before you saw icebergs floating in the air, eh?" "True, father, but these appearances were deceptive, whereas this ice, which looks so tightly packed, is a reality." "That is so, lad, but it is not set fast for the winter, though it looks like it. Well, doctor," added the Captain, turning towards a tall cadaverous man who came on deck just then with the air and tread of an invalid, "how goes it with you? Better, I hope?" He asked this with kindly interest as he laid his strong hand on the sick man's shoulder; but the doctor shook his head and smiled sadly. "It is a great misfortune to an expedition, Captain, when the doctor himself falls sick," he said, sitting down on the skylight with a sigh. "Come, come, cheer up, doctor," returned the Captain, heartily, "don't be cast down; we'll all turn doctors for the occasion, and nurse you well in spite of yourself." "I'll keep up all heart, Captain, you may depend on't, as long as two of my bones will stick together, but--well, to change the subject; what are you going to do now?" "Just all that can be done in the circumstances," replied the Captain. "You see, we cannot advance over ice either with sail or steam, but there's a basin just ahead which seems a little more secure than that in which we lie. I'll try to get into it. There is nothing but a neck of ice between us and it, which I think I could cut by charging in under full steam, and there seems a faint gleam of something far ahead, which encourages me. Tell the steward to fetch my glasses, Benjy." "Butterface!" shouted the boy. "Yis, massa." "Fetch the Captain's glasses, please." "Yis, massa." A pair of large binoculars were brought up by a huge negro, whose name was pre-eminently unsuggestive of his appearance. After a long steady gaze at the horizon, the Captain shut up the glass with an air of determination, and ordered the engineer to get up full steam, and the crew to be ready with the ice-poles. There was a large berg at the extremity of the lakelet of open water into which Captain Vane wished to break. It was necessary to keep well out of the way of that berg. The Captain trusted chiefly to his screw, but got out the ice-poles in case they should be required. When all the men were stationed, the order was given to go ahead full steam. The gallant little yacht charged the neck of ice like a living creature, hit it fair, cut right through, and scattered the fragments right and left as she sailed majestically into the lakelet beyond. The shock was severe, but no harm was done, everything on board having been made as strong as possible, and of the very best material, for a voyage in ice-laden seas. An unforeseen event followed, however, which ended in a series of most terrible catastrophes. The neck of ice through which they had broken had acted as a check on the pressure of the great body of the floe, and it was no sooner removed than the heavy mass began to close in with slow but irresistible power, compelling the little vessel to steam close up to the iceberg--so close that some of the upper parts actually overhung the deck. They were slowly forced into this dangerous position. With breathless anxiety the Captain and crew watched the apparently gentle, but really tremendous grinding of the ice against the vessel's side. Even the youngest on board could realise the danger. No one moved, for nothing whatever could be done. "Everything depends, under God, on the ice easing off before we are crushed," said the Captain. As he spoke, the timbers of the yacht seemed to groan under the pressure; then there was a succession of loud cracks, and the vessel was thrust bodily up the sloping sides of the berg. While in this position, with the bow high and dry, a mass of ice was forced against the stern-post, and the screw-propeller was snapped off as if it had been made of glass. Poor Captain Vane's heart sank as if he had received his death-blow, for he knew that the yacht was now, even in the event of escaping, reduced to an ordinary vessel dependent on its sails. The shock seemed to have shaken the berg itself, for at that moment a crashing sound was heard overhead. The terror-stricken crew looked up, and for one moment a pinnacle like a church spire was seen to flash through the air right above them. It fell with an indescribable roar close alongside, deluging the decks with water. There was a momentary sigh of relief, which, however, was chased away by a succession of falling masses, varying from a pound to a ton in weight, which came down on the deck like cannon-shots, breaking the topmasts, and cutting to pieces much of the rigging. Strange to say, none of the men were seriously injured, though many received bruises more or less severe. During this brief but thrilling period, the brothers Vandervell and Benjy Vane crouched close together beside the port bulwarks, partially screened from the falling ice by the mizzen shrouds. The Captain stood on the quarter-deck, quite exposed, and apparently unconscious of danger, the picture of despair. "It can't last long," sighed poor Benjy, looking solemnly up at the vast mass of the bluish-white berg, which hung above them as if ready to fall. Presently the pressure ceased, then the ice eased off, and in a few minutes the _Whitebear_ slid back into the sea, a pitiable wreck! Now had come the time for action. "Out poles, my lads, and shove her off the berg!" was the sharp order. Every one strained as if for life at the ice-poles, and slowly forced the yacht away from the dreaded berg. It mattered not that they were forcing her towards a rocky shore. Any fate would be better than being crushed under a mountain of ice. But the danger was not yet past. No sooner had they cleared the berg, and escaped from that form of destruction, than the ice began again to close in, and this time the vessel was "nipped" with such severity, that some of her principal timbers gave way. Finally, her back was broken, and the bottom forced in. "So," exclaimed the Captain, with a look of profound grief, "our voyage in the _Whitebear_, lads, has come to an end. All that we can do now is to get the boats and provisions, and as much of the cargo as we can, safe on the ice. And sharp's the word, for when the floes ease off, the poor little yacht will certainly go to the bottom." "No, massa," said the negro steward, stepping on deck at that moment, "we can't go to de bottom, cause we's dare a-ready!" "What d'ye mean, Butterface?" "Jus' what me say," replied the steward, with a look of calm resignation. "I's bin b'low, an' seed de rocks stickin' troo de bottom. Der's one de size ob a jolly-boat's bow comed right troo my pantry, an' knock all de crockery to smash, an' de best teapot, he's so flat he wouldn't know hisself in a lookin'-glass." It turned out to be as Butterface said. The pack had actually thrust the little vessel on a shoal, which extended out from the headland off which the catastrophe occurred, and there was therefore no fear of her sinking. "Well, we've reason to be thankful for that, at all events," said the Captain, with an attempt to look cheerful; "come, lads, let's to work. Whatever our future course is to be, our first business is to get the boats and cargo out of danger." With tremendous energy--because action brought relief to their overstrained feelings--the crew of the ill-fated yacht set to work to haul the boats upon the grounded ice. The tide was falling, so that a great part of the most valuable part of the cargo was placed in security before the rising tide interrupted the work. This was fortunate, for, when the water reached a certain point the ice began to move, and the poor little vessel was so twisted about that they dared not venture on board of her. That night--if we may call it night in a region where the sun never quite went down--the party encamped on the north-western coast of Greenland, in the lee of a huge cliff just beyond which the tongue of a mighty glacier dipped into the sea. For convenience the party divided into two, with a blazing fire for each, round which the castaways circled, conversing in subdued, sad tones while supper was being prepared. It was a solemn occasion, and a scene of indescribable grandeur, with the almost eternal glacier of Greenland--the great Humboldt glacier-- shedding its bergs into the dark blue sea, the waters of which had by that time been partially cleared to the northward. On the left was the weird pack and its thousand grotesque forms, with the wreck in its iron grasp; on the right the perpendicular cliffs, and the bright sky over all, with the smoke of the campfires rising into it from the foreground. "Now, my friends," said Captain Vane to the crew when assembled after supper, "I am no longer your commander, for my vessel is a wreck, but as I suppose you still regard me as your leader, I assemble you here for the purpose of considering our position, and deciding on what is best to be done." Here the Captain said, among other things, it was his opinion that the _Whitebear_ was damaged beyond the possibility of repair, that their only chance of escape lay in the boats, and that the distance between the place on which they stood and Upernavik, although great, was not beyond the reach of resolute men. "Before going further, or expressing a decided opinion," he added, "I would hear what the officers have to say on this subject. Let the first mate speak." "It's my opinion," said the mate, "that there's only one thing to be done, namely, to start for home as soon and as fast as we can. We have good boats, plenty of provisions, and are all stout and healthy, excepting our doctor, whom we will take good care of, and expect to do no rough work." "Thanks, mate," said the doctor with a laugh, "I think that, at all events, I shall keep well enough to physic you if you get ill." "Are you willing to take charge of the party in the event of my deciding to remain here?" asked the Captain of the mate. "Certainly, sir," he replied, with a look of slight surprise. "You know I am quite able to do so. The second mate, too, is as able as I am. For that matter, most of the men, I think, would find little difficulty in navigating a boat to Upernavik." "That is well," returned the Captain, "because I do not intend to return with you." "Not return!" exclaimed the doctor; "surely you don't mean to winter here." "No, not here, but further north," replied the Captain, with a smile which most of the party returned, for they thought he was jesting. Benjy Vane, however, did not think so. A gleeful look of triumph caused his face, as it were, to sparkle, and he said, eagerly-- "We'll winter at the North Pole, father, eh?" This was greeted with a general laugh. "But seriously, uncle, what do you mean to do?" asked Leonard Vandervell, who, with his brother, was not unhopeful that the Captain meditated something desperate. "Benjy is not far off the mark. I intend to winter at the Pole, or as near to it as I can manage to get." "My dear Captain Vane," said the doctor, with an anxious look, "you cannot really mean what you say. You must be jesting, or mad." "Well, as to madness," returned the Captain with a peculiar smile, "you ought to know best, for it's a perquisite of your cloth to pronounce people mad or sane, though some of yourselves are as mad as the worst of us; but in regard to jesting, nothing, I assure you, is further from my mind. Listen!" He rose from the box which had formed his seat, and looked earnestly round on his men. As he stood there, erect, tall, square, powerful, with legs firmly planted, and apart, as if to guard against a lurch of his ship, with his bronzed face flushed, and his dark eye flashing, they all understood that their leader's mind was made up, and that what he had resolved upon, he would certainly attempt to carry out. "Listen," he repeated; "it was my purpose on leaving England, as you all know, to sail north as far as the ice would let me; to winter where we should stick fast, and organise an over-ice, or overland journey to the Pole with all the appliances of recent scientific discovery, and all the advantages of knowledge acquired by former explorers. It has pleased God to destroy my ship, but my life and my hopes are spared. So are my stores and scientific instruments. I intend, therefore, to carry out my original purpose. I believe that former explorers have erred in some points of their procedure. These errors I shall steer clear of. Former travellers have ignored some facts, and despised some appliances. These facts I will recognise; these appliances I will utilise. With a steam yacht, you, my friends, who have shown so much enthusiasm and courage up to this point, would have been of the utmost service to me. As a party in boats, or on foot, you would only hamper my movements. I mean to prosecute this enterprise almost alone. I shall join myself to the Eskimos." He paused at this point as if in meditation. Benjy, whose eyes and mouth had been gradually opening to their widest, almost gasped with astonishment as he glanced at his cousins, whose expressive countenances were somewhat similarly affected. "I have had some long talks," continued the Captain, "with that big Eskimo Chingatok, through our interpreter, and from what he says I believe my chances of success are considerable. I am all the more confirmed in this resolution because of the readiness and ability of my first mate to guide you out of the Arctic regions, and your willingness to trust him. Anders has agreed to go with me as interpreter, and now, all I want is one other man, because--" "Put me down, father," cried Benjy, in a burst of excitement--"_I'm_ your man." "Hush, lad," said the Captain with a little smile, "of course I shall take you with me and also your two cousins, but I want one other man to complete the party--but he must be a heartily willing man. Who will volunteer?" There was silence for a few moments. It was broken by the doctor. "I for one won't volunteer," he said, "for I'm too much shaken by this troublesome illness to think of such an expedition. If I were well it might be otherwise, but perhaps some of the others will offer." "You can't expect me to do so," said the mate, "for I've got to guide our party home, as agreed on; besides, under any circumstances, I would not join you, for it is simple madness. You'll forgive me, Captain. I mean no disrespect, but I have sailed many years to these seas, and I know from experience that what you propose is beyond the power of man to accomplish." "Experience!" repeated the Captain, quickly. "Has your experience extended further north than this point?" "No, sir, I have not been further north than this--nobody has. It is beyond the utmost limit yet reached, so far as I know." "Well, then, you cannot speak from _experience_ about what I propose," said the Captain, turning away. "Come, lads, I have no wish to constrain you, I merely give one of you the chance." Still no one came forward. Every man of the crew of the _Whitebear_ had had more or less personal acquaintance with arctic travel and danger. They would have followed Captain Vane anywhere in the yacht, but evidently they had no taste for what he was about to undertake. At last one stepped to the front. It was Butterface, the steward. This intensely black negro was a bulky, powerful man, with a modest spirit and a strange disbelief in his own capacities, though, in truth, these were very considerable. He came forward, stooping slightly, and rubbing his hands in a deprecating manner. "'Scuse me, massa Capting. P'r'aps it bery presumsheeous in dis yer chile for to speak afore his betters, but as no oder man 'pears to want to volunteer, I's willin' to go in an' win. Ob course I ain't a man-- on'y a nigger, but I's a willin' nigger, an' kin do a few small tings-- cook de grub, wash up de cups an' sarsers, pull a oar, clean yer boots, fight de Eskimos if you wants me to, an' ginrally to scrimmage around a'most anything. Moreover, I eats no more dan a babby--'sep wen I's hungry--an' I'll foller you, massa, troo tick and tin--to de Nort Pole, or de Sout Pole, or de East Pole, or de West Pole--or any oder pole wotsomediver--all de same to Butterface, s'long's you'll let 'im stick by you." The crew could not help giving the negro a cheer as he finished this loyal speech, and the Captain, although he would have preferred one of the other men, gladly accepted his services. A few days later the boats were ready and provisioned; adieus were said, hats and handkerchiefs waved, and soon after Captain Vane and his son and two nephews, with Anders and Butterface, were left to fight their battles alone, on the margin of an unexplored, mysterious Polar sea. CHAPTER FIVE. LEFT TO THEIR FATE. There are times, probably, in all conditions of life, when men feel a species of desolate sadness creeping over their spirits, which they find it hard to shake off or subdue. Such a time arrived to our Arctic adventurers the night after they had parted from the crew of the wrecked _Whitebear_. Nearly everything around, and much within, them was calculated to foster that feeling. They were seated on the rocky point on the extremity of which their yacht had been driven. Behind them were the deep ravines, broad valleys, black beetling cliffs, grand mountains, stupendous glaciers, and dreary desolation of Greenland. To right and left, and in front of them, lay the chaotic ice-pack of the Arctic sea, with lanes and pools of water visible here and there like lines and spots of ink. Icebergs innumerable rose against the sky, which at the time was entirely covered with grey and gloomy clouds. Gusts of wind swept over the frozen waste now and then, as if a squall which had recently passed, were sighing at the thought of leaving anything undestroyed behind it. When we add to this, that the wanderers were thinking of the comrades who had just left them--the last link, as it were, with the civilised world from which they were self-exiled, of the unknown dangers and difficulties that lay before them, and of the all but forlorn hope they had undertaken, there need be little wonder that for some time they all looked rather grave, and were disposed to silence. But life is made up of opposites, light and shade, hard and soft, hot and cold, sweet and sour, for the purpose, no doubt, of placing man between two moral battledores so as to drive the weak and erring shuttlecock of his will right and left, and thus keep it in the middle course of rectitude. No sooner had our adventurers sunk to the profoundest depths of gloom, than the battledore of brighter influences began to play upon them. It did not, however, achieve the end at once. "I'm in the lowest, bluest, dreariest, grumpiest, and most utterly miserable state of mind I ever was in in all my life," said poor little Benjy Vane, thrusting his hands into his pockets, sitting down on a rock, and gazing round on the waste wilderness, which had only just ceased howling, the very personification of despair. "So's I, massa," said Butterface, looking up from a compound of wet coal and driftwood which he had been vainly trying to coax into a flame for cooking purposes; "I's most 'orribly miserable!" There was a beaming grin on the negro's visage that gave the lie direct to his words. "That's always the way with you, Benjy," said the Captain, "either bubblin' over with jollity an' mischief, or down in the deepest blues." "Blues! father," cried the boy, "don't talk of blues--it's the blacks I'm in, the very blackest of blacks." "Ha! jus' like me," muttered Butterface, sticking out his thick lips at the unwilling fire, and giving a blow that any grampus might have envied. The result was that a column of almost solid smoke, which had been for some time rising thicker and thicker from the coals, burst into a bright flame. This was the first of the sweet influences before referred to. "Mind your wool, Flatnose," cried Benjy, as the negro drew quickly back. It may be remarked here that the mysterious bond of sympathy which united the spirits of Benjy Vane and the black steward found expression in kindly respect on the part of the man, and in various eccentric courses on the part of the boy--among others, in a habit of patting him on the back, and giving him a choice selection of impromptu names, such as Black-mug, Yellow-eyes, Square-jaws, and the like. "What have you got in the kettle?" asked Leo Vandervell, who came up with some dry driftwood at the moment. "Bubble-um-squeak," replied the cook. "What sort o' squeak is that?" asked Leo, as he bent his tall strong frame over the fire to investigate the contents of the kettle. "What am it, massa? Why, it am a bit o' salt pork, an' a bit o' dat bear you shooted troo de nose yes'rday, an' a junk o' walrus, an' two puffins, an' some injin corn, a leetil pepper, an' a leetil salt." "Good, that sounds well," said Leo. "I'll go fetch you some more driftwood, for it'll take a deal of boiling, that will, to make it eatable." The driftwood referred to was merely some pieces of the yacht which had been cast ashore by the hurly-burly of ice and water that had occurred during the last tide. No other species of driftwood was to be found on that coast, for the neighbouring region was utterly destitute of trees. "Where has Alf gone to?" asked the Captain, as Leo was moving away. "Oh, he's looking for plants and shells, as usual," answered Leo, with a smile. "You know his heart is set upon these things." "He'll have to set his heart on helping wi' the cargo after supper," said the Captain, drawing a small notebook and pencil from his pocket. A few more of the sweet and reviving influences of life now began to circle round the wanderers. Among them was the savoury odour that arose from the pot of bubble-um-squeak, also the improved appearance of the sky. It was night, almost midnight, nevertheless the sun was blazing in the heavens, and as the storm-clouds had rolled away like a dark curtain, his cheering rays were by that time gilding the icebergs, and rendering the land-cliffs ruddily. The travellers had enjoyed perpetual daylight for several weeks already, and at that high latitude they could count on many more to come. By the time supper was ready, the depressing influences were gone, and the spirits of all had recovered their wonted tone. Indeed it was not to the discredit of the party that they were so much cast down on that occasion, for the parting, perhaps for ever, from the friends with whom they had hitherto voyaged, had much more to do with their sadness than surrounding circumstances or future trials. "What plan do you intend to follow out, uncle?" asked Alphonse Vandervell, as they sat at supper that night round the kettle. "That depends on many things, lad," replied the Captain, laying down his spoon, and leaning his back against a convenient rock. "If the ice moves off, I shall adopt one course; if it holds fast I shall try another. Then, if you insist on gathering and carrying along with you such pocket-loads of specimens, plants, rocks, etcetera, as you've brought in this evening, I'll have to build a sort of Noah's ark, or omnibus on sledge-runners, to carry them." "And suppose I don't insist on carrying these things, what then?" "Well," replied the Captain, "in that case I would--well, let me see--a little more of the bubble, Benjy." "Wouldn't you rather some of the squeak?" asked the boy. "Both, lad, both--some of everything. Well, as I was saying--and you've a right to know what's running in my head, seeing that you have to help me carry out the plans--I'll give you a rough notion of 'em." The Captain became more serious as he explained his plans. "The Eskimos, you know," he continued, "have gone by what I may call the shore ice, two days' journey in advance of this spot, taking our dogs along with them. It was my intention to have proceeded to the same point in our yacht, and there, if the sea was open, to have taken on board that magnificent Eskimo giant, Chingatok, with his family, and steered away due north. In the event of the pack being impassable, I had intended to have laid the yacht up in some safe harbour; hunted and fished until we had a stock of dried and salted provisions, enough to last us two years, and then to have started northward in sledges, under the guidance of Chingatok, with a few picked men, leaving the rest and the yacht in charge of the mate. The wreck of the _Whitebear_ has, however, forced me to modify these plans. I shall now secure as much of our cargo as we have been able to save, and leave it here _en cache_--" "What sort of cash is that, father?" asked Benjy. "You are the best linguist among us, Leo, tell him," said the Captain, turning to his nephew. "`_En cache_' is French for `in hiding,'" returned Leo, with a laugh. "Why do you speak French to Englishmen, father?" said Benjy in a pathetic tone, but with a pert look. "'Cause the expression is a common one on this side the Atlantic, lad, and you ought to know it. Now, don't interrupt me again. Well, having placed the cargo in security," ("_En cache_," muttered Benjy with a glance at Butterface.) "I shall rig up the sledges brought from England, load them with what we require, and follow up the Eskimos. You're sure, Anders, that you understood Chingatok's description of the place?" The interpreter declared that he was quite sure. "After that," resumed the Captain, "I'll act according to the information the said Eskimos can give me. D'ye know, I have a strong suspicion that our Arctic giant Chingatok is a philosopher, if I may judge from one or two questions he put and observations he made when we first met. He says he has come from a fine country which lies far--very far--to the north of this; so far that I feel quite interested and hopeful about it. I expect to have more talk with him soon on the subject. A little more o' the bubble, lad; really, Butterface, your powers in the way of cookery are wonderful." "Chingatok seems to me quite a remarkable fellow for an Eskimo," observed Leo, scraping the bottom of the kettle with his spoon, and looking inquiringly into it. "I, too, had some talk with him--through Anders--when we first met, and from what he said I can't help thinking that he has come from the remote north solely on a voyage of discovery into what must be to him the unknown regions of the south. Evidently he has an inquiring mind." "Much like yourself, Leo, to judge from the way you peer into that kettle," said Benjy; "please don't scrape the bottom out of it. There's not much tin to mend it with, you know, in these regions." "Brass will do quite as well," retorted Leo, "and there can be no lack of that while you are here." "Come now, Benjy," said Alf, "that insolent remark should put you on your mettle." "So it does, but I won't open my lips, because I feel that I should speak ironically if I were to reply," returned the boy, gazing dreamily into the quiet countenance of the steward. "What are _you_ thinking of, you lump of charcoal?" "Me, massa? me tink dere 'pears to be room for more wittles inside ob me; but as all de grub's eated up, p'r'aps it would be as well to be goin' an' tacklin' suffin' else now." "You're right, Butterface," cried the Captain, rousing himself from a reverie. "What say you, comrades? Shall we turn in an' have a nap? It's past midnight." "I'm not inclined for sleep," said Alf, looking up from some of the botanical specimens he had collected. "No more am I," said Leo, lifting up his arms and stretching his stalwart frame, which, notwithstanding his youth, had already developed to almost the full proportions of a powerful man. "I vote that we sit up all night," said Benjy, "the sun does it, and why shouldn't we?" "Well, I've no objection," rejoined the Captain, "but we must work if we don't sleep--so, come along." Setting the example, Captain Vane began to shoulder the bags and boxes which lay scattered around with the energy of an enthusiastic railway porter. The other members of the party were not a whit behind him in diligence and energy. Even Benjy, delicate-looking though he was, did the work of an average man, besides enlivening the proceedings with snatches of song and a flow of small talk of a humorous and slightly insolent nature. CHAPTER SIX. FUTURE PLANS DISCUSSED AND DECIDED. Away to the northward of the spot where the _Whitebear_ had been wrecked there stretched a point of land far out into the Arctic Ocean. It was about thirty miles distant, and loomed hugely bluff and grand against the brilliant sky, as if it were the forefront of the northern world. No civilised eyes had ever beheld that land before. Captain Vane knew that, because it lay in latitude 83 north, which was a little beyond the furthest point yet reached by Arctic navigators. He therefore named it Cape Newhope. Benjy thought that it should have been named Butterface-beak, because the steward had been the first to observe it, but his father thought otherwise. About three miles to the northward of this point of land the Eskimos were encamped. According to arrangement with the white men they had gone there, as we have said, in charge of the dogs brought by Captain Vane from Upernavik, as these animals, it was thought, stood much in need of exercise. Here the natives had found and taken possession of a number of deserted Eskimo huts. These rude buildings were the abodes to which the good people migrated when summer heat became so great as to render their snow-huts sloppily disagreeable. In one of the huts sat Chingatok, his arms resting on his knees, his huge hands clasped, and his intelligent eyes fixed dreamily on the lamp-flame, over which his culinary mother was bending in busy sincerity. There were many points of character in which this remarkable mother and son resembled each other. Both were earnest--intensely so-- and each was enthusiastically eager about small matters as well as great. In short, they both possessed great though uncultivated minds. The hut they occupied was in some respects as remarkable as themselves. It measured about six feet in height and ten in diameter. The walls were made of flattish stones, moss, and the bones of seals, whales, narwhals, and other Arctic creatures. The stones were laid so that each overlapped the one below it, a very little inwards, and thus the walls approached each other gradually as they rose from the foundation; the top being finally closed by slabs of slate-stone. Similar stones covered the floor--one half of which floor was raised a foot or so above the other, and this raised half served for a seat by day as well as a couch by night. On it were spread a thick layer of dried moss, and several seal, dog, and bear skins. Smaller elevations in the corners near the entrance served for seats. The door was a curtain of sealskin. Above it was a small window, glazed, so to speak, with strips of semi-transparent dried intestines sewed together. Toolooha's cooking-lamp was made of soapstone, formed like a clam-shell, and about eight inches in diameter; the fuel was seal-oil, and the wick was of moss. It smoked considerably, but Eskimos are smoke-proof. The pot above it, suspended from the roof, was also made of soapstone. Sealskins hung about the walls drying; oily mittens, socks and boots were suspended about on pegs and racks of rib-bones. Lumps of blubber hung and lay about miscellaneously. Odours, not savoury, were therefore prevalent--but Eskimos are smell-proof. "Mother," said the giant, raising his eyes from the flame to his parent's smoke-encircled visage, "they are a most wonderful people, these Kablunets. Blackbeard is a great man--a grand man--but I think he is--" Chingatok paused, shook his head, and touched his forehead with a look of significance worthy of a white man. "Why think you so, my son?" asked the old woman, sneezing, as a denser cloud than usual went up her nose. "Because he has come here to search for _nothing_." "Nothing, my son?" "Yes--at least that is what he tried to explain to me. Perhaps the interpreter could not explain. He is not a smart man, that interpreter. He resembles a walrus with his brain scooped out. He spoke much, but I could not understand." "Could not understand?" repeated Toolooha, with an incredulous look, "let not Chingatok say so. Is there _anything_ that passes the lips of man which he cannot understand?" "Truly, mother, I once thought there was not," replied the giant, with a modest look, "but I am mistaken. The Kablunets make me stare and feel foolish." "But it is not possible to search for _nothing_," urged Toolooha. "So I said," replied her son, "but Blackbeard only laughed at me." "Did he?" cried the mother, with a much relieved expression, "then let your mind rest, my son, for Blackbeard must be a fool if he laughed at _you_." "Blackbeard is no fool," replied Chingatok. "Has he not come to search for new lands _here_, as you went to search for them _there_?" asked Toolooha, pointing alternately north and south. "No--if I have understood him. Perhaps the brainless walrus translated his words wrongly." "Is the thing he searches for something to eat?" "Something to drink or wear?" "No, I tell you. It is _nothing_! Yet he gives it a name. He calls it _Nort Pole_!" Perhaps it is needless to remind the reader that Chingatok and his mother conversed in their native tongue, which we have rendered as literally as possible, and that the last two words were his broken English for "North Pole!" "Nort Pole!" repeated Toolooha once or twice contemplatively. "Well, he may search for nothing if he will, but that he cannot find." "Nay, mother," returned the giant with a soft smile, "if he will search for nothing he is sure to find it!" Chingatok sighed, for his mother did not see the joke. "Blackbeard," he continued with a grave, puzzled manner, "said that this world on which we stand floats in the air like a bird, and spins round!" "Then Blackbeard is a liar," said Toolooha quietly, though without a thought of being rude. She merely meant what she said, and said what she meant, being a naturally candid woman. "That may be so, mother, but I think not." "How can the world float without wings?" demanded the old woman indignantly. "If it spinned should we not feel the spinning, and grow giddy?" "And Blackbeard says," continued the giant, regardless of the questions propounded, "that it spins round upon this _Nort Pole_, which he says is not a real thing, but only nothing. I asked Blackbeard--How can a world spin upon nothing?" "And what said he to that?" demanded Toolooha quickly. "He only laughed. They all laughed when the brainless walrus put my question. There is one little boy--the son I think of Blackbeard--who laughed more than all the rest. He lay down on the ice to laugh, and rolled about as if he had the bowel-twist." "That son of Blackbeard must be a fool more than his father," said Toolooha, casting a look of indignation at her innocent kettle. "Perhaps; but he is not like his father," returned Chingatok meekly. "There are two other chiefs among the Kablunets who seem to me fine men. They are very young and wise. They have learned a little of our tongue from the Brainless One, and asked me some questions about the rocks, and the moss, and the flowers. They are tall and strong. One of them is very grave and seems to think much, like myself. He also spoke of this Nothing--this Nort Pole. They are all mad, I think, about that thing-- that Nothing!" The conversation was interrupted at this point by the sudden entrance of the giant's little sister with the news that the Kablunets were observed coming round the great cape, dragging a sledge. "Is not the big oomiak with them?" asked her brother, rising quickly. "No, we see no oomiak--no wings--no fire," answered Oblooria, "only six men dragging a sledge." Chingatok went out immediately, and Oblooria was about to follow when her mother recalled her. "Come here, little one. There is a bit of blubber for you to suck. Tell me, saw you any sign of madness in these white men when they were talking with your brother about this--this--Nort Pole." "No, mother, no," answered Oblooria thoughtfully, "I saw not madness. They laughed much, it is true--but not more than Oolichuk laughs sometimes. Yes--I think again! There was one who seems mad--the small boy, whom brother thinks to be the son of Blackbeard--Benjay, they call him." "Hah! I thought so," exclaimed Toolooha, evidently pleased at her penetration on this point. "Go, child, I cannot quit the lamp. Bring me news of what they say and do." Oblooria obeyed with alacrity, bolting her strip of half-cooked blubber as she ran; her mother meanwhile gave her undivided attention to the duties of the lamp. The white men and all the members of the Eskimo band were standing by the sledge engaged in earnest conversation when the little girl came forward. Captain Vane was speaking. "Yes, Chingatok," he said, looking up at the tall savage, who stood erect in frame but with bent head and his hands clasped before him, like a modest chief, which in truth he was. "Yes, if you will guide me to your home in the northern lands, I will pay you well--for I have much iron and wood and such things as I think you wish for and value, and you shall also have my best thanks and gratitude. The latter may not indeed be worth much, but, nevertheless, you could not purchase it with all the wealth of the Polar regions." Chingatok looked with penetrating gaze at Anders while he translated, and, considering the nature of the communication, the so-called Brainless One proved himself a better man than the giant gave him credit for. "Does Blackbeard," asked Chingatok, after a few seconds' thought, "expect to find this Nothing--this Nort Pole, in my country?" "Well, I cannot exactly say that I do," replied the Captain; "you see, I'm not quite sure, from what you tell me, where your country is. It may not reach to the Pole, but it is enough for me that it lies in that direction, and that you tell me there is much open water there. Men of my nation have been in these regions before now, and some of them have said that the Polar Sea is open, others that it is covered always with ice so thick that it never melts. Some have said it is a `sea of ancient ice' so rough that no man can travel over it, and that it is not possible to reach the North Pole. I don't agree with that. I had been led to expect to fall in with this sea of ancient ice before I had got thus far, but it is not to be found. The sea indeed is partly blocked with ordinary ice, but there is nothing to be seen of this vast collection of mighty blocks, some of them thirty feet high--this wild chaos of ice which so effectually stopped some of those who went before me." This speech put such brains as the Brainless One possessed to a severe test, and, after all, he failed to convey its full meaning to Chingatok, who, however, promptly replied to such portions as he understood. "What Blackbeard calls the sea of old ice does exist," he said; "I have seen it. No man could travel on it, only the birds can cross it. But ice is not land. It changes place. It is here to-day; it is there to-morrow. Next day it is gone. We cannot tell where it goes to or when it will come back. The _very_ old ice comes back again and again. It is slow to become like your Nort Pole--nothing. But it melts at last and more comes in its place--growing old slowly and vanishing slowly. It is full of wonder--like the stars; like the jumping flames; like the sun and moon, which we cannot understand." Chingatok paused and looked upwards with a solemn expression. His mind had wandered into its favourite channels, and for the moment he forgot the main subject of conversation, while the white men regarded him with some surprise, his comrades with feelings of interest not unmingled with awe. "But," he continued, "I know where the sea of ancient ice-blocks is just now. I came past it in my kayak, and can guide you to it by the same way." "That is just what I want, Chingatok," said the Captain with a joyful look, "only aid me in this matter, and I will reward you well. I've already told you that my ship is wrecked, and that the crew, except those you see here, have left me; but I have saved all the cargo and buried it in a place of security with the exception of those things which I need for my expedition. One half of these things are on this sledge,--the other half on a sledge left behind and ready packed near the wreck. Now, I want you to send men to fetch that sledge here." "That shall be done," said Chingatok. "Thanks, thanks, my good fellow," returned the Captain, "and we must set about it at once, for the summer is advancing, and you know as well as I do that the hot season is but a short one in these regions." "A moment more shall not be lost," said the giant. He turned to Oolichuk, who had been leaning on a short spear, and gazing open-mouthed, eyed, and eared, during the foregoing conversation, and said a few words to him and to the other Eskimos in a low tone. Oolichuk merely nodded his head, said "Yah!" or something similarly significant, shouldered his spear and went off in the direction of the Cape of Newhope, followed by nearly all the men of the party. "Stay, not quite so fast," cried Captain Vane. "Stop!" shouted Chingatok. Oolichuk and his men paused. "One of us had better go with them," said the Captain, "to show the place where the sledge has been left." "I will go, uncle, if you'll allow me," said Leo Vandervell. "Oh! let me go too, father," pleaded Benjy, "I'm not a bit tired; do." "You may both go. Take a rifle with you, Leo. There's no saying what you may meet on the way." In half-an-hour the party under Oolichuk had reached the extremity of the cape, and Captain Vane observed that his volatile son mounted to the top of an ice-block to wave a farewell. He looked like a black speck, or a crow, in the far distance. Another moment, and the speck had disappeared among the hummocks of the ice-locked sea. CHAPTER SEVEN. DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED AND FACED. They had not quite doubled the Cape of Newhope, and were about to round the point which concealed the spot that had been named Wreck Bay, when they suddenly found themselves face to face with a Polar bear! Bruin was evidently out for an evening stroll, for he seemed to have nothing particular to do. Surprise lit up alike the countenances of the men and the visage of the bear. It was an unexpected meeting on both sides. The distance between them was not more than thirty feet. Leo was the only one of the party who carried a rifle. More than once during the voyage had Leo seen and shot a bear. The sight was not new to him, but never before had he come so suddenly, or so very close, upon this king of the Arctic Seas. He chanced at the time to be walking a few yards in advance of the party in company with Oolichuk and Benjy. The three stopped, stared, and stood as if petrified. For one moment, then they uttered a united and half involuntary roar. Right royally did that bear accept the challenge. It rose, according to custom, on its hind legs, and immediately began that slow, but deadly war-dance with which the race is wont to preface an attack, while its upper lip curled in apparent derision, exposing its terrible fangs. Leo recovered self-possession instantly. The rifle leaped to his shoulder, the centre of the bear's breast was covered, and the trigger pulled. Only a snap resulted. Leo had forgotten to load! Benjy gasped with anxiety. Oolichuk, who had held himself back with a sparkling smile of expectation at the prospect of seeing the Kablunet use his thunder-weapon, looked surprised and disappointed, but went into action promptly with his spear, accompanied by Akeetolik. Leo's rifle, being a breech-loader, was quickly re-charged, but as the rest of the party stood leaning on their spears with the evident intention of merely watching the combat, the youth resolved to hold his hand, despite Benjy's earnest recommendation to put one ball between the bear's eyes, and the other into his stomach. It was but a brief though decisive battle. Those Eskimos were well used to such warfare. Running towards the animal with levelled spears, the two men separated on coming close, so that Bruin was forced to a state of indecision as to which enemy he would assail first. Akeetolik settled the point for him by giving him a prick on the right side, thus, as it were, drawing the enemy's fire on himself. The bear turned towards him with a fierce growl, and in so doing, exposed his left side to attack. Oolichuk was not slow to seize the opportunity. He leaped close up, and drove his spear deep into the animal's heart--killing it on the spot. Next day the party returned to the Eskimo camp with the sledge-load of goods, and the bear on the top. While steaks of the same were being prepared by Toolooha, Captain Vane and his new allies were busy discussing the details of the advance. "I know that the difficulties will be great," he said, in reply to a remark from the interpreter, "but I mean to face and overcome them." "Ah!" exclaimed Alf, who was rather fond of poetry:-- "To dare unknown dangers in a noble cause, Despite an adverse Nature and her tiresome Laws." "Just so, Alf, my boy, stick at nothing; never give in; victory or death, that's my way of expressing the same sentiment. But there's one thing that I must impress once more upon you all--namely, that each man must reduce his kit to the very lowest point of size and weight. No extras allowed." "What, not even a box of paper collars?" asked Benjy. "Not one, my boy, but you may take a strait-waistcoat in your box if you choose, for you'll be sure to need it." "Oh! father," returned the boy, remonstratively, "you are severe. However, I will take one, if you agree to leave your woollen comforter behind. You won't need that, you see, as long as I am with you." "Of course," said Alf, "you will allow us to carry small libraries with us?" "Certainly not, my lad, only one book each, and that must be a small one." "The only book I possess is my Bible," said Leo, "and that won't take up much room, for it's an uncommonly small one." "If I only had my Robinson Crusoe here," cried Benjy, "I'd take it, for there's enough of adventure in that book to carry a man over half the world." "Ay," said Alf, "and enough of mind to carry him over the other half. For my part, if we must be content with one book each, I shall take Buzzby's poems." "Oh! horrible!" cried Benjy, "why, he's no better than a maudlin', dawdlin', drawlin', caterwaulin'--" "Come, Benjy, don't be insolent; he's second only to Tennyson. Just listen to this _morceau_ by Buzzby. It is an Ode to Courage-- "`High! hot! hillarious compound of--'" "Stop! stop! man, don't begin when we're in the middle of our plans," interrupted Benjy, "let us hear what book Butterface means to take." "I not take no book, massa, only take my flute. Music is wot's de matter wid me. Dat is de ting what hab charms to soove de savage beast." "I wouldn't advise you try to soothe a Polar bear with it," said Leo, "unless you have a rifle handy." "Yes--and especially an unloaded one, which is very effective against Polar bears," put in the Captain, with a sly look. "Ah, Leo, I could hardly have believed it of you--and you the sportsman of our party, too; our chief huntsman. Oh, fie!" "Come, uncle, don't be too hard on that little mistake," said Leo, with a slight blush, for he was really annoyed by the unsportsmanlike oversight hinted at; "but pray, may I ask," he added, turning sharply on the Captain, "what is inside of these three enormous boxes of yours which take up so much space on the sledges?" "You may ask, Leo, but you may not expect an answer. That is my secret, and I mean to keep it as a sort of stimulus to your spirits when the hardships of the way begin to tell on you. Ask Chingatok, Anders," continued the Captain, turning to the interpreter, "if he thinks we have enough provisions collected for the journey. I wish to start immediately." "We have enough," answered Chingatok, who had been sitting a silent, but deeply interested observer--so to speak--of the foregoing conversation. "Tell him, then, to arrange with his party, and be prepared to set out by noon to-morrow." That night, by the light of the midnight sun, the Eskimos sat round their kettles of bear-chops, and went into the _pros_ and _cons_ of the proposed expedition. Some were enthusiastically in favour of casting in their lot with the white men, others were decidedly against it, and a few were undecided. Among the latter was Akeetolik. "These ignorant men," said that bold savage, "are foolish and useless. They cannot kill bears. The one named Lo, (thus was Leonard's name reduced to its lowest denomination), is big enough, and looks very fine, but when he sees bear he only stares, makes a little click with his thunder-weapon, and looks stupid." "Blackbeard explained that," said Oolichuk; "Lo made some mistake." "That may be so," retorted Akeetolik, "but if you and me had not been there, the _bear_ would not make a mistake." "I will not go with these Kablunets," said Eemerk with a frown, "they are only savages. They are not taught. No doubt they had a wonderful boat, but they have not been able to keep their boat. They cannot kill bears; perhaps they cannot kill seals or walruses, and they ask us to help them to travel--to show them the way! They can do nothing. They must be led like children. My advice is to kill them all, since they are so useless, and take their goods." This speech was received with marks of decided approval by those of the party who were in the habit of siding with Eemerk, but the rest were silent. In a few moments Chingatok said, in a low, quiet, but impressive tone: "The Kablunets are not foolish or ignorant. They are wise--far beyond the wisdom of the Eskimos. It is Eemerk who is like a walrus without brains. He thinks that his little mind is outside of everything, and so he has not eyes to perceive that he is ignorant as well as foolish, and that other men are wise." This was the severest rebuke that the good-natured Chingatok had yet administered to Eemerk, but the latter, foolish though he was, had wisdom enough not to resent it openly. He sat in moody silence, with his eyes fixed on the ground. Of course Oolichuk was decidedly in favour of joining the white men, and so was Ivitchuk, who soon brought round his hesitating friend Akeetolik, and several of the others. Oblooria, being timid, would gladly have sided with Eemerk, but she hated the man, and, besides, would in any case have cast in her lot with her mother and brother, even if free to do otherwise. The fair Tekkona, whose courage and faith were naturally strong, had only one idea, and that was to follow cheerfully wherever Chingatok led; but she was very modest, and gave no opinion. She merely remarked: "The Kablunets are handsome men, and seem good." As for Toolooha, she had enough to do to attend to the serious duties of the lamp, and always left the settlement of less important matters to the men. "You and yours are free to do what you please," said Chingatok to Eemerk, when the discussion drew to a close. "I go with the white men to-morrow." "What says Oblooria?" whispered Oolichuk when the rest of the party were listening to Eemerk's reply. "Oblooria goes with her brother and mother," answered that young lady, toying coquettishly with her sealskin tail. Oolichuk's good-humoured visage beamed with satisfaction, and his flat nose curled up--as much as it was possible for such a feature to curl-- with contempt, as he glanced at Eemerk and said-- "I have heard many tales from Anders--the white man's mouthpiece--since we met. He tells me the white men are very brave and fond of running into danger for nothing but fun. Those who do not like the fun of danger should join Eemerk. Those who are fond of fun and danger should come with our great chief Chingatok--huk! Let us divide." Without more palaver the band divided, and it was found that only eight sided with Eemerk. All the rest cast in their lot with our giant, after which this Arctic House of Commons adjourned, and its members went to rest. A few days after that, Captain Vane and his Eskimo allies, having left the camp with Eemerk and his friends far behind them, came suddenly one fine morning on a barrier which threatened effectually to arrest their further progress northward. This was nothing less than that tremendous sea of "ancient ice" which had baffled previous navigators and sledging parties. "Chaos! absolute chaos!" exclaimed Alf Vandervell, who was first to recover from the shock of surprise, not to say consternation, with which the party beheld the scene on turning a high cape. "It looks bad," said Captain Vane, gravely, "but things often look worse at a first glance than they really are." "I hope it may be so in this case," said Leo, in a low tone. "Good-bye to the North Pole!" said Benjy, with a look of despondency so deep that the rest of the party laughed in spite of themselves. The truth was that poor Benjy had suffered much during the sledge journey which they had begun, for although he rode, like the rest of them, on one of the Eskimo sledges, the ice over which they had travelled along shore had been sufficiently rugged to necessitate constant getting off and on, as well as much scrambling over hummocks and broken ice. We have already said that Benjy was not very robust, though courageous and full of spirit, so that he was prone to leap from the deepest depths of despair to the highest heights of hope at a moment's notice--or _vice versa_. Not having become inured to ice-travel, he was naturally much cast down when the chaos above-mentioned met his gaze. "Strange," said the Captain, after a long silent look at the barrier, "strange that we should find it here. The experience of former travellers placed it considerably to the south and west of this." "But you know," said Leo, "Chingatok told us that the old ice drifts about just as the more recently formed does. Who knows but we may find the end of it not far off, and perhaps may reach open water beyond, where we can make skin canoes, and launch forth on a voyage of discovery." "I vote that we climb the cliffs and try to see over the top of this horrid ice-jumble," said Benjy. "Not a bad suggestion, lad. Let us do so. We will encamp here, Anders. Let all the people have a good feed, and tell Chingatok to follow us. You will come along with him." A few hours later, and the Captain, Leo, Alf, Benjy, Chingatok, and the interpreter stood on the extreme summit of the promontory which they had named Cape Chaos, and from which they had a splendid bird's-eye view of the whole region. It was indeed a tremendous and never-to-be-forgotten scene. As far as the eye could reach, the ocean was covered with ice heaped together in some places in the wildest confusion, and so firmly wedged in appearance that it seemed as if it had lain there in a solid mass from the first day of creation. Elsewhere the ice was more level and less compact. In the midst of this rugged scene, hundreds of giant icebergs rose conspicuously above the rest, towering upwards in every shape and of all sizes, from which the bright sun was flashed back in rich variety of form, from the sharp gleam that trickled down an edge of ice to the refulgent blaze on a glassy face which almost rivalled the sun himself in brilliancy. These icebergs, extending as they did to the horizon, where they mingled with and were lost in the pearl-grey sky, gave an impression of vast illimitable perspective. Although no sign of an open sea was at first observed, there was no lack of water to enliven the scene, for here and there, and everywhere, were pools and ponds, and even lakes of goodly size, which had been formed on the surface by the melting ice. In these the picturesque masses were faithfully reflected, and over them vast flocks of gulls, eider-ducks, puffins, and other wild-fowl of the north, disported themselves in garrulous felicity. On the edge of the rocky precipice, from which they had a bird's-eye view of the scene, our discoverers stood silent for some time, absorbed in contemplation, with feelings of mingled awe and wonder. Then exclamations of surprise and admiration broke forth. "The wonderful works of God!" said the Captain, in a tone of profound reverence. "Beautiful, beyond belief!" murmured Alf. "But it seems an effectual check to our advance," said the practical Leo, who, however, was by no means insensible to the extreme beauty of the scene. "Not effectual, lad; not effectual," returned the Captain, stretching out his hand and turning to the interpreter; "look, Anders, d'ye see nothing on the horizon away to the nor'ard? Isn't that a bit of water-sky over there?" "Ya," replied the interpreter, gazing intently, "there be watter-sky over there. Ya. But not possobubble for go there. Ice too big an' brokkin up." "Ask Chingatok what he thinks," returned the Captain. Chingatok's opinion was that the water-sky indicated the open sea. He knew that sea well--had often paddled over it, and his own country lay in it. "But how ever did he cross that ice?" asked the Captain; "what says he to that, Anders?" "I did not cross it," answered the Eskimo, through Anders. "When I came here with my party the ice was not there; it was far off yonder." He pointed to the eastward. "Just so," returned the Captain, with a satisfied nod, "that confirms my opinion. You see, boys, that the coast here trends off to the East'ard in a very decided manner. Now, if that was only the shore of a bay, and the land again ran off to the nor'ard, it would not be possible for such a sea of ice to have come from _that_ direction. I therefore conclude that we are standing on the most northern cape of Greenland; that Greenland itself is a huge island, unconnected with the Polar lands; that we are now on the shores of the great Polar basin, in which, somewhere not very far from the Pole itself, lies the home of our friend Chingatok--at least so I judge from what he has said. Moreover, I feel sure that the water-sky we see over there indicates the commencement of that `open sea' which, I hold, in common with many learned men, lies around the North Pole, and which I am determined to float upon before many days go by." "We'd better spread our wings then, father, and be off at once," said Benjy; "for it's quite certain that we'll never manage to scramble over that ice-jumble with sledges." "Nevertheless, I will try, Benjy." "But how, uncle?" asked Leo. "Ay, how?" repeated Alf, "_that_ is the question." "Come, come, Alf, let Shakespeare alone," said the pert Benjy, "if you _must_ quote, confine yourself to Buzzby." "Nay, Benjy, be not so severe. It was but a slip. Besides, our leader has not forbidden our carrying a whole library in our heads, so long as we take only one book in our pockets. But, uncle, you have not yet told us how you intend to cross that amazing barrier which Benjy has appropriately styled an ice-jumble." "How, boy?" returned the Captain, who had been gazing eagerly in all directions while they talked, "it is impossible for me to say how. All that I can speak of with certainty as to our future movements is, that the road by which we have come to the top of this cliff will lead us to the bottom again, where Toolooha is preparing for us an excellent supper of bear-steaks and tea. One step at a time, lads, is my motto; when that is taken we shall see clearly how and where to take the next." A sound sleep was the step which the whole party took after that which led to the bear-steaks. Then Captain Vane arose, ordered the dogs to be harnessed to the sledges, and, laying his course due north, steered straight out upon the sea of ancient ice. CHAPTER EIGHT. DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS INCREASE, AND THE CAPTAIN EXPOUNDS HIS VIEWS. The first part of the journey over the rugged ice was not so difficult as had been anticipated, because they found a number of openings--narrow lanes, as it were--winding between the masses, most of which were wide enough to permit of the passage of the sledges; and when they chanced to come on a gap that was too narrow, they easily widened it with their hatchets and ice-chisels. There was, however, some danger connected with this process, for some of the mighty blocks of ice amongst which they moved were piled in such positions that it only required a few choppings at their base to bring them down in ruins on their heads. One instance of this kind sufficed to warn them effectually. Captain Vane's dog-sledge was leading the way at the time. Leo drove it, for by that time the Eskimos had taught him how to use the short-handled whip with the lash full fifteen feet long, and Leo was an apt pupil in every athletic and manly exercise. Beside him sat the Captain, Alf, Benjy, and Butterface--the black visage of the latter absolutely shining with delight at the novelty of the situation. Behind came the sledge of Chingatok, which, besides being laden with bear-rugs, sealskins, junks of meat, and a host of indescribable Eskimo implements, carried himself and the precious persons of Toolooha and Tekkona. Next came the sledge of the laughter-loving Oolichuk, with the timid Oblooria and another woman. Then followed the sledges of Ivitchuk and Akeetolik, laden with the rest of the Eskimo women and goods, and last of all came Captain Vane's two English-made sledges, heavily-laden with the goods and provisions of the explorers. These latter sledges, although made in England, had been constructed on the principle of the native sledge, namely, with the parts fastened by means of walrus-sinew lashings instead of nails, which last would have snapped like glass in the winter frosts of the Polar regions, besides being incapable of standing the twistings and shocks of ice-travel. All the dogs being fresh, and the floor of the lanes not too rough, the strangely-assorted party trotted merrily along, causing the echoes among the great ice-blocks, spires, and obelisks, to ring to the music of their chatting, and the cracks of their powerful whips. Suddenly, a shout at the front, and an abrupt pull up, brought the whole column to a halt. The Captain's dogs had broken into a gallop. On turning suddenly round a spur of a glacier about as big as Saint Paul's Cathedral, they went swish into a shallow pond which had been formed on the ice. It was not deep, but there was sufficient water in it to send a deluge of spray over the travellers. A burst of laughter greeted the incident as they sprang off the sledge, and waded to the dry ice a few yards ahead. "No damage done," exclaimed the Captain, as he assisted the dogs to haul the sledge out of the water. "No damage!" repeated Benjy, with a rueful look, "why, I'm soaked from top to toe!" "Yes, you've got the worst of it," said Leo, with a laugh; "that comes of being forward, Benjy. You would insist on sitting in front." "Well, it is some comfort," retorted Benjy, squeezing the water from his garments, "that _Alf_ is as wet as myself, for that gives us an opportunity of sympathising with each other. Eh, _Alf_? Does Buzzby offer no consolatory remarks for such an occasion as this?" "O yes," replied Alf; "in his beautiful poem on Melancholy, sixth canto, Buzzby says:-- "`When trouble, like a curtain spread, Obscures the clouded brain, And worries on the weary head Descend like soaking rain-- Lift up th'umbrella of the heart, Stride manfully along; Defy depression's dreary dart, And shout in gleeful song.'" "Come, Alf, clap on to this tow-rope, an' stop your nonsense," said Captain Vane, who was not in a poetical frame of mind just then. "Dat is mos' boosiful potry!" exclaimed Butterface, with an immense display of eyes and teeth, as he lent a willing hand to haul out the sledge. "Mos' boosiful. But he's rader a strong rem'dy, massa, don' you tink? Not bery easy to git up a gleefoo' shout when one's down in de mout' bery bad, eh!" Alf's reply was checked by the necessity for remounting the sledge and resuming the journey. Those in rear avoided the pond by going round it. "The weather's warm, anyhow, and that's a comfort," remarked Benjy, as he settled down in his wet garments. "We can't freeze in summer, you know, and--" He stopped abruptly, for it became apparent just then that the opening close ahead of them was too narrow for the sledge to pass. It was narrowed by a buttress, or projection, of the cathedral-berg, which jutted up close to a vast obelisk of ice about forty feet high, if not higher. "Nothing for it, boys, but to cut through," said the Captain, jumping out, and seizing an axe, as the sledge was jammed between the masses. The dogs lay down to rest and pant while the men were at work. "It's cut an' come again in dem regins," muttered the negro steward, also seizing an axe, and attacking the base of the obelisk. A sudden cry of alarm from the whole party caused him to desist and look up. He echoed the cry and sprang back swiftly, for the huge mass of ice having been just on the balance, one slash at its base had destroyed the equilibrium, and it was leaning slowly over with a deep grinding sound. A moment later the motion was swift, and it fell with a terrible crash, bursting into a thousand fragments, scattering lumps and glittering morsels far and wide, and causing the whole ice-field to tremble. The concussion overturned several other masses, which had been in the same nicely-balanced condition, some near at hand, others out of sight, though within earshot, and, for a moment, the travellers felt as if the surrounding pack were disrupting everywhere and falling into utter ruin, but in a few seconds the sounds ceased, and again all was quiet. Fortunately, the obelisk which had been overturned fell towards the north--away from the party; but although it thus narrowly missed crushing them all in one icy tomb, it blocked up their path so completely that the remainder of that day had to be spent in cutting a passage through it. Need we say that, after this, they were careful how they used their axes and ice-chisels? Soon after the occurrence of this incident, the labyrinths among the ice became more broken, tortuous, and bewildering. At last they ceased altogether, and the travellers were compelled to take an almost straight course right over everything, for blocks, masses, and drifts on a gigantic scale were heaved up in such dire confusion, that nothing having the faintest resemblance to a track or passage could be found. "It's hard work, this," remarked the Captain to Leo one evening, seating himself on a mass of ice which he had just chopped from an obstruction, and wiping the perspiration from his brow. "Hard, indeed," said Leo, sitting down beside him, "I fear it begins to tell upon poor Benjy. You should really order him to rest more than he does, uncle." A grim smile of satisfaction played for a minute on the Captain's rugged face, as he glanced at his son, who, a short distance ahead, was hacking at the ice with a pick-axe, in company with Alf and Butterface and the Eskimo men. "It'll do him good, lad," replied the Captain. "Hard work is just what my Benjy needs. He's not very stout, to be sure, but there is nothing wrong with his constitution, and he's got plenty of spirit." This was indeed true. Benjy had too much spirit for his somewhat slender frame, but his father, being a herculean man, did not quite perceive that what was good for himself might be too much for his son. Captain Vane was, however, the reverse of a harsh man. He pondered what Leo had said, and soon afterwards went up to his son. "Benjy, my lad." "Yes, father," said the boy, dropping the head of his pick-axe on the ice, resting his hands on the haft, and looking up with a flushed countenance. "You should rest a bit now and then, Benjy. You'll knock yourself up if you don't." "Rest a bit, father! Why, I've just had a rest, and I'm not tired--that is, not very. Ain't it fun, father? And the ice cuts up so easily, and flies about so splendidly--see here." With flashing eyes our little hero raised his pick and drove it into the ice at which he had been working, with all his force, so that a great rent was made, and a mass the size of a dressing-table sprang from the side of a berg, and, falling down, burst into a shower of sparkling gems. But this was not all. To Benjy's intense delight, a mass of many tons in weight was loosened by the fall of the smaller lump, and rolled down with a thunderous roar, causing Butterface, who was too near it, to jump out of the way with an amount of agility that threw the whole party into fits of laughter. "What d'ye think o' that, father?" "I think it's somewhat dangerous," answered the Captain, recovering his gravity and re-shouldering his axe. "However, as long as you enjoy the work, it can't hurt you, so go ahead, my boy; it'll be a long time before you cut away too much o' the Polar ice!" Reaching a slightly open space beyond this point, the dogs were harnessed, and the party advanced for a mile or so, when they came to another obstruction worse than that which they had previously passed. "There's a deal of ice-rubbish in these regions," remarked Benjy, eyeing the wildly heaped masses with a grave face, and heaving a deep sigh. "Yes, Massa Benjy, bery too much altogidder," said Butterface, echoing the sigh. "Come, we won't cut through this," cried Captain Vane in a cheery voice; "we'll try to go over it. There is a considerable drift of old snow that seems to offer a sort of track. What says Chingatok?" The easy-going Eskimo said that it would be as well to go over it as through it, perhaps better! So, over it they went, but they soon began to wish they had tried any other plan, for the snow-track quickly came to an end, and then the difficulty of passing even the empty sledges from one ice mass to another was very great, while the process of carrying forward the goods on the shoulders of the men was exceedingly laborious. The poor dogs, too, were constantly falling between masses, and dragging each other down, so that they gave more trouble at last than they were worth. In all these trying circumstances, the Eskimo women were almost as useful as the men. Indeed they would have been quite as useful if they had been as strong, and they bore the fatigues and trials of the journey with the placid good humour, and apparent, if not real, humility of their race. At last, one afternoon, our discoverers came suddenly to the edge of this great barrier of ancient ice, and beheld, from an elevated plateau to which they had climbed, a scene which was calculated to rouse in their breasts feelings at once of admiration and despair, for there, stretching away below them for several miles, lay a sea of comparatively level ice, and beyond it a chain of stupendous glaciers, which presented an apparently impassable barrier--a huge continuous wall of ice that seemed to rise into the very sky. This chain bore all the evidences of being very old ice--compared to which that of the so-called "ancient sea" was absolutely juvenile. On the ice-plain, which was apparently illimitable to the right and left, were hundreds of pools of water in which the icebergs, the golden clouds, the sun, and the blue sky were reflected, and on the surface of which myriads of Arctic wild-fowl were sporting about, making the air vocal with their plaintive cries, and ruffling the glassy surfaces of the lakes with their dipping wings. The heads of seals were also observed here and there. "These will stop us at last," said Alf, pointing to the bergs with a profound sigh. "No, they won't," remarked the Captain quietly. "_Nothing_ will stop us!" "That's true, anyhow, uncle," returned Alf; "for if it be, as Chingatok thinks, that we are in search of nothing, of course when we find nothing, nothing will stop us!" "Why, Alf," said Leo, "I wonder that you, who are usually in an enthusiastic and poetical frame of mind, should be depressed by distant difficulties, instead of admiring such a splendid sight of birds and beasts enjoying themselves in what I may style an Arctic heaven. You should take example by Benjy." That youth did indeed afford a bright example of rapt enthusiasm just then, for, standing a little apart by himself, he gazed at the scene with flushed face, open mouth, and glittering eyes, in speechless delight. "Ask Chingatok if he ever saw this range before," said the Captain to Anders, on recovering from his first feeling of surprise. No, Chingatok had never seen it, except, indeed, the tops of the bergs-- at sea, in the far distance--but he had often heard of it from some of his countrymen, who, like himself, were fond of exploring. But that sea of ice was not there, he said, when he had passed on his journey southward. It had drifted there, since that time, from the great sea. "Ah! the great sea that he speaks of is just what we must find and cross over," muttered the Captain to himself. "But how are we to cross over it, uncle?" asked Leo. The Captain replied with one of his quiet glances. His followers had long become accustomed to this silent method of declining to reply, and forbore to press the subject. "Come now, boys, get ready to descend to the plain. We'll have to do it with caution." There was, indeed, ground for caution. We have said that they had climbed to an elevated plateau on one of the small bergs which formed the outside margin of the rugged ice. The side of this berg was a steep slope of hard snow, so steep that they thought it unwise to attempt the descent by what in Switzerland is termed glissading. "We'll have to zig-zag down, I think," continued the Captain, settling himself on his sledge; but the Captain's dogs thought otherwise. Under a sudden impulse of reckless free-will, the whole team, giving vent to a howl of mingled glee and fear, dashed down the slope at full gallop. Of course they were overtaken in a few seconds by the sledge, which not only ran into them, but sent them sprawling on their backs right and left. Then it met a slight obstruction, and itself upset, sending Captain Vane and his companions, with its other contents, into the midst of the struggling dogs. With momentarily increasing speed this avalanche of mixed dead and living matter went sliding, hurtling, swinging, shouting, struggling, and yelling to the bottom. Fortunately, there was no obstruction there, else had destruction been inevitable. The slope merged gradually into the level plain, over which the avalanche swept for a considerable distance before the momentum of their flight was expended. When at length they stopped, and disentangled themselves from the knot into which the traces had tied them, it was found that no one was materially hurt. Looking up at the height down which they had come, they beheld the Eskimos standing at the top with outstretched arms in the attitude of men who glare in speechless horror. But these did not stand thus long. Descending by a more circuitous route, they soon rejoined the Captain's party, and then, as the night was far advanced, they encamped on the edge of the ice-plain, on a part that was bathed in the beams of the ever-circling sun. That night at supper Captain Vane was unusually thoughtful and silent. "You're not losing heart, are you, uncle?" asked Leo, during a pause. "No, lad, certainly not," replied the Captain, dreamily. "You've not been bumped very badly in the tumble, father, have you?" asked Benjy with an anxious look. "Bumped? no; what makes you think so?" "Because you're gazing at Toolooha's lamp as if you saw a ghost in it." "Well, perhaps I do see a ghost there," returned the Captain with an effort to rouse his attention to things going on around him. "I see the ghost of things to come. I am looking through Toolooha's lamp into futurity." "And what does futurity look like?" asked Alf. "Bright or dark?" "Black--black as me," muttered Butterface, as he approached and laid fresh viands before the party. It ought to be told that Butterface had suffered rather severely in the recent glissade on the snow-slope, which will account for the gloomy view he took of the future at that time. "Listen," said the Captain, with a look of sudden earnestness; "as it is highly probable that a day or two more will decide the question of our success or failure, I think it right to reveal to you more fully my thoughts, my plans, and the prospects that lie before us. You all know very well that there is much difference of opinion about the condition of the sea around the North Pole. Some think it must be cumbered with eternal ice, others that it is comparatively free from ice, and that it enjoys a somewhat milder climate than those parts of the Arctic regions with which we have hitherto been doing battle. I hold entirely with the latter view--with those who believe in an open Polar basin. I won't weary you with the grounds of my belief in detail, but here are a few of my reasons-- "It is an admitted fact that there is constant circulation of the water in the ocean. That wise and painstaking philosopher, Maury, of the US navy, has proved to my mind that this grand circulation of the sea-water round the world is the cause of all the oceanic streams, hot and cold, with which we have been so long acquainted. "This circulation is a necessity as well as a fact. At the Equator the water is extremely warm and salt, besides lime-laden, in consequence of excessive evaporation. At the Poles it is extremely cold and fresh. Mixing is therefore a necessity. The hot salt-waters of the Equator flow to the Poles to get freshened and cooled. Those of the Poles flow to the Equator to get salted, limed, and warmed. They do this continuously in two grand currents, north and south, all round the world. But the land comes in as a disturbing element; it diverts the water into streams variously modified in force and direction, and the streams also change places variously, sometimes the hot currents travelling north as under-currents with the cold currents above, sometimes the reverse. One branch of the current comes from the Equator round the Cape of Good Hope, turns up the west coast of Africa, and is deflected into the Gulf of Mexico, round which it sweeps, and then shoots across the Atlantic to England and Norway. It is known as our Gulf Stream. "Now, the equatorial warm and salt current enters Baffin's Bay as a submarine current, while the cold and comparatively fresh waters of the Polar regions descend as a surface-current, bearing the great ice-fields of the Arctic seas to the southward. One thing that goes far to prove this, is the fact that the enormous icebergs thrown off from the northern glaciers have been frequently seen by navigators travelling northward, right _against_ the current flowing south. These huge ice-mountains, floating as they do with seven or eight parts of their bulk beneath the surface, are carried thus forcibly up stream by the under-current until their bases are worn off by the warm waters below, thus allowing the upper current to gain the mastery, and hurry them south again to their final dissolution in the Atlantic. "Now, lads," continued the Captain, with the air of a man who propounds a self-evident proposition; "is it not clear that if the warm waters of the south flow into the Polar basin as an _under_ current, they must come up _somewhere_, to take the place of the cold waters that are for ever flowing away from the Pole to the Equator? Can anything be clearer than that--except the nose on Benjy's face? Well then, that being so, the waters round the Pole _must_ be comparatively warm waters, and also, comparatively, free from ice, so that if we could only manage to cross this ice-barrier and get into them, we might sail right away to the North Pole." "But, father," said Benjy, "since you have taken the liberty to trifle with my nose, I feel entitled to remark that we can't sail in waters, either hot or cold, without a ship." "That's true, boy," rejoined the Captain. "However," he added, with a half-humorous curl of his black moustache, "you know I'm not given to stick at trifles. Time will show. Meanwhile I am strongly of opinion that this is the last ice-barrier we shall meet with on our way to the Pole." "Is there not some tradition of a mild climate in the furthest north among the Eskimos?" asked Alf. "Of course there is. It has long been known that the Greenland Eskimos have a tradition of an island in an iceless sea, lying away in the far north, where there are many musk-oxen, and, from what I have been told by our friend Chingatok, I am disposed to think that he and his kindred inhabit this island, or group of islands, in the Polar basin--not far, perhaps, from the Pole itself. He says there are musk-oxen there. But there is another creature, and a much bigger one than any Eskimo, bigger even than Chingatok, who bears his testimony to an open Polar sea, namely, the Greenland whale. It has been ascertained that the `right' whale does not, and cannot, enter the tropical regions of the Ocean. They are to him as a sea of fire, a wall of adamant, so that it is impossible for him to swim south, double Cape Horn, and proceed to the North Pacific; yet the very same kind of whale found in Baffin's Bay is found at Behring Straits. Now, the question is, how did he get there?" "Was born there, no doubt," answered Benjy, "and had no occasion to make such a long voyage!" "Ah! my boy, but we have the strongest evidence that he was _not_ born there, for you must know that some whalers have a habit of marking their harpoons with date and name of ship; and as we have been told by that good and true man Dr Scoresby, there have been several instances where whales have been captured near Behring Straits with harpoons in them bearing the stamp of ships that were known to cruise on the Baffin's Bay side of America. Moreover, in one or two instances a very short time had elapsed between the date of harpooning on the Atlantic and capturing on the Pacific side. These facts prove, at all events, a `North-west Passage' for whales, and, as whales cannot travel far under ice without breathing, they also tend to prove an open Polar sea. "Another argument in favour of this basin is the migration of birds to the northward at certain seasons. Birds do not migrate to frozen regions, and such migrations northward have been observed by those who, like ourselves, have reached the highest latitudes. "Captain Nares of the _Alert_, in May 1876, when only a little to the southward of this, saw ptarmigan flying in pairs to the north-west, seeking for better feeding-grounds. Ducks and geese also passed northward early in June, indicating plainly the existence of suitable feeding-grounds in the undiscovered and mysterious North. "We have now passed beyond the point reached by Captain Nares. My last observation placed us in parallel 84 degrees 40 minutes, the highest that has yet been reached by civilised man." "The highest, uncle?" interrupted Leo. "Yes--the highest. Scoresby reached 81 degrees 50 minutes in 1806, Parry 82 degrees 45 minutes in 1827--with sledges. That unfortunate and heroic American, Captain Hall, ran his vessel, the _Polaris_, in the shortest space of time on record, up to latitude 82 degrees 16 minutes. Captain Nares reached a higher latitude than had previously been attained by ships, and Captain Markham, of Captain Nares' expedition, travelled over this very `sea of ancient ice' with sledges to latitude 83 degrees 20.4 minutes--about 400 miles from the Pole, and the highest yet reached, as I have said. So, you see, we have beaten them all! Moreover, I strongly incline to the belief that the open Polar Sea lies just beyond that range of huge icebergs which we see before us." The Captain rose as he spoke, and pointed to the gigantic chain, behind one of which the sun was just about to dip, causing its jagged peaks to glow as with intense fire. "But how are we ever to pass that barrier, uncle?" asked Alf, who was by nature the least sanguine of the party in regard to overcoming difficulties of a geographical nature, although by far the most enthusiastic in the effort to acquire knowledge. "You shall see, to-morrow," answered the Captain; "at present we must turn in and rest. See, the Eskimos have already set us the example." CHAPTER NINE. THE CAPTAIN MAKES A STUPENDOUS EFFORT. DISAPPOINTMENTS AND DISCOVERIES. Next morning the ice-plain was crossed at a swinging gallop. Indeed, the dogs were so fresh and frisky after a good rest and a hearty meal that they ran away more than once, and it became a matter of extreme difficulty to check them. At last the great chain was reached, and the party came to an abrupt halt at the base of one of the largest of the bergs. Captain Vane gazed up at it as Napoleon the First may be supposed to have gazed at the Alps he had resolved to scale and cross. The resemblance to alpine scenery was not confined to mere form--such as towering peaks and mighty precipices--for there were lakelets and ponds here and there up among the crystal heights, from which rivulets trickled, streams brawled, and cataracts thundered. It was evident, however, that the old giant that frowned on them was verging towards dissolution, for he was honey-combed in all directions. "Impossible to scale that," said Alf, with a solemn look. Even Leo's sanguine temperament was dashed for a moment. "We dare not attempt to cut through it," he said, "for masses are falling about here and there in a very dangerous fashion." As he spoke, a tall spire was seen to slip from its position, topple over, and go crashing down into a dark blue gulf of ice below it. "No chance of success _now_," said Benjamin Vane, gloomily. "None wotsomediver," muttered Butterface, his broad black visage absolutely elongated by sympathetic despair. For, you must know, as far as his own feelings were concerned, sympathy alone influenced him. Personally, he was supremely indifferent about reaching the North Pole. In fact he did not believe in it at all, and made no scruple of saying so, when asked, but he seldom volunteered his opinion, being an extremely modest and polite man. During these desponding remarks Captain Vane did not seem to be much depressed. "Anders," he said, turning abruptly to the interpreter, "ask Chingatok what he thinks. Can we pass this barrier, and, if not, what would he advise us to do?" It was observed that the other Eskimos drew near with anxious looks to hear the opinion of their chief. Toolooha and Tekkona, however, seemed quite devoid of anxiety. They evidently had perfect confidence in the giant, and poor little Oblooria glanced up in the face of her friend as if to gather consolation from her looks. Chingatok, after a short pause, said:-- "The ice-mountains cannot be passed. The white men have not wings; they cannot fly. They must return to land, and travel for many days to the open water near the far-off land--there." He pointed direct to the northward. Captain Vane made no reply. He merely turned and gave orders that the lashings of one of the large sledges which conveyed the baggage should be cast loose. Selecting a box from this, he opened it, and took therefrom a small instrument made partly of brass, partly of glass, and partly of wood. "You have often wondered, Benjy," he said, "what I meant to do with this electrical machine. You shall soon see. Help me to arrange it, boy, and do you, Leo, uncoil part of this copper wire. Here, Alf, carry this little box to the foot of the berg, and lay it in front of yon blue cavern." "Which? That one close to the waterfall or--" "No, the big cavern, just under the most solid part of the berg--the one that seems to grow bluer and bluer until it becomes quite black in its heart. And have a care, Alf. The box you carry is dangerous. Don't let it fall. Lay it down gently, and come back at once. Anders," he added, turning round, "let all the people go back with dogs and sledges for a quarter of a mile." There was something so peremptory and abrupt in their leader's manner that no one thought of asking him a question, though all were filled with surprise and curiosity as to what he meant to do. "Come here, Leo," he said, after his orders had been obeyed. "Hold this coil, and pay it out as I walk to the berg with the end in my hand." The coil was one of extremely fine copper wire. Leo let it run as the Captain walked off. A minute or two later he was seen to enter the dark blue cavern and disappear. "My dear dad is reckless," exclaimed Benjy, in some anxiety, "what if the roof o' that cave should fall in. There are bits of ice dropping about everywhere. What _can_ he be going to do?" As he spoke, the Captain issued from the cave, and walked smartly towards them. "Now then, it's all right," he said, "give me the coil, Leo, and come back, all of you. Fetch the machine, Alf." In a few minutes the whole party had retired a considerable distance from the huge berg, the Captain uncoiling the wire as he went. "Surely you're not going to try to blow it up piecemeal?" said Leo. "No, lad, I'm not going to do that, or anything so slow," returned the Captain, stopping and arranging the instrument. "But if the box contains gunpowder," persisted Leo, "there's not enough to--" "It contains dynamite," said the Captain, affixing the coil to the machine, and giving it a sharp turn. If a volcano had suddenly opened fire under the iceberg the effect could not have been more tremendous. Thunder itself is not more deep than was the crash which reverberated among the ice-cliffs. Smoke burst in a huge volume from the heart of the berg. Masses, fragments, domes, and pinnacles were hurled into the air, and fell back to mingle with the blue precipices that tumbled, slid, or plunged in horrible confusion. Only a portion, indeed, of the mighty mass had been actually disrupted, but the shock to the surrounding ice was so shattering that the entire berg subsided. "Stu-pendous!" exclaimed Alf, with a look of awe-stricken wonder. Benjy, after venting his feelings in a shriek of joyful surprise, seemed to be struck dumb. Anders and Butterface stood still,--speechless. As for the Eskimos, they turned with one hideous yell, and fled from the spot like maniacs--excepting Chingatok, who, although startled, stood his ground in an attitude expressive of superlative surprise. "So,--it has not disappointed me," remarked the Captain, when the hideous din had ceased, "dynamite is indeed a powerful agent when properly applied: immeasurably more effective than powder." "But it seems to me," said Leo, beginning to recover himself, "that although you have brought the berg down you have not rendered it much more passable." "That's true, lad," answered the Captain with a somewhat rueful expression. "It does seem a lumpy sort of heap after all; but there may be found some practicable bits when we examine it more closely. Come, we'll go see." On closer inspection it was found that the ruined berg still presented an absolutely insurmountable obstacle to the explorers, who, being finally compelled to admit that even dynamite had failed, left the place in search of a natural opening. Travelling along the chain for a considerable time, in the hope of succeeding, they came at last to a succession of comparatively level floes, which conducted them to the extreme northern end of the chain, and there they found that the floes continued onwards in an unbroken plain to what appeared to be the open sea. "That is a water-sky, for certain," exclaimed Captain Vane, eagerly, on the evening when this discovery was made. "The open ocean cannot now be far off." "There's a very dark cloud there, father," said Benjy, who, as we have before said, possessed the keenest sight of the party. "A cloud, boy! where? Um--Yes, I see something--" "It is land," said Chingatok, in a low voice. "Land!" exclaimed the Captain, "are you sure?" "Yes, I know it well. I passed it on my journey here. We left our canoes and oomiaks there, and took to sledges because the floes were unbroken. But these ice-mountains were not here at that time. They have come down since we passed from the great sea." "There!" said the Captain, turning to Leo with a look of triumph, "he still speaks of the great sea! If these bergs came from it, we _must_ have reached it, lad." "But the land puzzles me," said Leo. "Can it be part of Greenland?" "Scarcely, for Greenland lies far to the east'ard, and the latest discoveries made on the north of that land show that the coast turns still more decidedly east--tending to the conclusion that Greenland is an island. This land, therefore, must be entirely new land--an island-- a continent perhaps." "But it may be a cape, father," interposed Benjy. "You know that capes have a queer way of sticking out suddenly from land, just as men's noses stick out from their faces." "True, Benjy, true, but your simile is not perfect, for men's noses don't always stick out from their faces--witness the nose of Butterface, which, you know, is well aft of his lips and chin. However, this _may_ be Greenland's nose--who knows? We shall go and find out ere long. Come, use your whip, Leo. Ho! Chingatok, tell your hairy kinsmen to clap on all sail and make for the land." "Hold on, uncle!" cried Alf, "I think I see a splendid specimen of--" The crack of Leo's whip, and the yelping of the team, drowned the rest of the sentence, and Alf was whirled away from his splendid specimen, (whatever it was), for ever! "It is a piece of great good fortune," said the Captain, as they swept along over the hard and level snow, "that the Eskimos have left their boats on this land, for now I shall have two strings to my bow." "What is the other string?" asked Leo, as he administered a flip to the flank of a lazy dog. "Ah, that remains to be seen, lad," replied the Captain. "Why, what a tyrant you are, uncle!" exclaimed Alf, who had recovered from his disappointment about the splendid specimen. "You won't tell us anything, almost. Who ever before heard of the men of an expedition to the North Pole being kept in ignorance of the means by which they were to get there?" The Captain's reply was only a twinkle of the eye. "Father wants to fill you with bliss, Alf," said Benjy, "according to your own notions of that sort of thing." "What do you mean, Ben?" "Why, have we not all heard you often quote the words:--`Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.'" "Hear, hear! That's it, Benjy," said the Captain, with a nod and a short laugh, while his son assumed the satisfied gravity of look appropriate to one who has made a hit; "I won't decrease his bliss by removing his ignorance yet awhile." "Hain't Buzzby got nuffin' to say on that 'ere pint?" whispered Butterface to Benjy, who sat just in front of him. "Ah! to be sure. I say, Alf," said the boy with an earnest look, "hasn't your favourite author got something to say about the bliss of ignorance? I'm almost sure I heard you muttering something in your dreams on that subject the other day." "Of course he has. He has a long poem on that subject. Here is a bit of it." Alf, whose memory was good, immediately recited the following: "How sweet is ignorance! How soothing to the mind, To search for treasures in the brain, and nothing find! Consider. When the memory is richly stored, How apt the victim of redundant knowledge to be bored! When Nothing fills the chambers of the heart and brain, Then negative enjoyment comes with pleasures in her train! Descending on the clods of sense like summer rain. "Knowledge, 'tis said, gives power, and so it often does; Knowledge makes sorrow, too, around our pillows buzz. In debt I am, with little cash; I know it--and am sad. Of course, if I were ignorant of this--how glad! A loving friend, whom once I knew in glowing health, Has broken down, and also, somehow, lost his wealth. How sad the knowledge makes me! Better far In ignorance to live, than hear of things that jar, And think of things that are not,--not of things that are. "`If ignorance is bliss,' the poet saith--why `if?' Why doubt a fact so clearly proven, stubborn, stiff? The heavy griefs and burdens of the world around, The hideous tyranny by which mankind is ground, The earthquake, tempest, rush of war, and wail of woe, Are all as though they were not--if I do not know! Wrapped in my robe of ignorance, what _can_ I miss? Am I not saved from all--and more than all--of this? Do I not revel in a regal realm of bliss?" "Bravo! Buzzby," cried the Captain, "but, I say, Alf, don't it seem to smack rather too much of selfishness?" "Of course it does, uncle. I do not think Buzzby always sound in principle, and, like many poets, he is sometimes confused in his logic." "You're right, Benjy, the land is clear enough now," remarked the Captain, whose interest in Buzzby was not profound, and whose feelings towards logic bordered on the contemptuous, as is often the case with half-educated men, and, strange to say, sometimes with highly-educated men, as well as with the totally ignorant--so true is it that extremes meet! In the course of a couple of hours the sledges drew near to the island, which proved to be a large but comparatively low one, rising not more than a hundred feet in any part. It was barren and ragged, with patches of reindeer moss growing in some parts, and dwarf willows in others. Myriads of sea-birds made it their home, and these received the invaders with clamorous cries, as if they knew that white men were a dangerous novelty, and objected to the innovation. Despite their remonstrances, the party landed, and the Eskimos hurried over the rocks to that part of the island where they had left their kayaks and women's boats in charge of a party of natives who were resident on the island at the time they passed, and from whom they had borrowed the dogs and sledges with which they had travelled south. Meanwhile the white men took to rambling; Leo to shoot wild-fowl for supper, Alf to search for "specimens," and Benjy to scramble among the rocks in search of anything that might "turn up." Butterface assisted the latter in his explorations. While the rest were thus engaged, the Captain extemporised a flag-staff out of two spears lashed together with a small block at the top for the purpose of running up a flag, and formally taking possession of the island when they should re-assemble. This done, he wrote a brief outline of his recent doings, which he inserted in a ginger-beer bottle brought for that very purpose. Then he assisted Anders in making the encampment and preparing supper. The two were yet in the midst of the latter operation when a shout was heard in the distance. Looking in the direction whence it came they saw Chingatok striding over the rocks towards them with unusual haste. He was followed by the other Eskimos, who came forward gesticulating violently. "My countrymen have left the island," said Chingatok when he came up. "And taken the kayaks with them?" asked Captain Vane anxiously. "Every one," replied the giant. This was depressing news to the Captain, who had counted much on making use of the Eskimo canoes in the event of his own appliances failing. "Where have they gone, think you?" he asked. "Tell Blackbeard," replied Chingatok, turning to Anders, "that no one knows. Since they went away the lanes of open water have closed, and the ice is solid everywhere." "But where the kayak and the oomiak cannot float the sledge may go," said the Captain. "That is true; tell the pale chief he is wise, yet he knows not all things. Let him think. When he comes to the great open sea what will he do without canoes?" "Huk!" exclaimed Oolichuk, with that look and tone which intimated his belief that the pale chief had received a "clincher." The chattering of the other Eskimos ceased for a moment or two as they awaited eagerly the Captain's answer, but the Captain disappointed them. He merely said, "Well, we shall see. I may not know all things, Chingatok, nevertheless I know a deal more than you can guess at. Come now, let's have supper, Anders; we can't wait for the wanderers." As he spoke, three of the wanderers came into camp, namely Leo, Benjy, and Butterface. "What's come of Alf?" asked the Captain. Neither Leo nor Benjy had seen him since they parted, a quarter of an hour after starting, and both had expected to find him in camp, but Butterface had seen him. "Sawd him runnin'," said the sable steward, "runnin' like a mad kangaroo arter a smallish brute like a mouse. Nebber sawd nuffin' like Massa Alf for runnin'." "Well, we can't wait for him," said the Captain, "I want to take possession of the island before supper. What shall we call it?" "Disappointment Isle," said Leo, "seeing that the Eskimos have failed us." "No--I won't be ungrateful," returned the Captain, "considering the successes already achieved." "Call it Content Isle, then," suggested Benjy. "But I am not content with partial success. Come, Butterface, haven't you got a suggestion to make." The negro shook his woolly head. "No," he said, "I's 'orrible stoopid. Nebber could get nuffin' to come out o' my brain--sep w'en it's knocked out by accident. You's hard to please, massa. S'pose you mix de two,-- dis'pintment an' content,--an' call 'im Half-an'-half Island." "Home is in sight now," said Chingatok, who had taken no interest in the above discussion, as it was carried on in English. "A few days more and we should be there if we only had our kayaks." "There's the name," exclaimed the Captain eagerly when this was translated, "`Home-in-sight,' that will do." Rising quickly, he bent a Union Jack to the halyards of his primitive flag-staff, ran it up, and in the name of Queen Victoria took possession of _Home-in-sight Island_. After having given three hearty British cheers, in which the Eskimos tried to join, with but partial success, they buried the ginger-beer bottle under a heap of stones, a wooden cross was fixed on the top of the cairn, and then the party sat down to supper, while the Captain made a careful note of the latitude and longitude, which he had previously ascertained. This latest addition to Her Majesty's dominions was put down by him in latitude 85 degrees 32 minutes, or about 288 geographical miles from the North Pole. CHAPTER TEN. A SKETCHER IN IMMINENT DANGER. DIFFICULTIES INCREASE, AND ARE OVERCOME AS USUAL. The first night on Home-in-sight Island was not so undisturbed as might have been expected. The noisy gulls did indeed go to sleep at their proper bed-time, which, by the way, they must have ascertained by instinct, for the sun could be no certain guide, seeing that he shone all night as well as all day, and it would be too much to expect that gulls had sufficient powers of observation to note the great luminary's exact relation to the horizon. Polar bears, like the Eskimo, had forsaken the spot. All nature, indeed, animate and inanimate, favoured the idea of repose when the explorers lay down to sleep on a mossy couch that was quite as soft as a feather bed, and much more springy. The cause of disturbance was the prolonged absence of Alf Vandervell. That enthusiastic naturalist's failure to appear at supper was nothing uncommon. His non-appearance when they lay down did indeed cause some surprise, but little or no anxiety, and they all dropped into a sound sleep which lasted till considerably beyond midnight. Then the Captain awoke with a feeling of uneasiness, started up on one elbow, yawned, and gazed dreamily around. The sun, which had just kissed his hand to the disappointed horizon and begun to re-ascend the sky, blinded the Captain with his beams, but did not prevent him from observing that Alf's place was still vacant. "Very odd," he muttered, "Alf didn't use to--to--w'at's 'is name in-- this--way--" The Captain's head dropped, his elbow relaxed, and he returned to the land of Nod for another half-hour. Again he awoke with a start, and sat upright. "This'll never do," he exclaimed, with a fierce yawn, "something _must_ be wrong. Ho! Benjy!" "Umph!" replied the boy, who, though personally light, was a heavy sleeper. "Rouse up, Ben, Alf's not come back. Where did you leave him?" "Don' know, Burrerface saw 'im las'--." Benjy dropped off with a sigh, but was re-aroused by a rough shake from his father, who lay close to him. "Come, Ben, stir up Butterface! We must go look for Alf." Butterface lay on the other side of Benjy, who, only half alive to what he was doing, raised his hand and let it fall heavily on the negro's nose, by way of stirring him up. "Hallo! massa Benjamin! You's dreamin' drefful strong dis mornin'." "Yer up, ol' ebony!" groaned the boy. In a few minutes the whole camp was roused; sleep was quickly banished by anxiety about the missing one; guns and rifles were loaded, and a regular search-expedition was hastily organised. They started off in groups in different directions, leaving the Eskimo women in charge of the camp. The Captain headed one party, Chingatok another, and Leo with Benjy a third, while a few of the natives went off independently, in couples or alone. "I was sure Alf would get into trouble," said Benjy, as he trotted beside Leo, who strode over the ground in anxious haste. "That way he has of getting so absorbed in things that he forgets where he is, won't make him a good explorer." "Not so sure of that, Ben," returned Leo; "he can discover things that men who are less absorbed, like you, might fail to note. Let us go round this hillock on separate sides. We might pass him if we went together. Keep your eyes open as you go. He may have stumbled over one of those low precipices and broken a leg. Keep your ears cocked also, and give a shout now and then." We have said that the island was a low one, nevertheless it was extremely rugged, with little ridges and hollows everywhere, like miniature hills and valleys. Through one of these latter Benjy hurried, glancing from side to side as he went, like a red Indian on the war-path--which character, indeed, he thought of, and tried to imitate. The little vale did not, however, as Leo had imagined, lead round the hillock. It diverged gradually to the right, and ascended towards the higher parts of the island. The path was so obstructed by rocks and boulders which had evidently been at one time under the pressure of ice, that the boy could not see far in any direction, except by mounting one of these. He had not gone far when, on turning the corner of a cliff which opened up another gorge to view, he beheld a sight which caused him to open mouth and eyes to their widest. For there, seated on an eminence, with his back to a low precipice, not more than three or four hundred yards off, sat the missing explorer, with book on knees and pencil in hand--sketching; and there, seated on the top of the precipice, looking over the edge at the artist, skulked a huge Polar bear, taking as it were, a surreptitious lesson in drawing! The bear, probably supposing Alf to be a wandering seal, had dogged him to that position just as Benjy Vane discovered him, and then, finding the precipice too high for a leap perhaps, or doubting the character of his intended victim, he had paused in uncertainty on the edge. The boy's first impulse was to utter a shout of warning, for he had no gun wherewith to shoot the brute, but fear lest that might precipitate an attack restrained him. Benjy, however, was quick-witted. He saw that the leap was probably too much even for a Polar bear, and that the nature of the ground would necessitate a detour before it could get at the artist. These and other thoughts passed through his brain like the lightning flash, and he was on the point of turning to run back and give the alarm to Leo, when a rattling of stones occurred behind him--just beyond the point of rocks round which he had turned. In the tension of his excited nerves he felt as if he had suddenly become red hot. Could this be another bear? If so, what was he to do, whither to fly? A moment more would settle the question, for the rattle of stones continued as the steps advanced. The boy felt the hair rising on his head. Round came the unknown monster in the form of--a man! "Ah, Benjy, I--" But the appearance of Benjy's countenance caused Leo to stop abruptly, both in walk and talk. He had found out his mistake about sending the boy round the hillock, and, turning back, had followed him. "Ah! look there," said Benjy, pointing at the _tableau vivant_ on the hill-top. Leo's ready rifle leaped from his shoulder to his left palm, and a grim smile played on his lips, for long service in a volunteer corps had made him a good judge of distance as well as a sure and deadly shot. "Stand back, Benjy, behind this boulder," he whispered. "I'll lean on it to make more certain." He was deliberately arranging the rifle while speaking, but never for one instant took his eye off the bear, which still stood motionless, with one paw raised, as if petrified with amazement at what it saw. As for Alf, he went on intently with his work, lifting and lowering his eyes continuously, putting in bold dashes here, or tender touches there; holding out the book occasionally at arm's length to regard his work, with head first on one side, then on the other, and, in short, going through all those graceful and familiar little evolutions of artistic procedure which arouse one's home feelings so powerfully everywhere-- even in the Arctic regions! Little did the artist know who was his uninvited pupil on that sunny summer night! With one knee resting on a rock, and his rifle on the boulder, Leo took a steady, somewhat lengthened aim, and fired. The result was stupendous! Not only did the shot reverberate with crashing echoes among surrounding cliffs and boulders, but a dying howl from the bear burst over the island, like the thunder of a heavy gun, and went booming over the frozen sea. No wonder that the horrified Alf leapt nearly his own height into the air and scattered his drawing-materials right and left like chaff. He threw up his arms, and wheeled frantically round just in time to receive the murdered bear into his very bosom! They rolled down a small slope together, and then, falling apart, lay prone and apparently dead upon the ground. You may be sure that Leo soon had his brother's head on his knee, and was calling to him in an agony of fear, quite regardless of the fact that the bear lay at his elbow, giving a few terrific kicks as its huge life oozed out through a bullet-hole in its heart, while Benjy, half weeping with sympathy, half laughing with glee, ran to a neighbouring pool to fetch water in his cap. A little of the refreshing liquid dashed on his face and poured down his throat soon restored Alf, who had only been stunned by the fall. "What induced you to keep on sketching all night?" asked Leo, after the first explanations were over. "All night?" repeated Alf in surprise, "have I been away all night? What time is it?" "Three o'clock in the morning at the very least," said Leo. "The sun is pretty high, as you might have seen if you had looked at it." "But he never looked at it," said Benjy, whose eyes were not yet quite dry, "he never looks at anything, or thinks of anything, when he goes sketching." "Surely you must allow that at least I look at and think of my work," said Alf, rising from the ground and sitting down on the rock from which he had been so rudely roused; "but you are half right, Benjy. The sun was at my back, you see, hid from me by the cliff over which the bear tumbled, and I had no thoughts for time, or eyes for nature, except the portion I was busy with--by the way, where is it?" "What, your sketch?" "Ay, and the colours. I wouldn't lose these for a sight of the Pole itself. Look for them, Ben, my boy, I still feel somewhat giddy." In a few minutes the sketch and drawing-materials were collected, undamaged, and the three returned to camp, Alf leaning on Leo's arm. On the way thither they met the Captain's party, and afterwards the band led by Chingatok. The latter was mightily amused by the adventure, and continued for a considerable time afterwards to upheave his huge shoulders with suppressed laughter. When the whole party was re-assembled the hour was so late, and they had all been so thoroughly excited, that no one felt inclined to sleep again. It was resolved, therefore, at once to commence the operations of a new day. Butterface was set to prepare coffee, and the Eskimos began breakfast with strips of raw blubber, while steaks of Leo's bear were being cooked. Meanwhile Chingatok expressed a wish to see the drawing which had so nearly cost the artist his life. Alf was delighted to exhibit and explain it. For some time the giant gazed at it in silence. Then he rested his forehead in his huge hand as if in meditation. It was truly a clever sketch of a surpassingly lovely scene. In the foreground was part of the island with its pearl-grey rocks, red-brown earth, and green mosses, in the midst of which lay a calm pool, like the island's eye looking up to heaven and reflecting the bright indescribable blue of the midnight sky. Further on was a mass of cold grey rocks. Beyond lay the northern ice-pack, which extended in chaotic confusion away to the distant horizon, but the chaos was somewhat relieved by the presence of lakelets which shone here and there over its surface like shields of glittering azure and burnished gold. "Ask him what he thinks of it," said Leo to Anders, a little surprised at Chingatok's prolonged silence. "I cannot speak," answered the giant, "my mind is bursting and my heart is full. With my finger I have drawn faces on the snow. I have seen men put wonderful things on flat rocks with a piece of stone, but this!--this is my country made little. It looks as if I could walk in it, yet it is flat!" "The giant is rather complimentary," laughed Benjy, when this was translated; "to my eye your sketch is little better than a daub." "It is a daub that causes me much anxiety," said the Captain, who now looked at the drawing for the first time. "D'you mean to tell me, Alf, that you've been true to nature when you sketched that pack?" "As true as I could make it, uncle." "I'll answer for its truth," said Leo, "and so will Benjy, for we both saw the view from the top of the island, though we paid little heed to it, being too much occupied with Alf and the bear at the time. The pack is even more rugged than he has drawn it, and it extends quite unbroken to the horizon." The Captain's usually hopeful expression forsook him for a little as he commented on his bad fortune. "The season advances, you see," he said, "and it's never very long at the best. I had hoped we were done with this troublesome `sea of ancient ice,' but it seems to turn up everywhere, and from past experience we know that the crossing of it is slow work, as well as hard. However, we mustn't lose heart. `Nebber say die,' as Butterface is fond of remarking." "Yis, Massa, nebber say die, but allers say `lib, to de top ob your bent.' Dems my 'pinions w'en dey's wanted. Also `go a-hid.' Dat's a grand sent'ment--was borned 'mong de Yankees, an' I stoled it w'en I left ole Virginny." "What says Chingatok?" asked the Captain of the Eskimo, who was still seated with the sketch on his knees in profound meditation. "Blackbeard has trouble before him," answered the uncompromising giant, without removing his eyes from the paper. "There," he said, pointing to the pack, "you have three days' hard work. After that three days' easy and swift work. After that no more go on. Must come back." "He speaks in riddles, Anders. What does he mean by the three days of hard work coming to an end?" "I mean," said Chingatok, "that the ice was loose when I came to this island. It is now closed. The white men must toil, toil, toil--very slow over the ice for three days, then they will come to smooth ice, where the dogs may run for three days. Then they will come to another island, like this one, on the far-off side of which there is no ice-- nothing but sea, sea, sea. Our kayaks are gone," continued the giant, sadly, "we must come back and travel many days before we find things to make new ones." While he was speaking, Captain Vane's face brightened up. "Are you sure of what you say, Chingatok?" "Chingatok is sure," replied the Eskimo quietly. "Then we'll conquer our difficulties after all. Come, boys, let's waste no more time in idle talk, but harness the dogs, and be off at once." Of course the party had to travel round the island, for there was neither ice nor snow on it. When the other side was reached the real difficulties of the journey were fully realised. During the whole of that day and the next they were almost continuously engaged in dragging the sledges over masses of ice, some of which rose to thirty feet above the general level. If the reader will try to imagine a very small ant or beetle dragging its property over a newly macadamised road, he will have a faint conception of the nature of the work. To some extent the dogs were a hindrance rather than a help, especially when passing over broken fragments, for they were always tumbling into holes and cracks, out of which they had to be dragged, and were much given to venting their ill-humour on each other, sometimes going in for a free fight, in the course of which they tied their traces into indescribable knots, and drove their Eskimo masters furious. On such occasions the whips--both lash and handle--were applied with unsparing vigour until the creatures were cowed. Danger, also, as well as toil, was encountered during the journey. On the evening of the second day the sledge driven by Oolichuk diverged a little from the line of march towards what seemed an easier passage over the hummocks. They had just gained the top of an ice-block, which, unknown to the driver, overhung its base. When the dogs reached the edge of the mass, it suddenly gave way. Down went the team with a united howl of despair. Their weight jerked the sledge forward, another mass of the ice gave way, and over went the whole affair. In the fall the lashings broke, and Oolichuk, with several of his kindred, including poor little Oblooria, went down in a shower of skins, packages, bags, and Eskimo cooking utensils. Fortunately, they dropped on a slope of ice which broke their fall, and, as it were, shunted them all safely, though violently, to the lower level of the pack. Beyond a few scratches and bruises, no evil resulted from this accident to these hardy natives of the north. That night they all encamped, as on the previous night, in the midst of the pack, spreading their skins and furs on the flattest ice they could find, and keeping as far from overhanging lumps as possible. "What does Blackbeard mean by coming here?" asked Chingatok of Anders, as they lay side by side, gazing up at the blue sky awaiting sleep. "We cannot swim over the sea, and we have no boats." "I don't know," answered the interpreter. "Our chief is a wonderful man. He does things that seem to be all wrong, but they turn out mostly to be all right." "Does he ever speak of a Great Spirit?" asked the giant in a solemn tone. "Not to me," replied the other, "but I hear him sometimes speaking to his little boy about his God." "Then he must know his God," returned Chingatok. "Has he seen him-- spoken to him?" Anders was a good deal surprised as well as puzzled by the questions put by his new friend. His extremely commonplace mind had never been exercised by such ideas. "I never asked him about that," he said, "and he never told me. Perhaps he will tell you if you ask him." The interpreter turned on his side with a sigh and went to sleep. The giant lay on his back gazing long and steadily with a wistful look at the unbroken vault of sky, whose vast profundity seemed to thrust him mercilessly back. As he gazed, a little cloud, light as a puff of eider-down, and golden as the sun from which its lustre came, floated into the range of his vision. He smiled, for the thought that light may suddenly arise when all around seems blank gave his inquiring spirit rest, and he soon joined the slumbering band who lay upon the ice around him. According to Chingatok's prophecy, on the third day the fagged and weary discoverers surmounted their first difficulty, and came upon comparatively smooth ice, the surface of which resembled hard-trodden snow, and was sufficiently free from obstructing lumps to admit of rapid sledge travelling. It was late when they reached it, but as they could now all sit on the sledges and leave the hard work to the dogs, the leader resolved to continue the advance without resting. "It's time enough to stop when we're stopped," he remarked to Leo, while making preparations to start. "We will sleep at the first obstruction we meet with, if it's a sufficiently troublesome one. See that the things are well lashed on all the sledges, Alf. Remember that I hold you responsible for lost articles." "And what am I responsible for, father?" asked Benjy with a pert look. "For keeping out of mischief, Ben. That's the most I can expect of you." "You are only a sort of negative blessing to us, you see, Benjy," said Alf, as he stooped to tighten a rope. "It's not so much what you do, as what you don't do, that rejoices us." "I'm glad of that," retorted the boy, arranging himself comfortably on his father's sledge, "because I won't do anything at all for some hours to come, which ought to fill you all with perfect felicity. Awake me, Leo, if we chance to upset." "Now then, all ready?" cried the Captain. "Off you go, then--clap on all sail!" Crack went the mighty whips, howl went the dogs, and the sledges were soon skimming over the sea at the rate of ten miles an hour. Of course they did not keep that pace up very long. It became necessary to rest at times, also, to give the dogs a little food. When this latter process had been completed, the teams became so lively that they tried to runaway. "Let them run," said the Captain to Leo. "And help them on," added Benjy. Leo took the advice of both, applied the lash, and increased the speed so much that the sledge swung from side to side on the smooth places, sometimes catching on a lump of ice, and all but throwing out its occupants. The Eskimos entered into the spirit of their leaders. They also plied their lashes, and, being more dexterous than Leo, soon converted the journey into a race, in which Chingatok--his giant arm flourishing an appropriately huge whip--was rapidly coming to the front when a tremendous shout in the rear caused them to pull up. Looking back, Alf's sledge was seen inverted and mixed, as it were, with the team, while Alf himself and his Eskimo friends were sprawling around on the ice. No damage was done to life or limb, but a sledge-runner had been partially broken, and could not be mended,--so said Oolichuk--in less than an hour. "This, then," said the Captain, "is our first obstruction, so here we will make our beds for the night." CHAPTER ELEVEN. ANOTHER ISLAND DISCOVERED--THE ENGLISHMEN AND ESKIMOS ALIKE ARE ASTONISHED IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. As Chingatok had predicted, on the sixth day from Home-in-sight Island the party came to another island, where the great pack abruptly terminated. It was not large, probably ten or twelve miles in length, from the Eskimo account, but the ends of it could not be seen from the spot where they landed. At that point it was only two miles wide, and on the opposite side its shores were laved by an open sea, which was quite free from ice, with the exception of a few scattered floes and bergs--a sea whose waves fell in slow regular cadence on a pebbly beach, and whose horizon was an unbroken line barely distinguishable from the sky. Close to it a few black rocks showed above the water, around which great numbers of gulls, puffins, and other sea-birds disported themselves in clamorous joy; sometimes flying to the shore as if to have a look at the newcomers, and then sheering off with a scream--it might be a laugh--to tell their comrades what they had seen. "Here, then, at last, is the open Polar Sea," said Captain Vane, after the first long silent gaze of joy and admiration. "I have no doubt of it whatever. And now we shall proceed, I hope without interruption, to the Pole!" "Of course you do not intend that we should swim there, do you, uncle?" said Leo. "Of course not, my boy. In those big cases, which have cost us so much labour to bring here, I have three large and stout india-rubber boats--" "Ha! I guessed as much," exclaimed Alf. "No doubt," returned the Captain, "but you did not guess all." "I hope not," said Leo, "for to say truth I don't much relish the idea of rowing over an unknown sea an unknown distance at the rate of three or four miles an hour. I hope you have a patent steam-engine that will drive us along somewhat faster." "No, lad, no, I have no such steam-engine or any other miraculous contrivance that sets the laws of nature at defiance, and appears only in nursery tales. This expedition has been undertaken on no haphazard or insane plan. It was all cut and dry before we left Old England, and it is much simpler than you suppose." "What, then, is to be your motive power, if not oars or sails--which last would not work well, I fear, in an india-rubber boat?" asked Leo. "Kites," replied the Captain. "Kites!" repeated both Alf and Leo in surprise. "Not paper ones, surely," said Benjy, in a tone of disappointment, not unmingled with contempt. "No, Ben, not paper ones," said the Captain, "but you shall see. Let the boxes be unlashed and carried into yonder cave. I'll unpack them presently. Meanwhile, Anders, I want you to interpret for me. Go, tell Chingatok I wish to have a talk with him." While the brothers went to obey their leader's order, and Benjy to superintend the pitching of the camp, Captain Vane walked along the shore with Anders and the giant. "Are you sure, Chingatok, that there is no more ice in this sea?" asked the Captain. "No more great packs; only a little here and there, and a few ice-mountains," answered the Eskimo. "And no more islands?" "No more islands till you come to the land where I and my people dwell. There are more islands beyond that with people on them--people who are not friendly to us." "How far off, now, is your land from this island?" continued the Captain, with a grave nod to Leo, who joined them at the moment. "About three days with a kayak." The Captain pondered for a few minutes. "Leo," he said, "the observation which I took yesterday enables me to place this island in latitude 86 degrees 40 minutes. I judge that a kayak may travel at the rate of three miles an hour, which, making allowance for sleep and rests, gives the distance of this island from Chingatok's native land approximately at about 100 miles, so that the home of this giant and his tribe is actually in the near neighbourhood of the Pole itself. If this be so, we may consider that our success, wind, weather, etcetera, permitting, is absolutely certain." The Captain spoke in the deep earnest tones of one under the influence of powerful but suppressed enthusiasm. "Now then, Leo," he continued, "we will go and take formal possession of this new discovery. What shall we call it? Good Hope is too familiar as a cape." "Why not Great Hope?" asked Leo. "Good! That will do well." So Captain Vane took possession of Great Hope Island; having fixed its position in latitude 86 degrees 40 minutes north, and longitude 60 degrees west. After that he proceeded to open the cases which had so long been objects of interest to his own party, and objects of intense curiosity to the Eskimos, who crowded round the entrance of the shallow cavern with eager looks, while their leader went to work with hammer and chisel on the copper fastenings. "Wugh! Huk! hi! hosh! ho!" were something like the exclamations uttered by the Eskimos when the lid of the first case flew up and revealed only a mass of brown paper wrappings. It was interesting to observe the utter self-oblivion of these children of nature! Of course the eyes and mouths of all opened wider and wider while the work went on. We can understand this, for it is characteristic of the simple in all nations, but it was not so easy to understand why shoulders should slowly rise and elbows be slightly bent, and the ten fingers gradually expand like claws. Anxiety might account for the way in which some of them softly lifted one foot and then the other; but why did little Oblooria raise her left foot by imperceptible degrees, and remain poised upon the other as if she were a bird, except on the supposition that she was unconsciously imitating Tekkona, who was doing the same thing? It was interesting, also, to note the slight substratum of consciousness that displayed itself in Oolichuk, who, while regarding the Captain in glaring expectancy, put his arm, inadvertently as it were, round Oblooria's waist--also the complete absence of consciousness in the latter, who was so engrossed with the Captain, that she did not appear to feel the touch of Oolichuk! These little peculiarities, however, although extremely interesting, were not observed by any of the actors on that occasion--except, perhaps, by Benjy, who, being sharp-witted, had a knack of seeing round a corner at times! When the contents of the case were turned out, they proved to consist of several coils of rope, and a large square bundle. The uncording of the latter intensified the expectation of the Eskimo to boiling point, and when the brown paper was removed, and a roll of something with a strange, not to say bad, smell was displayed, they boiled over in a series of exclamations to which the former "huks" and "hos" were mere child's play. But when the roll was unrolled, and assumed a flat shape not unlike the skin of a huge walrus, they gave a shout. Then, when the Captain, opening a smaller package, displayed a pair of bellows like a concertina, they gave a gasp. When he applied these to a hole in the flat object, and caused it slowly to swell, they uttered a roar, and when, finally, they saw the flat thing transformed into a goodly-sized boat, they absolutely squealed with delight, and began to caper about in childlike joy. In this manner, three cases were opened, and three boats produced. Then the Magician, who went about his work in perfect silence, with a knowing smile on his lips, opened several longish boxes, which Leo had guessed to be filled with fishing-rods or spare rifles, but which, it turned out, contained oars for the india-rubber boats. After that, the Captain opened another large case, which roused the surprise of his white followers as much as that of the natives. "It looks like one of mother's silk dresses," remarked Benjy, as the new wonder was dragged forth. "Too voluminous for that," said Alf. "A balloon!" exclaimed Leo. "No, boys, it's only a kite," said the Captain, unfolding it. "I confess it does not look very like one, but its appearance will change by and by." And its appearance did change remarkably as it was opened out and put together. The construction of this kite was peculiar. In the first place, it was square in form, or, rather, diamond-shaped, and its size, when fully distended, was eighteen feet by fourteen. "The simplicity of it, you see," said the Captain, as he put it together, "is its great recommendation." He ceased to speak for a few moments, while engaged with a troublesome joint, and Benjy took advantage of the pause to express a hope that simplicity was not its _greatest_ recommendation, because he had never heard of any one attempting to reach the Pole on the strength of simplicity. Without noticing this remark, the Captain went on-- "You see it would be troublesome to carry distending sticks of great length, because they would be in the way, and apt to get broken. Each stick, therefore, has a joint in the middle like that of a fishing-rod. There are four such sticks, fastened to, or radiating from, a strong steel central hinge, so that they can be folded together, or opened out into the form of a cross. A small but very strong cross of bamboo fits on the machine, behind the central hinge, and locks it in a distended position, after the silk has been placed on it. Strong cords run round the outer edges of the silk, and there are loops at the corners to attach it to the distenders. Thus, you see, the kite can be put up, or folded into a portable form like an umbrella, though not of course as quickly, nor yet as easily, owing to its great size." While he was speaking, the Captain was busily putting the several parts of the kite together. As he concluded, he laid the machine on its face, locked it with the little bamboo cross, and then held it up in triumph, to the delight of his white observers, and the blank astonishment of the Eskimos. We say blank, because, unlike the boat, the nature of which they understood before it had been quite inflated, this machine was to them an absolute mystery, and seemed to be of no use at all. Their opinion of it was not improved when a sudden puff of wind blew it flat on the ground, causing the Captain to fall on the top of it. "It's a little awkward in handling," he growled, unlocking the centre-cross. "Hold the points down, lads, till I drag it into the umbrella form. There; it's all safe now. The truth is, unmanageableness when in hand is the only fault of my kite. Once in the air, it's as tractable as a lamb; getting it up is the chief difficulty, but that is not too great to be overcome." "Besides, you know, nothing's perfect in this world, father," said Benjy, with a wink at Butterface, who, having acute risible tendencies, exploded. Some of the Eskimos, whose sympathies were strong, joined in the laugh by way of relief to their feelings. When the Captain had wound a strap round the closed kite, to restrain its volatile nature, he opened another large case which contained several reels of strong cord, somewhat resembling log-lines, but with this peculiarity, that, alongside of each thick cord there ran a thin red line of twine, connected with though not bound to the other by means of little loops or rings of twine fixed about six feet apart throughout its entire length. "These are the cords to fly the kites," said the Captain, taking up one of the reels, which was as large as a man's hat. "You see I have three sets of silk in that box, and six sets of reels and sticks, besides a few spare pieces of the latter, so that we can afford to suffer a little damage. Now, the use of this peculiar sort of double line will be clear when in action, but I may as well explain it. The end of this stout line is to be made fast to the band which you saw on the kite, and the end of this thin red line to the top of its upright stick. You remember well enough how independent ordinary kites are. You cannot cause them to descend except by hauling them in by main force, and you cannot moderate their pull. This kite of mine is capable of exerting a pull equal to six horses, with a sufficiently strong wind. So, you see, it would be impossible for a dozen men to hold it without some check on its power. This check is supplied by the thin red line, which is made of the strongest silk. By pulling it gently you bend the head of the kite forward, so that it ceases to present a flat surface to the wind, which flies off it more or less at the tail. By pulling still more on the red line, the traction-power is still further reduced, and, with a good pull, the kite can be made to present its head altogether to the wind, and thus to lie flat on it, when, of course, it will descend slowly to the ground, waving from side to side, like a dropped sheet of paper." "Are you going to try it, father?" asked Benjy eagerly. The Captain looked up at the clouds with a critical glance. "There's hardly enough of wind to-day, boy. Nevertheless we will try." In a very short time the kite was again extended, the centre locked, the thick cord fixed to a loop in the band, and the thin cord to the head of the main stick. While this was being done, the corners were held down by Leo, Benjy, Anders, and Butterface. "How about a tail, father?" asked Benjy, with sudden animation. "Ha! I forgot the tail. I've got several tails. It's well you reminded me." "It is indeed," responded the boy, "for I remember well that when my kites lost their tails they used to whirl wildly about until they dashed their heads on the ground. This kite would be little better than a mad elephant without its tail!" A short tail, made of the strongest cat-gut, was now fixed to the lower extremity of the kite. It had a bag at the end, to be weighted with stones as required. "Now, then, Alf, do you carry the reel away fifty yards or so, and pay out the line as you go. Make a dozen of the Eskimos hold on with you till I come and regulate the pull. I must remain here to set it off." Alf did as he was ordered. When he was far enough out, the Captain and Leo raised the aerial monster with caution, grasping it by the shoulders, while Benjy held on to the tail. Their great care was to keep it flat, so that it presented nothing but its thin head to the wind, but this was a difficulty, for it kept fluttering as if anxious to get away, catching a slant of wind underneath now and then, which caused both Leo and the Captain to stagger. "Don't hold down the tail, Benjy," cried the Captain, looking anxiously over his shoulder. Unfortunately Ben did not hear the "don't." Not only did he hold on with increased vigour, but he gave the tail an energetic pull downwards. The result was that the wind got fairly underneath, and the head was jerked upward. Leo, fearing to tear the silk, let go, and the Captain was thrown violently off. Benjy alone stood to his guns--or to his tail--with loyal heroism for a moment, but when he felt himself lifted off the ground a few inches, a feeling of horror seized him. He let go, and came down with a whack. Free at last, the huge kite shot upwards like a rocket, and a terrible howl from the Eskimo showed that all was not right at their end of the line. The truth was that none of them were impressed with the importance of the duty required of them. The sudden strain jerked the line out of the hands of some, and threw others to the ground, and Alf, who had for greater security taken a turn of the line round his right arm, was dragged forward at full racing speed. Indeed he was beginning to take those tremendous bounds called "giant strides," which were sure to terminate in his being dragged along the ground. Captain Vane saw the danger, and was equal to the occasion. There was little time for thought or action. Another moment and Alf would be off the beach into the sea. "Let go! Alf; let go!" cried Leo, in an agony of alarm. "No, no! hold on!" shouted the Captain. Poor Alf could not help holding on. The turns of the line round his arm held him fast. Another moment, and he was abreast of the Captain who sprang at him as he passed like a leopard on his prey and held on. But the pace was little checked with this additional weight. It was beyond the Captain's running powers, and both he and Alf would have been thrown violently to the ground had it not happened that they had reached the water, into which they plunged with a tremendous splash. They were dragged through it, however, only for a few seconds, for by that time the Captain had succeeded in getting hold of the red line and pulling it separately. The result was immediate and satisfactory. The head of the kite was thrown forward, acting somewhat as a sail does when a ship is thrown into the wind, and the two unfortunates came to an anchor in four feet of water. "We must not let it into the water, Alf," gasped the Captain, clearing the water from his eyes. "How can we prevent it?" spluttered Alf, shaking the wet hair off his face. "Ease your fingers a bit. There; hold on." As he spoke the Captain gave a slight pull on the regulating line. The kite at once caught the wind and soared, giving the two operators an awful tug, which nearly overturned them again. "Too much," growled the Captain. "You see it takes some experience to regulate the excitable thing properly. There, now, haul away for the shore." By this time they were joined by Leo and Chingatok, who ran into the water and aided them in dragging the refractory machine ashore. "That's a vigorous beginning, father," remarked Benjy as they came to land. "It is, my boy. Go and fetch me dry clothes while we haul in the kite and make her snug." "When do you mean to start?" asked Leo, as he coiled away the slack of the line on the reel. "The first steady fair wind that blows from the south," answered the Captain, "but we must have one or two experimental trials of the kites and boats together, before we set out on the real voyage." "It's a capital idea," returned Leo enthusiastically. "There's a sort of neck-or-nothing dash about it that quite suits me. But, uncle, what of the Eskimos? The three boats won't carry the half of them." "I know that, lad, and shall get over the difficulty by leaving some of them behind. Chingatok says they are quite able to take care of themselves; can easily regain the Greenland shore, find their canoes, or make new ones, and return to their own land if they choose." "But, uncle," said Alf, who was by no means as reckless as his brother, "don't you think it's rather risky to go off into an unknown sea in open boats, for no one knows how long, to go no one knows exactly where?" "Why, Alf," returned the Captain with a laugh, "if you were as stupid about your scientific pursuits as you are about geographical affairs, you would not be worth your salt. A sea's a sea, isn't it, whether known or unknown, and the laws that affect all seas are pretty much alike. Of course it is risky. So is going on a forlorn hope. So is shooting with a set of fellows who don't know how to manage their guns. So is getting on a horse, for it may kick you off or run away. So is eating fish, for you may choke yourself. Everything, almost, is more or less risky. You _must_ risk something if you'd discover the North Pole, which has baffled adventurers from the days of Adam till now. And you are wrong in saying that we shall go off for no one knows how long. The distance from this island to the Pole is pretty nearly 200 miles. If our kites carry us along at the rate of ten miles an hour, we shall cover the distance in 20 hours. If we have calms or contrary winds we may take 20 days. If storms come, we have not much to fear, for the weather is warm,--so, too,--is the water. Then, our boats are lifeboats--they cannot sink. As to not knowing where exactly we are going, why, man, we're going to the North Pole. Everybody knows where that is, and we are going to the home of Chingatok, which cannot be very far from it." "There, Alf, I hope you are sufficiently answered," said Leo, as he undid the locking-gear of the kite, which by that time lay prone on its face, as peaceful as a lamb. The next three days were spent in flying the other kites, tying them on the boats, acquiring experience, and making preparations for the voyage. It was found that, with a moderate breeze, the kites towed the boats at the rate of ten miles an hour, which was beyond the most sanguine hopes of the Captain. Of course they could not beat to windward with them, but they could sail with a considerable slant, and they prevented the boats, while thus advancing, from making much leeway by means of deep _leeboards_, such as are used even at the present day by Dutch ships. "But I can't understand," said Benjy, after several trials had been made, "why you should not have fitted sails to the boats, instead of kites." "Because a sail only a quarter the size of a kite would upset the boat," said the Captain, "and one small enough to suit it would be little better than a pair of oars. This kite system is like fitting a gigantic sail to a lilliputian boat, d'ye see?" "I see, father. But I wish it had been a balloon. It would have been greater fun to have gone to the Pole in a balloon!" "A balloon will never go there, nor anywhere else, Benjy, except where the wind carries it, for a balloon cannot be steered. It's impossible in the nature of things--as much so as that dream of the visionary, perpetual motion." On the fourth day after their arrival at Great Hope Island the wind blew strong and steady from the south, and the explorers prepared to start. The Eskimos had been told that they were to remain behind and shift for themselves--a piece of news which did not seem to affect them at all, one way or other. Those who were selected to go with the explorers were perfectly willing to do so. Chingatok, of course, was particularly ready. So were his corpulent mother and Tekkona and Oblooria; so also were Oolichuk, Ivitchuk, and Akeetolik. It was a splendid sunny afternoon when the kites were finally flown and attached to the three boats which were commanded respectively by the Captain Leo, and Alf. These three sat at the bow of each boat manipulating the regulators, and keeping the kites fluttering, while the goods and provisions were put on board. Then the Eskimo women and crews stepped in, and the stern ropes were cast loose. "Let go the check-strings!" shouted the Captain. This was done. The huge kites began to strain at once, and the india-rubber boats went rushing out to sea, leaving the remainder of the Eskimo band speechless on the shore. They stood there motionless, with open mouths and eyes, the very embodiment of unbelieving wonder, till the boats had disappeared on the horizon. CHAPTER TWELVE. THE OPEN POLAR BASIN AT LAST! ALF WASHES HIMSELF IN IT. Who can imagine or describe the feelings of Captain Vane and his young relatives on finding themselves sweeping at such a magnificent rate over the great Polar basin?--that mysterious sea, which some believe to be a sea of thick-ribbed ice, and others suppose to be no sea at all, but dry land covered with eternal snows. One theorist even goes the length of saying that the region immediately around the Pole is absolutely nothing at all!--only empty space caused by the whirling of the earth,--a space which extends through its centre from pole to pole! Much amusement did the Captain derive from the contemplation of these theories as he crossed over the grand and boundless ocean, and chatted pleasantly with his son, or Chingatok, or Toolooha, who formed the crew of his little boat. The party consisted of thirteen, all told. These were distributed as follows:-- In the Captain's boat were the three just mentioned. In Leo's boat were Butterface, Oolichuk, and Oblooria. How it came to pass that Oolichuk and Oblooria were put into the same boat no one seemed to know, or indeed to care, except Oolichuk himself, who, to judge from the expression of his fat face, was much pleased. As for Oblooria, her mild visage always betokened contentment or resignation-- save when overshadowed by timidity. In Alf's boat were Anders, Ivitchuk, Akeetolik, and Tekkona. The interpreter had been given to Alf because he was not quite so muscular or energetic as the Captain or his brother, while Anders was eminently strong and practical. The Eskimo women counted as men, being as expert with oar and paddle as they, and very nearly as strong as most ordinary men. What added to the romance of the first day's experience was the fact that, a few hours after they started, a dead calm settled down over the sea, which soon became like a great sheet of undulating glass, in which the rich, white clouds, the clear sky, and the boats with their crews, were reflected as in a moving, oily mirror; yet, strange to say, the kites kept steady, and the pace of ten or twelve miles an hour did not abate for a considerable time. This, of course, was owing to the fact that there was a continuous current blowing northward in the higher regions of the atmosphere. The sun, meantime, glowed overhead with four mock-suns around him, nevertheless the heat was not oppressive, partly because the voyagers were sitting at rest, and partly because a slight current of cool air, the creation of their own progress, fanned their cheeks. Still further to add to the charm, flocks of sea-birds circling in the air or dipping in the water, a berg or two floating in the distance, a porpoise showing its back fin now and then, a seal or a walrus coming up to stare in surprise and going down to meditate, perhaps in wonder, with an occasional puff from a lazy whale,--all this tended to prevent monotony, and gave life to the lovely scene. "Is it not the most glorious and altogether astonishing state of things you ever heard or dreamed of, father?" asked Benjy, breaking a prolonged silence. "Out o' sight, my boy, out o' sight," replied the Captain. "Never heard nor saw nor dreamed of anything like it before." "P'raps it _is_ a dream!" said Benjy, with a slightly distressed look. "How are we ever to know that we're _not_ dreaming?" The boy finished his question with a sharp cry and leaped up. "Steady, boy, steady! Have a care, or you'll upset the boat," said the Captain. "What did you do _that_ for, father?" "What, my boy?" "Pinch me so hard! Surely you didn't do it on purpose?" "Indeed I did, Ben," replied the Captain with a laugh. "You asked how you were to know you were not dreaming. If you had been dreaming that would have wakened you--wouldn't it?" "I dare say it would, father," returned the boy, resuming his seat, "but I'm convinced now. Don't do it again, please. I wish I knew what Chingatok thinks of it. Try to ask him, father. I'm sure you've had considerable experience in his lingo by this time." Benjy referred here, not only to the numerous conversations which his father had of late carried on with the giant through the interpreter, but to the fact that, having been a whaler in years past, Captain Vane had previously picked up a smattering of various Eskimo dialects. Up to that day he had conversed entirely through the medium of Anders, but as that useful man was now in Alf's boat, the Captain was left to his own resources, and got on much better than he had expected. Chingatok turned his eyes from the horizon on which they had been fixed, and looked dreamily at the Captain when asked what he was thinking about. "I have been thinking," said he, "of home, _my_ home over there." He lifted his huge right arm and pointed to the north. "And I have been thinking," he continued, "that there must be another home up there." He raised his hand and pointed to the sky. "Why do you think so?" asked the Captain in some surprise. "Because it is so beautiful, so wonderful, so full of light and peace," replied the Eskimo. "Sometimes the clouds, and the wind, and the rain, come and cover it; but they pass away, and there it is, just the same, always calm, and bright, and beautiful. Could such a place have been made for nothing? Is there no one up there? not even the Maker of it? and if there is, does he stay there alone? Men and women die, but surely there is something in us that does not die. If there is no spirit in us that lives, of what use was it to make us at all? I think we shall have a home up there." Chingatok had again turned his eyes to the horizon, and spoke the concluding words as if he were thinking aloud. The Captain looked at him earnestly for some time in silence. "You are right, Chingatok," he said at length, or at least attempted to say as best he could--"you are right. My religion teaches me that we have spirits; that God--your God and mine--dwells up there in what we call heaven, and that His people shall dwell with him after death." "His people!" repeated the Eskimo with a perplexed look. "Are some men his people and some not?" "Undoubtedly," replied the Captain, "men who obey a chief's commands are _his_ men--his friends. Those who refuse to obey, and do every kind of wickedness, are _not_ his friends, but his enemies. God has given us free-wills, and we may reject him--we may choose to be his enemies." It must not be supposed that Captain Vane expressed himself thus clearly, but the above is the substance of what he attempted by many a strange and complicated sentence to convey. That he had made his meaning to some extent plain, was proved by Chingatok's reply. "But I do not know God's commands; how then can I obey them?" "You may not know them by book," replied the Captain promptly; "for you have no books, but there is such a thing as the commands or law of God written in the heart, and it strikes me, Chingatok, that you both know and obey more of your Maker's laws than many men who have His word." To this the Eskimo made no answer, for he did not rightly understand it, and as the Captain found extreme difficulty in expressing his meaning on such questions, he was quite willing to drop the conversation. Nevertheless his respect for Chingatok was immensely increased from that day forward. He tried to explain what had been said to Benjy, and as that youth's mind was of an inquiring turn he listened with great interest, but at last was forced to confess that it was too deep for him. Thereafter he fell into a mood of unusual silence, and pondered the matter for a long time. Awaking from his reverie at last, he said, abruptly, "How's her head, father?" "Due north, Benjy." He pulled out a pocket-compass about the size of an ordinary watch, which instrument it was his habit to guard with the most anxious care. "North!" repeated the boy, glancing at the instrument with a look of surprise, "why, we're steering almost due east!" "Ah! Ben, that comes of your judging from appearances without knowledge, not an uncommon state of mind in man and boy, to say nothing of woman. Don't you know what variation of the compass is?" "No, father." "What! have you been so long at sea with me and never heard yet about the magnetic pole?" "Never a word, father. It seems to me that poles are multiplying as we get further north." "Oh, Benjy, for shame--fie! fie!" "Maybe if you had told me about it I might have had less to be shamed of, and you too, father." "That's true, Benjy. That's true. You're a sharp boy for your age. But don't be disrespectful to your father, Ben; no good can ever come o' that. Whatever you are, be respectful to your old father. Come, I'll tell you about it now." It will have been observed by this time that little Benjamin Vane was somewhat free in his converse with his father, but it must not therefore be supposed that he was really insolent. All his freedom of speech was vented in good humour, and the Captain knew that. There was, indeed, a powerful bond not only of affection but of sympathy between the little delicate boy and the big strong man. They thoroughly understood each other, and between those who understand each other there may be much freedom without offence, as everybody knows. "You must understand," began the Captain, "that although the needle of the mariner's compass is said to point to the north with its head and to the south with its tail, it does not do so exactly, because the magnetic poles do not coincide exactly with the geographical poles. There are two magnetic poles just as there are two geographical poles, one in the southern hemisphere, the other in the northern. D'ye understand!" "Clear as daylight, father." "Well, Benjy, the famous Arctic discoverer, Sir James Ross, in 1832, discovered that the northern magnetic pole was situated in the island of Boothia Felix, in latitude 70 degrees 5 seconds and longitude 96 degrees 46 seconds West. It was discovered by means of an instrument called the dipping needle, which is just a magnetised needle made for dipping perpendicularly instead of going round horizontally like the mariner's compass. A graduated arc is fitted to it so that the amount of dip at any place on the earth's surface can be ascertained. At the magnetic equator there is no dip at all, because the needle being equally distant from the north and south magnetic poles, remains horizontal. As you travel north the needle dips more and more until it reaches the region of the north magnetic pole when it is almost perpendicular--pointing straight down. "Now, it is only on a very few places of the earth's surface that the horizontal needle points to the true north and south, and its deviation from the _earth's_ pole in its determination to point to the _magnetic_ pole is called the variation of the compass. This variation is greater or less of course at different places, and must be allowed for in estimating one's exact course. In our present explorations we have got so far beyond the beaten track of travel that greater allowance than usual has to be made. In fact we have got considerably to the north of the magnetic pole. At the same time we are a good way to the east'ard of it, so that when I see the compass with its letter N pointing to what I know to be the magnetic north, I take our geographical position into account and steer almost due east by _compass_, for the purpose of advancing due north. D'ye see?" "I'm not so sure that I do, father. It seems to me something like the Irishman's pig which you pull one way when you want him to go another. However, I'll take your word for it." "That's right, my boy; when a man can't understand, he must act on faith, if he _can_, for there's no forcing our beliefs, you know. Anyhow he must be content to follow till he does understand; always supposing that he can trust his leader." "I'm out of my depths altogether now, father. P'r'aps we'd better change the subject. What d'ye say to try a race with Leo? His boat seems to be overhauling us." "No, no, Ben; no racing. Let us advance into the great unknown north with suitable solemnity." "We appear to sail rather better than you do, uncle," shouted Leo, as his boat drew near. "That's because you're not so heavily-laden," replied the Captain, looking back; "you haven't got giants aboard, you see; moreover there's one o' you rather light-headed." "Hallo! uncle; evil communications, eh? You'd better change Benjy for Oblooria. She's quite quiet, and never jokes. I say, may I go ahead of you?" "No, lad, you mayn't. Take a reef in your regulator, and drop into your proper place." Obedient to orders, Leo pulled the regulator or check-string until the kite's position was altered so as to present less resistance to the wind, and dropped astern of the _Faith_, which was the name given by Benjy to his father's boat, the other two being named respectively the _Hope_ and the _Charity_. The prosperous advance did not, however, last very long. Towards evening the three kites suddenly, and without any previous warning, began to dive, soar, flutter, and tumble about in a manner that would have been highly diverting if it had not been dangerous. This no doubt was the effect of various counter-currents of air into which they had flown. The order was at once given to haul on the regulators and coil up the towing lines. It was promptly obeyed, but before a few fathoms had been coiled in, the kites again became as steady as before, with this change, however, that they travelled in a north-westerly direction. The value of the leeboards now became apparent. These were hinged down the middle so as to fold and become small enough to stow in the bottom of each boat when not in use. When unfolded and hung over the side, they presented a surface of resistance to the water much greater than that of an ordinary boat's keel, so that very little leeway indeed was made. By means of the steering-oar Captain Vane kept his boat advancing straight northward, while the kite was puffing in a north-westerly direction. The kite was thus compelled by the boat also to travel due north, though of course it did so in a sidelong manner. Thus far the advance continued prosperously, the pace being but little checked and the course unaltered, but when, an hour or two later, the wind again shifted so as to carry the kites further to the west, the pace became much slower, and the leeway, or drift to leeward, considerable. Ultimately the wind blew straight to the west, and the boats ceased to advance. "This won't do, uncle," said Leo, who was close astern of the _Faith_, "I'm drifting bodily to leeward, and making no headway at all." "Down with the tops,--I mean, the kites," shouted the Captain. "Pass the word to Alf." Accordingly, the kites were reeled in, the regulators being so pulled and eased off that they were kept just fluttering without tugging during the operation. When, however, they passed out of the wind-stratum into the region of calm which still prevailed immediately above the sea, the kites descended in an alarming manner, swaying to and fro with occasional wild swoops, which rendered it necessary to haul in on the lines and reel up with the utmost speed. Captain Vane was very successful in this rather difficult operation. While he hauled in the line Benjy reeled it up with exemplary speed, and the kite was finally made to descend on the boat like a cloud. When secured the locking-cross was removed, the distending-rods were folded inwards, the restraining, or what we may term the waist-band was applied, and the whole affair was changed into a gigantic Mrs Gamp umbrella. Being placed in the bow of the boat, projecting over the water, it formed a not ungraceful though peculiar bowsprit, and was well out of the way. Leo and Butterface were equally successful, but poor Alf was not so fortunate. The too eager pursuit of knowledge was the cause of Alf's failure as has often been the case with others! He took on himself, as chief of his boat, the difficult and responsible task of hauling in the line,--which involved also the occasional and judicious manipulation of the regulating cord, when a sudden puff of wind should tend to send the kite soaring upwards with six or eight horse-power into the sky. To Ivitchuk was assigned the easy task of gathering in the "slack" and holding on to Alf if a sudden jerk should threaten to pull him overboard. Anders reeled up. Just as the kite was passing out of the windy region above into the calm region below Alf beheld floating near the boat a beautiful, and to him entirely new, species of marine creature of the jelly-fish kind. With a wild desire to possess it he leaned over the boat's edge to the uttermost and stretched out his left hand, while with his right he held on to the kite! Need we say that the kite assisted him?--assisted him overboard altogether, and sent him with a heavy plunge into the sea! Ivitchuk dropped his line and stretched out both arms towards the spot where the "Kablunet" had gone down. Akeetolik roared. Anders howled, and dropped his reel. Left to itself, the kite, with characteristic indecision, made an awful swoop towards the North Pole with its right shoulder. Changing its mind, it then made a stupendous rush with its left to the south-east. Losing presence of mind it suddenly tossed up its tail, and, coming down head foremost, went with fatal facility into the deep sea. When Alf rose and was dragged panting into the boat, his first glance was upwards,--but not in thankfulness for his preservation! "Gone!" he groaned, rising to his feet. But the kite was not gone. The word had barely left his lips when it rose half its length out of the water, and then fell, in melancholy inaptitude for further mischief, flat upon the sea. "Anything damaged?" asked the Captain, as he and Leo rowed their boats towards the _Charity_. "Nothing," replied Alf with a guilty look, "the stick and things seem to be all right, but it has got _awfully_ wet." "No matter," said the Captain, laughing at Alf's forlorn look, "the sun will soon dry it. So long as nothing is broken or torn, we'll get on very well. But now, boys, we must go to work with oars. There must be no flagging in this dash for the Pole. It's a neck-or-nothing business. Now, mark my orders. Although we've got four oars apiece, we must only work two at a time. I know that young bloods like you are prone to go straining yourselves at first, an' then bein' fit for nothing afterwards. We must keep it up steadily. Two in each boat will pull at a time for one hour, while the other two rest or sleep, and so on, shift about; till another breeze springs up. Don't fold it up tight, Alf. Leave it pretty slack till it is dry, and then put on its belt." "Don't you think we might have supper before taking to the oars?" suggested Leo. "I second that motion," cried Benjy. "And I support it," said Alf. "Very good, get out the prog; an' we'll lay ourselves alongside, three abreast, as Nelson did at the Battle o' the Nile," said the Captain. Their food was simple but sufficient. Pemmican--a solid greasy nutricious compound--was the foundation. Hard biscuit, chocolate, and sugar formed the superstructure. In default of fire, these articles could be eaten cold, but while their supply of spirits of wine lasted, a patent Vesuvian of the most complete and almost miraculous nature could provide a hot meal in ten minutes. Of fresh water they had a two-weeks' supply in casks, but this was economised by means of excellent water procured from a pond in a passing berg--from which also a lump of clear ice had been hewn, wrapped in a blanket, and carried into the Captain's boat as a supply of fresh water in solid form. Laying the oars across the boats to keep them together, they floated thus pleasantly on the glassy sea, bathed in midnight sunshine. And while they feasted in comfort inexpressible--to the surprise, no doubt, of surrounding gulls and puffins--Benjamin Vane once again gave utterance to the opinion that it was the most glorious and altogether astonishing state of things that he had ever heard or dreamed of since the world began! CHAPTER THIRTEEN. A GALE AND A NARROW ESCAPE. This is a world of alternations. We need not turn aside to prove that. The calm with which the voyage of our discoverers began lasted about four days and nights, during which period they advanced sometimes slowly under oars, sometimes more or less rapidly under kites--if we may so express it--according to the state of the wind. And, during all that time the discipline of two and two--at watch, or at sleep, if not at work--was rigidly kept up. For none knew better than Captain Vane the benefit of discipline, and the demoralising effect of its absence, especially in trying circumstances. It is but just to add that he had no difficulty in enforcing his laws. It is right also to state that the women were not required to conform, even although they were accustomed to hard labour and willing to work as much as required. In all three boats the bow was set apart as the women's quarters, and when Toolooha, Oblooria or Tekkona showed symptoms of a desire to go to sleep--(there was no retiring for the night in these latitudes)--a blanket stretched on two oars cut their quarters off from those of the men, and maintained the dignity of the sex. But soon the serene aspect of nature changed. Grey clouds overspread the hitherto sunny sky. Gusts of wind came sweeping over the sea from time to time, and signs of coming storm became so evident that the Captain gave orders to make all snug and prepare for dirty weather. "You see, lads," he said, when the three boats were abreast, and the kites had been furled, "we don't know what may happen to us now. Nobody in the world has had any experience of these latitudes. It may come on to blow twenty-ton Armstrongs instead of great guns, for all we know to the contrary. The lightning may be sheet and fork mixed instead of separate for any light we've got on the subject, and it may rain whales and walruses instead of cats and dogs; so it behoves us to be ready." "That's true, father," said Benjy, "but it matters little to me, for I've made my will. Only I forgot to leave the top with the broken peg and the rusty penknife to Rumty Swillpipe; so if you survive me and get home on a whale's back--or otherwise--you'll know what to do." "This is not a time for jesting, Ben," said Alf rather seriously. "Did I say it was?" inquired Ben, with a surprised look. Alf deigned no reply, and Butterface laughed, while he and the others set about executing the Captain's orders. The arrangements made in these india-rubber boats for bad weather were very simple and complete. After the lading in each had been snugly arranged, so as to present as flat a surface on the top as possible, a waterproof sheet was drawn over all, and its edges made fast to the sides of the boat, by means of tags and loops which were easily fastened and detached. As each sheet overhung its boat, any water that might fall upon it was at once run off. This, of course, was merely put on to protect the cargo and any one who chose to take shelter under it. The boat being filled with air required no such sheet, because if filled to overflowing it would still have floated. All round this sheet ran a strong cord for the crew, who sat outside of it as on a raft, to lay hold of if the waves should threaten to wash them off. There were also various other ropes attached to it for the same purpose, and loops of rope served for rowlocks. When all had been arranged, those whose duty it was to rest leaned comfortably against the lumps caused by inequalities of the cargo, while the others took to their oars. "It's coming!" cried Benjy, about half-an-hour after all had been prepared. And unquestionably it _was_ coming. The boy's quick eyes had detected a line on the southern horizon, which became gradually broader and darker as it rose until it covered the heavens. At the same time the indigo ripple caused by a rushing mighty wind crept steadily over the sea. As it neared the boats the white crests of breaking waves were seen gleaming sharply in the midst of the dark blue. "Clap the women under hatches," shouted the Captain, with more good sense than refinement. Benjy, Butterface, and Anders at the word lifted a corner of their respective sheets. Obedient Toolooha, Oblooria, and Tekkona bent their meek heads and disappeared: The sheets were refastened, and the men, taking their places, held on to the cords or life-lines. It was an anxious moment. No one could guess how the boats would behave under the approaching trial. "Oars out," cried the Captain, "we must run before it." A hiss, which had been gradually increasing as the squall drew near, broke into a kind of roar, and wind and waves rushed upon them as the men bent their backs to the oars with all their might. It was soon found that the boats had so little hold of the water that the wind and oars combined carried them forward so fast as to decrease considerably the danger of being whelmed by a falling wave. These waves increased every moment in size, and their crests were so broken and cut off by the gale that the three boats, instead of appearing as they had hitherto done the only solid objects in the scene, were almost lost to sight in the chaos of black waves and driving foam. Although they tried their best to keep close together they failed, and each soon became ignorant of the position of the others. The last that they saw of Alf's boat was in the hollow between two seas like a vanishing cormorant or a northern diver. Leo was visible some time longer. He was wielding the steering-oar in an attitude of vigorous caution, while his Eskimos were pulling as if for their lives. An enormous wave rose behind them, curled over their heads and appeared ready to overwhelm them, but the sturdy rowers sent the boat forward, and the broken crest passed under them. The next billow was still larger. Taken up though he was with his own boat the Captain found time to glance at them with horror. "They're gone!" he cried, as the top of the billow fell, and nothing was seen save the heads of the four men like dark spots on the foam. The boat had in truth been overwhelmed and sunk, but, like a true lifeboat it rose to the surface like a cork the instant the weight of water was removed, and her crew, who had held on to the life-lines and oars, were still safe. "Well done the little _Hope_!" cried the Captain, while Benjy gave vent to his feelings in a cheer, which was evidently heard by Leo, for he was seen to wave his hand in reply. Next moment another wave hid the _Hope_ from view, and it was seen no more at that time. "I feel easier now, Benjy, thank God, after _that_. Alf is a fair steersman, and our boats are evidently able to stand rough usage." Benjy made no reply. He was rubbing the water out of his eyes, and anxiously looking through the thick air in the hope of seeing Leo's boat again. The poor boy was grave enough now. When the might and majesty of the Creator are manifested in the storm and the raging sea, the merely humorous fancies of man are apt to be held in check. The Captain's boat went rushing thus wildly onwards, still, fortunately, in the right direction; and for some hours there was no decrease in the force of the gale. Then, instead of abating, as might have been expected, it suddenly increased to such an extent that speedy destruction appeared to be inevitable. "No sort o' craft could live long in _this_," muttered the Captain, as if to himself rather than to his son, who sat with a firm expression on his somewhat pale countenance, looking wistfully towards the northern horizon. Perhaps he was wondering whether it was worth while to risk so much for such an end. Suddenly he shaded his eyes with his hand and gazed intently. "Land!" he exclaimed in a low eager tone. "Whereaway, boy? Ay, so there is something there. What say you, Chingatok? Is it land?" The giant, who, during all this time, had calmly plied a pair of oars with strength equal almost to that of four men, looked over his shoulder without, however, relaxing his efforts. "No," he said, turning round again, "it is an ice-hill." "A berg!" exclaimed the Captain. "We will make for it. Tie your handkerchief, Benjy, to the end of an oar and hold it up. It will serve as a guide to our comrades." In a wonderfully short space of time the berg which Benjy had seen as a mere speck on the horizon rose sharp, rugged, and white against the black sky. It was a very large one--so large that it had no visible motion, but seemed as firm as a rock, while the billows of the Arctic Ocean broke in thunder on its glassy shore. "We'll get shelter behind it, Ben, my boy," said the Captain, "hold the oar well up, and don't let the rag clap round the blade. Shake it out so. God grant that they may see it." "Amen," ejaculated Benjy to the prayer with heartfelt intensity. There was danger as well as safety in the near vicinity to this berg, for many of its pinnacles seemed ready to fall, and there was always the possibility of a mass being broken off under water, which might destroy the equilibrium of the whole berg, and cause it to revolve with awfully destructive power. However, there was one favourable point--the base was broad, and the ice-cliffs that bordered the sea were not high. In a few more minutes the western end of the berg was passed. Its last cape was rounded, and the _Faith_ was swept by the united efforts of Chingatok, Benjy, and Toolooha, (who _would_ not remain under cover), into the comparatively still water on the lee, or northern side of the berg. "Hurrah!" shouted Benjy in a tone that was too energetic and peculiar to have been called forth by the mere fact of his own escape from danger. Captain Vane looked in the direction indicated by the boy's glistening eyes--glistening with the salt tears of joy as well as with salt sea spray--and there beheld the other two boats coming dancing in like wild things on the crests of the heaving waves. They had seen the signal of the handkerchief, understood and followed it, and, in a few minutes more, were under the lee of the ice-cliffs, thanking God and congratulating each other on their deliverance. A sheltered cove was soon found, far enough removed from cliffs and pinnacles to insure moderate safety. Into this they ran, and there they spent the night, serenaded by the roaring gale, and lullabied by the crash of falling spires and the groans of rending ice. CHAPTER FOURTEEN. RECORDS A WONDERFUL APPARITION BUT A FURIOUS NIGHT. When the storm had passed, a profound calm once more settled down on the face of nature, as if the elements had been utterly exhausted by the conflict. Once more the sea became like a sheet of undulating glass, in which clouds and sun and boats were reflected vividly, and once again our voyagers found themselves advancing towards the north, abreast of each other, and rowing sociably together at the rate of about four miles an hour. When advancing under oars they went thus abreast so as to converse freely, but when proceeding under kites they kept in single file, so as to give scope for swerving, in the event of sudden change of wind, and to prevent the risk of the entanglement of lines. "What is that?" exclaimed Benjy, pointing suddenly to an object ahead which appeared at regular intervals on the surface of the water. "A whale, I think," said Leo. "A whale usually spouts on coming up, doesn't it?" said Alf. Chingatok uttered an unpronounceable Eskimo word which did not throw light on the subject. "What is it, Anders?" shouted the Captain. "What you say?" asked the interpreter from Alf's boat, which was on the other side of the _Hope_. "If these squawkin' things would hold their noise, you'd hear better," growled the Captain before repeating the question. His uncourteous remark had reference to a cloud of gulls which circled round and followed the boats with remonstrative cries and astonished looks. "It's beast," shouted Anders, "not knows his name in Ingliss." "Humph! a man with half an eye might see it is `beast,'" retorted the Captain in an undertone. As he spoke, the "beast" changed its course and bore down upon them. As it drew near the Englishmen became excited, for the size of the creature seemed beyond anything they had yet seen. Strange to say, the Eskimos looked at it with their wonted gaze of calm indifference. "It's the great sea-serpent at last," said Benjy, with something like awe on his countenance. "It does look uncommon like it," replied the Captain, with a perplexed expression on his rugged visage. "Get out the rifles, lad! It's as well to be ready. D'ye know what it is, Chingatok?" Again the giant uttered the unpronounceable name, while Benjy got out the fire-arms with eager haste. "Load 'em all, Ben, load 'em all, an' cram the Winchester to the muzzle," said the Captain. "There's no sayin' what we may have to encounter; though I _have_ heard of a gigantic bit of seaweed bein' mistaken for the great sea-serpent before now." "That may be, father," said Benjy, with increasing excitement, "but nobody ever saw a bit of seaweed swim with the activity of a gigantic eel like _that_. Why, I have counted its coils as they rise and sink, and I'm quite sure it's a hundred and fifty yards long if it's an inch." Those in the other boats were following the Captain's example,--getting out and charging the fire-arms,--and truly there seemed some ground for their alarm, for the creature, which approached at a rapid rate, appeared most formidable. Yet, strange to say, the Eskimos paid little attention to it, and seemed more taken up with the excitement of the white men. When the creature had approached to within a quarter of a mile, it diverged a little to the left, and passed the boats at the distance of a few hundred yards. Then Captain Vane burst into a sudden laugh, and shouted:-- "Grampuses!" "What?" cried Leo. "Grampuses!" repeated the Captain. "Why, it's only a shoal of grampuses following each other in single file, that we've mistaken for one creature!" Never before was man or boy smitten with heavier disappointment than was poor Benjy Vane on that trying occasion. "Why, what's wrong with you, Benjy?" asked his father, as he looked at his woeful countenance. "To think," said the poor boy, slowly, "that I've come all the way to the North Pole for _this_! Why I've believed in the great sea-serpent since ever I could think, I've seen pictures of it twisting its coils round three-masted ships, and goin' over the ocean with a mane like a lion, and its head fifty feet out o' the water! Oh! it's too bad, I'd have given my ears to have seen the great sea-serpent." "There wouldn't have been much of you left, Benjy, if you had given _them_." "Well, well," continued the boy, not noticing his father's remark, "it's some comfort to know that I've all _but_ seen the great sea-serpent." It is some comfort to us, reader, to be able to record the fact that Benjy Vane was not doomed to total disappointment on that memorable day, for, on the same evening, the voyagers had an encounter with walruses which more than made up for the previous misfortune. It happened thus:-- The three boats were proceeding abreast, slowly but steadily over the still calm sea, when their attention was attracted by a sudden and tremendous splash or upheaval of water, just off what the Captain styled his "port bow." At the same moment the head of a walrus appeared on the surface like a gigantic black bladder. It seemed to be as large as the head of a small elephant, and its ivory tusks were not less than two feet long. There was a square bluntness about the creature's head, and a savage look about its little bloodshot eyes, which gave to it a very hideous aspect. Its bristling moustache, each hair of which was six inches long, and as thick as a crow quill, dripped with brine, and it raised itself high out of the water, turning its head from side to side with a rapidity and litheness of action that one would not have expected in an animal so unwieldy. Evidently it was looking eagerly for something. Catching sight of the three boats, it seemed to have found what it looked for, and made straight at them. Leo quietly got ready his Winchester repeater, a rifle which, as the reader probably knows, can discharge a dozen or more shots in rapid succession; the cartridges being contained in a case resembling a thick ram-rod under the barrel, from which they are thrust almost instantaneously into their places. But before the creature gained the boats, a second great upheaval of water took place, and another walrus appeared. This was the real enemy of whom he had been in quest. Both were bulls of the largest and most ferocious description. No sooner did they behold each other, than, with a roar, something betwixt a bark and a bellow, they collided, and a furious fight began. The sea was churned into foam around them as they rolled, reared, spurned, and drove their tusks into each other's skulls and shoulders. The boats lay quietly by, their occupants looking on with interest. The Eskimos were particularly excited, but no one spoke or acted. They all seemed fascinated by the fight. Soon one and another and another walrus-head came up out of the sea, and then it was understood that a number of cow walruses had come to witness the combat! But the human audience paid little regard to these, so much were they engrossed by the chief actors. It might have been thought, from the position of their tusks, which are simply an enlargement and prolongation of the canine teeth, that these combatants could only strike with them in a downward direction, but this was not so. On the contrary, they turned their thick necks with so much ease and rapidity that they could strike in all directions with equal force, and numerous were the wounds inflicted on either side, as the blood-red foam soon testified. We have said that the human spectators of the scene remained inactive, but, at the first pause, the Captain said he thought they might as well put a stop to the fight, and advised Leo to give one of them a shot. "We'll not be the worse for a fresh steak," he added to Benjy, as Leo was taking aim. The effect of the shot was very unexpected. One of the bulls was hit, but evidently not in a deadly manner, for the motion of the boat had disturbed Leo's aim. Each combatant turned with a look of wild surprise at the interruptor, and, as not unfrequently happens in cases of interference with fights, both made a furious rush at him. At the same moment, all the cows seemed to be smitten with pugnacity, and joined in the attack. There was barely time to get ready, when the furious animals were upon them. Guns and rifles were pointed, axes and spears grasped, and oars gripped. Even the women seized each a spear, and stood on the defensive. A simultaneous volley checked the enemy for a moment, and sent one of the cows to the bottom; but with a furious bellow they charged again. The great anxiety of the defenders was to prevent the monsters from getting close to the boats, so as to hook on to them with their tusks, which would probably have overturned them, or penetrated the inflated sides. In either case, destruction would have been inevitable, and it was only by the active use of oar, axe, and spear that this was prevented. Twice did one of the bulls charge the Captain's boat, and on both occasions he was met by the tremendous might of Chingatok, who planted the end of an oar on his blunt nose, and thrust him off. On each occasion, also, he received a shot from the double barrel of Benjy, who fired the first time into his open mouth, and the second time into his eye, but an angry cough from the one, and a wink from the other showed that he did not mind it much. Meantime the Captain, with the Winchester repeater, was endeavouring--but vainly, owing to the motions of the giant, and the swaying of the boat--to get a shot at the beast, while Toolooha, with an axe, was coquetting with a somewhat timid cow near the stern. At last an opportunity offered. Captain Vane poured half a dozen balls as quick as he could fire into the head of the bull, which immediately sank. Not less vigorously did the occupants of the other boats receive the charge. Leo, being more active than the Captain, as well as more expert with his repeater, slew his male opponent in shorter time, and with less expenditure of ammunition. Butterface, too, gained much credit by the prompt manner in which he split the skull of one animal with an axe. Even Oblooria, the timid, rose to the occasion, and displayed unlooked-for heroism. With a barbed seal-spear she stood up and invited a baby walrus to come on--by looks, not by words. The baby accepted the invitation--perhaps, being a pugnacious baby, it was coming on at any rate--and Oblooria gave it a vigorous dab on the nose. It resented the insult by shaking its head fiercely, and endeavouring to back off, but the barb had sunk into the wound and held on. Oblooria also held on. Oolichuk, having just driven off a cow walrus, happened to observe the situation, and held on to Oblooria. The baby walrus was secured, and, almost as soon as the old bull was slain, had a line attached to it, and was made fast to the stern. "Well done, little girl!" exclaimed Oolichuk in admiration, "you're almost as good as a man." Among civilised people this might have been deemed a doubtful compliment, but it was not so in Eskimo-land. The little maid was evidently much pleased, and the title of the Timid One, which Oolichuk was wont to give her when in a specially endearing frame of mind, was changed for the Brave One from that day. In a few more minutes the last charge of the enemy was repulsed, and those of them that remained alive dived back to that native home into which the slain had already sunk. Thus ended that notable fight with walruses. After consummating the victory with three cheers and congratulating each other, the conquerors proceeded to examine into the extent of damage received. It was found that, beyond a few scratches, the _Faith_ and the _Hope_ had escaped scathless, but the _Charity_ had suffered considerably. Besides a bad rip in the upper part of the gunwale, a small hole had been poked in her side below water, and her air-chamber was filling rapidly. "Come here, quick, uncle," cried Alf, in consternation, when he discovered this. To his surprise the Captain was not so much alarmed as he had expected. "It won't sink you, Alf, so keep your mind easy," he said, while examining the injury. "You see I took care to have the boats made in compartments. It will only make you go lop-sided like a lame duck till I can repair the damage." "Repair it, uncle! how can--" "Never mind just now, hand out a blanket, quick; I'll explain after; we must undergird her and keep out as much water as we can." This operation was soon accomplished. The blanket was passed under the boat and made fast. By pressing against the injured part it checked the inflow of water. Then the cargo was shifted, and part of it was transferred to the other boats, and soon they were advancing as pleasantly, though not as quickly as before, while the Captain explained that he had brought a solution of gutta-percha for the express purpose of repairing damages to the boats, but that it was impossible to use it until they could disembark either on land or on an iceberg. "We'll come to another berg ere long, no doubt, shan't we, Chingatok?" he asked. The Eskimo shook his head and said he thought not, but there was a small rocky islet not far from where they were, though it lay somewhat out of their course. On hearing this the Captain changed his course immediately, and rowed in the direction pointed out. "There's wind enough up there, Benjy," remarked his father, looking up to the sky, where the higher clouds were seen rapidly passing the lower strata to the northward, "but how to get the kites set up in a dead calm is more than I can tell." "There is a way out of the difficulty, father," said Benjy, pointing behind them. He referred to a slight breeze which was ruffling the sea into what are called cat's paws far astern. "Right boy, right. Prepare to hoist your tops'ls, lads," shouted the Captain. In a few minutes the kites were expanded and the tow-lines attached. When the light breeze came up they all soared, heavily, it is true, but majestically, into the sky. Soon reaching the upper regions, they caught the steady breeze there, and towed the boats along at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour. In two hours they sighted the islet which Chingatok had mentioned, and, soon afterwards, had landed and taken possession of it, in the usual manner, under the name of Refuge Island. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. DISCOURSES OF DEEP THINGS. The islet, or rock, for it was little more, which the explorers had reached, was low and extremely barren. Nevertheless it had on it a large colony of sea-fowl, which received the strangers with their wonted clamour of indignation--if not of welcome. As it was near noon at the time, the Captain and Leo went with their sextants to the highest part of the island to ascertain its position; the Eskimos set about making an encampment, unloading the boats, etcetera, and Alf, with hammer and botanical box, set off on a short ramble along the coast, accompanied by Benjy and Butterface. Sometimes these three kept together and chatted, at other times they separated a little, each attracted by some object of interest, or following the lead, it might have been, of wayward fancy. But they never lost sight of each other, and, after a couple of hours, converged, as if by tacit consent, until they met and sat down to rest on a ledge of rock. "Well, I _do_ like this sort o' thing," remarked Benjy, as he wiped his heated brow. "There is something to me so pleasant and peaceful about a low rocky shore with the sun blazing overhead and the great sea stretching out flat and white in a dead calm with just ripple enough to let you know it is all alive and hearty--only resting, like a good-humoured and sleepy giant." "Why, Ben, I declare you are becoming poetical," said Alf with a smile; "your conceptions correspond with those of Buzzby, who writes:-- "`Great Ocean, slumb'ring in majestic calm, Lies like a mighty--a mighty--' "I--I fear I've forgotten. Let me see:-- "`Great Ocean, slumb'ring in majestic calm, Lies like a mighty--'" "Giant in a dwalm," suggested Benjy. "We'll change the subject," said Alf, opening his botanical box and taking out several specimens of plants and rocks. "See, here are some bits of rock of a kind that are quite new to me." "What's de use ob dem?" inquired Butterface with a look of earnest simplicity. "The use?" said Benjy, taking on himself to reply; "why, you flat-nosed grampus, don't you know that these bits of rock are made for the express purpose of being carried home, identified, classified, labelled, stuck up in a museum, and stared at by wondering ignoramuses, who care nothing whatever about them, and know less. Geologists are constantly going about the world with their little hammers keeping up the supply." "Yes, Butterface," said Alf, "Benjy is partly correct; such specimens will be treated as he describes, and be stared at in blank stupidity by hundreds of fellows like himself, but they will also be examined and understood by geologists, who from their profound knowledge of the plans which our Creator seems to have had in arranging the materials of the earth, are able to point out many interesting and useful facts which are not visible to the naked and unscientific eye, such, for instance, as the localities where coal and other precious things may be found." "Kin dey tell whar' gold is to be found, massa Alf?" "O yes, they can tell that." "Den it's dis yer chile as wishes," said Butterface with a sigh, "dat he was a jollygist." "Oh! Butterface, you're a jolly goose at all events," said Benjy; "wouldn't it be fun to go and discover a gold mine, and dig up as much as would keep us in happy idleness all the rest of our lives? But I say, Alf, have you nothing better than geological specimens in your box--no grubological specimens, eh?" Alf replied by producing from his box a paper parcel which contained some of the required specimens in the shape of biscuit and pemmican. "Capital! Well, you are a good fellow, Alf. Let us make a table-cloth of the paper--now, you undisciplined black, don't glare so at the victuals, else you'll grow too hungry for a moderate supply." When the trio were in the full swing of vigorous feeding, the negro paused, with his mouth full, to ask Alf what would be the use of the North Pole when it was discovered. "Make matches or firewood of it," said Benjy just as he was about to stop up his impudent mouth with a lump of pemmican. "Truly, of what use the Pole itself may be--supposing it to exist in the form of a thing," said Alf, "I cannot tell, but it has already been of great use in creating expeditions to the Polar regions. You know well enough, Butterface, for you've been round the Capes of Good Hope and Horn often enough, what a long long voyage it is to the eastern seas, on the other side of the world, and what a saving of time and expense it would be if we could find a shorter route to those regions, from which so many of our necessaries and luxuries come. Now, if we could only discover an open sea in the Arctic regions which would allow our ships to sail in a straight line from England across the North Pole to Behring's Straits, the voyage to the East would be reduced to only about 5000 miles, and we should be able to reach Japan in three or four weeks. Just think what an advantage that would be to commerce!" "Tea at twopence a pound an' sugar to match--not to mention molasses and baccy, you ignorant nigger!" said Benjy;--"pass the biscuits." "An' now, massa Alf," said Butterface with an eager look, "we's diskivered dis open sea--eh!" "Well, it seems as if we had." "But what good will it do us," argued Benjy, becoming more earnest in the discussion, "if it's all surrounded by a ring of ice such as we have passed over on sledges." "If," repeated Alf, "in that `if' lies the whole question. No doubt Enterprise has fought heroically for centuries to overleap this supposed ring of ice, and science has stood expectant on the edge, looking eagerly for the day when human perseverance shall reveal the secrets of the Far North. It is true, also, that _we_ at last appear to have penetrated into the great unknown, but who shall say that the so-called ice-ring has been fully examined? Our explorations have been hitherto confined to one or two parts of it. We may yet find an ever-open entrance to this open Polar sea, and our ships may yet be seen sailing regularly to and fro over the North Pole." "Just so," said Benjy, "a North Pole steam line once a month to Japan and back--first class accommodation for second class fares. Walrus and white bear parties dropped on the way at the Pole Star Hotel, an easy trip from the Pole itself, which may be made in Eskimo cabs in summer and reindeer sleighs in winter. Return tickets available for six months--touching at China, India, Nova Zembla, Kamtschatka, and Iceland. Splendid view of Hecla and the great Mer de Glace of Greenland--fogs permitting.--Don't eat so much, Butterface, else bu'stin' will surely be your doom." "Your picture is perhaps a little overdrawn, Ben," rejoined Alf with a smile. "So would the ancients have said," retorted Benjy, "if you had prophesied that in the nineteenth century our steamers would pass through the Straits of Hercules, up the Mediterranean, and over the land to India; or that our cousins' steam cars would go rattling across the great prairies of America, through the vast forests, over and under the Rocky Mountains from the States to California, in seven days; or that the telephone or electric light should ever come into being." "Well, you see, Butterface," said Alf, "there is a great deal to be said in favour of Arctic exploration, even at the present day, and despite all the rebuffs that we have received. Sir Edward Sabine, one of the greatest Arctic authorities, says of the route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that it is the greatest geographical achievement which can be attempted, and that it will be the crowning enterprise of those Arctic researches in which England has hitherto had the pre-eminence. Why, Butterface," continued Alf, warming with his subject, while the enthusiastic negro listened as it were with every feature of his expressive face, and even the volatile Benjy became attentive, "why, there is no telling what might be the advantages that would arise from systematic exploration of these unknown regions, which cover a space of not less than two million, five hundred thousand square miles. It would advance the science of hydrography, and help to solve some of the difficult problems connected with Equatorial and Polar currents. It would enable us, it is said, by a series of pendulum observations at or near the Pole, to render essential service to the science of geology, to form a mathematical theory of the physical condition of the earth, and to ascertain its exact conformation. It would probably throw light on the wonderful phenomena of magnetism and atmospheric electricity and the mysterious Aurora Borealis--to say nothing of the flora of these regions and the animal life on the land and in the sea." "Why, Alf," exclaimed Benjy in surprise, "I had no idea you were so deeply learned on these subjects." "Deeply learned!" echoed Alf with a laugh, "why, I have only a smattering of them. Just knowledge enough to enable me in some small degree to appreciate the vast amount of knowledge which I have yet to acquire. Why do you look perplexed, Butterface?" "'Cause, massa, you's too deep for me altogidder. My brain no big 'nough to hold it all." "And your skull's too thick to let it through to the little blob of brain that you do possess," said Benjy with a kindly-contemptuous look at his sable friend. "Oh! flatnose, you're a terrible thick-head." "You's right dere, massa," replied the negro, with a gratified smile at what he deemed a compliment. "You should ha' seed me dat time when I was leetle boy down in Ole Virginny, whar dey riz me, when my gran'moder she foun' me stickin' my fist in de molasses-jar an' lickin' it off. She swarmed at me an' fetch me one kick, she did, an' sent me slap troo a pannel ob de loft door, an' tumbled me down de back stair, whar I felled over de edge an' landed on de top ob a tar barrel w'ich my head run into. I got on my legs, I did, wiv difficulty, an' runned away never a bit de worse--not even a headache--only it was tree months afore I got dat tar rightly out o' my wool. Yes, my head's t'ick _'nough_." While Butterface was speaking, Leo and the Captain were seen approaching, and the three rose to meet them. There was a grave solemnity in the Captain's look which alarmed them. "Nothing wrong I hope, uncle?" said Alf. "Wrong! no, lad, there's nothing wrong. On the contrary, everything is right. Why, where do you think we have got to?" "A hundred and fifty miles from the Pole," said Alf. "Less, less," said Leo, with an excited look. "We are not more," said the Captain slowly, as he took off his hat and wiped his brow, "not more than a hundred and forty miles from it." "Then we could be there in three days or sooner, with a good breeze," cried Benjy, whose enthusiasm was aroused. "Ay, Ben, if there was nothing in the way; but it's quite clear from what Chingatok says, that we are drawing near to his native land, which cannot be more than fifty miles distant, if so much. You remember he has told us his home is one of a group of islands, some of which are large and some small; some mountainous and others flat and swampy, affording food and shelter to myriads of wild-fowl; so, you see, after we get there our progress northward through such a country, without roads or vehicles, won't be at the rate of ten miles an hour by any means." "Besides," added Leo, "it would not be polite to Chingatok's countrymen if we were to leave them immediately after arriving. Perhaps they would not let us go, so I fear that we shan't gain the end of our journey yet a while, but that does not matter much, for we're sure to make it out at last." "What makes the matter more uncertain," resumed the Captain, as they sauntered back to camp, "is the fact that this northern archipelago is peopled by different tribes of Eskimos, some of whom are of a warlike spirit and frequently give the others trouble. However, Chingatok says we shall have no difficulty in reaching this Nothing--as he will insist on styling the Pole, ever since I explained to him that it was not a real but an imaginary point." "I wonder how Anders ever got him to understand what an imaginary point is," said Benjy. "That has puzzled me too," returned the Captain, "but he did get it screwed into him somehow, and the result is--Nothing!" "Out of nothing nothing comes," remarked Leo, as the giant suddenly appeared from behind a rock, "but assuredly _nothing_ can beat Chingatok in size or magnificence, which is more than anything else can." The Eskimo had been searching for the absentees to announce that dinner was ready, and that Toolooha was impatient to begin; they all therefore quickened their pace, and soon after came within scent of the savoury mess which had been prepared for them by the giant's squat but amiable mother. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. ARRIVAL IN POLOELAND. Fortune, which had hitherto proved favourable to our brave explorers, did not desert them at the eleventh hour. Soon after their arrival at Refuge Island a fair wind sprang up from the south, and when the _Charity_ had been carefully patched and repaired, the kites were sent up and the voyage was continued. That day and night they spent again upon the boundless sea, for the island was soon left out of sight behind them, though the wind was not very fresh. Towards morning it fell calm altogether, obliging them to haul down the kites and take to the oars. "It can't be far off now, Chingatok," said the Captain, who became rather impatient as the end drew near. "Not far," was the brief reply. "Land ho!" shouted Benjy, about half-an-hour after that. But Benjy was forced to admit that anxiety had caused him to take an iceberg on the horizon for land. "Well, anyhow you must admit," said Benjy, on approaching the berg, "that it's big enough for a fellow to mistake it for a mountain. I wonder what it's doing here without any brothers or sisters to keep it company." "Under-currents brought it here, lad," said the Captain. "You see, such a monster as that must go very deep down, and the warm under-current has not yet melted away enough of his base to permit the surface-current to carry him south like the smaller members of his family. He is still travelling north, but that won't last long. He'll soon become small enough to put about and go the other way. I never saw a bigger fellow than that, Benjy. Hayes, the American, mentions one which he measured, about 315 feet high, and nearly a mile long. It had been grounded for two years. He calculated that there must have been seven times as much of it below water as there was above, so that it was stranded in nearly half-a-mile depth of water. This berg cannot be far short of that one in size." "Hm! probably then his little brothers and sisters are being now crushed to bits in Baffin's Bay," said Benjy. "Not unlikely, Ben, if they've not already been melted in the Atlantic, which will be this one's fate at last--sooner or later." From a pool on this berg they obtained a supply of pure fresh water. When our explorers did at last sight the land it came upon them unexpectedly, in the form of an island so low that they were quite close before observing it. The number of gulls hovering above it might have suggested its presence, but as these birds frequently hover in large flocks over shoals of small fish, little attention was paid to them. "Is this your native land, Chingatok?" asked the Captain, quickly. "No, it is over there," said the Eskimo, pointing to the distant horizon; "this is the first of the islands." As they gazed they perceived a mountain-shaped cloud so faint and far away that it had almost escaped observation. Advancing slowly, this cloud was seen to take definite form and colour. "I _knew_ it was!" said Benjy, "but was afraid of making another mistake." Had the boy or his father looked attentively at the giant just then, they would have seen that his colour deepened, his eyes glittered, and his great chest heaved a little more than was its wont, as he looked over his shoulder while labouring at the oars. Perhaps we should have said played with the oars, for they were mere toys in his grasp. Chingatok's little mother also was evidently affected by the sight of home. But the Captain and his son saw it not--they were too much occupied with their own thoughts and feelings. To the Englishmen the sight of land roused only one great all-engrossing thought--the North Pole! which, despite the absurdity of the idea, _would_ present itself in the form of an upright post of terrific magnitude--a worthy axle-tree, as it were, for the world to revolve upon. To the big Eskimo land presented itself in the form of a palatial stone edifice measuring fifteen feet by twelve, with a dear pretty little wife choking herself in the smoke of a cooking-lamp, and a darling little boy choking himself with a mass of walrus blubber. Thus the same object, when presented to different minds, suggested ideas that were: "Diverse as calm from thunder, Wide as the poles asunder." It was midnight when the boats drew near to land. The island in which stood the giant's humble home seemed to Captain Vane not more than eight or ten miles in extent, and rose to a moderate height--apparently about five or six hundred feet. It was picturesque in form and composed of rugged rocks, the marks on which, and the innumerable boulders everywhere, showed that at some remote period of the world's history, it had been subjected to the influence of glacial action. No glacier was visible now, however--only, on the rocky summit lay a patch or two of the last winter's snow-drift, which was too deep for the summer sun to melt away. From this storehouse of water gushed numerous tiny rivulets which brawled cheerily rather than noisily among the rocks, watering the rich green mosses and grasses which abounded in patches everywhere, and giving life to countless wild-flowers and berries which decked and enriched the land. Just off the island--which by a strange coincidence the inhabitants had named Poloe--there were hundreds of other islets of every shape and size, but nearly all of them low, and many flat and swampy--the breeding-grounds of myriads of waterfowl. There were lakelets in many of these isles, in the midst of which were still more diminutive islets, whose moss-covered rocks and fringing sedges were reflected in the crystal water. Under a cliff on the main island stood the Eskimo village, a collection of stone huts, bathed in the slanting light of the midnight sun. But no sound issued from these huts or from the neighbouring islands. It was the period of rest for man and bird. Air, earth, and water were locked in profound silence and repose. "We've got to Paradise at last, father," was the first sound that broke the silence, if we except the gentle dip of the oars and the rippling water on the bow. "Looks like it, Benjy," replied the Captain. A wakeful dog on shore was the first to scent the coming strangers. He gave vent to a low growl. It was the keynote to the canine choir, which immediately sent up a howl of discord. Forthwith from every hut there leaped armed men, anxious women, and terrified children, which latter rushed towards the cliffs or took refuge among the rocks. "Hallo! Chingatok, your relations are not to be taken by surprise," said the Captain--or something to that effect--in Eskimo. The giant shook his head somewhat gravely. "They must be at war," he said. "At war! whom with?" "With the Neerdoowulls," replied Chingatok with a frown. "They are always giving us trouble." "Not badly named, father," said Benjy; "one would almost think they must be of Scotch extraction." At that moment the natives--who had been gesticulating wildly and brandishing spears and bone knives with expressions of fury that denoted a strong desire on their part to carve out the hearts and transfix the livers of the newcomers--suddenly gave vent to a shout of surprise, which was succeeded by a scream of joy. Chingatok had stood up in the boat and been recognised. The giant's dog--an appropriately large one-- had been the first to observe him, and expressed its feelings by wagging its tail to such an extent that its hind legs had difficulty in keeping the ground. Immediately on landing, the party was surrounded by a clamorous crew, who, to do them justice, took very little notice of the strangers, so overjoyed were they at the return of their big countryman. Soon a little pleasant though flattish-faced woman pushed through the crowd and seized the giant. This was his wife Pingasuk, or Pretty One. She was _petite_--not much larger than Oblooria the timid. The better to get at her, Chingatok went down on his knees, seized her by the shoulders, and rubbed her nose against his so vigorously that the smaller nose bid fair to come off altogether. He had to stoop still lower when a stout urchin of about five years of age came up behind him and tried to reach his face. "Meltik!" exclaimed the giant, rubbing noses gently for fear of damaging him, "you are stout and fat, my son, you have been eating much blubber-- good." At that moment Chingatok's eyes fell on an object which had hitherto escaped his observation. It was a little round yellow head in his wife's hood, with a pair of small black eyes which stared at him in blank surprise. He made a snatch at it and drew forth--a naked baby! "Our girlie," said the wife, with a pleased but anxious look; "don't squeeze. She is very young and tender--like a baby seal." The glad father tried to fold the creature to his bosom; nearly dropped it in his excess of tender caution; thrust it hastily back into his wife's hood, and rose to give a respectful greeting to an aged man with a scrubby white beard, who came forward at the moment. "Who are these, my son?" asked the old man, pointing to the Englishmen, who, standing in a group with amused expressions, watched the meeting above described. "These are the Kablunets, father. I met them, as I expected, in the far-off land. The poor creatures were wandering about in a great kayak, which they have lost, searching for _nothing_!" "Searching for nothing! my son, that cannot be. It is not possible to search for nothing--at least it is not possible to find it." "But that is what they come here for," persisted Chingatok; "they call it the Nort Pole." "And what is the Nort Pole, my son?" "It is nothing, father." The old man looked at his stately son with something of anxiety mingled with his surprise. "Has Chingatok become a fool, like the Kablunets, since he left home?" he asked in a low voice. "Chingatok is not sure," replied the giant, gravely. "He has seen so much to puzzle him since he went away, that he sometimes feels foolish." The old Eskimo looked steadily at his son for a few moments, and shook his head. "I will speak to these men--these foolish men," he said. "Do they understand our language?" "Some of them understand and speak a little, father, but they have with them one named Unders, who interprets. Come here, Unders." Anders promptly stepped to the front and interpreted, while the old Eskimo put Captain Vane through an examination of uncommon length and severity. At the close of it he shook his head with profound gravity, and turned again to his son. "You have indeed brought to us a set of fools, Chingatok. Your voyage to the far-off lands has not been very successful. These men want something that they do not understand; that they could not see if it was before them; that they cannot describe when they talk about it, and that they could not lay hold of if they had it." "Yes, father," sighed Chingatok, "it is as I told you--nothing; only the Nort Pole--a mere name." A new light seemed to break in on Chingatok as he said this, for he added quickly, "But, father, a name is _something_--my name, Chingatok, is something, yet it is nothing. You cannot see it, you do not lay hold of it, yet it is there." "Toohoo! my son, that is so, no doubt, but your name describes _you_, and you are something. No one ever goes to a far-off land to search for a _name_. If this Nort Pole is only a name and not a _thing_, how can it _be_?" exclaimed the old man, turning on his heel and marching off in a paroxysm of metaphysical disgust. He appeared to change his mind, however, for, turning abruptly back, he said to Anders, "Tell these strangers that I am glad to see them; that a house and food shall be given to them, and that they are welcome to Poloe. Perhaps their land--the far-off land--is a poor one; they may not have enough to eat. If so, they may stay in this rich land of mine to hunt and fish as long as they please. But tell them that the Eskimos love wise men, and do not care for foolishness. They must not talk any more about this search after nothing--this Nort Pole--this nonsense-- huk!" Having delivered himself of these sentiments with much dignity, the old man again turned on his heel with a regal wave of the hand, and marched up to his hut. "That must be the King of Poloe," whispered Captain Vane to Leo, endeavouring to suppress a smile at the concluding caution, as they followed Anders and one of the natives to the hut set apart for them. The Captain was only half right. Amalatok was indeed the chief of the island, but the respect and deference shown to him by the tribe were owing more to the man's age and personal worth, than to his rank. He had succeeded his father as chief of the tribe, and, during a long life, had led his people in council, at the hunt, and in war, with consummate ability and success. Although old, he still held the reins of power, chiefly because his eldest son and rightful successor--Chingatok's elder brother--was a weak-minded man of little capacity and somewhat malignant disposition. If our giant had been his eldest, he would have resigned cheerfully long ago. As it was, he did not see his way to change the customs of the land, though he could not tell when, or by whom, or under what circumstances, the order of succession had been established. Probably, like many other antiquated customs, it had been originally the result of despotism on the part of men in power, and of stupid acquiescence on the part of an unthinking people. On reaching his hut the old chief sat down, and, leaning carelessly against the wall, he toyed with a bit of walrus rib, as an Englishman might with a pair of nut-crackers at dessert. "Why did you bring these barbarians here?" "I did not bring them, father, they brought me," said the son with a deprecating glance. "Huk!" exclaimed the chief, after which he added, "hum!" It was evident that he had received new light, and was meditating thereon. "My son," continued Amalatok, "these Kablunets seem to be stout-bodied fellows; can they fight--are they brave?" "They are brave, father, very brave. Even the little one, whom they call Bunjay, is brave--also, he is funny. I have never seen the Kablunets fight with men, but they fight well with the bear and the walrus and the ice. They are not such fools as you seem to think. True, about this nothing--this Nort Pole--they are quite mad, but in other matters they are very wise and knowing, as you shall see before long." "Good, good," remarked the old chief, flinging the walrus rib at an intrusive dog with signal success, "I am glad to hear you say that, because I may want their help." Amalatok showed one symptom of true greatness--a readiness to divest himself of prejudice. "For what do you require their help, father?" asked Chingatok. Instead of answering, the old chief wrenched off another walrus rib from its native backbone, and began to gnaw it growlingly, as if it were his enemy and he a dog. "My father is disturbed in his mind," said the giant in a sympathising tone. Even a less observant man than Chingatok might have seen that the old chief was not only disturbed in mind, but also in body, for his features twitched convulsively, and his face grew red as he thought of his wrongs. "Listen," said Amalatok, flinging the rib at another intrusive dog, again with success, and laying his hand impressively on his son's arm. "My enemy, Grabantak--that bellowing walrus, that sly seal, that empty-skulled puffin, that porpoise, cormorant, narwhal--s-s-sus!" The old man set his teeth and hissed. "Well, my father?" "It is not well, my son. It is all ill. That marrowless bear is stirring up his people, and there is no doubt that we shall soon be again engaged in a bloody--a _useless_ war." "What is it all about, father?" "About!--about nothing." "Huk! about Nort Pole--nothing," murmured Chingatok--his thoughts diverted by the word. "No, it is worse than Nort Pole, worse than nothing," returned the chief sternly; "it is a small island--very small--so small that a seal would not have it for a breathing-place. Nothing on it; no moss, no grass. Birds won't stay there--only fly over it and wink with contempt. Yet Grabantak says he must have it--it is within the bounds of _his_ land!" "Well, let him have it, if it be so worthless," said Chingatok, mildly. "Let him have it!" shouted the chief, starting up with such violence as to overturn the cooking-lamp--to which he paid no regard whatever--and striding about the small hut savagely, "no, never! I will fight him to the last gasp; kill all his men; slay his women; drown his children; level his huts; burn up his meat--" Amalatok paused and glared, apparently uncertain about the propriety of wasting good meat. The pause gave his wrath time to cool. "At all events," he continued, sitting down again and wrenching off another rib, "we must call a council and have a talk, for we may expect him soon. When you arrived we took you for our enemies." "And you were ready for us," said Chingatok, with an approving smile. "Huk!" returned the chief with a responsive nod. "Go, Chingatok, call a council of my braves for to--night, and see that these miserable starving Kablunets have enough of blubber wherewith to stuff themselves." Our giant did not deem it worth while to explain to his rather petulant father that the Englishmen were the reverse of starving, but he felt the importance of raising them in the old chief's opinion without delay, and took measures accordingly. "Blackbeard," he said, entering the Captain's hut and sitting down with a troubled air, "my father does not think much of you. Tell him that, Unders." "I understand you well enough, Chingatok; go on, and let me know why the old man does not think well of me." "He thinks you are a fool," returned the plain spoken Eskimo. "H'm! I'm not altogether surprised at that, lad. I've sometimes thought so myself. Well, I suppose you've come to give me some good advice to make me wiser--eh! Chingatok?" "Yes, that is what I come for. Do what I tell you, and my father will begin to think you wise." "Ah, yes, the old story," remarked Benjy, who was an amused listener-- for his father translated in a low tone for the benefit of his companions as the conversation proceeded--"the same here as everywhere-- Do as I tell you and all will be well!" "Hold your tongue, Ben," whispered Alf. "Well, what am I to do?" asked the Captain. "Invite my father to a feast," said Chingatok eagerly, "and me too, and my mother too; also my wife, and some of the braves with their wives. And you must give us biskit an'--what do you call that brown stuff?" "Coffee," suggested the Captain. "Yes, cuffy, also tee, and shoogre, and seal st- ate--what?" "Steak--eh?" "Yes, stik, and cook them all in the strange lamp. You must ask us to see the feast cooked, and then we will eat it." It will be observed that when Chingatok interpolated English words in his discourse his pronunciation was not perfect. "Well, you are the coolest fellow I've met with for many a day! To order a feast, invite yourself to it, name the rest of the company, as well as the victuals, and insist on seeing the cooking of the same," said the Captain in English; then, in Eskimo,--"Well, Chingatok, I will do as you wish. When would you like supper?" "Now," replied the giant, with decision. "You hear, Butterface," said the Captain when he had translated, "go to work and get your pots and pans ready. See that you put your best foot foremost. It will be a turning-point, this feast, I see." Need we say that the feast was a great success? The wives, highly pleased at the attention paid them by the strangers, were won over at once. The whole party, when assembled in the hut, watched with the most indescribable astonishment the proceedings of the negro--himself a living miracle--as he manipulated a machine which, in separate compartments, cooked steaks and boiled tea, coffee, or anything else, by means of a spirit lamp in a few minutes. On first tasting the hot liquids they looked at each other suspiciously; then as the sugar tickled their palates, they smiled, tilted their pannikins, drained them to the dregs, and asked for more! The feast lasted long, and was highly appreciated. When the company retired--which did not happen until the Captain declared he had nothing more to give them, and turned the cooking apparatus upside down to prove what he said--there was not a man or woman among them who did not hold and even loudly assert that the Kablunets were wise men. After the feast the council of war was held and the strangers were allowed to be present. There was a great deal of talk--probably some of it was not much to the point, but there was no interruption or undignified confusion. There was a peace-party, of course, and a war-party, but the latter prevailed. It too often does so in human affairs. Chingatok was understood to favour the peace-party, but as his sire was on the other side, respect kept him tongue-tied. "These Eskimos reverence age and are respectful to women," whispered Leo to Alf, "so we may not call them savages." The old chief spoke last, summing up the arguments, as it were, on both sides, and giving his reasons for favouring war. "The island is of no use," he said; "it is not worth a seal's nose, yet Grabantak wishes to tear it from us--us who have possessed it since the forgotten times. Why is this? because he wishes to insult us," ("huk!" from the audience). "Shall we submit to insult? shall we sit down like frightened birds and see the black-livered cormorant steal what is ours? shall the courage of the Poloes be questioned by all the surrounding tribes? Never! while we have knives in our boots and spears in our hands. We will fight till we conquer or till we are all dead--till our wives are husbandless and our children fatherless, and all our stores of meat and oil are gone!" ("huk! huk!") "Then shall it be said by surrounding tribes, `Behold! how brave were the Poloes! they died and left their wives and little children to perish, or mourn in slavery, rather than submit to insult!'" The "huks" that greeted the conclusion of the speech were so loud and numerous that the unfortunate peace-makers were forced to hide their diminished heads. Thus did Amalatok resolve to go to war for "worse than Nort Pole--for nothing"--rather than submit to insult! (See Note 1.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note 1. It may not be inappropriate here to point out that Eskimo savages are sometimes equalled, if not surpassed, in this respect, by civilised and even Christian nations. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. THE EFFECT OF PERSUASION ON DIVERSE CHARACTERS. The warlike tendencies of Grabantak, the northern savage, had the effect of compelling Captain Vane and his party to delay for a considerable time their efforts to reach the Pole. This was all the more distressing that they had by that time approached so very near to it. A carefully made observation placed the island of Poloe in latitude 88 degrees 30 minutes 10 seconds, about 90 geographical, or 104 English statute miles from the Pole. There was no help for it, however. To have ventured on Grabantak's territory while war was impending would have been to court destruction. Captain Vane saw therefore that the only way of advancing his own cause was to promote peace between the tribes. With a view to this he sought an interview with the old chief Amalatok. "Why do you wish to go to war?" he asked. "I do not wish to go to war," answered the chief, frowning fiercely. "Why do you go then?" said the Captain in a soothing tone, for he was very anxious not to rouse the chief's anger; but he was unsuccessful, for the question seemed to set the old man on fire. He started up, grinding his teeth and striding about his hut, knocking over pots, oil cans, and cooking-lamps somewhat like that famous bull which got into a china shop. Finding the space too small for him he suddenly dropped on his knees, crept through the low entrance, sprang up, and began to stride about more comfortably. The open air calmed him a little. He ceased to grind his teeth, and stopping in front of the Captain, who had followed him, said in a low growl, "Do you think I will submit to insult?" "Some men have occasionally done so with advantage," answered the Captain. "Kablunets may do so, Eskimos _never_!" returned the old man, resuming his hurried walk to and fro, and the grinding of his teeth again. "If Amalatok were to kill all his enemies--all the men, women and children," said the Captain, raising a fierce gleam of satisfaction in the old man's face at the mere suggestion, "and if he were to knock down all their huts, and burn up all their kayaks and oomiaks, the insult would still remain, because an insult can only be wiped out by one's enemy confessing his sin and repenting." For a few seconds Amalatok stood silent; his eyes fixed on the ground as if he were puzzled. "The white man is right," he said at length, "but if I killed them all I should be avenged." "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," leaped naturally to the Captain's mind; but, reflecting that the man before him was a heathen who would not admit the value of the quotation, he paused a moment or two. "And what," he then said, "if Grabantak should kill Amalatok and all his men, and carry away the women and children into slavery, would the insult be wiped out in that case? Would it not rather be deepened?" "True, it would; but then we should all be dead--we should not care." "The _men_ would all be dead, truly," returned the Captain, "but perhaps the women and children left behind might care. They would also suffer." "Go, go," said the Eskimo chief, losing temper as he lost ground in the argument; "what can Kablunets know about such matters? You tell me you are men of peace; that your religion is a religion of peace. Of course, then, you understand nothing about war. Go, I have been insulted, and I _must_ fight." Seeing that it would be fruitless talking to the old chief while he was in this frame of mind, Captain Vane left him and returned to his own hut, where he found Chingatok and Leo engaged in earnest conversation-- Alf and Benjy being silent listeners. "I'm glad you've come, uncle," said Leo, making room for him on the turf seat, "because Chingatok and I are discussing the subject of war; and--" "A strange coincidence," interrupted the Captain. "I have just been discussing the same subject with old Amalatok. I hope that in showing the evils of war you are coming better speed with the son than I did with the father." "As to that," said Leo, "I have no difficulty in showing Chingatok the evils of war. He sees them clearly enough already. The trouble I have with him is to explain the Bible on that subject. You see he has got a very troublesome inquiring sort of mind, and ever since I have told him that the Bible is the Word of God he won't listen to my explanations about anything. He said to me in the quietest way possible, just now, `Why do you give me _your_ reasons when you tell me the Great Spirit has given His? I want to know what _He_ says.' Well, now, you know, it is puzzling to be brought to book like that, and I doubt if Anders translates well. You understand and speak the language, uncle, better than he does, I think, so I want you to help me." "I'll try, Leo, though I am ashamed to say I am not so well read in the Word myself as I ought to be. What does Chingatok want to know?" "He wants to _reconcile_ things, of course. That is always the way. Now I told him that the Great Spirit is good, and does not wish men to go to war, and that He has written for us a law, namely, that we should `live peaceably with all men.' Chingatok liked this very much, but then I had told him before, that the Great Spirit had told His ancient people the Jews to go and fight His enemies, and take possession of their lands. Now he regards this as a contradiction. He says--How can a man live peaceably with all men, and at the same time go to war with some men, kill them, and take their lands?" "Ah! Leo, my boy, your difficulty in answering the Eskimo lies in your own _partial_ quotation of Scripture," said the Captain. Then, turning to Chingatok, he added, "My young friend did not give you the whole law--only part of it. The word is written thus:--`if it be _possible_, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.' Some times it is _not_ possible, Chingatok; then we must fight. But the law says keep from fighting `_as much as you can_.' Mind that, Chingatok, and if you are ever induced to go to war for the sake of a little island--for the sake of a little insult,--don't flatter yourself that you are keeping out of it as much as lieth in you." "Good, good," said the giant, earnestly; "Blackbeard's words are wise." "As to the people of God in the long past," continued the Captain, "God told them to go to war, so they went; but that does not authorise men to go to war at their own bidding. What is right in the Great Father of all may be very wrong in the children. God kills men every day, and we do not blame Him, but if man kills his fellow we hunt him down as a murderer. In the long past time the Great Father spoke to His children by His wise and holy men, and sometimes He saw fit to tell them to fight. With His reasons we have nothing to do. Now, the Great Father speaks to us by His Book. In it He tells us to live in peace with all men--if _possible_." "Good," said the giant with an approving nod, though a perplexed expression still lingered on his face. "But the Great Father has never before spoken to me by His Book--never at all to my forefathers." "He may, however, have spoken by His Spirit within you, Chingatok, I cannot tell," returned the Captain with a meditative air. "You have desires for peace and a tendency to forgive. This could not be the work of the spirit of evil. It must have been that of the Good Spirit." This seemed to break upon the Eskimo as a new light, and he relapsed into silence as he thought of the wonderful idea that within his breast the Great Spirit might have been working in time past although he knew it not. Then he thought of the many times he had in the past resisted what he had hitherto only thought of as good feelings; and the sudden perception that at such times he had been resisting the Father of all impressed him for the first time with a sensation of guiltiness. It was some time before the need of a Saviour from sin entered into his mind, but the ice had been broken, and at last, through Leo's Bible, as read by him and explained by Captain Vane, Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, rose upon his soul and sent in the light for which he had thirsted so long. But, as we have said, this effect was not immediate, and he remained in a state of uncertainty and sadness while the warlike councils and preparations went on. Meanwhile Captain Vane set himself earnestly to work to hit on some plan by which, if possible, to turn the feeling of the Eskimo community in favour of peace. At first he thought of going alone and unarmed, with Anders as interpreter, to the land of Grabantak to dissuade that savage potentate from attacking the Poloes, but the Eskimos pointed out that the danger of this plan was so great that he might as well kill himself at once. His own party, also, objected to it so strongly that he gave it up, and resolved in the meantime to strengthen his position and increase his influence with the natives among whom his lot was cast, by some exhibitions of the powers with which science and art had invested him. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. THE CAPTAIN ELECTRIFIES AS WELL AS SURPRISES HIS NEW FRIENDS. It will be remembered that the party of Englishmen arrived at Poloeland under oars, and although the india-rubber boats had been gazed at, and gently touched, with intense wonder by the natives, they had not yet seen the process of disinflation, or the expansion of the kites. Of course, Chingatok and their other Eskimo fellow-travellers had given their friends graphic descriptions of everything, but this only served to whet the desire to see the wonderful oomiaks in action. Several times, during the first few days, the old chief had expressed a wish to see the Kablunets go through the water in their boats, but as the calm still prevailed, and the Captain knew his influence over the natives would depend very much on the effect with which his various proceedings were carried out, he put him off with the assurance that when the proper time for action came, he would let him know. One night a gentle breeze sprang up and blew directly off shore. As it seemed likely to last, the Captain waited till the whole community was asleep, and then quietly roused his son. "Lend a hand here, Ben," he whispered, "and make no noise." Benjy arose and followed his father in a very sleepy frame of mind. They went to the place where the india-rubber boats lay, close behind the Englishmen's hut, and, unscrewing the brass heads that closed the air-holes, began to press out the air. "That's it, Ben, but don't squeeze too hard, lest the hissing should rouse some of 'em." "What'r 'ee doin' this for--ee--yaou?" asked Benjy, yawning. "You'll see that to-morrow, lad." "Hum! goin' t'squeeze'm all?" "Yes, all three, and put 'em in their boxes." The conversation flagged at this point, and the rest of the operation was performed in silence. Next morning, after breakfast, seeing that the breeze still held, the Captain sent a formal message to Amalatok, that he was prepared to exhibit his oomiaks. The news spread like wild-fire, and the entire community soon assembled--to the number of several hundreds--in front of the Englishmen's hut, where the Captain was seen calmly seated on a packing-case, with a solemn expression on his face. The rest of his party had been warned to behave with dignity. Even Benjy's round face was drawn into something of an oval, and Butterface made such superhuman attempts to appear grave, that the rest of the party almost broke down at the sight of him. Great was the surprise among the natives when they perceived that the three oomiaks had disappeared. "My friends," said the Captain, rising, "I will now show you the manner in which we Englishmen use our oomiaks." A soft sigh of expectation ran through the group of eager natives, as they pressed round their chief and Chingatok who stood looking on in dignified silence, while the Captain and his companions went to work. Many of the women occupied a little eminence close at hand, whence they could see over the heads of the men, and some of the younger women and children clambered to the top of the hut, the better to witness the great sight. Numerous and characteristic were the sighs, "huks," grunts, growls, and other exclamations; all of which were in keeping with the more or less intense glaring of eyes, and opening of mouths, and slight bending of knees and elbows, and spreading of fingers, and raising of hands, as the operators slowly unrolled the india-rubber mass, attached the bellows, gradually inflated the first boat, fixed the thwarts and stretchers, and, as it were, constructed a perfect oomiak in little more than ten minutes. Then there was a shout of delight when the Captain and Leo, one at the bow, the other at the stern, lifted the boat as if it had been a feather, and, carrying it down the beach, placed it gently in the sea. But the excitement culminated when Chingatok, stepping lightly into it, sat down on the seat, seized the little oars, and rowed away. We should have said, attempted to row away, for, though he rowed lustily, the boat did not move, owing to Anders, who, like Eskimos in general, dearly loved a practical joke. Holding fast by the tail-line a few seconds, he suddenly let go, and the boat shot away, while Anders, throwing a handful of water after it, said, "Go off, bad boy, and don't come back; we can do without you." A roar of laughter burst forth. Some of the small boys and girls leaped into the air with delight, causing the tails of the latter to wriggle behind them. The Captain gave them plenty of time to blow off the steam of surprise. When they had calmed down considerably, he proceeded to open out and arrange one of the kites. Of course this threw them back into the open-eyed and mouthed, and finger-spreading condition, and, if possible, called forth more surprise than before. When the kite soared into the sky, they shouted; when it was being attached to the bow of the boat, they held their breath with expectation, many of them standing on one leg; and when at last the boat, with four persons in it, shot away to sea at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, they roared with ecstasy; accompanying the yells with contortions of frame and visage which were so indescribable that we gladly leave it all to the reader's imagination. There can be no doubt of the fact that the Captain placed himself and his countrymen that day on a pedestal from which there was no fear of their being afterwards dislodged. "Did not I tell you," said Chingatok to his sire that night, in the privacy of his hut, "that the Kablunets are great men?" "You did, my son. Chingatok is wise, and his father is a fool!" No doubt the northern savage meant this self-condemning speech to be understood much in the same way in which it is understood by civilised people. "When the oomiak swelled I thought it was going to burst," added the chief. "So did I, when I first saw it," said Chingatok. Father and son paused a few minutes. They usually did so between each sentence. Evidently they pondered what they said. "Have these men got wives?" asked the chief. "The old one has, and Bunjay is his son. The other ones--no. The black man may have a wife: I know not, but I should think that no woman would have him." "What made him black?" "I know not." "Was he always black?" "The Kablunets say he was--from so big." Chingatok measured off the half of his left hand by way of explaining how big. "Is he black under the clothes?" "Yes; black all over." Again the couple paused. "It is strange," said the old man, shaking his head. "Perhaps he was made black because his father was wicked." "Not so," returned the young giant. "I have heard him say his father was a very good man." "Strange," repeated the chief, with a solemn look, "he is very ugly-- worse than a walrus. Tell me, my son, where do the Kablunets live? Do they hunt the walrus or the seal?" "Blackbeard has told me much, father, that I do not understand. His people do not hunt much--only a very few of them do." "Wah! they are lazy! The few hunt to keep the rest in meat, I suppose." "No, father, that is not the way. The few hunt for fun. The great many spend their time in changing one thing for another. They seem to be never satisfied--always changing, changing--every day, and all day. Getting and giving, and never satisfied." "Poor things!" said the chief. "And they have no walruses, no white bears, no whales, nothing!" added the son. "Miserables! Perhaps that is why they come here to search for _nothing_!" "But, father, if they have got nothing at home, why come here to search for it?" "What do they eat?" asked Amalatok, quickly, as if he were afraid of recurring to the puzzling question that had once already taken him out of his mental depth. "They eat all sorts of things. Many of them eat things that are nasty-- things that grow out of the ground; things that are very hot and burn the tongue; things that are poison and make them ill. They eat fish too, like us, and other people bring them their meat in great oomiaks from far-off lands. They seem to be so poor that they cannot find enough in their own country to feed themselves." "Wretched creatures!" said the old man, pitifully. "Yes, and they drink too. Drink waters so hot and so terrible that they burn their mouths and their insides, and so they go mad." "Did I not say that they were fools?" said Amalatok, indignantly. "But the strangest thing of all," continued Chingatok, lowering his voice, and looking at his sire in a species of wonder, "is that they fill their mouths with smoke!" "What? Eat smoke?" said Amalatok in amazement. "No, they spit it out." "Did Blackbeard tell you that?" "Yes." "Then Blackbeard is a liar!" Chingatok did not appear to be shocked by the old man's plain speaking, but he did not agree with him. "No, father," said he, after a pause. "Blackbeard is not a liar. He is good and wise, and speaks the truth. I have seen the Kablunets do it myself. In the big oomiak that they lost, some of the men did it, so-- puff, pull, puff, puff--is it not funny?" Both father and son burst into laughter at this, and then, becoming suddenly grave, remained staring at the smoke of their cooking-lamp, silently meditating on these things. While thus engaged, a man entered the low doorway in the only possible manner, on hands and knees, and, rising, displayed the face of Anders. "Blackbeard sends a message to the great old chief," said the interpreter. "He wishes him to pay the Kablunets a visit. He has something to show to the great old chief." "Tell him I come," said the chief, with a toss of the head which meant, "be off!" "I wonder," said Amalatok slowly, as Anders crept out, "whether Blackbeard means to show us some of his wisdom or some of his foolishness. The white men appear to have much of both." "Let us go see," said Chingatok. They went, and found the Captain seated in front of the door of his hut with his friends round him--all except Benjy, who was absent. They were very grave, as usual, desiring to be impressive. "Chief," began the Captain, in that solemn tone in which ghosts are supposed to address mankind, "I wish to show you that I can make the stoutest and most obstinate warrior of Poloeland tremble and jump without touching him." "That is not very difficult," said the old man, who had still a lurking dislike to acknowledge the Englishmen his superiors. "I can make any one of them tremble and jump by throwing a spear at him." A slight titter from the assembly testified to the success of this reply. "But," rejoined the Captain, with deepening solemnity, "I will do it without throwing a spear." "So will I, by suddenly howling at him in the dark," said Amalatok. At this his men laughed outright. "But I will not howl or move," said the Captain. "That will be clever," returned the chief, solemnised in spite of himself. "Let Blackbeard proceed." "Order one of your braves to stand before me on that piece of flat skin," said the Captain. Amalatok looked round, and, observing a huge ungainly man with a cod-fishy expression of face, who seemed to shrink from notoriety, ordered him to step forward. The man did so with obvious trepidation, but he dared not refuse. The Captain fixed his eyes on him sternly, and, in a low growling voice, muttered in English: "Now, Benjy, give it a good turn." Cod-fishiness vanished as if by magic, and, with a look of wild horror, the man sprang into the air, tumbled on his back, rose up, and ran away! It is difficult to say whether surprise or amusement predominated among the spectators. Many of them laughed heartily, while the Captain, still as grave as a judge, said in a low growling tone as if speaking to himself:-- "Not quite so stiff, Benjy, not quite so stiff. Be more gentle next time. Don't do it all at once, boy; jerk it, Benjy, a turn or so at a time." It is perhaps needless to inform the reader that the Captain was practising on the Eskimos with his electrical machine, and that Benjy was secretly turning the handle inside the hut. The machine was connected, by means of wires, with the piece of skin on which the patients stood. These wires had been laid underground, not, indeed, in the darkness, but, during the secrecy and silence of the previous night. After witnessing the effect on the first warrior, no other brave seemed inclined to venture on the skin, and the women, who enjoyed the fun greatly, were beginning to taunt them with cowardice, when Oolichuk strode forward. He believed intensely, and justifiably, in his own courage. No man, he felt quite sure, had the power to stare _him_ into a nervous condition--not even the fiercest of the Kablunets. Let Blackbeard try, and do his worst! Animated by these stern and self-reliant sentiments, he stepped upon the mat. Benjy, being quick in apprehension, perceived his previous error, and proceeded this time with caution. He gave the handle of the machine a gentle half-turn and stopped, peeping through a crevice in the wall to observe the effect. "Ha! ha! ho! ho!--hi! huk!" laughed Oolichuk, as a tickling sensation thrilled through all his nervous system. The laugh was irresistibly echoed by the assembled community. Benjy waited a few seconds, and then gave the handle another and slightly stronger turn. The laugh this time was longer and more ferocious, while the gallant Eskimo drew himself together, determined to resist the strange and subtle influence; at the same time frowning defiance at the Captain, who never for a moment took his coal-black eye off him! Again Benjy turned the handle gently. He evidently possessed something of the ancient Inquisitor spirit, and gloated over the pains of his victim! The result was that Oolichuk not only quivered from head to foot, but gave a little jump and anything but a little yell. Benjy's powers of self-restraint were by that time exhausted. He sent the handle round with a whirr and Oolichuk, tumbling backwards off the mat, rent the air with a shriek of demoniac laughter. Of course the delight of the Eskimos--especially of the children--was beyond all bounds, and eager were the efforts made to induce another warrior to go upon the mysterious mat, but not one would venture. They would rather have faced their natural enemy, the great Grabantak, unarmed, any day! In this difficulty an idea occurred to Amalatok. Seizing a huge dog by the neck he dragged it to the mat, and bade it lie down. The dog crouched and looked sheepishly round. Next moment he was in the air wriggling. Then he came to the ground, over which he rushed with a prolonged howl, and disappeared among the rocks on the hill side. It is said that that poor dog was never again seen, but Benjy asserts most positively that, a week afterwards, he saw it sneaking into the village with its tail very much between its legs, and an expression of the deepest humility on its countenance. "You'd better give them a taste of dynamite, father," said Benjy that evening, as they all sat round their supper-kettle. "No, no, boy. It is bad policy to fire off all your ammunition in a hurry. We'll give it 'em bit by bit." "Just so, impress them by degrees," said Alf. "De fust warrior was nigh bu'sted by degrees," said Butterface, with a broad grin, as he stirred the kettle. "You gib it 'im a'most too strong, Massa Benjee." "Blackbeard must be the bad spirit," remarked Amalatok to his son that same night as they held converse together--according to custom--before going to bed. "The bad spirit is _never_ kind or good," replied Chingatok, after a pause. "No," said the old man, "never." "But Blackbeard is always good and kind," returned the giant. This argument seemed unanswerable. At all events the old man did not answer it, but sat frowning at the cooking-lamp under the influence of intense thought. After a prolonged meditation--during the course of which father and son each consumed the tit-bits of a walrus rib and a seal's flipper-- Chingatok remarked that the white men were totally beyond his comprehension. To which, after another pause, his father replied that he could not understand them at all. Then, retiring to their respective couches, they calmly went to sleep--"perchance to dream!" CHAPTER NINETEEN. A SHOOTING TRIP TO PARADISE ISLE, AND FURTHER DISPLAY OF THE CAPTAIN'S CONTRIVANCES. While our explorers were thus reduced to a state of forced inaction as regarded the main object of their expedition, they did not by any means waste their time in idleness. On the contrary, each of the party went zealously to work in the way that was most suitable to his inclination. After going over the main island of Poloe as a united party, and ascertaining its size, productions, and general features, the Captain told them they might now do as they pleased. For his part he meant to spend a good deal of his time in taking notes and observations, questioning the chief men as to the lands lying to the northward, repairing and improving the hut, and helping the natives miscellaneously so as to gain their regard. Of course Leo spent much of his time with his rifle, for the natives were not such expert hunters but that occasionally they were badly off for food. Of course, also, Alf shouldered his botanical box and sallied forth hammer in hand, to "break stones," as Butterface put it. Benjy sometimes followed Alf--more frequently Leo, and always carried his father's double-barrelled shot-gun. He preferred that, because his powers with the rifle were not yet developed. Sometimes he went with Toolooha, or Tekkona, or Oblooria, in one of the native oomiaks to fish. At other times he practised paddling in the native kayak, so that he might accompany Chingatok on his excursions to the neighbouring islands after seals and wild-fowl. In the excursions by water Leo preferred one of the india-rubber boats-- partly because he was strong and could row it easily, and partly because it was capable of holding more game than the kayak. These expeditions to the outlying islands were particularly delightful. There was something so peaceful, yet so wild, so romantic and so strange about the region, that the young men felt as if they had passed into a new world altogether. It is scarcely surprising that they should feel thus, when it is remembered that profound calms usually prevailed at that season, causing the sea to appear like another heaven below them; that the sun never went down, but circled round and round the horizon-- dipping, indeed, a little more and more towards it each night, but not yet disappearing; that myriads of wild birds filled the air with plaintive cries; that whales, and sea-unicorns, and walruses sported around; that icebergs were only numerous enough to give a certain strangeness of aspect to the scene--a strangeness which was increased by the frequent appearance of arctic phenomena, such as several mock-suns rivalling the real one, and objects being enveloped in a golden haze, or turned upside down by changes in atmospheric temperature. "No wonder that arctic voyagers are always hankering after the far north," said Leo to Benjy, one magnificent morning, as they rowed towards the outlying islands over the golden sea. Captain Vane was with them that morning, and it was easy to see that the Captain was in a peculiar frame of mind. A certain twinkle in his eyes and an occasional smile, apparently at nothing, showed that his thoughts, whatever they might be, were busy. Now, it cannot have failed by this time to strike the intelligent reader, that Captain Vane was a man given to mystery, and rather fond of taking by surprise not only Eskimos but his own companions. On the bright morning referred to he took with him in the boat a small flat box, or packing-case, measuring about three feet square, and not more than four inches deep. As they drew near to Leo's favourite sporting-ground,--a long flat island with several small lakes on it which were bordered by tall reeds and sedges, where myriads of ducks, geese, gulls, plover, puffins, and other birds revelled in abject felicity,--Benjy asked his father what he had got in the box. "I've got somethin' in it, Benjy,--somethin'." "Why, daddy," returned the boy with a laugh, "if I were an absolute lunatic you could not treat me with greater contempt. Do you suppose I am so weak as to imagine that you would bring a packing-case all the way from England to the North Pole with nothing in it?" "You're a funny boy, Benjy," said the Captain, regarding his son with a placid look. "You're a funny father, daddy," answered the son with a shake of the head; "and it's fortunate for you that I'm good as well as funny, else I'd give you some trouble." "You've got a good opinion of yourself, Ben, anyhow," said Leo, looking over his shoulder as he rowed. "Just change the subject and make yourself useful. Jump into the bow and have the boat-hook ready; the water shoals rather fast here, and I don't want to risk scraping a hole in our little craft." The island they were approaching formed part of the extensive archipelago of which Poloe was the main or central island. Paradise Isle, as Leo had named it, lay about two miles from Poloe. The boat soon touched its shingly beach, but before it could scrape thereon its occupants stepped into the water and carefully carried it on shore. "Now, Benjy, hand me the rifle and cartridges," said Leo, after the boat was placed in the shadow of a low bank, "and fetch the game-bag. What! you don't intend to carry the packing-case, uncle, do you?" "I think I'd better do it," answered the Captain, lifting the case by its cord in a careless way; "it might take a fancy to have a swim on its own account, you know. Come along, the birds are growing impatient, don't you see?" With a short laugh, Leo shouldered his rifle, and marched towards the first of a chain of little lakes, followed by Benjy with the game-bag, and the Captain with the case. Soon a splendid grey wild-goose was seen swimming at a considerable distance beyond the reeds. "There's your chance, now, Leo," said the Captain. But Leo shook his head. "No use," he said; "if I were to shoot that one I'd never be able to get it; the mud is too deep for wading, and the reeds too thick for swimming amongst. It's a pity to kill birds that we cannot get hold of, so, you see, I must walk along the margin of the lake until I see a bird in a good position to be got at, and then pot him." "But isn't that slow work, lad?" asked the Captain. "It might be slow if I missed often or wounded my birds," replied Leo, "but I don't often miss." The youth might with truth have said he never missed, for his eye was as true and his hand as sure as that of any Leatherstocking or Robin Hood that ever lived. "Why don't you launch the boat on the lake?" asked the Captain. "Because I don't like to run the risk of damaging it by hauling it about among mud and sticks and overland. Besides, that would be a cumbersome way of hunting. I prefer to tramp about the margin as you see, and just take what comes in my way. There are plenty of birds, and I seldom walk far without getting a goodish--hist! There's one!" As he spoke another large grey goose was seen stretching its long neck amongst the reeds at a distance of about two hundred yards. The crack of the rifle was followed by the instant death of the goose. At the same moment several companions of the bird rose trumpeting into the air amid a cloud of other birds. Again the rifle's crack was heard, and one of the geese on the wing dropped beside its comrade. As Leo carried his repeating rifle, he might easily have shot another, but he refrained, as the bird would have been too far out to be easily picked up. "Now, Benjy, are you to go in, or am I?" asked the sportsman with a sly look. "Oh! I suppose _I_ must," said the boy with an affectation of being martyred, though, in truth, nothing charmed him so much as to act the part of a water-dog. A few seconds more, and he was stripped, for his garments consisted only of shirt and trousers. But it was more than a few seconds before he returned to land, swimming on his back and trailing a goose by the neck with each hand, for the reeds were thick and the mud softish, and the second bird had been further out than he expected. "It's glorious fun," said Benjy, panting vehemently as he pulled on his clothes. "It's gloriously knocked up you'll be before long at that rate," said the Captain. "Oh! but, uncle," said Leo, quickly, "you must not suppose that I give him all the hard work. We share it between us, you know. Benjy sometimes shoots and then I do the retrieving. You've no idea how good a shot he is becoming." "Indeed, let me see you do it, my boy. D'ye see that goose over there?" "What, the one near the middle of the lake, about four hundred yards off?" "Ay, Benjy, I want that goose. You shoot it, my boy." "But you'll never be able to get it, uncle," said Leo. "Benjy, I want that goose. You shoot it." There was no disobeying this peremptory command. Leo handed the rifle to the boy. "Down on one knee, Ben, Hythe position, my boy," said the Captain, in the tone of a disciplinarian. Benjy obeyed, took a long steady aim, and fired. "Bravo!" shouted the Captain as the bird turned breast up. "There's that goose's brother comin' to see what's the matter with him; just cook _his_ goose too, Benjy." The boy aimed again, fired, and missed. "Again!" cried the Captain, "look sharp!" Again the boy fired, and this time wounded the bird as it was rising on the wing. Although wounded, the goose was quite able to swim, and made rapidly towards the reeds on the other side. "What! am I to lose that goose?" cried the Captain indignantly. Leo seized the rifle. Almost without taking time to aim, he fired and shot the bird dead. "There," said he, laughing, "but I suspect it is a lost goose after all. It will be hard work to get either of these birds, uncle. However, I'll try." Leo was proceeding to strip when the Captain forbade him. "Don't trouble yourself, lad," he said, "I'll go for them myself." "You, uncle?" "Ay, me. D'ye suppose that nobody can swim but you and Benjy? Here, help me to open this box." In silent wonder and expectation Leo and Benjy did as they were bid. When the mysterious packing-case was opened, there was displayed to view a mass of waterproof material. Tumbling this out and unrolling it, the Captain displayed a pair of trousers and boots in one piece attached to something like an oval life-buoy. Thrusting his legs down into the trousers and boots, he drew the buoy--which was covered with india-rubber cloth--up to his waist and fixed it there. Then, putting the end of an india-rubber tube to his mouth, he began to blow, and the buoy round his waist began to extend until it took the form of an oval. "Now, boys," said the Captain, with profound gravity, "I'm about ready to go to sea. Here, you observe, is a pair o' pants that won't let in water. At the feet you'll notice two flaps which expand when driven backward, and collapse when moved forward. These are propellers--human web-feet--to enable me to walk ahead, d'ye see? and here are two small paddles with a joint which I can fix together--so--and thus make one double-bladed paddle of 'em, about four feet long. It will help the feet, you understand, but I'm not dependent on it, for I can walk without the paddles at the rate of two or three miles an hour." As he spoke Captain Vane walked quietly into the water, to the wild delight of Benjy, and the amazement of his nephew. When he was about waist-deep the buoy floated him. Continuing to walk, though his feet no longer touched ground, he was enabled by the propellers to move on. When he had got out a hundred yards or so, he turned round, took off his hat, and shouted--"land ho!" "Ship ahoy!" shrieked Benjy, in an ecstasy. "Mind your weather eye!" shouted the Captain, resuming his walk with a facetious swagger, while, with the paddles, he increased his speed. Soon after, he returned to land with the two geese. "Well now, daddy," said his son, while he and Leo examined the dress with minute interest, "I wish you'd make a clean breast of it, and let us know how many more surprises and contrivances of this sort you've got in store for us." "I fear this is the last one, Benjy, though there's no end to the applications of these contrivances. You'd better apply this one to yourself now, and see how you get on in it." Of course Benjy was more than willing, though, as he remarked, the dress was far too big for him. "Never mind that, my boy. A tight fit ain't needful, and nobody will find fault with the cut in these regions." "Where ever did you get it, father?" asked the boy, as the fastenings were being secured round him. "I got it from an ingenious friend, who says he's goin' to bring it out soon. Mayhap it's in the shops of old England by this time. There, now, off you go, but don't be too risky, Ben. Keep her full, and mind your helm." (See Note.) Thus encouraged, the eager boy waded into the water, but, in his haste, tripped and fell, sending a volume of water over himself. He rose, however, without difficulty, and, proceeding with greater caution, soon walked off into deep water. Here he paddled about in a state of exuberant glee. The dress kept him perfectly dry, although he splashed the water about in reckless fashion, and did not return to land till quite exhausted. Benjamin Vane from that day devoted himself to that machine. He became so enamoured of the "water-tramp," as he styled it--not knowing its proper name at the time--that he went about the lakelets in it continually, sometimes fishing, at other times shooting. He even ventured a short distance out to sea in it, to the amazement of the Eskimos, the orbits of whose eyes were being decidedly enlarged, Benjy said, and their eyebrows permanently raised, by the constant succession of astonishment-fits into which they were thrown from day to day by their white visitors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note. Lest it should be supposed that the "pedomotive" here described is the mere creature of the author's brain, it may be well to state that he has seen it in the establishment of the patentees, Messrs. Thornton and Company of Edinburgh. CHAPTER TWENTY. BENJY'S ENJOYMENTS INTERRUPTED, AND POLOELAND OVERWHELMED WITH A CATASTROPHE. One pleasant morning, towards the end of summer, Benjamin Vane went out with his gun in the water-tramp on the large lake of Paradise Isle. Leo and he had reached the isle in one of the india-rubber boats. They had taken Anders with them to carry their game, and little Oblooria to prepare their dinner while they were away shooting; for they disliked the delay of personal attention to cooking when they were ravenous! After landing Benjy, and seeing him busy getting himself into the aquatic dress, Leo said he would pull off to a group of walruses, which were sporting about off shore, and shoot one. Provisions of fowl and fish were plentiful enough just then at the Eskimo village, but he knew that walrus beef was greatly prized by the natives, and none of the huge creatures had been killed for some weeks past. About this time the threatened war with the northern Eskimos had unfortunately commenced. The insatiable Grabantak had made a descent on one of Amalatok's smaller islands, killed the warriors, and carried off the women and children, with everything else he could lay hands on. Of course Amalatok made reprisals; attacked a small island belonging to Grabantak, and did as much general mischief as he could. The paltry islet about which the war began was not worthy either of attack or defence! Then Amalatok, burning with the righteous indignation of the man who did not begin the quarrel, got up a grand muster of his forces, and went with a great fleet of kayaks to attack Grabantak in his strongholds. But Grabantak's strongholds were remarkably strong. A good deal of killing was done, and some destruction of property accomplished, but that did not effect the conquest of the great northern Savage. Neither did it prove either party to be right or wrong! Grabantak retired to impregnable fastnesses, and Amalatok returned to Poloeland "covered with glory,"--some of his followers also covered with wounds, a few of which had fallen to his own share. The success, however, was not decided. On the whole, the result was rather disappointing, but Amalatok was brave and high-spirited, as some people would say. _He_ was not going to give in; not he! He would fight as long as a man was left to back him, and bring Grabantak to his knees--or die! Either event would, of course, have been of immense advantage to both nations. He ground his teeth and glared when he announced this determination, and also shook his fist, but a sharp twinge of pain in one of his unhealed wounds caused him to cease frowning abruptly. There was a sound, too, in the air, which caused him to sit down and reflect. It was a mixed and half-stifled sound, as if of women groaning and little children wailing. Some of his braves, of course, had fallen in the recent conflicts--fallen honourably with their faces to the foe. Their young widows and their little ones mourned them, and refused to be comforted, because they were not. It was highly unpatriotic, no doubt, but natural. Amalatok had asked the white men to join him in the fight, but they had refused. They would help him to defend his country, if attacked, they said, but they would not go out to war. Amalatok had once threatened Blackbeard if he refused to go, but Blackbeard had smiled, and threatened to retaliate by making him "jump!" Whereupon the old chief became suddenly meek. This, then, was the state of affairs when Benjy and Leo went shooting, on the morning to which we have referred. But who can hope to describe, with adequate force, the joyful feelings of Benjamin Vane as he moved slily about the lakelets of Paradise Isle in the water-tramp? The novelty of the situation was so great. The surrounding circumstances were so peculiar. The prolonged calms of the circumpolar basin, at that period of the year, were so new to one accustomed to the variable skies of England; the perpetual sunshine, the absence of any necessity to consider time, in a land from which night seemed to have finally fled; the glassy repose of lake and sea, so suggestive of peace; the cheery bustle of animal life, so suggestive of pleasure--all these influences together filled the boy's breast with a strong romantic joy which was far too powerful to seek or find relief in those boisterous leaps and shouts which were his usual safety-valves. Although not much given to serious thought, except when conversing with his father, Benjy became meditative as he moved quietly about at the edge of the reeds, and began to wonder whether the paradise above _could_ exceed this paradise below! Events occurred that day which proved to him that the sublunary paradise was, at least, woefully uncertain in its nature. "Now, just keep still, will you, for one moment," muttered Benjy, advancing cautiously through the outer margin of reeds, among the stems of which he peered earnestly while he cocked his gun. The individual to whom he spoke made no reply, because it was a goose-- would that it were thus with all geese! It was a grey goose of the largest size. It had caught a glimpse of the new and strange creature that was paddling about its home, and was wisely making for the shelter of a spot where the reeds were more dense, and where Benjy would not have dared to follow. For, it must be remembered that our young sportsman was sunk to his waist in water, and that the reeds rose high over his head, so that if once lost in the heart of them, he might have found it extremely difficult to find his way out again. Anxious not to lose his chance, he gave vent to a loud shout. This had the effect of setting up innumerable flocks of wild-fowl, which, although unseen, had been lurking listeners to the strange though gentle sound of the water-tramp. Among them rose the grey goose with one or two unexpected comrades. Benjy had not at that time acquired the power of self-restraint necessary to good shooting. He fired hastily, and missed with the first barrel. Discharging the second in hotter haste, he missed again, but brought down one of the comrades by accident. This was sufficiently gratifying. Picking it up, he placed it on the boat-buoy in front of him to balance several ducks which already lay on the part in rear. He might have carried a dozen geese on his novel hunting-dress, if there had been room for them, for its floating power was sufficient to have borne up himself, and at least four, if not five, men. Pursuing his way cautiously and gently, by means of the webbed feet alone, the young sportsman moved about like a sly water-spirit among the reeds, sometimes addressing a few pleasant words, such as, "how d'ye do, old boy," or, "don't alarm yourself, my tulip," to a water-hen or a coot, or some such bird which crossed his path, but was unworthy of his shot; at other times stopping to gaze contemplatively through the reed stems, or to float and rest in placid enjoyment, while he tried to imagine himself in a forest of water-trees. Everywhere the feathered tribes first gazed at him in mute surprise; then hurried, with every variety of squeak, and quack, and fluttering wing, from his frightful presence. Suddenly he came in sight of a bird so large that his heart gave a violent leap, and the gun went almost of its own accord to his shoulder, but the creature disappeared among the reeds before he could take aim. Another opening, however, again revealed it fully to view! It was a swan--a hyperborean wild swan! Just as he made this discovery, the great bird, having observed Benjy, spread its enormous wings and made off with an amazing splutter. Bang! went Benjy's gun, both barrels in quick succession, and down fell the swan quite dead, with its head in the water and its feet pointing to the sky. "What a feast the Eskimos will have to-night!" was Benjy's first thought as he tramped vehemently towards his prize. But his overflowing joy was rudely checked, for, having laid his gun down in front of him, for the purpose of using the paddle with both hands, it slipped to one side, tilted up, and, disappearing like an arrow in the lake, went to the bottom. The sinking of Benjy's heart was not less complete. He had the presence of mind, however, to seize the reeds near him and check his progress at the exact spot. Leaning over the side of his little craft, he beheld his weapon quivering, as it were, at the bottom, in about eight feet of water. What was to be done? The energetic youth was not long in making up his mind on that point. He would dive for it. But diving in the water-tramp was out of the question. Knowing that it was all but impossible to make his way to the shore through the reeds, he resolved to reach the opposite shore, which was in some places free from vegetation. Seizing one of the reeds, he forced it down, and tied it into a knot to mark the spot where his loss had happened. He treated several more reeds in this way till he gained the open water outside, thus marking his path. Then he paddled across the lake, landed, undressed, and swam out again, pushing the empty dress before him, intending to use it as a resting-place. On reaching the spot, he dived with a degree of vigour and agility worthy of a duck, but found it hard to reach the bottom, as he was not much accustomed to diving. For the same reason he found it difficult to open his eyes under water, so as to look for the gun. While trying to do so, a desperate desire to breathe caused him to leap to the surface, where he found that he had struggled somewhat away from the exact spot. After a few minutes' rest, he took a long breath and again went down; but found, to his dismay, that in his first dive he had disturbed the mud, and thus made the water thick. Groping about rendered it thicker, and he came to the surface the second time with feelings approaching to despair. Besides which, his powers were being rapidly exhausted. But Benjy was full of pluck as well as perseverance. Feeling that he could not hold out much longer, he resolved to make the next attempt with more care--a resolve, it may be remarked, which it would have been better to have made at first. He swam to the knotted reed, considered well the position he had occupied when his loss occurred, took an aim at a definite spot with his head, and went down. The result was that his hands grasped the stock of the gun the moment they reached the bottom. Inflated with joy he leaped with it to the surface like a bladder; laid it carefully on the water-dress, and pushing the latter before him soon succeeded in getting hold of the dead swan. The bird was too heavy to be lifted on the float, he therefore grasped its neck with his teeth, and thus, heavily weighted, made for the shore. It will not surprise the reader to be told that Benjy felt hungry as well as tired after these achievements, and this induced him to look anxiously for Leo, and to wonder why the smoke of Oblooria's cooking-lamp was not to be seen anywhere. The engrossing nature of the events just described had prevented our little hero from observing that a smart breeze had sprung up, and that heavy clouds had begun to drive across the hitherto blue sky, while appearances of a very squally nature were gathering on the windward horizon. Moreover, while engaged in paddling among the reeds he had not felt the breeze. It was while taking off the water-tramp that he became fully alive to these facts. "That's it," he muttered to himself. "They've been caught by this breeze and been delayed by having had to pull against it, or perhaps the walruses gave them more trouble than they expected." Appeasing his appetite as well as he could with this reflection, he left the water-tramp on the ground, with the dripping gun beside it, and hurried to the highest part of the island. Although not much of an elevation, it enabled him to see all round, and a feeling of anxiety filled his breast as he observed that the once glassy sea was ruffled to the colour of indigo, while wavelets flecked it everywhere, and no boat was visible! "They may have got behind some of the islands," he thought, and continued his look-out for some time, with growing anxiety and impatience, however, because the breeze was by that time freshening to a gale. When an hour had passed away the poor boy became thoroughly alarmed. "Can anything have happened to the boat?" he said to himself. "The india-rubber is easily cut. Perhaps they may have been blown out to sea!" This latter thought caused an involuntary shudder. Looking round, he observed that the depression of the sun towards the horizon indicated that night had set in. "This will never do," he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "Leo will be lost. I _must_ risk it!" Turning as he spoke, he ran back to the spot where he had left the water-dress, which he immediately put on. Then, leaving gun and game on the beach, he boldly entered the sea, and struck out with feet and paddle for Poloeland. Although sorely buffeted by the rising waves, and several times overwhelmed, his waterproof costume proved well able to bear him up, and with comparatively little fatigue he reached the land in less than two hours. Without waiting to take the dress off, he ran up to the Eskimo village and gave the alarm. While these events were going on among the islets, Captain Vane and Alphonse Vandervell had been far otherwise engaged. "Come, Alf," said the Captain, that same morning, after Leo and his party had started on their expedition, "let you and me go off on a scientific excursion,--on what we may style a botanico-geologico-meteorological survey." "With all my heart, uncle, and let us take Butterface with us, and Oolichuk." "Ay, lad, and Ivitchuk and Akeetolik too, and Chingatok if you will, for I've fixed on a spot whereon to pitch an observatory, and we must set to work on it without further delay. Indeed I would have got it into working order long ago if it had not been for my hope that the cessation of this miserable war would have enabled us to get nearer the North Pole this summer." The party soon started for the highest peak of the island of Poloe--or Poloeland, as Alf preferred to call it. Oolichuk carried on his broad shoulders one of those mysterious cases out of which the Captain was so fond of taking machines wherewith to astonish the natives. Indeed it was plain to see that the natives who accompanied them on this occasion expected some sort of surprise, despite the Captain's earnest assurance that there was nothing in the box except a few meteorological instruments. How the Captain translated to the Eskimos the word meteorological we have never been able to ascertain. His own explanation is that he did it in a roundabout manner which they failed to comprehend, and which he himself could not elucidate. On the way up the hill, Alf made several interesting discoveries of plants which were quite new to him. "Ho! stop, I say, uncle," he exclaimed for the twentieth time that day, as he picked up some object of interest. "What now, lad?" said the Captain, stopping and wiping his heated brow. "Here is another specimen of these petrifactions--look!" "He means a vegetable o' some sort turned to stone, Chingatok," explained the Captain, as he examined the specimen with an interested though unscientific eye. "You remember, uncle, the explanation I gave you some time ago," said the enthusiastic Alf, "about Professor Heer of Zurich, who came to the conclusion that primeval forests once existed in these now treeless Arctic regions, from the fossils of oak, elm, pine, and maple leaves discovered there. Well, I found a fossil of a plane leaf the other day,--not a very good one, to be sure--and now, here is a splendid specimen of a petrified oak-leaf. Don't you trace it quite plainly?" "Well, lad," returned the Captain, frowning at the specimen, "I do believe you're right. There does seem to be the mark of a leaf there, and there is some ground for your theory that this land may have been once covered with trees, though it's hard to believe that when we look at it." "An evidence, uncle, that we should not be too ready to judge by appearances," said Alf, as they resumed their upward march. The top gained, a space was quickly selected and cleared, and a simple hut of flat stones begun, while the Captain unpacked his box. It contained a barometer, a maximum and minimum self-registering thermometer, wet and dry bulb, also a black bulb thermometer, a one-eighth-inch rain-gauge, and several other instruments. "I have another box of similar instruments, Alf, down below," said the Captain, as he laid them carefully out, "and I hope, by comparing the results obtained up here with those obtained at the level of the sea, to carry home a series of notes which will be of considerable value to science." When the Captain had finished laying them out, the Eskimos retired to a little distance, and regarded them for some minutes with anxious expectancy; but, as the strange things did not burst, or go up like sky-rockets, they soon returned with a somewhat disappointed look to their hut-building. The work was quickly completed, for Eskimos are expert builders in their way, and the instruments had been carefully set up under shelter when the first symptoms of the storm began. "I hope the sportsmen have returned," said the Captain, looking gravely round the horizon. "No doubt they have," said Alf, preparing to descend the mountain. "Leo is not naturally reckless, and if he were, the cautious Anders would be a drag on him." An hour later they regained the Eskimo village, just as Benjy came running, in a state of dripping consternation, from the sea. Need it be said that an instant and vigorous search was instituted? Not only did a band of the stoutest warriors, headed by Chingatok, set off in a fleet of kayaks, but the Captain and his companions started without delay in the two remaining india-rubber boats, and, flying their kites, despite the risk of doing so in a gale, went away in eager haste over the foaming billows. After exerting themselves to the uttermost, they failed to discover the slightest trace of the lost boat. The storm passed quickly, and a calm succeeded, enabling them to prosecute the search more effectively with oar and paddle, but with no better result. Day after day passed, and still no member of the band--Englishman or Eskimo--would relax his efforts, or admit that hope was sinking. But they had to admit it at last, and, after three weeks of unremitting toil, they were compelled to give up in absolute despair. The most sanguine was driven to the terrible conclusion that Leo, Anders, and timid little Oblooria were lost. It was an awful blow. What cared Alf or the Captain now for discovery, or scientific investigation! The poor negro, who had never at any time cared for plants, rocks, or Poles, was sunk in the profoundest depths of sorrow. Benjy's gay spirit was utterly broken. Oolichuk's hearty laugh was silenced, and a cloud of settled melancholy descended over the entire village of Poloe. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. FATE OF THE LOST ONES. Leo, Anders, and timid little Oblooria, however, were not lost! Their case was bad enough, but it had not quite come to that. On parting from Benjy, as described in the last chapter, these three went after a walrus, which coquetted with them instead of attacking, and drew them a considerable distance away from the island. This would have been a matter of trifling import if the weather had remained calm, but, as we have seen, a sudden and violent gale arose. When the coming squall was first observed the boat was far to leeward of Paradise Isle, and as that island happened to be one of the most northerly of the group over which Amalatok ruled, they were thus far to leeward of any land with the exception of a solitary sugar-loaf rock near the horizon. Still Leo and his companions were not impressed with any sense of danger. They had been so long accustomed to calms, and to moving about in the india-rubber boats by means of paddles with perfect ease and security, that they had half forgotten the force of wind. Besides, the walrus was still playing with them provokingly--keeping just out of rifle-shot as if he had studied fire-arms and knew their range exactly. "The rascal!" exclaimed Leo at last, losing patience, "he will never let us come an inch nearer." "Try 'im once more," said Anders, who was a keen sportsman, "push him, paddle strong. Ho! Oblooria, paddle hard and queek." Although the interpreter, being in a facetious mood, addressed Oblooria in English, she quite understood his significant gestures, and bent to her work with a degree of energy and power quite surprising in one apparently so fragile. Leo also used his oars, (for they had both oars and paddles), with such good-will that the boat skimmed over the Arctic sea like a northern diver, and the distance between them and the walrus was perceptibly lessened. "I don't like the looks o' the southern sky," said Leo, regarding the horizon with knitted brows. "Hims black 'nough--any'ow," said Anders. "Hold. I'll have a farewell shot at the brute, and give up the chase," said Leo, laying down the oars and grasping his rifle. The ball seemed to take effect, for the walrus dived immediately with a violent splutter, and was seen no more. By this time the squall was hissing towards them so fast that the hunters, giving up all thought of the walrus, turned at once and made for the land, but land by that time lay far off on the southern horizon with a dark foam-flecked sea between it and them. "There's no fear of the boat, Oblooria," said Leo, glancing over his shoulder at the girl, who sat crouching to meet the first burst of the coming storm, "but you must hold on tight to the life-lines." There was no need to caution Anders. That worthy was already on his knees embracing a thwart--his teeth clenched as he gazed over the bow. On it came like a whirlwind of the tropics, and rushed right over the low round gunwale of the boat, sweeping loose articles overboard, and carrying her bodily to leeward. Leo had taken a turn of the life-lines round both thighs, and held manfully to his oars. These, after stooping to the first rush of wind and water, he plied with all his might, and was ably seconded by Oblooria as well as by the interpreter, but a very few minutes of effort sufficed to convince them that they laboured in vain. They did not even "hold their own," as sailors have it, but drifted slowly, yet steadily, to the north. "It's impossible to make head against _this_," said Leo, suddenly ceasing his efforts, "and I count it a piece of good fortune, for which we cannot be too thankful, that there is still land to leeward of us." He pointed to the sugar-loaf rock before mentioned, towards which they were now rapidly drifting. "Nothing to eat dere. Nothing to drink," said Anders, gloomily. "Oh! that won't matter much. A squall like this can't last long. We shall soon be able to start again for home, no doubt. I say, Anders, what are these creatures off the point there? They seem too large and black for sea-birds, and not the shape of seals or walruses." The interpreter gazed earnestly at the objects in question for some moments without answering. The rock which they were quickly nearing was rugged, barren, and steep on its southern face, against which the waves were by that time dashing with extreme violence, so that landing there would have been an impossibility. On its lee or northern side, however they might count on quiet water. "We have nothing to fear," said Leo, observing that Oblooria was much agitated; "tell her so, Anders; we are sure to find a sheltered creek of some sort on the other side." "I fear not the rocks or storm," replied the Eskimo girl to Anders. "It is Grabantak, the chief of Flatland, that I fear." "Grabantak!" exclaimed Anders and Leo in the same breath. "Grabantak is coming with his men!" Poor little Oblooria, whose face had paled while her whole frame trembled, pointed towards the dark objects which had already attracted their attention. They were by that time near enough to be distinguished, and as they came, one after another, round the western point of Sugar-loaf rock, it was all too evident that the girl was right, and that the fleet of kayaks was probably bearing the northern savage and his men to attack the inhabitants of Poloe. Leo's first impulse was to seize his repeating rifle and fill its cartridge-chamber quite full. It may be well to observe here that the cartridges, being carried in a tight waterproof case, had not been affected by the seas which had so recently overwhelmed them. "What's de use?" asked Anders, in an unusually sulky tone, as he watched the youth's action. "Two men not can fight all de mans of Flatland." "No, but I can pick off a dozen of them, one after another, with my good rifle, and then the rest will fly. Grabantak will fall first, and his best men after him." This was no idle boast on the part of Leo. He knew that he could accomplish what he threatened long before the Eskimos could get within spear-throwing distance of his boat. "No use," repeated Anders, firmly, still shaking his head in a sulky manner. "When you's bullets be done, more an' more inimies come on. Then dey kill you, an' me, an' Oblooria." Leo laid down his weapon. The resolve to die fighting to the last was the result of a mere impulse of animal courage. Second thoughts cooled him, and the reference to Oblooria's fate decided him. "You are right, Anders. If by fighting to the death I could save Oblooria, it would be my duty as well as my pleasure to fight; but I see that I haven't the ghost of a chance against such a host as is approaching, and it would be simply revengeful to send as many as I can into the next world before going there myself. Besides, it would exasperate the savages, and make them harder on the poor girl." In saying this Leo was rather arguing out the point with himself than talking to the interpreter, who did not indeed understand much of what he said. Having made up his mind how to act, Leo stowed his precious rifle and ammunition in a small bag placed for that purpose under one of the thwarts, and, resuming the oars, prepared to meet his fate, whatever it should be, peacefully and unarmed. While thus drifting in silence before the gale, the thought suddenly occurred to Leo, "How strange it is that I, who am a Christian--in name at least--should feel as if it were absurd to pray for God's help at such a time as this! Surely He who made me and these Eskimos is capable of guarding us? The very least we can do is to ask Him to guide us!" The youth was surprised at the thought. It had flashed upon him like a ray of light. It was not the first time that he had been in even more imminent danger than the present, yet he had never before thought of the necessity of asking help from God, as if He were really present and able as well as willing to succour. Before the thought had passed he acted on it. He had no time for formal prayer. He looked up! It was prayer without words. In a few minutes more the boat was surrounded by the fleet of kayaks. There were hundreds of these tiny vessels of the north, each with its solitary occupant, using his double-bladed paddle vigorously. Need we say that the strangers were at first gazed on with speechless wonder? and that the Eskimos kept for some time hovering round them at a respectful distance, as if uncertain how to act, but with their war-spears ready? All the time the whole party drifted before the gale towards the island-rock. "Anders," said Leo, while the natives remained in this state of indecision, "my mind is made up as to our course of action. We will offer no resistance whatever to these fellows. We must be absolutely submissive, unless, indeed, they attempt to ill-treat Oblooria, in which case of course we will defend her. Do you hear?" This was said with such quiet decision, and the concluding question was put in such a tone, that the interpreter replied, "Yis, sar," promptly. As Leo made no sign of any kind, but continued to guide the boat steadily with the oars, as if his sole anxiety was to round the western point of the island and get into a place of shelter, the natives turned their kayaks and advanced along with him. Naturally they fell into the position of an escort--a part of the fleet paddling on each side of the captives, (for such they now were), while the rest brought up the rear. "What ails Oblooria, Anders?" asked Leo in a low tone. "What is the matter?" asked the interpreter, turning to the girl, who, ever since the approach of the Eskimos, had crouched like a bundle in the bottom of the boat with her face buried in her hands. "There is no fear. Grabantak is a man, not a bear. He will not eat you." "Grabantak knows me," answered the poor girl, without lifting her head; "he came to Poloe once, before the war, and wanted me to be the wife of his son. I want not his son. I want Oolichuk!" The simplicity and candour of this confession caused Leo to laugh in spite of himself, while poor little Oblooria, who thought it no laughing matter, burst into tears. Of course the men of Flatland kept their eyes fixed in wide amazement on Leo, as they paddled along, and this sudden laugh of his impressed them deeply, being apparently without a cause, coupled as it was with an air of absolute indifference to his probable fate, and to the presence of so many foes. Even the ruthless land-hungerer, Grabantak, was solemnised. In a few minutes the whole party swept round the point of rocks, and proceeded towards the land over the comparatively quiet waters of a little bay which lay under the lee of the Sugar-loaf rock. During the brief period that had been afforded for thought, Leo had been intently making his plans. He now proceeded to carry them out. "Hand me the trinket-bundle," he said to Anders. The interpreter searched in a waterproof pouch in the stern of the boat, and produced a small bundle of such trinkets as are known to be valued by savages. It had been placed and was always kept there by Captain Vane, to be ready for emergencies. "They will be sure to take everything from us at any rate," remarked Leo, as he divided the trinkets into two separate bundles, "so I shall take the wind out of their sails by giving everything up at once with a good grace." The Grabantaks, if we may so style them, drew near, as the fleet approached the shore, with increasing curiosity. When land was reached they leaped out of their kayaks and crowded round the strangers. It is probable that they would have seized them and their possessions at this point, but the tall strapping figure of Leo, and his quiet manner, overawed them. They held back while the india-rubber boat was being carried by Leo and Anders to a position of safety. Poor Oblooria walked beside them with her head bowed down, shrinking as much as possible out of sight. Everybody was so taken up with the strange white man that no one took any notice of her. No sooner was the boat laid down than Leo taking one of the bundles of trinkets stepped up to Grabantak, whom he easily distinguished by his air of superiority and the deference paid him by his followers. Pulling his own nose by way of a friendly token, Leo smiled benignantly in the chief's face, and opened the bundle before him. It is needless to say that delight mingled with the surprise that had hitherto blazed on the visage of Grabantak. "Come here, Anders, and bring the other bundle with you. Tell this warrior that I am very glad to meet with him." "Great and unconquerable warrior," began the interpreter, in the dialect which he had found was understood, by the men of Poloe, "we have come from far-off lands to bring you gifts--" "Anders," said Leo, whose knowledge of the Eskimo tongue was sufficient, by that time, to enable him in a measure to follow the drift of a speech, "Anders, if you don't tell him _exactly_ what I say I'll kick you into the sea!" As Anders stood on a rock close to the water's edge, and Leo looked unusually stern, he thereafter rendered faithfully what the latter told him to say. The speech was something to the following effect:-- "I am one of a small band of white men who have come here to search out the land. We do not want the land. We only want to see it. We have plenty of land of our own in the far south. We have been staying with the great chief Amalatok in Poloeland." At the mention of his enemy's name the countenance of Grabantak darkened. Without noticing this, Leo went on:-- "When I was out hunting with my man and a woman, the wind arose and blew us hither. We claim your hospitality, and hope you will help us to get back again to Poloeland. If you do so we will reward you well, for white men are powerful and rich. See, here are gifts for Grabantak, and for his wife." This latter remark was a sort of inspiration. Leo had observed, while Anders was speaking, that a stout cheerful-faced woman had been pushing aside the men and gradually edging her way toward the Eskimo chief with the air of a privileged person. That he had hit the mark was obvious, for Grabantak turned with a bland smile, and hit his wife a facetious and rather heavy slap on the shoulder. She was evidently accustomed to such treatment, and did not wince. Taking from his bundle a gorgeous smoking-cap richly ornamented with brilliant beads, Leo coolly crowned the chief with it. Grabantak drew himself up and tried to look majestic, but a certain twitching of his face, and sparkle in his eyes, betrayed a tendency to laugh with delight. Fortunately, there was another cap of exactly the same pattern in the bundle, which Leo instantly placed on the head of the wife--whose name he afterwards learned was Merkut. The chief's assumed dignity vanished at this. With that childlike hilarity peculiar to the Eskimo race, he laughed outright, and then, seizing the cap from Merkut's head, put it above his own to the amusement of his grinning followers. Leo then selected a glittering clasp-knife with two blades, which the chief seized eagerly. It was evidently a great prize--too serious a gift to be lightly laughed at. Then a comb was presented to the wife, and a string of gay beads, and a pair of scissors. Of course the uses of combs and scissors had he explained, and deep was the interest manifested during the explanation, and utter the forgetfulness of the whole party for the time being in regard to everything else in the world--Oblooria included, who sat unnoticed on the rocks with her face still buried in her hands. When Grabantak's possessions were so numerous that the hood of his coat, and the tops of his wife's boots were nearly filled with them, he became generous, and, prince-like, (having more than he knew what to do with), began to distribute things to his followers. Among these followers was a tall and stalwart son of his own, to whom he was rather stern, and not very liberal. Perhaps the chief wished to train him with Spartan ideas of self-denial. Perhaps he wanted his followers to note his impartiality. Merkut did not, however, act on the same principles, for she quietly passed a number of valuable articles over to her dear son Koyatuk, unobserved by his stern father. Things had gone on thus pleasantly for some time; the novelty of the gifts, and the interest in their explanation having apparently rendered these people forgetful of the fact that they might take them all at once; when a sudden change in the state of affairs was wrought by the utterance of one word. "We must not," said Leo to Anders, looking at his follower over the heads of the Eskimos, "forget poor little Oblooria." "Oblooria!" roared Grabantak with a start, as if he had been electrified. "Oblooria!" echoed Koyatuk, glaring round. "Oblooria!" gasped the entire band. Another moment and Grabantak, bursting through the crowd, leaped towards the crouching girl and raised her face. Recognising her he uttered a yell which probably was meant for a cheer. Hurrying the frightened girl into the circle through which he had broken, the chief presented her to his son, and, with an air worthy of a civilised courtier, said:-- "Your _wife_, Koyatuk--your Oblooria!--Looria!" He went over the last syllables several times, as if he doubted his senses, and feared it was too good news to be true. This formal introduction was greeted by the chief's followers with a series of wild shouts and other demonstrations of extreme joy. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. A FIGHT IN DEFENCE OF WOMAN, AND RIFLE-SHOOTING EXTRAORDINARY. When the excitement had somewhat abated, Leo stepped to the side of Oblooria, and laying his hand on her shoulder said firmly, through Anders:-- "Pardon me, Grabantak, this girl is _not_ the wife of Koyatuk; she is my _sister_!" The chief frowned, clenched his teeth, and grasped a spear-- "When did Kablunet men begin to have Eskimo sisters?" "When they took all distressed women under their protection," returned Leo promptly. "Every woman who needs my help is my sister," he added with a look of self-sufficiency which he was far from feeling. This new doctrine obviously puzzled the chief, who frowned, smiled, and looked at the ground, as if in meditation. It seemed to afford great comfort to Oblooria, who nestled closer to her champion. As for Koyatuk, he treated the matter with an air of mingled surprise and scorn, but dutifully awaited his father's pleasure. Koyatuk was physically a fine specimen of a savage, but his spirit was not equal to his body. Like his father he was over six feet high, and firmly knit, being of both larger and stronger build than Leo, whom he now regarded, and of course hated, as his rival--a contemptible one, no doubt; still--a rival. The warriors watched their chief in breathless suspense. To them it was a thoroughly new and interesting situation. That a white stranger, tall and active, but slender and very young, should dare single-handed to defy not only their chief, but, as it were, the entire tribe, including the royal family, was a state of things in regard to which their previous lives afforded no parallel. They could not understand it at all, and stood, as it were, in eager, open-mouthed, and one-legged expectation. At last Grabantak looked up, as if smitten by a new idea, and spoke-- "Can Kablunet men fight?" he asked. "They love peace better than war," answered Leo, "but when they see cause to fight they can do so." Turning immediately to his son, Grabantak said with a grim smile-- "Behold your wife, take her!" Koyatuk advanced. Leo placed Oblooria behind him, and, being unarmed, threw himself into a pugilistic posture of defence. The young Eskimo laid one of his strong hands on the Englishman's shoulder, intending to thrust him aside violently. Leo was naturally of a tender disposition. He shrank from dealing a violent blow to one who had not the remotest idea of what was coming, or how to defend himself from the human fist when used as a battering-ram. But Leo chanced to be, in a sense, doubly armed. During one of his holiday rambles in England he had visited Cornwall, and there had learned that celebrated "throw" which consists in making your haunch a fulcrum, your right arm a lever, and your adversary a shuttlecock. He suddenly grasped his foe round the waist with one arm. Next moment the Grabantaks saw what the most imaginative among them had never till then conceived of--Koyatuk's soles turned to the sky, and his head pointing to the ground! The moment following, he lay flat on his back looking upwards blankly. The huk! hi! ho! hooroos! that followed may be conceived, but cannot be described. Some of the men burst into laughter, for anything ludicrous is irresistible to an Eskimo of the very far north. A few were petrified. Others there were who resented this indignity to the heir-apparent, and flourished their spears in a threatening manner. These last Grabantak quieted with a look. The incident undoubtedly surprised that stern parent, but also afforded him some amusement. He said it was an insult that must be avenged. Oddly enough he made use of an expression which sounded curiously familiar to Leo's ears, as translated by Anders. "The insult," said Grabantak, "could only be _washed out in blood_!" Strange, that simple savages of the far north should hold to that ridiculous doctrine. We had imagined that it was confined entirely to those further south, whose minds have been more or less warped by civilised usage. A ring was immediately formed, and poor Leo now saw that the matter was becoming serious. He was on the eve of fighting an enforced duel in Oblooria's service. While the savages were preparing the lists, and Koyatuk, having recovered, was engaged in converse with his father, Leo whispered to Anders-- "Perhaps Oblooria has no objection to be the wife of this man?" But the poor girl had very strong objections. She was, moreover, so emphatic in her expressions of horror, and cast on her champion such a look of entreaty, that he would have been more than mortal had he refused her. It was very perplexing. The idea of killing, or being killed, in such a cause was very repulsive. He tried to reason with Grabantak about the sin of injuring a defenceless woman, and the abstract right of females in general to have some say in the selection of their husbands, but Grabantak was inexorable. "Is the Kablunet afraid?" he asked, with a glance of scornful surprise. "Does he _look_ afraid?" returned Leo, quietly. Koyatuk now stepped into the middle of the ring of warriors, with a short spear in his right hand, and half-a-dozen spare ones in his left, whereby Leo perceived that the battle before him was not meant to be a mere "exchange of shots," for the "satisfaction of honour." There was evidently no humbug about these Eskimos. Two men mounted guard over Anders and Oblooria, who, however, were allowed to remain inside the ring to witness the combat. A warrior now advanced to Leo and presented him with a small bundle of spears. He took them almost mechanically, thanked the giver, and laid them down at his feet without selecting one. Then he stood up, and, crossing his arms on his breast, gazed full at his opponent, who made a hideous face at him and flourished his spear. It was quite evident that the Eskimos were perplexed by the white youth's conduct, and knew not what to make of it. The truth is that poor Leo was almost beside himself with conflicting emotions and uncertainty as to what he ought to do. Despite all that had taken place, he found it almost impossible to persuade himself that he was actually about to engage in mortal combat. He had not a vestige of angry feeling in his heart against the man whom he was expected to fight with to the death, and the extraordinary nature of the complex faces that Koyatuk was making at him tended to foster the delusion that the whole thing was a farce--or a dream. Then the knowledge that he could burst through the ring, get hold of his rifle, and sell his life dearly, or, perhaps, cause the whole savage tribe to fly in terror, was a sore temptation to him. All this, coupled with the necessity for taking instant and vigorous action of some sort, was enough to drive an older head distracted. It did drive the blood violently to the youth's face, but, by a powerful effort of self-restraint, he continued to stand perfectly still, like a living statue, facing the Eskimo. At last Koyatuk became tired of making useless faces at his rival. Suddenly poising his spear, he launched it. Had Leo's eye been less quick, or his limbs less active, that spear had laid him low for ever. He had barely time to spring aside, when the weapon passed between his side and his left arm, grazing the latter slightly, and drawing blood which trickled to the ends of his fingers. There could be no further doubt now about the nature of the fight. Catching up a spear from the bundle at his feet he was just in time to receive the Eskimo, who sprang in on him with the intention of coming at once to close quarters. His rush was very furious; probably with a view to make it decisive. But the agile Leo was equal to the occasion. Bending suddenly so low as to be quite under his opponent's desperate thrust, he struck out his right leg firmly. Koyatuk tripped over it, and ploughed the land for some yards with his hands, head, and knees. Considerably staggered in mind and body by the fall, he sprang up with a roar, and turned to renew the attack. Leo was ready. The Eskimo, by that time mad with pain, humiliation, and rage, exercised no caution in his assault. He rushed at his rival like a mad bull. Our Englishman saw his opportunity. Dropping his own spear he guarded the thrust of his adversary's with his right arm, while, with his left fist, he planted a solid blow on Koyatuk's forehead. The right fist followed the left like the lightning flash, and alighted on Koyatuk's nose, which, flat by nature, was rendered flatter still by art. Indeed it would be the weakest flattery to assert that he had any nose at all after receiving that blow. It was reduced to the shape of a small pancake, from the two holes in which there instantly spouted a stream of blood so copious that it drenched alike its owner and his rival. After giving him this double salute, Leo stepped quickly aside to let him tumble forward, heels over head, which he did with the only half-checked impetuosity of his onset, and lay prone upon the ground. "There, Anders," said the victor, turning round as he pointed to his prostrate foe, "surely Grabantak's son has got enough of blood now to wipe out all the insults he ever received, or is likely to receive, from me." Grabantak appeared to agree to this view of the case. That he saw and relished the jest was obvious, for he burst into an uproarious fit of laughter, in which his amiable warriors joined him, and, advancing to Leo, gave him a hearty slap of approval on the shoulder. At the same time he cast a look of amused scorn on his fallen son, who was being attended to by Merkut. It may be observed here that Merkut was the only woman of the tribe allowed to go on this war-expedition. Being the chief's wife, she had been allowed to do as she pleased, and it was her pleasure to accompany the party and to travel like the warriors in a kayak, which she managed as well as the best of them. Grabantak now ordered his men to encamp, and feed till the gale should abate. Then, calling Leo and the interpreter aside, he questioned them closely as to the condition of the Poloese and the numbers of the white men who had recently joined them. Of course Leo made Anders give him a graphic account of the preparations made by his enemies to receive him, in the hope that he might be induced to give up his intentions, but he had mistaken the spirit of the Eskimo, who merely showed his teeth, frowned, laughed in a diabolic manner, and flourished his spear during the recital of Amalatok's warlike arrangements. He wound up by saying that he was rejoiced to learn all that, because it would be all the more to his credit to make his enemy go down on his knees, lick the dust, crawl in his presence, and otherwise humble himself. "But tell him, Anders," said Leo, earnestly, "that my white brothers, though few in number, are very strong and brave. They have weapons too which kill far off and make a dreadful noise." Grabantak laughed contemptuously at this. "Does the Kablunet," he asked, "think I am afraid to die--afraid of a noise? does he think that none but white men can kill far off?" As he spoke he suddenly hurled his spear at a gull, which, with many others, was perched on a cliff about thirty yards off, and transfixed it. "Go to the boat, Anders, and fetch my rifle," said Leo in a low tone. When the rifle was brought a crowd of Eskimos came with it. They had been closely observing their chief and the stranger during the conference, but remained at a respectful distance until they saw something unusual going on. "Tell the chief," said Leo, "to look at that peak with the solitary gull standing on it." He pointed to a detached cone of rock upwards of two hundred yards distant. When the attention of the whole party was concentrated on the bird in question, Leo took a steady aim and fired. Need we say that the effect of the shot was wonderful? not only did the braves utter a united yell and give a simultaneous jump, but several of the less brave among them bolted behind rocks, or tumbled in attempting to do so, while myriads of sea-fowl, which clustered among the cliffs, sprang from their perches and went screaming into the air. At the same time echoes innumerable, which had lain dormant since creation, or at best had given but sleepy response to the bark of walruses and the cry of gulls, took up the shot in lively haste and sent it to and fro from cliff to crag in bewildering continuation. "Wonderful!" exclaimed Grabantak in open-mouthed amazement, when he beheld the shot gull tumbling from its lofty perch, "Do it again." Leo did it again--all the more readily that another gull, unwarned by its predecessor's fate, flew to the conical rock at the moment, and perched itself on the same peak. It fell, as before, and the echoes were again awakened, while the sea-birds cawed and screamed more violently than ever. The timid ones among the braves, having recovered from their first shock, stood fast this time, but trembled much and glared horribly. The chief, who was made of sterner stuff than many of his followers; did not move, though his face flushed crimson with suppressed emotion. As to the sea-birds, curiosity seemed to have overcome fear, for they came circling and wheeling overhead in clouds so dense that they almost darkened the sky--many of them swooping close past the Eskimos and then shearing off and up with wild cries. An idea suddenly flashed into Leo's head. Pointing his rifle upwards he began and continued a rapid fire until all the bullets in it, (ten or twelve), were expended. The result was as he had expected. Travelling through such a dense mass of birds, each ball pierced we know not how many, until it absolutely rained dead and wounded gulls on the heads of the natives, while the rocks sent forth a roar of echoes equal to a continuous fire of musketry. It was stupendous! Nothing like it had occurred in the Polar regions since the world first became a little flattened at the poles! Nothing like it will happen again until the conjunction of a series of similar circumstances occurs. The timid braves lost heart again and dived like the coneys into holes and corners of the rocks. Others stood still with chattering teeth. Even Grabantak wavered for a moment. But it was only for a moment. Recovering himself he uttered a mighty shout; then he yelled; then he howled; then he slapped his breast and thighs; then he seized a smallish brave near him by the neck and hurled him into the sea. Having relieved his feelings thus he burst into a fit of laughter such as has never been equalled by the wildest maniac either before or since. Suddenly he calmed, stepped up to Leo, and wrenched the rifle from his grasp. "I will do that!" he cried, and held the weapon out at arms-length in front of his face with both hands; but there was no answering shot. "Why does it not bark?" he demanded, turning to Leo sternly. "It will only bark at my bidding," said Leo, with a significant smile. "Bid it, then," said the chief in a peremptory tone, still holding the rifle out. "You must treat it in the right way, otherwise it will not bark. I will show you." Having been shown how to pull the trigger, the chief tried again, but a sharp click was the only reply. Grabantak having expected a shot, he nervously dropped the rifle, but Leo was prepared, and caught it. "You must not be afraid of it; it cannot work properly if you are afraid. See, look there," he added, pointing to the conical rock on which another infatuated gull had perched himself. Grabantak looked earnestly. His timid braves began to creep out of their holes, and directed their eyes to the same spot. While their attention was occupied Leo managed to slip a fresh cartridge into the rifle unobserved. "Now," said he, handing the rifle to the chief, "try again." Grabantak, who was not quite pleased at the hint about his being afraid, seized the rifle and held it out as before. Resolved to maintain his reputation for coolness, he said to his followers in imitation of Leo:-- "Do you see that gull?" "Huk!" replied the warriors, with eager looks. Leo thought of correcting his manner of taking aim, but, reflecting that the result would be a miss in any case, he refrained. Grabantak raised the rifle slowly, as its owner had done, and frowned along the barrel. In doing so, he drew it back until the butt almost touched his face. Then he fired. There was a repetition of previous results with some differences. The gull flew away from the rock unhurt; one of the braves received the bullet in his thigh and ran off shrieking with agony, while the chief received a blow from the rifle on the nose which all but incorporated that feature with his cheeks, and drew from his eyes the first tears he had ever shed since babyhood. That night Grabantak sat for hours staring in moody silence at the sea, tenderly caressing his injured nose, and meditating, no doubt, on things past, present, and to come. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. LEO VISITS FLATLAND AND SEES AS WELL AS HEARS MUCH TO INTEREST HIM THERE. The result of Grabantak's meditation was that, considering the nature and wonderful weapons of the men by whom Amalatok had been reinforced, he thought it advisable to return to his own land, which was not far distant, for the purpose of adding to the force with which he meant to subjugate the men of Poloe. "We are unconquerable," he said, while conversing on the situation with Teyma, his first lieutenant, or prime minister; "everybody knows that we are invincible. It is well-known that neither white men, nor yellow men,--no, nor black men, nor blue men,--can overcome the Flatlanders. We must keep up our name. It will not do to let the ancient belief die down, that one Flatlander is equal to three men of Poloe, or any other land." "The Poloe men laugh in their boots when they hear us boast in this way," said Teyma gently. We draw attention to the curious resemblance in this phrase to our more civilised "laughing in the sleeve," while we point out that the prime minister, although of necessity a man of war, was by nature a man of peace. Indeed his name, Teyma, which signifies peace, had been given him because of his pacific tendencies. "What! would you not have me defend the Flatland name?" demanded Grabantak, fiercely. "No, I would have you defend only the Flatland property," replied the blunt minister. "And is not Puiroe my property?" growled Grabantak, referring to the barren rock which was the cause of war. "So is _that_ your property," said Teyma, picking up a stone, "and yet I treat it thus!" (He tossed it contemptuously into the sea.) "Is that worth Flatlander blood? would you kill me for _that_? shall Eskimo wives and mothers weep, and children mourn and starve for a useless rock in the sea." "You always thwart me, Teyma," said Grabantak, trying to suppress a burst of wrath, which he was well aware his fearless minister did not mind in the least. "It is true this island is not worth the shake of a puffin's tail; but if we allow the Poloe men to take it--" "To keep it," mildly suggested Teyma, "they have long had it." "Well, to keep it, if you will," continued the chief testily; "will not other tribes say that the old name of the Flatlanders is dead, that the war-spirit is gone, that they may come and attack us when they please; for we cannot defend our property, and they will try to make us slaves? What! shall Flatlanders become slaves? no never, never, _never_!" cried Grabantak, furiously, though unconsciously quoting the chorus of a well-known song. "No, _never_," re-echoed Teyma with an emphatic nod, "yet there are many steps between fighting for a useless rock, and being made slaves." "Well then," cried Grabantak, replying to the first part of his lieutenant's remark and ignoring the second, "we must fight to prove our courage. As to losing many of our best men, of course we cannot help that. Then we must kill, burn, and destroy right and left in Poloeland, to prove our power. After that we will show the greatness of our forbearance by letting our enemies alone. Perhaps we may even condescend to ask them to become our friends. What an honour that would be to them, and, doubtless, what a joy!" "Grabantak," said Teyma with a look and tone of solemnity which invariably overawed his chief, and made him uncomfortable, "you have lived a good many years now. Did you ever make a friend of an enemy by beating him?" "Of course not," said the other with a gesture of impatience. "Grabantak, you had a father." "Yes," said the chief, with solemn respect. "And _he_ had a father." "True." "And he, too, had a father." "Well, I suppose he had." "Of course he had. All fathers have had fathers back and back into the mysterious Longtime. If not, where did our tales and stories come from? There are many stories told by fathers to sons, and fathers to sons, till they have all come down to us, and what do these stories teach us? that all fighting is bad, except what _must_ be. Even what _must_ be is bad--only, it is better than some things that are worse. Loss of life, loss of country, loss of freedom to hunt, and eat, and sleep, are worse. We must fight for these--but to fight for a bare rock, for a name, for a coast, for a fancy, it is foolish! and when you have got your rock, and recovered your name, and pleased your fancy, do the brave young men that are dead return? Do the maidens that weep rejoice? Do the mothers that pine revive? Of what use have been all the wars of Flatland from Longtime till now? Can you restore the mountain-heaps of kayaks, and oomiaks, and spears, and walrus-lines, from the smoke into which they vanished! Can you recall the great rivers of whale-oil from the sea into which they have been poured, or the blood of men from the earth that swallowed it? Is not war _always_ loss, loss, loss, and _never_ gain? Why cannot we live at peace with those who will, and fight only with those who insist on war." "Go, Teyma, stop your mouth with blubber," said the chief, rising; "I am weary of you. I tell you, Amalatok shall die; Puiroe shall be mine. The tribes shall all learn to tremble at the name of Grabantak and to respect the men of Flatland." "Ay, and to love them too, I suppose," added Teyma with a facetious sneer. "Boo!" replied his chief, bringing the conversation to an abrupt close by walking away. In accordance with their chief's resolve, the Grabantak band embarked in their kayaks next morning, the gale having moderated, and with the intention of obtaining reinforcements, paddled back to Flatland, which they reached in a couple of days. On the voyage Leo confined himself strictly to the oars and paddles, being unwilling to let the Eskimos into the secret of the kite, until he could do so with effect, either in the way of adding to their respect for the white man and his contrivances, or of making his escape. Now, as has been said or hinted, although Grabantak's son, Koyatuk, was a stout and tall man, he was not gifted with much brain. He possessed even less of that substance than his father, whose energy and power of muscle, coupled with indomitable obstinacy, enabled him to hold the reins of government which were his by hereditary right. Besides being a fearless man, Grabantak was respected as a good leader in war. But Koyatuk had neither the energy of his father, nor his determination. He was vacillating and lazy, as well as selfish. Hence he was not a favourite, and when, after landing at Flatland, he endeavoured to renew his claim to Oblooria, neither his father nor the people encouraged him. The timid one was therefore left with Leo and Anders, who immediately fitted up for her a separate screened-off apartment in the hut which was assigned to them in the native village. Even Koyatuk's mother did not befriend her son on this occasion. Merkut had her own reasons for proving faithless to her spoilt boy, whom on most occasions she favoured. Knowing his character well, the sturdy wife of Grabantak had made up her mind that Koyatuk should wed a young intelligent, and what you may call lumpy girl named Chukkee, who was very fond of the huge and lazy youth, and who, being herself good-natured and unselfish, would be sure to make him a good wife. After one or two unavailing efforts, therefore, and a few sighs, the heir-apparent to the throne of Flatland ceased to trouble Oblooria, and devoted himself to his three favourite occupations--hunting, eating, and repose. "Misser Lo," whispered Anders, on the first night after landing, as they busied themselves with the partition above referred to, "we 'scapes from dis here land very easy." "How, Anders?" "W'y, you's on'y got wait for nort' vint, den up kite, launch boat, an'--hup! away." "True, lad, but I don't want to escape just yet." "Not want to 'scape?" "No. You see, Anders, we are now on very friendly terms with this tribe, and it seems to me that if we were to remain for a time and increase our influence, we might induce Grabantak to give up this war on which he seems to have set his heart. I have great hopes of doing something with Teyma. He is evidently a reasonable fellow, and has much power, I think, with the chief--indeed with every one. Pity that he is not to succeed Grabantak instead of that stupid Koyatuk. Besides, now I am here I must explore the land if possible. It is a pity no doubt to leave our friends, even for a short time, in ignorance of our fate, but we can't help that at present. Light the lamp, Anders, and let's see what we're about." The summer was by that time so far advanced that the sun descended a considerable way below the horizon each night, leaving behind a sweet mellow twilight which deepened almost into darkness inside the Eskimo huts. These latter, like those already described, were made of stone, and the small openings that served for windows did not let in much light at any time. The hut which had been assigned by Grabantak to his prisoners--or visitors, for as such he now seemed to regard them--was a large roomy one, made chiefly of clay. It stood on a little mound a hundred yards or so apart from the main village of Flatland, and was probably one of the chief's private palaces. It was oval in form--like a huge oven-- about fifteen feet in diameter, and six feet in height. One-half of the floor was raised about eight inches, thus forming the "breck," which served for a lounge by day, and a couch by night. Its furniture of skins, cooking-lamp, etcetera, was much the same as that of the Eskimo huts already described, except that the low tunnel-shaped entrance was very long--about twelve feet. Light was admitted by a parchment-covered hole or window, with several rents in it, as well as by various accidental holes in the roof. When the lamp was lighted, and skins were spread on the breck, and Leo, having finished the partition, was busy making entries in a note-book, and Anders was amusing himself with a tobacco pipe--foolish man! and Oblooria was devoting herself to the lamp, from which various charming sounds and delicious smells emanated--as well as smoke--this northern residence looked far more cheerful and snug than the luxurious dwellers in civilised lands will readily believe. "I wonder," said Leo, looking up from his book after a prolonged silence, "I wonder what strange sounds are those I hear." "P'r'aps it's de vint," said Anders, puffing a cloud from his lips in sleepy contentment, and glancing upwards. When he and Leo looked at the roof of the hut it shook slightly, as if something had fallen on it. "Strange," muttered Leo, reverting to his notebook, "it did not look like wind when the sun went down. It must be going to blow hard." After a few minutes of silence Leo again looked up inquiringly. "Dere's anoder squall," said Anders. "More like a sneeze than a squall. Listen; that is a queer pattering sound." They listened, but all was silent. After a minute or so they resumed their occupations. The sounds were, however, no mystery to those who were in the secret of them. Knowing the extreme curiosity of his countrymen, Grabantak had placed a sentinel over his guests' hut, with orders to let no one go near it. The sentinel entered on his vigil with that stern sense of duty-unto-death that is supposed to animate all sentinels. At first the inhabitants of Flatland kept conscientiously away from the forbidden spot, but as the shades of night toned down the light, some of them could not resist drawing near occasionally and listening with distended eyes, ears, and nostrils, as if they expected to drink in foreign sounds at all these orifices. The sentinel grasped his spear, steeled his heart, and stood in front of the door with a look of grand solemnity worthy of the horse-guards. At last, however, the sentinel's own curiosity was roused by the eager looks of those--chiefly big boys--who drew ever nearer and nearer. Occasional sounds from the hut quickened his curiosity, and the strange smell of tobacco-smoke at last rendered it unbearable. Slowly, sternly, as if it were part of his duty to spy, he moved to the torn window and peeped in. He was fascinated at once of course. After gazing for five minutes in rapt admiration, he chanced to withdraw his face for a moment, and then found that nine Eskimos had discovered nine holes or crevices in the hut walls, against which their fat faces were thrust, while at least half-a-dozen others were vainly searching for other peep-holes. A scarcely audible hiss caused the rapt nine to look up. A terrible frown and a shake of the official spear caused them to retire down the slope that led to the hut. This was the unaccountable "squall" that had first perplexed Leo and his comrade. But like tigers who have tasted blood, the Flatlanders could not now be restrained. "Go!" said the sentinel in a low stern voice to the retreating trespassers, whom he followed to the foot of the slope. "If you come up again I will tell Grabantak, who will have you all speared and turned into whale-buoys." The boys did not appear to care much for the threat. They were obviously buoyed up with hope. "Oh! do, _do_ let us peep! just once!" entreated several of them in subdued but eager tones. The sentinel shook his obdurate head and raised his deadly spear. "We will make no noise," said a youth who was the exact counterpart of Benjamin Vane in all respects except colour and costume--the first being dirty yellow and the latter hairy. The sentinel frowned worse than ever. "The Kablunets," said another of the band, entreatingly, "shall hear nothing louder than the falling of a snow-flake or a bit of eider-down." Still the sentinel was inexorable. The Eskimos were in despair. Suddenly Benjy's counterpart turned and fled to the village on light and noiseless toe. He returned immediately with a rich, odorous, steaming piece of blubber in his hand. It was a wise stroke of policy. The sentinel had been placed there without any reference to the fact that he had not had his supper. He was ravenously hungry. Can you blame him for lowering his spear, untying his eyebrows, and smiling blandly as the held out his hand? "Just one peep, and it is yours," said the counterpart, holding the morsel behind him. "My life is in danger if I do," remonstrated the sentinel. "Your supper is in danger if you don't," said the counterpart. It was too much for him. The sentinel accepted the bribe, and, devouring it, returned with the bribers on tiptoe to the hut, where they gazed in silent wonder to their hearts' content. "Well, that beats everything," said Leo, laying down his book and pencil, "but I never did hear a gale that panted and snorted as this one does. I'll go out and have a look at it." He rose and crawled on hands and knees through the tunnel. The spies rolled off the hut with considerable noise and fled, while the sentinel resuming his spear and position, tried to look innocent. While he was explaining to Anders why he was there, Grabantak himself walked up, accompanied by his lieutenant. They were hospitably entertained, and as Oblooria had by that time prepared a savoury mess, such as she knew the white men loved, the chief and Teyma condescended to sup with their captive-guests. Leo had not with him the great cooking machine with which his uncle had effected so much in Poloeland, but he had a tin kettle and a couple of pannikins, with some coffee, sugar, and biscuit, which did good service in the way of conciliating, if not surprising, the chief of Flatland. Both he and his lieutenant, moreover, were deeply interested in Anders's proceedings with the pipe. At first they supposed he was conducting some religious ceremony, and looked on with appropriate solemnity, but, on being informed of the mistake, Grabantak smiled graciously and requested a "whiff." He received one, and immediately made such a hideous face that Anders could not restrain a short laugh, whereupon the chief hit him over the head with his empty pannikin, but, after frowning fiercely, joined in the laugh. Leo then began to question the chief about the land over which he ruled, and was told that it was a group of islands of various sizes, like the group which belonged to Amalatok, but with more islands in it; that most of these islands were flat, and covered with lakes, large and small, in which were to be found many animals, and birds as numerous almost as the stars. "Ask him from what direction these birds come," said Leo, pulling out his pocket-compass and expecting that Grabantak would point to the south; but the chief pointed to the north, then to the south, then to the east, and then to the west! "What does he mean? I don't understand him," said Leo. "The birds come from _everywhere_--from all round. They come here to breed," said the chief, spreading his hands round him and pointing in all directions. "Then, when the young are strong and the cold season begins, they spread the wing and go away there--to _every_ place--all round." "Anders," said Leo impressively, "do you know I think we have actually arrived at the immediate region of the North Pole! What the chief says almost settles the question. This, you see, must be the warmest place in the Polar regions; the central spot around the Pole to which migratory birds flock from the south. If voyagers, crossing the Arctic circle at _all_ parts, have observed these birds ever flying _north_, it follows that they _must_ have some meeting-place near the Pole, where they breed and from which they depart in autumn. Well, according to Grabantak, _this_ is the meeting-place, therefore _this_ must be near the Pole! How I wish uncle were here!" Leo had been more than half soliloquising; he now looked up and burst into a laugh, for the interpreter was gazing at him with an expression of blank stupidity. "You's kite right, Missr Lo," he said at last, with a meek smile, "kite right, no doubt; only you's too clibber for _me_." "Well, Anders, I'll try not to be quite so clibber in future; but ask Grabantak if he will go with me on an expedition among these islands. I want very much to examine them all." "Examine them all!" repeated the chief with emphasis when this was translated; "tell the young Kablunet with the hard fist, that the sunless time would come and go, and the sun-season would come again, before he could go over half my lands. Besides, I have more important work to do. I must first go to Poloeland, to kill and burn and destroy. After that I will travel with Hardfist." Hardfist, as the chief had styled him in reference to his late pugilistic achievements, felt strongly inclined to use his fists on Grabantak's skull when he mentioned his sanguinary intentions, but recalling Alf's oft-quoted words, "Discretion is the better part of valour," he restrained himself. He also entered into a long argument with the savage, in the hope of converting him to peace principles, but of course in vain. The chief was thoroughly bent on destroying his enemies. Then, in a state of almost desperate anxiety, Leo sought to turn him from his purpose by telling him about God the Father, and the Prince of Peace, and, pulling out his Bible, began to read and make Anders interpret such passages of the Word as bore most directly on his subject. While acting in this, to him, novel capacity as a teacher of God's Word, Leo more than once lifted up his heart in brief silent prayer that the Spirit might open the heart of the savage to receive the truth. The chief and his lieutenant listened with interest and surprise. Being savages, they also listened with profound respect to the young enthusiast, but Grabantak would not give up his intention. He explained, however, that he meant first to go to the largest and most central island of his dominions, to make inquiry there of the Man of the Valley what would be the best time to set out for the war. "The Man of the Valley!" asked Leo, "who is that?" "He is an Eskimo," replied Grabantak, with a sudden air of solemnity in his manner, "whose first forefather came in the far past longtime, from nobody knows where; but this first forefather never had any father or mother. He settled among the Eskimos and taught them many things. He married one of their women, and his sons and daughters were many and strong. Their descendants inhabit the Great Isle of Flatland at the present day. They are good and strong; great hunters and warriors. The first forefather lived long, till he became white and blind. His power and wisdom lay in a little strange thing which he called `buk.' How it made him strong or wise no one can tell, but so it was. His name was Makitok. When he died he gave _buk_ to his eldest son. It was wrapped up in a piece of sealskin. The eldest son had much talk with his father about this mystery-thing, and was heard to speak much about the Kablunets, but the son would never tell what he said. Neither would he unwrap the mystery-thing, for fear that its power might escape. So he wrapped it up in another piece of sealskin, and gave it to his eldest son, telling him to hand it down from son to son, along with the name Makitok. So _buk_ has grown to be a large bundle now, and no one understands it, but every one has great reverence for it, and the Makitok now in possession is a great mystery-man, very wise; we always consult him on important matters." Here was food for reflection to Leo during the remainder of that night, and for many hours did his sleepless mind puzzle over the mystery of Makitok, the Man of the Valley. This sleepless condition was, not unpleasantly, prolonged by the sounds of animal life that entered his oven-like dwelling during great part of the night. Evidently great numbers of the feathered tribes were moving about, either because they meant to retire at dissipatedly late, or had risen at unreasonably early, hours. Among them he clearly distinguished the musical note of the long-tailed duck and the harsh scream of the great northern diver, while the profound calmness of the weather enabled him to hear at intervals the soft blow and the lazy plash of a white whale, turning, it might be, on his other side in his water-bed on the Arctic Sea. Following the whale's example, Leo turned round at last, buried his face in a reindeer pillow, and took refuge in oblivion. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. A GLORIOUS REGION CONTEMPLATED, AND A GLORIOUS CHASE PLANNED. Leo did not slumber long. Very early in the morning he awoke with that sensation about him which told that at that time further repose was not attainable. He therefore rose, donned the few garments which he had put off on lying down, crept through his tunnel, and emerged into the open air. And what a vision of glorious beauty met his enraptured eyes, while the fresh sea-breeze entered, like life, into his heaving chest! It was still a profound calm. Earth, air, water, sky, seemed to be uniting in a silent act of adoration to their great Creator, while the myriad creatures therein contained were comparatively quiet in the enjoyment of His rich and varied bounties. It seemed as if the hour were too early for the strife of violent passions--too calm for the stirrings of hatred or revenge. Everything around spoke only of peace. Sitting down with his back to a sun-bathed rock, and his face to the silver sea, Leo drew out his Bible and proceeded to read the records of the Prince of Peace. As he lifted his eyes from the words, "marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well," to the vision of beauty and life that lay before him, Leo made the words and the thought, for the first time, _his own_. The prospect embraced innumerable islands of all sizes, studding like gems the gently-heaving sea. Over these, countless millions of sea-birds flew or sailed to and fro; some with the busy fluttering of activity, as if they had something to do and a mind to do it; others loitering idly on the wing, or dipping lightly on the wave, as if to bid their images good-morning. Burgomaster, yellow-legged, and pink-beaked gulls, large and small, wheeled in widening circles round him. Occasional flocks of ptarmigan, in the mixed brown and white plumage of summer, whirred swiftly over him and took refuge among the rocky heights of the interior, none of which heights rose above three hundred feet. Eider-ducks, chattering kittiwakes, and graceful tern, auks, guillemots, puffins, geese, and even swans, swarmed on the islands, far and near, while seals, whales, narwhals, dolphins, and grampuses, revelled in the sea, so that the Arctic world appeared almost overcharged with animal life. Of course the noise of their cries and evolutions would have been great had not distance lent enchantment to sound as well as view. To Leo there seemed even a sort of restfulness in the voices of the innumerable wild-fowl. They were so far off, most of them, that the sounds fell on his ear like a gentle plaint, and even the thunderous plash of the great Greenland whale was reduced by distance to a ripple like that which fell on the shore at his feet. While he was meditating, Anders joined him and responded heartily to his salutation, but Anders was not in a poetical frame of mind that morning. His thoughts had been already turned to an eminently practical subject. "I'm tole," said he, seating himself beside our hero, "dat Grabantak holds a talk 'bout fighting." "And a council of war," said Leo. "I know what the result of that will be. When leaders like Grabantak and Amalatok decide for war, most of the people follow them like a flock of sheep. Although most of the people never saw this miserable island--this Puiroe--and know, and care, nothing about it, you'll see that the Flatlanders will be quite enthusiastic after the council, and ready to fight for it to the bitter end. A very bitter end it is, indeed, to see men and women make fools of themselves about nothing, and be ready to die for the same! Will Grabantak allow us to be present at the council, think you?" "Ho yis. He send me to say you muss come." Leo was right. Nothing could surpass the impetuosity of Grabantak, except the anxiety of many of the Flatlanders to be led by the nose. Was not the point in question one of vital importance to the wellbeing of the community--indeed of the whole Arctic world? Teyma mildly asked them what _was_ the point in question, but not a soul could tell, until Grabantak, starting up with furious energy, manufactured a "point," and then explained it in language so intricate, yet so clear, that the whole council stood amazed at their never having seen it before in that light, and then said, more or less emphatically, "There, that's what we thought exactly, only we could not state it so well as the great Grabantak!" After this there was no chance for Teyma and his party--and he had a party, even among northern savages,--who believed in men working hard at their own affairs and letting other people alone, as far as that was possible. But the peace-party in Arctic land was in a minority at that time, and the council broke up with shouts for Grabantak, and denunciations of death and destruction to the men of Poloeland. But things do not always turn out as men--even wise men--arrange them. From that day, during the brief period of preparation for the setting out of an expedition to visit Makitok of Great Isle, Leo received daily visits from the Prime Minister, who was deeply interested and inquisitive about the strange "_thing_," as he styled the Bible, which told the Kablunets about God and the Prince of Peace. Of course Leo was willing and happy to give him all the information he desired, and, in doing so, found a new and deep source of pleasure. Teyma was not the man to hide his light under a bushel. He was a fearless outspoken counsellor, and not only sought to advance the pacific views he held, by talking to the men of his own party in private, but even propounded them in public to Grabantak himself, who, however, could not be moved, though many of his men quietly changed sides. With all this Teyma was loyal to his chief. Whatever he did was in the way of fair and open argument. He was too loyal to help Leo when he made a certain proposal to him one day. "Teyma," said Leo, on that occasion, "you have been very friendly to me. Will you do me a great favour? Will you send a young man in a kayak to Poloeland with a message from me to my people? They must think I am dead. I wish them to know that I am here, and well." "No," replied Teyma promptly; "that would let the men of Poloe know that we talk of going to attack them. I do not love war. I wish to let our enemies alone, but if my chief decides for war, it is my duty to help, not to frustrate him. If we go to war with Poloeland, we must take the men of Poloe by surprise. That could not be if a young man went with your message." Leo saw the force of this, and respected Teyma's disinterested loyalty to his chief; but felt inclined to argue that, fidelity to the best interests of his country stood higher than loyalty to a chief. He refrained, however, from pressing the matter at that time. Not so Anders. When that worthy saw that Teyma would not act, and that Leo from some inexplicable reason hesitated, he quietly took the matter into his own hands, and so wrought on the feelings of a weak but amiable youth of the tribe, that he prevailed on him to carry a message to the enemy, explaining to him earnestly that no evil, but the reverse, would result from his mission; that the Kablunets were men of peace, who would immediately come over to Flatland and put everything right in a peaceable and satisfactory manner. "Tell the white men," said Anders, "that we are prisoners in Flatland-- alive and well--but they must come to help us quickly." No difficulty was experienced in sending the messenger away. There was unlimited personal freedom in Flatland. Young men frequently went off to hunt for days together at a time, without saying anything about their intentions, unless they chose; so the secret messenger set out. Thus the interpreter lighted the fuse of a mine which was eminently calculated to blow up the plans of Grabantak. But another fuse had been lighted which, in a still more effectual manner, overturned the plans of that warlike chief. It chanced at this time that the Flatlanders ran short of meat. Their habit was to go off on a grand hunt, gather as much meat as they could, and then come home to feast and rejoice with their families until scarcity again obliged them to hunt. Of course there were many among them whose natural activity rebelled against this lazy style of life, but the exertions of these did not suffice to keep the whole tribe supplied. Hence it came to pass, that they often began to be in want while in the midst of plenty. A grand hunt was therefore organised. They were tired, they said, of ducks and geese and swans. They wanted a change from seals and bears, walruses and such small fry. Nothing short of a whale would serve them! Once stirred up to the point of action, there was no lack of energy among these northern Eskimos. Kayaks, lines, and spears were got ready, and oomiaks were launched; for women and children loved to see the sport, though they did not join in it. Everywhere bustle and excitement reigned, and the hubbub was not a little increased by the agitated dogs, which knew well what was a-foot, and licked their lips in anticipation. Of course Leo and Anders prepared to go and see the fun. So did Oblooria. It was arranged that Leo and the latter were to go in the india-rubber boat. That vessel had been the source of deep, absorbing interest and curiosity to the natives. When our travellers landed, it had been conveyed to the side of the hut assigned them, and laid gently on the turf, where it was stared at by successive groups all day. They would have stayed staring at it all night, if they had not been forbidden by Grabantak to approach the Kablunets during the hours of repose. Leo explained its parts to them, but made no reference to its expansive and contractile properties. He also launched it and paddled about to gratify the curiosity of his new friends, but did not show them the kite, which, folded and in its cover, he had stowed away in the hut. One night, fearing that the sun might injure the boat, Leo had squeezed the air out of it, folded it, and stowed it away in the hut beside the kite. The astonishment of the natives, when they came out next morning to stare and wonder, according to custom, was very great. Leo resolved to make a mystery of it, looked solemn when spoken to on the point, and gave evasive replies. When, however, the time came for setting off on this grand hunt, he carried his boat, still bundled up in skins, down to the water's edge, where kayaks and oomiaks in hundreds lay ready to be launched. The news spread like wild-fire that the Kablunet was going to "act wonderfully!" Every man, woman, and child in the place hurried to the spot. "It is destroyed!" exclaimed Grabantak, sadly, when he saw the boat unrolled, flat and empty, on the sand. We shall not describe the scene in detail. It is sufficient to say that Leo did not disappoint the general expectation. He did indeed "act wonderfully," filling the unsophisticated savages with unbounded surprise and admiration, while he filled the boat with air and launched it. He then stepped into it with Anders, gallantly lifted Oblooria on board, and, seizing the oars, rowed gently out to sea. With shouts of delight the Eskimos jumped into their kayaks and followed. Their admiration was, however, a little calmed by the discovery that the kayaks could beat the Kablunet boat in speed, though the women in their oomiaks could not keep up with it. There was no emulation, however; Leo carefully refrained from racing. He had been supplied with a long lance and a couple of spears, to which latter were attached, by thongs of walrus hide, two inflated sealskins to act as buoys. These Leo had been previously instructed how to use. He took the kite with him on this occasion, without, however, having much expectation of being able to use it, as the calm still prevailed. It was folded of course, and fixed in its place in the bow. The natives thought it must be a spear or harpoon of strange form. It was not long before a whale was sighted. There were plenty of these monsters about, some coming lazily to the surface to blow, others lying quite still, with their backs out of the water as if sunning themselves, or asleep. Soon the spirit of the hunter filled each Eskimo bosom. What appeared to be an unusually large whale was observed on the horizon. Kablunets, india-rubber boats, and all less important things, were forgotten for the moment; paddles were plied with energy, and the chase began. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. IN WHICH A GREAT HUNT IS DESCRIBED, A WAR EXPEDITION FRUSTRATED, AND A HERO ENNOBLED. Now, in a fit of unwise ambition, Anders the interpreter resolved to signalise himself, and display his valour on the occasion of this hunt. He borrowed a kayak of one of the natives, and went as an independent hunter. Leo, being quite able to row his boat alone, with Oblooria to steer, did not object. The whale which had been selected was a thorough-going Arctic monster of the largest size, nearly a hundred feet long, which, while on his passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Behring Straits, had paused for a nap off the isles of Flatland. The fleet of kayaks converged towards the fish like a flock of locusts. Despite his utmost efforts, Leo could not do more than keep up in rear of the hunters, for the sharp shuttle-like kayaks shot like arrows over the smooth sea, while his clumsier boat required greater force to propel it. In a few minutes those Eskimos who were best paddlers crept ahead of the rest. Grabantak and his son took the lead, whether because of right or because of superior strength it was hard to say. Anders, who was a powerful fellow, and an expert canoeman, kept close alongside of them. Not content with this, he attempted to pass them; but they saw his intention, put on what sporting men call a "spurt," and in a few seconds left him several yards behind. On nearing their victim, Grabantak and Koyatuk checked their speed and got their spears ready. A few minutes later and a dozen of the followers were up and prepared to act, but they all held back--all except the excitable Anders--while the chief and his son glided cautiously towards the fish, one on either side. Suddenly each grasped a spear and drove it with all the force of both arms deep into the whale's flesh. It was a rude awaking! Of course the fish dived instantly. In doing so it flung its tail on high with a superb sweep, sending tons of water, and the impatient Anders, into the air. The interpreter came down in a cataract of spray, with his kayak doubled up but himself uninjured, while the Eskimos greeted the event with a shout of alarm. This changed into laughter when it was found that the ambitious man was none the worse for his toss; and the women in one of the oomiak; paddling quickly up, hauled the drenched and crestfallen man out of the sea. They also picked up his spear with the sealskin buoy attached. Giving him the place of honour in the bow, they put the spear in his hand, and bade him keep up heart and do better next time. Meanwhile the whale, having got over its first surprise, and feeling the two large sealskin-floats a somewhat heavy as well as unusual drag, soon came again to the surface, not far from the spot where Leo lay on his oars, an amused as well as interested spectator of the scene. "Ho!" shrieked Oblooria, whose eager little heart was easily excited. She pointed to the fish, and gazed at Leo with blazing eyes. You may be sure our hero did not lose time. The india-rubber boat leaped over the water as if it had suddenly been endowed with life. The smart little woman carefully arranged the spear and buoy ready to hand. Several of the kayaks which chanced to be nearest to the whale rushed towards it like sword-fish; but they had no chance, Leo being so near. He did not check his speed on reaching the fish, but allowed the boat to run tilt on its back. The smooth india-rubber glided up on the slippery surface till more than half its length was on the creature's back. It was thus checked without a shock--probably unfelt by the whale. Leo seized the spear, leaped up, and, with both hands, drove it deep into the flesh, just as the chief and his son had done. The force with which he drove it was so great that it thrust the boat back into the water. This was fortunate, for it enabled them narrowly to escape the vortex that was instantly made by the diving of the now enraged monster; a few back-strokes of the oars took them out of the sea of foam left behind. The masterly manner in which this was done called forth shouts of admiration from the entire fleet, and it greatly surprised Leo himself, for it was the first time he had attempted to use the harpoon. "It _must_ have been chance," he muttered to himself as he again lay on his oars awaiting the whale's reappearance, "a sort of happy accident. I feel convinced I could not do it so well a second time." The fish took a longer dive on this occasion, and when he retained to the surface for another breath of air, was at a considerable distance from all parts of the fleet. The instant he was seen, however, every paddle flashed into the sea, and the kayaks darted away in pursuit. They soon came up with their victim, and another spear, with its accompanying sealskin buoy, was fixed in its side. Down it went a third time, and reappeared in quite an opposite direction from that in which it had been looked for. This uncertainty in the movements of the whale was a matter of small moment to the occupiers of the light kayaks, but it told rather heavily on Leo in his clumsier boat. He therefore resolved to paddle gently about, take things easy, watch the progress of the chase, and trust to the chapter of accidents giving him another chance. "You see, Oblooria," he said in the Eskimo tongue, which he was picking up rapidly, "it's of no use my pulling wildly about in all directions, blowing myself for nothing; so we'll just hang off-and-on here and watch them." As this remark called for no direct reply, Oblooria merely smiled-- indeed she more than smiled--but said nothing. It is just possible that Leo's rendering of the phrase "off-and-on" into Eskimo may have sounded ridiculous. However this may be, the two sat there for some time, absorbed and silent spectators of the chase. "How long will they take to kill it?" asked Leo when he saw Grabantak thrust somewhere about the thirty-fifth spear into the victim. "All day," answered Oblooria. "All day!" repeated Leo in surprise. "If they could lance him far in," said the girl, "he would die soon, but his flesh is thick and his life is deep down." Leo relapsed into silence. The idea of remaining a mere spectator all day was distasteful to his active mind and body. He had almost made up his mind to ask one of the natives to lend him a kayak and change places, when a puff of wind sent a few cats-paws over the hitherto glassy sea. He looked quickly in the direction whence it came, and observed a blue line on the horizon. It was a coming breeze. Ere long it touched them, blowing gently, indeed, but steadily. A glance upwards showed that it was steadier and stronger in the upper regions, and blew towards the south-east, in which direction the chase was being prosecuted with unflagging activity. "If there was only enough," muttered Leo, "to take the kite up, I'd soon be alongside of the whale; come, I'll try. Lend a hand, Oblooria." The Eskimo girl had, during her voyage to Flatland, become so well acquainted with the operation of extending and setting up the kite, that she was able to lend effective assistance. In less than ten minutes it was expanded, and although Leo was nearly pulled into the water before he got fair hold of the regulator, while Oblooria was thrown down by an eccentric whisk of the tail, they managed at last to get it fairly over their heads, and soon sent it shooting upwards into the stronger air current above. Of course they began to rush over the sea at a pace that would have quickly left the best kayak in the fleet far astern, but Leo did not wish to act precipitately. He sat down in the bow to attend to the regulator, while Oblooria held the steering-oar. "Keep her away a bit, Oblooria; starboard--I mean to _that_ side. So, we won't spoil their sport too soon." He pulled the regulator as he spoke, and eased the pace, while the Eskimo girl, with eyes glittering from expectancy and hope, turned the boat off to the right. Leo seemed to be meditative at first, as if uncertain how to proceed. Soon this condition of mind passed. He let go the regulator, and, taking up the long whale lance with which he had been provided, examined its blade and point. The full force of the breeze filled the kite and carried them along at not less than ten miles an hour. Hitherto the Eskimos had been so intent on their prey that they had no eyes for anything else. Again and again had the whale been pierced by the stinging harpoons, and the number of inflated sealskins which he was obliged by that time to drag down into the deep was so great that his dives had become more frequent and much shorter. It was obvious that the perseverance of his little foes would in the end overcome his mighty strength. It was equally evident, however, that there was still a great deal of fighting power left in him, and as some of the harpoons had come out while several of the floats had broken loose, there was just a possibility that he might yet escape if not vigorously followed up. Suddenly one of the Eskimos was seen to drop his paddle and point with both hands to the sky, uttering at the same time a cry of surprise and alarm. There was no mistaking the cry. Every paddle ceased to dip, and every eye was turned to the sky. Of course every voice gave forth a howl! "A mystery!" shouted Grabantak. "An evil spirit!" cried Koyatuk. "A new kind of bird!" roared Teyma. At that moment a cry louder than ever arose. Leo's boat was observed coming like a narwhal over the sea, with the foam flying from its bows! The "new kind of bird," so they at first imagined, had let down a long thin tail, caught the boat of the white man, and was flying away with it! Into the midst of them the boat rushed. They dashed aside right and left. Leo was standing in the bow. He moved not, spoke not, looked at no one, but stood up, bent a little forward, with a stern frown on his brow, his lips compressed, and the long lance held level in both hands as if in the act of charging. "Catch hold of him!" yelled Grabantak as they flew past. As well might they have tried to catch a comet! "Steer a little to the left," said Leo in a low tone. Obedient, on the instant, the girl made a sharp stroke with the oar. "Steady--so. Now, Oblooria, hold on tight for your life!" They were going straight at the whale. Leo did not dare to think of the result of his intended attack. He could not guess it. He hoped all would be well. He had no time to think of _pros_ and _cons_. They were close to the victim. On it, now, sliding over its back, while the sharp lance entered its body with the full momentum of the charge,--deep down into its vitals! Blood flew out like a waterspout. The lance was torn from Leo's grasp as he fell backwards. Oblooria leaped up, in wild excitement, dropped her oar, and clapped her hands. At that instant the stout traction-line snapped, and the boat remained fast, while the kite descended in a series of helpless gyrations into the sea. Next moment the whale went down in a convulsive struggle, and the boat, with its daring occupants, was whelmed in a whirlpool of blood and foam. No cry proceeded from the Eskimos during this stupendous attack. They seemed bereft alike of voice and volition, but, on beholding the closing catastrophe, they rushed to the rescue with a united roar. Before they could gain the spot, Leo was seen to emerge from the deep, dripping with pink and white foam like a very water-god. Oblooria followed instantly, like a piebald water-nymph. The boat had not been upset, though overwhelmed, and they had held on to it with the tenacity of a last hope. Looking sharply round, as he gasped and swept the water from his eyes, Leo seized the oars, which, being attached to the boat, were still available, and rowed with all his might away from the approaching Eskimos as if he were afraid of being caught by them. They followed with, if possible, increased surprise at this inexplicable conduct. They made up to him; some even shot ahead of him. Poor Leo was not a moment too soon in reaching his kite, for these people were about to transfix it with their whale-harpoons, when he dashed up and ordered them to desist. Having rescued the miserable-looking thing from the sea and hastily folded it, he placed it in the bow. Then breathing freely, he began to look about him just as the whale came again to the surface in a dying flurry. It so chanced that it came up right under Grabantak's kayak, which it tossed up end over end. This would not have been a serious matter if it had not, the next moment, brought its mighty tail down on the canoe. It then sheered off a hundred yards or so, leaped half its length out of the water, and fell over on its side with a noise like thunder and died. Every one turned to the place where the chief's kayak lay a complete wreck on the water. Its owner was seen swimming beside it, and was soon hauled into one of the women's oomiaks. Evidently he had been severely hurt, but he would not admit the fact. With characteristic dignity he sternly ordered the fleet to lay hold of the whale and make for the shore. "Tell him his arm is broken," said Leo that evening to Anders, after examining the chief's hurts in the privacy of his own hut, "and let him know that I am a medicine-man and will try to cure him." Grabantak received the information with a look of anger. "Then," said he, "Amalatok must live a little longer, for I cannot fight him with a broken arm. Go," he added, looking full at Leo with something like admiration, "go, you have done well to-day; my young men want to make your nose blue." The peremptory nature of the chief's command forbade delay. Leo was therefore obliged to creep out of his hut, wondering intensely, and not a little uncomfortably, as to what having his nose made blue could mean. He was quickly enlightened by Anders, who told him that the most successful harpooner in a whale hunt is looked on as a very great personage indeed, and is invariably decorated with what may be styled the Eskimo order of the Blue Ribbon. Scarcely had he received this information, when he was seized by the young men and hurried into the midst of an expectant circle, where he submitted with a good grace to the ceremony. A youth advanced to him, made a few complimentary remarks, seized him by the right ear, and, with a little wet paint, drew a broad blue line across his face over the bridge of his nose. He was then informed that he had received the highest honour known to the Eskimos of the far north, and that, among other privileges, it gave him the right of marrying two wives if he felt disposed to do so! Accepting the honour, but declining the privilege, Leo expressed his gratitude for the compliment just paid him in a neat Eskimo speech, and then retired to his hut in search of much-needed repose, not a little comforted by the thought that the chief's broken arm would probably postpone the threatened war for an indefinite period. That night ridiculous fancies played about his deerskin pillow, for he dreamed of being swallowed by a mad whale, and whisked up to the sky by a kite with a broken arm and a blue stripe across its nose! CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. TELLS OF A WARLIKE EXPEDITION AND ITS HAPPY TERMINATION. While these stirring events were taking place in Flatland, our friends in the Island of Poloe continued to fish and hunt, and keep watch and ward against their expected enemies in the usual fashion; but alas for the poor Englishmen! All the light had gone out of their eyes; all the elasticity had vanished from their spirits. Ah! it is only those who know what it is to lose a dear friend or brother, who can understand the terrible blank which had descended on the lives of our discoverers, rendering them, for the time at least, comparatively indifferent to the events that went on around them, and totally regardless of the great object which had carried them so far into those regions of ice. They could no longer doubt that Leo and his companions had perished, for they had searched every island of the Poloe group, including that one on which Leo and the Eskimos had found temporary refuge. Here, indeed, a momentary gleam of hope revived, when Alf found the spent cartridge-cases which his brother had thrown down on the occasion of his shooting for the purpose of impressing his captors, and they searched every yard of the island, high and low, for several days, before suffering themselves to relapse into the old state of despair. No evidence whatever remained to mark the visit of the Eskimos, for these wily savages never left anything behind them on their war-expeditions, and the storm had washed away any footprints that might have remained in the hard rocky soil. Amalatok--who, with his son and his men, sympathised with the Englishmen in their loss, and lent able assistance in the prolonged search--gave the final death-blow to their hopes by his remarks, when Captain Vane suggested that perhaps the lost ones had been blown over the sea to Flatland. "That is not possible," said Amalatok promptly. "Why not? The distance is not so very great." "The distance is not very great, that is true," replied Amalatok. "If Lo had sailed away to Flatland he might have got safely there, but Blackbeard surely forgets that the storm did not last more than a few hours. If Lo had remained even a short time on this island, would not the calm weather which followed the storm have enabled him to paddle back again to Poloe? No, he must have thought the storm was going to be a long one, and thinking that, must have tried, again to face it and paddle against it. In this attempt he has perished. Without doubt Lo and Unders and Oblooria are in the land of spirits." Eskimos of the far north, unlike the red men of the prairies, are prone to give way to their feelings. At the mention of the timid one's name, Oolichuk covered his face with his hands and wept aloud. Poor Alf and Benjy felt an almost irresistible desire to join him. All the fun and frolic had gone completely out of the latter, and as for Alf, he went about like a man half asleep, with a strange absent look in his eyes and a perfect blank on his expressionless face. No longer did he roam the hills of Poloeland with geological hammer and box. He merely went fishing when advised or asked to do so, or wandered aimlessly on the sea-shore. The Captain and Benjy acted much in the same way. In the extremity of their grief they courted solitude. The warm hearts of Chingatok and the negro beat strong with sympathy. They longed to speak words of comfort, but at first delicacy of feeling, which is found in all ranks and under every skin, prevented them from intruding on sorrow which they knew not how to assuage. At last the giant ventured one day to speak to Alf. "Has the Great Spirit no word of comfort for His Kablunet children?" he asked. "Yes, yes," replied Alf quickly. "He says, `Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.'" "Have you not called?" asked Chingatok with a slight look of surprise. "No; I say it to my shame, Chingatok. This blow has so stunned me that I had forgotten my God." "Call now," said the giant earnestly. "If He is a good and true God, He must keep His promise." Alf did call, then and there, and the Eskimo stood and listened with bowed head and reverent look, until the poor youth had concluded his prayer with the name of Jesus. The negro's line of argument with Benjy was different and characteristically lower toned. "You muss keep up de heart, Massa Benjy. Nobody nebber knows wot may come for to pass. P'r'aps Massa Leo he go to de Nort Pole by hisself. He was allers bery fond o' takin' peepil by surprise. Nebber say die, Massa Benjy, s'long's der's a shot in de locker." At any other time Benjy would have laughed at the poor cook's efforts to console him, but he only turned away with a sigh. Two days after that the Eskimos of Poloe were assembled on the beach making preparations to go off on a seal hunt. "Is that a whale on the horizon or a walrus!" asked the Captain, touching Chingatok on the arm as they stood on the edge of the sea, ready to embark. "More like a black gull," said Benjy, "or a northern diver." Chingatok looked long and earnestly at the object in question, and then said with emphasis--"A kayak!" "One of the young men returning from a hunt, I suppose," said Alf, whose attention was aroused by the interest manifested by the surrounding Eskimos. "Not so," said Amalatok, who joined the group at the moment, "the man paddles like a man of Flatland." "What! one of your enemies?" cried the Captain, who, in his then state of depression, would have welcomed a fight as a sort of relief. Evidently Butterface shared his hopes, for he showed the whites of his eyes and grinned amazingly as he clenched his horny hands. "Yes--our enemies," said Amalatok. "The advanced guard of the host," said the Captain, heartily; "come, the sooner we get ready for self-defence the better." "Yis, dat's de word," said the negro, increasing his grin for a moment and then collapsing into sudden solemnity; "we nebber fights 'cep' in self-defence--oh no--_nebber_!" "They come not to attack," said Chingatok quietly. "Flatlanders never come except in the night when men sleep. This is but one man." "Perhaps he brings news!" exclaimed Benjy, with a sudden blaze of hope. "Perhaps," echoed Alf, eagerly. "It may be so," said Chingatok. It was not long before the question was set at rest. The approaching kayak came on at racing speed. Its occupant leaped on shore, and, panting from recent exertion, delivered his thrilling message. "Prisoners in Flatland," said the Captain at the council of war which was immediately summoned, "but alive and well. Let us be thankful for that good news, anyhow; but then, they ask us to help them, _quickly_. That means danger." "Yes, danger!" shouted Oolichuk, who, at the thought of Oblooria in the hands of his foes, felt an almost irresistible desire to jump at some of the youths of his own tribe, and kill them, by way of relieving his feelings. "Rest content, Oolichuk," cried Amalatok, with a horrible grinding of his teeth; "we will tear out their hearts, and batter in their skulls, and--" "But," resumed the Captain hastily, "I do not think the danger so great. All I would urge is that we should not delay going to their rescue--" "Ho! huk! hi!" interrupted the whole band of assembled warriors, leaping up and going through sundry suggestive actions with knives and spears. "Does my father wish me to get the kayaks ready?" asked Chingatok, who, as usual, retained his composure. "Do, my son. Let plenty of blubber be stowed in them, and war-spears," said the old chief; "we will start at once." The promptitude with which these northern Eskimos prepared for war might be a lesson to the men of civilised communities. We have already said that the sun had by that time begun to set for a few hours each day. Before it had reached the deepest twilight that night a hundred and fifty picked warriors, with their kayaks and war material, were skimming over the sea, led by the fiery old chief and his gigantic but peace-loving son. Of course Captain Vane, Benjy, Alphonse Vandervell, and Butterface accompanied them, but none of the women were allowed to go, as it was expected that the war would be a bloody one. These, therefore, with the children, were left in charge of a small body of the big boys of the tribe, with the old men. The weather was fine, the sea smooth, and the arms of the invading host strong. It was not long before the sea that separated Poloe Island from Flatland was crossed. Towards sunset of a calm and beautiful day they sighted land. Gently, with noiseless dip of paddle, they glided onward like a phantom fleet. That same evening Leo and Oblooria sat by the couch of Grabantak, nursing him. The injury received by the chief from the whale had thrown him into a high fever. The irritation of enforced delay on his fiery spirit had made matters worse, and at times he became delirious. During these paroxysms it required two men to hold him down, while he indulged in wild denunciations of his Poloe foes, with frequent allusions to dread surgical operations to be performed on the body of Amalatok-- operations with which the Royal College of Surgeons is probably unacquainted. Leo, whose knowledge of the Eskimo tongue was rapidly extending, sought to counteract the patient's ferocity by preaching forgiveness and patience. Being unsuccessful, he had recourse to a soporific plant which he had recently discovered. To administer an overdose of this was not unnatural, perhaps, in a youthful doctor. Absolute prostration was not the precise result he had hoped for, but it _was_ the result, and it had the happy effect of calming the spirit of Grabantak and rendering him open to conviction. Fortunately the Flatlanders were on the look-out when the men of Poloe drew near. One of the Flatland braves was returning from a fishing expedition at the time, saw the advancing host while they were yet well out at sea, and came home at racing speed with the news. "Strange that they should come to attack _us_," said Teyma to Leo at the council of war which was immediately called. "It has always, up to this time, been our custom to attack _them_." "Not so strange as you think," said Anders, who now, for the first time, mentioned the sending of the message to Poloeland. Black looks were turned on the interpreter, and several hands wandered towards boots in search of daggers, when the prime minister interfered. "You did not well, Unders, to act without letting us know," he said with grave severity. "We must now prepare to meet the men of Poloe, whether they come as friends or foes. Let the young men arm. I go to consult with our chief." "You must not consult with Grabantak," said Leo firmly. "He lies limp. His backbone has no more strength than a piece of walrus line. His son must act for him at present." "Boo!" exclaimed one of the warriors, with a look of ineffable contempt, "Koyatuk is big enough, but he is brainless. He can bluster and look fierce like the walrus, but he has only the wisdom of an infant puffin. No, we will be led by Teyma." This sentiment was highly applauded by the entire council, which included the entire army, indeed the whole grown-up male part of the nation; so that Koyatuk was deposed on the spot, as all incompetents ought to be, and one of the best men of Flatland was put in his place. "But if I am to lead you," said the premier firmly, "it shall be to peace, not to war!" "Lead us to what you like; you have brains," returned the man who had previously said "boo!" "We know not what is best, but we can trust you." Again the approval was unanimous. "Well, then, I accept the command until my chief's health is restored," said Teyma, rising. "Now, the council is at an end. To your huts, warriors, and get your spears ready; and to your lamps, girls. Prepare supper for our warriors, and let the allowance of each be doubled." This latter command caused no small degree of surprise, but no audible comment was made, and strict obedience was rendered. Leo returned to Grabantak's hut, where he found that fiery chief as limp as ever, but with some of the old spirit left, for he was feebly making uncomfortable references to the heart, liver, and other vital organs of Amalatok and all his band. Soon afterwards that band came on in battle array, on murderous deeds intent. The Flatlanders assembled on the beach to receive them. "Leave your spears on the ground behind you," shouted Teyma to his host; "advance to the water's edge, and at my signal, throw up your arms." "They have been forewarned," growled Amalatok, grinding his teeth in disappointment, and checking the advance of his fleet by holding up one hand. "No doubt," said Captain Vane, who, with Benjy, Alf, and Butterface, was close to the Poloe chief in one of the india-rubber boats, "no doubt my young countryman, having sent a message, expected us. Surely--eh! Benjy, is not that Leo standing in front of the rest with another man?" The Captain applied his binocular telescope to his eyes as he spoke. "Yes, it's him--thank God! and I see Anders too, quite plainly, and Oblooria!" "Are they bound hand and foot?" demanded Amalatok, savagely. "No, they are as free as you are. And the Eskimos are unarmed, apparently." "Ha! that is their deceit," growled the chief. "The Flatlanders were always sly; but they shall not deceive us. Braves, get ready your spears!" "May it not be that Leo has influenced them peacefully, my father?" suggested Chingatok. "Not so, my son," said the chief savagely. "Grabantak was always sly as a white fox, fierce as a walrus, mean as a wolf, greedy as a black gull, contemptible as--" The catalogue of Grabantak's vices was cut short by the voice of Teyma coming loud and strong over the sea. "If the men of Poloe come as friends, let them land. The men of Flatland are about to feed, and will share their supper. If the men of Poloe come as foes, still I say let them land. The braves of Flatland have sharpened their spears!" Teyma threw up both hands as he finished, and all his host followed suit. For a moment or two the Poloese hesitated. They still feared deception. Then the voice of Leo was heard loud and clear. "Why do you hesitate? come on, uncle, supper's getting cold. We've been waiting for you a long time, and are all very hungry!" This was received with a shout of laughter by the Englishmen, high above which rose a wild cheer of joy from Benjy. Amalatok swallowed his warlike spirit, laid aside his spear, and seized his paddle. Chingatok gave the signal to advance, and, a few minutes later, those warriors of the north--those fierce savages who, probably for centuries, had been sworn hereditary foes--were seated round the igloe-lamps, amicably smearing their fingers and faces with fat, as they feasted together on chops of the walrus and cutlets of the polar bear. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. THE GREAT DISCOVERY. Friendly relations having been established between the Flatlanders and the Poloese, both nations turned their attention to the arts of peace. Among other things, Captain Vane and his party devoted themselves once more, with renewed energy, to the pursuit of discovery and scientific investigation. An expedition was planned to _Great Isle_, not now for the purpose of consulting Makitok, the oracle, as to the best time for going to war, but to gratify the wishes of Captain Vane, who had the strongest reason for believing that he was in the immediate neighbourhood of the Pole. "Blackbeard says he must be very near nothing now," observed Chingatok to Anders the day after their arrival. "Near _nothing_!" exclaimed Teyma, who was sitting close by. Of course the giant explained, and the premier looked incredulous. "I wish I had not left my sextant behind me in the hurry of departure," said the Captain that evening to Leo. "But we came off in such hot haste that I forgot it. However, I'll ask Amalatok to send a young man back for it. I'm persuaded we cannot now be more than a few miles distant from our goal." "I quite agree with you, uncle, for when I looked at the north star last night it seemed to me as directly in the zenith as it was possible to imagine." "Ay, lad; but the unaided eye is deceptive. A few miles of difference cannot be distinguished by it. When did the Pole star become visible?" "Only last night; I fancied I had made it out the night before, but was not quite sure, the daylight, even at the darkest hour, being still too intense to let many of the stars be seen." "Well, we shall see. I am of opinion that we are still between twenty and forty miles south of the Pole. Meanwhile, I'll induce Teyma to get up an expedition to the island of this Maki-what?" "Tok," said Leo; "Makitok. Everything almost ends in _tok_ or _tuk_ hereabouts." "Who, and what, is this man?" asked the Captain. "No one seems to know precisely. His origin has been lost in the mists of antiquity. His first forefather--so tradition styles him--seems, like Melchisedec, to have had no father or mother, and to have come from no one knows where. Anyhow he founded a colony in _Great Isle_, and Makitok is the present head of all the families." Leo then explained about the mystery-thing called _buk_, which was wrapped up in innumerable pieces of sealskin. "Strange," said the Captain, "passing strange. All you tell me makes me the more anxious to visit this man of the valley. You say there is no chance of Grabantak being able to take the reins of government again for a long time?" "None. He has got a shake that will keep him helpless for some time to come. And this is well, for Teyma will be ready to favour any project that tends towards peace or prosperity." Now, while preparations for the northern expedition were being made, our friend Oolichuk went a-wooing. And this is the fashion in which he did it. Arraying himself one day, like any other lovesick swain, in his best, he paid a ceremonial visit to Oblooria, who lived with Merkut, the wife of Grabantak, in a hut at the eastern suburb of the village. Oolichuk's costume was simple, if not elegant. It consisted of an undercoat of bird-skins, with the feathers inwards; bearskin pantaloons with the hair out; an upper coat of the grey seal; dogskin socks and sealskin boots. That young Eskimo did not visit his bride empty-handed. He carried a bundle containing a gift--skins of the young eider-duck to make an undergarment for his lady-love, two plump little auks with which to gratify her palate, and a bladder of oil to wash them down and cause her heart to rejoice. Good fortune favoured this brave man, for he met Oblooria at a lonely part of the shore among the boulders. Romance lies deep in the heart of an Eskimo--so deep that it is not perceptible to the naked eye. Whatever the Poloe warrior and maiden felt, they took care not to express in words. But Oolichuk looked unutterable things, and invited Oblooria to dine then and there. The lady at once assented with a bashful smile, and sat down on a boulder. Oolichuk sat down beside her, and presented the bundle of under-clothing. While the lady was examining this with critical eyes, the gentleman prepared the food. Taking one of the auks, he twisted off its head, put his forefinger under the integuments of the neck, drew the skin down backwards, and the bird was skinned. Then he ran his long thumb-nail down the breast and sliced off a lump, which he presented to the lady with the off-hand air of one who should say, "If you don't want it you may let it alone!" Raw though the morsel was, Oblooria accepted it with a pleased look, and ate it with relish. She also accepted the bladder, and, putting it to her lips, pledged him in a bumper of oil. Oolichuk continued this process until the first auk was finished. He then treated the second bird in the same manner, and assisted his lady-love to consume it, as well as the remainder of the oil. Conversation did not flow during the first part of the meal, but, after having drunk deeply, their lips were opened and the feast of reason began. It consisted chiefly of a running commentary by the man on the Kablunets and their ways, and appreciative giggles on the part of the woman; but they were interrupted at the very commencement by the sudden appearance of one of the Kablunets sauntering towards them. They rose instantly and rambled away in opposite directions, absorbed in contemplation--the one of the earth, and the other of the sky. Three days after that, Captain Vane and his party approached the shores of _Great Isle_. It was low like the other islands of Flatland, but of greater extent, insomuch that its entire circumference could not be seen from its highest central point. Like the other islands it was quite destitute of trees, but the low bush was luxuriantly dense, and filled, they were told, with herds of reindeer and musk-oxen. Myriads of wild-fowl--from the lordly swan to the twittering sandpiper--swarmed among its sedgy lakelets, while grouse and ptarmigan were to be seen in large flocks on its uplands. The land was clothed in mosses and grasses of the richest green, and decked with variegated wild-flowers and berries. The voyagers were received with deep interest and great hospitality by the inhabitants of the coast, who, it seemed, never quarrelled with the neighbouring islanders or went to war. Makitok dwelt in the centre of the island. Thither they therefore went the following day. It was afternoon when they came to the valley in which dwelt the angekok, or, as Red Indians would have styled him, the medicine-man. It was a peculiar valley. Unlike other vales it had neither outlet or inlet, but was a mere circular basin or depression of vast extent, the lowest part of which was in its centre. The slope towards the centre was so gradual that the descent was hardly perceived, yet Captain Vane could not resist the conviction that the lowest part of the vale must be lower than the surface of the sea. The rich luxuriance of herbage in Great Isle seemed to culminate in this lovely vale. At the centre and lowest part of the valley, Makitok, or rather Makitok's forefathers, had built their dwelling. It was a hut, resembling the huts of the Eskimos. No other hut was to be seen. The angekok loved solitude. Beside the hut there stood a small truncated cone about fifteen feet high, on the summit of which sat an old white-bearded man, who intently watched the approaching travellers. "Behold--Makitok!" said Teyma as they drew near. The old man did not move. He appeared to be over eighty years of age, and, unlike Eskimos in general, had a bushy snow-white beard. The thin hair on his head was also white, and his features were good. Our travellers were not disappointed with this strange recluse, who received them with an air of refinement and urbanity so far removed from Eskimo manners and character, that Captain Vane felt convinced he must be descended from some other branch of the human family. Makitok felt and expressed a degree of interest in the objects of the expedition which had not been observed in any Eskimo, except Chingatok, and he was intelligent and quick of perception far before most of those who surrounded him. "And what have you to say about yourself?" asked the captain that evening, after a long animated conversation on the country and its productions. "I have little to say," replied the old man, sadly. "There is no mystery about my family except its beginning in the long past." "But is not _all_ mystery in the long past?" asked the Captain. "True, my son, but there is a difference in _my_ mystery. Other Eskimos can trace back from son to father till they get confused and lost, as if surrounded by the winter-fogs. But when I trace back--far back--I come to one man--my _first father_, who had no father, it is said, and who came no one knows from where. My mind is not confused or lost; it is stopped!" "Might not the mystery-bundle that you call _buk_ explain matters?" asked Alf. When this was translated, the old man for the first time looked troubled. "I dare not open it," he said in an undertone, as if speaking to himself. "From father to son we have held it sacred. It must grow-- ever grow--never diminish!" "It's a pity he looks at it in that light," remarked Leo to Benjy, as they lay down to sleep that night. "I have no doubt that the man whom he styles first father wrapped up the thing, whatever it is, to keep it safe, not to make a mystery of it, and that his successors, having begun with a mistaken view, have now converted the re-wrapping of the bundle by each successive heir into a sacred obligation. However, we may perhaps succeed in overcoming the old fellow's prejudices. Good-night, Benjy." A snore from Benjy showed that Leo's words had been thrown away, so, with a light laugh, he turned over, and soon joined his comrade in the land of dreams. For two weeks the party remained on _Great Isle_, hunting, shooting, fishing, collecting, and investigating; also, we may add, astonishing the natives. During that period many adventures of a more or less exciting nature befell them, which, however, we must pass over in silence. At the end of that time, the youth who had been sent for the Captain's sextant and other philosophical instruments arrived with them all--thermometers, barometers, chronometers, wind and water gauges, pendulums, etcetera, safe and sound. As the instruments reached _Cup Valley_, (so Benjy had styled Makitok's home), in the morning, it was too early for taking trustworthy observations. The Captain therefore employed the time in erecting an observatory. For this purpose he selected, with Makitok's permission, the truncated cone close to the recluse's dwelling. Here, after taking formal possession and hoisting the Union Jack, he busied himself, in a state of subdued excitement, preparing for the intended observations. "I'll fix the latitude and longitude in a few hours," he said. "Meantime, Leo, you and Benjy had better go off with the rifle and fetch us something good for dinner." Leo and Benjy were always ready to go a-hunting. They required no second bidding, but were soon rambling over the slopes or wading among the marshes of the island in pursuit of game. Leo carried his repeater; Benjy the shot-gun. Both wore native Eskimo boots as long as the leg, which, being made of untanned hide, are, when soaked, thoroughly waterproof. (See Note.) Oolichuk and Butterface carried the game-bags, and these were soon filled with such game as was thought best for food. Sending them back to camp with orders to empty the bags and return, Leo and Benjy took to the uplands in search of nobler game. It was not difficult to find. Soon a splendid stag was shot by Leo and a musk-ox by Benjy. Not long after this, the bag-bearers returned. "You shoots mos' awful well, Massas," said Butterface; "but it's my 'pinion dat you bof better go home, for Captain Vane he go mad!" "What d'you mean, Butterface?" asked Leo. "I mean dat de Capp'n he's hoed mad, or suffin like it, an' Massa Alf not mush better." A good deal amused and surprised by the negro's statement, the two hunters hastened back to Makitok's hut, where they indeed found Captain Vane in a state of great excitement. "Well, uncle, what's the news?" asked Leo; "found your latitude higher than you expected?" "Higher!" exclaimed the Captain, seizing his nephew by both hands and shaking them. "Higher! I should think so--couldn't be _higher_. There's neither latitude nor longitude here, my boy! I've found it! Come--come up, and I'll show you the exact spot--the _North Pole itself_!" He dragged Leo to the top of the truncated cone on which he had pitched his observatory. "There, look round you," he cried, taking off his hat and wiping the perspiration from his brow. "Well, uncle, where is it?" asked Leo, half-amused and half-sceptical. "Where! why, don't you see it? No, of course you don't. You're looking _all round it_, lad. Look down,--down at your feet. Leonard Vandervell," he added, in sudden solemnity, "you're _on it_! you're standing on the North Pole _now_!" Leo still looked incredulous. "What I you don't believe? Convince him, Alf." "Indeed it is true," said Alf; "we have been testing and checking our observations in every possible manner, and the result never varies more than a foot or two. The North Pole is at this moment actually under our feet." As we have now, good reader, at last reached that great _point_ of geographical interest which has so long perplexed the world and agitated enterprising man, we deem this the proper place to present you with a map of Captain Vane's discoveries. "And so," said Benjy with an injured look, "the geography books are right after all; the world _is_ `a little flattened at the Poles like an orange.' Well, I never believed it before, and I don't believe _yet_ that it's like an orange." "But it is more than flattened, Benjy," said Leo; "don't you see it is even hollowed out a little, as if the spinning of the world had made a sort of whirlpool at the North Pole, and no doubt there is the same at the South." Chingatok, who was listening to the conversation, without of course understanding it, and to whom the Captain had made sundry spasmodic remarks during the day in the Eskimo tongue, went that night to Amalatok, who was sitting in Makitok's hut, and said-- "My father, Blackbeard has found it!" "Found what, my son?--his nothing--his Nort Pole?" "Yes, my father, he has found his Nort Pole." "Is he going to carry it away with him in his soft wind-boat?" asked the old chief with a half-humorous, half-contemptuous leer. "And," continued Chingatok, who was too earnest about the matter to take notice of his father's levity, "his Nort Pole is _something_ after all! It is not nothing, for I heard him say he is standing on it. No man can stand on nothing; therefore his Nort Pole which he stands on must be something." "He is standing on my outlook. He must not carry _that_ away," remarked Makitok with a portentous frown. "Boh!" exclaimed Amalatok, rising impatiently. "I will not listen to the nonsense of Blackbeard. Have I not heard him say that the world stands on nothing, spins on nothing, and rolls continually round the sun? How can anything spin on nothing? And as to the sun, use your own eyes. Do you not see that for a long time it rolls round the world, for a long time it rolls in a circle above us, and for a long time it rolls away altogether, leaving us all in darkness? My son, these Kablunets are ignorant fools, and you are not much better for believing them. Boo! I have no patience with the nonsense talk of Blackbeard." The old chief flung angrily out of the hut, leaving his more philosophic son to continue the discussion of the earth's mysteries with Makitok, the reputed wizard of the furthest possible north. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note. The writer has often waded knee-deep in such boots, for hours at a time, on the swampy shores of Hudson's Bay, without wetting his feet in the slightest degree. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. TELLS, AMONG OTHER THINGS, OF A NOTABLE DISCOVERY. Soon after this, signs of approaching winter began to make their appearance in the regions of the North Pole. The sun, which at first had been as a familiar friend night and day, had begun to absent himself not only all night, but during a large portion of each day, giving sure though quiet hints of his intention to forsake the region altogether, and leave it to the six months' reign of night. Frost began to render the nights bitterly cold. The birds, having brought forth and brought up their young, were betaking themselves to more temperate regions, leaving only such creatures as bears, seals, walruses, foxes, wolves, and men, to enjoy, or endure, the regions of the frigid zone. Suddenly there came a day in October when all the elemental fiends and furies of the Arctic circle seemed to be let loose in wildest revelry. It was a turning-point in the Arctic seasons. By that time Captain Vane and his party had transported all their belongings to Great Isle, where they had taken up their abode beside old Makitok. They had, with that wizard's permission, built to themselves a temporary stone hut, as Benjy Vane facetiously said, "on the very top of the North Pole itself;" that is, on the little mound or truncated cone of rock, in the centre of the Great Isle, on which they had already set up the observatory, and which cone was, in very truth, as nearly as possible the exact position of that long-sought-for imaginary point of earth as could be ascertained by repeated and careful observations, made with the best of scientific instruments by thoroughly capable men. Chingatok and his father, with a large band of their followers and some of their women, had also encamped, by permission, round the Pole, where, in the intervals of the chase, they watched, with solemn and unflagging interest, the incomprehensible doings of the white men. The storm referred to began with heavy snow--that slow, quiet, down-floating of great flakes which is so pleasant, even restful, in its effect on the senses. At first it seemed as if a golden haze were mixed with the snowfall, suggesting the idea that the sun's rays were penetrating it. "Most beautiful!" said Leo, who sat beside the Captain and his friends on the North Pole enjoying the view through the open doorway of the hut, and sipping a cup of coffee. "It reminds me," said Alf, "of Buzzby's lines:-- "`The snowflakes falling softly In the morning's golden prime, Suggestive of a gentle touch And the silent flight of Time.'" "Behold a more powerful reminder of the flight of Time!" said Benjy, pointing to the aged Makitok, who, with white beard and snow-besprinkled person, came slowly towards them like the living embodiment of "Old Father Christmas." "Come," said Leo, hastening to assist the old man, "let me help you up the Pole." Leo, and indeed all the party, had fallen in with Benjy's humour, and habitually referred thus to their mound. "Why comes the ancient one here through the snow?" said Captain Vane, rising and offering Makitok his seat, which was an empty packing-case. "Surely my friend does not think we would forget him? Does not Benjy always carry him his morning cup of coffee when the weather is too bad for him to come hither?" "Truly," returned the old man, sitting down with a sigh, "the Kablunets are kind. They never forget. Bunjee never fails to bring the cuffy, though he does sometimes pretend to forget the shoogre, till I have tasted it and made a bad face; then he laughs and remembers that the shoogre is in his pouch. It is his little way. But I come not to-day for cuffy; I come to warn. There is danger in the air. Blackbeard must take his strange things," (thus he referred to the philosophical instruments), "away from here--from--ha!--from Nort Pole, and put them in my hut, where they will be safe." The Captain did not at once reply. Turning to his companions he said-- "I see no particular reason to fear this `danger in the air.' I'll go and consult Chingatok or his father on the point." "The ancient one, as you call him," said Benjy, "seems to be growing timid with age." "The youthful one," retorted the Captain, "seems to be growing insolent with age. Go, you scamp, and tell Amalatok I want to speak with him." Whatever faults our young hero had, disobedience was not one of them. He rose promptly, and soon returned with the chief of Poloeland. Amalatok confirmed the wizard's opinions, and both opinions were still more powerfully confirmed, while he was speaking, by a gust of wind which suddenly came rushing at them as if from all points of the compass, converging at the Pole and shooting upwards like a whirlwind, carrying several hats of the party with volumes of the now wildly agitated snow up into the sky. There was no room for further hesitation. "Why, Massa Bunjay, I thought my woolly scalp he hoed up 'long wid my hat!" cried Butterface, leaping up in obedience to the Captain's hurried order to look sharp and lend a hand. In a short time all the instruments were removed from the observatory and carefully housed in Makitok's hut. Even while they were thus engaged the storm burst on them with excessive violence. The snow which had been falling so softly, was caught up by the conflicting winds and hurled high into the air, or driven furiously over the valley in all directions, for the gale did not come from any fixed quarter; it rose and swooped and eddied about, driving the snow-drift now here, now there, and shrieking as if in wild delight at the chaotic havoc it was permitted to play. "Confusion worse confounded!" gasped Leo, as he staggered past Alf with the last load on his shoulder. "And yet there must be order _everywhere_," observed Chingatok, when, after all were safely housed in Makitok's hut that evening, he heard Leo repeat that sentiment. "Why do you think so, Chingatok?" asked the Captain with some curiosity. "Because there is order even in my hut," returned the giant. "Pingasuk, (referring to his wife), keeps all things in perfect order. Is the World-Maker less wise than Pingasuk? Sometimes, no doubt, when Pingasuk is cooking, or arranging, things may seem in disorder to the eye of my little boy Meltik and the small one, (referring to baby), but when Meltik and the small one grow older and wiser, they will see that it is not so." While Chingatok was speaking, a gust of wind more furious than ever struck the hut and shook it to its foundations. At the same time a loud rumbling sound was heard outside. Most of the men leaped up, caught hold of spears or knives, and rushed out. Through the driving drift they could just see that the observatory, which was a flimsy structure, had been swept clean away, and that the more solid hut was following it. Even as they gazed they saw its roof caught up, and whirled off as if it had been a scroll of paper. The walls fell immediately after, and the stones rolled down the rocky cone with a loud rattling, which was partially drowned by the shrieking of the tempest. For three days the storm lasted. During that time it was almost impossible to show face in the open air. On the night of the third day the fury of the wind abated. Then it suddenly became calm, but when Butterface opened the door, and attempted to go out, he found himself effectually checked by a wall of snow. The interior of the hut was pitch dark, and it was not until a lamp had been lighted that the party found they were buried alive! To dig themselves out was not, however, a difficult matter. But what a scene presented itself to their view when they regained the upper air! No metamorphosis conceived by Ovid or achieved by the magic lantern; no pantomimic transformation; no eccentricity of dreamland ever equalled it! When last seen, the valley was clothed in all the rich luxuriance of autumnal tints, and alive with the twitter and plaintive cry of bird-life. Now it was draped in the pure winding-sheet of winter, and silent in the repose of Arctic death. Nothing almost was visible but snow. Everything was whelmed in white. Only here and there a few of the sturdier clumps of bushes held up their loads like gigantic wedding-cakes, and broke the universal sameness of the scene. One raven was the only living representative of the birds that had fled. It soared calmly over the waste, as if it were the wizard who had wrought the change, and was admiring its work. "Winter is upon us fairly now, friends," said Captain Vane as he surveyed the prospect from the Pole, which was itself all but buried in the universal drift, and capped with the hugest wedding-cake of all; "we shall have to accommodate ourselves to circumstances, and prepare for the campaign." "I suppose the first thing we shall have to do is to build a snow-house," said Benjy, looking ruefully round, for, as usual, he was depressed by first appearances. "Just so, Benjy; and the sooner we go to work the better." Now, the reader must not hastily conclude that we are about to inflict on him or her a detailed narrative of a six months' residence at the North Pole. We have no such fell design. Much though there is to tell,--much of suffering, more of enjoyment, many adventures, numerous stirring incidents, and not a few mishaps--we shall pass over the most of it in total silence, and touch only on those points which are worthy of special notice. Let us leap, then, into the very middle of the Arctic winter. It is continuously dark now. There is no day at all at the Pole; it is night all round. The last glimmer of the departing sun left them months ago; the next glimmer of his return will not reach them for months to come. The northern Eskimos and their English visitors were well aware of that, nevertheless there was nothing of gloom or depressed spirits among them. They were too busy for that. Had not meat to be procured, and then consumed? Did not the procuring involve the harnessing of dogs in sledges, the trapping of foxes and wolves, the fighting of walruses, the chasing of polar bears; and did not the consuming thereof necessitate much culinary work for the women, much and frequent attention and labour on the part of the whole community, not to mention hours, and sometimes days, of calm repose? Then, as to light, had they not the Aurora Borealis, that mysterious shimmering in the northern sky which has puzzled philosophers from the beginning of time, and is not unlikely to continue puzzling them to the end? Had they not the moon and the stars, which latter shone with a brilliancy almost indescribable, and among them the now doubly interesting Pole star, right overhead, with several new and gorgeous constellations unknown to southern climes? Besides all this, had not Captain Vane his scientific investigations, his pendulum experiments, his wind-gauging, his ozone testing, his thermometric, barometric, and chronometric observations, besides what Benjy styled his kiteometric pranks? These last consisted in attempts to bring lightning down from the clouds by means of a kite and cord, and in which effort the Captain managed to knock himself down, and well-nigh shattered the North Pole itself in pieces! Moreover, had not Leo to act the part of physician and surgeon to the community? a duty which he fulfilled so well that there never had been before that time such a demand for physic in Flatland, and, it is probable, there never will be so many sick people there again. In addition to this, Leo had to exercise his marvellous powers as a huntsman. Benjy, of course, played his wonted _role_ of mischief-maker and jack-of-all-trades to the entire satisfaction of everybody, especially on that great occasion when he succeeded in killing a polar bear single-handed, and without the aid of gun or spear or any lethal weapon whatever;--of which great event, more hereafter. Anders, the southern Eskimo, made himself generally agreeable, and Butterface became a prime favourite, chiefly because of his inexhaustible fund of fun and good humour, coupled with his fine musical qualities. We have not said much on this latter point hitherto, because we have been unwilling to overwhelm the reader with too sudden a disclosure of that marvellous magazine of power which was latent in our band of heroes; but we feel it to be our duty now to state that the negro sang his native melodies with such pathos that he frequently reduced, (perhaps we should say elevated), the unsophisticated Eskimos to floods of tears, and sometimes to convulsions of laughter. As, at Benjy's suggestion, he sometimes changed his moods abruptly, the tears often mingled with the convulsions, so as to produce some vivid illustrations of Eskimo hysteria. But Butterface's strong point was the flute! No one who had not witnessed it could adequately conceive the poutings of thick red lips and general contortions of black visage that seemed necessary in order to draw the tones out of that simple instrument. The agonies of expression, the hissing of wind, and the turning up of whites of large black eyes,--it is past belief! The fruitless efforts of the Eskimos to imitate him were as nothing to the great original, and their delight at the sound was only equalled by their amazement at the sight. Alf assisted the Captain scientifically and otherwise. Of course he was compelled, during the long winter, to lay aside his geological hammer and botanical box; but, then, had he not the arrangement and naming of his specimens? His chief work, however, was to act the unwonted, and, we may add, unexpected work of a lawgiver. This duty devolved on him thus: When Grabantak recovered health--which he was very long in doing--his spirit was so far subdued that he agreed--somewhat sulkily, it is true-- to all that his prime minister had done while he held the reins of government. Then he was induced to visit Great Isle, where he was introduced to his mortal foe Amalatok, whom he found to be so much a man after his own heart that he no longer sighed for the extraction of his spinal marrow or the excision of his liver, but became a fast friend, and was persuaded by Alf to agree to a perpetual peace. He also took a great fancy to Chingatok, who begged of Alf to read to the chief of Flatland some of the strange and new ideas contained in his little book. Alf willingly complied, and for hours these northern savages sat in rapt attention listening to the Bible story. "My son," said Grabantak one evening to Chingatok, "if we are henceforth to live in peace, why not unite and become one nation?" "Why not?" echoed Chingatok. When Amalatok and Makitok heard the question propounded, they also said, "Why not?" and, as nobody objected, the thing was settled off-hand then and there. "But," said the prime minister of Flatland, starting a difficulty, "who is to be _greatest_ chief?" Amalatok, on whose mind the spirit of Christianity had been gradually making an impression, said promptly, "Let Grabantak be chief. He is wise in council and brave in war." Grabantak had instantly jumped to the conclusion that _he_ ought to be _greatest_ chief, and was about to say so, when Amalatok's humility struck him dumb. Recovering himself he replied-- "But there is to be no mere war! and I have been a warrior. No, let Amalatok be great chief. He is old, and wisdom lies with age." "I am not so sure of _that_!" muttered Captain Vane to himself in English; then to the giant in Eskimo, "What says Chingatok?" "May I speak, my father?" said the giant, dutifully, to Amalatok. "You may speak, my son." "Then," continued Chingatok, "I would advise that there should be three chiefs, who shall be equal--my father, Grabantak, and Makitok. Let these consult about our affairs. Let the people appoint twelve men to hold council with them, and what the most of them agree to shall be done." After some further talk this compromise was agreed to. "But the laws of Poloeland and those of Flatland are different," said Amalatok, starting another objection. "We must have the same laws." "My brother chief is wise," said Grabantak. "Let us have new laws, and let that wise young Kablunet, Alf, make them." "Both my brother chiefs are wise," said Makitok. "Let it be done, and let him take the laws out of the little thing that speaks to him." (Thus they referred to the Bible, having no word in their language by which to name it.) Great was the surprise of Alf at the honour and labour thus thrust upon him, but he did not shrink from it. On the contrary, he set to work at once with notebook and pencil, and set down the two "Great Commandments:" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," as the first law in the new code. He set down as the second the golden rule, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." Proceeding from these as a basis, he worked his way gradually down the code till he had embraced nearly all the possibilities of Eskimo life--a work which kept him busy all the winter, and was not quite finished when "time and tide" obliged him and his companions to quit the land. Now, not long after this eventful council, Benjy Vane burst rather irreverently into his father's hut with excited looks, holding what looked like an old book in his hand. "What have you got there, lad?" "I've got it at last, father! You know I've been trying to wheedle old Makitok into letting me open his mysterious bundle. Well, I prevailed on him to let me do it this afternoon. After unrolling bundle after bundle, I came at last to the centre, and found that it contained nothing whatever but this book, wrapped up in an old cotton pocket-handkerchief. The book is _very_ old, father. See, 1611 on the first page. I did not take time to glance at more than that, but brought it straight away to you." "Hand it over, Benjy," said the Captain eagerly. "This accounts for the mysterious `buk' that we've heard so much about." He received the little book with a look of tender curiosity and opened it carefully, while Leo, Alf, and his son looked on over his shoulder. "1611, sure enough," he said, "though not very legible. The characters are queer, too. Try, Alf, what you can make of it." Alf took the book. As he did so old Makitok entered, somewhat anxious as to what they were doing with his treasure. Being quieted by the Captain with a draught of cold tea, and made to sit down, the examination of the book proceeded. "It is much worn, and in places is almost illegible, as might be expected," said Alf. "Let me see. `Coast of Labrador, (something illegible here), 1611. This day the mutineers took possess ... (can't make out what follows), and put Captain Hudson, with his son, myself, the carpenter, and five sick men into the dinghy, casting us, (blank), with some, (blank), and one cask of water. I begin this diary to-day. It may never be seen by man, but if it does fall into the hands of any one who can read it, he will do a service to ... by conveying ... England.--John Mackintosh, _seaman_.' "Can it be possible?" said Alf, looking up from the relic with an expression of deep solemnity, "that we have found a record of that great Arctic explorer, the unfortunate Henry Hudson?" "It seems like it, Alf; read on," said Leo, eagerly. We will not further trouble the reader with Alf's laboured deciphering of this curious and ancient notebook, which was not only stained and worn, but in many places rudely torn, as if its owner had seen much hard service. We will merely run over a few of the chief points which it cleared up. Unfortunately, it threw no additional light on the fate of poor Hudson. Many of the first pages of the book which no doubt treated of that, had been destroyed and the legible portion began in the middle of a record of travelling with a sledge-party of Eskimos to the north of parallel 85 degrees 20 minutes--a higher northern latitude, it will be observed, than had been reached by any subsequent explorer except Captain Vane. No mention being made of English comrades, the presumption remained that they had all been killed or had died--at all events that Mackintosh had been separated from them, and was the only survivor of the party travelling with the Eskimos. Further on the journal, which was meagre in detail, and kept in the dry form of a log-book, spoke of having reached a far northern settlement. Reference was also made to a wife and family, leading to the conclusion that the seaman had permanently cast in his lot with the savages, and given up all hope of returning to his native land. One sentence near the end caused a considerable sensation, and opened their eyes to a fact which they might have guessed if they had not been too much taken up with the spelling out of the faded pencilling to think of it at first. Alf read it with difficulty. It ran thus:-- "Another boy born to-day. His name is Igluk. It is only the eldest boy of a family, in this tribe, who bears his father's surname. My eldest alone goes by the name of Mackintosh. His eldest will bear the same name, and so on. But these Eskimos make a sad mess of it. I doubt if my Scotch kinsmen would recognise us under the name of Makitok which is the nearest--" "Makitok!" shouted Benjy, gazing open-eyed at the white-bearded wizard, who returned the gaze with some astonishment. "Why, old boy," cried the boy, jumping up and seizing the wizard's hand, "you're a Scotsman!" "So he is," said the Captain with a look of profound interest. "And I say," continued Benjy, in a tone so solemn that the eyes of all the party were turned on him, "we _did_ find him _sitting on the North Pole_!" "And what of that, you excitable goose?" said the Captain. "Goose, father! Am I a goose for recognising the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy? Has it not been a familiar saying, ever since I was born, that when the North Pole was discovered, a Scotsman would be found sitting on the top of it?" "Unfortunately, Ben," returned Alf with a laugh, "the same prophecy exists in other lands. Among the Germans, I believe, it is held that a Bohemian and a Jew will be found on the top of it." "That only confirms the correctness of prophecy in general," retorted Benjy, "for this man unites all these in his own person. Does not this notebook prove him to be a Scot? Have we not just _found_ him? which proves him to be one of a `lost tribe'--in other words, a Jew; and, surely, you'll admit that, in appearance at least, he is Bohemian enough for the settlement of any disputed question. Yes, he's a Scotch Bohemian Jew, or I'm a Dutchman." This discovery seemed almost too much for Benjy. He could not think or talk of anything else the remainder of that day. Among other things he undertook to explain to Makitok something of his origin and antecedents. "Ancient one," he said earnestly, through the medium of Anders, when he had led the old man aside privately, "you come of a grand nation. They are called Scots, and are said to be remarkably long-headed and wonderfully cautious. Great warriors, but greater at the arts of peace. And the fellow you call your _first father_ was a Mackintosh, (probably chief of all the Mackintoshes), who sailed nearly 270 years ago to search for this very `North Pole' that _we_ have got hold of at last. But your first father was not the leader, old boy. He was only a seaman. The leader was Henry Hudson--a man who ranks among the foremost of Arctic explorers. He won't be able to understand what that means, Anders, but no matter--translate it the best way you can. This Henry Hudson was one of the most thorough and extensive searchers of these regions that ever sailed the northern seas. He made many important discoveries, and set out on his last voyage intending to sail right over the North Pole to China, which I daresay he would have done, had not his rascally crew mutinied and cast him and his little son, with seven other men, adrift in a little boat--all of whom perished, no doubt, except your first father, Makitok, my ancient tulip!" He wound up this summary by grasping and shaking the wizard's hand, and then flung off, to expend his feelings on other members of the community. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. A RUNAWAY JOURNEY AND A TREMENDOUS EXPERIMENT. As winter advanced, Captain Vane continued to keep up the interest of the Eskimos, and to increase their respect for the Kablunets, by gradually unfolding the various sources of power which were at his command. He did this judiciously, just giving them a taste of the marvellous now and then to whet their appetites. He was particularly careful, however not to practise on their credulity or to pass himself off as a conjuror. He distinctly stated that all his powers were derived from God,--_their_ father and _his_,--and that he only excelled them in some matters because of having had better opportunities of acquiring knowledge. Among other things, he effected an adaptation of his kites which produced results so surprising that we feel bound to describe them particularly. During the winter he found, as he had expected, that the average temperature at the Pole was not nearly so cold as that experienced in lower latitudes. As far as mere feeling went, indeed, the cold seemed severe enough; nevertheless it was not sufficiently intense to freeze the great ocean, which remained an "open basin" all the year round,--a result which was doubtless owing to the upflow of the warm under-currents from the equator, referred to in a previous chapter. This, however, did not apply to the waters lying directly around the Poloe and Flatland groups. In these archipelagos the waters being shallow, the frost was quite intense enough to cool them to the bottom. Hence the sea immediately round the islands was covered with a thick coat of solid ice, which resembled in all respects the ordinary Arctic sea-ice, being hummocky in some places, comparatively smooth in others, with a strong iceberg here and there caught and imprisoned amongst it. As this ice surrounded all the Polar land, and stretched out to sea far beyond the reach of vision, it followed that there was little or no difference between the winter experience of our discoverers and that of all other Arctic voyagers. This realm of what we may style island-ice stretched away, all round, in the direction of the Arctic circle, getting thinner and thinner towards its outer margin, until at last it became sludgy, and, finally, melted away into the open sea. This open sea, in its turn, stretched southward, all round, to the known Arctic regions. Thus the Arctic basin was found to be a zone of open water, surrounded by ice on the south, and with a patch of ice and land in its centre. Now, it was a strong desire on the part of Captain Vane to visit the southern edge of this central ice-patch on which he dwelt, that induced him to try the kite adaptation before referred to. "Benjy, my boy," said he, one fine winter day, when the galaxy of stars, the full moon, and an unusually brilliant aurora, diffused a strong light over the undulations of Cup Valley, "I have a notion of taking a trip to the s'uth'ard soon." "Which s'uth'ard d'you think of going to, father?" asked the boy. In case any reader should hastily exclaim, "What a ridiculous question; there can be only _one_ southward!" we beg leave to point out that at the North Pole _every_ direction lies to the southward, and that, as there is necessarily no east or west at all, there is therefore no possibility of stating by compass to what part of the south one intends to go. Of course it was open to the Captain to have said he intended to descend south on one of the degrees of longitude, or between any two of them, and then, immediately on quitting the Pole the old familiar east and west would, as it were, return to him. But he found it more convenient, on the whole, having got beyond all latitude, to indicate his intended route by well-known objects of the land. "I'm going to steer for the starboard side of Poloeland," he said, "pay a short visit to Grabantak and Amalatok in passing, and then carry on south to the open water." "It'll be a longish trip, father." "Not so long as you expect, my boy, for I mean to go by express." Benjy's eyes twinkled, for he knew that some new device was working in his father's brain, which brain never failed to bring its plans to maturity. "What is it to be, father?" "You go and fetch two of the kites, Benjy, and you'll soon find out. Overhaul them well and see that everything is taut and shipshape. Let Butterface help you, and send Alf and Chingatok to me. I suppose Leo is off after musk-oxen, as usual." "Yes; he pretends that the camp wants a supply of fresh meat. He'd pretend that as an excuse for hunting even if we were all dying of surfeit." Soon afterwards the Captain was seen, followed by his usual companions and a company of Eskimos, dragging two sledges to the upper ridge of Cup Valley. One sledge was lightly, the other heavily, laden. "You've brought plenty of supplies, I hope, Alf?" asked the leader. "Yes, enough for three weeks. Will that do?" "Quite enough, lad; but it may not be wanted, as I'm going south in a direction we've not yet tried, where I expect to find the open water close to us. It's well, however, to have enough of meat at all times." "No fear of its being too much, father," said Benjy. "When Butterface goes with us, a three weeks' allowance usually disappears in a fortnight." "Nebber mind, Massa," said the negro seriously. "You've plenty for tree weeks dis time, 'cause I's off my feed. Got Polar dimspepsy, or suffin' o' dat sort, I tink." "You've brought the electrical machine, of course, and the dynamite, Alf?" asked the Captain. "Of course. I never prepare for a trip without these. There's no saying, you see, when we may require them--either to blow up obstructions or astonish the natives." "The natives are past astonishing now," remarked Benjy; "nothing short of a ten thousand jar battery would astonish Chingatok, and I'm quite sure that you couldn't rouse a sentiment of surprise in Oolichuk, unless you made him swallow a dynamite cartridge, and blew him inside out. But, I say, daddy, how long are you going to keep us in the dark about your plans? Don't you see that we are in agonies of suspense?" "Only till we gain the ridge, Benjy. It will be down-hill after that, and the snow-crust comparatively smooth as well as hard." Arrived at the ridge, one of the kites was unfolded and sent up. The breeze was steady, and sufficiently strong. It took twenty Eskimos to hold it when allowed full play, and even these it jerked about in a manner that highly diverted them. These Eskimos were very fond of kite-flying, for its own sake, without reference to utility! "I knew you were going to try it on the sledge," exclaimed Benjy, with sparkling eyes. "Why did you ask me about it, then?" returned the Captain. "Do let _me_ make the first trial, father!" Captain Vane was fastening the drag-line to the fore part of the light sledge, and refused, at first, to listen to the boy's entreaties, fearing that some accident might befall him. "You know how accustomed I am to manage the kites, father. There's not the least fear; and I'll be superhumanly cautious." There was no resisting Benjy's tone and eyes. He was allowed to take his place on the sledge as manager. Butterface sat behind to steer. Steering was to be managed by means of a stout pole, pressed varyingly on the snow on either side. "Don't go more than a mile or so, my boy," said the Captain, in a serious tone. "It's only a trial, you know. If it succeeds, we'll divide the loading of the sledges, and make a fair start in company." Benjy promised to manipulate the check-string with care. The struggling natives were ordered to let the kite straighten the slack of the line gradually. "Are you ready, Ben?" "All right, father." "Got your hand on the check-string? Mind, it will pull hard. Now--let go!" The natives obeyed. Benjy at the same instant hauled sharply on the check-string, intending to tilt the kite well forward, and start in a slow, stately manner, but there was a hitch of some sort somewhere, for the string would not act. The kite acted, however, with its full force. Up went the fore part of the sledge as it flew off like an arrow from a bow, causing Butterface to throw a back somersault, and leaving him behind. Benjy held on to the head of the sledge, and made violent efforts to free the check-string. Fortunately, the surface of the snow was smooth. "After him, lads," roared the Captain, setting a brave example, and for some time heading the natives in the chase; but a few moments sufficed to prove the hopelessness of the race. Tug as Benjy would at the regulator, it refused to act. Fortunately, being made of silk, it did not break. By this time the kite had attained its maximum speed, equal, as the Captain said, to a twenty-knot breeze. At first the surface of the snow was so smooth and hard, that Benjy, being busy with the obdurate regulator, did not appreciate the speed. When he gave up his attempts with a sigh of despair, he had leisure to look around him. The sledge was gliding on with railway speed. One or two solitary hummocks that looked like white sentinels on the level plain, went past him with an awful rush, and several undulations caused by snow-drift were crossed in a light leap which he barely felt. Benjy was fully aware of his danger. To meet with a hummock no bigger than a wheelbarrow, would, in the circumstances, have entailed destruction; he therefore seized a pole which formed part of the sledge-gear, and tried steering. It could be done, but with great difficulty, as he had to sit in the front of the sledge to keep it down. Recklessly jovial though he was, the boy could not contemplate his probable fate without misgiving. Nothing was visible in all the white illimitable plain save a hummock here and there, with a distant berg on the horizon. He could not expect the level character of the ice to extend far. Whither was he going? South he knew; but in that direction, his father had often told him, lay the open sea. The moon seemed to smile on him; the aurora appeared to dance with unwonted vigour, as if in glee; the very stars winked at him! "What if a chasm or a big hummock should turn up?" thought Benjy. The thought seemed to produce the dreaded object, for next moment a large hummock appeared right ahead. Far away though it was, the awful pace brought it quickly near. The poor boy struggled--he absolutely agonised--with the pole. His efforts were successful. The hummock went past like a meteor, but it was a horribly close shave, and Benjy felt his very marrow shrink, while he drew himself up into the smallest possible compass to let it go by. A bump soon after told that the ice was getting more rugged. Then he saw a ridge before him. Was it large or small? Distance, the uncertain light, and imagination, magnified it to a high wall; high as the wall of China. In wild alarm our hero tugged at the regulator, but tugged in vain. The wall of China was upon him--under him. There was a crash. The sledge was in the air. Moments appeared minutes! Had the vehicle been suddenly furnished with wings? No! Another crash, which nearly shut up his spine like a telescope, told him that there were no wings. His teeth came together with a snap. Happily his tongue was not between them! Happily, too, the sledge did not overturn, but continued its furious flight. "Oh, you villain!" exclaimed Benjy, shaking his fist at the airy monster which was thus dragging him to destruction. If Benjy had been asked to state the truth just then, he would have found it hard to say whether consternation or delight were uppermost. It _was_ such a glorious rush! But then, how was it to end? Well, he did not dare to think of that. Indeed he had not time to think, for troubles came crowding on him. A violent "swish!" and a sudden deluge told him that what he had taken for glassy ice was open water. It was only a shallow pool, however. Next moment he was across it, and bumping violently over a surface of broken ice. The water suggested the fear that he must be nearing the open sea, and he became supernaturally grave. Fortunately, the last crash had been passed without dislocating the parts of either sledge or rider. A long stretch of smooth ice followed, over which he glided with ever-increasing speed. Thus he continued to rush over the frozen sea during a considerable part of that night. Poor Benjy! he became half-mad with excitement at last. The exaltation of his little spirit at the risky neck-or-nothing dash, coupled with horror at the certainty of a terrible climax, was almost too much for him. He gave vent to his feelings in a wild cheer or yell, and, just then, beheld an iceberg of unusual size, looming up on the horizon before him. Knowing by experience that he would soon be up to it, he used his pole with all his might, hoping to steer clear of it. As he drew nearer, he saw a dark line on either side of the berg. A feeling of deadly alarm filled him. It was the open sea! and he had to choose between being plunged into it or dashed against the berg. It occurred to him then, for the first time, that a third resource was open--he might cut the rope, and let the kite go free! Amazed at his stupidity in not thinking of this before, he took out his clasp-knife, but before applying it, made a last effort to move the regulator. Strange to say, the silken cord yielded to the first pull, as if nothing had been wrong with it at all! The head of the runaway kite was thrown forward, and it came wavering down in eccentric gyrations, while the sledge gradually lost way, and came to a standstill not fifty yards from the berg. Up to this point what may be termed the northern island-ice continued unbroken, but beyond the berg it was broken up into floes, and, not six hundred yards out, it tailed away to the southward in what whalers term stream-ice. The berg itself was obviously aground. The first object that met Benjy's eyes, after coming to a halt, was an enormous polar bear. This was no strange sight to the boy by that time, but it was awkward in the circumstances, for he had neither gun nor spear. Even if he had possessed the latter he was too young and light to cope successfully with the shaggy white king of Arctic beasts. From the attitude of the animal it appeared to be watching something. In truth, it was so intently engaged with a sleeping seal that it had not observed the approach of the sledge. Profiting by this, Benjy quietly moved away round a colossal buttress of the berg, and took refuge in an ice-cave. But such refuge, he knew, could avail him nothing if the bear should scent him out and search for him. Looking hastily round and up into the dark blue cavern, he espied a projecting ledge of ice about thirteen feet above the level of the floor. On this he resolved to perch himself. His first care was to examine the contents of the sledge. We have said it had been lightly laden at starting, which was the reason of the tremendous pace at which it travelled. Although there was neither spear nor gun, the anxious boy was somewhat comforted to find an axe strapped in its accustomed place; also a blanket, sleeping-bag, and musk-ox skin, besides a mass of frozen blubber, but there was nothing else of an eatable nature. There was, however, a box containing the captain's sextant, the electrical machine, and a packet of dynamite cartridges. Regarding these latter objects with a sigh of disappointment, Benjy seized the axe and hastened towards the ledge of ice, muttering to himself in a confidential tone-- "You see, old boy, if that bear takes a fancy to call on you, it will be as well to be able to say, `Not at home,' for he could make short work of you, much though you think of yourself. Yes, this ledge is high enough to bid you defiance, mister bear, and it's long and broad enough to hold me and my belongings. The knobs by which to climb to it, too, are easy--too easy--but I'll soon rectify that. Now, then, look alive, Benjy, boy, for if that bear don't catch that seal he'll be sure to look you up." Ceasing to speak, he actively conveyed the contents of the sledge to his shelf of refuge. Then he cut away the knobs by which he climbed to it, until there was barely sufficient for his own tiny toes to rest on. That done, he went to the mouth of the cavern to look about him. What he saw there may be guessed from the fact that he returned next moment, running at full speed, stumbling over ice lumps, bumping his shins and knees, dropping his axe, and lacerating his knuckles. He had met the bear! Need we add that he gained his perch with the agility of a tree-squirrel! The bear, surprised, no doubt, but obviously sulky from the loss of the seal, entered the cave sedately with an inquiring look. It saw Benjy at once, and made prodigious efforts to get at him. As the monster rose on its hind legs and reached its paws towards his shelf, the poor boy's spirit seemed to melt, indeed his whole interior felt as if reduced to a warm fluid, while a prickly heat broke out at his extremities, perspiration beaded his brow, and his heart appeared to have settled permanently in his throat. These distressing symptoms did not, however, last long, for he quickly perceived that the bear's utmost stretch did not reach nearer than three or four feet of him. Some of the alarm returned, however, when the creature attempted to climb up by his own ladder. Seven or eight times it made the attempt, while the boy watched in breathless anxiety, but each time it slipped when half-way up, and fell with a soft heavy thud on the ice below, which caused it to gasp and cough. Then it sat down on its haunches and gazed at its little foe malignantly. "Bah! you brute!" exclaimed Benjy, whose courage was returning, "I'm not a bit afraid of you!" He leant against the wall of his refuge, notwithstanding this boast, and licked the ice to moisten his parched lips. After a rest the bear made another trial, and twice it succeeded in planting the claws of one huge paw on the edge of the shelf, but Benjy placed his heel against the claws, thrust them off, and sent the bear down each time howling with disappointment. Sailing softly among the constellations in the aurora-lighted sky, the moon sent a bright ray into the cavern, which gleamed on the monster's wicked eyes and glistening teeth; but Benjy had begun to feel comparatively safe by that time, and was becoming "himself again." "Don't you wish you may get me?" he asked in a desperately facetious spirit. The bear made no reply, but turned to examine the contents of the ice-cave. First he went to the hatchet and smelt it. In doing so he cut his nose. With a growl he gave the weapon an angry pat, and in so doing cut his toes. We fear that Benjy rejoiced at the sight of blood, for he chuckled and made the sarcastic remark, "That comes of losing your temper, old fellow!" That bear either understood English, or the very sound of the human voice caused it irritation, for it turned and rushed at the ice-ledge with such fury that Benjy's heart again leaped into his throat. He had, however, recovered sufficiently to enable him to act with promptitude and discretion. Sitting down with his right foot ready, and his hands resting firmly on the ice behind him, he prepared to receive the charge in the only available manner. So fierce was the onset that the monster ran up the ice-cliff like a cat, and succeeded in fixing the terrible claws of both feet on the edge of the shelf, but the boy delivered his right heel with such force that the left paw slipped off. The left heel followed like lightning, and the right paw also slipped, letting the bear again fall heavily on the ice below. This was more than even a bear could bear. He rushed savagely about the cavern, growling hideously, dashing the sledge about as if it had been a mere toy, and doing all the mischief he could, yet always avoiding the axe with particular care--thus showing that polar bears, not less than men, are quite awake to personal danger, even when supposed to be blind with rage! At last he lay down to recover himself, and lick his bloody nose and paw. While Benjy sat contemplating this creature, and wondering what was to be the end of it all, a bright idea occurred to him. He rose quickly, took the electrical machine out of its box, and happily found it to be in good working order--thanks to Alf, who had special charge of the scientific instruments, and prided himself on the care with which he attended to them. The bear watched him narrowly with its wicked little eyes, though it did not see fit to cease its paw-licking. Having arranged the machine, Benjy took the two handles in his left hand, pressed his knee on the board of the instrument to hold it steady, and with his right hand caused it to revolve. Then he held down the handles as if inviting the bear to come and take them. The challenge was accepted at once. Bruin cantered up, rose on his hind legs, and stretched his neck to its utmost, but could not reach the handles, though the boy stretched downward as far as possible to accommodate him. The dirty-white monster whined and snickered with intense feeling at thus finding itself so near, and yet so far, from the attainment of its object. Sympathising with its desires, Benjy changed his posture, and managed just to touch the nose of his enemy. The bear shrank back with a sort of gasp, appalled--at least shocked--by the result! After a little, not feeling much the worse for it, the brute returned as if to invite another electric shock--perhaps with some sinister design in view. But another and a brighter idea had entered Benjy's brain. Instead of giving the bear a shock, he tore off a small bit of seal-blubber from the mass at his side, which he dropped into its mouth. It swallowed that morsel with satisfaction, and waited for more. Benjy gave it more. Still it wanted more. "You shall have it, my boy," said Benjy, whose eyes assumed that peculiar glare of glee which always presaged some desperate intention. He opened another small box, and found what he wanted. It was a small object scarcely a couple of inches in length. He fastened the wires of the electric machine quickly to it, and then imbedded it in a small piece of blubber which he lowered, as before, to the bear. "You'll probably break the wires or smash the machine, but I'll risk that," muttered Benjy through his set teeth. "I only hope you won't chew it, because dynamite mayn't be palatable. There--down with it!" The bear happily bolted the morsel. The wires seemed to perplex him a little, but before he had time to examine the mystery, the boy gave the instrument a furious turn. Instantly there was a stupendous crash like a very thunderbolt. The bear burst like an overcharged cannon! Benjy and the berg collided, and at that moment everything seemed to the former to vanish away in smoke, leaving not even a wrack behind! CHAPTER THIRTY. LEO IN DANGER NEXT! A NOVEL MODE OF RESCUE. When the catastrophe described in the last chapter occurred, Captain Vane and his friends, following hard on the heels of the runaway, chanced to be within two miles of the berg in the bosom of which Benjy had found refuge. "There he is!" shouted the Captain joyfully, as the flash of the explosion reached his eyes and the roar of the report his ears. "Blessed evidence! He's up to mischief of some sort still, and that's proof positive that he's alive." "But he may have perished in this piece of mischief," said Alf, anxiously glancing up at the kite, which was dragging the heavily-laden sledge rather slowly over the rough ice. "I hope not, Alf. Shake the regulator, Butterface, and see that it's clear." "All right, Massa. Steam's on de berry strongest what's possible." "Heave some o' the cargo overboard, Alf. We must make haste. Not the meat, lad, not the meat; everything else before that. So. Mind your helm, Chingatok; she'll steer wildish when lightened." Captain Vane was right. When Alf had tumbled some of the heavier portions of lading off the sledge, it burst away like a wild-horse let go free, rendering it difficult at first for Chingatok to steady it. In a few minutes, however, he had it again under control, and they soon reached the berg. "The dynamite must have gone off by accident," said the Captain to Alf, as they stumbled over masses of ice which the explosion had brought down from the roof of the cavern. "It's lucky it didn't happen in summer, else the berg might have been blown to atoms. Hallo! what's this? Bits of a polar bear, I do believe--and--what! not Benjy!" It was indeed Benjy, flat on his back like a spread-eagle, and covered with blood and brains; but his appearance was the worst of his case, though it took a considerable time to convince his horrified friends of that fact. "I tell you I'm all right, father," said the poor boy, on recovering from the state of insensibility into which his fall had thrown him. "But you're covered from head to foot with blood," exclaimed the anxious father, examining him all over, "though I can't find a cut of any sort about you--only one or two bruises." "You'll find a bump on the top of my head, father, the size of a cocoa-nut. That's what knocked the senses out o' me, but the blood and brains belong to the bear. I lay no claim to them." "Where _is_ the bear?" asked Alf, looking round. "Where is he?" echoed Benjy, bursting into a wild laugh. "Oh! Massa Benjy, don't laugh," said Butterface solemnly; "you hab no notion wot a awful look you got when you laugh wid sitch a bloody face." This made Benjy laugh more than ever. His mirth became catching, and the negro's solemn visage relaxed into an irrepressible grin. "Oh, you japan-jawed porpoise!" cried Benjy, "you should have seen that bear go off--with such a crack too! I only wish I'd been able to hold up for two seconds longer to see it properly, but my shelf went down, and I had to go along with it. Blown to bits! No--he was blown to a thousand atoms! Count 'em if you can." Again Benjy burst into uproarious laughter. There was indeed some ground for the boy's way of putting the case. The colossal creature had been so terribly shattered by the dynamite cartridge, that there was scarcely a piece of him larger than a man's hand left to tell the tale. "Well, well," said the Captain, assisting his son to rise, "I'm thankful it's no worse." "Worse, father! why, it _couldn't_ be worse, unless, indeed, his spirit were brought alive again and allowed to contemplate the humbling condition of his body." "I don't refer to the bear, Benjy, but to yourself, lad. You might have been killed, you know, and I'm very thankful you were not--though you half-deserve to be. But come, we must encamp here for the night and return home to-morrow, for the wind has been shifting a little, and will be favourable, I think, in the morning." The wind was indeed favourable next morning, we may say almost too favourable, for it blew a stiff breeze from the south, which steadily increased to a gale during the day. Afterwards the sky became overcast and the darkness intense, rendering it necessary to attend to the kite's regulator with the utmost care, and advance with the greatest caution. Now, while the Captain and his friends were struggling back to their Polar home, Leo Vandervell happened to be caught by the same gale when out hunting. Being of a bold, sanguine, and somewhat reckless disposition, this Nimrod of the party paid little attention to the weather until it became difficult to walk and next to impossible to see. Then, having shot nothing that day, he turned towards the Pole with a feeling of disappointment. But when the gale increased so that he could hardly face it, and the sky became obliterated by falling and drifting snow, disappointment gave place to anxiety, and he soon realised the fact that he had lost his direction. To advance in such circumstances was out of the question, he therefore set about building a miniature hut of snow. Being by that time expert at such masonry, he soon erected a dome-shaped shelter, in which he sat down on his empty game-bag after closing the entrance with a block of hard snow. The position of our hunter was not enviable. The hut was barely high enough to let him sit up, and long enough to let him lie down--not to stretch out. The small allowance of pemmican with which he had set out had long ago been consumed. It was so dark that he could not see his hand when close before his eyes. He was somewhat fatigued and rather cold, and had no water to drink. It was depressing to think of going to bed in such circumstances with the yelling of an Arctic storm for a lullaby. However, Leo had a buoyant spirit, and resolved to "make the best of it." First of all he groped in his game-bag for a small stove lamp, which he set up before him, and arranged blubber and a wick in it, using the sense of touch in default of sight. Then he struck a light, but not with matches. The Englishmen's small stock of congreves had long since been exhausted, and they were obliged to procure fire by the Eskimo method, namely, a little piece of wood worked like a drill, with a thong of leather, against another piece of wood until the friction produced fire. When a light had been thus laboriously obtained, he applied it to the wick of his lamp, and wished fervently for something to cook. It is proverbial that wishing does not usually achieve much. After a deep sigh, therefore, Leo turned his wallet inside out. Besides a few crumbs, it contained a small lump of narwhal blubber and a little packet. The former, in its frozen state, somewhat resembled hard butter. The latter contained a little coffee--not the genuine article, however. That, like the matches, had long ago been used up, and our discoverers were reduced to roasted biscuit-crumbs. The substitute was not bad! Inside of the coffee-packet was a smaller packet of brown sugar, but it had burst and allowed its contents to mingle with the coffee. Rejoiced to find even a little food where he had thought there was none, Leo filled his pannikin with snow, melted it, emptied into it the compound of coffee and sugar, put it on the lamp to boil, and sat down to watch, while he slowly consumed the narwhal butter, listening the while to the simmering of the pannikin and the roaring of the gale. After his meagre meal he wrapped himself in his blanket, and went to sleep. This was all very well as long as it lasted, but he cooled during the night, and, on awaking in the morning, found that keen frost penetrated every fibre of his garments and every pore of his skin. The storm, however, was over; the moon and stars were shining in a clear sky, and the aurora was dancing merrily. Rising at once he bundled up his traps, threw the line of his small hand-sledge over his shoulder, and stepped out for home. But cold and want of food had been telling on him. He soon experienced an unwonted sense of fatigue, then a drowsy sensation came over him. Leo was well aware of the danger of giving way to drowsiness in such circumstances, yet, strange to say, he was not in the least afraid of being overcome. He would sit down to rest, just for two minutes, and then push on. He smiled, as he sat down in the crevice of a hummock, to think of the frequent and needless cautions which his uncle had given him against this very thing. The smile was still on his lips when his head drooped on a piece of ice, and he sank into a deep slumber. Ah, Leonard Vandervell! ill would it have been for thee if thou hadst been left to thyself that day; but sharp eyes and anxious hearts were out on the icy waste in search of thee! On arriving at his winter quarters, and learning that Leo had not yet returned, Captain Vane at once organised an elaborate search-expedition. The man who found him at last was Butterface. "Oh, Massa Leo!" exclaimed that sable creature on beholding the youth seated, white and cold, on the hummock; but he said no more, being fully alive to the danger of the situation. Rushing at Leo, he seized and shook him violently, as if he had been his bitterest foe. There was no response from the sleeping man. The negro therefore began to chafe, shake, and kick him; even to slap his face, and yell into his ears in a way that an ignorant observer would have styled brutal. At last there was a symptom of returning vitality in the poor youth's frame, and the negro redoubled his efforts. "Ho! hallo! Massa Leo, wake up! You's dyin', you is!" "Why--what's--the--matter--Butterf--" muttered Leo, and dropped his head again. "Hi! hello! ho-o-o!" yelled Butterface, renewing the rough treatment, and finally hitting the youth a sounding slap on the ear. "Ha! I be tink dat vakes you up." It certainly did wake him up. A burst of indignation within seemed to do more for him than the outward buffetings. He shut his fist and hit Butterface a weak but well intended right-hander on the nose. The negro replied with a sounding slap on the other ear, which induced Leo to grasp him in his arms and try to throw him. Butterface returned the grasp with interest, and soon quite an interesting wrestling match began, the only witness of which sat on a neighbouring hummock in the form of a melancholy Arctic fox. "Hi! hold on, Massa Leo! Don't kill me altogidder," shouted Butterface, as he fell beneath his adversary. "You's a'most right now." "Almost right! what do you mean?" "I mean dat you's bin a'most froze to deaf, but I's melted you down to life agin." The truth at last began to dawn on the young hunter. After a brief explanation, he and the negro walked home together in perfect harmony. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. THE LAST. In course of time the long and dreary winter passed away, and signs of the coming spring began to manifest themselves to the dwellers in the Polar lands. Chief and most musical among these signs were the almost forgotten sounds of dropping water, and tinkling rills. One day in April the thermometer suddenly rose to eighteen above the freezing-point of Fahrenheit. Captain Vane came from the observatory, his face blazing with excitement and oily with heat, to announce the fact. "That accounts for it feeling so like summer," said Benjy. "Summer, boy, it's like India," returned the Captain, puffing and fanning himself with his cap. "We'll begin this very day to make arrangements for returning home." It was on the evening of that day that they heard the first droppings of the melting snow. Long before that, however, the sun had come back to gladden the Polar regions, and break up the reign of ancient night. His departure in autumn had been so gradual, that it was difficult to say when night began to overcome the day. So, in like manner, his return was gradual. It was not until Captain Vane observed stars of the sixth magnitude shining out at noon in November, that he had admitted the total absence of day; and when spring returned, it was not until he could read the smallest print at midnight in June that he admitted there was "no night there." But neither the continual day of summer, nor the perpetual night of winter, made so deep an impression on our explorers as the gushing advent of spring. That season did not come gradually back like the light, but rushed upon them suddenly with a warm embrace, like an enthusiastic friend after a long absence. It plunged, as it were, upon the region, and overwhelmed it. Gushing waters thrilled the ears with the sweetness of an old familiar song. Exhalations from the moistened earth, and, soon after, the scent of awakening vegetation, filled the nostrils with delicious fragrance. In May, the willow-stems were green and fresh with flowing sap. Flowers began to bud modestly, as if half afraid of having come too soon. But there was no cause to fear that. The glorious sun was strong in his might, and, like his Maker, warmed the northern world into exuberant life. Mosses, poppies, saxifrages, cochlearia, and other hardy plants began to sprout, and migratory birds innumerable--screaming terns, cackling duck, piping plover, auks in dense clouds with loudly whirring wings, trumpeting geese, eider-ducks, burgomasters, etcetera, began to return with all the noisy bustle and joyous excitement of a family on its annual visit to much-loved summer quarters. But here we must note a difference between the experience of our explorers and that of all others. These myriads of happy creatures--and many others that we have not space to name--did not pass from the south onward to a still remoter north, but came up from all round the horizon,--up all the meridians of longitude, as on so many railway lines converging at the Pole, and settling down for a prolonged residence in garrulous felicity among the swamps and hills and vales of Flatland. Truly it was a most enjoyable season and experience, but there is no joy without its alley here below--not even at the North Pole! The alloy came in the form of a low fever which smote down the stalwart Leo, reduced his great strength seriously, and confined him for many weeks to a couch in their little stone hut, and, of course, the power of sympathy robbed his companions of much of that exuberant joy which they shared with the lower animals at the advent of beautiful spring. During the period of his illness Leo's chief nurse, comforter, and philosophical companion, was the giant of the North. And one of the subjects which occupied their minds most frequently was the Word of God. In the days of weakness and suffering Leo took to that great source of comfort with thirsting avidity, and intense was his gratification at the eager desire expressed by the giant to hear and understand what it contained. Of course Alf, and Benjy, and the Captain, and Butterface, as well as Grabantak, Makitok, and Amalatok, with others of the Eskimos, were frequently by his side, but the giant never left him for more than a brief period, night or day. "Ah! Chingatok," said Leo one day, when the returning spring had begun to revive his strength, "I never felt such a love for God's Book when I was well and strong as I feel for it now that I am ill, and I little thought that I should find out so much of its value while talking about it to an Eskimo. I shall be sorry to leave you, Chingatok--very sorry." "The young Kablunet is not yet going to die," said the giant in a soft voice. "I did not mean that," replied Leo, with the ghost of his former hearty laugh; "I mean that I shall be obliged to leave Flatland and to return to my own home as soon as the season permits. Captain Vane has been talking to me about it. He is anxious now to depart, yet sorry to leave his kind and hospitable friends." "I, too, am sorry," returned Chingatok sadly. "No more shall I hear from your lips the sweet words of my Great Father--the story of Jesus. You will take your book away with you." "That is true, my friend; and it would be useless to leave my Bible with you, as you could not read it, but the _truth_ will remain with you, Chingatok." "Yes," replied the giant with a significant smile, "you cannot take _that_ away. It is here--and here." He touched his forehead and breast as he spoke. Then he continued:-- "These strange things that Alf has been trying to teach me during the long nights I have learned--I understand." He referred here to a syllabic alphabet which Alf had invented, and which he had amused himself by teaching to some of the natives, so that they might write down and read those few words and messages in their own tongue which formerly they had been wont to convey to each other by means of signs and rude drawings--after the manner of most savages. "Well, what about that?" asked Leo, as his companion paused. "Could not my friend," replied Chingatok, "change some of the words of his book into the language of the Eskimo and mark them down?" Leo at once jumped at the idea. Afterwards he spoke to Alf about it, and the two set to work to translate some of the most important passages of Scripture, and write them down in the syllable alphabet. For this purpose they converted a sealskin into pretty fair parchment, and wrote with the ink which Captain Vane had brought with him and carefully husbanded. The occupation proved a beneficial stimulus to the invalid, who soon recovered much of his wonted health, and even began again to wander about with his old companion the repeating rifle. The last event of interest which occurred at the North Pole, before the departure of our explorers, was the marriage of Oolichuk with Oblooria. The ceremony was very simple. It consisted in the bridegroom dressing in his best and going to the tent of his father-in-law with a gift, which he laid at his feet. He then paid some endearing Eskimo attentions to his mother-in-law, one of which was to present her with a raw duck, cleaned and dismembered for immediate consumption. He even assisted that pleased lady immediately to consume the duck, and wound up by taking timid little Oblooria's hand and leading her away to a hut of his own, which he had specially built and decorated for the occasion. As Amalatok had arrived that very day on a visit from Poloeland with his prime minister and several chiefs, and Grabantak was residing on the spot, with a number of chiefs from the surrounding islands, who had come to behold the famous Kablunets, there was a sort of impromptu gathering of the northern clans which lent appropriate dignity to the wedding. After the preliminary feast of the occasion was over, Captain Vane was requested to exhibit some of his wonderful powers for the benefit of a strange chief who had recently arrived from a distant island. Of course our good-natured Captain complied. "Get out the boats and kites, Benjy, boy," he said; "we must go through our performances to please 'em. I feel as if we were a regular company of play-actors now." "Won't you give them a blow-up first, father?" "No, Benjy, no. Never put your best foot foremost. The proverb is a false one--as many proverbs are. We will dynamite them afterwards, and electrify them last of all. Go, look sharp." So the Captain first amazed the visitor with the kites and india-rubber boats; then he horrified him by blowing a small iceberg of some thousands of tons into millions of atoms; after which he convulsed him and made him "jump." The latter experiment was the one to which the enlightened Eskimos looked forward with the most excited and hopeful anticipations, for it was that which gratified best their feeling of mischievous joviality. When the sedate and dignified chief was led, all ignorant of his fate, to the mysterious mat, and stood thereon with grave demeanour, the surrounding natives bent their knees, drew up elbows, expanded fingers, and glared in expectancy. When the dignified chief experienced a tremor of the frame and looked surprised, they grinned with satisfaction; when he quivered convulsively they also quivered with suppressed emotion. Ah! Benjy had learned by that time from experience to graduate very delicately his shocking scale, and thus lead his victim step by step from bad to worse, so as to squeeze the utmost amount of fun out of him, before inducing that galvanic war-dance which usually terminated the scene and threw his audience into fits of ecstatic laughter. These were the final rejoicings of the wedding day--if we except a dance in which every man did what seemed best in his own eyes, and Butterface played reels on the flute with admirable incapacity. But there came a day, at last, when the inhabitants of Flatland were far indeed removed from the spirit of merriment. It was the height of the Arctic summer-time, when the crashing of the great glaciers and the gleaming of the melting bergs told of rapid dissolution, and the sleepless sun was circling its day-and-nightly course in the ever-bright blue sky. The population of Flatland was assembled on the beach of their native isle--the men with downcast looks, the women with sad and tearful eyes. Two india-rubber boats were on the shore. Two kites were flying overhead. The third boat and kite had been damaged beyond repair, but the two left were sufficient. The Englishmen were about to depart, and the Eskimos were inconsolable. "My boat is on the shore,--" Said Benjy, quoting Byron, as he shook old Makitok by the hand-- "And my kite is in the sky, But before I go, of more, I will--bid you--all--good-b--" Benjy broke down at this point. The feeble attempt to be facetious to the last utterly failed. Turning abruptly on his heel he stepped into the _Faith_ and took his seat in the stern. It was the _Hope_ which had been destroyed. The _Faith_ and _Charity_ still remained to them. We must draw a curtain over that parting scene. Never before in human experience had such a display of kindly feeling and profound regret been witnessed in similar circumstances. "Let go the tail-ropes!" said Captain Vane in a husky tone. "Let go de ropes," echoed Butterface in a broken voice. The ropes were let go. The kites soared, and the boats rushed swiftly over the calm and glittering sea. On nearing one of the outer islands the voyagers knew that their tiny boats would soon be shut out from view, and they rose to wave a last farewell. The salute was returned by the Eskimos--with especial fervour by Chingatok, who stood high above his fellows on a promontory, and waved the parchment roll of texts which he grasped in his huge right hand. Long after the boats had disappeared, the kites could still be seen among the gorgeous clouds. Smaller and smaller they became in their flight to the mysterious south, until at last they seemed undistinguishable specks on the horizon, and then vanished altogether from view. One by one the Eskimos retired to their homes--slowly and sadly, as if loath to part from the scene where the word farewell had been spoken. At last all were gone save Chingatok, who still stood for hours on the promontory, pressing the scroll to his heaving chest, and gazing intently at the place on the horizon where his friends had disappeared. There was no night to bring his vigil or his meditations to a close, but time wore him out at last. With a sigh, amounting almost to a groan, he turned and walked slowly away, and did not stop until he stood upon the Pole, where he sat down on one of the Captain's stools, and gazed mournfully at the remains of the dismantled observatory. There he was found by old Makitok, and for some time the giant and the wizard held converse together. "I love these Kablunets," said Chingatok. "They are a strange race," returned the wizard. "They mingle much folly with their wisdom. They come here to find this Nort Pole, this nothing, and they find it. Then they go away and leave it! What good has it done them?" "I know not," replied Chingatok humbly, "but I know not everything. They have showed me much. One thing they have showed me--that behind all _things_ there is something else which I do not see. The Kablunets are wonderful men. Yet I pity them. As Blackbeard has said, some of them are too fond of killing themselves, and some are too fond of killing each other. I wish they would come here--the whole nation of them--and learn how to live in peace and be happy among the Eskimos. But they will not come. Only a few of their best men venture to come, and I should not wonder if their countrymen refused to believe the half of what they tell them when they get home." Old Makitok made no reply. He was puzzled, and when puzzled he usually retired to his hut and went to bed. Doing so on the present occasion he left his companion alone. "Poor, poor Kablunets," murmured Chingatok, descending from his position, and wandering away towards the outskirts of the village. "You are very clever, but you are somewhat foolish. I pity you, but I also love you well." With his grand head down, his arms crossed, and the scroll of texts pressed to his broad bosom, the Giant of the North wandered away, and finally disappeared among the flowering and rocky uplands of the interior. THE END. 
41098	----	file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) THE VINLAND CHAMPIONS * * * * * [Illustration: His eyes showed fire, while his voice was deep.] THE VINLAND CHAMPIONS BY OTTILIE A. LILJENCRANTZ _ILLUSTRATED BY THE KINNEYS_ [Illustration] NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MCMIV COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY _Published. September, 1904_ CONTENTS PAGE PROLOGUE ix PART FIRST THE BROOD OF THE WIND-RAVEN CHAPTER I. CONCERNING ALREK OF THE VIKING CAMPS 3 II. IN WHICH THE BOYS OF THE WIND-RAVEN CONSIDER THE CHANCES OF FINDING A SKRAELLING 12 III. RELATING HOW ONE WAS FOUND ON THE CAPE OF THE CROSSES 21 IV. WHEREIN THE SWORD-BEARER IS FURTHER REMINDED THAT HE HAS BROKEN THE LAW 33 V. THROUGH WHICH THE STORM-GIANT BLUSTERS 42 VI. ABOUT THE STRANGE FIND ON KEEL CAPE 52 VII. CONCERNING THORFINN KARLSEFNE, THE LAWMAN 66 PART SECOND ALREK'S CHAMPIONS VIII. AT THE HALL OF THE VINLAND CHAMPIONS 83 IX. ABOUT THE HUNTSMAN AND THE BOY WHO WAS DROWNED 94 X. THROUGH WHICH THE CHAMPIONS CHASE VINLAND ELK 108 XI. TELLING HOW TRADE WITH THE SKRAELLINGS CAME TO A MYSTERIOUS END 117 XII. IN WHICH THE CHAMPIONS FEEL THEIR IMPORTANCE 134 XIII. GIVING THE REASON WHY THE SKRAELLINGS FLED 144 XIV. SHOWING HOW DISGRACE CAME UPON ALREK THE CHIEF 149 PART THIRD THE HUNTSMAN'S PREY XV. ABOUT THE FIRE-THAT-RUNS-ON-THE-WAVES 163 XVI. PROVING THAT ALREK'S EMPTY HANDS WERE FULL OF POWER 176 XVII. SHOWING HOW THE CHAMPIONS BROKE A THREAD IN THE HUNTSMAN'S NET 188 XVIII. CONCERNING A GRIM BARGAIN BETWEEN THE LAWMAN AND ALREK 202 XIX. RELATING THE ADVENTURE WITH THE MEN OF THE FOREST 213 XX. SHOWING HOW THE HUNTSMAN BAGGED HIS GAME 226 XXI. IN WHICH ALREK SWORD-BEARER FACES DEATH 239 EPILOGUE 253 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE His eyes showed fire, while his voice was deep _Frontispiece_ Neither sound nor motion was on his blue lips 51 She ladled curds from her bowl into the gaping mouth 124 With no other weapon than his bare brown hands 182 PROLOGUE It happened first in the history of the New World lands that the Northman Biorn Herjulfsson saw them when he had lost his way in journeying to Greenland. But he lacked the adventuresomeness to go ashore and explore them. Then Leif the Lucky, son of Eric the Red of Greenland, heard of the omission and set out to remedy it. He rediscovered the lands and went upon them and named them, after which he built booths at a place he called Vinland and passed a winter there. Next, Leif's brother Thorwald Ericsson came over the ocean; but his luck was less for he was shipwrecked on one cape and killed on another, and his men returned disheartened. He was followed by the third brother, Thorstein; but this expedition had no success whatever for they spent a whole summer in wandering in a circle that landed them finally upon the west coast of Greenland itself. And here Thorstein died of a plague, leaving his young wife Gudrid to return to the hospitality of Leif at Brattahlid. The explorer who came next and who did the most was Thorfinn Karlsefne of Iceland. While he was visiting at Brattahlid he married Gudrid, the widow of Thorstein, and she--together with others--talked to him so much about the new lands that he resolved upon settling them. In the spring of 1007 he set out from Greenland with three ships heavily laden and came to Vinland and wakened the sleeping camp to new life. This story begins on an autumn day in the second year of Karlsefne's settlement, and on board the little ship called the Wind-Raven which he had sent out at the beginning of summer to explore the eastern coast. PART FIRST THE BROOD OF THE WIND-RAVEN CHAPTER I CONCERNING ALREK OF THE VIKING CAMPS For four days the Wind-Raven had drifted blindfold in a fog, and now the fifth day had dawned with no prospect of release and the explorers were hard put to it for amusement. On the after-deck the helmsman had sought comfort in his ale horn; spread over the benches below, the two-score men of the crew were killing time with chess games; and the twenty-odd boys who completed the company had turned the forepart of the ship into a swimming beach around which they sported with the zest of young seals. On the murky waves their yellow heads bobbed like so many oranges. The forecastle swarmed with them as they chased one another across it, their wet bodies glimmering moth-like in the grayness. And the first two benches were covered with those whom lack of breath had induced to pause and burrow in the heaps of clothing scattered there. The center of the group of loungers was a brown-haired brown-eyed brown-cheeked boy relating with a grin of appreciation a story of Viking horse-play. The laughter which applauded him ceased only when a lad with a sword approached and set the laughers to dodging thrusts. "Your noses are as blue as Gudrid's eyes," the newcomer scoffed, sprinkling them with tosses of his dripping red mane. "Rouse up, Alrek of Norway, and have a bout with me to set your blood to moving." The brown-eyed boy looked around without enthusiasm; and from the others rose a disparaging chorus: "There are more chances that you will set your own blood to running----" "Hallad once had the same belief in----" "Perhaps the water has blurred the Red-Head's memory so he thinks it was he who won the dwarfs' sword last winter." The Red-Haired became also the Red-Cheeked; he was overgrown and undisciplined and his temper appeared to be hung as loosely as his limbs. "If you allow him to think," he cried, "that we twenty Greenlanders are afraid to fight him because he was bred in a Viking camp while we are farm-reared, I will challenge him where I stand." He was swelling his chest as if to devote his next breath to defiance, when he was prevented by Alrek of Norway himself. "I will not fight you, but you may have your way about fencing," the young Viking consented, rising leisurely and laying aside his cloak of soldier scarlet. Emerging from its folds, it could be seen that besides his brownness he was distinguished among his companions for the soldierly erectness with which he bore his broad-shouldered thin-flanked young body, and the compactness of the muscles that played under his burnished skin with the strong grace of a young tiger's. While he dug up his dwarf-made weapon from the mound of his clothing, the Red One ran up to the forecastle and kicked clear of ropes and garments a space in the center; and the loungers hitched themselves around to face the deck, and joined in elbowing off the swimmers as they came splashing in to see the sport. Sport it unquestionably was at the beginning, for the camp-bred boy set the tune to a tripping measure that made the graceful blades seem to be kissing each other. Back and forth and up and down they went as in a dance, parry answering thrust so evenly that the ear grew to anticipate the clash and keep time to it as to music. But presently this very forbearance nettled the farm-bred lad so that he broke the rhythm with an unexpected stroke. Passing Alrek's guard, it opened a red wound upon his brown breast. He accepted it with a grimace as good-humored as his fencing, but his opponent was unwise enough to let fly a cry of triumph. Alrek's expression changed. The next time the Greenlander made use of that thrust, his blade was met with a force that jarred his arm to the shoulder. Under the hurt of it, he struck spitefully. Alrek answered in kind. Slowly, the even beat gave way to jerks of short sharp clatter, separated by pauses during which the two worked around each other with squaring mouths and kindling eyes. With the beginning of the clatter, a short old man called Grimkel One-Eye and a long young man known as Hjalmar Thick-Skull, sitting at chess behind the mast, had put down their pieces to listen. Now, the discord continuing, old Grimkel left his place and strolled forward to the forecastle steps. Spying blood spots on the Greenlander's white shoulders, he made Alrek of Norway a sign of warning. But the Viking boy did not even see him. Over the spectators such stillness had fallen that the scuffle and slap of the bare feet upon the boards sounded with sickening distinctness. The in-drawn breaths made a hiss when, more swiftly than eye could follow, Alrek's blade described a new curve which the other's sword could not meet. To save himself from being spitted, the Greenlander was forced to leap backward. Leaping, his back came against the gunwale with a crash which told that further retreat would be impossible. From the watchers burst a cry, but no recollection relaxed the terrible intentness of the young Viking's eyes as a second time he drew back his arm to speed that lightning stroke. The Red One's rashness would have been his bane if the old man had not sprung upon the deck and caught Alrek's elbow. "Do you remember that you are playing?" he growled. If he needed an answer he had it in the savage force with which the boy tore himself free, and the fierceness with which he whirled, before the meaning of the words came home to him so that he lowered his point. "You guess well," he muttered. "I had altogether forgotten." Half angrily he turned back to the Greenlander. "Why, in the Fiend's name, did you not remind me?" Though much blood from his scratches was on the Red One's body and little was in his cheeks, he still tried to swagger. "I am no coward," he proclaimed. But on the last word his voice broke so hysterically that Grimkel thought it the part of kindness to interfere, and did so, his kindness masking as usual under gruff severity. "You are a fool, which is worse," the old man snapped, pushing him roughly down the steps, while with his head he motioned those below to disperse. "Go put on sense with your clothes. Get dressed, all of you. If you do not do as I tell you, you will feel it." When he had shaken his fist at them once or twice and finally seen himself obeyed, he turned back where Alrek stood drying his weapon on a cloak he had thrown around him. "You! Listen! I have a warning I want to speak to you." "You would do better to warn the Red-Head against stirring me up again," the young Viking returned, still half angrily; but the One-Eyed heard him as a rock hears a wave-splash. "Before now, I have reminded you that your father was an outlaw----" "That you have!" Alrek assented. "Six times have I heard the tale since I touched Greenland, though I lived eight years in the camps without hearing it once! In Norway, men remember only that my father was the bravest of the Earl's Vikings." "In Iceland, they remember that before he became a Viking he was an outlaw," the old man went on imperturbably, "and so like your father are you in looks that every eye is watching to find his unruliness in you. Now what I would tell you is that if you do not bridle this Viking fierceness, you will ruin yourself with Karlsefne." The boy uttered a sudden short laugh. "Is it possible that I could get less honor with him?" he jeered; and polished awhile in tight-lipped silence. At last he straightened to meet the other's gaze and his eyes showed fire, while his voice was deep with resentment. "I am Karlsefne's brother's son, but I get less praise from him than his thralls. He notices his dogs more often than he notices me. It is difficult to know what he expects of me. I believe that he hated my father." Grimkel rubbed his bristly chin upon his palm. "It cannot be said that Karlsefne has a fondness for outlaws. So great is his love for the law that he was called 'the Lawman' before ever the chiefs who came with him on this expedition chose him to be over-chief in Vinland. Yet neither can it be said that he hated his brother. While they were young their love was great toward each other; and when Ingolf, your father, broke the Iceland law, Karlsefne gave half his property to pay the fine. And when Ingolf died, Karlsefne brought you into his following----" "Where he shows every day that he holds me in dishonor for being his brother's son," Alrek finished. The old man spat over the gunwale with explosive impatience. "Simpleton! He holds you neither in honor nor dishonor--yet. He but waits to see which you will earn." Slowly, understanding dawned in the boy's face; turning away he stood kicking at a pile of walrus-hide thongs coiled on the deck before him. Grimkel concluded his plea earnestly; "You cannot say that this is unfair. It lies with you to take whichever you want. For my part, I believe that you will do him credit in every respect. It is because I believe this, and because I loved your father in the days when he was your height and I taught him spear-throwing, that I speak." After a while, Alrek said gravely, "I take it as very friendly of you." He said nothing further, finishing his rubbing in silence and in silence descending the steps, but his advice-giver needed no more than one eye to see that at last he understood the difficulties of his position. CHAPTER II IN WHICH THE BOYS OF THE WIND-RAVEN CONSIDER THE CHANCES OF FINDING A SKRAELLING Meanwhile, something was happening aft. Over his horn the helmsman discovered that a thin place in the fog vail was wearing into a hole, through which could be seen a low coast ending far ahead in a cloud-like hill. "The Cape of the Crosses!" he broke the news, and the word was caught and tossed along like a ball. "The Cape of the Crosses! The last point we must touch at!" the men cheered as they hurried to get up sail and put about for the opening door. And the twenty lads, busy settling beltfuls of knives over tunics of deerskin, plunged into such eager anticipation of the joys of the landing that it was no time at all before they were scuffling with the Red One, whose smarting wounds made him particularly perverse. By the time Alrek had got into _his_ tunic and buckled on the beautiful weapon that gave him his nickname of "the Sword-Bearer," he was obliged to weather a storm of nutshells in order to join the group. It took all the persuasion of the stout comely fellow called Erlend the Amiable to bring them back to peaceful discussion. "We were talking of going ashore to-morrow and considering about whether there is any good chance that Skraellings may be there now," he explained, when he could make himself heard. The subject attracted Alrek. Strolling over to the Amiable One's bench, he stretched himself upon it and made his head comfortable on Erlend's gay blue cloak. "Now it had fallen out of my mind," he mused, "that it was here that the inhabitants killed Thorwald Ericsson, when he went up on land and found three boats with three men hiding under each----" "What is your tongue wagging about?" Ketil the Glib interrupted. "It was not those men that killed him; he killed all of them but one, who escaped in a boat. It was the host which that one brought back that shot arrows into him until--" He was interrupted in his turn by a piece of sail-cloth which the red-haired boy threw over his head. "Gabbler! He knew that story before you had chipped the shell," the Red One snubbed him. "Go on, Alrek, and say whether you think it is to be expected that we will see any." The Sword-Bearer shrugged his shoulders. "You should have the best judgment about that, Brand Erlingsson, for you were visiting your brother Rolf at Brattahlid when Thorwald's men brought back the tidings of his death. You know whether or not it is their belief that Skraellings live on the Cape." The Red One--who, it appeared, answered also to the name of Brand Erlingsson--replied earnestly. He said that Thorwald's men did not believe that the creatures lived there, but that they inhabited the mainland and only visited the Cape for clams or something; that the Cape was no more than a thin land-neck, that ended in a kind of cross-bar composed of a beach connecting two hills; and that it could not possibly have anything of interest on it; whereas, if they could go on to Keel Cape---- But there the shell shower recommenced, amid a protesting chorus; "Do not let him get started--" "End his noise!" "He is always sputtering!" And Strong Domar extinguished the last sputter by a wild whoop as he tossed up his cap in celebration. "However it stands, our chance for catching some there on a visit is as good as Thorwald's! Luck be with us!" he shouted. Whereupon he tossed up his neighbor's cap--being much given to good-natured jests of the fists--and the jubilee would have been general if it had not suddenly been discovered that Alrek was slowly shaking his head on its blue pillow. "Why not?" they paused to demand. When he had taken his full time about chewing and swallowing a mouthful of nuts, he told them; "Because we lack Thorwald's energy at the helm. He went ashore so soon after he cast anchor that the men on the Cape did not have time to get away. We shall remain quiet a whole night after we come to anchor. If it should happen that any Skraellings are there, they would have plenty of light to see us by, and the whole night to escape in. Little danger is there that the Weathercock will break the Lawman's order to keep peace with the inhabitants; but if Karlsefne is to be any better off about news of them, he will find it needful to put a shrewder man at the steering oar." The celebration died in mid-air; no more chance was there of denying the argument than of remedying the fact. What comfort they could get out of blaming the helmsman, they took; then returned one by one to a gloomy munching of nuts from the store under the benches. In the lull, Brand of Greenland found opportunity to vent the rest of his dissatisfaction. "Neither will any good come to us out of these trips, while the Weathercock steers!" he burst out, shaking the hair from his bright impatient eyes. "These five months, we have gone ashore only when there was no chance for adventure to result from it; and so have I tired of this trough that I could gnaw the edge of it as a horse gnaws his stall! Sooner than I shall make another voyage under his leadership, I will paddle back to Greenland in a skin-boat!" The fact that they all agreed with him did not prevent them from jeering through their mouthfuls. Even his loyal younger brother, Olaf the Fair, showed a merry face under his yellow curls. "You speak too small words! Say that you would build a dragon-ship and have sole power over it," he mocked,--then scrambled discreetly out of reach as Brand turned on him. "Well--I _could_!" the Red One defied the universe. "King Half owned a ship and headed a band when he was no more than twelve winters old----" Jeers cut him short. "King Half! He will liken himself to Olaf Tryggvasson next!" "You great donkey, you!" "No--calf, with the milk of his kinsman's dairy-farm still in him!" cried the unoccupied mouths, while the full ones grinned broadly. Only Alrek, smiling up at the sky, said whimsically; "Give me leave to travel with you when it is built, champion. I should like to be on a ship that would come and go according to my will. For one thing, I should like to go ashore to-night to see Thorwald Ericsson's grave. The Huntsman told me once, when I laughed at his magic, that if ever I stood beside a grave in the noon of night I should know what fear was. It has long been in my mind to prove him a liar, but no other grave than Thorwald's is in the new land. If we were on your ship now----" "What is to be said against swimming?" inquired Gard the Ugly, from the bench where he sat weaving fish-nets,--for it was a trace of the thrall blood which was in him, that, although he was free, his great hands were always busy with some service. "Hallad, Biorn's foster-son, used that expedient once,--and it can not be said that he is of a bold disposition even if he did go with the Huntsman this summer. I am willing to try it. We can slip overboard shortly after it becomes dark, and spend the time before midnight in ranging over the beach,--I would give a ring to get the knots out of my legs! Will you do it?" Pulling himself up lazily, Alrek sat a while gazing ahead where a second hazy mass, seemingly as far away as the horizon itself, was rapidly pushing out from behind the Cape. "Why not?" he responded at last. "Only, the swimming part is not to my mind; I find that deerskin dries on me less easily than on deer. Because of what has been told of the shallowness of the harbor, it is unlikely that we shall anchor very near to land; so it is my advice that we take the small boat. We can lower it with little trouble, if there is no moon, while the men are aft drinking their ale." He rose as he spoke, and Gard leaped up also and clapped him on the back in token that it was a bargain; at which the scoffers quieted into a semblance of interest, and Erlend regarded him with amusement. "Suppose it does not happen that you get a chance to tell the Huntsman of your experience?" he suggested. "I think it altogether unlikely that he will return from his trip to the south country. Will the entertainment be worth the exertion?" Alrek gave him a poke between his well-padded ribs. "A man must risk something if he wishes to avoid getting fat," he answered. Whereat the Amiable One came in for his share of gibing; and during it, Gard put his arm through the Sword-Bearer's and drew him forward to look at the land. The land was worth looking at, certainly, as it revealed itself bit by bit through the mellow haze of the sunset. Skimming toward it in the path of a breeze, it was not long before the sickle-curve of a harbor had drawn out from behind the Cape. Then the inner of the Cape hills looked out from its hiding place beyond the seaward knoll. Next, a streak of white beach unfolded itself between them. Finally the whole began to take on color, gray giving way to grayish green and brown and red, while the cold gleam along the water's edge warmed into faint yellow. So it lay motionless and soundless in the waning light, the sun fading from it in a drowsy smile, as the helmsman ordered the sail to be lowered and the anchor to be heaved overboard, and the little ship settled into her berth with a groan of satisfaction. CHAPTER III RELATING HOW ONE WAS FOUND ON THE CAPE OF THE CROSSES A means to while away a long evening,--that was how the pair looked upon the trip as they rowed away from the ship's stem while the crew chatted over their ale horns in the torchlight of the stern. Dreamily enjoying the boat's motion and the rhythm of their oars, they swung through the dusk in contented silence; and only once did their thoughts reach the point of speech. "He is knowing in all kinds of weird matters, your countryman the Huntsman," Alrek said, reminiscently. "Do you remember the time that he was lost in the unsettled places south of here, and, after looking for him far and wide, we found him lying flat upon a rock, mumbling at the sky? He said he was making stanzas to Thor, and that it was an answer when a whale came ashore the next day----" "If that is the cheer which Thor has to offer, may I never eat at his house!" Gard grunted. "So starved was I that I ate a piece the size of my head, and--excepting the time of my first storm at sea--it has never happened to me before to be so sick! If Thor gives the Huntsman no better help where he is now, it is likely to go hard with him. It is said that the south country is more full of Skraellings than a goat of fleas. He was a headstrong fool to go there with no more than three men and one small boat." Alrek lifted his shoulders indifferently. "If he never comes back, the sea will be no salter for my tears," he answered; and relapsed into silence which was not broken until their nearness to land obliged him to ask a question about the steering. If there was a moon, it had stayed sulking somewhere behind something, leaving the world in a dusk which was equally far from light and from darkness. Through the gloom they had been able to steal off with the boat in chuckling security; now its glimmer was still sufficient to guide them to a landing-place upon the pebble-strewn sand, which ran like a shelf around the base of the seaward hill. Beaching their boat they clambered up the slope, tripping more than once over the fist-big stones which studded it, before they entered breathless and laughing into the grove that crowned the crest. "Who cares about seeing, so long as he can feel earth under him!" Gard cried. And all at once he had dropped upon the leaf-covered ground and was rolling over and over like a horse just freed from a tight girth, while Alrek stretched his cramped muscles in a somersault. Something in the fragrance of the damp leaf-mold seemed to intoxicate them. Presently, both were whirling on their hands; and from that they went to jumping, and from jumping to wrestling. The shadows had grown a finger's length before they sank down to get their breath. As the grove was nowhere very thick and the sea gale had winnowed the leaves, they had not looked about them long before they made out the objects which gave the Cape its name,--the two rude crosses of dead bleached wood rising in the center of an open space by the sea. Around it, fanlike pine-boughs swayed heavily, and that was all there was of motion; and the only sound that broke its stillness was the splash of waves on the sand below. Between the Crosses, a low mound rounded black against the gray water. Their hearts gave a little throb as they distinguished it--Thorwald's grave! Amid a chattering throng out in the sunlight, those words had not conveyed much; but here--here they took on meaning. Rising silently, the lads groped their way between the pines until they stood beside it. Into Gard's voice there came a note of awe. "Thorwald said this cape looked to be a fine place to live in; I wonder how he likes it to be dead here? Strangely still must it seem to him after the battle-din of his life! And strange feelings must have been in his men's minds when they sailed away and left him here, the only white man on this side of the ocean." "He must have found it lonesome to lie here by himself for four winters," Alrek said very gently. "Surely, if he hears our voices, his heart must welcome the sound. I tell you, Gard, I think I should not be sorry if we found him sitting on his grave when we came back at midnight. If we should tell him that we are his comrades' sons and relate to him all the news, it may well be that he----" Gard's hand fell on his arm. "Hush!" he entreated. "I do not care what any one says on shipboard, but here--! Suppose he should be listening and take you at your word! Brand says that sooner than go into a witch's den as Leif's Englishman did, he would allow his arm to be hewn off,--and a witch's temper is more to be depended upon than the temper of a dead man. I am not eager to grasp his bony hand, if you are. Let us go down to the beach--But first, I want to find that knife I dropped. Will you feel around that bush-clump where I came down at the last leap, while I look over the slope where I stumbled?" "Certainly," Alrek consented; and picked his way over the uneven ground to the spot where a clump of sumacs fringed the edge of the hill-crown as it sloped down to the beach. Just before he stooped to feel for the knife, however, he paused to look around. Seaward, on his left, shone the far-away torches of the ship, a streak of brightness on the gray. Below him stretched the beach, its farther end lost in the looming shadow of a tree-crowned hill--he blinked and leaned forward and blinked again. Out of that shadow, a light had seemed to open on him like an eye! It did not come from the ship; he glanced over his shoulder to reassure himself. It came from the hill across the beach, a dim unwinking eye which up to this time some obstacle had hidden. For an instant he thought of ghost-fires, and cold trickled down his spine; then came a recollection that smote every nerve like a cry,--the Skraellings! Some had been trapped and had not yet escaped, and it was going to fall to him to get sight of them! To succeed where all the rest had failed! To be the one to give Karlsefne the information he wanted! What wonder that all recollection of the knife--even of Gard--was wiped off his brain like breath-mist off a shield; that he was obliged to press his nails deep into his flesh to get a grip on his excitement! "I shall wreck the chance if I go about it hotly," he admonished himself. "It was Karlsefne's strong command that we do nothing to offend them. I must steer it so that I see them without their seeing me,--and it is unadvisable to be too slow in acting, either, or they will have made their escape!" He put his body in motion even while his mind was debating, but it did not render him less cautious. He did not let a finger of him stray beyond the shadow of the pines, nor did he venture upon the beach until he saw his way clear before him. The only objects that offered shelter were the low hummocks, crested with tufts of wiry grass, that stretched in a broken chain between the heights. From link to link of this he crawled, unobtrusive as a serpent; and when the links were wanting and gaps of glimmering sand lay before him, he ran crouching with the light swiftness of a fox, holding his breath in expectation of arrows hissing about his ears. None came, however, and at last the shadow of the second knoll and its spreading tree-crown fell over him like a canopy. There he paused to listen. Once, an owl wailed tremulously from a distant tree; and once, it seemed to him that he heard brush crackle as under a stealthy tread; then all was silence and the swish of breaking waves. Laying hold of a gnarled root that reached down like a writhen arm, he drew himself noiselessly up the slope. Where it flattened to the crest, a clump of sassafras shoots made a fragrant screen. When he had listened and found the quiet still unbroken, he ventured to peer between the sprouts. So long did he remain there without moving that the insects he had startled began walking over him in restored confidence. The little nook was empty. Except the patch of embers and a litter of clam shells, there was no sign to prove that living things had ever been there. As a final test, he hung his helmet upon his sword and showed it cautiously above the bushes, and the decoy drew no arrows from the thicket beyond the fire; the spot appeared to be genuinely deserted. It is not too much to say that his disappointment brought him near to tears. "They must have run away as soon as darkness fell," he muttered. And pushing into the open, he sent the shells flying before a savage kick. "What Troll's luck!" As the words left his lips, the flying shells uncovered a peculiar bowl-shaped basket woven of reeds. He stooped to it curiously; then, even as his fingers closed on the rim, he took another step forward, staring at the bushes that hedged the further side of the open space. "It appears that some one has plunged through here in a hurry," he told himself. "The branches are bent as if--Odin!" There was no need of finishing his thought. His eyes had the answer before them, a shaggy figure crouching among the bushes, so motionless that it might have passed for one of them. An instant he also stood motionless, staring back at the eyes that he could feel without seeing; then Viking training flashed two thoughts to his brain,--that the creature was aiming at him from the darkness, and that he must lose no time in advancing. Clutching his sword-hilt, he sprang forward. After that there was no chance for reflection. For a second the blade stuck; and in the delay a copper-colored arm shot out and fastened on his wrist, while the other copper-colored arm brandished a stone hatchet over his head. With his left hand he caught that arm and held it off; and they swayed, panting, in the firelight that gave him his first glimpse of the foe all sailors yarned about,--the bristling black hair and wide-rimmed beast-bright eyes, and the skin of unearthly hue showing under the animal hides of the covering. Under the copper-colored skin, the muscles were like copper wire. Strong as he was, Alrek could not twist aside that wrist above his head. He gave up trying, presently, and limited his efforts to freeing his sword-arm. Putting all his force into the wrench, he succeeded at last in loosing it and shooting forth his weapon--and that was all that he had to do! At the bare sight of it, darting glittering from its sheath like lightning from a cloud, the Skraelling uttered a yell of terror, dropped the hatchet from his hand and his hands from their hold, and flung himself backward into the darkness. There was a crackling of brush, the spat of bare feet upon sand, and then--silence. Gradually the Sword-Bearer's amazement gave way to amusement. "He thought it was magic,--here is a joke of the Fates!" he breathed. "If Thorwald had but shown them steel, it is likely that he could have put the whole host to flight! Never could I have wrested the hatchet from him. Now it is likely that my kinswoman Gudrid will open her eyes when I show her this!" Bending over the embers, he examined the weapon with deep interest; the edge was knife-sharp. "It would have cleft me as if it cut cheese!" he muttered; and was laughing in somewhat unsteady congratulation when the sound of feet scrambling up the slope straightened him to greet Gard. For a space the Ugly One stared about him, blinking in the firelight; then the eagerness of his swarthy face gave way to bitterest reproach. "You scared them away before I had a chance to see them?" he cried. "Slipped away, because my back was turned, and got all the sport for yourself? Never would I have believed it of you! Never----" Alrek threw up his hands in honest compunction. "Gard, I beg of you to forgive me! It is the truth that when I saw the light, I forgot that you were alive. And I feared the Skraellings would get away before I could see them. I intended only to creep up and look, without--" He broke off and stood with his mouth open, staring at the other. Involuntarily, Gard whirled to dart a glance over his shoulder; and finding nothing, cried out, sharply; "What ails you? Have you got out of your wits?" Alrek regained his self-control with a short laugh. "I think I have," he answered. "Do you know another thing besides yourself that I forgot? I forgot Karlsefne's command to keep the peace." CHAPTER IV WHEREIN THE SWORD-BEARER IS FURTHER REMINDED THAT HE HAS BROKEN THE LAW The return to the Wind-Raven was even fuller of thought than the departure from it had been; though once Gard broke out in lamentation: "If you had only allowed me to have part in the fun, _I_ should have remembered." Although his shoulders remained square-set against the gray of the night, Alrek's silence was so full of skepticism that the other blushed and hastened to speak of something else: "Why are you so bold as to tell of this? It seems to me sufficient to say only that you found the hatchet on the ground." "The Weathercock must be warned," Alrek said briefly. "Do you not see that this Skraelling may bring back a host, as happened to Thorwald?" Apparently Gard saw, for he did not speak again. The silence lasted unbroken until they glided under the ship's prow, and a chorus of suppressed greetings came down to them. "Hail, explorers! What luck?" "It seems that your stay was short--" "Was Thorwald lacking in hospitality?" the voices laughed, while the hands reached down to pull them aboard and assist in raising the boat. When at last the pair stood on deck, however, the tune changed. "Now there are tidings in their faces!" cried the boy who, from the quality of his temper, was known as the Bull. "News! Let us have it out of them!" Whereupon the group made a fence across the way, every picket in it crying, "Give up your news!" Gard waved them off crossly. "I have none," he growled. Alrek gazed back at them as though they really were boards in a fence. "Where is the Weathercock?" he inquired of the Amiable One. "Has he drunk the wits out of him yet?" "Such as they are, I think he has them still about him," Erlend answered. "But will you not tell us----" The Sword-Bearer shook his head as he pulled away from the other's ringed hand. "The jest is not good enough to bear two tellings. Come after me if you want to hear it." Whereupon the line instantly became a column, marching at his heels as he walked aft. On the after-deck, the helmsman who was known among his followers as the Weathercock, was droning a song over his ale horn. He was a fat bald-headed man with a heavy doughlike face and a grizzled beard that bristled like wiry beach-grass from his plucking at it while he sang. His listeners greeted the appearance of the lads with much cordiality; but he took the interruption very ungraciously indeed. "It may well be that the reason boys always come at the wrong time is because there is no right time for such hindrances," he snapped. "Which of you wants what of me?" The oncoming wave fell back a little, leaving the Sword-Bearer stranded before the helmsman. He said, saluting, "I want to tell you that when you go upon the Cape to-morrow you must go in war clothes. I have been ashore and seen a Skraelling; and I think he has gone to call his people to arms." "What!" cried all the men in chorus; and those on the outer edge leaned forward, palms curved around their ears. Only the Weathercock sat squinting in a dull man's attempt at sharpness. "What kind of jest is this?" he sneered at last. Alrek drew the stone hatchet from his belt. "One of the proofs that it is not a jest is this." There were more exclamations, while a dozen hands snatched at it; but old Grimkel bent forward and pinned his eye upon the Sword-Bearer. "How did you get it?" he demanded. "You did not fail to remember----" The boy's lips curved into a rueful smile as he met the look. "I remember now," he said slowly, "and I remembered up to the time I saw the Skraelling. But when I came upon him suddenly----" "You attacked him?" It was the helmsman who screamed that, his doughlike face reddening to the very nose-end. Alrek regarded him with critical brown eyes. "You prove a good guesser," he said politely. From all sides went up exclamations of dismay; while from the Weathercock went up smoke and flames as though Hekla itself had broken loose. "You--you--you good-for-nothing-wolf's-whelp-gone-mad!" he sputtered. "What do you mean by standing there so quietly when your mad-dog temper has brought discredit upon my leadership which would otherwise have got me great fame with the Lawman? One thing after another, worse and worse, will be caused by this! The Skraellings may be surrounding us even as we speak; and we shall be forced to share your disobedience or else get killed--or, it may be, both fight and get killed, since when Karlsefne finds how his orders have been regarded--But the first result of this will be that we will not go ashore to-morrow nor any other time--Ale! Faste! Hjalmar! Up with the anchor and out with the sail----" As cries of protest arose, he beat them down with his short fat arms. "You shall not set foot upon land, you pack of ravening curs! Not until you get to camp,--and then I hope you will have reason to wish--Ah, to think that when we get to camp I must tell this instead of the report I had expected to give!" He struck his fists together until it seemed as if he might forget the Sword-Bearer's free birth and lay them on him in blows. "Why did I not remember that you had outlaw blood under your fair speaking, and keep you under my heel! But you shall pay for your liberty now. You shall be tied with walrus thongs and thrown into the foreroom, and kept there without food or drink until we reach Vinland! Take him hence,--do you hear my words? Lodin! Grimkel!" He broke off to tug at his belt, which unwonted exertion was rendering distressfully snug; and in the interval the protests of the young Greenlanders burst forth anew, expressing unreservedly what they thought of him for taking away their chance of going ashore. When he turned on them, his thick neck rumbling volcano-like, they even gave back curse for curse; until--what with their racket and his bawling and the running to and fro of the sailors--the after-deck of the Wind-Raven presented a lively appearance. The only quiet person on it was the culprit. Saluting with ironical ceremony, he yielded to the touch of Grimkel's hand upon his shoulder; and they proceeded to the little room under the fore-deck, which served on extraordinary occasions for a dungeon and on ordinary ones as a storeroom for bales of fur and ale-casks and kegs of salted fish. "If I could learn to feed my stomach through my nose, I should not starve however long I stayed here," Alrek observed with an expressive grimace as they entered. The hand on his shoulder shook him roughly. "You deserve to starve," the old man snapped. "I have the heart to pound you! After I had warned you how the Lawman is holding you in the balance!" He jammed into its bracket the torch he carried, and sent a barrel out of his way with a thundering kick. Somehow, the heat of his elder's concern moved the boy to an affectation of unconcern. Holding out his wrists for the rope, he replied that if Karlsefne had been watching him for two years, it was time he found out something. Grimkel jerked at the thongs with a growl for every knot. "You will find out something when you come before him! Have you got it into your mind that you have prevented him from fulfilling what lies nearest his heart? Since the time when he was making ready for his journey at Leif Ericsson's house in Greenland, he has counted on strengthening the settlement by making friends of the Skraellings; and planned to get knowledge from their experience of the country, and riches by trading with them. And he has condemned Thorwald's short-sightedness in attacking them, and commanded how they should be received with gifts and fair words--Oh, it is impossible that the Fates will allow a wise man to be balked by a boy's folly!" "If it is impossible why do you trouble yourself over it?" Alrek suggested; then went on to request that the hatchet be carefully preserved for him. Grimkel, bending over to fasten the ankle-bonds, straightened stiffly in awful silence. But before his exasperation could escape through his lips, a waking thrill ran along the Wind-Raven's spine; a voice called him to lend a hand with the sail, and he was obliged to wheel and stamp away. With him went the torch; so that the darkness of the foreroom became a black wall, upon which a gray square like a patch showed where the low doorway opened into the night. Gradually, the outside hubbub died away until the only sound that came in was the creaking of ropes and the sail's dull boom. Left to himself, the boy left off feigning; and turned and grappled with his trouble. Breast to breast they struggled, while the gray square melted shade by shade into cold light; and when the square was gilded by the morning sun, they were struggling still. Trying to shake off his thoughts, the Sword-Bearer flung his fettered body about in a kind of frenzy. "If I stay three days like this, I shall go out of my wits!" he cried to himself. "To lose all my chance with him is bad enough, but to sit here and think about it--! I shall become mad if I cannot move about and forget it for a while!" CHAPTER V THROUGH WHICH THE STORM GIANT BLUSTERS A stooping black shape against the sunshine, Hjalmar Thick-Skull came through the doorway and began to paw over bales and boxes in search of extra oars. "Your luck is great, young one," he remarked. "You would not be sitting quiet if you were outside. Perhaps you think, because you see sun through the door, that the whole sky is like that; but you should see the clouds ahead of us! The only thing equally black is the Weathercock's face since he finds that he must put into the Keel harbor after all. And on top of it the wind has failed, and he has commanded all hands to the oars----" Rising to his fettered feet, Alrek held out his bound hands. "Here are mine! Take your knife to the knots." The Thick-Skulled gaped over his shoulder. "Why--why--he did not mean you." "Have I not hands?" the Sword-Bearer demanded. "With a troll's strength in them this morning! Certainly he meant me." He strove to speak carelessly while his fingers were twitching, but some breathlessness must have betrayed him. Scratching his tow mane and staring as he scratched, Hjalmar began slowly to grin. After a little, Alrek laughed also and spoke in frank appeal: "Do me this good turn, shipmate, that I may stretch myself some while. If he did not mean me, yet might you easily have mistaken him. You can tell him so when he makes a fuss,--it is not likely that he will notice me until the storm is over. You know it is a saying that 'the wolf allays the strife of the swine.'" After a while, the Thick-Skulled stooped, grinning, and laid his knife against the thongs. "Behold what a good thing it is to have a reputation for dulness!" he said. "But see to it that you bear me out by giving good service at the oar." The Sword-Bearer stretched his arms with a sigh of relief. "Only let me get at it!" he breathed, and plunged into the air like a fish into the water. True enough! Though sunshine lay bright on the Wind-Raven's decks and blue sky was above her, before her--like the entrance to another world--sagged a canopy of slate-colored clouds. Swollen with rain, they hung low over the shore-line of forest and dune and darkened all the distant water save where, here and there, streaks of white gleamed like monsters' bared teeth. Full of ominous warning was the calm that had fallen on land and sea, robbing the sail so that it hung like a live thing gasping for breath. "If he did not put into the harbor he would be likely to share the fate of Thorwald Ericsson, and be cast ashore in the same place, and likewise with a broken keel," Alrek commented after a look at the sky; then laid hold of his oar and bent himself almost to the bottom of the boat in the relief of spending his energy. Perhaps his appreciation of a small favor touched the Fates in their woman hearts, for presently they extended it. When the Wind-Raven's brood had brought her safely behind the wooded bar that lay across the harbor mouth like a screen in front of a door, the helmsman gave out word that since they were plainly storm-bound for the night, at least, they would not deny themselves the comfort of a camp on land, but would proceed immediately ashore. Ashore! the Sword-Bearer could scarcely believe his good fortune, until Brand dared to lean over and poke him in congratulation. "I knew the Old One would take care not to have his fat jolted," he whispered; "and he can not leave you behind. Your luck will last until we come back again." "Until we come back again!" Alrek repeated as though it were a toast, and threw himself resolutely into the work of the hour. There was field for action. They had barely reached the shore and found refuge in a hollow below a wooded knoll when the tempest burst upon them, rushing through the forest with a swelling roar that rose above the thunder of the breakers. After that every minute of the day was a battle--a fight over the tent canvas which the wind threatened to pick up and carry off like a kerchief with all of them hanging to it in a fringe; a skirmish for fuel through forests into which sand from the dunes beyond was rushing like yellow swarms with biting mouths; a contest over the fire, blown out or struck out with lances of glittering rain; a struggle to hear or be heard through the thundering downpour, to see the very food in their hands through the suddenly fallen darkness--a battle between giants and pygmies! Exhausted yet exhilarated, as after a day at the sword-game, the band fell over from eating to sleeping. When the lightning tore apart the darkness and disclosed the deserted ship reeling in terror upon the twisting black water, they only laughed and burrowed deeper, falling asleep to the thunder of breakers booming along the shore as to a lullaby from a mother's lips. The ocean was still booming when they awoke, late the next day, and the wind was still blustering in the tree tops. The leader, with his mind reaching out toward Vinland fires and Vinland fare, cursed peevishly; but the juniors of his following greeted the delay with open rejoicing. "Here is our chance to see the land!" Brand cried, shaking out his ruddy locks like fiery banners. "Let us take it before anything gets it away from us. I will wager a ring that I will beat any one to the top of this steep!" So promptly did they respond that although he won his wager, the next boy was only a step behind; and none of the twenty was more than a pace in the rear. Once on the crest, they streamed, whooping, into the grove of oak and pine and sassafras which they had seen from the water, lying along the bay shore like a ragged rich-hued mat. Raggedness showed more plainly than richness, upon a nearer approach, though nothing could take away the beauty of coloring where pines spread their ever-living green over the windy crests and the oak trees on the slopes had turned yellow and russet and red without losing a leaf. But it was no such forest as Vinland boasted; compared with Vinland trees the growth was stunted and there was not enough underbrush to give it even the wildness of a thicket,--only tangles of rose briar and berry bramble where the ridges sank into hollows cupping reed-fringed ponds. Perhaps the best that could be said for it was that its endless undulations kept curiosity awake. Passing over them was like breasting billows; one gained a height only to behold another deep. After a while, it stirred Alrek to restlessness. When it was suggested that they should stop at one of the ponds for a duck hunt, he objected. "Who knows what the next ridge may be hiding?" he said obstinately. "Let us find out first what lies before us." "What but the ocean?" Erlend asked in surprise. "That can not be far away now; the sand wastes between the trees are getting much wider." But Alrek was already moving on, dealing blows of his hatchet at the trees on either side of him. "Do as you like," he answered over his shoulder. "I shall not stop until I come to the end." Erlend sent him a glance of surprise; but the others had caught the fever of his mood so that they dashed after him in a cheering charge. Their run did not keep up long, however, for the walking was momently becoming harder. In the next hollow the pond had been smothered beneath a sand blanket, and the bushes were strangling in sand. In the next there were no bushes at all, only mats and tufts of wiry grass. On the slopes the trees became fewer, the sand piled between them like drifted snow; in one place it had buried a clump so that only their tops showed, bush-like, above the creamy surface. "There you can see what kind of place this would be to set up a landmark," Njal of Greenland observed, pointing at them. "In twenty years more it is likely the whole forest will be covered and the man who comes then will say that we lied because we told of trees being here. I doubt if we would be able to find much of the keel that Thorwald set up----" "Then do not let us spend time looking for it," Alrek finished. And so completely had his mood taken possession of them, that they consented without argument; plodding on doggedly over the dunes that had become like yellow snow-banks, bare of a single tree, rounding in absolute baldness against the gray of the sky. Gradually, feverish expectancy grew in them all. It was as though the vast shifting mass were a living monster, whose depredations they had seen, whose lair they were now approaching. They stopped in a hushed group when the last dune revealed the beach sweeping down to the water. The scarred and furrowed ocean was another monster, still growling and showing his tusks at the wind giant. Northward, the ocean was all they saw. Westward, they saw it over a yellow waste as the dunes sloped down to the Cape point. Southward, lay the land over which they had come; beyond it, the bay in which their ship rode at anchor. Eastward, unbroken drifts, unspotted beach--their silence ended in a cry: "Yonder! Yonder is something washed ashore!" All saw it, so plainly did it show against the sand,--something dark and motionless which the waves had flung up there out of their way. So large did it loom in the strange light that, as they went plunging and floundering toward it, some declared it to be a whale; and others, an overturned boat. [Illustration: Neither sound nor motion was on his blue lips.] But the light on the Wonderstrand is a wondrous light. When they had raced over some hundred yards of beach, the dark object--instead of growing larger--dwindled suddenly from whale size and boat size to the size of a human body. Involuntarily, they slackened their pace and a whisper went around: "It is one of the Skraellings, overtaken by the storm!" Only Alrek shook his head and pressed forward. "That is no animal hide wrapping him," he said. A dozen yards more brought him to the side of the stark form; he bent over it--and remained bent as though petrified with astonishment. When the others had reached him and looked, their voices went from them in a cry of amazement: "The Huntsman!" And the Huntsman's gigantic figure it was, sea-drenched and wave-battered, kelp snarled about his feet, starfish tangled in his hair. As he had lain upon the rock that winter day, so he lay here upon the sand,--flat on his back with his hands clasped over his breast; though now his eyes were closed, and neither sound nor motion was on his blue lips. Doubting their senses, the explorers stared at him and then up and down the shore. Never was scene more yawningly empty; between the sweep of sand and the stretch of water he lay as though fallen from the sky. CHAPTER VI ABOUT THE STRANGE FIND ON KEEL CAPE "I would give much if he had not died until he had told us how he came hither," Gard remarked, presently. "And what he was employing himself about in the north of Vinland when he set out to explore the country south of it!" Brand cried; while the Glib One added: "Yes, and how it went with Hallad and the others he had with him!" Then they became aware that Erlend's handsome brown face--three shades browner than his hair--was turned toward them in reproach. "It may be that Alrek will get the belief that a Greenlander's loyalty to his countrymen is somewhat shallow," he suggested. In those days, disloyalty to a comrade was held a contemptible thing. Two of the three reddened; and Brand bent his tongue to apology. "He knows that we care as much as any one. Eric of Brattahlid had the Huntsman for his steward, because they found pleasure in talking evil together about Christianity; but that was all the friend I ever heard of his having. It is understood that we will do him the favor to bury him, however." Gard the Practical rubbed his ear. "That will not be easy unless we carry him far inland," he said. "If I am not much mistaken, this sand will move about like snow,--and I have heard that if dead men come uncovered and sleep cold, they are wont to get up and walk around to warm themselves." A dozen of them crossed themselves involuntarily; and the Strong One squared his magnificent shoulders. "Quickly will I proclaim my choice to carry him to the bay!" "That would best be left unsaid until we see how heavy he is," Alrek advised. "Raise his other shoulder, Domar, and let us see how--One thing is that he is not yet stiff. Wait! What is this on his neck?" With his finger, he followed a cord running from the grizzled beard across the motionless breast to lose itself in the shelter of the rigidly clasped hands. "It is a deerskin bag." "I know he did not have it on when he went south!" Harald Grettirsson cried, excitedly. And a chorus added; "Here is something of importance!"--"Something of value!" "To think of it then--" "Yes, to grasp it when he was drowning!" Sitting back on his heels, Alrek gazed down at the figure curiously. "He has grasped the bag too close to move, but it would be possible to pry a finger into the top and see what is inside,--if you would allow it? He is your countryman." He glanced inquiringly at them as they stooped around him, their hands grasping their knees. The Greenlanders looked down at him; then around at one another; then Brand spoke under his breath; "If you dare----" "Dare?" Alrek's mouth curved disdainfully. Picking out the cord-ends from between the chill palms, he undid the knot that fastened the mouth of the bag and inserted a thumb and forefinger. "A chain," he said as they closed upon something; then, as they began to draw it out, "What a chain!" All echoed him: "_What_ a chain!" For it was of shining gold, set here and there with a rough-cut gem; while its girth was that of his largest finger, and it unfolded itself coil after coil to the length of his arm. What a keepsake to bring out of a waste peopled only by wild men! Devouring it with hungry eyes, they drew closer; and Rane Thin-Nose put out a hand to feel of it, at the same time sending an apologetic glance toward the rigid face. As he did so, the drawn eyelids rose slowly and silently as curtains; and the Huntsman's small evil eyes looked back at him. Rane's hand was withdrawn as though it had encountered fire; and the circle fell back, screaming. Even the Sword-Bearer was startled enough to drop the chain, as the eyes rolled in his direction and remained turned on him in a baleful glare. Through the blue lips came a voice, so faint that it seemed to be one of the smothered voices which cry through the roar of the surf; "You would rob me?" At that the circle rallied indignantly, shouting, "We would _not_!" "It was our intention--" "You need not reproach us for--" "We thought----" "Put it back." Alrek hesitated, his face coloring with resentment. Then he asked himself of what use it was to argue with a piece of driftwood, and gave up justification with a shrug. While the rest spent their breath wrathfully, he complied in silence. When the last knot was tied--and not before--the eyes left him to roll around the circle. "Swear--" the voice said faintly. Before the glare they shrank in spite of themselves, fluttering like birds around a snake; until Erlend said, with quiet haughtiness: "There is no need for us to swear that we will not rob you." The voice was so faint that they barely made out the words; "Swear--to keep it secret. On the edge of your blades!" "I suppose he has the right to ask it," Erlend gave judgment after a while. "It was his secret and we thrust ourselves in. It seems to me that it is his right?" He looked at the Sword-Bearer with questioning eyebrows. No one ever disputed the decisions of the Amiable One in matters of honor. Alrek answered by unsheathing his sword, with another shrug of his shoulders. Drawing each a knife from his belt, they grasped them by the blades so that the sharp edges cut red grooves in their bare palms. Holding the knives aloft thus, they spoke the oath together; the Huntsman's eyes telling them off, one by one. When he had come to the last--little Olaf the Fair twisting his face to keep back tears of pain--his eyes stopped and settled slowly into their unwinking stare; but that they were less dull than fish-eyes, his stark figure would have differed little from the myriad fish bodies strewed upon the sand. Though they rattled their weapons blusteringly in putting them up, a kind of panic chill crept over the band. The stare was so awful in its dumb evilness; and the scene was so weirdly desolate,--the stretch of bleak sky, the sweep of naked shore, and the breakers' unending boom out of which stifled voices seemed trying vainly to call. The lad who was called the Hare--alike for fleetness and for timidity--voiced the feeling in a quavering outburst: "Let us leave him! I do not believe he is alive at all. I believe a troll hides in him and uses his mouth to speak with. I know evil will come of this. Let us leave him." He plucked nervously at Alrek's coat. "Come on!" Alrek was strung high enough to be irritated by the clutch. "Keep off!" he ordered, jerking himself free. "It is no lie about you that you are cowardly, if you would desert a shipmate!" Then regaining possession of his cloak, he regained possession of his temper, and spoke quietly; "If we get some big branches and make a litter with our mantles, it will not be difficult to get him to the bay. It seemed to me that you were all eager in having him alive to tell you news?" If it had not been for that hope, it is doubtful if the twenty would have toiled to bring such a burden over the sand-hills; and it is certain that the sailors had this end in view as they rubbed the Huntsman's limbs and poured ale down his throat. Had they been polishing a knife or oiling a lock, they could scarcely have been more business-like or less tender. "As soon as he gets strength to talk he should be able to tell tidings worth hearing," they said to one another when at last they left him rolled in skins and went about their preparations for returning to the ship, a rift having come in the gray toward the west. The main difference between their attitude and that of their juniors was that they felt merely dislike for the Huntsman, while for the one-and-twenty he had the fascination of fear. To them, his eyes were twin demons keeping guard from their cave doors over the treasure bag below. It is safe to say that they never lost him out of their minds through all the bustle of going on board and resettling themselves, as they awaited a surer sign of the Storm King's reformation. With the sunset, the rift in the gray widened. Thrym, the giant who herds the clouds, drove the hulking masses northward, lagging from their own weight. In the clearing west, the sun dropped golden behind a jagged bar; and while the rosy glory of it was still in the southern sky, the moon looked out of the east. To a rousing cheer, the Wind-Raven shook out her storm-beaten plumage and skimmed away over the silvering waves. The change was so grateful that Alrek was able to shake off depression one time more; while the loungers on the benches were noisy with satisfaction. "Never was there a better time to experience the Wonderstrands!" they jubilated afresh, as the curving stretch of shining dunes pushed itself into their vision. Passing that curve was little less than an experience; for the bend of the shore made it ever appear as though a cape lay just ahead, yet the cape ever receded as they approached, a flying point that could never be caught. "Certainly it makes the world seem a place of strange wonders!" Faste the Fat marveled, when they had sat a long time watching it in silent fascination. "It makes one curious about everything. If the Huntsman would only speak now and tell us what he has seen, this would be a good time to amuse ourselves with a tale." "How do you know that he has seen anything?" sneered a harsh voice--harsh for all its faintness--from the pile of skins upon the forecastle. They wheeled so eagerly that the ship rocked under them. "Are you ready to tell the tidings you have seen?" "Will you tell us about--?" "Tell about the south country, Huntsman." "Did you see any Skraellings?" "No, tell us first how you came here--" "Yes, your adventure--" "Yes, yes!" "We beg of you--" "Go on! Go on!" They were all speaking at once now, boys and men, and their greed proved their downfall. For, the clamor reaching the helmsman on the after-deck, he descended with unusual agility and waddled toward them. "If you are going to talk to any one, you talk to me, your chief," he commanded; "and tell me what you have done with the boat and the men I lent you." The Huntsman's manners gained little at sight of his superior. "I do not see that _I_ have done anything with them," he answered sullenly, "because the boat went to pieces on a sand-bar and Rann drew Svipdag and Black Thord down to her. It is seen that I saved you the best man of the three." "Four men were in the boat when you started out on that foolish trip," the helmsman caught him up. "Biorn's foster-son is worth speaking about; what have you done with him?" The blood settled in the Huntsman's sunken cheeks as water in a hollow. "Is the boy of so much importance that I must carve his rune on a separate stick?" he snarled. "What else could he be than drowned? Is it likely that Valkyrias came down for him? I think you are a fool. If Freydis, Eric's daughter, had not married you for your wealth and sent you out here after more, you would never have had manhood to set foot on a ship. _You_ my chief! You can think what you like; I will not answer you another word." He flung himself over on his face in one of the black sulks no man had ever yet sounded; his officer's threats might as well have been addressed to the mast. At last the fat helmsman was forced to pause to take in breath, standing puffing and glaring and tugging at his belt. And it was this unpropitious moment which his roving eyes took to remind him of Alrek's existence. The Sword-Bearer felt the gaze when it fell, and shut one eye in an expressive wink at Brand; nor were his forebodings without foundation. The helmsman let his recovered breath go from him in a snort. "You! What are you doing here? Did I not order that you should be shut up for the rest of the voyage?" Alrek unclosed his eye to gaze out of the pair in respectful surprise. "I?" he inquired. "Was it not your intention to free me when you ordered all hands to the oars?" Before the Weathercock found adequate words he had stamped three times in uncouth capers of rage; when he did find them, however, they came with such force that they burst the buckle off his belt. "Go back!" he wound up in a bellow. "Go back, and do not dare come forth again until I haul you before Karlsefne. If I were your chief, I would hang you!" For once, exasperation got the better of Alrek's soldier training. He looked the fat figure up and down as he arose. "You would not need to take the trouble," he retorted. "If you were my chief, I would hang myself." He heard applauding laughter from his mates as he walked away, simultaneously with a roar from the helmsman, and after that a confusion of sounds; but his mind was too full of bitterness to leave any room for curiosity. It roused him with a start when the solitude in which Fat Faste was reinstalling him was disturbed by a second consignment of captives,--Brand with torn clothes and flashing eyes; at his heels, little Olaf striving to quench a bleeding nose as he panted with unquenched partizanship; back of him Gard the Ugly, made uglier by a swollen lip; and behind the three, Strong Domar, a purple lump on his forehead and breathless delight in his voice as he shouted the explanation over the others' heads: "I knocked him down, Alrek, as sure as I stand here! He tried to cuff Brand for laughing at you, and I laid him flat before Lodin could lay hold of me,--and he will have to come before Karlsefne with a black eye! Think of it!" Apparently Alrek did think of it, for he stared for the space of a minute before he spoke. "You struck your chief!" he repeated at last. The Strong One chortled with relish. "_And_ blacked his eye! It will be shut tight, I know it will,--and he thinks so much about making a fine appearance before the Lawman! And maybe his nose will swell also, and--" He broke off abruptly as the meaning of Alrek's expression came home to him; and his freckled face reddened. "Now I forgot that you are soldier-bred. I suppose that in the Earl's camp they would not call it a jest to knock down a chief?" The Sword-Bearer leaned back on his bale of fur with a long-drawn yawn. "They would not be likely to call it anything," he said drily, "for it could not happen there at all." As he said nothing more in congratulation, it was rather a sulky group that the torches left to darkness when the last walrus-hide knot was tied. CHAPTER VII CONCERNING THORFINN KARLSEFNE, THE LAWMAN And that night was as long as two nights; and the sunrise into which it melted lasted until noon; and the day which finally grew out of that sunrise had no end whatever! Apparently, the Weathercock had managed to tie walrus thongs around Time's ankles also. Glimpses of banks, caught through the doorway, showed when they turned from the highroad of the ocean up the river-lane which led into the Vinland bay; but the banks kept on unraveling like witch's weaving that has no end. They had turned their attention from watching the landscape to robbing a fish keg, when the drone of voices on the deck above broke suddenly into shouts: "A boat! Coming from behind that island!" "Who--" "--thralls, the two in white--" "But the man in blue?" "Karlsefne is wont to wear blue----" "By the Hammer, I believe it is the Lawman himself!" If cheers rose from the forecastle, silence fell on the foreroom. Eager as they were to reach camp, to run upon this portion of it in midstream was little less than startling. The face of every Greenlander confirmed Domar's fervent gasp: "Now I am thankful that Karlsefne is not my chief!" Into Alrek's quiet came a kind of constraint. "Other men wear blue mantles," he suggested. "Hold your tongues and listen." Crouching on rope-coils and piles of fur, they held their breath as well as their tongues while they tried to separate the tumult into meanings; the scuffle of feet on the deck above was like a blur over all other sounds. But finally the feet rushed down the steps; there was a lull in which could be heard the sound of oars backing water; then, through the quiet a new voice, deep and kindly: "Greeting and welcome, friends! Tell me before anything else if you are all here, sound and whole?" The prisoners' mouths shaped one word as they gazed into one another's faces: "Karlsefne!" How thinly and sputteringly the Weathercock's voice fell on their ears after that! "All here, Lawman! And all sound,--saving this eye of mine which has met with a mishap of which I will tell you later." Very likely he rambled on with his wonted long windedness, but the five eavesdropping in the foreroom heard no more. The throng that had surged forward receded noisily; and through the rift the prisoners had a glimpse of the gunwale and a sinewy blue-clad form rising beside the fat helmsman like a tree beside a bush, a towering might-full figure with a face of rugged beauty framed in locks of iron gray. Even after the rift had closed up again they crouched motionless, staring at the shifting backs and straining their ears for tones of that deep voice, until--jangling through it like clattering pottery--came the helmsman's lament: "But ask not what success we have had, Lawman, for I will tell you without delay that the plan you had most at heart has been marred past mending! By no fault of mine, but through the blood-thirstiness of your brother's son; who has not only thrown your commands aside, but has kindled outlawry in the heart of every boy on board, who would otherwise be obedient to my----" Brand got on his bound feet--no one knows how--and on them got to the door. "That is not true, though you or others say it!" he shouted; and when his leader stopped out of sheer amazement and every one turned, gaping, he followed his voice through the door. "We endure him altogether against our will. To obey him is a disgrace to all with manhood in them. Domar made his eye black----" "Yes, that is true," bellowed Domar. Followed by Gard and little Olaf, he in his turn worked his way to the door, where a sudden lurch of the ship caught them and rolled them in a struggling heap almost to Karlsefne's feet; when the crew began to laugh and the Weathercock began to accuse and the rebels began to deny. Looking after them Alrek's lips curled in soldier scorn; that gave way to amusement when the clamor ended abruptly at a single word from the deep voice, and he had a glimpse of Brand's fiery locks drooping like captured flags. But after a moment, he turned and stretching his bound arms across a cask, hid his face upon them. "Whatever they do, they can not serve him so badly as I have done. Certainly I can find no fault with his act if he hangs me up like a sheep-killing dog, for little better has my service been," he murmured; and lay there with his face hidden until the jar of Hjalmar's heavy foot brought him suddenly upright. "Karlsefne sends for you," the Thick-Skulled announced in his wonted roar; then, coming close to cut the thongs, he spoke in hoarse whispers; "Hear great wonders! Your luck has not quite shown its heels, after all. It has happened that the Lawman also has seen the Skraellings! The day after you met the one on the Cape, a host of them appeared before the Vinland booths,--to see, it is likely, if the others had your mind toward them. But Karlsefne made so plain his good intentions that they went away after doing nothing worse than stare. And yesterday they came again, with bundles of fur which they traded with much friendliness. It is his belief that they also have young fire-heads among them so that they understand how little value is to be put upon----" Stretching out his freed arms, the Sword-Bearer gripped Hjalmar's hand to the point of crushing. "You make my heart merry in my breast!" he breathed. "Yes, certainly; I am in high spirits also," Hjalmar assented, returning the pressure. "It is an exceedingly useful thing for you. But see to it that you bear yourself boldly as a hawk; and keep it all the time before his mind that no real harm has been done." Alrek began suddenly to laugh. "It may be that I would better tell him that he owes me thanks for sending the Skraellings to him?" "That might have no small power," the Thick-Skulled responded gravely; and Alrek laughed again, as he caught at the huge shoulder to steady himself in rising upon his stiff legs. If the shoulder had been Grimkel's, the mouth belonging to it would have advised differently. During all the time that the helmsman was bewailing the evils to come out of such rashness, and Karlsefne was courteously explaining how luck had warded off such evils, the old seaman's weather eye had scanned the sky of his chief's face with deepening gravity. Now his speculations broke out into words. "If the boy tries to make light of his disobedience because it ended luckily, the Lawman will spare him neither in words nor deeds," he muttered to himself; and the impulse came to him to try to push through the crowd pressing him mast-ward and impart this prognostication to the Sword-Bearer. But even as he moved to carry out his kindly intention, the boy's erect red-cloaked figure appeared in the doorway of the foreroom and it was too late to do anything. Though his dress of blue was merchant garb and the staff in his hand was a farmer's symbol, the face of Karlsefne was the face of a law-giver. Above the beard of iron gray his mouth showed firm-lipped as a mouth of stone, and the gaze of the steel-bright eyes under the bushy brows was such as none with guilt in their hearts might sustain. Meeting it, the Sword-Bearer's eyes fell and the blood was drawn to his cheeks, and he came forward and bent his knee before the Lawman. Hard as measured steel were Karlsefne's measured words: "For a long time I have been watching to know whether you deserved favor or starkness, and held my hand from you lest it deal unjustly. I thought, long ago, that I smelled hot blood which would one day break out and sweep away all bounds. Now that day has come, and the worst things I have thought of you are proved the true things." As he bowed his head under the rebuke, Alrek's teeth cut a blood-line on his lip; but he attempted no defense. For the space of a second it seemed to Grimkel that the Lawman's face showed surprise. Yet his voice was even sterner when he spoke again. "They are no less true things because good fortune has enabled me to ward off the damage which would otherwise have been caused by your deed. If you are at all versed in camp ways, you know that this happening does not make you any less liable to punishment." Rising from his knee, the young Sword-Bearer faced him without fear. "My fate is for you to decide over, kinsman, according to your pleasure," he said with soldier submissiveness. Then there was no question whatever about Karlsefne's surprise. After a moment's silence, he spoke slowly; "I think it best to hear first from your own mouth about this happening." "I have no excuse why you should withhold your anger from me, yet I would not have you believe that I wished the thing to happen," Alrek answered. "When I set out for the light, my one thought was to get honor with you by finding out the news you wanted; and I think I should have remembered your order if the Skraelling had been where I first looked for him. But after I had given him up I saw him suddenly, hiding in the shadow; and something in me cried out that he was aiming and--and I have not been wont to jump backward when I saw a foe. Yet I ask you to believe that I wished least of anything to hinder your plans." A while the steel-keen eyes probed him; but he did not flinch. "That is not in every respect as the helmsman relates the story," Karlsefne remarked at last. "That is very likely," Alrek replied, "for the helmsman knows nothing whatever about the matter." Whereupon the helmsman let his stored-up breath go from him in a snort. A dozen seamen endeavored suddenly to hide laughter under fits of coughing; but the Lawman said gravely: "Nevertheless, I now see that there is truth in the other things he told me about your behavior toward him;" then turned away and stood a long time pondering, his hands gripping his silver-shod staff, his half-closed eyes resting on the group of gaping boys. And gazing at them, he seemed to forget the Sword-Bearer in a new problem. "Here are more rebels," he said to the helmsman, with a sweep of his staff. "Little order will there be in camp if they are turned loose on it in no better state of mind. How is it your intention to deal with them?" The Weathercock shifted his weight peevishly; he was tired of standing; and his mind was upset within him; and he wanted besides to get back to his ale horn. "Since they are free-born, it seems that I can not even give them the flogging they deserve," he snapped, "but if they were thralls, I would drown them." "It may be then that you would be willing that I should offer them to come under my rule?" Karlsefne suggested; and went on to say more in an undertone. Astonishment opened the helmsman's eyes at first; then, slowly, he wrinkled into a fat smile. At last he reached out and grasped Karlsefne's hand. "If you will rid me of the twenty plagues, who are turning me thin, I will feel as though you had given me twenty marks of gold," he declared. Whereupon the Lawman turned to the group of blank faces. "Now this is my offer to you," he said, "that you part from the rest of the Greenlanders and form yourselves into a band and build your own booth and choose one of your own number to rule over you." The faces lighted in ecstasy,--then gloomed in unbelief. Brand spoke for all when he inquired timidly: "Is this a _punishment_?" "It is not a reward," Karlsefne answered; and for a moment his gaze sharpened so that the Red One winced under it. "If I did not believe that it is because you know no better that you act thus, there would be hard things in store for you. I take this way to show you why lawfulness is needful. Yet is there no trick to it; all I have promised shall be fulfilled,--and more. You shall have your own table if you can furnish it; your own boat if you can build it; in every way like men----" They thought his pause the end, and burst into jubilant chorus; "It will not take us long to know what to answer to this!" But he raised his hand for silence. "Answer nothing until you have heard the whole. If you form yourselves upon the manner of men, so must you also bear men's burdens. You must furnish your share of hunters and fishers and of workers in the fields; and you must do your share of guarding against outside foes or lawlessness within. Even as Thorvard, here, and Snorri and Biorn, answer to me for the behavior of their following, so must your chief answer for you----" "Yes! Yes!" they cried eagerly. But he lifted his hand again; his measured tones became like tolling bells. "Think well! I speak not in jest. If you accept, I take you in grim earnest. You may not have men's liberty without men's care, and I shall hold you like men to your word though the matter cause death itself. Think well!" They did pause; his manner was impressive enough to insure that. But in a moment, Brand flung back his red locks daringly. "Much should we lack in manhood if we would refuse a fair offer! Take our word!" Every one of the twenty echoed him wildly. "Take our word!" "It is taken," Karlsefne said gravely; then bent his gaze on the Red One. "It appears likely that you will be the chosen head, since you seem always to speak for your comrades?" Brand flushed with delight. But before he could answer, Domar spoke bluntly: "I do not see in what Brand is above the rest of us Greenlanders. I raise my voice for Alrek Ingolfsson." "Alrek Ingolfsson, by all means!" Erland seconded; and Brand joined him generously. In another moment, all were shouting, "Alrek! Alrek!" Plainly, this was something the Lawman had not expected. "Alrek?" he repeated in surprise. "Yet I do not know that it would not be a punishment to answer for such a band!" Turning, he looked again where the Sword-Bearer stood with folded arms, awaiting his sentence. Perhaps with mouth firm-set and troubled eyes he looked more than ever like his father. Old Grimkel's watchful gaze saw the Lawman's hardness break up like Greenland ice before a warm land wind. Taking a slow step forward, he laid his hands upon the square young shoulders and looked long into the brown young face. "Since you left in the spring," he said, "a son was born to me, but I swear I do not love him more than I love you when that look is on you, bringing back my brother and my boyhood and the time before our ways parted." His voice softened to very grave gentleness. "Since you did not mean offense toward me, I will take none; and you shall accept this chiefship and use it to prove what nature is in you. All I have of love and honor lies ready for your gaining,--it will not gladden you more than me if you are strong enough to take them. Will you accept the test?" He held out his hand, and the Sword-Bearer grasped it in both of his and looked him full in the face, his eyes in a golden glow. "I accept the test,--and I give you thanks for it from the bottom of my heart," he said. END OF PART FIRST PART SECOND ALREK'S CHAMPIONS CHAPTER VIII AT THE HALL OF THE VINLAND CHAMPIONS "Whether you think so or not, I know that Gudrid would not keep milk in a fish-pail," the Bull's voice rose above the racket. There was not a little racket to surmount, for it was rising time at the new band's new booth. In the high-seat that had been built for him midway the length of the hall, the red-cloaked chief occupied the interval before breakfast with rune-carving; but that was the only employment which was being carried on in silence. Whistling boys were lacing their high boots along the benches right and left of the high-seat; grumbling boys were just turning out of the bunks behind those benches; jeering boys were throwing bedclothes at the sluggards, and disputing boys were clattering bowls and trenchers on the tables which stood on either side the fire. One of these table-boys was the short and chesty Bull, sniffing hostilely at the milk he was pouring; and the head of the division was Brand, the long and loose-jointed. Over a platter of cold venison, he frowned on his scullions. "Gudrid has nothing to do with this house," he snubbed the faultfinder; then, in peremptory aside, "Olaf, keep that door shut! Do you think it is warm outside?" "Do you think that any one who eats your cooking needs to be told that Gudrid did not do it?" retorted the Bull, refusing to be snubbed. A sigh came out of Erlend's handsome mouth as he looked up from hunting a lost button among the pine branches of the floor. "Ah, Gudrid! After that last meal she invited me to take in their booth, eating here has been like living on seaweed!" Brand's frown took on an edge of scorn. "Fussers! Go and live in Gudrid's house! It may be that she would allow you to crawl into the cradle with the baby. Yesterday the grumbling was because I put my head out of the door to look at a dog-fight and the bread got a little burned. If I were as womanish as the rest of you, I would braid my hair and put on skirts!" Still bending over his rune-carving, the young chief spoke with a drawl: "Here is something worth a hearing! Is it in truth your opinion that there is the most manfulness in you?" Surprise took the head-cook a little aback; then defiance took him a long way forward, flourishing his red mane. "Yes, I think so. You also found fault with the bread, for all your Viking training. I think I am the most hardy man here." When Alrek's knife had cut another rune upon his stick, he straightened deliberately. "Yesterday," he explained, "Karlsefne gave the chiefs the advice to pick out each week five men who should have it for their sole service to keep the camp in fire-wood----" A prolonged groan interrupted him; of all the burdens of housekeeping, fuel-getting weighed the most heavily. "----and he bade me send the hardiest man in our booth. I intended Domar to go, but now I see that Brand Erlingsson is the man to do it." "Hail to the chief!" yelled Strong Domar. And Brand's flame of defiance sank in ashes of sulkiness; and from the others came shouts of laughter. "He will wish he was back at kitchen work!" "Tree-chopping is the least interesting--" "And the weather is such that wood lasts the shortest time--" "Still Karlsefne is lacking payment--" "Never will we get to cutting timber for the ship!" The Hare made a pettish flourish with the knife he was using to trim away the rags from his garments. "Who wants to prepare for anything so far in the future? Why will you, Olaf, open that door? What I should be glad of is a chance to exercise myself for the spring games. Since we began this way of living, I have not had one race worth talking about." "I should be thankful if we could get a chance to go north where the big game is," Erlend said with a disapproving glance at the empty walls. "All the booty we have to show is the Skraelling hatchet, and Alrek has the habit of carrying that in his belt. Many hunting journeys will be required to make this booth equal to the others in outfittings. Let your eyes run over it and then think of Karlsefne's!" Thinking, they were silent for a little, gazing around at the great room which even in the fire-glow showed so baldly white with newness. Karlsefne's walls were decorated with bears' heads and eagles' claws and antler-racks of shining weapons; and Karlsefne's benches were covered with rich furs, and his high-seat had velvet cushions stuffed with eider-down. "Alrek, when is it your intention to take the time to get furnishings?" Erlend besought. The chief shook his brown head steadily. "Not until we get out of the debt which we got into to build this booth," he answered, and closed the opening discussion by putting aside his rune-stick and rising. "Now it seems to me that you are all looking too far into the future. I should be content if I could get something to eat. Who has gone after the fish? And what is the reason that he is not back again?" As head-cook, Brand answered him, though sulkily: "Gard has gone after the fish, and it is high time that he was back again." "That is what I have been trying to do, look for him," little Olaf the Fair spoke up for the first time, in aggrieved tones. And secure at last from interference, he flung the door open to the nipping January wind. "No, I see nothing of him--but I do hear the snow crunch!" "It is certainly time," Brand blustered. Nevertheless he bent his lank length over the fire with recovered good-humor; and greater alacrity came into the movements of those who were not yet dressed, while those who were, turned toward the door, gibes at each tongue's end. The nature of their greeting changed, however, when Gard the Ugly had stamped into the room and they saw the size of the catch swinging at his side. Waking, their sleeping appetites cried out in alarm: "Only three!" "Go into the hands of the Troll--" "--gone long enough to get thirty!" "What in the Fiend's name has come to the fishing?" Tossing his fish to the clamoring cooks, Gard was a long time pulling off his fur-lined gloves before he answered: "Nothing has come to the fishing." "What has come to _you_ then?" Brand demanded. After a while Gard said gruffly: "I forgot to take any more." "_Forgot!_" echoed the chorus; and Erlend laid his plump hands on the Ugly One's shoulders and shook him good-naturedly. "Are you asleep?" he inquired. Gard pushed off his brown cloak and with it his questioner. "Since I can feel your grasp, I am not asleep. I think I have seen Hallad's ghost." "What!" cried the chorus; and Domar, mistaking it for a joke, burst into his uproarious laugh. He stopped abruptly when he found that he was alone, and Gard spoke without further interruption: "It happened that the first set of lines I stopped at had been robbed, so I was obliged to go across the river, which is what makes me rather late. Over there I had pulled up three fish when I heard a noise on the bank and looked around. Some evergreen trees hang down their branches there, and they are white with snow; he had on a white cloak that mixed him with them, at first. But suddenly I saw him looking out at me, as near as that bowl. His eyes were very wide open, and his face was white as milk. It may be that he would have spoken to me, but I did not wait to see." "And therein you showed sense," Domar breathed in sympathy. But again he was on the unpopular side, for Ketil began to hoot: "If you had waited, it is most likely you would have found out that you are a simpleton. Why should Hallad be dressed in white like a slave? He wore green when he went on his death-journey. Is it likely that Ran keeps new cloaks for drowned people?" "Certainly, I think you are asleep after all!" Erlend laughed; which was the signal for a flight of chaff until Brand at his fish-fork endangered the peace by scoffing: "I think you are lying." To have said that to some of the band would have been to bring on a fight to the death, and many caught breath apprehensively before they remembered that this was one of the points about which Gard's thrall-blood gave him feelings different from theirs. He answered without resentment: "I am not apt to lie when nothing is to be gained by it. I call Thor as witness that I have spoken the truth!" His oath he directed toward the chief, who had returned to his high-seat and from there listened intently to what passed. But in the very act of nodding, Alrek Sword-Bearer broke off to ponder; and in the midst of pondering, he began to grin. "If you want to know my belief," he said, "it is that you saw the Weathercock's thrall, Tunni." Instantly the chorus seconded him. "That is certainly the truth of the matter!" "Their hair is of the same color--" "--the branches hid its shortness--" "and explains the slaves' cloak----" "And explains why his look was fear-full," Alrek added, "if, as I think, it was he who robbed the lines to save himself the trouble of going farther. He would think his hide in danger of a flogging----" "Which it will get!" roared Gard; whereupon the chorus redoubled its delighted jeering. This one time, however, the Ugly One's patience had a limit. Gradually his swarthy face turned mottled red; slowly a gleam came into the dull eyes above the high cheek-bones. Suddenly his voice rumbled through theirs: "If any of you tell this so that outsiders make derision, you will feel the edge of my knife." They knew then that they had gone as far as was safe. When each one of them had spoken one gibe more to show that he dared to, there was a lull, of which Erlend the Amiable took advantage to make a tactful suggestion. "I shall think those fish are ghosts if I do not get some of them between my teeth before long," he observed. And lo! ghosts and threats were, of a sudden, things of the past. "Get to your places," commanded the head-cook, sweeping them aside that he might place before his chief the first portion of the crisp and rosy dish, savory with garlic and sweet with its own freshness. There was an eager scrambling of feet, a joyful clattering of brass-hilted knives, a flurry of half-spoken requests; and after that all noise gave way to a pleasant munching sound, enforced now and then by a contented sigh or a long-drawn "Ah--h!" of satisfaction. A mumble of applause greeted the Bull when, having licked the last morsel from his fingers and pushed back his bowl, he looked around to say, stretching: "I should like to see the man who could make me go back to the old way of living!" CHAPTER IX ABOUT THE HUNTSMAN AND THE BOY WHO WAS DROWNED To keep such a band supplied with food was an occupation in itself. "Certainly I begin to believe there is truth in the things women say about a boy's stomach being like the bottomless horn which Thor tried to drink dry!" Brand jested. With his week of fuel-duty far behind him and a day's hunting immediately before him, it was a light heart that beat under his deerskin tunic as he followed his chief and the Ugly One out of the booth door. On the threshold the hunters paused to call back in mock admonition: "See to it this time that the meat is hung where the dogs can not get it--" "Watch Njal, if you do not want the cheese cut with the garlic knife--" "Put a bone in the Bull's mouth! If the Skraellings should come while he is bellowing like that, they would get more scared than they were at Karlsefne's bull." Then Brand shut the door upon the counter-chaff, and the three began to burrow for their skees in the pile beside the house. Trees--such trees as Greenland never dreamed of--rose snow-laden behind the booth, and before it a sweep of snow-buried meadow sloped away to beaches of white sand; for the little settlement was built across a neck of land that reached down between a river and a great lake-like bay. But the lads went neither forward nor back when at last they were shod for the trip, but turned to their left and moved across the camp toward the river bank. It was so early in the day that no wind had yet arisen to stir the fleecy snow-blanket which the night had spread, and to look up a sunbeam was to look up a track of swirling star-dust. From the provision shed next their booth the first camp dog to leave night quarters had only just emerged, yawning, and dragging his hind legs after him. Passing the great log-built sleeping houses with gray banners flying from every smoke hole, they caught a rattle of dishes and a hum of jovial voices which told pleasantly of the breakfast hour. Farther on, they overtook the thralls carrying the pails of milk to the dairy, and had--for a wink of time--a glimpse of Gudrid herself. Looking out to hurry the milkers she stood an instant in the dairy door, tall and straight and deep-bosomed, carrying her baby on her hip as though he were a doll. For all the white matron's cap upon her sunny locks, her face showed young and flower-fresh as she turned to smile at them. When they had lost sight of her, Brand spoke reflectively: "Women are as helpless in hardships as a rowan tree in the open; but if they must be in the world, let them be like that." "It is a good thing to be in a country where there are but seven women," Gard assented. What Alrek would have said no one knows; for they reached just then a corner of the last booth, and rounding it, encountered Karlsefne returning from an early search for a favorite hound which he now carried in his arms, badly torn by fighting. As he was coming out of the snow-mantled grove, so he might have been coming out of the finest trading booth in Norway, so splendid were his garments of blue, so rich the silvery furs that bordered them. On the iron of his hair and his beard and his bushy brows, the morning light was sparkling like rime frost; and a glint of kindly humor lighted his deep-set eyes as they fell upon the approaching three. "I salute the Chief of the Vinland Champions and his men!" he greeted them. "We old bones need to look to ourselves when young blood is on the trail so early." Drawing up his soldierly form in salute, the Sword-Bearer replied that young blood had need to stir early when it had young appetites to provide for. "That is true," the Lawman assented; then added politely: "Yours is certainly a hard-working household, chief. I hope your debt to me does not lie heavy on your shoulders?" Involuntarily the Champions of Vinland exchanged wistful glances, and their chief paused to consider his answer. "Why, the truth of the case is this," he said at last. "It is only a little time that is left over after we have got the food and fuel which are needed to keep us going; and since we have to spend that time in working out our debt to you, there is left no chance whatever to employ ourselves with accomplishments or skin-hunting. That some have found this hard can not be denied, yet it should not be thought either that our knees are in any way weakening under us." "Ah?" said Karlsefne, and stood a while stroking the head of the hound that had just strength enough to lick his hand. Presently he spoke with much graciousness: "It is an old saying that 'necessities should be taken into consideration.' Let us therefore look upon the debt as paid. In a short time to come you will find your hands full with ship-building. I expect that your boat will stand to Vinland's aid and strengthen us greatly, when it is ready." So unexpected was the turn that for a time it took their breath away, but at last their chief recovered enough of his to answer gratefully: "To let the matter rest so would be a great help for us, Karlsefne. If we do not serve Vinland well, it will not be for lack of trying." "That is well-spoken, as was to be expected from you," Karlsefne made courteous return; whereupon they shook hands all around with the ceremony which becomes a dealing between chiefs. After they had parted from the Lawman, however, and were skimming through the grove which was the back dooryard of the little settlement, dignity gave way to delight. Reaching the trail that zigzagged up the bluff, they streaked down it cheering, and cheering slid far along the sparkling track of the river. Though black rifts yawned here and there in the middle of the stream, the ice within a hundred paces of the shores was as solid as a rock and as smooth-carpeted as a floor, a shining temptation to any with red blood in his veins. From sliding they went to racing, cleaving the air like swallows. There is no knowing when they would have stopped if they had not been halted, on turning a bend in the river, by the sight of smoke curling up from behind in a low white bank ahead of them. In the same breath Brand cried: "Skraellings!" and Gard cried, "Dwarfs!" At which Alrek repeated the last word with lifted eyebrows: "_Dwarfs?_" Somewhat shamefacedly, Gard explained himself: "I said that in jest. It came into my mind how Biorn Herjulfsson's men used to think that this land was inhabited by them. But the rocks are not large enough here. It is more likely to be Skraellings." "It is most likely to be some of our own hunters," Alrek dissented, "but it lies on our shoulders to investigate. We will leave our skees on the ice and creep close to the bank and listen; the tongue they speak, and their voices, will tell us something. If they are Skraellings, remember to behave well toward them, but on no account allow them to get hold of your knives. Karlsefne would blame the man strongly who should give them a weapon." The plan was simple enough to carry out, for the shore was flat at the river's edge. With a sudden freak of perverseness, Brand decided that doffing his skees was unnecessary, and edged his way up sidewise, the six-foot runners threatening more than once to trip his neighbor. But they did not have to get very close to hear, as the place was still and the voices loud. Their first expression was disappointment, for the language spoken was nothing more novel than Norse, and the voice was the hoarse one of the vagabond Greenlander known as Faste the Fat. "----they are contented with no better excitement than hunting," he was saying. "And to get only such wealth as is to be got from trading with Skraellings," added the grumble of Ale the Greedy. In the faces of the eavesdroppers disappointment began to give place to curiosity. "Better two followers like you than twenty cinder-biters," returned a third voice, harsh and sneering for all the flattery of the words. "I have not brought my news forward in the hall because I do not want the chiefs to take the power out of my hands. I have told only men who----" Snap! Snap! Recognizing the Huntsman, Brand had moved involuntarily; and his cumbersome foot-gear came in contact with a bush and the dry twigs broke. Before the lads could more than straighten, the giant form of Thorhall appeared at the top of the bank, his knife bare in his hand. "Prying again!" he snarled, in his small eyes so evil a look that Gard's fingers began instinctively to shape runes against charm-spells, and Alrek's deliberate voice became fiercely swift as at a challenge. "A man must be doing something which he expects to have pried into who makes his council-hall in the wastes," he retorted. "We thought the smoke must be from a Skraelling cook-fire, and crept up to see." The Huntsman tossed his knife back to its case, and his anger sheathed itself in contempt. "If a man in the wastes is unable to escape the meddling of fools, what would he not have to endure who remained in camp?" To that there did not appear to be any satisfactory answer; and as he remained standing with folded arms, plainly awaiting their departure, there did not seem to be any adequate reason for staying. The only revenge they could take was to move away in the most deliberate manner possible and mutter scathing comment to one another, feeling all the while his eyes like knife-blades in their backs. "It has something to do with that bag of his." "He is trying to get another ship-load of fools to accompany him south--" "If he thinks the Weathercock will lend him another boat--" "None but the scum will listen to him--" "I wonder if Ale and the Fat One were ashamed to show themselves?" "Let us turn around suddenly when we get to this bend and see if they are not all looking after us." Agreeing, they reached the bend and turned,--but it was a day of surprises. Though each boy would have taken oath that he felt that gaze on him as he wheeled, neither Huntsman nor followers were anywhere to be seen. And as they stood staring, Gard uttered a smothered cry and flung out his arm in another direction, toward the middle of the stream. Through a broken place in the ice not twenty paces away, two claw-like hands were reaching up; as the trio gazed, a head followed, covered with carrot-yellow hair which hung in dripping points about two starting eyes set in a ghastly blue-white face. Finally a white-cloaked body raised itself over the edge of the ice and stood before them. Whether it would retreat or advance none waited to see. With a yell of "Hallad!" Gard was off up the river at a deer's pace, the others at his heels. When he came to another place where the bank was flat, he turned his long toes up it and plunged into the forest, the others still following. Guiding six-foot runners in and out between trees, however, is less easy; and before long they were forced to moderate their speed. As soon as they did that, Alrek's wonted coolness was able to overtake him. He stopped disgustedly. "We are simpletons to run. Hallad would do us no harm." Gard devoted the only breath he had to triumph: "You do not claim that it is Tunni, now!" "It is Hallad," the Red One agreed in a gasp. "If we could cut off his head and put it between his feet, that would make him rest quiet." The Ugly One shook his black mane. "You forget that a wave-covered man can not be dug up again. It is said to be a sign that they have been received well when drowned men come back after their death; yet Hallad has scarcely the look of one who has been well entertained----" "He was always wanting something different from what he had," Brand sniffed. "However that is, it is unlikely that he has come back to make trouble," Alrek said. "That is only done by men who were unruly before their death. Hallad had less spirit than a wood-goat when he was alive. I think we were fools to run." "If you had been that kind of a fool on the Cape of the Crosses, you would have made more by it," Gard muttered in rare resentfulness,--though he was not rash enough to speak so that his chief could hear him. The Sword-Bearer on his side knew better than to ask over. Instead he said: "This is the first time I have been in this part of the country. I wonder what kind of game they have here," and moved leisurely away where a treeless space left a white page crossed and recrossed with woodland runes. Preferring to discuss their last adventure before they sought a new one, the other two sat down to wait for him. But they were hardly settled before his whistled call brought them again to their feet. They found him kneeling beside a trench-like trail, testing with his bared hands the condition of the snow that had fallen back into it. "If this were a five days' journey north, I should declare them elk tracks," he said. "Snorri of Iceland shot many a one of them up there, last winter, which he thought greatly superior to any we have in Norway. I would give my head for another elk hunt." He remained gazing at the trail in pleased retrospection, which moved the two Greenlanders to say enviously that they had never seen an elk. "You will find it sport when you do," the Sword-Bearer assured them. Then he came out of his musing and arose, once more Alrek the Chief, brief and purposeful. "They can scarcely be less than deer's, however; and they were made this morning. It is easier to find tracks than to find what made them, as it is one thing to sight land across drift-ice and another to land on it; but we shall have poor luck if we can not get our meat out of this." Instinctively they fell again under his leadership, straightening as he rose and turning their runners in the direction he was facing. "Certainly the snow could not be in better condition," Brand gave tacit assent, and reassured himself of the safety of the quiver at his back. "I knew that we should have luck to-day, because I heard a wolf howl last night," Gard added, with a hitch to his belt. Then they glided away, single file, under the white arches spanning the white aisles. CHAPTER X THROUGH WHICH THE CHAMPIONS CHASE VINLAND ELK Through the forest and out like flitting shadows, pausing only to make sure that the trail they were following was fresher than any of those which crossed it. Over a pond and across a bog and zigzag up a hill,--they had not grazed a stone or snapped a twig; it seemed that every stride must bring them in sight of the game. Then, on the other side of the slope, Alrek blundered. Descending at lightning speed, he turned his head to look behind, and in so doing unconsciously straightened his body ever so little from the required bend. In a breath he was seated on the snow while his skees finished the coast without him, at the bottom dashing noisily against a stone. Instantly, from somewhere in the white distance, came like an echo the sound of crashing timber, a sound which passed so quickly that if only one had heard it he might have doubted his ears. All three had heard it, however; and the two who reached the bottom still shod looked scathingly upon the third as he came plunging down, breaking through the crust to his knees wherever it covered a hollow. "I advise you to tie yourself on," one of them jeered; and the other one gibed: "Would you like to hold to my cloak in going down the next hill?" If he would, the Sword-Bearer did not admit it; but it was something that he was reduced to silence. They swung after him in high feather when he was once more on his runners and off across the valley. Beyond the next rise there was a plain, fringed by a thicket; and there in the packed and trampled snow and the gnawed branches and peeled bark they found yet more tangible proof of what they had lost. "We should have got a herd if nobody had spoiled it," Gard grunted. Before Brand also could voice his reproach, Alrek--darting here and there among the trees in search of the new trail--uttered his low whistle and was off like a hare. Like hounds after hare they were after him, and Vinland trees looked their first upon real skee-running. Speed, not silence, was the object now. More than once their iron-shod staffs rang sharply against the rocks as they thrust out the poles to change their course, rudder-like. Finding coasting too slow now, they took the last half of each hill at a leap. And when a plain stretched its smooth surface before them, or a frozen pond or a marsh, their speed was the speed of a deer at his best. And now the hunted were far from their best. The holes which their sharp hoofs had at first cut so cleanly through the crust were becoming haggled. Farther on, the trail itself that had been so straight began to show the wavering of the panic-stricken. At last the hunters came to a place where a wisp of bloody foam stained the white. Only a rigid economy of breath kept back a cheer, and they put the energy saved into fresh speed. A jump over a pile of boulders, a spurt over a low knoll, and there in the open space beyond was the prey, six panting froth-flecked creatures, stricken staring with terror. "But what in the Troll's name are they?" cried Gard and Brand together, at sight of the huge, shaggy, ungainly bodies with antlers like shovels and enormous noses like nothing they had ever seen in their lives. At the same instant Alrek answered them with the glad cry: "Vinland elk!" The next instant he had added a command to halt, checking his own advance by a thrust of his skee-staff into the snow, and following that act by casting it aside and swiftly unslinging his bow: "Be on your guard! They have not deer's tempers." Even as he spoke, the bull in the lead flung up his mighty antlered head and, while the other five moved on, wheeled and faced the foe, like a chief covering his people's retreat. Alrek paid him the tribute of an admiring murmur, but the withdrawal of the five set the Greenlanders wild with exasperation. "Charge him!" "Finish him!" "Get him out of the way!" they cried savagely, and started forward even before their arrows were on their bow-strings. The only thing they knew clearly after that was that the Vinland elk did not wait to be charged. Gard, who was a length ahead, had suddenly a glimpse of eyes like balls of green fire; something which had looked as fixed as a boulder became, lightning-quick, a hurtling mass descending on him, and he had a vision of terrible sharp-edged forefeet that could mangle a man to jelly. Dropping his weapons, he turned to run, but lapped his skees and fell headlong. Falling, he uttered a hoarse cry as he saw Brand's hastily aimed arrow bury itself harmlessly in the animal's flank. Then, as he rolled backward, he caught sight of Alrek and regained hope. Only the Sword-Bearer's brown cheeks, flaming crimson, showed his excitement; the rock beside him was no steadier than the arm that held his bow. Drawing back the string with all his strength, he sent an arrow through the shaggy neck where it joins the body; and the great beast fell forward on his knees and died without a quiver. As the animal sank, Gard arose, breathing curses on his own awkwardness while he snatched up his scattered weapons, his eyes fixed greedily on the five disappearing over a ridge. And Brand cried fiercely: "There is as much ahead, and more besides!" and leaped forward. And Alrek plucked forth another arrow and drew himself up to spring over the dead forester lying high before him--drew himself up and then paused and hesitated, gazing down at the mighty shape. As nobly warrior-like as he had made his desperate charge, so nobly warrior-like he lay in his death, a leader who had given his life to save his people. Slowly the young Viking stretched forth his hand. "Stop!" he ordered. Poised in mid-air, as it were, they looked over their shoulders at him, crying impatiently: "What is the matter?" This time the Chief of the Champions gave his gesture authority. "Come back. To kill them also would be a low-minded act. He took his death-wound to save them. We have all we need. Come back." An instant they balanced there, gazing at the white ridge over which the last dark form was disappearing. Then the obedience bred in the bones of Gard the Thrall-Born turned him back to his master. "You are the chief," he muttered. At the same time Brand the Red made up his mind. "Though you should spend all your breath, you would not hinder me from going!" he cried, and sprang forward. The arrow which Alrek had drawn forth was still in his hand; in the grasp of his other hand was his bow. Fitting the shaft on the string, he spoke his warning: "It is unlikely that you will do any hunting for some time if you do not come back." As a flame to a dry leaf, so was a threat to Brand's temper. Hissing defiance, it flared up, and he redoubled his speed. Above the creak of his skees he heard at the same instant two sounds,--Gard's voice crying: "Would you kill him?" and the twang of Alrek's bow-string. Then his right arm dropped at his side with an arrow through it. His chief had foretold truly that he would do no more hunting for some time. It was as much in rage as pain that he caught at the shaft, cursing. Gard's relief took the form of boisterous laughter; but the Sword-Bearer, as soon as he could make himself heard, spoke gravely: "If you think you paid too much for your big words, you have only your own foolishness to thank for making the bargain." Coming slowly back to them, still holding his arm, Brand's face was as white as it had been that day on shipboard; but there was no less of a swagger in his bearing. "Who says I paid too much?" he panted. "I shall say what I choose though you shoot into me every arrow of your quiver. _I_ find no fault with the bargain!" Alrek's gravity yielded to one of his short sudden laughs. "Now if you are satisfied, it is certain that I am," he said, and studied the Red One with twinkling eyes. Amusement was still alight in them when he stepped forward and held out his hand, yet there was also in his manner a new cordiality. "It has never happened to me before to meet a sprout to equal you," he declared. "I foretell that I shall certainly kill you some time, but I promise that I will carve runes about you afterward." "How do you know that it will be you who does the rune-carving?" Brand retorted; but at the same time he yielded his palm with flattered willingness. A little later he even yielded his wounded arm that the hand which put the shaft in might cut it out again. Twilight never gathered in upon a more contented party than these three weary hunters, sprawled luxuriously on the fragrant heaps of evergreen boughs around the leaping fire, fed to repletion on the daintiest food they knew, pouring their hearts out in discussion of the day's adventures. They fell asleep wrangling over the placing of the antlers on the booth wall. CHAPTER XI TELLING HOW TRADE WITH THE SKRAELLINGS CAME TO A MYSTERIOUS END The antlers were finally hung over the high-seat, while the hide made a blanket for the bunk below, and the effect was so imposing that every Champion went fur-mad as soon as he saw them. For a month afterward, it took all the chief's authority to keep the fuel pile supplied and cooks at their post. Every lad not told off--and told sternly off--for public service or private drudgery, spent his days in ranging the country in search of spoil, and his nights in dreaming of hunts wherein each dead tree should turn out to be the den of a hibernating bear which he would slay with valorous ease and bring home to deck the high-seat, even as Leif the Lucky had done before him. The way in which they did finally come into possession of a bearskin, however, was really more dream-like than their dream. Nothing could have been more peaceful than the beginning of the happening, in the women's room of Karlsefne's booth. Loafing after the noonday meal, Erlend the Amiable had stretched his plump length over the cushions of a bench. At one end of the fire, the long-kirtled forms of Gudrid and her women moved to and fro before their looms. At the other, where the firelight lay brightest, the Sword-Bearer was playing wolf with the baby,--a game evoking so much rumbling growling and squealing laughter that presently it took precedence of the conversation. "You are spoiling him, Kinsman Alrek," Gudrid said, looking around the edge of her loom with a smile which belied her reproach. The prettiest of the bondmaids gave her braids a pettish flirt. "That is so," she confirmed. "Yesterday, when it happened that I was at the door trying to talk to Hauk Votsson, I was obliged to turn around and growl between every two words or the child would have deafened us. I do not know what Hauk thought of me." "If you wish, I will ask him," Erlend offered,--a piece of flippancy which cost him his comfort, as to save his ears he was obliged to take to instant flight around the looms. But Alrek, sitting back on his heels, shaking back his long hair, remained intent upon the cradle. "It is the greatest fun," he said, "to see the cub try to frown at me. His eyebrows are like the fuzz on a chicken, yet he tries to make them look like his namesake's, before a laugh gets the better of him. Watch now!" Small Snorri had been there but seven months; he was still wonderfully new. The maid and Erlend left their chase, and Gudrid came from her loom, and together they watched breathlessly the knitting of the downy brows above the blue eyes, and the slow dawning of the unwilling smile, brighter and brighter, until in each soft cheek a dimple broke. "He is going to be in every respect like his father!" Gudrid cried, falling on her knees beside him. And she was smothering him with kisses, and the others were looking on sympathetically, when the door was flung open before little Olaf the Fair, rosy and breathless. "Where is Alrek?" he panted. "I want--Oh! Alrek! What do you think I have seen?" "Hallad?" shrieked the three bondmaids together. "Skraellings! Black as crowberries. Crossing the open space west of here. With big packs on their backs. I was up in that tree by the wheat-shed, watching for Brand to slip on the slide I had made to get revenge on him for cuffing me, and--" His voice was lost in the babel of exclamations that came from the bondmaids and from the men peering around the hall door. Gudrid rose from beside the cradle with a gesture of authority. "Too much noise is here. Since Karlsefne is away it behooves us to be especially careful how we behave. Run, some one of you, to the Icelanders' booth. I know that Snorri is not there, but if it happen that Biorn is, ask him to get a following together and stand ready to receive the wild men. And since it is likely that they will want to buy the same dairy wares as before, Melkorka, you may have charge--but there! Tch! Your heedlessness is such that you would give them three times as much as they required. I shall have to portion, it out myself. The child I will leave with you, Roswitha--No, you would forget him if a man so much as looked through the door at you! Kinsman!" She laid a white hand on Alrek's brown one as he would have moved past her. "He is more fond of you than of any one, and I would trust you before a hundred girls,--so long as you keep his fingers away from that hatchet in your belt. Will you not stay with him the little while that I must be in the dairy?" Stay with a baby while the long-looked-forward-to trading went on without him! Frowning involuntarily, the Sword-Bearer hesitated,--and during that pause the Fate who was spinning his life-thread sat with suspended breath, so much hung on his answer. It can not be denied that it came somewhat grudgingly when it did come. "Why--if it _will_ be a _little_ while, kinswoman," he stipulated, turning back. Gudrid waited to hear no more; with the last word she was off, sweeping the maids like chaff before her. Erlend and Olaf had long since vanished; and now the men could be heard clattering out of the great next room that was their headquarters. From the green behind the booths came the clamor of barking dogs and the thud of running feet accompanied by excited voices, now far away, now just outside the door. Gradually the scattered chatter blended into a hum; the hum rose higher and higher; then fell suddenly in a hush so deep that it seemed to the Sword-Bearer he could hear the pat of bare feet and the rustle of boughs put aside; and his fancy conjured up a picture of dark forms with bright-eyed shaggy heads bent under shaggier packs, emerging single file from the white depths of the forest. Directly after, the sound of strange guttural voices speaking words he had never heard told him that some part of his vision was correct. "Oh, you great hindrance!" he sighed to the tyrant in the cradle. But as even while he complained, he obeyed the command of the chubby fists by picking up the soft little body as gently as a woman would have done, and tossing and dandling it in his strong brown hands as no woman could have done, the tyrant was in no way cast down but clung to him confidingly, catching his breath with squeals of delight and winding up by burying both fists in the brown mane with a rapture of gurgling laughter. So Gudrid found them when she came in, the color of haste in her fair face; and her smile was very lovely as she took her baby from his guard. "Whether you are like your father or not, Alrek my kinsman, you have a good disposition," she said; then went on swiftly: "I hurried because I want to remind you of something. I beg of you, do not forget that Karlsefne has forbidden any weapon whatever to be traded to the hatchet-men, no matter what loose property they offer for it. Do not forget, or let your men forget." Alrek's glance reassured her. "I will remember," he said quietly. "Then go quickly! They have only just opened their packs." She gave him a little shove, but she might have saved herself the trouble for he was out of the door at a bound. Coming out into the gathering was like coming upon some strange new-world fair. Everywhere over the white of the snow-covered earth, against the gray of the snow-filled sky, the Northmen's gay cloaks made rings of bright color around the dark fur-clad forms of the wild men. Everywhere the sounds of fair-time had vanquished the stillness of the forest,--the hails of eager barterers, the boasts of jubilant purchasers, even the familiar din of fighting dogs wherever a Norse hound and one of Skraelling breed were able to find a spot free from interfering boot-toes. On the step before the dairy door, the yellow heads of the three pretty bondmaids showed above a hedge of bristling black locks; the love of trading, so long denied, getting the better of any fear they might have felt of their uncouth customers. As Alrek looked, Roswitha with one hand delivered a cheese ball into a copper-colored palm and with the other drew in a magnificent wolf-skin; while Melkorka, her saucy Irish face twinkling with mischief, ladled curds from her bowl into the gaping mouth of an enormous Skraelling, standing before her with half-shut eyes and an air of solemn content. [Illustration: She ladled curds from her bowl into the gaping mouth.] "If only we could build cows as well as ships out of timber!" the Sword-Bearer wished as he watched them with a grin. He was brought out of his reverie by the appearance of a shadow on the snow at his feet. Though he had not heard the faintest sound of an approach, he looked up to find a wild man as dark as the shadow and almost as tall standing at his side. Over the Skraelling's left shoulder and arm was hung a bearskin which took the Viking's breath to look at; his right arm he was stretching toward Alrek's sword, a glitter of indescribable craftiness in his beady eyes. It was so like the stories that the Irish monks told of the wiles of the Evil One that Alrek's recoil had in it even a touch of superstitious fear. "No," he said severely. "No!" And without further parley, he turned and hastened in the direction in which Brand's red locks glowed between the gray of cap and cloak, like fire amid ashes. "I want to know at once that you have remembered not to trade them any weapons," he demanded with an urgent hand on the Red One's arm. Once Brand would have shaken off that hand resentfully; now he looked around with affectionate impudence. "Which are you the more anxious to know,--that I have remembered or that I have not traded?" he parried. The Sword-Bearer let his hand fall with a breath of relief. "Since you can make light of the matter, I know that no harm has been done; if you had been disobedient, you would have hurled the news at me like a spear. I trust you to keep on remembering it." Brand made him a salute of mock deference. "I will heed your orders in this as in everything," he mouthed the formal phrase of submission. "Now I hope you will do better than that," his chief returned; then hailed the Hare, scudding past, and bade him summon every member of the band to immediate council. When at last they were all before him, and he had obtained from them individually an assurance that the order was still unbroken, he delivered the command over again with all the weight he could bring to bear. They received the reminder as insult added to injury. "I do not think I stand in need of telling when already for my poorest spear I have refused three wolf-skins!" the Bull cried, wagging his yellow head; while Ketil the Glib mocked openly: "Behold the caution! Lose no time in punishing Erlend who has traded them a brooch with a pin as long as my finger." Even small Olaf sniffed rebelliously. "If I had known _that_ was all you were going to say, I doubt if I would have come. I thought you were going to offer us your red cloak to trade with." "My red cloak?" Alrek repeated. Forty eyes fastened themselves wistfully on the garment, while at least ten voices answered: "Of course it is not to be expected--" "Yet you could buy the most costly furnishings--" "They would like it better than curds even--" "Njal got the finest gray fur only for a kerchief with one stripe of red." "Think if this were cut in strips!" "Another cloak would keep you equally warm--" "Karlsefne would give you a king's mantle for the asking----" Shaking his head, Alrek folded the stained drapery to him with both arms. "You show too much generosity! I can tell you that you would not get this though it would buy all the fur in Vinland. My father gave it to me at the time of my first Viking voyage; while one thread holds to another, I shall wear it." Then he unfolded his arms with a gesture more encouraging. "But it may be that we shall not fare so ill, for I have hit upon another plan. I have a suit of feasting-clothes of red velvet----" Not one of the twenty waited to hear more; after the Hare the band was off like the tail after a comet. The Sword-Bearer considered himself lucky that he reached the booth in time to secure one sleeve for his own ventures. After that the trading was like trading in a dream. Even after the first recklessness had passed and they had cut the velvet into strips no wider than their thumbs, the same sizes of skins were given in exchange. Erlend, the first to run out of purchase money, was made custodian of the spoils; and the rapidity with which the pile grew behind him in what remained of the short afternoon was enough to heat cooler blood. By the falling of twilight, Alrek announced the whimsical determination to try if he could not capture the bearskin itself with what remained of his red sleeve and the foot of a red stocking which he had found. Because of the failing light, quenched early by a gentle fall of snow, the trading had ceased before he started. Here and there, where light streamed out through open doors, the forest men stooped in groups, packing for departure all wares not previously bound around their heads or bestowed in their stomachs. From group to group he went without finding the tall Skraelling, until suddenly he caught a glimpse of him passing the last door in the line, the door of their own booth. It looked as though the great skin was still draping his shoulders, so Alrek started leisurely toward him and reached the wheat shed this side of the Champions' booth. Then he slipped on Olaf's slide and fell, striking his head against a great oak root. That was the last thing he remembered,--and he did not remember that for some time. The next thing he was conscious of was sitting in his high-seat in the booth, in silence and alone. The flickering firelight that showed him the stretch of empty benches revealed gradually to his bewildered eyes a dark huddled shape on the white surface of the table in front of him. What it was or how it got there, he knew no more than what he was doing there himself. He wondered dully if the Huntsman could have put a spell upon him, until--like a wind-breath through a fog--came the recollection that a sailor had once told him of having had a similar experience, and that it had been caused by striking his head in falling through a hatchway on the ship. Moving his head, the Sword-Bearer found it as sore as an unhealed wound, and that part of his problem was solved. But where had he been, and why was the booth empty at this time of day? It was a relief to have the door open upon Gard's hulking long-armed figure, powdered with glistening snow. When the Ugly One had taken three steps beyond the threshold, he saw the chief in the high-seat and stopped with a loud exclamation. Alrek grinned faintly. "Your surprise is no greater than mine. I should be thankful if you would tell me how I got here. No," as Gard made a gesture of unbelief, "I declare myself in earnest. I suppose I fell and struck my head somewhere. Do you know where I have been? And why the booth is empty?" When he had come around the fire and looked curiously at the Sword-Bearer, Gard's doubts were laid. "The proof of this is that the left side of your face is scratched and dirty," he said. "It is likely that you fell on Olaf's slide. You were going in that direction, the last I saw of you. I forgot you after the screech." "What screech?" "The yell that started the Skraellings, of course." "What Skraellings?" "_What_ Skraellings!" Gard echoed; but Alrek's memory had stirred. "I remember! They were here trading. I came out of the women's house and saw them--" He got upon his feet. "Are they gone?" Gard began to laugh. "You _are_ addled! I should have thought the racket sufficient to wake Thorwald in his grave. It is certain that they are gone! At the first note of the yell they dropped their packs and plunged into the woods, howling like trolls. What frightened them this time, no one knows. Erlend and Brand followed, and also some of the other men of the band, but the creatures seemed to melt and vanish. The men are only just coming back. That is why no one is here yet to get the meal." Coming down to the fire, Alrek kicked the logs about, partly to mend the burning, partly to vent his irritation. "Never have I heard of a fall so foolishly timed. I could give my head another knock--What is this? Fur?" He stretched his hand toward the table. "A bearskin? What a--_the bearskin the Skraelling offered for my sword?_" Memory came back like a rush of fire, lighting the dark corners of his mind, flaming from his eyes as he turned upon the slouching figure. "How did it come here?" Gard began to speak with unwonted swiftness: "It is true, I forgot to tell you that I bought it myself. You must recollect that things were not so dear at the end of the trading. I gave only a piece of your tunic and--and my ring with the red stone. I would not have parted with that ring for anything less. He liked very much to get it, and put it on his finger as soon--" He broke off as Alrek's hands fell upon his shoulders, forcing him down on his knees where the fire could light his face. For the moment they were neither comrade and comrade, nor chief and follower, but master and thrall. The Sword-Bearer's low voice seemed a hiss between his teeth. "Swear to me that you gave no weapon for it! Take oath on the cross of my sword hilt!" Gard reached out even eagerly. "I take oath on the cross, so help me Frey and Njord and Odin!" After a while Alrek's hands relaxed their grasp. It was some time before his eyes loosened their hold, but at last they also released the Ugly One and fell away, back to the fur. "It is good that you are able to swear to it," he said grimly. Brushing from his knee the ashes into which he had been forced, the Ugly One grunted. "Do you think I am a fool like Brand? Even if I did not care for your orders, would I not be apt to heed Karlsefne's?" "It is a good thing that you do," the chief said again. CHAPTER XII IN WHICH THE CHAMPIONS FEEL THEIR IMPORTANCE Smiling, Gudrid drew out the head she had thrust through the booth door at Erlend's urgent invitation. "It is as splendid as can be in every way. I do not wonder that you want to give a feast to display it." A little consciousness was in Erlend's laugh as he shut the door and walked beside her through the grove. "It is not altogether to display it," he protested. "In a few weeks the spring games will be held; it is the custom of every one to give a feast at that season. I tell you we are going to show some great feats. We exercise ourselves every afternoon. They are practising now in an open place which the chief found in the woods. That is where I am going." Pausing, Gudrid drew higher on her hip her accustomed burden, a bundle wrapped in white rabbit-skins from which looked forth a little rosy face. "Is Alrek there?" she asked. "Then I think I will try my luck in that direction, if so be they will allow a woman to come near?" "I think they will not mind your coming if you go right away again," Erlend concluded after some consideration. Apparently she felt equal to the risk, for she entered with him the broad trough-like path trodden through the snow of the grove. "I go only for a walk," she said. "We have been too much shut in the house, the child and I, since that frightful trading day." It seemed to the Amiable One that she shivered as she spoke, so he observed politely: "It is a bad thing that you were made sick by it. Melkorka says that you even saw a ghost." "Melkorka blunders much in her speaking and blundered twice as much in her hearing," Gudrid answered. "I said only that I got so full of fear that I expected to see ghosts. Sitting alone in the house with the child, it came into my head what might happen if the Skraellings should turn an evil side, with Karlsefne away and that good-natured Biorn not expecting evil. And the more I thought, the stranger the noises outside seemed to me and the stranger shapes the shadows took, until once I was so sure that one was a Skraelling stealing in upon me that I bent over and covered the cradle with my body,--and just then came that cry!" She pressed her hand to her ear at the recollection. Erlend smiled indulgently. "Now did you think it so terrible? It is likely that one of them looked into the cattle-shed and saw the bull--" The glance her blue eyes sent over her shoulder silenced him even before her words. "It would be a strange wonder if you could tell me news about it! Was I not here at the time the bull frightened them? I heard how they screamed then, and it was as different from this screech as day from night. In this cry there were death-sounds and no life-sounds. My foster-mother, Halldis, was knowing in weird matters. I know of what I speak, though all men think otherwise. And I know enough to wish to forget the mishap. Let us not talk of it any more. I wish to enjoy this fine weather." It was a day to be enjoyed. Beyond the network of brown branches the sky was dazzling blue, with here and there a fleecy cloud. Dazzling white, snow lay in the curves of the boughs and filled the hollows of the ground; though on the ridges where the bright sun touched, the brown earth showed through. Everywhere, the wind was moistly, sweetly fresh. "I do not wonder that it makes you kick up your heels like young horses," Gudrid laughed, when she came at last to the level treeless space in whose middle six Champions leaped and wrestled, while ten more lounged at one side, applauding or hissing the wrestlers as their critical judgment decided. At sight of Erlend, the ten waved their hands in careless greeting; at sight of the kirtled figure of Gudrid, they sat up in unmistakable disapproval; and a long lean wrestler with a mane of red hair stamped petulantly when he was obliged to retire from the field to the bordering trees where his tunic and cloak awaited him. "Though no more than seven women are in Vinland, a man can not get away from them though he go into the heart of a wood," he sputtered. "Hush! She will hear you," muttered Gard, who stood beside him; whereupon the Red One's voice rose in exasperation: "I do not care whether she hears me or not! Will you keep to what concerns you? I have told you before this that I am able to pay the price of my deeds." From under the tunic he was about to pull down over his head, Gard looked at him irefully. "And I have told you," he retorted, "that one can not always tell what the price of his deed will be." "I do not care _what_ it is!" bellowed Brand. Harald Grettirsson turned on them with a grin. "What ails you two that you have done nothing but quarrel since the trading day? Cool off a little," he jeered, and suddenly ran into them so that they were jostled off the high ground into a hollow and sank in snow up to their waists. Foreseeing vengeance, Grettirsson took promptly to his heels, and the desertion of the three completed the interruption begun by the appearance of Gudrid's blue hood. Gudrid took her departure with tactful promptness. "Now you need not trouble yourself to hunt for fine words," she forestalled the somewhat embarrassed greeting of her young kinsman. "I am well versed in the Viking laws about keeping women out; we have no other intention than to go directly back, the Frowner and I." Cordial as his relations with his kinswoman were, the chief could not ask her to alter her decision; but he reached out and took the bundle off her hip. "The Frowner is not a woman," he corrected. "I think he will like the noise better than the rattling of his string of shark's teeth. I will see to it that he comes to no harm." The mother yielded him doubtfully. "But do you know for certain that you will?" she demurred. "If he should get his hand on the hatchet in your belt--" "Why, he would be able to do more than I can," Alrek finished for her. "I have been unable to find my hatchet for weeks." Gudrid consented to smile. "I took for granted it was there. Then I will certainly leave him, for I should like him to be outdoors some while longer. I will send a thrall--a man-thrall--to fetch him." But it came about that small Snorri Thorfinnsson was returned to his mother by no such humble individual. With the shortening of the light and the lengthening of the shadows, Karlsefne the Lawman came through the wood on his way campward from a day's outing. Coming out in the open where a dozen Champions were fencing with a mighty clash and clatter, he would have apologized for the intrusion and kept on his way; but reaching the tree before which the red-cloaked chief sprawled on a great rug, drawling comment, he heard from the rabbit-skin bundle at the chiefs side a squeal of laughter which brought him to a standstill. "What have we here?" he asked in surprise. Rising to greet him, Alrek looked down at the bundle with a laugh. "It is likely that your son is going to make a Berserker, Karlsefne," he answered. "The more noise the swords make, the louder he laughs." The smile dawning on the Lawman's lips faded as his glance passed from the rabbit-skin bundle to the rug on which it lay. After a little he said gravely: "This is an unusually fine bearskin which you have, my young kinsman. I want to ask if it is the one the Skraellings brought, on that last trading day of which so much has been told?" It was so plain that the same misgiving was in his mind which had first risen to Alrek's, that the Sword-Bearer breathed a prayer of thankfulness that he had lost no time in making sure of Gard's good faith. He replied readily: "It is the same one, Karlsefne. One of my men had such luck in trading that he bought it when the price was lower than it had been." "Nevertheless, I should like much to know what he paid for it," said the Lawman. "Willingly," answered Alrek the Chief. "He paid a large piece of the red cloth which we had been trading with, and a ring with a red stone. The Skraelling liked the ring so well that he put it on as soon as he bought it." The Lawman's gaze became less unswervingly direct; presently its sharpness was softened by a twinkle. "Now if all the Northmen of the new lands continue to show such merchant talent, Vinland will soon be as great a trading place as Iceland," he laughed. Then, as if to remove any lingering doubt of his friendliness, he added that their taste in selecting a practising place was excellent; and that it appeared that they were doing good work in it; and that, if they would allow it, he should be glad to remain a while and look on. When permission had been graciously accorded, he sat down on the rug between the chief and the rabbit-skin bundle and showed himself the most inspiring audience the band had ever performed before. Under the stimulus of his applause, Njal the Jumper achieved a mark a finger's length higher than any he had made before; while Brand the Wrestler felt such power swell in his great limbs that for a time he seriously considered the idea of challenging Karlsefne himself. Later, he was glad that he had not, for when they stopped to rest and came and stood around the bearskin, Karlsefne borrowed Alrek's dwarf-made sword and rose up, towering and sinewy and straight as a pine, and showed them some feats that he had learned in the East,--the real East where the sun is so hot that all people are as brown as roasted fowls, and the rich eat snow for a luxury. Baring a knotted arm as lean as a spear-shaft, he did things that furnished them fireside gossip for the rest of the cold weather. When at last he had set the Frowner on his shoulder, and he and the Champions had parted in a glow of good-fellowship, Erlend said warmly: "Biorn Gudbrandsson is an open-handed chief, and Snorri of Iceland is shrewder than most men; but the one surpassing others in high-mindedness and knowing everything is Thorfinn Karlsefne. I think it an honor to our feast that he has consented to come to it." CHAPTER XIII GIVING THE REASON WHY THE SKRAELLINGS FLED It happened, however, that Thorfinn Karlsefne did not get back from his spring exploring trip in time for the games. Inspecting all the self-sown wheat-fields and natural vineyards in the vicinity, he had been gone a week; and the light of the momentous day had faded into twilight and the dusk in its turn had melted into moonlight, silvering the forest like a frost, before he came through it with his men. Meeting a ray of light from the last booth in the line and catching from the same source a faint note of revelry, he spoke smilingly to his partner, Snorri of Iceland: "I recollect now that we have missed great happenings. It is likely that if the light were good enough we should find heads and limbs strewed like pebbles over the plain." "What witches' stuff this moonlight is!" Snorri laughed in return. "As you spoke, it almost seemed to me as if I saw an arm down there." He nodded his head toward the ravine along whose brink they were walking; and old Grimkel, behind him, followed the motion with his one eye and grunted: "I see what you mean,--yonder where the moon strikes. It has the look of an arm." Still moving forward, Karlsefne also glanced down into the black pool of shadow. From the dark slope, something like a snag stood out so that the moonlight caught it and gave it a weird resemblance to a human hand with fingers wide-spread in the air. Looking down at it, he came slowly to a standstill. Presently, while the chat behind him ceased in surprise, he grasped a wiry bush on the brink and let himself over the edge until he could touch with his staff the dark mass from which the snag stood out. Using the staff like a pitchfork, he flung off the layers of sodden pine branches heaped there and bent to look again. Then he saw that the reason it looked like an arm was because an arm was what it was, lean and brown, outflung from a stark body lying face downward in the brush. Those waiting above heard his voice rise awfully from the shadow: "It is a Skraelling who has been murdered! Fetch torches!" Waiting for the lights to be brought, the men stood looking dumbly at one another and at the snag-like arm, in every mind the same thought. Once Karlsefne's deep tones interpreted their silence, tolling heavily through the darkness: "I do not know who has done this deed, but I know that in slaying this one man he has taken the lives of more men than tongue can number. If ever the Skraellings come again it will be to make warfare, and to save our lives we shall be forced to take more of theirs; and so it will go on through ages yet unborn, until a white face--which I had striven to make a sign of friendliness--will become to the wild men a token of bloodshed." A moment his voice rang out in terrible wrath: "Behold how the heedlessness of one man can overthrow the wisdom of a hundred!" Daring no answer, they awaited in silence the arrival of the torches. But when at last the lights had been brought and handed down, and they had descended after them, at least four spoke at once: "It is the Skraelling who offered the bear's hide!" "By Odin," cried a fifth, "I saw him walking in this direction shortly before the time of the scream! He must have fallen over the bank and lain all this while under the snow that was coming down." "What has become of the hide, however?" pondered Hjalmar Thick-Skull, before memory recalled to him whose booth the great skin was even now gracing as its chiefest treasure. "It must be that they bought it just before he was slain," Grimkel struck in hastily. But the Lawman took the torch from him and held it to each brown hand in turn. "No ring with a red stone is on any of the fingers," he said. Immediately after, Hjalmar, holding the other torch, uttered an exclamation: "Here is what slew him!" and they all crowded forward to look,--and looking, stood dumfounded. The Thick-Skulled said wonderingly: "Now I have several times heard it said that men believe Brand the Red gave the Skraelling a weapon for the skin, but no man guessed that a weapon had been given in this way." CHAPTER XIV SHOWING HOW DISGRACE CAME UPON ALREK THE CHIEF It was as though all the troubles of Vinland were gathered around that dark heap in the ravine, and all the pleasures were gathered around the Champions' hospitable fire. Built of juniper fagots whose sweetness blended with the fragrance of the pine branches carpeting the floor, it filled the air with the spicy aroma of Yule-tide; and Yule-tide cheer was on the long tables on either side the hearth, and Yule-tide mirth was on the faces above the board. Every leap of the flames revealed some new treasure of claw or hide or antler; and at each admiring tribute from their guests the Champions' hearts swelled with pride, so that they were obliged to relieve the pressure by echoing at the top of their lungs the song Rane was singing to chords from a home-made harp. The only flaw in their content was that Karlsefne was not there to see their glory. When an uproar among the dogs outside announced the arrival of a guest, they left everything to fix eager eyes on the opening door. The form that strode in out of the moonlight was Karlsefne's, followed by Snorri of Iceland, but the breath they had thought to spend in cheers went out in gasps as the dancing firelight showed his face. Stopping just within the threshold, he stood gripping his silver-shod staff in both hands before him, like a bar in the way of his wrath. From the high-seat, the young chief saluted him with troubled mien: "We bid you welcome, Karlsefne, and take it as an honor that you have come. I hope your journey has been according to your pleasure, and that nothing has happened which you dislike?" He made a sign that Erlend, in his feasting clothes of blue-and-silver, should act as master of ceremonies and conduct the distinguished guest to the seat prepared for him. The Lawman did not appear to heed the invitation. "I give you thanks for your greeting," he said, "but I will not conceal it from you that something has happened. Before this feast goes any further, I want to put some questions to your men." From some instinctive foreboding, Alrek glanced hastily across at Gard. Finding the Ugly One's dark face as lowering as a storm cloud, while Brand's beside him was aflash with excitement, the trouble in the young chief's eyes deepened. Yet he answered steadily: "You are over-chief in Vinland, Karlsefne, and must have your way about everything. Yet will you not first take the seat of honor----" "I will accept no hospitality here until this matter is cleared," the Lawman grimly cut him short; then turned upon the Ugly One. "I want to ask Gard Eldirsson what he paid the Skraelling for the skin yonder on the high-seat?" As he had given it each time before, Gard muttered his answer, without looking up: "I gave him a piece of red cloth and a ring with a red stone in it. He liked so well to get the ring that he put it on his finger as soon as he got it." Crack! the staff Karlsefne was gripping broke under the strain; it seemed that his voice also must break from his control. "It was not seen that he wore it to-day," he was beginning; when Brand arose, pushing back his goblet and bowl with a loud clatter. "If what you mean is that you have met that Skraelling and seen a knife in his belt instead of a ring on his hand," he said, "I will spare you the trouble of asking further by declaring that I traded it to him myself. Gard lies when he says that he bought the skin. It happened that from behind a tree he saw me give the weapon; and because he expected that Alrek would slay me for daring it, he sought to save trouble by making up the ring-story before I got a good chance to tell what I had done. I gave him no thanks for it, as I do not lack the boldness to stand behind any deed I do. I held my tongue only because I could not speak without bringing him into trouble. Now I will hold it no longer, and you may do what you like when my chief is through with me." He flashed his leader his glance of affectionate insolence, and grinned at the look he got in return. But before Alrek could answer, Karlsefne spoke: "You would have me believe that your chief does not know of this matter?" The Red One tossed his long locks with a flourish which suggested that he was enjoying the excitement of the moment. "No more than the bench before you," he answered. "He himself had started out to make an offer for the skin, but he slipped on the ice and muddled his wits so that he did not even hear the yell or know how he got into the booth, until he found himself there with the fur before him----" "Was it you who brought the fur into the booth?" Karlsefne interrupted him. But Gard took the answer out of Brand's mouth: "No, it was I who did that. When the wild men began yelling and running, I saw Brand drop the skin and run after them; and I picked it up and brought it into the booth before I followed him. When I came back, Alrek was sitting there and asked me where he had been." He turned toward the high-seat as though he would address a word of apology to him who sat there, but the pause was shattered by an unpleasant laugh from Snorri of Iceland. "I call Loke as witness," he ejaculated, "that though I have dealt with men in France and men in England and all that are nearer than those, I have never seen given such a running-over measure of lies!" "They are like saplings drifted ashore that one picks up for their good shape and finds to be worm-eaten," Karlsefne responded; and the violence of the anger he was holding back shook his towering frame and vibrated through his deep voice. "Yet should it be kept in mind that these two lied in order to assist a comrade. Only Alrek Ingolfsson lied for himself." In his place Alrek the Chief arose, his lips forming a question; but Karlsefne stayed it with uplifted hand. "I will make it plain that I do not wish to tempt you to further falsehood. I tell you openly that I know you to be the man who slew the Skraelling----" "Slew?" repeated Alrek Sword-Bearer. And "Slew!" cried the chorus of Champions; then divided into scattered cries: "It was his death-yell--" "They took it as a warning--" "The next time they come, it will be in war-clothes." Hearing this last, Brand hammered the table with his fist. "Now I know who killed him!" he cried joyfully. "It was Thorhall the Huntsman! More than anything else he wanted to break off trade with the Skraellings and stir the camp to discontent----" "Now your tongue goes faster than your mind," the Iceland chief interrupted him. "That trading day the Huntsman spent with me, setting traps in the wood far north of here." Brand shot his arrows desperately: "Then it was Ale the Greedy! Or Fat Faste!" But from the quarter where the Greenland guests sat, rose resentful cries: "Faste was off all day fishing with me--" "I myself saw Ale in the group before the Lawman's door!" "You take too much upon yourself!" "Remember that the spoils were found in your booth!" The Red One stood with empty quiver. And Gard left his place and went and laid clumsy hands upon the Lawman's cloak. "I swear that it was not Alrek but I who brought the skin into the booth. I take oath that I am telling the truth this time," he said. "_This_ time!" the Lawman repeated, so that the blood was rasped into Gard's swarthy face. "Nay, it was to help Brand that I lied before," he pleaded. "And this time it is to help Alrek!" Karlsefne finished. "Learn, boy, once and for all, that you can not spend your wealth and have it also in your pouch. Learn now and forever that your word buys nothing when the pouch of your honor is empty." Casting him off as he would have spoken further, he turned upon the red-cloaked figure of the Sword-Bearer, standing rigidly erect before the high-seat. "Too long, Alrek Ingolfsson, have you hidden behind this shield; show now the boldness which should be in your blood. That you lied because you wished to keep my good opinion, I can guess. That you fell not upon the Skraelling treacherously nor yet in greed of his property, I do you the justice to believe. It may even be that he gave provocation to your mad temper by seizing your weapon. I expect that you will acknowledge yourself guilty and submit to me." Their glances clashed like blades as Alrek turned his high-borne head. "You can decide over my life, but I will never acknowledge that," he said. "May the gallows take my body if I knew aught of the happening until your own lips told of it. I say, moreover, that it is unjustly done to accuse me of it only because others have juggled with the truth and because it looks as though mine were the hand which had brought the spoils hither." That, at least, did not lack boldness. Flinging the broken staff from him, Karlsefne made a stride forward; the veins of his forehead swelled out white against purple. "This case has not yet been fully tried," he said. "I have not told that those are my only reasons. Another proof is this, which my own hand took from the Skraelling's head into which it had bitten so deeply that not even his fall down the bank had dislodged it." From his belt, where his cloak had hidden it, he drew forth the stone hatchet, discolored with dark stains. To Alrek of Norway it was like a trick of magic; his jaw fell and he recoiled against the high-seat. "My hatchet!" he breathed. Then the sheeted lightning of Karlsefne's eyes was loosed upon him. "Tempt me with no more defiance lest I forget that I am a Lawman and strike you dead where you stand! Recollect that I also am of Viking stock, and tempt me not! Come down from the seat in which you were never worthy to sit; put off the cloak whose soldierliness you have disgraced; unbuckle the sword you can not be trusted to wear." It was as though the Viking blood in Ingolf's son were a tiger that had been wakened by a blow. Straightening with a terrible inarticulate cry, he leaped to the floor and over the fire, his sword gleaming in his hand before they knew he had drawn it. But the Lawman's might-full figure neither gave back nor moved; the blaze of his eyes neither weakened nor swerved. Tiger-like, the boy's eyes wavered and fell aside; he halted, uncertain. Karlsefne's voice was as the voice of thunder: "I am over-chief in Vinland." The flesh defied, but the soldier-drilled spirit heard. Slowly, Alrek put up hands that shook from passion and unfastened the clasp on his shoulder. With a soft sound the drapery fell and lay like a blood-pool around his feet. Slowly and yet more slowly, he changed his hold upon his weapon and extended it as it had never gone before--hilt forward. Receiving it, the Lawman finished the sentence amid deathlike stillness: "Hereafter, wear no color of soldiers, nor carry any more weapons than the beasts whose uncontrol you show. You, Champions of Vinland, get you another chief." Signing to Snorri to open the door he left the booth, the Icelander following. Spellbound, the revelers remained without sound or motion, until Brand flung himself at the feet of Ingolfs son, thrusting into the brown hand one of his own knives. "You foretold that you should kill me some time," he whispered, and bared his breast for the blow. Those who saw the eyes the Viking bent upon him, believed that he would do it; it was seen that his fingers closed upon the haft. Then suddenly they thrust it from him with such force that its owner was thrown backward. "Keep away," he said hoarsely. "Keep away!" With hands flung out to keep them off, he walked past them; and the door opened upon him and the night swallowed him up. PART THIRD THE HUNTSMAN'S PREY CHAPTER XV ABOUT THE-FIRE-THAT-RUNS-ON-THE-WAVES Where an arm of the big Vinland bay met a narrow river so far inland that it was hard to tell when bay ended and river began, the band of Vinland Champions was at work. Before the invasion of their young voices, the stillness of the primeval forest had taken flight; and the age-old trees had fallen victim to the greed of their young hands even as the old-world cities were falling before the might of the young North. On the river bank, sweating in the June sun, some of them were toiling to bring a great log down to the stream which was to float it on to the building place. Along the edge of the clearing, others were busy lopping from the fallen monarchs their green crowns. And the song of axes, ringing from the depths of the cool shade, told of conquests still in progress. This last task, however, was so nearly completed that in the intervals of their work the choppers talked of the untrimmed logs as though they were already in the form of a ship. "What we stand in need of is red paint for that hull--" "If Gudrid will only make the sail--" "--so long as we get gilding for the dragon's head, I do not care--" "The dragon's head will be a weapon in itself!" "I expect the wild men will run at sight of it!" "There will not be many to equal this ship when it is done." Lowering his ax to moisten his palms, Brand cast his bright impatient eyes around severely. "If ever it is done," he supplemented. "At this rate, it is the summer which will be finished first. If we had worked as we should have done, it would be completed now." "Then why did you not work as you should have done?" laughed Ketil the Glib. And Erlend, pausing to take a gauzy fanged fly off his neck, observed: "Certainly I think you ought to be the last one to make a fuss. Every time I have told you off to work on it, you have preferred to go hunting, or even help Karlsefne's men with the fence." "What difference what I prefer?" the Red One retorted. "You are the chief; it is your duty to see that work is done as it is necessary." The difficulty of answering that, left Erlend rubbing his plump neck in silence; and in the pause Brand returned to work, swinging the ax over his shoulder with a forcefulness which brought it near to smashing the head of a man who had just appeared in the underbrush behind him. "It is my advice that you see what you are doing," the man spoke in a harsh voice which they recognized. It was but faintly that Brand was apologetic as he glanced around. "Why do you creep up like a cat if you are not willing to risk something?" he inquired, and aimed another stroke. But for once Thorhall the Huntsman did not dismiss them in contempt. Breast-high in saplings he lingered, regarding them with curiosity; when he had swallowed the irritation attendant upon dodging, he spoke politely: "My excuse is that if the leaves had not muffled my steps, I should have missed hearing tidings of great interest. I ask of you to tell me what all this is about a ship?" "How does that concern you?" muttered Gard the Ugly. Erlend, however, lowered his ax readily. That there should be any one willing to listen to the ship-plan who had not already heard it as many times as he would endure, seemed too good for belief. Feigning that his ax edge needed attention, he drew out a sharpening-stone; and while he plied it, he talked happily. The ship, he said, was to be so long and so wide, with a fore-deck to shelter the provisions, but nothing so womanish as a cabin. The mast was to be that pine-tree yonder, and the sail was to be woven by Gudrid, Karlsefne's wife--that is, they were going to ask her to do it for them--and he thought the colors would be red and yellow, and the name would probably be The-Fire-That-Runs-On-The-Waves. It sounded very well as he told it; gradually Brand's blade also became silent, and Ketil and Harald and half a dozen others crept nearer to listen with kindling eyes that now and again shot triumphant glances at the Huntsman. It was something of a triumph to make him who was usually so sneering listen so respectfully. When the recital was finished, he was even flattering. "Certainly you are foremost among youths in energy! Where is it your intention to voyage when The Fire is built?" Gard, who alone had kept on working, gave his tree a resounding blow. "How does that concern you?" he demanded a second time. "You will not be invited to take the steering oar." Now any one can see that it is bad manners to insult a man who is complimenting you. Eight glances fixed the Ugly One angrily, while Erlend spoke in mild reproof: "What is the need of talking in that way?" he asked him; then, to the Huntsman: "If the ship is done before the summer is, we are going against the Skraellings. It comes like a piece of luck that there is enmity between us; otherwise I do not know whom we could fight." "Since it is unadvisable to do what we want and fight Karlsefne," Brand added vindictively; and there was a murmur of acquiescence. The Huntsman's eyes, trained to detect prey in the very darkness, went from one to another of the young faces. "Now that is a strange way to speak of the Lawman," he remarked. The answers rose in his face like a covey of birds: "How else would you expect us to speak?" "--after the way he behaved toward Alrek Ingolfsson--" "I think he deserves worse words--" "To my backbone I hate him!" Parting the sapling screen, the Huntsman came out and seated himself on a prostrate tree, as though he found the field worthy of his attention. "Yet it is a foolish way after all," he began, "for only see how Alrek's bane has been Erlend's good fortune----" The Amiable One's handsome brown face flushed. "We have given no thanks on that score, nor shall give any," he answered hastily. "I have seen Alrek only once since the day that bad luck overtook him, and then I dared not speak to him; but the first chance I get, I shall offer the chiefship back." The murmur which greeted that was almost a cheer; only Thorall made a sound of dissent. "Now do you act after the manner of boys rather than of men," he said. "Pity Alrek Ingolfsson you may if you will, but in so doing you should not undervalue the leader you have got in his----" "Now what trap are you baiting?" grumbled Gard, at the same instant that Erlend interrupted. "I beg of you to leave that and give us instead your advice how the Skraellings may be found. You, more than any other, know the secrets of the south country." Some of the band drew breath rather quickly as their chief said that, and looked to see the Huntsman rise in offense; but again he surprised them. Re-crossing his legs and settling his broad back against a stump, he did nothing worse than to sit gazing away at the sunshine of the open. His voice was still amiable when at last he spoke: "It would be useless to deny that many wonders may be told of the south country. I will begin by telling you that it contains bigger game than Skraellings and--" his hand strayed to the deerskin cord looping his neck and ending in the breast of his stained green tunic--"and more valuable things than furs." He paused to cough, and no one moved for fear of breaking the spell. He recovered himself with a covert smile. "It may be that I will even do better than telling you. What should you say if I would show you the paths that lead to the treasure? I have some thought of going south myself this summer----" Gard answered with an unexpectedness that made them jump: "I should say that we were rabbit-brained if we allowed you to lead us anywhere! Because Erlend is caught with your chaff, it is not proved that you can trap us all. I would not follow you a pace. To your face I tell you that I believe it was your hand that slew the Skraelling, though your body was further off than could be seen by a raven hovering in the sky!" He broke off and began making rune-signs with his fingers, as the small eyes turned toward him. But it was not the Huntsman's anger which he had to reckon with, but the resentment of those who feared to lose a tidbit from their watering mouths. "Hold your tongue!" "You know that is an old woman's story--" "For what purpose should you interfere?" "You are not all of us!" the mouths growled, while the elbows belonging to them made themselves felt admonishingly in his ribs. Erlend spoke with unprecedented severity. "You have no right to show enmity toward a man who is behaving well toward you. You may take your choice either to go off by yourself or else sit down and keep quiet like the rest of us." Nine times out of ten, Gard would have subsided in sulky submission; but this was the tenth time. Moving toward the bush whereon his cap and bow and quiver hung as on a rack, he sent the Huntsman a glance of such hatred as springs from fear. "I choose the best company," he said; and gathering up his things, he slung his ax over his shoulder and slouched away. Those at work in the clearing refrained from addressing him when they saw the expression of his swarthy face; and those toiling on the river bank agreed with polite alacrity when he deigned to growl in passing that the day was unbearably hot. It was, moreover, easier to assent to that remark than to deny it. Far and near, blue water and green land were ablaze with sun. When the Ugly One had forded the river and plowed through the treeless meadows where Karlsefne's cattle stood knee-deep in the reed-fringed pools, his linen clothes were wet on his body; and he gave up a vague plan to spend his unexpected holiday in fishing. "There will be fewer chances of the juice drying in my skull if I go to that wood place where the red berries grow," he decided, and struck across the grove toward the camp to leave his burden in the booth. The camp was not so easily entered as of old, for now there rose around the twelve huts a fence of mighty logs with sharpened tops; and at each of the three gates there stood a man on guard. Yet neither was the watch strict enough to justify the precautions of Strong Domar who chanced to hold this post. With his joyous bellow, he promptly barred the passage with his spear until the newcomer had answered a catechism that began by asking his age and ended by demanding a list of the things he had eaten for breakfast. The Ugly One's patience had run as dry as the Strong One's power of invention, by the time he was permitted to make his exasperated entrance. Repulsing a pack of affectionate hounds, he stamped across the clover-sprinkled grass and would have stamped into the booth if he had not glimpsed through the open door a figure that had come to seem, almost as much as Hallad's, to belong to another world,--the gaunt form of Alrek the Exile, rummaging in the chest which had been his treasure-box in the days of his prosperity and still remained reverently untouched. Evidently he had known that at this hour the booth would be empty, for there was no watchfulness in his ears; he neither heard nor saw when his comrade stopped on the threshold and stood gazing at him. It seemed to Gard that he had never seen so great a change in any one. From the unkempt brown hair to the black cloak that hung about his heels in rusty rags, he was as different from what he had been as November from June. His face showed the change most of all, for no glow of red was left in the brown, and his eyes were like cinders out of which the fire had died. From Gard's throat there burst suddenly a dry sob; and before the Swordless could move, his one-time follower was kneeling before him, clutching at his tattered cloak. "Alrek! Come back and let me make it up to you. I can not sleep at night with thinking what I brought upon you. I beg you to come back!" When he had stood a while looking down at him, Alrek spoke with suppressed scorn: "Are you still trying to spend your money and keep it too? You do not want to bear the burden of your deed, yet you knew when you slew him that some one must suffer for it----" "I slay him? I did not! I did not! I only told that lie----" "So that I repeated it and became also a liar. I would not believe you though you swore with your hand on the Boar's head. You tried to take back the weapon which Brand gave, and the Skraelling resisted and you struck--with my hatchet which you had found where it dropped when I fell. I tell you I would not believe you though you took oath on the Cross. Let go my cloak and get away from me. If you had more than a dog's wit you would know better than to talk of making it up to me; you would know that I am disgraced forever. Let go my cloak before I kick you away as I would a dog." Freeing himself, he was gone. Gard reached the door only in time to see him pass out of the gate, Domar eagerly saluting; then the forest took him again into its silent keeping. Thrusting his hands through his belt, the Ugly One leaned against the casing and spoke heavily to the hound that had left a noonday nap to come and fawn upon him. "It is likely that we have low minds as he says, Fafnir.... Yet, for all he says, we are faithful.... We do not lay it up against a friend if it happen that he ill-use us...." Seeing the bristles begin suddenly to rise along the hound's spine, he looked up to find Thorhall the Huntsman swinging past over the grass. He finished with a sound very like the one coming from the dog's great throat: "And both of us can tell a foe when we see him!" CHAPTER XVI PROVING THAT ALREK'S EMPTY HANDS WERE FULL OF POWER "A sail is not a small thing to ask for," Gudrid observed,--then raised a finger hastily as Erlend would have pleaded his cause. "You will put me in the most disobliging temper if you wake the child! As far off as the table I heard him crying, and came and found that it had happened as I suspected, that Roswitha had slipped out and left him. And he would not be quieted unless I got a cord and looped it around his feet and let him hold the ends and play at driving horses while he went to sleep!" She laid a hand on the Amiable One's silken sleeve, and another on the arm of Brand Erlingsson, and drew them gently off the dangerous ground out into the great back dooryard where the four households of Vinland sat in that contented idleness which follows the evening meal. Roundabout the grassy space the stockade rose in grim foreboding; but the three gates opened wide upon shadowy grove and silvered meadow, and their three guards left their posts at will to bandy jests with their comrades at the long tables under the trees. Over the juice of the Vinland grape the men were lounging contentedly, while the cook-fires sank into red embers, and the moon sailed up from the tree-tops and floated free in the blue above them. "It is certainly a night to bewitch one into promising anything! You choose your time well," Gudrid said with a little shake of the sleeves she was holding. Brand moved his arm away abruptly; there was a limit to the liberties which even one who was asking a favor could endure. Erlend, however, was always affable. "That will be seen if you grant our request," he answered. "It could not take you long, Gudrid, if you are such a weaver as you consider yourself. And I promise you that you should not lose by it, for we would bring you back a fine present from our journey. The ship is well begun now. We delayed about the sail as late as possible in the hope that Alrek would come back and do the asking for us. We know that his favor is no less with you because trouble has come on his hands." Gudrid's face lost some of its wonted sweet serenity. "Alas, my kinsman!" she sighed. "I wish my favor could do something useful for him. I can tell you that even the child is full of longing for him. Time and again, when he hears a step that is like Alrek's, he turns his eyes toward the door and cries when it is not his kinsman who comes in." The three walked a little way in silence; Erlend frowning perplexedly at the ground, Brand kicking the heads off the clovers in the sullen discomfort which this subject always aroused in him. Presently Gudrid came slowly to a standstill. "I am going yonder to speak with Jorund, Siggeir's wife," she said. "I do not say that I will not do your weaving for you, but I must see first how it goes with my dairy work. In the meanwhile, I wish you luck with your undertaking." "That is no worse than a promise," Erlend returned blandly, "for if you do in truth wish us luck, you will help us all you can." And they departed from her in high feather to tell their comrades of the boon granted. Standing where they had left her, Gudrid pondered a while whether she really would cross the grass to the spot where Jorund and the two other Greenland women gossiped beside a door-step, or whether she would go into the booth where Karlsefne sat with his chiefs over a chart. There was a matter of cheeses that she particularly wished to discuss with Jorund, and yet it would be interesting to hear whether the Lawman had seen any trace of Skraellings in his trip that day. Considering, she put a hand up to finger her amber necklace, as was her habit, and made the discovery that it was not there. She took her hand away with a gesture of impatience. "Now will Karlsefne laugh at me, for he has always said that this would happen if I allowed Snorri to play with it! I remember that it was by the river, where I sat with him this afternoon. I gave it to him to bite, and then it happened that he dropped it to reach out for the boat which Biorn was rowing past; and Biorn called to me, and I forgot to pick it up again. Tch! What a stupid business! It is in my mind to slip out and get it before any one notices that it is gone. The exact spot is known to me." Going over to the western gate, she looked out toward the shining river. Less than a dozen trees dotted the space between her and the little knoll on the bank where she had rested, and the moon made it almost as bright as day. She gathered up her trailing kirtle with prompt decision. "Any Skraelling small enough to hide in those shadows, is not big enough to be afraid of," she said, and passed out quickly with her firm light step. That anything besides Skraellings might lurk in the shadows, she seemed to forget. Reaching the bank, she sent one look of admiration out over the radiant river, then bent her gaze to the foot of the tree among whose roots her fingers were swiftly feeling. To look up into the branches she had no thought whatever. Yet not ten paces from her, Death lay along a bough,--Death in a tawny body with eyes like fire and a tail like a serpent, noiselessly lashing the air as the graceful form crouched for a spring. The first warning she had was when a voice she knew spoke sharply from the shadows before her: "Lie down on your face!" The catastrophe came only a breath after the warning. As she threw herself forward, something leaped over her and met something else in mid-air. There was the jar of heavy bodies striking the earth, a crackle of breaking twigs, and the silver stillness was profaned by a horrible sound of snarling and long-drawn gasps. Clutching at the tree-trunk, she tried to pull herself to her feet; but the two struggled on the very skirt of her robe and held her pinioned. Only over her shoulder she caught a glimpse of the giant cat, where it lay on its back, clutching in its claws the boy who knelt on its lashing body with no other weapon against the gaping jaws than his bare brown hands. It seemed to her that she shrieked, and it is certain that she swooned; for the next thing she knew, she lay on her face in the grass with Alrek bending toward her. "It is over," he said briefly, and dragged a heavy weight from her skirt. Pulling herself to her feet, she leaned dizzily against a tree, staring down at the strange monster that had the shape of a cat and the size of a hound. "You choked him?" she whispered. The Swordless One nodded. "There was no other way. Last week I saw him leap down upon a deer and suck the blood from its throat. I thought then that my hands on _his_ throat would be my only chance if ever we had dealings together. Yet I did not think that he would come so near the wall." "It is God's miracle that you also chanced to be near it," she breathed. "It is not all chance," he answered. "I have been here more than one night since they began to set the tables under the trees. Torchlight attracts other things besides sharks. It is like watching the red lights of the North, to watch the cook-fires shine on the branches; and when the men sing over their wine, the sound reaches out here so that it is almost the same as though I were among--" He came slowly to self-consciousness, and turned away and gave his attention to sopping with his ragged cloak the blood trickling from his torn limbs. [Illustration: With no other weapon than his bare brown hands.] The sight of wounds brought Gudrid instantly to her capable self. "Tch," she said; and tearing her apron into strips, she put his hands aside and fell to work with skilful swiftness. For a little, nothing was said between them. Yet it was not of the bleeding flesh that either was thinking in the silence. More than once, Alrek insisted that the work was done and tried to pull away from her and escape; and as her fingers flew, her mind went even faster, seeking some means by which to bind up the bleeding spirit as well. Suddenly, with her eyes on the empty brown hands that were yet so full of power, the way was opened to her. Looking up from where she knelt beside him, she spoke courageously: "Kinsman, there is little need that I should tell you what you know by yourself,--that although Karlsefne would grant you a pardon in payment for this help, he would not give you his faith, which is what you want." Though he had not flinched from the touch of her hand on his wounds, the boy winced under her words. "I want neither his faith nor his pardon!" he said between his teeth. "I beg you to let me go." "Not until you have heard me," she answered. "I have said this to show you that I am not speaking soft lies, but the truth. Now I am going to tell you more truth; the right-minded thing for you to do is to come back to the band and live as one of the men, until some twist of the thread brings your rank back to you." She worked a while after that without looking up, for she could feel his glance beating down upon her. After a time he said huskily: "It is of no use ... I am dishonored...." At that she raised her eyes with a hint of scorn. "It is true then that you did slay the Skraelling?" He looked at her sorrowfully. "I had thought that you would believe in me, kinswoman." "Why, so I did," she answered, "until I heard you say that you were dishonored. For if you did not touch the deed, how could it stain you?" Rising up, she laid her palms upon his breast and made him give her eye for eye. "Did it make your hands helpless because no sword was in them to-night?" she challenged him. "I think I have never seen weapons more powerful; nor was your eye less quick to see my peril, nor your heart less brave to help me,--nay, you were twice brave that you came with empty hands! Will you belie the courage and honor which you know you have, because you lack the red cloth and the bit of steel that are the runes which stand for them? If you will, you are not the Alrek Ingolfsson that I had wished my child would be like." Looking into his eyes she saw a fire, long quenched, kindle and burn; and her palms on his breast felt the deep breath he drew; nor did he have any words of disproof. Discreet as she was bold, she asked for no words of assent. Leaving him, she went and tried to lift the forepart of the limp body. "Get this upon your back," she said. "The Champions will become glad at this." Silently he obeyed, drawing the dangling paws over his shoulder so that the long body hung down his back like a tawny cloak. Slowly he followed after as she turned and led the way toward the gate,--until they were within two spear-lengths of it and a hubbub of voices and laughter came out to them like a puff of wind. Then gradually his pace slackened, and she looked around to find that his face was flooded with painful color. She had the impulse to reach out and catch hold of him; but it was the impulse which came to her lips that she acted on, speaking as quietly as she would have spoken to her child had he ventured too near the edge of a cliff: "I do not know whether it is to your mind to enter the camp with me, but it is the truth that I shall hear enough of my foolishness without having you lead me home as well as save me. If I slip through this gate, as I came, will you use the east one, which is also nearer your own booth?" Then she knew that she had guessed aright, for once more he moved forward, and under his breath he answered: "Yes." By the time she had gained the center of the green, she knew also that he had kept his word. Suddenly a joyous uproar went up from the tableful of Vinland Champions, and some were rolled off the benches in the haste of others to get on their feet; and crossing the moonlit space beyond them, she saw a soldierly young figure with a mass of yellow fur swinging from his shoulder--saw him and then lost him in the throng that closed, cheering, about him. Her firm sweet mouth relaxed happily. "That is the first step toward a good outcome," she said. "If the Fates have any justice in their breasts, they will attend to the rest." And from afar she beamed brightly on the group, even as the moon above was beaming upon her. CHAPTER XVII SHOWING HOW THE CHAMPIONS BROKE A THREAD IN THE HUNTSMAN'S NET Over the boulders between which the narrow trail wound down to the building place on the beach, Thorhall's green eyes stared in surprise. After a three days' scouting trip, he had taken a roundabout way campward in order to get a glimpse of the vessel in whose progress he was interested, but it appeared that here was more change than he had anticipated. Grown to all its graceful outlines the ship still waited on its rollers, high enough up on the shelving beach to rest immune from the whims of the tide. Around it and in it and under it the band worked as usual, whistling and wrangling amiably. But a pace to the right, where a rock humped through the gravel offered chance for a forge, there was a feature new to the scene,--a brown-haired young smith hammering vigorously at a bar of glowing iron. If he did not whistle as he hammered, yet he worked as steadily as though he had always stood there; and above the hum could be heard Brand's voice, speaking with eager deference: "Alrek, is it your opinion that a bolt is needed here, or will it be sufficient to tie this plank?" While Ingolf's son made brief answer between the strokes of his hammer, the Huntsman descended the rest of the trail in scowling cogitation. When the noise of question and answer had subsided, he came out suddenly upon the beach. "Hail to the chief!" he said. If the salute was designed to ask a question as well as offer greeting, it served its purpose. The brown-haired smith did not even turn his head; it was still Erlend the Amiable who answered to the title, straightening quickly to give back nod for nod. "Thorhall! Now I am glad you are back to release us from our promise to let no one know the secret of the south country. Tell Alrek without delay about the treasure-land you have found." There was delay, however, in the manner in which the Huntsman moved forward, paused to look at whatever addition in the boat interested him, paused to unwind a fetter of seaweed bubbles from his ankle, and finally seated himself on a boulder and studied the smith intently. "Have you come back for good?" he inquired. Before Alrek could speak, Gard--working behind him--answered by a jeer: "Some may have cause to think that he has come back for ill." In the interests of peace Erlend raised his voice: "I beg of you, Gard, to turn fox for a while and go down the beach and dig enough clams to fill your cloak-skirt; so that we shall be fed, when noontime comes, without going back to the camp." It seemed to the Huntsman that there was something suspicious in the docility with which Gard obeyed, somewhat as though he felt that he was leaving a sentinel behind him. The small eyes continued their study of the smith, as an angler might study a fish while he was considering what spear to employ. After a silence, which no one ventured to break, he spoke bluntly: "The country south and west of here is inhabited by dwarfs. By that I do not mean merely people who are small-shaped, but the Northern race that is skilled in metal-work. You remember that Tyrfing was forged by such? Now I think you have yourself a sword--I ask you not to blame me! I did not mean to press that wound. But at least it serves to make plain to you whom I mean. In this land, they live in caverns of the gold-bearing mountains of which the south and west country is full. I think I have described to you their homes?" The band answered even rapturously: "Never shall I forget it!" "No king's palace could--" "I wish Alrek had heard--" "Tell over about that one with the golden roof--" "Yes, good Thorhall!" "Yes!" "Yes!" It did not appear that Thorhall heard them; as a hawk might watch a coop for the appearance of the chickens, he was watching Alrek's mouth for the first word of doubt. None came. Slowly, the smith's blows became further between. Presently he rested his hammer on the rock and his elbow on the hammer handle. "That is of the greatest interest," he said thoughtfully. "And it comes to my mind to wonder if it could have been your dwarfs that Rolf Erlingsson saw when he was here with Leif the Lucky? He said those creatures were low as junipers, while Skraellings are most of them of good height--Yet he said also that they were poor and mean-looking! Your dwarfs must be as rich as Hnoss herself." He ended uncertainly. But the Huntsman leaned back and smote his great knee with rare enthusiasm. "Now your comrades are right in valuing your wit above others!" he said. "Never had the thought come to me before, yet it is twice as likely as not. So cunning are they, that it would be altogether according to their custom to disguise themselves like Skraellings when they had the wish to spy upon strangers. It cannot be said that they have a fondness for strangers. You know that it was a dwarf who caused my wreck at Keel Cape?" "No, that is a story you have not told us," the band cried eagerly. He looked at them indulgently. "Now it is not much of a tale. The beginning of it is that I pried too deep into an old long-beard's secrets, so that I had to run for my life. I should be feasting on boar-flesh in Valhalla now, if I had not left the boat with its stem toward the water and the oars in the row-locks; for we were no more than out of sight of land when the dwarf-man reached the shore." He paused to glance around the group. "I suppose you remember how King Skiold blew upon a passing ship so that the boom fell over and killed Eystein where he stood by the steering oar?" he inquired. While they nodded impatiently, Alrek spoke in confirmation: "I believe that to be true, because once I met a Finnish sailor who could change the wind by turning his cap." "You have seen so much of the world," the Huntsman said admiringly, "that it would become a great misfortune if you should lose this chance of seeing more wonders. To go on relating,--the dwarf used the same trick, though a little differently. Instead of blowing, he raised a gale only by flapping his cloak; and the water rose behind us in a sea-wall. I had often wondered what it would be like to be at the spot where a storm begins, and that time I found out. The water rose behind us with a roar, and swept us along past the entrance to the Vinland bay until we struck the Keel bar, and the boat went to pieces and the other three went down and Thor saved me. Hallad felt very unwilling to drown. You remember I had on only one boot when you found me? I can remember feeling something pull at the other so that I thought a shark had me and gave it a strong kick off. Now I know that it was Hallad clutching at it. I suppose it was because he got bitter that I did not help him, that he comes back to haunt me." "That would be in every respect like Hallad," Brand said scornfully. "He was always wont to expect some one to look out for him. Thorhall, will you not let us see that chain again, that Alrek may get it clear before his mind what great things are in store for us?" It appeared from his manner that there was nothing Thorhall would not do to oblige them. "Willingly," he answered, and straightway undid the bag around his neck. Dropping their tools, they came and stood around him in so cosy a circle that the Ugly One, far down the beach, took one fist out of the oozy gravel it was raking to shake it at them, and never knew that the other hand had turned up a clam until a jet of water struck him in the face. If the necklace had sparkled in the gray light of the Wonderstrands, it may be imagined what it did here in the sun. Some of the gems encrusting it were blue as the bay before them, and some were like pearls in which a fire had been kindled, and some were like nothing less than stars. The Huntsman let Alrek reach out and take it for himself, and the young Viking drew a quick breath of pleasure as he felt its weight. "Now I have seen booty taken from kings' palaces, but never anything to match this," he said. "It was without doubt the luck of our lives that we found you that day on the Wonderstrands. I remember overhearing you say to Faste that the reason you would not bring your news forward in the hall was because you did not want the chiefs to take the power out of your hands. I suppose the reason you share the secret with us is because we can give the help of a ship?" Erlend looked up in surprise, the necessity of a reason for the Huntsman's cordiality not having before occurred to him. The Huntsman looked out from under roughened brows, though he kept his words smooth. "Now you do less than justice to your comrades' valor and accomplishments," he began. But he stopped as he saw one of Alrek's eyes close in good-humored derision. "When is it your intention to sail?" the Swordless brought him back to the point. The Huntsman reached out and took back his chain. "That you must ask your chief," he answered; and spite was so evident in his use of the title, that the Amiable One hastened to answer before he could be asked: "I think it will take about five days more to finish the outfittings, and then two to stock it with food. If a fair wind blows on it, we can surely sail on the tenth day." Slowly Alrek lowered the hammer he had raised to return to his work. "It must be that you are forgetting the Skraellings," he said. "Because the hunters have seen nothing of them, proves little; Leif Ericsson's men saw nothing of the dwarfs until they were upon them. It is a sure sign, when a slain man is found lying on his face, that he will be revenged. Any day it may happen that they come; and if we should be away hunting gold while our camp-mates fought for their lives, we should get little fame though we brought back----" The Huntsman rose to his gigantic height. "Are you the chief?" he snarled. That was the third time he had pressed the wound; the flame in Alrek's cheeks sent sparks to his eyes as he wheeled. "No, I am not the chief," he answered squarely, "but I have the right of every free man to make my voice heard in deciding matters, and I can tell you that it is going to be heard though you weave all the spells you know." Perhaps the Huntsman did try to weave a spell, for he turned at once toward those who had so far obeyed his every move like snake-charmed birds. "What of you?" he hissed. "Will you put off this chance for treasure, to fight for the Lawman who disbelieved your oaths and showed disrespect to your high-seat?" And the chorus answered him loudly: "No!" And Brand made himself conspicuous by his fierceness. "Let the Skraellings cut blood-eagles in Karlsefne!" It is likely that he wished directly after that he had kept still, for instead of praise, it brought him a look of scathing contempt from the Swordless. "Now you talk like fools," the young Viking said, "to think to revenge private wrongs in wartime. He would be a fine soldier who because he had a grudge against his chief would desert in time of battle and leave his comrades to fight alone. No knife could scrape off this shame." They quailed so under that, that the Huntsman's green eyes became like the eyes of a Vinland elk at bay. Turning where Erlend stood silent, he struck again: "You then,--if you have any power who call yourself the chief!" Erlend laughed uneasily; his handsome face had turned painfully red. "It seems that I was mistaken in thinking that that name belonged to me," he answered. Crimsoning, Alrek fell from his hill of scorn to the valley of abashment. "Erlend, I meant no--no disrespect toward you," he stammered. "I did not mean to step out of my place--" He was obliged to stop, for Erlend's hand closed over his mouth. "What are you talking about?" the Amiable One said sternly. "That is in no way what I mean. What you did was to step into the place that belongs to you." He exerted some of his strength to keep his palm where he had put it. "Listen to me! I am unfit to have the rule over anything. Never did it come into my head that leaving would be disloyal. I should have done a nithing thing which the saga-men would never have forgotten. I know of no better happening than that you should come into your own in time to save me." He stretched out his other hand toward the assembled Champions. "You shouted before when I said that I should offer the chiefship back. I shall think your tongues of little value if you keep them between your teeth now!" The eagerness with which Brand offered the first cheer seemed designed to make up for his blunder of the moment before. He was seconded by a deep roar from Gard, who had just come up with his burden on his back. After that, there was no separating the shouts that came; and they banged their tools against the ship in lieu of swords and shields. When the racket had subsided, Erlend turned back to the Swordless with a smile that had yet a touch of haughtiness. "I shall take it as an insult to my pride if you ask me to keep what so plainly belongs to you," he said. After a while Alrek looked up from the trenches his foot was digging in the sand. "I will accept it gladly, if Karlsefne will allow me to," he answered; and there was more cheering and all hands were stretched out to him. All but two, that is; shifting uneasily from one foot to the other, Brand and Gard the Ugly stood aside nor dared make any advances. The Swordless himself hesitated when finally he came to them, and his face caught some of their embarrassed color; but at last he put out his hand. They gripped it eagerly, and there was more cheering. Under cover of it the Huntsman turned and stalked away; and what had been angry suspicion as he descended the trail, was angry certainty as he stamped up it. CHAPTER XVIII CONCERNING A GRIM BARGAIN BETWEEN THE LAWMAN AND ALREK "And I will seek out Gudrid, whose counsel is good in everything," Alrek said as he and Erlend rose from the morning meal at the table under the trees, "if so be you give me leave to be late to the work." "If so be you need leave from me, you have it for anything you do," Erlend answered. Then the Amiable One and all the Champions not bound to kitchen-posts took their leisurely way through the cool green forest to the waiting ship; and Alrek the Swordless turned in the opposite direction and strolled past the empty tables and groups of trencher-laden thralls toward Karlsefne's booth. Before the door-step small Snorri tumbled about in the clover, shouting lustily for his mother to come and play with him; which seemed to Alrek so good a reason for expecting her prompt arrival that he troubled himself to go no further. Stretching his lithe length on the grass, he changed the cries into laughter by butting the crier over on his back each time he opened his mouth; and the maneuver was crowned with immediate success. After a very little time, Gudrid appeared in the door, a piece of sewing in her hand, inquiry in her blue eyes. "Oh! That is why he stopped screaming!" she said with an accent of relief. "So long as he is crying, I know that he is safe. Now you are a lazy-goer, kinsman, to be lying on the grass when every one else is at work." Shaking the clovers from his hair, Alrek sat up,--he would have stood up if it were not that the Frowner had crept across his feet. "I wait only to ask your advice, kinswoman, about a way to speak alone with Karlsefne. For two days I have looked in vain for a chance. I want to get his justice." Coming out of the doorway, Gudrid seated herself on the step, and sat absently stabbing holes in her work with her bronze needle. "Justice is a heavy weapon to challenge unless you are sure that you stand very firm on your legs, kinsman," she said at last. He answered: "I stand very firm," and the sternness of his voice was in singular contrast to the gentleness of his hand as he stretched it out to steady the Frowner in his upward progress. Watching them, Gudrid's pucker of anxiety smoothed into a fond smile. "Now certainly I know that you are guiltless," she said. "I have only to see your behavior toward the child to be sure of that." She did not continue her assurances for Alrek's mouth had curved into amiable derision. "Why, that proves nothing," he said. Gudrid's foot stirred the clovers. "I will give you the satisfaction of knowing that Karlsefne has made me the same answer. Sometimes it seems to me that a man's wit is like a bat, which disdains the good daylight to go about in, but must show its skill by finding its way in the dark! I can even guess that this very boldness of yours, which causes me to believe in you, will seem to the Lawman to be but another trick of your outlaw blood. Remember how they say in Greenland that a seal who tries to swim against too strong a current has often to turn back and be caught by the hunters. Kinsman, kinsman"--she put out her hand and pressed his shoulder--"be very sure of your strength!" "Yes," he said, and bent his head to touch his lips to her fingers. More than the words, the rare caress told her that his mood was no light one; and she warned no more. Rising, she spoke quietly: "I will do the only thing I can to give you help. Karlsefne is making the round of the meadows where the men are haying. I did not send his noon-meal with him--because I did not think it fitting that he should eat old bread, and the new is not yet out of the oven--but I had the intention to send it out to him by a thrall. Now if you choose you may carry it, and so get him apart for your purpose." "That will serve well, and I give you thanks," Alrek answered. Nodding, she went swiftly in to hurry the baking; and Alrek arose and setting the Frowner upon his shoulder paced to and fro in the sunshine that had settled over the camp like a golden spell, subduing the bustle of morning activity to a drowsy drone. Lulled by the hum and the slow motion, Snorri's yellow head began to nod, swaying and bobbing until it rested heavily upon the brown locks of his bearer. Gudrid received a bundle of sweet warm limpness in return for the basket and skin of ale which she finally brought out. "It is not unlike gathering up a jellyfish," she laughed as she took him. But Alrek's smile was faint in response. He had been thinking as he paced, and the gravity of what he was about to do was full upon him. "I give you thanks," he said a second time, gently, and left her. Outside, in the great free world beyond the wall, it seemed to him that everything was coaxing for a smile. The reach of woodland into which the grove deepened was alluring with the song of hidden brooks and spicy with the breath of pines and hospitable with berry thickets, black and red and blue as the river to which the wood finally gave way. The elms of the bank flaunted wreathing grape-vines; the rushes at the edge sported dragon-flies like living jewels,--flashing in the sunlight, the river itself was one broad smile. Dull anger took possession of him when he found his spirits too heavy to rise in response. "It may be that I should become a coward if this went on," he murmured. "I was not any too quick about making up my mind." And when, a little further on, he came to a finger of the stream and saw on one of the mossy stepping-stones a water-snake struggling with a frog which was only half swallowed, he made no move to release the victim. "Better to die whole than to live crippled," he told himself grimly, and kept on his way. It seemed a very short way now before he came to the broad sunny valley whose fragrant basin was strewed with ripening hay, which men were tossing amid jests and laughter as became a crop planted without toil and raised without care. Spying him, they shouted greetings of good-humored banter; and he raised his hand mechanically, as his eyes roved to and fro seeking the blue-clad figure of the Lawman. It formed no part of the groups scattered over the valley, nor was it anywhere alone in the open--Ah, yonder it was in the shade of the spreading willow that rose solitary in the middle of the meadow! A smile twisted Alrek's lips as he moved forward. "I wonder," he mused, "if it is a bad omen that I find him ready under a tree." At least his luck was good enough so that he found the Lawman alone, sitting where two rocks made a seat beneath the willow; nor did he turn away when he saw who it was coming toward him through the sunshine. Over the fist upon which his bearded chin was resting, he watched the approach immovably. When Alrek had come up and saluted him, he answered: "I shall know better how to receive you when I hear your purpose in taking this service on yourself." "Gudrid allowed me to do this that I might speak alone with you," Alrek made brief explanation. It seemed that Karlsefne's challenging gaze relaxed a little. "There is the greatest reason why Gudrid should wish to aid you," he said, "and scarcely am I out of your debt. I should be glad to hear that your errand hither is to ask a pardon from my gratefulness." Sliding the ale-skin to the ground, the boy straightened proudly; but before he could answer, Karlsefne spoke on, unclenching his hand to pass it before his eyes: "As you came toward me, you looked even as your father looked when he came to the Assembly Plain to hear the judges condemn him for his crimes; and now as then I hate the deeds and love the doer so that the two feelings are like two fires raging within me." Taking away his hand he showed the stern beauty of his face aglow with feeling, as some lofty rock under the touch of a red Northern light. "I beg of you to throw yourself upon my mercy. Defiance has gathered like drift-ice in your breast, shutting out all that would come through to bring you good. Break from it before it shuts you in forever. I beg of you to yield and give me the joy of trusting you again." Ending, his deep voice held a note of yearning love that made the boy's heart swell strangely in his breast. He had to speak hardly and shortly in order to be able to speak at all. "Hard is it to know how to answer, for you offer me what I do not need. I came here to get your justice. If I broke your order, I deserve an evil death; if I did not, it is my right to live unshamed. If you know that it is I who slew the Skraelling, I ask you to have me placed against this tree and shot." As a Northern light fades from a rock and leaves no warmth behind, so the glow faded from the Lawman's face. "Do you like it so well to die?" he asked. "Sooner would I die than live as I have lived since your doom," Alrek answered. Silence settled heavily upon them. When a great fly boomed out of the sunlit space and hung for a wink of time at the boy's ear, the sound seemed thunder-loud. But at last the Lawman spoke, his voice as hard as clanging iron: "Not many men would go so far as to deal with me by force and overbearing, but you play the game as well as is to be expected of your father's son. Though I am sure of your guilt, you are right in believing that I am not sure enough to take your life when you lay it in my hand. And since it is proved that I am not sure, I may not punish you at all. It is well played. There are two choices before you,--the one is to let matters stand as they are now, so that your life is safe and the future is yours to redeem your credit in; the other is to get back your honors as you demand, with the condition that if ever this case comes again before my high-seat and so much as a feather's weight more of evidence is given against you, I shall declare your life to be forfeit." The long safe way is seldom the way of youth; one must have traveled far and fallen often to make that choice. The young Viking answered without hesitation: "I will take my honors and the risk." Rising, the Lawman made him a chief's salute. "So be it," he said. "To-night in the hall, even as I took them from you, I will give them back before all eyes. In this and whatever follows, it shall be as you have chosen." He lifted his hand as the boy would have thanked him. In obedience to the gesture, the Chief of the Champions halted and bowed before him in silence; but his brown head was carried high when he walked away, and his eyes were two radiant suns of hope. CHAPTER XIX RELATING THE ADVENTURE WITH THE MEN OF THE FOREST Like dew on a fresh berry a silver gauze of mist lay over the fresh day, and the birds' answers to the sun were still far-between and sleepy, as Hjalmar Thick-Skull came out of the bayward gate and sauntered down the meadow-slope to the beach. Of late he had given over fishing in the river for fishing in the bay, where a flat island lay like a lily-pad on the water. With his tackle on his shoulder and a song on his lips, he came down where his boat was waiting and sent a careless glance around the horizon. Then the song was changed to a cry, and he went back up the slope in long bounds, deafening the man at the gate as he burst in upon him. "Skraellings! Around the long point they are coming in shoals!" Staring, the guards stammered the words after him; but an Icelander who was passing caught them up with a roar and started on a run for Karlsefne's booth. The hounds lying under the trees leaped up and raced beside him, barking; out of every door that he passed uncombed heads were thrust, shouting questions. In the draft of a breath, the news had spread like fire. Reaching the Chief of the Champions where he stood in his doorway, he sheathed the sword that he was polishing with so much pride and took a step toward the gate; then, bethinking himself of a quicker way to verify the report, he turned and made for a great pine-tree standing on a little knoll. With a run and a leap he went up the trunk, and clambered from one great bough to the next as though they were steps, until his head came out through the last layer of needles. The Thick-Skulled had spoken truly. The bright plain of the bay was specked with dark skin-boats; eastward around the longest of the capes, they were like a dark tide rolling in upon the land. Something seemed to tighten in the Sword-Bearer's throat; and he was about to turn and let himself down swiftly to the bough below, when his eye was caught by a movement up the river bank, the passing of something dark athwart the green of a bush. Drawing his head down under the green roof, he hung by his arms, gazing intently. There was no open anywhere for the Thing to cross, and just that dark streak flitting through the bush-tops told nothing--and yonder was a white streak behind it! And beyond that a dark one! His hands tightened on the branch so that it crackled. Unless motes were dancing before his eyes, the bush was alive with the fleeting wisps, shapeless, soundless, but bearing down upon the camp. His heart seemed to turn over in his body, and he dropped like an ape from limb to limb. Descending into the camp was like falling from the peacefulness of a masthead into the roar of the ocean. Wrangling and stamping about, the men were struggling into their shirts of ring-mail. Hammering on their shields to get attention, the chiefs were shouting orders. Bearing messages and distributing weapons, thralls rushed back and forth, followed by the yelping of dogs and the screaming of bondwomen from the doorways. It took main force on the part of the Champions' leader to get them aside and make them understand that it was not the enemy before them against whom they were to turn their blades. "The number of those in the boats is so many times greater than we, that no men can be spared from the front," he concluded swiftly. "To find out what these Things are, and defend the gates against them, will be our share. And it is likely that much depends upon our getting into position without loss of time. Olaf and the Hare, I appoint to be my messengers; and I want to give Olaf a message now, while the Hare goes after my ring-shirt." Drawing the Fair One aside, he spoke forcefully in his ear until he yielded reluctant obedience and darted away in the direction of the pastures. It may be admitted that reluctance was in most faces when a little later they turned their backs upon the uproar of the camp and stole out into the loneliness of the grove. Over their shield-rims, their eyes rolled apprehensively as their chief spread them into a broad crescent covering both gates, and led them warily forward. When the first high ground gained failed to reveal anything, they jumped at the idea that he had been mistaken in his spying, that the sun had dazzled his eyes, that what he had seen was but a line of low-flying swallows. They were urging it eagerly at the very instant that he was justified. All at once it was as though every twig in the undergrowth ahead had turned into a bow, and the bow had shot an arrow at them. The rattle on their iron helmets was like the pelting of hail. If their bodies had not been armored, they would have gone down as grain before a scythe. Alrek's voice rang out strongly: "Skraellings! Under cover! Make ready for their charge!" In a flash they had leaped backward, behind trees, bushes, boulders, anything. The sunbeams broke into jagged lightnings as the bright swords sprang from the scabbards. But no flesh appeared from the thicket beyond. The grove remained empty and silent as a grave. It shattered the stillness startlingly when Njal screamed: "If they are Skraellings, why do they not come out and show themselves?" Then, without pausing for reply, he added another shout: "Those in the boats have landed!" From the camp behind them swelled a din of Skraelling yells answered by Norse battle-cries, enforced at regular intervals by the hoarse barking of the leaders. Njal cried shrilly: "_That_ is the way in which Skraellings fight! These are trolls! Let us get loose from their net and turn back." Only Alrek's uplifted spear stayed the rush. "I think you will find my weapon sharp if you do," he warned. "Whether they be men or trolls, we must take heart as we can and hold them from the gates. I urge you all to grip your swords and manfully hold your ground. They can not do you harm while you are under cover." But it was not their bodies that they were afraid with, but their minds which had raised up specters. The sunlit space seemed all at once a cloak for shapes of horror. Dreading with every breath that the cloak would be drawn aside, their eyes shrank from what it might reveal as their flesh would not have shrunk from knives. They spoke as with one voice: "This is jugglery and trickery only! We will go back where men fight against men!" "You will not," spoke Alrek the Chief between his teeth. But even as he said it, he saw the hopelessness of expecting to hold them quiet, and made his last move. Throwing aside his spear he leaped out in front of them, brandishing his sword. "If you must move--move forward!" he cried. "You are nithings unless you follow my fate!" Even then it is not certain that they would have obeyed if Brand had not redeemed much by promptly advancing to his chief's side. "_I_ follow!" he shouted; and Erlend and Gard were only a step behind him. At that, the rest turned like sheep and came after, dodging from cover to cover, clambering, stumbling, ducking, jumping, lashing their courage with a fury of yelling. Before the cold stillness had chilled them again, they saw the foe. Rising from behind boulders, slipping around trees, gliding through bushes, came creatures with gaudy-colored bodies naked as earthworms, and bristling black heads feathered like monstrous birds; so like and yet so hideously unlike the Skraellings, that Gard cried "Forest devils!" and the band turned with one impulse for flight. But behind them, across the ground they believed they had cleared, in the space between them and the gates, stretched another line. Out of their frenzy of fear, sprang a frenzy of hate; and they leaped upon the creatures with drawn swords and the others met them, brandishing stone hatchets. For a time it was a wild game of dodging, with death as a penalty for awkwardness. Whether they were men or demons, the hatchet-bearers showed a dread of steel which kept them hovering beyond arm's reach whenever they were not darting at an opening. But at last the hungry swords tasted the flesh they craved, and their wielders' shouts of triumph stirred the rest to exulting excitement. "We will wipe them out like flies!" Alrek cried. Even as the words left his lips, he made a startling discovery. Laying low the figure in front of him, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure that there was no one behind him; and turned back to find a man standing on the very spot that he had cleared. Striking him down, he whirled to see another hideous shape in the place that--a breath before--he had made empty. At the same instant, Brand cried wildly: "It seems to me that they must rise from the dead since no matter how many one kills, there is always the same number confronting him." Into Alrek's throat came the sense of choking which had seized him in the tree-top when he beheld that dark tide rolling in upon the land. Something seemed to mock in his ear: "It will be like killing the flies of the air one by one!" Then blotting out this came the wonder that Brand's voice should seem so far away; and he risked a glance around the grove, and his heart stood still. In their mad charge, the Champions had broken their line; until now no two fought shoulder to shoulder but each stood alone, his back against a tree or a rock, a circle of hatchet-men around him. Even while their chief looked, three Champions were tempted into making dashes which carried them still wider apart. It would not be long before they would be lost to one another's sight, and the swarms would close in around them--He opened his mouth to send forth a frantic recall. But the fiend-cunning of the black eyes watching him seemed to read his purpose on his lips. Suddenly the shapes around him raised an unearthly howl, which those on all sides caught up and kept up until the din was like a wall through which no sound could come or go. Alrek's hands continued to fight from instinct, but his brain became numb. The horror long hovering over him settled lead-like upon him. "They _are_ trolls!" he told himself; and his strength began to ooze out of him in icy droops. He did not turn his head when above the din rose a roar even more appalling than the yells. When the creatures around him dropped their weapons to fly frantically this way and that, he remained standing where they had left him, plucking at an arrow which had pierced his arm below his mail. Gazing wonderingly, he saw a huge milk-white bull with mouth afoam and eyes like red flame come snorting out of the thicket, pausing now to paw up the earth before him, now to throw back his horned head with a terrific bellow. Then, in a flash, his wits came back to him. Memory reminded him that his own lips had bidden Olaf drive the animal from the pasture for their re-enforcement; and sense told him that--even as he had hoped it might happen--the hatchet-bearers had taken the apparition to be the white man's god, come to his people's aid. Leaning back against the tree, he began to shake with laughter which was half weeping. It seemed to little Olaf the Fair that there was something peculiar about the bearing of all the Champions, when a while later he met them back near the gates. Their greetings came in voices of unsteady shrillness, and their eyes were strangely bright. He said, pouting: "I do not know whether you mean that the fight went against you or that you got the victory, but I warn you that I shall dislike it if you upbraid me for fetching the bull there so soon. I have got scolded enough by the men in camp. It appears that they spent the first part of the battle in running away from arrows, and they had only just got to work with their swords when I came through with the Bellower and sent the Skraellings flying to their boats. I thought the Icelanders would have thrashed me. I shall not take it well if you also find fault----" Their shaking high-pitched laughter drowned his voice. "We will try to excuse you," Alrek said in a drawl that was still rather unsteady; whereat there was another outburst; and they swept clamoring shrilly through the gate. Inside the wall it looked at the first glance like a trading day, with shining-shirted groups scattered everywhere across the green, each man flourishing some kind of weapon while he talked at the top of his great lungs. But at a second glance the resemblance was less, for no fair-time mood was in the mien of Karlsefne and his chiefs where they stood under the council-tree, wiping the paste of sweat and blood from their faces; and here and there men were writhing on the earth while the sharp knives of comrades cut arrow-heads out of their flesh. And suddenly the likeness ceased altogether, as four men came through the bayward gate, each pair carrying between them the body of a dead Icelander. Silence touched each group the four passed; and through the hush, Karlsefne's voice clanged out like a bell, vibrating with wrath: "I wonder at it that you have control enough left to hold your teeth over your tongues when the dead are borne past! Up to this time you have run mad like wolves that have tasted blood. I suppose the strange thing is not that you have broken the peace-bands at last but that I was able to hold your beast-cravings so long in check. It is all I can find to lessen the gall of my defeat." So long as he stood before them, fixing them with his eyes like swords, they remained silent; but the booth door had no more than closed behind him than the excitement leaked out again. In a little while it was running as high as ever, as the men boasted of the great feats they had been on the verge of achieving, and vowed exulting vows about what they would do at the next meeting. It was plain indeed that the peace-bands which had held their swords in their scabbards were snapped forever. CHAPTER XX SHOWING HOW THE HUNTSMAN BAGGED HIS GAME The next day, under a storm-charged sky, the camp lay storm-charged. In the doorways, men stood talking restlessly, with now and again an outburst of sharp wrangling; out on the green, others refreshed their knowledge of spear-throwing; around the tables, still others plied sharpening stones upon ax blades which would never be used for trees. Setting forth with their last load of outfittings for the ship, the Champions shouted a battle-song in the face of the muttering thunder: "And as the foeman's ships drew near The dreadful din you well might hear; Savage Berserks roaring mad, And champions fierce in wolf-skins clad, Howling like wolves; and clanking jar Of many a mail-clad man of war," "Let us not try to settle in another place until we are off our feet on account of old age," Brand spoke with energy. "Karlsefne says truly that Norsemen are too wolf-like to endure it when they are penned like sheep. Let us live like Fridtjof the Bold, with the ship for our hall and the sky for our roof." "And strike where we choose," Erlend added. "There is no good reason why we should never make warfare against any but dwarfs. I have heard it said that fine things are to be found in Ireland----" "And in England--" "And in Rolf's country--" "And the East--" cried a chorus; and each began at once to urge the merits of his particular choice amid an eager clamor that was interrupted only by their arrival at the path which wound down between the boulders. There, however, the interruption was final. Glancing over the boulders, the first boy shrieked: "What!" the second one: "Where--?" then, all together, they roared: "The ship!" and tumbled one over the other and out upon the beach. Save for the rollers which lay where they had left them, not a vestige was to be seen of The-Fire-That-Runs-On-The-Waves. Some of them cried: "The tide!" while others cried: "Skraellings!" And one detachment went swarming up the trees of the bank to sweep the length and breadth of the bay; and the other, drawing swords, raced along the shore to explore the crescent curves with which it was scalloped. But neither party brought back any news to the third group, that seemed as yet unable to do more than stand staring at the rollers and ejaculating. The clue came from a peevish voice on the bank above them: "I think you have little reason to boast of your eyesight if it has not yet told you that I am here." Above the rocks a thin face rose, wanly white in the glare of the lightning that was shivering across the sky. Shrieking: "Hallad!" the band whirled up the beach like wind-driven sand; and their chief had taken several steps to follow them before he pulled himself up and turned around to face the intruder firmly. "This looks to be an evil happening, if any one thinks you to be of importance, which I do not. No fault of ours is it that you were drowned. Why do you not stay under the water with the other dead men?" The colorless lips showed a curl. "Dead men! Do you think that if I had a ghost's power I would allow Thorhall to bind me, and stay up here to be made a gazing-stock----" "Thorhall!" Alrek repeated; and he came a step nearer, so that Brand and Erlend and the Ugly One, pausing in their flight to look around for him, took courage and came a little way back. "I do not know why it did not come to my mind sooner that the Huntsman had a hand in this matter. Yet he would scarcely be able to do it alone." "There was little need to. After such a stirring-up as took place yesterday, men might be expected to be ready for any fun. There were no less than twenty of them with him, and their spirits scraped the sky. Had it not happened that their humor was so good, it is likely they would have killed me when they found out that I had followed them here, instead of doing no more than tie me so that I should not give the alarm too soon. They left at daybreak. I managed it to pull one arm free and slide down on the ground and get some sleep, but the thongs are like red-hot irons upon my ankles. Fetch your knife up here as quickly as you can, and free me." Alrek was taking another step toward him, when the expostulations of his comrades brought him again to a standstill. "If you are not drowned, what is the reason?" he inquired. The claw-like hands beat the rock fretfully. "One reason is because I never fell into the water. Whether Thorhall told you so or not, I was not with him when he was wrecked on the Cape. Two days before that, he had deserted me in the south country because I was overlong in getting back to the boat after an exploring trip. It had happened twice before that I was rather late, and he pretended to think that this time also it was carelessness. It is the truth that I had hurt my leg and could not get back earlier. It took me three weeks after that to make my way here. By that time he had got home and told every one that I was dead; and he took it so ill that I should belie him that he would have made it the truth if I had not run away. The time you saw me climbing out of the ice-hole which I had fallen through, was one time when I barely got away from him. After that, however, it was less difficult; for when he saw how you ran from me, he was willing that I should stay alive so long as I remained dead. The reason I have the appearance of a dead man is because I can not, more than others, get fat and color-full on fish and raw eggs and water." He broke off impatiently: "Is it not clear to you yet, you blocks of peat?" The Champions looked at one another doubtfully. It sounded reasonable, and yet---- "You have always made it a point that your foster-father, Biorn, should help you out of difficulties. What is the reason that you did not go to him with this one?" Brand demanded. At least, Hallad's temper was alive; it sparkled in his hollow eye-sockets. "As well go to Biorn's dogs because they have teeth! It seems to me that you have been fooled enough to be able to understand that the glance of Thorhall's sly green eyes has more power in it than Biorn's blundering fist." Though it is a strange thing, it is true that for the time being they had forgotten the ship. Of one accord they started forward as it came back to them. "You know how much of the story is true--" "--what he did intend--" "Give us your opinion whither he has gone----" "I--will--not--tell--you--one--thing--until--you--come--up--here-- and--release--me," Hallad's thin lips bit off his decision. Alrek set forth his counter-condition. "If you will allow me to prick your skin with my sword so that I see blood come out of your flesh, I will believe that you are not a ghost." One of the skeleton-like arms was stretched over the rock before he had finished. Drawing his sword, he went forward and scratched a cross upon it; the lines were instantly blurred with blood. Without more ado, he climbed up the bank and around the boulder and cut the bands, and the ghost returned his hand-clasp with most unghostlike pressure,--after which he sank down upon the bank to rub his chafed ankles. "It was like his spitefulness to tie them so tight," he whimpered. "And besides this, I am starved. If there are any tidings you want to know, you would better be quick about asking, before I take myself where I can get some curds and bread." From their answer it appeared that they had several things to ask. "Tell us where he is going with our ship--" "Tell us how much truth there was in the dwarf-story--" "No, about his purpose in sharing his secret----" While one of Hallad's hands continued rubbing his ankles, the other one scratched his head. "Now if he has gabbled about dwarfs, it does not appear to me that he did share his secret. Certainly I did not see any dwarfs, nor hear of any. One day when Thord and I had staid with the boat and he and Swipdag had gone far inland, he came back with a gold chain; and they both said that they had seen Asbrandsson, the Broadwicker's Champion whom Snorri Godi outlawed from Iceland many years ago. Where a story passes through many mouths it is likely to become somewhat chewed, and it may be that they were lying then also; but they told how Asbrandsson related about a settlement which white men from Ireland had made further south. He dwelt among them, he said; but it seemed that they lived too quietly and sang too many priest-songs to please him well, and therefore he would like to come to Vinland if so be that Karlsefne the Lawman would admit a fellow of his bad fame. As a present to get him good-will, he sent the Lawman a chain by Thorhall; but that Thorhall put it to other uses is easily guessed. It is less easy to know whither he intends taking the ship. It may be that he has gone south; and it may be, as I said before, that the story of White Man's Land is also a lie." They loosed mouthfuls of angry denunciations. "But why take so much trouble to make up a story--" "What aid was it expected that we should give?" "Why did he not give the message to the Lawman?" "Now are you so witless that I do not wonder he found pleasure in fooling you," Hallad snapped as he got painfully upon his feet. "How would he have got booty if he had told Karlsefne, who would have forbidden fighting between the settlements? It is likely that he made up the dwarf-story because he thought it unadvisable to trust you with the truth. And the reason he stood in need of you was because it was necessary that he should have some one to fight under him, and until yesterday the men would not listen to him. It is not certain, however, that he would not have taken the ship alone anyway, after Alrek got back to the chieftainship. It appears that the Sword-Bearer's power is greater than the Huntsman liked." Alrek straightened from the boulder against which he was leaning, and put out his hand as Hallad turned and planted a foot higher up the path. "There is one question more--about the man who killed the first Skraelling. Do you know who that is?" Pausing with one foot up and one foot down, Hallad looked at them strangely. "Do you not all know?" he asked at last. They cried in one triumphant breath: "It _was_ the Huntsman!" "The Huntsman?" Hallad repeated, and amazement was too plain in his voice to be mistaken. After a minute, he grasped a down-hanging root and pulled himself up to the next step, and would have departed without another word if Alrek had not reached up and clasped him around the ankle. "What do you mean by that?" the Sword-Bearer asked him. "If it was not Thorhall, who was it? I shall not let you go until you tell me." He gripped the raw ankle harder than he knew; Hallad gave a great gasp of mingled pain and anger. "I have not as yet said too much, but I think I need not spare you since you challenge me! It was you yourself; my own eyes saw you. It happened that I was hiding behind a wood-pile in the hope that I could slip into one of the booths and get a weapon for myself. I saw you fall, and I saw the Skraelling lean over you and make a grab at your sword; whereupon you leaped up and buried the hatchet in his head, and he toppled over into the hollow--Now there is no need of your looking at me in that manner! I would not have spoken if you had not dared me. I will say nothing about it anywhere else. I----" But it is not likely that Alrek heard; he stood as though turned to stone, gazing at the speaker out of horror-widened eyes. "You saw ... me ... do it?" he breathed. Looking down upon him, Hallad's face was red and regretful. Although it was plain that no great boldness was in his spirit, it was also clear that his mind was not ill-intentioned. "A great mishap was this that you should ask me," he stammered. "I suppose it was the knock on your head that caused you to forget. But I thought that--Of what use was it to dig it up again! I had the intention to say nothing to any one. It seems most likely to me that the Huntsman put a spell upon you; his eyes are more than equal to it. You need not be so sensitive as to blame. So long as Karlsefne has pardoned you and given you your honors back, your fate does not depend on this----" Through his speech, the voices of Gard and Brand and Erlend broke shrilly: "You flung back his pardon!" "You bought your honors--" "You pledged your life on your guiltlessness!" Out of stiff lips, Alrek confirmed it: "I pledged my life." Hallad turned, wailing, and ran up the bank and into the forest; and the four comrades were left to face it together. CHAPTER XXI IN WHICH ALREK SWORD-BEARER FACES DEATH Brand lay on the ground, shaking with great sobs; and Gard squatted, half sitting, half kneeling, his huge hand crushing to powder the shells he had picked up without knowing what he did. It spoke much for the lessons the two had learned that neither offered plans of rebellion or suggested escaping through the loophole of a trick. Dully, the Ugly One spoke to Alrek Sword-Bearer, where he stood as though turned to stone. "Alrek, say that the lie did not make it any worse for you. Let me have that to remember." Alrek answered without turning his eyes from the sullen water, wrinkled now with rain-drops: "It did not make it any worse for me.... I did you wrong in believing you guilty." "Why was this so? If only we could have got away on the ship, it is not likely that you would ever have found it out," Brand sobbed passionately. "I wish that I might have had one voyage on The Fire," Alrek said slowly. "More than anything else I like to stand on a ship when the wind is blowing under her wings, and feel how I am being carried forward into happenings of interest. I thought I had many such voyages before me, and that I should accomplish some things which the saga-men would think worth talking about. And I believed that I should die in a manner to leave honor behind me. Never did I guess in the deepest hiding-place of my mind that I should be put to death for causing the defeat of my chief--" His voice broke in uncontrollable revolt. "I can not believe that I was such a madman! It must be as he says, that the Huntsman laid a spell upon me. I can not believe that I would so lose my sense!" "It is often said in Greenland that the Huntsman's eyes are capable of turning curses on whomsoever he will," Gard said heavily. "It was seen by every one that he felt hatred against you," Brand added in his unsteady voice. "Ever since he saw that you had better sense than others, he has wished you evil." Lifting his head out of his hands, Erlend spoke bravely: "It does not seem likely to me that Heaven would deal with you so unfairly. It is foolish to hurry ahead of one's luck. I have hope of getting rid of this trouble because of Karlsefne's love for you. Of his own accord he offered you mercy----" "And I chose justice," the Sword-Bearer reminded him grimly. "Do you not see? I may not even ask for a pardon. It is a jest of the Fates,--a nithing jest!" It may be that his voice would have broken again if a great roar of thunder had not cut him short; the rapping of his fists was sharp upon the boulder at which he was staring down. But, gradually, the control which seldom slipped far out of his grasp was gathered again into his hands. When once more it was quiet save for the rustle of the rain on the leaves, he spoke steadily: "I recollect how my father used to say that a soldier had a low mind who could not trust the chief he had chosen enough to follow him through some moves which he could not understand. Now it is certain that I can not see why Heaven has the wish to turn this against me, but I am not going to be so poor-spirited as to make a fuss about it. Let us go back now. Waiting will not help if death is fated to me." It showed again the discipline they had gone through that although Brand's throat was rent anew with sobs and Gard's face became as white as was possible to its swarthiness, neither had any resistance to offer. Rising heavily, they followed their chief up the bank and along the wood-paths which always before they had traveled plan-laden and light-footed with hope. Because of the rain, the tables under the trees were deserted; what sound of voices there was came from Karlsefne's booth. In wordless understanding the comrades walked toward it; only as they passed the empty booth of the Champions, Alrek spoke: "It is likely that the band is loitering somewhere in the woods to talk about the fate of the ship. I am glad it happened so, unless they come back just as I am being fetched out. I give it into your hands, Erlend, to see that they do not behave foolishly." Out of his tear-stained face, Erlend's honest blue eyes met his chief's fairly. "I will see that you have your way," he promised. Alrek, walking in the middle, stretched out his arms and put one around Erlend's neck and one across the shoulders of Brand; and so they came across the rain-beaten green in silence. At the threshold, they paused to grasp one another's hands strongly and long; then the Sword-Bearer pushed wide the half-open door and they went in. In the dignity of his high-seat Karlsefne sat, holding council with his chiefs. Snorri of Iceland occupied the seat of honor opposite him; and on his left was Gudrid, and on his right the burly and big-hearted Biorn Gudbrandsson, his hand still patting the shoulder of his foster-son who sat on the footstool before him, munching bread as though he would never leave off. That the excitement of Hallad's return had subsided, however, was evident since it was of something altogether different that the Lawman was speaking as the Champions entered. "You need not get afraid that I undervalue your power of fighting," he was saying to the triple rank of sullen faces that lined the walls. "That one Northman is more than equal to one Skraelling--provided he can get within arm's reach of him--I do not deny. It would be a strange thing if Northmen could not fight, after the practise they have had! What I want to get into your heads is that you will never face them one to one, nor one to five, nor yet one to ten; but that they will always come in herds and shoals and swarms, as when the Lord sends a plague of creatures on a country. For I think it is as a plague they have come upon us. Here the All-Father had spread a Heaven-like land, and stored it with food and property for all. Here He brought us in peace to take as free gifts whatsoever we would. It might have been a never-emptied treasure-house for all our race, a peace-land for Northmen of all time. The trouble that has come into it is of our own bringing, brought in our blood as vermin are brought in ships. The hand of the Lord is against us; it is my advice that we bow before His wrath. Natures such as ours have no right to softer things than Greenland cold and Iceland rock. It is my ruling that when the spring comes we shall go back over the ocean." Like a mighty bell tolling for a death, his voice echoed through the hall. For a time they seemed awed against their will; and here and there a man made the cross-sign. But presently the heavy voice of Hjalmar Thick-Skull was heard saying to his neighbor: "A Viking voyage, comrade,--that is what it means! A Viking voyage from Norway before the grass comes up again!" Quickly those around him caught up the words: "Viking voyages,--that is true!" "Hail to the Lawman!" "Ho for Norway!" "For England and the Danes!" "Ho for warrior-life again!" "Hail!" "Hail!" "Hail!" Their swelling cheers vied with the thunder pealing overhead. To Alrek Ingolfsson, waiting with blood-marked lips held between his teeth, further delay was unbearable. Suddenly he made a step forward where Karlsefne's gaze would fall upon him from the high-seat. As he had expected, the Lawman spoke with frozen courtesy: "The Chief of the Champions has a right to his place in the council. I give him greeting and ask him to come forward and take the place that belongs to him." The Chief of the Champions went forward, but he did not take his place upon the bench. Standing before the footstool of the high-seat he spoke briefly: "I thank you for your greeting, but I came to claim no right, but to render the pledge I made. It has happened that Hallad saw me kill the Skraelling, in that time which I lost out of my mind." He could not bring himself to meet Karlsefne's eyes when he had finished, but turned away and laid a hand on Gard's shoulder and hid his face on his arm. Above the hubbub that rose, two voices made themselves heard, Gudrid's crying distressfully: "I do not believe it!" and Hallad's wailing: "Why do you betray yourself?" Then the Lawman spoke in a tone that silenced them both: "Let Hallad tell what he has seen." It is but justice to Hallad to say that he would have refused if he had dared; and not daring, he mingled his recital with pleas for mercy. But the terrible evidence had to come out at last. When the tale was finished and the teller had sunk down in tears upon Biorn's footstool, Alrek lifted a face that seemed pale because such black misery was in his brown eyes. "I ask you only to believe that when I said I was innocent, I did not know that I was guilty." After a while the Lawman bent his head. "I believe that," he granted. But he granted no more; and his closed mouth was like a line graven on stone. It was as though the wind had brought a breath from a glacier through the warm summer day. No man's heart but felt the chill; and gradually the whispers, even the motions, ceased and the room was as still as a Greenland winter. Slowly the Lawman rose and stood before his high-seat, an awe-full figure as the light fell coldly on the chiseled beauty of his face and the iron of his hair and his beard. "I believe that you did not know your guilt," he said, "but I believe also that you acted out your true nature when you did the slaying. What Hallad says about the Huntsman's spell-power is child's talk. No spell was on your father when he committed such crimes, and none was on you when you attacked the Skraelling on the Cape of the Crosses. I think now what I have thought always,--that you struck this blow in the Berserk madness which is like poison in your blood; even as you struck on the Cape, even as you would strike again though the welfare of a thousand men should hang on your peacefulness. The cause of a hundred you have already defeated because I pardoned you once; I dare not risk sparing you again. You offered me your life. I take it. There is a gallows ready where a pine-tree stands by the Skraelling's mound. It is my command that Lodin and Asgrim and the men beside them, put you into fetters and take you forth and hang you there." Gudrid fell back in a half-swoon, and through the hall swelled a murmur like the rush of a rising wave. But the Lawman stretched forth his hand, the flash of his eyes like the gleam of ice in the moonlight; and the wave fell, sputtering and hissing, until it had smoothed out into silence. Alrek Ingolfsson spoke only once, when they had finished pinioning his arms. "Like a sheep-killing dog!" he said under his breath; and his head sank beneath its weight of shame, and he did not raise it again but went away without looking into any one's face. With the opening of the door came in the noise of rushing wind; then the door closed upon it, and throughout the length and breadth of the hall there was no sound save for the half-sobbing breaths of Gudrid struggling back from her swoon, and no motion until all at once the Lawman sank into his high-seat and covered his face with his mantle. It is a strange thing that at the moment Karlsefne's eyes were covered, the veil fell from Gudrid's. Lighting on Hallad, her glance rested there dully for a while; then all at once it sharpened to more than ordinary keenness. Rising from her seat, she leveled one slender arm at the cowering figure. "I think you did the slaying yourself!" she breathed. At Hallad's recoil and Biorn's bewildered query, the Lawman looked up questioningly; and Gudrid put her other hand upon his shoulder and shook him in her passion of eagerness. "Will you allow your kinsman to die because of your slowness? Promise life to this coward and he will confess guilt. I see it in his face." But the Lawman had no need to speak, for this sudden focusing of all eyes upon Hallad lay bare his secret like a bolt from the skies, and struck him down at Gudrid's feet. "It was the Huntsman who made me!" he screamed, and groveled shrieking it over and over. Gradually, his foster-father gathered from the broken words that the Huntsman had made it the one condition of his remaining alive and coming back to camp after his own departure, that he should break up the peace by a man-slaying; and he had used the stone hatchet, which he had stolen from Alrek's unconscious body, because that chanced to be his only weapon when a moment later he came unexpectedly upon the Skraelling. But only Biorn, his foster-father, stayed to hear more. At the first cry, Karlsefne had crossed the booth in three strides and vanished through the door, and Gudrid had followed him, and the three Champions. And now the maids and the throng of men turned from Hallad and streamed out into the clearing air and across the green toward the Champions' booth, beyond which a knot of people stood under a pine-tree from whose outreaching bough dangled a grape-vine noose. The loop was empty, for Alrek Sword-Bearer stood below, freed of his bonds, his head bent over Gudrid's hands; and Karlsefne was speaking with a quiver in his deep voice: "I will make this up to you a hundredfold. My smiths shall build you another ship and a finer one, and you shall furnish it from my stores and have the rule over it and take it where you choose. My own son shall have no larger share in my property and my honor and my love." Alrek lifted his brown eyes, glowing golden like the sunshine filtering through the rain-washed air; through lips not yet steady, he answered: "The debt will be more than paid." Suddenly Karlsefne laid a hand upon his shoulder and spoke so that all around could hear: "I will call no voyage unlucky which has brought me to know a man with so high a mind and so brave a heart. I look on this as a proof that good intentions will get the victory over evil in the most unexpected way; and I will take it as an omen that the good which I have tried to get out of this land for my countrymen will come to them yet in some way which I can not now see. We will go back neither bitterly nor despairingly, but giving thanks for the good we have received and cherishing hope for the future. Now, it is my offer and will that every one in hearing shall come to-night to the best feast I can make, in honor of the Chief of the Vinland Champions and his men." It is a good thing that he intended to stop there for not another word could be heard, such jubilating and weapon-clatter went up; and the Champions took their chief upon their shoulders and bore him back in triumph, followed by a cheering train. THE END EPILOGUE These are the rest of the sayings about this expedition. All the ships came safely to Greenland except the vessel of Biorn Gudbrandsson, which was driven out into the ocean that stretches between Greenland and Iceland and there came into a worm-filled sea. By the time Biorn had discovered their danger, the ship was worm-eaten beneath them; and it was seen that the only way was to go down into their long-boat which was coated with seal tar. Since the boat was too small to hold more than half of them, they cast lots for the places; and it fell to Biorn and half of the men to go down in safety, while the other half remained with the sinking vessel. No one thought of making any fuss about this save the boy who had come with Biorn from Iceland. When he saw the others go down into the boat, he began to whimper: "Do you intend, Biorn, to leave me here?" Biorn glanced up at him absently. "So it seems," he answered. The boy began to sob. "You did not promise my father that you would part from me like this, when I left Iceland with you," he said. "You promised that we should always share the same fate." Biorn made the men a sign that they were not yet to cast the boat loose. Big-hearted kindliness was in his voice as always. "So be it," he answered. "It shall not remain this way, since you are so eager for life. Do you come down here and I will go up on the ship." It may be imagined that the young Icelander lost little time obeying. When he had come down, the chief went back upon the vessel; and the two parties separated. In time, the men of the long-boat came to Dublin in Ireland, where they told this story; but it is believed by most people that Biorn and those with him went down in the sea of worms, for they were never heard of again. It is but little more than this which is known about the fate of the Huntsman and his followers. One time, traders came back to Greenland with the tale that Thorhall had been shipwrecked in Ireland, and that his men had been made thralls of and grievously misused, and that he had met his death there. No one ever got other tidings than these. Better luck went with Thorfinn Karlsefne and Gudrid and those in their following, for the summer after they had landed in Greenland they went home to Iceland, and lived there in great splendor and happiness; and many famous men and high-minded women have descended from them. Best luck of all, the foretelling of Karlsefne has come true; and despite delays and hindrances, his countrymen have found a peace-land and a never-emptied treasure-house not only in Vinland the Good but in the whole of the new-world country which those who are alive to-day call America the Free. * * * * * NEW BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS BY JAMES BARNES. The Giant of Three Wars. (Heroes of Our Army Series.) Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25. 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30298	----	THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE _Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman._ A NOVEL BY EMERSON HOUGH AUTHOR OF THE COVERED WAGON, NORTH OF 36, ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR I. KELLER NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Made in the United States of America COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY EMERSON HOUGH COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY Printed in the United States of America [Illustration: "'Him Ro'shones,' replied the girl" [PAGE 219]] TO ROBERT H. DAVIS GOOD FRIEND INVALUABLE COLLABORATOR CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER PAGE I. MOTHER AND SON 3 II. MERIWETHER AND THEODOSIA 15 III. MR. BURR AND MR. MERRY 30 IV. PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY 36 V. THE PELL-MELL AND SOME CONSEQUENCES 47 VI. THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 71 VII. COLONEL BURR AND HIS DAUGHTER 86 VIII. THE PARTING 94 IX. MR. THOMAS JEFFERSON 105 X. THE THRESHOLD OF THE WEST 117 XI. THE TAMING OF PATRICK GASS 128 XII. CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARK 137 XIII. UNDER THREE FLAGS 143 XIV. THE RENT IN THE ARMOR 153 PART II I. UNDER ONE FLAG 167 II. THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER 182 III. THE DAY'S WORK 191 IV. THE CROSSROADS OF THE WEST 199 V. THE APPEAL 208 VI. WHICH WAY? 218 VII. THE MOUNTAINS 230 VIII. TRAIL'S END 241 IX. THE SUMMONS 250 X. THE ABYSS 256 XI. THE BEE 272 XII. WHAT VOICE HAD CALLED? 280 XIII. THE NEWS 292 XIV. THE GUESTS OF A NATION 300 XV. MR. JEFFERSON'S ADVICE 308 XVI. THE QUALITY OF MERCY 316 XVII. THE FRIENDS 328 XVIII. THE WILDERNESS 336 XIX. DOWN TO THE SEA 351 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "'Him Ro'shones,' replied the girl" _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "'Mistah Thomas Jeffahson!' was his sole announcement" 50 "'Oh, Theo, what have I done?'" 162 "Her face indeed!" 252 THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE CHAPTER I MOTHER AND SON A woman, tall, somewhat angular, dark of hair and eye, strong of features--a woman now approaching middle age--sat looking out over the long, tree-clad slopes that ran down from the gallery front of the mansion house to the gate at the distant roadway. She had sat thus for some moments, many moments, her gaze intently fixed, as though waiting for something--something or someone that she did not now see, but expected soon to see. It was late afternoon of a day so beautiful that not even old Albemarle, beauty spot of Virginia, ever produced one more beautiful--not in the hundred years preceding that day, nor in the century since then. For this was more than a hundred years ago; and what is now an ancient land was then a half opened region, settled only here and there by the great plantations of the well-to-do. The house that lay at the summit of the long and gentle slope, flanked by its wide galleries--its flung doors opening it from front to rear to the gaze as one approached--had all the rude comfort and assuredness usual with the gentry of that time and place. It was the privilege, and the habit, of the Widow Lewis to sit idly when she liked, but her attitude now was not that of idleness. Intentness, reposeful acceptance of life, rather, showed in her motionless, long-sustained position. She was patient, as women are; but her strong pose, its freedom from material support, her restrained power to do or to endure, gave her the look of owning something more than resignation, something more than patience. A strong figure of a woman, one would have said had one seen her, sitting on the gallery of her old home a hundred and twenty-four years ago. The Widow Lewis stared straight down at the gate, a quarter of a mile away, with yearning in her gaze. But as so often happens, what she awaited did not appear at the time and place she herself had set. There fell at the western end of the gallery a shadow--a tall shadow, but she did not see it. She did not hear the footfall, not stealthy, but quite silent, with which the tall owner of the shadow came toward her from the gallery end. It was a young man, or rather boy, no more than eighteen years of age, who stood now and gazed at her after his silent approach, so like that of an Indian savage. Half savage himself he seemed now, as he stood, clad in the buckskin garments of the chase, then not unusual in the Virginian borderlands among settlers and hunters, and not held _outré_ among a people so often called to the chase or to war. His tunic was of dressed deer hide, his well-fitting leggings also of that material. His feet were covered with moccasins, although his hat and the neat scarf at his neck were those of a gentleman. He was a practical youth, one would have said, for no ornament of any sort was to be seen upon his garb. In his hand he carried a long rifle of the sort then used thereabout. At his belt swung the hide of a raccoon, the bodies of a few squirrels. Had you been a close observer, you would have found each squirrel shot fair through the head. Indeed, a look into the gray eye of the silent-paced youth would have assured you in advance of his skill with his weapons--you would have known that to be natural with him. You would not soon have found his like, even in that land of tall hunting men. He was a grand young being as he stood there, straight and clean-limbed; hard-bitten of muscle, albeit so young; powerful and graceful in his stride. The beauty of youth was his, and of a strong heredity--that you might have seen. The years of youth were his, yes; but the lightness of youth did not rest on his brow. While he was not yet eighteen, the gravity of manhood was his. He did not smile now, as he saw his mother sitting there absorbed, gazing out for his return, and not seeing him now that he had returned. Instead, he stepped forward, and quietly laid a hand upon her shoulder, not with any attempt to surprise or startle her, but as if he knew that she would accept it as the announcement of his presence. He was right. The strong figure in the chair did not start away. No exclamation came from the straight mouth of the face now turned toward him. Evidently the nerves of these two were not of the sort readily stampeded. The young man's mother at first did not speak to him. She only reached up her own hand to take that which lay upon her shoulder. They remained thus for a moment, until at last the youth stepped back to lean his rifle against the wall. "I am late, mother," said he at length, as he turned and, seating himself at her feet, threw his arm across her lap--himself but boy again now, and not the hunter and the man. She stroked his dark hair, not foolishly fond, but with a sort of stern maternal care, smoothing it back in place where it belonged, straightening out the riot it had assumed. It made a mane above his forehead and reached down his neck to his shoulders, so heavy that where its dark mass was lifted it showed the skin of his neck white beneath. "You are late, yes." "And you waited--so long?" "I am always waiting for you, Merne," said she. She used the Elizabethan vowel, as one should pronounce "bird," with no sound of "u"--"Mairne," the name sounded as she spoke it. And her voice was full and rich and strong, as was her son's; musically strong. "I am always waiting for you, Merne," said she. "But I long ago learned not to expect anything else of you." She spoke with not the least reproach in her tone. "No, I only knew that you would come back in time, because you told me that you would." "And you did not fear for me, then--gone overnight in the woods?" He half smiled at that thought himself. "You know I would not. I know you, what you are--born woodsman. No, I trust you to care for yourself in any wild country, my son, and to come back. And then--to go back again into the forest. When will it be, my son? Tomorrow? In two days, or four, or six? Sometime you will go to the wilderness again. It draws you, does it not?" She turned her head slightly toward the west, where lay the forest from which the boy had but now emerged. He did not smile, did not deprecate. He was singularly mature in his actions, though but eighteen years of age. "I did not desert my duty, mother," said he at length. "Oh, no, you would not do that, Merne!" returned the widow. "Please, mother," said he suddenly, "I want you to call me by my full name--that of your people. Am I not Meriwether, too?" The hand on his forehead ceased its gentle movement, fell to its owner's lap. A sigh passed his mother's set lips. "Yes, my son, Meriwether," said she. "This is the last journey! I have lost you, then, it seems? You do not wish to be my boy any longer? You are a man altogether, then?" "I am Meriwether Lewis, mother," said he gravely, and no more. "Yes!" She spoke absently, musingly. "Yes, you always were!" "I went westward, clear across the Ragged Mountains," said the youth. "These"--and he pointed with contempt to the small trophies at his belt--"will do for the darkies at the stables. I put yon old ringtail up a tree last night, on my way home, and thought it was as well to wait till dawn, till I could see the rifle-sights; and afterward--the woods were beautiful today. As to the trails, even if there is no trail, I know the way back home--you know that, mother." "I know that, my son, yes. You were born for the forest. I fear I shall not hold you long on this quiet farm." "All in time, mother! I am to stay here with you until I am fitted to go higher. You know what Mr. Jefferson has said to me. I am for Washington, mother, one of these days--for I hold it sure that Mr. Jefferson will go there in some still higher place. He was my father's friend, and is ours still." "It may be that you will go to Washington, my son," said his mother; "I do not know. But will you stay there? The forest will call to you all your life--all your life! Do I not know you, then? Can I not see your life--all your life--as plainly as if it were written? Do I not know--your mother? Why should not your mother know?" He looked around at her rather gravely once again, unsmilingly, for he rarely smiled. "How do you know, mother? What do you know? Tell me--about myself! Then I will tell you also. We shall see how we agree as to what I am and what I ought to do!" "My son, it is no question of what you ought to do, for that blends too closely in fate with what you surely will do--must do--because it was written for you. Yonder forest will always call to you." She turned now toward the sun, sinking across the red-leaved forest lands. "The wilderness is your home. You will go out into it and return--often; and then at last you will go and not come back again--not to me--not to anyone will you come back." The youth did not move as she sat, her hands on his head. Her voice went on, even and steady. "You are old, Meriwether Lewis! It is time, now. You are a man. You _always_ were a man! You were born old. You never have been a boy, and never can be one. You never were a child, but always a man. When you were a baby, you did not smile; when you were a boy, you always had your way. My boy, a long time ago I ceased to oppose that will of yours--I knew that it was useless. But, ah, how I have loved that will when I felt it was behind your promise! I knew you would do what you had set for yourself to do. I knew you would come back with deeds in your hand, my boy--gained through that will which never would bend for me or for anyone else in the world!" He remained motionless, apparently unaffected, as his mother went on. "You were always old, always grown up, always resolved, always your own master--always Meriwether Lewis. When you were born, you were not a child. When the old nurse brought you to me--I can see her black face grinning now--she carried you held by the feet instead of lying on her arm. You _stood_, you were so strong! Your hair was dark and full even then. You were old! In two weeks you turned where you heard a sound--you recognized sight and sound together, as no child usually does for months. You were beautiful, my boy, so strong, so straight--ah, yes!--but you never were a boy at all. When you should have been a baby, you did not weep and you did not smile. I never knew you to do so. From the first, you always were a man." She paused, but still he did not speak. "That was well enough, for later we were left alone. But your father was in you. Do I not know well enough where you got that settled melancholy of yours, that despondency, that somber grief--call it what you like--that marked him all his life, and even in his death? That came from him, your father. I thank God I did not give you that, knowing what life must hold for you in suffering! He suffered, yes, but not as you will. And you must--you must, my son. Beyond all other men, you will suffer!" "You were better named Cassandra, mother!" Yet the young man scarce smiled even now. "Yes, I am a prophetess, all too sooth a prophetess, my son. I see ahead as only a mother can see--perhaps as only one of the old Highland blood can see. I am soothseer and soothsayer, because you are blood of my blood, bone of my bone, and I cannot help but know. I cannot help but know what that melancholy and that resolution, all these combined, must spell for you. You know how his heart was racked at times?" The boy nodded now. "Then know how your own must be racked in turn!" said she. "My son, it is no ordinary fate that will be yours. You will go forward at all costs; you will keep your word bright as the knife in your belt--you will drive yourself. What that means to you in agony--what that means when your will is set against the unalterable and the inevitable--I wish--oh, I wish I could not see it! But I do see it, now, all laid out before me--all, all! Oh, Merne--may I not call you Merne once more before I let you go?" She let her hands fall from his head to his shoulders as she gazed steadily out beyond him, as if looking into his future; but she herself sat, her strong face composed. She might, indeed, have been a prophetess of old. "Tragedy is yours, my son," said she, slowly, "not happiness. No woman will ever come and lie in your arms happy and content." "Mother!" He half flung off her hands, but she laid them again more firmly on his shoulders, and went on speaking, as if half in reverie, half in trance, looking down the long slope of green and gold as if it showed the vista of the years. "You will love, my boy, but with your nature how could love mean happiness to you? Love? No man could love more terribly. You will be intent, resolved, but the firmness of your will means that much more suffering for you. You will suffer, my boy--I see that for you, my first-born boy! You will love--why should you not, a man fit to love and be loved by any woman? But that love, the stronger it grows, will but burn you the deeper. You will struggle through on your own path; but happiness does not lie at the end of that path for you. You will succeed, yes--you could not fail; but always the load on your shoulders will grow heavier and heavier. You will carry it alone, until at last it will be too much for you. Your strong heart will break. You will lie down and die. Such a fate for you, Merne, my boy--such a man as you will be!" She sighed, shivered, and looked about her, startled, as if she had spoken aloud in some dream. "Well, then, go on!" she said, and withdrew her hands from his shoulders. The faces of both were now gazing straight on over the gold-flecked slope before them. "Go on, you are a man. I know you will not turn back from what you undertake. You will not change, you will not turn--because you cannot. You were born to earn and not to own; to find, but not to possess. But as you have lived, so you will die." "You give me no long shrift, mother?" said the youth, with a twinkle in his eye. "How can I? I can only tell you what is in the book of life. Do I not know? A mother always loves her son; so it takes all her courage to face what she knows will be his lot. Any mother can read her son's future--if she dares to read it. She knows--she knows!" There was a long silence; then the widow continued. "Listen, Merne," she said. "You call me a prophetess of evil. I am not that. Do you think I speak only in despair, my boy? No, there is something larger than mere happiness. Listen, and believe me, for now I could not fail to know. I tell you that your great desire, the great wish of your life, shall be yours! You never will relinquish it, you always will possess it, and at last it will be yours." Again silence fell between them before she went on, her hand again resting on her son's dark hair. "Your great desire will cost me my son. Be it so! We breed men for the world, we women, and we give them up. Out of the agony of our hearts, we do and must always give them up. That is the price I must pay. But I give you up to the great hope, the great thing of your life. Should I complain? Am I not your mother, and therefore a woman? And should a woman complain? But, Oh, Merne, Merne, my son, my boy!" She drew his head back, so that she could see deep into his eyes. Her dark brows half frowning, she gazed down upon him, not so much in tenderness as in intentness. For the first time in many months--for the last time in his life--she kissed him on the forehead; and then she let him go. He rose now, and, silently as he had come, passed around the end of the wide gallery. Her gaze did not follow him. She sat still looking down the golden-green slope where the leaves were dropping silently. She sat, her chin in her hand, her elbows upon her knees, facing that future, somber but splendid, to which she had devoted her son, and which in later years he so singularly fulfilled. That was the time when the mother of Meriwether Lewis gave him to his fate--his fate, so closely linked with yours and mine. CHAPTER II MERIWETHER AND THEODOSIA Soft is the sun in the summer season at Washington, softer at times than any old Dan Chaucer ever knew; but again so ardent that anyone who would ride abroad would best do so in the early morning. This is true today, and it was true when the capital city lay in the heart of a sweeping forest at the edge of a yet unconquered morass. The young man who now rode into this forest, leaving behind him the open streets of the straggling city--then but beginning to lighten under the rays of the morning sun--was one who evidently knew his Washington. He knew his own mind as well, for he rode steadily, as if with some definite purpose, to some definite point, looking between his horse's ears. Sitting as erect and as easily as any cavalier of the world's best, he was tall in his saddle seat, his legs were long and straight. His boots were neatly varnished, his coat well cut, his gloves of good pattern for that time. His hat swept over a mass of dark hair, which fell deep in its loose cue upon his neck. His cravat was immaculate and well tied. He was a good figure of a man, a fine example of the young manhood of America as he rode, his light, firm hand half unconsciously curbing the antics of the splendid animal beneath him--a horse deep bay in color, high-mettled, a mount fit for a monarch--or for a young gentleman of Virginia a little more than one hundred years ago. If it was not the horse of a monarch the young man bestrode, none the less it was the horse of one who insisted that his stables should be as good as those of any king--none less, if you please, than Mr. Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States of America. This particular animal was none other than Arcturus, Mr. Jefferson's favorite saddler. It was the duty as well as the delight of Mr. Jefferson's private secretary to give Arcturus and his stable-mate, Wildair, their exercise on alternate days. On this summer morning Arcturus was enjoying his turn beneath his rider--who forsooth was more often in the saddle than Mr. Jefferson himself. Horse and rider made a picture in perfect keeping as they fared on toward the little-used forest road which led out Rock Creek way. Yonder, a few miles distant, was a stone mill owned by an old German, who sometimes would offer a cup of coffee to an early horseman. Perhaps this rider knew the way from earlier wanderings thither on other summer mornings. Arcturus curveted along and tossed his head, mincing daintily, and making all manner of pretense at being dangerous, with sudden gusts of speed and shakings of his head and blowing out of his nostrils--though all the time the noble bay was as gentle as a dog. Whether or not he really were dangerous would have made small difference to the young man who bestrode him, for his seat was that of the born horseman. They advanced comfortably enough, the rider seemingly less alive to the joys of the morning than was the animal beneath him. The young man's face was grave, his mouth unsmiling--a mouth of half Indian lines, broken in its down-sweeping curve merely by the point of a bow which spoke of gentleness as well as strength. His head was that of the new man, the American, the new man of a new world, young and strong, a continent that had lain fallow from the birth of time. What burdened the mind of a man like this, of years which should have left him yet in full attunement with the morning of life and with the dawn of a country? Why should he pay so little heed to the playful advances of Arcturus, inviting him for a run along the shady road? Arcturus could not tell. He could but prance insinuatingly, his ears forward, his head tossed, his eye now and again turned about, inquiring. But though the young man, moody and abstracted, still looked on ahead, some of his senses seemed yet on guard. His head turned at the slightest sound of the forest life that came to him. If a twig cracked, he heard it. If a green nut cut by some early squirrel clattered softly on the leaves, that was not lost to him. A bevy of partridges, feeding at dawn along the edge of the forest path, whirled up in his horse's face; and though he held the startled animal close, he followed the flight of the birds with the trained eye of the fowler, and marked well where they pitched again. He did these things unconsciously as one well used to the woods, even though his eye turned again straight down the road and the look of intentness, of sadness, almost of melancholy, once more settled upon his features. He advanced into the wood until all sight of the city was quite cut off from him, until the light grew yet dimmer along the forest road, in places almost half covered with a leafy canopy, until at length he came to the valley of the little stream. He followed the trail as it rambled along the bank toward the mill, through scenes apparently familiar to him. Abstracted as he was he must have been alert, alive, for now, suddenly, he broke his moody reverie at some sound which he heard on ahead. He reined in for just an instant, then loosed the bridle and leaned forward. The horse under him sprang forward in giant strides. It was the sound of a voice that the young cavalier had heard--the voice of a woman--apparently a woman in some distress. What cavalier at any time of the world has not instinctively leaped forward at such sound? In less than half a moment the rider was around the turn of the leafy trail. She was there, the woman who had cried out, herself mounted, and now upon the point of trying conclusions with her mount. Whether dissatisfaction with the latter or some fear of her own had caused her to cry out might have been less certain, had it not been sure that her eye was at the moment fastened, not upon the fractious steed, but upon the cause of his unwonted misbehavior. The keen eye of the young man looked with hers, and found the reason for the sudden scene. A serpent, some feet in length--one of the mottled, harmless species sometimes locally called the blow-snake--obviously had come out into the morning sun to warm himself, and his yellow body, lying loose and uncoiled, had been invisible to horse and rider until they were almost upon it. Then, naturally, the serpent had moved his head, and both horse and rider had seen him, to the dismay of both. This the young man saw and understood in a second, even as he spurred forward alongside the plunging animal. His firm hand on the bridle brought both horses back to their haunches. An instant later both had control of their mounts again, and had set them down to their paces in workmanlike fashion. There was color in the young woman's face, but it was the color of courage, of resolution. There was breeding in every line of her. Class and lineage marked her as she sat easily, her supple young body accommodating itself handsomely to the restrained restiveness of the steed beneath her. She rode with perfect confidence, as an experienced horsewoman, and was well turned out in a close habit, neither old nor new. Her dark hair--cut rather squarely across her forehead after an individual fashion of her own--was surmounted by a slashed hat, decorated with a wide-flung plume of smoky color, caught with a jewel at the side. Both jewel and plume had come, no doubt, in some ship from across seas. Her hands were small, and gloved as well as might be at that day of the world. There was small ornament about her; nor did this young woman need ornament beyond the color of her cheek and hair and eye, and perhaps the touch of a bold ribbon at her throat, which held a white collar closer to a neck almost as white. An aristocrat, you must have called her, had you seen her in any chance company. And had you been a young man such as this, and had you met her alone, in some sort of agitation, and had consent been given you--or had you taken consent--surely you would have been loath to part company with one so fair, and would have ridden on with her as he did now. But at first they did not speak. A quick, startled look came into the face of the young woman. A deeper shade glowed upon the cheek of the cavalier, reddening under the skin--a flush which shamed him, but which he could not master. He only kept his eyes straight between his horse's ears as he rode--after he had raised his hat and bowed at the close of the episode. "I am to thank Captain Lewis once more," began the young woman, in a voice vibrant and clear--the sweetest, kindest voice in the world. "It is good fortune that you rode abroad so early this morning. You always come at need!" He turned upon her, mute for a time, yet looking full into her face. It was sadness, not boldness, not any gay challenge, that marked his own. "Can you then call it good fortune?" His own voice was low, suppressed. "Why not, then?" "You did not need me. A moment, and you would have been in command again--there was no real need of me. Ah, you never need me!" "Yet you come. You were here, had the need been worse. And, indeed, I was quite off my guard--I must have been thinking of something else." "And I also." "And there was the serpent." "Madam, there was the serpent! And why not? Is this not Eden? I swear it is paradise enough for me. Tell me, why is it that in the glimpses the sages give us of paradise they no more than lift the curtain--and let it fall again?" "Captain Meriwether Lewis is singularly gloomy this morning!" "Not more than I have been always. How brief was my little hour! Yet for that time I knew paradise--as I do now. We should part here, madam, now, forever. Yon serpent spelled danger for both of us." "For both of us?" "No, forgive me! None the less, I could not help my thoughts--cannot help them now. I ride here every morning. I saw your horse's hoof-marks some two miles back. Do you suppose I did not know whose they were?" "And you followed me? Ah!" "I suppose I did, and yet I did not. If I did I knew I was riding to my fate." She would have spoken--her lips half parted--but what she might have said none heard. He went on: "I have ridden here since first I saw you turn this way one morning. I guessed this might be your haunt at dawn. I have ridden here often--and feared each time that I might meet you. Perhaps I came this morning in the same way, not knowing that you were near, but hoping that you might be. You see, madam, I speak the absolute truth with you." "You have never spoken aught else to any human soul. That I know." "And yet you try to evade the truth? Why deceive your heart about it, since I have not deceived my own? I have faced it out in my own heart, and I have, I trust, come off the victor. At some cost!" Her face was troubled. She looked aside as she replied in a voice low, but firm: "Any woman would be glad to hear such words from Captain Lewis, and I am glad. But--the honest wife never lived who could listen to them often." "I know that," he said simply. "No!" Her voice was very low now; her eyes soft and cast down as they fell upon a ring under her glove. "We must not meet, Captain Meriwether Lewis. At least, we must not meet thus alone in the woods. It might cause talk. The administration has enemies enough, as you know--and never was a woman who did not have enemies, no matter how clean her life has been." "Clean as the snow, yours! I have never asked you to be aught else, and never will. I sought you once, when I rode from Virginia to New York--when I first had my captain's pay, before Mr. Jefferson asked me to join his family. Before that time I had too little to offer you; but then, with my hopes and my ambitions, I ventured. I made that journey to offer you my hand. I was two weeks late--you were already wedded to Mr. Alston. Then I learned that happiness never could be mine.... Yes, we must part! You are the only thing in life I fear. And I fear as well for you. One wagging tongue in this hotbed of gossip--and there is harm for you, whom all good men should wish to shield." As he rode, speaking thus, his were the features of a man of tremendous emotions, a resolute man, a man of strength, of passions not easily put down. She turned aside her own face for an instant. At last her little hand went to him in a simple gesture of farewell. Meriwether Lewis leaned and kissed it reverently as he rode. "Good-by!" said he. "Now we may go on for the brief space that remains for us," he added a moment later. "No one is likely to ride this way this morning. Let us go on to the old mill. May I give you a cup of coffee there?" "I trust Captain Meriwether Lewis," she replied. They advanced silently, and presently came in sight of a little cascade above a rocky shallowing of the stream. Below this, after they had splashed through the ford, they saw the gray stone walls of Rock Creek Mill. The miller was a plain man, and silent. Other folk, younger or older, married or single, had come hither of a morning, and he spoke the name of none. He welcomed these two after his fashion. Under the shade of a great tree, which flung an arm out to the rivulet, he pulled out a little table spread in white and departed to tell his wife of the company. She, busy and smiling, came out presently with her best in old china and linen and wherewith to go with both. They sat now, face to face across the little table, their horses cropping the dewy grass near by. Lewis's riding crop and gloves lay on his knee. He cast his hat upon the grass. Little birds hopped about on the ground and flitted here and there in the trees, twittering. A mocker, trilling in sudden ecstacy of life, spread a larger melody through all the wood. The sun drew gently up in the heavens, screened by the waving trees. The ripple of the stream was very sweet. "Theodosia, look!" said the young man, suddenly swinging a gesture about him. "Did I not say right? It is Eden! Ah, what a pity it is that Eden must ever be the same--a serpent--repentance--and farewell! Yet it was so beautiful." "A sinless Eden, sir." "No! I will not lie--I will not say that I do not love you more than ever. That is my sin; so I must go away. This must be our last meeting--I am fortunate that it came by chance today." "Going away--where, then, my friend?" "Into the West. It always has called me. Ah, if only I had remained in the Indian country yonder, where I belonged, and never made my ride to New York--to learn that I had come too late! But the West still is there--the wilderness still exists to welcome such as me!" "But you will--you will come back again?" "It is in the lap of the gods. I do not know or care. But my plans are all arranged. Mr. Jefferson and I have agreed that it is almost time to start. You see, Theodosia, I am now back from my schooling. You behold in me, madam, a scientist! At least I am competent to read by the sun and stars, can reckon longitude and latitude--as one must, to journey into the desert yonder. If only I dared orient my soul as well!" "You would never doubt my faith in my husband." "No! Of course, you love your husband. I could not look at you a second time if you did not." "You are a good man, Meriwether Lewis!" "Do not say it! I am a man accursed of evil passions--the most unhappy of all men. There is nothing else, I say, in all the world that I fear but my love for you. Tell me it will not last--tell me it will change--tell me that I shall forget! I should not believe you--but tell me that. Does a man never forget? Success--for others; happiness--for someone else. My mother said that was to be my fate. What did she mean?" "She meant, Meriwether Lewis, that you were a great man, a great soul! Only a man of noble soul could speak as you have spoken to me. We women, in our souls, love something noble and good and strong. Then we imagine someone like that. We believe, or try to believe, or say that we believe; but always----" "And a woman may divide not love, only love of love itself?" "I shall love your future, and shall watch it always," she replied, coloring. "You will be a great man, and there will be a great place for you." "And what then?" "Do not ask what then. You ask if men never change. Alas, they do, all too frequently! Do not deny the imperious way of nature. Only--remember me as long as you can, Meriwether Lewis." She spoke softly, and the color of her cheek, still rising, told of her self-reproof. He turned suddenly at this, a wonderfully sweet smile now upon his face. "As long as I can?" "Yes. Let your own mind run on the ambitions of a proud man, a strong man. Ambition--power--place--these things will all be yours in the coming years. They belong to any man of ability such as yours, and I covet them for you. I shall pray always for your success; but success makes men forget." He still sat looking at her unmoved, with thoughts in his heart that he would not have cared to let her know. She went on still, half tremblingly: "I want to see you happy after a time--with some good woman at your side--your children by you--in your own home. I want everything for you which ought to come to any man. And yet I know how hard it is to alter your resolve, once formed. Captain Lewis, you are a stubborn man, a hard man!" He shook his head. "Yes, I do not seem to change," said he simply. "I hope I shall be able to carry my burden and to hold my trail." "Fie! I will not have such talk on a morning like this." Fearlessly she reached out her hand to his, which lay upon the table. She smiled at him, but he looked down, the lean fingers of his own hand not trembling nor responding. If she sensed the rigidity of the muscles which held his fingers outward, at least she feared it not. If she felt the repression which kept him silent, at least she feared it not. Her intuitions told her at last that the danger was gone. His hand did not close on hers. She raised her cup and saluted laughingly. "A good journey, Meriwether Lewis," said she, "and a happy return from it! Cast away such melancholy--you will forget all this!" "I ask you not to wound me more than need be. I am hard to die. I can carry many wounds, but they may pain me none the less." "Forgive me, then," she said, and once more her small hand reached out toward him. "I would not wound you. I asked you only to remember me as----" "As----" "As I shall you, of course. And I remember that bright day when you came to me--yonder in New York. You offered me all that any man can ever offer any woman. I am proud of that! I told my husband, yes. He never mentions your name save in seriousness and respect. I am ambitious for you. All the Burrs are full of ambition, and I am a Burr, as you know. How long will it be before you come back to higher office and higher place? Will it be six months hence?" "More likely six years. If there is healing for me, the wilderness alone must give it." "I shall be an old woman--old and sallow from the Carolina suns. You will have forgotten me then." "It is enough," said he. "You have lightened my burden for me as much as may be--you have made the trial as easy as any can. The rest is for me. At least I can go feeling that I have not wronged you in any way." "Yes, Meriwether Lewis," said she quietly, "there has not been one word or act of yours to cause you regret, or me. You have put no secret on me that I must keep. That was like a man! I trust you will find it easy to forget me." He raised a hand. "I said, madam, that I am hard to die. I asked you not to wound me overmuch. Do not talk to me of hopes or sympathy. I do not ask--I will not have it! Only this remains to comfort me--if I had laid on my soul the memory of one secret that I had dared to place on yours, ah, then, how wretched would life be for me forever after! That thought, it seems to me, I could not endure." "Go, then, my savage gentleman, and let me----" "And let you never see my face again?" She rose and stood looking at him, her own eyes wet with a sudden moisture. "Women worth loving are so few!" she said slowly. "Clean men are so few! How a woman could have loved you, Meriwether Lewis! How some woman ought to love you! Yes, go now," she concluded. "Yes, go!" "Mrs. Alston will wait with you here for a few moments," said Meriwether Lewis to the miller's wife quietly. He stood with his bridle rein across his arm. "See that she is very comfortable. She might have a second cup of your good coffee?" He swung into his saddle, reined his horse about, turned and bowed formally to his late _vis-à-vis_, who still remained seated at the table. Then he was off at such speed as left Arcturus no more cause to fret at his bridle rein. CHAPTER III MR. BURR AND MR. MERRY The young Virginian had well-nigh made his way out over the two miles or so of sheltered roadway, when he heard hoof beats on ahead, and slackened his own speed. He saw two horsemen approaching, both well mounted, coming on at a handsome gait. Of these, one was a stout and elderly man of no special shape at all, who sat his horse with small grace, his florid face redder for his exercise, his cheeks mottled with good living and hard riding. He was clad in scrupulous riding costume, and seemed, indeed, a person of some importance. The badge of some order or society showed on his breast, and his entire air--intent as he was upon his present business of keeping company with a skilled horseman--marked him as one accustomed to attention from others. A servant in the costume of an English groom rode at a short distance behind him. The second man was lighter, straight and trim of figure, with an erectness and exactness of carriage which marked him as a soldier at some part of his life. He was clad with extreme neatness, well booted also, and sat his mount with the nonchalance of the trained horseman. His own garb and face showed not the slightest proof that he had been riding hard. Indeed, he seemed one whom no condition or circumstance could deprive of a cool immaculateness. He was a man to be marked in any company--especially so by the peculiar brilliance of his full, dark eye, which had a piercing, searching glint of its own; an eye such as few men have owned, and under whose spell man or woman might easily melt to acquiescence with the owner's mind. He sat his horse with a certain haughtiness as well as carelessness. His chin seemed long and firm, and his lofty forehead--indeed, his whole air and carriage--discovered him the man of ambition that he really was. For this was no other than Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, whose name was soon to be on the lips of all. He had lately come to Washington with the Jefferson administration. This gentleman now reined up his horse as he caught sight of the young man approaching. His older companion also halted. Burr raised his hat. "Ah, Captain Lewis!" he said in a voice of extraordinary sweetness, yet of power. "You also have caught the secret of this climate, eh? You ride in the early morning--I do not wonder. You are Virginian, and so know the heats of Washington. I fancy you recognize Mr. Merry," he added, his glance turning from one to the other. The young Virginian bowed to both gentlemen. "I have persuaded his excellency the minister from Great Britain to ride with us on one of our Washington mornings. He has been good enough to say--to say--that he enjoys it!" Burr turned a quick glance upon the heavier figure at his side, with a half smile of badinage on his own face. Lewis bowed again, formally, and Anthony Merry answered with equal politeness and ceremony. "Yes," said the envoy, "to be sure I recall the young man. I met him in the anteroom at the President's house." Meriwether Lewis cast him a quick glance, but made no answer. He knew well enough the slighting estimate in which everything at Washington was held by this minister accredited to our government. Also he knew, as he might have said, something about the diplomat's visit at the Executive Mansion. For thus far the minister from Great Britain to Washington had not been able to see the President of the United States. "And you are done your ride?" said Burr quickly, for his was a keen nose to scent any complication. "Tell me"--he lifted his own reins now to proceed--"you saw nothing of my daughter, Mrs. Alston? We missed her at the house, and have feared her abduction by some bold young Virginian, eh?" His keen eye rested fairly on the face of the younger man as he spoke. The latter felt the challenge under the half mocking words. "Yes," he replied calmly, "I have seen Mrs. Alston. I left her but now at the old mill, having a cup of coffee with the miller's wife. I had not time myself for a second, although Mrs. Alston honored me by allowing me to sit at her table for a moment. We met by accident, you see, as we both rode, a short time ago. I overtook her when it was not yet sunrise, or scarcely more." "You see!" laughed Burr, as he turned to Merry. "Our young men are early risers when it comes to pursuit of the fair. I must ride at once and see to the welfare of my daughter. She may be weeping at losing her escort so soon!" They all smiled in proper fashion. Lewis bowed, and, lifting his hat, passed on. Burr, as they parted, fell for just a half-moment into thought, his face suddenly inscrutable, as if he pondered something. "There is the ablest man I have seen in Washington," blurted out Merry suddenly, apropos of nothing that had been said. "He has manners, and he rides like an Englishman." "Say not so!" said Burr, laughing. "Better--he rides like a Virginian!" "Very well; it is the same thing. The Virginians are but ourselves--this country is all English yet. And I swear--Mr. Burr, may we speak freely?--I cannot see, and I never shall see, what is the sense in all this talk of a new democracy of the people. Now, what men like these--like you----" "You know well enough how far I agree with you," said Burr somberly. "'Tis an experiment, our republic, I am willing to say that boldly to you, at least. How long it may last----" "Depends on men like you," said Merry, suddenly turning upon him as they rode. "How long do you suppose his Majesty will endure such slights as they put on us here day by day? My blood boils at the indignities we have had to suffer here--cooling our heels in your President's halls. I call it mere presumptuousness. I cannot look upon this country as anything but a province to be taken back again when England is ready. And it may be, since so much turbulence and discourtesy seem growing here, that chance will not wait long in the coming!" "It may be, Mr. Merry," said Aaron Burr. "My own thoughts you know too well for need of repetition. Let us only go softly. My plans advance as well as I could ask. I was just wondering," he added, "whether those two young people really were together there at the old mill--and whether they were there for the first time." "If not, 'twas not for the last time!" rejoined the older man. "Yonder young man was made to fill a woman's eye. Your daughter, Mr. Burr, while the soul of married discreetness, and charming as any of her sex I have ever seen, must look out for her heart. She might find it divided into three equal parts." "How then, Mr. Minister?" "One for her father----" Aaron Burr bowed. "Yes, her father first, as I verily believe. What then?" "The second for her husband----" "Certainly. Mr. Alston is a rising man. He has a thousand slaves on his plantations--he is one of the richest of the rich South Carolinian planters. And in politics he has a chance--more than a chance. But after that?" "The third portion of so charming a woman's heart might perhaps be assigned to Captain Meriwether Lewis!" "Say you so?" laughed Burr carelessly. "Well, well this must be looked into. Come, I must tell my son-in-law that his home is in danger of being invaded! Far off in his Southern rice-lands, I fear he misses his young wife sometimes. I brought her here for the sake of her own health--she cannot thrive in such swamps. Besides, I cannot bear to have her live away from me. She is happier with me than anywhere else. Yes, you are right, my daughter worships me." "Why should she not? And why should she not ride with a gallant at sunrise for an early cup of coffee, egad?" said the older man. Burr did not answer, and they rode on. In the opposite direction there rode also the young man of whom they spoke. And at about the time that the two came to the old mill and saw Theodosia Alston sitting there--her face still cast down, her eyes gazing abstractedly into her untasted cup on the little table--Meriwether Lewis was pulling up at the iron gate which then closed the opening in the stone wall encircling the modest official residence of his chief and patron, President Jefferson. CHAPTER IV PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY There stood waiting near the gate one of Mr. Jefferson's private servants, Samson, who took the young man's rein, grinning with his usual familiar words of welcome as the secretary dismounted from his horse. "You-all suttinly did warm old Arcturum a li'l bit dis mawnin', Mistah Mehywethah!" Samson patted the neck of the spirited animal, which tossed its head and turned an eye to its late rider. "Yes, and see that you rub him well. Mind you, if Mr. Jefferson finds that his whitest handkerchief shows a sweat-mark from the horse's hide he will cut off both your black ears for you, Samson--and very likely your head along with them. You know your master!" The secretary smiled kindly at the old black man. "Yassah, yassah," grinned Samson, who no more feared Mr. Jefferson than he did the young gentleman with whom he now spoke. "I just lookin' at you comin' down that path right now, and I say to myself, 'Dar come a ridah!' I sho' did, Mistah Mehywethah!" The young man answered the negro's compliment with one of his rare smiles, then turned, with just a flick of his gloves on his breeches legs, and marched up the walk to the door of the mansion. At the step he turned and paused, as he usually did, to take one look out over the unfinished wing of stone still in process of erection. On beyond, in the ragged village, he saw a few good mansion houses, many structures devoted to business, many jumbled huts of negroes, and here and there a public building in its early stages. The great system of boulevards and parks and circles of the new American capital was not yet apparent from the place where Mr. Thomas Jefferson's young secretary now stood. But the young man perhaps saw city and nation alike advanced in his vision; for he gazed long and lingeringly before he turned back at last and entered the door which the old house servant swung open for him. His hat and crop and gloves he handed to this bowed old darky, Ben--another of Mr. Jefferson's plantation servants whom he had brought to Washington with him. Then--for such was the simple fashion of the ménage, where Meriwether Lewis himself was one of the President's family--he stepped to the door beyond and knocked lightly, entering as he did so. The hour was early--he himself had not breakfasted, beyond his coffee at the mill--but, early as it was, he knew he would find at his desk the gentleman who now turned to him. "Good morning, Mr. Jefferson," said Meriwether Lewis, in the greeting which he always used. "Good morning, my son," said the other man, gently, in his invariable address to his secretary. "And how did Arcturus perform for you this morning?" "Grandly, sir. He is a fine animal. I have never ridden a better." "I envy you. I wish I could find the time I once had for my horses." He turned a whimsical glance at the piled desk before him. "If our new multigraph could write a dozen letters all at once--and on as many different themes, my son--we might perhaps get through. I vow, if I had the money, I would have a dozen secretaries--if I could find them!" The President rose now and stood, a tall and striking figure of a man, over six feet in height, of clean-cut features, dark hazel eye, and sandy, almost auburn, hair. His long, thin legs were clad in close-fitting knee breeches of green velveteen, somewhat stained. His high-collared coat, rolling above the loosely-tied stock which girded his neck, was dingy brown in color, and lay in loose folds. He was one of the worst-clad men in Washington at that hour. His waistcoat, of red, was soiled and far from new, and his woolen stockings were covered with no better footwear than carpet slippers, badly down at the heel. Yet Thomas Jefferson, even clad thus, seemed the great man that he was. Stooped though his shoulders were, his frame was so strong, his eye so clear and keen, though contemplative, that he did not look his years. Here was a man, all said who knew him, of whose large soul so many large deeds were demanded that he had no time for little and inconsequent things--indeed, scarce knew that they existed. To think, to feel, to create, to achieve--these were his absorbing tasks; and so exigent were the demands on his great intellectual resources that he seemed never to know the existence of a personal world. He stood careless, slipshod, at the side of a desk cluttered with a mass of maps, papers, letters in packets or spread open. There were writing implements here, scientific instruments of all sorts, long sheets of specifications, canceled drafts, pages of accounts--all the manifold impedimenta of a man in the full swing of business life. It might have been the desk of any mediocre man; yet on that desk lay the future of a people and the history of a world. He stood, just a trifle stooped, smiling quizzically at the young man, yet half lovingly; for to no other being in the world did he ever give the confidence that he accorded Meriwether Lewis. "I do not see how I could be President without you, Merne, my son," said he, employing the familiar term that Meriwether Lewis had not elsewhere heard used, except by his mother. "Look what we must do today!" The young secretary turned his own grave eye upon the cluttered desk; but it was not dread of the redoubtable tasks awaiting him that gave his face all the gravity it bore. "Mr. Jefferson--" he began, but paused, for he could see now standing before him his friend, the man whom, of all in the world, he loved, and the man who believed in him and loved him. "Yes, my son?" "Your burden is grievous hard, and yet----" "Yes, my son?" But Meriwether Lewis could not speak further. He stood now, his jaws set hard, looking out of the window. The older man came and gently laid a hand upon his shoulder. "Come, come, my son," said he, his own voice low and of a kindness it could assume at times. "You must not--you must not yield to this, I say. Shake off this melancholy which so obsesses you. I know whence it comes--your father gave it you, and you are not to blame; but you have more than your father's strength to aid you. And you have me, your friend, who can understand." Lewis only turned on him an eye so full of anguish as caused the older man to knit his brow in deep concern. "What is it, Merne?" he demanded. "Tell me. Ah, you cannot tell? I know! 'Tis the old melancholy, and something more, Merne, my boy. Tell me--ah, yes, it is a woman!" The young man did not speak. "I have often told all my young friends," said Mr. Jefferson slowly, after a time, "that they should marry not later than twenty-three--it is wrong to cheat the years of life--and you approach thirty now, my son. Why linger? Listen to me. No young man may work at his best and have a woman's face in his desk to haunt him. That will not do. We all have handicap enough without that." But still Meriwether could only look into the face of his superior. "I know very well, my son," the President continued. "I know it all. Put her out of your heart, my boy. Would you shame yourself--and her--and me?" "No! Never would I do that, Mr. Jefferson, believe me. But now I must beg of you--please, sir, let me go soon--let it be at once!" The older man stood looking at him for a time in silence, as he went on hurriedly: "I must say good-by to you, best and noblest of men. Indeed, I have said good-by to--everything." "As you say, your case is hopeless?" "Yes, sir." "Ah, well, we have both been planning for our Western expedition these ten years, my son; so why should we fret if matters conspire to bring it about a trifle earlier than we planned?" "I asked you when I was a boy to send me, but you could not then." "No, but instead I sent yonder maundering Michaux. He, Ledyard, and all the others failed me. They never saw the great vision. There it lies, unknown, tremendous--no man knows what--that new country. I have had to hide from the people of this republic this secret purpose which you and I have had of exploring the vast Western country. I have picked you as the one man fitted for that work. I do not make mistakes. You are a born woodsman and traveler--you are ready to my hand as the instrument for this magnificent adventure. I cannot well spare you now--but yes, you must go!" They stood there, two men who made our great adventure for us--vision-seers, vision-owned, gazing each into the other's eyes. "Send me now, Mr. Jefferson!" repeated Meriwether Lewis. "Send me now. I will mend to usefulness again. I will work for you all my life, if need be--and I want my name clear with you." The old man laid a kindly hand upon his shoulder. "I must yield you to your destiny," said he. "It will be a great one." He turned aside, a hand to his lip as he paced uncertainly. "But I still am wondering what our friends are doing yonder in France," said he. "That is the question. Livingston, Monroe, and the others--what are they doing with Napoleon Bonaparte? The news from France--but stay," he added. "Wait! I had forgotten. Come, we shall see about it!" With the sudden enthusiasm of a boy he caught his young aide by the arm. They passed down the hall, out by the rear entrance and across the White House grounds to the brick stables which then stood at the rear. Mr. Jefferson paid no attention to the sleek animals there which looked in greeting toward him. Instead, he passed in front of the series of stalls, and without excuse or explanation hurriedly began to climb the steep ladder which led to the floor above. They stood at length in the upper apartment of the stable buildings. It was not a mow or feed loft, but rather a bird loft, devoted to the use of many pigeons. All about the eaves were arranged many boxes--nesting places, apparently, although none of the birds entered the long room, which seemed free of any occupancy. Mr. Jefferson stood for a moment, eagerly scanning the rear of the tier of boxes. An exclamation broke from him. He hurried forward with a sudden gesture to a little flag which stood up, like the tilt of a fisherman on the ice, at the side of the box to which he pointed. "Done!" said he. He reached up to the box that he had indicated, pressed down a little catch, opened the back and looked in. Again an exclamation escaped him. He put in a hand gingerly, and, tenderly imprisoning the bird which he found therein, drew it forth, his long fingers eagerly lifting its wings, examining its legs. It could easily be seen that the box was arranged with a door on a tripping-latch, so that the pigeon, on entering, would imprison itself. It was apparent that Mr. Jefferson was depending upon the natural homing instinct of his carrier pigeons to bring him some message. "I told them," said he, "to loose a half-dozen birds at once. See! See!" He unrolled from one leg of the prisoner a little cylinder of paper covered with tinfoil and tied firmly in its place. It was the first wireless message ever received at Washington. None since that time has carried a greater burden. It announced a transaction in empires. Mr. Jefferson read, and spread out the paper that his aide might read: General Bonaparte signed May 2--Fifteen millions--Rejoice! In no wider phrasing than that came the news of the great Louisiana Purchase, by virtue of which this republic--whether by chance, by result of greed warring with greed, or through the providence of Almighty God, who shall say?--gained the great part of that vast and incalculably valuable realm which now reaches from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. What wealth that great empire held no man had dreamed, nor can any dream today; for, a century later, its story is but beginning. Century on century, that story still will be in the making. A home for millions of the earth's best, a hope for millions of the earth's less fortunate--granary of the peoples, mint of the nations, birthplace and growing-ground of the new race of men--who could have measured that land then--who could measure it today? And its title passed, announced in seven words, carried by a bird wandering in the air, but bound unerringly to the ark of God's covenant with man--the covenant of hope and progress. Thomas Jefferson stretched out his right hand to meet that of Meriwether Lewis. Their clasp was strong and firm. The eye of each man blazed. "Mr. Jefferson," said Meriwether Lewis, "this is your monument!" "And yours," was the reply. "Come, then!" He turned to the stairs, the pigeon still fondled in his arm. That bird--a white one, with slate-blue tips to its wings--never needed to labor again, for Mr. Jefferson kept it during its life, and long after its death. "Come now," he said, as he began to descend the ladder once more. "The bird was loosed yesterday, late in the afternoon. It has done its sixty or seventy-five miles an hour for us, counting out time lost in the night. The ship which brought this news docked at New York yesterday. The post stages carrying it hither cannot arrive before tomorrow. This is news--the greatest of news that we could have. Yesterday--this morning--we were a young and weak republic. Tomorrow we shall be one of the powers of the world. Go, now--you have been held in leash long enough, and the time to start has come. Tomorrow you will go westward, to that new country which now is ours!" Neither said anything further until once again they were in the President's little office-room; but Thomas Jefferson's eye now was afire. "I count this the most important enterprise in which this country ever was engaged," he exclaimed, his hands clenched. "Yonder lies the greater America--you lead an army which will make far wider conquest than all our troops won in the Revolutionary War. The stake is larger than any man may dream. I see it--you see it--in time others also will see. Tell me, my son, tell me once more! Come what may, no matter what power shall move you, you will be faithful in this great trust? If I have your promise, then I shall rest assured." Thomas Jefferson, more agitated than any man had ever seen him, dropped half trembling into his chair, his shaggy red mane about his forehead, his long fingers shaking. "I give you my promise, Mr. Jefferson," said Meriwether Lewis. CHAPTER V THE PELL-MELL AND SOME CONSEQUENCES It was late in the afternoon when the secretary to the President looked up from the crowded desk. "Mr. Jefferson," ventured he, "you will pardon me----" "Yes, my son?" "It grows late. You know that today the British minister, Mr. Merry, comes to meet the President for the first time formally--at dinner. Señor Yrujo also--and their ladies, of course. Mr. Burr and Mr. Merry seem already acquainted. I met them riding this morning." "Hand and glove, then, so soon? What do you make of it? I have a guess that those three--Burr, Merry, Yrujo--mean this administration no special good. And yet it was I myself who kept our Spanish friend from getting his passports back to Madrid. I did that only because of his marriage to the daughter of my friend, Governor McKean, of Pennsylvania. But what were you saying now?" "I thought perhaps I should go to my rooms to change for dinner. You see that I am still in riding-clothes." "And what of that, my son? I am in something worse!" The young man stood and looked at his chief for a moment. He realized the scarce dignified figure that the President presented in his long coat, his soiled waistcoat, his stained trousers, and his woolen stockings--not to mention the unspeakable slippers, down at the heel, into which he had thrust his feet that morning when he came into the office. "You think I will not do?" Mr. Jefferson smiled at him frankly. "I am not so free from wisdom, perhaps, after all. Let this British minister see us as we are, for men and women, and not dummies for finery. Moreover, I remember well enough how we cooled our heels there in London, Mr. Madison and myself. They showed us little courtesy enough. Well, they shall have no complaint here. We will treat them as well as we do the others, as well as the electors who sent us here!" Meriwether Lewis allowed himself a smile. "Go," added his chief. "Garb yourself as I would have you--in your best. But there will be no precedence at table this evening--remember that! Let them take seats pell-mell--the devil take the hindmost--a fair field for every one, and favor to none! Seat them as nearly as possible as they should not be seated--and leave the rest to me. All these--indeed, all history and all the records--shall take me precisely as I am!" An hour later Meriwether Lewis stood before his narrow mirror, well and handsomely clad, as was seeming with one of his family and his place--a tall and superb figure of young manhood, as proper a man as ever stood in buckled shoes in any country of the world. The guests came presently, folk of many sorts. With Mr. Jefferson as President, the democracy of America had invaded Washington, taking more and more liberties, and it had many representatives on hand. With these came persons of rank of this and other lands, dignitaries, diplomats, officials, ministers of foreign powers. Carriages with outriders came trundling over the partially paved roads of the crude capital city. Footmen opened doors to gentlemen and ladies in full dress, wearing insignia of honor, displaying gems, orders, decorations, jewels, all the brilliant costumes of the European courts. They came up the path to the door of the mansion where, to their amazement, they were met only by Mr. Jefferson's bowing old darky Ben, who ushered them in, helped them with their wraps and asked them to make themselves at home. And only old Henry, Mr. Jefferson's butler, bowed them in as they passed from the simple entrance hall into the anteroom which lay between the hall and the large dining-saloon. The numbers increased rapidly. What at first was a general gathering became a crowd, then a mob. There was no assigned place for any, no presentation of one stranger to another. Friends could not find friends. Mutterings arose; crowding and jostling was not absent; here and there an angry word might have been heard. The policy of pell-mell was not working itself out in any happy social fashion. Matters were at their worst when suddenly from his own apartments appeared the tall and well-composed figure of Mr. Jefferson's young secretary, social captain of matters at the Executive Mansion, and personal aide to the President. His quick glance caught sight of the gathering line of carriages; a second glance estimated the plight of those now jammed into the anteroom like so many cattle and evidently in distress. In a distant corner of the room, crowded into some sort of refuge back of a huge davenport, stood a small group of persons in full official dress--a group evidently ill at ease and no longer in good humor. Meriwether Lewis made his way thither rapidly as he might. "It is Mr. Minister Merry," said he, "and Mme. Merry." He bowed deeply. "Señor and Señora Yrujo, I bring you the respects of Mr. Jefferson. He will be with us presently." "I had believed, sir--I understood," began Merry explosively, "that we were to meet here the President of the United States. Where, then, is his suite?" "We have no suite, sir. I represent the President as his aide." "My word!" murmured the mystified dignitary, turning to his lady, who stood, the picture of mute anger, at his side, the very aigrets on her ginger-colored hair trembling in her anger. [Illustration: "'Mistah Thomas Jeffahson!' was his sole announcement"] They turned once more to the Spanish minister, who, with his American wife, stood at hand. There ensued such shrugs and liftings of eyebrows as left full evidence of a discontent that none of the four attempted to suppress. Meriwether Lewis saw and noted, but seemed not to note. Mr. Merry suddenly remembered him now as the young man he had encountered that morning, and turned with an attempt at greater civility. "You will understand, sir, that I came supposing I was to appear in my official capacity. We were invited upon that basis. There was to have been a dinner, was there not--or am I mistaken of the hour? Is it not four in the afternoon?" "You were quite right, Mr. Minister," said Meriwether Lewis. "You shall, of course, be presented to the President so soon as it shall please his convenience to join us. He has been occupied in many duties, and begs you will excuse him." The dignity and courtesy of the young man were not without effect. Silence, at least, was his reward from the perturbed and indignant group of diplomats penned behind the davenport. Matters stood thus when, at a time when scarce another soul could have been crowded into the anteroom, old Henry flung open the folding doors which he had closed. "Mistah Thomas Jeffahson!" was his sole announcement. There appeared in the doorway the tall, slightly stooped figure of the President of the United States, one of the greatest men of his own or of any day. He stood, gravely unconscious of himself, tranquilly looking out upon his gathered guests. He was still clad in the garb which he had worn throughout the day--the same in which he had climbed to the pigeon loft--the same in which he had labored during all these long hours. His coat was still brown and wrinkled, hanging loosely on his long frame. His trousers were the stained velveteens of the morning; his waistcoat the same faded red; his hose the slack woolen pair that he had worn throughout the day. And upon his feet--horror of horrors!--he wore still his slippers, the same old carpet slippers, down at the heel, which had afforded him ease as he sat at his desk. As Thomas Jefferson stood, he overtopped the men about him head and shoulders in physical stature, as he did in every other measure of a man. Innocent or unconscious of his own appearance, his eye seeking for knowledge of his guests, he caught sight of the group behind the davenport. Rapidly making his way thither, he greeted each, offering his hand to be shaken, bowing deeply to the ladies; and so quickly passed on, leaving them almost as much mystified as before. Only Yrujo, the Spanish Minister, looked after him with any trace of recognition, for at this moment Meriwether Lewis was away, among other guests. An instant later the curtained folding doors which separated the anteroom from the dining-saloon were thrown open. Mr. Jefferson passed in and took his place at the head of the table, casting not a single look toward any who were to join him there. There was no announcement; there was no _pas_, no precedence, no reserved place for any man, no announcement for any lady or gentleman, no servant to escort any to a place at table! It had been worse, far worse, this extraordinary scene, had it not been for the swiftness and tact of the young man to whom so much was entrusted. Meriwether Lewis hastened here and there, weeding out those who could not convince him that they were invited to dine. He separated as best he might the socially elect from those not yet socially arrived, until at length he stood, almost the sole barrier against those who still crowded forward. Here he was met once more by the party from behind the davenport. "Tell me," demanded Mr. Merry, who--seeing that no other escort offered for her--had given his angry lady his own arm, "tell me, sir, where is the President? To whom shall I present the greetings of his British Majesty?" "Yonder is the President of the United States, sir," said Meriwether Lewis. "He with whom you shook hands is the President. He stands at the head of his table, and you are welcome if you like. He asks you to enter." Merry turned to his wife, and from her to the wife of the Spanish minister. "Impossible!" said he. "I do not understand--it cannot be! That man--that extraordinary man in breeches and slippers yonder--it cannot be he asks us to sit at table with him! He _cannot_ be the President of the United States!" "None the less he is, Mr. Merry!" the secretary assured him. "Good Heavens!" said the minister from Great Britain, as he passed on, half dazed. By this time there remained but few seats, none at all toward the head of the table or about its middle portion. Toward the end of the room, farthest from the official host, a few chairs still stood vacant, because they had not been sought for. Thither, with faltering footsteps, ere even these opportunities should pass, stepped the minister from Great Britain and the minister from Spain, their ladies with them--none offering escort. Well disposed to smile at his chief's audacious overturning of all social usage, yet not unadvised of the seriousness of all this, Meriwether Lewis handed the distinguished guests to their seats as best he might; and then left them as best he might. At that time there were not six vacant places remaining at the long table. No one seemed to know how many had been invited to the banquet, or how many were expected--no one in the company seemed to know anyone else. It was indeed a pell-mell affair. For once the American democracy was triumphant. But the leader of that democracy, the head of the new administration, the host at this official banquet, the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, stood quietly, serenely, looking out over the long table, entirely unconcerned with what he saw. If there was trouble, it was for others, not for him. Those at table presently began to seat themselves, following the host's example. It was at this moment that the young captain of affairs turned once more toward the great doors, with the intention of closing them. Old Henry was having his own battles with the remaining audience in the anteroom, as he now brought forward two belated guests. Old Henry, be sure, knew them both; and--as a look at the sudden change of his features might have told--so did Mr. Jefferson's aide. They advanced with dignity, these two--one a gentleman, not tall, but elegant, exquisitely clad in full-dress costume; a man whom you would have turned to examine a second time had you met him anywhere. Upon his arm was a young woman, also beautifully costumed, smiling, graceful, entirely at her ease. Many present knew the two--Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States; his daughter, Theodosia Burr Alston. Mr. Burr passed within the great doors, turned and bowed deeply to his host, distant as he was across the crowded room. His daughter curtsied, also deeply. Their entry was dramatic. Then they stood, a somewhat stately picture, waiting for an instant while seemingly deciding their future course. It was at this moment that Meriwether Lewis approached them, beckoning. He led them toward the few seats that still remained unoccupied, placed them near to the official visitors, whose ruffled feathers still remained unsmoothed, and then stood by them for an instant, intending to take his departure. There was one remaining chair. It was at the side of Theodosia Alston. She herself looked up at him eagerly, and patted it with her hand. He seated himself at her side. Thus at last was filled the pell-mell table of Mr. Thomas Jefferson. To this day no man knows whether all present had been invited, or whether all invited had opportunity to be present. There were those--his enemies, men of the opposing political party, for the most part--who spoke ill of Mr. Jefferson, and charged that he showed hypocrisy in his pretense of democratic simplicity in official life. Yet others, even among his friends, criticised him severely for the affair of this afternoon--July 4, in the year of 1803. They said that his manners were inconsistent with the dignity of the highest official of this republic. If any of this comment injured or offended Mr. Jefferson, he never gave a sign. He was born a gentleman as much as any, and was as fully acquainted with good social usage as any man of his day. His life had been spent in the best surroundings of his own country, and at the most polished courts of the Old World. To accuse him of ignorance or boorishness would have been absurd. The fact was that his own resourceful brain had formed a definite plan. He wished to convey a certain rebuke--and with deadly accuracy he did convey that rebuke. It was at no enduring cost to his own fame. If the pell-mell dinner was at first a thing inchoate, awkward, impossible, criticism halted when the actual service at table began. The chef at the White House had been brought to this country by Mr. Jefferson from Paris, and no better was known on this side the water. So devoted was Mr. Jefferson known to be to the French style of cooking that no less a man than Patrick Henry, on the stump, had accused him of having "deserted the victuals of his country." His table was set and served with as much elegance as any at any foreign court. At the door of the city of Washington, even in the summer season, there was the best market of the world. As submitted by his _chef de cuisine_, Mr. Jefferson's menu was of no pell-mell sort. If we may credit it as handed down, it ran thus, in the old French of that day: Huîtres de Shinnecock, Saulce Tempête Olives du Luc Othon Mariné à l'Huile Vierge Amandes et Cerneaux Salés Pot au Feu du Roy "Henriot" Croustade Mogador Truite de Ruisselet, Belle Meunière Pommes en Fines Herbes Fricot de tendre Poulet en Coquemare, au Vieux Chanturgne Tourte de Ris de Veau, Financière Baron de Pré Salé aux Primeurs Sorbet des Comtes de Champagne Dinde Sauvage flambée devant les Sarments de Vigne, flanquée d'Ortolans Aspic de Foie Gras Lucullus Salade des Nymphes à la Lamballe Asperges Chauldes enduites de Sauce Lombardienne Dessert et Fruits de la Réunion Fromage de Bique Café Arabe Larmes de Juliette Whatever the wines served at the Executive Mansion may have been at later dates, those owned and used by President Jefferson were the best the world produced--vintages of rarity, selected as could have been done only by one of the nicest taste. Rumor had it that none other than Señor Yrujo, minister from Spain, recipient of many casks of the best vintages of his country that he might entertain with proper dignity, had seen fit to do a bit of merchandizing on his own account, to the end that Mr. Jefferson became the owner of certain of these rare casks. In any event, the Spanish minister now showed no fear of the wines which came his way. Nor, for that matter, did the minister from Great Britain, nor the spouses of these twain. Mr. Burr, seated with their party, himself somewhat abstemious, none the less could not refrain from an interrogatory glance as he saw Merry halt a certain bottle or two at his own plate. "Upon my word!" said the sturdy Briton, turning to him. "Such wine I never have tasted! I did not expect it here--served by a host in breeches and slippers! But never mind--it is wonderful!" "There may be many things here you have not expected, your excellency," said Mr. Burr. The Vice-President favored the little party at his left with one of his brilliant smiles. He had that strange faculty, admitted even by his enemies, of making another speak freely what he wished to hear, himself reticent the while. The face of the English dignitary clouded again. "I wish I could approve all else as I do the wine and the food; but I cannot understand. Here we sit, after being crowded like herrings in a box--myself, my lady here, and these others. Is this the placing his Majesty's minister should have at the President's table? Is this what we should demand here?" "The indignity is to all of us alike," smiled Burr. "Mr. Jefferson believes in a great human democracy. I myself regret to state that I cannot quite go with him to the lengths he fancies." "I shall report the entire matter to his Majesty's government!" said Mr. Merry, again helping himself to wine. "To be received here by a man in his stable clothes--so to meet us when we come formally to pay our call to this government--that is an insult! I fancy it to be a direct and intentional one." "Insult is small word for it," broke in the irate Spanish minister, still further down the table. "I certainly shall report to my own government what has happened here--of that be very sure!" "Give me leave, sir," continued Merry. "This republic, what is it? What has it done?" "I ask as much," affirmed Yrujo. "A small war with your own country, Great Britain, sir--in which only your generosity held you back--that is all this country can claim. In the South, my people own the mouth of the great river--we own Florida--we own the province of Texas--all the Southern and Western lands. True, Louis XV--to save it from Great Britain, perhaps, sir"--he bowed to the British minister--"originally ceded Louisiana to our crown. True, also, my sovereign has ceded it again to France. But Spain still rules the South, just as Britain rules the middle country out beyond; and what is left? I snap my fingers at this republic!" Señor Yrujo helped himself to a brimming glass of his own wine. "I say that Western country is ours," he still insisted, warming to his oration now. "Suppose, under coercion, our sovereign did cede it to Napoleon, who claims it now? Does Spain not govern it still? Do we not collect the revenues? Is not the whole system of law enforced under the flag of Spain, all along the great river yonder? Possession, exploration, discovery--those are the rights under which territories are annexed. France has the title to that West, but we hold the land itself--we administer it. And never shall it go from under our flag, unless it be through the act of stronger foreign powers. Spain will fight!" "Will Spain fight?" demanded a deep and melodious voice. It was that of Aaron Burr who spoke now, half in query, half in challenge. "Would Spain fight--and would Great Britain, if need were and the time came?" He spoke to men heated with wine, smarting under social indignity, men owning a hurt personal vanity. "Our past is proof enough," said Merry proudly. Yrujo needed no more than a shrug. "Divide and conquer?" Burr went on, looking at them, and raising an eyebrow in query. They nodded, both of them. Burr looked around. His daughter and Meriwether Lewis were oblivious. He saw the young man's eyes, somber, deep, fixed on hers; saw her gazing in return, silent, troubled, fascinated. One presumes that it was at this moment--at the instant when Aaron Burr, seeing the power his daughter held over young Meriwether Lewis, and the interest he held for her, turned to these foreign officials at his left--at that moment, let us say, the Burr conspiracy began. "Divide that unknown country, the West, and how long would this republic endure?" said Aaron Burr. The noise of the banquet now rose about them. Voices blended with laughter; the wine was passing; awkwardness and restraint had given way to good cheer. In a manner they were safe to talk. "What?" demanded Aaron Burr once more. "Could a few francs transfer all that marvelous country from Spain to France? That were absurd. By what possible title could that region yonder ever come to this republic? It is still more absurd to think that. Civilization does not leap across great river valleys. It follows them. You have said rightly, Señor Yrujo. To my mind Great Britain has laid fair grasp upon the upper West; and Spain holds the lower West, with which our statesmen have interested themselves of late. By all the rights of conquest, discovery, and use, gentlemen, Great Britain's traders have gained for her flag all the territory which they have reached on their Western trading routes. I go with you that far." Merry turned upon Burr suddenly a deep and estimating eye. "I begin to see," said he, "that you are open to conviction, Mr. Burr." "Not open to conviction," said Aaron Burr, "but already convinced!" "What do you mean, Colonel Burr?" The Englishman bent toward him, frowning in intentness. "I mean that perhaps I have something to say to you two gentlemen of the foreign courts which will be of interest and importance to you." "Where, then, could we meet after this is over?" The minister from Great Britain surely was not beyond close and ready estimate of events. "At my residence, after this dinner," rejoined Aaron Burr instantly. His eye did not waver as it looked into the other's, but blazed with all the fire of his own soul. "Across the Alleghanies, along the great river, there is a land waiting, ready for strong men. Are we such men, gentlemen? And can we talk freely as such among ourselves?" Their conversation, carried on in ordinary tones, had not been marked by any. Their brows, drawn sharp in sudden resolution, their glance each to the other, made their ratification of this extraordinary speech. They had no time for anything further at the moment. A sound came to their ears, and they turned toward the head of the long table, where the tall figure of the President of the United States was rising in his place. The dinner had drawn toward its close. Mr. Jefferson now stood, gravely regarding those before him, his keen eye losing no detail of the strange scene. He knew the place of every man and woman at that board--perhaps this was his own revenge for a reception he once had had at London. But at last he spoke. "I have news for you all, my friends, today; news which applies not to one man nor to one woman of this or any country more than to another, but news which belongs to all the world." He paused for a moment, and held up in his right hand a tiny scrap of paper, thin, crumpled. None could guess what significance it had. "May God in His own power punish me," said he, solemnly, "if ever I halt or falter in what I believe to be my duty! I place no bounds to the future of this republic--based, as I firmly believe it to be, upon the enduring principle of the just and even rights of mankind. "Our country to the West always has inspired me with the extremest curiosity, and animated me with the loftiest hopes. Since the year 1683 that great river, the Missouri, emptying into the Mississippi, has been looked upon as the way to the Pacific Ocean. One hundred years from that time--that is to say, in 1783--I myself asked one of the ablest of our Westerners, none other than General George Rogers Clark, to undertake a journey of exploration up that Western river. It was not done. Three years later, when accredited to the court at Paris, I met a Mr. Ledyard, an American then abroad. I desired him to cross Russia, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean, and then to journey eastward over the Stony Mountains, to find, if he could, the head of that Missouri River of which we know so little. But Ledyard failed, for reasons best known, perhaps, to the monarch of Russia. "Later than that, and long before I had the power which now is mine to order matters of the sort, the Boston sailor, Captain Grey, in 1792, as you know, found the mouth of the Columbia River. The very next year after that I engaged the scientist Michaux to explore in that direction; but he likewise failed. "All my life I have seen what great opportunities would be ours if once we owned that vast country yonder. As a private citizen I planned that we should at least explore it--always it was my dream to know more of it. It being clear to me that the future of our republic lay not to the east, but to the west of the Alleghanies--indeed, to the west of the Mississippi itself--never have I relinquished the ambition that I have so long entertained. Never have I forgotten the dream which animated me even in my younger years. I am here now to announce to you, so that you may announce to all the world, certain news which I have here regarding that Western region, which never was ours, but which I always wished might be ours." With the middle finger of his left hand the President flicked at the mysterious bit of crumpled paper still held aloft in his right. There was silence all down the long table. "More than a year ago I once more chose a messenger into that country," went on Thomas Jefferson. "I chose a leader of exploration, of discovery. I chose him because I knew I could trust in his loyalty, in his judgment, in his courage. Well and thoroughly he has fitted himself for that leadership." He turned his gaze contemplatively down the long table. The gaze of many of his guests followed his, still wonderingly, as he went on. "My leader for this expedition into the West, which I planned more than a year ago, is here with you now. Captain Meriwether Lewis, will you stand up for a moment? I wish to present you to these, my friends." With wonder, doubt, and, indeed, a certain perturbation at the President's unexpected summons, the young Virginian rose to his feet and stood gazing questioningly at his chief. "I know your modesty as well as your courage, Captain Lewis," smiled Mr. Jefferson. "You may be seated, sir, since now we all know you. "Let me say to you others that I have had opportunity of knowing my captain of this magnificent adventure. In years he is not yet thirty, but he is and always was a leader, mature, wise, calm, and resolved. Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities can divert from its direction; careful as a father of those committed to his charge, and yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline; intimate with the Indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life; guarded by exact observation of the vegetables and animals of his own country against duplication of objects already possessed; honest, disinterested, liberal; of sound understanding, and of a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he shall report will be as certain as if seen by ourselves--with all these qualifications, I say, as if selected and implanted by nature in one body, for one purpose, I could have no hesitation in confiding this enterprise--the most cherished enterprise of my administration--to him whom now you have seen here before you." The President bowed deeply to the young man, who had modestly resumed his place. Then, for just a moment, Mr. Jefferson stood silent, absorbed, rapt, carried away by his own vision. "And now for my news," he said at length. "Here you have it!" He waved once more the little scrap of paper. "I had this news from New York this morning. It was despatched yesterday evening. Tomorrow it will reach all the world. The mails will bring it to you; but news like this could not wait for the mails. No horse could bring it fast enough. It was brought by a dove--the dove of peace, I trust. Let me explain briefly; what my news concerns. "As you know, that new country yonder belonged at first to any one who might find it--to England, if she could penetrate it first; to Spain, if she were first to put her flag upon it; to Russia, if first she conquered it from the far Northwest. But none of these three ever completed acquisition by those means under which nations take title to the new territories of the world. Louisiana, as we term it, has been unclaimed, unknown, unowned--indeed, virgin territory so far as definite title was concerned. "In the north, such title as might be was conveyed to Great Britain by France after the latter power was conquered at Quebec. The lower regions France--supposing that she owned them--conveyed, through her monarch, the fifteenth Louis, to Spain. Again, in the policy of nations, Spain sold them to France once more, in a time of need. France owned the territory then, or had the title, though Spain still was in possession. It lay still unoccupied, still contested--until but now. "My friends, I give you news! On the 2d of May last, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, sold to this republic, the United States of America, all of Louisiana, whatever it may be, from the Mississippi to the Pacific! Here are seven words which carry an empire with them--the empire of humanity--a land in which democracy, humanity, shall expand and grow forever! This is my news: "General Bonaparte signed May 2--Fifteen millions--Rejoice!" A deep sigh rose as if in unison all along the table. The event was too large for instant grasping. There was no applause at first. Some--many--did not understand. Not so certain others. The minister from Great Britain, the minister from Spain, Aaron Burr and a few other men acquainted with great affairs, prominent in public life, turned and looked at the President's tall figure at the head of the table, and then at that of the silent young man whom Mr. Jefferson had publicly honored. The face of Aaron Burr grew pale. The faces of the foreign ministers showed sudden consternation. Theodosia Alston turned, her own eyes fixed upon the grave face of the young man sitting at her side, who made no sign of the strong emotion possessing his soul. "I have given you my news," the voice of Mr. Jefferson went on, rising now, vibrant and masterful, fearless, compelling. "There you have it, this little message, large as any ever written in the world. The title to that Western land has passed to us. We set our seal on it now! Cost what it may, we shall hold it so long as we can claim a flag or a country on this continent. The price is nothing. Fifteen millions means no more than the wine or water left in a half-empty glass. It might be fifty times fifteen millions, and yet not be one fiftieth enough. These things are not to be measured by known signs or marks of values. It is not in human comprehension to know what we have gained. Hence we have no human right to boast. The hand of Almighty God is in this affair! It was He who guided the fingers of those who signed this cession to the United States of America! "My friends, now I am content. What remains is but detail. Our duty is plain. Between us and this purpose, I shall hold all intervention of whatever nature, friendly or hostile, as no more than details to be ignored. Yonder lies and has always lain the scene of my own ambition. Always I have hungered to know that vast new land beyond all maps, as yet ignorant of human metes and bounds. Always I have coveted it for this republic, knowing that without room for expansion we must fail, that with it we shall triumph to the edge of our ultimate dream of human destiny--triumph and flourish while governments shall remain known among men. "I offer that faith to the eyes of the world today and of all the days to come, believing in every humility that God guided the hands of those who signed this title deed of a great empire, and that God long ago implanted in my unworthy bosom the strong belief that one day this might be which now has come to pass. It is no time for boasting, no time for any man to claim glory or credit for himself. We are in the face of events so vast that their margins leave our vision. We cannot see to the end of all this, cannot read all the purpose of it, because we are but men. "Gentlemen, you Americans, men of heart, of courage! You also, ladies, who care most for gentlemen of heart and courage, whose pulses beat even with our own to the stimulus of our deeds! I say to you all that I would gladly lay aside my office and its honors--I would lay aside all my other ambitions, all my desires to be remembered as a man who at least endeavored to think and to act--if thereby I might lead this expedition of our volunteers for the discovery of the West. That may not be. These slackened sinews, these shrinking limbs, these fading eyes, do not suffice for such a task. It is in my heart, yes; but the heart for this magnificent adventure needs stronger pulses than my own. "My heart--did I say that I had need of another, a better? Did I say that I had need of eyes and brains, of thews and sinews, of calm nerves and steady blood? Did I say I had need of courage and resolution--all these things combined? I have them! That Providence who has given us all needful instruments and agents to this point in our career as a republic has given us yet another, and the last one needful. Tomorrow my friend, my special messenger, Captain Meriwether Lewis, starts with his expedition. He will explore the country between the Missouri and the Pacific--the country of my dream and his. It is no longer the country of any other power--it is our own! "Gentlemen, I give you a toast--Captain Meriwether Lewis!" CHAPTER VI THE GREAT CONSPIRACY The simplicity dinner was at an end. Released by the President's withdrawal, the crowd--it could be called little else--broke from the table. The anteroom filled with struggling guests, excited, gesticulating, exclaiming. Meriwether Lewis, anxious only to escape from his social duties that he might rejoin his chief, felt a soft hand on his arm, and turned. Theodosia Alston was looking up at him. "Do you forget your friends so soon? I must add my good wishes. It was splendid, what Mr. Jefferson said--and it was true!" "I wish it might be true," said the young man. "I wish I might be worthy of such a man." "You are worthy of us all," returned Theodosia. "People are kind to the condemned," said he sententiously. At the door they were once more close to the others of the diplomatic party who had sat in company at table. The usual crush of those clamoring for their carriages had begun. "My dear," said Mr. Merry to his irate spouse, "I shall, if Mrs. Alston will permit, ask you to take her up in your carriage with you to her home. I am to go with Mr Burr." The Spanish minister made similar excuse to his own wife. Thus Theodosia Alston left Meriwether Lewis for the second time that day. It was a late conference, the one held that night at the home of the Vice-President of the United States. Burr, cool, calculating, always in hand, sat and weighed many matters well before he committed himself beyond repair. His keen mind saw now, and seized the advantage for which he waited. "You say right, gentlemen, both of you," he began, leaning forward. "I would not blame you if you never went to the White House again." "Should I ever do so again," blazed the Spanish minister, "I will take my own wife in to dinner on my own arm, and place her at the head of the table, where she belongs! It was an insult to my sovereign that we received today." "As much myself, sir!" said Mr. Merry, his brows contracted, his face flushed still with anger. "I shall know how to answer the next invitation which comes from Mr Jefferson.[1] I shall ask him whether or not there is to be any repetition of this sort of thing." [Footnote 1: During the following winter Mr. Merry had opportunity to fulfill his threat. In February, 1804, the President again invited him to dine, in the following words: "Thomas Jefferson asks the favor of Mr. Merry to dine with a small party of friends on Monday, the 13th, at half past three." Mr. Merry, still smarting all these months, stood on his dignity and addressed his reply to the Secretary of State. Reviewing at some length what seemed to him important events, he added: "If Mr. Merry should be mistaken as to the meaning of Mr. Jefferson's note, and it should prove that the invitation is designed for him in a public capacity, he trusts that Mr. Jefferson will feel equally that it must be out of his power to accept it, without receiving previously, through the channel of the Secretary of State, the necessary formal assurance of the President's determination to observe toward him those niceties of distinction which have heretofore been shown by the executive government of the United States to the persons who have been accredited as our Majesty's ministers. "Mr. Merry has the honor to request of Mr. Madison to lay this explanation before the President, and to accompany it with the strongest assurance of his highest respect and consideration." The Secretary of State, who seems to have been acting as social secretary to Mr. Jefferson, without hesitation replied as follows: "Mr. Madison presents his compliments to Mr. Merry. He has communicated to the President Mr. Merry's note of this morning, and has the honor to remark to him that the President's invitation, being in the style used by him in like cases, had no reference to the points of form which will deprive him of the pleasure of Mr. Merry's company at dinner on Monday next. "Mr. Madison tenders to Mr. Merry his distinguished consideration." The friction arising out of this and interlocking incidents was part of the unfortunate train of events which later led up to the war of 1812.] "So much for the rule of the plain people!" said Burr, as he laid the tips of his fingers together contemplatively. "Yet, Colonel Burr, you are Vice-President under this administration!" broke out Merry. "One must use agencies and opportunities as they offer. My dear sir, perhaps you do not fully know me. I took this election only in order to be close to the seat of affairs. I am no such rabid adherent to democracy as some may think. You would be startled if I told you that I regard this republic as no more than an experiment. This is a large continent. Take all that Western country--Louisiana--it ought not to be called attached to the United States. At this very moment it is half in rebellion against its constituted authorities. More than once it has been ready to take arms, to march against New Orleans, and to set up a new country of its own. It is geography which fights for monarchy, against democracy, on this continent--in spite of what all these people say." "Sir," said the British minister, "you have been a student of affairs." "And why not? I claim intelligence, good education, association with men of thought. My reason tells me that conquest is in the blood of those men who settled in the Mississippi Valley. They went into Kentucky and Tennessee for the sake of conquest. They are restless, unattached, dissatisfied--ready for any great move. No move can be made which will seem too great or too daring for them. Now let me confess somewhat to you--for I know that you will respect my confidence, if you go no further with me than you have gone tonight. I have bought large acreages of land in the lower Louisiana country, ostensibly for colonization purposes. I do purpose colonization there--_but not under the flag of this republic!_" Silence greeted his remark. The others sat for a moment, merely gazing at him, half stunned, remembering only that he was Jefferson's colleague, Vice-President of the United States. "You cannot force geography," resumed Burr, in tones as even as if he had but spoken of bartering for a house and lot. "Lower Louisiana and Mexico together--yes, perhaps. Florida, with us--yes, perhaps. Indeed, territories larger perhaps than any of us dare dream at present, once our new flag is raised. All that I purpose is to do what has been discussed a thousand times before--to unite in a natural alliance of self-interest those men who are sundered in every way of interest and alliance from the government on this side of the Alleghanies. Would you call that treason--conspiracy? I dislike the words. I call it rather a plan based upon sound reason and common sense; and I hold that its success is virtually assured." "You will explain more fully, Colonel Burr?" Mr. Merry was intent now on all that he heard. "I march only with destiny, yonder--do you not see, gentlemen?" Burr resumed. "Those who march with me are in alliance with natural events. This republic is split now, at this very moment. It must follow its own fate. If the flag of Spain were west of it on the south, and the flag of Britain west of it on the north, why, then we should have the natural end of the republic's expansion. With those great powers in alliance at its back, with the fleets of England on the seas, at the mouth of the great river--owning the lands in Canada on the north--it would be a simple thing, I say, to crush this republic against the wall of the Appalachians, or to drive it once more into the sea." They were silent alike before the enormousness and the enormity of this. Reading their thoughts, Burr raised his hand in deprecation. "I know what is in your minds, gentlemen. The one thing which troubles you is this--the man who speaks to you is Vice-President of the United States. I say what in your country would be treason. In this country I maintain it is not yet treason, because thus far we are in an experiment. We have no actual reign of reason and of law; and he marches to success who marches with natural laws and along the definite trend of existing circumstances and conditions." "What you say, Mr. Burr," began Merry gravely, "assuredly has the merit of audacity. And I see that you have given it thought." "I interest you, gentlemen! You can go with me only if it be to your interest and to that of your countries to join with me in these plans. They have gone far forward--let me tell you that. I know my men from St. Louis to New Orleans--I know my leaders--I know that population. If this be treason, as Mr. Patrick Henry said, let us make the most of it. At least it is the intention of Aaron Burr. I stake upon it all my fortune, my life, the happiness of my family. Do you think I am sincere?" Merry sat engaged in thought. He could see vast movements in the game of nations thus suddenly shown before him on the diplomatic board. And on his part it is to be said that he was there to represent the interests of his own government alone. In the same even tones, Burr resumed his astonishing statements. "My son-in-law, Mr. Alston, of South Carolina--a very wealthy planter of that State--is in full accord with all my plans. My own resources have been pledged to their utmost, and he has been so good as to add largely from his own. I admit to you that I sought alliance with him deliberately when he asked my daughter's hand. He is an ambitious man, and perhaps he saw his way to the fulfillment of certain personal ambitions. He has contributed fifty thousand dollars to my cause. He will have a place of honor and profit in the new government which will be formed yonder in the Mississippi Valley." "So, then," began Yrujo, "the financing is somewhat forward! But fifty thousand is only a drop." "We may as well be plain," rejoined Burr. "Time is short--you know that it is short. We all heard what Mr. Jefferson said--we know that if we are to take action it must be at once. That expedition must not succeed! If that wedge be driven through to the Pacific--and who can say what that young Virginian may do?--your two countries will be forever separated on this continent by one which will wage successful war on both. Swift action is my only hope--and yours." "Your funds," said Mr. Merry, "seem to me inadequate for the demands which will be made upon them. You said fifty thousand?" Burr nodded. "I pledge you as much more--on one condition that I shall name." Burr turned from Mr. Merry to Señor Yrujo. The latter nodded. "I undertake to contribute the same amount," said the envoy of Spain, "but with no condition attached." The color deepened in the cheek of the great conspirator. His eye glittered a trifle more brilliantly. "You named a certain condition, sir," he said to Merry. "Yes, one entirely obvious." "What is it, then, your excellency?" Burr inquired. "You yourself have made it plain. The infernal ingenuity of yonder Corsican--curse his devilish brain!--has rolled a greater stone in our yard than could be placed there by any other human agency. We could not believe that Napoleon Bonaparte would part with Louisiana thus easily. No doubt he feared the British fleet at the mouth of the river--no doubt Spain was glad enough that our guns were not at New Orleans ere this. But, I say, he rolled that stone in our yard. If title to this Louisiana purchase is driven through to the Pacific--as Mr. Jefferson plans so boldly--the end is written now, Colonel Burr, to all your enterprises! Britain will be forced to content herself with what she can take on the north, and Spain eventually will hold nothing worth having on the south. By the Lord, General Bonaparte fights well--he knows how to sacrifice a pawn in order to checkmate a king!" "Yes, your excellency," said Burr, "I agree with you, but----" "And now my condition. Follow me closely. I say if that wedge is driven home--if that expedition of Mr. Jefferson's shall succeed--its success will rest on one factor. In short, there is a man at the head of that expedition who must fight with us and not against us, else my own interest in this matter lacks entirely. You know the man I have in mind." Burr nodded, his lips compressed. "That young man, Colonel Burr, will go through! I know his kind. Believe me, if I know men, he is a strong man. Let that man come back from his expedition with the map of a million square miles of new American territory hanging at his belt, like a scalp torn from his foes--and there will be no chance left for Colonel Burr and his friends!" "All that your excellency has said tallies entirely with our own beliefs," rejoined Burr. "But what then? What is the condition?" "Simply this--we must have Captain Lewis with us and not against us. I want that man! I must have him. That expedition must never proceed. It must be delayed, stopped. Money was raised twenty years ago in London to make this same sort of journey across the continent, but the plan fell through. Revive it now, and we English still may pull it off. But it will be too late if Captain Lewis goes forward now--too late for us--too late for you and your plan, Mr. Burr. I want that man! We must have him with us!" Burr sat in silence for a time. "You open up a singular train of thought for me, your excellency," said he at length. "He does belong with us, that young Virginian!" "You know him, then?" inquired the British minister. "That is to say, you know him well?" "Perfectly. Why should I not? He nearly was my son-in-law. Egad! Give him two weeks more, and he might have been--he got the news of my daughter's marriage just too late. It hit him hard. In truth, I doubt if he ever has recovered from it. They say he still takes it hard. Now, you ask me how to get that man, your excellency. There is perhaps one way in which it could be accomplished, and only one." "How, then?" inquired Merry. "The way of a woman with a man may always be the answer in matters of that sort!" said Aaron Burr. The three sat and looked each at the other for some time without comment. "I find Colonel Burr's brain active in all ways!" began Señor Yrujo dryly. "Now I confess that he goes somewhat in advance of mine." "Listen," said Aaron Burr. "What Mr. Jefferson said of Captain Lewis is absolutely true--his will has never been known to relax or weaken. Once resolved, he cannot change--I will not say he does not, but that he cannot." "Then even the unusual weapon you suggest might not avail!" Mr. Merry's smile was not altogether pleasant. "Women would listen to him readily, I think," remarked Yrujo. "Gallant in his way, yes," said Burr. "Then what do you mean by saying something about the way of a woman with a man?" "Only that it is the last remaining opportunity for us," rejoined Aaron Burr. "The appeal to his senses--of course, we will set that aside. The appeal to his chivalry--that is better! The appeal to his ambition--that is less, but might be used. The appeal to his sympathy--the wish to be generous with the woman who has not been generous with him, for the reason that she could not be--here again you have another argument which we may claim as possible." "You reason well," said Merry. "But while men are mortal, yonder, if I mistake not, is a gentleman." "Precisely," said Burr. "If we ask him to resign his expedition we are asking him to alter all his loyalty to his chief--and he will not do that. Any appeal made to him must be to his honor or to his chivalry; otherwise it were worse than hopeless. He would no more be disloyal to my son-in-law, the lady's husband--in case it came to that--than he would be disloyal to the orders of his chief." "Fie! Fie!" said Yrujo, serving himself with wine from a decanter on the table. "All men are mortal. I agree with your first proposition, Colonel Burr, that the safest argument with a man--with a young man especially, and such a young man--is a woman--and such a woman!" "One thing is sure," rejoined Burr, flushing. "That man will succeed unless some woman induces him to change--some woman, acting under an appeal to his chivalry or his sense of justice. His reasons must be honest to him. They must be honest to her alike." Burr added this last virtuously, and Mr. Merry bowed deeply in return. "This is not only honorable of you, Colonel Burr, but logical." "That means some sort of sacrifice for him," suggested Yrujo presently. "But some one is sacrificed in every great undertaking. We cannot count the loss of men when nations seek to extend their boundaries and enhance their power. Only the question is, at what sacrifice, through what appeal to his chivalry, can his assistance be carried to us?" "We have left out of our accounting one factor," said Burr after a time. "What, then?" "One factor, I repeat, we have overlooked," said Burr. "That is the wit of a woman! I am purposing to send as our agent with him no other than my daughter, Mrs. Alston. There is no mind more brilliant, no heart more loyal, than hers--nor any soul more filled with ambition! She believes in her father absolutely--will use every resource of her own to upbuild her father's ambitions.[2] Now, women have their own ways of accomplishing results. Suppose we leave it to my daughter to fashion her own campaign? There is nothing wrong in the relations of these two, but at table today I saw his look to her, and hers to him in reply. We are speaking in deep and sacred confidence here, gentlemen. So I say to you, ask no questions of me, and let me ask none of her. Let me only say to her: 'My daughter, your father's success, his life, his fortune--the life and fortune and success of your husband as well--depend upon one event, depend upon you and your ability to stop yonder expedition of Captain Meriwether Lewis into the Missouri country!'" [Footnote 2: It is generally conceded that Theodosia Burr Alston must have been acquainted with her father's most intimate ambitions, and with at least part of the questionable plans by which he purposed to further them. Her blind and unswerving loyalty to him, passing all ordinary filial affection, was a predominant trait of her singular and by no means weak or hesitant character, in which masculine resolution blended so strangely with womanly reserve and sweetness.] "When could we learn?" demanded the British minister. "I cannot say how long a time it may take," Burr replied. "I promise you that my daughter shall have a personal interview with Captain Lewis before he starts for the West." "But he starts at dawn!" smiled Minister Merry. "Were it an hour earlier than that, I would promise it. But now, gentlemen, let us come to the main point. If we succeed, what then?" The British minister was businesslike and definite. "Fifty thousand dollars at once, out of a special fund in my control. Meantime I would write at once to my government and lay the matter before them.[3] We shall need a fleet at the south of the Mississippi River. That will cost money--it will require at least half a million dollars to assure any sort of success in plans so large as yours, Mr. Burr. But on the contingency that she stops him, I promise you that amount. Fifty thousand down--a half-million more when needed." [Footnote 3: Mr. Merry did so and reported the entire proposal made by Burr. The proposition was that the latter should "lend his assistance to his majesty's government in any manner in which they may think fit to employ him, particularly in endeavoring to effect a separation of the Western part of the United States from that which lies between the mountains in its whole extent." But though deeply interested in the conspiracy to separate the Western country, Mr. Merry was not too confiding, for in his message to Mr. Pitt he added the following confidence, showing his own estimate of Burr: "I have only to add that if strict confidence could be placed in him, he certainly possesses, perhaps in a much greater degree than any other individual in this country, all the talents, energy, intrepidity, and firmness which it requires for such an enterprise."] The dark eye of Aaron Burr flashed. "Then," said he firmly, "success will meet our efforts--I guarantee it! I pledge all my personal fortune, my friends, my family, to the last member." "I am for my country," said Mr. Merry simply. "It is plain to see that Napoleon sought to humble us by ceding that great region to this republic. He meant to build up in the New World another enemy to Great Britain. But if we can thwart him--if at the very start we can divide the forces which might later be allied against us--perhaps we may conquer a wider sphere of possession for ourselves on this rich continent. There is no better colonizing ground in all the world!" "You understand my plan," said Aaron Burr. "Reduced to the least common denominator, Meriwether Lewis and my daughter Theodosia have our fate in their hands." The others rose. The hour was past midnight. The secret conference had been a long one. "He starts tomorrow--is that sure?" asked Merry. "As the clock," rejoined Burr. "She must see him before the breakfast hour." "My compliments, Colonel Burr. Good night!" "Good night, sir," added Yrujo. "It has been a strange day." "Secrecy, gentlemen, secrecy! I hope soon to have more news for you, and good news, too. _Au revoir!_" Burr himself accompanied them to the door. CHAPTER VII COLONEL BURR AND HIS DAUGHTER One instant Aaron Burr sat, his head dropped, revolving his plans. The next, he pulled the bell-cord and paced the floor until he had answer. "Go at once to Mrs. Alston's rooms, Charles," said he to the servant. "Tell her to rise and come to me at once. Tell her not to wait. Do you hear?" He still paced the floor until he heard a light _frou-frou_ in the hall, a light knock at the door. His daughter entered, her eyes still full of sleep, her attire no more than a loose peignoir caught up and thrown above her night garments. "What is it, father--are you ill?" "Far from it, my child," said he, turning with head erect. "I am alive, well, and happier than I have been for months--years. I need you--come, sit here and listen to me." He caught her to him with a swift, paternal embrace--he loved no mortal being as he did his daughter--then pushed her tenderly into the deep seat near by the lamp, while he continued pacing up and down the room, voluble and persuasive, full of his great idea. The matters which he had but now discussed with the two foreign officials he placed before his daughter. He told her all--except the truth. And Aaron Burr knew how to gild falsehood itself until it seemed the truth. "Now you have it, my dear," said he. "You see, my ambition to found a country of my own, where a man may have a real ambition. This dirty village here is too narrow a field for talents like yours or mine. Let me tell you, Napoleon has played a great jest with Mr. Jefferson. There is nothing in the Constitution of the United States--I am lawyer enough to know that--which will make it possible for Congress to ratify the purchase of Louisiana. We cannot carve new States from that country--it is already settled by the subjects of another government. Hence the expedition of Mr. Lewis must fail--it must surely fall of its own weight. It is based upon an absurdity. Not even Mr. Jefferson can fly in the face of the supreme laws of the land. "But as to the Mississippi Valley, matters are entirely different. There is no law against that country's organizing for a better government. There is every natural reason for that. As these States on the East confederated in the cause against oppression, so can those yonder. There will be more opportunity for strong men there when that game is on the board--men like Captain Lewis, for instance. Should one ally one's self with a foredoomed failure? Not at all. I prefer rather success--station, rank, power, money, for myself, if you please. With us--a million dollars for the founding of our new country. With him--for the undertaking of yonder impracticable and chimerical expedition, twenty-five hundred dollars! Which enterprise, think you, will win? "But, on the other hand, if that expedition of Mr. Jefferson's should succeed by virtue of accident, or of good leadership, all my plans must fail--that is plain. It comes, therefore, to this, Theo, and I may tell you plainly--Captain Lewis must be seen--he must be stopped--we must hold a conference with him. It would be useless for me to undertake to arrange all that. There is only one person who can save your father's future--and that one, my daughter, is--you!" He caught Theodosia's look of surprise, her start, the swift flush on her cheek--and laughed lightly. "Let me explain. Aaron Burr and all his family--all his friends--will reach swift advancement in yonder new government. Power, place--these are the things that strong men covet. That is what the game of politics means for strong men--that is why we fight so bitterly for office. I plan for myself some greater office than second fiddle in this tawdry republic along the Atlantic. I want the first place, and in a greater field! I will take my friends with me. I want men who can lead other men. I want men like Captain Lewis." "It seems that you value him more now than once you did." "Yes, that is true, Theo, that is true. I did not favor his suit for your hand at that time. Although he had a modest fortune in Virginia lands, he could not offer you the future assured by Mr. Alston. I was rejoiced--I admit it frankly--when I learned that young Captain Lewis came just too late, for I feared you would have preferred him. And yet I saw his quality then--Mr. Jefferson sees it--he is a good chooser of men. But Captain Lewis must not advance beyond the Ohio. That is a large task for a woman." "What woman, father?" A flush came to her pale cheek. Her father turned to her directly, his own piercing gaze aflame. "There is but one woman on earth could do that, my daughter! That young man's fate was settled when he looked on that woman--when he looked on you!" She swiftly turned her head aside, not answering. "Am I so engaged in affairs that I cannot see the obvious, my dear?" went on the vibrant voice. "Had I no eyes for what went on at my side this very evening, at Mr. Jefferson's dinner-table? Could I fail to observe his look to you--and, yes, am I not sensible to what your eyes said to him in reply?" "Do you believe that of me--and you my father?" "I believe nothing dishonorable of you, my dear," said Burr. "Neither could I ask anything dishonorable. But I know what young blood will do. Your eyes said no more than that for me. I know you wish him well--know you wish well for his ambition, his success--am sure you do not wish to see him doomed to failure. What? Would you see his career blighted when it should be but begun?" "There would be prospects for him?" "All the prospects in the world! I would place him only second to myself, so highly do I value his talents in an enterprise such as this. Alston's money, but Lewis's brains and courage! They both love you--do I not know?" Troubled, again she turned her gaze aside. "Listen, my daughter. That young man is wise--he has no such vast belief in yonder expedition. He is going in desperation, to escape a memory! Is it not true? Tell me--and believe that I am not blind--is not Captain Lewis going into the Missouri country in order to forget a certain woman? And do we not know, my daughter, who that woman is?" Still her downcast eye gave him no reply. "Meriwether Lewis yonder among the savages is a failure. Meriwether Lewis with me is second only to the vice-regent of the lower Louisiana country. Texas, Florida, much of Mexico, will join with us, that is sure. We fight with the great nations of the world, not against them--we fight with the stars in their courses, and not against them. "Now, you have two pictures, my dear--one of Meriwether Lewis, the wanderer, a broken and hopeless man, living among the savages, a log hut his home, a camp fire the only hearth he knows. Picture that hopeless and broken man--condemned to that by yourself, my dear--and then picture that other figure whom you can see rescued, restored to the world, placed by your own hand in a station of dignity and power. Then, indeed, he might forget--he might forgive. Yonder he will forsake his manhood--he will relax his ideals, and go down, step by step, until he shall not think of you again. "There are two pictures, my daughter. Which do you prefer--what do you decide to do? Shall you condemn him, or shall you rescue him? Forgive your father for having spoken thus plainly. I know your heart--I know your generosity as well as I know your loyalty and ambition. There is no reason, my dear, why, for the sake of your father, for the sake of yourself, _and for the sake of that young man yonder_, you should not go to him immediately and carry my message." "Could it be possible," she began at length, half musing, "that I, who made Captain Lewis so unhappy, could aid a man like him to reach a higher and better place in life? Could I save him from himself--and from myself?" "You speak like my own daughter! If that generous wish bore fruit, I think that in the later years of life, for both of you, the reflection would prove not unwelcome. I know, as well as I know anything, that no other woman will ever hold a place in the heart of Meriwether Lewis. There is a memory there which will shut out all other things on earth. We deal now in delicate matters, it is true; but I have been frank with you, because, knowing your loyalty and fairness, knowing your ambition, even-paced with mine, none the less I know your discretion and your generosity as well. You see, I have chosen the best messenger in all the world to advance my own ambition. Indeed, I have chosen the only one in all the world who might undertake this errand with the slightest prospect of success." "What can I do, father?" "In the morning that young man will start. It is now two by the clock. We are late. He will start with the rising sun. It is doubtful if he will see his bed at all tonight." "You have called me for a strange errand, father," said Theodosia Alston, at length. "So far as my brain grasps these things, I go with you in your plans. I could plan no treachery against this country, nor could you--you are its sworn servant, its high official." "Treachery? No, it is statesmanship, it is service to mankind!" "My consent to that, yes. But as to seeing Captain Lewis, there is, as you know, but one way. I go not as Theodosia Burr, but as Mrs. Alston of Carolina. I am a woman of honor; he is a man of honor. No argument on earth would avail with him except such as might be based upon honor and loyalty. Nor would any argument, even if offered by my father, avail otherwise with me." She turned upon him now the full gaze of her dark eyes, serious, luminous, yet tender, her love for him showing so clearly that he came to her softly, took her hands, caught her to his bosom, and kissed her tenderly. "Theodosia," said he, "aid me! If the fire of my ambition has consumed me, I have come to you, because I know your love, because I know your loyalty! I have not slept tonight," he added, passing a hand across his forehead. "There will be no more sleep for me tonight," was her reply. "You will see him in the morning?" "Yes." CHAPTER VIII THE PARTING There were others in Washington who did not sleep that night. A light burned until sunrise in the little office-room of Thomas Jefferson. Spread upon his desk, covering its litter of unfinished business, lay a large map--a map which today would cause any schoolboy to smile, but which at that time represented the wisdom of the world regarding the interior of the great North American continent. It had served to afford anxious study for two men, these many hours. "Yonder it lies, Captain Lewis!" said Mr. Jefferson at length. "How vast, how little known! We know our climate and soil here. It is but reasonable to suppose that they exist yonder as they do with us, in some part, at least. If so, yonder are homes for millions now unborn. Had General Bonaparte known the value of that land, he would have fought the world rather than alienate such a region." The President tapped a long forefinger on the map. "This, then," he went on, "is your country. Find it out--bring back to me examples of its soil, its products, its vegetable and animal life. Espy out especially for us any strange animals there may be of which science has not yet account. I hold it probable that there may be yonder living examples of the mastodon, whose bones we have found in Kentucky. You yourself may see those enormous creatures yet alive." Meriwether Lewis listened in silence. Mr. Jefferson turned to another branch of his theme. "I fancy that some time there will be a canal built across the isthmus that binds this continent to the one below--a canal which shall connect the two great oceans. But that is far in the future. It is for you to spy out the way now, across the country itself. Explore it--discover it--it is our new world. "A few must think for the many," he went on. "I had to smuggle this appropriation through Congress--twenty-five hundred dollars--the price of a poor Virginia farm! I have tampered with the Constitution itself in order to make this purchase of a country not included in our original territorial lines. I have taken my own chances--just as you must take yours now. The finger of God will be your guide and your protector. Are you ready, Captain Lewis? It is late." Indeed, the sun was rising over Washington, the mists of morning were reeking along the banks of the Potomac. "I can start in half an hour," replied Meriwether Lewis. "Are your men ready, your supplies gathered together?" "The rendezvous is at Harper's Ferry, up the river. The wagons with the supplies are ready there. I will take boat from here myself with a few of the men. Not later than tomorrow afternoon I promise that we will be on our way. We burn the bridges behind us, and cross none until we come to them." "Spoken like a soldier! It is in your hands. Go then!" There was one look, one handclasp. The two men parted; nor did they meet again for years. Mr. Jefferson did not look from his window to see the departure of his young friend, nor did the latter again call at the door to say good-by. Theirs was indeed a warrior-like simplicity. The sun still was young when Meriwether Lewis at length descended the steps of the Executive Mansion. He was clad now for his journey, not in buckskin hunting-garb, but with regard for the conventions of a country by no means free of convention. His jacket was of close wool, belted; his boots were high and suitable for riding. His stock, snowy white--for always Meriwether Lewis was immaculate--rose high around his throat, in spite of the hot summer season, and his hands were gloved. He seemed soldier, leader, officer, and gentleman. No retinue, however, attended him; no servant was at his side. He went afoot, and carried with him his most precious luggage--the long rifle which he never entrusted to any hands save his own. Close wrapped around the stock, on the crook of his arm, and not yet slung over his shoulder, was a soiled buckskin pouch, which went always with the rifle--the "possible sack" of the wilderness hunter of that time. It contained his bullets, bullet-molds, flints, a bar or two of lead, some tinder for priming, a set of awls. Such was the leader of one of the great expeditions of the world. Meriwether Lewis had few good-bys to say. He had written but one letter--to his mother--late the previous morning. It was worded thus: The day after tomorrow I shall set out for the Western country. I had calculated on the pleasure of visiting you before I started, but circumstances have rendered it impossible. My absence will probably be equal to fifteen or eighteen months. The nature of this expedition is by no means dangerous. My route will be altogether through tribes of Indians friendly to the United States, therefore I consider the chances of life just as much in my favor as I should conceive them were I to remain at home. The charge of this expedition is honorable to myself, as it is important to my country. For its fatigues I feel myself perfectly prepared, nor do I doubt my health and strength of constitution to bear me through it. I go with the most perfect preconviction in my own mind of returning safe, and hope, therefore that you will not suffer yourself to indulge in any anxiety for my safety. I will write again on my arrival at Pittsburgh. Adieu, and believe me your affectionate son. No regrets, no weak reflections for this man with a warrior's weapon on his arm--where no other burden might lie in all his years. His were to be the comforts of the trail, the rude associations with common men, the terrors of the desert and the mountain; his fireside only that of the camp. Yet he advanced to his future steadily, his head high, his eye on ahead--a splendid figure of a man. He did not at first hear the gallop of hoofs on the street behind him as at last, a mile or more from the White House gate, he turned toward the river front. He was looking at the dull flood of the Potomac, now visible below him; but he paused, something appealing to the strange sixth sense of the hunter, and turned. A rider, a mounted servant, was beckoning to him. Behind the horseman, driven at a stiff gait, came a carriage which seemed to have but a single occupant. Captain Lewis halted, gazed, then hastened forward, hat in his hand. "Mrs. Alston!" he exclaimed, as the carriage came up. "Why are you here? Is there any news?" "Yes, else I could not have come." "But why have you come? Tell me!" He motioned the outrider aside, sprang into the vehicle and told the driver to draw a little apart from the more public street. Here he caught up the reins himself, and, ordering the driver to join the footman at the edge of the roadway they had left, turned to the woman at his side. "Pardon me," said he, and his voice was cold; "I thought I had cut all ties." "Knit them again for my sake, then, Meriwether Lewis! I have brought you a summons to return." "A summons? From whom?" "My father--Mr. Merry--Señor Yrujo. They were at our home all night. We could not--they could not--I could not--bear to see you sacrifice yourself. This expedition can only fail! I implore you not to go upon it! Do not let your man's pride drive you!" She was excited, half sobbing. "It does drive me, indeed," said he simply. "I am under orders--I am the leader of this expedition of my government. I do not understand----" "At this hour--on this errand--only one motive could have brought me! It is your interest. Oh, it is not for myself--it is for your future." "Why did you come thus, unattended? There is something you are concealing. Tell me!" "Ah, you are harsh--you have no sympathy, no compassion, no gratitude! But listen, and I will tell you. My father, Mr. Merry, the Spanish minister, are all men of affairs. They have watched the planning of this expedition. Why fly in the face of prophecy and of Providence? That is what my father says. He says that country can never be of benefit to our Union--that no new States can be made from it. He says the people will pass down the Mississippi River, but not beyond it; that it is the natural line of our expansion--that men who are actual settlers are bound not into the unknown West, but into the well-known South. He begs of you to follow the course of events, and not to fly in the face of Providence." "You speak well! Go on." "England is with us, and Spain--they back my father's plans." He turned now and raised a hand. "Plans? What plans? I must warn you, I am pledged to my own country's service." "Is not my father also? He is one of the highest officers in the government of this country." "You may tell me more or not, as you like." "There is little more to tell," said she. "These gentlemen have made certain plans of which I know little. My father said to me that Thomas Jefferson himself knows that this purchase from Napoleon cannot be made under the Constitution of the United States--that, given time for reflection, Mr. Jefferson himself will admit that the Louisiana purchase was but a national folly from which this country cannot benefit. Why not turn, then, to a future which offers certainties? Why not come with us, and not attempt the impossible? That is what he said. And he asked me to implore you to pause." He sat motionless, looking straight ahead, as she went on. "He only besought me to induce you, if I could, either to abandon your expedition wholly as soon as you honorably might do so, or to go on with it only to such point as will prove it unfeasible and impracticable. Not wishing you to prove traitorous to a trust, these gentlemen wish you to know that they would value your association--that they would give you splendid opportunity. With men such as these, that means a swift future of success for one--for one--whom I shall always cherish warmly in my heart." The color was full in her face. He turned toward her suddenly, his eye clouded. "It is an extraordinary matter in every way which you bring for me," he said slowly; "extraordinary that foreigners, not friends of this country, should call themselves the friends of an officer sworn to the service of the republic! I confess I do not understand it. And why send you?" "It is difficult for me to tell you. But my father knew the antagonism between Mr. Jefferson and himself, and knew your friendship for Mr. Jefferson. He knew also the respect, the pity--oh, what shall I say?--which I have always felt for you--the regard----" "Regard! What do you mean?" "I did not mean regard, but the--the wish to see you succeed, to help you, if I could, to take your place among men. I told you that but yesterday." She was all confusion now. He seemed pitiless. "I have listened long enough to have my curiosity aroused. I shall have somewhat to ponder--on the trail to the West." "Then you mean that you will go on?" "Yes!" "You do not understand----" "No! I understand only that Mr. Jefferson has never abandoned a plan or a promise or a friend. Shall I, then, who have been his scholar and his friend?" "Ah, you two! What manner of men are you that you will not listen to reason? He is high in power. Will you not also listen to the call of your own ambition? Why, in that country below, you might hold a station as proud as that of Mr. Jefferson himself. Will you throw that away, for the sake of a few dried skins and flowers? You speak of being devoted to your country. What is devotion--what is your country? You have no heart--that I know well; but I credited you with the brain and the ambition of a man!" He sat motionless under the sting of her reproaches; and as some reflection came to her upon the savagery of her own words, she laughed bitterly. "Think you that I would have come here for any other man?" she demanded. "Think you that I would ask of you anything to my own dishonor, or to your dishonor? But now you do not listen. You will not come back--even for me!" In answer he simply bent and kissed her hand, stepped from the carriage, raised his hat. Yet he hesitated for half an instant and turned back. "Theodosia," said he, "it is hard for me not to do anything you ask of me--you do not know how hard; but surely you understand that I am a soldier and am under orders. I have no option. It seems to me that the plans of your father and his friends should be placed at once before Mr. Jefferson. It is strange they sent you, a woman, as their messenger! You have done all that a woman could. No other woman in the world could have done as much with me. But--my men are waiting for me." This time he did not turn back again. * * * * * Colonel Burr's carriage returned more slowly than it had come. It was a dejected occupant who at last made her way, still at an early hour, to the door of her father's house. Burr met her at the door. His keen eye read the answer at once. "You have failed!" said he. She raised her dark eyes to his, herself silent, mournful. "What did he say?" demanded Burr. "Said he was under orders--said you should go to Mr. Jefferson with your plan--said Mr. Jefferson alone could stop him. Failed? Yes, I failed!" "You failed," said Burr, "because you did not use the right argument with him. The next time _you must not fail_. You must use better arguments!" Theodosia stood motionless for an instant, looking at her father, then passed back into the house. "Listen, my daughter," said Burr at length, in his eye a light that she never had known before. "You _must_ see that man again, and bring him back into our camp! We need him. Without him I cannot handle Merry, and without Merry I cannot handle Yrujo. Without them my plan is doomed. If it fails, your husband has lost fifty thousand dollars and all the moneys to which he is pledged beyond that. You and I will be bankrupt--penniless upon the streets, do you hear?--unless you bring that man back. Granted that all goes well, it means half a million dollars pledged for my future by Great Britain herself, half as much pledged by Spain, success and future honor and power for you and me--and him. He _must_ come back! That expedition must not go beyond the Mississippi. You ask me what to tell him? Ask him no longer to return to us and opportunity. _Ask him to come back to Theodosia Burr and happiness_--do you understand?" "Sir," said his daughter, "I think--I think I do not understand!" He seemed not to hear her--or to toss her answer aside. "You must try again," said he, "and with the right weapons--the old ones, my dear--the old weapons of a woman!" CHAPTER IX MR. THOMAS JEFFERSON Not in fifty years, said Thomas Jefferson in the last days of his life, had the sun caught him in bed. On this morning, having said good-by to the man to whose hands he had entrusted the dearest enterprise of all his life, he turned back to his desk in the little office-room, and throughout the long and heated day, following a night spent wholly without sleep, he remained engaged in his usual labors, which were the heavier in his secretary's absence. He was an old man now, but a giant in frame, a giant in mind, a giant in industry as well. He sat at his desk absorbed, sleepless, with that steady application which made possible the enormous total of his life's work. He was writing in a fine, delicate hand--legible to this day--certain of those thousands of letters and papers which have been given to us as the record of his career. In what labor was the President of the United States engaged on this particularly eventful day? It seems he found more to do with household matters than with affairs of state. He was making careful accounts of his French cook, his Irish coachman, his black servants still remaining at his country house in Virginia. All his life Thomas Jefferson kept itemized in absolute faithfulness a list of all his personal expenses--even to the gratuities he expended in traveling and entertainment. We find, for instance, that "John Cramer is to go into the service of Mr. Jefferson at twelve dollars a month and twopence for drink, two suits of clothes and a pair of boots." It seems that he bought a bootjack for three shillings; and the cost of countless other household items is as carefully set down. We may learn from records of this date that in the past year Mr. Jefferson had expended in charity $1,585.60. He tells us that in the first three months of his presidency his expenses were $565.84--and he was wrong ten cents in his addition of the total! In his own hand he sets down "A View of the Consumption of Butchers' Meat from September 6, 1801, to June 12, 1802." He knew perfectly well, indeed, what all his household expenses were, also what it cost him to maintain his stables. He did all this bookkeeping himself, and at the end of each year was able to tell precisely where his funds had gone. We may note one such annual statement, that of the year ended five months previous to the time when Captain Lewis set forth into the West: Provisions $4,059.98 Wines 1,296.63 Groceries 1,624.76 Fuel 553.68 Secretary 600.00 Servants 2,014.89 Miscellaneous 433.30 Stable 399.06 Dress 246.05 Charities 1,585.60 Pres. House 226.59 Books 497.41 Household expenses 393.00 Monticello--plantation 2,226.45 " --family 1,028.79 Loans 274.00 Debts 529.61 Asquisitions--lands bought 2,156.86 " --buildings 3,567.92 " --carriages 363.75 " --furniture 664.10 Total $24,682.45 Mr. Jefferson says in rather shamefaced fashion to his diary: I ought by this statement to have cash in hand $183.70 But I actually have in hand 293.00 So that the errors of this statement amt to 109.20 The whole of the nails used for Monticello and smithwork are omitted, because no account was kept of them. This makes part of the error, and the article of nails has been extraordinary this year. There was a curious accuracy in the analytical tests which Mr. Jefferson applied to all the ordinary transactions of life. It was not enough for him to know exactly how many dollars and cents he had expended; he must know what should be the average result of such expenditures. In the middle of a life of tremendous and marvelously varied activities he finds time to leave for us such records as these: Mr. Remsen tells me that six cord of hickory last a fireplace well the winter. Myrtle candles of last year out. Pd Farren an impudent surcharge for Venetn blinds, 2.66. Borrowed of Mr. Maddison order on bank for 150d. Enclosed to D. Rittenhouse, Lieper's note of 238.57d, out of which he is to pay for equatorial instrument for me. Hitzeimer says that a horse well fed with grain requires 100 lb. of hay, and without grain 130 lb. T. N. Randolph has had 9 galls. whisky for his harvest. My first pipe of Termo is out--begun soon after I came home to live from Philadelphia. Agreed with Robt. Chuning to serve me as overseer at Monticello for £25 and 600 lb. pork. He is to come Dec. 1. Agreed with ---- Bohlen to give 300 _livres tournois_ for my bust made by Ceracchi, if he shall agree to take that sum. My daughter Maria married this day. March 16--The first shad at this market today. March 28--The weeping willow shows the green leaf. April 9--Asparagus come to table. April 10--Apricots blossom. April 12--Genl. Thaddeus Kosciusko puts into my hands a Warrant of the Treasury for 3,684.54d to have bills of exchange bought for him. May 8--Tea out, the pound has lasted exactly 7 weeks, used 6 times a week; this is 8-21 or .4 of an oz. a time for a single person. A pound of tea making 126 cups costs 2d, 126 cups or ounces of coffee--8 lb. cost 1.6. May 18--On trial it takes 11 dwt. Troy of double refined maple sugar to a dish of coffee, or 1 lb. avoirdupois to 26.5 dishes, so that at 20 cents per lb. it is 8 mills per dish. An ounce of coffee at 20 cents per lb. is 12.5 mills, so that sugar and coffee of a dish is worth 2 cents. As to the code of official etiquette which we have seen to exist in Washington, the President himself was responsible for it, for we have, written out in his own delicate hand, the following explicit instructions: The families of foreign ministers, arriving at the seat of government, receive the first visit from those of the national ministers, as from all other residents. Members of the legislature and of the judiciary, independent of their offices, have a right as strangers to receive the first visit. No title being admitted here, those of foreigners give no precedence. Difference of grade among the diplomatic members gives no precedence. At public ceremonies the government invites the presence of foreign ministers and their families. A convenient seat or station will be provided for them, with any other strangers invited, and the families of the national ministers, each taking place as they arrive, and without any precedence. To maintain the principle of equality, or of pell-mell, and prevent the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the members of the executive will practise at their own houses, and recommend an adherence to the ancient usages of the country of gentlemen in mass giving precedence to the ladies in mass, in passing from one apartment where they are assembled into another. And so on, through reams and reams of a strange man's life records. Why should we care to note his curious concern over details? The answer to that question is this--obviously, Thomas Jefferson's estimate of a man must also in all likelihood have been curiously exact. He did not make public to the world his judgment of Colonel Aaron Burr, at that time Vice-President of the United States; but in his diary, written in frankness by himself for himself, he put down the following: I have never seen Colonel Burr till he became a member of the Senate. His conduct very soon inspired me with distrust. I habitually cautioned Mr. Madison against trusting him too much. I saw that under General W. and Mr. Adams, where a great military appointment or a diplomatic one was to be made, he came post to Philadelphia to show himself, and in fact he was always in the market if they wanted him. He was indeed told by Dayton in 1800 that he might be Secretary at War, but this bid was too late. His election as Vice-President was then foreseen. With these impressions of Colonel Burr, there never has been any intimacy between us, and but little association. A certain plan of this same Colonel Burr's now went forward in such fashion as involved the loyalty of Meriwether Lewis, the man to whom, of all others of his acquaintance, Thomas Jefferson gave first place in trust and confidence and friendship--the young man who but now was making his unostentatious departure on the great adventure that they two had planned. His garb ill cared-for, his hair unkempt, his face a trifle haggard, working on into the day whose dawn he had seen arise, the tall, gaunt old man set aside first one minor matter, then another, leaving them all exactly finished. At last he wrote down, for later forwarding, the last item of his own knowledge regarding the new country into which he had sent his young friend. I have received word from Paris that Mr. Broughton, one of the companions of Captain Vancouver, went up the Columbia River one hundred miles in December, 1792. He stopped at a point he named Vancouver. Here the river Columbia is still a quarter of a mile wide. From this point Mount Hood is seen about twenty leagues distant, which is probably a dependency of the Stony Mountains. Accept my affectionate salutations. This was the last word Meriwether Lewis received from his chief. As the latter finished it, he sat looking out of the window toward that West which meant so much to him. He did not at first note the interruption of his reverie. Long ago he had made public his announcement that the time of Thomas Jefferson belonged to the public, and that he might be seen at any time by any man. He hesitated now but a moment, therefore, when old Henry, his faithful black, threw open the door and stated simply that there was "a lady wantin' to see Mistah Jeffahson." "Who is she, Henry?" inquired the President of the United States mildly. "I am somewhat busy today." "'Tain't no diff'rence, she say--she sho'ly want see Mistah Jeffahson." The tired old man smiled and shrugged his shoulders. A moment later the persistent caller was ushered into the office of the nation's chief executive. He rose courteously to meet her. It was Theodosia Alston, whom he had known from her childhood. Mr. Jefferson greeted her with his hand outstretched, and, her arm still in his, led her to a seat. "My dear," said he, "you will pardon our confusion here, I am sure. There are many matters----" "I know it is an intrusion, Mr. Jefferson," began Theodosia Alston again, her face flushing swiftly. "But you are so good, so kind, so great in your patience that we all take advantage of you. And yet you are so tired," she added impulsively, as she caught sight of his haggard face. "I was not so fortunate as to find time for sleep last night." He smiled again with humorous, half twisted mouth. "Nor was I." "Tut, tut! No, no, my dear, that sort of thing will not do." He looked at her in silence for some time. "Perhaps, my dear," said he at last, "you come regarding Captain Lewis?" "How did you know?" she exclaimed, startled. "Why should I not know?" He pushed his chair so close that he might lay a hand upon her arm. "Listen, Theo, my child. I am an old man, and I am your friend, and his also. I had need to be very blind had I not known long ago what I did know. I am, perhaps, the only confidant of Captain Lewis, and I repose in him confidences that I would venture to no other man; but he is not the sort to speak of such matters. It is only by virtue of exceptional circumstances, my dear, that I know the story of you two." She was looking straight into his face, her eyes mournful. "I was glad to send him away, sorely as I miss him. But then, you said, you come to me about him?" "Yes, after he is gone--knowing all that you say--because I trust your great kindness and your chivalry. I come to ask you to call him back! Oh, Mr. Jefferson, were it any other man in the world but yourself I had not dared come here; but you know my story and his. It is your right to believe that he and I were--that is to say, we might have been--ah, sir, how can I speak?" "You need not speak, my dear, I know." "I shall be faithful to my husband, Mr. Jefferson." The old man nodded. "Captain Lewis knows that also. He would be the last to wish it otherwise. But, since it was his misfortune to set his regard upon one so fair as yourself, and since fate goes so hard for a strong man like him, then I must admit it needed strong medicine for his case. I sent him away, yes. Would you ask him back--for any cause?" In turn she laid a small hand upon the President's arm. "Only for himself--for that reason alone, Mr. Jefferson, and not to change your plans--for himself, because you love him. Oh, sir, even the greatest courts sometimes arrest their judgment if there is new evidence to be introduced. At the last moment justice gives a condemned man one more chance." "What is it, Theodosia?" he said quietly. "I do not grasp all this." "Able men say that this government cannot take advantage of the sale of Louisiana to us by Napoleon--that our Constitution prevents our taking over a foreign territory already populated to make into new States of our own----" "Good, my learned counsel--say on!" "Forgive my weak wit--I only try to say this as I heard it, well and plainly." "As well as any man, my dear! Go on." "Therefore, even if Captain Lewis does go forward, he can only fail at the last. This is what is said by the Federalists, by your enemies." "And perhaps by certain of my own party not Federalists--by Colonel Aaron Burr, for instance!" Thomas Jefferson smiled grimly. "Yes!" She spoke firmly and with courage. "I cannot pause to inquire what my enemies say, my dear lady. But in what way could this effect our friend, Captain Lewis? He is under orders, on my errand." "I saw him this very morning--I took my reputation in my hands--I followed him--I urged him, I implored him to stop!" "Yes? And did he?" "Not for an instant. Ah, I see you smile! I might have known he would not. He said that nothing but word from you could induce him to hesitate for a moment." "My dear young lady, I said to Captain Lewis that no report from any source would cause me for an instant to doubt his loyalty to me. If anything could shake him in his loyalty, it would be his regard for you yourself; but since I trust his honor and your own, I do not fear that such a conflict can ever occur!" She did not reply. After a time the President went on gently: "My dear, would you wish him to come back--would you condemn him further to the tortures of the damned? And would you halt him while he is trying to do his duty as a man and a soldier? What benefit to you?" She drew up proudly. "What benefit, indeed, to me? Do you think I would ask this for myself? No, it was for _him_--it was for _his_ welfare only that I dared to come to you. And you will not hear new evidence?" But now she was speaking to Thomas Jefferson, the President of the United States, man of affairs as well, man of firm will and clear-cut decision. "Madam," said he, coldly, "in this office we do a thing but once. Had I condemned yonder young man to his death--and perhaps I have--I would not now reconsider that decision. I would not speak so long as this over it, did I not know and love you both--yes, and grieve over you both; but what is written is written." His giant hand fell lightly, but with firmness, on the desk at his side. The inexorableness of a great will was present in the room as an actual thing. Tears swam in her eyes. "You would not hear what was the actual cause of my wish for him----" "No, my dear! We have made our plans." "There are other plans afoot these days, Mr. Jefferson." "Tut, tut! Are you my enemy, too? Oh, yes, I know there are enemies enough in wait for me and my administration on every side. Yes, I know a plan--I know of many such. But one thing also I do know, madam, and it is this--not all the enemies on this earth can alter me one iota in this undertaking on which I have sent Captain Lewis. As against that magnificent adventure there is nothing can be offered as an offset, nothing that can halt it for an instant. No reward to him or me--nay, no reward to any other human being--shall stop his advancement in that purpose which he shares with me. If he fails, I fail with him--and all my life as well!" She rose now, calm before the imperious quality of his nature, so unlike his former gentleness. "You refuse, then, Mr. Jefferson? You will not reopen this case?" "I refuse nothing to you gladly, my dear lady. But you have seen him--you have tested him. Did he turn back? Shall I, his friend and his chief, halt him at such a time? Now that were the worst kindness to him in the world. And I am convinced that you and I both plan only kindness for him." Suddenly he saw the tears in her eyes. At once he was back again, the courteous gentleman. "Do not weep, Theodosia, my child," said he. "Let me kiss you, as your father or your grandfather would--one who holds you tenderly in his heart. Forgive me that I pass sentence on you both, but you must part--you must not ask him back. There now, my dear, do not weep, or you will make me weep. Let me kiss you for him--and let us all go on about our duties in the world. My dear, good-by! You must go." CHAPTER X THE THRESHOLD OF THE WEST Meriwether Lewis, having put behind him one set of duties, now addressed himself to another, and did so with care and thoroughness. A few of his men, a part of his outfitting, he found already assembled at Harper's Ferry, up the Potomac. Before sunset of the first day the little band knew they had a leader. There was not a knife or a tomahawk of the entire equipment which he himself did not examine--not a rifle which he himself did not personally test. He went over the boxes and bales which had been gathered here, and saw to their arrangement in the transport-wagons. He did all this without bluster or officiousness, but with the quiet care and thoroughness of the natural leader of men. In two days they were on their way across the Alleghanies. A few days more of steady travel sufficed to bring them to Pittsburgh, the head of navigation on the Ohio River, and at that time the American capital in the upper valley of the West. At Pittsburgh Captain Lewis was to build his boats, to complete the details of his equipment, to take on additional men for his party--now to be officially styled the Volunteers for the Discovery of the West. He lost no time in urging forward the necessary work. The young adventurer found this inland town half maritime in its look. Its shores were lined with commerce suited to a seaport. Schooners of considerable tonnage lay at the wharfs, others were building in the busy shipyards. The destination of these craft obviously was down the Mississippi, to the sea. Here were vessels bound for the West Indies, bound for Philadelphia, for New York, for Boston--carrying the products of this distant and little-known interior. As he looked at this commerce of the great West, pondered its limitations, saw its trend with the down-slant of the perpetual roadway to the sea, there came to the young officer's mind with greater force certain arguments that had been advanced to him. He saw that here was the heart of America, realized how natural was the insistence of all these hardy Western men upon the free use of the Mississippi and its tributaries. He easily could agree with Aaron Burr that, had the fleet of Napoleon ever sailed from Haiti--had Napoleon ever done otherwise than to cede Louisiana to us--then these boats from the Ohio and the Mississippi would at this very moment, perhaps, be carrying armed men down to take New Orleans, as so often they had threatened. There came, however, to his mind not the slightest thought of alteration in his own plans. With him it was no question of what might have been, but of what actually was. The cession by Napoleon had been made, and Louisiana was ours. It was time to plot for expeditions, not down the great river, but across it, beyond it, into that great and unknown country that lay toward the farther sea. The keen zest of this vast enterprise came to him as a stimulus--the feel of the new country was as the breath of his nostrils. His bosom swelled with joy as he looked out toward that West which had so long allured him--that West of which he was to be the discoverer. The carousing riffraff of the wharfs, the flotsam and jetsam of the river trade, were to him but passing phenomena. He shouldered his way among them indifferently. He walked with a larger vision before his eyes. Now, too, he had news--good news, fortunate news, joyous news--none less than the long-delayed answer of his friend, Captain William Clark, to his proposal that he should associate himself with the Volunteers for the Discovery of the West. Misspelled, scrawled, done in the hieroglyphics which marked that remarkable gentleman, William Clark's letter carried joy to the heart of Meriwether Lewis. It cemented one of the most astonishing partnerships ever known among men, one of the most beautiful friendships of which history leaves note. Let us give the strange epistle in Clark's own spelling: DEAR MERNE: Yours to hand touching uppon the Expedishon into the Missourie Country, & I send this by special bote up the river to mete you at Pts'brgh, at the Foarks. You convey a moast welcome and appreciated invitation to join you in an Enterprise conjenial to my Every thought and Desire. It will in all likelyhood require at least a year to make the journey out and Return, but although that means certain Sacrifises of a personal sort, I hold such far less than the pleasure to enlist with you, wh. indeed I hold to be my duty allso. I need not say how content I am to be associated with the man moast of all my acquaintance apt to achieve Success in an undertaking of so difficult and perlous nature. As you know, it is in the wilderness men are moast sevearly tried, and there we know a man. I have seen you so tried, and I Know what you are. I am proud that you apeare to hold me and my own qualities in like confident trust and belief, and I shall hope to merit no alteration in your Judgment. There is no other man I would go with on such an undertaking, nor consider it seriously, although the concern of my family largely has been with things military and adventurous, and we are not new to life among Savidges. Too well I know the dangers of bad leadership in such affairs, yes and my brother, the General, also, as the story of Detroit and the upper Ohio country could prove. All of that country should have been ours from the first, and only lack of courage lost it so long to us. You are so kind as to offer me a place equal in command with you--I accept not because of the Rank, which is no moving consideration, eather for you or for me--but because I see in the jenerosity of the man proposing such a division of his own Honors, the best assurance of success. You will find me at or near the Falls of the Ohio awaiting the arrival of your party, which I taik it will be in early August or the Midel of that month. Pray convey to Mr. Jefferson my humble and obedient respects, and thanks for this honor wh. I shall endeavor to merit as best lies within my powers. With all affec'n, I remain, Your friend, WM. CLARK. P. S.--God alone knows how mutch this all may mean to You and me, Merne--WILL. Clark, then, was to meet him at the Falls of the Ohio, and he, too, counseled haste. Lewis drove his drunken, lazy workmen in the shipyards as hard as he might, week after week, yet found six weeks elapsed before at last he was in any wise fitted to set forth. The delay fretted him, even though he received word from his chief bidding him not to grieve over the possible loss of a season in his start, but to do what he might and to possess his soul in patience and in confidence. Recruits of proper sort for his purposes did not grow on trees, he found, but he added a few men to his party now and then, picking them slowly, carefully. One morning, while engaged in his duties of supervising the work in progress at the shipyards, he had his attention attracted to a youth of some seventeen or eighteen years, who stood, cap in hand, at a little distance, apparently too timid to accost him. "What is it, my son?" said he. "Did you wish to see me?" The boy advanced, smiling. "You do not know me, sir. My name is Shannon--George Shannon. I used to know you when you were stationed here with the army. I was a boy then." "You are right--I remember you perfectly. So you are grown into a strapping young man, I see!" The boy twirled his cap in his hands. "I want to go along with you, Captain," said he shyly. "What? You would go with me--do you know what is our journey?" "No. I only hear that you are going up the Missouri, beyond St. Louis, into new country. They say there are buffalo there, and Indians. 'Tis too quiet here for me--I want to see the world with you." The young leader, after his fashion, stood silently regarding the other for a time. An instant served him. "Very well, George," said he. "If your parents consent, you shall go with me. Your pay will be such that you can save somewhat, and I trust you will use it to complete your schooling after your return. There will be adventure and a certain honor in our undertaking. If we come back successful, I am persuaded that our country will not forget us." And so that matter was completed. Strangely enough, as the future proved, were the fortunes of these two to intermingle. From the first, Shannon attached himself to his captain almost in the capacity of personal attendant. At last the great bateau lay ready, launched from the docks and moored alongside the wharf. Fifty feet long it was, with mast, tholes and walking-boards for the arduous upstream work. It had received a part of its cargo, and soon all was in readiness to start. On the evening of that day Lewis sat down to pen a last letter to his chief. He wrote in the little office-room of the inn where he was stopping, and for a time he did not note the presence of young Shannon, who stood, as usual, silent until his leader might address him. "What, is it, George?" he asked at length, looking up. "Someone waiting to see you, sir--they are in the parlor. They sent me----" "They? Who are they?" "I don't know, sir. She asked me to come for you." "She. Who is she?" "I don't know, sir. She spoke to her father. They are in the room just across the hall, sir." The face of Meriwether Lewis was pale when presently he opened the door leading to the apartment which had been indicated. He knew, or thought he knew, who this must be. But why--why? The interior was dim. A single lamp of the inefficient sort then in use served only to lessen the gloom. Presently, however, he saw awaiting him the figure he had anticipated. Yes, it was she herself. Almost his heart stood still. Theodosia Alston arose from the spot where she sat in the deeper shadows, and came forward to him. He met her, his hands outstretched, his pulse leaping eagerly in spite of his reproofs. He dreaded, yet rejoiced. "Why are you here?" he asked at length. "My father and I are on a journey down the river to visit Mr. Blennerhasset on his island. You know his castle there?" "Why is it that you always come to torment me the more? Another day and I should have been gone!" "Torment you, sir?" "You rebuke me properly. I presume I should have courage to meet you always--to speak with you--to look into your eyes--to take your hands in mine. But I find it hard, terribly hard! Each time it is worse--because each time I must leave you. Why did you not wait one day?" She made no reply. He fought for his self-control. "Mr. Jefferson, how is he?" he demanded at length. "You left him well?" "Unchangeable as flint. You said that only the order of your chief could change your plans. I sought to gain that order--I went myself to see Mr. Jefferson, that very day you started. He said that nothing could alter his faith in you, and that nothing could alter the plan you both had made. He would not call you back. He ordered me not to attempt to do so; but I have broken the President's command. You find it hard! Do you think this is not hard for me also?" "These are strange words. What is your motive? What is it that you plan? Why should you seek to stop me when I am trying to blot your face out of my mind? Strange labor is that--to try to forget what I hold most dear!" "You shall not leave my face behind you, Captain Lewis!" she said suddenly. "What do you mean, Theodosia? What is it?" "You shall see me every night under the stars, Meriwether Lewis. I will not let you go. I will not relinquish you!" He turned swiftly toward her, but paused as if caught back by some mighty hand. "What is it?" he said once more, half in a whisper. "What do you mean? Would you ruin me? Would you see me go to ruin?" "No! To the contrary, shall I allow you to hasten into the usual ruin of a man? If you go yonder, what will be the fate of Meriwether Lewis? You have spoken beautifully to me at times--you have awakened some feeling of what images a woman may make in a man's heart. I have been no more to you than any woman is to any man--the image of a dream. But, that being so beautiful, ought I to allow you to turn it to ruin? Shall I let you go down in savagery? Ah, if I thought I were relinquishing you to that, this would be a heavy day for me!" "Can you fancy what all this means to me?" he broke out hoarsely. "Yes, I can fancy. And what for me? So much my feeling for you has been--oh, call it what you like--admiration, affection, maternal tenderness--I do not know what--but so much have I wished, so much have I planned for your future in return for what you have given me--ah, I do not dare tell you. I could not dare come here if I did not know that I was never to see or speak to you again. It tears my heart from my bosom that I must say these things to you. I have risked all my honor in your hands. Is there no reward for that? Is my recompense to be only your assertion that I torment you, that I torture you? What! Is there no torture for me as well? The thought that I have done this covertly, secretly--what do you think that costs me?" "Your secret is absolutely safe with me, Theodosia. No, it is not a secret! We have sworn that neither of us would lay a secret upon the other. I swear that to you once more." "And yet you upbraid me when I say I cannot give you up to any fate but that of happiness and success--oh, not with me, for that is beyond us two--it is past forever. But happiness----" "There are some words that burn deep," he said slowly. "I know that I was not made for happiness." "Does a woman's wish mean nothing to you? Have I no appeal for you?" Something like a sob was torn from his bosom. "You can speak thus with me?" he said huskily. "If you cannot leave me happiness, can you not at least leave me partial peace of mind?" She stood slightly swaying, silent. "And you say you will not relinquish me, you will not let me go to that fate which surely is mine? You say you will not let me be savage? I say I am too nearly savage now. Let me go--let me go yonder into the wilderness, where I may be a gentleman!" He saw her movement as she turned, heard her sigh. "Sometimes," she said, "I have thought it worth a woman's life thrown away that a strong man may succeed. Failure and sacrifice a woman may offer--not much more. But it is as my father told me!" "He told you what?" "That only chivalry would ever make you forget your duty--that you never could be approached through your weakness, but only through your strength, through your honor. I cannot approach you through your strength, and I would not approach you through your weakness, even if I could. No! Wait. Perhaps some day it will all be made clear for both of us, so that we may understand. Yes, this is torture for us both!" He heard the soft rustle of her gown, her light footfall as she passed; and once more he was alone. CHAPTER XI THE TAMING OF PATRICK GASS "Shannon, go get the men!" It was midnight. For more than an hour Meriwether Lewis had sat, his head drooped, in silence. "We are going to start?" Shannon's face lightened eagerly. "We'll be off at sunup?" "Before that. Get the men--we'll start now! I'll meet you at the wharf." Eager enough, Shannon hastened away on his midnight errand. Within an hour every man of the little party was at the water front, ready for departure. They found their leader walking up and down, his head bent, his hands behind him. It was short work enough, the completion of such plans as remained unfinished. The great keel-boat lay completed and equipped at the wharf. The men lost little time in stowing such casks and bales as remained unshipped. Shannon stepped to his chief. "All's aboard, sir," said he. "Shall we cast off?" Without a word Lewis nodded and made his way to his place in the boat. In the darkness, without a shout or a cheer to mark its passing, the expedition was launched on its long journey. Slowly the boat passed along the waterfront of Pittsburgh town. Here rose gauntly, in the glare of torch or camp fire, the mast of some half-built schooner. Houseboats were drawn up or anchored alongshore, long pirogues lay moored or beached, or now and again a giant broadhorn, already partially loaded with household goods, common carrier for that human flood passing down the great waterway, stood out blacker than the shadows in which it lay. Here and there camp fires flickered, each the center of a ribald group of the hardy rivermen. Through the night came sounds of roistering, songs, shouts. Arrested, pent, dammed up, the lusty life of that great waterway leading into the West and South scarce took time for sleep. The boat slipped on down, now crossing a shaft of light flung on the water from some lamp or fire, now blending with the ghostlike shadows which lay in the moonless night. It passed out of the town itself, and edged into the shade of the forest that swept continuously for so many leagues on ahead. "Hello, there!" called a voice through the darkness, after a time. "Who goes there?" The splash of a sweep had attracted the attention of someone on shore. The light of a camp fire showed. Every one in the boat looked at the leader, but none vouchsafed a reply to the hail. "Ahoy there, the boat!" insisted the same voice. "Shall I fire on yez to make yez answer a civil question? Come ashore wance--I can lick the best of yez in three minutes, or me name's not Patrick Gass!" The captain of the boat turned slowly in his seat, casting a glance over his silent crew. "Set in!" said he, sharply and shortly. Without a word they obeyed, and with oar and steering-sweep the great craft slowly swung inshore. Lewis stepped from the boat, and, not waiting to see whether he was followed--as he was by all of his men--strode on up the bank into the circle of light made by the camp fire. About the fire lay a dozen or more men of the hardest of the river type, which was saying quite enough; for of all the lawless and desperate characters of the frontier, none have ever surpassed in reckless audacity and truculence the men of the old boat trade of the Ohio and the Mississippi. These fellows lay idly looking at Lewis as he entered the light, not troubling to accost him. "Who hailed us?" demanded the latter shortly. "Begorrah, 'twas me," said a short, strongly built man, stepping forward from the other side of the fire. Clad in loose shirt and trousers, like most of his comrades, he showed a powerful man, a shock of reddish hair falling over his eyes, a bull-like neck rising above his open shirt in such fashion that the size of his shoulder muscles might easily be seen. "'Twas me hailed yez, and what of it?" "That is what I came ashore to learn," said Meriwether Lewis. "We are about our business. What concern is that of yours? I am here to learn." "Yez can learn, if ye're so anxious," replied the other. "'Tis me have got three drinks of Monongahaly in me that says I can whip you or anny man of your boat. And if that aint cause for ye to come ashore, 'tis no fighting man ye are, an' I'll say that to your face!" It was the accepted fashion of challenge known anywhere along two thousand miles of waterway at that time, in a country where physical prowess and readiness to fight were the sole tests of distinction. Woe to the man who evaded such an issue, once it was offered to him! The speaker had stepped close to Lewis--so close that the latter did not need to advance a foot. Instead, he held his ground, and the challenger, accepting this as a sign of willingness for battle, rushed at him, with the evident intent of a rough-and-tumble grapple after the fashion of his kind. To his surprise, he was held off by the leveled forearm of his opponent, rigid as a bar against his throat. At this rebuff he roared like a bull, and breaking back rushed in once more, his giant arms flailing. Lewis swung back half a step, and then, so quickly that none saw the blow, but only its result was visible, he shifted on his feet, leaned into his thrust, and smote the joyous challenger so fell a stroke in the throat as laid him quivering and helpless. The brief fight was ended all too soon to suit the wishes of the spectators, used to more prolonged and bloodier encounters. A sort of gasp, a half roar of surprise and anger, came from the group upon the ground. Some of the party rose to their feet menacingly. They met the silent front of the boat party, the clicking of whose well-oiled rifle-locks offered the most serious of warnings. The sudden appearance of these visitors, so silent and so prompt--the swift act of their leader, without threat, without warning--the instant readiness of the others to back their leader's initiative--caught every one of these rude fighting men in the sudden grip of surprise. They hesitated. "I am no fighting man," said Meriwether Lewis, turning to them; "yet neither may I be insulted by any lout who chooses to call me ashore to thrash him. Do you think that an officer of the army has no better business than that? Who are you that would stop us?" The group fell back muttering, lacking concerted action. What might have occurred in case they had reached their arms was prevented by the action of the party of the first part in this _rencontre_--of the second part, perhaps, he might better have been called. The fallen warrior sat up, rubbing his throat; he struggled to his knees, and at length stood. There was something of rude river chivalry about him, after all. "An officer, did ye say?" said he. "Oh, wirra! What have I done now, and me a soldier! But ye done it fair! And ye niver wance gouged me nor jumped on me whin I was down! Begorrah, I felt both me eyes to see if they was in! Ye done it fair, and ye're an officer and a gintleman, whoever ye be. I'd like to shake hands with ye!" "I am not shaking hands with ruffians who insult travelers," Captain Lewis sternly rejoined; but he saw the crestfallen look which swept over the strong face of the other. "There, man," said he, "since you seem to mean well!" He shook hands with his opponent, who, stung by the rebuke, now began to sniffle. "Sor," said he, "I am no ruffian. I am a soldier meself, and on me way to join me company at Kaskasky, down below. Me time was out awhile back, and I came East to the States to have a bit av a fling before I enlisted again. Now, what money I haven't give to me parents I've spint like a man. I have had me fling for awhile, and I'm goin' back to sign on again. Sor, I am a sergeant and a good wan, though I do say it. Me record is clean. I am Patrick Gass, first sergeant of the Tinth Dragoons, the same now stationed at Kaskasky. Though ye are not in uniform, I know well enough ye are an officer. Sor, I ask yer pardon--'twas only the whisky made me feel sportin' like at the time, do ye mind?" "Gass, Patrick Gass, you said?" "Yis, sor, of the Tinth. Barrin' me love for fightin' I am a good soldier. There are stripes on me sleeves be rights, but me old coat's hangin' in the barracks down below." Lewis stood looking curiously at the man before him, the power of whose grip he had felt in his own. He cast an eye over his erect figure, his easy and natural dropping into the position of a soldier. "You say the Tenth?" said he briefly. "You have been with the colors? Look here, my man, do you want to serve?" "I am going right back to Kaskasky for it, sor." "Why not enlist with us? I need men. We are off for the West, up the Missouri--for a long trip, like enough. You seem a well-built man, and you have seen service. I know men when I see them. I want men of courage and good temper. Will you go?" "I could not say, sor. I would have to ask leave at Kaskasky. I gave me word I'd come back after I'd had me fling here in the East, ye see." "I'll take care of that. I have full authority to recruit among enlisted men." "Excuse me, sor, ye are sayin' ye are goin' up the Missouri? Then I know yez--yez are the Captain Lewis that has been buildin' the big boat the last two months up at the yards--Captain Lewis from Washington." "Yes, and from the Ohio country before then--and Kentucky, too. I am to join Captain Clark at the Point of Rocks on the Ohio. I need another oar. Come, my man, we are on our way. Two minutes ought to be enough for you to decide." "I'll need not the half of two!" rejoined Patrick Gass promptly. "Give me leave of my captain, and I am with yez! There is nothin' in the world I'd liever see than the great plains and the buffalo. 'Tis fond of travel I am, and I'd like to see the ind of the world before I die." "You will come as near seeing the end of it with us as anywhere else I know," rejoined Lewis quietly. "Get your war-bag and come aboard." In this curious fashion Patrick Gass of the army--later one of the journalists of the expedition, and always one of its most faithful and efficient members--signed his name on the rolls of the Lewis and Clark expedition. There was not one of the frontiersmen in the boat who had any comment to make upon any phase of the transaction; indeed, it seemed much in the day's work to them. But from that instant every man in the boat knew he had a leader who could be depended upon for prompt and efficient action in any emergency; and from that moment, also, their leader knew he could depend on his men. "I have nothing to complain of," said Patrick Gass, addressing his new friends impartially, as he shifted his belongings to suit him and took his place at a rowing seat. "I have nothing to complain of. I've been sayin' I would like to have one more rale fight before I enlisted--the army is too tame for a fellow of rale spirit. None o' thim at the camp yonder, where I was two days, would take it on with me after the first day. I was fair longin' for something to interest me--and be jabers, I found it! Now I am continted to ind me vacation and come back to the monothony of business life." The boat advanced steadily enough thereafter throughout the night. They pulled ashore at dawn, and, after the fashion of experienced travelers, were soon about the business of the morning meal. The leader of the party drew apart for the morning plunge which was his custom. Cover lacking on the bare bar where they had landed, he was not fully out of sight when at length, freshened by his plunge, he stood drying himself for dressing. Unconsciously, his arm extended, he looked for all the world the very statue of the young Apoxyomenos of the Vatican--the finest figure of a man that the art of antiquity has handed down to us. As that smiling youth out of the past stood, scraper in hand, drying himself after the games, so now stood this young American, type of a new race, splendid as the Greeks themselves in the immortal beauty of life. His white body shining in the sun, every rolling muscle plainly visible--even that rare muscle over the hip beloved of the ancients, but now forgotten of sculptors, because rarely seen on a man today--so comely was he, so like a god in his clean youth, that Patrick Gass, unhampered by backwardness himself, turned to his new companions, whom already he addressed each by his first name. "George," said he to young Shannon, "George, saw ye ever the like of yon? What a man! Lave I had knowed he could strip like yon, niver would I have taken the chance I did last night. 'Tis wonder he didn't kill me--in which case I'd niver have had me job. The Lord loves us Irish, anny way you fix it!" CHAPTER XII CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARK "Will!" "Merne!" The two young men gripped hands as the great bateau swung inshore at the Point of Rocks on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. They needed not to do more, these two. The face of each told the other what he felt. Their mutual devotion, their generosity and unselfishness, their unflagging unity of purpose, their perfect manly comradeship--what wonder so many have called the story of these two more romantic than romance itself? "It has been long since we met, Will," said Meriwether Lewis. "I have been eating my heart out up at Pittsburgh. I got your letter, and glad enough I was to have it. I had been fearing that I would have to go on alone. Now I feel as if we already had succeeded. I cannot tell you--but I don't need to try." "And you, Merne," rejoined William Clark--Captain William Clark, if you please, border fighter, leader of men, one of a family of leaders of men, tall, gaunt, red-headed, blue-eyed, smiling, himself a splendid figure of a man--"you, Merne, are a great man now, famous there in Washington! Mr. Jefferson's right-hand man--we hear of you often across the mountains. I have been waiting for you here, as anxious as yourself." "The water is low," complained Lewis, "and a thousand things have delayed us. Are you ready to start?" "In ten minutes--in five minutes. I will have my boy York go up and get my rifle and my bags." "Your brother, General Clark, how is he?" William Clark shrugged with a smile which had half as much sorrow as mirth in it. "The truth is, Merne, the general's heart is broken. He thinks that his country has forgotten him." "Forgotten him? From Detroit to New Orleans--we owe it all to George Rogers Clark. It was he who opened the river from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. He'll not need, now, to be an ally of France again. Once more a member of your family will be in at the finding of a vast new country!" "Merne, I've sold my farm. I got ten thousand dollars for my place--and so I am off with you, not with much of it left in my pockets, but with a clean bill and a good conscience, and some of the family debts paid. I care not how far we go, or when we come back. I thank Mr. Jefferson for taking me on with you. 'Tis the gladdest time in all my life!" "We are share and share alike, Will," said his friend Lewis, soberly. "Tell me, can we get beyond the Mississippi this fall, do you think?" "Doubtful," said Clark. "The Spanish of the valley are not very well reconciled to this Louisiana sale, and neither are the French. They have been holding all that country in partnership, each people afraid of the other, and both showing their teeth to us. But I hear the commission is doing well at St. Louis, and I presume the transfer will be made this fall or winter. After that they cannot stop us from going on. Tell me, have you heard anything of Colonel Burr's plan? There have come new rumors of the old attempt to separate the West from the government at Washington, and he is said to have agents scattered from St. Louis to New Orleans." He did not note the sudden flush on his friend's face--indeed, gave him no time to answer, but went on, absorbed in his own executive details. "What sort of men have you in your party, Merne?" "Only good ones, I think. Young Shannon and an army sergeant by the name of Gass, Patrick Gass--they should be very good men. I brought on Collins from Maryland and Pete Weiser from Pennsylvania, also good stuff, I think. McNeal, Potts, Gibson--I got those around Carlisle. We need more men." "I have picked out a few here," said Clark. "You know Kentucky breeds explorers. I have a good blacksmith, Shields, and Bill Bratton is another blacksmith--either can tinker a gun if need be. Then I have John Coalter, an active, strapping chap, and the two Fields boys, whom I know to be good men; and Charlie Floyd, Nate Pryor, and a couple of others--Warner and Whitehouse. We should get the rest at the forts around St. Louis. I want to take my boy York along--a negro is always good-natured under hardship, and a laugh now and then will not hurt any of us." Lewis nodded assent. "Your judgment of men is as good as mine, Will. But come, it is September, and the leaves are falling. All my men have the fall hunt in their blood--they will start for any place at any moment. Let us move. Suppose you take the boat on down, and let me go across, horseback, to Kaskaskia. I have some business there, and I will try for a few more recruits. We must have fifty men." "Nothing shall stop us, Merne, and we cannot start too soon. I want to see fresh grass every night for a year. But you--how can you be content to punish yourself for so long? For me, I am half Indian; but I expected to have heard long ago that you were married and settled down as a Virginia squire, raising tobacco and negroes, like anyone else. Tell me, how about that old affair of which you once used to confide to me when we were soldiering together here, years back? 'Twas a fair New York maid, was it not? From what you said I fancied her quite without comparison, in your estimate, at least. Yet here you are, vagabonding out into a country where you may be gone for years--or never come back at all, for all we know. Have a care, man--pretty girls do not wait!" As he spoke, so strange a look passed over his friend's face that William Clark swiftly put out a hand. "What is it, Merne? Pardon me! Did she--not wait?" His companion looked at him gravely. "She married, something like three years ago. She is the wife of Mr. Alston, a wealthy planter of the Carolinas, a friend of her father and a man of station. A good marriage for her--for him--for both." The sadness of his face spoke more than his words to his warmest friend, and left them both silent for a time. William Clark ceased breaking bark between his fingers and flipping away the pieces. "Well, in my own case," said he at length, "I have no ties to cut. 'Tis as well--we shall have no faces of women to trouble us on our trails out yonder. They don't belong there, Merne--the ways of the trappers are best. But we must not talk too much of this," he added. "I'll see you yet well settled down as a Virginia squire--your white hair hanging down on your shoulders and a score of grandchildren about your knees to hamper you." William Clark meant well--his friend knew that; so now he smiled, or tried to smile. "Merne," the red-headed one went on, throwing an arm across his friend's shoulders, "pass over this affair--cut it out of your heart. Believe me, believe me, the friendship of men is the only one that lasts. We two have eaten from the same pannikin, slept under the same bear-robe before now--we still may do so. And look at the adventures before us!" "You are a boy, Will," said Meriwether Lewis, actually smiling now, "and I am glad you are and always will be; because, Will, I never was a boy--I was born old. But now," he added sharply, as he rose, "a pleasant journey to us both--and the longer the better!" CHAPTER XIII UNDER THREE FLAGS The day was but beginning for the young American republic. All the air was vibrant with the passion of youth and romance. Yonder in the West there might be fame and fortune for any man with courage to adventure. The world had not yet settled down to inexorable grooves of life, from which no human soul might fight its way out save at cost of sweetness and content and hope. The chance of one man might still equal that of another--yonder, in that vast new world along the Mississippi, beyond the Mississippi, more than a hundred years ago. Into that world there now pressed a flowing, seething, restless mass, a new population seeking new avenues of hope and life, of adventure and opportunity. Riflemen, axmen, fighting men, riding men, boatmen, plowmen--they made ever out and on, laughing the Cossack laugh at the mere thought of any man or thing withstanding them. Over this new world, alert, restless, full of Homeric youth, full of the lust of life and adventure, floated three flags. The old war of France and Spain still smoldered along the great waterway into the South. The flag of Great Britain had withdrawn itself to the North. The flag of our republic had not yet advanced. Those who made the Western population at that time cared little enough about flags or treaty rights. They concerned themselves rather with possession. Let any who liked observe the laws. The strong made their own laws from day to day, and wrote them in one general codex of adventure and full-blooded, roistering life. The world was young. Buy land? No, why buy it, when taking it was so much more simple and delightful? Based on this general lust of conquest, this Saxon zeal for new territories, must have been that inspiration of Thomas Jefferson in his venture of the far Northwest. He saw there the splendid vision of his ideal republic. He saw there a citizenry no longer riotous and roistering, not yet frenzied or hysterical, but strong, sober, and constant. His was a glorious vision. Would God we had fully realized his dream! There were three flags afloat here or there in the Western country then, and none knew what land rightly belonged under any of the three. Indeed, over the heart of that region now floated all the three banners at the same time--that of Spain, passing but still proud, for a generation actual governor if not actual owner of all the country beyond the Mississippi, so far as it had any government at all; that of France, owner of the one great seaport, New Orleans, settler of the valley for a generation; and that of the new republic only just arriving into the respect of men either of the East or the West--a republic which had till recently exacted respect chiefly through the stark deadliness of its fighting and marching men. It was a splendid game in which these two boys, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark--they scarcely were more than boys--now were entering. And with the superb unconsciousness and self-trust of youth, they played it with dash and confidence, never doubting their success. The prediction of William Clark none the less came true. In this matter of flags, autocratic Spain was not disposed to yield. De Lassus, Spanish commandant for so many years, would not let the young travelers go beyond St. Louis, even so far as Charette. He must be sure that his country--which, by right or not, he had ruled so long--had not only been sold by Spain to France, but that the cession had been duly confirmed; and, furthermore, he must be sure that the cession by France to the United States had also been concluded formally. Traders and trappers had been passing through from the plains country, yes--but this was a different matter. Here was a flotilla under a third flag--it must not pass. Spanish official dignity was not thus to be shaken, not to be hurried. All must wait until the formalities had been concluded. This delay meant the loss of the entire winter. The two young leaders of the expedition were obliged to make the best of it they could. Clark formed an encampment in the timbered country across the Mississippi from St. Louis, and soon had his men comfortably ensconced in cabins of their own building. Meanwhile he picked up more men around the adjacent military posts--Ordway and Howard and Frazer of the New England regiment; Cruzatte, Labiche, Lajeunesse, Drouillard and other voyageurs for watermen. They made a hardy and efficient band. Upon Captain Lewis devolved most of the scientific work of the expedition. It was necessary for him to spend much time in St. Louis, to complete his store of instruments, to extend his own studies in scientific matters. Perhaps, after all, the success of the expedition was furthered by this delay upon the border. Twenty-nine men they had on the expedition rolls by spring--forty-five in all, counting assistants who were not officially enrolled. Their equipment for the entire journey out and back, of more than two years in duration, was to cost them not more than twenty-five hundred dollars. A tiny army, a meager equipment, for the taking of the richest empire of the world! But now this army of a score and a half of men was to witness the lowering before it of two of the greatest flags then known to the world. It already had seen the retirement of that of Great Britain. The wedge which Burr and Merry and Yrujo had so dreaded was now about to be driven home. The country must split apart--Great Britain must fall back to the North--these other powers, France and Spain, must make way to the South and West. The army of the new republic, under two loyal boys for leaders, pressed forward, not with drums or banners, not with the roll of kettledrums, not with the pride and circumstance of glorious war. The soldiers of its ranks had not even a uniform--they were clad in buckskin and linsey, leather and fur. They had no trained fashion of march, yet stood shoulder and shoulder together well enough. They were not drilled into the perfection of trained soldiers, perhaps, but each could use his rifle, and knew how far was one hundred yards. The boats were coming down with furs from the great West--from the Omahas, the Kaws, the Osages. Keel boats came up from the lower river, mastering a thousand miles and more of that heavy flood to bring back news from New Orleans. Broadhorns and keel-boats and sailboats and river pirogues passed down. The strange, colorful life of the little capital of the West went on eagerly. St. Louis was happy; Detroit was glum--the fur trade had been split in half. Great Britain had lost--the furs now went out down the Mississippi instead of down the St. Lawrence. A world was in the making and remaking; and over that disturbed and divided world there still floated the three rival flags. Five days before Christmas of 1803, the flag of France fluttered down in the old city of New Orleans. They had dreaded the fleet of Great Britain at New Orleans--had hoped for the fleet of France. They got a fleet of Americans in flatboats--rude men with long rifles and leathern garments, who came under paddle and oar, and not under sail. Laussat was the last French commandant in the valley. De Lassus, the Spaniard, holding onto his dignity up the Missouri River beyond St. Louis, still clung to the sovereignty that Spain had deserted. And across the river, in a little row of log cabins, lay the new army with the new flag--an army of twenty-nine men, backed by twenty-five hundred dollars of a nation's hoarded war gold! It was a time for hope or for despair--a time for success or failure--a time for loyalty or for treason. And that army of twenty-nine men in buckskin altered the map of the world, the history of a vast continent. While Meriwether Lewis gravely went about his scientific studies, and William Clark merrily went about his dancing with the gay St. Louis belles, when not engaged in drilling his men beyond the river, the winter passed. Spring came. The ice ceased to run in the river, the geese honked northward in millions, the grass showed green betimes. The men in Clark's encampment were almost mutinous with lust for travel. But still the authorities had not completed their formalities; still the flag of Spain floated over the crossbars of the gate of the stone fortress, last stronghold of Spain in the valley of our great river. March passed, and April. Not until the 9th of May, in the year 1804, were matters concluded to suit the punctilio of France and Spain alike. Now came the assured word that the republic of the United States intended to stand on the Louisiana purchase, Constitution or no Constitution--that the government purposed to take over the land which it had bought. On this point Mr. Jefferson was firm. De Lassus yielded now. On that May morning the soldiers of Spain manning the fortifications of the old post stood at parade when the drums of the Americans were heard. One company of troops, under command of Captain Stoddard, represented our army of occupation. Our real army of invasion was that in buckskin and linsey and leather--twenty-nine men; whose captain, Meriwether Lewis, was to be our official representative at the ceremony of transfer. De Lassus choked with emotion as he handed over the keys and the archives which so long had been under his charge. "Sir," said he, addressing the commander, "I speak for France as well as for Spain. I hand over to you the title from France, as I hand over to you the rule from Spain. Henceforth both are for you. I salute you, gentlemen!" With the ruffle of the few American drums the transfer was gravely acknowledged. The flag of Spain slowly dropped from the staff where it had floated. That of France took its place, and for one day floated by courtesy over old St. Louis. On the morrow arose a strange new flag--the flag of the United States. It was supported by one company of regulars and by the little army of joint command--the army of Lewis and Clark--twenty-nine enlisted men in leather! "Time now, at last!" said William Clark to his friend. "Time for us to say farewell! Boats--three of them--are waiting, and my men are itching to see the buffalo plains. What is the latest news in the village, Merne?" he added. "I've not been across there for two weeks." "News enough," said Meriwether Lewis gravely. "I just have word of the arrival in town of none other than Colonel Aaron Burr." "The Vice-President of the United States! What does he here? Tell me, is he bound down the river? Is there anything in all this talk I have heard about Colonel Burr? Is he alone?" "No. I wish he were alone. Will, she is with him--his daughter, Mrs. Alston!" "Well, what of that? Oh, I know--I know, but why should you meet?" "How can we help meeting here in the society of this little town, whose people are like one family? They have been invited by Mr. Chouteau to come to his house--I also am a guest there. Will, what shall I do? It torments me!" "Oh, tut, tut!" said light-hearted William Clark. "What shall you do? Why, in the first place, pull the frown from your face, Merne. Now, this young lady forsakes her husband, travels--with her father, to be sure, but none the less she travels--along the same trail taken by a certain young man down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, here to St. Louis. Should you call that a torment? Not I! I should flatter myself over it. A torment? Should you call the flowers that change in sweetness as we ride along through the wood a torment? Let them beware of me! I am no respecter of fortune when it comes to a pretty face, my friend. It is mine if it is here, and if I may kiss it--don't rebuke me, Merne! I am full of the joy of life. Woman--the nearest woman--to call her a torment! And you a soldier! I don't blame them. Torment you? Yes, they will, so long as you allow it. Then don't allow it!" "You preach very well, Will. Of course, I know you don't practise what you preach--who does?" "Well, perhaps! But, seriously, why take life so hard, Merne? Why don't you relax--why don't you swim with the current for a time? We live but once. Tell me, do you think there was but one woman made for each of us men in all the world? My faith, if that be true, I have had more than my share, I fear, as I have passed along! But even when it comes to marrying and settling down to hoeing an acre of corn-land and raising a shoat or two for the family--tell me, Merne, what woman does a man marry? Doesn't he marry the one at hand--the one that is ready and waiting? Do you think fortune would always place the one woman in the world ready for the one man at the one time, just when the hoeing and the shoat-raising was to the fore? It is absurd, man! Nature dares not take such chances--and does not." Lewis did not answer his friend's jesting argument. "Listen, Merne," Clark went on. "The memory of a kiss is better than the memory of a tear. No, listen, Merne! The print of a kiss is sweet as water of a spring when you are athirst. And the spring shows none the worse for the taste of heaven it gave you. Lips and water alike--they tell no tales. They are goods the gods gave us as part of life. But the great thirst--the great thirst of a man for power, for deeds, for danger, for adventure, for accomplishment--ah, that is ours, and that is harder to slake, I am thinking! A man's deeds are his life. They tell the tale." "His deeds! Yes, you are right, they do, indeed, tell the tale. Let us hope the reckoning will stand clean at last." "Merne, you are a soldier, not a preacher." "Will, you are neither--you are only a boy!" CHAPTER XIV THE RENT IN THE ARMOR Aaron Burr came to St. Louis in the spring of 1804 as much in desperation as with definite plans. Matters were going none too well for him. All the time he was getting advices from the lower country, where lay the center of his own audacious plans; but the thought of the people was directed westward, up the Missouri. The fame of the Lewis and Clark expedition now had gathered volume. Constitution or no Constitution, the purchase of Louisiana had been completed, the transfer had been formally made. The American wedge was driving on through. If ever he was to do anything for his own enterprise, it was now high time. Burr's was a mind to see to the core of any problem in statecraft. He knew what this sudden access of interest in the West indicated, so far as his plans were concerned. It must be stopped--else it would be too late for any dream of Aaron Burr for an empire of his own. His resources were dwindling. He needed funds for the many secret agents in his employ--needed yet more funds for the purchase and support of his lands in the South. And the minister of Great Britain had given plain warning that unless this expedition up the Missouri could be stopped, no further aid need be expected from him. Little by little Burr saw hope slip away from him. True, Captain Lewis was still detained by his duties among the Osage Indians, a little way out from the city; but the main expedition had actually started. William Clark, occupied with the final details, did not finally get his party under way until five days after the formal transfer of the new territory of Louisiana to our flag, and three days after Burr's arrival. At last, however, on the 14th of May, the three boats had left St. Louis wharf, with their full complement of men and the last of the supplies aboard for the great voyage. Captain Clark, ever light-hearted and careless of his spelling-book, if not of his rifle, says it was "a jentle brease" which aided the oars and the square-sail as they started up the river. Assuredly the bark of Aaron Burr was sailing under no propitious following wind. Distracted, he paced up and down his apartment in the home where he was a guest, preoccupied, absorbed, almost ready to despair. He spoke but little, but time and again he cast an estimating eye upon the young woman who accompanied him. "You are ill, Theodosia!" he exclaimed at last "Come, come, my daughter, this will not do! Have you no arts of the toilet that can overcome the story of your megrims? Shall I get you some sort of bitter herbs? You need your brightest face, your best apparel now. These folk of St. Louis must see us at our best, my dear, our very best. Besides----" He needed not to complete the sentence. Theodosia Alston knew well enough what was in her father's mind--knew well enough why they both were here. It was because she would not have come alone. And she knew that the burden of the work they had at heart must once more lie upon her shoulders. She once more must see Captain Meriwether Lewis--and it must be soon, if ever. He was reported as being ready to leave town at once upon his return from the Osage Indians. But courtesy did not fail the young Virginian, and at last--although with dread in his own heart--within an hour of his actual departure, he called to pay his compliments to guests so distinguished as these, to a man so high in rank under the government which he himself served. He found it necessary to apologize for his garb, suited rather to the trail than to the drawing-room. He stood in the hall of the Chouteau home, a picture of the soldier of the frontier rather than the courtier of the capital. His three-cornered military hat, his blue uniform coat--these made the sole formality of his attire, for his feet were moccasined, his limbs were clad in tight-fitting buckskins, and his shirt was of rough linsey, suitable for the work ahead. "I ask your pardon, Colonel Burr," said he, "for coming to you as I am, but the moment for my start is now directly at hand. I could not leave without coming to present my duties to you and Mrs. Alston. Indeed, I have done so at once upon my return to town. I pray you carry back to Mr. Jefferson my sincerest compliments. Say to him, if you will, that we are setting forth with high hopes of success." Formal, cold, polite--it was the one wish of Captain Lewis to end this interview as soon as he might, and to leave all sleeping dogs lying as they were. But Aaron Burr planned otherwise. His low, deep voice was never more persuasive, his dark eye never more compelling--nor was his bold heart ever more in trepidation than now, as he made excuse for delay--delay--delay. "My daughter, Mrs. Alston, will join us presently," he said. "So you are ready, Captain Lewis?" "We are quite prepared, Colonel Burr. My men are on ahead two days' journey, camped at St. Charles, and waiting for me to overtake them. Dr. Saugrain, Mr. Chouteau, Mr. Labadie--one or two others of the gentlemen in the city--are so kind as to offer me a convoy of honor so far as St. Charles. We are quite flattered. So now we start--they are waiting for me at the wharf now, and I must go. All bridges are burned behind me!" "_All bridges burned?_" The deep voice of Aaron Burr almost trembled. His keen eye searched the face of the young man before him. "Every one," replied the young Virginian. "I do not know how or when I may return. Perhaps Mr. Clark or myself may come back by sea--should we ever reach the sea. We can only trust to Providence." He was bowing and extending his own hand in farewell, with polite excuses as to his haste--relieved that his last ordeal had been spared him. He turned, as he felt rather than heard the approach of another, whose coming caused his heart almost to stop beating--the woman dreaded and demanded by every fiber of his being. "Oh, not so fast, not so fast!" laughed Theodosia Alston as she came into the room, offering her hand. "I heard you talking, and have been hurrying to pretty myself up for Captain Lewis. What? Were you trying to run away without ever saying good-by to me? And how you are prettied up!" Her gaze, following her light speech, resolved itself into one of admiration. Theodosia Alston, as she looked, found him a goodly picture as he stood ready for the trail. "I was just going, yes," stammered Meriwether Lewis. "I had hoped----" But what he had hoped he did not say. "Why might we not walk down with you to the wharf, if you are so soon to go?" she demanded--her own self-control concealing any disappointment she may have felt at her cavalier reception. "An excellent idea!" said Aaron Burr, backing his daughter's hand, and trusting to her to have some plan. "A warrior must spend his last word with some woman, captain! Go you on ahead--I surrender my daughter to you, and I shall follow presently to bid you a last Godspeed. You said those other gentlemen were to join you there?" Meriwether Lewis found himself walking down the narrow street of the frontier settlement between the lines of hollyhocks and budding roses which fronted many of the little residences. It was spring, the air was soft. He was young. The woman at his side was very beautiful. So far as he could see they were alone. They passed along the street, turned, made their way down the rock-faced bluff to the water front; but still they were alone. All St. Louis was at the farther end of the wharf, waiting for a last look at the idol of the town. Theodosia sighed. "And so Captain Lewis is going to have his way as usual? And he was going--in spite of all--even without saying good-by to me!" "Yes, I would have preferred that." "Captain Lewis is mad. Look at that river! They say that when the boat started last week it took them an hour to make a quarter of a mile, when they struck into the Missouri. How many thousands of hours will it take to ascend to the mountains? How will you get your boats across the mountains? What cascades and rapids lie on ahead? Your men will mutiny and destroy you. You cannot succeed--you will fail!" "I thank you, madam!" "Oh, you must start now, I presume--in fact, you have started; but I want you to come back before your obstinacy has driven you too far." "Just what do you mean?" "Listen. You have given me no time, unkind as you are--not a moment--at an hour like this! In these unsettled times, who knows what may happen? In that very unsettlement lies the probable success of the plan which my father and I have put before you so often. We need you to help us. When are you going to come back to us, Merne?" As she spoke, they were approaching the long wharf along the water front, lined with rude craft which plied the rivers at that time--flatboats, keel-boats, pirogues, canoes--and, far off at the extremity of the line, the boat which Lewis and his friends were to take. A party of idlers and observers stood about it even now. The gaze of the young leader was fixed in that direction. He did not make any immediate sign that he had heard her speech. "I told Shannon, my aide, to meet me here," he said at last. "He was to fetch my long spyglass. There are certain little articles of my equipment over yonder in the wharf shed. Would you excuse me for just a moment?" He stooped at the low door and entered. But she followed him--followed after him unconsciously, without plan, feeling only that he must not go, that she could not let him away from her. She saw the light floating through the door fall on his dense hair, long, loosely bagged in its cue. She saw the quality of his strong figure, in all the fittings of a frontiersman, saw his stern face, his troubled eye, saw the unconscious strength which marked his every movement as he strode about, eager, as it seemed to her, only to be done with his last errands, and away on that trail which so long had beckoned to him. The strength of the man, the strength of his purpose--the sudden and full realization of both--this caught her like a tangible thing, and left her no more than the old, blind, unformed protest. He must not go! She could not let him go! But the words she had spoken had caught him, after all. He had been pondering--had been trying to set them aside as if unheard. "Coming back?" he began, and stopped short once more. They were now both within the shelter of the old building. "Yes, Merne!" she broke out suddenly. "When are you coming back to me, Merne?" He stood icy silent, motionless, for just a moment. It seemed to her as if he was made of stone. Then he spoke very slowly, deliberately. "Coming back to _you_? And you call me by that name? Only my mother, Mr. Jefferson and Will Clark ever did so." "Oh, stiff-necked man! It is so hard to be kind with you! And all I have ever done--every time I have followed you in this way, each time I have humiliated myself thus--it always was only in kindness for you!" He made no reply. "Fate ran against us, Merne," she went on tremblingly. "We have both accepted fate. But in a woman's heart are many mansions. Is there none in a man's--in yours--for me? Can't I ask a place in a good man's heart--an innocent, clean place? Oh, think not you have had all the unhappiness in your own heart! Is all the world's misery yours? I don't want you to go away, Merne, but if you do--if you must--won't you come back? Oh, won't you, Merne?" Her voice was trembling, her hand half raised, her eyes sought after him. She stood partly in shadow, the flare of light from the open door falling over her face. She might have been some saint of old in pictured guise; but she was a woman, alive, beautiful, delectable, alluring--especially now, with this tone in her voice, this strangely beseeching look in her eyes. Her hands were almost lifted to be held out to him. She stood almost inclined to him, wholly unconscious of her attitude, forgetting that her words were imploring, remembering only that he was going. He seemed not to hear her voice as he stood there, but somewhere as if out of some savage past, a voice did speak to him, saying that when a man is sore athirst, then a man may drink--that the well-spring would not miss the draft, and would tell no tale of it! He stood, as many another man has stood, and fought the fight many another man has fought--the fight between man the primitive and man the gentleman, chivalry contending with impulse, blood warring with breeding. [Illustration: "'Oh, Theo, what have I done?'"] "Yes!" so said the voice in his ear. "Why should the spring grudge a draft to a soul aflame with an undying thirst? Vows? What have vows to do with this? Duty? What is duty to a man perishing?--I know not what it was. I heard it. I felt it. Forgive me, it was not I myself! Oh, Theo, what have I done?" She could not speak, could not even sob. Neither horror nor resentment was possible for her, nor any protest, save the tears which welled silently, terribly. Unable longer to endure this, Meriwether Lewis turned to leave behind him his last hope of happiness, and to face alone what he now felt to be the impenetrable night of his own destiny. He never knew when his hands fell from Theodosia Alston's face, or when he turned away; but at last he felt himself walking, forcing his head upright, his face forward. He passed, a tall, proud man in his half-savage trappings--a man in full ownership of splendid physical powers; but as he walked his feet were lead, his heart was worse than lead. And though his face was turned away from her, he knew that always he would see what he had left--this picture of Theodosia weeping--this picture of a saint mocked, of an altar desecrated. She wept, and it was because of him! The dumb cry of his remorse, his despair, must have struck back to where she still stood, her hands on her bosom, staring at him as he passed: "Theo! Theo! What have I done? What have I done?" PART II CHAPTER I UNDER ONE FLAG What do you bring, oh, mighty river--and what tidings do you carry from the great mountains yonder in the unknown lands? In what region grew this great pine which swims with you to the sea? What fat lands reared this heavy trunk, which sinks at last, to be buried in the sands? What jewels lie under your flood? What rich minerals float impalpably in your tawny waters? Across what wide prairies did you come--among what hills--through what vast forests? How long, great river, was your journey, sufficient to afford so tremendous a gathering of the waters? A hundred years ago the great Missouri made no answer to these questions. It was open highway only for those who dared. The man who asked its secrets must read them for himself. What a time and place for adventure! What a time and place for men! From sea to sea, across an unknown, fabled mountain range, lay our wilderness, now swiftly trebled by a miracle in statecraft. The flag which floated over the last stockade of Spain, the furthest outpost of France, now was advancing step by step, inch by inch, up the giant flood of the Missouri, borne on the flagship of a flotilla consisting of one flatboat and two skiffs, carrying an army whose guns were one swivel piece and thirty rifles. Not without toil and danger was this enterprise to advance. When at length the last smoke of a settler's cabin had died away over the lowland forest, the great river began in earnest to exact its toll. Continually the boats, heavily laden as they were, ran upon shifting bars of sand, or made long détours to avoid some _chevaux de frise_ of white-headed snags sunk in the current with giant uptossing limbs. Floating trees came down resistlessly on the spring rise, demanding that all craft should beware of them; caving banks, in turn, warned the boats to keep off; and always the mad current of the stream, never relaxing in vehemence, laid on the laboring boats the added weight of its mountain of waters, gaining in volume for nearly three thousand miles. The square sail at times aided the great bateau when the wind came upstream, but no sail could serve for long on so tortuous a water. The great oars, twenty-two in all, did their work in lusty hands, hour after hour, but sometimes they could hardly hold the boats against the power of the June rise. The setting poles could not always find good bottom, but sometimes the men used these in the old keel boat fashion, traveling along the walking-boards on the sides of the craft, head down, bowed over the setting-poles--the same manner of locomotion that had conquered the Mississippi. When sail and oar and setting-pole proved unavailing, the men were out and overboard, running the banks with the cordelle. As they labored thus on the line, like so many yoked cattle, using each ounce of weight and straining muscle to hold the heavy boat against the current, snags would catch the line, stumps would foul it, trees growing close to the bank's edge would arrest it. Sometimes the great boat, swung sidewise in the current in spite of the last art of the steersmen, would tauten the line like a tense fiddle-string, flipping the men, like so many insects, from their footing, and casting them into the river, to emerge as best they might. Cruzatte, Labiche, Drouillard--all the French voyageurs--with the infinite French patience smiled and sweated their way through. The New Englanders grew grim; the Kentuckians fumed and swore. But little by little, inch by inch, creeping, creeping, paying the toll exacted, they went on day by day, leaving the old world behind them, morning by morning advancing farther into the new. The sun blistered them by day; clouds of pests tormented them by night; miasmatic lowlands threatened them both night and day. But they went on. The immensity of the river itself was an appalling thing; its bends swept miles long in giant arcs. But bend after bend they spanned, bar after bar they skirted, bank after bank they conquered--and went on. In the water as much as out of it, drenched, baked, gaunt, ragged, grim, they paid the toll. A month passed, and more. The hunters exulted that game was so easy to get, for they must depend in large part on the game killed by the way. At the mouth of the Kansas River, near where a great city one day was to stand, they halted on the twenty-sixth of June. Deer, turkeys, bear, geese, many "goslins," as quaint Will Clark called them, rewarded their quest. July came and well-nigh passed. They reached the mouth of the great Platte River, far out into the Indian country. Over this unmapped country ranged the Otoes, the Omahas, the Pawnees, the Kansas, the Osages, the Rees, the Sioux. This was the buffalo range where the tribes had fought immemorially. It was part of the mission of Captain Lewis's little army to carry peace among these warring tribes. The nature of the expedition was explained to their chiefs. At the great Council Bluffs many of the Otoes came and promised to lay down the hatchet and cease to make war against the Omahas. The Omahas, in turn, swore allegiance to the new flag. On ahead somewhere lay the powerful Sioux nation, doubt and dread of all the traders who had ever passed up the Missouri. Dorion, the interpreter, married among them, admitted that even he could not tell what the Sioux might do. The expedition struck camp at last, high up on the great river, in the country of the Yanktonnais. The Sioux long had marked its coming, and were ready for its landing. Their signal fires called in the villages to meet the boats of the white men. They came riding down in bands, whooping and shouting, painted and half naked, well armed--splendid savages, fearing no man, proud, capricious, blood-thirsty. They were curious as to the errand of these new men who came carrying a new flag--these men who could make the thunder speak. For now the heavy piece on the bow of the great barge spoke in no uncertain terms so that its echoes ran back along the river shores. No such boat, no such gun as this, had ever been seen in that country before. "Tell them to make a council, Dorion," said Lewis. "Take this officer's coat to their head man. Tell him that the Great Father sends it to him. Give him this hat with lace on it. Tell him that when we are ready we may come to their council to meet their chiefs. Say that only their real chiefs must come, for we will not treat with any but their head men. If they wish to see us soon, let them come to our village here." "You are chiefs!" said Dorion. "Have I not seen it? I will tell them so." But Dorion had been gone but a short time when he came hurrying back from the Indian village. "The runners say plenty buffalo close by," he reported. "The chief, she'll call the people to hunt the buffalo." William Clark turned to his companion. "You hear that, Merne?" said he. "Why should we not go also?" "Agreed!" said Meriwether Lewis. "But stay, I have a thought. We will go as they go and hunt as they do. To impress an Indian, beat him at his own game. You and I must ride this day, Will!" "Yes, and without saddles, too! Very well, I learned that of my brother, who learned it of the Indians themselves. And I know you and I both can shoot the bow as well as most Indians--that was part of our early education. I might better have been in school sometimes, when I was learning the bow." "Dorion," said Lewis to the interpreter, "go back to the village and tell their chief to send two bows with plenty of arrows. Tell them that we scorn to waste any powder on so small a game as the buffalo. On ahead are animals each one of which is as big as twenty buffalo--we keep our great gun for those. As for buffalo, we kill them as the Indians do, with the bow and with the spear. We shall want the stiffest bows, with sinewed backs. Our arms are very strong." Swift and wide spread the word among the Sioux that the white chiefs would run the buffalo with their own warriors. Exclamations of amusement, surprise, satisfaction, were heard. The white men should see how the Sioux could ride. But Weucha, the head man, sent a messenger with two bows and plenty of arrows--short, keen-pointed arrows, suitable for the buffalo hunt, when driven by the stiff bows of the Sioux. "Strip, Will," said Meriwether Lewis. "If we ride as savages, it must be in full keeping." They did strip to the waist, as the savages always did when running the buffalo--sternest of all savage sport or labor, and one of the boldest games ever played by man, red or white. Clad only in leggings and moccasins, their long hair tied in firm cues, when Weucha met them he exclaimed in admiration. The village turned out in wonder to see these two men whose skins were white, whose hair was not black, but some strange new color--one whose hair was red. The two young officers were not content with this. York, Captain Clark's servant, rolling his eyes, showing his white teeth, was ordered to strip up the sleeve of his shirt to show that his hide was neither red nor white, but black--another wonder in that land! "Now, York, you rascal," commanded William Clark, "do as I tell you!" "Yessah, massa Captain, I suttinly will!" "When I raise this flag, do you drop on the ground and knock your forehead three times. Groan loud--groan as if you had religion, York! Do you understand?" "Yassah, massa Captain!" York grinned his enjoyment; and when he had duly executed the maneuver, the Sioux greeted the white men with much acclamation. "I see that you are chiefs!" exclaimed Weucha. "You have many colors, and your medicine is strong. Take, then, these two horses of mine--they are good runners for buffalo--perhaps yours are not so fast." Thus Dorion interpreted. "Now," said Clark, "suppose I take the lance, Merne, and you handle the bow. I never have tried the trick, but I believe I can handle this tool." He picked up and shook in his hand the short lance, steel-tipped, which Weucha was carrying. The latter grinned and nodded his assent, handing the weapon to the red-haired leader. "Now we shall serve!" said Lewis an instant later; for they brought out two handsome horses, one coal-black, the other piebald, both mettlesome and high-strung. That the young men were riders they now proved, for they mounted alone, barebacked, and managed to control their mounts with nothing but the twisted hide rope about the lower jaw--the only bridle known among the tribes of the great plains. The crier now passed down the village street, marshaling all the riders for the chase. Weucha gave the signal to advance, himself riding at the head of the cavalcade, with the two white captains at his side--a picture such as any painter might have envied. Others of the expedition followed on as might be--Shannon, Gass, the two Fields boys, others of the better hunters of the Kentuckians. Even York, not to be denied, sneaked in at the rear. They all rode quietly at first, with no outcry, no sound save the steady tramp of the horses. Their course was laid back into the prairie for a mile or two before a halt was called. Then the chief disposed his forces. The herd was supposed to be not far away, beyond a low rim of hills. On this side the men were ranged in line. A blanket waved from a point visible to all was to be the signal for the charge. Dorion, also stripped to the waist, a kerchief bound about his head, carrying a short carbine against his thigh, now rode alongside. "He say Weucha show you how Sioux can ride," he interpreted. "Tell him it is good, Dorion," rejoined Lewis. "We will show him also that we can ride!" A shout came from the far edge of the restless ranks. A half-naked rider waved a blanket. With shrill shouts the entire line broke at top speed for the ridge. Neither of the two young Americans had ever engaged in the sport of running the buffalo; yet now the excitement of the scene caused both to forget all else. They urged on their horses, mingling with the savage riders. The buffalo had been feeding less than a quarter of a mile away; the wind was favorable, and they had not yet got scent of the approach; but now, as the line of horsemen broke across the crest, the herd streamed out and away from them--crude, huge, formless creatures, with shaggy heads held low, their vast bulk making them seem almost like prehistoric things. The dust of their going arose in a blinding cloud, the thunder of their hoofs left inaudible even the shrill cries of the riding warriors as they closed in. The chase passed outward into an open plain, which lay white in alkali. In a few moments the swift horses had carried the best of the riders deep into the dust-cloud which arose. Each man followed some chosen animal, doing his best to keep it in sight as the herd plowed onward in the biting dust. Here and there the vast, solid surface of a sea of rolling backs could be glimpsed; again an opening into it might be seen close at hand. It was bold work, and any who engaged in it took his chances. Lewis found his horse, the black runner that Weucha had given him, as swift as the best, and able to lay him promptly alongside his quarry. At a distance of a few feet he drew back the sinewy string of the tough Sioux bow, gripping his horse with his knees, swaying his body out to the bow, as he well knew how. The shaft, discharged at a distance of but half a dozen feet, sank home with a soft _zut_. The stricken animal swerved quickly toward him, but his wary horse leaped aside and went on. Such as the work had been, it was done for that buffalo at least, and Lewis knew that he had caught the trick. The black runner singled out another and yet another; and again and again Lewis shot--until at last, his arrows nearly exhausted, after two or three miles of mad speed, he pulled out of the herd and waited. In the white dust-cloud, lifted now and then, he could see naked forms swaying, bending forward, plying their weapons. Somewhere in the midst of it, out in the ruck of hoof and horn, his friend was riding, forgetting all else but the excitement of the chase. What if accident had befallen either of them? Lewis could not avoid asking himself that question. Now the riders edged through the herd, outward, around its flank--turned it, were crowding it back, milling and confused. Out of the dust emerged two figures, naked, leaning forward to the leaping of their horses. One was an Indian, his black locks flowing, his eyes gleaming, his hand flogging his horse as he rode. The other was a white man, his tall white body splashed with blood, his long red hair, broken from his cue, on his shoulders. The two were pursuing the same animal--a young bull, which thus far had kept his distance some fifty yards or so ahead. But as Lewis looked, both riders urged their horses to yet more speed. The piebald of William Clark, well ridden, sprang away in advance and laid him alongside of the quarry. Lewis himself saw the poised spear--saw it plunge--saw the buffalo stumble in its stride--and saw his companion pass on, whooping in exultation at Weucha, who came up an instant later, defeated, but grinning and offering his hand. Now came Dorion also, out of ammunition, yet not out of speech, excited, jabbering as usual. "Four nice cow I'll kill!" gabbled he. "I'll kill him four tam, bang, bang! Plenty meat for my lodge now. How many you'll shot, Captain?" he asked of Lewis. "Plenty--you will find them back there." Weucha, who came up after magnanimously shaking the hand of William Clark, peered with curiosity into Lewis's almost empty quiver. He smiled again, for that the white men had ridden well was obvious enough. He called a young man to him, showed him the arrow-mark, and sent him back to see how many of the dead buffalo showed arrows with similar marks. In time the messenger came back carrying a sheaf of arrows. Grinning, he held up the fingers of two hands. "Tell him that is nothing, Dorion," said Lewis. "We could have killed many more if we had wished. We see that the Sioux can ride. Now, let us see if they can talk at the council fire!" The two leaders hastened to their own encampment to remove all traces of the hunt. An hour later they emerged from their tents clad as officers of the army, each in cocked hat and full uniform, with sword at side. With the fall of the sun, the drums sounded in the Indian village. The criers passed along the street summoning the people to the feast, summoning also the chiefs to the council lodge. Here the head men of the village gathered, sitting about the little fire, the peace pipe resting on a forked stick before them, waiting for the arrival of the white chiefs--who could make the thunder come, who could make a strong chief of black skin beat his head upon the ground; and who, moreover, could ride stripped and strike the buffalo even as the Sioux. The white leaders were in no haste to show themselves. They demanded the full dignity of their station; but they came at last, their own drum beating as they marched at the head of their men, all of whom were in the uniform of the frontier. York, selected as standard-bearer, bore the flag at the head of the little band. Meriwether Lewis took it from him as they reached the door of the council lodge, and thrust the staff into the soil, so that it stood erect beside the lance and shield of Weucha, chief of the Yanktonnais. Then, leaving their own men on guard without, the two white chiefs stepped into the lodge, and, with not too much attention to the chiefs sitting and waiting for them, took their own places in the seat of honor. They removed their hats, shook free their hair--which had been loosened from the cues; and so, in dignified silence, not looking about them, they sat, their long locks spread out on their shoulders. Exclamations of excitement broke even from the dignified Sioux chiefs. Clearly the appearance and the conduct of the two officers had made a good impression. The circle eyed them with respect. At length Meriwether Lewis, holding in his hand the great peace pipe that he had brought, arose. "Weucha," said he, Dorion interpreting for him, "you are head man of the Yanktonnais. I offer you this pipe. Let us smoke. We are at peace. We are children of the Great Father, and I do not bring war. I have put a flag outside the lodge. It is your flag. You must keep it. Each night you must take it down, roll it up, and put it in a parfleche, so that it will not be torn or soiled. Whenever you have a great feast, or meet other peoples, let it fly at your door. It is because you are a chief that I give you this flag. I gave one to the Omahas, another to the Otoes. Let there be no more war between you. You are under one flag now. "I give you this medal, Weucha, this picture on white iron. See, it has the picture of the Great Father himself, my chief, who lives where the sun rises. I also give you this writing, where I have made my sign, and where the red-headed chief, my brother, has made his sign. Keep these things, so that any who come here may know that you are our friends, that you are the children of the Great Father. "Weucha, they told us that the Sioux were bad in heart, that you would say we could not go up the river. Our Great Father has sent us up the river, and we must go. Tomorrow our boats must be on their course. If the Great Father has such medicine as this I give you, do you think we could go back to him and say the Sioux would not let us pass? You have seen that we are not afraid, that we are chiefs--we can do what you can do. Can you do what we can? Can you make the thunder come? Is there any among you who has a black skin, like the man with us? Are any of your men able to strike the eye of a deer, the head of a grouse, at fifty paces with the rifle? All of my men can do that. "I give you these presents--these lace coats for your great men, these hats also, such as we wear, because you are our brothers, and are chiefs. A little powder, a few balls, I give you, because we think you want them. I give you a little tobacco for your pipes. If my words sound good in your ears, I will send a talking paper to the Great Father, and tell him that you are his children." Deep-throated exclamations of approval met this speech. Weucha took the pipe. He arose himself, a tall and powerful man, splendidly clad in savage fashion, and spoke as the born leader that he also was. He pledged the loyalty of the Sioux and the freedom of the river. "I give you the horse you rode this morning," said Weucha to Lewis, "the black runner. To you, red-haired chief, I give the white-and-black horse that you rode. It is well that chiefs like you should have good horses. "Tomorrow our people will go a little way with you up the river. We want you for our friends, for we know your medicine is strong. We know that when we show this flag to other tribes--to the Otoes, the Omahas, the Osages--they will fall on the ground and knock their heads on the ground, as the black man did when the red-headed chief raised it above him. "The Great Father has sent us two chiefs who are young but very wise. They can strike the buffalo. They can speak at the council. Weucha, the Yanktonnais, says that they may go on. We know you will not lose the trail. We know that you will come back. You are chiefs!" CHAPTER II THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER Late in the night the Yanktonnais drums still sounded, long after a dozen Sioux had spoken, and after the two white chieftains had arisen and left the council fire. The people of the village were feasting around half a hundred fires. The village was joyous, light-hearted, and free of care. The hunt had been successful. "Look at them, Will," said Meriwether Lewis, as they paused at the edge of the bluff and turned back for a last glimpse at the savage scene. "They are like children. I swear, I almost believe their lot in life is happier than our own!" "Tut, tut, Merne--moralizing again?" laughed William Clark, the light-hearted. "Come now, help me get my eelskin about my hair. We may need this red mane of mine further up the river. I trust to take it back home with me, after all, now that we seem safe to pass these Sioux without a fight. I am happy enough that our business today has come out so well. I am a bit tired, and an old bull gave me a smash with his horn this morning; so I am ready to turn into my blankets. Are all the men on the roll tonight?" "Sergeant Ordway reports Shannon still absent. It seems he went out on the hunt this morning, and has not yet come back. I'll wait up a time, I think, Will, to see if he comes in. It is rather a wild business for a boy to lie out all night in such a country, with only the wolves for company. Go you to your blankets, as you say. For me, I might be a better sleeper than I am." "Yes, that is true," rejoined Will Clark, rubbing his bruised leg. "It is beginning to show on you, too, Merne. Isn't it enough to be astronomer and doctor and bookkeeper and record-keeper and all that? No, you think not--you must sit up all night by your little fire under the stars and think and think. Oh, I have seen you, Merne! I have seen you sitting there when you should have been sleeping. Do you call that leadership, Captain Lewis? The men are under you, and if the leader is not fit, the men are not. Now, a human body will stand only so much--or a human mind, either, Merne. There is a limit to effort and endurance." His friend turned to him seriously. "You are right, Will," said he. "I owe duty to many besides myself." "You take things too hard, Merne. You cannot carry the whole world on your shoulders. Look now, I have not been so blind as not to see that something is going wrong with you. Merne, you are ill, or will be. Something is wrong!" His companion made no reply. They marched on to their own part of the encampment, and seated themselves at the little fire which had been left burning for them.[4] [Footnote 4: The original journals of these two astonishing young men--one of them just thirty years old, the other thirty-four--should rank among the epic literature of the world. Battered about, scattered, separated, lost, hawked from hand to hand, handed down as unvalued heritages, "edited" first by this and then by that little man, sometimes to the extent of actual mutilation or alteration of their text--the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark hold their ineffacable clarity in spite of all. Their most curious quality is the strange blending of two large souls which they show. It was only by studying closely the individual differences of handwriting, style, and spelling, that it could be determined what was the work of Lewis, which that done by Clark. And what a labor! After long days of toil and danger, under unvarying hardships, in conditions of extremest discomfort and inconvenience for such work, the two young leaders set down with unflagging faithfulness countless thousands of details, all in such fashion as showed the keenest and most exact powers of observation. Botanists, naturalists, geographers, map-makers, builders, engineers, hunters, journalists, they brought back in their notebooks a mass of information never equaled by the records of any other party of explorers. We cannot overestimate the sum of labor which all this meant, day after day, month after month; nor should we underestimate the qualities of mind and education demanded of them, nor the varied experience of life in primitive surroundings which needed to be part of their requisite equipment. It was indeed as if the two friends were fitted by the plan of Providence for this great enterprise which they concluded in such simple, unpretending, yet minutely thorough fashion. Neither thought himself a hero, therefore each was one. The largest glory to be accorded them is that they found their ambition and their content in the day's work well done.] William Clark went on with his reproving. "Tell me, Merne, what are you thinking of? It is not that woman?" He seemed to feel the sudden shrinking of the tall figure at his side. "I have touched you on the raw once more, haven't I, Merne?" he exclaimed. "I never meant to. I only want to see you happy." "You must not be too uneasy, Will," returned Meriwether Lewis, at last. "It is only that sometimes at night I lie awake and ponder over things. And the nights themselves are wonderful!" "Saw you ever such nights, Merne, in all your life? Breathed you ever such air as these plains carry in the nighttime? Why do you not exult--what is it you cannot forget? You don't really deceive me, Merne. What is it that you _see_ when you lie awake at night under the stars? Some face, eh? What, Merne? You mean to tell me you are still so foolish? We left three months ago. I gave you two months for forgetting her--and that is enough! Come, now, perhaps some maid of the Mandans, on ahead, will prove fair enough to pipe to you, or to touch the bull-hide tambourine in such fashion as to charm you from your sorrows! No, don't be offended--it is only that I want to tell you not to take that old affair too hard. And now, it is time for you to turn in." William Clark himself arose and strolled to his own blanket-roll, spread it out, and lay down beneath the sky to sleep. Meriwether Lewis sought to follow his example, and spread open his robe and blankets close to the fire. As he leaned back, he felt something hard and crackling under his hand, and looked down. It was his custom to carry in his blankets, for safekeeping, his long spyglass, a pair of dry moccasins and a buckskin tunic. These articles were here, as he expected to find them. Yet here among them was a folded and sealed envelope--a letter! He had not placed it here; yet here it was. He caught it up in his hand, looked at it wonderingly, kicked the ends of the embers together so that they flamed up, bent forward to read the superscription--and paused in amazement. Well enough he knew the firm, upright, characterful hand which addressed this missive to him: TO CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS.--ON THE TRAIL IN THE WEST. A feeling somewhat akin to awe fell upon Meriwether Lewis. He felt a cold prickling along his spine. It was for him, yes--but whence had it come? There had been no messenger from outside the camp. For one brief instant it seemed, indeed, as if this bit of paper--which of all possible gifts of the gods he would most have coveted--had dropped from the heavens themselves at his feet here in the savage wilderness. His heart had been on the point of breaking, it seemed to him--and it had come to comfort him! It was from her. It ran thus: DEAR SIR AND FRIEND: Greetings to you, wherever you may be when this shall find you. Are you among the Gauls, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Huns, the Vandals, or the Cimbri? Wherever you be, our hopes and faith go with you. You are, as I fancy, in a desert, a wilderness, worth no man's owning. Life passes meantime. To what end, my friend? I fancy you in the deluge, in the hurricane, in the blaze of the sun, or in the bleak winds, alone, cheerless, perhaps athirst, perhaps knowing hunger. I know that you will meet these things like a man. But to what end--what is the purpose of all this? You have left behind you all that makes life worth while--fortune, fame, life, ambition, honor--to go away into the desert. At what time are you going to turn back and come to us once more? Oh, if only I had the right--if only I dared--if only I were in a position to lay some command on you to bring you back! Methinks then I would. You could do so much for us all--so much for me. It would mean so much to my own happiness if you were here. Meriwether Lewis, come back! You have gone far enough. On ahead are only cruel hardship and continual failure. Here are fortune, fame, wealth, ambition, honor--and more. I told you one time I would lay my hand upon your shoulder out yonder, no matter where you were. I said that you should look into my face yonder when you sat alone beside your fire under the stars. You said that it would be torment. I said that none the less I would not let you go. I said my face still should stay with you, until you were willing to turn back. Turn back _now_, Meriwether Lewis! Come back! The letter was not signed, and needed not to be. Meriwether Lewis sat staring at the paper clutched in his hand. Her face! Ah, did he not see it now? Was it not true what she had said? He saw her face now--but not smiling, happy, contented, as it once had been. No, he saw it pale and in distress. He saw tears in her eyes. And she had written him: Oh, if only I had the right to lay some command on you! Was not he, who had forgotten honor, subject now to any command that she might give him? "Will, Will!" exclaimed Meriwether Lewis, sharply, imperatively, to his friend, whom he could see dimly at a little distance as he lay. The long figure in its robes straightened quickly, for by day or night William Clark was instantly ready for any sudden alarm. He started up on his robe, with his hand on his rifle. "Who calls there? Who goes?" he cried, half awake. "It is I, Will," said Meriwether Lewis, advancing toward him. "Listen--tell me, Will, why did you do this?" "Why did I do what? Merne, what is wrong?" Clark was now on his feet, and Lewis held out the letter to him. He took it in his hand, looked at it wonderingly. "This letter----" began Meriwether Lewis. "Certainly you carried it for me--why did you not bring it to me long ago?" "What letter? Whose letter is it, Merne? I never saw it before. What is it you are saying? Are you mad?" "I think so," said Lewis, "I think I must be. Here is a letter--I found it but now in my bed. I thought perhaps you had had it for me a long time, and placed it there as a surprise." "Who sends it, Merne. What does it say?" "It is from the woman whose face I have seen at night, Will. She asks me to come back!" "Burn it--throw it in the fire!" said William Clark sharply. "Go back? What, forsake Mr. Jefferson--leave me?" "God forgive me, Will, but you search my very heart! For one moment I was on the point of declaring myself too ill to finish this journey--on the point of letting you have all the honor of it. I was going to surrender my place to you." "You cannot desert us, Merne! You shall not! Go back to bed! Give me the letter! Bah! it is some counterfeit, some trick of one of the men!" "It would be worth any man's life to try a jest like that," said Meriwether Lewis. "It is no counterfeit. I know it too well. This letter was written before we left St. Louis. How it came here I know not, but I know who wrote it." "She had no right----" "Ah, but that is the cruelty of it--she _did_ have the right!" "There are some things which a man must work out for himself," said William Clark slowly, after a time. "I don't think I'll ask any questions. If there is any place where I can take half your burden, you know what I will do. We've worked share and share alike, but perhaps some things cannot be shared, even by you and me. It is for you to tell me if I can help you now. If not, then you must decide." Even as he spoke, his beloved friend was turning away from him. Meriwether Lewis walked out alone into the night. Stumbling, he passed on out among the shadows, under the starlight. Without much plan, he found himself on a little eminence of the bluff near by. He sat down, his blanket drawn over his head, like an Indian, motionless, thinking, fighting out his own fight, as sometimes a man must, alone. He did not know that William Clark, most faithful of friends, himself silent as a Sioux, had followed, and sat a little distance apart, his eyes fixed on the motionless figure outlined against the sky. The dawn came at last and kindled a red band along the east. The gray light at length grew more clear. A coyote on the bluff raised a long and quavering cry, like some soul in torture. As if it were his own voice, Meriwether Lewis stirred, rose, drew back the blanket from his shoulders, and turned down the hill. He saw his friend rising and advancing to him. Once more their hands gripped, as they had when the two first met on the Ohio, almost a year ago, at the beginning of their journey. Lewis frowned heavily. He could not speak for a time. "Give the orders to the men to roll out, Captain Clark," said he at length. "Which way, Captain Lewis--upstream or down?" "The expedition will go forward, Captain Clark." "God bless you, Merne!" said the red-headed one. CHAPTER III THE DAY'S WORK "Roll out, men, roll out!" The sleeping men stirred under their robes and blankets and turned out, quickly awake, after the fashion of the wilderness. The sentinel came in, his moccasins wet, his tunic girded tight against the cool of the morning, which even at that season was chill upon the high plains. Soon the fires were alight and the odors of roasting meat arose. The hour was scarce yet dawn. "Ordway! Gass! Pryor!" Lewis called in the sergeants in charge of the three messes. "The boy Shannon has not returned. Which of your men, Ordway, will best serve to find Shannon and meet us up the river?" "Myself, sir," said Ordway, "if you please." "No, 'tis meself, sor," interrupted Patrick Gass. Pryor, with hand outstretched, also claimed the honor of the difficult undertaking. "You three are needed in the boats," said the leader. "No, I think it will be better to send Drouillard and the two Fields boys. But tell me, Sergeant Ordway----" "Yes, sir!" "Has any boat passed up the river within the last day--for instance, while we were away at the hunt?" "I think not, sir. Surely any one coming up the river would have turned in at our camp." Lewis turned to Gass, to Pryor; but both agreed that no boat could have gone by unnoticed. "And no man has come into the camp from below--no horseman?" They all shook their heads. Their leader looked from one to the other keenly, trying to see if anything was concealed from him; but the honest faces of his men showed no suspicion of his own doubts. He dismissed them, feeling it beneath his dignity to make inquiry as to the bearer of the mysterious letter; nor did he mention it again to William Clark. He knew only that some one of his men had a secret from his commander. "The men will find Shannon and bring him in ahead--we can't afford to wait here for them. The water is falling now," said Clark. "We are doing our twenty miles daily. The men laugh on the line, for the bars are exposed, and they can track along shore easily. Suppose Shannon were out three days--that would make it sixty miles upstream--or less, for him, for he could cut the bends. I make no doubt that when he found himself out for the night he started up the river; even before this time. _En avant_, Cruzatte!" he called. "You shall lead the line for the first draw. Make it lively for an hour! Sing some song, Cruzatte, if you can--some song of old Kaskaskia." "Sure, the Frenchmans, she'll lead on the line this morning, _Capitaine_! I'll put nine, seven Frenchmans on the line, and she'll run on the bank on her bare feet two hour--one hour. This buffalo meat, she make Frenchmans strong like nothing!" "Go on, Frenchy!" said Patrick Gass, Cruzatte's sergeant, who stood near by. "Wait until time comes for my squad on the line--'tis thin we'll make the elkhide hum! There's a few of the Irish along." "Ho!" said Ordway, usually silent. "Wait rather for us Yankees--we'll show you what old Vermont can do!" "As to that," said Pryor, "belike the Ohio and Kentucky men could serve a turn as well as the Irish or the French. Old Kaintuck has to help out the others, the way she did in the French and Indian War!" "Well," broke in Peter Weiser, joining them as they argued, "I am from Pennsylvania; but I am half Virginian, and there are some others from the Old Dominion. When you are all done, call on us--ole Virginny never tires!" The contagion of their light-heartedness, their loyalty and devotion, came as solace to the heart of Meriwether Lewis. He smiled in spite of himself, his eye kindling with confidence and admiration as he looked over his men. They were stripping for their day's work, ready for mud or water or sun, as the case might be. Amidships, on the highest locker on the barge, one of the Kentuckians was flapping his arms lustily and giving the cockcrow, the river challenge of frontier days. Others seated themselves at the long sweeps of the barge, while yet others were manning the pirogues. A few moments later, with joyous shouts, they were on their way once more--and not setting their faces toward home. In an hour they were above the first long bend. The wilderness had closed behind them. No trace of the Indian village was left, no sight of the lingering smoke of their last camp fires. Faithfully, patiently, day by day, they held their way, sustained by the renewed fascination of adventure, hardened and inured to risk and toil alike. The distance behind them lengthened so enormously that they began to figure upon the unknown rather than the known. "We surely must be almost across now!" said some of the men. All of them were sore distressed over the loss of Shannon. Two weeks had passed since they left the Yankton Sioux, and four times the faithful trailers had come back to the boats with no trace of the missing one. "It certainly is in the off chance now," assented William Clark seriously, one day as they lay in the noon encampment. "But perhaps he may be among the natives somewhere, and we may hear of him when we come back--if ever we do." "If he got by the Teton Sioux, and kept on up the river, in time he would find us somewhere among the Mandans," said Meriwether Lewis. "But we will try once more before we give him up. Send a man to the top of the bluff with my spyglass." Busy in their labors over their maps, and in the recording of their compass bearings, for half an hour they forgot their messenger, until a shout called their attention. He was waving his hands, wildly beckoning. Yonder, alone in the plains, bewildered, hopeless, wandering, was the lost man, who did not even know that the river was close at hand! Shannon's escape from a miserable fate was but one more instance of the almost miraculous good fortune which seemed to attend the expedition. "And she was lucky man, too!" said Drouillard, a half-hour later, nodding toward the opposite shore. "Suppose he is on that side, she'll not go in today!" "Two weeks on his foot!" They looked where he pointed. Red men, mounted, were visible, a dozen of them, motionless, on the rim of the farther bank, watching the explorers as they began to make ready for their journey. Lewis turned his great field glass in that direction. "Sioux!" said he. "They are painted, too. I fancy," he added, as he turned toward his associates, "that this must be Black Buffalo's band of Tetons you've told us about, Drouillard." "_Oui, oui_, the Teton!" exclaimed Drouillard. "I'll not spoke his language, me; but she'll be bad Sioux. _Prenez garde, Capitaine, prenez garde pour ces sauvages, les Sioux!_" And indeed this warning proved well founded. More Indians gathered in toward the shore that afternoon, riding along, parallel with the course of the boats, whooping, shouting to the boatmen. At nightfall there were a hundred of them assembled--painted warriors, decked in all their savage finery, bold men, showing no fear of the newcomers. The white men went about their camp duties in a mingling of figures, white and red. Lewis lined up his men, beat his drums, fired the great swivel piece to impress the savages. "Bring out the flag, Will," said he. "Put up our council awning. I'll have a parley with their head man. Can you make him out, Drouillard?" "He'll said he was Black Buffalo," replied the Frenchman. "I don't understand him very good." "Take him these things, Drouillard," said Lewis. "Give him a lace coat and hat, a red feather, some tobacco, and this medal. Tell him that when we get ready we'll make a talk with him." But Black Buffalo and his men were not in the mood to wait for their parley. They crowded down to the bank angrily, excitedly, even after they had received the presents sent them. Lewis, busy about the barge, which had not yet found a good landing-place, turned at the sound of his friend's voice, to see Clark struggling in the grasp of two or three of the Sioux, among them the Teton chief. A savage had his hand flung about the mast of the pirogue, others laid hold upon the painter. Clark, flushed and angry at the touch of another man's hand, had whipped out his sword, and the Indians were drawing their bows from their cases. At that moment Lewis gave a loud order, which arrested them all. The Sioux turned toward the barge, to see the black mouth of the great swivel gun pointing at them--the gun whose thunder voice they had heard. "Big medicine!" called out Black Buffalo in terror, and ordered his men back. Clark offered his hand to Black Buffalo, but it was refused. Angry, he sprang into the pirogue and pushed off for the barge. Three of the Indians stepped into the pirogue with him, jabbering excitedly, and, with Clark, went aboard the barge, where they made themselves very much at home. "_Croyez moi!_" ejaculated Drouillard. "These Hinjun, she'll think he own this country!" Here, then, they were, in the Teton country. No sleep that night for either of the leaders, nor for any of the men. They pulled the pirogues alongside the barge and sat, barricaded behind their goods, rifle in hand. They kept their visitors prisoners all that night, and whatever might have been the construction the Tetons placed on their act, they themselves by dawn were far more placable. Continually they motioned that the whites should come ashore, that they must stop, that they must not go on further up the river. But when all was prepared for the start on the following morning, Lewis ordered the great cable of the barge cast off. Black Buffalo in turn ordered his men to lay hold upon it and retain the boat. Once more the Indians began to draw their bows. Once more Lewis turned upon them the muzzle of his cannon. His men shook the priming into their pieces, and made ready to fire. An instant, and much blood might have been shed. "Black Buffalo," said Lewis, as best he might through his interpreter, "I heard you were a chief. You are not Black Buffalo, but some squaw! We are going to see if we can find Black Buffalo, the real chief. If he were here, he would accept our tobacco. The geese are flying down the river. Soon the snow will come. We cannot wait. See, I give you this tobacco on the prairie. Go and see if you can find Black Buffalo, the real chief!" "Ha!" exclaimed the Teton leader, his dignity outraged. "You say I am not Black Buffalo--that I am not a chief. I will show you!" He caught the twists of good black Virginia tobacco tossed to him, and cast the rope far from him upon the tawny flood of the Missouri. An instant later the oars had caught the water and Cruzatte had spread the bowsail of the barge. So they won through one more of the most dangerous of the tribes against whom they had been warned. "A near thing, Merne!" said Will Clark after a time. "There is some mighty Hand that seems to guide us--is it not the truth?" CHAPTER IV THE CROSSROADS OF THE WEST The geese were now indeed flying down the river, coming in long, dark lines out of the icy north. Sometimes the sky was overcast hours at a stretch. A new note came into the voice of the wind. The nights grew colder. Autumn was at hand. Soon it would be winter--winter on the plains. It was late in October, more than five months out from St. Louis, when Mr. Jefferson's "Volunteers for the Discovery of the West" arrived in the Mandan country. Long ago war and disease wiped out the gentle Mandan people. Today two cities stand where their green fields once showed the first broken soil north of the Platte River. But a century ago that region, although little known to our government at Washington, was not unknown to others. The Mandan villages lay at a great wilderness crossroads, or rather at the apex of a triangle, beyond which none had gone. Hereabout the Sieur de la Verendrye had crossed on his own journey of exploration two generations earlier. More lately the emissaries of the great British companies, although privately warring with one another, had pushed west over the Assiniboine. Traders had been among the Mandans now for a decade. Thus far came the Western trail from Canada, and halted. The path of the Missouri also led thus far, but here, at the intersection, ended all the trails of trading or traveling white men. Therefore, Lewis and Clark found white men located here before them--McCracken, an Irishman; Jussaume, a Frenchman; Henderson, an Englishman; La Roque, another Frenchman--all over from the Assiniboine country; and all, it hardly need be said, excited and anxious over this wholly unexpected arrival of white strangers in their own trading-limits. Big White, chief of the Mandans, welcomed the new party as friends, for he was quick to grasp the advantage the white men's goods gave his people over the neighboring tribes, and also quick to understand the virtue of competition. "Brothers," said he, "you have come for our beaver and our robes. As for us, we want powder and ball and more iron hatchets and knives. We have traded with the Assiniboines, who are foolish people, and have taken all their goods away from them. We have killed the Rees until we are tired of killing them. The Sioux will not trouble us if we have plenty of powder and ball. We know that you have come to trade with us. See, the snow is here. Light your lodge fires with the Mandans. Stay here until the grass comes once more!" "We open our ears to what Big White has said," replied Lewis--speaking through Jussaume, the Frenchman, who soon was added as interpreter to the party. "We are the children of a Great Father in the East, who gives you this medal with his picture on it. He sends you this coat, this hat of a chief. He gives you this hatchet, this case of tobacco. There are other hatchets and more tobacco for your people." "What Great Father is that?" demanded Big White. "It seems there are many Great Fathers in these days! Who are you strangers, who come from so far?" "You yourself shall judge, Big White. When the geese fly up the river and the grass is green, our great boat here is going back down the river. The Great Father is curious to know his children, the Mandans. If you, Big White, wish to go to see him when the grass is green, you shall sit yonder in that boat and go all the way with some of my men. You shall shake his hand. When you come back, you can tell the story to your own people. Then all the tribes will cease to wage war. Your women once more may take off their moccasins at night when they sleep." "It is good," said the Mandan. "_Ahaie!_ Come and stay with us until the grass is green, and I will make medicine over what you say. We will open our lodges to you, and will not harm you. Our young women will carry you corn which they have saved for the winter. Our squaws will feed your horses. Go no farther, for the snow and ice are coming fast. Even the buffalo will be thin, and the elk will grow so lean that they will not be good to eat. This is as far as the white men ever come when the grass is green. Beyond this, no man knows the trails." "When the grass is green," said Lewis, "I shall lead my young men toward the setting sun. We shall make new trails." Jussaume, McCracken, and all the others held their own council with the leaders of the expedition. "What are you doing here?" they demanded. "The Missouri has always belonged to the British traders." The face of Meriwether Lewis flushed with anger. "We are about the business of our government," he said. "It is our purpose to discover the West beyond here, all of it. It is our own country that we are discovering. We have bought it and paid for it, and will hold it. We carry the news of the great purchase to the natives." "Purchase? What purchase?" demanded McCracken. And then the face of Lewis lightened, for he knew that they had outrun all the news of the world! "The Louisiana Purchase--the purchase of all this Western country from the Mississippi to the Pacific, across the Stony Mountains. We bought it from Napoleon, who had it from Spain. We are the wedge to split the British from the South--the Missouri is our own pathway into our own country. That is our business here!" "You must go back!" said the hot-headed Irishman. "I shall tell my factor, Chaboillez, at Fort Assiniboine. We want no more traders here. This is our country!" "We do not come to trade," said Meriwether Lewis. "We play a larger game. I know that the men of the Northwest Company have found the Arctic Ocean--you are welcome to it until we want it--we do not want it now. I know you have found the Pacific somewhere above the Columbia--we do not want what we have not bought or found for ourselves, and you are welcome to that. But when you ask us to turn back on our own trail, it is a different matter. We are on our own soil now, and we will not turn for any order in the world but that of the President of the United States!" McCracken, irritated, turned away from the talk. "It is a fine fairy tale they tell us!" said he to his fellows. Drouillard came a moment later to his chief. "Those men she'll take her dog-team for Assiniboine now--maybe so one hundred and fifty miles that way. He'll told his factor now, on the Assiniboine post." Lewis smiled. "Tell him to take this letter to his factor, Drouillard," said he. "It is a passport given me by Mr. Thompson, representing Mr. Merry, of the British Legation at Washington. I have fifty other passports, better ones, each good at a hundred yards. If Mr. Chaboillez wishes to find us, he can do so. If we have gone, let him come after us in the spring." "My faith," said Jussaume, the Frenchman, "you come a long way! Why you want to go more farther West? But, listen, _Monsieur Capitaine_--the Englishman, he'll go to make trouble for you. He is going for send word to Rocheblave, the most boss trader on Lake Superior, on Fort William. They are going for send a man to beat you over the mountain--I know!" "'Tis a long road from here to the middle of Lake Superior's north shore," said Meriwether Lewis. "It will be a long way back from there in the spring. While they are planning to start, already we shall be on our way." "I know the man they'll send," went on Jussaume. "Simon Fraser--I know him. Long time he'll want to go up the Saskatchewan and over the mountain on the ocean." "We'll race Mr. Fraser to the ocean," said Meriwether Lewis; "him or any other man. While he plans, we shall be on our way!" Well enough the Northern traders knew the meaning of this American expedition into the West. If it went on, all the lower trade was lost to Great Britain forever. The British minister, Merry, had known it. Aaron Burr had known it. This expedition must be stopped! That was the word which must go back to Montreal, back to London, along the trail which ended here at the crossroads of the Missouri. "The red-headed young man is not so bad," said one of the white news-bearers at the Assiniboine post. "He is willing to parley, and he seems disposed to be amiable. But the other, the one named Lewis--I can do nothing with him. For some reason he seems to be hostile to the British interests. He speaks well, and is a man of presence and education, but he is bitter against us, and I cannot handle him. We must use force to stop that man!" "Agreed, then!" said his master, laughing lustily, for, safe in his own sanctuary, he had not seen these men himself. "We shall use force, as we have before. We will excite the savages against them this winter. If they will listen to us, and turn back in the spring--all of them, not part of them--very well. If they will not listen to reason, then we shall use such means as we need to stop them." Of this conversation the two young American officers, one of Virginia, the other of Kentucky, knew nothing at all. But they held council of their own, as was their fashion--a council of two, sitting by their camp fire; and while others talked, they acted. Before November was a week old, the axes were ringing among the cottonwoods. The men were carrying big logs toward the cleared space shown to them, and while Meriwether Lewis worked at his journal and his scientific records, William Clark, born soldier and born engineer, was going forward with his little fortress. Trenches were cut, the logs were ended up--taller pickets than any one of that country ever had seen before. A double row of cabins was built inside the stockade. A great gate was furnished, proof against assault. A bastion was erected in one corner, mounting the swivel piece so that it might be fired above the top of the wall. A little more work of chinking the walls, of flooring the cabins, of making chimneys of wattle and clay--and _presto_, before the winter had well settled down, the white explorers were housed and fortified and ready for what might come. The Mandans sat and watched them in wonder. Jussaume, the French trader, shook his head. In all his experience on the trail he had seen nothing savoring quite so much of preparedness and celerity. Among all the posts to the northward and eastward the word went out, carried by dog runners. "They have built a great house of tall logs," said the Indians. "They have put the thing that thunders on top of the wall. They never sleep. Each day they exercise with their rifles under their arms. They have long knives on their belts. They carry hatchets that are sharp enough to shave bark. Their medicine is strong! "They write down the words of the Mandans and the Minnetarees in their books. They are taking skins of the antelope and the bighorn and the deer, even skins of the prairie-grouse and the badger and the prairie-dog--everything they can get. They dry these, to make some sort of medicine of them. They cut off pieces of wood and bark. They put the dirt which burns in little sacks. They make pictures and make the talking papers--all the time they work at something, the two chiefs. They have a black man with them who cannot be washed white--they have stained him with some medicine of their own. He makes sounds like a buffalo, and he says that the white man made him as he is and will do us that way. We would like to kill them, but they have made their house too strong! "They never sleep. In the daytime and in the nighttime, no matter how cold it is, one man, two men, walk up and down inside the wall. They have carried their boats up out of the water--two boats, a great one and two small. All through the woods they are cutting down the largest trees, and out of the straight logs they are making more boats, more boats, as many as there are fingers on one hand. They have axes that cast much larger chips than any we ever saw. We fear these men, because they do not fear us. We do not know what to think. They are men who never sleep. Before the sun is up we find them writing or making large chips with their axes, or hunting in the woods--not a day goes by that their hunters do not bring in elk and deer and buffalo. They do not fear us. "We have seen no men like these. They are chiefs, and their medicine is strong!" CHAPTER V THE APPEAL "Well done, Will Clark!" said Meriwether Lewis, when, at length, one cold winter morning, they stood within the walls of the completed fortress. "Now we can have our own fireplace and go on with our work in comfort. The collection is growing splendidly!" "Yes, Mr. Jefferson will find that we have been busy," rejoined Clark. "The barge will go down well loaded in the spring. They'll have the best of it--downhill, and over country they have crossed." "True," mused Lewis. "We are at a blank wall here. We lack a guide now, that is sure. Two interpreters we have, who may or may not be of use, but no one knows the country. But now--you know our other new interpreter, the sullen chap, Charbonneau--that polygamous scamp with two or three Indian wives?" "Yes, and a surly brute he is!" "Well, it seems that last summer Charbonneau married still another wife, a girl not over sixteen years of age, I should judge. He bought her--she was a slave, a captive brought down from somewhere up the river by a war-party. She is a pleasant girl, and always smiles. She seems friendly to us--see the moccasins she made for me but now. And I only had to knock her husband down once for beating her!" "Lucky man!" grinned William Clark. "I have knocked him down half a dozen times, and she has made me no moccasins at all. But what then?" "So far as I can learn, that Indian girl is the only human being here who has ever seen the Stony Mountains. The girl says that she was taken captive years ago somewhere near the summit of the Stony Mountains. Above here a great river comes in, which they call the Yellow Rock River--the 'Ro'jaune,' Jussaume calls it. Very well. Many days' or weeks' journey toward the west, this river comes again within a half-day's march of the Missouri. That is near the summit of the mountains; and this girl's people live there." "By the Lord, Merne, you're a genius for getting over new country!" "Wait. I find the child very bright--very clear of mind. And listen, Will--the mind of a woman is better for small things than that of a man. They pick up trifles and hang on to them. I'd as soon trust that girl for a guide out yonder as any horse-stealing warrior in a hurry to get into a country and in a hurry to get out of it again. Raiding parties cling to the river-courses, which they know; but she and her people must have been far to the west of any place these adventurers of the Minnetarees ever saw. Sacajawea she calls herself--the 'Bird Woman.' I swear I look upon that name itself as a good omen! She has come back like a dove to the ark, this Bird Woman. William Clark, we shall reach the sea--or, at least, you will do so, Will," he concluded. "What do you mean, Merne? Surely, if I do, you will also!" "I cannot be sure." The florid face of William Clark showed a frown of displeasure. "You are not as well as you should be--you work too much. That is not just to Mr. Jefferson, Merne, nor to our men, nor to me." "It was for that reason I took you on. Doesn't a man have two lungs, two arms, two limbs, two eyes? We are those for Mr. Jefferson--even crippled, the expedition will live. You are as my own other hand. I exult to see you every morning smiling out of your blankets, hopeful and hungry!" Meriwether Lewis turned to his colleague with the sweet smile which sometimes his friends saw. "You see, I am a fatalist," he went on. "Ah, you laugh at me! My people must have been owners of the second sight, I have often told you. Humor me, Will, bear with me. Don't question me too deep. Your flag, Will, I know will be planted on the last parapet of life--you were born to succeed. For myself, I still must remember what my mother told me--something about the burden which would be too heavy, the trail which would be long. At times I doubt." "Confound it, Merne, you have not been yourself since you got that accursed letter in the night last summer!" "It was unsettling, I don't deny." "I pray Heaven you'll never get another!" said William Clark. "From a married woman, too! Thank God I've no such affair on my mind!" "It is taboo, Will--that one thing!" And Clark, growling anathemas on all women, stalked away to find his axmen. The snows had come soft and deep, blown on the icy winds. The horses of the Mandans were housed in the lodges, and lived on cottonwood instead of grass. When the vast herds of buffalo came down from the broken hills into the shelter of the flats, the men returned frostbitten with their loads of meat. The sky was dark. The days were short. To improve the morale of their men, the leaders now planned certain festivities for them. On Christmas Eve each man had his stocking well stuffed with such delicacies as the company stores afforded--pepper, salt, dried fruits long cherished in the commissary, such other knickknacks as might be spared. On Christmas Day Drouillard brought out a fiddle. A dance was ordered, and went on all day long on the puncheon floor of the main cabin. In moccasins and leggings, with hair long and tunics belted close to their lean waists, the white men danced to the tunes of their own land--the reels and hoedowns of old Virginia and Kentucky. The sounds of revelry were heard by the Mandans who came up to the gate. "White men make a medicine dance," they said, and knocked for entrance. Two women only were present--the wife of Jussaume, the squaw man, and Sacajawea, the girl wife of Charbonneau, the interpreter of the Mandans. These two had many presents. The face of Sacajawea was wreathed in smiles. Always her eyes followed the tall form of Meriwether Lewis wherever he went. Her own husband was but her husband, and already she had elected Meriwether Lewis as her deity. When her husband thrashed her, always he thrashed her husband. In her simple child's soul she consecrated herself to the task which he had assigned her. Yes, when the grass came she would take these white men to her own people. If they wanted to see the salt waters far to the west--her people had heard of that--then they should go there also. The Bird Woman was very happy that Christmas Day. The chief had thrashed Charbonneau and had given her wonderful presents! All the men danced but one--the youth Shannon, who once more had met misfortune. While hewing with the broadax at one of the canoes, he had had the misfortune to slash his foot, so must lie in his bunk and watch the others. "Keep the men going, Will," said Meriwether Lewis. "I'll go to my room and get forward some letters which I want to write--to my mother and to Mr. Jefferson. At least I can date them Christmas Day, although Providence alone knows when they may be despatched or received!" He returned to his own quarters, where he had erected a little desk at which he sometimes worked, and sat down. For a moment he remained in thought, as the sound of the dancing still came to him, glad to find his men so happy. At length he spread open the back of his little leather writing-case, unscrewed his ink-horn and set it safe, drew his keen hunting-knife, and put a point upon a goose-quill pen. Then he put away the many written pages which still lay in the portfolio, the product of his daily labors. Searching for fair white paper, his eye caught sight of a sealed and folded letter, apparently long unnoticed here among the written and unwritten sheets. In a flash he knew what it was! Once more the blood in his veins seemed to stop short. TO CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS, IN CHARGE OF THE VOLUNTEERS FOR THE DISCOVERY OF THE WEST.--ON THE TRAIL. He knew what hand had written the words. For one short instant he had a mad impulse to cast the letter into the fire. Then there came over him once more the feeling which oppressed him all his life--that he was a helpless instrument in the hands of fate. He broke the seal--not noticing as he did so that it had a number scratched into the wax--and read the letter, which ran thus: SIR AND FRIEND: I know not where these presents may find you, or in what case. Once more I keep my promise not to let you go. Once more you shall see my face--see, it is looking up at you from the page! Tell me, do you see me now before you? Are other faces of women in your mind? Have they lost themselves as women's faces so often--so soon--are lost from a man's mind? Can you see me, Meriwether Lewis, your childhood friend? Do you remember the time you saved me from the cows in the lane at your father's farm, when I was but a child, on my first visit to far-off Virginia? You kissed me then, to dry my tears. You were a boy; I was a child yet younger. Can you forget that time--can you forget what you said? "I will always be there, Theodosia," you said, "when you are in trouble!" You said it stoutly, and I believed it, as a child. I believed you then--I believe you now. I still have the same child's faith in you. My mother died while I was young; my father has always been so busy--I scarcely have been a girl, as you say you never were a boy. You know my husband--he has his own affairs. But you always were my friend, in so many ways! It is true that I am laying a secret on your heart--one which you must observe all your life. My letter is for you, and for no other eyes. But now I come once more to you to hold you to your promise. _Meriwether Lewis, come back to us!_ By this time the trail surely is long enough! We are counting absolutely on your return. I heard Mr. Merry tell my father--and I may tell it to you--that on your recall rested all hope of the success of our own cause on the lower Mississippi--for ourselves and for you. If you do not come back to us, as early as you can, you condemn us to failure--myself--my life--that of my father--yourself also. Perhaps your delay may mean even more, Meriwether Lewis. I have to tell you that times are threatening for this republic. Relations between our country and Great Britain are strained to the breaking-point. Mr. Merry says that if our cause on the lower Mississippi shall not prevail, his own country, as soon as it can finish with Napoleon, will come against this republic once more--both on the Great Lakes and at the mouth of the Mississippi. He says that your expedition into the West will split the country, if it goes on. It must be withdrawn or the gap must be mended by war. You see, then, one of the sure results of this mad folly of Thomas Jefferson. Go on, therefore, if you would ruin me, my father--your own future; but will you go on if you face possible ruin _for your own country_ by so doing? This I leave for you to say. Surely by now the main object of your expedition will have been accomplished--surely you may return with all practical results of your labors in your hands. Were that not a wiser thing? Does not your duty lie toward the east, and not further toward the west? There is a limit beyond which not even a forlorn hope is asked to go when it assails a citadel. Not every general is dishonored, though he does not complete the campaign laid out for him. Expeditions have failed, and will fail, with honor. Leaders of men have failed, will fail, with honor. I do not call it failure for you to return to us and let the expedition go on. There is a limit to what may be asked of a man. There are two of you for Mr. Jefferson; but for us there is only one--it is Captain Lewis. And--how shall I say it and not be misunderstood?--there is but one for her whose face you see, I hope, on this page. What limit is there to the generosity of a man like you--what limit to his desire to pay each duty, to keep each promise that he has made in all his life? Will such a man forget his promise always to kiss away the tears of that companion to whom he has come in rescue? I am in trouble. Tears are in my eyes as I write. Do you forget that promise? Do you wish to make yet happier the woman whom you have so many times made happy--who has cherished so much ambition for you? Meriwether Lewis, my friend--you who would have been my lover--for whom there is no hope, since fate has been so unkind--come back to us in your generosity! Come back to me, even in your hopelessness! Will you always see me with tears in my eyes? Do you see me now? I swear tears fall even as I write. And you promised always to kiss my tears away! Farewell until I see you again. May good fortune attend you always, wherever you go--in whatever direction you may travel--from us or toward us--from me or with me! Meriwether Lewis sat, his face between his hands, staring down at what he saw. Should he go on, or should he hand over all to William Clark and return--return to keep his promise--return to comfort, as best he might, with the gift of all his life, that face which indeed he had left in tears by an unpardonable act of his own? He owed her everything she could ask of him. What must she think of him now--that he was not only a dishonorable man, but also a coward running away from the responsibility of what he had done? No blow from the hands of fate could have given him more exquisite agony than this. For a long time--he never knew how long--he sat thus, staring, pondering, but at length with sudden energy he rose and flung open the door of the dancing-room. "Will!" he called to his companion. When William Clark joined his friend in the outer air, he saw the open letter in Lewis's hand--saw also the distress upon his countenance. "Merne, it's another letter from that woman! I wish I had her here, that I might wring her neck!" said William Clark viciously. "Who brought it?" "I don't know." Meriwether Lewis was folding up the letter. He placed it in the pocket of his coat with its fellow, received months ago. "Will," said he at length, "don't you recall what I was telling you this very morning? I felt something coming--I felt that fate had something more for me. You know I spoke in doubt." "Listen, Merne!" replied William Clark. "There is no woman in the world worth the misery this one has put on you. It is a thing execrable, unspeakable!" His friend looked him steadily in the eyes. "Rebuke not her, but me!" he said. "This letter asks me to come back to kiss away a woman's tears. Will, I was the cause of those tears. I can tell you no more. What _I_ did was a thing execrable, unspeakable--I, your friend, did that!" William Clark, more genuinely troubled than ever in his life before, was dumb. "My future is forfeited, Will," went on the same even, dull voice, which Clark could scarcely recognize; "but I have decided to go on through with you." CHAPTER VI WHICH WAY? "Which way, Will?" asked Meriwether Lewis. "Which is the river? If we miss many guesses, the British will beat us through. Which is our river here?" They stood at the junction of the Yellowstone with the Missouri, and faced one of the first of their great problems. It was spring once more. The geese were flying northward again; the grass was green. Three weeks ago the ice had run clear, and they had left their winter quarters among the Mandans. Five months they had spent at the Mandan village; for five months they had labored to reach that place; for five months, or more, they had lain at St. Louis. Time was passing. As Meriwether Lewis said, few wrong guesses could be afforded. Early in April the great barge, manned by ten men, had set out down stream, carrying with it the proof of the success of the expedition. It bore many new things, precious things, things unknown to civilization. Among these were sixty specimens of plants, as many of minerals and earth, weapons of the Indians, examples of their clothing, specimens of the corn and other vegetables which they raised, horns of the bighorn and the antelope--both animals then new to science--antlers of the deer and elk, stuffed specimens, dried skins, herbs, fruits, flowers; and with all these the broken story of a new geography--the greatest story ever sent out for publication by any man or men; and all done in Homeric simplicity. As the great barge had started down the river, the two pirogues which had come so far, joined by the cottonwood dugouts laboriously fabricated during the winter months, had started up the river, manned by thirty-one men. With the pick of the original party, there had come but one woman, the girl Sacajawea, with her little baby, born that winter at the Mandan fortress. Sacajawea now had her place in the camp; she and her infant were the pets of all. She sat in the sunlight, her baby in her lap, by her side an Indian dog, a waif which Lewis had found abandoned in an Indian encampment, and which had attached itself to him. Sacajawea smiled as the tall form of the captain came toward her. She had already learned some of the words of his tongue, he some of hers. "Which way, Sacajawea?" asked Meriwether Lewis. "What river is this which goes on to the left?" "Him Ro'shone," replied the girl. "My man call him that. No good! _Him_--big river"; and she pointed toward the right-hand stream. "As I thought, Will," said Lewis, nodding; and again, to the Indian girl: "Do you remember this place?" She nodded her head vigorously and smiled. "See!" With a pointed stick she began to sketch a map on the sand of the river bar, showing how the Yellowstone flowed from the south--how, far on ahead, its upper course bent toward the Missouri, with a march of not more than a day between the two. The maps of this new world that first came back to civilization were copies of Indians' drawings made with a pointed stick upon the earth, or with a coal on a whitened hide. "She knows, Will!" said Lewis. "See, this place she marks near the mountain summit, where the two streams are close--some time we must explore that crossing!" "I'm sure I'd rather trust her map than this one, here, of old Jonathan Carver," answered Clark, the map-maker. "His idea of this country is that four great rivers head about where we are now. He marks the river Bourbon--which I never heard of--as running north to Hudson Bay, but he has the St. Lawrence rising near here, too--and it must be fifteen hundred or two thousand miles off to the east! The Mississippi, too, he thinks heads about here, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and yonder runs the Oregon River, which I presume is the Columbia. 'Tis all very simple, on Carver's maps, but perhaps not quite so easy, if we follow that of Sacajawea. This country is wider than any of us ever dreamed." "And greater, and more beautiful in every way," assented his companion. They stood and gazed about them at the scene of wild beauty. The river ran in long curves between bold and sculptured bluffs, among groves of native trees, now softly green. Above, on the prairies, lay a carpet of the shy wild rose, most beautiful of the prairie blossoms. All about were shrubs and flowers, now putting forth their claims in the renewed life of spring. On the plains fed the buffalo, far as the eye could reach. Antelope, deer, the shy bighorn, all these might be seen, and the footprints of the giant bears along the beaches. It was the wilderness, and it was theirs--they owned it all! Thus far they had seen no sign of any human occupancy. They did not meet a single human being, red or white, all that summer. A vast, silent, unclaimed land, beautiful and abounding, lay waiting for occupancy. There was no map of it--none save that written on the soil now and then by an Indian girl sixteen years of age. They plodded on now, taking the right-hand stream, with full confidence in their guidance, forging onward a little every day, between the high banks of the swift river that came down from the great mountains. April passed, and May. "Soon we see the mountains!" insisted Sacajawea. And at last, two months out from the Mandans, Lewis looked westward from a little eminence and saw a low, broken line, white in spots, not to be confused with the lesser eminences of the near by landscape. "It is the mountains!" he exclaimed. "There lie the Stonies. They do exist! We shall surely reach them! We have won!" Not yet had they won. These shining mountains lay a long distance to the westward; and yet other questions were to be settled ere they might be reached. Within a week they came to yet another forking of the stream. A strong river came boiling down from the north, of color and depth much similar to that of the Missouri they had known. On the left ran a less turbulent and clearer stream. Which was the way? "The north wan, she'll be the right wan, _Capitaine_," said Cruzatte, himself a good voyageur. Most of the men agreed with him. The leaders recalled that the Mandans had said that the Missouri after a time grew clear in color, and that it would lead to the mountains. Which, now, was the Missouri? They found the moccasin of an Indian not far from here. "Blackfoot!" said Sacajawea, and pointed to the north, shaking her head. She insisted that the left-hand river was the right one; but, unwilling as yet to rely on her fully, the leaders called a council of the men, and listened to their arguments. They knew well enough that a wrong choice here might mean the failure of their expedition. Cruzatte had many adherents. The men began to mutter. "If we go up that left-hand stream we shall be lost among the mountains," one said. "We shall perish when the winter comes!" "We will go both ways," said Meriwether Lewis at length. "Captain Clark will explore the lower fork, while I go up the right-hand stream. We will meet here when we know the truth." So Lewis traveled two days' journey up the right-hand fork before he turned back, thoughtful. "I have decided," said he to the men who accompanied him. "This stream will lead us far to the north, into the British country. It cannot be the true Missouri. I shall call this Maria's River, after my cousin in Virginia, Maria Woods. I shall not call it the Missouri." He met Clark at the fork of the river, and again they held a council. The men were still dissatisfied. Clark had advanced some distance up the left-hand stream. "We must prove it yet further," said Meriwether Lewis. "Captain Clark, do you remain here, while I go on ahead far enough to know absolutely whether we are right or wrong. If we are not right in our choice, it is as the men say--we shall fail! But where is Sacajawea?" he added. "I will ask her once more." Sacajawea was ill; she was in a fever. She could not talk to her husband; but to Lewis she talked, and always she said, "That way! By and by, big falls--um-m-m, um-m-m!" "Guard her well," said Lewis anxiously. "Much depends on her. I must go on ahead." He took the French interpreter, Drouillard, and three of the Kentuckians, and started on up the left-hand stream with one boat. The current of the river seemed to stiffen. It cost continually increasing toil to get the boat upstream. They were gone for several days, and no word came back from them. Meantime, at the river forks, William Clark was busy. It was obvious that the explorers must lighten the loads of their boats. They began to cache all the heavy goods with which they could dispense--their tools, the extra lead and powder-tins, some of the flour, all the heavy stuff which would encumber them most seriously. Here, too, was the end of the journey of the red pirogue from St. Louis--they hid it in the willows of an island near the mouth of Maria's River. Lewis himself, weak from toil, fell ill on the way, but still he would not stop. He came to a point from which he could see the mountains plainly on ahead. The river was narrow, flowing through a cañon. The next day they came to the foot of the Great Falls of the Missouri, alone, majestic here in the wilderness, soundless save for their own dashing--those wonderful cascades, now so well known in industry, so nearly forgotten in history. "The girl was right--this is the river!" said Lewis to his men. "It comes from the mountains. We are right!" Cascade after cascade, rapid after rapid, he pushed on to the head of the great drop of the Missouri, where it plunges down from its upper valley for its long journey through the vast plains. Now word went down to the mouth of Maria's River; but the messenger met Clark already toiling upward with his boats, for he had guessed the cause of delay, and at last believed Sacajawea. "Make some boat-trucks, Will," said Lewis, when at last they were all encamped at the foot of the falls. "We shall have to portage twenty miles of falls and rapids." And William Clark, the ever-ready engineer, who always had a solution for any problem in mechanics or in geography, went to work upon the hardest task in transportation they yet had had. "We must leave more plunder here, Merne," said he. "We can't get into the mountains with all this." So again they cached some of their stores. They buried here the great swivel piece which had "made the thunder" among so many savage tribes. Also there were stored here the spring's collection of animals and minerals, certain books and maps not needed, and the great grindstone which had come all the way from Harper's Ferry. They were stripping for their race. It took the party a full month to make the portage. They were worn to the bone by the hard labor, scorched by the sun, and frozen by the night winds. "We must go on!" was always the cry. All felt that the summer was going; none knew what might be on ahead. At the cost of greater and greater toil they pushed on up their river above the falls, until presently its course bent off to the south again. They passed through a country of such wealth as none of them had ever dreamed of, but they did not suspect the hidden treasures of gold and silver which lay so close to them on the floor of the mountain valleys. What interested them more was the excitement of Sacajawea, who from time to time pointed out traces of human occupancy. "My people here!" said she, and pointed to camp-fires. "Plenty people come here. Heap hunt buffalo!" She pointed out the trails made by the lodge-poles. "She knows, Will!" said Lewis, once more. "We have a guide even here. We are the luckiest of men!" "Soon we come where three rivers," said Sacajawea one day. They had passed to the south and west through the first range of mountains--through that Gate of the Mountains near to the rich gold fields of the future State of Montana. "By and by, three rivers--I know!" And it was as she had said. The men, wearied to the limit by the toil of getting the boats upstream by line and setting pole, at last found their mountain river broken into three separate streams. "We will camp here," said the leader. "We are tired, we have worked long and hard!" "My people come here," said Sacajawea, "plenty time. Here the Minnetarees struck my people--five snows ago that was. They caught me and took me with them, so I find Charbonneau among the Mandans. Here my people live!" Without hesitation she pointed out that one of the three forks of the Missouri which led off to the westward--the one that Meriwether Lewis called the Jefferson. And now every man in the party felt that they were on the right path as they turned into that stream; but at the Beaver Head Rock--well known to all the Indians--they went into camp once more. "Captains make medicine now," said Sacajawea to Charbonneau, her husband. For once more the captains hesitated. There were many passes, many valleys, many trails. Which was the way? The men grew sullen again. They lay in camp for days, sending out parties, feeling out the way; but the explorers always came back uncertain. It was Clark who led these scouting parties now, for Lewis was well-nigh broken down in health. One night, alone, the leader sat by his little fire, thinking, thinking, as so often he did now. The stars, unspeakably brilliant, lit up the wild scene about him. This was the wilderness! He had sought it all his life. All his life it had called to him aloud. What had it done for him, after all? Had it taught him to forget? Two years now had passed, and still he saw a face which would not go away. Still there arose before him the same questions whose debate had torn his soul, worn out his body, through these weary months. "You will be cold, sir," said one of the men solicitously, as he passed on his way to guard mount. "Shall I fetch your coat?" Lewis thanked him, and the man brought from his tent the captain's uniform coat, which he had forgotten. Absently he sought to put it on, and felt something crinkling in the sleeve. It was a bit of paper. He halted, the old presentiment coming to his mind. "Is Shannon here?" he asked of the man who had handed him the coat. "He was to get my moccasins mended for me." "No, captain, he is out with Captain Clark," replied Fields, the Kentuckian. "Very well--that will do, Fields." Meriwether Lewis sat down again by his little fire, his last letter in his hand. Gently he ran a finger along the seal--stooped over, kicked together the embers of the fire, and saw scratched in the wax a number. This was Number Three! He did not open it for a time. He looked at it--no longer in dread, but in eagerness. It seemed to him, indeed, as if the letter had come in response to the outcry of his soul--that it really had dropped from the sky, manna for a hungry heart. It was the absence of this which had worn him thin, left him the shadow of the man he should have been. Here, as he knew well, was one more summons to what seemed to him to be a duty. And off to the west, shining cold in the night under the stars, stood the mountains, beckoning. Which was the way? He broke the seal slowly, with no haste, knowing that whatever the letter said it could mean only more unhappiness to him. Yet he was hungry for it as one who longs for a soothing drug. He pushed together yet more closely the burning sticks of his little fire and bent over to read. It was very little that he saw written, but it spoke to him like a voice in the night: Come back to me--ah, come back! I need you. I implore you to return! There was no address, no date, no signature. There was no means of telling whence or how this letter had come to him, more than any of the others. Go back to her--how could he, now? It was more than a year since these words had been written! What avail now, if he did return? No, he had delayed, he had gone on, and he had cost her--what? Perhaps her happiness as well as his own, perhaps the success of herself and of many others, perhaps his own success in life. Against that, what could he measure? The white mountains on ahead made no reply to him. The stars glowed cold and white above him, but they seemed like a thousand facets of pitiless light turned upon his soul. The quavering howl of a wolf on a near by eminence sounded like a voice to him, mocking, taunting, fiendish. Never, it seemed to him, had any man been thus unhappy. Even the wilderness had failed him! In a land of desolation he sat, a desolate soul. CHAPTER VII THE MOUNTAINS When William Clark returned from his three days' scouting trip, his forehead was furrowed with anxiety. His men were silent as they filed into camp and cast down their knapsacks. "It's no use, Merne," said Clark, "we are in a pocket here. The other two forks, which we called the Madison and the Gallatin, both come from the southeast, entirely out of our course. The divide seems to face around south of us and bend up again on the west. Who knows the way across? Our river valley is gone. The only sure way seems back--downstream." "What do you mean?" demanded Meriwether Lewis quietly. "I scarce know. I am worn out, Merne. My men have been driven hard." "And why not?" His companion remained silent under the apparent rebuke. "You don't mean that we should return?" Lewis went on. "Why not, Merne?" said William Clark, sighing. "Our men are exhausted. There are other years than this." Meriwether Lewis turned upon his friend with the one flash of wrath which ever was known between them. "Good Heavens, Captain Clark," said he, "there is _not_ any other year than this! There is not any other month, or week, or day but this! It is not for you or me to hesitate--within the hour I shall go on. We'll cross over, or we'll leave the bones of every man of the expedition here--this year--now!" Clark's florid face flushed under the sting of his comrade's words; but his response was manful and just. "You are right," said he at length. "Forgive me if for a moment--just a moment--I seemed to question the possibility of going forward. Give me a night to sleep. As I said, I am worn out. If I ever see Mr. Jefferson again, I shall tell him that all the credit for this expedition rests with you. I shall say that once I wavered, and that I had no cause. You do not waver--yet I know what excuse you would have for it." "You are only weary, Will. It is my turn now," said Meriwether Lewis; and he never told his friend of this last letter. A moment later he had called one of his men. "McNeal," said he, "get Reuben Fields, Whitehouse, and Goodrich. Make light packs. We are going into the mountains!" The four men shortly appeared, but they were silent, morose, moody. Those who were to remain in the camp shared their silence. Sacajawea alone smiled as they departed. "That way!" said she, pointing; and she knew that her chief would find the path. May we not wonder, in these later days, if any of us, who reap so carelessly and so selfishly where others have plowed and sown, reflect as we should upon the first cost of what we call our own? The fifteen million dollars paid for the vast empire which these men were exploring--that was little--that was naught. But ah, the cost in blood and toil and weariness, in love and loyalty and faith, in daring and suffering and heartbreak of those who went ahead! It was a few brave leaders who furnished the stark, unflinching courage for us all. Sergeant Ordway, with Pryor and Gass, met in one of the many little ominous groups that now began to form among the men in camp. Captain Clark was sleeping, exhausted. "It stands to reason," said Ordway, usually so silent, "that the way across the range is up one valley to the divide and down the next creek on the opposite side. That is the way we crossed the Alleghanies." Pryor nodded his head. "Sure," said he, "and all the game-trails break off to the south and southwest. Follow the elk!" "Is it so?" exclaimed Patrick Gass. "You think it aisy to find a way across yonder range? And how d'ye know jist how the Alleghanies was crossed first? Did they make it the first toime they thried? Things is aisy enough after they've been done _wance_--but it's the first toime that counts!" "There is no other way, Pat," argued Ordway. "'Tis the rivers that make passes in any mountain range." "Which is the roight river, then?" rejoined Gass. "We're lookin' for wan that mebbe is nowhere near here. S'pose we go to the top yonder and take a creek down, and s'pose that creek don't run the roight way at all, but comes out a thousand miles to the southwest--where are you then, I'd like to know? The throuble with us is we're the first wans to cross here, and not comin' along after some one else has done the thrick for us." Pryor was willing to argue further. "All the Injuns have said the big river was over there somewhere." "'Somewhere'!" exclaimed Patrick Gass. "'Somewhere' is a mighty long ways when we're lost and hungry!" "Which is just what we are now," rejoined Pryor. "The sooner we start back the quicker we'll be out of this." "Pryor!" The square face of the Irishman hardened at once. "Listen to me. Ye're my bunkmate and friend, but I warn ye not to say that agin! If ye said it where he could hear ye--that man ahead--do you know what he would do to you?" "I ain't particular. 'Tis time we took this thing into our own hands." "It's where we're takin' it _now_, Pryor!" said Gass ominously. "A coort martial has set for less than that ye've said!" "Mebbe you couldn't call one--I don't know." "Mebbe we couldn't, eh? I mind me of a little settlement I had with that man wance--no coort martial at all--me not enlisted at the toime, and not responsible under the arthicles of war. I said to his face I was of the belief I could lick him. I said it kindly, and meant no harm, because at the time it seemed to me I could, and 'twould be a pleasure to me. But boys, he hit me wan time, and when I came to I was careless whether it was the arthicles of war or not had hit me. Listen to me now, Pryor--and you, too, Ordway--a man like that is liable to have judgment in his head as well as a punch in his arm. We're safer to folly him than to folly ourselves. Moreover, I want you to say to your men that we will not have thim foregatherin' around and talkin' any disrespect to their shuperiors. If we're in a bad place, let us fight our ways out. Let's not turn back until we are forced. I never did loike any rooster in the ring that would either squawk or run away. That man yonder, on ahead, naded mighty little persuadin' to fight. I'm with him!" "Well, maybe you are right, Pat," said Ordway after a time. And so the mutiny once more halted. The tide changed quickly when it began to set the other way. Lewis led an advance party across the range. One day, deep in the mountains, he was sweeping the country with his spyglass, as was his custom. He gave a sudden exclamation. "What is it, Captain?" asked Hugh McNeal. "Some game?" "No, a man--an Indian! Riding a good horse, too--that means he has more horses somewhere. Come, we will call to him!" The wild rider, however, had nothing but suspicion for the newcomers. Staring at them, he wheeled at length and was away at top speed. Once more they were alone, and none the better off. "His people are that way," said Lewis. "Come!" But all that day passed, and that night, and still they found none of the natives. But they began to see signs of Indians now, fresh tracks, hoofprints of many horses. And thus finally they came upon two Indian women and a child, whom the white men surprised before they were able to escape. Lewis took up the child, and showed the mother that he was a friend. "These are Shoshones," said he to his men. "I can speak with them--I have learned some of their tongue from Sacajawea. These are her people. We are safe!" Sixty warriors met them, all mounted, all gorgeously clad. Again the great peace pipe, again the spread blanket inviting the council. The Shoshones showed no signs of hostility--the few words of their tongue which Lewis was able to speak gave them assurance. "McNeal," said Lewis, "go back now across the range, and tell Captain Clark to bring up the men." William Clark, given one night's sleep, was his energetic self again, and not in mind to lie in camp. He had already ordered camp broken, more of the heavier articles cached, the canoes concealed here and there along the stream and had pushed on after Lewis. He met McNeal coming down, bearing the tidings. Sacajawea ran on ahead in glee. "My people! My people!" she cried. They were indeed safe now. Sacajawea found her brother, the chief of this band of Shoshones, and was made welcome. She found many friends of her girlhood, who had long mourned her as dead. The girls and younger women laughed and wept in turn as they welcomed her and her baby. She was a great person. Never had such news as this come among the Shoshones.[5] [Footnote 5: Cam-e-ah-wit was the name of Sacajawea's brother, the Shoshone chief. The country where Lewis met him is remote from any large city today. Pass through the Gate of the Mountains, not far from Helena, Montana, and ascend the upper valley of the Missouri, as it sweeps west of what is now the Yellowstone Park, and one may follow with a certain degree of comfort the trail of the early explorers. If one should then follow the Jefferson Fork of the great river up to its last narrowing, one would reach the country of Cam-e-ah-wit. Here is the crest of the Continental Divide, where it sweeps up from the south, after walling in, as if in a vast cup, the three main sources of the great river. Much of that valley country is in fertile farms today. Lewis and Clark passed within twelve miles of Alder Gulch, which wrote roaring history in the early sixties--the wild placer days of gold-mining in Montana. As for Sacajawea, she has a monument--a very poor and inadequate one--in the city of Portland, Oregon. The crest of the Great Divide, where she met her brother, would have been a better place. It was here, in effect, that she ended that extraordinary guidance--some call it nothing less than providential--which brought the white men through in safety. Trace this Indian girl's birth and childhood, here among the Shoshones, who had fled to the mountains to escape the guns of the Blackfeet. Recall her capture here by the Minnetarees from the Dakota country. Picture her long journey thence to the east, on foot, by horse, in bull-hide canoes, many hundreds of miles, to the Mandan villages. It is something of a journey, even now. Reverse that journey, go against the swift current of the waters, beyond the Great Falls, past Helena, west of the Yellowstone Park, and up to the Continental Divide, where she met her brother. You will find that that is still more of a journey, even today, with roads, and towns, and maps to guide you. Meriwether Lewis could not have made it without her. While he was studying the courses of the stars, at Philadelphia, preparing to lead his expedition, Sacajawea was learning the story of nature also; and she was waiting to guide the white men when they reached the Mandan villages. Who guided her in such unbelievably strange fashion? The Indians sometimes made long journeys, their war parties traveled far, and their captives also; but in all the history of the tribes there is no record of a journey made by any Indian woman equal to that of Sacajawea. Why did she make it? What hand pointed out the way for her? A statue to her? She should have a thousand memorials along the old trail! Her name should be known familiarly by every school child in America!] All were now content to lie for a few days at the Shoshone village. A brisk trade in Indian horses now sprang up--they would be footmen no more. "Which way, Sacajawea?" Meriwether Lewis once more asked the Indian girl. But now she only shook her head. "Not know," said she. "These my people. They say big river that way. Not know which way." "Now, Merne," said William Clark, "it's my turn again. We have got to learn the best way out from these mountains. If there is a big river below, some of these valleys must run down to it. Their waters probably flow to the Columbia. The Indians talk of salmon and of white men--they have heard of goods which must have been made by white men. We are in touch with the Pacific here. I'll get a guide and explore off to the southwest. It looks better there." "No good--no good!" insisted Sacajawea. "That way no good. My brother say go that way." She pointed to the north, and insisted that the party should go in that direction. For a hundred miles Clark scouted down the headwaters of the Salmon River, and at last turned back, to report that neither horse nor boat ever could get through. At the Shoshone village, uneasy, the men were waiting for him. "That way!" said Sacajawea, still pointing north. The Indian guide, who had served Clark unwillingly, at length admitted that there was a trail leading across the mountains far up to the northward. "We will go north," said Lewis. They cached under the ashes of their camp fire such remaining articles as they could leave behind them. They had now a band of fifty horses. Partly mounted, mostly on foot, their half wild horses burdened, they set out once more under the guidance of an old Shoshone, who said he knew the way. Charbonneau wanted to remain with the Shoshones, and to keep with him Sacajawea, his wife, so recently reunited to her people. "No!" said Sacajawea. "I no go back--I go with the white chief to the water that tastes salt!" And it was so ordered. Their course lay along the eastern side of the lofty Bitter Root Mountains. The going was rude enough, since no trail had ever been here; but mile after mile, day after day, they stumbled through to some point on ahead which none knew except the guide. They came on a new tribe of Indians--Flatheads, who were as amazed and curious as the Shoshones had been at the coming of these white men. They received the explorers as friends--asked them to tarry, told them how dangerous it was to go into the mountains. But haste was the order of the day, and they left the Flatheads, rejoicing that these also told of streams to the westward up which the salmon came. They had heard of white men, too, to the west, many years before. Down the beautiful valley of the Bitter Root River, with splendid mountains on either side, they pressed on, and on the ninth of September, 1805, they stopped at the mouth of a stream coming down from the heights to the west. Their old guide pointed up this valley. "There is a trail," said he, "which comes across here. The Indians come to reach the buffalo. On the farther side the water runs toward the sunset." They were at the eastern extremity of that ancient trail, later called the Lolo Trail, known immemorially to the tribes on both sides of the mountains. Laboriously, always pressing forward, they ascended the eastern slopes of the great range, crossed the summit, found the clear waters on the west side, and so came to the Kooskooskie or Clearwater River, leading to the Snake. And always the natives marveled at these white men, the first they ever had seen. The old Indians still made maps on the sand for them, showing them how they would come to the great river where the salmon came. They were now among yet another people--the Nez Percés. With these also they smoked and counciled, and learned that it would be easy for boats to go all the way down to the great river which ran to the sea. "We will leave our horses here," said Lewis. "We will take to the boats once more." So Gass and Bratton and Shields and all the other artisans fell to fashioning dugouts from the tall pines and cedars, hewing and burning and shaping, until at length they had transports for their scanty store of goods. By the first week of October they were at the junction of their river with the Snake. An old medicine man of the Nez Percés, Twisted Hair, a man who also could make maps, had drawn them charts on a white skin with a bit of charcoal. And on ahead, mounted runners of the Indians rushed down to inform the tribes of the coming of these strange people. It was no longer an exploration, but a reception for them now. Bands of red men, who welcomed them, had heard of white men coming up from the sea. White men had once lived by the Tim-Tim water, on the great river of the salmon--so they had been told; but never had any living Indian heard of white men coming across the great mountains from the sunrise. "Will," said Lewis, "it is done--we are safe now! We shall be first across to the Columbia. This--" he shook the Nez Percés' scrawled hide--"is the map of a new world!" CHAPTER VIII TRAIL'S END Where lately had been gloom and despair there now reigned joy and confidence. With the great mountains behind them, and this new, pleasant and gentle land all around them, the spirits of the men rose buoyantly. They could float easily down the strong current of the great Snake River, laboring but little, if at all. They made long hours every day, and by the middle of autumn they saw ahead of them a yet grander flood than that of the noble river which was bearing them. At last they had found the Columbia! They had found what Mackenzie never found, what Fraser was not to find--that great river, now to be taken over with every right of double discovery by these messengers of the young republic. How swelled their hearts, when at last they knew this truth, unescapable, incontrovertible! It was theirs. They had won! The men had grown reckless now. Cruzatte, Labiche, Drouillard--all the adventurers--sang as they traveled, gayer and more gay from day to day. Always the landscape had fascinating interest for them in its repeated changes. They were in a different world. No one had seen the mountains which they saw. The Rockies, the Bitter Roots--these they had passed; and now they must yet pass through another range, this time not by the toilsome process of foot or horse travel, but on the strong flood of the river. The Columbia had made a trail for them through the Cascades. Down the stormy rapids they plunged exulting. Mount Hood, St. Helen's, Rainier, Adams--all the lofty peaks of the great Cascades, so named at a later date, appeared before them, around them, behind them, as they swung into the last lap of their wild journey and headed down toward the sea. Cruzatte, Labiche, Drouillard--all you others--time now, indeed, for you to raise the song of the old voyageurs! None have come so far as you--your paddles are wrinkling new waters. You are brave men, every one, and yours is the reward of the brave! Soon, so said the Indians, they would come to ships--canoes with trees standing in them, on which teepees were hung. "Me," said Cruzatte, "I never in my whole life was seen a sheep! I will be glad for see wan now." But they found no ship anywhere in the lower Columbia. All the shores were silent, deserted; no vessel lay at anchor. Before them lay the empty river, wide as a sea, and told no tales of what had been. They were alone, in the third year out from home. Thousands of leagues they had traveled, and must travel back again. Here they saw many gulls. As to Columbus these birds had meant land, to our discoverers they meant the sea. Forty miles below the last village they saw it--rolling in solemn, white-topped waves beyond the bar. Every paddle ceased at its work, and the boats lay tossing on the incoming waves. There was the end of the great trail. Yonder lay the Pacific! Meriwether Lewis turned and looked into the eyes of William Clark, who sat at the bow of the next canoe. Each friend nodded to the other. Neither spoke. The lips of both were tight. "The big flag, Sergeant Gass!" said Lewis. They turned ashore. There had been four mess fires at each encampment thus far--those of the three sergeants and that of the officers; but now, as they huddled on the wet beach on which they disembarked, the officers ordered the men to build but one fire, and that a large one. Grouped about this they all stood, ragged, soaked, gaunt, unkempt, yet the happiest company of adventurers that ever followed a long trail to its end. "Men," said Meriwether Lewis at length, "we have now arrived at the end of our journey. In my belief there has never been a party more loyal to the purpose on which it has been engaged. Without your strength and courage we could not have reached the sea. It is my wish to thank you for Mr. Jefferson, the President of the United States, who sent us here. If at any time one of you has been disposed to doubt, or to resent conditions which necessarily were imposed, let all that be forgotten. We have done our work. Here we must pass the winter. In the spring we will make quick time homeward." They gave him three cheers, and three for Captain Clark. York gave expression to his own emotions by walking about the beach on his hands. "And the confounded ships are all gone back to sea!" grumbled Patrick Gass. "I've been achin' for days to git here, in the hope of foindin' some sailor man I'd loike to thrash--and here is no one at all, at all!" "Will," said Meriwether Lewis after a time, pulling out the inevitable map, "I wonder where it was that Alexander Mackenzie struck the Pacific twelve years ago! It must have been far north of here. We have come around forty-seven degrees of longitude west from Washington, and something like nine degrees north unite with France or Spain on the south to known exploration by land. We have driven the wedge home! Never again can Great Britain on the north unite with France or Spain on the south to threaten our western frontier. If they dispute the title we purchased from Napoleon, they can never deny our claim by right of discovery. This, I say, solidifies our republic! We have done the work given us to do." "Yes," grinned William Clark, standing on one leg and warming his wet moccasin sole at the fire; "and I wonder where that other gentleman, Mr. Simon Fraser, is just now!" They could not know that Fraser, the trader who was their rival in the great race to the Pacific, was at that time snow-bound in the Rockies more than one thousand miles north of them. Three years after the time when this little band of adventurers stood in the rain at the mouth of the Columbia, Fraser, at the mouth of the river named after him, heard of white men who had come to the ocean somewhere far to the south. Word had passed up the coast, among the native tribes, of men who had white skins, and who had with them a black man with curly hair. "That's Lewis and Clark!" said Simon Fraser. "They were at the Mandan villages. We are beaten!" So now the largest flag left to Lewis and Clark floated by the side of a single fire on the wet beach on the north shore of the Columbia. Here a rude bivouac was pitched, while the leaders finished their first hasty investigation along the beach. "There is little to attract us here," said William Clark. "On the south shore there is better shelter for our winter camp." So they headed their little boats across the wide flood of the Columbia. It was now December of the year 1805. Fort Clatsop, as they called their new stockade, was soon in process of erection--seven splendid cabins, built of the best-working wood these men ever had seen; a tall stockade with a gate, such as their forefathers had always built in any hostile country. While some worked, others hunted, finding the elk abundant. More than one hundred elk and many deer were killed. And having nothing better, they now set to work to tan the hides of elk and deer, and to make new clothing. As to civilized equipment they had little left. About four hundred pairs of moccasins they made that winter, Sacajawea presiding over the moccasin-boards, and teaching the men to sew. Clark, the indefatigable, a natural geographer, completed the remarkable series of maps which so fully established the accuracy of their observations and the usefulness of the voyage across the continent. Lewis kept up his records and extended his journals. All were busy, all happier than they had been since their departure from the East. Christmas was once more celebrated to the tune of the Frenchman's fiddle. Came New Year's Day also; and by that time the stockade was finished, the gate was up, the men were ready for any fortune which might occur. "Pretty soon, by and by," said the voyageurs, "we will run on the river for home once more!" Even Sacajawea, having fulfilled her great ambition of looking out over the sea which tasted of salt, said that she, too, would be content to go back to her people. "We must leave a record, Will," said Lewis one day, looking up from his papers. "We must take no chances of the results of our exploration not reaching Washington. Should we be lost among the tribes east of here, perhaps some ship may take that word to Mr. Jefferson." So now, between them, they formulated that famous announcement to the world, which, one year after their safe arrival home overland, the ships brought around by Cape Horn, to advise the world that a transcontinental path had been blazed: The object of this list is that through the medium of some civilized person who may see the same, it may be made known to the world that the party consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the government of the United States to explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate the same by the way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the Pacific Ocean, where they arrived on the 14th day of November, 1805, and departed the 23rd day of March, 1806, on their return trip to the United States by the same route by which they had come out. This, so soon as they knew their starting date, they signed, each of them, and copies were made for posting here and there in such places as naturally would be discovered by any mariners coming in. And today we--who can glibly list the names of the multimillionaires of America--cannot tell the names of more than two of those thirty-one men, each of whom should be an immortal. "Boats now, Will!" said Meriwether Lewis. "We must have boats against our start in the spring. These canoes which brought us down from the Kooskooskie were well enough in their way, but will not serve for the upstream journey. Again we must lift up the entire party against the current of a great river. Get some of the Indians' seagoing canoes, Will--their lines are easier than those of our dugouts." Need was for skilful trading now on the part of William Clark, for, eager as the natives were for the white men's goods, scant store of them remained. All the fishhooks were gone, most of the beads, practically all the hats and coats which once had served so well. When at length Clark announced that he had secured a fine Chinook canoe, there remained for all the return voyage, thousands of miles among the Indians, only a half-dozen blankets, a few little trinkets, a hat, and a uniform coat. "You could tie up all the rest in a couple of handkerchiefs," said William Clark, laughing. "But such as it is, it must last us back to St. Louis--or at least to our caches on the Missouri." "How is your salt, Will?" asked Lewis. "And your powder?" "In fine shape," was the reply. "We have put the new-made salt in some of the empty canisters. There is plenty of powder and lead left, and we can pick up more as we reach our caches going eastward. With what dried meat we can lay up from the elk here, we ought to make a good start." Thus they planned, these two extraordinary young men, facing a transcontinental journey of four thousand miles, with no better equipment than the rifles which had served them on their way out. As for their followers, all the discontent and doubt had given way to an implicit faith. All seemed well fed and content, save one--the man on whose shoulders had rested the gravest responsibility, the man in whose soul had been born the vision of this very scene. "What is the matter with you, Merne?" grumbled his more buoyant companion. "Are you still carrying all the weight of the entire world?" Lewis turned upon his friend with the same patient smile. Both were conscious that between them there was growing a thin, impermeable veil--something mysterious, the only barrier which ever had separated these two loyal souls. Sacajawea, the Indian girl, was as keen-eyed as the red-headed chief. In the new boldness that she had learned in her position as general pet of the expedition, she would sometimes talk to the chief reproachfully. "Capt'in," she said one day, "what for you no laff? What for you no eat? What for you all time think, think, think? See," she extended a hand--"I make you some more moccasin. I got picture your foot--these fit plenty good." "Thank you, Bird Woman," said Lewis, rousing himself. "Without you we would not be here today. What can I give you in return for all that--in return for these?" He took the pair of handsomely stitched moccasins, dangling them by the strings over one finger; but even as he did so, the old brooding melancholy fell upon him once more. He sat, forgetful of the girl's presence, staring moodily at the fire. Sacajawea, grieving like a little child, stole silently away. Why did Meriwether Lewis never laugh? Why did he always think, think, think? Why had there grown between him and his friend that thin, indefinable reserve? He was hungry--hungry for another message out of the sky--another gift of manna in the wilderness. Who had brought those mysterious letters? Whoever he was, why did he not bring another? Were they all done--should he never hear from her again? CHAPTER IX THE SUMMONS The winter was wearing away. The wild fowl were passing northward, landward. The game had changed its haunts. March was coming, the month between the seasons for the tribes, the time of want, the leanest period of the year. Meriwether Lewis, alone one morning in the comfortable cabin which served as a house for himself and his friend, sat pondering on these things, as was his wont. His little Indian dog, always his steady companion, had taken its place on the top of the flatted stump which served as a desk, near the maps and papers which Lewis had pushed away. Here the small creature sat, motionless, mute, its eyes fixed adoringly upon its master. The captain did not notice it. He did not at first hear the rap on the door, nor the footfall of the man who entered inquiringly. "Yes, Sergeant Ordway?" said he presently, looking up. Ordway saluted. "Something for you, sir. It seems to be a letter." "A letter! How could that be?" "That is the puzzle, sir," said Ordway, extending a folded and sealed bit of paper. "We do not know how it came. Charbonneau's wife, the Indian woman, found it in the baby's hammock just now. She brought it to me, and I saw it was addressed to you. It must have been overlooked by you some time." "Possibly--possibly," said Lewis. His face was growing pale. "That is all, I think, Sergeant," he added. Now alone, he turned toward the letter, which lay upon the table. His face lighted with a wondrous smile, though none might see it save the little dog which watched his every movement. For Meriwether Lewis had received once more the thing for which every fiber of his being clamored! He knew, without one look, that the number scratched in the wax of the seal would be the figure "4." He opened the letter slowly. There fell from it a square of stiff, white paper--all white, he thought, until he turned it over. Then he saw it looking up at him--her face indeed! It was a little silhouette in black, done in that day before the camera, when small portraits were otherwise well-nigh impossible. The artist, skilled as were many in this curious form of portraiture, had done his work well. Lewis gazed with a sudden leap of his pulses upon the features outlined before him--the profile so cleanly cut and lofty--the hair low over the forehead, the chin round and firm, yet delicate and womanly withal. Here even the long lashes of her eyes were visible, just as in life. Yes, it was her face! [Illustration: "Her face indeed!"] And now he read the letter, which covered many closely written sheets: Meriwether Lewis, I said to you that my face should come to you, wherever you might be. This time it has been long--I cannot tell how long. That is for my messenger to determine, not for you or me. But that it has been long I shall know, else long since there would have been no need of my adding this letter to the others. Not one of them has served to bring you back! Since you now have this one, let it advise you that she who wrote it is grieved that you gaze upon this little portrait, and not upon the face of her whom it represents. 'Tis a monstrous good likeness, they tell me; but would you not rather it were myself? Where are you? I cannot tell. What adversities have been yours? I cannot tell that. You cannot know what grief you have caused by your long absence. You cannot know how many hearts you have made sad. You cannot know how you have delayed--destroyed--plans made for you. We are in ignorance, each of the other, now. I do not know where you are--you do not know where I may be. A great wall arises between us. A great gulf is fixed. We cannot touch hands across it. As I know, this will not move you; but I cannot restrain this reproach. I cannot help telling you that you have made me suffer by your silence, by your absence. Do I make you suffer by looking at you with reproach in my eyes--as I do now? You have forgotten your childhood friend! I may be dead as you read--would you care? I have been in need--yet you have not come to comfort me and to dry my tears. Figure to yourself what has happened to all my plans and dreams for you. Even I cannot tell of that, because, as I write, it all lies in the future--that future which is the present for you as you sit reading this. All I know is that as you read it my appeal has failed. I can but guess how or where these presents may find you; for how shall I know how wise or how faithful my messenger has been? Are you on the prairie still, Meriwether Lewis? Is it winter? Does the snow lie deep? Are the winds keen and biting? Are you well fed? Are you warm? Have you bodily comforts? Have you physical well-being? How can I answer all these questions? Yet they come to my mind as I write. Are you in the mountains? Were there, after all, those great Stony Mountains of which men told fables? Have you found the great unicorn or the mammoth or the mastadon which Mr. Jefferson said you were likely to meet? Have you found the dinosaur or the dragon or the great serpents of a foregone day? Suppose you have. What do they weigh with me--with you? Are they so much to you as you thought they would be? Is the taste of all your triumphs so sweet as you have dreamed, Meriwether Lewis? Have you grown savage, my friend--have you come to be just a man like the others? Tell me--no, I will not ask you! If I thought you could descend to the lawless standard of the wilderness--but no, I cannot think of that! In any case, 'tis too late now. You have not come back to me. You see, I am writing not so much to implore you to return as to reproach you for not returning. By the time this reaches you, it will be too late in our plans. We could not afford to wait months--three months, four, six--has it been so long as that since you left us? If so, it is too late now. If we have failed, why did we fail? They told me--my father and his friends--and I told you plainly, that if your expedition went on, then our plan must fail. But now I must presume that you have succeeded, or by this time are beyond the feeling of either success or failure. If you have failed, it is too late for us to succeed. If you have succeeded, then certainly we have failed. As you read this, you may be doing so with hope. I, who wrote it, will be sitting in despair. Meriwether Lewis, come back to me, even so! It will be too late for you to aid me. You will have ruined all our hopes. But yours still will be the task--the duty--to look me in the face and say whether you owe aught to me. Can I forgive you? Why, yes, I could never do aught else than forgive. No matter what you did, I fear I should forgive you. Because, after all, my own wish in all this---- Ah! let me write slowly here, and think very carefully! My greatest wish in this, greater than any ambition I had for myself or my family--_has been for you!_ See, I am writing those words--would I dare tell them to any other man in all the world? Nay, surely not. But that I trust you, the very writing itself is proof. And I write this to you, who never can be to me what man must be to woman if either is to be happy--the man to whom I can never be what woman must be if she is to mean all to any man. Apart forever! We are estranged by circumstance, sundered by that, if you please, weak as those words seem. And yet something takes your soul to mine. Does something take mine to you, across all the wilderness, across all the miles, across all the long and bitter months? I say to you once more that in all this my demand upon you has not been for myself, nor wholly for my father. Let me be careful here. This impassable gulf is fixed between us for all our lives. Neither of us may cross it. But I have been desirous to see you stand among men, where you belong. Do not ask me why I wished that--you must never ask me. I am Mrs. Alston, even as I write. And as for you? Are you in rags as you read this? Are you cold and hungry? Are you alone, aloof, deserted, perhaps suffering, with none to comfort you? I cannot aid you. Nay, I shall punish you once more, and say that it was your desire--that you brought this on yourself--that you would have it thus, in spite of all my intervention for you. Moreover, you shall say to yourself always: "She asked and I refused her!" Nay, nay! I shall not be so cruel. I shall not say that at all. Let me mark that out! Because, if I write that, you will think I wish to hurt you. And, my friend, let me admit the truth--the truth I ought not to lay upon you as any secret--_I could never wish to hurt you._ They say that men far away in the wilderness sometimes long for the sight of the face of a woman. See, now you have that! I look up at you! What is your impulse? I am alone with you--I am in your hands--treat me, therefore, with honor, I pray you! You must not raise my face to yours, must not bend yours to mine. See now, measure my trust in you, Meriwether Lewis! Estimate the great confidence I hold in you as a gentleman because--do you not see?--a gentleman does not kiss the woman whom he has at a disadvantage--the woman who can never be his, who is another's. Is it not true? Happiness is not for us. We are so far apart. I am sad. Good night, Meriwether Lewis! I, too, have your picture by me--the one you gave me years ago when I was in Virginia. And it--good night, Mr. Meriwether Lewis! Place me apart--far from you in the room. Let my face not look at you direct. But in your heart--your hard heart of a man, intent on dreams, forgetful of all else--please, please let there linger some small memory of her who dares to write these lines--and who hopes that you never may see them! CHAPTER X THE ABYSS The little Indian dog sat on the table, silent, motionless, looking at its master, whose head was bowed upon his arms. Now and then it had stooped as if it would have looked in his face, but dared not, if for very excess of love. It turned an inquiring eye to the door, which, after a time, opened. William Clark, silent, stood once more at the side of his friend. He looked on the sad and haggard face which was turned toward him, and fell back. His eye caught sight of the folded paper crushed between Lewis's fingers. He asked no questions, but he knew. "Enough!" broke out Meriwether Lewis hoarsely. "No more of this--we must be gone! Are the men ready? Why do we delay? Why are we not away for the journey home?" So impatient, so incoherent, did his speech seem that for a time Clark almost feared lest his friend's reason might have been affected. But he only stood looking at Lewis, ready to be of such aid as might be. "In two hours, Merne," said he, "we will be on our way." It was now near the end of March. They dated and posted up their bulletins. They had done their task. They had found the great river, they had found the sea, they had mapped the way across the new continent. Their glorious work had gloriously been done. Such was their joy at starting home again, the boatmen disregarded the down-coming current of the great waters--they sang at the paddles, jested. Only their leader was silent and unsmiling, and he drove them hard. Short commons they knew often enough before they reached the mouth of the Walla Walla, where they found friendly Indians who gave them horse meat--which seemed exceedingly good food. The Nez Percés, whose country was reached next beyond the Walla Wallas, offered guides across the Bitter Roots, but now the snow lay deep, the horses could not travel. For weeks they lay in camp on the Kooskooskie, eating horse meat as the Indians then were doing, waiting, fretting. It was the middle of June before they made the effort to pass the Bitter Roots. Sixty horses they had now, with abundance of jerked horse meat, and a half-dozen Nez Percés guides. By the third of July--just three years from the date of the Louisiana Purchase as it was made known at Mr. Jefferson's simplicity dinner--they were across the Bitter Roots once more, in the pleasant valleys of the eastern slope. "That way," said Sacajawea, pointing, "big falls!" She meant the short cut across the string of the bow, which would lead over the Continental Divide direct to the Great Falls of the Missouri. Both the leaders had pondered over this short cut, which the Nez Percés knew well. "We must part, Will," said Meriwether Lewis. "It is our duty to learn all we can of this wonderful country. I will take the Indian trail straight across. Do you go on down the way we came. Pick up our caches above the three forks of the Missouri, and then cross over the mountains to the Yellowstone. Make boats there, and come on down to the mouth of that river. You should precede me there, perhaps, by some days. Wait then until I come." With little more ado these self-reliant men parted in the middle of the vast mountain wilderness. They planned a later junction of their two parties at the mouth of a river which then was less known than the Columbia had been, through a pass which none of them had ever seen. Lewis had with him nine men, among them Sergeant Gass, the two Fields boys, Drouillard and Cruzatte, the voyageurs. Sacajawea, in spite of her protest, remained with the Clark party, where her wonderful knowledge of the country again proved invaluable. This band advanced directly to the southward by easy and pleasant daily stages. "That way short path over mountains," said Sacajawea at length, at one point of their journey. She pointed out the Big Hole Trail and what was later known as Clark's Pass over the Continental Divide. They came to a new country, a beautiful valley where the grass was good; but Sacajawea still pointed onward. "That way," said she, "find boat, find cache!" She showed them another gap in the hills, as yet unknown; and so led them out by a short cut directly to the caches on the Jefferson! But they could not tarry long. Boots and saddles again, pole and paddle also, for now some of the men must take to the boats while others brought on the horses. At the Three Forks rendezvous they made yet other changes, for here the boats must be left. Captain Clark must cross the mountain range to the eastward to find the Yellowstone, of which the Indian girl had told him. Yonder, she said, not quite a full day's march through a notch in the lofty mountains, they would come to the river, which ran off to the east. Not one of them had ever heard of that gap in the hills; there was no one to guide them through it except the Indian girl, whose memory had hitherto been so positive and so trustworthy. They trusted her implicitly. "That way!" she said. Always she pointed on ahead confidently; and always she was right. She was laying out the course of a railroad which one day should come up the Yellowstone and cross here to the Missouri. They found it to be no more than eighteen or twenty miles, Sacajawea's extraordinary short cut between the Missouri and the Yellowstone. They struck the latter river below the mouth of its great cañon, found good timber, and soon were busy felling great cottonwoods to make dugout canoes. Two of these, some thirty feet in length, when lashed side by side, served to carry all their goods and some of their party. The rest--Pryor, Shannon, Hall and one or two others--were to come on down with the horses. The mounted men did well enough until one night the Crows stole all their horses, and left them on foot in the middle of the wilderness. Not daunted, they built themselves boats of bull hide, as they had seen Indians do, and soon they followed on down the river, they could not tell how far, to the rear of the main boat party. With the marvelous good fortune which attended the entire expedition, they had no accident; and in time they met the other explorers at the mouth of the Yellowstone, after traveling nine hundred miles on a separate voyage of original discovery! It was on the eighth of August that the last of Clark's boats arrived at the Yellowstone rendezvous. His men felt now as if they were almost at home. The Mandan villages were not far below. As soon as Captain Lewis should come, they would be on their way, rejoicing. Patient, hardy, uncomplaining, they did not know that they were heroes. What of Lewis, then gone so long? He and his men were engaged in the yet more dangerous undertaking of exploring the country of the dreaded Blackfeet, known to bear arms obtained from the northern traders. They reached the portage of the Great Falls without difficulty, and eagerly examined the caches which they had left there. Now they were to divide their party. "Sergeant Gass," said Captain Lewis, "I am going to leave you here. You will get the baggage and the boats below the falls, and take passage on down the river. Six of you can attend to that. I shall take Drouillard and the Fields boys with me, and strike off toward the north and east, where I fancy I shall find the upper portion of Maria's River. When you come to the mouth of that river--which you will remember some of you held to be the real Missouri--you will go into camp and wait for us. You will remain there until the first day of September. If by that time we have not returned, you will pass on down the Missouri to Captain Clark's camp, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and go home with him. By that time it will have become evident that we shall not return. I plan to meet you at the mouth of Maria's River somewhere about the beginning of August." They parted, and it was almost by a miracle that they ever met again; for now the perils of the wilderness asserted themselves even against the marvelous good fortune which had thus far attended them. Hitherto, practically all the tribes met had been friendly, but now they were in the country of the dreaded Blackfeet, who by instinct and training were hostile to all whites coming in from the south and east. A party of these warriors was met on the second day of their northbound journey from the Missouri River. Lewis gave the Indians such presents as he could, and, as was his custom, told them of his purpose in traveling through the country. He showed no fear of them, although he saw his own men outnumbered ten to one. The two parties, the little band of white men and the far more numerous band of Blackfeet, lay down to sleep that night in company. But the Blackfeet were unable to resist the temptation to attain sudden wealth by seizing the horses and guns of these strangers. Toward dawn Lewis himself, confident in the integrity of his guests, and dozing for a time, felt the corner of his robe pulled, felt something spring on his face, heard a noise. His little dog was barking loudly, excitedly. He was more fully awakened by the sound of a shout, and then by a shot. Springing from his robes, he saw Drouillard and both of the Fields boys on their feet, struggling with the savages, who were trying to wrench their rifles from them. "Curse you, turn loose of me!" cried Reuben Fields. He fought for a time longer with his brawny antagonist, till he saw others coming. Then his hand went to the long knife at his belt, and the next instant the Blackfoot lay dead at his feet. Drouillard wrenched his rifle free and stood off his man for a moment, shouting all the time to his leader that the Indians were trying to get the horses. Lewis saw the thieves tugging at the picket-ropes, and hastened into the fray, cursing himself for his own credulity. A giant Blackfoot engaged him, bull-hide shield advanced, battle-ax whirling; but wresting himself free, Lewis fired point-blank into his body, and another Indian fell dead. The Blackfeet found they had met their match. They dropped the picket-ropes and ran as fast as they could, jumped into the river, swam across, and so escaped, leaving the little party of whites unhurt, but much disturbed. "Mount, men! Hurry!" Lewis ordered. As quickly as they could master the frightened horses, his men obeyed. With all thought of further exploration ended, they set out at top speed, and rode all that day and night as fast as the horses could travel. They had made probably one hundred and twenty miles when at length they came to the mouth of the Maria's River, escaped from the most perilous adventure any of them had had. Here again, by that strange good fortune which seemed to guide them, they arrived just in time to see the canoes of Gass and his men coming down the Missouri. These latter had made the grand portage at the falls, had taken up all the caches, and had brought the contents with them. The stars still fought for the Volunteers for the Discovery of the West. There was no time to wait. The Blackfeet would be coming soon. Lewis abandoned his horses here. The entire party took to the boats, and hurried down the river as fast as they could, paddling in relays, day and night. Gaunt, eager, restless, moody, silent, their leader neither urged his men nor chided them, nor did he refer to the encounter with the Blackfeet. He did not need to, with Drouillard to describe it to them all a dozen times. At times it was necessary for the boats to stop for meat, usually a short errand in a country alive with game; and, as was his custom, Lewis stepped ashore one evening to try for a shot at some near by game--elk, buffalo, antelope, whatever offered. He had with him Cruzatte, the one-eyed Frenchman. It was now that fortune frowned ominously almost for the first time. The two had not been gone more than a few minutes when the men remaining at the boat heard a shot--then a cry, and more shouting. Cruzatte came running back to them through the bushes, calling out at the top of his voice: "The captain! I've keeled him--I've keeled the captain--I've shot him!" "What is that you're saying?" demanded Patrick Gass. "If you've done that, you would be better dead yourself!" He reached out, caught Cruzatte's rifle, and flung it away from him. "Where is he?" he demanded. Cruzatte led the way back. "I see something move on the bushes," said he, "and I shoot. It was not elk--it was the captain. _Mon Dieu_, what shall we do?" They found Captain Lewis sitting up, propped against a clump of willows, his legging stripped to the thigh. He was critically examining the path of the bullet, which had passed through the limb. At seeing him still alive, his men gave a shout of joy, and Cruzatte received a parting kick from his sergeant. There were actual tears in the eyes of some of the men as they gathered around their commander--tears which touched Meriwether Lewis deeply. "It is all right, men!" said he. "Do not be alarmed. Do not reprove the man too much. The sight of a little blood should not trouble you. We are all soldiers. This is only an accident of the trail, and in a short time it will be mended. See, the bone is not broken!" They aided him back to the boats and made a bed upon which he might lie, his head propped up so that he could see what lay ahead. Other men completed the evening hunt, and the boats hurried on down the river. The next day found them fifty miles below the scene of the accident. "Sergeant," said Meriwether Lewis, "the natural fever of my wound is coming on. Give me my little war-sack yonder--I must see if I can find some medicine." Gass handed him his bag of leather, and Lewis sought in it for a moment. His hand encountered something that crinkled in the touch--crinkled familiarly! For one instant he stopped, his lips compressed as if in bodily pain. It was another of the mysterious letters! Before he opened it, he looked at it, frowning, wondering. Whence came these messages, and how, by whose hand? All of them must have been written before he left St. Louis in May of 1804. Now it was August of 1806. There was no human agency outside his own party that could have carried them. How had they reached him? What messenger had brought them? He forgot the fever of his wound in another and greater fever which arose in his blood. He was with his men now, their eyes were on him all the time. What should he do--cast this letter from him into the river? If he did so, he felt that it would follow him mysteriously, pointing to the _corpus delicti_ of his crime, still insistent on coming to the eye! His men, therefore, saw their leader casually open a bit of paper. They had seen him do such things a thousand times, since journals and maps were a part of the daily business of so many of them. What he did attracted no attention. Captain Lewis would have felt relieved had it attracted more. Before he read any of the words that lay before him, in this same delicate handwriting that he knew so well, he cast a slow and searching gaze upon the face of every man that was turned toward him. In fact, he held the letter up to view rather ostentatiously, hoping that it would evoke some sign; but he saw none. He had not been in touch with the main party for more than a month. He had with him nine men. Which of these had secretly carried the letter? Was it Gass, Cruzatte, Drouillard, Reuben Fields, or McNeal? He studied their faces alternately. Not an eyelash flickered. The men who looked at him were anxious only for his comfort. There was no trace of guilty knowledge on any of these honest countenances before him, and he who sought such admitted his own failure. Meriwether Lewis lay back on his couch in the boat, as far as ever from his solution of the mystery. After all, mere curiosity as to the nature of that mystery was a small matter. It seemed of more worth to feel, as he did, that the woman who had planned this system of surprises for him was one of no ordinary mind. And it was no ordinary woman who had written the words that he now read: SIR AND MY FRIEND: Almost I am in despair. This is my fifth letter; you receive it, perhaps, some months after your start. I think you would have come back before now, if that had been possible. I had no news of you, and now I dread news. Should you still be gone a year from the time I write this, then I shall know that you were dead. Dead? Yes, I have written that word! The swift thought comes to me that you will never see this at all--that it may, it must, arrive too late. Yet I must send it, even under that chance. I must write it, though it ruin all my happiness. Shall it come to you too late, others will take it to my husband. Then this secret--the one secret of my life--will be known. Ah, I hope this may come to your eyes, your living eyes; but should it not, _none the less I must write it_. What matter? If it should be read by any after your death, that would be too late to make difference with you, or any difference for me. After that I should not care for anything--not even that then others would know what I would none might ever know save you and my Creator, so long as we both still lived. This wilderness which you love, the wilderness to which you fled for your comfort--what has it done for you? Have you found that lonely grave which is sometimes the reward of the adventurer thither? If so, do you sleep well? I shall envy you, if that is true. I swear I often would let that thought come to me--of the vast comfort of the plains, of the mountains--the sweep of the untiring winds, sweet in the trees and grasses--or the perpetual sound of water passing by, washing out, to the voice of its unending murmurs, all memory of our trials, of our sins. What need now to ask you to come back? What need to reproach you any further? How could I--how can I--with this terrible thought in my soul that I am writing to a man whose eyes cannot see, whose ears cannot hear? Still, what difference, whether or not you be living? Have not your eyes thus far been blind to me? Have not your ears been deaf to me, even when I spoke to you direct? It was the call of your country as against my call. Was ever thinking woman who could doubt what a strong man would do? I suppose I ought to have known. But oh, the longing of a woman to feel that she is something greater in a man's life even than his deeds and his ambitions--even than his labors--even than his patriotism! It is hard for us to feel that we are but puppets in the great game of life, of so small worth to any man. How can we women read their hearts--what do we know of men? I cannot say, though I am a married woman. My husband married me. We had our honeymoon--and he went away about the business of his plantations. Does every girl dream of a continuous courtship and find a dull answer in the facts? I do not know. How freely I write to you, seeing that you are blind and deaf, of that wish of a woman to be the one grand passion of a strong man's life--above all--before even his country! What may once have been my own dream of my capacity to evoke such emotions in the soul of any man I have flung into the scrap-heap of my life. The man, the one man--no! What was I saying, Meriwether Lewis, to you but now, even though you were blind and deaf? I must not--I _must_ not! Nay, let me dream no more! It is too late now. Living or dead, you are deaf and blind to all that I could ever do for you. But if you be still living, if this shall meet your living eyes, however cold and clear they may be, please, please remember it was not for myself alone that I took on the large ambitions of which I have spoken to you, the large risks engaged with them. Nay, do not reproach me; leave me my woman's right to make all the reproaches. I only wanted to do something for you. I have not written so freely to any man in all my life. I could not do so now did I not feel in some strange way that by this time--perhaps at this very time--you are either dead or in some extreme of peril. If I _knew_ that you would see this, I could not write it. As it is, it gives me some relief--it is my confessional. How often does a woman ever confess her own, her inner and real heart? Never, I think, to any man--certainly not to any living, present man. I married; yes. It seemed the ordinary and natural thing to do, a useful, necessary, desirable thing to do. I should not complain--I did that with my eyes well opened and with full counsel of my father. My eyes well opened, but my heart well closed! I took on my duties as one of the species human, my duties as wife, as head of a household, as lady of a certain rank. I did all that, for it is what most women would do. It is the system of society. My husband is content. What am I writing now? Arguing, justifying, defending? Ah, were it possible that you would read this and come back to me, never, never, though it killed me, would I open my heart to you! I write only to a dead man, I say--to one who can never hear. I write once more to a man who set other things above all that I could have done. Deeds, deeds, what you call your country--your own impulses--these were the things you placed above me. You placed above me this adventuring into the wilderness. Yes, I know what are the real impulses in your man's life. I know what you valued above me. But you are dead! While you lived, I hoped your conscience was clean. I hope that never once have you descended to any conduct not belonging to Meriwether Lewis of Virginia. I know that no matter what temptation was yours, you would remember that I was Mrs. Alston--and that you were Meriwether Lewis of Virginia. Nay, I _cannot_ stop! How can you mind my garrulous pen--my vain pen--my wicked, wicked, wicked, shameful pen--since you cannot see what it says? Ah, I had so hoped once more to see you before it was too late! Should this not reach you, and should it reach others, why, let it go to all the world that Theodosia Burr that was, Mrs. Alston of Carolina that is, once ardently importuned a man to join her in certain plans for the betterment of his fortunes as well as her own; and that you did not care to share in those plans! So I failed. And further--let that also go out to the world--I glory in the truth _that I have failed_! Yes, that at last is the truth at the bottom of my heart! I have searched it to the bottom, and I have found the truth. I glory in the truth that you have _not_ come back to me. There--have I not said all that a woman could say to a man, living or dead? Just as strongly as I have urged you to return, just as strongly I have hoped that you would not return! In my soul I wanted to see you go on in your own fashion, following your own dreams and caring not for mine. That was the Meriwether Lewis I had pictured to myself. I shall glory in my own undoing, if it has meant your success. Holding to your own ambition, keeping your own loyalty, holding your own counsel and your own speech to the end--pushing on through everything to what you have set out to do--that is the man I could have loved! Deeds, deeds, high accomplishments--these in truth are the things which are to prevail. The selfish love of success as success--the love of ease, of money, of power--these are the things women covet _from_ a man--yes, but they are not the things a woman _loves in_ a man. No; it is the stiff-necked man, bound in his own ambition, whom women love, even as they swear they do not. _Therefore, do not come back to me_, Meriwether Lewis! Do not come--forget all that I have said to you before--do not return until you have done your work! Do not come back to me until you can come content. Do not come to me with your splendid will broken. Let it triumph even over the will of a Burr, not used to yielding, not easily giving up anything desired. This is almost the last letter I shall ever write to any man in all my life. I wonder who will read it--you, or all the world, perhaps! I wish it might rest with you at the last. Oh, let this thought lie with you as you sleep--you did not come back to me, _and I rejoiced that you did not_! Tell me, why is it that I think of you lying where the wind is sweet in the trees? Why is it that I think of myself, too, lying at last, with all my doubts composed, all my restless ambitions ended, all my foolish dreams answered--in some place where the sound of the unceasing waters shall wash out from the memory of the world all my secrets and all my sins? Always I hear myself crying: "I hope I shall not be unhappy, for I do not feel that I have been bad." Adieu, Meriwether Lewis, adieu! I am glad you can never read this. I am glad that you have not come back. I am glad that I have failed! CHAPTER XI THE BEE "Captain, dear," said honest Patrick Gass, putting an arm under his wounded commander's shoulders as he eased his position in the boat, "ye are not the man ye was when ye hit me that punch back yonder on the Ohio, three years ago. Since ye're so weak now, I have a good mind to return it to ye, with me compliments. 'Tis safer now!" Gass chuckled at his own jest as his leader looked up at him. The boiling current of the great Missouri, bend after bend, vista after vista, had carried them down until at length they had reached the mouth of the Yellowstone, and had seen on ahead the curl of blue smoke on the beach--the encampment of their companions, who were waiting for them here. These wonderful young men, these extraordinary wilderness travelers, had performed one more miracle. Separated by leagues of wild and unknown land, they met now casually, as though it were only what should be expected. Their feat would be difficult even today. William Clark, walking up and down along the bank, looking ever upstream for some sign of his friend, hurried down to meet the boats, and gazed anxiously at the figure lifted in the arms of the men. "What's wrong, Merne?" he exclaimed. "Tell me!" Lewis waved a hand at him in reassurance, and smiled as his friend bent above him. "Nothing at all, Will," said he. "Nothing at all--I was playing elk, and Cruzatte thought it very lifelike! It is just a bullet through the thigh; the bone is safe, and the wound will soon heal. It is lucky that we are not on horseback now." By marvel, by miracle, the two friends were reunited once more; and surely around the camp fires there were stories for all to tell. Sacajawea, the Indian girl, sat listening but briefly to all these tales of adventure--tales not new to one of her birth and education. Silently and without question, she took the place of nurse to the wounded commander. She had herbs of her own choosing, simple remedies which her people had found good for the treatment of wounds. As if the captain were her child--rather than the forsaken infant who lustily bemoaned his mother's absence from his tripod in the lodge--she took charge of the injured man, until at length he made protest that he was as well as ever, and that they must go on. Again the paddles plied, again the bows of the canoes turned downstream. It seemed but a short distance thence to the Mandan villages, and once among the Mandans they felt almost as if they were at home. The Mandans received them as beings back from the grave. The drums sounded, the feast-fires were lighted, and for a time the natives and their guests joined in rejoicing. But still Lewis's restless soul was dissatisfied with delay. He would not wait. "We must get on!" said he. "We cannot delay." The boats must start down the last stretch of the great river. Would any of the tribesmen like to go to the far East, to see the Great Father? Big White, chief of the Mandans, said his savage prayers. "I will go," said he. "I will go and tell him of my people. We are poor and weak. I will ask him to take pity on us and protect us against the Sioux." So it was arranged that Big White and his women, with Jussaume, his wife, and one or two others, should accompany the brigade down the river. Loud lamentations mingled with the preparations for the departure. Sacajawea, what of her? Her husband lived among the Mandans. This was the end of the trail for her, and not the rudest man but was sad at the thought of going on without her. They knew well enough that in all likelihood, but for her, their expedition could never have attained success. Beyond that, each man of them held memory of some personal kindness received at her hands. She had been the life and comfort of the party, as well as its guide and inspiration. "Sacajawea," said Meriwether Lewis, when the hour for departure came, "I am now going to finish my trail. Do you want to go part way with us? I can take you to the village where we started up this river--St. Louis. You can stay there for one snow, until Big White comes back from seeing the Great Father. We can take the baby, too, if you like." Her face lighted up with a strange wistfulness. "Yes, Capt'in," said she, "I go with Big White--and you." He smiled as he shook his head. "We go farther than that, many sleeps farther." "Who shall make the fire? Who shall mend your moccasins? See, there is no other woman in your party. Who shall make tea? Who shall spread down the robes? Me--Mrs. Charbonneau!" She drew herself up proudly with this title; but still Meriwether Lewis looked at her sadly, as he stood, lean, gaunt, full-bearded, clad in his leather costume of the plains, supporting himself on his crutch. "Sacajawea," said he, "I cannot take your husband with me. All my goods are gone--I cannot pay him; and now we do not need him to teach us the language of other peoples. From here we can go alone." "Aw right!" said Sacajawea, in paleface idiom. "Him stay--me go!" Meriwether Lewis pondered for a time on what fashion of speech he must employ to make her understand. "Bird Woman," said he at length, "you are a good girl. It would pain my heart to see you unhappy. But if you came with me to my villages, women would say, 'Who is that woman there? She has no lodge; she does not belong to any man.' They must not say that of Sacajawea--she is a good woman. Those are not the things your ears should hear. Now I shall tell the Great Father that, but for Sacajawea we should all have been lost; that we should never have come back again. His heart will be open to those words. He will send gifts to you. Sometime, I believe, the Great Father's sons will build a picture of you in iron, out yonder at the parting of the rivers. It will show you pointing on ahead to show the way to the white men. Sacajawea must never die--she has done too much to be forgotten. Some day the children of the Great Father will take your baby, if you wish, and bring him up in the way of the white men. What we can do for you we will do. Are my words good in your ears?" "Your words are good," said Sacajawea. "But I go, too! No want to stay here now. No can stay!" "But here is your village, Sacajawea--this is your home, where you must live. You will be happier here. See now, when I sleep safe at night, I shall say, 'It was Sacajawea showed me the way. We did not go astray--we went straight.' We will not forget who led us." "But," she still expostulated, looking up at him, "how can you cook? How can you make the lodge? One woman--she must help all time." A spasm of pain crossed Lewis's face. "Sacajawea," said he, "I told you that I had made medicine--that I had promised my dream never to have a lodge of my own. Always I shall live upon the trail--no lodge fire in any village shall be the place for me. And I told you I had made a vow to my dream that no woman should light the lodge fire for me. You are a princess--the daughter of a chief, the sister of a chief, a great person; you know about a warrior's medicine. Surely, then, you know that no one is allowed to ask about the vows of a chief! "By and by," he added gently, "a great many white men will come here, Sacajawea. They will find you here. They will bring you gifts. You will live here long, and your baby will grow to be a man, and his children will live here long. But now I must go to my people." The unwonted tears of an Indian woman were in the eyes which looked up at him. "Ah!" said she, in reproach. "I went with you. I cooked in the lodges. I showed the way. I was as one of your people. Now I say I go to your people, and you say no. You need me once--you no need me now! You say to me, your people are not my people--you not need Sacajawea any more!" The Indian has no word for good-by. The faithful--nay, loving--girl simply turned away and passed from him; nor did he ever see her more. Alone, apart from her people, she seated herself on the brink of the bluff, below which lay the boats, ready to depart. She drew her blanket over her head. When at length the voyage had begun, she did not look out once to watch them pass. They saw her motionless figure high on the bank above them. The Bird Woman was mourning. The little Indian dog, Meriwether Lewis's constant companion, now, like Sacajawea, mercifully banished, sat at her side, as motionless as she. Both of them, mute and resigned, accepted their fate. But as for those others, those hardy men, now homeward bound, they were rejoicing. Speed was the cry of all the lusty paddlers, who, hour after hour, kept the boats hurrying down, aided by the current and sometimes pushed forward by favorable winds. They were upon the last stretch of their wonderful journey. Speed, early and late, was all they asked. They were going home--back over the trail they had blazed for their fellows! "_Capitaine, Capitaine_, look what I'll found!" They were halting at noonday, far down the Missouri, for the boiling of the kettles. Lewis lay on his robes, still too lame to walk, watching his men as they scattered here and there after their fashion. It was Cruzatte who approached him, looking at something which the voyager held in his hand. "What is it, Cruzatte?" smiled Lewis. He was anxious always to be as kindly as possible to this unlucky follower, whose terrible mistake had well-nigh resulted in the death of the leader. "Ouch, by gar! She'll bite me with his tail. She's hot!" Cruzatte held out in his fingers a small but fateful object. It was a bee, an ordinary honey-bee. East of the Mississippi, in Illinois, Kentucky, the Virginias, it would have meant nothing. Here on the great plains it meant much. Meriwether Lewis held the tiny creature in the palm of his hand. "Why did you kill it, Cruzatte?" he asked. "It was on its errand." He turned to his friend who sat near, at the other side. "Will," he said, "our expedition has succeeded. Here is the proof of it. The bee is following our path. They are coming!" Clark nodded. Woodsmen as they both were, they knew well enough the Indian tradition that the bee is the harbinger of the coming of the white man. When he comes, the plow soon follows, and weeds grow where lately have been the flowers of the forest or the prairie. They sat for a time looking at the little insect, which bore so fateful a message into the West. Reverently Lewis placed it in his collector's case--the first bee of the plains. "They are coming!" said he again to his friend. CHAPTER XII WHAT VOICE HAD CALLED? They lay in camp far down the river whose flood had borne them on so rapidly. They had passed through the last of the dangerous country of the Sioux, defying the wild bands whose gantlet they had to run, but which they had run in safety. Ahead was only what might be called a pleasure journey, to the end of the river trail. The men were happy as they lay about their fires, which glowed dully in the dusk. Each was telling what he presently was going to do, when he got his pay at old St. Louis, not far below. William Clark, weary with the day's labor, had excused himself and gone to his blankets. Lewis, the responsible head of the expedition, alone, aloof, silent, sat moodily looking into his fire, the victim of one of his recurring moods of melancholy. He stirred at length and raised himself restlessly. It was not unusual for him to be sleepless, and always, while awake, he had with him the problems of his many duties; but at this hour something unwontedly disturbing had come to Meriwether Lewis. He turned once more and bent down, as if figuring out some puzzle of a baffling trail. Picking up a bit of stick, he traced here and there, in the ashes at his feet, points and lines, as if it were some problem in geometry. Uneasy, strange of look, now and again he muttered to himself. "Hoh!" he exclaimed at length, almost like an Indian, as if in some definite conclusion. He had run his trail to the end, had finished the problem in the ashes. "Hoh!" his voice again rumbled in his chest. And now he threw his tracing-stick away. He sat, his head on one side, as if looking at some distant star. It seemed that he heard a voice calling to him in the night, so faintly that he could not be sure. His face, thin, gaunt, looked set and hard in the light of his little fire. Something stern, something wistful, too, showed in his eyes, frowning under the deep brows. Was Meriwether Lewis indeed gone mad? Had the hardships of the wilderness at last taken their toll of him--as had sometimes happened to other men? He rose, limping a little, for he still was weak and stiff from his wound, though disdaining staff or crotched bough to lean upon. He looked about him cautiously. The camp was slumbering. Here and there, stirred by the passing breeze, the embers of a little fire glowed like an eye in the dark. The men slept, some under their rude shelters, others in the open under the stars, each rolled in his robe, his rifle under the flap to keep it from the dew. Meriwether Lewis knew the place of every man in the encampment. Ordway, Pryor, Gass--each of the three sergeants slept by his own mess fire, his squad around him. McNeal, Bratton, Shields, Cruzatte, Reuben Fields, Goodrich, Whitehouse, Coalter, Shannon--the captain knew where each lay, rolled up like a mummy. He had marked each when he threw down his bed-roll that night; for Meriwether Lewis was a leader of men, and no detail escaped him. He passed now, stealthy as an Indian, along the rows of sleeping forms. His moccasined foot made no sound. Save for his uniform coat, he was clad as a savage himself; and his alert eye, his noiseless foot, might have marked him one. He sought some one of these--and he knew where lay the man he wished to find. He stood beside him silently at last, looking down at the sleeping figure. The man lay a little apart from the others, for he was to stand second watch that night, and the second guard usually slept where he would not disturb the others when awakened for his turn of duty. This man--he was long and straight in his blankets, and filled them well--suddenly awoke, and lay staring up. He had not been called, no hand had touched him, it was not yet time for guard relief; but he had felt a presence, even as he slept. He stared up at a tall and motionless figure looking down. With a swift movement he reached for his rifle; but the next instant, even as he lay, his hand went to his forehead in salute. He was looking up into the face of his commander! "Shannon!" He heard a hoarse voice command him. "Get up!" George Shannon, the youngest of the party, sprang out of his bed half clad. "Captain!" He saluted again. "What is it, sir?" he half whispered, as if in apprehension. "Put on your jacket, Shannon. Come with me!" Shannon obeyed hurriedly. Half stripped, he stood a fine figure of young manhood himself, lithe, supple, yet developed into rugged strength by his years of labor on the trail. "What is it, Captain?" he inquired once more. They were apart from the others now, in the shadows beyond Lewis's fire. Shannon had caught sight of his leader's countenance, noting the wildness of its look, its drawn and haggard lines. His commander's hand thrust in his face a clutch of papers, folded--letters, they seemed to be. Shannon could see the trembling of the hand that held them. "You know what I want, Shannon! I want the rest of these--I want the last one of them! Give it to me now!" The youth felt on his shoulder the grip of a hand hard as steel. He did not make any answer, but stood dumb, wondering what might be the next act of this man, who seemed half a madman. "Five of them!" he heard the same hoarse voice go on. "There must be another--there must be one more, at least. You have done this--you brought these letters. Give me the last one of them! Why don't you answer?" With sudden and violent strength Lewis shook the boy as a dog might a rat. "Answer me!" "Captain, I cannot!" broke out Shannon. "What? Then there is another?" "I'll not answer! I'll stand my trial before court martial, if you please." Again the heavy hand on his shoulder. "There will be no trial!" he heard the hoarse voice of his commander saying. "I cannot sleep. I must have the last one. There is another!" Shannon laid a hand on the iron wrist. "How do you know?" he faltered. "Why do you think----" "Am I not your leader? Is it not my business to know? I am a woodsman. You thought you had covered your trail, but it was plain. I know you are the messenger who has been bringing these letters to me from her. I need not name her, and you shall not! For what reason you did this--by what plan--I do not know, but I know you did it. You were absent each time that I found one of these letters. That was too cunning to be cunning! You are young, Shannon, you have something to learn. You sing songs--love songs--you write letters--love letters, perhaps! You are Irish--you have sentiment. There is romance about you--_you_ are the man she would choose to do what you have done. Being a woman, she knew, she chose well; but it is my business to read all these signs. "Give me that letter! I am your officer." "Captain, I will not!" "I tell you I cannot sleep! Give it to me, boy, or, by Heaven, you yourself shall sleep the long sleep here and now! What? You still refuse?" "Yes, I'll not be driven to it. You say I'm Irish. I am--I'll not give up a woman's secret--it's a question of honor, Captain. There is a woman concerned, as you know." "Yes!" "And I promised her, too. I swear I never planned any wrong to either of you. I would die at your order now, as you know; but you have no right to order this, and I'll not answer!" The hand closed at his throat. The boy could not speak, but still Meriwether Lewis growled on at him. "Shannon! Speak! Why have you kept secrets from your commanding officer? You have begun to tell me--tell me all!" The boy's hand clutched at his leader's wrists. At length Lewis loosed him. "Captain," began the victim, "what do you mean? What can I do?" "I will tell you what I mean, Shannon. I promised to care for you and bring you back safe to your parents. You'll never see your parents again, save on one condition. I trusted you, thought you had special loyalty for me. Was I wrong?" "On my honor, Captain," the boy broke out, "I'd have died for you any time, and I'd do it now! I've worked my very best. You're my officer, my chief!" With one movement, Meriwether Lewis flung off the uniform coat that he wore. They stood now, man to man, stripped, and neither gave back from the other. "Shannon," said Lewis, "I'm not your officer now. I'm going to choke the truth out of you. Will you fight me, or are you afraid?" The last cruelty was too much. The boy began to gulp. "I'm not afraid to fight, sir. I'd fight any man, but you--no, I'll not do it! Even stripped, you're my commander still." "Is that the reason?" "Not all of it. You're weak, Captain, your wound has you in a fever. 'Twould not be fair--I could do as I liked with you now. I'll not fight you. I couldn't!" "What? You will not obey me as your officer, and will not fight me as a man? Do you want to be whipped? Do you want to be shot? Do you want to be drummed out of camp tomorrow morning? By Heaven, Private Shannon, one of these choices will be yours!" But something of the icy silence of the youth who heard these terrible words gave pause even to the madman that was Meriwether Lewis now. He halted, his hooked hands extended for the spring upon his opponent. "What is it, boy?" he whispered at last. "What have I done? What did I say?" Shannon was sobbing now. "Captain," he said, and thrust a hand into the bosom of his tunic--"Captain, for Heaven's sake, don't do that! Don't apologize to me. I understand. Leave me alone. Here's the letter. There were six--this is the last." Lewis's strained muscles relaxed, his blazing eyes softened. "Shannon!" he whispered once more. "What have I done?" He took the letter in his hand, but did not look at it, although his fingers could feel the seal unbroken. "Why do you give it to me now, boy?" he asked at length. "What changed you?" "Because it's orders, sir. She ordered me--that is, she asked me--to give you these letters at times when you seemed to need them most--when you were sick or in trouble, when anything had gone wrong. We couldn't figure so far on ahead when I ought to give you each one. I had to do my best. I didn't know at first, but now I see that you're sick. You're not yourself--you're in trouble. She told me not to let you know who carried them," he added rather inconsequently. "She said that that might end it all. She thought that you might come back." "Come back--when?" "She didn't know--we couldn't any of us tell--it was all a guess. All this about the letters was left to me, to do my best. I couldn't ask you, Captain, or any one. I don't know what was in the letters, sir, and I don't ask you, for that's not my business; but I promised her." "What did she promise you?" "Nothing. She didn't promise me pay, because she knew I wouldn't have done it for pay. She only looked at me, and she seemed sad, I don't know why. I couldn't help but promise her. I gave her my word of honor, because she said her letters might be of use to you, but that no one else must know that she had written them." "When was all this?" "At St. Louis, just before we started. I reckon she picked me out because she thought I was especially close to you. You know I have been so." "Yes, I know, Shannon." "I thought I was doing something for you. You see, she told me that her name must not be mentioned, that no one must know about this, because it would hurt a woman's reputation. She thought the men might talk, and that would be bad for you. I could not refuse her. Do you blame me now?" "No, Shannon. No! In all this there is but one to blame, and that is your officer, myself!" "I did not think there was any harm in my getting the letters to you, Captain. I knew that lady was your friend. I know who she is. She was more beautiful than any woman in St. Louis when we were there--more a lady, somehow. Of course, I'm not an officer or a gentleman--I'm only a boy from the backwoods, and only a private soldier. I couldn't break my promise to her, and I couldn't very well obey your orders unless I did. If I've broken any of the regulations you can punish me. You see, I held back this letter--I gave it to you now because I had the feeling that I ought to--that she would want me to. It is the fever, sir!" "Aye, the fever!" Silence fell as they stood there in the night. The boy went on, half tremblingly: "Please, please, Captain Lewis, don't call me a coward! I don't believe I am. I was trying to do something for you--for both of you. It was always on my mind about these letters. I did my best and now----" And now it was the eye of Meriwether Lewis that suddenly was wet; it was his voice that trembled. "Boy," said he, "I am your officer. Your officer asks your pardon. I have tried myself. I was guilty. Will you forget this?" "Not a word to a soul in the world, Captain!" broke out Shannon. "About a woman, you see, we do not talk." "No, Mr. Shannon, about a woman we gentlemen do not talk. But now tell me, boy, what can I do for you--what can I ever do for you?" "Nothing in the world, Captain--but just one thing." "What is it?" "Please, sir, tell me that you don't think me a coward!" "A coward? No, Shannon, you are the bravest fellow I ever met!" The hand on the boy's shoulder was kindly now. The right hand of Captain Meriwether Lewis sought that of Private George Shannon. The madness of the trail, of the wilderness--the madness of absence and of remorse--had swept by, so that Lewis once more was officer, gentleman, just and generous man. Shannon stooped and picked up the coat that his captain had cast from him. He held it up, and aided his commander again to don it. Then, saluting, he marched off to his bivouac bed. From that day to the end of his life, no one ever heard George Shannon mention a word of this episode. Beyond the two leaders of the party, none of the expedition ever knew who had played the part of the mysterious messenger. Nor did any one know, later, whence came the funds which eventually carried George Shannon through his schooling in the East, through his studies for the bar, and into the successful practise which he later built up in Kentucky's largest city. Meriwether Lewis, limp and lax now, shivering in the chill under the reaction from his excitement, turned away, stepped back to his own lodge, and contrived a little light, after the frontier fashion--a rag wick in a shallow vessel of grease. With this uncertain aid he bent down closer to read the finely written lines, which ran: MY FRIEND: This is my last letter to you. This is the one I have marked Number Six--the last one for my messenger. Yes, since you have not returned, now I know you never can. Rest well, then, sir, and let me be strong to bear the news when at length it comes, if it ever shall come. Let the winds and the waters sound your requiem in that wilderness which you loved more than me--which you loved more than fame or fortune, honor or glory for yourself. The wilderness! It holds you. And for me--when at last I come to lay me down, I hope, too, some wilderness of wood or waters will be around me with its vast silences. After all, what is life? Such a brief thing! Little in it but duty done well and faithfully. I know you did yours while you lived. I have tried to do mine. It has been hard for me to see what was duty. If I knew as absolute truth that conviction now in my heart--that you never can come back--how then could I go on? Meriwether--Merne--Merne--I have been calling to you! Have you not heard me? Can you not hear me now, calling to you across all the distances to come back to me? I cannot give you up to the world, because I have loved you so much for myself. It was a cruel fate that parted us--more and more I know that, even as more and more I resolve to do what is my duty. But, oh, I miss you! Come back to me--to one who never was and never can be, but _is_---- Yours, THEODOSIA. It took him long to read this letter. At last his trembling hand dropped the creased and broken sheets. The guttering light went out. The men were silent, sleeping near their fires. The peace of the great plains lay all about. She had said it--had said that last fated word. Now indeed he knew what voice had called to him across the deeps! He reflected now that all these messages had been written to him before he left her; and that when he saw her last she was standing, tears in her eyes, outraged by the act of the man whom she had trusted--nay, whom she had loved! CHAPTER XIII THE NEWS A horseman rode furiously over the new road from Fort Bellefontaine to St. Louis village. He carried news. The expedition of Lewis and Clark had returned! Yes, these men so long thought lost, dead, were coming even now with their own story, with their proofs. The boats had passed Charette, had passed Bellefontaine, and presently would be pulling up the river to the water front of St. Louis itself. "Run, boys!" cried Pierre Chouteau to his servants. "Call out the people! Tell them to ring the bells--tell them to fire the guns at the fort yonder. Captains Lewis and Clark have come back again--those who were dead!" The little settlement was afire upon the instant. Laughing, talking, ejaculating, weeping in their joy, the people of St. Louis hurried out to meet the men whose voyage meant so much. At last they saw them coming, the paddles flashing in unison in the horny hands which tirelessly drove the boats along the river. They could see them--men with long beards, clad in leggings of elk hide, moccasins of buffalo and deer; their head-dresses those of the Indians, their long hair braided. And see, in the prow of the foremost craft sat two men, side by side--Lewis and Clark, the two friends who had arisen as if from the grave! "Present arms!" rang out a sharp command, as the boats lined up along the wharf. The brown and scarred rifles came to place. "Aim! Fire!" The volley of salutation blazed out even with the chorus of the voyageurs' cheers. And cheers repeated and unceasing greeted them as they stepped from their boats to the wharf. In an instant they were half overpowered. "Come with me!" "No, with me!" "With me!" A score of eager voices of the first men of St. Louis claimed the privilege of hospitality for them. It was almost by force that Pierre Chouteau bore them away to his castle on the hill. And always questions, questions, came upon them--ejaculations, exclamations. "_Ma foi!_" exclaimed more than one pretty French maiden. "Such men--such splendid men--savages, yet white! See! See!" They had gone away as youths, these two captains; they had come back men. Four thousand miles out and back they had gone, over a country unmapped, unknown; and they brought back news--news of great, new lands. Was it any wonder that they stood now, grave and dignified, feeling almost for the first time the weight of what they had done? They passed over the boat-landing and across the wharf, approaching the foot of the rocky bluff above which lay the long street of St. Louis. Silent, as was his wont, Meriwether Lewis had replied to most of the greetings only with the smile which so lighted up his face. But now, suddenly, he ceased even to smile. His eye rested not upon the faces of those acclaiming friends, but upon something else beyond them. Yes, there it was--the old fur-shed, the storage-house of the traders here on the wharf, just as he had left it two years before! The door was closed. What lay beyond it? Lewis shuddered, as if caught with chill, as he looked at yonder door. Just there she had stood, more than two years ago, when he started out on this long journey. There he had kissed that face which he had left in tears--he saw it now! All the glory of his safe return, all the wonderful results which it must mean, he would have given now, could he have had back that picture for a different making. "My matches--my thermometers--my instruments--how did they perform?" The speaker was Dr. Saugrain, eager to meet again his friends. "Perfect, doctor, perfect! We have some of the matches yet. As to the thermometers, we broke the last one before we reached the sea." "You found the sea? _Mon Dieu!_" "We found the Pacific. We found the Columbia, the Yellowstone--many new rivers. We have found a new continent--made a new geography. We passed the head of the Missouri. We found three great mountain ranges." "The beaver--did you find the beaver yonder?" demanded the voice of a swarthy man who had attended them. It was Manuel Liza, fur-trader, his eyes glowing in his interest in that reply. "Beaver?" William Clark waved a hand. "How many I could not tell you! Thousands and millions--more beaver than ever were known in the world before. Millions of buffalo--elk in droves--bears such as you never saw--antelope, great horned sheep, otters, muskrat, mink--the greatest fur country in all the world. We could not tell you half!" "Your men, will they be free to make return up the river with trading parties?" William Clark smiled at the keenness of the old French trader. "You could not possibly have better men," said he. The men themselves shook their heads in despair. Yes, they said, they had found a thousand miles of country ready to be plowed. They had found any quantity of hardwood forests and pine groves. They had seen rivers packed with fish until they were half solid--more fish than ever were in all the world before. They had found great rivers which led far back to the heart of the continent. They had seen trees larger than any man ever had seen--so large that they hardly could be felled by an ax. They had found a country where in the winter men perished, and another where the winters were not cold, and where the bushes grew high as trees. They had found all manner of new animals never known before--in short, a new world. How could they tell of it? "Captain," inquired Chouteau at length, "your luggage, your boxes--where are they?" Meriwether Lewis pointed to a skin parfleche and a knotted bandanna handkerchief which George Shannon carried for him. "That is all I have left," said he. "But the mail for the East--the mail, M. Chouteau--we must get word to the President!" "The President has long ago been advised of your death," said Chouteau, laughing. "All the world has said good-by to you. No doubt you can read your own obituaries." "We bring them better news than that. What news for us?" asked the two captains of their host. "News!" The voluble Frenchman threw up his hands. "Nothing but news! The entire world is changed since you left. I could not tell you in a month. The Burr duel----" "Yes, we did not know of it for two years," said William Clark. "We have just heard about it, up river." "The killing of Mr. Hamilton ended the career of Colonel Burr," said Chouteau. "But for that we might have different times here in Mississippi. He had many friends. But you have heard the last news regarding him?" It was the dark eye of Meriwether Lewis which now compelled his attention. "No? Well, he came out here through this country once more. He was arrested last summer, on the Natchez Trace, and carried off to Washington. The charge is treason against his government. The country is full of it--his trial is to be at Richmond. Even now it may be going on." He did not notice the sudden change in Meriwether Lewis's face. "And all the world is swimming in blood across the sea," went on their garrulous informant. "Napoleon and Great Britain are at war again. Were it not so, one or the other of them would be at the gates of New Orleans, that is sure. This country is still discontented. There was much in the plan of Colonel Burr to separate this valley into a country of its own, independent--to force a secession from the republic, even though by war on the flag. Indeed, he was prepared for that; but now his conspiracy is done. Perhaps, however, you do not hold with the theory of Colonel Burr?" "Hold with the theory of Colonel Burr, sir?" exclaimed the deep voice of Meriwether Lewis. "Hold with it? This is the first time I have known what it was. It was treason! If he had any join him, that was in treason! He sought to disrupt this country? Agree with him? What is this you tell me? I had never dreamed such a thing as possible of him!" "He had many friends," went on Chouteau; "very many friends. They are scattered even now all up and down this country--men who will not give up their cause. All those men needed was a leader." "But, M. Chouteau," rejoined Lewis, "I do not understand--I cannot! What Colonel Burr attempted was an actual treason to this republic. I find it difficult to believe that!" Chouteau shrugged his shoulders. "There may be two names for it," he said. "And every one asked to join the cause was asked to join in treason to his country. Is it not so?" Lewis went on. "There may be two names for it," smiled the other, still shrugging. "He was my friend," said Meriwether Lewis. "I trusted him!" "Always, I repeat, there are two names for treason. But what puzzles me is this," Chouteau continued. "What halted the cause of Colonel Burr here in the West? He seemed to be upon the point of success. His organization was complete--his men were in New Orleans--he had great lands purchased as a rendezvous below. He had understandings with foreign powers, that is sure. Well, then, here is Colonel Burr at St. Louis, all his plans arranged. He is ready to march, to commence his campaign, to form this valley into a great kingdom, with Mexico as part of it. He was a man able to make plans, believe me. But of all this there comes--nothing! Why? At the last point something failed--no one knew what. He waited for something--no one knew what. Something lacked--no one can tell what. And all the time--this is most curious to me--I learned it through others--Colonel Burr was eager to hear something of the expedition of Lewis and Clark into the West. Why? No one knows! _Does_ no one know?" The captain did not speak, and Chouteau presently went on. "Why did Colonel Burr hesitate, why did he give up his plans here--why, indeed, did he fail? You ask me why these things were? I say, it was because of you--_messieurs_, you two young men, with your Lewis and Clark Expedition! It was _you_ who broke the Burr Conspiracy--for so they call it in these days. _Messieurs_, that is your news!" CHAPTER XIV THE GUESTS OF A NATION "Attention, men!" The company of Volunteers for the Discovery of the West fell into line in front of the stone fortress of old St. Louis. A motley crew they looked in their half-savage garb. They were veterans, fit for any difficult undertaking in the wilderness. Shoulder to shoulder they had labored in the great enterprise. Now they were to disband. Their leaders had laid aside the costume of the frontier and assumed the uniforms of officers in the army of the United States. Fresh from his barber and his tailor, Captain Lewis stood, tall, clean-limbed, immaculate, facing his men. His beard was gone, his face showed paler where it had been reaped. His hair, grown quite long, and done now in formal cue, hung low upon his shoulders. In every line a gentleman, an officer, and a thoroughbred, he no longer bore any trace of the wilderness. Love, confidence, admiration--these things showed in the faces of his men as their eyes turned to him. "Men," said he, "you are to be mustered out today. There will be given to each of you a certificate of service in this expedition. It will entitle you to three hundred and twenty acres of land, to be selected where you like west of the Mississippi River. You will have double pay in gold as well; but it is not only in this way that we seek to show appreciation of your services. "We have concluded a journey of considerable length and importance. Between you and your officers there have been such relations as only could have made successful a service so extraordinary as ours has been. In our reports to our own superior officers we shall have no words save those of praise for any of you. Our expedition has succeeded. To that success you have all contributed. Your officers thank you. "Captain Clark will give you your last command, men. As I say farewell to you, I trust I may not be taken to mean that I separate myself from you in my thoughts or memories. If I can ever be of service to any of you, you will call upon me freely." He turned and stepped aside. His place was taken by his associate, William Clark, likewise a soldier, an officer, properly attired, and all the figure of a proper man. Clark's voice rang sharp and clear. "Attention! Aim--fire! Break ranks--march!" The last volley of the gallant little company was fired. The last order had been given and received. With a sweep of his drawn sword, Captain Clark dismissed them. The expedition was done. So now they went their way, most of them into oblivion, great though their services had been. For their officers much more remained to do. The progress to Washington was a triumph. Everywhere their admiring countrymen were excited over their marvelous journey. They were fêted and honored at every turn. The country was ringing with their praises from the Mississippi to the Atlantic as the news spread eastward just ahead of them. When at last they finished their adieux to the kindly folk of St. Louis, who scarce would let them go, they took boat across the river to the old Kaskaskia trail, and crossed the Illinois country by horse to the Falls of the Ohio, where the family of William Clark awaited him. Here was much holiday, be sure; but not even here did they pause long, for they must be on their way to meet their chief at Washington. Their little cavalcade, growing larger now, passed on across Kentucky, over the gap in the Cumberlands, down into the country of the Virginia gentry. Here again they were fêted and dined and wined so long as they would tarry. It was specially difficult for them to leave Colonel Hancock, at Fincastle. Here they must pause and tell how they had named certain rivers in the West--the one for Maria Woods; another for Judith Hancock--the Maria's and Judith Rivers of our maps today. Here William Clark delayed yet a time. He found in the charms of the fair Judith herself somewhat to give him pause. Soon he was to take her as his bride down the Ohio to yonder town of St. Louis, for whose fame he had done so much, and was to do so much more. Toward none of the fair maids who now flocked about them could Meriwether Lewis be more than smiling gallant, though rumors ran that either he or William Clark might well-nigh take his pick. He was alike to all of them in his courtesy. One thought of eager and unalloyed joy rested with him. He was soon to see his mother. In time he rode down from the hilltops of old Albemarle to the point beyond the Ivy Depot where rose the gentle eminence of Locust Hill, the plantation of the Lewis family. Always in the afternoon, in all weathers, his mother sat looking down the long lane to the gate, as if she expected that one day a certain figure would appear. Sometimes, old as she was, she dozed and dreamed--just now she had done so. She awoke, and saw standing before her, as if pictured in her dream, the form of her son, in bodily presence, although at first she did not accept him as such. "My son!" said she at length, half as much in terror as in joy. "Merne!" He stooped down and took her grayed head in his hands as she looked up at him. She recalled other times when he had come from the forest, from the wilderness, bearing trophies in his hands. He bore now trophies greater, perhaps, than any man of his age ever had brought home with him. What Washington had defended was not so great as that which Lewis won. It required them both to make an America for us haggling and unworthy followers. "My son!" was all she could say. "They told me that you never would come back, that you were dead. I thought the wilderness had claimed you at last, Merne!" "I told you I should come back to you safe, mother. There was no danger at any time. From St. Louis I have come as fast as any messenger could have come. Next I must go to see Mr. Jefferson at Washington--then, back home again to talk with you, for long, long hours." "And what have you found?" "More than I can tell you in a year! We found the mysterious river, the Columbia--found where it runs into the ocean, where it starts in the mountains. We found the head of the Missouri--the Ohio is but a creek beside it. We crossed plains and mountains more wonderful than any we have ever dreamed of. We saw the most wonderful land in all the world, mother--and we made it ours!" "And you did that? Merne, was _that_ why the wilderness called to you? My boy has done all that? Your country will reward you. I should not complain of all these years of absence. You are happy now, are you not?" "I should be the happiest of men. I can take to Mr. Jefferson, our best friend, the proof that he was right in his plans. His great dream has come true, and I in some part helped to make it true. Should I not now be happy?" "You should be, Merne, but are you?" "I am well, and I find you still well and strong. My friend, Will Clark, has come back with me hearty as a boy. Everything has been fortunate with us. Look at me," he demanded, turning and stretching out his mighty arms. "I am strong. My men all came through without loss or injury--the splendid fellows! It is wonderful that in risks such as ours we met with no ill fortune." "Yes, but are you happy? Turn your face to me." But he did not turn his face. "I told my friend, William Clark," he said lightly, as he rose, "to join me here after an hour or so. I think I see his party coming now. York rides ahead, do you see? He is a free negro now--he will have stories enough to set all our blacks idle for a month. I must go down to meet Will and our other guests." William Clark, bubbling over with his own joy of life, set all the household in a whirl. There was nothing but cooking, festivity, dancing, hilarity, so long as he remained at Locust Hill. But the mother of Meriwether Lewis looked with jealous eye on William Clark. Success, glory, honor, fame, reward--these now belonged to Meriwether Lewis, to them both, his mother knew. But why did not his laugh sound high like that of his friend? Her eyes followed her son daily, hourly, until at last she surrendered him to his duty when he declared he could no longer delay his journey to Washington. Spick and span, cap-a-pie, pictures of splendid young manhood, the two captains rode one afternoon up to the great gate before the mansion house of the nation. Lewis looked about him at scenes once familiar; but in the three years and a half since he had seen it last the raw town had changed rapidly. Workmen had done somewhat upon the Capitol building yonder, certain improvements had been made about the Executive Mansion itself; but the old negro men at the gate and at the door of the house were just as he had left them. And when, running on ahead of his companion, he knocked at Mr. Jefferson's office door--flinging it open, as he did so, with the freedom of his old habit--he looked in upon a familiar sight. Thomas Jefferson was sitting bent over his desk, as usual littered with a thousand papers. The long frame of his multigraph copying-machine was at one side. Folded documents lay before him, unfinished briefs upon the other side; a rack of goose quills and an open inkpot stood beyond. And on the top of the desk, spread out long and over all, lay a great map, whose identity these two young men easily could tell--the Lewis and Clark map sent back from the Mandan country! Thomas Jefferson had kept it at his desk every day since it had come to him, more than two years before. He turned now toward the door, casually, for he was used to the interruptions of his servants. What he saw brought him to his feet. He spread out his arms impulsively--he shook the hand of each in turn, drew them to him before he motioned them to seats. Never had Meriwether Lewis seen such emotion displayed by his chief. "I could hardly wait for you!" said Mr. Jefferson. He began to pace up and down. "I knew it, I knew it!" he exclaimed. "Now they will call us constitutional, perhaps, since we have added a new world to our country! My son, that was our vision. You have proved it. You have been both dreamer and doer!" He came up and placed a half playful hand on Meriwether Lewis's shoulder. "Did I know men, then?" he demanded. "And did I, Mr. Jefferson? Captain Clark----" "You do not say the title correctly! It is not Captain Clark, it is not Captain Lewis, that stand before me now. You are to have sixteen hundred acres of land, each of you. You, my son, will be Governor Lewis of the new Territory of Louisiana; and your friend is not Captain Clark but General Clark, agent of all the Indian tribes of the West!" In silence the hand of each of the young men went out to the President. Then their own eyes met, and their hands. They were not to be separated after all--they were to work together yonder in St. Louis! "Governor--General--I welcome you back! You will come back to your old rooms here in my family, Merne, and we will find a place for your friend. What we have here is at the service of both of you. You are the guests of the nation!" CHAPTER XV MR. JEFFERSON'S ADVICE "Merne, my boy," said Thomas Jefferson, when at length they two were alone once more in the little office, "I cannot say what your return means to me. You come as one from the grave--you resurrect another from the grave." "Meaning, Mr. Jefferson?----" "You surely have heard that my administration is in sad disrepute? There is no man in the country hated so bitterly as myself. We are struggling on the very verge of war." "I heard some talk in the West, Mr. Jefferson," hesitated Meriwether Lewis. "Yes, they called this Louisiana Purchase, on which I had set my heart, nothing but extravagance. The machinations of Colonel Burr have added nothing to its reputation. General Jackson is with Burr, and many other strong friends. And meantime you know where Burr himself is--in the Richmond jail. I understand that his friend, Mr. Merry, has gone yonder to visit him. Our country is degenerated to be no more than a scheming-ground, a plotting-place, for other powers. You come back just in the nick of time. You have saved this administration! You bring back success with you. If the issue of your expedition were anything else, I scarce know what would be my own case here. For myself, that would have mattered little; but as to this country for which I have planned so much, your failure would have cost us all the Mississippi Valley, besides all the valley of the Missouri and the Columbia. Yes, had you not succeeded, Aaron Burr would have succeeded! Instead of a great republic reaching from ocean to ocean, we should have had a scattered coterie of States of no endurance, no continuity, no power. Thank God for the presence of one great, splendid thing gloriously done! You cannot, do not, begin to measure its importance." "We are glad that you have been pleased, Mr. Jefferson," said Lewis simply. "Pleased! Pleased! Say rather that I am saved! Say rather that this country is saved! Had you proved disloyal to me--had you for any cause turned back," he went on, "think what had been the result! What a load, although you knew it not, was placed on your shoulders! Suppose that you had turned back on the trail last year, or the summer before--suppose you had not gotten beyond the Mandans--can you measure the difference for this republic? Can you begin to see what responsibility rested on you? Had you failed, you would have dragged the flag of your country in the dust. Had you come back any time before you did, then you might have called yourself the man who ruined his President, his friend, his country!" "And I nearly did, Mr. Jefferson!" broke out Meriwether Lewis. "Do not praise me too much. I was tempted----" The old man turned toward him, his face grave. "You are honest! I value that above all in you--you are punctilious to have no praise not honestly won. Listen, now!" He leaned toward the young man, who sat beside him. "I know--I knew all along--how you were tempted. She came here--Theodosia--the very day you left!" Lewis nodded, mute. "In some way, I knew, the conspirators fought against your success and mine. I knew what agencies they intended to use against you--it was this woman! Had you failed, I should have known why. I know many things, whether or not you do. I know the character of Aaron Burr well enough. He has been crazed, carried away by his own ambitions--God alone knows where he would have stopped. He has been a man not surpassed in duplicity. He would stop at nothing. Moreover, he could make black look white. He did so for his daughter. She believed in him absolutely. And knowing somewhat of his plans, I imagined that he would use the attraction of that young lady for you--the power which, all things considered, she might be supposed to possess with you. I knew the depth of your regard for her, the deeper for its hopelessness. And more than all, I knew the intentness and resolution of your character. It was one motive against the other! Which was the stronger? You were a young man--the hot blood of youth was yours, and I know its power. Had the woman not been married, I should have lost! You would have sold a crown for her. It was honor saved you--your personal honor--that was what brought us success. No country is bigger than the personal honor of its gentlemen." The bowed head of Meriwether Lewis was his only answer. The keen-faced old man went on: "I knew that before you had left the mouth of the Ohio River he would do his best to stop you--I knew it before you had left Harper's Ferry; but I placed the issue in the lap of the gods. I applied to you all the tests--the severest tests--that one man can to another. I let you alone! For a year, two years, three years, I did not know. But now I do know; and the answer is yonder flag which you have carried from one ocean to the other. The answer is in this map, all these hides scrawled in coal--all those new thousands of miles of land--_our_ land. God keep it safe for us always! And may the people one day know who really secured it for them! It was not so much Thomas Jefferson as it was Meriwether Lewis. "Each time I dreamed that my subtle enemies were tempting you, I prayed in my own soul that you would be strong; that you would go on; that you would be loyal to your duty, no matter what the cost. God answered those prayers, my boy! Whatever was your need, whatever price you paid, you did what I prayed you would do. When the months passed and you did not come back, I knew that not even the woman you loved could have called you back. I knew that you had learned the priceless lesson of renunciation, of sacrifice, through which alone the great deeds of the world always have been done." Meriwether Lewis stood before his chief, cold and pale, unable to complete much speech. Thomas Jefferson looked at him for a moment before he went on. "My boy, you are so simple that you will not understand. You do not understand how well I understand you! These things are not done without cost. If there was punishment for you, you took that punishment--or you will! You kept your oath as an officer and your unwritten oath as a gentleman. It is a great thing for a man to have his honor altogether unsullied." "Mr. Jefferson!" The young man before him lifted a hand. His face was ghastly pale. "Do not," said he. "Do not, I beg of you!" "What is it, Merne?" exclaimed the old man. "What have I done?" "You speak of my honor. Do not! Indeed, you touch me deep." Thomas Jefferson, wise old man, raised a hand. "I shall never listen, my son," said he. "I will accord to you the right of hot blood to run hot--you would not be a man worth knowing were it not so. All I know or will know is that whatever the price, you have paid it--or will pay it! But tell me, Merne, can you not tear her from your soul? It will ruin you, this hopeless attachment which you cherish. Is it always to remain with you? I bid you find some other woman. The best in the land are waiting for you." "Mr. Jefferson, I shall never marry." The two sat looking into each other's eyes for just a moment. Said Thomas Jefferson at length, slowly: "So! You have come back with all happiness, all success, for me and for others--but not for yourself! Such proving as you have had has fallen to the lot of but few men. I know now how great has been the cost--I see it in your face. The fifteen millions I paid for yonder lands was nothing. We have bought them with the happiness of a human soul! The transient gratitude of this republic--the honor of that little paper--bah, they are nothing! But perhaps it may be something for you to know that at least one friend understands." Lewis did not speak. "What is lost is lost," the President began again after a time. "What is broken is broken. But see how clearly I look into your soul. You are not thinking now of what you can do for yourself. You are not thinking of your new rank, your honors. You are asking now, at this moment, what you can do for _her_! Is it not so?" The smile that came upon the young man's face was a beautiful, a wonderful thing to see. It made the wise old man sad to see it--but thoughtful, too. "She is at Richmond, Merne?" said Mr. Jefferson a moment later. The young man nodded. "And the greatest boon she could ask would be her father's freedom--the freedom of the man who sought to ruin this country--the man whom I scarcely dare release." The thin lips compressed for a moment. It was not in implacable, vengeful zeal--it was but in thought. "Now, then," said Thomas Jefferson sharply, "there comes a veil, a curtain, between you and me and all the world. No record must show that either of us raised a hand against the full action of the law, or planned that Colonel Burr should not suffer the full penalty of the code. Yes, for him that is true--but _not for his daughter_!" "Mr. Jefferson!" The face of Meriwether Lewis was strangely moved. "I see the actual greatness of your soul; but I ask nothing." "Why, in my heart I feel like flinging open every prison door in the world. If you have gained an empire for your country, and paid for it as you have, could not a great and rich country afford to pay to the extent of a woman's happiness? When a king is crowned, he sets free the criminals. And this day I feel as proud and happy as if I were a king--and king of the greatest empire of all the world! I know well who assured that kingdom. Let me be, then"--he raised his long hand--"say nothing, do nothing. And let this end all talk between us of these matters. I know you can keep your own counsel." Lewis bowed silently. "Go to Richmond, Merne. You will find there a broken conspirator and his unhappy daughter. Both are ostracized. None is so poor as to do either of them reverence. She has no door opened to her now, though but lately she was daughter of the Vice-President, the rich Mrs. Alston, wife of the Governor of her State. Go to them now. Tell Colonel Burr that the President will not ask mercy for him. John Marshall is on the bench there; but before him is a jury--John Randolph is foreman of that jury. It is there that case will be tried--in the jury room; and _politics will try it_! Go to Theodosia, Merne, in her desperate need." "But what can I do, Mr. Jefferson?" broke out his listener. "Do precisely what I tell you. Go to that social outcast. Take her on your arm before all the world--_and before that jury_! Sit there, before all Richmond--and that jury. An hour or so will do. Do that, and then, as I did when I trusted you, ask no questions, but leave it on the knees of the gods. If you can call me chief in other matters," the President concluded, "and can call me chief in that fashion of thought which men call religion as well, let me give you unction and absolution, my son. It is all that I have to give to one whom I have always loved as if he were my own son. This is all I can do for you. It may fail; but I would rather trust that jury to be right than trust myself today; because, I repeat, I feel like flinging open every prison door in all the world, and telling every erring, stumbling man to try once more to do what his soul tells him he ought to do!" CHAPTER XVI THE QUALITY OF MERCY In Richmond jail lay Aaron Burr, the great conspirator, the ruins of his ambition fallen about him. He had found a prison instead of a palace. He was eager no longer to gain a scepter, but only to escape a noose. The great conspiracy was at an end. The only question was of the punishment the accused should have--for in the general belief he was certain of conviction. That he never was convicted has always been one of the most mysterious facts of a mysterious chapter in our national development. So crowded were the hostelries of Richmond that a stranger would have had difficulty in finding lodging there during the six months of the Burr trial. Not so with Meriwether Lewis, now one of the country's famous men. A score of homes opened their doors to him. The town buzzed over his appearance. He had once been the friend of Burr, always the friend of Jefferson. To which side now would he lean. Luther Martin, chief of Burr's counsel, was eager above all to have a word with Meriwether Lewis, so close to affairs in Washington, possibly so useful to himself. Washington Irving, too, assistant to Martin in the great trial, would gladly have had talk with him. All asked what his errand might be. What was the leaning of the Governor of the new Territory, a man closer to the administration at Washington than any other? Meriwether Lewis kept his own counsel. He arranged first to see Burr himself. The meagerly furnished anteroom of the Federal prison in Richmond was the discredited adventurer's reception-hall in those days. Burr advanced to meet his visitor with something of his own old haughtiness of mien, a little of the former brilliance of his eye. "Governor, I am delighted to see you, back safe and sound from your journey. My congratulations, sir!" Meriwether Lewis made no reply, but gazed at him steadily, well aware of the stinging sarcasm of his words. "I have few friends now," said Aaron Burr. "You have many. You are on the flood tide--it ebbs for me. When one loses, what mercy is shown to him? That scoundrel Merry--he promised everything and gave nothing! Yrujo--he is worse yet in his treachery. Even the French minister, Turreau--who surely might listen to the wishes of the great French population of the Mississippi Valley--pays no attention to their petitions whatever, and none to mine. These were my former friends! I promised them a country." "You promised them a country, Colonel Burr--from what?" "From that great ownerless land yonder, the West. But they waited and waited, until your success was sure. Why, that scoundrel Merry is here this very day--the effrontery of him! He wants nothing more to do with me. No, he is here to undertake to recoup himself in his own losses by reasons of moneys he advanced to me some time ago. He is importuning my son-in-law, Mr. Alston, to pay him back those funds--which once he was so ready to furnish to us. But Mr. Alston is ruined--I am ruined--we are all ruined. No, they waited too long!" "They waited until it was too late, yes," Lewis returned. "That country is American now, not British or Spanish or French. Our men are passing across the river in thousands. They will never loose their hold on the West. It was treason to the future that you planned--but it was hopeless from the first!" "It would seem, sir," said Aaron Burr, a cynical smile twisting his thin lip, "that I may not count upon your friendship!" "That is a hard speech, Colonel Burr. I was your friend." "More than your chief ever was! I fancy Mr. Jefferson would like to see me pilloried, drawn and quartered, after the old way." "You are unjust to him. You struck at the greatest ambition of his life--struck at his heart and the heart of his country--when you undertook to separate the West from this republic." "I am a plain man, and a busy man," said Aaron Burr coldly. "I must employ my time now to the betterment of my situation. I have failed, and you have won. But let me throw the cloak aside, since I know you can be of no service to me. I care not what punishment you may have--what suffering--because I recognize in you the one great cause of my failure. It was _you_, sir, with your cursed expedition, that defeated Aaron Burr!" He turned, proud and defiant even in his failure, and when Meriwether Lewis looked up he was gone. Even as Burr passed, Meriwether Lewis heard a light step in the long corridor. Under guard of the turnkey, some one stood at the door. It was the figure of a woman--a figure which caused him to halt, caused his heart to leap! She came toward him now, all in mourning black--hat, gown, and gloves. Her face was pale, her eyes deep, her mouth drooping. Theodosia Alston was always thus on her daily visit to her father's cell. Herself the picture of failure and despair, she was used to avoiding the eyes of all; but she saw Meriwether Lewis standing before her, strong, tall, splendid in his manhood and vigor, in the full tide of his success. She was almost in touch of his hand when she raised her eyes to his. These two had met at last, after what far wanderings apart! They had met as if each came from the Valley of the Shadows. Out of the vastness of the unknown, over all those long and devious trails, into what now seemed to him a world still more vast, more fraught with desperate peril, he had come back to her. And she--what had been her perils? What were her thoughts? As his eye fell upon her, even as his keen ear had known her coming, the hand of Meriwether Lewis half unconsciously went to his breast. He felt under it the packet of faded letters which he had so long kept with him--which in some way he felt to be his talisman. Yes, it was for this that he had had them! His love and hers--this had been his shield through all. What he saw in her grave face, her mournful eyes uplifted to his own--this was the solution of the riddle of his life, the reason for his moods of melancholy, the answer to a thousand unspoken prayers. He felt his heart thrill strong and full, felt his blood spring in strong current through his veins, until they strained, until he felt his nerves tingle as he stood, silent, endeavoring to still the tumult within him, now that he knew the great and satisfying truth of truths. To her he was--what? A tall and handsome gentleman, immaculately clad, Governor of the newest of our Territories--the largest and richest realm ever laid under the rule of any viceroy. A bystander might have pondered on such things, but Meriwether Lewis had no thought of them, nor had the woman who looked up at him. No, to her eyes there stood only the man who made her blood leap, her soul cry out: "Yea! Yea! Now I know!" To her also, from the divine compassion, was given answer for her questionings. She knew that life for her, even though it ended now, had been no blind puzzle, after all, but was a glorious and perfect thing. She had called to him across the deep, and he had heard and come! From the very grave itself he had arisen and come again to her! Even here under the shadow of the gallows--even if, as both knew in their supreme renunciation, they must part and never meet again--for them both there could be peaceful calm, with all life's questions answered, beautifully and surely answered, never again to rise for conquering. "Sir--Captain--that is to say, Governor Lewis," she corrected herself, "I was not expecting you." Her tone seemed icy, though her soul was in her eyes. She was all upon the defense, as Lewis instantly understood. He took her hand in both of his own, and looked into her face. She gazed up at him, and swiftly, mercifully, the tears came. Gently, as if she had been a child, he dried them for her--as once when a boy, he had promised to do. They were alone now. The cold silence of the prison was about them; but their own long silence seemed a golden, glowing thing. Thus only--in their silence--could they speak. They did not know that they stood hand in hand. "My husband is not here," said she at length, gently disengaging her hand from his. "No one knows me now, every one avoids me. You must not be seen with me--a pariah, an outcast! I am my father's only friend. Already they condemn him; yet he is as innocent as any man ever was." "I shall say no word to change that belief," said Meriwether Lewis. "But your husband is not here? It is he whom I must see at once." "Why must you see him?" "You must know! It is my duty to go to him and to tell him that I am the man who--who made you weep. He must have his satisfaction. Nothing that he can do will punish me as my own conscience has already punished me. It is no use--I shall not ask you to forgive me--I will not be so cheap." "But--_suppose he does not know_?" He could only stand silent, regarding her fixedly. "He must never know!" she went on. "It is no time for quixotism to make yet another suffer. We two must be strong enough to carry our own secret. It is better and kinder that it should be between two than among three. I thought you dead. Let the past remain past--let it bury its own dead!" "It is our time of reckoning," said he, at length. "Guilty as I have been, sinning as I have sinned--tell me, was I alone in the wrong? Listen. Those who joined your father's cause were asked to join in treason to their country. What he purposed was _treason_. Tell me, did you know this when you came to me?" He saw the quick pain upon her face, the flush that rose to her pale cheek. She drew herself up proudly. "I shall not answer that!" said she. "No!" he exclaimed, swiftly contrite. "Nor shall I ask it. Forgive me! You never knew--you were innocent. You do right not to answer such a question." "I only wanted you to be happy--that was my one desire." She looked aside, and a moment passed before she heard his deep voice reply. "Happy! I am the most unhappy man in all the world. Happiness? No--rags, shreds, patches of happiness--that is all that is left of happiness for us, as men and women usually count it. But tell me, what would make you most happy now, of these things remaining? I have come back to pay my debts. Is there anything I can do? What would make you happiest?" "_My father's freedom!_" "I cannot promise that; but all that I can do I will." "Were my father guilty, that would be the act of a noble mind. But how? You are Mr. Jefferson's friend, not the friend of Aaron Burr. All the world knows that." "Precisely. All the world knows that, or thinks it does. It thinks it knows that Mr. Jefferson is implacable. But suppose all the world were set to wondering? I am just wondering myself if it would be right to suborn a juryman, like John Randolph of Roanoke!"[6] [Footnote 6: The import of the visit of Governor Lewis and Mrs. Alston to the court-room during the Burr trial is better conveyed if there be held in mind the personality of that eccentric and extraordinary man, so prominent in the history of America and the traditions of Virginia--John Randolph of Roanoke. Irascible, high-voiced, high-headed, truculent, insolent, vitriolic--yet gallant, courteous, kind, just, and fair; the enemy and the friend in turn of almost every public man of his day; truckling to none, defiant of all, sure to do what could not be predicted of any other man--it was always certain that John Randolph of Roanoke would do what he liked, and do what--for that present time--he fancied to be just. Now the ardent adherent, again the bitter caluminator of Jefferson, it would be held probable that John Randolph of Roanoke would do what he fancied Thomas Jefferson had not asked him to do, or had asked him not to do. But the shrewd old man at Washington spoke advisedly when he said that John Randolph of Roanoke would try the Burr case in the jury-room, and himself preside as judge, counsel, and jury all in one!] "That is impossible. What do you mean?" "I mean this. This afternoon you and I will go into the trial-room together. I have not yet attended a session of the court. Today I will hand you to your seat in full sight of the jury box." "You--give your presence to one who is now a social pariah? The ladies of Richmond no longer speak to me. But to what purpose?" "Perhaps to small purpose. I cannot tell. But let us suppose that I go with you, and that we sit there in sight of all. I am known to be the intimate friend of Mr. Jefferson. _Ergo_----" "_Ergo_, Mr. Jefferson is not hostile to us! And you would do that--you would take that chance?" "For you." And he did--for her! That afternoon all the crowded court-room saw the beadle make way for two persons of importance. One was a tall, grave, distinguished-looking man, impassive, calm, a man whose face was known to all--the new Governor of Louisiana, viceroy of the country that Burr had lost. Upon his arm, pale, clad all in black, walked the daughter of the prisoner at the bar! Was it in defiance or in compliance that this act was done? Was it by orders, or against orders, or without orders, that the President's best friend walked in public, before all the world, with the daughter of the President's worst enemy? It was the guess of anybody and the query of all. There, in full view of all the attendants, in full view of the jury--and of John Randolph of Roanoke, its foreman--sat the two persons who had had most to do with this scene of which they now made a part. There sat the man who had explored the great West, and the woman who had done her best to prevent that exploration; Mr. Jefferson's friend, and the daughter of the great conspirator, Aaron Burr. _Ergo, ergo_, said many tongues swiftly--and leaned head to head to whisper it. Mind sometimes speaks to mind--even across the rail of a jury-box. Sympathy runs deep and swift sometimes. All the world loved Meriwether Lewis then, would favor him--or favor what he favored. The issue of that great trial was not to come for weeks as yet; but when it came, and by whatever process, Aaron Burr was acquitted of the charges brought against him. The republic for whose downfall he had plotted set him free and bade him begone. But now, at the close of this day, the two central figures of the tragic drama found themselves together once more. They could be alone nowhere but in the prison room; and it was there that they parted. Between them, as they stood now at last, about to part, there stretched an abysmal gulf which might never personally be passed by either. She faced him at length, trembling, pleading, helpless. "How mighty a thing is a man's sense of honor!" she said slowly. "You have done what I never would have asked you to do, and I am glad that you did. I once asked you to do what you would not do, and I am glad that you did not. How can I repay you for what you have done today? I cannot tell how, but I feel that you have turned the tide for us. Ah, if ever you felt that you owed me anything, it is paid--all your debt to me and mine. See, I no longer weep. You have dried my tears!" "We cannot balance debits and credits," he replied. "There is no way in the world in which you and I can cry quits. Only one thing is sure--I must go!" "I cannot say good-by!" said she. "Ah, do not ask me that! We are but beginning now. Oh, see! see!" He looked at her still, an unspeakable sadness in his gaze--at her hand, extended pleadingly toward him. "Won't you take my hand, Merne?" said she. "Won't you?" "I dare not," said he hoarsely. "No, I dare not!" "Why? Do you wish to leave me still feeling that I am in your debt? You can afford so much now," she said brokenly, "for those who have not won!" "Think you that I have won?" he broke out. "Theodosia--Theo--I shall call you by your old name just once--I do not take your hand--I dare not touch you--because I love you! I always shall. God help me, it is the truth!" "Did you get my letters?" she said suddenly, and looked him fair in the face. Meriwether Lewis stood searching her countenance with his own grave eyes. "_Letters?_" said he at length. "_What letters?_" Her eyes looked up at him luminously. "You are glorious!" said she. "Yes, a woman's name would be safe with you. You are strong. How terrible a thing is a sense of honor! But you are glorious! Good-by!" CHAPTER XVII THE FRIENDS Allied in fortunes as they had been in friendship, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark went on side by side in their new labors in the capital of that great land which they had won for the republic. Their offices in title were distinct, yet scarcely so in fact, for each helped the other, as they had always done. To these two men the new Territory of Louisiana owed not only its discovery, but its early passing over to the day of law and order. No other men could have done what they did in that time of disorder and change, when, rolling to the West in countless waves, came the white men, following the bee, crossing the great river, striking out into the new lands, a headstrong, turbulent, and lawless population. A thousand new and petty cares came to Governor Lewis. He passed from one duty to another, from one part of his vast province to another, traveling continually with the crude methods of transportation of that period, and busy night and day. Courts must be established. The compilation of the archives must be cared for. Records must be instituted to clear up the swarm of conflicts over land-titles. Scores of new duties arose, and scores of new remedies needed to be devised. The first figure of the growing capital of St. Louis, the new Governor was also the central figure of all social activities, the cynosure of all eyes. But the laughing belles of St. Louis at length sighed and gave him up--they loved him as Governor, since they might not as man. Wise, firm, deliberate, kind, sad--he was an old man now, though still young in years. Scattered up and down the great valley, above and below St. Louis, and harboring in that town, were many of the late adherents of Burr's broken conspiracy. These liked not the oncoming of the American government, enforced by so rigid an executive as the one who now held power. Threats came to the ears of Meriwether Lewis, who was hated by the Burr adherents as the cause of their discomfiture; but he, wholly devoid of the fear of any man, only laughed at them. Honest and blameless, it was difficult for any enemy to injure him, and no man cared to meet Meriwether Lewis in the open. But at last one means of attack was found. Once more--the last time--the great heart of a noble man was pierced. "Will," said he to his friend, as they met at William Clark's home, according to their frequent custom, "I am in trouble." "Fancied trouble, Merne," said Clark. "You're always finding it!" "Would I might call it fancied! But this is something in the way of facts, and very stubborn facts. See here"--he held out certain papers in his hand--"by this morning's mail I get back these bills protested--protested by the government at Washington! And they are bills that I have drawn to pay the expenses of administering my office here." "Tut, tut!" said William Clark gravely. "Come, let us see." "Look here, and here! Will, you know that I am a man of no great fortune. You also know that I have made certain enemies in this country. But now I am not supported by my own government. I am ruined--I am a broken man! Did you think that this country could do that for either of us?" "But Merne, you, the soul of honor----" "Some enemy has done this! What influences have been set to work, I cannot say; but here are the bills, and there are others out in other hands--also protested, I have no doubt. I am publicly discredited, disgraced. I know not what has been said of me at Washington." "That is the trouble," said William Clark slowly. "Washington is so far. But now, you must not let this trouble you. 'Tis only some six-dollar-a-week clerk in Washington that has done it. You must not consider it to be the deliberate act of any responsible head of the government. You take things too hard, Merne. I will not have you brooding over this--it will never do. You have the megrims often enough, as it is. Come here and kiss the baby! He is named for you, Meriwether Lewis--and he has two teeth. Sit down and behave yourself. Judy will be here in a minute. You are among your friends. Do not grieve. 'Twill all come well!" This was in the year 1809. Mr. Jefferson's embargo on foreign trade had paralyzed all Western commerce. Our ships lay idle; our crops rotted; there was no market. The name of Jefferson was now in general execration. In March, when his second term as President expired, he had retired to private life at Monticello. He had written his last message to Congress that very spring, in which he said of the people of his country: I trust that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public authorities, I see a sure guarantee of the permanence of our republic; and retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness. Whatever the veering self-interest of others led them to think or do regarding the memory of that great man, Meriwether Lewis trusted Thomas Jefferson absolutely, and relied wholly on his friendship and his counsel. Now, in the hour of trouble, he resolved to journey to Monticello to ask the advice of his old chief, as he had always done. In this he was well supported by his friend Dr. Saugrain. "You are ill, Governor--you have the fever of these lands," urged that worthy. "By all means leave this country and go back to the East. Go by way of New Orleans and the sea. The voyage will do you much good." "Peria," said Meriwether Lewis to his French servant and attendant, "make ready my papers for my journey. Have a small case, such as can be carried on horseback. I must take with me all my journals, my maps, and certain of the records of my office here. Get my old spyglass; I may need it, and I always fancy to have it with me when I travel, as was my custom in the West. Secure for our costs in travel some gold--three or four hundred dollars, I imagine. I will take some in my belt, and give the rest to you for the saddle-trunk." "Your Excellency plans to go by land, then, and not by sea?" "I do not know. I must save all the time possible. And Peria----" "Yes, Excellency." "Have my pistols well cared for, and your own as well. See that my small powder-canister, with bullets, is with them in the holsters. The trails are none too safe. Be careful whom you advise of our plans. My business is of private nature, and I do not wish to be disturbed. And here, take my watch," he concluded. "It was given to me by a friend--a good friend, Mr. Wirt, and I prize it very much--so much that I fear to have it on my person. Care for it in the saddle-trunk." "Yes, Excellency." "Do not call me 'Excellency'--I detest the title! I am Governor Lewis, and may so be distinguished. Go now, and do as I have told you. We shall need about ten men to man the barge. Arrange it. Have our goods ready for an early start tomorrow morning." All that night, sleepless, fevered, almost distracted, Meriwether Lewis sat at his desk, writing, or endeavoring to write, with what matters upon his soul we may not ask. But the long night wore away at last, and morning came, a morning of the early fall, beautiful as it may be only in that latitude. Without having closed his eyes in sleep, the Governor made ready for his journey to the East. Whether or not Peria was faithful to all his instructions one cannot say, but certainly all St. Louis knew of the intended departure of the Governor. They loved him, these folk, trusted him, would miss him now, and they gathered almost _en masse_ to bid him godspeed upon his journey. "These papers for Mr. Jefferson, Governor--certain land-titles, of which we spoke to him last year. Do you not remember?" Thus Chouteau, always busy with affairs. "These samples of cloth and of satin, Governor," said a dark-eyed French girl, smiling up at him. "Would you match them for me in the East? I am to be married in the spring!" "The price of furs--learn of that, Governor, if you can, while on your journey. The embargo has ruined the trade in all this inland country!" It was Manuel Liza, swarthy, taciturn, who thus voiced a general feeling. "Books, more books, my son!" implored Dr. Saugrain. "We are growing here--I must keep up with the surgery of the day; I must know the new discoveries in medicine. Bring me books. And take this little case of medicines. You are ill, my son--the fever has you!" "My people--they mourn for me as dead," said Big White, the Mandan, who had never returned to his people up the Missouri River since the repulse of his convoy by the Sioux. "Tell the Great Father that he must send me soldiers to take me back home to my people. My heart is poor!" "Governor, see if you can get me an artificial limb of some sort while you are in the East." It was young George Shannon who said this, leaning on his crutch. Shannon had not long ago returned from another trip up the river, where in an encounter with the Sioux he had received a wound which cost him a leg and almost cost him his life--though later, as has already been said, he was to become a noted figure at the bar of the State of Kentucky. "Yes! Yes, and yes!" Their leader, punctilious as he was kind, agreed to all these commissions--prizing them, indeed, as proof of the confidence of his people. He was ready to depart, but stood still, looking about for the tall figure which presently he saw advancing through the throng--a tall man with wide mouth and sunny hair, with blue eye and stalwart frame--William Clark--the friend whom he loved so much, and whom he was now to see for the last time. General Clark carried upon his arm the baby which had been named after the Governor of the new Territory. Lewis took him from his father's arms and pressed the child's cool face to his own, suddenly trembling a little about his own lips as he felt the tender flesh of the infant. No child of his own might he ever hold thus! He gave him back with a last look into the face of his friend. "Good-by, Will!" said he. CHAPTER XVIII THE WILDERNESS The Governor's barge swept down the rolling flood of the Mississippi, impelled by the blades of ten sturdy oarsmen. Little by little the blue smoke of St. Louis town faded beyond the level of the forest. The stone tower of the old Spanish stockade, where floated the American flag, disappeared finally. Meriwether Lewis sat staring back, but seeming not to note what passed. He did not even notice a long bateau which left the wharf just before his own and preceded him down the river, now loafing along aimlessly, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind that of the Governor and his party. In time he turned to his lap-desk and began his endless task of writing, examining, revising. Now and again he muttered to himself. The fever was indeed in his blood! They proceeded thus, after the usual fashion of boat travel in those days, down the great river, until they had passed the mouth of the Ohio and reached what was known as the Chickasaw Bluffs, below the confluence of the two streams. Here was a little post of the army, arranged for the commander, Major Neely, Indian agent at that point. As was the custom, all barges tied up here; and the Governor's craft moored at the foot of the bluff. Its chief passenger was so weak that he hardly could walk up the steep steps cut in the muddy front of the bank. "Governor Lewis!" exclaimed Major Neely, as he met him. "You are ill! You are in an ague!" "Perhaps, perhaps. Give me rest here for a day or two, if you please. Then I fancy I shall be strong enough to travel East. See if you can get horses for myself and my party--I am resolved not to go by sea. I have not time." The Governor of Louisiana, haggard, flushed with fever, staggered as he followed his friend into the apartment assigned to him in one of the cabins of the little post. He wore his usual traveling-garb; but now, for some strange reason he seemed to lack his usual immaculate neatness. Instead of the formal dress of his office, he wore an old, stained, faded uniform coat, its pocket bulging with papers. This he kept at the head of his bed when at length he flung himself down, almost in the delirium of fever. He lay here for two days, restless, sleepless. But at length, having in the mean time scarcely tasted food, he rose and declared that he must go on. "Major," said he, "I can ride now. Have you horses for the journey?" "Are you sure, Governor, that your strength is sufficient?" Neely hesitated as he looked at the wasted form before him, at the hollow eye, the fevered face. "It is not a question of my personal convenience, Major," said Meriwether Lewis. "Time presses for me. I must go on!" "At least you shall not go alone," said Major Neely. "You should have some escort. Doubtless you have important papers?" Meriwether Lewis nodded. "My servant has arranged everything, I fancy. Can you get an extra man or two? The Natchez Trace is none too safe." That military road, as they both knew, was indeed no more than a horse path cut through the trackless forest which lay across the States of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. Its reputation was not good. Many a trader passing north from New Orleans with coin, many a settler passing west with packhorses and household effects, had disappeared on this wilderness road, and left no sign. It was customary for parties of any consequence to ride in companies of some force. It was a considerable cavalcade, therefore, which presently set forth from Chickasaw Bluffs on the long ride eastward to cross the Alleghanies, which meant some days or weeks spent in the saddle. Apprehension sat upon all, even as they started out. Their eyes rested upon the wasted form of their leader, the delirium of whose fever seemed still to hold him. He muttered to himself as he rode, resented the near approach of any traveling companion, demanded to be alone. They looked at him in silence. "He talks to himself all the time," said one of the party--a new man, hired by Neely at the army post. He rode with Peria now; and none but Peria knew that he had come from the long barge which had clung to the Governor's craft all the way down the river--and which, unknown to Lewis himself, had tied up and waited at Chickasaw Bluffs. He was a stranger to Neely and to all the others, but seemed ready enough to take pay for service along the Trace, declaring that he himself was intending to go that way. He was a man well dressed, apparently of education and of some means. He rode armed. "What is wrong with the Governor, think you?" inquired this man once more of Peria, Lewis's servant. "It is his way," shrugged Peria. "We leave him alone. His hand is heavy when he is angry." "He rides always with his rifle across his saddle?" "Always, on the trail." "Loaded, I presume--and his pistols?" "You may well suppose that," said Peria. "Oh, well," said the new member of the party, "'tis just as well to be safe. I lifted his saddlebags and the desk, or trunk, whatever you call it, that is on the pack horse yonder. Heavy, eh?" "Naturally," grinned Peria. They looked at one another. And thereafter the two, as was well noted, conversed often and more intimately together as the journey progressed. "Now it's an odd thing about his coat," volunteered the stranger later in that same day. "He always keeps it on--that ragged old uniform. Was it a uniform, do you believe? Can't the Governor of the new Territory wear a coat that shows his own quality? This one's a dozen years old, you might say." "He always wears it on the trail," said Peria. "At home he watches it as if it held some treasure." "Treasure?" The shifty eyes of the new man flashed in sudden interest. "What treasure? Papers, perhaps--bills--documents--money? His pocket bulges at the side. Something there--yes, eh?" "Hush!" said Peria. "You do not know that man, the Governor. He has the eye of a hawk, the ear of a fox--you can keep nothing from him. He fears nothing in the world, and in his moods--you'd best leave him alone. Don't let him suspect, or----" And Peria shook his head. The cavalcade was well out into the wilderness east of the Mississippi on that afternoon of October 8, in the year 1809. Stopping at the wayside taverns which now and then were found, they had progressed perhaps a hundred miles to the eastward. The day was drawing toward its close when Peria rode up and announced that one or two of the horses had strayed from the trail. "I have told you to be more careful, Peria," expostulated Governor Lewis. "There are articles on the packhorse which I need at night. Who is this new man that is so careless? Why do you not keep the horses up? Go, then, and get them. Major Neely, would you be so kind as to join the men and assure them of bringing on the horses?" "And what of you, Governor?" "I shall go on ahead, if you please. Is there no house near by? You know the trail. Perhaps we can get lodgings not far on." "The first white man's house beyond here," answered Neely, "belongs to an old man named Grinder. 'Tis no more than a few miles ahead. Suppose we join you there?" "Agreed," said Lewis, and setting spurs to his horse, he left them. It was late in the evening when at length Meriwether Lewis reined up in front of the somewhat unattractive Grinder homestead cabin, squatted down alongside the Natchez Trace; a place where sometimes hospitality of a sort was dispensed. It was an ordinary double cabin that he saw, two cob-house apartments with a covered space between such as might have been found anywhere for hundreds of miles on either side of the Alleghanies at that time. At his call there appeared a woman--Mrs. Grinder, she announced herself. "Madam," he inquired, "could you entertain me and my party for the night? I am alone at present, but my servants will soon be up. They are on the trail in search of some horses which have strayed." "My husband is not here," said the woman. "We are not well fixed, but I reckon if we can stand it all the time, you can for a night. How many air there in your party?" "A half-dozen, with an extra horse or two." "I reckon we can fix ye up. Light down and come in." She was noting well her guest, and her shrewd eyes determined him to be no common man. He had the bearing of a gentleman, the carriage of a man used to command. Certain of his garments seemed to show wealth, although she noted, when he stripped off his traveling-smock, that he wore not a new coat, but an old one--very old, she would have said, soiled, stained, faded. It looked as if it had once been part of a uniform. Her guest, whoever he was--and she neither knew nor asked, for the wilderness tavern held no register, and few questions were asked or answered--paid small attention to the woman. He carried his saddlebags into the room pointed out to him, flung them down, and began to pace up and down, sometimes talking to himself. The woman eyed him from time to time as she went about her duties. "Set up and eat," she said at last. "I reckon your men are not coming." "I thank you, Madam," said the stranger, with gentle courtesy. "Do not let me trouble you too much. I have been ill of late, and do not as yet experience much hunger." Indeed, he scarcely tasted the food. He sat, as she noted, a long time, gazing fixedly out of the door, over the forest, toward the West. "Is it not a beautiful world, Madam?" said he, after a time, in a voice of great gentleness and charm. "I have seen the forest often thus in the West in the evening, when the day was done. It is wonderful!" "Yes. Some of my folks is thinking of going out further into the West." He turned to her abstractedly, yet endeavoring to be courteous. "A wonderful country, Madam!" said he; and so he fell again into his moody staring out beyond the door. After a time the hostess of the backwoods cabin sought to make up a bed for him, but he motioned to her to desist. "It is not necessary," said he. "I have slept so much in the open that 'tis rarely I use a bed at all. I see now that my servant has come up, and is in the yard yonder. Tell him to bring my robes and blankets and spread them here on the floor, as I always have them. That will answer quite well enough, thank you." Peria, it seemed, had by this time found his way to the cabin along the trail. He was alone. "Come, man!" said Lewis. "Make down my bed for me--I am ill. And tell me, where is my powder? Where are the bullets for my pistols? I find them empty. Haven't I told you to be more careful about these things? And where is my rifle-powder? The canister is here, but 'tis empty. Come, come, I must have better service than this!" But even as he chided the remissness of his servant, he seemed to forget the matter in his mind. Presently he was again pacing apart, stopping now and then to stare out over the forest. "I must have a place to write," said he at length. "I shall be awake for a time tonight, occupied with business matters of importance. Where is Major Neely? Where are the other men? Why have they not come up?" Peria could not or did not answer these questions, but sullenly went about the business of making his master as comfortable as he might, and then departed to his own quarters, down the hill, in another building. The old backwoods woman herself withdrew to the other apartment, beyond the open space of the double cabin. The soft, velvet darkness of night in the forest now came on apace--a night of silence. There was not even the call of a tree toad. The voice of the whippoorwill was stilled at that season of the year. If there were human beings awake, alert, at that time, they made no sound. Meriwether Lewis was alone--alone in the wilderness again. Its silences, its mysteries, drew about him. But now he stood, not enjoying in his usual fashion the familiar feeling of the night in the forest, the calm, the repose it customarily brought to him. He stood looking intently, as if he expected some one--nay, indeed, as if he saw some one--as if he saw a face! What face was it? At last he made his way across the room to the heavy saddle-case which had been placed there. He flung the lid open, and felt among the contents. It seemed to him there was not so much within the case as there should have been. He missed certain papers, and resolved to ask Peria about them. He could not find the little bags of coin which he expected; but he found the watch, lying covered in a corner of the case. He drew it out and, stepping toward the flickering candle, opened it, gazing fixedly at the little silhouette cut round to fit in the back of the case. It was a face that he had seen before--a hundred times he had gazed thus at it on the far Western trails. He brought the little portrait close up to his eyes--but not close to his lips. No, he did not kiss the face of the woman who once had written to him: You must not kiss my picture, because I am in your power. Meriwether Lewis had won his long fight! He had mastered the human emotions of his soul at last. The battle had been such that he sat here now, weak and spent. He sat looking at the face which had meant so much to him all these years. There came into his mind some recollection of words that she had written to him once--something about the sound of water. He lifted his head and listened. Yes, there was a sound coming faintly through the night--the trickle of a little brook in the ravine below the window. Always, he recalled, she had spoken of the sound of water, saying that that music would blot out memory--saying that water would wash out secrets, would wash out sins. What was it she had said? What was it she had written to him long ago? What did it mean--about the water? The sound of the little brook came to his ears again in some shift of the wind. He rose and stumbled toward the window, carrying the candle in his hand. His haggard face was lighted by its flare as he stood there, leaning out, listening. It was then that his doom came to him. There came the sound of a shot; a second; and yet another. The woman in the cabin near by heard them clearly enough. She rose and listened. There was no sound from the other cabins. The servants paid no attention to the shots, if they had heard them--and why should they not have heard them? No one called out, no one came running. Frightened, the woman rose, and after a time stepped timidly across the covered space between the two rooms, toward the light which she saw shining faintly through the cracks of the door. She heard groans within. A tall and ghastly figure met her as she approached the door. She saw his face, white and haggard and stained. From a wound in the forehead a broad band of something dark fell across his cheek. From his throat something dark was welling. He clutched a hand on his breast--and his fingers were dark. He was bleeding from three wounds; but still he stood and spoke to her. "In God's name, Madam," said he, "bring me water! I am killed!" She ran away, she knew not where, calling to the others to come; but they did not come. She was alone. Once more, forgetful of her errand, incapable of rendering aid, she went back to the door. She heard no sound. She flung open the door and peered into the room. The candle was standing, broken and guttering, on the floor. She could see the scattered belongings of the traveling-cases, empty now. The occupant of the room was gone! In terror she fled once more, back to her own room, and cowered in her bed. Staggering, groping, his hands strained to him to hold in the life that was passing, Meriwether Lewis had left the room where he had received his wounds, and had stepped out into the air, into the night. All the resolution of his soul was bent upon one purpose. He staggered, but still stumbled onward. It seemed to him that he heard the sound of water, and blindly, unconsciously, he headed that way. He entered the shadow of the woods and passed down the little slope of the hill. He fell, rather than seated himself, at the side of the brook whose voice he had heard in the night. He was alone. The wilderness was all about him--the wilderness which had always called to him, and which now was to claim him. He sat, gasping, almost blind, feeling at his pockets. At last he found it--one of the sulphur matches made for him by good old Dr. Saugrain. Tremblingly he essayed to light it, and at last he saw the flare. With skill of custom, though now almost unconsciously, his fingers felt for dry bits of bark and leaves, little twigs. Yes, the match served its purpose. A tiny flame flickered between his feet as he sat. Did any eye see Meriwether Lewis as he sat there in the dark at his last camp fire? Did any guilty eye look on him making his last fight? He sat alone by the little fire. His hand, dropping sometimes, responsive only to the supreme effort of his will, fumbled in the bosom of his old coat. There were some papers there--some things which no other eyes than his must ever see! Here was a secret--it must always be a secret--her secret and his! He would hide forever from the world what had been theirs in common. The tiny flame rose up more strongly, twice, thrice, five times--six times in all! One by one he had placed them on the flames--these letters that he had carried on his heart for years--the six letters that she had written him when he was far away in the unknown. He held the last one long, trying to see the words. He groaned. He was almost blind. His trembling finger found the last word of the last letter. It rose before him in tall characters now, all done in flame and not in block--_Theodosia!_ Now they were gone! No one could ever see them. No one could know how he had treasured them all these years. She was safe! Before his soul, in the time of his great accounting, there rose the passing picture of the years. Free from suffering, now absolved, resigned, he was a boy once more, and all the world was young. He saw again the slopes of old Albemarle, beautiful in the green and gold of an early autumn day in old Virginia. He heard again his mother's voice. What was it that she said? He bent his head as if to listen. "Your wish--your great desire--your hope--your dream--all these shall be yours at last, even though the trail be long, even though the burden be too heavy to carry farther." So then she had known--she had spoken the truth in her soothsaying that day so long ago! Now his fading eye looked about him, and he nodded his head weakly, as if to assent to something he had heard. He had so earnestly longed--he had so greatly desired--to be an honorable man! He had so longed and desired to do somewhat for others than himself! And here was peace, here indeed was conquest. His great desire was won! His lax hands dropped between his knees as he sat. A little gust of wind sweeping down the gully caught up some of the white ashes--stained as they were with blood that dropped from his veins as he bent above them--carried them down upon the tiny thread of the little brook. It carried them away toward the sea--his blood, the ashes, the secret which they hid. At length he rose once more, his splendid will still forcing his broken body to do its bidding. Half crawling up the bank, once more he stood erect and staggered back across the yard, into the room. The woman heard him there again. Pity arose in her breast; once more she mastered her terror and approached the door. "In God's name, Madam," said he, "bring me water--wine! I am so strong, I am hard to die! Bind up my wounds--I have work to do! Heal me these wounds!" But not her power nor any power could heal such wounds as his. Once more she called out for aid, and none came. The night wore away. The dying man lay on his bearskin pallet on the floor, motionless now and silent, but still breathing, and calm at last. It was dawn when the recreant servant found him there. "Peria," said Meriwether Lewis, turning his fading eye on the man, "do not fear me. I will not hurt you. But my watch--I cannot find it--it seems gone. I am hard to die, it seems. But the little watch--it had--a--picture--Ah!" CHAPTER XIX DOWN TO THE SEA Many days later the French servant, Peria, rode up to the gate, to the door, of Locust Hall, the Lewis homestead in old Virginia. The news he bore had preceded him. He met a stern-faced, dark-browed woman, who regarded him coldly when he announced his name, regarded him in silence. The servant found himself able to make but small speech. "Your son was a brave man--he lived long," said Peria, haltingly, at the close of his story. "Yes," said the mother of Meriwether Lewis. "He was a brave man. He was strong!" "He was unhappy; but why he should have killed himself----" "Stop!" The dark eyes blazed upon him. "What are you saying? My son kill himself? It is an outrage to his memory to suggest it. He was the victim of some enemy. As for you, begone!" So Peria passed from sight and view, and almost from memory, not accused, not acquitted. Long afterward a brother of Meriwether Lewis met him, and found that he was carrying the old rifle and the little watch which every member of the family knew so well. These things had been missing from the effects of Meriwether Lewis in the inventory--indeed, little remained in the traveling-cases save a few scattered papers and the old spyglass. There was no gold. There were no letters of any kind. Soon there came down from Monticello to Locust Hall the coach of Thomas Jefferson. "Madam," said he, when finally he stood at the side of the mistress of Locust Hall, "it is heavy news I thought to bring--I see that you have heard it. What shall I say--what can we say to each other? I mourn him as if he were my own son." "It has come at last," said the mother of Meriwether Lewis. "The wilderness has him, as I knew it would! I told him, here at this place, when he was a boy, that at last the load would weigh him down." "The rumor is that he died by his own hand. I find it difficult to believe. It is far more likely that some enemy or robber was guilty of the deed." "Whom had he ever harmed?" she demanded of Jefferson. "None in the world, with intent; but he had enemies. Whether by his own hand or that of another, he died a gallant gentleman. He would not think of himself alone. But listen--bear with me if I tell you that could your son send out the news himself, perhaps he might say 'twas by his own hand he perished, and not by that of another!" "Never, Mr. Jefferson, never will I believe that! It was not in his nature!" "I agree with you. But when we take the last wishes of the dead, we take what is the law for us. And the law of your son was the law of honor. Suppose, my dear madam, there were a woman concerned in this matter?" "He never wronged a woman in his life----" "Precisely, nor in his death would he wrong one! Do you begin to see?" "Did he ever speak to you of her?" "It was impossible that he should; but I knew them both. I knew their secret. Were it in his power to do so, I am sure that he carried his secret with him, so that it might never be shared by any. That secret he has guarded in death as in life." "But shall I let that stain rest on his name?" The dark eye of the old woman gleamed upon her son's friend. "Do not I love him also? I am speaking now only of his own wish--not ours. I know that he would shield her at any cost--nay, I know he did shield her at any cost. May not we shield him--and her--no matter what the cost to us? If he laid that wish on us, ought we not to respect it? Madam, I shall frame a letter which will serve to appease the criticism of the public in regard to your son. If it be not the exact truth--and who shall tell the exact truth?--it will at least be accepted as truth, and it will forever silence any talk. What should the public know of a life such as his? There are some lives which are tragically large, and such was his. He lived with honor, and he could not die without it. What was in his heart we shall not ask to know. If ever he sinned, he is purged of any sin." Jefferson was silent for a moment, holding the bereaved mother's hand in his own. "He shall have a monument, madam," he went on. "It shall mark his grave in yonder wilderness. They shall name at least a county for him, and hold it his sacred grave-place--there in Tennessee, by the old Indian road. Let him lie there under the trees--that is as he would wish. He shall have some monument--yes, but how futile is all that! His greatest monument will be in the vast new country which he has brought to us. He was a man of a natural greatness not surpassed by any of his time." * * * * * What of Theodosia Alston, loyal and lofty soul, blameless wife, devoted and pathetic adherent to the fallen fortunes of her ill-starred father? Three years after Meriwether Lewis laid him down to sleep in the forest, a ship put out from Charleston wharf. It was bound for the city of New York, where at that time there was living a broken, homeless, forsaken man named Aaron Burr--a man execrated at home, discredited abroad, but who now, after years of exile, had crept home to the country which had cast him out. A passenger on that ship was Theodosia Alston, the daughter of Aaron Burr. That much is known. The ship sailed. It never came to port. No more is known. To this day none knows what was the fate of Aaron Burr's daughter, one of the most appealing figures of her day, a woman made for happiness, but continually in close touch with tragedy. Wherever her body may lie, she has her wish. The sound of the eternal waters is the continuous requiem in her ears. Her secret, if she had one, is washed away long ere this, and is one with the eternal secrets of the sea. As to her sin, she had none. Above her memory, since she has no grave, there might best be inscribed the words she wrote at a time of her own despair: "I hope to be happy in the next world, for I have not been bad in this." Did the little brook in Tennessee ever find its way down to the sea? Did it carry a scattered drop of a man's lifeblood, little by little thinning, thinning on its long journey? Did ever a wandering flake of ashes, melting, rest on its bosom for so great a journey as that toward the sea? Did the sound of a voice in the wilderness, passing across the unknown leagues, ever reach an ear that heard? Who can tell? Perhaps in the great ten thousand years such things may be--perhaps deep calls to deep, and there are no longer sins nor tears. A million hearth-fires mark the camp-fire trail of Meriwether Lewis. We own the country which he found, and for which he paid. He sleeps. Above him stands the monument which his chief assigned to him--his country. It rises now in glory and splendor, the perfected vision which he saw. That is the happy ending of his story--his country! It is ours. As its title came to us in honor, it is for us to love it honorably, to use it honorably, and to defend it honorably. None may withstand us while we hold to his ambitions--while our sons measure to the stature of such a man. "_The Books You Like to Read at the Price You Like to Pay_" There Are Two Sides to Everything-- --including the wrapper which covers every Grosset & Dunlap book. When you feel in the mood for a good romance, refer to the carefully selected list of modern fiction comprising most of the successes by prominent writers of the day which is printed on the back of every Grosset & Dunlap book wrapper. You will find more than five hundred titles to choose from--books for every mood and every taste and every pocket-book. _Don't forget the other side, but in case the wrapper is lost, write to the publishers for a complete catalog._ _There is a Grosset & Dunlap Book for every mood and for every taste_ EMERSON HOUGH'S NOVELS May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. THE COVERED WAGON An epic story of the Great West from which the famous picture was made. THE WAY OF A MAN A colorful romance of the pioneer West before the Civil War. THE SAGEBRUSHER An Eastern girl answers a matrimonial ad. and goes out West in the hills of Montana to find her mate. THE WAY OUT A romance of the feud district of the Cumberland country. THE BROKEN GATE A story of broken social conventions and of a woman's determination to put the past behind her. THE WAY TO THE WEST Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Kit Carson figure in this story of the opening of the West. HEART'S DESIRE The story of what happens when the railroad came to a little settlement in the far West. THE PURCHASE PRICE A story of Kentucky during the days after the American Revolution. GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Minor changes have been made to correct obvious typesetters' errors; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and intent. 
13605	----	Proofreaders ** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y'e = the; y't = that; w't = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. Additional notes on corrections, etc. are signed 'KTH' ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques AND Discoveries OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER. AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. XII. AMERICA. PART I. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR ROBERT CECIL[1] KNIGHT. Principall Secretarie to her Maiestie, Master of the Court of Wards and Liueries, and one of her Maiesties most honourable Priuie Councell. Right honourable, your fauourable acceptance of my second volume of the English voyages offred vnto you the last yere, your perusing of the same at your conuenient leasure, your good testimony of my selfe and of my trauailes therein, together with the infallible signes of your earnest desire to doe mee good, which very lately, when I thought least thereof, brake forth into most bountiful and acceptable effects: these considerations haue throughly animated and encouraged me to present vnto your prudent censure this my third and last volume also. The subiect and matter herein contained is the fourth part of the world, which more commonly then properly is called America: but by the chiefest Authors The new world. New, in regard of the new and late discouery thereof made by Christopher Colon, aliàs Columbus, a Genouois by nation, in the yere of grace 1492. And world, in respect of the huge extension thereof, which to this day is not throughly discouered, neither within the Inland nor in the coast, especially toward the North and Northwest, although on the either side it be knowen vnto vs for the space of fiue thousand leagues at the least, compting and considering the trending of the land, and for 3000. more on the backeside in the South Sea from the Streight of Magellan to Cape Mendoçino and Noua Albion. So that it seemeth very fitly to be called A newe worlde. Howbeit it cannot be denied but that Antiquitie had some kinde of dimme glimse, and vnperfect notice thereof. Which may appeare by the relation of Plato in his two worthy dialogues of Timæus and Critias vnder the discourse of that mighty large yland called by him Atlantis, lying in the Ocean sea without the Streight of Hercules, now called the Straight of Gibraltar, being (as he there reporteth) bigger then Africa and Asia: And by that of Aristotle in his booke De admirandis auditionibus of the long nauigation of certaine Carthaginians, who sayling forth of the aforesaid Streight of Gibraltar into the maine Ocean for the space of many dayes, in the ende found a mighty and fruitfull yland, which they would haue inhabited, but were forbidden by their Senate and chiefe gouernours. Moreouer, aboue 300. yeeres after these wee haue the testimony of Diodorus Siculus lib. 5 cap. 7. of the like mighty yland discouered in the Westerne Ocean by the Tyrrheni, who were forbidden for certaine causes to inhabite the same by the foresaid Carthaginians. And Senecca in his tragedie intituled Medea foretold aboue 1500. yeeres past, that in the later ages the Ocean would discouer new worlds, and that the yle of Thule would no more be the vttermost limite of the earth. For whereas Virgile had said to Augustus Caesar, Tibi seruiat vltima Thule, alluding thereunto he contradicteth the same, and saith, Nec sit terris vltima Thule. Yea Tertullian, one of our most ancient and learned diuines, in the beginning of his treatise de Pallio alludeth vnto Plato his Westerne Atlantis, which there by another name he calleth Aeon, saying Aeon in Atlantico nunc quæritur. And in his 40. chapter de Apologetico he reporteth the same to be bigger then all Africa and Asia.[2] Of this new world and euery speciall part thereof in this my third volume I haue brought to light the best and most perfect relations of such as were chiefe actours in the particular discoueries and serches of the same, giuing vnto euery man his right, and leauing euery one to mainteine his owne credit. The order obserued in this worke is farre more exact, then heretofore I could attaine vnto: for whereas in my two former volumes I was enforced for lacke of sufficient store, in diuers places to vse the methode of time onely (which many worthy authors on the like occasion are enforced vnto) being now more plentifully furnished with matter, I alwayes follow the double order of time and place. Wherefore proposing vnto my selfe the right situation of this New world, I begin at the extreme Northerne limite, and put downe successiuely in one ranke or classis, according to the order aforesaide, all such voyages as haue bene made to the said part: which comming all together, and following orderly one vpon another, doe much more lighten the readers vnderstanding, and confirme his iudgment, then if they had bene scattered in sundry corners of the worke. Which methode I obserue from the highest North to the lowest South.[3] Now where any country hath bene but seldome hanted, or any extraordinary or chiefe action occureth, if I finde one voyage well written by two seuerall persons, sometimes I make no difficultie to set downe both those iournals, as finding diuers things of good moment obserued in the one, which are quite omitted in the other. For commonly a souldier obserueth one thing, and a mariner another, and as your honour knoweth, Plus vident oculi, quàm oculus. But this course I take very seldome and sparingly. And albeit my worke do cary the title of The English voyages, aswell in regard that the greatest part are theirs, and that my trauaile was chiefly vndertaken for preseruation of their memorable actions, yet where our owne mens experience is defectiue, there I haue bene careful to supply the same with the best and chiefest relations of strangers. As in the discouery of the Grand Bay, of the mighty riuer of S. Laurence, of the countries of Canada, Hochelaga, and Saguenay, of Florida, and the Inland of Cibola, Tiguex, Cicuic, and Quiuira, of The gulfe of California, and the North westerne sea-coast to Cabo Mendoçino and Sierra Neuada: as also of the late and rich discouery of 15. prouinces on the backside of Florida and Virginia, the chiefest whereof is called the kingdome of New Mexico, for the wealth, ciuil gouernment, and populousnesse of the same. Moreouer because since our warres with Spaine, by the taking of their ships, and sacking of their townes and cities, most of all their secrets of the West Indies, and euery part thereof are fallen into our peoples hands (which in former time were for the most part vnknowen vnto vs,) I haue vsed the vttermost of my best endeuour, to get, and hauing gotten, to translate out of Spanish, and here in this present volume to publish such secrets of theirs, as may any way auaile vs or annoy them, if they driue and vrge vs by their sullen insolencies, to continue our courses of hostilitie against them, and shall cease to seeke a good and Christian peace vpon indifferent and equal conditions. What these things be, and of how great importance your honour in part may vnderstand, if it please you to vouchsafe to reade the Catalogues conteyning the 14 principal heads of this worke. Whereby your honor may farther perceiue that there is no chiefe riuer, no port, no towne, no citie, no prouince of any reckoning in the West Indies, that hath not here some good description thereof, aswell for the inland as the sea-coast. And for the knowledge of the true breadth of the Sea betweene Noua Albion on the Northwest part of America, and the yle of Iapan lying ouer against the kingdomes of Coray and China, which vntil these foure yeeres was neuer reueiled vnto vs, being a point of exceeding great consequence, I haue here inserted the voyage of one Francis Gualle a Spaniard made from Acapulco an hauen on the South sea on the coast of New Spaine, first to the Philippinas, and then to the citie of Macao in China, and homeward from Macao by the yles of Iapan, and thence to the back of the West Indies in the Northerly latitude of 37. degrees 1/2. In which course betweene the said ylands and the maine he found a wide and spacious open Ocean of 900. leagues broad, which a little more to the Northward hath bene set out as a Streight, and called in most mappes The Streight of Anian. In which relation to the viceroy hee constantly affirmeth three seuerall times, that there is a passage that way vnto the North parts of Asia. Moreouer, because I perceiue by a letter directed by her Maiestie to the Emperour of China (and sent in the last Fleet intended for those parts by The South Sea vnder the charge of Beniamin Wood, chiefly set out at the charges of sir Robert Duddeley, a gentleman of excellent parts) that she vseth her princely mediation for obtaining of freedome of traffique for her marchants in his dominions, for the better instruction of our people in the state of those countries, I haue brought to light certaine new aduertisements of the late alteration of the mightie monarchie of the confronting yle of Iapan, and of the new conquest of the kingdome of Coray, not long since tributarie to the king of China, by Quabacondono the monarch of all the yles and princedomes of Iapan; as also of the Tartars called Iezi, adioyning on the East and Northeast parts of Coray, where I thinke the best vtterance of our natural and chiefe commoditie of cloth is like to be, if it please God hereafter to reueile vnto vs the passage thither by the Northwest. The most exact and true information of the North parts of China I finde in a history of Tamerlan, which I haue in French, set out within these sixe yeeres by the abbat of Mortimer, dedicated to the French king that now reigneth, who confesseth that it was long since written in the Arabian tongue by one Alhacen a wise and valiant Captaine, employed by the said mighty prince in all his conquests of the foresaid kingdome. Which history I would not haue failed to haue translated into English, if I had not found it learnedly done vnto my hand. And for an appendix vnto the ende of my worke, I haue thought it not impertinent, to exhibite to the graue and discreet iudgements of those which haue the chiefe places in the Admiraltie and marine causes of England, Certaine briefe extracts of the orders of the Contractation house of Siuil in Spaine, touching their gouernment in sea-matters: together with The streight and seuere examination of Pilots and Masters before they be admitted to take charge of ships, aswell by the Pilot mayor, and brotherhood of ancient Masters, as by the Kings reader of The lecture of the art of Nauigation, with the time that they be enioyned to bee his auditors, and some part of the questions that they are to answere vnto. Which if they finde good and beneficial for our seamen, I hope they wil gladly imbrace and imitate, or finding out some fitter course of their owne, will seeke to bring such as are of that calling vnto better gouernment and more perfection in that most laudable and needfull vocation. To leaue this point, I was once minded to haue added to the end of these my labours a short treatise, which I haue lying by me in writing, touching The curing of hot diseases incident to traueilers in long and Southerne voyages, which treatise was written in English, no doubt of a very honest mind, by one M. George Wateson, and dedicated vnto her sacred Maiestie. But being carefull to do nothing herein rashly, I shewed it to my worshipfull friend M. doctour Gilbert, a gentleman no lesse excellent in the chiefest secrets of the Mathematicks (as that rare iewel lately set foorth by him in Latine doeth euidently declare) then in his owne profession of physicke: who assured me, after hee had perused the said treatise, that it was very defectiue and vnperfect, and that if hee might haue leasure, which that argument would require, he would either write something thereof more aduisedly himselfe, or would conferre with the whole Colledge of the Physicions, and set downe some order by common consent for the preseruation of her Maiesties subjects. Now as the foresaid treatise touched the cure of diseases growing in hot regions, so being requested thereunto by some in authoritie they may adde their iudgments for the cure of diseases incident unto men employed in cold regions, which to good purpose may serue our peoples turnes, if they chance to prosecute the intermitted discouery by the Northwest, whereunto I finde diuers worshipfull citizens at this present much inclined. Now because long since I did foresee, that my profession of diuinitie, the care of my family, and other occasions might call and diuert me from these kinde of endeuours, I haue for these 3 yeeres last pasts encouraged and furthered in these studies of Cosmographie and forren histories, my very honest, industrious, and learned friend M. IOHN PORY, one of speciall skill and extraordinary hope to performe great matters in the same, and beneficial for the common wealth. Thus Sir I haue portrayed out in rude lineaments my Westerne Atlantis or America: assuring you, that if I had bene able, I would haue limned her and set her out with farre more liuely and exquisite colours: yet, as she is, I humbly desire you to receiue her with your wonted and accustomed fauour at my handes, who alwayes wil remaine most ready and deuoted to do your honour any poore seruice that I may; and in the meane season will not faile vnfainedly to beseech the Almighty to powre vpon you the best of his temporall blessings in this world, and after this life ended with true and much honour, to make you partaker of his joyes eternall. From London the first of September, the yeere of our Lord God 1600. Your Honours most humble to be commanded, RICHARD HAKLVYT, Preacher. Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoueries OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN AMERICA. * * * * * The most ancient Discovery of the West Indies by Madoc the sonne of Owen Guyneth Prince of North-wales, in the yeere 1170: taken out of the history of Wales, lately published by M. Dauid Powel Doctor of Diuinity.[4] After the death of Owen Guyneth, his sonnes fell at debate who should inherit after him: for the eldest sonne borne in matrimony, Edward or Iorweth Drwydion, was counted vnmeet to gouerne, because of the maime upon his face: and Howell that tooke vpon him all the rule was a base sonne, begotten upon an Irish woman. Therefore Dauid gathered all the power he could, and came against Howel, and fighting with him, slew him; and afterwards inioyed quietly the whole land of Northwales, vntil his brother Iorwerths sonne came to age. [Sidenote: Madoc the son of Owen Guyneth.] Madoc another of Owen Guyneth his sonnes left the land in contention betwixt his brethren, and prepared certaine ships, with men and munition, and sought aduentures by Seas, sailing West, and leauing the coast of Ireland so farre North, that he came vnto a land vnknowen, where he saw many strange things. [Sidenote: Humf. Llyod.] This land most needs be some part of that Countrey of which the Spanyards affirme themselues to be the first finders since Hannos time. Whereupon it is manifest that that countrey was by Britaines discouered, long before Columbus led any Spanyards thither. Of the voyage and returne of this Madoc there be many fables feined, as the common people doe vse in distance of place and length of time rather to augment then to diminish: but sure it is there he was. [Sidenote: The second voyage of Madoc the sonne of Owen Guyneth.] And after he had returned home, and declared the pleasant and fruitfull countreys that he had seen without inhabitants, and vpon the contrary part, for what barren and wild ground his brethren and nephews did murther one another, he prepared a number of ships, and got with him such men and women as were desirous to liue in quietness: and taking leaue of his friends, tooke his journey thitherward againe. [Sidenote: Gomara. lib. 2. cap. 16.] Therefore it is to be supposed that he and his people inhabited part of those countreys: for it appeareth by Francis Lopez de Gomara, that in Acuzamil and other places the people honored the crosse. Wherby it may be gathered that Christians had bene there before the comming of the Spanyards. But because this people were not many, they followed the maners of the land which they came vnto, and vsed the language they found there. [Sidenote: M. Powels addition. Gutyn Owen.] This Madoc arriuing in that Westerne countrey, vnto the which he came in the yere 1170, left most of his people there, and returning backe for more of his owne nation, acquaintance and friends to inhabit that faire and large countrey, went thither againe with ten sailes, as I find noted by Gutyn Owen. I am of opinion that the land whereunto he came was some part of the West Indies.[5] * * * * * Carmina Meredith filij Rhesi[6] mentionem facientia de Madoco filio Oweni Guynedd, et de sua nauigatione in terras incognitas. Vixit hic Meredith circiter annum Domini 1477. Madoc wyf, mwyedic wedd, Iawn genau, Owyn Guynedd: Ni fynnum dir, fy enaid oedd Na da mawr, ond y moroedd.[7] The same in English. Madoc I am the sonne of Owen Gwynedd With stature large, and comely grace adorned: No lands at home nor store of wealth me please, My minde was whole to search the Ocean seas. * * * * * The offer of the discouery of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus to king Henry the seuenth in the yeere 1488 the 13 of February: with the kings acceptation of the offer, and the cause whereupon hee was depriued of the same: recorded in the thirteenth chapter of the history of Don Fernand Columbus of the life and deeds of his father Christopher Columbus.[8] Christophero Colon temendo, se parimente i Re di Castiglia non assentissero alla sua impresa, non gli bisognasse proporla di nuouo à qualche alto principe, e cosi in cio passasse lungo tempo; mando in Inghilterra vn suo fratello, che haueua appresso di se, chiantato Bartholomeo Colon: il qual, quantunque non hauesse lettere Latine, erà però huomo prattico, e giudicioso nelle cose del mare, e sapea molto bene far carte da nauigare, e sphere, et altri instrumenti di quella professione, come dal suo fratello era instrutto. Partito adunque Bartholomeo Colon per Inghilterra, volle la sua sorte, che desse in man di cor sali, i quali lo spogliarono insieme con gli altri delta sua naue. Per la qual cosa, e per la sua pouertà et infirmità, che in cosi diuerse terre lo assalirono crudelmente, prolungo per gran tempo la sua ambasciata, fin che, aquistata vn poco di faculia con le carte, ch' ei fabricana, cominciò a far pratiche co' il Re Enrico settimo padre de Enrico ottauo, che al presente regna: a cui appresentò vn mappamondo, nel quale erano scritti questi versi, che frá le sue scriture lo trouai, e da me saranno qui posti piu rosto per l'antichità, che per la loro elganza. Terraram quicunque cupis foeliciter oras Noscere, cuncta decens doctè pictura docebit, Quam Strabo affirmat, Ptolomæus, Plinius, atque Isidorus: non vno tamen sententia cuique. Pingitur hîc etiam nuper sulcata carinis Hispanis Zona illa, priùs incognita genti Torrida, quæ tandem nunc est notissima multis. Et piu di sotto diceua Pro Authore siue Pictore. Ianua cui patriæ est nomen, cui Bartholomæus Columbus de Terra Rubra, opus edidit istud, Londonijis anno Domini 1480 atque insuper anno Octauo, decimaque die cum tertia mensis Februarij. Laudes Christo cantentur abundè. Et, percioche auuertirà alcuno, che dice Columbus de Terra Rubra, dico medesimamente Io viddi alcune sotto scritioni dell'Ammiraglio, primo che acquistasse lo stato, ou' egli si sotto scriueua, Columbus de Terra Rubra. Ma, tornando al Re d'Inghilterra, dico, che, da lui il mappamondo veduto, et cio che i'Ammiraglio gli offeriua, con allegro volto accettò la sua offerta, e mandolo a chiamare. Ma, percioche Dio Phaueua per Cas. tiglia serbata, gia l'Ammiraglio in quel tempo era andato, e tornato con la vittoria della sua impresa, secondo che per ordine si racconterà. Lasciarò hora di raccontar ciò, che Bartolomeo Colon hauena negociato in Inghilterra, e tornarò all'Ammiraglio, etc. The same in English. Christopher Columbus fearing least if the king of Castile in like manner (as the king of Portugall had done) should not condescend vnto his enterprise, he should be inforced to offer the same againe to some other prince, and so much time should be spent therein, sent into England a certaine brother of his which he had with him, whose name was Bartholomew Columbus, who, albeit he had not the Latine tongue, yet neuerthelesse was a man of experience and skilfull in Sea causes, and could very wel make sea cards and globes, and other instruments belonging to that profession, as he was instructed by his brother. Wherefore after that Bartholomew Columbus was departed for England, his lucke was to fall into the hands of pirats, which spoiled him with the rest of them which were in the ship which he went in. [Sidenote: The occasion why the West Indies were not discouered for England.] Vpon which occasion, and by reason of his pouerty and sicknesse which cruelly assaulted him in a countrey so farre distant from his friends, he deferred his embassage for a long while, until such time as he had gotten somewhat handsome about him with making of Sea Cards. At length he began to deale with King Henry the seuenth the father of Henry the eight, which reigneth at this present: vnto whom he presented a mappe of the world, wherein these verses were written, which I found among his papers: and I will here set them downe, rather for their antiquity then for their goodnesse. Thou which desireth easily the coasts of lands to know, This comely mappe right learnedly the same to thee will shew: Which Strabo, Plinie, Ptolomew and Isodore maintaine: Yet for all that they do not all in one accord remaine. Here also is set downe the late discouered burning Zone By Portingals, vnto the world which whilom was vnknowen. Whereof the knowledge now at length thorow all the world is blowen. And a little vnder he added: For the Author or the Drawer. He, whose deare natiue soile hight stately Genua. Euen he whose name is Bartholomew Colon de Terra Rubra, The yeere of Grace a thousand and foure hundred and fourescore And eight, and on the thirteenth day of February more, In London published this worke. To Christ all laud therefore. And because some peraduenture may obserue that he calleth himselfe Columbus de Terra Rubra, I say, that in like maner I haue seene some subscriptions of my father Christopher Columbus, before he had the degree of Admirall, wherein be signed his name thus, Columbus de Terra Rubra. [Sidenote: King Henry the seuenth his acceptation of Columbus offer.] But to returne to the king of England, I say, that after he had seene the map, and that which my father Christopher Columbus offered vnto him, he accepted the offer with ioyfull countenance, and sent to call him into England. But because God had reserued the said offer for Castile, Columbus was gone in the meane space, and also returned with the performance of his enterprise, as hereafter in order shall be rehearsed. Now will I leaue off from making any farther mention of that which Bartholomew Colon had negotiated in England, and I will returne vnto the Admirall, &c. * * * * * Another testimony taken out of the 60 chapter of the foresayd history of Ferdinando Columbus concerning the offer that Bartholomew Columbus made to king Henry the seuenth on the behalfe of his brother Christopher. Tornato adunque l'Ammiraglio dallo scoprimento di Cuba and di Giamaica, tornò nella Spagnuola Bartolomeo Colon suo fratello, quello, che era già andato a trattare accordo col Re d'Inghilterra sopra lo scoprimento delle Indie, come di sopra habiam detto. Questo poi, ritornando sene verso Castiglia con capitoli conceduti, haueua inteso a Parigi dal re Carlo di Francia, l'Ammiraglio suo fratello hauer gia scorperte l'Indie: per che gli souenne per poter far il Viaggio di cento scudi. Et, Auenga che per cotal nuoua egli si fosse molto affrettato, per arriuar l'Ammiraglio in Spagna, quando non dimeno giunse a Siuiglia, egli era gia tornato alle Indie co' 17 nauigli. Perche, per asseguir quanto ei gli haueba lasciato, di subito al principio dell' anno del 1494 sen' andò a i Re Catholici, menando seco Don Diego Colon, mio fratello, e me ancora, accioche seruissimo di paggi al serenissimo principe Don Giouanni, il qual viua in gloria, si come hauea commandata la Catholica Reina donna Isabella, che alhora era in Vagliadolid. Tosto adunque che noi giungemmo, i Re chiamarono Don Bartolomeo, et mandaronlo alia Spagnuola centre naui, &c. The same in English. Christopher Columbus the Admirall being returned from the discouery of Cuba and Iamayca, found in Hispaniola his brother Bartholomew Columbus, who before had beene sent to intreat of an agreement with the king of England for the discouery of the Indies, as we haue sayd before. This Bartholomew therefore returning vnto Castile, with the capitulations granted by the king of England to his brother, vnderstood at Paris by Charles the king of France that the Admirall his brother had already performed that discouery: whereupon the French king gaue vnto the sayd Bartholomew an hundred French crownes to beare his charges into Spaine. And albeit he made great haste vpon this good newes to meet with the Admirall in Spaine, yet at his comming to Siuil his brother was already returned to the Indies with seuenteene saile of shipps. Wherefore to fulfill that which he had left him in charge in the beginning of the yeere 1494 he repaired to the Catholike princes, taking with him Diego Colon my brother and me also, which were to be preferred as Pages to the most excellent Prince Don Iohn, who now is with God, according to the commandement of the Catholic Queene Lady Isabell, which was then in Validolid. Assoone therefore as we came to the Court, the princes called for Don Bartholomew, and sent him to Hispaniola with three ships, &c. * * * * * THE ENGLISH VOYAGES, NAVIGATIONS, AND DISCOUERIES. _(Intended for the finding of a northwest passage) to the north parts of America, to meta incogita, and the backeside of Gronland, as farre as 72 degrees and 12 minuts: performed first by Sebastian Cabota, and since by Sir Martin Frobisher, and M. John Dauis, with the patents, discourses, and aduertisements thereto belonging._ The Letters patents of King Henry the seuenth granted vnto Iohn Cabot and his three sonnes, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius for the discouerie of new and vnknowen lands. Henricus Dei gratia rex Angliæ, et Franciæ, et Dominus Hiberniæ, omnibus, ad quos præsentes literæ nostræ peruenerint, salutem. Notum sit et manifestum, quòd dedimus et concessimus, ac per præsentes damus et concedimus pro nobis et hæredibus nostris, dilectis nobis Ioanni Caboto ciui Venetiarum, Lodouico, Sebastiano, et Sancio, filijs dicti Ioannis, et eorum ac cuiuslibet eorum hæredibus et deputatis, plenam ac liberam authoritatem, facultatem, et potestatem nauigandi ad omnes partes, regiones, et sinus maris orientalis, occidentalis, et septentrionalis, sub banneris, vexillis, et insignijs nostris, cum quinque nauibus siue nauigijs, cuiuscúnque portituræ et qualitatis existant, et cum tot et tantis nautis et hominibus, quot et quantos in dictis nauibus secum ducere voluerint, suis et eorum proprijs sumptibus et expensis, ad inueniendum, discooperiendum, et inuestigandum quascunque insulas, patrias, regiones siue prouincias gentilium et infidelium quorumcunque, in quacunque parte mundi positas, quæ Christianis omnibus ante hæc tempora fuerint incognitæ. Concessimus etiam eisdem et eorum cuilibet, eorumque et cuiuslibet eorum hæredibus et deputatis, ac licentiam dedimus ad affigendum prædictas banneras nostras et insignia in quacunque villa, oppido, castro, insula seu terra firma à se nouiter inuentis. Et quòd prænominatus Ioannes, et filij eiusdem, seu hæredes et eorum deputati, quascunque huiusmodi villas, castra, oppida, et insulas à se inuentas, quæ subiugari, occupari, possideri possint, subiugare, occupare, possidere valeant tanquam vasalli nostri, et gubernatores, locatenentes, et deputati eorundem, dominium, titulum et iurisdictionem earundem villarum, castrorum, oppidorum, insularum, ac terræ firmæ sic inuentorum nobis acquirendo. Ita tamen, vt ex omnibus fructibus, proficuis, emolumentis, commodis, lucris, et obuintionibus ex huiusmodi nauigatione prouenientibus, præfatus Iohannes, et filij ac hæredes, et eorum deputati, teneanter et sint obligati nobis pro omni viagio suo, toties quoties ad portum nostrum Bristolliæ applicuerint (ad quem omnino applicare teneantur et sint astricti) deductis omnibus sumptibus et impensis necessarijs per eosdem factis, quintam partem capitalis lucri facti, siue in mercibus, siue in pecunijs persoluere: Dantes nos et concedentes eisdem suisque hæredibus et deputatis, vt ab omni solutione custumarum omnium et singulorum honorum et mercium, quas secum reportarint ab illis locis sic nouiter inuentis, liberi sint et immunes. Et insuper dedimus et concessimus eisdem ac suis hæredibus et deputatis, quod terræ omnes firmæ, insulæ, villæ, oppida, castra, et loca quæcunque a se inuenta, quotquot ab eis inueniri contigerit, non possint ab alijs quibusuis nostris subditis frequentari seu visitari, absque licentia prædictorum Ioannis et eius filiorum, suorumque deputatoram, sub poena amissionis tam nauium quàm bonorum omnium quorumcunque ad ea loca sic inuenta nauigare præsumentium. Volentes et strictissimè mandantes omnibus et singulis nostris subditis, tam in terra quàm in mari constitutis, vt præfato Ioanni et eius filijs ac deputatis, bonam assistentiam faciant, et tam in armandis nauibus seu nauigijs, quàm in prouisione commeatus et victualium pro sua pecunia emendorum, atque aliarum omnium rerum sibi prouidendarum pro dicta nauigatione sumenda suos omnes fauore set auxilia impertiant. In cuius rei testimonium has literas nostras fieri fecimus patentes. [Sidenote: Ann. Dom. 1495.] Teste meipso apud Westmonasterium quinto die Martij anno regni nostri vndecimo. The same in English. Henry by the grace of God, king of England and France, and lord of Ireland, to all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting. Be it knowen that we haue giuen and granted, and by these presents do giue and grant for vs and our heires, to our welbeloued Iohn Cabot citizen of Venice,[9] to Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, sonnes of the said Iohn, and to the heires of them, and euery of them, and their deputies, full and free authority, leaue, and power to saile to all parts, countreys, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensignes, with fiue ships of what burthen or quality soeuer they be, and as many mariners or men as they will haue with them in the sayd ships, vpon their owne proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discouer, and finde whatsoeuer isles, countreys, regions or prouinces of the heathen and infidels whatsoeuer they be, and in what part of the world soeuer they be, which before this time haue bene vnknowen to all Christians; we haue granted to them, and also to euery of them, the heires of them, and their deputies, and haue giuen them licence to set vp our banners and ensignes in euery village, towne, castle, isle, or maine land of them newly found. And that the aforesayd Iohn and his sonnes, or their heires and assignes may subdue, occupy and possesse all such townes, cities, castles and isles of them found, which they can subdue, occupy and possesse, as our vassals, and lieutenants, getting vnto vs the rule, title, and iurisdiction of the same villages, townes, castles, and firme land so found. [Sidenote: Bristol thought the meetest port for Westerne discoueries.] Yet so that the aforesayd Iohn, and his sonnes and heires, and their deputies, be holden and bounden of all the fruits, profits, gaines, and commodities growing of such nauigation, for euery their voyage, as often as they shall arriue at our port of Bristoll (at the which port they shall be bound and holden onely to arriue) all maner of necessary costs and charges by them made, being deducted, to pay vnto vs in wares or money the fift part of the capitall gaine so gotten. [Sidenote: Freedome from custome.] We giuing and granting vnto them and to their heires and deputies, that they shall be free from all paying of customes of all and singular such merchandize as they shall bring with them from those places so newly found. And moreouer, we haue giuen and granted to them, their heires and deputies, that all the firme lands, isles, villages, townes, castles and places whatsoeuer they be that they shall chance to finde, may not of any other of our subiects be frequented or visited without the licence of the foresayd Iohn and his sonnes, and their deputies, vnder paine of forfeiture aswell of their shippes as of all and singuler goods of all them that shall presume to saile to those places so found. Willing, and most straightly commanding all and singuler our subiects aswell on land as on sea, to giue good assistance to the aforesayd Iohn and his sonnes and deputies, and that as well in arming and furnishing their ships or vessels, as in prouision of food, and in buying of victuals for their money, and all other things by them to be prouided necessary for the sayd nauigation, they do giue them all their helpe and fauour. In witnesse whereof we haue caused to be made these our Letters patents. Witnesse our selfe at Westminister the fift day of March, in the eleuenth yeere of our reigne.[10] * * * * * Billa signata anno 13 Henrici septimi. [Sidenote: A record of the rolls touching the voyage of Iohn Cabot and Sebastian his sonne.] Rex tertio die Februarij, anno 13, licentiam dedit Ioanni Caboto, quod ipse capere possit sex naues Anglicanas, in aliquo portu, siue portibus regni Angliæ, ita quod sint de portagio 200. doliorum, vel subtus, cum apparatu requisito, et quod recipere possint in dictas naues omnes tales magistros, marinarios, et subditos regis, qui cum eo exire voluerint, &c. The same in English. The king vpon the third day of February, in the 13 yeere of his reigne, gaue licence to Iohn Cabot to take sixe English ships in any hauen or hauens of the realme of England, being of the burden of 200 tunnes, or vnder, with all necessary furniture, and to take also into the said ships all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the king as willingly will go with him, &c.[11] * * * * * An extract taken out of the map[12] of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams, concerning his discouery of the West Indies, which is to be seene in her Maiesties priuie gallerie at Westminster, and in many other ancient merchants houses. Anno Domini 1497 Ioannes Cabotus Venetus, et Sebastianus illius filius eam terram fecerunt peruiam, quam nullus priùs adire ausus fuit, die 24 Junij, circiter horam quintam bene manè. Hanc autem appellauit Terram primùm visam, credo quod ex mari in eam partem primùm oculos iniecerat. Nam quæ ex aduerso sita est insula eam appellauit insulam Diui Ioannis, hac opinor ratione, quòd aperta fuit eo die qui est sacer Diuo Ioanni Baptistæ: Huius incolæ pelles animalium, exuuiasque ferarum pro indumentis habent, easque tanti faciunt, quanti nos vestes preciosissimas. Cùm bellum gerunt, vtuntur arcu, sagittis, hastis, spiculis, clauis ligneis et fundis. Tellus sterilis est, neque vllos fructus affert, ex quo fit, vt vrsis albo colore, et ceruis inusitatæ apud nos magnitudinis referta sit: piscibus abundat, ijsque sane magnis, quales sunt lupi marini, et quos salmones vulgus appellat; soleæ autem reperiuntur tam longæ, vt vlnæ mensuram excedant. Imprimis autem magna est copia eorum piscium, quos vulgari sermone vocant Bacallaos. Gignuntur in ea insula accipitres ita nigri, vt coruorum similitudinem mirum in modum exprimant, perdices autem et aquilæ sunt nigri coloris. The same in English. In the yeere of our Lord 1497 Iohn Cabot a Venetian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discouered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of Iune,[13] about fiue of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista, that is to say, First seene, because as I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, he called the Island of S. Iohn vpon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of Iohn the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare beasts skinnes, and haue them in as great estimation as we haue our finest garments. In their warres they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soile is barren in some places, and yeeldeth litle fruit, but it is full of white beares, and stagges farre greater then ours. It yeeldeth plenty of fish, and those very great, as seales, and those which commonly we call salmons: there are soles also aboue a yard in length: but especially there is great abundance of that kinde of fish which the Sauages call baccalaos. In the same Island also there breed hauks, but they are so blacke that they are very like to rauens, as also their partridges, and egles, which are in like sort blacke. * * * * * A discourse of Sebastian Cabot touching his discouery of part of the West India out of England in the time of king Henry the seuenth, vsed to Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes Legate in Spaine, and reported by the sayd Legate in this sort. [Sidenote: This discourse is taken out of the second volume of the voyages of Baptista Ramusius.[14]] Doe you not vnderstand sayd he (speaking to certaine Gentlemen of Venice) how to passe to India toward the Northwest, as did of late a citizen of Venice, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things pertaining to nauigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his virtues he is preferred aboue all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither without his licence, and is therefore called Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. [Sidenote: Sebastian Cabota Pilot mayor of Spaine.] And when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Siuil, and desirous to haue some knowledge of the nauigations of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make Cardes for the Sea, with his owne hand, and by this report, seeking his acquaintance, hee found him a very gentle person, who intertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a large Mappe of the world, with certaine particular Nauigations, as well of the Portugals, as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further vnto him to this effect. When my father departed from Venice many yeeres since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet hauing neuerthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie, and of the Sphere. And when my father died in that time when newes were brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genuese had discouered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7, who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more diuine then humane, to saile by the West into the East where spices growe, by a way that was neuer knowen before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And vnderstanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I should saile by way of the Northwest, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the King to be aduertised of my deuise, who immediatly commanded two Caruels to bee furnished with all things appertayning to the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496. in the beginning of Sommer. I began therefore to saile toward the Northwest, not thinking to finde any other land then that of Cathay, and from thence to turne toward India, but after certaine dayes I found that the land ranne towards the North, which was to mee a great displeasure. Neuerthelesse, sayling along by the coast to see if I could finde any gulfe that turned, I found the lande still continent to the 56. degree vnder our Pole. And seeing that there the coast turned toward the East, despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe, and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the Equinoctiall (euer with intent to finde the saide passage to India) and came to that part of this firme lande which is nowe called Florida, where my victuals failing, I departed from thence and returned into England, where I found great tumults among the people, and preparation for wanes in Scotland; by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage. [Sidenote: The second voyage of Cabot to the land of Brazil, and Rio de Plata.] Whereupon I went into Spaine to the Catholique king, and Queene Elizabeth, which being aduertised what I had done, intertained me, and at their charges furnished certaine ships, wherewith they caused me to saile to discouer the coastes of Brazile, where I found an exceeding great and large riuer named at this present Rio de la plata, that is, the riuer of siluer, into the which I sailed and followed it into the firme land, more then sixe score leagues, finding it euery where very faire, and inhabited with infinite people, which with admiration came running dayly to our ships. Into this Riuer runne so many other riuers, that it is in maner incredible. [Sidenote: The office of Pilote maior.] After this I made many other voyages, which I nowe pretermit, and waxing olde, I giue myselfe to rest from such trauels, because there are nowe many yong and lustie Pilots and Mariners of good experience, by whose forwardnesse I doe reioyce in the fruit of my labours, and rest with the charge of this office, as you see.[15] * * * * * The foresaide Baptista Ramusius in his preface to the thirde volume of the Nauigations writeth thus of Sebastian Cabot. In the latter part of this volume are put certaine relations of Iohn de Vararzana, Florentine, and of a great captaine a Frenchman, and the two voyages of Iaques Cartier a Briton, who sailed vnto the land situate in 50. degrees of latitude to the North, which is called New France, which landes hitherto are not throughly knowen, whether they doe ioyne with the firme lande of Florida and Noua Hispania, or whether they bee separated and diuided all by the Sea as Ilands: and whether that by that way one may goe by Sea vnto the countrey of Cathaia. [Sidenote: The great probabilitie of this North-west passage.] As many yeeres past it was written vnto mee by Sebastian Cabota our Countrey man a Venetian, a man of great experience, and very rare in the art of Nauigation, and the knowledge of Cosmographie, who sailed along and beyond this land of New France, at the charge of King Henry the seuenth king of England: and he aduertised mee, that hauing sailed a long time West and by North, beyond those Ilands vnto the Latitude of 67. degrees and an halfe, vnder the North pole, and at the 11. day of Iune finding still the open Sea without any manner of impediment, he thought verily by that way to haue passed on still the way to Cathaia, which is in the East, and would haue done it, if the mutinie of the ship-master and Mariners had not hindered him and made him to returne homewards from that place. But it seemeth that God doeth yet still reserue this great enterprise for some great prince to discouer this voyage of Cathaia by this way, which for the bringing of the Spiceries from India into Europe, were the most easy and shortest of all other wayes hitherto found out. And surely this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most importance of all other that can be imagined to make his name great, and fame immortall, to all ages to come, farre more then can be done by any of all these great troubles and warres which dayly are used in Europe among the miserable Christian people. * * * * * Another testunonie of the voyage of Sebastian Cabot to the West and Northwest, taken out of the sixt Chapter of the third Decade of Peter Martyr of Angleria. Scrutatus est oras glaciales Sebastianus quidam Cabotus genere Venetus, sed à parentibus in Britanniam insulam tendentibus (vti moris est Venetorum, qui commercij causa terrarum omnium sunt hospites) transportatus penè infans. Duo is sibi nauigia, propria pecunia in Britannia ipsa instruxit, et primò tentens cum hominibus tercentum ad Septentrionem donec etiam Iulio mense vastas repererit glaciates moles pelago natantes, et lucem ferè perpetuam, tellure tamen libera, gelu liquefacto: quare coactus fuit, vti ait, vela vertere et occidentem sequi: tetenditque tantum ad meridiem littore sese incuruante, vt Herculei freti latitudinis fere gradus æquarit: ad occidentémque profectus tantum est vt Cubam Insulam à Iæua, longitudine graduum penè parem, habuerit. Is ea littora percurrens, quæ Baccalaos appelauit, eosdem se reperisse aquarum, sed lenes delapsus ad Occidentem ait, quos Castellani, meridionales suas regiones adnauigantes, inuenient. Ergò non modò verisimilius, sed necessario concludendum est, vastos inter vtramque ignotam hactenus tellurem iacere hiatus, qui viam præbeant aquis ab oriente cadentibus in Occidentem. Quas arbitror impulsu coelorum circulariter agi in gyrum circa terræ globum, non autem Demogorgone anhelante vomi, absorberique vt nonnulli senserunt, quod influxu, et refluxu forsan assentire daretur. Baccalaos, Cabotus ipse terras illas appellauit, eò quod in earum pelago tantam reperierit magnorum quorundam piscium, tynnos æmulantium, sic vocatorum ab indigenis, multitudinem, vt etiam illi interdum nauigia detardarent. Earum Regionum homines pellibus tantum coopertos reperiebat, rationis haudquaquam expertes. Vrsorum inesse regionibus copiam ingentem refert, qui et ipsi piscibus vescantur. Inter densa namque piscium illorum agmina sese immergunt vrsi, et singulos singuli complexos, vnguibusque inter squammas immissis in terram raptant et comedunt. Proptereà minimè noxios hominibus visos esse ait Orichalcum in plerisque locis se vidisse apud incolas prædicat. Familiarem habeo domi Cabotum ipsum, et contubernalem interdum. Vocatus namque ex Britannia à Rege nostro Catholico, post Henrici Maioris Britanniæ Regis mortem, concurialis noster est, expectatque indies, vt nauigia sibi parentur, quibus arcanum hoc naturæ latens iam tandem detegatur. The same in English. These North Seas haue bene searched by one Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian borne, whom being yet but in maner an infant, his parents carried with them into England, hauing occasion to resort thither for trade of marchandise, as in the maner of the Venetians to leaue no part of the world vnsearched to obtaine riches. Hee therefore furnished two ships in England at his owne charges, and first with 300 men directed his course so farre towards the North pole, that euen in the moneth of Iuly he found monstrous heapes of ice swimming on the sea, and in maner continuall day light, yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, which had bene molten by the heat of the Sunne. Thus seeing such heapes of yce before him, hee was enforced to turne his sailes and follow the West, so coasting still by the shore, that hee was thereby brought so farre into the South, by reason of the land bending so much Southwards, that it was there almost equal in latitude, with the sea Fretum Hercoleum, hauing the Northpole eleuate in maner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so farre towards the West, that hee had the Island of Cuba on his left hand, in maner in the same degree of longitude. [Sidenote: A current toward the West.] As hee traueiled by the coastes of this great land, (which he named Baccalaos) he saith that hee found the like course of the waters toward the West, but the same to runne more softly and gently then the swift waters which the Spaniards found in their Nauigations Southwards. Wherefore it is not onely more like to be true, but ought also of necessitie to be concluded that betweene both the lands hitherto vnknown, there should be certaine great open places whereby the waters should thus continually passe from the East vnto the West: [Sidenote: The people of Island say the Sea and yce setteth also West. (Ionas Arngrimus.)[16]] which waters I suppose to be driuen about the globe of the earth by the uncessant mouing and impulsion of the heauens, and not to bee swallowed vp and cast vp againe by the breathing of Demogorgon, as some haue imagined, because they see the seas by increase and decrease to ebbe and flowe. Sebastian Cabot himselfe named those lands Baccalaos, because that in the Seas thereabout hee found so great multitudes of certaine bigge fishes much like vnto Tunies, (which the inhabitants called Baccalaos) that they sometimes stayed his shippes. He found also the people of those regions couered with beastes skinnes, yet not without the vse of reason. He also saieth there is great plentie of Beares in those regions which vse to eate fish: for plunging themselues into the water, where they perceiue a multitude of these fishes to lie, they fasten their clawes in their scales, and so draw them to land and eate them, so (as he saith) the Beares being thus satisfied with fish, are not noisome to men. [Sidenote: Copper found in many places by Cabote.] Hee declareth further, that in many places of these Regions he saw great plentie of Copper among the inhabitants. Cabot is my very friend, whom I vse familiarly, and delight to haue sometimes keepe mee company in mine owne house. For being called out of England by the commandement of the Catholique King of Castile, after the death of King Henry the seuenth of that name king of England, he was made one of our council and Assistants, as touching the affaires of the new Indies, looking for ships dayly to be furnished for him to discouer this hid secret of Nature. * * * * * The testimonie of Francis Lopez de Gomara a Spaniard, in the fourth Chapter of the second Booke of his generall history of the West Indies concerning the first discouerie of a great part of the West Indies, to wit, from 58. to 38. degrees of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England. He which brought most certaine newes of the countrey and people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was Sebastian Cabote a Venetian, which rigged vp two ships at the cost of K. Henry the 7. of England, hauing great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portingalls did. He carried with him 300. men, and tooke the way towards Island from beyond the Cape of Labrador, vntill he found himselfe in 58. degrees and better. He made relation that in the moneth of Iuly it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not passe any further: that the dayes were long, in a maner without any night, and for that short night that they had, it was very cleare. Cabot feeling the cold, turned towards the West, refreshing himselfe at Baccalaos: and afterwards he sayled along the coast vnto 38. degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to returne into England. * * * * * A note of Sebastian Cabots[17] first discouerie of part of the Indies taken out of the latter part of Robert Fabians Chronicle[18] not hitherto printed, which is in the custodie of M. Iohn Stow[19] a diligent preseruer of Antiquities. [Sidenote: Cabots voyage (from Bristol) wherein he discouered Newfound land and the Northerne parts of that land, and from thence almost as farre as Florida.[20]] In the 13. yeere of K. Henry the 7. (by meanes of one Iohn Cabot a Venetian which made himselfe very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world and Ilands of the same, as by a Sea card and other demonstrations reasonable he shewed) the King caused to man and victuall a ship at Bristow, to search for an Island, which he said hee knew well was rich, and replenished with great commodities: Which shippe thus manned and victualled at the kings cost, diuers Merchants of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her as chiefe patron the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship, sailed also out of Bristow three or foure small ships fraught with sleight and grosse marchandizes, as course cloth, caps, laces, points and other trifles. And so departed from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in this Maiors time returned no tidings. Of three Sauages which Cabot brought home and presented vnto the King in the foureteenth yere of his raigne, mentioned by the foresaid Robert Fabian. This yeere also were brought vnto the king three men taken in the Newfound Island that before I spake of, in William Purchas time being Maior: These were clothed in beasts skins, and did eate raw flesh, and spake such speach that no man could vnderstand them, and in their demeanour like to bruite beastes, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which vpon two yeeres after, I saw two apparelled after the maner of Englishmen in Westminster pallace, which that time I could not discerne from Englishmen, til I was learned what they were, but as for speach, I heard none of them vtter one word. * * * * * A briefe extract concerning the discouene of Newfound-land, taken out of the booke of M. Robert Thorne, to Doctor Leigh, &c. I Reason, that as some sicknesses are hereditarie, so this inclination or desire of this discouerie I inherited from my father, which with another marchant of Bristol named Hugh Eliot, were the discouerours of the Newfound-lands; of the which there is no doubt (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the mariners would then haue bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, but the lands of the West Indies, from whence all the golde cometh, had bene ours; for all is one coast as by the Card appeareth, and is aforesaid. * * * * * The large pension granted by K. Edward the 6. to Sebastian Cabot, constituting him grand Pilot of England. Edwardus sextus Dei gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ rex, omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos præsentes hæ literæ nostræ peruenerint, salutem. Sciatis quod nos in consideratione boni et acceptabilis seruitij, nobis per dilectum seruientem nostrum Sebastianum Cabotam impensi atque impendendi, de gratia nostra speciali, ac ex certa scientia, et mero motu nostro, nec non de aduisamento, et consensu præclarissimi auunculi nostri Edwardi Ducis Somerseti personæ nostræ Gubernatoris, ac Regnorum, dominiorum, subditorumque nostrorum protectoris, et cæterorum consiliariorum nostrorum, dedimus et concessimus, ac per præsentes damus, et concedimus eidem Sebastiano Cabotæ, quandam annuitatem siue annualem reditum, centum sexaginta et sex librarum, tresdecim solidorum, et quatuor denariorum sterlingorum, habendam, gandendam, et annuatìm percipiendam prædictam annuitatem, siue annalem reditum eidem Sebastiano Cabotæ, durante vita sua naturali, de thesauro nostro ad receptum scacarij nostri Westmonasterij per manus thesaurariorum, et Camerariorum nostrorum, ibidem pro tempore existentium, ad festa annuntiationis beatæ Mariæ Virginis, natiuitatis sancti Ioannis Baptistæ, Sancti Michaelis Archangeli, et Natalis Domini per æquales portiones soluendam. Et vlteriùs de vberiori gratia nostra, ac de aduisamento, et consensu prædictis damus, et per præsentes concedimus præfato Sebastiano Cabotæ, tot et tantas Denariorum summas, ad quot et quantas dicta annuitas siue annalis reditus centum sexaginta sex librarum, tresdecim solidorum, et quatuor denariorum, à festo sancti Michaelis Archangeli vltimô præterito hue vsque se extendit, et attingit, habendas et recipiendas præfato Sebastiano Cabotæ et assignatis suis de thesauro nostro prædicto per manus prædictoram Thesaurariorum, et Camerarioram nostrorum de dono nostro absque computo, seu aliquo alio nobis, hæredibus, vel successoribus nostris proinde reddendo, soluendo, vel faciendo: eo quòd expressa mentio, &c. In cuius rei testimonium, &c. [Sidenote: Anno D. 1549] Teste Rege, apud Westmonasterium 6. die Ianuarij, Anno 2. Regis Edwardi sexti. The same in English. Edward the sixt by the grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, to all Christian people to whom these presents shall come, sendeth greeting. Know yee that we, in consideration of the good and acceptable seruice done, and to be done, vnto vs by our beloued seruant Sebastian Cabota, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, meere motion, and by the aduice and counsel of our most honourable vncle Edward duke of Somerset gouernour of our person, and Protector of our kingdomes, dominions, and subiects, and of the rest of our Counsaile, haue giuen and granted, and by these presents do giue and graunt to the said Sebastian Cabota, a certaine annuitie, or yerely reuenue of one hundreth, three-score and sixe pounds, thirteene shillings foure pence sterling, to haue, enioy, and yerely receiue the foresaid annuitie, or yerely reuenue, to the foresaid Sebastian Cabota during his natural life, out of our Treasurie at the receit of our Exchequer at Westminster, at the hands of our Treasurers and paymasters, there remayning for the time being, at the feasts of the Annuntiation of the blessed Virgin Mary, the Natiuitie of S. Iohn Baptist, S. Michael the Archangel, and the Natiuitie of our Lord, to be paid by equal portions. And further, of our more speciall grace, and by the aduise and consent aforesaide wee doe giue, and by these presents do graunt vnto the aforesaide Sebastian Cabota, so many, and so great summes of money as the saide annuitie or yeerely reuenue of an hundreth, three-score and sixe pounds, thirteene shillings 4. pence, doeth amount and rise vnto from the feast of S. Michael the Archangel last past vnto this present time, to be had and receiued by the aforesaid Sebastian Cabota, and his assignes out of our aforesaid Treasurie, at the handes of our aforesaide Treasurers, and officers of our Exchequer of our free gift without accompt, or any thing else therefore to be yeelded, payed, or made, to vs, our heires or successours, forasmuch as herein expresse mention is made to the contrary. In witnesse whereof we haue caused these our Letters to be made patents: Witnesse the King at Westminster the sixt day of Ianuarie, in the second yeere of his raigne. The yeere of our Lord 1548. * * * * * A discourse written by Sir Humphrey Gilbert Knight,[21] to proue a passage by the Northwest to Cathaia, and the East Indies. ¶ The Table of the matters in euery Chapter of this discourse. Capitulo 1. To prone by anthoritie a passage to be on the North side of America, to goe to Cataia, China, and to the East India. Capitulo 2. To prone by reason a passage to be on the North side of America, to goe to Cataia, Moluccæ, &c. Capitulo 3. To proue by experience of sundry mens trauailes the opening of this Northwest passage, whereby good hope remaineth of the rest. Capitulo 4. To proue by circumstance, that the Northwest passage hath bene sailed throughout. Capitulo 5. To proue that such Indians as haue bene driuen vpon the coastes of Germanie came not thither by the Southeast, and Southwest, nor from any part of Afrike or America. Capitulo 6. To prooue that the Indians aforenamed came not by the Northeast, and that there is no thorow passage nauigable that way. Capitulo 7. To proue that these Indians came by the Northwest, which induceth a certaintie of this passage by experience. Capitulo 8. What seuerall reasons were alleaged before the Queenes Maiestie, and certaine Lords of her Highnesse priuie Council, by M. Anth. Ienkinson a Gentleman of great trauaile and experience, to proue this passage by the Northeast, with my seuerall answers then alleaged to the same. Capitulo 9. How that this passage by the Northwest is more commodious for our traffike, then the other by the Northeast, if there were any such. Capitulo 10. What commodities would ensue, this passage being once discouered. To proue by authoritie a passage to be on the Northside of America, to goe to Cathaia, and the East India. Chapter 1. When I gaue my selfe to the studie of Geographie, after I had perused and diligently scanned the descriptions of Europe, Asia, and Afrike, and conferred them with the Mappes and Globes both Antique and Moderne: I came in fine to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, which by all descriptions I found to bee an Iland enuironed round about with Sea, hauing on the Southside of it the frete or straight of Magellan, on the West side Mar del Sur, which Sea runneth towards the North, separating it from the East parts of Asia, where the Dominions of the Cathaians are: On the East part our West Ocean, and on the North side the sea that seuereth it from Groneland, thorow which Northern Seas the Passage lyeth, which I take now in hand to discouer. Plato in Timæo, and in the Dialogue called Critias, discourseth of an incomparable great Iland then called Atlantis, being greater then all Afrike and Asia, which lay Westward from the Straights of Gibraltar, nauigable round about: affirming also that the Princes of Atlantis did as well enioy the gouernance of all Affrike, and the most part of Europe, as of Atlantis it selfe. Also to proue Platos opinion of this Iland, and the inhabiting of it in ancient time by them of Europe, to be of the more credite; Marinæus Siculus[22] in his Chronicle of Spaine, reporteth that there haue bene found by the Spaniards in the gold Mines of America, certaine pieces of Money ingraued with the Image of Augustus Cæsar: which pieces were sent to the Pope for a testimonie of the matter, by Iohn Rufus Archbishop of Consentinum. [Sidenote: Prodns pag. 24.] Moreouer, this was not only thought of Plato, but by Marsilius Ficinus,[23] an excellent Florentine Philosopher, Crantor the Græcian,[24] and Proclus,[25] and Philo[26] the famous Iew (as appeareth in his booke De Mundo, and in the Commentaries vpon Plato,) to be ouerflowen and swallowed vp with water, by reason of a mightie earthquake, and streaming downe of the heauenly Fludgates. [Sidenote: Iustine Lib. 4.] The like whereof happened vnto some part of Italy, when by the forciblenes of the Sea, called Superum, it cut off Sicilia from the Continent of Calabria, as appeareth in Iustine, in the beginning of his fourth booke. Also there chanced the like in Zeland a part of Flanders. [Sidenote: Plinie.] And also the Cities of Pyrrha and Antissa, about Meotis palus: and also the Citie Burys, in the Corynthian bosome, commonly called Sinus Corinthiacus, haue bene swallowed vp with the Sea, and are not at this day to be discerned: By which accident America grew to be ['be be' in original--KTH] vnknowen of long time, vnto vs of the later ages, and was lately discouered againe by Americus Vespucius,[27] in the yeere of our Lord 1497. which some say to haue bene first discouered by Christophorus Columbus a Genuois, Anno 1492. The same calamitie happened vnto this Isle of Atlantis 600. and odde yeres before Plato his time, which some of the people of the Southeast parts of the world accompted as 9000. yeeres: for the maner then was to reckon the Moone her Period of the Zodiak for a yeere, which is our vsual moneth, depending à Luminari minori. So that in these our dayes there can no other mayne or Islande be found or iudged to bee parcell of this Atlantis, then those Westerne Islands, which beare now the name of America: counteruailing thereby the name of Atlantis, in the knowledge of our age.[28] [Sidenote: A minore ad maius.] Then, if when no part of the sayd Atlantis, was oppressed by water, and earthquake, the coast round about the same were nauigable: a farre greater hope now remaineth of the same by the Northwest, seeing the most part of it was (since that time) swallowed vp with water, which could not vtterly take away the olde deeps and chanels, but rather be an occasion of the inlarging of the olde, and also an inforcing of a great many new: why then should we now doubt of our Northwest passage and nauigation from England to India? &c. seeing that Atlantis now called America, was euer knowen to be an Island, and in those dayes nauigable round about, which by accesse of more water could not be diminished. Also Aristotle in his booke De Mundo, and the learned Germaine Simon Gryneus[29] in his annotations vpon the same, saith that the whole earth (meaning thereby, as manifestly doth appeare, Asia, Africk and Europe, being all the countreys then knowen) is but one Island, compassed about with the reach of the sea Atlantine: which likewise prooueth America to be an Island, and in no part adioyning to Asia, or the rest. [Sidenote: Strabo lib. 15] Also many ancient writers, as Strabo and others, called both the Ocean Sea, (which lieth East of India) Atlanticum pelagus, and that sea also on the West coasts of Spaine and Africk, Mare Atlanticum: the distance betweene the two coasts is almost halfe the compasse of the earth. [Sidenote: Valerius Anselmus[30] in Catalogo annorum et principum. fol. 6. Gen. 9. 10.] So that it is incredible, as by Plato appeareth manifestly, that the East Indian Sea had the name Atlanticum pelagus of the mountaine Atlas in Africk, or yet the sea adioining to Africk, had the name Oceanus Atlanticus of the same mountaine: but that those seas and the mountaine Atlas were so called of this great Island Atlantis, and that the one and the other had their names for a memorial of the mighty prince Atlas, sometimes king thereof, who was Iaphet yongest sonne to Noah, in whose time the whole earth was diuided between the three brethren, Sem, Cam, and Iaphet. Wherefore I am of opinion that America by the Northwest will be found fauourable to this our enterprise, and am the rather imboldened to beleeue the same, for that I finde it not onely confirmed by Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Phylosophers: but also by all the best moderne Geographers, as Gemma Frisius, Munsterus, Appianus, Hunterus, Gastaldus, Guyccardinus,[31] Michael Tramasinus, Franciscus Demongenitus, Bernardus Puteanus, Andreas Vauasor, Tramontanus, Petrus Martyr, and also Ortelius,[32] who doth coast out in his generall Mappe set out Anno 1569, all the countreys and Capes, on the Northwest side of America, from Hochalega to Cape de Paramantia: describing likewise the sea coastes of Cataia and Gronland, towards any part of America, making both Gronland and America, Islands disioyned by a great Sea, from any part of Asia. All which learned men and paineful trauellers haue affirmed with one consent and voice, that America was an Island: and that there lyeth a great Sea betweene it, Cataia, and Grondland, by which any man of our countrey, that will giue the attempt, may with small danger passe to Cataia, the Molluccæ, India, and all other places in the East, in much shorter time, than either the Spaniard, or Portugal doeth, or may doe, from the neerest parte, of any of their countreys within Europe. What moued these learned men to affirme thus much, I know not, or to what ende so many and sundry trauellers of both ages haue allowed the same: [Marginal note: We ought by reasons right to haue a reuerent opinion of worthy men.] But I coniecture that they would neuer haue so constantly affirmed, or notified their opinions therein to the world, if they had not had great good cause, and many probable reasons, to haue lead them therevnto. [Sidenote: A Nauigation of one Ochther made in king Alfreds time.] Now least you should make small accompt of ancient writers or of their experiences which trauelled long before our times, reckoning their authority amongst fables of no importance: I haue for the better assurance of those proofes, set downe some part of a discourse, written in the Saxon tongue and translated into English by M. Nowel seruant to Sir William Cecil, lord Burleigh, and lord high treasurer of England, wherein there is described a Nauigation which one Ochther made, in the time of king Alfred, king of Westsaxe Anno 871. the words of which discourse were these: [Sidenote: A perfect description of our Moscouie voyage.] Hee sailed right North, hauing alwaies the desert land on the Starborde, and on the Larbord the maine sea, continuing his course, vntill hee perceiued that the coast bowed directly towards the East, or else the Sea opened into the land he could not tell how farre, where he was compelled to stay vntil he had a westerne winde, or somewhat upon the North, and sayled thence directly East alongst the coast, so farre as hee was able in foure dayes, where he was againe inforced to tary vntill hee had a North winde, because the coast there bowed directly towards the South, or at least opened he knew not howe farre into the land, so that he sayled thence along the coast continually full South, so farre as he could trauell in the space of fiue dayes, where hee discouered a mighty riuer, which opened farre into the land, and in the entrie of this riuer he turned backe againe.[33] [Sidenote: By Sir Hugh Willoughbie knight, Chancellor and Borough.[34]] Whereby it appeareth that he went the very same way, that we now doe yerely trade by S. Nicholas into Moscouia, which no man in our age knew for certaintie to be by sea, vntil it was since discouered by our English men, in the time of King Edward the sixt; but thought before that time that Groneland had ioyned to Normoria, Byarmia, &c. and therefore was accompted a new discouery, being nothing so indeede, as by this discourse of Ochther it appeareth. Neuerthelesse if any man should haue taken this voyage in hand by the encouragement of this onely author, he should haue bene thought but simple: considering that this Nauigation was written so many yeres past, in so barbarous a tongue by one onely obscure author, and yet we in these our dayes finde by our owne experiences his former reports to be true. How much more then ought we to beleeue this passage to Cataia to bee, being verified by the opinions of all the best, both Antique, and Moderne Geographers, and plainely set out in the best and most allowed Mappes, Charts, Globes, Cosmographical tables and discourses of this our age, and by the rest not denied but left as a matter doubtfull. To prooue by reason, a passage to be on the Northside of America, to goe to Cataia, &c. Chap. 2. [3 in original--KTH] [Sidenote: Experimented by our English fishers.] First, all seas are maintained by the abundance of water, so that the neerer the end any Riuer, Bay, or Hauen is, the shallower it waxeth, (although by some accidentall barre, it is sometime found otherwise) But the farther you sayle West from Island towards the place, where this fret is thought to be, the more deepe are the seas: which giueth vs good hope of continuance of the same Sea with Mar del Sur, by some fret that lyeth betweene America, Groneland and Cataia. 2 Also if that America were not an Island, but a part of the continent adioyning to Asia, either the people which inhabite Mangia, Anian, and Quinsay, &c. being borderers vpon it, would before this time haue made some road into it hoping to haue found some like commodities to their owne. [Sidenote: Neede makes the old wife to trotte.] 3 Or els the Scythians and Tartarians (which often times heretofore haue sought farre and neere for new seats, driuen therevnto through the necessitie of their cold and miserable countreys) would in all this time haue found the way to America, and entred the same, had the passages bene neuer so straite or difficult; the countrey being so temperate pleasant and fruitfull, in comparison of their owne. But there was neuer any such people found there by any of the Spaniards, Portugals, or Frenchmen, who first discouered the Inland of that countrey: which Spaniards or Frenchmen must then of necessitie haue seene some one ciuil man in America, considering how full of ciuill people Asia is; But they neuer saw so much as one token or signe, that euer any man of the knowen part of the world had bene there. 4 Furthermore it is to be thought, that if by reason of mountaines, or other craggy places, the people neither of Cataia or Tartarie could enter the countrey of America, or they of America haue entred Asia, if it were so ioyned: yet some one sauage or wandring beast would in so many yeres haue passed into it: but there hath not any time bene found any of the beasts proper to Cataia, or Tartarie &c. in America: nor of those proper to America, in Tartarie, Cataia, &c. or any part of Asia. Which thing proueth America, not onely to be one Island, and in no part adioyning to Asia: But also that the people of those Countreys, haue not had any traffique with each other. 5 Moreouer at the least some one of those paineful trauellers, which of purpose haue passed the confines of both countreys, with intent only to discouer, would as it is most likely haue gone from the one to the other: if there had bene any piece of land, or Isthmos, to haue ioyned them together, or els haue declared some cause to the contrary. 6 But neither Paulus Venetus,[35] who liued and dwelt a long time in Cataia, euer came into America, and yet was at the sea coastes of Mangia, ouer against it where he was embarked, and performed a great Nauigation along those seas: Neither yet Verarzanus,[36] or Franciscus Vasques de Coronado, who trauelled the North part of America by land, euer found entry from thence by land to Cataia, or any part of Asia. 7 Also it appeareth to be an Island, insomuch as the Sea [Marginal note: The Sea hath three motions. 1 Motum ab oriente in occidentem. 2 Motum fluxus et refluxus. 3 Motum circularem. Ad cæli motum elementa omnia (excepta terra) mouentur.] runneth by nature circularly from the East to the West, following the diurnal motion of Primum Mobile, which carieth with it all inferiour bodies moueable, aswel celestiall as elemental; which motion of the waters is most euidently seene in the Sea, which lieth on the Southside of Afrike where the current that runneth from the East to the West is so strong (by reason of such motion) that the Portugals in their voyages Eastward to Calicut, in passing by Cap. de buona Sperança are enforced to make diuers courses, the current there being so swift as it striketh from thence all along Westward vpon the fret of Magellan, being distant from thence, neere the fourth part of the longitude of the earth; and not hauing free passage and entrance thorow, the fret towards the West, by reason of the narrownesse of the sayd Straite of Magelian [sic--KTH], it runneth to salue this wrong, (Nature not yeelding to accidentall restraints) all along the Easterne coastes of America, Northwards so far as Cape Fredo, being the farthest knowne place of the same continent towards the North: which is about 4800 leagues, reckoning therewithall the trending of the land. [Sidenote: Posita causa ponitur effectus.] 8 So that this current being continually maintained with such force, as Iaques Cartier[37] affirmeth it to be, who met with the same being at Baccalaos, as he sayled along the coastes of America, then either it must be of necessitie haue way to passe from Cape Fredo, thorow this fret, Westward towards Cataia, being knowen to come so farre, onely to salue his former wrongs, by the authority before named: or els it must needes strike ouer, vpon the coast of Island, Norway, Finmarke, and Lappia, (which are East from the sayd place about 360 leagues) with greater force then it did from Cape de buona Sperança, vpon the fret of Magellan, or from the fret of Magellan to Cape Fredo, vpon which coastes Iaques Cartier met with the same, considering the shortnesse of the Cut from the sayd Cape Fredo, to Island, Lappia, &c. And so the cause Efficient remaining, it would haue continually followed along our coasts, through the narrow seas, which it doth not, but is digested about the North of Labrador, by some through passage there thorow this fret. [Sidenote: Conterenus.] The like course of the water in some respect happeneth in the Mediterrane sea, (as affirmeth Conterenus) whereas the current which cometh from Tanais, and Pontus Euxinus, running along all the coasts of Greece, Italy, France, and Spaine, and not finding sufficient way out through Gibraltar, by meanes of the straitnesse of the fret it runneth backe againe along the coastes of Barbary, by Alexandria, Natolia, &c. [Sidenote: An objection answered.] It may (peraduenture) bee thought that this course of the sea doth sometime surcease, and thereby impugne this principle, because it is not discerned all along the coast of America, in such sort as Iaques Cartier found it: Wherevnto I answere this: that albeit, in euery part of the Coast of America, or elswhere this current is not sensibly perceuied, yet it hath euermore such like motion, either in the vppermost or nethermost part of the sea; as it may be proued true, if ye sinke a sayle by a couple of ropes, neere the ground, fastening to the nethermost corners two gunne chambers or other weights: by the driuing whereof you shall plainely perceiue, the course of the water, and current running with such course in the bottome. [Marginal note: The sea doth euermore performe this circular motion, either in Suprema, or concaua superficie aquæ.] By the like experiment, you may finde the ordinary motion of the sea, in the Ocean: howe farre soeuer you be off the land. 9 Also there commeth another current from out the Northeast from the Scythian Sea (as M. Ienkinson a man of rare vertue, great trauail and experience, told me) which runneth Westward towardes Labrador, [Marginal note: The yce set westward euery yeere from Island. Auth. Iona Arngriimo.] as the other did, which commeth from the South: so that both these currents, must haue way thorow this our fret, or else encounter together and runne contrarie courses; in one line, but no such conflicts of streames, or contrary courses are found about any part of Labrador, or Terra noua, as witnesse our yeerely fishers, and other saylers that way, but is there disgested, as aforesayd, and found by experience of Barnard de la Torre, to fall into Mar del Sur. 10 Furthermore, the current in the great Ocean, could not haue beene maintained to runne continually one way, from the beginning of the world vnto this day, had there not beene some thorow passage by the fret aforesayd, and so by circular motion bee brought againe to maintaine it selfe: For the Tides and courses of the sea are maintayned by their interchangeable motions: as fresh riuers are by springs, by ebbing and flowing, by rarefaction and condensation. So that it resteth not possible (so farre as my simple reason can comprehend) that this perpetuall current can by any meanes be maintained, but onely by continuall reaccesse of the same water, which passeth thorow the fret, and is brought about thither againe, by such circular motion as aforesayd. [Marginal note: The flowing is occasioned by reason that the heate of the moone boyleth, and maketh the water thinne by way of rarefaction.] And the certaine falling thereof by this fret into Mar del Sur [Marginal note: An experience to prooue the falling of this current into Mar del Sur.] is prooued by the testimonie and experience of Bernard de la Torre, who was sent from P. de la Natiuidad to the Moluccæ, Anno domini 1542. by commandement of Anthony Mendoza, then Viceroy of Noua Hispania, which Bernard sayled 750. Leagues, on the Northside of the Aequator, and there met with a current, which came from the Northeast, the which droue him backe againe to Tidore. Wherfore, this current being proued to come from C. de buona Sperança to the fret of Magellan, and wanting sufficient entrance there, by narrownes of the straite, is by the necessitie of natures force, brought to Terra de Labrador, where Iaques Cartier met the same, and thence certainly knowen, not to strike ouer vpon Island, Lappia, &c. and found by Bernard de la Torre in Mar del Sur, on the backeside of America: therefore this current (hauing none other passage) must of necessity fall out thorow this our fret into Mar del Sur, and so trending by the Moluccæ, China, and C. de buona Sperança, maintaineth it selfe, by circular motion, which is all one in nature, with Motus ab Oriente in Occidentem. So that it seemeth, we haue now more occasion to doubt of our returne, then whether there be a passage that way, yea or no: which doubt, hereafter shall be sufficiently remooued. Wherefore, in mine opinion, reason it self, grounded vpon experience, assureth vs of this passage, if there were nothing els to put vs in hope thereof. But least these might not suffice, I haue added in this chapter following, some further proofe hereof, by the experience of such as haue passed some part of this discouerie: and in the next adioining to that the authority of those, which haue sailed wholy, thorow euery part thereof. To proue by experience of sundry mens trauels, the opening of some part of this Northwest passage: whereby good hope remaineth of the rest. Chap. 3. Paulus Venetus, who dwelt many yeres in Cataia, affirmed that hee sayled 1500 miles vpon the coastes of Mangia, and Anian, towards the Northeast: alwayes finding the Seas open before him, not onely as farre as he went, but also as farre as he could discerne. [Sidenote: Alcatrarzi be Pelicanes.] 2 Also Franciscus Vasques de Coronado passing from Mexico by Ceuola, through the country of Quiuira, to Siera Neuada, found there a great sea, where were certaine ships laden with Merchandise, carrying on their prowes the pictures of certaine birds called Alcatrarzi, part whereof were made of golde, and part of siluer, who signified by signes, that they were thirty dayes comming thither: which likewise proueth America by experience to be disioyned from Cataia: on that part by a great Sea, because they could not come from any part of America, as Natiues thereof: for that so farre as is discouered, there hath not bene found there any one Shippe of that countrey. [Sidenote: Baros lib. 9. Of his first Decas cap 1.] 3. In like maner, Iohn Baros[38] testifieth that the Cosmographers of China (where he himselfe had bene) affirme that the Sea coast trendeth from thence Northeast, to 50 degrees of Septentrional latitude, being the furthest part that way which the Portugals had then knowledge of: And that the said Cosmographers knew no cause to the contrary, but that it might continue further. By whose experiences America is prooued to be separate from those parts of Asia, directly against the same. And not contented with the iudgements of these learned men only, I haue searched what might be further sayd for the confirmation hereof. 4 And I found that Franciscus Lopez de Gomara affirmeth America to be an Island, and likewise Gronland: and that Gronland is distant from Lappia 40 leagues, and from Terra de Labrador, 50. 5 Moreouer, Aluaros Nunnius[39] a Spaniard, and learned Cosmographer, and Iacobus Cartier, who made two voyages into those parts, and sayled 900 miles upon the Northeast coastes of America doe in part confirme the same. 6 Likewise Hieronymus Fracastorius,[40] a learned Italian, and trauailer in the North parts of the same land. 7 Also Iaques Cartier hauing done the like, heard say at Hochelaga in Noua Francia, how that there was a great Sea at Saguinay, whereof the end was not knowen: which they presupposed to be the passage to Cataia. [Sidenote: Written in the discourses of Nauigation.] Furthermore, Sebastian Cabota by his personal experience and trauel hath set foorth, and described this passage in his Charts, which are yet to be seene in the Queens Maiesties priuie Gallerie at Whitehall, who was sent to make this discouery by king Henrie the seuenth, and entred the same fret: affirming that he sayled very farre Westward, with a quarter of the North, on the Northside of Terra de Labrador the eleuenth of Iune, vntill he came to the Septentrionall latitude of 67 degrees and a halfe,[41]and finding the Seas still open, sayd, that he might, and would haue gone to Cataia, if the mutinie of the Master and Mariners had not bene. Now as these mens experience hath proued some part of this passage: so the chapter following shal put you in full assurance of the rest, by their experiences which haue passed through euery part thereof. To prooue by circumstance that the Northwest passage hath bene sayled throughout. Chap. 4. The diuersitie betwene bruite beastes and men, or betweene the wise and the simple is, that the one iudgeth by sense onely, [Marginal note: Quinque sensus. 1 Visus. 2 Auditus. 3 Olfactus. 4 Gustus. 5 Tactus. Singularia sensu, vniuersalia verò mente percipiuntur.] and gathereth no surety of any thing that he hath not seene, felt, heard, tasted, or smelled: And the other not so onely, but also findeth the certaintie of things by reason, before they happen to be tryed. Wherefore I haue added proofes of both sorts, that the one and the other might thereby be satisfied. 1 First, as Gemma Frisius reciteth, there went from Europe three brethren through this passage: whereof it tooke the name of Fretum trium fratrum. 3 Also Plinie affirmeth out of Cornelius Nepos, (who wrote 57 yeeres before Christ) that there were certaine Indians driuen by tempest, vpon the coast of Germanie which were presented by the king of Sueuia, vnto Quintus Metellus Celer, the Proconsull of France. [Sidenote: Lib. 2. cap. 66.] 3 And Plinie vpon the same sayth, that it is no maruel though there be Sea by the North, where there is such abundance of moisture: which argueth that hee doubted not of a nauigable passage that way, through which those Indians came. [Sidenote: Pag. 590.] 4 And for the better proofe that the same authoritie of Cornelius Nepos is not by me wrested, to proue my opinion of the Northwest passage: you shall finde the same affirmed more plainly in that behalfe, by the excellent Geographer Dominicus Marius Niger, who sheweth how many wayes the Indian sea stretcheth it selfe, making in that place recital of certaine Indians, that were likewise driuen through the North Seas from India, vpon the coastes of Germany, by great tempest, as they were sayling in trade of marchandize. 5 Also while Frederic Barbarossa reigned Emperour, Anno Do. 1160. there came certaine other Indians vpon the coast of Germanie. [Marginal note: Auouched by Franciscus Lopes de Gomara in his historie of India, lib. I. cap. 10.] 6 Likewise Othon in the storie of the Gothes affirmeth, that in the time of the Germane Emperours there were also certaine Indians cast by force of weather, vpon the coast of the sayd countrey, which foresaid Indians could not possibly haue come by the Southeast, Southwest, nor from any part of Afrike or America, nor yet by the Northeast: therefore they came of necessitie by this our Northwest passage. To prooue that these Indians aforenamed came not by the Southeast, Southwest, nor from any other part of Afrike, or America. Cap. 5. First, they could not come from the Southeast by the Cape de bona Sperança, because the roughnes of the Seas there is such (occasioned by the currents and great winds in that part) that the greatest armadas the king of Portugal hath, cannot without great difficulty passe that way, much lesse then a Canoa of India could liue in those outragious seas without shipwracke (being a vessel of very small burden) and haue conducted themselues to the place aforesayd, being men vnexpert in the Arte of nauigation. 2 Also, it appeareth plainely that they were not able to come from alongst the coast of Afrike aforesayd, to those parts of Europe, because the winds doe (for the most part) blow there Easterly off from the shore, and the current running that way in like sort, should haue driuen them Westward vpon some part of America: for such winds and tides could neuer haue led them from thence to the said place where they were found, nor yet could they haue come from any of the countries aforesayd, keeping the seas alwayes, without skilful mariners to haue conducted them such like courses as were necessary to performe such a voiage. 3 Presupposing also, if they had bene driuen to the West (as they must haue bene, comming that way) then they should haue perished, wanting supplie of victuals, not hauing any place (once leauing the coast of Afrike) vntill they came to America, nor from America vntill they arriued vpon some part of Europe, or the Islands adioyning to it, to haue refreshed themselues. 4 Also, if (notwithstanding such impossibilities) they might haue recouered Germanie by comming from India by the Southeast, yet must they without all doubt haue stricken vpon some other part of Europe before their arriuall there, as the Isles of the Açores, Portugal, Spaine, France, England, Ireland, &c. which if they had done, it is not credible that they should or would haue departed vndiscovered of the inhabitants: but there was neuer found in those dayes any such ship or men but only vpon the coasts of Germanie, where they haue bene sundry times and in sundry ages cast aland: neither is it like that they would haue committed themselues againe to sea, if they had so arriued, not knowing where they were, nor whither to haue gone. [Sidenote: This fifth reason by later experience is proued vtterly vntrue.] 5 And by the Southwest it is vnpossible, because the current aforesayd which commeth from the East, striketh with such force vpon the fret of Magellan, and falleth with such swiftnesse and furie into Mar del Zur, that hardly any ship (but not possibly a Canoa, with such vnskilfull mariners) can come into our Westerne Ocean through that fret, from the West seas of America, as Magellans experience hath partly taught vs. [Sidenote: That the Indians could not be natiues either of Africa, or of America.] 6 And further, to prooue that these people so arriuing vpon the coast of Germany, were Indians, and not inhabiters of any part either of Africa or America, it is manifest, because the natiues both of Africa and America neither had, or haue at this day (as is reported) other kind of boates then such as do beare neither mastes nor sailes, (except onely vpon the coasts of Barbarie and the Turkes ships) but do carie themselues from place to place neere the shore by the ore onely. To prooue that those Indians came not by the Northeast, and that there is no thorow nauigable passage that way. Cap. 6. It is likely that there should be no thorow passage by the Northeast, whereby to goe round about the world, because all Seas (as aforesayd) are maintained by the abundance of water, waxing more shallow and shelffie towards the ende, as we find it doeth by experience in Mare Glaciali, towards the East, which breedeth small hope of any great continuance of that sea, to be nauigable towards the East, sufficient to saile thereby round about the world. [Sidenote: Quicquid naturali loco priuatur, quam citisimè corrumpitur.] [Sidenote: Qualis causa, talis effectus.] 2 Also, it standeth scarcely with reason, that the Indians dwelling vnder Torrida Zone, could endure the iniurie of the cold ayre, about the Septentrional latitude of 80. degrees, vnder which eleuation the passage by the Northeast cannot bee (as the often experience had of all the South parts of it sheweth) seeing that some of the inhabiants of this cold climate (whose Summer is to them an extreme Winter) haue bene stroken to death with the cold damps of the aire about 72 degrees, by an accidental mishap, and yet the aire in such like Eleuation is alwaies cold, and too cold for such as the Indians are. 3 Furthermore, the piercing cold of the grosse thicke aire so neere the Pole wil so stiffen and furre the sailes and ship tackling, that no mariner can either hoise or strike them (as our experience farre neerer the South, then this passage is presupposed to be, hath taught vs) without the vse whereof no voiage can be performed. 4 Also the aire is so darkened with continuall mists and fogs so neere the Pole, that no man can well see, either to guide his ship, or direct his course. 5 Also the compasse at such eleuation doth very suddenly vary, which things must of force haue bene their destructions, although they had bene men of much more skill then the Indians are. [Sidenote: Similium similis est ratio.] 6 Moreouer, all baies, gulfes, and riuers doe receiue their increase vpon the flood, sensibly to be discerned on the one side of the shore or the other, as many waies as they be open to any main sea, as Mare Mediterraneum, Mare Rubrum, Sinus Persicus, Sinus Bodicus, Thamesis, and all other knowen hauens or riuers in any part of the world, and each of them opening but on one part to the maine sea, doe likewise receiue their increase vpon the flood the same way, and none other, which Mare Glaciale doeth, onely by the West, as M. Ienkinson affirmed vnto me: and therefore it followeth that this Northeast sea, receiuing increase but onely from the West, cannot possibly open to the maine Ocean by the East. 7 Moreouer, the farther you passe into any sea towards the end of it, on that part which is shut vp from the maine sea (as in all those aboue mentioned) the lesse and lesse the tides rise and fall. The like whereof also happeneth in Mare Glaciale, which proueth but small continuance of that sea toward the East. [Sidenote: Quicquid corrumpitur à contrario corrumpítur.] 8 Also, the further yee goe toward the East in Mare Glaciale, the lesse salt the water is: which could not happen, if it were open to the salt Sea towards the East, as it is to the West only, seeing Euery thing naturally ingendreth his like: and then must it be like salt throughout, as all the seas are, in such like climate and eleuation.[42] [Sidenote: Omne simile giguit sui simile.] And therefore it seemeth that this Northeast sea is maintained by the riuer Ob, and such like freshets, as Mare Goticum, and Mare Mediterraneum, in the vppermost parts thereof by the riuers Nilus, Danubius, Neper, Tanais, &c. 9 Furthermore, if there were any such sea at that eleuation, of like it should be alwaies frozen throughout (there being no tides to hinder it) because the extreme coldnes of the aire being in the vppermost part, and the extreme coldnesse of the earth in the bottome, the sea there being but of small depth, whereby the one accidentall coldnesse doth meet with the other, and the Sunne not hauing his reflection so neere the Pole, but at very blunt angels, it can neuer be dissolued after it is frozen, notwithstanding the great length of their day: for that the sunne hath no heate at all in his light or beames, but proceeding onely by an accidentall reflection, which there wanteth in effect. 10 And yet if the Sunne were of sufficient force in that eleuation, to preuaile against this ice, yet must it be broken before it can be dissolued, which cannot be but through the long continuance of the sunne aboue their Horizon, and by that time the Sommer would be so farre spent, and so great darkenes and cold ensue, that no man could be able to endure so cold, darke, and discomfortable a nauigation, if it were possible for him then, and there to liue. 11 Further, the ice being once broken, it must of force so driue with the windes and tides, that no ship can saile in those seas, seeing our Fishers of Island, and the New found land, are subiect to danger through the great Islands of Ice which fleete in the Seas (to the sailers great danger) farre to the South of that presupposed passage. And it cannot be that this Northeast passage should be any neerer the South, then before recited, for then it should cut off Ciremissi, and Turbi Tartari, with Vzesucani, Chisani, and others from the Continent of Asia, which are knowen to be adioyning to Scythia, Tartaria, &c. with the other part of the same Continent. And if there were any thorowe passage by the Northeast, yet were it to small ende and purpose for our traffique, because no shippe of great burden can Nauigate in so shallow a Sea: and ships of small burden are very vnfit and vnprofitable, especially towards the blustering North to performe such a voyage. To prooue that the Indians aforenamed, came only by the Northwest, which induceth a certaintie of our passage by experience. Cap. 7. It is as likely that they came by the Northwest, as it is vnlikely that they should come, either by the Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, or from any other part of Africa or America, and therefore this Northwest passage hauing bene alreadie so many wayes prooued, by disproouing of the others, &c. I shall the lesse neede in this place, to vse many words otherwise then to conclude in this sort, That they came onely by the Northwest from England, hauing these many reasons to leade me thereunto. 1 First, the one halfe of the windes of the compasse might bring them by the Northwest, bearing alwayes betweene two sheats, with which kind of sayling the Indians are onely acquainted, not hauing any vse of a bow line, or quarter winde, without the which no ship can possibly come either by the Southeast, Southwest or Northeast, having so many sundry Capes to double, whereunto are required such change and shift of windes. 2 And it seemeth likely that they should come by the Northwest, [Marginal note: True both in ventis obliquè flantibus, as also in ventis ex diamentro spitantibus.] because the coast whereon they were driuen, lay East from this our passage, And all windes doe naturally driue a ship to an opposite point from whence it bloweth, not being otherwise guided by Arte, which the Indians do vtterly want, and therefore it seemeth that they came directly through this our fret, which they might doe with one wind. 3 For if they had come by the Cape de buona Sperança, then must they (as aforesaid) haue fallen vpon the South parts of America. 4 And if by the fret of Magellan, then vpon the coasts of Afrike, Spaine, Portugall, France, Ireland or England. 5 And if by the Northeast, then vpon the coasts of Cerremissi, Tartarji, Lappia, Island, Terra de Labrador, &c. and vpon these coasts (as aforesaid) they haue neuer bene found. So that by all likelihood they could neuer haue come without shipwracke vpon the coastes of Germanie, if they had first striken vpon the coastes of so many countries, wanting both Arte and shipping to make orderly discouery, and altogether ignorant both in the Arte of Nauigation, and also of the Rockes, Flats, Sands or Hauens of those parts of the world, which in most of these places are plentifull. 6 And further it seemeth very likely, that the inhabitants of the most part of those countries, by which they must haue come any other way besides by the Northwest, being for the most part Anthropophagi, or men eaters, would haue deuoured them, slaine them, or (at the least wise) kept them as wonders for the gaze. So that it plainely appeareth that those Indians (which as you haue heard in sundry ages were driuen by tempest vpon the shore of Germanie) came onely through our Northwest passage. 7 Moreouer, the passage is certainely prooued by a Nauigation that a Portugall made, who passed through this fret, giuing name to a promontorie farre within the same, calling it after his owne name, Promontorium Corterialis, neere adioyning vnto Polisacus fluuius. 8 Also one Scolmus a Dane entred and passed a great part thereof. 9 Also there was one Saluaterra, a Gentleman of Victoria in Spaine, that came by chance out of the West Indias into Ireland, Anno 1568. who affirmed the Northwest passage from vs to Cataia, constantly to be beleeued in America nauigable. And further said in the presence of sir Henry Sidney (then lord Deputie of Ireland) in my hearing, that a Frier of Mexico, called Andrew Vrdaneta, more then eight yeeres before his then comming into Ireland, told him there, that he came from Mar del Sur into Germany through this Northwest passage, and shewed Saluaterra (at that time being then with him in Mexico) a Sea Card made by his owne experience and trauell in that voyage, wherein was plainly set downe and described this Northwest passage, agreeing in all points with Ortelius mappe. And further, this Frier tolde the king of Portugall (as he returned by that countrey homeward) that there was (of certainty) such a passage Northwest from England, and that he meant to publish the same: which done, the king most earnestly desired him not in any wise to disclose or make the passage knowen to any nation: [Marginal note: The words of the king of Portugall to Andro Vrdaneta a Frier, touching the concealing of this Northwest passage from England to Cataia.] For that (said the King) if England had knowledge and experience thereof, it would greatly hinder both the king of Spaine and me. This Frier (as Saluaterra reported) was the greatest Discouerer by sea, that hath bene in our age. Also Saluaterra being perswaded of this passage by the frier Vrdaneta, and by the common opinion of the Spaniards inhabiting America, offered most willingly to accompanie me in this Discouery, which of like he would not haue done if he had stood in doubt thereof. [43] [Sidenote: An obiection.] And now as these moderne experiences cannot be impugned, so least it might be obiected that these things (gathered out of ancient writers, which wrote so many yeeres past) might serue litle to prooue this passage by the North of America, because both America and India were to them then vtterly vnknowen: to remooue this doubt let this suffise: [Sidenote: Aristotle lib. de mundo, cap. 2. Berosus lib. 5.] That Aristotle (who was 300. yeeres before Christ) named Mare Indicum. Also Berosus (who liued 330 yeres before Christ) hath these words, Ganges in India. Also in the first chapter of Hester be these wordes, In the dayes of Assuerus which ruled from India to Aethiopia, which Assuerus liued 580 yeeres before Christ. Also Quintus Curtius (where he speaketh of the conquests of Alexander) mentioneth India. Also, Arianus, Philostratus, and Sidrach in his discourses of the warres of the king of Bactria, and of Garaab, who had the most part of India vnder his gouernment. All which assureth vs, that both India and Indians were knowen in those dayes. These things considered, we may (in my opinion) not only assure our selues of this passage by the Northwest, but also that it is nauigable both to come and go, as hath bene prooued in part and in all, by the experience of diuers, as Sebastian Cabota, Corterialis, the three brethren aboue named, the Indians, and Vrdaneta the Frier of Mexico, &c. And yet notwithstanding all this, there be some that haue a better hope of this passage to Cataia by the Northeast then by the West, whose reasons with my seuerall answeres ensue in the chapter following. Certaine reasons alleaged for the proouing of a passage by the Northeast, before the Queenes Maiestie, and certaine Lords of the Counsell, by Master Anthoni Ienkinson, with my seuerall answers then vsed to the same. Cap. 8. Because you may vnderstand as well those things alleaged against me, as what doth serue for my purpose, I haue here added the reasons of Master Anthony Ienkinson a worthy gentleman, and a great traueller, who conceiued a better hope of the passage to Cataia from vs, to be by the Northeast, then by the Northwest. [Sidenote: The Northwest passage assented vnto.] He first said that he thought not to the contrary, but that there was a passage by the Northwest according to mine opinion: but assured he was, that there might be found a nauigable passage by the Northeast from England, to goe to all the East parts of the world, which he endeuoured to prooue three wayes. [Sidenote: The first reason.] The first was that he heard a Fisherman of Tartaria say in hunting the Morce, that he sayled very farre towards the Southeast, finding no end of the Sea: whereby he hoped a thorow passage to be that way. [Sidenote: The answer or resolution.] Whereunto I answered, that the Tartarians were a barbarous people, and vtterly ignorant in the Arte of Nauigation, not knowing the vse of the Sea Card, Compasse or Starre, which he confessed to be true: and therefore they could not (said I) certainly know the Southeast from the Northeast, in a wide sea, and a place vnknowen from the sight of the land. Or if he sailed any thing neere the shore, yet he (being ignorant) might be deceiued by the doubling of many points and Capes, and by the trending of the land, albeit he kept continually alongst the shore. [Sidenote: Visus nonnunquam fallitur in suo obíecto.] And further, it might be that the poore Fishermen through simplicitie thought that there was nothing that way but sea, because he saw no land: which proofe (vnder correction) giueth small assurance of a Nauigable sea by the Northeast, to goe round about the world, For that be iudged by the eye onely, seeing we in this our cleare aire doe account twentie miles a ken at Sea. [Sidenote: The second reason or allegation.] His second reason is, that there was an Vnicornes horne found vpon the coast of Tartaria, which could not come (said he) thither by any other meanes then with the tides, through some fret in the Northeast of Mare Glaciale, there being no Vnicorne in any part of Asia, sauing in India and Cataia: which reason (in my simple iudgement) forceth as litle. [Sidenote: The answer or resolution.] First, it is doubtfull whether those barbarous Tartarians do know an Vnicornes horne, yea, or no: and if it were one, yet it is not credible that the Sea could haue driuen it so farre, being of such nature that it will not swimme. Also the tides running too and fro, would haue driuen it as farre backe with the ebbe, as it brought it forward with the flood. There is also a beast called Asinus Indicus (whose horne most like it was) which hath but one horne like an Vnicorne in his forehead, whereof there is great plenty in all the North parts thereunto adioyning, as in Lappia, Noruegia, Finmarke, &c. as Iacobus Zieglerus writeth in his historie of Scondia. And as Albertus saieth, there is a fish which hath but one horne in his forehead like to an Vnicorne, and therefore it seemeth very doubtfull both from whence it came, and whether it were an Vnicornes horne, yea, or no. [Sidenote: The third and last reason or assertion.] His third and last reason was, that there came a continuall streame or currant through Mare Glaciale, of such swiftnesse (as a Colmax told him) that if you cast any thing therein, it would presently be carried out of sight towards the West. [Sidenote: The answer or resolution.] Whereunto I answered, that there doth the like from Mæotis Palus, by Pontus Euxinus, Sinus Bosphorus, and along the coast of Græcia, &c. As it is affirmed by Contarenus, and diuers others that haue had experience of the same: and yet that Sea lieth not open to any maine Sea that way, but is maintained by freshets as by Tanais, Danubius, &c. In like maner is this current in Mare Glaciale increased and maintained by the Dwina, the riuer Ob, &c. Now as I haue here briefly recited the reasons alleaged, to prooue a passage to Cataia by the Northeast, with my seuerall answeres thereunto: so will I leaue it to your iudgement, to hope or despaire of either at your pleasure.[44] How that the passage by the Northwest is more commodious for our traffique, then the other by the East, if there were any such. Cap. 9. First, by the Northeast (if your windes doe not giue you a maruelous speedie and luckie passage) you are in danger (being so neere the Pole) to be benighted almost the one halfe of the yeere, and what danger that were, to liue so long comfortlesse, voide of light, (if the cold killed you not) each man of reason or vnderstanding may iudge. [Sidenote: Some doubt of this.] 2 Also Mangia, Quinzai, and the Moluccæ are neerer vnto vs by the Northwest, then by the Northeast, more then two fiue parts, which is almost by the halfe. 3 Also we may haue by the West a yeerely returne, it being at all times nauigable, whereas you haue but 4. moneths in the whole yeere to goe by the Northeast: the passage being at such eleuation as it is formerly expressed, for it cannot be any neerer the South. 4 Furthermore, it cannot be finished without diuers wintrings by the way, hauing no hauens in any temperate climate to harbour in there: for it is as much as we can well saile from hence to S. Nicholas, in the trade of Moscouia, and returne in the nauigable season of the yeere, and from S. Nicholas to Cerimissi Tartari, which stande at 80 degrees of the Septentrional latitude, it is at the least 400 leagues, which amounteth scarce to the third part of the way, to the end of your voyage by the Northeast. 5 And yet after you haue doubled this Cape, if then there might be found a nauigable Sea to carie you Southeast according to your desire, yet can you not winter conueniently, vntil you come to 60 degrees, and to take vp one degree running Southeast, you must saile 24 leagues and three foure parts, which amounteth to 495 leagues. 6 Furthermore, you may by the Northwest saile thither with all Easterly windes, and returne with any Westerly windes, whereas you must haue by the Northeast sundry windes, and those proper, according to the lying of the coast and Capes, you shalbe inforced to double, which windes are not alwaies to be had, when they are looked for: whereby your iourney should be greatly prolonged, and hardly endured so neere the Pole. As we are taught by sir Hugh Willoughbie, who was frozen to death farre neerer the South. 7. Moreouer, it is very doubtfull, whether we should long inioy that trade by the Northeast, if there were any such passage that way, the commodities thereof once knowen to the Moscouite, what priuilege so euer hee hath granted, seeing pollicy with the masse of excessiue gaine, to the inriching (so greatly) of himselfe and all his dominions would perswade him to presume the same, hauing so great opportunitie to vtter the commodities of those countries by the Narue. But by the Northwest, we may safely trade without danger or annoyance of any prince liuing, Christian or Heathen, it being out of all their trades. 8 Also the Queenes Maiesties dominions are neerer the Northwest passage then any other great princes that might passe that way, and both in their going and returne, they must of necessitie succour themselues and their ships vpon some part of the same, if any tempestuous weather should happen. Further, no princes nauie of the world is able to incounter the Queenes Maiesties nauie, as it is at this present: and yet it should be greatly increased by the traffike insuing vpon this discouerie, for it is the long voyages that increase and maintaine great shipping. Now it seemeth necessarie to declare what commodities would growe thereby, if all these things were, as we haue heretofore presupposed, and thought them to be: which next adioyning are briefly declared. What commodities would ensue, this passage once discouered. Cap. 10. First, it were the onely way for our princes, to possesse the wealth of all the East parts (as they terme them) of the world, which is infinite: as appeareth by the experience of Alexander the great, in the time of his conquest of India, and other the East parts of the world, alleaged by Quintus Curtius, which would be a great aduancement to our countrey, a wonderfull inriching to our prince, and an vnspeakable commoditie to all the inhabitants of Europe. 2 For through the shortnesse of the voyage, we should be able to sell all maner of merchandize, brought from thence, farre better cheape then either the Portugall or Spaniard doth or may do. And further, we should share with the Portugall in the East, and the Spaniard in the West, by trading to any part of America, thorow Mar del Sur, where they can no maner of way offend vs. 3 Also we might sayle to diuers very rich countreys, both ciuill and others, out of both their iurisdictions, trades and traffikes, where there is to be found great abundance of golde, siluer, precious stones, cloth of gold, silkes, all maner of spices, grocery wares, and other kinds of merchandize of an inestimable price, which both the Spaniard and Portugall, through the length of their iournies, cannot well attaine vnto. 4 Also we might inhabite some part of those countreyes, and settle there such needy people of our countrey, which now trouble the common wealth, and through want here at home are inforced to commit outragious offences, whereby they are dayly consumed with the gallowes. 5 Moreouer, we might from all the aforesaid places haue a yeerely returne, inhabiting for our staple some conuenient place of America, about Sierra Neuada, or some other part, whereas it shal seeme best for the shortning of the voyage. 6 Beside vttering of our countrey commodities, which the Indians, &c. much esteeme: as appeareth in Hester, where the pompe is expressed of the great king of India, Assuerus, who matched the coloured clothes, wherewith his houses and tents were apparelled, with gold and siluer, as part of his greatest treasure: not mentioning either veluets, silkes, cloth of gold, cloth of siluer, or such like, being in those countreyes most plentifull: whereby it plainly appeareth in what great estimation they would haue the clothes of this our countrey, so that there would be found a farre better vent for them by this meanes, then yet this realme euer had: and that without depending either vpon France, Spaine, Flanders, Portugall, Hamborow, Emden, or any other part of Europe. 7 Also, here we shall increase both our ships and mariners, without burthening of the state. 8 And also haue occasion to set poore mens children to learne handie craftes, and thereby to make trifles and such like, which the Indians and those people do much esteeme: by reason whereof, there should be none occasion to haue our countrey combred with loiterers, vagabonds, and such like idle persons. All these commodities would grow by following this our discouery, without iniury done to any Christian prince, by crossing them in any of their vsed trades, whereby they might take any iust occasion of offence. Thus haue I briefly shewed you some part of the grounds of mine opinion, trusting that you will no longer iudge me fantasticke in this matter: seeing I haue conceiued no vaine hope of this voyage, but am perswaded thereunto by the best Cosmographers of our age, the same being confirmed both by reason and certaine experiences. Also this discouery hath bene diuers times heretofore by others both offered, attempted and performed. It hath bene offered by Stephen Gomes vnto Carolus the fift Emperour, in the yeere of our Lord God 1527, as Alphonso Vllua testifieth in the story of Carolus life: who would haue set him forth in it (as the story mentioneth) if the great want of money, by reason of his long warres had not caused him to surcease the same. [Sidenote: This discouery offered.] And the king of Portugall fearing least the Emperour would haue perseuered in this his enterprise, gaue him to leaue the matter vnattempted, the summe of 350000 crownes: and it is to be thought that the king of Portugall would not haue giuen to the Emperour such summes of money for egges in mooneshine. [Sidenote: This discovery attempted.] It hath bene attempted by Sebastian Cabota in the time of king Henry the seuenth, by Corterialis the Portugall, and Scolmus the Dane. [Sidenote: This discouery performed.] And it hath bene performed by three brethren, the Indians aforesaid, and by Vrdaneta the Frier of Mexico. Also diuers haue offered the like vnto the French king, who hath sent two or three times to haue discouered the same: The discouerers spending and consuming their victuals in searching the gulfes and bayes betweene Florida and Terra de Labrador, whereby the yce is broken to the after commers. So that the right way may now easily be found out in short time: and that with little ieopardie and lesse expences. For America is discouered so farre towards the North as Cape Frio,[45] which is 62 degrees, and that part of Grondland next adioyning is knowen to stand but at 72 degrees. [Sidenote: The labour of this discouerie shortned by other mens trauell.] So that wee haue but 10 degrees to saile North and South, to put the world out of doubt hereof: [Sidenote: Why the kings of Spaine and Portugal would not perseuer in this discovery.] and it is likely that the king of Spaine, and the king of Portugall would not haue sit out all this while, but that they are sure to possesse to themselues all that trade they now vse, and feare to deale in this discouery, least the Queenes Maiestie hauing so good opportunitie, and finding the commoditie which thereby might ensue to the common wealth, would cut them off, and enioy the whole traffique to herselfe, and thereby the Spaniards and Portugals, with their great charges, should beate the bush, and other men catch the birds: which thing they foreseing, haue commanded that no pilot of theirs vpon paine of death, should seeke to discouer to the Northwest, or plat out in any Sea card any thorow passage that way by the Northwest. Now, and if you will indifferently compare the hope that remaineth, to animate me to this enterprise, with those likelihoods which Columbus alleaged before Ferdinando the king of Castilia, to prooue that there were such Islands in the West Ocean, as were after by him and others discouered to the great commodity of Spaine and all the world: you will thinke then this Northwest passage to be most worthy trauell therein. For Columbus had none of the West Islands set foorth vnto him, either in globe or card, neither yet once mentioned of any writer (Plato excepted, and the commentaries vpon the same) from 942 yeeres before Christ, vntill that day. Moreouer, Columbus himselfe had neither seene America nor any other of the Islands about it, neither, vnderstood he of them by the report of any other that had seene them, but only comforted himselfe with this hope, that the land had a beginning where the Sea had an ending: for as touching that which the Spaniards doe write of a Biscaine, which should haue taught him the way thither, it is thought to be imagined of them, to depriue Columbus of his honour, being none of their countrey man, but a stranger borne. And if it were true of the Biscaine, yet did he but roue at the matter, or (at the least) gathered the knowledge of it, by coniectures onely. And albeit myselfe haue not seene this passage nor any part thereof, but am ignorant of it as touching experience (as Columbus was before his attempt made) yet haue I both the report, relation, and authoritie of diuers most credible men, which haue both seene and passed through some and euery part of this discouery, besides sundry reasons for my assurance thereof: all which Columbus wanted. These things considered, and indifferently weighed togither, with the wonderfull commodities which this discouery may bring, especially to this realme of England: I must needes conclude with learned Baptista Ramusius, and diuers other learned men, who said, that this discouery hath bene reserued for some noble prince or worthie man, thereby to make himselfe rich, and the world happie: desiring you to accept in good part this briefe and simple discourse, written in haste, which if I may perceiue that it shall not sufficiently satisfie you in this behalfe, I will then impart vnto you a large discourse, which I haue written onely of this discouery. And further, because it sufficeth not only to know that such a thing there is, without abilitie to performe the same, I wil at at leasure make you partaker of another simple discourse of nauigation, wherein I haue not a little trauelled, to make my selfe as sufficient to bring these things to effect, as I haue bene readie to offer my selfe therein. And therein I haue deuised to amend the errors of vsuall sea cards, whose common fault is to make the degrees of longitude in euery latitude of one like bignesse. And haue also deuised therein a Spherical instrument, with a compasse of variation for the perfect knowing of the longitude. And a precise order to pricke the sea card, together with certaine infallible rules for the shortning of any discouery, to know at the first entring of any fret whether it lie open to the Ocean more wayes then one, how farre soeuer the sea stretcheth itself into the land. Desiring you hereafter neuer to mislike with me, for the taking in hande of any laudable and honest enterprise: for if through pleasure or idlenesse we purchase shame, the pleasure vanisheth, but the shame remaineth for euer. [Sidenote: Pereas qui vmbras times.] And therefore to giue me leaue without offence, alwayes to liue and die in this mind, That he is not worthy to liue at all, that for feare, or danger of death, shunneth his countreys seruice, and his owne honour: seeing death is inevitable, and the fame of vertue immortall. Wherefore in this behalfe, Mutare vel timere sperno. * * * * * Certaine other reasons, or arguments to prooue a passage by the Northwest, learnedly written by M. Richard Willes, Gentleman. Foure famous wayes there be spoken of to those fruitfull and wealthie Islands, which wee doe vsually call Moluccaes, continually haunted for gaine, and dayly trauelled for riches therein growing. These Islands, although they stand East from the Meridian, distant almost halfe the length of the worlde, in extreame heate, vnder the Equinoctiall line, possessed of Infidels and Barbarians: yet by our neighbours great abundance of wealth there is painefully sought in respect of the voyage deerely bought, and from thence dangerously brought home vnto vs. Our neighbours I call the Portugalls in comparison of the Molucchians for neerenesse vnto vs, for like situation Westward as we haue, for their vsuall trade with vs, for that the farre Southeasterlings doe knowe this part of Europe by no other name then Portugall, not greatly acquainted as yet with the other Nations thereof. [Sidenote: 1 By the Southeast.] Their voyage is very well vnderstood of all men, and the Southeasterne way round about Afrike by the Cape of Good hope more spoken of, better knowen and trauelled, then that it may seeme needefull to discourse thereof any further. [Sidenote: 2 By the Southwest.] The second way lyeth Southwest, betweene the West India or South America, and the South continent, through that narrow straight where Magellan first of all men that euer we doe read of, passed these latter yeeres, leauing therevnto therefore his name. [Sidenote: This is an errour.] This way no doubt the Spaniardes would commodiously take, for that it lyeth neere vnto their dominions there, could the Easterne current and leuant windes as easily suffer them to returne, as speedily therwith they may be carried thither: for the which difficultie, or rather impossibility of striuing against the force both of winde and streame, this passage is litle or nothing vsed, although it be very well knowen. [Sidenote: 3 By the Northeast.] The third way by the Northeast, beyond all Europe and Asia, that worthy and renowmed knight sir Hugh Willoughbie sought to his perill, enforced there to ende his life for colde, congealed and frozen to death. And truely this way consisteth rather in the imagination of Geographers, then allowable either in reason, or approued by [Sidenote: Ortel. tab. Asiæ 3.] experience, as well it may appeare by the dangerous trending of the Scythish Cape set by Ortelius vnder the 80 degree North, by the vnlikely sailing in that Northerne sea alwayes clad with yce and snow, or at the least continually pestred therewith, if happily it be at any time dissolued: besides bayes and shelfes, the water waxing more shallow toward the East, that we say nothing of the foule mists and darke fogs in the cold clime, of the litle power of the Sunne to cleare the aire, of the vncomfortable nights, so neere the Pole, fiue moneths long. [Sidenote: 4 By the Northwest.] A fourth way to go vnto these aforesaid happy Islands Moluccæ sir Humphrey Gilbert a learned and valiant knight discourseth of at large in his new passage to Cathayo. The enterprise of itselfe being vertuous, the fact must doubtlesse deserue high praise, and whensoeuer it shal be finished, the fruits thereof cannot be smal: where vertue is guide, there is fame a follower, and fortune a companion. But the way is dangerous, the passage doubtfull, the voiage not throughly knowen, and therefore gainesaid by many, after this maner. [Sidenote: Ob. 1.] First, who can assure vs of any passage rather by the Northwest then by the Northeast? do not both waves lye in equall distance from the North Pole? Stand not the North Capes of eyther continent vnder like eleuation? Is not the Ocean sea beyond America farther distant from our Meridian by 30. or 40. degrees West, then the extreame poyntes of Cathayo Eastward, if Ortelius generall Carde of the world be true: [Sidenote: In Theatro.] In the Northeast that noble Knight Syr Hugh Willoughbie perished for colde: and can you then promise a passenger any better happe by the Northwest? Who hath gone for triall sake at any time this way out of Europe to Cathayo? [Sidenote: Ob. 2.] If you seeke the aduise herein of such as make profession in Cosmographie, Ptolome the father of Geographie, and his eldest children, will answere by their mappes with a negatiue, concluding most of the Sea within the land, and making an end of the world Northward, neere the 63. degree. The same opinion, when learning chiefly florished, was receiued in the Romanes time, as by their Poets writings it may appeare: tibi seruiat vltima Thyle, said Virgil, being of opinion, that Island was the extreme part of the world habitable toward the North. Ioseph Moletius an Italian, and Mercator a Germaine, for knowledge men able to be compared with the best Geographers of our time, the one in his halfe Spheres of the whole world, the other in some of his great globes, haue continued the West Indies land, euen to the North Pole, and consequently, cut off all passage by sea that way. The same doctors, Mercator in other of his globes and mappes, Moletius in his sea Carde, neuerthelesse doubting of so great continuance of the former continent, haue opened a gulfe betwixt the West Indies and the extreame Northerne land: but such a one, that either is not to be trauelled for the causes in the first obiection alledged, or cleane shut vp from vs in Europe by Groenland: the South ende whereof Moletius maketh firme land with America, the North part continent with Lappeland and Norway. [Sidenote: Ob. 3.] Thirdly, the greatest fauourers of this voyage can not denie, but that if any such passage be, it lieth subiect vnto yce and snow for the most part of the yeere, whereas it standeth in the edge of the frostie Zone. Before the Sunne hath warmed the ayre, and dissolued the yce, eche one well knoweth that there can be no sailing: the yce once broken through the continuall abode the sunne maketh a certaine season in those parts, how shall it be possible for so weake a vessel as a shippe is, to holde out amid whole Ilands, as it were of yce continually beating on eche side, and at the mouth of that gulfe, issuing downe furiously from the north, and safely to passe, when whole mountaines of yce and snow shall be tumbled downe vpon her? [Sidenote: Ob. 4.] Well, graunt the West Indies not to continue continent vnto the Pole, grant there be a passage betweene these two lands, let the gulfe lie neerer vs then commonly in cardes we finde it set, namely, betweene the 61. and 64. degrees north, as Gemma Frisius in his mappes and globes imagineth it, and so left by our countryman Sebastian Cabot in his table which the Earle of Bedford hath at Cheinies: Let the way be voyde of all difficulties, yet doeth it not follow that wee haue free passage to Cathayo. For examples sake: You may trend all Norway, Finmarke, and Lappeland, and then bowe Southward to Saint Nicholas in Moscouia: you may likewise in the Mediterranean Sea fetch Constantinople, and the mouth of Tanais: yet is there no passage by Sea through Moscouia into Pont Euxine, now called Mare Maggiore. Againe, in the aforesaid Mediterranean sea, we saile to Alexandria in Egypt, the Barbarians bring their pearle and spices from the Moluccaes vp the Red sea or Arabian gulph to Sues, scarcely three dayes iourney from the aforesayd hauen: yet haue wee no way by sea from Alexandria to the Moluccaes, for that Isthmos or litle straight of land betweene the two seas. In like maner although the Northerne passage be free at 61 degrees of latitude, and the West Ocean beyond America, vsually called Mar del Zur, knowen to be open at 40. degrees eleuation from the Island Iapan, yea, three hundred leagues Northerly aboue Iapan: yet may there be land to hinder the thorow passage that way by Sea, as in the examples aforesaid it falleth out, Asia and America there being ioyned together in one continent. Ne can this opinion seeme altogether friuolous vnto any one that diligently peruseth our Cosmographers doings. Iosephus Moletius is of that minde, not onely in his plaine Hemispheres of the world, but also in his Sea card. The French Geographers in like maner be of the same opinion, as by their Mappe cut out in forme of a Hart you may perceiue: as though the West Indies were part of Asia. Which sentence well agreeth with that old conclusion in the Schooles. Quicquid præter Africam et Europam est, Asia est, Whatsoeuer land doeth neither apperteine vnto Afrike nor to Europe, is part of Asia. [Sidenote: Ob. 5.] Furthermore it were to small purpose to make so long, so painefull, so doubtfull a voyage by such a new found way, if in Cathayo you should neither bee suffered to land for silkes and siluer, nor able to fetch the Molucca spices and pearle for piracie in those Seas. Of a law denying all Aliens to enter into China, and forbidding all the inhabiters vnder a great penaltie to let in any stranger into those countreys, shall you reade in the report of Galeotto Perera there imprisoned with other Portugals: as also in the Iaponish letters, how for that cause the worthy traueller Xauierus bargained with a Barbarian Merchant for a great summe of pepper to be brought into Canton, a port in China. The great and dangerous piracie vsed in those Seas no man can be ignorant of, that listeth to reade the Iaponish and East Indian historie. [Sidenote: Ob. 6.] Finally, all this great labour would be lost, all these charges spent in vaine, if in the ende our trauellers might not be able to returne againe, and bring safely home into their owne natiue countrey that wealth and riches, which they in forrein regions with aduenture of goods, and danger of their liues haue sought for. By the Northeast there is no way, the Southeast passage the Portugals doe hold as the Lords of those Seas. At the Southwest Magellans experience hath partly taught vs, and partly we are persuaded by reason, how the Easterne current striketh so furiously on that straight, and falleth with such force into that narrow gulph, that hardly any ship can returne that way into our West Ocean out of Mar del Zur. The which if it be true, as truly it is, then wee may say that the aforesayd Easterne current or leuant course of waters continually following after the heauenly motions, loseth not altogether his force, but is doubled rather by an other current from out the Northeast, in the passage betweene America and the North land, whither it is of necessity caryed: hauing none other way to maintaine it selfe in circular motion, and consequently the force and fury thereof to be no lesse in the straight of Anian, where it striketh South into Mar del Zur, beyond America (if any such straight of Sea there be) then in Magellans fret, both straights being of like bredth: as in Belognine Zalterius table of new France, and in Don Diego Hermano de Toledo his Card for nauigation in that region we doe finde precisely set downe. Neuerthelesse to approue that there lyeth a way to Cathayo at the Northwest from out of Europe, we haue experience, namely of three brethren that went that iourney, as Gemma Frisius recordeth, and left a name vnto that straight, whereby now it is called Fretum trium fratrum. We doe reade againe of a Portugall that passed this straight, of whom Master Frobisher speaketh, that was imprisoned therefore many yeeres in Lisbone, to verifie the olde Spanish prouerbe, I suffer for doing well. Likewise Andrew Vrdaneta a Fryer of Mexico came out of Mar del Zur this way into Germanie: his Carde (for he was a great discouerer) made by his owne experience and trauell in that voyage, hath bene seene by Gentlemen of good credite. [Sidenote: Cic. 1. de orat. Arist, pri. Metaph.] Now if the obseruation and remembrance of things breedeth experience, and of experience proceedeth arte, and the certaine knowledge we haue in all faculties, as the best Philosophers that euer were doe affirme: truely the voyage of these aforesayd trauellers that haue gone out of Europe into Mar del Zur, and returned thence at the Northwest, do most euidently conclude that way to be nauigable, and that passage free. [Sidenote: Lib. 1. Geog. Cap. 2.] So much the more we are so to thinke for that the first principle and chiefe ground in all Geographie, as Ptolome saith, is the history of trauell, that is, reports made by trauellers skilful in Geometrie and Astronomie, of all such things in their iourney as to Geographie doe belong. It onely then remaineth, that we now answere to those arguments that seemed to make against this former conclusion. [Sidenote: Sol. 1.] The first obiection is of no force, that generall table of the world set forth by Ortelius or Mercator, for it greatly skilleth not, being vnskilfully drawen for that point: as manifestly it may appeare vnto any one that conferreth the same with Gemma Frisius his vniuersall Mappe, with his round quartered carde, with his globe, with Sebastian Cabota his table, and Ortelius his generall mappe alone, worthily preferred in this case before all Mercator and Ortelius other doings: for that Cabota was not onely a skilful Sea man, but a long traueller, and such a one as entred personally that straight, sent by king Henry the seuenth to make this aforesayd Discouerie, as in his owne discourse of nauigation you may reade in his carde drawen with his owne hand, that the mouth of the Northwesterne straight lyeth neere the 318. Meridian, betweene 61. and 64. degrees in the eleuation, continuing the same bredth about 10 degrees West, where it openeth Southerly more and more, vntill it come vnder the tropicke of Cancer, and so runneth into Mar del Zur, at the least 18 degrees more in bredth there, then it was where it first began: otherwise I could as well imagine this passage to be more vnlikely then the voyage to Moscouia, and more impossible then it for the farre situation and continuance thereof in the frostie clime: as now I can affirme it to be very possible and most likely in comparison thereof, for that it neither coasteth so farre North as the Moscouian passage doeth, neither is this straight so long as that, before it bow downe Southerly towardes the Sunne againe. [Sidenote: Sol. 2.] The second argument concludeth nothing. Ptolome knew not what was aboue sixteene degrees South beyond the Equinoctiall line, he was ignorant of all passages Northward from the eleuation of 63. degrees: he knewe no Ocean sea beyond Asia, yet haue the Portugals trended the Cape of Good hope at the South point of Afrike, and trauelled to Iapan an Island in the East Ocean, betweene Asia and America: our merchants in the time of king Edward the sixt discouered the Moscouian passage farther North than Thyle, and shewed Groenland not to be continent with Lappeland and Norway: the like our Northwesterne trauellers haue done, declaring by their nauigation that way, the ignorance of all Cosmographers that either doe ioyne Groenland with America, or continue the West Indies with that frosty region vnder the north pole. As for Virgil he sang according to the knowledge of men in his time, as an other poet did of the hot Zone. [Sidenote: Ouid. 1. Meta.] Quarum quæ media est, non est habitabilis æstu. Imagining, as most men then did, Zonam torridam, the hot Zone to be altogether dishabited for heat, though presently wee know many famous and worthy kingdomes and cities in that part of the earth, and the Island of S. Thomas neere Æthiopia, and the wealthy Islands for the which chiefly all these voyages are taken in hand, to be inhabited euen vnder the Equinoctiall line. [Sidenote: Sol. 3.] To answere the third obiection, besides Cabota and all other trauellers nauigations, the onely credit of M. Frobisher[46] may suffice, who lately through all these Islands of ice, and mountaines of snow, passed that way, euen beyond the gulfe that tumbleth downe from the North, and in some places though he drewe one inch thicke ice, as he returning in August did, yet came he home safely againe. [Sidenote: Sol. 4.] The fourth argument is altogether friuolous and vaine, for neither is there any isthmos or strait of land betweene America and Asia, ne can these two landes ioyntly be one continent. [Sidenote: Lib. Geog.] The first part of my answere is manifestly allowed of by Homer, whom that excellent Geographer Strabo followeth, yeelding him in this facultie the price. The author of that booke likewise [Greek: perì kosmou] to Alexander, attributed vnto Aristotle, is of the same opinion that Homer and Strabo be of, in two or three places. Dionisius in [Greek: oikoumenaes periaegaesi] hath this verse [Greek: otos hokeanos peridedrome gaian hapasan.] So doth the Ocean Sea runne round about the worlde: speaking onely of Europe, Afrike and Asia, as then Asia was trauelled and knowen. [Sidenote: Note.] With these Doctours may you ioyne Pomponius Mela. cap. 2. lib 1. Plinius lib. 2. cap. 67. and Pius 2. cap 2. in his description of Asia. [Sidenote: Richard Eden.] All the which writers doe no lesse confirme the whole Easterne side of Asia to be compassed about with the sea, then Plato doeth affirme in Timæo, vnder the name Atlantis, the West indies to be an Island, as in a special discoure thereof R. Eden writeth, agreeable vnto the sentence of Proclus, Marsilius Ficinus, and others. Out of Plato it is gathered that America is an island. Homer, Strabo, Aristotle, Dionysius, Mela, Plinie, Pius 2. affirme the continent of Asia, Afrike, and Europe to be enuironed with the Ocean. I may therefore boldly say (though later intelligences thereof had we none at all) that Asia and the West Indies be not tied together by any Isthmos or straight of land, contrary to the opinion of some new Cosmographers, by whom doubtfully this matter hath bin brought in controuersie. And thus much for the first part of my answere vnto the fourth obiection. [Sidenote: Lib. 2. Meteor. cap 1.] The second part, namely that America and Asia cannot be one continent, may thus be prooued, [Greek: kata taen taes gaes koilotaeta rhei kai ton potamon to plaethos.] The most Riuers take downe that way their course, where the earth is most hollow and deepe, writeth Aristotle: and the Sea (sayeth he in the same place) as it goeth further, so it is found deeper. Into what gulfe doe the Moscouian riuers Onega, Duina, Ob, powre out their streames Northward out of Moscouia into the sea? Which way doeth that sea strike: The South is maine land, the Easterne coast waxeth more and more shalow: from the North, either naturally, because that part of the earth is higher Aristot. 2. Met. cap. 1. or of necessitie, for that the forcible influence of some Northerne starres causeth the earth there to shake off the Sea, as some Philosophers doe thinke: or finally for the great store of waters engendered in that frostie and colde climate, that the bankes are not able to holde them. Alber, in 2. Meteor. cap. 6. From the North, I say, continually falleth downe great abundance of water. So that this Northeasterne currant must at the length abruptly bow towards vs South on the West side of Finmarke and Norway: or else strike downe Southwest aboue Groneland and Iseland, into the Northwest straight we speake of, as of congruence it doeth, if you marke the situation of that Region, and by the report of M. Frobisher experience teacheth vs. And M. Frobisher the further he trauailed in the former passage, as he tolde me, the deeper always he found the Sea. Lay you now the summe hereof together. The riuers runne where the chanels are most hollow, the Sea in taking his course waxeth deeper, the Sea waters fall continually from the North Southward, the Northeasterne current striketh downe into the straight we speak of, and is there augmented with whole mointaines of yce and snowe falling downe furiously out from the land vnder the North pole. [Sidenote: Plin. lib. 2. cap. 67] Where store of water is, there is it a thing impossible to want Sea, where Sea not onely doeth not want, but waxeth deeper, there can be discouered no land, finally, whence I pray you came the contrary tide, that M. Frobisher mette withall after he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there be any Isthmos or straight of land betwixt the aforesayd Northwesterne gulfe, and Mar del Zur, to ioyne Asia and America together? That conclusion frequented in scholes Quicquid præter, &c. was meant of the partes of the world then knowen, and so it is of right to be vnderstood. [Sidenote: Sol. 5.] The fift obiection requireth for answere wisdome and policie in the trauailer to winne the Barbarians fauour by some good meanes: and so to arme and strengthen himselfe, that when he shal haue the repulse in one coast, he may safely trauaile to an other, commodiously taking his conuenient times, and discreetely making choise of them with whom hee will throughly deale. To force a violent entry, would for vs Englishmen be very hard, considering the strength and valour of so great a Nation, farre distant from vs, and the attempt thereof might be most perilous vnto the doers, vnlesse their part were very good. Touching their lawes against strangers, you shall reade neuerthelesse in the same relations of Galeotto Perera, that the Cathaian king is woont to graunt free accesse vnto all foreiners that trade into his Countrey for Marchandise, and a place of libertie for them to remaine in: as the Moores had, vntill such time as they had brought the Loutea or Lieutenant of that coast to be a circumcised Saracene: wherefore some of them were put to the sword, the rest were scattered abroad: at Fuquien a great citie in China, certaine of them are yet this day to be seene. As for the Iapans they be most desirous to be acquainted with strangers. The Portingals though they were straitly handled there at the first, yet in the ende they found great fauor at the Prince his hands, insomuch that the Loutea or president that misused them was therefore put to death. The rude Indian Canoa halleth those seas, the Portingals, the Saracens, and Moores trauaile continually vp and downe that reach from Iapan to China, from China to Malacca, from Malacca to the Moluccaes: and shall an Englishman, better appointed then any of them all (that I say no more of our Nauie) feare to saile in that ocean? What seas at all doe want piracie? what Nauigation is there voyde of perill? [Sidenote: Sol. 6.] To the last argument. Our trauailers neede not to seeke their returne by the Northeast, neither shall they be constrained, except they list, either to attempt Magellans straight at the Southwest, or to be in danger of the Portingals for the Southeast: they may returne by the Northwest, that same way they doe goe foorth, as experience hath shewed. The reason alleadged for proofe of the contrary may be disproued after this maner. And first it may be called in controuersie, whether any current continually be forced by the motion of Primum mobile, round about the world, or no: For learned men doe diuersly handle that question. [Sidenote: Luc. lib. 1. Pharsal.] The naturall course of all waters is downeward, wherefore of congruence they fall that way where they finde the earth most lowe and deepe: in respect whereof, it was erst sayd, the seas doe strike from the Northern landes Southerly. Violently the seas are tossed and troubled diuers wayes with the windes, encreased and diminished by the course of the Moone, hoised vp and downe through the sundry operations of the Sunne and the starres: finally, some be of opinion, that the seas be carried in part violently about the world, after the dayly motion of the highest moueable heauen, in like maner as the elements of ayre and fire, with the rest of the heauenly spheres, are from the East vnto the West. [Sidenote: What the Easterne current is.] And this they doe call their Easterne current, or leuant stream. Some such current may not be denied to be of great force in the hot Zone, for the neerenesse thereof vnto the centre of the Sunne, and blustering Easterne windes violently driuing the seas Westwards: howbeit, in the temperate climes, the Sunne being further off, and the windes more diuers, blowing as much from the North, the West and South, as from the East, this rule doeth not effectually withholde vs from trauailing Eastward, neither be we kept euer backe by the aforesaid Leuant windes and streame. But in the Magellans streight wee are violently driuen backe West: Ergo, through the Northwesterne straight or Annian frette shall we not be able to returne Eastward? It followeth not. The first, for that the northwesterne straight hath more sea roome at the least by one hundreth English myles, than Magellans frette hath, the onely want whereof causeth all narrow passages generally to be most violent. So would I say in the Anian gulfe, if it were so narrow as Don Diego and Zalterius haue painted it out, any returne that way to bee full of difficulties, in respect of such streightnesse thereof, not for the neerenesse of the Sunne, or Easterne windes violently forcing that way any leuant streame: But in that place there is more sea roome by many degrees, if the Cardes of Cabota, and Gemma Frisius, and that which Tramezine imprinted be true. And hitherto reason see I none at all, but that I may as well giue credite vnto their doings, as to any of the rest. [Sidenote: Lib. 1. Geog. Cap. 2.] It must be Peregrinationis historia, that is, true reportes of skilfull trauailers, as Ptolome writeth, that in such controuersies of Geographie must put vs out of doubt. Ortelius in his vniuersall tables, in his particular Mappes of the West Indies, of all Asia, of the Northern kingdomes, of the East Indies, Mercator in some of his globes, and generall Mappes of the world, Moletius in his vniuersall table of the Globe diuided, in his sea Carde, and particuler tables of the East Indies, Zalterius, and Don Diego, with Ferdinando Bertely, and others, doe so much differ from Gemma Frisius and Cabota, among themselues, and in diuers places from themselues, concerning the diuers situation and sundry limits of America, that one may not so rashly, as timely surmise, these men either to be ignorant in those points touching the aforesaid region, or that the Mappes they haue giuen out vnto the world, were collected onely by them, and neuer of their owne drawing. * * * * * The first Voyage of M. Martine Frobisher, to the Northwest, for the search of the straight or passage to China, written by Christopher Hall, Master in the Gabriel, and made in the yeere of our Lord 1576. The 7. of Iune being Thursday, the two Barks, viz. the Gabriel, and the Michael [Marginal note: M. Matthew Kinderslye was Captaine of the Michael.] and our Pinnesse set saile at Ratcliffe, and bare down to Detford, and there we ancred: the cause was that our Pinnesse burst her boulsprit, and foremast aboard of a ship that rode at Detford, else wee meant to haue past that day by the Court then at Grenewich. The 8. day being Friday, about 12 of the clocke we wayed at Detford, and set saile all three of vs, and bare downe by the Court, where we shotte off our ordinance and made the best shew we could: Her Maiestie beholding the same, commended it, and bade vs farewell, with shaking her hand at vs out of the window. Afterward shee sent a Gentleman aboord of vs, who declared that her Maiestie had good liking of our doings, and thanked vs for it, and also willed our Captaine to come the next day to the Court to take his leaue of her. The same day towards night M. Secretarie Woolly came aboorde of vs, and declared to the company, that her Maiestie had appointed him to giue them charge to be obedient, and diligent to their Captaine, and gouernours in all things, and wished vs happie successe. The 12. day being ouer against Grauesend, by the castle or blockehouse, we obserued the latitude, which was 51. degrees 33. min. And in that place the variation of the Compasse is 11. degrees and a halfe. [Sidenote: Faire Island.] The 24. day at 2. of the clocke after noone, I had sight of Faire yle,[47] being from vs 6. leagues North and by East, and when I brought it Northwest and by North, it did rise at the Southermost ende with a litle hommocke, and swampe in the middes. [Sidenote: Shotland.] The 25. day from 4. to 8. a clocke in the forenoone, the winde at Northwest and by North a fresh gale, I cast about to the Westward, the Southermost head of Shotland called Swinborne head Northnorthwest from me, and the land of Faire yle, West Southwest from me. I sailed directly to the North head of that said land, sounding as I ranne in, hauing 60. 50. and 40. fathoms, and gray redde shels: and within halfe a mile of that Island, there are 36. fathoms, for I sailed to that Island to see whether there were any roadesteede for a Northwest winde, and I found by my sounding hard rockes, and foule ground, and deepe water, within two cables length of the shoare, 28. fathome, and so did not ancre but plied to and fro with my foresaile, and mizen till it was a high water vnder the Island. The tide setteth there Northwest and Southeast: the flood setteth Southeast, and the ebbe Northwest. The 26. day hauing the winde at South a faire gale, sayling from Faire yle to Swinborne head, I did obserue the latitude, the Island of Fowlay being West Northwest from me 6. leagues, and Swinborne head East southeast from me, I found my eleuation [Marginal note: By eleuation he meaneth the distance of the sunne from the zenith.] to be 37. degr and my declination 22. degr. 46 min. So that my latitude was 59. degr. 46. min. [Sidenote: S. Tronions.] At that present being neere to Swinborne head, hauing a leake which did trouble vs, as also to take in fresh water, I plyed roome with a sound, which is called S. Tronions, and there did ancre in seuen fathoms water, and faire sande. You haue comming in the sounds mouth in the entring 17. 15. 12. 10. 9. 8. and 7. fathoms, and the sound lyeth in North northwest, and there we roade to a West sunne, and stopped our leake, and hauing refreshed our selues with water, at a North northwest sunne, I set saile from S. Tronions the winde at South Southest, and turned out till wee were cleare of the sound, and so sailed West to go cleare of the Island of Fowlay. [Sidenote: Fowlay Island.] And running off toward Fowlay,[48] I sounded, hauing fiftie fathome, and streamie ground, and also I sounded Fowlay being North from mee one league off that Islande, hauing fiftie fathome at the South head, and streamie ground, like broken otmell, and one shell being redde and white like mackerell. [Sidenote: Latitude 59. deg. 59. min. Here they begin to saile West and by North.] The 27. day at a South sunne I did obserue the latitude, the Island of Fowlay being from me two leagues East Northeast: I found my selfe to be in latitude 59. degrees, 59. min truly obserued, the winde at South Southwest: I sailed West and by North. From 12. to foure a clocke afternoone, the wind at South, a faire gale the shippe sailed West and by North 6. leagues, and at the ende of this watch, I sounded hauing 60. fathome, with little stones and shels, the Island from vs 8. leagues East. [Sidenote: July the first.] The first of Iuly, from 4. to 8. a clocke, wee sailed West 4. glasses 4. leagues, and at that present we had so much winde that we spooned afore the sea Southwest 2. leagues. The 3. day we found our Compasse to bee varied one point to Westwards: this day from 4. to 8. a clocke we sailed West and by North 6 leagues. From 8. to 12. a clocke at noone West and by North 4. leagues. [Sidenote: The Compasse varying Westwards one point.] At that present I found our compasse to be varied 11 deg. and one 4. part to the Westwards, which is one point. [Sidenote: The Island of Friseland.] The 11. day at a Southeast sunne we had sight of the land of Friseland bearing from vs West northwest 16. leagues, and rising like pinacles of steeples, and all couered with snowe. I found my selfe in 61. degr. of latitude. Wee sailed to the shoare and could finde no ground at 150. fathoms, we hoised out our boate, and the Captaine with 4. men rowed to the shoare to get on land, but the land lying full of yce, they could not get on land, and so they came aboord againe: We had much adoe to get cleare of the yce by reason of the fogge. Yet from Thursday 8. a clocke in the morning to Friday at noone we sailed Southwest 20. leagues. The 18. day at a Southwest sunne I found the sunne to be eleuated 33. deg. And at a Southsoutheast sunne 40. deg. So I obserued it till I found it at the highest, and then it was eleuated 52. deg. [Sidenote: The variation of the needle two points and a halfe to the West.] I iudged the variation of the Compasse to be 2. points and a halfe to the Westward. [Sidenote: A great drift of yce.] The 21. day we had sight of a great drift of yce, seeming a firme land, and we cast Westward to be cleare of it. [Sidenote: The latitude of 62. degrees 2. min.] The 26. we had sight of a land of yce: the latitude was 62. degrees, and two minutes. [Sidenote: Sight of land supposed to haue been Labrador.] The 28. day in the morning was very foggie: but at the clearing vp of the fogge, we had sight of lande, which I supposed to be Labrador, with great store of yce about the land: I ranne in towards it, and sownded, but could get no ground at 100. fathom, and the yce being so thicke, I could not get to the shoare, and so lay off, and came cleare of the yce. Upon Munday we came within a mile of the shoare, and sought a harborowe: all the sownd was full of yce, and our boate rowing a shoare, could get no ground at 100. fathom, within a Cables length of the shoare: then we sailed Eastnortheast along the shoare, for so the lande lyeth, and the currant is there great, setting Northeast, and Southwest: and if we could haue gotten anker ground, wee would haue seene with what force it had runne, but I iudge a ship may driue a league and a halfe, in one houre, with that tide. This day at 4. of the clocke in the morning, being faire and cleere, we had sight of a head land, as we iudged, bearing from vs north, and by East, and we sailed Northeast, and by North to that land, and when we came thither, wee could not get to the lande for yce: for the yce stretched along the coast, so that we could not come to the land, by fiue leagues. [Sidenote: August.] Wednesday the first of August it calmed, and in the after noone I caused my boate to be hoysed out, being hard by a great Island of yce, and I and foure men rowed to that yce, and sounded within two Cables length of it, and had sixteene fathome, and little stones, and after that sownded againe within a Minion shot, and had ground at an hundreth fathome, and faire sand: we sownded the next day a quarter of a myle from it, and had sixtie fathome rough ground, and at that present being aboord, that great Island of yce fell one part from another, making a noyse as if a great cliffe had fallen into the Sea. And at foure of the clocke I sownded againe, and had 90. fathome, and small blacke stones, and little white stones like pearles. The tide here did set to the shoare. The tenth I tooke foure men, and my selfe, and rowed to shoare to an Island one league from the maine, and there the flood setteth Southwest alongest the shoare, and it floweth as neere as I could iudge so too, I could not tarry to prooue it, because the ship was a great way from me, and I feared a fogge: but when I came a shoare, it was a low water. I went to the top of the Island, and before I came backe, it was hied a foote water, and so without tarrying I came aboord. [Sidenote: They enter the Streit in the latitude of 63. deg. and 8. min.] The 11. we found our latitude to be 63. degr. and eight minutes, and this day we entred the streight. The 12. wee set saile towardes an Island, called the Gabriels Island, which was 10 leagues then from vs. We espied a sound, and bare with it, and came to a Sandie Baye, where we came to an anker, the land being East southeast off vs, and there we rode al night in 8. fathome water. It floweth there at a Southeast Moone. We called it Priors sownd, being from the Gabriels Island, tenne leagues. The 14, we waied, and ranne into another sownde, where wee ankered in 8. fathome water, faire sand, and black oaze, and there calked our ship, being weake from the wales vpward, and tooke in fresh water. The 15. day we waied, and sailed to Priors Bay, being a mile from thence. The 16. day was calme, and we rode still, without yce, but presently within two houres it was frozen round about the ship, a quarter of an ynch thicke, and that day very faire, and calme. The 17. day we waied, and came to Thomas Williams Island. The 18. day we sailed North northwest, and ankered againe in 23. fathome, and tough oaze, vnder Burchers Island, which is from the former Island, ten leagues. [Sidenote: Sight of the Countrey people.] The 19. day in the morning, being calme, and no winde, the Captaine and I tooke our boat, with eight men in her, to rowe vs a shoare, to see if there were any people, or no, and going to the toppe of the Island, we had sight of seuen boates, which came rowing from the East side, toward that Island: whereupon we returned aboord againe: at length we sent our boate with fiue men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boates with their men along the shoare, rowing after our boate, till such time as they sawe our ship, and then they rowed a shoare: then I went on shore my selfe, and gaue euery of them a threadden point, and brought one of them aboord of me, where hee did eate and drinke, and then carried him on shoare againe. Whereupon all the rest came aboord with their boates, being nineteene persons, and they spake, but we vnderstoode them not. [Sidenote: The description of the people.[49]] They bee like to Tartars, with long blacke haire, broad faces, and flatte noses, and tawnie in colour, wearing Seale skinnes, and so doe the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blewe streekes downe the cheekes, and round about the eyes. Their boates are made all of Seales skinnes, with a keele of wood within the skin: the proportion of them is like a Spanish shallop, saue only they be flat in the bottome, and sharpe at both ends. The twentieth day wee wayed, and went to the Eastside of this island, and I and the Captaine, with foure men more went on shoare, and there we sawe their houses, and the people espying vs, came rowing towards our boate: whereupon we plied toward our boate: and wee being in our boate and they ashoare, they called to vs, and we rowed to them, and one of their company came into our boate, and we carried him a boord, and gaue him a Bell, and a knife: [Sidenote: 5 of our men taken by the people.] so the Captaine and I willed fiue of our men to set him a shoare at a rocke, and not among the company, which they come from, but their wilfulnesse was such, that they would goe to them, and so were taken themselues, and our boate lost. The next day in the morning, we stoode in neere the shoare, and shotte off a fauconet, and sounded our trumpet, but we could hear nothing nothing of our men: this sound wee called the fiue mens sound, and plyed out of it, but ankered againe in thirtie fathome, and ooze: and riding there all night, in the morning, the snow lay a foote thicke vpon our hatches. The 22. day in the morning we wayed, and went againe to the place we lost our men, and our boate. We had sight of foureteene boates, and some came neere to vs, but wee could learne nothing of our men: among the rest, we intised one boate to our ships side, with a Bell, and in giuing him the Bell, we tooke him, and his boate, and so kept him, and so rowed downe to Thomas Williams Island, and there ankered all night. [Sidenote: They returne.] The 26. day we waied, to come homeward, and by 12. of the clocke at noone, we were thwart of Trumpets Island. The next day we came thwart of Gabriels Island, and at 8. of the clocke at night, we had the Cape Labrador as we supposed West from vs, ten leagues. The 28. day we went our course Southeast. We sailed Southeast, and by East, 22. leagues. The first day of September in the morning we had sight of the land of Friseland being eight leagues from vs but we could not come neerer it, for the monstrous yce that lay about it. From this day, till the sixth of this Moneth, we ranne along Island, and had the South part of it at eight of the clocke, East from vs ten leagues. The seuenth day of this moneth we had a very terrible storme, by force whereof, one of our men was blowen into the sea out of our waste, but he caught hold of the foresaile sheate, and there held till the Captaine pluckt him againe into the ship. The 25 day of this moneth we had sight of the Island of Orkney, which was then East from vs. [Sidenote: The Sheld.] The first day of October we had sight of the Sheld, and so sailed about the coast, and ankered at Yarmouth, and the next day we came into Harwich. The language of the people of Meta incognita. Argoteyt, a hand. Cangnawe, a nose. Arered, an eye. Keiotot, a tooth. Mutchatet, the head. Chewat, an eare. Comagaye, a legge. Atoniagay, a foote. Callagay, a paire of breeches. Attegay, a coate. Polleuetagay, a knife. Accaskay, a shippe. Coblone, a thumbe. Teckkere, the foremost finger. Ketteckle, the middle finger. Mekellacane, the fourth finger. Yacketrone, the little finger. * * * * * The second voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, made to the West and Northwest Regions, in the yeere 1577. with a description of the Countrey, and people: Written by Master Dionise Settle. On Whitsunday, being the sixe and twentieth of May, in the yeere of our Lord God 1577. Captaine Frobisher departed from Blacke Wall, with one of the Queenes Maiesties ships, called The Aide, of nine score tunnes, or thereabouts: and two other Little Barkes likewise, the one called The Gabriel, whereof Master Fenton, a Gentleman of my Lord of Warwikes, was Captaine: accompanied with seuen score Gentlemen, souldiers, and sailers, well furnished with victuals, and other prouision necessarie for one halfe yeere, on this his second voyage, for the further discouering of the passage to Cathay, and other Countreys, thereunto adiacent, by West and Northwest nauigations: which passage or way, is supposed to bee on the North and Northwest part of America: and the said America to be an Island inuironed with the sea, where through our Merchants may haue course and recourse with their merchandize, from these our Northernmost parts of Europe, to those Orientall coasts of Asia, in much shorter time, and with greater benefite then any others, to their no little commoditie and profite that do or shall frequent the same. Our said Captaine and General of this present voyage and company hauing the yeere before, with two little pinnesses, to his great danger, and no small commendations, giuen a worthy attempt towards the performance thereof, is also prest, when occasion shall be ministred (to the benefite of his Prince, and natiue Countrey) to aduenture himelfe further therein. As for the second voyage, it seemeth sufficient that he hath better explored and searched the commodities of those people and Countreys, which in his first voyage the yeere before he had found out. [Sidenote: The Islands Orcades, or Orkney.] Vpon which considerations, the day and yeere before expressed, we departed from Blacke Wall to Harwich, where making an accomplishment of things necessary, the last of May we hoised vp sailes, and with a merrie winde the 7. of Iune we arriued at the Islands called Orcades, or vulgarly Orkney, being in number 30. subiect and adiacent to Scotland where we made prouision of fresh water; in the doing wherof our Generall licensed the Gentlemen and souldiers for their recreation to go on shore. [Sidenote: The Orcadians upon smal occasion flee their home.] At our landing, the people fled from their poore cottages, with shrikes and alarms, to warne their neighbours of enemies, but by gentle perswasions we reclamed them to their houses. It seemeth they are often frighted with Pirats, or some other enemies, that mooue them to such sudden feare. Their houses are very simply builded with Pibble stone, without any chimneis, the fire being made in the middest thereof. The good man, wife, children, and other of their family eate and sleepe on the one side of the house, and the cattell on the other, very beastly and rudely, in respect of ciuilitie. [Sidenote: No wood in Orkney.] They are destitute of wood, their fire is turffes, and Cowshards. They haue corne, bigge, and oates, with which they pay their Kings rent, to the maintenance of his house. They take great quantitie of fish, which they dry in the wind and Sunne. They dresse their meat very filthily, and eate it without salt. Their apparell is after the rudest sort of Scotland. Their money is all base. Their Church and religion is reformed according to the Scots. [Sidenote: Fisher men of England haue daily traffique to Orkney.] The fisher men of England can better declare the dispositions of those people then I: wherefore I remit other their vsages to their reports, as yeerely repaires thither, in their course to and from Island for fish. [Sidenote: In Iune and Iuly no night in those West and Northwest regions.] We departed herehence the 8. of Iune, and followed our course betweene West and Northwest, vntill the 4. of Iuly: all which time we had no night, but that easily, and without any impediment we had when we were so disposed, the fruition of our bookes, and other pleasures to passe away the time: a thing of no small moment, to such as wander in vnknowen seas, and long nauigations, especially, when both the winds and raging surges do passe their common and wonted course. This benefite endureth in those parts not 6. weekes, while the sunne is neere the Tropike of Cancer: but where the pole is raised to 70. or 80. degrees, it continueth much longer. [Sidenote: Great abundance of Firre trees floting in the sea.] All along these seas, after we were sixe dayes sailing from Orkney, we met floting in the sea, great Firre trees, which as we iudged, were with the furie of great floods rooted vp, and so driuen into the sea. Island hath almost no other wood nor fuell, but such as they take vp vpon their coastes. [Sidenote: Inquire further of this current.] It seemeth, that these trees are driuen from some part of the New found land, with the current that setteth from the West to the East.[50] The 4. of Iuly we came within the making of Frisland.[51] From this shoare 10. or 12. leagues, we met great Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some lesse in compasse, shewing aboue the sea, 30. or 40. fathoms, and as we supposed fast on ground, where with our lead we could scarse sound the bottome for depth. [Sidenote: Yce, snow, and haile in Iune and Iuly.] Here, in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of sweete gums, and pleasant notes of musicall birdes, which other Countreys in more temperate Zones do yeeld, wee tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt with snow and haile, in the moneths of Iune and Iuly, nothing inferior to our vntemperate winter: a sudden alteration, and especially in a place or Paralelle, where the Pole is not eleuate aboue 61. degrees: at which height other Countreys more to the North, yea vnto 70. degrees, shew themselues more temperate then this doth. All along this coast yce lieth, as a continuall bulwarke, and so defendeth the countrey, that those that would land there, incur great danger. Our Generall 3. dayes together attempted with the ship boate to haue gone on shoare, which for that without great danger he could not accomplish, he deferred it vntill a more conuenient time. All along the coast lie very high mountains covered with snow, except in such places, where through the steepenes of the mountaines of force it must needs fall. Foure dayes coasting along this land, we found no signe of habitation. [Sidenote: Friseland subiect to fogge.] Little birds, whiche we iudged to haue lost the shore, by reason of thicke fogges which that Countrey is much subiect vnto, came flying into our ships, which causeth vs to suppose, that the Countrey is both more tollerable, and also habitable within, then the outward shore maketh shew or signification.[52] From hence we departed the eight of Iuly: and the 16. of the same, we came with the making of land, which land our Generall the yeere before had named The Queenes foreland, being an Island as we iudge, lying neere the supposed continent with America: and on the other side, opposite to the same, one other Island called Halles Isle, after the name of the Master of the ship, neere adiacent to the firme land, supposed continent with Asia. [Sidenote: Frobishers streight.] Betweene the which two Islands there is a large entrance or streight, called Frobishers streight,[53] after the name of our Generall, the firste finder thereof. This said streight is supposed to haue passage into the sea of Sur, which I leaue vnknowen as yet. It seemeth that either here, or not farre hence, the sea should haue more large entrance, then in other parts within the frozen or vntemperate Zone: and that some contrary tide, either from the East or West, with maine force casteth out that great quantity of yce, which commeth floting from this coast, euen vnto Friseland, causing that Countrey to seeme more vntemperate then others, much more Northerly then the same. I cannot iudge that any temperature vnder the Pole, the time of the Sunnes Northerne declination being halfe a yere together, and one whole day, (considering that the Sunnes eleuation surmounteth not 23. degrees and 30. minuts) can haue power to [Sidenote: Islands of yce comparable to mountaines.] dissolue such monstrous and huge yce, comparable to great mountaines, except by some other force, as by swift currents and tides, with the hope of the said day of halfe a yeere. Before we came within the making of these lands we tasted cold stormes, in so much that it seemed we had changed summer with winter, if the length of the dayes had not remooued vs from that opinion. [Sidenote: Captaine Frobisher his speciall care and diligence for the benefite of his Prince and Countrey.] At our first comming, the straights seemed to be shut vp with a long mure of yce, which gaue no litle cause of discomfort vnto vs all: but our Generall, (to whose diligence imminent dangers, and difficult attempts seemed nothing, in respect of his willing mind, for the commoditie of his Prince and Countrey,) with two little Pinnesses prepared of purpose, passed twise thorow them to the East shore, and the Ilands thereunto adiacent: and the ship, with the two Barks lay off and on something further into the sea, from the danger of the yce. [Sidenote: The order of the people appearing on shoare.] Whilest he was searching the Countrey neere the shoare, some of the people of the Countrey shewed themselues leaping and dauncing, with strange shrikes and cries, which gaue no little admiration to our men. Our Generall desirous to allure them vnto him by faire meanes, caused kniues, and other things to be profered vnto them, which they would not take at our hands: but being laid on the ground, and the party going away, they came and tooke vp, leauing some thing of theirs to counteruaile the same. [Sidenote: Fierce and bold people.] At the length two of them leauing their weapons, came downe to our Generall and Master, who did the like to them, commanding the company to stay, and went vnto them: who after certaine dumbe signes, and mute congratulations, began to lay handes vpon them, but they deliuerly escaped, and ranne to their bowes and arrowes, and came fiercely vpon them, (not respecting the rest of our companie which were readie for their defence,) but with their arrowes hurt diuers of them: [Sidenote: One taken.] we tooke the one, and the other escaped. Whilest our Generall was busied in searching the Countrey, and those Islands adiacent on the Eastshoare, the ship and barkes hauing great care, not to put farre into the sea from him, for that he had small store of victuals, were forced to abide in a cruell tempest, chancing in the night, amongst and in the thickest of the yce, which was so monstrous, that euen the least of a thousand had bene of force sufficient, to haue shiuered our ship and barks into small portions, if God (who in all necessities, hath care vpon the infirmitie of man) had not prouided for this our extremitie a sufficient remedie through the light of the night, whereby we might well discerne to flee from such imminent dangers, which we auoyded with 14. Bourdes in one watch the space of 4 houres. [Sidenote: Richard Cox, Master gunner. Master Iackman. Andrew Dier.] If we had not incurred this danger amongst those monstrous Islands of yce, we should haue lost our Generall and Master, and the most of our best sailers, which were on shoare destitute of victuals: but by the valure of our Master Gunner, Master Iackman, and Andrew Dier, the Masters Mates, men expert both in nauigation, and other good qualities, wee were all content to incurre the dangers afore rehearsed, before we would with our owne safetie, runne into the seas, to the destruction of our sayd Generall, and his company. The day following, being the 19. of Iulie, our captaine returned to the ship, with report of supposed riches, which shewed it selfe in the bowels of those barren mountaines, wherewith wee were all satisfied. [Sidenote: Iackmans sound.] Within foure daies after we had bene at the entrance of the streights, the Northwest and West winds dispersed the yce into the sea, and made vs a large entrance into the streights, so that without any impediment, on the 19. of Iulie we entred them, and the 20. thereof, our Generall and Master with great diligence, sought out and sounded the West shoare, and found out a faire Harborough for the ship and barkes to ride in, and named it after our Masters mate, Iackmans sound, and brought the ship, barkes and all their company to safe anker, except one man, which died by Gods visitation. At our first arriuall, after the ship rode at anker, our generall, with such company as could well be spared from the ships, in marching order entred the lande, hauing speciall care by exhortations, that at our entrance thereinto, wee should all with one voyce, kneeling vpon our knees, chiefly thanke God for our safe arriuall: secondly beseech him, that it would please his diuine Maiestie, long to continue our Queene, for whom he, and all the rest of our company in this order tooke possession of the [Sidenote: Possession taken.] Countrey: and thirdly, that by our Christian studie and endeuour, those barbarous people trained vp in Paganisme, and infidelitie, might be reduced to the knowledge of true religion, and to the hope of saluation in Christ our Redeemer. With other words very apt to signifie his willing mind, and affection toward his Prince and Countrey: whereby all suspicion of an vndutifull subiect, may credibly be iudged to be vtterly exempted from his mind. All the rest of the Gentlemen and other deserue worthily herein their due praise and commendation. These things in this order accomplished, our Generall commanded all the company to be obedient in things needfull for our owne safegard, to Master Fenton, Master Yorke, and Master Beast his Lieutenant, while he was occupied in other necessarie affaires, concerning our comming thither. After this order we marched through the Countrey, with Ensigne displaied, so farre as was thought needfull, and now and then heaped vp stones on high mountaines, and other places in token of possession, as likewise to signifie vnto such as hereafter may chance to arriue there, that possession is taken in the behalfe of some other Prince, by those who first found out the Countrey. [Sidenote: Yce needfull to be regarded of sea faring men.] Who so maketh nauigations to those Countreys, hath not onely extreme winds, and furious sea to encounter withall, but also many monstrous and great Islands of yce; a thing both rare, wonderfull, and greatly to be regarded. We were forced sundry times, while the ship did ride here at anker, to haue continuall watch, with boats and men ready with halsers to knit fast vnto such yce, as with the ebbe and flood were tossed to and fro in the harborough, and with force of oares to hale them away, for endangering the ship. Our Generall certaine dayes searched this supposed continent with America, and not finding the commodity to answere his expectation, after he had made triall thereof he departed thence with two little barks, and men sufficient to the East shore being the supposed continent of Asia, and left the ship with most of the Gentlemen, souldier, and sailers, vntill such time as he either thought good to send or come for them. [Sidenote: Stones glister with sparkles like gold.] The stones of this supposed continent with America be altogether sparkled, and glister in the Sunne like gold: [Sidenote: A common prouerb.] so likewise doth the sand in the bright water, yet they verifie the old Prouerb: All is not gold that glistereth. [Sidenote: The sea Vnicorne.] On this West shore we found a dead fish floating, which had in his nose a horne streight and torquet,[54] of length two yards lacking two ynches, being broken in the top, where we might perceiue it hollow, into the which some of our sailers putting spiders they presently died. I saw not the triall hereof, but it was reported vnto me of a trueth: by the verture whereof we supposed it to be the sea Vnicorne. After our Generall had found out good harborough for the ship and barks to anker in, and also such store of supposed gold ore as he thought himselfe satisfied withall, he returned to the Michael, whereof Master Yorke aforesaid was Captaine, accompanied with our master and his Mate: who coasting along the West shore not farre from whence the ship rode, they perceived a faire harborough, and willing to sound the same, at the entrance thereof they espied two tents of Seale skins, vnto which the Captaine, our said Master, and other company resorted. [Sidenote: The people fled at the sight of our men.] At the sight of our men the people fled into the mountaines: neuerthelesse they went to their tents, where leauing certaine trifles of ours, as glasses, bels, kniues, and such like things they departed, not taking any thing of theirs, except one dogge. They did in like maner leaue behind them a letter, pen, yncke, and paper, whereby our men whom the Captaine lost the yere before, and in that peoples custody, might (if any of them were aliue) be advertised of our presence and being there. [Sidenote: Master Philpot. Master Beast.] On the same day after consultation had, all the Gentlemen, and others likewise that could be spared from the ship, vnder the conduct and leading of Master Philpot, (vnto whom in our Generall his absence, and his Lieutenant Master Beast, al the rest were obedient) went a shore, determining to see, if by faire means we could either allure them to familiarity, or otherwise take some of them, and so attaine to some knowledge of those men whom our Generall lost the yeere before. At our comming backe againe to the place where their tents were before, they had remooued their tents further into the said Bay or Sound, where they might if they were driuen from the land, flee with their boates into the sea. We parting our selues into two companies, and compassing a mountaine came suddenly vpon them by land, who espying vs, without any tarrying fled to their boates, leauing the most part of their oares behind them for haste, and rowed downe the bay, where our two Pinesses met them and droue them to shore: but if they had had all their oares, so swift are they in rowing, it had bene lost time to haue chased them. [Sidenote: A fierce assault of a few.] When they were landed they fiercely assaulted our men with their bowes and arrowes, who wounded three of them with our arrowes; and perceiuing themselues thus hurt, they desperatly leapt off the Rocks into the Sea, and drowned themselues: which if they had not done, but had submitted themselues, or if by any meanes we could haue taken them aliue (being their enemies as they iudged) we would both haue saued them, and also haue sought remedy to cure their wounds receiued at our hands. But they altogether voyd of humanity, and ignorant what mercy meaneth, in extremities looke for no other then death: and perceiuing they should fall into our hands, thus miserably by drowning rather desired death then otherwise to be saued by vs: the rest perceiuing their fellowes in this distresse, fled into the high mountaines. Two women not being so apt to escape as the men were, the one for her age, and the other being incombred with a yong child, we tooke. The old wretch, whom diuers of our Saylers supposed to be eyther a deuill, or a witch, had her buskins plucked off, to see if she were clouen footed, and for her ougly hew and deformity we let her go: the yong woman and the child we brought away. We named the place where they were slaine, Bloodie point: and the Bay or Harborough, Yorks sound, after the name of one of the Captaines of the two Barks. [Sidenote: Faire meanes not able to allure them to familiarity.] Having this knowledge both of their fiercenesse and cruelty, and perceiuing that faire meanes as yet is not able to allure them to familiarity, we disposed our selues, contrary to our inclination, something to be cruel, returned to their tents and made a spoyle of the same: where we found an old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and also shoes of our men, whom we lost the yeere before: on nothing else vnto them belonging could we set our eyes. [Sidenote: Boates of skinnes.] Their riches are not gold, siluer or precious Drapery, but their tents and boates, made of the skins of red Deare and Seale skins; also dogges like vnto woolues, but for the most part black, with other trifles, more to be wondred at for their strangenesse, then for any other commoditie needefull for our vse. [Sidenote: Our departure from the West shoare.] Thus returning to our ship the 3. August, we departed from the West shore supposed firme with America, after we had ankered there 13. dayes: and so the 4. thereof we came to our Generall on the East shore and ankered in a faire Harborough name Anne Warwickes sound, vnto which is annexed an Island both named after the Countesse of Warwicke, Anne Warwickes sound and Isle. In this Isle our Generall thought good for this voyage, to fraight both the ship and barkes, with such stone or supposed gold minerall, as he iudged to counteruaile the charges of his first, and this his second nauigation to these Countreys. [Sidenote: The countrey people shew themselues vnto vs.] In the meane time of our abode here some of the countrey people came to shew themselues vnto vs, sundry times on the maine shore, neere adiacent to the saide Isle. Our Generall desirous to haue some newes of his men, whom he lost the yeere before, with some company with him repaired with the ship boat to common, or signe with them for familiaritie, whereunto he is perswaded to bring them. They at the first shew made tokens, that three of his fiue men were aliue, and desired penne, ynck, and paper, and that within three or foure dayes they would returne, and (as we iudged) bring those of our men which were liuing, with them. They also made signes or tokens of their king, whom they called Cacough, and how he was carried on mens shoulders, and a man farre surmounting any of our company, in bignesse and stature. [Sidenote: Their vsage in traffique or exchange.] With these tokens and signes of writing, penne, yncke, and paper was deliuered them, which they would not take at our hands, but being laid vpon the shore, and the partie gone away, they tooke vp: which likewise they do when they desire any thing for change of theirs, laying for that which is left so much as they thinke will counteruaile the same, and not coming neere together. It seemeth they haue been vsed to this trade or traffique, with some other people adioining, or not farre distant from their Countrey. [Sidenote: The people shew themselues the third time.] After 4. dayes some of them shewed themselues vpon the firme land, but not where they were before. Our General very glad thereof, supposing to heare of our men, went from the Island, with the boat, and sufficient company with him. They seemed very glad, and allured him about a certaine point of the land: behind which they might perceiue a company of the crafty villaines to lye lurking, whom our Generall would not deale withall, for that he knew not what company they were, and so with few signes dismissed them and returned to his company. [Sidenote: The people shew themselues againe on firme land.] An other time as our said Generall was coasting the Countrey with two little Pinnesses, whereby at our returne he might make the better relation thereof, three of the crafty villans, with a white skin allured vs to them. [Sidenote: Their first meanes to allure vs to shore.] Once again, our Generall, for that he hoped to heare of his men, went towards them: at our comming neere the shore whereon they were, we might perceiue a number of them lie hidden behind great stones, and those 3. in sight labouring by all meanes possible that some would come on land: and perceiuing we made no hast by words nor friendly signes, which they vsed by clapping of their hands, and being without weapon, and but 3. in sight, they sought further meanes to prouoke vs therevnto. [Sidenote: Their second meanes.] One alone laid flesh on the shore, which we tooke vp with the Boate hooke, as necessary victuals for the relieuing of the man, woman, and child, whom we had taken: for that as yet they could not digest our meat: whereby they perceiued themselues deceiued of their expectation, for all their crafty allurements. [Sidenote: Their third and craftiest allurement.] Yet once againe to make (as it were) a full shew of their craftie natures, and subtile sleights, to the intent thereby to haue intrapped and taken some of our men, one of them counterfeited himselfe impotent and lame of his legs, who seemed to descend to the water side, with great difficulty: and to couer his craft the more, one of his fellowes came downe with him, and in such places where he seemed vnable to passe, he tooke him on his shoulders, set him by the water side, and departed from him, leauing him (as it should seeme) all alone, who playing his counterfeit pageant very well, thought thereby to prouoke some of vs to come on shore, not fearing, but that one of vs might make our party good with a lame man. [Sidenote: Compassion to cure a crafty lame man.] Our Generall hauing compassion of his impotency, thought good (if it were possible) to cure him thereof: wherefore he caused a souldier to shoote at him with his Caleeuer, which grased before his face. The counterfeit villeine deliuerly fled, without any impediment at all, and got him to his bow and arrowes, and the rest from their lurking holes, with their weapons, bowes, arrowes, slings, and darts. Our Generall caused some caleeuers to be shot off at them, whereby some being hurt, they might hereafter stand in more feare of vs. This was all the answere for this time we could haue of our men, or of our Generals letter. Their crafty dealing at these three seuerall times being thus manifest vnto vs, may plainely shew their disposition in other things to be correspondent. We iudged that they vsed these stratagemes, thereby to haue caught some of vs, for the deliuering of the man, woman and child whom we had taken. They are men of a large corporature, and good proportion: their colour is not much vnlike the Sunne burnt Countrey man, who laboureth daily in the Sunne for his liuing. They weare their haire something long, and cut before either with stone or knife, very disorderly. Their women weare their haire long and knit vp with two loupes, shewing forth on either side of their faces, and the rest foltred vpon a knot. Also some of their women race their faces proportionally, as chinne, cheekes, and forehead, and the wrists of their hands, wherevpon they lay a colour which continueth darke azurine. They eate their meat all raw, both flesh, fish, and foule, or something per boyled with blood and a little water which they drinke. For lacke of water they will eate yce, that is hard frosen, as pleasantly as we will do Sugar Candie, or other Sugar. If they for necessities sake stand in need of the premisses, such grasse as the countrey yeeldeth they plucke vp and eate, not deintily, or salletwise to allure their stomacks to appetite: but for necessities sake without either salt, oiles or washing, like brute beasts deuouring the same. They neither vse table, stoole, or table cloth for comlines; but when they are imbrued with blood knuckle deepe, and their kniues in like sort, they vse their tongues as apt instruments to lick them cleane: in doing whereof they are assured to loose none of their victuals. [Sidenote: Dogges like vnto wolues.] They frank or keepe certaine dogs not much vnlike Wolues, which they yoke togither, as we do oxen and horses, to a sled or traile: and so carry their necessaries ouer the yce and snow from place to place: as the captiue, whom we haue, made perfect signes. [Sidenote: They eate dogs flesh.] And when these dogs are not apt for the same vse: or when with hunger they are constrained for lacke of other victuals, they eate them: so that they are as needfull for them in respect of their bignesse, as our oxen are for vs. They apparell themselues in the skins of such beasts as they kill, sewed together with the sinewes of them. All the foule which they kill, they skin, and make thereof one kind of garment or other to defend them from the cold. [Sidenote: Hoods and tailes to their apparell.] They make their apparel with hoods and tailes, which tailes they giue when they thinke to gratifie any friendship shewed vnto them: a great signe of friendship with them. The men haue them not so side[55] as the women. The men and women weare their hose close to their legges, from the wast to the knee without any open before, as well the one kind as the other. Vpon their legges they weare hose of leather, with the furre side inward two or three paire on at once, and especially the women. In those hose they put their kniues, needles, and other thing needfull to beare about. They put a bone within their hose, which reacheth from the foote to the knee, whereupon they draw the said hose, and so in place of garters they are holden from falling downe about their feete. They dresse their skinnes very soft and souple with the haire on. In cold weather or Winter they weare the furre side inward: and Summer outward. Other apparell they haue none but the said skinnes. Those beasts, fishes, and foules, which they kill, are their meat, drinke, apparell, houses, bedding, hose, shooes, threed, and sailes for their boates, with many other necessaries whereof they stand in need, and almost all their riches. [Sidenote: Their houses of Seale skins and firre.] Their houses are tents made of Seale skins, pitched vp with 4. Firre quarters foure square meeting at the top, and the skins sewed together with sinews, and laid thereupon: they are so pitched vp, that the entrance into them is alwayes South or against the Sunne. They haue other sorts of houses which we found not to be inhabited, which are raised with stones and Whale bones, and a skinne layd ouer them, to with stand the raine, or other weather: the entrance of them being not much vnlike an Ouens mouth, whereto I thinke they resort for a time to fish, hunt, and foule, and so leaue them vntil the next time they come thither again. [Sidenote: Their weapons of defence.] Their weapons are bowes, arrowes, darts, and slings. Their bowes are of wood of a yard long, sinewed at the back with strong sinews, not glued too, but fast girded and tyed on. Their bow strings are likewise sinewes. Their arrowes are three pieces nocked with bone, and ended with bone, with those two ends, and the wood in the midst, they passe not in length halfe a yard or little more. They are fethered with two fethers the penne end being cut away, and the fethers layd vpon the arrow with the broad side to the wood; insomuch that they seeme when they are tyed on, to haue foure fethers. [Sidenote: Three sorts of heads to their arrowes.] They haue also three sorts of heads to those arrowes: one sort of stone or yron, proportioned like to a heart: the second sort of bone, much like vnto a stopt head, with a hooke on the same: the third sort of bone likewise made sharpe at both sides, and sharpe pointed. They are not made very fast but lightly tyed to, or else set in a nocke, that vpon small occasion the arrowes leaue these heads behind them: and they are of small force, except they be very neere when they shoote. [Sidenote: two sorts of darts.] Their Darts are made of two sorts: the one with many forkes of bones in the fore end and likewise in the midst: their proportions are not much vnlike our toasting yrons, but longer: these they cast out of an instrument of wood, very readily. The other sort is greater then the first aforesayd, with a long bone made sharpe on both sides not much vnlike a Rapier, which I take to bee their most hurtfull weapon. [Sidenote: Two sortes of boates made of leather.] They haue two sorts of boats made of leather, set out on the inner side with quarters of wood, artificially tyed with thongs of the same: the greater sort are not much vnlike our wherries, wherein sixteene or twenty men may sit: they haue for a sayle drest the guts of such beasts as they kill very fine and thinne, which they sew together: the other boate is but for one man to sit and row in with one oare. [Sidenote: They vse to foule, fish, and hunt.] Their order of fishing, hunting, and fouling are with these said weapons; but in what sort, or how they vse them we haue no perfect knowledge as yet. [Sidenote: It is to be supposed that their inhabiting is elsewhere.] I can suppose their abode or habitation not to be here, for that neither their houses or apparell, are of such force to withstand the extremity of cold, that the Countrey seemeth to be infected with all: neither do I see any signe likely to performe the same. Those houses or rather dennes which stand there, haue no signe of footway, or any thing else troden, which is one of the chiefest tokens of habitation. And those tents which they bring with them, when they haue sufficiently hunted and fished, they remoue to other places: and when they haue sufficiently stored them of such victuals, as the Countrey yeeldeth or bringeth forth, they returne to their winter stations or habitations. This coniecture do I make, for the infertility which I coniecture to be in that Countrey. [Sidenote: Their vse of yron.] They haue some yron whereof they make arrow heads, kniues, and other little instruments, to worke their boates, bowes, arrowes, and darts withall, which are very vnapt to doe any thing withall but with great labour. It seemeth that they haue conuersation with some other people, of whom for exchange they should receiue the same. They are greatly delighted with any thing that is bright, or giueth a sound. [Sidenote: Anthropophagi.] What knowledge they haue of God, or what Idoll they adore, we haue no perfect intelligence, I thinke them rather Anthropophagi, or deuourers of mans flesh then otherwise: for that there is no flesh or fish which they find dead (smell it neuer so filthily) but they will eate it, as they finde it without any other dressing. A loathsome thing, either to the beholders or hearers. There is no maner of creeping beast hurtfull, except some Spiders (which as many affirme, are signes of great store of gold) and also certaine stinging Gnattes, which bite so fiercely, that the place where they bite shortly after swelleth, and itcheth very sore. They make signes of certaine people that weare bright plates of gold in their foreheads, and other places of their bodies. [Sidenote: Description of the Countreis.] The Countreys on both sides the streights lye very high with rough stony mountaines, and great quantitie of snow thereon. There is very little plaine ground and no grasse, except a little which is much like vnto mosse that groweth on soft ground, such as we get Turffes in. There is no wood at all. To be briefe there is nothing fit or profitable for the vse of man, which that Countrey with roote yeeldeth or bringeth forth: Howbeit there is great quantity of Deere, whose skins are like vnto Asses, there heads or hornes doe farre exceede, as well in length as also in breadth, any in these our parts or Countreys: their feete likewise are as great as our oxens, which we measured to be seuen or eight ynches in breadth. There are also hares, wolues, fishing beares, and sea foule of sundry sorts. As the Countrey is barren and vnfertile, so are they rude and of no capacitie to culture the same to any perfection; but are contented by their hunting, fishing, and fouling, with raw flesh and warme blood to satisfie their greedy panches, which is their only glory. [Sidenote: A signe of Earthquakes or thunder.] There is great likelihood of Earthquakes or thunder: for that there are huge and monstrous mountaines, whose greatest substance are stones, and those stones so shaken with some extraordinarie meanes that one is separated from another, which is discordant from all other Quarries. [Sidenote: No riuers, but such as the Sunne doth cause to come of Snow.] There are no riuers or running springs, but such as through the heate of the Sunne, with such water as decendeth from the mountaines and hilles, whereon great drifts of snow do lie, are engendred. [Sidenote: A probability that there should be neither spring or riuer in the ground.] It argueth also that there should be none: for that the earth, which with the extremitie of the Winter is so frosen within, that that water which should haue recourse within the same to maintaine springs, hath not his motion, whereof great waters haue their originall, as by experience is seene otherwhere. Such valleis as are capable to receiue the water, that in the Summer time by the operation of the Sunne decendeth from great abundance of snowe, which continually lyeth on the mountaines and hath no passage, sinketh into the earth and so vanisheth away, without any runnell aboue the earth, by which occasion or continuall standing of the said water, the earth is opened, and the great frost yeeldeth to the force thereof, which in other places foure or fiue fathomes within the ground for lacke of the said moisture, the earth (euen in the very summer time) is frosen, and so combineth the stones together, that scarcely instruments with great force can vnknit them. Also where the water in those valleis can haue no such passage away, by the continuance of time in such order as is before rehearsed, the yeerely descent from the mountaines filleth them full, that at the lowest banke of the same, they fall into the valley, and so continue as fishing Ponds or Stagnes in Summer time full of water, and in the Winter hard frosen: as by skarres that remaine thereof in Summer may easily be perceiued: so that the heat of Summer is nothing comparable or of force to dissolue the extremitie of cold that commeth in Winter. [Sidenote: Springs nourish gold.] Neuerthelesse I am assured that below the force of the frost within the earth, the waters haue recourse, and emptie themselues out of sight into the Sea, which through the extremitie of the frost are constrained to doe the same: by which occasion the earth within is kept the warmer, and springs haue their recourse, which is the only nutriment of golde and Minerals within the same. There is much to be sayd of the commodities of these Countreys, which are couched within the bowels of the earth, which I let passe till more perfect triall be made thereof. The 24. of August after we had satisfied our minds with fraight sufficient for our vessels, though not our couetous desires with such knowledge of the Countrey people, and other commodities as are before rehearsed, we departed therehence. [Sidenote: Our departure from those Countreys.] The 17. of September we fell with the lands end of England, and so sailed to Milford Hauen, from whence our Generall rode to the Court for order, to what Port or Hauen to conduct the ship. [Sidenote: How and when we lost our 2. Barks which God neuerthelesse restored.] We lost our two Barkes in the way homeward, the one the 29. of August, the other the 21. of the same moneth, by occasion of great tempest and fogge. Howbeit God restored the one to Bristowe, and the other made his course by Scotland to Yermouth. In this voyage we lost two men, one in the way by Gods visitation, and the other homeward cast ouer borde with a surge of the Sea. [Sidenote: The conclusion.] I could declare vnto the Readers, the latitude and longitude of such places and regions as we haue bene at, but not altogether so perfectly as our masters and others, with many circumstances of tempests and other accidents incident to Sea-faring men, which seeme not altogether strange, but I let them passe to their reports as men most apt to set forth and declare the same. I haue also left the names of the Countreys on both the shores vntouched, for lacke of vnderstanding the peoples language: as also for sundry respects, not needfull as yet to be declared. Countreys new discovered where commoditie is to be looked for, doe better accord with a new name giuen by the discouerers, then an vncertaine name by a doubtfull Authour. Our generall named sundry Islands, Mountaines, Capes, and Harboroughs after the names of diuers Noble men and other gentlemen his friends, as wel on the one shore as also on the other. * * * * * The third and last voyage vnto Meta Incognita, made by M. Martin Frobisher, in the yeere 1578. Written by Thomas Ellis. These are to let you know, that vpon the 25. of May, the Thomas Allen being Viceadmirall whose Captaine was M. Yorke, M. Gibbes Master, Christopher Hall Pilot, accompanied with the Reareadmiral named the Hopewel, whose Captaine was M. Henrie Carewe, the M. Andrewe Dier, and certaine other ships came to Grauesend, where wee ankered and abode the comming of our Fleete which were not yet come. The 27. of the same moneth our Fleete being nowe come together, and all things prest in a readinesse, the wind fauouring, and tide seruing, we being of sailes in number eight, waied ankers and hoised our sailes toward Harwich to meete with our Admirall, and the residue which then and there abode arriuall: where we safely arriued the 28. thereof, finding there our Admirall, whom we with the discharge of certaine pieces saluted, acording to order and duety, and were welcommed with the like courtesie: which being finished we landed; where our Generall continued mustering his souldiers and Miners, and setting things in order appertaining to the voyage vntill the last of the said moneth of May, which day we hoised our sailes, and committing ourselues to the conducting of Almightie God, we set forward toward the west Countrey in such luckie wise and good successe, that by the fift of Iune we passed the Dursies, being the vtmost part of Ireland to the Westward. And here it were not much amisse nor farre from our purpose, if I should a little discourse and speake of our aduentures and chances by the way, as our landing at Plimmouth, as also the meeting certaine poore men, which were robbed and spoyled of all that they had by Pirates and Rouers: amongst whom was a man of Bristow, on whom our Generall vsed his liberality, and sent him away with letters into England. But because such things are impertinent to the matter, I will returne (without any more mentioning of the same) to that from the which I haue digressed and swarued, I meane our ships now sailing on the surging seas, sometime passing at pleasure with a wished Easterne wind, sometimes hindered of our course againe by the Westerne blasts, vntill the 20. day of the foresayd moneth of Iune, on which day in the morning we fell with Frizeland, which is a very hie and cragged land and was almost cleane couered with snow, so that we might see nought but craggie rockes and the topes of high and huge hilles, sometimes (and for the most part) all couered with foggie mists. There might we also perceiue the great Isles of yce lying on the seas, like mountaines, some small, some big, of sundry kinds of shapes, and such a number of them, that wee could not come neere the shore for them. Thus sailing alongst the coast, at the last we saw a place somewhat voyd of yce, where our Generall (accompanied with certaine other) went a shore, where they sawe certaine tents made of beasts skinnes; and boates much the like vnto theirs of Meta Incognita. The tents were furnished with flesh, fish, skins, and other trifles: amonst the which was found a boxe of nailes: whereby we did coniecture, that they had either Artificers amongst them, or els a traffike with some other nation. The men ran away, so that wee coulde haue no conference or communication with them. [Sidenote: The curtesie of our Generall.] Our Generall (because hee would haue them no more to flee, but rather incouraged to stay through his courteous dealing) gaue commaundement that his men should take nothing away with them, sauing onely a couple of white dogs, for the which he left pinnes, poynts, kniues, and other trifling things, and departed without taking or hurting any thing, and so came abord, and hoysed sailes, and passed forwards. But being scarce out of the sight thereof, there fell such a foggy and hidious mist that we could not see one another: whereupon we stroke our drums, and sounded our trumpets, to the ende we might keepe together: and so continued all that day and night till the next day that the mist brake vp: so that we might easily perceiue all the ships thus sailing together all that day, vntil the next day, being the 22. of the same: on which day wee sawe an infinite number of yce, from the which we cast about to shun the danger thereof. But one of our small Barkes named the Michael, whose Captaine was Master Kinderslie, the master Bartholomew Bull, lost our company, insomuch that we could not obteine the sight of her many dayes after, of whom I meane to speak further anon when occassion shall be ministred, and opportunitie serue. Thus we continued in our course vntill the second of Iuly, on which day we fell with the Queenes foreland, where we saw so much yce, that we thought it vnpossible to get into the Straights; yet at the last we gaue the aduenture and entred the yce. [Sidenote: The Michael. The Iudith. M. Fenton. Charles Iackman.] Being amongst it wee sawe the Michael, of whom I spake before, accompanied with the Iudith, whose Captaine was Master Fenton, the Master Charles Iackman, bearing into the foresayd yce, farre distant from vs, who in a storme that fell that present night, (whereof I will at large God willing, discourse hereafter) were seuered from vs, and being in, wandred vp and downe the Straights amongst the yce many dayes in great perill, till at the last, by the prouidence of God, they came safely to harbor in their wished Port in the Countesse of Warwicks sound, the 20. of Iuly aforesayd, tenne dayes before any of the other shippes: [Sidenote: The Countesse of Warwicks sound.] who going on shore found where the people of the Countrey had bene, and had hid their provision in great heapes of stones being both of flesh and fish, which they had killed; whereof wee also found great store in other places after our arriual. They found also diuers engins, as bowes, slings, and darts. They found likewise certaine pieces of the Pinnesse which our Generall left there the yeere before, which Pinnesse he had sunke, minding to haue it againe the next yeere. Now seeing I haue entreated so much of the Iudith and the Michael: I will returne to the rest of the other ships, and will speake a little of the storme which fell, with the mishaps that we had, the night that we put into the yce: whereof I made mention before. [Sidenote: Our entrance and passage &c.] At the first entring into the yce in the mouth of the Straights, our passage was very narrow, and difficult but being once gotten in, we had a faire open place without any yce for the most part, being a league in compasse, the yce being round about vs and inclosing vs, as it were, within the pales of a parke. In which place, (because it was almost night) we minded to take in our sailes, and lie a hull all that night. But the storme so increased, and the waues began to mount aloft, which brought the yce so neere vs, and comming on so fast vpon vs, that we were faine to beare in and out, where we might espie an open place. Thus the yce comming on vs so fast, we were in great danger, looking euery houre for death. And thus passed we on in that great danger, seeing both our selues and the rest of our ships so troubled and tossed amongst the yce, that it would make the strongest heart to relent. [Sidenote: Barke Dionyse.] At the last the Barke Dionyse being but a weake ship, and bruised afore amongst the yce, being so leake that no longer she could tarry aboue the water, sanke without sauing any of the goods which were within her: which sight so abashed the whole Fleete, that we thought verily we should haue tasted of the same sauce. But neuerthelesse we seeing them in such danger, manned our boates and saued all men in such wise, that not one perished: God be thanked. [Sidenote: Narow shifts for safetie.] The storme still increased and the yce inclosed vs, so that we were faine to take downe top and top mastes: for the yce had so inuironed vs, that we could see neither land nor sea, as farre as we could kenne: so that we were faine to cut our cables to hang ouer boord for fenders, somewhat to ease the ships sides from the great and driry strokes of the yce: some with Capstan barres, some fending off with oares, some with plancks of two ynches thicke, which were broken immediatly with the force of the yce, some going out vpon the yce to beare it off with their shoulders from the ship. But the rigorousnes of the tempest was such, and the force of the yce so great, that not onely they burst and spoyled the foresaid prouision, but likewise so raised the sides of the ships, that it was pitifull to behold, and caused the hearts of many to faint. [Sidenote: Gods prouidence.] Thus we continued all that dismall and lamentable night plunged in this perplexity, looking for instant death: but our God (who neuer leaueth them destitute which call vpon him, although he often punisheth for amendements sake) in the morning caused the winds to cease, and the fogge which all that night lay on the face of the water to cleare: so that we might perceiue about a mile from vs, a certaine place cleare from any yce, to the which with an easie breath of wind which our God sent vs, we bent our selues. And furthermore, hee prouided better for vs then we deserued or hoped for: for when we were in the foresaid cleare place, he sent vs a fresh gale at West or at West Southwest, which set vs cleare without all the yce. And further he added more: for he sent vs so pleasant a day as the like we had not of a long time before, as after punishment consolation. Thus we ioyfull wights being at libertie, tooke in all our sailes and lay a hull, praysing God for our deliuerance, and stayed to gather together our Fleete: which once being done, we seeing that none of them had any great hurt, neither any of them wanted, sauing onely they of whom I spake before and the ship which was lost, then at the last we hoised our sailes, and lay bulting off and on, till such time as it would please God to take away the yce that wee might get into the Straights. [Sidenote: A mountaine of yce appearing in sundry figures.] And as we thus lay off and on we came by a marueilous huge mountaine of yce, which surpassed all the rest that euer we saw: for we iudged it to be neere fourescore fathomes aboue water, and we thought it to be a ground for any thing that we could perceiue, being there nine score fathoms deepe, and of compasse about halfe a mile. [Sidenote: A fog of long continuance.] Also the fift of Iuly there fell a hidious fogge and mist, that continued till the nineteenth of the same: so that one shippe could not see another. [Sidenote: A current to the Northwest.] Therefore we were faine to beare a small sayle and to obserue the time: but there ran such a current of a tide, that it set vs to the Northwest of the Queenes foreland the backside of all the Straights: where (through the contagious fogge hauing no sight either of Sunne or Starre) we scarce knew where we were. In this fogge the tenth of Iuly we lost the company of the Viceadmirall, the Anne Francis, the Busse of Bridgewater, and the Francis of Foy. [Sidenote: The Gabriel. The people offer to traffike with vs.] The 16. day one of our small Barkes named The Gabriel was sent by our Generall to beare in with the land to descrie it, where being on land, they met with the people of the Countrey, which seemed very humane and ciuill, and offered to traffike with our men, profering them foules and skins for kniues, and other trifles: whose courtesie caused vs to thinke, that they had small conuersation with other of the Straights. Then we bare backe againe to goe with the Queenes foreland: and the eighteenth day wee came by two Islands whereon we went on shore, and found where the people had bene: but we saw none of them. This day we were againe in the yce, and like to be in as great perill as we were at the first. For through the darknesse and obscuritie of the fogie mist, we were almost run on rocks and Islands before we saw them: But God (euen miraculously) prouided for vs, opening the fogges that we might see clearely, both where and in what danger we presently were, and also the way to escape: or els without faile we had ruinously runne vpon the rocks. When we knew perfectly our instant case, wee cast about to get againe on Sea bord, which (God be thanked) by night we obtained and praised God. The cleare continued scarce an houre, but the fogge fell againe as thicke as euer it was. [Sidenote: Warning pieces of safe passage discharged.] Then the Rearadmirall and the Beare got themselues cleare without danger of yce and rocks, strooke their sailes and lay a hull, staying to haue the rest of the Fleet come forth: which as yet had not found the right way to cleare themselues from the danger of rockes and yce, vntill the next morning, at what time the Rearadmirall discharged certaine warning pieces to giue notice that she had escaped, and that the rest (by following of her) might set themselues free, which they did that day. Then hauing gathered our selues togither we proceeded on our purposed voyage, bearing off, and keeping our selues distant from the coast till the 19. day of Iuly; at which time the fogges brake vp and dispersed, so that we might plainely and clearly behold the pleasant ayre, which so long had bene taken from vs, by the obscuritie of the foggie mists: and after that time we were not much incumbred therewith vntill we had left the confines of the Countrey. [Sidenote: A faire sound betweene the Queenes foreland and Iackmans sound.] Then we espying a fayre sound, supposed it to goe into the Straights betweene the Queenes foreland and Iackmans sound, which proued as we imagined. For our Generall sent forth againe the Gabriel to discouer it, who passed through with much difficulty: for there ran such an extreme current of a tide, with such a horrible gulfe, that with a fresh gale of wind they were scarce able to stemme it: yet at length with great trauaile they passed it, and came to the Straights, where they met with the Thomas Allen, the Thomas of Ipswich, and the Busse of Bridgewater: who altogether aduentured to beare into the yce againe, to see if they could obtaine their wished Port. But they were so incombred that with much difficultie they were able to get out againe, yet at the last they escaping, the Thomas Allen, and the Gabriel bare in with the Westerne shore, where they found harbour, and there moared their ships vntill the fourth of August, at which time they came to vs in the Countesse of Warwicks sound. The Thomas of Ipswich caught a great leake which caused her to cast againe to Seabord and so was mended. We sailed along still by the coast vntill we came to the Queenes foreland, at the point whereof we met with part of the gulfe aforesaid, which place or gulfe (as some of our Masters doe credibly report) doeth flow nine houres, and ebs but three. At that point wee discouered certaine lands Southward, which neither time nor opportunitie would serue to search. Then being come to the mouth of the Straights, we met with the Anne Francis, who had laine bulting vp and downe euer since her departure alone, neuer finding any of her company. We met then also the Francis of Foy, with whom againe we intended to venture and get in: but the yce was yet so thicke, that we were compelled againe to retyre and get vs on Sea bord. [Sidenote: An horrible snowe fell in Iuly.] There fell also the same day being the 26. of Iuly, such an horrible snow, that it lay a foot thick vpon the hatches which frose as it fell. We had also at other times diuers cruell stormes both of snow and haile, which manifestly declared the distemperature of the Countrey: yet for all that wee were so many times repulsed and put backe from our purpose, knowing that lingering delay was not profitable for vs, but hurtfull to our voyage, we mutually consented to our valiant Generall once againe to giue the onset. The 28. day therefore of the same Iuly we assayed, and with little trouble (God be praysed) we passed the dangers by day light. [Sidenote: The time of our setting forward, &c.] Then night falling on the face of the earth, wee hulled in the cleare, til the chearefull light of the day had chased away the noysome darkenesse of the night: at which time we set forward towards our wished Port: by the 30. day wee obteined our expected desire, where we found the Iudith, and the Michael: which brought no smal ioy vnto the General, and great consolation to the heauie hearts of those wearied wights. The 30. day of Iuly we brought our ships into the Countesse of Warwicks sound, and moared them, namely these ships, The Admirall, the Rearadmirall, the Francis of Foy, the Beare Armenel, the Salomon, and the Busse of Bridgewater: which being done, our Generall commaunded vs all to come a shore vpon the Countesses Iland, where he set his Miners to worke vpon the Mine, giuing charge with expedition to dispatch with their lading. Our Generall himselfe, accompanied with his Gentlemen, diuers times made rodes into sundry partes of the Countrey, as well to finde new Mines, as also to finde out and see the people of the Countrey. [Sidenote: The Countesse of Sussex Iland.] He found out one Mine vpon an Island by Beares sound, and named it the Countesse of Sussex Island. [Sidenote: Winters Fornace.] One other was found in Winters Fornace, with diuers others, to which the ships were sent sunderly to be laden. [Sidenote: Dauids Sound.] In the same rodes he mette with diuers of the people of the Countrey at sundry times, as once at a place called Dauids sound: who shot at our men, and very desperately gaue them the onset, being not aboue three or foure in number, there being of our Countrey men aboue a dozen: but seeing themselues not able to preuaile, they tooke themselues to flight; whom our men pursued, but being not vsed to such craggie cliffes, they soone lost the sight of them, and so in vaine returned. [Sidenote: The policie of the people for the safetie of themselues.] We also saw of them at Beares sound, both by Sea and land in great companies: but they would at all times keepe the water betweene them and vs. And if any of our ships chanced to be in the sound (as they came diuers times, because the Harbor was not very good) the ship laded, and departed againe: then so long as any ships were in sight, the people would not be seene. But when as they perceiued the ships to be gone, they would not only shew themselues standing vpon high cliffes, and call vs to come ouer vnto them: but also would come in their Botes very neere to vs, as it were to brag at vs: whereof our Generall hauing aduertisement, sent for the Captaines and Gentlemen of the ships, to accompany and attend vpon him, with the Captaine also of the Anne Francis, who was but the night before come vnto vs. For they, and the Fleebote hauing lost vs the 26. day in the great snow, put into an harbour in the Queenes foreland, where they found good Oare, wherewith they laded themselues, and came to seeke the Generall: so that now we had all our Shippes, sauing one Barke, which was lost, and the Thomas of Ipswich, who (compelled by what furie I knowe not) forsooke our company, and returned home without lading. [Sidenote: Their speedie flight at our Generalls arriual.] Our Generall accompanied with his Gentlemen, (of whom I spake) came altogether to the Countesse of Sussex Island, neere to Beares sound: where he manned out certaine Pinasses, and went ouer to the people: who perceiuing his arriuall, fledde away with all speede, and in haste left certaine dartes and other engines behinde them, which we found: but the people we could not finde. The next morning our Generall perceiuing certaine of them in botes vpon the Sea gaue chase to them in a Pinnesse vnder saile, with a fresh gale of winde, but could by no meanes come neere vnto them: for the longer he sailed, the further off he was from them: which well shewed their cunning and actiuitie. Thus time wearing away, and the day of our departure approching, our Generall commaunded vs to lade with all expedition, that we might be againe on Seaboard with our ships: for whilest we were in the Countrey, we were in continual danger of freesing in: for often snowe and haile often falling, the water was so much frosen and congealed in the night, that in the morning we could scarce rowe our botes or Pinnesses, especially in Diers sound, which is a calme and still water: which caused our Generall to make the more haste, so that by the 30. day of August we were all laden, and made all things ready to depart. [Sidenote: Gentlemen should haue inhabited the Countrey.] But before I proceede any further herein, to shew what fortune befell at our departure, I will turne my penne a litle to M. Captaine Fenton, and those Gentlemen which should haue inhabited all the yeere in those Countries, whose valiant mindes were much to be commended: For doubtlesse they had done as they intended if lucke had not withstoode their willingnesse. For the Barke Dionyse which was lost, had in her much of their house which was prepared and should haue bene builded for them, with many other implements. Also the Thomas of Ipswich which had most of their prouision in her, came not into the Streights at all: neither did we see her since the day we were separated in the great snow, of which I spake before. For these causes, hauing not their house, nor yet prouision, they were disappointed of their pretence to tarie, and therefore laded their ships, and so came away with vs. [Sidenote: An house tricked and garnished with diuers trinkets.] But before we tooke shipping, we builded a litle house in the Countesse of Warwicks Island, and garnished it with many kinds of trifles, as Pinnes, Points, Laces, Glasses, Kombes, Babes on horsebacke and on foote, with innumerable other such fansies and toyes: thereby to allure and entice the people to some familiaritie against other yeeres. Thus hauing finished all things we departed the Countrey, as I sayd before: but because the Busse had not lading enough in her, she put into Beares sound to take in a little more. In the meane while the Admirall, and the rest without at Sea stayed for her. And that night fell such an outragious tempest, beating on our shipps with such vehement rigor, that anchor and cable auailed nought: for we were driuen on rockes and Islands of yce, insomuch that (had not the great goodnesse of God bene miraculously shewed to vs) we had bene cast away euery man. This danger was more doubtfull and terrible, then any that preceded or went before: for there was not any one shippe (I thinke) that escaped without damage. Some lost anchor and also cables, some botes, some Pinnesses: some anchor, cables, boates, and Pinnisses. This boystrous storme so seuered vs from one another, that one shippe knewe not what was become of another. The Admirall knewe not where to finde the Viceadmirall or Rearadmirall, or any other ship of our company. Our Generall being on land in Beares sound could not come to his shippe, but was compelled to goe aboord the Gabriel where he continued all the way homeward: for the boystrous blasts continued so extreamely and so long a time, that they sent vs homewarde (which was Gods fauour towardes vs) will we, nill we, in such haste as not any one of vs were able to keepe in company with other, but were separated. And if by chance any one Shippe did ouertake other, by swiftnesse of sayle, or mette, as they often did: yet was the rigour of the wind so hidious, that they could not continue company together the space of one whole night. [Sidenote: Our entring the coastes dangerous.] Thus our iourney outward was not so pleasant, but our comming thither, entering the coasts and countrey, by narrow Streights, perillous yce, and swift tides, our times of aboade there in snowe and stormes, and our departure from thence the 31. of August with dangerous blustering windes and tempests, which that night arose, was as vncomfortable: separating vs so as we sayled, that not any of vs mette together, vntill the 28. of September, which day we fell on the English coastes, betweene Sylley and the landes ende, and passed the channell, vntill our arriuall in the riuer of Thames. * * * * * The report of Thomas Wiars passenger in the Emanuel, otherwise called the Busse of Bridgewater, wherein Iames Leech was Master, one of the ships in the last Voyage of Master Martin Frobisher 1578. concerning the discouerie of a great Island in their way homeward the 12. of September. The Busse of Bridgewater was left in Beares sound at Meta incognita, the second day of September behinde the Fleete in some distresse, through much winde, ryding neere the Lee shoare, and forced there to ride it out vpon the hazard of her cables and anchors, which were all aground but two. The third of September being fayre weather, and the winds North northwest she set sayle, and departed thence, and fell with Frisland on the 8. day of September at sixe of the clocke at night, and then they set off from the Southwest point of Frisland, the wind being at East, and East Southeast, but that night the winde veared Southerly, and shifted oftentimes that night: but on the tenth day in the morning, the wind at West northwest faire weather, they steered Southeast, and by south, and continued that course vntil the 12. day of September, when about 11. a clocke before noone, they descryed a lande, which was from them about fiue leagues, and the Southermost part of it was Southeast by East from them, and the Northermost next, North Northeast, or Northeast. The master accompted that the Southeast poynt of Frisland was from him at that instant when hee first descryed this new Islande, Northwest by North, 50. leagues. [Sidenote: The Island in length 25 leagues. This Iland is in the latitude of 57. degrees and 1 second part.] They account this Island to be 25. leagues long, and the longest way of it Southeast, and Northwest. The Southerne part of it is in the latitude of 57. degrees and 1 second part or there about. They continued in sight of it, from the 12. day at a 11. of the clocke, till the 13. day three of the clocke in the afternoone, when they left it: and the last part they saw of it, bare from them Northwest by North. [Sidenote: Two harboroughs in this Island.] There appeared two Harboroughs vpon that coast: the greatest of them seuen leagues to the Northwards of the Southermost poynt, the other but foure leagues. There was very much yce neere the same land, and also twenty or thirty leagues from it, for they were not cleare of yce, till the 15. day of September after noone. They plyed their Voyage homewards, and fell with the West part of Ireland about Galway, and had first sight of it on the 25. day of September. * * * * * Notes framed by M. Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple Esquire, giuen to certaine Gentlemen that went with M. Frobisher in his Northwest discouerie, for their directions: And not vnfit to be committed to print, considering the same may stirre vp considerations of these and of such other things, not vnmeete in such new voyages as may be attempted hereafter. That the first Seate be chosen on the seaside, so as (if it may be) you may haue your owne Nauie within Bay, riuer or lake, within your Seate safe from the enemie: and so as the enemie shalbe forced to lie in open rode abroade without, to be dispersed with all windes and tempests that shall arise. Thus seated you shall be least subiect to annoy of the enemie, so may you by your Nauie within passe out to all parts of the world, and so may the Shippes of England haue accesse to you to supply all wants, so may your commodities be caryed away also. This seat is to be chosen in a temperate Climat, in sweete ayre, where you may possesse alwayes sweete water, wood, seacoles or turfe, with fish, flesh, graine, fruites, herbes, and rootes, or so many of those as may suffice every necessitie for the life of such as shall plant there. And for the possessing of mines of golde, of siluer, copper, quicksiluer, or of any such precious thing, the wants of those needful things may be supplyed from some other place by sea, &c. Stone to make Lyme of; Slate stone to tyle withall, or such clay as maketh tyle; Stone to wall withall, if Brycke may not bee made; Timber for buylding easely to be conueied to the place; Reede to couer houses or such like, if tyle or slate be not--are to be looked for as things without which no Citie may be made nor people in ciuil sort be kept together. The people there to plant and to continue are eyther to liue without traffique, or by traffique and by trade of marchandise. If they shall liue without sea traffique, at the first they become naked by want of linnen and woollen, and very miserable by infinite wants that will otherwise ensue, and so will they be forced of themselues to depart, or else easely they will be consumed by the Spanyards, by the Frenchmen, or by the naturall inhabitants of the countrey, and so the enterprise becomes reprochfull to our Nation, and a let to many other good purposes that may be taken in hand. And by trade of marchandise they can not liue, except the Sea or the Land there may yeelde comoditie. And therefore you ought to haue most speciall regard of that poynt, and so to plant, that the naturall commodities of the place and seate may draw to you accesse of Nauigation for the same, or that by your owne Nauigation you may cary the same out, and fetch home the supply of the wants of the seate. Such Nauigation so to be employed shall, besides the supply of wants, be able to encounter with forreine force. And for that in the ample vent of such things as are brought to you out of England by Sea, standeth a matter of great consequence, it behoueth that all humanitie and curtesie and much forbearing of reuenge to the Inland people be vsed: so shall you haue firme amitie with your neighbours, so shall you haue their inland commodities to mainteine traffique, and so shall you waxe rich and strong in force. Diuers and seuerall commodities of the inland are not in great plenty to be brought to your hands, without the ayde of some portable or Nauigable riuer, or ample lake, and therefore to haue the helpe of such a one is most requisite: And so is it of effect for the dispersing of your owne commodities in exchange into the inlands. Nothing is more to be indeuoured with the Inland people then familiarity. For so may you best discouer all the natural commodities of their countrey, and also all their wants, al their strengths, all their weaknesse, and with whom they are in warre, and with whom confederate in peace and amitie, &c. which knowen you may worke many great effects of greatest consequence. And in your planting the consideration of the clymate and of the soyle be matters that are to be respected. For if it be so that you may let in the salt sea water, not mixed with the fresh into flats, where the sunne is of the heate that it is at Rochel, in the Bay of Portugal, or in Spaine, then may you procure a man of skill, and so you haue wonne one noble commoditie for the fishing, and for trade of marchandize by making of Salt. Or if the soyle and clymate be such as may yeeld you the Grape as good as that at Burdeaux, as that in Portugal, or as that about Siuil in Spaine, or that in the Islands of the Canaries, then there resteth but a workeman to put in execution to make Wines, and to dresse Resigns[56] of the sunne and other, &c. Or if ye finde a soyle of the temperature of the South part of Spaine or Barbarie in the which you finde the Oliue tree to growe; Then you may be assured of a noble marchandize for this Realme, considering that our great trade of clothing doeth require oyle, and weying how deere of late it is become by the vent they haue of that commoditie in the West Indies, and if you finde the wilde Oliue there it may be graffed. Or if you can find the berrie of Cochenile with which we colour Stammelles, or any Roote, Berrie, Fruite, wood or earth fitte for dying, you winne a notable thing fitte for our state of clothing. This Cochenile is naturall in the West Indies on that firme. Or if you haue Hides of beasts fitte for sole Lether, &c. It will be a marchandize right good, and the Sauages there yet can not tanne Lether after our kinde, yet excellently after their owne manner. Or if the soyle shall yeeld Figges, Almonds, Sugar Canes, Quinces, Orenges, Lemonds, Potatoes, &c. there may arise some trade and traffique by Figs, Almonds, Sugar, Marmelade, Sucket, &c. Or if great woods be found, if they be of Cypres, chests may be made, if they be of some kinde of trees, Pitch and Tarre may be made, if they be of some other, then they may yeeld Rosin, Turpentine, &c. and all for trade and traffique, and Caskes for wine and oyle may be made, likewise, ships and houses, &c. And because traffique is a thing so materiall, I wish that great obseruation be taken what euery soyle yeeldeth naturally, in what commoditie soeuer, and what it may be made to yeelde by indeuour, and to send vs notice home, that thereupon we may deuise what meanes may be thought of to raise trades. Now admit that we might not be suffered by the Sauages to enioy any whole country or any more than the scope of a citie, yet if we might enioy traffique, and be assured of the same, we might be much inriched, our Nauie might be increased, and a place of safetie might there be found, if change of religion or ciuil warres should happen in this realme, which are things of great benefit. But if we may enioy any large territorie of apt soyle, we might so vse the matter, as we should not depend vpon Spaine for oyles, sacks, resignes, orenges, lemonds, Spanish skins, &c. Nor vpon France for woad, baysalt, and Gascoyne wines, nor on Eastland for flaxe, pitch, tarre, mastes, &c. So we should not so exhaust our treasure, and so exceedingly inrich our doubtfull friends, as we doe, but should purchase the commodities that we want for halfe the treasure that now wee doe: and should by our owne industries and the benefities of the soyle there cheaply purchase oyles, wines, salt, fruits, pitch, tarre, flaxe, hempe, mastes, boords, fish, golde, siluer, copper, tallow, hides and many commodies: besides if there be no flatts to make salt on, if you haue plentie of wood you may make it in sufficient quantitie for common vses at home there. If you can keepe a safe Hauen, although you haue not the friendship of the neere neighbours, yet you may haue traffique by sea vpon one shore or other, vpon that firme in time to come, if not present. If you find great plentie of tymber on the shore side or vpon any portable riuer, you were best to cut downe of the same the first winter, to be seasoned for ships, barks, boates, and houses. And if neere such wood there be any riuer or brooke vpon the which a sawing mill may be placed, it would doe great seruice, and therefore consideration would be had of such places. And if such port and chosen place of settling were in possession and after fortified by arte, although by the land side our Englishmen were kept in, and might not enioy any traffique with the next neighbours, nor any victuals: yet might they victuall themselues of fish to serue every necessitie, and enter into amitie with the enemies of their next neighbours, and so haue vent of their marchandize of England and also haue victual, or by meanes hereupon to be vsed, to force the next neighbours to amitie. And keeping a nauy at the settling place, they should find out along the tract of the land to haue traffique, and at diuers Islands also. And so this first seat might in time become a stapling place of the commodities of many countreys and territories, and in time this place might become of all the prouinces round about the only gouernor. And if the place first chosen should not so well please our people, as some other more lately found out: There might be an easie remoue, and that might be raised, or rather kept for others of our nation to auoyd an ill neighbour. If the soyles adioyning to such conuenient Hauen and setling places be found marshie and boggie, then men skilful in drayning are to be caryed thither. For arte may worke wonderful effects therein, and make the soyle rich for many vses. To plant vpon an Island in the mouth of some notable riuer, or vpon the point of the land entring into the riuer, if no such Island be, were to great end. For if such riuer were nauigable or portable farre into the land, then would arise great hope of planting in fertil soyles, and traffike on the one or on the other side of the riuer, or on both, or the linking in amitie with one or other pettie king contending there for dominion. Such riuers found, both Barges and Boates may be made for the safe passage of such as shall pierce the same. These are to be couered with doubles of course linnen artificially wrought, to defend the arrow or the dart of the sauage from the rower. Since euery soile of the worlde by arte may be made to yeeld things to feede and to clothe man, bring in your returne a perfect note of the soile without and within, and we shall deuise if neede require to amend the same, and to draw it to more perfection. And if you finde not fruites in your planting place to your liking, we shall in fiue drifats[57] furnish you with such kindes of plants to be carryed thither the winter after your planting, as shall the very next summer following yeeld you some fruite, and the yeere next following, as much as shall suffice a towne as bigge as Calice, and that shortly after shall be able to yeeld you great store of strong durable good sider to drinke, and these trees shall be able to encrease you within lesse then seuen yeeres as many trees presently to beare, as may suffice the people of diuers parishes, which at the first setling may stand you in great stead, if the soile haue not the commoditie of fruites of goodnesse already. And because you ought greedily to hunt after things that yeeld present reliefe, without trouble of carriage thither, therefor I make mention of these thus specially, to the end you may haue it specially in minde. * * * * * A true discourse of the three Voyages of discouerie, for the finding of a passage to Cathaya, by the Northwest, vnder the conduct of Martin Frobisher Generall: Before which as a necessary Preface is prefixed a twofolde discourse, conteining certaine reasons to proue all partes of the World habitable. Penned by Master George Best, a Gentleman employed in the same voyages. What commodities and instructions may be reaped by diligent reading this Discourse. 1 First, by example may be gathered, how a Discouerer of new Countries is to proceede in his first attempt of any Discouerie. 2 Item, how he should be prouided of shipping, victuals, munition, and choice of men. 3 How to proceede and deale with strange people, be they neuer so barbarous, cruell and fierce, either by lenitie or otherwise. 4 How trade of Merchandize may be made without money. 5 How a Pilot may deale, being inuironed with mountaines of yce in the frozen sea. 6 How length of dayes, change of seasons, Summers and Winters doe differ in sundry regions. 7 How dangerous it is to attempt new Discoueries, either for the length of the voyage, or the ignorance of the language, the want of Interpreters, new and vnaccustomed Elements and ayres, strange and vnsauoury meates, danger of theeues and robbers, fiercenesse of wilde beastes and fishes, hugenesse of woods, dangerousnesse of Seas, dread of tempestes, feare of hidden rockes, steepnesse of mountaines, darknesse of sudden falling fogges, continuall paines taking without any rest, and infinite others. 8. How pleasant and profitable it is to attempt new Discoueries, either for the sundry sights and shapes of strange beastes and fishes, the wonderfull workes of nature, the different maners and fashions of diuers nations, the sundry sortes of gouernment, the sight of strange trees, fruite, foules, and beasts, the infinite treasure of Pearle, Golde and Siluer, the newes of newe found landes, the sundry positions of the Sphere, and many others. 9. How valiant Captaines vse to deale vpon extremitie, and otherwise. 10 How trustie souldiers dutifully vse to serue. 11 Also here may bee seene a good example to be obserued of any priuate person, in taking notes, and making obseruations of all such things as are requisite for a Discouerer of newe Countries. 12 Lastly, the Reader here may see a good paterne of a well gouerned seruice, sundry instructions of matters of Cosmographie, Geographie, and Nauigation, as in reading more at large may be seene. Experiences and reasons of the Sphere, to prooue all partes of the worlde habitable, and thereby to confute the position of the fiue Zones. [Sidenote: Experience to proue that Torrida Zone is habitable.] First, it may be gathered by experience of our Englishmen in Anno 1553. For Captaine Windam made a Voyage with Merchandise to Guinea, and entred so farre within the Torrida Zona, that he was within three or foure degrees of the Equinoctiall, and his company abiding there certaine Moneths, returned, with gaine. Also the Englishmen made another Voyage very prosperous and gainefull, An. 1554. to the coasts of Guinea, within 3. degrees of the Equinoctiall. And yet it is reported of a trueth, that all the tract from Cape de las Palmas trending by C. de tres puntas alongst by Benin, vnto the Ile of S. Thomas (which is perpendiculer under the Equinoctial)[58] all that whole Bay is more subiect to many blooming and smoothering heates, with infectious and contagious ayres, then any other place in all Torrida Zona: and the cause thereof is some accidents in the land. For it is most certaine, that mountains, Seas, woods and lakes, &c, may cause through their sundry kinde of situation, sundry strange and extraordinary effects, which the reason of the clyme otherwise would not giue. I mention these Voyages of our Englishmen, not so much to prooue that Torrida Zona may bee, and is inhabited, as to shew their readinesse in attempting long and dangerous Nauigations. Wee also among vs in England, haue blacke Moores, Æthiopians, out of all partes of Torrida Zona, which after a small continuance, can well endure the colde of our Countrey, and why should not we as well abide the heate of their Countrey? But what should I name any more experiences, seeing that all the coastes of Guinea and Benin are inhabited of Portugals, Spanyardes, French, and some Englishmen, who there haue built Castles and Townes. [Sidenote: Marochus more hote then about the Equinoctiall.] Onely this I will say to the Merchants of London, that trade yeerely to Marochus, it is very certaine, that the greatest part of the burning Zone is farre more temperate and coole in Iune, then the Countrey of Marochus, as shall appeare by these reasons and experiences following. For let vs first consider the bignesse of this burning Zone (which as euery man knoweth, is 47. degrees) each Tropicke, which are the bounders thereof, being 28. degrees and a halfe distant from the Equinoctiall. Imagine againe two other Parallels, on each side the Equinoctiall about 20. degrees, which Paralels may be described either of them twice a yeere by the Sunne, being in the first degrees of Gemini the 11. of May, and in Leo the 13. of Iuly, hauing North Latitude. And againe, the Sunne being in the first degrees of Sagittarius, the 12. of Nouember, and in Aquarius the 9. of Ianuary, hauing South latitude, I am to prooue by experience and reason that all that distance included betweene these two Paralels last named (conteyning 40. degrees in latitude, going round about the earth, according to longitude) is not onely habitable, but the same most fruitfull and delectable, and that if any extremitie of heate bee, the same not to be within the space of twenty degrees of the Equinoctiall on either side, but onely vnder and about the two Tropickes, and so proportionally the nearer you doe approch to eyther Tropicke, the more you are subiect to extremitie of heate (if any such be) and so Marochus being situate but sixe or seuen degrees from the Tropicke of Cancer, shall be more subiect to heate, then any place vnder or neere the Equinoctiall line.[59] [Sidenote: Marueilous fruitfull soile vnder the Equinoctiall.] And first by the experience of sundry men, yea thousands, Trauailers and Merchants, to the East and West Indies in many places, both directly vnder, and hard by the Equinoctiall, they with one consent affirme, that it aboundeth in the middest of Torrida Zona with all manner of Graine, Hearbes, grasse, fruite, wood and cattell, that we haue heere, and thousandes other sortes, farre more wholesome, delectable and precious, then any wee haue in these Northerne climates, as very well shall appeare to him that will reade the Histories and Nauigations of such as haue traueiled Arabia, India intra and extra Gangem, the Islands Moluccæ, America, &c. which all lye about the middle of the burning Zone, where it is truely reported, that the great hearbes, as are Radish, Lettuce, Colewortes, Borage, and such like, doe waxe ripe, greater, more sauourie and delectable in taste then ours, within sixteene dayes after the seede is sowen. Wheate being sowed the first of Februarie, was found ripe the first of May, and generally, where it is lesse fruitfull, the wheate will be ripe the fourth moneth after the seed is sowne, and in some places will bring foorth an eare as bigge as the wrist of a mans arme containing 1000. graines; Beanes, peace, &c. are there ripe twice a yeere. Also grasse being cut downe, will grow vp in sixe dayes aboue one foote high. If our cattell be transported thither, within a small time their young ones become of bigger stature, and more fat than euer they would haue bene in these countreys. [Sidenote: Great trees.] There are found in euery wood in great numbers, such timber trees as twelue men holding handes together are not able to fathome. [Sidenote: Commodities and pleasures vnder the Equinoctiall.] And to be short, all they that haue bene there with one consent affirme, that there are the goodliest greene medowes and plaines, the fairest mountaines couered with all sorts of trees and fruites, the fairest valleys, the goodliest pleasant fresh riuers, stored with infinite kinde of fishes, the thickest woods, green and bearing fruite all the whole yeere, that are in all the world. And as for gold, siluer, and all other kinde of Metals, all kinde of spices and delectable fruites, both for delicacie and health, are there in such abundance, as hitherto they haue bene thought to haue beene bred no where else but there. And in conclusion, it is nowe thought that no where else but vnder the Equinoctiall, or not farre from thence, is the earthly Paradise, and the onely place of perfection in this worlde. And that these things may seeme the lesse strange, because it hath bene accompted of the olde Philosophers, that there coulde nothing prosper for the extreme heat of the Sunne continually going ouer their heades in the Zodiacke, I thought good here to alleadge such naturall causes as to me seeme very substantiall and sure reasons. [Sidenote: Heat is caused by two meanes that is by his maner of Angle and by his continuance.] First you are to vnderstand that the Sunne doeth worke his more or lesse heat in these lower parts by two meanes, the one is by the kinde of Angle that the Sunne beames doe make with the earth, as in all Torrida Zona it maketh perpendicularly right Angles in some place or other at noone, and towards the two Poles very oblique and vneuen Angles. And the other meane is the longer or shorter continuance of the Sunne aboue the Horizon. So that wheresoeuer these two causes do most concurre, there is most excesse of heat: and when the one is wanting, the rigor of the heat is lesse. For though the Sunne beames do beat perpendicularly vpon any region subiect vnto it, if it hath no continuance or abode aboue the Horizon, to worke his operation in, there can no hote effect proceed. For nothing can be done in a moment. [Sidenote: Note this reason.] And this second cause mora Solis supra Horizontem, the time of the sunnes abiding aboue the Horizon, the old Philosophers neuer remembred, but regarded onely the maner of Angles that the Sunne beames made with the Horizon, which if they were equall and right, the heat was the greater, as in Torrida Zona: if they were vnequall and oblique, the heat was the lesse, as towards both Poles, which reason is very good and substantiall: for the perpendicular beames reflect and reuerberate in themselues, so that the heat is doubled, euery beame striking twice, and by vniting are multiplied, and continue strong in forme of a Columne. But in our latitude of 50. and 60. degrees, the Sunne beames descend oblique and slanting wise, and so strike but once and depart, and therefore our heat is the lesse for any effect that the Angle of the Sunne beames make. Yet because wee haue a longer continuance of the Sunnes presence aboue our Horizon then they haue vnder the Equinoctial; by this continuance the heat is increased, for it shineth to vs 16. or 18. houres sometime, when it continueth with them but twelue houres alwayes. And againe, our night is very short, wherein cold vapours vse to abound, being but sixe or eight houres long, whereas theirs is alwayes twelue houres long, by which two aduantages of long, dayes and short nights, though we want the equalitie of Angle, it commeth to passe that in Sommer our heat here is as great as theirs is there, as hath bene proued by experience, and is nothing dissonant from good reason. Therefore whosoeuer will rightly way the force of colde and heat in any region, must not onely consider the Angle that the Sunne beames make, but also the continuance of the same aboue the Horizon. As first to them vnder the Equinoctiall the Sunne is twice a yeere at noone in their Zenith perpendicular ouer their heads, and therefore during the two houres of those two dayes the heat is very vrgent, and so perhaps it will be in foure or fiue dayes more an houre euery day, vntill the Sunne in his proper motion haue crossed the Equinoctiall; so that this extreme heat caused by the perpendicular Angle of the Sunne beames, endureth but two houres of two dayes in a yeere. But if any man say the Sunne may scalde a good while before and after it come to the Meridian, so farre foorth as reason leadeth, I am content to allow it, and therefore I will measure and proportion the Sunnes heat, by comparing the Angles there, with the Angles made here in England, because this temperature is best knowen vnto vs. As for example, the 11. day of March, when vnder the Equinoctiall it is halfe houre past eight of the clocke in the morning, the Sunne will he in the East about 38. degrees aboue the Horizon, because there it riseth alwayes at six of the clocke, and moueth euery houre 15. degrees, and so high very neere will it be with vs at London the said eleuenth day of March at noone. And therefore looke what force the Sunne hath with vs at noone, the eleventh of March, the same force it seemeth to haue vnder the Equinoctial at half an houre past eight in the morning, or rather lesse force vnder the Equinoctiall, For with vs the Sunne had bene already sixe houres aboue the horizon, and so had purified and clensed all the vapours, and thereby his force encreased at noone; but vnder the Equinoctiall, the Sunne hauing bene vp but two houres and an halfe, had sufficient to doe, to purge and consume the cold and moyst vapours of the long night past, and as yet had wrought no effect of heate. And therefore I may boldly pronounce, that there is much lesse heate at halfe an houre past eight vnder the Equinoctiall, then is with vs at noone: à fortiori. But in March we are not onely contented to haue the Sunne shining, but we greatly desire the same. Likewise the 11. of Iune, the Sunne in our Meridian is 62 degrees high at London: and vnder the Equinoctiall it is so high after 10 of the clocke, and seeing then it is beneficial with vs; à fortiori it is beneficiall to them after 10 of the clocke. And thus haue wee measured the force of the Sunnes greatest heate, the hottest dayes in the yeere, vnder the Equinoctiall, that is in March and September, from sixe till after tenne of the clocke in the morning, and from two vntill Sunne set. And this is concluded, by respecting onely the first cause of heate, which is the consideration of the Angle of the Sunne beames, by a certaine similitude, that whereas the Sunne shineth neuer aboue twelue houres, more then eight of them would bee coole and pleasant euen to vs, much more to them that are acquainted alwayes with such warme places. So there remaineth lesse then foure houres of excessiue heate, and that onely in the two Sommer dayes of the yeere, that is the eleueuth day of March, and the fourteenth of September: for vnder the Equinoctiall they haue two Sommers, the one in March, and the other in September, which are our Spring and Autumne: and likewise two Winters, in Iune and December, which are our Sommer and Winter, as may well appeare to him that hath onely tasted the principles of the Sphere. But if the Sunne bee in either Tropicke, or approaching neere thereunto, then may wee more easily measure the force of his Meridian altitude, that it striketh vpon the Equinoctiall. As for example, the twelfth of Iune the Sunne will be in the first degree of Cancer. Then look what force the heate of the Sunne hath vnder the Equinoctiall, the same force and greater it hath in all that Parallel, where the Pole is eleuated betweene fourtie and seuen, and fourtie and eight degrees. [Sidenote: Paris in France is as hote as vnder the Equinoctiall in Iune.] And therefore Paris in France the twelfth day of Iune sustaineth more heate of the Sunne, then Saint Thomas Iland lying neere the same Meridian doeth likewise at noone, or the Ilands Traprobana, Molluccæ, or the firme lande of Peru in America, which all lye vnderneath the Equinoctiall. For vpon the twelfth day of Iune aforesaide, the Sunne beames at noone doe make an Isoscheles Triangle, whose Vertex is the Center of the Sunne, the Basis a line extended from Saint Thomas Iland vnder the Equinoctiall, vnto Paris in France neere the same Meridian: therefore the two Angles of the Base must needs be equal per 5. primi,[60] Ergo the force of the heat equal, if there were no other cause then the reason of the Angle, as the olde Philosophers haue appointed. [Sidenote: In Iune is greater heat at Paris then vnder the Equinoctiall.] But because at Paris the Sunne riseth two houres before it riseth to them vnder the Equinoctiall, and setteth likewise two houres after them, by meanes of the obliquitie of the Horizon, in which time of the Sunnes presence foure houres in one place more then the other, it worketh some effect more in one place then in the other, and being of equall height at noone, it must then needs follow to be more hote in the Parallel of Paris, then it is vnder the Equinoctiall. [Sidenote: The twilights are shorter, and the nights darker vnder the Equinoctiall then at Paris.] Also this is an other reason, that when the Sunne setteth to them vnder the Equinoctiall, it goeth very deepe and lowe vnder their Horizon, almost euen to their Antipodes, whereby their twilights are very short, and their nights are made very extreeme darke and long, and so the moysture and coldnesse of the long nights wonderfully encreaseth, so that at length the Sunne rising can hardly in many houres consume and driue away the colde humours and moyst vapours of the night past, which is cleane contrary in the Parallel of Paris: for the Sunne goeth vnder their Horizon but very little, after a sloping sort, whereby their nights, are not very darke, but lightsome, as looking into the North in a cleare night without cloudes it doeth manifestly appeare, their twilights are long: for the Parallel of Cancer cutteth not the Horizon of Paris at right Angles, but at Angles very vneuen, and vnlike as it doeth the Horizon of the Equinoctiall. Also the Sommer day at Paris is sixteene houres long, and the night but eight: where contrarywise vnder the Equinoctiall the day is but twelue houres long, and so long is also the night, in whatsoeuer Parallel the Sunne be: and therefore looke what oddes and difference of proportion there is betweene the Sunnes abode aboue the Horizon in Paris, and the abode it hath vnder the Equinoctiall, (it being in Cancer) the same proportion would seeme to be betweene the heate of the one place, and heate of the other: for other things (as the Angle of the whole arke of the Sunnes progresse that day in both places) are equall. But vnder the Equinoctiall the presence and abode of the Sunne aboue the Horizon is equall to his absence, and abode vnder the Horizon, eche being twelue houres. And at Paris the continuance and abode of the Sunne is aboue the Horizon sixteene houres long, and but eight houres absence, which proportion is double, from which if the proportion of the equalitie be subtracted to finde the difference, there will remaine still a double proportion, whereby it seemeth to follow, that in Iune the heate of Paris were double to the heate vnder the equinoctiall. For (as I haue said) the Angles of the Sunne beames are in all points equall, and the cause of difference is, Mora Solis supra Horizontem, the stay of the Sunne in the one Horizon more then in the other. [Sidenote: In what proportion the Angle of the Sun beames heateth.] Therefore, whosoeuer could finde out in what proportion the Angle of the Sunne beames heateth, and what encrease the Sunnes continuance doeth adde thereunto, it might expresly be set downe, what force of heat and cold is in all regions. Thus you partly see by comparing a Climate to vs well knowen and familiarly acquainted by like height of the Sunne in both places, that vnder the Equinoctiall in Iune is no excessiue heat, but a temperate aire rather tendering to cold. [Sidenote: They vse and haue neede of fire vnder the Equinoctiall.] For as they haue there for the most part a continuall moderate heat, so yet sometime they are a little pinched with colde, and vse the benefite of fire as well as we, especially in the euening when they goe to bed, for as they lye in hanging beds tied fast in the vpper part of the house, so will they haue fires made on both sides their bed, of which two fires, the one they deuise superstitiously to driue away spirits, and the other to keepe away from them the coldnesse of the nights. [Sidenote: Colde intermingled with heate vnder the Equinoctiall.] Also in many places of Torrida Zona, especially in the higher landes somewhat mountainous, the people a little shrincke at the colde, and are often forced to prouide themselues clothing, so that the Spaniards haue found in the West Indies many people clothed, especially in Winter, whereby appeareth, that with their heat there is colde intermingled, else would they neuer prouide this remedy of clothing, which to them is rather a griefe and trouble then otherwise. For when they goe to warres, they will put off all their apparel, thinking it to be cumbersome, and will alwayes goe naked, that they thereby might be more nimble in their fight. Some there be that thinke the middle Zone extremely hot, because the people of the countrey can, and doe liue without clothing, wherein they childishly are deceiued: for our Clime rather tendeth to extremitie of colde, because wee cannot liue without clothing: for this our double lining, furring, and wearing so many clothes, is a remedy against extremetie, and argueth not the goodnesse of the habitation, but inconuenience and iniury of colde: and that is rather the moderate, temperate, and delectable habitation, where none of these troublesome things are required, but that we may liue naked and bare, as nature bringeth vs foorth. [Sidenote: Ethiopians blacke, with curled haire.] Others againe imagine the middle Zone to be extreme hot, because the people of Africa, especially the Ethiopians, are so cole blacke, and their haire like wooll curled short, which blacknesse and curled haire they suppose to come onely by the parching heat of the Sunne, which how it should be possible I cannot see: for euen vnder the Equinoctiall in America, and in the East Indies; and in the Ilands Moluccæ the people are not blacke, but tauney and white, with long haire vncurled as wee haue, so that if the Ethiopians blacknesse came by the heate of the Sunne, why should not those Americans and Indians also be as blacke as they, seeing the Sunne is equally distant from them both, they abiding in one Parallel: for the concaue and conuexe Superficies of the Orb of the Sunne is concentrike, and equidistant to the earth; except any man should imagine somewhat of Aux Solis, and Oppositum, which indifferently may be applied aswel to the one place as to the other. [Sidenote: The Sunne heateth not by his neerenesse, but onely by reflection.] But the Sunne is thought to giue no otherwise heat, but by way of Angle in reflection, and not by his neerenesse to the earth: for throughout all Africa, yea in the middest of the middle Zone, and in all other places vpon the tops of mountaines there lyeth continuall snow, which is nearer to the Orbe of the sunne, then the people are in the valley, by so much as the height of these moantaines amount vnto, and yet the Sunne notwithstanding his neerenesse, can not the melt snow for want of conuenient place of reflections. Also the middle region of the aire where all the haile, frost, and snow is engendred, is neerer vnto the Sunne then the earth is, and yet there continueth perpetuall cold, because there is nothing that the Sunne beames may reflect against, whereby appeareth that the neerenesse of the body of the Sunne worketh nothing. [Sidenote: A blacke Moores sonne borne in England.] Therefore to returne againe to the blacke Moores. I myself haue seen an Ethiopian as blacke as a cole brought into England, who taking a faire English woman to wife, begat a sonne in all respects as blacke as the father was, although England were his natiue countrey; and an English woman his mother: whereby it seemeth this blacknes proceedeth rather of some natural infection of that man which was so strong, that neither the nature of the Clime, neither the good complexion of the mother concurring, coulde any thing alter, and therefore wee cannot impute it to the natureof the Clime. [Sidenote: The colour of the people in Meta Incognita. The complexion of the people of Meta incognita.] And for a more fresh example, our people of Meta Incognita (of whom and for whom this discourse is taken in hande) that were brought this last yeere into England, were all generally of the same colour that many nations be, lying in the middest of the middle Zone. And this their colour was not onely in the face which was subiect to Sunne and aire, but also in their bodies, which were still couered with garments as ours are, yea the very sucking childe of twelue moneths age had his sonne of the very same colour that most haue vnder the equinoctiall, which thing cannot proceed by reason of the Clime, for that they are at least ten degrees more towardes the North then wee in England are, No, the Sunne neuer commeth neere their Zenith by fourtie degrees: for in effect, they are within three or foure degrees of that which they call the frozen Zone, and as I saide, fourtie degrees from the burning Zone, whereby it followeth, that there is some other cause then the Climate or the Sonnes perpendicular reflexion, that should cause the Ethiopians great blacknesse. And the most probable cause to my judgement is, that this blackenesse proceedeth of some naturall infection of the first inhabitants of that Countrey, and so all the whole progenie of them descended, are still polluted with the same blot of infection. Therefore it shall not bee farre from our purpose, to examine the first originall of these blacke men, and howe by a lineall discent they haue hitherto continued thus blacke. [Sidenote: The cause of the Ethiopians blacknesse.] It manifestly and plainely appeareth by Holy Scripture, that after the generall inundation and ouerflowing of the earth, there remained no moe men aliue but Noe his three sonnes, Sem, Cham, and Iaphet, who onely were left to possesse and inhabite the whole face of the earth: therefore all the sundry discents that vntil this day haue inhabited the whole earth, must needes come of the off-spring either of Sem, Cham, or Iaphet, as the onely sonnes of Noe, who all three being white, and their wiues also, by course of nature should haue begotten and brought foorth white children. But the enuie of our great and continuall enemie the wicked Spirite is such, that as hee coulde not suffer our olde father Adam to liue in the felicite and Angelike state wherein hee was first created, but tempting him sought and procured his ruine and fall: so againe, finding at this flood none but a father and three sonnes liuing, hee so caused one of them to transgresse and disobey his fathers commaundement, that after him all his posterity shoulde bee accursed. [Sidenote: The Arke of Noe.] The fact of disobedience was this: When Noe at the commandement of God had made the Arke and entred therein, and the floud-gates of heauen were opened, so that the whole face of the earth, euery tree and mountaine was couered with abundance or water, hee straitely commaunded his sonnes and their wiues, that they should with reuerence and feare beholde the iustice and mighty power of God, and that during the time of the flood while they remained in the Arke, they should vse continencie, and abstaine from carnall copulation with their wines: and many other precepts bee gaue vnto them, and admonitions touching the iustice of God, in renenging sinne, and his mercie in deliuering them, who nothing deserued it. Which good instructions and exhortations notwithstanding his wicked sonne Cham disobeyed, and being perswaded that the first childe borne after the flood (by right and Lawe of nature) should inherite and possesse all the dominions of the earth, hee contrary to his fathers commandement while they were yet in the Arke, vsed company with his wife, and craftily went about thereby to dis-inherite the off-spring of his other two brethren: for the which wicked and detestable fact, as an example for contempt of Almightie God, and disobedience of parents, God would a sonne should bee borne whose name was Chus, who not [Sidenote: Chus the sonne of Cham accursed.] onely it selfe, but all his posteritie after him should bee so blacke and lothsome, that it might remaine a spectacle of disobedience to all the worlde. And of this blacke and cursed Chus came all these blacke Moores which are in Africa, for after the water was vanished from off the face of the earth, and that the lande was dry, Sem chose that part of the land to inhabite in, which nowe is called Asia, and Iaphet had that which now is called Europa, wherein wee dwell, and Africa remained for Cham and his blacke sonne [Sidenote: Africa was called Chamesis.] Chus, and was called Chamesis after the fathers name, being perhaps a cursed, dry, sandy, and vnfruitfull ground, fit for such a generation to inhabite in. Thus you see, that the cause of the Ethiopians blacknesse is the curse and naturall infection of blood, and not the distemperature of the Climate; Which also may bee prooued by this example, that these blacke men are found in all parts of Africa, as well without the Tropickes, as within, euen vnto Capo de buona Speranza Southward, where, by reason of the Sphere, should be the same temperature that is in Sicilia, Morea and Candie, where al be of very good complexions. Wherefore I conclude, that the blacknesse proceedeth not of the hotenesse of the Clime, but as I saide, of the infection of blood, and therefore this their argument gathered of the Africans blacknesse is not able to destroy the temperature of the middle Zone. Wee may therefore very well bee assertained, that vnder the Equinoctiall is the most pleasant and delectable place of the worlde to dwell in; where although the Sunne for two houres in a yeere be direct ouer their heades, and therefore the heate at that time somewhat of force, yet [Sidenote: Greatest temperature vnder the Equinoctial] because it commeth so seldome, and continueth so small a time, when it commeth, it is not to bee wayed, but rather the moderate heate of other times in all the yeere to be remembred. And if the heate at any time should in the short day waxe somewhat vrgent, the coldnesse of the long night there would easily refresh it, according as Henterus sayeth, speaking of the temperature vnder the Equinoctiall. Quodque die solis violento incanduit æstu, Humida nox reficit, paribusque refrigerat horis. If the heate of the Sunne in the day time doe burne or parch any thing, the moysture of the night doeth coole and refresh the same againe, the Sunne being as long absent in the night, as it was present in the day. Also our Aucthour of the Sphere, Johannes de Sacro Bosco, in the Chapter of the Zodiacke, deriueth the Etymologie of Zodiacus, of the Greeke word Zoe, which in Latine signifieth Vita, life; for out of Aristotle hee alleadgeth, that Secundum accessum et recessum solis in Zodiaco, fiunt generationes et corruptiones in rebus inferioribus: according to the Sunnes going to and fro in the Zodiake, the inferiour bodies take their causes of generation and corruption. [Sidenote: Vnder the Equinoctiall is greatest generation.] Then it followeth, that where there is most going to and fro, there is most generation and corruption: which must needes be betweene the two Tropikes; for there the Sunne goeth to and fro most, and no where else but there. Therefore betweene the two Tropikes, that is, in the middle Zone, is greatest increase, multiplication, generation, and corruption of things, which also wee finde by experience; for there is Sommer twice in the yeere, and twice Winter, so that they haue two Haruests in the yeere, and continuall Spring. Seeing then the middle Zone falleth out so temperate, it resteth to declare where the hottest part of the world should bee, for we finde some places more hote then others. To answere this doubt, reason perswadeth, the hotest place in[61] the world to bee vnder and about the two Tropikes; for there more then in any other place doe both the [Sidenote: Greatest heate vnder the Tropicks.] causes of heate concurre, that is, the perpendicular falling of the Sunne beames, at right angles, and a greater continuance of the Sunne aboue the Horizon, the Pole there being eleuated three or foure and twentie degrees. And as before I concluded, that though the Sunne were perpendicular to them vnder the Equinoctiall, yet because the same continued but a small time (their dayes being short, and their nights long) and the speedie departure of the Sunne from their Zenith, because of the suddeine crossing of the Zodiake with the Equinoctiall, and that by such continuall course and recourse of hote and colde, the temperature grew moderate, and very well able to bee endured: so nowe to them vnder the two Tropikes, the Sunne hauing once by his proper motion declined twentie degrees from the Equinoctial, beginneth to drawe neere their Zenith, which may bee (as before) about the eleuenth day of May, and then beginneth to sende his beames almost at right Angles, about which time the Sunne entreth into the first degree of Gemini, and with this almost right Angle the Sunne beames will continue vntill it bee past Cancer, that is, the space of two moneths euery day at noone, almost perpendicular ouer their heades, being then the time of Solstitium Aestiuale: which so long continuance of the Sunne about their Zenith may cause an extreeme heate (if any be in the world) but of necessitie farre more heate then can bee vnder the Equinoctiall, where the Sunne hath no such long abode in the Zenith, but passeth away there hence very quickly. Also vnder the Tropikes, the day is longer by an houre and a halfe, then it is vnder the Equinoctiall; wherefore the heate of the Sunne hauing a longer time of operation, must needes be encreased, especially seeing the night wherein colde and moysture doe abound vnder the Tropickes, is lesse then it is vnder the Equinoctiall. Therefore I gather, that vnder the Tropickes is the hotest place, not onely of Torrida Zona, but of any other part of the world, especially because there both causes of heate doe concurre, that is, the perpendicular falling of the Sunne beames two monethes together, and the longer abode of the Sunnes presence aboue the Horison. And by this meanes more at large is prooued, that Marochus in Summer is farre more hote, then at any time vnder the Enoctiall, because it is situate so neere the Tropick of Cancer, and also for the length of their dayes. Neither yet doe I thinke, that the Regions situate vnder the Tropicks are not habitable, for they are found to be very fruitfull also; although Marochus and some other parts of Afrike neere the Tropike for the drinesse of the natiue sandie soile, and some accidents may seeme to some to be intemperate for ouer much heat. For Ferdinandus Ouiedus[62] speaking of Cuba and Hispaniola, Ilands of America, lying hard vnder, or by the Tropike of Cancer, saith, that these Ilands haue as good pasture for cattell, as any other countrey in the world. Also, they haue most holesome and cleare water, and temperate aire, by reason whereof the heards of beastes are much bigger, fatter, and of better taste, then any in Spaine, because of the ranke pasture, whose moysture is better digested in the hearbe or grasse, by continuall and temperate heate of the Sunne, whereby being made more fat and vnctious, it is of better and more stedfast nourishment: For continuall and temperate heate doeth not onely drawe much moysture out of the earth to the nourishment of such things as growe, and are engendred in that Clime, but doeth also by moderation preserue the same from putrifying, digesting also, and condensating or thickning the said moyst nourishment into a gumme and vnctious substance, whereby appeareth also, that vnder the Tropikes is both holesome, fruitefull, and pleasant habitation, whereby lastly it followeth, that all the [Sidenote: Vnder the Tropickes is moderate temperature.] middle Zone, which vntill of late dayes hath bene compted and called the burning, broyling, and parched Zone, is now found to be the most delicate, temperate, commodious, pleasant and delectable part of the world, and especially vnder the Equinoctiall. Hauing now sufficiently at large declared the temperature of the middle Zone, it remaineth to speake somewhat also of the moderate and continuall heate in colde Regions, as well in the night as in the day all the Sommer long, and also how these Regions are habitable to the inhabitants of the same, contrary to the opinion of the olde writers. Of the temperature of colde Regions all the Sommer long, and also how in Winter the same is habitable, especially to the inhabitants thereof. The colde Regions of the world are those, which tending toward the Poles Arctike, and Antarctike, are without the circuite or boundes of the seuen Climates: which assertion agreeable to the opinion of the olde Writers, is found and set out in our authour of the Sphere, Iohannes de Sacrobosco, where hee plainely saith, that without the seuenth Climate, which is bounded by a Parallel passing at fiftie degrees in Latitude, all the habitation beyonde is discommodious and intolerable. [Sidenote: Nine Climates.] But Gemma Frisius a late writer finding England and Scotland to be without the compasse of those Climates, wherein hee knewe to bee very temperate and good habitation, added thereunto two other Climates, the vttermost Parallel whereof passeth by 56. degrees in Latitude, and therein comprehendeth ouer and aboue the first computation, England, Scotland, Denmarke, Moscouia, &c which all are rich and mightie kingdomes. [Sidenote: A comparison betweene Marochus and England.] The olde writers perswaded by bare conjecture, went about to determine of those places, by comparing them to their owne complexions, because they felt them to bee hardly tolerable to themselues, and so took thereby an argument of the whole habitable earth; as if a man borne in Marochus, or some other part of Barbarie, should at the latter end of Sommer vpon the suddeine, either naked, or with his thinne vesture, bee brought into England, hee would judge this Region presently not to bee habitable, because hee being brought vp in so warme a Countrey, is not able here to liue, for so suddeine an alteration of the colde aire: but if the same man had come at the beginning of Sommer, and so afterward by little and little by certaine degrees, had felt and acquainted himselfe with the frost of Autumne, it would haue seemed by degrees to harden him, and so to make it farre more tollerable, and by vse after one yeere or two, the aire would seeme to him more temperate. It was compted a great matter in the olde time, that there was a brasse pot broken in sunder with frosen water in Pontus, which after was brought and shewed in Delphis, in token of a miraculous colde region and winter, and therefore consecrated to the Temple of Apollo. This effect being wrought in the Parallel of fouretie three degrees in Latitude, it was presently counted a place very hardly and vneasily to be inhabited for the great colde. And how then can such men define vpon other Regions very farre without that Parallel, whether they were inhabited or not, seeing that in so neere a place they so grossely mistooke the matter, and others their followers being contented with the inuentions of the olde Authors, haue persisted willingly in the same opinion, with more confidence then consideration of the cause: so lightly was that opinion receiued, as touching the vnhabitable Clime neere and vnder the Poles. [Sidenote: All the North regions are habitable.] Therefore I am at this present to proue, that all the land lying betweene the last climate euen vnto the point directly vnder either poles, is or may be inhabited, especially of such creatures as are ingendred and bred therein. For indeed it is to be confessed, that some particular liuing creature cannot liue in euery particular place or region, especially with the same ioy and felicitie, as it did where it was first bred, for the certeine agreement of nature that is betweene the place and the thing bred in that place; as appeareth by the Elephant, which being translated and brought out of the second or third climat, though they may liue, yet will they neuer ingender or bring forth yong.[63] Also we see the like in many kinds of plants and herbs; for example, the Orange trees, although in Naples they bring forth fruit abundantly, in Rome and Florence they will beare onely faire greene leaues, but not any fruit: and translated into England, they will hardly beare either flowers, fruit, or leaues, but are the next Winter pinched and withered with cold: yet it followeth not for this, that England, Rome, and Florence should not be habitable. [Sidenote: Two causes of heat.] In the prouing of these colde regions habitable, I shalbe very short, because the same reasons serve for this purpose which were alleged before in the proouing the middle Zone to be temperate, especially seeing all heat and colde proceed from the Sunne, by the meanes either of the Angle which his beames do make with the Horizon, or els by the long or short continuance of the Suns presence aboue ground: so that if the Sunnes beames do beat perpendicularly at right Angles, then there is one cause of heat, and if the Sunne do also long continue aboue the Horizon, then the heat thereby is much increased by accesse of this other cause, and so groweth to a kinde of extremitie. And these two causes, as I sayd before, do most concurre vnder the two Tropicks, and therefore there is the greatest heat of the world. And likewise, where both these causes are most absent, there is greatest want of heat, and increase of colde (seeing that colde is nothing but the priuation and absence of heate) and if one cause be wanting, and the other present the effect will grow indifferent. Therefore this is to be vnderstood, that the neerer any region is to the Equinoctiall, the higher the Sunne doth rise ouer their heads at noone, and so maketh either right or neere right Angles, but the Sunne tarieth with them so much the shorter time, and causeth shorter dayes, with longer and colder nights, to restore the domage of the day past, by reason of the moisture consumed by vapour. But in such regions, ouer the which the Sunne riseth lower (as in regions extended towards either pole) it maketh there vnequall Angles, but the Sunne continueth longer, and maketh longer dayes, and causeth so much shorter and warmer nights, as retaining warme vapours of the day past. For there are found by experience Summer nights in Scotland and Gothland very hot, when vnder the Equinoctiall they are found very cold. [Sidenote: Hote nights nere the pole. Colde nights vnder the Equinoctiall.] This benefit of the Sunnes long continuance and increase of the day, doth argument so much the more in colde regions as they are nerer the poles, and ceaseth not increasing vntill it come directly vnder the point of the pole Arcticke, where the Sunne continueth aboue ground the space of sixe moneths or halfe a yere together, and so the day is halfe a yere long, that is the time of the Sunnes being in the North signes, from the first degree of Aries vntill the last of Virgo, that is all the time from our 10 day of March vntill the 14 of September. [Sidenote: One day of sixe moneths.] The Sunne therefore during the time of these sixe moneth without any offence or hinderance of the night, giueth his influence vpon those lands with heat that neuer ceaseth during that time, which maketh to the great increase of Summer, by reason of the Sunnes continuance. [Sidenote: Moderate heat vnder the poles.] Therefore it followeth, that though the Sunne be not there very high ouer their heads, to cause right angle beames, and to giue great heat, yet the Sun being there sometimes about 24 degrees high doth cast a conuenient and meane heate, which there continueth without hindrance of the night the space of sixe moneths (as is before sayd) during which time there followeth to be a conuenient, moderate and temperate heat: or els rather it is to be suspected the heat there to be very great, both for continuance, and also, Quia virtus vnita crescit, the vertue and strength of heat vnited in one increaseth. If then there be such a moderate heate vnder the poles, and the same to continue so long time; what should mooue the olde writers to say there cannot be place for habitation. And that the certainty of this temperate heat vnder both the poles might more manifestly appeare, let vs consider the position and quality of the sphere, the length of the day, and so gather the height of the Sunne at all times, and by consequent the quality of his angle, and so lastly the strength of his heat. Those lands and regions lying vnder the pole, and hauing the pole for their Zenith, must needs haue the Equinoctiall circle for their Horizon: therefore the Sun entring into the North signes, and describing euery 24 houres a parallel to the Equinoctiall by the diurnall motion of Primum mobile, the same parallels must needs be wholly aboue the Horizon: [Sidenote: The Sunne neuer setteth in 182 dayes.] and so looke how many degrees there are from the first of Aries to the last of Virgo, so many whole reuolutions there are aboue their Horizon that dwell vnder the pole, which amount to 182, and so many of our dayes the Sunne continueth with them. During which time they haue there continuall day and light, without any hindrance of moist nights. [Sidenote: Horizon and Equinoctiall all one vnder the pole.] Yet it is to be noted, that the Sunne being in the first degree of Aries, and last degree of Virgo, maketh his reuolution in the very horizon, so that in these 24 houres halfe the body of the Sunne is aboue the horizon, and the other halfe is vnder his only center, describing both the horizon and the equinoctiall circle. And therefore seeing the greatest declination of the Sunne is almost 24 degrees, it followeth, his greatest height in those countries to be almost 24 degrees. [Sidenote: London.] And so high is the Sun at noone to vs in London about the 29 of October, being in the 15 degree of Scorpio, and likewise the 21 of Ianuary being in the 15 of Aquarius. Therefore looke what force the Sun at noone hath in London the 29 of October, the same force of heat it hath, to them that dwell vnder the pole, the space almost of two moneths, during the time of the Summer solstitium, and that without intermingling of any colde night; so that if the heat of the Sunne at noone could be well measured in London (which is very hard to do because of the long nights which ingender great moisture and cold) then would manifestly appeare by expresse numbers the maner of the heat vnder the poles, which certainly must needs be to the inhabitants very commodious and profitable, if it incline not to ouermuch heat, and if moisture do not want. For as in October in England we finde temperate aire, and haue in our gardens hearbs and floures notwithstanding our cold nights, how much more should they haue the same good aire, being continuall without night. This heat of ours continueth but one houre, while the Sun is in that meridian, but theirs continueth a long time in one height. This our heat is weake, and by the coolnesse of the night vanisheth, that heat is strong, and by continuall accesse is still increased and strengthened. [Sidenote: Comodious dwelling vnder the poles.] And thus by a similitude of the equal height of the Sun in both places appeareth the commodious and moderate heat of the regions vnder the poles. And surely I cannot thinke that the diuine prouidence hath made any thing vncommunicable, but to haue giuen such order to all things, that one way or other the same should be imployed, and that euery thing and place should be tollerable to the next: but especially all things in this lower world be giuen to man to haue dominion and vse thereof. Therefore we need no longer to doubt of the temperate and commodious habitation vnder the poles during the time of Summer. [Sidenote: The night vnder the poles.] But all the controuersie consisteth in the Winter, for then the Sunne leaueth those regions, and is no more seene for the space of other sixe moneths, in the which time all the Sunnes course is vnder their horizon for the space of halfe a yere, and then those regions (say some) must needs be deformed with horrible darknesse, and continuall night, which may be the cause that beasts can not seeke their food, and that also the colde should then be intollerable. By which double euils all liuing creatures should be constrained to die, and were not able to indure the extremity and iniury of Winter, and famine insuing thereof, but that all things should perish before the Summer following, when they should bring foorth their brood and yoong, and that for these causes the sayd Clime about the pole should be desolate and not habitable. To all which objections may be answered in this maner: First, that though the Sunne be absent from them those six moneths, yet it followeth not that there should be such extreme darknesse; for as the Sunne is departed vnder their horizon, so is it not farre from them: and not so soone as the Sunne falleth so suddenly commeth the darke night; but the euening doth substitute and prolong the day a good while after by twilight. After which time the residue of the night receiueth light of the Moone and Starres, vntill the breake of the day, which giueth also a certaine light before the Sunnes rising; so that by these meanes the nights are seldome darke; which is verified in all parts of the world, but least in the middle Zone vnder the Equinoctiall, where the twilights are short, and the nights darker then in any other place, because the Sunne goeth vnder their horizon so deepe, even to their antipodes. We see in England in the Summer nights when the Sunne goeth not farre vnder the horizon, that by the light of the Moone and Starres we may trauell all night, and if occasion were, do some other labour also. And there is no man that doubteth whether our cattell can see to feed in the nights, seeing we are so well certified thereof by our experience: and by reason of the sphere our nights should be darker then any time vnder the poles. The Astronomers consent that the Sunne descending from our vpper hemisphere at the 18 parallel vnder the horizon maketh an end of twilight, so that at length the darke night insueth, and that afterward in the morning the Sun approching againe within as many parallels, doth driue away the night by accesse of the twilight. Againe, by the position of the sphere vnder the pole, the horizon, and the equinoctiall are all one. These reuolutions therefore that are parallel to the equinoctiall are also parallel to the horizon, so that the Sunne descending vnder that horizon, and there describing certaine parallels not farre distant, doth not bring darke nights to those regions vntill it come to the parallels distant 18 degrees from the equinoctiall, that is, about the 21 degree of Scorpio, which will be about the 4 day of our Nouember, and after the Winter solstitium, the Sunne returning backe againe to the 9 degree of Aquarius, which will be about the 19 of January; [Sidenote: The regions vnder the poles want twilights but sixe weeks.] during which time onely, that is, from the 4 day of Nouember vntill the 19 day of Ianuary, which is about six weeks space, these regions do want the commodity of twilights: therefore, during the time of these sayd six moneths of darknesse vnder the poles, the night is destitute of the benefit of the Sunne and the sayd twilights onely for the space of six weeks or thereabout. And yet neither this time of six weeks is without remedy from heauen; for the Moone with her increased light hath accesse at that time, and illuminateth the moneths lacking light euery one of themselues seuerally halfe the course of that moneth, by whose benefit it commeth to passe that the night named extreame darke possesseth those regions no longer then one moneth, neither that continually, or all at one time, but this also diuided into two sorts of shorter nights, of the which either of them indureth for the space of 15 dayes, and are illuminate of the Moone accordingly. [Sidenote: Winter nights vnder the pole tolerable to liuing creatures.] And this reason is gathered out of the sphere, whereby we may testifie that the Summers are warme and fruitfull, and the Winters nights vnder the pole are tolerable to liuing creatures. And if it be so that the Winter and time of darknesse there be very colde, yet hath not nature left them vnprouided therefore: for there the beastes are couered with haire so much the thicker in how much the vehemency of colde is greater; by reason whereof the best and richest furres are brought out of the coldest regions. Also the fowles of these colde countreys haue thicker skinnes, thicker feathers; and more stored of downe then in other hot places. Our English men that trauell to S. Nicholas, and go a fishing to Wardhouse, enter farre within the circle Artike, and so are in the frozen Zone, and yet there, aswell as in Island and all along those Northern Seas, they finde the greatest store of the greatest fishes that are; as Whales, &c. and also abundance of meane fishes; as Herrings, Cods, Haddocks, Brets, &c. which argueth that the sea as well as the land may be and is well frequented and inhabited in the colde countreys. [Sidenote: An obiection of Meta incognita.] But some perhaps will maruell there should be such temperate places in the regions about the poles, when at vnder 62 degrees in latitude our captaine Frobisher and his company were troubled with so many and so great mountaines of fleeting ice, with so great stormes of colde, with such continuall snow on tops of mountaines, and with such barren soile, there being neither wood nor trees, but low shrubs, and such like. To all which obiections may be answered thus: First, those infinite Islands of ice were ingendred and congealed in time of Winter, and now by the great heat of Summer were thawed, and then by ebs, flouds, winds, and currents, were driuen to and fro, and troubled the fleet; so that this is an argument to proue the heat in Summer there to be great, that was able to thaw so monstrous mountaines of ice. As for continuall snow on tops of mountaines, it is there no otherwise then is in the hotest part of the middle Zone, where also lieth great snow all the Summer long vpon tops of mountaines, because there is no sufficient space for the Sunnes reflexion, whereby the snow should be molten. Touching the colde stormy winds and the barrennesse of the country, it is there as it is in Cornwall and Deuonsbire in England, which parts though we know to be fruitfull and fertile, yet on the North side thereof all alongst the coast within seuen or eight miles off the sea there can neither hedge nor tree grow, although they be diligently by arte husbanded and seene vnto: and the cause thereof are the Northerne driuing winds, which comming from the sea are so bitter and sharpe that they kill all the yoong and tender plants, and suffer scarse any thing to grow; and so it is in the Islands of Meta incognita, which are subiect most to East and Northeastern winds, which the last yere choaked vp the passage so with ice that the fleet could hardly lecouer their port. [Sidenote: Meta Incognita inhabited.] Yet notwithstanding all the obiections that may be, the countrey is habitable; for there are men, women, children, and sundry kind of beasts in great plenty, as beares, deere, hares, foxes and dogs: all kinde of flying fowles, as ducks, seamewes, wilmots, partridges, larks, crowes, hawks, and such like, as in the third booke you shall vnderstand more at large. Then it appeareth that not onely the middle Zone but also the Zones about the poles are habitable. [Sidenote: Captaine Frobishers first voyage.] Which thing being well considered, and familiarly knowen to our Generall captaine Frobisher, aswell for that he is thorowly furnished of the knowledge of the sphere and all other skilles appertaining to the arte of nauigation, as also for the confirmation he hath of the same by many yeres experience both by sea and land, and being persuaded of a new and nerer passage to Cataya then by Capo de buona Sperança, which the Portugals yerely vse: he began first with himselfe to deuise, and then with his friends to conferre, and layed a plaine plat vnto them that that voyage was not onely possible by the Northwest, but also he could proue easie to be performed. And farther, he determined and resolued with himselfe to go make full proofe thereof, and to accomplish or bring true certificate of the truth, or els neuer to returne againe, knowing this to be the only thing of the world that was left yet vndone, whereby a notable minde might be made famous and fortunate. But although his will were great to performe this notable voyage, whereof he had concerned in his minde a great hope by sundry sure reasons and secret intelligence, which here for sundry causes I leaue vntouched, yet he wanted altogether meanes and ability to set forward, and performe the same. Long time he conferred with his priuate friends of these secrets; and made also many offers for the performing of the same in effect vnto sundry merchants of our countrey aboue 15 yeres before he attempted the same, as by good witnesse shall well appeare (albeit some euill willers which challenge to themselues the fruits of other mens labours haue greatly iniured him in the reports of the same, saying that they haue bene the first authours of that action, and that they haue learned him the way, which themselues as yet haue neuer gone) but perceiuing that hardly he was hearkened vnto of the merchants, which neuer regard, vertue without sure, certaine, and present gaines, he repaired to the Court (from whence, as from the fountaine of our Common wealth, all good causes haue their chiefe increase and maintenance) and there layed open to many great estates and learned men the plot and summe of his deuice. And amongst many honourable minds which fauoured his honest and commendable enterprise, he was specially bound and beholding to the right honourable Ambrose Dudley earle of Warwicke, whose fauourable minde and good disposition hath alwayes bene ready to countenance and aduance all honest actions with the authours and executors of the same: and so by meanes of my lord his honourable countenance he receiued some comfort of his cause, and by litle and litle, with no small expense and paine brought his cause to some perfection and had drawen together so many aduenturers and such summes of money as might well defray a reasonable charge to furnish himselfe to sea withall. He prepared two small barks of twenty and fiue and twenty tunne a piece, wherein he intended to accomplish his pretended voyage. Wherefore, being furnished with the foresayd two barks, and one small pinnesse of ten tun burthen, hauing therein victuals and other necessaries for twelue moneths prouision, he departed vpon the sayd voyage from Blacke-wall the 15 of Iune anno Domini 1576. One of the barks wherein he went was named the Gabriel, and the other The Michael; and sailing Northwest from England vpon the II of Iuly he had sight of an high and ragged land, which he iudged to be Frisland (whereof some authors haue made mention) but durst not approch the same by reason of the great store of ice that lay alongst the coast, and the great mists that troubled them not a litle. Not farre from thence he lost company of his small pinnesse, which by meanes of the great storme he supposed to be swallowed vp of the Sea, wherein he lost onely foure men. [Sidenote: The Michael returned home.] Also the other barke named The Michael mistrusting the matter, conueyed themselues priuily away from him, and returned home, with great report that he was cast away. The worthy captaine notwithstanding these discomforts, although his mast was sprung, and his toppe mast blowen ouerboord with extreame foule weather, continued his course towards the Northwest, knowing that the sea at length must needs haue an ending, and that some land should haue a beginning that way; and determined therefore at the least to bring true proofe what land and sea the same might be so farre to the Northwestwards, beyond any man that hath heretofore discouered. And the twentieth of Iuly he had sight of an high land, which he called Queene Elizabeths Forland, after her Maiesties name. And sailing more Northerly alongst that coast, he descried another forland with a great gut, bay, or passage, diuided as it were two maine lands or continents asunder. There be met with store of exceeding great ice all this coast along, and coueting still to continue his course to the Northwards, was alwayes by contrary winde deteined ouerthwart these straights, and could not get beyond. [Sidenote: Frobishers first entrance within the streights.] Within few dayes after he perceived the ice to be well consumed and gone, either there ingulfed in by some swift currents or indrafts, carried more to the Southwards of the same straights, or els conueyed some other way: wherefore he determined to make proofe of this place, to see how farre that gut had continuance, and whether he might carry himselfe thorow the same into some open sea on the backe side, whereof he conceiued no small hope, and so entred the same the one and twentieth of Iuly, and passed aboue fifty leagues therein, as he reported, hauing vpon either hand a great maine or continent. And that land vpon his right hand as he sailed Westward he iudged to be the continent of Asia, and there to be diuided from the firme of America, which lieth vpon the left hand ouer against the same. [Sidenote: Frobishers streights.] This place he named after his name, Frobishers streights, like as Magellanus at the Southwest end of the world, hauing discouered the passage to the South sea (where America is diuided from the continent of that land, which lieth vnder the South pole) and called the same straights, Magellanes straits. After he had passed 60 leagues into this foresayd straight, he went ashore, and found signes where fire had bene made. He saw mighty deere that seemed to be mankinde, which ranne at him, and hardly he escaped with his life in a narrow way, where he was faine to vse defence and policy to saue his life. In this place he saw and perceiued sundry tokens of the peoples resorting thither. [Sidenote: The first sight of the Sauages.] And being ashore vpon the top of a hill, he perceiued a number of small things fleeting in the sea afarre off, which he supposed to be porposes or seales, or some kinde of strange fish; but comming neerer, he discouered them to be men in small boats made of leather. And before he could descend downe from the hill, certaine of those people had almost cut off his boat from him, hauing stollen secretly behinde the rocks for that purpose, where he speedily hasted to his boat, and bent himselfe to his halberd, and narrowly escaped the danger, and saued his boat. Afterwards he had sundry conferences with them, and they came aboord his ship, and brought him salmon and raw flesh and fish, and greedily deuoured the same before our mens faces. And to shew their agility, they tried many masteries vpon the ropes of the ship after our mariners fashion, and appeared to be very strong of their armes, and nimble of their bodies. They exchanged coats of scales, and beares skinnes, and such like with our men; and receiued belles, looking glasses, and other toyes, in recompense thereof againe. [Sidenote: Fiue Englishmen intercepted and taken.] After great curtesie, and many meetings, our mariners, contrary to their captaines direction, began more easily to trust them; and fiue of our men going ashore were by them intercepted with their boat, and were neuer since heard of to this day againe: so that the captaine being destitute of boat, barke, and all company, had scarsely sufficient number to conduct backe his barke againe. He could neither conuey himselfe ashore to rescue his men (if he had bene able) for want of a boat; and againe the subtile traitours were so wary, as they would after that neuer come within our mens danger. The captaine notwithstanding desirous to bring some token from thence of his being there, was greatly discontented that he had not before apprehended some of them: and therefore to deceiue the deceiuers he wrought a pretty policy; for knowing wel how they greatly delighted in our toyes, and specially in belles, he rang a pretty lowbell, making signes that he would giue him the same that would come and fetch it. [Sidenote: Taking of the first Sauage.] And because they would not come within his danger for feare, he flung one bell vnto them, which of purpose he threw short, that it might fall into the sea and be lost, And to make them more greedy of the matter he rang a louder bell, so that in the end one of them came nere the ship side to receiue the bel; which when he thought to take at the captaines hand, he was thereby taken himselfe: for the captaine being readily prouided let the bell fall, and caught the man fast, and plucked him with maine force boat and all into his barke out of the sea. Whereupon when he found himselfe in captiuity, for very choler and disdaine he bit his tongue in twaine within his mouth: notwithstanding, he died not thereof, but liued vntill he came in England, and then he died of cold which he had taken at sea. [Sidenote: Frobishers returne.] Now with this new pray (which was a sufficient witnesse of the captaines farre and tedious trauell towards the vnknowen parts of the world, as did well appeare by this strange infidell, whose like was neuer seene, read, nor heard of before, and whose language was neither knowen nor vnderstood of any) the sayd captaine Frobisher returned homeward, and arriued in England in Harwich the 2 of October following, and thence came to London 1576, where he was highly commended of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cataya. And it is especially to be remembred that at their first arriuall in those parts there lay so great store of ice all the coast along so thicke together, that hardly his boate could passe vnto the shore. [Sidenote: The taking possession of Meta incognita.] At length, after diuers attempts he commanded his company, if by any possible meanes they could get ashore, to bring him whatsoeuer thing they could first finde, whether it were liuing or dead, stocke or stone, in token of Christian possession, which thereby he tooke in behalfe of the Queenes most excellent Maiesty, thinking that thereby he might iustify the hauing and inioying of the same things that grew in these vnknowen parts. [Sidenote: How the ore was found by chance.] Some of his company brought floures, some greene grasse; and one brought a piece of blacke stone much like to a sea cole in colour, which by the waight seemed to be some kinde of mettall or minerall. This was a thing of no account in the iudgment of the captaine at first sight; and yet for nouelty it was kept in respect of the place from whence it came. After his arriuall in London, being demanded of sundry his friends what thing he had brought them home out of that countrey, he had nothing left to present them withall but a piece of this blacke stone. And it fortuned a gentlewoman one of the aduenturers wiues to haue a piece thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in the fire, so long, that at the length being taken forth, and quenched in a little vinegar, it glistened with a bright marquesset of golde. Whereupon the matter being called in some question, it was brought to certaine Goldfiners in London to make assay thereof, who gaue out that it held golde, and that very richly for the quantity. [Sidenote: Many aduenturers.] Afterwards, the same Goldfiners promised great matters thereof if there were any store to be found, and offered themselues to aduenture for the searching of those parts from whence the same was brought. Some that had great hope of the matter sought secretly to haue a lease at her Maiesties hands of those places, whereby to inioy the masse of so great a publike profit vnto their owne priuate gaines. In conclusion, the hope of more of the same golde ore to be found kindled a great opinion in the hearts of many to aduance the voyage againe. [Sidenote: In the second voyage commission was giuen onely for the bringing of ore.] Whereupon preparation was made for a new voyage against the yere folowing, and the captaine more specially directed by commission for the searching more of this golde ore then for the searching any further discouery of the passage. And being well accompanied with diuers resolute and forward gentlemen, her Maiesty then lying at the right honourable the lord of Warwicks house in Essex, he came to take his leaue, and kissing her hignesse hands, with gracious countenance and comfortable words departed toward his charge. A true report of such things as happened in the second voyage of captaine Frobisher, pretended for the discouery of a new passage to Cataya, China and the East India, by the Northwest. Ann. Dom. 1577. Being furnished with one tall ship of her Maiesties, named The Ayde, of two hundred tunne, and two other small barks, the one named The Gabriel, the other The Michael, about thirty tun a piece, being fitly appointed with men, munition, victuals, and all things necessary for the voyage, the sayd captaine Frobisher, with the rest of his company came aboord his ships riding at Blackwall, intending (with Gods helpe) to take the first winde and tide seruing him, the 25 day of May, in the yere of our Lord God 1577. The names of such gentlemen as attempted this discouery, and the number of souldiers and mariners in ech ship, as followeth. Aboord the Ayd being Admirall were the number of 100 men of all sorts, whereof 30 or moe were Gentlemen and Souldiers, the rest sufficient and tall Sailers. Aboord the Gabriel being Viceadmirall, were in all 18 persons, whereof sixe were Souldiers, the rest Mariners. Aboord the Michael were 16 persons, whereof fiue were Souldiers, the rest Mariners. Aboord the Ayde was: Generall of the whole company for her Maiestie: Martin Frobisher. His Lieutenant George Best. His Ensigne Richard Philpot. Corporall of the shot Francis Forfar. The rest of the gentlemen: Henry Carew. Edmund Stafford. John Lee. M. Haruie. Mathew Kinersley. Abraham Lins. Robert Kinersley. Francis Brakenbury. William Armshow. The Master Christopher Hall. The Mate Charles Iackman. The Pilot Andrew Dier. The Master gunner Richard Cox. Aboord the Gabriell was: Captaine Edward Fenton One Gentleman William Tamfield. The Maister William Smyth. Aboord the Michaell was: Captaine Gilbert Yorke. One Gentleman Thomas Chamberlaine. The Maister Iames Beare. On Whitsunday being the 26 of May, Anno 1577, early in the morning, we weighed anker at Blackwall, and fell that tyde downe to Grauesend, where we remained vntill Monday, at night. [Sidenote: They receiued the communion.] On Monday morning the 27 of May, aboord the Ayde we receiued all the Communion by the Minister of Grauesend, and prepared vs as good Christians towards God, and resolute men for all fortunes: and towards night we departed to Tilbery Hope. [Sidenote: The number of men in this voyage.] Tuesday the eight and twenty of May, about nine of the clocke at night, we arriued at Harwitch in Essex and there stayed for the taking in of certaine victuals, vntill Friday being the thirtieth of May, during which time came letters from the Lordes of the Councell, straightly commanding our General, not to exceede his complement and number appointed him, which was, one hundred and twentie persons: whereupon he discharged many proper men which with vnwilling mindes departed. [Sidenote: The condemned men discharged.] He also dismissed all his condemned men, which he thought for some purposes very needefull for the voyage, and towards night vpon Friday the one and thirtieth of May we set saile, and put to the Seas againe. [Sidenote: The first arriuall after our departing from England.] And sailing Northward alongst the East coasts of England and Scotland, the seuenth day of Iune we arriued in Saint Magnus sound in Orkney Ilands, called in Latine Orcades, and came to ancker on the South side of the Bay, and this place is reckoned from Blackwall where we set saile first leagues.[64] Here our companie going on lande, the Inhabitants of these Ilandes beganne to flee as from the enemie, whereupon the Lieutenant willed euery man to stay togither, and went himselfe vnto their houses, to declare what we were and the cause of our comming thither, which being vnderstood after their poore maner they friendly entreated vs, and brought vs for our money such things as they had. [Sidenote: A Mine of siluer found in Orkney.] And here our gold finders found a Mine of siluer. Orkney is the principall of the Isles of the Orcades, and standeth in the latitude of fiftie nine degrees and a halfe. The countrey is much subiect to colde, answerable for such a climate, and yet yeeldeth some fruites, and sufficient maintenance for the people contented so poorely to liue. There is plentie ynough of Poultrey, store of egges, fish, and foule. For their bread they haue Oaten Cakes, and their drinke is Ewes milke, and in some partes Ale. Their houses are but poore without and sluttish ynough within, and the people in nature thereunto agreeable. For their fire they burne heath and turffe, the Countrey in most parts being voide of wood. They haue great want of Leather, and desire our old Shoes, apparell, and old ropes (before money) for their victuals, and yet are they not ignorant of the value of our coine. [Sidenote: Kyrway the chiefe towne of Orkney.] The chiefe towne is called Kyrway.[65] [Sidenote: S. Magnus sound why so called.] In this Island hath bene sometime an Abbey or a religious house called Saint Magnus, being on the West side of the Ile, whereof this sound beareth name, through which we passed. Their Gouernour chiefe Lord is called the Lord Robert Steward, who at our being there, as we understood, was in durance at Edenburgh, by the Regents commandement of Scotland. After we had prouided vs here of matter sufficient for our voyage the eight of Iune wee set sayle againe, and passing through Saint Magnus sound hauing a merrie winde by night, came cleare and lost sight of all the land, and keeping our course West Northwest by the space of two dayes, the winde shifted vpon vs so that we lay in trauerse on the Seas, with contrary windes, making good (as neere as we could) our course to the westward, and sometime to the Northward, as the winde shifted. And hereabout we met with 3 saile of English fishermen from Iseland, bound homeward, by whom we wrote our letters vnto our friends in England. [Sidenote: Great bodies of trees driuing in the seas.] We trauersed these Seas by the space of 26 dayes without sight of any land, and met with much drift wood, and whole bodies of trees. [Sidenote: Monstrous fish and strange foule liuing onely by the Sea.] We sawe many monsterous fishes and strange foules, which seemed to live onely by the Sea, being there so farre distant from any land. At length God fauoured vs with more prosperous windes, and after wee had sayled foure dayes with good winde in the Poop, the fourth of Iuly the Michael being foremost a head shot off a peece of Ordinance, and stroke all her sayles, supposing that they had descryed land which by reason of the thicke mistes they could not make perfit: [Sidenote: Water being blacke and smooth signifieth land to be neere.] howbeit, as well our account as also the great alteration of the water, which became more blacke and smooth, did plainely declare we were not farre off the coast. [Sidenote: Ilands of yce.] Our Generall sent his Master aboord the Michaell (who had beene with him the yeere before) to beare in with the place to make proofe thereof, who descryed not the land perfect, but sawe sundry huge Ilands of yce, which we deemed to be not past twelue leagues from the shore, [Sidenote: The first sight of Frisland the 4. of Iuly.] for about tenne of the clocke at night being the fourth of Iuly, the weather being more cleare, we made the land perfect and knew it to be Frislande. And the heigth being taken here, we found ourselues to be in the latitude of 60 degrees and a halfe, and were fallen with the Southermost part of this land. Betweene Orkney and Frisland are reckoned leagues.[66] [Sidenote: Frisland described.] This Frislande sheweth a ragged and high lande, hauing the mountaines almost couered ouer with snow alongst the coast full of drift yce, and seemeth almost inaccessable, and is thought to be an Iland in bignesse not inferiour to England, and is called of some Authors, West Frislande, I thinke because it lyeth more West then any part of Europe. It extendeth in latitude to the Northward very farre as seemed to vs, and appeareth by a description set out by two brethren Venetians, Nicholaus and Antonius Zeni, who being driuen off from Ireland with a violent tempest made shipwracke here, and were the first knowen Christians that discouered this land about two hundred yeares sithence, and they haue in their Sea cardes set out euery part thereof and described the condition of the inhabitants, declaring them to be as ciuill and religous people as we. And for so much of this land as we haue sayled alongst, comparing their Carde with the coast, we finde it very agreeable. [Sidenote: An easie kind of Fishing.] This coast seemeth to haue good fishing, for we lying becalmed let falle a hooke without any bayte and presently caught a great fish called a Hollibut, who serued the whole companie for a dayes meate, and is dangerous meate for surfetting. [Sidenote: White Corrall got by sounding.] And sounding about fiue leagues off from the shore, our leade brought vp in the tallow a kinde of Corrall almost white, and small stones as bright as Christall: and it is not to be doubted but that this land may be found very rich and beneficial if it were thoroughly discovered, although we sawe no creature there but little birdes. [Sidenote: Monstrous Isles of yce, in taste fresh, wherehence they are supposed to come.] It is a maruellous thing to behold of what great bignesse and depth some Ilands of yce be here, some seuentie, some eightie fadome vnder water, besides that which is aboue, seeming Ilands more then halfe a mile in circuit. All these yce are in tast fresh, and seeme to be bredde in the sounds thereabouts, or in some lande neere the pole, and with the winde and tides are driuen alongst the coastes. [Sidenote: The opinion of the frozen seas is destroyed by experience.] We found none of these Ilands of yce salt in taste, whereby it appeareth that they were not congealed of the Ocean Sea water which is alwayes salt, but of some standing or little moouing lakes or great fresh waters neere the shore, caused eyther by melted snowe from tops of mountaines, or by continuall accesse of fresh riuers from the land, and intermingling with the Sea water, bearing yet the dominion (by the force of extreame frost) may cause some part of salt water to freese so with it, and so seeme a little brackish, but otherwise the maine Sea freeseth not, and therefore there is no Mare Glaciale or frosen Sea, as the opinion hitherto hath bene. Our Generall prooued landing here twice, but by the suddaine fall of mistes (whereunto this coast is much subiect) he was like to loose sight of his ships, and being greatly endangered with the driuing yce alongst the coast, was forced aboord and faine to surcease his pretence till a better opportunitie might serue: and hauing spent foure dayes and nights sayling alongst this land, finding the coast subiect to such bitter colde and continuall mistes he determined to spend no more time therein, but to beare out his course towards the streights called Frobishers streights after the Generals name, who being the first that euer passed beyond 58 degrees to the Northwardes, for any thing that hath beene yet knowen of certaintie of New found land, otherwise called the continent or firme land of America, discouered the saide straights this last yere 1576. [Sidenote: The Stirrage of the Michaell broken by tempest.] Betweene Frisland and the Straights we had one great storme, wherein the Michaell was somewhat in danger, hauing her Stirrage broken, and her toppe Mastes blowen ouer boord, and being not past 50 leagues short of the Straights by our account, we stroke sayle and lay a hull, fearing the continuance of the storme, the winde being at the Northeast, and hauing lost companie of the Barkes in that flaw of winde, we happily met againe the seuenteenth day of Iuly, hauing the euening before seene diuers Ilands of fleeting yce, which gaue an argument that we were not farre from land. [Sidenote: The first entrance of the Straights.] Our Generall in the morning from the maine top (the weather being reasonable cleare) descried land, but to better assured he sent the two Barkes two contrarie courses, whereby they might discry either the South or North foreland, the Ayde lying off and on at Sea, with a small sayle by an Iland of yce, which was the marke for vs to meet together againe. [Sidenote: Halles Iland.] And about noone, the weather being more cleare, we made the North foreland perfite, which otherwise is called Halles Iland, and also the small Iland bearing the name of the sayd Hall whence the Ore was taken vp which was brought into England this last yeere 1576 the said Hall being present at the finding and taking vp thereof, who was then Maister in the Gabriell with Captaine Frobisher. At our arriuall here all the Seas about this coast were so couered ouer with huge quantitie of great yce, that we thought these places might onely deserue the name of Mare Glaciale, and be called the Isie Sea. [Sidenote: The description of the straights.] This North forland is thought to be deuided from the continent of the Northerland, by a little sound called Halles sound, which maketh it an Iland, and is thought little lesse then the Ile of Wight, and is the first entrance of the Straights vpon the Norther side, and standeth in the latitude of sixtie two degrees and fiftie minutes, and is reckoned from Frisland leagues.[67] God hauing blessed vs with so happie a land-fall, we bare into the Straights which runne in next hand, and somewhat further vp to the Northwarde, and came as neere the shore as wee might for the yce, and vpon the eighteenth day [Sidenote: No more gold Ore found in the first Iland.] of Iuly our Generall taking the Goldfiners with him, attempted to goe on shore with a small rowing Pinnesse, vpon the small Islande where the Ore was taken vp, to prooue whether there were any store thereof to be found, but he could not get in all that Iland a peece so bigge as a Walnut, where the first was found. But our men which sought the other Ilands thereabouts found them all to haue good store of the Ore, whereupon our Generall with these good tidings returned aboord about tenne of the clocke at night, and was ioyfully welcommed of the company with a volie of shot. [Sidenote: Egs and foules of Meta incognita. Snares set to catch birds withall.] He brought egges, foules, and a young Seale aboord, which the companie had killed ashore, and hauing found vpon those Ilands ginnes set to catch fowle, and stickes newe cut, with other things, he well perceiued that not long before some of the countrey people had resorted thither. Hauing therefore found those tokens of the peoples accesse in those parts, and being in his first voyage well acquainted with their subtill and cruell disposition, hee prouided well for his better safetie, and on Friday the nineteenth of Iuly in the morning early, with his best companie of Gentlemen and souldiers to the number of fortie persons, went on shore, aswell to discouer the Inland and habitation of the people, as also to finde out some fit harborowe for our shippes. And passing towardes the shoare with no small difficultie by reason of the abundance of yce which lay alongst the coast so thicke togither that hardly any passage through them might be discouered, we arriued at length vpon the maine of Halles greater Iland, and found there also aswell as in the other small Ilands good store of the Ore. [Sidenote: The building of a Columne, called Mount Warwicke.] And leauiug his boates here with sufficient guarde we passed vp into the countrey about two English miles, and recouered the toppe of a high hill, on the top whereof our men made a Columne or Crosse of stones heaped vp of a good heigth togither in good sort, and solemnly sounded a Trumpet, and saide certaine prayers kneeling about the Ensigne, and honoured the place by the name of Mount Warwicke, in remembrance of the Right Honorable the Lord Ambrose Dudley Earle of Warwicke, whose noble mind and good countenance in this, as in all other good actions, gaue great encouragement and good furtherance. This done, we retyred our companies not seeing any thing here worth further discouerie, the countrey seeming barren and full of ragged mountaines and in most parts couered with snow. [Sidenote: The first sight of countrie people, wafting with a flagge.] And thus marching towards our botes, we espied certaine countrey people on the top of Mount Warwick with a flag wafting vs backe againe and making great noise with cries like the mowing of Buls seeming greatly desirous of conference with vs: whereupon the Generall being therewith better acquainted, answered them againe with the like cries, whereat and with the noise of our trumpets they seemed greatly to reioice, skipping, laughing, and dancing for ioy. And hereupon we made signes vnto them, holding vp two fingers, commanding two of our men to go apart from our companies, whereby they might do the like. [Sidenote: The meeting apart of two Englishmen with two of that countrey.] So that forthwith two of our men and two of theirs met together a good space from company, neither partie hauing their weapons about them. Our men gaue them pins and points and such trifles as they had. And they likewise bestowed on our men two bow cases and such things as they had. They earnestly desired our men to goe vp into their countrey, and our men offered them like kindnesse aboord our ships, but neither part (as it seemed) admitted or trusted the others courtesie. [Sidenote: The order of their traffique.] Their maner of traffique is thus, they doe vse to lay downe of their marchandise vpon the ground, so much as they meane to part withal, and so looking that the other partie with whom they make trade should do the like, they themselues doe depart, and then if they doe like of their Mart they come againe, and take in exchange the others marchandise, otherwise if they like not, they take their owne and depart. The day being thus well neere spent, in haste wee retired our companies into our boates againe, minding foorthwith to search alongst the coast for some harborow fit for our shippes, for the present necessitie thereof was much, considering that all this while they lay off and on betweene the two landes, being continually subiect aswell to great danger of fleeting yce, which enuironed them, as to the sodaine flawes which the coast seemeth much subiect vnto. But when the people perceiued our departure, with great tokens of affection they earnestly called vs backe againe, following vs almost to our boates: whereupon our Generall taking his Master with him, who was best acquainted with their maners, went apart vnto two of them, meaning, if they could lay sure hold vpon them, forcibly to bring them aboord, with intent to bestow certaine toyes and apparell vpon the one, and so to dismisse him with all arguments of curtesie, and retaine the other for an Interpreter. [Sidenote: Another meeting of two of our men with two of theirs.] The Generall and his Maister being met with their two companions togither, after they had exchanged certaine things the one with the other, one of the Saluages for lacke of better marchandise, cut off the tayle of his coat (which is a chiefe ornament among them) and gaue it vnto our Generall for a present. But he presently vpon a watchword giuen with his Maister sodainely laid hold vpon the two Saluages. But the ground vnderfoot being slipperie with the snow on the side of the hill, their handfast fayled and their prey escaping ranne away and lightly recouered their bow and arrowes, which they had hid not farre from them behind the rockes. [Sidenote: The Englishmen chased to their boates.] And being onely two Saluages in sight, they so fiercely, desperately, and with such fury assaulted and pursued our Generall and his Master, being altogether vnarmed, and not mistrusting their subtiltie that they chased them to their boates, and hurt the Generall in the buttocke with an arrow, who the rather speedily fled backe, becasuse they suspected a greater number behind the rockes. Our souldiers (which were commanded before to keepe their boates) perceiuing the danger, and hearing our men calling for shot came speedily to rescue, thinking there had bene a greater number. But when the Saluages heard the shot of one of our caliuers (and yet hauing first bestowed their arrowes) they ranne away, our men speedily following them. [Sidenote: One of that Countreymen taken.] But a seruant of my Lorde of Warwick, called Nicholas Conger a good footman, and vncumbred with any furniture hauing only a dagger at his backe ouertooke one of them, and being a Cornishman and a good wrastler, shewed his companion such a Cornish tricke, that he made his sides ake against the ground for a moneth after. And so being stayed, he was taken aliue and brought away, but the other escaped. Thus with their strange and new prey our men repaired to their boates, and passed from the maine to a small Iland of a mile compasse, where they resolued to tarrie all night; for euen now a sodaine storme was growen so great at sea, that by no meanes they could recouer their ships. And here euery man refreshed himselfe with a small portion of victuals which was laide into the boates for their dinners, hauing neither eate nor drunke all the day before. But because they knewe not how long the storme might last, nor how farre off the shippes might be put to sea, nor whether they should euer recouer them againe or not, they made great spare of their victuals, as it greatly behoued them: For they knew full well that the best cheare the countrey could yeeld them, was rockes and stones, a hard food to liue withall, and the people more readie to eate them then to giue them wherewithall to eate. And thus keeping verie good watch and warde, they lay there all night vpon hard cliffes of snow and yce both wet, cold, and comfortlesse. These things thus hapning with the company on land, the danger of the ships at Sea was no lesse perilous. [Sidenote: The Ayde set on fire.] For within one houre after the Generals departing in the morning by negligence of the Cooke in ouer-heating, and the workman in making the chimney, the Ayde was set on fire, and had bene the confusion of the whole if by chance a boy espying it, it had not bene speedily with great labour and Gods helpe well extinguished, [Sidenote: The great danger of these rockes of yce.] This day also were diuerse stormes and flawes, and by nine of the clocke at night the storme was growen so great, and continued such vntill the morning, that it put our ships at sea in no small perill: for hauing mountaines of fleeting yce on euery side, we went roomer for one, and loofed for another, some scraped vs, and some happily escaped vs, that the least of a M. were as dangerous to strike as any rocke, and able to haue split asunder the strongest ship of the world. We had a scope of cleare without yce, (as God would) wherein we turned, being otherwise compassed on euery side about: but so much was the winde and so litle was our sea roome, that being able to beare onely our forecourse we cast so oft about, that we made fourteene bordes in eight glasses running, being but foure houres: [Sidenote: Night without darknes in that countrey.] but God being our best Steresman, and by the industry of Charles Iackman and Andrew Dyer then masters mates, both very expert Mariners and Richard Cox the maister Gunner, with other very carefull sailers, then within bord, and also by the helpe of the cleare nights which are without darknesse, we did happily auoide those present dangers, whereat since wee haue more maruelled then in the present danger feared, for that euery man within borde, both better and worse had ynough to doe with his hands to hale ropes, and with his eyes to looke out for danger. But the next morning being the 20 of Iuly, as God would, the storme ceased, and the Generall espying the ships with his new Captiue and whole company, came happily abord, and reported what had passed a shoare, whereupon altogither vpon our knees we gaue God humble and hartie thankes, for that it had pleased him, from so speedy peril to send vs such speedy deliuerance, and so from this Northerne shore we stroke ouer towards the Southerland. [Sidenote: Our first comming on the Southerland of the sayd straights.] The one and twentieth of Iuly, we discovered a bay which ranne into the land, that seemed a likely harborow for our ships, wherefore our Generall rowed thither with his boats, to make proofe thereof, and with his goldfiners to search for Ore, hauing neuer assayed any thing on the South shore as yet, and the first small Island which we landed vpon. [Sidenote: A Mine of Blacke-lead.] Here all the sands and clifts did so glister and had so bright a marquesite, that it seemed all to be gold, but vpon tryall made it prooued no better then black-lead, and verified the prouerb. All is not gold that glistereth. Vpon the two and twentieth of Iuly we bare into the sayde sound, and came to ancker a reasonable bredth off the shore, where thinking our selues in good securitie, we were greatly endangered with a peece of drift yce, which the Ebbe brought forth of the sounds and came thwart vs ere we were aware. But the gentlemen and souldiers within bord taking great paines at this pinch at the Capstone, overcame the most danger thereof, and yet for all that might be done, it stroke on our sterne such a blow, that we feared least it had striken away our rudder, and being forced to cut our Cable in the hawse, we were faine to set our fore saile to runne further vp within, and if our stirrage had not bene stronger then in the present time we feared, we had runne the ship vpon the rockes, hauing a very narrow Channell to turne in, but as God would, all came well to passe. [Iackmans sound.] And this was named Iackmans sound, after the name of the Masters mate, who had first liking vnto the place. [Sidenote: Smiths Iland.] Vpon a small Iland, within this sound called Smithes Iland (because he first set vp his forge there) was found a Mine of siluer, but was not wonne out of the rockes without great labour. Here our goldfiners made say of such Ore as they found vpon the Northerland, and found foure sortes thereof to holde golde in good quantitie. Vpon another small Iland here was also found a great dead fish, which as it should seeme, had bene embayed with yce, and was in proportion round like to a Porpose, being about twelue foote long, and in bignesse answerable, hauing a horne of two yards long growing out of the snoute or nostrels. [Sidenote: The finding of an Vnicornes horne.] This horne is wreathed and straite, like in fashion to a Taper made of waxe, and may truely be thought to be the sea Vnicorne.[68] This home is to be seene and reserued as a Iewell by the Queenes Maiesties commandement, in her Wardrope of Robes. Tuesday the three and twentieth of Iuly, our Generall with his best company of gentlemen, souldiers and saylers, to the number of seuentie persons in all, marched with ensigne displayde, vpon the continent of the Southerland (the supposed continent of America) where, commanding a Trumpet to sound a call for euery man to repaire to the ensigne, he declared to the whole company how much the cause imported for the seruice of her Maiestie, our countrey, our credits, and the safetie of our owne liues, and therefore required euery man to be conformable to order, and to be directed by those he should assigne. And he appointed for leaders, Captaine Fenton, Captaine Yorke, and his Lieutenant George Beste: which done, we cast our selues into a ring, and altogether vpon our knees, gaue God humble thanks for that it had pleased him of his great goodnesse to preserue vs from such imminent dangers, beseeching likewise the assistance of his holy spirite, so to deliuer vs in safetie into our Countrey, whereby the light and truth of these secrets being knowen, it might redound to the more honour of his holy name, and consequently to the aduancement of our common wealth. And so, in as good sort as the place suffered, we marched towards the tops of the mountaines, which were no lesse painfull in climbing then dangerous in descending, by reason of their steepenesse and yce. And hauing passed about fiue miles, by such vnwieldie wayes, we returned vnto our ships without sight of any people, or likelihood of habitation. Here diuerse of the Gentlemen desired our Generall to suffer them to the number of twentie or thirtie persones to march vp thirtie or fortie leagues in the countrey, to the end they might discouer the Inland, and doe some acceptable seruice for their countrey. But he not contented with the matter he sought for, and well considering the short time he had in hand, and the greedie desire our countrey hath to a present sauor and returne of gaine, bent his whole indeuour only to find a Mine to fraight his ships, and to leave the rest (by Gods helpe) hereafter to be well accomplished. And therefore the twentie sixe of Iuly he departed ouer to the Northland, with the two barkes, leauing the Ayde ryding in Iackmans sound; and ment (after hee had found conuenient harborow, and fraight there for his ships) to discouer further for the passage. The Barkes came the same night to ancker in a sound vpon the Northerland, where the tydes did runne so swift, and the place was so subiect to indrafts of yce; that by reason thereof they were greatly endangered, and hauing found a very rich Myne, as they supposed, and got almost twentie tunne of Ore together, vpon the 28 of Iuly the yce came driuing into the sound where the Barkes rode, in such sort, that they were therewith greatly distressed. And the Gabriell riding asterne the Michael, had her Cable gauld asunder in the hawse with a peece of driuing yce, and lost another ancker, and hauing but one cable and ancker left, for she had lost two before, and the yce still driuing vpon her, she was (by Gods helpe) well fenced from the danger of the rest, by one great Iland of yce, which came a ground hard a head of her, which if it had not so chanced, I thinke surely shee had bene cast vpon the rockes with the yce. The Michael mored ancker vpon this great yce, and roade vnder the lee thereof: but about midnight, by the weight of it selfe, and the setting of the Tydes, the yce brake within halfe the Barkes length, and made vnto the companie within boord a sodaine and fearefull noyse. [Sidenote: Beares sound. Lecesters Iland.] The next flood toward the morning we weyed ancker, and went further vp the straights, and leauing our Ore behind vs which we had digged, for hast left the place by the name of Beares sound after the masters name of the Michaell, and named the Iland Lecesters Iland. [Sidenote: A tombe with a dead mans bones in it.] In one of the small Ilands here we founde a Tombe, wherein the bones of a dead man lay together, and our Sauage Captiue being with vs, and being demanded by signes whether his countreymen had not slaine this man and eat his flesh so from the bones, he made signes to the contrary, and that he was slaine with Wolues and wild beasts. Here also was found hid vnder stones good store of fish, and [Sidenote: Bridles, kniues, and other instruments found hid among the rockes.] sundry other things of the inhabitants; as sleddes, bridles, kettels of fish-skinnes, kniues of bone, and such other like. And our Sauage declared vnto vs the vse of all those things. [Sidenote: They vse great dogs to draw sleds, and little dogs for their meat.] And taking in his hand one of those countrey bridles, he caught one of our dogges and hampred him handsomely therein, as we doe our horses, and with a whip in his hand, he taught the dogge to drawe in a sled as we doe horses in a coach, setting himselfe thereupon like a guide: so that we might see they vse dogges for that purpose that we do our horses. And we found since by experience, that the lesser sort of dogges they feede fatte, and keepe them as domesticall cattell in their tents for their eating, and the greater sort serue for the vse of drawing their sleds. The twentie ninth of Iuly, about fiue leagues from Beares sound, we discouered a Bay which being fenced on ech side with smal Ilands lying off the maine, which breake the force of the tides, and make the place free from any indrafts of yce, did prooue a very fit harborow for our ships, where we came to ancker vnder a small Ilande, which now together with the sound is called by the name of that right Honourable and vertuous Ladie, Anne Countesse of Warwicke. [Sidenote: Thirty leagues discouered within the straites.] And this is the furthest place that this yeere we haue entred vp within the streits, and is reckoned from the Cape of the Queenes foreland, which is the entrance of the streites not aboue 30 leagues. Vpon this Iland was found good store of Ore, which in the washing helde golde to our thinking plainly to be seene: whereupon it was thought best rather to load here, where there was store and indifferent good, then to seeke further for better, and spend time with ieoperdie. [Sidenote: A good president of a good Captain shewed by Captain Frobisher.] And therefore our Generall setting the Myners to worke, and shewing first a good president of a painefull labourer and a goode Captaine in himselfe, gaue good examples for other to follow him: whereupon euery man both better and worse, with their best endeuours willingly layde to their helping hands. And the next day, being the thirtieth of Iuly, the Michaell was sent ouer to Iackmans sound, for the Ayde and the whole companie to come thither. [Sidenote: The maner of their houses in this country.] Vpon the maine land ouer against the Countesses Iland we discouered and behelde to our greate maruell the poore caues and houses of those countrey people, which serue them (as it should seeme) for their winter dwellings, and are made two fadome vnder grounde, in compasse round, like to an Ouen, being ioyned fast one by another, hauing holes like to a Foxe or Conny berry, to keepe and come togither. They vndertrenched these places with gutters so, that the water falling from the hilles aboue them, may slide away without their annoyance: and are seated commonly in the foote of a hill, to shield them better from the cold windes, hauing their doore and entrance euer open towards the South. [Sidenote: Whales bones vsed in stead of timber.] From the ground vpward they builde with whales bones, for lacke of timber, which bending one ouer another, are handsomely compacted in the top together, and are couered ouer with Seales skinnes, which in stead of tiles, fence them from the raine. In which house they haue only one roome, hauing the one halfe of the floure raised with broad stones a foot higher than the other, whereon strawing Mosse, they make their nests to sleep in. [Sidenote: The sluttishness of these people.] They defile these dennes most filthily with their beastly feeding, and dwell so long in a place (as we thinke) vntill their sluttishnes lothing them, they are forced to seeke a sweeter ayre, and a new seate, and are (no doubt) a dispersed and wandring nation, as the Tartarians, and liue in hords and troupes, without any certaine abode, as may appeare by sundry circumstances of our experience. [Sidenote: A signe set vp by the sauage captiue, and the meaning thereof.] Here our captiue being ashore with vs, to declare the vse of such things as we saw, stayd himselfe alone behind the company, and did set vp fiue small stickes round in a circle one by another, with one smal bone placed iust in the middest of all: which thing when one of our men perceiued, he called vs backe to behold the matter, thinking that hee had meant some charme or witchcraft therein. But the best coniecture we could make thereof was, that hee would thereby his countreymen should vnderstand, that for our fiue men which they betrayed the last yeere (whom he signified by the fiue stickes) he was taken and kept prisoner, which he signified by the bone in the midst. [Sidenote: The sauage captiue amazed at his countreimans picture.] For afterwards when we shewed him the picture of his countreman, which the last yeere was brought into England (whose counterfeit we had drawen with boate and other furniture, both as he was in his own, and also in English apparel) he was vpon the sudden much amazed thereat, and beholding aduisedly the same with silence a good while, as though he would streine courtesie whether should begin the speech (for he thought him no doubt a liuely creature) at length began to question with him, as with his companion, and finding him dumb and mute, seemed to suspect him, as one disdeinfull, and would with a little helpe haue growen into choller at the matter, vntill at last by feeling and handling, hee found him but a deceiuing picture. And then with great noise and cryes, ceased not wondring, thinking that we could make men liue or die at our pleasure. And thereupon calling the matter to his remembrance, he gaue vs plainely to vnderstand by signes, that he had knowledge of the taking of our fiue men the last yeere, and confessing the maner of ech thing, numbred the fiue men vpon his fiue fingers, and pointed vnto a boat in our ship, which was like vnto that wherein our men were betrayed: And when we made him signes, that they were slaine and eaten, he earnestly denied, and made signes to the contrary. [Sidenote: Another shew of twenty persons of that countrey in one boate.] The last of Iuly the Michael returned with the Aide to vs from the Southerland, and came to anker by vs in the Countesse of Watwicks sound, and reported that since we departed from Iackmans sound there happened nothing among them there greatly worth the remembrance, vntill the thirtieth of Iuly, when certaine of our company being a shoare vpon a small Island within the sayd Iackmans sound, neere the place where the Aide rode, did espie a long boat with diuers of the countrey people therein, to the number of eighteene or twenty persons, whom so soone as our men perceiued, they returned speedily aboord, to giue notice thereof vnto our company. They might perceiue these people climbing vp to the top of a hill, where with a flagge, they wafted vnto our ship, and made great out cries and noyses, like so many Buls. Hereupon our men did presently man foorth a small skiffe, hauing not aboue sixe or seuen persons therein, which rowed neere the place where those people were, to prooue if they could haue any conference with them. But after this small boate was sent a greater, being wel appointed for their rescue, if need required. As soone as they espied our company comming neere them, they tooke their boates and hasted away, either for feare, or else for pollicie, to draw our men from rescue further within their danger: wherefore our men construing that their comming thither was but to seeke aduantage, followed speedily after them, but they rowed so swiftly away, that our men could come nothing neere them. Howbeit they failed not of their best indeuour in rowing, and hauing chased them aboue two miles into the sea, returned into their ships againe. [Sidenote: Yorkes sound.] The morning following being the first of August, Captaine Yorke with the Michael came into Iackmans sound, and declared vnto the company there, that the last night past he came to anker in a certaine baye (which sithens was named Yorkes sound) about foure leagues distant from Iackmans sound, being put to leeward of that place for lacke of winde, where he discouered certaine tents of the countrey people, where going with his company ashore, he entred into them, but found the people departed, as it should seeme, for feare of their comming. But amongst sundry strange things which in these tents they found, there was rawe and new killed flesh of vnknowen sorts, with dead carcases and bones of dogs, and I know not what. [Sidenote: The apparel found againe of our English men which the yere before were taken.] They also beheld (to their greatest marueile) a dublet of Canuas made after the English fashion, a shirt, a girdle, three shoes for contrary feete, and of vnequall bignesse, which they well coniectured to be the apparell of our fiue poore countreymen, which were intercepted the last yeere by these Countrey people, about fiftie leagues from this place, further within the Straights. [Sidenote: A good deuise of Captaine Yorke.] Whereupon our men being in good hope, that some of them might be here, and yet liuing: the Captaine deuising for the best left his mind behind him in writing, with pen, yncke, and paper also, whereby our poore captiue countrymen, if it might come to their hands, might know their friends minds, and of their arriuall, and likewise returne their answere. And so without taking any thing away in their tents, leauing there also looking glasses, points, and other of our toyes (the better to allure them by such friendly meanes) departed aboord his Barker, with intent to make haste to the Aide, to giue notice vnto the company of all such things as he had there discouered: and so meant to returne to these tents againe, hoping that he might by force or policie intrappe or intice the people to some friendly conference. Which things when he had deliuered to the whole company there, they determined forthwith to go in hand with the matter. Hereupon Captaine Yorke with the master of the Aide and his mate (who the night before had bene at the tents, and came ouer from the other side in the Michael with him) being accompanied with the Gentlemen and souldiors to the number of thirty or forty persons in two small rowing Pinnasses made towards the place, where the night before they discovered the tents of those people, and setting Charles Iackman, being the Masters mate, ashore with a convenient number, for that he could best guide them to the place, they marched ouer land, meaning to compasse them on the one side, whilest the Captaine with his boates might entrap them on the other side. But landing at last at the place where the night before they left them, they found them with their tents remoued. Notwithstanding, our men which marched vp into the countrey, passing ouer two or three mountaines, by chance espied certaine tents in a valley vnderneath them neere vnto a creeke by the Sea side, which because it was not the place where the guide had bene the night before, they iudged them to be another company, and be setting them about, determined to take them if they could. [Sidenote: The Sauages haue boats of sundry bignes.] But they having quickly descried our companie, launched one great and another smal boat, being about 16 or 18 persons, and very narrowly escaping, put themselues to sea. [Sidenote: The Englishmen pursue those people of that countrey. The swift rowing of those people.] Whereupon our souldiers discharged their Caliuers, and followed them, thinking the noise therof being heard to our boats at sea, our men there would make what speede they might to that place. [Sidenote: The bloody point. Yorkes sound.] And thereupon indeede our men which were in the boates (crossing vpon them in the mouth of the sound whereby their passage was let from getting sea roome, wherein it had bene impossible for vs to ouertake them by rowing) forced them to put themselues ashore vpon a point of land within the sayd sound (which vpon the occasion of the slaughter there, was since named The bloody point) whereunto our men so speedily followed, that they had little leisure left them to make any escape. But so soone as they landed each of them brake his Oare, thinking by that meanes to preuent vs, in carrying away their boates for want of Oares. [Sidenote: A hot skirmish betweene the English and them of that countrey.] And desperately returning vpon our men, resisted them manfully in their landing, so long as their arrowes and dartes lasted, and after gathering vp those arrowes which our men shot at them, yea, and plucking our arrowes out of their bodies incountred fresh againe, and maintained their cause vntill both weapons and life fayled them. [Sidenote: The desperate nature of those people.] And when they found they were mortally wounded, being ignorant what mercy meaneth, with deadly fury they cast themselues headlong from off the rockes into the sea, least perhaps their enemies should receiue glory or prey of their dead carcaises, for they supposed vs belike to be Canibals or eaters of mans flesh. [Sidenote: The taking of the woman and her child.] In this conflict one of our men was dangerously hurt in the belly with one of their arrowes, and of them were slaine fiue or sixe, the rest by flight escaping among the rockes, sauing two women, whereof the one being old and vgly, our men thought shee had bene a deuill or some witch, and therefore let her goe: the other being yong, and cumbred with a sucking childe at her backe, hiding her selfe behind the rockes, was espied by one of our men, who supposing she had bene a man, shot through the haire of her head, and pierced through the childs arme, whereupon she cried out, and our Surgeon meaning to heale her childes arme, applyed salues thereunto. [Sidenote: A prety kind of surgery which nature teacheth.] But she not acquainted with such kind of surgery, plucked those salues away, and by continuall licking with her owne tongue, not much vnlike our dogs, healed vp the childes arme. And because the day was welneere spent our men made haste vnto the rest of our company which on the other side of the water remained at the tents, where they found by the apparell, letter, and other English furniture, that they were the same company which Captaine Yorke discouered the night before, hauing remoued themselues from the place where he left them. And now considering their sudden flying from our men, and their desperate maner of fighting, we began to suspect that we had heard the last newes of our men which the last yere were betrayed of these people. And considering also their rauenous and bloody disposition in eating any kind of raw flesh or carrion howsoeuer stinking, it is to bee thought that they had slaine and deuoured our men: For the dublet which was found in their tents had many holes therein being made with their arrowes and darts. But now the night being at hand, our men with their captiues and such poore stuffe as they found in their tents, returned towards their ships, when being at sea, there arose a sudden flaw of winde, which was not a little dangerous for their small boates: but as God would they came all safely aboord. And with these good newes they returned (as before mentioned) into the Countesse of Warwicks sound vnto vs. [Sidenote: The narrowest place of the Straites is 9. leagues ouer.] And betweene Iackmans sound, from whence they came, and the Countesse of Warwicks sound betweene land, and land, being thought the narrowest place of the Straights were iudged nine leagues ouer at the least: [Sidenote: The Queenes Cape.] and Iackmans sound being vpon the Southerland, lyeth directly almost ouer against the Countesses sound, as is reckoned scarce thirty leagues within the Straights from the Queenes Cape, which is the entrance of the Streits of the Southerland. This Cape being named Queene Elizabeths Cape, standeth in the latitude of 62 degrees and a halfe to the Northwards of New found land, and vpon the same continent, for any thing that is yet knowen to the contrary. [Sidenote: The maner of the meeting of the two captiues, and their entertainment.] Hauing now got a woman captiue for the comfort of our man, we brought them both together, and euery man with silence desired to behold the maner of their meeting and entertainment, the which was more worth the beholding than can be well expressed by writing. At their first encountring they beheld each the other very wistly a good space, without speech or word vttered, with great change of colour and countenance, as though it seemed the griefe and disdeine of their captiuity had taken away the vse of their tongues and vtterance: the woman at the first very suddenly, as though she disdeined or regarded not the man, turned away, and began to sing as though she minded another matter: but being againe brought together, the man brake vp the silence first, and with sterne and stayed countenance, began to tell a long solemne tale to the woman, whereunto she gaue good hearing, and interrupted him nothing, till he had finished, and afterwards, being growen into more familiar acquaintance by speech, they were turned together, so that (I thinke) the one would hardly haue liued without the comfort of the other. And for so much as we could perceiue, albeit they liued continually together, yet they did neuer vse as man and wife, though the woman spared not to doe all necessary things that appertained to a good housewife indifferently for them both, as in making cleane their Cabin, and euery other thing that appertained to his ease: for when he was seasicke, she would make him cleane, she would kill and flea the dogs for their eating, and dresse his meate. [Sidenote: The shamefastess and chastity of those Sauage captiues.] Only I think it worth the noting, the continencie of them both: for the man would neuer shift hemselfe, except he had first caused the woman to depart out of his cabin, and they both were most shamefast, least any of their priue parts should be discouered, either of themselues, or any other body. [Sidenote: Another appearance of the countrey people.] On Munday the sixth of August, the Lieutenant with all the Souldiers, for the better garde of the Myners and other things a shore, pitched their tents in the Countesses Island, and fortifyed the place for their better defence as well as they could, and were to the number of forty persons, when being all at labour, they might perceiue vpon the top of a hill ouer against them a number of the countrey people wafting with a flag, and making great outcries vnto them, and were of the same companie, which had encountred lately our men vpon the other shore, being come to complaine their late losses, and to entreate (as it seemed) for restriction of the woman and child, which our men in the late conflict had taken and brought away; whereupon, the Generall taking the sauage captiue with him, and setting the woman where they might best perceiue her in the highest place in the Island, went ouer to talke with them. This captiue at his first encounter of his friends fell so out into teares that he could not speake a word in a great space, but after a while, ouercomming his kindnesse, he talked at full with his companions, and bestowed friendly vpon them such toyes and trifles as we had giuen him, whereby we noted, that they are very kind one to another, and greatly sorrowfull for the losse of their friends. Our Generall by signes required his fiue men which they tooke captiue the last yeere, and promised them, not only to release those which he had taken, but also to reward them with great gifts and friendship. [Sidenote: Those people know the vse of writing.] Our Sauage made signes in answere from them that our men should be deliuered vs, and were yet liuing, and made signes likewise vnto vs that we should write our letters vnto them, for they knew very well the vse we haue of writing, and receiued knowledge thereof, either of our poore captiue countreymen which they betrayed, or else by this our new captiue who hath seene vs dayly write and repeate againe such words of his language as we desired to learne: but they for this night, because it was late, departed without any letter, although they called earnestly in hast for the same. [Sidenote: A letter sent vnto the fiue English captiues.] And the next morning early being the seuenth of August, they called againe for the letter, which being deliuered vnto them, they speedily departed, making signes with three fingers, and pointing to the Sunne, that they meant to returne within 3 dayes, vntill which time we heard no more of them, and about the time appointed they returned, in such sort as you shal afterwards heare. This night because the people were very neere vnto vs, the Lieutenant caused the Trumpet to sound a call, and euery man in the Island repayring to the Ensigne, he put them in minde of the place so farre from their countrey wherein they liued, and the danger of a great multitude which they were subiect vnto, if good watch and warde were not kept, for at euery low water the enimie might come almost dryfoot from the mayne vnto vs, wherefore he willed euery man to prepare him in good readinesse vpon all sudden occasions, and so giuing the watch their charge, the company departed to rest. I thought the Captaines letter well worth the remembring, not for the circumstance of curious enditing, but for the substance and good meaning therein contained, and therefore haue repeated here the same, as by himselfe it was hastily written. The forme of M. Martin Frobishers letter to the English captiues. In the name of God, in whom we all beleeue, who (I trust) hath preserued your bodies and soules amongst these infidels, I commend me vnto you. I will be glad to seeke by al meanes you can deuise for your deliuerance, either with force, or with any commodities within my ships, which I will not spare for your sakes, or any thing else I can doe for you. I haue aboord, of theirs, a man, a woman, and a child, which I am contented to deliuer for you, but the man which I caried away from hence the last yeere is dead in England. Moreouer you may declare vnto them, that if they deliuer you not, I will not leaue a man aliue in their countrey. And thus, if one of you can come to speake with mee, they shall haue either the man, woman, or childe in pawne for yon. And thus vnto God whom I trust you doe serue, in hast I leaue you, and to him wee will dayly pray for you. This Tuesday morning the seuenth of August. Anno 1577. Yours to the vttermost of my power, MARTIN FROBISHER. [Sidenote: Postscript.] I haue sent you by these bearers, penne, ynke and paper to write backe vnto me againe, if personally you cannot come to certifie me of your estate. [Sidenote: The cause why M. Frobisher entred no further within the streits this yere.] Now had the Generall altered his determination for going any further into the Streites at this time for any further discouery of the passage, hauing taken a man and a woman of that countrey, which he thought sufficient for the vse of the language: and hauing also met with these people here, which intercepted his men the last yere, (as the apparell and English furniture which was found in their tents, very well declared) he knew it was but a labour lost to seeke further off, when he had found them there at hand. And considering also the short time he had in hand, he thought it best to bend his whole endeuour for the getting of Myne, and to leaue the passage further to be discouered hereafter. For his commission directed him in this voyage, onely for the searching of the Ore, and to deferre the further discouery of the passage vntill another time. [Sidenote: Bests bulwarke.] On Thursday the ninth of August we began to make a small Fort for our defence in the Countesse Island, and entrenched a corner of a cliffe, which on three parts like a wall of good height was compassed and well fenced with the sea, and we finished the rest with caskes of the earth, to good purpose, and this was called Bests bulwarke, after the Lieutenants name, who first deuised the same. This was done for that wee suspected more lest the desperate men might oppresse vs with multitude, then any feare we had of their force, weapons, or policie of battel; but as wisdome would vs in such place (so farre from home) not to be of our selues altogether carelesse: [Sidenote: Their King called Catchoe.] so the signes which our captiue made vnto vs, of the comming downe of his Gouernour or Prince, which he called Catchoe, gaue vs occasion to foresee what might ensue thereof, for he shewed by signes that this Catchoe was a man of higher stature farre then any of our nation is, [Sidenote: How he is honoured.] and he is accustomed to be caried vpon mens shoulders. About midnight the Lieutenant caused a false Alarme to be giuen in the Island, to proue as well the readines of the company there ashore, as also what helpe might be hoped for vpon the sudden from the ships if need so required, and euery part was found in good readines vpon such a sudden. Saturday the eleuenth of August the people shewed themselues againe, and called vnto vs from the side of a hil ouer against vs. The General (with good hope to heare of his men, and to haue answere of his letter) went ouer vnto them, where they presented themselues not aboue three in sight, but were hidden indeede in greater numbers behinde the rockes, and making signes of delay with vs to entrappe some of vs to redeeme their owne, did onely seek aduantage to traine our boat aboue a point of land from sight of our companie: [Sidenote: A bladder changed for a looking glasse.] whereupon our men iustly suspecting them, kept aloofe without their danger, and yet set one of our company ashore which tooke vp a great bladder which one of them offered vs, and leauing a looking glasse in the place, came into the boate againe. [Sidenote: No newes of the English captives.] In the meane while our men which stood in the Countesses Island to beholde, who might better discerne them, then those of the boate, by reason they were on higher ground, made a great outcrie vnto our men in the boate, for that they saw diuers of the Sauages creeping behind the rockes towards our men, wherupon the Generall presently returned without tidings of his men. [Sidenote: To what end the bladder was delivered.] Concerning this bladder which we receiued, our Captiue made signes that it was giuen him to keepe water and drinke in, but we suspected rather it was giuen him to swimme and shift away withall, for he and the woman sought diuers times to escape, hauing loosed our boates from asterne our ships, and we neuer a boate left to pursue them withall, and had preuailed very farre, had they not bene very timely espied and preuented therein. [Sidenote: Those people dancing vpon the hil toppes.] After our Generals comming away from them they mustred themselues in our sight, vpon the top of a hill, to the number of twenty in a rancke, all holding hands ouer their heads, and dancing with great noise and songs together: we supposed they made this dance and shew for vs to vnderstand that we might take view of their whole companies and forced, meaning belike that we should doe the same. And thus they continued vpon the hill tops vntill night, when hearing a piece of our great Ordinance, which thundred in the hollownesse of the high hilles, it made vnto them so fearefull a noise, that they had no great will to tarie long after. And this was done more to make them know our force then to doe them any hurt at all. [Sidenote: A skirmish shewed to those people.] On Sunday the 12 of August, Captaine Fenton trained the company, and made the souldiers maintaine a skirmish among themselues, as well for their exercise, as for the countrey people to behold in what readines our men were alwaies to be found, for it was to be thought, that they lay hid in the hilles thereabout, and obserued all the maner of our proceedings. [Sidenote: Their flags made of bladders.] On Wednesday the fourteenth of August, our Generall with two small boates well appointed, for that hee suspected the countrey people to lie lurking thereabout, went vp a certaine Bay within the Countesses sound, to search for Ore, and met againe with the countrey people, who so soone as they saw our men made great outcries, and with a white flag made of bladders sewed together with the guts and sinewes of beasts, wafted vs amaine vnto them, but shewed not aboue three of their company. But when wee came neere them, wee might perceiue a great multitude creeping behinde the rockes, which gaue vs good cause to suspect their traiterous meaning: whereupon we made them signes, that if they would lay their weapons aside, and come foorth, we would deale friendly with them, although their intent was manifested vnto vs: but for all the signes of friendship we could make them they came still creeping towards vs behind the rocks to get more aduantage of vs, as though we had no eyes to see them, thinking belike that our single wits could not discouer so bare deuises and simple drifts of theirs. Their spokesman earnestly perswaded vs with many intising shewes, to come eate and sleepe ashore, with great arguments of courtesie, and clapping his bare hands ouer his head in token of peace and innocencie, willed vs to doe the like. [Sidenote: Great offers.] But the better to allure our hungry stomackes, he brought vs a trimme baite of raw flesh, which for fashion sake with a boat-hooke wee caught into our boate: but when the cunning Cater perceiued his first cold morsell could nothing sharpen our stomacks, he cast about for a new traine of warme flesh to procure our appetites, wherefore be caused one of his fellowes in halting maner, to come foorth as a lame man from behind the rockes, and the better to declare his kindnes in caruing, he hoised him vpon his shoulders, and bringing him hard to the water side where we were, left him there limping as an easie prey to be taken of vs. His hope was that we would bite at this baite, and speedily leape ashore within their danger, wherby they might haue apprehended some of vs, to ransome their friends home againe, which before we had taken. The gentlemen and souldiers had great will to encounter them ashore, but the Generall more carefull by processe of time to winne them, then wilfully at the first to spoile them, would in no wise admit that any man should put himselfe in hazard ashore, considering the matter he now intended was for the Ore, and not for the Conquest: notwithstanding to prooue this cripples footemanship, he gaue liberty for one to shoote: whereupon the cripple hauing a parting blow, lightly recouered a rocke and went away a true and no fained cripple, and hath learned his lesson for euer halting afore such cripples againe. But his fellowes which lay hid before, full quickly then appeared in their likenesse, and maintained the skirmish with their slings, bowes and arrowes very fiercely, and came as neere as the water suffred them: and with as desperate minde as hath bene seene in any men, without feare of shotte or any thing, followed vs all along the coast, but all their shot fell short of vs, and are of little danger. [Sidenote: An hundreth Sauages.] They had belayed all the coast along for vs, and being dispersed so, were not well to be numbred, but wee might discerne of them aboue an hundreth persons, and had cause to suspect a greater number. And thus without losse or hurt we returned to our ships againe. Now our worke growing to an end, and hauing, onely with fiue poore Miners, and the helpe of a few gentlemen and souldiers, brought aboord almost two hundreth tunne of Ore in the space of twenty dayes, euery man therewithall well comforted, determined lustily to worke a fresh for a bone[69] voyage, to bring our labour to a speedy and happy ende. And vpon Wednesday at night, being the one and twentieth of August, we fully finished the whole worke. And it was now good time to leaue, for as the men were well wearied, so their shooes and clothes were well worne, their baskets bottoms torne out, their tooles broken, and the ships reasonably well filled. Some with ouer-straining themselues receiued hurts not a little dangerous, some hauing their bellies broken, and others their legs made lame. And about this time the yce began to congeale and freeze about our ships sides a night, which gaue vs a good argument of the Sunnes declining Southward, and put vs in mind to make more haste homeward. It is not a little worth the memorie, to the commendation of the gentlemen and souldiers herein, who leauing all reputation apart, with so great willingnesse and with couragious stomackes, haue themselues almost ouercome in so short a time the difficultie of this so great a labour. And this to be true, the matter, if it bee well weyed without further proofe, now brought home doth well witnesse. Thursday the 22 of August, we plucked downe our tents, and euery man hasted homeward, and making bonefires vpon the top of the highest Mount of the Island, and marching with Ensigne displayed round about the Island, wee gaue a vollie of shotte for a farewell, in honour of the right honourable Lady Anne, Countesse of Warwicke, whose name it beareth: and so departed aboord. [Sidenote: They returne.] The 23 of August hawing the wind large at West, we set saile from out of the Countesses sound homeward, but the wind calming we came to anker within the point of the same sound againe. The 24 of August about three of the clocke in the morning, hauing the wind large at West, we set saile againe, and by nine of the clocke at night, wee left the Queenes Foreland asterne of vs, and being cleere of the Streites, we bare further into the maine Ocean, keeping our course more Southerly, to bring our selues the sooner vnder the latitude of our owne climate. [Sidenote: Snow halfe a foote deepe in August.] The wind was very great at sea, so that we lay a hull all night, and had snow halfe a foote deepe on the hatches. From the 24 vntil the 28 we had very much wind, but large, keeping our course Southsoutheast, and had like to haue lost the Barkes, but by good hap we met againe. The height being taken, we were in [70]degrees and a halfe. The 29 of August the wind blew much at Northeast, so that we could beare but onely a bunt of our foresaile, and the Barkes were not able to cary any sayle at all. The Michael lost company of vs and shaped her course towards Orkney because that way was better knowne vnto them, and arriued at Yermouth. [Sidenote: The Master of the Gabriell strooken ouerboord.] The 30 of August with the force of the wind, and a surge of the sea, the Master of the Gabriel and the boatswain were striken both ouerboord, and hardly was the boatswain recouered, hauing hold on a roape hanging ouerboord in the sea, and yet the barke was laced fore and after with ropes a breast high within boorde. This Master was called William Smith, being but a yong man and a very sufficient mariner, who being all the morning before exceeding pleasant, told his Captaine he dreamed that he was cast ouerboord, and that the Boatswain had him by the hand, and could not saue him, and so immediately vpon the end of his tale, his dreame came right euilly to passe, and indeed the Boatswain in like sort held him by one hand, hauing hold on a rope with the other, vntill his force fayled, and the Master drowned. The height being taken we found ourselues to be in the latitude of [71] degrees and a halfe, and reckoned our selues from the Queenes Cape homeward about two hundreth leagues. The last of August about midnight, we had two or three great and sudden flawes or stormes. The first of September the storme was growen very great, and continued almost the whole day and night, and lying a hull to tarrie for the Barkes our ship was much beaten with the seas, euery sea almost ouertaking our poope, so that we were constrained with a bunt of our saile to trie it out, and ease the rolling of our ship. And so the Gabriel not able to beare any sayle to keepe company with vs, and our ship being higher in the poope, and a tall ship, whereon the winde had more force to driue, went so fast away that we lost sight of them, and left them to God and their good fortune of Sea. [Sidenote: The Rudder of the Aide torne in twain.] The second day of September in the morning, it pleased God of his goodnesse to send vs a calme, whereby we perceiued the Rudder of our ship torne in twaine, and almost ready to fall away. Wherefore taking the benefite of the time, we flung half a dozen couple of our best men ouer boord, who taking great paines vnder water, driuing plankes, and binding with ropes, did well strengthen and mend the matter, who returned the most part more then halfe dead out of the water, and as Gods pleasure was, the sea was calme vntill the worke was finished. The fift of September, the height of the Sunne being taken, we found our selues to be in the latitude of [72] degrees and a halfe. [Sidenote: How the latitudes were alwayes taken in this voyage rather with the Staffe then Astrolabe.] In this voyage commonly wee tooke the latitude of the place by the height of the sunne, because the long day taketh away the light not onely of the Polar, but also of all other fixed Starres. And here the North Starre is so much eleuated aboue the Horizon, that with the staffe it is hardly to bee well obserued, and the degrees in the Astrolabe are too small to obserue minutes: Therefore wee alwaies vsed the Staffe and the sunne as fittest instruments for this vse. Hauing spent foure or fiue dayes in trauerse of the seas with contrary winde, making our Souther way good as neere as we could, to raise our degrees to bring ourselues with the latitude of Sylley, wee tooke the height the tenth of September, and found our selues in the latitude of [73] degrees and ten minutes. The eleuenth of September about sixe a clocke at night the winde came good Southwest, we vered sheat and set our course Southeast. And vpon Thursday, the twelfth of September, taking the height, we were in the latitude of [74] and a halfe, and reckoned our selues not past one hundred and fifty leagues short of Sylley, the weather faire, the winde large at Westsouthwest, we kept our course Southeast. The thirteenth day the height being taken, wee found our selues to be in the latitude of [75] degrees, the wind Westsouthwest, then being in the height of Sylley, and we kept our course East, to run in with the sleeue or chanel so called, being our narrow seas, and reckoned vs short of Sylley twelue leagues. Sonday, the 15 of September about foure of the clocke, we began to sound with our lead, and had ground at 61 fadome depth, white small sandy ground, and reckoned vs vpon the backe of Sylley, and set our course East and by North, Eastnortheast, and Northeast among. The sixteenth of September, about eight of the clocke in the morning sounding, we had 65. fadome osey[76] sand, and thought our selues thwart of S. Georges channell a little within the banks. And bearing a small saile all night, we made many soundings, which were about fortie fadome, and so shallow, that we could not well tell where we were. The seuenteenth of September we sounded, and had forty fadome, and were not farre off the lands end, finding branded sand with small wormes and Cockle shells, and were shotte betweene Sylley and the lands ende, and being within the bay, we were not able to double the pointe with a South and by East way, but were faine to make another boord, the wind being at Southwest and by West, and yet could not double the point to come cleere of the lands end, to beare along the channell: and the weather cleered vp when we were hard aboord the shore, and we made the lands end perfit, and so put vp along Saint Georges channel. [Sidenote: The arriual of the Aide at Padstow in Cornewall.] And the weather being very foule at sea, we coueted some harborough, because our steerage was broken, and so came to ancor in Padstow road in Cornewall. But riding there a very dangerous roade, we were aduised by the Countrey, to put to Sea againe, and of the two euils, to chose the lesse, for there was nothing but present perill where we rode: [Sidenote: Our comming to Milford Hauen.] whereupon we plyed along the channell to get to Londy, from whence we were againe driuen, being but an open roade, where our anker came home, and with force of weather put to Seas againe, and about the three and twentieth of September, arriued at Milford Hauen in Wales, which being a very good harborough, made vs happy men, that we had receiued such long desired safetie. About one moneth after our arriuall here, by order from the Lords of the Counsell, the ship came up to Bristow, where the Ore was committed to keeping in the Castel there. [Sidenote: The arriuall of the Gabriel at Bristow.] Here we found the Gabriel one of the Barkes, arriued in good safetie, who hauing neuer a man within boord very sufficient to bring home the ship, after the Master was lost, by good fortune, when she came vpon the coast, met with a ship of Bristow at sea, who conducted her in safety thither. [Sidenote: The Michael arriued in the North parts. Only one man died the voyage.] Here we heard good tidings also of the arriuall of the other Barke called the Michael, in the North parts, which was not a little ioyful vnto vs, that it pleased God so to bring vs to a safe meeting againe, and wee lost in all that voyage only one man, besides one that dyed at sea, which was sicke before he came aboord, and was so desirous to follow this enterprise, that he rather chose to dye therein, then not to be one to attempt so notable a voyage. The third voyage of Captaine Frobisher, pretended for the discouery of Cataia, by Meta Incognita, Anno Do, 1578. The Generall being returned from the second voyage, immediately after his arriuall in England repaired with all hast to the Court being then at Windsore, to aduertise her Majestie of his prosperous proceeding, and good successe in this last voyage, and of the plenty of gold Ore, with other matters of importance which he had in those Septentrionall parts discouered. [Sidenote: M. Frobisher commended of her Maiestie.] He was courteously enterteyned, and heartily welcommed of many noble men, but especially for his great aduenture, commended of her Maiestie, at whose hands he receiued great thankes, and most gracious countenance, according to his deserts. [Sidenote: The Gentlemen commended.] Her Highnesse also greatly commended the rest of the Gentlemen in this seruice, for their great forwardnes in this so dangerous an attempt: but especially she reioyced very much, that among them there was so good order of gouernment, so good agreement, euery man so ready in his calling, to do whatsoeuer the Generall should command, which due commendation gratiously of her Maiestie remembred, gaue so great encouragement to all the Captaines and Gentlemen, that they to continue her Highnesse so good and honourable opinion of them, haue since neither spared labour, limme, nor life, to bring this matter (so well begun) to a happie and prosperous ende. [Sidenote: Commissioners appointed to examine the goodnesse of the Ore.] And finding that the matter of the golde Ore had appearance and made shew of great riches and profit, and the hope of the passage to Cataya, by this last voyage greatly increased, her Maiestie appointed speciall Commissioners chosen for this purpose, gentlemen of great iudgement, art, and skill, to looke thorowly into the cause, for the true triall and due examination thereof, and for the full handling of all matters thereunto appertaining. [Sidenote: A name giuen to the place new discouered.] And because that place and countrey hath neuer heretofore bene discouered, and therefore had no speciall name, by which it might be called and knowen, her Maiestie named it very properly Meta Incognita, as a marke and bound vtterly hitherto vnknowen. The commissioners after sufficient triall and proofe made of the Ore, and hauing vnderstood by sundrie reasons, and substantiall grounds, the possibilitie and likelyhood of the passage, aduertised her highnesse, that the cause was of importance, and the voyage greatly worthy to be aduanced againe. Wherevpon preparation was made of ships and all other things necessary, with such expedition, as the time of the yeere then required. And because it was assuredly made accompt of, that the commoditie of Mines, there already discouered, would at the least counteruaille in all respects the aduenturers charge, and giue further hope and likelyhood of greater matters to follow: [Sidenote: The hope of the passage to Cataya.] it was thought needfull, both for the better guard of those parts already found, and for further discouery of the Inland and secrets of those countreys, and also for further search of the passage to Cataya (whereof the hope continually more and more increaseth) that certaine numbers of chosen souldiers and discreet men for those purposes should be assigned to inhabite there. [Sidenote: A forte to be built in Meta Incognita.] Wherevpon there was a strong fort or house of timber, artificially framed, and cunningly deuised by a notable learned man here at home, in ships to be caried thither, wherby those men that were appointed to winter and stay there the whole yere, might as well bee defended from the danger of snow and colde ayre, as also fortified from the force or offence of those countrey people, which perhaps otherwise with too great multitudes might oppresse them. And to this great aduenture and notable exploit many well minded and forward yong Gentlemen of our countrey willingly haue offered themselues. And first Captaine Fenton Lieutenant generall for Captaine Frobisher, and in charge of the company with him there, Captaine Best, and Captaine Filpot, vnto whose good discretions the gouernment of that seruice was chiefly commended, who, as men not regarding peril in respect of the profit and common wealth of their countrey, were willing to abide the first brunt and aduenture of those dangers among a sauage and brutish kinde of people, in a place hitherto euer thought for extreme cold not habitable. [Sidenote: A hundreth men appointed to inhabite there.] The whole number of men which had offered, and were appointed to inhabite Meta Incognita all the yeere, were one hundreth persons, whereof 40 should be mariners for the vse of ships, 30 Miners for gathering the gold Ore together for the next yere, and 30 souldiers for the better guard of the rest, within which last number are included the Gentlemen, Goldfiners, Bakers, Carpenters, and all necessary persons. To each of the Captaines was assigned one ship, as wel for the further searching of the coast and countrey there, as for to returne and bring backe their companies againe, if the necessity of the place so vrged, or by miscarying of the fleet the next yere, they might be disappointed of their further prouision. Being therefore thus furnished with al necessaries, there were ready to depart vpon the said voyage 15 saile of good ships, whereof the whole number was to returne again with their loding of gold Ore in the end of the sommer, except those 3 ships, which should be left for the vse of those Captains which should inhabite there the whole yere. And being in so good readinesse, the Generall with all the Captaines came to the Court, then lying at Greenwich, to take their leaue of her Maiestie, at whose hands they all receiued great encouragement, and gracious countenance. [Sidenote: A chaine of gold giuen to M. Frobisher.] Her highnesse besides other good gifts, and greater promises, bestowed on the Generall a faire chaine of golde, and the rest of the Captaines kissed her hand, tooke their leaue, and departed euery man towards their charge. The names of the Ships with their seuerall Captaines. 1 In the Aide being Admirall, was the Generall Captaine Frobisher. 2 In the Thomas Allen Viceadmirall Captaine Yorke. 3 In the Iudith Lieutenant generall Captaine Fenton. 4 In the Anne Francis Captaine Best. 5 In the Hopewell Captaine Carew. 6 In the Beare Captaine Filpot. 7 In the Thomas of Ipswich Captaine Tanfield. 8 In the Emmanuel of Exceter Captaine Courtney. 9 In the Francis of Foy Captaine Moyles. 10 In the Moone Captaine Vpcot. 11 In the Emmanuel of Bridgewater Captaine Newton. 12 In the Salomon of Weymouth Captaine Randal. 13 In the Barke Dennis Captaine Kendal. 14 In the Gabriel Captaine Haruey. 15 In the Michael Captaine Kinnersly. The sayd fifteene saile of ships arriued and met together at Harwich, the seuen and twentieth day of May Anno 1578, where the Generall and the other Captaines made view, and mustred their companies. And euery seuerall Captaine receiued from the Generall certaine Articles of direction, for the better keeping of order and company together in the way, which Articles are as followeth. Articles and orders to be obserued for the Fleete, set downe by Captaine Frobisher Generall, and deliuered in writing to euery Captaine, as well for keeping company, as for the course, the 31 of May. 1 In primis, to banish swearing, dice, and card-playing, and filthy communication, and to serue God twice a day, with the ordinary seruice vsuall in Churches of England, and to cleare the glasse, according to the old order of England. 2 The Admirall shall carie the light, and after his light be once put out, no man to goe a head of him, but euery man to fit his sailes to follow as neere as they may, without endangering one another. 3 That no man shall by day or by night depart further from the Admirall then the distance of one English mile, and as neere as they may, without danger one of another. 4 If it chance to grow thicke, and the wind contrary, either by day or by night, that the Admirall be forced to cast about, before her casting about shee shall giue warning, by shooting off a peece, and to her shall answere the Viceadmirall and the Rereadmirall each of them with a piece, if it bee by night, or in a fogge; and that the Viceadmirall shall answere first, and the Rereadmirall last. 5 That no man in the fleete descrying any sayle or sayles, giue vpon any occasion any chace before he haue spoken with the Admirall. 6 That euery euening all the Fleete come vp and speake with the Admirall, at seuen of the Clocke or betweene that and eight and if the weather will not serue them all to speake with the Admirall, then some shall come to the Viceadmirall, and receiue the order of their course of Master Hall chiefe Pilot of the Fleete, as he shall direct them. 7 If to any man in the Fleete there happen any mischance, they shall presently shoote off two peeces by day, and if it be by night, two peeces, and shew two lights. 8 If any man in the fleete come vp in the night, and hale his fellow, knowing him not, he shall giue him this watch-word, Before the world was God. The other shal answere him (if he be one of our Fleete) After God came Christ his Sonne. So that if any be found amongst vs, not of our owne company, he that first descrieth any such sayle or sayles, shall giue warning to the Admirall by himselfe or any other, that he can speake to, that sailes better then he, being neerest vnto him. 9 That every ship in the fleete in the time of fogs, which continually happen with little winds, and most part calmes, shal keepe a reasonable noise with trumpet, drumme, or otherwise, to keepe themselues cleere one of another. 10 If it fall out so thicke or mistie that we lay it to hull, the Admirall shall giue warning with a piece, and putting out three lights one ouer another, to the end that euery man may take in his sailes, and at his setting of sayles againe doe the like if it be not cleere. 11 If any man discover land by night, that he giue the like warning, that he doth for mischances, two lights, and two pieces, if it be by day one piece, and put out his flagge, and strike all his sailes he hath aboord. 12 If any ship shall happen to lose company by force of weather, then any such ship or ships shall get her into the latitude of [77] and so keepe that latitude vntill they get Frisland. And after they be past the West parts of Frisland, they shall get them into the latitude of [78] and [79] and not to the Northward of [80] and being once entred within the Streites, al such ships shal euery watch shoote off a good piece, and looke out well for smoke and fire, which those that get in first shall make euery night, vntill all the fleete be come together. 13 That vpon the sight of an ensigne in the mast of the Admirall (a piece being shot off) the whole fleete shall repaire to the Admirall, to vnderstand such conference as the Generall is to haue with them. 14 If we chance to meete with any enemies, that foure ships shall attend vpon the Admirall, viz. the Francis of Foy, the Moone, the Barke Dennis, and the Gabriel: and foure vpon my Lieutenant generall in the Iudith, viz. the Hopewel, the Armenal, the Beare, and the Salomon: and the other foure vpon the Vizadmirall, the Anne Francis, the Thomas of Ipswich, the Emmanuel, and the Michael. 15 If there happen any disordred person in the Fleete, that he be taken and kept in safe custodie vntill he may conueniently be brought aboord the Admirall, and there to receiue such punishment as his or their offences shall deserue. By me Martin Frobisher. Our departure from England. Hauing receiued these articles of direction we departed from Harwich the one and thirtieth of May. [Sidenote: Cape Cleare the sixt of Iune.] And sayling along the South part of England Westward, we at length came by the coast of Ireland at Cape Cleare the sixth of Iune, and gaue chase there to a small barke which was supposed to be a Pyrat, or Rouer on the Seas, but it fell out indeede that they were poore men of Bristow, who had met with such company of Frenshmen as had spoiled and slaine many of them, and left the rest so sore wounded that they were like to perish in the sea, hauing neither hand nor foote hole to helpe themselues with, nor victuals to sustaine their hungry bodies. [Sidenote: A charitable deede.] Our Generall, who well vnderstood the office of a Souldier and an Englishman, and knew well what the necessitie of the Sea meaneth, pitying much the miserie of the poore men, relieved them with Surgerie and Salues to heale their hurtes, and with meate and drinke to comfort their pining hearts: some of them hauing neither eaten nor dronke more then oliues and stinking water in many dayes before, as they reported. And after this good deede done, hauing a large wind, we kept our course vpon our sayd voyage without staying for the taking in of fresh water, or any other prouision, whereof many of the fleete were not throughly furnished: [Sidenote: Marke this current.] and sayling towards the Northwest parts from Ireland, we mette with a great current from out of the Southwest, which caried vs (by our reckoning) one point to the Northeastwards of our sayd course, which current seemed to vs to continue it selfe towards Norway, and other the Northeast parts of the world, whereby we may be induced to beleeue, that this is the same which the Portugals meete at Capo de buona Speranza,[81] where striking ouer from thence to the Streites of Magellan, and finding no passage there for the narrownesse of the sayde Streites, runneth along into the great Bay of Mexico, where also hauing a let of land, it is forced to strike backe againe towards the Northeast,[82] as we not onely here, but in another place also, further to the Northwards, by good experience this yeere haue found, as shalbe hereafter in his place more at large declared. Now had we sayled about fourteene dayes, without sight of any land, or any other liuing thing, except certaine foules, as Wilmots, Nodies, Gulles, &c. which there seeme onely to liue by sea. [Sidenote: West England.] The twentieth of Iune, at two of the clocke in the morning, the Generall descried land, and found it to be West Frisland, now named west England. Here the Generall, and other Gentlemen went ashore, being the first knowen Christians that we haue true notice of, that euer set foot vpon that ground: and therefore the Generall took possession thereof to the vse of our Soueraigne Lady the Queenes Maiestie, and discouered here a goodly harborough for the ships, where were also certaine little boates of that countrey. And being there landed, they espied certaine tents and people of that countrey, which were (as they iudge) in all sorts, very like those of Meta Incognita, as by their apparell, and other things which we found in their tents, appeared. The Sauage and simple people so soone as they perceiued our men comming towards them (supposing there had bene no other world but theirs) fled fearefully away, as men much amazed at so strange a sight, and creatures of humane shape, so farre in apparell, complexion, and other things different from themselues. They left in their tents all their furniture for haste behind them, where amongst other things were found a boxe of small nailes, and certaine red Herrings, boords of Firre tree well cut, with diuers other things artificially wrought: whereby it appeareth, that they haue trade with some ciuill people, or else are indeede themselues artificiall workmen. Our men brought away with them onely two of their dogs, leauing in recompense belles, looking-glasses, and diuers of our countrey toyes behinde them. This countrey, no doubt, promiseth good hope of great commoditie and riches, if it may be well discouered. The description whereof you shall finde more at large in the second voyage. [Sidenote: Frisland supposed to be continent with Greenland.] Some are of opinion, that this West England is firme land with the Northeast partes of Meta Incognita, or else with Groenland. And their reason is, because the people, apparel, boates, and other things are so like to theirs: and another reason is, the multitude of Islands of yce, which lay betweene it and Meta Incognita, doth argue, that on the North side there is a bay, which cannot be but by conioyning of the two lands together. [Sidenote: The 23rd of Iune.] And hauing a faire and large winde we departed from thence towards Frobishers Streites, the three and twentieth of Iune. [Sidenote: Charing Crosse.] But first wee gaue name to a high cliffe in West England, the last that was in our sight, and for a certaine sinulitude we called it Charing crosse. Then wee bare Southerly towards the Sea, because to the Northwardes of this coast we met with much driuing yce, which by reason of the thicke mistes and weather might haue bene some trouble vnto vs. On Munday the last of Iune, wee met with many great Whales, as they had bene Porposes. [Sidenote: A Whale strooke a ship.] The same day the Salamander being vnder both her corses and bonets, happened to strike a great Whale with her full stemme, with such a blow that the ship stoode still, and stirred neither forward or backward. The Whale thereat made a great and vgly noyse, and cast vp his body and taile, and sowent vnder water, and within two dayes after, there was found a great Whale dead swimming aboue water, which wee supposed was that which the Salamander strooke. [Sidenote: Frobishers Streites choked vp with yce.] The second day of Iuly early in the morning we had sight of the Queenes Foreland, and bare in with the land all the day, and passing thorow great quantity of yce, by night were entred somewhat within the Streites, perceiuing no way to passe further in, the whole place being frozen ouer from the one side to the other, and as it were with many walles, mountaines, and bulwarks of yce, choked vp the passage, and denied vs entrance. And yet doe I not thinke that this passage or Sea hereabouts is frozen ouer at any time of the yere: albeit it seemed so vnto vs by the abundance of yce gathered together, which occupied the whole place. But I doe rather suppose these yce to bee bred in the hollow soundes and freshets thereabouts: which by the heate of the Summers Sunne, being loosed, doe emptie themselues with the ebbes into the sea, and so gather in great abundance there together. And to speake somewhat here of the ancient opinion of the frozen sea in these parts: I doe thinke it to be rather a bare coniecture of men, then that euer any man hath made experience of any such Sea. And that which they speake of Mare glaciale, may be truely thought to be spoken of these parts: [Sidenote: Salt water cannot freeze.] for this may well be called indeede the ycie sea, but not the frozen sea, for no sea consisting of salt water can be frozen, as I haue more at large herein shewed my opinion in my second voyage, for it seemeth impossible for any sea to bee frozen, which hath his course of ebbing and flowing, especially in those places where the tides doe ebbe and flowe aboue ten fadome. And also all these aforesayd yce, which we sometime met a hundredth mile from lande, being gathered out of the salt Sea, are in taste fresh, and being dissolued, become sweete and holesome water.[83] And the cause why this yere we haue bene more combred with yce then at other times before, may be by reason of the Easterly and Southerly winds, which brought vs more timely thither now then we looked for. Which blowing from the sea directly vponn the place of our Streites, hath kept in the yce, and not suffered them to be caried out by the ebbe to the maine sea, where they would in more short time have bene dissolued. And all these fleeting yce are not only so dangerous in that they wind and gather so neere together, that a man may passe sometimes tenne or twelue miles as it were vpon one firme Island of yce: but also for that they open and shut together againe in such sort with the tides and sea-gate, that whilst one ship followeth the other with full sayles, the yce which was open vnto the foremost will ioyne and close together before the latter can come to follow the first, whereby many times our shippes were brought into great danger, as being not able so sodainely to take in our sayles or stay the swift way of our ships. We were forced many times to stemme and strike great rockes of yce, and so as it were make way through mighty mountaines. By which meanes some of the fleete, where they found the yce to open, entred in, and passed so farre within the danger thereof, with continuall desire to recouer their port, that it was the greatest wonder of the world that they euer escaped safe, or were euer heard of againe. For euen at this present we missed two of the fleete, that is, the Iudith, wherein was the Lieutenant Generall Captaine Fenton; and the Michael, whom both we supposed had bene vtterly lost, hauing not heard any tidings of them in moe then 20 dayes before. [Sidenote: Barke Dennis sunke.] And one of our fleete named the Barke Dennis, being of an hundreth tunne burden, seeking way in amongst these yce, receiued such a blow with a rocke of yce that she sunke downe therewith in the sight of the whole fleete. Howbeit hauing signified her danger by shooting off a peece of great Ordinance, new succour of other ships came so readily vnto them, that the men were all saued with boats. [Sidenote: Part of the house lost.] Within this ship that was drowned there was parcell of our house which was to bee erected for them that should stay all the Winter in Meta Incognita. This was a more fearefull spectacle for the Fleete to beholde, for that the outragious storme which presently followed, threatned them the like fortune and danger. For the Fleete being thus compassed (as aforesayd) on euery side with yce, having left much behinde them, thorow which they passed, and finding more before them, thorow which it was not possible to passe, there arose a sudden terrible tempest at the Southeast, which blowing from the maine sea, directly vpon the place of the Streites, brought together all the yce a sea-boorde of vs vpon our backes, and thereby debard vs of turning backe to recouer sea-roome againe: so that being thus compassed with danger on euery side, sundry men with sundry deuises sought the best way to saue themselues. Some of the ships, where they could find a place more cleare of yce, and get a little birth of sea roome, did take in their sayles, and there lay a drift. Other some fastened and mored Anker vpon a great Island of yce, and roade vnder the Lee thereof, supposing to be better guarded thereby from the outragious winds, and the danger of the lesser fleeting yce. And againe some were so fast shut vp, and compassed in amongst an infinite number of great countreys and Islands of yce, that they were faine to submit themselues and their ships to the mercy of the vnmerciful yce, and strengthened the sides of their shipps with iuncks of cables, beds, Mastes, plankes and such like, which being hanged ouerboard on the sides of their ships, might the better defend them from the outragious sway and strokes of the said yce. But as in greatest distresse, men of best valor are best to be discerned, so it is greatly worthy commendation and noting with what inuincible minde euery Captaine encouraged his company, and with what incredible labour the painefull Mariners and poore Miners (vnacquainted with such extremities) to the euerlasting renowne of our nation, did ouercome the brunt of these so great and extreme dangers: for some, even without boord vpon the yce, and some within boord vpon the sides of their ships, hauing poles, pikes, pieces of timber, and Ores in their handes, stoode almost day and night without any rest, bearing off the force, and breaking the sway of the yce with such incredible paine and perill, that it was wonderfull to beholde, which otherwise no doubt had striken quite through and through the sides of their ships, notwithstanding our former prouision: for plankes of timber more then three inches thicke, and other things of greater force and bignesse, by the surging of the sea and billowe, with the yce were shiuered and cut in sunder, at the sides of our ships, so that it will seeme more then credible to be reported of. And yet (that which is more) it is faithfully and plainely to bee prooued, and that by many substantiall witnesses, that our ships, euen those of greatest burdens, with the meeting of contrary waues of the sea, were heaued vp betweene Islands of yce, a foote welneere out of the sea aboue their watermarke, hauing their knees and timbers within boord both bowed and broken therewith. And amidst these extremes, whilest some laboured for defence of the ships, and sought to saue their bodies, other some of more milder spirit sought to saue the soule by deuout prayer and meditation to the Almightie, thinking indeede by no other meanes possible then by a diuine Miracle to haue their deliuerance: so that there was none that were either idle, or not well occupied, and he that helde himselfe in best securitie had (God knoweth) but onely bare hope remayning for his best safetie. Thus all the gallant Fleete and miserable men without hope of euer getting foorth againe, distressed with these extremities remayned here all the whole night and part of the next day, excepting foure ships, that is the Annie Francis, the Moone, the Francis of Foy, and the Gabriell, which being somewhat a Seaboord of the Fleete, and being fast ships by a winde, hauing a more scope of cleare, tryed it out all the time of the storme vnder sayle, being hardly able to beare a coast of each. And albeit, by reason of the fleeting yce, which were dispersed here almost the whole sea ouer, they were brought many times to the extreamest point of perill, mountaines of yce tenne thousand times scaping them scarce one ynch, which to have striken had bene their present destruction, considering the swift course and way of the ships, and the unwieldinesse of them to stay and turne as a man would wish: yet they esteemed it their better safetie, with such perill to seeke Sea-roome, then without hope of euer getting libertie to lie striuing against the streame, and beating against the Isie mountaines, whose hugenesse and monstrous greatnesse was such, that no man would credite, but such as to their paines sawe and felt it. And these foure shippes by the next day at noone got out to Sea, and were first cleare of the yce, who now enioying their owne libertie, beganne a new to sorrow and feare for their fellowes safeties. And deuoutly kneeling about their maine Mast, they gaue vnto God humble thankes, not only for themselues, but besought him likewise highly for their friendes deliuerance. And euen now whilst amiddest these extremities this gallant Fleete and valiant men were altogither ouerlaboured and forewatched, with the long and fearefull continuance of the foresayd dangers, it pleased God with his eyes of mercie to looke downe from heauen to sende them helpe in good time, giuing them the next day a more favourable winde at the West Northwest, which did not onely disperse and driue foorth the yce before them, but also gaue them libertie of more scope and Sea-roome, and they were by night of the same day following perceiued of the other foure shippes, where (to their greatest comfort) they enioyed againe the fellowship one of another. Some in mending the sides of their ships, some in setting vp their top Mastes, and mending their sayles and tacklings; Againe, some complayning of their false Stemme borne away, some in stopping their leakes, some in recounting their dangers past, spent no small time and labour. So that I dare well auouch, there were neuer men more dangerously distressed, nor more mercifully by Gods prouidence deliuered. And hereof both the torne ships, and the forwearied bodies of the men arriued doe beare most euident marke and witnesse. And now the whole Fleete plyed off to Seaward, resoluing there to abide vntill the Sunne might consume, or the force of winde disperse these yce from the place of their passage; and being a good birth off the shore, they tooke in their sailes, and lay adrift. [Sidenote: Another assault.] The seuenth of Iuly as men nothing yet dismayed, we cast about towards the inward, and had sight of land, which rose in forme like the Northerland of the straights, which some of the Fleete, and those not the worst Marriners, iudged to be the North Foreland: howbeit other some were of contrary opinion. [Sidenote: Fogge, snow, and mistes hinder the Mariners markes.] But the matter was not well to be discerned by reason of the thicke fogge which a long time hung vpon the coast, and the new falling snow which yeerely altereth the shape of the land, and taketh away oftentimes the Mariners markes. And by reason of the darke mists which continued by the space of twentie dayes togither, this doubt grewe the greater and the longer perilous. [Sidenote: A swift current from the Northeast.] For whereas indeede we thought ourselues to be vpon the Northeast side of Frobishers straights, we were now caried to the Southwestwards of the Queenes Foreland, and being deceiued by a swift current comming from the Northeast, were brought to the Southwestwards of our said course many miles more then we did thinke possible could come to passe. The cause whereof we haue since found, and it shall be at large hereafter declared. [Sidenote: A current.] Here we made a point of land which some mistooke for a place in the straightes called Mount Warwicke: but how we should be so farre shot vp so suddainely within the said straights the expertest Mariners began to maruell, thinking it a thing impossible that they could be so farre ouertaken in their accounts, or that any current could deceiue them here which they had not by former experience prooued and found out. Howbeit many confessed that they found a swifter course of flood then before time they had obserued. And truely it was wonderfull to heare and see the rushing and noise that the tides do make in this place with so violent a force that our ships lying a hull were turned sometimes round about euen in a moment, after the maner of a whirlepoole, and the noyse of the streame no lesse to be heard afarre off, then the waterfall of London Bridge. [Sidenote: Iames Beare a good Mariner.] But whilst the Fleete lay thus doubtfull amongst great store of yce in a place they knew not without sight of Sunne, whereby to take the height, and so to know the true eleuation of the pole, and without any cleere of light to make perfite the coast, the Generall with the Captaines and Masters of his ships, began doubtfully to question of the matter, and sent his Pinnesse aboord to heare each man's opinion, and specially of Iames Beare, Master of the Anne Francis, who was knowen to be a sufficient and skillfull Mariner, and hauing bene there the yere before, had wel obserued the place, and drawen out Cardes of the coast. [Sidenote: Christopher Hall chiefe Pylot.] But the rather this matter grew the more doubtfull, for that Christopher Hall chiefe Pilot of the voyage, deliuered a plaine and publique opinion in the hearing of the whole Fleete, that hee had neuer seene the foresayd coast before, and that he not could make it for any place of Frobishers Streits, as some of the Fleete supposed, and yet the landes doe lie and trend so like, that the best Mariners therein may bee deceiued. The tenth of Iuly, the weather still continuing thicke and darke, some of the ships in the fogge lost sight of the Admirall and the rest of the fleete, and wandering to and fro, with doubtfull opinion whether it were best to seeke backe againe to seaward through great store of yce, or to follow on a doubtfull course in a Sea, Bay, or Streites they knew not, or along a coast, whereof by reason of the darke mistes they could not discerne the dangers, if by chance any rocke or broken ground should lie of the place, as commonly in these parts it doth. The Viceadmirall Captaine Yorke considering the foresayd opinion of the Pylot Hall, who was with him in the Thomas Allen, hauing lost sight of the Fleete, turned backe to sea againe hauing two other ships in company with him. Also the Captain of the Anne Francis hauing likewise lost companie of the Fleete, and being all alone, held it for best to turne it out to sea againe, vntill they might haue cleere weather to take the Sunnes altitude, and with incredible paine and perill got out of the doubtfull place, into the open Sea againe, being so narrowly distressed by the way, by meanes of continuall fogge and yce, that they were many times ready to leapt vpon an Island of yce to auoide the present danger, and so hoping to prolong life awhile meant rather to die a pining death. [Sidenote: Hard shifts to saue mens liues.] Some hoped to saue themselues on chestes, and some determined to tie the Hatches of the ships togither, and to binde themselues with their furniture fast thereunto, and so to be towed with the ship bote ashore, which otherwise could not receiue halfe of the companie, by which meanes if happily they had arriued they should eyther haue perished for lacke of foode to eate, or else should themselues haue beene eaten of those rauenous, bloodie, and Men-eating people. The rest of the Fleete following the course of the Generall which led them the way, passing vp aboue sixtie leagues [Sidenote: The coast along the Southside of Gronland 60 leagues.] within the saide doubtfull and supposed straights, hauing alwayes a faire continent vpon their starreboorde side, and a continuance still of an open Sea before them. [Sidenote: Mistaken straights which indeed are no straights.] The Generall albeit with the first perchance he found out the error, and that this was not the olde straights, yet he perswaded the Fleete alwayes that they were in their right course, and knowen straights. Howbeit I suppose he rather dissembled his opinion therein then otherwise, meaning by that policie (being himselfe led with an honourable desire of further discouerie) to induce the Fleete to follow him, to see a further proofe of that place. [Sidenote: Frobisher could haue passed to Cataia.] And as some of the companie reported, he hath since confessed that if it had not bene for the charge and care he had of the Fleete and fraughted ships, he both would and could haue gone through to the South Sea, called Mar del Sur, and dissolued the long doubt of the passage which we seeke to find to the rich countrey of Cataya. 1 Of which mistaken straights, considering the circumstance, we haue great cause to confirme our opinion, to like and hope well of the passage in this place. [Sidenote: Faire open way.] For the foresaid Bay or Sea, the further we sayled therein, the wider we found it, with great likelihood of endlesse continuance. [Sidenote: Reasons to prooue a passage here.] And where in other places we were much troubled with yce, as in the entrance of the same, so after we had sayled fiftie or sixtie leagues therein we had no let of yce or other thing at all, as in other places we found. [Sidenote: Great indrafts.] 2 Also this place seemeth to haue a maruellous great indraft, and draweth vnto it most of the drift yce, and other things which doe fleete in the Sea, either to the North or Eastwards of the same, as by good experience we haue found. [Sidenote: A current to the West.] 3 For here also we met with boordes, lathes, and diuers other things driuing in the Sea, which was of the wracke of the ship called the Barke Dennis, which perished amongst the yce as beforesaid, being lost at the first attempt of the entrance ouerthwart the Queenes forelande in the mouth of Frobishers straights, which could by no meanes haue bene so brought thither, neither by winde nor tyde, being lost so many leagues off, if by force of the said current the same had not bene violently brought. For if the same had bene brought thither by tide of flood, looke how farre the said flood had carried it, the ebbe would haue recarried it as farre backe againe, and by the winde it could not so come to passe, because it was then sometime calme, and most times contrarie. [Sidenote: Nine houres flood to three houres ebbe.] And some Mariners doe affirme that they haue diligently obserued, that there runneth in this place nine houres flood to three ebbe, which may thus come to passe by force of the sayd current: for whereas the Sea in most places of the world, doth more or lesse ordinarily ebbe and flow once euery twelue houres with sixe houres ebbe, and sixe houres flood, so also would it doe there, were it not for the violence of this hastening current, which forceth the flood to make appearance to beginne before his ordinary time one houre and a halfe, and also to continue longer than his naturall course by an other houre and a halfe, vntill the force of the ebbe be so great that it will no longer be resisted: according to the saying, Naturam expellas furca licet, vsque recurret. Although nature and naturall courses be forced and resisted neuer so much, yet at last they will haue their owne sway againe. 4 [Unnumbered in original--KTH] Moreouer it is not possible that so great course of floods and current, so high swelling tides with continuance of so deepe waters, can be digested here without vnburdening themselues into some open Sea beyond this place, which argueth the more likelihood of the passage to be hereabouts. Also we suppose these great indrafts doe grow and are made by the reuerberation and reflection of that same currant, which at our comming by Ireland, met and crossed vs, of which in the first part of this discourse I spake, which comming from the bay of Mexico, passing by and washing the Southwest parts of Ireland, reboundeth ouer to the Northeast parts of the world, as Norway, Island, &c. where not finding any passage to an open Sea, but rather being there encreased by a new accesse, and another current meeting with it from the Scythian Sea, passing the bay of Saint Nicholas Westward, it doth once againe rebound backe, by the coastes of Groenland, and from thence vpon Frobishers straights being to the Southwestwardes of the same. [Sidenote: The Sea moueth continually from East to West.] 5 And if that principle of Philosophie be true, that Inferiora corpora reguntur à superioribus, that is, if inferior bodies be gouerned, ruled, and carried after the maner and course of the superiors, then the water being an inferior Element, must needes be gouerned after the superior heauen, and so follow the course of Primum from East to West.[84] [Sidenote: Authoritie.] 6 But euery man that hath written or considered any thing of this passage, hath more doubted the returne by the same way by reason of a great downefall of water, which they imagine to be thereabouts (which we also by experience partly find) than any mistrust they haue of the same passage at all. [Sidenote: Hard but yet possible turning backe again.] For we find (as it were) a great downefall in this place, but yet not such but that we may returne, although with much adoe. For we were easier carried in one houre then we could get forth againe in three. Also by another experience at another time, we found this current to deceiue vs in this sort: That wheras we supposed it to be 15 leagues off, and lying a hull, we were brought within two leagues of the shore contrarie to all expectation. Our men that sayled furthest in the same mistaken straights (hauing the maine land vpon their starboord side) affirme that they met with the outlet or passage of water which commeth thorow Frobishers straights, and followeth as all one into this passage. Some of our companie also affirme that they had sight of a continent vpon their larboord side being 60 leagues within the supposed straights: howbeit except certaine Ilands in the entrance hereof we could make no part perfect thereof. All the foresaid tract of land seemeth to be more fruitfull and better stored of Grasse, Deere, Wilde foule, as Partridges, Larkes, Seamewes, Guls, Wilmots, Falcons and Tassel gentils, Rauens, Beares, Hares, Foxes, and other things, than any other part we haue yet discouered, and is more populous. [Sidenote: Traffique.] And here Luke Ward, a Gentleman of the companie, traded marchandise, and did exchange kniues, bels, looking glasses, &c. with those countrey people, who brought him foule, fish, beares skinnes, and such like, as their countrey yeeldeth for the same. Here also they saw of those greater boats of the countrey, with twentie persons in a peece. Now after the Generall had bestowed these many dayes here, not without many dangers, he returned backs againe. And by the way sayling alongst this coast (being the backeside of the supposed continent of America) and the Queenes Foreland, he perceiued a great sound to goe thorow into Frobishers straights. [Sidenote: Returne out of the mistaken straights.] Whereupon he sent the Gabriel the one and twentieth of Iuly, to prooue whether they might goe thorow and meete againe with him in the straights, which they did: and as wee imagined before, so the Queenes foreland prooued an Iland, as I thinke most of these supposed continents will. And so he departed towardes the straights, thinking it were high time now to recouer his Port, and to prouide the Fleete of their lading, whereof he was not a little carefull, as shall by the processe and his resolute attempts appeare. And in his returne with the rest of the fleete he was so entangled by reason of the darke fogge amongst a number of Ilands and broken ground that lye off this coast, that many of the shippes came ouer the top of rockes, which presently after they might perceiue to lie dry, hauing not halfe a foote water more then some of their ships did draw. And by reason they could not with a smal gale of wind stemme the force of the flood, whereby to goe cleare off the rockes, they were faine to let an anker fall with two bent of Cable togither, at an hundred and odde fadome depth, where otherwise they had bene by the force of the tides caried vpon the rockes againe, and perished: [Sidenote: Great dangers.] so that if God in these fortunes (as a mercifull guide, beyond the expectation of man) had not carried vs thorow, we had surely perished amidst these dangers. For being many times driuen hard aboord the shore without any sight of land, vntill we were ready to make shipwracke thereon, being forced commonly with our boats to sound before our ships, least we might light thereon before we could discerne the same; it pleased God to giue vs a cleare of Sunne and light for a short time to see and auoyde thereby the danger, hauing bene continually darke before, and presently after. Manie times also by meanes of fogge and currents being driuen neere vpon the coast, God lent vs euen at the very pinch one prosperous breath of winde or other, whereby to double the land, and auoid the perill, and when that we were all without hope of helpe, euery man recommending himselfe to death, and crying out, Lord now helpe or neuer, now Lord looke downe from heauen and saue vs sinners, or else our safetie commeth too late: euen then the mightie maker of heauen, and our mercifull God did deliuer vs: so that they who haue bene partakers of these dangers doe euen in their soules confesse, that God euen by miracle hath sought to saue them, whose name be praysed euermore. Long time now the Anne Francis had layne beating off and on all alone before the Queenes foreland, not being able to recouer their Port for yce, albeit many times they dangerously attempted it, for yet the yce choaked vp the passage, and would not suffer them to enter. [Sidenote: Anne Francis met with some of the fleete.] And hauing neuer seene any of the fleete since twenty dayes past, when by reason of the thicke mistes they were seuered in the mistaken straights, they did now this present 23 of Iuly ouerthwart a place in the straights called Hattons Hedland, where they met with seuen ships of the Fleete againe, which good hap did not onely reioyce them for themselues, in respect of the comfort which they receiued by such good companie, but especially that by this meanes they were put out of doubt of their deare friends, whose safeties long time they did not a little suspect, and feare. At their meeting they haled the Admirall after the maner of the Sea, and with great ioy welcommed one another with a thundring volly of shot. And now euery man declared at large the fortunes and dangers which they had passed. [Sidenote: Francis of Foy.] The foure and twentieth of Iuly we met with the Francis of Foy, who with much adoe sought way backe againe, through the yce from out of the mistaken straights, where (to their great perill) they prooued to recouer their Port. [Sidenote: Bridgwater ship.] They brought the first newes of the Vizadmirall Captaine Yorke, who many dayes with themselues, and the Busse of Bridgewater was missing. They reported that they left the Vizeadmirall reasonably cleare of the yce, but the other ship they greatly feared, whom they could not come to helpe, being themselues so hardly distressed as neuer men more. Also they told vs of the Gabriel, who hauing got thorow from the backside, and Western point of the Queenes foreland, into Frobishers straights, fell into their company about the cape of Good hope. And vpon the seuen and twentieth of Iuly, the ship of Bridgewater got out of the yce and met with the Fleete which lay off and on vnder Hattons Hedland. They reported of their maruellous accidents and dangers, declaring their ship to be so leake that they must of necessitie seeke harborow, hauing their stem so beaten within their huddings, that they had much adoe to keepe themselues aboue water. They had (as they say) fiue hundreth strokes at the pump in lesse then halfe a watch, being scarce two houres; their men being so ouerwearied therewith, and with the former dangers that they desired helpe of men from the other ships. [Sidenote: The Streits frozen ouer.] Moreouer they declared that there was nothing but yce and danger where they had bene, and that the straights within were frozen vp, and that it was the most impossible thing of the world, to passe vp vnto the Countesse of Warwicks sound, which was the place of our Port. The report of these dangers by these ships thus published amongst the fleete, with the remembrance of the perils past, and those present before their face, brought no small feare and terror into the hearts of many considerate men. So that some beganne priuily to murmure against the Generall for this wilfull manner of proceeding. Some desired to discouer some harborow therebouts to refresh themselues and reform their broken vessels for a while, vntill the North and Northwest windes might disperse the yce, and make the place more free to passe. Other some forgetting themselues, spake more vndutifully in this behalfe, saying: that they had as leeue be hanged when they came home, as without hope of safetie to seeke to passe, and so to perish amongst the yce. [Sidenote: A valiant mind of M. Frobisher.] The Generall not opening his eares to the peeuish passion of any priuate person, but chiefly respecting the accomplishment of the cause he had vndertaken (wherein the chiefe reputation and fame of a Generall and Captaine consisteth) and calling to his remembrance the short time he had in hand to prouide so great number of ships their loading, determined with this resolution to passe and recouer his Port, or else there to burie himselfe with his attempt. Notwithstanding somewhat to appease the feeble passions of the fearefuller sort, and the better to entertaine time for a season, whilest the yce might the better be dissolued, he haled on the Fleete with beleefe that he would put them in harborow: thereupon whilest the shippes lay off and on under Hattons Hedland, he sought to goe in with his Pinnesses amongst the Ilandes there, as though hee meant to search for harborowe, where indeede he meant nothing lesse, but rather sought if any Ore might be found in that place, as by the sequele appeared. In the mean time whilest the Fleete lay thus doubtfull without any certaine resolution what to do, being hard aboord the lee-shore, there arose a sodaine and terrible tempest at the Southsoutheast, whereby the yce began maruellously to gather about vs. Whereupon euery man, as in such case of extremitie he thought best, sought the wisest way for his owne safety. The most part of the Fleete which were further shot vp within the straights, and so farre to the leeward, as that they could not double the land following the course of the Generall, who led them the way, tooke in their Sayles, and layde it a hull amongst the yce, and so passed ouer the storme, and had no extremitie at all, but for a short time in the same place. Howbeit the other ships which plyed out to Seaward, had an extreme storme for a long season. And the nature of the place is such, that it is subiect diuersely to diuers windes, according to the sundry situation of the great Alps and mountaines there, euery mountaine causing a seuerall blast, and parrie, after the maner of a Leuant. [Sidenote: Snow in Iuly.] In this storme being the sixe and twentieth of Iuly, there fell so much snow, with such bitter cold aire, that we could not scarse see one another for the same, nor open our eyes to handle, our ropes and sayles, the snow being aboue halfe a foote deepe vpon the hatches of our ship, which did so wet thorow our poore Mariners clothes, that hee that had fiue or sixe shifts of apparell had scarce one drie threed to his backe, which kinde of wet and coldnesse, together with the ouerlabouring of the poore men amiddest the yce, bred no small sicknesse amongst the fleete, [Sidenote: Extreme winter.] which somewhat discouraged some of the poore men, who had not experience of the like before, euery man perswading himselfe that the winter there must needes be extreme, where they found so vnseasonable a Sommer. [Sidenote: Great heat in Meta Incognita.] And yet notwithstanding this cold aire, the Sunne many times hath a maruellous force of heate amongst those mountaines; [Sidenote: Vnconstant weather.] insomuch that when there is no breth of winde to bring the colde aire from the dispersed yce vpon vs, we shall be wearie of the blooming heate and then sodainely with a perry[85] of winde which commeth downe from the hollownesse of the hilles, we shall haue such a breth of heate brought vpon our faces as though we were entred within some bathstoue or hote-house, and when the first of the pirry and blast is past, we shall haue the winde sodainely a new blow cold againe. In this storme the Anne Francis, the Moone, and the Thomas of Ipswich, who found themselues able to hold it vp with a saile, and could double about the Cape of the Queenes foreland, plyed out to the Seaward, holding it for better policie and safetie to seeke Sea roome, then to hazard the continuance of the storme, the danger of the yce, and the leeshore. And being vncertaine at this time of the Generals priuate determinations, the weather being so darke that they could not discerne one another, nor perceiue which way he wrought, betooke themselues to this course for best and safest. [Sidenote: The Generall recouereth his port.] The Generall, notwithstanding the great storme, following his own former resolution, sought by all meanes possible, by a shorter way to recouer his Port, and where he saw the yce neuer so little open, he gate in at one gappe and out at another, and so himselfe valiantly led the way thorow before to induce the Fleete to follow after, and with incredible paine and perill at length gat through the yce, and vpon the one and thirtieth of Iuly recouered his long wished Port after many attempts and sundry times being put backe, and came to anker in the Countesse of Warwicks sound, in the entrance whereof, when he thought all perill past, he encountred a great Iland of yce which gaue the Ayde such a blow, hauing a little before wayed her anker a cocke bill, that it stroke the anker fluke through the ships bowes vnder the water, which caused so great a leake, that with much adoe they preserued the ship from sinking. At their arriuall here they perceiued two ships at anker within the harborough, whereat they began much to maruell and greatly to reioyce, for those they knew to be the Michael, wherein was the Lieutenant generall Captaine Fenton, and the small Barke called the Gabriel, who so long time were missing, and neuer heard of before, whom euery man made the last reckoning, neuer to heare of againe. [Sidenote: Master Wolfall Preacher.] Here euery man greatly reioyced of their happie meeting, and welcommed one another, after the Sea manner with their great Ordinance, and when each partie had ripped vp their sundry fortunes and perils past, they highly praysed God, and altogither vpon their knees gaue him due, humble and heartie thankes, and Maister Wolfall a learned man, appointed by her Maiesties Councell to be their Minister and Preacher made vnto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankfull to God for their strange and miraculous deliuerance in those so dangerous places, and putting them in mind of the vncertaintie of mans life, willed them to make themselues alwayes readie as resolute men to enioy and accept thankefully whatsoeuer aduenture his diuine Prouidence should appoint. This maister Wolfall being well seated and settled at home in his owne Countrey, with a good and large liuing, hauing a good honest woman to wife and very towardly children, being of good reputation among the best, refused not to take in hand this painefull voyage, for the onely care he had to saue soules, and to reforme those Infidels if it were possible to Christiantie: and also partly for the great desire he had that this notable voyage so well begunne, might be brought to perfection: and therefore he was contented to stay there the whole yeare if occasion had serued, being in euery necessary action as forward as the resolutest men of all. Wherefore in this behalfe he may rightly be called a true Pastor and minister of God's word, which for the profite of his flocke spared not to venture his owne life. [Sidenote: The aduentures of Captain Fenton and his companie.] But to returne againe to Captaine Fentons company, and to speake somewhat of their dangers (albeit they be more then by writing can be expressed) they reported that from the night of the first storme which was about the first day of Iuly vntill seuen dayes before the Generals arriuall, which was the sixe and twentith of the same, they neuer saw any one day or houre, wherin they were not troubled with continuall danger and feare of death, and were twentie dayes almost togither fast amongst the yce. They had their ship stricken through and through on both sides, their false stemme borne quite away, and could goe from their ships in some places vpon the yce very many miles, and might easily haue passed from one Iland of yce to another euen to the shore, [Sidenote: Extremitie causeth men to deuise new arts and remedies.] and if God had not wonderfully prouided for them and their necessitie, and time had not made them more cunning and wise to seeke strange remedies for strange kindes of dangers, it had bene impossible for them euer to haue escaped: for among other deuises, wheresoeuer they found any Iland of yce of greater bignesse then the rest (as there be some of more then halfe a mile compasse about, and almost forty fadome high) they commonly coueted to recouer the same, and thereof to make a bulwarke for their defence, whereon hauing mored anker, they road vnder the lee therof for a time, being therby garded from the danger of the lesser driuing yce. [Sidenote: Hard shifts.] But when they must needes forgoe this new found fort by meanes of other yce, which at length would vndermine and compasse them round about, and when that by heauing of the billow they were therewith like to be brused in peeces, they vsed to make fast the shippe vnto the most firme and broad peece of yce they could find, and binding her nose fast thereunto, would fill all their sayles whereon the winde hauing great power, would force forward the ship, and so the shippe bearing before her the yce, and so one yce driuing forward another, should at length get scope and searoome. And hauing by this meanes at length put their enemies to flight, they occupyed the cleare place for a prettie season among sundry mountaines and Alpes of yce. One there was found by measure to be 65 fadome aboue water, which for a kind of similitude, was called Solomons porch. Some thinke those Ilands eight times so much vnder water as they are aboue, because of their monstrous weight. [Sidenote: Strange wonders.] But now I remember I saw very strange wonders, men walking, running, leaping and shooting vpon the mayne seas 40. myles from any land, without any Shippe or other vessel vnder them. Also I saw fresh Riuers running amidst the salt Sea a hundred myle from land, which if any man will not belieue let him know that many of our company leapt out of their Shippe vpon Ilandes of yce, and running there vp and downe, did shoote at Buts vpon the yce, and with their Caliuers did kill great Seales, which vse to lye and sleepe vpon the yce, and this yce melting aboue at the toppe by reflection of the Sunne, came downe in sundry streames, which vniting together, made a pretie Brooke able to driue a Mill. The sayde Captaine Fenton recouered his Port tenne dayes before any man, and spent good tyme in searching for Mine, and hee found good store thereof. He also discouered about tenne Miles vp into the Countrey, where he perceiued neither Towne, Village, nor likelihoode of habitation, but it seemeth (as he sayeth) barren, as the other parts, which as yet we haue entred vpon: but their victuals and prouision went so scant with them, that they had determined to returne homeward within seuen dayes after, if the Fleete had not then arriued. The Generall after his arriual in the Countesses sound, spent no time in vaine, but immediately at his first landing called the chiefe Captaines of his Councell together, and consulted with them for the speedier execution of such things as then they had in hand. As first, for searching and finding out good Minerall for the Miners to be occupyed on. Then to giue good Orders to bee obserued of the whole company on shore. And lastly, to consider for the erecting vp of the Fort and House for the vse of them which were to abide there the whole yeere. For the better handling of these, and all other like important causes in this seruice, it was ordeined from her Maiestie and the Councell, that the Generall should call vnto him certaine of the chiefe Captaines and Gentlemen in Councell, to conferre, consult and determine of all occurrents in this seruice, whose names are as here they follow. Captaine Fenton. Captaine Yorke. Captaine Best. Captaine Carew. Captaine Philpot. And in Sea causes to haue as assistants, Christopher Hall and Charles Iackman, being both very good Pilots, and sufficient Mariners, whereof the one was chiefe Pilot of the Voyage, and the other for the discouerie. From the place of our habitation Westward, Master Selman was appointed Notarie, to register the whole maner of proceeding in these affaires, that true relation thereof might be made, if it pleased her Maiestie to require it. The first of August euery Captaine by order, from the Generall and his councell, was commanded to bring ashoare vnto the Countesses iland all such Gentlemen, souldiers, and Myners, as were vnder their charge, with such prouision as they had of victuals, tents, and things necessary for the speedy getting together of Mine, and fraight for the shippes. The Muster of the men being taken, and the victuals with all other things viewed and considered, euery man was set to his charge, as his place and office required. The Myners were appointed where to worke, and the Mariners discharged their shippes. Vpon the second of August were published and proclaymed vpon the Countesse of Warwickes Iland with sound of Trumpet, certaine Orders by the Generall and his councell, appoynted to be obserued of the company during the time of their abiding there. In the meane time, whilst the Mariners plyed their worke, the Captaines sought out new Mynes, the Goldfiners made tryall of the Ore, the Mariners discharged their shippes, the Gentlemen for example sake laboured heartily, and honestly encouraged the inferior sort to worke. So that the small time of that little leisure that was left to tarrie, was spent in vaine. The second of August the Gabriel arriued, who came from the Vizeadmirall, and beeing distressed sore with Yce, put into Harborough neere vnto Mount Oxford. And now was the whole Fleete arriued safely at their Port, excepting foure, besides the Shippe that was lost: that is, the Thomas Allen, the Anne Francis, the Thomas of Ipswich, and the Moone, whose absence was some lette unto the workes and other proceedings, aswell for that these Shippes were furnished with the better sorte of Myners, as with other prouision for the habitation. [Sidenote: Consultation for inhabiting Meta incognita.] The ninth of August the Generall with the Captaynes of his counsell assembled together, and began to consider and take order for the erecting vp of the house or Fort for them that were to inhabite there the whole yeere, and that presently the Masons and Carpenters might goe in hande therewith. First therefore they perused the Bils of lading, what euery man receiued into his Shippe, and found that there was arriued only the Eastside, and the Southside of the house, and yet not that perfect and entier: for many pieces thereof were vsed for fenders in many Shippes, and so broken in pieces whilest they were distressed in the yce. [Sidenote: An hundred men appointed to inhabite.] Also after due examination had, and true account taken, there was found want of drinke and fuel to serue one hundreth men, which was the number appoynted first to inhabite there, because their greatest store was in the Shippes which were not yet arriued. Then Captaine Fenton seeing the scarcitie of the necessary things aforesayd, was contented, and offred himselfe to inhabite there with sixtie men. Whereupon they caused the Carpenters and Masons to come before them, and demanded in what time they would take vpon them to erect vp a lesse house for sixtie men. They required eight or nine weekes, if there were Tymber sufficient, whereas now they had but sixe and twentie dayes in all to remayne in that Countrey. [Sidenote: No habitation this yeere.] Wherefore it was fully agreed vpon, and resolued by the Generall and his counsell, that no habitation should be there this yeere. And therefore they willed Master Selman the Register to set downe this decree with all their consents, for the better satisfying of her Maiestie, the Lords of the Counsell, and the Aduenturers. The Anne Francis, since she was parted from the Fleete, in the last storme before spoken of, could neuer recouer above fiue leagues within the streights, the winde being sometime contrary, and most times the Yce compassing them round about. And from that time, being about the seuen and twentieth of Iuly, they could neither heare nor have sight of any of the Fleete, vntill the 3. of August, when they descryed a sayle neere vnto Mount Oxford, with whom when they had spoken, they could vnderstand no newes of any of the Fleete at all. And this was the Thomas of Ipswich, who had layne beating off and on at Sea with very fowle weather, and contrary windes euer since that foresayd storme, without sight of any man. They kept company not long together, but were forced to loose one another againe, the Moone being consort always with the Anne Francis, and keeping very good company plyed vp together into the streights, with great desire to recouer their long wished Port: and they attempted as often, and passed as farre as possible the winde, weather, and yce gaue them leaue, which commonly they found very contrary. For when the weather was cleare and without fogge, then commonly the winde was contrary. And when it was eyther Easterly or Southerly, which would serue their turnes, then had they so great a fogge and darke miste therewith, that eyther they could not discerne way thorow the yce, or els the yce lay so thicke together, that it was impossible for them to passe. And on the other side, when it was calme, the Tydes had force to bring the yce so suddenly about them, that commonly then they were most therewith distressed, hauing no Winde to carry them from the danger thereof. And by the sixt of August being with much adoe got vp as high as Leicester point, they had good hope to finde the Souther shore cleare, and so to passe vp towardes their Port. But being there becalmed and lying a hull openly vpon the great Bay which commeth out of the mistaken streights before spoken of, they were so suddenly compassed with yce round about by meanes of the swift Tydes which ran in that place, that they were neuer afore so hardly beset as now. And in seeking to auoyde these dangers in the darke weather, the Anne Francis lost sight of the other two Ships, who being likewise hardly distressed, signified their danger, as they since reported, by shooting off their ordinance, which the other could not heare, nor if they had heard, could haue giuen them any remedie, being so busily occupied to winde themselues out of their owne troubles. [Sidenote: The Moone.] The Fleeboate called the Moone, was here heaued aboue the water with the force of the yce, and receiued a great leake thereby. Likewise the Thomas of Ipswich, and the Anne Francis were sore bruised at that instant, hauing their false stemmes borne away, and their ship sides stroken quite through. Now considering the continuall dangers and contraries, and the little leasure that they had left to tarie in these partes, besides that euery night the ropes of their Shippes were so frozen, that a man could not handle them without cutting his handes, together with the great doubt they had of the Fleetes safety, thinking it an impossibilitie for them to passe vnto their Port, as well for that they saw themselues, as for that they heard by the former report of the Shippes which had prooued before, who affirmed that the streights were all frozen ouer within: They thought it now very hie time to consider of their estates and safeties that were yet left together. [Sidenote: The Anne Francis, the Thomas of Ipswich and the Moone consult.] And hereupon the Captaines and masters of these Shippes, desired the Captaine of the Anne Francis to enter into consideration with them of these matters. Wherefore Captaine Tanfield of the Thomas of Ipswich, with his Pilot Richard Cox, and Captaine Vpcote of the Moone, with his master Iohn Lakes came aboorde the Anne Francis the eight of August to consult of these causes. And being assembled together in the Captaines Cabin, sundry doubts were there alledged. For the fearefuller sort of Mariners being ouertyred with the continuall labour of the former dangers, coueted to returne homeward, saying that they would not againe tempt God so much, who had giuen them so many warnings, and deliuered them from so wonderfull dangers: that they rather desired to lose wages, fraight, and all, then to continue and follow such desperate fortunes. Againe, their Ships were so leake, and the men so wearie, that to amend the one, and refresh the other, they must of necessitie seeke into harborough. But on the other side it was argued againe to the contrary, that to seeke into harborough thereabouts, was but to subject themselues to double dangers: if happily they escaped the dangers of Rockes in their entring, yet being in, they were neuerthelesse subiect there to the danger of the Ice, which with the swift tydes and currents is caryed in and out in most harboroughs thereabouts, and may thereby gaule their Cables asunder, driue them vpon the shoare, and bring them to much trouble. Also the coast is so much subiect to broken ground and rockes, especially in the mouth and entrance of euery Harborough, that albeit the Channell be sounded ouer and ouer againe, yet are you neuer the neerer to discerne the dangers. For the bottome of the Sea holding like shape and forme as the land, being full of hils, dales, and ragged Rockes, suffreth you not by your soundings to knowe and keepe a true gesse of the depth. For you shall sound vpon the side or hollownesse of one Hill or Rocke vnder water, and haue a hundreth, fiftie, or fourtie fadome depth: and before the next cast, yer[86] you shall be able to heaue your lead againe, you shall be vpon the toppe thereof, and come aground to your vtter confusion. Another reason against going to harborough was, that the colde ayre did threaten a sudden freezing vp of the sounds, seeing that euery night there was new congealed yce, euen of that water which remayned within their shippes. And therefore it should seeme to be more safe to lye off and on at Sea, then for lacke of winde to bring them foorth of harborough, to hazard by sudden frosts to be shut vp the whole yeere. After many such dangers and reasons alleged, and large debating of these causes on both sides, the Captaine of the Anne Francis deliuered his opinion vnto the company to this effect. [Sidenote: Captain Bests resolution.] First concerning the question of returning home, hee thought it so much dishonorable, as not to grow in any farther question: and againe to returne home at length (as at length they must needes) and not to be able to bring a certaine report of the Fleete, whether they were liuing or lost, or whether any of them had recouered their Port or not, in the Countesses sound, (as it was to bee thought the most part would if they were liuing) hee sayde that it would be so great an argument eyther of want of courage or discretion in them, as hee resolued rather to fall into any danger, then so shamefully to consent to returne home, protesting that it should neuer bee spoken of him, that hee would euer returne without doing his endeuour to finde the Fleete, and knowe the certaintie of the Generals safetie. [Sidenote: A Pinnesse for the inhabiters.] Hee put his company in remembrance of a Pinnesse of fiue tunne burthen, which hee had within his Shippe, which was caryed in pieces, and vnmade vp for the vse of those which should inhabite there the whole yeere, the which, if they could finde meanes to ioyne together, hee offered himselfe to prooue before therewith, whether it were possible for any Boate to passe for yce, whereby the Shippe might bee brought in after, and might also thereby giue true notice, if any of the Fleete were arriued at their Port or not. But notwithstanding, for that he well perceiued that the most part of his company were addicted to put into harborough, hee was willing the rather for these causes somewhat to encline thereunto. As first, to search alongst the same coast, and the soundes thereabouts, hee thought it to be to good purpose, for that it was likely to finde some of the Fleete there, which being leake, and sore brused with the yce, were the rather thought likely to be put into an yll harborough, being distressed with foule weather in the last storme, then to hazard their vncertaine safeties amongst the yce: for about this place they lost them, and left the Fleete then doubtfully questioning of harborough. It was likely also, that they might finde some fitte harborough thereabouts, which might bee behoouefull for them against another time. It was not likewise impossible to finde some Ore or Mine thereabouts wherewithall to fraight their Shippes, which would bee more commodious in this place, for the neerenesse to Seaward, and for a better outlet, then farther within the streights, being likely heere alwayes to loade in a shorter time, howsoeuer the streight should be pestered with yce within, so that if it might come to passe that thereby they might eyther finde the Fleete, Mine, or conuenient harborough, any of these three would serue their present turnes, and giue some hope and comfort vnto their companies, which now were altogether comfortlesse. But if that all fortune should fall out so contrary, that they could neyther recouer their Port, nor any of these aforesayde helpes, that yet they would not depart the Coast, as long as it was possible for them to tary there, but would lye off and on at Sea athwart the place. Therefore his finall conclusion was set downe thus, First, that the Thomas of Ipswich and the Moone should consort and keepe company together carefully with the Anne Francis, as neere as they could, and as true Englishmen and faithfull friends, should supply one anothers want in all fortunes and dangers. In the morning following, euery Shippe to send off his Boate with a sufficient Pylot, to search out and sound the harborougbs for the safe bringing in of their Shippes. And beeing arriued in harborough, where they might finde conuenient place for the purpose, they resolued foorthwith to ioyne and sette together the Pinnesse, wherewithall the Captaine of the Anne Francis might, according to his former determination, discouer vp into the streights. After these determinations thus set downe, the Thomas of Ipswich the night following lost company of the other Shippes, and afterward shaped a contrary course homeward, which fell out as it manifestly appeared, very much against their Captaine Master Tanfields minde, as by due examination before the Lordes of her Maiesties most honourable priuie Counsell it hath since bene prooued, to the great discredite of the Pilot Cox, who specially persuaded his company against the opinion of his sayd Captaine, to returne home. And as the Captaine of the Anne Francis doeth witnesse, euen at their conference togither, Captaine Tanfield tolde him, that he did not a little suspect the sayd Pilot Cox, saying that he had opinion in the man neither of honest duetie, manhoode, nor constancie. Notwithstanding the sayde Shippes departure, the Captaine of the Anne Francis being desirous to put in execution his former resolutions, went with his Shippe boate (being accompanied also with the Moones Skiffe) to prooue amongst the Ilands which lye vnder Hattons Hedland, if any conuenient harborough, or any knowledge of the Fleete, or any good Ore were there to be found. The Shippes lying off and on at Sea the while vnder Sayle, searching through many sounds, they sawe them all full of many dangers and broken ground: yet one there was, which seemed an indifferent place to harborough in, and which they did very diligently sound ouer, and searched againe. Here the sayde Captaine found a great blacke Island, whereunto hee had good liking, and certifying the company thereof, they were somewhat comforted, and with the good hope of his wordes rowed cheerefully vnto the place: where when they arriued, they found such plentie of blacke Ore of the same sort which was brought into England this last yeere, that if the goodnesse might answere the great plentie thereof, it was to be thought that it might reasonably suffice all the golde-gluttons of the worlde. [Sidenote: Bestes blessing.] This Iland the Captaine for cause of his good hap, called after his own name, Bestes blessing, and with these good tydings returning abord his Ship the ninth of August about tenne of the clocke at night, hee was ioyfully welcommed of his company, who before were discomforted, and greatly expected some better fortune at his handes. The next day being the tenth of August, the weather reasonably fayre, they put into the foresayde Harborough, hauing their Boate for the better securitie sounding before their Shippe. [Sidenote: Anne Francis in danger.] But for all the care and diligence that could bee taken in sounding the Channell ouer and ouer againe, the Anne Francis came aground vpon a suncken Rocke within the Harborough, and lay thereon more then halfe drye vntill the next flood, when by Gods Almighty prouidence, contrary almost to all expectation, they came afloat againe, being forced all that time to vndersette their Shippe with their mayne Yarde, which otherwise was likely to ouerset and put thereby in danger the whole company. They had aboue two thousand strokes together at the Pumpe, before they could make their Shippe free of the water againe, so sore shee was in brused by lying vpon the Rockes. [Sidenote: The Moone in harborough.] The Moone came safely, and roade at anchor by the Anne Francis, whose helpe in their necessitie they could not well haue missed. Now whilest the Mariners were romaging their Shippes, and mending that which was amisse, the Miners followed their labour for getting together of sufficient quantitie of Ore, and the Carpenters indeuoured to doe their best for the making vp of the Boate or Pinnesse: which to bring to passe, they wanted two speciall and most necessarie things, that is, certaine principall tymbers that are called knees, which are the chiefest strength of any Boate and also nayles, wherewithall to ioyne the plancks together. Whereupon hauing by chance a Smyth amongst them, (and yet vnfurnished of his necessary tooles to worke and make nayles withall) they were faine of a gunne chamber to make an Anuile to worke vpon, and to vse a pickaxe in stead of a sledge to beate withall, and also to occupy two small bellowes in steade of one payre of greater Smiths bellowes. And for lacke of small Yron for the easier making of the nayles, they were forced to breake their tongs, grydiron, and fireshouell in pieces. [Sidenote: Hattons Hedland.] The eleuenth of August the Captaine of the Anne Francis taking the Master of his Shippe with him, went vp to the top of Hattons Hedland, which is the highest land of all the straights, to the ende to descry the situation of the Countrey vnderneath, and to take a true plotte of the place, whereby also to see what store of Yce was yet left in the straights, as also to search what Mineral matter or fruite that soyle might yeeld: And the rather for the honour the said Captaine doeth owe to that Honourable name[87] which himselfe gaue thereunto the last yeere, in the highest part of this Hedland he caused his company to make a Columne or Crosse of stone, in token of Christian possession. [Sidenote: Pretie stones.] In this place there is plentie of Blacke Ore, and diuers pretie stones. [Sidenote: A mightie white Beare.] The seuenteenth of August the Captaines with their companies chased and killed a great white Beare, which aduentured and gaue a fierce assault vpon twentie men being weaponed. And he serued them for good meate many dayes. [Sidenote: A Pinnesse there built.] The eighteenth of August the Pinnesse with much adoe being set together, the sayd Captaine Best determined to depart vp the straights, to prooue and make tryall, as before was pretended, some of his companie greatly persuading him to the contrary, and specially the Carpenter that set the same together, who sayde that hee would not aduenture himselfe therein for fiue hundreth pounds, for that the boate hung together but onely by the strength of the nayles, and lacked some of her principall knees and tymbers. These wordes some what discouraged some of the company which should haue gone therein. Whereupon the Captaine, as one not altogether addicted to his owne selfe-will, but somewhat foreseeing how it might be afterwards spoken, if contrary fortune should happen him (Lo he hath followed his owne opinion and desperate resolutions, and so thereafter it is befallen him) calling the Master and Mariners of best iudgement together, declared vnto them how much the cause imported him to his credite to seeke out the Generall, as well to conferre with him of some causes of weight, as otherwise to make due examination and tryall of the Goodnesse of the Ore, whereof they had no assurance but by gesse of the eye, and it was well like the other: which so to cary home, not knowing the goodnesse thereof, might be as much as if they should bring so many stones. And therefore hee desired them to deliuer their plaine and honest opinion, whether the Pinnesse were sufficient for him so to aduenture in or no. It was answered, that by careful heede taking thereunto amongst the yce, and the foule weather, the Pinnesse might suffice. And hereupon the Masters mate of the Anne Francis called Iohn Gray, manfully and honestly offering himselfe vnto his Captaine in this aduenture and seruice, gaue cause to others of his Mariners to follow the attempt. [Sidenote: They aduenture by the streights in a weake Pinnesse.] And vpon the nineteenth of August the sayd Captaine being accompanied with Captaine Vpcote of the Moone, and eighteene persons in the small Pinnesse, hauing conuenient portions of victuals and things necessary, departed upon the sayd pretended Voyage, leauing their shippe at anchor in a good readinesse for the taking in of their fraight. And hauing little winde to sayle withall, they plyed alongst the Souther shore, and passed aboue 30. leagues, hauing the onely helpe of mans labour with Oares, and so intending to keepe that shore aboord vntil they were got vp to the farthest and narrowest of the streights, minded there to crosse ouer and to search likewise alongst the Northerland vnto the Countesses sound, and from thence to passe all that coast along, whereby if any of the Fleete had bene distressed by wrecke of rocke or yce, by that meanes they might be perceiued of them, and so they thereby to giue them such helpe and reliefe as they could. They did greatly feare, and euer suspect that some of the Fleete were surely cast away, and driuen to seeke sowre sallets amongst the colde cliffes. [Sidenote: 40 leagues within the streights.] And being shotte vp about fortie leagues within the Streights, they put ouer towardes the Norther shore, which was not a little dangerous for their small boates. [Sidenote: Gabriels Ilands.] And by meanes of a sudden flawe were dryuen, and faine to seeke harborough in the night amongst all the rockes and broken ground of Gabriels Ilands, a place so named within the streights aboue the Countesse of Warwicks sound: And by the way where they landed, they did finde certaine great stones set vp by the Countrey people as it seemed for markes, where they also made many Crosses of stone, in token that Christians had been there. The 22. of August they had sight of the Countesses sound, and made the place perfect from the toppe of a hill, and keeping along the Norther shore, perceiued the smoke of a fire vnder a hils side: whereof they diuersely deemed. When they came neere the place, they perceiued people which wafted vnto them, as it seemed, with a flagge or ensigne. And because the Countrey people had vsed to do the like, when they perceiued any of our boats to passe by, they suspected them to be the same. And comming somewhat neerer, they might perceiue certaine tents, and discerne this ensigne to be of mingled colours, blacke and white, after the English Fashion. But because they could see no Shippe, nor likelihood of harborough within fiue or sixe leagues about, and knewe that none of our men were woont to frequent those partes, they could not tell what to iudge thereof, but imagined that some of the ships being carried so high with the storme and mistes, had made shipwracke amongst the yce or the broken Islands there, and were spoyled by the countrey people, who might vse the sundry coloured flagge for a policie, to bring them likewise within their danger. Whereupon the sayd Captaine with his companies, resolued to recouer the same ensigne, if it were so, from those base people, or els to lose their liues and all together. In the ende they discerned them to be their countreymen, and then they deemed them to haue lost their Ships, and so to be gathered together for their better strength. On the other side, the companie ashoare feared that the Captaine hauing lost his Shippe, came to seeke forth the Fleete for his reliefe in his poore Pinnesse, so that their extremities caused eche part to suspect the worst. [Sidenote: Proximus sum egomet mihi.] The Captaine now with his Pinnisse being come neere the shoare, commanded his Boate carefully to be kept aflote, lest in their necessitie they might winne the same from him, and seeke first to saue themselues: for euery man in that case is next himselfe. They haled one another according to the manner of the Sea, and demaunded what cheere? and either partie answered the other, that all was well: whereupon there was a sudden and ioyful outshoote, with great flinging vp of caps, and a braue voly of shotte to welcome one another. And truely it was a most strange case to see how ioyfull and gladde euery partie was to see themselues meete in safetie againe, after so strange and incredible dangers: Yet to be short, as their dangers were great, so their God was greater. [Sidenote: Captain York arriued.] And here the company were working vpon new Mines, which Captaine York being here arriued not long before, had found out in this place, and it is named the Countesse of Sussex Mine. After some conference with our friends here, the captaine of the Anne Francis departed towards the Countesse of Warwicks sound, to speake with the Generall, and to haue tryall made of such mettall as he had brought thither, by the Goldfiners. And so he determined to dispatch againe towards his ship. And hauing spoken with the General, he receiued order for all causes, direction as well for the bringing vp of the Shippe to the Countesses sound, as also to fraight his Ship with the same Oare which he himselfe had found, which vpon triall made, was supposed to be very good. The 23. of August, the sayde Captaine mette together with the other Captaines (Commissioners in counsell with the Generall) aboorde the Ayde, where they considered and consulted of sundry causes, which being particularly registred by the Notarie, were appoynted where and how to be done against another yeere. The 24. of August, the Generall with two Pinnesses and good numbers of men went to Beares sound, commanding the sayde Captaine with his Pinnesse to attend the seruice, to see if he could encounter or apprehend any of the people: for sundry times they shewed themselues busie thereabouts, sometimes with seuen or eyght Boates in one company, as though they minded to encounter with our company which were working there at the Mines, in no great numbers. [Sidenote: None of the people will be taken.] But when they perceiued any of our Shippes to ryde in that roade (being belike more amazed at the countenance of a Shippe, and a more number of men) they did neuer shewe themselues againe there at all. Wherefore our men sought with their Pinnesses to compasse about the Iland where they did vse, supposing there suddenly to intercept some of them. But before our men could come neere, hauing belike some watch in the toppe of the mountaines, they conueyed themselues priuilly away, and left (as it should seeme) one of their great dartes behinde them for haste, which we found neere to a place of their caues and housing. Therefore, though our Generall were very desirous to haue taken some of them to haue brought into England, they being now growen more wary by their former losses, would not at any time come within our dangers. About midnight of the same day, the captaine of the Anne Francis departed thence and set his course ouer the straights towards Hattons Hedland, being about 15. leagues ouer, and returned aboord his Shippe the 25. of August to the great comfort of his company, who long expected his comming, where hee found his Shippes ready rigged and loden. Wherefore he departed from thence againe the next morning towards the Countesses sound, where he arriued the 28. of the same. By the way he set his Miners ashore at Beares sound, for the better dispatch and gathering the Ore togither; for that some of the ships were behind hand with their fraight, the time of the yeere passing suddenly away. The thirtieth of August the Anne Francis was brought aground, and had 8. great leakes mended which she had receiued by meanes of the rockes and yce. [Sidenote: A house builded and left there.] This day the Masons finished a house which Captaine Fenton caused to be made of lyme and stone vpon the Countesse of Warwickes Island, to the ende we might proue against the next yeere, whither the snow could ouerwhelme it, the frost brake it vp, or the people dismember the same. And the better to allure those brutish and vnciuill people to courtesie against other times of our comming, we left therein diuers of our Countrey toyes, as belles, and kniues, wherein they specially delight, one for the necessary vse, and the other for the great pleasure thereof. Also pictures of men and women in lead, men on horsebacke, looking glasses, whistles, and pipes. Also in the house was made an Ouen, and bread left baked therein for them to see and taste. We buried the timber of our pretended fort. Also here we sowed pease, corne, and other graine, to proue the fruitfulnesse of the soyle against the next yeere. [Sidenote: M. Wolfall a godly preacher.] Master Wolfall on Winters Fornace preached a godly sermon, which being ended, he celebrated also a Communion vpon the land, at the partaking whereof was the Captaine of the Anne Francis, and many other Gentlemen and Souldiers, Mariners, and Miners with him. The celebration of the diuine mystery was the first signe, seale, and confirmation of Christs name, death, and passion euer knowen in these quarters. The said M. Wolfall made sermons, and celebrated the Communion at sundry other times, in seuerall and sundry ships, because the whole company could neuer meet together at any one place. [Sidenote: Consultation for a further discouery.] The Fleet now being in some good readinesse for their lading, the Generall calling together the Gentlemen and Captaines to consult, told them that he was very desirous that some further discouery should be attempted, and that he would not onely by Gods helpe bring home his ships laden with Ore, but also meant to bring some certificate of a further discouery of the Countrey, which thing to bring to passe (hauing sometime therein consulted) they found very hard, and almost inuincible. And considering that already they had spent sometime in searching out the trending and fashion of the mistaken straites, therefore it could not be sayd, but that by this voyage they haue notice of a further discouery, and that the hope of the passage thereby is much furthered and encreased, as appeared before in the discourse thereof. Yet notwithstanding if any meanes might be further deuised, the Captaines were contented and willing, as the Generall shoulde appoynt and commaund, to take any enterprise in hand. Which after long debating was found a thing very impossible, and that rather consultation was to be had of returning homeward, especially for these causes following. First the darke foggy mists, the continuall falling snowe and stormy weather which they commonly were vexed with, and now daily euer more and more increased, haue no small argument of the Winters drawing neere. And also the frost euery night was so hard congealed within the sound, that if by euill hap they should bee long kept in with contrary winds, it was greatly to be feared, that they should be shut vp there fast the whole yeere, which being vtterly vnprouided, would be their vtter destruction. Againe, drinke was so scant throughout all the Fleet by meanes of the great leakage, that not onely the prouision which was layd in for the habitation was wanting and wasted, but also each shippes seuerall prouision spent and lost, which many of our company to their great griefe found in their returne since, for all the way homewards they dranke nothing but water. And the great cause of this leakage and wasting was, for that the great timber and seacole, which lay so weighty vpon the barrels, brake, bruised, and rotted the hoopes insunder. [Sidenote: Broken Ilands in maner of an Archipelagus.] Yet notwithstanding these reasons alleaged the Generall himselfe (willing the rest of the Gentlemen and Captaines euery man to looke to his seuerall charge and lading, that against a day appointed, they should be all in a readinesse to set homeward) went in a Pinnesse and discouered further Northward in the straights, and found that by Beares sound and Halles Island, the land was not firme, as it was first supposed, but all broken Islands in maner of an Archipelagus, and so with other secret intelligence to himselfe, he returned to the Fleet. Where presently vpon his arriuall at the Countesses sound, he began to take order for their returning homeward, and first caused certaine Articles to be proclaimed, for the better keeping of orders and courses in their returne, which Articles were deliuered to euery Captaine. The Fleetes returning homeward. [Sidenote: Returne homeward.] Hauing now receiued articles and directions for our returne homewards, all other things being in forwardnesse and in good order, the last day of August the whole Fleete departed from the Countesses sound, excepting the Iudith, and the Anne Francis, who stayed for the taking in of fresh water and came the next day and mette the Fleete off and on, athwart Beares sound, who stayed for the Generall, which then was gone ashore to despatch the two Barkes and the Busse of Bridgewater, for their loading, whereby to get the companies and other things aboord. The Captaine of the Anne Francis hauing most part of his company ashore, the first of September went also to Beares sound in his Pinnesse to fetch his men aboord, but the wind grewe so great immediatly vpon their landing, that the shippes at sea were in great danger, and some of them forcibly put from their ankers, and greatly feared to be vtterly lost, as the Hopewell, wherein was Captaine Carew and others, who could not tell on which side their danger was most: for hauing mightie rockes threatening on the one side, and driuing Islands of cutting yce on the other side, they greatly feared to make shipwracke, the yce driuing so neere them that it touched their bolt-sprit. And by meanes of the Sea that was growne so hie, they were not able to put to sea with their small Pinnesses to recouer their shippes. And againe, the shippes were not able to tarie or lie athwart for them, by meanes of the outragious windes and swelling seas. The Generall willed the Captaine of the Anne Francis with his company, for that night to lodge aboord the Busse of Bridgewater, and went himselfe with the rest of his men aboord the Barkes. But their numbers were so great, and the prouision of the Barkes so scant, that they pestered one another exceedingly. They had great hope that the next morning the weather would be faire whereby they might recouer their shippes. But in the morning following it was much worse, for the storme continued greater, the Sea being more swollen, and the Fleete gone quite out of sight. So that now their doubts began to grow great: for the ship of Bridgewater which was of greatest receit, and whereof they had best hope and made most account, roade so farre to leeward of the harborowes mouth, that they were not able for the rockes (that lay betweene the wind and them) to lead it out to Sea with a saile. And the Barks were already so pestered with men, and so slenderly furnished with prouision, that they had scarce meat for sixe dayes for such numbers. The Generall in the morning departed to Sea in the Gabriel to seeke the Fleete, leauing the Busse of Bridgewater, and the Michael behind in Beares sound. The Busse set sayle, and thought by turning in the narrow channell within the harborow to get to windward: but being put to leeward more, by that meanes was faine to come to anker for her better safetie, amongst a number of rockes, and there left in great danger of euer getting forth againe. The Michael set sayle to follow the Generall, and could giue the Busse no reliefe, although they earnestly desired the same. And the Captaine of the Anne Francis was left in hard election of two euils: eyther to abide his fortune with the Busse of Bridgewater, which was doubtfull of euer getting forth, or else to bee towed in his small Pinnesse at the sterne of the Michael thorow the raging Seas, for that the Barke was not able to receiue or relieue halfe his company, wherein his danger was not a little perillous. So after hee resolued to commit himselfe with all his company vnto that fortune of God and Sea, and was dangerously towed at the sterne of the Barke for many miles, vntill at length they espyed the Anne Francis vnder sayle, hard vnder their Lee, which was no small comfort vnto them. For no doubt, both those and a great number more had perished for lacke of victuals, and conuenient roome in the Barks without the helpe of the said Ship. But the honest care that the Master of the Anne Francis had of his Captaine, and the good regarde of duetie towardes his Generall, suffered him not to depart, but honestly abode to hazard a dangerous roade all the night long, notwithstanding all the stormy weather, when all the Fleete besides departed. And the Pinnesse came no sooner aboord the shippe, and the men entred, but shee presently shiuered and fell to pieces and sunke at the ships sterne, with all the poore mens furniture: so weake was the boat with towing, and so forcible was the sea to bruise her in pieces, But (as God would) the men were all saued. At this present in this storme many of the Fleete were dangerously distressed, and were seuered almost all asunder. Yet, thanks be to God, all the Fleete arriued safely in England about the first of October, some in one place and some in another. [Sidenote: An vnknowen channell into the Northeast discouered by the Busse of Bridgewater.] But amongst other, it was most maruellous how the Busse of Bridgewater got away, who being left behind the Fleete in great danger of neuer getting forth, was forced to seeke a way Northward thorow an vnknowen channell full of rocks, vpon the backe side of Beares sound, and there by good hap found out a way into the North sea, a very dangerous attempt; save that necessitie, which hath no law, forced them to trie masteries. This aforesayd North sea is the same which lyeth vpon the backe side of Frobishers straits, where first the Generall himselfe in his Pinnesses, and after some other of our company haue discouered (as they affirme) a great foreland, where they would also haue a great likelihood of the greatest passage towards the South sea, or Mar del Sur. [Sidenote: A fruitful new Island discouered.] The Busse of Bridgewater, as she came homeward, to the Southeastward of Friseland, discouered a great Island in the latitude of 57 degrees and an halfe, which was neuer yet found before, and sailed three dayes alongst the coast, the land seeming to be fruitfull, full of woods, and a champion[88] countrey. There died in the whole Fleete in all this voyage not aboue forty persons, which number is not great, considering how many ships were in the Fleet, and how strange fortunes we passed. A generall and briefe description of the Countrey, and condition of the people, which are found in Meta Incognita. Hauing now sufficiently and truly set forth the whole circumstance, and particuler handling of euery occurrent in the 3. voyages of our worthy Generall, Captaine Frobisher, it shal not be from the purpose to speake somewhat in generall of the nature of this Countrey called Meta Incognita, and the condition of the sauages there inhabiting. [Sidenote: A Topographical description of Meta Incognita.] First therefore touching the Topographical description of the place. It is now found in the last voyage, that Queene Elizabeths Cape being situate in latitude at 61. degrees and a halfe, which before was supposed to be part of the firme land of America, and also al the rest of the South side of Frobishers straites, are all seuerall Islands and broken land, and like wise so will all the North side of the said straites fall out to be as I thinke. And some of our company being entred aboue 60. leagues within the mistaken straites in the third voyage mentioned, thought certainely that they had discryed the firme land of America towards the South, which I thinke will fall out so to be. These broken lands and Islands being very many in number, do seeme to make there an Archipelagus, which as they all differ in greatnesse, forme, and fashion one from another; so are they in goodnesse, colour, and soyle much vnlike. They all are very high lands, mountaines, and in most parts couered with snow euen all the Sommer long. The Norther lands haue lesse store of snow, more grasse, and are more plaine Countreys: the cause whereof may be, for that the Souther Ilands receiue all the snow, that the cold winds and piercing ayre bring out of the North. And contrarily, the North parts receiue more warme blasts of milder ayre from the South, whereupon may grow the cause why the people couet to inhabit more vpon the North parts then the South, as farre as we yet by our experience perceiue they doe. [Sidenote: The people of Meta Incognita like vnto Samoeds.] These people I iudge to be a kind of Tartar, or rather a kind of Samoed, of the same sort and condition of life that the Samoeds bee to the Northeastwards beyond Moscouy, who are called Samoeds, which is as much to say in the Moscouy tongue as eaters of themselues, and so the Russians their borderers doe name them. And by late conference with a friend of mine (with whom I did sometime trauell in the parts of Moscouy) who had great experience of those Samoeds and people of the Northeast, I find that in all their maner of liuing, those people of the Northeast, and those of the Northwest are like. [Sidenote: Their natiue colour.] They are of the colour of a ripe Oliue, which how it may come to passe, being borne in so cold a climate I referre to the iudgement of others, for they are naturally borne children of the same colour and complexion that all the Americans are, which dwell vnder the Equinoctiall line. They are men very actiue and nimble. They are a strong people and very warlike, for in our sight vpon the toppes of the hilles they would often muster themselues, and after the maner of a skirmish trace their ground very nimbly, and mannage their bowes and dartes with great dexterity. [Sidenote: Their apparel.] They go clad in coates made of the skinnes of beasts, as of Seales, Deere, Beares, Foxes, and Hares. They haue also some garments of feathers, being made of the cases of Foules, finely sowed and compact togither. Of all which sorts wee brought home some with vs into England, which we found in their tents. In Sommer they vse to weare the hairie side of their coates outward, and sometime goe naked for too much heate. And in Winter (as by signes they haue declared) they weare foure or fiue folde vpon their bodies with the haire (for warmth) turned inward. Hereby it appeareth, that the ayre there is not indifferent, but either it is feruent hote, or els extreme cold, and farre more excessiue in both qualities, then the reason of the climate should yeeld. For there it is colder, being vnder 62 degrees in latitude, then it is at Wardhouse in the voyage to Saint Nicholas in Moscouie, being at about aboue 72. degrees in latitude. [Sidenote: The accidental cause of cold ayre at Meta Incognita.] The reason hereof may be, that this Meta Incognita is much frequented and vexed with Easterne and Northeastern winds, which from the sea and yce bringeth often an intollerable cold ayre, which was also the cause that this yeere our straits were so long shut vp with so great store of yce. But there is great hope and likelihood, that further within the Straights it will bee more constant and temperate weather. These people are in nature very subtill and sharpe witted, ready to conceiue our meaning by signes, and to make answere well to be vnderstood againe. And if they haue not seene the thing whereof you aske them, they will wincke, or couer their eyes with their hands, as who would say, it hath bene hid from their sight. If they vnderstand you not whereof you should aske them, they wil stop their eares. They will teach vs the names of each thing in their language which wee desire to learne, and are apt to learne any thing of vs. [Sidenote: The sauages delight in Musicke.] They delight in Musicke aboue measure, and will keepe time and stroke to any tune which you shall sing, both with their voyce, head, hand and feete, and will sing the same tune aptly after you. They will row with our Ores in our boates, and keepe a true stroke with our Mariners, and seeme to take great delight therein. [Sidenote: Hard kind of Living.] They liue in Caues of the earth, and hunt for their dinners or praye, euen as the beare or other wild beastes do. They eat raw flesh and fish, and refuse no meat howsoeuer it be stinking. They are desperate in their fight, sullen of nature, and rauenous in their maner of feeding. Their sullen and desperate nature doth herein manifestly appeare, that a company of them being enuironed by our men on the top of a hie cliffe, so that they could by no meanes escape our hands, finding themselues in this case distressed, chose rather to cast themselues headlong down the rocks into the sea, and so be bruised and drowned, rather than to yeeld themselues to our mens mercies. [Sidenote: Their weapons.] For their weapons to offend their enemies or kill their prey withall, they haue darts, slings, bowes, and arrowes headed with sharpe stones, bones, and some with yron. They are exceeding friendly and kind hearted one to the other, and mourne greatly at the losse or harme of their fellowes, and expresse their griefe of mind, when they part one from another with a mourneful song, and Dirges. [Sidenote: Their chastity.] They are very shamefast in betraying the secrets of nature, and very chaste in the maner of their liuing: for when the man, which wee brought from thence into England the last voyage, should put off his coat or discouer his whole body for change, he would not suffer the woman to bee present, but put her forth of his Cabin. And in all the space of two or three moneths, while the man liued in company of the woman, there was neuer any thing seene or perceiued betweene them, more then ought haue passed betweene brother and sister: but the woman was in all things very seruiceable for the man, attending him carefully when he was sicke, and he likewise in all the meates which they did eate together, woulde carue vnto her of the sweetest, fattest, and best morsels they had. They wondred much at all our things, and were afraid of our horses and other beasts out of measure. They began to grow more ciuill, familiar, pleasant, and docible amongst vs in very short time. [Sidenote: Their boates.] They haue boates made of leather, and couered cleane ouer sauing one place in the middle to sit in, planked within with timber, and they vse to row therein with one Ore, more swiftly a great deale, then we in our boates can doe with twentie. They haue one sort of greater boates wherein they can carrie aboue twentie persons, and haue a Mast with a saile thereon, which saile is made of thinne skinnes or bladders, sowed togither with the sinewes of fishes. They are good Fishermen, and in their small Boates being disguised with their coates of Seales skinnes, they deceiue the fish, who take them rather for their fellow Seales, then for deceiuing men. They are good marke-men. With their dart or arrow they will commonly kill a Ducke, or any other foule in the head, and commonly in the eye. When they shoote at a great fish with any of their darts, they vse to tye a bladder thereunto, whereby they may the better find them againe, and the fish not able to cary it so easily away (for that the bladder doth boy the dart) will at length be wearie, and dye therewith. [Sidenote: Traffique with some other nation vnknowen.] They vse to traffike and exchange their commodities with some other people, of whom they haue such things as their miserable Countrey, and ignorance of Art to make, denieth them to haue, as barres of yron, heads of yron for their darts, needles made foure square, certaine buttons of copper, which they vse to weare vpon their forehads for ornament, as our Ladies in the Court of England doe vse great pearle. [Sidenote: Gold.] Also they haue made signes vnto vs, that they haue seene gold, and such bright plates of mettals, which are vsed for ornaments amongst some people with whom they haue conference. We found also in their tents a Guiny Beane of redde colour, the which doth vsually grow in the hote Countreys: whereby it appeareth they trade with other nations which dwell farre off, or else themselues are great trauellers. [Sidenote: Their fewell.] They haue nothing in vse among them to maker fire withall, sauing a kinde of Heath and Mosse which groweth there. [Sidenote: How they make fire.] And they kindle their fire with continuall rubbing and fretting one sticke against another, as we doe with flints. They drawe with dogges in sleads vpon the yce, and remooue their tents therewithall wherein they dwell in Sommer, when they goe a hunting for their praye and prouision against Winter. [Sidenote: Their kettles and pannes.] They doe sometime parboyle their meat a little and seeth the same in kettles made of beast skins; they haue also pannes cut and made of stones very artificially; they vse prety ginnes wherewith they take foule. The women carry their sucking children at their backes, and doe feede them with raw flesh, which first they do a little chaw in their owne mouths. The women haue their faces marked or painted ouer with small blewe spots: they haue blacke and long haire on their heads, and trimme the same in a decent order. The men haue but little haire on their faces, and very thinne beards. For their common drinke, they eate yce to quench their thirst withall. [Sidenote: The people eate grasse and shrubs.] Their earth yeeldeth no graine or fruit of sustenance for man, or almost for beast to liue vpon: and the people will eate grasse and shrubs of the ground, euen as our kine doe. They haue no wood growing in their Countrey thereabouts, and yet wee finde they haue some timber among them, which we thinke doth growe farre off to the Southwards of this place, about Canada, or some other part of New found land: for there belike, the trees standing on the cliffes of the sea side, by the waight of yce and snow in Winter ouercharging them with waight, when the Sommers thaw commeth aboue, and the Sea vnderfretting beneath, which winneth dayly of the land, they are vndermined and fall downe from those cliffes into the Sea, and with the tydes and currents are driuen to and fro vpon the coastes further off, and by conjecture are taken vp here by these Countrey people, to serue them to planke and strengthen their boates withall, and to make dartes, bowes, and arrowes, and such other things necessarie for their vse. And of this kind of drift wood we find all the Seas ouer great store, which being cut or sawed asunder, by reason of long driuing in the Sea is eaten of wormes, and full of holes, of which sort theirs is found to be. [Sidenote: A strange kind of gnat.] We haue not yet found any venomous Serpent or other hurtfull thing in these parts, but there is a kind of small flie or gnat that stingeth and offendeth sorely, leauing many red spots in the face, and other places where she stingeth. They haue snow and haile in the best time of their Sommer, and the ground frosen three fadome deepe. [Sidenote: Inchanters.] These people are great inchanters, and vse many charmes of witchcraft: for when their heads doe ake, they tye a great stone with a string vnto a sticke, and with certaine prayers and wordes done to the sticke, they lift vp the stone from ground, which sometimes with all a mans force they cannot stirre, and sometime againe they lift as easily as a fether, and hope thereby with certaine ceremonious wordes to haue ease and helpe. And they made vs by signes to vnderstand, lying groueling with their faces vpon the ground, and making a noise downeward, that they worship the deuill vnder them. [Sidenote: The beasts and foules of the Countrey.] They have great store of Deere, Beares, Hares, Foxes, and innumerable numbers of sundry sorts of wild foule, as Seamewes, Gulles, Wilmotes, Ducks, &c. whereof our men killed in one day fifteene hundred. They haue also store of haukes, as Falkons, Tassels, &c. whereof two alighted vpon one of our ships at their returne, and were brought into England, which some thinke wil proue very good. There are also great store of rauens, larkes, and partriges, whereof the countrey people feed. All these foules are farre thicker clothed with downe and fethers, and haue thicker skinnes then any in England haue: for as that countrey is colder, so nature hath provided a remedie thereunto. Our men haue eaten of the Beares, Hares, Patriges, Larkes, and of their wild foule, and find them reasonable good meat, but not so delectable as ours. Their wild foule must be all fleine, their skins are so thicke: and they tast best fryed in pannes. The Countrey seemeth to be much subiect to Earthquakes. The ayre is very subtile, piercing and searching, so that if any corrupted or infected body, especially with the disease called Morbus Gallicus come there, it will presently breake forth and shew it selfe, and cannot there by any kind of salue or medicine be cured. Their longest Sommers day is of great length, without any darke night, so that in Iuly al the night long, we might perfitly and easily write and reade whatsoeuer had pleased vs, which lightsome nights were very beneficiall vnto vs, being so distressed with abundance of yce as we were. [Sidenote: The length of their day.] The Sunne setteth to them in the Euening at a quarter of an houre after tenne of the clocke, and riseth againe in the morning, at three quarters of an houre after one of the clocke, so that in Sommer their Sunne shineth to them twenty houres and a halfe, and in the night is absent three houres and a halfe. And although the Sunne bee absent these 3. houres and a halfe, yet it is not darke that time, for that the Sunne is neuer aboue three or foure degrees vnder the edge of their Horizon; the cause is that the Tropicke of Cancer doth cut their Horizon at very vneuen and oblique Angles. [Sidenote: A full reuolution of the Moone aboue their Horizon.] But the Moone at anytime of the yeere being in Cancer, hauing North latitude; doth make a full revolution aboue their Horizon, so that sometime they see the Moone about 24. houres togither. Some of our company of the more ignorant sort, thought we might continually haue seene the Sunne and the Moone, had it not bene for two or three high mountaines. The people are now become so warie, and so circumspect, by reason of their former losses, that by no meines we can apprehend any of them, although wee attempted often in this last voyage. But to say trueth wee could not bestow any great time in pursuing them, because of our great businesse in lading, and other things. * * * * * The Letters patents of the Queenes Maiestie, granted to Master Adrian Gylbert and others, for the search and discouery of the Northwest Passage to China. Elizabeth by the grace of God of England, France, and Ireland Queene, defender of the faith, &c. To all, to whome these presents shall come, greeting: Forasmuch as our trustie and welbeloued subiect Adrian Gylbert of Sandridge in the Countie of Deuon, Gentleman, to his great costes and charges, hath greatly and earnestly trauelled and sought, and yet doth trauell and seeke, and by diuers meanes indeuoureth and laboureth, that the Passage vnto China and the Iles of the Moluccas, by the Northwestward, Northeastward, or Northward, vnto which part of the world, none of our loyall Subiects haue hitherto had any traffique or trade, may be discouered, knowen, and frequented by the Subiects of this our Realme: Knowe yee therefore that for the considerations aforesayd and for diuers other good considerations vs thereunto specially moouing. We of our grace especiall, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, haue giuen and granted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successors, doe giue and grant free libertie, power, and full authoritie to the sayd Adrian Gylbert, and to any other person by him or his heires to be assigned, and to those his associates and assistants, whose names are written in a Scedule hereunto annexed, and to their heires, and to one assigne of each of them, and each of their heires at all times, and at any time or times after the date of these presents, vnder our Banners and Ensignes freely, without let, interruption, or restraint, of vs, our heires or successors, any law, statute proclamation, patent charter, or prouiso to the contrary notwithstanding, to saile, make voyage, and by any maner of meanes to passe and to depart out of this our Realme of England, or any our Realmes, Dominions, or Territories into all or any Isles, Countreys, Regions, Prouinces, Territories, Seas, Riuers, Portes, Bayes, Creekes, armes of the Sea, and all Hauens, and all maner of other places whatsoeuer, that by the sayde Northwestward, Northeastward, or Northward, is to be by him, his associates or assignes discouered, and for and in the sayd sayling, voyage, and passage, to haue and vse so many shippes, Barkes, Pinnesses, or any vessels of any qualitie or burthen, with all the furniture, of men, victuals, and all maner of necessary prouision, armour, weopons, ordinance, targets, and appurtinances, whatsoeuer, as to such a voyage shall or may be requisite, conuenient or commodious, any lawe, statute, ordinance or prouiso to the contrary thereof notwithstanding. And also we doe giue and grant to the sayde Adrian Gylbert, and his sayde associates, and to such assignee of him, and his heires, and to the heires and one assignee of euery of his sayde associates for euer, full power and absolute authoritie to trade and make their residance in any of the sayde Isles, Countreys, Regions, Prouinces, Territories, Seas, Riuers, Portes, Bayes, and Hauens, and all maner of other places whatsoeuer with all commodities, profites, and emoluments in the sayde places or any of them, growing and arising, with all maner of priuiledges, prerogatives, iurisdictions and royalties both by sea and land whatsoeuer, yeelding and paying therefore vnto vs, our heires and successors, the tenth part of all such golde and siluer oare, pearles, iewels, and precious stones, or the value thereof, as the sayd Adrian Gylbert and his sayd associates, their heires and assignes, servants, factors, or workemen, and euery or any of them shall finde, the sayd tenth to bee deliuered duely to our Customer, or other officers by vs, our heires or successors thereunto assigned, in the Fortes of London, Dartmouth, or Plimmouth, at which three places onely the sayde Adrian Gylbert and his sayde associates, their sayde heires and assignes, shall lade, charge, arriue, and discharge all maner of wares, goods, and merchandizes whatsoeuer to the sayde voyage, and newe trade belonging or appertaining. And moreouer, wee haue giuen, granted, and authorized, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successors, of our grace especiall, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, doe giue, graunt, and authorize the said Adrian Gilbert, and his said associats for euer, their heires and their said assignes and euery of them, that if the aforesayd Isles, Countreys, Regions, Prouinces, Territories, Seas, Riuers, Ports, Bayes, or Hauens, or any other of the premises by the sayd Adrian Gylbert or his associates, their heires and their said assignes or any of them, to be found by them, discouered and traffiqued vnto by any trade as aforesayd, shall be by any other our subiects visited, frequented, haunted, traded vnto or inhabited by the wayes aforesayd, without the special licence in writing of the said Adrian Gylbert and his associats, and their heires and assignes for euer, or by the most part of them, so that the sayd Adrian Gilbert, his heires or assignes be one of them, that then aswell their ship, or ships in any such voyage or voyages be vsed, as all and singuler their goods, wares, and marchandizes, or any other things whatsoeuer, from or to any of the places aforesayd transported, that so shall presume to visit, frequent, haunt, trade vnto, or inhabite, shall be forfaited and confiscated, ipso facto, the one halfe of the same goods and marchandizes, or other things whatsoeuer, or the value thereof to be to the vse of vs, our heires or successours, and the other moytie thereof to be to the vse of the sayd Adrian Gylbert and his said associats their heires and assignes for euer: [Sidenote: The colleagues of the fellowship for the discouery the Northwest passage.] and vnto the sayd Adrian Gylbert and his sayd associats, their heires and assignes wee impose, giue, assigne, create and confirme this, name peculiar to be named by, to sue and to be sued by, that is to wit, by the name of the Colleagues of the fellowship for the discouerie of the Northwest passage, and them for vs, our heires and successours by that name doe incorporate, and doe erect and create as one body corporate to haue continuance for euer. Moreouer vnto the sayd Adrian Gylbert, and his said associats, and vnto their heires and their sayd assignes for euer, by name of the Colleagues of the fellowship for the discouerie of the Northwest passage, we haue giuen, granted, and confirmed, and doe by these presents giue, grant, and confirme full power and authoritie from time to time, and at all times hereafter, to make order, decree and enact, constitute and ordeine, and appoynt all such ordinances, orders, decrees, lawes, and actes, as the sayd new corporation or body politique, Colleagues of the fellowship for the discouerie of the Northwest passage, shall thinke meete, necessary, and conuenient, so that they or any of them be not contrary to the lawes of this realme, and of this our present graunt. And we by our Royall prerogatiue, and fulnesse of our authority, of our grace especiall, certaine knowledge and meere motion, do establish, confirme and ratifie all such ordinances, orders, decrees, lawes and acts to be in so full and great power and authority, as we, our heires or successours may or can in any such case graunt, confirme, or ratifie. And further for the better incouragement of our louing subiects in this discouerie, we by our Royall prerogatiue, and fulnesse of authority for vs, our heires and successours, doe giue, graunt, establish, confirme, ordeine, ratifie and allow by these presents, to the sayd Adrian Gylbert and to his associates, and to the heires and assignes of them and euery of them for euer, and to all other person or persons of our louing subiects whatsoeuer that shall hereafter trauaile, sayle, discouer, or make voyage as aforesayd to any of the Iles, Mainelands, Countreys or Teritories whatsoeuer, by vertue of this our graunt to be discouered; [Sidenote: Free Denization granted.] that the heires and assignes of them and euery of them being borne within any of the Iles, Mainelands and Countreys, or Territories whatsoeuer before mentioned, shall haue and enioy all the privileges of free Denizens, as persons natiue borne within this our Realme of England, or within our allegiance for euer, in such like ample maner and forme, as if they were or had bene borne and personally resiant within our sayd Realme, any law, statute, proclamation, custome or vsage to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding. Moreouer, for the consideration aforesayd by vertue hereof, we giue and graunt vnto the sayd Adrian Gylbert, his heires and assignes for euer, free libertie, licence and priuilege, [Sidenote: This Patent remained in force fiue yeeres.] that during the space of fiue yeeres next and immediately ensuing the date hereof, it shall not be lawfull for any person or persons whatsoeuer, to visit, haunt, frequent, trade, or make voyage to any Iles, Mainlands, Countreys, Regions, Prouinces, Territories, Seas, Riuers, Ports, Bayes, and Hauens, nor to any other Hauens or places whatsoeuer hitherto not yet discouered by any of our subiects by vertue of this graunt to be traded vnto, without the special consent and good liking of the said Adrian Gylbert, his heires or assignes first had in writing. And if any person or persons of the associats of the sayd Adrian, his heires or assignes or any other person or persons whatsoeuer, free of this discouery, shall do any act or acts contrary to the tenour and true meaning hereof, during the space of the sayd fiue yeeres, that then the partie and parties so offending, they and their heires for euer shall loose (ipso facto) the benefite and priuilege of this our graunt, and shall stand and remaine to all intents and purposes as persons exempted out of this graunt. [Sidenote: Authoritie to proceede at Sea against mutiners.] And further by vertue hereof wee giue and graunt, for vs, our heires and successours at all times during the space of fiue yeers next ensuing the date hereof, libertie and licence, and full authority to the sayd Adrian Gylbert, and his heires and assignes, that if it shall happen any one or moe in any ship or ships sayling on their sayd voyage, to become mutinous, seditious, disordered, or any way vnruly to the preiudice or hinderance of the hope for the successe in the attempt or prosecuting of this discouerie or trade intended, to vse or execute vpon him or them so offending, such punishment, correction, or execution, as the cause shall be found in iustice to require by the verdict of twelue of the companie sworne thereunto, as in such a case apperteineth: That expresse mention of the certaintie of the premisses, or of other gifts or graunts by vs to the sayd Adrian Gylbert and his associats before this time made is not mentioned in these presents, or any other lawe, act, statute, prouiso, graunt, or proclamation heretofore made or hereafter to be made to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding. [Sidenote: 1583.] In witnesse whereof we haue made these our Letters to bee made patents: Witnesse our selfe at Westminster, the sixt day of Februarie, in the sixe and twenty yeere of our reigne. * * * * * The first voyage of M. Iohn Davis, undertaken in June 1585. for the discouerie of the Northwest passage, Written by M. Iohn Ianes Marchant, sometimes seruant to the worshipfull Master William Sanderson. Certaine Honourable personages, and worthy Gentlemen of the Court and Countrey, with diuers worshipful Marchants of London and of the West Countrey, mooued with desire to aduance Gods glory and to seeke the good of their natiue Countrey, consulting together of the likelyhood of the Discouerie of the Northwest passage, which heretofore had bene attempted, but vnhappily giuen ouer by accidents vnlooked for, which turned the enterprisers from their principall purpose, resolued after good deliberation, to put downe their aduentures to prouide for necessarie shipping, and a fit man to be chiefe Conductor of this so hard an enterprise. The setting forth of this action was committed by the aduenturers, especially to the care of M. William Sanderson Marchant of London, who was so forward therein, that besides his trauaile which was not small, he became the greatest aduenturer with his purse, and commended vnto the rest of the companie one M. Iohn Davis, a man very well grounded in the principles of the Arte of Nauigation, for Captaine and chiefe Pilot of this exployt. Thus therefore all things being put in a readines, wee departed from Dartmouth the seuenth of Iune, towards the discouerie of the aforesayd Northwest passage, with two Barkes, the one being of 50. tunnes, named the Sunneshine of London, and the other being 35. tunnes, named the Mooneshine of Dartmouth. In the Sunneshine we had 23. persons, whose names are these following, M. Iohn Dauis Captaine, William Eston Master, Richard Pope masters mate, Iohn Iane Marchant, Henry Dauie gunner, William Crosse boatswayne, Iohn Bagge, Walter Arthur, Luke Adams, Robert Coxworthie, Iohn Ellis, Iohn Kelley, Edward Helman, William Dicke, Andrew Maddocke, Thomas Hill, Robert Wats Carpenter, William Russel, Christopher Gorney boy: [Sidenote: Musitians.] Iames Cole, Francis Ridley, John Russell, Robert Cornish Musicians. The Mooneshine had l9. persons, William Bruton Captaine Iohn Ellis Master, the rest Mariners. The 7. of Iune the Captaine and the Master drewe out a proportion for the continuance of our victuals. The 8. day the wind being at Southwest and West Southwest, we put in for Falmouth, where we remained vntill the 13. The 13. the wind blew at North, and being faire weather we departed. The 14. with contrary wind we were forced to put into Silley. The 15. wee departed thence, hauing the wind North and by East moderate and faire weather. The 16. wee were driuen backe againe, and were constrained to arriue at newe Grymsby in Silley: here the winde remained contrary 12. dayes, and in that space the Captaine, the Master and I went about all the Ilands, and the Captaine did plat out and describe the situation of all the Ilands, rocks and harboroughs to the exact vse of Nauigation, with lines and scale thereunto conuenient. [Sidenote: They depart from Silley.] The 28. in Gods name we departed the wind being Easterly but calme. [Sidenote: Iuly.] The first of Iuly wee sawe great store of Porposes; The Master called for an harping yron, and shot twise or thrise: sometimes he missed, and at last shot one and strooke him in the side, and wound him into the ship: when we had him aboord, the Master sayd it was a Darlie head. The 2. we had some of the fish sodden, and it did eat as sweete as any mutton. The 3. wee had more in sight, and the Master went to shoote at them, but they were so great, that they burst our yrons, and we lost both fish, yrons, pastime and all: yet neuerthelesse the Master shot at them with a pike, and had welnigh gotten one, but he was so strong that he burst off the barres of the pike and went away: then he tooke the boate-hook, and hit one with that, but all would not preuaile, so at length we let them alone. The 6. we saw a very great Whale, and euery day we saw whales continually. [Sidenote: Great store of whales.] The 16. and 17. we saw great store of Whales. The 19. of Iuly we fell into a great whirling and brustling of a tyde, setting to the Northwards: and sayling about halfe a league wee came into a very calme Sea, which bent to the Southsouthwest. Here we heard a mighty great roaring of the Sea, as if it had bene the breach of some shoare, the ayre being so fogie and fulle of thicke mist, that we could not see the one ship from the other, being a very small distance asunder: so the Captaine and the Master being in distrust how the tyde might set them, caused the Mooneshine to hoyse out her boate and to sound, but they could not finde ground in 300 fathoms and better. Then the Captaine, Master, and I went towards the breach, to see what it should be, giuing the charge to our gunners that at euery glasse they should shoote off a musket shot, to the intent we might keepe ourselues from loosing them. [Sidenote: The rouling of the yce together made a great roaring.] Then coming nere to the breach, we met many Ilands of yce floting, which had quickly compassed vs about: then we went vpon some of them, and did perceiue that all the roaring which we heard, was caused onely by the rowling of this yce together: [Sidenote: Yce turned into water.] Our companie seeing vs not to returne according to our appoyntment, left off shooting muskets, and began to shoote falkonets, for they feared some mishap had befallen vs, but before night we came aboord againe with our boat laden with yce, which made very good fresh water. Then wee bent our course toward the North, hoping by that meanes to double the land. [Sidenote: The land of Desolation.] The 20. as we sayled along the coast the fogge broke, and we discouered the land, which was the most deformed rockie and mountainous land that euer we saw: The first sight whereof did shew as if it had bene in forme of a sugar-loafe, standing to our sight aboue the cloudes, for that it did shew ouer the fogge like a white liste in the skie, the tops altogether covered with snow, and the shoare beset with yce a league off into the Sea, making such yrkesome noyse as that it seemed to be the true patterne of desolation, and after the same our Captaine named it, The land of Desolation. The 21. the winde came Northerly and ouerblew, so that we were constrained to bend our course South againe, for we perceiued that we were runne into a very deepe Bay, where wee were almost compassed with yce, for we saw very much toward the Northnortheast, West, and Southwest: and this day and this night wee cleared our selues of the yce, running Southsouthwest along the shoare. Vpon Thursday being the 22. of this moneth, about three of the clocke in the morning, wee hoysed out our boate, and the Captaine with sixe sayles went towards the shore, thinking to find a landing place, for the night before we did perceiue the coast to be voyde of yce to our iudgement, and the same night wee were all perswaded that we had seene a Canoa rowing along the shoare, but afterwards we fell in some doubt of it, but we had no great reason so to doe. The Captaine rowing towards the shoare, willed the Master to beare in with the land after him, and before he came neere the shoare by the space of a league, or about two miles, hee found so much yce, that hee could not get to land by any meanes. Here our mariners put to their lines to see if they could get any fish, because there were so many seales vpon the coast, and the birds did beate vpon the water, but all was in vaine: [Sidenote: Very blacke water.] The water about this place was very blacke and thicke like to a filthy standing poole, we sounded and had ground in 120. fathoms. [Sidenote: Floting wood.] While the Captaine was rowing to the shoare, our men sawe woods vpon the rocks like to the rocks of Newfoundland, but I could not discerne them, yet it might be so very well, for we had wood floting vpon the coast euery day, and the Moone-shine tooke vp a tree at Sea not farre from the coast being sixtie foote of length and fourteene handfuls about, hauing the roote vpon it: After this the Captaine came aboord, the weather being very calme and faire we bent our course toward the South, with intent to double the land. The 23. we coasted the land which did lie Eastnortheast and Westsouthwest. The 24. the winde being very faire at East, we coasted the land which did lie East and West, not being able to come neere the shoare by reason of the great quantitie of yce. [Sidenote: Colde by reason of yce.] At this place, because the weather was somewhat colde by reason of the yce, and the better to encourage our men, their allowance was increased: the captaine and the master tooke order that euery messe, being fiue persons, should haue halfe a pound of bread and a kan of beere euery morning to breakfast. The weather was not very colde, but the aire was moderate like to our April-weather in England: when the winde came from the land, or the ice, it was somewhat colde, but when it came off the sea it was very hote. [Sidenote: They saile Northwestward aboue foure dayes.] The 25. of this moneth we departed from sight of this land at sixe of the clocke in the morning, directing our course to the Northwestward, hoping in Gods mercy to finde our desired passage, and so continued aboue foure dayes. [Sidenote: Land in 64 degrees 15 min.] The 29. of Iuly we discouered land in 64 degrees 15 minutes of latitude, bearing Northeast from vs. The winde being contrary to goe to the Northwestwards, we bare in with this land to take some view of it, being vtterly void of the pester yce and very temperate. Comming neere the coast, we found many faire sounds and good roads for shipping, and many great inlets into the land, whereby we iudged this land to be a great number of Islands standing together. Heere hauing mored our barke in good order, we went on shoare vpon a small Island to seeke for water and wood. [Sidenote: The sound where our ships did ride was called Gilberts Sound.] Vpon this Island we did perceiue that there had bene people: or we found a small shoo and pieces of leather sowed with sinewes, and a piece of furre, and wooll like to Beuer. Then we went vpon another Island on the other side of our shippes: and the Captaine, the master, and I, being got vp to the top of an high rocke, the people of the countrey hauing espied vs, made a lamentable noise, as we thought, with great outcries and skreechings: we hearing them, thought it had bene the howling of wolues. At last I hallowed againe, and they likewise cried. Then we perceiuing where they stood, some on the shoare, and one rowing in a Canoa about a small Island fast by them, we made a great noise, partly to allure them to vs, and partly to warne our company of them. [Sidenote: Musicians.] Whereupon M. Bruton and the Master of his shippe, with others of their company, made great haste towards vs, and brought our Musicians with them from our shippe, purposing either by force to rescue vs, if need should so require, or with courtesie to allure the people. When they came vnto vs, we caused our Musicians to play, our selues dancing, and making many signes of friendship. [Sidenote: The people of the countrey came and conferred with our men.] At length there came tenne Canoas from the other Islands, and two of them came so neere the shoare where we were, that they talked with vs, the other being in their boats a prety way off. Their pronunciation was very hollow thorow the throat, and their speech such as we could not vnderstand: onely we allured them by friendly imbracings and signes of courtesie. At length one of them pointing vp to the Sunne with his hand, would presently strike his breast so hard that we might heare the blow. This hee did many times before hee would any way trust vs. Then Iohn Ellis the Master of the Mooneshine was appointed to vse his best policie to gaine their friendship; who strooke his breast, and pointed to the Sunne after their order: which when he had diuers time done, they beganne to trust him, and one of them came on shoare, to whom we threw our cappes, stockings, and gloues, and such other things as then we had about vs, playing with our musicke, and making signes of ioy, and dauncing. So the night comming, we bade them farewell, and went aboord our barks. [Sidenote: Thirty seuen Canoas. Their musicke.] The next morning being the 30. of Iuly there came 37 Canoas rowing by our ships, calling to vs to come on shoare: we not making any great haste vnto them, one of them went vp to the toppe of the rocke, and leapt and daunced as they had done the day before, shewing vs a seales skinne, and another thing made like a timbrell, which he did beat vpon with a sticke, making a noise like a small drumme. Whereupon we manned our boats and came to them, they all staying in their Canoas: we come to the water side where they were: and after we had sworne by the Sunne after their fashion, they did trust vs. [Sidenote: Great familiarity with the Sauages.] So I shooke hands with one of them, and he kissed my hand, and we were very familiar with them. We were in so great credit with them vpon this single acquaintance, that we could haue any thing they had. We bought fiue Canoas of them: we bought their clothes from their backs, which were all made of seales skinnes and birds skinnes; their buskins, their hose, their gloues, all being commonly sowed and well dressed: so that we were fully perswaded that they haue diuers artificers among them. We had a paire of buskins of them full of fine wool like beuer. Their apparell for heat was made of birds skinnes with their feathers on them. We saw among them leather dressed like Glouers leather, and thicke thongs like white leather of a good length. We had of their darts and oares, and found in them that they would by no meanes displease vs, but would giue vs whatsoeuer we asked of them, and would be satisfied with whatsoeuer we gaue them. They tooke great care of one another: for when we had bought their boats, then two other would come and cary him away betweene them that had solde vs his. They are very tractable people, void of craft or double dealing, and easie to be brought to any civility or good order: but we iudge them to be idolaters and to worship the Sunne. [Sidenote: Diuers sorts of wood.] During the time of our abode among these Islands we found reasonable quantitie of wood, both firre, spruse and iuniper; which whether it came floating any great distance to these places where we found it, or whether it grew in some great Islands neere the same place by vs not yet discouered, we know not; but we iudge that it groweth there further into the land then we were, because the people had great store of darts and oares which they made none account of, but gaue them to vs for small trifles, as points and pieces of paper. [Sidenote: They may make much traine, if they had meanes how to vse it.] We saw about this coast marueilous great abundance of seales skulling together like skuls of small fish. We found no fresh water among these Islands, but onely snow water, whereof we found great pooles. The cliffes were all of such oare as M. Frobisher brought from Meta incognita. [Sidenote: Moscouie glasse.] We had diuers shewes of Study or Muscouy glasse shining not altogether vnlike to Christall. [Sidenote: A fruit like corinths.] We found an herbe growing vpon the rocks whose fruit was sweet, full of red iuice, and the ripe ones were like corinths. We found also birch and willow growing like shrubbes low to the ground. These people haue great store of furres as we iudge. They made shewes vnto vs the 30 of this present, which was the second time of our being with them, after they perceiued we would haue skinnes and furres, that they would go into the countrey and come againe the next day with such things as they had: but this night the winde comming faire, the captaine and the master would by no meanes detract the purpose of our discouery. And so the last of this moneth about foure of the clocke in the morning in God's name we set saile, and were all that day becalmed vpon the coast. [Sidenote: August.] The first of August we had a faire winde, and so proceeded towards the Northwest for our discouery. [Sidenote: Land in 66 degrees 40 min.] The sixt of August we discouered land in 66 degrees 40 minuts of latitude, altogether void from the pester of ice: we ankered in a very faire rode vnder a braue mount, the cliffes whereof were as orient as golde. This Mount was named Mount Raleigh. The rode where our ships lay at anker was called Totnes rode. The sound which did compasse the mount was named Exeter sound. The foreland towards the North was called Diers cape. The foreland towards the South was named Cape Walsingham. [Sidenote: Foure white beares.] So soone as we were come to an anker in Totnes rode vnder Mount Raleigh, we espied foure white beares at the foot of the mount: we supposing them to be goats or wolues, manned our boats and went towards them: but when we came neere the shore, we found them to be white beares of a monstrous bignesse: we being desirous of fresh victuall and the sport, began to assault them, and I being on land, one of them came downe the hill right against me: my piece was charged with hailshot and a bullet: I discharged my piece and shot him in the necke; he roared a litle, and tooke the water straight, making small account of his hurt. Then we followed him with our boat, and killed him with boare-speares, and two more that night. We found nothing in their mawes: but we iudged by their dung that they fed vpon grasse, because it appeared in all respects like the dung of an horse, wherein we might very plainly see the very strawes. The 7 we went on shore to another beare which lay all night vpon the top of an Island vnder Mount Raleigh, and when we came vp to him he lay fast asleep. [Sidenote: A large white beare.] I leuelled at his head, and the stone of my piece gaue no fire: with that he looked vp, and layed downe his head againe: then I shot being charged with two bullets, and strooke him in the head: he being but amazed fell backwards: wherevpon we ran all vpon him with boare-speares, and thrust him in the body: yet for that he gript away our boare-speares, and went towards the water; and as he was going downe, he came backe againe. Then our Master shot his boare-spear, and strooke him in the head, and made him to take the water, and swimme into a coue fast by, where we killed him, and brought him aboord. The breadth of his forefoot from one side to the other was fourteene inches ouer. They were very fat, so as we were constrained to cast the fat away. We saw a rauen vpon Mount Raleigh. We found withies also growing like low shrubs and flowers like Primroses in the sayd place. The coast is very mountainous, altogether without wood, grasse, or earth, and is onely huge mountaines of stone; but the brauest stone that euer we saw. The aire was very moderate in this countrey. The 8 we departed from Mount Raleigh, coasting along the shoare, which lieth Southsouthwest, and Eastnortheast. The 9 our men fell in dislike of their allowance, because it was too small as they thought: whereupon we made a new proportion; euery messe being fiue to a messe should haue foure pound of bread a day, twelue wine quarts of beere, six Newland fishes; and the flesh dayes a gill of pease more: so we restrained them from their butter and cheese. The 11 we came to the most Southerly cape of this land, which we named The Cape of Gods mercy, as being the place of our first entrance for the discouery. The weather being very foggy we coasted this North land; at length when it brake vp, we perceiued that we were shot into a very faire entrance or passage, being in some places twenty leagues broad, and in some thirty, altogether void of any pester of ice, the weather very tolerable, and the water of the very colour, nature and quality of the maine ocean, which gaue vs the greater hope of our passage. Hauing sailed Northwest sixty leagues in this entrance we discouered certaine Islands standing in the midst thereof, hauing open passage on both sides. Wherupon our ships diuided themselues, the one sailing on the North side, the other on the South side of the sayd Isles, where we stayed fiue dayes, hauing the winde at Southeast, very foggy and foule weather. The 14 we went on shoare and found signes of people, for we found stones layed vp together like a wall, and saw the skull of a man or a woman. The 15 we heard dogs houle on the shoare, which we thought had bene wolues, and therefore we went on shoare to kill them. When we came on land the dogges came presently to our boat very gently, yet we thought they came to pray vpon vs, and therefore we shot at them, and killed two: and about the necke of one of them we found a leatherne coller, whereupon we thought them to be tame dogs. There were twenty dogs like mastiues with prickt eares and long bush tailes: we found a bone in the pizels of their dogs. [Sidenote: Timber sawen.] Then we went farther, and found two sleads made like ours in England: the one was made of firre, spruse and oken boords sawen like inch boords: the other was made all of whale bone, and there hung on the tops of the sleads three heads of beasts which they had killed. [Sidenote: Fowle.] We saw here larks, rauens, and partridges. [Sidenote: An image.] The 17 we went on shoare, and in a little thing made like an ouen with stones I found many small trifles, as a small canoa made of wood, a piece of wood made like an image, a bird made of bone, beads hauing small holes in one end of them to hang about their necks, and other small things. The coast was very barren without wood or grasse: the rocks were very faire like marble, full of vaines of divers colours. We found a seale which was killed not long before, being fleane, and hid vnder stones. [Sidenote: Probabilities for the passage.] Our Captaine and Master searched for probabilities of the passage, and first found, that this place was all Islands, with great sounds passing betweene them. [Sidenote: Wee neuer came into any bay before or after, but the waters colour was altered very blackish.] Secondly the water remained of one colour with the maine ocean without altering. Thirdly we saw to the West of those Isles three or foure whales in a skull, which they iudged to come from a Westerly sea, because to the Eastward we saw not any whale. Also as we were rowing into a very great sound lying Southwest, from whence these whales came, vpon the sudden there came a violent counter-checke of a tide from the Southwest against the flood which we came with, not knowing from whence it was mainteined. Fiftly, in sailing twenty leagues within the mouth of this entrance we had sounding in 90 fadoms, faire grey osie sand, and the further we ran into the Westwards the deeper was the water; so that hard aboord the shoare among these Isles we could not haue ground in 330 fadoms. Lastly, it did ebbe and flow sixe or seuen fadome vp and downe, the flood comming from diuers parts, so as we could not perceiue the chiefe maintenance thereof. The 18 and 19 our Captaine and Master determined what was best to doe, both for the safegard of their credits, and satisfying of the aduenturers, and resolued, if the weather brake vp, to make further search. The 20 the winde came directly against vs: so they altered their purpose, and reasoned both for proceeding and returning. The 21 the winde being Northwest, we departed from these Islands; and as we coasted the South shoare we saw many faire sounds, whereby we were perswaded that it was no firme land but Islands. The 23 of this moneth the wind came Southeast, with very stormy and foule weather: so we were constrained to seeke harborow vpon the South coast of this entrance, where we fell into a very faire sound, and ankered in 25 fadoms greene osie sand. [Sidenote: Faulcons.] Here we went on shore, where we had manifest signes of people where they had made their fire, and layed stone like a wall. In this place we saw foure very faire faulcons; and M. Bruton tooke from one of them his prey, which we iudged by the wings and legs to be a snite, for the head was eaten off. The 24 in the afternoone, the winde comming somewhat faire, we departed from this road, purposing by Gods grace to returne for England. [Sidenote: Their returne.] The 26 we departed from sight of the North land of this entrance, directing our course homewards vntill the tenth of the next moneth. [Sidenote: September.] The 10. of September wee fell with The land of desolation, thinking to goe on shoare, but we could get neuer a good harborough. That night wee put to sea againe, thinking to search it the next day: but this night arose a very great storme, and separated our ships, so that we lost the sight of the Mooneshine. [Sidenote: They saile from The land of desolation to England in 14. dayes.] The 13. about noone (hauing tried all the night before with a goose wing) we set saile, and within two houres after we had sight of the Mooneshine againe: this day we departed from this land. The 27. of this moneth we fell with sight of England. This night we had a marueilous storme and lost the Mooneshine. The 30. of September wee came into Dartmouth, where wee found the Mooneshine being come in not two houres before.[89] * * * * * The second voyage attempted by M. Iohn Dauis with others, for the Discouery of the Northwest passage, in Anno 1586. The 7. day of May, I departed from the port of Dartmouth for the discouery of the Northwest passage, with a ship of an hundred and twentie tunnes named the Mermayd, a barke of 60. tunnes named the Sunneshine, a barke of 35. tunnes named the Mooneshine, and a pinnesse of tenne tunnes named the North starre. [Sidenote: Land discouered in 60. degrees.] And the 15. of Iune I discouered land in the latitude of 60. degrees, and in longitude from the Meridian of London Westward 47. degrees, mightily pestered with yce and snow, so that there was no hope of landing; the yce lay in some places tenne leagues, in some 20. and in some 50. leagues off the shore, so that wee were constrained to beare into 57. degrees to double the same, and to recouer a free Sea, which through Gods fauourable mercy we at length obtained. The 29. of Iune after many tempestuous storms we againe discouered land, in longitude from the Meridian of London 58. degr. 30. min. and in latitude 64. being East from vs: into which course sith it please God by contrary winds to force vs, I thought it very necessary to beare in with it, and there to set vp our pinnesse, prouided in the Mermayd to be our scout for this discouery, and so much the rather because the yere before I had bene in the same place, and found it very conuenient for such a purpose, wel stored with flote wood, and possessed by a people of tractable conversation: so that the 29. of this moneth we arriued within the Isles which lay before this land, lying North northwest, and South southeast, we knew not how farre. This land is very high and mountainous, hauing before it on the West side a mighty company of Isles full of faire sounds, and harboroughs. This land was very little troubled with snow, and the sea altogether voyd of yce. [Sidenote: Gentle and louing Sauages.] The ships being within the sounds wee sent our boates to search for shole water, where wee might anker, which in this place is very hard to finde: and as the boat went sounding and searching, the people of the countrey hauing espied them, came in their Canoas towards them with many shoutes and cries: but after they had espied in the boat some of our company that were the yeere before here with vs, they presently rowed to the boate, and tooke hold on the oare, and hung about the boate with such comfortable ioy, as would require a long discourse to be uttered: they came with the boates to our ships, making signes that they knewe all those that the yeere before had bene with them. After I perceiued their ioy and small feare of vs, myselfe with the Merchants and others of the company went a shoare, bearing with me twentie kniues: I had no sooner landed, but they lept out of their Canoas and came running to mee and the rest, and embraced vs with many signes of heartie welcome: at this present there were eighteene of them, and to eche of them I gaue a knife: they offered skinnes to me for reward, but I made signes that they were not solde, but giuen them of courtesie: and so dismissed them for that time, with signes that they should returne againe after certaine houres. [Sidenote: An 100 Canoas with diuers commodities.] The next day with all possible speed the pinnesse was landed vpon an Isle there to be finished to serue our purpose for the discouerie, which Isle was so conuenient for that purpose, as that we were very wel able to defend ourselues against many enemies. During the time that the pinesse was there setting vp, the people came continually vnto vs sometime an hundred Canoas at a time, sometime fortie, fiftie, more and lesse, as occasion serued. They brought with them seale skinnes, stagge skinnes, white hares, Seale fish, salmon peale, smal cod, dry caplin, with other fish, and birds such as the countrey did yeeld. My selfe still desirous to haue a further search of this place, sent one of the shipboates to one part of the land, and my selfe went to another part to search for the habitation of this people, with straight commandement that there should be no iniurie offered to any of the people, neither any gunne shot. [Sidenote: Images, trane oyle, and Seale skins in tan tubs.] The boates that went from me found the tents of the people made with seale skinnes set vp vpon timber, wherein they found great store of dried Caplin, being a little fish no bigger than a pilchard: they found bags of Trane oyle, many litle images cut in wood, Seale skinnes in tan-tubs, with many other such trifles, whereof they diminished nothing. [Sidenote: A plaine champion countrey. A goodly riuer.] They also found tenne miles within the snowy mountaines a plaine champion countrey, with earth and grasse, such our moory and waste grounds of England are: they went vp into a riuer (which in the narrowest place is two leagues broad) about ten leagues, finding it still to continue they knewe not howe farre: but I with my company tooke another riuer, which although at the first it offered a large inlet, yet it proued but a deepe bay, the ende whereof in foure houres I attained, and there leauing the boat well manned, went with the rest of my company three or foure miles into the countrey, but found nothing, nor saw any thing; saue onely gripes, rauens, and small birds, as larkes and linnets. The third of Iuly I manned my boat, and went with fifty Canoas attending vpon me vp into another sound where the people by signes willed mee to goe, hoping to finde their habitation: at length they made signes that I should goe into warme place to sleepe, at which place I went on shore, and ascended the toppe of an high hill to see into the countrey, but perceiuing my labour vaine, I returned againe to my boate, the people still following me, and my company very diligent to attend vs, and to helpe vs vp the rockes, and likewise downe: at length I was desirous to haue our men leape with them, which was done, but our men did ouerleape them: from leaping they went to wrestling, we found them strong and nimble, and to haue skil in wrestling, for they cast some of our men that were good wrestlers. The fourth of Iuly we lanched our pinnesse, and had fortie of the people to help vs, which they did very willingly: at this time our men againe wrestled with them, and found them as before, strong and skillfull. [Sidenote: A graue with a crosse layd ouer. The Tartars and people of Iapon are also smal eyed.] The fourth of Iuly the Master of the Mermayd went to certaine Ilands to store himselfe with wood, where he found a graue with diuers buried in it, only couered with seale skinnes, hauing a crosse laid ouer them, The people are of good stature, wel in body proportioned, with small slender hands and feet, with broad visages, and smal eyes, wide mouthes, the most part vnbearded, great lips, and close toothed. Their custome is as often as they go from vs, still at their returne to make a new truce, in this sort, holding his hand vp to the Sun with a lowd voice he crieth Ylyaoute, and striketh his brest with like signes, being promised safety, he giueth credit. These people are much giuen to bleed, and therefore stop their noses with deeres haire, or haire of an elan. They are idolaters and haue images great store, which they weare about them, and in their boats, which we suppose they worship. They are witches, and haue many kinds of inchantments, which they often vsed, but to small purpose, thankes be to God. [Sidenote: Their maner of kindling fire like to theirs in America.] Being among them at shore the fourth of Iuly, one of them making a long oration, beganne to kindle a fire in this maner: he tooke a piece of a board wherein was a hole halfe thorow: into that hole he puts the end of a round stick like vnto a bedstaffe, wetting the end thereof in Trane, and in fashion of a turner with a piece of lether, by his violent motion doeth very speedily produce fire: [Sidenote: A fire made of turfes.] which done, with turfes he made a fire, into which with many words and strange gestures, he put diuerse things, which wee supposed to be a sacrifice: my selfe and diuers of my company standing by, they were desirous to haue me go into the smoke, I willed them likewise to stand in the smoke, which they by no meanes would do. I then tooke one of them, and thrust him into the smoke, and willed one of my company to tread out the fire, and to spurne it into the sea, which was done to shew them that we did contemne their sorcery. [Sidenote: Great theeues.] These people are very simple in all their conuersation, but marueillous theeuish, especially for iron, which they haue in great account. They began through our lenitie to shew their vile nature: they began to cut our cables: they cut away the Moonelights boat from her sterne, they cut our cloth where it lay to aire, though we did carefully looke vnto it, they stole our oares, a caliuer, a boare speare, a sword, with diuers other things, whereat the company and Masters being grieued, for our better securitie, desired me to dissolue this new friendship, and to leaue the company of these theeuish miscreants: whereupon there was a caliuer shot among them, and immediatly vpon the same a faulcon, which strange noice did sore amaze them, so that with speed they departed: notwithstanding their simplicitie is such, that within ten hours after they came againe to vs to entreat peace: which being promised, we againe fell into a great league. They brought vs Seale skinnes, and sammon peale, but seeing iron, they could in no wise forbeare stealing: which when I perceiued, it did but minister vnto mee an occasion of laughter, to see their simplicitie, and I willed that, in no case they should bee any more hardly used, but that our owne company should be the more vigilant to keepe their things, supposing it to be very hard in so short time to make them know their euils. [Sidenote: Their rude diet.] They eate all their meat raw, they liue most vpon fish, they drinke salt water, and eate grasse and ice with delight: they are neuer out of the water, but liue in the nature of fishes, saue only when dead sleepe taketh them, and then vnder a warme rocke laying his boat vpon the land, hee lyeth downe to sleepe. [Sidenote: Their weapons.] Their weapons are all darts, but some of them haue bow and arrowes and slings. [Sidenote: Strange nets.] They make nets to take their fish of the finne of a whale: they do their things very artificially: [Sidenote: These Islanders warre with the people of the maine.] and it should seeme that these simple theeuish Islanders haue warre with those of the maine, for many of them are sore wounded, which wounds they receiued vpon the maine land, as by signes they gaue vs to vnderstand. We had among them copper oare, blacke copper, and red copper: [Sidenote: Copper oare.] they pronounce their language very hollow, and deepe in the throat: these words following we learned from them. [Sidenote: Their language.] Kesinyoh, Eate some. Madlycoyte, Musicke. Aginyoh, go fetch. Yliaoute, I meane no harme. Ponameg, A boat. Paaotyck, An oare. Asanock, A dart. Sawygmeg, A knife. Vderah, A nose. Aoh, Iron. Blete, An eye. Vnuicke, Giue it. Tuckloak, A stagge or ellan. Panygmah, A neddle. Aob, The Sea. Mysacoah, Wash it. Lethicksaneg, A seale skinne. Canyglow, Kiss me. Vgnera, My sonne. Acu, Shot. Conah, Leape. Maatuke, Fish. Sambah, Below. Maconmeg, Will you haue this. Cooah, Go to him. Aba, fallen downe. Icune, Come hither. Awennye, Yonder. Nugo, No. Tucktodo, A fogge. Lechiksa, A skinne. Maccoah, A dart. Sugnacoon, A coat. Gounah, Come downe. Sasobneg, A bracelet. Vgnake, A tongue. Ataneg, A seale. Macuah, A beard. Pignagogah, A threed. Quoysah, Giue it to me. The 7. of Iuly being very desirous to search the habitation of this countrey, I went myselfe with our new pinnesse into the body of the land, thinking it to be a firme continent, and passing vp a very large riuer, a great flaw of winde tooke me, whereby wee were constrained to seeke succour for that night, which being had, I landed with the most part of my company, and went to the top of a high mountaine, hoping from thence to see into the countrey: but the mountaines were so many and so mighty as that my purpose preuailed not: [Sidenote: Muscles.] [Sidenote: A strange whirlwind.] whereupon I againe returned to my pinnesse, and willing diuers of my company to gather muscles for my supper, whereof in this place there was great store, myselfe hauing espied a very strange sight, especially to me that neuer before saw the like, which was a mighty whirlewinde taking vp the water in very great quantitie, furiously mounting it into the aire, which whirlewinde, was not for a puffe or blast, but continual, for the space of three houres, with very little intermission, which sith it was in the course that I should passe, we were constrained that night to take vp our lodging vnder the rocks. [Sidenote: Great Ilands.] The next morning the storme being broken vp, we went forward in our attempt, and sailed into a mighty great riuer directly into the body of the land, and in briefe, found it to be no firme land, but huge waste, and desert Isles with mighty sounds, and inlets passing betweene Sea and Sea. Whereupon we returned towards our shippes, and landing to stoppe a floud, we found the burial of these miscreants; we found of their fish in bagges, plaices, and calpin dried, of which wee tooke onely one bagge and departed. The ninth of this moneth we came to our ships, where we found the people desirous in their fashion, of friendship and barter: [Sidenote: Slings.] our Mariners complained heauily against the people, and said that my lenitie and friendly vsing of them gaue them stomacke to mischiefe: for they haue stollen an anker from vs, they haue cut our cable very dangerously, they haue cut our boats from our sterne, and now since your departure, with slings they spare vs not with stones of halfe a pound weight: and wil you stil indure these iniuries? It is a shame to beare them. I desired them to be content, and said, I doubted not but all should be wel. The 10. of this moneth I went to the shore, the people following mee in their Canoas: I tolled them on shoare, and vsed them with much courtesie, and then departed aboord, they following me, and my company. I gaue some of them bracelets, and caused seuen or eight of them to come aboord, which they did willingly, and some of them went into the top of the ship: and thus curteously vsing them, I let them depart: the Sunne was no sooner downe, but they began to practice they deuilish nature, and with slings threw stones very fiercely into the Mooneshine, and strake one of her men then boatswaine, that he ouerthrew withall: whereat being moued, I changed my curtesie, and grew to hatred, my self in my owne boate well manned with shot, and the barks boat likewise pursued them, and gaue them diuers shot, but to small purpose, by reason of their swift rowing: so smally content we returned. The 11. of this moneth there came fiue of them to make a new truce: the master of the Admiral came to me to shew me of their comming, and desired to haue them taken and kept as prisoners vntill we had his anker againe: but when he sawe that the chiefe ringleader and master of mischiefe was one of the fiue, he then was vehement to execute his purpose, so it was determined to take him: he came crying Iliaout, and striking his brest offered a paire of gloues to sell, the master offered him a knife for them: so two of them came to vs, the one was not touched, but the other was soone captiue among vs: then we pointed to him and his fellowes for our anker, which being had, we made signes that he should be set at libertie: [Sidenote: One of the people taken which after dyed.] within one houre after he came aboord the winde came faire, wherevpon we weyed and set saile, and so brought the fellow with vs: one of his fellowes still following our ship close aboord, talked with him and made a kind of lamentation, we still vsing him wel with Yliaout, which was the common course of curtesie. At length this fellow aboord vs spake foure or fiue words vnto the other and clapped his two hands vpon his face, whereupon the other doing the like, departed as we suppose with heauie chere. We iudged the couering of his face with his hands and bowing of his body downe, signified his death. At length he became a pleasant companion among vs. I gaue him a new sute of frize after the English fashion, because I saw he could not indure the colde, of which he was very ioyful, he trimmed vp his darts, and all his fishing tooles, and would make okam, and set his hand to a ropes end vpon occasion. He liued with the dry Caplin that I tooke when I was searching in the pinnis, and did eate dry Newfoundland fish. All this while, God be thanked, our people were in very good health, onely one young man excepted, who dyed at sea the fourteenth of this moneth, and the fifteenth, according to the order of the sea, with praise giuen to God by seruice, was cast ouerboord. [Sidenote: A huge quantitie of yce in 63. degrees of latitude.] The 17 of this moneth being in the latitude of 63. degrees 8. minuts, we fell vpon a most mighty and strange quantitie of yce in one entire masse, so bigge as that we knew not the limits thereof, and being withall so high in forme of a land, with bayes and capes and like high cliffe land, as that we supposed it to be land, and therefore sent our pinnesse off to discouer it: but at her returne we were certainely informed that it was onely yce, which bred great admiration to vs all considering the huge quantitie thereof, incredible to be reported in trueth as it was, and therefore I omit to speake any further thereof. This onely I thinke, that the like before was neuer seene: and in this place we had very stickle and strong currents. [Sidenote: The nature of fogges.] We coasted this mightie masse of yce vntill the 30 of Iuly, finding it a mighty barre to our purpose: the ayre in this time was so contagious and the sea so pestered with yce, as that all hope was banished of proceeding: for the 24 of Iuly all our shrowds, ropes and sailes were so frosen, and compassed with yce, onely by a grosse fogge, as seemed to me more then strange, sith the last yeere I found this sea free and nauigable, without impediments. Our men through this extremity began to grow sicke and feeble, and withall hopelesse of good successe: whereupon very orderly, with good discretion they intreated me to regard the state of this business, and withall aduised me, that in conscience I ought to regard the saftie of mine owne life with the preseruation of theirs, and that I should not through my ouer-boldnes leaue their widowes and fatherlesse children to giue me bitter curses. This matter in conscience did greatly moue me to regard their estates: yet considering the excellencie of the business if it might be attained, the great hope of certaintie by the last yeeres discouery, and that there was yet a third way not put in practice, I thought it would growe to my great disgrace if this action by my negligence should grow into discredite: whereupon seeking helpe from God, the fountaine of all mercies, it pleased his diuine maiestie to moue my heart to prosecute that which I hope shall be to his glory, and to the contentation of euery Christian minde. Whereupon falling into consideration that the Mermaid, albeit a very strong and sufficient ship, yet by reason of her burthen was not so conuenient and nimble as a smaller bark, especially in such desperate hazzards; further hauing in account her great charge to the aduenturers being at 100. li. the moneth, and that at doubtfull seruice: all the premisses considered with diuers other things, I determined to furnish the Moonelight with reuictualling and sufficient men, and to proceede in this action as God should direct me. Whereupon I altered our course from the yce, and bare Eastsoutheast to recouer the next shore where this thing might be performed: so with fauourable winde it pleased God that the first of August we discouered the land in Latitude 66. degrees, 33. min. and in longitude from the Meridian of London 70. degrees voyd of trouble without snow or ice. The second of August we harboured our selues in a very excellent good road, where with all speed we graued the Moonelight, and reuictualled her: wee searched this countrey with our pinnesse while the bark was trimming, which William Eston did: he found all this land to be onely Ilands, with a Sea on the East, a Sea on the West, and a Sea on the North. [Sidenote: Great heat.] In this place wee found it very hot and wee were very much troubled with a flie which is called Muskyto, for they did sting grieuiously. The people of this place at our first comming in caught a Seale and with bladders fast tied to him sent him vnto vs with the floud, so as hee came right with our shippes, which we took as a friendly present from them. The fift of August I went with the two Masters and others to the toppe of a hill, and by the way William Eston espied three Canoas lying vnder a rocke, and went vnto them: there were in them skinnes, darts, with diuers superstitious toyes, whereof wee diminished nothing, but left vpon euery boat a silke point, a bullet of lead, and a pinne. The next day being the sixt of August, the people came vnto vs without feare and did barter with vs for skinnes, as the other people did: they differ not from the other, neither in their Canoas nor apparel, yet is their pronuntiation more plaine then the others, and nothing hollow in the throat. Our Sauage aboord vs kept himselfe close, and made shew that he would faine haue another companion. Thus being prouided, I departed from this lande the twelft of August at sixe. [Sidenote: 66. degrees 19. minutes.] of the clocke in the morning, where I left the mermayd at an anker: the fourteenth sailing West about fiftie leagues, we discouered land, being in latitude 66. degrees 19 minuts: this land is 70. leagues from the other from whence we came. This fourteenth day from nine a clocke at night till three a clocke in the morning, wee ankered by an Island of yce, twelue leagues off the shore, being mored to the yce. The fifteenth day at three a clocke in the morning we departed from this land to the South, and the eighteenth of August we discouered land Northwest from vs in the morning, being a very faire promontory, in latitude 65. degrees, hauing no land on the South. [Sidenote: Great hope of a passage.] Here wee had great hope of a through passage. This day at three a clocke in the afternoone wee againe discouered lande Southwest and by South from vs, where at night wee were becalmed. [Sidenote: 64. degr. 20. min.] The nineteenth of this moneth at noone, by obseruation, we were in 64. degrees 20 minuts. [Sidenote: A great current to the West.] From the eighteenth day at noone vnto the nineteenth at noone, by precise ordinary care, wee had sailed 15. leagues South and by West, yet by art and more exact obseruation, we found our course to be Southwest, so that we plainely perceiued a great current striking to the West. This land is nothing in sight but Isles, which increaseth our hope. This nineteenth of August at sixe a clocke in the afternoone, it began to snow, and so continued all night with foule weather, and much winde, so that we were constrained to lie at hull all night fiue leagues off the shore: In the morning being the twentieth of August, the fogge and storme breaking vp, we bare in with the lande, and at nine a clocke in the morning wee ankered in a very faire and safe road and lockt for all weathers. [Sidenote: Ilands.] At tenne of the clocke I went on shore to the toppe of a very high hill, where I perceiued that this land was Islands: at foure of the clocke in the afternoone wee weyed anker, hauing a faire North northeast winde, with very faire weather; at six of the clocke we were cleare without the land, and so shaped our course to the South, to discouer the coast, where by the passage may be through Gods mercy found. We coasted this land till the eight and twentieth of August [Sidenote: They runne 8 dayes Southward from 67 to 57. degrees vpon the coast.] finding it still to continue towards the South, from the latitude of 67. to 57. degrees: we found marueilous great store of birds, guls and mewes, incredible to be reported, whereupon being calme weather, we lay one glasse vpon the lee, to proue for fish, in which space we caught 100. of cod, although we were but badly prouided for fishing, not being our purpose. [Sidenote: A harborough in 56. degrees.] This eight and twentieth hauing great distrust of the weather, we arriued in a very faire harbour in the latitude of 56. degrees, and sailed 10. leagues into the same, being two leagues broad, with very faire woods on both sides: in this place wee continued vntil the first of September, in which time we had two very great stormes. [Sidenote: Faire woods.] I landed, and went sixe miles by ghesse into the countrey, and found that the woods were firre, pineaple, alder, yew, withy, and birch: here we saw a blacke beare: this place yeeldeth great store of birds, as fezant, partridge, Barbary hennes or the like, wilde geese, ducks, black birdes, ieyes, thrushes, with other kinds of small birds. [Sidenote: Store of cod.] Of the partridge and fezant we killed great store with bow and arrowes: in this place at the harborough mouth we found great store of cod. The first of September at ten a clocke wee set saile, and coasted the shore with very faire weather. The thirde day being calme, at noone we strooke saile, and let fall a cadge anker, to proue whether we could take any fish, being in latitude 54. degrees 30. minuts, in which place we found great abundance of cod, so that the hooke was no sonner ouerboord, but presently a fish was taken. It was the largest and the best fed fish that euer I sawe, and diuers fisher men that were with me sayd that they neuer saw a more suaule or better skull of fish in their liues: yet had they seene great abundance. The fourth of September at fiue a clocke in the afternoone we ankered in a very good road among great store of Isles, the countrey low land, pleasant and very full of fayre woods. [Sidenote: A perfect hope of the passage about 54. degrees and an halfe.] To the North of this place eight leagues, we had a perfect hope of the passage, finding a mightie great sea passing betweene two lands West. The Southland to our iudgement being nothing but Isles: we greatly desired to goe into the sea, but the winde was directly against vs. We ankered in foure fathome fine sand. In this place is foule and fish mightie store. The sixt of September having a faire Northnorthwest winde hauing trimmed our Barke we proposed to depart, and sent fiue of our sailers yong men a shore to an Island, to fetch certaine fish which we purposed to weather, and therefore left it al night couered vpon the Isle: the brutish people of this countrey lay secretly lurking in the wood, and vpon the sudden assaulted our men; which when we perceiued, we presently let slip our cables vpon the halse, and vnder our foresaile bare into the shoare, and with all expedition discharged a double musket vpon them twise, at the noyse whereof they fled: [Sidenote: Two of our men slaine by the Sauages.] notwithstanding to our very great griefe, two of our men were slaine with their arrowes, and two grieuously wounded, of whom at this present we stand in very great doubt, onely one escaped by swimming, with an arow shot thorow his arme. These wicked miscreants neuer offered parly or speech, but presently executed their cursed fury. This present euening it pleased God further to increase our sorrowes with a mighty tempestuous storme, the winde being Northnortheast, which lasted vnto the tenth of this moneth very extreme. We vnrigged our ship, and purposed to cut downe our masts, the cable of our shutanker brake, so that we onely expected to be driuen on shoare among these Canibals for their pray. Yet in this deepe distresse the mightie mercie of God, when hope was past, gaue vs succour, and sent vs a faire lee, so as we recouered our anker againe, and newe mored our ship: where we saw that God manifestly deliuered vs: for the straines of one of our cables were broken, and we only roade by an olde iunke. Thus being freshly mored a new storme arose, the winde being Westnorthwest, very forcible, which lasted vnto the tenth day at night. The eleuenth day with a faire Westnorthwest winde we departed with trust in Gods mercie, shaping our course for England, and arriued in the West countrey in the beginning of October. * * * * * Master Dauis being arriued, wrote his letter to M. William Sanderson of London, concerning his voyage, as followeth. Sir, the Sunneshine came into Dartmouth the fourth of this moneth: she hath bene at Island, and from thence to Groenland, and so to Estotiland, from thence to Desolation, and to our Marchants, where she made trade with the people, staying in the countrey twentie dayes. They haue brought home fiue hundred seales skinnes, and an hundred and fortie halfe skinnes and pieces of skinnes. I stand in great doubt of the pinnesse, God be mercifull vnto the poore men, and preserue them, if it be his blessed will. I haue now experience of much of the Northwest part of the world, and haue brought the passage to that likelihood, as that I am assured it must bee in one of the foure places, or els not at all. And further I can assure you vpon the perill of my life, that this voyage may be performed without further charge, nay with certaine profite to the aduenturers, if I may haue but your fauour in the action. I hope I shall finde fauour with you to see your Card. I pray God it be so true as the Card shal be which I will bring you: and I hope in God, that your skill in Nauigation shall be gaineful vnto you, although at the first it hath not proued so. And thus with my humble commendations I commit you to God, desiring no longer to liue, then I shall be yours most faithfully to command. Exon this fourteenth of October. 1586. Yours to command IOHN DAVIS. * * * * * The relation of the course which the Sunshine a barke of fiftie tunnes, and the Northstarre a small pinnesse, being two vessels of the fleete of M. Iohn Dauis, helde after hee had sent them from him to discouer the passage betweene Groenland and Island, written by Henry Morgan seruant to M. William Sanderson of London. [Sidenote: May.] The seuenth day of May 1586. wee departed out of Dartmouth hauen foure sailes, to wit, the Mermaid, the Sunshine, the Mooneshine, and the Northstarre. In the Sunshine were sixteene men, whose names were these: Richard Pope Master, Marke Carter Masters mate, Henry Morgan Purser, George Draward, Iohn Mandie, Hugh Broken, Philip Iane, Hugh Hempson, Richard Borden, Iohn Philpe, Andrew Madock, William Wolcome, Robert Wag carpenter, Iohn Bruskome, William Ashe, Simon Ellis. Our course was Westnorthwest the seuenth and eight dayes: and the ninth day in the morning we were on head of the Tarrose of Silley. Thus coasting along the South part of Ireland the 11. day, we were on head of the Dorses: and our coarse was Southsouthwest vntill sixe of the clocke the 12. day. The 13. day our course was Northwest. [M. Dauis in the latitude of 60. deg. diuideth his fleete into 2. parts.] We remained in the company of the Mermaid and the Mooneshine vntill we came to the latitude of 60. degrees: and there it seemed best to our Generall M. Dauis to diuide his fleete, himself sayling to the Northwest, and to direct the Sunshine, wherein I was, and the pinnesse called the Northstarre, to seeke a passage Northward between Groenland and Island to the latitude of 80. degrees, if land did not let vs. [Sidenote: The 7. of Iune.] So the Seuenth day of Iune wee departed from them: and the ninth of the same we came to a firme land of yce, which we coasted along the ninth, the tenth, and the eleuenth dayes of Iune: [Sidenote: Island descryed.] and the eleuenth day at sixe of the clocke at night we saw land which was very high, which afterward we knew to be a Island: and the twelft day we harboured there, and found many people: [Sidenote: 66. degrees.] the land lyeth East and by North in 66. degrees. [Sidenote: Their commodities.] Their commodities were greene fish, and Island lings, and stockfish, and a fish which is called Scatefish: of all which they had great store. They had also kine, sheep and horses, and hay for their cattell, and for their horses. Wee saw also their dogs. [Sidenote: Their dwellings.] Their dwelling houses were made on both sides with stones, and wood layd crosse ouer them, which was couered ouer with turfes of earth, and they are flat on the tops, and many of these stood hard by the shore. [Sidenote: Their boats.] Their boates were made with wood and yron all along the keele like our English boates: and they had nayles for to naile them withall, and fish-hookes and other things for to catch fish as we haue here in England. They had also brasen kettles, and girdles and purses made of leather, and knoppes on them of copper, and hatchets, and other small tooles as necessary as we haue. They drie their fish in the Sun, and when they are dry, they packe them vp in the top of their houses. If we would goe thither to fishing more then we doe, we should make it a very good voyage: for wee got an hundreth greene fish in one morning. Wee found heere two English men with a shippe, which came out of England about Easter day of this present yeere 1586, and one of them came aboord of vs, and brought vs two lambs. [Sidenote: M. Iohn Roydon of Ipswich.] The English mans name was M. Iohn Roydon of Ipswich marchant: hee was bound for London with his ship. And this is the summe of that which I obserued in Island. [Sidenote: They departed from Island Northwest.] We departed from Island the sixteenth day of Iune in the morning, and our course was Northwest, and we saw on the coast two small barkes going to an harborough: we went not to them, but saw them a farre off. Thus we continued our course vnto the end of this moneth. [Sidenote: Iuly.] The third day of Iuly we were in betweene two firme lands of yce, and passed in betweene them all that day vntill it was night: and then the Master turned backe againe, and so away we went towards Groenland. [Sidenote: Groneland discouered.] And the seuenth day of Iuly we did see Groenland, and it was very high, and it looked very blew: we could not come to harborough into the land, because we were hindered by a firme land as it were of yce, which was along the shoares side: but we were within three leagues of the land, coasting the same diuers dayes together. [Sidenote: The land of Desolation.] The seuenteenth day of Iuly wee saw the place which our Captaine M. Iohn Dauis the yeere before had named The land of Desolation, where we could not goe on shore for yce. The eighteenth day we were likewise troubled with yce, and went in amongst it at three of the clocke in the morning. [Sidenote: Groenland coasted from the 7. till the last of Iuly.] After wee had cleared our selues thereof, wee ranged all along the coast of Desolation vntill the ende of the aforesayd moneth. [Sidenote: August.] The third day of August we came in sight of Gilberts sound in the latitude of 64. deg. 15. min which was the place where we were appoynted to meete our Generall and the rest of our Fleete. Here we came to an harborough at 6. of the clocke at night. The 4. day in the morning the Master went on shore with 10. of his men, and they brought vs foure of the people rowing in their boats aboord of the ship. And in the afternoone I went on shore with 6. of our men, and there came to vs seuen of them when we were on land. We found on shore three dead people, and two of them had their staues lying by them, and their olde skinnes wrapped about them and the other had nothing lying by, wherefore we thought it was a woman. [Sidenote: The houses of Gronland.] We also saw their houses neere the Sea side, which were made with pieces of wood on both sides, and crossed ouer with poles and then couered ouer with earth: we found Foxes running vpon the hilles: as for the place it is broken land all the way that we went, and full of broken Islands. The 21. of August the Master sent the boate on shore for wood with sixe of his men, and there were one and thirtie of the people of the countrey which went on shore to them, and they went about to kill them as we thought, for they shot their dartes towards them, and we that were aboord the ship, did see them goe on shore to our men: whereupon the Master sent the pinnesse after them, and when they saw the pinnesse comming towards them, they turned backe, and the Master of the pinnesse did shoote off a caliuer to them the same time, but hurt none of them, for his meaning was onely to put them in feare. [Sidenote: Our men play at footeball with the Sauages.] Diuers times they did waue vs on shore to play with them at the football, and some of our company went on shore to play with them, and our men did cast them downe as soone as they did come to strike the ball. And thus much of that which we did see and do in that harborough where we arriued first. The 23. day wee departed from the Merchants Isle, where wee had beene first, and our course from thence was South and by West, and the wind was Northeast, and we ran that day and night about 5. or 6. leagues, vntill we came to another harborough. The 24. about eleuen of the clocke in the forenoone wee entred into the aforesayd new harborow, and as wee came in, we did see dogs running vpon the Islands. When we were come in, there came to vs foure of the people which were with vs before in the other harborough, and where we rode, we had sandie ground. [Sidenote: Sweete wood found.] We saw no wood growing, but found small pieces of wood vpon the Islands, and some small pieces of sweete wood among the same. We found great Harts hornes, but could see none of the Stagges where we went, but we found their footings. As for the bones which we receiued of the Sauages I cannot tell of what beasts they be. The stones that we found in the countrey were black, and some white, as I think they be of no value, neuerthelesse I haue brought examples of them to you. The 30. of August we departed from this harborough towards England, and the wind tooke vs contrary, so that we were faine to go to another harborough the same day at 11. of the clocke. And there came to vs 39. of the people, and brought vs 13. Seale skins, and after we receiued these skins of them, the Master sent the carpenter to change one of our boates which wee had bought of them before, and they would haue taken the boate from him perforce, and when they sawe they could not take it from vs, they shot with their dartes at vs, and stroke one of our men with one of their dartes, and Iohn Philpe shot one of them into the brest with an arrow. [Sidenote: A skirmish between the Sauages and our men.] And they came to vs againe, and foure of our men went into the shipboate, and they shot with their dartes at our men: but our men tooke one of their people in his boate into the shipboate, and he hurt one of them with his knife, but we killed three of them in their boates: two of them were hurt with arrowes in the brests, and he that was aboord our boat, was shot in with an arrow, and hurt with a sword, and beaten with staues, whome our men cast ouerboord, but the people caught him and carried him on shore vpon their boates, and the other two also, and so departed from vs. And three of them went on shore hard by vs, where they had their dogs, and those three came away from their dogs, and presently one of their dogs came swimming towards vs hard aboord the ship, whereupon our Master caused the Gunner to shoote off one of the great pieces towards the people, and so the dog turned backe to land and within an noure after there came of the people hard aboord the ship, but they would not come to vs as they did come before. The 31. of August we departed from Gylberts sound for England, and when we came out of the harborough there came after vs 17. of the people looking which way we went. The 2. of September we lost sight of the land at 12. of the clocke at noone. [Sidenote: The pinnesse neuer returned home.] The third day at Night we lost sight of the Northstarre our pinnesse in a very great storme, and lay a hull tarying for them the 4. day, but could heare no more of them. Thus we shaped our course the 5. day Southsoutheast, and sayling vntill the 27. of the sayd moneth, we came in sight of Cape Clere in Ireland. The 30. day we entred our owne chanell. The 2. of October we had sight of the Isle of Wight. The 3. we coasted all along the shore, and the 4. and 5. The 6. of the said moneth of October wee came into the riuer of Thames as high as Ratcliffe in safetie God be thanked. * * * * * The third voyage Northwestward, made by M. Iohn Dauis Gentleman, as chiefe captaine and Pilot generall, for the discouery of a passage to the Isles of the Moluccas, or the coast of China, in the yeere 1587. Written by M. Iohn Ianes. May. The 19. of this present moneth about midnight wee weyed our ankers, set sayle, and departed from Dartmouth with two Barkes and a Clincher, the one named the Elizabeth of Dartmouth, the other the Sunneshine of London, and the Clincher called the Helene of London: thus in Gods name we set forwards with the wind at Northeast a good fresh gale. About 3. houres after our departure, the night being somewhat thicke with darknesse, we had lost the pinnesse: the Captaine imagining that the men had runne away with her, willed the Master of the Sunshine to stand to Seawards, and see if we could descry them, we bearing in with the shore for Plimmouth. At length we descried her, bare with her, and demanded what the cause was: they answered that the tiller of their helme was burst. So shaping our course Westsouthwest, we went forward, hoping that a hard beginning would make a good ending, yet some of vs were doubtfull of it, falling in reckoning that she was a Clincher; neuerthelesse we put our trust in God. The 21. we met with the Red Lion of London, which came from the coast of Spaine, which was afrayd that we had bene men of warre, but we hailed them, and after a little conference, we desired the Master to carie our Letters for London directed to my vncle Sanderson, who promised vs a safe deliuerie. And after wee had heaued them a lead and a line, wherevnto wee had made fast our letters, before they could get them into the ship, they fell into the Sea, and so all our labour and theirs also was lost; notwithstanding they promised to certifie our departure at London, and so we departed, and the same day we had sight of Silley. The 22. the wind was at Northeast by East with faire weather, and so the 23. and 24. the like. The 25. we layd our ships on the Lee for the Sunneshine, who was a romaging for a leake, they had 500. strokes at the pumpe in a watch, the wind at Northwest. The 26. and 27. wee had faire weather, but this 27. the Pinnesses foremast was blowen ouerboord. The 28. the Elizabeth towed the pinnesse, which was so much bragged of by the owners report before we came out of England, but at Sea she was like a cart drawen with oxen. Sometimes we towed her because she could not saile for scant wind. The 31. day our Captaine asked if the pinnesse were stanch, Peerson answered that she was as sound and stanch as a cup. This made vs something glad, when we sawe she would brooke the Sea, and was not leake. Iune. The first 6. dayes wee had faire weather: after that for 5 dayes wee had fogge and raine, the winde being South. The 12. wee had cleare weather. The Mariners in the Sunneshine and the Master could not agree: the Mariners would goe on their voyage a fishing, because the yeere began to waste: the Master would not depart till hee had the companie of the Elizabeth, whereupon the Master told our Captaine that hee was afrayd his men would shape some contrary course while he was asleepe, and so he should lose vs. At length after much talke and many threatnings, they were content to bring vs to the land which we looked for daily. [Sidenote: Land descried.] The 14. day we discouered land at fiue of the clocke in the morning, being very great and high mountaines, the tops of the hils being couered with snow. Here the wind was variable, sometimes Northeast, Eastnortheast, and East by North: but we imagined ourselues to be 16. or 17. leagues off from the shore. The 16. we came to an anker about 4. or 5. of the clocke afternoone, the people came presently to vs after the old maner, with crying Ilyaoute, and shewing vs Scales skinnes. The 17. we began to set vp the pinnesse that Peerson framed at Dartmouth, with the boords which hee brought from London. The 18. Peerson and the Carpenters of the ships began to set on the plankes. [Sidenote: Salt kerned on the rockes.] The 19. as we went about an Island, were found blacke Pumise stones, and salt kerned on the rockes very white and glistering. This day also the Master of the Sunneshine tooke of the people a very strong lusty yoong fellow. The 20. about two of the clocke in the morning, the Sauages came to the Island where our pinnace was built readie to bee launched, and tore the two vpper strakes, and carried them away onely for the loue of the yron in the boords. While they were about this practise, we manned the Elizabeths boate to goe a shore to them: our men being either afrayd or amazed, were so long before they came to shore, that our Captaine willed them to stay, and made the Gunner giue fire to a Saker, and layd the piece leuell with the boate which the Sauages had turned on the one side because wee should not hurt them with our arrowes, and made the boate their bulwarke against the arrowes which we shot at them. Our Gunner hauing made all things readie, gaue fire to the piece, and fearing to hurt any of the people, and regarding the owners profite, thought belike hee would saue a Sakers shot, doubting wee should haue occasion to fight with men of warre, and so shot off the Saker without a bullet: we looking stil when the Sauages that were hurt should run away without legs, at length wee could perceiue neuer a man hurt, but all hauing their legges could carie away their bodies: wee had no sooner shot off the piece, but the Master of the Sunneshine manned his boate, and came rowing toward the Island, the very sight of whom made each of them take that hee had gotten, and flee away as fast as they could to another Island about two miles off, where they tooke the nayles out of the timber, and left the wood on the Isle. When we came on shore, and sawe how they had spoiled the boat, after much debating of the matter, we agreed that the Elizabeth should haue her to fish withall: whereupon she was presently caryed aboord, and stowed. Now after this trouble, being resolued to depart with the first wind, there fell out another matter worse then all the rest, and that was in this maner. Iohn Churchyard one whom our Captaine had appoynted as Pilot in the pinnace, came to our Captaine, and Master Brutton, and told them that the good ship which we must all hazard our liues in, had three hundred strokes at one time as she rode in the harbour: This disquieted vs all greatly, and many doubted to goe in her. At length our Captaine by whom we were all to be gouerned, determined rather to end his life with credite, then to returne with infamie and disgrace, and so being all agreed, wee purposed to liue and die together, and committed our selues to the ship. [Sidenote: Isles in 64 degrees.] Now to 21. hauing brought all our things aboord, about 11. or 12. of the clocke at night, we set saile and departed from those Isles, which lie in 64. degrees of latitude, our ships being now all at Sea, and wee shaping our course to goe, coasting the land to the Northwards vpon the Easterne shore, which we called the shore of our Merchants, because there we met with people which traffiqued with vs, but here wee were not without doubt of our ship. [Sidenote: Store of Whales in 67. degrees.] The 24. being in 67. degrees, and 40. minutes, wee had great store of Whales, and a kinde of sea birds which the Mariners call Cortinous. This day about sixe of the clocke at night, we espied two of the countrey people at Sea, thinking at the first they had bene two great Seales, vntill wee sawe their oares glistering with the Sunne: they came rowing towardes vs, as fast as they could, and when they came within hearing, they held vp their oares, and cryed Ilyaoute, making many signes: and at last they came to vs, giuing vs birdes for bracelets, and of them I had a darte with a bone in it, or a piece of Vnicorns horne, as I did iudge. This dart he made store of, but when he saw a knife, he let it go, being more desirous of the knife then of his dart: these people continued rowing after our ship the space of 3. houres. The 25. in the morning at 7. of the clocke we descried 30. Sauages rowing after vs, being by iudgement 10. leagues off from the shore: they brought vs Salmon Peales, Birdes, and Caplin, and we gaue them pinnes, needles, bracelets, nailes, kniues, bels, looking glasses, and other small trifles, and for a knife, a naile or a bracelet, which they call Ponigmah, they would sell their boate, coates, or any thing they had, although they were farre from the shore. Wee had but few skinnes of them, about 20. but they made signes to vs that if wee would goe to the shore, wee should haue more store of Chichsanege: they stayed with vs till 11. of the clocke, at which time wee went to prayer, and they departed from vs. [Sidenote: 72 deg. and 12 min. Betweene Gronland and the North of America aboue 40. leagues.] The 28. and 29. were foggie with cloudes, the 30. day wee tooke the heigth, and found our selues in 72. degrees and 12 minutes of latitude both at noone and at night, the Sunne being 5. degrees aboue the Horizon. [Sidenote: The Great variation of the compasse.] At midnight the compasse set to the variation of 28. degrees to the Westward. [Sidenote: London coast.] Now hauing coasted the land, which wee called London coast, from the 21. of this present, till the 30. the Sea open all to the Westwards and Northwards, the land on starboard side East from vs, the winde shifted to the North, whereupon we left that shore, naming the same Hope Sanderson, and shaped our course West, and ranne 40. leagues and better without the sight of any land. Iuly. [Sidenote: A mightie banke of yce lying North and South.] The second of Iuly wee fell with a mightie banke of yce West from vs, lying North and South, which banke wee would gladly haue doubled out to the Northwards, but the winde would not suffer vs, so that we were faine to coast it to the Southwards, hoping to double it out, that wee might haue ran so farre West till wee had found land, or els to haue beene thorowly resolued of our pretended purpose. The 3. wee fell with the yce againe, and putting off from it, we sought to the Northwards, but the wind crossed vs. The 4. was foggie: so was the 5. also with much wind at the North. The 6. being very cleare, we put our barke with oares through a gap in the yce, seeing the Sea free on the West side, as we thought, which falling out otherwise, caused vs to returne after we had stayed there betweene the yce. The 7. and 8. about midnight, by Gods helpe we recouered the open Sea, the weather being faire and calme, and so was the 9. The 10. we coasted the yce. The 11. was foggie, but calme. The 12. we coasted againe the yce, hauing the wind at Northnorthwest. [Sidenote: Extreme heate of the Sunne.] The 13, bearing off from the yce, we determined to goe with the shoare and come to an anker, and to stay 5. or 6. dayes for the dissoluing of the yce, hoping that the Sea continually beating it, and the Sunne with the extreme force of heat which it had alwayes shining vpon it, would make a quicke dispatch, that we might haue a further search vpon the Westerne shore. Now when we were come to the Easterne coast, the water something deepe, and some of our companie fearefull withall, we durst not come to an anker, but bare off into the Sea againe. The poore people seeing vs goe away againe, came rowing after vs into the Sea, the waues being somewhat loftie. We truckt with them for a few skinnes and dartes, and gaue them beads, nailes, pinnes, needles and cardes, they poynting to the shore, as though they would shew vs some great friendship: but we little regarding their curtesie, gaue them the gentle farewell, and so departed. [Sidenote: They were driuen West sixe points out of their course in 67. degrees, 45. minutes.] The 14. wee had the wind at South. The 15. there was some fault either in the barke, or the set of some current, for wee were driuen sixe points beyond our course West. The 16. wee fell with the banke of yce West from vs. The 17. and 18. were foggie. [Sidenote: Mount Raleigh.] The 19.at one a clocke after noone, wee had sight of the land which we called Mount Raleigh, and at 12. of the clocke at night, we were thwart the streights which we discouered the first yeere. The 20. wee trauersed in the mouth of the streight, the wind being at West, with faire and cleare weather. The 21. and 22. wee coasted the Northerne coast of the streights. [Sidenote: The Earle of Cumberlands Isles.] The 23. hauing sayled threescore leagues Northwest into the streights, at two a clocke after noone wee ankered among many Isles in the bottome of the gulfe, naming the same The Earle of Cumberlands Isles, where riding at anker, a Whale passed by our ship and went West among the Isles. [Sidenote: The variation of the compasse 30. deg. Westward.] Heere the compasse set at thirtie degrees Westward variation. The 23. wee departed, shaping our course Southeast to recouer the Sea. The 25. wee were becalmed in the bottome of the gulfe, the ayre being extreme hot. Master Bruton and some of the Mariners went on shoare to course dogs, where they found many Graues and Trane split on the ground, the dogs being so fat that they were scant able to run. The 26. wee had a prety storme, the winde being at Southeast. The 27. and 28. were faire. The 29. we were cleare out of the streights, hauing coasted the South shore, and this day at noone we were in 62. degrees of latitude. [Sidenote: The land trendeth from this place Southwest and by South. My Lord Lumleys Inlet.] The 30. in the afternoone wee coasted a banke of yce, which lay on the shore, and passed by a great banke or Inlet, which lay between 63. and 62. degrees of latitude, which we called Lumlies Inlet. We had oftentimes, as we sailed alongst the coast, great ruttes, the water as it were whirling and ouerfalling, as if it were the fall of some great water through a bridge. [Sidenote: Warwicks Forland.] The 31. as we sayled by a Headland, which we named Warwicks Foreland, we fell into one of these ouerfals with a fresh gale of wind, and bearing all our sailes, wee looking vpon an Island of yce betweene vs and the shoare, had thought that our barke did make no way, which caused vs to take markes on the shoare: [Sidenote: A very forcible current Westward.] at length wee perceiued our selues to goe very fast, and the Island of yce which we saw before, was carried very forcibly with the set of the current faster then our ship went. This day and night we passed by a very great gulfe the water whirling and roaring as it were the meetings of tydes. August [Sidenote: Chidleys cape.] The first of August hauing coasted a banke of ice which was driuen out at the mouth of this gulfe, we fell with the Southernmost cape of the gulfe, which we named Chidleis cape, which lay in 61 degrees and 10 minutes of latitude. The 2 and 3 were calme and foggie, so were the 4, 5, and 6. The 7 was faire and calme: so was the 8, with a litle gale in the morning. The 9 was faire, and we had a little gale at night. The 10 we had a frisking gale at Westnorthwest. The 11. faire. [Sidenote: The lord Darcies Island.] The 12 we saw fiue deere on the top of an Island, called by vs Darcies Island. And we hoised out our boat, and went ashore to them, thinking to haue killed some of them. But when we came on shore, and had coursed them twise about the Island, they tooke the sea and swamme towards Islands distant from that three leagues. When we perceiued that they had taken the sea we gaue them ouer because our boat was so small that it could not carrie vs, and rowe after them, they swamme so fast: but one of them was as bigge as a good prety Cow, and very fat, their feet as bigge as Oxe feet. Here vpon this Island I killed with my piece a gray hare. The 13 in the morning we saw three or foure white beares, but durst not go on shore to them for lacke of a good boat This day we stroke a rocke seeking for an harborow, and receiued a leake: and this day we were in 54. degrees of latitude. The 14 we stopt our leake in a storme not very outragious, at noone. [Sidenote: The fishing place betweene 54 and 55 degrees of latitude.] The 15 being almost in 52 degrees of latitude, and not finding our ships, nor (according to their promise) any kinde of marke, token, or beacon, which we willed them to set vp, and they protested to do so vpon euery head land, Island or cape, within twenty leagues euery way off from their fishing place, which our captaine appointed to be betweene 54 and 55 degrees: This 15 I say we shaped our course homewards for England, hauing in our ship but litle wood, and halfe a hogshead of fresh water. Our men were very willing to depart, and no man more forward then Peerson, for he feared to be put out of his office of stewardship: but because euery man was so willing to depart, we consented to returne for our owne countrey: and so we had the 16 faire weather, with the winde at Southwest. [Sidenote: Abundance of whales in 52 degrees.] The 17 we met a ship at sea, and as farre as we could iudge it was a Biskaine: we thought she went a fishing for whales; for in 52 degrees or thereabout we saw very many. The 18 was faire, with a good gale at West. The 19 faire also, with much winde at West and by South. [They arrive at Dartmouth the 15 of September.] And thus after much variable weather and change of winds we arriued the 15 of September in Dartmouth anno 1587, giuing thanks to God for our safe arriuall. * * * * * A letter of the sayd M. Iohn Dauis written to M. Sanderson of London concerning his forewritten voyage. Good M. Sanderson, with Gods great mercy I haue made my safe returne in health, with all my company, and haue sailed threescore leagues further then my determination at my departure. I haue bene in 73 degrees, finding the sea all open, and forty leagues betweene land and land. The passage is most probable, the execution easie, as at my comming you shall fully know. Yesterday the 15 of September I landed all weary; therefore I pray you pardon my shortnesse. Sandridge this 16 of September anno 1587. Yours equall as mine owne, which by triall you shall best know, IOHN DAVIS. * * * * * A Traverse-Booke made by M. Iohn Davis in his third voyage for the discouerie of the Northwest passage. Anno 1587. [In the following chart, the final column, THE DISCOVRSE, is moved to the line after which it is aligned in the original--KTH] Moneth D H Course. L Eleva- The winde. THE DISCOVRSE a o e tion y u a of the e r g pole. s. e u D M s. e e i s. g. n. May 19 w.s.w. 50 30 n.e. Westerly. This day we departed from Dartmouth at two of the clocke at night. 20 21 35 w.s.w. 50 50 n.e. Westerly. This day we descried Silly N. W. by W. from vs. 22 15 w.n.w. 14 n.e. by e. This day at noone we departed from Silly. 22 6 w.n.w. 6 n.e. by e. 22 3 w.n.w. 2 23 15 n.w. by w. 18 n.e. 23 39 w.n.w. 36 50 40 The true course, distance and latitude. 3 w.n.w. 2 n.n.e. 6 n.w. by w. 5 n.e. by n. 3 w.n.w. 3 n.n.e. 12 w.n.w. 12 n.e. Noone the 24 24 w.n.w. 25 51 16. Northerly. The true course, distance and latitude. 3 w.n.w. 3 n.n.e. 3 w.n.w. 2-1/2 n. by e. 6 w. by n. 5 n. 6 w. by n. 5 n. 2 s. 1/2 n. Now we lay vpon the lee for the Sunshine, which had taken a leake of 500 strokes a watch. Noone the 25 24 w. by n. 20 51 30 The true course, distance and latitude. Noone the 25 3 w. 3 n.n.w. 3 w.s.w. 2 n.w. 1 s.w. 1 w.n.w. 2 w.n.w. 1-1/2 n. 3 w.n.w. 1-1/2 n. 3 Calme 4 w.n.w. 4 s.s.e. 5 w. 6 s.s.e. Noone the 26 24 w by n. 23 51 40 The true course, distance, &c. Westerly. 11 w. 16 s.s.e. 6 w.n.w. 2 s.s.e. We lay at hull with winde, raine, and fog. 7 w. 5 s.e. Noone the 27 24 w. northerly 23 The common course supposed. Noone the 28 24 w. 20 52 13 e.s.e. We towed the pinnesse 18 houres of this day. Noone the 28 28 w. by n. 43 52 13 Northerly. The true course, distance, &c. Noone the 29 24 n.w. 30 s. by e. 6 n.w. 10 s. 3 n. by w. 2 w. by n. 3 w. by w. 3 w. by s. 12 n. w. 12 s.s.w Noone the 30 48 n.w. by n. 65 54 50 The true course, &c. 9 n.w. 12 s.w. 9 n.w. by w. 12 s.s.w. 3 w.n.w. 3 n.n.e. Noone the 30 3 w. by n. 4 n. 30 24 w. n. w. 27 55 30 Northerly. The true course, &c. Iune 1 12 w. 10 n.n.w. 9 n.w. 8 e.n.e. 3 n.w. 2-1/2 e.n.e. 1 24 w.n.w. 17 55 45 Westerly. The true course, &c. 12 n.w. 16 e.s.e. 6 n.w. 7 s. 6 n.w. 8 s.s.w. Noone the 2 24 n.w. 32 56 55 Northerly The true course, &c. Noone the 5 72 w. by s. 45 56 20 Southerly The true course &c., drawen from diurs trauerses. Noone the 6 24 s.w. 16 w.n.w. 7 s.w. by w. 6 w. by n. 5 Calme. 3 w.n.w. 1 s. Noone the 7 9 w.n.w. 12 s. 12 w.n.w 20 s. 3 w.n.w. 4 s. Noone the 8 9 w.n.w. 7 s. 12 w.n.w. 5 s. Noone the 9 12 w.n.w. 13 s.e. Noone the 9 12 w.n.w 86 57 30 Northerly The true course, distance, and latitude for 96 houres. Noone the 9 3 w.n.w. 4 s.e. 3 w.n.w. 2 s.e. 6 w.n.w. 1 Calme Noone the 10 12 w.n.w. 16-1/2 e. 7 w.n.w. 12 e. 2 n.w. 2 e. Noone the 11 15 n.w. 18 e.n.e. 12 n.w. 12 e.n.e. 12 n.w. 13 e. by s. Noone the 12 72 n.w. by w. 78 59 50 Northerly The true course, &c. for 72 houres. Noone the 13 24 n.n.w. 26 60 58 e. by n. Westerly Noone the 14 24 n.n.w. 32 62 30 n.e. 9 w.n.w. 7 n. 3 n.w. 2 n.n.e. 3 n.w. by n. 2 n.e. by n. This day in the morning at fiue of the clocke we discouered land being distant from vs at the neerest place sixteene leagues, This land in generall lay Northwest and to the Westwards, being very mountainous. The winde was this day variable, and the aire sometime foggie, and sometime cleere. The foresayd land bare from vs (so neere as we could iudge) North, Northwest, and Southeast. 15 9 n.n.w. 8 n.e. Noone the 15 24 n.w. Northerly 22 63 20 The true course, &c. Noone the 16 24 n.n.e. 14 64 Easterly The true course, &c. This 16 of Iune at 5 of the clocke in the afternoone, being in the latitude of 64 degrees, through Gods helpe we came to an anker among many low islands which lay before the high land. Noone the 17 This 17 of Iune we set vp our pinnesse. 20 The 20 she was spoiled by Sauages. At midnight the 21 of Iune wee departed from this coast, our two barks for their fishing voyage, and myself in the pinnesse for the discouery. From midnight the 21 we shaped our course as followeth. At mid- night the 21 8 w.n.w 7 s.e. Noone the 22 4 n.w. 6 s.e. 13 n.w. 18 s.e. 11 n. 13 s.e. At this time we saw great store of whales. Noone the 23 36 n.w. by n. 42 65 40 The true course, &c. Noone the 24 24 n. by e. 41 67 40 s.s.e. northerly 2 The true course &c. Here the weather was very hot. This 24 of Iune at 6 of the clocke at night we met two sauages at sea in their small canoas, vnto whom we gaue bracelets, and nailes, for skins and birds. At 9 of the clocke they departed from vs. Noone the 26 48 n. s. 3 n.w. 2 s.w. The next day at 7 of the clocke in the morning, there came vnto vs 30 sauages 20 leagues off the shore, intreating vs to goe to the shore. We had of them fish, birds, skinnes, darts, and their coats from their backs, for bracelets, nailes, kniues, &c. They remained with vs foure houres, and departed. 7 n.n.e. 10 s. 6 n. 8 s.w. 8 w.n.w. 5 s.e. Noone the 27 72 n. westerly 52 70 4 The true course for, &c. 72 houres. Noone the 29 72 n. 43 72 12 30 The true course, &c. Since the 21 of this moneth I haue continually coasted the shore of Gronland, hauing the sea all open towards the West, and the land on the starboord side East from me. For these last 4 dayes the weather hath bene extreame hot and very calme, the Sunne being 5 degrees aboue the horison at midnight. The compasse in this place varieth 28 degrees toward the West. Iuly 1 30 w. by s. 44 71 36 n.w. by n. westerley The true course, &c. this day at noone we coasted a mighty banke of ice West from vs. 2 24 s.e. 12 71 9 Noone the 3 8 n.n.w. 11 71 40 n. This day we fell againe with the ice, seeking to double it out by the North. Noone the 5 48 s.s.e. 36 70 n. The true course, &c. 6 24 s.s.w. 22 69 variable. 7 8 The true course, &c. This 6 of Iuly we put our barke thorow the ice, seeing the sea free on the West side: and hauing sailed 5 leagues West, we fell with another mighty barre, which we could not passe: and therefore returning againe, we freed our selues the 8 of this moneth at midnight, and so recouered the sea through Gods fauour, by faire winds, the weather being very calme. Noone the 9 72 e.s.e. 7 68 50 calme. The true course, &c. 10 24 s.e. by s. 8 68 30 calme. The true course, &c. This day we coasted the ice. 11 24 e.n.e. 11-1/2 68 45 variable. The true course, &c. 12 24 s.s.e. 16 68 n.n.w. The true course, &c. 13 24 e. by s. 20 s. This day the people came to vs off the shore, and bartered with vs. Being within the Isle, and not finding good ankorage, we bare off again into the sea. 14 24 w. by n. 11 67 50 s. The true course, &c. 15 24 w.s.w. 5 67 45 e. The true course, &c. This day a great current set vs West 6 points from our course. 16 24 s.w. by w. 23 67 10 s. westerly The true course, &c. This day we fell with a mighty banke of ice West of vs. Noone the 18 48 s. by w. 30 65 33 n. fog. The true course, &c. Collected by diuers experiments. 19 24 w. 13 65 30 s. fog. southerly The true course, &c. This 19 of Iuly at one a clocke in the afternoone we had sight of the land of Mount Ralegh, and by 12 of the clocke at night wee were thwart the Streights which (by Gods helpe) I discouered the first yere. 20 The 20 day wee trauersed in the mouth of the sayd Streights with a contrary winde, being West and faire weather. 23 This 23 day at 2 of the clocke in the afternoone, hauing sailed 60 leagues Northwest, we ankered among an huge number of Isles lying in the bottome of the sayd supposed passage, at which place the water riseth 4 fadome vpright. Here as we rode at anker, a great whale passed by vs, and swam West in amongst the isles. In this place a S. W. by W. moone maketh a full sea. Here the compasse varied 30 degrees. 24 The 24 day at 5 of the clocke in the morning we set saile, departing from this place, and shaping our course S.E. to recouer the maine Ocean againe. 25 This 25 we were becalmed almost in the bottome of the Streights, and had the weather maruellous extreme hot. 26 s.e. This day being in the Streights, we had a very quicke storme. 27 s. Being still in the Streight, we had this day faire weather. Noone the 29 64 At this present we got cleere of the Streights, hauing coasted the South shore, the land trending from hence S. W. by S. Noone the 30 s.s.w. 22 63 This day we coasted the shore, a banke of ice lying thereupon. Also this 30 of Iuly in the afternoone we crossed ouer the entrance or mouth of a great inlet or passage, being 20 leagues broad, and situate betweene 62 and 63 degrees. In which place we had 8 or 9 great rases, currents or ouerfals, lothsomly crying like the rage of the waters vnder London bridge, and bending their course into the sayd gulfe. Noone the 31 24 s. by w. 27 62 n.w. This 31 at noone, comming close by a foreland or great cape, we fell into a mighty rase, where an island of ice was carried by the force of the current as fast as our barke could saile with lum wind, all sailes bearing. This cape as it was the most Southerly limit of the gulfe which we passed ouer the 30 day of this moneth, so was it the North promontory or first beginning of another very great inlet, whose South limit at this present wee saw not. Which inlet or gulfe this afternoone, and in the night, we passed ouer: where to our great admiration we saw the sea falling down into the gulfe with a mighty ouerfal, and roring, and with diuers circular motions like whirlepooles, in such sort as forcible streames passe thorow the arches of bridges. August Noone the 1 24 s.e. by s. 16 61 10 w.s.w. The true course, &c. This first of August we fell with the promuntory of the sayd gulfe or second passage, hauing coasted by diuers courses for our sauegard, a great banke of the ice driuen out of that gulfe. Noone the 3 48 s.s.e. 16 60 26 variable. Noone the 6 72 s.e. 22 59 35 variable southerly with calme. The true course, &c. 7 24 s.s.e. 22 58 40 w.s.w. The true course, &c. 8 24 s.e. 13 58 12 w. fog. variable. The true course, &c. 9 24 s. by w. 13 57 30 variable and calme. The true course, &c. Noone the 10 24 s.s.e. 17 56 40 s.w. by w. The true course, &c. 11 24 s.e. 40 55 13 w.n.w. easterly The true course, &c. 12 24 s.e. 20 54 32 w.s.w. easterly The true course, &c. 13 24 w.s.w. 4 54 n.w. This day seeking for our ships that went to fish, we stroke on a rocke, being among many iles, and had a great leake. Noone the 14 24 s.s.e. 28 52 40 n.w. This day we stopped our leake in a storme. The 15 of August at noon, being in the latitude of 52 degrees 12 min. and 16 leagues from the shore, we shaped our course for England, in Gods name, as followeth. Noone the 15 52 12 s.s.w. The true latitude. 16 20 e.s.e. 50 51 s.w. halfe point s. The true course, &c. 17 24 e. by s. 30 50 40 s. The true course, &c. This day upon the banke we met a Biscaine bound for the Grand Bay or for the passage. He chased vs. 18 24 e. by n. 49 51 18 w. northerly. The true course, &c. 19 24 s. halfe 51 51 35 variable point north. w. & s. The true course, &c. 20 24 e.s.e. 31 50 50 s.w. The true course, &c. 22 48 e. by n. 68 51 30 s.s.w. The true course, &c. 23 24 e. by n. 33 51 52 s. northerly. The true course, &c. 24 24 e. by n. 31 52 10 variable. The true course, &c. This 24 of August obseruing the variation, I found the compass to vary towards the East from the true Meridian, one degree. Noone the 27 72 e. 40 52 22 variable northerly & calme. The true coruse, &c for 72 houres. Noone the 29 48 e.s.e. 47 51 28 variable w. & n. The true course, &c. Noone the 31 48 s.e. by e. 14 51 9 variable. easterly The true course, &c. 2 48 e. 65 51 n.w. southerly. The true course, &c. 3 24 e. by s. 24 50 50 w.n.w. easterly. The true course, &c. 4 24 s.e. by e. 20 50 21 n.n.e. The true course, &c. 5 24 s.e. by e. 18 49 48 n.n.e. The true course, &c. Now we supposed our selues to be 55 leagues from Sillie. 6 24 e. by s. 15 49 40 n. The true course, &c. 7 24 e.s.e. 20 49 15 n.n.w. The true course, &c. 8 24 n.e. 18 49 40 9 24 w.s.w. 7 49 42 10 24 s.e. by e. 8-1/2 49 28 variable. 11 24 n.e. by e. 10 49 45 variable. 12 24 n.w. by w. 6 50 n.e. 13 24 e. by s. 15 49 47 n.e. southerly 15 This 15 of September 1587 we arriued at Dartmouth. Vnder the title of the houres, where any number exceedeth 24, it is the summe or casting vp of so many other dayes and partes of dayes going next before, as conteine the foresayd summe. * * * * * A report of Master Iohn Dauis of his three Voyages made for the discouerie of the Northwest passage, taken out of a Treatise of his. Intituled the worlds Hydrographicall description. Now there onely resteth the North parts of America, vpon which coast my selfe haue had most experience of any in our age: for thrise I was that way imployed for the discouery of this notable passage, by the honourable care and some charge of Syr Francis Walsingham knight, principall secretary to her Maiestie, with whom diuer noble men and worshipfull marchants of London ioyned in purse and willingnesse for the furtherance of that attempt, but when his honour dyed the voyage was friendlesse, and mens mindes alienated from aduenturing therein. [Sidenote: The 1. voyage.] In my first voyage not experienced of the nature of those climates, and hauing no direction either by Chart, Globe, or other certaine relation in what altitude that passage was to be searched, I shaped a Northerly course and so sought the same toward the South, and in that my Northerly course I fell vpon the shore which in ancient time was called Groenland, fiue hundred leagues distant from the Durseys Westnorthwest Northerly, the land being very high and full of mightie mountaines all couered with snowe, no viewe of wood, grasse or earth to be seene, and the shore two leagues off into the sea so full of yce as that no shipping could by any meanes come neere the same. The lothsome view of the shore, and irksome noyse of the yce was such, as that it bred strange conceits among vs, so that we supposed the place to be wast and voyd of any sensible or vegitable creatures, whereupon I called the same Desolation: so coasting this shore towards the South in the latitude of sixtie degrees, I found it to trend towards the West, I still followed the leading thereof in the same height, and after fifty or sixtie leagues it fayled and lay directly North, which I still followed, and in thirtie leagues sayling vpon the West side of this coast by me named desolation, we were past al the yce and found many greene and pleasant Iles bordering vpon the shore, but the maine were still couered with great quantities of snow, I brought my ship among those Isles and there moored to refresh our selues in our weary trauell, in the latitude of sixtie foure degrees or thereabout. The people of the countrey hauing espied our shippes came downe vnto vs in their Canoas, and holding vp their right hand to the Sunne and crying Yliaout, would strike their breasts: we doing the like the people came aboard our shippes, men of good stature, vnbearded, small eyed and of tractable conditions, by whome as signes would permit, we vnderstood that towards the North and West, there was a great sea, and vsing the people with kindeness in giuing them nayles and kniues which of all things they most desired, we departed, and finding the sea free from yce supposing our selves to be past al daunger we shaped our course Westnorthwest thinking thereby to passe for China, but in the latitude of sixtie sixe degrees we fell with another shore, and there found another passage of twenty leagues broad directly West into the same, which we supposed to be our hoped straight, we entred into the same thirtie or fortie leagues, finding it neither to wyden nor streighten, then considering that the yeere was spent (for this was the fiue of August) not knowing the length of the straight and dangers thereof, we tooke it our best course to returne with notice of our good successe for this small time of search. And so returning in a sharpe fret of Westerly windes the 19 of September we arriued at Dartmouth. [Sidenote: The 2. voyage.] And acquainting Master Secretary Walsingham with the rest of the honourable and worshipfull aduenturers of all our proceedings, I was appointed againe the second yere to search the bottome of this straight, because by all likelihood it was the place and passage by vs laboured for. In this second attempt the marchants of Exeter, and other places of the West became aduenturers in the action, so that being sufficiently furnished for sixe moneths, and hauing direction to search these straights, vntill we found the same to fall into another sea vpon the West side of this part of America, we should againe returne: for then it was not to be doubted, but shipping with trade might safely be conueied to China, and the parts of Asia. We departed from Dartmouth, and arriuing vpon the South part of the coast of Desolation coasted the same vpon his West shore to the latitude of sixtie six degrees, and there anchored among the Isles bordering vpon the same, where we refreshed our selues, the people of this place came likewise vnto vs, by whom I vnderstood through their signes that towards the North the sea was large. At this place the chiefe ship whereupon I trusted, called the Mermayd of Dartmouth, found many occasions of discontentment, and being vnwilling to proceed shee there forsook me. Then considering how I had giuen my faith and most constant promise to my worshipfull good friend Master William Sanderson, who of all men was the greatest aduenturer in that action, and tooke such care for the performance thereof, that he hath to my knowledge at one time disbursed as much money as any fiue others whatsoever, out of his purse, when some of the companie haue bene slacke in giuing in their aduenture: And also knowing that I should loose the fauour of M. Secretary Walsingham, if I should shrink from his direction; in one small barke of 30 Tonnes, whereof M. Sanderson was owner, alone without farther company I proceeded on my voyage, and arriuing at these straights followed the same 80 leagues, vntill I came among many Islands, where the water did ebbe and flow sixe fadome vpright, and where there had bene great trade of people to make traine. [Sidenote: The North Parts of America all Islands.] But by such things as there we found, wee knew that they were not Christians of Europe that had vsed that trade: in fine by searching with our boat, we found small hope to passe any farther that way, and therefore recouered the sea and coasted the shore towards the South, and in so doing (for it was too late to search towards the North) we found another great inlet neere 40 leagues broad, where the water entred in with violent swiftnesse, this we also thought might be a passage; for no doubt the North partes of America are all Islands by ought that I could perceiue therein: but because I was alone in a small barke of thirtie tunnes, and the yeere spent, I entred not into the same, for it was now the seuenth of September, but coasting the shore towards the South wee saw an incredible number of birds: hauing diuers fishermen aboord our Barke they all concluded that there was a great skull of fish, we being vnprouided of fishing furniture with a long spike nayle made a hooke, and fastened the same to one of our sounding lines, before the baite was changed we tooke more then fortie great Cods, the fish swimming so abundantly thicke about our barke as is incredible to bee reported, of which with a small portion of salt that we had we preserved some thirtie couple, or thereaboutes, and so returned for England. And hauing reported to M. Secretarie Walsingham the whole successe of this attempt, he commanded me to present vnto the most honourable Lord high Treasurour of England, some part of that fish: which when his Lordship saw, and heard at large the relation of this second attempt, I receiued fauourable countenance from his honour, aduising me to prosecute the action, of which his Lordship conceiued a very good opinion. The next yere, although diuers of the aduenturers fell from the Action, as all the Westerne marchants, and most of those in London: yet some of the aduenturers both honourable and worshipfull continued their willing fauour and charge, so that by this meanes the next yere two shippes were appointed for the fishing and one pinnesse for the discouerie. [Sidenote: The 3. voyage.] Departing from Dartmouth, thorough Gods mercifull fauour, I arriued at the place of fishing, and there according to my direction I left the two ships to follow that busines, taking their faithful promise not to depart vntill my returne vnto them, which should be in the fine of August, and so in the barke I proceeded for this discouerie: but after my departure, in sixeteene dayes the two shippes had finished their voyage, and so presently departed for England, without regard of their promise: my selfe not distrusting any such hard measure proceeded for the discouerie, and followed my course in the free and open sea betweene North and Northwest to the latitude of 67 degrees, and there I might see America West from me, and Gronland, which I called Desolation, East: then when I saw the land of both sides I began to distrust it would prooue but a gulfe: notwithstanding desirous to know the full certainty I proceeded, and in 68 degrees the passage enlarged, so that I could not see the Westerne shore: thus I continued to the Latitude of 73 degrees in a great sea, free from yce, coasting the Westerne shoure of Desolation: the people came continually rowing out vnto me in their Canoas, twenty, forty, and one hundred at a time, and would giue me fishes dryed, Salmon, Salmon peale, Cod, Caplin, Lumpe, Stone-base and such like, besides diuers kinds of birds, as Partrige, Fesant, Guls, Sea birds, and other kinds of flesh: I still laboured by signes to know from them what they knew of any sea toward the North, they still made signes of a great sea as we vnderstood them, then I departed from that coast, thinking to discouer the North parts of America: and after I had sailed towards the West 40 leagues, I fel vpon a great banke of yce: the winde being North and blew much, I was constrained to coast the same toward the South, not seeing any shore West from me, neither was there any yce towards the North, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blew, and of an vnsearchable depth: So coasting towards the South I came to the place where I left the ships to fish, but found them not. Then being forsaken and left in this distresse referring my self to the mercifull prouidence of God, I shaped my course for England, and vnhoped for of any, God alone releeuing me, I arriued at Dartmouth. By this last discouery it seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment toward the North: but by reason of the Spanish Fleete and vnfortunate time of M. Secretaries death, the voyage was omitted and never sithens attempted. The cause why I vse this particular relation of all my proceedings for this discouery, is to stay this obiection, why hath not Dauis discouered this passage being thrise that wayes imploied? How far I proceeded and in what forme this discouery lieth, doth appeare vpon the Globe which M. Sanderson to his very great charge hath published, for the which he deserueth great fauor and commendations.[90] * * * * * The discouerie of the Isles of Frisland, Iseland, Engroneland, Estotiland, Drogeo and Icaria: made by two brethren, namely M. Nicholas Zeno, and M. Antonio his brother: Gathered out of their letters by M. Francisco Marcolino. In the yere of our Lord 1200 there was in the Citie of Venice a famous Gentleman, named Messer Marino Zeno, who for his great vertue and singular wisdome, was called and elected gouernour in certaine common wealths of Italy: in the administration whereof he bore himselfe so discretly, that he was beloued of all men, and his name greatly reuerenced of those that neuer knew or saw his person. And amongst sundry his worthy workes, this is recorded of him, that he pacified certaine grieuous ciuile dissentions that arose among the citizens of Verona: whereas otherwise, if by his graue aduise and great diligence they had not bene preuented, the matter was likely to broke out into hot broyles of warre. He was the first Podesta, or Ruler, that the Common wealth of Venice appointed in Constantinople in the yeere 1205 when our state had rule thereof with the French Barons. This Gentleman had a sonne named Messer Pietro, who was the father of the Duke Rinieri, which Duke dying without issue, made his heire M. Andrea, the sonne of M. Marco his brother. This M. Andrea was Captaine Generall and Procurator, a man of great reputation for many rare partes, that were in him. He had a sonne M. Rinieri, a worthy Senatour and prudent Counsellour: of whom descended M. Pietro Captaine Generall of the league of the Christians against the Turkes, who was called Dragon, for that in his shield, in stead of a Manfrone which was his armes at the first, he bare a Dragon. He was father to M. Carlo Il grande the famous Procurator and Captaine generall against the Genowayes in those cruell warres, when as almost all the chiefe Princes of Europe did oppugne and seeke to ouerthrow our Empire and libertie, wherein by his great valiantie and prowesse, as Furius Camillus deliuered Rome, so he deliuered his countrey from the present perill it was in, being ready to become a pray and spoile vnto the enemie: wherefore he was afterward surnamed the Lyon, and for an eternall remembrance of his fortitude and valiant exploits he gaue the Lyon in his armes. M. Carlo had two brethren, M. Nicolo, the knight and M. Antonio, the father of M. Dragon, of whom issued M. Caterino, the father M. Pietro da i Grocecchieri. This M. Pietro had sonnes M. Caterino, that died the last yere, being brother vnto M. Francisco, M. Carlo, M. Battista, and M. Vincenzo: Which M. Caterino was father to M. Nicola, that is yet liuing. Now M. Nicolo, the knight being a man of great courage, after this aforesaid Genouan warre of Chioggia, that troubled so our predecessours, entred into a great desire and fansie to see the fashions of the worlde and to trauell and acquaint himselfe with the maners of sundry nations, and learne their languages, whereby afterwards vpon occasions he might be the better able to doe seruice to his countrey, and purchase to himselfe credite and honour. Wherefore he caused a ship to be made, and hauing furnished her at his proper charges (as he was very wealthy) he departed out of our seas and passing the straites of Gibraltar, he sailed for certaine dayes vpon the Ocean, keeping his course still to the Northwards, with intent to see England and Flanders. [Sidenote: The ship of M. N. Zeno cast away vpon Frisland in Anno 1380.] Where being assailed in those Seas by a terrible tempest, he was so tossed for the space of many dayes with the sea and winde, that he knew not where he was, till at length he discouered land, and not being able any longer to susteine the violence of the tempest the ship was cast away vpon the Isle of Friseland. The men were saued and most part of the goods that were in the ship. And this was in the yere 1380. The inhabitants of the Island came running in great multitudes with weapons to set vpon M. Nicolo and his men, who being sore weather-beaten and ouer-laboured at sea and not knowing in what part of the world they were, were not able to make any resistance at all, much lesse to defend themselues couragiously, as it behooued them in such a dangerous case. [Sidenote: A forraine prince hapning to be in Frisland with armed men, when M. Zeno suffered shipwracked there came vnto him and spake Latine.] And they should haue bene doubtlesse very discourteously intreated and cruelly handled, if by good hap there had not beene hard by the place a prince with armed people. Who vnderstanding that there was euen at that present a great ship cast away vpon the Island, came running at the noyse and outcryes that they made against our poore Mariners, and dryuing away the inhabitants, spake in Latine and asked them what they were and from whence they came, and perceiuing that they came from Italy and that they were men of the sayd Countrey, he was surprised with maruelous great ioy. Wherefore promising them all, that they should receiue no discourtesie, and that they were come into a place where they should be well vsed and very welcome, he tooke them into his protection vpon his faith. [Sidenote: Zichmni prince of Porland or Duke of Zorani.] This was a great Lord, and possessed certaine Islands called Porland, lying on the South side of Frisland, being the richest and most populous of all those parts, his name was Zichmni: and beside the said little Islands, he was Duke of Sorani, lying ouer against Scotland.[91] Of these North parts I thought good to draw the copie of a Sea carde, which amongst other antiquities I haue in my house, which although it be rotten through many yeres, yet it falleth out indifferent well: and to those that are delighted in these things, it may serue for some light to the vnderstanding of that, which without it cannot so easily be conceiued. Zichmni being Lord of those Sygnories (as is said) was a very warlike and valiant man and aboue all things famous in Sea causes. [Sidenote: Frisland the king of Norwayes.] And hauing the yere before giuen the ouerthrow to the king of Norway, who was Lord of the Island, being desirous to winne fame by feates of armes, hee was come on land with his men to giue the attempt for the winning of Frisland, which is an Island much bigger then Ireland. Wherefore seeing that M. Nicolo was a man of iudgement and discretion, and very expert both in sea matters and martiall affaires, hee gaue him commission to goe aboord his Nauy with all his men, charging the captaine to honor him and in all things to use his counsaile. This Nauy of Zichmni was of thirteene vessels, whereof two onely were rowed with oares, the rest small barkes and one ship, with the which they sayled to the Westwards and with little paines wonne Ledouo and Ilofe and diuers other small Islands: and turning into a bay called Sudero, in the hauen of the towne named Sanestol, they tooke certaine small barks laden with fish. And here they found Zichmni, who came by land with his armie conquering all the countrey as he went: they stayed here but a while, and led on their course to the Westwards till they came to the other Cape of the gulfe or bay, then turning againe, they found certaine Islandes and broken lands which they reduced al vnto the Signorie and possession of Zichmni. These seas for as much as they sailed, were in maner nothing but sholds and rocks, in so much that if M. Nicolo and the Venetian mariners had not bene their Pilots, the whole fleete in iudgement of all that were in it, had bene cast away, so small was the skill of Zichmnis men, in respect of ours, who had bene trained vp in the arte and practise of Nauigation all the dayes of their life. Now the fleete hauing done such things as are declared, the Captaine, by the counsaile of M. Nicolo, determined to goe a land, at a towne called Bondendon, to vnderstand what successe Zichmni had in his warres: where they heard to their great content, that he had fought a great battell and put to flight the armie of his enemie: by reason of which victory, they sent Embassadours from all parts of the Island to yeeld the countrey vp into his handes, taking downe their ensignes in euery towne and castle: they thought good to stay in that place for his comming, it being reported for certaine that hee would be there very shortly. At his comming there was great congratulation and many signes of gladnesse shewed, as well for the victory by land, as for that by sea: for the which the Venetians were honoured and extolled of all men, in such sort that there was no talke but of them, and of the great valour of M. Nicolo. Wherefore the prince, who was a great fauourer of valiant men and especially of those that could behaue themselues well at sea, caused M. Nicolo to be brought before him, and after hauing commended him with many honourable speeches, and praysed his great industrie and dexteritie of wit, by the which two things he acknowledged himselfe to haue receiued an inestimable benefite, as the sauing of his fleet and the winning of many places without any great trouble, he made him knight, and rewarded his men with many rich and bountiful gifts. Then departing from thence they went in tryumphing maner toward Frisland, the chiefe citie of that Island. In this gulf or bay there is such great abundance of fish taken, that many ships are laden therewith to serue Flanders, Britain, England, Scotland, Norway, and Denmarke, and by this trade they gather great wealth. And thus much is taken out of a letter, that M. Nicolo sent to M. Antonio his brother, requesting that he would seeke some meanes to come to him. Wherefore he who had as great desire to trauaile as his brother, bought a ship, and directed his course that way: and after he had sailed a great while and escaped many dangers, he arriued at length in safetie with M. Nicolo, who receiued him very ioyfully, for that he was his brother not onely in flesh and blood, but also in valour and good qualities. M. Antonio remained in Frisland and dwelt there for the space of 14 yeres, 4 yeeres with M. Nicolo, and 10 yeres alone. Where they came in such grace and fauour with the Prince, that he made M. Nicolo Captaine of his Nauy, and with great preparation of warre they were sent forth for the enterprise of Estland, which lyeth vpon the coast betweene Frisland and Norway, where they did many dammages, but hearing that the king of Norway was coming towardes them with a great fleet, they departed with such a terrible flaw of winde, that they were driuen vpon certaine sholds: were a great part of their ships were cast away, the rest were saued vpon Grisland, a great Island but dishabited. The king of Norway his fleete being taken with the same storme, did vtterly perish in those seas: Whereof Zichmni hauing notice, by a ship of his enemies that was cast by chance vpon Grisland, hauing repayred his fleet, and perceiuing himself Northerly neere vnto the Islands, determined, to set vpon Island, which together with the rest, was subiect to the king of Norway: but he found the countrey so well fortified and defended, that his fleete being so small, and very ill appointed both of weapons and men, he was glad to retire. And so he left that enterprise without performing any thing at all: and in the chanels, he assaulted the other Isles called Islande, which are seuen, Talas, Broas, Iscant, Trans, Mimant, Dambere, and Bres: and hauing spoyled them all, hee built a fort in Bres, where he left M. Nicolo with certaine small barkes and men and munition. And now thinking he had done wel for this voyage, with those few ships which were left he returned safe into Frisland. [Sidenote: Engroneland.] M. Nicolo remaining nowe in Bres, determined in the spring to go forth and discouer land: wherefore arming out three small barkes in the moneth of Iuly, he sayled to the Northwards, and arriued in Engroneland. [Sidenote: Preaching fryers of Saint Thomas.] Where he found a Monasterie of Friers, of the order of the Predicators, and a Church dedicated to Saint Thomas, hard by a hill that casteth forth fire, like Vesuuius and Etna. There is a fountaine of hot burning water with the which they heate the Church of the Monastery and the Fryers chambers, it commeth also into the kitchin so boyling hot, that they vse no other fire to dresse their meate: and putting their breade into brasse pots without any water, it doth bake as it were in an hot ouen. They haue also smal gardens couered ouer in the winter time, which being watered with this water, are defended from the force of the snow and colde, which in those partes being situate farre vnder the pole, is very extreme, and by this meanes they produce flowers and fruites and herbes of sundry sorts, euen as in other temperate countries in their seasons, in such sort that the rude and sauage people of those partes seeing these supernaturall effects, doe take those Fryers for Gods, and bring them many presents, as chickens, flesh, and diuers other things, they haue them all in great reuerence as Lords. When the frost and snowe is great, they heate their houses in maner before said, and wil by letting in the water or opening the windowes, at an instant, temper the heate and cold at their pleasure. In the buildings of the Monasterie they vse no other matter but that which is ministred vnto them by the fire: for they take the burning stones that are cast out as it were sparkles or cinders at the fierie mouth of the hill, and when they are most enflamed, cast water vpon them, whereby they are dissolued and become excellent white lime and so tough that being contriued in building it lasteth for euer. And the very sparkles after the fire is out of them doe serue in stead of stones to make walles and vautes: for being once colde they will neuer dissolue or breake, except they be cut with some iron toole, and the vautes that are made of them are so light that they need no sustentacle, or prop to holde them vp, and they will endure continually very faire and whole. By reason of these great commodities, the Fryers haue made there so many buildings and walles that it is a wonder to see. The couerts or roofes of their houses for the most part are made in maner following: first they rayse vp the wall vp to his full height, then they make it enclinining or bowing in by little and litle in fourme of a vaut. [Sidenote: Winter of 9 moneths.] But they are not greatly troubled with raine in those partes, because the climate (as I haue saide) is extreme colde: for the first snow being fallen, it thaweth no more for the space of nine moneths, for so long dureth their winter. They feede of the flesh of wilde foule and of fish: for wheras the warme water falleth into the sea, there is a large and wide hauen, which by reason of the heate of the water, doeth neuer freeze all the winter, by meanes whereof there is such concourse and flocks of sea foule and such abundance of fish, that they take thereof infinite multitudes, whereby they maintaine a great number of people round about, which they kepe in continuall worke, both in building and taking of foules and fish, and in a thousand other necessarie affaires and busines about the Monasterie. Their houses are built about the hill on euery side, in forme round, and 25 foote broad, and in mounting vpwards they goe narower and narower, leauing at the top a litle hole, whereat the aire commeth in to giue light to the house, and the flore of the house is so hot, that being within they feele no cold at all. Hither in the Summer time come many barkes from the Islands there about, and from the cape aboue Norway, and from Trondon, and bring to the Friers al maner of things that may be desired, taking in change thereof fish, which they dry in the sunne or in the cold, and skins of diuers kindes of beasts. [Sidenote: Trade in summer time from Trondon to S. Thomas Friers in Groneland. Resort of Fryers from Norway and Sueden, to the Monastery in Engroneland, called S. Tho.] For the which they haue wood to burne and timber very artificially carued, and corne, and cloth to make them apparell. For in change of the two aforesaid commodities all the nations bordering round about them couet to trafficke with them, and so they without any trauell or expences haue that which they desire. To this Monasterie resort Fryers of Norway, of Suetia and of other countreys, but the most part are of Islande. There are continually in that part many barks, which are kept in there by reason of the sea being frozen, waiting for the spring of the yere to dissolue the yce. The fishers boates are made like into a weauers shuttle: taking the skins of fishes, they fashion them with the bones of the same fishes, and sowing them together in many doubles they make so sure and substanciall, that it is miraculous to see, howe in tempests they will shut themselues close within and let the sea and winde cary them they care not whether, without any feare either of breaking or drowning. [Marginal note: M. Frobisher brought these kinde of boats from these parts into England.] And if they chance to be driuen vpon any rocks, they remaine sound without the least bruse in the world: and they haue as it were a sleeue in the bottome, which is tyed fast in the middle, and when there commeth any water into the boat, they put it into the one halfe of the sleeue, then fastening the ende thereo with two pieces of wood and loosing the band beneath, they conuey the water forth of the boats: and this they doe as often as they haue occasion, without any perill or impediment at all. Moreouer, the water of the Monastery, being of sulphurious or brimstonie nature, is conueyed into the lodgings of the principall Friers by certaine vesselles of brass, tinne, or stone, so hot that it heateth the place as it were a stone, nor carying with it any stinke or other noysome smell. Besides this they haue another conueyance to bring hot water with a wall vnder the ground, to the end it should not freeze, vnto the middle of the court, where it falleth into a great vessel of brasse that standeth in the middle of a boyling fountaine, and this is to heat their water to drinke and to water their gardens, and thus they haue from the hill the greatest commodities that may be wished: and so these Fryers employ all their trauaile and studie for the most in trimming their gardens and in making faire and beautifull buildings, but especially handsome and commodious: neyther are they destitute of ingenious and paineful artificers for the purpose; for they giue very large payment, and to them that bring them fruits and seedes they are very bountifull, and giue they care not what. So that there is great resort of workemen and masters in diuers faculties, by reason of the good gaines and large allowance that is there. [Sidenote: In the Monastery of Saint Thomas most of them spake the Latine tongue.] The most of them speake the Latine tongue, and specially the superiours and principals of the Monastery. And this is as much as is knowen of Engroneland, which is all by the relation of M. Nicolo, who maketh also particular description of a riuer that he discouered, as is to be seene in the carde that I drew. And in the end M. Nicolo, not being vsed and acquainted with these cruell coldes, fel sicke, and a litle while after returned into Frisland, where he dyed. [Sidenote: The end of the 2. letter.] He left behind him in Venice, two sonnes, M. Giouanni and M. Toma, who had two sonnes, M. Nicolo the father of the famous Cardinal Zeno, and M. Pietro of whom descended the other Zenos, that are liuing at this day. [Sidenote: M. Zeno dyed in Frisland.] Now M. Nicolo being dead, M. Antonio succeeded him both in his goods, and in his dignities and honour and albeit he attempted diuers wayes, and made great supplication, he could neuer obtaine licence to returne into his countrey. For Zichmni, being a man of great courage and valour, had determined to make himself Lord of the sea. Wherefore vsing alwayes the counsaile and seruice of M. Antonio, he determined to send him with certaine barks to the Westwards, for that towards those parts, some of his fishermen had discouered certaine Islands very rich and populous: which discovery M. Antonio, in a letter to his brother M. Carlo, recounteth from point to point in this maner, sauing that we haue changed some old words, leauing the matter entire as it was. Sixe and twentie yeeres agoe there departed foure fisher boats, the which, a mightie tempest arising, were tossed for the space of many dayes very desperately ypon the Sea, when at length, the tempest ceasing, and the wether waxing faire, they discouered an Island called Estotiland, lying to the Westwards aboue 1000 Miles from Frisland, vpon the which one of the boats was cast away, and sixe men that were in it were taken of the inhabitants and brought into a faire and populous citie, where the king of the place sent for many interpreters, but there was none could be found that vnderstood the language of the fishermen, except one that spake Latine, who was also cast by chance vpon the same Island, who in behalfe of the king asked them what countreymen they were: [Sidenote: Sixe were fiue yeeres in Estotiland.] and so vnderstanding their case, rehearsed it vnto the king, who willed that they should tary in the countrey: wherefore they obeying his commandement, for that they could not otherwise doe, dwelt fiue yeres in the Island, and learned the language, and one of them was in diuers partes of the Island, and reporteth that it is a very rich countrey, abounding with all the commodities of the world, and that it is litle lesse then Island, but farre more fruitfull, hauing in the middle thereof a very high mountaine, from the which there spring foure riuers that passe through the whole countrey. The inhabitants are very wittie people, and haue all artes and faculties, as we haue: and it is credible that in time past they haue had trafficke with our men, for he said, that he saw Latin bookes in the kings Librarie, which they at this present do not understand: they haue a peculiar language, and letters or caracters to themselues. They haue mines of all maner of mettals, but especial they abound with gold. They haue their trade in Engroneland, from whence they bring furres, brimstone and pitch and he saith, that to the Southwards, there is a great populous countrey very rich of gold. [Sidenote: Many cities and castles.] They sow corne, and make beere and ale, which is a kinde of drinke that North people do vse as we do wine. They haue mighty great woods, they make their buildings with wals, and there are many cities and castles. They build small barks and haue sayling, but they haue not the load stone, nor know not the vse of the compasse. [Sidenote: A countrey called Drogio.] Wherefore these fishers were had in great estimation, insomuch that the king sent them with twelue barks to the Southwards to a countrey which they call Drogio: but in their voyage they had such contrary weather, that they thought to haue perished in the sea: but escaping that cruell death, they fell into another more cruell: for they were taken in the countrey and the most part of them eaten by the Sauage people, which fed vpon mans flesh, as the sweetest meat in their iudgements that is. [Sidenote: The 6 fishermen of Frisland onely saved, by shewing the maner to take fish.] But that fisher with his fellowes shewing them the maner of taking fish with nets, saued their liues: and would goe euery day a fishing to the sea and in fresh riuers, and take great abundance of fish and giue it to the chiefe men of the countrey, whereby he gate himselfe so great fauour, that he was very well beloued and honoured of euery one. The fame of this man being spread abroad in the countrey, there was a Lord there by, that was very desirous to haue him with him, and to see how he vsed his miraculous arte of catching fish, in so much that he made warre with the other Lord with whom he was before, and in the end preuailing, for that he was more mightie and a better warriour, the fisherman was sent vnto him with the rest of his company. [Sidenote: In the space of 13 yeeres he serued 25 lords of Drogio.] And for the space of thirteene yeres that he dwelt in those parts, he saith, that he was sent in this order to more than 25 Lords, for they had continuall war amongst themselues, this Lord with that Lord, and he with another, onely to haue him to dwell with them: so that wandring vp and downe the countrey without any certaine abode in one place, he knew almost all those parts. He saith, that it is a very great countrey and as it were a new world: the people are very rude and voide of all goodnesse, they go all naked so that they are miserably vexed with colde, neither haue they the wit to couer their bodyes with beasts skins which they take in hunting, they haue no kinde of mettal, they liue by hunting, they carry certaine lances of wood made sharpe at the point, they haue bowes, the strings whereof are made of beasts skins: they are very fierce people, they make cruell warres one with another, and eate one another, they haue gouernours and certaine lawes very diuers among themselues. But the farther to the Southwestwards, the more ciuilitie there is, the ayre being somewhat temperate, so that there they haue cities and temples to idols, wherein they sacrifice men and afterwards eate them, they haue there some knowledge and vse of gold and siluer. Now this fisherman hauing dwelt so many yeeres in those countreys purposed, if it were possible, to returne home into his countrey, but his companions despairing euer to see it againe, let him goe in Gods name, and they kept themselues where they were. Wherefore he bidding them farwell, fled through the woods towards Drogio, and was very well receiued of the Lord that dwelt next to that place; who knew him and was a great enemie of the other Lord: and so running from one Lord to another, being those by whom he had passed before, after long time and many trauels he came at length to Drogio, where he dwelt three yeres. When as by good fortune he heard by the inhabitants, that there were certaine boates arriued vpon the coast: wherefore entring into good hope to accomplish his intent, he went to the sea side, and asking them of what countrey they were; they answered of Estotiland, whereat he was exceeding glad, and requested that they would take him in to them, which they did very willingly, and for that he had the language of the countrey, and there was none that could speake it, they vsed him for their interpreter. [Sidenote: He returned from Estotiland to Frisland.] And afterward he frequented that trade with them in such sort, that he became very rich, and so furnishing out a barke of his owne, he returned into Frislande, where he made reporte vnto this Lord of that wealthy countrey. And he is throughly credited because of the mariners, who approue many strange things, that he reporteth to be true. [Sidenote: Zichmni minded to send M. Antonio Zeno with a fleete towards those parts of Estotiland.] Wherefore this Lord is resolued to send me forth with a fleet towards those parts, and there are so many that desire to go in the voyage, for the noueltie and strangenesse of the thing, that I thinke we shall be very strongly appointed, without any publike expence at all. And this is the tenour of the letter before mentioned, which I haue here set downe to giue intelligence of another voyage that M. Antonio made, being set out with many barkes, and men, notwithstanding he was not captaine, as he had thought at the first he should: for Zichmni went in his owne person: and concerning that matter I haue a letter in forme following. [Sidenote: The 4. letter.] [Sidenote: The fisherman dyed that should haue bene interpreter. Certaine mariners taken in his steede, which came with him from Estotiland.] One great preparation for the voyage of Estotiland was begun in an vnlucky houre: for three dayes before our departure the fisherman died that should haue bene our guide: notwithstanding this Lord would not giue ouer the enterprize, but instead of the fisherman tooke certaine mariners that returned out of the Island with him: and so making our Nauigation to the Westwards, we discouered certaine Islands subiect to Frisland, and hauing passed certaine shelues we stayed at Leduo for the space of 7 daies to refresh our selues, and to furnish the fleet with necessarie prouision. [Sidenote: Isle Ilof.] Departing from thence we arriued the first of Iuly at the Isle of Ilofe: and for that the wind made for vs, we stayed not there, but passed forth, and being vpon the maine sea, there arose immediately a cruel tempest, wherewith for eight dayes space we were miserably vexed, not knowing where we were: and a great part of the barks were cast away, afterward the weather waxing faire, we gathered vp the broken peices of the barkes that were lost, and sayling with a prosperous winde we discovered land at West. [Sidenote: Zichmni his discouerie of the Island Iscaria.] Wherefore keeping our course directly vpon it, we arriued in a good and safe harborough, where we saw an infinit companie of people ready in armes, come running very furiously to the water side, as it were for defence of the Iland. [Sidenote: An Island man in Icaria.] Wherefore Zichmni causing his men to make signes of peace vnto them, they sent 10 men vnto vs that coulde speake ten languages, but we could vnderstand none of them, except one that was of Island. [Sidenote: The kings of Icaria called Icaria after the name of the first king of that place, who as they report, was sonne to Dedalus the king of the Scots.] He being brought before our prince and asked, what was the name of the Island, and what people inhabited it, and who gouerned it, answered that the Island was called Icaria, and that all the kings that reigned there, were called Icari, after the name of the first king of that place, which as they say was the sonne of Dedalus king of Scotland, who conquered that Island, left his sonne there for king, and left them those lawes that they retaine to this present, and after this, he desiring to sayle further, in a great tempest that arose, was drowned, wherefore for a memoriall of his death, they call those seas yet, the Icarian Sea, and the kings of the Island Icari, and for that they were contented with that state, which God had giuen them, neither would they alter one iote of their lawes and customes, they would not receiue any stranger: wherefore they requested our prince, that hee would not seeke to violate their lawes, which they had receiued from that king of worthy memory and obserued very duly to that present: which if he did attempt, it would redound to his manifest destruction, they being all resolutely bent rather to leaue their life, then to loose in any respect the vse of their lawes. [Sidenote: The people of Icaria desirous of the Italian tongue.] Notwithstanding, that we should not thinke they did altogether refuse conuersation and traffick with other men, they tolde vs for conclusion that they would willingly receiue one of our men, and preferre him to be one of the chiefe amongst them, onely to learne my language the Italian tongue, and to be informed of our manners and customes, as they had already receiued those other ten oftensundry nations, that came into their Island. [Sidenote: Infinite multitudes of armed men in Icaria.] To these things our Prince answered nothing at all, but causing his men to seke some good harborough, he made signes as though he would depart, and sayling round about the Island, he espied at length a harborough on the East side of the Island, where hee put in with all his Fleet: the mariners went on land to take in wood and water, which they did with as great speede as they could, doubting least they should be assaulted by the inhabitants, as it fell out in deed, for those that dwelt thereabouts, making signes vnto the other with fire and smoke, put themselues presently in armes and the other comming to them, they came all running downe to the sea side vpon our men, with bowes and arrowes, and other weapons, so that many were slaine and diuers sore wounded. And we made signes of peace vnto them, but it was to no purpose, for their rage increased more and more, as though they had fought for land and liuing. [Sidenote: Zichmni departed from Icaria Westwards.] Wherefore we were forced to depart, and to sayle along in a great circuite about the Islande, being alwayes accompanyed vpon the hil tops and the sea coastes with an infinite number of armed men: and so doubling the Cape of the Island towards the North, we found many great sholdes, amongst the which for the space of ten dayes we were in continuall danger of loosing our whole fleet, but that it pleased God all that while to send vs faire weather. Wherefore proceeding on till we came to the East cape, we saw the inhabitants still on the hill tops and by the sea coast keepe with vs, and in making great outcryes and shooting at vs a farre off, they vttered their old spitefull affection towards vs. Wherefore wee determined to stay in some safe harborough, and see if wee might speake once againe with the Islander, but our determination was frustrate: for the people more like vnto beasts then men, stood continually in armes with intent to beat vs back, if we should come on land. Wherefore Zichmni seeing he could not preuaile, and thinking if he should haue perseuered and followed obstinately his purpose, their victuals would haue failed them, he departed with a fayre wind and sailed sixe daies to the Westwards, but the winde changing to the Southwest, and the sea waxing rough, wee sayling 4 dayes with the wind the powp, and at length discouering land, were afraid to approch nere vnto it, the sea being growen, and we not knowing what land it was: but God so prouided for vs, that the wind ceasing there came a great calme. Wherefore some of our company rowing to land with oares, returned and brought vs newes to our great comfort, that they had found a very good countrey and a better harborough: [Sidenote: 100 men sent to discrie the countrey.] vpon which newes we towed our ships and smal barks to land, and being entred into the harborough, we saw a farre off a great mountain, that cast forth smoke, which gaue vs good hope that we should finde some inhabitants in the Island, neither would Zichmni rest, although it were a great way off, but sent 100 souldiers to search the countrey and bring report what people they were that inhabited it, and in the meane time they tooke in wood and water for the prouision of the fleete, and catcht great store of fish and sea foule and found such abundance of birds egges that our men that were halfe famished, were filled therewithall. Whiles we were riding here, began the moneth of Iune, at which time the aire in the Island was so temperate and pleasant, as is impossible to express; but when we could see no people at al, we suspected greatly that this pleasant place was desolate and dishabited; We gaue name to the hauen calling it Trin, and the point that stretched out into the sea, we called Capo de Trin. [Sidenote: The 100 souldiers returned which had bene through the Island, report what they saw and found.] The 100 souldiers that were sent forth, 8 dayes after returned, and brought word that they had bene through the Island and at the mountaine, and that the smoke was a naturall thing proceeding from a great fire that was in the bottome of the hill, and that there was a spring from which issued a certaine water like pitch which ran into the sea, and that thereabouts dwelt great multitudes of people halfe wilde, hiding themselues in caues of the ground, of small stature, and very fearefull: for as soone as they saw them they fled into their holes, and that there was a great riuer and a very good and safe harborough. Zichmni being thus informed, and seeing that it had a holesome and pure aire, and a very fruitfull soyle and faire riuers, with sundry commodities, fell into such liking of the place, that he determined to inhabite it, and built there a citie. But his people being weary and faint with long and tedious trauell began to murmure, saying that they would returne into their countrey, for that the winter was at hand, and if they entred into the harborough, they should not be able to come out againe before the next Summer. Wherefore he retaining onely the barks with Oares and such as were willing to stay with him, sent all the rest with the shippes backe againe, [Sidenote: M. Antonio Zeno, made chiefe captaine of those ships which went back to Frisland.] and willed that I (though vnwilling) should be their captaine. I therefore departing, because I could not otherwise chuse, sayled for the space of twenty dayes to the Eastwards without sight of any land: then turning my course towards the Souteast, in 5. dayes I discouered land, and found my selfe vpon the Isle of Neome, and knowing the countrey, I perceiued I was past Island: wherefore taking in some fresh victuals of the inhabitants being subiect to Zichmni, I sayled with a faire winde in three dayes to Frisland, where the people, who thought they had lost their prince, because of his long absence, in this our voyage receiued vs very ioyfully. What followed after this letter I know not but by coniecture, which I gather out of a peice of another letter, which I will set down here vnderneath: That Zichmni built a towne in the port of the Iland that he discouered, and that he searched the countrey very diligently and discouered it all, and also the riuers on both sides of Engroneland, for that I see it particularly described in the sea card, but the discourse or narration is lost. The beginning of the letter is thus. [Sidenote: The 5 letter.] Concerning those things that you desire to know of me, as of the men and their maners and customes, of the beasts, and of the countries adioyning, I haue made therof a particuler booke, which by Gods help I will bring with me: wherein I haue decribed the countrey, the monstrous fishes, the customes and lawes of Frisland, Island, Estland, the kingdome of Norway, Estotiland, Drogio, and in the end the life of M. Nicolo, the knight our brother, with the discouery which he made, and the state of Groneland. I haue also written the life and acts of Zichmni, a prince as worthy of immortall memory, as euer liued, for his great valiancie and singular humanitie, wherein I haue described the discouery of Engroneland on both sides, and the citie that he builded. Therefore I will speake no further hereof in this letter, hoping to be with you very shortly, and to satisfie you in sundry other things by word of mouth. All these letters were written by M. Antonio to Messer Carlo his brother: and it grieueth me, that the booke and diuers other writings concerning these purposes, are miserably lost: for being but a child when they came to my hands, and not knowing what they were, (as the maner of children is) I tore them, and rent them in pieces, which now I cannot cal to remembrance but to my exceeding great griefe. Notwithstanding, that the memory of so many good things should not bee lost: whatsoeuer I could get of this matter, I haue disposed and put in order in the former discourse, to the ende that this age might be partly satisfied, to the which we are more beholding for the great discoueries made in those partes, then to any other of the time past, being most studious of the newe relations and discoueries of strange countries, made by the great mindes, and industrie of our ancestours. For the more credite and confirmation of the former Historie of Messer Nicolas and Messer Antonio Zeni (which for some fewe respects may perhaps bee called in question) I haue heere annexed the iudgement of that famous Cosmographer Abraham Ortelius, or rather the yealding and submitting of his iudgement thereunto: who in his Theatrum Orbis, fol. 6. next before the map of Mar del Zur, boroweth proofe and authoritie out of this relation, to shew that the Northeast parte of America called Estotiland, and in the original alwayes affirmed to bee an Islande, was about the yeere 1390 discouered by the aforesayd Venetian Gentleman Messer Antonio Zeno, aboue 100 yeeres before euer Christopher Columbus set saile for those Westerne Regions; and that the Northren Seas were euen then sayled by our Europæan Pilots through the helpe of the loadstone: with diuers other particulars concerning the customes, religion and wealth of the Southern Americans, which are most euidently confirmed by all the late and moderne Spanish Histories of Nueua Espanna and Peru. And here I shall not (as I suppose) commit any great inconuenience, or absurditie, in adding vnto this History of the new world, certaine particulars as touching the first discouery thereof, not commonly known. Which discouerie al the writers of our time ascribe (and that not vnworthily) vnto Christopher Columbus. For by him it was in a maner first discouered, made knowen, and profitably communicated vnto the Christian world, in the yeere of our Lord 1492. [Sidenote: Estotiland first discouered.] [Sidenote: The second discouerie thereof.] Howbeit I finde that the North part thereof called Estotiland, (which most of all extendeth toward our Europe and the Ilands of the same, namely, Groneland, Island, and Frisland) was long ago found out by certaine fishers of the Isle of Frisland, driuen by tempest vpon the shore thereof: and was afterward about the yeere 1390 discouered a new by one Antonio Zeno a gentleman of Venice; which sayled thither vnder the conduct of Zichmni king of the saide Isle of Frisland, a prince in those parts of great valour, and renowned for his martiall exploits and victories. Of which expedition of Zichmni there are extant in Italian certaine collections or abridgements gathered by Francisco Marcolino out of the letters of M. Nicolo and Antonio Zeni two gentlemen of Venice which liued in those partes. Out of which collections I doe adde concerning the description of Estotiland aforesaid these particulars following. Estotiland (saith he) aboundeth with all things necessary for mankinde. In the mids thereof standeth an exceeding high mountaine, from which issue foure riuers that moisten all the countrie. The inhabitants are wittie and most expert in Mechanicall arts. They haue a kinde of peculiar language and letters. Howbeit in this Kings Librarie are preserued certaine Latine bookes which they vnderstand not, being perhaps left there many yeeres before by some Europeans, which traffiqued thither. They haue all kinde of mettals; but especially golde, wherewith they mightily abound. They trafficke with the people of Groneland: from whence they fetch skinnes, pitch and brimstone. The inhabitants report that towardes the South, there are regions abounding with gold, and very populous: they haue many and huge woods, from whence they take timber for the building of ships and cities, whereof and of castles there are great store. The vse of the loadstone for Navigation is vnknowen vnto them. [Sidenote: Drogio.] They make relation also of a certaine region toward the South, called Drogio, which is inhabited by Canibals, vnto whom mans flesh is delicate meat: wherof being destitute they liue by fishing, which they vse very much. Beyond this are large regions, and as it were a newe world: but the people are barbarous and goe naked: howbeit against the colde they cloth themselues in beastes skinnes. These haue no kinde of metall: and they liue by hunting. Their weapons are certaine long staues with sharpe points, and bowes. They wage warres one against another. They haue gouernours, and obey certaine lawes. But from hence more towardes the South the climate is much more temperate: and there are cities, and temples of idoles, vnto whom they sacrifice liuing men, whose flesh they afterwards deuoure. These nations haue the vse of siluer and gold. This much of this tract of landes out of the aforesaide collections and abridgements. Wherein this also is worthy the obseruation, that euen then our Europæan Pilots sayled those seas by the helpe of the loadstone. For concerning the vse thereof in Nauigation, I suppose there is not to be found a more ancient testimonie. And these things I haue annexed the rather vnto this table of Mar del Zur; considering that none of those Authours which haue written the Histories of the Newe world, haue in any part of their writings, mentioned one word thereof. Hitherto Ortelius. THE NAUIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOUERIES, OF THE ENGLISH NATION, TO NEWFOVNDLAND, TO THE ISLES OF RAMEA AND THE ISLES OF ASSUMPTION OTHERWISE CALLED NATISCOTEC. SITUATE AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF CANADA, AND TO THE COASTES OF CAPE BRITON, AND ARAMBEC, CORRUPTLY CALLED NORUMBEGA, WITH THE PATENTS, LETTERS, AND ADUERTISEMENTS THEREUNTO BELONGING. The voyage of the two ships, whereof the one was called the Dominus vobiscum, set out the 20 day of May in the 19 yere of king Henry the eight, and in the yere of our Lord God 1527. for the the discouerie of the North partes. Master Robert Thorne of Bristoll, a notable member and ornament of his country, as wel for his learning, as great charity to the poore, in a letter of his to king Henry the 8 and a large discourse to doctor Leigh, his Ambassadour to Charles the Emperour, (which both are to be seene almost in the beginning of the first volume of this my work) exhorted the aforesayd king with very waighty and substantial reasons, to set forth a discouery euen to the North Pole. And that it may be knowne that this his motion tooke present effect, I thought it good herewithall to put downe the testimonies of two of our Chroniclers, M. Hall, and M. Grafton, who both write in this sort. This same moneth (say they) king Henry the 8 sent 2 faire ships wel manned and victualled, hauing in them diuers cunning men to seeke strange regions, and so they set forth out of the Thames the 20 day of May in the 19 yeere of his raigne, which was the yere of our Lord. 1527. And whereas master Hal, and master Grafton say, that in those ships there were diuers cunning men, I haue made great enquirie of such as by their yeeres and delight in Nauigation, might giue me any light to know who those cunning men should be, which were the directors in the aforesaid voyage. And it hath bene tolde me by sir Martine Frobisher, and M. Richard Allen, a knight of the Sepulchre, that a Canon of Saint Paul in London, which was a great Mathematician, and a man indued with wealth, did much aduance the action, and went therein himselfe in person, but what his name was I cannot learne of any. And further they told me that one of the ships was called the Dominus vobiscum, which is a name likely to be giuen by a religious man of those dayes: and that sayling very farre Northwestward, one of the ships was cast away as it entred into a dangerous gulph, about the great opening, betweene the North parts of Newfoundland, and the countrey lately called by her Maiestie, Meta Incognita. Whereupon the other ship shaping her course towards Cape Briton, and the coastes of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of these vnknowen regions, returned home about the beginning of October, of the yere aforesayd. And this much (by reason of the great negligence of the writers of those times, who should haue vsed more care in preseruing of the memories of the worthy actes of our nation,) is all that hitherto I can learne, or finde out of this voyage. * * * * * The voyage of M. Hore and diuers other gentlemen, to Newfoundland, and Cape Briton, in the year 1536 and in the 28 yere of king Henry the 8. One master Hore of London, a man of goodly stature and of great courage, and giuen to the studie of Cosmographie, in the 28 yere of king Henry the 8 and in the yere of our Lord 1536 encouraged diuers Gentlemen and others, being assisted by the kings fauor and good countenance, to accompany him in a voyage of discouerie vpon the Northwest parts of America: wherein his perswaions tooke such effect, that within short space many gentlemen of the Innes of court, and of the Chancerie, and diuers others of good worship, desirous to see the strange things of the world, very willingly entered into the action with him, some of whose names were as followeth: M. Weekes a gentleman of the West countrey of fiue hundred markes by the yeere liuing. M. Tucke a gentleman of Kent. M. Tuckfield. M Thomas Buts the sonne of Sir William Buts knight, of Norfolke, which was lately liuing, and from whose mouth I wrote most of this relation. M. Hardie, M. Biron, M. Carter, M. Wright, M. Rastall Serieant Rastals brother, M. Ridley, and diuers other, which all were in the Admyrall called the Trinitie, a ship of seuen score tunnes, wherein M. Hore himselfe was imbarked. [Sidenote: M. Armigil Wade.] In the other ship whose name was the Minion, went a very learned and vertuous gentleman one M. Armigil Wade, Afterwards Clerke of the Counsailes of king Henry the 8 and king Edward the sixth, father to the worshipfull M. William Wade now Clerke of the priuie Counsell, M. Oliuer Dawbeney marchant of London, M. Ioy afterward gentleman of the Kings Chappell, with diuers other of good account. The whole number that went in the two tall ships aforesaid to wit, the Trinitie and the Minion, were about six score persons, whereof thirty were gentlemen, which all were mustered in warlike maner at Grauesend, and after the receiuing of the Sacrament, they embarked themselues in the ende of Aprill. 1526. [Sidenote: Cape Briton. The Island of Penguin standeth about the latitude of 30 degrees.] From the time of their setting out from Grauesend, they were very long at sea, to witte, aboue two moneths, and neuer touched any land vntill they came to part of the West Indies about Cape Briton, shaping their course thence Northeastwardes, vntill they came to the Island of Penguin, which is very full of rockes and stones, whereon they went and found it full of great foules white and gray, as big as geese, and they saw infinite numbers of their egges. They draue a great number of the foules into their boates vpon their sayles, and tooke vp many of their egges, the foules they flead and their skinnes were very like hony combes full of holes being flead off: they dressed and eate them and found them to be very good and nourishing meat. They saw also store of beares both blacke and white, of whome they killed some, and tooke them for no bad foode. [Sidenote: M. Dawbneys report to M. Richard Hakluyt of the Temple.] M. Oliuer Dawbeny, which (as it is before mentioned) was in this voyage, and in the Minion, told M. Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple these things following: to wit, [Sidenote: They behold the Sauages of Newfoundland.] That after their arriuall in Newfoundland, and hauing bene there certaine dayes at ancre, and not hauing yet seene any of the naturall people of the countrey, the same Dawbeney walking one day on the hatches, spied a boate with Sauages of those parts, rowing down the Bay toward them, to gaze vpon the ship, and our people, and taking viewe of their comming aloofe, hee called to such as were vnder the hatches, and willed them to come vp if they would see the natural people of the countrey, that they had so long and so much desired to see: whereupon they came vp, and tooke viewe of the Sauages rowing toward them and their ship, and vpon the viewe they manned out a ship-boat to meet them and to take them. But they spying our ship-boat making towards them, returned with maine force and fled into an Island that lay vp in the Bay or riuer there, and our men pursued them into the Island, and the Sauages fledde and escaped: but our men found a fire, and the side of a beare on a wooden spit left at the same by the Sauages that were fled. There in the same place they found a boote of leather garnished on the outward side of the calfe with certaine braue trailes, as it were of rawe silke, and also found a certaine great warme mitten: And these caryed with them, they returned to their shippe, not finding the Sauages, nor seeing any thing else besides the soyle, and the things growing in the same, which chiefely were store of firre and pine trees. And further, the said M. Dawbeny told him, that lying there they grew into great want of victuals, and that there they found small reliefe, more then that they had from the nest of an Osprey, that brought hourely to her yong great plentie of diuers sorts of fishes. [Sidenote: Extreme famine.] But such was the famine that increased amongst them from day to day, that they were forced to seeke to relieue themselues of raw herbes and rootes that they sought on the maine: but the famine increasing, and the reliefe of herbes being to little purpose to satisfie their insatiable hunger, in the fieldes and desertes here and there, the fellowe killed his mate while he stooped to take vp a roote for his reliefe, and cutting out pieces of his bodie whom he had murthered, broyled the same on the coles and greedily deuoured them. By this meane the company decreased, and the officers knew not what was become of them; And it fortuned that one of the company driuen with hunger to seeke abroade for reliefe found [Sidenote: Our men eate one another for famine.] out in the fieldes the sauour of broyled flesh, and fell out with one for that he would suffer him and his fellowes to sterue, enioying plentie as he thought: and this matter growing to cruell speaches, he that had the broyled meate, burst out into these wordes: If thou wouldest needes know, the broyled meate that I had was a piece of such a mans buttocke. The report of this brought to the ship, the Captaine found what became of those that were missing and was perswaded that some of them were neither deuoured with wilde beastes, nor yet destroyed by Sauages: [Sidenote: The Captaines Oration.] And hereupon hee stood vp and made a notable Oration, containing, Howe much these dealings offended the Almightie, and vouched the Scriptures from first to last, what God had in cases of distresse done for them that called vpon them, and told them that the power of the Almighty was then no lesse, then in al former time it had bene. And added, that if it had not pleased God to haue holpen them in that distresse, that it had bene better to haue perished in body, and to haue liued euerlastingly, then to haue relieued for a poore time their mortal bodyes, and to bee condemned euerlastingly, both body and soule to the vnquenchable fire of hell. And thus hauing ended to that effect, be began to exhort to repentance, and besought all the company to pray, that it might please God to looke vpon their miserable present state and for his owne mercie to relieue the same. The famine increasing, and the inconuenience of the men that were missing being found, they agreed amongst themselues rather then all should perish, to cast lots who should be killed: [Sidenote: The English surprise a French ship, wherein they returned home.] And such was the mercie of God, that the same night there arriued a French ship in that port, well furnished with vittaile, and such was the policie of the English, that they became masters of the same, and changing ships and vittailing them, they set sayle to come into England. [Sidenote: Haukes and other foules.] In their iourney they were so ferre Northwards, that they sawe mighty Islands of yce in the sommer season, on which were haukes and other foules to rest themselues being weary of flying ouer farre from the maine. [Sidenote: Foules supposed to be Storkes.] They sawe also certaine great white foules with red bils and red legs, some what bigger then Herons, which they supposed to be Storkes. They arriued at S. Iues in Cornewall about the ende of October. From thence they departed vnto a certairie castle belonging to sir Iohn Luttrel, where M. Thomas Buts, and M. Rastall and other Gentlemen of the voyaye were very friendly entertained: after that they came to the Earle of Bathe at Bathe, and thence to Bristoll, so to London. M. Buts was so changed in the voyage with hunger and miserie, that sir William his father and my Lady his mother knew him not to be their sonne, vntill they found a secret marke which was a wart vpon one of his knees, as hee told me Richard Hakluyt of Oxford himselfe, to whom I rode 200. miles onely to learne the whole trueth of this voyage from his own mouth, as being the onely man now aliue that was in this discouerie. [Sidenote: The French royally recompenced by king Henry the 8.] Certaine moneths after, those Frenchmen came into England, and made complaint to king Henry the 8: the king causing the matter to be examined, and finding the great distresse of his subiects, and the causes of the dealing so with the French, was so mooued with pitie, that he punished not his subiects, but of his owne purse made full and royall recompence vnto the French. In this distresse of famine, the English did somewhat relieue their vitall spirits, by drinking at the springs the fresh water out of certaine wooden cups, out of which they had drunke their Aqua composita before. * * * * * An act against the exaction of money or any other thing by any officer for licence to traffique into Iseland and Newfoundland, made in An 2. Edwardi sexti. Forasmuch as within these few yeeres now last past, there haue bene leuied, perceiued and taken by certaine of the officers of the Admiraltie, of such Marchants, and fishermen as haue vsed and practised the aduentures and iourneys into Iseland, Newfoundland, Ireland, and other places commodious for fishing, and the getting of fish, in and vpon the Seas or otherwise, by way of Marchants in those parties, diuers great exactions, as summes of money, doles or shares of fish, and such other like things, to the great discouragement and hinderance of the same Marchants and fishermen, and to no little dammage of the whole common wealth, and thereof also great complaints haue bene made, and informations also yeerely to the kings Maiesties most honourable councell: for reformation whereof, and to the intent also that the sayd Marchants and fishermen may haue occasion the rather to practise and vse the same trade of marchandizing, and fishing freely without any such charges and exactions, as are before limited, whereby it is to be thought that more plentie of fish shall come into this Realme, and thereby to haue the same at more reasonable prices: Be it therefore enacted by the king our soueraigne Lord, and the lords and commons in this present parliament assembled, and by authoritie of the same, that neither the Admiral, nor any officer, or minister, officers or ministers of the Admiraltie for the time being, shall in any wise hereafter exact, receiue, or take by himselfe, his seruant, deputie, seruants, or deputies of any such Marchant or fisherman, any summe or summes of money, doles or shares of fish, or any other reward, benefit or aduantage whatsoeuer it be, for any licence to passe this Realme to the sayd voyages or any of them, nor vpon any respect concerning the said voyages, nor any of them, vpon paine to forfeit for the first offence treble the summe, or treble the value of the reward, benefite or aduantage, that any such officer or minister shall hereafter haue or take of any such Marchants or fishermen. For the which forfeiture the party grieued, and euery other person or persons whatsoeuer he or they be, shall and may sue for the same by information, bill, plaint, or action of debt in any of the kings courts of recorde: The king to haue the one moitie, and the party complaining the other moitie: in which suite no essoigne, protection, or wager of law shall be allowed. And for the second offence the party so offending not only to lose and forfeite his or their office or offices in the Admiraltie, but also to make fine and ransome at the kings will and pleasure. By this acte it appeareth, that the trade out of England to Newfound land was common and frequented about the beginning of the raigne of Edward the 6. namely in the yeere 1548. and it is much to be marueiled, that by negligence of our men, the countrey in all this time hath bene no better searched. * * * * * A letter to M. Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple, conteining a report of the true state and commodities of Newfoundland, by M. Anthonie Parkhurst Gentleman, 1578. Master Hakluyt, after most heartie commendations, with like thankes for your manifold kindnesse to me shewed, not for any merits that hitherto haue been mine, but wholly proceeding, I must needs confesse, of your owne good nature, which is so ready prest to benefit your countrey and all such poore men as haue any sparke in them of good desires, that you do not onely become their friend, but also humble your selfe as seruant in their affaires: for which I would to God I were once in place where I might cause your burning zeale to bee knowen to those that haue authoritie, power, and abilitie to recompense your trauelling mind and pen, wherewith you cease not day nor night to labour and trauell to bring your good and godly desires to some passe, though not possibly to that happy ende that you most thirst for: for such is the malice of wicked men the deuils instruments in this our age, that they cannot suffer any thing (or at least few) to proceed and prosper that tendeth to the setting forth of Gods glory, and the amplifying of the Christian faith, wherein hitherto princes haue not bene so diligent as their calling required. Alas, the labourers as yet are few, the haruest great, I trust God hath made you an instrument to increase the number, and to mooue men of power, to redeeme the people of Newfoundland and those parts from out of the captiuitie of that spirituall Pharao, the deuil. Now to answer some part of your letter touching the sundrie nauies that come to Newfoundland, or Terra noua, for fish: you shal vnderstand that some fish not neere the other by 200. leagues, and therefore the certaintie is not knowen; and some yeres come many more then other some, as I see the like among vs: who since my first trauell being but 4. yeeres, are increased from 30. sayle to 50 which commeth to passe chiefly by the imagination of the Westerne men, who thinke their neighbours haue had greater gaines then in very deed they haue, for that they see me to take such paines yeerely to go in proper person: they also suppose that I find some secret commoditie by reason that I doe search the harbors, creekes and hauens, and also the land much more then euer any Englishman hath done. Surely I am glad that it so increaseth, whereof soener it springeth. But to let this passe, you shall vnderstand that I am informed that there are aboue 100. saile of Spaniards that come to take Cod (who make all wet, and do drie it when they come home) besides 20. or 30. more that come from Biskaie to kill Whale for Traine. These be better appoynted for shipping and furniture of munition then any nation sauing the Englishmen, who commonly are lords of the harbors where they fish, and doe vse all strangers helpe in fishing if need require, according to an old custome of the countrey, which thing they do willingly, so that you take nothing from them more then a boate or twaine of salte, in respect of your protection of them from rouers or other violent intruders, who do often put them from good harbor, &c. As touching their tunnage, I thinke it may be neere fiue or sixe thousand tunne. But of Portugals there are not lightly aboue 50 saile, and they make all wet in like sorte, whose tunnage may amount to three thousand tuns, and not vpwarde. Of the French nation and Britons, are about one hundred and fiftie sailes, the most of their shipping is very small, not past fortie tonnes, among which some are great and reasonably well appointed, better then the Portugals, and not so well as the Spaniards, and the burden of them may be some 7000. tunne. Their shipping is from all parts of France and Britaine, and the Spaniards from most parts of Spaine, the Portugals from Auiero[92] And Viana[93] and from 2. or 3. ports more. The trade that our nation hath to Island maketh, that the English are not there in such numbers as other nations. [Sidenote: The fertility of Newfoundland.] Now to certifie you of the fertilitie and goodnesse of the countrey, you shall vnderstand that I haue in sundry places sowen Wheate, Barlie, Rie, Oates, Beanes, Pease and seedes of herbes, kernels, Plumstones, nuts, all which haue prospered as in England. The countrey yeeldeth many good trees of fruit, as Filberds in some places, but in all places Cherie trees, and a kind of Pearetree meet to graffe on. As for roses, they are as common as brambles here: Strawberies, Dewberies, and Raspis, as common as grasse. The timber is most Firre, yet plentie of Pineapple trees: fewe of these two kinds meete to maste a ship of threescore and ten: But neere Cape Briton, and to the Southward, big and sufficient for any ship. There be also Okes and thornes, there is in all the countrey plentie of Birch and Alder, which be the meetest wood for cold, and also willow, which will serue for many other purposes. [Sidenote: Seueral sortes of fish.] As touching the kindes of Fish beside Cod, there are Herrings, Salmons, Thornebacke, Plase, or rather wee should call them Flounders, Dog fish, and another most excellent of taste called of vs a Cat, Oisters, and Muskles, in which I haue found pearles aboue 40. in one Muskle, and generally all haue some, great or small. I heard of a Portugall that found one woorth 300. duckets: There are also [Sidenote: Called by Spaniards Anchouas, and by the Portugals Capelinas.] other kinds of Shel-fish, as limpets, cockles, wilkes, lobsters, and crabs: also a fish like a Smelt which commeth on shore, and another that hath like propertie, called a Squid: there be the fishes, which (when I please to bee merie with my olde companions) I say doe come on shore when I commaund them in the name of the 5 ports, and coniure them by such like words: These also bee the fishes which I may sweepe with broomes on a heape, and neuer wet my foote, onely two or three wordes whatsoeuer they be appointed by any man, so they heare my voyce: the vertue of the wordes be small, but the nature of the fish great and strange. For the Squid, whose nature is to come by night as by day, I tell them, I set him a candle to see his way, with which he is much delighted, or els commeth to wonder at it as doth our fresh water fish, the other commeth also in the night, but chiefly in the day, being forced by the Cod that would deuoure him, and therefore for feare comming so neare the shore, is driuen drie by the surge of the sea on the pibble and sands. Of these being as good as a Smelt you may take vp with a shoue net as plentifully as you do Wheat in a shouell, sufficient in three or four houres for a whole Citie. There be also other fishes which I tell those that are desirous of stange newes, that I take as fast as one would gather vp stones, and them I take with a long pole and hooke. Yea marrie say they, wee beleeue so, and that you catch all the rest you bring home in that sort, from Portugals and Frenchmen. No surely, but thus I doe: with three hookes stretched foorth in the ende of a pole, I make as it were an Eele speare, with which I pricke these Flounders as fast as you would take vp fritters with a sharpe pointed sticke, and with that toole I may take vp in lesse then halfe a day Lobsters sufficient to finde three hundred men for a dayes meate. This pastime ended, I shewe them that for my pleasure I take a great Mastiue I haue, and say no more then thus: Goe fetch me this rebellious fish that obeyeth not this Gentleman that commeth from Kent and Christendome, bringing them to the high water marke, and when hee doubteth that any of those great Cods by reason of sheluing ground bee like to tumble into the Sea againe, hee will warily take heede and carrie him vp backe to the heape of his feilowes. This doeth cause my friendes to wonder, and at the first hearing to iudge them notorious lies, but they laugh and are merrie when they heare the meanes howe each tale is true. I told you once I doe remember how in my trauaile into Africa and America, I found trees that bare Oisters which was strange to you, till I tolde you that their boughes hung in the water, on which both Oisters and Muskies did sticke fast, as their propertie is, to stakes and timber.[94] Nowe to let these merrie tales passe, and to come to earnest matters againe, you shall vnderstand, that Newfoundland is in a temperate Climate, and not so colde as foolish Mariners doe say, who finde it colde sometimes when plentie of Isles of yce lie neere the shore: but vp in the land they shall finde it hotter then in England in many parts of the countrey toward the South. This colde commeth by an accidental meanes, as by the yce that commeth fleeting from the North partes of the worlde, and not by the situation of the countrey, or nature of the Climate. The countrey is full of little small riuers all the yeere long proceeding from the mountains, ingendred both of snow and raine: few springs that euer I could finde or heare of, except it bee towards the South: in some places or rather in most places great lakes with plentie of fish, the countrey most couered with woods of firre, yet in many places indifferent good grasse, and plentie of Beares euery where, so that you may kill of them as oft as you list: their flesh is as good as yong beefe, and hardly you may know the one from the other if it be poudred but two dayes. Of Otters we may take like store. There are Sea Guls, Murres, Duckes, wild Geese, and many other kind of birdes store, too long to write, especially at one Island named Penguin, where wee may driue them on a planke into our ship as many as shall lade her. These birdes are also called Penguins, and cannot flie, there is more meate in one of these then in a goose: the Frenchmen that fish neere the grand baie, doe bring small store of flesh with them, but victuall themselues alwayes with these birdes. Nowe againe, for Venison plentie, especially to the North about the grand baie, and in the South neere Cape Race, and Pleasance: there are many other kinds of beasts, as Luzarnes and other mighty beastes like to Camels in great likenesse, and their feete were clouen, I did see them farre off not able to discerne them perfectly, but their steps shewed that their feete were clouen, and bigger then the feete of Camels, I suppose them to bee a kind off Buffes which I read to bee in the countreyes adiacent, and very many in the firme land. There bee also to the Northwards, Hares, and Foxes in all parts so plentifully, that at noone dayes they take away our flesh before our faces within lesse then halfe a paire of buts length, where foure and twentie persons were turning of drie fish, and two dogs in sight, yet stoode they not in feare till wee gaue shot and set the dogs vpon them: the Beares also be as bold, which will not spare at midnight to take your fish before your face, and I beleeue assuredly would not hurt any bodie vnlesse they be forced. Nowe to showe you my fancie what places I suppose meetest to inhabite in those parts discouered of late by our nation: There is neere about the mouth of the grand Bay, an excellent harbour called of the Frenchmen Chasteaux,[95] and one Island in the very entrie of the streight called Bell Isle,[96] which places if they be peopled and well fortified (as there are stones and things meete for it throughout all Newfoundland) wee shall bee lordes of the whole fishing in small time, if it doe so please the Queenes Maiestie, and from thence send wood and cole with all necessaries to Labrador lately discouered: but I am of opinion, and doe most stedfastly beleeue that we shall finde as rich Mines in more temperate places and Climates, and more profitable for fishing then any yet we haue vsed, where wee shall haue not farre from thence plentie of salt made vndoubtedly, and very likely by the heate of the Sunne, by reason I find salt kerned on the rockes in nine and fortie and better: these places may bee found for salte in three and fortie. I know more touching these two commodities last remembred then any man of our nation doeth; for that I haue some knowledge in such matters, and haue most desired the finding of them by painefull trauaile, and most diligent inquirie. Now to be short, for I haue bene ouer long by Master Butlers means, who cryed on mee to write at large, and of as many things as I call to minde woorthy of rembrance: wherefore this one thing more. I could wish the Island in the mouth of the riuer of Canada[97] should be inhabited, and the riuer searched, for that there are many things which may rise thereof as I will shew you hereafter. I could find in my heart to make proofe whether it be true or no that I haue read and heard of Frenchmen and Portugals to bee in that riuer, and about Cape Briton. I had almost forgot to speake of the plentie of wolues, and to shew you that there be foxes, blacke, white and gray: other beasts I know none saue those before remembered. I found also certain Mines of yron and copper in S. Iohns, and in the Island of Yron, which might turne to our great benefite, if our men had desire to plant thereabout, for proofe whereof I haue brought home some of the oare of both sortes. And thus I ende, assuring you on my faith, that if I had not beene deceiued by the vile Portugals descending of the Iewes and Iudas kinde, I had not failed to haue searched this riuer, and all the coast of Cape Briton, what might haue bene found to haue benefited our countrey: but they breaking their bands, and falsifying their faith and promise, disappointed me of the salte they should haue brought me in part of recompence of my good seruice in defending them two yeeres against French Rouers, that had spoyled them, if I had not defended them. By meanes whereof they made me lose not onely the searching of the countrey, but also forced mee to come home with great losse aboue 600. li. For recompence whereof I haue sent my man into Portugall to demand iustice at the Kings hand, if not, I must put vp my supplication to the Queenes Maiesty and her honourable councell, to grant me leaue to stay here so much of their goods as they haue damnified mee, or else that I may take of them in Newfound land, as much fish as shall be woorth 600. li. or as much as the salte might haue made. I pray you aduertise mee what way I were best to take, and what hope there will bee of a recompence if I follow the suite: many there are that doe comfort me, and doe bid me proceede, for that her Maiestie and the councell doe tender poore fisher men, who with me haue susteined three hundred pound losse in that voyage. And to conclude, if you and your friend shall thinke me a man sufficient and of credite, to seeke the Isle of S. Iohn, or the riuer of Canada, with any part of the firme land of Cape Briton, I shall giue my diligence for the true and perfect discouerie, and leaue some part of mine owne businesse to further the same: and thus I end, committing you to God. From Bristow the 13. of Nouember, 1578. Yours to vse and command, ANTHONY PARCKHVRST. * * * * * The Letters Patents graunted by her Maiestie to Sir Humfrey Gilbert, knight, for the inhabiting and planting of our people in America. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, &c. To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye that of our especiall grace, certaine science and meere motion, we haue giuen and granted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successours, doe giue and graunt to our trustie and welbeloued seruant Sir Humfrey Gilbert of Compton, in our Countie of Deuonshire knight, and to his heires and assignes for euer, free libertie and licence from time to time and at all times for euer hereafter, to discouer, finde, search out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countreys and territories not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people, as to him, his heirs and assignes, and to euery or any of them, shall seeme good: and the same to haue, hold, occupie and enioy to him, his heires and assignes for euer, with all commodities, iurisdictions and royalties both by sea and land: and the sayd sir Humfrey and all such as from time to time by licence of vs, our heires and successours, shall goe and trauell thither, to inhabite or remaine there, to build and fortifie at the discretion of the sayde sir Humfrey, and of his heires and assignes, the statutes or actes of Parliament made against Fugitiues, or against such as shall depart, remaine, or continue out of our Realme of England without licence, or any other acte, statute, lawe, or matter whatsoeuer to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And wee doe likewise by these presents, for vs, our heires and successours, giue full authoritie and power to the saide Sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, and euery of them, that hoe and they, and euery, or any of them, shall and may at all and euery time and times hereafter, haue, take, and lead in the same voyages, to trauell thitherward, and to inhabite there with him, and euery or any of them, such and so many of our subiects as shall willingly accompany him and them, and euery or any of them, with sufficient shipping, and furniture for their transportations, so that none of the same persons, nor any of them be such as hereafter shall be specially restrained by vs, our heires and successors. And further, that he, the said Humfrey, his heires and assignes, and euery or any of them shall haue, hold, occupy and enioy to him, his heires, or assignes, and euery of them for euer, all the soyle of all such lands, countries, and territories so to be discouered or possessed as aforesaid, and of all Cities, Townes and Villages, and places, in the same, with the rites, royalties and iurisdictions, as well marine as other, within the sayd lands or countreys of the seas thereunto adioining, to be had or vsed with ful power to dispose thereof; and of euery part thereof in fee simple or otherwise, according to the order of the laws of England, as nere as the same conueniently may be, at his, and their will and pleasure, to any person then being, or that shall remaine within the allegiance of vs, our heires and successours, paying vuto vs, for all seruices, dueties and demaunds, the fift part of all the oare of gold and siluer, that from time to time, and at all times after such discouerie, subduing and possessing shall be there gotten: all which lands, countreys, and territories, shall for euer bee holden by the sayd Sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes of vs, our heires and successours by homage, and by the sayd payment of the sayd fift part before reserued onely for all seruices. And moreouer, we doe by those presents for vs, our heires and successours, giue and graunt licence to the sayde Sir Humfrey Gilbert, his heires or assignes, and to euery of them, that hee and they, and euery or any of them shall, and may from time to time and all times for euer hereafter, for his and their defence, encounter, expulse, repell, and resist, as well by Sea, as by land, and by all other wayes whatsoeuer, all, and euery such person and persons whatsoever, as without the speciall licence and liking of the sayd Sir Humfrey, and of his heires and assignes, shall attempt to inhabite within the sayd countreys, or any of them, or within the space of two hundreth leagues neere to the place or places within such countreys as aforesayd, if they shall not be before planted or inhabited within the limites aforesayd, with the subiects of any Christian prince, being in amitie with her Maiesty, where the said sir Humfirey, his heires or assignes, or any of them or his or their, or any of their associates or companies, shall within sixe yeeres next ensuing, make their dwellings and abidings, or that shall enterprise or attempt at any time hereafter vnlawfully to annoy either by Sea or land, the said sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, or any of them, or his or their, or any of their companies: giuing and graunting by these presents further power and authoritie to the sayd sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, and euery of them from time to time, and at all times for euer hereafter to take and surprise by all maner of meanes whatsoeuer, all and euery person and persons, with their shippes, vessels, and other goods and furniture, which without the licence of the said sir Humfrey, or his heires or assignes as aforesayd, shall bee found traffiquing into any harborough or harboroughs, creeke or creekes within the limites aforesayde, (the subiects of our Realmes and dominions, and all other persons in amitie with vs, being driuen by force of tempest or shipwracke onely excepted) and those persons and euery of them with their ships, vessels, goods, and furniture, to detaine and possesse, as of good and lawfull prize, according to the discretion of him, the sayd sir Hnmfrey, his heires and assignes, and of euery or any of them. And for vniting in more perfect league and amitie of such countreys, landes and territories so to bee possessed and inhabited as aforesayde, with our Realmes of England and Ireland, and for the better encouragement of men to this enterprise: we doe by these presents graunt, and declare, that all such countreys so hereafter to bee possessed and inhabited as aforesayd, from thencefoorth shall bee of the allegiance of vs, our heires and successours. And wee doe gaunt to the sayd sir Humfrey, his heirs and assignes, and to all and euery of them, and to all and euery other person and persons, being of our allegiance, whose names shall be noted or entred in some of our courts of Record, within this our Realme of England, and that with the assent of the said sir Humfrey, his heires or assignes, shall nowe in this iourney for discouerie, or in the second iourney for conquest hereafter, trauel to such lands, countries and territories as aforesaid, and to their and euery of their heires: that they and euery or any of them being either borne within our sayd Realmes of England or Ireland, or within any other place within our allegiance, and which hereafter shall be inhabiting within any the lands, countreys and territories, with such licence as aforesayd, shall, and may haue, and enioy all priuileges of free denizens and persons natine of England, and within our allegiance: any law, custome, or vsage to the contrary notwithstanding. And forasmuch, as vpon the finding out, discouering and inhabiting of such remote lands, countreys and territories, as aforesayd, it shall be necessarie for the safetie of all men that shall aduenture themselues in those iourneys or voiages, to determine to liue together in Christian peace and ciuill quietnesse each with other, whereby euery one may with more pleasure and profit, enioy that whereunto they shall attaine with great paine and perill: wee for vs, our heires and successors are likewise pleased and contented, and by these presents doe giue and graunt to the sayd sir Humfrey and his heires and assignes for euer, that he and they, and euery or any of them, shall and may from time to time for euer hereafter within the sayd mentioned remote lands and countreys, and in the way by the Seas thither, and from thence, haue full and meere power and authoritie to correct, punish, pardon, gouerne and rule by their, and euery or any of their good discretions and pollicies, as well in causes capitall or criminall, as ciuill, both marine and other, all such our subiects and others, as shall from time to time hereafter aduenture themselues in the sayd iourneys or voyages habitatiue or possessiue, or that shall at any time hereafter inhabite any such lands, countreys or territories as aforesayd, or that shall abide within two hundred leagues of any the sayd place or places, where the sayd sir Humrrey or his heires, or assignes, or any of them, or any of his or their associats or companies, shall inhabite within sixe yeeres next ensuing the date hereof, according to such statutes, lawes and ordinances, as shall be by him the said sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, or euery, or any of them deuised or established for the better gouernment of the said people as aforesayd: so alwayes that the sayd statutes, lawes and ordinances may be as neere as conueniently may, agreeable to the forme of the lawes and pollicy of England: and also, that they be not against the true Christian faith or religion now professed in the church of England, nor in any wise to withdraw any of the subiects or people of those lands or places from the allegiance of vs, our heires or successours, as their immediate Soueraignes vnder God. And further we doe by these presents for vs, our heires and successours, giue and graunt full power and authority to our trustie and welbeloued counseller, sir William Cecill knight, lord Burleigh, our high treasurer of England, and to the lord treasurer of England of vs, for the time being, and to the priuie counsell of vs, our heires and successours, or any foure of them for the time being, that he, they, or any foore of them, shall, and may from time to time and at all times hereafter, vnder his or their handes or seales by vertue of these presents, authorize and licence the sayd sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, and euery or any of them by him and themselues, or by their or any of their sufficient atturneys, deputies, officers, ministers, factors and seruants, to imbarke and transport out of our Realmes of England and Ireland, all, or any of his goods, and all or any the goods of his or their associates and companies, and euery or any of them, with such other necessaries and commodities of any our Realmes, as to the said lord treasurer or foure of the priuie counsell of vs, our heires, or successours for the time being, as aforesayd, shall be from time to time by his or their wisedoms or discretions thought meete and conuenient for the better reliefe and supportation of him the sayd sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, and euery or any of them, and his and their, and euery or any of their said associates and companies, any act, statute, lawe, or other thing to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. Prouided alwayes, and our will and pleasure is, and wee doe hereby declare to all Christian Kings, princes and states, that if the said Sir Humfrey his heires or assignes, or any of them, or any other by their licence or appointment, shall at any time or times hereafter robbe or spoile by Sea or by land, or doe any act of vniust and vnlawfull hostilitie to any of the Subiects of vs, our heires, or successours, or any of the Subiects of any King, prince, ruler, gouernour or state being then in perfect league and amitie with vs, our heires or successours: and that vpon such iniurie, or vpon iust complaint of any such prince, ruler, gouernour or state, or their subiects, wee, our heires or successours shall make open proclamation within any the portes of our Realme of England commodious, that the said Sir Humfrey, his heires or assignes, or any other to whom those Letters patents may extend, shall within the terme to be limited by such proclamations, make full restitution and satisfaction of all such iniuries done, so that both we and the saide Princes, or others so complayning, may holde vs and themselues fully contended: And that if the saide Sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, shall not make or cause to bee made satisfaction accordingly, within such time so to be limited: that then it shall bee lawfull to vs, our heires and successours, to put the said Sir Humfrey, his heires and assignes, and adherents, and all the inhabitants of the said places to be discouered as is aforesaid, or any of them out of our allegiance and protection, and that from and after such time of putting out of our protection the saide Sir Humfrey, and his heires, assignes, adherents and others so to be put out, and the said places within their habitation, possession and rule, shal be out of our protection and allegiance, and free for all princes and others to pursue with hostilitie as being not our Subiects, nor by vs any way to bee aduowed, maintained or defended, nor to be holden as any of ours, nor to our protection, dominion or allegiance any way belonging, for that expresse mention &c. In witness whereof, &c. Witnesse ourselfe at Westminster the 11. day of Iune, the twentieth yeere of our raigne. Anno Dom. 1578. Per ipsam Reginam, &c. * * * * * De Nauigatione Illustris et Magnanimi Equiris aurati Humfredi Gilberti, ad deducendam in nomun Orbem coloniam susceptâ, Carmen hepizatikou Stephani Parmenii Bvdeii. Ad eundem illustrem equitem autoris præfatio. Reddenda est, quàm fieri potest breuissime, in hoc vestibulo, ratio facti mei, et cur ita homo nouus et exterus, in tanta literatissimorum hominum copia, quibus Anglia beat est, versandum in hoc argumento mihi putanerim: ita enim tu, fortissime Gilberte, foetum hunc nostrom in lucem exire voluisti. In seruitute et barbarie Turcica, Christianis tamen, magno immortalis Dei beneficio, parentibus natus, aliquam etiam ætatis partem educatus; postquam doctissimorum hominum opera, quibus tum Pannoniæ nostræ, tum imprimis saluæ adhuc earum reliquiæ florescunt, in literis adoleuissem, more nostrorum hominum, ad inuisendas Christiani orbis Academias ablegatus fui. Qua in peregrinatione, non solùm complura Musarum hospitia, sed multas etiam sapienter institutas respublicas, multarum Ecclesiarum probatissimas administrationes introspeximus, iam fermè triennio ea in re posito. Fuerat hæc nostra, profectio ita à nobis comparata, vt non tantùm mores et vrbes gentium videndum, sed in familiaritatem, aut saltem notitiam illustriorum hominum introeundum nobis putaremus, Cæterum, vt hoc à nobis sine inuidia dici possit, (certè enim taceri absque malicia nullo modo protest) non locus, non natio, non respublica vlla nobis æquè ac tua Britannia complacuit, quamcunque in partem euentum consilij mei considerem. Accedit, quòd præter omnem expectationem meam ab omnibus tuis ciuibus, quibus comaliqua consuetudo mihi contigit, tanta passìm humanitate acceptus essem, vt iam (sit hoc saluo pietate à me dictum) suauissimæ Anglorum amicitiæ fermè aboleuerint desiderium et Pannoniarum et Budæ meæ, quibus patriæ nomen debeo. Quas ab caussas cùm sæpenumero animus fuisset significationem aliquam nostræ huius voluntatis et existimationis edendi; accidit vtique secundùm sententiam, vt dum salutandis et cognoscendis excellentibus viris Londini operam do, ornatissimus ac doctissimus amicas meus Richardus Hakluytus ad te me deduxerit, explicato mihi præclarissimo tuo de ducenda propediem colonia in nouum orbem instituto. Quæ dum aguntu, agnoscere portui ego illud corpus et animum tuum sempiterna posteritatis commemoratione dignum, et agnoui profectò, eaque tali ac tanta obseruantia prosequi coepi; vt cum paulò post plura de tuis virtutibus, et rebus gestis passim audissem, tempus longè accommodatissimum existimarem esse, quo aliqua parte officij studijque nostri, ergà te et tuam gentem perfungerer. Hoc est primum ouum, vnde nostrum [Greek: hepizatikon] originem ducit. Reliquum est, vt eas et redeas quàm prosperrimè, vir nobilissime, et beneuolentia tua, autoritate, ac nomine, tueare studium nostrum. Vale pridie Kalen. Aprilis 1583. Ad Thamesin. Amnis, inoffensa qui tàm requiete beatus Antipodum quæris iam tibi in orbe locum: Nunc tibi principium meritæ, pro tempore, laudis Fecimus, et raucæ carmina prima tubæ. Tum cum reddideris, modo quam dimittimus, Argo, Ornatu perages gaudia festa nouo. Quæ noua tàm subitò mutati gratia coeli? Vnde graues nimbi vitreas tenuantur in auras? Duffugiunt nebulæ, puroque nitentior ortu Illustrat terras, clementiaque æquora Titan? Nimirum posuere Noti, meliorque resurgit Evrys, et in ventos soluuntur vela secundos, Vela quibus gentis decus immortale Brittanniæ Tendit ad ignotum nostris maioribus orbem Vix notis Gilebertvs aquis. Ecquando licebit Ordiri heroas laudes, et fecta nepotum Attonitis memoranda animis? Si coepta silendum est Illa, quibus nostri priscis ætatibus audent Conferri, et certare dies: quibus obuia plano Iamdudum Fortvna solo, quibus omne per vndas Nereidvm genus exultat, faustoque tridenti Ipse pater Netevs placabile temperat æquor. Et passim Oceano curui Delphines ab imo In summos saliunt fluctus, quasi terga pararent In quibus euectæ sulcent freta prospera puppes, Et quasi diluuium, tempestatesque minatur Follibus inflatis inimica in uela physeter. Et fauet AEGAEON, et qui Neptvnia PROTEVS Armenta, ac turpes alit imo in gurgite phocas. Atque idem modò ab antiqua virtute celebtat Sceptra Chaledonidvm: seclis modò fata futuris Pandit, et ad seros canit euentura minores. Vt pacis bellique bonis notissima vasto Insula in Oceano, magni decus Anglia mundi; Postquam opibus diues, populo numerosa frequenti, Tot celebris factis, toto caput extulit orbe; Non incauta sui, ne quando immensa potestas Pondere sit ruitura suo, noua moenia natis Quærat, et in longum extendat sua regna recessum: Non aliter, quàm cùm ventis sublimibus aptæ In nidis creuere grues, proficiscitur ingens De nostra ad tepidum tellure colonia Nilvm. Euge, sacrum pectus, tibi, per tot secula, soli Seruata est regio nullis regnata Monarchis. Et triplici quondam mundi natura notata Margine, et audacim quarto dignata Colvmbvm; Iam quintâ lustranda plagâ tibi, iamque regenda Imperio superest. Evropam Asiamqve relinque, Et fortunatam nimiùm, nisi sole propinquo Arderet, Libyen: illis sua facta viasque Terminet Alcides: abs te illustranda quietscit Parte alis telus, quam non Babylonia sceptra, Non Macedvm inuictæ vires, non Persica virtus Attigit, aut vnquam Latiæ feriere secures. Non illo soboles Mahometi mugijt orbe: Non vafer Hispanvs, coelo, superisque relictis, Sacra Papæ humano crudelia sanguine fecit. Illic mortales hominumque iguota propago; Siue illi nostræ veniant ab origine gentis, Seu tandem à prisca Favnorvm stirpe supersint Antiqua geniti terra, sine legibus vrbes Syluasque et pingues habitant ciuilibus agros: Et priscos referunt mores, vitamque sequuntur Italiæ antiquæ, et primi rude temporis æuum: Cum genitor nati fugiens Satvrus ob iram In Latio posuit sedem, rudibusque regendos In tenues vicos homines collegit ab agris. Aurea in hoc primùm populo coepisse feruntur Secula, sicque homines vitam duxisse beati; Vt simul argenti percurrens tempora, et æris, Degener in durum chalybem vilesceret ætas; Rursus in antiquum, de quo descenderat, aurum (Sic perhibent vales) æuo vertente rediret. Fallor an est tempus, reuolutoque orbe videntur Aurea pacificæ transmittere secula gentes? Fallor enim, si quassatas tot cladibus vrbes Respicio, et passim lacerantes regna tyrannos: Si Mahometigenis Asiam Libyamqve cruento Marte premi, domitaque iugum ceruice subire: Iamque per Evropæ fines immane tribunal Barbari adorari domini, Dacisqve, Pelasgisqve Æmathiisqve, omnique solo quod diuidit Hebrvs, Et quondam bello inuictis, nunc Marte sinistro Angustos fines, paruamque tuentibus oram Pannoniæ populis, et prisca in gente Libvrnis. Tum verò in superos pugnas sine fine cieri Patribus Avsoniis; ardere in bella, necesque Sarmaticas gentes: et adhuc à cæde recenti Hispanvm sancto Gallvmqve madere cruore. Non sunt hæc auri, non sunt documenta, sed atrox Ingenio referunt ferrum, et si dicere ferro Deteriora mihi licet, intractabile saxum. At verò ad niueos alia si parte Britannos Verto oculos animumque, quot, ô pulcherrima tellus Testibus antiquo vitam traducis in auro? Namque quòd hoc summum colitur tibi numen honore Quo superi, atque omnis geniorum casta iuuentus Ilius ad sacra iussa vices obit, arguit aurum. Quòd tàm chara Deo tua sceptra gubernat Amazon, Quàm Dea, cum nondum coelis Astræa petitis Inter mortales regina erat, arguit aurum. Quòd colit haud vllis indusas moenibus vrbes Aurea libertas, et nescia ferre tyrannum Securam ætatem tellus agit, arguit aurum. Quòd regio nullis iniuria gentibus, arma Arma licet ferruginea rubicunda quiete, Finitimis metuenda gerit tamen, arguit aurum. Quòd gladij, quòd mucrones, quòd pila, quòd hastæ In rastros abiere, et bello assueta iuuentus Pacem et amicitias dulces colit, arguit aurum. Denique si fas est auro connectere laudes Æris, et in pacis venerari tempore fortes; Quot natos bello heroas, quot ahænea nutris Pectora? Sint testes procerum tot millia, testes Mille duces, interque duces notissima mille Illa cui assurgunt Mvsæ, quam conscia Pallas Lætior exaudit, Gileberti gloria nostri. Illius auxillum, et socialia prælia amici Mirantur Belgæ, et quamuis iniustus Ibervs Commemorat iustas acies, domitasque per oras Martia victrices formidat Hibernia turmas. Illum oppugnatæ quassatis turribus arces, Ilium expugnatæ perruptis moenibus vrbes, Fluminaque et portus capti, hostilique notatum Sanguine submersæ meminere sub æquore classes. Hic vbi per medios proiectus Seqvana Celtas Labitur, et nomen max amissurus, et vndas. Omnia si desint, quantum est ingentibus ausis Humani generis pro pace bonoque pacisci Tàm varies casus, freta tanta, pericula tanta? Linquere adhuc teneram prolem, et dulcissima sacri Oscula coniugij, numerantemque ordine longo Avcheriam digitis in mollibus, æquora mille Formidanda modis, atque inter pauca relatos Avcherios exempla suos, fratremque patremque; Qui dum pro patria laudem et virtute sequuntur, Obsessi in muris soli portisque Caleti, Præposuere mori, quàm cum prodentibus vrbem, Et decus Albionvm, turpi superesse salute. Quòd si parua loquor, nec adhuc fortasse fatenda est Aurea in hoc iterum nostro gens viuere mundo, Quid vetat ignotis vt possit surgere terris? Auguror, et faueat dictis Devs, auguror annos, In quibus haud illo secus olim principe in vrbes Barbara plebs coeat, quàm cùm noua saxa vocaret Amphion Thebas, Troiana ad moenia Phoebvs. Atque vbi sic vltrò iunctas sociauerit ædes, Deinde dabit leges custodituras easdem; In quibus ignari ciues fraudumque, dolique, A solida assuescant potius virtute beari; Quàm genio et molli liquentia corpora vita In Venerem ignauam, pinguemque immergere luxum: Quàm nummos, quam lucra sequi, quam propter honores Viuere ad arbitrium stolidæ mutabile plebis. Non illic generi virtus, opibusue premetur Libertas populi, non contrà in deside vulgo Oppugnabit opes ciuis sub nomine pauper: Quisque suo partem foelix in iure capesset. Tum sua magna parens ingenti foenore tellus Exiguo sudore dabit bona: cura iuuentam Nulla adiget senio, nec sic labor ocia tollet, Quo minus è virtute petant sua commoda ciues. O mihi foelicem si fas conscendere puppim: Et tecum patria (pietas ignosce) relicta Longinquum penetrare fretum, penetrare sorores Mecum vnà Aonias, illic exordia gentis Prima nouæ ad seros transmittere posse nepotes! Sed me fata vetant, memoraturumque canora Inclyta facta tuba, ad clades miserabilis Istri Inuitum retrahunt. His his me fata reseruent: Non deerit vates, illo qui cantet in orbe Aut veteres populos, aut nostro incognita coelo Munera naturæ; dum spreto Helicone manebit Ilia Aganippæis sacrata Oxonia Musis. Dum loquor in viridi festinant gramine Nymphæ, Impediuntque comas lauro, et florentis oliuæ Frondibus armantur, dominatricemque frequentes Oceani immensi longè venerantur Elisam. Illa autem ad gelidum celsis de turribus amnem Prospicit, et iamiam Tamesino in patre tuetur Paulatim obliquis Gilebertum albescere velis. Sic dea Peliaco spectasse è vertice Pallas Fertur Iasonios comites, ad Phasidos vndas Vix benè dum notis committere carbasa ventis. Diva faue, nutuque tuo suscepta parari Vela iuua; Si sola geris dignissima totum Talibus auspicijs proferri sceptra per orbem. Proptereà quia sola tuos ita pace beasti Tranquilla populos, vt iam te principe possint Augere imperij fines. Quia sola videris Quo niueae Charites, quo corpore Delia virgo Pingitur, et iusto si sit pro teste vetustas. Talibus audimus quondam de matribus ortos Semideos homines: tali est de sanguine magnus Siue Hector genitus, siue Hectore maior Achilles: Duntaxat sine fraude vlla, sine crimine possint Vila tibi veterum conferri nomina matrum, Quæ sexum factis superas, quæ patribus audes, Nympha, dijs dignas laudes æquare Latinis. Mentior infoelix, nisi sic in corpore virtus Lucet formoso, ceu quæ preciosior auro est Gemma, tamen pariter placituro clauditur auro. Mentior, et taceo, nisi sola audiris vbique Induperatorum timor aut amor, inter et omnes Securam requiem peragis tutissima casus: Dum reliqui reges duro quasi carcere clausi Sollicitis lethi dapibus, plenoque fruuntur Terrificis monstris furtiua per ocia somno. Mentior et taceo, solam nisi viuere ciues Æternùm cupiunt: quando nec verbere toruo, Nec cædis poenæue thronum formtdine firmas: Sed tibi tot meritis maiestas parta, et inermis Ad patulos residet custos clementia postes: Vt quot penè rei iustum meruere tribunal, Tot veniam grato narrent sermone clientes. Nec tamen admittis, nisi quod iustumque piumque Agnoscit probitas, et quæ potes omnia, solis Legibus vsurpas cautas sanctissima vires. Nec mala formidas: si quidem quasi fune ligatur Consilio fortuna tibi: Nullum impia terret In castris Bellona tuis: Quin pronus adorat Gradivvs tua iussa pater, sequiturque vocantem Quacunque ingrederis grato victoria plausu. Dumque fores alijs, vitamque et regna tuetur Ianitor externus, cingunt tua limina ciues: Dumque alijs sordet sapientia regibus, almo Pegasidvm tu fonte satur, tot Appollinis artes Aurea vaticina fundis quasi flumina lingua. Nil nostri inuenere dies, nil prisca vetustas Prodidit, in linguis peragunt commercia nullis Christiadvm gentes, quas te, diuina virago, Iustius Aoniæ possint iactare sorores. Audijt hæc inundus, cunctisque in finibus ardet Imperio parere tuo: et quæ fortè recusat Miratur vires regio tamen. Hinc tua sceptra Incurua Mahometigenæ ceruice salutant: Hinc tua pugnaces properant ad foedera Galli: Dumque sibi metuit toties tibi victus Ibervs, Nescia Romano Germania Marte domari Quærit amicitias Britonvm: procul oscula mittit Virgineis pedibus Lativm, longéque remoti Pannones in tutos optant coalescere fines. Quinetiam quæ submisso diademate nuper Obtulit inuictis fascesque fidemque Britannis.[A] Nonne vides passis vt crinibus horrida dudum Porrigit ingentem lugubris America dextram? Et numquid lacrymas, inquit, soror Anglia, nostras Respicis, et dura nobiscum in sorte gemiscis? An verò nescisse potes, quæ tempora quantis Cladibus egerimus? postquam insatiabilis auri, Nam certè non vllus amor virtutis Iberos In nostrum migrare soluum, pietasue coegit. Ex illo, quæ sacra prius væsana litabam Manibus infernis, sperans meliora tuumque Discere posse Devm, iubeor mortalibus aras Erigere, et mutas statuas truncosque precata Nescio quod demens Romanvm numen adoro. Cur trahor in terras? si mens est lucida, puris Cur Devs in coelis rectà non quæritur? aut si A nobis coelum petitur, cur sæpe videmus Igne, fame, ferro subigi, quocunque reatu Oenotriæ sedis maiestas læsa labascit? Non sic relligio, non sic me iudice gaudet Defendi sua regna Devs, quod si optimus ille est; Quòd si cuncta potest, et nullis indiget armis. Mitto queri cædes, exhaustaque moenia bello: Mitto queri in viles tot libera corpora seruos Abiecta, immanique iugum Busiride dignum. Te tantum fortuna animet tua, te tua virtus: Si tibi tam plenis habitantur moenibus vrbes, Vt nisi in excelsum crescant, coeloque minentur Ædes aeriæ; quanquam latissima, desit Terra tamen populo: Si tot tua flumina nigrant Turrigeras arces imitatæ mole carinæ, Quot non illa natant eadem tua flumina cygni. Si tibi iam sub sole iacens penetratus vtroque est Mundus, vtroque iacens peragrata est terra sub axe. Ni frustrà gelidam vectus Wilobeivs [B] ad arcton Illa in gente iacet, cui dum Sol circinat vmbras, Dimidio totus vix forsitan occidit anno. Ni frustrà quæsiuit iter, duraque bipenni Illo Frobiservs [C] reditum sibi in æquore fecit, Horridum vbi semper pelagus, glacieque perenni Frigora natiuos simulant immitia montes. Ni frustrà per Cimmerios, syluisque propinqua Flumina Riphæis eoa profectus ad vsque est Moenia Iencisonvs, [D] Persasqve et proxima Persis Bactra, et Bactrorvm confines regibus Indos. Ni frustrà, quod mortali tot secla negarant, Hac tuus immensum nuper Dracvs [E] ambijt orbem, Quà patri Oceano clausas circumdare terras Concessit natura viam, mediaque meare Tellure, et duplici secludere littore mundos. Iam si fortuna, iam si virtute sequare Digna tua; sunt monstra mihi, sunt vasta gigantum Corpora, quæ magno cecidisse sub Hercvle non sit Dedecus, Ogigivs non quæ aspernetur Iaccvs. Quæ si indigna putas, tantaque in pace beata Auersare meos multo vt tibi sanguine fines Inuidiosa petas: est nobis terra propinqua, Et tantum bimari capiens discrimen in Isthmo. Hanc tibi iamdudum primi inuenere Brittanni, Tum cum magnanimus nostra in regione Cabotvs [F] Proximus à magno ostendit sua vela Colvmbo. Hæc neque vicina nimiùm frigescit ab arcto, Sole nec immodico in steriles torretur arenas: Frigus et æstatem iusto moderamine seruat, Siue leues auras, grati spiracula coeli, Seu diæ telluris opes, et munera curas. Pone age te digno tua sceptra in honore, meoque Iunge salutarem propius cum littore dextram. Sit mihi fas aliquam per te sperare quietem, Vicinoque bono lætum illucescere Solem. Quòd si consilijs superum, fatisque negatum est Durare immensum magna infortunia tempus: Quòd si de immerita iustum est ceruice reuelli Ignarum imperij dominum, populique regendi; Quòd si nulla vnquam potuit superesse potestas, Ni pia flexilibus pareret clementia frenis Obsequium. A mita quæsita potentia Cyro Amissa est sæuæ soboli. Parcendo subegit Tot reges Macedvm virtus, tot postera sensim Abscidit a parto tandem inclementia regno. Et quod Romvleis creuit sub patribus olim Imperium, diri semper minuêre Nerones. [Sidenote A: Noua Albion.] [Sidenote B: Hugo Willobeius eques auratus.] [Sidenote C: Martinus Frobisherus eques auratus.] [Sidenote D: Antonius Ienkinsonus.] [Sidenote E: Franciscus Dracus eques auratus.] [Sidenote F: Sebastianus Cabotus.] * * * * * A report of the voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the yeere of our Lord 1583 by sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, with other gentlemen assisting him in that action, intended to discouer and to plant Christian inhabitants in place conuenient, vpon those large and ample countreys extended Northward from the cape of Florida, lying vnder very temperate Climes, esteemed fertile and rich in Minerals, yet not in the actuall possession of any Christian prince, written by M. Edward Haies gentleman, and principall actour in the same voyage, who alone continued vnto the end, and by Gods speciall assistance returned home with his retinue safe and entire. Many voyages haue bene pretended, yet hitherto neuer any thorowly accomplished by our nation of exact discouery into the bowels of those maine, ample and vast countreys, extended infinitely into the North from 30 degrees, or rather from 25 degrees of Septentrionall latitude, neither hath a right way bene taken of planting a Christian habitation and regiment vpon the same, as well may appeare both by the little we yet do actually possesse therein, and by our ignorance of the riches and secrets within those lands, which vnto this day we know chiefly by the trauell and report of other nations, and most of the French, who albeit they can not challenge such right and interest vnto the sayd countreys as we, neither these many yeeres haue had opportunity nor meanes so great to discouer and to plant (being vexed with the calamnities of intestine warres) as we haue had by the inestimable benefit of our long and happy peace: yet haue they both waies performed more, and had long since attained a sure possession and settled gouernment of many prouinces in those Northerly parts of America, if their many attempts into those forren and remote lands had not bene impeached by their garboils at home. [Sidenote: The coasts from Florida Northward first discouered by the English nation.] The first discouery of these coasts (neuer heard of before) was well begun by Iohn Cabot the father, and Sebastian his sonne, an Englishman borne, who were the first finders out of all that great tract of land stretching from the cape of Florida vnto those Islands which we now call the Newfoundland: all which they brought and annexed vnto the crowne of England. Since when, if with like diligence the search of inland countreys had bene followed, as the discouery vpon the coast, and out-parts therof was performed by those two men: no doubt her Maiesties territories and reuenue had bene mightily inlarged and aduanced by this day. And which is more: the seed of Christian religion had bene sowed amongst those pagans, which by this time might haue brought foorth a most plentifull haruest and copious congregation of Christians; which must be the chiefe intent of such as shall make any attempt that way: or els whatsoeuer is builded vpon other foundation shall neuer obtaine happy successe nor continuance. And although we can not precisely iudge (which onely belongeth to God) what haue bene the humours of men stirred vp to great attempts of discouering and planting in those remote countreys, yet the euents do shew that either Gods cause hath not bene chiefly preferred by them, or els God hath not permitted so abundant grace as the light of his word and knowledge of him to be yet reuealed vnto those infidels before the appointed time. But most assuredly, the only cause of religion hitherto hath kept backe, and will also bring forward at the time assigned by God, an effectuall and compleat discouery and possession by Christians, both of those ample countreys and the riches within them hitherto concealed: whereof notwithstanding God in his wisdome hath permitted to be reuealed from time to time a certaine obscure and misty knowledge, by little and little to allure the mindes of men that way (which els will be dull enough in the zeale of his cause) and thereby to prepare vs vnto a readinesse for the execution of his will against the due time ordeined, of calling those pagans vnto Christianity. [Sidenote: A fit consideration.] In the meane while, it behooueth euery man of great calling, in whom is any instinct of inclination vnto this attempt, to examine his owne motions: which if the same proceed of ambition or auarice, he may assure himselfe it commeth not of God, and therefore can not haue confidence of Gods protection and assistance against the violence (els irresistable) both of sea, and infinite perils vpon the land; whom God yet may vse an instrument to further his cause and glory some way, but not to build vpon so bad a foundation. Otherwise, if his motiues be deriued from a vertuous and heroycall minde, preferring chiefly the honour of God, compassion of poore infidels captiued by the deuill, tyrannizing in most woonderfull and dreadfull maner ouer their bodies and soules; aduancement of his honest and well disposed countreymen, willing to accompany him in such honourable actions: reliefe of sundry people within this realme distressed: all these be honourable purposes, imitating the nature of the munificent God, wherewith he is well pleased, who will assist such an actour beyond expectation of man. [Sidenote: Probable coniectures that these lands North of Florida, are reserued for the English nation to possesse.] And the same, who feeleth this inclination in himselfe, by all likelihood may hope, or rather confidently repose in the preordinance of God, that in this last age of the world (or likely neuer) the time is compleat of receiuing also these Gentiles into his mercy, and that God will raise him an instrument to effect the same: it seeming probable by euent or precedent attempts made by the Spanyards and French sundry times, that the countreys lying North of Florida, God hath reserued the same to be reduced vnto Christian ciuility by the English nation. For not long after that Christopher Columbus had discouered the Islands and continent of the West Indies for Spayne, Iohn and Sebastian Cabot made discouery also of the rest from Florida Northwards to the behoofe of England. [Sidenote: The Spanyards prosperous in the Southerne discoueries, yet vnhappy in the Northerne.] And whensoeuer afterwards the Spanyards (very prosperous in all their Southerne discoueries) did attempt any thing into Florida and those regions inclining towards the North they proued most vnhappy, and were at length discouraged vtterly by the hard and lamentable successe of many both religous and valiant in armes, endeauouring to bring those Northerly regions also vnder the Spanish iurisdiction; as if God had prescribed limits vnto the Spanish nation which they might not exceed; as by their owne gests recorded may be aptly gathered. [Sidenote: The French are but vsurpers vpon our right.] The French, as they can pretend lesse title vnto these Northerne parts then the Spanyard, by how much the Spanyard made the first discouery of the same continent so far Northward as vnto Florida, and the French did but reuiew that before discouered by the English nation, vsurping vpon our right, and imposing names vpon countreys, riuers, bayes, capes, or head lands, as if they had bene the first finders of those coasts: [Sidenote: The French also infortunate in those North parts of America.] which iniury we offered not vnto the Spaniards, but left off to discouer when we approached the Spanish limits: euen so God hath not hitherto permitted them to establish a possession permanent vpon anothers right, notwithstanding their manifolde attempts, in which the issue hath bene no lesse tragicall then that of the Spanyards, as by their owne reports is extant. [Sidenote: A good incouragement for the English nation, to proceed in the conquests of the North America.] Then seeing the English nation onely hath right vnto these countreys of America from the cape of Florida Northward by the priuilege of first discouery, vnto which Cabot was authorised by regall authority, and set forth by the expense of our late famous king Henry the seuenth: which right also seemeth strongly defended on our behalfe by the powerfull hand of almighty God, withstanding the enterprises of other nations: it may greatly incourage vs vpon so iust ground, as is our right, and vpon so sacred an intent, as to plant religion (our right and intent being meet foundations for the same) to prosecute effectually the full possession of those so ample and pleasant countreys apperteining vnto the crowne of England: [Sidenote: The due time approcheth by all likelihood of calling these heathens vnto Christianity.] the same (as is to be coniectured by infallible arguments of the worlds end approching) being now arriued vnto the time by God prescribed of their vocation, if euer their calling vnto the knowledge of God may be expected. [Sidenote: The word of God moueth circularly.] Which also is very probable by the reuolution and course of Gods word and religion, which from the beginning hath moued from the East, towards, and at last vnto the West, where it is like to end, vnlesse the same begin againe where it did in the East, which we were to expect a like world againe. But we are assured of the contrary by the prophesie of Christ, whereby we gather, that after his word preached thorowout the world shalbe the end. And as the Gospel when it descended Westward began in the South, and afterward spread into the North of Europe: euen so, as the same hath begunne in the South countreys of America, no lesse hope may be gathered that it will also spread into the North. These considerations may helpe to suppresse all dreads rising of hard eueuts in attempts made this way by other nations, as also of the heauy successe and issue in the late enterprise made by a worthy gentleman our countryman sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, who was the first of our nation that caried people to erect an habitation and gouernment in those Northerly countreys of America. About which, albeit he had consumed much substance, and lost his life at last, his people also perishing for the most part: yet the mystery thereof we must leaue vnto God, and iudge charitably both of the cause (which was iust in all pretence) and of the person, who was very zealous in prosecuting the same, deseruing honourable remembrance for his good minde, and expense of life in so vertuous an enterprise. Whereby neuerthelesse, least any man should be dismayd by example of other folks calamity, and misdeeme that God doth resist all attempts intended that way: I thought good, so farre as my selfe was an eye witnesse, to deliuer the circumstance and maner of our proceedings in that action: in which the gentleman was so incumbred with wants, and woorse matched with many ill disposed people, that his rare iudgement and regiment premeditated for these affaires, was subiected to tolerate abuses, and in sundry extremities to holde on a course, more to vpholde credite, then likely in his owne conceit happily to succeed. [Sidenote: The planting of Gods word must be handled with reuerence.] The issue of such actions, being alwayes miserable, not guided by God, who abhorreth confusion and disorder, hath left this for admonition (being the first attempt by our nation to plant) vnto such as shall take the same cause in hand hereafter not to be discouraged from it: but to make men well aduised how they handle his so high and excellent matters, as the carriage of his word into those very mighty and vast countreys. [Sidenote: Ill actions coloured by pretence of planting vpon remote lands.] An action doubtlesse not to be intermedled with base purposes; as many haue made the same but a colour to shadow actions otherwise scarse iustifiable: which doth excite Gods heauy iudgements in the end, to the terrifying of weake mindes from the cause, without pondering his iust proceedings: and doth also incense forren princes against our attempts how iust soeuer, who can not but deeme the sequele very dangerous vnto their state (if in those parts we should grow to strength) seeing the very beginnings are entred with spoile. And with this admonition denounced vpon zeale towards Gods cause, also towards those in whom appeareth disposition honourable vnto this action of planting Christian people and religion in those remote and barbarous nations of America (vnto whom I wish all happinesse) I will now proceed to make relation briefly, yet particularly, of our voyage vndertaken with sir Humfrey Gilbert, begun, continued, and ended aduersly. [Sidenote: The first and great preparation of sir Humfrey Gilbert.] When first sir Humfrey Gilbert vndertooke the Westerne discouery of America, and had procured from her Maiesty a very large commission to inhabit and possesse at his choice all remote and heathen lands not in the actuall possession of any Christian prince, the same commission exemplified with many priuileges, such as in his discretion he might demand, very many gentlemen of good estimation drew vnto him, to associate him in so commendable an enterprise, so that the preparation was expected to grow vnto a puissant fleet, able to encounter a kings power by sea: neuerthelesse, amongst a multitude of voluntary men, their dispositions were diuers, which bred a iarre, and made a diuision in the end, to the confusion of that attempt euen before the same was begun. And when the shipping was in a maner prepared, and men ready vpon the coast to go aboord: at that time some brake consort, and followed courses degenerating from the voyage before pretended: Others failed of their promises contracted, and the greater number were dispersed, leauing the Generall with few of his assured friends, with whom he aduentured to sea: where hauing tasted of no lesse misfortune, he was shortly driuen to retire home with the losse of a tall ship, and (more to his griefe) of a valiant gentleman Miles Morgan.[98] [Sidenote: A constant resolution of sir Humfrey Gilbert.] Hauing buried onely in a preparation a great masse of substance, wherby his estate was impaired, his minde yet not dismaid he continued his former designment and purpose to reuiue this enterprise, good occasion seruing. Vpon which determination standing long, without meanes to satisfy his desire; at last he granted certaine assignments out of his commission to sundry persons of meane ability, desiring the priuilege of his rank, to plant and fortifie in the North parts of America about the riuer of Canada, to whom if God gaue good successe in the North parts (where then no matter of moment was expected) the same (he thought) would greatly aduance the hope of the South, and be a furtherance vnto his determination that way. And the worst that might happen in that course might be excused without prejudice vnto him by the former supposition, that those North regions were of no regard: but chiefly a possession taken in any parcell of those heathen countreys, by vertue of his grant, did inuest him of territories extending euery way two hundred leagues: which induced sir Humfry Gilbert to make those assignments, desiring greatly their expedition, because his commission did expire after six yeres, if in that space he had not gotten actuall possession. [Sidenote: A second preparation of sir Humfrey Gilbert.] Time went away without any thing done by his assignes: insomuch that at last he must resolue himselfe to take a voyage in person, for more assurance to keepe his patent in force, which then almost was expired, or within two yeres. In furtherance of his determination, amongst others, sir George Peckam knight shewed himselfe very zealous to the action, greatly aiding him both by his aduice and in the charge. Other gentlemen to their ability ioyned vnto him, resoluing to aduenture their substance and liues in the same cause. Who beginning their preparation from that time, both of shipping, munition, victual, men, and things requisit, some of them continued the charge two yeeres compleat without intermission. Such were the difficulties and crosse accidents opposing these proceedings, which tooke not end in lesse then two yeres: many of which circumstances I will omit. The last place of our assembly, before we left the coast of England, was in Causet bay neere vnto Plimmouth: then resolued to put vnto the sea with shipping and prouision, such as we had, before our store yet remaining, but chiefly the time and season of the yeere, were too farre spent. Neuerthelesse it seemed first very doubtfull by what way to shape our course, and to begin our intended discouery, either from the South Northward, or from the North Southward. [Sidenote: Consultation about our course.] The first, that is, beginning South, without all controuersie was the likeliest, wherein we were assured to haue commodity of the current, which from the cape of Florida setteth Northward, and would haue furthered greatly our nauigation, discouering from the foresayd cape along towards cape Briton, and all those lands lying to the North. [Sidenote: Commodities in discouering from South Northward.] Also the yere being farre spent, and arriued to the moneth of Iune, we were not to spend time in Northerly courses, where we should be surprised with timely Winter, but to couet the South, which we had space enough then to haue attained: and there might with lesse detriment haue wintred that season, being more milde and short in the South then in the North where winter is both long and rigorous. These and other like reasons alleged in fauour of the Southerne course first to be taken, to the contrary was inferred: that foras much as both our victuals, and many other needfull prouisions were diminished and left insufficient for so long a voyage, and for the wintering of so many men, we ought to shape a course most likely to minister supply; and that was to take the Newfoundland in our way, which was but seuen hundred leagues from our English coast. Where being vsually at that time of the yere, and vntill the fiue of August, a multitude of ships repairing thither for fish, we should be relieued abundantly with many necessaries, which after the fishing ended, they might well spare, and freely impart vnto vs. Not staying long vpon that Newland coast, we might proceed Southward, and follow still the Sunne, vntill we arriued at places more temperate to our content. By which reasons we were the rather induced to follow this [Sidenote: Cause why we began our discouery from the North.] Northerly course, obeying vnto necessity, which must be supplied. [Sidenote: Incommodities in beginning North.] Otherwise, we doubted that sudden approch of Winter, bringing with it continuall fogge, and thicke mists, tempest and rage of weather; also contrariety of currents descending from the cape of Florida vnto cape Briton and cape Rase, would fall out to be great and irresistable impediments vnto our further proceeding for that yeere, and compell vs to Winter in those North and colde regions. Wherefore suppressing all obiections to the contrary, we resolued to begin our course Northward, and to follow directly as we might, the trade way vnto Newfoundland: from whence after our refreshing and reparation of wants, we intended without delay (by Gods permission) to proceed into the South, not omitting any riuer or bay which in all that large tract of land appeared to our view worthy of search. Immediatly we agreed vpon the maner of our course and orders to be obserued in our voyage; which were deliuered in writing vnto the captaines and masters of euery ship a copy in maner following. Euery shippe had deliuered two bullets or scrowles, the one sealed vp in waxe, the other left open: in both which were included seuerall watch-words. That open, seruing vpon our owne coast or the coast of Ireland: the other sealed was promised on all hands not to be broken vp vntill we should be cleere of the Irish coast; which from thencefoorth did serue vntill we arriued and met altogether in such harbors of the Newfoundland as were agreed for our Rendez vouz. The sayd watch-words being requisite to know our consorts whensoeuer by night, either by fortune of weather, our fleet dispersed should come together againe: or one should hale another; or if by ill watch and steerage one ship should chance to fall aboord of another in the darke. The reason of the bullet sealed was to keepe secret that watch-word while we were vpon our owne coast, lest any of the company stealing from the fleet might bewray the same: which knowen to an enemy, he might boord vs by night without mistrust, hauing our owne watch-word. Orders agreed vpon by the Captaines and Masters to be obserued by the fleet of Sir Humfrey Gilbert. First the Admirall to cary his flag by day, and his light by night. 2 Item, if the Admirall shall shorten his saile by night, then to shew two lights vntill he be answered againe by euery ship shewing one light for a short time. 3 Item, if the Admirall after his shortening of saile, as aforesayd, shall make more saile againe: then he to shew three lights one aboue another. 4 Item, if the Admirall shall happen to hull in the night, then to make a wauering light ouer his other light, wauering the light vpon a pole. 5 Item, if the fleet should happen to be scattered by weather, or other mishap, then so soone as one shall descry another to hoise sailes twise, if the weather will serue, and to strike them twise againe; but if the weather serue not, then to hoise the maine top saile twise, and forthwith to strike it twise againe. 6 Item, if it shall happen a great fogge to fall, then presently euery shippe to beare vp with the admirall, if there be winde: but if it be a calme, then euery ship to hull, and so to lie at hull till it be cleere. And if the fogge do continue long, then the Admirall to shoot off two pieces euery euening, and euery ship to answere it with one shot: and euery man bearing to the ship, that is to leeward so neere as he may. 7 Item, euery master to giue charge vnto the watch to looke out well, for laying aboord one of another in the night, and in fogges. 8 Item, euery euening euery ship to haile the admirall, and so to fall asterne him sailing thorow the Ocean: and being on the coast, euery ship to haile him both morning and euening. 9 Item, if any ship be in danger any way, by leake or otherwise, then she to shoot off a piece, and presently to hang out one light, whereupon euery man to beare towards her, answering her with one light for a short time, and so to put it out againe; thereby to giue knowledge that they haue seene her token. 10 Item, whensoeuer the Admirall shall hang out her ensigne in the maine shrowds, then euery man to come aboord her, as a token of counsell. 11 Item, if there happen any storme or contrary winde to the fleet after the discouery, whereby they are separated: then euery ship to repaire vnto their last good port, there to meete againe. Our course agreed vpon. The course first to be taken for the discouery is to beare directly to Cape Rase, the most Southerly cape of Newfound land; and there to harbour ourselues either in Rogneux or Fermous, being the first places appointed for our Rendez vous, and the next harbours vnto the Northward of cape Rase: and therefore euery ship separated from the fleete to repaire to that place so fast as God shall permit, whether you shall fall to the Southward or to the Northward of it, and there to stay for the meeting of the whole fleet the space of ten dayes: and when you shall depart, to leaue marks. A direction of our course vnto the Newfound land. Beginning our course from Silley, the neerest is by Westsouthwest (if the winde serue) vntill such time as we haue brought our selues in the latitude of 43 or 44 degrees, because the Ocean is subiect much to Southerly windes in Iune and Iuly. Then to take trauerse from 45 to 47 degrees of latitude, if we be inforced by contrary windes: and not to go to the Northward of the height of 47 degrees of Septentrionall latitude by no meanes; if God shall not inforce the contrary; but to do your indeuour to keepe in the height of 46 degrees, so nere as you can possibly, because cape Rase lieth about that height. Notes. If by contrary windes we be driuen backe vpon the coast of England, then to repaire vnto Silley for a place of our assembly or meeting. If we be driuen backe by contrary winds that we can not passe the coast of Ireland, then the place of our assembly to be at Beare hauen or Baltimore hauen. If we shall not happen to meete at cape Rase, then the place of Rendez vous to be at cape Briton, or the neerest harbour vnto the Westward of cape Briton. If by meanes of other shipping we may not safely stay there, then to rest at the very next safe port to the Westward; euery ship leauing their marks behinde them for the more certainty of the after commers to know where to finde them. The marks that euery man ought to leaue in such a case, were of the Generals priuate deuice written by himselfe, sealed also in close waxe, and deliuered vnto euery shippe one scroule, which was not to be opened vntill occasion required, whereby euery man was certified what to leaue for instruction of after commers: that euery of vs comming into any harbour or riuer might know who had bene there, or whether any were still there vp higher into the riuer, or departed, and which way. [Sidenote: Beginning of the voyage.] Orders thus determined, and promises mutually giuen to be obserued, euery man withdrew himselfe vnto his charge, the ankers being already weyed, and our shippes vnder saile, hauing a soft gale of winde, we began our voyage vpon Tuesday the eleuenth day of Iune, in the yere of our Lord 1585, hauing in our fleet (at our departure from Causet[99] Bay) these shippes, whose names and burthens, with the names of the captaines and masters of them, I haue also inserted, as followeth: 1 The Delight aliàs The George, of burthen 120 tunnes, was Admirall: in which went the Generall, and William Winter captaine in her and part owner, and Richard Clearke master. 2 The Barke Raleigh set forth by M. Walter Raleigh, of the burthen of 200 tunnes, was then Vice-admirall: in which went M. Butler captaine, and Robert Dauis of Bristoll master. 3 The Golden hinde, of burthen 40 tunnes, was then Reare-admirall: in which went Edward Hayes captaine and owner, and William Cox of Limehouse master. 4 The Swallow, of burthen 40 tunnes: in her was captaine Maurice Browne. 5 The Squirrill, of burthen 10 tunnes: in which went captaine William Andrewes, and one Cade master. [Sidenote: Our fleet consisted of fiue sailes, in which we had about 260 men. Prouisions fit for such discoueries.] We were in number in all about 260 men: among whom we had of euery faculty good choice, as Shipwrights, Masons, Carpenters, Smithes, and such like, requisite to such an action: also Minerall men and Refiners. Besides, for solace of our people, and allurement of the Sauages, we were prouided of Musike in good variety: not omitting the least toyes, as Morris dancers, Hobby horsse, and Maylike conceits to delight the Sauage people, whom we intended to winne by all faire meanes possible. And to that end we were indifferently furnished of all petty haberdasherie wares to barter with those people. In this maner we set forward, departing (as hath bene said) out of Causon bay the eleuenth day of Iune being Tuesday, the weather and winde faire and good all day, but a great storme of thunder and winde fell the same night. [Sidenote: Obserue.] Thursday following, when we hailed one another in the euening according (to the order before specified) they signified vnto vs out of the Vizadmirall that both the Captaine, and very many of the men were fallen sicke, And about midnight the Vizeadmirall forsooke vs, notwithstanding we had the winde East, faire and good. But it was after credibly reported, that they were infected with a contagious sicknesse, and arriued greatly distressed at Plimmoth: the reason I could neuer vnderstand. Sure I am, no cost was spared by their owner Master Raleigh in setting them forth: Therfore I leaue it vnto God. By this time we were in 48 degrees of latitude, not a little grieued with the losse of the most puissant ship in our fleete: after whose departure, the Golden Hind succeeded in the place of Vizadmirall, and remooued her flagge from the mizon vnto the foretop. From Saturday the 15 of Iune vntill the 28, which was vpon a Friday, we neuer had faire day without fogge or raine, and windes bad, much to the West northwest, whereby we were driuen Southward vnto 41 degrees scarse. About this time of the yere the winds are commonly West towards the Newfound land, keeping ordinarily within two points of West to the South or to the North, whereby the course thither falleth out to be long and tedious after Iune, which in March, Apriell and May, hath bene performed out of England in 22 dayes and lesse. We had winde alwayes so scant from West northwest, and from West southwest againe, that our trauerse was great, running South vnto 41 degrees almost, and afterward North into 51 degrees. [Sidenote: Great fogges vpon the Ocean sea Northward.] Also we were incombred with much fogge and mists in maner palpable, in which we could not keepe so well together, but were disseuered, losing the company of the Swallow and the Squirrill vpon the 20. day of Iuly, whom we met againe at seuerall places vpon the Newfound land coast the third of August, as shalbe declared in place conuenient. Saturday the 27 of Iuly, we might descry not farre from vs, as it were mountaines of yce driuen vpon the sea, being then in 50 degrees, which were caried Southward to the weather of vs: whereby may be coniectured that some current doth set that way from the North. Before we come to Newfound land about 50 leagues on this side, we passe the banke, [Marginal note: The banke in length vnknowen, stretcheth from North into South, in bredth 10. leagues, in depth of water vpon it 30. fadome.] which are high grounds rising within the sea and vnder water, yet deepe enough and without danger, being commonly not lesse then 25 and 30 fadome water vpon them: the same (as it were some vaine of mountaines within the sea) doe runne along, and from the Newfound land, beginning Northward about 52 or 53 degrees of latitude, and do extend into the South infinitly. The bredth of this banke is somewhere more, and somewhere lesse: but we found the same about 10 leagues ouer, hauing sounded both on this side thereof, and the other toward Newfound land, but found no ground with almost 200 fadome of line, both before and after we had passed the banke.[100] [Sidenote: A great fishing vpon the banke.] The Portugals, and French chiefly, haue a notable trade of fishing vpon this banke, where are sometimes an hundred or more sailes of ships: who commonly beginne the fishing in Apriell, and haue ended by Iuly. That fish is large, alwayes wet, hauing no land neere to drie, and is called Corre fish. [Sidenote: Abundance of foules.] During the time of fishing, a man shall know without sounding when he is vpon the banke, by the incredible multitude of sea foule houering ouer the same, to prey vpon the offalles and garbish of fish throwen out by fishermen, and floting vpon the sea. [Sidenote: First sight of land.] Vpon Tuesday the 11 of Iune, we forsooke the coast of England. So againe Tuesday the 30 of Iuly (seuen weekes after) we got sight of land, being immediatly embayed in the Grand bay, or some other great bay: the certainty whereof we could not iudge, so great hase and fogge did hang vpon the coast, as neither we might discerne the land well, nor take the sunnes height. But by our best computation we were then in the 51 degrees of latitude. Forsaking this bay and vncomfortable coast (nothing appearing vnto vs but hideous rockes and mountaines, bare of trees, and voide of any greene herbe) we followed the coast to the South, with weather faire and cleare. [Sidenote: Iland and a foule named Penguin.] We had sight of an Iland named Penguin, of a foule there breeding in abundance, almost incredible, which cannot flie, their wings not able to carry their body, being very large (not much lesse then a goose) and exceeding fat: which the French men vse to take without difficulty vpon that Iland, and to barrell them vp with salt. But for lingering of time we had made vs there the like prouision. [Sidenote: An Iland called Baccaloas, of the fish taken there.] Trending this coast, we came to the Iland called Baccalaos, being not past two leagues from the maine: to the South thereof lieth Cape S. Francis, 5. leagues distant from Baccalaos, between which goeth in a great bay by the vulgar sort called the bay of Conception. Here we met with the Swallow againe, whom we had lost in the fogge, and all her men altered into other apparell: whereof it seemed their store was so amended, that for ioy and congratulation of our meeting, they spared not to cast vp into the aire and ouerboord, their caps and hats in good plenty. The Captaine albeit himselfe was very honest and religious, yet was he not appointed of men to his humor and desert: who for the most part were such as had bene by vs surprised vpon the narrow seas of England, being pirats and had taken at that instant certaine Frenchmen laden, one barke with wines, and another with salt. Both which we rescued, and tooke the man of warre with all her men, which was the same ship now called the Swallow, following still their kind so oft, as (being separated from the Generall) they found opportunitie to robbe and spoile. And because Gods iustice did follow the same company, euen to destruction, and to the ouerthrow also of the Captaine (though not consenting to their misdemeanor) I will not conceale any thing that maketh to the manifestation and approbation of his iudgements, for examples of others, perswaded that God more sharpely tooke reuenge vpon them, and hath tolerated longer as great outrage in others: by how much these went vnder protection of his cause and religion, which was then pretended. [Sidenote: Misdemeanor of them in the Swallow.] Therefore vpon further enquiry it was knowen, how this company met with a barke returning home after the fishing with his fraight: and because the men in the Swallow were very neere scanted of victuall, and chiefly of apparell, doubtful withall where or when to find and meete with their Admiral, they besought the captaine they might go aboord this Newlander, only to borrow what might be spared, the rather because the same was bound homeward. Leaue giuen, not without charge to deale fauourably, they came aboord the fisherman, whom they rifled of tackle, sailes, cables, victuals, and the men of their apparell: not sparing by torture (winding cords about their heads) to draw out else what they thought good. This done with expedition (like men skilfull in such mischiefe) as they tooke their cocke boate to go aboord their own ship, it was ouerwhelmed in the sea, and certaine of these men were drowned: the rest were preserued euen by those silly soules whom they had before spoyled, who saued and deliuered them aboord the Swallow. What became afterward of the poore Newlander, perhaps destitute of sayles and furniture sufficient to carry them home (whither they had not lesse to runne then 700 leagues) God alone knoweth, who tooke vengeance not long after of the rest that escaped at this instant: to reueale the fact, and iustifie to the world Gods iudgements inflicted vpon them, as shal be declared in place conuenient. Thus after we had met with the Swallow, we held on our course Southward, vntill we came against the harbor called S. Iohn, about 5 leagues from the former Cape of S. Francis: where before the entrance into the harbor, we found also the Frigate or Squirrill lying at anker. Whom the English marchants (that were and alwaies be Admirals [Marginal note: English ships are the strongest and Admirals of other fleetes, fishing vpon the South parts of Newfound land.] by turnes interchangeably ouer the fleetes of fisherman within the same harbor) would not permit to enter into the harbor. Glad of so happy meeting both of the Swallow and Frigate in one day (being Saturday the 3. of August) we made readie our fights, and prepared to enter the harbor, any resistance to the contrarie notwithstanding, there being within of all nations, to the number of 36 sailes. But first the Generall dispatched a boat to giue them knowledge of his comming for no ill intent, hauing Commission from her Maiestie for his voiage he had in hand. And immediatly we followed with a slacke gale, and in the very entrance (which is but narrow, not aboue 2 buts length) the Admirall fell vpon a rocke on the larboard side by great ouersight, in that the weather was faire, the rocke much aboue water fast by the shore, where neither went any sea gate. But we found such readinesse in the English Marchants to helpe vs in that danger, that without delay there were brought a number of boates, which towed off the ship, and cleared her of danger. Hauing taken place conuenient in the road, we let fall ankers, the Captaines and Masters repairing aboord our Admirall: whither also came immediatly the Masters and owners of the fishing fleete of Englishmen to vnderstand the Generals intent and cause of our arriuall there. They were all satisfied when the General had shewed his commission, and purpose to take possession of those lands to the behalfe of the crowne of England, and the aduancement of Christian religion in those Paganish regions, requiring but their lawfull ayde for repayring of his fleete, and supply of some necessaries, so farre as might conueniently be afforded him, both out of that and other harbors adioyning. In lieu whereof, he made offer to gratifie them, with any fauour and priueledge, which vpon their better aduise they should demand, the like being not to be obteyned hereafter for greater price. So crauing expedition of his demand, minding to proceede further South without long detention in those partes, he dismissed them, after promise giuen of their best indeuour to satisfie speedily his so reasonable request. The marchants with their Masters departed, they caused forthwith to be discharged all the great Ordinance of their fleete in token of our welcome. [Sidenote: Good order taken by English marchants for our supply in Newfound land.] It was further determined that euery ship of our fleete should deliuer vnto the marchants and Masters of that harbour a note of all their wants: which done, the ships aswell English as strangers, were taxed at an easie rate to make supply. And besides, Commissioners were appointed, part of our owne companie and part of theirs, to go into other harbours adioyning (for our English marchants command all there) to leauie our prouision: whereunto the Portugals (aboue other nations) did most willingly and liberally contribute. Insomuch as we were presented (aboue our allowance) with wines, marmalads, most fine ruske or bisket, sweet oyles and sundry delicacies. Also we wanted not of fresh salmons, trouts, lobsters and other fresh fish brought daily vnto vs. Moreouer as the maner is in their fishing, euery weeke to choose their Admirall a new, or rather they succeede in orderly course, and haue weekely their Admirals feast solemnized: [Sidenote: Good entertainment in Newfound land.] euen so the General, Captaines and masters of our fleete were continually inuited and feasted. [Sidenote: No Sauages in the South part of Newfound land.] To grow short, in our abundance at home, the intertainment had bene delightfull, but after our wants and tedious passage through the Ocean, it seemed more acceptable and of greater contentation, by how much the same was vnexpected in that desolate corner of the world: where at other times of the yeare, wilde beasts and birds haue only the fruition of all those countries, which now seemed a place very populous and much frequented. The next morning being Sunday and the 4 of August, the Generall and his company were brought on land by English marchants, who shewed vnto vs their accustomed walks vnto a place they call the Garden. But nothing appeared more then Nature it selfe without art: who confusedly hath brought forth roses abundantly, wilde, but odoriferous, and to sense very comfortable. Also the like plentie of raspis berries, which doe grow in euery place. [Sidenote: Possession taken.] Monday following, the Generall had his tent set vp, who being accompanied with his own followers, summoned the marchants and masters, both English and strangers to be present at his taking possession of those Countries. Before whom openly was read and interpreted vnto the strangers his Commission: by vertue whereof he tooke possession in the same harbour of S. Iohn, and 200 leagues euery way, inuested the Queenes Maiestie with the title and dignitie thereof, had deliuered vnto him (after the custome of England) a rod and a turffe of the same soile, entring possession also for him, his heires and assignes for euer: And signified vnto al men, that from that time forward, they should take the same land as a territorie appertaining to the Queene of England, and himselfe authorised vuder her Maiestie to possesse and enioy it, And to ordaine lawes for the gouernement thereof, agreeable (so neere as conueniently might be) vnto the lawes of England: vnder which all people coming thither hereafter, either to inhabite, or by way of traffique, should be subiected and gouerned. [Sidenote: Three Lawes.] And especially at the same time for a beginning, he proposed and deliuered three lawes to be in force immediatly. That is to say: the first for Religion, which in publique exercise should be according to the Church of England. The 2. for maintenance of her Maiesties right and possession of those territories, against which if any thing were attempted preiudiciall the partie or parties offending should be adiudged and executed as in case of high treason, according to the lawes of England. The 3. if any person should vtter words sounding to the dishonour of her Maiestie, he should loose his eares, and haue his ship and goods confiscate. These contents published, obedience was promised by generall voyce and consent of the multitude aswell of Englishmen as strangers, praying for continuance of this possession and gouernement begun. After this, the assembly was dismissed. And afterward were erected not farre from that place the Armes of England ingrauen in lead, and infixed vpon a pillar of wood. [Sidenote: Actuall possession maintained in Newfound land.] Yet further and actually to establish this possession taken in the right of her Maiestie, and to the behoofe of Sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, his heires and assignes for euer: the Generall granted in fee farme diuers parcels of land lying by the water side, both in this harbor of S. Iohn, and elsewhere, which was to the owners a great commoditie, being thereby assured (by their proper inheritance) of grounds conuenient to dresse and to drie their fish, whereof many times before they did faile, being preuented by them that came first into the harbor. For which grounds they did couenant to pay a certaine rent and seruice vnto sir Humfrey Gilbert, his heires or assignes for euer, and yeerely to maintaine possession of the same, by themselues or their assignes. Now remained only to take in prouision granted, according as euery shippe was taxed, which did fish vpon the coast adioyning. [Sidenote: Men appointed to make search.] In the meane while, the Generall appointed men vnto their charge: some to repaire and trim the ships, others to attend in gathering togither our supply and prouisions: others to search the commodities and singularities of the countrey, to be found by sea or land, and to make relation vnto the Generall what eyther themselues could knowe by their owne trauaile and experience, or by good intelligence of English men or strangers, who had longest frequented the same coast. Also some obserued the eleuation of the pole, and drewe plats of the country exactly graded. And by that I could gather by each mans seuerall relation, I haue drawen a briefe description of the Newfoundland, with the commodities by sea or lande alreadie made, and such also as are in possibilitie and great likelihood to be made: Neuerthelesse the Cardes and plats that were drawing, with the due gradation of the harbors, bayes, and capes, did perish with the Admirall: wherefore in the description following, I must omit the particulars of such things. A briefe relation of the Newfound lande, and the commodities thereof. [Sidenote: New found land is al Islands or broken lands.] That which we doe call the Newfound land, and the Frenchmen Bacalaos, is an Iland, or rather (after the opinion of some) it consisteth of sundry Ilands and broken lands, situate in the North regions of America, vpon the gulfe and entrance of the great riuer called S. Laurence in Canada. Into the which, nauigation may be made both on the South and North side of this Iland. The land lyeth South and North, containing in length betweene three and 400 miles, accounting from cape Race (which is 46 degrees 25 minuts) vnto the Grand bay in 52 degrees of Septentrionall latitude. [Sidenote: Goodly roads and harbours.] The Iland round about hath very many goodly bayes and harbors, safe roads for ships, the like not to be found in any part of the knowen world. [Sidenote: New found land is inhabitable.] The common opinion that is had of intemperature and extreme cold that should be in this countrey, as of some part it may be verified, namely the North, where I grant it is more colde then in countries of Europe, which are vnder the same eleuation: euen so it cannot stand with reason and nature of the clime, that the South parts should be so intemperate as the brute hath gone. For as the same doe lie vnder the climats of Briton, Aniou, Poictou in France, betweene 46 and 49 degrees, so can they not so much differ from the temperature of those countries: vnlesse vpon the outcast lying open vnto the Ocean and sharper windes, it must in deede be subiect to more colde, then further within the land, where the mountaines are interposed, as walles and bulwarkes, to defend and to resist the asperitie and rigor of the sea weather. Some hold opinion, that the Newfound land might be the more subiect to cold, by how much it lyeth high and neere vnto the middle region. I grant that not in Newfound land alone, but in Germany Italy and Afrike, euen vnder the Equinoctiall line, the mountaines are extreme cold, and seldome vncouered of snow, in their culme and highest tops, which commeth to passe by the same reason that they are extended towards the middle region: yet in the countries lying beneth them, it is found quite contrary. [Sidenote: Cold by accidentall meanes.] Euen so all hils hauing their discents, the valleis also and low grounds must be likewise hot or temperate, as the clime doeth giue in Newfound land: though I am of opinion that the Sunnes reflection is much cooled, and cannot be so forcible in the Newfound land, nor generally throughout America, as in Europe or Afrike: by how much the Sunne in his diurnal course from East to West passeth ouer (for the most part) dry land and sandy countries, before he arriueth at the West of Europe or Afrike, whereby his motion increaseth heate, with little or no qualification by moyst vapours. Where, on the contrary he passeth from Europe and Afrike vnto America ouer the Ocean, from whence it draweth and carieth with him abundance of moyst vapours, which doe qualifie and infeeble greatly the Sunnes reuerberation vpon this countrey chiefly of Newfound land, being so much to the Northward. Neuerthelesse (as I sayd before) the cold cannot be so intollerable vnder the latitude of 46 47 and 48 (especiall within land) that it should be vnhabitable, as some do suppose, seeing also there are very many people more to the North by a great deale. And in these South parts there be certaine beastes, Ounces or Leopards, and birdes in like maner which in the Sommer we haue seene, not heard of in countries of extreme and vehement coldnesse. Besides, as in the monethes of Iune, Iuly, August and September, the heate is somewhat more then in England at those seasons: so men remaining vpon the South parts neere vnto Cape Race, vntill after Hollandtide, haue not found the cold so extreme, nor much differing from the temperature of England. Those which haue arriued there after November and December, haue found the snow exceeding deepe, whereat no maruaile, considering the ground vpon the coast, is rough and uneuen, and the snow is driuen into the places most declyning as the like is to be seene with vs. The like depth of snow happily shall not be found within land vpon the playner countries, which also are defended by the mountaines, breaking off the violence of winds and weather. But admitting extraordinary cold in those South parts, aboue that with vs here: it can not be as great as in Sweedland, much lesse in Moscouia or Russia: [Sidenote: Commodities.] yet are the same countries very populous, and the rigor and cold is dispensed with by the commoditie of Stoues, warme clothing, meats and drinkes: all which neede not be wanting in the Newfound land, if we had intent there to inhabite.[101] In the South parts we found no inhabitants, which by all likelihood haue abandoned those coastes, the same being so much frequented by Christians: But in the North are sauages altogether harmelesse. Touching the commodities of this countrie, seruing either for sustentation of inhabitants, or for maintenance of traffique, there are and may be made diuers: so that it seemeth Nature hath recompenced that only defect and incommodities of some sharpe cold, by many benefits: [Sidenote: Fish of sea and fresh water.] viz. With incredible quantitie, and no lesse varietie of kindes of fish in the sea and fresh waters, as Trouts, Salmons, and other fish to vs vnknowen: Also Cod, which alone draweth many nations thither, and is become the most famous fishing of the world. Abundance of Whales, for which also is a very great trade in the bayes of Placentia and the Grand bay, where is made Traine oiles of the Whale: Herring the largest that haue bene heard of, and exceeding the Malstrond[102] herring of Norway: but hitherto was neuer benefit taken of the herring fishing: There are sundry other fish very delicate, namely the Bonito, Lobsters, Turbut, with others infinite not sought after: Oysters hauing peare but not orient in colour: I tooke it by reason they were not gathered in season. Concerning the inland commodities, aswel to be drawen from this land, as from the exceeding large countries adioyning: there is nothing which our East and Northerly countries of Europe doe yeelde, but the like also may be made in them as plentifully by time and Industrie: Namely rosen, pitch, tarre, sopeashes, dealboord, mastes for ships, hides, furres, flaxe, hempe, corne, cordage, linnen-cloth, mettals and many more. All which the countries will aford, and the soyle is apt to yeelde. The trees for the most in those South parts are Firre trees Pine and Cypresse, all yeelding Gumme and Turpentine. Cherrie trees bearing fruit no bigger than a small pease. Also peare trees but fruitlesse. Other trees of some sorts to vs vnknowen. The soyle along the coast is not deepe of earth, bringing forth abundantly peason small, yet good feeding for cattell. Roses passing sweet, like vnto our muske roses in forme, raspases, a berry which we call Hurts, good and holesome to eat. The grasse and herbe doth fat sheepe in very short space, proued by English marchants which haue caried sheepe thither for fresh victuall and had them raised exceeding fat in lesse then three weekes. Peason which our countreymen haue sowen in the time of May, haue come vp faire, and bene gathered in the beginning of August, of which our Generall had a present acceptable for the rarenesse, being the first fruits comming vp by art and industrie in that desolate and dishabited land. Lakes or pooles of fresh water, both on the tops of mountaines and in the valies. In which are said to be muskles not vnlike to haue pearle, which I had put in triall, if by mischance falling vnto me, I had not bene letted from that and other good experiments I was minded to make. Foule both of water and land in great plentie and diuersitie. All kind of greene foule: Others as bigge as Bustards, yet not the same. A great white foule called by some a Gaunt. Vpon the land diuers sorts of haukes as Faulcons, and others by report: Partridges most plentifull larger than ours, gray and white of colour, and rough footed like doues, which our men after one flight did kill with cudgels, they were so fat and vnable to flie. Birds some like blackbirds, linnets, Canary birds, and other very small. Beasts of sundry kindes, red deare, buffles or a beast, as it seemeth by the tract and foote very large in maner of an oxe. Beares, ounces or leopards, some greater and some lesser, wolues, Foxes, which to the Northward a little further are black, whose furre is esteemed in some Countries of Europe very rich. Otters, beuers, and marternes: And in the opinion of most men that saw it, the Generall had brought vnto him a Sable aliue, which he sent vnto his brother sir John Gilbert knight of Deuonshire: but it was neuer deliuered, as after I vnderstood. [Sidenote: Newfound land doth minister commodities abundantly for art and industrie.] We could not obserue the hundreth part of creatures in those vnhabited lands: but these mentioned may induce vs to glorifie the magnificent God, who hath superabundantly replenished the earth with creatures seruing for the vse of man, though man hath not vsed a fifth part of the same, which the more doth aggrauate the fault and foolish slouth in many of our nation, chusing rather to liue indirectly, and very miserably to liue and die within this realme pestered with inhabitants, then to aduenture as becommeth men, to obtaine an habitation in those remote lands, in which Nature very prodigally doth minister vnto mens endeuours, and for art to worke vpon. For besides these alreadie recounted and infinite moe, the mountaines generally make shew of minerall substance: Iron very common, lead, and somewhere copper. I will not auerre of richer mettals: albeit by the circumstances following, more then hope may be conceiued thereof. For amongst other charges giuen to inquire but the singularities of this countrey, the Generall was most curious in the search of mettals, commanding the minerall man and refiner, especially to be diligent. The same was a Saxon borne, honest and religious, named Daniel. Who after search brought at first some sort of Ore, seeming rather to be yron then other mettal. [Sidenote: Siluer Ore brought vnto the Generall.] The next time he found Ore, which with no small shew of contentment he deliuered vnto the General, vsing prostestation, that if siluer were the thing which might satisfie the Generall and his followers, there it was, aduising him to seeke no further: the perill whereof he vndertooke vpon his life (as deare vnto him as the Crowne of England vnto her Maiestie, that I may vse his owne words) if it fell not out accordingly. My selfe at this instant liker to die then to liue, by a mischance, could not follow this confident opinion of our refiner to my owne satisfaction: but afterward demanding our Generals opinion therein, and to haue some part of the Ore, he replied: Content your selfe, I haue seene ynough, and were it but to satisfie my priuate humor, I would proceede no further. [Sidenote: Reasons why no further search was made for the siluer mine.] The promise vnto my friends, and necessitie to bring also the South countries within compasse of my Patent neere expired, as we haue alreadie done these North parts, do only perswade me further. And touching the Ore, I haue sent it aboord, whereof I would haue no speech to be made so long as we remaine within harbor: here being both Portugals, Biscains, and Frenchmen not farre off, from whom must be kept any bruit or muttering of such matter. When we are at sea proofe shalbe made: if it be to our desire, we may returne the sooner hither againe. Whose answere I iudged reasonable, and contenting me well: wherewith will I conclude this narration and description of the Newfound land, and proceede to the rest of our voyage, which ended tragically.[103] [Sidenote: Misdemeanour in our companie.] While the better sort of vs were seriously occupied in repairing our wants, and continuing of matters for the commoditie of our voyage: others of another sort and disposition were plotting of mischiefe. Some casting to steale away our shipping by night, watching opportunitie by the Generals and Captaines lying on the shore: whose conspiracies discouered, they were preuented. Others drew togither in company, and carried away out of the harbors adioyning, a ship laden with fish, setting the poore men on shore. A great many more of our people stole into the woods to hide themselues, attending time and meanes to returne home by such shipping as daily departed from the coast. Some were sicke of fluxes, and many dead: and in briefe, by one meanes or other our company was diminished, and many by the Generall licenced to returne home. Insomuch as after we had reuiewed our people, resolued to see an end of our voyage, we grewe scant of men to furnish all our shipping: it seemed good therefore vnto the Generall to leaue the Swallowe with such provision as might be spared for transporting home the sicke people. [Sidenote: God brought togither these men into the ship ordained to perish, who before had committed such outrage.] The Captaine of the Delight or Admirall returned into England, in whose stead was appointed Captaine Maurice Browne, before Captaine of the Swallow: who also brought with him into the Delight all his men of the Swallow, which before haue bene noted of outrage perpetrated and committed vpon fishermen there met at sea. [Sidenote: Why sir Humf. Gilbert went in the Frigate.] The Generall made choise to goe in his frigate the Squirrell (whereof the Captaine also was amongst them that returned into England) the same Frigate being most conuenient to discouer vpon the coast, and to search into euery harbor or creeke, which a great ship could not doe. Therefore the Frigate was prepared with her nettings and fights, and ouercharged with bases and such small Ordinance, more to giue a shew, then with iudgement to foresee vnto the safetie of her and the men, which afterward was an occasion also of their ouerthrow. [Sidenote: Liberalitie of the Portugals.] Now hauing made readie our shipping, that is to say, the Delight, the golden Hinde, and the Squirrell, and put aboord our prouision, which was wines, bread or ruske, fish wette and drie, sweete oiles: besides many other, as marmalades, figs, lymmons barrelled, and such like: Also we had other necessary prouision for trimming our ships, nets and lines to fish withall, boates or pinnesses fit for discouery. In briefe, we were supplied of our wants commodiously, as if we had bene in a Countrey or some Citie populous and plentifull of all things. [Sidenote: S. Iohns in 47 deg. 40 min.] We departed from this harbor of S. Iohns vpon Tuesday the twentieth of August, which we found by exact obseruation to be in 47 degrees 40 miuutes. And the next day by night we were at Cape Race, 25 leagues from the same harborough. This Cape lyeth South Southwest from S. Iohns: it is a low land, being off from the Cape about halfe a league: within the sea riseth vp a rocke against the point of the Cape, which thereby is easily knowen. [Sidenote: Cape Race in 46 degrees 25 minutes.] It is in latitude 46 degrees 25 minutes. [Sidenote: Fish large and plentifull.] Vnder this cape we were becalmed a small time, during which we layd out hookes and lines to take Codde, and drew in lesse then two houres, fish so large and in such abundance, that many dayes after we fed vpon no other prouision. From hence we shaped our course vnto the Island of Sablon, if conueniently it would so fall out, also directly to Cape Briton. [Sidenote: Cattell in the Isle of Sablon.] Sablon lieth to the sea-ward of Cape Briton about 25 leagues, whither we were determined to goe vpon intelligence we had of a Portugal, (during our abode in S. Iohns) who was himselfe present, when the Portugals (aboue thirty yeeres past) did put into the same Island both Neat and Swine to breede, which were since exceedingly multiplied. This seemed vnto vs very happy tidings, to haue in an Island lying so neere vnto the maine, which we intended to plant vpon, such store of cattell, whereby we might at all times conueniently be relieued of victuall, and serued of store for breed. In this course we trended along the coast, which from Cape Race stretcheth into the Northwest, making a bay which some called Trepassa. Then it goeth out againe toward the West, and maketh a point, which with Cape Race lieth in maner East and West. But this point inclineth to the North: to the West of which goeth in the bay of Placentia. [Sidenote: Good soile.] We sent men on land to take view of the soyle along this coast, whereof they made good report, and some of them had wil to be planted there. They saw Pease growing in great abundance euery where. The distance betweene Cape Race and Cape Briton is 87 leagues. In which Nauigation we spent 8 dayes, hauing many times the wind indifferent good; yet could we neuer attaine sight of any land all that time, seeing we were hindred by the current. At last we fell into such flats and dangers, that hardly any of vs escaped: where neuerthelesse we lost our Admiral with al the men and prouision, not knowing certainly the place. Yet for inducing men of skill to make coniecture, by our course and way we held from Cape Race thither (that thereby the flats and dangers may be inserted in sea Cards, for warning to others that may follow the same course hereafter) I haue set downe the best reckonings that were kept by expert men, William Cox Master of the Hind, and Iohn Paul his mate, both of Limehouse. Reckonings kept in our course from Cape Race towards Cape Briton, and the Island of Sablon, to the time and place where we lost our Admirall. August 22. {West, 14. leagues. {West and by South, 25. {Westnorthwest, 25. {Westnorthwest, 9. {Southsouthwest, 10. {Southwest, 12. {Southsouthwest, 10. August 29. {Westnorthwest, 12. Here we lost our Admiral. Summe of these leagues, 117. The reckoning of Iohn Paul masters mate from Cape Race. August 22. {West, 14. leagues. 23 {Northwest and by West, 9. 24 {Southwest and by South, 5. 25 {West and by South, 40. 26 {West and by North, 7. 27 {Southwest, 3. 28 {Southwest, 9. {Southwest, 7. {Westsouthwest, 7. 29 {Northwest and by West, 20. Here we lost our Admirall. Summe of all these leagues, 121. Our course we held in clearing vs of these flats was Eastsoutheast, and Southeast, and South 14 leagues with a marueilous scant winde. The maner how our Admirall was lost. [Sidenote: August 27.] Vpon Tewsday the 27 of August, toward the euening, our Generall caused them in his frigat to sound, who found white sande at 35. fadome, being then in latitude about 44 degrees. Wednesday toward night the wind came South, and wee bare with the land all that night, Westnorthwest, contrary to the mind of master Cox: neuerthelesse wee followed the Admirall, depriued of power to preuent a mischiefe, which by no contradiction could be brought to hold other course, alleaging they could not make the ship to worke better, nor to lie otherwaies. [Sidenote: Predictions before the wracke.] The euening was faire and pleasant, yet not without token of storme to ensue, and most part of this Wednesday night, like the Swanne that singeth before her death, they in the Admiral, or Delight, continued in sounding of Trumpets, with Drummes, and Fifes: also winding the Cornets, Haught boyes: and in the end of their iolitie, left with the battell and ringing of doleful knels. Towards the euening also we caught in the Golden Hinde a very mighty Porpose, with a harping yron, hauing first striken diuers of them, and brought away part of their flesh, sticking vpon the yron, but could recouer onely that one. These also passing through the Ocean, in heardes, did portend storme. I omit to recite friuolous reportes by them in the Frigat, of strange voyces, the same night, which scarred some from the helme. Thursday the 29 of August, the wind rose, and blew vehemently at South and by East, bringing withal raine, and thicke mist, so that we could not see a cable length before vs. [Sidenote: Losse of our Admirall.] And betimes in the morning we were altogether runne and folded in amongst flats and sands, amongst which we found shoale and deepe in euery three or foure shippes length, after wee began to sound: but first we were vpon them vnawares, vntill master Cox looking out, discerned (in his iudgement) white cliffes, crying (land) withal, though we could not afterward descrie any land, it being very likely the breaking of the sea white, which seemed to be white cliffes, through the haze and thicke weather. Immediatly tokens were giuen vnto the Delight, to cast about to seaward, which, being the greater ship, and of burden 120 tunnes, was yet formost vpon the breach, keeping so ill watch, that they knew not the danger before he felt the same, to late to recouer it: for presently the Admirall strooke a ground, and had soone after her sterne and hinder partes beaten in pieces: whereupon the rest (that is to say, the Frigat in which was the Generall and the Golden Hinde) cast about Eastsoutheast, bearing to the South, euen for our liues into the windes eye, because that way caried vs to the seaward. Making out from this danger, wee sounded one while seuen fadome, then fiue fadome, then foure fadome and lesse, againe deeper, immediatly foure fadome, then but three fadome, the sea going mightily and high. At last we recouered (God be thanked) in some despaire, to sea roome enough. In this distresse, wee had vigilant eye vnto the Admirall, whom we sawe cast away, without power to giue the men succour, neither could we espie any of the men that leaped ouerboord to saue themselues, either in the same Pinnesse or Cocke, or vpon rafters, and such like meanes, presenting themselues to men in those extremities: for we desired to saue the men by euery possible meanes. But all in vaine, sith God had determined their ruine: yet all that day, and part of the next, we beat vp and downe as neere vnto the wracke as was possible for vs, looking out, if by good hap we might espie any of them. This was a heavy and grieuous euent, to lose at one blow our chiefe shippe freighted with great prouision, gathered together with much trauell, care, long time, and difficultie. But more was the losse of our men, which perished to the number almost of a hundreth soules. [Sidenote: Stephanus Parmenius a learned Hungarian.] Amongst whom was drowned a learned man, an Hungarian, borne in the citie of Buda, called hereof Budæus, who of pietie and zeale to good attempts, aduentured in this action, minding to record in the Latine tongue, the gests and things worthy of remembrance, happening in this discouerie, to the honour of our nation, the same being adorned with the eloquent stile of this Orator, and rare Poet of our time. [Sidenote: Daniel a refiner of metal.] Here also perished our Saxon Refiner and discouerer of inestimable riches, as it was left amongst some of vs in vndoubted hope. No lesse heauy was the losse of the Captaine Maurice Browne, a vertuous, honest, and discreete Gentleman, ouerseene onely in liberty giuen late before to men, that ought to haue bene restrained, who shewed himselfe a man resolued, and neuer vnprepared for death, as by his last act of this tragedie appeared, by report of them that escaped this wracke miraculously, as shall bee hereafter declared. For when all hope was past of recouering the ship, and that men began to giue ouer, and to saue themselues, the Captaine was aduised before to ship also for his life, by the Pinnesse at the sterne of the ship: but refusing that counsell, he would not giue example with the first to leaue the shippe, but vsed all meanes to exhort his people not to despaire, nor so to leaue off their labour, choosing rather to die, then to incurre infamie, by forsaking his charge, which then might be thought to haue perished through his default, shewing an ill president vnto his men, by leauing the ship first himselfe. With this mind hee mounted vpon the highest decke, where hee attended imminent death, and vnauoidable; how long, I leaue it to God, who withdraweth not his comfort from his seruants at such times. [Sidenote: A wonderfull scape and deliuerance. A great distresse. A desperate resolution.] In the meane season, certaine, to the number of fourteene persons, leaped into a small Pinnesse (the bignes of a Thames barge, which was made in the New found land) cut off the rope wherewith it was towed, and committed themselues to Gods mercy, amiddest the storme, and rage of sea and windes, destitute of foode, not so much as a droppe of fresh water. The boate seeming ouercharged in foule weather with company, Edward Headly a valiant souldier, and well reputed of his companie, preferring the greater to the lesser, thought better that some of them perished then all, made this motion to cast lots, and them to bee throwen ouerboord vpon whom the lots fell, thereby to lighten the boate, which otherwayes seemed impossible to liue, offred himselfe with the first, content to take his aduenture gladly: which neuerthelesse Richard Clarke, that was Master of the Admirall, and one of this number, refused, aduising to abide Gods pleasure, who was able to saue all, as well as a few. [Sidenote: Two men famished.] The boate was caried before the wind, continuing sixe dayes and nights in the Ocean, and arriued at last with the men (aliue but weake) vpon the New found land, sauing that the foresayd Headly, (who had bene late sicke) and another called of vs Brasile, of his trauell into those Countries, died by the way, famished and lesse able to holde out, then those of better health. For such was these poore mens extremitie, in cold and wet, to haue no better sustenance then their own vrine, for sixe dayes together. Thus whom God deliuered from drowning, hee appointed to bee famished, who doth giue limits to mans times, and ordaineth the manner and circumstance of dying: whom againe he will preserue, neither Sea nor famine can confound. For those that arriued vpon the Newe found land, were brought into France by certaine French men, then being vpon that coast. After this heauie chance, wee continued in beating the sea vp and downe, expecting when the weadier would cleere vp, that we might yet beare in with the land, which we iudged not farre off, either the continent or some Island. For we many times, and in sundry places found ground at 50, 45, 40 fadomes, and lesse. The ground comming vpon our lead, being sometimes oazie sand, and otherwhile a broad shell, with a little sand about it. [Sidenote: Causes inforcing vs to returne home againe.] Our people lost courage dayly after this ill successe, the weather continuing thicke and blustering, with increase of cold, Winter drawing on, which tooke from them all hope of amendment, setling an assurance of worse weather to growe vpon vs euery day. The Leeside of vs lay full of flats and dangers ineuitable, if the wind blew hard at South. Some againe doubted we were ingulphed in the Bay of S. Laurence, the coast full of dangers, and vnto vs vnknowen. But aboue all, prouision waxed scant, and hope of supply was gone, with losse of our Admirall. Those in the Frigat were already pinched with spare allowance, and want of clothes chiefly: Whereupon they besought the Generall to returne for England, before they all perished. And to them of the Golden Hinde, they made signes of their distresse, pointing to their mouthes, and to their clothes thinne and ragged: then immediately they also of the Golden Hinde, grew to be of the same opinion and desire to returne home. The former reasons hauing also moued the Generall to haue compassion of his poore men, in whom he saw no want of good will, but of meanes fit to performe the action they came for, resolued vpon retire: and calling the Captaine and Master of the Hinde, he yeelded them many reasons, inforcing this vnexpected returne, withall protesting himselfe greatly satisfied with that hee had seene, and knew already. Reiterating these words. Be content, we haue seene enough, and take no care of expence past: I will set you foorth royally the next Spring, if God send vs safe home. Therefore I pray you let vs no longer striue here, where we fight against the elements. Omitting circumstance, how vnwillingly the Captaine and Master of the Hinde condescended to this motion, his owne company can testifie: yet comforted with the Generals promises of a speedie returne at Spring, and induced by other apparent reasons, prouing an impossibilitie, to accomplish the action at that time, it was concluded on all hands to retire. [Sidenote: August 31.] So vpon Saturday in the afternoone the 31 of August, we changed our course, and returned backe for England, [Sidenote: A monster of the sea.] at which very instant, euen in winding about, there passed along betweene vs and towards the land which we now forsooke a very lion to our seeming, in shape, hair and colour, not swimming after the maner of a beast by moouing of his feete, but rather sliding vpon the water with his whole body (excepting the legs) in sight, neither yet diuing vnder, and againe rising aboue the water, as the maner is, of Whales, Dolphins, Tunise, Torposes, and all other fish: but confidently shewing himselfe aboue water without hiding: Notwithstanding, we presented our selues in open view and gesture to amase him, as all creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he passed along turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide, with ougly demonstration of long teeth, and glaring eies, and to bidde vs a farewell (comming right against the Hinde) he sent forth a horrible voyce, roaring or bellowing as doeth a lion, which spectacle wee all beheld so farre as we were able to discerne the same, as men prone to wonder at euery strange thing, as this doubtlesse was, to see a lion in the Ocean sea, or fish in shape of a lion. What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly the Generall himselfe, I forbeare to deliuer: But he tooke it for Bonum Omen, reioycing that he was to warre against such an enemie, if it were the deuill. The wind was large for England at our returne, but very high, and the sea rough, insomuch as the Frigat wherein the Generall went was almost swalowed vp. [Sidenote: September 2.] Munday in the afternoone we passed in the sight of Cape Race, hauing made as much way in little more then two dayes and nights backe againe, as before wee had done in eight dayes from Cape Race, vnto the place where our ship perished. Which hindrance thitherward, and speed back againe, is to be imputed vnto the swift current, as well as to the winds, which we had more large in our returne. This Munday the Generall came aboord the Hind to haue the Surgeon of the Hind to dresse his foote, which he hurt by treading vpon a naile: At what time we comforted ech other with hope of hard successe to be all past, and of the good to come. So agreeing to cary out lights alwayes by night, that we might keepe together, he departed into his Frigat, being by no meanes to be intreated to tarie in the Hind, which had bene more for his security. Immediatly after followed a sharpe storme, which we ouerpassed for that time. Praysed be God. [Sidenote: Our last conference with our Generall.] The weather faire, the Generall came aboord the Hind againe, to make merrie together with the Captaine, Master and company which was the last meeting, and continued there from morning untill night. During which time there passed sundry discourses, touching affaires past, and to come, lamenting greatly the losse of his great ship, more of the men, but most of all of his bookes and notes, and what els I know not, for which hee was out of measure grieued, the same doubtles being some matter of more importance then his bookes, which I could not draw from him: yet by circumstance I gathered, the same to be the Ore which Daniel the Saxon had brought vnto him in the New found land. [Sidenote: Circumstances to be well obserued in our Generall, importing the Ore to be of a Siluer mine.] Whatsoeuer it was, the remembrance touched him so deepe, as not able to containe himselfe, he beat his boy in great rage, euen at the same time, so long after the miscarrying of the great ship, because vpon a faire day, when wee were becalmed vpon the coast of the New found land, neere vnto Cape Race, he sent his boy aboord the Admirall, to fetch certaine things: amongst which, this being chiefe, was yet forgotten and left behind. After which time he could neuer conueniently send againe aboord the great ship, much lesse hee doubted her ruine so neere at hand. Herein my opinion was better confirmed diursely, and by sundry coniectures, which maketh me haue the greater hope of this rich Mine. For where as the Generall had neuer before good conceit of these North parts of the world: now his mind was wholly fixed vpon the New found land. And as before he refused not to grant assignements liberally to them that required the same into these North parts, now he became contrarily affected, refusing to make any so large grants, especially of S. Iohns, which certaine English merchants made suite for, offering to imploy their money and trauell vpon the same: yet neither by their owne suite, nor of others of his owne company, whom he seemed willing to pleasure, it could be obtained. Also laying downe his determination in the Spring following, for disposing of his voyage then to be reattempted: he assigned the Captaine and Master of the Golden Hind, vnto the South discouery, and reserued vnto himselfe the North, affirming that this voyage had wonne his heart from the South, and that he was now become a Northerne man altogether. Last, being demanded what means he had at his arriuall in England, to compasse the charges of so great preparation as he intended to make the next Spring: hauing determined vpon two fleetes, one for the South, another for the North: Leaue that to mee (hee replied) I will aske a pennie of no man. I will bring good tidings vnto her Maiesty, who wil be so gracious, to lend me 10000 pounds, willing vs therefore to be of good cheere: for he did thanke God (he sayd) with al his heart, for that he had seene, the same being enough for vs all, and that we needed not to seeke any further. And these last words he would often repeate, with demonstration of great feruencie of mind, being himselfe very confident, and setled in beliefe of inestimable good by his voyage: which the greater number of his followers neuertheles mistrusted altogether, not being made partakers of those secrets, which the Generall kept vnto himselfe. Yet all of them that are liuing, may be witnesses of his words and protestations, which sparingly I have deliuered. Leauing the issue of this good hope vnto God, who knoweth the trueth only, and can at his good pleasure bring the same to light: I will hasten to the end of this tragedie, which must be knit vp in the person of our Generall. [Sidenote: Wilfulnes in the Generall.] And as it was Gods ordinance vpon him, euen so the vehement perswasion and intreatie of his friends could nothing auaile, to diuert him from a wilfull resolution of going through in his Frigat, which was ouercharged vpon their deckes, with fights, nettings, and small artillerie, too cumbersome for so small a boate, that was to passe through the Ocean sea at that season of the yere, when by course we might expect much storme of foule weather, whereof indeed we had enough. [Sidenote: A token of a good mind.] But when he was intreated by the Captaine, Master, and other his well willers of the Hinde, not to venture in the Frigat, this was his answere: I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom I haue passed so many stormes and perils. And in very trueth, hee was vrged to be so ouer hard, by hard reports giuen of him, that he was afraid of the sea, albeit this was rather rashnes, then aduised resolution, to preferre the wind of a vaine report to the weight of his owne life. Seeing he would not bend to reason, he had prouision out of the Hinde, such as was wanting aboord his Frigat. And so we committed him to Gods protection, and set him aboord his Pinnesse, we being more then 300 leagues onward of our way home. By that time we had brought the Islands of Açores South of vs, yet wee then keeping much to the North, vntill we had got into the height and eleuation of England: we met with very foule weather, and terrible seas, breaking short and high Pyramid wise. The reason whereof seemed to proceede either of hilly grounds high and low within the sea, (as we see hilles and dales vpon the land) vpon which the seas doe mount and fall: or else the cause proceedeth of diuersitie of winds, shifting often in sundry points: al which hauing power to moue the great Ocean, which againe is not presently setled, so many seas do encounter together, as there had bene diuersitie of windes. Howsoeuer it commeth to passe, men which all their life time had occupied the Sea, neuer saw more outragious Seas. We had also vpon our maine yard, an apparition of a little fire by night, which seamen doe call Castor and Pollux. But we had onely one, which they take an euill signe of more tempest: the same is vsuall in stormes. [Sidenote: A resolute and Christianlike saying in a distresse.] Munday the ninth of September, in the afternoone, the Frigat was neere cast away, oppressed by waues, yet at that time recouered: and giuing foorth signes of ioy, the Generall sitting abaft with a booke in his hand, cried out vnto vs in the Hind (so oft as we did approch within hearing) We are as neere to heauen by sea as by land. Reiterating the same speech, well beseeming a souldier, resolute in Iesus Christ, as I can testifie he was. [Sidenote: Sir Humfrey Gilbert drowned.] The same Monday night, about twelue of the clocke, or not long after, the Frigat being ahead of vs in the Golden Hinde, suddenly her lights were out, whereof as it were in a moment, we lost the sight, and withall our watch cryed, the Generall was cast away, which was so true. For in that moment, the Frigat was deuoured and swallowed vp of the Sea. Yet still we looked out all that night, and euer after, vntill wee arriued vpon the coast of England: Omitting no small saile at sea, vnto which we gaue not the tokens betweene vs, agreed vpon, to haue perfect knowledge of each other, if we should at any time be separated. [Sidenote: Arriuall in England of the Golden Hinde.] In great torment of weather, and perill of drowning, it pleased God to send safe home the Golden Hinde, which arriued in Falmouth, the 22 day of September, being Sunday, not without as great danger escaped in a flaw, comming from the Southeast, with such thicke mist, that we could not discerne land, to put in right with the Hauen. From Falmouth we went to Dartmouth, and lay there at anker before the Range, while the captaine went aland, to enquire if there had bene any newes of the Frigat, while sayling well, might happily haue bene there before vs. [Sidenote: A fit motion of the Captain vnto Sir Humfrey Gilbert.] Also to certifie Sir Iohn Gilbert, brother vnto the Generall of our hard successe, whom the Captaine desired (while his men were yet aboord him, and were witnesses of all occurents in that voyage,) It might please him to take the examination of euery person particularly, in discharge of his and their faithfull endeauour. Sir Iohn Gilbert refused so to doe, holding himselfe satisfied with report made by the Captaine: and not altogether dispairing of his brothers safetie, offered friendship and curtesie to the Captaine and his company, requiring to haue his barke brought into the harbour: in furtherance whereof, a boate was sent to helpe to tow her in. Neuerthelesse, when the Captaine returned aboord his ship, he found his men bent to depart, euery man to his home: and then the winde seruing to proceede higher vpon the coast: they demanded monie to carie them home, some to London, others to Harwich, and elsewhere, (if the barke should be caried into Dartmouth, and they discharged, so farre from home) or else to take benefite of the wind, then seruing to draw neerer home, which should be a lesse charge vnto the Captaine, and great ease vnto the men, hauing els farre to goe. Reason accompanied with necessitie perswaded the Captaine, who sent his lawfull excuse and cause of his sudden departure vnto Sir Iohn Gilbert, by the boate at Dartmouth, and from thence the Golden Hind departed, and tooke harbour at Waimouth. [Sidenote: An ill recompense.] Al the men tired with the tediousnes of so vnprofitable a voyage to their seeming: in which their long expence of time, much toyle and labour, hard diet and continuall hazard of life was vnrecompensed: their Captaine neuerthelesse by his great charges, impaired greatly thereby, yet comforted in the goodnes of God, and his vndoubted prouidence following him in all that voyage, as it doth alwaies those at other times, whosoeuer haue confidence in him alone. Yet haue we more neere feeling and perseuerance of his powerfull hand and protection, when God doth bring vs together with others into one same peril, in which he leaueth them, and deliuereth vs, making vs thereby the beholders, but not partakers of their ruine. Euen so, amongst very many difficulties, discontentments, mutinies, conspiracies, sicknesses, mortalitie, spoylings, and wracks by sea, which were afflictions, more then in so small a Fleete, or so short a time may be supposed, albeit true in euery particularitie, as partly by the former relation may be collected, and some I suppressed with silence for their sakes liuing, it pleased God to support this company, (of which onely one man died of a maladie inueterate, and long infested): the rest kept together in reasonable contentment and concord, beginning, continuing, and ending the voyage, which none els did accomplish, either not pleased with the action, or impatient of wants, or preuented by death. [Sidenote: Constancie in sir Humfrey Gilbert.] Thus haue I deliuered the contents of the enterprise and last action of sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, faithfully, for so much as I thought meete to be published: wherein may alwaies appeare, (though he be extinguished) some sparkes of his vertues, he remaining firme and resolute in a purpose by all pretence honest and godly, as was this, to discouer, possesse, and to reduce vnto the seruice of God, and Christian pietie, those remote and heathen Countreys of America, not actually possessed by Christians, and most rightly appertaining vnto the Crowne of England: vnto the which, as his zeale deserueth high commendation: euen so, he may iustly be taxed of temeritie and presumption (rather) in two respects. [Sidenote: His temeritie and presumption.] First, when yet there was onely probabilitie, not a certaine and determinate place of habitation selected, neither any demonstration of commoditie there in esse, to induce his followers: neuertheles, he both was too prodigall of his owne patrimony, and too careles of other mens expences, to imploy both his and their substance vpon a ground imagined good. The which falling, very like his associates were promised, and made it their best reckoning to bee salued some other way, which pleased not God to prosper in his first and great preparation. Secondly, when by his former preparation he was enfeebled of abilitie and credit, to performe his designements, as it were impatient to abide in expectation better opportunitie and meanes, which God might raise, he thrust himselfe againe into the action, for which he was not fit, presuming the cause pretended on Gods behalfe, would carie him to the desired ende. Into which, hauing thus made reentrie, he could not yeeld againe to withdraw though hee sawe no encouragement to proceed, lest his credite, foyled in his first attempt, in a second should vtterly be disgraced. Betweene extremities, hee made a right aduenture, putting all to God and good fortune, and which was worst refused not to entertaine euery person and meanes whatsoeuer, to furnish out this expedition, the successe whereof hath bene declared. But such is the infinite bountie of God, who from euery euill deriueth good. [Sidenote: Afflictions needfull in the children of God.] For besides that fruite may growe in time of our trauelling into those Northwest lands, the crosses, turmoiles, and afflictions, both in the preparation and execution of this voyage, did correct the intemperate humors, which before we noted to bee in this Gentleman, and made vnsauorie, and lesse delightful his other manifold vertues. Then as he was refined, and made neerer drawing vnto the image of God: so it pleased the diuine will to resume him vnto himselfe, whither both his, and euery other high and noble minde, haue alwayes aspired. * * * * * Ornatissimo viro, Magistro Richard Hakluyto Oxonij in Collegio ædis Christi, Artium et Philosophiæ Magistro, amico, et fratri suo. S. Non statueram ad te scribere, cùm in mentem veniret promissum literarum tuarum. Putabas te superiore iam Iunio nos subsecuturum. Itaque de meo statu ex doctore Humfredo certiorem te fieri iusseram. Verùm sic tibi non esset satisfactum. Itaque scribam ad te ijsdem ferè verbis, quia noua meditari et [Greek: sunonumixein] mihi hoc tempore non vacat. Vndecimo Iunij ex Anglia reuera tandem et seriò soluimus, portu et terra apud Plemuthum simul relictis. Classis quinque nauibus constabat: maxima, quam [Marginal note: Dominus Ralegh.] frater Amiralij accommodauerat, ignotum quo comsilio, statim tertio die à nobis se subduxit. Reliqui perpetuò coniunctim nauigauimus ad. 23. Iulij, quo tempore magnis nebulis intercepto aspectu alij aliam viam tenuimus: nobis seorsim prima terra apparuit ad Calendas Augusti, ad gradum circiter 50. cùm vltrà 41. paucis ante diebus descendissemus spe Australium ventorum, qui tamen nobis suo tempore nunquam spirauêre. [Sidenote: Insula penguin.] Insula est ea, quam vestri Penguin vocant, ab auium eiusdem nominis multitudine. Nos tamen nec aues vidimus, nec insulam accessimus, ventis aliò vocantibus. Cæterùm conuenimus omnes in eundum locum paulò ante portum in quem communi consilio omnibus veniendum erat, idqúe intra duas horas, magna Dei benignitate et nostro gaudio. Locus situs est in Newfoundlandia, inter 47. et 48. gradum, Diuum Ioannem vocant. Ipse Admiralius proter multitudinem hominum et angustiam nauis paulò afflictiorem comitatum habuit et iam duos dysentericis fioloribus amisit: de cæteris bona spes est. Ex nostris (nam ego me Mauricio Browno verè generoso iuueni me coniunxeram) duo etiam casu quodam submersi sunt. Cæteri salui et longè firmiores. Ego nunquam sanior. In hunc locum tertio Augusti appulimus: quinto autem ipse Admiralius has regiones in suam et regni Angliæ possessionem potestatemque vendicauit, latis quibusdam legibus de religione et obsequio Reginæ Angliæ. Reficimur hoc tempore paulò hilariùs et lautiùs. Certè enim et qualibus ventis vsi simus, et quàm fessi esse potuerimus tam longi temporis ratio docuerit, proinde nihil nobis deerit. Nam extra Anglos, 20 circiter naues Lusitanicas et Hispanicas nacti in hoc loco sumus: eæ nobis impares non patientur nas esurire. Angli etsi satis firmi, et à nobis tuli, authoritate regij diplomatis omni obsequio et humanitate prosequuntur. Nunc narrandi erant mores, regiones, et populi. Cæterùm quid narrem mi Hakluyte, quando præter solitudinem nihil video? Piscium inexhausta copia: inde huc commeantibus magnus quæstus. Vix hamus fumdum attigit, illicò insigni aliquo onustus est. Terra vniuersa [Marginal note: In the south side of Newefoundland, there is store of plaine and champion Countrey, as Richard Clarke found.] montana et syluestris: arbores vt plurimùm pinus: ex partim consenuêre, partim nunc adolescunt: magna pars vetustate collapsa, et aspectum terræ, et iter euntium ita impedit, vt nusquam progredi liceat. Herbæ omnes proceræ: sed rarò à nostris diuersæ. Natura videtur velle niti etiam ad generandum frumentum. Inueni enim gramina, et spicas in similitudinem secales: et facilè cultura et satione in vsum humanum assuefieri posse videntur. Rubi in syluis vel potiùs fraga arborescentia magna suauitate. Vrsi circa tuguria nonnunquam apparent, et conficiuntur: sed albi sunt, vt mihi ex peliibus coniicere licuit, et minores quàm nostri. Populus an vllus sit in hac regione incertum est: Nec vllum vidi qui testari posset. Et quis quæso posset, cùm ad longum progredi non liceat? Nee minùs ignotum est an aliquid metalli sub sit montibus. Causa eadem est, etsi aspectus eorum mineras latentes præ se ferat. Nos Admiralio authores fuimus syluas incendere, quo ad inspiciendam regionem spacium pateret: nec displicebat illi consilium, si non magnum incommodum allaturum videretur. [Sidenote: The great heate of the sunne in summer.] Confirmatum est enim ab idoneis hominibus, cum casu quopiam in alia nescio qua statione id accidisset, septennium totum pisces non comparuisse, ex acerbata maris vnda ex terebynthina, quæ conflagrantibus arboribus per riuulos defluebat. Coelum hoc anni tempore ita feruidum est, vt nisi pisces, qui arefiunt ad solem, assidui inuertantur, ab adustione defendi non possint. Hyeme quàm frigidum sit, magnæ moles glaciei in medio mari nos docuere. Relatum est à comitibus mense Maio sexdecim totos dies interdum se inter tantam glaciem hæsisse, vt 60. orgyas altæ essent insulæ: quarum latera soli apposita cum liquescerent, liberatione quadam vniuersam molem ita inuersam, vt quòd ante pronum erat, supinum euaderet, magno præsentium discrimine, vt consentaneum est. Aer in terra mediocriter clarus est: ad orientem supra mare perpetuæ nebulæ: Et in ipso mari circa Bancum (sic vocant locum vbi quadraginta leucis à terra fundus attingitur, et pisces capi incipiunt) nullus ferme dies absque pluuia. Expeditis nostris necessitatibus in hoc loco, in Austrum (Deo iuuante) progrediemur, tantò indies maiori spe, quò plura de iis quas petimus regionibus commemorantur. Hæc de nostris. Cupio de vobis scire: sed metuo ne incassum. Imprimis autem quomodo Vntonus meus absentiam meam ferat, præter modum intelligere velim: Habebit nostrum obsequium et officium paratum, quandiu vixerimus. Reuera autem spero, hanc nostram peregrinationem ipsius instituo vsui futuram. Nunc restat, vt me tuum putes, et quidem ita tuum, vt neminem magis. Iuuet dei filius labores nostros eatenus, vt tu quoque participare possis. Vale amicissime, suauissime, onrnatissime Hakluyle, et nos ama. In Newfundlandia apud portum Sancti Iohannis 6. Augusti 1583. STEPHANVS PARMENIVS Budeius, tuus. The same in English. To the worshipfull, Master Richard Hakluit at Oxford in Christchurch Master of Arts, and Philosophie, his friend and brother. I had not purposed to write vnto you, when the promise of your letters came to my mind: You thought in Iune last to haue followed vs your selfe, and therefore I had left order that you should be aduertised of my state, by Master Doctor Humfrey: but so you would not be satisfied: I will write therefore to you almost in the same words, because I haue no leasure at this time, to meditate new matters, and to vary or multiply words. The 11. of Iune we set saile at length from England in good earnest, and departed leauing the hauen and land behind vs at Plimmouth: our Fleete consisted of fiue shippes: the greatest, which the Admirals brother had lent vs, withdrew her selfe from vs the third day, wee know not vpon what occassion: with the rest we sailed still together till the 23 of Iuly: at which time our view of one another being intercepted by the great mists, some of vs sailed one way, and some another: to vs alone the first land appeared, the first of August, about the latitude of 50. degrees, when as before we had descended beyond 41 degrees in hope of some Southerly windes, which notwithstanding neuer blew to vs at any fit time. It is an Island which your men call Penguin, because of the multitude of birdes of the same name. Yet wee neither sawe any birds, nor drew neere to the land, the winds seruing for our course directed to another place, but wee mette altogether at that place a little before the Hauen, whereunto by common Councell we had determined to come, and that within the space of two houres by the great goodnesse of God, and to our great ioy. The place is situate in Newfound land, betweene 47. and 48. degres called by the name of Saint Iohns: the Admirall himselfe by reason of the multitude of the men, and the smalnesse of his ship, had his company somewhat sickly, and had already lost two of the same company, which died of the Flixe: of the rest we conceiue good hope. Of our company (for I ioyned my selfe with Maurice Browne, a very proper Gentleman) two persons by a mischance were drowned, the rest are in safetie, and strong; for mine owne part I was neuer more healthy. Wee arriued at this place the third of August: and the fift the Admirall tooke possession of the Countrey, for himselfe and the kingdome of England: hauing made and published certaine Lawes, concerning religion, and obedience to the Queene of England: at this time our fare is somewhat better, and dantier, then it was before: for in good sooth, the experience of so long time hath taught vs what contrary winds wee haue found, and what great trauell wee may endure hereafter: and therefore wee will take such order, that wee will want nothing: for we found in this place about twenty Portugall and Spanish shippes, besides the shippes of the English: which being not able to match vs, suffer vs not to bee hunger starued: the English although they were of themselues strong ynough, and safe from our force, yet seeing our authoritie, by the Queenes letters patents, they shewed vs all maner of duety and humanitie. The maner of this Countrey and people remaine now to be spoken of. But what shall I say, my good Hakluyt, when I see nothing but a very wildernesse: Of fish here is incredible abundance, whereby great gaine growes to them, that trauell to these parts: the hooke is no sooner throwne out, but it is eftsoones drawne vp with some goodly fish: the whole land is full of hilles and woods. The trees for the most part are Pynes and of them some are very olde, and some yong: a great part of them being fallen by reason of their age, doth so hinder the sight of the land, and stoppe the ways of those that seeke to trauell, that they can goe no whither: all the grasse here is long, and tall, and little differeth from ours. It seemeth also that the nature of this soyle is fit for corne: for I found certaine blades and eares in a manner bearded, so that it appeareth that by manuring and sowing, they may easily be framed for the vse of man: here are in the woodes bush berries, or rather straw berries growing vp like trees, of great sweetnesse. Beares also appeare about the fishers stages of the Countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they seeme to bee white, as I conjectured by their skinnes, and somewhat lesse then ours. Whether there bee any people in the Countrey I knowe not, neither haue I seene any to witnesse it. And to say trueth, who can, when as it is not possible to passe any whither: In like sort it is vnknowne, whither any mettals lye vnder the hilles: the cause is all one, although the very colour and hue of the hilles seeme to haue some Mynes in them: we mooued the Admirall to set the woods a fire, that so wee might haue space, and entrance to take view of the Countrey, which motion did nothing displease him, were it not for feare of great inconuenience that might thereof insue: for it was reported and confirmed by very credible persons, that when the like happened by chance in another Port, the fish neuer came to the place about it, for the space of 7. whole yeeres after, by reason of the waters made bitter by the Turpentine, and Rosen of the trees, which ranne into the riuers vpon the firing of them. The weather is so hote this time of the yeere, that except the very fish, which is layd out to be dryed by the sunne, be euery day turned, it cannot possibly bee preserued from burning; but how cold it is in the winter, the great heapes, and mountaines of yce, in the middest of the Sea haue taught vs: some of our company report, that in May, they were sometimes kept in, with such huge yce, for 16. whole dayes together, as that the Islands thereof were threescore fathoms thicke, the sides whereof which were toward the Sunne, when they were melted, the whole masse or heape was so inuened and turned in maner of balancing, that that part which was before downeward rose vpward, to the great perill of those that are neere them, as by reason wee may gather. The ayre vpon land is indifferent cleare, but at Sea towards the East there is nothing els but perpetuall mists, and in the Sea it selfe, about the Banke (for so they call the place where they find ground fourty leagues distant from the shore, and where they beginne to fish) there is no day without raine. When we haue serued, and supplied our necessitie in this place, we purpose by the helpe of God to passe towards the South, with so much the more hope every day, by how much the greater the things are, that are reported of those Countreys, which we go to discouer. Thus much touching our estate. Now I desire to know somewhat concerning you, but I feare in vaine, but specially I desire out of measure to know how my Patrone master Henry Vmptom doth take my absence: my obedience, and duetie shall alwayes bee ready toward him as long as I liue: but in deede I hope, that this iourney of ours shalbe profitable to his intentions. It remaineth that you thinke me to be still yours, and so yours as no mans more. The sonne of God blesse all our labors, so farre, as that you your selfe may be partaker of our blessing. Adieu, my most friendly, most sweete, most vertuous Hakluyt: In Newfound land, at Saint Iohns Port, the 6. of August, 1583. STEVEN PARMENIVS of Buda, yours. * * * * * A relation of Richard Clarke of Weymouth, master of the ship called the Delight, going for the discouery of Norembega, with Sir Humfrey Gilbert 1583. Written in excuse of that fault of casting away the ship and men, imputed to his ouersight. Departing out of Saint Iohns Harborough in the Newfound land the 20. of August vnto Cape Raz, from thence we directed our course vnto the Ile of Sablon or the Isle of Sand, which the Generall Sir Humfrey Gilbert would willingly haue seene. [Sidenote: 20 Leagues from the Isle of Sablon.] But when we came within twentie leagues of the Isle of Sablon, we fell to controuersie of our course. The Generall came vp in his Frigot and demanded of mee Richard Clarke master of the Admirall what course was best to keepe: I said that Westsoutwest was best: because the wind was at South and night at hand and vnknowen sands lay off a great way from the land. The Generall commanded me to go Westnorthwest. [Sidenote: 15 Leagues from the Isle of Sablon.] I told him againe that the Isle of Salon was Westnorthwest and but 15. leagues off; and that he should be vpon the Island before day, if hee went that course. The Generall sayd, my reckoning was vntrue, and charged me in her Maiesties name, and as I would shewe myselfe in her Countrey to follow him that night. [Sidenote: Herin Clarke vntruely chargeth sir Humfrey Gilbert.] I fearing his threatenings, because he presented her Maiesties person, did follow his commaundement, and about seuen of the clocke in the morning the ship stroke on ground, where shee was cast away. Then the Generall went off to Sea, the course that I would haue had them gone before, and saw the ship cast away men and all, and was not able to saue a man, for there was not water vpon the sand for either of them much lesse the Admirall, that drew fourteene foote. [Sidenote: The ship cast away on Thursday being the 29 of August 1583.] Now as God would the day before it was very calme, and a Souldier of the ship had killed some foule with his piece, and some of the company desired me that they might hoyse out the boat to recouer the foule, which I granted them: and when they came aboord they did not hoyse it in againe that night. And when the ship was cast away the boate was a sterne being in burthen one tunne and an halfe: there was left in the boate one oare and nothing els. Some of the company could swimme, and recouered the boate and did hale in out of the water as many men as they coulde: among the rest they had a care to watch for the Captaine or the Master: They happened on my selfe being the master, but could neuer see the Captaine: [Sidenote: Sixteene gate into the shipboate.] Then they halled into the boate as many men as they could in number 16. whose names hereafter I will rehearse. And when the 16. were in the boate, some had small remembrance, and some had none: for they did not make account to liue, but to prolong their liues as long as it pleased God, and looked euery moment of an houre when the Sea would eate them vp, the boate being so little and so many men in her, and so foule weather, that it was not possible for a shippe to brooke halfe a course of sayle. Thus while wee remayned two dayes and two nights, and that wee saw it pleased God our boate liued in the Sea (although we had nothing to helpe vs withall but one oare, which we kept vp the boate withall vpon the Sea, and so went euen as the Sea would driue vs) there was in our company one Master Hedly that put foorth this question to me the Master. [Sidenote: Master Hedlyes vngodly proposition.] I doe see that it doth please God, that our boate lyueth in the Sea, and it may please God that some of vs may come to the land if our boate were not ouerladen. Let vs make sixteene lots, and those foure that haue the foure shortest lots we will cast ouerboord preseruing the Master among vs all. I replied vnto him, saying, no we will liue and die together. Master Hedley asked me if my remembrance were good: I answered I gaue God prayse it was good, and knewe how farre I was off the land, and was in hope to come to the land within two or three dayes, and sayde they were but threescore leagues from the lande, (when they were seuentie) all to put them in comfort. Thus we continued the third and fourth day without any sustenance, saue onely the weedes that swamme in the Sea, and salt water to drinke. The fifth day Hedly dyed and another moreouer: then wee desired all to die: for in all these fiue dayes and fiue nights we saw the Sunne but once and the Starre but one night, it was so foule weather. Thus we did remaine the sixt day: then we were very weake and wished all to die sauing only my selfe which did comfort them and promised they should come soone to lande by the helpe of God: but the company were very importunate, and were in doubt they should neuer come to land, but that I promised them that the seuenth day they should come to shore, or els they should cast me ouer boord: [Sidenote: They came on land the 7 day after their shipwracke.] which did happen true the seuenth day, for at eleuen of the clocke wee had sight of the land, and at 3. of the clocke at afternoone we came on land. All these seuen dayes and seuen nights, the wind kept continually South. If the wind had in the meanetime shifted vpon any other point, wee had neuer come to land: we were no sooner come to the land, but the wind came cleane contrary at North within halfe an houre after our arriuall. But we were so weake that one could scarcely helpe another of vs out of the boate, yet with much adoe being come all on shore we kneeled downe ypon our knees and gaue God praise that he had dealt so mercifully with vs. Afterwards those which were strongest holpe their fellowes vnto a fresh brooke, where we satisfied our selues with water and berries very well. [Sidenote: The fruitfulnesse of the south part of Newfound land.] There were of al sorts of berries plentie, and as goodly a Countrey as euer I saw: we found a very faire plaine Champion ground that a man might see very farre euery way: by the Sea side was here and there a little wood with goodly trees as good as euer I saw any in Norway, able to mast any shippe, of pyne trees, spruse trees, firre, and very great birch trees. Where we came on land we made a little house with boughes, where we rested all that night. In the morning I deuided the company three and three to goe euery way to see what foode they could find to sustaine thenselues, and appointed them to meete there all againe at noone with such foode as they could get. As we went aboord we found great store of peason as good as any wee haue in England: a man would thinke they had bene sowed there. We rested there three dayes and three nights and liued very well with pease and berries, wee named the place Saint Laurence, because it was a very goodly riuer like the riuer of S. Laurence in Canada, and we found it very full of Salmons. When wee had rested our selues wee rowed our boate along the shore, thinking to haue gone to the Grande Bay to haue come home with some Spanyards which are yeerely there to kill the Whale: And when we were hungry or a thirst we put our boate on land and gathered pease and berries. Thus wee rowed our boate along the shore fiue dayes: about which time we came to a very goodly riuer that ranne farre vp into the Countrey and saw very goodly growen trees of all sortes. [Sidenote: Foureteen of our men brought out of Newfound land in a ship of S. Iohn de Luz.] There we happened vpon a ship of Saint Iohn de Luz, which ship brought vs into Biskay to an Harborough called The Passage. The Master of the shippe was our great friend, or else we had bene put to death if he had not kept our counsayle. For when the visitors came aboord, as it is the order in Spaine, they demanding what we were, he sayd we were poore fishermen that had cast away our ship in Newfound land and so the visitors inquired no more of the matter at that time. Assoone as night was come he put vs on land and bad vs shift for our selues. Then had wee but tenne or twelue miles into France, which we went that night, and then cared not for the Spanyard. And so shortly after we came into England toward the end of the yeere 1583. * * * * * A true report of the late discoueries, and possession taken in the right of the Crowne of England of the Newfound lands, By that valiant and worthy Gentlemen, Sir Humfrey Gilbert, Knight. Wherein is also briefly set downe, her highnesse lawfull Title thereunto, and the great and manifold commodities, that are likely to grow therby, to the whole Realme in generall, and to the aduenturers in particular: Together with the easinesse and shortness of the Voyage. Written by Sir George Peckham Knight, the chiefe aduenturer and furtherer of Sir Humfrey Gilberts voyage to Newfound Land. The first Part, wherein the Argument of the Booke is contained. [Sidenote: Master Edward Hays.] It was my fortune (good Reader) not many dayes past, to meete with a right honest and discreete Gentleman, who accompanied that valiant and worthy Knight Sir Humfrey Gilbert, in this last iourney for the Westerne discoueries, and is owner and Captaine of the onely vessell which is as yet returned from thence. By him I vnderstand that Sir Humfrey departed the coast of England the eleuenth of Iune last past, with fiue sayle of Shippes, from Caushen bay neere Plimmouth, whereof one of the best forsooke his company, the thirteenth day of the same moneth, and returned into England. The other foure (through the assistance of Almighty God) did arriue at Saint Iohns Hauen, in Newfoundland, the 3. of August last. [Sidenote: Sir Humfrey Gilbert did arriue at Saint Iohn's Hauen in Newfound land, the 3. of August, Anno 1583.] Vpon whose arriuall all the Masters and chiefe Mariners of the English Fleet, which were in the said Hauen, before endeuouring to fraight themselues with fish, repaired vnto Sir Humfrey, whom he made acquainted with the effect of his Commission: which being done, he promised to intreat them and their goods well and honourably as did become her Maiesties Lieutenant. They did all welcome him in the best sort that they could, and shewed him and his all such courtesies as the place could affoord or yeelde. Then he went to view the Countrey, being well accompanied with most of his Captaines and souldiers. [Sidenote: Among these there was found the tract of a beast of 7. ynches and 2 halfe ouer.]They found the same very temperate, but somewhat warmer then England at that season of the yeere, replenished with Beasts and great store of Foule of diuers kinds: And Fish of sundry sortes, both in the salt water, and in the fresh, in so great plentie as might suffice to victuall an Armie, and they are very easily taken. What sundry other commodities for this Realme right neccssarie, the same doeth yeelde, you shall vnderstand in this treatise hereafter, in place more conuenient. On Munday being the fifth of August, the Generall caused his tent to be set vpon the side of an hill, in the vieweof all the Fleete of English men and strangers, which were in number betweene thirtie and fourtie sayle: then being accompanied with all his Captaines, Masters, Gentlemen and other souldiers, he caused all the Masters, and principall Officers of the ships, aswell Englishmen as Spanyards, Portugales, and of other nations, to repayre vnto his tent: [Sidenote: Sir Humfrey tooke possession of the Newfound land in right of the Crowne of England.] And then and there, in the presence of them all, he did cause his Commission vnder the great scale of England to bee openly and solemnely read vnto them, whereby were granted vnto him, his heires, and assignes, by the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, many great and large royalties, liberties, and priueledges. The effect whereof being signified vnto the strangers by an Interpreter, hee tooke possession of the sayde land in the right of the Crowne of England by digging of a Turffe and receiuing the same with an Hassell wand, deliuered vnto him, after the maner of the law and custome of England. Then he signified vnto the company both strangers and others, that from thencefoorth, they were to liue in that land, as the Territories appertayning to the Crowne of England, and to be gouerned by such lawes as by good aduise should be set downe, which in all points (so neere as might be) should be agreeable to the Lawes of England: And for to put the same in execution, presently be ordained and established three Lawes. [Sidenote: Three lawes established there by Sir Humfrey.] First, that Religion publiquely exercised, should be such, and none other, then is vsed in the Church of England. The second, that if any person should bee lawfully conuicted of any practise against her Maiestie, her Crowne and dignitie, to be adiudged as traitors according to the lawes of England. The third, if any should speake dishonourably of her Maiestie, the partie so offending, to loose his eares, his ship and goods, to be confiscate to the vse of the Generall. All men did very willingly submit themselues to these lawes. Then he caused the Queenes Majesties Armes to be ingraued, set vp, and erected with great solemnitie. [Sidenote: Sundry persons became Tenants to Sir Humfrey and doe mainteine possession for him in diuers places there.] After this, diuers Englishmen made sute vnto Sir Humfrey to haue of him by inheritance, their accustomed stages, standings, and drying places, in sundry places of that land for their fish, as a thing they doe make great accompt of, which he granted vnto them in fee farme. And by this meanes he hath possession maintained for him, in many parts of that Countrey. To be briefe, he did let, set, giue and dispose of many things, as absolute Gouernour there, by vertue of her Maiesties letters patents. And after their ships were repaired, whereof one he was driuen to leaue behind, both for want of men sufficient to furnish her, as also to carrie home such sicke persons as were not able to proceede any further: He departed from thence the 20 of August, with the other three, namely, the Delight, wherein was appointed Captaine in M. William Winters place, (that thence returned immediatly for England) M. Maurice Browne: the Golden Hinde, in which was Captaine and owner, M. Edward Hays: and the little Frigat where the Generall himselfe did goe seeming to him most fit to discouer and approch the shore. The 21 day they came to Cape Race, toward the South partes whereof, lying a while becalmed, they tooke Cod in largness and quantitie, exceeding the other parts of Newfound land, where any of them had bene. And from thence, trending the coast West toward the Bay of Placentia, the Generall sent certaine men a shore, to view the Countrey, which to them as they sayled along, seemed pleasant. Whereof his men at their returne gaue great commendation, liking so well of the place, as they would willingly haue stayed and wintred there. But hauing the wind faire and good, they proceeded on their course towards the firme of America, which by reason of continuall fogs, at that time of the yeere especially, they could neuer see, till Cox Master of the Golden Hinde did discerne land, and presently lost sight thereof againe, at what time they were all vpon a breach in a great and outragious storme, hauing vnder 3. fathome water. But God deliuered the Frigat and the Golden Hind, from this great danger. And the Delight in the presence of them all was lost, to their vnspeakable griefe, with all their chiefe victuall, munition, and other necessary prouisions, and other things of value not fit here to be named. Whereupon, by reason also that Winter was come vpon them, and foule weather increased with fogs and mists that so couered the land, as without danger of perishing they could not approch it: Sir Humfrey Gilbert and M. Hays were compelled much against their willes to retyre homewards: And being 300. leagues on their way, were after by tempestuous weather separated the one from the other, the ninth of September last, since which time M. Hays with his Barke is safely arriued, but of Sir Humfrey as yet they heare no certaine newes. [Sidenote: Plutarch.] Vpon this report (together with my former intent to write some briefe discourse in the commendation of this so noble and worthy an enterprise) I did call to my remembrance, the Historie of Themystocles the Grecian, who (being a right noble and valiant Captaine) signified vnto his Countreymen the Citizens of Athens, that he had inuented a deuise for their common wealth very profitable: but it was of such importance and secrecie, that it ought not to be reuealed, before priuate conference had with some particular prudent person of their choyse. The Athenians knowing Aristides the Philosopher, to be a man indued with singular wisedome and vertue, made choyse of him to haue conference with Themystocles, and thereupon to yeelde his opinion to the Citizens concerning the said deuise: which was, that they might set on fire the Nauie of their enemies, with great facilitie, as he had layde the plot: Aristides made relation to the Citizens, that the stratageme deuised by Themystocles was a profitable practise for the common wealth but it was dishonest. The Athenians (without further demaund what the same was) did by common consent reiect and condemne it, preferring honest and vpright dealing before profite. By occasion of this Historie, I drewe my selfe into a more deepe consideration of this late vndertaken Voyage, whether it were as well pleasing to almightie God, as profitable to men; as lawfull, as it seemed honourable: as well gratefull to the Sauages as gainefull to the Christians. And vpon mature deliberation I found the action to be honest and profitable, and therefore allowable by the opinion of Aristides if he were now aliue: which being by me herein sufficiently prooued, (as by Gods grace I purpose to doe) I doubt not but that all good mindes will endeauour themselues to be assistants to this so commendable an enterprise, by the valiant and worthy Gentlemen our Countrey men already attempted and vndertaken. Now whereas I doe vnderstand that Sir Himfrey Gilbert his adherents, associates and friends doe meane with a conuenient supply (with as much speede as may be) to maintaine, pursue and follow this intended voyage already in part perfourmed, and (by the assistance of almightie God) to plant themselues and their people in the continent of the hither part of America, betweene the degrees of 30. and 60. of septentrionall latitude: Within which degrees by computation Astronomicall and Cosmographicall are doubtlesse to bee found all things that be necessarie, profitable, or delectable for mans life: The clymate milde and temperate, neyther too hote nor too colde, so that vnder the cope of heauen there is not any where to be found a more conuenient place to plant and inhabite in: which many notable Gentlemen, both [Marginal note: Englishmen, Msster Iohn Hawkins; Sir Francis Drake; M. Willliam Winter; M. Iohn Chester; M. Martin Frobisher; Anhony Parkhurst; William Battes; Iohn Louel; Dauid Ingram. Strangers, French, Iohn Ribault; Iaques Cartier; Andrew Theuet; Monsieur Gourgues: Monsieur Laudonniere. Italians, Christopher Columbus; Ioha Verazanus.] of our owne nation and strangers, (who haue bene trauailers) can testifie: and that those Countries are at this day inhabited with Sauages (who haue no knowledge of God:) Is it not therefore (I say) to be lamented, that these poore Pagans, so long liuing in ignorance and idolatry, and in sort thirsting after Christianitie, (as may appeare by the relation of such as haue trauailed in those partes) that our heartes are so hardened, that fewe or none can be found which will put to their helping hands, and apply themselues to the relieuing of the miserable and wretched estate of these sillie soules? Whose Countrey doeth (as it were with armes aduanced) aboue the climates both of Spaine and France, stretch out it selfe towards England only: In maner praying our ayde and helpe, as it is not not onely set forth in Mercators generall Mappe, but it is also found to be true by the discouerie of our nation, and other strangers, who haue oftentimes trauailed vpon the same coasts. [Sidenote: God doth not alwayes begin his greatest workes by the greatest persons.] Christopher Columbus of famous memorie, the first instrument to manifest the great glory and mercy of Almightie God in planting the Christian faith, in those so long vnknowen regions, hauing in purpose to acquaint (as he did) that renoumed Prince, the Queenes Majesties grandfather King Henry the seuenth, with his intended voyage for the Westerne discoueries, was not onely derided and mocked generally even here in England, but afterward became a laughing stocke to the Spaniards themselues, who at this day (of all other people) are most bounden to laude and prayse God, who first stirred vp the man to that enterprise. And while he was attending there to acquaint the King of Castile (that then was) with his intended purpose, by how many wayes and meanes was he derided? [Sidenote: His custome was to bowe himselfe very lowe in making of courtesie.] Some scorned the wildnesse of his garments, some tooke occasion to iest at his simple and silly lookes, others asked if this were he that lowts so lowe,[104] which did take vpon him to bring men into a Countrey that aboundeth with Golde, Pearle, and Precious stones? If hee were any such man (sayd they) he would cary another matter of countenance with him, and looke somewhat loftier. Thus some iudged him by his garments, and others by his looke and countenance, but none entred into the consideration of the inward man. [Sidenote: Hernando Cortes. Francisco Pizarro.] In the ende, what successe his Voyage had, who list to reade the Decades, the Historie of the West Indies, the conquest of Hernando Cortes about Mexico, and those of Francisco Pizarro in Peru about Casamalcha and Cusco may know more particularly. All which their discoueries, trauailes and conquests are extant to be had in the English tongue. This deuise was then accounted a fantasticall imagination, and a drowsie dreame. But the sequele thereof hath since awaked out of dreames thousands of soules to knowe their Creator, being thereof before that time altogether ignorant: And hath since made sufficient proofe, neither to be fantasticke nor vainely imagined. Withall, how mightily it hath enlarged the dominions of the Crowne of Spaine, and greatly inriched the subiects of the same, let all men consider. Besides, it is well knowen, that sithence the time of Columbus his first discouerie, through the planting, possessing, and inhabiting those partes, there hath bene transported and brought home into Europe greater store of Golde, Siluer, Pearle, and Precious stones, then heretofore hath bene in all ages since the creation of the worlde. I doe therefore heartily wish, that seeing it hath pleased almightie God of his infinite mercy, at the length to awake some of our worthy Countrey men out of that drowsie dreame, wherein we haue so long slumbered: That wee may now not suffer that to quaile for want of maintenance, which by these valiant Gentlemen our Countreymen is so nobly begun and enterprised. For which purpose, I haue taken vpon me to write this simple short Treatise, hoping that it shall be able to perswade such as haue bene, and yet doe continue detractors and hinderers of this iourney, (by reason perhaps that they haue not deliberately and aduisedly entred into the iudgement of the matter) that yet now vpon better consideration they will become fauourable furtherers of the same. And that such as are already well affected thereunto will continue their good disposition: [Sidenote: A reasonable request.] And withall, I most humbly pray all such as are no nigards of their purses in buying of costly and rich apparel, and liberall Contributors in setting forth of games, pastimes, feastings and banquets, (whereof the charge being past, there is no hope of publique profile, or commoditie) that henceforth they will bestowe and employ their liberality (heretofore that way expended) to the furtherance of these so commendable purposed proceedings. And to this ende haue I taken pen in my hand, as in conscience thereunto mooued, desiring much rather, that of the great multitude which this Realme doth nourish, farre better able to handle this matter then I my selfe am, it would haue pleased some one of them to haue vndertaken the same. But seeing they are silent, and that it falleth to my lotte to put pen to the paper, I will endeuour my selfe, and doe stand in good hope (though my skill and knowledge bee simple, yet through the assistence of almightie God) to probue that the [Sidenote: The argument of the booke.] Voyage lately enterprised, for trade, traffique, and planting in America, is an action tending to the lawfull enlargement of her Maiesties Dominions, commodious to the whole Realme in general, profitable to the aduenturers in particular, benefciall to the Sauages, and a matter to be atteined without any great danger or difficultie. And lastly, (which is most of all) A thing likewise tending to the honour and glory of Almightie God. And for that the lawfulnesse to plant in those Countreys in some mens iudgements seemeth very doubtfull, I will beginne the proofe of the lawfulnesse of trade, traffique, and planting. END OF VOL XII. APPENDICES. Appendices. I. Greenland. Greenland is an extensive country, the greater part of which belongs to Denmark, situated between Iceland and the continent of America. Its southern extremity, Cape Farewell, is situated in 59 deg. 49 min. N. lat, and 43 deg. 54 min. W. lon. The British Arctic expedition of 1876 traced; tee northern shores as far as Cape Britannia, in lat. 82 deg. 54 min. The German Arctic expedition of 1870 pursued the east coast as high as 77 deg. N., so that between Koldeway's furthest in 1870 and Beaumont's farthest in 1876 there remains an interval of more than 500 miles of the Greenland coast yet unexplored. The estimated area of the whole country is about 340,000 square miles. The outline forming the sea-coast of Greenland is in general high, rugged, and barren; close to the water's edge it rises into tremendous precipices and lofty mountains, covered with inaccessible cliffs, which may be seen from the sea at a distance of more than 60 miles. The vast extent of Greenland, together with its peculiar position between Europe and America, secures for it a very special interest. From its most northern discovered point, Cape Britannia, it stretches southward, in a triangular form, for a distance of 1500 miles. Its interior is nearly a closed book to us, but the coast has been thoroughly explored and examined on the western side from Cape Farewell to Upernavik, a distance of about 800 miles, as well as along the western shores of the channels leading from Smith's Sound; and from Cape Farewell to the Danebrog Islands and Cape Bismarck on the east side. These belts of coast line consist of the most glorious mountain scenery--lofty peaks, profound ravines, long valleys, precipices and cliffs, vast glaciers, winding fiords often running 100 miles into the interior, and innumerable islands. Greenland was discovered in 981 or 983 by an Icelander or Norwegian named Gunbiorn, and was soon afterwards colonized by a number of families from Iceland, of whom all historical traces soon disappeared; they appear to have formed their settlement on the western coast. The country was called Greenland because its southern extremity was first seen in spring-time, and presented a pleasing appearance, but it was speedily found to be little better than an icebound region. Davis rediscovered Greenland in his voyage, 1585-87; and in the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch government fined out several expeditions to re-establish a communication with the lost colony. II. Nenewfoundland. Newfoundland is, as it were, a stepping-stone between the Old World and the New. At its south-western extremity it approaches within 50 miles of the island of Cape Breton, while its most eastern projection is but 1640 miles distant from Ireland. Its population in 1881 was 161,384, and its area was estimated at 42,006 square miles; but, strange as it seems, up to the present time the interior is almost unknown, while the mere existence of certain splendid fertile valleys in portions of the island has only been discovered in quite recent times. The appearance of the coast is rocky and forbidding, but there are a great number of deep bays and fiords, containing magnificent harbours, and piercing the land for 80 or 100 miles, while the sides present varied scenes of beauty, such as are rarely surpassed in the world's most favoured lands. The effect of these inlets is to give the island the enormous coast line, compared to its area, of more than 2000 miles. The loftiest range of mountains, the Long Range, has a few summits of more than 2000 feet, but the elevations of the island rarely exceed 1500 feet. Lakes are very numerous. The mines are very valuable, and Newfoundland now ranks as the sixth copper-producing country in the world. Lead mines have also been discovered and worked. There is good reason for believing that gold and coal will yet be found. III. Polar Ice It is believed on good grounds of inference, but absolutely without positive evidence, that the south pole is covered with a great cap of ice, and some physiographers have gone so far as to assert its thickness as possibly six miles at the centre. But as to the ice of the north pole, thanks to the efforts to discover a north-west passage which showed us the breach in the wall of the polar fortress, we know very much more. Sir Edward Belcher encountered ice 106 feet thick drifting into and grounding on the shores of Wellington Channel. It was in Banks Strait that Sir Edward Parry was finally stopped by the great undulating floes, reaching 102 feet in thickness, that he tells us he had never seen in Baffin's Sea or in the land-locked channels the had left behind him, but which filled the whole sea before him. Such floes are the edge of a pack which we may conjecture extends uninterruptedly from shore to shore of the Polar Sea. IV. Icebergs Icebergs are masses of ice rising to a great height above the level of the sea, presenting a singular variety in form and appearance. They are masses broken off from glaciers, or from barrier lines of ice-cliff, and owe their origin to the circumstance of glaciers being in a continual state of progress. Glaciers reach the sea shore in many places in the Arctic regions. When pushed forward into deep water, vast masses are lifted up by their inherent buoyancy, and, broken off at the landward end, are borne away by the winds, or on tides and currents, to parts of the sea far removed from their place of formation. Owing to the expansion of water when freezing, and the difference in density between salt and fresh water, the usual relative density of sea water to an iceberg is as 1 to 91674, and hence the volume of ice below water is about nine times that above the surface. The largest icebergs are met with in the Southern Ocean; several have been ascertained to be from 800 to 1000 feet in height, and the largest are nearly three miles long. One was met with 20 deg. south of the Cape of Good Hope, between Marion and Bouvet Isles, which was 960 feet high, and therefore more than 9000 feet, or 1-3/4 mile in thickness. TABLE OF CONTENTS. VOL. XII. Dedication to Sir Robert Cecil I. The most ancient voyage and discouery of the West Indies performed by Madoc, Anno 1170. taken out of the history of Wales, &c. II. The verses of Meredith the sonne of Rhesus making mention of Madoc III. The offer of the discouery of the West Indies by Christoper Columbus to K. Henry the 7. February the 13. Anno 1488; with the Kings acceptance of the said offer IV. Another testimony concerning the foresaid offer made by Bartholomew Columbus to K. Henry the seuenth, on the behalfe of his brother Christopher Columbus V. The letters patents of K. Henry the 7. granted vnto Iohn Cabot and his 3. sonnes, Anno 1495 VI. The signed bill of K. Henry the 7. on the behalfe of Iohn Cabot VII. The voyage of Sebastian Cabota to the North part of America, for the discouery of a Northwest passage, as farre as 58. degrees of latitude, confirmed by 6. testimonies VIII. A briefe extract concerning the discouery of Newfoundland IX. The large pension granted by K. Edward the 6. to Sebastian Cabota, Anno 1549 X. A discourse written by sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, to prooue a passage by the Northwest to Cataya, and the East Indies XI. The first voyage of M. Martin Frobisher to the Northwest for the search of a passage to China, anno 1576 XII. The second voyage of M. Martin Frobisher to the West and Northwest regions, in the yeere 1577 XIII. The third and last voyage of M. Martin Frobisher for the discouery of a Northwest passage, in the yere 1578 XIV. Notes by Richard Hakluyt XV. Experiences and reasons of the Sphere to prooue all parts of the worlde habitable, and thereby to confute the position of the fiue Zones XVI. A letter of M. Martin Frobisher to certaine Englishmen, which were trecherously taken by the Saluages of Meta incognita in his first voyageo XVII. Articles and orders prescribed by M. Martin Frobisher to the Captaines and company of euery ship, which accompanied him in his last Northwestern voyage XVIII. A generall and briefe description of the country and condition of the people, which are founde in Meta incognita XIX. The letters patents of her Maiesty graunted to M. Adrian Gilbert and others for the search and discouery of a Northwest passage to China XX. The first voyage of M. Iohn Dauis for the discouery of a Northwest passage, 1585 XXI. The second voyage of M. Iohn Dauis for the discouery of the Northwest pass. 1586 XXII. A letter of M. I. Dauis to M. Wil. Sanderson of London, concerning, his second voyage XXIII. The voyage and course which the Sunshine and the Northstarre held, after M. I. Davis had sent them from him to discouer a passage betweene Greenland and Ise-land, 1587 XXIV. The third voyage of M. Iohn Dauis, 1587 XXV. A letter of M. Iohn Dams to M. Wil. Sanderson of London, concerning his 3. voyage XXVI. A trauerse booke of M. Iohn Dauis XXVII. A report of M. Iohn Dauis concerning his three voyages made for the discouery of the Northwest passage, taken out of a treatise of his intituled The worlds hydrographical description XXVIII. The voyage of M. Nicolas Zeno and M. Anthony his brother, to the yles of Frisland, etc., begun in the yeere 1380 XXIX. The voyage of two ships, for the discouery of the North parts XXX. The voyage of M. Hore, in the yere 1536 XXI. An act against the exaction of money, etc. made Anno 2. Edwardi sexti. XXXII. A letter written to M. Richard Hakluyt of the Midle Temple, by M. Antony Parkhurst, 1578 XXXIII. The letters patents granted by her Maiestie to sir Humfrey Gilbert knight, for inhabiting some part of America 1578 XXXIV. A Poeme written in Latine, concerning the voyage of sir Humfrey Gilbert XXXV. The voyage of Sir Humfrey Gilbert to Newfoundland, An. 1583 XXXVI. Orders agreed vpon by the Captaines and Masters, to bee obserued by the fleete of sir Humfrey Gilbert XXXVII. A briefe relation of Newfound-land, and the commodities thereof XXXVIII. A letter of the learned Hungarian Stephanus Parmenius Budeius to master Richard Hakluyt the collectour of these voyages XXXIX. A relation Of Richard Clarke of Weymouth master of the ship called the Delight. Part I. XL. Appendices Table of Contents FOOTNOTES: 1. Son of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, minister of Elizabeth, and himself minister to the same queen and to James I. A clever but unscrupulous man, he was never popular, and his share in the fate of Essex and Raleigh has obscured his fame. He was created Earl of Salisbury. His secret correspondence is to be found in Goldsmid's Collectanea Adamantaea. Born 1565. Died 1612. 2. Hakluyt here merely condenses the researches of Grotius, who had published, in 1542, his famous but rare Tract "On the Origin of the Native American Races," a translation of which the present Editor issued in his "Bibliotheca Curiosa," Edinburgh, 1884. Hakluyt was evidently ignorant of Gunnbjorn's glimpse of a Western land in 876, of Eric the Red's discovery of Greenland about 985, of Bjarni's and Leif's discoveries, or indeed of any of the traditions of the Voyages of the Northmen, or he would certainly have included them in his Collection. Those who are interested in these matters should consult Wheaton's History of the Northmen, London, 1831; Antiquitates Americanæ, edited by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians, Hafniæ, 1837; The Discovery of America by the Northmen, by N. L. Beamish, London, 1841; Historia Vinlandiæ Antiquæ, by Thermodus Torfoeus, Hafniæ, 1705; and the edition of the Flateyan MSS., lately published at Copenhagen. 3. I have, to the best of my ability, in Vols. I. to XI. of this edition, arranged the contents of Hakluyt's first two volumes in the order he would have desired, had he not "lacked sufficient store." 4. The History of Wales, written by Caradoc of Llancarvan, Glamorganshire, in the British Language, translated into English by Humphrey Llwyd, and edited by Dr. David Powel in 1584, is the book here quoted. It is very rare. 5. If Madoc ever existed, it seems more probable that the land he discovered was Madeira or the Azores. Such at least is the view taken by Robertson, and also by Jeremiah Belknap (American Biography, 8vo, Boston, 1774). Southey founded one of his poems on this tradition. 6. In Welsh, Meridith ap Rhees. 7. Marginal note.--These verses I receiued of my learned friend M. William Camden. 8. The most interesting life of Columbus is that by Lamartine, a translation of which appeared in the "Bibliotheca Curiosa." 9. Nothing is known of Cabot's early years. In the Archives of Venice is the record of his naturalization, dated 28 March 1476, which shows he had lived there fifteen years. (Archives of Venice: Senato Terra, 1473-1477. Vol vii p. 109.) 10. This patent was granted in reply to the following application by John Cabot: "To the Kyng our Souvereigne lord, "Please it your highnes of your moste noble and haboundant grace to graunt vnto Iohn Cabotto, citezen of Venes, Lewes, Sebestyan and Sancto his sonneys your gracious lettres patentes vnder youir grete seale in due forme to be made accordying to the tenour hereafter ensuying. And they shall during their lyves pray to God for the prosperous continuance of your moste noble and royale astate long to enduer." (Public Records, Bill number 51.) Consult also Rymer's Foedera; London, 1727, folios 595-6. 11. Armed with this authority, John Cabot sailed from Bristol in the spring of 1497, with two ships, one being called the Matthew. (The History and Antiquities of the city of Bristol, by William Barrett, 1789). 12. In the National Library, Paris, is a large map of the world on the margin of which is written: "Sebastian Caboto capitan, y piloto mayor de la S. c c. m. del Imperador don Carlos quinto deste nombre, y rey nuestro sennor hizo esta figura extensa en plano, anno del nasciem de nro saluador Jesu Christo de m.d. xliii. annos, tirada por grados de latitud y longitud con sus uientos como carta de marear, imitando en parte al Ptolomeo, y en parte alos modernos descobridores, asi Espannoles como Portugueses, y parte por su padre, y por el descubierto." I give a facsmile of part of this map. As will be seen the words "Prima tierra vista" are opposite a cape about the 48th parallel, which would be Cape Breton. In a letter written to the Duke of Milan by Raimondo di Soncino, his minister in London, and dated the 18th Dec. 1497, a very interesting account is given of Cabot's voyage. Archives of Milan. Annuario scientifico, Milan, 1866 p 700. 13. Query, July. 14. J. B. Ramusio compiled in Italian a celebrated collection of maritime voyages. The most complete edition is formed by joining vol. I. of 1574 to vol. II. of 1555 and vol. III. of 1554. He died 1557, aged 72. 15. Ramosius has evidently mixed up the two voyages of John Cabot with those of his son. John's second and last voyage was in 1498, with five ships; though little is known of the result, that little has been collected by Mr. Weise in his "Discoveries of America." 16. A celebrated Icelandic astronomer, a disciple of Tycho-Brahe. The opinion here quoted appears in his _Specimen Historicorum Islandiæ et magnâ ex parte chorographicum_; Amsterdam, 1643. When aged 91, he is said to have married a young girl. Born 1545; died 1640. 17. An error for John Cabot 18. His _Chronicle of England and France_, by a London tradesman, was first printed in 1516. 19. This celebrated Antiquary was born in 1525. Originally a tailor, his tastes procured him the encouragement of Archbishop Parker and the Earl of Leicester. His principal works are _Flores Historiarum_ (1600) and his _Survey of London_, first published in 1598. Died a beggar in 1605. 20. If Cabot's discoveries extended from 38° to 58°, he cannot have gone south of Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina. 21. Gilbert was half brother to Sir Walter Raleigh. This "discourse" was published in 1576, and two years later be himself sailed on a voyage of discovery to Newfoundland, but on the return journey his ship foundered with all on board. 22. Luke Marinæus, chaplain to Charles V. author of _Obra de las cosas memorabiles de Espana_, Alcala, 1543; folio, the work here referred to. 23. Ficinus, (born 1433, died 1499); a protégé of the Medici, translated Plato and Plotinus. These translations will be found in his collected works, published at Bâle in 1591, 2 vols. folio. Herein he tries to prove Plato a Christian, as he also does in his _Thelogia Platonica_; Florence, 148; folio. The original editions of his works are extremely rare. 24. Crantor's opinion is only known to us by Cicero's refetence, his works being all lost. He flourished about 315 B.C. 25. Born in 412, at Constantinople. Studied at Alexandria and Athens, and succeeded Syrianus in the Neo Platonic School. Died 485, Several of his works are extant. 26. Philo of Alexandria was well versed in the philosophy of Plato, and tried to show its harmony with the books of Moses. A fine edition of his works was published in 1742, in 2 vols. folio, edited by Mangey. 27. Amerigo Vespucci, born at Florence, 1451, was sent by his father to Spain. Fired by the example of Columbus, he became a navigator, and made three voyages to the New World, which ultimately was named after him, though the honour should belong to Columbus. Died at Seville 1512. 28. It has also been supposed by many ancient writers that Atlantis was situated between the 20th and 30th degrees of north latitude, and the 40th and 60th degrees of west longitude, in that part of the Atlantic known as the Sargasso sea. 29. Born 1493; died 1541. He was the first to publish the Almagestes of Ptolemy in Greek at Bâle, 1538, folio. He was the friend of Luther and Melancthon. 30. The first Edition of his chronological tables is that of Berne, 1540. Little is known of him except that he was born at Rotweil in Germany and was a councillor of the city of Berne, in the library of which town is a unique copy of his History of Berne, 3 vols. folio, in German. 31. Guicciardini, the author of the celebrated _History of the events between_ 1494 _and_ 1532. 32. FRISIUS was born at Dorkum in Frisia, his real name being John Gemma. His map of the world was published in 1540. Died at Louvain in 1555. GASTALDUS was a Genoese and wrote many tracts on Geography. He was the father of Jerome Gastaldus, the author of a celebrated work on the Plague. TRAMASINUS was a celebrated Venetian printer of the 16th Century. ANDREAS VAVASOR is probably an error for Francis Vavasor, the Jesuit. MUNSTER, APPIANUS, PUTEANUS, PETER MARTYR, and ORTELIUS are well known, but HUNTERUS, DEMONGENITUS, and TRAMONTANUS are unknown to me. 33. Octher's voyage will be found in Vol. I., p. 51, of this Edition of Hakluyt. 34. See Vol. I. of this Edition of Halkluyt. 35. See Vol. II. p. 60 (note) of this Edition 36. Giovanni Verrzzani is evidently meant. A Florentine by birth, he entered the service of Francis I., and in 1524 discovered New France. An account of his travels and tragic death is to be found in Ramusius. In the Strozzi library, at Florence, a manuscript of Verazzani's is preserved. 37. Born at St Malo. Discovered part of Canada in 1534. His _Brief récit de la Navigation faite ès îles de Canada, Hochelage, Saguenay et autres_, was published at Paris in 1546, 8vo. 38. BAROS, who had been appointed treasurer of the Indies, wrote a _History of Asia and of India_ in 4 decades which were published between the years 1552 and 1602. It has been translated from Portuguese into Spanish, and considering that it contains many facts not to be found elsewhere, it is surprising that there should have been neither a French nor English Edition. Baros was born in 1496 and died in 1570. 39. This is probably an error for Peter Nonnius, professor of Mathematics at the University of Coimbra who published two books _De Arte Navigandi_ in 1573. 40. Little is known of this writer. He appears to have been the son of Jerome Fracastor, a Veronese who obtained a certain celebrity as a poet at the beginning of the 16th Century. 41. In a former passage it is stated that Cabot did not get beyond the 58th degree of latitude. 42. It is now well known that the diminished saltness of the sea off the Siberian coast is due to the immense masses of fresh water poured into it by the Ob, the Lena, and other Siberian rivers. 43. Either Salvaterra or the Frier must have possessed a vivid imagination. The former at any rate thoroughly took in Sir Humphrey Gilbert. 44. It seems very strange to us after the Northwest passage has been discovered by M'Clure in 1852 and the North East passage by Nordenskiold in 1879 to read the arguments by which each of the upholders of the two routes sought to prove that his opponent's contention was impossible. Of the two disputants we must confess that Jenkinson's views now appear the likeliest to be realised, for M'Clure only made his way from Behring Straits to Melville island by abandoning his ship and travelling across the ice, while Nordenskiold carried the Vega past the North of Europe and Siberia, returning by Behring's straits and the Pacific. 45. Cape Chudley. 46. Born near Doncaster. He made several attempts to find the Northwest passage. (See post.) In 1585 he accompanied Drake to the West Indies; assisted in defeating the Spanish Armada, and was mortally wounded in 1594 at the attack on Fort Croyzan, near Brest. Some relics of his Arctic expedition were discovered by Captain F. C. Hall in 1860-62, and described in his delightful book, "Life with the Esquimaux." 47. Midway between Orkney and Shetland. 48. Foula, the most westerly of the Shetlands, round in form, is 12 miles in circuit. 49. Esquimaux. 50. Far from coming from Newfoundland, this drift-wood is carried into the Arctic Ocean by the Yenisei and other large rivers of Siberia. 51. Contrary to the opinion of Mr. Weise, who insists that Friseland is Iceland, I am inclined to believe that the East coast of Greenland is meant. 52. Lieutenant Nansen's expedition across Greenland negatives this supposition, but the West coast is more habitable than the East. 53. Frobisher Bay: it is not a strait. Hall's _Island_ is Hall's Peninsula. 54. twisted 55. Long. From Saxon _sid_. (See BEN JONSON, _New Inn_, v. 1.) 56. Raisins. 57. In a very short time. Sometimes written _giffats_ 58. It is almost in the exact latitude of Gaboon Bay. 59. Our author is wrong. Morocco lies between the _annual_ Isothermal lines of 68º Fahr. (or 20 Cent.), whilst the mean temperature at the Equator was considered by Humboldt to be 81.4° Fahr. and by Atkinson (Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society) 84.5°. 60. Our author means the _fifth_ proposition of the _first_ book of Euclid, the celebrated _Pons Asinorum_. 61. John Holywood, so named after the place of his birth near York, after studying at Oxford, settled in Paris where he became famous. He died in 1256, leaving two works of rare power considering the century they were written in, viz, _de Spheri Mundi_, and _de Computo Ecclesiastico_. They are to be found in one volume 8vo, Paris, 1560. 62. John Gonzalvo d'Oviedo, born 1478. Was Governor of the New World, and wrote a _Summario de la Historia general y natural de las Indias Occidentales_. Best edition, _Salamanca_ 1535, and _Toledo_, 1536, folio. This is the work here quoted. 63. This is not the case. 64. Blank in original. 65. Kirkwall. 66. Blank in original. 67. Blank in original. 68. Probably a Narwal. 69. Good. 70. Blank in the original. 71. Blank in original. 72. Blank in original. 73. Blank in original. 74. Blank in original. 75. Blank in original. 76. Muddy. 77. Blank in original. 78. Blank in original. 79. Blank in original. 80. Blank in original. 81. South Equatorial Current. 82. Gulf Stream. 83. The elimination of salt from sea-water by cold was evidently unknown to the writer. 84. The writer was evidently not a convert to the System of Copernicus, but agreed with Ptolemy that the Heavens were solid and moved round the earth, which was the centre of the Universe. 85. _Pirrie_, a sudden storm at sea. According to Jamieson, _Pirr_, in Scotch, means a gentle breeze. "A pirrie came, and set my ship on sands." _Mirror for Magistrates_, p. 194. 86. _Yer_ = ere. 87. Sir Christopher Hatton. 88. Flat. 89. Thus the only result of Davis's Voyage was the discovery of the broad piece of water since known as Davis's Straits, extending between Greenland on the East and Cumberland Island on the West. It connects the Atlantic with Baffin's Bay. In the next voyage, Davis seems to have crossed the mouth of Hudson's Straits, without entering them. 90. The full text of Davis's account is given in Vol. vi., p. 250 of this Edition. 91. It seems probable that either Zeno was wrecked on one of the Shetlands, and that by _Sorani_ is meant Orkney, or that Iceland is the true Frisland. 92. Aveiro, province of Beira, 31 miles N.W. of Coimbra. 93. Viana do Castello, province of Minho, 40 miles N. of Oporto. 94. See Vol ix., p. 143 of this Edition. 95. (?) Chateau-Richer on the St. Lawrence, 15 miles below Quebec. 96. Near Cape Charles. 97. The St. Lawrence. 98. This refers to Gilbert's first voyage in 1578. 99. Causand. 100. The Newfoundland Banks are rather a submarine Plateau than banks in the ordinary sense. The bottom is rocky, and generally reached at 25 to 95 fathoms: length and breadth about 300 miles: the only shallow region in the Atlantic. 101. The cold on the coast is partly due to the quantities of ice descending from Baffin's Bay. 102. Maëlstrom. 103. Silver, and even gold, has been found in Newfoundland. 104. Bends. 
10673	----	This file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. THE PRINCIPAL Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, AND Discoveries OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. IX. ASIA. PART II. Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoueries OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN ASIA. CAPVT. 38. De territorio Cathay, et moribus Tartarorum. Totum Imperium Imperatoris Grand Can distinctum est in 12. magnas prouincias, iuxta numerum duodecim filiorum primi Genitoris Can, quarum quælibet in se continet circiter 6. millia ciuitatum, præter villas non numeratas quæ sunt Velut ábsque numero. Habent et singulæ prouinciæ regem principalem, hoc est 12. reges prouinciales, et horum quisque sub se reges Insularum plurimos, alij 50. alij centum, alij plures, qui omnes et singuli subiectissimè obediunt Grand Can Imperatori. Harum prouinciarum maior, et nobilior dícitur Cathay, qui consistit in Asia profunda. Tres enim sunt Asiæ, scilicet quæ profunda dicitur, et Asia dicta maior quæ nobis est satis propinquior et tertia minor intra quam est Ephesus beati Ioannis Euangelistæ sepultura, de qua habes in præcedentibus. Audistis statum magnatum et nobilium esse permagnificum, et gloriosum, sed sciatis longè secus esse apud communes et priuatos homines tam in ciuitatibus quam in forensibus totius Tartariae. In prouincijs autem Cathay habetur tantum de mercimonijs specierum, et de operibus sericosis; quòd multis facilius acquirere esset praetiosum indumentam, quàm camisium de lino. Vnde et quicunque sunt alicuius honestatis non carent desuper precioso vestimento. Omnes tam viri quam faemina similibus in forma vestibus inducuntur, videlicet valdè latis, et breuibus vsque ad genua cum apertura in lateribus quam firmant (dum volunt) ansis quibusdam, nam vtérque sexus est brachijs seu femoralibus plenè tectus. Nunquam vtuntur toga aut collobio, sed nec caputio vndè nec per aspectum indumentorum potest haberi differentia inter virum et mulierem innuptam. Sed nupta (vt supra dictum est) gestat per aliquod tegumentum in capite formam pedes viri. Nubit illic vir quotquot placet mulieribus, vt nonnulli habeant decem vel duodecim vxores aut plures. Nam quísque maritus iungitur licentèr cuilibet mulieri, exceptis matre, et amita, sorore, et filia. Sicut viri equitant, tendunt, et currunt per patriam pro negotijs sic et mulieres, quoniam et ipse operantur omnia ferè artificia mechanica sicut pannos et quicquid efficiter de panno, corio, sericoque, minantque carrucas, et vehicula, sed viri fabricant de ferro et de omni metallo, lapidibus atque ligno, nec vir nec mulier nobilis aut degener comedit vltra semel in die communiter. Multa nutriunt pecora sed nullos porcos, parum comeditur ibi de pane exceptis magnatibus et diuitibus, sed carnes edunt pecorum, bestiarum, et bestiolarum vtpote boum, ouium, caprarum, equorum, asinorum, canum, cattorum, murium, et rattorum, ius carnium sorbentes, et omnis generis lac bibentes. Nobiles autem bibunt lac equarum, seu lamentorum, pro nobilissimo potu et pauperes aquam bullitam cum modico mellis, quia nec vinum ibi habetur, nec ceruisia confictur: et multi ac plurimi fontes consulunt in sua siti, per villas, et rura. Domus, et habitacula rotundae sunt formae, compositae et contextae paruis lignis, et flexilibus virgulis, ad modum cauearum quas nos facimus pro auiculis, habentes rotundam in culmine aperturam praestantem duo beneficia habitationi, quoniam et ignis quem in medio domus constituunt, fumum emittit, et pro aspiciendo lumen immittit. Intrinsecus sunt parietes vndíque de filtro, sed et tectum filtreum est: has domus, dum locum habitandi mutare volunt, vel dum indiuitina expeditione procedunt, ducunt secum in plaustris quasi tentoria. Multas superuacuas obseruant ceremonias, quia respiciunt in vanitates et insanias falsas: solem et lunam praecipuè adorant, eisque frequentèr genua curuant, et ad nouilunium, quicquid est magni estimant inchoandum. Nullus omnino vtitur calcaribus in equitando, sed cogunt equum flagello scorpione, reputantes peccatum non leue si quis ad hoc flagellum appodiat, aut iumentum percuteret suo freno, pleráque similia, quæ parum aut nihil nocent, ponderant vt grauia, sicut imponere cultellum in igne, os osse confringere, lac seu aliud potabile in terram effundere, nec non et huiusmodi multa. [Sidenote: Mingere intra dominum peccatum capitale.] Sed super hæc, tenent pro grauiori admisso mingere intra domum quæ inhabitatur, et qui de tanto crimine proclamaretur assuetus, mitteretur ad mortem. Et de singulis necesse est vt confiteatur peccator Flamini suæ legis, et soluat summam pecuniarum delicti. Et si peccatum deturpationis habitaculi venerit in publicum, oportebit reconciliari domum per sacerdotem, priusquam vllus audebit intrare. Insuper et peccatorem necesse erit pertransire ignem, semel, bis, dut ter iuxta iudicium Flaminis, quatenus per ignis acrimoniam purgetur à tanti inquinatione peccati. Neminem hominum prohibent inter se habitare, sed indifferentèr receptant, Iudæos, Christiános, Saracenos, et homines cuiuscúnque nationis, vel legis, dicentes se satis putare suum ritum non ita securum ad salutem, nisi quandóque; traherentur ad ritum magis salutarem, quem tamen determinate nunc ignorant, imò multi de nobilibus sunt iam in Christianitate baptizati. Attamen qui illorum sunt curiales Imperatoris non vellent in palatio publicari. Poenè oblitus eram, quod nunc hic dico notandum, quia dum ab extra Imperium, quis veniens nuntius aut legatus cupit tradere proprijs manibus literas Imperatori [Marginal note: Seu Gubernatorum.], vel deponere coram illo mandata, non permittitur, donec prius in puris transeat liueas ad venum ad minus regurn pro sui purgatione, ne quid forsitan afferat cuius visu, vel odoratu seu tactu rex possit grauari. [Sidenote: Arma Tartarorum.] Porrò Tartari in præcincto expeditionis habent singuli duos arcus, cum magna pluralitate teloram: Nam omnes sunt sagittarij ad manum et cum rigida et longa lancea. Nobilis autem in equis preciosè phaleratis ferunt gladios, ver spatas breues et latas, scindentes pro vno latere, et in capitibus galeas, de corio cocto, non altas, sed ad capitis formara depressas. Quicúnque de suis fugerit de prælio, ipso facto conseriptus est, vt siquando inuentus fuerit occidatur. Si Castrum vel ciuitas obsessa se illis reddere voluerit, nullam acceptant conditionem nisi cum morte omnium inimicorum, vel si quis homo singularis se dederit victum nihilominus ábsque vlla miseratione occidunt, detruncantes illi protinus aures, quas postea coquentes, et in aceto (dum habuerint) ponentes mittunt inuicem ad conuiuia pro extremo ferculo: [Sidenote: Tartari retro sagittantes.] dumque ipsi in bellis arte fugam simulant, periculosum est eos insequi, quoniam iaciunt sagittas à tergo, quibus equos et homines occidere norunt. Et quando in prima acie comparant ad bellandum, mirabilitèr sese constringunt, vt media pars numeri eoram vix credatur. Generalitèr noueritis, omnes Tartaros habere paruos oculos, et modicam vel raram barbam: in proprijs locis raro inter se litigant, contendunt, aut pugnant, timentes legum pergraues emendas. Et inuenitur ibi rarius vespilio, latro, fur, homicida, iniurians, adulter, aut fornicarius, quia tales criminatores inuestigatione sollicita requiruntur, et sine redemptione aliqua perimuntur. Dum quis decumbit infirmus figitur lancea iuxta illum in terra, et cum appropinquauerit morti, nullus remanet ìuxta ipsum, cum verò mortuus esse scitur, confestim in campis, et cum lancea sepelitur. The English Version. And zee schulle undirstonde, that the empire of this gret Chane is devyded in 12 provynces; and every provynce hathe mo than 2000 cytees; and of townes with outen nombre. This contree is fulle gret. For it hathe 12 pryncypalle kynges, in 12 provynces. And every of tho kynges han many kynges undre hem; and alle thei ben obeyssant to the gret Chane. And his lond and his lordschipe durethe so ferre that a man may not gon from on hed to another, nouther be see ne lond, the space of 7 zeer. And thorghe the desertes of his lordschipe, there as men may fynde no townes, there ben innes ordeyned be every iorneye, to resceyve bothe man and hors; in the whiche thei schalle fynde plentee of vytaylle, and of alle thing, that hem nedethe, for to go be the contree. And there is a marveylouse custom in that contree, (but is profitable) that zif ony contrarious thing, that scholde ben preiudice or grevance to the Emperour, in ony kynde, anon the Emperour hathe tydynges there of and fulle knowleche in a day, thoughe it be 3 or 4 iorneys fro him or more. For his ambassedours taken here dromedaries or hire hors, and thei priken in alle that evere thei may toward on of the innes: and whan thei comen there, anon thei blowen an horne; and anon thei of the in knowen wel y now that there ben tydynges to warnen the Emperour of sum rebellyoun azenst him. And thanne anon thei maken other men redy, in alle haste that thei may, to beren lettres, and pryken in alle that evere thei may, tille thei come to the other innes with here lettres: and thanne thei maken fressche men redy, to pryke forthe with the lettres, toward the Emperour; whille that the laste bryngere reste him, and bayte his dromedarie or his hors. And so fro in to in, tille it come to the Emperour. And thus anon hathe he hasty tydynges of ony thing, that berethe charge, be his corrours, that rennen so hastyly, thorghe out alle the contree. And also whan the Emperour sendethe his corrours hastyly, thorghe out his lond, everyche of hem hathe a large thong fulle of smale belles; and whan thei neyghen nere to the innes of other corroures, that ben also ordeyned be the iorneyes, thei ryngen here belles, and anon the other corrours maken hem redy, and rennen here weye unto another in: and thus rennethe on to other, fulle spedyly and swyftly, till the Emperours entent be served, in alle haste. And theise currours ben clept chydydo, aftre here langage, that is to seye, a messagere. Also whan the Emperour gothe from o contree to another, as I have told you here before, and he passe thorghe cytees and townes, every man makethe a fuyr before his dore, and puttethe there inne poudre of gode gommes, that ben swete smellynge, for to make gode savour to the Emperour. And alle the peple knelethe doun azenst him, and don him gret reverence. And there where religyouse Cristene men dwellen, as thei don in many cytees in thei lond, thei gon before him with processioun with cros and holy watre; and thei seyngen, _Veni Creator, spiritus_, with an highe voys, and gon towardes him. And whan he herethe hem, he commaundethe to his lordes to ryde besyde him, that the religiouse men may come to him. And whan thei ben nyghe him, with the cros, thanne he dothe a down his galaothe, that syt upon his hede, in manere of a chapelet, that is made of gold and preciouse stone and grete perles. And it is so ryche, that, men preysen it to the value of a roialme, in that contre. And than he knelethe to the cros. And than the prelate of the religiouse men seythe before him certeyn orisouns, and zevethe him a blessynge with the cros: and he enclynethe to the blessynge fulle devoutly. And thanne the prelate zevethe him sum maner frute, to the nombre of 9, in a platere of sylver, with peres or apples or other manere frute. And he takethe on; and than men zeven to the othere lordes, that ben aboute him. For the custom is suche, that no straungere schalle come before him, but zif he zeve hym sum manere thing, aftre the olde lawe, that seythe, _Nemo accedat in conspectu meo vacuus_. And thanne the Emperour seythe to the religious men, that thei withdrawe hem azen, that thei ne be hurt ne harmed of the gret multytude of hors that comen behynde him. And also in the same maner don the religious men, that dwellen there, to the Emperesses, that passen by hem, and to his eldest sone; and to every of hem, thei presenten frute. And zee schulle undirstonde, that the people, that he hathe so many hostes offe, abouten hym and aboute his wyfes and his sone, thei dwelle not contynuelle with him: but alle weys, whan him lykethe, thei ben sent fore; and aftre whan thei han don, thei retournen to hire owne housholdes; saf only thei that ben dwellynge with hym in houshold, for to serven him and his wyfes and his sones, for to governen his houshold. And alle be it, that the othere ben departed fro him, aftre that thei han perfourmed hire servyse, zit there abydethe contynuelly with him in court, 50000 men at horse, and 200000 men a fote; with outen mynstrelles, and tho that kepen wylde bestes and dyverse briddes, of the whiche I have tolde zou the nombre before. Undre the firmament, is not so gret a lord, ne so myghty, ne so riche, as the gret Chane: nought Prestre Johan, that is Emperour of the highe Ynde, ne the Sowdan of Babylone, ne the Emperour of Persye. Alle theise ne ben not in comparisoun to the grete Chane; nouther of myght, ne of noblesse, ne of ryaltee, ne of richesse: for in alle theise, he passethe alle erthely princes. Wherfore it is gret harm, that he belevethe not feithfully in God. And natheles he wil gladly here speke of God; and he suffrethe wel, that Cristene men duelle in his lordschipe, and that men of his feythe ben made Cristene men, zif thei wile, thorghe out alle his contree. For he defendethe no man to holde no lawe, other than him lykethe. In that contree, sum man hathe an 100 wyfes, summe 60, mo, somme lesse. And thei taken the nexte of hire kyn, to hire wyfes, saf only, that thei out taken hire modres, hire doughtres, and hire sustres on the fadir syde, of another womman, thei may wel take; and hire bretheres wyfes also aftre here dethe; and here step modres also in the same wyse. Of the Lawe and customs of the Tartarienes, duellynge in Chatay; and how that men don, whan the Emperour schal dye, and how he schal be chosen. [Sidenote: Cap. XXIII.] The folk of that contree usen alle longe clothes, with outen furroures. And thei ben clothed with precious clothes of Tartarye; and of clothes of gold. And here clothes ben slytt at the syde; and thei ben festned with laces of silk. And thei clothen hem also with pylches, and the hyde with outen. And thei usen nouther cappe ne hood. And in the same maner as the men gon, the wommen gon; so that no man may unethe knowe the men fro the wommen, saf only tho wommen, that ben maryed, that beren the tokne upon hire hedes of a mannes foot, in signe that thei ben undre mannes fote and undre subieccioun of man. And here wyfes ne dwelle not to gydere but every of hem be hire self. And the husbonde may ligge with whom of hem, that him lykethe. Everyche hathe his hous, bothe man and womman. And here houses ben made rounde of staves; and it hathe a rounde wyndowe aboven, that zevethe hem light, and also that servethe for delyverance of smoke. And the helynge of here houses, and the wowes and the dores ben alle of wode. And whan thei gon to werre, thei leiden hire houses with hem, upon chariottes; as men don tentes or pavyllouns. And thei maken hire fuyr, in the myddes of hire houses. And thei han gret multytude of alle maner of bestes, saf only of swyn: for thei bryngen non forthe. And thei beleeven wel, o God, that made and formede alle thinges. And natheles zit han thei ydoles of gold and sylver, and of tree, and of clothe. And to tho ydoles, thei offren alle weys hyre first mylk of hire bestes, and also of hire metes, and of hire drynkes, before thei eten. And thei offren often tymes hors and bestes. And the clepen the God of Kynde, Yroga. And hire Emperour also, what name that evere behave, thei putten evermore therto Chane. And whan I was there, hire Emperour had to name Thiaut; so that he was clept Thiaut Chane. And his eldeste sone was clept Tossue. And whanne he schalle ben emperour, he schalle ben clept Tossue Chane. And at that tyme, the Emperour hadde 12 sones, with outen him; that were named, Cuncy, Ordii, Chahaday, Buryn, Negu, Nocab, Cadu, Siban, Cuten, Balacy, Babylan and Garegan, And of his 3 wyfes, the firste and the pryncypalle, that was Prestre Johnes doughtre, hadde to name Serioche Chan; and the tother Borak Chan; and the tother Karanke Chan. The folk of that contree begynnen alle hire thinges in the newe mone: and thei worschipen moche the mone and the sonne, and often tyme knelen azenst hem. And alle the folk of the contree ryden comounly with outen spores: but thei beren alle weys a lytille whippe in hire hondes, for to chacen with hire hors. And thei had gret conscience, and holden it for a gret synne, to casten a knyf in the fuyr, and for to drawe flessche out of a pot with a knyf, and for to smyte an hors with the handille of a whippe, or to smyte an hors with a brydille, or to breke o bon with another, or for to caste mylk or ony lykour, that men may drynke, upon the erthe, or for to take and sle lytil children. And the moste synne, that ony man may do, is to pissen in hire houses, that thei dwellen in. And who so that may be founden with that synne, sykerly thei slen hym. And of everyche of theise synnes, it behovethe hem to ben schryven of hire prestes, and to paye gret somme of silver for hire penance. And it behovethe also, that the place, that men han pissed in, be halewed azen; and elles dar no man entren there inne. And whan thei han payed hire penance, men maken hem passen thorghe a fuyr or thorghe 2, for to clensen hem of hire synnes. And also whan ony messangere comethe and bryngethe lettres or ony present to the Emperour, it behovethe him, that he with the thing that he bryngethe, passe thorghe 2 brennynge fuyres, for to purgen hem, that he brynge no poysoun ne venym, ne no wykked thing, that myght be grevance to the lord. And also, zif ony man or womman be taken in avowtery or fornycacyoun, anon thei sleen him. Men of that contree ben alle gode archeres, and schooten right welle, bothe men and women, als wel on hors bak, prykynge, as on fote, rennynge. And the wommen maken alle thinges and alle maner mysteres and craftes; as of clothes, botes and other thinges; and thei dryven cartes, plowes and waynes and chariottes; and thei maken houses and alle maner of mysteres, out taken bowes and arwes and armures, that men maken. And alle the wommen weren breech, as wel as men. Alle the folk of that contree ben fulle obeyssant to hire sovereynes; ne thei fighten not ne chiden not, on with another. And there ben nouther thefes ne robboures in that contree; and every man worschipethe othere: but no man there dothe no reverence to no straungeres, but zif thei ben grete princes. And thei eten houndes, lyounes, lyberdes, mares and foles, asses, rattes and mees, and alle maner of bestes, grete and smale; saf only swyn, and bestes that weren defended by the olde lawe. And thei eaten alle the bestes, with outen and with inne, with outen castynge awey of ony thing, saf only the filthe. And thei eten but litille bred, but zif it be in courtes of grete lordes. And thei have not, in many places, nouther pesen ne benes, ne non other potages, but the brothe of the flessche. For littile ete thei ony thing, but flessche and the brothe. And whan thei han eten, thei wypen hire hondes upon hire skirtes: for thei use non naperye, ne towaylles, but zif it be before grete lordes: but the common peple hathe none. And whan thei han eten, thei putten hire dissches unwasschen in to the pot or cawdroun, with remenant of the flessche and of the brothe, till thei wole eten azen. And the ryche men drynken mylk of mares or of camaylles or of asses or of other bestes. And thei wil ben lightly dronken of mylk, or of another drynk, that is made of hony and of watre soden to gidre. For in that contree is nouther wyn ne ale. Thei lyven fulle wrecched liche; and thei eten but ones in the day, and that but lyttle, nouther in courtes ne in other places. And in soothe, o man allone in this contree wil ete more in a day, than on of hem will ete in 3 dayes. And zif ony straunge messagre come there to a lord, men maken him to ete but ones a day, and that fulle litille. And whan thei werren, thei werren fulle wisely, and alle weys don here besynes, to destroyen hire enemyes. Every man there berethe 2 bowes or 3, and of arwes gret plentee, and a gret ax. And the gentyles han schorte speres and large, and fulle trenchant on that o syde: and thei han plates and helmes, made of quyrboylle; and hire hors covertoures of the same. And who so fleethe fro the bataylle, thei sle him. And whan thei holden ony sege abouten castelle or toun, that is walled and defensable, thei behoten to hem that ben with inne, to don alle the profite and gode, that it is marveylle to here: and thei graunten also to hem that ben with inne, alle that thei wille asken hem. And aftre that thei ben zolden, anon thei sleen hem alle, and kutten of hire eres, and sowcen hem in vynegre, and there of thei maken gret servyse for lordes. Alle here lust and alle here ymaginacioun, is for to putten alle londes undre hire subieccioun. And thei seyn, that thei knowen wel be hire prophecyes, that thei schulle ben overcomen by archieres, and be strengthe of hem: but they knowe not of what nacioun, ne of what lawe thei schulle ben offe, that schulle overcomen hem. And therfore thei suffren, that folk of alle lawes may peysibely duellen amonges hem. Also whan thei wille make hire ydoles, or an ymage of ony of hire frendes, for to have remembrance of hym, thei maken alle weys the ymage alle naked, with outen any maner of clothinge. For thei seyn, that in gode love scholde be no coverynge, that man scholde not love for the faire clothinge, ne for the riche aray, but only for the body, suche as God hathe made it, and for the gode vertues that the body is endowed with of nature; but only for fair clothinge, that is not of kyndely nature. And zee schulle undirstonde, that it is gret drede for to pursue the Tartarines, zif thei fleen in bataylle. For in fleynge, thei schooten behynden hem, and sleen bothe men and hors. And whan thei wil fighte, thei wille schokken hem to gidre in a plomp; that zif there be 20000 men, men schalle not wenen, that there be scant 10000. And thei cone wel wynnen lond of straungeres, but thei cone not kepen it. For thei han grettre lust to lye in tentes with outen, than for to lye in castelle or in townes. And thei preysen no thing the wytt of other naciouns. And amonges hem, oyle of olyve is fulle dere: for thei holden it for fulle noble medicyne. And alle the Tartarienes han smale eyen and litille of berd, and not thikke hered, but schiere. And thei ben false and traytoures: and thei lasten noghte that thei behoten. Thei ben fulle harde folk, and moche peyne and wo mow suffren and disese, more than ony other folk: for thei ben taughte therto in hire owne contree, of Zouthe: and therfore thei spenden, as who seythe, right nought. And whan ony man schalle dye, men setter a spere besyde him: and whan he drawethe towardes the dethe, every man fleethe out of the hous, tille he be ded; and aftre that, thei buryen him in the feldes. CAPVT. 39. De sepultura Imperatoris Grand Can, et creatione successoris. Imperator Grand Can postquam eius cognita fuerit defunctio defertur mox à paucis viris in parco palatij, ad præuisum locum vbi debeat sepeliri. Et nudato prius toto illo loco à graminibus cum cespite figitur ibi tentorium, in quo velut in solio regali de ligno corpus defuncti residens collocatur, paraturque mensa plena coram eo cibarijs præciosis, et potu de lacte iumentorum. Instabulatur ibi et equa cum suo pullo, sed et ipse albus, nobilitèr phaleratus, et onustatus certo pondere auri et argenti. Et est totum Tentorij pauimentum de mundo stramine stratum. Tuncque effodiunt in circuitu fossam latam valdè, et profundam vt totum tentorium cum omnibus contentis descendat in illam. Eoque facto ita equalitèr terram planificantes adoperiunt graminibus, vt in omni tempore locus sepulturæ non valeat apparere. Et quoniam ignorantiæ nubilo turpiter excæcati putant in alio seculo homines delectationibus frui, dicunt quòd tentorium erit ei pro hospitio, cibi ad edendum, lac ad potandum, equus ad equitandum, aurum et argentum ad respiciendum, sed et equa lac sempèr præstabit, et pullos equinos successiue generabit. Post has itaque Imperatoris defuncti miseras exequias, nullus omnino audebit de ipso loqui coram vxoribus et filijs, et propinquis, sed nec nominare, quia per hoc putarent derogari paci, et quieti illius, qua non dubitant eum dominari, in maiori satis gloria Paradisi quam hic stetit. Igitur Imperatore Grand Can sepulto obliuioni tradito, conueniunt quàm citò nobiles de septem tribubus prouinciæ Cathay, et cui Imperium ex propinquitate competit, dicunt sic. Ecce volumus, ordinamus, atque precamur, vt sis noster Dominus et Imperator. Qui respondet Si vultis me super vos, sicut et iuris mei est, imperare, oportebit vos fore mihi obedientes tam ad mortem quàm ad vitam. Et respondentes dicunt. Nos faciemus quicquid praeceperitis. Túncque Imperator addit hæc verba: Ergo scitote, quod ex nunc verbum meum acutum et scindens erit vt meus ensis: [Sidenote: i. cathedra.] Pergit quóque sessum in suo Philtro nigro super pauimentum in conspectu throni expanso, et cum ipso Philtro eleuatur ab omnibus, et infertur Imperij solio, ac coronatur diademate præcedentis Imperatoris. De inde singuli principes, et singuæ ciuitates, oppida, et villæ per vniuersum imperium mittunt ei munera iocalia, vasa, pannos, equos, elephantes, aurum, argentum, et lapides preciosos, quorum, qualium, et quantorum vix vel in numero haberi potest aestimatio. CAPVT. 40. De multis regionibus Imperio Tartariae subiectis. Breuitèr et nunc intendo cursum describere aliquarum magnarum regionum et Insularum Imperij Tartariæ. Et primò illas quæ descendunt à prouincia Cathay per septentrionalem plagam, vsque ad fines Christianitatis Prussiae, et Russiae. Ergò prouincia Cathay descendens in sui oriente à regno Tharsis iungitur ab occidente regno Turquescen, in quo et sunt plurimae ciuitates, quarum formosior dicitur Octopar. Ipsum autem Turquescen regnum iungitur ad occidentem sui regno, seu Imperio. Persiae, et ad septentrionem regno Corasinae, quod spaciosum este valde, habens versus orientem sui vltra centum diaetas deserti: hoc regnum est multis bonis abundans, et appellatur eius melior ciuitas etiam Corasine. Isti quoque regno iungitur in occidente versus partes nostras regnum Commanorum, quod et similiter longum est, et latum, sed in paucis sui locis inhabitatum: Nam in quibusdam est frigus nimium, in alijs nimius calor, et in nonnullis nimia muscarum multitudo. De istis Commanis venit olim fugata quædam pluralitas populi vsque in terram Ægypti quae ibidem succreta nunc ita inualuit, vt suppressis indigenis videatur regnare: Nam et de seipsis constituerunt hunc, qui modo est Soldanus, Melech Mandibron. Per Commanorum regnum decurrit Grandis fluuius Echil, qui omni hyemali tempore in magna spissitudine gelatur; in superiori quoque parte huius regni inter duo freta Caspiæ, et Oceani, mons sublimis est valde Chocas. Nota quod à nostris partibus non possit vsque in Indiam superiorem duci magnus exercitus per terras, nisi per tres tantummodo transitus, quorum iste est vnus, qui tamen non valet transiri nisi tempore glaciei, et hic appellatus est Lodekonc. Alter per Turquescen, et per Persiam, tamen ibi sunt deserta plurium dietarum, in quibus nisi esset exercitus bene prouisus, posset perire. Tertius ad primos fines regni Commanorum, transfretando tamen mare vsque in regnum Abchaz: principalis ciuitas Commanorum dicitur Sarach. Ab hoc regno versus partes nostras inuenitur regio Laiton quae est vltima paganismi, iungitur iste finis terræ Christianitatitis regno Prussiæ, et Russiæ. Post potestatem Imperij Tartariæ descendendo à prouincia Cathay in Australem plagam venitur versus Persiam, Syriam, et Greciam. Versus terram Christianorum possum aliqualiter in summa (quantum conuenit huic scripto) connotare. Dixi supra iam prouinciam Cathay iungi regno Turquescen ad occidentem, et illud quòque iungi regno seu Imperio Persiæ. Ad quod sciendum, quamuis rex Persiæ habet etiam ab olim nomen Imperatoris; quia (cum tenet aliquas terras sui Imperij ab Imperatore Tartarorum) necesse est vt in tanto subiectus sit illi. Sunt autem in Persia duæ regiones: vna altæ Persiæ, quæ à regno Turquescen descendens, iungitur ad occidentem sui fluuis Pyson. In ista habentur renominatæ ciuitates, quarum meliores duæ dicuntur Bocura et Seonargant, quam aliqui appellant Samarkand. Et altera Regio bassæ Persiæ, descendens à flumine Pyson, qui ad sui occidentem iungiter regno Mediæ et terræ minoris Armeniæ, et ad Aquilonem mari Caspio, et ad Austrum terræ minoris Indiæ. In hac bassa Persia tres principaliores ciuitates sunt Aessabor, Saphaon, Sarmasaule. In terra autem maioris Armeniæ quondam habebantur quatuor regna quæ nunc dicuntur subesse Imperio Persarum, habétque famam terræ nobilis, et ad occidentem sui iungitur Regno Turciæ. Hec Armenia multas valdè bonas continet ciuitates, quarum famosior est Taurisa. Regnum Mediæ quod subest Regi Persarum quamuis non latum est, tamen longum est, et ad occidentem sui regno Chaldeæ coniunctum. In Media meliores duæ ciuitates sunt, Seras, et Keremen. [Sidenote: Georgia. Abchas, aliàs Alchaz.] Hinc ad occidentem sui, iuncta est regio Georgiæ, quæ modo constat diuisa in duo regna: Nam pars superior, quæ iungitur Mediæ, reseruauit sibi nomen Georgiæ, sed inferior pars dicitur regnum Abchaz. Ambo hæc regna, et regis eorum, sunt de fide Christiana, et homines ita deuoti vt ad minus semel in hebdomada communicent sacramentis, iuxta ritum Græcorum confectis. Et quidem regnum Georgiæ subiacet imperio Grand Can: sed Abchaz nunquam ab ipso Imperatore Tartariæ, neque Persarum, neque Medorum domino subdi potuit, eo quòd munitum est aquis et rupibus et alijs prouisionibus contra impugnationes hostiles. [Sidenote: In parte regni Georgiæ sunt tenebrae.] Iuxta hoc regnum Abchaz habetur vnum minum et mirabile, nam magnus est territorij locus dictus Hamson, et continens in circuitu spacium viæ quatuor diætarum: videter semper opertus tenebris densis vt nemo audeat illic intrare profundè, quoniam si qui presumpserint, non sunt visi reuerti. Attamen fatentur vicini sub illis se tenebris audisse nonnunquam clamores hominum, hinnitus, mugitus, rugitus, et boatus pecudum, et bestiarum, sed et cantus gallorum, vt per hæc et alia signa constet ibi habitare gentes: nam et fluuius decurrens monstrat signa sæpè certissima in suo exitu: ignoratur tamen si tenebræ per totum territorium sint eiusdem densitatis, an forte sint in circuitu per aliquod spacium, et intrinsecus plus luminosum. Dicuntur autem tenebræ istæ olim per diuinum miraculum aduenisse. Saboere enim Imperatore Persarum, circa annum Gratiæ ducentessimum quinquagessimum in persecutione Christianorum tendente cum pleno exercitu per hunc locum, et Christianis tyrannidem eius fugientibus, contigit ex improuiso eos ità arctari, vt se effugere desperarent, quapropter statim ad orationis refugium omnes se sternentes clamauerunt ad Christum auxiliatorem suum: Et deus, qui pro puro corde Christianos ad se orantes semper exaudit, expleuit illic literam vaticinij Isaiæ: quia ecce tenebræ operient terram et caligo populos, monstrans per tenebram terrenam, quam eis superduxit, quas passuri essent inimici nominis Christi tenebras infernales, indicansque per temporalem vitam, quam sibi fidelibus conseruauit, eam quam possessuri sunt viri Christiani vitam perpetuam, et coelestem. Itaque hoc regnum Abchaz ad occidentem sui iungitur regno Turciæ, quod in longo et lato valdè extensum multas continet prouincias scilicet Iconiæ, Cappadociæ, Sauræ, Brike, Besicon, Patan, et Gennoch; hij omnes Turci, cum tota Syria et Arabia vsque ad Galliziam Hispaniæ, subsunt Imperatori Babyloniæ Soldano, et sunt in singulis prouinciis et regionibus ciuitates magnæ, ac multæ nimis. Consequentèr huic regno Turciæ ad Occidentem sui in ciuitate Cathasa [Marginal note: Vel Sathata.] iungitur per mare Greciæ superior pars potestatis Imperatoris Constantinopolitani, et quasi ad Aquilonem contiguatur regno Syriæ: cuius vna prouincia est terra promissionis, prout hoc satis dictum est suprà. Sunt et aliæ terre, et Insulæ, et patriæ latæ, et spatiosæ, continentes in se multa regna, et reges, et gentes diuersas, de quibus nunc per singula pertractare non est consilij. Ad supradictam Chaldæam iungitur Mesopotamia, et minor Armenia, et velut ad Austrum eius Æthiopia, Mauritania, Lybia alta et bassa, et Nubia. [Sidenote: Extensio Imperij Grand Can.] Excepto ergò duntaxat districtu Imperij Persiæ, et potestate Soldani, omnes sæpè pertractatæ terræ, regiones, regna et Insulæ descendendo tam par Aquilonem, quam ad Austrum à prouincia Cathay, vsque ad Christianitatem sunt de Imperio Tartariæ Grand Can. [Sidenote: Distantia à Roma ad Cathayam per Institores.] Et notandum de spacio distantiæ, quod institores de Roma, vel Venetia festinantes tam per terras, quàm per mare, expendunt de tempore 11. menses, et quandoque duodecim, priusquam in Cathay valeant peruenire. Hijs itaque visis describam saltem aliquas à prouincia Cathay in orientem terras Imperij Tartarorum. [Sidenote: Cadilla Regio orientalior Cathay. Angli nostri hanc bestiolam nuper viderunt in Persia.] Illic habetur regio Cadilla spaciosa multum, simul et speciosa: crescunt namque in ea fructus ad quantitatem magnorum Cawardorum, in quibus inuenitur vna bestiola, in carne et sanguine ad formam agnelli absque lana, et manducatur totus fructus cum bestiola. Sunt et alij plures diuersi fructus, quorum penes nos non est respectus nec vsus. Nam et sunt ibi nonnullæ speciales vites ferentes botros incredibiliter magnos, quorum vnum vix virilis vir valet in hasta portare. Et deinde in meridiem per aliquas diætas, potest perueniri ad primas Caspiæ alpes, quæ descendendo descendunt vsque ad Amazoniam, insulam mulierum, de qua tractatum est. Inter has Alpes retinetur maxima multitudo Iudæorum decem tribum Israel, per Dei voluntatem ita inclusa, vt in copiosa numerositate non possint à nostra parte exire, quamuis aliqui pauci nonnunquam sunt visi transisse. Haberent autem competentem exitum circa insulam Amazoniæ, sed illum diligenter regina obseruat. [Sidenote: Bacchariæ Regnum vel Boghariæ.] Porrò de regione Cadilla in orientem venitur ad regnum Backariae, in qua mali et multum crudeles habitant homines, nec est securum itinerare per illam, quòd ad modicam occasionem (si Deus non conseruaret) occiderent viatorem et manducarent. [Sidenote: Arbor Lanifera.] Illic sunt arbores ferentes lanam velut ouium, ex qua texunt pannos ad vestimenta. Hypocentauri sunt ibi pro media superiori parte in forma humana, et pro inferiori figura equorum, seu taurorum, venantes in terris, et piscantes in aquis quod comedunt, et super omnia carnes hominum, quos capere possunt. [Sidenote: Gryphones, de quibus Paulus Venetæ] Nec non et gryphi illic apparent pro media posteriori parte in forma leonis, pro anteriori in forma aquilæ. Sed sciatis, corpus magni gryphi maius esse octo leonibus de partibus istis. Nam postquam equum, bouem vel hominem, etiam asinum occiderit, leuat et asportat pleno volatu: tanquam cornua bouis aut vaccae sunt illi vngulæ, de quibus etiam fieri solent ciphi ad bibendum, qui plurimùm reputantur preciosi. Fiunt quóque de pennis alarum eius arcus rigidi, et fortes ad iaciendum missilia et sagittas. Ad istius regni Baccariae extremitates in Orientum finitur terra potestatis Grand Can: Et iungitur ei terra potestatis magni Imperatoris Indiæ, qui semper vocatur Præsbyter Ioannes. Notandum, quoties per prouincias totius Imperij Grand Can, quicquam accidit, quod Imperatorem non oportet latere, confestim mittuntur per reges aut barones nuncij in dromedarijs aut equis, qui celerrimè festinant ad certa hospitia, ad hoc ipsum, velut ábsque numero per imperium instituta: Isque nuncius hospitio appropinquans, et cornu resonans, dum auditor paratur minicius alter, qui de manu suscipiens literas, per recentem dromedarium festinat ad aliud hospitium, et sic in breui tempore perferuntur rumores ad curia aures. [Sidenote: Cursores, Chidibo Tartaricè dicti.] Similique modo nuncij pedites permutantur de hospitio in hospitium, vt citiùs percipiatur negocium huius nuncij: appellantur sua lingua Chidibo. [Sidenote: Charita Mandeuilli.] Ergò per præmissa satis elucet magnam esse nobilitatem, potestatem, reuerentiam, et dominationem Imperatoris Tartariæ Grand Can de Cathay, et quòd nullus ab ista parte Imperator nec Persiæ, nec Babylonia, nec Greciæ, sed nec Romæ est illi comparandus. Vndè et multum miserandum est, quia ipse cùm toto Imperio nec est fide Catholica illustratus, nec salutari lauachro regeneratus: et hoc oremus vt in breui eueniat, per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Explicit pars secunda huius opens. The English Version. And whan the emperour dyethe, men setten him in a chayere in myddes the place of his tent: and men setten a table before him clene, covered with a clothe, and there upon flesche and dyverse vyaundes, and a cuppe fulle of mares mylk: And men putten a mare besyde him, with hire fole, and an hors saddled and brydeled; and thei leyn upon the hors gold and silver gret quantytee: and thei putten abouten him gret plentee of stree: and than men maken a gret pytt and a large; and with the tent and alle theise other thinges, then putten him in erthe. And thei seyn, that whan he schalle come in to another world, he schalle not ben with outen an hows, ne with owten hors, ne with outen gold and sylver: and the mare schalle zeven him mylk, and bryngen him forthe mo hors, tille he be wel stored in the tother world. For thei trowen, that aftre hire dethe, thei schulle be etynge and drynkynge in that other world, and solacynge hem with hire wifes, as thei diden here. And aftre tyme, that the emperour is thus entered, no man schalle be so hardy to speke of him before his frendes, And zit natheles somtyme fallethe of manye, that thei maken hem to ben entered prevylly be nyghte, in wylde places, and putten azen the grasse over the pytt for to growe: or elle men coveren the pytt with gravelle and sond, that no man schalle perceyve where, ne knowe where the pytt is, to that entent, that never aftre, non of his frendes schulle han mynde ne rememberance of him. And thanne thei seyn, that he is ravissht in to another world where he is a grettre lord, than he was here. And thanne aftre the dethe of the emperour, the 7 lynages assemblen hem to gidere, and chesen his eldest sone, or the nexte aftre him, of his blood: and thus thei seye to him; wee wolen and wee preyen and ordeynen, that zee ben oure lord and oure emperour. And thanne he answerethe, zif yee wile, that I regne over zou, as lord, do eyeryche of zou, that I schalle commanden him, outher to abyde or to go; and whom soever that I commaunde to ben slayn, that anon he be slayn. And thei answeren alle with o voys, what so evere zee commanden, it schalle be don. Thanne seythe the emperour, now undirstondethe wel, that my woord from hens forthe, is scharp and bytynge as a swerd. After men setten him upon a blak stede, and so men bryngen him to a cheyere fulle richely arrayed, and there thei crownen hym. And thanne alle the cytees and gode townes senden hym ryche presentes; so that at that iourneye, he schalle have more than 60 chariottes charged with gold and sylver, with outen jewelles of gold and precyouse stones, that lordes zeven hym, that ben withouten estymacioun: and with outen hors and clothes of gold and of Camakaas and Tartarynes, that ben with outen nombre. Of the Roialme of Thurse and the Londes and Kyngdomes towardes the Septentrionale parties, in comynge down from the Lond of Cathay. This lond of Cathay is in Asye the depe. And aftre, on this half, is Asyetthe more. The kyngdom of Cathay marchethe toward the west, unto the kyngdom of Tharse; the whiche was on of the kinges, that cam to presente our Lord in Betheleem. And thei that ben of the lynage of that kyng, arn somme Cristene. In Tharse, thei eten no flessche, ne thei drynken no wyn. And on this half, towardes the west, is the kyngdom of Turquesten, that strecchethe him toward the west, to the kyngdom of Persie; and toward the Septrentionalle, to the kyngdom of Chorasme. In the contre of Turquesten, ben but fewe gode cytees: but the beste cytee of that lond highte Octorar. There ben grete pastures; but fewe Coornes; and therfore, for the most partie, thei ben alle herdemen: and thei lyzn in tentes, and thei drynken a maner ale, made of hony. And aftre, on this half, is the kyngdom of Chorasme, that is a gode lond and a plentevous, with outen wyn. And it hathe a desert toward the est, that lastethe more than an 100 iourneyes. And the beste cytee of that contree is clept Chorasme. And of that cytee, berethe the contree his name. The folk of that contree ben hardy werryoures. And on this half is the kyngdom of Comanye, where of the Comayns that dwelleden in Grece, somtyme weren chaced out. This is on of the grettest kyngdomes of the world: but it is not alle enhabyted. For at on of the parties, there is so gret cold, that no man may dwelle there: and in another partie, there is so grete hete, that no man may endure it. And also there ben so many flyes, that no man may knowe on what syde he may turne him. In that contree is but lytille arberye, ne trees that beren frute, ne othere. Thei lyzn in tentes. And thei brenen the dong of bestes for defaute of wode. This kyngdom descendeth on this half toward us, and toward Pruysse, and toward Rossye. And thorghe that contree rennethe the ryvere of Ethille, that is on of the grettest ryveres of the world. And it fresethe so strongly alle zeres, that many tymes men han foughten upon the Ise with grete hostes, bothe parties on fote, and hire hors voyded for the tyme: and what on hors and on fote, mo than 200000 persones on every syde. And betweene that ryvere and the grete see ocean, that thei clepen the see maure, lyzn alle theise Roialmes. And toward the hede benethe in that Roialme, is the mount Chotaz, that is the hiest mount of the world: and it is betwene the see Maure and the see Caspy. There is fulle streyt and dangerous passage, for to go toward Ynde. And therfore Kyng Alysandre leet make there a strong cytee, that men clepen Alizandre, for to kepe the contree, that no man scholde passe with outen his leve. And now men clepen that cytee, the Zate of Helle. And the princypalle cytee of Comenye is clept Sarak, that is on of the 3 weyes for to go in to Ynde: but be the weye, ne may not passe no gret multytude of peple, but zif it be in wyntre. And that passage men clepen the Derbent. The tother weye is for to go fro the citee of Turquesten, be Persie: and be that weye, ben manye iourneyes be desert. And the thridde weye is that comethe fro Comanye, and than to go be the grete see and be the kyngdom of Abchaz. And zee schulle undirstonde, that alle theise kyngdomes and alle theise londes aboveseyd, unto Pruysse and to Rossye, ben alle obeyssant to the grete Chane of Cathay; and many othere contrees, that marchen to other costes. Wherfore his powere and his lordschipe is fulle gret, and fulle myghty. Of the Emperour of Persye, and of the lond of darknesse and of other Kyngdomes, that belongen to the grete Chane of Cathay, and other Londes of his, unto the See of Greece. [Sidenote: Cap. XXV.] Now sithe I have devysed zou the londes and the kyngdoms toward the parties septentrionales, in comynge down from the lond of Cathay, unto the londes of the Cristene, towardes Pruysse and Rossye; now schalle I devyse zou of other londes and kyngdomes, comynge doun be other costes, toward the right syde, unto the see of Grece, toward the lond of Cristene men: and therfore that, aftre Ynde and aftre Cathay, the Emperour of Persie is the gretteste lord. Therfore I schalle telle zou of the kyngdom of Persie. First, where he hathe 2 kyngdomes; the firste kyngdom begynnethe toward the est, toward the kyngdom of Turquesten, and it strecchethe toward the west, unto the ryyere of Phison, that is on of the 4 ryveres, that comen out of paradys. And on another syde, it strecchethe toward the septemtrion, unto the see of Caspye: and also toward the southe, unto the desert of Ynde. And this contree is gode and pleyn and fulle of peple. And there ben manye gode cytees. But the 2 princypalle cytees ben theise, Boyturra and Seornergant, that sum men clepen Sormagant. The tother kyngdom of Persie strecchethe toward the ryvere of Phison, and the parties of the west, unto the kyngdom of Mede: and fro the grete Armenye, and toward the septemtrion, to the see of Caspie; and toward the southe, to the land of Ynde. That is also a gode lond and a plentefous; and it hath 3 grete princypalle cytees, Messabor, Caphon and Sarmassane. And thanne aftre is Armenye, in the which weren wont to ben 4 kyngdomes: that is a noble contree, and fulle of godes. And it begyinnethe at Persie, and strecchethe toward the west in lengthe, unto Turkye. And in largenesse, it durethe to the cytee of Alizandre, that now is clept the Zate of Helle, that I spak offe beforn, undre the kyngdom of Mede. In this Armenye ben fulle manye gode cytees: but Tanrizo is most of name. Aftre this, is the kyngdom of Mede, that is fulle long: but it is not fulle large, that begynnethe toward the est, to the land of Persie, and to Ynde the lesse. And it strecchethe toward the west, toward the kyngdom of Caldee, and toward the septemtrion, descendynge toward the litille Armenye. In that kyngdom of Medee, ther ben many grere hilles, and litille of pleyn erthe. There duellen Sarazines, and another maner of folk, that men clepen Cordynes. The beste 2 cytees of that kyngdom, ben Sarras and Karemen. Aftre that, is the kyngdom of George, that begynnethe toward the est; to the gret mountayne, that is clept Abzor; where that duellen many dyverse folk of dyverse naciouns. And men clepen the contree Alamo. This kyngdom strecchethe him towardes Turkye, and toward the grete see: and toward the south, it marchethe to the grete Armenye. And there ben 2 kyngomes in that contree; that on is the kyngdom of Georgie, and that other is the kyngdom of Abcaz. And alle weys in that contree ben 2 kynges, and thei ben bothe Cristene: but the Kyng of Georgie is in subieccioun to the grete Chane. And the King of Abcaz hathe the more strong contree: and he alle weyes vigerously defendethe his contree; azenst alle tho that assaylen him; so that no man may make him in subieccioun to no man. In that kyngdom of Abcaz is a gret marvaylle. For a provynce of the contree, that hathe wel in circuyt 3 iorneyes, that men clepen Hanyson, is alle covered with derknesse, with outen ony brightnesse or light; so that no man may see ne here, ne no man dar entren in to hem. And natheles, thei of the contree seyn, that som tyme men heren voys of folk, and hors nyzenge, and cokkes crowynge. And men witen wel, that men duellen there: but thei knowe not what men. And thei seyn, that the derknesse befelle be myracle of God. For a cursed Emperour of Persie, that highte Saures, pursuede alle Cristene men, to destroye hem, and to compelle hem to make sacrifise to his ydoles; and rood with grete host, in alle that ever he myghte, for to confounde the Cristene men. And thanne in that contree, dwellen manye gode Cristene men, the whiche that laften hire godes, and wolde han fled in to Grece: and whan they weren in a playn, that highte Megon, anon this cursed emperour mett with hem, with his hoost, for to have slayn hem, and hewen hem to peces. And anon the Cristene men kneleden to the grounde, and made hire preyeres to God to sokoure hem. And anon a gret thikke clowde cam, and covered the emperour and alle his hoost: and so thei enduren in that manere, that thei ne mowe not gon out, on no syde; and so schulle thei ever more abyden in derknesse, tille the day of dome, be the myracle of God. And thanne the Cristene men wenten, where hem lykede best, at hire own plesance, with outen lettynge of ony creature; and hire enemyes enclosed and confounded in derknesse, with outen ony strok. Wherfore we may wel seye, with David, _A Domino factum est istud; et est mirable in oculis nostris_. And that was a gret myracle, that God made for hem. Wherfore methinkethe, that Cristene men scholden ben more devoute, to serven oure Lord God, than ony other men of ony other secte. For with outen ony drede, ne were cursednesse and synne of Cristene men, thei scholden be lordes of alle the world. For the banere of Jesu Crist is alle weys displayed, and redy on alle sydes, to the help of his trewe lovynge servauntes: in so moche, that o gode Cristene man, in gode beleeve, scholde overcomen and out chacen a 1000 cursed mysbeleevynge men: as David seyth in the Psautere, _Quoniam persequebatur unus mille, et duo fugarent decem milia_. Et, _Cadent a latere tuo mille, et decem milia a dextris tuis_. And how that it myghte ben, that on scholde chacen a 1000, David himself seythe, folewynge, _Quia manus Domini fecit hæc omnia_. And oure Lord himself seythe, be the prophetes mouth, _Si in viis meis ambulaveritis, super tribulantes vos misissem manum meam_. So that wee may seen apertely, that zif wee wil be gode men, non enemye ne may not enduren azenst us. Also zee schulle undirstonde, that out of that lond of derknesse, gothe out a gret ryvere, that schewethe wel, that there ben folk dwellynge, be many redy tokenes: but no man dar not entre in to it. And wytethe well, that in the kyngdoms of Georgie, of Abchaz and of the litile Armenye, ben gode Cristene men and devoute. For thei schryven hem and howsele hem evermore ones or twyes in the woke. And there ben many of hem, that howsele hem every day: and so do wee not on this half; alle be it that Seynt Poul commandethe it, seyenge, _Omnibus diebus dominicis ad communicandum hortor_. Thei kepen that commandement: but wee ne kepen it not. Also aftre, on this half, is Turkye, that marchethe to the gret Armenye. And there ben many provynces, as Capadoche, Saure, Brique, Quesiton, Pytan and Gemethe. And in everyche of theise ben many gode cytees. This Turkye strecchethe unto the cytee of Sachala, that sittethe upon the see of Grece; and so it marchethe to Syrie. Syrie is a gret contree and a gode, as I have told zou before. And also it hathe, aboven toward Ynde, the kyngdom of Caldee, that strecchethe fro the mountaynes of Calde, toward the est, unto the cytee of Nynyvee, that sittethe upon the ryvere of Tygre: and in largenesse, it begynnethe toward the northe, to the cytee of Maraga; and it strecchethe toward the southe, unto the see occean. In Caldee is a pleyn contree, and fewe hilles and few ryveres. Aftre is the kyngdom of Mesopotayme, that begynnethe toward the est, to the flom of Tygre, unto a cytee that is clept Moselle: and it strecchethe toward the west, to the flom of Eufrate, unto a cytee that is clept Roianz: and in lengthe it gothe to the mount of Armenye, unto the desert of Ynde the lesse. This is a gode contree and a pleyn; but it hathe fewe ryveres. It hathe but 2 mountaynes in that contree: of the whiche, on highte Symar, and that other Lyson. And this lond marchethe to the kyngdom of Caldee. Zit there is, toward the parties meridionales, many contrees and many regyouns; as the lond of Ethiope, that marchethe, toward the est, to the grete desertes; toward the west, to the kyngdom of Nubye; toward the southe, to the kyngdom of Moretane; and toward the north to the Rede See. Aftre is Moretane, that durethe fro the mountaynes of Ethiope, unto Lybie the hize. And that contree lyzth a long fro the see ocean, toward the southe; and toward the northe, it marchethe to Nubye, and to the highe Lybye. (Theise men of Nubye ben Cristene.) And it marchethe fro the londes aboveseyd to the desertes of Egypt. And that is the Egypt, that I have spoken of before. And aftre is Libye the hye, and Lybye the lowe, that descendethe down lowe, toward the grete see of Spayne. In the whiche contree ben many kyngdomes and many dyverse folk. Now I have devysed zou many contrees, on this half the kyngdom of Cathay: of the whiche, many ben obeyssant to the grete Chane. Of the Contrees and Yles, that ben bezonde the Lond of Cathay; and of the Frutes there; and of 22 Kynges enclosed within the Mountaynes. [Sidenote: Cap. XXVI.] Now schalle I seye zou sewyngly of contrees and yles, that ben bezonde the contrees that I have spoken of. Wherfore I seye zou, in passynge be the lond of Cathaye, toward the highe Ynde, and toward Bacharye, men passen be a kyngdom, that men clepen Caldilhe; that is a fulle fair contree. And there growethe a maner of fruyt, as thoughe it weren gowrdes: and whan thei ben rype, men kutten hem a to, and men fynden with inne a lytylle best, in flessche, in bon and blode, as though it were a lytylle lomb, with outen wolle. And men eten bothe the frut and the best: and that is a gret marveylle. Of that frute I have eten; alle thoughe it were wondirfulle: but that I knowe wel, that God is marveyllous in his werkes. And natheles I told hem, of als gret a marveylle to hem, that is amonges us: and that was of the Bernakes. For I tolde hem, that in oure contree weren trees, that beren a fruyt, that becomen briddes fleeynge: and tho that fellen in the water, lyven; and thei that fallen on the erthe, dyen anon: and thei ben right gode to mannes mete. And here of had thei als gret marvaylle, that summe of hem trowed, it were an impossible thing to be. [Footnote: The Barnacle-bearing trees are said to have grown in Ireland.] In that contree ben longe apples of gode savour; where of ben mo than 100 in a clustre, and als manye in another; and thei han gret longe leves and large, of 2 fote long or more. And in that contree, and in other contrees there abouten, growen many trees, that beren clowe gylofres and notemuges, and grete notes of Ynde and of canelle and of many other spices. And there ben vynes, that beren so grete grapes, that a strong man scholde have y now to done, for to bere o clustre with alle the grapes. In that same regioun ben the mountaynes of Caspye, that men clepen Uber in the contree. Betwene the mountaynes, the Jewes of 10 lynages ben enclosed, that men clepen Gothe and Magothe: and thei mowe not gon out on no syde. There weren enclosed 22 kynges with hire peple, that duelleden betwene the mountaynes of Sythye. There Kyng Alisandre chacede hem betwene tho mountaynes; and there he thoughte for to enclose hem thorghe werk of his men. But whan he saughe, that he myghte not don it, ne bryng it to an ende, he preyed to God of Nature, that he wolde parforme that that he had begonne. And alle were it so, that he was a Payneme and not worthi to ben herd, zit God of his grace closed the mountaynes to gydre: so that thei dwellen there, alle faste y lokked and enclosed with highe mountaynes alle aboute, saf only on o syde; and on that syde is the see of Caspye. Now may sum men asken, Sithe that the see is on that o syde, wherfore go thei not out on the see syde, for to go where that hem lykethe? But to this question, I schal answere, That see of Caspye gothe out be londe, undre the mountaynes, and rennethe be the desert at o syde of the contree; and aftre it strecchethe unto the endes of Persie. And alle thoughe it be clept a see, it is no see, ne it touchethe to non other see; but it is a lake, the grettest of the world. And thoughe thei wolden putten hem in to that see, thei ne wysten never, where that thei scholde arryven. And also thei conen no langage, but only hire owne, that no man knowethe but thei: and therfore mowe thei not gon out. And also zee schulle undirstond, that the Jewes han no propre lond of hire owne for to dwellen inne, in alle the world, but only that lond betwene the mountaynes. And zit thei zelden tribute for that lond to the Queen of Amazoine, the whiche makethe hem to ben kept in cloos fulle diligently, that thei schalle not gon out on no syde, but be the cost of hire lond. For hire lond marchethe to tho mountaynes. And often it hathe befallen, that summe of the Jewes han gon up the mountaynes, and avaled down to the valeyes: but gret nombre of folk ne may not do so. For the mountaynes ben so hye and so streghte up, that thei moste abyde there, maugre hire myghte. For thei mowe not gon out, but be a littille issue, that was made be strengthe of men; and it lastethe wel a 4 gret myle. And aftre, is there zit a lond alle desert, where men may fynde no watre, ne for dyggynge, ne for non other thing. Wherfore men may not dwellen in that place: so it is fulle of dragounes, of serpentes and of other venymous bestes, that no man dar not passe, but zif it be strong wyntre. And that streyt passage, men clepen in that contree, Clyron. And that is the passage, that the Queen of Amazoine makethe to ben kept. And thoghe it happene, sum of hem, be fortune, to gon out; thei conen no maner of langage but Ebrow: so that thei can not speke to the peple. And zit natheles, men seyn, thei schalle gon out in the tyme of Antecrist, and that thei schulle maken gret slaughtre of Cristene men. And therfore alle the Jewes, that dwellen in alle londes, lernen alle weys to speken Ebrew, in hope that whan the other Jewes schulle gon out, that thei may undirstonden hire speche, and to leden hem in to Cristendom, for to destroye the Cristene peple. For the Jewes seyn, that they knowen wel, be hire Prophecyes, that thei of Caspye schulle been undre hire subieccioun, als longe as they had ben in subieccioun of hem. And zif that zee wil wyte, how that thei schulle fynden hire Weye, aftre that I have herd seye, I schalle telle zou. In the time of Antecrist, a fox schalle make there his trayne, and mynen an hole, where Kyng Alisandre leet make the Zates: and so longe he schalle mynen and perce the erthe, till that he schalle passe thorghe, towardes that folk. And whan thei seen the fox thei schulle have gret marveylle of him, be cause that thei saughe never suche a best. For of alle other bestes, thei han enclosed amonges hem, saf only the fox. And thanne thei schullen chacen him and pursuen him so streyte, tille that he come to the same place, that he cam fro. And thanne thei schullen dyggen and mynen so strongly, tille that thei fynden the zates, that Kyng Alisandre leet make of grete stones and passynge huge, wel symented and made stronge for the maystrie. And tho zates thei schulle breken, and so gon out, be fyndynge of that issue. Fro that lond, gon men toward the lond of Bacharie, where ben fulle cruelle. In that lond ben trees, that beren wolle, as thoghe it were of scheep; where of men maken clothes, and alle thing that may ben made of wolle. In that contree ben many Ipotaynes, that dwellen somtyme in the watre, and somtyme on the lond: and thei ben half man and half hors, as I have seyd before: and thei eten men, whan thei may take hem. And there ben ryveres of watres, that ben fulle byttere, three sythes more than is the watir of the see. In that contree ben many Griffounes, more plentee than in ony other contree. Sum men seyn, that thei han the body upward, as an eagle, and benethe as a Lyoun: and treuly thei seyn sothe, that thei ben of that schapp. But o griffoun hathe the body more gret and is more strong thanne 8 lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half; and more gret and strongere, than an 100 egles, suche as we han amonges us. For o griffoun there will bere, fleynge to his neste, a gret hors, or 2 oxen zoked to gidere, as thei gon at the plowghe. For he hathe his talouns so longe and so large and grete, upon his feet, as thoughe thei weren hornes of grete oxen or of bugles or of Kyzn; so that men maken cuppes of hem, to drynken of: and of hire ribbes and of the pennes and of hire wenges, men maken bowes fulle stronge, to schote with arwes and quarelle. From thens gon men, be many iourneyes, thorghe the lond of Prestre John, the grete Emperour of Ynde. And men clepen his Roialme, the Yle of Pentexoire, END OF PART II. MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGES. PART III. Tertia pars. CAPVT. 41. De magnificentia Imperatoris Indiæ et preciositate Palatij. [Sidenote: Seu Pentoxoria Ciuitas Nyse] Cum in præcedentibus Imperator Indiæ dictus sit magnus, restat de illius magnificentia aliquid poni hoc loco: cuius vtique gloria, nobilitas, et potestas, dici non habetur minor, est tamen in aliquibus satis maior, quia omne æquale non est idem cum illo cui æquatur: itáque à finibus regni Bachariæ supradicti vbi contiguatur Imperio Indiæ, eundo per multas diætas intratur in Pentoxyriæ quod est magnæ latitudinis, et abundantiæ in multis bonis: huius nominatior ciuitas, dicitur Nyse, et in ea habet Imperator palatium Imperiale, in quo residet dum sibi placet. Imperator iste semper vocitatus est Præsbyter Ioannes, cuius nominis causam audieram quandoque non veram: sed in illis partibus accepi rationem indubitatam, quam breuiter hîc enarro. [Sidenote: Narratio de rebus gestis Ogeri Ducis Daniæ.] Circa annum ab incarnatione Domini octingentessimum, dux Ogerus de Danemarchia, cum quindecim cognationis suæ baronibus, et armatis viginti milibus transiuit mare Greciæ, et fauente sibi Deo conquisiuit Christianitati per multa prælia pené omnes terras, regiones, et insulas, quas esse de potestate Grand Can prædixi, nec non et omnes, quæ sunt de potestate Imperij huius Imperatoris Indiæ. Eratque inter Barones vnus denominatus Ioannes filius Goudebucf, regis Frisonum: qui dictus Ioannes Deo deuotus fuit, et dum licuit Ecclesiarum limina iniuit, vnde et barones ei dabant quasi per iocum Præsbyter Ioannes vocabulum. [Sidenote: Vndè Presbyter Ioannis sit dictus. 4000. Insulæ.] Dum ergo Ogerus dictas regiones expugnatas diuideret in hijs quindecim suis cognatis, et quemlibet eorum in suo loco constitueret regem, quatenus Christiana religio in illa orbis superficie semper stabilis permaneret, tradidit isti Præsbytero Ioanni superiorem Indiam, cum 4000. insulis, regionibus, et ipsum præfecit Imperatorem super reliquos cognatos, vt ei certa tributa impenderent, et in omnibus obedirent, átque ex tunc omnes successores Indiæ sunt vocati Præsbyter Ioannes et vsque in hodiernum tempus boni manserunt Christiani, et religionis æmulatores. Interim cum causa matrimoniorum aut procurationis filiorum dispersa est primi Imperij integritas, et multæ de insulis conuersæ vel potius peruersæ retrocesserunt ad vetustum squalorem paganismi primi. Nota. Recedens à Cambalu versus orientem post 50. dietas ad terram Præsbyteri Ioannes, principalis ciuitas terræ vocatur Cosan, satis parua sicut Vincentia: habet etiam sub se multas alias ciuitates. Ex pacto semper habet in vxorem vnam de filiabus Grand Can. Per multas peruenitur ad prouinciam Casan, quæ est secunda melior de mundo, vbi subtilior est, habet dietas 50. longior, 60. et est vna de duodecim partibus Imperij Grand Can. Odericus. Vide infra capitulo 49. de Cassan, et de Epulone. Deinde venitur in Thebeth prouinciam, quæ India est confinis. Itaque Rex et Imperator iste tenet spatiosissimum Imperium plenum valdè multis Regionibus et Insulis amplis, diuisum inter quatuor flumina magna de Paradiso terrestri descendentia, Pyson, Gyon, Tygrim, et Euphratem. Nam vltra fines orientales eius Imperij, et terrestram Paradisum, nullus hominum habitat vel domitatur. Præterea imperat multis alijs regionibus et insulis quæ distinguntur per brachia maris Oceani, et in quibus singulis continetur grandis numerositas ciuitatum ac villarum, et multitudo innumera populorum præ abundantia, et præciositate omnium terrenorum bonorum. Imperium Indiæ habetur famosum per vniuersum orbem. Sed et famosius haberetur si mercatores mundi communitèr possint et auderent adire sicut Cathay, Nostratibus enim perrarus est illic accessus, tam præ longinquitate, quàm præ marinis periculis. Nam exceptis alijs sunt ibi quamplures Adamantini colles, ad oram maris, et intra mare, qui sua virtute attrahunt sibi naues ferrum continentes. Quoniam et mihi nauiganti monstrabatur per nautas à remotis quasi paruula Insula in mari, quam asserebant totalitèr ab antiquis temporibus paulatim ibi cumulatam de nauibus per Adamantes retentis. [Sidenote: Latitudo Imperij Præsbyteri Ioannis est 4. mensium iter.] Estimatur autem latitudo huius Imperij per dietas quatuor mensium, sed longitudini non datur estimatio, eo quòd tenditur vsque Paradisum vbi nullus accedit. Distinctum est Imperium per duodecim prouincias, quibus totidem præsunt reges principales seu prouinciales, et quorum singuli habent sub se Reges, Duces, Marchiones, et Barones, praestantes atque reddentes Praesbytero Ioanni promptam obedientiam, et certa tributa. Saepius et communitèr tenet Sedem Imperator in palatio vrbis Imperialis Suse. Hoc autem Palatium tale et tantum est, vt per me non credatur debite estimandum. Istud tamen dico audentèr in summa, quòd grandius, nobilius, preciosius, et placidius est, in auro, gemmis, structuris, et schemate supra descripto palatio Grand Can in Caydo. Et ex speciali sciatis, istius palatij principales portas esse de Sardonico, vndìque in ebore circumcluso: sed et transuersæ lineæ sunt omnes Eburneæ, aularum et cubiculorum fenestræ christallinæ. Mensarum quaedam Smaragdinæ, aliquæ Haematistinæ, caeterorumque lapidum preciosorum per aurum sibimet coniunctorum. Et nonnullæ in toto aureæ vel gemmunculis disseminatæ, et vnaquaeque de mensis cum stabilimento proprij generis. De throni quoque preciositate, quia meæ demonstrationis excellit modum, solummodo dico, singulos ascensionis gradus esse singulorum lapidum preciosorum: Primum onychis, secundum christallai, tertium iaspidis, quartum haematisti, quintum sardij, sextum cornelij. Et septimus qui est sub sedentis Imperatoris pedibus, ipse est, chrysolitus, omnes circumfusi, et inclusoria arte formati, auro splendida relucentes. Sed et ambo throni reclinatoria ex smaragdis auro combinatis, eoque distincto nobilissimis granis, et gemmis: cuncti pilarij in camera Regis dormitoria consistunt de auro fuluo, disseminati baccis, et quampluribus carbunculorum rubetis, totum de nocte habitaculum illustrantibus. Et nihilominus in ea christallina lampas plena balsamo pistico sed ardens et lucens, tam pro augendo lumine, quàm pro corrigendo aere, tamen etiam pro ministrando optimo odore. Forma lecti Imperatoris compacta est de puris et nobilissimis Saphyris, conclusi vtique aureis vel eburneis ligaturis, vt virtute lapidum capiat suauem somnum, motusque carnis inhonesti stimuli, in eo refrenentur. Nunquam enim iungitur mulieri nisi soli coniugi propriæ, sed nec illi nisi quatuor quindenis anni videlicet in capite hyemis, veris, æstatis, et autumni causa sobolis generandæ. Vtque breuitèr transeam de multa huius palatij nobilitate, mirabile hoc solummodò praemissis super addo. Quia circa medium illius in summo apice turris maioris, duo sunt nodi seu pomella de decoctissimi auri metallo miræ magnitudinis, et serenæ resplendentiæ, et in ipsis formati duo carbunculi grandes, et lati, sua virtute tenebras effugantes, et velut splendorem plenilunij nocturno tempore mentientes. The English Version. Of the Ryalle estate of Prestre John; and of a riche man, that made a marveyllous Castelle, and cleped it Paradys; and of his Sotyltee. [Sidenote: Chap. XXVII.] This Emperour Prestre John holt fulle gret lond, and hathe many fulle noble cytees and gode townes in his royalme, and many grete dyvene yles ond large. For alle the contree of Ynde is devysed in yles, for the grete flodes, that comen from Paradys, that departen alle the lond in many parties. And also in the see, he hathe fulle manye yles. And the beste cytee in the yle of Pentexoire is Nyse, that is a fulle ryalle cytee and a noble, and fulle riche. This Prestre John hathe undre him many kynges and many yles and many dyverse folk of dyverse condiciouns. And this lond is fulle gode and ryche; but not so riche as is the lond of the grete Chane. For the marchauntes come not thidre so comounly, for to bye marchandises, as thei don in the lond of the gret Chane: for it is to fer to travaylle to. And on that other partie, in the yle of Cathay, men fynden alle maner thing, that is nede to man; clothes of gold, of silk, and spycerie. And therfore, alle be it that men han grettre chep in the yle of Prestre John, natheles men dreden the longe wey and the grete periles in the see, in tho parties. For in many places of the see ben grete roches of stones of the adamant, that of his propre nature drawethe iren to him. And therfore there passen no schippes, that han outher bondes or nayles of iren with in hem: and zif there do, anon the roches of the adamantes drawen hem to hem, that never thei may go thens. I my self have seen o ferrom in that see, as thoughe it hadde ben a gret yle fulle of trees and buscaylle, fulle of thornes and breres, gret plentee. And the schipmen tolde us, that alle that was of schippes, that weren drawen thidre be the adamauntes, for the iren that was in hem. And of the rotenesse and other thing that was with in the schippes, grewen suche buscaylle and thornes and breres and grene grasse and suche maner of thing; and of the mastes and the seylle zerdes; it semed a gret wode or a grove. And suche roches ben in many places there abouten. And therfore dur not the marchauntes passen there, but zif thei knowen wel the passages, or elle that thei han gode lodes men. And also thei dreden the longe weye: and therfore thei gon to Cathay; for it is more nyghe: and zit is not so nyghe, but that men moste ben travayllynge be see and lond, 11 monethes or 12, from Gene or from Venyse, or he come to Cathay. And zit is the lond of Prestre John more ferr, be many dredfulle iourneyes. And the marchauntes passen be the kyngdom of Persie, and gon to a cytee that is clept Hermes: for Hermes the philosophre founded it. And aftre that, thei passen an arm of the see, and thanne thei gon to another cytee that is clept Golbache: and there thei fynden marchandises, and of popengayes, as gret plentee as men fynden here of gees. And zif thei will passen ferthere, thei may gon sykerly i now. In that contree is but lytylle whete or berley: and therfore thei eten ryzs and hony and mylk and chese and frute. This Emperour Prestre John takethe alle weys to his wif, the doughtre of the grete Chane: and the gret Chane also in the same wise, the doughtre of Prestre John. For theise 2 ben the grettest lordes undir the firmament. In the lond of Prestre John, ben manye dyverse thinges and many precious stones, so gret and so large, that men maken of hem vesselle: as plateres, dissches and cuppes. And many other marveylles ben there; that it were to cumbrous and to long to putten it in scripture of bokes. CAPVT 42. De frequentia palatij et comitatu Imperatoris. Seruiunt et praestò sunt iugitèr Domino Imperatori septem reges, qui in capite singulorum mensium, alijs septem regibus pro illis palatium ingredientibus recedunt ad propria, donec reuoluatur eis tempus statutum. Hij curam habent de gubernatione administrationum in aula maiori per subiectos eis 72. duces, et 300. et 63. comites seu barones, quorum vnusquisque optimè nouit et diligentèr intendit proprio ministerio. Nam isti sunt Imperatoris Cubicularij, isti Camerarij, isti scindunt Regi morsellos: alij de apponendis curam gerunt ferculis et deponendis, deafferendis, deasportandis, alij pincernæ, Archimandritæ, ostiarij, et sic de singulis. Nec non absque iam dictis, manducant omni die in aula coràm Imperatore, duodecim Archiepiscopi, 220. Episcopi, quibus etiam alij totidem certis temporibus succedunt per vices. Verumtamem ad quotidianas expensas vsque praemissas, veniunt de Curia 300. millia personarum, sed non ampliùs: sed sicut praedixi de Curia praecedentis Imperatoris sic nullus hic, cuiuscunque sit status, aut sexus, comedit vltrà semel in die, et hoc ipsum sobriè satis: quoniam prout æstimare possum, expensæ duodecim hominum de nostris communitèr compensarent triginta hominum in partibus illis. Dum Ioannem Presbyterum contingit procedere cum exercitu in plena exhibitione, non deferuntur vexilla, sed tredecim cruces magnæ altitudinis et grossitudinis, de auro distincto pretiosissimis petris, in honorem Christi et suorum Apostolorum duodecim. Hæ vectantur in singulis curribus, et singularum ad hoc maximis curribus cum custodia cuiuscunque crucis, decem mille equitum, et centum mille peditum, nec tamen hic numerus auget vel minuit principalem exercitum Paganorum. Tempore pacis per terras proprias de palatio ad palatium, aut de regno ad regnum, dum tendere ei placet, comitatur vtique magna multitudine hominum antè et retrò, et ex vtroque laterum. Tùncque portantur coràm eo tria valdè notabilia, quæ tam illi quàm omnibus ea dignè notantibus esse possunt salutaria. Praecedit enim eum in spatio circiter octodecim passuum discus onustus velut omni genere pretiosorum vasorum auri et argenti, gemmarum, et inæstimabilis artificij. Illumque discum subsequitur propinquiùs Imperatori ad spatium centum passuum, alia crux lignea nullo penitùs auro, nulloue colore aut preciositate artificialis operis adornata. Dehinc ad sex passuum succedit ibidem propinquans Imperatori discus aureus terra nigerrima plenus. Sunt enim prædicti comitatus in custodiam et honorem personæ Imperatoris, discus vassorum in ostensionem diuitiarum, et maiestatis Imperialis. Crux in recordatione passionis et mortis, quam in cruce ligni simplice Christus passus est pro nobis. Et terra nigra in memoriam diræ mortis, qua caro ipsius Imperatoris, quæ terra est, in terram ibit corruptionis. The English Version. But of the princypalle yles and of his estate and of his lawe, I schalle telle zou som partye. This Emperour Prestre John is Cristene; and a gret partie of his contree also; but zit thei have not alle the articles of oure feythe, as wee have. Thei beleven wel in the Fadre, in the Sone and in the Holy Gost: and thei ben fulle devoute, and righte trewe on to another. And thei sette not be no barettes, ne by cawteles, ne of no disceytes. And he hathe undre him 72 provynces; and in every provynce is a kyng. And theise kynges han kynges undre hem; and alle ben tributaries to Prestre John. CAPVT. 43. De quibusdam miris per regiones Indiæ. Licèt plurima mira habeantur in terra Imperij Presbyteri Ioannis, ne materia operis nimiùm proteletur, multa tego silentio: et solùm de quibusdam in principalibus Insulis narro. [Sidenote: Magnum mare arenosum] Ergò in primis dico vidisse me magnum mare arenosum, quod de solùm minuta arena sine vlla aqua cum lapillorum granellis currit, et fluit per altas eleuationes, et depressiones ad similitudinem maris aquæ, nec vnquam quiescit: et quòd ipse non cesso stupere, inueniuntur pisces ad littus proiecti, qui cum sint alterius formæ et speciei, quàm de nostro mari, videntur tamen gustui in edendo delicatiores. [Sidenote: In orientali India vsque hodie venti anniuersarij arenis ostia fluminum suffocant.] Nullo tamen humano ingenio videtur hoc mare transuadari, aut nauigari, aut illo piscari, sed nec propter sui longitudinem, et plura impedimenta de propè circuiri. Item ab hoc latere maris per tres dietas habentur magnæ montium alpes, inter quas venit quasi oriens de Paradiso fluuius decurrentibus petris, nihil penitùs habens aquæ, in quibus æstimandæ sunt plurimum magnarum esse virtutum, quamuis de singulis humanæ scientiæ constare non potest. Hîc petrarum fluuius currit ad intercisum tempus, quasi in tribus septimanæ diebus, per spatium deserti Indiæ plurium dietarum, velut fluuius, quousque tandem se perdat in mare arenosum praedictum, atque ex tunc ipsi lapides penitùs non comparent. Tempore autem sui cursus nullus appropinquare praesumit, præ strepitu eius et motu: sed tempore quietis aditur sine periculo vitæ. In Orientem versus fluuij originem ad ingressum deserti magni inter quosdam de montibus, cernitur grandis terræ planicies tanquam spatiosi campi totalitèr arenosi, in quo videntur ad Solis ortum exurgere de arena, et secundùm eleuationem Solis excrescere quaedam virgulta, atque in feruore meridiei producere fructum. Ac de illo in Solis decliuo fructus cum arbustulis paulatim minui, et in occasu penitùs deperire, vnde et nullus hominum audet illorum vti fructibus, ne sit quid fantasticum et nociuum. In huius deserti interioribus, vidi homines in toto syluestres, qui etsi in superioribus formam praetendere videantur humanam, descendunt in subterioribus ad formam bestiæ alicuius. Horum quidam frontes gerunt cornibus asperatas, grinientes vt feræ vel apri: alij nonnulla vti videntur loquela, quam nemo rationalium nonit, et quibusdam signis concepta depromunt. Et est illic pluralitas syluestrium canum, qui dicuntur papiones, quibus postquam edomiti, et ad venandum instructi fuerint, valent capi multæ bestiæ per desertum. [Sidenote: Papagalli.] Est et copiositas papingonum auium viridium in colore quas appellant phicake, et quarum diuersa sunt genera, nobiliores habent latas in rostro linguas, et in vtroque pede digitos duos. Et quaedam ex istis naturaliter loquuntur verba aut prouerbia, seu salutationes, in patriæ idiomate, vt euidenter salutes, concedant, et reddant viatoribus, et nonnunquam debitum iter errantibus per desertum ostendant. Minus autem nobiles non loquuntur ex natura, sed si latas habent linguas, et non sunt vltrà duorum annorum ætatis, possunt per assiduitatem instrui ad loquelam. Aliæ nec loquuntur, nec eradiuntur, sed solùm clamitant pro voce milui, et nisi tres digitos habent in pede. Nota: in quarta orientali Deus dedit fratribus minoribus magnam gratiam, vnde in magna Tartaria ita expellunt ab obsessis daemones, sicut de domo canes: vnde quandoque per decem dietas ad eos adducuntur daemoniaci alligati, et statim fratribus praecipientibus in nomine Iesu Christi, exeunt, et liberati baptizantur, et comburunt idola, et plures credunt, et quandoque exeunt idola de igne, et fratres proijciunt aquam benedictam, et clamat daemon, Vide, de meo habitaculo expellor propter fratres minores. Ita multi credunt, et baptizantur. Odericus. [Sidenote Melescorde Regio. Vel regionis.] Item nota: dum recederem de terra Praesbyteri Ioannis versos occidentem, applicui ad contratam vnam, quæ dicitur Melescorde, quæ pulchra est, et multùm fertilis: inter montes duos huius contratæ fecerat quidam murum circundantem montem, et in eo fontes nobilissimos, et omne detectabile. Et hunc locum dicebant paradisum, sicut hic ferè continetur. Ideò Odericus, qui posteà narrat de valle infausta in hoc se terminat. [Sidenote: Mischorach.] Ad supradictum Indiæ regnum Pentexoriæ satis propè, et lata est et longa Insula, Mischorach, bonis copiosè referta, de qua vnum scribo praeteritum mirum. Ante paucos hos annos, villanus ditissimus, sibi valdè preciosum construxerat palatium, quasi pro Paradiso terrestri, circundatum, munitum fortalitijs, ac repletum omnibus corporalibus delicijs. Illic areæ, turres, cameræ, cubicula, cum alijs ædificijs, in multo numero, et gloria permagnifica, ac historiarum picturis, inter quas, nonnunquam prodigioso artificio bestiæ et bestiolæ, aues et auiculæ discurrebant, volitibant, et per pugnas, garritus, collusiones, mentiebantur viuere. [Sidenote: Ditissimi villani paradisus fictitius.] Illic prata, et pometa, et seruatoria circà deliciosi collis congestum, distincta velut omni genere florum, arborum, et herbarum, cum multis fontibus et riuulis, quorum perspicuitas, et fluxus in glaris suauem et auditui praestabant refectionem, et super aliquos fuerunt exceptioris artificij, circumstructi auro, et argento, et gemmis, et tres principales fontes emittentes ad palatium Domini per occultas conductas, riuulos vini, lactis, et mellis. Copiosus quoque numerus formosorum puerorum, et puellarum, ætatis inter decem et sex decem annos, indutorum torquibus, et cycladibus exauratis, exercentium inter iocos cantus et spectacula, ac seruientium suo Domino prope nutum. Audiebantur ex turrium custodibus, nec non videbantur dulcisonæ, symphoniæ, generum diuersorum, vt certissimè putares, non hominum, sed Angelorum: et in istis, ac similibus, deliciebatur iste villanus. Sed et aurum liuido nil iuuat, imò nocet: quia enim hic inuidiæ et otij facibus super ingenuitatem mentis omnium generaliter nobilium principum verebatur in corde: (ingenuitas enim, et rusticitas nunquam cohabitant in cordis vno domicilio) Composuerat ista sibi in hunc finem, vt per se singulos aduocaret aliquos vasallos corpore robustos, menteque audaces, atque ad omnem proteruiam benè procliues: et cuilibet pro placitis muneribus commisit vt illum seu illum principem seu Baronem, quem dicebat sibi aduersarium, clàm per insidias vel impetum, occideret, promittens quenquam post factum ad se recepturum perpetuò in hunc locum: sed et velut vaticinans pseudo praedicauit, si quem illorum pro his flagitijs contigeret corporaliter tradi morti, nihilominùs animam eius in hunc amoenum Paridisum recipi, et viuere in æeternum. [Sidenote: Mandeuillus oculatus testis.] Per hunc igitur modum nonnulis nobilibus occisis, et interfectis, tandem nudabatur eius nequitia tanta, et congregati regionis Barones miserum occiderunt, eius opera destruentes. Ipse ego inibi ductus vidi fontium loca, et multa rei vestigia. CAPVT. 44. De loco et dispositione vallis infaustæ. Huius ad insulæ extremitates non procul à fluuio Pyson, habetur locus mirabilis pariter et terribilis, vltrà omne mundanum, penè et procul: de euentibus, ac laboribus infinitis, quæ mihi meísque in tempore itinerationis acciderunt hucusque subticui, cùm iam vnum de maioribus ecce narro. Est illic in alpibus vallis infausta, quatuor fermè leucarum: longitudo vallis, quasi ad quatuor milliaria Lombardica, appellata vallis incantationis, seu periculosa, seu propiùs daemoniosa: intrà quam diebus ac noctibus resonant boatus et tumultus tonitruorum, tempestatum, clamorum, et stridorum, diuersique generis sonituum terribilium, quos illic exercet multitudo spirituum malignorum. Propè ad vallis medium sub vna rupium, apparet omni tempore visibiliter integrum ac maximum caput daemonis vsque ad humeros tantùm, cuius speciem præ horrore nullus pleno intuitu humanus audet diu oculus sustinere: nam respicientes contrà aspicit truculentèr, agitans oculos minacitèr, tanquam ex palpebris eiecturus (quæ et scintillant) flammas in altum. Totumque caput sese rotat ad minas, et variat terribilitèr modum et continentiam sub repentè diuersis maneriebus. Exitque de illo per totum ignis obscuratus fumo, et foetor, tantus, quòd per magnum spatium viæ pessimam vallem infectat. Ingredi autem volentibus, apparet semper ad introitum vallis, magna copia auri, argenti, vasorum, vestium, et rerum pretiosarum, quas proculdubio ibi daemones confingunt, quibus et ab olim multi insipientium hominum concupiscentia tracti intrarunt, et vsque nunc intrant pro colligendo thesauro: sed de Infidelibus paucissimi reuertuntur, imò nec de Christianis, qui auaritiæ causa ingrediuntur: per vallis autem semitam, quæ inter montes et monticulos, tortuosa et aspera est, gradientes vident, et audiunt, daemoniacos spiritus multos volutantes, et imaginibus corporum visibilium, serpentum, volucrum, vlularum, lamiarum, et huiusmodi specierum horribilium dentibus minitantes, vngulas erigentes, incognitos sibilos spirantes propè super capita ad aures transgredientium. Sempérque minuitur lumen aeris, donec ventum fuerit ad terribilissimum locum capitis antedicti. Si quis autem sinceræ fidei Christianus per contritionem veram et confessionem, se posuerit in statu saluationis, munitus corporis Christi mysterijs, ac signo crucis, cum intentione ibidem agendi poenitentiam de admissis, et cauendi de admittendis, putatur posse hanc transire vallem securus quidem à morte, non tamen liber à laboribus, horroribus, et tormentis, et exire, de omnibus culpis praeteritis corruptis, ac de futuris magis solito cautus, sicut scriptum est, territi purgabuntur. Nota aliud mirabile magnum. Vidi cùm irem per vnam vallem positam iuxta flumen quod egreditur de paradiso, vidi in ea multa corpora mortuorum, in qua etiam audiui multa genera Musicorum, qui ibi mirabilitèr pulsabant: tantus erat ibi tinnitus Musicorum, quòd incussit mihi timorem horribilem. Est autem longitudo illius vallis quasi ad quatuor milliaria Lombardica, in qua si vnus Infidelis intrat, nunquam egreditur, sed sine mora moritur: Et licet sciui, quòd intrantes moriuntur, tamen acceptaui intrare, vt viderem quid ibi esset. Dum intrassem tot humana cadauera ibi vidi, quod nisi quis videret, credere non posset. In hac valle, ab vno eius latere, vidi faciem hominis valdè horribilem, qui tantum horrorem mihi incussit, quòd putaui me spiritum exhalare, propter quod saepè repetij verbum vitæ, scilicet, verbum Caro factum est. Ad illam faciem non audebam accedere, nisi ad distantiam octo passuum: posteà iui ad caput vallis, et ascendi super montem arenosum, in quo vndique circumspiciens, nihil videbam, nisi instrumenta musicalia, quæ audiebam fortitèr pulsare. Cùm fuissem in capite montis, reperi multum argentum congregatum ibi in similitudinem squamarum piscium, vnde posui in gremio, sed quod de ipso non curabam, dimisi illud, et sic illaesus transiui Deo concedente. Sarraceni cùm hoc scirent, reuerebantur me esse baptizatum, et sanctum: mortuos nunc in valle dicebant, homines infernales. Odericus ad literam hic terminat suum librum: non fuit tot perpessus in valle, sicut ego. Anno Domini 1331. Ianuarij nono, migrauit ad Christum, in conuentu Minorum: cuius vitam statim in fine, et vsque nunc claris miraculis diuina prouidentia approbat, et commendat, prout continebatur in quaterno, à quo concordantias hic superseminaui. CAPVT. 45. De periculo et tormentis in valle eadem. Itaque dico vobis, cùm sodalibus, qui simul eramus, quatuordecim diuersarum nationum ante ingressum huius tanti periculi peruenissemus, nos tractatu longo, et deliberatione acuta consiliabamur, vtrùmnam ingredi deberemus, et quidam affirmabant, alii verò negabant. Erant autem in numero duo deuoti fratres, de religione beati Francisci, natione Lombardi, qui videbantur pro seipsis non multum curare ingressum, nisi quia noluerunt nos animare ad ingressum, dicentes, si qui nostrum per confessionem, et Eucharistiæ susceptionem se ibidem praemunirent, ingrederentur cum illis: quo, ab omnibus mediante debita prouisione, quam ipsi fratres penes se gerebant peracto, parauimus mentes nostras cum pedibus ad intrandum. Sed ecce quinque de nobis, duo Graeci et tres Hispani, semetipsos ab alijs segregantes, visi sunt alium requirere introitum nos praecedere cupientes, et certè nos illos exinde non vidimus, et quid eis acciderit an periculum subierint, velne ignoramus. Nos autem nouem per vallem processimus in silentio, et cum cordis ea deuotione, quam quisque sibi potuerit obtinere: et ecce in breui transacto spatio apparuerunt cumuli massarum auri et argenti, et preciosorum copia vasorum. Sed dico vobis pro parte mea, quia nihil horum tetigi, reputans id fallaciam daemonum confinxisse ad mittendum concupiscentiam in cor nostram, imò sine intermissione conabar cor meum custodire ad deuotionem inceptam. Procedentibus igitur nobis lux coeli minuebator paulatim et augebatur horror, quoniam propè nos vndique etiam sub pedibus nostris apparebant iacere cadauera mortuorum hominum penitùs defuncta: alia adhuc spirantia, et nonulla semiuiua, super quæ dum nos aliquando calcare contingeret, conquerebantur, ac dolorosè submurmurabant. Et licèt non certum id habebam, æstimaui hoc fieri in parte vel in toto fictione daemonum, reputans in breui tempore tantam multitudinem hominum spontaneè vallem intrasse, et si à longo tempore in ea perijssent putrefactos fuisse. Ergò in initio nostri processus quasi propè leucam inuenitur iter sub pedibus satis promptum, sed lumine tanquam ad medium nobis sufficiente, via torquebatur nimis, et asperabatur: et ecce figuræ daemonum, circum et suprà in aere se ferentium, ad imagines horribilium luporum, leonum, laruarum, megerarum, iuxtà cuiuscunque genus vlulantium, rugentium, stridentium, gannientium, hiantes ore, intentantes dentibus, rostris, ac vnguibus, nos terrere, mordere, discerpere, deglutire. Quapropter pro breui interdum soluto silentio nos inuicèm hortabamur, ne quis pro pusillanimitate terrori cederet, et tanto deficeret in agone. Hoc igitur modo per secundam leucam expirante nobis vsque ad tenebras lumine, quousque quis vix vmbram proximi agnoscere possit, praeter praedicta in aere tormenta, incurrebant nobis ad tibias, et pedes pluralitas quasi porcorum, vrsorum, et caprarum grinnientium, et impellentium nos ad lapsum, quod vel ad tertium, vel quartum, aut sextum passum solatenus cadebamus in palmas, seu genua, vel prosternebamur in faciem, aut supini. Ac superuenere praeter hoc ventorum turbines, fulgurum coruscationes, tonitruorum boatus, drandium casus et exundatio pluuiarum, quantas et quales nunquam accepimus in hoc mundo, quibus iactabamur, ruebamus, quassabamur, et periclitati fuimus extrà narrandum. Interdum quoque sensimus tanquam graues baculorum ictus, per humeros, dorsa, latera, et ad renes, alij quidem grauiores, alij vt puta secundum demeritum vniuscuiusque. Et certè dum per tanta tormenta, quasi exhaustis totis viribus, iam propè medium locum vallis erat ventum, accidit repentè, sub vnico instanti temporis, quibusdam nostrum expalmatio ita dura, vt omnes paritèr collisi, et prostrati iaceremus in extasi per vnam vul duas forsitan horas. Et isto defectu vidit quilibet suo modo spiritualem visionem supermirabilem, et excedentem omne dictum, et scriptum. Ego verò de visione mea nihil ausus sum scribere, vel loqui, quia et fratres singuli inhibuerunt, nisi de his, quæ corporalitèr intuebamur, et passi sumus. Grauissimum singuli sustinuimus ictum per corporis loca diuersa, vnus in facie, alius in pectore, ad costas, in dorso, vel ad humerum, et mansit cuique signum percussuræ nigerrimum, ad formam virilis manus humanæ: [Sidenote: Mirabilis ictus.] Ictum autem meum in colli ceruice tali ac tanta passione, vt putabam caput abscissum de corpore auolare: et hinc ad octodecimum annum mansit mihi in prima magnitudine signum: sed et vsque nunc variato colore locus ille demonstrat penissimè cicatricem, donec cum cadauere tota mutabitur in sepulchro: porrò vbi nos ab extasi in his tenebris separauimus singuli per diuinam gratiam respirando, loquendo, palpando, erigendo nos ipsos mutua humanitate, vt potuimus, recollegimus, et cohortabamur, cùm subitò nobis apparuit sub tenebroso lumine, vel potiùs fumosa caligine, locus ille spatiosus mediæ vallis, continens antedictum horribile caput daemonis, plenus foetore inaestimabili, et iugi occupatus exercitatione innumerorum spirituum malignorum. Hunc ergo locum ineptum cùm vitare vellemus in toto nequiuimus extremitatem eius, quocunque girantes, nullus nostrorum perfecto aspectu audebat respicere quæ gerebantur ibidem, quia inuadens tremor statuebat horripilationem extrahebat, sudorem, et pudorem omnes extinguere videbantur. Nec tamen potuit esse consilium de reuertendo, ne propter immutatum propositum confestim à daemonibus strangularemur. Transiuimus, Dei gratia nobis opitulante, sed non sine maximo horroris, foetorisque tormento: rursumque ex tunc procedentes nos apprehendebat tenebrosa, validaque tempestas, ventorum, coruscationum, tonitruum, grandinum, et pluuiarum, cuius, quassatione collabebamur in facies, et in dorso dextrorsum, et sinistrorsum, interuoluente ad tibias, sicut priùs multitudine grinnientium bestiarum, nec dubito scribere quoque ampliùs, quàm 500. vicibus per hanc vallem quisque nostrum sternebatur ad terram. Post verò exactam tertiam leucam, coepit nobis augeri lux aeris, ex quo animosiores effecti, in vno tranquilliori loco nos parùm pausantes, gratias Deo palmis extensis in caelum, reddidimus immensas, et praecipuè quod nullus deesset de nouenario numero sociorum. Nihilominùs tamen spiritus in aere nobis minari non cessabant, pretendentes in derisionem sua pudenda simul, et foeda virilia et posteriora. Pro certo ergò habeatis de his quæ vidi, et sensi, nullam possum vobis tradere æquipollentiam verborum, cùm quia grauissima erant, tum quia, singulis ne mihi deuotionem minueret non attendebam, tum etiam, quod præ horrore, labore, et dolore multa memoriæ non commendabam. Per quartam autem leucam (ductrice gratia) leuiùs transeuntes, sustinuimus tamen sub pedibus hominum cadauera mortuorum, propè vallis exitum rerum tentamina preciosarum. Nunc itaque obsecro magno cordis effectu, haec legentes et audientes ego, qui in illa hora quid erga me agebat misericordissimi Dei pietas ignorabam, vt velitis pro me, simul et mecum ex mentis intimo collaudare ipsum Dominum, qui tunc de potestate tenebrarum illarum eripuit me indignum, et prout confido, à delictis iuuentutis me purgauit, quatenùs de posteà commissis, et committendis, mihi propitiùs fore dignetur, cùm iam senior sim effectus. Quoniam etsi ex tunc proposui mores corrigere, ex nunc statuo in melius emendare, per filium eius Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Ad hoc, addo breuitèr, quòd non auderem hortari quenquam, me consulentem, vt spontaneè ingrederetur hanc vallem infaustam, quamuis ego curiosus intraui. Venientes posthac ad proximas habitationes, necesse fuit nobis intendere ad recreandum corpora cibarijs, et balneis, et ad medendum vulneribus, et quassaturis, donec per aliquod tempus vnusquisque acciperet deliberationem super suo futuro. CAPVT. 46. De quibusdam alijs admirandis per Indorum insulas. [Sidenote: Gigantes Anthropophagi.] Vt modò procedam in tractatu. Sciatis ad paucas inde dietas grandem insulam haberi gigantum, ad straturam altitudinis viginti quinque pedum nostrorum, de quibus ipse vidi nonnullos, sed extrà terram eorum, et audiuimus esse intrinsecùs quosdam triginta pedum, et vltrà: hi operiuntur non vestibus, sed bestiarum pellibus vtcunque sibi appensis, comedentes animalium carnes crudas, et lac pro potu sorbentes, atque appetentes super omnem esum carnes humanas. Istorum non curaui intrare insulam: nam et audiui quòd ad maris littus solent insidiari nauigantibus, nauesque submergere, nisi interdum redimantur tribus aut quatuor per sortem hominibus sibi datis. [Sidenote: Letiferi aspectus mulierum.] Versus Austrum hinc in mari Oceano, habetur inter alias insulas vna, vbi crudelibus quibusdam mulieribus nascitur in oculis lapis rarus, et malus, quæ si per iram respexerint hominem, more Basilisci interficiunt solo visu. Et vltrà hanc insulam alia maior et populosior, vbi cùm multi sint vsus nobis insueti, vnum describo. [Sidenote: Insula vbi virgines vitiantur antequam nubant.] Dum desponsauerit vir puellam, virginem, mandat hominem incompositum, velut ribaldum, qui sua idonea claue per expertos super hoc diligentèr considerata, si reputatur idonea reseret et vestiget sub nocte vnica virginalem conclauem, pro mercede sibi tradita competenti. Et si postera nocte accedens sponsus ita non inuenerit, poterit, et consueuit hominem impetere ad mortis iudicium indeclinabile. Cumque huius moris discere voluissem causam, accepi responsum, pro certis temporibus apud eos, virgines habuisse in matricibus paruos serpentes, quibus nocebantur primi ad illas intrantes. Ideoque et viri, que pro mercede tantum subeunt periculum, vocant sua loquela cadibrum, est, stultos desperatos. Ex hac, apparet Insula in qua inter alios vsus, peruersæ sunt matres contra naturam et scripturam, cum pepererent contristantur, et dum proles moritur iocundantur, iactantes in magno igne cum conuiuio et exultatione, dumque maritus ante vxorem decidit, patebit vxoris plena dilectio, si cum corpore mariti, quod rogo traditur se iactat cremandum, vt quia in isto seculo steterunt amoris vinculo colligati, non sint alio separati. Nec tamen intelligunt illud seculum, nisi quod sibi confingunt terrestrem Paradisum. Purum aut minorem annis, trahet mater secum si placet, sed ætatis puer perfectæ, eliget pro proprio placito viuere superstes, aut mori iuxta parentes. Hic etiam non succedunt Reges per generationem sed per electionem, vt assumatur non nobilior, aut fortior, sed morigeratior, et iustior, 50 ad minus annorum, nullam habens sobolem aut vxorem, seruaturque illic iusticiæ rigor in plena censura, in omnibus et contra omnes, etiamsi forefecerit ipse Rex, qui nec eximitur a traditis legibus pro concupiscentia vel contemptione quarumlibet personarum. Veruntamen Rex si peccauerit non occiditur ob reuerentiam, sed quòd sub poena mortis, publicè inhibetur, ne quispiam in Regione ei verbo vel vllo facto communicet, et quoniam sui loco alter rex constituitur, necesse est illi breui vita degere vel perpetuò exulare. Constat post ipsam, et alia Insula, multis bonis locuples, et hominibus populosa, de qua recolo scribendum, quod nulla occasione comedunt tria genera carnium, gallinarum, leporam, et aucarum, quas etsi nutriant in copijs, vtuntur duntaxat pellibus aut plumis. Caeterarum vero bestiarum et animalium licitè vescuntur carnibus pro victu, et lacte pro potu. Ibi quisque vir licitè potest coniungi cuique mulieri; quantumcunque propinquet, exceptis progenitoribus, patre matre. Nam cohabitatio, et commixtio omnium virorum ad singulas mulieres apparet ibi communis, vnde mater natum paruulum suum, adicit pro sui placito cuicunque viro, qui circa generationis tempus secumn dormierit, nec valet vllus virorum esse certus de proprio generato, quem modum exlegem arbitror et turpem. Sicut ergò praefatus sum, multa mira videntur per Regiones Indorum, mira quidem nobis, sed illis assueta, quibus si nostra recitarentur assueta, audirent pro miris. Nam et dum quibusdam dixi aucas viuas apud nos nasci in arboribus, admirati sunt satis. In multis locis seminatur singulis annis sementum de Cothon, quod nos dicimus lanam arboream, exurgunt ei modica arbusta, vel potius arbustula de quibus talis lana habetur: est arbor luniperus, de cuius ligno desiccato, si carbones viuos sub proprijs cineribus tenueris diligenter opertos, igniti seruabuntur ad annum. Est et genus Nucum incredibilis magnitudinis ad quantitatem magni capitis: et bestia vocata, oraflans, vel serfans, corpore in nostrorum aldtudine caballorum, et collo in 20 longitudine cubitorum ad prospiciendum vltra domos et muros, quorum posteriora apparent vt hinniculi siue lerni. Genus est etiam Camelionum ad formam hynnulorum, qui semper patulo tendunt ore, vel nil manducantes. Viuunt de aere, quæ etiam ad suum libitum videntur sibi variare colorem, exceptis (vt dicitur) albo vel rubeo. Maximi quóque serpentes, inuicem qualitate, et genere differentes atque colore. Aliqui cristam in capite gerunt, quidam more hominum ad duos pedes erecti incedunt, et nonnulli qui dicuntur Reguli, venenum per ora distillare non cessant, nec non quam plures cocodrilli, de quibus aliquid in praecedentibus retuli; [Sidenote: Apri ingentes. Leones albi. Louheraus.] et apri in nostrorum magnitudine boum, spinosi ericij, in quantitate porcorum, leones albi in altitudine dextrariorum. Louheraus, seu Edouches per Indiam habentur, quod ferarum genus satis est maius nostris communibus equis, geren in fronte tetri capitis tria longa cornua, ad formam pugionis, ex vtraque parte scindentia, vt eis nonnunquam interficiant Elephantes. Aliæ quoque bestiæ crudeles vt vrsi cum capitibus ferè aprorum et habentes pedes senos, qui finduntur latis vngulis bis acutis, et cum caudis leonum siue pardorum. Et quod vix credetur, mures pro quantitate, 10, aut 12. nostrorum et vespertiliones ad modum coruorum. Sed et aucæ in triplo maiores nostris, plumis indutæ rubris, nisi quod in pectore et collo apparet nigredo. Et breuiter tam ibi quàm alibi, habentur pisces, bestiæ, volucres, aut vermes diuersorum generum, aut specierum, de quibus hoc loco, vel inutilis, vel prolixa posset fieri narratio, quod nec illis qui nunquam propria exierunt, credibilis videretur. The English Version. And he hathe in his lordschipes many grete marveyles. For in his contree, is the see that men clepen the Gravely See, that is alle gravelle and sond, with outen ony drope of watre: and it ebbethe and flowethe in grete wawes, as other sees don: and it is never stille ne in pes, in no maner cesoun. And no man may passe that see be navye, be no maner of craft: and therfore may no man knowe, what lond is bezond that see. And alle be it that it have no watre, zit men fynden there in and on the bankes, fulle gode fissche of other maner of kynde and schappe, thanne men fynden in ony other see; and thei ben of right goode tast, and delycious to mannes mete. And a 3 iourneys long fro that see, ben gret mountaynes; out of the whiche gothe out a gret flood, that comethe out of paradys: and it is fulle of precious stones, with outen ony drope of water: and it rennethe thorghe the desert, on that o syde; so that it makethe the see gravely: and it berethe in to that see, and there it endethe. And that flomme rennethe also, 3 dayes in the woke, and bryngethe with him grete stones, and the roches also therewith, and that gret plentee. And anon as thei ben entred in to the gravely see, thei ben seyn no more; but lost for evere more. And in tho 3 dayes, that that ryvere rennethe, no man dar entren in to it: but in the other dayes, men dar entren wel y now. Also bezonde that flomme, more upward to the desertes, is a gret pleyn alle gravelly betwene the mountaynes: and in that playn, every day at the sonne risynge, begynnen to growe smale trees; and thei growen til mydday, berynge frute: but no man dar taken of that frute; for it is a thing of fayrye. And aftre mydday, thei discrecen and entren azen in to the Erthe, so that at the goynge doun of the Sonne, thei apperen no more; and so thei don every day; and that is a gret marvaille. In that desert ben many wylde men, that ben hidouse to loken on: for thei ben horned; and thei speken nought, but thei gronten, as pygges. And there is also gret plentee of wylde Houndes. And there ben manye popegayes, that thei clepen psitakes in hire langage: and thei speken of hire propre nature, and salven men that gon thorghe the desertes, and speken to hem als appertely, as thoughe it were a man. And thei that speken wel, han a large tonge, and han 5 toos upon a Fote. And there ben also of other manere, that han but 3 toos upon a fote; and thei speken not, or but litille: for thei cone not but cryen. This Emperour Prestre John, whan he gothe in to battaylle, azenst ony other Lord, he hathe no baneres born before him: but he hathe 3 crosses of gold, fyn, grete and hye, fulle of precious stones: and every of the crosses ben sett in a chariot, fulle richely arrayed. And for to kepen every cros, ben ordeyned 10000 men at Armes, and mo than 100000 men on Fote, in maner as men wolde kepe a Stondard in oure Contrees, whan that wee ben in lond of werre. And this nombre of folk is with outen the pryncipalle Hoost, and with outen Wenges ordeynd for the bataylle. And he hathe no werre, but ridethe with a pryvy meynee, thanne he hathe bore before him but o cross of tree, with outen peynte peynture, and with outen gold or silver or precious stones; in remembrance, that Jesus suffred dethe upon a cros of tree. And he hathe born before him also a plater of gold fulle of erthe, in tokene that his noblesse and his myghte and his flessche schalle turnen to erthe. And he hathe born before him also a vesselle of silver, fulle of noble jewelles of gold fulle riche, and of precious stones, in tokene of his lordschipe and of his noblesse and of his myght. He duellethe comounly in the cytee of Suse; and there is his principalle palays, that is so riche and so noble, that no man wil trowe it by estymacioun, but he had seen it. And aboven the chief tour of the palays, ben 2 rounde pomeles of gold; and in everyche of hem ben 2 carboncles grete and large, that schynen fulle brighte upon the nyght. And the principalle zates of his palays ben of precious ston, that men clepen sardoyne: and the bordure and the barres ben of ivorye: and the wyndowes of the halles and chambres ben of cristalle: and the tables where on men eten, somme ben of emeraudes, summe of amatyst and summe of gold, fulle of precious stones; and the pileres, that beren up the tables, ben of the same precious stones. And the degrees to gon up to his throne, where he sittethe at the mete, on is of oniche, another is of cristalle, and another of jaspre grene, another of amatyst, another of sardyne, another of corneline, and the sevene that he settethe on his feet, is of crisolyte. And alle theise degrees ben bordured with fyn gold, with the tother precious stones, sett with grete perles oryent. And the sydes of the sege of his throne ben of emeraudes, and bordured with gold fulle nobely, and dubbed with other precious stones and grete perles. And alle the pileres in his chambre, ben of fyne gold with precious stones, and with many carboncles, that zeven gret lyght upon the nyght to alle peple. And alle be it that the charboncle zeve lyght right y now, natheles at alle tymes brennethe a vesselle of cristalle fulle of bawme, for to zeven gode smelle, and odour to the emperour, and to voyden awey alle wykkede eyres and corrupciouns. And the forme of his bedd is of fyne saphires bended with gold, for to make him slepen wel, and to refreynen him from lecherye. For he wille not lyze with his wyfes, but 4 sithes in the zeer, aftre the four cesouns: and that is only for to engendre children. He hathe also a fulle fayr palays and a noble, at the cytee of Nyse, where that he dwellethe, whan him best lykethe; but the ayr is not so attempree, as it is at the cytee of Suse. And zee schulle undirstonde, that in alle his contree, ne in the contrees there alle aboute, men eten noghte but ones in the day, as men don in the court of the grete Chane. And so thei eten every day in his court, mo than 30000 persones, with outen goeres and comeres. But the 30000 persones of his contree, ne of the contree of the grete Chane, ne spenden noghte so moche gode, as don 12000 of oure contree. This Emperour Prestre John hathe evere more 7 kynges with him, to serve him: and thei departen hire service be certeyn monethes. And with theise kynges serven alle weys 72 dukes and 360 erles. And alle the dayes of the zeer, there eten in his houshold and in his court, 12 erchebysshoppes and 20 bisshoppes. And the patriark of Seynt Thomas is there, as is the Pope here. And the erchebisshoppes and the bisshoppes and the abboties in that contree, ben alle kynges. And everyche of theise grete lordes knowen wel y now the attendance of hire servyse. This on is mayster of his houshold, another is his chamberleyn, another servethe him of a dissche, another of the cuppe, another is styward, another is mareschalle, another is prynce of his armes: and thus is he fulle nobely and ryally served. And his lond durethe in verry brede 4 moneths iorneyes, and in lengthe out of measure; that is to seyn, alle the yles undir erthe, that wee supposen to ben undir us. Besyde the yle of Pentexoire, that is the lond of Prestre John, is a gret yle long and brode, that men clepen Milsterak; and it is in the lordschipe of Prestre John. In that yle is gret plentee of godes. There was dwellynge somtyme a ryche man, and it is not longe sithen, and men clept him Gatholonabes; and he was fulle of cauteles and of sotylle disceytes; and he hadde a fulle fair castelle, and a strong, in a mountayne, so strong and so noble, that no man cowde devise a fairere ne a strangere. And he had let muren alle the mountayne aboute with a strong walle and a fair. And with inne tho walles he had the fairest gardyn, that ony man myghte beholde; and therein were trees berynge alle maner of frutes, that ony man cowde devyse; and there in were also alle maner vertuous herbes of gode smelle, and alle other herbes also, that beren faire floures. And he had also in that gardyn, many faire welles; and beside tho welles, he had lete make faire halles and faire chambres, depeynted alle with gold and azure. And there weren in that place many a dyverse thinges and many dyverse stories: and of bestes and of bryddes, that songen fulle delectabely; and meveden be craft, that it semede that thei weren quyke. And he had also in his gardyn alle maner of foules and of bestes that ony man myghte thenke on, for to have pley or desport to beholde hem. And he had also in that place, the faireste zonge Damyseles, that myghte ben founde undir the age of 15 zere, and the faireste zonge striplynges, that men myghte gete of that same age: and alle thei weren clothed in clothes of gold fully richely: and he seyde, that tho weren aungeles. And he had also let make 3 welles, faire and noble, and alle envyround with ston of jaspre, of cristalle, pyapred with gold, and sett with precious stones and grete orient perles. And he had made a conduyt undir erthe, so that the 3 weles, at his list, on scholde renne milk, another wyn, and another hony. And that place he clept paradys. And whan that ony gode knyghte, that was hardy and noble, cam to see this rialtee, he wolde lede him into his paradys, and schewen him theise wondirfulle thinges, to his desport, and the marveyllous and delicious song of dyverse briddes, and the faire damyseles, and the faire welles of mylk, wyn and hony, plentevous rennynge. And he wolde let make dyyerse Instrumentes of Musick to sownen in an highe Tour, so merily that it was joye for to here; and no man scholde see the craft thereof: and tho, he seyde, weren aungeles of God, and that place was paradys, that God had behighte to his frendes, seyenge, _Dabo vobis terram fluentem lacte et mel_. And thanne wolde he maken hem to drynken of certeyn drynk, where of anon thei scholden be dronken. And thanne wolde hem thinken gretter delyt, than thei hadden before. And than wolde he seye to hem, that zif thei wolde dyen for him and for his love, that aftir hire dethe, thei scholde come to his paradys; and thei scholde ben of the age of the damyseles, and thei scholde pleyen with hem, and zit ben maydenes. And aftir thai, zit scholde he putten hem in a fayrere paradys, where that thei schold see God of Nature visibely, in His majestee and in His blisse. And than wolde He schewe hem His entent, and seye hem, that zif thei wolde go sle suche a Lord, or suche a man, that was his enemye, or contrarious to his list, that thei scholde not dred to done it, and for to be slayn therefore hemself: for aftir hire dethe, he wold putten hem into another paradys, that was an 100 fold fairer than ony of the tothere; and there schode thei dwellen with the most fairest damyselles that myghte be, and play with hem ever more. And thus wenten many dyverse lusty bacheleres for to sle grete lords, in dyverse countrees, that weren his enemyes, and maden hem self to ben slayn, in hope to have that paradys. And thus often tyme, he was revenged of his enemyes, be his sotylle disceytes and false cauteles. And whan the worthi men of the contree hadden perceyved this sotylle falshod of this Gatholonabes, thei assembled hem with force, and assayleden his castelle, and slowen him, and destroyden alle the faire places, and alle the nobletees of that paradys. The place of the welles and of the walles and of many other thinges, ben zit apertly sene: but the richesse is voyded clene. And it is not longe gon, sithe that place was destroyed. Of the Develes Hede in the Valeye perilous; and of the Customs of folk in dyverse Yles, that ben abouten, in the Lordschipe of Prestre John. [Sidenote: Chap. XXVIII.] Besyde that Yle of Mistorak, upon the left syde, nyghe to the ryvere of Phison, is a marveylous thing. There is a vale betwene the mountaynes, that durethe nyghe a 4 myle: and summen clepen it the Vale Enchaunted; some clepen it the Vale of Develes, and some clepen it the Vale Perilous. In that vale, heren men often tyme grete tempestes and thondres and grete murmures and noyses, alle dayes and nyghtes: and gret noyse, as it were sown of tabours and of nakeres and trompes, as thoughe it were of a gret feste; This ale is alle fulle of develes, and hathe ben alle weyes. And men seyn there, that it is on of the entrees of helle. In that vale is gret plentee of gold and sylver: wherefore many mysbelevynge men, and manye Christene men also, gon in often tyme, for to have of the thresoure, that there is: but fewe comen azen; and namely of the mys belevynge men, ne of the Cristene men nouther: for thei ben anon strangled of develes. And in mydde place of that vale, undir a roche, is an hed and the visage of a devyl bodyliche, fulle horrible and dreadfulle to see, and it schewethe not but the hed, to the schuldres. But there is no man in the world so hardy, Cristene man ne other, but that he wolde ben a drad for to beholde it: and that it wolde semen him to dye for drede; so is it hidous for to beholde. For he beholdethe even man so scharply, with dreadfulle eyen, that ben evere more mevynge and sparklynge, as fuyr, and chaungethe and sterethe so often in dyverse manere, with so horrible countenance, that no man dar not neighen towardes him. And fro him comethe out smoke and stynk and fuyr, and so moche abhomynacioun, that unethe no man may there endure. But the gode Cristene men, that ben stable in the feythe, entren welle withouten perile. For thei wil first schryven hem, and marken hem with the tokene of the Holy Cros; so that the fendes ne han no power over hem. But alle be it that thei ben with outen perile, zit natheles ne ben thei not with outen drede, whan that thei seen the develes visibely and bodyly alle aboute hem, that maken fully dyverse assautes and manaces in eyr and in erthe, and agasten hem with strokes of thondre blastes and of tempestes. And the most drede is, that God wole taken vengeance thanne, of that men han mys don azen his wille. And zee schulle undirstonde, that whan my fellows and I weren in that vale, wee weren in gret thought, whether that wee dursten putten oure bodyes in aventure, to gon in or non, in the proteccioun of God. And somme of oure fellowes accordeden to enter, and somme noght. So there weren with us 2 worthi men, Frere Menoures, that weren of Lombardye, that seyden, that zif ony man wolde entren, thei wolde gon in with us. And when thei hadden seyd so, upon the gracyous trust of God and of hem, wee leet synge masse, and made every man to ben schryven and houseld: and thanne wee entreden 14 personnes; but at oure goynge out, wee weren but 9. And so we wisten nevere, whether that oure fellowes weren lost, or elle turned azen for drede: but wee ne saughe hem never after: and tho weren 2 men of Grece and 3 of Spayne. And oure other fellows, that wolden not gon in with us, thei wenten by another coste, to ben before us, and so thei were. And thus wee passeden that perilous vale, and founden thereinne gold and sylver and precious stones and riche jewelles gret plentee, both here and there, as us semed: but whether that it was, as us semede, I wot nere: for I touched none, because that the develes ben so subtyle to make a thing to seme otherwise than it is, for to disceyve mankynde; and therfore I towched none; and also because that I wolde not ben put out of my devocioun: for I was more devout thanne, than evere I was before or after, and alle for the drede of fendes, that I saughe in dyverse figures; and also for the gret multytude of dede bodyes, that I saughe there liggynge be the weye, be alle the vale, as thoughe there had ben a bataylle betwene 2 kynges and the myghtyest of the contree, and that the gretter partye had ben discomfyted and slayn. And I trowe, that unethe scholde ony contree have so moche peple with in him, as lay slayn in that vale, as us thoughte; the whiche was an hidouse sight to seen. And I merveylled moche, that there weren so manye, and the bodyes all hole, with outen rotynge. But I trowe, that fendes made hem semen to ben so hole, with outen rotynge. But that myghte not ben to myn avys, that so manye scholde have entred so newely, ne so manye newely slayn, with outen stynkynge and rotynge. And manye of hem were in habite of Cristene men: but I trowe wel, that it weren of suche, that wenten in for covetyse of the thresoure, that was there, and hadden over moche feblenesse in feithe; so that hire hertes ne myghte not enduren in the beleve for drede. And therfore weren wee the more devout a gret del: and zit wee weren cast doun and beten down many tymes to the hard erthe, be wyndes and thondres and tempestes: but evere more God of His grace halp us: and so we passed that perilous vale, with outen perile and with outen encombrance. Thanked be alle myghty Godd. Aftre this, bezonde the vale, is a gret yle, where the folk ben grete geauntes of 28 fote longe or of 30 fote longe; and thei han no clothinge, but of skynnes of bestes, that thei hangen upon hem: and thei eten no breed, but alle raw flesche: and thei drynken mylk of bestes; for thei han plentee of alle bestaylle. And thei have none houses, to lyen inne. And thei eten more gladly mannes flessche, thanne ony other flesche. In to that yle dar no man gladly entren: and zif thei seen a schipp and men there inne, anon thei entren in to the see, for to take hem. And men seyden us, that in an yle bezonde that, weren geantes of grettere stature: summe of 45 fote, or 50 fote long, and as some men seyn, summe of 50 cubytes long: but I saghe none of tho; for I hadde no lust to go to tho parties, because that no man comethe nouther in to that yle ne in to the other, but zif he be devoured anon. And among tho geauntes ben scheep, als grete as oxen here; and thei beren gret wolle and roughe. Of the scheep I have seyn many tymes. And men han seyn many tymes tho geauntes taken men in the see out of hire schippes, and broughte hem to lond, 2 in on hond and 2 in another, etynge hem goynge, alle rawe and alle quyk. Another yle is there toward the northe, in the see occean, where that ben fulle cruele and ful evele wommen of nature; and thei han precious stones in hire eyen: and thei ben of that kynde, that zif thei beholden ony man with wratthe, thei slen him anon with the beholdynge, as dothe the basilisk. Another yle is there, fulle fair and gode and gret, and fulle of peple, where the custom is suche, that the firste nyght that thei ben maryed, thei maken another man to lye be hire wifes, for to have hire maydenhode: and therfore thei taken gret huyre and gret thank. And ther ben certeyn men in every town, that serven of non other thing; and thei clepen hem Cadeberiz, that is to seyne, the foles of Wanhope. For thei of the contree holden it so gret a thing and so perilous, for to haven the maydenhode of a woman, that hem semethe that thei that haven first the maydenhode, puttethe him in aventure of his lif. And zif the husbonde fynde his wif mayden, that other next nyghte, aftre that she scholde have ben leyn by of the man, that is assigned therefore, perauntes for dronkenesse or for some other cause, the husbonde schalle pleyne upon him, that he hathe not don his deveer, in suche cruelle wise, as thoughe he wolde have him slayn therfore. But after the firste nyght, that they ben leyn by, thei kepen hem so streytely, that thei ben not so hardy to speke with no man. And I asked hem the cause, whi that thei helden suche custom: and thei seyden me, that of old tyme, men hadden ben dede for deflourynge of maydenes, that hadden serpentes in hire bodyes, that stongen men upon hire zerdes, that thei dyeden anon: and therfore thei helden that custom, to make other men, ordeyn'd therefore, to lye be hire wyfes, for drede of dethe, and to assaye the passage be another, rather than for to putte hem in that aventure. Aftre that, is another yle, where that wommen maken gret sorwe, whan hire children ben y born: and whan thei dyen, thei maken gret feste and gret joye and revelle, and thanne thei casten hem into a gret fuyr brennynge. And tho that loven wel hire husbondes, zif hire husbondes ben dede, thei casten hem also in the fuyr, with hire children, and brennen hem. And thei seyn, that the fuyr schalle clensen hem of alle filthes and of alle vices, and thei schulle gon pured and clene in to another world, to hire husbondes, and thei schulle leden hire children with hem. And the cause whi that they wepen, when hire children ben born, is this, for whan thei comen in to this world, thei comen to labour, sorwe and hevynesse: and whi thei maken ioye and gladnesse at hire dyenge, is be cause that, as thei seyn, thanne thei gon to Paradys, where the ryveres rennen mylk and hony, where that men seen hem in ioye and in habundance of godes, with outen sorwe and labour. In that yle men maken hire kyng evere more be eleccioun: and thei ne chese him nought for no noblesse ne for no ricchesse, but suche an on as is of gode maneres and of gode condiciouns, and therewith alle rightfulle; and also that he be of gret age, and that he have no children. In that yle men ben fulle rightfulle, and thei don rightfulle iuggementes in every cause, bothe of riche and pore, smale and grete, aftre the quantytee of the trespas, that is mys don. And the kyng may nought deme no man to dethe, with outen assent of his barouns and other wyse men of conseille, and that alle the court accorde therto. And zif the kyng him self do ony homycydie or ony cryme, as to sle a man, or ony suche cas, he schalle dye therefore; but he schalle not be slayn, as another man, but men schulle defende in peyne of dethe, that no man be so hardy to make him companye, ne to speke with hym, ne that no man zeve him ne selle him ne serve him nouther of mete ne drynk: and so schalle he dye in myschef. Thei spare no man that hath trespaced, nouther for love ne for favour ne for ricchesse ne for noblesse, but that he schalle have aftre that he hathe don. Bezonde that yle, is another yle, where is gret multytude of folk; and thei wole not for nothing eten flesche of hares, ne of hennes, ne of gees: and zit thei bryngen forthe y now, for to seen hem and to beholden hem only. But thei eten Flesche of alle other bestes, and drynken mylk. In that contre, thei taken hire doughtres and hire sustres to here wyfes, and hire other kynneswomen. And zif there ben 10 or 12 men or mo dwellynge in an hows, the wif of eyeryche of hem schalle ben comoun to hem alle, that duellen in that hows; so that every man may liggen with whom he wole of hem, on o nyght. And zif sche have ony child, sche may zeve it to what man sche list, that hathe companyed with hire; so that no man knoweth there, whether the child be his or anotheres. And zif ony man seye to hem, that thei norrischen other mennes children, thei answeren, that so don other men hires. In that contre and be all Ynde, ben gret plentee of cokodrilles, that is the maner of a longe serpent, as I haye seyd before. And in the nyght, thei dwellen in the watir, and on the day, upon the lond, in roches and caves. And thei ete no mete in all the wynter: but thei lyzn as in a drem, as don the serpentes. Theise serpentes slen men, and thei eten hem wepynge: and whan thei eten, thei meven the over Jowe, and noughte the nether Jowe; and thei have no Tonge. In that contree, and in many other bezonde that, and also in manye on this half, men putten in werke the sede of cotoun: and thei sowen it every zeer, and than growthe it in smale trees, that beren cotoun. And so don men every zeer; so that there is plentee of cotoun, at alle tymes. Item, in this yle and in many other, there is a manner of wode, hard and strong: who so coverethe the coles of that wode undir the assches there offe, the coles wil duellen and abyden alle quyk, a zere or more. And that tre hathe many leves, as the gynypre hathe. And there ben also many trees, that of nature thei wole never brenne ne rote in no manere. And there ben note trees, that beren notes, als grete as a mannes hed. There also ben many bestes, that ben clept orafles. [Footnote: Giraffes.] In Arabye, thei ben clept gerfauntz; that is a best pomelee or apotted; that is but a litylle more highe, than is a stede; but he hathe the necke a 20 cubytes long: and his croup and his tayl is as of an hert: and he may loken over a gret highe Hous. And there ben also in that contree manye camles, that is a lytille best as a goot, that is wylde and he lyvethe be the eyr, and etethe nought ne drynkethe nought at no tyme. And he chaungethe his colour often tyme: for men seen him often scithes, now in o colour and now in another colour: and he may chaunge him in to alle maner of coloures that him list, saf only in to red and white. There ben also in that contree passynge grete serpentes, sume of 120 Fote long, and thei ben of dyverse coloures, as rayed, rede, grene and zalowe, blewe and blake, and alle spekelede. And there ben othere, that han crestes upon hire hedes: and thei gon upon hire feet upright: and thei ben wel a 4 fadme gret or more: and thei duellen alle weye in roches or in mountaynes: and thei han alle wey the throte open, of whens thei droppen venym alle weys. And there ben also wylde swyn of many coloures, als gret as ben oxen in oure contree, and thei ben alle spotted, as ben zonge fownes. And there ben also urchounes, als gret as wylde swyn here. Wee clepen hem poriz de spyne. And ther ben lyouns alle whyte gret and myghty. And ther ben also of other bestes, als grete and more gretter than is a destrere: and men clepen hem loerancz: and sum men clepen hem odenthos: and thei han a blak hed and 3 longe hornes trenchant in the front, scharpe as a sword; and the body is sclender. And he is a fulle felonous best: and he chacethe and sleethe the olifaunt. There ben also manye other bestes, fullye wykked and cruelle, that ben not mocheles more than a bere; and thei han the hed lyche a bore; and thei han 6 feet: and on every foote 2 large clawes trenchant: and the body is lyche a bere, and the tayl as a lyoun. And there ben also myse, als gret as houndes; and zalowe myse, als grete as ravenes. And ther ben gees alle rede, thre sithes more gret than oure here: and thei han the hed, the necke and the brest alle black. And many other dyverse bestes ben in tho contrees, and elle where there abouten: and manye dyverse briddes also; of the whiche, it were to longe for to telle zou: and therefore I passe over at this tyme. CAPVT. 47. De Bracmannorum et aliorum Insulis. Bracmannorum Insula quasi ad medium Imperij consistit Praesbyteri Ioannis. Hic licet Christiani non sunt, viuunt tamen naturali optimo more. Rudes enim et incomparati, simplices, et inscij omnis artis apparent. Non cupidi, superbi, inuidi, iracundi, gulosi, aut luxuriosi nec iurant, fraudant, aut mentiuntur. Laborant corpora, sed intendunt animo implere quo ad valent naturale mandatum, hoc facias alijs quod tibi vis fieri: credentes et adorantes omnium creatorum Deum, et sperantes ab ipso simpliciter Paradisum. Sobrij quoque sunt, quapropter et longo tempore viuunt: et si quis ab eorum moribus degenerat, proscribitur perpetuò sine mora, omnibus nulla posita differentia personarum, vnde et in iusto Dei iudicio, quòd naturalem exercere iustitiam contendunt, Elementa eis naturaliter obsequuntur, et rarò eos tangit tempestas, aut fames, pestilentia aut gladius. [Sidenote: Flumen Chene.] Magna riparia dicta Chene currit per Insulam, ministrans piscium et aquarum copiam: Istos olim Alexander rex Grecorum debellare cupiens, misit eis literas comminationis, cui inter caetera notabilia remandauerunt, nihil se habere curiosi, quod Rex tantus deberet concupiscere, nihilque ita se timere perdituros sicut pacem bonam, quam hactenus habuerunt inconcussam: sicque diuino nutu est actum vt Rex truculentus ad alia se verteret, atque in breui postmodùm caderet, quia dissipat Dominus eos, qui bella volunt, et istis manet pax multa diligentibus eam. [Sidenote: Pytan.] Pytan Insula breuis continet paucos et breues habitatores, Pygmaeis modico longiores, qui decoris vultibus nullo vnquam cibo vescentes, specialis pomi quod secum portant sustentantur odore, quo si carerent ad parum, color in vultu marcesceret, et die tertia vita periret. Discretio et rationabilitas ijs adest modica, nec enim habent laborare nisi pro vestitu, quem sibi circa arbusta colligunt: Et conficit vnusquisque pro 12 annis vitæ suæ. Vltra hanc Insulam siluestres, et fortes habentur homines, sed bestiales, vestiti per totum corpus proprijs capillis et pilis, exceptis palmis, et faciebus, qui videntur penitus gubernatione et politia carere: venantur carnes per siluas, et discurrunt piscantes in aquis, omnia cruda vorantes. [Sidenote: Fluius Briemer.] Huius ad terræ metas manat fluuius Briemer latitudinis duarum leucarum, et semis, quem nos transire nequiuimus, nec ausi fuimus. Quoniam illo transmisso instant deserta 15, aut plurium diætatum inhabitata nunc temporis (prout audieramus) diuersis et nobis ignotis generibus bestiarum, serpentum, draconum, gryphium, aspidum, dypsarum, et colubrorum in multitudine tanta, vt centum millia armatorum simul pertingere vsquè ad arbores, quæ ibi dicuntur solis et lunæ, vix possent. Attamen suo tempore Alexander magnus scribitur pertigisse, et quaedam ab arboribus fictitia succepisse responsa. [Sidenote: Balsamum indicum.] Circa has arbores excolitur Balsamum, cuius liquoris comparatio nusquam scitur contineri sub coelo. Nam ibidem homines, de istarum arborum fructibus et Balsamo vtentes dicuntur illorum virtute quadringentis aut pluribus annis viuere. Peruenit autem et Dux Danus Ogerus, ac manducauit de illis, vnde et nonnulli præ sensus stoliditate vel fidei leuitate putant ipsum adhuc alibi viuere in terris. Ego autem quia tantum pro dilatanda Christianitate laborauit arbitror magis, eum regnare cum Christo in coelis. [Sidenote: Taprobana Insula, et eius descriptio.] Versus Orientales partes Indorum consistit magna regio Taprobane exuberans optimis terrenorum bonorum, in quam nauigio intrauimus in octo vel circa diaetis per aquam satis tenuem, haud profundam. Ibi, sicut et in alijs multis Insulis, rex non nascitur sed eligitur per partes terræ: et est haec vna de quindecim nominatis Regionibus conquisitionis Ogeri. Ista, cum modicum declinet à circulo terræ sub Æquatore, patitur in anno duas æstates, et duas hyemes, si tamen hyems aliqua dici debeat, et non magis æstas, quia nullus hic dies anni caret fructu, flore, germine. Habitatores sunt discreti, et honesti, vnde et mercatores de remotis partibus libenter cum ijs communicant: et sparsim per regionem habitant plurimi diuites Christiani. [Sidenote: Orilla. Argita.] Hijs iunguntur duæ insulæ (quas nos vocamus, Orilla, et Argita), quanquam illa lingua aliter nominentur. In quarum prima sunt multæ mineriæ auri, in secunda argenti, et propter quandam crassitudinem aeris continuam, perpauca apparent sydera, praeter vnum quod dicunt Canopum, quod æstimo planetam Veneris. [Sidenote: Hunc locum notat Gerardus Mercator in sua charta generali.] Et quod mirum est valdè de omni lunatione ijs apparet nisi 2. quarta. Cuius rei probabilis ratio effugit etiam Astronomos valdè peritos. Atque per has Insulas quoddam rubrum mare à mari Oceano segregatur. Itaque in Orilla in locis multis effoditur, colligitur, et conflatur optimum auri metallum, per viros, mulieres, et paruulos in hoc instructos, sed et in nonnullis ibi montibus monstrantur congregationes bestiolarum in quantitate nostrorum catulorum, in formicarum forma ac natura totali: qui pro suis viribus effodiunt, purificant, et colligunt cum intenta occupatione auri minutias, eas reponentes, et repositas retrahentes de cauernis et specubus in cauernas et specus. Et in conseruando sum diligentes et acres, vt nemo audeat de facili propinquare, nisi quod interdum ab illis pausantibus; seu ab æstu se occultantibus, aliqui non sine periculo in dromedarijs et veredarijs rapiunt, vel furantur. Solet etiam ab eis obtineri, quòd excogitato ingenio super equam quæ nuper foetum ediderit, imponentes homines duas de ligno cistulas, seu cophinos nouos, vacuos, et apertos à lateribus dependentes propè terram: hanc famelicam dimittunt vt se pascat ad herbas in montem: Quam formicæ videntes solam salientes et iocantes, colludunt ad eam et ad eius confines pro nouitate: et quoniam eis est naturale, vt circa se omne vacuum implere conentur comportant certatim aurum suum in vasculis suis mundis. Cumque homines a remotis tempus obseruauerint, emittunt pellum equæ vt videat matrem, cuius aspectu iam diu stetit priuatus, ad cuius hinnitum protinus equa reuertitur onusta de auro. Hijs ergò et similibus modis homines aurum diripiunt à formicis. CAPVT. 48. Aliquid de loco Paradisi terrestris per auditum. A Finibus Imperij Indiæ recta linea in orientem nihil est habitatum vel habitabile, propter rupium, et montium altitudinem, et asperitatem, et propter aeris inter Alpes diuersitatem: nam in multis locis, licet quandoque aer sit serenus, nunc fit spissus nunc fumosus, vel venenosus, et frequenter die medio tenebrosus. Durantque aut potius aggrauescunt huiusmodi difficultates, vsque ad illum amænissimum Paradisi locum, quem protoplausti per inobedientiam sibi et posteris perdidisse noscuntur, quod spacium si metiri posset, est multarum vtique diætarum. Quia iam non vlterius processi, nec procedere quiui, pauca duntaxat de illo loco referam verisimilia, quæ didici per auditum. [Sidenote: Descriptio Paradisi.] Paradisus terrestris dicitur locus spaciosus ad amplitudinem quasi quinque Insularum nostrarum, Angliæ, Normanniæ, Hiberniæ, Scotiæ, et Noruegiæ, aut forsan satis plurium. Cuius situs est pertingens in altitudine ad aeris supremam superficiem, eò quod illic terra vel terræ orbis sit multum spissior quàm alibi per modum excentricum à vero centro mundi, nec valet hoc deinde ab aliquo experto refelli, scriptura veritatis clamante, quòd ibi sit fons irrigans vniuersam superficiem terrae: aquae enim est natura semper fluere ad Ima. Exeunt autem ab illo fonte versus nostri partes hemispherij, hoc est nobis de illo loco in occidentem quatuor flumina, Pyson, Gyon, Tygris, et Euphrates, ab ista dimidia parte terrae circa Æquatoris circulum terrae influentes, quapropter et merito credendum videtur, exire de eodem fonte et alia quatuor flumina irrigantia terram oppositam, quae est circa alteram dimidiam partem circuli Æquatoris, quamuis nos eorum fluminum loca, virtutes, et nomina ignoramus, quòd homines habitant ab alia parte Æquinoctij. [Sidenote: Gentes ad austrum Aequatoris.] Hoc tamen volo sciri pro vero et audiui, illic terræ faciem inhabitatam in maxima multitudine ciuitatum, vrbium, et regionum, quoniam et eorum institores Indiam frequentant, et nunciant sibi inuicem gentes et principes per literas, ac alijs modis destinare sunt visi. [Sidenote: Ganges fluuius.] Vnus nostrorum fluuiorum Pyson currit per Indiam, et per eius deserta quandoque sub terra, sed saepiùs supra, qui et Ganges illic appellatus est, ab illo vltimo Paganitatis rege, quem Dux Ogerus deuictum cùm baptizari renueret in ipso flumine proiectum submersit. Ad littus huius reperiuntur multi lapides praeciositatis immensæ et metalli grani carissimi, nec non et auri mineriæ, multumque descendit in eo natans lignum Aloes ex Paradiso, quod rebus miræ virtutis inserit Salomon in Canticis. Hinc secundus fluuius Gyon, currit per Aethiopiam, vnde dum venit in Ægyptum, accipit nomen Nilus. Tertius Tygris veniens per Assyriam influit maiorem Armeniam et Persiam: tandemque fluuij singuli per loca singula se iactant in mare per quod defluunt vsque ad Nador, id est, ad oppositum diametrum paradisi: Ideoque merito æstimantur omnes vniuerso orbe aquæ dulces originem capere, à supradicto paradisi fonte, quamuis secundum distantiam maiorem vel minorem, et secundum naturas rerum per quas meant diuersos habere inueniuntur sapores, atque virtutes. Porrò ipsum Paradisi locum audiui à tribus plagis, orientali, meridionali, et septentrionali, inaccessibilem tam hominibus quàm bestijs, eo quòd apparet ripis perpendiculariter abscissa, tanquam inestimabilis altitudinis. Et ab occidente id est nostra parte tanquam super omnium humanorum intuitum rogus ardens, qui in scripturis rumphea flammea appellator, vt nulli creaturæ terrenæ ascensus in eum credatur nisi quibusdam volatilibus, prout decreuit iusti iudicij Deus. Ambulantibus enim illuc siue repentibus hominibus obstarent tenebræ imo rupes, aer infestus, bestiæ, serpentes, frigus, et camua. Nauigare autem contra ictum fluminis nitentes impediret intrinsecus recursus, ac impetuosus et quandoque subterraneus aquæ cursus descendentis cum vehementia ab euectissimo, vt dictum est, loco, qui suo quoque strepitu, per petras atque strictos aliosque diuersos cadens gurgites, efficeret surdos, et aeris mutatio caecos, vnde et multi tam nobiles quàm ignobiles, fatua sese audacia in isto ponentes periculo perierunt, alijs excoecatis, alijs absurdatis, et nonnullis in ipso accessu subitanea morte peremptis. Ex quo nimirum credi habetur isto Deum displicere conatum. Quapropter et ego ex illo loco statui animum ad repatriandum, quatenus Deo propitio, Anglia quæ me produxit seculo viuentem, usciperet morientem. Of the Godenesse of the folk of the Yle of Bragman. Of Kyng Alisandre: and wherfore the Emperour of Ynde is clept Prestre John. [Sidenote: Cap. XXIX.] And bezonde that yle, is another yle, gret and gode, and, plentyfous, where that ben gode folk and trewe, and of gode lyvynge, aftre hire beleve, and of gode feythe. And alle be it that thei ben not cristned, ne have no perfyt lawe, zit natheles of kyndely lawe, thei ben fulle of alle vertue, and thei eschewen alle vices and alle malices and alle synnes. For thei ben not proude ne coveytous ne envyous ne wrathefulle ne glotouns ne leccherous; ne thei don to no man other wise than thei wolde that other men diden to hem: and in this poynt, thei fullefillen the 10 commandementes of God: and thei zive no charge of aveer ne of ricchesse: and thei lye not, ne thei swere not, for non occasioun; but thei seyn symply, ze and nay. For thei seyn, He that swerethe, wil disceyve his neyghbore: and therfore alle that thei don, thei don it with outen othe. And men clepen that yle, the Yle of Bragman: and somme men clepen it the Lond of Feythe. And thorgh that lond runnethe a gret ryvere, that is clept Thebe. And in generalle, alle the men of tho yles and of alle the marches there abouten, ben more trewe than in ony othere contrees there abouten, and more righte fulle than othere, in alle thinges. In that yle is no thief, ne mordrere, ne comoun woman, ne pore beggere, ne nevere was man slayn in that contree. And thei ben so chast, and leden so gode lif, as tho thei weren religious men: and thei fasten alle dayes. And because thei ben so trewe and so rightfulle and so fulle of alle gode condiciouns, thei weren nevere greved with tempestes ne with thondre ne with leyt ne with hayl ne with pestylence ne with werre ne with hungre ne with non other tribulaccioun, as wee ben many tymes amonges us, for our synnes. Wherfore it semethe wel, that God lovethe hem and is plesed with hire creance, for hire gode dedes. Thei beleven wel in God, that made alle thinges; and him thei worschipen. And thei preysen non erthely ricchesse; and so thei ben alle right fulle. And thei lyven fulle ordynatly, and so sobrely in met and drynk, that thei lyven right longe. And the most part of hem dyen with outen syknesse, whan nature faylethe hem for elde. And it befelle in Kyng Alisandres tyme, that he purposed him to conquere that yle, and to maken hem to holden of him. And whan thei of the contree herden it, thei senten messangeres to him with lettres, that seyden thus: What may ben y now to that man, to whom alle the world is insuffisant: thou schalt fynde no thing in us, that may cause the to warren azenst us: for wee have no ricchesse, ne none wee coveyten: and alle the godes of our contree ben in comoun. Oure mete, that we susteyne with alle oure bodyes, is our richesse: and in stede of tresoure of gold and sylver, wee maken oure tresoure of accord and pees, and for to love every man other. And for to apparaylle with oure bodyes, wee usen a sely litylle clout, for to wrappen in oure carcynes. Oure wyfes ne ben not arrayed for to make no man plesance, but only connable array, for to eschewe folye. Whan men peynen hem to arraye the body, for to make it semen fayrere than God made it, thei don gret synne. For man scholde not devise no aske grettre beautee, than God hathe ordeyned man to ben at his birthe. The erthe mynystrethe to us 2 thynges; our liflode, that comethe of the erthe that wee lyve by, and oure sepulture aftre oure dethe. Wee have ben in perpetuelle pees tille now, that thou come to disherite us; and also wee have a kyng, nought for to do justice to every man, for he schalle fynde no forfete amonge us; but for to kepe noblesse, and for to schewe that wee ben obeyssant, wee have a kyng. For justice ne hathe not among us no place: for wee don no man otherwise than wee desiren that man don to us; so that rightwisnesse ne vengeance han nought to don amonges us; so that no thing thou may take fro us, but oure god pes, that alle weys hath dured amonge us. And whan Kyng Alisandre had rad theise lettres, he thoughte that he scholde do gret synne, for to trouble hem: and thanne he sente hem surteez, that thei scholde not ben aferd of him, and that thei scholde kepen hire gode maneres and hire gode pees, as thei hadden used before of custom; and so he let hem allone. Another yle there is, that men clepen Oxidrate; and another yle, that men clepen Gynosophe, where there is also gode folk, and fulle of gode feythe: and thei holden for the most partye the gode condiciouns and customs and gode maneres, as men of the contree above seyd: but thei gon alle naked. In to that yle entred Kyng Alisandre, to see the manere. And when he saughe hire gret feythe and hire trouthe, that was amonges hem, he seyde that he wolde not greven hem: and bad hem aske of him, what that they wolde have of hym, ricchesse or ony thing elles; and thei scholde have it with gode wille. And thei answerden, that he was riche y now, that hadde mete and drynke to susteyne the body with. For the ricchesse of this world, that is transitorie, is not worthe: but zif it were in his power to make hem immortalle, there of wolde thei preyen him, and thanken him. And Alisandre answerde hem, that it was not in his powere to don it, because he was mortelle, as thei were. And thanne thei asked him, whi he was so proud and so fierce and so besy, for to putten alle the world undre his subieccioun, righte as thou were a god; and hast no terme of this lif, neither day ne hour; and wylnest to have alle the world at thi commandement, that schalle leve the with outen fayle, or thou leve it. And righte as it hathe ben to other men before the, right so it schalle ben to othere aftre the: and from hens schal thou bere no thyng; but as thou were born naked, righte so alle naked schalle thi body ben turned in to erthe, that thou were made of. Wherfore thou scholdest thenke and impresse it in thi mynde, that nothing is immortalle, but only God, that made alle thing. Be the whiche answere, Alisandre was gretly astoneyed and abayst; and alle confuse departe from hem. And alle be it that theyse folk han not the articles of oure feythe, as wee han, natheles for hire gode feythe naturelle, and for hire gode entent, I trowe fulle, that God lovethe hem, and that God take hire servyse to gree, right as he did of Job, that was a Paynem, and held him for his trewe servaunt. And therfore alle be it that there ben many dyverse lawes in the world, zit I trowe, that God lovethe alweys hem that loven him, and serven him mekely in trouthe; and namely, hem that dispysen the veyn glorie of this world; as this folk don, and as Job did also: and therfore seyde oure Lorde, be the mouthe of Ozee the prophete, _Ponam eis multiplices leges meas_. And also in another place, _Qui totum orbem subdit suis legibus_. And also our Lord seythe in the Gospelle, _Alias oves habeo, que non sunt ex hoc ovili_; that is to seyne, that he hadde othere servauntes, than tho that ben undre Cristene lawe. And to that acordethe the avisioun, that Seynt Petir saughe at Jaffe, how the aungel cam from Hevene, and broughte before him diverse bestes, as serpentes and other crepynge bestes of the erthe, and of other also gret plentee, and bad him take and ete. And Seynt Petir answerde; I ete never, quoth he, of unclene bestes. And thanne seyde the aungelle, _Non dices immunda, que Deus mundavit_. And that was in tokene, that no man scholde have in despite non erthely man, for here diverse lawes: for wee knowe not whom God lovethe, ne whom God hatethe. And for that ensample, whan men seyn _De profundis_, thei seyn it in comoun and in generalle, with the Cristene, _pro animabus omnium defunctorum, pro quibus sit orandum_. And therfore seye I of this folk, that ben so trewe and so feythefulle, that God lovethe hem. For he hathe amonges hem many of the prophetes, and alle weye hathe had. And in tho yles, thei prophecyed the incarnacioun of oure Lord Jesu Crist, how he scholde ben born of a mayden; 3000 zeer or more or oure Lord was born of the Virgyne Marie. And thei beleeven wel in the incarnacioun, and that fulle perfitely: but thei knowe not the manere, how be suffred his passioun and dethe for us. And bezonde theise yles, there is another yle, that is clept Pytan. The folk of that contree ne tyle not, ne laboure not the erthe: for thei eten no manere thing: and thei ben of gode colour, and of faire schap, aftre hire gretnesse: but the smalle ben as dwerghes: but not so litylle, as ben the pigmeyes. Theise men lyven be the smelle of wylde apples, and whan thei gon ony fer weye, thei beren the apples with hem. For zif the hadde lost the savour of the apples, thei scholde dyen anon. Thei ne ben not fulle resonable: but thei ben symple and bestyalle. Aftre that, is another yle, where the folk ben alle skynned, roughe heer, as a rough best, saf only the face and the pawme of the hond. Theise folk gon als wel undir the watir of the see, as thei don above the lond, alle drye. And thei eten bothe flessche and fissche alle raughe. In this yle is a great ryvere, that is wel a 2 myle and an half of brede, that is clept Beumare. And fro that rivere a 15 journeyes in lengthe, goynge be the desertes of the tother syde of the ryvere, (whoso myght gon it, for I was not there: but it was told us of hem of the contree, that with inne tho desertes) weren the trees of the sonne, and of the mone, that spaken to Kyng Alisandre, and warned him of his dethe. And men seyn, that the folk that kepen tho trees, and eten of the frute and of the bawme that growethe there, lyven wel 400 zeere or 500 zere, be vertue of the frut and of the bawme. For men seyn, that bawme growethe there in gret plentee, and no where elles, saf only at Babyloyne, as I have told zou before. Wee wolde han gon toward the trees fulle gladly, zif wee had myght: but I trowe, that 100000 men of armes myghte not passen the desertes safly, for the gret multytude of wylde bestes, and of grete dragouns, and of grete multytude serpentes, that there ben, that slen and devouren alle that comen aneyntes hem. In that contre ben manye white olifantes with outen nombre, and of unycornes, and of lyouns of many maneres, and many of suche bestes, that I have told before, and of many other hydouse bestes with outen nombre. Many other yles there ben in the lond of Prestre John, and many grete marveyles, that weren to long to tellen alle, bothe of his ricchesse and of his noblesse, and of the gret plentee also of precious stones, that he hathe. I trow that zee knowe wel y now, and have herd seye, wherefore the Emperour is clept Prestre John. But nathales for hem that knowen not, I schalle seye zou the cause. It was somtyme an Emperour there, that was a worthi and a fulle noble prynce, that hadde Cristene knyghtes in his companye, as he hathe that is how. So it befelle, that he hadde gret list for to see the service in the chirche, among Cristen men. And than dured Cristendom bezonde the zee, alle Turkye, Surrye, Tartarie, Jerusalem, Palestyne, Arabye, Halappee, and alle the lond of Egypte. So it befelle, that this emperour cam, with a Cristene knyght with him, into a chirche in Egypt: and it was the Saterday in Wyttson woke. And the bishop made ordres. And he beheld and listend the servyse fulle tentyfly: and he askede the Cristene knight, what men of degree thei scholden ben prestes. And than the emperour seyde, that he wolde no longer ben clept kyng ne emperour, but preest; and that he wolde have the name of the first preest, that went out of the chirche: and his name was John. And so evere more sithens, he is cleped Prestre John. In his lond ben manye Cristene men of gode feythe and of gode lawe; and namely of hem of the same contree; and han comounly hire prestes, that syngen the messe, and maken the sacrement of the awtier of bred, right as the Grekes don: but thei seyn not so many thinges as the messe, as men don here. For thei seye not but only that, that the apostles seyden, as oure Lord taughte hem: righte as seynt Peter and seynt Thomas and the other apostles songen the messe, seyenge the Pater-noster, and the wordes of the sacrement. But wee have many mo addiciouns, that dyverse popes han made, that thei ne knowe not offe; Of the Hilles of Gold, that Pissemyres kepen: and of the 4 Flodes, that comen fro Paradys terrestre. [Sidenote: Cap. XXX.] Toward the est partye of Prestre Johnes lond, is an yle gode an gret, that men clepen Taprobane, that is fulle noble and fulle fructuous: and the kyng thereof is fulle ryche, and is undre the obeyssance of Prestre John. And alle weys there thei make hire king be eleccyoun. In that ile ben 2 someres and 2 wyntres; and men harvesten the corn twyes a zeer. And in alle the cesouns of the zeer ben the gardynes florisht. There dwellen gode folke and resonable, and manye Cristene men amonges hem, that ben so riche, that thei wyte not what to done with hire godes. Of olde tyme, whan men passed from the lond of Prestre John unto that yle, men maden ordynance for to passe by schippe, 23 dayes or more: but now men passen by schippe in 7 dayes. And men may see the botme of the see in many places: for it is not fulle depe. Besyde that yle, toward the est, ben 2 other yles: and men clepen that on Orille, and that other Argyte; of the whiche alle the lond is myne of gold and sylver. And tho yles ben right where that the Rede See departethe fro the see occean. And in tho yles men seen ther no sterres so clerly as in other places: for there apperen no sterres, but only o clere sterre, that men clepen Canapos. And there is not the mone seyn in alle the lunacioun, saf only the seconde quarteroun. In the yle also of this Taprobane ben gret hilles of gold, that Pissemyres kepen fulle diligently. And thei fynen the pured gold, and casten away the unpured. And theise Pissemyres ben gret as houndes: so that no man dar come to tho hilles: for the Pissemyres wolde assaylen hem and devouren hem anon; so that no man may gete of that gold, but be gret sleighte. And therfore whan it is gret hete, the Pissemyres resten hem in the erthe, from pryme of the day in to noon: and than the folk of the con tree taken camayles, dromedaries and hors and other bestes and gon thidre, and chargen hem in alle haste that thei may. And aftre that thei fleen away, in alle haste that the bestes may go, or the Pissemyres comen out of the erthe. And in other tymes, whan it is not so hote, and that he Pissemyres ne resten hem not in the erthe, than thei geten gold be this sotyltee: thei taken mares, that han zonge coltes or foles, and leyn upon the mares voyde vesselles made therfore; and thei ben alle open aboven, and hangynge lowe to the erthe: and thanne thei sende forth tho mares for to pasturen aboute the hilles, and with holden the foles with hem at home. And whan the Pissemyres sen tho vesselles, thei lepen in anon, and thei han this kynde, that thei lete no thing ben empty among hem, but anon thei fillen it, be it what maner of thing that it be: and so thei fillen tho vesselles with gold. And whan that the folk supposen, that the vesselle ben fulle, thei putten forthe anon the zonge foles, and maken hem to nyzen aftre hire dames; and than anon the mares retornen towardes hire foles, with hire charges of gold; and than men dischargen hem, and geten gold y now be this sotyltee. For the Pissemyres wole suffren bestes to gon and pasturen amonges hem; but no man in no wyse. And bezonde the lond and the yles and the desertes of Prestre Johnes lordschipe, in goynge streyght toward the est, men fynde nothing but mountaynes and roches fulle grete: and there is the derke regyoun, where no man may see, nouther be day ne be nyght, as thei of the contree seyn. And that desert, and that place of derknesse, duren fro this cost unto Paradys terrestre; where that Adam oure foremost fader, and Eve weren putt, that dwelleden there but lytylle while; and that is towards the est, at the begynnynge of the erthe. But that is not that est, that wee clep oure est, on this half, where the sonne risethe to us: for whenne the sonne is est in tho partyes, toward Paradys terrestre, it is thanne mydnyght in oure parties o this half, for the rowndenesse of the erthe, of the whiche I have towched to zou before. For oure Lord God made the erthe alle round, in the mydde place of the firmament. And there as mountaynes and hilles ben, and valeyes, that is not but only of Noes flode, that wasted the softe ground and the tendre, and felle doun into valeyes: and the harde erthe, and the roche abyden mountaynes, whan the soft erthe and tendre wax nessche, throghe the water, and felle and becamen valeyes. Of Paradys, ne can not I speken propurly: for I was not there. It is fer bezonde; and that forthinkethe me: and also I was not worthi. But as I have herd seye of wyse men bezonde, I schalle telle zou with gode wille. Paradys terrestre, as wise men seyn, is the highest place of erthe, that is in alle the world: and it is so highe, that it touchethe nyghe to the cercle of the mone, there as the mone makethe hire torn. For sche is so highe, that the flode of Noe ne myght not come to hire, that wolde have covered alle the erthe of the world alle aboute, and aboven and benethen, saf Paradys only allone. And this Paradys is enclosed alle aboute with a walle; and men wyte not wherof it is. For the walles ben covered alle over with mosse; as it semethe. And it semethe not that the walle is ston of nature. And that walle strecchethe fro the southe to the northe; and it hathe not but on entree, that is closed with fyre brennynge; so that no man, that is mortalle, ne dar not entren. And in the moste highe place of Paradys, evene in the myddel place, is a welle, that castethe out the 4 flodes, that rennen be dyverse londes: of the whiche, the first is clept Phison or Ganges, that is alle on: and it rennethe thorghe out Ynde or Emlak: in the whiche ryvere ben manye preciouse stones, and mochel of lignum aloes, and moche gravelle of gold. And that other ryvere is clept Nilus or Gyson, that gothe be Ethiope, and aftre be Egypt. And that other is clept Tigris, that rennethe be Assirye and be Armenye the grete. And that other is clept Eufrate, that rennethe also be Medee and be Armonye and be Persye. And men there bezonde seyn, that alle the swete watres of the world aboven and benethen, taken hire begynnynge of the welle of Paradys: and out of that welle, alle watres comen and gon. The firste ryvere is clept Phison, that is to seyne in hire langage, Assemblee: for many other ryveres meten hem there, and gon in to that ryvere. And sum men clepen it Ganges; for a kyng that was in Ynde, that highte Gangeres, and that it ran thorge out his lond. And that water is in sum place clere, and in sum place trouble: in sum place hoot, and in sum place cole. The seconde ryvere is clept Nilus or Gyson: for it is alle weye trouble: and Gyson, in the langage of Ethiope, is to seye trouble: and in the langage of Egipt also. The thridde ryvere, that is clept Tigris, is as moche for to seye as faste rennynge: for he rennethe more faste than ony of the tother. And also there is a best, that is cleped Tigris, that is faste rennynge. The fourthe ryvere is clept Eufrates, that is to seyne, wel berynge: for there growen manye godes upon that ryvere, as cornes, frutes, and othere godes y nowe plentee. And zee schulle undirstonde, that no man that is mortelle, ne may not approchen to that paradys. For be londe no man may go for wylde bestes, that ben in the desertes, and for the highe mountaynes and gret huge roches, that no man may passe by, for the derke places that ben there, and that manye: and be the ryveres may no man go; for the water rennethe so rudely and so scharply, because that it comethe doun so outrageously from the highe places aboven, that it rennethe in so grete wawes, that no schipp may not rowe ne seyle azenes it: and the watre rorethe so, and makethe so huge noyse, and so gret tempest, that no man may here other in the schipp, thoughe he cryede with alle the craft that he cowde, in the hyeste voys that he myghte. Many grete lordes han assayed with gret wille many tymes for to passen be tho ryveres toward paradys, with fulle grete companyes: but thei myghte not speden in hire viage; and manye dyeden for werynesse of rowynge azenst tho stronge wawes; and many of hem becamen blynde, and many deve, for the noyse of the water: and summe weren perisscht and loste, with inne the wawes: so that no mortelle man may approche to that place, with outen specyalle grace of God: so that of that place I can seye zou no more. And therfore I schall holde me stille, and retornen to that that I have seen. CAPVT. 49. In reuertendo de Cassan, et Riboth, et de diuite Epulone. [Sidenote: Via per quam Mandeuillus redijt in Angliam.] Ex hinc de illis quæ in reuertendo vidi scribo cursim pauca, ne modum excedere videatur materia. [Sidenote: Cassan.] Reuertebar itaque quasi per Aquilonare latus Imperij Presbyteri Ioannis, et nunc terræ, non mari nos commendantes, transiuimus Deo Ductore, multas Insulas in multis diaetis, et peruenimus ad regionem magnam Cassan: haec cum sit vna de quindecim habens longitudinem diaetarum 60. et latitudinem propè 30. posset esse nominatior omnibus ibi circa prouincijs, si a nostris frequentaretur. Notandum. Cassan (secundum Odericum) est melior prouincia de mundo, vbi strictior est, habet diaetas 50. vbi longior 60, et est vna de 12. prouincijs Imperij Grand Can. Est ista populosa, distincta ciuitatibus, vt quisque à quacunque plaga de vna exeat ciuitate nouerit aliam in media diaeta propinquam. Tenétque istam regionem Cassan rex diues et potens, pro parte de Imperio Praebyteri Ioannis, et pro parte de Imperio Grand Can. [Sidenote: Riboth.] De ista in reuersione nostra venimus ad Regnum Riboth, quod similiter est vnum de quindecim, latum, et speciosum, in quo de multis bonis, habetur plena copia. Hoc tenetur in toto de Imperio Tartarorum. [Sidenote: Labassi, summus idolorum pontifex.] Vna est ibi inter et super omnes ciuitas Sacerdotalis, et Regia, in qua Rex habet suum magnificum palatium, et summus Idolorum Pontifex quem Labassi appellant, cui omnes Regni obediunt et populi sicut Domino Papæ nos Christiani quoniam et iubet, et benedicit, ac confert sacerdotibus beneficia idolorum. Ciuitatis vndique muri sunt compacti albis et nigris lapidibus conquadratis ad modum scakarij, omnesque contractæ simili pauimento sunt stratæ. Tanta est illic reuerentia sacrificiorum vt si quis vel in modica quantitate, sanguinem hominis, seu immolaticiæ pecudis fudisse deprehensus fuerit, nequaquam iudicium mortis euadet. Et inter innumeras superstitiones est illic vna talis. Haeres cuius pater defungitur, si alicuius vult esse reputationis, mandat cognatos, amicos, Relligiosos, et sacerdotes pro posse, qui certo Die conuenientes sub magno Symphoniæ festo, corportant defuncti cadauer, in montis sublime cacumen. Ibi accedens dignior Praelatorum, funeris caput abscindit, tradens haeredi in aureo disco decantanti sub deuotione suas orationes cum suis in propria lingua. Atque interim aues regionis rapaces, et immundæ, vt corui, vultures, et aquilæ, quæ pro consuetudine optimè morem norunt, aduolant magno numero in aere: Tuncque Relligiosi cum sacerdotibus detruncant corpus in frusta velut in macello, proijcientes pecias in altum auibus, ac decantantes certam ad hoc compositam orationem, tanquam si nostri sacerdotes cantarent. Subuenite sancti Dei, etc. Et habet eorum oratio, hunc sensum in sua lingua. Respice quàm iustus et sanctus extitit homo iste, quem Angeli Dei conueniunt accipere et in Paradisum deferre. Talique diabolico errore delusi, putant filius, et amici, quod defunctus sit in Paradisum translatus, viuat illic sempiterne beatus, quoniam, vbi plures conuenere volucrum, ibi maiorem laetantur et iactant fuisse numerum Angelorum. Hinc deinde reuertentes, cum choris, et resonantia Musicorum, filius paratum praestat omnibus conuiuium, in cuius fine pro extremo ferculo, tradit singulis particulam, de patris capite summa cum devotione. Hanc etiam capitis caluariam filius facit postmodum debitè formari et poliri sibi pro cypho, in quo bibit in conuijs, ob recordationem amantissimi patris. Ab hoc Regno decem dietis per potestatem Imperatoris Grand Can, inuenitur Insula delectabilis, et speciosa satis: cuius Rex est praepotens in gloria, et in diuitijs superabundans, et de multis quæ illic geruntur admirandis vnum recito solum. [Sidenote: Diues Epulo.] Quòd est ibi homo quidam ditissimus nullius dignitatis nomine honoratus, sed bysso, ac serico adornatus, et splendide omni tempore epulatus: non ergo vult dici princeps, Dux, comes, miles, aut huiusmodi, licet superioritatem habeat super marchiones aliquos et barones. Eius possessionis valor æstimatur in anno 30. cuman de assinarijs bladi, et risi, nec quærit nisi delitiosè viuere in isto seculo, vt cum diuite Epulone sepeliatur in inferno. Cum etiam sibi derelictus sit, iste viuendi modus a retrogenitoribus, eum et ipse posteris derelinquet. Hic tanquam Imperiali residet palatio, cuius muri ambitus ad tractum leucæ tenditur, continens arbusta, vineta, rinulos, fontes et stagna, aulas, et cubicula auro strata depictaque mirè, et sculpta artificiosè, vltra quam vales explicare, et inter omnia ad medium palatium in celso vertice atrium amaenum, valdè tamen modico, sed cunctis praeciosius, ædificio, quasi ad seema nostrarum Ecclesiarium, cum turribus, pilarijs, et columnis, in quibus nihil prominet indignius auro. Nunquam vel rarò hic exit de suo palatio cum solis pulchris quos sibi conuocat et conuariat paruis pueris et puellis, non excedentibus 16. annos ætatis. Tendit dum libet pedibus, quandoque vectatur equo, interdum ducitur vehiculo, nonnunquam vult ferri gestatorio, vel certè puellaribus brachijs, et visitat saepissimè praefatum praeciosius ædificium: atque hijs et modis alijs excogitat delectare visum pulchris, auditum suauibus, olfactum redolentibus, tactum lenibus, et gustum pascere delicatis. Electas semper habet praesto 50. puellas ei, et de proximo exquisitissimè ministrantes tam ad mensam quàm ad cubiculum, et ad omne libitum. [Sidenote: Versus.] Hæ ad prandium recumbenti afferunt processionis more pro singulo ferculo semper 5. genera dapum nobilium cum dulcisonæ resonantia cantilenæ, quarum aliquæ ei singulos detruncant genu flexo morsellos, aliquæ ponunt in ore, mundis tergentes comedentis labia mappis. Nam ipse quidem in mensa continet iacentes manus puras et quietas. Post deseruitionem ferculi primi, seruitur pro secundo in 5. alijs dapum generibus modo quo supra, et renouatur in apponendo cantus suauior melodia. Ista àbsque vlla Domini cura per ministros quotidiè reparantur etiam in maiori satis quam effor nobilitate, nisi dum ipse pro placito iusserit, quandoque temperari. Deliciosius igitur quo vult deducit carnem, non curans animam, sed nec probitatem curans terrenam, pascit sterilem, et viduæ non benefacit. Et Quia viuit sicut porcus, Morientem suscipit orcus. [Sidenote: Longitudo vnguium. Vtunturetiam in Florida principes longis vnguibus.] Porrò quod eum dixi manus tenere quietas, noueritis nimirum nil posse manibus capere vel tenere, propter longitudinem, et recuruitatem vnguium in digitis, qui sibi nullo tempore praescinduntur. Seruatur enim hoc pro nobili more patriæ, et viri diuites delicati, qui proprios possunt habere ministros nunquàm sibi dimittunt vngues resecare, vnde et nonnullis circumdantur vndique manus, acsi uiderentur armatæ. [Sidenote: Noua historia Chinensis hoc testatur.] Foeminarum autem mos est nobilis si habeant paruos pedes, vnde et generosarum in cunis strictissimè simè obuoluuntur, vt vix ad medium debitæ quantitatis excrescere possint. The English Version. Of the Customs of Kynges, and othere that dwellen in the Yles costynge to Prestre Johnes Lond. And of the Worschipe that the Sone dothe to the Fader, whan he is dede. [Sidenote: Cap. XXXI.] From tho yles, that I have spoken of before, in the lond of Prestre John, that ben undre erthe as to us, that ben o this half, and of other yles, that ben more furthere bezonde; who so wil, pursuen hem, for to comen azen right to pursuen hem, for to comen azen right to the parties that he cam fro; and so environne alle erthe: but what for the yles, what for the see, and what for strong rowynge, fewe folk assayen for to passen that passage; alle be it that men myghte don it wel, that myght ben of power to dresse him thereto; as I have seyd zou before. And therfore men returnen from tho yles aboveseyd, be other yles costynge fro the lond of Prestre John. And thanne comen men in returnynge to an yle, that is clept Casson: and that yle hathe wel 60 jorrneyes in lengthe, and more than 50 in brede. This is the beste yle, and the beste kyngdom, that is in alle tho partyes, out taken Cathay. And zif the merchauntes useden als moche that contre an thei don Cathay, it wolde ben better than Cathay, in a schort while. This contree is fulle well enhabyted, and so fulle of cytees, and of gode townes, and enhabyted with peple, that whan a man gothe out of o cytee, men seen another cytee, evene before hem: and that is what partye that a man go, in alle that contree. In that yle is gret plentee of alle godes for to lyve with, and of alle manere of spices. And there ben grete forestes of chesteynes. The kyng of that yle is fulle ryche and fulle myghty: and natheles he holt his lond of the grete Chane, and is obeyssant to hym. For it is on of the 12 provynces, that the grete Chane hathe undre him, with outen his propre lond, and with outen other lesse yles, that he hathe: for he hathe fulle manye. From that kyngdom comen men, in returnynge, to another yle, that is clept Rybothe: and it is also under the grete Chane. That is a fulle gode contree, and fulle plentefous of alle godes and of wynes and frut, and alle other ricchesse. And the folk of that contree han none houses: but thei dwellen and lyggen all under tentes, made of black ferne, by alle the contree. And the princypalle cytee, and the most royalle, is alle walled with black ston and white. And alle the stretes also ben pathed of the same stones. In that cytee is no man so hardy, to schede Blode of no man, ne of no best, for the reverence of an ydole, that is worschipt there. And in that yle dwellethe the pope of hire lawe, that they clepen Lobassy. This Lobassy zevethe alle the benefices, and alle other dignytees, and all other thinges, that belongen to the ydole. And alle tho that holden ony thing of hire chirches, religious and othere, obeyen to him; as men don here to the Pope of Rome. In that yle thei han a custom, be alle the contree, that whan the fader is ded of ony man, and the sone list to do gret worchipe to his fader, he sendethe to alle his frendes, and to all his kyn, and for religious men and preestes, and for mynstralle also, gret plentee. And thanne men beren the dede body unto a gret hille, with gret joye and solempnyte. And when thei han brought it thider, the chief prelate smytethe of the hede, and leythe it upon a gret platere of Gold and of sylver, zif so be he be a riche man; and than he takethe the hede to the sone; and thanne the sone and his other kyn syngen and seyn manye orisouns: and thanne the prestes, and the religious men, smyten alle the body of the dede man in peces: and thanne thei seyn certeyn orisouns. And the fowles of raveyne of alle the contree abouten knowen the custom of long tyme before, and comen fleenge aboyen in the eyr, as egles, gledes, ravenes and othere foules of raveyne, that eten flesche. And than the preestes casten the gobettes of the flesche; and than the foules eche of hem takethe that he may, and gothe a litille thens and etethe it: and so thei don whils ony pece lastethe of the dede body. And aftre that, as preestes amonges us syngen for the dede, _Subvenite sancti Dei_, &c. right so the preestes syngen with highe voys in hire langage, beholdethe how so worthi a man, and how gode a man this was, that the aungeles of God comen for to sechen him, and for to bryngen him in to paradys. And thanne semethe in to the sone, that he is highliche worschipt, whan that many briddes and foules and raveyne comen and eten his fader. And he that hathe most nombre of foules, is most worschiped. Thanne the sone bryngethe hoom with him alle his kyn, and his frendes, and alle the othere to his hows, and makethe hem a gret feste. And thanne alle his frendes maken hire avaunt and hire dalyance, how the fowles comen thider, here 5, here 6, here 10, and there 20, and so forthe: and thei rejoyssen hem hugely for to speke there of. And whan thei ben at mete, the sone let brynge forthe the hede of his fader, and there of he zevethe of the flesche to his most specyalle frendes, in stede of entre messe, or a sukkarke. And of the brayn panne, he letethe make a cuppe, and there of drynkethe he and his other frendes also, with great devocioun, in remembrance of the holy man, that the aungeles of God han eten. And that cuppe the sone schalle kepe to drynken of, alle his lif tyme, in remembrance of his fadir. From that lond, in returnynge be 10 jorneyes thorghe out the lond of the grete Chane, is another gode yle, and a gret kyngdom, where the kyng is fulle riche and myghty. And amonges the riche men of his contree, is a passynge riche man, that is no prince, ne duke ne erl; but he hathe mo that holden of him londes and other lordschipes: for he is more riche. For he hathe every zeer of annuelle rente 300000 hors charged with corn of dyverse greynes and of ryzs: and so he ledethe a fulle noble lif, and a delycate, aftre the custom of the contree. For he hathe every day, 50 fair damyseles, alle maydenes, that serven him everemore at his mete, and for to lye be hem o nyght, and for to do with hem that is to his pleasance. And whan he is at the table, they bryngen him hys mete at every tyme, 5 and 5 to gedre. And in bryngynge hire servyse, thei syngen a song. And aftre that, thei kutten his mete, and putten it in his mouthe; for he touchethe no thing ne handlethe nought, but holdethe evere more his hondes before him, upon the table. For he hathe so long nayles, that he may take no thing, ne handle no thing. For the noblesse of that contree is to have longe nayles, and to make hem growen alle weys to ben as longe as men may. And there ben manye in that contree, that han hire nayles so longe, that thei envyronne alle the hond: and that is a gret noblesse. And the noblesse of the wommen, is for to haven smale feet and litille: and therfore anon as thei ben born, they leet bynde hire feet so streyte, that thei may not growen half as nature wolde; and alle weys theise damyseles, that I spak of beforn, syngen alle the tyme that this riche man etethe: and whan that he etethe no more of his firste cours, than other 5 and 5 of faire damyseles bryngen him his seconde cours, alle weys syngynge, as thei dide beforn. And so thei don contynuelly every day, to the ende of his mete. And in this manere he ledethe his lif. And so dide thei before him, that weren his auncestres; and so schulle thei that comen aftre him, with outen doynge of ony dedes of armes: but lyven evere more thus in ese, as a swyn, that is fedde in sty, for to ben made fatte. He hathe a fulle fair palays and fulle riche, where that he dwellethe inne: of the whiche, the walles ben in circuyt 2 myle: and he hathe with inne many faire gardynes, and many faire halles and chambres, and the pawment of his halles and chambres ben of gold and sylver. And in the myd place of on of his gardynes, is a lytylle mountayne, wher there is a litylle medewe: and in that medewe, is a litylle toothille with toures and pynacles, alle of gold: and in that litylle toothille wole he sytten often tyme, for to taken the ayr and to desporten hym: for that place is made for no thing elles, but only for his desport. Fro that contree men comen be the lond of the grete Chane also, that I have spoken of before. And ze schulle undirstonde, that of alle theise contrees, and of alle theise yles, and of alle the dyverse folk, that I have spoken of before, and of dyverse lawes, and of dyverse beleeves that thei han; zit is there non of hem alle, but that thei han sum resoun with in hem and undirstondynge, but zif it be the fewere: and that han certeyn articles of oure feithe and summe gode poyntes of oure beleeve: and that thei beleeven in God, that formede alle thinges and made the world; and clepen him God of Nature, aftre that the prophete seythe, _Et metuent cum omnes fines terre_: and also in another place, _Omnes gentes servient ei_; that is to seyn, _Alle folke schalle serven Him_. But zit thei cone not speken perfytly; (for there is no man to techen hem) but only that thei cone devyse be hire naturelle wytt. For thei han no knouleche of the Sone, ne of the Holy Gost: but thei cone alle speken of the Bible: and namely of Genesis, of the prophetes lawes, and of the Bokes of Moyses. And thei seyn wel, that the creatures, that thei worschipen, ne ben no goddes: but thei worschipen hem, for the vertue that is in hem, that may not be, but only be the grace of God. And of simulacres and of ydoles, thei seyn, that there ben no folk, but that thei han simulacres: and that thei seyn, for we Cristene men han ymages, as of Oure Lady, and of othere seyntes, that wee worschipen; nohte the ymages of tree or of ston, but the seyntes, in whoos name thei ben made aftre. For righte as the bokes of the Scripture of hem techen the clerkes, how and in what manere thei schulle beleeven, righte so the ymages and the peyntynges techen the lewed folk to worschipen the seyntes, and to have hem in hire mynde, in whoos name that the ymages ben made aftre. Thei seyn also, that the aungeles of God speken to hem in tho ydoles, and that thei don manye grete myracles. And thei seyn sothe, that there is an aungele with in hem: for there ben 2 maner of aungeles, a gode and an evelle; as the Grekes seyn, Cacho and Calo; this Cacho is the wykked aungelle, and Calo is the gode aungelle: but the tother is not the gode aungelle, but the wykked aungelle, that is with inne the ydoles, for to disceyven hem, and for to meyntenen hem in hire errour. CAPVT. 50. De compositione huius tractatus in nobili ciuitate Leodiensi. In reuertendo igitur venitur ab hac insula per prouincias magnas Imperij Tartarorum, in quibus semper noua, semper mira, imo nonnunquam incredibilia viator potest videre, percipere, et audire. Et Noueritis, vt praedixi, me pauca eorum vidisse, quæ in terris sunt mirabilium, sed nec hic scripsisse centessimam partem eorum quæ vidi, quod nec omnia memoriæ commendare potui, et de commendatis multa subticui, proptèr modestiam, quam decet omnibus actibus addi. Idcirco vt et alijs, qui vel antè me in partibus illis steterunt, vel ituri sunt, maneat locus narrandi siue scribendi, modum huius pono tractatus, potius decurtans quàm complens, quoniam aliàs loquendi non esset finis, nec aures implerentur auditu. [Sidenote: Concludit opus suum.] Itàque anno à natiuitate Domini nostri Iesu Christi 1355. in patriando, cum ad nobilem Legiæ, seu Leodij ciuitatem peruenissem, et præ grandeuitate ac artericis guttis illic decumberem in vico qui dicitur, Bassessanemi, consului causa conualescendi aliquos medicos ciuitatis: Et accidit, Dei nutu, vnum intrare physicum super alios ætate simul et canicie venerandum, ac in sua arte euidenter expertum, qui ibidem dicebatur communiter, Magister Ioannes ad barbam. Is, dum paritèr colloqueremur, interseruit aliquid dictis, per quod tandem nostra inuicem renouabatur antiqua notitia, quam quondam habueramus in Cayr Aegypti apud Melech Mandibron Soldanum, prout suprà tetigi in 7. capitulo libri. Qui cum in me experientiam artis suæ excellenter monstrasset, adhortabatur ac praecabatur instanter, vt de hijs quæ videram tempore peregrinationis, et itinerationis meæ per mundum, aliquid digererem in scriptis ad legendum, et audiendum pro vtilitate. Sicque tandem illius monitu et adiutorio, compositus est iste tractatus, de quo certè nil scribere proposueram, donec saltem ad partes proprias in Anglia peruenissem. [Sidenote: Edwardus tertius.] Et credo praemissa circa me, per prouidentiam et gratiam Dei contigisse, quoniam à tempore quo recessi, duo reges nostri Angliæ, et Franciæ, non cessauerunt inuicem exercere destructiones, depraedationes, insidias, et interfectiones, inter quas, nisi à Domino custoditus, non transissem sine morte, vel mortis periculo, et sine criminum grandi cumulo. Et ecce nunc egressionis meæ anno 33. constitutus in Leodij ciuitate, quæ à mari Angliæ distat solum per duas diætas, audio dictas Dominorum inimicitias, per gartiam Dei consopitas: quapropter et spero, ac propono de reliquo secundum maturiorem ætatem me posse in proprijs, intendere corporis quieti, animaeque saluti. Hie itaque finis sit scripti, in nomine Patris, et Filij, et spiritus sancti, AMEN. Explicit itinerarium à terra Angliæ, in partes Hierosolimitanas, et in vlteriores transmarinas, editum primò in lingua Gallicana, à Domino Ioanne Mandeuille milite, suo authore, Anno incarnationis Domini 1355. in Ciuitate Leodiensi: Et Paulò post in eadem ciuitate, translatum in dictam formam Latinam. The English Version. There ben manye other dyverse contrees and manye other marveyles bezonde, that I have not seen: wherfore of hem I can not speke propurly, to telle zou the manere of hem. And also in the contrees where I have ben, ben many dyversitees of manye wondir fulle thinges, mo thanne I make mencioun of. For it were to longe thing to devyse zou the manere. And therfore that that I have devised zou of certeyn contrees, that I have spoken of before, I beseche zoure worthi and excellent noblesse, that it suffise to zou at this tyme. For zif that I devysed zou alle that is bezonde the see, another man peraunter, that wolde peynen him and travaylle his body for to go in to tho marches, for to encerche tho contrees, myghten ben blamed be my wordes, in rehercynge many straunge thynges. For he myghten not seye no thing of newe, in the whiche the hereres myghten haven outher solace or desport or lust or lykynge in the herynge. For men seyn alle weys, that newe thynges and newe tydynges ben plesant to here. Wherfore I wole holde me stille, with outen ony more rehercyng of dyversiteez or of marvaylles, that ben bezonde, to that entent and ende, that who so wil gon in to the contrees, he schalle fynde y nowe to speke of, that I have not touched of in no wyse. And zee schulle undirstonde, zif it lyke zou, that at myn hom comynge, I cam to Rome, and schewed my lif to oure holy fadir the Pope, and was assoylled of alle that lay in my conscience, of many a dyverse grevous poynt: as men mosten nedes, that ben in company, dwellyng amonges so many a dyverse folk of dyverse secte and of beleeve, as I have ben. And amonges alle, I schewed hym this tretys, that I had made aftre informacioun of men, that knewen of thinges, that I had not seen my self; and also of marveyles and customes, that I hadde seen my self; as fer as God wolde zeve me grace: and besoughte his holy fadirhode, that my boke myghten be examyned and corrected be avys of his wyse and discreet conscille. And oure holy fadir, of his special grace, remytted my boke to ben examyned and preved be the avys of his seyd conscille. Be the whiche, my boke was preeved for trewe; in so moche that thei schewed me a boke, that my boke was examynde by, that comprehended fulle moche more, ben an hundred part; be the whiche, the _Mappa Mundi_ was made after. And so my boke (alle be it that many men ne list not to zeve credence to no thing, but to that that thei seen with hire eye, ne be the auctour ne the persone never so trewe) is affermed and preved be oure holy fadir, in maner and forme as I have seyd. And I John Maundevylle knyghte aboveseyd, (alle thoughe I ben unworthi) that departed from oure contrees and passed the see, the zeer of grace 1322, that have passed many londes and manye yles and contrees, and cerched manye fulle straunge places, and have ben in manye a fulle gode honourable comyanye, and at many a faire dede of armes, (alle be it that I dide none my self, for myn unable insuffisance) now I am comen hom (mawgree my self) to reste: for gowtes, artetykes, that me distreynen, tho diffynen the ende of my labour, azenst my wille (God knowethe). And thus takynge solace in my wrecched reste, recordynge the tyme passed, I have fulfilled theise thinges and putte hem wryten in this boke, as it wolde come in to my mynde, the zeer of grace 1356 in the 34 zeer that I departede from oure contrees. Wherfore I preye to alle the rederes and hereres of this boke, zif it plese hem, that thei wolde preyen to God for me: and I schalle preye for hem. And alle tho that seyn for me a _Pater nostre_, with an _Ave Maria_, that God forzeve me my synnes, I make hem parteneres, and graunte hem part of alle the gode pilgrymages and of alle the gode dedes, that I have don, zif ony be to his plesance: and noghte only of tho, but of alle that evere I schalle do unto my lyfes ende. And I beseche Almighty God, fro whom alle godenesse and grace comethe fro, that he vouchesaf, of his excellent mercy and habundant grace, to fulle fylle hire soules with inspiracioun of the Holy Gost, in makynge defence of alle hire gostly enemyes here in erthe, to hire salvacioun, bothe of body and soule; to worschipe and thankynge of Him, that is three and on, with outen begynnynge and withouten endynge; that is, with outen qualitee, good, and with outen quantytee, gret; that in alle places is present, and alle thinges conteynynge; the whiche that no goodnesse may amende, ne non evelle empeyre; that in perfeyte Trynytee lyvethe and regnethe God, be alle worldes and be alle tymes. Amen, Amen, Amen. * * * * * Richardi Hakluyti breuis admonitio ad Lectorem. Ioannem Mandeuillum nostratem, eruditum et insignem Authorem (Balaeo, Mercatore, Ortelio, et alijs, testibus) ab innumeris Scribarum et Typographorum mendis repurgando, ex multorum, eorumque optimorum exemplarium collatione, quid praestiterim, virorum doctorum, et eorum praecipuè, qui Geographiæ et Antiquitatis periti sunt, esto iudicium. Quæ autem habet de monstriferis hominum formis itinerarij sui praecedentis capitibus trigessimo, trigessimo primo, trigessimo tertio, et sparsim in sequentibus, quanquam non negem ab illo fortasse quædam eorum alicubi visa fuisse, maiori tamen ex parte ex Caio Plinio secundo hausta videntur, vt facile patebit ca cum his Plinianis, hic ideo a me appositis, collaturo, quæ idem Plinius, singulis suis authoribus singula refert, in eorum plærisque fidem suam minimè obstringens. Vale, atque aut meliora dato, aut his vtere mecum. * * * * * Ex libro sexto Naturalis historiæ C. Plinij secundi. Cap. 30. Vniuersa verò gens Ætheria appellata est, deinde Atlantia, mox à Vulcani filio Æthiope Æthiopia. Animalium hominumque effigies monstriferas circa extremitates eius gigni minimè mirum, artifici ad formanda corpora effigiésque caelandas mobilitate ignea. Ferunt certè ab Orientis parte intimatgentes esse sine naribus. æquali totius oris planitie. Alias superiore labro orbas, alias sine linguis. Pars etiam ore concreto et naribus carens, vno tantùm foramine spirat, potùmque calamis auenæ trahit, et grana eiusdem auenæ, sponte prouenientis ad vescendum; Quibusdam pro sermone nutus motùsque membrorum est, &c. * * * * * Ex libro eiusdem Plinij septimo. Cap. 2. cui titulus est, De Scythis, et aliarum diversitate gentium. Esse Scytharum genera, et quidem plura, quæ corporibus humanis vescerentur, indicauimus. Idipsum incredibile fortasse, ni cogitimus in medio orbe terrarum, ac Sicilia et Italia fuisse, gentes huius monstri, Cyclopas et Laestrigonas, et nuperrimè trans Alpes hominem immolari gentium carum more solitum: quod paulum à mandendo abest. Sed et iuxta eos, qui sunt ad Septentrionem versi, haud procul ab ipso Aquilonis exortu, specuque eius dicto, quem locum Gesclitron appellant, produntur Arimaspi, duos diximus, vno oculo in fronte media insignes: quibus assiduè bellum esse circa metalla cum gryphis, ferarum volucri genere, quale vulgò traditur, eruente ex cuniculis aurum, mira cupiditate et feris custodientibus, et Arimaspis rapientibus, multi, sed maximè illustres Herodotus, et Aristeas Proconnesius scribunt. Super alios autem Anthropophagos Scythas, in quadam conualle magna Imai montis, regio est, quæ vocatur Abarimon, in qua syluestres viuunt homines, auersis post crura plantis, eximiæ velocitatis, passim cum feris vagantes. Hos in alio non spirare coelo, ideoque ad finitimos reges non pertrahi, neque ad Alexandrum magnum pertractos, Beton itinerum eius mensor prodidit. Priores Anthropophagos, quos ad Septentrionem esse diximus decem dierum itinere supra Borysthenem amnem, ossibus humanorum capitum bibere, cutibusque cum capillo pro mantelibus ante pectora vti, Isigonus Nicænsis. Idem in Albania gigni quosdam glauca oculorum acie, à pueritia statim canos, qui noctu plusquàm interdiu cernant. Idem itinere dierum x. supra Borysthenem, Sauromatas tertio die cibum capere semper. Crates Pergamenus in Hellesponto circa Parium, genus hominum fuisse tradit, quos Ophiogenes vocat serpentum ictus contactu leuare solitos, et manu imposita venena extrahere corpori. Varro etiam nunc esse paucos ibi, quorum saliuæ contra ictus serpentum medeantur. Similis et in Africa gens Psyllorum fuit, vt Agatharchides scribit, à Psyllo rege dicta, cuius sepulchrum in parte Syrtium maiorum est. Horum corpori ingenitum fuit virus exitiale serpentibus, vt cuius odore sopirent eas. Mos verò, liberos genitos protinus obijciendi saeuissimis earum, eòque genere pudicitiam coniugum experiendi, non profugientibus adulterino sanguine natos serpentibus. Haec gens ipsa quidem prope internicione sublata est à Nasamonibus, qui nunc eas tenent sedes: genus tamen hominum ex his qui profugerant, aut cùm pugnatum est, abfuerant, hodièque remanent in paucis. Simile et in Italia Marsorum gentis durat, quos à Circes filio ortos seruant, et ideo inesse ijs vim naturalem eam. Et tamen omnibus hominibus contra serpentes inest venenum: ferùntque ictas saliua, vt feruentis aquæ contactum fugere. Quòd si in fauces penetrauerit, etiam mori: idque maximè humani ieiuni oris. Supra Nasamonis confinésque illis Machlyas, Androginos esse vtriusque naturæ, inter se vicibus coeuntes, Calliphanes tradit. Aristoteles adijcit, dextram mamman ijs virilem, lacuam muliebrem esse. In eadem Africa familias quasdam effascinantium, Isigonus et Nymphodorus tradunt quarum laudatione intereant probata, arescant arbores, emoriantur infantes. Esse eiusdem generis in Triballis et Illyrijs, adijcit Isigonus, qui visu quoque effascinent, interimantque quos diutius intueantur. Iratis praecipuè oculis: quod eorum malum faciliùs sentire puberes. Notabilius esse quòd pupillas binas in oculis singulis habeant. Huius generis et foeminas in Scythia, quæ vocantur Bithyæ, prodit Apollonides. Philarchus et in Ponto Thibiorum genus, multosque alios eiusdem naturæ: quorum notas tradit in altero oculo geminam pupillam, in altero equi effigiem. Eosdem praetereà non posse mergi, ne veste quidem degrauatos. Haud dissimile ijs genus Pharnacum in Æthiopia prodidit Damon, quorum sudor tabem contactis corporibus afferat. Foeminas quidem omnes vbique visu nocere, quæ duplices pupillas habeant, Cicero quoque apud nos autor est. Adeò naturæ, cùm ferarum morem vescendi humanis visceribus in homine genuisset, gignere etiam in toto corpore et in quorundam oculis quoque venena placuit: ne quid vsquam mali esset, quod in homine non esset. Haud procul vrbe Roma in Faliscorum agro familiæ sum paucæ, quæ vocantur Hirpiæ: quæ sacrificio annuo, quod fit ad montem Soractem Apollini, super ambustam ligni struem ambulantes non aduruntur. Et ob id perpetuo senatusconsulto militiæ omniumque aliorum numerum vacationem habent. Quorundam corpore partes nascuntur ad aliqua mirabiles sicut Pyrrho regi pollex in dextero pede: cuius tactu lienosis medebatur. Hunc cremari cum reliquo corpore non potuisse tradunt, conditumque loculo in templo. Praecipuè India Æthiopumque tractus, miraculis scatent. Maxima in India gignuntur animalia, Indicio sunt canes grandioris caeteris. Arbores quidem tantæ proceritatis traduntur, vt sagittis superari nequeant. Haec facit vbertas soli, temperies coeli, aquarum abundantia (si libeat credere) vt sub vna ficu turmæ condantur equitum. Arundines verò tantæ proceritatis, vt singula internodia alueo nauigabili ternos interdum homines ferant. Multos ibi quina cubita constat longitudine excedere: non expuere: non capitis, aut dentium, aut oculorum vllo dolore affici, rarò aliarum corporis partium: tam moderato Solis vapore durari. Philosophos eorum quos Gymnosophystas vocant, ab exortu ad Occasum praestare, contuentes Solem immobilibus oculis: feruentibus harenis toto die alternis pedibus insistere. In monte cui nomen est Milo, homines esse auersis plantis, octonos digitos in singulis pedibus habentes, autor est Megasthenes. In multis autem montibus genus hominum capitibus caninis, ferarum pellibus velari, pro voce latratum edere, vnguibus armatum venatu et aucupio vesci. Horum supra centum viginti millia fuisse prodente se, Ctesias scribit: et in quadam gente Indiæ, foeminas semel in vita parere, genitosque confestim canescere. Item hominum genus, qui Monosceli vocarentur, singulis cruribus, miræ pernicitatis ad saltum: eosdemque Sciopodas vocari, quòd in maiori æstu humi iacentes resupini, vmbra se pedum protegant, non longè eos à Troglodytis abesse. Rursusque ab his Occidentem versus quosdam sine ceruice, oculos in humeris habentes. Sunt et Satyri subsolanis Indorum montibus (Cartadalorum dicitur Regio) pernicissimum animal, tum quadrupedes, tum rectè currentes humana effigie propter velocitatem, nisi senes aut ægri, non capiuntur. Choromandarum gentem vocat Tauron siluestrem sine voce, stridoris horrendi, hirtis corporibus, oculis glaucis, dentibus caninis. Eudoxus in meridianis Indiæ viris plantas esse cubitales, foeminis adeò paruas, vt Struthopodes appellentur. Megastenes gentem inter Nomadas Indos narium loco foramina tantùm habentem, anguium modo loripedem, vocarit Syrictas. Ad extremos fines Indiæ ab Oriente, circa fontem Gangis, Astomorum gentem sine ore, corpore toto hirtam vestiri frondium lanugine, halitu tantùm viuentem et odore quem naribus trahant: nullum illis cibum, nullumque potum: tantum radicum florumque varios odores et syluestrium malorum, quæ secum portant longiore itinere, ne desit olfactus, grauiore paulò odore haud difficulter examinari. Supra hos extrema in parte montium Spithamaei Pygmaei narrantur, ternas spithamas longitudine, hoc est, ternos dodrantos non excedentes, salubri caelo, sempérque vernante, montibus ab Aquilone oppositis, quos à gruibus infestari Homerus quoque prodidit: Fama est, insidentes arietum, caprarumque dorsis, armatos sagittis, veris tempore, vniuerso agmine ad mare descendere, et oua pullosque earum alitum consumere, ternis expeditionem eam mensibus confici, aliter futuris gregibus non resisti. Casas eorum luto, pennisque, et ouorum putaminibus construi. Aristotelis in cauernis viuere Pygmaeos tradit. Caetera de his, vt reliqui. Cyrnos Indorum genus Isigonus annis centenis quadragenis viuere. Item Aethiopas Marcrobios, et Seras existimat, et qui Athon montem incolant: hos quidem quia viperinis carnibus alantur, itaque nec capiti, nec vestibus eorum noxia corpori inesse animalia. Onesicritus, quibus in locis Indiæ vmbræ non sint, corpora hominum cubitorum quinum, et binorum palmorum existere, et viuere annos centum triginta, nec senescere, sed vt medio æuo mori. Crates Pergamenus Indos, qui centenos annos excedant Gymnætas appelat, non pauci Macrobios. Ctesias gentem ex his, quæ appellatur Pandore, in conuallibus sitam, annos ducenos viuere, in iuuenta candido capillo, qui in senectute nigrescat. Contra alios quadragenos non excedere annos, iunctos Macrobijs, quorum foeminæ semel pariant: idque et Agatharchides tradit, prætereà locustis eos ali, et esse pernices. Mandrorum nomen ijs dedit Clitarchus et Megastenes, trecentosque eorum vicos annumerat. Foeminas septimo ætatis anno parere, senectam quadragesimo anno accedere. Artemidorus, in Taprobana insula longissimam vitam sine vllo corporis languore traduci. Duris, Indorum quosdam cum feris coire, mistosque et semiferos esse partus. In Calingis eiusdem Indiæ gente quinquennes concipere foeminas, octauum vitæ annum non excedere, et alibi cauda villosa homines nasci pernicitatis eximiæ, alios auribus totos contegi. Oritas ab Indis Arbis fluuius disterminat. Ii nullum alium cibum nouere, quàm piscium, quos vnguibus dissectos sole torreant, atque ita panem ex his faciunt, vt refert Clitarchus. Troglodytas super Aethiopiam velociores esse equis, Pergamenus Crates. Item Aethiopas octona cubita longitudine excedere. Syrbotas vocari gentem eam Nomadum Aethiopum, secundùm flumen Astapum ad Septentrionem vregentium. [Marginal note: Vel vergentium.] Gens Menisminorum appellata, abest ab oceana dierum itinere viginti, animalium que Cynocephalos vocamus, lacte viuit, quorum armenta pacscit maribus interemptis, praeterquam sobolis causa. In Africæ solitudinibus hominum species obuiæ subinde fiunt, momentoque euanescunt. Haec atque talia, ex hominum genere ludibria sibi, nobis miracula, ingeniosa fecit natura: et singula quidem, quæ facit indies, ac propè horas, quis enumerare valeat? Ad detegendam eius potentiam, satis sit inter prodigia posuisse gentes. END OF MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGES. * * * * * Anthony Beck bishop of Durisme was elected Patriarch of Hierusalem, and confirmed by Clement the fift bishop of Rome: in the 34 yere of Edward the first. Lelandus. Antonius Beckus episcopus Dunelmensis fuit, regnante Edwardo eius appelationis ab aduentu Gulielmi magni in Angliam primo. Electus est in patriarcham Hierosolymitanum anno Christo 1305, et a Clemente quinto Rom. pontifice confirmatus. Splendidus erat supra quàm decebat episcopum. Construxit castrum Achelandæ, quatuor passuum millibus a Dunelmo in ripa Vnduglessi fluuioli. Elteshamum etiam vicinum Grenouico, ac Somaridunum castellum Lindianæ prouinciæ, ædificijs illustria reddidit. Deinde et palatium Londini erexit, quod nunc Edwardi principis est. Tandem ex splendore nimio, et potentia conflauit sibi apud nobilitatem ingentem inuidiam, quam viuens nunquam extinguere potuit. Sed de Antonio, et eius scriptis fusiùs in opere, cuius titulus de pontificibus Britannicis, dicemus. Obijt Antonius anno a nato in salutem nostram Christo, 1310, Edwardo secundo regnante. The same in English. Anthony Beck was bishop of Durisme in the time of the reigne of Edward the first of that name after the inuasion of William the great into England. This Anthony was elected patriarch of Ierusalem in the yeere of our Lord God 1305, and was confirmed by Clement the fift, pope of Rome. He was of greater magnificence then for the calling of a bishop. He founded also the castle of Acheland foure miles from Durisme, on the shore of a prety riuer called Vnduglesme. [Footnote: Probably Barnard Castle, on the Tees.] He much beautified with new buildings Eltham mannor nere vnto Greenwich, and the castle Somaridune in the county of Lindsey. [Footnote: Lindsey is the popular name for the north part of County Lincoln.] And lastly, he built new out of the ground the palace of London, which now is in possession of prince Edward. Insomuch, that at length, through his ouer great magnificence and power he procured to himselfe great enuy among the nobility, which he could not asswage during the rest of his life. But of this Anthony and of his writings we will speake more at large in our booke intituled of the Britain bishops. This Anthony finished his life in the yere of our Lord God, 1310, and in the reigne of king Edward the second. * * * * * Incipit Itinerarium fratris Odorici fratrum minorum de mirabilibus Orientalium Tartarorum. Licet multa et varia de ritibus et conditionibus huius mundi enarrentur a multis, ego tamen frater Odoricus de foro Iulij de portu Vahonis, volens ad partes infidelium transfretare, magna et mira vidi et audiui, quæ possum veracitèr enarrare. Primò transiens Mare Maius me de Pera iuxta Constantinopolim transtuli Trapesundam, quæ antiquitùs Pontus vocabatur: Haec terra benè situata est, sicut scala quaedam Persarum et Medorum, et eorum qui sunt vltra mare. In hac terra vidi mirabile quod mihi placuit, scilicet hominem ducentem secum plusquam 4000 perdicum. Homo autem per terram gradiebatur, perdices vero volabant per aera, quas ipse ad quoddam castrum dictum Zauena duxit, distans à Trapesunda per tres dietas. Hæ perdices illius conditionis erant, cùm homo ille quiescere voluit, omnes se aptabant circa ipsum, more pullorum gallinarum, et per illum modum duxit eas vsque ad Trapesundam, et vsque ad palatium imperatoris, qui de illis sumpsit quot voluit, et residuas vir ille ad locum vnde venerat, adduxit. In hac ciuitate requiescit corpus Athanasij supra portem ciuitatis. [Sidenote: Armenis maior.] Vltra transiui vsque in Armeniam maiorem, ad quandam ciuitatem quæ vocatur Azaron, quæ erat multùm opulenta antiquitus, sed Tartari eam pro magna parte destruxterunt: In ea erat abundantia panis et carnium, et aliorum omnium victualium praeterquam vini et fructuum. Hæc ciuitas est multum frigida, et de illa dicitur quòd altius situatur quàm aliqua alia in hoc mundo: haec optimas habet aquas, nam venæ illarum aquarum oriri videntur et scaturire à flumine magno Euphrate quod per vnam dietam ab ciuitate distat: haec ciuitas via media eundi Taurisium. Vltra progressus sum ad quendam montem dictum Sobissacato. In ilia contrau est mons ille supra quem requicscit arca Noe; in quem libenter ascendissem, si societas mea me praestolare voluisset: A gente tamen illius contratæ dicitur quòd nullus vnquam illum montem ascendere potuit, quia vt dicitur, hoc Deo altissimo non placet. [Sidenote: Tauris ciuitas Persiæ.] Vltra veni Tauris ciuitatem magnam et regalem, quæ antiquitus Susis dicta est. Haec ciuitas melior pro mercenarijs reputatur, quàm aliqua quæ sit in mundo, nam nihil comestibile, nec aliquid quod ad mercimonium pertinet, reperitur, quod illic in bona copia non habetur. Haec ciuitas multum benè situatur: Nam ad eam quasi totus mundus pro mercimonijs confluere potest: De hac dicunt Christiani qui ibi sunt, quòd credunt Imperatorem plus de ea accipere, quám Regem Franciæ de toto regno suo: Iuxta illam ciuitatem est mons salinus praebens sal ciuitati, et de illo sale vnusquisque tantum accipit, quantum vult, nihil soluendo alicui. In hac ciuitate multi Christiani de omni natione commorantur, quibus Saraceni in omnibus dominantur. [Sidenote: Sultania.] Vltra iui per decem dietas ad ciuitatem dictam Soldania, in qua imperator Persarum tempore æstiuo commoratur; In hyeme autem vadit ad ciuitatem aliam sitam supra mare vocatam Bakuc: Praedicta autem ciuitas magna est, et frigida, in se habens bonas aquas, ad quam multa mercimonia portantur. Vltra cum quadam societate Carauanorum iui versus Indiam superiorem, ad quam dum transissem per multas dietas perueni ad ciuitatem trium Magorum quæ vocatur Cassan, [Marginal note: Vel Cassibin.] quæ regia ciuitas est et nobilis, nisi quod Tartari eam in magnaparte destruxerunt: haec abundat pane, vino, et alijsbonis multis. Ab hac ciuitate vsque Ierusalem quo Magi iuerunt miraculosè, sunt L. dietiæ, et multa mirabilia sunt in hac ciuitate quæ pertranseo. [Sidenote: Gest.] Inde recessi ad quandam ciuitatem vocatam Gest a qua distat mare arenosum per vnam dietam, quod mirè est mirabile et periculosum: In hac ciuitate est abundantia omnium victualium, et ficuum potissimè, et vuarum siccarum et viridium, plus vt credo quàm in alia parte mundi. Haec est tertia cuitas melior quam Rex Persarum habet in toto regno suo: De illa dicunt Saraceni, quod in ea nullus Christianus vltra annum viuere vnquam potest. [Sidenote: Como.] Vltra per multas dietas iui ad quandam ciuitatem dictam Comum quæ maxima ciuitas antiquitùs erat, cuius ambitus erat ferè L. Miliaria, quæ magna damna intulit Romanis antiquis temporibus. In ea sunt palatia integra non habitata, tamen multis victualibus abundat. Vltra per multas terras transiens, perueni ad terram Iob nomine Hus quæ omnium victualium plenissima est, et pulcherrimè situata; iuxta eam sunt montes in quibus sunt pascua multa pro animilibus: Ibi manna in magna copia reperitur. Ibi habentur quatuor perdices pro minori, quam pro vno grosso: In ea sunt pulcherrimi senes, vbi homines nent et filant, et faeminæ non: haec terra correspondet Chaldeæ versus transmontana. De moribus Chaldæorum, et de India. Indè iui in Chaldaeam quæ est regnum magnum, et transiui iuxta turrim Babel: Haec regio suam linguam propriam habet, et ibi sunt homines formosi, et foeminæ turpes: et homines illius regionis vadunt compti crinibus, et ornati, vt hîc mulieres, et portant super capita sua fasciola aurea cum gemmis, et margaritis; mulieres verò solum vnam vilem camisiam attingentem vsque ad genua, habentem manicas longas et largas, quæ vsque ad terram protenduntur: Et vadunt discalceatæ portantes Serablans vsque ad terram. Triceas non portant, sed capilli earum circumquaque disperguntur: et alia multa et mirabilia sunt ibidem. Indé veni in Indiam quæ infra terram est, quam Tartari multum destruxerunt; et in ea vt plurimum homines tantum dactilos comedunt, quarum xlij, libræ habentur pro minori quam pro vno grosso. [Sidenote: Ormus.] Vltra transsiui per multas dietas ad mare oceanum, et prima terra, ad quam applicui, vocatur Ormes, quæ est optime murata, et multa mercimonia et diuitiæ in ea sunt; in ea tantus calor est, quod virilia hominum exeunt corpus et descendunt vsque ad mediam tibiarum: ideò homines illius terræ volentes viuere, faciunt vnctionum, et vngunt illa, et sic vncta in quibusdam sacculis ponunt circa se cingentes, et aliter morerentur: In hac terra homines vtuntur nauigio quæ vocatur Iase, suitium sparto. [Sidenote: Thana.] Ego autem ascendi in vnum illorum in quo nullum ferrum potui reperrire, et in viginta octo dietis perueni ad ciuitaten Thana, in qua pro fide Christi quatuor de fratribus nostris martyrizati sunt. Hæc terra est optimè situata, et in ea abundantia panis et vini, et aliorum victualium. Hæc terra antiquitus fuit valde magna, et fuit regis Pori, qui cum rege Alexandro prælium magnum commisit. Huius terræ populus Idolatrat, adorans ignem serpentes, et arbores: Et istam terram regunt Saraceni, qui vio lenter eam acceperunt, et subiacent imperio regis Daldili. Ibi sunt diuersa genera bestiarum, leones nigri in maxima quantitate: sunt et ibi simiæ, gatimaymones, et noctuae magnæ sicut hic habentur columbæ; ibi mures magni sunt, sicut sunt hîc scepi, et ideò canes capiunt ibi mures, quia murelegi non valent. Ad hæc, in illa terra quilibet homo habet ante domum suam vnum pedem fasciculorum, ita magnum sicut esset vna columna, et pes ille non desiccatur, dummodò adhibeatur sibi aqua. Multæ nouitates sunt ibi, quas pulcherrimum esset audire. De martyrio fratrum. Martyrium autem quatuor fratrum nostrorum in illa ciuitate Thana fuit per istum modum; dum praedicti fratres fuerant in Ormes, fecerunt pactum cum vna naui vt nauigarent vsque Polumbrum, et violentèr deportati sunt vsque Thanam vbi sunt 15. domus Christianorum, qui Nestoriani sunt et Schismatici, et cum illic essent, hospitati sunt in domo cuiusdam illorum; contigit dum ibi manerent litem oriri inter virum domus, et vxorem eius, quam sero ver fortiter verberauit, quæ suo Kadi, i. Episcopo conquesta est; à qua interrogauit Kadi, vtrum hoc probari posset? quæ dixit, quod sic; quia 4. Franchi, i. viri religiosi erant in domo hoc videntes, ipsos interrogate, qui dicent vobis veritatem: Muliere autem sic dicente, Ecce vnus de Alexandria praesens rogauit Kadi vt mitteret pro eis, dicens eos esse homines maximæ scientiæ et scripturas bene scire, et ideo dixit bonum esse cum illis de fide disputare: Qui misit pro illis, et adducti sunt isti quatuor, quorum nomina sunt frater de Tolentino de Marchia, frater Iacobus de Padua, frater Demetrius Laicus, Petrus de Senis. Dimisso autem fratre Petro, vt res suas custodiret, ad Kadi perrexerunt, qui coepit cum illis de fide nostra disputare; dicens Christum tantum hominem esse et non Deum. E contra frater Thomas rationibus et exemplis Christum verum Deum et hominem esse euidenter ostendit, et in tantum confudit Kadi, et infideles qui cum eo tenuerunt, quod non habuerunt quid rationabiliter contradicere: Tunc videns Kadi se sic confusum, incepit clamare sic; Et quid dicis de Machometo? Respondit frater Thomas: Si tibi probauimus Christum verum Deum et hominem esse, qui legem posuit inter homines, et Machometus è contrario venit, et legem contrariam docuit, si sapiens sis optime scire poteris, quid de eo dicendum sit. Iterum Kadi et alij Saraceni clamabant, Et tu quid iterum de Machometo dicis? Tunc frater T. respondit: vos omnes videre potestis, quid dico de eo. Tum ex quo vultis quod plane loquar de eo, dico quod Machometus vester filius perditionis est, et in inferno cum Diabolo patre suo. Et non solum ipse, sed omnes ibi erunt qui tenent legem hanc, quia ipsa tota pestifera est, et falsa, et contra Deum, et contra salutem animæ. Hoc audientes Saraceni, coeperunt clamare, moriatur, moriatur ille, qui sic contra Prophetam locutus est. Tunc acceperunt fratres et in sole vrente stare permiserunt, vt ex calore solis adusti, dira morte interirent. Tantus enim est calor solis ibi, quòd si homo in eo per spacium vnius missæ persisteret, moreretur; fratres tamen illi sani et hilares à tertia vsque ad nonam laudantes et glorificantes dominum in ardore solis permanserunt, quod videntes Saraceni stupefacti ad fratres venerunt, et dixerunt, volumus ignem accendere copiosum, et in illum vos proijcere, et si fides vestra sit vt dicitis, ignis non poterit vos comburere: si autem vos combusserit, patebit quòd fides vestra nulla sit. Responderunt fratres; parati sumus pro fide nostra ignem, carcerem, et vincula, et omnium tormentorum genera tolerare: verum tamen scire debetis, quòd si ignis potestatem habeat comburendi nos hoc non erit propter fidem nostram, sed propter peccata nostra: fides enim nostra perfectissima et verissima est, et non est alia in mundo in qua animsæ hominum possunt saluæ fieri; Dum autem ordinaretur quòd fratres conburerentur, rumor insonuit per totam ciuitatem, de qua omnes senes, et iuuenes, viri et mulieres, qui ire poterant, accurrerunt ad illud spectaculum intuendum. Fratres autem ducti fuerunt ad plateam ciuitatis, vbi accensus est ignis copiosus, in quen frater Thomas voluit se proijcere, sed quidam Saracenus cepit eam per caputium et retraxit dicens; Non vadus tu cum sis senex, quia carmen aliquod vel experimentum habere posses super te, quare te ignis non posset laedere, sed alium ire in ignem permittas. Tunc 4 Saraceni sumentes fratrem Iacobum, eum in ignem proijcere volebant; quibus ille, permittatis, me quia libenter pro fide mea ignem intrabo: Cui Saraceni non adquiescentes eum violentèr in ignem proiecerunt: ignis autem ita accensus erat, quòd nullus eum videre poteret, vocem tamen eius audierunt, inuocantem semper nomen virginis gloriosæ; Igne autem totalitèr consumpto stetit frater Iacobus super prunas illaesus, et laetus, manibus in modum crucis eleuatis, in coelum respiciens, et Deum laudans et glorificans, qui sic declararet fidem suam: nihil autem in eo nec pannus, nec capillus laesus per ignem inuentus est; Quod videns populus vnanimitèr conclamare coepit, sancti sunt, sancti sunt, nefas est offendere eos, modò videmus quia fides eorum bona et sancta est. Tunc clamare coepit Kadi: sanctus non est ille, quia combustus non est, quia tunica quam portat est de lana terræ Habraæ, et ideò nudus exspolietur, et in ignem proijciatur, et videbitur si comburetur vel non. Tunc Saraceni pessimi ad praeceptum Kadi ignem in duplo magis quàm priùs accenderunt, et fratrem Iacobum nudantes, corpus suum abluerunt, et oleo abundantissimè vnxerunt, insuper et oleum maximum in struem lignorum ex quibus ignis fieret, fuderunt, et igne accenso fratrem in ipsum proiecerunt. Frater autem Thomas, et frater Demetrius extra populum in loco separato flexis genibus orantes cum lachrymis deuotioni se dederunt Frater autem Iocobus iterum ignem exiuit illaesus sicut prius fecerat: quod videns omnis populus clamare coepit, peccatum est, deccatum est, offendere eos, quià sancti sunt. Hoc autem tantum miraculum videns Melich. i. potestas ciuitatis, vocauit ad se fratrem Iacobum, et fecit eum ponere indumenta, sua, et dixit, videte fratres, Ite cum gratia Dei, quia nullum malum patiemini a nobis, modò benè videmus vos sanctos esse, et fidem vestram bonam ac veram esse; et ideo consulimus vobis, vt de ista terra exeatis, quàm citiùs poteritis, quia Kadi pro posse suo vobis nocere curabit, quia sic confudistis eum: Hora autem tunc erat quasi completorij, et dixerunt illi de populo, attoniti, admirati, et stupefacti, tot, et tanta mirabilia vidimus ab istis hominibus, quòd nescimus quid tenere et obseruare debemus. Melich verò fecit duci illos tres fratres vltra vnum paruum brachium maris in quendam Burgum modicum ab illa ciuitate distantem: ad quem etiam ille in cuius iam domo fuerant hospitati associauit eos, vbi in domo cuiusdam idolatri recepti sunt. Dum haec argerenter, Kadi iuit ad Melich, dicens quid facimus? Lex Machometi destructa est, veruntamen hoc scire debes, quod Machomet praecepit in suo Alcorano, quod si quis vnum Christianum interficeret, tantum mereretur, ac si in Mecha ad ipsum peregrinaretur. Est enim Alkoranus lex Sarracenorum sicut Euangelium, Mecha, verò est locus vbi iacet Machomet. Quem locum ita visitant Saraceni, sicut Christiani sepulchram Christi. Tunc Melich respondet, vade, et fac sicut vis: quo dicto statim Kadi accepit quatuor homines armatos vt irent, et illos fratres interficerent, qui cùm aquam transijssent, facta est nox, et illo sero eos non inuenerunt, statim Melieh omnes Christianos in ciuitate capi fecit, et incarcerauit, media autem nocte fratres surrexerunt dicere matutinum, quos illi Saraceni qui missi fuerant, inuenerunt, et extra burgum, sub quadam arbore adduxerunt, dixerunt eis. Sciatis fratres nos mandatum habere a Kadi et Melich interficere vos, quod tamen faciemus inuiti, quia vos estis boni homines et sancti, sed non audemus aliter facere; quia si iussa sua non perficeremus, et nos cum liberis nostris et vxoribus moreremur. Tunc fratres responderunt, vos qui huc venistis, et tale mandatum recepistis, vt per mortem temporalem vitam æternam adipiscamur, quod vobis iniunctum est perficite; quia pro amore domini nostri Iesu Christi, qui pro nobis crucifigi et mori dignatus est, et pro fide nostra, parati sumus omnia tormenta, et etiam mortem libenter sustinere. Christianas autem qui fratres comitabatur, multum cum illis quatuor armatis altercatus est dicens, quod si gladium haberet, vel eos à nece tam sanctorum hominum impediret, vel ipse cum eis interfectus esset. Tunc armati fecerunt fratres se exspoliare, et frater Thomas primus iunctis manibus in modum crucis genuflectens capitis abscissionem suscepit: Fratrem verò Iacobum vnus percussit in capite, et eum vsque ad oculos scidit, et alio ictu totum caput abscidit. Frater autem Demetrius, primò percussus est cum gladio in pectore, et secundò caput suum abscissum est: Statim vt fratres suum martyrium compleuerunt, aer ita lucidus effectus est, quod omnes admirati sunt, et luna maximam claritatem ostendit. Statim quasi subito tanta tonitrua, et fulgura, et coruscationes, et obscuritas fiebant, quòd omnes mori crediderunt: Nauis etiam illa quæ illos debuerat deportasse submersa est cum omnibus quæ in se habuit, ita quod nunquam de illa posteà aliquid scitum est. Facto mane misit Kadi pro rebus fratrum prædictorum nostrorum, et tunc inuentus est frater Petrus de Senis quartus socius fratrum prædictorum, quem ad Kadi duxerunt: Cui Kadi, et alij Saraceni maxima promittentes persuaserunt quòd fidem suam renueret, et legem Machometi confiteretur, et teneret. Frater autem Petrus de illis truffabat, eos multum deridendo, quem de mane vsque ad meridiem diuersis pænarum ac tormentorum generibus affixerunt ipso semper constantissimè in fide, et in Dei laudibus persistente, et fidem illorum Machometi deridente et destruente. Videntes autem Saraceni eum non posse a suo proposito euelli, eum super quandam arborem suspenderunt, in qua de nona vsque ad noctem viuus et illaesus pependit: nocte verò ipsum de arbore sumpserunt, et videntes illum laetum, viuum et illaesum per medium suum corpus diuiserunt, mane autem facto nihil de corpore eius inuentum est, vni tamen personæ fide dignæ reuelatum est, quod Deus corpus eius occultauerat reuelandum in certo tempore, quandò Deo placuerit Sanctorum corpora manifestare. Vt autem Deus ostenderet animas suorum martyrum iam in coelis consistere, et congaudere cum Deo et Angelis et alijs Sanctis eius, die sequenti post martyrium fratrum praedictorum Melich dormitioni se dedit, et ecce apparuerunt sibi isti fratres gloriosi, et sicut Sol, lucidi, singulos enses tenentes in manibus, et supra eum eos sic vibrantes, quod vt si eum perfodere ac diuidere vellent: qui excitatus horribilitèr exclamauit sic, quòd totam familiam terruit: quæ sibi accurrens quaesiuit, quid sibi esset? quibus ille, Illi Raban Franchi quos interfici iussi, venerunt hac ad me cum ensibus, volentes me interficere. Et statim Melich misit pro Kadi, referens sibi visionem et petens consilium, et consolationem, quia timuit per eos finaliter interire. Tunc Kadi sibi consuluit, vt illis maximas eleemosynas faceret, si de manibus interfectorum euadere vellet. Tunc misit pro Christianis quos in carcere intrudi praeceperat: A quibus cum ad eum venissent indulgentiam petijt pro facto suo, dicens se esse amodo socium eorum, et confratrem: Praecepit autem et legem statuit, quòd pro tempore suo, si quis aliquem Christianum offenderet, statim moreretur, et sic omnes illaesos, et indemnes abire permisit: Pro illis autem quatuor fratribus interfectis quatuor mosquetas. (i.) Ecclesias ædificari fecit, quas per Sacerdotes Saracenorum inhabitari fecit. Audiens autem imperator Dodsi istos tres fratres talem sententiam subijsse, misit pro Melich, vt vinctus ad eum duceretur, A quo cùm adductus esset, quaesiuit imperator, quare ita crudeliter illos fratres iusserat interfici, respondit, quia subuertere volebant legem nostram, et malum et blasphemiam de propheta nostro dicebant: et imperator ad eum; O crudelissime canis, cùm videres quod Deus omnipotens bis ab igne eos liberauerit, quo modo ausus fuisti illis mortem inferre tam crudelem. Et edicta sententia, ipsum Melich cum tota sua familia per medium scindi fecit, sicut ipse talem mortem fratri inflixerat. Kadi verò audiens, de terra illa, et etiam de imperatoris illius dominio clàm fugit, et sic euasit. De miraculis quatuor fratrum occisorum Est autem consuetudo in terra illa, quòd corpora mortua non traduntur sepulturæ, sed in campis dimittuntur, et ex calore Solis citò resoluuntur, et sic consumantur: Corpora autem trium fratrum praedictorum per 14. dies illic in fuerore Solis iacuerunt, et ita recentia et redolentia inuenta fuerunt sicut illa die quandò martirizati erant: quod videntes Christiani qui in illa terra habitabant, praedicta corpora ceperunt, et honorificè sepelierunt. Ego autem Odoricus audiens factum et martyrium illorum fratrum, iui illuc, et corpora eorum effodi, et ossa omnia mecum accepi, et in pulchris towallijs colligaui, et in Indiam superiorem ad vnum locum fratrum nostrorum ea deportaui, habens mecum socium, et vnum famulum. Cum autem essemus in via, hospitabamus in domo cuiusdam hospitarij, et ipsa ossa capiti meo supposui, et dormiui: Et dùm dormirem domus illa à Saracenis subitò accendebatur, vt me cum domo comburerent. Domo autem sic accensa, socius meus et famulus de domo exierunt, et me solum cum ossibus dimiserunt, qui videns ignem supra me, ossa accepi et cum illis in angulos domus recollegi. Tres autem anguli domus statim combusti fuerunt, angulo in quo steti cum ossibus saluo remanente: Supra me autem ignis se tenuit in modum aeris lucidi, nec descendit quamdiu ibi persistebam; quàm citò autem cum ossibus exiui, statim tota pars illa sicut aliæ priores igne consumpta est, et multa alia loca circumadiacentia combusta sunt. Aliud miraculum contigit, me cum ossibus per mare proficiente ad ciuitatem Polumbrum vbi piper nascitur abundantèr, quia nobis ventus totaliter defecit: quapropter venerunt Idolatræ adorantes Deos suos pro vento prospero, quem tamen non obtinuerunt: Tunc Saraceni suas inuocationes, et adorationes laboriose fecerunt, sed nihil profecerunt: Et praeceptum est mihi et socio meo vt orationes funderemus Deo nostro: Et dixit rector nauis in Armenico mihi, quod alij non intelligerent: quòd nisi possemus ventum prosperum à Deo nostro impetrare, nos cum ossibus in mare proijcerent: Tunc ego et socius fecimus orationes, vouentes multas missas de beata virgine celebrare, sic quòd ventum placeret sibi nobis impetrare. Cum autem tempus transiret, et ventus non veniret, accepi vnum de ossibus, et dedi famulo, vt ad caput nauis iret, et clàm in mare proijceret; quo proiecto statim affuit ventus prosper qui nunquam nobis defecit, vsquequò peruenimus ad portum, meritis istorum martyrum cum salute. Deinde ascendimus aliam nauem vt in Indiam superiorem iremus; Et venimus ad quandam ciuitatem vocatam Carchan in qua sunt duo loca fratrum nostrorum, et ibi reponere istas reliquias volebamus. In naui autem illa erant plus 700. mercatores et alij: Nunc illi Idolatræ istam consuetudinem habebant, quòd semper antequàm ad portum applicuerint, totam nauem perquirerent, si isti aliqua ossa mortuorum animalium inuenirent, qui reperta statim in mare proijcerent, et per hoc bonum portum attingere, et mortis periculum euadere crederent. Cùm autem frequentèr perquirerent, et illa ossa frequenter tangerent, semper oculi delusi fuerunt, sic quòd illa non perpenderunt; et sic ad locum fratrum deportauimus cum omni reuerentia, vbi in pace requiescunt; vbi etiam inter idolatras Deus continuè miracula operatur. Cum enim aliquo morbo grauantur, in terra illa vbi fratres passi sunt ipsi vadunt; et de terra vbi corpora sanguinolenta iacuerunt sumunt quam abluunt, et ablutionem bibunt, et sic ab infirmitatibus suis liberantur. Quo modo habetur Piper, et vbi nascitur. [Sidenote: Malabar.] Vt autem videatur quo modo habetur piper, sciendum quòd in quodam imperio ad quod applicui, nomine Minibar, nascitur, et in nulla parte mundi tantum, quantum ibi; Nemus enim in quo nascitur, continet octodecim dietas, et in ipso nemore sunt duæ ciuitates vna nomine Flandrini, alia nomine Cyncilim: In Flandrina habitant Iudaei aliqui et aliqui Christiani, inter quos est bellum frequenter, sed Christiani vincunt Iudaeos semper: In isto nemore habetur piper per istum modum. Nam primò nascitur in folijs olerum, quæ iuxta magnas arbores plantantur, sicut nos ponimus vites; et producunt fructum, sicut racemi nostri producunt vuas; sed quandò maturescunt sunt viridis coloris, et sic vindemiantur vt inter nos vindemiantut vuæ, et ponuntur grana ad solem vt desiccentur: quæ desiccata reponuntur in vasis terreis, et sic fit piper, et custoditur. In isto autem nemore sunt flumina multa in quibus sunt Crocodili multi, et multi alij serpentes sunt in illo nemore, quos homines per stupam et paleas comburunt, et sic ad colligendum piper securé accedunt. [Sidenote: Polumbrum ciuitas. Adoratio bouis.] A capite illius nemoris versus meridiem est ciuitas Polumbrum in qua maxima mercimonia cuiuscunque generis reperiuntur Omnes autem de terra illa bouem viuum sicut Deum suum adorant, quem 6. annis faciunt laborare, et in septimo faciunt ipsum quiescere ab omni opere; ponentes ipsum in loco solemni, et communi, et dicentes ipsum esse animal sanctum. Hunc autem ritum obseruant: quolibet mane accipiunt duas pelues de auro, vel de argento, et vnam submittunt vrinæ bouis, et aliam stercori, de vrina lauant sibi faciem et oculos, et omnes 5. sensus: de stercore verò ponunt in vtròque oculo, posteà liniunt summitates genarum, et tertiò pectus, et ex tunc dicunt se sanctificatos pro toto die illo: et sicut facit populus, ita etiam facit rex et regina. Isti etiam aliud idolum mortuum adorant, quod in medietate vna superior est homo, et in alia est bos, et iliud idolum dat eis responsa, et aliquotièns pro stipendio petit sanguinem, 40. virginum: et ideo homines illius regionis ita vouent filias suas et filios, sicut Christiani aliqui alicui religioni, vel sancto in coelis. Et per istum modum immolant filios et filias, et multi homines per istum ritum moriuntur ante idolum illud, et multa alia abominabilia facit populus iste bestialis, et multa mirabilia vidi inter eos quæ nolui hic inserere. [Sidenote: Combustio mortuorum.] Aliam consuetudinem vilissimam habet gens illa: Nam quamdo homo moritur, comburunt ipsum mortuum, et si vxorem habet, ipsam comburunt viuam, quia dicunt quod ipsa ibit in aratura, et cultura cum viro suo in alio mundo: si autem vxor illa habeat liberos ex viro suo, potest manere cum eis si velit sine verecundia et improperio, communiter tamen omnes praeeligunt comburi cum marito; si autem vxor praemoriatur viro, lex illa non obligat virum, sed potest aliam vxorem ducere. Aliam consuetudinem habet gens illa, quòd foeminæ ibi bibunt vinum, et homines non: foeminæ etiam faciunt sibi radi cilia, et supercilia, et barbam, et homines non: et sic de multis alijs vilibus contra naturam sexus eorum. [Sidenote: Mobar regnum vel Maliapor.] Ab isto regno iui decem dietas ad iliud regnum dictum Mobar, quod habet in se multas ciuitates, et in illo requiescit in vna ecclesia corpus beati Thomæ Apostoli, et est ecclesia illa plena idolis, et in circuitu ecclesiæ simul Cononici viuunt in 15 domibus Nestoriani, id est, mali Christiani, et schismatici. De quodam idolo mirabili, et de quibusdam ritibus eorum. In hoc regno est vnum Idolum mirabile, quod omnes Indi reuerentur: et est statura hominis ita magni, sicut noster Christophorus depictus, et est totum de auro purissimo et splendidissimo, et circa collum habet vnam chordulam sericam cum lapidibus pretiosissimis, quorum aliquis valet plus quàm vnum regnum: Domus idoli est tota de auro, scilicet in tecto, et pauimento, et superficie parietum interius et exterius. Ad illud idolum peregrinantur Indi, sicut nos ad S. Petrum: Alij veniunt cum chorda ad collum, alij cum manibus retro ligatis, alij cum cultello in brachio vel tibia defixo, et si post peregrinationem fiat brachium marcidum, illum reputant sanctum, et benè cum Deo suo. Iuxta ecclesiam illius idoli est lacus vnus manufactus, et manifestus, in quem peregrini proijciunt aurum et argentum, et lapides pretiosos in honorem Idoli, et ad ædificationem ecclesiæ suæ, et ideo quando aliquid debet ornari, vel reparari, vadunt homines ad hunc lacum, et proiecta extrahunt: die autem annua constructionis illius idoli, rex et regina, cum toto populo et omnibus peregrinis accedunt, et ponunt illud idolum in vno curru pretiosissimo ipsum de ecclesia educentes cum Canticis, et omni genere musicorum, et multae virgines antecedunt ipsum binæ et binæ, processionaliter combinatæ modulantes: [Sidenote: Crudelissima Satanæ tyrannis, et carnificina.] Peregrini etiam multi ponunt se sub curru, vt transeat Deus supra eos; et omnes super quos currus transit, comminuit, et per medium scindit, et interficit, et per hoc reputant se mori pro deo suo, sanctè et securè: et in omni anno hoc modo moriuntur in via sub idolo plusquam 500. homines, quorum corpora comburuntur, et cineres sicut reliquiæ custodiuntur, quia sic pro Deo suo moriuntur. Alium ritum habent, quando aliquis homo offert se mori pro deo suo, conueniunt omnes amici eius et parentes cum histrionibus multis, facientes sibi festum magnum, et post festum appendunt collo eius 5 cultellos acutissimos ducentes eum ante idolum, quo cum peruenerit, sumit vnum ex cultellis, et clamat alta voce, pro deo meo incido mihi de carne mea, et frustum incisum proijcit in faciem idoli: vltima vero incisione per quam seipsum interficit, dicit, me mori pro deo meo permitto, quo mortuo corpus eius comburitur, et sanctum fore ab omnibus creditur. Rex illius regionis est ditissimus in auro et argento, et gemmis pretiosis; ibi etiam sunt margaritæ pulchriores de mundo. Indè transiens iui per mare oceanum versus meridiem per 50 dietas ad unam terram vocatam Lammori, in qua ex immensitate caloris, tam viri quam foeminæ omnes incedunt nudi in toto corpore: Qui videntes me vestitum, deridebant me, dicentes Deum, Adam et Euam fecisse nudos. In illa regione omnes mulieres sunt communes, ita quod nullus potest dicere, haec est vxor mea, et cùm mulier aliqua parit filium vel filiam dat cui vult de hijs qui concubuerunt: Tota etiam terra illius regionis habetur in communi, ita quod non meum et tuum in diuisione terrarum, domos tamen habent speciales: Carnes humanæ quando homo est pinguis ita benè comeduntur, sicut inter nos bouinæ: et licet gens sit pestifera, tamen terra optima est, et abundat in omnibus bonis, carnibus, bladis, riso, auro, argento, et lignis Aloe, canfari, et multis alijs. Mercatores autem cum accedunt ad hanc regionem ducunt secum homines pingues vendentes illos genti illius regionis, sicut nos vendimus porcos, qui statim occidunt eos et comedunt. [Sidenote: Simoltra vel Samotra.] In hac insula versus meridiem est aliud regnum vocatum Symolcra, in quo tam viri quam mulieres signant se ferro calido in facie, in 12. partibus, Et hij semper bellant cum hominibus nudis in alia regione. Vltra transiú ad aliam insulam quæ vocatur Iaua cuius ambitus per mare est trium millium milliarium, et rex illius insulæ habet sub se 7. reges coronatos, et haec insula optimè inhabitatur, et melior secunda de mundo reputatur. In ea nascuntur in copia garyophylli, cubibez, et nuces muscatæ: et breuiter omnes species ibi sunt, et maxima abundantia omnium victualium praeterquam vini. Rex illius terræ habet palatium nobilissimum inter omnia quæ vidi altissime stat, et gradus et scalas habet altissimos, quorum semper vnus gradus est aureus, alius argenteus: Pauimentum vero vnum laterem habet de auro, alium de argento. Parietes vero omnes interius sunt laminati laminis aureis, in quibus sculpti sunt Equites de auro habentes circa caput circulum aureum plenum lapidibus pretiosis: Tectum est de auro puro. Cum isto rege ille magnus Canis de Katay frequenter fuit in bello: Quem tamen semper ille Rex vicit et superauit. De arboribus dantibus farinam, et mel, et venenum. Iuxta istam Insulam est alia contrata vocata Panten, vel alio nomine Tathalamasim, [Marginal note: Vel Malasmi.] et Rex illius contratæ multas insulas habet sub se. In illa terra sunt arbores dantes farinam, et mel, et vinum, et etiam venenum periculosius quod sit in mundo, quia contra illud non est remedium, nisi vnum solum, et est illud. Si aliquis illud venenum sumpsisset, si velit liberari, sumat stercus hominis et cum aqua temperet, et in bona quantitate bíbat, et statim fugat venenum faciens exire per inferiores partes. Farinam autem faciunt arbores hoc modo, sunt magnæ et bassæ, et quandò inciduntur cum securi propè terram, exit de stipite liquor quidam secut gummæ, quem accipiunt homines et ponunt in sacculis de folijs factis, et per quindecim dies in sole dimittunt, et in fine decimi quinti diei ex isto liquore desiccato fit farina, quam primò ponunt in aqua maris, posteà lauant eam cum aqua dulci, et fit pasta valdè bona et odorifera, de qua faciunt cibos vel panes sicut placet eis. De quibus panibus ego comedi, et est panis exterius pulcher, sed interius aliquantulum niger. [Sidenote: Mare quod semper currit versus meridiem.] In hac contrata est mare mortuum quod semper currit versus meridiem, in quod si homo ceciderit, nunquam posteà comparet. In contrata illa inueniuntur Cannæ longissimæ plures passus habentes quàm 60 et sunt magnæ vt arbores. Aliæ etiam Cannæ sunt ibi quæ vocantur Cassan quæ per terram diriguntur vt gramen, et in quolibet nodo earum ramuli producuntur qui etiam prolongantur super terram per vnum miliare ferè: in hijs Cannis reperiuntur lapides, quorum si quis vnum super se portauerit, hon poterit incidi aliquo ferro, et ideò, communiter homines illius contratæ portant illos lapides super: Multi etiam faciunt pueros suos dum sunt parui incidi in vno brachio, et in vulnere ponunt vnum de illis lapidibus, et faciunt vulnus recludere se per vnum puluerem de quodam pisce, cuius nomen ignoro, qui puluis statim vulnus consolidat et sanat: et virtute illorum lapidum communitèr isti homines triumphant in bellis, et in mari, nec possent isti homines laedi per aliqua arma ferra: Vnum tamen remedium est, quod aduersarij illius gentis scientes virtutem lapidum, prouident sibi propugnacula ferrea contra spicula illorum, et arma venenata de veneno arborum, et in manu portant palos ligneos accutissimos et ita duros in extremitate sicut esset ferrum: Similitér sagittant cum sagittis sino ferro, et sic confundunt aliquos et perforant inermes ex lapidum securitate. [Sidenote: Vela ex arundinibus facta.] De istis etiam Cannis Cassan faciunt sibi vela pro suis nauibus et domunculas paruas, et multa sibi necessaria. [Sidenote: Campa.] Inde recessi per multas dietas ad aliud regnum vocatum Campa, pulcherrimum, et opulentissimum in omnibus victualibus. Cuius rex quamdo fui ibi tot habuit vxores, et alias mulieres, quod de illis 300. filios et filias habuit. Iste rex habet decies millesies et quatuor elephantum domesticorum, quos ita facit custodiri sicut inter nos custodiunt boues, vel greges in pascuis. De multitudine Piscium, qui se proijciunt in aridam. In hac contrata vnum mirabile valde reperitur, quod vnaquaeque generatio piscium in mari ad istam contratam venit in tanta quantitate, quod per magnum spatium maris nil videtur nisi dorsa piscium, et super aridam se proijciunt quando prope ripam sunt, et permittunt homines per tres dies venire, et de illis sumere quantum placuerint, et tunc redeunt ad mare: Post illam speciem per illum modum venit alia species, et offert se, et sic de omnibus speciebus, semel tamen tantum hoc faciunt in anno. Et quaesiui à gente illa quomodo et qualiter hoc possit fieri? responderunt quod hoc modo pisces per naturam docentur venire, et imperatorem suum reuereri. [Sidenote: Testitudines magnæ.] Ibi etiam sunt testudines ita magnæ sicut est vnus furnus, et multa alia vidi quæ incredibilia forent, nisi homo illa vidisset. In illa etiam contrata homo mortuus conburitur, et vxor viua cum eo, sicut superius de alia contrata dictum est, quia dicunt homines illi quod illa vadit ad alium mundum ad morandum cum eo, ne ibi aliam vxorem accipiat. [Sidenote: Moumoran.] Vltra transiui per mare Oceanum versus meridiem, et transiui per multas contratas et insulas, quarum vna vocatur Moumoran, et habet in circuitu 2000. milliaria, in qua homines portant facies caninas et mulieres similitèr, et vnum bouem adorant pro Deo suo, et ideo quilibet vnum bouem aureum vel argenteum in fronte portat: Homines illius contratæ et mulieres vadunt totaliter nudi, nisi quod vnum pannum lineum portant ante verenda sua. Homines illius regionis sunt maximi et fortissimi, et quia vadunt nudi, quando debent bellare, portant vnum scutum de ferro, quod cooperit eos à capite vsque ad pedes, et si contingat eos aliquem de aduersarijs capere in bello qui pecunia non possit redimi, statim comedunt eum; si autem possit se redimere pecunia, illum abire permittunt: Rex eorum portat 300. margaritas ad collum suum maximas et pulcherrimas, et 300. orationes omni die dicit Deo suo: Hic etiam portat in digito suo vnum lapidem longitudinis vnius spansæ, et dum habet illum videtur ab alijs quasi vna flamma ignis, et ideò nullus audet sibi appropinquare, et dicitur quòd non est lapis in mundo pretiosior illo. Magnus autem imperator Tartarorum de Katai, nunquam vi, nec pecunia, nec ingenio illum obtinere potuit, cùm tamen circa hoc laborauerit. De Insula Ceilan, et de monte vbi Adam planxit Abel filium suum. [Sidenote: Ceilan insula.] Transiui per aliam insulam vocatam Ceilan, quæ habet in ambitu plusquam duo millia milliaria, in qua sunt serpentes quasi infiniti, et maxima multitudo leonum, vrsarum, et omnium animalium rapacium, et siluestrium, et potissimè elephantum. In illa contrata est mons maximus, in quo dicunt gentes illius regionis quod Adam planxit Abel filium suum 500. annis. In medio illius montis est planicies pulcherrima, in qua est lacus paruus multum habens de aqua, et homines illi dicunt aquam illam fuisse de lachrymis Adæ et Euæ, sed probaui hoc falsum esse, quia vidi aquam in lacu scaturire: haec aqua plena est hirudinibus et sanguisugis, et lapidibus pretiosis; istos lapides rex non accepit sibi, sed semel vel bis in anno permittit pauperes sub aqua ire pro lapidibus, et omnes quot possunt colligere illis concedit, vt orent pro anima sua. Vt autem possint sub aqua ire accipiunt lymones, et cum illis vngunt se valdè benè, et sic nudos se in aquam submergunt, et sanguisugæ illis nocere non possunt. Ab isto lacu aqua exit et currit vsque ad mare, et in transitu quando retrahit se, fodiuntur Rubiæ, et adamantes, et margaritæ, et aliæ gemmæ pretiosæ: vndè opinio est quod rex ille magis abundat lapidibus pretiosis, quàm aliquis in mundo. In contrata illa sunt quasi omnia genera animalium et auium; et dixerunt mihi gentes illæ quod animalia illa nullum forensem inuadunt, nec offendunt, sed tantum homines illius regionis. Vidi in illa insula aues ita magnas sicut sunt hic anseres, habentes duo capita, et alia mirabilia quæ non scribo. [Sidenote: Bodin Insula.] Vltra versus meridiem transiui, et applicui, ad insulam quandam quæ vocatur Bodin, quod idem est quod immundum in lingua nostra. In ea morantur pessimi homines, qui comedunt carnes crudas, et omnem immunditiam faciunt quæ quasi excogitari non poterit; nam pater comedit filium et filius patrem, et maritus vxorem, et è contrario, et hoc per hunc modum: si pater alicuius infirmetur, filius vadet ad Astrologum sacerdotem, scz. rogans eum quod consulat Deum suum, si pater de tali infirmitate euadet, vel non. Tunc ambo vadunt ad idolum aureum, vel argenteum, facientes orationes in hac forma. Domine, tu es Deus noster, te adoramus, et rogamus vt nobis respondeas, debetnè talis à tali infirmitate mori vel liberari? Tunc Daemon respondet, et si dicat, viuet, filius vadit et ministrat illi vsque ad plenam conualescentiam: Si autem dicat, morietur, Sacerdos ibit ad eum, et vnum pannum super os eius ponet, et suffocabit eum, et ipsum mortuum incidet in frusta, et inuitabuntur omnes amici, et parentes eius ad comedendum eum cum canticis, et omni laetitia, ossa tamen eius honorificè sepelient. Cum autem ego eos de tali ritu reprehendi, quaerens causam: Respondit vnus mihi, hoc facimus ne vermes carnes eius comedant, tunc eius anima magnam poenam sustinerit, nec poteram euellere eos ab isto errore: et multæ aliæ nouitates sunt ibi, quas non crederent, nisi qui viderent. Ego autem coram Deo nihil hic refero, nisi illud de quo certus sum sicut homo certificari poterit. De ista insula inquisiui à multis expertis, qui omnes vno ore responderunt mihi, dicentes, quod ista India 4400. insulas continet sub se, siue in se, in qua etiam sunt 64. reges coronati, et etiam dicunt quod maior pars illius insulæ benè inhabitatur. Et hic istius Indiæ facio finem. De india superiori, et de Prouincia Manci. In primis refero, quòd cum transirem per mare Oceanum per multas dietas versus Orientem, perueni ad illam magnam prouinciam Manci, quæ India vocatur à Latinis. De ista India superiori inquisiui à Christianis, Saracenis, idolatris, et omnibus, qui officiales sunt domini Canis magni, qui omnes vno ore responderunt, quod hæ prouincia Manci habet plusquam 2000, magnarum ciuitatum, et in ipsa est maxima copia omnium victualium, puta, panis, vini, risi, carnium, piscium, &c. Omnes homines istius prouinciæ sunt artifices et mercatores, qui pro quacunque penuria, dummodo proprijs manibus iuuare se possent per labores, nunquam ab aliquo eleemosynam peterent. Viri istius prouinciæ sunt satis formosi, sed pallidi, et rasas et paruas barbas habentes; foeminæ vero sunt pulcherrimæ inter omnes do mundo. Prima ciuitas ad quam veni de ista India vocatur Ceuskalon, [Marginal note: Vel Ceuscala.] et distat à mari per vnam dietam, positaque est super flumen, cuius aqua propè mare cui contignatur, ascendit super terram per 12. dietas. Totus populus illius Indiæ idolatrat. Ista autem ciuitas tantum nauigium habet, quod incredibile foret nisi videnti. [Sidenote: Hi sunt alcatrarsi vel onocratoli.] In hac ciuitate vidi quod 300. libræ de bono et recenti zinzibero habentur pro minori quam pro vno grosso: Ibi sunt anseres grossiores et pulchriores, et maius forum de illis, quam sit in mundo, vt credo, et sunt albissimi sicut lac, et habent vnum os super caput quantitatis oui, et habet colorem sanguineum, sub gula habent vnam pellem pendentem semipedalem: Pinguissimi sunt, et optimi fori: et ita est de anatibus, et gallinis, quæ magnæ sunt valdé in illa terra plusquam duæ de nostris. Ibi sunt serpentes maximi, et capiuntur et a gente illa comeduntur: vnde qui faceret festum solemne, et non daret serpentes, nihil reputaret se facere; breuiter in hac ciuitate sunt omnia victualia in maxima abundantia. Indè transiui per ciuitates multas, et veni ad ciuitatem nomine Kaitan, [Marginal note: Vel Zaiton.] in qua fratres Minores habent duo loca, ad quæ portaui de ossibus fratrum nostrorum pro fidi Christi interfectorum, de quibus supra. In hac est copia omnium victualium pro leuissimo foro, haec ciuitas ita magna est, sicut bis Bononia, et in ea multa monasteria religiosorum, qui omnes idolis seruiunt. In vno autem istorum monasteriorum ego fui, et dictum est mihi quòd inerant 3000. religiosorum habentium 11000. idoloram, et vnum illorum, quod quasi paruum inter caetera mihi videbatur, est ita magnum sicut Christophorus noster. Isti religiosi omni die pascunt Deos suos, vnde semel iui ad videntum comestionem illam, et vidi quòd illa quæ detulerunt sibi comestibilia sunt, et calidissima, et multum fumigantia, ita quòd fumus ascendit ad idola, et dixerunt Deos illo fumo recreari. Totum autem cibum illi reportauerunt et comederunt, et sic de fumo tantum Deos suos pauerunt. De Ciuitate Fuko. Vltra versus Orientem veni ad ciuitatem quæ vocatur Fuko, [Marginal note: Vel Foqaien.] cuius circuitus continet 30. milliaria, in qua sunt Galli maximi et pulcherrimi, et gallinæ ita albæ sicut nix, lanam solum pro pennis habentes sicut pecudes. Haec ciuitas pulcherrima est, et sita supra mare. Vltra iui per 18. dietas, et pertransij multas terras et ciuitates, et in transitu veni ad quendam montem magnum, et vidi quod in vno latere montis omnia animalia erant nigra vt carbo, et homines et mulieres diuersum modum viuendi habent: ab alio autem latere omnia animalia erant alba sicut nix, et homines totaliter diuersè ab alijs vixerunt. Ibi omnes foeminæ quæ sunt desponsatæ portant in signum quod habent maritos vnum magnum barile de cornu in capita. [Sidenote: Magnum flumen.] Inde transiui per 18. dietas alias, et veni ad quoddam magnum flumen, et intraui ciuitatem vnam, quæ transuersum illius fluminis habet pontem maximum, et hospitabar in domo vnius hospitarij, qui volens mihi complacere, dixit mihi: si velis videre piscari, veni mecum; et duxit me super pontem, et vidi in brachijs suis mergos ligatos super perticas, ad quorum gulam vbi ille ligauit vnum filum, ne illi capientes pisces, comederent eos: Postea in brachio vno posuit 3. cistas magnas, et tunc dissoluit mergos de perticis, qui statim in aquam intrauerunt, et pisces ceperunt, et cistas illas repleuerunt in pania hora, quibus repletis vir ille dissoluit fila à collis eorum, et ipsi reintrantes flumen se de piscibus recreauerunt, et recreati ad perticas redierunt, et se ligari sicut priùs permiserunt: Ego autem de illis piscibus comedi, et optimi mihi videbantur. [Sidenote: Aliâs Cansai, vel Quinzai.] Inde transiens per multas dietas veni ad vnam ciuitatem quæ vocatur Kanasia, quæ sonat in lingua nostro ciuitas coeli: Nunquam ita magnam ciuitatem vidi, Circuitus enim eus continet 100. millaria, nec in ea vidi spatium quin benè inhabitaretur; Imo vidi multas domus habentes 10. vel 12. solaria vnum supra aliud: haec habet suburbia maxima continentia maiorem populum quàm ipsa ciuitas contineat 12. portas habet principales, et in via de qualibet illarum portarum ad 8. milliaria sunt ciuitates fortè maiores vt æstimo, quàm est ciuitas Venetiarum, et Padua. Haec ciuitas sita est in aquis quæ semper stant, et nec fluunt, nec refluunt, vallum tamen habet propter ventum sicut ciuitas Venetiarum. In ea sunt plus decem mille et 2. pontium, quorum multos numeraui et transiui, et in qualibet ponte stant custodes ciuitatis continuè custodientes ciuitatem pro magno Cane imperatore Catai. Vnum mandatum dicunt gentes illius ciuitatis a domino se recepisse. Nam quilibet ignis soluit vnum balis, i. 5. cartas bombicis, qui unum florenum cum dimidio valent, et 10. vel 12. supellectiles facient vnum ignem, et sic pro vno igne soluent. Isti ignes sunt benè 85. Thuman, eum alijs 4. Saracenorum quæ faciunt 89. Thuma vero vnum decem milia ignium facit, reliqui autem de populo ciuitatis sunt alij Christiani, alij mercatores, et alij transeuntes per terram, vndè maximè fui miratus quo modo tot corpora hominum poterant simul habitare: in ea est maxima copia victualium, scz. panis et vini, et carnium de porco praecipué cum alijs necessarijs. De monasterio vbi sunt multa animalia diuersa in quodam monte. In illa ciuitate 4. fratres nostri conuerterant vnum potentem ad fidem Christi, in cuius hospitio continué habitabam, dum fui ibi, qui semèl dixit mihi, Ara, i. pater, vis tu venire et videre ciuitatem istam: et dixi quòd sic, et ascendimus vnam barcham, et iuimus ad vnum monasterium maximum, de quo vocauit vnum religiosum sibi notum, et dixit sibi de me. Iste Raban Francus, i. religiosus venit de indé vbi sol occidit, et nunc vadit Cambaleth, vt deprecetur vitam pro magno Cane, et ideò ostendas sibi aliquid, quòd si reuertatur ad contratas suas possit referre quod tale quid nouum vidi in Canasia ciuitate: tunc sumpsit ille religiosus duos mastellos magnos repletos reliquijs quæ supererant de mensa, et duxit me ad vnam perclusam paruam, quam aperuit cum claue, et aparuit, viridarium gratiosum et magnum in quod intrauimus, et in illo viridario stat vnas monticulus sicut vnum campanile, repletus amoenis herbis et arboribus, et dum staremus ibi, ipse sumpsit cymbalum, et incoepit percutere ipsum sicut percutitur quando monachi intrant refectorium, ad cuius sonitum multa animalia diuersa descenderunt de monte illo, aliqua vt simiæ, aliqua vt Cati, Maymones, et aliqua faciem hominis habentia, et dum sic starem congregauerunt se circa ipsum, 4000. de illis animalibus, et se in ordinibus collocauerunt, coram quibus posuit paropsidem et dabat eis comedere, et cum comedissent iterum cymbalum percussit, et omnia ad loca propria redierunt. Tunc admiratus inquisiui quæ essent animalia ista? Et respondit mihi quod sunt animæ nobilium virorum, quas nos hic pascimus amore Dei, qui regit orbem, et sicut vnus homo fuit nobilis, ita anima eius post mortem in corpus nobilis animalis intrat. Animæ verò simplicium et rusticorum, corpora vilium animalium intrant. Incoepi istam abusionem improbare, sed nihil valuit sibi, non enim poterat credere, quòd aliqua anima posset sine corpore manere. [Sidenote: Chilenso.] Indè transiui ad quandam ciuitatem nomine Chilenso, cuius muri per 40. milliaria circuerunt. In ista ciuitate sunt 360. pontes lapidei pulchriores quàm vnquam viderim, et benè inhabitatur, et nauigium maxinium habet, et copiam omnium victualium et aliorum bonorum. [Sidenote: Thalay. Kakam.] Inde iui ad quoddam flumen dictum Thalay, quod vbi est strictius habet in latitudine 7. milliaria, et illud flumen per medium terræ Pygmæorum transit, quorum ciuitas vocatur Kakam, quæ de pulchrioribus ciuitatibus mundi est. Isti Pigmaei habent longitudinem trium spansarum mearum, et faciunt maiora et meliora goton, et bombicinam quàm aliqui homines in mundo. Indè per illud flumen transiens, veni ad vnam ciuitatem Ianzu, in qua est vnus locus fratrum nostrorum, et sunt in ea tres ecclesiæ Nestorianorum: haec ciuitas nobilis est, et magna, habens in se 48. Thuman ignium, et in ea omnia victualia, et animalia in magna copia, de quo Christiani viuunt: Dominus istius ciuitatis solum de sale habet in redditibus 50. Thuman Balisi, et valet balisus vnum florenum cum dimidio: Ita quod vnum Thuman facit 15. millia florenorum, vnam tamen gratiam facit dominus populo, quia dimittit ei, ne sit caristia in eo, 200. Thuman. Habet haec ciuitas consuetudinem, quod quando vnus vult facere conuiuium amicis suis, ad hoc sunt hospitia deputata, et vbi ille circuit per hospites, dicens sibi tales amicos meos habebis, quos festabis nomine meo, et tantum in festo volo expendere, et per illum modum meliùs conuiuant amici in pluribus hospitijs quam facerent in vno. [Sidenote: Montu.] Per 10. milliaria ab ista ciuitate in capite fluminis Thalay est vna ciuitas vocata Montu, quæ maius nauigium habet, quàm viderim in toto mundo; Et omnes naues ibi sunt albæ sicùt nix, et in ipsis sunt hospitia, et multa alia quæ nullus homo crederet nisi viderentur. De ciuitate Cambaleth. [Sidenote: Caramoran.] Indè transiui per 8. dietas per multas terras et ciuitates, et veni tandem per aquam dulcem ad quandam ciuitatem nomine Leneyn, quæ est posita super flumen vocatum Caramoran, quod per medium Catai transit, et magnum damnum sibi infert, quando erumpit. Indè transiens per flumen versus Orientem per multas dietas et ciuitates, veni ad vnam ciuitatem nomine Sumacoto, quæ maiorem copiam habet de serico, quàm aliqua ciuitas in mundo: Quando enim est maior caristia Serici, ibi 40. libræ habentur pro minori quàm pro 8. grossis. In ea est copia omnium mercimoniorum et omnium victualium, panis, vini, carnium, piscium, et omnium specierum electarum. [Sidenote: Cambalec.] Inde transiui versus Orientem per multas ciuitates, et veni ad illam nobilem, et nominatam Cambaleth quæ est ciuitas multum antiqua, et veni ad Catai, et eam ceperunt Tartari: Et iuxta eam ad dimidium miliare aliam ciuitatem fecerunt, quæ vocatur Caido et haec 12. portas habet, et semper inter vnam et aliam sunt duo miliaria, et medium inter illas ciuitates benè inhabitatur, ita quòd faciunt quasi vnam ciuitatem; Et ambitus istarum duarum ciuitatum est plusquàm 40. milliaria. [Sidenote: Mandeuil cap. 33.] In hac ciuitate magnus imperator Canis habet sedem suam principalem, et suum magnum palatium, cuius muri bene 4. miliaria continent; et infra illud palatium sunt multa alia palatia dominorum de familia sua. In palatio etiam illo est vnus mons pulcherrimus consitus arboribus, propter quod mons viridis nominatur, et in monte palatium amoenissimum in quo communitèr Canis residet: A latere autem montis est vnus lacus magnus, supra quem pons pulcherrimus est factus, et in illo lacu est magna copia anserum et anatum, et omnium auium aquaticarum; et in silua montis copia omnium auium et ferarum siluestrium, et ideo quando dominus Canis vult venari non oportet eum exire palatium suum. Palatium vero principale, in quo sedes sua est, est magnum valde, et habet interius 14. columnas aureas, et omnes muri eius cooperti sunt pellibus rubeis quæ dicuntur nobiliores pelles de mundo: Et in medio palatij est vna pigna altitudinis duorum passuum, quæ tota est de vno lapide pretioso nomine merdochas; et est tota circumligata auro, et in quolibet angulo eius est vnum serpens de auro qui verberatos fortissimé: Habet etiam haec pignaretia de margaritis, et per istam pignam defertur potus per meatus et conductus qui in curia regis habetur; et iuxta eam pendent multa vasa aurea cum quibus volentes bibere possunt. In hoc autem palatio sunt multi pauones de auro; et cùm aliquis Tartarus facit festum domino suo, tunc quando conuiuantes collidunt manus suas præ gaudio et læticia, pauones emittunt alas suas, et expandunt caudas, et videntur tripudiare; Et hoc credo factura arte Magica, vel aliqua cautela subterranea. De gloria magni Canis. Qvando autem magnus ille Imperator Canis in sede sua imperiali residet, tunc a sinistro latere sedet Regina, et per vnum gradum inferius duo mulieres quas ipse tenet pro se; quando non potest ad Reginam accedere: In infimo autem gradu resident omnes dominae de sua parentela. Omnes autem mulieres nuptæ portant supra caput suum vnum pedem hominis, longitudinis vnius brachij cum dimidio; et subter illum pedem sunt pennæ gruis, et totus ille pes ornatur maximis margaritis. A latero verò dextro ipsius Canis residet filius eius primogenitus, regnaturus post ipsum, et inferius ipso omnes qui sunt de sanguine regio: Ibi etiam sunt 4. scriptores scribentes omnia verba quæ dicit rex; Ante cuius conspectum sunt Barones sui, et multi alij nobiles cum sua gente maxima, quorum nullus audet loqui nisi a domino licentia petatur exceptis fatuis et histrionibus, qui suum dominum consolari habent; Illi etiam nihil audent facere, nisi secundum quod Dominus voluerit eis legem imponere. Ante portam palatij sunt Barones custodientes, ne aliquis limen portæ tangat. Cùm autem ille Canis voluerit facere conuiuium, habet secum 14000. Barones portantes circulos, et coronulas in capite, et domino suo seruientes; Et quilibet portat vnam vestem de auro et margaritis tot quot valent plus quam decies millies florenorum. Curia eius optime ordinatur per denarios, centenarios, et millenarios, et taliter quòd quilibet in suo ordine peragit officium sibi deputatum, nec aliquis defectus reperitur. Ego frater Odoricus fui ibi per tres annos, et multotiens in istis festis suis fui, quià nos fratres minores in sua curia habemus locum nobis deputatum, et oportet nos semper ire, et dare sibi nostram benedictionem: et inquisiui ab illis de curia, de numero illorum qui sunt in curia domini, et responderunt mihi quod de histrionibus sunt bene 18. Thuman; Custodes autem canum et bestiarum, et auium sunt. 15. Thuman; Medici vero pro corpore Regis sunt 400. Christiani autem 8. et vnus Saracenus. Et ego quando fui ibi, hij omnes omnia necessaria tam ad victum, quam ad vestitum habebant de Curia domini Canis. Quando autem vult equitare de vna terra ad aliam, habet 4. exercitus equitum, et vnus per vnam dietam ipsum antecedit, secundus aliam, et tertius similitèr, et quartus; ita quod semper ipse se tenet in medio in modum crucis; et ita omnes exercitus habent omnes dietas suas ordinatas, quod inueniunt omnia victualia parata sine defectu. Illémet autem dominus Canis per illum modum vadit; Sedet in curru cum duabus rotis in quo facta est pulcherrima sella tota de lignis Aloe, et auro ornata, et margaritis maximis, et lapidibus pretiosis; et 4. Elephantes bene ordinati ducunt istum currum, quos praecedunt 4. equi altissimi optime cooperti. Iuxta currum à lateribus sunt 4. Barones tenentes currum, ne aliquis appropinquet domino suo. Supra currum sedent duo Gerfalcones albissimi, et dùm videt aues quos vult capere, dimittit Falcones volare, et capiunt eas; Et sic habet solatium suum equitando, et per iactum vnius lapidis nullus audet appropinquare currui nisi populus assignatus: vnde incredibile esset homini qui non vidisset de numero gentis suæ, et reginæ, et primogeniei sui. Istæ Dominus Canis imperium suum diuisit in 12. partes, et vna habet sub se 200. magnarum ciuitatum: vnde ita latum et longum est suum imperium, quod ad quamcunque partem iret, satis haberes facere in sex mensibus, exceptis insulis, quæ sunt bene 5000. De hospitijs paratis per totum imperium pro transeuntibus. Iste Dominus, vt transeuntes habeant omnia necessaria sua per totum suum imperium, fecit hospitia praeparari vbique per vias; in quibus sunt omnia parata quæ ad victualia pertinent: Cum autem aliqua nouitas oritur in imperio suo, tunc si distat, ambassiatores super equos vel dromedarios festinant, et cùm lassantur in cursu, pulsant cornu, et proximum hospitium parat vnum similitèr, equum, qui quando alius venit fessus accipit literam, et currit ad hospitium, et sic per hospitia, et per diuersos cursores rumor per 30. dietas, vno die naturali venit ad imperatorem; et ideò nihil ponderis potest fieri in imperio suo, quin statim scitur ab eo. Cum autem ipse Canis vult ire venatum; istum modum habet. Extra Cambaleth ad 20. dietas, est vna foresta quæ 6. dietas continet in ambitu; in qua sunt tot genera animalium et auium quòd mirabile est dicere: Ad illud nemus vadit in fine trium annorum vel quatuor cum tota gente, cum qua ipsum circuit, et canes intrare permittit, qui animalia, scilicet leones, ceruos, et alia animalia reducunt ad vnam planitiem pulcherrimam in medio nemoris, quia ex clamoribus canum maximè tremunt omnes bestiæ syluæ. Tunc accedit magnus Canis super tres elephantes et 5. sagittas mittit in totam multitudinem animalium, et post ipsum omnes Barones, et post ipsos alij de familia sua emittunt sagittas suas; et omnes sagittæ sunt signatæ certis signis et diuersis: Tunc vadit ad animalia interfecta, dimittens viua nemus reintrare vt aliàs habeat ex eis venationem suam, et quilibet illud animal habebit in cuius corpere inuenit sagittam suam quam iaciebat. De quatuor festis quæ tenet in anno Canis in curia. Quatuor magna festa in anno facit Dominus Canis, scilicet festum natiuitatis, festum circumcisionis, coronationis, et desponsationis suæ; et ad ista festa conuocat omnes Barones, et histriones, et omnes de parentela sua. Tunc domino Cane in suo throno sedente, accedunt Barones cum circulis et coronis in capite, vestiti vario modo, quia aliqui de viridi, scilicet primi, secundi de sanguineo, et tertij de croceo, et tenent in manibus vnam tabulam eburneam de dentibus Elephantum, et cinguntur cingulis aureis vno semisse latis, et stant pedibus silentium tenentes. Circa illos stant histriones cum suis instrumentis: In vno autem angulo cuiusdam magni palatij resident Philosophi omnes ad certas horas, et puncta attendentes: et cum deuenitur ad punctumn et horam petitam à philosopho, vnus praeco clamat valentèr. Inclinetis vos omnes imperatori vestro: tunc omnes Barones cadunt ad terram; et iterum clamat, Surgite omnes, et illi statim surgunt. Iterum philosophi ad aliud punctum attendunt, et cùm peruentum fuerit, iterum praeco clamat; ponite digitum in aurem, et statim dicit, extrahite ipsum; iterùm ad aliud punctum clamat, Buratate farinam: et multa alia faciunt, quæ omnia dicunt certam signifcationem habere, quæ scriberi nolui, nec curaui, quia vana sunt et risu digna. Cùm autem peruentum fuerit ad horam histrionum, time Philosophi dicunt, facite festum domino, et omnes pulsant instrumenta sua, et faciunt maximum sonitum; et statim alius clamat; Taceant omnes, et omnes tacent: Tunc accedunt histrionatrices ante dominum dulcitèr modulantes, quod mihi plus placuit. Tunc veniunt leones, et faciunt reuerentiam domino Cani; Et tunc histriones faciunt ciphos aureos plenos vino volare per aerem, et ad ora hominum se applicare vt bibant. Haec et multa alia mirabilia in curia illius Canis vidi, quæ nullus crederet nisi videret; et ideò dimitto ea. De alio mirabili audiui à fide dignis, quòd in vno regno istius Canis in quo sunt montes Kapsei (et dicitur illud regnum Kalor) nascuntur pepones maximi, qui quando sunt maturi aperiuntur, et intùs inuenitur vna bestiola similis vni agnello: sicut audiui quòd in mari Hybernico stant arbores supra ripam maris et portant fructum sicut essent cucurbitæ, quæ certo tempore cadunt in aquam et fiunt aues vocatæ Bernakles, et illud est verum. De diuersis Prouincijs et ciuitatibus. De isto imperio Katay recessi post tres annos, et transiui 50. dietas versus Occidentem; et tandem veni ad terram Pretegoani, cuius ciuitas principalis Kosan vocatur, quæ multas habet sub se ciuitates. [Sidenote: Casan.] Vltra per multas dietas iui, et perueni ad vnam prouinciam vocatam Kasan; et haec est secunda melior prouincia mundi, vt dicitur, et est optimè habitata: Sic quod quando exitur à porta vnius ciuitatis, videntur portæ alterius ciuitatis, sicut egomet vidi de multis. Latitudo Prouinciæ est 50. dietarum, et longitudo plusquam 60. In ea est maxima copia omnium victualium, et maximè castaneorum; et haec est vna de 12. prouincijs magni Canis. [Sidenote: Tibec regio aliàs Tebet Guillielmo de Rubricis.] Vltra veni ad vnum regnum vocatum Tibek quod est subiectum Cani, in quo est maior copia panis et vini, quam sit in toto mundo vt credo. Gens illius terræ moratur communiter in tenorijs factis ex feltris nigris: Principalis ciuitas sua murata est pulcherrimè ex lapidibus albissimis, et nigerrimis interescalariter dispositis et curiosè compositis, et omnes viæ eius optimè pouatæ. In ista contrata nullus audet effundere sanguinem hominis, nec alicuius animalis, ob reuerentiam vnius Idoli. In ista ciuitate moratur Abassi i. Papa eorum, qui est caput et princeps omnium Idolatrarum; quibus dat et distribuit beneficia secundum morem eorum; sicut noster Papa Romanus est caput omnium Christianorum. Foeminæ in hoc regno portant plusquam centum tricas, et habent duos dentes in ore ita longos sicut apri. Quando etiam pater alicuius moritur, tunc filius conuocat omnes sacerdotes et histriones, et dicit se velle patrem suum honorare, et facit eum ad campum duci sequentibus parentibus omnibus, amicis, et vicinis, vbi sacerdotes cum magna solemnitate amputant caput suum, dantes illud filio suo, et tunc totum corpus in frusta concidunt, et ibi dimittunt, cum orationibus cum eo redeuntes; [Sidenote: Eadem historia de eodem populo apud Guilielmum de Rubricis.] Tunc veniunt vultures, de monte assuefacti ad huiusmodi, et carnes omnes asportant: Et ex tunc currit fama de eo quòd sanctus est, quia angeli domini ipsum portant in paradisum: Et iste est maximus honor, quem reputat filius posse fieri patri suo mortuo: Tunc filius sumit caput patris, et coquit ipsum, et comedit, de testa eius faciens ciphum in quo ipse cum omnibus de domo et cognatione eius bibunt cum solemnitate et laetitia in memoriam patris comesti. Et multa vilia et abominabilia facit gens illa quæ non scribo, quia non valent, nec homines crederent nisi viderent. De diuite qui pascitur à 50. Virginibus. Dum fui in prouincia Manzi transiui iuxta palatium vnius hominis popularis, qui habuit 50. domicellas virgines sibi continuè ministrantes, in omnibus pascentes eum sicut auis auiculas, et habet semper 5. fercula triplicata; et quando pascunt eum, continuè cantant dulcissimè: Iste habet in redditibus Tagaris risi 30. Thuman, quorum quodlibet decies millies facit: vnum autem Tagar pondus est asini. Palatium suum duo millaria tenet in ambitu; cuius pauimentum semper vnum laterem habet aureum, alium argenteum: Iuxta ambitum istius palatij est vnus monticulus artificialis de auro et argento, super quo stant Monasteria, et campanilia, et alia delectabilia pro solatio illius popularis; Et dictum fuit mihi, quòd quatuor tales homines sunt in regno illo. [Sidenote: Mulierum parui pedes.] Nobilitas virorum est longos habere vngues in digitis, praecipue pollicis quibus circueunt sibi manus: Nobilitas autem et pulchritudo mulierem est pauos habere pedes: Et ideò matres quando filiæ suæ sunt tenellæ ligant pedes earum, et non dimittunt crescere. [Sidenote: Milestorite.] Vltra transiens versus meridiem applicui ad quandam contratam, quæ vocatur Milestorite, quæ pulchra est valdè et fertilis: Et in ista contrata erat vnus vocatus Senex de monte, qui inter duos montes fecerat sibi vnum murum circumuentem istos montes. Infra istum murum erant fontes pulcherrimi de mundo; Et iuxta fontes erant pulcherrimæ virgines in maximo numero, et equi pulcherrimi, et omni illud quod ad suauitatem, et delectationem corporis fieri poterit, et ideo illum locum vocant homines illius contratæ Paradisum. Iste senex cùm viderit aliquem iuuenem formosum et robustum, posuit eum in illo paradiso; Per quosdam autem conductus descendere facit vinum et lac abundantèr. Iste Senex cùm voluerit se vindicare, vel interficere regem aliquem vel Baronem, dicit illi qui præerat illi paradiso vt aliquem de notis illius regis, vel Baronis introduceret in paradisum illum, et illum delicijs frui permitteret, et tunc daret sibi potionem vnam, quæ ipsum sopiebat in tantum, quòd insensibilem redderet, et ipsum sic dormientem faceret extra paradisum deportari: qui excitatus et se extra paradisum conspiciens, in tanta tristitia positus foret, quòd nesciret quid faceret: Tunc ad illum senem iret, rogans eum, vt interùm in paradisum introduceretur: qui sibi dicit, tu illic introduci non poteris, nisi talem vel talem interficias; et siue interfeceris, siue non, reponam te in paradiso, et ibidem poteris semper manere; Tunc ille sic faceret, et omnes seni odiosos interficeret; Et ideò omnes reges orientales illum senem timuerunt, et sibi tributum magnum dederunt. De morte Senis de monte. Cum autem Tartari magnam partem mundi cepissent, venerunt ad istum Senem, et dominium illius Paradisi ab eo abstulerunt, qui multos sicarios de Paradiso illo emisit, et nobiliores Tartarorum interfici fecit. Tartari autem hoc videntes ciuitatem, in qua erat senex obsederunt, eum ceperunt, et pessima morte interfecerunt. Hanc gratiam habent fratres ibidem, quod citissimè per virtutem nominis Christi Iesu, et in virtute illius sanguinis pretiosi, quem effudit in cruce pro salute generis humani, daemonia ab obsessis corporibus expellunt; et quia multi ibidem sum obsessi, ducuntur per decem dietas ad fratres ligati, qui liberati statim credunt in Christum, qui liberauit ebs habentes ipsum pro Deo suo, et baptizati sunt, et idola sua, et pecorum suorum statim dant fratribus, quæ sunt communitèr de feltro, et de crinibus mulierum et fratres ignem in communi loci faciunt ad quem populus confluit, vt videat Deos vicinorum suorum comburi et fratres coram populo Idola in ignem proijciunt; Et prima vice de igne exierunt; Tunc fratres ignem cum aqua benedicta conspercerunt, et interùm Idola in ignem proiecerunt, et daemones in effigie fumi nigerrimi fugerunt, et Idola remanserunt, et combusta sunt. Posteà auditor clamor per aerem talis, vide, vide, quo modo de habitatione mea expulsus sum. Et per istum modum fratres maximam multitudinem baptizant, qui citò recidiuant ad idola pecorum: qui fratres continuò quasi stent cum illis, et illos informent. Aliud terribile fuit quod ego vidi ibi. Nam cùm irem per vnam vallem quæ sita est iuxta fluuium deliciarum, multa corpora mortua vidi, et in illa valle audiui sonos musicos dulces et diuersos, et maximè de cytharis, vndè multum timui. Haec vallis habet longitudinem septem, vel octo milliarium ad plus, in quam si quis intrat, moritur, et nunquam viuus potest transire per medium illius vallis, et ideò omnes de contrata declinant à latere: Et tentatus eram intrare, et videre, quid hoc esset. Tandem oratis et Deo me recommendans, et cruce signans, in nomine Iesu intraui, et vidi tot corpora mortua ibi, quòd nullus crederet nisi videret In hac valle ab vno eius latere, in vno saxo vnam faciem hominis vidi, quæ ita terribilitèr me respexit, quòd omnino credidi ibi fuisse mortuus: Sed semper hoc verbum (verbum caro factum est et habitauit in nobis) protuli, et cruce me signaui, nec propiùs quàm per 7. passus, vel 8. accedere capiti ausus fui: Iui autem fugiens ad aliud caput vallis, et super vnum monticulum arenosum ascendi, in quo vndique circumspiciens nihil vidi nisi cytharas illas, quas per se (vt mihi videbatur) pulsari et resonare mirabiliter audiui. Cùm vero fui in cacumine montis, inueni ibi argentum in maxima quantitate, quasi fuissent squamæ piscium. Congregans autem inde in gremio meo pro mirabili ostendendo, sed ductus conscientia, in terram proieci, nihil mecum reseruans, et sic per gratiam Dei liber exiui. Cùm autem homines illius contratæ sciuerunt me viuum exisse, reuerebantur me multum, dicentes me baptizatum et sanctum: et corpora illa fuisse daemonum infernalium qui pulsant cytharas vt homines alliciant intare, et interficiant. Haec de visis certudinalitér ego frater Odoricus hic inscripsi; et multa mirabilia omisi ponere, quia homines hon credidissent nisi vidissent. De honore et reuerentia factis Domino Cani. Vnum tantùm referam de magno Cane quod vidi. Consuetudo est in partibus illis quòd quando praedictus dominus per aliquam contratam transit, homines ante ostia sua accendunt ignem et apponunt aromata, ac faciunt fumum, vt dominus transiens suauem sentiat adorem, et multi obuiam sibi vadunt. Dum autem semel veniret in Cambeleth, et fama vndique diuulgaretur de suo aduentu, vnus noster Episcopus, et aliqui nostri minores fratres et ego iuimus obuiàm sibi benè per duas dietas: Et dum appropinquaremus ad eum, posuimus crucem super lignum, et ego habebam mecum in manu thuribulum, et incepimus cantare alta voce dicentes: Veni creator spiritus: Et dum sic cantaremus audiuit voces, nostras, fecítque nos vocari, ac iussit nos ad eum accedere; cùm vt suprà dictum est, nullus audeat appropinquare currui suo ad iactum lapidis, nisi vocatus, exceptis illis qui currum custodiunt. Et dum iuissemus ad eum, ipse deposuit galerum suum, sine capellum inestimabilis quasi valoris, et fecit reuerentiam Cruci; et statim incensum posui in thuribulo; Episcopus noster accepit thuribulum, et thurificauit eum; ac sibi praedictus Episcopus dedit benedictionem suam. Accedentes verò ad praedictum dominum, sempèr sibi aliquid offerendum deferunt; secum illam antiquam legem obseruantes; Non apparebis in conspectu meo vacuus; Idcirco portauimus nobiscum poma, et ea sibi super vnum incisorium reuerentèr obtulimus; et ipse duo accepit, et de vno aliquantulum comedit: Et tunc fecit nobis signum quod recederemus, ne equi venientes in aliquo nos offenderent; statimque ab eo discessimus, atque diuertimus, et iuimus ad aliquos Barones per fratres nostri ordinis ad fidem conuersos, qui in exercitu eius erant, et eis obtulimus de pomis praedictis, qui cum maximo gaudio ipsa accipientes ita videbantur laetari, ac si praebuissemus eis familiaritèr magnum munus. Haec praedicta frater Guilelmus de Solangna in scriptis redegit, sicùt praedictus frater Odoricus ore tenus exprimebat. Anno Domini 1330, mense Maij in loco Sancti Antonij de Padua; Nec curauit de latino difficili, et stilo ornato; Sed sicut ipse narrabat ad hoc vt homines faciliùs intelligerent quæ dicuntur. Ego frater Odoricus de Foro Iulij de quadam terra quæ dicitur Portus Vahonis de ordine minorum testificor, et testimonium perhibeo reuerendo patri Guidoto ministro prouinciæ Sancti Antonij in Marchia Triuisana, cùm ab eo fuerim per obedientiam requisitus, quòd haec omnia quæ superiùs scripta sunt, aut proprijs oculis ego vidi, aut a fide dignis audiui: Communis etiam loquutio illarum terrarum illa quæ nec vidi testatur esse; Multa etiam alia ego dimisissem, nisi illa proprijs oculis conspexissem. Ego autem de die in diem me propono contratas seu terras accedere, in quibus mori, et viuere me dispono, si placuerit Deo meo. De morte fratris Odorici. Anno igitur Domini 1331. disponente se praedicto fratre Odorico ad perficiendum iter suæ peregrinationis, prout mente conceperat, et etiam vt via et labor esset sibi magnis ad meritum, decreuit primò praesentiam adire Domini et patris omnium summi Pontificis Domini Ioannis Papæ 22: cuius benedictione obedientiaque recepta cum societate fratrum secum ire volentium ad partes infidelium se transferret: Cùmque sic eundo versus summum Pontificem, non multum distaret à ciuitate Pisana, in quadam via occurrit sibi quidam senex in habitu peregrini eum salutans ex nomine, Aue (inquiens) frater Odorice: Et cùm frater quaereret quo modo ipsius haberet noticiam? Respondit, Dum eras in India noui te, tuùm qui noui sanctum propositum; Sed et tu modò ad conuentum vndè venisti reuertere, quia die sequenti decimo ex hoc mundo migrabis. Verbis igitur senis attonitus et stupefactus, praesertim cùm Senex ille statim post dictum ab eius aspectu disparuit; reuerti decreuit; Et reuersus est in bona prosperitate nullam sentiens grauedinem corporis, seu aliquam infirmitatem; Cùmque esset in conuentu suo Vtinensi. N. in prouincia Paduana decimo die, prout facti sibi fuir reuelatio, accepta communione, ipsoque ad Deum disponente, etiam corpore existens incolumis in Domino foeliciter requieuit: Cuius sacer obitus Domino summo Pontifici praefato sub manu Notarij publici transmittitur; qui sic scribet. Anno Domini 1331. decima quarta die mensis Ianuarij obijt in Christo Beatus Odoricus ordinis fratrum Minorum, cuius precibus omnipotens Deus multa, et varia miracula demonstrauit; quæ ego Guetelus notarius communis Vtini, filius domini Damiani de portu Gruario, de mandato et voluntate nobilis viri Domini Conradi de Buardigio Castaldionis, et consilij Vtini, scripsi, sicut potui, bona fide, et fratribus Minoribus exemplum dedi; sed non de omnibus, quià sunt innumerabilia, et mihi difficilia ad scribendum. The same in English. Here beginneth the iournall of Frier Odoricus, one of the order of the Minorites, concerning strange things which hee sawe among the Tarters of the East. Albeit many and sundry things are reported by diuers authors concerning the fashions and conditions of this world: notwithstanding I frier Odoricus of Friuli, de portu Vahonis being desirous to trauel vnto the foreign and remote nations of infidels, sawe and heard great and miraculous things, which I am able truely to auoch. [Sidenote: Pera. Trapesunda.] First of al therefore sayling from Pera by Constantinople, I arrived at Trapesunda. This place is right commodiously situate, as being an hauen for the Persians and Medes, and other countreis beyonde the sea. In this lande I behelde with great delight a very strange spectacle, namely a certaine man leading about with him more then foure thousande partriges. The man himselfe walked vpon the ground, and the partriges flew in the aire, which he ledde vnto a certaine castle called Zauena, being three dayes iourney distant from Trapesunda. The saide partriges were so tame, that when the man was desirous to lie downe and rest, they would all come flocking about him like chickens. And so hee led them vnto Trapesunda, and vnto the palace of the Emperour, who tooke as many of them as he pleased, and the rest the saide man carried vnto the place from whence he came. In this citie lyeth the body of Athanasius, vpon the gate of the citie. [Sidenote: The citie of Azaron in Armenia maior.] And then I passed on further vnto Armenia maior, to a certaine citie called Azaron, which had bene very rich in olde time, but nowe the Tarters haue almost layde it waste. In the saide citie there was abundance of bread and flesh, and of all other victuals except wine and fruites. This citie also is very colde, and is reported to be higher situated, then any other city in the world. It hath most holesome and sweete waters about it: for the veines of the said waters seeme to spring and flow from the mighty riuer of Euphrates, which is but a dayes iourney from the saide city. Also, the said citie stands directly in the way to Tauris. [Sidenote: Sobissacalo.] And I passed on vnto a certaine mountaine called Sobissacalo. In the foresaide countrey there is the very same mountalne whereupon the Arke of Noah rested: vnto the which I would willingly haue ascended, if my company would haue stayed for me. Howbeit the people of that countrey report, that no man could euer ascend the said mountaine, because (say they) it pleaseth not the highest God. [Sidenote: Tauris a citie of Persia.] And I trauailed on further vnto Tauris that great and royal city, which was in old time called Susis. This city is accompted for traffique of marchandize the chiefe city of the world: for there is no kinde of victuals, nor anything else belonging vnto marchandize, which is not to be had there in great abundance. This city stands very commodiously: for vnto it all the nations of the whole worlde in a maner may resort for traffique. Concerning the saide citie, the Christians in those parts are of opinion, that the Persian Emperour receiues more tribute out of it, then the King of France out of all his dominions. Neare vnto the said city there is a salt-hill yeelding salt vnto the city: and of that salt ech man may take what pleaseth him, not paying ought to any man therefore. In this city many Christians of all nations do inhabite, ouer whom the Saracens beare rule in alle things. Then I traueiled on further vnto a city called Soldania, [Marginal note: Or, Sultania.] wherein the Persian Emperour lieth all Sommer time: but in winter hee takes his progresse vnto another city standing upon the sea called Baku. [Marginal note: The Caspian sea.] Also the foresaid city is very great and colde, hauing good and holesome waters therein, vnto the which also store of marchandize is brought. Moreouer I trauelled with a certaine company of Carauans toward vpper India: and in the way, after many days iourney, I came vnto the citie of the three wise men called Cassan [Marginal Note: Or Cassibin.], which is a noble and renowmed city, sauing that the Tartars haue destroyed a great part thereof, and it aboundeth with bread, wine, and many other commodities. From this city vnto Ierusalem (whither the three foresaid wise-men were miraculously led) it is fiftie days iourney. There be many wonders in this citie also, which, for breuities sake, I omit [Sidenote: Geste.] From thence I departed vnto a certaine city called Geste, whence the Sea of Sand is distant, one dayes iourney, which is a most wonderful and dangerous thing. In this city there is abundance of all kinds of victuals, and especially of figs, reisins, and grapes; more (as I suppose) then in any part of the whole world besides. This is one of the three principall cities in all the Persian Empire. Of this city the Saracens report, that no Christian can by any meanes liue therein aboue a yeere. [Sidenote: Como.] Then passing many dayes ioumey on forward, I came vnto a certaine citie called Comum, which was an huge and mightie Citie in olde time, conteyning well nigh fiftie miles in circuite, and hath done in times past great damage vnto the Romanes. In it there are stately palaces altogether destitute of inhabitants, notwithstanding it aboundeth with great store of victuals. From hence traueiling through many countreys, at length I came vnto the land of Iob named Hus, which is fulle of all kinde of victuals, and very pleasantly situated. Thereabouts are certaine mountains hauing good pastures for cattell upon them. Here also Manna is found in great aboundance. Four partriges are here solde for lesse than a groat In this countrey there are most comely olde men. Here also the men spin and card, and not the women. This land bordereth vpon the North part of Chalddæa. Of the maners of the Chaldaeans, and of India. [Sidenote: The Tower of Babel.] From thence I traueled into Chaldæa which is a great kingdome, and I passed by the tower of Babel. This region hath a language peculiar vnto it selfe, and there are beautifull men, and deformed women. The men of the same countrey vse to haue their haire kempt, and trimmed like vnto our women: and they weare golden turbants vpon their heades richly set with pearle, and pretious stones. The women are clad in a coarse smock onely reaching to their knees, and hauing long sleeues hanging downe to the ground. And they goe bare-footed, wearing breeches which reach to the ground also. Thei weare no attire vpon their heads, but their haire hangs disheaueled about their eares: and there be many other strange things also. From thence I came into the lower India, which the Tartars ouerran and wasted. And in this countrey the people eat dates for the most part, whereof 42. li. are there sold for lesse than a groat. [Sidenote: Ormus.] I passed further also many dayes iourney vnto the Ocean sea, and the first land where I arriued, is called Ormes, being well fortified, and hauing great store of marchandize and treasure therein. Such and so extreme is the heat in that countrey, that the priuities of men come out of their bodies and hang down euen vnto their mid-legs. And therefore the inhabitants of the same place, to preserue their own liues, do make a certaine ointment, and anointing their priuie members therewith, do lap them up in certaine bags fastened vnto their bodies, for otherwise they must needs die. Here also they vse a kinde of Bark or shippe called Iase being compact together onely with hempe. [Sidenote: Thana, whereof Frederick Cæsar maketh mention.] And I went on bourd into one of them, wherein I could not finde any yron at all, and in the space of 28 dayes I arriued at the city of Thana, wherein foure of our friers were martyred for the faith of Christ. This countrey is well situate, hauing abundance of bread and wine, and of other victuals therein. This kingdome in olde time was very large and vnder the dominion of king Porus, who fought a great battell with Alexander the great. The people of this countrey are idolaters worshipping fire, serpents and trees. And ouer all this land the Saracen do beare rule, who tooke it by maine force, and they themselues are in subjection unto King Daldilus. There be diuers kinds of beasts, as namely blacke lyouns in great abundance, and apes also, and monkeis, and battes as bigge as our doues. Also there are mise as bigge as our countrey dogs, because cats are not able to incounter them. Moreouer in the same countrey euery man hath a bundle of great boughs standing in a water-pot before his doore, which bundle is as great as a pillar, and it will not wither, so long as water is applied thereunto: with many other nouelties and strange things, the relation whereof would breed great delight. How peper is had: and where it groweth. [Sidenote: Malabar.] Moreouer, that it may be manifest how peper is had, it is to be vnderstood that it groweth in a certaine kingdome whereat I my selfe arriued, being called Minibar, and it is not so plentifull in any other part of the worlde as it is there. For the wood wherein it growes conteineth in circuit 18 dayes iourney. And in the said wood or forrest there are two cities, one called Flandrina, and the other Cyncilim. In Flandrina both Iewes and Christians doe inhabite, betweene whom there is often contention and warre: howbeit the Christians ouercome the Iewes at all times. In the foresaid wood pepper is had after this maner: first it groweth in leaues like vnto pot-hearbs, which they plant neere vnto great trees as we do our vines, and they bring forth pepper in clusters, as our vines doe yeeld grapes, but being ripe, they are of a greene colour, and are gathered as we gather grapes, and then the graines are layed in the Sunne to be dried, and being dried are put into earthen vessels: and thus is pepper made and kept. Now, in the same wood there be many riuers, wherein are great store of Crocodiles, and of other serpents, which the inhabitants thereabout do burne vp with straw and with other dry fewel, and so they go to gather their pepper without danger. [Sidenote: Polumbrum.] At the South end of the said forrest stands the city of Polumbrum, which aboundeth with marchandize of all kinds. All the inhabitants of that countrey do worship a liuing oxe, as their god, whom they put to labour for sixe yeres, and in the seuenth yere they cause him to rest from al his worke, placing him in a solemne and publique place, and calling him an holy beast Moreouer they vse this foolish ceremonie: Euery morning they take two basons, either of siluer, or of gold, and with one they receiue the vrine of the oxe, and with the other his dung. With the vrine they wash their face, their eyes, and all their fiue senses. Of the dung they put into both their eyes, then they anoint the bals of the cheeks therewith, and thirdly their breast: and then they say that they are sanctified for all that day; And as the, people doe, euen so doe their King and Queene. This people worshippeth also a dead idole, which, from the nauel vpward, resembleth a man, and from the nauel downeward an oxe. The very same Idol deliuers oracles vnto them, and sometimes requireth the blood of fourtie virgins for his hire. And therefore the men of that region do consecrate their daughters and their sonnes vnto their idols, euen as Christians do their children vnto some Religion or Saint in heauen. Likewise they sacrifice their sonnes and their daughters, and so, much people is put to death before the said Idol by reason of that accursed ceremony. Also, many other hainous and abominable villanies doeth that brutish beastly people commit: and I sawe many moe strange things among them which I meane not here to insert. [Sidenote: The burning of their dead.] Another most vile custome the foresaide nation doeth retaine: for when any man dieth they burne his dead corps to ashes: and if his wife suruiueth him, her they burne quicke, because (say they) she shall accompany her husband in his tilthe and husbandry, when he is come into a new world. Howbeit the said wife hauing children by her husband, may if she will, remain with them, without shame or reproach; notwithstanding, for the most part, they all of them make choice to be burnt with their husbands. Now, albeit the wife dieth before her husband, that law bindeth not the husband to any such inconuenience, but he may mary another wife also. Likewise, the said nation hath another strange custome, in that their women drink wine, but their men do not. Also the Women haue the lids and brows of their eyes and beards shauen, but the men haue not: with many other base and filthy fashions which the said women do vse contrary to the nature of their sexe. [Sidenote: Mobar, or Maliapor.] From that kingdom I traueiled 10. daies iourney vnto another kingdome called Mobar, which containeth many cities. Within a certaine church of the same countrey, the body of S. Thomas the Apostle is interred, the very same church being full of idols: and in 15. houses round about the said Church, there dwell certaine priests who are Nestorians, that is to say, false, and bad Christians, and schismatiques. Of a strange and vncouth idole: and of certaine customes and ceremonies. In the said kingdome of Mobar there is a wonderfull strange idole, being made after the shape and resemblance of a man, as big as the image of our Christopher, et [sic passim--KTH] consisting all of most pure and glittering gold. And about the neck thereof hangeth a silke riband, ful of most rich and precious stones, some one of which is of more value then a whole kingdome. The house of this idol is all of beaten gold, namely the roofe, the pauement, and the sieling of the wall within and without. Vnto this idol the Indians go on pilgrimage, as we do vnto S. Peter. Some go with halters about their necks, some with their hands bound behind them, some others with kniues sticking on their armes or legs: and if after their peregrination, the flesh of their wounded arme festereth or corrupteth, they esteeme that limme to be holy, and thinke that their God is wel pleased with them. Neare vnto the temple of that idol is a lake made by the hands of men in an open et common place, whereinto the pilgrimes cast gold, siluer, and precious stones, for the honour of the idol and the repairing of his temple. And therefore when any thing is to be adorned or mended, they go vnto this lake taking vp the treasure which was cast in. Moreouer at euery yerely feast of the making or repairing of the said idol, the king and queene, with the whole multitude of the people, and all the pilgrimes assemble themselues, and placing the said idol in a most stately and rich chariot, they cary him out of their temple with songs, and with all kind of musical harmonie, and a great company of virgins go procession-wise two and two in a rank singing before him. Many pilgrims also put themselues vnder the chariot wheeles, to the end that their false god may go ouer them: and al they ouer whom the chariot runneth, are crushed in pieces, and diuided asunder in the midst, and slaine right out. Yea, and in doing this, they think themselues to die most holily and securely, in the seruice of their god. And by this meanes euery yere, there die vnder the said filthy idol, mo then 500. persons, whose carkases are burned, and their ashes are kept for reliques, because they died in that sort for their god. Moreouer they haue another detestable ceremony. For when any man offers to die in the seruice of his false god, his parents, and all his friends assemble themselues together with a consort of musicians, making him a great and solemne feast: which feast being ended, they hange 5. sharpe kniues about his neck carying him before the idol, and so soone as he is come thither, he taketh one of his kniues crying with a loud voice, For the worship of my god do I cut this my flesh, and then he casteth the morsel which is cut, at the face of his idol: but at the very last wound wherewith he murthereth himselfe, he vttereth these words: Now do I yeeld my self to death in the behalfe of my god, and being dead, his body is burned, and is esteemed by al men to be holy. The king of the said region is most rich in gold, siluer, and precious stones, and there be the fairest vnions in al the world. Traueling from thence by the Ocean sea 50. daies iourney southward, I came vnto a certain land named Lammori, [Marginal note: Perhaps he meaneth Comori.] where, in regard of extreeme heat, the people both men and women go stark-naked from top to toe: who seeing me apparelled scoffed at me, saying that God made Adam et Eue naked. In this countrey al women are common, so that no man can say, this is my wife. Also when any of the said women beareth a son or a daughter, she bestowes it vpon any one that hath lien with her, whom she pleaseth. Likewise al the land of that region is possessed in common, so that there is not mine and thine, or any propriety of possession in the diuision of lands: howbeit euery man hath is owne house peculiar vnto himselfe. Mans flesh, if it be fat, is eaten as ordinarily there, as beefe in our country. And albeit the people are most lewd, yet the country is exceedingly good, abounding with al commodities, as flesh, corne, rise, siluer, gold, wood of aloes, Campheir, and many other things. Marchants comming vnto this region for traffique do vsually bring with them fat men, selling them vnto the inhabitants as we sel hogs, who immediatly kil and eat them. [Sidenote: Sumatra.] In this island towards south, there is the another kingdome called Simoltra, where both men and women marke themselues with red-hot yron in 12. sundry spots of their faces: and this nation is at continual warre with certaine naked people in another region. [Sidenote: Iaffa.] Then I traueled further vnto another island called Iaua, the compasse whereof by sea is 3000. miles. The king of this Iland hath 7. other crowned kings vnder his iurisdiction. The said Island is throughly inhabited, and is thought to be one of the principall Ilands of the whole world. In the same Iland there groweth great plenty of cloues, cubibez, and nutmegs, and in a word all kinds of spices are there to be had, and great abundance of all victuals except wine. The king of the said land of Iaua hath a most braue and sumptuous pallace, the most loftily built, that euer I saw any, and it hath most high greeses and stayers to ascend vp to the roomes therein contained, one stayre being of siluer, and another of gold, throughout the whole building. Also the lower roomes were paued all ouer with one square plate of siluer, and another of gold. All the wals vpon the inner side were seeled ouer with plates of beaten gold, whereupon were engrauen the pictures of knights, hauing about their temples, ech of them a wreath of golde, adorned with precious stones. The roofe of the palace was of pure gold. With this king of Iaua the great Can of Catay hath had many conflictes in war: whom notwithstanding the said king hath alwayes ouercome and vanquished. Of certaine trees yeelding meale, hony, and poyson. Nere vnto the said Iland is another countrey called Panten, or Tathalamasin. And the king of the same country hath many Ilands vnder his dominion: In this land there are trees yeelding meale, hony, and wine, and the most deadly poison in all the whole world: for against it there is but one only remedy: and that is this: if any man hath taken of the poyson, and would be deliuered from the danger thereof, let him temper the dung of a man in water, and so drinke a good quantitie thereof, and it expels the poyson immediatly, making it to auoid at the fundament. Meale is produced out of the said trees after this maner. They be mighty huge trees, and when they are cut with an axe by the ground, there issueth out of the stocke a certain licour like vnto gumme, which they take and put into bags made of leaues, laying them for 15 daies together abroad in the sun, and at the end of those 15 dayes, when the said licour is throughly parched, it becommeth meale. Then they steepe it first in sea water, washing it afterward with fresh water, and so it is made very good and sauorie paste, whereof they make either meat or bread, as they thinke good. Of which bread I my selfe did eate, and it is fayrer without and somewhat browne within. [Sidenote: A sea running still Southward.] By this countrey is the sea called Mare mortuum, which runneth continually Southward, into the which whoseuer falleth is neuer seene after. In this countrey also are found canes of an incredible length, namely 60 paces high or more, and they are as bigge as trees. Other canes there be also called Cassan, which overspread the earth like grasse, and out of euery knot of them spring foorth certaine branches, which are continued vpon the ground almost for the space of a mile. In the sayd canes there are found certaine stones, one of which stones, whoseuer carryeth about with him, cannot be wounded with any yron: and therefore the men of that countrey for most part, carry such stones with them, whithersoeuer they goe. Many also cause one of the armes of their children, while they are yong, to be launced, putting one of the said stones in the wound, healing also, and closing vp the said wound with the powder of a certaine fish (the name whereof I do not know) which powder doth immediatly consolidate and cure the said wound. And by the vertue of these stones, the people aforesaid doe for the most part triumph both on sea and land. Howbeit there is one kind of stratageme, which the enemies of this nation, knowing the vertue of the sayd stones, doe practise against them: namely, they prouide themselues armour of yron or steele against their arrowes, and weapons also poisoned with the poyson of trees, and they carry in their hands wooden stakes most sharpe and hard-pointed, as if they were yron: likewise they shoot arrowes without yron heads, and so they confound and slay some of their vnarmed foes trusting too securely vnto the vertue of their stones. [Sidenote: Sayles made of reedes.] Also Of the foresayd canes called Cassan they make sayles for their ships, and litle houses, and many other necessaries. [Sidenote: Campa.] From thence after many dayes trauell, I arrived at another kingdome called Campa, a most beautiful and rich countrey, and abounding with all kind of victuals: the king whereof, at my being there, had so many wiues and concubines, that he had 300 sonnes and daughters by them. This king hath 10004 tame Elephants, which are kept euen as we keepe droues of oxen, or flocks of sheepe in pasture. Of the abundance of fishes, which cast themselues vpon the shore. In this countrey there is one strange thing to be obserued, that euery seueral kind of fishes in those seas come swimming towards the said countrey in such abundance, that, for a great distance into the sea, nothing can be seene but the backs of fishes: which, casting themselues vpon the shore when they come neare vnto it, do suffer men, for the space of 3. daies, to come and to take as many of them as they please, and then they returne againe vnto the sea. After that kind of fishes comes another kind, offering it selfe after the same maner, and so in like sort all other kinds whatsoeuer: notwithstanding they do this but once in a yere. And I demaunded of the inhabitants there, how, or by what meanes this strange accident could come to passe: They answered, that fishes were taught, euen by nature, to come and to do homage vnto their Emperour. [Sidenote: Tortoises.] There be Tortoises also as bigge as an ouen. Many other things I saw which are incredible, vnlesse a man should see them with his own eies. In this country also dead men are burned, and their wiues are burned aliue with them, as in the city of Polumbrum above mentioned: for the men of that country say that she goeth to accompany him in another world, that he should take none other wife in marriage. [Sidenote: Moumoran.] Moreouer I traueled on further by the ocean-sea towards the south, and passed through many countries and islands, whereof one is called Moumoran, and it containeth in compasse ii. M. miles, wherein men and women haue dog faces, and worship an oxe for their god: and therefore euery one of them cary the image of an oxe of gold or siluer vpon their foreheads. The men and the women of this country go all naked, sauing that they hang a linen cloth before their priuities. The men of the said country are very tall and mighty, and by reason that they goe naked, when they are to make battell, they cary yron or steele targets before them, which do couer and defend their bodies from top to toe: and whomsoeuer of their foes they take in battel not being able to ransom himselfe for money, they presently deuoure him: but if he be able to redeeme himselfe for money, they let him go free. Their king weareth about his necke 300. great and most beautifull vnions, and saith euery day 300. prayers vnto his god. He weareth vpon his finger also a stone of a span long which seemeth to be a flame of fire, and therefore when he weareth it, no man dare once approch vnto him: and they say that there is not any stone in the whole world of more value then it. Neither could at any time the great Tartarian Emperour of Katay either by force, money, or policie obtaine it at his hands: notwithstanding that he hath done the vtmost of his indeuour for this purpose. Of the Island of Sylan: and of the mountaine where Adam mourned for his sonne Abel. I passed also by another island called Sylan, which conteineth in compasse aboue ii. M. miles: wherein are an infinit number of serpents, and great store of lions, beares, and al kinds of rauening and wild beasts, and especially of elephants. In the said country there is an huge mountaine, whereupon the inhabitants of that region do report that Adam mourned for his son Abel the space of 500. yeres. In the midst of this mountain there is a most beautiful plain, wherin is a litle lake conteining great plenty of water, which water the inhabitants report to haue proceeded from the teares of Adam and Eue: howbeit I proued that to be false, because I saw the water flow in the lake. This water is ful of hors-leeches, and blood-suckers, and of precious stones also: which precious stones the king taketh not vnto his owne vse, but once or twise euery yere he permitteth certaine poore people to diue vnder the water for the said stones, and al that they can get he bestoweth vpon them, to the end they may pray for his soule. But that they may with lesse danger diue vnder the water, they take limons which they pil, anointing themselues throughly with the iuice therof, and so they may diue naked vnder the water, the hors-leeches not being able to hurt them. From this lake the water runneth euen vnto the sea, and at a low ebbe the inhabitants dig rubies, diamonds, pearls, and other pretious stones out of the shore: wherupon it is thought, that the king of this island hath greater abundance of pretious stones, then any other monarch in the whole earth besides. In the said country there be al kinds of beasts and foules: and the people told me, that those beasts would not inuade nor hurt any stranger, but only the natural inhabitants. I saw in this island fouls as big as our countrey geese, hauing two heads, and other miraculous things, which I will not here write off. Traueling on further toward the south, I arriued at a certain island called Bodin, [Marginal note: Or, Dadin.] which signifieth in our language vnclean. In this island there do inhabit most wicked persons, who deuour and eat raw flesh committing al kinds of vncleannes and abominations in such sort, as it is incredible. For the father eateth his son, and the son his father, the husbande his owne wife, and the wife her husband: and that after this maner. If any mans father be sick, the son straight goes vnto the soothsaying or prognosticating priest, requesting him to demand of his god, whether his father shall recouer of that infirmity of no: Then both of them go vnto an idol of gold or of siluer, making their praiers vnto it in maner folowing: Lord, thou art our God, and thee we do adore, beseeching thee to resolue vs, whether such a man must die, or recouer of such an infirmity or no: Then the diuel answereth out of the foresaid idol: if he saith (he shal liue) then returneth his son and ministreth things necessary vnto him, til he hath attained vnto his former health: but if he saith (he shal die) then goes the priest vnto him, and putting a cloth into his mouth doth strangle him therewith: which being done, he cuts his dead body into morsels, and al his friends and kinsfolks are inuited vnto the eating thereof, with musique and all kinde of mirth: howbeit his bones are solemnely buried. And when I found fault with that custome demanding a reason thereof, one of them gaue me this answer: this we doe, least the wormes should eat his flesh, for then his soule should suffer great torments, neither could I by any meanes remooue them from that errour. Many other nouelties and strange things there bee in this countrey, which no man would credite, vnles he saw them with his owne eyes. Howbeit, I (before almighty God) do here make relation of nothing but of that only, whereof I am as sure, as a man may be sure. Concerning the foresaid islands I inquired of diuers wel-experienced persons, who al of them, as it were with one consent, answered me saying, That this India contained 4400. islands vnder it, or within it: in which islands there are sixtie and foure crowned kings: and they say moreouer, that the greater part of those islands are wel inhabited. And here I conclude concerning that part of India. Of the vpper India: and of the prouince of Mancy. First of al therefore, hauing traueled many dayes iourney vpon the Ocean-sea toward the East, at length I arriued at a certaine great prouince called Mancy, being in Latine named India. Concerning this India I inquired of Christians, of Saracens, and of Idolaters, and of al such as bare any office vnder the great Can. Who all of them with one consent answered, that this prouince of Mancy hath mo then 2000. great cities within the precincts thereof, and that it aboundeth with all plenty of victuals, as namely with bread, wine, rise, flesh, and fish. All the men of this prouince be artificers and marchants, who, though they be in neuer so extreme penurie, so long as they can helpe themselues by the labor of their hands, wil neuer beg almes of any man. The men of this prouince are of a faire and comely personage, but somewhat pale, hauing their heads shauen but a litle: but the women are the most beautiful vnder the sunne. The first city of the said India which I came vnto, is called Ceuskalon, [Marginal note: Or, Ceuskala.] which being a daies iourney distant from the sea, stands vpon a riuer, the water whereof, nere vnto the mouth, where it exonerateth it selfe into the sea, doth ouerflow the land for the space of 12. daies iourney. All the inhabitants of this India are worshippers of idols. The foresaid city of Ceuskalon hath such an huge nauy belonging thereunto, that no man would beleeue it vnlesse he should see it. In this city I saw 300. li. of good and new ginger sold for lesse than a groat. There are the greatest, and the fairest geese, and most plenty of them to be sold in al the whole world, as I suppose: [Sidenote: He meaneth Pellicans, which the Spaniards cal Alcatrarzi.] they are as white as milke, and haue a bone vpon the crowne of their heads as bigge as an egge, being of the colour of blood: vnder their throat they haue a skin or bag hanging downe halfe a foot. They are exceeding fat and wel sold. Also they haue ducks and hens in that country, one as big as two of ours. There be monstrous great serpents likewise, which are taken by the inhabitants and eaten: whereupon a solemne feast among them without serpents is not set by: and to be briefe, in this city there are al kinds of victuals in great abundance. From thence I passed by many cities, and at length I came vnto a city named Caitan, [Marginal note: Or, Zaiton.] wherin the friers Minorites haue two places of aboad, vnto the which I transported the bones of the dead friers, which suffred martyrdom for the faith of Christ, as it is aboue mentioned. In this city there is abundance of al kind of victuals very cheap. The said city is as big as two of Bononia, and in it are many monasteries of religious persons, al which do worship idols. I my selfe was in one of those Monasteries, and it was told me, that there were in it iii. M. religious men, hauing xi. M. idols: and one of the said idols which seemed vnto me but litle in regard of the rest, was as big as our Christopher. These religious men euery day do feed their idol-gods: wherupon at a certeine time I went to behold the banquet: and indeed those things which they brought vnto them were good to eat, and fuming hote, insomuch that the steame of the smoke thereof ascended vp vnto their idols, and they said that their gods were refreshed with the smoke: howbeit all the meat they conueyed away, eating it vp their owne selues, and so they fed their dumb gods with the smoke onely. Of the citie Fuco. Traueling more eastward, I came vnto a city named Fuco, which conteineth 30. miles in circuit, wherin be exceeding great and faire cocks, and al their hens are as white as the very snow, hauing wol in stead of feathers, like vnto sheep. It is a most stately and beautiful city, and standeth vpon the sea. Then I went 18. dates iourney on further, and passed by many prouinces and cities, and in the way I went ouer a certain great mountaine, vpon the one side whereof I beheld al liuing creatures to be as black as a cole, and the men and women on that side differed somwhat in maner of liuing from others: howbeit, on the other side of the said hil euery liuing thing was snow-white, and the inhabitants in their maner of liuing, were altogether vnlike vnto others. There, all maried women cary in token that they haue husbands, a great trunke of horne vpon their heads. [Sidenote: A great riuer.] From thence I trauelled 18. dayes journey further, and came vnto a certaine great riuer, and entered also into a city, whereunto belongeth a mighty bridge, to passe the said riuer. And mine hoste, with whom I soiourned, being desirous to shew me some sport, said vnto me: Sir, if you will see any fish taken, goe with me. [Sidenote: Foules catching fish.] Then he led me vnto the foresaid bridge, carying in his armes with him certaine diue-doppers or water-foules, bound vnto a company of poles, and about euery one of their necks he tied a threed, lest they should eat the fish as fast as they tooke them: and he carried 3. great baskets with him also: then loosed he the diue doppers from the poles, which presently went into the water, and within lesse then the space of one houre, caught as many fishes as filled the 3. baskets: which being full, mine hoste vntyed the threeds from about their neckes, and entering the second time into the riuer they fed themselues with fish, and being satisfied they returned and suffered themselues to be bound vnto the saide poles as they were before. And when I did eate of those fishes, me thought they were exceeding good. Trauailing thence many dayes iourneys, at length I arriued at another city called Canasia, [Marginal note: Or Cansai, or Quinzai.] which signifieth in our language, the city of heauen. Neuer in all my life did I see so great a citie; for it conteineth in circuit an hundreth miles: neither sawe I any plot thereof, which was not throughly inhabited: yea, I sawe many houses of tenne or twelue stories high, one aboue another. It hath mightie large suburbs containing more people than the city it selfe. Also it hath twelue principall gates: and about the distance of eight miles, in the high way vnto euery one of the saide gates standeth a city as big by estimation as Venice, and Padua. The foresaid city of Canasia is situated in waters or marshes, which alwayes stand still, neither ebbing nor flowing: howbeit it hath a defence for the winde like vnto Venice. In this city there are mo than 10002. bridges, many whereof I numbred and passed ouer them: [Sidenote: The Italian copy in Ramusius, hath 11000. bridges.] and vpon euery of those bridges stand certaine watchmen of the citie, keeping continuall watch and ward about the said city, for the great Can the Emperour of Catay. The people of this countrey say, that they haue one duetie inioyned vnto them by their lord: for euery fire payeth one Balis in regard of tribute: and a Balis is fiue papers or pieces of silke, which are worth one floren and an halfe of our coine. Tenne or twelue housholds are accompted for one fire, and so pay tribute but for one fire onely. Al those tributary fires amount vnto the number of 85. Thuman, with other foure Thuman of the Saracens, which make 89. in al; And one Thuman consisteth of 10000. fires. The residue of the people of the city are some of them Christians, some marchants, and some traueilers through the countrey: whereupon I marueiled much howe such an infinite number of persons could inhabite and liue together. There is great aboundance of victuals in this citie, as namely of bread and wine, and especially of hogs-flesh, with other necessaries. Of a Monastery where many strange beastes of diuers kindes doe liue vpon an hill. In the foresaide citie foure of our friers had conuerted a mighty and riche man vnto the faith of Christ, at whose house I continually abode, for so long time as I remained in the citie. Who vpon a certaine time saide vnto me: Ara, that is to say, Father, will you goe and beholde the citie? And I said, yea. Then embarqued we our selues, and directed our course vnto a certaine great Monastery: where being arrived, he called a religious person with whom he was acquainted, saying vnto him concerning me: this Raban Francus, that is to say, this religious Frenchman commeth from the Westerne parts of the world, and is now going to the city of Cambaleth to pray for the life of the great Can, and therefore you must shew him some rare thing, that when hee returnes into his owne countrey, he may say, this strange sight or nouelty haue I seene in the city of Canasia. Then the said religious man tooke two great baskets full of broken reliques which remained of the table, and led me vnto a little walled parke, the doore whereof he vnlocked with his key, and there appeared vnto vs a pleasant faire green plot, into the which we entred. In the said greene stands a litle mount in forme of a steeple, replenished with fragrant herbes and fine shady trees. And while we stood there, he tooke a cymball or bell, and rang therewith, as they vse to ring to dinner or beuoir in cloisters, at the sound whereof many creatures of diuers kinds came downe from the mount, some like apes, some like cats, some like monkeys and some hauing faces like men. And while I stood beholding of them, they gathered themselues together about him, to the number of 4200. of those creatures, putting themselues in good order, before whom he set a platter, and gaue them the said fragments to eate. And when they had eaten he rang vpon his cymbal the second time, and they al returned vnto their former places. Then, wondring greatly at the matter, I demanded what kind of creatures those might be? They are (quoth he) the soules of noble men which we do here feed, for the loue of God who gouerneth the world: and as a man was honorable or noble in this life, so his soule after death, entreth into the body of some excellent beast or other, but the soules of simple and rusticall people do possesse the bodies of more vile and brutish creatures. Then I began to refute that foule error: howbeit my speach did nothing at all preuaile with him: for he could not be perswaded that any soule might remaine without a body. [Sidenote: Chilenso.] From thence I departed vhto a certaine citie named Chilenso, the walls whereof conteined 40. miles in circuit. In this city there are 360. bridges of stone, the fairest that euer I saw: and it is wel inhabited, hauing a great nauie belonging thereunto, and abounding with all kinds of victuals and other commodities. [Sidenote: Thalay.] And thence I went vnto a certaine riuer called Thalay, which where it is most narrow, is 7. miles broad: [Sidenote: Cakam.] and it runneth through the midst of the land of Pygmæi, whose chiefe city is called Cakam, and is one of the goodliest cities in the world. These Pigmæans are three of my spans high, and they make larger and better cloth of cotten and silke, then any other nation vnder the sunne. [Sidenote: Ianzu.] And coasting along by the saide riuer, I came vnto a certaine citie named Ianzu, in which citie there is one receptacle for the Friers of our order, and there be also three Churches of the Nestorians. This Ianzu is a noble and great citie, containing 48 Thuman of tributarie fiers, and in it are all kindes of victuals, and great plenty of such beastes, foules and fishes, as Christians doe vsually liue vpon. The lord of the same citie hath in yeerely reuenues for salt onely, fiftie Thuman of balis, and one balis is worth a floren and a halfe of our coyne: insomuch that one Thuman of balis amounteth vnto the value of fifteene thousand florens. Howbeit the sayd lord fauoureth his people in one respect, for sometimes he forgiueth them freely two hundred Thuman, least there should be any scarcity or dearth among them. There is a custome in this citie, that when any man is determined to banquet his friends, going about vnto certaine tauernes or cookes houses appointed for the same purpose, he sayth vnto euery particular hoste, you shall haue such, and such of my friendes, whom you must intertaine in my name, and so much I will bestowe vpon the banquet. And by that means his friendes are better feasted at diuerse places, then they should haue beene at one. Tenne miles from the sayde citie, about the head of the foresayd riuer of Thalay, there is a certaine other citie called Montu, which hath the greatest nauy that I saw in the whole world. All their ships are as white as snow, and they haue banqueting houses in them, and many other rare things also, which no man would beleeue, vnlesse he had seene them with his owne eyes. Of the citie of Cambaleth. [Sidenote: Karamoron.] Traueiling eight dayes iourney further by diuers territories and cities, at length I came by fresh water vnto a certaine citie named Lencyn, standing vpon the riuer of Karauoran, which runneth through the midst of Cataie, and doeth great harme in the countrey when it ouerfloweth the bankes, or breaketh foorth of the chanell. [Sidenote: Sumacoto.] From thence passing along the riuer Eastward, after many dayes trauell, and the sight of the diuers cities, I arriued at a citie called Sumakoto, which aboundeth more with silke then any other citie in the world: for when there is great scarcitie of silke, fortie pound is sold for lesse then eight groates. In this citie there is abundance of all merchandize, and all kindes of victuals also, as of bread, wine, flesh, fish, with all choise and delicate spices. Then traueiling on still towards the East by many cities, I came vnto the noble and renowmed citie of Cambaleth, which is of great antiquitie being situate in the prouince of Cataie. This citie the Tartars tooke, and neare vnto it within the space of halfe a mile, they built another citie called Caido. The citie of Caido hath twelue gates, being each of them two miles distant from another. Also the space lying in the midst betweene the two foresayd cities is very well and throughly inhabited, so that they make as it were but one citie betweene them both. The whole compasse or circuit of both cities together, is 40. miles. In this citie the great emperour Can hath his principall seat, and his Imperiall palace, the wals of which palace containe foure miles in circuit: and neere vnto this his palace are many other palaces and houses, of his nobles which belong vnto his court. Within the precincts of the sayd palace Imperiall, there is a most beautiful mount, set and replenished with trees, for which cause it is called the Greene mount, hauing a most royall and sumptuous palace standing thereupon, in which, for the most part, the great Can is resident. Vpon the one side of the sayd mount there is a great lake, whereupon a most stately bridge is built, in which lake is great abundance of geese, ducks, and all kindes of water foules: and in the wood growing vpon the mount there is great store of all birds, and wilde beasts. And therefore when the great Can will solace himselfe with hunting or hauking, he needs not so much as once to step forth of his palace. Moreouer, the principall palace, wherein he maketh his abode, is very large, hauing within it 14 pillers of golde, and all the walles thereof are hanged with red skinnes, which are sayd to be the most costly skinnes in all the world. In the midst of the palace standes a cisterne of two yards high, which consisteth of a precious stone called Merdochas, and is wreathed about with golde, and at ech corner thereof is the golden image of a serpent, as it were, furiously shaking and casting forth his head. This cisterne also hath a kind of networke of pearle wrought about it. Likewise by the sayd cisterne there is drinke conueyed thorow certeine pipes and conducts, such as vseth to be drunke in the emperors court, vpon the which also there hang many vessels of golde, wherein, whosoeuer will may drinke of the sayd licour. In the foresayd palace there are many peacocks of golde: and when any Tartar maketh a banquet vnto his lord, if the guests chance to clap their hands for ioy and mirth, the sayd golden peacocks also will spread abroad their wings, and lift vp their traines, seeming as if they danced: and this I suppose to be done by arte magike or by some secret engine vnder the ground. Of the glory and magnificence of the great Can. Moreouer, when the great emperor Can sitteth in his imperiall throne of estate, on his left hand sitteth his queene or empresse, and vpon another inferior seate there sit two other women, which are to accompany the emperor, when his spouse is absent, but in the lowest place of all, there sit all the ladies of his kindred. All the maried women weare vpon their heads a kind of ornament in shape like vnto a mans foote, of a cubite and a halfe in length, and the lower part of the sayd foote is adorned with cranes feathers, and is all ouer thicke set with great and orient pearles. Vpon the right hand of the great Can sitteth his first begotten sonne and heire apparent vnto his empire, and vnder him sit all the nobles of the blood royall. There bee also foure Secretaries, which put all things in writing that the emperor speaketh. In whose presence likewise stand his Barons and diuers others of his nobilitie, with great traines of folowers after them, of whom none dare speake so much as one word, vnlease they haue obtained licence of the emperor so to doe, except his iesters and stage-players, who are appointed of purpose to solace their lord. Neither yet dare they attempt to doe ought, but onely according to the pleasure of their emperor, and as hee inioineth them by lawe. About the palace gate stand certaine Barons to keepe all men from treading vpon the threshold of the sayd gate. When it pleassth the great Can to solemnize a feast, he hath about him 14000. Barons, carying wreathes and litle crownes vpon their heads, and giuing attendance vpon their lord, and euery one of them weareth a garment of gold and precious stones, which is woorth ten thousand Florens. His court is kept in very good order, by gouernours of tens, gouernours of hundreds, and gouernours of thousands, insomuch that euery one in his place performeth his duetie committed vnto him, neither is there any defect to bee found. I Frier Odoricus was there present in person for the space of three yeeres, and was often at the sayd banquets; for we friers Minorites haue a place of aboad appointed out for vs in the emperors court, and are enioined to goe and to bestow our blessing vpon him. And I enquired of certaine Courtiers concerning the number of persons pertaining to the emperors court? And they answered mee that of stage-players, musicians, and such like, there were eighteene Thuman at the least, and that the keepers of dogs, beasts and foules were fifteene Thuman, and the physicians for the emperours body were foure hundred; the Christians also were eight in number, together with one Saracen. At my being there, all the foresayd number of persons had all kind of necessaries both for apparell and victuals out of the emperors court. Moreouer, when he will make his progresse from one countrey to another, hee hath foure troupes of horsemen, one being appointed to goe a dayes iourney before, and another to come a dayes iourney after him, the third to march on his right hand, and the fourth on his left, in the manner of a crosse, he himselfe being in the midst, and so euery particular troupe haue their daily iourneys limited vnto them, to the ende they may prouide sufficient victuals without defect. Nowe the great Can himselfe is caried in maner following; hee rideth in a chariot with two wheeles, vpon which a maiesticall throne is built of the wood of Aloe, being adorned with gold and great pearles, and precious stones, and foure elephants brauely furnished doe drawe the sayd chariot, before which elephants, foure great horses richly trapped and couered doe lead the way. Hard by the chariot on both sides thereof, are foure Barons laying hold and attending thereupon, to keepe all persons from approaching neere vnto their emperour. Vpon the chariot also two milke-white Ier-falcons doe sit, and seeing any game which hee would take, hee letteth them flie, and so they take it, and after this maner doeth hee solace himselfe as hee rideth. Moreover, no man dare come within a stones cast of the chariot, but such as are appointed. The number of his owne followers, of his wiues attendants, and of the traine of his first begotten sonne and heire apparent, would seeme incredible vnto any man, vnlesse hee had seene it with his owne eyes. The foresayd great Can hath diuided his Empire into twelue partes or Prouinces, and one of the sayd prouinces hath two thousand great cities within the precincts thereof. Whereupon his empire is of that length and breadth, that vnto whatsoeuer part thereof he intendeth his iourny, he hath space enough for six moneths continual progresse, except his Islands which are at the least 5000. Of certaine Innes or hospitals appointed for trauailers throughout the whole empire. The foresayd Emperor (to the end that trauailers may haue all things necessary throughout his whole empire) hath caused certaine Innes to be prouided in sundry places vpon the high wayes, where all things pertaining vnto victuals are in a continuall readinesse. And when any alteration or newes happen in any part of his Empire, if he chance to be farre absent from that part, his ambassadors vpon horses or dromedaries ride post vnto him, and when themselues and their beasts are weary, they blow their horne, at the noise whereof, the next Inne likewise prouideth a horse and a man, who takes the letter of him that is weary and runneth vnto another Inne: and so by diuers Innes, and diuers postes, the report, which ordinarily could skarce come in 30. dayes, is in one naturall day brought vnto the emperor: and therefore no matter of any moment can be done in his empire, but straightway he hath intelligence thereof. Moreouer, when the great Can himselfe will go on hunting, he vseth this custome. Some twenty dayes iourney from the citie of Kambaleth there is a forrest containing sixe dayes iourney in circuit, in which forrest there are so many kinds of beasts and birds, as it is incredible to report. Vnto this forrest, at the ende of euery third or fourth yere, himselfe with his whole traine resorteth, and they all of them together enuiron the sayd forrest, sending dogs into the same, which by hunting do bring foorth the beasts: namely, lions and stags, and other creatures, vnto a most beautifull plaine in the midst of the forrest, because all the beasts of the forrest doe tremble, especially at the cry of hounds. Then commeth the great Can himselfe, being caried vpon three elephants, and shooteth fine arrowes into the whole herd of beasts, and after him all his Barons, and after them the rest of his courtiers and family doe all in like maner discharge their arrowes also, and euery mans arrow hath a sundry marke. Then they all goe vnto the beasts which are slaine (suffering the liuing beasts to returne into the wood that they may haue more sport with them another time) and euery man enjoyeth that beast as his owne, wherein he findeth his arrow sticking. Of the foure feasts which the great Can solemnizeth euery yeere in his Court. Foure great feasts in a yeere doeth the emperor Can celebrate: namely the feast of his birth, the feast of his circumcision, the feast of his coronation, and the feast of his mariage. And vnto these feasts he inuiteth all his Barons, his stage-players, and all such as are of his kinred. Then the great Can sitting in his throne, all his Barons present themselues before him, with wreaths and crownes vpon their heads, being diuersly attired, for some of them are in greene, namely the principall: the second are in red, and the third in yellow, and they hold each man in his hand a little Iuorie table of elephants tooth, and they are girt with golden girdles of halfe a foote broad, and they stand vpon their feete keeping silence. About them stand the stage-players or musicians with their instruments. And in one of the corners of a certaine great pallace, all the Philosophers or Magicians remaine for certaine howers, and doe attend vpon points or characters: and when the point and hower which the sayd Philosophers expected for, is come, a certaine crier crieth out with a loud voyce, saying, Incline or bowe your selues before your Emperour: with that all the Barons fall flat vpon the earth. Then hee crieth out againe; Arise all, and immediately they all arise. Likewise the Philosophers attend vpon a point or character the second time, and when it is fulfilled, the crier crieth out amaine; Put your fingers in your eares: and foorthwith againe he saieth; Plucke them out. Againe, at the third point he crieth, Boult this meale. Many other circumstances also doe they performe, all which they say haue some certaine signification: howbeit, neither would I write them, nor giue any heed vnto them, because they are vaine and ridiculous. And when the musicians hower is come, then the Philosophers say, Solemnize a feast vnto your Lord: with that all of them sound their instruments, making a great and a melodious noyse. And immediately another crieth, Peace, peace, and they are all whist. Then come the women-musicians and sing sweetly before the Emperour, which musike was more delightfull vnto me. After them come in the lions and doe their obeisance vnto the great Can. Then the iuglers cause golden cups full of wine to flie vp and downe in the ayre, and to apply themselues vnto mens mouthes that they may drinke of them. These and many other strange things I sawe in the court of the great Can, which no man would beleeue vnlesse he had seen with his owne eies, and therefore I omit to speake of them. [Sidenote: A lambe in a gourd.] I was informed also by certaine credible persons, of another miraculous thing, namely, that in a certaine kingdome of the sayd Can, wherein stand the mountains called Kapsei (the kingdomes name is Kalor) there grewe great Gourds or Pompions, which being ripe, doe open at the tops, and within them is found a little beast like vnto a yong lambe, euen as I my selfe haue heard reported, that there stand certaine trees vpon the shore of the Irish sea, bearing fruit like vnto a gourd, which, at a certaine time of the yeere doe fall into the water, and become birds called Bernacles, and this is most true. [Footnote: This report is first found in the writings of Giraldus Cambreusis, tutor to King John.] Of diuers prouinces and cities. And after three yeeres I departed out of the empire of Cataie, trauailing fiftie dayes iourney towards the West. [Sidenote: His returne Westward.] And at length I came vnto the empire of Pretegoani, whose principall citie is Kosan, which hath many other cities vnder it. [Sidenote: Casan] From thence passing many dayes trauell, I came vnto a prouince called Casan, which is for good commodities, one of the onely prouinces vnder the Sunne, and is very well inhabited, insomuch that when we depart out of the gates of one city we may beholde the gates of another city, as I my selfe saw in diuers of them. The breadth of the sayd prouince is fifty dayes iourney, and the length aboue sixty. In it there is great plenty of all victuals, and especially of chesnuts, and it is one of the twelue prouinces of the great Can. Going on further, I came vnto a certaine kingdome called Tebek, [Marginal note: Or Thebet.] which is in subiection vnto the great Can also, wherein I thinke there is more plenty of bread and wine then in any other part of the whole world besides. The people of the sayd countrey do, for the most part, inhabit in tents made of blacke felt. Their principall city is inuironed with faire and beautifull walles, being built of most white and blacke stones, which are disposed chekerwise one by another, and curiously compiled together: likewise all the high wayes in this countrey are exceedingly well paued. In the sayd countrey none dare shed the bloud of a man, or of any beast, for the reuerence of a certaine idole. In the foresayd city their Abassi, that is to say, their Pope is resident, being the head and prince of all idolaters (vpon whom he bestoweth and distributeth gifts after his maner) euen as our pope of Rome accounts himselfe to be the head of all Christians. The women of this countrey weare aboue an hundreth tricks and trifles about them, and they haue two teeth in their mouthes as long as the tushes of a boare. When any mans father deceaseth among them, his sonne assembleth together all the priests and musicians that he can get, saying that he is determined to honour his father: then causeth he him to be caried into the field (all his kinsfolks, friends, and neighbours, accompanying him in the sayd action) where the priests with great solemnity cut off the father's head, giuing it vnto his sonne, which being done, they diuide the whole body into morsels, and so leaue it behinde them, returning home with prayers in the company of the sayd sonne. So soone as they are departed, certaine vultures, which are accustomed to such bankets, come flying from the mountaines, and cary away all the sayd morsels of flesh: and from thenceforth a fame is spread abroad, that the sayd party deceased was holy, because the angels of God carried him into paradise. And this is the greatest and highest honour, that the sonne can deuise to performe vnto his deceased father. [Sidenote: The same story concerning the very same people is in William de Rubricis.] Then the sayd sonne taketh his fathers head, seething it and eating the flesh thereof, but of the skull he makes a drinking cup, wherein himselfe with all his family and kindred do drinke with great solemnity and mirth, in the remembrance of his dead and deuoured father. Many other vile and abominable things doth the said nation commit, which I meane not to write, because men neither can nor will beleeue, except they should haue the sight of them. Of a certaine rich man, who is fed and nourished by fiftie virgins. While I was in the prouince of Mancy, I passed by the palace of a certaine famous man, which hath fifty virgin damosels continually attending vpon him, feeding him euery meale, as a bird feeds her yoong ones. Also he hath sundry kindes of meat serued in at his table, and three dishes of ech kinde; and when the sayd virgins feed him, they sing most sweetly. This man hath in yeerely reuenues thirty thuman of tagars of rise, euery of which thuman yeeldeth tenne thousand tagars, and one tagar is the burthen of an asse. His palace is two miles in circuit, the pauement whereof is one plate of golde, and another of siluer. Neere vnto the wall of the sayd palace there is a mount artificially wrought with golde and siluer, whereupon stand turrets and steeples and other delectable things for the solace and recreation of the foresayd great man. And it was tolde me that there were foure such men in the sayd kingdome. [Sidenote: Long nailes.] It is accounted a great grace for the men of that countrey to haue long nailes vpon their fingers, and especially vpon their thumbes which nailes they may fold about their hands: but the grace and beauty of their women is to haue small and slender feet: and therefore the mothers when their daughters are yoong, do binde vp their feet, that they may not grow great. [Sidenote: Melistorte.] Trauelling on further towards the South, I arriued at a certaine countrey called Melistorte, which is a pleasant and fertile place. And in this countrey there was a certeine man called Senex de monte, who round about two mountaines had built a wall to inclose the sayd mountaines. Within this wall there were the fairest and most chrystall fountaines in the whole world: and about the sayd fountaines there were most beautifull virgins in great number, and goodly horses also, and in a word, euery thing that could be deuised for bodily solace and delight, and therefore the inhabitants of the countrey call the same place by the name of Paradise. The sayd olde Senex, when he saw any proper and valiant yoong man, he would admit him into his paradise. Moreouer, by certaine conducts he makes, wine and milke to flow abundantly. This Senex, when he hath a minde to reuenge himselfe or to slay any king or baron, commandeth him that is gouernor of the sayd paradise, to bring thereunto some of the acquaintance of the sayd king or baron, permitting him a while to take his pleasure therein, and then to giue him a certaine potion being of force, to cast him into such a slumber as should make him quite voide of all sense, and so being in a profound sleepe to conuey him out of his paradise: who being awaked, and seeing himselfe thrust out of the paradise would become so sorrowfull, that he could not in the world deuise what to do, or whither to turne him. Then would he goe vnto the foresaid old man, beseeching him that he might be admitted againe into his paradise: who saith vnto him, You cannot be admitted thither, vnlesse you will slay such or such a man for my sake, and if you will giue the attempt onely, whether you kill him or no, I will place you againe in paradise, that there you may remaine alwayes: then would the party without faile put the same in execution, indeuouring to murther all those against whom the sayd olde man had conceiued any hatred. And therefore all the kings of the east stood in awe of the sayd olde man, and gaue vnto him great tribute. Of the death of Senex de monte. And when the Tartars had subdued a great part of the world, they came vnto the sayd olde man, and tooke from him the custody of his paradise: who being incensed thereat, sent abroad diuers desperate and resolute persons out of his forenamed paradise, and caused many of the Tartarian nobles to be slaine. The Tartars seeing this, went and besieged the city wherein the said olde man was, tooke him, and put him to a most cruell and ignominious death. The friers in that place haue this speciall gift and prerogatiue: namely, that by the vertue of the name of Christ Iesu, and in the vertue of his pretious bloud, which he shedde vpon the crosse for the saluation of mankinde, they doe cast foorth deuils out of them that are possessed. And because there are many possessed men in those parts, they are bound and brought ten dayes iourney unto the sayd friers, who being dispossessed of the vncleane spirits, do presently beleeue in Christ who deliuered them, accounting him for their God, and being baptized in his name, and also deliuering immediatly vnto the friers all their idols, and the idols of their cattell, which are commonly made of felt or of womens haire: then the sayd friers kindle a fire in a publike place (whereunto the people resort, that they may see the false gods of their neighbors burnt) and cast the sayd idols thereinto: howbeit at the first those idols came out of the fire againe. Then the friers sprinkled the sayd fire with holy water, casting the idols into it the second time, and with that the deuils fled in the likenesse of blacke smoake, and the idols still remained till they were consumed vnto ashes. Afterward, this noise and outcry was heard in the ayre: Beholde and see how I am expelled out of my habitation. And by these meanes the friers doe baptize great multitudes, who presently reuolt againe vnto their idols: insomuch that the sayd friers must eftsoones, as it were, vnderprop them, and informe them anew. There was another terrible thing which I saw there: for passing by a certaine valley, which is situate beside a pleasant riuer, I saw many dead bodies, and in the sayd valley also I heard diuers sweet sounds and harmonies of musike, especially the noise of citherns, whereat I was greatly amazed. This valley conteineth in length seuen or eight miles at the least; into the which whosoeuer entreth, dieth presently, and can by no meanes passe aliue thorow the middest thereof: for which cause all the inhabitants thereabout decline vnto the one side. Moreouer, I was tempted to go in, and to see what it was. At length, making my prayers, and recommending my selfe to God in the name of Iesu, I entred, and saw such swarmes of dead bodies there, as no man would beleeue vnlesse he were an eye witnesse thereof. At the one side of the foresayd valley vpon a certaine stone, I saw the visage of a man, which beheld me with such a terrible aspect, that I thought verily I should haue died in the same place. But alwayes this sentence, the word became flesh, and dwelt amongst vs, I ceased not to pronounce, signing my selfe with the signe of the crosse, and neerer then seuen or eight pases I durst not approach vnto the said head: but I departed and fled vnto another place in the sayd valley, ascending vp into a little sand mountaine, where looking round about, I saw nothing but the sayd citherns, which me thought I heard miraculously sounding and playing by themselues without the help of musicians. And being vpon the toppe of the mountaine, I found siluer there like the scales of fishes in great abundance: and I gathered some part thereof into my bosome to shew for a wonder, but my conscience rebuking me, I cast it vpon the earth, reseruing no whit at all vnto my selfe, and so, by Gods grace I departed without danger. And when the men of the countrey knew that I was returned out of the valley aliue, they reuerenced me much, saying that I was baptised and holy, and that the foresayd bodies were men subiect vnto the deuils infernall, who vsed to play vpon citherns, to the end they might allure people to enter, and so murther them. Thus much concerning those things which I beheld most certainely with mine eyes, I frier Odoricus haue heere written: many strange things also I haue of purpose omitted, because men will not beleeue them vnlesse they should see them. Of the honour and reuerence done vnto the great Can. I will report one thing more, which I saw, concerning the great Can. It is an vsuall custome in those parts, that when the forsayd Can traueileth thorow any countrey, his subiects kindle fires before their doores, casting spices thereinto to make a perfume, that their lord passing by may smell the sweet and delectable odours thereof, and much people come forth to meet him. And vpon a certaine time when he was cumming towardes Cambaleth, the fame of his approch being published, a bishop of ours with certaine of our minorite friers and my selfe went two dayes iourney to meet him: and being come nigh vnto him, we put a crosse vpon wood, I my selfe hauing a censer in my hand, and began to sing with a loud voice: Veni creator spiritus. And as we were singing on this wise, he caused vs to be called, commanding vs to come vnto him: notwithstanding (as it is aboue mentioned) that no man dare approach within a stones cast of his chariot, vnlesse he be called, but such onely as keepe his chariot. And when we came neere vnto him, he vailed his hat or bonet being of an inestimable price, doing reuerance vnto the crosse. And immediatly I put incense into the censer, and our bishop taking the censer perfumed him, and gaue him his benediction. Moreouer, they that come before the sayd Can do alwayes bring some oblation to present vnto him, obseruing the antient law: Thou shall not appeare in my presence with an empty hand. And for that cause we carried apples with vs, and offered them in a platter with reuerence vnto him: and taking out two of them he did eat some part of one. And then he signified vnto vs, that we should go apart, least the horses comming on might in ought offend vs. With that we departed from him, and turned aside, going vnto certaine of his barons, which had bene conuerted to the faith by certeine friers of our order, being at the same time in his army: and we offered vnto them of the foresayd apples, who receiued them at our hands with great ioy, seeming vnto vs to be as glad, as if we had giuen them some great gift. All the premisses abouewritten friar William de Solanga hath put downe in writing euen as the foresayd frier Odoricus vttered them by word of mouth, in the yeere of our Lord 1330. in the moneth of May, and in the place of S. Anthony of Padua. Neither did he regard to write them in difficult Latine or in an eloquent stile, but euen as Odoricus himselfe rehearsed them, to the end that men might the more easily vnderstand the things reported. I frier Odoricus of Friuli, of a certaine territory called Portus Vahonis, and of the order of the minorites, do testifie and beare wimesse vnto the reuerend father Guidotus minister of the prouince of S. Anthony, in the marquesate of Treuiso (being by him required vpon mine obedience so to doe) that all the premisses aboue written, either I saw with mine owne eyes, or heard the same reported by credible and substantiall persons. The common report also of the countreyes where I was, testifieth those things, which I saw, to be true. Many other things I haue omitted, because I beheld them not with mine owne eyes. Howbeit from day to day I purpose with my selfe to trauell countreyes or lands, in which action I dispose myselfe to die or to liue, as it shall please my God. Of the death of frier Odoricus. In the yeere therefore of our Lord 1331 the foresayd frier Odoricus preparing himselfe for the performance of his intended iourney, that his trauel and labour might be to greater purpose, he determined to present himselfe vnto Pope Iohn the two and twentieth, whose benediction and obedience being receiued, he with a certaine number of friers willing to beare him company, might conuey himselfe vnto all the countreyes of infidels. And as he was trauelling towards the pope, and not farre distant from the city of Pisa, there meets him by the waye a certaine olde man, in the habit and attire of a pilgrime, saluting him by name, and saying: All haile frier Odoricus. And when the frier demaunded how he had knowledge of him: he answered: Whiles, you were in India I knew you full well, yea, and I knew your holy purpose also: but see that you returne immediatly vnto the couer from whence you came, for tenne dayes hence you shall depart out of this present world. Wherefore being astonished and amazed at these wordes (especially the olde man vanishing out of his sight, presently after he had spoken them) he determined to returne. And so he returned in perfect health, feeling no crazednesse nor infirmity of body. And being in his couen at Vdene in the prouince of Padua, the tenth day after the foresayd vision, hauing receiued the Communion, and preparing himselfe vnto God, yea, being strong and sound of body, hee happily rested in the Lord; whose sacred departure was signified vnto the Pope aforesaid, vnder the hand of the publique notary in these words following. In the yeere of our Lord 1331, the 14. day of Ianuarie, Beatus Odoricus a Frier minorite deceased in Christ, at whose prayers God shewed many and sundry miracles, which I Guetelus publique notarie of Vtina, sonne of M. Damianus de Porto Gruaro, at the commandement and direction of the honorable Conradus of the Borough of Gastaldion, and one of the Councell of Vtina, haue written as faithfully as I could, and haue deliuered a copie thereof vnto the Friers minorites: howbeit not of all, because they are innumerable, and too difficult for me to write. * * * * * The voyage of the Lord Iohn of Holland, Earle of Huntington, brother by the mothers side to King Richard the second, to Ierusalem and Saint Katherins mount. [Sidenote: 1394. Froyssart.] The Lord Iohn of Holland, Earle of Huntington, was as then on his way to Ierusalem, and to Saint Katherins mount, and purposed to returne by the Realme of Hungarie. For as he passed through France (where he had great cheere of the King, and of his brother and vncles) hee heard how the king of Hungary and the great Turke should haue battell together: therefore he thought surely to be at that iourney. * * * * * The voiage of Thomas lord Moubray duke of Norfolke to Ierusalem, in the yeere of our Lord 1399. written by Holinshed, pag. 1233. Thomas lord Moubray, second sonne of Elizabeth Segraue and Iohn lord Moubray her husband, was advanced to the dukedome of Norfolke in the 21. yeere of the reigne of Richard the 2. Shortly after which, hee was appealed by Henry earle of Bullingbroke of treason; and caried to the castle of Windsore, where he was strongly and safely garded, hauing a time of combate granted to determine the cause betweene the two dukes, the 16. day of September, in the 22. of the sayd king, being the yeere of our redemption 1398. But in the end the matter was so ordered, that this duke of Norfolke was banished for euer: whereupon taking his iourney to Ierusalem, he died at Venice in his returne from the said citie of Ierusalem, in the first yeere of King Henry the 4. about the yeere of our redemption, 1399. * * * * * The Voiage of the bishop of Winchester to Ierusalem, in the sixt yeere of the reigne of Henry the fift, which was the yeere of our Lord, 1417. Thomas Walsingham. Vltimo die mensis Octobris, episcopus Wintoniensis accessit ad concilium Constanciense, peregrinaturus Hierosolymam post electionem summi pontificis celebratam, vbi tantum valuit eius facunda persuasio, vt et excitaret dominos Cardinales ad concordiam, et ad electionem summi pontificis se ocyùs præpararent. The same in English. The last day of October the bishop of Winchester came to the Councell of Constance, which after the chusing of the Pope determined to take his iourney to Ierusalem: where his eloquent perswasion so much preuailed, that he both perswaded my lords the Cardinals to vnity and concord, and also moued them to proceed more speedily to the election of the Pope. * * * * * A preparation of a voyage of King Henrie the fourth to the Holy land against the infidels in the yere 1413, being the last yere of his reigne: wherein he was preuented by death: written by Walsingham, Fabian, Polydore Virgile, and Holenshed. [Sidenote: Order taken for building of ships and gallies.] In this fourteenth and last yere of king Henries reigne a councell was holden in the White friers in London, at the which among other things, order was taken for ships and gallies to be builded and made ready, and all other things necessary to be prouided for a voyage, which he meant to make into the Holy land, there to recouer the city of Ierusalem from the infidels: for it grieued him to consider the great malice of Christian princes, that were bent vpon a mischieuous purpose to destroy one another, to the perill of their owne soules, rather than to make warre against the enemies of the Christian faith, as in conscience, it seemed to him, they were bound. We finde, sayeth Fabian in his Chronicle, that he was taken with his last sickeness, while he was making his prayers at Saint Edwards shrine, there as it were, to take his leaue, and so to proceede foorth on his iourney. He was so suddenly and grieuously taken, that such as were about him feared least he would haue died presently: wherefore to relieue him, if it were possible, they bare him into a chamber that was next at hand, belonging to the Abbot of Westminster, where they layd him on a pallet before the fire, and vsed all remedies to reuiue him. At length he recouered his speech, and perceiuing himselfe in a strange place which he knew not, he willed to knowe if the chamber had any particular name, whereunto answere was made, that it was called Ierusalem. Then sayde the king, Laudes be giuen to the father of heauen: for now I knowe that I shall die here in this chamber, according to the prophesie of mee declared, that I should depart this life in Ierusalem. * * * * * Of this intended voyage Polydore Virgile writeth in manner following. Post haec Henricus Rex memor nihil homini debere esse antiquius, quàm ad officium iustitiæ, quæ ad hominum vtilitatem pertinet, omne suum studium conferre, protinùs omisso ciuili bello, quo pudebat videre Christianos omni tempore turpitèr occupari, de republica Anglica benè gubernanda, de bello in hostes communes sumendo, de Hierosolymis tandem aliquando recipiendis plura destinabat, classemque iam parabat, cum ei talia agenti atque meditanti casus mortem attulit: subito enim morbo tentatus, nulla medicina subleuari potuit. Mortuus est apud Westmonasterium, annum agens quadragesimum sextum, qui fuit annus salutis humanæ, 1413. The same in English. Afterward, King Henry calling to minde, that nothing ought to be more highly esteemed by any man, then to doe the vtmost of his indeuour for the performance of iustice, which tendeth to the good and benefite of mankinde; altogether abondoning ciuill warre (wherewith he was ashamed to see, how Christians at all times were dishonourably busied) entered into a more deepe consideration of well gouerning his Realme of England, of waging warre against the common enemie, and of recouering, in processe of time the citie of Ierusalem, yea, and was prouiding a nauie for the same purpose, whenas in the very midst of this his heroicall action and enterprise, he was surprised with death: for falling into a sudden disease, he could not be cured by any kinde of physicke. He deceased at Westminster in the 46 yeare of his age, which was in the yeere of our Lord, 1413. * * * * * The voyage of M. Iohn Locke to Ierusalem. In my voyage to Ierusalem, I imbarked my selfe the 26 of March 1553 in the good shippe called the Mathew Gonson, which was bound for Liuorno, or Legorne and Candia. It fell out that we touched in the beginning of Aprill next ensuing at Cades in Andalozia, where the Spaniardes, according to their accustomed maner with all shippes of extraordinarie goodnes and burden, picked a quarell against the company, meaning to haue forfeited, or at least to haue arrested the sayd shippe. And they grew so malicious in their wrongfull purpose that I being vtterly out of hope of any speedie release, to the ende that my intention should not be ouerthrowen, was inforced to take this course following. Notwithstanding this hard beginning, it fell out so luckily, that I found in the roade a great shippe called the Caualla of Venice, wherein after agreement made with the patron, I shipped my selfe the 24. of May in the said yere 1553. and the 25 by reason of the winde blowing hard and contrary, we were not able to enter the straits of Gibraltar, but were put to the coast of Barbarie, where we ankered in the maine sea 2. leagues from shore, and continued so vntill two houres before sunne set, and then we weighed againe, and turned our course towards the Straits, where we entered the 26 day aforesayd, the winde being calme, but the current of the straites very fauourable. The same day the winde beganne to rise somewhat, and blew a furthering gale, and so continued at Northwest vntill we arriued at Legorne the third of Iune. And from thence riding ouer land vnto Venice, I prepared for my voyage to Ierusalem in the Pilgrimes shippe. [Sidenote: The ship Fila Cauena departeth for Ierusalem. Rouigno a port in Istria.] I John Locke, accompanied with Maister Anthony Rastwold, and diuers other, Hollanders, Zelanders, Almaines and French pilgrimes entered the good shippe called Fila Cauena of Venice, the 16 of July 1553. and the 17 in the morning we weighed our anker and sailed towardes the coast of Istria, to the port of Rouigno, and the said day there came aboard of our ship the Perceuena of the shippe named Tamisari, for to receiue the rest of all the pilgrimes money, which was in all after the rate of 55. Crownes for euery man for that voyage, after the rate of fiue shillings starling to the crowne: This done, he returned to Venice. [Sidenote: Sancta Eufemia.] The 19 day we tooke fresh victuals aboard, and with the bote that brought the fresh provision we went on land to the Towne, and went to see the Church of Sancta Eufemia, where we sawe the bodie of the sayd Saint. [Sidenote: Monte de Ancona.] The 20 day wee departed from Rouignio, and about noone we had sight of Monte de Ancona, and the hilles of Dalmatia, or else of Sclauonia both at one time, and by report they are 100. miles distant from ech other, and more. [Sidenote: Il Pomo.] The 21 we sayled still in sight of Dalmatia, and a little before noone, we had a sight of a rocke in the midst of the sea, called in the Italian il Pomo, it appeareth a farre off to be in shape like a sugarloafe. [Sidenote: Sant Andrea.] Also we sawe another rocke about two miles compasse called Sant Andrea; on this rocke is only one Monasterie of Friers: [Sidenote: Lissa an Iland.] we sayled betweene them both, and left S. Andrea on the left hand of vs, and we had also kenning of another Iland called Lissa, all on the left hande, these three Ilands lie East and West in the sea, and at the sunne setting we had passed them. [Sidenote: Lezina Iland.] Il pomo is distant from Sant Andrea 18 miles, and S. Andrea from Lissa ten miles, and Lissa from another Iland called Lezina, which standeth betweene the maine of Dalmatia and Lissa, tenne miles. This Iland is inhabited and hath great plentie of wine and frutes and hereagainst we were becalmed. [Sidenote: Catza. Pelagosa.] The 22. we had sight of another small Iland called Catza, which is desolate and on the left hand, and on the right hand, a very dangerous Iland called Pelagosa, this is also desolate, and lyeth in the midst of the sea betweene both the maines: it is very dangerous and low land, and it hath a long ledge of rockes lying out sixe miles into the sea, so that many ships by night are cast away vpon them. There is betweene Catza and Pelagosa 30 miles, and these two Ilands are distant from Venice 400. miles. [Sidenote: Augusta.] There is also about twelue miles eastward, a great Iland called Augusta, about 14 miles in length, somewhat hillie, and well inhabited, and fruitfull of vines, corne and other fruit, this also we left on the left hand: and we haue hitherto kept our course from Rouignio East southeast. [Sidenote: Meleda. Mount Sant Angelo.] This Iland is vnder the Signiorie or gouernement of Ragusa, it is distant from Ragusa 50 miles, and there is by that Iland a greater, named Meleda, which is also vnder the gouernement of Ragusa, it is about 30 miles in length, and inhabited, and hath good portes, it lyeth by East from Augusta, and ouer against this Iland lyeth a hill called Monte S. Angelo, vpon the coast of Puglia in Italy, and we had sight of both landes at one time. The 23 we sayled all the day long by the bowline alongst the coast of Ragusa, and towardes night we were within 7. or 8. miles of Ragusa, that we might see the white walles, but because it was night, we cast about to the sea, minding at the second watch, to beare in againe to Ragusa, for to know the newes of the Turkes armie, but the winde blew so hard and contrary, that we could not. [Sidenote: Ragusa paieth 14000. Sechinos to the Turke yerely.] This citie of Ragusa paieth tribute to the Turke yerely fourteene thousand Sechinos, and euery Sechino is of Venetian money eight liuers and two soldes, besides other presents which they giue to the Turkes Bassas when they come thither. The Venetians haue a rocke or cragge within a mile of the said towne, for the which the Raguseos would giue much money, but they doe keepe it more for the namesake, then for profite. This rocke lieth on the Southside of the towne, and is called Il Cromo, there is nothing on it but onely a Monasterie called Sant Ieronimo. The maine of the Turkes countrie is bordering on it within one mile, for the which cause they are in great subiection. This night we were put backe by contrarie winds, and ankered at Melleda. The 24 being at an anker vnder Melleda, we would haue gone on land, but the winde came so faire that we presently set sayle and went our course, and left on the right hand of vs the forenamed Iland, and on the left hand betweene vs and the maine the Iland of Zupanna, and within a mile of that vnder the maine by East, another Iland called Isola de Mezo. This Iland hath two Monasteries in it, one called Santa Maria de Bizo, and the other Sant Nicholo. Also there is a third rocke with a Frierie called Sant Andrea: these Ilands are from the maine but two miles, and the channell betweene Melleda and Zupanna is but foure or fiue miles ouer by gesse, but very deepe, for we had at an anker fortie fathoms. The two Ilands of Zupanno and Mezo are well inhabited, and very faire buildings, but nothing plentie saue wine onely. This night toward sunne set it waxed calme, and we sayled little or nothing. The 24 we were past Ragusa 14 miles, and there we mette with two Venetian ships, which came from Cyprus, we thought they would haue spoken with vs, for we were desirous to talke with them, to knowe the newes of the Turkes armie, and to haue sent some letters by them to Venice. About noone, we had scant sight of Castel nouo, which Castell a fewe yeeres past the Turke tooke from the Emperour, in which fight were slaine three hundred Spanish souldiers, besides the rest which were taken prisoners, and made gallie slaves. This Castell is hard at the mouth of a channell called Boca de Cataro. The Venetians haue a hold within the channell called Cataro, this channell goeth vp to Budoa, and further vp into the countrey. About sunne set we were ouer against the hilles of Antiueri in Sclauonia, in the which hilles the Venetians haue a towne called Antiueri, and the Turkes haue another against it called Marcheuetti, the which two townes continually skirmish together with much slaughter. At the end of these hils endeth the Countrey of Sclauonia, and Albania beginneth. These hilles are thirtie miles distant from Ragusa. The 27 we kept our course towards Puglia, and left Albania on the left hand. The 28. we had sight of both the maines, but we were neere the coast of Puglia, for feare of Foystes. It is betweene Cape Chimera in Albania and Cape Otranto in Puglia 60 miles. Puglia is a plaine low lande, and Chimera in Albania is very high land, so that it is seene the further. Thus sayling our course along the coast of Puglia, we saw diuerse white Towers, which serue for sea-markes. About three of the clocke in the after noone, we had sight of a rocke called Il fano, 48 miles from Corfu, and by sunne set we discouered Corfu. Thus we kept on our course with a prosperous winde, and made our way after twelue mile euery houre. Most part of this way we were accompanied with certaine fishes called in the Italian tongue Palomide, it is a fish three quarters of a yard in length, in colour, eating, and making like a Makarell, somewhat bigge and thick in body, and the tayle forked like a halfe moone, for the which cause it is said that the Turke will not suffer them to be taken in all his dominions. The 29 in the morning we were in sight of an Iland, which we left on our left hande called Cephalonia, it is vnder the Venetians, and well inhabited, with a faire towne strongly situated on a hill of which hill the Iland beareth her name, it hath also a very strong fortresse or Castle, and plentie of corne and wine, their language is Greek, it is distant from the maine of Morea, thirtie miles, it is in compasse 80 miles. One houre within night we sayled by the towne standing on the South cape of Cephalonia, whereby we might perceiue their lights. There come oftentimes into the creeks and riuers, the Turkes foystes and gallies where at their arriual, the Countrey people doe signifie vnto their neighbours by so many lights, as there are foistes or gallies in the Iland, and thus they doe from one to another the whole Iland ouer. Aboute three of the clocke in the afternoone the winde scanted, and wee minded to haue gone to Zante, but we could not for that night. [Sidenote: Zante.] This Iland of Zante is distant from Cephalonia, 12 or 14 miles, but the towne of Cephalonia, from the towne of Zante, is distant fortie miles. This night we went but little forward. The 30 day we remained still turning vp and downe because the winde was contrary, and towards night the winde mended, so that we entered the channell betweene Cephalonia, and Zante, the which chanell is about eight or tenne miles ouer, and these two beare East and by South, and West and by North from the other. The towne of Zante lieth within a point of the land, where we came to an anker, at nine of the clocke at night. [Sidenote: Iohn Locke, and fiue Hollanders goe on land.] The 31 about sixe of the clocke in the morning, I with fiue Hollanders went on land, and hosted at the house of Pedro de Venetia. After breakfast we went to see the towne, and passing along we went into some of the Greeke churches, wherein we sawe their Altares, images, and other ornaments. [Sidenote: Santa Maria de la Croce.] This done, wee went to a Monasterie of Friers called Sancta Maria de la Croce, these are westerne Christians, for the Greekes haue nothing to doe with them, nor they with the Greekes, for they differ very much in religion. There are but 2. Friers in this Friery. [Sidenote: The tombe of M. T. Cicero.] In this Monasterie we saw the tombe that M. T. Cicero was buried in, with Terentia Antonia, his wife. This tombe was founde about sixe yeeres since, when the Monastery was built, there was in time past a streete where the tombe stoode. At the finding of the tombe there was also found a yard vnder ground, a square stone somewhat longer then broad, vpon which stone was found a writing of two seuerall handes writing, the one as it seemed, for himselfe, and the other for his wife, and vnder the same stone was found a glasse somewhat proportioned like an vrinall, but that it was eight square and very thicke, wherein were the ashes of the head and right arme of Mar. T. Cicero, for as stories make mention he was beheaded as I remember at Capua, for insurrection. And his wife hauing got his head and right arme, (which was brought to Rome to the Emperor) went from Rome, and came to Zante, and there buried his head and arme, and wrote vpon his tombe this style M. T Cicero. Haue. [Marginal note: Or, Aue.] Then followeth in other letters, _Et tu Terentia Antonia_, which difference of letters declare that they were not written both at one time. [Sidenote: The Description of the tombe.] The tombe is long and narrowe, and deepe, walled on euery side like a graue, in the botome whereof was found the sayd stone with the writing on it, and the said glasse of ashes, and also another litle glasse of the same proportion, wherein, as they say, are the teares of his friendes, and in those dayes they did vse to gather and bury with them, as they did vse in Italy and Spaine to teare their haire, to bury with their friendes. In the sayde tombe were a fewe bones. After dinner we rested vntill it drew towards euening by reason of the heat. [Sidenote: Sant Elia, but one Frier.] And about foure of the clocke we walked to another Frierie a mile out of the towne called Sant Elia, these are white Friers, there were two, but one is dead, not sixe dayes since. This Frierie hath a garden very pleasant, and well furnished with Orenges, Lemons, pomegranates, and diuers other good fruites. The way to it is somewhat ragged, vp hill and downe, and very stonie, and in winter very durtie. It standeth very plesantly in a clift betweene two hilles, with a good prospect. From thence we ascended the hill to the Castle, which is situated on the very toppe of a hill. [Sidenote: The description of the Castle of Zante.] This Castle is very strong, in compasse a large mile and a halfe, which being victualed, (as it is neuer vnfurnished) and manned with men of trust, it may defende itselfe against any Princes power. This Castle taketh the iust compasse of the hill, and no other hill neere it, it is so steepe downe, and so high and ragged, that it will tyre any man or euer he be halfe way vp. Very nature hath fortified the walles and bulwarkes: It is by nature foure square, and it commandeth the towne and porte. The Venetians haue alwayes their Podesta, or Gouernour, with his two Counsellours resident therein. The towne is welle inhabited, and hath great quantity of housholders. The Iland by report is threescore and tenne miles about, it is able to make twentie thousand fighting men. They say they have alwayes fiue or sixe hundred horsemen readie at an houres warning. They saye the Turke hath assayed it with 100. Gallies, but he could neuer bring his purpose to passe. It is strange to mee how they should maintains so many men in this Iland, for their best sustenance is wine, and the rest but miserable. The first of August we were warned aboord by the patron, and towards euening we set sayle, and had sight of a Castle called Torneste, which is the Turkes, and is ten miles from Zante, it did belong to the Venetians, but they haue now lost it, it standeth also on a hill on the sea side in Morea. All that night we bare into the sea, because we had newes at Zante of twelue of the Turkes gallies, that came from Rhodes, which were about Modon, Coron, and Candia, for which cause we kept at the sea. The second of August, we had no sight of land, but kept our course, and about the thirde watch the winde scanted, so that we bare with the shore, and had sight of Modon and Coron. The third we had sight of Cauo Mattapan, and all that day by reason of contrary windes, which blew somewhat hard, we lay a hull vntill morning. The fourth we were still vnder the sayd Cape, and so continued that day, and towardes night there grewe a contention in the ship amongst the Hollanders, and it had like to haue bene a great inconuenience, for we had all our weapons, yea euen our kniues, taken from vs that night. The fift, we sayled by the Bowline, and out of the toppe we had sight of the Iland of Candia, and towardes noone we might see it plaine, and towards night the winde waxed calme. The sixt toward the breake of day we saw two small Ilands called Gozi, and towards noone we were betweene them: the one of these Ilands is fifteene miles about, and the other 10. miles. In those Ilands are nourished store of cattell for butter and cheese. There are to the number of fiftie or sixtie inhabitants, which are Greekes, and they liue chiefly on milke and cheese. The Iland of Candia is 700 miles about, it is in length, from Cape Spada, to Cape Salomon, 300 miles, it is as they say, able to make one hundred thousand fighting men. We sayled betweene the Gozi, and Candia, and they are distant from Candia 5 or 6 miles. The Candiots are strong men, and very good archers, and shoot neere the marke. This Ilande is from Zante 300 miles. The seuenth we sayled all along the sayd Iland with little winde and vnstable, and the eight day towards night we drew to the East end of the Iland. The 9 and 10 we sayled along with a prosperous winde and saw no land. The 11 in the morning, we had sight of the Iland of Cyprus, and towards noone we were thwart the Cape called Ponta Malota, and about foure of the clocke we were as farre as Baffo, and about sunne set we passed Cauo Bianco, and towards nine of the clocke at night we doubled Cauo de la gatte, and ankered afore Limisso, but the wind blew so hard, that we could not come neere the towne, neither durst any man goe on land. The towne is from Cauo de le gatte twelue miles distant. The 12. of August in the morning wee went on land to Limisso: this towne is ruinated and nothing in it worth writing, saue onely in the midst of the towne there hath bene a fortresse, which is now decayed, and the wals part ouerthrowen, which a Turkish Rouer with certaine gallies did destroy about 10. or 12. yeeres past. [Sidenote: Caualette is a certaine vermine in the Island of Cyprus.] This day walking to see the towne, we chanced to see in the market place, a great quantitie of certaine vermine called in the Italian tongue Caualette. It is as I can learne, both in shape and bignesse like a grassehopper, for I can iudge but little difference. Of these many yeeres they haue had such quantitie that they destroy all their corne. They are so plagued with them, that almost euery yeere they doe well nie loose halfe their corne, whether it be the nature of the countrey, or the plague of God, that let them iudge that can best define. But that there may no default be laied to their negligence for the destruction of them, they haue throughout the whole land a constituted order, that euery Farmor or husbandmen (which are euen as slaues bought and sold to their lord) shall euery yeere pay according to his territorie, a measure full of the seede or egges of these forenamed Caualette, the which they are bound to bring to the market, and present to the officer appointed for the same, the which officer taketh of them very straight measure, and writeth the names of the presenters, and putteth the sayd egges or seed, into a house appointed for the same, and hauing the house full, they beate them to pouder, and cast them into the sea, and by this pollicie they doe as much as in them lieth for the destruction of them. This vermine breedeth or ingendereth at the time of corne being ripe, and the corne beyng had away, in the clods of the same ground do the husbandmen find the nestes, or, as I may rather terme them, cases of the egges, of the same vermine. Their nests are much like to the keies of a hasel-nut tree, when they be dried, and of the same length, but somewhat bigger, which case being broken you shall see the egges lie much like vnto antes egges, but somewhat lesser. This much I haue written at this time, because I had no more time of knowledge, but I trust at my returne to note more of this island, with the commodities of the same at large. [Sidenote: The pilgrimes going to the Greeke churches.] The 13. day we went in the morning to the Greeks church, to see the order of their ceremonies, and of their communion, of the which to declare the whole order with the number of their ceremonious crossings, it were to long. Wherefore least I should offend any man, I leaue it vnwritten: but onely that I noted well, that in all their Communion or seruice, not one did euer kneele, nor yet in any of their Churches could I euer see any grauen images, but painted or portrayed. Also they haue store of lampes alight, almost for euery image one. Their women are alwayes separated from the men, and generally they are in the lower ende of the Church. This night we went aboord the ship, although the wind were contrary, we did it because the patrone should not find any lacke of vs, as sometimes he did: when as tarying vpon his owne businesse, he would colour it with the delay of the pilgrimes. The 14. day in the morning we set saile, and lost sight of the Island of Cyprus, and the 15. day we were likewise at Sea, and sawe no land: and the 16. day towards night, we looked for land, but we sawe none. But because we supposed our selues to be neere our port, we tooke in all our sailes except onely the foresaile and the mizzen, and so we remained all that night. The 17. day in the morning, we kept by report of the Mariners, some sixe miles from Iaffa, but it prooued contrary. But because we would be sure, wee made to an anker seuen miles from the shore, and sent the skiffe with the Pilot and the master gunner, to learne the coast, but they returned, not hauing seen tree nor house, nor spoken with any man. But when they came to the sea side againe, they went vp a little hill standing hard by the brinke, whereon as they thought, they sawe the hill of Ierusalem, by the which the Pilot knew (after his iudgement) that we were past our port. And so this place where we rode was, as the mariners sayd, about 50. mile from Iaffa. This coast all alongst is very lowe, plaine, white, sandie, and desert, for which cause it hath fewe markes or none, so that we rode here as it were in a gulfe betweene two Capes. [Sidenote: A great currant.] The 18. day we abode still at anker, looking for a gale to returne backe, but it was contrary: and the 19. we set saile, but the currant hauing more force then the winde, we were driuen backe, insomuch that the ship being vnder saile, we cast the sounding lead, and (notwithstanding the wind) it remained before the shippe, there wee had muddie ground at fifteene fadome. The same day about 4. of the clocke, wee set saile againe, and sayled West alongst the coast with a fresh side-winde. [Sidenote: A Cat fallen into the sea and recouered.] It chanced by fortune that the shippes Cat lept into the Sea, which being downe, kept her selfe very valiauntly aboue water, notwithstanding the great waues, still swimming, the which the master knowing, he caused the Skiffe with halfe a dozen men to goe towards her and fetch her againe, when she was almost halfe a mile from the shippe, and all this while the ship lay on staies. I hardly beleeue they would haue made such haste and meanes if one of the company had bene in the like perill. They made the more haste because it was the patrons cat. This I haue written onely to note the estimation that cats are in, among the Italians, for generally they esteeme their cattes, as in England we esteeme a good Spaniell. The same night about tenne of the clocke the winde calmed, and because none of the shippe knewe where we were, we let fall an anker about 6 mile from the place we were at before, and there wee had muddie ground at twelue fathome. The 20 it was still calme, and the current so strong still one way, that we were not able to stemme the streame: moreouer we knew not where we were, whereupon doubting whither wee were past, or short of our port, the Master, Pilot, and other Officers of the shippe entered into counsell what was best to doe, wherevpon they agreed to sende the bote on lande againe, to seeke some man to speake with all, but they returned as wise as they went. Then we set sayle againe and sounded euery mile or halfe mile, and found still one depth, so we not knowing where we were, came againe to an anker, seuen or eight miles by West from the place we were at. Thus still doubting where we were, the bote went on land againe, and brought newes that wee were short 80 miles of the place, whereas we thought wee had beene ouershot by east fiftie miles. Thus in these doubts we lost foure dayes, and neuer a man in the shippe able to tell where we were, notwithstanding there were diuerse in the shippe that had beene there before. [Sidenote: They met with two Moores on land.] Then sayd the Pylot, that at his comming to the shore, by chance he saw two wayfaring men, which were Moores, and he cryed to them in Turkish, insomuch that the Moores, partly for feare, and partly for lacke of vnderstanding, (seeing them to be Christians) beganne to flie, yet in the end with much a doe, they stayed to speake with them, which men when they came together, were not able to vnderstand ech other, but our men made to them the signe of the Crosse on the sande, to giue them to vnderstand that they were of the shippe that brought the pilgrims. Then the Moores knowing (as al the country else doth) that it was the vse of Christians to go to Ierusalem, shewed them to be yet by west of Iaffa. Thus we remained ail that night at anker, and the farther west that we sayled, the lesse water we had. The 21 we set sayle againe and kept our course Northeast, but because we would not goe along the shore by night, wee came to an anker in foure and twentie fathome water. [Sidenote: The two towers of Iaffa. Scolio di Santo Petro.] Then the next morning being the 22 we set sayle againe, and kept our course as before, and about three of the clocke in the afternoone, wee had sight of the two towers of Iaffa, and about fiue of the clocke, wee were with a rocke, called in the Italian tongue, Scolio di Santo Petro, on the which rocke they say he fished, when Christ bid him cast his net on the right side, and caught so many fishes. This rocke is now almost worne away. It is from Iaffa two or three mile: here before the two towers we came to an anker. Then the pilgrimes after supper, in salutation of the holy lande, sang to the prayse of God, Te Deum laudamus, with Magnificat, and Benedictus, but in the shippe was a Frier of Santo Francisco, who for anger because he was not called and warned, would not sing with vs, so that he stood so much vpon his dignitie, that he forgot his simplicitie, and neglected his deuotion to the holy land for that time, saying that first they ought to haue called him yer they did beginne, because he was a Fryer, and had beene there, and knewe the orders. [Sidenote: A messenger departeth for Ierusalem.] The 23 we sent the bote on land with a messenger to the Padre Guardian of Ierusalem. [Sidenote: Mahomet is clothed in green.] This day it was notified vnto mee by one of the shippe that had beene a slaue in Turkie, that no man might weare greene in this land, because their prophet Mahomet went in greene. This came to my knowledge by reason of the Scriuanello, who had a greene cap, which was forbidden him to weare on the land. The 24. 25. and 26 we taryed in the shippe still looking for the comming of the Padre guardian, and the 26 at night we had a storme which lasted all the next day. [Sidenote: The Guardian of Ierusalem commeth to Iaffa, with the Cady, and Subassi.] The 27 in the morning, came the Cadi, the Subassi, and the Meniwe, with the Padre guardian, but they could not come at vs by reason of the stormy weather: in the afternoone we assayed to send the bote on land, but the weather would not suffer us. Then againe towards night the bote went a shore, but it returned not that night. [Sidenote: A cloud called of the Italians Cion most dangerous.] The same day in the afternoone we sawe in the element, a cloud with a long tayle, like vnto the tayle of a serpent, which cloud is called in Italian Cion, the tayle of this cloud did hang as it were into the sea: and we did see the water vnder the sayde cloude ascend, as it were like a smoke or myste, the which this Cion drew vp to it. The Marriners reported to vs that it had this propertie, that if it should happen to haue lighted on any part of the shippe, that it would rent and wreth sayles, mast, shroudes and shippe and all in manner like a wyth: on the land, trees, houses, in whatsoeuer else it lighteth on, it would rent and wreth. [Sidenote: A coniuration.] These marriners did vse a certaine coniuration to breake the said tayle, or cut it in two, which as they say doth preuaile. They did take a blacke hafted knife, and with the edge of the same did crosse the said taile as if they would cut it in twain, saying these words, Hold thou Cion, eat this, and then they stucke the knife on the ship side with the edge towards the said cloude, and I saw it therewith vanish in lesse than one quarter of an houre. But whether it was then consumed, or whether by vertue of the Inchantment it did vanish I knowe not, but it was gone. Hereof let them iudge that know more then I. This afternoone we had no winde, but the sea very stormy, insomuch that neither cheste, pot, nor any thing else could stand in the shippe, and wee were driuen to keepe our meate in one hand, and the pot in the other, and so sit downe vpon the hatches to eate, for stand we could not, for that the Seas in the very port at an anker went so high as if wee had bene in the bay of Portugall with stormy weather. The reason is, as the Mariners said to me, because that there meete all the waues from all places of the Straights of Gibralter, and there breake, and that in most calmes there go greatest seas, whether the winde blow or not. The 28. the weather growing somewhat calme, we went on land and rested our selues for that day, and the next day we set forward toward the city of Ierusalem. What I did, and what places of deuotion I visited in Ierusalem, and other parts of the Holy land, from this my departure from Iaffa, vntill my returne to the said port, may briefly be seene in my Testimoniall, vnder the hand and seale of the Vicar generall of Mount Sion, which for the contentment of the Reader I thought good here to interlace. Vniuersis et singulis præsentes litteras inspecturis salutem in Domino nostro Iesu Christo. Attestamur vobis ac alijs quibuscunque qualiter honorabilis vir Iohannes Lok ciuis Londoniensis, filius honorabilis viri Guilhelmi Lok equitis aurati, ad sacratissima terræ sanctæ loca personaliter se contulit, sanctissimum Domini nostri Iesu Christi sepulchrum, equo die tertia gloriosus à mortuis resurrexit, sacratissimum Caluariæ montem, in quo pro nobis omnibus cruci affixus mori dignatus est, Sion etiam montem vbi coenam illam mirificam cum discipulis suis fecit, et vbi spiritus sanctus in die sancto Pentecostes in discipulos eosdem in linguis igneis descendit, Oliuetique montem vbi mirabiliter coelos ascendit, intemeratæ virginis Mariæ Mausoleum in Iosaphat vallis medio situm, Bethaniam quoque Bethlehem ciuitatem Dauid in qua de purissima virgine Maria natus est, ibique inter animalia reclinatus, pluraque loca alia tam in Hierusalem ciuitate sancta terre Iudææ, quàm extra, à modernis peregrinis visitari solita, deuotissimè visitauit, pariterque adorauit. In quorum fidem, ego frater Anthonius de Bergamo ordinis fratrum minorum regularis obseruantiæ prouinciæ diui Anthonij Sacri conuentus montis Sion vicarius (licet indignus) necnon aliorum locorum terræ Sanctæ, apostolica authoritate comissarius et rector, has Sigillo maiori nostri officij nostraque subscriptione muniri volui. Datum Hierosolymis apud sacratissimum domini coenaculum in sæpè memorato monte Sion, Anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo, quinquagesimo tertio, die vero sexto mensis Septembris. Frater Antonius qui supra. [Sidenote: The pilgrims returne from Ierusalem. Mount Carmel.] The 15. of September being come from our pilgrimage, we went aborde our shippe, and set saile, and kept our course West toward the Island of Cyprus, but al that night it was calme, and the 16. the winde freshed, and we passed by Mount Carmel. The 17. the winde was very scant, yet we kept the sea, and towards night wee had a guste of raine whereby wee were constrained to strike our sailes, but it was not very stormie, nor lasted very long. The 18. 19. 20. and 21. we kept still the sea and saw no land because we had very little winde, and that not very fauourable. The 22. at noone the Boatswaine sent some of the Mariners into the boat, (which we toed asterne from Iaffa) for certaine necessaries belonging to the ship, wherein the Mariners found a certaine fish in proportion like a Dace, about 6 inches long (yet the Mariners said they had seene the like a foote long and more) the which fish had on euery side a wing, and toward the taile two other lesser as it were finnes, on either side one, but in proportion they were wings and of a good length. These wings grow out betweene the gils and the carkasse of the same fish. [Sidenote: Pesce columbini.] They are called in the Italian tongue Pesce columbini, for in deede, the wings being spred it is like to a flying doue, they say it will flie farre and very high. So it seemeth that being weary of her flight she fell into the boate, and not being able to rise againe died there. The 23. 24. and 25. we sailed our direct course with a small gale of winde, and this day we had sight of the Island of Cyprus. [Sidenote: Cauo de la Griega.] The first land that we discouered was a headland called Cauo de la Criega, and about midnight we ankered by North of the Gape. This cape is a high hil, long and square, and on the East corner it hath a high cop, that appeareth vnto those at the sea, like a white cloud, for toward the sea it is white, and it lieth into the sea Southwest. This coast of Cyprus is high declining toward the sea, but it hath no cliffes. The 26. we set saile againe, and toward noone we came into the port of Salini, where we went on land and lodged that night at a towne one mile from thence called Arnacho di Salini, this is but a village called in Italian, Casalia. This is distant from Iaffa 250. Italian miles. The 27. we rested, and the 28. we hired horses to ride from Arnacho to Sulina, which is a good mile. The salt pit is very neere two miles in compasse, very plaine and leuell, into the which they let runne at the time of raine a quantitie of water comming from the mountaines, which water is let in vntil the pit be full to a certaine marke, which when it is full, the rest is conueyed by a trench into the sea. The water is let runne in about October, or sooner or later, as the time of the yeere doth afforde. There they let it remaine vntill the ende of Iuly or the middest of August, out of which pits at that time, in stead of water that they let in they gather very faire white salt, without any further art or labour, for it is only done by the great heate of the sunne. This the Venetians haue, and doe maintaine to the vse of S. Marke, and the Venetian ships that come to this Island are bound to cast out their ballast, and to lade with salt for Venice. Also there may none in all the Iland buy salt but of these men, who maintaine these pits for S. Marke. This place is watched by night with 6. horsemen to the end it be not stolne by night. Also vnder the Venetians dominions no towne may spende any salt, but they must buy it of Saint Marke, neither may any man buy any salt at one towne to carie to another, but euery one must buy his salt in the towne where he dwelleth. Neither may any man in Venice buy more salt then he spendeth in the city, for if he be knowen to carte but one ounce out of the due and be accused, hee looseth an eare. The most part of all the salt they haue in Venice commeth from these Salines, and they have it so plentifull, that they are not able, neuer a yeere to gather the one halfe, for they onely gather in Iuly, August, and September, and not fully these three moneths. Yet notwithstanding the abundance that the shippes carie away yeerely, there remaine heapes like hilles, some heapes able to lade nine or tenne shippes, and there are heapes of two yeeres gathering, some of three and some of nine or tenne yeeres making, to the value of a great somme of golde, and when the ships do lade, they neuer take it by measure, but when they come at Venice they measure it. This salt as it lyeth in the pit is like so much ice, and it is sixe inches thicke: they digge it with axes, and cause their slaues to cary it to the heapes. This night at midnight we rode to Famagusta, which is eight leagues from Salina, which is 24 English miles. The 29 about two houres before day we alighted at Famagusta, and after we were refreshed we went to see the towne. This is a very faire strong holde, and the strongest and greatest in the Iland. The walks are faire and new, and strongly rampired with foure principall bulwarkes, and bettweene them turrions responding one to another, these walks did the Venetians make. They haue also on the hauen side of it a Castle, and the hauen is chained, the citie hath onely two gates, to say, one for the lande and another for the sea, they haue in the towne continually, be it peace or warres, 800 souldiers, and fortie and sixe gunners, besides Captaines, petie Captaines, Gouernour and Generall The lande gate hath alwayes fiftie souldiers, pikes and gunners with their harnes, watching thereat night and day. At the sea gate fiue and twenties upon the walles euery night doe watch fifteene men in watch houses, for euery watch house fiue men, and in the market place 30 souldiers continually. There may no souldier serue there aboue 5 yeres, neither will they without friendship suffer them to depart afore 5. yeres be expired, and there may serue of all nations except Greekes. [Sidenote: Morenigo.] They haue euery pay which is 45 dayes, 15 Morenigos, which is 15 shillings sterling. [Sidenote: Solde of Venice] Their horsemen haue only sixe soldes Venetian a day, and prouender for their horses, but truth I maruell how they liue being so hardly fed, for all the sommer they feede only vpon chopt strawe and barley, for hay they haue none, and yet they be faire, fat and seruiceable. [Sidenote: Castellani] The Venetians send euery two yeres new rulers, which they call Castellani. The towne hath allotted it also two gallies continually armed and furnished. [Sidenote: Saint Katherens Chappel in old Famagusta.] The 30. in the morning we ridde to a chappell, where they say Saint Katherin was borne. This Chappell is in olde Famagusta, the which was destroyed by Englishmen, and is cleane ouerthrowne to the ground, to this day desolate and not inhabited by any person, it was of a great circuit, and there be to this day mountaines of faire, great, and strong buildings, and not onely there, but also in many places of the Iland. [Sidenote: Diuvers coines vnder ground.] Moreouer when they digge, plowe, or trench they finde sometimes olde antient coines, some of golde, some of siluer, and some of copper, yea and many tombes and vautes with sepulchers in them. This olde Famagusta is from the other, foure miles, and standeth on a hill, but the new towne on a plaine. [Sidenote: Cornari, a family of Venice maried to king Iaques.] Thence we returned to new Famagusta againe to dinner, and toward euening we went about the towne, and in the great Church we sawe the tombe of king Iaques, which was the last king of Cyprus, and was buried in the yere of Christ one thousand foure hundred seuentie and three, and had to wife one of the daughters of Venice, of the house of Cornari, the which family at this day hath great reuenues in this Island, and by means of that mariage the Venetians, chalenge the kingdome of Cyprus. The first of October in the morning, we went to see the reliefe of the watches. That done, we went to one of the Greekes Churches to see a pot or Iarre of stone, which is sayd to bee one of the seuen Iarres of water, the which the Lord God at the mariage conuerted into wine. It is a pot of earth very faire, white enamelled, and faireiy wrought vpon with drawen worke, and hath on either side of it, instead of handles, eares made in fourme as the painters make angels wings, it was about an elle high, and small at the bottome, with a long necke and correspondent in circuit to the botome, the belly very great and round, it holdeth full twelue gallons, and hath a tap-hole to drawe wine out thereat, the Iarre is very auncient, but whether it be one of them or no, I know not. The aire of Famagusta is very vnwholesome, as they say, by reason of certaine marish ground adioyning vnto it. They haue also a certaine yeerely sicknesse raigning in the same towne, aboue all the rest of the Island: yet neuerthelesse, they haue it in other townes, but not so much. It is a certaine rednesse and paine of the eyes, the which if it bee not quickly holpen, it taketh away their sight, so that yeerely almost in that towne, they haue about twentie that lose their sight, either of one eye or both, and it commeth for the most part in this moneth of October, and the last moneth: for I haue met diuers times three and foure at once in companies, both men and women. [Sidenote: No vitailes must be sold out of the city of Famagusta.] Their liuing is better cheape in Famagusta then in any other place of the Island, because there may no kinde of prouision within their libertie bee solde out of the Citie. The second of October we returned to Arnacho, where wee rested vntill the sixt day. [Sidenote: Greate ruines in Cyprus.] This towne is a pretie Village, there are thereby toward the Sea side diuers monuments, that there hath bene great ouerthrow of buildings, for to this day there is no yere when they finde not, digging vnder ground, either coines, caues, and sepulcres of antiquities, as we walking, did see many, so that in effect, all alongst the Sea coast, throughout the whole Island, there is much ruine and ouerthrow of buildings, [Sidenote: Cyprus 36. yeres disinhabited for lacke of water.] for as they say, it was disinhabited sixe and thirtie yeres, before Saint Helens time for lacke of water. [Sidenote: Cypr. ruinated by Rich. the I.] And since that time it hath bene ruinated and ouerthrowen by Richard the first of that name king of England, which he did in reuenge of his sisters rauishment comming to Ierusalem, the which inforcement was done to her by the king of Famagusta. The sixt day we rid to Nicosia, which is from Arnacho seuen Cyprus miles, which are one and twentie Italian miles. This is the ancientest citie of the Iland, and is walled about, but it is not strong neither of walles nor situation: It is by report three Cyprus miles about, it is not throughly inhabited, but hath many great gardens in it, and also very many Date trees, and plentie of Pomegranates and other fruites. There dwell all the Gentilitie of the Island, and there hath euery Cauallier or Conte of the Island an habitation. [Sidenote: A fountaine that watereth al the gardens in the citie.] There is in this citie one fountaine rented by saint Marke, which is bound euery eight dayes once, to water all the gardens in the towne, and the keeper of this fountaine hath for euery tree a Bizantin, which is twelue soldes Venice, and sixpence sterling. [Sidenote: A Bizantin is 6. d. sterling.] He that hath that to farme, with a faire and profitable garden thereto belonging, paieth euery yeere to saint Marke, fifteene hundred crownes. The streetes of the citie are not paued, which maketh it with the quantitie of the gardens, to seeme but a rurall habitation. But there be many faire buildings in the Citie, there be also Monasteries both of Franks and Greekes. [Sidenote: S. Sophia is a Cathedral church of Nicosia.] The Cathedrall church is called Santa Sophia, in the which there is an old tombe of Iaspis stone, all of one piece, made in forme of a cariage coffer, twelue spannes long, sixe spannes broad, and seuen spannes high, which they say was found vnder ground. It is as faire a stone as euer I haue seene. The seuenth day we rid to a Greeke Frierie halfe a mile without the towne. It is a very pleasaunt place, and the Friers feasted vs according to their abilitie. These Friers are such as haue bene Priests, and their wiues dying they must become Friers of this place, and neuer after eate flesh, for if they do, they are depriued from saying masse: neither, after they haue taken vpon them this order, may they marry againe, but they may keepe a single woman. These Greekish Friers are very continent and chast, and surely I haue seldome seen (which I haue well noted) any of them fat. The 8. day we returned to Arnacho, and rested there. [Sidenote: Monte de la Croce.] The 9. after midnight my company rid to the hill called Monte de la Croce (but I not disposed would not go) which hill is from Arnacho 15. Italian miles. Vpon the sayd hill is a certaine crosse, which is, they say, a holy Crosse. This Crosse in times past did by their report of the Island, hang in the ayre, but by a certaine earthquake, the crosse and the chappeil it hung in, were ouerthrowen, so that neuer since it would hang againe in the aire. But it is now couered with siluer, and hath 3. drops of our lordes blood on it (as they say) and there is in the midst of the great crosse, a little crosse made of the crosse of Christ; but it is closed in the siluer, you must (if you will) beleeue it is so, for see it you cannot. This crosse hangeth nowe by both endes in the wall, that you may swing it vp and downe, in token that it did once hang in the aire. This was told me by my fellow pilgrimes, for I sawe it not. The 10. at night we went aboard by warning of the patron: and the 11. in the morning we set saile, and crept along the shore, but at night we ankered by reason of contrary windes. [Sidenote: Limisso.] The 12. we set saile toward Limisso, which is from Salines 50. miles, and there we went on land that night. The 13. and 14. we remained still on land, and the 15. the patrone sent for vs; but by reason that one of our company was not well, we went not presently, but we were forced afterward to hire a boate, and to ouertake the ship tenne miles into the sea. At this Limisso all the Venetian ships lade wine for their prouision, and some for to sell, and also vineger. [Sidenote: Carrobi.] They lade also great store of Carrobi: for all the countrey thereabout adioning, and all the mountaines are full of Carrobi trees, they lade also cotton wooll there. [Sidenote: Vulture.] In the sayd towne we did see a certaine foule of the land (whereof there are many in this Island) named in the Italian tongue Vulture. It is a foule that is as big as a Swanne, and it liueth vpon carion. The skinne is full of soft doune, like to a fine furre, which they vse to occupie when they haue euill stomocks, and it maketh good digestion. This bird (as they say) will eat as much at one meale as shall serue him fortie dayes after, and within the compasse of that time careth for no more meate. The countrey people, when they have any dead beast, they cary it into the mountaines, or where they suppose the sayd Vultures to haunt, they seeing the carion doe immediately greedily seize vpon it, and doe so ingraft their talents, that they cannot speedily rise agayne, by reason whereof the people come and kill them: sometimes they kill them with dogs, and sometimes with such weapons as they haue. This foule is very great and hardy, much like an Eagle in the feathers of her wings and backe, but vnder her great feathers she is onely doune, her necke also long and full of doune. She hath on the necke bone, betweene the necke and the shoulders a heape of fethers like a Tassell, her thighs vnto her knees are couered with doune, her legs strong and great, and dareth with her talents assault a man. [Sidenote: Great pleny of very fat birds.] They haue also in this Island a certaine small bird, much like vnto a Wagtaile in fethers and making, these are so extreme fat that you can perceiue nothing els in all their bodies: these birds are now in season. They take great quantitie of them, and they vse to pickle them with vineger and salt, and to put them in pots and send them to Venice and other places of Italy for presents of great estimation. They say they send almost 1200. Iarres or pots to Venice, besides those which are consumed in the Island, which are a great number. These are so plentifull that when there is no shipping, you may buy then for 10. Carchies, which coine are 4. to a Venetian Soldo, which is peny farthing the dozen, and when there is store of shipping, 2 pence the dozen, after that rate of their money. [Sidenote: The Famagustans obserue the French statutes.] They of the limites of Famagusta do keep the statutes of the Frenchmen which sometimes did rule there. And the people of Nicosia, obserue the order of the Genoueses, who sometimes also did rule them. All this day we lay in the sea with little wind. The 16. we met a Venetian ship, and they willing to speake with vs, and we with them, made towards each other, but by reason of the euil stirrage of the other ship, we had almost boorded each other to our great danger. [Sidenote: Cauo Bianco.] Toward night we ankered vnder Cauo Bianco, but because the winde grew faire, we set saile againe presently. [Sidenote: Another Cion.] The 17. 18. 19, and 20 we were at sea with calme sommer weather, and the 20. we had some raine, and saw another Cion in the element. [Sidenote: A ship called el Bonna.] This day also we sawe, and spake with a Venetian ship called el Bonna, bound for ciprus. The 21. we sailed with a reasonable gale, and saw no land vntil the 4. of Nouember. [Sidenote: A great tempest.] This day we had raine, thunder, lightening, and much wind and stormie weather, but God be praised we escaped all dangers. [Sidenote: Candia, Gozi.] The 4. of Nouember we had sight of the Island of Candia, and we fell with the Islands called Gozi, by south of Candia. [Sidenote: Antonie Gelber departed this life.] This day departed this present life, one of our company named Anthonie Gelber of Prussia, who onely tooke his surfet of Cyprus wine. This night we determined to ride a trie, because the wind was contrary, and the weather troublesome. The 5. we had very rough stormie weather. This day was the sayd Anthonie Gelber sowed in a Chauina filled with stones and throwen into the sea. By reason of the freshnes of the wind we would haue made toward the shore, but the wind put vs to the sea, where we endured a great storme and a troublesome night. The 6. 7. and 8. we were continually at the sea, and this day at noone the wind came faire, whereby we recouered the way which we had lost, and sayled out of sight of Candia. [Sidenote: Cauo Matapan. Modon.] The 9. we sailed all day with a prosperous wind after 14. mile an houre: and the 10. in the morning, wee had sight of Cauo Matapan, and by noone of Cauo Gallo, in Morea, with which land we made by reason of contrary wind, likewise we had sight of Modon, vnder the which place we ankered. This Modon is a strong towne, and built into the sea, with a peere for litle ships and galleis to harbour in. [Sidenote: Sapientia.] It hath on the South side of the chanell, the Iland of Sapientia, with other litle Ilands all disinhabited. The chanell lieth Southwest and Northeast betweene the Islands and Morea, which is firme land. This Modon was built by the Venetians, but as some say it was taken from them by force of the Turke, and others say by composition: [Sidenote: Coron. Napolis de Romania.] in like case Coron, and Napolis de Romania, which is also in Morea. This night the Flemmish pilgrimes being drunke, would have slaine the patrone because he ankered here. The 11. day we set saile againe, and as we passed by Modon, we saluted them with ordinance, for they that passe by this place, must salute with ordinance, (if they haue) or els by striking their top sailes, for if they doe not, the towne will shoot at them. [Sidenote: Prodeno. Zante and Cephalonia.] This day toward 2. of the clocke wee passed by the Island of Prodeno, which is but litle, and desert, vnder the Turke. About 2. houres before night, we had sight of the Islands of Zante and Cephalonia, which are from Modon one hundreth miles. The 12. day in the morning, with the wind at West, we doubled between Castle Torneste, and the Island of Zante. [Sidenote: Castle Torneste vnder the Turke.] This castle is on the firme land vnder the Turke. This night we ankered afore the towne of Zante, where we that night went on land, and rested there the 13. 14. and 15. at night we were warned aboord by the patrone. This night the ship tooke in vitailes and other necessaries. The 16. in the morning we set saile with a prosperous wind, and the 17. we had sight of Cauo de santa Maria in Albania on our right hand, and Corfu on the left hand. This night we ankered before the castles of Corfu, and went on land and refreshed our selues. [Sidenote: The description of the force of Corfu.] The 18. by meanes of a friend we were licenced to enter the castle or fortresse of Corfu, which is not onely of situation the strongest I haue seene, but also of edification. It hath for the Inner warde two strong castles situated on the top of two high cragges of a rocke, a bow shoot distant the one from the other: the rocke is vnassaultable, for the second warde it hath strong walles with rampiers and trenches made as well as any arte can deuise. For the third warde and vttermost, it hath very strong walles with rampires of the rocke it selfe cut out by force and trenched about with the sea. The bulwarkes of the vttermost warde are not yet finished, which are in number but two: there are continually in the castle seuen hundred souldiours. Also it hath continually foure wardes, to wit, for the land entrie one, for the sea entrie another, and two other wardes. Artillerie and other munition of defence alwayes readie planted it hath sufficient, besides the store remaining in their storehouses. The Venetians hold this for the key of all their dominions, and for strength it may be no lesse. This Island is very fruitfull and plentifull of wine and corne very good, and oliues great store. This Island is parted from Albania with a chanell, in some places eight and ten, and in other but three miles. Albania is vnder the Turke, but in it are many Christians. All the horseman of Corfu are Albaneses; the Island is not aboue 80. or 90. miles in compasse. The 19. 20. and 21. we remained in the towne of Corfu. The 22. day wee went aboord and set saile, the wind being very calme wee toed the ship all that day, and toward Sunne set, the castle sent a Fragatta vnto us to giue vs warning of three Foistes comming after vs, for whose comming wee prepared and watched all night, but they came not. The 23. day in the morning being calme, wee toed out of the Streight, vntill wee came to the olde towne, whereof there is no thing standing but the walles. There is also a new Church of the Greekes called Santa Maria di Cassopo, and the townes name is called Cassopo. It is a good porte. About noone wee passed the Streight, and drew toward the ende of the Iland, hauing almost no wind. This night after supper, by reason of a certaine Hollander that was drunke, there arose in the ship such a troublesome disturbance, that all the ship was in an vprore with weapons, and had it not bene rather by Gods helpe, and the wisedome and patience of the patrone, more then by our procurement, there had bene that night a great slaughter. But as God would, there was no hurt, but onely the beginner was put vnder hatches, and with the fall hurt his face very sore. All that night the wind blew at Southeast, and sent vs forward. The 24. in the morning wee found ourselues before an Island called Saseno, which is in the entrie to Valona, and the wind prosperous. The 25. day we were before the hils of Antiueri, and about sunne set wee passed Ragusa, and three houres within night we ankered within Meleda, hauing Sclauonia or Dalmatia on the right hand of vs, and the winde Southwest. The 26. in the morning we set sayle, and passed the chanell between Sclauonia and Meleda, which may be eight mile ouer at the most. This Iland is vnder the Raguses. At after noone with a hard gale at west and by north we entered the chanell betweene the Iland Curzola and the hilles of Dalmatia, in which channell be many rockes, and the channell not past 3 miles ouer, and we ankered before the towne of Curzolo. This is a pretie towne walled about and built vpon the sea side, hauing on the toppe of a round hill a faire Church. This Iland is vnder the Venetians, there grow very good vines, also that part toward Dalmatia is well peopled and husbanded, especially for wines. In the said Iland we met with the Venetian armie, to wit, tennie gallies, and three foystes. All that night we remained there. The 27 we set sayle and passed along the Iland, and towards afternoone we passed in before the Iland of Augusta, and about sunne set before the towne of Lesina, whereas I am informed by the Italians, they take all the Sardinas that they spend in Italy. This day we had a prosperous winde at Southeast. The Iland of Lesina is vnder the Venetians, a very fruitfull Iland adioyning to the maine of Dalmatia, we left it on our right hand, and passed along. [Sidenote: The gulfe of Quernero. Rouigno.] The 28 in the morning we were in the Gulfe of Quernero, and about two houres after noone we were before the cape of Istria, and at sunne set we were at anker afore Rouignio which is also in Istria and vnder the Venetians, where all ships Venetian and others are bound by order from Venice to take in their pilots to goe for Venice. All the sommer the Pilots lie at Rouignio, and in winter at Parenzo, which is from Rouignio 18 miles by West. [Sidenote: Parenzo.] The 29 we set sayle and went as farre as Parenzo, and ankered there that day, and went no further. [Sidenote: S. Nicolo an Iland.] The 30 in the morning we rowed to Sant Nicolo a litle Island hard by vninhabited, but only it hath a Monastery, and is full of Oliue trees, after masse wee returned and went aboord. This day we hired a Barke to imbarke the pilgrims for Venice, but they departed not. In the afternoone we went to see the towne of Parenzo, it is a pretie handsome towne, vnder the Venetians. After supper wee imbarked our selues againe, and that night wee sayled towardes Venice. The first of December we past a towne of the Venetians, standing on the entery to the Palude or marshes of Venice: which towne is called Caorle, and by contrary windes we were driuen thither to take port. This is 60 miles from Parenzo, and forty from Venice, there we remayned that night. The second two houres before day, with the winde at Southeast, we sayled towards Venice, where we arriued (God be praysed) at two of the clocke after dinner, and landed about foure, we were kept so long from landing, because we durst not land vntill we had presented to the Prouidor de la Sanita, our letter of health. * * * * * The first voyage or iourney, made by Master Laurence Aldersey, Marchant of London, to the Cities of Ierusalem, and Tripolis, &c. in the yeere 1581. Penned and set downe by himselfe. I departed from London the first day of April in the yeere of our Lord 1581, passing through the Nether-land and vp the riuer Rhene by Colen, and other cities of Germanie. And vpon Thursday, the thirde day of May, I came to Augusta, where I deliuered the letter I had to Master Ienise, and Master Castler, whom I found very willing to pleasure me, in any thing that I could or would reasonably demaund. He first furnished me with a horse to Venice, for my money, and then tooke me with him a walking, to shew me the Citie, for that I had a day to tary there, for him that was to be my guide. He shewed me first the Statehouse, which is very faire, and beautiful: then be brought mee to the finest garden, and orchard, that euer I sawe in my life: for there was in it a place for Canarie birdes, as large as a faire Chamber, trimmed with wier both aboue and beneath, with fine little branches of trees for them to sit in, vhich was full of those Canarie birdes. There was such an other for Turtle dooues: also there were two pigeon houses ioyning to them, hauing in them store of Turtle dooues and pigeons. In the same garden also were sixe or seuen fishponds, all railed about, and full of very good fish. Also, seuen or eight fine fountaines, or water springs, of diuers fashions: as for fruite, there wanted none of all sorts, as Orenges, figges, raisons, wallnuts, grapes, besides apples, peares, fillbirds, small nuts, and such other fruite, as wee haue in England. Then did hee bring mee to the water tower of the same Citie, that by a sleight and deuise hath the water brought vp as high as any Church in the towne, and to tel you the strange deuises of all, it passeth my capacitie. Then he brought me to another faire garden, called the Shooters hoose, where are buts for the long bowe, the cross bowe, the stone bowe, the long peece, and for diuers other exercises more. After this, we walked about the walles of the Citie, where is a great, broade, and deepe ditch, vpon one side of the towne, so full of fish, as euer I saw any pond in my life, and it is reserued onely for the States of the Citie. And vpon the other side of the Citie is also a deepe place all greene, wherein Deere are kept, and when it pleaseth the States to hunt for their pleasure, thither they resort, and haue their courses with grayhounds, which are kept for that purpose. The fift of May, I departed from Augusta towards Venice, and came thither vpon Whitsunday the thirteenth of the same moneth. It is needlesse to speake of the height of the mountaines that I passed ouer, and of the danger thereof, it is so wel knowen already to the world: the heigth of them is marueilous, and I was the space of sixe dayes in passing them. I came to Venice at the time of a Faire, which lasted foureteene dayes, wherein I sawe very many, and faire shewes of wares. I came thither too short for the first passage, which went away from Venice about the seuenth or eight of May, and with them about three score pilgrims, which shippe was cast away at a towne called Estria, two miles from Venice, and all the men in her, sauing thirtie, or thereabout, lost. Within eight dayes after fell Corpus Christi day, which was a day amongst them of procession, in which was shewed the plate and treasure of Venice, which is esteemed to be worth two millions of pounds, but I do not accompt it woorth halfe a quarter of that money, except there be more than I sawe. To speake of the sumptuousnesse of the Copes and Vestments of the Church, I leaue, but the trueth is, they be very sumptuous, many of them set all ouer with pearle, and made of cloth of golde. And for the Iesuits, I thinke there be as many at Venice, as there be in Colen. The number of Iewes is there thought to be 1000, who dwell in a certaine place of the Citie, and haue also a place, to which they resort to pray, which is called the Iewes Sinagogue. They all, and their offspring vse to weare red caps, (for so they are commaunded) because they may thereby be knowen from other men. For my further knowledge of these people, I went into their Sinagogue vpon a Saturday, which is their Sabbath day: and I found them in their seruice or prayers, very deuoute: they receiue the fiue bookes of Moses, and honour them by carying them about their Church, as the Papists doe their crosse. Their Synagogue is in forme round, and the people sit round about it, and in the midst, there is a place for him that readeth to the rest: as for their apparell, all of them weare a large white lawne ouer their garments, which reacheth from their head, downe to the ground. The Psalmes they sing as wee doe, hauing no image, nor vsing any maner of idolatrie: their error is, that they beleeue not in Christ, nor yet receiue the New Testament. This Citie of Venice is very faire, and greatly to bee commended, wherein is good order for all things: and also it is very strong and populous: it standeth vpon the maine Sea, and hath many Islands about it, that belong to it. To tell you of the duke of Venice, and of the Seigniory: there is one chosen that euer beareth the name of a duke, but in trueth hee is but seruant of his Seigniorie, for of himselfe hee can doe litle: it is no otherwise with him, then with a Priest that is at Masse vpon a festiual day, which putting on his golden garment, seemeth to be a great man, but if any man come vnto him, and craue some friendship at his handes, hee will say, you must goe to the Masters of the Parish, for I cannot pleasure you, otherwise then by preferring to your suite: and so it is with the duke of Venice, if any man hauing a suite, come to him and make his complaint, and deliuer his supplication, it is not in him to helpe him, but hee will tell him, You must come this day, or that day, and then I will preferre your suite to the Seigniorie, and doe you the best friendship that I may. Furthermore, if any man bring a letter vnto him, hee may not open it, but in the presence of the Seigniorie, and they are to see it first, which being read, perhaps they will deliuer it to him, perhaps not. Of the Seigniory there be about three hundreth, and about fourtie of the priuie Counsell of Venice, who vsually are arayed in gownes of crimsen Satten, or crimsen Damaske, when they sit in Counsell. In the citie of Venice, no man may weare a weapon, except he be a souldier for the Seigniorie, or a scholler of Padua, or a gentleman of great countenance, and yet he may not do that without licence. As for the women of Venice, they be rather monsters then women. Euery Shoomakers or Taylors wife will haue a gowne of silke, and one to carie vp her traine, wearing their shooes very neere halfe a yarde high from the ground: if a stranger meete one of them, he will surely thinke by the state that she goeth with, that he meeteth a Lady. I departed from this citie of Venice, vpon Midsommer day, being the foure and twentieth of Iune, and thinking that the ship would the next day depart, I stayed, and lay a shippeboord all night, and we were made beleeue from time to time, that we should this day, and that day depart, but we taried still, till the fourteenth of July, and then with scant winde we set sayle, and sayled that day and that night, not aboue fiftie Italian miles: and vpon the sixteene day at night the winde turned flat contrary, so that the Master knewe not what to doe: and about the fift houre of the night, which we reckon to be about one of the clocke after midnight, the Pilot descried a saile, and at last perceiued it to be a Gallie of the Turkes, whereupon we were in great feare. The Master being a wise fellowe, and a good sayler, beganne to deuise howe to escape the danger, and to loose litle of our way: and while both he, and all of vs were in our dumps, God sent vs a merry gale of winde, that we ranne threescore and tenne leagues before it was twelue a clocke the next day, and in sixe dayes after we were seuen leagues past Zante. And vpon Munday morning, being the three and twentie of the same moneth, we came in the sight of Candia which day the winde came contrary, with great blasts and stormes, vntill the eight and twentie of the same moneth: in which time, the Mariners cried out vpon me, because I was an English man, and sayd, I was no good Christian, and wished that I were in the middest of the Sea, saying, that they, and the shippe, were the worse for me. I answered, truely it may well be, for I thinke my selfe the worst creature in the worlde, and consider you your selues also, as I doe my selfe, and then vse your discretion. The Frier preached, and the sermon being done, I was demaunded whether I did vnderstand him: I answered, yea, and tolde the Frier himselfe, thus you saide in your sermon, that we were not all good Christians, or else it were not possible for vs to haue such weather: to which I answered, be you well assured, that we are not indeede all good Christians, for there are in the ship some that hold very vnchristian opinions: so for that time I satisfied him, although (they said) that I would not see, when they said the procession, and honoured their images, and prayed to our Lady and S. Marke. There was also a Gentleman, an Italian, which was a passenger in the ship, and he tolde me what they said of me, because I would not sing, Salue Regina and Aue Maria, as they did: I told them, that they that praied to so many, or sought helpe of any other, then of God the Father, or of Iesus Christ his onely sonne, goe a wrong way to worke, and robbed God of his honour, and wrought their owne destructions. All this was told of the Friers, but I heard nothing of it in three daies after: and then at euening prayer, they sent the purser about with the image of our Lady to euery one to kisse, and I perceiuing it went another way from him, and would not see it: yet at last he fetched his course about, so that he came to me, and offered it to me as he did to others, but I refused it: whereupon there was a great stirre: the patron and all the friers were told of it, and euery one saide I was a Lutheran, and so called me: but two of the friers that were of greatest authoritie, seemed to beare me better good will then the rest, and trauelled to the patron in my behalfe, and made all well againe. The second day of August we arriued in Cyprus, at a towne called Missagh: the people there be very rude, and like beasts, and no better they eat their meat sitting vpon the ground, with their legges a crosse like tailors, their beds for the most part be hard stones, but yet some of them haue faire mattraces to lie vpon. Vpon Thursday the eight of August we came to Ioppa in a small barke, which we hired betwixt Missagh and Salina, and could not be suffered to come on land till noone the next day, and then we were permitted by the great Basha, who sate vpon the top of a hill to see vs sent away. Being come on land, we might not enter into any house for victuals, but were to content our selues with our owne prouision, and that which we bought to carie with vs was taken from vs. I had a paire of stirrops, which I bought at Venice to serue me in my journey, and trying to make them fit for me, when the Basha saw me vp before the rest of the companie, he sent one to dismount me, and to strike me, whereupon I turned me to the Basha, and made a long legge, saying, Grand mercie Signior: and after a while we were horsed vpon litle asses, and sent away, with about fiftie light horsemen to be our conduct through the wildernesse, called Deserta foelix, who made vs good sport by the way with their pikes, gunnes, and fauchins. That day being S. Laurence day we came to Rama, which is tenne Italian miles from Ioppa, and there we stayed that night, and payed to the captaine of the castell euery man a chekin, which is seuen shillings and two pence sterling. So then we had a new gard of souldiers, and left the other. The house we lodged in at Rama had a doore so low to enter into, that I was faine to creepe in, as it were vpon my knees, and within it are three roomes to lodge trauellers that come that way: there are no beds, except a man buy a mat, and lay it on the ground, that is all the prouision, without stooles or benches to sit vpon. Our victuals were brought vs out of the towne, as hennes, egges, bread, great store of fruite, as pomgranates, figges, grapes, oringes, and such like, and drinke we drue out of the well. The towne it selfe is so ruinated that I take it rather to be a heape of stones then a towne. Then the next morning we thought to haue gone away, but we could not be permitted that day, so we stayed there till two of the clocke the next morning, and then with a fresh gard of souldiers we departed toward Ierusalem. We had not ridde fiue English miles, but we were incountred with a great number of the Arabians, who stayed vs, and would not suffer vs to passe till they had somewhat, so it cost vs for all our gard aboue twentie shillings a man betwixt Ioppa and Ierusalem. These Arabians troubled vs oftentimes. Our Truchman that payed the money for vs was striken down, and had his head broken because be would not giue them as much as they asked: and they that should haue rescued both him and vs, stood sill and durst do nothing, which was to our cost. Being come within sight of Ierusalem, the maner is to kneele downe, and giue God thankes, that it hath pleased him to bring vs to that holy place, where he himselfe had beene: and there we leaue our horses and go on foote to the towne, and being come to the gates, there they tooke our names, and our fathers names, and so we were permitted to go to our lodgings. The gouernour of the house met vs a mile out of the towne, and very curteously bade vs all welcome, and brought vs to the monasterie. The gates of the citie are all couered with yron, the entrance into the house of the Christians is a very low and narrow doore, barred or plated with yron, and then come we into a very darke entry: the place is a monastery: there we lay, and dieted of free cost, we fared reasonable well, the bread and wine was excellent good, the chambers cleane, and all the meat well serued in, with cleane linnen. We lay at the monasterie two days, Friday and Saturday, and then we went to Bethlem with two or three of the friers of the house with vs: in the way thither we saw many monuments, as: The mountaine where the Angell tooke vp Abacuck by the haire, and brought him to Daniel in the Lions denne. The fountaine of the prophet Ieremie. The place where the wise men met that went to Bethlem to worship Christ, where is a fountaine of stone. Being come to Bethlem we sawe the place where Christ was borne, which is now a chappell with two altars, whereupon they say masse: the place is built with gray marble, and hath bene beautifull, but now it is partly decayed. Neere thereto is the sepulchre of the innocents slaine by Herod, the sepulchres of Paul, of Ierome, and of Eusebius. Also a little from this monasterie is a place vnder the ground, where the virgine Mary abode with Christ when Herod sought him to destroy him. We stayed at Bethlem that night, and the next day we went from thence to the mountaines of Iudea, which are about eight miles from Ierusalem, where are the ruines of an olde monasterie. In the mid way from the monasterie to Ierusalem is the place where Iohn Baptist was borne, being now an olde monasterie, and cattell kept in it. Also a mile from Ierusalem is a place called Inuentio sanctæ crucis, where the wood was found that made the crosse. In the citie of Ierusalem we saw the hall where Pilate sate in iudgement when Christ was condemned, the staires whereof are at Rome, as they told vs. A litle from thence is the house where the virgin Mary was borne. There is also the piscina or fishpoole where the sicke folkes were healed, which is by the wals of Ierusalem. But the poole is now dry. The mount of Caluaria is a great church, and within the doore thereof, which is litle, and barred with yron, and fiue great holes in it to looke in, like the holes of taverne doores in London, they sit that are appointed to receiue our money with a carpet vnder them vpon a banke of stone, and their legges a crosse like tailors: hauing paid our money, we are permitted to go into the church: right against the church doore is the graue where Christ was buried, with a great long stone of white marble ouer it, and rayled about, the outside of the sepulchre is very foule, by meanes that euery man scrapes his name and marke vpon it, and is ill kept. Within the sepulchre is a partition, and in the further part thereof is a place like an altar, where they say masse, and at the doore thereof is the stone whereupon the Angell sate when he sayde to Marie, He is risen, which stone was also rowled to the doore of the sepulchre. The altar stone within the sepulchre is of white marble, the place able to confeine but foure persons, right ouer the sepulchre is a deuise or lanterne for light, and ouer that a great louer such as are in England in ancient houses. There is also the chappell of the sepulchre, and in the mids thereof is a canopie as it were of a bed, with a great sort of Estridge egges hanging at it, with tassels of silke and lampes. Behinde the sepulchre is a litle chappell for the Chaldeans and Syrians. Vpon the right hand comming into the church is the tombe of Baldwine king of France, and of his sonne: and in the same place the tombe of Melchisedech. There is a chappell also in the same church erected to S. Helen, through which we go vp to the place where Christ was crucified: the stayres are fiftie steps high, there are two altars in it: before the high altar is the place where the crosse stood, the hole whereof is trimmed about with siluer, and the depth of it is halfe a mans arme deepe: the rent also of the mountaine is there to be seene in the creuis, wherein a man may put his arme. Vpon the other side of the mount of Caluarie is the place where Abraham would haue sacrificed his sonne. Where also is a chapell, and the place paued with stones of diuers colours. There is also the house of Annas the high Priest, and the Oliue tree whereunto Christ was bound to when he was whipt. Also the house of Caiphas, and by it the prison where Christ was kept, which is but the roome of one man, and hath no light but the opening of the doore. Without Ierusalem in the vally of Iosaphat is a church vnder the ground, like to the shrouds in Pauls, where the sepulchre of the virgin Mary is: the staires be very broad, and vpon the staires going downe are two sepulchres: vpon the left hand lieth Iosaphat, and vpon the right hand lieth Ioachim and Anna, the father and mother of the virgin Mary. Going out of the valley of Iosaphat we came to mount Oliuet, where Christ praied vnto his father before his death: and there is to be seene (as they tolde me) the water and blood that fell from the eyes of Christ. A litle higher vpon the same mount is the place where the Apostles slept, and watched not. At the foot of the mount is the place where Christ was imprisoned. Vpon the mountaine also is the place where Christ stood when he wept ouer Ierusalem, and where he ascended into heauen. Now hauing seene all these monuments, I with my company set from Ierusalem, the 20 day of August, and came againe to Ioppa the 22 of the same moneth, where wee tooke shipping presently for Tripolis, and in foure dayes we came to Mecina the place where the ships lie that come for Tripolis. The citie of Tripolis is a mile and a halfe within the land, so that no ship can come further then Mecina: so that night I came thither, where I lay nine daies for passage, and at last we imbarked our selues in a good ship of Venice called the Naue Ragasona. We entred the ship the second of September, the fourth we set saile, the seuenth we came to Salina, which is 140 miles from Tripolis: there we stayed foure dayes to take in more lading, in which meane time I fell sicke of an ague, but recouered againe, I praise God. Salina is a ruinated citie, and was destroyed by the Turke ten yeeres past: there are in it now but seuenteene persons, women and children. A litle from this citie of Salina is a salt piece of ground, where the water groweth salt that raineth vpon it. Thursday the 21 of September, we came to Missagh, and there we stayed eight dayes for our lading: the 18 of September before we came to Missagh, and within ten miles of the towne, as we lay at an anker, because the winde was contrary, there came a great boat full of men to boord vs, they made an excuse to seeke for foure men which (they said) our ship had taken from theirs about Tripolis, but our captaine would not suffer any of them to come into vs. The next morning they came to vs againe with a great gally, manned with 500 men at the least, whereupon our captaine sent the boat to them with twelue men to know their pleasure: they said they sought for 4 men, and therefore would talke with our maister: so then the maisters mate was sent them, and him they kept, and went their way; the next morning they came againe with him, and with three other gallies, and then would needes speake with our captaine, who went to them in a gowne of crimson damaske, and other very braue apparell, and fiue or sixe other gentlemen richly apparelled also. They hauing the Turkes safe conduct, shewed it to the captaine of the gallies, and laid it vpon his head, charging him to obey it: so with much adoe, and with the gift of 100 pieces of golde we were quit of them, and had our man againe. That day as aforesaid, we came to Missagh, and there stayed eight dayes, and at last departed towards Candie, with a scant winde. The 11 day of October we were boorded with foure gallies, manned with 1200 men, which also made a sleeuelesse arrant, and troubled us very much, but our captaines pasport, and the gift of 100 chekins discharged all. The 27 of October we passed by Zante with a merrie winde, the 29 by Corfu, and the third of Nouember we arriued at Istria, and there we left our great ship, and tooke small boates to bring vs to Venice. The 9 of Nouember I arriued again at Venice in good health, where I staied nine daies, and the 25 of the same moneth I came to Augusta, and staied there but one day. The 27 of Nouember I set towards Nuremberg where I came the 29, and there staied till the 9 of December, and was very well interteined of the English marchants there: and the gouernors of the towne sent me and my company sixteene gallons of excellent good wine. From thence I went to Frankford, from Frankford to Collen, from Collen to Arnam, from Arnam to Vtreight, from Vtreight to Dort, from Dort to Antwerpe, from Antwerpe to Flushing, from Flushing to London, where I arriued vpon Twelue eue in safetie, and gaue thanks to God, hauing finished my iourney to Ierusalem and home againe, in the space of nine moneths and fiue dayes. * * * * * The passeport made by the great Maister of Malta vnto the Englishmen in the barke Raynolds. 1582. Frere Hugo de Loubeux Verdala, Dei gratia sacræ domus hospitalis sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani, magister humilis, pauperumque Iesu Christi custos, vniuersis et singulis principibus ecclesiasticis et secularibus, archiepiscopis, episcopis, ducibus, marchionibus, baronibus, nobilibus, capitaneis, vicedominis, præfectis, castellanis, admiralijs, et quibuscunque triremium vel aliorum nauigiorum patronis, ac ciuitatum rectoribus, potestatibus ac magistratibus, cæterisque officialibus, et quibuscunque personis cuiusuis dignitatis, gradus, status et conditionis fuerint, vbilibet locorum et terrarum constitutis, salutem. Notum facimus et in verbo veritatis attestamur, come nel mese di Maggio prossime passato le nostre galere vennero dal viaggio di Barberia, doue hauendo mandato per socorrere a vn galionetto de Christiani che hauea dato trauerso in quelle parti, essendo arriuati sopra questa isola alla parte de ponente trouarono vno naue Inglesa, sopra cargo de essa il magnifico Giouanni Keale, et Dauid Filly patrono, volendo la reconoscere che naue fosse, han visto, che se metteua in ordine per defendersi, dubitando che dette nostre galere fossero de inimici: et per che vn marinaro riuoltose contra la volonta de detti magnifico Giouanni Keale et Dauid Filly, habbi tirato vn tiro di artiglieria verso vna de dette galere, et che non se amangnaua la vela de la Maiestra secondo la volonta de detti magnifico Giouanni Keale et Dauid Filly patrono, furimensata detta naue nel presente general porto di Malta, secondo l'ordine del venerando Generale de dette galere, et essendo qua, monsignor Inquisitore ha impedita quella per conto del sancto officio, et si diede parte alla santita di nostro signor Gregorio papa xiij. A la fin fu licenciata per andarsene al suo viaggio. Han donque humilmente supplicato detti magnifico Giouanni Keale et Dauid Filly per nome et parte delli magnifici Edwardo Osborn senatore et Richardo Staper merchanti Inglesi della nobile citta di Londra, et anco di Tomaso Wilkinson scriuano, piloti, nocheri, et marinari, gli volessimo dare le nostre lettere patente et saluo condutto, accioche potranno andare et ritornare quando gli parera commodo con alcuna roba et mercantia a loro benuista: si come noi, essendo cosa giusta et che retornera commoda a nostra relligione et a questi forrestieri, per tenor de li presenti se gli habiamo concesse con le conditione però infra scritte, videlicet: Che ogni volta che detti mercadanti con sopradetta naue o con altra non porterano mercantie de contrabando, et che constara per fede authentica et con lettere patente de sanita, poteran liberalmente victualiarse de tutte le victuarie necessarie, et praticare in questa isola et dominij, et poi partisene et seguire suo viaggio per doue volessero in leuante o altroue, come tutti altri vaselli et specialmente de Francesi et aitri nationi, et die venderi et comprare qual si voglia mercantia a loro benuista. Item, che potera portare poluere de canone et di archibuso, salnitro, carboni di petra rosetta, platine de rame, stagno, acciale, ferro, carisée commune, tela grossa bianca per far tende de galere, balle de ferro de calibro, petre de molino fine, arbore et antenne de galere, bastardi et alteri. Et in conclusione, hauenda visto che loro per il tempo che restarano qua, si portorno da fideli et Catholici Christiani, et che sua sanctita habbia trouata bono il saluo condutto del gran Turko a loro concesso, per il timor della armata Turkesca et di altri vaselli de inimici, inherendo alla volonta di sua sanctità, et massime per che hauera de andare et passare per diuersi lochi et tanto lontani come Ingilterra, Flandra, et tutti patri di ponente, et in altroue, a noi ha parso farle le presente nostre lettere patente com fidele conuersatore nostro, accio piu securamente et sensa obstaculo possa andare et ritornare quando li parera con detta naue o con altre, a loro benuista. Per tanto donque tutti et ciascun di voi sudetti affectuosamente pregamo, che per qual si voglia de vostra iurisditione, alla quale detto magnifico Giouanni Keale et Dauid Filly anome quo supra con la naue et marinari de detti loro principali o altri caschera, nauigare, passare, et venire sicuramente, alla libera, sensa alcuno disturbo o altro impedimento li lasciate, et facciate lasciare, stare, et passare, tornare, et quando li parera partire, talmente che per amore et contemplatione nostra il detto magnifico Giouanni Keale a nome quo supra con le naue, marinari, et mercantia non habbi difficulta, fastidio et ritentione alcuna, anzi se gli dia ogni agiuto et fauore, cosa degnadi voi, giusta, et a noi gratissima, de recompensaruila con vagule et maggior seruitio, quando dall'occasione ne saremo rechiesti. Et finalmente commandammo a tutti et qual si voglia relligiosi et frati de nostra relligione di qual si voglia conditione, grado et stato che siano, et a tutti riceuitori et procuratori nostri in tutti et qual si voglia priorati nostri deputati et deputandi in vertu di santa obedientia, et attuti nostri vassalli et alla giurisditione di nostri relligione sogetti, che in tale et per tale tenghino et reputino il detto magnifico Giouanni Keale a nome vt supra, naue, marinari, et mercantia, sensa permittere, che nel detto suo viaggio, o in alcun altro Iuogo sia molestato, o in qual si voglia manera impedito, anzi rutte le cose sue et negotij loro sian da voi agioutati et continuamente fauoriti. In cuius rei testimonium Bulla nostra magistralis in cera nigra præsentibus est impressa. Datæ Melitæ in conuentu nostro die duodecimo Mensis Iulij. 1582. The same in English Frier Hugo of Loubeux Verdala, by the grace of God, master of the holy house, the hospital of S. Iohn at Ierusalem, and an humble keeper of the poore of Iesus Christ, to all and euery prince ecclesiastical and secular, archbishops, bishops, Dukes, Marqueses, Barons, Capteines, Vicelords, Maiors, Castellanes, Admirals, and whatsoeuer patrons of Gallies, or other greater officers and persons whatsoeuer, of what dignitie, degree, state and condition soeuer they be, dwelling in all places and landes, greeting. We make it knowne, and in the word of truth do witnesse, that in the moneth of May last past, our gallies came on the voyage from Barbarie, where hauing commandement to succour a little ship of the Christians which was driuen ouer into that part being arriued vpon this Iland on the West part they found one English ship vnder the charge of the worshipfull Iohn Keele, and Dauid Fillie master: and our men willing to know what ship it was, they seemed to put themselues in order for their defence, doubting that the said our gallies were of the enemies, and therefore one mariner attempted contrary to the will of the worshipfull Iohn Keele, and Dauid Fillie maister: and had shot off a piece of artillerie against one of the said gallies, and because she would not strike amaine her sayle, according to the will of the saide worshipfull Iohn Keele, and Dauid Fillie master, the said ship was brought backe again vnto the present port of Malta, according to the order of the reuerend generall of the said gallies: and in being there maister Inquisitor staid it by authoritie of the holy office, and in that behalfe by the holinesse of our Lord pope Gregorie the thirteenth, in the end was licenced to depart on her voyage. They therefore the said worshipfull Iohn Keele and Dauid Fillie, in the name and behalfe of the worshipfull master Edward Osborne and Alderman, and Richard Staper, English marchants of the noble citie of London, haue humbly besought together with Thomas Wilkinson the purser, pilots, master and mariners, that we would giue our letters patents, and safe conducts, that they might goe and returne, when they shall see opportunitie, with their goods and marchandizes at their pleasure: whereupon the thing seeming vnto vs iust, and that it might be for the profite of our religion, and of these strangers, by the tenor of these presents we haue graunted the same to them: yet, with the conditions hereunder written, viz. That euery time the said marchants of the said ship, or with any other, shall not bring such merchandize as is forbidden, and that sufficient proofe and letters testimonial it appeareth that they are free from the infections of the plague, they may vituall themselues with all necessarie victuals, and traffike with vs, and in this Iland and dominion, and afterwarde may depart and follow their voyage whither they will into the Luant or else where, as all other vessels, and especially of France and other nations do, and sell and buy whatsoeuer marchandize they shal thinke good. Item, that they may bring powder for cannon and harquebush, saltpeeter, cole of Newcastle, plates of lattin, tinne, steele, yron, common karsies white, course canuas to make saile for the gallies, balles of yron for shot, fine milstones, trees and masts for gallies, litle and others, and in conclusion, hauing seene that they for the time of their abode here, did behaue themselues like faithfull and catholike Christians, and that his holines hath allowed the safeconduct of the great Turke to them granted for feare of the Turkish armie, and other vessels of the enemie, submitting our selues to the pleasures of his holinesse, and especially because our people haue occasion to passe by diuers places so farre off, as England, Flanders, and all parts Westwards, and in other places, we haue vouchsafed to make these our letters patents, as our faithfull assistant, so as more surely, and with let they may go and returne when they shall thinke good, with the said ship or with others at their pleasure. We therefore pray all and euery of your subiects effectually that by what part soeuer of your iurisdiction, vnto the which the said worshipful Iohn Keele and Daniel Fillie by name abouesaid, with the ship and mariners of the said principall place or other, shall haue accesse, saile, and passe, and come safely with libertie without any disturbance or other impediment, that you giue leaue, and cause leaue to be giuen that they may passe, stay and returne, and when they please, depart, in such sort, that for loue and contention the said worshipfull Iohn Keele, with the ship and mariners haue no let, hinderance, or retention, also that you giue all helpe and fauour, a thing worthy of your iustice, and to vs most acceptable, to be recompenced with equall and greater seruice, when vpon occasion it shalbe required. And finally, we command all, and whatsoeuer religious people, and brothers of our religion, of whatsoeuer condition, degree, and state they be, and all other receiuers and procurators, in all and whatsoeuer our priories deputed, and to be deputed by vertue of the holy obedience, and all our people, and all that are subiect to the iurisdiction of our religion, that in, and by the same they hold, and repute the said worshipfull Iohn Keele in the name as abouesaid, the ship, mariners, and merchandize, without let in the same their voyage, or in any other place, that they be not molested, not in any wise hindered, but that in all their causes and businesse they be of you holpen, and furthered continually. In witnesse whereof, our seale of gouernment is impressed to these presents in blacke waxe. Giuen at Malta in our Conuent, the twelfth of the moneth of Iuly, in the yeere 1582. * * * * * Commission giuen by M. William Harebourne the English Ambassadour, to Richard Foster, authorising him Consul of the English nation in the parts of Alepo, Damasco, Aman, Tripolis, Ierusalem, &c. I William Harborne, her Maiesties Ambassadour, Ligier with the Grand Signior, for the affaires of the Leuant doe in her Maiesties name confirme and appoint Richart Foster Gentleman, my Deputie and Consull in the parts of Alepo, Damasco, Aman, Tripolis, Ierusalem and all other ports whatsoeuer in the prouinces of Syria, Palestina, and Iurie, to execute the office of Consull ouer all our Nation her Maiesties subiects, of what estate or quality soeuer: giuing him hereby full power to defend, protect, and maintaine all such her Maiesties subiects as to him shall be obedient, in all honest and iest causes whatsoeuer: and in like case no lesse power to imprison, punish, and correct any and all such as he shall finde disobedient to him in the like causes, euen in such order as I myselfe might doe by virtue to her Maiesties Commission giuen me the 26 of Nouember 1582, the copie whereof I haue annexed to this present vnder her Maiesties Seale deliuered me to that vse. Straightly charging and commanding all her Maiesties subiects in those parts, as they will auoid her Highnesse displeasure and their owne harmes, to honour his authoritie, and haue due respect vnto the same, aiding and assisting him there with their persons and goods in any cause requisit to her Maiesties good seruice and commoditie of her dominions. In witnesse whereof I haue confirmed and sealed these these presents at Rapamat my house by Pera ouer against Constantinople, to 20 of Iune 1583. * * * * * A letter of directions of the English Ambassadour to M. Richard Forster, appointed the first English Consull at Tripolis in Syria. Cousin Forster, these few words are for your remembrance when it shall please the Almighty to send you safe arriuall in Tripolis of Syria. When it shall please God to send you thither, you are to certifie our Nation at Tripolis of the certaine day of your landing, to the end they both may haue their house in a readinesse, and also meet you personally at your entrance to accompany you, being your selfe apparelled in the best manner. The next, second, or third day, after your comming, giue it out that you be crazed and not well disposed, by meanes of your trauell at Sea, during which time, you and those there are most wisely to determine in what manner your are to present your selfe to the Beglerbi, Cadi, and other officers: who euery of them are to be presented according to the order accustomed of others formerly in like office: which after the note of Iohn Blanke, late Vice-consull of Tripolis for the French, deliuered you heerewith, is very much: and therefore, if thereof you can saue any thing, I pray you doe it, as I doubt not but you will. They are to giue you there also another Ianizarie according as the French hath: whose outward procedings you are to imitate and follow, in such sort as you be not his inferour, according as those of our Nation heeretofore with him resident can informe you. Touching your demeanour after your placing, your [sic--KTH] are wisely to proceede considering both French and Venetian will haue an enuious eye on you: whome if they perceiue wise and well aduised, they will feare to offer you any iniurie. But if they shall perceiue any insufficiencie in you, they will not omitte any occasion to harme you. They are subtile, malicious, and disembling people, wherefore you must alwayes haue their doings for suspected, and warily walke in all your actions: wherein if you call for Gods diuine assistance, as doth become euery faithfull good Christian, the same shall in such sort direct you as he shall be glorified, your selfe preserued, your doings blessed, and your enemies confounded. Which if contrarywise you omit and forget, your enemies malice shalbe satisfied with your confusion, which God defend, and for his mercies sake keepe you. Touching any outlopers of our nation, which may happen to come thither to traffike, you are not to suffer, but to imprison the chiefe officers, and suffer the rest not to traffike at any time, and together enter in such bonds as you thinke meete, that both they shall not deale in the Grand Signiors dominions, and also not harme, during their voyage, any his subiects shippes, vessels, or whatsoeuer other, but quitely depart out of the same country without any harme doing. And touching those there for the company, your are to defend them according to your priuiledge and such commandements as you haue had hence, in the best order you may. In all and euery your actions, at any hand, beware of rashnesse and anger, after both which repentance followeth. Touching your dealings in their affaires of marchandise, you are not to deale otherwise then in secret and counsell. You are carefully to foresee the charge of the house, that the same may be in all honest measure to the companies profit and your owne health through moderation in diet, and at the best hand, and in due time to prouide things needfull to saue what may be: for he that buyeth euery thing when he needed it, harmeth his owne house, and helpeth the retailer. So as it is, in mine opinion, wisdome to foresee the buying of all things in their natiue soile, in due time, and at the first hand euery yeere, as you are to send the company the particular accounts of the same expenses. Touching your selfe, your [sic--KTH] are to cause to be employed fifty or threescore ducats, videlicet, twenty in Sope, and the rest in Spices, whereof the most part to be Pepper, whereof we spend very much. The Spices are to be prouided by our friend William Barrat, and the Sope buy you at your first arriuall, for that this shippe lading the same commodity will cause it to amount in price. From our mansion Rapamat, the fift of September 1583. * * * * * A commandement for Chio. Vobis, Beg et Cadi et Ermini, qui estis in Chio, significamus: quòd serenissimæ Reginæ Maiestatis Angliæ orator, qui est in excelsa porta per literas significauit nobis, quod ex nauibus Anglicis vna nauis venisset ad portum Chico, et illinc Constantinopolim recto cursu voluisset venire, et contra priuilegium detenuistis, et non siuistis venire. Hæc prædictus orator significauit nobis: et petiuit a nobis in hoc negocio hoc mandatum, vt naues Anglicæ veniant et rediant in nostras ditiones Cæsareas. Priuilegium datum et concessum est ex parte Serenitatis Cæsareæ nostræ: et huius priuilegij copia data est sub insigni nostro: Et contra nostrum priuilegium Cæsareum quod ita agitur, quæ est causa? Quando cum hoc mandato nostro homines illorum ad vos venerint ex prædicta Anglia, si nauis venerit ad portum vestrum, et si res et merces ex naue exemerint, et vendiderint, et tricessimam secundam partem reddiderint, et res quæ manserint Constantinopolim auferre velint, patiantur: Et si aliquis contra priuilegium et articulos eius aliquid ageret, non sinatis, nec vos facite: et impediri non sinatis eos, vt rectà Constantinopolim venientes in suis negotiationibus sine molestia esse possint. Et quicunque contra hoc mandatum et priuilegium nostrum aliquid fecerit, nobis significate. Huic mandato nostro et insigni fidem adhibete. In principio mensis Decembris. * * * * * A description of the yeerely voyage or pilgrimage of the Mahumitans, Turkes and Moores vnto Mecca in Arabia. Of the Citie of Alexandria. Alexandria the most ancient citie in Africa situated by the seaside containeth seuen miles in circuite, and is enuironed with two walles one neere to the other with high towers, but the walles within be farre higher than those without, with a great ditch round about the same: yet is not this Citie very strong by reason of the great antiquitie, being almost halfe destroyed and ruinated. The greatnesse of this Citie is such, that if it were of double habitation, as it is compassed with a double wall, it might be truely said, that there were two Alexandrias one builded vpon another, because vnder the foundations of the said City are great habitations, and incredible huge pillers. True it is, that this part vnderneath remaineth at this day inhabitable, because of the corrupt aire, as also for that by time, which consumeth all things, it is greately ruinated. It might well be sayd, that the founder hereof, as he was worthy in all his enterprises, so likewise in building hereof he did a worke worthy of himselfe, naming it after his owne name. This Citie hath one defect, for it is subiect to an euill ayre, which onely proceedeth of that hollownesse vnderneath, out of the which issueth infinite moisture: and that this is true the ayre without doth evidently testifie, which is more subtile and holesome then that beneath. The waters hereof be salt, by reason that the soile of it selfe is likewise so. And therefore the inhabitants, at such time as the riuer Nilus floweth, are accustomed to open a great ditch, the head wherof extendeth into the said riuer, and from thence they conueigh the same within halfe a mile of Alexandria, and so consequently by meanes of conduct-pipes the water commeth vnto the cesternes of Alexandria, which being full serue the citie from one inundation to another. Within the citie is a Pyramide mentioned of in Histories, but not of great importance. Without the citie is La colonna di Pompeio, or the pillar of Pompey, being of such height and thicknesse, that it is supposed there is not the like in the whole world besides. Within the citie there is nothing of importance saue a litle castle which is guarded with 60 Ianizaries. Alexandria hath three portes, one towardes Rossetto, another to the land ward, and the third to the sea ward, which is called Babelbar, without which appeareth a broad Iland called Ghesira in the Moores tongue, which is not wholy an Iland, because a litle point or corner thereof toucheth the firme lande, and therefore may be called Peninsula, that is to say, almost an Iland. Hereupon are builded many houses of the Iewes, in respect of the aire. This Peninsula is situate betweene two very good ports, one of them being much more safe then the other, called The old port, into the which only the vessels of Barbarie, and the sixe Gallies of the Grand Signior deputeth for the guard of Alexandria doe enter. And this port hath vpon the right hand at the mouth or enterance thereof a castle of small importance, and guarded but with fifteene men or thereabouts On the other side of this Iland is the other called The new port, which name is not vnfitly giuen vnto it, for that in all mens iudgement in times past there hath not beene water there, because in the midst of this port, where the water is very deepe, there are discouered and found great sepulchres and other buildings, out of the which are dayly digged with engines Iaspar and Porphyrie stones of great value, of the which great store are sent to Constantinople for the ornament of the Mesquitas or Turkish Temples, and of other buildings of the Grand Signior. Into this port enter all such vessels as traffique to this place. This port hath on ech side a castle, whereof that vpon the Peninsula is called Faraone, vpon the toppe whereof euery night there is a light set in a great lanterne for direction of the ships, and for the guard thereof are appointed 200 Ianizaries: the other on the other side is but a litle castle kept by 18. men. It is certeine, that this hauen of Alexandria is one of the chiefest hauens in the world: for hither come to traffique people of euery Nation, and all sorts of vessels which goe round about the citie. It is more inhabited by strangers, marchants, and Christians, then by men of the countrey which are but a few in number. [Sidenote: Fontecho signifieth an house of trafique, as the Stilyard.] Within the citie are fiue Fontechi, that is to say, one of the Frenchmen, where the Consul is resident, and this is the fairest and most commodious of all the rest. Of the other foure, two belong to the Venetians, one to the Raguseans, and the fourth to the Genoueses. And all strangers which come to traffique there, except the Venetians, are vnder the French Consull. It is also to be vnderstood, that all the Christians dwell within their Fontechi, and euery euening at the going downe of the sunne, they which are appointed for that office goe about and shut all the gates of the saide Fontechi outward, and the Christians shut the same within: and so likewise they doe on the Friday (which is the Moores and the Turkes Sabboth) till their deuotions be expired. And by this meanes all parties are secure and voide of feare: for in so doing the Christians may sleepe quietly and not feare robbing, and the Moores neede not doubt whiles they sleepe or pray, that the Christians should make any tumult, as in times past hath happened. Of the coast of Alexandria. [Sidenote: Bichier.] On the side towardes Barbarie along the sea-coast for a great space there is founde neither hold, nor any thing worthy of mention: but on the other side towards Syria 13 miles from Alexandria standeth a litle castle called Bichier kept by fiftie Turkes, which castle is very olde and weake, and hath a port which in times past was good, but at this present is vtterly decayed and full of sand, so that the vessels which come thither dare not come neere the shoare, but ride far off into the sea. [Sidenote: Rossetto] Fortie miles further is Rossetto, which is a litle towne without walles, and is situate vpon the banke of Nilus three miles from the sea, at which place many times they build ships and other vessels, for gouernement whereof is appointed a Saniacbey, without any other guard: it is a place of traffique, and the inhabitants are very rich, but naughtie varlets and traytours. Further downe along the sea-side and the riuer banke is another litle castle like vnto the abouesayde, and because the Moores beleeue, that Mecca will in short time be conquered by the Christians, they holde opinion, that the same being lost shall be renued in this place of Rossetto, namely, that all their prayers, vowes, and pilgrimages shall be transported to Rossetto, as the religious order of Saint Iohn of the Rhodes is translated thence to Malta. Further forwarde thirtie miles standes another castle of small importance called Brulles, kept continually by fourtie Turkes, which hath a good and secure port, in forme like to a very great lake or ponde, wherein is taken great quantitie of fish, whith they salt, and the marchants of Candie and Cyprus come thither to lade the same, and it is greatly esteemed, especially of the Candiots, who hauing great abundance of wine aduenture abroad to seeke meate fitte for the taste of the sayd wine. Distant from Brulles fiue and thirtie miles there is anothet castle like vnto the abouesayd kept by an Aga with fourtie men or thereabout. More within the lande by the riuers side is Damiata an auncient citie enuironed with walles contayning fiue miles in circuit, and but of small strength. For the gouernement of this place is a Sanjaco with all his housholde and no other companie. This citie is very large, delightfull, and pleasant, abounding with gardens and faire fountaines. Other fortie miles further is Latma, a castle of very small importance, and kept as other with fortie Turkes vnder an Aga. In this place is no port, but a roade very daungerous, and without other habitation. Passing this place we enter Iudea. But because our intent is to reason simply of the voyage to Mecca, we will proceede no further this way, but returning to our first way, let it suffice to say, that from Alexandria to Cairo are two hundred miles, in which way I finde nothing woorthie of memorie. Of the mightie Citie of Cairo. Cairo containeth in circuit eighteene miles, being so inhabited and replenished with people, that almost it cannot receiue more; and therefore they haue begunne to builde newe houses without the citie and about the walles. In Cairo are people of all Nations, as Christians, Armenians, Abexins, Turkes, Moores, Iewes, Indians, Medians, Persians, Arabians, and other sortes of people, which resort thither by reason of the great traffique. This citie is gouerned by a Basha, which ministreth iustice, together with the Cadie throughout the whole kingdome. Also there are two and twentie Saniackes, whose office is onely to ouersee and guarde the kingdome of euery good respect. There are also seuen thousand Turkes in pay, to wit, three thousand Ianizaries, and foure thousand horsemen: The rest of the people in Cairo are for the most part marchants which goe and come, and the remnant are Moores and other base people. About two miles from Cairo there is another little Cairo called The olde Cairo, which containeth in circuit litle more then tenne miles, and the better halfe is not inhabited, but destroyed, whereof I neede not make any other mention. The new Cairo answereth euery yeere in tribute to the grand Signior, 600000 ducates of gold, neat and free of all charges growing on the same, which money is sent to Constantinople, about the fine of September, by the way of Aleppo, alwayes by lande, vnder the custodie of three hundred horsemen, and two hundred Ianizaries footmen. The citie of Cairo is adorned with many faire Mesquitas rich, great, and of goodly and gorgeous building, among which are fiue principall. The first is called Morastano, that is to say, The hospitall, which hath of rent fiue hundred ducats of golde euery day left vnto it by a king of Damasco from auncient times; which king hauing conquered Cairo, for the space of fiue daies continually put the people thereof to the sword, and in the end repenting him of so great manslaughter, caused this cruelty to cease, and to obtaine remission for this sinne committed, caused this hospitall to be built, enriching it as is abouesaid. The second famous monument of Cairo is called Neffisa, of one Neffisa buried there, who was a Dame of honour, and mooued by lust, yeelded her body voluntarily without rewarde, to any that required the same, and sayde she bestowed this almes for the loue of her Prophet Mahomet, and therefore at this day they adore her, reuerence her, and finally haue canonized her for a Saint, affirming that shee did many miracles. The third is called Zauia della Innachari, who was one of the foure Doctors in the law. The fourth is called Imamsciafij, where is buried Sciafij the second Doctor of this law. Of the other two Doctors one is buried in Damasco, the other in Aleppo. The fift and last famous monument is Giamalazar, that is, the house of Lazarus: and this is the generall Vniuersity of the whole kingdome of Egypt. [Sidenote: 1566.] In this place Anno 1566 in the moneth of Ianuary by misfortune of fire were burned nine thousand bookes of great value, as well for that they were written by hand, as also wrought so richly with golde, that they were worth 300 and 400 ducats a piece, one with another. And because it could neuer be knowen yet how this fire beganne, they haue and doe holde the same for a most sinister augurie, and an euident and manifest signe of their vtter ruine. The houses of Cairo without are very faire, and within the greater number richly adorned with hangings wrought with golde. Euery person which resorteth to this place for traffiques sake, is bound to pay halfe a duckat, except the gentlemen Venetians, Siotes, and Rhaguseans, because they are tributarie to the Grand Signior. [Sidenote: The description of Cairo.] Cairo is distant from the riuer Nilus a mile and more, being situate on a plaine, saue that on the one side it hath a faire little hill, on the toppe, whereof stands a faire castle, but not strong, for that it may be battered on euery side, but very rich and large, compassed about with faire gardens into the which they conueigh water for their necessitie out of Nilus, with certaine wheeles and other like engines. This magnificent citie is adorned with very fruitfull gardens both pleasant and commodious, with great plenty of pondes to water the same. Notwithstanding the great pleasures of Cairo are in the moneth of August, when by meanes of the great raine in Ethiopia the riuer Nilus ouerfloweth apd watereth all the countrey, and then they open the mouth of a great ditch, which extendeth into the riuer, and passeth through the midst of the citie, and entring there are innumerable barkes rowing too and fro laden with gallant girles and beautifull dames, which with singing, eating, drinking and feasting, take their solace. The women of this countrey are most beautifull, and goe in rich attire bedeked with gold, pretious stones, and iewels of great value, but chiefely perfumed with odours, and are very libidinous, and the men likewise, but foule and hard fauoured. The soile is very fertile and abundant, the flesh fat which they sell without bones, their candles they make of the marowe of cattell, because the Moores eate the tallow. They vse also certaine litle furnaces made of purpose, vnder the which they make fire, putting into the furnace foure or fiue hundred egges, and the said fire they nourish by litle and litle, vntill the chickens be hatched, which after they be hatched, and become somewhat bigger, they sell them by measure in such sort, as we sell and measure nuts and chestnuts and such like. Of certaine notable monuments without the citie of Cairo. Without the Citie, sixe miles higher into the land, are to be seene neere vnto the riuer diuerse Piramides, among which are three marueilous great, and very artificially wrought. Out of one of these are dayly digged the bodies of auncient men, not rotten, but all whole, the cause whereof is the qualitie of the Egyptian soile, which will not consume the flesh of man, but rather dry and harden the same, and so alwayes conserueth it. And these dead bodies are the Mummie which the Phisitians and Apothecaries doe against our willes make vs to swallow. Also by digging in these Pyramides oftentimes are found certaine Idoles or Images of gold, siluer, and other mettall, but vnder the other piramides the bodies are not taken vp so whole as in this, but there are found legges and armes comparable to the limmes of giants. Neare to these piramides appeareth out of the sand a great head of stone somewhat like marble, which is discouered so farre as the necke ioyneth with the shoulders, being all whole, sauing that it wanteth a little tippe of the nose. The necke of this head contayneth in circuit about sixe and thirty foot, so that it may be according to the necke considered, what greatnesse the head is of. The riuer Nilus is a mile broad, wherein are very many great Croccodiles from Cairo vpward, but lower than Cairo passeth no such creature: and this, they say, is by reason of an inchantment made long since which hindereth their passage for comming any lower then Cairo. Moreouer of these creatures there are sometimes found some of an incredible bignesse, that is to say, of fourtie foot about. The males haue their members like to a man, and the females like to a woman. These monsters oftentimes issue out of the water to feede, and finding any small beasts, as sheepe, lambes, goates, or other like, doe great harme. And whiles they are foorth of the water, if they happen at vnawares vpon any man, woman or childe, whom they can ouercome, they spare not their liues. In the yeere of our Lord one thousand fiue hundred and sixtie it happened, that certaine poore Christians trauelling by Cairo towardes the countrey of Prete Ianni to rescue certaine slaues, were guided by a Chaus, and iourneyed alongst the banke of the said riuer. The Chaus remained lingering alone behinde to make his prayers (as their custome is) at a place called Tana, whom being busie in his double deuotion one of these Crocodiles ceazed by the shoulders, and drew him vnder water, so that he was neuer after seene. And for this cause they haue made in sundry places certaine hedges as bankes within the water, so that betwixt the hedge and banke of the riuer there remaineth so much water, that the women washing may take water without danger at their pleasure. This countrey is so fruitfull, that it causeth the women as other creatures to bring foorth one, two, and oft-times three at a birth. Fiue miles southwarde of Cairo is a place called Matarea, where the balme is refined: and therefore some will say, that the trees which beare the balme growe in the said place, wherein they are deceiued: for the sayde trees growe two dayes iourney from Mecca, in a place called Bedrihone, which yeeldeth balme in great plenty, but saluage, wilde, and without vertue, and therefore the Moores carying the same within litle chests from Bedrihone to Matarea, where the trees being replanted (be it by vertue of the soyle, or the water, aire, or any other thing whatsoeuer) it sufficeth that heare they beare the true balme and licour so much in these dayes esteemed of. In this place of Matarea there are certaine little houses, with most goodly gardens, and a chappell of antiquity, where the very Moores themselues affirme, that the mother of the blessed Christ fleeing from the fury of wicked Herode there saued her selfe with the childe, wherein that saying of the Prophet was fulfilled, Ex Ægypto vocaui fillium meum. The which Chappell in the yeare of our Lorde one thousand fiue hundred and foure, the Magnifico Daniel Barbaro first Consull of that place went to visite, and caused it to be renued and reedified, so that in these dayes there resort thither many Christians, who oftentimes bring with them a Priest, to say masse there. Also about an Harque-buz-shotte from Matarea is a spire of great height like to that at Rome, and more beautifull to beholde. Neere vnto the olde Cairo are yet twelue storehouses of great antiquitie, but now very much decayed, and these till late dayes serued to keepe corne for behoofe of the kingdome, concerning which many are of opinion, that the founder hereof was Ioseph the sonne of Iacob, for consideration of the seuen deare yeares. [Sidenote: Olde Thebes.] Also passing higher vp by the banke of Nilus, there is to bee seene a fayre Citie ouerflowed with water, the which at such time as Nilus floweth lyeth vnder water, but when the water returneth to the marke, there plainely appeare princely palaces, and stately pillars, being of some called Thebes, where they say that Pharao was resident. Moroeuer three dayes iourney higher vp are two great images of speckled marble, all whole, and somewhat sunke into the earth, being things wonderfull to consider of, for the nose of either is two spannes and a halfe long, and the space from one eare to the other conteineth tenne spannes, the bodies being correspondent to their heads, and grauen in excellent proportion, so that they are shapes of maruellous hugenesse, and these they call The wife, and The daughter of Pharao. Of the patriarke of Greece. In Cairo are two Patriarkes, one of the Greekes, and another of the Iacobites. The Greeke Patriarke called Gioechni, being about the age of one hundred and thirteene yeeres, was a very good and holy man. They say, that when Soldan Gauri of Egypt reigned, there was done this miracle following; this good patriarke being enuied at by the Iewes of the countrey, for none other cause, but for his good workes, and holy life, it happened (I say) that being in disputation with certaine of the Hebrewes in presence of the Sultan, and reasoning of their lawe and faith, it was sayd vnto him by one of these Miscreants: sith thou beleeuest in the faith of Christ, take and drinke this potion which I will giue thee; and if thy Christ be true Messias and true God, he will (sayd he) deliuer thee from daunger. To whom the auncient patriarke answered, that he was content: whereupon that cursed Iewe brought him a cuppe of the most venemous and deadly poyson that could be found, which the holy Patriarke hauing perceiued, said: In the name of the father, of the sonne, and of the holy Ghost: and hauing so sayde he dranke it quite vp; which done, he tooke a droppe of pure water, putting it into that very cup, and gaue it vnto the Iewe, saying vnto him, I in the name of my Christe haue drunke thy poyson, and therefore in the name of thy expected Messias drinke this water of mine within thine owne cuppe. Whereupon the Iewe tooke the cup out of the hand of the Patriarke, and hauing drunke the water, within halfe an houre burst a sunder. And the Patriarke had none other hurt, saue that he became somewhat pale in sight, and so remained euer after. And this miracle (which meriteth to be called no lesse) was done to the great commendation of the holy Patriarke in the presence of a thousand persons, and namely of the Soldan of Egypt: who seeing the despight of the Iewes, vnto their owne cost and confusion compelled them to make the conduct, which with so many engines commeth into the castle from Nilus aboue mentioned. And this triumphant Patriarke not long since was aliue, and in perfect health, which God continue long time. Of the preparation of the Carouan to goe to Mecca. As touching the Carouan which goeth to Mecca, it is to be vnderstoode, that the Mahometans obserue a kinde of lent continuing one whole moone, and being a moueable ceremonie, which sometimes falleth high, sometimes lowe in the yeere called in their tongue Ramazan, and their feast is called Bairam. During this time of lent all they which intende to goe vnto Mecca resort vnto Cairo, because that twentie dayes after the feast the Carouan is readie to depart on the voyage: and thither resort a great multitude of people from Asia, Grecia, and Barbaria to goe on this voyage, some mooued by deuotion, and some for traffiques sake, and some to passe away the time. Nowe, within fewe dayes after the feast they which goe on the voyage depart out of the citie two leagues vnto a place called Birca, where they expect the Captaine of the Carouan. This place hath a great pond caused by the inundation of Nilus, and so made that the camels and other beastes may drinke therein: whereof, namely, of Mules, Camels, and Dromedaries there are at least fortie thousand, and the persons which followe the Carouan euerie yeere are about fiftie thousand, fewe more or lesse, according to the times. Moreouer euery three yeeres they renue the Captaine of the Carouan, called in the Arabian tongue Amarilla Haggi, that is, the Captaine of the Pilgrimes, to whom the Grand Signior giueth euery voyage eighteene purses, conteyning each of them sixe hundred twentie and fiue ducates of golde, and these be for the behoofe of the Carouan, and also to doe almes vnto the needfull pilgrimes. This Captaine, besides other seruingmen which follow him, hath also foure Chausi to serue him. Likewise he hath with him for the securitie of the Carouan foure hundred souldiers, to wit, two hundred Spachi or horsemen mounted on Dromedaries, and two hundred Ianizaries riding vpon Camels. The Chausi and the Spachi are at the charge of the Captaine, but the Ianizaries not so, for their prouision is made them from Cairo. The Spachi weare caps or bonnets like to the caps of Sergeants, but the Ianizaries after another sort, with a lappe falling downe behinde like a French-hoode, and hauing before a great piece of wrought siluer on their heads. The charge of these is to cause the Carouan to march in good array when neede requireth; these are not at the commaundement of any but of the Captaine of the Carouan. Moreouer the Captaine hath for his guide eight pilots, the office of whom is alwayes stable and firme from heire to heire, and these goe before guiding the Carouan, and shewing the way, as being well experienced in the place, and in the night they gouerne them as the mariners, by the starre. [Sidenote: Pieces of dry wood in stead of torches.] These also vse to sende before foure or fiue men carying pieces of dry wood which giue light, because they should not goe out of the way, and if at any time through their ill hap they wander astray out of the way, they are caste downe and beaten with so many bastonadoes vpon the soles of their feete, as serue them for a perpetuall remembrance. The Captaine of the Carouan hath his Lieutenant accompanied continually with fifteene Spachi, and he hath the charge to set the Carouan in order, and to cause them to depart on their iourney when neede requireth: and during the voyage their office is some whiles to goe before with the forewarde, sometimes to come behinde with the rereward, sometimes to march on the one side, and sometimes on the other, to spy, that the coast be cleare. The Carouan carrieth with it sixe pieces of ordinance drawen by 12 camels, which serue to terrifie the Arabians, as also to make triumph at Mecca, and other places. The marchants which followe the Carouan, some carry for marchandise cloth of silke, some Corall, some tinne, others wheat, rise, and all sorts of graine. Some sell by the way, some at Mecca, so that euery one bringeth something to gaine by, because all marchandise that goeth by land payeth no custome, but that which goeth by sea is bound to pay tenne in the hundred. The beginning of the voyage. The feast before the Carouan setteth forth, the Captaine with all his retinue and officers resort vnto the castle of Cairo before the Basha, which giueth vnto euery man a garment, and that of the Captaine is wrought with golde, and the others are serued according to their degree. Moreouer he deliuereth vnto him the Chisua Talnabi, which signifieth in the Arabian tongue, The garment of the Prophet: this vesture is of silke, wrought in the midst with letters of golde, which signifie: La illa ill'alla Mahumet Resullala: that is to say, There are no gods but God, and his ambassadour Mahumet. This garment is made of purpose to couer from top to botome a litle house in Mecca standing in the midst of the Mesquita, the which house (they say) was builded by Abraham or by his sonne Ismael. After this he deliuereth to him a gate made of purpose for the foresaid house of Abraham wrought all with fine golde, and being of excellent workmanship, and it is a thing of great value. Besides, he deliuereth vnto him a couering of greene veluet made in maner of a pyramis, about nine palmes high, and artificially wrought with most fine golde, and this is to couer the tombe of their prophet within Medina, which tombe is built in manner of a pyramis: and besides that couering there are brought many others of golde and silke, for the ornament of the sayde tombe. Which things being consigned, the Basha departeth not from his place; but the Captaine of the Carouan taketh his leaue with all his officers and souldiers, and departeth accompanied with all the people of Cairo orderly in manner of a procession, with singing, shouting and a thousand other ceremonies too long to recite. From the castle they goe to a gate of the citie called Bab-Nassera, without the which standes a Mosquita, and therein they lay vp the sayd vestures very well kept and guarded. And of this ceremony they make so great account, that the world commeth to see this sight, yea the women great with childe, and others with children in their armes, neither is it lawfull for any man to forbid his wife the going to this feast, for that in so doing the wife may separate her selfe from her husband, and may lie with any other man, in regard of so great a trespasse. Now this procession proceeding from the castle towardes the Mosquita, the Camels which bring the vestures are all adorned with cloth of golde, with many little belles, and passing along the streete you may see the multitude casting vpon the said vesture thousands of beautifull flowers of diuers colours, and sweete water, others bringing towels and fine cloth touch the same, which euer after they keepe as reliques with great reuerence. Afterward hauing left the vesture in the Mosquita, as is aforesaid, they returne againe into the citie, where they remaine the space of 20 dayes, and then the captaine departeth with his company, and taking the vestures out of the Mosquita, carieth the same to the foresaid place of Birca, where the Captaine hauing pitched his tent with the standard of the grand Signior ouer the gate, and the other principall tents standing about his, stayeth there some tenne dayes and no more: in which time all those resort thither that meane to follow the Carouan in this voyage to Mecca. Where you shall see certaine women which intend to goe on this voiage accompanied with their parents and friends mounted vpon Camels, adorned with so many tryfles, tassels, and knots, that in beholding the same a man cannot refraine from laughter. The last night before their departure they make great feasting and triumph within the Carouan, with castles and other infinite deuises of fireworke, the Ianizaries alwayes standing round about the tent of the Captaine with such shouting and ioy, that on euery side the earth resoundeth, and this night they discharge all their ordinance, foure or sixe times, and after at the breake of the day vpon the sound of a trumpet they march forward on their way. What times the Carouan trauelleth, and when it resteth. It is to be noted, that from Cairo to Mecca they make 40 dayes iourney or thereabout, and the same great dayes iourneies. For the custome of the Carouan is to trauell much and rest little, and ordinarily they iourney in this maner: They trauell from two a clock in the morning vntill the sunne rising, then hauing rested till noone, they set forward, and so continue till night, and then also rest againe, as is abouesaid, till two of the clocke; and this order they obserue vntill the end of the voiage, neuer changing the same, except in some places, whereof we will hereafter speake, where for respect of water they rest sometimes a day and an halfe, and this they obserue to refresh themselues, otherwise both man and beast would die. In what order the Carouan trauelleth. The maner and order which the Carouan obserueth in marching is this. It goeth diuided into three parts, to wit, the foreward, the maine battell, and the rereward. In the foreward go the 8 Pilots before with a Chaus, which hath foure knaues, and ech knaue carrieth a sinew of a bul, to the end that if occasion requireth, the bastonado may be giuen to such as deserue the same. These knaues cast offendours downe, turning vp the soles of their feete made fast to a staffe, giuing them a perpetuall remembrance for them and the beholders. This Chaus is as the Captaine of the foreward, which commandeth lights to be carried before when they trauell in the night. Also there go in this foreward 6 Santones with red turbants vpon their heads, and these eat and ride at the cost of the Captaine of the Carouan. These Santones when the Carouan arriueth at any good lodging, suddenly after they haue escried the place, cry with an horrible voyce saying, good cheare, good cheare, we are neere to the wished lodging. For which good newes the chiefe of the company bestow their beneuolence vpon them. In this foreward goeth very neere the third part of the people of the Carouan, behind whom go alwayes 25 Spachi armed with swords, bowes and arrowes to defend them from thieues. Next vnto the foreward, within a quarter of a mile, followeth the maine battell, and before the same are drawen the sayd sixe pieces of ordinance, with their gunners, and fifteene Spachi Archers. And next vnto these commeth the chiefe physicion, who is an olde man of authoritie, hauing with him many medicines, oyntments, salues, and other like refreshings for the sicke, hauing also camels with him for the sicke to ride on, which haue no horse nor beast. Next vnto him goeth one Camell alone, the fairest that can be found: for with great industrie is sought the greatest and fairest which may be found within the dominions of the Grand Signior. This camell also is decked with cloth of golde and silke, and carieth a little chest made of pure Legmame made in likenesse of the arke of the olde Testament: but, as is abouesayd, made of pure Legmame, without golde or any other thing of cost. Within this chest is the Alcoran all written with great letters of golde, bound betweene two tables of massie golde, and the chest during their voyage is couered with Silke, but at their entring into Mecca it is all couered with cloth of golde adorned with iewels, and the like at the enterance into Medina. The Camell aforesayd which carrieth the chest, is compassed about with many Arabian singers and musicians, alwayes singing and playing vpon instruments. After this folow fiftene other most faire Camels, euery one carying one of the abouesayd vestures, being couered from toppe to toe with silke. Behind these goe twentie other Camels which carrie the money, apparell, and prouision of the Amir el Cheggi captaine of the Carouan. After foloweth the royall Standard of the Grand Signior, accompanied continually with the musicians of the captaine, and fiue and twentie Spachi archers, with a Chaus before them, and about these marueilous things goe all the people and Camels which follow the Carouan. Behind these, lesse then a mile, foloweth the rereward, whereof the greater part are pilgrimes: the occasion whereof is, for that the merchants seeke alwayes to be in the foreward for the securitie of their goods, but the pilgrimes which haue litle to loose care not though they come behind. Behind these alwayes goe fiue and twentie other Spachi well armed with another Chaus their captaine, and fortie Arabians all Archers for guard of the rereward. And because the Carouan goeth alwayes along the red sea banke, which in going forth they haue on their right hand, therfore the two hundred Ianissaries parted into three companies goe vpon their left hand well armed and mounted vpon Camels bound one to another, for vpon that side is all the danger of thieues, and on the other no danger at all, the captaine of the Carouan alwayes going about his people, sometimes on the one side, and sometimes on the other, neuer keeping any firme place, being continually accompanied with a Chaus and 25. Spachi, armed and mounted vpon Dromedaries, and 8. musicians with violes in their handes, which cease not sounding till the captaine take his rest, vpon whom they attend, till such time as he entreth his pauillion, and then licencing all his attendants and folowers to depart, they goe each man to their lodging. Of things notable which are seene in this voyage by the way. Because in the way there are not many things found woorthy memorie, for that the Carouan seldome resteth in places of habitation, of which in the way there are but fewe, yea rather the Carouan resteth altogether in the field: therefore in this our voyage wee will onely make mention of certaine Castles found in the way, which bee these, namely Agerut, Nachel, Acba, Biritem, Muel and Ezlem. Of which fiue the two first are kept of Moores, and the other three of Turkes, and for guard they haue eight men or tenne at the most in euery Castle, with foure or fiue Smerigli, which serue to keepe the water from the Arabians, so that the Carouan comming thither may haue wherewithall to refresh it selfe. Agerut is distant from Suez a port of the red sea eight miles, where are alwayes resident fiue and twentie gallies of the Grand Signior for the keeping of that Sea. Nachel is distant from the Sea a dayes iourney. The walles of Acba are founded vpon the red Sea banke. Biritem and Muel likewise are dashed by the waues of the Sea. Ezlem is distant from thence aboue a dayes iourney. These fiue Castles abouesayd are not of force altogether to defend themselues agaynst an hundred men. The Carouan departing from Birca vntill Agerut findeth no water by the way to drinke, neither from Agerut till Nachel, nor from Nachel till Acba, but betweene Acba and Biritem are found two waters, one called Agiam el Cassap, and the other Magarraxiaibi, that is to say, the riuer of Iethro the father in lawe of Moses, for this is the place mentioned in the second chapter of Exodus, whither it is sayd that Moses fledde from the anger of Pharao, who would haue killed him, because hee had slaine the Ægyptian, which fought with the Hebrew, in which place stoode the citie of Midian; and there are yet the pondes, neere vnto the which Moses sate downe. And from that place forward they finde more store of water by the way, and in more places, though not so good. It is also to bee noted, that in this voiage it is needfull and an vsuall thing, that the captaine put his hand to his purse, in these places, and bestow presents, garments, and turbants vpon certaine of the chiefe of the Arabians, to the ende they may giue him and his Carouan, free passage: who also promise, that their followers likewise shall doe no damage to the Carouan, and bind themselues to accomplish the same, promising also by worde of mouth, that if the Carouan bee robbed, they will make restitution of such things as are stollen: but notwithstanding the Carouan is by them oftentimes damnified, and those which are robbed haue no other restitution at the Arabians handes then the shewing of them a paire of heeles, flying into such places as it is impossible to finde them. Nowe the Carouan continuing her accustomed iourneys, and hauing passed the abouesayd castles, and others not woorthie mention, at length commeth to a place called Iehbir, which is the beginning and confine of the state and realme of Serifo the king of Mecca: where, at their approching issueth out to meete them the gouernour of the land, with all his people to receiue the Carouan, with such shouting and triumph, as is impossible to expresse, where they staie one whole day. This place aboundeth with fresh and cleare waters, which with streames fall downe from the high mountaines. Moreouer, in this place are great store of dates, and flesh great store and good cheape, and especially laced muttons which willingly fall downe, and here the weary pilgrimes haue cummoditie to refresh themselues, saying, that this wicked fact purgeth them from a multitude of sinnes, and besides increaseth deuotion to prosecute the voiage. Touching the building in these places, it is to bee iudged by the houses halfe ruinated, that it hath bene a magnificent citie: but because it was in times past inhabited more with thieues then true men, it was therefore altogether destroyed by Soldan Gauri king of Ægypt, who going on pilgrimage vnto Mecca, and passing by this place, there was by the inhabitants hereof some iniurie done vnto his Carauan, which he vnderstandeng of, dissembled till his returne from Mecca, and then caused it to bee burned and destroyed in pitifull sort for reuenge of the iniurie done vnto the Carouan. The Carouan hauing rested and being refreshed as is abouesayd, the next day departed on the way, and the first place they arriue at woorthy mention is called Bedrihonem, in which place (as is aforesayd) grow those little shrubbes whereout Balme issueth. And before the Carouan arriueth at this place a mile from the citie is a large and great field enuironed about with most high and huge mountaines. And in this field, according to the Alcoran, their prophet Mahomet had a most fierce and cruel battell giuen by the Christians of the countrey and other people which set themselues agaynst them, and withstood his opinion, so that hee was ouercome and vanquished of the Christians, and almost halfe of his people slaine in the battell. Whereupon the Phrophet seeing himselfe in such extremitie, fell to his prayers, and they say, that God hauing compassion vpon his deare friend and prophet, heard him, and sent him infinite thousands of angels, wherewith returning to the battell, they conquered and ouercame the conquerour. And therefore in memorie of this victorie, the Carouan lodgeth euery yeere one night in this place, making great bonefires with great mirth. And they say that as yet there is heard vpon the mountaines a litle drumme, which while the Carouan passeth, neuer ceaseth sounding. And they say further, that the sayd drumme is sounded by the angels in signe of that great victory graunted of God to their prophet. Also the Mahumetan writings affirme, that after the ende of the sayd battell, the prophet commaunded certaine of his people to goe and burie all the Mahumetans which were dead in the fields, who going, knew not the one from the other, because as yet they vsed not circumcision, so they returned vnto him, answering, that they had bene to doe his commaundement, but they knew not the Musulmans from the Christians. To whom the prophet answered, saying. Turne againe, and all those which you shall finde with their faces downeward, leaue them, because all they are misbeleeuers: and the other which you shall finde with their faces turned vpward, them burie, for they are the true Musulmani, and so his commaundement was done. The next morning by Sunne rising, the Carouan arriueth at Bedrihomen, in which place euery man washeth himselfe from toppe to toe, as well men as women, and leauing off their apparell, hauing each a cloth about their priuities, called in their tongue Photah, and another white one vpon their shoulders, all which can goe to Mecca in this habite, doe so, and are thought to merite more then the other, but they which cannot doe so make a vowe to sacrifice a Ramme at the mountaine of pardons; and after they bee washed, it is not lawfull for any man or women, to kill either flea or lowse with their handes, neither yet to take them with their nailes, vntill they haue accomplished their vowed orations in the mountaine of pardons abouesayd: and therefore they cary with them certaine stickes made of purpose in maner of a File, called in their language Arca, Cassah Guch, with which they grate their shoulders. And so the Carouan marching, commeth within two miles of Mecca, where they rest that night. In the morning at the breake of day, with all pompe possible they set forward toward Mecca, and drawing neere thereunto, the Seripho issueth foorth of the citie with his guard, accompanied with an infinite number of people, shouting, and making great triumph. And being come out of the citie a boweshoote into a faire field, where a great multitude of tents are pitched, and in the middest the pauillion of the captaine, who meeting with the Serifo, after salutations on each side, they light from their horses and enter the pauillion, where the king of Mecca depriueth himselfe of all authoritie and power, and committeth the same to the aboue named captaine, giuing him full licence and authoritie to commaund, gouerne, and minister Justice during his aboad in Mecca with his company, and on the other side the captaine to requite this liberalitie vsed toward him by the Serifo giueth him a garment of cloth of gold of great value, with certaine iewels and other like things. After this, sitting downe together vpon carpets and hides they eate together, and rising from thence with certaine of the chiefest, and taking with them the gate abouesayd, they goe directly to the Mosxuita, attended on but with a fewe, and being entered, they cause the olde to be pulled downe, and put the newe couerture vpon the house of Abraham, and the olde vesture is the eunuchs which serue in the sayde Mosquita, who after sell it vnto the pilgrimes at foure or fiue serafines the pike: and happy doth that man thinke himselfe, which can get neuer so litle a piece thereof, to conserue euer after as a most holy relique: and they say, that putting the same vnder the head of a man at the houre of his death, through vertue thereof all his sinnes are forgiuen. Also they take away the old doore, setting in the place the new doore, and the old by custome they giue vnto the Serifo. After hauing made their praiers with certaine ordinarie and woonted ceremonies, the Serifo rematneth in the citie, and the captaine of the pilgrimage returneth vnto his pauillion. Of the Serifo the king of Mecca. The Serifo is descended of the prophet Mahomet by Fatma daughter of that good prophet, and Alli husband to her, and sonne in lawe to Mahumet, who had no issue male, saue this stocke of the Serifo, to the eldest sonne whereof the realme commeth by succession. This realme hath of reuenues royall, euery yeere halfe a million of golde, or litle more: and all such as are of the prophets kinred, or descended of that blood (which are almost innumerable) are called Emyri, that is to say, lordes. These all goe clothed in greene, or at the least haue their turbant greene, to bee knowen from the other. Neither is it permitted that any of those Christians which dwell or traffique in their Countrey goe clothed in greene, neither may they haue any thing of green about them: for they say it is not lawfull for misbeleeuers to weare that colour, wherein that great friend the prophet of God Mahomet was woont to be apparelled. Of the citie of Mecca. The Citie of Mecca in the Arabian tongue is called Macca, that is to say, an habitation. This citie is inuironed about with exceeding high and barren mountaines, and in the plaine betweene the sayde mountaines and the citie are many pleasant gardens, where groweth great abundaunce of figges, grapes, apples, and melons. There is also great abundance of good water and fleshe, but not of bread. This citie hath no walles about it, and containeth in circuite fiue miles. The houses are very handsome and commodious, and are built like to the houses in Italie. The palace of the Serifo is sumptuous and gorgeously adorned. The women of the place are courteous, iocund, and louely, faire, with alluring eyes, being hote and libidinous, and the most of them naughtie packes. The men of this place are giuen to that abhominable, cursed, and opprobrious vice, whereof both men and women make but small account by reason of the pond Zun Zun, wherein hauing washed themselues, their opinion is, that although like the dog they returne to their vomite, yet they are clensed from all sinne whatsoeuer, of which sin we will hereafter more largely discourse. In the midst of the city is the great Mosquita, with the house of Abraham standing in the very middest thereof, which Mosquita was built in the time when their prophet liued. It is foure square, and so great, that it containeth two miles in circuit, that is to say, halfe a mile each side. Also it is made in maner of a cloister, for that in the midst thereof separate from the rest, is the abouesayd house of Abraham, also the galleries round about are in maner of 4. streetes, and the partitions which diuide the one street from the other are pillars, whereof some are of marble, and others of lime and stone. This famous and sumptuous Mosquita hath 99. gates, and 5. steeples, from whence the Talismani call the people to the Mosquita. And the pilgrimes which are not prouided of tents, resort hither, and for more deuotion the men and women lie together aloft and beneath, one vpon another, so that their house of praier becommeth worse sometimes then a den of thieues. Of the house of Abraham. The house of Abraham is also foure square, and made of speckled stone, 20. paces high, and 40 in circuit. And vpon one side of this house within the wall, there is a stone of a span long, and halfe a span broad, which stone (as they say) before this house was builded, fell downe from heauen, at the fall whereof was heard a voyce, that wheresoeuer this stone fell, there should be built the house of God, wherein God will heare sinners. Moreouer, they say that when this stone fell from heauen, it was not blacke as now, but as white as the whitest snow, and by reason it hath bene so oft kissed by sinners, it is therewith become blacke: for all the pilgrimes are bound to kisse this stone, otherwise they cary their sinnes home with them again. The entrance into this house is very small, made in maner of a window, and as high from the ground as a man can reach, so that it is painful to enter. This house hath without 31. pillars of brasse, set vpon cubike or square stones being red and greene, the which pillars sustaine not ought els saue a threed of copper, which reacheth from one to another, whereunto are fastened many burning lampes. These pillars of brasse were caused to be made by Sultan Soliman grandfather to Sultan Amurath now Emperor. After this, hauing entred with the difficultie abouesayd, there stand at the entrance two pillars of marble, to wit, on each side one. In the midst there are three of Aloes-wood not very thicke, and couered with tiles of India 1000. colours which serue to vnderproppe the Terratza. It is so darke, that they can hardly see within for want of light, not without an euill smell. Without the gate fiue pases is the abouesayd pond Zun Zun, which is that blessed pond that the angell of the Lord shewed vnto Agar whiles she went seeking water for her sonne Ismael to drinke. Of the ceremonies of the pilgrimes. In the beginning we haue sayd how the Mahumetans haue two feasts in the yeere. The one they call Pascha di Ramazaco, that is to say, The feast of fasting, and this feast of fasting is holden thirtie dayes after the feast, wherein the Carouan trauelleth to Mecca. The other is called the feast of the Ramme, wherin all they which are of abilitie are bound to sacrifice a Ramme, and this they call Bine Bairam, that is to say, The great feast. And as the Carouan departeth from Cairo, thirtie dayes after the little feast, so likewise they come hither fiue or sixe dayes before the great feast, to the ende the pilgrimes may haue time before the feast to finish their rites and ceremonies, which are these. Departing from the Carouan, and being guided by such as are experienced in the way, they goe vnto the citie twentie or thirtie in a company as they thinke good, walking through a streete which ascendeth by litle and litle till they come vnto a certaine gate, whereupon is written on each side in marble stone, Babel Salema, which in the Arabian tongue signifieth, the gate of health. And from this place is descried the great Mosquita, which enuironeth the house of Abraham, which being descried, they reuerently salute twise, saying, Salem Alech Iara sul Alia, that is to say, Peace to thee, ambassadour of God. This salutation being ended, proceeding on the way, they finde an arche vpon their right hand, whereon they ascend fiue steps, vpon the which is a great voyd place made of stone: after, descending other fiue steps, and proceeding the space of a flight-shoot, they finde another arche like vnto the first, and this way from the one arche to the other they go and come 7. times, saying alwaies some of their prayers, which (they say) the afflicted Agar sayd, whiles she sought and found not water for her sonne Ismael to drinke. This ceremonie being ended, the pilgrimes enter into the Mosquita, and drawing neere vnto the house of Abraham, they goe round about it other seuen times, alwayes saying: This is the house of God, and of his seruant Abraham: This done they goe to kisse the black stone abouesayd. After they go vnto the pond Zun Zun, and in their apparell as they be, they wash themselues from head to foote, saying, Tobah Allah, Tobah Allah, that is to say, Pardon Lord, Pardon Lord, drinking also of that waier, which is both mudie, filthie, and of an ill sauour, and in this wise washed and watered, euery one returneth to his place of abode, and these ceremonies euery one is bound to doe once at the least. But those which haue a mind to ouergoe their fellowes, and to goe into paradise before the rest, doe the same once a day while the Carouan remaineth there. What the Carouan doeth after hauing rested at Mecca. [Sidenote: The mountaine of pardons.] The Carouan hauing abode within the citie of Mecca fiue dayes, the night before the euening of their feast, the captaine with all his company setteth forward towards the mountaine of pardons, which they call in the Arabian tongue, Iabel Arafata. This mountaine is distant from Mecca 15. miles, and in the mid way thereto is a place called Mina, that is to say, The hauen, and a litle from thence are 4. great pillars, of which hereafter we will speake. Now first touching the mountaine of Pardons, which is rather to be called a litle hill, then a mountain, for that it is low, litle, delightful and pleasant, containing in circuit two miles, and enuironed round about with the goodliest plaine that euer with mans eie could be seen, and the plaine likewise compassed with exceeding high mountains, in such sort that this is one of the goodliest situations in the world: and it seemeth verily, that nature hath therein shewed all her cunning, in making this place vnder the mountaine of pardons so broad and pleasant. Vpon the side towards Mecca there are many pipes of water cleare, faire, and fresh, and aboue all most wholesome, falling down into certaine vessels made of purpose, where the people refresh and wash themselues, and water their cattel. And when Adam and Euah were cast out of paradise by the angel of the Lord, the Mahumetans say, they came to inhabite this litle mountaine of pardons. Also they say, that they had lost one another, and were separated for the space of 40. yeeres, and in the end met at this place with great ioy and gladnesse, and builded a litle house vpon the top of this mountaine, the which at this day they call Beyt Adam, that is to say, the house of Adam. Of the three Carouans. The same day that the Carouan of Cairo commeth to this place, hither come 2. Carouans also, one of Damasco, the other of Arabia, and in like maner all the inhabitants for ten dayes iourney round about, so that at one time there is to be seene aboue 200000. persons, and more then 300000. cattell. Now all this company meeting together in this place the night before the feast, the three hostes cast themselues into a triangle, setting the mountaine in the midst of them: and all that night there is nothing to be heard nor seene, but gunshot and fireworkes of sundry sortes, with such singing, sounding, shouting, halowing, rumors, feasting, and triumphing, as is wonderfull. After this, the day of the feast being come, they are all at rest and silence, and that day they attend on no other thing, then to sacrifice oblations and prayers vnto God, and in the euening all they which haue horses mount thereon, and approch as nigh vnto the mountaine as they can, and those which haue no horses make the best shift they can on foote, giuing euer vnto the captaine of Cairo the chiefe place, the second to the captaine of Damasco, and the third to the captaine of Arabia, and being all approched as is abouesayd, there commeth a square squire, one of the Santones, mounted on a camell well furnished, who at the other side of the mountain ascendeth fiue steps into a pulpit made for that purpose, and all being silent, turning his face towards the people he maketh a short sermon of the tenour folowing. The summe of the Santones sermon. The summe of this double doctors sermon is thus much in briefe. He sheweth them how many and how great benefits God hath giuen to the Mahumetan people by the hand of his beloued friend and prophet Mahomet, hauing deliuered them from the seruitude of sinne and from idolatry, in which before time they were drowned, and how he gaue vnto them the house of Abraham wherein they should be heard, and likewise the mountaine of pardons, by meanes whereof they might obtaine grace and remission of their sinnes: adding, that the mercifull God, who is a liberall giuer of all good things, commaunded his secretarie Abraham to build him an house in Mecca, where his successours might make their prayers vnto him and bee heard, at which time all the mountains in the world came together thither with sufficiencie of stones for building hereof, except that litle and low hill, which for pouertie could not go to discharge this debt, for the which it became sorrowful, weeping beyond all measure for the space of thirtie yeeres, at the ende whereof the eternall God hauing pitie and compassion vpon this poore Mountaine, saide vnto it: Weepe no more (my daughter) for thy bitter plaints haue ascended vp into mine eares, therefore comfort thy selfe: for I will cause all those that shall goe to visite the house of my friend Abraham, that they shall not be absolued from their sinnes, vnlesse they first come to doe thee reuerence, and to keepe in this place their holiest feast. And this I haue commanded vnto my people by the mouth of my friend and prophet Mahumet. This said, he exhorteth them vnto the loue of God, and to prayer and almes. The sermon being done at the Sunne-setting they make 3. prayers, namely the first for the Serifo, the second for the Grand Signior with his hoste, and the third for all the people: to which prayers all with one voice cry saying; Amni Ia Alla, Amni Ia Alla, that is to say, Be it so lord, be it so Lord. Thus hauing had the Santones blessing and saluted the Mountaine of pardons, they returne the way they came vnto Mina, whereof wee haue made mention. In returning at the end of the plaine are the abouesaid 4. pillers, to wit, two on ech side of the way, through the midst whereof they say it is needfull that euery one passe, saying, that who so passeth without looseth all that merit which in his pilgrimage he had gotten. Also from the mountaine of pardons vntill they be passed the said pillers none dare looke backward, for feare least the sinnes which he hath left in the mountains returne to him againe. Being past these pillers eueryone lighteth downe, seeking in this sandy field 50. or 60. litle stones, which being gathered and bound in an hankerchiffe they carry to the abouesaid place of Mina, where they stay 5. dayes, because at that time there is a faire free and franke of al custome. And in this place are other 3. pillers, not together, but set in diuers places, where (as their prophet saith) were the three apparitions which the diuel made vnto Abraham, and to Ismael his sonne; for amongst them they make no mention of Isaac, as if he had neuer bene borne. So they say, that the blessed God hauing commanded Abraham his faithfull seruant to sacrifice his first begotten Ismael, the old Abraham went to do according to God's wil, and met with the infernall enemie in the shape of a man, and being of him demanded whither he went, he answered, that he went to sacrifice his sonne Ismael, as God had commanded him. Against whom the diuel exclaiming said: Oh doting old man, sith God in thine old age hath marueilously giuen thee this son (in whom all nations shalbe blessed) wherefore giuing credite vnto vaine dreames, wilt thou kill him whom so much thou hast desired, and so intirely loued. But Abraham shaking him off proceeded on his way, whereupon the diuel seeing his words could not preuaile with the father attempted the sonne, saying; Ismael, haue regard vnto thyselfe betimes in this thing which is so dangerous. Wherefore? answered the childe. Because (saith the diuel) thy doting father seeketh to take away thy life. For what occasion, said Ismael? Because (saith the enemie) he saith, that God hath commanded him. Which Ismael hearing hee tooke vp stones and threw at him, saying, Auzu billahi minal scia itanil ragini, which is to say, I defend me with God from the diuel the offender, as who would say, wee ought to obey the commandement of God and resist the diuel with al our force. But to returne to our purpose, the pilgrimes during their abode there goe to visite these three pillers, throwing away the little stones which before they gathered, whiles they repeat the same words which they say, that Ismael said to the diuell, when he withstoode him. From hence halfe a mile is a mountaine, whither Abraham went to sacrifice his sonne, as is abouesaid. In this mountaine is a great den whither the pilgrims resort to make their prayers, and there is a great stone naturally separated in the midst; and they say, that Ismael, while his father Abraham was busie about the sacrifice, tooke the knife in hand to prooue how it would cut, and making triall diuided the stone in two parts. The fiue dayes being expired, the captaine ariseth with all the Carouan, and returneth againe to Mecca, where they remaine other fiue dayes. And while these rest, we will treat of the city and port of Grida vpon the Red Sea. Of Grida. [Grida a port neere Mecca.] Therefore wee say that from Mecca to Grida they make two small dayes iourney: and because in those places it is ill traueiling in the day-time by reason of the great heat of the Sunne, therefore they depart in the euening from Mecca, and in the morning before Sunne-rising they are arriued halfe way, where there certaine habitations well furnished, and good Innes to lodge in, but especially women ynough which voluntarily bestowe their almes vpon the poore pilgrims: likewise departing the next euening, the morning after, they come vnto Grida. This citie is founded vpon the Red Sea banke, enuironed with wals and towers to the land-ward, but through continuance of time almost consumed and wasted: on the side to seaward it stands vnwalled. Grida hath three gates, one on eche side, and the thirde in the midst towarde the lande, which is called the port of Mecca, neere vnto which are 6. or 7. Turks vpon the old towers for guard thereof with foure faulcons vpon one of the corners of the city to the land-ward. Also to sea-ward where the wall ioyneth with the water, there is lately made a fort like vnto a bulwarke, where they haue planted 25 pieces of the best ordinance that might be had, which are very well kept and guarded. More outward towards the sea vpon the farthest olde tower are other fiue good pieces with 30 men to guard them. [Sidenote: The Portugals greatly feared in the Red Sea.] On the other side of the city at the end of the wall there is lately builded a bulwarke strong and well guarded by a Saniaccho with 150 Turks wel prouided with ordinance and all other necessaries and munition, and all these fortifyings are for none other cause then for feare and suspition of the Portugals. And if the port were good this were in vaine: but the port cannot be worse nor more dangerous; being all full of rocks and sands, in such wise, that the ships cannot come neere, but perforce ride at the least two miles off. [Sidenote: Forty or fifty rich ships arriue yeerely at Grida.] At this port arriue euery yeere forty or fifty great shippes laden with spices and other rich marchandize which yeeld in custome 150000 ducats, the halfe whereof goeth vnto the Grand Signior, and the other halfe to the Serifo. And because there is none other thing worthy mention in Grida we wil returne to our Carouan which hath almost rested enough. Of their going to Medina. The Carouan departeth for Medina returning the same way they came vnto Bedrihonem abouesayd, where they leaue their ordinance and other cariages, whereof they haue no need, with the pilgrims which haue seene Medina aforetime, and desire not to see it againe, but stay in that place, expecting the carouan, and resting vntill the carouan go from Bedrihonem to Medina, where they alwayes finde goodly habitations, with abundance of sweet waters, and dates enough, and being within foureteene miles of Medina they come vnto a great plaine called by them Iabel el salema, that is to say, the mountaine of health, from which they begin to descry the citie and tombe of Mahomet, at which sight they light from their horses in token of reuerence. And being ascended vp the sayd mountaine with shouting which pierceth the skies they say, Sala tuua salema Alaccha Iarah sul Allah. Sala tuua Salema Alaccha Ianabi Allah, Sala tuua Salema Allaccha Iahabit Allah: which words in the Arabian tongue signifie: Prayer and health be vnto thee, oh prophet of God: prayer and health be vpon thee, oh beloued of God. And hauing pronounced this salutacion, they proceed on their iourney, so that they lodge that night within three miles of Medina: and the next morning the captaine of the pilgrimage ariseth, and proceeding towards the city, and drawing neere, there commeth the gouernour vnder the Serifo, accompanied with his people to receiue the Carouan, hauing pitched their tents in the midst of a goodly field where they lodge. Of Medina. Medina is a little city of great antiquity, containing in circuit not aboue two miles, hauing therein but one castle, which is olde and weake, guarded by an Aga with fifty pieces of artillery, but not very good. The houses thereof are faire and well situated, built of lime and stone, and in the midst of the city stands a fouresquare Mosquita, not so great as that of Mecca, but more goodly, rich, and sumptuous in building. Within the same in a corner thereof is a tombe built vpon foure pillers with a vault, as if it were vnder a pauement, which bindeth all the foure pillers together. The tombe is so high, that it farre exceedeth in heighth the Mosquita, being couered with lead, and the top all inamelled with golde, with an halfe moone vpon the top: and within the pauement it is all very artificially wrought with golde. Below there are round about very great staires of yron ascending vp vntill the midst of the pillers, and in the very midst thereof is buried the body of Mahomet, and not in a chest of yron cleauing to the adamant, as many affirme that know not the trueth thereof. Moreouer, ouer the body they haue built a tombe of speckled stone a brace and a halfe high, [Marginal note: Or, a fathom.] and ouer the same another of Legmame fouresquare in maner of a pyramis. After this, round about the sepulture there hangeth a curtaine of silke, which letteth the sight of those without that they cannot see the sepulture. Beyond this in the same Mosquita are other two sepulchres couered with greene cloth, and in the one of them is buried Fatma the daughter of Mahomet, and Alli is buried in the other, who was the husband of the sayd Fatma. The attendants vpon these sepulchres are fifty eunuches white and tawny, neither is it granted to any of them to enter within the tombe, sauing to three white eunuches the oldest and best of credit; vnto whom it is lawfull to enter but twise in the day, to light the lamps, and to doe other seruices. All the other eunuchs attend without to the seruice of the Mosquita, and the other two sepulchres of Fatma, and Alli, where euery one may go and touch at his pleasure, and take of the earth for deuotion, as many do. Of things without the City. Without the city and on euery side are most faire gardens, with many fountaines of most sweet water, infinite pondes, abundance of fruit, with much honest liuing, so that this place is very pleasant and delightfull. This city hath three gates, one of which is an hospitall caused to be built by Cassachi, called the Rosel who was wife to Sultan Solimam grandfather to this emperour. The sayd Hospitall hath nought els woorthy mention, saue that it is fairely built, and hath large reuenues belonging thereunto, and nourisheth many poore people. A mile from the city are certaine houses whereof they affirme one to be the same, where Mahumet in his lifetime dwelt. This house hath on euery side very many faire date trees, amongst which there are two which grow out of one stocke exceeding high, and these, they say, their Prophet graffed with his owne hand: the fruit thereof is alwayes sent to Constantinople, to be presented vnto the Grand Signior, and is sayd to be that blessed fruit of the Prophet. Nere vnto the date trees is a faire fountaine of cleere and sweet water, the which by a conduct pipe is brought into the city of Medina. Also there is a little Mosquita, wherein three places are counted holy, and greatly reuerenced: the first they affirme, that their Prophet made his first prayer in, after he knew God: the second is that whither he went when he would see the holy house of Abraham, where when he sate down to that intent, they say the mountaines opened from toppe to bottome to shew him the house, and after closed againe as before: the third holy place is in the midst of the sayd Mosquita, where is a tombe made of lime and stone fouresquare, and full of sand, wherein, they say, was buried that blessed camel which Mahumet was alwayes woont to ride vpon. On the other side of the city are other tombes of holy Mahumetans, and euery one or them hath a tombe built vpon foure pillers, amongst which three were the companions of Mahumet, to wit, Abubacar; Ottoman, and Omar; all which are visited of the pilgrims as holy places. The offering of the vestures vnto the sepulchres. The Carouan being come to Medina two houres before day, and resting there till the euening, the captaine then with his company and other pilgrims setteth forward, with the greatest pompe possible: and taking with him the vesture which is made in maner of a pyramis, with many other of golde and silke, departeth, going thorow the midst of the city, vntill he come to the Mosquita, where hauing praied, he presenteth vnto the tombe of his prophet (where the eunuchs receiuing hands are ready) the vesture for the sayd tombe: and certaine eunuchs entring in take away the old vesture, and lay on the new, burning the olde one, and diuiding the golde thereof into equall portions. After this are presented other vestures for the ornament of the Mosquita. Also the people without deliuer vnto the eunuchs ech man somewhat to touch the tombe therewith, which they keepe as a relique with great deuotion. This ceremony being ended, the captaine resteth in Medina two dayes, to the end the pilgrims may finish their deuotion and ceremonies: and after they depart to Iambor. A good dayes iourney thence is a steepe mountaine, ouer which is no passage, sauing by one narrow path called Demir Capi, which was in times past called the yron gate. Of this gate the Mahumetans say, that Ally the companion and sonne in law of Mahumet, being here pursued by many Christians, and comming vnto this mountaine, not seeing any way whereby to flee, drew out his sword, and striking the said mountaine, diuided it in sunder, and passing thorow saued his life on the other side. Moreouer, this Alli among the Persians is had in greater reuerence than Mahumet, who affirme, that the sayd Alli hath done greater things and more miraculous than Mahumet, and therefore they esteeme him for God almighty his fellow. But to returne to our matter, the captaine with the carouan within two dayes after returneth for Cairo, and comming to Ezlem, findeth there a captaine with threescore horses come thither to bring refreshments to the said captaine of the pilgrimage, as also to sell vnto the pilgrims some victuals. From thence they set forward, and comming to Birca within two leagues of Cairo, there is the master of the house of the Bassha of Cairo with all his horsemen come thither to receiue him with a sumptuous and costly banket made at the cost of the Basha for the captaine and his retinue, who after he is well refreshed departeth toward the castle of Cairo to salute the Basha, who receiuing him with great ioy and gladnesse in token of good wil presenteth him with a garment of cloth of golde very rich: and the captaine taking the Alcaron out of the chest presenteth it to the Basha, who hauing kissed it, commandeth to lay it vp againe. Some there are which affirme, that being arriued at Cairo, they kill that goodly camell which caried the Alcaron, and eate him; which is nothing so: for they are so superstitious to the contrary, that to gaine all the world they would not kill him. But if by casuality he should die, in this case happy and blessed they thinke themselues, which can get a morsell to eat. And thus much concerning the voyage of the captaine of the carouan of Cairo. * * * * * The voyage and trauell of M. Cæsar Fredericke, Marchant of Venice, into the East India, and beyond the Indies. Wherein are conteined the customes and rites of those countries, the merchandises and commodities, as well of golde and siluer, as spices, drugges, pearles, and other iewels: translated out of Italian by M. Thomas Hickocke. Cæsare Fredericke to the Reader. [Sidenote: Cæsare Fredericke trauelled eighteene yeeres in the East Indies.] I hauing (gentle Reader) for the space of eighteene yeeres continually coasted and trauelled, as it were, all the East Indies, and many other countreys beyond the Indies, wherein I haue had both good and ill successe in my trauels: and hauing seene and vnderstood many things woorthy the noting, and to be knowen to all the world, the which were neuer as yet written of any: I thought it good (seeing the Almighty had giuen me grace, after so long perils in passing such a long voyage to returne into mine owne countrey, the noble city of Venice) I say, I thought it good, as briefly as I could, to write and set forth this voyage made by me, with the maruellous things I haue seene in my trauels in the Indies: The mighty Princes that gouerne those countreys, their religion and faith that they haue, the rites and customes which they vse, and liue by, of the diuers successe that happened vnto me, and how many of these countreys are abounding with spices, drugs, and iewels, giuing also profitable aduertisement to all those that haue a desire to make such a voyage. And because that the whole world may more commodiously reioyce at this my trauell, I haue caused it to be printed in this order: and now I present it vnto you (gentle and louing Readers) to whom for the varieties of things heerein contented, I hope that it shall be with great delight receiued. And thus God of his goodnesse keepe you. A voyage to the East Indies, and beyond the Indies, &c. [Sidenote: The authours going from Venice to Cyprus and Tripoly.] In the yere of our Lord God 1653, I Cæsar Fredericke being in Venice, and very desirous to see the East parts of the world, shipped my selfe in a shippe called the Gradaige of Venice, with certaine marchandise, gouerned by M. Iacomo Vatica, which was bound to Cyprus with his ship, with whom I went: and when we were arriued in Cyprus, I left that ship, and went in a lesser to Tripoly in Soria, where I stayed a while. Afterward, I tooke my iourney to Alepo, and there I acquainted my selfe with marchants of Armenia, and Moores, that were marchants, and consorted to go with them to Ormus, and wee departed from Alepo, and in two dayes iourney and a halfe, we came to a city called Bir. Of the city called Bir. Bir is a small city very scarse of all maner of victuals, and nere vnto the walles of the city runneth the riuer of Euphrates. [Sidenote: The river Euphrates.] In this city the marchants diuide themselues into companies, according to their merchandise that they haue, and there either they buy or make a boat to carry them and their goods to Babylon downe the riuer Euphrates, with charge of a master and mariners to conduct the boat in the voyage: these boats are in a maner flat bottomed, yet they be very strong: and for all that they are so strong, they will serue but for one voyage. They are made according to the sholdnesse of the riuer, because that the riuer is in many places full of great stones, which greatly hinder and trouble those that goe downe the riuer. These boats serue but for one voyage downe the riuer vnto a village called Feluchia, because it is impossible to bring them vp the riuer backe againe. [Sidenote: Feluchia a small city on Euphrates.] At Feluchia the marchants plucke their boats in pieces, or else sell them for a small price, for that at Bir they cost the marchants forty or fifty chickens a piece, and they sell them at Feluchia for seuen or eight chickens a piece, because that when the marchants returne from Babylon backe againe, if they haue marchandise or goods that oweth custome, then they make their returne in forty dayes thorow the wildernesse, passing that way with a great deale lesser charges then the other way. [Sidenote: Mosul.] And if they haue not marchandise that oweth custome, then they goe by the way of Mosul, where it costeth them great charges both the Carouan and company. From Bir where the marchants imbarke themselues to Feluchia ouer agains Babylon, if the riuer haue good store of water, they shall make their voyage in fifteene or eighteene dayes downe the riuer, and if the water be lowe, and it hath not rained, then it is much trouble, and it will be forty or fifty dayes journey downe, because that when the barks strike on the stones that be in the riuer, then they must vnlade them, which is great trouble, and then lade them againe when they haue mended them: therefore it is not necessary, neither doe the marchants go with one boat alone, but with two or three, that if one boat split and be lost with striking on the sholdes, they may haue another ready to take in their goods, vntil such time as they haue mended the broken boat, and if they draw the broken boat on land to mend her, it is hard to defend her in the night from the great multitude of Arabians that will come downe there to robbe you: [Sidenote: The Arabian theeues are in number like to Ants.] and in the riuers euery night, when you make fast your boat to the banckeside, you must keepe good watch against the Arabians which are theeues in number like to ants, yet when they come to robbe, they will not kill, but steale and run away. Harquebuzes are very good weapons against them, for that they stand greatly in feare of the shot. And as you passe the riuer Euphrates from Bir to Feluchia, there are certein places which you must passe by, where you pay custome certaine medines vpon a bale, which custome is belonging to the sonne of Aborise king of the Arabians and of the desert, who hath certaine cities and villages on the riuer Euphrates. Feluchia and Babylon. [Sidenote: The olde Babylon hath great trade with marchants still.] Feluchia is a village where they that come from Bir doe vnbarke themselues and vnlade their goods, and it is distant from Babylon a dayes iourney and an halfe by land: Babylon is no great city but it is very populous, and of great trade of strangers because it is a great thorowfare for Persia, Turkia, and Arabia: and very often times there goe out from thence Carouans into diuers countreys: and the city is very copious of victuals, which comme out of Armenia downe the riuer of Tygris, on certaine Zattares or Raffes made of blowen hides or skinnes called Vtrij. This riuer Tygris doeth wash the walles of the city. These Raffes are bound fast together, and then they lay boards on the aforesayd blowen skinnes, and on the boards they lade the commodities, and so come they to Babylon, where they vnlade them, and being vnladen, they let out the winde out of the skinnes, and lade them on cammels to make another voyage. This city of Babylon is situate in the kingdome of Persia, but now gouerned by the Turks. On the other side of the riuer towards Arabia, ouer against the city, there is a faire place or towne, and in it a faire Bazarro for marchants, with very many lodgings, where the greatest part of the marchants strangers which come to Babylon do lie with their marchandize. [Sidenote: A bridge made of boats.] The passing ouer Tygris from Babylon to this Borough is by a long bridge made of boates chained together with great chaines: prouided, that when the riuer waxeth great with the abundance of raine that falleth, then they open the bridge in the middle, where the one halfe of the bridge falleth to the walles of Babylon, and the other to the brinks of this Borough, on the other side of the riuer: and as long as the bridge is open, they passe the riuer in small boats with great danger, because of the smalnesse of the boats, and the ouerlading of them, that with the fiercenesse of the streame they be ouerthrowen, or els the streame doth cary them away, so that by this meanes, many people are lost and drowned: this thing by proofe I haue many times seene. Of the tower of Babylon. The Tower of Nimrod or Babel is situate on that side of Tygris that Arabia is, and in a very great plaine distant from Babylon seuen or eight miles: which tower is ruinated on euery side, and with the falling of it there is made a great mountaine, so that it hath no forme at all, yet there is a great part of it standing which is compassed and almost couered with the aforesayd fallings: this Tower was builded and made of foure square Brickes, which Brickes were made of earth, and dried in the Sunne in maner and forme following: first they layed a lay of Brickes, [Footnote: These bricks be in thicknes six or seuen inches, and a foot and a halfe square.] then a Mat made of Canes, square as the Brickes, and in stead of lime, they daubed it with earth: these Mats of Canes are at this time so strong, that it is a thing woonderfull to beholde, being of such great antiquity: I haue gone round about it, and haue not found any place where there hath bene any doore or entrance: it may be in my iudgement in circuit about a mile, and rather lesse then more. This Tower in effect is contrary to all other things which are seene afar off, for they seeme small, and the more nere a man commeth to them the bigger they be: but this tower afar off seemeth a very great thing, and the nerer you come to it the lesser. My iudgment and reason of this is, that because the Tower is set in a very great plaine, and hath nothing more about to make any shew sauing the ruines of it which it hath made round about, and for this respect descrying it a farre off, that piece of the Tower which yet standeth with the mountaine that is made of the substance that hath fallen from it, maketh a greater shew then you shall finde comming neere to it. Babylon and Basora. From Babylon I departed for Basora, shipping my selfe in one of the barks that vse to go in the riuer Tigris from Babylon to Basora, and from Basora to Babylon: which barks are made after the maner of Fusts or Galliots with a Speron and a couered poope: they haue no pumpe in them because of the great abundance of pitch which they haue to pitch them with all: which pitch they haue in abundance two dayes iourney from Babylon. Nere vnto the riuer Euphrates, there is a city called Heit, nere vnto which city there is a great plaine full of pitch, very maruellous to beholde, a thing almost incredible, that out of a hole [Footnote: This hole where out commeth this pitch is most true, and the water and pitch runneth into the valley or Iland where the pitch resteth, and the water runneth into the riuer Euphrates, and it maketh all the riuer to be as it were brackish with the smell of pitch and brimstone.] in the earth, which continually throweth out pitch into the aire with continuall smoake, this pitch is throwen with such force, that being hot it falleth like as it were sprinckled ouer all the plaine, in such abundance that the plaine is alwayes full of pitch: the Mores and Arabians of that place say, that that hole is the mouth of hell: and in trueth, it is a thing very notable to be marked: and by this pitch the whole people haue great benefit to pitch their barks, which barks they call Daneck and Saffin. When the riuer of Tygris is well replenished with water, you may passe from Babylon to Basora in eight or nine dayes, and sometimes more and sometimes lesse: we were halfe so much more which is 14 or 15 daies, because the waters were low: they may saile day and night, and there are some places in this way where you pay so many medins on a baile: if the waters be lowe, it is 18 dayes iourney. Basora. [Sidenote: Zizarij an ancient people.] Basora is a city of the Arabians, which of olde time was gouerned by those Arabians called Zizarij, but now it is gouerned by the great Turke where he keepeth an army to his great charges. The Arabians called Zizarij haue the possession of a great countrey, and cannot be ouercome by the Turke, because that the sea hath deuided their countrey into an Iland by channels with the ebbing and flowing of the sea, and for that cause the Turke cannot bring an army against them, neither by sea nor by land, and another reason is, the inhabitants of that Iland are very strong and warlike men. [Sidenote: At the castle of Corna the riuer Euphrates and Tygris do meet.] A dayes iourney before you come to Basora, you shall haue a little castle or fort, which is set on that point of the land where the riuers of Euphrates and Tygris meet together, and the castle is called Corna: at this point, the two riuers make a monstrous great riuer, that runneth into the sea, which is called the gulfe of Persia, which is towards the South: Basora is distant from the sea fifteene miles, and it is a city of great trade of spices and drugges which come from Ormus. Also there is a great store of corne, Rice, and Dates, which the countrey doth yeeld. [Sidenote: Ormus is the barrenest Iland in all the world.] I shipped my selfe in Basora to go for Ormus, and so we sailed, thorow the Persian sea six hundred miles, which is the distance from Basora to Ormus, and we sailed in small ships made of boards, bound together with small cords or ropes, and in stead of calking they lay betweene euery board certaine straw which they haue, and so they sowe board and board together, with the straw betweene, wherethorow there commeth much water, and they are very dangerous. [Sidenote: Carichij an Iland in the gulfe of Persia.] Departing from Basora we passed 200 miles with the sea on our right hand, along the gulfe, vntil at length we arriued at an Iland called Carichij, fro whence we sailed to Ormus in sight of the Persian shore on the left side, and on the right side towards Arabia we discouered infinite Ilands. Ormus. Ormus [Footnote: Ormus is alwayes replenished with abundance of victuall, and yet there is none that groweth in the Iland.] is an Iland in circuit fiue and twenty or thirty miles, and it is the barrenest and most drie Iland in all the world, because that in it there is nothing to be had, but salt water, and wood, all other things necessary for mans life are brought out of Persia twelue miles off, and out of other Ilands neere thereunto adioyning, in such abundance and quantity, that the city is alwayes replenished with all maner of store: there is standing neere vnto the waters side a very faire castell, in the which the captaine of the king of Portugall is alwayes resident with a good band of Portugalles, and before this castell is a very faire prospect: in the city dwell the maried men, souldiers and marchants of euery nation, amongst whom there are Moores and Gentiles. [Sidenote: Great trade of merchandise in Ormus.] In this city there is very great trade for all sorts of spices, drugges, silke, cloth of silke, brocardo, and diuers other sorts of marchandise come out of Persia: and amongst all other trades of marchandise, the trade of Horses is very great there, which they carry from thence into the Indies. This Iland hath a Moore king of the race of the Persians, who is created and made king by the Captaine of the castle, in the name of the king of Portugall. At the creation of this king I was there, and saw the ceremonies that they vse in it, which are as followeth. The olde King being dead, the Captaine of the Portugals chuseth another of the blood royall, and maketh this election in the castle with great ceremonies, and when hee is elected, the Captaine sweareth him to be true and faithfull to the King of Portugall, as his Lord and Gouernour, and then he giueth him the Scepter regall. After this with great feasting and pompe, and with great company, he is brought into the royall palace in the city. This King keepeth a good traine, and hath sufficient reuenues to maintaine himselfe without troubling of any, because the Captaine of the castle doth mainteine and defend his right, and when that the Captaine and he ride together, he is honoured as a king, yet be cannot ride abroad with his traine, without the consent of the Captaine first had: it behooueth them to doe this, and it is necessary, because of the great trade that is in the city: their proper language is the Persian tongue. There I shipped my selfe to goe for Goa, a city in the Indies, in a shippe that had fourescore horses in her. [Sidenote: A priuilege for Marchants.] This is to aduertise those Marchants that go from Ormus to Goa to shippe themselues in those shippes that carry horses, because euery shippe that carrieth twenty horses and vpwards is priuileged, that all the marchandise whatsoeuer they carry shall pay no custome, whereas the shippes that carry no horses are bound to pay eight per cento of all goods they bring. Goa, Diu, and Cambaia. Goa is the principall city that the Portugals haue in the Indies, where is resident the Viceroy with his Court and ministers of the King of Portugall. From Ormus to Goa is nine hundred foure score and ten miles distance, in which passage the first city that you come to in the Indies, is called Diu, [Footnote: Off South extremity of Kathiawar Peninsula, Bombay Presidency.] and is situate in a little Iland in the kingdome of Cambaia, which is the greatest strength that the Portugals haue in all the Indies, yet a small city, but of great trade, because there they lade very many great ships for the straights of Mecca and Ormus with merchandise, and these shippes belong to the Moores and Christians, but the Moores can not trade neither saile into those seas without the licence of the Viceroy of the King of Portugall, otherwise they are taken and made good prises. The marchandise that they lade these ships withall commeth from Cambaietta a port in the kingdome of Cambaia, which they bring from thence in small barks, because there can no great shippes come thither, by reason of the sholdnesse of the water thereabouts, and these sholds are an hundred or fourescore miles about in a straight or gulfe, which they call Macareo, which is as much as to say, as a race of a tide, because the waters there run out of that place without measure, so that there is no place like to it, vnlesse it be in the kingdome of Pegu, where there is another Macareo, where the waters run out with more force than these doe. The principall city in Cambaia is called Amadauar, it is a dayes iourney and an halfe from Cambaietta, it is a very great city and very populous, and for a city of the Gentiles it is very well made and builded with faire houses and large streets, with a faire place in it with many shippes, and in shew like to Cairo, but not so great: also Cambaietta is situate on the seas side, and is a very faire city. The time that I was there, the city was in great calamity and scarsenesse, so that I haue seene the men of the countrey that were Gentiles take their children, their sonnes and their daughters, and haue desired the Portugals to buy them, and I haue seene them sold for eight or ten larines a piece, which may be of our money x.s. or xiii.s. iiii.d. For all this if I had not seene it, I could not haue beleeued that there should be such a trade at Cambaietta as there is: for in the time of euery new Moone and euery full Moone, the small barks (innumerable) come in and out, for at those times of the Moone the tides and waters are higher then at other times they be. These barkes be laden with all sorts of spices, with silke of China, with Sandols, with Elephants teeth, Veluets of Vercini, great quantity of Pannina, which commeth from Mecca, Chickinos which be pieces of golde woorth seuen shillings a piece sterling, with money, and with diuers sorts of other marchandize. Also these barks lade out, as it were, an infinite quantity of cloth made of Bumbast of all sorts, as white stamped and painted, with great quantity of Indico, dried ginger and conserued, Myrabolans drie and condite, Boraso in paste, great store of sugar, great quantity of Cotton, abundance of Opium, Assa Fetida, Puchio, with many other sorts of drugges, turbants made in Diu, great stones like to Corneolaes, Granats, Agats, Diaspry, Calcidonij, Hematists, and some kinde of naturall diamonds. There is in the city of Cambaietta an order, but no man is bound to keepe it, but they that will; but all the Portugall marchants keepe it, the which is this. There are in this city certain Brokers which are Gentiles and of great authority, and haue euery one of them fifteene or twenty seruants, and the Marchants that vse that countrey haue their Brokers, with which they be serued: and they that haue not bene there are informed by their friends of the order, and of what Broker they shall be serued. [Sidenote: Marchants that trauell to the Indies must cary their prouision of houshold with them.] Now euery fifteene dayes (as abouesayd) that the fleet of small shippes entreth into the port, the Brokers come to the water side, and these Marchants assoone as they are come on land, do giue the cargason of all their goods to that Broker that they will haue to do their businesse for them, with the marks of all the fardles and packs they haue; and the marchant hauing taken on land all his furniture for his house, because it is needful that the Marchants that trade to the Indies carry prouision of housholde with them, because that in euery place where they come they must haue a new house, the Broker that hath receiued his cargason, commandeth his seruants to carry the Marchants furniture for his house home, and load it on some cart, and carry it into the city, where the Brokers haue diuers empty houses meet for the lodging of Marchants, furnished onely with bedsteads, tables, chaires, and empty iarres for water: then the Broker sayth to the Marchant, Goe and repose your selfe, and take your rest in the city. The Broker tarrieth at the water side with the cargason, and causeth all his goods to be discharged out of the ship, and payeth the custome, and causeth it to be brought into the house where the marchant lieth, the Marchant not knowing any thing thereof, neither custome, nor charges. These goods being brought to this passe into the house of the Marchant, the Broker demandeth of the Marchant if he haue any desire to sell his goods or marchandise, at the prises that such wares are worth at that present time? And if he hath a desire to sell his goods presently, then at that instant the Broker selleth them away. After this the Broker sayth to the Marchant, you haue so much of euery sort of marchandise neat and cleare of euery charge, and so much ready money. And if the Marchant will employ his money in other commodities, then the Broker telleth him that such and such commodities will cost so much, put aboord without any maner of charges. The Marchant vnderstanding the effect, maketh his account; and if he thinke to buy or sell at the prices currant, he giueth order to make his marchandise away: and if he hath commodity for 20000 dukets, all shalbe bartred or solde away in fifteene dayes without any care or trouble: and when as the Marchant thinketh that he cannot sell his goods at the prise currant, he may tary as long as he will, but they cannot be solde by any man but by that Broker that hath taken them on land and payed the custome: and purchance tarying sometimes for sale of their commodity, they make good profit, and sometimes losse: but those marchandise that come not ordinarily euery fifteene dayes, in tarying for the sale of them, there is great profit. [Sidenote: Great store of men of warre and rouers on the coast of Cambaia.] The barks that lade in Cambaietta go for Diu to lade the ships that go from thence for the streights of Mecca and Ormus, and some go to Chaul and Goa: and these ships be very well appointed, or els are guarded by the Armada of the Portugals, for that there are many Corsaires or Pyrats which goe coursing alongst that coast, robbing and spoiling: and for feare of these theeues there is no safe sailing in those seas, but with ships very well appointed and armed, or els with the fleet of the Portugals, as is aforesayd. In fine the kingdome of Cambaia is a place of great trade, and hath much doings and traffique with all men, although hitherto it hath bene in the hands of tyrants, because that at 75 yeeres of age the true king being at the assault of Diu, was there slaine: whose name Sultan Badu. At that time foure or fiue captaines of the army diuided the kingdome amongst themselues, and euery one of them shewed in his countrey what tyranny he could: but twelue yeeres ago the great Mogul a Moore king of Agra and Delly, forty dayes iourny within the land of Amadauar, became the gouernour of all the kingdome of Cambaia without any resistance, because he being of great power and force, deuising which way to enter the land with his people, there was not any man that would make him any resistance, although they were tyrants and a beastly people, they were soone brought vnder obedience. [Sidenote: A maruellous fond delight in women.] During the time I dwelt in Cambaietta I saw very maruellous things: there were an infinite number of artificers that made bracelets called Mannij, or bracelets of elephants teeth, of diuers colours, for the women of the Gentiles, which haue their armes full decked with them. And in this occupation there are spent euery yeere many thousands of crownes: the reason whereof is this, that when there dieth any whatsoeuer of their kindred, then in signe and token of mourning and sorrow, they breake all their bracelets from their armes, and presently they go and buy new againe, because that they had rather be without their meat then without their bracelets. Daman. Basan. Tana. Hauing passed Diu, I came to the second city that the Portugals haue, called Daman, situated in the territory of Cambaia, distant from Diu an hundred and twenty miles: it is no towne of merchandise, saue Rice and corne, and hath many villages vnder it, where in time of peace the Portugals take their pleasure, but in time of warre the enemies haue the spoile of them; in such wise that the Portugals haue little benefit by them. Next vnto Daman you shall haue Basan, which is a filthy place in respect of Daman: in this place is Rice, Corne, and Timber to make shippes and gallies. And a small distance beyond Bassan is a little Iland called Tana, a place very populous with Portugals, Moores, and Gentiles: these haue nothing but Rice, there are many makers of Armesie, and weauers of girdles of wooll and bumbast blacke and redde like to Moocharies. Of the cities of Chaul, and of the Palmer tree. Beyond this Iland you shall finde Chaul in the firme land; and they are two cities, one of the Portugals, and the other of the Moores: that city which the Portugals haue is situate lower then the other, and gouerneth the mouth of the harbour, and is very strongly walled: and as it were a mile and an halfe distant from this is the city of Moores, gouerned by their king Zamalluco. In the time of warres there cannot any great ships come to the city of the Moores, because the Portugals with their ordinance will sincke them, for that they must perforce passe by the castles of the Portugals: both the cities are ports of the sea, and are great cities, and haue vnto them great traffique and trade of merchandise, of all sorts of spices, drugges, silke, cloth of silke, Sandols, Marsine, Versin, Porcelane of China, Veluets and Scarlets that come from Portugall and from Meca: with many other sortes of merchandise. There come euery yeere from Cochin, and from Cananor tenne or fifteene great shippes laden with great Nuts cured, and with sugar made of the selfe same Nuts called Giagra: the tree whereon these Nuts doe grow is called the Palmer tree: and thorowout all the Indies, and especially from this place to Goa there is great abundance of them, and it is like to the Date tree. In the whole world there is not a tree more profitable and of more goodnesse then this tree is, neither doe men reape so much benefit of any other tree as they doe of this, there is not any part of it but serueth for some vse, and none of it is woorthy to be burnt. With the timber of this tree they make shippes without the mixture of any other tree, and with the leaues thereof they make sailes, and with the fruit thereof, which be a kinde of Nuts, they make wine, and of the wine they make Sugar and Placetto, which wine they gather in the spring of the yeere: out of the middle of the tree where continually there goeth or runneth out white liquour like vnto water, in that time of the yeere they put a vessel vnder euery tree, and euery euening and morning they take it away full, and then distilling it with fire it maketh a very strong liquour: and then they put it into buts, with a quantity of Zibibbo, white or blacke and in short time it is made a perfect wine. After this they make of the Nuts great store of oile: of the tree they make great quantity of boordes and quarters for buildings. Of the barke of this tree they make cables, ropes, and other furniture for shippes, and, as they say, these ropes be better then they that are made of Hempe. They make of the bowes, bedsteds, after the Indies fashion, and Scauasches for merchandise. The leaues they cut very small, and weaue them, and so make sailes of them, for all maner of shipping, or els very fine mats. And then the first rinde of the Nut they stampe, and make thereof perfect Ockam to calke shippes, great and small: and of the hard barke thereof they make spoones and other vessels for meat, in such wise that there is no part thereof throwen away or cast to the fire. When these Mats be greene they are full of an excellent sweet water to drinke: and if a man be thirsty, with the liquour of one of the Mats he may satisfie himselfe: and as this Nut ripeneth, the liquour thereof turneth all to kernell. There goeth out of Chaul for Mallaca, for the Indies, for Macao, for Portugall, for the coasts of Melinde, for Ormus, as it were an infinite number and quantity of goods and merchandise that come out of the kingdome of Cambaia, as cloth of bumbast white, painted, printed, great quantity of Indico, Opium, Cotton, Silke of euery sort, great store of Boraso in Paste, great store of Fetida, great store of yron, corne, and other merchandise. [Sidenote: Great ordinance made in pieces, and yet seruiceable.] The Moore king Zamalluco is of great power, as one that at need may command, and hath in his camp, two hundred thousand men of warre, and hath great store of artillery, some of them made in pieces, which for their greatnesse can not bee carried to and fro: yet although they bee made in pieces, they are so commodious that they worke with them maruellous well, whose shotte is of stone, and there hath bene of that shot sent vnto the king of Portugall for the rarenes of the thing. The city where the king Zamalluco hath his being, is within the land of Chaul seuen or eight dayes iourney, which city is called Abneger. Three score and tenne miles from Chaul, towards the Indies, is the port of Dabul, an hauen of the king Zamalluco: from thence to Goa is an hundred and fifty miles. Goa. [Sidenote: The chiefe place the Portugals have in the Indies.] Goa is the principall city that the Portugals haue in the Indies, wherein the Viceroy with his royall Court is resident, and is in an Iland which may be in circuit fiue and twenty or thirty miles: and the city with the boroughs is reasonable bigge, and for a citie of the Indies it is reasonable faire, but the Iland is farre more fairer: for it is as it were full of goodly gardens, replenished with diuers trees and with the Palmer trees as is aforesayd. This city is of great trafique for all sorts of marchandise which they trade withall in those parts: and the fleet which commeth euery yeere from Portugall, which are fiue or sixe great shippes that come directly for Goa, arriue there ordinarily the sixth or tenth of September, and there they remaine forty or fifty dayes, and from thence they goe to Cochin, where they lade for Portugall, and often times they lade one shippe at Goa and the other at Cochin for Portugall. Cochin is distant from Goa three hundred miles. The city of Goa is situate in the kingdome of Dialcan a king of the Moores, whose chiefe city is vp in the countrey eight dayes iourney, and is called Bisapor: the king is of great power, for when I was in Goa in the yeere of our Lord 1570, this king came to giue assault to Goa, being encamped neere vnto it by a riuer side with an army of two hundred thousand men of warre, and he lay at this siege foureteene moneths in which time there was peace concluded, and as report went amongst his people, there was great calamity and mortality which bred amongst them in the time of Winter, and also killed very many elephants. [Sidenote: A very good sale for horses.] Then in the yeere of our Lord 1567, I went from Goa to Bezeneger the chiefe city of the king dome of Narsinga eight dayes iourney from Goa, within the land, in the company of two other merchants which carried with them three hundred Arabian horses to that king: because the horses of that countrey are of a small stature, and they pay well for the Arabian horses: and is requisite that the merchants sell them well, for that they stand them in great charges to bring them out of Persia to Ormus, and from Ormus to Goa, where the ship that bringeth twenty horses and vpwards payeth no custome, neither ship nor goods whatsoeuer; whereas if they bring no horses, they pay 8 per cento of all their goods: and at the going out of Goa the horses pay custome, two and forty pagodies for euery horse, which pagody may be of sterling money sixe shillings eight pence, they be pieces of golde of that value. So that the Arabian horses are of great value in those countreys, as 300, 400, 500 duckets a horse, and to 1000 duckets a horse. Bezeneger. The city of Bezeneger was sacked in the yeere 1565, by foure kings of the Moores, which were of great power and might: the names of these foure kings were these following, the first was called Dialcan, the second Zamaluc, the third Cotamaluc, and the fourth Viridy: and yet these foure kings were not able to ouercome the city and the king of Bezeneger, but by treason. The king of Bezeneger was a Gentile, and had, amongst all other of his captaines, two which were notable, and they were Moores: and these two captaines had either of them in charge threescore and ten or fourescore thousand men. These two captaines being of one religion with the foure kings which were Moores, wrought meanes with them to betray their owne king into their hands. [Footnote: A most vnkind and wicked treason against their prince: this they haue for giuing credit to strangers, rather then to their owne natiue people.] The king of Bezeneger esteemed not the force of the foure kings his enemies, but went out of his city to wage battell with them in the fieldes; and when the armies were ioyned, the battell lasted but a while not the space of foure houres, because the two traitourous captaines, in the chiefest of the fight, with their companies turned their faces against their king, and made such disorder in his armie, that as astonied they set themselues to flight. Thirty yeeres was this kingdome gouerned by three brethren which were tyrants, the which keeping the rightful king in prison, it was their vse euery yeere once to shew him to the people, and they at their pleasures ruled as they listed. These brethren were three captaines belonging to the father of the king they kept in prison, which when he died, left his sonne very yong, and then they tooke the gouernment to themselues. The chiefest of these three was called Ramaragio, and sate in the royall throne, and was called the king: the second was called Temiragio, and he tooke the gouernment on him: the third was called Bengatre, and he was captaine generall of the army. These three brethren were in this battell, in the which the chiefest and the last were neuer heard of quicke nor dead. [Sidenote: The sacking of the city.] Onely Temiragio fled in the battel, hauing lost one of his eyes: when the newes came to the city of the ouerthrow in the battell, the wiues and children of these three tyrants, with their lawfull king (kept prisoner) fled away, spoiled as they were, and the foure kings of the Moores entred the city Bezeneger with great triumph, and there they remained sixe moneths, searching vnder houses and in all places for money and other things that were hidden, and then they departed to their owne kingdomes because they were not able to maintaine such a kingdome as that was, so farre distant from their owne countrey. When the kings were departed from Bezeneger, this Temiragio returned to the city, and then beganne for to repopulate it, and sent word to Goa to the Merchants, if they had any horses, to bring them to him, and he would pay well for them, and for this cause the foresayd two Merchants that I went in company withall, carried those horses that they had to Bezeneger. [Sidenote: An excellent good policy to intrap men.] Also this Tyrant made an order or lawe, that if any Merchant had any of the horses that were taken in the foresayd battell or warres, although they were of his owne marke, that he would giue as much for them as they would: and besides he gaue generall safe conduct to all that should bring them. When by this meanes he saw that there were great store of horses brought thither vnto him, hee gaue the Merchants faire wordes, vntill such time as he saw they could bring no more. Then he licenced the Merchants to depart, without giuing them any thing for their horses, which when the poore men saw, they were desperate, and as it were mad with sorrow and griefe. I rested in Bezeneger seuen moneths; although in one moneth I might haue discharged all my businesse, for it was necessary to rest there vntill the wayes were cleere of theeues, which at that time ranged vp and downe. And in the time I rested there, I saw many strange and beastly deeds done by the Gentiles. First, when there is any Noble man or woman dead, they burne their bodies: and if a married man die, his wife must burne herselfe aliue, for the loue of her husband, and with the body of her husband: so that when any man dieth, his wife will take a moneths leaue, two or three, or as shee will, to burne her selfe in, and that day being come, wherein shee ought to be burnt, that morning shee goeth out of her house very earely, either on horsebacke or on an eliphant, or else is borne by eight men on a smal stage: in one of these orders she goeth, being apparelled like to a Bride, carried round about the City, with her haire downe about her shoulders, garnished with iewels and flowers, according to the estate of the party, and they goe with as great ioy as Brides doe in Venice to their nuptials: shee carrieth in her left hand a looking glasse, and in her right hand an arrow, and singeth thorow the City as she passeth, and sayth, that she goeth to sleepe with her deere spowse and husband. [Sidenote: A discription of the burning place.] She is accompanied with her kindred and friends vntill it be one or two of the clocke in the afternoone, then they goe out of the City, and going along the riuers side called Nigondin, which runneth vnder the walles of the City, vntill they come vnto a place where they vse to make this burning of women, being widdowes, there is prepared in this place a great square caue, with a little pinnacle hard by it, foure or fiue steppes vp: the foresayd caue is full of dried wood. [Sidenote: Feasting and dancing when they should mourne.] The woman being come thither, accompanied with a great number of people which come to see the thing, then they make ready a great banquet, and she that shall be burned eateth with as great ioy and gladnesse, as though it were her wedding day: and the feast being ended, then they goe to dancing and singing a certeine time, according as she will. After this, the woman of her owne accord, commandeth them to make the fire in the square caue where the drie wood is, and when it is kindled, they come and certifie her thereof, then presently she leaueth the feast, and taketh the neerest kinseman of her husband by the hand, and they both goe together to the banke of the foresayd riuer, where shee putteth off all her iewels and all her clothes, and giueth them to her parents or kinsefolke and couering herselfe with a cloth, because she will not be seene of the people being naked, she throweth herselfe into the riuer, saying, O wretches, wash away your sinnes. Comming out of the water, she rowleth herselfe into a yellow cloth of fourteene braces long: and againe she taketh her husbands kinseman by the hand, and they go both together vp to the pinnacle of the square caue wherein the fire is made. When she is on the pinnacle, shee talketh and reasoneth with the people, recommending vnto them her children and kindred. Before the pinnacle they vse to set a mat, because they shall not see the fiercenesse of the fire, yet there are many that will haue them plucked away, shewing therein an heart not fearefull, and that they are not affrayd of that sight. When this silly woman hath reasoned with the people a good while to her content, there is another women that taketh a pot with oile, and sprinckleth it ouer her head, and with the same she anoynteth all her body, and afterwards throweth the pot into the fornace, and both the woman and the pot goe together into the fire, and presently the people that are round about the fornace throw after her into the caue great pieces of wood, so by this meanes, with the fire and with the blowes that she hath with the wood throwen after her, she is quickly dead, and after this there groweth such sorrow and such lamentation among the people, that all their mirth is turned into howling and weeping, in such wise, that a man could scarse beare the hearing of it. [Sidenote: Mourning when they should reioice.] I haue seene many burnt in this maner, because my house was neere to the gate where they goe out to the place of burning: and when there dieth any great man, his wife with all his slaues with whom hee hath had carnall copulation, burne themselues together with him. Also in this kingdome I haue seene amongst the base sort of people this vse and order, that the man being dead, he is carried to the place where they will make his sepulchre, and setting him as it were vpright, then commeth his wife before him on her knees, casting her armes about his necke, with imbracing and clasping him, vntill such time as the Masons haue made a wall round about them, and when the wall is as high as their neckes, there commeth a man behinde the women and strangleth her: then when she is dead, the workemen finish the wall ouer their heads, and so they lie buried both together. Besides these, there are an infinite number of beastly qualities amongst them, of which I haue no desire to write. [Sidenote: The cause why the women do so burne themselues.] I was desirous to know the cause why these women would so wilfully burne themselues against nature and law, and it was told mee that this law was of an antient time, to make prouision against the slaughters which women made of their husbands. For in those dayes before this law was made, the women for euery little displeasure that their husbands had done vnto them, would presently poison their husbands, and take other men, and now by reason of this law they are more faithfull vnto their husbands, and count their liues as deare as their owne, because that after his death her owne followeth presently. In the yeere of our Lord God 1567, for the ille successe that the people of Bezeneger had, in that their City was sacked by the foure kings, the king with his Court went to dwell in a castle eight dayes iourney vp in the land from Bezenger, called Penegonde. Also sixe dayes iourney from Bezenger, is the place where they get Diamants: I was not there, but it was tolde me that it is a great place, compassed with a wall, and that they sell the earth within the wall, for so much a squadron, and the limits are set how deepe or how low they shall digge. Those Diamante that are of a certaine sise and bigger then that sise, are all for the king, it is many yeeres agone, since they got any there, for the troubles that haue bene in that kingdome. The first cause of this trouble was, because the sonne of this Temeragio had put to death the lawfull king which he had in prison, for which cause the Barons and Noblemen in that kingdome would not acknowledge him to be their king, and by this meanes there are many kings, and great diuision in that kingdome, and the city of Bezeneger is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but empty, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygers and other wilde beasts. The circuit of this city is foure and twentie miles about, and within the walles are certeine mountaines. The houses stand walled with earth, and plaine, all sauing the three palaces of the three tyrant brethren, and the Pagodes which are idole houses: these are made with lime and fine marble. I haue seene many kings Courts, and yet haue I seene none in greatnesse like to this of Bezeneger, I say, for the ordes of his palace, for it hath nine gates or ports. First when you goe into the place where the king did lodge, there are fiue great ports or gates: these are kept with Captaines and souldiers: then within these there are foure lesser gates: which are kept with Porters. Without the first gate there is a little porch, where there is a Captaine with fiue and twentie souldiers, that keepeth watch and ward night and day: and within that another, with the like guard, wherethorow they come to a very faire Court, and at the end of that Court there is another porch as the first, with the like guard, and within that another Court. And in this wise are the first fiue gates guarded and kept with those Captaines: and then the lesser gates within are kept with a guard of Porters: which gates stand open the greatest part of the night, because the custome of the Gentiles is to doe their businesse, and make their feasts in the night, rather then by day. The city is very safe from theeues, for the Portugall merchants sleepe in the streets, or vnder porches, for the great heat which is there, and yet they neuer had any harme in the night. At the end of two monethes, I determined to goe for Goa in the company of two other Portugall Marchants, which were making ready to depart, with two palanchines or little litters, which are very commodious for the way, with eight Falchines which are men hired to cary the palanchines, eight for a palanchine, foure at a time: they carry them as we vse to carry barrowes. [Sidenote: Men ride on bullocks and trauell with them on the way.] And I bought me two bullocks, one of them to ride on, and the other to carry my victuals and prouision, for in that countrey they ride on bullocks with pannels, as we terme them, girts and bridles, and they haue a very good commodious pace. From Bezeneger to Goa in Summer it is eight dayes iourney, but we went in the midst of Winter, in the moneth of Iuly, and were fifteene dayes comming to Ancola on the sea coast, so in eight dayes I had lost my two bullocks: for he that carried my victuals, was weake and could not goe, the other when I came vnto a riuer where was a little bridge to passe ouer, I put my bullocke to swimming, and in the middest of the riuer there was a little Iland, vnto the which my bullocke went, and finding pasture, there he remained still, and in no wise we could come to him: and so perforce, I was forced to leaue him, and at that time there was much raine, and I was forced to go seuen dayes a foot with great paines: and by great chance I met with Falchines by the way, whom I hired to carry my clothes and victuals. We had great trouble in our iourney, for that euery day wee were taken prisoners, by reason of the great dissension in that kingdome: and euery morning at our departure we must pay rescat foure or fiue pagies a man. And another trouble wee had as bad as this, that when as wee came into a new gouernours countrey, as euery day we did, although they were al tributary to the king of Bezeneger, yet euery one of them stamped a seueral coine of Copper, so that the money that we tooke this day would not serue the next: at length, by the helpe of God, we came safe to Ancola, which is a country of the Queene of Gargopam, tributary to the king of Bezeneger. [Sidenote: The marchandise that come in and out to Bezeneger euery yere.] The marchandise that went euery yere from Goa to Bezeneger were Arabian Horses, Veluets, Damasks, and Sattens, Armesine of Portugall, and pieces of China, Saffron, and Skarlets: and from Bezeneger they had in Turky for their commodities, iewels, and Pagodies which be ducats of golde: [Sidenote: the apparell of those people.] the apparell that they vse in Bezeneger is Veluet, Satten, Damaske, Scarlet, or white Bumbast cloth, according, to the estate of the person with long hats on their heads, called Colae, made of Veluet, Satten, Damaske, or Scarlet, girding themselues in stead of girdles with some fine white bombast doth: they haue breeches after the order of the Turks: they weare on their feet plaine high things called of them Aspergh, and at their eares they haue hanging great plenty of golde. Returning to my voyage, when we were together in Ancola, one of my companions that had nothing to lose, tooke a guide, and went to Goa, whither they goe in foure dayes, the other Portugall not being disposed to go, tarried in Ancola for that Winter. [Sidenote: Their Winter is our Summer.] The Winter in those parts of the Indies beginneth the fifteenth of May, and lasteth vnto the end of October: and as we were in Ancola, there came another Marchant of horses in a palanchine, and two Portugall souldiers which came from Zeilan, and two cariers of letters, which were Christians borne in the Indies; all these consorted to goe to Goa together, and I determined to goe with them, and caused a pallanchine to be made for me very poorely of Canes; and in one of them Canes I hid priuily all the iewels I had, and according to the order, I tooke eight Falchines to cary me: and one day about eleuen of the clocke wee set forwards on our iourney, and about two of the clocke in the afternoone, as we passed a mountains which diuideth the territory of Ancola and Dialcan, I being a little behinde my company was assaulted by eight theeues, foure of them had swordes and targets, and the other foure had bowes and arrowes. When the Falchines that carried me vnderstood the noise of the assault, they let the pallanchine and me fall to the ground, and ranne away and left me alone, with my clothes wrapped about me: presently the theeues were on my necke and rifeling me, they stripped me starke naked, and I fained my selfe sicke, because I would not leaue the pallanchine, and I had made me a little bedde of my clothes; the theeues sought it very narrowly and subtilly, and found two pursses that I had, well bound vp together, wherein I had put my Copper money which I had changed for foure pagodies in Ancola. The theeues thinking it had beene so many duckats of golde, searched no further: then they threw all my clothes in a bush, and hied them away, and as God would haue it, at their departure there fell from them an handkercher, and when I saw it, I rose from my Pallanchine or couch, and tooke it vp, and wrapped it together within my Pallanchine. Then these my Falchines were of so good condition, that they returned to seeke mee, whereas I thought I should not haue found so much goodnesse in them: because they were payed their mony aforehand, as is the vse, I had thought to haue seene them no more. Before their comming I was determined to plucke the Cane wherein my iewels were hidden, out of my coutch, and to haue made me a walking staffe to carry in my hand to Goa, thinking that I should haue gone thither on foot, but by the faithfullness of my Falchines, I was rid of that trouble, and so in foure dayes they carried me to Goa, in which time I made hard fare, for the theeues left me neither money, golde, nor siluer, and that which I did eat was giuen me of my men for Gods sake: and after at my comming to Goa I payed them for euery thing royally that I had of them. [Sidenote: Foure small fortes of the Portugals.] From Goa I departed for Cochin, which is a voyage of three hundred miles, and betweene these two cities are many holdes of the Portugals, as Onor, Mangalor, Barzelor, and Cananor. The Holde or Fort that you shall haue from Goa to Cochin that belongeth to the Portugals is called Onor, which is in the kingdome of the queene of Battacella, which is tributary to the king of Bezeneger: there is no trade there, but onely a charge with the Captaine and company he keepeth there. And passing this place, you shall come to another small castle of the Portugals called Mangalor, and there is very small trade but onely for a little Rice: and from thence you goe to a little fort called Bazelor, there they haue good store of Rice which is carried to Goa: and from thence you shall goe to a city called Cananor, which is a harquebush shot distant from the chiefest city that the king of Cananor hath in his kingdome being a king of the Gentiles: and he and his are very naughty and malicious people, alwayes hauing delight to be in warres with the Portugales, and when they are in peace, it is for their interest to let their merchandize passe: there goeth out of this kingdom of Cananor, all the Cardamomum, great store of Pepper, Ginger, Honie, ships laden with great Nuts, great quantitie of Archa, which is a fruit of the bignesse of Nutmegs, which fruite they eate in all those partes of the Indies and beyond the Indies, with the leafe of an Herbe which they call Bettell, the which is like vnto our Iuie leafe, but a litle lesser and thinner: [Sidenote: Bettel is a very profitable herbe in that countrey.] they eate it made in plaisters with the lime made of Oistershels, and thorow the Indies they spend great quantitie of money in this composition, and it is vsed daily, which thing I would not haue beleeued, if I had not seene it. The customers get great profite by these Herbes, for that they haue custome for them. When this people eate and chawe this in their mouthes, it maketh their spittle to bee red like vnto blood, and they say, that it maketh a man to haue a very good stomacke and a sweete breath, but sure in my iudgement they eate it rather to fulfill their filthie lustes, and of a knauerie, for this Herbe is moyst and hote, and maketh a very strong expulsion. [Sidenote: Enimies to the king of Portugall.] From Cananor you go to Cranganor, which is another smal Fort of the Portugales in the land of the king of Cranganor, which is another king of the Gentiles, and a countrey of small importance, and of an hundreth and twentie miles, full of thieues, being vnder the king of Calicut, a king also of the Gentiles, and a great enemie to the Portugales, which when hee is alwayes in warres, hee and his countrey is the nest and resting for stranger theeues, and those bee called Moores of Carposa, because they weare on their heads long red hats, and these thieues part the spoyles that they take on the Sea with the king of Calicut, for hee giueth leaue vnto all that will goe a rouing, liberally to goe, in such wise, that all along that coast there is such a number of thieues, that there is no sailing in those Seas but with great ships and very well armed, or els they must go in company with the army of the Portugals from Cranganor to Cochin is 15. miles. Cochin. [Sidenote: Within Cochin is the kingdom of Pepper.] Cochin is, next vnto Goa, the chiefest place that the Portugales haue in the Indies, and there is great trade of Spices, drugges, and all other sortes of merchandize for the kingdome of Portugale, and there within the land is the kingdome of Pepper, which Pepper the Portugales lade in their shippes by bulke and not in sackes: [Marginal note: The Pepper that the Portugals bring, is not so good as that which goeth for Mecca, which is brought hither by the streights.] the Pepper that goeth for Portugale is not so good as that which goeth for Mecca, because that in times past the officers of the king of Portugale made a contract with the king of Cochin, in the name of the king of Portugale, for the prizes of Pepper, and by reason of that agreement betweene them at that time made, the price can neither rise nor fall, which is a very lowe and base price, and for this cause the villaines bring it to the Portugales, greene and full of filthe. The Moores of Mecca that giue a better price, haue it cleane and drie, and better conditioned. All the Spices and drugs that are brought to Mecca, are stollen from thence as Contrabanda. Cochin is two cities, one of the Portugales, and another of the king of Cochin: that of the Portugales is situate neerest vnto the Sea, and that of the king of Cochin is a mile and a halfe vp higher in the land, but they are both set on the bankes of one riuer which is very great and of a good depth of water, which riuer commeth out of the mountaines of the king of the Pepper, which is a king of the Gentiles, in whose kingdom are many Christians of saint Thomas order: the king of Cochin is also a king of the Gentiles and a great faithfull friend to the king of Portugale, and to those Portugales which are married, and are Citizens in the Citie Cochin of the Portugales. And by this name of Portugales throughout all the Indies, they call all the Christians that come out of the West, whether they bee Italians, Frenchmen, or Almaines, and all they that marrie in Cochin do get an office according to the trade he is of: [Sidenote: Great priuiledges that the citizens of Cochin haue.] this they haue by the great priuileges which the Citizens haue of that city, because there are two principal commodities that they deale withal in that place, which are these. The great store of Silke that commeth from China, and the great store of Sugar which commeth from Bengala: the married Citizens pay not any custome for these two commodities: for they pay 4. per cento custome to the king of Cochin, rating their goods at their owne pleasure. Those which are not married and strangers, pay in Cochin to the king of Portugale eight per cento of all maner of merchandise. I was in Cochin when the Viceroy of the king of Portugale wrought what hee coulde to breake the priuilege of the Citizens, and to make them to pay custome as other did: at which time the Citizens were glad to waigh their Pepper in the night that they laded the ships withall that went to Portugale and stole the custome in the night. The king of Cochin hauing vnderstanding of this, would not suffer any more Pepper to bee weighed. Then presently after this, the marchants were licensed to doe as they did before, and there was no more speach of this matter, nor any wrong done. This king of Cochin is of a small power in respect of the other kings of the Indies, for hee can make but seuentie thousand men of armes in his campe: hee hath a great number of Gentlemen which hee calleth Amochi, and some are called Nairi: these two sorts of men esteeme not their liues any thing, so that it may be for the honour of their king, they will thrust themselues forward in euery danger, although they know they shall die. These men goe naked from the girdle vpwardes, with a clothe rolled about their thighs, going barefooted, and hauing their haire very long and rolled vp together on the toppe of their heads, and alwayes they carrie their Bucklers or Targets with them and their swordes naked, these Nairi haue their wiues common amongst themselues, and when any of them goe into the house of any of these women, hee leaueth his sworde and target at the doore, and the time that hee is there, there dare not any bee so hardie as to come into that house. The kings children shall not inherite the kingdome after their father, because they hold this opinion, that perchance they were not begotten of the king their father, but of some other man, therfore they accept for their king, one of the sonnes of the kings sisters, or of some other woman of the blood roial, for that they be sure, they are of the blood roiall. [Sidenote: A very strange thing hardly to be beleeued.] The Nairi and their wiues vse for a brauerie to make great holes in their eares, and so bigge and wide, that it is incredible, holding this opinion, that the greater the holes bee, the more noble they esteeme themselues. I had leaue of one of them to measure the circumference of one of them with a threed, and within that circumference I put my arme vp to the shoulder, clothed as it was, so that in effect they are monstrous great. Thus they doe make them when they be litle, for then they open the eare, and hang a piece of gold or lead thereat, and within the opening, in the whole they put a certaine leafe that they haue for that purpose, which maketh the hole so great. They lade ships in Cochin for Portugale and for Ormus, but they that goe for Ormus carrie no Pepper but by Contrabanda, as for Sinamome they easilie get leaue to carrie that away, for all other Spices and drugs they may liberally carie them to Ormus or Cambaia, and so all other merchandize which come from other places, but out of the kingdom of Cochin properly they cary away with them into Portugale great abundance of Pepper, great quantitie of Ginger dried and conserued, wild Sinamon, good quantity of Arecca, great store of Cordage of Cairo, made of the barke of the tree of the great Nut, and better then that of Hempe, of which they carrie great store into Portugale. [Sidenote: Note the departing of ships from Cochin.] The shippes euery yeere depart from Cochin to goe for Portugall, on the fift day December, or the fift day of Ianuary. Nowe to follow my voyage for the Indies: from Cochin I went to Coulam, distant from Cochin seuentie and two miles, which Coulam is a small Fort of the king of Portugales, situate in the kingdom of Coulam, which is a king of the Gentiles, and of small trade: at that place they lade onely halfe a ship of Pepper, and then she goeth to Cochin to take in the rest, and from thence to Cao Comori is seuentie and two miles, and there endeth the coast of the Indies: and alongst this coast, neere to the water side, and also to Cao Comori, downe to the lowe land of Chialon, which is about two hundred miles, the people there are as it were all turned to the Christian faith: there are also Churches of the Friers of S. Pauls order, which Friers doe very much good in those places in turning the people, and in conuerting them, and take great paines in instructing them in the law of Christ. The fishing for Pearles. [Sidenote: The order how they fish for pearles.] The Sea that lieth betweene the coast which descendeth from Cao Comori, to the lowe land of Chiaoal, and the Iland Zeilan, they call the fishing of Pearles, which fishing they make euery yeere, beginning in March or Aprill, and it lasteth fiftie dayes, but they doe not fishe euery yeere in one place, but one yeere in one place, and another yeere in another place of the same sea. When the time of this fishing draweth neere, then they send very good Diuers, that goe to discouer where the greatest heapes of Oisters bee vnder water, and right agaynst that place where greatest store of Oisters bee, there they make or plant a village with houses and a Bazaro, all of stone, which standeth as long as the fishing time lasteth, and it is furnished with all things necessarie, and nowe and then it is neere vnto places that are inhabited, and other times farre off, according to the place where they fishe. The Fishermen are all Christians of the countrey, and who so will may goe to fishing, paying a certaine dutie to the king of Portugall, and to the Churches of the Friers of Saint Paule, which are in that coast. All the while that they are fishing, there are three or foure Fustes armed to defend the Fishermen from Rouers. It was my chance to bee there one time in my passage, and I saw the order that they vsed in fishing, which is this. There are three or foure Barkes that make consort together, which are like to our litle Pilot boates, and a litle lesse, there goe seuen or eight men in a boate: and I haue seene in a morning a great number of them goe out, and anker in fifteene or eighteene fadome of water, which is the Ordinarie depth of all that coast. When they are at anker, they cast a rope into the Sea, and at the ende of the rope, they make fast a great stone, and then there is readie a man that hath his nose and his eares well stopped, and annointed with oyle, and a basket about his necke, or vnder his left arme, then hee goeth downe by the rope to the bottome of the Sea, and as fast as he can he filleth the basket, and when it is full, he shaketh the rope, and his fellowes that are in the Barke hale him vp with the basket: and in such wise they goe one by one vntill they haue laden their barke with oysters, and at euening they come to the village, and then euery company maketh their mountaine or heape of oysters one distant from another, in such wise that you shall see a great long rowe of mountaines or heapes of oysters, and they are not touched vntill such time as the fishing bee ended, and at the ende of the fishing euery companie sitteth round about their mountaine or heape of oysters, and fall to opening of them, which they may easilie doe because they bee dead, drie and brittle: and if euery oyster had pearles in them, it would bee a very good purchase, but there are very many that haue no pearles in them: when the fishing is ended, then they see whether it bee a great gathering or a badde: there are certaine expert in the pearles whom they call Chitini, which set and make the price of pearles [Marginal note: These pearles are prised according to the caracts which they weigh, euery caract is 4. graines, and these men that prise hem haue an instrument of copper with holes in it, which be made by degrees for to sort the perles withall.] according to their carracts, beautie, and goodnesse, making foure sortes of them. The first sort bee the round pearles, and they be called Aia of Portugale, because the Portugales doe buy them. The second sorte which are not round, are called Aia of Bengala. The third sort which are not so good as the second, they call Aia of Canara, that is to say, the kingdome of Bezeneger. The fourth and last sort, which are the least and worst sort, are called Aia of Cambaia. Thus the price being set, there are merchants of euery countrey which are readie with their money in their handes, so that in a fewe dayes all is bought vp at the prises set according to the goodnesse and caracts of the pearles. In this Sea of the fishing of pearles is an Iland called Manar, which is inhabited by Christians of the countrey which first were Gentiles, and haue a small hold of the Portugales being situate ouer agaynst Zeilan: and betweene these two Ilands there is a chanell, but not very big, and hath but a small depth therein; by reason whereof there cannot any great shippe passe that way, but small ships, and with the increase of the water which is at the change or the full of the Moone, and yet for all this they must vnlade them and put their goods into small vessels to lighten them before they can passe that way for feare of Sholdes that lie in the chanell, and after lade them into their shippes to goe for the Indies, and this doe all small shippes that passe that way, but those shippes that goe for the Indies Eastwardes, passe by the coast of Coromandel, on the other side by the land of Chilao which is betweene the firme land and the Iland Manor: and going from the Indies to the coast of Coromandel, they loose some shippes, but they bee emptie, because that the shippes that passe that way discharge their goods at an Iland called Peripatane, and there land their goods into small flat bottomed boates which drawe litle water, and are called Tane, and can run ouer euery Shold without either danger or losse of any thing, for that they tarrie in Peripatane vntill such time as it bee faire weather. Before they depart to passe the Sholds, the small shippes and flat bottomed boates goe together in companie, and when they haue sailed sixe and thirtie miles, they arriue at the place where the Sholdes are, and at that place the windes blowe so forciblie, that they are forced to goe thorowe, not hauing any other refuge to saue themselues. The flat bottomed boates goe safe thorow, where as the small shippes if they misse the aforesayd chanell, sticke fast on the Sholdes, and by this meanes many are lost: and comming backe for the Indies, they goe not that way, but passe by the chanell of Manar as is abouesayd, whose chanell is Oazie, and if the shippes sticke fast, it is a great chance if there be any danger at all. The reason why this chanell is not more sure to goe thither, is, because the windes that raigne or blowe betweene Zeilan and Manar, make the chanell so shalow with water, that almost there is not any passage. From Coa Comori to the Iland of Zeilan is 120. miles ouerthwart. Zeilan. [Footnote: Ceylon.] Zeilan is an Iland, in my iudgement, a great deale bigger then Cyprus: on that side towards the Indies lying Westward is the citie called Columba, which is a hold of the Portugales, but without walles or enimies. It hath towards the Sea a free port, the awfull king of that Iland is in Colombo, and is turned Christian, and maintained by the king of Portugall, being depriued of his kingdome. The king of the Gentiles, to whom this kingdome did belong, was called Madoni, which had two sonnes, the first named Barbinas the prince; and the second Ragine. This king by the pollicie of his yoonger sonne, was depriued of his kingdome, who because hee had entised and done that which pleased the armie and souldiours, in despight of his father and brother being prince, vsurped the kingdome, and became a great warriour. First, this Iland had three kings; the King of Cotta with his conquered prisoners: the king of Candia, which is a part of that Iland, and is so called by the name of Candia, which had a reasonable power, and was a great friend to the Portugals, which sayd that hee liued secretly a Christian; the third was the king of Gianifampatan. In thirteene yeeres that this Ragine gouerned this Iland, he became a great tyrant. In this Iland there groweth fine Sinamom, great store of Pepper, great store of Nuttes and Arochoe: there they make great store of Cairo [Footnote: Cairo is a stuffe that they make rope with, the which is the barke of a tree.] to make Cordage: it bringeth foorth great store of Christall Cats eyes, or Ochi de Gati, and they say that they finde there some Rubies, but I haue sold Rubies well there that I brought with me from Pegu. I was desirous to see how they gather the Sinamom, or take it from the tree that it groweth on, and so much the rather, because the time that I was there, was the season which they gather it in, which was in the moneth of Aprill, at which time the Portugals were in armes, and in the field, with the king of the countrey; yet I to satisfie my desire, although in great danger, tooke a guide with mee and went into a wood three miles from the Citie, in which wood was great store of Sinamome trees growing together among other wilde trees; and this Sinamome tree is a small tree, and not very high, and hath leaues like to our Baie tree. In the moneth of March or Aprill, when the sappe goeth vp to the toppe of the tree, then they take the Sinamom from that tree in this wise. [Sidenote: The cutting and gathering of Sinamom.] They cut the barke of the tree round about in length from knot to knot, or from ioint to ioint, aboue and belowe, and then easilie with their handes they take it away, laying it in the Sunne to drie, and in this wise it is gathered, and yet for all this the tree dieth not, [Sidenote: A rare thing.] but agaynst the next yeere it will haue a new barke, and that which is gathered euery yeere is the best Sinamome: for that which groweth two or three yeares is great, and not so good as the other is; and in these woods groweth much Pepper. Negapatan. From the Iland of Zeilan men vse to goe with small shippes to Negapatan, within the firme land, and seuentie two miles off is a very great Citie, and very populous of Portugals and Christians of the countrey, and part Gentiles: it is a countrey of small trade, neither haue they any trade there, saue a good quantitie of Rice, and cloth of Bumbast which they carie into diuers partes: it was a very plentifull countrey of victuals but now it hath a great deale lesse; and that abundance of victuals caused many Portugales to goe thither and build houses, and dwell there with small charge. This Citie belongeth to a nobleman of the kingdome of Bezeneger being a Gentile, neuerthelesse the Portugales and other Christians are well intreated there, and haue their Churches there with a monasterie of Saint Francis order, with great deuotion and very well accommodated, with houses round about: yet for all this, they are amongst tyrants, which alwayes at their pleasure may doe them some harme, as it happened in the yeere of our Lord God one thousand fiue hundred, sixtie and fiue: [Sidenote: A foolish feare of Portugals.] for I remember very well, how that the Nayer, that is to say, the lord of the citie, sent to the citizens to demaund of them certaine Arabian horses, and they hauing denied them vnto him, and gainesayd his demaund, it came to passe that this lord had a desire to see the Sea, which when the poore citizens vnderstood, they doubted some euill, to heare a thing which was not woont to bee, they thought that this man would come to sacke the Citie, and presently they embarked themselues the best they could with their mooueables, marchandize, iewels, money, and all that they had, and caused the shippes to put from the shore. When this was done, as their euill chance would haue it, the next night following, there came such a great storme that it put all the shippes on land perforce, and brake them to pieces, and all the goods that came on land and were saued, were taken from them by the souldiours and armie of this lord which came downe with him to see the Sea, and were attendant at the Sea side, not thinking that any such thing would haue happened. Saint Thomas or San Tome. [Sidenote: St. Thomas his sepulchre.] From Negapatan following my voyage towards the East an hundred and fiftie miles, I found the house of blessed Saint Thomas, which is a Church of great deuotion, and greatly regarded of the Gentiles for the great miracles they haue heard to haue bene done by that blessed Apostle: neere vnto this Church the Portugals haue builded them a Citie in the countrey subiect to the king of Bezeneger, which Citie although it bee not very great, yet in my iudgement, it is the fairest in all that part of the Indies: and it hath very faire houses and faire gardens in vacant places very well accommodated: it hath streetes large and streight, with many Churches of great deuotion, their houses be set close one vnto another, with little doores, euery house hath his defence, so that by that meanes it is of force sufficient to defend the Portugals against the people of that countrey. The Portugals there haue no other possession but their gardens and houses that are within the citie: the customes belong to the king of Bezeneger, which are very small and easie, for that it is a countrey of great riches and great trade: there come euery yeere two or three great ships very rich, besides many other small ships: one of the two great ships goeth for Pegu, and the other for Malacca, laden with fine Bumbast [Marginal Note: A painted kind of cloth and died of diuers colours which those people delight much in, and esteeme them of great price.] cloth of euery sort, painted, which is a rare thing, because those kinde of clothes shew as they were gilded, with diuers colours, and the more they be washed, the liuelier the colours will shew. Also there is other cloth of Bumbast which is wouen with diuers colours, and is of great value: also they make in Sant Tome great store of red Yarne, which they die with a roote called Saia, and this colour will neuer waste, but the more it is washed, the more redder it will shew: they lade this yarne the greatest part of it for Pegu, because that there they worke and weaue it to make cloth according to their owne fashion, and with lesser charges. It is a maruelous thing to them which haue not seene the lading and vnlading of men and marchandize in S. Tome as they do: it is a place so dangerous, that a man cannot bee serued with small barkes, neither can they doe their businesse with the boates of the shippes, because they would be beaten in a thousand pieces, but they make certaine barkes (of purpose) high, which they call Masadie, they be made of litle boards; one board being sowed to another with small cordes, and in this order are they made. And when they are thus made, and the owners will embarke any thing in them, either men or goods, they lade them on land, and when they are laden, the Barke-men thrust the boate with her lading into the streame, and with great speed they make haste all that they are able to rowe out against the huge waues of the sea that are on that shore, vntill that they carie them to the ships: and in like maner they lade these Masadies at the shippes with merchandise and men. When they come neere the shore, the Barke-men leap out of the Barke into the Sea to keepe the Barke right that she cast not athwart the shore, and being kept right, the Suffe of the Sea setteth her lading dry on land without any hurt or danger, and sometimes there are some of them that are ouerthrowen, but there can be no great losse, because they lade but a litle at a time. All the marchandize they lade outwards, they emball it well with Oxe hides, so that if it take wet, it can haue no great harme. [Sidenote: In the Iland of Banda they lade Nutmegs for there they grow.] In my voyage, returning in the yeere of our Lord God one thousand, fiue hundred, sixtie and sixe, I went from Goa vnto Malacca, in a shippe or Gallion of the king of Portugal, which went vnto Banda for to lade Nutmegs and Maces: from Goa to Malacca are one thousand eight hundred miles, we passed without the Iland Zeilan, and went through the chanell of Nicubar, or els through the chanell of Sombero, which is by the middle of the Iland of Sumatra, called in olde time Taprobana: [Sidenote: In the Ilands of Andemaon, they eate one another.] and from Necubar to Pegu is as it were a rowe or chaine of an infinite number of Ilands, of which many are inhabited with wilde people, and they call those Ilands the Ilands of Andemaon, and they call their people sauage or wilde, because they eate one another: also these Ilands haue warre one with another, for they haue small Barkes, and with them they take one another, and so eate one another: and if by euil chance any ship be lost on those Ilands, as many haue bene, there is not one man of those ships lost there that escapeth vneaten or vnslaine. These people haue not any acquaintance with any other people, neither haue they trade with any, but liue onely of such fruites as those Ilands yeeld: and if any ship come neere vnto that place or coast as they passe that way, as in my voyage it happened as I came from Malacca through the chanell of Sombrero, there came two of their Barkes neere vnto our ship laden with fruite, as with Mouces which wee call Adam apples, with fresh Nuts, and with a fruite called Inani, which fruite is like to our Turneps, but is very sweete and good to eate: they would not come into the shippe for any thing that wee could doe: neither would they take any money for their fruite, but they would trucke for olde shirtes or pieces of olde linnen breeches, these ragges they let downe with a rope into their Barke vnto them, and looke what they thought those things to bee woorth, so much fruite they would make fast to the rope and let vs hale it in: and it was told me that at sometimes a man shall haue for an old shirt a good piece of Amber. Sumatra. This Iland of Sumatra is a great Iland and deuided and gouerned by many kings, and deuided into many chanels, where through there is passage: upon the headland towardes the West is the kingdom of Assi gouerned by a Moore king: this king is of great force and strength, as he that beside his great kingdom, hath many Foists and Gallies. In his kingdom groweth great store of Pepper, Ginger, Beniamin: he is an vtter enemy to the Portugals, and hath diuers times bene at Malacca to fight against it, and hath done great harme to the boroughes thereof, but the citie alway withstood him valiantly, and with their ordinance did great spoile to his campe. At length I came to the citie of Malacca. The Citie Malacca. Malacca is a Citie of marueilous great trade of all kind of marchandize, which come from diuers partes, because that all the shippes that saile in these seas, both great and small, are bound to touch at Malacca to paie their custome there, although they vnlade nothing at all, as we do at Elsinor: and if by night they escape away, and pay not their custome, then they fall into a greater danger after: for if they come into the Indies and haue not the seale of Malacca, they pay double custome. I haue not passed further then Malacca towards the East, but that which I wil speake of here is by good information of them that haue bene there. The sailing from Malacca towards the East is not common for all men, as to China and Iapan, and so forwards to go who will, but onely for the king of Portugall and his nobles, with leaue granted vnto them of the king to make such voiage, or to the iurisdiction of the captaine of Malacca, where he expecteth to know what voiages they make from Malacca thither, and these are the kings voiages, that euery yere there departeth from Malacca 2. gallions of the kings, one of them goeth to the Moluccos to lade Cloues, and the other goeth to Banda to lade Nutmegs and Maces. These two gallions are laden for the king, neither doe they carie any particular mans goods, sauing the portage of the Mariners and souldiers, and for this cause they are not voiages for marchants, because that going thither, they shal not haue where to lade their goods of returne; and besides this, the captaine wil not cary any marchants for either of these two places. There goe small shippes of the Moores thither, which come from the coast of Iaua, and change or guild their commodities in the kingdom of Assa, and these be the Maces, Cloues, and Nutmegs, which go for the streights of Mecca. The voiages that the king of Portugall granteth to his nobles are these, of China and Iapan, from China to Iapan, and from Iapan to China, and from China to the Indies, and the voyage of Bengala, Maluco, and Sonda, with the lading of fine cloth, and euery sort of Bumbast cloth. Sonda is an Iland of the Moores neere to the coast of Iaua, and there they lade pepper for China. [Sidenote: The ship of drugs, so termed of the Portugals.] The ship that goeth euery yeere from the Indies to China, is called the ship of Drugs, because she carieth diuers drugs of Cambaia, but the greatest part of her lading is siluer. From Malacca to China is eighteene hundred miles: and from China to Iapan goeth euery yeere a shippe of great importance laden with Silke, which for returne of their Silke bringeth barres of siluer which they trucke in China. The distance betweene China and Iapan is foure and twentie hundred miles, and in this way there are diuers Ilands not very bigge, in which the Friers of saint Paul, by the helpe of God, make many Christians there like to themselues. From these Ilands hitherwards the place is not yet discouered for the great sholdnesse of Sandes that they find. The Portugals haue made a small citie neere vnto the coast of China called Macao, whose church and houses are of wood, and it hath a bishoprike, but the customs belong to the king of China, and they goe and pay the same at a citie called Canton which is a citie of great importance and very beautifull two dayes iourney and a halfe from Macao. The people of China are Gentiles, and are so iealous and fearefull, that they would not haue a stranger to put his foote within their land: so that when the Portugals go thither to pay their custome, and to buy their merchandize, they will not consent that they shall lie or lodge within the citie, but send them foorth into the suburbes. The countrey of China [Marginal note: China is vnder the gouernment of the great Tartar.] is neere the kingdom of great Tartria, and is a very great countrey of the Gentiles and of great importance, which may be iudged by the rich and precious marchandize that come from thence, then which I beleeue there are not better nor in greater quantitie, in the whole world besides. First, great store of golde, which they carie to the Indies, made in plates like to little shippes, and in value three and twentie caracts a peece, very great aboundance of fine silke, cloth of damaske and taffata, great quantitie of muske, great quantitie of Occam in barres, great quantitie of quicksiluer and of Cinaper, great store of Camfora, an infinite quantitie of Porcellane, made in vessels of diuerse sortes, great quantitie of painted cloth and squares, infinite store of the rootes of China: and euery yeere there commeth from China to the Indies, two or three great shippes, laden with most rich and precious merchandise. [Sidenote: A yeerely Carouan from Persia to China.] The Rubarbe commeth from thence ouer lande, by the way of Persia, because that euery yeere there goeth a great Carouan from Persia to China, which is in going thither sixe moneths. The Carouan arriueth at a Citie called Lanchin, the place where the king is resident with his Court. I spake with a Persian that was three yeeres in that citie of Lanchin, and he tolde me that it was a great Citie and of great importance. The voiages of Malacca which are in the iurisdiction of the Captaine of the castle, are these: Euery yeere he sendeth a small shippe to Timor to lade white Sandols, for all the best commeth from this Iland: there commeth some also from Solor, but that is not so good: also he sendeth another small ship euery yere to Cauchin China, to lade there wood of Aloes, for that all the wood of Aloes commeth from this place, which is in the firme land neere vnto China, and in that kingdome I could not knowe how that wood groweth by any meanes. [Sidenote: A market kept aboord of the ships.] For that the people of the countrey will not suffer the Portugales to come within the land, but onely for wood and water, and as for all other things that they wanted, as victuals or marchandise, the people bring that a boord the ship in small barkes, so that euery day there is a mart kept in the ship, vntill such time as she be laden: also there goeth another ship for the said Captaine of Malacca to Sion, to lade Verzino: all these voiages are for the Captaine of the castle of Malacca, and when he is not disposed to make these voiages he selleth them to another. The citie of Sion, or Siam. [Sidenote: A prince of marueilous strength and power.] Sion was the imperiall seat, and a great Citie, but in the yeere of our Lord God one thousand five hundred sixtie and seuen, it was taken by the king of Pegu, which king made a voyage or came by lande foure moneths iourney with an armie of men through his lande, and the number of his armie was a million and foure hundreth thousand men of warre: when hee came to the Citie, he gaue assault to it, and besieged it one and twentie moneths before he could winne it, with great losse of his people, this I know, for that I was in Pegu sixe moneths after his departure, and sawe when that his officers that were in Pegu, sent fiue hundreth thousand men of warre to furnish the places of them that were slaine and lost in that assault: yet for all this, if there had not beene treason against the citie, it had not beene lost: for on a night there was one of the gates set open, through the which with great trouble the king gate into the citie, and became gouernour of Sion: and when the Emperour sawe that he was betrayed, and that his enemie was in the citie, he poysoned himselfe: and his wiues and children, friends and noblemen, that were not slaine in the first affront of the entrance into the citie, were all caried captiues into Pegu, where I was at the comming home of the king with his triumphs and victorie, which comming home and returning from the warres was a goodly sight to behold, to see the Elephants come home in a square, laden with golde, siluer, iewels, and with Noble men and women that were taken prisoners in that citie. Now to returne to my yoyage: I departed from Malacca in a great shippe which went for Saint Tome, being a Citie situate on the coast of Coromandel: and because the Captaine of the castles of Malacca had vnderstanding by aduise that the king of Assi [Marginal note: Or Achem.] would come with a great armie and power of men against them, therefore vpon this he would not giue licence that any shippes should depart: Wherefore in this ship wee departed from thence in the night, without making any prouision of our water: and wee were in that shippe foure hundreth and odde men: [Sidenote: The mountaines of Zerzeline.] we departed from thence with intention to goe to an Iland to take in water, but the windes were so contrary, that they would not suffer vs to fetch it, so that by this meanes wee were two and fortie dayes in the sea as it were lost, and we were driuen too and fro, so that the first lande that we discouered, was beyonde Saint Tome, more then fiue hundreth miles, which were the mountaines of Zerzerline, neere vnto the kingdome of Orisa, and so wee came to Orisa with many sicke, and more that were dead for want of water: and they that were sicke in foure dayes dyed; and I for the space of a yeere after had my throat so sore and hoarse, that I could neuer satisfie my thirst in drinking of water: I iudge the reason of my hoarsenesse to bee with soppes that I wet in vineger and oyle, wherewith I susteyned my selfe many dayes. There was not any want of bread nor of wine: but the wines of that countrey are so hot that being drunke without water they will kill a man: neither are they able to drinke them: when we beganne to want water, I sawe certaine Moores that were officers in the ship, that solde a small dish full for a duckat, after this I sawe one that would haue giuen a barre of Pepper, which is two quintalles and a halfe, for a litle measure of water, and he could not haue it. Truely I beleeue that I had died with my slaue, whom then I had to serue mee, which cost mee verie deare: but to prouide for the daunger at hand, I solde my slaue for halfe that he was worth, because that I would saue his drinke that he drunke, to serue my owne purpose, and to saue my life. Of the kingdome of Orisa, and the riuer Ganges. Orisa was a faire kingdome and trustie, through the which a man might haue gone with golde in his hande without any daunger at all, as long as the lawefull King reigned which was a Gentile, who continued in the citie called Catecha, which was within the lande size dayes iourney. This king loued strangers marueilous well, especially marchants which had traffique in and out of his kingdome, in such wise that hee would take no custome of them, neither any other grieuous thing. [Sidenote: The commodities that go out of Orisa.] Onely the shippe that came thither payde a small thing according to her portage, and euery yeere in the port of Orisa were laden fiue and twentie or thirtie ships great and small, with ryce and diuers sortes of fine white bumbaste cloth, oyle of Zerzeline which they make of a seed, and it is very good to eate and to fry fish withal, great store of butter, Lacca, long pepper, Ginger, Mirabolans dry and condite, great store of cloth of herbes, which is a kinde of silke which groweth amongst the woods without any labour of man, [Marginal note: This cloth we call Nettle cloth.] and when the bole thereof is growen round as bigge as an Orenge, then they take care onely to gather them. About sixteene yeeres past, this king with his kingdome were destroyed by the king of Patane, which was also king of the greatest part of Bengala, and when he had got the kingdome, he set custome there twenty pro cento, as Marchants paide in his kingdome: but this tyrant enioyed his kingdome but a small time, but was conquered by another tyrant, which was the great Mogol king of Agra, Delly, and of all Cambaia, without any resistance. I departed from Orisa to Bengala, to the harbour Piqueno, which is distant from Orisa towardes the East a hundred and seuentie miles. [Sidenote: The riuer of Ganges.] They goe as it were rowing alongst the coast fiftie and foure miles, and then we enter into the riuer Ganges: from the mouth of this riuer, to a citie called Satagan, where the marchants gather themselues together with their trade, are a hundred miles, which they rowe in eighteene houres with the increase of the water: in which riuer it floweth and ebbeth as it doth in the Thamis, and when the ebbing water is come, they are not able to rowe against it, by reason of the swiftnesse of the water, yet their barkes be light and armed with oares, like to Foistes, yet they cannot preuaile against that streame, but for refuge must make them fast to the banke of the riuer vntill the next flowing water, and they call these barkes Bazaras and Patuas: they rowe as well as a Galliot, or as well as euer I haue seene any. A good tides rowing before you come to Satagan, you shall haue a place which is called Buttor, and from thence vpwards the ships doe not goe, because that vpwardes the riuer is very shallowe, and litle water. Euery yeere at Buttor they make and vnmake a Village, with houses and shoppes made of strawe, and with all things necessarie to their vses, and this village standeth as long as the ships ride there, and till they depart for the Indies, and when they are departed, euery man goeth to his plot of houses, and there setteth fire on them, which thing made me to maruaile. For as I passed vp to Satagan, I sawe this village standing with a great number of people, with an infinite number of ships and Bazars, and at my returne comming downe with my Captaine of the last ship, for whom I tarried, I was al amazed to see such a place so soone razed and burnt, and nothing left but the signe of the burnt houses. The small ships go to Satagan, and there they lade. Of the citie of Satagan. [Sidenote: The commodities that are laden in Satagan.] In the port of Satagan euery yeere lade thirtie or fiue and thirtie ships great and small, with rice, cloth of Bombast of diuerse sortes, Lacca, great abundance of sugar, Mirabolans dried and preserued, long pepper, oyle of Zerzeline, and many other sorts of marchandise. The citie of Satagan is a reasonable faire citie for a citie of the Moores, abounding with all things, and was gouerned by the king of Patane, and now is subiect to the great Mogol. I was in this kingdome foure moneths, whereas many marchants did buy or fraight boates for their benefites, and with these barkes they goe vp and downe the riuer of Ganges to faires, buying their commoditie with a great aduantage, because that euery day in the weeke they haue a faire, now in one place, and now in another, and I also hired a barke, and went vp and downe the riuer and did my businesse, and so in the night I saw many strange things. The kingdome of Bengala in times past hath bene as it were in the power of Moores, neuerthelesse there is great store of Gentiles among them; alwayes whereas I haue spoken of Gentiles, is to be vnderstood Idolaters, and whereas I speak of Moores I meane Mahomets sect. [Sidenote: A ceremony of the gentiles when they be dead.] Those people especially that be within the land doe greatly worship the riuer of Ganges: for when any is sicke, he is brought out of the countrey to the banke of the riuer, and there they make him a small cottage of strawe, and euery day they wet him with that water, whereof there are many that die, and when they are dead, they make a heape of stickes and boughes and lay the dead bodie thereon, and putting fire thereunto, they let the bodie alone vntill it be halfe rosted, and then they take it off from the fire, and make an emptie iarre fas about his necke, and so throw him into the riuer. These things euery night as I passed vp and downe the riuer I saw for the space of two moneths, as I passed to the fayres to buy my commodities with the marchants. And this is the cause that the Portugales will not drinke of the water of the riuer Ganges, yet to the sight it is more perfect and clearer then the water of Nilus is. From the port Piqueno I went to Cochin, and from Cochin to Malacca, from whence I departed for Pegu being eight hundred miles distant. That voyage is woont to be made in fiue and twentie or thirtie dayes, but we were foure moneths, and at the ende of three moneths our ship was without victuals. The Pilot told vs that wee were by his altitude not farre from a citie called Tanasary, in the kingdome of Pegu, and these his words were not true, but we were (as it were) in the middle of many Ilands, and many vninhabited rockes, and there were also some Portugales that affirmed that they knew the land, and knewe also where the citie of Tanasari was. [Sidenote: Marchandise comming from Sion.] This citie of right belongeth to the kingdome of Sion, which is situate on a great riuers side, which commeth out of the kingdome of Sion: and where this riuer runneth into the sea, there is a village called Mirgim, in whose harbour euery yeere there lade some ships with Verzina, Nypa, and Beniamin, a few cloues, nutmegs and maces which come from the coast of Sion, but the greatest marchandise there is Verzin and Nypa, which is an excellent wine, which is made of the flower of a tree called Nyper. [Sidenote: Niper wine good to cure the French disease.] Whose licquour they distill, and so make an excellent drinke cleare as christall, good to the mouth, and better to the stomake, and it hath an excellent gentle vertue, that if one were rotten with the French pockes, drinking good store of this, he shall be whole againe, and I haue seene it proued, because that when I was in Cochin, there was a friend of mine, whose nose beganne to drop away with that disease, and he was counselled of the doctors of phisicke, that he should goe to Tanasary at the time of the new wines, and that he should drinke of the myper wine, night and day, as much as he could before it was distilled, which at that time is most delicate, but after that it is distilled, it is more strong, and if you drinke much of it, it will fume into the head with drunkennesse. This man went thither, and did so, and I haue seene him after with a good colour and sound. This wine is very much esteemed in the Indies, and for that it is brought so farre off, it is very deare: in Pegu ordinarily it it good cheape, because it is neerer to the place where they make it, and there is euery yeere great quantitie made thereof. And returning to my purpose, I say, being amongst these rockes, and farre from the land which is ouer against Tanasary, with great scarcitie of victuals, and that by the saying of the Pylot and two Portugales, holding then firme that wee were in front of the aforesayd harbour, we determined to goe thither with our boat and fetch victuals, and that the shippe should stay for vs in a place assigned. We were twentie and eight persons in the boat that went for victuals, and on a day about twelue of the clocke we went from the ship, assuring our selues to bee in the harbour before night in the aforesaid port, wee rowed all that day and a great part of the next night, and all the next day without finding harbour, or any signe of good landing, and this came to passe through the euill counsell of the two Portugales that were with vs. For we had ouershot the harbour and left it behind vs, in such wise that we had lost the lande inhabited, together with the shippe, and we eight and twentie men had no maner of victuall with vs in the boate, but it was the Lords will that one of the Mariners had brought a little rice with him in the boate to barter away for some other thing, and it was not so much but that three or foure men would haue eaten it at a meale: I tooke the gouernment of this Ryce, promising that by the helpe of God that Ryce should be nourishment for vs vntil it pleased God to send vs to some place that was inhabited: [Sidenote: Great extemitie at sea.] and when I slept I put the ryce into my bosome because they should not rob it from me: we were nine daies rowing alongst the coast, without finding any thing but countreys vninhabited, and desert Ilands, where if we had found but grasse it would haue seemed sugar vnto vs, but wee could not finde any, yet we found a fewe leaues of a tree, and they were so hard that we could not chewe them, we had water and wood sufficient, and as wee rowed, we could goe but by flowing water, for when it was ebbing water, wee made fast our boat to the banke of one of those Ilandes, and in these nine dayes that we rowed, we found a caue or nest of Tortoises egges, wherein were one hundred fortie and foure egges, the which was a great helpe vnto vs: these egges are as bigge as a hennes egge, and haue no shell about them but a tender skinne, euery day we sodde a kettle full of those egges, with an handfull of rice in the broth thereof: it pleased God that at the ende of nine dayes we discouered certaine fisher men, a fishing with small barkes, and we rowed towardes them, With a good cheare, for I thinke there were neuer men more glad then we were, for wee were so sore afflicted with penurie, that we could scarce stande on our legges. Yet according to the order that we set for our ryce, when we sawe those fisher men, there was left sufficient for foure dayes. [Sidenote: Tauay under the king of Pegu.] The first village that we came to was in the gulfe of Tauay, vnder the king of Pegu, whereas we found great store of victuals: then for two or three dayes after our arriuall there, we would eate but litle meate any of vs, and yet for all this, we were at the point of death the most part of vs. From Tauay to Martauan, in the kingdome of Pegu, are seuentie two miles. We laded our bote with victuals which were aboundantly sufficient for sixe moneths, from whence we departed for the port and Citie of Martauan, where in short time we arriued, but we found not our ship there as we had thought we should, from whence presently we made out two barkes to goe to looke for her. And they found her in great calamitie and neede of water, being at an anker with a contrary winde, which came very ill to passe, because that she wanted her boat a moneth, which should haue made her prouision of wood and water, the shippe also by the grace of God arriued safely in the aforesaid port of Martauan. The Citie of Martauan. [Sidenote: Martauan a citie vnder the king of Pegu.] We found in the Citie of Martauan ninetie Portugales of Merchants and other base of men, which had fallen at difference with the Retor or gouernour of the citie, and all for this cause, that certaine vagabondes of the Portugales had slaine fiue falchines of the king of Pegu, which chaunced about a moneth after the king of Pegu was gone with a million and foure hundred thousand men to conquere the kingdome of Sion. [Sidenote: A custome that these people haue when the king is in the warres.] They haue for custome in this Countrey and kingdome, the king being wheresoeuer his pleasure is to bee out of his kingdome, that euery fifteene dayes there goeth from Pegu a Carouan of Falchines, with euery one a basket on his head full of some fruites or other delicates or refreshings, and with cleane clothes: it chaunced that this Carauan passing by Martauan, and resting themselues there a night, there happened betweene the Portugales and them wordes of despight, and from wordes to blowes, and because it was thought that the Portugales had the worse, the night following, when the Falchines were a sleepe with their companie, the Portugales went and cut off their heads. [Sidenote: A law in Pegu for killing of men.] Now there is a law in Pegu, that whosoeuer killeth a man, he shall buy the shed blood with his money, according to the estate of the person that is slaine, but these Falchines being the seruants of the king, the Retors durst hot doe any thing in the matter, without the consent of the king, because it was necessarie that the king should knowe of such a matter. When the king had knowledge thereof, he gaue commaundement that the malefactors should be kept vntill his comming home, and then be would duely minister iustice, but the Captaine of the Portugales would not deliuer those men, but rather set himselfe with all the rest in armes, and went euery day through the Citie marching with his Drumme und ensignes displayd. [Sidenote: Great pride of the Portugales.] For at that time the Citie was emptie of men, by reason they were gone all to the warres, and in businesse of the king: in the middest of this rumour wee came thither, and I thought it, a strange thing to see the Portugales vse such insolencie in another mans Citie. And I stoode in doubt of that which came to passe, and would not vnlade my goods because that they were more sure in the shippe then on the land, the greatest part of the lading was the owners of the shippe, who was in Malacca, yet there were diuerse marchants there, but their goods were of small importance, all those marchants tolde me that they would not vnlade any of their goods there, vnlesse I would vnlade first, yet after they left my counsell and followed their owne, and put their goods a lande and lost euery whit. The Retor with the customer sent for mee, and demaunded why I put not my goods a lande, and payed my custome as other men did? To whom I answered, that I was a marchant that was newly come thither, and seeing such disorder amongst the Portugales, I doubted the losse of my goods which cost me very deare, with the sweate of my face, and for this cause I was determined not to put my goods on lande, vntil such time as his honour would assure me in the name of the king, that I should haue no losse, and although there came harme to the Portugales, that neither I nor my goods should haue any hurt, because I had neither part nor any difference with them in this tumult: my reason sounded well in the Retors eares, and so presently he sent for the Bargits, which are as Counsellors of the Citie, and then they promised mee on the kings head or in the behalfe of the king, that neither I nor my goods should haue any harme, but that we should be safe and sure: of which promise there were made publike notes. And then I sent for my goods and had them on land, and payde my custome, which is in that countrey ten in the hundreth of the same goods, and for my more securitie I tooke a house right against the Retors house. The Captaine of the Portugales, and all the Portugall marchants were put out of the Citie, and I with twentie and two poore men which were officers in the shippe had my dwelling in the Citie. [Sidenote: A reuenge on the Portugales.] After this the Gentiles deuised to be reuenged of the Portugales; but they would not put it in execution, vntil such time as our small shippe had discharged all her goods, and then the next night following came from Pegu foure thousand souldiers with some Elephants of warre; and before that they made any tumult in the citie, the Retor sent, and gaue commaundement to all Portugales that were in the Citie, when they heard any rumour or noyse, that for any thing they should not goe out of their houses, as they tendered their owne health. Then foure houres within night I heard a great rumour and noyse of men of warre, with Elephants which threw downe the doores of the ware-houses of the Portugales, and their houses of wood and strawe, in the which tumult there were some Portugales wounded, and one of them slaine; and others without making proofe of their manhoode, which the day before did so bragge, at that time put themselues to flight most shamefully, and saued themselues a boord of litle shippes, that were at an anker in the harbour, and some that were in their beds fled away naked, and that night they caried away all the Portugalles goods out of the suburbes into the Citie, and those Portugales that had their goods in the suburbes also. After this the Portugales that were fledde into the shippes to saue themselues, tooke a newe courage to themselues, and came on lande and set fire on the houses in the suburbes, which houses being made of boorde and strawe, and the winde blowing fresh, in small time were burnt and consumed, with which fire halfe the Citie had like to haue beene burnt; when the Portugales had done this, they were without all hope to recouer any part of their goods againe, which goods might amount to the summe of sixteene thousand duckats, which, if they had not set fire to the towne, they might haue had againe without any losse at all. Then the Portugales vnderstanding that this thing was not done by the consent of the king, but by his Lieutenant and the Retor of the citie were very ill content, knowing that they had made a great fault, yet the next morning following, the Portugales beganne to bende and shoot their ordinance against the Citie, which batterie of theirs continued foure dayes, but all was in vaine, for the shotte neuer hit the Citie, but lighted on the top of a small hill neere vnto it, so that the citie had no harme. When the Retor perceiued that the Portugales made battery against the Citie, be tooke one and twentie Portugales that were there in the Citie, and sent them foure miles into the Countrey, there to tarry vntill such time as the other Portugales were departed, that made the batterie, who after their departure let them goe at their owne libertie without any harme done vnto them. I my selfe was alwayes in my house with a good guard appointed me by the Retor, that no man should doe me iniurie, nor harme me nor my goods; in such wise that hee perfourmed all that he had promised me in the name of the king, but he would not let me depart before the comming of the king, which was greatly to my hinderance, because I was twenty and one moneths sequestred, that I could not buy nor sell any kinde of marchandise. Those commodities that I brought thither, were peper, sandols, and Porcellan of China: so when the king was come home, I made my supplication vnto him, and I was licenced to depart when I would. From Martauan I departed to goe to the chiefest Citie in the kingdome of Pegu, which is also called after the name of the kingdome, which voyage is made by sea in three or foure daies: they may goe also by lande, but it is better for him that hath marchandize to goe by sea and lesser charge. And in this voyage you shall haue a Macareo, which is one of the most marueilous things [Marginal note: A thing most marueilous, that at the comming of a tide the earth should quake.] in the world that Nature hath wrought, and I neuer saw any thing so hard to be beleeued as this, to wit, the great increasing and diminishing of the water there at one push or instant, and the horrible earthquake and great noyse that the said Macareo maketh where it commeth. We departed from Martauan in barkes, which are like to our Pylot boates, with the increase of the water, and they goe as swift as an arrowe out of a bow, so long as the tide runneth with them, and when the water is at the highest, then they drawe themselues out of the Channell towardes some banke, and there they come to anker, and when the water is diminished, then they rest on dry land: and when the barkes rest dry, they are as high from the bottome of the Chanell, as any house top is high from the ground. [Sidenote: This tide is like to the tides in our riuer of Seuerne.] They let their barkes lie so high for this respect, that if there should any shippe rest or ride in the Chanell, with such force commeth in the water, that it would ouerthrowe shippe or barke: yet for all this, that the barkes be so farre out of the Chanell, and though the water hath lost her greatest strength and furie before it come so high, yet they make fast their prowe to the streme, and oftentimes it maketh them very fearefull, and if the anker did not holde her prowe vp by strength, shee would be ouerthrowen and lost with men and goods. [Sidenote: These tides make their iust coarse as ours doe.] When the water beginneth to increase, it maketh such a noyse and so great that you would think it an earthquake, and presently at the first it maketh three waues. So that the first washeth ouer the barke, from stemme to sterne, the second is not so furious as the first, and the thirde rayseth the Anker, and then for the space of sixe houres while the water encreaseth, they rowe with such swiftnesse that you would thinke they did fly: in these tydes there must be lost no iot of time, for if you arriue not at the stagions before the tyde be spent, you must turne back from whence you came. For there is no staying at any place, but at these stagions, and there is more daunger at one of these places then at another, as they be higher and lower one then another. When as you returne from Pegu to Martauan, they goe but halfe the tide at a time, because they will lay their barkes vp aloft on the bankes, for the reason aforesayd. I could neuer gather any reason of the noyse that this water maketh in the increase of the tide, and in deminishing of the water. There is another Macareo in Cambaya, [Sidenote: The Macareo is a tide or a currant.] but that is nothing in comparison of this. By the helpe of God we came safe to Pegu, which are two cities, the olde and the newe, in the olde citie are the Marchant strangers, and marchants of the Countrey, for there are the greatest doings and the greatest trade. This citie is not very great, but it hath very great suburbes. Their houses be made with canes, and couered with leaues, or with strawe, but the marehants haue all one house or Magason, which house they call Godon which is made of brickes, and there they put all their goods of any valure, to saue them from the often mischances that there happen to houses made of such stuffe. In the newe citie is the pallace of the king, and his abiding place with all his barons and nobles, and other gentlemen; and in the time that I was there, they finished the building of the new citie: it is a great citie, very plaine and flat, and foure square, walled round about and with ditches that compasse the wals about with water, in which ditches are many crocodils, it hath no drawe bridges, yet it hath twentie gates, fiue for euery square on the walles, there are many places made for centinels to watch, made of wood and couered or guilt with gold, the streetes thereof are the fayrest that I haue seene, they are as straight as a line from one gate to another, and standing at the one gate you may discouer to the other, and they are as broad as 10 or 12 men may ride a breast in them: [Sidenote: A rich and stately palace.] and those streetes that be thwart are faire and large, these streetes, both on the one side and on the other, are planted at the doores of the houses, with nut trees of India, which make a very commodious shadowe, the houses be made of wood and couered with a kind of tiles in forme of cups, very necessary for their vse, the kings palace is in the middle of the citie, made in forme of a walled castle, with ditches full of water round about it, the lodgings within are made of wood all ouer gilded, with fine pinacles, and very costly worke, couered with plates of golde. Truely it may be a kings house: within the gate there is a faire large court, from the one side to the other, wherein there are made places for the strongest and stoutest Eliphants appointed for the seruice of the kings person, and amongst all other Eliphants, he hath foure that be white, a thing so rare that a man shall hardly finde another king that hath any such, and if this king knowe any other that hath white Eliphantes, he sendeth for them as for a gift. The time that I was there, there were two brought out of a farre Countrey, and that cost me something the sight of them, for they commaund the marchants to goe to see them, and then they must giue somewhat to the men that bring them: the brokers of the marchants giue for euery man halfe a duckat, which they call a Tansa, [Marginal note: This money called Tansa is halfe a duckat which may be three shillings and foure pence.] which amounteth to a great summe, for the number of merchants that are in that citie; and when they haue payde the aforesayde Tansa, they may chuse whether they will see them at that time or no, because that when they are in the kings stall, euery man may see them that will: but at that time they must goe and see them, for it is the kings pleasure it should be so. This king amongst all other his titles, is called the King of the white Eliphantes and it is reported that if this king knewe any other king that had any of these white Eliphantes, and woud not send them vnto him, that he would hazard his whole kingdome to conquer them, he esteemeth these white Eliphantes very deerely, and they are had in great regard, and kept with very meete seruice, euery one of them is in a house, all guilded ouer, and they haue their meate giuen them in vessels of siluer and golde, there is one blacke Eliphant the greatest that hath bene seene, and is kept according to his bignesse, he is nine cubites high, which is a marueilous thing. [Sidenote: A warlike policie.] It is reported that this king hath foure thousand Eliphantes of warre, and all haue their teeth, and they vse to put on their two vppermost teeth sharpe spikes of yron, and make them fast with rings, because these beastes fight, and make battell with their teeth; hee hath also very many yong Eliphants that haue not their teeth sprowted foorth: also this king hath a braue deuise in hunting to take these Eliphantes when hee will, two miles from the Citie. [Sidenote: An excellent deuise to hunt, and take wilde Elephants.] He hath builded a faire pallace all guilded, and within it a faire Court, and within it and rounde about there are made an infinite number of places for men to stande to see this hunting: neere vnto this Pallace is a mighty great wood, through the which the hunts-men of the king ride continually on the backs of the feminine Eliphants, teaching them in this businesse. Euery hunter carieth out with him fiue or sixe of these feminines, and they say that they anoynt the secret places with a certaine composition that they haue, that when the wilde Eliphant doeth smell thereunto, they followe the feminines and cannot leaue them: when the hunts-men haue made prouision and the Eliphant is so entangled, they guide the feminines towards the Pallace which is called Tambell, and this Pallace hath a doore which doth open and shut with engines, before which doore there is a long streight way with trees on both the sides, which couereth the way in such wise as it is like darkenesse in a corner: the wilde Eliphant when he commeth to this way, thinketh that he is in the woods. At end of this darke way there is a great field, when the hunters haue gotten this praye, when they first come to this field, they send presently to giue knowledge thereof to the Citie, and with all speed there go out fiftie or sixtie men on horsebacke, and doe beset the fielde rounde about: in the great fielde then the females which are taught in this businesse goe directly to the mouth of the darke way, and when as the wilde Eliphant is entred in there, the hunters shoute and make a great noyse, as much as is possible, to make the wilde Eliphant enter in at the gate of that Pallace, which is then open, and as soone as he is in, the gate is shut without any noyse, and so the hunters with the female Eliphants and the wilde one are all in the Court together, and then within a small time the females withdraw themselues away one by one out of the Court, leauing the wilde Eliphant alone: [Sidenote: An excellent pastime of the Eliphants.] and when he perceiueth that he is left alone, he is so madde that for two or three houres to see him, it is the greatest pleasure in the world: he weepeth, hee flingeth, hee runneth, he iustleth, hee thrusteth vnder the places where the people stand to see him, thinking to kil some of them, but the posts and timber is so strong and great, that hee cannot hurt any body, yet hee oftentimes breaketh his teeth in the grates; at length when hee is weary and hath laboured his body that hee is all wet with sweat, then hee plucketh in his truncke into his mouth, and then hee throweth out so much water out of his belly, that he sprinckleth it ouer the heades of the lookers on, to the vttermost of them, although it bee very high: and then when they see him very weary, there goe certaine officers into the Court with long sharpe canes [Marginal note: These canes are like to them in Spain which they call Ioco de tore.] in their hands, and prick him that they make him to goe into one of the houses that is made alongst the Court for the same purpose: as there are many which are made long and narrow, and when the Eliphant is in, he cannot turne himself to go backe againe. And it is requisite that these men should be very wary and swift, for although their canes be long, yet the Eliphant would kill them if they were not swift to saue themselues: at length when they haue gotten him into one of those houses, they stand ouer him in a loft and get ropes vnder his belly and about his necke, and about his legges, and binde him fast, and so let him stand foure or fiue dayes, and giue him neither meate nor drinke. At the ende of these foure or fiue dayes, they vnloose him and put one of the females vnto him, and giue him meate and drinke, and in eight dayes he is become tame. In my. iudgement there is not a beast so intellectiue as are these Eliphants, nor of more vnderstanding in al the world: for he wil do all things that his keeper saith, so that he lacketh nothing but humaine speech. It is reported that the greatest strength that the king of Pegu hath is in these Eliphants, for when they goe to battell, they set on their backes a Castle of wood bound thereto, with bands vnder their bellies: and in euery Castle foure men very commodiously set to fight with harqubushes, with bowes and arrowes, with darts and pikes, and other launcing weapons: and they say that the skinne of this Eliphant is so hard, that an harquebusse will not pierce it, vnlesse it bee in the eye, temples, or some other tender place of his body. [Sidenote: A goodly order in a barbarous people.] And besides this, they are of great strength, and haue a very excellent order in their battel, as I haue seene at their feastes which they make in the yeere, in which feastes the king maketh triumphes, which is a rare thing and worthy memorie, that in so barbarous a people should be such goodly orders as they haue in their armies, which be distinct in squares of Eliphants, of horsemen, of harquebushers and pikemen, that truly the number of men are infinite: but their armour and weapons are very nought and weake as well the one as the other: they haue very bad pikes, their swords are worse made, like long kniues without points, his harquebushes are most excellent, and alway in his warres he hath eightie thousand harquebushes, and the number of them encreaseth dayly. Because the king will haue them shoote every day at the Plancke, and so by continuall exercise they become most excellent shot: also hee hath great ordinance made of very good mettall; to conclude there is not a King on the earth that hath more power or strength then this king of Pegu, because hee hath twentie and sixe crowned kings at his commaunde. He can make in his campe a million and a halfe of men of warre in the fielde against his enemies. The state of his kingdome and maintenance of his army, is a thing incredible to consider, and the victuals that should maintaine such a number of people in the warres: but he that knoweth the nature and quality of that people, will easily beleeue it. [Sidenote: Eating of serpents.] I haue seene with mine eyes, that those people and souldiers haue eaten of all sorts of wild beastes that are on the earth, whether it bee very filthie or otherwise all serueth for their mouthes: yea, I haue seene them eate Scorpions and Serpents, also they feed of all kinde of herbes and grasse. So that if such a great armie want not water and salt, they will maintaine themselues a long time in a bush with rootes, flowers and leaues of trees, they cary rice with them for their voyage, and that serueth them in stead of comfits; it is so daintie vnto them. This king of Pegu hath not any army or power by sea, but in the land, for people, dominions, golde and siluer, he farre exceeds the power of the great Turke in treasure and strength. [Sidenote: The riches of the king of Pegu.] This king hath diuers Magasons full of treasure, as gold, and siluer, and euery day he encreaseth it more and more, and it is neuer diminished. Also hee is Lord of the Mines of Rubies, Safires and Spinels. Neere vnto his royall pallace there is an inestimable treasure whereof hee maketh no accompt, for that it standeth in such a place that euery one may see it, and the place where this treasure is, is a great Court walled round about with walles of stone, with two gates which stand open euery day. And within this place or Court are foure gilded houses couered with lead, and in euery one of these are certaine heathenish idoles of a very great valure. In the first house there is a stature of the image of a man of gold very great, and on his head a crowne of gold beset with most rare Rubies and Safires, and round about him are 4. litle children of gold. In the second house there is the stature of a man of siluer, that is set as it were sitting on heapes of money: whose stature in height, as hee sitteth, is so high, that his highnesse exceeds the height of any one roofe of an house; I measured his feete, and found that they were as long as all my body was in height, with a crowne on his head like to the first. And in the thirde house, there is a stature of brasse of the same bignesse, with a like crowne on his head. In the 4. and last house there is a stature of a man as big as the other, which is made of Gansa, which is the metall they make their money of, and this metall is made of copper and leade mingled together. This stature also hath a crowne on his head like the first: this treasure being of such a value as it is, standeth in an open place that euery man at his pleasure may go and see it: for the keepers therof neuer forbid any man the sight thereof. I say as I haue said before, that this king euery yere in his feastes triumpheth: and because it is worthy of the noting, I thinke it meet to write therof, which is as foloweth. [Sidenote: The great pompe of the king.] The king rideth on a triumphant cart or wagon all gilded, which is drawen by 16. goodly horses: and this cart is very high with a goodly canopy ouer it, behind the cart goe 20. of his Lords and nobles, with euery one a rope in his hand made fast to the cart for to hold it vpright that it fal not. The king sitteth in the middle of the cart; and vpon the same cart about the king stande 4. of his nobles most fauored of him, and before this cart wherein the king is goeth all his army as aforesaid, and in the middle of his army goeth all his nobilitie, round about the cart, that are in his dominions, a marueilous thing it is to see so many people, such riches and such good order in a people so barbarous as they be. This king of Pegu hath one principal wife which is kept in a Seralio, he hath 300. concubines, of whom it is reported that he hath 90. children. [Sidenote: The order of Iustice.] This king sitteth euery day in person to heare the suites of his subiects, but he nor they neuer speake one to another, but by supplications made in this order. [Sidenote: No difference of persons before the King in controuersies or in iustice.] The king sitteth vp aloft, in a great hall, on a tribunall seat, and lower vnder him sit all his Barons round about, then those that demaund audience enter into a great Court before the king, and there set them downe on the ground 40. paces distant from the kings person, and amongst those people there is no difference in matters of audience before the king, but all alike, and there they sit with their supplications in their hands, which are made of long leaues of a tree, these leaues are 3. quarters of a yard long, and two fingers broad, which are written with a sharpe iron made for that purpose, and in those leaues are their supplications written, and with their supplications, they haue in their hands a present or gift, according to the waightines of their matter. Then come the secretaries downe to read these supplications, taking them and reading them before the king, and if the king think it good to do to them that fauour or iustice that they demaund, then he commandeth to take the presents out of their hands: but if he thinke their demand be not iust or according to right, he commandeth them away without taking of their gifts or presents. In the Indies there is not any marchandise that is good to bring to Pegu, vnlesse it bee at some times by chance to bring Opium of Cambaia, and if he bring money he shall lose by it. Now the commodities that come from S. Tome are the onely marchandise for that place, which is the great quantity of cloth made, which they vse in Pegu: which cloth is made of bombast wouen and painted, so that the more that kinde of cloth is washed, the more liuelie they shewe their colours, which is a rare thing, and there is made such accompt of this kinde of cloth which is so great importance, that a small bale of it will cost a thousand or two thousand duckets. Also from S. Tome they layd great store of red yarne, of bombast died with a roote which they call Saia, as aforesayd, which colour will neuer out. With which marchandise euery yeere there goeth a great shippe from S. Tome to Pegu, of great importance, and they vsually depart from S. Tome to Pegu the 11. or 12. of September, and if she stay vntill the twelfth, it is a great hap if she returne not without making of her voiage. Their vse was to depart the sixt of September, and then they made sure voyages, and now because there is a great labour about that kind of cloth to bring it to perfection, and that it be well dried, as also the greedinesse of the Captaine that would made an extraordinary gaine of his fraight, thinking to haue the wind alwayes to serue their turne, they stay so long, that at sometimes the winde turneth. For in those parts the windes blow firmely for certaine times, with the which they goe to Pegu with the winde in poope, and if they arriue not there before the winde change, and get ground to anker, perforce they must returne backe againe: for that the gales of the winde blowe there for three or foure moneths together in one place with great force. But if they get the coast and anker there, then with great labour they may saue their voyage. Also there goeth another great shippe from Bengala euery yeere, laden with fine cloth of bombast of all sorts, which arriueth in the harbour of Pegu, when the ship that commeth from S. Tome departeth. The harbour where these two ships arriue is called Cosmin. From Malaca to Martauan, which is a port in Pegu, there come many small ships, and great, laden with pepper, Sandolo, Porcellan of China, Camfora, Bruneo and other marchandise. The ships that come from Mecca enter into the port of Pegu and Cirion, and those shippes bring cloth of Wooll, Scarlets, Veluets, Opium, and Chickinos, [Sidenote: The Chikinos are pieces of gold worth sterling 7. shillings.] by the which they lose, and they bring them because they haue no other thing that is good for Pegu: but they esteeme not the losse of them, for they make such great gaine of their commodities that they cary from thence out of that kingdome. Also the king of Assi his ships come thither into the same port laden with peper; from the coast of S. Tome of Bengala, out of the Sea of Bara to Pegu are three hundreth miles, and they go it vp the riuer in foure daies, with the encreasing water, or with the flood, to a City called Cosmin, and there they discharge their ships, whither the Customers of Pegu come to take the note and markes of all the goods of euery man, and take the charge of the goods on them, and conuey them to Pegu, into the kings house, wherein they make the custome of the marchandize. When the Customers haue taken the charge of the goods and put them into barks, the Retor of the City giueth licence to the Marchants to take barke, and goe vp to Pegu with their marchandize; and so three or foure of them take a barke and goe vp to Pegu in company. [Sidenote: Great rigour for the stealing of customes.] God deliuer euery man that hee giue not a wrong note, and entrie, or thinke to steale any custome: for if they do, for the least trifle that is, he is vtterly vndone, for the king doeth take it for a most great affront to bee deceiued of his custome: and therefore they make diligent searches, three times at the lading and vnlading of the goods, and at the taking of them a land. In Pegu this search they make when they goe out of the ship for Diamonds, Pearles, and fine cloth which taketh little roome: for because that all the iewels that come into Pegu, and are not found of that countrey, pay custome, but Rubies, Safyres, and Spinels pay no custome in nor out: because they are found growing in that Countrey. I haue spoken before, how that all Marchants that meane to goe thorow the Indies, must cary al manor of houshold stuffe with them which is necessary for a house, because that there is not any lodging nor Innes nor hostes, nor chamber roome in that Countrey, but the first thing a man doth when he commeth to that City is to hier a house, either by the yeere or by the moneth, or as he meanes to stay in those parts. In Pegu their order is to hire their houses for sixe moneths. Nowe from Cosmin to the Citie of Pegu they goe in sixe houres with the flood, and if it be ebbing water, then they make fast their boate to the riuer side, and there tary vntil the water flow againe. [Sidenote: Description of the fruitfulnesse of that soyle.] It is a very commodious and pleasant voyage, hauing on both sides of the riuers many great vilages, which they call Cities: in the which hennes, pigeons, egges, milke, rice, and other things be very goode cheape. It is all plaine, and a goodly Countrey, and in eight dayes you may make your voyage vp to Macceo, distant from Pegu twelue miles, and there they discharge their goods, and lade them in Carts or waines drawen with oxen, and the Marchants are caried in a closet which they call Deling, [Sidenote: Deling is a small litter carried with men as is aforesaid.] in the which a man shall be very well accommodated, with cushions under his head, and couered for the defence of the Sunne and raine, and there he may sleep if he haue will thereunto: and his foure Falchines cary him running away, changing two at one time and two at another. The custome of Pegu and fraight thither, may amount vnto twentie or twentie two per cento, and 23. according as he hath more or lesse stolen from him that day they custome the goods. It is requisite that a man haue his eyes watchfull, and to be carefull, and to haue many friendes, for when they custome in the great hall of the king, there come many gentlemen accompanied with a number of their slaues, and these gentlemen haue no shame that their slaues rob strangers; whether it be cloth in shewing of it or any other thing, they laugh at it. And although the Marchants helpe one another to keepe watch, and looke to their goods, they cannot looke therto so narrowly but one or other will rob something, either more or lesse, according as their marchandise is more or lesse: and yet on this day there is a worse thing then this: although you haue set so many eyes to looke there for your benefit, that you escape vnrobbed of the slaues, a man cannot choose but that he must be robbed of the officers of the custome house. For paying the custome with the same goods oftentimes they take the best that you haue, and not by rate of euery sort as they ought to do, by which meanes a man payeth more then his dutie. At length when the goods be dispatched out of the custome house in this order, the Marchant causeth them to be caried to his house, and may do with them at his pleasure. There are in Pegu 8. brokers of the kings, which are called Tareghe, who are bound to sell all the marchandize which come to Pegu, at the common or the currant price: then if the marchants wil sell their goods at that price, they sel them away, and the brokers haue two in the hundreth of euery sort of marchandise, and they are bound to make good the debts of those goods, because they be sold by their hands or meanes, and on their wordes, and oftentimes the marchant knoweth not to whom he giueth his goods, yet he cannot lose anything thereby, for that the broker is bound in any wise to pay him, and if the marchant sel his goods without the consent of the broker, yet neuerthelesse he must pay him two per cento, and be in danger of his money: [Sidenote: A lawe for Bankrupts.] but this is very seldom seene, because the wife, children, and slaues of the debtor are bound to the creditor, and when his time is expired and paiment not made, the creditor may take the debtor and cary him home to his house, and shut him vp in a Magasin, whereby presently he hath his money, and not being able to pay the creditor, he may take the wife, children, and slaues of the debtor and sel them, for so is the lawe of that kingdome. [Sidenote: Euery man may stampe what money he wil.] The currant money that is in this city, and throughout all this kingdom is called Gansa or Ganza, which is made of Copper and leade: It is not the money of the king, but euery man may stamp it that wil, because it hath his iust partition or value: but they make many of them false, by putting ouermuch lead into them, and those will not passe, neither will any take them. With this money Ganza, you may buy golde or siluer, Rubies and Muske, and other things. For there is no other money currant amongst them. And Golde, siluer and other marchandize are at one time dearer than another, as all other things be. This Ganza goeth by weight of Byze, and this name of Byza goeth for the accompt of the weight, and commonly a Byza of a Ganza is worth (after our accompt) halfe a ducat, litle more or lesse: and albeit that Gold and siluer is more or lesse in price, yet the Byza neuer changeth: euery Byza maketh a hundreth Ganza of weight, and so the number of the money is Byza. [Sidenote: How a man may dispose himselfe for the trade in Pegu.] He that goeth to Pegu to buy Iewels, if he wil do well, it behoueth him to be a whole yere there to do his businesse. For if so be that he would return with the ship he came in, he cannot do any thing so conueniently for the breuitie of the time, because that when they custome their goods in Pegu that come from S. Tome in their ships, it is as it were about Christmas: and when they haue customed their goods, then must they sell them for their credits sake for a moneth or two: and then at the beginning of March the ships depart. The Marchants that come from S. Tome take for the paiment of their goods, gold and siluer, which is neuer wanting there. [Sidenote: Good instructions.] And 8. or 10. daies before their departure they are all satisfied: also they may haue Rubies in paiment, but they make no accompt of them: and they that will winter there for another yere, it is needfull that they be aduertized, that in the sale of their goods, they specifie in their bargaine, the terme of two or 3. moneths paiment, and that their paiment shal be in so many Ganza, and neither golde nor siluer: because that with the Ganza they may buy and sel euery thing with great aduantage. And how needfull is it to be aduertized, when they wil recouer their paiments, in what order they shal receiue their Ganza? Because he that is not experienced may do himselfe great wrong in the weight of the Gansa, as also in the falsenesse of them: in the weight he may be greatly deceiued, because that from place to place it doth rise and fall greatly: and therefore when any wil receiue money or make paiment, he must take a publique wayer of money, a day or two before he go about his businesse, and giue him in paiment for his labour two Byzaes a moneth, and for this he is bound to make good all your money, and to maintaine it for good, for that hee receiueth it and seales the bags with his scale: and when hee hath receiued any store, then hee causeth it to bee brought into the Magason of the Marchant, that is the owner of it. That money is very weightie, for fortie Byza is a strong Porters burden; and also where the Marchant hath any payment to be made for those goods which he buyeth, the Common wayer of money that receiueth his money must make the payment thereof. So that by this meanes, the Marchant with the charges of two Byzes a moneth, receiueth and payeth out his money without losse or trouble. [Sidenote: The marchandizes that goe out of Pegu.] The Marchandizes that goe out of Pegu are Gold, Siluer, Rubies, Saphyres, Spinelles, great store of Beniamin, long peper, Leade, Lacca, rice, wine, some sugar, yet there might be great store of sugar made in the Countrey, for that they haue aboundance of Canes, but they giue them to Eliphants to eate, and the people consume great store of them for food, and many more doe they consume in vaine things, as these following. In that kingdome they spend many of these Sugar canes in making of houses and tents which they call Varely for their idoles, which they call Pagodes, whereof there are great aboundance, great and smal, and these houses are made in forme of little hilles, like to Sugar loaues or to Bells, and some of these houses are as high as a reasonable steeple, at the foote they are very large, some of them be in circuit a quarter of a mile. The saide houses within are full of earth, and walled round about with brickes and dirt in steade of lime, and without forme, from the top to the foote they make a couering for them with Sugar canes, and plaister it with lime all ouer, for otherwise they would bee spoyled, by the great aboundance of raine that falleth in those Countreys. [Sidenote: Idol houses couered with gold.] Also they consume about these Varely or idol houses great store of leafe-gold, for that they ouerlay all the tops of the houses with gold, and some of them are couered with golde from the top to the foote: in couering whereof there is great store of gold spent, for that euery 10. yeeres they new ouerlay them with gold, from the top to the foote, so that with this vanitie they spend great aboundance of golde. For euery 10. yeres the raine doth consume the gold from these houses. And by this meanes they make golde dearer in Pegu then it would bee, if they consumed not so much in this vanitie. Also it is a thing to bee noted in the buying of iewels in Pegu, that he that hath no knowledge shall haue as good iewels, and as good cheap, as he that hath bene practized there a long time, which is a good order, and it is in this wise. There are in Pegu foure men of good reputation, which are called Tareghe, or brokers of Iewels. These foure men haue all the Iewels or Rubies in their handes, and the Marchant that wil buy commeth to one of these Tareghe and telleth him, that he hath so much money to imploy in Rubies. [Sidenote: Rubies exceeding cheape in Pegu.] For through the hands of these foure men passe all the Rubies: for they haue such quantitie, that they knowe not what to doe with them, but sell them at most vile and base prices. When the Marchant hath broken his mind to one of these brokers or Tareghe, they cary him home to one of their Shops, although he hath no knowledge in Iewels: and when the Iewellers perceiue that hee will employ a good round summe, they will make a bargaine, and if not, they let him alone. The vse generally of this Citie is this: that when any Marchant hath bought any great quantitie of Rubies, and hath agreed for them, hee carieth them home to his house, let them be of what value they will, he shall haue space to looke on them and peruse them two or three dayes: and if he hath no knowledge in them, he shall alwayes haue many Marchants in that Citie that haue very good knowledge in Iewels; with whom he may alwayes conferre and take counsell, and may shew them vnto whom he will; and if he finde that hee hath not employed his money well, hee may returne his Iewels backe to them whom hee had them of, without any losse at all. Which thing is such a shame to the Tareghe to haue his Iewels returned, that he had rather beare a blow on the face then that it should be thought that he solde them so deere to haue them returned. [Sidenote: An honest care of heathen people.] For these men haue alwayes great care that they afford good peniworths, especially to those that haue no knowledge. This they doe, because they woulde not loose their credite: and when those Marchants that haue knowledge in Iewels buy any, if they buy them deere, it is their own faults and not the brokers: yet it is good to haue knowledge in Iewels, by reason that it may somewhat ease the price. [Sidenote: Bargaines made with the nipping of fingers vnder a cloth.] There is also a very good order which they haue in buying of Iewels, which is this; There are many Marchants that stand by at the making of the bargaine, and because they shall not vnderstand howe the Iewels be solde, the Broker and the Marchants haue their hands vnder a cloth, and by touching of fingers and nipping the ioynts they know what is done, what is bidden, and what is asked. So that the standers by knowe not what is demaunded for them, although it be for a thousand or 10. thousand duckets. For euery ioynt and euery finger hath his signification. For if the Marchants that stande by should vnderstand the bargaine, it would breede great controuersie amongst them. And at my being in Pegu in the moneth of August, in Anno 1569, hauing gotten well by my endeuour, I was desirous to see mine owne Countrey, and I thought it good to goe by the way of S. Tome, but then I should tary vntil March. In which iourney I was counsailed, yea, and fully resolued to go by the way of Bengala, with a shippe there ready to depart for that voyage. And then wee departed from Pegu to Chatigan a great harbour or port, from whence there goe smal ships to Cochin, before the fleete depart for Portugall, in which ships I was fully determined to goe to Lisbon, and so to Venice. [Sidenote: This Touffon is an extraordinary storme at Sea.] When I had thus resolued my selfe, I went a boord of the shippe of Bengala, at which time it was the yeere of Touffon: concerning which Touffon ye are to vnderstand, that in the East Indies often times, there are not stormes as in other countreys; but euery 10. or 12. yeeres there are such tempests and stormes, that it is a thing incredible, but to those that haue seene it, neither do they know certainly what yeere they wil come. [Sidenote: The Touffon commeth but euery 10. or 12. yeeres.] Vnfortunate are they that are at sea in that yere and time of the Touffon, because few there are that escape that danger. In this yere it was our chance to be at sea with the like storme, but it happened well vnto vs, for that our ship was newly ouer-plancked, and had not any thing in her saue victuall and balasts, Siluer and golde, which from Pegu they cary to Bengala, and no other kinde of Marchandise. This Touffon or cruel storme endured three dayes and three nights: in which time it caried away our sailes, yards, and rudder; and because the shippe laboured in the Sea, wee cut our mast ouer boord: which when we had done she laboured a great deale more then before, in such wise, that she was almost full with water that came ouer the highest part of her and so went downe: and for the space of three dayes and three nights sixtie men did nothing but hale water out of her in this wise, twentie men in one place, and twentie men in another place, and twentie in a thirde place: and for all this storme, the shippe was so good, that shee tooke not one iot of water below through her sides, but all ran downe through the hatches, so that those sixtie men did nothing but cast the Sea into the Sea. And thus driuing too and fro as the winde and Sea would, we were in a darke night about foure of the clocke cast on a sholde: yet when it was day, we could neither see land on one side nor other, and knew not where we were: And as it pleased the diuine power, there came a great waue of the Sea, which draue vs beyonde the should. [Sidenote: A manifest token of the ebbing and flowing in those Countries.] And when wee felt the shippe aflote, we rose vp as men reuiued, because the Sea was calme and smooth water, and then sounding we found twelue fadome water, and within a while after wee had but sixe fadome, and then presently we came to anker with a small anker that was left vs at the sterne, for all our other were lost in the storme: and by and by the shippe stroke a ground, and then we did prop her that she should not ouerthrow. When it was day the shippe was all dry, and wee found her a good mile from the Sea on drie land. [Sidenote: This Island is called Sondiua.] This Touffon being ended, we discouered an Island not farre from vs, and we went from the shippe on the sands to see what Island it was: and wee found it a place inhabited, and, to my iudgement, the fertilest Island in all the world, the which is diuided into two parts by a chanell which passeth betweene it, and with great trouble we brought our ship into the same chanel, which parteth the Island at flowing water, and there we determined to stay 40. dayes to refresh vs. And when the people of the Island saw the ship, and that we were comming a land: presently they made a place of bazar or a market, with shops right ouer against the ship with all maner of prouision of victuals to eate, which they brought downe in great abundance, and sold it so good cheape, that we were amazed at the cheapenesse thereof. I bought many salted kine there, for the prouision of the ship, for halfe a Larine a piece, which Larine may be 12. shillings sixe pence, being very good and fat; and 4. wilde hogges ready dressed for a Larine, great fat hennes for a Bizze a piece, which is at the most a pennie: and the people told vs that we were deceiued the halfe of our money, because we bought things so deare. Also a sacke of fine rice for a thing of nothing, and consequently all other things for humaine sustenance were there in such aboundance, that it is a thing incredible but to them that haue seene it. [Sidenote: Sondiua is the fruitfullest Countrey in al the world.] This Island is called Sondiua belonging to the kingdome of Bengala, distant 120. miles from Chatigan, to which place wee were bound. The people are Moores, and the king a very good man of a Moore king, for if he had bin a tyrant as others be, he might haue robbed vs of all, because the Portugall captaine of Chatigan was in armes against the Retor of that place, and euery day there were some slaine, at which newes we rested there with no smal feare, keeping good watch and ward aboord euery night as the vse is, but the gouernour of the towne did comfort vs, and bad vs that we should feare nothing, but that we should repose our selues securely without any danger, although the Portugales of Chatigan had slaine the gouernour of that City, and said that we were not culpable in that fact: and moreouer he did vs euery day what pleasure he could, which was a thing contrary to our expectations considering that they and the people of Chatigan were both subiects to one king. [Sidenote: Chatigan is a port in Bengala, whither the Portugales go with their ships.] We departed from Sondiua, and came to Chatigan the great port of Bengala, at the same time when the Portugales had made peace and taken a truce with the gouernours of the towne, with this condition that the chiefe Captaine of the Portugales with his ship should depart without any lading: for there were then at that time 18. ships of Portugales great and small. This Captaine being a Gentleman and of good courage, was notwithstanding contented to depart to his greatest hinderance, rather than hee would seeke to hinder so many of his friends as were there, as also because the time of the yeere was spent to go to the Indies. The night before he departed, euery ship that had any lading therein, put it aboord of the Captaine to helpe to ease his charge and to recompense his courtesies. [Sidenote: The King of Rachim, or Aracam, neighbour to Bengala.] In this time there came a messenger from the king of Rachim to this Portugal Captaine, who saide in the behalfe of his king, that hee had heard of the courage and valure of him, desiring him gently that he would vouchsafe to come with the ship into his port, and comming thither he should be very wel intreated. This Portugal went thither and was very well satisfied of this King. This King of Rachim hath his seate in the middle coast betweene Bengala and Pegu, and the greatest enemie he hath is the king of Pegu: which king of Pegu deuiseth night and day how to make this king of Rachim his subiect, but by no meanes hee is able to doe it: because the king of Pegu hath no power nor armie by Sea. And this king of Rachim [Marginal note: Or, Aracam.] may arme two hundreth Galleyes or Fusts by Sea, and by land he hath certaine sluses with the which when the king of Pegu pretendeth any harme towards him, hee may at his pleasure drowne a great part of the Countrey. So that by this meanes hee cutteth off the way whereby the king of Pegu should come with his power to hurt him. [Sidenote: The commodities that goe from Chatigan to the Indies.] From the great port of Chatigan they cary for the Indies great store of rice, very great quantitie of Bombast cloth of euery sort, Suger, corne, and money, with other marchandize. And by reason of the warres in Chatigan, the Portugall ships taried there so long, that they arriued not at Cochin so soone as they were wont to doe other yeeres. For which cause the fleete that was at Cochin [Marginal note: The Portugal ships depart toward Portugall out of the harbor of Cochin.] was departed for Portugal before they arriued there, and I being in one of the small shippes before the fleete, in discouering of Cochin, we also discouered the last shippe of the Fleete that went from Cochin to Portugall, where shee made saile, for which I was marueilously discomforted, because that all the yeere following, there was no going for Portugale, and when we arriued at Cochin I was fully determined to goe for Venice by the way of Ormus, [Sidenote: Goa was besieged.] and at that time the Citie of Goa was besieged by the people of Dialcan, but the Citizens forced not this assault, because they supposed that it would not continue long. For all this I embarked my selfe in a Galley that went for Goa, meaning there to shippe my selfe for Ormus: but when we came to Goa, the Viceroy would not suffer any Portugal to depart, by reason of the warres. And being in Goa but a small time, I fell sicke of an infirmitie that helde mee foure moneths: which with phisicke and diet cost me eight hundreth duckets, and there I was constrained to sell a smal quantitie of Rubies to sustaine my neede: and I solde that for fiue hundreth duckets, that was worth a thousand. And when I beganne to waxe well of my disease, I had but little of that money left, euery thing was so scarse: For euery chicken (and yet not good) cost mee seuen or eight Liuers, which is sixe shillings, or sixe shillings eight pence. Beside this great charges, the Apothecaries with their medicines were no small charge to me. At the ende of sixe moneths they raised the siege, and then I beganne to worke, for Iewels were risen in their prices: for whereas before I sold a few of refused Rubies, I determined then to sell the rest of all my Iewels that I had there, and to make an other voyage to Pegu. [Sidenote: Opium a good commoditie in Pegu.] And for because that at my departure from Pegu, Opium was in great request, I went then to Cambaya to imploy a good round summe of money in Opium, and there I bought 60. percels of Opium, which cost me two thousand and a hundreth duckets, euery ducket at foure shillings two pence. Moreouer I bought three bales of Bombast cloth, which cost me eight hundred duckats, which was a good commoditie for Pegu: when I had bought these things, the Viceroy commanded that the custome of the Opium should be paide in Goa, and paying custome there I might cary it whither I would. I shipped my 3. bales of cloth at Chaul in a shippe that went for Cochin, and I went to Goa to pay the aforesaid custome for my Opium, and from Goa I departed to Cochin in a ship that was for the voyage of Pegu, and went to winter then at S. Tome. When I come to Cochin, I vnderstood that the ship that had my three bales of cloth was cast away and lost, so that I lost my 800. Serafins or duckats: and departing from Cochin to goe for S. Tome, in casting about for the Island of Zeilan the Pilote was deceiued, for that the Cape of the Island of Zeilan lieth farre out into the sea, and the Pilot thinking that he might haue passed hard aboord the Cape, and paying roomer in the night; when it was morning we were farre within the Cape, and past all remedy to go out, by reason the winds blew so fiercely against vs. So that by this meanes we lost our voyage for that yere, and we went to Manar with the ship to winter there, the ship hauing lost her mastes, and with great dilligence we hardly saued her, with great losses to the Captaine of the ship, because he was forced to fraight another ship in S. Tome for Pegu with great losses and interest, and I with my friends agreed together in Manar to take a bark to cary vs to S. Tome; which thing we did with al the rest of the marchants; and arriuing at S. Tome I had news through or by the way of Bengala, that in Pegu Opium was very deare, and I knew that in S. Tome there was no Opium but mine to go for Pegu that yere, so that I was holden of al the marchants there to be very rich: and so it would haue proued, if my aduerse fortune had not bin contrary to my hope, which was this. At that time there went a great ship from Cambaya, to the king of Assi, with great quantitie of Opium, and there to lade peper: in which voyage there came such a storme, that the ship was forced with wether to goe roomer 800. miles, and by this meanes came to Pegu, whereas they arriued a day before mee; so that Opium which was before very deare, was now at a base price: so that which was sold for fiftie Bizze before, was solde for 2. Bizze and an halfe, there was such quantitie came in that ship; so that I was glad to stay two yeres in Pegu vnlesse I would haue giuen away my commoditie: and at the end of two yeres of my 2100. duckets which I bestowed in Cambaya, I made but a thousand duckets. Then I departed againe from Pegu to goe for the Indies for Chaul, and from Chaul to Cochin, and from Cochin to Pegu. Once more I lost occasion to make me riche, for whereas I might haue brought good store of Opium againe, I brought but a little, being fearefull of my other voyage before. In this small quantitie I made good profite. And now againe I determined to go for my Countrey, and departing from Pegu, I tarried and wintered in Cochin, and then I left the Indies and came for Ormus. I thinke it very necessary before I ende my voyage, to reason somewhat, and to shewe what fruits the Indies do yeeld and bring forth. First, In the Indies and other East parts of India there is Peper and ginger, which groweth in all parts of India. And in some parts of the Indies, the greatest quantitie of peper groweth amongst wilde bushes, without any maner of labour: sauing, that when it is ripe they goe and gather it. The tree that the peper groweth on is like to our Iuie, which runneth vp to the tops of trees wheresoeuer it groweth: and if it should not take holde of some tree, it would lie flat and rot on the ground. This peper tree hath his floure and berry like in all parts to our Iuie berry, and those berries be graines of peper: so that when they gather them they be greene, and then they lay them in the Sunne, and they become blacke. The Ginger groweth in this wise: the land is tilled and sowen, and the herbe is like to Panizzo, and the roote is the ginger. These two spices grow in diuers places. The Cloues come all from the Moluccas, which Moluccas are two Islands, not very great, and the tree that they grow on is like to our Lawrell tree. The Nutmegs and Maces, which grow both together, are brought from the Island of Banda, whose tree is like to our walnut tree, but not so big. All the good white Sandol is brought from the Island of Timor. Canfora being compound commeth all from China, and all that which groweth in canes commeth from Borneo, and I thinke that this Canfora commeth not into these parts: for that in India they consume great store, and that is very deare. The good Lignum Aloes commeth from Cauchinchina. The Beniamin commeth from the kingdome of Assi and Sion. Long pepper groweth in Bengala, Pegu, and Iaua. Muske [Marginal note: This Muske the Iewes doe counterfeit and take out halfe the good muske and beat the flesh of an asse and put in the roome of it.] commeth from Tartaria, which they make in this order, as by good information I haue bene told. There is a certaine beast in Tartaria, which is wilde and as big as a wolfe, which beast they take aliue, and beat him to death with small staues that his blood may be spread through his whole body, then they cut it in pieces and take out all the bones, and beat the flesh with the blood in a morter very smal, and dry it, and make purses to put it in of the skin, and these be the cods of muske. Truely I know not whereof the Amber is made, and there are diuers opinions of it, but this is most certaine, it is cast out of the Sea, and throwne on land, and found vpon the sea bankes. The Rubies, Saphyres, and the Spinels be gotten in the kingdome of Pegu. The Diamants come from diuers places; and I know but three sorts of them. That sort of Diamants that is called Chiappe, commeth from Bezeneger. Those that be pointed naturally come from the land of Delly, and from Iaua, but the Diamants of Iaua are more waightie then the other. I could neuer vnderstand from whence they that are called Balassi come. [Sidenote: The Balassi grow in Zeilan.] Pearles they fish in diuers places, as before in this booke is showne. From Cambaza commeth the Spodiom which congeleth in certaine canes, whereof I found many in Pegu, when I made my house there, because that (as I haue sayd before) they make their houses there of wouen canes like to mats. From Chaul they trade alongst the coast of Melinde in Ethiopia, [Marginal note: On the coast of Melynde in Ethiopia, in the land of Cafraria, the great trade that the Portugals haue.] within the land of Cafraria: on that coast are many good harbors kept by the Moores. Thither the Portugals bring a kinde of Bombast cloth of a low price, and great store of Paternosters or beads made of paltrie glasse, which they make in Chaul according to the vse of the Countrey: and from thence they cary Elephants teeth for India, slaues called Cafari, and some Amber and Gold. On this coast the king of Portugall hath his castle called Mozambique, which is of as great importance as any castle that hee hath in all his Indies vnder his protection, and the Captaine of this castle hath certaine voyages to this Cafraria, to which places no Marchants may goe, but by the Agent of this Captaine: [Sidenote: Buying and selling without words one to another.] and they vse to goe in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars, and their trade in buying and selling is without any speach one to the other. In this wise the Portugals bring their goods by litle and litle alongst the Sea coast, and lay them downe: and so depart, and the Cafar Marchants come and see the goods, and there they put downe as much gold as they thinke the goods are worth, and so goe their way and leaue their golde and the goods together, then commeth the Portugal, and finding the golde to his content, hee taketh it and goeth his way into his ship, and then commeth the Cafar, and taketh the goods and carieth them away: and if he finde the golde there still, it is a signe that the Portugals are not contented, and if the Cafar thinke he hath put too little, he addeth more, as he thinketh the thing is worth: and the Portugales must not stand with them too strickt; for if they doe, then they will haue no more trade with them: For they disdaine to be refused, when they thinke that they haue offered ynough, for they bee a peeuish people, and haue dealt so of a long time: [Sidenote: Golden trades that the Portugals haue.] and by this trade the Portugals change their commodities into gold, and cary it to the Castle of Mozambique, which is an Island not farre distant from the firme land of Cafraria on the coast of Ethiopia, and is distant from India 2800. miles. Nowe to returne to my voyage, when I came to Ormus, I found there Master Francis Berettin of Venice, and we fraighted a bark together to goe for Basora for 70. duckets, and with vs there went other Marchants, which did ease our fraight, and very commodiously wee came to Basora and there we stayed 40. dayes for prouiding a Carouan of barks to go to Babylon, because they vse not to goe two or 3. barkes at once, but 25. or 30. because in the night they cannot go, but must make them fast to the banks of the riuer, and then we must make a very good and strong guard, and be wel prouided of armor, for respect and safegard of our goods, because the number of theeues is great that come to spoile and rob the marchants. And when we depart for Babylon we goe a litle with our saile, and the voyage is 38. or 40. dayes long, but we were 50. dayes on it. When we came to Babylon we stayed there 4. moneths, vntill the Carouan was ready to go ouer the wildernes, or desert for Alepo; in this city we were 6. Marchants that accompanied together, fiue Venetians and a Portugal: whose names were as followeth, Messer Florinasa with one of his kinsmen, Messer Andrea de Pola, the Portugal and M. Francis Berettin and I, and so wee furnished our selues with victuals and beanes for our horses for 40. dayes; [Marginal note: An order how to prouide to goe ouer the Desert from Babylon to Alepo.] and wee bought horses and mules, for that they bee very good cheape there, I my selfe bought a horse there for 11. akens, and solde him after in Alepo for 30. duckets. Also we bought a Tent which did vs very great pleasure: we had also amongst vs 32. Camels laden with marchandise: for the which we paid 2. duckets for euery camels lading, and for euery 10. camels they made 11, for so is their vse and custome. We take also with vs 3. men to serue vs in the voyage, which are vsed to goe in those voyages for fiue D d. a man, and are bound to serue vs to Alepo: so that we passed very well without any trouble: when the camels cried out to rest, our pauilion was the first that was erected. The Carouan maketh but small iourneis about 20. miles a day, and they set forwards euery morning before day two houres, and about two in the afternoone they sit downe. We had great good hap in our voyage, for that it rained: For which cause we neuer wanted water, but euery day found good water, so that we could not take any hurt for want of water. Yet we caried a camel laden alwayes with water for euery good respect that might chance in the desert, so that wee had no want neither of one thing, nor other that was to bee had in the countrey. For wee came very well furnished of euery thing, and euery day we eat fresh mutton, because there came many shepheards with vs with their flocks, who kept those sheepe that we bought in Babylon, and euery marchant marked his sheepe with his owne marke, and we gaue the shepheards a Medin, which is two pence of our money for the keeping and feeding our sheep on the way and for killing of them. And beside the Medin they haue the heads, the skinnes, and the intrals of euery sheepe they kil. We sixe bought 20. sheepe, and when we came to Alepo we had 7. aliue of them. And in the Carouan they vse this order, that the marchants doe lende flesh one to another, because they will not cary raw flesh with them, but pleasure one another by lending one one day and another another day. [Sidenote: 36. Dayes iourney ouer the wildernes.] From Babylon to Alepo is 40. dayes iourney, of the which they make 36. dayes ouer the wildernes, in which 36. dayes they neither see house, trees nor people that inhabite it, but onely a plaine, and no signe of any way in the world. The Pilots goe before, and the Carouan followeth after. And when they sit downe all the Carouan vnladeth and sitteth downe, for they know the stations where the wells are. I say, in 36. dayes we pass ouer the wildernesse. For when wee depart from Babylon two dayes we passe by villages inhabited vntil we haue passed the riuer Euphrates. And then within two dayes of Alepo we haue villages inhabited. [Sidenote: An order how to prouide for the going to Ierusalem.] In this Carouan there goeth alway a Captaine that doth Iustice vnto all men: and euery night they keepe watch about the Carouan, and comming to Alepo we went to Tripoli, whereas Master Florin, and Master Andrea Polo, and I with a Frier, went and hired a barke to goe with vs to Ierusalem. Departing from Tripolie, we arriued at Iaffa: from which place in a day and a halfe we went to Ierusalem, and we gaue order to our barke to tary for vs vntill our returne. [Sidenote: The author returned to Venice 1581.] Wee stayed in Ierusalem 14. dayes, to visite those holy places: from whence we returned to Iaffa, and from Iaffa to Tripolie, and there wee shipped our selues in a ship of Venice called the Bagazzana: And by the helpe of the deuine power, we arriued safely in Venice the fift of Nouember 1581. If there be any that hath any desire to goe into those partes of India, let him not be astonied at the troubles that I haue passed: because I was intangled in many things: for that I went very poore from Venice with 1200. duckets imployed in marchandize, and when I came to Tripolie, I fell sicke in the house of Master Regaly Oratio, and this man sent away my goods with a small Carouan that went from Tripolie to Alepo, and the Carouan was robd, and all my goods lost sauing foure chests of glasses which cost me 200. duckets, of which glasses I found many broken: because the theeues thinking it had bene other marchandize, brake them vp, and seeing they were glasses they let them all alone. And with this onely stocke I aduentured to goe into the Indies: And thus with change and rechange, and by diligence in my voyage, God did blesse and helpe mee, so that I got a good stocke. I will not be vnmindfull to put them in remembrance, that haue a desire to goe into those parts, how they shall keepe their goods, and giue them to their heires at the time of their death, [Marginal note: A very good order that they haue in those Countreys for the recouering of the goods of the dead.] and howe this may be done very securely. In all the cities that the Portugales haue in the Indies, there is a house called the schoole of Sancta misericordia comissaria: the gouernours whereof, if you giue them for their paines, will take a coppy of your will and Testament, which you must alwayes cary about you; and chiefly when you go into the Indies. In the countrey of the Moores and Gentiles, in those voyages alwayes there goeth a Captaine to administer Iustice to all Christians of the Portugales. Also this captaine hath authoritie to recouer the goods of those Marchants that by chance die in those voyages, and they that haue not made their Wills and registred them in the aforesayde schooles, the Captaines wil consume their goods in such wise, that litle or nothing will be left for their heires and friends. Also there goeth in these same voyages some marchants that are commissaries of the schoole of Sancta misericordia, that if any Marchant die and haue his Will made, and hath giuen order that the schoole of Misericordia shall haue his goods and sell them, then they sende the money by exchange to the schoole of Misericordia in Lisbone, with that copie of his Testament, then from Lisbon they giue intelligence thereof, into what part of Christendome soeuer it be, and the heires of such a one comming thither, with testimoniall that they be heires, they shall receiue there the value of his goods: in such wise that they shall not loose any thing. But they that die in the kingdome of Pegu loose the thirde part of their goods by antient custome of the Countrey, that if any Christian dieth in the kingdome of Pegu, the king and his officers rest heires of a thirde of his goods, and there hath neuer bene any deceit or fraude vsed in this matter. I haue knowen many rich men that haue dwelled in Pegu, and in their age they haue desired to go into their owne Countrey to die there, and haue departed with al their goods and substance without let or troubles. [Sidenote: Order of apparel in Pegu.] In Pegu the fashion of their apparel is all one, as well the noble man as the simple: the onely difference is in the finenes of the cloth, which is cloth of Bombast one finer then another, and they weare their apparell in this wise: First a white Bombast cloth which serueth for a shirt, then they gird another painted bombast cloth of foureteene brases, which they binde vp betwixt their legges, and on their heads they weare a small tock of three braces, made in guize of a myter, and some goe without tocks, and cary (as it were) a hiue on their heades, which doeth not passe the lower part of his eare, when it is lifted vp: they goe all bare footed, but the Noble men neuer goe on foote, but are caried by men in a seate with great reputation, with a hat made of the leaues of a tree to keepe him from the raine and Sunne, or otherwise they ride on horsebacke with their feete bare in the stirops. [Sidenote: The order of the womens apparel in Pegu.] All sorts of women whatsoeuer they be, weare a smocke downe to the girdle, and from the girdle downewards to the foote they weare a cloth of three brases, open before; so straite that they cannot goe, but they must shewe their secret as it were aloft, and in their going they faine to hide it with their hand, but they cannot by reason of the straitnes of their cloth. They say that this vse was inuented by a Queene to be an occasion that the sight thereof might remoue from men the vices against nature, which they are greatly giuen vnto; which sight should cause them to regard women the more. Also the women goe bare footed, their armes laden with hoopes of golde and Iewels: And their fingers full of precious rings, with their haire rolled vp about their heads. Many of them weare a cloth about their shoulders instead of a cloake. Now to finish that which I haue begunne to write, I say, that those parts of the Indies are very good, because that a man that hath litle, shall make a great deale thereof; alwayes they must gouerne themselues that they be taken for honest men. For why? to such there shal neuer want helpe to doe wel, but he that is vicious, let him tary at home and not go thither, because he shall alwayes be a beggar, and die a poore man. * * * * * The money and measures of Babylon, Balsara, and the Indies, with the customes, &c. written from Aleppo in Syria, An. 1584. by M. Will. Barret. BABYLON: The weight, measure, and money currant there, and the customes of marchandize. A Mana of Babylon is of Aleppo 1 roue 5 ounces and a halfe: and 68 manas and three seuenth parts, make a quintall of Aleppo, which is 494 li. 8 ounces of London: and 100 manas is a quintall of Babylon, which maketh in Aleppo 146 roues, and of London 722 li. and so much is the sayd quintall: but the marchants accord is by so much the mana, and in the sayd place they bate the tare in all sorts of commodities, according to the order of Aleppo touching the tare. The measure of Babylon is greater then that of Aleppo 21 in the 100. For bringing 100 pikes of any measurable ware from Aleppo thither, there is found but 82 pikes in Babylon, so that the 100 pikes of Babylon is of Aleppo l2l pikes, very litle lesse. The currant mony of Babylon are Saies, which Say is 5 medines, as in Aleppo, and 40 medines being 8 Saies make a duckat currant, and 47 medines passe in value as the duckat of gold of Venice, and the dollars of the best sort are worth 33 medines. The roials of plate are sold by the 100 drams at prise, according as they be in request: but amongst the marchants they bargaine by the 100 metrals, which are 150 drams of Aleppo, which 150 drams are 135 single roials of plate: but in the mint or castle, they take them by the 100 drams, which is 90 roials of plate, and those of the mint giue 5 medines lesse in each 100 drams then they are woorth to be sold among the marchants, and make paiment at the terme of 40 dayes in Sayes. The custome in Babylon, as wel inward as outward, is in this maner: Small wares at 6 per 100, Coral and amber at 5 and a halfe per 100, Venice cloth, English cloth, Kersies, Mockairs, Chamblets, Silks, Veluets, Damasks, Sattins and such like at 5 per 100: and they rate the goods without reason as they lust themselues. The Toafo, Boabo, and other exactions 6 medines per bale, all which they pay presently in ready mony, according to the custome and vse of the emperor. To the Ermin of the mint the ordinarie vse is to giue 30 Saies in curtesie, otherwise he would by authoritie of his office come aboord, and for despight make such search in the barke, that he would turne all things topsie teruie. BALSARA: The weight, measure, and money in the citie of Balsara. A Mana of Balsara answereth 5 roues 2 ounces and a halfe of Aleppo weight, and 19 manas and one 4 part of Balsara, answereth the quintall of Aleppo, which is 494 roues, 8 ounces English, and 20 manas is the quintall of Balsara, which is 104 Alepine, and of London 514 li. 8. ounces, and so much is the sayd quintall, but the marchants bargaine at so much the mana or wolsene (which is all one) and they abate the tare in euery mana, as the sort of spice is, and the order taken therefore in that place. The measure of Balsara is called a pike, which is iust as the measure of Babylon, to say, 100 pikes of Balsara make of Aleppo 121 pikes, vt supra in the rate of Babylon. The currant mony of Balsara is as foloweth. There is a sort of flusses of copper called Estiui, whereof 12 make a mamedine, which is the value of one medine Aleppine, the said mamedine is of siluer, hauing the Moresco stampe on both sides, and two of these make a danine, which is 2 medines Aleppine. The said danine is of siluer, hauing the Turkesco stampe on both sides, and 2 and a halfe of these make a Saie, which is in value as the Saie of Aleppo. The said Saie is of the similitude and stampe of Aleppo, being (as appeares) 60 estiues. Also one Say and 20 estiues make a larine, which is of Aleppo money 6 medines and a halfe. The sayd larine is a strange piece of money, not being round as all other currant money in Christianitie, but is a small rod of siluer of the greatnesse of the pen of a goose feather, wherewith we vse to write, and in length about one eight part thereof, which is wrested, so that the two ends meet at the iust halfe part, and in the head thereof is a stampe Turkesco, and these be the best currant money in all the Indias, and 6 of these larines make a duckat, which is 40 medines or eight Saies of Aleppo. The duckat of gold is woorth there 7 larines, and one danine, which is of Aleppo money 48 medines and a halfe. The Venetian money is worth larines 88 per hundred meticals which is 150 drams of Aleppo, vt supra. The roials of plate are worth 88 larines by the 100 meticals, and albeit among the marchants they sel by the 100 meticals, yet in the mint or castle, they sel by the 100 drams, hauing there lesse then the worth 5 medines in each hundred drams, and haue their paiment in 40 dayes made them in Saies or larines. The custome of the said places, aswell inward as outward, are alike of all sorts of goods, to say 6 by the 100, and Toafo, Boabo, and scriuan medines 6 by the bale inward and outward, to say, 3 inward, and as much outward: but whoso leaueth his goods in the custome house paieth nothing, where otherwise at the taking thereof away, he should pay 3 med. by the bale, and of the said goods there is no other duty to pay, and this commeth to passe when the customers esteeme the goods too high. For in such a case they may be driuen to take so much commoditie as the custome amounteth to, and not to pay them in money, for such is the order from the Grand Signior. Hauing paid the custome, it behoueth to haue a quittance or cocket sealed and firmed with the customers hand, in confirmation of the dispatch and clearing, and before departure thence, to cause the sayd customer to cause search to be made, to the end that at the voiages returne there be no cauilation made, as it oftentimes happeneth. Note that 100 meticals of Balsara weigh 17 ounces and a halfe sottile Venetian, and of Aleppo drams 150, vt supra. The fraight of the barkes from Ormuz to Balsara, I would say from Balsara to Ormuz, they pay according to the greatnesse thereof. To say, for cariage of 10 cares 180 larines, those of 15 cares 270 larines, those of 20 cares 360 larines, those of 30 cares 540 larines. Note that a cara is 4 quintals of Balsara. They pay also to the pilot of the bark for his owne cariage one care, and to all the rest of the mariners amongst them 3. cares fraight, which is in the whole 4 cares, and paying the abouesayd prises and fraights, they are at no charges of victuals with them, but it is requisite that the same be declared in the charter partie, with the condition that they lade not aboord one rotilo more then the fraight, vnder paines that finding more in Ormuz, it is forfeit, and besides that to pay the fraight of that which they haue laden. And in this accord it behoueth to deale warilie, and in the presence of the Ermin or some other honest man (whereof there are but few) for they are the worst people in all Arabia. And this diligence must be put in execution, to the end the barks may not be ouerladen, because they are to passe many sands betwixt Balsara and Ormuz. ORMVZ: The weight, measure, and money currant in the kingdom of Ormuz: Spices and drugs they weigh by the bar, and of euery sort of goods the weight is different. To say, of some drugs 3 quintals, and 3 erubi or roues, and other some 4 quintals 25 rotiloes, and yet both is called a barre, which barre, as well as great as litle, is 20 frasoli, and euery frasoll is 10 manas, and euery mana 23 chiansi, and euery chianso 10 meticals and a halfe. [Sidenote: What a rotilo is.] Note that euery quintall maketh 4 erubi or roues, and euery roue 32 rotiloes, and euery rotilo 16 ounces, and euery ounce 7 meticals, so that the quintall commeth to be 128 rotiloes, which is Aleppine 26 rotiloes and one third part, which is 132 li. English weight. And contrarywise the quintal of Aleppo (which is 494 rotiloes 8 ounces English) maketh 477 rotiloes and a halfe of Ormuz, which is 3 quintals 2 roues, 29 rotiloes and a halfe. Note that there are bars of diuers weights, vt supra, of which they bargaine simply, according to the sort of commoditie, but if they bargaine of the great barre, the same is 7 quintals and 24 rotiloes, which is 958 li. 9 ounces of London weight, and of Aleppo 193 rotiloes and a halfe. Touching the money of Ormuz, they bargaine in marchandize at so many leches by the barre, which lech is 100 Asaries, and maketh larines 100 and a halfe, which maketh pardaos 38, and larines one halfe, at larines 5 by the pardao. One asarie is sadines 10, and euery sadine is 100. danarie. The larine is worth 5 sadines and one fourth part, so that the sadine is worth of Aleppo mony 1 medine and 1 fourth part, and the larine as in Balsara worth of Aleppo mony 6 medines and a half. The pardao is 5 larines of Balsara. There is also stamped in Ormuz a seraphine of gold, which is litle and round, and is worth 24 sadines, which maketh 30 medines of Aleppo. The Venetian mony is worth in Ormuz larines 88 per 100 meticals, and the roials are worth larines 86 lesse one sadine, which is euery thousand meticals, 382 asures: but those that will not sel them, vse to melt them, and make them so many larines in the king of Ormuz his mint, whereby they cleare 2 per 100, and somewhat more: and this they doe because neither Venetian money nor roials run as currant in Ormuz, per aduise. The measure of Ormuz is of two sorts, the one called codo which increaseth vpon the measure of Aleppo 3 per 100, for bringing 100 pikes of any measurable wares from Aleppo to Ormuz, it is found in Ormuz to be 103 codes. Also these measures of Ormuz increase vpon those of Balsara and Babylon 25 and two third parts per 100: for bringing 100 pikes of any measurable wares from Balsara or Babylon, there is found in Ormuz 125 codes and two third parts. The other measure is called a vare, which was sent from the king of Portugall to the India, by which they sell things of small value, which measure is of 5 palmes or spans, and is one code and two third parts, so that buying 100 codes of any measurable wares, and returning to measure it by the sayd vare, there are found but 60 vares, contrarywise 100 vares make 166 codes and two third parts. Note that al such ships as lade horses in Ormuz for Goa or any other place of India, lading 10 horses or vpwards, in what places soeuer the said horses be taken a shore in the India, the marchandize which is to be discharged out of that ship wherein the said horses come, are bound to pay no custome at all, but if they lade one horse lesse then ten, then the goods are bound to pay the whole custome. And this law was made by Don Emanuel king of Portugall, but it is to be diligently foreseene, whither all those horses laden be bound to pay the king his custome: for many times by the king of Portugall his commandement, there is fauour shewed to the king of Cochin his brother in armes, so that his horses that come in the same ship, are not to answere custome. As for example: If there were 4 horses laden in one ship, all which were to pay custome to the king, and one other of the king of Cochins which were not to pay any custome, the same causeth all the marchandize of that ship to be subiect to pay custome, per aduise. But if they lade ten horses vpon purpose to pay the king his custome in Goa, and in the voyage any of them should die in that case, if they bring the taile of the dead horse to the custome in Goa, then the marchandize is free from all custome, because they were laden in Ormuz to pay custome in Goa. Moreouer, if the horses should die before the midst of the voyage, they pay no custome at all, and if they die in the midst of the voyage, then they pay halfe custome, but if any horse die after the mid voiage, they pay custome no lesse than if they arriue safe. Notwithstanding, the marchandize (whether the said horses die before or in the mid voyage or after the mid voiage) are free from all custome. The custome of Ormuz is eleuen in the 100, to say, 10 for the king, and 1 for the arming of the foists: but for small wares as glasses, and looking glasses of all sorts, and such like, made for apparell, pay no custome. But cloth of Wooll, Karsies, Mockaires, Chamlets, and all sortes of Silke, Saffron, and such like, pay custome, being esteemed reasonably. There is also another custome, which they call caida, which is, that one bringing his goods into Ormuz, with purpose to send the same further into India, the same are bound to pay 3 by the 100, but none other are bound to pay this custome, except the Armenians, Moores, and Iewes: for the Portugals and Venetians pay nothing thereof. Note that in Ormuz they abate tare of all sorts of commodities, by an order obserued of custome. The fraight from Ormuz to Chaul, Goa, and Cochin, is as followeth: Mokaires, larines 6 per table of 60 pikes. Aquariosa 8 larines by ordinarie chist, raisins 10 by chist, which is a quintall of roues 128. Ruuia of Chalangi larines 10 per quintall, glasses larines 8 per chist, of 4 foote and a halfe, glasses in great chists 14 and 15 larines by chist. Small wares larines 12 by chist of fiue foot. Tamari for Maschat sadines 2 and a half, and 3 by the fardle. Tamarie for Diu and Chaul 4 sadines, and 4 and a halfe by bale. Other drugs and things which come from Persia pay according to the greatnesse of the bales. The fraight mentioned, they pay as appeareth, when they ship the sayd goods in ships where horses goe: otherwise not hauing horses, they pay somewhat lesse, because of the custom which they are to pay. The vse of the India ships is, that the patrones thereof are not at any charge neither with any passenger, not yet with any mariner in the ship, but that euery one at the beginning of the voyage doe furnish to maintaine his owne table (if he will eate) and for drinke they haue a great iarre of water, which is garded with great custodie. GOA. The weight, measure, and mony currant in Goa. The quintall of Goa is 5 manas, and 8 larines, and the mana is 24 rotilos, so that the quintall of Goa is 128 rot. and euery rot. is 16 ounces, which is of Venice weight 1 li. and a halfe, so that the quintall of Goa is 192 li. sotile Venice, which is 26 rotiloes 8 ounces Aleppine, and of London weight 132 li. English, as the weight of Ormuz. All the marchandize, spices and drugs, are sold by this quintal, except some drugs, as lignum de China, Galanga, and others, whereof they bargaine at so much per candill, aduertising that there be two sorts of candill, one of 16 manas, the other of 20 manas, that of 16 manas commeth to be iust 3 quintals, and that of 26 manas, 3 quintals, 3 roues. Note that 4 roues make a quintall, and the roue is 32 rotiloes, as in Ormuz. There is also another weight which they call Marco, which is eight ounces or halfe a rotilo of Goa, and 9 ounces of Venice sotile: with this they weigh amber, corall, muske, ambracan, ciuet, and other fine wares. There is also another sort of weight called Mangiallino, which is 5 graines of Venice weight and therewith they weigh diamants and other iewels. [Sidenote: Muske of Tartarie by the way of China.] Note that in Goa they vse not to abate any tare of any goods, except of sacks or wraps, and therefore it requireth great aduisement in buying of the goods, especially in the muske of Tartaria which commeth by way of China in bladders, and so weigh it without any tare rebating. The measure of Goa is called a tode, which encreaseth vpon the measure of Babylon and Balsara after the rate of 17 and one eight part by the 100, so that bringing 100 pikes of any measurable ware from thence to Goa, it is found 117 pikes 7 eight parts, and bringing 100 codes from Ormuz to Goa, there is found but 93 codes and one fourth part. There is also the vare in Goa, which is iust as the vare of Ormuz, and therewith they measure onely things that are of small value. For the mony of Goa, there is a kind of mony made of lead and tin mingled, being thicke and round, and stamped on the one side with a spheare or globe of the world, and on the other side two arrowes and 5 rounds: and this kind of mony is called Basaruchi, and 15 of these make a vinton of naughty mony, and 5 vintons make a tanga, and 4 vintenas make a tanga of base money: so that the tanga of base mony is 60 basaruchies, and the tanga of good mony 75. basaruchies, and 5 tangas make a seraphine of gold, which in merchandize is worth 5 tangas good money: but if one would change them into basaruchies, he may haue 5 tangas, and 16 basaruchies, which ouerplus they cal cerafagio, and when they bargain of the pardaw of gold, each pardaw is ment to be 6 tangas good mony, but in merchandise they vse not to demaund pardawes of gold in Goa, except it be for iewels and horses, for all the rest they take of seraphines of siluer, per aduiso. The roials of plate, I say, the roial of 8 are worth per custome and commandement of the king of Portugall 400 reies, and euery rey is one basaruchie and one fourth part, which maketh tangas 6, and 53 basaruchies as their iust value, but for that the said roials are excellent siluer and currant in diuers places of the India, and chiefly in Malacca, when the ships are to depart at their due times (called Monsons) euery one to haue the said roials pay more then they are worth, and the ouerplus, as is abouesaid they call serafagio. And first they giue the iust value of the 100 roials of 8, at 5 tangas 50 basaruchies a piece, which done, they giue seraphins 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, vntill 22 by the 100, according as they are in request. The ducket of gold is worth 9 tangas and a halfe good money, and yet not stable in price, for that when the ships depart from Goa to Cochin, they pay them at 9 tangas and 3 fourth partes, and 10 tangas, and that is the most that they are woorth. The larines are woorth by iust value basaruchies 93 and 3 fourth parts, and 4 larines make a seraphine of siluer, which is 5 tangas of good money, and these also haue serafagion of 6, 7, 8, 10, vntill 16, by the hundred, for when the ships depart for the North, to say, for Chaul, Diu, Cambaia, or Bassaim, all cary of the same, because it is money more currant then any other. There is also a sort of seraphins of gold of the stampe of Ormuz, whereof there are but fewe in Goa, but being there, they are woorth fiue larines and somewhat more, according as they are in request. There is also another litle sort of mony, round, hauing on the one side a crosse, and on the other side a crowne, which is woorth one halfe a tanga of good money, and another of the same stampe lesse than that which they call Imitiuo de buona moneda, which is worth 18 basaruches 3 fourth parts a piece. Note that if a man bargaine in marchandize, it behooueth to demaund tangas of good money: for by nominating tangas onely, is vnderstood to be base money of 60 basaruches, which wanteth of the good money vt supra. The custome of Goa is 8 in the 100 inwards, and as much outward, and the goods are esteemed iustly rather to the marchants aduantage then the kings. The custome they pay in this order. Comming with a ship from Ormuz to Goa without horses, they pay 8 in the 100 whether they sell part or all, but if they would carie of the sayd marchandise to any other place, they pay none other custome, except others buy it and carie it foorth of the countrey, and then they pay it 8 in the 100. And if one hauing paied the custome should sell to another with composition to passe it forth as for his proper accounts to saue the custome, this may not be, because the seller is put to his oth, whether he send the goods for his owne account, or for the account of any others that haue bought the same, and being found to the contrary they pay custome as abouesaid. And in this order the marchants pay of all the goods which come from any part of the Indies. But if they come from Ormuz to Goa with horses, they are not subiect to pay any custome inward, notwithstanding if they send all or any part thereof for any other place, or returne it to Ormuz, they pay the custome outward, although they could not sell. They vse also in Goa amongst the common sort to bargaine for coales, wood, lime, and such like, at so many braganines, accounting 24 basaruches for one braganine, albeit there is no such mony stamped. The custome of the Portugals is, that any Moore or Gentile, of what condition or state soeuer he be, may not depart from Goa to go within the land, without licence of certaine deputies deputed for that office, who (if they be Moores or Gentiles) doe set a seale vpon the arme, hauing thereon the armes of Portugal, to be knowen of the porters of the citie, whether they haue the said licence or no. COCHIN. The weight, measure, and money, currant in Cochin. All the marchandise which they sell or buy within the sayd citie, they bargaine for at so many serafines per quintal, which is 128. rotilos of iust weight, with the quintal and rotilo of Goa and Ormuz: aduertising that there are diuers sorts of bars according to the sorts of commodities, and in traffiquing, they reason at so much the bar. Note that there are bars of 3 quintals and 3 quintals and halfe, and 4 quintals. They abate a vsed tare of all marchandize, according to the sort of goods, and order taken for the same. The measure of Goa and Cochin are all one. The money of Cochin are all the same sorts which are currant in Goa, but the duckat of gold in value is 10 tangas of good money. The custome of Cochin as wel inward as outward for all strangers is eight in the hundred, but those that haue bene married foure yeere in the countrey pay but foure in the hundred, per aduiso. MALACCA. The weight, measure, and money of Malacca. For the marchandise bought and sold in the citie they reckon at so much the barre, which barre is of diuers sorts, great and small, according to the ancient custome of the said citie, and diuersitie of the goods. But for the cloues they bargaine at so much the barre, which barre is 3 quintals, 2 roues and 10 rotilos. As I haue abouesaid, all kind of drugs haue their sorts of barres limited. Note that euery quintal is 4 roues, and euery roue 32 rotilos, which is 128 rotilos the quintall, the which answereth to Aleppo 95 rotilos, and to London 472 li. per quintal. The measures of Malacca are as the measures of Goa. In Malacca they abate tare according to their distinction and agreement, for that there is no iust tare limited. For the money of Malacca, the least money currant is of tinne stamped with the armes of Portugall, and 12 of these make a Chazza. The Chazza is also of tinne with the said armes, and 2. of these make a challaine. The Challaine is of tinne with the said armes, and 40 of these make a tanga of Goa good money, but not stamped in Malacca. There is also a sort of siluer money which they call Patachines, and is worth 6 tangas of good money, which is 360 reyes, and is stamped with two letters, S. T. which is S. Thomas on the one side, and the armes of Portugall on the other side. There is also a kind of mony called Cruzados stamped with the atmes of Portugall, and is worth 6 tangas good mony, the larines are euery 9 of them worth 2 cruzados, which is 12 tangas good mony, and these larines be of those which are stamped in Balsara and Ormuz. The roials of 8 they call Pardaos de Reales, and are worth 7 tangas of good money. The custome of Malacca is 10 in the 100 as wel inward as outward, and those which pay the custome inwards, if in case they send the same goods for any other place within terme of a yeere and a day, pay no custome for the same. A note of charges from Aleppo to Goa, as foloweth. For camels from Aleppo to Birrha. Medines 60 per somme.[A] For mules from Aleppo to Birrha, med. 45. per somme. For custome at Birrha, med. 10. per somme. For Auania of the Cady at Birrha, med. 200. For 4 dishes raisins, and 20 pounds sope, med. 35. For a present to the Ermine the summe of med. 400. For a barke of 30 or 35 sommes. Duc. 60 is med. 2400. per barke. For meat for the men the summe of med. 200. For custome at Racca the summe of med. 5. per somme. For 3 platters of raisins, and 15 pounds of sope, med. 25. For custome to king Aborissei, Duc. 20 is med. 800 For custome at Dea the summe of med. 230. per barke For 4 dishes raisins, and 20 pounds of sope, med. 35. For custom at Bosara, the summe of med. 10. per barke. For 2 dishes raisins, and 10 pound of sope, med. 17. For custome in Anna, in 10 per summe, med. 10. per somme. For 4 dishes of raisins and 20 pound of sope, med. 35. For custome in Adite, medines 10 per barke, med. 10. per barke. For 2 dishes raisins, and 10 pound of sope, med. 17. For custome at Gweke, med. 10. per barke. For 2 dishes raisins, and 20 pound of sope, med. 17. For custome at Ist, med. 10. per somme. For 4 platters raisins, and 20 pound of sope, med. 35. Charges of presents at Felugia, med. 30. For camels from Felugia to Babylon, med. 30. per somme. For custome in Babylon, as in the booke appeareth. For a barke from Babylon to Balsara, med. 900. For custome of small wares, at Corno med. 20. per somme. For custome of clothes at Corno, the summe of med. per somme. For 3 dishes raisins, and 20 pound of sope, med. 26. For fraight from Balsara to Ormus, according to the greatnesse, as in this booke appeareth. For custome in Ormus, as is abouesaid in this booke. For fraight from Ormus to Goa, as is in this booke shewed. For custome in Goa, as is abouesaid. [A: Or, by the Camels burden.] A declaration of the places from whence the goods subscribed doe come. Cloues, from Maluco, Tarenate, Amboina, by way of Iaua. Nutmegs, from Banda. Maces from Banda, Iaua, and Malacca. Pepper Gawrie, from Cochin. Pepper common from Malabar. Sinnamon, from Seilan. Tinne, from Malacca. Sandals wilde, from Cochin. Sandales domestick, from Malacca. Verzini, from S. Thomas, and from China. Spicknard from Zindi, and Lahor. Quicksiluer, from China. Galls, from Cambaia, Bengala, Istria and Syria. Ginger Dabulin, from Dabul. Ginger Belledin, from the Countrie within Cambaia. Gmger Sorattin, from Sorat within Cambaia. Ginger Mordassi, from Mordas within Cambaia. Ginger Meckin, from Mecca. Mirabolans of all sorts, from Cambaia. White sucket, from Zindia, Cambaia, and China. Corcunia, from diuers places of India. Corall of Leuant, from Malabar. Chomin, from Balsara. Requitria, from Arabia Felix. Garble of Nutmegs from Banda. Sal Armoniacke, from Zindi and Cambaia. Zedoari, from diuers places of India. Cubeb, from China. Amomum, from China. Camphora, from Brimeo neere to China. Myrrha, from Arabia Felix. Costo dulce, from Zinde, and Cambaia. Borazo, from Cambaia, and Lahor. Asa fetida, from Lahor. Waxe, from Bengala. Seragni, from Persia. Cassia, from Cambaia, and from Gran Cayro. Storax calamita, from Rhodes, to say, from Aneda, and Canemarie within Caramania. Storax liquida, from Rhodes. Tutia, from Persia. Cagiers, from Malabar, and Maldiua. Ruuia to die withall, from Chalangi. Alumme di Rocca, from China, and Constantinople. Chopra, from Cochin and Malabar. Oppopanax, from Persia. Lignum Aloes, from Cochin, China, and Malacca. Demnar, from Siacca and Blinton. Galangæ, from China, Chaul, Goa, and Cochin. Laccha, from Pegu, and Balaguate. Carabbe, from Almanie. Coloquintida, from Cyprus. Agaricum, from Alemania. Scamonea, from Syria, and Persia. Bdellium, from Arabia felix, and Mecca. Cardamomum small, from Barcelona. Cardamomum great, from Bengala. Tamarinda, from Balsara. Aloe Secutrina, from Secutra. Aloe Epatica, from Pat. Safran, from Balsara, and Persia. Lignum de China, from China. Rhaponticum, from Persia, and Pugia. Thus, from Secutra. Turpith, from Diu, and Cambaia. Nuts of India, from Goa, and other places of India. Nux vomica, from Malabar. Sanguis Draconis, from Secutra. Armoniago, from Persia. Spodio di Cana, from Cochin. Margaratina, from Balaguate. Muske from Tartarie, by way of China. Ambracban, from Melinde, and Mosombique. Indico, from Zindi and Cambaia. Silkes fine, from China. Long pepper, from Bengala and Malacca. Latton, from China. Momia, from the great Cayro. Belzuinum Mandolalo, from Sian, and Baros. Belzuinum burned, from Bonnia. Castorium, from Almania. Corallina, from the red sea. Masticke, from Sio. Mella, from Romania. Oppium, from Pogia, and Cambaia. Calamus Aromaticus, from Constantinople. Capari, from Alexandria and other places. Dates, from Arabia felix and Alexandria. Dictamnum album, from Lombardia. Draganti, from Morea. Euphorbium, from Barbaria. Epithymum, from Candia. Sena, from Mecca. Gumme Arabike, from Zaffo. Grana, from Coronto. Ladanum, from Cyprus and Candia. Lapis lazzudis, from Persia. Lapis Zudassi, from Zaffetto. Lapis Spongij is found in sponges. Lapis Hæmatites, from Almanie. Manna, from Persia. Auripigmentum, from manie places of Turkie. Pilatro, from Barbaria. Pistaches, from Doria. Worme-seede, from Persia. Sumack, from Cyprus. Sebesten, from Cyprus. Galbanum from Persia. Dente d'Abolio, from Melinde, and Mosambique. Folium Indicum, from Goa, and Cochin. Diasprum viride, from Cambaia. Petra Bezzuar, from Tartaria. Sarcacolla, from Persia. Melleghete, from the West parts. Sugo di Requillicie, from Arabia felix. Chochenillo, from the West India. Rubarbe, from Persia, and China. The times or seasonable windes called Monsons, wherein the ships depart from place to place in the East Indies. Note that the Citie of Goa is the principall place of all the Orientall India, and the winter there beginneth the 15 of May with very great raine, and so continueth till the first of August, so that during that space, no shippe can passe ouer the barre of Goa, because through the continuall shoures of raine all the sandes ioyne together neere vnto a mountaine called Oghane, and all these sandes being ioyned together, runne into the shoales of the barre and port of Goa, and can haue no other issue, but to remaine in that port, and therefore it is shut vp vntill the first of August, but at the 10 of August it openeth by reason of the raine which ceaseth, and the sea doeth then scoure the sands away againe. The monson from Goa to the Northward, to say, for Chaul, Diu, Cambaia, Daman, Basaim, and other places. The ships depart from betwixt the tenth and 24 of August, for the Northward places abouesayde, and to these places they may saile all times of the yeere, except in the winter, which beginneth and endeth at the times abouesaid. The monson from the North parts, for Goa. The ships depart from Chaul, Diu, Cambaia, and other places Northwards for Goa, betwixt the 8 and 15 of Ianuarie, and come to Goa about the end of Februarie. The first monson from Diu for the straight of Mecca. The ships depart from Diu about the 15 of Ianuarie, and returne from the straights to Diu in the moneth of August. The second monson from Diu for the straight of Mecca. The ships depart betwixt the 25 and first of September, and returne from the straights to Diu, the first and 15 of May. The monson from Secutra for Ormus. The ships depart about the tenth of August for Ormus: albeit Secutra is an Iland and hath but few ships, which depart as abouesaid. The monson wherein the Moores of the firme land come to Goa. About the fifteenth of September the Moores of the firme lande beginne to come to Goa, and they come from all parts, as well from Balaguate, Bezenegar, as also from Sudalacan, and other places. The monson wherein the Moores of the firme land depart from Goa. They depart from Goa betwixt the 10 and 15 day of Nouember. Note that by going for the North is ment the departing from Goa, for Chaul, Diu, Cambaia, Daman, Basaim, Ghassain, and other places vnto Zindi: and by the South is vnderstood, departing from Goa, for Cochin, and all that coast vnto Cape Comori. The first monson from Goa for Ormus. The shippes depart in the moneth of October from Goa, for Ormus, passing with Easterly windes along the coast of Persia. The second monson from Goa to Ormus. The ships depart about the 20 of Ianuarie passing by the like nauigation and windes as in the first monson, and this is called of the Portugals and Indians Entremonson. The third monson from Goa to Ormus. The ships depart betwixt the 25 of March, and 6 of Aprill, hauing Easterly windes, till they passe Secutra, and then they find Westerly windes, and therefore they set their course ouer for the coast of Arabia, till they come to Cape Rasalgate and the Straight of Ormus, and this monson is most troublesome of all: for they make two nauigations in the heigth of Seylan, which is 6 degrees and somewhat lower. The first monson from Ormus for Chaul, and Goa. The ships depart from Ormus for Chaul, and Goa in the moneth of September, with North and Northeast windes. The second monson from Ormus for Chaul and Goa. The second monson is betwixt the fiue and twentie and last of December, with like winds as the former monson. The third monson from Ormus for Chaul and Goa. The third monson the ships depart from Ormus, for Chaul and Goa, betwixt the first and 15. of April, and they saile with Southeast windes, East and Northeast windes, coasting vpon the Arabia side from Cape Mosandon vnto Cape Rasalgate, and hauing lost the sight of Cape Rasalgate, they haue Westerly windes, and so come for Chaul and Goa, and if the said ships depart not before the 25 of April, they are not then to depart that monson, but to winter in Ormus because of the winter. The first monson from Ormus for Zindi. The ships depart from Ormus betwixt the 15 and 26 of Aprill. The second monson from Ormus for Zindi. The ships depart betwixt the 10 and 20 of October for Zindi from Ormus. The monson from Ormus for the red sea. The ships depart from Ormus betwixt the first and last of Ianuarie. Hitherto I haue noted the monsons of the ships departing from Goa to the Northward: Now follow the monsons wherein the ships depart from Goa, to the Southward. The Monson from Goa for Calicut, Cochin, Seilan, and all that coast. The ships depart from those places betwixt the 1 and 15 of August, and there they find it nauigable all the yeere except in the winter, which continueth as is aforesayd, from the 15 of May till the 10 of August. [Sidenote: Note.] In like maner the ships come from these places for Goa at euery time in the yeere except in the winter, but of all other the best time is to come in Nouember, December and Ianuary. The first monson from Goa, for Pegu. The ships depart from Goa, betwixt the 15 and 20 of April, and winter at S. Thomas, and after the 5 of August, they depart from S. Thomas for Pegu. The second monson from Goa, for Pegu. The ships depart from Goa betwixt the 8 and 24 of August, going straight for Pegu, and if they passe the 24 of August, they cannot passe that monson, neither is there any more monsons till April as is aforesaid. [Sidenote: Marchandize good for Pegu.] Note that the chiefest trade is to take money of S. Thomas rials, and patechoni, and to goe to S. Thomas, and there to buy Tellami, which is fine cloth of India, whereof there is great quantitie made in Coromandel, and brought thither, and other marchandise are not good for that place except some dozen of very faire Emeraulds orientall. For of golde, siluer, and Rubies, there is sufficient store in Pegu. The monson from Pegu for the Indies. The ships depart from Pegu betwixt the 15 and 25 of Ianuarie, and come to Goa about the 25 of March, or in the beginning of April. Note, that if it passe the 10 of May before the sayde ships be arriued in Goa, they cannot come thither that monson, and if they haue not then fet the coast of India, they shall with great perill fetch S. Thomas. The first monson from Goa for Malacca. The ships depart betwixt the 15 and last of September, and arriue in Malacca about the end of October. The second monson from Goa to Malacca. The ships depart about the 5 of May from Goa, and arriue in Malacca about the 15 of Iune. The first monson from Malacca to Goa. The ships depart about the 10 of September, and come to Goa about the end of October. The second monson from Malacca to Goa. The ships depart from Malacca about the 10 of February, and come to Goa about the end of March. But if the said ships should stay till the 10 of May they cannot enter into Goa, and if at that time also they should not be arriued at Cochin, they are forced to retume to Malacca, because the winter and contrary windes then come vpon them. The monson from Goa for China. The ships depart from Goa in the moneth of April. The monson from China for Goa. The ships depart to be the 10 of May in Goa, and being not then arriued, they turne backe to Cochin, and if they cannot fetch Cochin, they returne to Malacca. The monson from Goa to the Moluccaes. The ships depart about 10 or 15 of May, which time being past, the shippes can not passe ouer the barre of Goa for the cause abouesaid. The monson of the ships of the Moluccaes arriuall in Goa. The ships which come from the Moluccaes arriue vpon the bar of Goa about the 15. of April. The monsons of the Portingall ships for the Indies. [Sidenote: Note.] The ships which come from Portugall depart thence ordinarily betwixt the tenth and fifteenth of March, comming the straight way during the moneth of Iuly to the coast of Melinde, and Mosambique, and from thence goe straight for Goa, and if in the moneth Iuly they should not be at the coast of Melinde, they can in no wise that yeere fetch Melinde, but returne to the Isle of Saint Helena, and so are not able, that time being past, to fetch the coast of India, and to come straight for Goa. Therefore (as is abouesaid) they returne to the Island of Saint Helena, and if they cannot make the said Island, then they runne as lost vpon the Coast of Guinea: but if the said ships be arriued in time vpon the coast of Melinde, they set forwardes for Goa, and if by the fifteenth of September they cannot fetch Goa, they then goe for Cochin, but if they see they cannot fetch Cochin, they returne to Mosambique to winter there vpon the sayd coast. [Sidenote: Note.] Albeit in the yeere of our Lord 1580 there arriued the ship called San Lorenzo, being wonderfull sore sea-beaten, the eight of October, which was accounted as a myracle for that the like had not beene seene before. The monson from India for Portugall. The shippes depart from Cochin betweene the fifteenth and last of Ianuary, going on till they haue sight of Capo de buona speranza, and the Isle of Saint Helena, which Islande is about the midway, being in sixteene degrees to the South. And it is a litle Island being fruitfull of all things which a man can imagine, with great store of fruit: and this Island is a great succour to the shipping which returne for Portugall. And not long since the said Island was found by the Portugales, and was discouered by a shippe that came from the Indies in a great storme, in which they found such abundance of wilde beastes, and boares, and all sort of fruite, that by meanes thereof that poore ship which had been foure moneths at sea, refreshed themselues both with water and meate very well, and this Island they called S. Helena, because it was discouered vpon S. Helens day. And vndoubtedly this Island is a great succour, and so great an ayde to the ships of Portugall, that many would surely perish if that helpe wanted. And therefore the king of Portugall caused a Church to be made there for deuotion of S. Helena: where there are onely resident Eremits, and all other are forbidden to inhabite there by the kings commaundement, to the ende that the ships may be the more sufficiently furnished with victuals, because the ships which come from India come but slenderly victualled, [Sidenote: Note.] because there groweth no corne there, neither make they any wine: but the ships which come from Portugall to the Indies touch not in the sayd Island, because they set out being sufficiently furnished with bread and water from Portugall for eight moneths voyage. Any other people then the two Eremites abouesaid, cannot inhabite this Island, except some sicke man that may be set there a shore to remaine in the Eremites companie, for his helpe and recouery. The monson from Goa to Mosambique. The ships depart betwixt the 10 and 15 of Ianuarie. The monson from Mosambique to Goa. The ships depart betweene the 8 and last of August, and arriue in Chaul or Goa in the moneth of October, till the 15 of Nouember. The monson from Ormus to Bengala. The ships depart betwixt the 15 and 20 of Iune, and goe to winter at Teue and depart thence about the 15 of August for Bengala. * * * * * A briefe extract specifying the certaine dayly paiments, answered quarterly in time of peace, by the Grand Signior, out of his Treasurie, to the Officers of his Seraglio or Court, successiuely in degrees: collected in a yeerely totall summe, as followeth. For his owne diet euery day, one thousand and one aspers, according to a former custome receiued from his auncestors: notwithstanding that otherwise his diurnall expence is very much, and not certainly knowen, which summe maketh sterling mony by the yere, two thousand, one hundred, 92. pounds, three shillings, eightpence. The fiue and fourtie thousand Ianizaries dispersed in sundry places of his dominions, at sixe aspers the day, amounteth by the yeere to fiue hundreth, fourescore and eleuen thousand, and three hundreth pounds. The Azamoglans, tribute children, farre surmount that number, for that they are collected from among the Christians, from whom betweene the yeeres of sixe and twelue, they are pulled away yeerely perforce: whereof I suppose those in seruice may be equall in number with the Ianizaries abouesayd, at three aspers a day, one with another, which is two hundred fourescore and fifteene thousand, sixe hundred and fiftie pounds. The fiue Bassas, whereof the Viceroy is supreme, at one thousand aspers the day, besides their yerely reuenues, amounteth sterling by the yeere to ten thousand, nine hundred and fiftie pounds. The fiue Beglerbegs, chiefe presidents of Greece, Hungary, and Sclauonia, being in Europe, in Natolia, and Caramania of Asia, at one thousande aspers the day: as also to eighteene other gouernours of Prouinces, at fiue hundred aspers the day, amounteth by the yeere, to thirtie thousand sixe hundred, and threescore pounds. The Bassa, Admirall of the Sea, one thousand aspers the day, two thousand, one hundred foure score and ten pounds. The Aga of the Ianizaries, generall of the footemen, fiue hundred aspers the day, and maketh by the yeere in sterling money, one thousand, foure score and fifteene pounds. The Imbrahur Bassa, Master of his horse, one hundred and fiftie aspers the day, is sterling money, three hundred and eight and twenty pounds. The chiefe Esquire vnder him, one hundred and fiftie aspers, is three hundred and eight and twenty pounds. The Agas of the Spahi, Captaines of the horsemen, sixe, at one hundred and fiftie aspers to either of them, maketh sterling, one thousand, nine hundred, three score and eleuen pounds. The Capagi Bassas head porters foure, one hundred and fiftie aspers to ech, and maketh out in sterling money by the yeere, one thousand, three hundred, and fourteene pounds. The Sisinghir Bassa, Controller of the housholde, one hundred and twentie aspers the day, and maketh out in sterling money by the yeere, two hundred, threescore and two pounds, sixteene shillings. The Chaus Bassa, Captaine of the Pensioners, one hundred and twentie aspers the day, and amounteth to by the yeere in sterling money, two hundred, threescore and two pounds, sixteene shillings. The Capigilar Caiasi Captaine of his Barge, one hundreth and twentie aspers the day, and maketh out by the yeere in sterling money, two hundred, threescore and two poundes, sixteene shillings. The Solach Bassi, Captaine of his guard, one hundred and twentie aspers, two hundred, three score and two pounds, sixteene shillings. The Giebrigi Bassi, master of the armoury, one hundred and twentie aspers, two hundred, three score and two pounds, sixteene shillings. The Topagi Bassi, Master of the artillerie, one hundred and twentie aspers, two hundred, three score and two pounds, sixteene shillings. The Echim Bassi, Phisition to his person, one hundred and twentie aspers, two hundred, three score and two pounds, sixteene shillings. To fourtie Phisitions vnder him, to ech fourtie aspers, is three thousand, eight hundred, three score and sixe pounds, sixteene shillings. The Mustafaracas spearemen, attending on his person, in number fiue hundred, to either three score aspers, and maketh sterling, threescore and fiue thousand, and seuen hundred pounds. The Cisingeri gentlemen, attending vpon his diet, fourtie, at fourtie aspers ech of them, and amounteth to sterling by the yeere, three thousand, fiue hundred and foure pounds. The Chausi Pensioners, foure hundred and fourtie, at thirtie aspers, twenty eight thousand, nine hundred and eight pounds. The Capagi porters of the Court and City, foure hundred, at eight aspers, and maketh sterling money by the yeere, seuen thousand, and eight pounds. The Solachi, archers of his guard, three hundred and twenty, at nine aspers, and commeth vnto in English money, the summe of sixe thousand, three hundred and sixe pounds. The Spahi, men of Armes of the Court and the City, ten thousand, at twenty fiue asters, and maketh of English money, fiue hundred, forty and seuen thousand, and fiue hundred pounds. The Ianizaires sixteene thousand, at six aspers, is two hundred and ten thousand, and two hundred and forty pounds. The Giebegi furbushers of armor, one thousand, fiue hundred, at sixe aspers, and amounteth to sterling money, nineteene thousand, seuen hundred, and fourescore pounds. The Seiesir, seruitors in his Equier or stable, fiue hundred, at two aspers, and maketh sterling money, two thousand, one hundred, fourescore and ten pounds. The Saesi, Sadlers and bit makers, five hundred, at seuen aspers, seuen thousand, six hundred, threescore and fiue pounds. The Catergi, Carriers vpon Mules, two hundred, at fiue aspers, two thousand, one hundred, fourescore and ten pounds. The Cinegi, Carriers vpon Camels, one thousand, fiue hundred, at eight aspers, and amounteth in sterling money, to twenty sixe thousand, two hundred, and fourescore pounds. The Reiz, or Captaines of the Gallies, three hundred, at ten aspers, and amounteth in English money by the yeere, the summe of sixe thousand, fiue hundred, threescore and ten pounds. The Alechingi, Masters of the said Gallies, three hundred, at seven aspers, foure thousand, fiue hundred, fourescore and nineteene pounds. The Getti, Boateswaines thereof, three hundred, at sixe aspers, is three thousande, nine hundred, fourty and two pounds. The Oda Bassi, Pursers, three hundred, at fiue aspers, maketh three thousand two hundred, and fourescore pounds. The Azappi souldiers two thousand sixe hundred at foure Aspers, whereof the six hundred do continually keepe the gallies, two and twentie thousand, seuen hundred fourscore and six pounds. The Mariers Bassi masters over the shipwrights and kalkers of the navie, nine, at 20. Aspers the piece, amounteth to three thousand fourescore and foure pound, foure shillings. The Master Dassi shipwrights and kalkers, one thousand at fourteene aspers, which amounteth by the yeere, to thirtie thousand, sixe hundred threescore pound. Summa totalis of dayly paiments amounteth by the yeere sterling, one million, nine hundred threescore eight thousand, seuen hundred thirty fiue pounds, nineteene shillings eight pence, answered quarterly without default, with the summe of foure hundred fourescore twelue thousand, one hundred fourescore and foure pounds foure shillings eleven pence, and is for every day fiue thousand three hundred, fourescore and thirteene pounds, fifteene shillings ten pence. Annuities of lands neuer improued, fiue times more in value then their summes mentioned, giuen by the saide Grand Signior, as followeth. To the Viceroy for his Timar or annuitie 60. thousand golde ducats. To the second Bassa for his annuitie 50. thousand ducats. To the third Bassa for his annuitie 40. thousand ducats. To the fourth Bassa for his annuitie 30. thousand ducats. To the fifth Bassa for his annuitie 20. thousand ducats. To the Captaine of the Ianizaries 20. thousand ducats. To the Ieu Merhorbassi master of his horse 15. thousand ducats. To the Captaine of the pensioners 10. thousand ducats. To the Captaine of his guard 5. thousand ducats. Summa totalls 90. thousand li. sterling. Beside these aboue specified, be sundry other annuities giuen to diuers others of his aforesaid officers, as also to certaine called Sahims, diminishing from three thousand to two hundred ducats, esteemed treble to surmount the annuitie abouesaid. The Turkes chiefe officers. The Viceroy is high Treasurer, notwithstanding that vnder him be three subtreasurers called Teftadars, which bee accomptable to him of the receipts out of Europe, Asia and Africa, saue their yeerely annuitie of lands. The Lord Chancellor is called Nissangi Bassa, who sealeth with a certaine proper character such licences, safe conducts, passeports, especiall graunts, &c. as proceed from the Grand Signior: notwithstanding all letters to forreine princes so firmed be after inclosed in a bagge, and sealed by the Grand Signior, with a signet which he ordinarily weareth about his necke, credited of them to haue bene of ancient appertayning to king Salomon the wise. The Admirall giueth his voyce in the election of all Begs, Captaines of the Islandes, to whom hee giueth their charge, as also appointeth the Subbasses, Bayliffes or Constables ouer Cities and Townes vpon the Sea coastes about Constantinople, and in the Archipelago, whereof hee reapeth great profit. The Subbassi of Pera payeth him yeerely fifteene thousande ducats, and so likewise either of the others according as they are placed. The Ressistop serueth in office to the Viceroy and Chancellor, as Secretary, and so likewise doeth the Cogie Master of the Rolls, before which two, passe all writings presented to, or granted by the said Viceroy and Chancellor, offices of especiall credite and like profile, moreouer rewarded with annuities of lands. There are also two chiefe Iudges named Cadi Lesker, the one ouer Europe, and the other ouer Asia and Africa, which in Court doe sit on the Bench at the left hand of the Bassas. These sell all offices to the vnder Iudges of the land called Cadies, whereof is one in euery Citie or towne, before whom all matters in controuersie are by iudgement decided, as also penalties and corrections for crimes ordained to be executed vpon the offenders by the Subbassi. The number of Souldiers continually attending vpon the Beglerbegs the gouernours of Prouinces and Saniacks, and their petie Captaines mainteined of these Prouinces. The Beglerbegs of Græcia, fourtie thousand persons. Buda, fifteene thousand persons. Sclauonia, fifteene thousand persons. Natolia, fifteene thousand persons. Caramania, fifteene thousand persons. Armenia, eighteene thousand persons. Persia, twentie thousand persons. Vsdrum, fifteene thousand persons. Chirusta, fifteene thousand persons. Caraemiti, thirtie thousand persons. Gierusal, two and thirtie thousand persons. The Beglerbegs of Bagdat, fiue and twentie thousand persons. Balsara, two and twenty thousand persons. Lassaija, seuenteene thousand persons. Alepo, fiue and twentie thousand persons. Damasco, seuenteene thousand persons. Cayro, twelue thousand persons. Abes, twelue thousand persons. Mecca, eight thousand persons. Cyprus, eighteene thousand persons. Tunis in Barbary, eight thousand persons. Tripolis in Syria, eight thousand persons. Alger, fourtie thousand persons. Whose Sangiacks and petie Captaines be three hundred sixtie eight, euery of which retaining continually in pay from fiue hundreth to two hundreth Souldiers, may be one with another at the least, three hundreth thousand persons. Chiefe officers in his Seraglio about his person. Be these-- Capiaga, High Porter. Alnader Bassi, Treasurer. Oda Bassi, Chamberlaine. Killergi Bassi, Steward. Saraiaga, Comptroller. Peskerolen, Groome of the chamber. Edostoglan, Gentleman of the Ewer. Sehetaraga, Armour bearer. Choataraga, he that carieth his riding cloake. Ebietaraga, Groome of the stoole. There be many other maner Officers, which I esteeme superfluous to write. The Turkes yeerely reuenue. The Grand Signiors annual reuenue is said to be fourteene Millions and an halfe of golden ducats, which is sterling fiue millions, eight score thousand pounds. The tribute payd by the Christians his Subiects is one gold ducat yeerely for the redemption of euery head, which may amount vnto not so litle as one Million of golden ducats, which is sterling three hundred threescore thousand pounds. Moreouer, in time of warre, he exacteth manifolde summes for maintenance of his Armie and Nauie of the said Christians. The Emperour payeth him yeerely tribute for Hungary, threescore thousand dollers, which is sterling thirteene thousand pound, besides presents to the Viceroy and Bassas, which are said to amount to twentie thousand dollers. Ambassadors Allowances. The Ambassadour of the Emperour is allowed one thousand Aspers the day. The Ambassadour of the French king heretofore enioyed the like: but of late yeeres by meanes of displeasure conceiued by Mahumet then Viceroy, it was reduced to sixe crownes the day, beside the prouision of his Esquire of his stable. The Ambassadours of Poland, and for the state of Venice are not Ligiers as these two abouesaid. The said Polack is allowed 12. Frenche crownes the day during his abode, which may be for a moneth. Very seldome do the state of Venice send any Ambassador otherwise, then enforced of vrgent necessity: but in stead thereof keepe their Agent, president ouer other Marchants of them termed a bailife, who hath none allowance of the Grand Signior, although his port and state is in maner as magnifical as the other aforesaid Ambassadors. The Spanish Ambassador was equall with other in Ianizaries: but for so much as he would not according to custome folow the list of other Ambassadors in making presents to the Grand Signior, he had none alowance. His abode there was 3. yeres, at the end whereof, hauing concluded a truce for six yeres, taking place from his first comming in Nouember last past 1580. he was not admitted to the presence of the Grand Signior. * * * * * To the Worshipfull and his very loving Vncle M. Rowland Hewish, Esquier, at Sand in Devonshire. Sir, considering the goodnesse of your Nature which is woont kindely to accept from a friend, euen of meane things being giuen with a good heart, I haue presumed to trouble you with the reading of this rude discourse of my trauels into Turkie, and of the deliuerie of the present with such other occurrents as there happened woorthie the obseruation: of all which proceedings I was an eie-witnesse, it pleasing the Ambassadour to take mee in with him to the Grand Signior. If for lacke of time to put it in order I haue not performed it so well as it ought, I craue pardon, assuring you that to my knowledge I haue not missed in the trueth of any thing. If you aske me what in my trauels I haue learned, I answere as a noble man of France did to the like demaund, Hoc vnum didici, mundi contemptum: and so concluding with the wise man in the booke of the Preacher, that all is vanitie, and one thing onely is necessarie, I take my leaue and commit you to the Almightie. From London the 16. March 1597. Your louing Nephew Richard Wrag. A description of a Voiage to Constantinople and Syria, begun the 21. of March 1593. and ended the 9. of August, 1595. wherein is shewed the order of deliuering the second Present by Master Edward Barton her maiesties Ambassador, which was sent from her Maiestie to Sultan Murad Can, Emperour of Turkie. We set saile in the Ascension of London, a new shippe very well appointed, of two hundred and three score tunnes (whereof was master one William Broadbanke, a prouident and skilfull man in his facultie) from Grauesend the one and twentie of March 1593. And vpon the eight of Aprill folowing wee passed the streights of Gibraltar, and with a small Westerne gale, the 24. of the same, we arriued at Zante an Iland vnder the Venetians. The fourth of May wee departed, and the one and twentie wee arriued at Alexandretta in Cilicia in the very bottome of the Mediterrane sea, a roade some 25. miles distance from Antioch, where our marchants land their goods to bee sent for Aleppo. From thence wee set saile the fift of Iune, and by contrary windes were driuen vpon the coast of Caramania into a road neere a litle Iland where a castle standeth, called Castle Rosso, some thirtie leagues to the Eastwards of the Rhodes, where after long search for fresh water, we could finde none, vntil certaine poore Greekes of the Iland brought vs to a well where we had 5 or 6 tuns. That part of the country next the sea is very barren and full of mountains, yet found we there an olde tombe of marble, with an epitaph of an ancient Greeke caracter, by antiquity neere worne out and past reading; which to the beholders seemed a monument of the greatnesse of the Grecian monarchy. [Sidenote: Candie.] From thence we went to the Rhodes, and by contrary windes were driuen into a port of Candy, called Sittia: this Iland is vnder the Venetians, who haue there 600 souldiers, besides certaine Greeks, continually in pay. Here with contrary winds we stayed six weeks, and in the end, hauing the winde prosperous, we sailed by Nicaria, Pharos, Delos, and Andros, with sight of many other Ilands in the Archipelago, and arriued at the two castles in Hellespont the 24 of August. Within few dayes after we came to Galipoli some thirty miles from this place, where foure of vs tooke a Parma or boat of that place, with two watermen, which rowed us along the Thracian shore to Constantinople, which sometime sailing and sometime rowing, in foure dayes they performed. The first of September we arriued at the famous port of the Grand Signior, where we were not a little welcome to M. Edward Barton vntil then her Maiesties Agent, who (with many other great persons) had for many dayes expected the present. [Sidenote: The Ascension arriued at the 7 towers.] Fiue or sixe dayes after the shippe arriued neere the Seuen towers, which is a very strong hold, and so called of so many turrets, which it hath, standing neere the sea side, being the first part of the city that we came vnto. [Sidenote: The ship saluteth the grand Signior.] Heere the Agent appointed the master of the Ascension to stay with the shippe vntill a fitte winde and opportunity serued to bring her about the Seraglio to Salute the Grand Signior in his moskyta or church: for you shall vnderstand that he hath built one neere the wall of his Seraglio or pallace adioyning to the Sea side; whereunto twise or thrise a weeke he resorteth to performe such religious rites as their law requireth: where hee being within few dayes after, our shippe set out in their best maner with flagges, streamers and pendants of diuers coloured silke, with all the mariners, together with most of the Ambassadours men, hauing the winde faire, and came within two cables length of this his moskita, where (hee to his great content beholding the shippe in such brauery) they discharged first two volies of small shot, and then all the great ordinance twise ouer, there being seuen and twentie or eight and twentie pieces in the ship. Which performed, he appointed the Bustangi-Bassa or captaine of the great and spacious garden or parke, to giue our men thankes, with request that some other day they would shew him the like sporte when hee would have the Sultana or Empresse a beholder thereof, which few dayes after at the shippes going to the Custome-house they performed. The grand Signiors salutation thus ended, the master brought the ship to an anker at Rapamat neere the ambassadors house, where hee likewise saluted him with all his great ordinance once ouer, and where he landed the Present, the deliuerie whereof for a time was staied: the cause of which staie it shall neither be dishonorable for our nation, or that woorthie man the ambassador to shew you. [Sidenote: The cause of staying the present.] At the departure of Sinan Bassa the chiefe Vizir, and our ambassadors great friend toward the warres of Hungarie there was another Bassa appointed in his place, a churlish and harsh natured man, who vpon occasion of certaine Genouezes, escaping out of the castles standing toward the Euxine Sea, nowe called the black Sea, there imprisoned, apprehended and threatened to execute one of our Englishmen called Iohn Field, for that hee was taken thereabouts, and knowen not many dayes before to haue brought a letter to one of them: vpon the soliciting of whose libertie there fell a iarre betweene the Bassa (being now chiefe Vizir) and our ambassador, and in choler he gaue her maiesties ambassador such words, as without sustaining some great indignitie hee could not put vp. [Sidenote: An Arz to the grand Signior] Whereupon after the arriual of the Present, he made an Arz, that is, a bill of Complaint to the grand Signior against him, the manner in exhibiting whereof is thus performed. The plaintifes expect the grand Signiors going abroad from his pallace, either to Santa Sophia or to his church by the sea side, whither, with a Perma (that is one of their vsuall whirries) they approch within some two or three score yards, where the plaintife standeth vp, and holdeth his petition ouer his forehead in sight of the grand Signior (for his church is open to the Sea side) the rest sitting still in the boat, who appointeth one of his Dwarfes to receiue them, and to bring them to him. A Dwarfe, one of the Ambassadors fauorites, so soone as he was discerned, beckned him to the shore side, tooke his Arz, and with speed caried it to the grand Signior. Now the effect of it was this; that except his highnesse would redresse this so great an indignitie, which the Vizir his slaue had offered him and her maiestie in his person, he was purposed to detaine the Present vntill such time as he might by letters ouer-land from her maiestie bee certified, whither she would put vp so great an iniurie as it was. [Sidenote: The great hall of Iustice.] Whereupon he presently returned answere, requesting the ambassador within an houre after to goe to the Douan of the Vizir, vnto whom himselfe of his charge would send a gowne of cloth of gold, and commaund him publikely to put it vpon him, and with kind entertainment to imbrace him in signe of reconciliation. [Sidenote: Reconceliation with the Vizir made.] Whereupon our ambassador returning home, tooke his horse, accompanied with his men, and came to the Vizirs court, where, according to the grand Signiors command, he with all shew of kindnesse embraced the ambassador, and with curteous speeches reconciled himselfe, and with his own hands put the gowne of cloth of gold vpon his backe. Which done, hee with his attendants returned home, to the no small admiration of all Christians, that heard of it, especially of the French and Venetian ambassadors, who neuer in the like case against the second person of the Turkish Empire durst haue attempted so bold an enterprise with hope of so friendly audience, and with so speedie redresse. This reconciliation with the great Vizir thus made, the ambassador prepared himselfe for the deliuerie of the Present, which vpon the 7 of October 1593. in this maner he performed. [Sidenote: The ambassador goeth to the court with the present.] The Ascension with her flags and streamers, as aforesaid, repaired nigh vnto the place where the ambassador should land to go vp to the Seraglio: for you must vnderstand that all Christian ambassadors haue their dwelling in Pera where most Christians abide, from which place, except you would go 4 or 5 miles about, you cannot go by land to Constantinople, whereas by Sea it is litle broder then the Thames. Our Ambassador likewise apparelled in a sute of cloth of siluer, with an vpper gowne of cloth of gold, accompanied with 7 gentlemen in costly sutes of Sattin, with 40 other of his men very well apparelled, and all in one liuerie of sad French russet cloth gownes, at his house tooke boate: at whose landing the ship discharged all her ordinance, where likewise attended 2 Bassas, with 40 or 50 Chauses to accompany the ambassador to the court, and also horses for the ambassador and his gentlemen, very richly furnished, with Turkish seruants attendant to take the horses when they should light. [Sidenote: The Ambass. came to the Seraglio.] The ambassador thus honorably accompanied, the Chauses foremost, next his men on foote all going by two and two, himselfe last with his Chause and Drugaman or Interpreter, and 4 Ianissaries, which he doeth vsually entertaine in his house to accompany him continually abroad, came to the Seraglio about an Engush mile from the water side, where first hee passed a great gate into a large court (much like the space before Whitehall gate) where he with his gentlemen alighted and left their horses. From hence they passed into an other stately court, being about 6 score in bredth, and some 10 score yards long, with many trees in it: where all the court was with great pompe set in order to entertaine our ambassador. [Sidenote: All these are captaines of hundreds and of fifties.] Vpon the right hand all the length of the court was a gallerie arched ouer, and borne vp with stone pillars, much like the Roiall Exchange, where stood most of his guard in rankes from the one end to the other in costly aray, with round head pieces on their heads of mettall and gilt ouer, with a great plume of fethers somewhat like a long brush standing vp before. On the left hand stood the Cappagies or porters, and the Chauses. All these courtiers being about the number of 2000. (as I might well gesse) most of them apparelled in cloth of gold, siluer, veluet, sattin and scarlet, did together with bowing their bodies, laying their hands vpon their brests in curteous maner of salutation, entertain the Ambassador: who likewise passing between them, and turning himself sometime to the right hand and sometime to the left, answered them with the like. [Sidenote: The ambassador receiued by the Vizir with all kindnesse.] As he thus passed along, certaine Chauses conducted him to the Douan, which is the seat of Iustice, where certaine dayes of the weeke the grand Vizir, with the other Vizirs, the Cadi-lesker or lord chiefe Iustice, and the Mufti or high priest do sit to determine vpon such causes as be brought before them, which place is vpon the left side of this great court, whither the ambassador with his gentlemen came, where hee found the Vizir thus accompanied as aforesayd, who with great shew of kindnes receiued him: and after receit of her maiesties letters, and conference had of the Present, of her maiesties health, of the state of England, and such other matters as concerned our peaceable traffique in those parts: [Sidenote: Diner brought in.] dinner being prepared was by many of the Courtiers brought into another inner roome next adioining, which consisted of an hundred dishes or therabouts, most boiled and rosted, where the ambassador accompanied with the Vizirs went to dinner, his gentlemen likewise with the rest of his men hauing a dinner with the like varietie prepared vpon the same side of the court, by themselues sate downe to their meat, 40 or 50 Chauses standing at the vpper end attending vpon the gentlemen to see them serued in good order; their drinke was water mingled with rose water and sugar brought in a Luthro (that is a goates skinne) which a man carieth at his backe, and vnder his arme letteth it run out at a spout into cups as men will call for it. [Sidenote: Diner taken away] The dinner thus with good order brought in, and for halfe an houre with great sobrietie and silence performed, was not so orderly taken vp; for certaine Moglans officers of the kitchin (like her maiesties black guard) came in disordered maner and tooke away the dishes, and he whose hungry eie one dish could not satisfie, turned two or three one into the other, and thus of a sudden was a cleane riddance made of all. The ambassador after dinner with his gentlemen, by certaine officers were placed at the vpper ende vpon the left side of the court, nere vnto a great gate which gaue entrance to a third court being but litle, paued with stone. [Sidenote: Gownes of cloth of gold for the ambassador and his gentlemen.] In the midst whereof was a litle house built of marble, as I take it, within which sate the grand Signor, according to whose commandement giuen there were gownes of cloth of gold brought out of the wardrope, and put vpon the ambassador and 7 of his gentlemen, the ambassador himselfe hauing 2, one of gold and the other of crimosin veluet, all the rest one a piece. [Sidenote: The Present.] Then certaine Cappagies had the Present, which was in trunks there ready, deliuered them by the ambassadors men, it being 12 goodly pieces of gilt plate, 36 garments of fine English cloth of al colors, 20 garments of cloth of gold, 10 garments of sattin, 6 pieces of fine Holland, and certaine other things of good value; al which were caried round about the court, each man taking a piece, being in number very neere 100 parcels, and so 2 and 2 going round that all might see it, to the greater glory of the present, and of him to whom it was giuen: [Sidenote: The Present viewed.] they went into the innermost court passing by the window of that roome, where the grand Signior sate, who, as it went by to be laid vp in certaine roomes adioining, tooke view of all. Presently after the present followed the ambassador with his gentlemen; at the gate of which court stoode 20 or 30 Agaus which be eunuchs. Within the court yard were the Turkes Dwarfes and Dumbe men, being most of them youths. At the doore of his roome stood the Bustangi-bassa, with another Bassa to lead the ambassador and his folowers to the grand Signior who sate in a chaire of estate, apparelled in a gowne of cloth of siluer. The floore vnder his feete, which part was a foote higher then the rest, was couered with a carpet of green sattin embrodered most richly with siluer, orient perles and great Turkesses; the other part of the house was couered with a carpet of Cornation sattin imbrodered with gold, none were in the roome with him, but a Bassa who stood next the wall ouer against him banging down his head, and looking submissely vpon the ground as all his subjects doe in his presence. [Sidenote: The ambassador kisseth the grand Signiors hand.] The ambassador thus betwixt two which stood at the doore being led in, either of them taking an arme, kissed his hand, and so backward with his face to the Turke they brought him nigh the dore againe, where he stood vntill they had likewise done so with all the rest of his gentlemen. [Sidenote: The ambassadors demands granted.] Which ended, the ambassador, according as it is the custome when any present is deliuered, made his three demaunds, such as he thought most expedient for her maiesties honor, and the peaceable traffique of our nation into his dominions: whereunto he answered in one word, Nolo, which is in Turkish as much as, it shal be done: for it is not the maner of the Turkish emperor familiarly to confer with any Christian ambassador, but he appointeth his Vizir in his person to graunt their demaunds if they be to his liking: as to our ambassador he granted all his demands, and gaue order that his daily allowance for his house of mony, flesh, wood, and haie, should be augmented with halfe as much more as it had bene before. Hereupon the ambassador taking his leaue, departed with his gentlemen the same way he came, the whole court saluting him as they did at his comming in: and comming to the second court to take our horses, after we were mounted, we staied halfe an houre, vntil the captain of the guard with 2000 horsemen at the least passed before, after whom folowed 40 or 50 Chauses next before the ambassador to accompany him to his house. And as before at his landing, so now at his taking boat, the ship discharged all her great ordinance, where arriuing, he likewise had a great banquet prepared to entertaine those which came to bring him home. [Sidenote: The Sultanas present.] The pompe and solemnitie of the Present, with the day thus ended, he shortly after presented the Sultana or empresse who (by reason that she is mother to him which was heire to the crown Imperial) is had in far greater reuerence then any of his other Queens or concubines. The Present sent her in her maiesties name was a iewel of her maiesties picture, set with some rubies and diamants, 3 great pieces of gilt plate, 10 garments of cloth of gold, a very fine case, of glass bottles siluer and gift, with 2 pieces of fine Holland, which so gratefully she accepted, as that she sent to know of the ambassador what present he thought she might return that would most delight her maiestie: who sent word that a sute of princely attire being after the Turkish fashion would for the rarenesse thereof be acceptable in England. [The Sultanas present to the Queene. Letters sent for England.] Whereopon she sent an vpper gowne of cloth of gold very rich, an vnder gowne of cloth of siluer, and a girdle of Turkie worke, rich and faire, with a letter of gratification, which for the rarenesse of the stile, because you may be acquainted with it, I haue at the ende of this discourse hereunto annexed, which letter and present, with one from the grand Signor, was sent by M. Edward Bushell, and M. William Aldridge ouer-land the 20 of March, who passed through Valachia and Moldauia, and so through Poland, where Michael prince of Valachia, and Aron Voiuoda prince of Moldauia receiuing letters from the ambassador, entertained them with al curtesie, through whose meanes by the great fauour which his lordship had with the grand Signior, they had not long before both of them bene aduanced to their princely dignities. [Sidenote: The other Vizirs presented.] Hee likewise presented Sigala the Admirall of the Seas, with Abrim Bassa, who maried the great Turkes daughter, and all the other Vizirs with diuers pieces of plate, fine English cloth and other costly things: the particulars whereof, to auoid tediousnesse, I omit. [Sidenote: The Ascension departeth.] All the presents thus ended, the ship shooting ten pieces of ordinance at the Seraglio point, as a last farewell, departed on her iourney for England the first of Nouember, my selfe continuing in Constantinople vntill the last of Iuly after. This yere in the spring there was great preparation for the Hungarian wars: and the great Turke threatned to goe himselfe in person: but like Heliogabalus, his affections being more seruiceable to Venus then to Mars, he stayed at home. Yet a great army was dispatched this yere; who, as they came out of Asia to goe for Hungary, did so pester the streets of Constantinople for the space of two moneths in the spring time, as scarse either Christian or Iew could without danger of losing his money passe vp and downe the city. What insolencies, murders and robberies were committed not onely vpon Christians but also vpon Turks I omit to write, and I pray God in England the like may neuer be seene: and yet I could wish, that such amongst vs as haue inioyed the Gospel with such great and admirable peace and prosperity vnder her Maiesties gouerment this forty yeeres, and haue not all this time brought forth better fruits of obedience to God, and thankfulnesse to her Maiesty, were there but a short time to beholde the miserable condition both of Christians and others liuing vnder such an infidell prince, who not onely are wrapped in most palpable and grosse ignorance of minde, but are cleane without the meanes of the true knowledge of God: I doubt not but the sight hereof (if they be not cleane void of grace) would stirre them vp to more thankefulnesse to God, that euer they were borne in so happy a time, and vnder so wise and godly a prince professing the true religion of Christ. The number of souldiours which went to the warres of Hungary this yeere were 470000, as by the particulars giuen by the Admirall to the Ambassadour hereunder doe appeare. Although all these were appointed and supposed to goe, yet the victories which the Christians in the spring had against the Turks strooke such a terrour in many of the Turkish souldiours, as by report diuers vpon the way thither left their Captaines and stole away. The number of Turkish souldiours which were appointed to goe into Hungary against the Christian Emperour. May 1594. Sinan Bassa generall, with the Saniacke masould, that is, out of office, with the other Saniacks in office or of degree, 40000. Achmigi, that is, Aduenturers, 50000. The Agha or Captaine with his Ianisaries, and his Giebegies, 20000. The Beglerbeg of Græcia, with all his Saniacks, 40000. The company of Spaheis or horsemen, 10000. The company of Silitari, 6000. The company of Sagbulue and of Solbulue both together, 8000. The Bassa of Belgrad. } The Bassa of Temiswar. } The Bassa of Bosna. } 80000. The Bassa of Buda. } The Siniack of Gersech. } Out of Asia. The Bassa of Caramania. } The Bassa of Laras. } The Bassa of Damasco. } The Bassa of Suas. } 120000 The Bassa of Van or Nan. } The Bassa of Vsdrum. } Of Tartars there be about 100000. } Thus you may see that the great Turke maketh warre with no small numbers. And in anno 1597, when Sultan Mahomet himselfe went in person into Hungary, if a man may beleeue reports, he had an army of 600000. For the city of Constantinople you shall vnderstand that it is matchable with any city in Europe, as well in bignesse as for the pleasant situation thereof, and commodious traffike and bringing of all maner of necessary prouision of victuals, and whatsoeuer els mans life for the sustentation thereof shall require, being seated vpon a promontory, looking toward Pontus Euxinus vpon the Northeast, and to Propontis on the Southwest, by which two seas by shipping is brought great store of all maner of victuals. The city it selfe in forme representeth a triangular figure, the sea washing the walles vpon two sides thereof, the other side faceth the continent of Thracia; the grand Signiors seraglio standeth vpon that point which looketh into the sea, being cut off from the city by a wall; so that the wall of his pallace conteineth in circuit about two English miles: the seuen towers spoken of before stand at another corner, and Constantines olde pallace to the North at the third corner. The city hath a threefolde wall about it; the innermost very high, the next lower then that, and the third a countermure and is in circuit about ten English miles: it hath foure and twentie gates: and when the empire was remooued out of the West into the East, it was inriched with many spoiles of olde Rome by Vespasian and other emperours, hauing many monuments and pillars in it worthy the obseruation; amongst the rest in the midst of Constantinople standeth one of white marble called Vespasians pillar, of 38 or 40 yards high, which hath from the base to the top proportions of men in armour fighting on horsebacke: it is likewise adorned with diuers goodly buildings and stately Mesquitas, whereof the biggest is Sultan Solimans a great warriour, which liued in the time of Charles the fifth; but the fairest is Santa Sophia, which in the time of the Christian emperours was the chiefe cathedrall church, and is still in greatest account with the great Turke: it is built round like other Greekish churches, the pavements and walles be all of marble, it hath beneath 44 pillars of diuers coloured marble of admirable height and bignesse, which stand vpon great round feet of brasse, much greater then the pillars, and of a great height, some ten yards distant from the wall: from which vnto these pillars is a great gallery built, which goeth round about the church; and vpon the outside of the gallery stand 66 marble pillars which beare vp the round roofe being the top of the church: it hath three pulpits or preaching places, and about 2000 lampes brought in by the Turke. Likewise vpon one side in the top is the picture of Christ with the 12 Apostles, but their faces are defaced, with two or three ancient tombs of Christians: to the West sticketh an arrow in the toppe of the Church, which, as the Turks report, Sultan Mahomet shot when he first tooke the city. Neere adioyning be two chapels of marble, where lie buried most of the emperours with their children and sultanas. The 16 of Iuly, accompanied with some other of our nation we went by water to the Blacke sea, being 16 miles distant from Constantinople, the sea al the way thither being little broader then the Thames; both sides of the shore are beautified with faire and goodly buildings. At the mouth of this Bosphorus lieth a rocke some fourescore yards from the maine land, wherevpon standeth a white marble pillar called Pompeys pillar, the shadow whereof was 23 foote long at nine of the clocke in the forenoone: over against it is a turret of stone upon the maine land 120 steps high, hauing a great glass-lanthorne in the toppe foure yards in diamiter and three in height, with a great copper pan in the midst to holde oile, with twenty lights in it, and it serueth to giue passage into this straight in the night to such ships as come from all parts of those seas to Constantinople: it is continually kept by a Turke, who to that end hath pay of the grand Signior. And thus hauing spent eleuen moneths in Constantinople, accompanied with a chause, and carying certaine mandates from the grand Signior to the Bassa of Aleppo for the kinde vsage of our nation in those parts, the 30 of Iuly I tooke passage in a Turkish carmosale or shippe bound for Sidon; and passing thorow Propontis, hauing Salimbria with Heraclia most pleasantly situated on the right hand, and Proconesus now called Marmora on the left, we came to Gallipoly, and so by Hellespont, betweene the two castles before named called Sestos and Abydos, famous for the passages made there both by Xerxes and great Alexander, the one into Thracia, the other into Asia, and so by the Sigean Promontory, now called Cape Ianitzary, at the mouth of Hellespont vpon Asia side, where Troy stood, where are yet ruines of olde walles to be seene, with two hils rising in a piramidall forme, not vnlikely to be the tombs of Achilles and Ajax. From thence we sailed along, hauing Tenedos and Lemnos on the right hand, and the Troian fields on the left: at length we came to Mitylen and Sio long time inhabited by the Genoueses, but now vnder the Turke. The Iland is beautified with goodly buildings and pleasant gardens, and aboundeth with fruits, wine, and the gum masticke. From thence sailing alongst the gulfe of Ephesus with Nicaria on the right hand, Samos and Smirna on the left, we came to Patmos, where S. Iohn wrote the Revelation. The Iland is but small, not aboue five miles in compasse: the chiefe thing it yeeldeth is corn: it hath a port for shipping, and in it is a monastery of Greekish Caloieros. From thence by Cos (now called Lango) where Hipocrates was borne: and passing many other Ilands and rocks, we arriued at Rhodes, one of the strongest and fairest cities of the East: here we stayed three or foure dayes; and by reason of a By which went in the ship to Paphos in Cyprus, who vsed me with all kindnesse, I went about the city, and tooke the view of all: which city is still with all the houses and walles thereof maintained in the same order as they tooke it from the Rhodian knights. Ouer the doores of many of the houses, which be strongly built of stone, do remaine vndefaced, the armes of England, France, Spaine, and many other Christian knights, as though the Turkes in the view thereof gloried in the taking of all Christendome, whose armes they beholde. From thence we sailed to Paphos an olde ruinous towne standing vpon the Westerne part of Cyprus, where S. Paul in the Acts conuerted the gouernor. Departing hence, we came to Sidon, by the Turkes called Saytosa, within tenne or twelue miles of the place where Tirus stood, which now being eaten in by the sea, is, as Ezekiel prophesied, a place for the spreading out of a net. Sidon is situated in a small bay at the foot of mount Libanus, vpon the side of an hill looking to the North: it is walled about, with a castle nigh to the sea, and one toward the land which is ruinated, but the walle thereof standeth. Some halfe mile vp toward the mountaine be certaine ruines of buildings, with marble pillars, remaining: heere for three dayes we were kindly entertained of the Captaine of the castle: and in a small barke we sailed from hence along the shore to Tripoli, and so to Alexandretta, where the 24 of August we arriued. From thence with a Venetian carauan we went by land to Aleppo, passing by Antioch, which is seated vpon the side of an hill, whose walles still stand with 360 turrets upon them, and neere a very great plaine which beareth the name of the city, thorow which runneth the riuer Orontes, in Scripture called Farfar. In Aleppo I stayed vntill February following; in this city, as at a mart, meete many nations out of Asia with the people of Europe, hauing continuall traffike and interchangeable course of marchandise one with another: the state and trade of which place, because it is so well knowen to most of our nation I omitte to write of. The 27 of February I departed from Aleppo, and the fifth of March imbarked my selfe at Alexandretta in a great ship of Venice called the Nana Ferra, to come to England. The 14 we put into Salino in Cyprus, where the ship staying many dayes to lade cotton wool, and other commodities, in the meane time accompanied with M. William Barret my countrey man, the master of the ship a Greeke, and others wee tooke occasion to see Nicosia, the chiefe city of this Iland, which was some twenty miles from this place, which is situated at the foot of an hill: to the East is a great plaine, extending it selfe in a great length from the North to the South: it is walled about, but of no such strength as Famagusta (another city in this Iland neere the Sea side) whose walles are cut out of the maine rocke. In this city be many sumptuous and goodly buildings of stone, but vninhabited; the cause whereof doth giue me iust occasion to shew you of a rare iudgement of God vpon the owners sometime of these houses, as I was credibly informed by a Cipriot, a marcham of, great wealth in this city. [Sidenote: A great iudgement of God vpon the noble men of Cyprus.] Before it came in subiection to the Turks, while it was vnder the Venetians, there were many barons and noble men of the Cipriots, who partly by vsurping more superiority ouer the common people then they ought, and partly through their great reuenues which yeerly came in by their cotton wooll and wines, grew so insolent and proud, and withall so impiously wicked, as that they would at their pleasure command both the wiues and children of their poore tenants to serue their vncleane lusts, and holding them in such slauery as though they had beene no better then dogges, would wage them against a grayhound or spaniell, and he who woon the wager should euer after holde them as his proper goods and chattels, to doe with them as he listed, being Christians as well as themselues, if they may deserue so good a name. As they behaued themselues most vnchristianly toward their brethren, so and much more vngodly (which I should haue put in the first place) did they towards God: for as though they were too great, standing on foot or kneeling to serue God, they would come riding on horsebacke into the church to heare their masse: which church now is made a publicke basistane or market place for the Turkes to sell commodities in: but beholde the iudgement of the righteous God, who payeth the sinner measure for measure. The Turkes the yeere before the ouerthrowe giuen them at Lepanto by Don Iohn tooke Cyprus. These mighty Nimrods fled some in holes and some into mountaines to hide themselues; whereupon the Turkes made generall proclamation, that if they would all come in and yeeld themselues, they would restore them to their former reuenues and dignities: who not mistrusting the mischieuous pretense of the Turkes, assembled together to make themselues knowen; whom after the Turkes had in possession, they (as the Lords executioners) put them with their wiues and children all to the sword, pretending thereby to cut of all future rebellion, so that at this day is not one of the noble race knowen aliue in the Iland, onely two or three remaine in Venice but of litle wealth, which in the time of the warres escaped. After we had stayed in this Iland some thirty dayes, we set saile in the foresayd shippe being about the burthen of 900 tunnes, hauing in her passengers of diuers nations, as Tartars, Persians, Iewes, and sundry Christians. Amongst all which I had often conference with a Iew, who by reason of his many yeeres education at Safet a place in Iudea neere Ierusalem, where they study the Rabbines with some other arts as they thinke good, as also: for his trauels into Persia and Ormus, he seemed to be of good experience in matters abroad, who related vnto me such conference as he had with a Baniane at Ormus, being one of the Indians inhabiting the countrey of Cambaia. [Sidenote: Indians skilful in Astronomy.] This Baniane being a Gentile had skill in Astronomie, as many of that nation haue, who by his books written in his owne tongue and Characters, could tell the time of Eclipses both of Sunne and Moone, with the Change and Full, and by iudgement in Astrologie gaue answere to any question demanded. Being asked concerning his opinion in religion, what he thought of God? He made answere that they held no other god but the sun, (to which planet they pray both at the rising and setting) as I haue seene sundry doe in Aleppo: his reason was drawen from the effects which it worketh in giuing light to the moone and other starres, and causing all things to grow and encrease vpon the earth: answere was made, that it did moue with the rest as the wheeles of a clocke, and therefore of force must haue a moouer. Likewise in the Eclipse being darkened it is manifestly prooued that it is not god, for God is altogether goodnesse and brightnesse, which can neither be darkened nor receiue detriment or hurt: but the Sunne receiueth both in the Eclipse, as is aparant: to which hee could not answere; but so they had receiued from their ancestors, that it was without beginning or ende, as in any Orbicular or round body neither beginning or end could be found. He likewise sayd, that there were other Gentiles in the Indies which worship the moone as chiefe, and their reason is. The moone when she riseth goeth with thousands of starres accompanied like a king, and therefore is chiefe: but the Sunne goeth alone, and therefore not so great. Against whom the Banianes reason, that it is not true; because the Moone and starres receiue their light from the Sunne, neither doth the Sunne vouchsafe them his company but when he list, and therefore like a mighty prince goeth alone, yet they acknowledge the Moone as Queene or Viceroy. Law they hold hone, but only seuen precepts which they say were giuen them from their father Noe, not knowing Abraham or any other. [Sidenote: The seven precepts of Banianes.] First, to honor father and mother; secondly, not to steale; thirdly not to commit adultery; fourthly not to kill any thing liuing; fiftly, not to eat any thing liuing; sixtly not to cut their haire; seuenthly to go barefoot in their churches. These they hold most strictly, and by no means will breake them: but he that breaketh one is punished with twenty stripes; but for the greatest fault they will kill none, neither by a short death nor a long, onely he is kept some time in prison with very little meat, and hath at the most not aboue twenty or fiue and twenty stripes. In the yeere they haue 16 feasts, and then they go to their church, where is pictured in a broad table the Sun, as we vse to paint it, the face of a man with beames round about, not hauing any thing els in it. At their feast they spot their faces in diuers parts with saffron all yellow, and so walke vp and downe the streets; and this they doe as a custome. They hold, there shalbe a resurrection, and all shall come to iudgement, but the account shalbe most streight, insomuch that but one of 10000 shalbe receiued to fauor, and those shall liue againe in this world in great happinesse: the rest shalbe tormented. And because they will escape this iudgdment, when any man dieth, he and his wife be both burnt together euen to ashes, and then they are thrown into a river, and so dispersed as though they had neuer bene. If the wife will not burne with her dead husband, she is holden euer after as a whore. And by this meanes they hope to escape the iudgement to come. As for the soule, that goeth to the place from whence it came, but where the place is they know not. That the body should not be made againe they reason with the philosophers, saying, that of nothing nothing can be made (not knowing that God made the whole world and their god the Sun of nothing) but beholding the course of nature, that nothing is made but by a meanes, as by the seed of a man is made another, and by corne cast into the ground there commeth vp new corne: so, say they, man cannot be made except some part of him be left, and therefore they burne the whole: for if he were buried in the earth, they say there is a small bone in the necke which would neuer be consumed: or if he were eaten by a beast, that bone would not consume, but of that bone would come another man; and then the soule being restored againe, he should come into iudgement, whereas now the body being destroyed, the soule shall not be iudged: for their opinion is, that both body and soule must be vnited together, as they haue sinned together, to receiue iudgement; and therefore the soule alone cannot. Their seuen precepts which they keepe so strictly are not for any hope of reward they haue after this life, but onely that they may be blessed in this world, for they thinke that he which breaketh them shall haue ill successe in all his businesse. They say, the three chiefe religions in the world be of the Christians, Iewes, and Turks, and yet but one of them true: but being in doubt which is the truest of the three, they will be of none: for they hold that all these three shall be iudged, and but few of them which be of the true shall be saued, the examination shall be so straight; and therefore, as I haue sayd before, to preuent this iudgement, they burne their bodies to ashes. They say, these three religions haue too many precepts to keepe them all wel, and therefore wonderfull hard it wil be to make account, because so few doe obserue all their religion aright. And thus passing the time for the space of three moneths in this sea voyage, we arriued at Venice the tenth of Iune: and after I had seene Padua, with other English men, I came the ordinary way ouer the Alpes, by Augusta, Noremberg and so for England; where to the praise of God I safely arriued the ninth of August 1595. END OF VOL. IX. 
39013	----	[Transcriber's Note: This author often uses "run" where we to-day would use "ran." This was retained.] [Illustration: Captain C. F. Hall. See page 289] NORTH-POLE VOYAGES: EMBRACING SKETCHES OF THE IMPORTANT FACTS AND INCIDENTS IN THE LATEST AMERICAN EFFORTS TO REACH THE NORTH POLE FROM THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION TO THAT OF THE POLARIS. BY REV. Z. A. MUDGE, AUTHOR OF "VIEWS FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK," "WITCH HILL," "ARCTIC HEROES," ETC., ETC. Five Illustrations. NEW YORK: NELSON & PHILLIPS CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEPARTMENT. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by NELSON & PHILLIPS, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE. FOR more than three hundred years an intense desire has been felt by explorers to discover and reveal to the world the secrets of the immediate regions of the North Pole. Nor has this desire been confined to mere adventurers. Learned geographers, skillful navigators, and scientific men of broad and accurate study, have engaged in these enterprises with enthusiastic interest. The great governments of the Christian world have bestowed upon them liberally the resources of their wealth and science, and never to a greater extent than within the last three years. Failure seems but to stimulate exertion. Scarcely have the tears dried on the faces of the friends of those who have perished in the undertaking before we hear of the departure of a fresh expedition. Something like a divine inspiration has attended these explorations from the first, and their moral tone has been excellent. This volume sketches the latest American efforts, second to no others in heroism and success, and abounding in instructive and intensely interesting adventures both grave and gay. We have followed in this volume, as in its companion volume, "The Arctic Heroes," the orthography of Professor Dall, of the Smithsonian Institution, in some frequently-occurring Arctic words. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. NORTHWARD 9 II. ANCHORED AT LAST 17 III. THRILLING INCIDENTS 23 IV. LOST AND RESCUED 31 V. MORE HEROIC EXCURSIONS 43 VI. THE OPEN SEA 53 VII. AN IMPORTANT MOVEMENT 60 VIII. TREATY MAKING 68 IX. ARCTIC HUNTING 75 X. THEE ESCAPING PARTY 89 XI. A GREEN SPOT 99 XII. NETLIK 109 XIII. THE HUT 120 XIV. ESQUIMO TREACHERY 131 XV. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 142 XVI. DRUGGED ESQUIMO 150 XVII. BACK AGAIN 160 XVIII. SCARES 171 XIX. SEEKING THE ESQUIMO 179 XX. DESERTERS 186 XXI. CLOSING INCIDENTS OF THE IMPRISONMENT 194 XXII. HOMEWARD BOUND 201 XXIII. NARROW ESCAPES 209 XXIV. ESQUIMO KINDNESS 216 XXV. MELVILLE BAY 221 XXVI. SAVED 228 XXVII. OFF AGAIN 234 XXVIII. COLLIDING FLOES 241 XXIX. THE WINTER HOME 249 XXX. GLACIERS 255 XXXI. A STRANGE DREAM AND ITS FULFILLMENT 263 XXXII. THE CROWNING SLEDGE JOURNEY 270 XXXIII. LAST INCIDENTS OF THE EXPEDITION 279 XXXIV. SOMETHING NEW 287 XXXV. A FEARFUL STORM 295 XXXVI. THE AURORA 304 XXXVII. THE DYING ESQUIMO 311 XXXVIII. CUNNING HUNTERS 317 XXXIX. ROUND FROBISHER BAY 326 XL. THE "POLARIS" 333 XLI. DISASTER 344 XLII. THE LAST OF THE "POLARIS" 357 XLIII. THE FEARFUL SITUATION 364 XLIV. THE WONDERFUL DRIFT 371 XLV. THE WONDERFUL ESCAPE 380 Illustrations. CAPTAIN C. F. HALL 2 WALRUSES--A FAMILY PARTY 81 CAPTAIN BUDDINGTON 337 UNLOADING STORES FROM THE "POLARIS" 345 PERILOUS SITUATION OF THE "POLARIS" 354 NORTH-POLE VOYAGES. CHAPTER I. NORTHWARD. THE readers who have been with us before into the arctic regions will recollect the good American brig Advance, and her wonderful drift during live months, in 1851, from the upper waters of the Wellington Channel, until she was dropped in the Atlantic Ocean by the ice-field which inclosed her. Dr. Kane, then her surgeon, took command of this same vessel, in 1853, for another search for the lost Franklin. We have seen that the place of Franklin's disasters and death was found while Kane was away on this voyage, so the interest of the present story will not connect with that great commander, except in the noble purposes of its heroes. The Advance left New York on the thirtieth of May, having on board, all counted, eighteen men. Kind hearts and generous purses had secured for her a fair outfit in provisions for the comfort of the adventurers, in facilities for fighting the ice and cold, and in the means of securing desired scientific results. Of the thousands who waved them a kind adieu from the shore many said sadly, "They will never return." We shall make the acquaintance of the officers and men as we voyage with them, and a very agreeable acquaintance we are sure it will be. The rules by which all agreed to be governed were these and no others: "Absolute obedience to the officer in command; no profane swearing; no liquor drunk except by special order." The voyagers touched at St. John's, and among other kindnesses shown them was the gift by the governor of a noble team of nine Newfoundland dogs. At Fiskernaes, the first Greenland port which they entered, they added to their company Hans Christian, an Esquimo hunter, nineteen years of age. Hans was expert with the Esquimo spear and kayak. He will appear often in our story, and act a conspicuous part; he at once, however, prepossesses us in his favor by stipulating with Dr. Kane to leave two barrels of bread and fifty pounds of pork with his mother in addition to the wages he is to receive. The doctor made his cup of joy overflow by adding to these gifts to his mother the present for himself of a rifle and new kayak. The expedition next touched at Lichtenfels. Dr. Kane obtained here a valuable addition to his outfit of fur clothing. Stopping at Proven, a supply of Esquimo dogs was completed; lying to briefly at Upernavik, the most northern port of civilization, their equipment in furs, ice-tools, and other necessary articles known to arctic voyagers, was rendered still more complete. At this last port the services of Carl Petersen were engaged for the expedition. We have met this intelligent, heroic Dane among our "Arctic Heroes." He will for a long time appear in the shifting scenes of our story. On the twenty-seventh of July the "Advance" drew near to Melville Bay. The reader who has accompanied the earlier arctic explorers into this region will remember their terrific experience in this bay. Every arctic enemy of the navigator lurks there. Their attacks are made singly and in solid combinations. At one time they steal upon their victim like a Bengal tiger; at other times they rush upon him with a shout and yell, like a band of our own savages. Giant icebergs; fierce storms; cruel nips; silent, unseen, irresistible currents; with ever-changing, treacherous "packs" and "floes," and the all-pervading, relentless cold, are some of these enemies. A favorite movement of these forces is to so adjust themselves as to promise the advancing explorer or whaler a speedy and complete success; then, suddenly changing front, to crush and sink him at once, or to bind him in icy fetters, a helpless, writhing victim, for days, weeks, or months, and finally, perhaps, to bury both ship and men in the dark, deep waters of the bay. The "Advance" was at this time treated by these guardians of the approach to the North Pole with exceptional courtesy. We suspect that they secretly purposed to follow them into more northern regions, and there to attack them at even greater advantage. This they certainly did. But just to show them what it could and was minded to do, the evil spirit of the bay invited them at one time to escape impending danger by fastening to a huge berg. This they did, after eight hours of warping, heaving, and planting ice-anchors, a labor of prostrating exhaustion. Hardly had they begun to enjoy the invited hospitality of the berg, when it began to shower upon them, like big drops from a summer cloud, pieces of ice the size of a walnut, accompanied by a crackling, threatening noise from above. A gale from out of its hiding-place on shore came sweeping upon them at the same time, driving before it its icy supporter. Mischief was evidently intended. The "Advance" retreated from the berg with all possible haste, and had barely gone beyond its reach when it launched after it its whole broadside, which came crashing into the water with a roar like a whole park of artillery. Could any thing be rougher? But then it was true to its icebergy character. The "Advance" was not injured, but the ice held as a trophy more than two thousand feet of good whale line, which had to be cut in the retreat. These bergs, though thus harsh and treacherous as a rule, _can_ do a generous thing. May be, like some people, they are all the more dangerous on account of exceptional generosity. The loose ice, soon after this incident, was drifting south, and would have borne the navigators with it back from whence they had come, perhaps for hundreds of miles. But a majestic berg came along whose sunken base took hold of the deep water current, and so, impelled by this current, it sailed grandly northward, sweeping a wide path through the rotten floes. It condescendingly offered to do tugboat service for the "Advance," and invited its captain to throw aboard an ice-anchor. We wonder he dared to trust it, but he did, and, grappling its crystal sides, made good headway for awhile until other means of favorable voyaging were presented. Soon after the explorers parted from this bergy friend the midnight sun came out over its northern crest, kindling on every part of its surface fires of varied colors, and scattering over the ice all around blazing carbuncles, sparkling rubies, and molten gold. August fifth the "Advance," fairly clearing the hated Melville Bay, sailed along the western coast of the "North Water" of Baffin Bay. At Northumberland Island, at the mouth of Whale Sound, their eyes were again delighted by an exhibition of beautiful colors, delicately tinted, but this time not made by a gorgeous sunrise over a gigantic iceberg. The snow of the island and its vicinity bore, over vast areas, a reddish hue, and great patches of beautiful green mosses broke its monotony, while here and there the protruding sandstone threw in a rich shading of brown. So God paints the dreariest lands in colors of great beauty, and scatters over them profusely at times the richest sunlit gems. On the sixth of August they passed the frowning headland of Smith's Sound, known as Cape Alexander. It stands like the charred trunk and limbs of some mighty oak, at the entrance of an unexplored, gloomy forest, seen in the murky darkness. Cape Alexander seemed a mighty sentinel of evil purpose, toward all who dared pass to the mysterious regions beyond. It inspired the sailors with superstitious fear, and admonished their officers that eternal vigilance must be the price of safety in the waters beyond. Arriving at Littleton Island, our explorers built a monument of stones as a conspicuous object from the sea, surmounted by the stripes and stars, put under it a record of their voyage thus far, and, two miles north and east, upon the mainland, deposited a metallic life-boat, with provisions and various stores. These were for a resort in case of accident in their further progress. While making this deposit they discovered the remains of Esquimo huts, and graves of some of their former occupants. The dead had been buried in a sitting posture, their knees drawn close to their bodies; the few simple implements belonging to the deceased were buried with them. In one grave was a child's toy spear. So even the rude Esquimo child has its toys, and, no doubt, the mother looks upon its trinkets, as she lays them beside its dead body, with tearful interest. Soon after making these deposits in the life-boat, the "Advance," while making a vigorous struggle with the broken ice, was borne into a land-locked inlet, which Dr. Kane called Refuge Harbor. It was rather a cosy place for an arctic shore, and in it the explorers waited for the movement of the ice. While here they were much annoyed by their dogs, fifty in number. Two bears had been shot, which were the only game which had been taken for them. They were now on short allowance, and were as ravenous as wolves. They gulped down almost any thing which could go down their throats, even devouring at one time a part of a feather-bed. Dr. Kane's specimens of natural history fared hard at their jaws. He happened once to set down in their way two nests of large sea-fowl. They were filled with feathers, filth, moss and pebbles--a full peck, but the dogs made a rush for them and gobbled down the whole. There were plenty of wolves not far from the brig, on which they delighted to feed. But the hunters had no luck in trying to take them. Rifle balls glanced from their thick hides as if they had been peas from a toy gun. They needed the Esquimo harpoon and the Esquimo skill. But fortunately a dead narwhal, or sea-unicorn, was found. Under its soothing influence, when fed out to them, the dogs became more quiet. After remaining a few days at Refuge Harbor, a desperate push was made to get the vessel farther north and east. For twelve days they manfully battled with the ice, and made forty miles. This brought them to the bottom of a broad shallow bay, which they named Force Bay. Here they fastened the brig to a shelving, rocky ledge near the shore. CHAPTER II. ANCHORED AT LAST. ON Wednesday, August seventeenth, the heralds of a storm from the South reached the brig. They made their announcement by hurling against her sides some heavy floe-pieces. Understanding this hint of what was coming, the explorers clung to their rocky breakwater by three heavy hawsers. Louder and louder roared the blast, and more fiercely crashed the ice which it hurled against the ledge. At midnight one of the cables, the smaller of the three, parted, and the storm seemed to shout its triumph at this success as it assailed the writhing vessel more vigorously. But the ledge broke the power in a measure of the wind and ice, and was, indeed, a godsend to the imperiled men, so they put it down on their chart as Godsend Ledge. The next day the huge, human-faced walrus came quite near the brig in great numbers, shaking their grim, dripping fronts. The dovekies, more cheerful visitors, scud past toward the land. Both walrus and fowls proclaimed in their way the terribleness of the increasing tempest. The place of the broken hawser had been supplied, and the worried craft strained away at three strong lines which held on bravely. Everything on board was stowed away, or lashed securely, which could invite an assault by the wind. Saturday, late in the afternoon, Dr. Kane, wet, and weary with watching, went below and threw himself for rest and warmth into his berth. Scarcely had he done this before a sharp, loud twang brought him to his feet. One of the six-inch hawsers had parted; its sound had scarcely been lost in the uproar before a sharp and shrill "twang! twang!" announced the snapping of the whale line. The brig now clung to the ledge by a single cable--a new ten-inch manilla line, which held on grandly. The mate came waddling down into the cabin as the doctor was drawing on his last article of clothing to go on deck. "Captain Kane," he exclaimed, "she wont hold much longer; it's blowing the devil himself." All hands now gathered about the brave manilla line on which their fate seemed to depend. Its deep Eolian chant mingled solemnly with the rattle of the rigging and the moaning of the shrouds, and died away in the tumult of the conflicting wind and sea. The sailors were loud in its praises as they watched it with bated breath. It was singing its death song, for, with the noise of a shotted gun, and a wreath of smoke, it gave way, and out plunged the brig into the rushing current of the tempest-tossed ice. Two hours of hard and skillful labor were bestowed on the vessel to get her back to the ledge; first by beating, or trying to do so, up into the wind; and then by warping along the edge of the solid floe, but all in vain. A light sail was then set, that they might keep command of the helm, and away they scud through a tortuous lead filled with heavy, broken ice. At seven o'clock on Sunday morning the vessel was heading, under full way, upon huge masses of ice. The heaviest anchor was thrown out to stay her speed. But the ice-torrent so crowded upon the poor craft that a buoy was hastily fastened to the chain, and it was slipped, and away went "the best bower," the sailor's trusted friend in such dangers. The vessel now went banging and scraping against the floes, one of which was forty feet thick, and many of which were thirty feet. These collisions smashed in her bulwarks, and covered her deck with icy fragments. Yet the plucky little brig returned to the conflict after every blow with only surface wounds. These assaults failing to turn back or to destroy the little invading stranger, the arctic warriors now brought into the field their mightiest champions. Not far ahead, and apparently closing the lead, was a whole battalion of icebergs. It was an unequal light, and down upon them, with unwilling haste, came the "Advance." As it approached it was seen that a narrow line of clear water ran between the bergs and the solid, high wall of the floe. Into this the vessel shot, with the high wind directly after it. The sailors, caps in hand, were almost ready to send to the baffled enemy a shout of triumph, when the wind died away into a lull, which amounted, for a moment, to almost a dead calm. But on that moment the fate of the expedition appeared to hang. The enemy saw his opportunity and began to close up. There seemed no possible escape for the brig. On one side was the steep ice-wall of the floe, on which there could be no warping. On the other were the slowly but steadily advancing bergs in a compact line. Just in time, the anxious, waiting, and almost breathless crew, hailed their deliverer. It was a broad, low, platform-shaped berg, over which the water washed. It came sailing swiftly by, and into it they planted an ice-anchor attached to a tow line. Away galloped their crystal racer, outrunning the "pale horse" which followed them! So narrow became the channel between the bergs and floe e'er they reached the open water beyond, that the yards had to be "squared" to prevent them from being carried away, and the boats suspended over the sides were taken on deck to prevent them from being crushed. They came round under the lee of a great berg, making the enemy of a moment ago their protector now. Dr. Kane says: "Never did heart-tried men acknowledge with greater gratitude their merciful deliverance from a wretched death." But the fight was not over. A sudden flaw puffed the "Advance" from its hiding-place, and drove it again into the drifting ice along the edge of the solid floe. Once she was lifted high in the air on the crest of a great wave, and, as it slipped from under her, she came down with tremendous force against the floe. The masts quivered like reeds in the wind, and the poor craft groaned like a struck bullock. At last they reached a little pond of water near the shore. They had drifted since morning across Force Bay, ten miles. A berg, with pretended friendliness, came and anchored between the brig and the storm. The situation seemed to warrant a little rest, and the men went below and threw themselves into their bunks. Dr. Kane was yet on deck, distrusting the treacherous ice. Scarcely had the men begun to sleep before the vessel received a thump and a jerk upward. All hands were instantly on deck. Great ice-tables, twenty feet thick, crowding forward from the shore side with a force as from a sliding mountain, pressed the vessel against the shore front of the berg; had this been a perpendicular wall, no wood and iron wrought into a vessel could have prevented a general crash. But the unseen Hand was apparent again. The berg was sloping, and up its inclined plane the vessel went, in successive jerks. The men leaped upon the ice to await the result. Personal effects, such as could be carried and were deemed indispensable, were in readiness in the cabin for leave-taking. Sledge equipments and camping conveniences were put in order and placed at hand. The explorers had experienced a midnight assault, and were ready for the flight. But Dr. Kane bears warm testimony concerning the coolness and self-possession of every man. While awaiting the fate of the vessel, on which hung their own fate also, not a sound was heard save the roaring of the wind, the crashing ice, and the groaning of the vessel's timbers, as she received shock after shock, and mounted steadily up the ice-mountain. Having attained a cradle high and dry above the sea, the brig rested there several hours. Finally she quietly settled down into her old position among the ice rubbish of the sea. When the escape was apparent, there was for a moment a deep-breathing silence among the men, before the rapturous outburst of joyful congratulation. While this last thrilling incident had been transpiring, four of the men were missing. They had gone upon the ice some hours before to carry out a warp, and had been carried away on an ice-raft. When the morning came, and the vessel grounded in a safe place, a rescue party was sent out, who soon returned with them. A little rest was now obtained by all. CHAPTER III. THRILLING INCIDENTS. AFTER a brief rest our explorers continued their voyage. They warped the vessel round the cape near which they found shelter, into a bay which opened to the north and west. Along the shore of this bay they toiled for several days and reached its head. It seemed impossible to go farther, for the ice was already thick and the winter at hand. A majority of the officers, in view of these facts, advised a return south. But Dr. Kane thought they might winter where they were, or further north if the vessel could be pushed through the ice, and their explorations be made with dog-sledges. To learn more fully the practicability of his view he planned a boat excursion. While this was in contemplation an incident came near ending all further progress of the expedition. The brig grounded in the night, and was left suddenly by the receding tide on her beam ends. The stove in the cabin, which was full of burning coal, upset and put the cabin in a blaze. It was choked by a pilot-cloth overcoat until water could be brought. No other harm was done than the loss of the coat and a big scare. About the first of September the doctor and seven volunteers started in the boat "Forlorn Hope" to see the more northern shore-line. The boat was abandoned at the end of twenty-four hours, all the water having turned to ice, and the party tramped many a weary mile, carrying their food and a few other necessary things. Dr. Kane attained an elevation of eleven hundred feet, from which, with his telescope, he looked north beyond the eightieth degree of latitude, and through a wide extent of country east and west. From this observation he decided that sledging with dogs into and beyond this region was practicable. This had seemed doubtful before. He therefore returned with the decision to put the "Advance" into winter-quarters immediately. A few facts interesting to the scientific were learned on this excursion. A skeleton of a musk ox was found, showing they had been, at no distant time, visitors to this coast. Additions were made to their flowering plants, and up to this date twenty-two varieties had been found. The brig was now drawn in between two islands, and the mooring lines carried out. The explorers were in a sheltered, and, as to the ice, safe winter home. They called it Rensselaer Harbor. Near them an iceberg had anchored as if to watch their movements. A fresh-water pond on the upland promised them its precious treasure if they would _cut_ for it. An island a few rods distant they named Butler Island, and on this they built a store-house. A canal was cut from the brig to this island, and kept open by renewed cutting every morning. They then run the boat through this canal, thus transferring the stores from the hold to the store-house. While one party was thus engaged, others were equally busy in other directions. The scientific corps selected a small island which they called Fern Rock, and put up a rude "observatory," from which not only the stars were to be watched, but the weather, the meteors, and the electrical currents were to be noted. While this outside work was going on Dr. Kane was taxing his ingenuity to arrange the brig, now made roomy by the removal of the stores, so as to have it combine the greatest convenience, warmth, and healthfulness. A roof was put over the upper deck, which was then made to answer for a promenade deck for pleasure and health. Even the wolfish Esquimo dogs were remembered in this general planning. A nice dog house, cozy and near, was made for them on Butler Island. But the dogs had notions of their own about their quarters. Though so savage at all times as to be willing to eat their masters if not kept in abject fear, yet they refused to sleep out of the sound of their voices. They would leave their comfortable quarters on the island and huddle together in the snow, exposed to the severest cold, to be within the sound of human voices. So they had to be indulged with kennels on deck. While these matters were being attended to the hunters scoured the country to learn what the prospect was for game. They extended their excursions ninety miles, and returned with a report not very encouraging. They saw a few reindeer, and numerous hares and rabbits. It was plain that hunting would not make large returns. The winter came on with its shroud of darkness. On the tenth of September the sun made but a short circuit above the horizon before it disappeared again. In one month it would cease to show its disk above the surrounding hills; then would come a midday twilight for a few days, followed by nearly a hundred days of darkness in which no man could work. Even now, at noon, the stars glowed brightly in the heavens, though but few of them were the familiar stars of the home sky. While the work of which we have spoken was going on Dr. Kane's thoughts were much upon the necessity of establishing, before the winter nights fully set in, provision depots at given distances northward for at least sixty miles. These would be necessary for a good start in the early spring of a dog-sledge journey North Poleward. For the spring work the Newfoundland dogs, of which he had ten, were in daily training. Harnessed to a small, strong, beautifully made sledge called "Little Willie," the doctor drove his team around the brig in gallant style. These Newfoundlanders were a dependence for heavy draught. The Esquimo dogs were in reserve for the long, perilous raids of the earnest exploration into darkness and over hummocks. While all this busy preparation was going on the morning and evening prayers were strictly maintained, bringing with them a soothing assurance of the Divine care. On the twentieth of September the provision deposit party started on an experimental journey. It consisted of seven men in all, M'Gary and Bonsall officers. They carried about fourteen hundred pounds of mixed stores for the "cairns." They took these stores upon the strong, thorough-built sledge "Faith," and drew it themselves, by a harness for each man, consisting of a "rue-raddy," or shoulder-belt, and track-line. The men then generously did a service they would in future have the dogs do. While this party was gone the home work went on, enlivened by several incidents involving the most appalling dangers, yet not without some comic elements. The first was occasioned by rats. What right these creatures had in the expedition is not apparent; nor do we see what motive impelled them to come at all. If it was a mere love of adventure, they, as do most adventurers, found that the results hardly paid the cost. They were voted a nuisance, but how to abate it was a difficult question. The first experiment consisted of a removal of the men to a camp on deck for a night, and a fumigation below, where the rats remained, of a vile compound of brimstone, burnt leather, and arsenic. But the rats survived it bravely. The next experiment was with carbonic acid gas. This proved a weapon dangerous to handle. Dr. Hays burnt a quantity of charcoal, and the hatches were shut down after starting three stoves. The gas generated below rapidly, and nobody was expected, of course, to go where it was. But the French cook, Pierre Schubert, thinking his soup needed seasoning, stole into the cook room. He was discerned by Morton, staggering in the dark; and, at the risk of his own life, he sprung to his relief, and both reached the deck bewildered, the cook entirely insensible. Soon after this Dr. Kane thought he smelt a strange odor. The hatches were removed and he went below. After a short tour between decks, he was passing the door which led to the carpenter's room, and he was amazed to see three feet of the deck near it a glowing fire. Beating a hasty retreat, he fell senseless to the floor at the foot of the stairs which led to the upper deck. The situation was critical. A puff of air might envelope the hold in flames, with the doctor an easy victim; but the divine Hand still covered him. Mr. Brooks, reaching down, drew him out. Coming to the air the doctor recovered immediately and communicated his startling discovery quietly to those only near him. Water was passed up from the "fire-hole" along side, kept open for just such emergencies. Dr. Kane and Ohlsen went below, water was dashed on, and they were safe. The dead bodies of twenty-eight rats were the net result of this onslaught with carbonic acid gas. But they were but few among so many. The rat army was yet in fighting order. The other incident was less serious, yet quite on the verge of fatal consequences. Several Esquimo dogs became the mothers of nice little families. Now these young folks in the kennels were considered intruders by the master of the vessel--rather hard on them since they were not to blame in the matter. But it happens with dogs as with the human race, that they sometimes suffer without fault of their own. Six puppies were thrown overboard; two died for the good their skins might do as mittens; and, alas! seven died more dreadful deaths--they were eaten by their mammas! Whether these puppy calamities bore heavily upon the brains of the dog mothers or not we cannot tell, but the fact recorded is that one of them went distracted. She walked up and down the deck with a drooping head and staggering gait. Finally she snapped at Petersen, foamed at the mouth, and fell at his feet. "She is mad!" exclaimed Petersen. "Hydrophobia!" was the dreadful cry which passed about the deck. Dr. Kane ran for his gun. He was not a moment too soon in reappearing with it. The dog had recommenced her running and snapping at those near. The Newfoundland dogs were not out of her reach, and the hatches leading below were open. But a well-directed shot ended at once her life and the danger. It was now the tenth of October. The sun, though just appearing above the horizon to the surrounding country, only sparkled along the edge of the hill-tops to the gazers from the "Advance." The depot party had been gone twenty days, and Dr. Kane was beginning to feel anxious about them. He harnessed four of his best Newfoundlanders into the "Little Willie," and, accompanied by John Blake, started in search of them. For a little time the party progressed very well. But after awhile the new ice between the broken floes was found thin. The seams thus frozen had to be leaped. Sometimes they were wide, and the dogs in their attempts to spring across broke in. Three times in less than as many hours one had received an arctic bath. The men trotted along side, leaping, walking, running, and shouting to the dogs. Extended and exhausting diversions were made to avoid impassable chasms or too steep hummocks. Thus four days had passed in a fruitless search for the missing ones. On the morning of the fifth day, about two hours before the transient sun showed his glowing disk, Dr. Kane climbed an iceberg to get a sight of the road ahead. In the dim distance on the snow a black spot was seen. Is it a bear? No, it now stretches out into a dark line. It is the sledge party! They see their leader's tent by the edge of a thinly-frozen lead; into this they launch their boat and come on, singing as they come. The doctor, in breathless suspense, waits until they draw near, and counts them: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven! They are all safe! Three cheers go up from both parties, followed by hearty hand-shaking and congratulations. The depot enterprise was a success. CHAPTER IV. LOST AND RESCUED. THE sun had disappeared, but the moon completed her circuit in the heavens with great beauty. Her nearest approach to the horizon was twenty-five degrees. For eight days after the return of the party to the vessel it shone with almost unclouded brightness, as if to give them a joyful welcome. When November came our explorers were well settled in their winter-quarters. They had made them by judicious ventilation and a careful distribution of heat tolerably comfortable. Below decks they had a uniform temperature of sixty-five degrees above zero, and under the housing of the upper deck it never went below zero, while outside the thermometer averaged twenty-five degrees minus. While shut up in the darkness, relieved only by the light from the sparkling stars and the glowing moon, the daily routine of the ship's' duties were strictly performed. Each had his assigned work. The monotonous meals came at the stated hour, and the bell noted the changing watches. The morning and evening prayers, and the religious observance of the Sabbath, were pleasant and profitable prompters to serious thought. These became more and more needed as the inactive season progressed. The continued darkness without, made dense often by heavy clouds, wore upon the spirits of the men; besides, their light within became less cheerful by the failure of the supply of oil. The lamps refused to burn poor lard, and muddy corks and wads of cotton floating as tapers in saucers filled with it gave but a lurid light and emitted an offensive smoke and odor. It would be strange, indeed, if in this ice-imprisoned company there were no homesick ones, however bravely the feeling might be suppressed. Hans, the Esquimo, at one time packed his clothes and shouldered his rifle to bid the brig's company good-bye. A desperate, lone journey homeward he would have had of it! It was whispered that in addition to his drawings to his mother there was at Fiskernes a lady-love. He, however, was persuaded to stay on shipboard, and Dr. Kane gave him for his sickness a dose of salts and promotion. They worked well, and he seems to have been very contented afterward. The usual resort was had to dramatic performances, fancy balls, and the publication of a paper called the "Ice-blink." A favorite sport was the "fox-chase," in which each sailor in turn led off as fox in a run round the upper deck, followed by the rest in chase. Dr. Kane offered a Guernsey shirt as a prize to the man who held out the longest in the chase. William Godfrey sustained the chase for fourteen minutes, and _wore_ off the shirt. November twenty-seventh the commander sent out a volunteer party under Bonsall to see if the Esquimo had returned to the huts which had been seen in the fall. The darkness at noonday was too great for reading, and the cold was terrible. The party returned after one night's encamping, the sledge having broken, and the tent and luggage being left behind. A few days after Morton started alone to recover the lost articles. In two days and a half he returned bringing every thing. He tramped in that time, with the cold forty degrees below zero, sixty-two miles, making only three halts. The darkness during the time was such that a hummock of ice fifty paces ahead could hardly be seen. The effect of the darkness on the dogs was very marked, but so long as there was any sledging for them to do their spirits kept up. One of the Newfoundlands, named Grim, was a character. He was noted for a profound appreciation of his dinner, of which he never had enough, for a disrelish for work, and a remarkable knowledge of the arts of hypocrisy. His cunning fawning, and the beseeching wink of his eye, procured for him warm quarters in the deck-house, and a bed on the captain's fur coat, while his fellows had to be content with their kennel. Though Grim thus proved his knowledge of the best place at the dog-table, and the best bits it afforded, as well as the best place to sleep, he never could understand a call to the sledge-harness. He always happened at such times to be out of the way. Once, when the dog-team was about to start, he was found hid in a barrel, and was bid join the party. But Grim was equal to the occasion. He went limping across the deck, as much as to say, Would you have a poor lame dog go? The joke was so cute that he was allowed to remain at home, and after that he became suddenly lame as soon as a movement toward the sledges was made. Grim thus attained the usual success of shallow-brained, flattering hypocrisy--many favors and universal contempt. His end, too, was very befitting his life. His master, thinking he was becoming too fat in his lazy dignity, commanded him to join a sledge party. Grown presumptuous by indulgence, he refused, and showed his teeth, besides pleading lameness. But the order was peremptory this time, and a rope was put round his body and attached to the sledge, and he was made to trot after his faithful fellows. At the first halt he contrived to break the rope, and, carrying a few feet of it dragging after him, started in the darkness for the ship. Not having come home when the party returned, search was made for him with lanterns, as it was thought the rope might have caught and detained him in the hummock. His tracks were found not far from the vessel, and then they led away to the shore. Old Grim was never seen again. Grim could be spared, but the explorers were much alarmed soon after his death by a strange disease among the whole pack. They were at times frenzied, and then became stupid. They were taken below, nursed, tended, and doctored with anxiety and care, for on them much depended. But all died except six. Their death threw a cloud over the prospect of further successful exploration. But a still darker event threatened the explorers. Every man was more or less touched with the scurvy, except two, and some were prostrate. It was with great joy, therefore, that, on the twenty-first of January, 1854, they saw the orange-colored tints of the sun faintly tracing the top of the distant hills. Daylight and game would be important medicines for the sick. A month later and Dr. Kane made a long walk, and a hard scramble up a projecting crag of a headland of the bay, and bathed in his welcome rays. It was about a week later before he was seen from the deck of the "Advance." A very busy company now was that on board the brig, making preparations for spring work. The carpenter was making and mending sledges; the tinker making and mending cooking apparatus for the journeys; many busy hands were at work on the furs and blankets for a complete renewed outfit for wearing and sleeping. But though March had come, the average cold was greater than at any time before. Still a sledge party was in readiness to start by the middle of the month, to carry provisions for a new deposit beyond those made in the fall. The party consisted of eight men. A new sledge had been made, smaller than the "Faith," and adapted to the reduced dog-team. To this the load was lashed, a light boat being, placed on top. The men harnessed in but could hardly start it. The boat was then removed and two hundred pounds of the load, and thus relieved away they went, cheered by the hearty "God bless you!" of their shipmates. Dr. Kane had added to their provisions by the way, as an expression of good-will, the whole of his brother's "great wedding cake." But as they started their ever watchful commander thought he saw more good-will than ability to draw the load, and a suspicion, too, impressed him that the new sledge was not all right. So he followed, and found them in camp only five miles away. He said nothing about any new orders for the morning, laughed at the rueful faces of some of them, and heard Petersen's defense of _his_ new sledge as the best which could be made. He saw them all tucked away in their buffaloes, and returned to the brig. We have before referred to a sledge called the "Faith." It was built by Dr. Kane's order, after an English pattern, except that the runners were made lower and wider. It had been thought too large for the present party. The doctor now called up all his remaining men. The "Faith" was put on deck, her runners polished, lashings, a canvas covering, and track-lines were adjusted to her. By one o'clock that night the discarded two hundred pounds of provisions and the boat were lashed on, and away the men went for their sleeping comrades. They were still sound asleep when the "Faith" arrived. The load of the new boat was quietly placed upon it, all put in traveling order, and it was started off on an experimental trip with five men. The success was perfect. The sleepers were then awakened, and all were delighted at the easier draught of the heavier load. Dr. Kane and his party returned to the vessel with the discarded sledge. Ten days slipped away, and no tidings from the depot party. The work of clearing up the ship, and putting the finishing touch to the preparation for the distant northern excursion, which was to crown the efforts of the expedition, and unlock, it was hoped, at last, some of the secrets of the North Pole, progressed daily. At midnight of the eleventh day a sudden tramp was heard on deck, and immediately Sontag, Ohlsen, and Petersen entered the cabin. Their sudden coming was not so startling as their woe-begone, bewildered looks. It was with difficulty that they made their sad tale known. Brooks, Baker, Wilson, and Schubert were all lying on the ice, disabled, with Irish Tom Hickey, who alone was able to minister to their wants. The escaped party had come, at the peril of their own lives, to get aid. They had evidently come a long distance, but how far, and where they had left the suffering ones, they could not tell, nor were they in a condition to be questioned. While the urgent necessities of the new comers were being attended to, Dr. Kane and others were getting ready the "Little Willie," with a buffalo cover, a small tent, and a package of prepared meat called pemmican. Ohlsen seemed to have his senses more than the others, though he was sinking with exhaustion, having been fifty hours without rest. Dr. Kane feeling that he _must_ have a guide or fail to find the lost ones, Ohlsen was put in a fur bag, his legs wrapped up in dog-skins and eider down, and then he was strapped on the sledge. Off dashed the rescue party, nine men besides their commander, carrying only the clothes on their backs. The cold was seventy-eight degrees below the freezing point. Guided by icebergs of colossal size, they hurried across the bay, and traveled sixteen hours with some certainty that they were on the right track. They then began to lose their way. Ohlsen, utterly exhausted, had fallen asleep, and when awakened was plainly bewildered. He could tell nothing about the way, nor the position of the lost ones. He had before said that it was drifting heavily round them when they were left. The situation of the rescue party was becoming critical, and the chance of helping the lost seemed small indeed; they might be anywhere within forty miles. Thus situated Dr. Kane moved on ahead, and clambered up some ice-piles and found himself upon a long, level floe. Thinking the provision party might have been attracted by this as a place to camp, he determined to examine it carefully. He gave orders to liberate Ohlsen, now just able to walk, from his fur bag, and to pitch the tent; then leaving tent, sledge, and every thing behind, except a small allowance of food taken by each man, he commanded the men to proceed across the floe at a good distance from each other. All obeyed cheerfully and promptly, and moved off at a lively step to keep from freezing; yet somehow, either from a sense of loneliness, or involuntarily, there was a constant tendency of the men to huddle together. Exhaustion and cold told fearfully upon them; the stoutest were seized with trembling fits and short breath, and Dr. Kane fell twice fainting on the snow. They had now been eighteen hours out without food or rest, and the darkness of their situation seemed to have no ray of light, when Hans shouted that he thought he saw a sledge track. Hardly daring to believe that their senses did not deceive them, they traced it until footsteps were apparent; following these with religious care they came after awhile in sight of a small American flag fluttering from a hummock. Lower down they espied a little Masonic banner hanging from a tent pole barely above the drift. It was the camp of the lost ones! It was found after an unfaltering march of twenty-one hours. The little tent was nearly covered by the drift. Dr. Kane was the last to come up, and when he reached the tent his men were standing in solemn silence upon each side of it. With great kindness and delicacy of feeling they intimated their wish that he should be the first to go in. He lifted the canvas and crawled in, and in the darkness felt for the poor fellows, who were stretched upon their backs. A burst of welcome within was answered by a joyful shout without. "We expected you," said one, embracing the doctor; "we _knew_ you would come!" For the moment all perils, hunger, and exhaustion were forgotten amid the congratulations and gratitude. The company now numbered fifteen, the cold was intense, but one half the number had to keep stirring outside while the rest crowded into the little tent to sleep. Each took a turn of two hours, and then preparations were made to start homeward. They took the tent, furs for the rescued party, and food for fifty hours, and abandoned every thing else. The tent was folded and laid on the sledge, a bed was then made of eight buffalo skins, the sick, having their limbs carefully sewed up in reindeer skins, were then put in a reclining position on the bed, and other furs and blanket bags thrown around them. The whole was lashed together, allowing only a breathing place opposite the mouth. This _embalming_ of the sufferers, and getting them a good meal, cost four hours of exposure in a cold that had become fifty-five degrees minus. Most of the rescuers had their fingers nipped by the frost. When all was ready the whole company united in a short prayer. Now commenced the fearful journey. The sledge and its load weighed eleven hundred pounds. The hummocks were many; some of them were high, and long deviations round them must be made; some which they climbed over, lifting the sledge after them, were crossed by narrow chasms filled with light snow--fearful traps into which if one fell his death was almost certain. Across these the sledge was drawn, some of them being too wide for it to bridge them, so it had to be sustained by the rope, and steadily too, for the sick could not bear to be lashed so tight as not to be liable to roll off, and the load was top-heavy. In spite of these obstacles all went bravely for six hours. The abandoned tent was nine miles ahead, the sledge on which life depended bravely bore every strain, the new floe was gained, and the traveling improved, so that good hope was entertained that the tent, its covert and rest, would be gained. Just then a strange feeling came over nearly the whole party. Some begged the privilege of sleeping. They were not cold, they said; they did not mind the wind now; all they wanted was a little sleep. Others dropped on the snow and refused to get up. One stood bolt upright, and, with closed eyes, could not be made to speak. The commander boxed, jeered, argued, and reprimanded his men to no purpose. A halt was made and the tent pitched. No fire could be obtained, for nobody's fingers were limber enough to strike fire, so no food or water could be had. Leaving the company in charge of M'Gary, with orders to come on after four hours' rest, Dr. Kane and Godfrey went forward to the tent to get ready a fire and cooked food. They reached the tent in a strange sort of stupor. They remembered nothing only that a bear trotted leisurely ahead of them, stopping once to tear a jumper to pieces which one of the men had dropped the day before, and pausing to toss the tent contemptuously aside. They set it up with difficulty, crept into their fur bags, and slept intensely for three hours. They then arose, succeeded in lighting the cooking lamp, and had a steaming soup ready when the rest arrived. Refreshed with food and rest, the feeble re-adjusted, they commenced the home stretch. Once the old sleepiness came over them, and they in turn slept three minutes by the watch and were benefited. They all reached the brig at one o'clock P.M. All were more or less delirious when they arrived, and could remember nothing of what had happened on the way, with slight exception. The rescue party had been out seventy-two hours; of this time only eight hours were spent in halting. They had traveled about eighty-five miles, most of the distance dragging their sledge. Dr. Hayes took the sick in hand. Two lost one or more toes; and two, Jefferson Baker, a boyhood playfellow of Dr. Kane, and Pierre Schubert, the French cook, died. CHAPTER V. MORE HEROIC EXCURSIONS. ON the seventh of April, a week after the return of the party just noted, our explorers were startled by shouts from the shore. Dark figures were seen standing along the edges of the land ice, or running to and fro in wild excitement. It was not difficult to make them out as a company of Esquimo. Dr. Kane, seeing by their wild gesticulations that they were unarmed, walked out and beckoned to a brawny savage, who seemed to be a leader, to approach. He understood the sign, and came forward without fear. He was full a head taller than the doctor, and his limbs seemed to have the strength of those of the bear. He was dressed with a fox skin, hooded jumper, white bear-skin trousers, and bear-skin boots tipped with the claws. Though he had evidently never before seen a white man, he manifested no fear. His followers soon crowded around and began to use great freedom, showing an inclination to rush on board the ship. This they were made to understand they must not do. Petersen came out and acted as interpreter, and matters went on more smoothly. The leader, whose name was Metek, was taken on board, while the rest remained on the ice. They brought up from behind the floes fifty-six dogs and their sledges, and, thrusting a spear into the ice, picketed them about the vessel. While Dr. Kane and Metek were having their interview in the cabin, word was sent out that others might come on board. Nine or ten mounted the ladder with boisterous shouts, though ignorant of how Metek had fared. They went every-where, handled every thing, talked and laughed incessantly, and stole whatever they could. Finally all hands had to be mustered, and restraint laid upon the Esquimo to keep them within due bounds. This they took good naturedly; ran out and in the vessel, ate, and finally _sat_ down like tired children, their heads drooping upon their breasts, and slept, snoring the while most famously. In the morning, before they departed, the commander assembled them on deck for an official interview. He enlarged upon his wonderful qualities as a chief, and the great benefits to his visitors of his friendship. He then entered into a treaty with them, the terms of which were very few and simple, that it might be understood, and the benefits mutual, that it might be kept. He then showed his beneficence by buying all their spare walrus meat and four dogs, enriching them in compensation with a few needles, beads, and treasures of old cask staves. The Esquimo were jubilant. They voted, in their way, Dr. Kane a great captain, promised vociferously to return in a few days with plenty of walrus meat, and loan their dogs and sledges for the great northern journey, all of which they never remembered to do. When the visitors had gone, it was ascertained that an ax, a saw, and some knives, had gone with them. Besides, the store-house on Butler Island had been entered, and a careful survey of the vicinity revealed the fact that a train of sledges were slyly waiting behind some distant hummocks for a freight of its treasures. All this had a hard look for friendly relations with the Esquimo; but our explorers felt that conciliation, with quiet firmness, was their best policy. The savages could do their sledge excursions much harm, and, if they would, could greatly aid them. The next day there came to the vessel five natives--two old men, a middle aged man, and two awkward boys. They were treated with marked kindness, some presents were given them, but they were told that no Esquimo would in future be admitted to the brig until every stolen article was restored. They were overjoyed at the gifts, and departed, lifting up their hands in holy horror on the mention of theft; yet in passing round Butler Island they bore away a coal barrel. M'Gary was watching them, and he hastened their departure by a charge of fine shot. Notwithstanding all this, one of the old men, known afterward as Shung-hu, made a circuit round the hummocks, and came upon an India-rubber boat which had been left upon the floe, and cut it in pieces and carried off the wood of the frame-work. Soon after this a sprightly youth, good-looking, with a fine dog team, drove up to the vessel in open day. When asked his name, he replied promptly, "Myouk I am." He spoke freely of his place of residence and people, but when asked about the stolen articles he affected great ignorance. Dr. Kane ordered him to be confined in the hold. He took this very hard, at first refusing food. He soon after began to sing in a dolorous strain, then to talk and cry, and then to sing again. The hearts of his captors were made quite tender toward him, and when in the morning it was found that the prisoner had lifted the hatches and fled, taking his dogs with him, even the commander secretly rejoiced. April twenty-fifth, M'Gary and five men started with the sledge "Faith," on another exploring excursion. They took a small stock only of provisions, depending on the supply depots which had been made in the fall. The plan this time was, to follow the eastern coast line a while, which run north and west, cross over Smith Sound to the American side, where it was hoped smooth ice would be found; and once on such a highway, they anticipated that the Polar Sea would greet their delighted vision, and may be speak to them of the fate of the lost Franklin. Two days after M'Gary's party left, Dr. Kane and Godfrey followed with the dog sledge loaded with additional comforts for the journey, the men trotting by its side. Only three dogs remained of the original supplies, which, harnessed with the four purchased of the Esquimo, made a tolerable team. Ten men, four in health and six invalids, were left to keep the vessel. Orders were left by the commander to treat the Esquimo, should they come again, with fairness and conciliation, but if necessity demanded to use fire arms, but to waste no powder or shot. The credit of the gun must be sustained as the bearer of certain death to the white man's enemies. Dr. Kane and his companions overtook the advanced party in two days. They pushed forward together with tolerable success for four days more, when they all became involved in deep snow-drifts. The dogs floundered about nearly suffocated, and unable to draw the sledge. The men were compelled to take the load on their backs, and kick a path for the dogs to follow. In the midst of these toils the scurvy appeared among the men, and some of the strongest were ready to yield the conflict altogether. The next day, May fourth, Dr. Kane, while taking an observation for latitude fainted, and was obliged to ride on the sledge. Still the party pushed on; but they soon met with an obstacle no heroism could overcome. They were without food for further journeying! The bears had destroyed their carefully deposited stores. They had removed stones which had required the full strength of three men to lift. They had broken the iron meat casks into small pieces. An alcohol cask, which had cost Dr. Kane a special journey in the late fall to deposit, was so completely crushed that a whole stave could not be found. On the fifth of May Dr. Kane became delirious, and was lashed to the sledge, while his brave, though nearly fainting, men took the back track. They arrived at the brig in nine days, and their commander was borne to his berth, where he lay for many days, between life and death, with the scurvy and typhoid fever. Thus closed another effort to unlock the secrets of the extreme polar region. Hans made himself exceedingly useful at this time. He was promoted to the post of hunter, and excused from all other duties; he was besides promised presents to his lady-love on reaching his home at Fiskernaes. He brought in two deer, the first taken, on the day of this special appointment. The little snow-birds had come, of which he shot many. The seal, too, were abundant, and some of them were added to the fresh provisions. These wonderfully improved those touched by the scurvy. One day Hans was sent to hunt toward the Esquimo huts, that he might get information concerning the nearness to the brig of clear water. He did not come back that night, and Dr. Hays and Mr. Ohlsen were sent with the dog-sledge to hunt him up. They found him lying on the ice about five miles from the vessel, rolled up in his furs and sound asleep. At his side lay a large seal, shot, as usual, in the head. He had dragged this seal seven hours, and, getting weary, had made his simple camp and was resting sweetly. May twentieth, Dr. Hays and Godfrey started with the dog team, to make another attempt to cross Smith Strait and reach, along the American side, the unknown north. The doctor was a fresh man, not having been with any previous party. The dogs were rested, well fed, and full of wolfish energy. The second day he fortunately struck into a track free from heavy ice, and made fifty miles! But this success was after the arctic fashion, made to give bitterness to immediate failure. On the third day they encountered hummocks, piled in long ridges across their path; some of them were twenty feet high. Over some of these they climbed, dragging after them both sledge and dogs. Long diversions were made at other times, and their path became in this way so very tortuous that in making ninety miles advance northward they traveled two hundred and seventy miles! Snow-blindness seized Dr. Hays in the midst of these toils. But, nothing daunted, after short halts, in which his sight improved, he pushed on. But Godfrey soon broke down, though one of the hardiest of explorers. Their dogs, too, began to droop; the provisions were running low, and so the homeward track was taken. Before they reached the vessel they were obliged to lighten their load by throwing away fifty pounds weight of furs, the heaviest of which had been used as sleeping bags. This excursion resulted in valuable additions to the extreme northern coast-line survey. On the afternoon of June fourth, M'Gary, with four men, started on a last desperate effort to push the survey, on the Greenland side, a hundred miles farther, by which Dr. Kane thought the limits of the ice in that direction might be reached. Morton, one of the company, was to keep himself as fresh as possible, so that when the rest came to a final halt he might be able to push on farther. Hans was kept at the vessel until the tenth, four days later, when he started light with the dog-sledge to join them. His part was to accompany Morton on the final run. The hunter of the vessel being gone, Dr. Kane, who was now much better, took his rifle to try his skill at seal hunting. This animal is not easily taken by unpracticed game seekers. He lies near the hole which he keeps open in the ice, and at the slightest noise plunges out of sight. Seeing one lying lazily in the sun, the doctor lay down and drew himself along softly behind the little knobs of ice. It was a cold, tedious process, but finally getting within a long rifle shot, the seal rolled sluggishly to one side, raised his head, and strained his neck, as if seeing something in an opposite direction. Just then the doctor saw with surprise a rival hunter. A large bear lay, like himself, on his belly, creeping stealthily toward the game. Here was a critical position. If he shot the seal, the bear would probably have no scruples about taking it off his hands, and, perhaps, by way of showing that might makes right, take him before his rifle could be reloaded. While the doctor was debating the matter the seal made another movement which stirred his hunter blood, and he pulled the trigger. The cap only exploded. The seal, alarmed, descended into the deep with a floundering splash; and the bear, with a few vigorous leaps, stood, a disappointed hunter, looking after him from the edge of the hole. Bruin and Dr. Kane were now face to face. By all the rules of game-taking the bear should have eaten the man; he was the stronger party, the gun was for the moment useless, he was hungry, and had lost his dinner probably by the intrusive coming of the stranger, and, as to running, there was no danger of his escape in that way. But the bear magnanimously turned and ran away. Not to be outdone in Courtesy, Dr. Kane turned and ran with all his might in the opposite direction. On the twenty-sixth, M'Gary, Bonsall, Hickey, and Riley returned. The snow had almost made them blind; otherwise they were well. They had been gone about three weeks, had made valuable surveys, and fully satisfied the expectations of their commander. Hans caught up with them after two weeks of heroic travel alone with his dogs and sledge. He and Morton had, in accordance with the programme, pressed on farther northward. The returned party had their adventure with a bear to tell. They had all lain down to sleep in their tent after a wearisome day of travel. The midnight hour had passed when Bonsall felt something scratching at the snow near his head, and, starting up, ascertained that a huge bear was making careful observations around the outside of the tent. He had, in looking round, already observed, no doubt, the important fact that the guns, and every thing like a defensive weapon, were left on the sledge some distance off, though perhaps the importance to him of this fact he did not appreciate. There was consternation, of course, in the camp, and a council of war was called. It had hardly convened before bruin, as a party concerned, thrust his head into the tent door. A volley of lucifer matches was fired at him, and a paper torch was thrust into his face. Without minding these discourteous acts, the bear deliberately sat down and commenced eating a seal which had been shot the day before and happened to be in his way. By the laws of arctic hospitality this should have been considered fair by the tent's company, for strangers are expected to come and go as they please, and eat what they find, not even saying, "By your leave." But the stranger did not conform to the usage of the country. Tom Hickey cut a hole in the back of the tent, seized a boat-hook, which made one of its supporters, and attacked the enemy in the rear. He turned on his assailant and received a well-aimed blow on his nose, by which he was persuaded to retire beyond the sledge and there to pause and consider what to do next. While the bear was thus in council with himself, Hickey sprang forward, seized a rifle from the sledge, almost under the nose of the enemy, and fell back upon his companions. Bonsall took the deadly weapon and sent a ball through and through the bear, and the disturber of the rest of our explorers afforded them many bountiful repasts. CHAPTER VI. THE OPEN SEA. MORTON and Hans returned to the brig on the tenth of July, after having been on their separate exploration three weeks and a half. Their story is full of thrilling incidents and important results. The first day they made twenty-eight miles, and were greatly encouraged. The next day the arctic enemies of exploration appeared on the field, skirmishing with deep snow through which dogs and men had to wade. Next came a compact host of icebergs. They were not the surface-worn, dingy-looking specimens of Baffin Bay, but fresh productions from the grand glacier near which they lay. Their color was bluish white, and their outlines clearly and beautifully defined. Some were square, often a quarter of a mile each side. Others were not less than a mile long, and narrow. Now and then one of colossal size lifted its head far above its fellows, like a grand observatory. Between these giant bergs were crowded smaller ones of every imaginable size and form. Through these our explorers had to pick their way. Beginning one night at eight, they dashed along through a narrow lane, turning this way and that, for seven hours. Then they came against the face of a solid ice-cliff, closing the path altogether. Back they urged their weary dogs, and their own weary selves, looking for an opening by which they might turn north, but none appeared until they reached the camp from which they had started. Resting awhile, they commenced anew. Sometimes they climbed over an ice hillock, making a ladder of their sledge. Morton would climb up first, and then draw up the dogs, around whose bodies Hans tied a rope; then the load was passed up; lastly Hans mounted, and drew up the sledge. Having broken through the bergy detachment of their arctic foes and reached smoother ice, other opposing columns met them. Dense mists, giving evidence of open water, chilled and bewildered them; but the welcome birds, giving other proof of the nearness of the Polar Sea, cheered them on. The next attack was in the form of insecure ice. The dogs were dashing on in their wild flight when it began to yield beneath them. The dogs trembled with fear and lay down, as is their habit in such cases. Hans, by a skillful mingling of force and coaxing, succeeding in getting the party out of the danger. At one time a long, wide channel presented its protest to their farther progress. To this they were obliged so far to yield as to go ten miles out of their way to reach its northern side. Their right of way was also challenged by seams in the ice often four feet deep, filled with water, and too wide for their best jumping ability. These they filled up by attacking the nearest hummocks with their axes and tumbling the fragments into it until a bridge was made. This work often caused hours of delay. The signs of open water became more and more apparent. The birds were so plenty that Hans brought down two at one shot. Soon they struck the icy edge of a channel. Along this they coasted on the land side. It brought them to a cape around which the channel run close to a craggy point. Here they deposited a part of their provisions to lighten the sledge. Morton went ahead to learn the condition of the land-ice round the point. He found it narrow and decaying, so that he feared there would be none on their return; yet, forward! was the word. The dogs were unloosed and driven forward alone; then Hans and Morton tilted the sledge edgewise and drew it along, while far below the gurgling waters were rushing southward with a freight of crushed ice. The cape passed, they opened into a bay of clear water extending far and wide. Along its shore was a wide, smooth ice-belt. Over this the dogs scampered with their sledge and men with wonderful fleetness, making sixty miles the first day! The land grew more and more sloping to the bay as they advanced until it opened from the sea into a plain between two elevated rocky ranges. Into this they entered, steering north, until they struck the entrance of a bay; but the rugged ice across their path forbid farther sledge-travel in that direction. So they picketed, securely, as they thought, the dogs, took each a back load of provisions, and went forward. Their trusty rifles were in hand, and their boat-hook and a few scientific instruments were carefully secured to their persons. Thus equipped, they had tramped about nine miles from the last camp when an exciting scene occurred. It was a bear fight, shaded this time with the tender and tragic. A mother-bear and her child came in sight. They were a loving couple, and had plainly been engaged in a frolic together. Their tracks were scattered profusely about, like those of school children at recess in a recent snow. There were also long furrows down the sloping side of an ice-hill, upon and around which the footprints were seen. Morton declared that they had been coasting down this slope on their haunches, and this opinion was supported by the fact that Dr. Kane did, at another time, see bears thus coasting! Five of the dogs had broken away from their cords and had overtaken their masters. So they were on hand for the fight. Mother and child fled with nimble feet, and the dogs followed in hot pursuit. The bear, being overtaken by her enemies, began a most skillful and heroic skirmishing. The cub could not keep up with its mother, so she turned back, put her head under its haunches and threw it some distance ahead, intimating to it to run, while she faced the dogs. But the little simpleton always stopped just where it alighted, and waited for mamma to give it another throw! To vary the mode of operation, she occasionally seized it by the nape of the neck and flung it out of harms way, and then snapped at the dogs with an earnestness that meant business. Sometimes the mother would run a little ahead and then turn, as if to coax the little one to run to her, watching at the same time the enemy. For a while the bear contrived to make good speed; but the little one became tired and she came to a halt. The men came up with their rifles and the fight became unequal, yet the mother's courage was unabated. She sat upon her haunches and took the cub between her hind legs, and fought the dogs with her paws. "Never," says Morton, "was animal more distressed; her roaring could have been heard a mile! She would stretch her neck and snap at the nearest dog with her shining teeth, whirling her paws like the arms of a windmill." Missing her intended victim, she sent after him a terrific growl of baffled rage. When the men came up the little one was so far rested as to nimbly turn with its mother and so keep front of her belly. The dogs, in heartless mockery of her situation, continued a lively frisking on every side of her, torturing her at a safe distance for themselves. Such was the position of the contending parties when Hans threw himself upon the ice, rested upon his elbows, took deliberate aim, and sent a ball through the heroic mother's head. She dropped, rolled over, relieved at once of her agony and her life. The cub sprung upon the dead body of its mother and for the first time showed fight. The dogs, thinking the conflict ended, rushed upon the prostrate foe, tearing away mouthfuls of hair. But they were glad to retreat with whole skins to their own backs. It growled hoarsely, and fought with genuine fury. The dogs were called off, and Hans sent a ball through its head; yet it contrived to rise after falling, and climbed again upon its mother's body. It was mercifully dispatched by another ball. The men took the skin of the mother and the little one for their share of the spoils, and the dogs gorged themselves on the greater carcass. After this incident the journey of our explorers soon ended. Hans gave out, and was ordered to turn leisurely aside and examine the bend of the bay into which they had entered. Morton continued on toward the termination of a cape which rose abruptly two thousand feet. He tried to get round it, but the ice-foot was gone. He climbed up its sides until he reached a position four hundred and forty feet, commanding a horizon of forty miles. The view was grand. The sea seemed almost boundless, and dashed in noisy surges below, while the birds curveted and screamed above. Making a flag-staff of his walking-stick, he threw to the wind a Grinnell flag. It had made the far southern voyage with Commodore Wilkes, and had come on a second arctic voyage. It now floated over the most northern known land of the globe. Feasting his eyes with the scenery for an hour and a half, Morton struck his flag and rejoined Hans. The run home had its perils and narrow escapes, but was made without accident, and with some additional surveys. CHAPTER VII. AN IMPORTANT MOVEMENT. IT was now well into July. The last proposed survey was made, and all hands were on shipboard. But the arctic fetters still bound the "Advance," with no signs of loosening. The garb of midwinter was yet covering land and sea, and in every breeze there was a dismal whisper to the explorers of another winter in the ice. The thought was appalling to both officers and men. They had neither health, food, nor fuel for such an experience. To abandon the vessel and try to escape with the boats and sledges was impossible in the prostrate condition of the men. Having carefully studied the situation Dr. Kane resolved to try to reach Beechy Island, and thus communicate with the British exploring expedition, or by good luck with some whaler, and so secure relief. This island we have often visited in our voyages with the "Arctic Heroes." It is, it will be recollected, at the mouth of Wellington Channel. When this plan was announced to the officers it was approved cordially. Both officers and men were ready to volunteer to accompany him; he chose five only--M'Gary, Morton, Riley, Hickey, and Hans. Their boat was the old "Forlorn Hope." The outfit was the best possible, though poor enough. The "Hope" was mounted on the sledge "Faith;" the provisions were put on a "St. John's sledge." The "Faith" started off ahead; the smaller sledge, to which Dr. Kane and two of the men attached themselves, followed. It took five days of incessant toil, with many head flows, to reach the water and launch the "Hope," though the distance from the brig was only twenty miles. The boat behaved well, and they reached Littleton Island, where they were rejoiced to see numerous ducks. Watching their course as they flew away, the explorers were led to several islets, whose rocky ledges were covered with their nests, and around which they hovered in clouds. The young birds were taking their first lesson in flying, or were still nestling under their mothers' wings. In a few hours over two hundred birds were taken, the gun bringing down several at one shot, and others were knocked over with stones. But the men were not the only enemies of the ducks. Near by was a settlement of a large, voracious species of gull. They swooped down, seized, gobbled up, and bore away to their nests the young eiders, without seeming to doubt that they were doing a fair and, to themselves, a pleasant business. The gulls would seize the little eiders with their great yellow bills, throw their heads up, and then their victims would disappear down their throats, and in a few moments after they would be ejected into their nests and go down the throats of their young. The ducks fought the gulls bravely in the interests of their brood, but the victory was with the stronger. Our voyagers pitied, of course, the bereaved eider mothers, despised the cormorant gulls, but gladly increased their stock of needed provisions with both. They filled four large india rubber bags with these sea-fowl after cleaning and rudely boning them. Leaving this profitable camping place, the boat was soon in the open sea-way. One day's pleasant sailing was quite as much in that way as experience taught them to expect. A violent storm arose, the waves ran high, and their clumsy boat, trembling under the strain, was in danger of sinking at any moment. The safety of the whole company depended entirely upon the skill and nerve of M'Gary. For twenty-two successive hours he held in his strong grasp the steering oar and kept the head of the boat to the sea. A break of the oar or a slip from his hand and all was lost! They finally grappled an old floe in a slightly sheltered place, and rode out the storm. For twelve days heroic exertions were made to get the boat through the pack which now beset them, with the view of working south and west. Little progress was made and the men, wet, weary, and worn, began to fail. In view of this state of things the commander directed his course to Northumberland Island, near which they were coasting. Here they found three recently occupied, but now forsaken, Esquimo huts. The foxes were abundant, and their young ones greeted the strangers with vociferous barking. They found here, too, what was more valuable--the scurvy grass. Rest, fresh fowl, and cochlearia greatly refreshed the whole party. Seeing the utter impossibility of going south, they made the best of their way back to the brig. It was a sad and joyful meeting with their old comrades. Their return safely was joyful, but the return spoke of another winter. By great exertions the brig was loosened from her icy cradle and warped to a position more favorable for an escape should the open water reach the vicinity. On the seventeenth of August, instead of a glad breaking up of the old ice, came the formation of new ice, thick enough to bear a man. The question of an escape of the brig seemed settled. The allowance of wood was fixed to six pounds a meal; this gave them coffee twice a day and soup, once. Darkness was ahead, and if the fuel utterly failed it would be doubly cheerless. The Sabbath rest and devotions became more solemn. The prayer, "Lord, accept our gratitude and bless our undertakings," was changed to, "Lord, accept our gratitude and restore us to our homes." Affairs looked so dark that Dr. Kane deemed it wise to leave a record of the expedition on some conspicuous spot. A position was selected on a high cliff which commanded an extensive view over the icy waste. On its broad, rocky face the words, "'Advance,' A. D. 1853-54," were painted in large letters which could be read afar off. A pyramid of heavy stones was built above it and marked with a cross. Beneath it they reverently buried the bodies of their deceased companions. Near this a hole was worked into the rock, and a paper, inclosed in a glass vessel sealed with lead, was deposited. On this paper was written the names of the officers and crew, the results in general thus far of the expedition, and their present condition. They proposed to add to the deposit a paper containing the date of their departure, should they ever get away, and showing their plans of escape. Now, more earnestly than ever, the winter and what to do was looked in the face. Some thought that an escape to South Greenland was still possible, and even the best thing to do. The question of detaching a part of the company to make the experiment was debated, but the commander arrived at a settled conviction that such an enterprise was impracticable. In the mean time the ice and tides were closely examined for a considerable distance, for the slightest evidence of a coming liberation of the poor ice-bound craft. As early as August twenty-fourth all hopes of such a liberation seemed to have faded from every mind. The whole company, officers and crew, were assembled in council. The commander gave the members his reasons in full for deeming it wise to stand by the vessel. He then gave his permission for any part of the company who chose to do so to depart on their own responsibility. He required of such to renounce in writing all claims upon the captain and those who remained. The roll was then called, and nine out of the seventeen decided to make the hazardous experiment. At the head of this party was Dr. Hayes and Petersen. Besides the hope of a successful escape, they were influenced in the course they were taking by the thought that the quarters in the brig were so straitened that the health and comfort of those remaining would be increased, and the causes of disease and death diminished by their departure; and still further, if the withdrawing party perished, an equal number was likely to die if all remained. The decision having been made, Dr. Kane gave them a liberal portion of the resources of the brig, a good-bye blessing, with written assurances of a brother's welcome should they return. They left August twenty-eight. Those who remained with Dr. Kane were Brooks, M'Gary, Wilson, Goodfellow, Morton, Ohlsen, Hickey, and Hans. The situation of these was increasedly dreary on the departure of half of their companions. They felt the necessity of immediate systematic action to drive away desponding thoughts, as well as to make the best possible preparation for the coming struggle with darkness, cold, poverty, and disease. The discipline of the vessel, with all its formality of duties, was strictly maintained. The ceremonies of the table, the religious services, the regular watching, in which every man took his turn unless prevented by sickness, the scientific observations of the sky, the weather and the tides, the detailed care of the fire and the lights, all went on as if there was no burdens of mind to embarrass them. In view of the small stock of fuel, they commenced turning the brig into something like an Esquimo igloë or hut. A space in the cabin measuring twenty feet by eighteen was set off as a room for all hands. Every one then went to work, and, according to his measure of strength, gathered, moss. With this an inner wall was made for the cabin, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. The floor itself was calked with plaster of Paris and common paste, then two inches of Manilla oakum was thrown over it, and upon this a canvas carpet was spread. From this room an avenue three feet high, and two and a half feet wide, was made. It was twelve feet long, and descended four feet, opening into the hold. It was moss-lined, and closed with a door at each end. It answered to the _tossut_ of the Esquimo hut, or the sort of tunnel through which they creep into their one room. All ingress and egress of our explorers were through this avenue on their hands and knees. From the dark hold they groped their way to the main hatchway, up which, by a stairway of boxes, they ascended into the open air. The quarter-deck also was well padded with turf and moss. When this was done, no frost king but the one presiding over the polar regions could have entered. Even he had to drop his crown of icicles at the outer door of the avenue. The next step was to secure, so far as possible, a supply of fuel for the coming darkness. A small quantity of coal yet remained for an emergency. They began now, September tenth, to strip off some of the extra planking outside of the deck, and to pile it up for stove use. Having thus put the brig itself into winter trim, they went diligently to work to arrange its immediate vicinity on the floe. Their beef-house came first, which was simply a carefully stowed pile of barrels containing their water-soaked beef and pork. Next was a kind of block-house, made of the barrels of flour, beans, and dried apples. From a flag-staff on one corner of this fluttered a red and white ensign, which gave way on Sundays to a Grinnell flag. From the block-house opened a traveled way, which they called New London Avenue. On this were the boats. Around all this was a rope barrier, which said to the outside world, Thus far only shalt thou come! Outside of this was a magnificent hut made of barrel frames and snow, for the special use of Esquimo visitors. It was in great danger of a tearing down for its coveted wood. CHAPTER VIII. TREATY MAKING. THE stock of fresh provisions was now alarmingly low. To secure a fresh supply, Dr. Kane and Hans started with the dog team on a seal hunt. The doctor was armed with his Kentucky rifle, and Hans with a harpoon and attached line. They carried a light Esquimo boat to secure the prey if shot. They expected to find seal after a ten miles' run, but the ice was solid until they had traveled another hour. Now they entered upon an icy plain smooth as a house floor. On the dogs galloped, in fine spirits, seeming to anticipate the shout which soon came from Hans--"Pusey, puseymut!"--seal, seal! Just ahead were crowds of seals playing in the water. But the joy of the hunters was instantly turned into a chill of horror. The ice was bending under the weight of the sledge, and rolling in wavy swells before it, as if made of leather. To pause was certain death to dogs and men. The solid floe was a mile ahead. Hans shouted fiercely to his dogs, and added the merciless crack of his whip to give speed to his team; but the poor creatures were already terror-stricken, and rushed forward like a steam-car. A profound silence followed, as painful as the hush of the wind before the destructive tornado. Nothing more could be done; the faithful dogs were doing their utmost to save themselves and their masters. They passed through a scattered group of seals, which, breast-high out of water, mocked them with their curious, complacent gaze. The rolling, crackling ice increased its din, and, when within fifty paces of the solid floe the frightened dogs became dismayed, and they paused! In went the left runner and the leading dog, then followed the entire left-hand runner. In the next instant Dr. Kane, the sledge and dogs, were mixed up in the snow and water. Hans had stepped off upon ice which had not yet given way, and was uttering in his broken English, piteous moans, while he in vain reached forward to help his master. He was ordered to lay down, spread out his hands and feet, and draw himself to the floe by striking his knife into the ice. The doctor cut the leader's harness and let him scramble out, for he was crying touchingly, and drowning his master by his caresses. Relieved of the dog he tried the sledge, but it sunk under him; he then paddled round the hole endeavoring to mount the ice, but it gave way at every effort, thus enlarging the sphere of operation most uncomfortably, and exhausting his strength. Hans in the mean time had reached solid footing, and was on his knees praying incoherently in English and Esquimo, and at every crushing-in of the ice which plunged his master afresh into the sea exclaimed, "God!" When the fatal crisis was just at hand, deliverance came by a _seeming_ accident. How often does God deliver by such seeming accidents! One of the dogs still remained attached to the sledge, and in struggling to clear himself drew one of the runners broadside against the edge of the circle. It was the drowning man's last chance. He threw himself on his back so as to lessen his weight, and placed the nape of his neck on the rim of the ice opposite to but not far from the sledge. He then drew his legs up slowly and placed the ball of his moccasin foot against the runner, pressing cautiously and steadily, listening the while to the sound of the half-yielding ice against which the other runner rested, as to a note which proclaimed his sentence of life or death. The ice, holding the sledge, only faintly yielded, while he felt his wet fur jumper sliding up the surface; now his shoulders are on; now his whole body steadily ascends; he is safe. Hans rubbed his master with frantic earnestness until the flesh glowed again. The dogs were all saved, but the sledge, Esquimo boat, tent, guns, and snow-shoes were all left frozen in to await a return trip. A run of twelve miles brought them, worn and weary, but full of gratitude, to the brig. The fire was kindled, one of the few remaining birds cooked, a warm welcome given, so that the peril was forgotten except in the occasion it gave for increased love to the _Deliverer_. We have had no occasion to notice the Esquimo since the escape from prison of young Myouk. Soon after Dr. Hayes's party left, three natives came. They had evidently noted the departure of half of the number of the strangers, and came to learn the condition of those left behind. It was Dr. Kane's policy to conciliate them, while carrying toward them a steady, and when needed, as it was often, a restraining hand. These visitors were quartered in a tent in the hold. A copper lamp, a cooking-basin, and a full supply of fat for fuel, was given them. They ate, slept, awoke, ate and slept again. Dr. Kane left them eating at two o'clock in the morning when he retired to the cabin to sleep. They seemed soon after to be sleeping so soundly that the watch set over them also slept. In the morning there were no Esquimo on board. They had stolen the lamp, boiler, and cooking-pot used at their feast; to these they added the best dog--the only one not too weary from the late excursion to travel. Besides, finding some buffalo robes and an india-rubber cloth accidentally left on the floe, they took them along also. This would not do. The savages must be taught to fear as well as to respect and love the white men. Morton and Riley, two of the best walkers, were sent in hot pursuit. Reaching the hut at Anoatok, they found young Myouk with the wives of two absent occupants, the latter making themselves delightfully comfortable, having tailored already the stolen robes into garments worn on their backs. By searching, the cooking utensils, and other articles stolen from the brig but not missed, were found. The white officers of the law acted promptly, as became their dignity. They stripped the women of these stolen goods and tied them. They were then loaded with all the articles stolen, to which was added as much walrus meat of their own as would pay their jail fees. The three were then marched peremptorily back to the brig; though it was thirty miles they did not complain, neither did their police guardians in walking the twice thirty. It was scarcely twenty-four hours after these thieves had left the brig with their booty before they were prisoners in the hold. "A dreadful white man" was placed over them as keeper, who never spoke to them except in words of terrifying reproof, and whose scowl exhibited a studied variety of threatening and satanic expressions. The women were deprived of the comfort of even Myouk's company. He was dispatched to Metek, "head-man of Etah and others," "with the message of a melo-dramatic tyrant," to negotiate for their ransom. For five long days the women sighed and cried, and sung in solitary confinement, though their appetites continued excellent. At last the great Metek and another Esquimo notable arrived, drawing quite a sledge load of returned stolen goods. Now commenced the treaty making. There were "big talks," and a display on the part of Dr. Kane of the splendors and resources of his capital, its arts and sciences, not forgetting the "fire-death," whose terrific power so amazed the Etah dignitaries. On the part of the Esquimo there were many adjournments of the diplomatic conferences to eat and sleep. This was well for the explorers no doubt, as plenty of sleep and a good dinner are very pacific, it is well known, in their influence even on savages. In the final result the Esquimo agreed: Not to steal, to bring fresh meat, to sell or lend dogs, to attend the white men when desired, and to show them where to find the game. On the part of _Kablunah_ (the white men) Dr. Kane promised: Not to visit the _Inuit_ (Esquimo) with death or sorcery; to shoot for them on the hunt; to welcome them on board the ship; to give them presents of needles, pins, two kinds of knives, a hoop, three bits of hard wood, some kinds of fat, an awl, and some sewing-thread; to trade with them of these, and all other things they might want, for walrus and seal meat of the first quality. Dr. Kane sent Hans and Morton to Etah, on the return of Metek, as his representatives, and this treaty was there ratified in a full assembly of its people. This treaty was really of much importance to the famishing, ice-bound, scurvy-smitten strangers. It was faithfully kept on the part of the natives, but it was believed that the example of the white man's prodigious power given by Morton and Riley, in the tramp of sixty miles in twenty-four hours, had quite as much to do with its faithful observance as any regard to their promise. They might not understand the binding nature of promises however solemnly made, but they could comprehend the meaning of strong arms and swift feet. Having made peace with the Etahites, Dr. Kane sent M'Gary and Morton to the hut at Anoatok on a like errand. They found there of men, Myouk, Ootuniah, and Awatok--Seal Bladder--who were at first shy. The rogue, Myouk, suspected their visit might mean to him another arrest. Seeing it did not, all went merry as a marriage-bell. The treaty was ratified by acclamation. CHAPTER IX. ARCTIC HUNTING. EARLY in October the Esquimo disappeared from the range of travel from the brig. Hans and Hickey were sent to the hunting grounds, and they returned with the unwelcome news, no walrus, no Esquimo. Where could they have gone? Were they hovering on the track of the escaping party under Dr. Hayes? and where were these? Would the natives return from a trip south, and bring any news of the battle they were fighting with the ice and cold? While such queries may have been indulged by the brig party, they had serious thoughts concerning their own condition. Their fresh provisions were nearly exhausted. Without walrus or bear meat, their old enemy, scurvy, would come down upon them like an armed man. There was now plainly another occasion for one of those accidental occurrences, through which the eye of a devout Christian sees God's kind hand. In the midst of these painful thoughts the shout by Hans was heard ringing through the brig: "Nannook! nannook!" "A bear! a bear!" chimed in Morton. The men seized their guns and ran on deck. The dogs were already in battle array with the bear, which was attended by a five-months-old cub. Not a gun was in readiness on the instant, and while they were being loaded the canines were having rough sport with bruin. Tudla, a champion fighter, had been seized twice, by the nape of his neck, and made to travel several yards without touching the ground. Jenny, a favorite in the sledge, had made a grand somerset by a slight jerk of the head of the bear, and had alighted senseless. Old Whitey, brave but not bear-wise, had rushed headlong into the combat, and was yelping his utter dissatisfaction with the result while stretched helpless upon the snow. Nannook considered the field of battle already won, and proceeded, as victors have always done, to a very cool investigation of the spoils. She first turned over a beef barrel, and began to nose out the choice bits for herself and child. But there was a party interested in this operation whom she had not consulted. Their first protest was in the form of a pistol ball in the side of her cub. This, to say the least, was rather a harsh beginning. The next hint was a rifle ball in the side of the mother, which she resented by taking her child between her hind legs and retreating behind the beef-house. Here, with her strong forearms, she pulled down three solid rows of beef barrels which made one wall of the house. She then mounted the rubbish, seized a half barrel of herring with her teeth, and with it beat a retreat. Turning her back on the enemy was not safe, for she immediately received, at half pistol range, six buck shots. She fell, but was instantly on her feet again, trotting off with her cub under her nose. She would have escaped after all but for two of the dogs. These belonged to the immediate region, and had been trained for the bear hunt. They embarrassed her speed but did not attack her. One would run along ahead of her, so near as to provoke the bear to attempt to catch him, and then he would give her a useless chase to the right or left, the other one, at the right moment, making a diversion by a nip in her rear. So coolly and systematically was this done that poor Nannook was hindered and exhausted without being able to hurt her tormentors in the least. This game of the dogs brought again Dr. Kane and Hans on the field of conflict. They found the bear still holding out in the running fight, and making good speed away from the brig. Two rifle balls brought her to a stand-still. She faced about, took her little one between her fore legs, and growled defiance. It took six more balls to lay her lifeless on the blood-stained snow! This method of conquering the foe was no doubt, from the bear point of view, mean and cowardly; instead of the hand-to-paw fight, recognized as the Arctic lawful way of fighting, it was sending fire-death at a safe distance for the attacking party. With her own chosen weapons--two powerful arms, and a set of almost resistless teeth--the bear was the stronger party. But then it was the old game of brains against brute force, with the almost sure result. As to the cruelty, the bear had no reason to complain. She came to the brig seeking, if haply she might find, a man, or men, to appease her craving hunger and feed her child. The men sought and obtained her life that they might stay the progress of their bitter enemy, the scurvy, and save their own lives! When the mother fell, her child sprung upon her body and made a fierce defense. After much trouble, and, we should think, some danger from her paws and teeth, both of which she used as if trained for the fight, she was, caught with a line looped into a running knot between her jaws and the back of her head, somewhat as farmers catch hogs for the slaughter. She was marched off to the brig and chained outside, causing a great uproar among the dogs. The mother-bear's carcass weighed when cleaned three hundred pounds; before dressing, the body weighed six hundred and fifty. The _little_ one weighed on her feet one hundred and fourteen pounds. They both proved most savory meat, and were eaten with gratitude, as the special gifts of the great Giver. This bear capture was soon followed by one no less exciting and truly Arctic in its character. It was the hunt and capture of a walrus, the lion of the sea, as the bear is the tiger of the ice. The story is as follows:--- About the middle of October Morton and Hans were sent again to try to find the Esquimo. They reached on the fourth day a little village beyond Anoatok, seventy miles from the brig. Here they found four huts, two occupied and two forsaken. In one was Myouk, his parents and his brother and sister; in the other was Awahtok, Ootuniah, their wives, and three young children. The strangers were made to feel at home. Their moccasins were dried, their feet rubbed, two lamps set ablaze to cook them a supper, and a walrus skin spread on the raised floor for them to stretch and rest their weary limbs. The lamps and the addition to the huts' company sent the thermometer up to ninety degrees above zero, while outside it was thirty below. The natives endured this degree of heat finely, as the men and children wore only the apparel nature gave them, and the women made only a slight, but becoming, addition to it. The strangers after devouring six small sea-birds a piece enjoyed a night of profuse perspiration and sound sleep. In the morning Morton perceived that Myouk and his father were preparing for a walrus hunt, and he cordially invited himself and Hans to go with them. The two strangers accepted the invitation thus given, and the party of four were soon off. A large size walrus is eighteen feet long, with a tusk thirty inches. His whole development is elephantine, and his look grim and ferocious. The Esquimo of this party carried three sledges; one they hid under the snow and ice on the way, and the other two were carried to the hunting ground at the open water, about ten miles from the huts. They had nine dogs to these two sledges, and by turns one man rode while the other walked. As they neared the new ice, and saw by the murky fog that the open water was near, the Esquimo removed their hoods and listened. After a while Myouk's countenance showed that the wished-for sound had entered his ear, though Morton, as attentively listening, could hear nothing. Soon they were startled by the bellowing of a walrus bull; the noise, round and full, was something between the mooing of a cow and the deep baying of a mastiff, varied by an oft-repeated quick bark. The performer was evidently pleased with his own music, for it continued without cessation while our hunters crept forward stealthily in single file. When within half a mile of some discolored spots showing very thin ice surrounded by that which was thicker, they scattered, and each man crawled toward a separate pool, Morton on his hands and knees following Myouk. Soon the walruses were in sight. They were five in number, at times rising altogether out of the deep, breaking the ice and giving an explosive puff which might have been heard, through the thin, clear atmosphere, a mile away. Two grim-looking males were noticeable as the leaders of the group. [Illustration: Walruses--A Family Party.] Now came the fight between Myouk, the crafty, expert hunter, and a strong, maddened, persistent walrus. Morton was the interested looker-on, following the hunter like a shadow, ready, if it had been wanted, to put in his contribution to the fight in the form of a rifle-ball. When the walrus's head is above water, and peering curiously around, the hunter is flat and still. As the head begins to disappear in the deep he is up and stirring, and ready to dart toward the game. From his hiding-place behind a projecting ice knoll the hunter seems not only to know when his victim will return, but where he will rise. In this way, hiding and darting forward, Myouk, with Morton at his heels, approaches the pool near the edge of which the walruses are at play. Now the stolid face of Myouk glows with animation; he lies still, biding his time, a coil of walrus hide many yards in length lying at his side. He quickly slips one end of the line into an iron barb, holding the other, the looped end, in his hand, and fixes the barb to a locket on the end of a shaft made of a unicorn's horn. Now the water is in motion, and only twelve feet from him the walrus rises, puffing with pent up respiration, and looks grimly and complacently around. What need _he_ fear, the mighty monarch of the Arctic sea! Myouk coolly, slowly rises, throws back his right arm, while his left arm lies close to his side. The walrus looks round again and shakes his dripping head. Up goes the hunter's left arm. His victim rises breast-high to give one curious look before he plunges, and the swift, barbed shaft is buried in his vitals! In an instant the walrus is down, down in the deep, while Myouk is making his best speed from the battlefield, holding firmly the looped end of his harpoon-line, at the same time paying out the coil as he runs. He has snatched up and carries in one hand a small stick of bone rudely pointed with iron; he stops, drives it into the ice and fastens his line to it, pressing it to the ice with his foot. Now commence the frantic struggles of the wounded walrus. Myouk keeps his station, now letting out his line, and then drawing it in. His victim, rising out of the water, endeavors to throw himself upon the ice, as if to rush at his tormenter. The ice breaks under his great weight, and he roars fearfully with rage. For a moment all is quiet. The hunter knows what it means, and he is on the alert. Crash goes the ice, and up come two walrusses only a few yards from where he stands; they aimed at the very spot but will do better next time. But when the game comes up where he last saw the hunter he has pulled up his stake and run off, line in hand, and fixed it as before, but in a new direction. This play goes on until the wounded beast becomes exhausted, and is approached and pierced with the lance by Myouk. Four hours this fight went on, the walrus receiving seventy lance thrusts, dangling all the while at the end of the line with the cruel harpoon fixed in his body. When dying at last, hooked by his tusk to the margin of the ice, his female, which had faithfully followed all his bloody fortune, still swam at his side; she retired only when her spouse was dead, and she herself was pricked by the lance. Morton says the last three hours wore the aspect of a doubtful battle. He witnessed it with breathless interest. The game was, by a sort of "double purchase," a clever contrivance of the Esquimo, drawn upon the ice and cut up at leisure. Its weight was estimated at seven hundred pounds. The intestines and the larger part of the carcass, were buried in the crevices of an iceberg--a splendid ice-house! Two sledges were loaded with the remainder, and the hunters started toward home. As they came near the village the women came out to meet them; the shout of welcome brought all hands with their knives. Each one having his portion assigned, according to a well understood Esquimo rule, the evening was given up to eating. In groups of two or three around a forty pound joint, squatting crook-legged, knife in hand, they cut, ate, and slept, and cut and ate again. Hans, in his description of the feast to Dr. Kane, says: "Why, Cappen Ken, sir, even the children ate all night. You know the little two-year-old that Aroin carried in her hood--the one that bit you when you tickled it?" "Yes." "Well, Cappen Ken, sir, that baby cut for herself, sir, with a knife made out of an iron hoop, and so heavy it could hardly lift it, cut and ate, sir, and ate and cut, as long as I looked at it." Morton and Hans returned to the brig with two hundred pounds of walrus meat and two foxes, to make glad the hearts of their comrades. Besides these Arctic monsters of the sea, and shaggy prowlers of the land and ice, there was another sort of game, requiring a different kind of hunting, found nearer home. We have related the experiment, a year before this, of the explorers with the rats. They had failed to smoke them out by a villainous compound, and, as the experience came near burning up the vessel, it was not repeated. They bred like locusts in spite of the darkness, cold, and short rations, and went every-where--under the stove, into the steward's drawers, into the cushions, about the beds, among the furs, woolens, and specimens of natural history. They took up their abode among the bedding of the men in the forecastle, and in such other places as seemed to them cosy and comfortable. When their rights as tenants were disputed they fought for them with boldness and skill. At one time a mother rat had chosen a bear-skin mitten as a homestead for herself and family of little ones. Dr. Kane thrust his hand into it not knowing that it was occupied, and received a sharp bite. Of course his hand left the premises in rather quick time, and before he could suck the blood from his finger the family had disappeared, taking their home with them. Rhina, a brave bear-dog, which had come out of encounters with his shaggy majesty with special honors, was sent down into the citadel of the rats. She lay down with composure and slept for a while. But the vermin gnawed the horny skin of her paws, nipped her on this side, and bit her on that, and dodged into their hiding-places. They were so many, and so nimble, that poor Rhina yelled in vexation and pain. She was taken on deck to her kennel, a cowed and vanquished dog. Hans, true to his hunter's propensity, amused himself during the dreary hours of his turn on the night watch, by shooting them with his bow and arrow. Dr. Kane had these carefully dressed and made into a soup, of which he educated himself to eat, to the advantage of his health. No other one of the vessel's company cared to share his pottage. Hans had one competitor in this "small deer" hunting, as the sailors called it. Dr. Kane had caught a young fox alive, and domesticated it in the cabin. These "deer" were not quick enough to escape his nimble feet and sharp teeth. But unfortunately he would kill only when and what he wanted to eat. December came in gloomily. Nearly every man was down with the scurvy. The necessary work to be done dragged heavily. The courage of the little company was severely taxed but not broken. But where were the escaping party under Dr. Hayes? Were they yet dragging painfully over their perilous way? were they safe at Upernavik? or had they perished? While such queries might have occupied the thoughts of the dwellers in the "Advance," on the seventh of the month Petersen and Bonsall of that party returned; five days later Dr. Hayes arrived, with the remainder of his company. Their adventures had been marvelous, and their escape wonderful. It will be a pleasant fancy for us to consider ourselves as sitting down in the cabin of the "Advance," and listening to their story from the lips of one of their party. CHAPTER X. THE ESCAPING PARTY. HAVING, as has been seen, provided for all the contingencies of our journey as well as circumstances permitted, we moved slowly down the ice-foot away from the brig. The companions we were leaving waved us a silent adieu. A strong resolution gave firmness to our step, but our way was too dark and perilous for lightness of heart. At ten miles distance we should reach a cape near which we expected to find open water, where we could exchange the heavy work of dragging the sledges for the pleasanter sailing in the boat. This we reached early the second day. But here we experienced our first keen disappointment. As far as the eye could reach was only ice. Before us, a thousand miles away, was Upernavik, at which we aimed, the first refuge of a civilized character in that direction. As we gazed at this intervening frozen wilderness it did indeed seem afar off. Yet every man stood firm through fourteen hours of toil before we encamped, facing a strong wind and occasional gusts of snow. After this the shelter of our tent, and a supper of cold pork and bread with hot coffee, made us almost forget the wind, which began to roar like a tempest. We looked out in the morning, after a good night's rest, hoping to see the broken floe fleeing before the gale, giving us our coveted open sea. But no change had taken place. We had no resort but to weary sledging. We carried forward our freight in small parcels, a mile on our journey, finally bringing up the boat. We took from under a cliff of the cape the boat "Forlorn Hope," which Dr. Kane had deposited there. It was damaged by the falling of a stone upon it from a considerable height. Petersen's skillful mending made it only a tolerable affair. Thus wearied and baffled in our efforts at progress, we returned early to our tent, and slept soundly until three o'clock in the morning, when we were aroused by shouting without. It came from three Esquimo, a boy eighteen years old, and two women. The boy we had before seen, but the women were strangers. They were filthy and ragged--in fact scarcely clothed at all. The matted hair of the women was tied with a piece of leather on the top of the head; the boy's hair was cut square across his eyebrows. One of the women carried a baby about six months old. It was thrust naked, feet foremost, into the hood of her jumper, and hung from the back of her neck. It peered innocently out of its hiding-place, like a little chicken from the brooding wing of its mother. They shivered with cold, and asked for fire and food, which we readily gave them, and they were soon off down the coast in good spirits. These visitors were only well started when Hans rushed into our camp, excited and panting for breath. He was too full of wrath to command his poor English, and he rattled away to Petersen in his own language. When he had recovered somewhat his breath, we caught snatches of his exclamations as he turned to us with, "Smit Soun Esquimo no koot! no koot! all same dog! Steal me bag! steal Nalegak buffalo." The fact finally came out that our visitors had been to the brig and stolen, among other things, a wolf-skin bag and a small buffalo skin belonging to Hans, presents from Dr. Kane. Hans took a lunch, a cup of coffee, and continued his run after the thieves. The ice had now given way a little, and small leads opened near us. Loading the boat, we tried what could be done at navigation. But the water in the lead soon froze over and became too thick for boating, while yet it was too thin for sledging; so after trying various expedients we again unloaded the boats and took to the land-ice. But this was too sloping for the sledges, so we took our cargo in small parcels on our backs, carrying them forward a mile and a half, and finally bringing the sledges and boat. Bonsall had, on one of these trips, taken a keg of molasses on the back of his neck, grasping the two ends with his hands. This was an awkward position in which to command his footing along a sideling, icy path. His foot slipped, the keg shot over his head, and glided down into the sea. Coffee without molasses was not pleasant to think of, and then it was two hours after our day's work was done before we could find even water. Our supper was not eaten and we ready to go to bed until ten. We slept the better, however, from hearing, just as we were retiring, that Bonsall and Godfrey had recovered the keg of molasses from four feet of water. The next morning we resolved to try the floe again. It was plain we could make no satisfactory progress on the land-ice, so we loaded first the small sledge and run it safely down the slippery slope. Then the large sledge, "Faith," was packed with our more valuable articles. Cautiously it was started, men in the rear holding it back by ropes. But the foothold of the men being insecure, they slipped, lost their control both of themselves and the sledge, and away it dashed. The ice as it reached the floe was thin; first one runner broke through, now both have gone down; over goes the freight, and the whole is plunged into the water! Fortunately every thing floated. A part of our clothes were in rubber bags and was kept dry; all else was thoroughly wet. No great damage was done except in one case. Petersen had a bed of eider-down, in which he was wont snugly to stow himself at night. When moving it was compressed into a ball no larger than his head. It was a nice thing, costing forty Danish dollars. It was, of course, spoiled. So rueful was his face that, though we really pitied him, we could not repress a little merriment as he held up his dripping treasure. Seeing a smile on Dr. Hayes's face, he hastily rolled it up into a wad, and, in the bitterness of his vexation, hurled it among the rocks, muttering something in Danish, of which we could detect only the words "doctor" and "Satan." Our situation seemed gloomy enough. The men's courage was giving way, and one took a final leave and returned to the "Advance." Yet we pressed forward; we were not long in readjusting the load of the "Faith," and met with no further accident during the day; but our fourteen hours toil left us six more hours of ice-travel before we could reach what seemed to be a long stretch of clear sea. Hans returned from his pursuit, having overtaken the thieves, but did not find about them the stolen goods. He proposed to remain and help us, but we could go no farther that night. We encamped, and obtained much needed rest and sleep. We were awakened at midnight to a new and unexpected discouragement. M'Gary and Goodfellow arrived from the "Advance" bringing a peremptory order from Dr. Kane to bring back the "Faith." We could not understand this. We had been promised its use until we reached the open sea. We had only one other, which was very poor and utterly insufficient for our purpose. We were sure it was not needed at the brig; what could the order mean? But there it was in black and white, so we delivered it up, and the messengers returned with it on the instant. This journey of Goodfellow and M'Gary was a wonderful exhibition of endurance. They had worked hard all day; having eaten supper, they were dispatched with the message. They were back to the brig to breakfast, having traveled in all to and fro thirty miles without food or rest. Our sledging, almost insufferable before, was more difficult now. Petersen exhausted his skill in improving our poor sledge with little success. We made about six miles during the day, gained the land at the head of Force Bay, and pitched our tent. We had shipped and unshipped our cargo, and had experienced the usual variety of boating and sledging. Several of us had broken through the ice and been thoroughly wet. Old rheumatic and scurvy complaints renewed their attacks upon the men. While the supper was cooking, three of the officers climbed a bluff and looked out upon the icy sea. To our joy they reported the open water only six miles away. With a good sledge we could reach it in one day's pull. With our shaky affair it would take three. Indeed, it seemed a hopeless task to make at all six miles with it. Such was the situation when our supper was eaten and we had lain down to sleep. Its solace had scarcely come to our relief when Morton's welcome voice startled us. He had come to bring back the "Faith." How timely! And then he brought also a satisfactory explanation of its being taken away. Dr. Kane had been informed that a dissension existed among us, and that the sledge was not in the hands of the officers. The next morning the good sledge "Faith" was loaded, and the men, now in good spirits, made fine speed toward the open sea. Morton pushed on after the thieves. Late in the afternoon he returned with them. He had overtaken them where they had halted to turn their goods into clothing. They had thrown aside their rags, and were strutting proudly in the new garments they had made of the stolen skins. Morton soon left, with his prisoners, to return to the "Advance." We did not reach the open water until midnight. Every thing was now put on board the boat, and we sailed about two miles and drew up against Esquimo Point, pitched our tent on a grounded ice-raft, and obtained brief rest. In the morning, Riley, who had been sent to us for that purpose, returned to the "Advance" with the "Faith." We packed away eight men and their baggage in the "Forlorn Hope." It was an ordinary New London whale-boat rigged with a mainsail, foresail, and a jib. Her cargo and passengers on this occasion brought her gunwale within four inches of the water. But for five miles we made fine progress. Then suddenly the ice closed in upon us, compelling us to draw the "Hope" up upon a solid ice-raft, where we encamped for the night. Near was a stranded berg from which we obtained a good supply of birds, of which we ate eight for supper. In the morning, while our breakfast was cooking, the ice scattered and a path for us through the sea was again opened, and we bore away joyously for the capes of "Refuge Harbor." With varying fortune, we passed under the walls of Cape Heatherton, and sighted the low lands of Life-boat Bay. There, as has been stated, in August, 1853, Dr. Kane left a Francis metallic life-boat. Could we reach this bay and possess ourselves of this life-boat, a great step would have been taken, we thought, toward success. For awhile all went well; then came the shout from the officer on the lookout, "Ice ahead!" We run down upon it before a spanking breeze, and got into the bend of a great horseshoe, while seeking an open way through the floe. We could turn neither to the right nor left, and we were too deep in the water to attempt to lay-to. The waves rolled higher and higher, and the breeze was increasing to a tempest. Our cargo, piled above the sides of the boat, left no room to handle the oars, if they had been of any use. There was no resort but to let her drive against the floe. John sat in the stern, steering-oar in hand; Petersen stood on the lookout to give him steering orders; Bonsall and Stephenson stood by the sails; the rest of us, with boat-hooks and poles, stood ready to "fend off." The sails were so drawn up as to take the wind out of them. Petersen directed the boat's head toward that part of the ice which seemed weakest, and on we bounded. "'See any opening, Petersen!' 'No sir.' An anxious five minutes followed, 'I see what looks like a lead. We must try for it.' 'Give the word, Petersen.' On flew the boat. 'Let her fall off a little--off! Ease off the sheet--so--steady! A little more off--so! Steady there--steady as she goes.'" Petersen, cool and skillful, was running us through a narrow lead which brought us into a small opening of clear water. We were beginning to think that we should get through the pack when he shouted, "I see no opening! Tight every-where! Let go the sheet! Fend off." Thump went the boat against the floe! But the poles and boat-hooks, in strong, steady hands, broke the force of the collision. Out sprang every man upon the ice. No serious damage was done to our craft. Our first thought was that we were in a safe, ice-bound harbor. But no! See, the floe is on the move! We unshipped the cargo in haste, and drew up the "Hope" out of the way of the nips. The stores were next removed farther from the water's edge, the spray beginning to sprinkle them. The whole pack was instantly in wild confusion, ice smiting ice, filling the air with dismal sounds. But it was a moment for _action_, not of moping fear. Our ice-raft suddenly separated, the crack running between the cargo and the "Hope!" This would not do! A boat without a cargo, or a cargo without a boat, were neither the condition of things we desired; but as the ice bearing the boat shot into the surging water, it was evident no _human_ power could hinder it. Yet _divine_ power could and did prevent it--just that Hand always so ready to help us in our time of need, and seeming now almost visible. The boat's raft, after whirling in the eddying waters, swung round, and struck one corner of ours. In a minute of time the "Hope" was run off, and boat, cargo, and men were once more together. Soon the commotion brought down a heavy floe against that on which we had taken refuge, and no open water was within a hundred yards of us. CHAPTER XI. A GREEN SPOT. WE seemed now to be in a safe resting-place. Dr. Hayes and Mr. Bonsall, accompanied by John and Godfrey, took the advantage of this security to go in search of the life-boat, which they judged was not more than two miles away. After a walk over the floe of one hour they found it. It had not been disturbed, and the articles deposited under it were in good order. There were, besides the oars and sails, two barrels of bread, a barrel of pork, and one of beef; thirty pounds of rice, thirty pounds of sugar, a saucepan, an empty keg, a gallon can of alcohol, a bale of blankets, an ice anchor, an ice chisel, a gun, a hatchet, a few small poles, and some pieces of wood. They took of these a barrel of bread, the saucepan filled with sugar, a small quantity of rice, the gun, the hatchet, and the boat's equipments. They were to carry this cargo, and drag the life-boat, back to the camp, unless a fortunate lead should enable them to take to the boat. They ascended a hill, before starting, to get a view of the present state of the fickle ice. All was fast in the direct line through which they came. But, a mile away, washing a piece of the shore of Littleton Island, was open water. They concluded to push forward in that direction, and wait the coming of their companions in the "Hope." They reached this open water in six hours--a slow march of one mile--but it must be remembered that they had to carry their cargo, piece by piece, then go back and draw along the boat, thus going over the distance many times. Besides, they had to climb the hummocks with their load, and lower it down the other side and tumble about generally over the rough way. The island thus reached was three fourths of a mile in diameter. They landed in a tumultuous sea, which only a life-boat could survive. There was no good hiding-place from the storm, which was increasing. They were completely wet by the spray, and ready to faint with cold and hunger. In a crevice of the rock a fire was kindled, the saucepan half filled with sea water, and an eider duck John had knocked over with his oar was put into it to stew. To this was added four biscuit from the bread barrel. The hot meal thus cooked refreshed them, but it was their only refreshment. Bonsall and Godfrey crept under the sail taken from the boat, and, from sheer exhaustion, fell asleep. John and Dr. Hayes sought warmth in a run about the island. Dr. Hayes wandered to a rocky point, which commanded a view of the channel between the island and the "Hope." He watched every object, expecting to see her and her crew adrift. He had not watched long before a dark object was seen upon a whirling ice-raft. After a close and careful second look, he saw that it was John. He called but received no answer. John's raft now touched the floe and away he went, jumping the fearful cracks, and disappearing in the darkness. What could inspire so reckless an adventure? Had he seen the "Hope" in peril, and was this a manly effort to save her and his comrades? He was going in the direction in which he had left them. Bonsall and Godfrey were soon frozen out of their comfortless tent, and joined Dr. Hayes on the rocky point. They took places of observation a short distance apart, and watched with intense anxiety both for the "Hope" and John. The morning came, the sea grew less wild, and the wind subsided, but nothing was seen of the boat. Leaving Dr. Hayes and his party thus watching on the island, we will glance at the experience of those of us who were left in the camp. Soon after they left, the wind and the waves played free and wild. The spray wet our clothes, buffaloes, and blankets, as it flew past us in dense clouds. Our bread-bag, wrapped in an india rubber cloth, was kept dry. We pitched our tent in the safest place possible, but were driven out by the increasing deluge of spray. We tried to cook our supper, but the water put out the lamp. So we obtained for thirty hours neither rest nor a warm meal. Dry, hard bread without water, was our only food. Finally the floe broke up, and, hastily packing, ourselves and stores into the "Hope," we went scudding through the leads, earnestly desiring but scarcely daring to hope that we should fall in with Dr. Hayes and his party. As we approached Littleton Island the lead closed, and the pack for a moment shut us in. As we waited and watched, we saw a dark object moving over the floe in the misty distance. Had we been on the lookout for a bear, we might have sent a bullet after it at a venture. But a moment only intervened before John, nimbly jumping the drifting ice-cakes, sprung into the boat! He brought the welcome news of the whereabouts of our companions with the life-boat, and his needed help in our peril. Soon a change of tide brought open water, through which, with all sails set, we bore down on the island. About eight o'clock we saw Dr. Hayes watching for our coming from his bleak, rocky lookout. So rough was the sea that we could not land, but rowed round Cape Ohlsen, the nearest main-land, where we found a snug harbor with a low beach. The life-boat and her crew followed. The cargoes were taken from the boats, and they were hauled up. From a little stream of melted snow which trickled down the hill-side our kettles were filled. The camp was set ablaze, some young eiders and a burgomaster, shot just before we landed, were soon cooked, a steaming pot of coffee served up, and we talked over our adventures as we satisfied our craving hunger. John was questioned concerning his wild adventure. He had not seen the "Hope," nor did he know where she was. But he was concerned about her, and "wanted to hunt her up." After dinner we set ourselves at work, preparing the boats for a renewed voyage, which we had some reason to hope would be one of fewer interruptions. The "Hope" was repatched and calked by Petersen. A mast and sail was put into the life-boat, which we named the "Ironsides." The heavier part of the freight was put on board the "Hope," of which Petersen took command, with Sontag, George Stephenson, and George Whipple as companions and helpers. Dr. Hayes commanded in the "Ironsides," with whom was Bonsall, John, Blake, and William Godfrey. Having spread our sails to a favoring breeze, we gave three cheers and bore away for Cape Alexander, about fourteen miles distant. As we sped onward the scene was delightful. On our left was Hartstene Bay, with its dark, precipitous shore-line, and white glacier fields in the background. The outlines of Cape Alexander grew clearer over our bows, and cheered us onward. But a dark, threatening cloud crept up the northern sky, sending after us an increasing breeze, and tipping the waves with caps of snowy whiteness. The storm-king came on in frequent squalls, giving earnest of his wrath. We could not turn back, nor did such a course at all accord with our wishes; nor could we run toward the shore on the left, where only frowning rocks awaited us. We could only scud before the tempest toward Cape Alexander, come what would. The wind roared louder and the waves rolled higher, yet on we flew. We came within half a mile of the cape unharmed. Now the current, as it swept swiftly round the cape, produced a "chopping sea." The "Hope," being made for a heavy sea, rounded the point in good style. The "Ironsides" was shorter, stood more out of the water, and was, therefore, less manageable. John, who was intrusted with the steering-oar, in minding the business of Bonsall and Godfrey instead of his own, let it fly out of the water, and so permitted the boat to come round broadside to the current. Of course the sea broke over us at its pleasure, filling every part which could be filled and sinking us deep in the water. But for its metallic structure and air-tight apartment we should have sunk; as it was we held fast to the sides and mast to prevent being washed overboard, and thus we drifted ingloriously round the cape. Here we found our consort, ready to come to our assistance; but as the water was smooth under sheltering land, we bailed out our boat, took in our sails, unshipped the mast, and rowed for a small rock called Sutherland's Island, hoping to find a harbor. But we found none, nor was it safe to land anywhere upon the island. There was nothing to do but to pull back again in the face of the wind. The men were weary and disheartened; the sun had set and it was growing dark; our clothes were frozen and unyielding as a coat of mail; cutting sleet pelted our faces, and we were often compelled to lose for a moment part of what we had with such toil gained. But the sheltering main-land of the cape was at last gained, and we coasted slowly along for some distance looking for a haven. We finally came to a low rocky point, behind which lay a snug little harbor. "A harbor! here we are boys; a harbor!" shouted the lookout. The men responded with a faint cheer--they were too much exhausted for "a rouser." The boats were unladen and drawn upon the land. Every thing in the "Ironsides" was wet, but the stores of the "Hope" were in perfect order. We pitched our tent, cooked our supper, and lay down to sleep. The sea roared angrily as its waves broke upon the rocky coast, and the wind howled as it came rushing down the hill-side; but they did but lull us to rest as we slept away our weariness and disappointment. Two days we were detained in this place. Once a little fox peered at us from the edge of the cliff, which set our men upon a fruitless hunt for either his curious little self or some of his kindred. We greatly desired a fox stew, but fox cunning was too much for us. We started for Northumberland Island on the eighth of September. To reach it we must pass through a wide expanse of sea which was now clear; not a berg greeted our vision, no fragments of drifting ice-packs met our sight. The wind was nearly "after us," and the boats glided through the waves as gloriously as if carrying a picnic party in our own home waters. The spirits of the men run over with glee. "Isn't this glorious?" cried Whipple as the boats came near enough together to exchange salutations; "we have it watch and watch about." "And so have we," replied Godfrey. "We're shipping a galley and mean to have some supper," shouted Stephenson. "And we have got ours already!" exclaimed John. "Look at this!" he added, flourishing in the air a pot of steaming coffee. But these joys were emphatically of the _arctic_ kind, which are in themselves prophecies of ill. Bergs were soon seen lifting their unwelcome heads in the distance, and sending through the intervening waters their tidings of evil. Next came long, narrow lines of ice; then these were united together by a thin, recent formation. We were now compelled to dodge about to find open lanes. Coming to a full stop, the officers climbed an iceberg to get a view of the situation. The pack was every-where, though in no direction was it without narrow runs of open water. Then and there they were compelled, after careful consultation, to decide a question deeply concerning our enterprise. It was this: Should we take the outer passage, or the one lying along shore. The first would afford a better chance of open water, but if this failed us, as it was even likely to do at this late season, we must certainly perish. The second gave us a smaller chance of boating, but some chance to live if it failed. But we were on a desperate enterprise, and were inclined to desperate measures. But Petersen, who had twenty years' experience in these waters, counseled the inner route, and by his counsel the officers felt bound to abide. While this consultation was going on the sea became calm, and the boats could be urged only by the oars. It was night before we found a sheltered, sloping land behind a projecting rock. The boats were anchored in the usual way--by taking out their loads and lifting them upon the land. The tents were pitched upon a terrace a few yards above the boats. This terrace, we were surprised to find, was covered with a green sod, full of thrifty vegetation. The sloping hill-side above had the same greenness. A little seeking brought to our wondering sight an abundant supply of sorrel and "_cochlearia_," anti-scurvy plants which our men much needed. Some of the men soon filled their caps with them. A fox had been shot and was already in the cook's steaming pot, to which a good supply of the green plants was added. Such a supper as we had! Nothing like it had been tasted since we left home! Our scurvy plague spots disappeared before its wonderful healing power. The men became as hilarious as boys when school is out. They reveled and rolled upon the green arctic carpet like young calves in a newly found clover field. They smoked their pipes, "spun yarns," and laughed cheerily, as if their lives had not just now been in peril, and as if no imminent dangers lay at their door. Our camp had indeed been pitched by the all-guiding Hand in a goodly place. The men declared on retiring that they felt the healing _cochlearia_ in their very bones, and it is certain that we all felt the glow of our changed condition throughout our whole being. The next day two of us climbed the highest land of the island for a glance at our situation. We found it as depressing as our paradise of greenness had been encouraging. We could see southward the closed ice-pack for twenty miles, and faint indications of the same condition of the sea could be discerned for twenty more miles. We returned, and a council was called in which all, men and officers, were called upon freely to discuss, and finally to decide by vote, the question, Shall we go forward or attempt to return to the "Advance." All the facts so far as known were fairly brought out. Upernavik was six hundred miles in a straight line; the brig was four hundred. Dangers, if not death, were everywhere, yet none desponded. Whipple, or "Long George," as his messmates called him, made a heroic speech which expressed the feelings of all. He exclaimed: "The ice can't remain long; I'll bet it will open to-morrow. The winter is a long way off yet. If we have such luck as we have had since leaving Cape Alexander, we shall be in Upernavik in two weeks. You say it is not more than six hundred miles there in a straight line. We have food for that time and fuel for a week. Before that's gone we'll shoot a seal." We voted with one voice--"Upernavik or nothing." The decision was made. CHAPTER XII. NETLIK. WE were unwillingly detained on the island several days more. During the detention we were visited by an Esquimo, who came most unexpectedly upon us. His name was Amalatok. He had been at the ship last winter, and had seen Dr. Kane in his August trip. His dress was strikingly arctic--a bird-skin coat, feathers turned in; bear-skin pants, hair outward; seal-skin boots; and dog-skin stockings. He carried in his hand two sea birds, a bladder filled with oil, some half-putrid walrus flesh, and a seal thong. He sat down on a rock and talked with animation. While thus engaged he twisted the neck from one of the birds, inserted the fore-finger of his right hand under the skin of its neck, drew it down its back, and thus instantly skinned it. Then running his long thumb nail along the breastbone, he produced two fine fat lumps of flesh, which he offered in turn to each of our company. These were politely declined, to his great disgust, and he bolted them down himself, sending after them a hearty draught of oil from the bladder. The other bird, the remaining oil, and the coil of seal-hide we purchased of him for three needles. Soon after Amalatok's wife came up with a boy--her nephew. The woman was old, and exceedingly ugly looking; the boy was fine looking, wide-awake, and thievish--we watched him narrowly. In the evening the Esquimo left for their home on the easternly side of the island. In the afternoon of the fourteenth of September we left the island, and set our course toward Cape Parry. The sky had been clear, the air soft and balmy, and the open sea invited us onward. But a cold mist soon settled down upon us, succeeded by a curtain of snow, shutting out all landmarks, and leaving us in great doubt as to our course. The compass refused to do its office, the needle remaining where it was placed. We struck into an ice-field and became perfectly bewildered. As we groped about we struck an old floating ice-island, about twelve feet square. On this we crawled and pitched our tent. The cook contrived, with much perseverance and delay, to light the lamp, melt some snow, and make a pot of coffee. This warmed and encouraged us. But as the snow fell faster and faster, we could not unwrap our bedding without getting it wet; so we huddled together under the tent to keep each other warm. None slept, and the night wore slowly away as our ice-island floated we knew not whither. There was great occasion for despondency, but the men were wonderfully cheerful. Godfrey sung negro melodies with a gusto; Petersen told the stories of his boyhood life in Copenhagen and Iceland; John gave items of a "runner's" life in San Francisco; Whipple related the horrors of the forecastle of a Liverpool packet; and Bonsall "brought down the house" by striking up, "Who wouldn't sell his farm and go to sea?" During this merriment a piece of our raft broke off, and came near plunging two of the men into the sea. The morning dawned and showed the dim outlines of some large object near us, whether iceberg or land we could not tell. Before we could well make it out we were near a sandy beach covered with bowlders. We tumbled into the boats and were soon ashore. As we landed, Petersen's gun brought down two large sea-fowl. We were in a little time high on the land, our tent pitched, and all but John, the cook, lay down in the dry, warm buffalo-skins and slept away our weariness. John in the meantime contended through six long hours with the wind, which put out his lamp, the snow, which wet his tinder when he attempted to relight it, and the cold, which froze the water in the kettle during the delay, as well as chilled his fingers and face, and cooked us at last a supper of sea-fowl and fox. As we ate with appetites sharpened by a fast of twenty-four hours, we heard the storm, which raged fearfully, with thankfulness for our timely covert. God, and not our wisdom, had brought us hither. When the morning broke we learned that we had drifted far up Whale Sound, and were camped on Herbert Island. After a little delay we entered our boats, rowed for several hours through "the slush" the snow had created near the shore, and then spreading our canvas, we sailed for the mainland. We struck the coast twenty miles above Cape Parry. We had scarcely time to glance at our situation before we heard the "Huk! Huk! Huk!" of Esquimo voices. It was the hailing cry of a man and a boy who came running to the shore. While Petersen talked with the man, the boy scampered off. The man was Kalutunah, "the Angekok" or priest of his tribe. He had been, as will be recollected, at the ship in the winter. He said the village was only a short distance up the bay, where was plenty of blubber and meat, which we might have if we would allow him to enter our "oomiak" and pilot us there! While we were talking with Kalutunah, the boy had spread the news of our visit through the village. On came a troop of men, women, and children, rushing along the shore, and throwing their arms about, and shouting merrily, with howling dogs at their heels. The "Kablunah" and "Oomiak"--white men and ship--had come and they were happy. We took on board Kalutunah from a rocky point, before the crowd could reach it, and pushed off and rowed up the bay. Our passenger was delighted, having never before voyaged in this wise. He stood up in the boat and called to his envious countrymen who ran abreast of us along the shore, exclaiming, "See me! See me!" We landed in a little cove, at the head of which we pitched our tent. The sailors drew up the boat over the gentle slope, shouting, "Heave-oh!" At this the natives broke out into uproarious laughter. Nothing of all the strange shouts and sights brought to their notice so pleased them. They took hold of the ropes and sides of the boats, and tugged away shouting, "I-e-u! I-e-u! I-e-u!" the nearest approach they could make to the strange sound of the white faces. A short distance from the beach, on the slope, stood the _settlement_--two stone huts twenty yards apart. They were surrounded by rocks and bowlders, looking more like the lurking places of wild beasts than the abodes of men. The entertainment given us by our new friends was most cordial. A young woman ran off to the valley with a troop of boys and girls at her heels, and filled our kettles with water. Kalutunah's wife brought us a steak of seal and a goodly piece of liver. The lookers-on laughed at our canvas-wick lamp, as it sputtered and slowly burned, and the chief's daughter ran off and brought their lamp of dried moss and seal fat. We gave them some of our supper, as they expected of course that we would. They made wry faces at the coffee, and only sipped a little; but Kalutunah with more dignity persevered and drank freely of it. We passed round some hard biscuit, which they did not regard as food until they saw us eat them. They then nibbled away, laughing and nibbling awhile until their teeth seemed to be sore. They then thrust them into their boots, the general receptacles of curious things. After supper the white men lighted their pipes. This to the natives was the crowning wonder. They stared at the strangers, and then looked knowingly at each other. The solemn faces of the smokers, the devout look which they gave at the ascending smoke from their mouths as it curled upward, impressed the Esquimo that this was a religious ceremony. They, too, preserved a becoming gravity. But the ludicrous scene was too much for our men, and their faces relaxed into smiles. This was a signal for a general explosion. The Esquimo burst into loud laughter, springing to their feet and clapping their hands. The religious meeting was over. The "Angekok," who seemed desirous to show his people that he could do any thing which the strangers could, desired to be allowed to smoke. We gave him a pipe, and directed him to draw in his breath with all his might. He did so, and was fully satisfied to lay the pipe down. His awful grimaces brought down upon him shouts and laughter from his people. The mimic puffs, and the poorly executed echoes of the sailors' "Heave-oh," went merrily round the village. Having established good feeling between ourselves and the Esquimo, we entered upon negotiations for such articles of food as they could spare. But they in fact had only a small supply. They wanted, of course, our needles, knives, wood, and iron, and were profuse in their promises of what they would do, but their game was in the sea. It was midnight before the Esquimo retired and we lay down to sleep. Dr. Hayes and Stephenson remained on guard, for our very plausible friends were not to be trusted where any thing could be stolen. The stars twinkled in the clear atmosphere while yet the twilight hung upon the mountain, and all nature was hushed to an oppressive silence, save when it was broken by the sudden outburst of laughter from the Esquimo, or the cawing of a solitary raven. Leaving Stephenson on guard, Dr. Hayes walked toward the huts. Kalutunah hearing his footsteps came out to meet him, expressing his welcome by grinning in his face and patting his back. The huts were square in front and sloped back into the hill. They were entered by a long passage-way--tossut--of twelve feet, at the end of which was an ascent into the hut through an opening in the floor near the front. Into this the chief led the way, creeping on all fours, with a lighted torch of moss saturated with fat. Snarling dogs and half-grown puppies were sleeping in this narrow way, who naturally resented in their own amiable way this midnight disturbance. Arriving at the upright shaft, the chief crowded himself aside to let his visitor pass in. A glare of light, suffocating odors, and a motley sight, greeted the doctor. Crowded into the den, on a raised stone bench around three sides, were human beings of both sexes, and of all ages. They huddled together still closer to make room for the stranger, whom they greeted with an uproarious laugh. In one of the front corners, on a raised stone bench, was a mother-dog with a family of puppies. In the other corner was a joint of meat. The whole interior was about ten feet in diameter, and five and a half high. The walls were made of stone and the bones of animals, and chinked with moss. They were not arched, but drawn in from the foundation, and capped above with slabs of slate-stone. The doctor's visit was one of curiosity, but the curiosity of the Esquimo in reference to him was more intense and must first be gratified. They hung upon his arms and legs and shoulders; they patted him on the back, and stroked his long beard, which to these beardless people was a wonder. The woolen clothes puzzled them, and their profoundest thought was at fault in deciding the question of the kind of animal from whose body the material was taken. They had no conception of clothing not made of skins. The boys' hands soon found their way into the doctor's pockets, and they drew out a pipe, which passed with much merriment from hand to hand, and mouth to mouth. Kalutunah drew the doctor's knife from its sheath, pressed it fondly to his heart, and then with a mischievous side glance stuck it into his own boot. The doctor shook his head, and it was returned with a laugh to its place. A dozen times he took it out, hugged it, and returned it to its place, saying beseechingly, "Me! me! give me!" He did want it _so much_! The visitor's pistol was handled with great caution and seriousness. They had been given a hint of its power at the sea-shore, where Bonsall had brought a large sea-fowl down into their midst by a shot from his gun. While this examination of the doctor was going on he examined more closely the objects about him. There was a window, or opening, above the entrance, over which dried intestines, sewed together, were stretched to let in light. The wall was covered with seal and fox skins stretched to dry. There were in the hut three families and one or two visitors, in all eighteen or twenty persons. The female head of each family was attending in different parts of the hut, to her family cooking. They had each a stone, scooped out like a clam shell, in which was put a piece of moss soaked in blubber. This was both lamp and stove, and was kept burning by feeding with fat. Over this a stone pot was hung from the ceiling, in which the food was kept simmering. These, and the animal heat of the inmates, made the hut intensely warm. Seeing the white man panting for breath, some boys and girls laid hold of his clothes to strip him, after their own fashion. This act of Esquimo courtesy he declined. They then urged him to eat, and he answered, "Koyenuck"--I thank you--at which they all laughed. Though he had dreaded this invitation, he did not think it good policy to declare it. A young girl brought him the contents of one of the stone pots in a skin dish, first tasting it herself to see if it was too hot. All eyes were upon the visitor. Not to take their proffered pottage would be a great affront. To him the dose seemed insufferable, though of necessity to be taken. Shutting his eyes, and holding his nose, he bolted it down. He was afterward informed that it was one of the delicacies of their table, made by boiling together blood, oil, and seal intestines! After thus partaking of their hospitality, the doctor left the Esquimo quarters, escorted by "the Angekok" and his daughter. We were astir at dawn, preparing to leave this little village known as Netlik. We had obtained a valuable addition to our slender store of blubber, and a few pairs of fur boots and mittens, for which we amply paid them. Knowing that the Esquimo had never heard of the commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," and that they did not understand well the law of "mine" and "thine," we watched them closely as our stores were being passed into the boat. When we were ready to push off it was ascertained that the hatchet was missing. Petersen openly charged them, as they stood upon the shore, with the theft. They all threw up their hands with expressions of injured innocence. "My people _never_ steal!" exclaimed the affronted chief. One fellow was so loud in his protestations of innocence that Petersen suspected him. The Dane approached him with a flash of anger in his eye, which told its own story. The Esquimo stepped back, stooped, picked up the hatchet, on which he had been standing, and gave it to Petersen with one hand, and with the other presented him a pair of mittens as a peace-offering. We pushed off, and they stood shouting upon the beach until their voices died away in the distance as we pulled across the bay. CHAPTER XIII. THE HUT. WE now made for Cape Parry with all speed, though this was slow speed. The young ice which covered the bay was too old for us, or, at any rate, it was too strong for easy progress. It was sunset when we reached the cape. Beyond this there had been open water seen by us for many days past, from the elevated points of observation which we had sought. From this point, therefore, we expected free sailing southward, and rapid progress toward safety and our homes. But here we were at last at Cape Parry against a pack which extended far southward. In our desperation we tried to force the boats through. The "Ironsides" was badly battered, and the "Hope" made sadly leaky by the operation, and no progress was made. We then pushed slowly down the shore through a lead, and having gone about seven miles, darkness and the ice brought us to a stand, and we drew up for the night. In the morning we observed a lead going south from the shore at a point twelve miles distant. For six days, bringing us to the twenty-seventh of September, we fought hard to reach the lead, but failed. We could now neither retreat nor go forward. Ice and snow were every-where. The sun was running low in the heavens, seeming to rise only to set; and soon the night, which was to have no sunrise morning until February, would be upon us. Our food was sufficient for not more than two weeks, and our fuel of blubber for the lamp only was but enough for eight or ten days. Our condition seemed almost without hope, but it had entered into our calculations as a possible contingency, and we girded ourselves for the struggle for life, trusting in the Great Deliverer. We were about sixteen miles below Cape Parry, and about midway between Whale Sound and Wolstenholme Sound. We pitched our tent thirty yards from the sea on a rocky upland. After securing in a safe place the boats and equipments, we began to look about us for a place to build a hut. It was, indeed, a dreary, death-threatening region. Time was too pressing for us to think of building an Esquimo hut, if, indeed, our strength and skill was sufficient. While we were looking round and debating what to build and where, one of our party found a crevice in a rock. This crevice ran parallel with the coast, and was opposite to, and near, the landing. It was eight feet in width, and level on the bottom. The rock on the east side was six feet high, its face smooth and perpendicular, except breaks in two places, making at each a shelf. On the other--the ocean side--the wall was scarcely four feet high, round and sloping; but a cleft through it made an opening to the crevice from the west. We at once determined to make our hut here, as the natural walls would save much work in its construction. The only material to be thought of was rocks. These we had to find beneath the snow, and then loosen them from the grasp of the frost. For this we fortunately had an ice-chisel--a bar of iron an inch in diameter and four feet long, bent at one end for a handle, and tempered and sharpened at the other. With this Bonsall loosened the rocks, and others bore them on their shoulders to the crevice. When a goodly pile was made we began to construct the walls. Instead of mortar we had sand to fill in between the stones. This was as hard to obtain as the stones themselves, as it had to be first picked to pieces with the ice-chisel, then scooped up with our tin dinner plates into cast-off bread-bags, and thus borne to the builders. This work was done by four of us only, the other four being engaged in hunting, to keep away threatened starvation. In two days our walls were up. They run across the crevice, that is, east and west, were fourteen feet apart, four feet high, and three thick. The natural walls being eight feet apart, our hut was thus in measurement fourteen feet by eight. The entrance was through the cleft, from the ocean side. We laid across the top of this door-way the rudder of the "Hope," and erected on it the "gable." One of the boat's masts was used for a ridgepole, and the oars for rafters. Over these we laid the boats' sails, drew them tightly, and secured them with heavy stones. Being sadly deficient in lumber, Petersen constructed a door of light frame-work and covered it with canvas; he hung it on an angle, so that when opened it shut of its own weight. A place was left for a window over the door-way, across which we drew a piece of old muslin well greased with blubber, and through which the somber light streamed when there was any outside. We then endeavored to thatch the roof and "batten" the cracks every-where with moss. But to obtain this article we had to scour the country far and near, dig through the deep snow, having tin dinner plates for shovels, wrench it from the grip of the frost with our ice-chisel, put it in our bread-bags and "back it" home. In four days, in spite of all obstacles, our hut assumed a homelike appearance--at least homelike compared with our present quarters. We said: "To-morrow we shall move into it and be comparatively comfortable." But that day brought the advance force of a terrific storm of wind and snow. It caught some of us three miles from the tent. We huddled together in our thin hemp canvas tent and slept as best we could. Two of our company crawled out in the morning to prepare our scanty meal. They found the hut half full of snow, which had sifted through the crevices. But they brought to the tent's company a hot breakfast after some hours' toil; we ate and our spirits revived. We tried all possible expedients to pass away the time, but the hours moved slowly. The storm continued to howl and roar about us with unceasing fury for four days. Our little stock of food was diminishing, our hut was unfinished, and winter was upon us in earnest. Our situation was one of almost unmitigated misery. On Friday, October sixth, the storm subsided, and nature put on a smiling face. We renewed our work on the hut, clearing it of snow with our dinner-plate shovels, and then, under greater difficulties than ever, because the snow was deeper and our strength less, we finished it. The internal arrangements were as follows: an aisle or floor, three feet wide, extended from the door across the hut. On the right, as one entered, was a raised platform of stone and sand about eighteen inches high. On this we spread our skins and blankets. Here five of us were to sleep. On the back corner of the other side was a similar platform, or "breck" as the Esquimo would call it; here three men were to sleep. In the left-hand corner, near the door, Petersen had extemporized a stove out of some tin sheathing torn from the "Hope," with a funnel of the same material running out of the roof. This sort of fire-place stove held two lamps, a saucepan, and kettle. On a post which supported the roof hung a small lamp. Into this hut we moved October ninth. Compared with the tent it was comfortable. It was evening when we were settled. At sundown Petersen came in with eight sea-fowl, so we celebrated the occasion with a stew of fresh game, cooked in our stove with the staves of our blubber kegs, and we added to our meal a pot of hot coffee. The supper done, we talked by the dim light of our moss taper. A storm, which was heralded during the day, was raging without in full force, burying us in a huge snow-bank. We discussed calmly our duties and trials, and we all lay down prayerfully to sleep. What shall we do now? was the question of the morning. Indeed, it was the continual question. John reported our stores thus: "There's three quarters of a small barrel of bread, a capful of meat biscuit, half as much rice and flour, a double handful of lard--and that's all." Our vigilant hunting thus far had resulted in seventeen small birds; that was all. Some of us had tried to eat the "stone moss," a miserable lichen which clung tenaciously to the stones beneath the snow. But it did little more than stop for awhile the gnawings of hunger, often inducing serious illness; yet this seemed our only resort. The storm still raged. We were all reclining upon the brecks except John, who was trying to cook by a fire which filled our hut with smoke, when we were startled by a strange sound. "What is it?" we asked. We could not get out, so we listened at the window. "It was the wind," we said, for we could hear nothing more. In a half hour it was repeated clearer and louder. We opened the door by drawing the snow into the house, and made a little opening through the drift so we could see daylight. "It was the barking of a fox," says one. "No," said another, "it was the growling of a bear." Whipple, who was half asleep, muttered, "It was just nothing at all." While these remarks were being made the Esquimo shout was clearly recognized. Petersen put his mouth to the aperture in the snow and shouted, "Huk! huk! huk!" After much shouting, two bewildered Esquimo entered our hut. They were from Netlik, the village we had last left, and one was Kalutunah. Their fur dress had a thick covering of snow, and, hardy though they were, they looked weary almost to faintness. They each held in one hand a dog-whip, and in the other a piece of meat and blubber. They threw down the food, thrust their whip-stocks under the rafters, hung their wet outer furs upon them, and at once made themselves at home. The chief hung around Dr. Hayes, saying fondly, "Doctee! doctee!" John put out his smoking fire, at the Angekok's request, and used his blubber in cooking a good joint of the bear meat. We all had a good meal at our guests' expense. Necessity was more than courtesy with hungry men. While the cooking and eating were going on, we listened to the marvelous story of the Esquimo. They left Netlik, forty miles north, the morning of the previous day on a hunting excursion with two dog-sledges. The storm overtook them far out upon the ice in search of bear, and they sheltered themselves in a snow hut for the night. Fearing the ice might break up they turned to the land, which they happened to strike near our boats and tent. Knowing we must be near, they picketed their dogs under a sheltering rock and commenced tramping and shouting. The supper eaten, the story told, and the curiosity of our visitors satisfied in closely observing every thing, we made for them the best bed possible, tucked them in, and they were soon snoring lustily. In the morning we tunneled a hole from our door through the snow. Kalutunah and Dr. Hayes went to the sea-shore. The dogs were howling piteously, having been exposed to all the fury of the storm during the night without the liberty of stirring beyond their tethers. Besides, they had been forty-eight hours without food, having come from home in that time through a widely deviating track. Every thing about them was carefully secured which could be eaten, and they were loosened. Dr. Hayes turned toward the hut, and having reached the snow-tunnel he was about to stoop down to crawl through it, when he observed the whole pack of thirteen snapping, savage brutes at his heels. Had he been on his knees they would have made at once a meal of him. They stood at bay for a moment, but seeing he had no means of attack, one of them commenced the assault by springing upon him. Dr. Hayes caught him on his arm, and kicked him down the hill. This caused a momentary pause. No help was near, and to run was sure death. It was a fearful moment, and his blood chilled at the prospect of dying by the jaws of wolfish dogs, whose fierce and flashing eyes assured him that hunger had given them a terrible earnestness. His eye improved the moment's respite in sweeping the circle of the enemy for the means of escape, and he caught a glimpse of a dog-whip about ten feet off. Instantly he sprang as only a man thus situated could spring, and clearing the back of the largest of the dogs, seized the whip. He was now master of the situation. Never amiable, and terribly savage when prompted by hunger, yet the Esquimo dog is always a coward. Dr. Hayes's vigorous blows, laid on at right and left with much effect and more sound and fury, sent the pack yelping away. In our discussions of the question of subsistence, we had about decided that we must draw our supplies from the Esquimo or perish. Our hunting was a failure, and our supply of food was about exhausted. So when Kalutunah came back we proposed to him through Petersen to purchase blubber and bear meat with our treasures of needles, knives, etc., so valuable in the eyes of the natives. He looked at our sunken cheeks and desolate home with a knowing twinkle of his eye, and a crafty expression on his besotted face. This was followed by the questions, "How much shoot with mighty guns? how much food you bring from ship?" These questions, and the speaking eye and tell-tale face, were windows through which we saw into the workings of his dark heathen mind. They meant, as we understood them, "If you are going to starve we had better let you. We shall then get your nice things without paying for them." But Petersen understood and outmanaged the crafty chief. "How we going to live?" he boldly exclaimed, facing the questioner. "Live! Shoot bear when we get hungry, sleep when we get tired; Esquimo will bring us bear, we shall give them presents, and sleep all the time. White man easily get plenty to eat. Always plenty to eat, plenty sleep." The glory of life from the Esquimo point of view is plenty to eat and nothing to do. They held those who had attained to this high estate in profound respect. The starving could scarcely be brought within the range of their consideration. Hence the policy adopted by Petersen, and it had its desired effect. Kalutunah and his companion tarried another night, and departed promising to return with such food as the hunt afforded, and exchange it for our valuables. Two weeks--days of misery--passed before their return. We set fox-traps, constructed much after the style of the rabbit-traps of the boys at home, tramping for this purpose over the coast-line for ten miles. One little prisoner only rewarded our pains, while the saucy villains showed themselves boldly by day, barking at us from the top of a rock, dodging across our path at the right and left, and even following us within sight of the hut. But all this was done at a safe distance from our guns. Petersen went far out to sea on the ice, but neither bear nor seal rewarded his toil. We had burned up our lard keg for our semi-daily fire to cook our scanty meals, and now, with a sorrow that went to our hearts, began to break up the "Hope." We knew this step argued badly for the future, but what could we do? Besides, it was poor, water-soaked fuel, and would last but a little while. We saved the straightest and best pieces for trade with the Esquimo. Our scanty meals, badly helped by the stone moss, told upon our health. Stephenson gasped for breath with a heart trouble; Godfrey fainted, and was happily saved a serious fall by being caught in John's arms. CHAPTER XIV. ESQUIMO TREACHERY. THE kind Providence which had interfered for us in so many cases came with timely help. October twenty-sixth, Kalutunah and his companion returned. They had been south to Cape York, nearly a hundred miles, calling on their way at the village called Akbat, thirty miles off. They had killed three bears, the most of which they had upon their sledges. They sold us, reluctantly, enough for a few days. We ate of the refreshing meat like starving men, as we really were. Our sunken eyes and hollow cheeks _seemed_ to leave us at a single meal. The faint revived, and our despondency departed. Our past sufferings were for the moment at least forgotten, and we looked hopefully upon the future. The next day the Esquimo called and left a little more meat and blubber. We caught two small foxes, one of them in a trap, and the other was arrested by a shot from Dr. Hayes's gun. The audacious little fellow run over the roof of our hut and awoke the doctor, who, without dressing, seized his double-barreled gun, and bolted into the cold without. It was dark, and he fired at random. The first shot missed, but the second wounded him, and he went limping down the hill. The doctor gave chase and returned with the game, but came near paying dear for his prize, barely escaping without frozen feet. On Sunday, the twenty-ninth, in the midst of pensive allusions, and more pensive thoughts, concerning home, in which even Petersen's weather-beaten face betrayed a tear, an Esquimo boy came in from Akbat. His bearing was manly, his countenance fresh and agreeable, if not handsome, and his dress, of the usual material, was new. He drove a fine team with decided spirit. He was evidently somebody's pet, and we thought we saw a mother's partial stamp upon him. He was on his way to Netlik, and our curious inquiries brought from him the blushing acknowledgment that he was going "a courting!" He was nothing loath to talk of his sweetheart, and he bore her a bundle of bird-skins to make her an under garment as love-token. We gave him a pocket-knife and a piece of wood, to which we added two needles for his lady-love. He was full of joy at this good fortune, but when Sontag added a string of beads for her his cup run over. He had on his sledge two small pieces of blubber, a pound of bear's meat, a bit of bear's skin. These he laid at our feet, and dashed off toward Netlik in fine spirits. When he was gone we renewed our ever-returning, perplexing, never-settled question, What shall we do? We could agree on no plans of escape, for all seemed impossible of execution. Yet we did agree in the expediency of opening a communication with the brig. But how to do it was the question. Our dependence upon the Esquimo growing more humiliatingly absolute every day, pained us. We feared their treachery, of which we already saw some signs. "What _shall we do_?" was ever repeated. While thus perplexed, Kalutunah made his appearance. With him were a young hunter, and a woman with a six months' old baby. The little one was wrapped in fox-skin, and thrust into its mother's hood, which hung on her neck behind. It peered out of its hiding-place with a contented and curious expression of face. Its mother had come forty miles, sometimes walking over the hummocky way, with the thermometer thirty-eight degrees below zero, with a liability of encountering terrific storms, and all to see the white men and their _igloë_. Mother and child arrived in good condition. We conversed with the chief about our plan of going to Upernavik on sledges, and proposed to buy teams of his people, or hire them to drive us there. He received the proposal with a decided dissent, amounting almost to resentment. His people, he said, would not sell dogs at any price; they had only enough to preserve their own lives. This we knew to be false. We offered a great price, but he scorned the bribe, and talked with an expression of horror about our plan of passing with sledges over the Frozen Sea, as he called Melville Bay. While we were urging the sale by him of dogs and sledges he looked quizzically at our emaciated forms and sunken cheeks, and turning to the woman with a significant twinkle in his eye, he sucked in his cheeks. She returned the knowing glance, and sucked in her cheeks. This meant: We shall get all the white men's coveted things without paying when we find them starved and dead. This was a comforting view of the case--for them. We dropped the plan of going south, and proposed to the chief to carry some of our party to the ship. This he readily assented to, and said at least four sledges should go with Petersen, if to each driver should be given a knife and piece of wood. We closed the bargain gladly, and Petersen was to start in the morning. Guests and entertainers now sought rest. We gave the mother and child our bed in the corner. This was to us a self-denying act of courtesy, compelled by policy. We had usually given a good distance between us and such lodgers on account of certain specimens of natural history which swarmed upon their bodies, which, though starving, we did not desire. But to put her in a meaner place would be a serious affront, for which we might be obliged to pay dearly. About midnight voices were heard outside, and soon our young lover, the boy-hunter, entered, accompanied by a widow who was neither young, nor beautiful. The hut was in instant confusion. There was but little more sleep for the night, which was peculiarly hard on Petersen, who was to start in the morning on his long journey. We had no food with which to treat our guests, which they saw, and so supped upon the provisions which they brought. The widow ate raw young birds, of which she brought a supply saved over from the summer. The Angekok had decided that her husband's spirit had taken temporary residence in a walrus, so she was forbidden that animal. She chewed choice bits of her bird and offered them to us. We tried _politely_ to decline the kindness, but our refusal plainly offended her. The widow's husband had been carried out to sea on an ice-raft on the sudden breaking up of the floe, and had never been heard from. Whenever his name was mentioned she burst into tears. Petersen told us that, according to Esquimo custom in such cases, we were expected to join in the weeping. At the first attempt our success was very indifferent. On the next occasion we equaled in sincerity and naturalness the expressed sorrow of the heirs of a rich miser over his mortal remains. Even the tears we managed so well that the widow, charitably forgetting our former affront, offered us more chewed meat. In the morning Petersen was off, Godfrey accompanying him at his own option. The same evening John and Sontag went south with the widow and young hunter. Thus four of us only were left in the hut, and of these, one, Stephenson, was seriously sick. His death at any time would not have been a surprise to us. The hut was colder than ever, and our food nearly gone. A few books, among which was a little Bible, the gift of a friend, were a great source of comfort. In a few days John and Sontag returned. They had fared well during their absence. They were accompanied by two Esquimo, who brought us food for a few days, for which they demanded an exorbitant price. They, like people claiming a higher civilization, took advantage of our necessity. When they were about to depart on a bear hunt, Dr. Hayes proposed that two of us accompany them with our guns, but they declined. We went with them to the beach, saw them start, watched them as they swiftly glided over the ice, and, dodging skillfully around the hummocks, faded into a black speck in the distance. The day was spent as one of rest by four of our number, while two of us visited the traps, returning as usual with nothing. The evening came. A cup of good coffee revived us. The temperature of our den _came up_ to the freezing point. We were in the midst of this feast of hot coffee and increased warmth, when we heard a footfall. We hailed in Esquimo, but no answer. Soon the outer door of our passage way opened, a man entered and fell prostrate with a deep moan. It was Petersen. He crept slowly in as we opened the door, staggered across the hut, and fell exhausted on the breck. Godfrey soon followed, even more exhausted. They both called piteously for "water! water!" They were in no condition to explain what had happened. We stripped them of their frozen garments, rubbed their stiffened limbs, and rolled them in warm blankets. We gave them of our hot coffee, and the warmth of the hut and dry clothes revived them, but the sudden and great change was followed by a brief cloud over their minds. They fell into a disturbed sleep, and their sudden starts, groans, and mutterings, told of some terrible distress. Petersen, while sipping his coffee, had told us that the Esquimo had thrown off their disguise and had attempted to murder them; that he and Godfrey had walked all the way from Netlik with the Esquimo in hot pursuit. We must watch, he said, for if off our guard they might overwhelm us with numbers. This much it was necessary for us to know; the details of their terrible experience he was in no mood to give. We immediately set a watch outside, who was relieved every hour; he was armed with Bonsall's rifle. Our other guns we fired off and carefully reloaded, hanging them upon their pegs for instant use. Petersen and Godfrey awoke once, ate, and lay down to their agitated sleep. No others slept, or even made the attempt. The creak of the boots of the sentinel as he tramped his beat near the hut, on a little plain cleared of snow by the wind, was the only sound which broke the solemn silence. The enemy would not dare attack us except unawares, knowing, as they did, that there were eight of us, armed with guns. At midnight noises were heard about the rocks of the coast. They were watching, but seeing the sentinel, and finding it a chilling business to wait for our cessation of vigilance, they sneaked away. In the morning one of our men visited the rocky coverts and found their fresh tracks. We received at the earliest opportunity the details of Petersen's story. They left us on the third of November, and were gone four days. They arrived in Netlik in nine hours, and were lodged one in each of the two _igloës_. Their welcome had a seeming heartiness. They had a full supply set before them of tender young bear-steak and choice puppy stew. Many strangers were present, and they continued to come until the huts were crowded. The next day the hunters all started early on the chase, to get, as Kalutunah said, a good supply for their excursion to the ship, as well as a store for their families. This looked reasonable, but when night came the chief and a majority of the men returned not, nor did they appear the next day. The moon had just passed its full, no time could be spared for trifling, and Petersen grew uneasy. This feeling was increased by the strangers which continued to come, the running to and fro of the women, the side glances, and the covert laugh among the crowd. Kalutunah returned on the evening of the third day of our men at the hut. Several sledges accompanied him, and one of them was driven by a brawny savage by the name of Sipsu. He had shown his ugly face once at our hut. He was above the usual height, broad-chested and strong limbed. He had a few bristly hairs upon his chin and upper lip, and dark, heavy eyebrows overshadowed his well set, evil-looking eyes. He was every inch a savage. While the crowd laughed, joked, and fluttered curiously about the strangers, Sipsu was dignified, sullen, or full of dismal stories. He had, he said, killed two men of his tribe. They were poor hunters, so he stole upon them from behind a hummock, and harpooned them in the back. Whatever shrewdness Sipsu possessed, he did not have wit enough to hide his true character from his intended victims. About twelve sledges were now collected, and Petersen supposed they would start early in the morning for the "Advance," so he ventured to try to hurry them a few hours by suggesting midnight for the departure. To this suggestion they replied that they would not go at all, and that they never intended to go. The crowd in the hut greeted this announcement with uproarious laughter. Petersen maintained a bold bearing. He rose and went to the other hut and put Godfrey upon the watch, telling him what had happened. He then returned and demanded good faith from the chiefs. They only muttered that they could not go north; they could not pass that "blowing place"--Cape Alexander. He then asked them to sell him a dog-team; he would pay them well. They evaded this question, and Sipsu said to Kalutunah, in a side whisper, "We can get his things in a cheaper way." Now commenced the game of wait and watch between the two parties; the chiefs waited and watched to kill Petersen, and he waited and watched not to be killed. He had his gun outside, because the moisture of the hut condensing on the lock might prevent it from going off. He had told the crowd that if they touched it it might kill them, and this fear was its safety. Those inside thought he had a pistol concealed under his garments. They had seen such articles, and witnessed their deadly power. Their purpose now was to get possession of this weapon, and Sipsu was the man to do it. Petersen, cool as he was prompt and skillful, had not betrayed his suspicions of them; so he threw himself upon the breck and feigned himself asleep, to draw out their plans. The strategy worked well. The gossiping tongues of men, women, and children loosened when they thought him asleep, and they revealed all their secrets. Petersen and Godfrey were to be killed on the spot, and our hut was to be surprised before Sontag and John returned from the south. Sipsu the while moved softly toward Petersen to search for the pistol. Just at this moment Godfrey came to the window and hallooed to learn if his chief was alive. Petersen rose from his sham sleep and went out. A crowd were at the door and about the gun, but they dared not touch it. The intended victims kept a bold front, and coolly proposed a hunt. This the natives declined, and they declared they would go alone. It was late in the night when our beset and worried men started. They were watched sullenly until they were two miles away, and then the sledges were harnessed for the pursuit. Fifty yelping dogs mingled their cries with those of the men, and made a fiendish din in the ears of the flying fugitives. What could they do if the dogs were let loose upon them, having only a single rifle! One thing they intended should be sure; Sipsu or Kalutunah should die in the attack. When the pursuers seemed at the very heels of our men, _that one gun_ made cowards of the Esquimo chiefs. They seemed to understand _their_ danger. The whole pack of dogs and men turned seaward, and disappeared among the hummocks. They meant a covert attack. Keeping the shore and avoiding the hiding-places, Petersen and Godfrey pressed on. The night was calm and clear, but the cold was over fifty degrees below zero. When half way, at Cape Parry, they well-nigh fainted and fell. But encouraging each other, they still hurried onward, and made the fifty miles (it was forty in a straight line) in twenty-four hours. The reader understands why they arrived in such distress and exhaustion. CHAPTER XV. LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. DURING the two days following the return of Petersen and Godfrey we spent our working hours in building a wall about our hut. It was made of frozen snow, sawed in blocks by our small saw. This wall served a double purpose, that of breaking the wind from our hut, and as a defense against the Esquimo. It gave our abode the appearance of a fort, and we called it Fort Desolation. John muttered: Better call it Fort Starvation! This was in fact no unfitting designation. Our food was nearly gone. Those who alone could keep us from starving were seeking our lives. A feeble, flickering light made the darkness of our hut visible. Darkness, and dampness, and destitution were within, and without were fears. We could not be blamed, perhaps, if the death which threatened us seemed more desirable than life. Yet we could not forget Him who had so often snatched us from the jaws of our enemies--cold, hunger, and savages--and we trusted him to again deliver us. And this he did, for the next day Kalutunah and another hunter appeared. They did not come as enemies, but as angel messengers of mercy from the All-Merciful! The chief was at first shy, nor could he so far lay aside the cowardice of conscious guilt as to lay down for a moment his harpoon, at other times left at the hut door. He brought, to conciliate us, a goodly piece of walrus meat. After spending an hour with us he dashed out upon the ice on a moonlight hunt for bears. Petersen spent the day in making knives for the Esquimo, in anticipation of restored friendship. With an old file he filed down some pieces of an iron hoop, punching rivet holes with the file, and whittling a handle from a fragment of the "Hope." Though the knife, when done, was not like one of "Rogers's best," it was no mean article for an Esquimo blubber and bear meat knife. The next day four sledges and six Esquimo made us a call. One of them was our old friend the widow, with her bundle of birds under her arm. They were all shy at first, showing a knowledge at least of the wrong intended us, but we soon made them feel at home. It was indeed for our interest to do so. They bartered gladly walrus, seal, bear, and bird meat, a hundred pounds in all. It made a goodly pile, enough for four days, but, alas! the duty of hospitality, which we could not wisely decline, compelled us to treat our guests with it, and they ate one third! In three hours they were off toward Netlik. The next day an Esquimo man came from Northumberland Island; we had not seen him before, and he did not appear to have been in the council of the plotters against us. He sold us walrus meat, blubber, and fifty little sea fowl. Our health absolutely demanding a more generous diet, we ate three full meals, such as we had not had since leaving the ship. Our new friend's name was Kingiktok--which is, by interpretation, a rock. Mr. Rock was a man of few words, and of very civil behavior. We fancied him, and courted his favor by a few presents for himself and wife. They were gifts well bestowed, for he at once opened his mouth in valuable and startling communications. He said that he and his brother Amalatok were the only two men in the tribe who were friendly to us. Amalatok was the man we met on Northumberland Island, who will be remembered as skinning a bird so adroitly, and offering us lumps of fat scraped from its breast-bone with his thumb nail. Mr. Rock's talk run thus: He and this brother were in deadly hostility to Sipsu. The reason of this hostility was very curious. The brother's wife, whom we thought decidedly hag-like in her looks, was accounted a witch. _Why_ she was so regarded was not stated. Now the law of custom with this people is that witches may be put to death by any one who will do it by stealth. She may be pounced upon from behind a hummock and a harpoon or any deadly weapon may deal the fatal blow in the back, but a face to face execution was not allowed. It was understood that Sipsu assumed the office of executioner, and was watching the favoring circumstances. On the other hand the husband, and his brother, Mr. Rock, watched with courage and vigilance in behalf of the accused, while she lacked neither in her own watching. Thus the family had no fraternal relations with the villagers, though visits were exchanged between them. Concerning the conspiracy, Mr. Rock thus testified: Sipsu had for a long time counseled the tribe not to visit nor sell food to the white men, holding that they could not kill the bear, walrus, and seal, and would soon starve, and so all the coveted things would fall into Esquimo hands. Kalutunah, on the other hand, held that their "booms"--guns--could secure them any game, and that our poverty of food was owing to a dislike of work. There had arisen, too, a jealousy about the presents we gave. Sipsu's let-alone policy caused his wife to complain that she only of the women was without even a needle. This drove him to a reluctant visit to us in which he got but little, so the matter was not bettered. Besides this, the condition of apparent starvation, in which the visitors found us from time to time, finally gave popularity to Sipsu's position, and Kalutunah yielded to the older and stronger chief. When Petersen and Godfrey arrived at Netlik, Kalutunah went fifty miles to inform Sipsu at his home of the good occasion offered to kill them. Sipsu was to lead the attack, and Kalutunah follow. The arrangement was as we have stated, but failed on account of Sipsu's fear of the "auleit"--pistol. Having failed, his chagrin and anger led to the hot pursuit, in which he intended to set the dogs upon our men. But this failed when he saw how near he must himself venture to the "_boom_." This story agreed so well with what Petersen and Godfrey saw and suspected that we fully believed it. Mr. Rock left us in the morning, and that evening eleven natives, one of whom was Kalutunah, called upon us on their way from Akbat to Netlik. The Angekok was full of talk and smiles. He gave us a quarter of a young bear, for which we gave him one of Petersen's hoop-iron knives. He was not pleased with it, for he had learned before the difference between iron and steel. He attempted to cut a piece of frozen liver with it and it bent. He then bent it in the form of a U, and threw it spitefully away, grunting, "No good." We satisfied him with a piece of wood to patch his sledge. Among our guests were two widows having each a child. One of the little ones was stripped to the skin, and turned loose to root at liberty. It was three years old, and plainly the dirt upon its greasy skin had been accumulating just that length of time. One of the hunters was attended by his wife and two children--a girl four, and boy seven years old. The fat fires of the several families were soon in full blaze, which, added to the heat of nineteen persons, warmed our hut as it was never warmed before. The heat set the ceiling and walls dripping with the melted frost-work, and every thing was wet or made damp. Besides, the air became insufferable with bad odors. It was now Fort Misery. But the frozen meat at which we had been nibbling was soon thrown aside for hot coffee, steaming stew, and thawed blubber. Strips of blubber varying from three inches to a foot in length and an inch thick circulate about the hut. Strips of bear and walrus also go round. These strips are seized with the fingers, the head is thrown back, and the mouth is opened, one end is thrust in a convenient distance, the teeth are closed, it is cut off at the lips, and the piece is swallowed quickly, with the least possible chewing, that dispatch may be made, and the process repeated. The seven-year-old boy stood against a post, astride a big chunk of walrus, naked to the waist, as all the guests were. He was sucking down in good style a strip of blubber, his face and hands besmeared with blood and fat, which ran in a purple stream off his chin, and from thence streamed over the shining skin below. Our disconsolate widow supped apart, as usual, on her supply of sea-fowls. Four, each about the size of a half-grown domestic hen, was all she appeared to be able to eat! We all ate, and had enough. Then followed freedom of talk such as is wont to follow satisfied appetites, and jokes and songs went round. Godfrey amused the women and children with negro melodies, accompanied by a fancied banjo. Dr. Hayes and Kalutunah try to teach each other their languages. Bonsall looks on and helps. The chief is given "yes" and "no," and taught what Esquimo word they stand for. He tries to pronounce them, says "ee's" and "noe," and inquiringly says, "_tyma?_" (right?) Dr. Hayes nods, "tyma" with an encouraging smile, at which the chief laughs at the "_doctee's_" badly pronounced Esquimo. They try to count, and the Angekok says "_une_" for one, strains hard at "too" for two, and fails utterly at the "th" in three. The "doctee" tries the Esquimo one, gets patted on the back with "tyma! tyma!" accompanied with merry laughs. The chief tries again, gets prompted by punches in the ribs, and significant commendation in twitches of his left ear. Having reached ten, the Esquimo numerals are exhausted. Sontag, with the help of Petersen, questions one of the hunters about his people's astronomy. The result in part is as follows, and is very curious. The heavenly bodies are the spirits of deceased Esquimo, or of some of the lower animals. The sun and moon, are brother and sister. The stars we call "the dipper" are reindeer. The stars of "Orion's belt" are hunters who have lost their way. The "Pleiades" are a pack of dogs in pursuit of a bear. The _aurora borealis_ is caused by the spirits at play with one another. It has other teachings on the science of the heavens equally wise. But they are close observers of the movements of the stars. We went out at midnight to look after the dogs, and Petersen asked Kalutunah when they intended to go. He pointed to a star standing over Saunders Island, in the south. Passing his finger slowly around to the west he pointed at another star, saying, "When that star gets where the other is we will start." Our guests at last lay down to sleep, but we could not lie down near them nor allow them our blankets; so we watched out the night. CHAPTER XVI. DRUGGED ESQUIMO. THE visitors left in the morning. We were now all well except Stephenson. Though we had just eaten and were refreshed, in a few days we might be starving, so we renewed our planning. To open a communication with the "Advance" seemed a necessity. Petersen volunteered to make another effort if he could have one companion. Bonsall promptly answered, "I will be that companion," at which we all rejoiced, as he was the fittest man for the journey next to the Dane. A dog-team and a sledge were an acquisition now most needed for the proposed enterprise. In a few days an old man came in whom we had never seen, belonging far up Whale Sound; then came a hunter from Akbat with his family. Of these men after much bartering we purchased four dogs. Petersen commenced at once the manufacture of a sledge out of the wood left of the "Hope." All of his excellent skill was needed to make a serviceable article with his poor tools and materials. On the twentieth of November the sledge was nearly finished, and a breakfast on our last piece of meat assured us that what was done for our rescue must be done soon. But God's hand was, as usual, opened to supply us; in the evening a fox was found in our trap. Stephenson, who had been cheered by our tea, received the last cup. We were reduced to stone-moss, boiled in blubber, and coffee, and a short allowance of these, when two hunters left us three birds, on which we supped. We were now out of food. The Esquimo had, most of them, gone north, owing to the failure of game at the south; soon all would be gone. Further discussion led us to the conclusion that we must all return to the "Advance," and start soon unless we chose to die where we were. So we commenced preparations for the desperate enterprise. To carry out this plan it was absolutely necessary to have two more dogs, for which we must trust to our Esquimo visitors. A sledge drawn by six dogs could convey our small outfit and poor invalid Stephenson. We purposed to direct our course straight for Northumberland Island, which we hoped to reach by lodging one night in a snow-hut. For each person there must be a pair of blankets. Our clothing was wholly insufficient for such a journey, so we set at work to improve it the best we could. Our buffalo robes had been spread upon the stone breck for beds. They were of course frozen down; in some places solid ice of several inches' thickness had accumulated, into which they were imbedded. When disengaged, as they had to be with much care and great labor, the under side was covered with closely adhering pebble-stones. The robes were hung up to dry before we could work upon them. We now slept on a double blanket spread on the stones and pebbles--a sleeping which refreshed us as little as our moss food. We now, under the instructions of Petersen, cut up the buffalo robes and sewed them into garments to wear on our journey. We refreshed ourselves with frequent sips of coffee, of which, fortunately, we had a plenty, and made out one meal at night on walrus hide boiled or fried in oil, as we fancied. It was very tough eating. At the close of the second day's tailoring four hunters came in from Akbat, with five women and seven children. We stowed them all away for the night, and gladly did so for the opportunity of purchasing forty-eight small birds, a small quantity of dried seal meat, and some dried seal intestines imperfectly cleansed; but better, if possible, was the purchase of two dogs. Our team of six was complete. The hand of the great Provider was plainly manifested. The visitors were soon gone, but the four hunters came back the next day. They were bent on mischief. They stole, or tried to steal, whatever they saw, and seemed glad to annoy us. Unfortunately for us, close upon their heels came another party, from the south also, and equally bent on mischief. Among them was an old evil-eyed woman. Whatever she saw she coveted, and all that she could she stole. Going to her sledge as the party was about to start, we found a mixed collection of our articles, some of which could have been of no use to her. But we had missed two drinking cups which we could not find. We charged her with the theft, but she protested innocence. We threatened to search her sledge, and she straightway produced them, and, to conciliate us, threw down three sea-fowl. We were gladly thus conciliated. The whole party became so troublesome that we were compelled to drive them away. The hunters lingered about, intending, we feared, to steal our dogs, two of which were purchased of them. We set a watch until they seemed to have left the vicinity, but no sooner was the sentinel's back turned than one of them and one of the dogs were seen scampering off together. Bonsall seized his rifle, and a sudden turn round a rock by the thief saved him from the salutation of an ounce of lead. On the twenty-ninth of November we were ready for a start. Our outfit was meager enough. It consisted of eight blankets, a field lamp and kettle, two tin drinking cups, coffee for ten days, eight pounds of blubber, and two days' meat. This last consisted of sea-fowls boiled, boned, and cut into small pieces. They were frozen into a solid lump. We hoped to be at Northumberland Island in two days, and get fresh supplies. The sled was taken out through the roof of the hut, loaded, and the load well secured, and poor Stephenson carried out and placed on top of it. The dogs were then harnessed, and we moved away. The thermometer was forty-four degrees below zero when we left the hut, but it was calm, and the moon shone with a splendid light. We were weary and ready to faint at the end of one hour, how then could we endure days of travel! The sledge was a poor one, the runners, the best our material afforded, were rough, and the dogs could not drag the sledge without two of us pushed, which we did in turn. We had thus gone about eight miles when Stephenson said he would walk. This we refused to let him do, knowing his extreme weakness. But soon after he slid off the sledge. Dr. Hayes assisted him to rise, and supported his attempt to walk. He had thus gone about a mile when he fell and fainted. Near us was an iceberg in whose side was a recess something like a grotto. Into this we bore our companion, and added to the shelter by piling up blocks of snow. The lamp was lighted to prepare him hot coffee. For some time he remained insensible, and when he came to himself he begged us to leave him and save ourselves. He could never, he said, reach the "Advance," and he might as well die then as at a later hour. Go without Stephenson we would not. Go with him seemed impossible. In fact we were all too weary to take another step, so we concluded to camp. But this, after unloading our sledge and making some effort, we could not do. We had no strength to make a hut, and we were already bitten by the frost; so we resolved to repack the sledge and return to the hut. All arrived at the hut that day, but how and exactly at what time we did not know, only that some were an hour behind others, and that several finished the journey by creeping on their hands and knees. We had just enough consciousness left to bring in our blankets and spread them on those we left on the breck, and to close up the hole in the roof. We then lay down and slept through uncounted hours. When we awoke it was nearly noon. Though hungry, cold, and weak, we were not badly frost-bitten. The first desirable thing was a fire. The tinder-box with its fixings could not be found. The one having it in charge remembered it was used at the berg, and this we all knew, and that was all any one knew about it. Without this we could have no fire. Never before in all our exigencies was such a feeling of despair expressed on our countenances. In this plight one in attempting to walk across the tent struck something with his foot. We all knew the tinder-box by its rattle. Our lamp was soon lighted, coffee was made, and half of our meat warmed. The other half was given to Petersen and Bonsall, who started immediately to go, as we had once before planned, to the brig, while the rest remained in the hut. Dr. Hayes and Sontag accompanied them to the shore. The last words of the noble Petersen were: "If we ever reach the ship we will come back to you, or perish in the attempt, so sure as there is a God in heaven." Four days passed, after our companions left us, of accumulating misery. The hut was colder than ever, and we were in utter darkness most of the time. Our food was now scraps of old hide, so hard that the dogs had refused it. In this our condition of absolute starvation, three hunters, with each a dog-team, came to us from Netlik, one of whom was Kalutunah. They entered our hut with only two small pieces of meat in their hands, enough for a scanty meal for themselves. We appropriated one piece to ourselves without ceremony. The visitors frowned and protested, but this was not a moment with us for words. We soon satisfied, or seemed to satisfy, them by presents, and both pieces were soon steaming. Dr. Hayes renewed his proposal for the Netlik people to carry us to the "Advance." Kalutunah refused curtly. Would they _let_ teams to us for that purpose? No! The spirit of the refusal was, We won't help you. We know you must starve, and we desire you to do so that we may possess your goods. It was evident they understood our desperate condition perfectly. These convictions of their purposes and feelings were confirmed when one of our number found buried in the snow, near their sledges, several large pieces of bear and walrus meat. This they were evidently determined we should not taste. Kalutunah did not pretend that destitution or short supplies at Netlik made a journey to the brig inconvenient, but, as if to taunt us, said that a bear, a walrus, and three seals had been taken the day before. The case then, as we saw it, stood thus: Six civilized men must die because three savages, who had plenty, choose to let them, that they might be benefited by their death. We at once and unanimously decided that it should not be so, and that the Esquimo should not thus leave us. Not willing to do them unnecessary harm, Dr. Hayes proposed to give them a dose of opium; then to take the dogs and sledge and push forward to Northumberland Island, leaving them to come along at their leisure when they awoke. We could, we thought, push forward fast enough to be out of the reach of any alarm that might reach Netlik. To this proposal all agreed. To carry it into execution we became specially sociable, and free with our presents. To crown the freeness of our hospitality we set before them the stew just prepared, into which Dr. Hayes had turned slyly when it was over the fire a small vial of laudanum. To prevent any one getting an over dose it had been turned out into three vessels, an equal portion for each. It was, of course, very bitter. They at first swallowed it very greedily, but tasting the bitter ingredient only ate half of it. The next few moments were those of intense anxiety. Would it stupefy them? Soon, however, their eyes looked heavy, and their heads drooped. They begged to lie down, and we tucked them up this time in our blankets. We were in our traveling suits ready for a start, dog-whips at hand. As a last act Godfrey reached up to a shelf for a cup, and down came its entire contents with a startling noise. Dr. Hayes put out the light with his mitten, and cuddled down instantly by the side of Kalutunah. The chief awoke, as was feared, grunted, and asked what was the matter. The "doctee" patted him and whispered, "Singikok," (sleep.) He laughed, muttered something, and was soon snoring. Fearing from this incident that we could not trust the soundness nor length of time of their sleep, we carried off their boots, coats, and mittens, that they might be detained in the tent until relief came. Stephenson was, most fortunately, better than he had been for some time, being able to carry a gun and walk. All the firearms being secured, Dr. Hayes stood at one side of the door outside with a double-barrelled shot-gun, and Stephenson on the other with a rifle. The purpose was if they awoke to compel them, at the mouth of the guns, to drive us north. Sontag and the others brought up the most of the meat which was buried in the snow, and put it in the passage way. This would last five or six days, and keep the prisoners from starving until help came. The dogs being harnessed, we mounted the sledges and once more turned our backs on Fort Desolation. The dogs objected decidedly to this whole proceeding; they especially disliked their new masters, and were determined on mischief. John and Godfrey were given by their team a ride a mile straight off the coast instead of alongside of it, as they desired to go. Dr. Hayes was worse used by his. They drew in different directions, went pell-mell, first this way, then that, at one time carrying him back nearly to the hut. Finally they became subdued apparently, and sped swiftly in the way they were guided. The other sledges had in the mean time dropped into the desired course. All seemed to be going well, when, just as the doctor's dogs had shot by the other teams, they suddenly turned round, some to the right and others to the left, turning the sledge over backward, and rolling the men into a snow-drift. The doctor grasped firmly the "up-stander" of the sledge, and was dragged several yards before he recovered his feet. As the dogs at this moment were plunging through a ridge of hummocks, the point of the runner caught a block of ice. The traces of all the dogs excepting two snapped, and away went the freed dogs to their imprisoned masters. They yelped a taunting defiance as they disappeared in the distance. The doctor and Mr. Stephenson, taking each a dog, went to the other teams, and we were again on the fly, leaving the third sledge jammed in the hummock. We reached in safety the southern point of Cape Parry, found a sheltering cave, and camped. CHAPTER XVII. BACK AGAIN. WE tarried in our camp full two hours. We obtained a pot of hot coffee and rest. The whips had been used so freely that they required repairing, for without their efficient help there could be no progress. All being in readiness, we were about starting when three Esquimo came in sight. They were those we had left asleep in our hut! Dr. Hayes and Mr. Sontag seized their guns, and rushed down the ice-foot to meet them. They stood firm until our men, coming within a few yards, leveled their guns at them. They instantly turned round and threw their arms wildly about, exclaiming in a frantic voice, "Na-mik! na-mik! na-mik!"--don't shoot! don't shoot! don't shoot! Dr. Hayes lowered his rifle and beckoned them to come on. This they did cautiously, and with loud protestations of friendship. By this time Whipple had come up. Each of our men seized a prisoner, and marched him into the camp. Reaching the mouth of the cave, the doctor turned Kalutunah round toward his sledge, pointed to it with his gun, and then turning north, gave him to understand, mostly by signs, that if he took the whip which lay at his feet, and drove us to the "Oomeaksoak" (ship) he should have his dogs, sledge, coat, boots, and mittens; but if they did not do so that he and his companions would be shot then and there; and to give emphasis to his words, he pushed him away and leveled his gun. The chief went sideling off, crying, "Na-mik, na-mik!" at the same time imitated the motion of a dog--driving with his right hand, and pointed north with the other. His declaration was, "Don't shoot! I'll drive you to the ship!" Dr. Hayes seeing he was understood, told Kalutunah that the dogs and sledges were the white men's until the promise was fulfilled, to which he answered, "tyma"--all right, approaching with smiles and the old familiarity, as though some great favor had been done him. He could respect pluck and strength if nothing else. The prisoners had been awakened by our escaped dogs, which, on arriving at the hut, run over the roof and howled a startling alarm. Their masters starting up, found means of lighting a lamp, and being refreshed by sleep and the food we left, entered at once on the pursuit. Coming to the abandoned sledge, they harnessed the dogs and made good time on our trail, bringing away with them as many of our treasures as they could well carry. They were rare looking Esquimo just at this moment. They had cut holes in the middle of our blankets and thrust their heads through. One had found a pair of cast-off boots and put them on; the others had bundled their feet up in pieces of blanket. Neither of them had suffered much from cold. We expressed our confidence in their promises by restoring their clothes. They jumped into them, happy as Yankee children on the Fourth of July. They were as obedient, too, as recently whipped spaniels. They touched neither dogs, sledge, nor whip until they were bidden. "Onward to Netlik!" we shouted as we mounted our sledges and dashed away. Our distant approach was greeted by the howling of a pack of dogs, which snuffed our coming in the breeze. As we drew nearer, men, women, and children ran out to meet us. As soon as we halted fifty curious and wondering savages crowded around us, pressing the questions why we were brought by their friends, and why we came at all. But our bearing was that of those who came because they pleased to come without condescending to give reasons why. We told Kalutunah that three of us would go to each of the two huts, and stop long enough to eat and sleep, and then we would continue our journey. A renewed leveling at him of our guns, and pointing northward, brought out the prompt "tyma," giving the gaping bystanders a hint of the nature of our arguments for the services of their friends. When we had entered the huts, the crowd rushed in too, making quite too many for comfort or safety. We told our hosts to order out all but the regular occupants of the huts, as many strangers had come in who were lodging in the adjoining snow-huts. They did not understand our right to give such a command until a hint about our "booms" convinced them. Ours was the right of self-preservation by superior strength. We had traveled fifteen successive hours, making in the time fifty miles. So weary were we that even these Esquimo dens, affording as they did refreshment and rest without danger of freezing, were delightful places of entertainment. The women kindly removed our mittens, boots, and stockings, and hung them up to dry. They then brought us frozen meat, which intense hunger compelled us to try to eat, but the air of the hut was one hundred and twenty degrees warmer than that without, and we fell asleep with the food between our teeth. Having taken a short nap we were aroused by the mistress of the house, who had prepared a plentiful meal of steaming bear-steak. We ate and slept alternately until the stars informed us that we had rested twenty-seven hours. We intimated to Kalutunah that we would be going, and in a few moments he had every thing in readiness. Our next halting place was Northumberland Island, a distance, as we traveled, of thirty miles, which we made in six hours. Here we found two huts belonging to our old friends, Amalatok and his brother, "Mr. Rock." We divided ourselves into companies of threes as before, and made ourselves at home in the two households. Mr. Rock, aided by his wife, and the witch-wife of his brother, was kindly attentive. Our fare was varied by abundant supplies of sea-birds, which in their season swarm here. We tarried until our physical strength was sensibly increased. We learned that Petersen and Bonsall had been at this hospitable halting-place, eaten and rested, and pushed northward under the guidance of Amalatok. Our next run was to Herbert Island, and, passing round its northwestern coast, we struck across to the mainland, and halted near Cape Robertson, at the village of Karsooit. We were on the northern shore of the mouth of Whale Sound. We had made a run of fifty miles, halting to eat our frozen food only once. We had walked much of the way to prevent being frozen, and to lighten the load of the dogs over a rough way. The village consisted of two huts half a mile apart. One of them belonged to Sipsu, our old enemy. He received us gruffly, and because he felt that he must. His only kindness was a fear of our _booms_. The huts were crowded, there being here, as at Netlik, many stranger visitors from the south. We were almost suffocated on entering, passing as we did from a temperature of fifty degrees below zero to one seventy-five above. Our entertainers immediately laid hold of our clothes and began to strip us. They were much surprised at our persistence in retaining a certain part of them. We feasted on seal flesh, slept, were refreshed and encouraged. Our stay was short, and our next run was to a double hut, a distance of thirty miles, which we made in five hours. We had been joined at Karsooit by an old hunter named Ootinah. We were on four sledges, the dogs were in good condition, the ice smooth, the drivers full of merriment and shouts of "Ka! ka!" by which their teams were stimulated onward. Our next run was to be one of sixty miles, including the rounding of Cape Alexander, and ending at Etah. It was to be a terrific adventure we well knew. At the mention of it our drivers shrugged their shoulders. The natives dread the storms of this cape, with their blinding snows, as the wandering Arabs of the desert do a tempest-cloud of sand. The first twenty miles was made comfortably. But we were yet many miles from the rocky fortress guarding the Arctic Sea, when we were saluted with a stunning squall. It cut us terribly, though it was but an eddy, for the wind was at our backs; it was only a rough hint of what we might expect when the giant of the cape sent his blast squarely in our faces. The night came on, lighted only by the twinkling stars. The ice was smooth, and the wind at our backs drove our sledges upon the heels of the dogs, who ran howling at the top of their speed to keep out of their way. The cliffs, a thousand feet above us, threw their frowning shadows across our path, pouring upon the plain clouds of snow sand, and shouting in the roaring wind their defiance at our approach. Yet we sped swiftly on, until a dark line was seen ahead with wreaths of "frost-smoke" curling over it. "Emerk! emerk!" shouted the Esquimo. "Water! water!" echoed our men. Our teams "reined up" within a few yards of a recently opened crack, now twenty feet across and rapidly widening. We were quite near Cape Alexander, but between it and us was ice, across which numerous cracks had opened. Against the cape was open water, whose sullen surges fell dismally upon our ears. It was plain that we could not go forward upon the floe; to mount the almost perpendicular wall to the land above was impossible; to turn back and thus face the storm would be certain death. Our case seemed desperate. Even the hardy Esquimo shrunk at the situation and proposed the return trail, against which to us, at least, ruinous course they could not be persuaded until the pistol argument was used. In our peering through the darkness for some way of escape we caught a glimpse of the narrow ice-foot, hanging over the water at the bottom of the cliff. Along this we determined to attempt a passage. We ascended this ice-foot by a ladder made of the sledges. Then we ran along the smooth surface and soon passed the open water below; but we had advanced a short distance only before a glacier barred our progress and turned us to the floe again. A short run on this brought us to another yawning crack with its impassable water. We ran along its margin with torturing anxiety, looking for an ice bridge. Finding a place where a point of ice spanned the chasm, within about four feet, Dr. Hayes made a desperate leap to gain the other side. Lighting upon this point, it proved to be merely a loose, small ice-raft which settled beneath his feet. Endeavoring to balance himself upon it to gain the solid floe beyond he fell backward, and would have gone completely under the water; but Stephenson, standing on the spot from which the doctor jumped, caught him under the arms and drew him out. As it was he had sunk deep into the cold stream, filling his boots and wetting his pants. In the mean time a better crossing was found, and Dr. Hayes followed the last of the party to the other side. We returned to the ice-foot and found a level and sufficiently wide drive-way, and made good progress, soon reaching and running along that part of the icy road which overlooked the open water below. We met with no interruption until we came to the extreme rocky projection of the cape. Here the ice-foot was sloping, and for several feet was only fifteen inches wide! Twenty feet directly below was the icy cold, dark water, sending up its dismal roar as it waited to receive any whose foot might slip in attempting the perilous passage. The wind howled fearfully as it swept over the cliff and along the ice-foot in our rear, pelting us incessantly with its snow sand. "Halt!" was passed along the line, and the whole party, men and dogs, crouched under the overhanging rocks, seeming for the moment like beings doomed to die a miserable death in a horrid place. There was no time for indecision, and the pause was but for a moment. Dr. Hayes, taking off his mittens, and clinging with his bare hands to the crevices of the rock, was the first to make the desperate experiment. His shout announcing his safe landing on the broad belt beyond the dangerous place, welling up as it did from a heart overflowing with emotions of joy and gratitude, sent a thrill of gladness along the shivering and shrinking line, of which even our poor dogs seemed to partake. The teams, each driven by its master, were next brought up, as near as safety permitted, to the narrow, slippery pathway. The dogs were then seized by their collars, and one by one dragged across safely. Next the sledges were brought forward. Turning them upon one runner, they were pushed along until the dogs could make them feel the traces; then a fierce shout from their drivers caused a sudden and vigorous spring of the animals, which whirled the sledges beyond the danger of sliding off the precipice. Cautiously, one by one, then came the remaining members of the party, all holding their breath in painful suspense, and each, we trust, in silent prayer, until all were safe over. The Divine arm and eye had been with us! We could not have gone back, nor have turned to the right or left. A few inches less of width in the ice-foot, or slightly more slope, and we had all perished! Except some frost bites on our fingers, every man was all right. We had traveled five miles on the ice shelf above the foaming sea. We now had a smooth, safe ice-foot, which conducted us soon to the solid ice-field of Etah Bay. Across this, fifteen miles, we scampered with joyous speed, and arrived at the village of our old Esquimo friends, a worn and weary, but thankful party. Good news met us at the hut. Petersen and Bonsall had, we were told, preceded us, and arrived safely at the ship. But our trials were not ended. There was a sledge journey of ninety-one miles yet awaiting us. Dr. Hayes's frosted feet gave him intense pain and he could not sleep. There was danger, if the heat of the hut thawed them, that he would lose them altogether. So, after only four hours' rest, he whispered his intention of a speedy departure toward the "Advance," to Sontag, who was to take charge of the party; he then crept stealthily out of the hut, accompanied by Ootinah, the faithful Esquimo from Karsooit. Sontag was not to mention his departure to his comrades until they were rested and refreshed. He had hardly started before the rest of our company were at his heels. They did not wish their leader to endure the perils of the journey without them; besides, they too had reason for a desire to be speedily at the brig. The wind was high, the floe full of hummocks, the cold intense, and altogether the journey was not unlike in its dangers that already endured. Whipple, ere they had reached the end, began to whisper that he was not cold, and finally fell from the rear sledge, benumbed and senseless, and was not missed until he was a hundred yards behind. He was lifted again to the sledge, but others gave signs of the approach of the same insensibility. But the track becoming smoother, the drivers cracked their whips and shouted fiercely, goading onward their teams to their utmost speed in the fearful race for life. Now old familiar landmarks are passed; the hull of the dismantled ship opens in the distance, and its outlines grow clearer until we shout with feeble voices, but in gladness of heart, "_Back again!_" During the last forty hours we had been in almost continual exposure, with the thermometer eighty degrees below zero, in which time we had traveled a hundred and fifty miles. During the run of ninety-one miles from Etah to the "Advance" we encamped once only, but failing to light our lamp, or to secure any protection from the cold, we immediately decamped and finished our run of forty-one miles. CHAPTER XVIII. SCARES. WHEN the Esquimo arrived with Bonsall and Petersen, Dr. Kane resolved at once to send them back with supplies for the remaining portion of Dr. Hayes's company, supposed to be, if living, at the miserable old hut. Petersen and Bonsall were utterly unable to accompany them. Of the scanty ship's store he caused to be cleaned and boiled a hundred pounds of pork; small packages of meat-biscuit, bread-dust, and tea were carefully sewed up, all weighing three hundred and fifty pounds; and the whole was intrusted to the returning convoy, who gave emphatic assurances that these treasures, more precious than gold to those for whom they were intended, should be promptly and honestly delivered. But this promise, we have seen, they did not keep, and, probably, did not intend to keep; they ate or wasted the whole. This untrustworthy trait of the Esquimo character goes far to show that nothing but Dr. Hayes's "boom" could have assured their help in his desperate necessities. When Dr. Hayes arrived it was midnight. Dr. Kane met him at the gangway and gave him a brother's welcome. All were taken at once into the cabin. Ohlsen was the first to recognize Hayes as he entered, and, kissing him, he threw his arms around him and tossed him into the warm bed he had just left. The fire was set ablaze, coffee and meat-biscuit soup were prepared, and, with wheat bread and molasses, were set before them. In the mean time their Esquimo apparel was removed and hung up to dry. They ate and slept; but many weary days passed, under skillful treatment by Dr. Kane, and kind care by all, before they fully recovered from the strain of their terrible exposures and fearful journey. When the returned comrades were duly cared for, Dr. Kane turned his attention to the conciliation of the Esquimo who had accompanied them back. They, of course, had their complaints to make, and, may be, meditated revenge, though they were, as usual, full of smiles. It was the white chief's policy to impress them with his great power and stern justice. He assembled both parties, the Hayes men and their Esquimo, in conference on deck. Both were questioned as if it were a doubt who had been the offenders. This done, he graciously declared to the savage members of the council his approval of their conduct, which he made emphatic, in the Esquimo way, by pulling their hair all around. The great Nalekok having thus expressed his good will, showed it still further by introducing his guests, now to be considered friends, into the mysterious _igloë_ below where they had not before been permitted to enter. Their joy was that of indulged children during a holiday. They were seated in state on a red blanket. Four pork-fat lamps burned brilliantly; ostentatiously paraded were old worsted damask curtains, hunting knives, rifles, chronometers, and beer-barrels, which, as they glowed in the light, astonished the natives. With a princely air, which, no doubt, seemed to the recipients almost divine, he dealt out to each five needles, a file, and a stick of wood. To the two head men, Kalutunah and Shunghu, knives and other extras were given. A roaring fire was then made and a feast cooked. This eaten, buffaloes were spread about the stove, and the guests slept. They awoke to eat, and ate to sleep again. When they were ready to go, the white chief explained that the sledges, dogs, and some furs, which his men had taken, had been taken to save life, and were not to be considered as stolen goods, and he then and there restored them. They laughed, voted him in their way a good fellow, and, in fine spirits, dashed away, shouting to their wolfish dogs. They had taken special care, however, to add to the treasures so generously given, a few stolen knives and forks. As the whole company are now crowded into the little cabin, and the darkness is without, so that the days pass without much incident, except that all are crowded with heavy burdens upon mind and body, we will listen to a few of the yet untold stories of the earlier winter. At one time Dr. Kane attempted a walrus hunt. Morton, Hans, Ootuniah, Myouk, and "a dark stranger," Awahtok, accompanied him. He took a light sledge drawn by seven dogs, intending to reach the farthest point of Force Bay by daylight. But as the persistency of the Esquimo had overladen the sledge, they moved slowly, and were overtaken by the night on the floe in the midst of the bay. The snow began to drift before an increasing storm. While driving rapidly, they lost the track they had been following; they could see no landmarks, and in their confusion, turned their faces to the floating ice of the sound. The Esquimo, usually at home on the floe, whether by night or by day, were quite bewildered. The dogs became alarmed, and spread their panic to the whole party. They could not camp, the wind blew so fiercely, so they were compelled to push rapidly forward, they knew not whither. Checking, after a while, their speed, Dr. Kane gave each a tent-pole to feel their way more cautiously, for a murmur had reached his ear more alarming than the roar of the wind. Suddenly the noise of waves startled him. "Turn the dogs!" he shouted, while at the same moment a wreath of frost smoke, cold and wet, swept over the whole party, and the sea opened to them with its white line of foam, about one fourth of a mile ahead. The floe was breaking up by the force of the storm. The broken ice might be in any direction. They could now guess where they were, and they turned their faces toward an island up the bay. But the line of the sea, with its foaming waves, followed them so rapidly that they began to feel the ice bending under their feet as they ran at the sides of the sledge. The hummocks before them began to close up, and they run by them at a fearful risk as they hurried cautiously forward, stumbling over the crushed fragments between them and the shore. It was too dark to see the island for which they were steering, but the black outline of a lofty cape was dimly seen along the horizon, and served as a landmark. As they approached the shore edge of the floe they found it broken up, and its fragments surging against the base of the ice-foot to which they desired to climb. Being now under the shadow of the land, it was densely dark. Dr. Kane went ahead, groping for a bridge of ice, having a rope tied round his waist, the other end of which was held by Ootuniah, who followed, at whose heels came the rest of the party. The doctor finally succeeded in clambering upon the ice-foot, and the rest one after another followed with the dogs. The joy of their escape broke out into exultation when they ascertained that the land was Anoatok, only a short distance from the familiar Esquimo huts. God had guided them with his all-seeing eye to where they would find needed refreshment! In less than an hour they were feasting on a smoking stew of walrus meat. Having eaten their stew and drank their coffee they slept--slept eleven hours! Well they might "after an unbroken ice-walk of forty-eight miles, and twenty haltless hours!" The Esquimo sung themselves to sleep with a monotonous song, in compliment to the white chief, the refrain of which was, "Nalegak! nalegak! nalegak! soak!"--"Captain! captain! great captain!" Without further special incident the party returned to the brig. At one time an alarm was brought to Dr. Kane that a wolf was prowling among the meat barrels on the floe. Believing that a wolf would be more profitably added to their store of meat than to have him take any thing from it, he seized a rifle and ran out. Yes, there he is, a wolf from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail! Bang goes the rifle, whiz goes the ball, making the hair fly from the back of--one of the sledge-dogs! He was not hurt much, but he came near paying with his life for the crime of running away from Morton's sledge. The fox-traps made occasion for many long walks, great expectations of game, and grievous disappointment. Dr. Kane and Hans were at one time examining them about two miles from the brig. They were, unfortunately, unarmed. The doctor thought he heard the bellow of a walrus. They listened. No, not a walrus, but a bear! Hark, hear him roar! They sprung to the ice-foot, about ten feet above the floe. Another roar, round and full! He is drawing nearer! He has a fine voice, and, no doubt, is large, and fat, and savory! But then a bear must be killed before he is eaten, and that is just where the difficulty lies. It don't do for two men to run, for that is an invited pursuit, and bears are good runners. "Hans!" exclaimed Dr. Kane, "run for the brig, and I will play decoy!" Hans is a good runner, and this time he did "his level best." Dr. Kane remains on the ice-foot alone. It is too dark to see many yards off, and the silence is oppressive, for the bear says nothing, and so Kane makes no reply. He queries whether, after all, there is any bear. How easy it is for the imagination to be excited amid these shadowy hummocks, and this dreary waste through which the wind roars so dismally! He gets down from his comparatively safe elevation upon the floe, puts his hand over his eyes, and peers into the darkness. No bear after all! But what's that rounded, shadowy thing? Stained ice? Yes, stained ice! But the stained ice speaks with a voice which wakes the Arctic echoes, and charges on our explorer. It is a hungry bear! Dr. Kane's legs are scurvy-smitten affairs, but this time they credit the fleetness of those of the deer. He drops a mitten, and his pursuer stops to smell of it, to examine it carefully, and to show his disgust at such game, by tearing it to pieces. These bears are famous for losing the bird by stopping to pick up his feathers. The man stops not, but drops another mitten as he flies. Before these articles are duly examined he has reached the brig. Dr. Kane has escaped, and the bear has lost his supper. It is now bruin's turn to run, for fresh hunters and loaded rifles are after him. He does run, and escapes! But if there were fears without the brig, there were fightings with a fearful enemy within. The crowded condition of the cabin, after the Hayes party returned, made it necessary for the pork-fat lamps to be set up outside the avenue, in a room parted off in the hold for their use. A watch was set over them, but he deserted his post, the fat flamed over and set the room ablaze. Eight of the men lay in their berths at the time helplessly disabled. The fire was only a few feet from the tinder-like moss which communicated with the cabin. The men able to work seized buckets, and formed a line to the well in the ice always kept open. In the mean time Dr. Kane rushed into the flames with some fur robes which lay at hand, and checked it for the moment. The water then came, and the first bucket full thrown caused a smoke and steam which prostrated him. Fortunately, in falling he struck the feet of the foremost bucket-man. He was taken to the deck, his beard, forelock, and eyebrows singed away, and sad burns upon his forehead and palms. Nearly all received burns and frost-bites, but in a half hour the fire was extinguished. The danger was horrid, and the escape wonderful! Neither wild beasts nor the flames hurt whom God protects! CHAPTER XIX. SEEKING THE ESQUIMO. DECEMBER twenty-fifth came, and our ice-bound, darkness-enshrouded, sick, or, in a measure, health-broken explorers tried to make it a merry Christmas. They all sat down to dinner together. "There was more love than with the stalled ox of former times, but of herbs none." They tried, at least, to forget their discomforts in the blessings they still retained, and to look hopefully on the long distance, and the many conflicts between them and their home and friends. Immediately after Christmas a series of attempts were commenced to open a communication with the Esquimo at Etah, ninety-one miles away. The supply of fresh meat was exhausted. The traps yielded nothing, and Hans's hunting could not go on successfully in the dark. The scurvy-smitten men were failing for the want of it, and so every thing must be periled to make the journey. The first thing to be done was to put the dogs, if possible, into traveling order. They were now few in number, for fifty had died, and the survivors had been kept on short rations. Their dead companions, which had been preserved in a frozen state, were boiled and fed to them for fresh food. Dog _did_ eat dog, and relished and grew stronger on the diet. Dr. Kane and Petersen made the first attempt, starting on the twenty-ninth of December. They had scarcely reached the forsaken huts of Anoatok, "the wind-loved spot," so often used as a resting place, when the dogs failed. A storm, with a bitter, pelting snow-drift, confined them awhile. An incident occurred here--one of the many which happened to the explorers--which shows plainly the unseen, but ever present, eye and hand which attended them. They were just losing themselves in sleep when Petersen shouted: "Captain Kane, the lamp's out!" His commander heard him with a thrill of horror! The storm was increasing, the cold piercing, and the darkness intense. The tinder had become moist and was frozen solid. The guns were outside, to keep them from the moisture of the hut. The only hope of heat was in relighting the lamp. A lighted lamp and heat they _must_ have. Petersen tried to obtain fire from a pocket-pistol, but his only tinder was moss, and after repeated attempts he gave it up. Dr. Kane then tried. He says:-- "By good luck I found a bit of tolerably dry paper in my jumper; and, becoming apprehensive that Petersen would waste our few percussion caps with his ineffectual snappings, I took the pistol myself. It was so intensely dark that I had to grope for it, and in doing so touched his hand. At that instant the pistol became distinctly visible. A pale, bluish light, slightly tremulous but not broken, covered the metallic parts of it, the barrel, lock, and trigger. The stock too was clearly discernible, as if by the reflected light, and, to the amazement of both of us, the thumb and two fingers with which Petersen was holding it, the creases, wrinkles, and circuit of the nails, clearly defined upon the skin. The phosphorescence was not unlike the ineffectual fire of the glowworm. As I took the pistol my hand became illuminated also, and so did the powder-rubbed paper when I raised it against the muzzle. "The paper did not ignite at the first trial, but the light from it continuing, I was able to charge the pistol without difficulty, rolled up my paper into a cone, filled it with moss sprinkled over with powder, and held it in my hand while I fired. This time I succeeded in producing flame, and we saw no more of the phosphorescence." When the storm subsided they made further experiment to reach Etah. But dogs and men found the wading impossible, and they returned to the brig, the dogs going ahead and the men walking after them. They made the forty-four miles of their circuitous route in sixteen hours! Thus closed the year 1854. The three following weeks were mainly occupied by Dr. Kane in a careful preparation for another attempt to reach Etah, this time with Hans. Old Yellow, one of the five dogs on which success in a measure depended, stalked about the deck with "his back up," as much as to say, "I must have more to eat if I am going." Jenny, a mother dog, had quite a family of little ones. Yellow being very hungry, and not seeing the use of such young folks, gobbled one of them down before his master could say, "Don't you." Dr. Kane taking the hint, and thinking that the puppies would not be dogs soon enough for his use, shared with Yellow the rest of the litter. So both grew stronger for the journey. The new year, 1855, came in with a vail of darkness over the prospects of our explorers. The sick list was large, and threatened to include the whole party. A fox was caught occasionally, and beyond this stinted supply there was no fresh meat. On Tuesday, January twenty-third, the commander and Hans, with the dog-team, turned their faces toward the Esquimo. All went well for a while, until hope rose of accomplishing the journey, getting savory walrus, and cheering their sinking comrades. Suddenly, Big Yellow, in spite of nice puppy soup, gave out, and went into convulsions. Toodla, the next best animal, failed soon after. The moon went down, and the dark night was upon the beset but not confounded heroes. Groping for the ice-foot, they trudged fourteen wretched hours, and reached the old _igloë_ at Anoatok. The inevitable storm arose, with its burden of snow driven by a strange, moistening southeast wind, burying the hut deep and warm. The temperature rose seventy degrees! An oppressive sensation attacked Dr. Kane and Hans, and alarming symptoms were developed. Water ran down from the roof, the doctor's sleeping bag of furs was saturated, and his luxurious eider down, God's wonderful cold defier, was "a wet swab." After two days in this comfortless hut, the storm having subsided, they once again pushed toward Etah! Their sick, failing comrades were the spur to this desperate effort. But it was in vain, for the deep, moist snow, the hummocks and the wind, defied even desperate courage. They returned to the hut and spent another wretched night. In the morning, in spite of short provisions, exhaustion, continued snowing, they climbed the ice-foot, and for four haltless hours faced toward the Esquimo! But in vain. Dr. Kane says: "My poor Esquimo, Hans, adventurous and buoyant as he was, began to cry like a child. Sick, worn out, strength gone, dogs fast and floundering, I am not ashamed to admit that, as I thought of the sick men on board, my own equanimity was at fault." Dr. Kane scrambled up a familiar hill that was near and reconnoitered. He was delighted to see, winding among the hummocks, a level way! He called Hans to see it. With fresh dogs and fresh supplies, they could certainly reach Etah. So, after another night at the hut, they returned to the brig, comforting the sick with the assurance that success would come on the next trial. The month closed with only five effective men, including the commander, and of these some were about as much sick as well. Dr. Kane could not be spared from his patients, so, February third, Petersen and Hans tried another Etah adventure. In three days they returned, with a sorrowful tale from poor Petersen of heroic efforts ending in exhaustion and defeat. But God always sent many rays of light through the densest darkness besetting our explorers to cheer them and inspire hope. The yellow tints of coming sunlight were at noonday faintly painted on the horizon. The rabbits prophesied the spring by appearing abroad, and two were shot. They yielded a pint of raw blood, which the sickest drank as a grateful cordial. Their flesh was also eaten raw, and with great thankfulness. Following these moments of comfort came a dismal and anxious night. Thick clouds over-spread the sky, a heavy mist rendered the darkness appalling, followed by a drifting snow and a fearful storm. The wind howled and shrieked through the rigging of the helpless, battered brig, as if in mockery of her condition and the sufferings of her inmates. Goodfellow had gone inland with his gun during the brief day, and had not returned. Roman candles and bluelights were burned to guide him homeward. Altogether it was a night to excite the superstitious fears of the sailors, and they proved to be not beyond the reach of such fears. Tom Hickey, the cook, having been on deck while the gale was in its full strength, to peer into the darkness for him, ran below declaring that he had seen Goodfellow moving cautiously along the land-ice and jump down on the floe. He hurried up his supper to give the tired messmate a warm welcome, but no one came. Dr. Kane went out with a lantern, looked carefully around for some hundreds of yards, but found no fresh footsteps. Tom seriously insisted that he had seen Goodfellow's apparition! Such was the state of things when one of the sailors went on deck. There was hanging in the rigging an old seal-skin bag containing the remnant of the ship's furs. Its ghostly appearance in ordinary darkness had been the occasion of much jesting. Now, to the excited imagination of the sailor, it pounded the mast like the gloved fist of a giant boxer, glowed with a ghastly light, and muttered to him an unearthly story. He did not stop to converse with it, but hastened below with the expression of his fears. His messmates laughed and jeered at his tale, but their merriment was but the whistling to inspire their own courage. The morning came and so did Goodfellow, none the worse for his night's experience. The storm subsided, Hans killed three rabbits, they all tasted a little and felt better, and the seal-skin bag was never known from that time to utter a word. _Fears_ may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning! Dr. Kane devoutly remarks: "See how often relief has come at the moment of extremity; see, still more, how the back has been strengthened to its increasing burden, and the heart cheered by some unconscious influence of an unseen POWER." CHAPTER XX. DESERTERS. HANS had been for some time promising the hungry company a deer. He had seen their tracks, and he was watching for them with a good rifle, a keen eye, and a steady hand. He came in on the evening of February twenty-second with the good news that he had lodged a ball in one at a long range, and that he went hobbling away. He was sure he should find him dead in the morning. The morning came and the game was found, having staggered, bleeding, only two miles. He was a noble fellow, measuring in length six feet and two inches, and five feet in girth. He weighed about one hundred and eighty pounds when dressed. The enfeebled men with difficulty drew him on board. His presence caused a thrill of joy, and his luscious flesh sent its invigoration through their emaciated frames. The following Sunday, as Dr. Kane was standing on deck thinking of their situation, he lifted up his eyes toward a familiar berg, for many months shrouded in darkness, and saw it sparkling in the sunlight. The King of Day was not yet above the intervening hills, but he had sent his sheen to proclaim his coming. Glad as a boy whom the full mid-winter moon invites to a coasting frolic, he started on a run, climbed the elevations, and bathed in his refreshing rays. During the month of February, Petersen, Hans, and Godfrey had been sent out on the track of the Esquimo, but they returned and declared that Etah could not be reached. Their commander said, "Nay, it can!" By the sixth of March the brig was again without fresh meat. The sick were once more suffering for it, and the well growing feeble. Hans, the resort in such emergencies, was given a light sledge, the two surviving dogs, and to him was committed the forlorn hope. His departure called forth from his commander a "God bless you!" and prayers followed him. His story is simple and touching. He lodged the first night in the "wind-loved," forsaken, desolate, yet friendly hut of Anoatok. He slept as well as he could in a temperature fifty-three degrees below zero. The next night he slept in a friendly hut at Etah. The oft-tried feat was accomplished. But he found the Etahites lean and hungry. Hollow cheeks and sunken eyes spoke of famine. The skin of a young sea-unicorn, their last game, was all of food which remained to the settlement. They had even eaten their light and fire blubber, and were seated in darkness, gloomily waiting for the sun and the hunt. They had eaten, too, all but four of their ample supply of dogs. They hailed the coming of Hans with a shout. He proposed to join them in a hunt, but they shook their heads. They had lost a harpoon and line in the attempt to take a walrus the day before. The ice was yet thick, and the huge monster in his struggles had broken the line over its sharp edge. Hans showed them his "boom," and bidding them come on, started for the hunting-grounds. Metek--Mr. Eider Duck--speared a fair-sized walrus, and Hans gave him five conical balls in quick succession from a Marston rifle, and he surrendered at discretion. The return of the hunters caused great joy in the city of Etah, whose two huts poured out their inhabitants to greet their coming, and aid in rendering due honors to the game itself. As usual they laughed, feasted, and slept, to awake, laugh, eat, and sleep again. Hans and his boom were great in their eyes, but the Kablunah, whose representative he was, rose before their vision as the glorious sun which scatters the long winter darkness. Hans obtained a hunter's share, and his appearance on the deck of the "Advance," heralded by the yelping of the dogs, sent a thrill of joy through every heart. As Dr. Kane grasped his hand on the deck, and began to listen to his story, he exclaimed: "Speak louder, Hans, that they may hear in the bunks!" The bunks did hear, and feel too, as the good news came home to their hunger-wasted bodies in refreshing food. As the commander had requested, Hans brought Myouk with him to assist in hunting. The smart young hunter was delighted to be with the white men, though his itching fingers would secrete cups, spoons, and other valuables, which were made to come back to their proper places by sundry cuffs and kicks, which, though perhaps not altogether pleasant of themselves, caused him to cuddle down in his buffalo at his master's feet like a whipped spaniel, and their relations grew daily more enjoyable. Hans and Myouk made soon after an unsuccessful hunt. This made the fresh meat question come up again with its emphatic importance. The fuel question, too, was becoming more and more a cause of concern. The manilla cable had been chopped up and burned, and such portions of the brig as could be spared, and not destroy her sea-going value, had gone in the same way. Now the nine feet of solid ice in which she was imbedded seemed to say that she would never float again, so she might as well yield her planks to the fire. But to see her thus used went to the hearts of her gallant men. On the nineteenth of March Hans was dispatched to the Esquimo, well supplied with the first quality of cord for their harpoons, and such other prompters to, and helps in, the walrus hunt as occurred to his commander. He would bless thereby and please these starving people, hoping that the blessing would return in the form of fresh walrus to him and his suffering men. During the absence of Hans there were unusual and painful developments at the brig. William Godfrey and John Blake had given Dr. Kane much trouble from the first. They were now evidently bent on mischief, and made constant watchfulness over them a necessity. Just as Hans left they feigned sickness, and were suspected of desiring rest and recruited strength for desertion. Their plan was believed to be to waylay Hans and get his sledge and dogs. Dr. Kane contrived so shrewdly to keep one of them at work under his eye, and the other in some other place, that they did not perceive his suspicions of them. One night Bill was heard to say that some time during the following day he should leave, and this was reported to the commander by a faithful listener. He was, of course watched, and at six o'clock was called to prepare breakfast. This he commenced doing uneasily, stealing whispers with John. Finally he seemed at his ease, and cooked and served the breakfast. Dr. Kane believed he meant to slip out the first opportunity, meet John on deck, and desert; he therefore armed himself, threw on his furs, made Bonsall and Morton acquainted with his plans, and crept out of the dark avenue and hid near its entrance. After an hour of cold waiting John crept out, grunting and limping, for he had been feigning lameness, looked quickly round, and seeing no one, mounted nimbly the stairs to the deck. Ten minutes later Godfrey came out, booted and fur-clad for a journey. As he emerged from the tossut his commander confronted him, pistol in hand. He was ordered back to the cabin, while Morton compelled John's return, and Bonsall guarded the door preventing any one passing out. In a few moments John came creeping into the cabin, awful lame and terribly exhausted in his effort to breathe a little fresh air on deck. He looked amazed as by the glare of the light he saw the situation. The commander then explained to the company the offenses of the culprits, giving from the log-book the details of their plotting. He had prepared himself for the occasion, and Bill, the principal, was punished on the spot. He confessed his guiltiness, promised good behavior, and in view of the few men able to work, his hand-cuffs were removed and he was sent about his customary business. In an hour after he deserted. Dr. Kane was at the moment away hunting, and his escape was not noticed until he was beyond the reach of a rifle ball. The next two weeks were weary, anxious weeks, though the ever-watchful Hand tendered in good time occasion for hope. Six sea-fowl and three hares were shot by Petersen, and gave indispensable refreshment to the sick. On the second of April, just before noon, a man was seen, with a dog-sledge, lurking behind the hummocks near the brig. Dr. Kane went out armed to meet him. It proved to be Godfrey the deserter, who, seeing his old comrades, left the sledge and run. Leaving Bonsall with his rifle to make sure of the sledge, the doctor gave chase, and the fugitive, seeing but one following, stopped and turned around. He said he had made up his mind to spend the rest of his life with Kalutunah and the Esquimo, and that no persuasion nor force should prevent him. A loaded pistol presented at his head did, though, persuade him to return to the brig. When he reached the gangway he refused to budge another step. Petersen was away hunting, Bonsall and Dr. Kane were so weak that they could barely stand, and all the other men, thirteen, were prostrated with the scurvy, so that they could not compel him by physical force. As the doctor was desirous not to hurt him, he left him under the guardianship of Bonsall's weapons while he went below for irons. Just as he returned to the deck Godfrey turned and fled. Bonsall presented his pistol, which exploded the cap only. Kane seized a rifle, but being affected by the cold, it went off in the act of cocking. A second gun, fired in haste at a long range, missed its mark. So the rebel made good his retreat. He had come back with Hans' sledge and dogs, and reported him sick at Etah from over exhaustion. But there was one consolation in the affair--the sledge was loaded with walrus-meat. The feast that followed revived the drooping men wonderfully. They ate, were thankful, and looked hopefully on the future. Godfrey was suspected of having come back to get John. The desertion of two well men when so many were sick would imperil the lives of all. The commander felt that the safety of the whole required the faithfulness of each man, he therefore explained the situation to the men and declared his determination to punish desertion, or the attempt to desert, by the "sternest penalty." Hans became now the subject of anxiety. Some unfair dealing toward him on the part of Godfrey was feared. It was thought but just that he should be sought, and, if in trouble, relieved. But who should go? Dr. Kane finally resolved to go after him himself. Besides, the question of more walrus was again pressing. April tenth the doctor was off. The first eleven hours the dogs carried him sixty-four miles, a most remarkable speed for their short rations. While thus speeding along, far out on the floe, he spied a black speck in-shore away to the south. Was it some cheat of refraction? He paused, took his gun, and sighted the object, a device of old Arctic travelers to baffle refraction. It is an animal--yes, a man! Away went the dogs, ten miles an hour, while the rider cheated them with the shout, "Nannook! nannook!"--a bear! a bear! In a few moments Hans and the doctor were in grateful, earnest talk. He had really been sick. He had been down five days, and, as he expressed it, still felt "a little weak." He took his commander's place on the sledge and both went to the friendly hut at Anoatok, where hot tea and rest prepared both for the return to the brig. CHAPTER XXI. CLOSING INCIDENTS OF THE IMPRISONMENT. HANS had his story of adventure while at Etah. But the most important item in his estimation, and that which might prove far reaching in its results, was the fact that a young daughter of Sunghu appointed herself his nurse during his sickness, bestowing upon him care, sympathy, and bewitching smiles. She had evidently done what Godfrey tried in vain to do--she had entrapped him, at the expense, too, of a young Esquimo lady at Upernavik. Hans had been successful in the hunt, and, besides what he had sent by Godfrey, had deposited some walrus at Littleton Island. He was at once sent after this, and intrusted at the same time with an important commission. Dr. Kane had been for some time meditating another trip toward the polar sea. To do this he desired more dogs. The Esquimo had been reducing their stock to keep away starvation, but Kalutunah had retained four. These, and such others as he could find, Hans was authorized to buy or hire, at almost any price. This northern trip made, the next move might be toward the abandonment of the "Advance." She could never float, it was plain, for now, late in April, the open water was eighty miles south. While Hans was gone, the sick, yet numbering two thirds of the whole, and in a measure all of the other third, except the commander, were without fresh food, as they had been for several days. Yet the sunshine and the occasional supplies had put them all on the improving list. They could sit up, sew or job a little, making themselves useful, and keeping up good spirits. But, hark! what sound is that breaking on the still, clear air. It comes nearer. Bim, bim, bim, sounds upon the deck. It is Hans, whose coming is ever like the coming of the morning. A rabbit-stew and walrus liver follow his arrival, and over such royal dainties good cheer pervades the family circle. Hans brought Metek with him, and Metek's young nephew, Paulik, a boy of fourteen. Metek and Hans spoke sadly of the condition of the Esquimo settlements. We have seen that the escaping party found those of the south flying northward from starvation. The report now was that they had huddled together at Northumberland Island until that yielded to the famine, and now they had come farther north. It was a sad sight to see men, women, and children fleeing over the icy desert before their relentless foe. Yet, says Hans, they sung as they went, careless of present want, and thoughtless of the morrow. Many had died, and thus year by year these few, scattered, improvident people decline, giving earnest that in a few years all will be gone. Though light-hearted, death did bring its sorrows to these benighted heathen. Kalutunah lost a sister; her body was sewed up in skins, not in a sitting posture but extended, and her husband, unattended, carried it out to burial, and, with his own hand, placed upon it stone after stone, making at once a grave and a monument. A blubber lamp was burning outside the hut while he was gone, and when he returned his friends were waiting to listen to his rehearsal of the praises of the dead, and to hear the expressions of his sorrow, while they showed their grief by dismal chantings. If sorrow did not keep the deceased in the memory of the living, imposed self-denials did. The Angekok, or medicine man, as our Indians would call him, determines the penance of the mourner, who is sometimes forbidden to eat the meat of a certain bird or beast, under the idea that the spirit of the departed has entered into it; at another time the mourner must not draw on his hood, but go with uncovered head; or he may be forbidden to go on the bear or walrus hunt. The length of time of these penances may be a few months or a year. The reader will recollect the widow with her birds, who appeared so often in the narrative of the escaping party. Though thus mourning for the dead, these Esquimo do not hold life as a very sacred trust. The drones and the useless are sometimes harpooned in the back merely to get rid of them. Infants are put out of the way when they greatly annoy their parents. Hans, on one of his returns from Etah, had a story to tell illustrative of this. Awahtok, a young man of twenty-two, had a pretty wife--_pretty_ as Esquimo beauty goes--sister of Kalutunah, and about eighteen years old. Dr. Kane had regarded this couple with some interest, and the husband "stuck to him as a plaster." Their first-born was a fine little girl. Well, Hans reported with becoming disgust and indignation that they had buried it alive under a pile of stones! When Dr. Kane next visited Etah he inquired of his friends Awahtok and his wife after the health of the baby, affecting not to have heard about its hard fate. They pointed with both hands earthward, but did not even shed the cheap, customary tear. The only reason reported for this murder was, that certain of its habits, common to all infants, were disagreeable to them! Such is the mildest heathenism without Christianity. These and other similar gross sins were common among the South Greenland Esquimo, but have disappeared before the teachings of the Moravian missionaries. Hans returned with the walrus he had deposited at Littleton Island, but he had made no progress in getting dogs, so Dr. Kane resolved to go to Etah for that purpose himself. Besides, having learned that Godfrey was playing a high game there and defying capture, and also fearing his influence over the friendly relations of the Esquimo, he resolved to bring him back to the brig. Metek was just starting for Etah, so he invited himself to return with him, while Paulik, his nephew, remained with Hans. This arrangement effected, Dr. Kane was soon approaching Etah, perfectly disguised in the hood and jumper of Paulik, whose place on the sledge he occupied. The whole city ran out to meet their chief, among whom was the deserter, who shouted, and then threw up his arms with the most savage of them. He did not perceive his commander until a certain well understood summons entered his ear, and a significant pistol barrel gleamed in the sunlight near his eyes. He surrendered to this "boom" argument without discussion, and trotting or walking, he kept his assigned place ahead of the sledge through the eighty and more miles to the brig, halting only at Anoatok. We hear nothing of further attempt at desertion. A little later Dr. Kane made another visit to Etah. The hunt had become successful, and the famine was broken; all was activity and good cheer. The women were preparing the green hides for domestic use. Great piles of walrus tushes were preserved for various useful purposes; some of these the children had selected as bats, and were engaged in merry sport. Their game was to knock a ball made of walrus bone up the slanting side of a hummock, and then, in turn, hit it as it rolled down, and so keep it from reaching the floe. They shouted and laughed as the game went on, much as our boys do over their sports. Dr. Kane observed on this trip a way of taking walrus which has not, we think, been noted before. The monster at this early season sometimes finds the ice open near a berg only. He comes on the ice to sun himself; finds the change from the cold sea very agreeable, stays too long, the water freezes solid, and he cannot return. As he is unable to break the ice from above, he either waits for the current about the berg to open the ice again, or works himself clumsily to some already open place. In this helpless state the dogs scent him afar off, and the hunters, following their lead, make him an easy prey. Hans came in on the twenty-fourth of April, accompanied by Kalutunah, Shanghee, and Tatterat, each of the Esquimo having sledges, and sixteen dogs in all. Hans had been sent to Cape Alexander, where Kalutunah was sojourning, to invite him to the brig in order to secure his aid in the proposed northern trip. He was fed well, and propitiated by a present of a knife and needles. He said, "Thank you," and added, "I love you well," which might uncharitably be taken to mean, "I love your presents well." The result of the presents, feasting, and flattery was a start north by the three Esquimo, with Dr. Kane and Hans, all the dog teams accompanying. The old route across Kennedy Channel to the west side, and so north-poleward, was attempted. First came a very fair progress; then came the hummocks, over which, by the aid of their dogs, they clambered until thirty miles from the brig had been made. Then Shanghee burrowed into a snow-bank and slept, the cold being thirty degrees below zero; the rest camped in the snow and lunched. Just as a fair start was again made, the party neared a huge male bear in the act of lunching on seal. In vain the doctor attempted to control either dogs or drivers. "Nannook! nannook!" shouted the Esquimo as they clung to their sledges, and the dogs flew over the ice in wild and reckless pursuit. After an exciting chase the bear was brought to a halt and to a fight, which the rifles and spears soon terminated against bruin. A feast by dogs and men, and a night's halt on the ice followed, to Dr. Kane, at least, both vexatious and comfortless. The next day he would press on to the north. But bear tracks were every-where, and the savage chiefs preferred hunting to exploring; besides, they had, they said, their families to support, and there was no use trying to cross the channel so high up. The English of it was, we are "going in" for the bears, and you may help yourself. A day more was spent in a wild hunt among the bergs, and the party returned to the brig. A little later still another attempt was made to unlock further the secrets of the extreme icy north, this time by only Kane and Morton with a six-dog sledge, the explorers walking. This, the last effort of the kind, ended in the usual way, excepting some additions to the surveys. CHAPTER XXII. HOMEWARD BOUND. THE final escape from the brig must now be commenced. From the early fall its necessity had been thought of, and preparations for it commenced. Since the sick had begun to improve, the work in reference to it had been going on with system. Coverlets of eider down, beds, or furs which could be used as such, boots, moccasins, a full supply to meet emergencies, were prepared. Provision bags were made and filled with powder, ship-bread, pork-fat, and tallow melted down, and cooked concentrated bean soup. The flour and meat biscuit were put in double bags. Two boats had been made from the ship's beams twenty-six feet long, seven feet across, and three feet deep. Incredible toil by weak and sick men had been expended upon these boats. A neat "housing" of light canvas was raised over each of them. One other boat, the "Red Eric," was in readiness. There was no assurance that either of these boats would long float, yet all was done which the circumstances allowed to make them sea-worthy. The three boats were mounted on sledges. The necessary outfit, so far as they could bear, was to be stowed away in them. Every thing being in readiness, a vast amount of _thinking_ having been employed by the commander in reference to all contingencies, a peremptory order of march was issued for the seventeenth of May. The men were given twenty-four hours to get ready eight pounds of such personal effects as they chose. From the date of starting the strictest discipline and subordination was to be observed, which came hard upon the long-indulged, improving sick ones. The perfectness of the preparations had a good effect, yet there were many moody doubters. Some insisted that the commander only meant to go further south, holding the brig to fall back upon; some thought he would get the sick nearer the hunting grounds; others believed that his purpose was to secure some point of lookout for the English explorers, or whaling vessels. When the memorable day of departure came, the boats were in the cradle on the sledges, and the men, with straps over their shoulders and drag-ropes from these to the sledges, started for the ice-foot along which they were to travel. They had not yet received their loads, so they glided off easily, exciting a smile on some rueful countenances. In twenty-four hours the boats were laden, on the elevated drive-way, covered with their canvas roof, and, with a jaunty flag flying, were ready for a final leave the next day. The exhausted men, for nearly all of them were yet invalids, returned to the vessel, ate the best supper the supplies afforded, "turned in," prepared for their first effort at dragging the boat-laden sledges. But one sledge could be moved at once, with all hands attached; the first day they made two miles only with this one. For several days they made short distances and returned early to a hearty supper and warm beds in their old quarters, so that they marched back to the drag-ropes in the morning refreshed. The weather was, by the kind, overruling Hand, "superb." The final leave-taking was somewhat ceremonious. All the men were assembled in the dismantled room which had been so long both a prison and providential home. It was Sunday; all listened to a chapter of the Bible, and prayers. Then, all silently standing, the commander read a prepared report of what had been done, and the reasons for the step about to be taken. He then addressed the company, honestly conceding the obstacles in the way of escape, but assuring them that energy and subordination would secure success. He reminded them of the solemn claims upon them of the sick and wounded; called to their minds the wonderful deliverance granted them thus far by the infinite Power, and exhorted them still confidently to commit all to the same Helper. The response to this appeal was most cheering to Dr. Kane. The following engagement was drawn up by one of the officers and signed by every man:-- "The undersigned, being convinced of the impossibility of the liberation of the brig, and equally convinced of the impossibility of remaining in the ice a third winter, do fervently concur with the commander in his attempt to reach the south by means of boats. "Knowing the trials and hardships which are before us, and feeling the necessity of union, harmony, and discipline, we have determined to abide faithfully by the expedition and our sick comrades, and to do all that we can, as true men, to advance the objects in view." The party now went on deck, hoisted a flag and hauled it down again, and then marched once or twice around the vessel. The figure head--the fair Augusta--"the little blue girl with pink cheeks," was taken by the men and added to their load. She had been nipped and battered by the ice, and a common suffering made her dear to them. When Dr. Kane remonstrated against the additional burden, they said: "She is, at any rate, wood, and if we cannot carry her far we can burn her." The final departure was too serious for cheers, and when the moment came they all hurried off to the boats and the drag-ropes. Four men were sick, and had to be carried; and Dr. Kane was with the dog-team the common carrier and courier, as we shall see, so that there were but twelve men to the boats; these were organized into two companies, six each, for the two sledges; M'Gary having command of the "Faith," and Morton command of the "Hope." Each party was separate in matters of baggage, sleeping, cooking, and eating; both were concentrated, in turns, upon each sledge under the command of Brooks. Both morning and evening of each day all gathered round, with uncovered heads, to listen to prayers. Every one had his assigned place at the track-line; each served in turn as cook, except the captains. From an early day of the preparations, Dr. Kane had been at work refitting and furnishing the broken-down, forsaken hut at Anoatok. For this purpose many trips were made to it with the dog-team; it was made tight as possible; the filth carefully removed; cushions and blankets were spread upon the raised floor at the sides and a stove set up; blankets were hung up against the walls, and the whole made to look as cheerful as possible. While the sledges were approaching this place by short stages, Dr. Kane, with his team, brought to the hut the four sick men; they were Goodfellow, Wilson, Whipple, and Stephenson. Dr. Hayes, yet limping on his frozen foot, bravely adhered to the sledges. When the sick entered the hut none could wait upon the others, except Stephenson, who could barely light the lamp, to melt the snow and heat the water. But Dr. Kane made them frequent visits, supplying their wants, and reporting the daily progress toward them of their whole company. They grew better, and were able to creep out into the sunshine. Besides carrying the sick to Anoatok, Dr. Kane had, with his dogs, conveyed there and stocked near the hut most of the provisions for their march and voyage; eight hundred pounds out of fifteen were now there, and he proposed to convey the rest. This was done to relieve the overladen sledges. The red boat--"Red Eric"--joined the party on the floe a few days after the start, increasing their burden, but assuring them of increased comfort and safety when they reached the open water. One incident of this period will illustrate its hardships and the Christian courage with which they were met. It was soon after the last sick man was borne to the hut that Dr. Kane, having, in one of his dog-team trips, camped on the floe, came upon the boat party early in the morning. They were at prayers at the moment, and, as they passed to the drag-ropes, he was pained at the evidence of increased scurvy and depression. Brooks's legs were sadly swollen, and Hayes ready to faint with exhaustion. They must have more generous meals, thought the noble-hearted commander. Taking Morton, he hastened back to the brig. As they entered a raven flew croaking away; he had already made his home there. Lighting the fires in the old cook-room, they melted pork, cooked a large batch of _light_ bread without salt, saleratus, or shortening, gathered together some eatable, though damaged, dried apples and beans, and, the dogs having fed, hastened back to the men on the floe. Distributing a good supper to their comrades as they passed, and taking Godfrey along with them, they hastened to the hut. The poor fellows confined in it were rejoiced to see them. They had eaten all their supplies, their lamp had gone out, the snow had piled up at the door so that they could not close it, and the arctic wind and cold were making free in their never-too-warm abode. The poor fellows were cold, sick, and hungry. The coming of their commander was as the coming of an angel messenger of good tidings. He closed their door, made a fire of tarred rope, dried their clothes and bedding, cooked them a porridge of pea-soup and meat-biscuit, and set their lamp-wick ablaze with dripping pork-fat. Then, after all had joined in prayer of thankfulness, a well relished meal was eaten. This was followed by a cheerful chat, and a long, refreshing forgetfulness in their sleeping-bags of all privations. When they awoke the gale had grown more tempestuous, with increasing snow. But they went on burning rope and fat until every icicle had disappeared, and every frost mark had faded out. On their arrival at the hut the night before, Dr. Kane, seeing the condition of things, sent Godfrey forward to Etah for fresh supplies of game. After a time he returned with Metek, and the two sledges well laden with meat. A part of this was hurried off to the toilers at the drag-ropes. Having blessed by his coming these weary voyagers, Dr. Kane, with Morton, Metek, and his sledge, went once more to the brig. They baked a hundred and fifty pounds of bread and sent it by Metek to Mr. Brooks, and the faithful messenger, having delivered it, returned immediately for another load. While he was gone, a hundred pounds of flour pudding was made, and two bagfuls of pork-fat tried out. This done, the three lay down upon the curled hair of the old mattresses, they having been ripped open and their contents drawn out to make the most comfortable bed the place afforded. They slept as soundly "as vagrants on a haystack." The next day they set their faces toward the sledge company and Anoatok, both sledges having heavy loads, which included the last of the fifteen hundred pounds of provisions. Dr. Kane had made one of his last trips to the brig: he would return for provisions only; but all his specimens of Natural History, collected with much toil, his books, and many of his well-tested instruments, he was compelled to leave. His six dogs had carried him, during the fortnight since the company left the brig, between seven and eight hundred miles, averaging about fifty-seven miles a day. But for their services the sick could scarcely have been saved, and the rest would have suffered more intensely. Leaving, as usual, a part of the food with Mr. Brooks's party, they hastened on to replenish the stores and cheer the hearts of the lonely dwellers in the hut. CHAPTER XXIII. NARROW ESCAPES. HAVING brought forward the provisions to Anoatok, Dr. Kane, with the help of Metek and his dogs, began to remove them still farther south, making one deposit near Cape Hatherton, and the other yet farther, near Littleton Island. But an immediate journey to Etah for walrus had become necessary. The hard-working men were improving on this greasy food, and they wanted it in abundance. Dr. Kane found the Etahites fat and full. He left his weary, well-worn dogs to recruit on their abundance, and returned with their only team, which was well fed and fresh. They made the trade without any grumbling. When he came back the Brooks party were within three miles of Anoatok. They were getting along bravely and eating voraciously, and the old cry, "more provisions!" saluted the commander. Leaving the dogs to aid in transferring the stores to the southern stations, Dr. Kane and Irish Tom Hickey started afoot to the brig to do another baking. It was a sixteen hours' tramp. But ere they slept they converted nearly a barrel of flour, the last of the stock, into the staff of life. An old pickled-cabbage cask was used as a kneading trough, and sundry volumes of the "Penny Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge" were burned during the achievement. Tom declared the work done to be worthy of his own country's bakers, and he had been one "of them same," so he deemed that praise enough. When the doctor lamented that the flour so used was the last of the stock, Tom exclaimed: "All the better, sir, since we'll have no more bread to make." Godfrey came to the brig on the third day, with the dogs, to carry back the baking. But a howling storm delayed them all on board. It was Sunday, and the last time that Dr. Kane expected to be in the cabin with any of his men. He took down a Bible from one of the berths and went through the long-used religious service. The dreary place was less dreary, and their burdened hearts were no doubt made lighter by thus drawing near to God. The commander and Tom left the next day with the sledge load, leaving Godfrey to come on after farther rest. But scarcely had the sledge party delivered their load of bread, and begun the sound sleep which follows hard work, when Godfrey came in out of breath with the hot haste of his journey. He reluctantly confessed the occasion of his sudden departure from the brig. He had lain down on the contents of the mattresses to sleep. Suddenly Wilson's guitar, left with other mementoes of two winters' imprisonment, sent forth music soft and sad. Bill was sure he heard aright, for he was awake and in his right mind. He fled on the instant, and scarcely looked behind until he reached his companions. He had never heard of the musical genius of Eolus, and it was not strange that the old forsaken, mutilated, ghostly, looking brig should excite the imagination of the lonely lodger. The invalids of the huts were now doing well. Their housekeeping assumed a home-like appearance--after the fashion of Arctic homes--and they welcomed the doctor with a dish of tea, a lump of walrus flesh, and a warm place. The Brooks party were not afar off. A storm which out-stormed all they had yet seen or felt of storms came down upon our explorers at this time. When the storm had blown past, Morton was dispatched to Etah with the dogs, accompanied by two Etahites who had been storm-bound with the boat-parties. His mission was to demand aid of these allies on the ground of sacred treaty stipulations, and well-recognized Esquimo laws of mutual help. Dr. Kane took his place with the men on the floe. Sledging was now not only made by the storm and advancing season more laborious, but very dangerous; around the bergs black water appeared, and over many places there were to be seen pools of water. The boats were unladen, and their cargoes carried in parcels by sledges, yet serious accidents occurred. At one time a runner of the sledge carrying the "Hope" broke in, and the boat came near being lost; as it was, six men were plunged into the water. Sick and well men worked for dear life, and affairs were growing more than cloudy when the helping hand of the great Helper was seen as it had been so often. Morton returned from Etah, having been entirely successful in his appeal to the natives for aid. They came with every sound dog they possessed, and with sledges loaded with walrus. The dogs alone were equal to ten strong men added to the expedition. Dr. Kane took one of the teams, and with Metek made his last trip to the brig, and on his return commenced bringing down the invalids of the hut to the boats. As he came near the floe-party he found Ohlsen sitting on a lump of ice alone, some distance in their rear. He had prevented the "Hope's" sledge from breaking through the ice by taking for a moment its whole weight on a bar which he had slipped under it. He was a strong man, and the act was heroic, but he was evidently seriously injured. He was pale, but thought his only difficulty was "a little cramp in the small of his back," and that he should be better soon. Dr. Kane gave him Stephenson's seat on the sledge, carried him to the boat, and gave him its most comfortable place, and muffled him up in the best buffalo robes. Dr. Hayes gave him tender and constant attention all that night, but he declined rapidly. Having stowed the sick away in the boats, the morning prayers being offered, the men on the sixth of June started anew at the drag-ropes. Two hours' drawing sufficed to show all hands their insufficiency for the task. Just then a spanking breeze started up. They hoisted the sails of the boats, and the wind increased to a gale and blew directly after them. Away the sledges sped toward the provision depot near Littleton Island. Ridges in the ice which would have delayed them at the drag-ropes for hours, but gave them the rise and fall as they glided over them of a ship on the waves. God, who "holds the wind in his fist," had unloosed it for their benefit. The foot-sore, weary men, who a few moments ago felt that an almost impossible task was theirs, were now jubilant, and broke out into song--the first sailor's chorus song they had sung for a year. They came to a halt at five o'clock P. M., having made under sail the distance of five drag-rope days. While here they were joined by old Nessark, and by Sipsu, the surly chief who appears so conspicuously in the narrative of Dr. Hayes's escaping party. They came with their fresh dog-teams, and offered their services to the explorers. Nessark was sent after the last of the sick men at the hut. The following five or six days were those of peril and discouragement. At one time a sledge had broken in, carrying with it several of the men, bringing affairs to a gloomy crisis. But the men scrambled out, and, to still further lift the burdens from the party, five sturdy Esquimo appeared, with two almost equally strong women. They laid hold of the drag-ropes with a will, and worked the rest of the day without demanding any reward. So there was always help in their time of need. Nessark came in good time with Wilson and Whipple, the last of the sick; the old hut was now deserted, and all were with the boats except one. Hans had been missing for nearly two months. Early in April he came to his commander with a long face and a very plausible story; he had, he said, no boots; he wanted to go to one of the Esquimo settlements a little south to get a stock of walrus-hides. He did not want the dogs; he would walk, and be back in good time. But the hitherto faithful and trusted Hans had not returned. When inquiry was made of the people of Etah they said he certainly called there, and engaged of one of the women a pair of boots, and then pushed on to Peteravik, where Shanghee and his pretty daughter lived. The last information they had of him they gave with a shrug of the shoulders and a merry twinkle of the eye. He had been seen by one of their people once since he left Etah; he was then upon a native sledge, Shanghee's daughter at his side, bound south of Peteravik. He had forsaken the explorers for a wife! The party were one day feeling their way along cautiously, pioneers going ahead and trying the soundness of the ice by thumping with boat hooks and narwhal horns. Suddenly a shout of distress was heard. The "Red Eric" had broken in! She contained the document box of the expedition, the loss of which would make their whole work profitless to the world even should the party be saved. She had on board too many provision bags. But, after great exposure and labor, all was saved in good condition, and the boat hauled upon the ice. Several of the men had narrow escapes. Stephenson was caught as he sunk by the sledge runner, and Morton was drawn out by the hair of his head as he was disappearing under the ice. A grateful shout went up from all hands that nothing serious resulted from the accident. CHAPTER XXIV. ESQUIMO KINDNESS. THE company made slow and tiresome progress by Littleton Island, and were carrying their entire load forward in parcels to the mainland at the northern opening of Etah Bay, when the sad news was whispered to Dr. Kane, who was with the advanced party, that Ohlsen was dead. A gloom spread over the whole company. The fact was carefully concealed from the Esquimo, who were sent to Etah under the pretext of bringing back a supply of birds, the entire dog force being given them to hasten their departure. The funeral service, though attended by sincere grief, was necessarily brief. The body was sewed up in Ohlsen's own blankets, the burial service read, the prayer offered, and it was borne by his comrades in solemn procession to a little gorge on the shore, and deposited in a trench made with extreme difficulty. A sheet of lead, on which his name and age was cut, was laid upon his breast; a monument of stones was erected over it, to preserve it from the beasts of prey, and to mark the spot. They named the land which overshadowed the spot Cape Ohlsen. Having given two quiet hours, after the funeral service, to the solemn occasion, the work at the drag-ropes was continued. The Esquimo returned in full force, and with abundant provisions. They took their turn at the drag-ropes with a shout; they carried the sick on their sledges, and relieved the whole expedition from care concerning their supplies. They brought in one week eight dozen sea-fowl--little auks--caught in their hand-nets, and fed men and dogs. All ate, hunger was fully satisfied, care for the time departed, the men broke out into their old forecastle songs, and the sledges went merrily forward with laugh and jest. Passing round Cape Alexander, down Etah Bay, a short distance toward the settlement, the expedition encamped. The long-sought, coveted open water was only three miles away; its roar saluted their ears, and its scent cheered their hearts. The difficult and delicate work of preparing the boats for the sea-voyage now commenced. In the mean time the people of Etah, men, women, and children, came and encamped in their midst, leaving only three persons--two old women and a blind old man--in the settlement. They slept in the "Red Eric," and fed on the stew cooked for them in the big camp-kettle. Each one had a keepsake of a file, a knife, a saw, or some such article of great value. The children had each that great medicine for Esquimo sickness, a piece of soap, for which they merrily shouted, "Thank you, thank you, big chief." There was joy in the Esquimo camp which knew but one sorrow--that of the speedy departure of the strangers. At the mention of this one woman stepped behind a tent screen and wept, wiping her teary face with a bird-skin. Dr. Kane rode to Etah to bid the aged invalids good-bye. Then came the last distribution of presents. Every one had something, but the great gift of amputating knives went to the chief, Metek, and the patriarch, Nessark. The dogs were given to the community at large, excepting Toodla-mik and Whitey; these veterans of many well-fought battle-fields were reserved to share the homeward fortunes of their owners. Toodla was no common dog, but earned for himself a place in dog history. As we are to meet the dogs no more in our narrative, we will give Toodla's portrait to be set up with our pen sketches. He was purchased at Upernavik, and so he received the advantages of, at least, a partially civilized education. His head was more compact, his nose less pointed than most dogs of his kind, and his eye denoted affection and self-reliance, and his carriage was bold and defiant. Toodla, at the commencement of the cruise, appointed himself general-in-chief of all the dogs. Now it often happens, with dogs as well as with men, that to assume superiority is much easier than to maintain it. But Toodla's generalship was never successfully disputed. The position, however, cost him many a hard-fought battle, for the new comers naturally desired to test his title to rule. These he soundly whipped on their introduction to the pack. He even often left the brig's side, head erect, tail gracefully curled over his back, and moved toward a stranger dog with a proud, defiant air, as much as to say, "I am master here, sir!" If this was doubted, he vindicated his boasting on the spot. Such tyranny excited rebellions of course, and strong combinations were formed against him; but dogs which had been trounced individually make weak organizations, and the coalitions gave way before Toodla's prowess. It is but fair, however, to say that he had strong allies upon whom he fell back in great emergencies--the sailors. Toodla died in Philadelphia, and still lives--that is, his stuffed skin still exists in the museum of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. His reputation is of the same sort as that of many of the heroes of history, and worth as much to the world. Dr. Kane having distributed the presents and disposed of the dogs, there was nothing now but the farewell address to render the parting ceremony complete. Dr. Kane called the natives about him and spoke to them through Petersen as interpreter. He talked to them as those from whom kindness had been received, and to whom a return was to be made. He told them about the tribes of their countrymen farther south whom he knew, and from whom they were separated by the glaciers and the sea; he spoke of the longer daylight, the less cold, the more abundant game, the drift-wood, the fishing-nets, and kayaks of these relatives. He tried to explain to them that under bold and cautious guidance they might, in the course of a season or two, reach this happier region. During this talk they crowded closer and closer to the speaker, and listened with breathless attention to his remarks, often looking at each other significantly. Having thus parted with the natives, our exploring party hauled their boats to the margin of the ice. The "Red Eric" was launched, and three cheers were given for "Henry Grinnell and Homeward Bound." But the storm king said, "Not yet!" He sounded an alarm in their ears, and they drew the "Eric" from the water and retreated on the floe, which broke up in their rear with great rapidity. Back, back, they tramped, wearily and painfully, all that night, until the next day they found a sheltering berg near the land, where they made a halt. Here they rested until the wind had spent its wrath, and the sea had settled into a placid quiet. Their voyaging on the floe with drag-ropes and sledges was ended. CHAPTER XXV. MELVILLE BAY. ON the nineteenth of June the boats were launched into the sea, now calm, the "Faith" leading under Kane, and the "Eric" under Bonsall, and the "Hope" under Brooks following. The sea birds screamed a welcome to the squadron, and flew about them as if to inquire why they came back in three vessels instead of one, as when they sailed northward two years before. But there was no leisure for converse with birds. They had just passed Hakluyt Island, when the "Eric" sunk. Her crew, Bonsall, Riley, and Godfrey, struggled to the other boats, and the "Faith" took the sunken craft in tow. Soon after Brooks shouted that the "Hope" was leaking badly, and threatening to sink. Fortunately the floe was not far off, and into one of its creek-like openings they run the boats, fastened them to the ice, and the weary men lay down in their bunks without drawing the boats from the water and slept. The next day they drew their leaking crafts ashore, and calked them for another sea adventure. For several days they struggled with varying fortunes until they brought up, weary, disheartened, and worn down by work and an insufficient diet of bread-dust, and fastened to an old floe near the land. Scarcely were they anchored when a vast ice raft caught upon a tongue of the solid floe about a mile to the seaward of them, and began to swing round upon it as a pivot, and to close in upon our explorers. This was a new game of the ice-enemy. Nearer and nearer came the revolving icy platform, seeming to gather force with every whirl. At first the commotion that was made started the floe, to which they were fastened, on a run toward the shore as if to escape the danger. But it soon brought up against the rocks and was overtaken by its pursuer. In an instant the collision came. The men sprang, by force of discipline, to the boats and the stores, to bear them back to a place of safety, but wild and far-spread ruin was around them. The whole platform where they stood crumbled and crushed under the pressure, and was tossed about and piled up as if the ice-demon was in a frenzy of passion. Escape for the boats seemed for the moment impossible, and none expected it; and none could tell when they were let down into the water, nor hardly how, yet they found themselves whirling in the midst of the broken hummocks, now raised up and then shaken as if every joint in the helpless, trembling boats was to be dislocated. The noise would have drowned the uproar of contending armies as ice was hurled against ice, and, as it felt the awful pressure, it groaned harsh and terrific thunder. The men, though utterly powerless, grasped their boat-hooks as the boats were borne away in the tumultuous mass of broken ice and hurried on toward the shore. Slowly the tumult began to subside, and the fragments to clear away, until the almost bewildered men found themselves in a stretch of water making into the land, wide enough to enable them to row. They came against the wall of the ice-foot, and, grappling it, waited for the rising tide to lift them to its top. While here the storm was fearful, banging the boats against the ice-wall, and surging the waves into them, thus keeping the imperiled men at work for dear life in bailing out the water. They were at last lifted by the tide to the ice-foot, upon which they pulled their boats, all uniting on each boat. They had landed on the cliff at the mouth of a gorge in the rock; into this they dragged the boats, keeping them square on their keels. A sudden turn in the cave placed a wall between them and the storm, which was now raging furiously. While they were drawing in the last boat, a flock of eider ducks gladdened their hearts as they flew swiftly past. God had not only guided them to a sheltered haven, but had assured them of abundant food on the morrow. They were in the breeding home of the sea-fowl. Thus comforted they lay down to sleep, though wet and hungry. They named their providential harbor the "Weary Man's Rest," and remained in it three days, eating until hunger was appeased, and gathering eggs at the rate of twelve hundred a day, and laughing at the storms which roared without. On the fourth of July, after as much of a patriotic celebration as their circumstances allowed, they again launched into the sea. For some days they moved slowly south, but it was only by picking their way through the leads, for they found the sea nearly closed. As they approached Cape Dudley Digges their way was entirely closed. They pushed into an opening that led to the bottom of its precipitous cliff. Here they found a rocky shelf, overshadowed by the towering rocks, just large enough and in the right position at high tide to make a platform on which they could land their boats. Here they waited a whole week for the ice toward Cape York to give way. The sea-fowl were abundant and of a choice kind. The scurvy-killing cochlearia was at hand, which they ate with their eggs. It was indeed a "providential halt," for the fact was constantly forced upon them that they had come here, as they had to "Weary Man's Rest," by no skill or knowledge of their own. It was the eighteenth of July before the condition of the ice was such as to make the renewal of their voyage possible. Two hundred and fifty choice fowl had been skinned, cut open, and dried on the rocks, besides a store of those thrown aboard as they were caught. They now sailed along the coast, passing the "Crimson Cliffs" of Sir John Ross. The birds were abundant, their halting-places on the shore were clothed with green, and the fresh-water streams at which they filled their vessels were pouring down from the glaciers. They built great blazing fires of dry turf which cost nothing but the gathering. After a day's hard rowing the sportsmen brought in fresh fowl, and, gathered about their camp-fire, all ate, and then stretched themselves on the moss carpet and slept. They enjoyed thankfully this Arctic Eden all the more as they all knew that perils and privations were just before them. They wisely provided during these favored days a large stock of provisions, amounting to six hundred and forty pounds, besides their dried birds. Turf fuel, too, was taken on board for the fires. They reached Cape York on the twenty-first of July. From this place they were to try the dangers of Melville Bay, across which in their frail boats they must sail. It had smiled upon their northward voyage; would it favor their escape now? It certainly did not hold out to them flattering promises. The inshore ice was solid yet, and terribly hummocky. The open sea was far to the west, but along the margin of the floe were leads, and fortunately there was one beginning where they had halted. The boats were hauled up, examined, and as much as possible repaired. The "Red Eric" was stripped, her cargo taken out, and her hull held in reserve for fuel. A beacon was erected from which a red flannel skirt was thrown as a pennant to the wind to attract attention. Under this beacon records were left which told in brief the story of the expedition. This done, and the blessing of God implored, the voyagers entered the narrow opening in the ice. For a while all went well, but one evening Dr. Kane was hastily called on deck. The huge icebergs had bewildered the helmsman in the leading boat, and he had missed the channel, and had turned directly toward the shore until the boat was stopped by the solid floe. The lead through which they had come had closed in their rear, and they were completely entangled in the ice! Without telling the men what had happened, the commander, under the pretense of drying the clothes, ordered the boats drawn up, and a camp was made on the ice. In the morning Kane and M'Gary climbed a berg some three hundred feet high. They were appalled by their situation; the water was far away, and huge bergs and ugly hummocks intervened. M'Gary, an old-whaleman, familiar from early manhood with the hardships of Arctic voyaging, wept at the sight. There was but one way out of this entanglement; the sledges must be taken from the sides of the boats, where they had been hung for such emergencies, the boats placed on them, and the old drag-rope practice must be tried until the expedition reached the edge of the floe. One sledge, that which bore the "Red Eric," had been used for fuel; so the "Red Eric" itself was knocked to pieces, and stowed away for the same use. About three days were consumed in thus toiling before they reached the lead which they had left, launched once more into waters, and sailed away before a fine breeze. Thus far the boats had kept along the outer edge of the floe, following the openings through the ice. But as this was slow work, though much safer, they now ventured a while in the open sea farther west; but they were driven back to the floe by heavy fogs, and on trying to get the boats into a lead, one of those incidents occurred so often noticed, in which God's hand was clearly seen. All hands were drawing up the "Hope," and she had just reached a resting-place on the floe, when-the "Faith," their best boat, with all their stores on board, went adrift. The sight produced an almost panic sensation among the men. The "Hope" could not possibly be launched in time to overtake her, for she was drifting rapidly. But before they could collect their thoughts to devise the means of her rescue, a cake of ice swung round, touched the floe where they stood, reaching at the same time nearly to the "Faith," thus bridging over the chasm. Instantly Kane and M'Gary sprung upon it, and from it into the escaping boat. She was saved. CHAPTER XXVI. SAVED. MATTERS were getting into a serious condition. The delays had been so many that the stock of birds had been eaten, and the men had been for several days on short allowance, which showed itself in their failing strength. They were far out to sea, midway of the Melville Bay navigation, and the boats were receiving a rough handling, and required continual bailing to keep them from sinking. It was just at this crisis that the ever timely aid came. A large seal was seen floating upon a small patch of ice, seeming to be asleep. A signal was given for the "Hope" to fall astern, while the "Faith" approached noiselessly upon him, with stockings drawn over the oars. Petersen lay in the bow with a large English rifle, and as they drew near, the men were so excited that they could scarcely row; the safety of the whole company seemed staked upon the capture of that seal. When within three hundred yards, the oars were taken in, and the boat moved silently on by a scull-oar at the stern. The seal was not asleep, for when just beyond the reach of the ball he raised his head. The thin, care-worn, almost despairing faces of the men showed their deep concern as he appeared about to make his escape. Dr. Kane gave the signal to fire; but poor Petersen, almost paralyzed by anxiety, was trying nervously to get a rest for his gun on the edge of the bow. The seal rose on his fore-flipper, looked curiously around, and coiled himself up for a plunge. The rifle cracked at the instant, and the seal at the same moment drooped his head one side, and stretched his full length on the ice at the brink of his hole. With a frantic yell the men urged the boats to the floe, seized the seal, and bore him to a safer place. They brandished their knives, cut long strips of the seal, and went dancing about the floe, eating and sucking their bloody fingers in wild delight. The seal was large and fat, but not an ounce of him was wasted. A fire was built that night on the floe, and the joyous feast went on until hunger was appeased; they had driven away its gnawings, and, happily, it returned no more. On the first of August they had passed the terrible bay, and sighted land on its southern side. Familiar landmarks of the whalers came in sight. They passed the Duck Islands and Cape Shackelton, and coasted along by the hills, seeking a cove in which to land. One was soon found, the boats drawn up, a little time spent in thanksgiving and congratulations, and then they lay down on the dry land and slept. They continued to coast near the shore, dodging about among the islands, and dropping into the bays, and landing for rest at night. It was at one of these sleeping-halts on the rocks that Petersen saw one of the natives, whom he recognized as an old acquaintance; he was in his kayak seeking eider-down among the rocks. Petersen hailed him, but the man played shy. "Paul Zacharias," shouted Petersen, "don't you know me? I am Carl Petersen!" "No," replied the man; "his wife says he's dead." The native stared at the weather-beaten, long-bearded man for a moment as he loomed up through the fog, and then turned the bow of his boat, and paddled away as if a phantom was pursuing him. Two days after this the explorers were rowing leisurely along in a fog, which had just began to lift and dimly reveal the objects on shore. At this moment a familiar sound came to them over the water. It was the "huk" of the Esquimo, for which they had often taken the bark of a fox or the startling screech of the gulls; but this "huk! huk!" died away in the home-thrilling "halloo!" "Listen, Petersen! what is it?" Petersen listened quietly for a moment, and then, trembling with emotion, said, in an undertone, "Dannemarkers!" Then the whole company stood up and peered into the distant nooks, in breathless silence to catch the sound again. The sound came again, and all was a moment silent. It was the first Christian voice they had heard beyond their own party for two years. But they saw nothing. Was it not a cheat after all of their nervous, excited feelings? The men sat down again and bent to their oars, and their boats swept in for the cape from which the sound proceeded. They scanned narrowly every nook and green spot where the strangers might be found. A full half hour passed in this exciting search. At last the single mast of a small shallop was seen. Petersen, who had kept himself during the search very still and sober, burst into a fit of crying, relieved by broken exclamations of English and Danish, gulping down his words at intervals, and wringing his hands all the while. "'Tis the Upernavik oil-boat!" "The Mariane has come! and Carlie Mossyn--" Petersen had hit the facts. The annual ship, Mariane, had arrived at Proven, and Carlie Mossyn had come up to get the year's supply of blubber from Kinqatok. Here our explorers listened while Carlie, in answer to their questions, gave them a hint of what had been going on in the civilized world during their long absence. The Crimean war had been begun and was in bloody progress, but "Sebastopol wasn't taken!" "Where and what is Sebastopol?" they queried. "But what of America?" Carlie didn't know much about that country, for no whale ships were on the coast, but said "a steamer and a bark passed up a fortnight ago seeking your party." "What of Sir John Franklin?" they next inquired. Carlie said the priest had a German newspaper which said traces of his boats and dead had been found! Yes, found a thousand miles away from the region where our explorers had been looking for them! One more row into the fog and one more halting on the rocks. They all washed clean in the fresh water of the basins, and brushed up their ragged furs and woolens. The next morning they neared the settlement of Upernavik, of which Petersen had been foreman, and they heard the yelling of the dogs as its snowy hill-top showed itself through the mist, and the tolling of the workmen's bells calling them to their daily labor came as sweet music to their ears. They rowed into the big harbor, landed by an old Brewhouse, and hauled their boats up for the last time. A crowd of merry children came round them with cheerful faces and curious eyes. In the crowd were the wife and children of Petersen. Our explorers were safe; their perils were over! Having lived in the open air for eighty-four days, they felt a sense of suffocation within the walls of a house. But divided among many kind, hospitable homes, they drank their coffee and listened to hymns of welcome sung by many voices. The people of Upernavik fitted up a loft for the reception of the wayfarers, and showed them great kindness. They remained until the sixth of September, and then embarked on the Danish vessel "Mariane," whose captain was to leave them at the nearest English port on his way to Denmark. The boat "Faith" was taken on board, as a relic of their perilous adventure; the document box containing their precious records, and the furs on their backs--these were all that were saved of the heroic brig "Advance." The "Mariane" made a short stay at Godhavn. The searching company under Captain Hartstene had left there for the icy north one the twenty-first of July, since which nothing was known of them. The "Mariane" was on the eve of leaving with our explorers when the lookout shouted from the hill-top that a steamer was in the distance. It drew near with a bark in tow, both flying the stars and stripes. The "Faith" was lowered for the last time, and, with Brooks at the helm, Dr. Kane went out to meet them. As they came alongside Captain Hartstene hailed: "Is that Dr. Kane?" "Yes!" Instantly the men sprung into the rigging and gave cheers of welcome; and the whole country, on the arrival of the long-lost explorers, repeated the glad shout of welcome; and the Christian world echoed, "Welcome!" CHAPTER XXVII. OFF AGAIN. DR. KANE'S party came home, as we have seen, in the fall of 1855. Dr. Hayes, with whom we have become acquainted as one of that number, began immediately to present the desirableness of further exploration in the same direction to the scientific men of the country, and to the public generally. His object was to sail to the west side of Smith's Sound, instead of the east, as in the last voyage, and to gather additional facts concerning the currents, the aurora, the glaciers, the directions and intensity of "the magnetic force," and so to aid in settling many interesting scientific questions. He aimed also, of course, to further peer into the mysteries of the open Polar Sea. These efforts resulted in the fitting out for this purpose, in the summer of 1860, the schooner "United States," and the appointment of Dr. Hayes as commander. She left Boston July sixth, manned by fourteen persons all told. The vessel was small, but made for arctic warfare, and as she turned her prow North Poleward, she bore a defiant spirit, and, like all inexperienced warriors, reckoned the victory already hers. But if the vessel was "green" her commander was not. He was well able to help her in the coming battle with icebergs and floes. Among her men were only two besides the doctor who had seen arctic service, one of whom was Professor August Sontag, who had been of Kane's party, and had also been of the number who accompanied Dr. Hayes in the attempt to escape. Of the rest of the crew were two young men nearly of an age, about eighteen, who are represented as joining the expedition because they would, and in love of adventure. Their names were George F. Knorr, commander's clerk, and Collins C. Starr. Both pressed their desire to go upon Dr. Hayes, and Starr told him that he would go in _any_ capacity. The commander told him he might go in the forecastle with the common sailors, and the next day, to the surprise of the doctor, he found him on board, manfully at work with the roughest of the men, having doffed his silk hat, fine broadcloth, and shining boots of the elegant young man of the day before. The commander was so pleased with his spirit that he promoted him on the spot, sending him off to be sailing-master's mate. In a little less than four weeks of prosperous sailing, the "United States" was at the Danish port of Proven, Greenland. It was the intention of the commander to get a supply here of the indispensable dog-teams, but disease had raged among them, and none could be bought. The vessel was delayed, in order that the chief trader, Mr. Hansen, who was daily expected from Upernavik, might be consulted in the matter. When he arrived he gave a gloomy account of the dog-market, but kindly _gave_ the expedition his own teams. The couriers which had been sent out to scour the country for others, returned with four old dogs and a less number of good ones. On the evening of the twelfth of August the explorers arrived at Upernavik. The Danish brig "Thialfe" lay at anchor in the harbor, about to sail for Copenhagen with a cargo of skins and oil, so the first letters to the dear ones at home were hastily written to send by her. They bore sad news to at least one family circle. Mr. Gibson Caruther retired to his berth well on the evening of their arrival, and in the morning was found dead. He had escaped the perils of the first Grinnell Expedition under Capt. De Haven to die thus suddenly ere those of his second voyage had begun. He was beloved, able, and intelligent, and his death was a great loss to the enterprise. His companions laid him away in the mission burial-ground, the missionary, Mr. Anton, officiating. Before leaving Upernavik, Dr. Hayes secured the services of an Esquimo interpreter, one Peter Jensen, who brought on board with him one of the best dog-teams of the country; and soon after he came, two more Esquimo hunters and dog-drivers were enlisted; and a still better addition to the expedition were two Danish sailors, one of whom is our old friend whom we left here some five years ago rejoicing in re-union with wife and children--Carl Christian Petersen. Petersen enlisted as carpenter as well as sailor. With these six persons added to her company, making it twenty in all, the "United States" left Upernavik to enter upon the earnest work of the expedition. The settlement had scarcely faded in the distance, when the icebergs were seen marshaling their forces to give the little voyager battle. A long line of them was formed just across her course, some more than two hundred feet high and a mile long. They were numberless, and at a distance seemed to make a solid, jagged ice-wall. When the schooner was fairly in among them, the sunlight was shut out as it is from the traveler in a dense forest. She felt the wind in a "cat's-paw" now and then, and so the helm lost its control of her, and she went banging against first one berg and then another. The bergs themselves minded not the little breeze which was blowing, but swept majestically along by the under current. The navigators were kept on the alert to keep the vessel from fatal collision with its huge, cold, defiant enemies, as the surface current drove it helplessly onward. Sometimes, as they approached one, the boats were lowered, and the vessel was towed away from danger; at another crisis, as it neared one berg, an anchor was planted in another in an opposite direction, and she was warped into a place of security. Occasionally they tied up to a berg and waited for a chance for progress. While thus beset with dangers, there were occasions of some pleasant excitement. The birds were abundant and of many varieties, affording sport for the hunters and fresh food for the table; the seals sported in the clear water, and were shot for the larder of the dogs; and Dr. Hayes and Professor Sontag found employment with their scientific instruments. Such had been the state of things for four days, when one morning the vessel was borne toward a large berg, of a kind the sailors called "touch-me-nots." It was an old voyager, whose jagged sides, high towers, deep valleys and swelling hills, showed that time, the sun, and the tides, had laid their hands upon it. Such bergs are about as good neighbors as an avalanche on a mountain side, just ready for a run into the valley below. Warps and tow-boats, instantly and vigorously used, failed to stop the schooner's headway. She touched the berg, and down dropped fragments of it larger than the vessel, followed by a shower of smaller pieces; but they went clear of the vessel. Now the berg began to revolve, turning toward the explorers, and as its towering sides settled slowly over them, fragments poured upon the deck--a fearful hail-storm. There was no safety for the men except in the forecastle, and there appeared to be no escape for the schooner. But just in time an immense section of the base of the berg, which seemed to be far below the water line, broke off, and rose to the surface with a sudden rush, which threw the sea into violent commotion. The balance of the berg was changed; it paused, and then began, slowly at first but with increasing rapidity, to turn in the opposite direction. If this was intended as a retreat of the bergy foe, it defended well its rear. At its base, from which the piece had just been broken, was an icy projection toward the vessel; as the berg revolved, this tongue came up and struck the keel. It seemed intent upon tossing the vessel into the air, or rolling her over and leaving her bottom side up upon the sea. The men seized their poles and pushed vigorously to launch the vessel from the perilous position, but in vain. Just in time again the unseen Hand interfered for their deliverance. Deafening reports, like a park of artillery, saluted their ears, and a misty smoke arose above the berg. Its opposite side was breaking up, and launching its towering peaks into the sea. The berg paused again and began to roll back, and thus for the moment released the vessel. The boat had in the meantime fastened an anchor in a grounded berg, and the welcome shout came, "Haul in!" Steadily and with a will the men drew upon the rope, and the vessel moved slowly from the scene of danger, not, however, before the returning top of the berg had launched upon her deck a shower of ice-fragments, in fearful assurance that its whole side would soon follow and bury them as the shepherd's hut is buried by a mountain slide. A few moments later and the side came down with a tremendous crash, sending its spray over the escaped vessel, and tossing it as the drift-wood is tossed in the eddies beneath a water-fall. All that day the roar of the icy cannon was continued, as if a naval battle was in progress for the empire of the north, and berg after berg went down, strewing the sea with their shattered fragments, while misty clouds floated over the field of conflict. CHAPTER XXVIII. COLLIDING FLOES. AFTER this ice encounter the expedition put into a little port called Tessuissak, to complete their outfit of dogs. An impatient tarry of two days enabled them to count, on the deck of the little vessel, thirty first-class, howling dogs, whose amiable tempers found expression in biting each other, and making both day and night hideous with their noise. This port was left on the twenty-third of August, and, much to the joy of all, the dreaded Melville Bay was clear of the ice-pack; the icebergs, however, kept their watch over its storm-tossed waters. Through these waters driven before a fierce wind, and buried often in a fog so dense that the length of the vessel could not be seen, the "United States" sped. Its anxious commander was on deck night and day, not knowing the moment when an icy wall, as fatal to the vessel as one of granite, might arrest its course and send it instantly to the bottom of the sea. Once they passed so near a berg just crossing their track that the fore-yard grazed its side, and the spray from its surf-beaten wall was thrown upon the deck. A berg at one time hove in sight with an arch through it large enough for a passage-way for the schooner. The explorers declined, however, the novel adventure. The passage of Melville Bay was made, with sails only, in fifty-five hours. The pack which had invariably troubled explorers seemed to have been enjoying a summer vacation, and the bergs were off duty. The expedition had reached the North Water and lay off Cape York. The ocean current which sweeps past this cape, and opens the way to the other side of Baffin Bay, is wonderful. It is the great Polar current which comes rushing down through Spitzbergen Sea, along the eastern coast of Greenland, laden with ice, and taking the waters of its rivers with their freight of drift-wood as it passes. Leaving most of the wood along its shore, a welcome gift to the people, it sweeps around Cape Farewell, courses near the western shore in its run north until it has passed Melville Bay. When it has crossed over to the American shore near Jones Strait, it joins the current from the Arctic Sea, turns south, and makes the long journey until it reaches our own coast, dropping its ice freight as it goes, and sending its cooling air through the heat-oppressed atmosphere of our summer. As our explorers approached the shore of Cape York they looked carefully for the natives. Soon a company of Esquimo were seen making their wild gesticulations to attract attention. A boat was lowered, and Dr. Hayes and Professor Sontag went ashore, and as they approached the landing-place one of the Esquimo called them by name. It was our old friend Hans, of the Kane voyage, who, the reader will recollect, left his white friends for an Esquimo wife. The group consisted, besides Hans, of his wife and baby, his wife's mother, an old woman having marked talking ability, and her son, a bright-eyed boy of twelve years. Hans had found his self-imposed banishment among the savages of this extreme north rather tedious. He had removed his family to this lookout for the whale ships, and had watched and waited. It was the dreariest of places, and his hut, pitched on a bleak spot the better to command a view of the sea, was the most miserable of abodes. It had plainly cost him dear to break his faith with his confiding commander and the friends of his early Christian home. Dr. Hayes asked Hans if he would go with the expedition. He answered promptly, "Yes." "Would you take your wife and baby?" "Yes." "Would you go without them?" "Yes." He was taken on board with his wife and baby. The mother and her boy cried to go, but the schooner was already overcrowded. Leaving Cape York, the vessel spread her sails before a "ten-knot" breeze, and dodging the icebergs with something of a reckless daring, seemed bent on reaching the Polar Sea before winter set in. At one time what appeared to be two icebergs a short distance apart lay in the course of the vessel. The helmsman was ordered to steer between them, for to go round involved quite a circuit. On dashed the brave little craft for the narrow passage. When she was almost abreast of them the officer on the lookout shuddered to see that the seeming bergs were but one, and that the connecting ice appeared to be only a few feet below the surface. It was too late to stop the headway of the vessel, or to turn her to the right or left. She rushed onward, but the water of the opening proved to be deeper than it appeared, and her keel but touched once or twice, just to show how narrow was the escape. Hans was delighted with his return to ship life. His wife seemed pleased and half bewildered by the strange surroundings. The baby crowed, laughed, and cried, and ate and slept--like other babies. The sailors put the new comers through a soap-and-water ordeal, to which was added the use of scissors and combs. Esquimo do not bathe, nor practice the arts of the barber, and consequently they keep numerous boarders on their persons. When this necessary cleansing and cropping was done, they donned red shirts and other luxuries of civilization. With the new dresses they were delighted, and they were never tired of strutting about in them. But the soap and water was not so agreeable. At first it was taken as a rough joke, but the wife soon began to cry. She inquired of her husband if it was a religious ceremony of the white men. The vessel made good time until she came within three miles of Cape Alexander. It was now August twenty-eighth, and so it was time these Arctic regions should begin to show their peculiar temper. A storm came down upon them, pouring the vials of its wrath upon the shivering vessel for about three days. During a lull in the storm the schooner was hauled under the shelter of the highlands of Cape Alexander and anchored. She rocked and plunged fearfully. At one time when these gymnastics were going on, the old Swedish cook came to the commander in the cabin with refreshments, but he was hardly able to keep his "sea legs." He remarks as he comes in, "I falls down once, but de commander sees I keeps de coffee. It's good an' hot, and very strong, and go right down into de boots." "Bad night on deck, cook," remarks the captain. "O, it's awful, sar! I never see it blow so hard in all my life, an' I's followed de sea morn'n forty years. An' den it's so cold! My galley is full of ice, and de water, it freeze on my stove." "Here, cook, is a guernsey for you. It will keep you warm." "Tank you, sar!" says the cook, starting off with his prize. But encouraged by the kind bearing of his captain, he stops and asks, "Would the commander be so kind as to tell me where we is? De gentlemen fool me." "Certainly, cook. The land over there is Greenland; the big cape is Cape Alexander; beyond that is Smith's Sound, and we are only about eight hundred miles from the North Pole." "De Nort Pole! vere's dat?" The commander explains as well as he can. "Tank you, sar. Vat for we come--to fish?" "No, not to fish, cook; for science." "O, dat it! Dey tell me we come to fish. Tank you, sar." The old cook pulls his greasy cap over his bald head and thinks. "Science!" "De Nort Pole!" He don't get the meaning of these through his cap, and he "tumbles up" the companion-ladder, and goes to the galley to enjoy his guernsey. Dr. Hayes and Knorr went ashore and climbed to the top of the cliffs, twelve hundred feet. The wind was fearfully breezy, and Knorr's cap left and went sailing like a feather out to sea. The view was full of arctic grandeur, but not flattering to the storm-bound navigators. Ice was evidently king a little farther north. Soon after the explorer's return to the vessel the storm gathered fresh power, and the anchors began to drag. Soon one hawser parted, and away went the schooner, with fearful velocity, and brought up against a berg. The crash was appalling, and the stern boat flew into splinters. The spars were either bent or carried away; and, as they attempted to hoist the mainsail, it went to pieces. The crippled craft was with difficulty worked back into the projecting covert of Cape Alexander. Her decks were covered with ice, and the dogs were perishing with wet and cold, three having died. Having repaired damages as well as they could, they again pushed into the pack of Smith's Sound, which lay between them and open water, visible far to the north. Entering a lead under full sail, they made good progress for awhile; but suddenly a solid floe shot across the channel, and the vessel, with full headway, struck it like a battering ram. The cut-water flew into splinters, and the iron sheathing of the bows was torn off as if it had been paper. Pushing off from the floe, and passing through a narrow lead, they emerged into an area of open water. But the floe was on the alert. This began to close up, and, taking a hint of foul play, the explorers steered toward the shore. But the ice battalions moved with celerity, piled up across the vessel's bow, and closed in on every side. In an hour they held her as in a vice, while the reserve force was called up to crush her to atoms. The foe was jubilant, for the power at his command was kindred to that of the earthquake. An ice-field of millions of tons, moved by combined wind and current, rushed upon the solid ice-field which rested against the immovable rocks of the shore. Between these was the schooner--less than an egg-shell between colliding, heavily laden freight trains. As the pressure came steadily, in well assured strength, she groaned and shrieked like a thing of conscious pain, writhing and twisting as if striving to escape her pitiless adversary. Her deck timbers bowed, and the seams of the deck-planks opened, while her sides seemed ready to yield. Thus far the closing forces were permitted to strike severely on the side of the helpless vessel, to show that they could crush her as rotten fruit is crushed in a strong man's hand. Then He, without whose permission no force in nature moves, and at whose word they are instantly stayed, directed the floe under the strongly timbered "bilge" of the hull, and, with a jerk which sent the men reeling about the deck, lifted the vessel out of the water. The floes now fought their battle out beneath her, as if they disdained, like the lion with the mouse in his paw, to crush so small a thing. Great ridges were piled up about her, and one underneath lifted her high into the air. Eight hours she remained in this situation, while the lives of all on board seemed suspended on the slenderest thread. Then came the yielding and breaking up of the floes. Once, at the commencing of the giving way, an ice prop of the bows suddenly yielded, let the forward end of the vessel down while the stern was high in the air. But finally the battered craft settled squarely into the water. She was leaking badly, and the pumps were kept moving with vigor. The rudder was split, and two of its bolts broken; the stern-post started, and fragments of the cut-water and keel were floating away. But, strange to say, no essential injury was done. She was slowly navigated into Hartstene or _Etah_ Bay, where we have been so often, anchored safely, and repairs immediately commenced. CHAPTER XXIX. THE WINTER HOME. ONE more effort, after the repairs were finished, was made to push through the ice-floe of Smith's Sound. This resulting in failure, it was plainly impossible to get farther north. The vessel was brought into Etah Bay again, a harbor found eight miles north-east of Cape Alexander, and eighty by the coast from the harbor of the "Advance," though only twenty in a straight line, and preparations were at once begun for winter. Peter, the Esquimo dog-driver, and Hans were appointed a hunting party. Sontag, the astronomer, with three assistants, was mainly engaged in scientific observations and experiments. There was work for all the rest. Some were engaged in unloading the cargo and lifting it by a derrick to a terrace on the shore, far above the highest tide, where a storehouse was made for it. The hold of the schooner was cleared, scrubbed, and white-washed, a stove set up, and made a home for the sailors. The sails and yards were "sent down," the upper deck roofed in, making a house eight feet high at the ridge, and six and a half at the sides. The crew moved into their new quarters on the first of October. The event was celebrated by a holiday dinner. There was joy on shipboard; thankful for escapes granted by the great Protector, trustful for the future, and, greatly encouraged by present blessings, none were unhappy. The hunters were very successful, bringing in every day game of the best kind, and in great abundance. A dozen reindeer were suspended from the shrouds, and clusters of rabbits and foxes were hung in the rigging; besides these, deposits of reindeer were made in various directions. The hard-working men ate heartily of the relishing fresh food, and laughed to scorn the scurvy. They called the place of their winter quarters Port Foulke. When the floe became frozen, the sledges were put in readiness for the dog-teams. The dogs having been well fed, were in fine condition. Blocks of ice were used to make a wall about the vessel, from the floe to the deck, between which and her sides the snow was crowded, making a solid defense against the cold. On the fifteenth of October the sun bade them farewell for four months, and they anticipated the coming darkness under circumstances certainly much better than had been often granted to arctic sojourners. As there was yet a long twilight, dog-trips were very exhilarating. Dr. Hayes once rode behind his dogs twelve measured miles in an hour and one minute, without a moment's halt. Sontag and the captain raced their teams, the captain beating, as was becoming, by four minutes. The dogs were made to know their masters--a knowledge quite necessary for the good of all. Jensen observed that one of his team was getting rebellious. "You see dat beast," he said. "I takes a piece out of his ear." The long lash unrolls, the sinewy snapper on its tip touches the tip of the dog's ear, and takes out a piece as neatly as a sharp knife would have done. The same day Jensen's skill at dog driving was put to a severe test. A fox crossed their path. Up went their tails, curling over their backs, their short ears pricked forward, and away they went in full chase. In such a case woe be to the driver who cannot take a piece of flesh out of any dog in the team at each snap of his merciless whip. Jensen was usually master of such a situation, but it so happened that a strong wind blew directly in the face of the team and carried the lash back before it reached its victim. Missing its terrible bite, the dogs became for a while unmanageable and raced after the fox at full speed. To make matters worse, treacherous ice lay just ahead. The dogs were already on the heels of the fox, and about to make a meal of him, when Jensen regained full control of his whip. It stung severely, now this one and then that. Their tails dropped, their ears drooped, and they paused and obeyed their master. But they were greatly provoked at the loss of the game, and at the harsh subjection, and, with characteristic amiability, they commenced to snap at and bite each other. Jensen jumped from the sledge and laid the whip-stock on them, knocking them to the right and left, until, it is presumed, made very loving by the process, they went about their assigned business. Parties of the explorers were out nearly every day, hunting, or pursuing the scientific inquiries. Knorr, the secretary of the commander, was off with Hans. He had his adventure to talk about on his return. He wounded in the valley a reindeer, which hobbled on three legs up a steep hill. The young hunter followed, and, getting within easy range, brought it down by a well-aimed shot. The deer being in a line with Knorr, came sliding down the hill, and, knocking against him, both went tumbling down together. Fortunately he carried no broken bones, but only bruises to the vessel as mementoes of his deer hunt. Sontag, on the same day, had his perilous incident. He had climbed to the top of a glacier by cutting steps in the ice. Across the ice was a crack, bridged over with thin ice, but entirely concealed by it. Stepping on this he broke through and fell into the chasm; fortunately it was a narrow one, and the barometer which he carried, crossing the creek, broke the fall and probably saved his life. On what a slender thread hangs this mortal existence! During this sledging season Dr. Hayes visited the homes of our old acquaintance at Etah, which was only four miles from the schooner; but they were deserted. Near the huts was a splendid buck, busily engaged in pawing up and eating the moss from under the snow. He seemed so unsuspecting, and withal so honestly engaged, that the doctor, though he had crept on the leeward side, within easy range, was reluctant to fire. Twice he aimed, and twice dropped his gun from its level. Bringing it to sight the third time he fired, and the ball went crashing through the noble animal. We hear nothing of compunction in eating him on the part of any on shipboard, and probably the pitying reader would have had none. Our old friend Hans does not appear so favorably in the present narrative as he did in that of Dr. Kane. His five years of chosen exile among his purely heathen countrymen does not seem to have left many traces of his Christian education. Some allowance, however, must be made for a difference of estimate of his character by his former and present commander. In Dr. Hayes's judgment, "he is a type of the worst phase of the Esquimo character." Hans's domestic relations are represented as not of the most happy kind. His wife's name is Merkut, but is known to the sailors as "Mrs. Hans." She passes for a "beauty," as Esquimo beauty goes; has a flush of red on rather a fair cheek when, exceptionally, she uses soap and water enough for it to be seen through the usual coating of dirt. Their baby, ten months' old, bears the pleasant name of Pingasuk--"Pretty One." Hans has a household of his own. He pitched a tent, when the schooner went into winter-quarters, under the roof of the upper deck. The Esquimo Marcus and Jacob make a part of his family. Here, wrapped in their furs, where they choose to be, they huddle together, warm "as fleas in a rug," though the temperature is seldom higher than about the freezing point. Little "Pretty One" creeps out of the tent about the deck, having for covering only the ten months' accumulation of grease and dirt, not unfrequently accompanied by its mother, who on such occasion is guiltless of "costly array," or much of any whatever. Hans's gentlemen lodgers were taken on board as dog-drivers, but they seemed to have been of no possible use except to give occasion for the mirthful jokes of the sailors. Peter, chief dog manager, a converted Esquimo, brother to Jacob, gave his commander excellent satisfaction and stood high in his esteem. He was skillful, industrious, and trustworthy. Between him and Hans an intense jealousy existed. Hans had, under Dr. Kane, no rival in his sphere. Peter was now, at least, a peer, and so the glory of his exaltation from Esquimo hut-life was greatly eclipsed. His master even preferred Peter before him; but Prof. Sontag clung, with a little of the Dr. Kane partiality, to the favorite of the former voyage. Hans had no reason, however, to complain of the consideration shown him by his chief. At one time he gave him, to quiet his jealousy, a new suit of clothes, with the very reddest of flannel shirts. In these he appeared at the Sunday inspection and religious service, quite as elated at his personal adornment, though probably not more so, as the "fine gents" of our home Sabbath assemblies. CHAPTER XXX. GLACIERS. THE glacier is one of the wonderful things of the northern regions. We will visit one with Dr. Hayes, and, on our return to the vessel, listen to some curious and interesting facts concerning it. Although there was no sunshine at the time of the first glacier excursion, the twilight was long and clear; it was October twenty-first. The run was made to the foot of the glacier from the vessel, with the dogs, in forty minutes. It appeared here as a great ice-wall, one hundred feet high and a mile broad. The glacier in descending the valley extended in breadth not quite to the slope of the hills, so it left between them and each of its sides a gorge. It is very curious that the ice should not lean against the hills as it slips along and thus fill up all the valley as water would. Our party first stopped and examined the front face of the glacier. It was nearly perpendicular, but bulging out a little in the middle. It was worn in places by the summer streams which run over it, and marred in other parts by the fall of great fragments into the valley below. While our visitors were gazing at it a crystal block came down as an angry hint for them to stand from under. Wisely heeding the warning, they turned up one of the gorges between the glacier side and the hill. Here was rough traveling, and, we should think, dangerous too. There were strewed along in their path ice fragments from the glacier on one side, and rocks and earth which had slid down the hill on the other. If the glacier was as evil disposed as its children, the icebergs, it might let loose some of its projecting crags on their heads. Finding a favorable place, they began to cut steps in the side of the glacier in order to mount to its surface. Having reached the top they cautiously walked to the center of the icy stream, drove two stakes on a line in it, and then two half way between these and the sides of the glacier. Then they measured the distance of these stakes from each other, and sighted from their tops fixed objects on the hills. They purposed to come in the spring and examine the distance apart of the stakes, and sight from them the fixed objects, so as to determine how fast the frozen river was moving down the valley. Having set the stakes they scampered back to the vessel. After a little rest another journey to the glacier was made, this time without the dogs, the sledges, having a light outfit, being drawn by the men. These were young Knorr, the sailor M'Donald, Mr. Heywood, a landsman from the west--an amateur explorer--the Dane, Petersen, and the Esquimo, Peter. When they arrived at the gorge, the way was so rough that they were compelled to carry the sledge loads in parcels on their backs. It was rough work, and they sought an early camp; but with the frowning ice-cliffs on one side and hill-crags on the other, both evil-minded in the use of their icy and rocky missiles, and with also the uneven bed of rocks beneath them, no wonder they did not sleep. They were soon astir, pushed farther up the gorge, and finding a favorable place, began to cut steps up the glacier. The first one who attempted to mount reached some distance, then slipped, and in sliding down carried with him his companions who were following, and the whole company were promiscuously tumbled into the gorge. The one going ahead had better luck the next trial, carrying a rope by which the sledge was drawn up, and all mounted in safety. They now started off up this ice-river toward the great sea of ice from whence it flowed. The surface was at first rough, and of course slightly descending toward its front edge. Dr. Hayes walked in advance of the sledge party, carrying a pole over his head grasped by both hands, being fearful of the treacherous cracks hidden by their ice. Soon down he went into one, but the pole reached across the chasm and he scrambled out. The depth of the chasm remains a mystery to this day. The ice grew smoother as they proceeded, and they made about five miles, pitched their canvas tents, cooked with their lamp a good supper, made coffee, ate and drank like weary men, crept into their fur sleeping bags, and slept soundly though the thermometer was about fifteen degrees below zero. The next day they traveled thirty miles, and came upon an even plain where the surface of the ice-sea was covered with many feet of snow, the crust of which broke through at every step. This made very hard traveling, yet the following day they tramped twenty-five miles more. Now came the ever-at-hand Arctic storm. They camped, but lower and lower fell the temperature, and fiercer and fiercer blew the wind. They could not sleep, so they decided to turn their faces homeward. The frost nipped their fingers, and assailed their faces, as they hastily packed up and started. They were five thousand feet above the level of the sea, and seventy miles from the coast, and were standing in the midst of a vast icy desert. There was neither mountain nor hill in sight. As in mid-ocean the sailor beholds the sea bounded only by the sky, so here they beheld only ice, which stretched away to the horizon on every side--truly a sea of ice. Clouds of snow whirled along its surface, at times rising and disappearing in the cold air, or drifted across the face of the setting moon--beautiful clouds of fleecy whiteness to the eye, but "burning" the flesh as they pelted the retreating explorers, like the fiery sand-clouds of the Great Sahara. They scud before the wind, which they dared not for a moment face, nor halted until they had traveled forty miles and descended two thousand feet. They then pitched their tents, the cold and wind having lessened though yet severe. They arrived at the ship the next evening, not seriously the worse for their daring "sea-voyage" on foot. Having been refreshed by food and rest, no doubt our explorers discussed the great glacier problem, and pleasantly chased away many an hour in talk about what they had seen and what they had read on this interesting subject. We think their conversation included some of the following facts:-- The ice upon which they had been voyaging is a part of a great ocean of ice covering the central line of Greenland from Cape Farewell on the south to the farthest known northern boundary, a distance of at least twelve hundred miles. Instead of being formed of drops of water like more southern oceans, it is made up of crystallized dew-drops and snow-flakes, which have been falling for ages, and which in these cold regions have no summer long enough, nor of sufficient heat, to convert them into water again. But if the crystal dews and snows continue to fall for ages, and never melt, what prevents them from piling up to the sky, and sinking the very continent? The all-wise Director of the universe has made a very curious arrangement to prevent such a result. This ice-ocean runs off into the sea in great ice-rivers which find their way to the shore on both sides of the continent, just as the water does which falls from the clouds on the top of the Andes of South America. There we see the mighty Amazon, one of its rivers, almost an ocean of itself, as it sweeps along its banks between mountains, and through immense forests. Greenland has its Amazons in vastness and grandeur, as well as its smaller rivers and little streams. It has also its lakes and sublime Niagaras, its falls and cascades. But they are ice instead of water; that is all the difference between this Arctic circulation and that of warmer regions. But of course this ice is not like that which many of the readers see every winter. It is a half-solid, pasty kind of substance. It holds together, yet slides along from the higher land where it accumulates, filling up the valleys, breaking through the openings in the mountain and hilly ridges, and pouring over the precipices; slowly, silently, but with mighty force, ever pressing onward until it reaches the sea. These ice rivers move very slowly. It will be remembered that Dr. Hayes drove some stakes down in the one he visited in October. In the following July he visited the glacier again, and compared the relation of these to the landmarks he had noted. He thus found that this ice-river moved over one hundred feet a year. It had come down the valley ten miles. Two more miles would bring it to the sea. Some glacier streams which they visited were yet many miles from the shore, one as far away as sixty miles. The Great Glacier of Humboldt, farther north, was several times visited by Dr. Kane and parties of his explorers. Its face is a solid, glassy wall three hundred feet above the water-level, and in extending from Cape Agassiz, a measured distance north, of sixty miles, and then disappearing in the unknown polar regions. Surely this must be the mouth of the Amazon of glacier rivers. But the history of these rivers does not end when they reach the sea. When their broad and high glassy front touches the water it does not melt away nor fall to pieces, but goes down to the bottom, and if it be a shallow bay or arm of the sea, pushes the water back and fills up the whole space, it may be for many miles. When it reaches water so deep that more than seven eighths of its front is below the surface, it begins to feel an upward pressure, just as a piece of wood when forced below its natural water-line will spring back. So after a while this upward pressure breaks off the massive front, perhaps miles in extent, and many hundred feet in height. As this is launched into the sea its thunder crash is heard for miles, and the water boils like a caldron, while the disengaged mass rolls and plunges until, finding its equilibrium, it sails away a majestic ICEBERG. Hereafter the snow will at times cover it with a mantle of pure whiteness; the fierce storms will beat upon its defiant brow; the beams of the rising and setting sun will display their sparkling glories on its craggy top, or, falling upon the misty cloud which envelopes it, will encircle it with all the varying hues of the rainbow. As it voyages in stately dignity southward, anchored, it may be, at times for months, it will pass in sullen silence the drear, long, dark Arctic night, and emerge into the brief summer to be enlivened as the home of innumerable sea-fowl, who will rear their young upon its cold breast. Ultimately it will go back to the drops of water from which it came, to make a part of the great ocean, and possibly to sail away in clouds over the frozen regions, and to drop again upon its glassy plain in sparkling crystals. CHAPTER XXXI. A STRANGE DREAM AND ITS FULFILLMENT. THE winter was fully settled down upon Port Foulke, but the dwellers in the schooner "United States" knew nothing of the anxieties and suffering from cold and hunger which most of the arctic voyagers have known. There was one foe, however, which they, in common with all who had gone before them, had to fight; namely, depression of mind produced by the weeks of inactivity and darkness. We have seen how many means were used by earlier as well as later explorers to meet and vanquish this foe. Dr. Hayes availed himself of the hints given by his predecessors, and had some devices peculiarly his own. To the "school of navigation," dramatic performances, and the publishing of a weekly "newspaper," was added the pleasant stimulus of a celebration of the birthday of every man on board. Such occasions were attended by special dinners, the passing of complimentary notes of invitations to the intended guests, which included all, and by fun-making, at which all laughed as a matter of course. On Sunday all assembled in their clean and best suits. Brief religious service was performed in the presence of all, and the day was spent in reading or conversation, save the performance of the necessary routine work. During the favoring light of the moon some excursions were attempted. One was made by Professor Sontag, accompanied by Hans and Jensen with two dog sledges. The object was to reach the harbor where Dr. Kane's "Advance" had been left, and ascertain if possible her fate. He started early in November, but returned in a few days, baffled by the hummocks and wide intervening, treacherous ice-cracks. The party had an encounter with and captured a bear and her cub. The mother fought with maternal fury for her child, tossed the dogs one after another until some of the stoutest and bravest retired bleeding and yelping from the field, and at times charged upon and scattered the whole pack, while the cub itself behaved bravely in its own defense. When the men came up they threw in, of course, the fatal odds of rifle balls. Once Hans, his gun having failed to go off, seized an Esquimo lance and ran at the beast. Accepting the challenge of a hand-to-hand fight, she made at him with such spirit that he dropped the lance and ran, and nothing saved the cub from supping on Esquimo meat but two well-directed balls, which whizzed at the right moment from the guns of Sontag and Jensen. The bears made a splendid resistance to the unprovoked attack upon them in the peaceable pursuit of an honest calling, that of getting a living, but were conquered and eaten. Among the sad events of the winter was a fatal disease among the dogs. They all died but nine by the middle of December. This was alarming, for upon them depended mainly the spring excursions North Poleward. Such being the situation, Sontag took at this time the surviving dogs, and, on a sledge with Hans as a driver, started south in pursuit of Esquimo. If they could be brought with their dogs into the vicinity of the ship and fed, there would be a fair chance of having dog-sledges when they were wanted. The nearest known Esquimo family was at Northumberland Island, a hundred miles off, and others were at the south side of Whale Sound, fifty miles farther--perhaps all had gone to the most distant point. They departed in fine spirits, and well equipped. Hans cracked his whip, and the dogs, well fed and eager for a run, caused the sledge to glide over the ice with the velocity of a locomotive. Their companions sent after them a "hip! hip, hurrah!" and a "tiger." The moon shed her serene light on their path, and all seemed to promise a speedy and successful return. The second night after their departure the solicitous commander had a strange, disquieting dream. He says in the journal of the following morning: "I stood with Sontag far out upon the frozen sea, when suddenly a crash was heard through the darkness, and in an instant a crack opened in the ice between us. It came so suddenly and widened so rapidly that he could not spring over it to where I stood, and he sailed away on the dark waters of a troubled sea. I last saw him standing firmly upon the crystal raft, his erect form cutting sharply against a streak of light which lay upon the distant horizon." Christmas came and was duly regarded. Stores of nice things, the gifts of friends far away, were brought out from secret corners where they had been hid. The tables were loaded with that which satisfied the appetite and gratified the eye, while the rooms of officers and men blazed with cheerful lights. Outside a feeble aurora seemed to be trying to exhibit an inspiring illumination, which contrasted strongly with its cloudy background. January, 1861, came, and half its days passed, yet no tidings came from Sontag. The twilight had returned, and already the coming sun was heralded along the golden horizon. The commander was becoming uneasy concerning the missing ones, and began to devise ways of knowing what had become of them. Mr. Dodge was sent to follow their tracks, which he did as far as Cape Alexander, where he lost them and returned. A party was instantly put in readiness for farther search, and was about to start on the morning of January twenty-seventh, when a violent storm arose, detaining it two days. As it was on the instant of starting again, two Esquimo suddenly appeared at the vessel's side. One of them was Ootiniah, who appears so creditably in the narrative of Dr. Hayes's boat voyage. They were bearers of sad news. Professor Sontag was dead. Hans was on his way to the vessel with his wife, father and mother, and their son, a lad who was left behind with mother when Hans was first taken on board of the schooner. Some of the dogs had died, and the family were necessarily moving slowly. Two days later Hans came in with the boy only, having left the dogs and the old people near Cape Alexander and come on for help. He was very cold and much exhausted, and both were sent below for food, warmth, and rest, before being questioned concerning the disastrous journey. The large sledge, drawn by fresh men, was sent for those left behind. The old people were found coiled up in an excavation made in a snow bank, and the dogs huddled together near them, neither dogs nor Esquimo being able to stir, and so all were bundled in a heap on the sledge and drawn to the schooner. The hardy savages soon revived under the influence of good quarters and good eating, but the dogs, five in number, the remnant of the strong force of thirty-six, lay on the deck unable to stir, and not disposed to eat. Hans's story was this:-- They made a good run the first day, passing Cape Alexander, and camped in a snow hut on Sunderland Island. The next day they reached an Esquimo settlement, but found its huts forsaken. Resting and eating here, they started for Northumberland Island, and having traveled about five miles, Sontag, becoming chilled, sprang from the sledge and ran ahead of the dogs for warmth by exercise. Hans having occasion to halt the team to disentangle a trace fell some distance behind. He was urging forward his team to overtake his master when he saw him sinking. He had come upon thin ice covering a recently open crack, and had broken through. Hans hastened up and helped him from the water. A light wind was blowing, which disposed Sontag not to attempt to change his wet clothes--the fatal error. They hastened back to the hut in which they had spent the night. At first the professor ran, but after a while jumped on the sledge, and when he reached the hut he was stiff and speechless. Hans lifted him into the hut, drew off his wet clothes, and placed him into his sleeping bag. Having tightly closed the hut, he set the lamp ablaze, and administered to him a portion of brandy from a flask found on the sledge. But the cold had done its fatal work; he remained speechless and unconscious for nearly twenty-four hours, and died. Hans closed up the hut to prevent beasts of prey from disturbing the body, continued south, and on the second night came upon a village where he was rejoiced to find several native families, who were living in the midst of abundance. Here Hans rested until two Esquimo boys, whom he hired with the Sontag presents, could go to Cape York after his wife's parents and their son. They over-drove or starved four of the dogs, which were left by the way. The natives whom he found were ready on the moment of his arrival to return to the vessel with him, and Ootiniah and his companion were the first to show their good-will by starting with Hans on his return. A few weeks later the body of Sontag was brought to the vessel, a neat coffin was made for it, and the whole ship's company followed it, mourning, to its last resting-place. The burial service was read, and it was carefully secured from molestation. At a later period a mound was raised over it, and a chiseled stone slab, with his name and age, marked the head. August Sontag was only twenty-eight years of age when thus suddenly cut off. His loss to the expedition was very great. Hans's parents and brother were added to his own family on deck, and proved to be much more efficient helpers in domestic affairs than Mrs. Hans. The boy was washed and scrubbed and combed by the sailors, with whom he became a great favorite, filling much the place on board as a pet monkey, and proved to be full as annoying to the old cook, who, in his extreme vexation at his mischievous tricks, threatened to "kill him--_a le-e-t-le_." The old folks getting tired of the close quarters on board, built after a while a snow hut on the floe, and set up housekeeping for themselves. CHAPTER XXXII. THE CROWNING SLEDGE JOURNEY. "THE glorious sun" reappeared February eighteenth, tarrying only a moment, but giving a sure prophecy of a coming to stay. Scarcely less welcome was the appearance soon after of Kalutunah, Tattarat, and Myouk, all old acquaintance whom the reader will not fail to recognize. Kalutunah was Angekok and Nalegak--priest and chief. His gruff old rival, who advised the starvation policy toward the escaping party in the miserable old hut, had been harpooned in the back and buried alive under a heap of stones. These comers brought the much-desired dogs, and they were followed by other old friends from Northumberland Island with additional dog-teams. These natives were treated with consideration--the were made content with abundant food and flattered with presents, all of which told favorably upon the success of the enterprise of the generous donors. In the middle of March the northward excursions commenced. The first consisted of a party of three, Dr. Hayes and Kalutunah driving a team of six dogs, and Jensen with a sledge of nine. It was to be a trial trip, and the experiment began rather roughly. A few miles only had been made when Jensen, whose team was ahead, broke through the ice, and dogs and man went floundering together into a cold bath. The other team, fortunately, was just at hand, so they were drawn out, and all returned to the vessel for a fresh and warm start. The next trial they were gone four days, and traversed the Greenland shore to Cape Agassiz and to the commencement of the Great Glacier. The cold at one time was sixty-eight and a half degrees below zero. Yet the sun's rays through even such an atmosphere blistered the skin! The grains of snow became like gravel, and the sledge runners grated over it as if running on the summer sand of our own sea-shore. Kalutunah had an ingenious remedy for this. He dissolved snow in his mouth, and pouring the water into his hand coated the runners with it. It instantly freezing, made something like a glass plating for them. Kalutunah was greatly puzzled in attempting to understand why this journey was made. But his perplexity took the form of disgust when the fresh tracks were seen of a bear and cub, and the white chief forbade the chase. He argued in the interest of Dr. Hayes, who might thereby have a new fur coat, pointed to the hungry dogs, and finally pleaded for his own family, who were longing for bear meat. But all in vain. The circumstances had changed since, in the same spot nearly, he had urged the dogs after a bear in spite of Dr. Kane, and thus defeated the purpose of his long trip. On their return they turned into Van Rensselaer Harbor, the place made so famous by Dr. Kane's expedition. Every thing there was changed. Instead of smooth ice, over which Dr. Kane's party came and went so often, there were hummocks piled up every-where in the wildest confusion. Where the "Advance" was left when her men took a last look at her was an ice-pile towering as high as were her mast-heads. Old localities were undiscernible from the snow and icy aggressions. A small piece of a deck-plank picked up near Butler Island was all that could be found of the "Advance." The Esquimo told nearly as many diverse stories of her history after the white men left her as there were persons to testify, and some individuals, apparently to increase the chance of saying some item of truth, told many different stories. According to these witnesses she drifted out to sea and sunk, (the most probable statement,) she was knocked to pieces so far as possible and carried off by the Esquimo, and she was accidentally set on fire and burned. The graves of Baker and Pierre remained undisturbed, but the beacon built over them was broken down and scattered. The result of this experimental trip was the decision of the commander not to attempt to reach the Open Polar Sea by the Greenland shore, but to cross Smith Sound at Cairn Point, a few miles north of the schooner. To this point provisions were immediately carried on the sledges for the summer journey beyond. On the third of April the grand effort to reach the North Pole commenced. The party consisted of twelve persons, who were early at their assigned positions alongside of the schooner. Jensen was at the head of the line of march, on the sledge "Hope," to which were harnessed eight dogs; Knorr came next, "the whip" of the "Perseverance," with six dogs. Then came a metallic life-boat with which the Polar Sea was to be navigated, mounted on a sledge and drawn by men each with shoulder strap and trace. Flags fluttered from boat and sledges, all was enthusiasm, and at the word "march" the dogs dashed away, the men bent bravely to their earnest work, the "swivel" on deck thundered its good-bye, and the party were soon far away. The very first day's exposure nearly proved fatal to several of the party. One settled himself down in the snow muttering, "I'm freezing," and would have proved in a half hour his declaration had not two more hardy men taken him in charge. The spirits of the men ran low, and they were two hours in building a snow-hut in which to hide from the pitiless wind. A rest at Cairn Point and increased experience gave them more energy, and the next snow-hut was made in less than one hour. They proved the snow-shovel a fine heat generator. On the fifth night out they were overtaken by a storm, and were detained two days in their hut. This was a pit in the snow eighteen feet long, eight wide, and four deep. Across its top were placed the boat-oars; across these the sledge was laid; over the sledge was thrown the boat's sails; and over the sails snow was shoveled. They crawled into this hut through a hole which they filled up after them with a block of snow. Over the floor--a leveled snow floor--they spread an India-rubber cloth; on this was laid a carpet of buffalo-skins, and over this another of equal size. Between these they crept to sleep, the outside man of the row having no little difficulty in preventing his companions from "pulling the clothes off." The wind without blew its mightiest blow, and piled the snow up over the poor dogs, which were huddled together for mutual warmth, and were kept restless in poking their noses above the drift. The cooks were obliged to call to their help the commander in order to keep the lamp from being puffed out, and two hours were consumed in getting a steaming pot of coffee. But after a while the bread and coffee, and dried meat and potato hash, were abundantly and regularly served, and the men contrived to pass in talk and song and sleep the hours of the really dreary imprisonment. Before the storm had fully subsided, the party went on the back track to bring up to this point a part of the provisions they had been obliged to deposit. This done, they put their faces to the opposite, or American side of the sound. But the difficulties were truly fearful. The ice, like great bowlders, was scattered over the entire surface, now piled in ridges ten, twenty, and even a hundred feet high, and then scattered over a level area with only a narrow and ever-twisting way between them. Over these ridges the sledges had to be lifted, the load often taken off and carried up in small parcels, and the sledges and boat drawn up and let down again. Frequently in the midst of this toil a man would fall into a chasm up to his waist; another would go out of sight in one. These terrible traps were so covered with a crust of snow that they could not be discerned. The boat was, of course, capsized often, and much battered. When a ridge had been scaled, and the party had picked their way for a time through the winding path among the ice-bowlders, they would come to a sudden impassable barrier, and be obliged to retrace their steps. A whole day of gigantic exertion, and of many miles of zigzag travel, would sometimes advance them only a rifle-shot in a straight line. Of course it was simply impossible to carry the boat, and it was abandoned. They were yet only about thirty miles from Cairn Point, but had traveled perhaps five times that distance. For several days after this the heroic explorers struggled on. A fresh snow with a half-frozen crust was added to their other obstacles. Hummocks and ridges and pitfalls grew worse and worse. The sledges broke, the limbs of the men were bruised and sprained, their strength exhausted, and at last their spirits failed. They had toiled twenty-five days, advanced half way across the sound, and brought along about eight hundred pounds of food. On the twenty-eighth of April the main party were sent homeward. Dr. Hayes, Knorr, M'Donald, and Jensen, pushed on toward the American shore. Their way was, as one of the party remarked, like a trip through New York over the tops of the houses. They progressed a mile and a half, and traveled at least twelve, carrying their provisions over the ground by repeating the journey many times. Such was the daily experience, varied by many exciting incidents. Jensen sprained a leg which had been once broken; the dogs were savage as the wildest wolves with hunger, though having a fair amount of food; once Knorr in feeding them stumbled and fell into the midst of the pack, and would have doubtless been devoured as a generous morsel of food tossed to them, had not M'Donald pounced upon them at the moment with lusty blows from a whip-stock. All four of the explorers held out bravely in this fearful strain on mind and body, even young Knorr never shrinking from the hardest work, nor the longest continued exertions. On the eleventh of May the party encamped under the shadow of Cape Hawkes, on Grinnell Land, off the American coast. The distance from Cairn Point, in a straight line northwest, was eighty miles. They had been traveling thirty-one days, and made a twisting and clambering route of five hundred miles. The travel up the coast had the usual variety of dangers, hair-breadth escapes, and exhausting toil. A little flag-staff, planted by Dr. Hayes during the Kane expedition, was found bravely looking out upon the drear field it was set to designate, but the flag it bore had been blown away. Remains of Esquimo settlements long deserted were found. A raven croaked a welcome to the strangers, or it may be a warning, and followed them several days. On the fourth day up the coast Jensen, the hardiest of the vessel's company, utterly failed. He had strained his back as well as leg, and groaned with pain. What could be done? The party could not proceed with a sick man, nor would they for a moment think of leaving him alone. So the following course was adopted by the commander: M'Donald was left in the snow-hut with Jensen, with five days' food and five dogs, with orders to remain five days, and then, if Hayes and Knorr, who were to continue on, had not returned, to make his best way with Jensen back to the vessel. The journey of Dr. Hayes and Knorr was continued two full days. On the morning of the third day they had proceeded but a few miles when they came to a stand. They had on their left the abrupt, rocky, ice-covered cliffs of the shore; on their right were high ridges of ice, through which the waters of an open sea broke here and there into bays and inlets which washed the shore. Farther progress north by land or ice was impossible. They climbed a cliff which towered eight hundred feet above the sea, whose dark waters were lost in the distance toward the north-east. North, standing against the sky, was a noble headland, the most northern known land, and only about four hundred and fifty miles from the North Pole. The spot on which our explorers stood was about one degree farther north than that occupied by Morton, of Kane's Expedition, yet on the shore of the same open water. Now, if they only had the boat they were obliged to leave among the hummocks in Smith Sound, with the provisions and men they had _hoped_ to bring to this point, how soon would they solve the mystery locked up from the beginning, and in the keeping of his Frosty Majesty of the Pole itself! But, alas! there were neither boat nor provisions, and the movement of the treacherous floes warned the daring strangers that the bridge of ice over which they had come to this side might soon be torn away, and make a return impossible. They built a monument of stones, raised on it a flag of triumph, deposited beneath it a record of their visit placed in a bottle, and turned their faces homeward. CHAPTER XXXIII. LAST INCIDENTS OF THE EXPEDITION. DR. HAYES and Knorr were buffeted by a fierce storm soon after starting. They were over fifty miles from M'Donald and Jensen, only ten of which were traversed before they were obliged to encamp. But the storm howled, and tossed the snow-clouds about them, making it impossible to build a snow hut. After a brief halt, and feeding the dogs with the last morsel of food which remained, they pushed on. The snow was deep, often nearly burying the dogs as they plunged along; the hummocks and rocks over which they climbed lay across their path, and the wind blew with unabated fury; yet they halted not until the remaining forty or more miles were accomplished, and they tumbled into the hut of their companions. The dogs rolled themselves together on the snow the moment they were left, utterly exhausted. The weary men slept a long, sound sleep. When they awoke a steaming pot of coffee and an abundant breakfast awaited them. They had fasted thirty-four hours, and traveled in the last twenty-two over forty miles, which the hummocks and deep snow made equal to double that distance of smooth sledging. The last few miles were made in a state of partial bewilderment, so their final safety was another of their many marked deliverances. The remaining run to the vessel had its daily perils and escapes. As they were approaching the American shore they stepped across a crack on the ice. They had traveled but a short distance when they perceived that there was an impassable channel between them and the land ice. They ran back to recross the crack, and that had become twenty yards wide. They were, in fact, on an ice-raft, and were sweeping helplessly out to sea! They had hardly collected their thoughts after this terrifying surprise before one of the shore corners of their raft struck a small grounded iceberg, and on this, as on a pivot, the outer edge swung toward the shore, struck its margin, allowed them to scamper off, and then immediately swung again into the open water, and shot out to sea. The poor dogs, being insufficiently fed, and necessarily overworked, now began to fail. Jensen's lameness compelling him to ride, increased their burden. One died just before the party left the hummocks, and two soon after. A fourth having failed, the commander, thinking to shorten his misery, shot him. The ball only wounding him, he set up a terrible cry, at which his companions flew at him, tore him in pieces, and, almost before his last howl had died away in the dreary waste, they had eaten the flesh from his bones. They arrived at the schooner safely after two months' absence, during which they had traveled thirteen hundred miles. The commander was cheered to learn that the party who returned under M'Cormick had reached Port Foulke in safety. The whole ship's company were in good health. The vessel was immediately thoroughly examined and put in sailing order. As the summer came on, the birds, the green mosses, hardy little flowers, several species of moths and spiders, and even a yellow winged butterfly, appeared to greet its coming. The open water was daily coming nearer the schooner. While awaiting the loosening of its icy fetters, a boat's crew had an exciting walrus hunt. Dr. Hayes had been on a hill-top which overlooked the bay, when the hoarse bellowing of distant walrus saluted his ears. Drifting ice-rafts were coming down the sound, on which great numbers of these monsters could be seen. He hurried to the vessel, and called for volunteers. Soon a whale-boat was manned, and the men, armed with three rifles and a harpoon and line, dragged it to the open water, launched it, and rowed into the midst of the drift-ice. The first cake of ice which they approached contained a freight of twenty-four walruses, pretty well covering it. The lubberly, ugly looking sea-hogs appeared as content as their very distant relatives of our sties, while they huddled together and twisted for the sunniest spot, and bellowed in one another's ears. Our hunters were all eager for the fight as they approached with muffled oars, but on coming near to the floe, it was apparent that the hunt was not to be all fun, nor the fighting on one side only. The hides of the monsters looked like an iron plating, and were, in fact, an inch thick, smooth, hairless, and tough, suggesting a good defensive ability; while their great tusks, projecting from a jaw of elephantine strength, hinted unpleasantly to the invaders that their antagonists were prepared for assault as well as defense. Very likely if one could have seen at that moment the countenances of our boat's crew, they would have shown more of a wish to be in the vessel's cabin than they would have cared to confess with their lips. But there was no flinching. There were two male walruses in the herd--huge, fierce-looking fellows, which roused up a moment to scan the strangers, and then, giving each other a punch in the face with their tusks, stretched out again upon the ice to sleep. In this walrus party there were, besides the two fathers, mothers with children of various ages, from the "little ones" of four hundred pounds, to the "young folks." Of course they were a loving, happy group. The boat came within a few times its length of the ice-raft. Miller, an old whaleman, was in the bow of the boat with a harpoon. Hayes, Knorr, and Jensen stood in the stern with their rifles leveled each at his selected victim, while the oarsmen bent forward to their oars. At the word the rifles cracked, and the oarsmen at the same moment shot the boat into the midst of the startled walrus. Jensen hit one of the males in the neck, not probably doing him much harm; Hayes's ball struck the other bull in the head, at which he roared lustily. Knorr killed a baby walrus dead, but he disappeared from the raft with the rest, probably pushed off by his mamma. When the old fellow which was wounded by the commander rolled into the water, Miller planted his harpoon in him with unerring skill, and the line attached spun out over the gunwale with fearful velocity. There were a few moments of suspense, and then up came the herd, a few yards from the boat, the wounded bull with the harpoon among them. They uttered one wild, united shriek, and answering shrieks from thousands of startled walruses, on the walrus laden ice-rafts for miles around, filled the air. It was an agonized cry for help, and the answering cry was, "we come!" There was a simultaneous splash from the ice-rafts, and the hosts, as if by the bugle call, came rushing on, heads erect, and uttering the defiant "huk, huk, huk!" They came directly at the boat, surrounding it, and blackening the waters with their numbers. The wounded bull, attached still to Miller's line, led the attack. The hunters had aroused foemen worthy of their steel, and they must now fight or die. It seemed to be the purpose of the walruses to get their tusks over the side of the boat, and so easily tear it to pieces or sink it, and then, having its audacious crew in the water, make short work of them. As they came on, Miller, in the bow, pricked them in the face with his lance, the rowers pushed them back with their oars, while Hayes, Jensen, and Knorr sent, as fast as they could load and fire, rifle-balls crashing through their heads. At one time a huge leader had come within a few feet of the boat. Hayes and Jensen had just fired, and were loading, but Knorr was just in time to salute him with a ball. The men were becoming weary, while the walrus assaulting column was constantly supplied with fresh troops. The situation was now critical, when, as if to crush his enemy and end the conflict in victory on his side, a walrus Goliath, with tusks three feet long, led on a solid column of undismayed warriors. Two guns had just been fired, as before. His terrible weapons were fearfully near the gunwale, when Knorr's gun came to the rescue; its muzzle was so near his open mouth that the ball killed him instantly, and he sunk like lead. This sent consternation through the walrus ranks. They all dove at once, and when they came up they were a considerable distance off, their tails to their foes, and retreating with a wild shriek. The battle was ended, and the saucy explorers were victors. The sea in places was red with blood. The harpooned bull and one other were carried as trophies to the vessel. On the twelfth of July the schooner floated, after an ice imprisonment of ten months. The Esquimo seeing that the white friends were about to leave them, gathered on the shore in sorrowful interest. They had been the receivers of gifts great in their estimation, and they had rendered the strangers no small favors, especially in the use of their dogs, without which no excursions of importance could have been made. Kalutunah actually wept on parting with Dr. Hayes. He had enjoyed under his patronage the Esquimo paradise--"plenty to eat, plenty sleep, no work, no hunt." He spoke feelingly of the fading away of his people. "Come back," he said, "and save us; come soon or we shall be all gone." He had reason to express these fears concerning his people. Since Dr. Kane left thirty-four had died, and there had been in the same time only nineteen births. There seemed to be in all the settlements, from Cape York to Etah, only a hundred! The explorers bid adieu to Port Foulke on the fourteenth, and sailed away to the west side of Smith Sound, and reached a point about ten miles south of Cape Isabella. The hope was entertained by the commander that he might work his way with the vessel north through the now loosening ice over which he had just been traveling with sledges, get through even Kennedy Channel, to the open sea on the shore of which he had so lately stood, and then sail away to the North Pole. What a stimulating thought! But he found the schooner ice-battered, and, weakened by the "nips" she had experienced, was unequal to the required fight with the defiant pack which every-where filled the sound. So the explorers turned homeward. They arrived at Upernavik on the twelfth of August after many exciting incidents but no accident. Here they learned the startling news of the commencement of the great Rebellion. During their absence President Lincoln had been inaugurated, the black cloud of war had settled heavily over the whole country, and the bloody battle of Bull Run had been fought. They were now to return home and transfer their interest in fighting ice-packs, bergs, and Polar bears, to the conflicts of civil war. CHAPTER XXXIV. SOMETHING NEW. WHILE the civilized world were awaiting with deep interest the results of the search for Sir John Franklin, and while learned geographers and practical navigators to the regions of cold were devising new methods of search for him, a young engraver was working out a problem in reference to this great enterprise peculiarly his own. Without special educational advantages, without the resources of wealth or influential friends, but with the inspiration of one feeling, "a divine call" to the undertaking, he matured his plans and began to publish them abroad. He seems to have at once imparted his own enthusiasm to others. The mayor of his own city, Cincinnati, the governor and senator of his own State, Ohio, the latter the eminent Salmon P. Chase, late Chief-Justice of the United States, became his patrons. Coming east, many of the great and wise men of our large cities gave him an attentive hearing, and not a few encouraged his project. The princely merchant, Henry Grinnell, who had already done so much in the Franklin search, took him at once into kindly sympathy. From New York he went to New London. From the old whalemen, at least from individuals of them of marked character and large experience in Arctic navigation, he obtained encouraging words. His plan of search which thus so readily commended itself was this: He would go into the region where it was now known that Franklin and some of his men had died; he would live with the Esquimo, learn their language, adopt their habits of life, and thus learn all that they knew of the history of the ill-fated expedition. He assumed that many of its men might yet be alive, and if they were, the natives would know it, know where they were, and could guide him to them. To prepare himself for this work he became conversant with Arctic literature, learning all that the books on the subject taught; he applied himself closely to the study of the practical science bearing on his enterprise, learning the use of its instruments. He sought interviews and correspondence with returned explorers and whalemen. In fact, his heart was in the work with a downright enthusiasm. The marked features of his plan seemed to be two--it was inexpensive and new. As to the manning of his expedition, he proposed to go alone; as to vessels, he asked none. He only asked to be conveyed to the proposed Esquimo country, and to be left with its natives. We might name a third attractive feature of this plan, one which always inspires interest--it was bold, bordering on the audacious! We need hardly say to our readers that the name of this new candidate for Arctic perils and honors was Charles Francis Hall--a name now greatly honored and lamented.[A] Mr. Hall was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1821, where he worked a while at the blacksmith's trade, but left both the trade and his native place in early life for the Queen City of the West. The result of Mr. Hall's enthusiastic appeals was an offer by the firm of Williams & Haven, whale-ship owners of New London, to convey him and his outfit in their bark "George Henry" to his point of operations, and if ever desired, to give him the same free passage home in any of their ships. The "George Henry" was going, of course, after whales, and proposed thus to convey him as an obliging incident of the trip. This proposal was made in the early spring of 1860. On the twenty-ninth of May he sailed. His outfit was simple, and had the appearance of a private, romantic excursion. It consisted of a good sized, staunch whale-boat built for his special use, a sledge, a few scientific instruments, a rifle, six double-barreled shot-guns, a Colt's revolver, and the ammunition supposed to be necessary for a long separation from the source of supply. A start was given him in a small store of provisions; beyond that he was to supply himself. A tolerable supply of trinkets were added as a basis of trade with the natives. What funds this miniature exploring expedition required was given largely by Mr. Grinnell. The "George Henry" was accompanied by _a tender_, a small schooner named the "Rescue," having already an Arctic fame. The officers and crew of both vessels numbered twenty-nine, under command of Captain S. O. Buddington. We have spoken of Mr. Hall as the only man of his exhibition; he had after all one companion. The previous year Captain Buddington had brought home an Esquimo by the name of Kudlago, who was now returning to his fatherland and to his wife and children. Upon him Mr. Hall largely depended as an interpreter, a friend, and guide, in his work. The run of the "George Henry" to the Greenland coast was made with but one marked incident. That was to Mr. Hall a very sad one, giving him the first emphatic lesson in the uncertainty of his most carefully devised schemes. It was the death and burial at sea of Kudlago. He had left New London in good health, taken cold in the fogs of Newfoundland, and declined rapidly. He prayed fervently to be permitted to see his wife and children--only that, and he would die content. He inquired daily while confined to his berth if any ice was in sight. His last words were, "_Teiko seko? teiko seko?_"--Do you see ice? do you see ice? The Greenland shore was just in sight when he departed, and his home and family were three hundred miles away. The "George Henry" and her tender, the "Rescue," sailed north, along the Greenland coast, as far as Holsteinberg, where Mr. Hall purchased six Esquimo dogs. The vessel then stood southwest across Davis Strait and made, August eighth, a snug harbor, which Mr. Hall called Grinnell Bay, a little north of what is known as Frobisher Strait. Here Mr. Hall was to land and commence his Esquimo life, alone and far away from a Christian home, while the vessel went about its business capturing whales. His feelings on the voyage are indicated by the following extract from his diary: "A good run with a fair breeze yesterday. Approaching the north axis of the earth! Aye, nearing the goal of my fondest wishes. Every thing relating to the arctic zone is deeply interesting to me. I love the snows, the ices, the icebergs, the fauna and the flora of the North. I love the circling sun, the long day, _the arctic night, when the soul can commune with God in silent and reverential awe_! I am on a mission of love. I feel to be in the performance of a duty I owe to mankind, myself, and God! Thus feeling I am strong at heart, full of faith, ready to do or die in the cause I have espoused." How he felt when actually engaged in his "mission of love," we shall see. We must not, however, think of Mr. Hall in a region comparable to that which included the winter-quarters of Kane and Hayes in the expeditions we have just described. They were at least twelve degrees farther north, Mr. Hall being south of the arctic circle, so that his winter nights were shorter and milder. His present field of operation was on a coast visited by the whale-ships, and where they at times wintered. Besides, natives had been for many years in contact with white men, and were in _some_ respect more agreeable companions. He will therefore, as we follow him, lead us into new scenes of peculiar interest, and show us novel features in the character of the Esquimo. The whale-ship "Black Eagle," Captain Allen, lay in Grinnell Bay on the arrival of our voyagers, and the captain soon appeared on the deck of the "George Henry," with several Esquimo. One of these natives, named Ugarng, especially attracted Mr. Hall's attention. He was intelligent, possessing strong lines of character, and a marked physical development. He had spent a year on a visit to the United States. Speaking of New York, he said with a sailor's emphasis: "No good! too much horse! too much house! too much white people! Women? Ah! women great many--good!" Ugarng will become a familiar acquaintance. Mr. Hall had been giving special attention on the voyage across Davis Strait to his dogs, and they were now to become a chief dependence. He fed them on _capelin_, or dried fish. One day he called them all around him, each in his assigned place, to receive in turn his fish. Now there was one young, shrewd dog, Barbekark, who had not heard, or had never cared to heed the proverb that "honesty is the best policy." He said to himself, "If I can get _two_ of the fish while the other dogs get but one, it will be a nice thing to do;" so, taking his place near the head of the row, he was served with his capelin. Then, slipping out, he crowded between the dogs farther down, and with a very innocent look awaited his turn. His master thought this so sharp in young Barbekark that he pretended not to see the trick, and dealed him a fish as if he had received none. On going the round again his master found him near the head of the row and then at the foot, so the rogue obtained Benjamin's portion. Seeing his success, he winked his knowing eye as much as to say, "Ain't I the smartest dog in the pack!" But Barbekark had entered on a rough road with many turns, as all rogues do. After going round several times, during which the trick was a success, Mr. Hall _skipped_ the trickster altogether. It mattered not what place he crowded into, there was no more fish for him. The upshot was that he received many less than did his companions. Never did a dog look more ashamed. From that time he kept his place when fish were distributed. Mr. Hall, making the vessel his home, made frequent visits ashore, and received many Esquimo visitors on board, and was thus becoming acquainted with the people. An early visitor was Kokerjabin, wife of Kudlago, accompanied by her son. She had learned in her tent that her anxiously awaited husband had been left in the deep sea. She entered the cabin and looked at her husband's white friends, and at the chest which contained his personal goods, with deep emotion; but when Captain Buddington opened the chest, the tears flowed freely; and when she, in taking out things, came to those Kudlago had obtained in the States for herself and her little girl, she sat down, buried her face in her hands, and wept with deep grief. She soon after went ashore with her son to weep alone. Another very marked character was Paulooyer, or, as the white men called him, Blind George. He was now about forty years of age and had been blind nearly ten years, from the effects of a severe sickness. To this blindness was added domestic sorrow. His wife Nikujar was very kind to him for five years after his loss of sight, sharing their consequent poverty. But Ugarng, who had already several wives, offered her a place in his tent as his "household wife"--the place of honor in Esquimo esteem. The offer was tempting, for Ugarng was "a mighty hunter," and rich at all times in blubber, in furs and skin tents and snow huts. So she left poor George, taking with her their little daughter, called Kookooyer. This child became a pet with Ugarng, as she was with her blind father. FOOTNOTE: [A] See Frontispiece. CHAPTER XXXV. A FEARFUL STORM. WHILE the "George Henry" lay at Grinnell Bay, Mr. Hall talked much with the masters of the whale-ships and with the most intelligent of the natives concerning his proposed journey to King William's Land. This was a far-away region, where the remains of the Franklin expedition had been found. He proposed to secure the company of one or more Esquimo and make an attempt to reach it with a dog-sledge, and to take up his abode with its natives in search of information of the lost ones. But both his white and Esquimo advisers agreed that it was too late in the season to begin such a journey. Mr. Hall would then take the whale-boat built for him, man it with natives, and make the attempt by water. But this was deemed impracticable until spring. So he decided to make his home on board the vessel so long as she remained on the coast, and pursue his study of the Esquimo language and his survey of the region of country, with this home as a base of operations. On his return from one of his inland excursions with Kudlago's son, whom the whites called _captain_, he saw his widow, apart from all the people, weeping for her great bereavement. Her son ran to her and tried to comfort her, but she would not be comforted. When Mr. Hall approached she pointed to the spot where their tent was pitched when Kudlago left for the United States. She also showed him the bones of a whale which he had assisted in capturing. Soon after this the widow visited the vessel with her daughter, Kimmiloo, who had been the idol of her father. She looked sad on the mention of her father's name, but, child-like, her eyes gleamed with joy on seeing the fine things his chest contained for her. Captain B.'s wife had sent her a pretty red dress, necktie, mittens, belt, and other like valuables of little white girls. But Mr. Hall suggested that Kimmiloo's introduction to the dress of civilization should be preceded by soap and water. The process of arriving at the little girl through layers of dirt was very slow. When this was done, her kind friend Hall took a _very coarse_ comb, and commenced combing her hair. This had never been done before, and of course the comb "pulled" in spite of the care of the operator, but Kimmiloo bore it bravely. Her locks were filled with moss, greasy bits of seal, and disgusting reindeer hairs, besides other things both _active_ and numerous. A full hour was spent on the hair, but when the comb went through it easily, then the little girl run her fingers into it and braided quickly a tag on each side of her head; she then drew these through brass rings which Mr. Hall had given her. Her Esquimo fur trowsers and coat were thrown off, and the now clean and really beautiful girl put on the red dress. Her happiness would have been complete had her father been there to share her joy. Mr. Hall's kindly nature led him to study the natives in these incidents, and to record them in his journals. Ugarng was one time in the cabin when Mr. Hall had put a few small balls of mercury on a sheet of white paper. It was a new article to the Esquimo, and he tried to pick it up with his thumb and finger, but it escaped his grasp. His efforts would scatter it over the sheet in small globules, and then as he lifted the corners of the paper it would run together, and Ugarng would commence catching it with new vigor. He continued his efforts for a full half hour. Amused at first, but finally losing his temper, he gave it up, exclaiming petulantly that there was an evil spirit in it. Blind George became a constant visitor. At one time Mr. Hall gave him a much worn coat, showing one of the several holes in it. George immediately took a needle, and, bringing his tongue to the aid of his hands, threaded it, and mended _all_ of the rents very neatly. At another time Mr. Hall put into George's hand a piece of steel with a magnet attached. The way the steel flew from his hand to the magnet amazed him. At first he seemed to think it was not really so; but when he clearly felt the steel leap from his fingers, he threw both steel and magnet violently upon the floor. But feeling he was not hurt, and that some little girls laughed at him, he tried it again more deliberately, and was better satisfied. Mr. Hall next gave him a paper of needles, desiring him to bring the magnet near them. He did so, and when the needles flew from his hand by the attraction he sprung to his feet as if an electric current had touched him, and the needles were scattered in every direction over the floor. He declared that Mr. Hall was an "Angekok." On the fourteenth of August another whaling vessel belonging to the owners of the "George Henry" arrived at Grinnell Bay. Her name was the "Georgiana," Captain Tyson; so there were now four vessels near each other--the "Rescue" and "Black Eagle," besides those just named. There were social, merry times. But Captain Buddington, having built a hut here that some of his men might remain to fish, took his vessels farther south, for winter-quarters, into a bay separated from Frobisher Bay on the south by only a narrow strip of land. This Mr. Hall named Field Bay. Here, snugly hid in an inlet of its upper waters, the vessels proposed to winter. The Esquimo were not long in finding the new anchorage of the whites, and in a few days a fleet of kayaks containing seven families appeared. Among them was Kudlago's oldest daughter, now married to a native the sailors called Johnny Bull. She had not heard of her father's death, and stepped on deck elated at the thought of meeting him. "Where is my father?" she inquired of Ugarng's wife. When she was tenderly told the sad story of his death she wept freely. Mr. Hall was at once busy visiting the "tupics," summer tents made of skins, pitched by the natives near the shore. He also rowed to the islands in various directions, generally accompanied by one or more Esquimo. On one of these visits to an island with a boy he had a narrow escape. After several hours' ramble they returned to the landing, where they had left their boat fastened to a rock. The tide had risen and the boat was dancing on the waves out of reach. Here was a "fix!" They were far away from the vessel, the night, cold and dark, was coming on, and they were without shelter. But necessity sharpens one's wits, After some delay and perplexity, Mr. Hall hit upon this plan: He took the seal-skin strings from his boots, and the strings by which various scientific instruments were attached to his person, tied them together, and thus made quite a long and strong line. To this he tied a moderate sized stone. Holding one end of the line in his hand, he tossed the stone into the boat and gently drew it to him, jumped into it, and was soon at the vessel. If Mr. Hall had not been a _green_ boatman he would not have fastened his boat below high-water mark when the tide was coming in! He probably did not again. One day the crew of the "Henry" captured a whale in the bay, and the Esquimo joined with others in towing the monster to the ship. In one of the boats was an Esquimo woman with a babe; she laid her child in the bow of the boat and pulled an oar with the strongest of the white men. Before they reached the vessel the wind blew a gale, the sea ran high, and at times the spray shot into the air and came down in plentiful showers into the boat. The mother cast anxious glances at her child, and, as if it was for its life, rowed with giant strength. At last the prize was safely moored to the "Henry," and the natives were rewarded with generous strips of its black skin, which they ate voraciously, raw and warm from the animal. They carried portions of it to their tupics on shore for future use. This skin is about three fourths of an inch thick, and, in even Mr. Hall's estimation, is "good eating" when raw, "but better soused in vinegar." Soon after this, Captain Tyson brought the "Georgiana" round into Field Bay, and the crews of the two vessels were often together when a whale made its appearance, a circumstance sometimes the occasion of strife when he is captured. One day Smith, an officer of the "Henry," fastened a harpoon in a whale, and was devising means to secure his prey. Captain Tyson, who was near in his boat, killed the monster with his lances, and without a word, left Smith to enjoy the pleasure of taking it to his vessel. The generous act was appreciated on board the "Henry." On the twenty-sixth of December a terrible storm commenced, causing the boats which were cruising for whales to scud home. The three vessels--the "Henry," "Rescue," and "Georgiana"--were anchored near each other, and near an island toward which the wind was blowing. It was about noon when the storm began, and as the day declined the wind increased, bringing on its wings a cloud of snow. When the night came on it was intensely dark, and the waves rose higher and higher as, driven by the tempest, they rolled swiftly by and dashed upon the rocky shore. The vessels labored heavily in the billows and strained at their anchors, now dipping their bows deep in the water, then rising upon the top of a crested wave, and leaping again into the trough of the sea, as if impatient of restraint and eager to rush upon the rocks to their own destruction. The roar of the sea and the howling of the winds through the shrouds were appalling to all on board, while they awaited with breathless interest the integrity of the anchors, on which their lives depended. As the night wore on the watch on deck, peering through the darkness, saw the dim outlines of the "Rescue" steadily and slowly moving toward the shore. "She drags her anchors!" were the fearful words which passed in whispers through the "George Henry." But all breathed easier to hear the report from the watch soon after that she had come to a pause nearly abreast of the "Henry." About midnight the storm put forth all the fury of its power, and the small anchor of the "Georgiana" gave way, and the others went plowing along their ocean beds, and, as the vessel neared the island, her destruction and the loss of all on board seemed certain. The endangered craft worried round a point of rocks, pounding against them as she went, and reached smoother and safer waters, where her anchors remained firm. The ghostly-looking forms of her men were soon after seen on the island, to which they had escaped! In the mean time the men on the "Henry" were in constant fear that their vessel would be dashed upon rocks. Just as the morning was breaking the "Rescue" broke away and went broadside upon the island. With a crash the breakers hurled her against the rocks, and seemed to bury her in their white foam. She was at once a hopeless wreck, but her crew still clung bravely to her. When the morning light had fully come, at the first lull in the storm, while yet the waves rolled with unabated fury, a whale-boat was lowered into the sea from the stern of the "Henry" with a strong line attached, and mate Rogers and a seaman stepped into it. Cautiously and skillfully it was guided to the stern of the "Rescue." Into it her men were taken, and drawn safely to the "Henry." All were saved! A shout of joy mingled with the tumult of the elements! The "Henry" safely outrode the storm. The "Georgiana" was not seriously injured, and her men returned to her and sailed away for other winter-quarters. The "Rescue" was a complete wreck, and, what was a stunning blow to the enterprise of Mr. Hall, his expedition boat, in which, with an Esquimo crew, he had hoped to reach the far-away land of his lone sojourn and search for the Franklin men, was totally wrecked too! What now should he do? That was to him the question of questions. One thing he resolved _not_ to do--he would not abandon his mission. Captain Buddington thought at first that he might spare him one of the ship's boats in which to reach King William's Land; but, on careful inquiry, he found that the only one he could part with was rotten and untrustworthy. So waiting and watching became his present duty. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE AURORA. MR. HALL had an eye for the beautiful in nature. The aurora deeply impressed him, inspiring feelings of awe and reverence. It will be noticed that explorers in the low latitude of Frobisher Bay are treated to displays of the aurora on a scale of magnificence and beauty never seen in the high latitudes of the winter-quarters of Dr. Kane and Hayes. Night after night through the months of October, November, and December Mr. Hall's sensitive nature was in raptures at the wonderful sights. The heavens were aglow. The forms of brightness, and colors of every hue, changed with the rapidity of fleecy clouds driven before the wind. Before the mind had comprehended the grandeur of one scene, it had changed into another of seeming greater beauty of form, color, and brightness. Thousands of such changes occurred while he gazed. No wonder he exclaims: "Who but God could conceive such infinite scenes of glory! Who but God execute them, painting the heavens in such gorgeous display!" Again he exclaims: "It seemeth to me as if the very doors of heaven have opened to-night, so _mighty_ and _beauteous_ and _marvelous_ were the waves of golden light which swept across the azure deep, breaking forth anon into floods of wondrous glory. God made his wonderful works to be remembered." Mr. Hall had been on deck several times, witnessing the enrapturing display, and had returned into the cabin to go to bed, when the captain shouted down the companion-way: "Come above, Hall, at once! _The world is on fire!_" Mr. Hall hastened on deck. He says: "There was no sun, no moon, yet the heavens were flooded with light. Even ordinary print could be read on deck. Yes, flooded with _rivers_ of light!--and _such_ light! light all but inconceivable! The golden hues predominated; but in rapid succession prismatic colors leaped forth. "We looked, we saw, and we trembled; for even as we gazed the whole belt of aurora began to be alive with flashes. Then each pile or bank of light became myriads; some now dropping down the great pathway or belt, others springing up, others leaping with lightning flash from one side, while more as quickly passed into the vacated space; some, twisting themselves into folds, entwining with others like enormous serpents, and all these movements as quick as the eye could follow. It seemed as though there was a struggle with these heavenly lights to reach and occupy the dome above our heads. Then the whole arch above became crowded. Down, down it came! nearer and nearer it approached us! Sheets of golden flames, coruscating while leaping from the auroral belt, seemed as if met in their course by some mighty agency that turned them into the colors of the rainbow. "While the auroral fires seemed to be descending upon us, one of our number exclaimed, 'Hark! hark!' Such a display, as if a warfare were going on among the beauteous lights, seemed impossible without noise. But all was silent." After the watchers, amazed at what they saw, retired to the cabin, they very naturally commenced a lively conversation on what they had witnessed. Captain Buddington declared that, though he had spent most of his time for eleven years in the northern regions, he had never witnessed so grand and beautiful a scene. And he added in an earnest tone: "To tell you the truth, friend Hall, I do not care to see the like again!" In November Mr. Hall became acquainted with two remarkable Esquimo whom we shall often meet. Their names were Ebierbing and his wife Tookoolito, but were known among the white people as Joe and Hannah. They had been taken to England in 1853, and lionized there for two years. They had visited the great and good of that land at their homes, and had aptly learned many of the refinements of civilization. Queen Victoria had honored them with an audience, and they had dined with Prince Albert. Joe declared that the queen was "pretty--yes, quite pretty;" and the prince was "good--very good." They made their visit on shipboard in a full-blown English dress, but when Mr. Hall returned their visit in their _tupic_ on shore they were in the Esquimo costume. Yet Tookoolito busied herself with her _knitting_ during his call. She said, as they conversed: "I feel very sorry to say that many of the whaling people are bad, making the Innuits bad too; they swear very much, and make our people swear. I wish they would not do so. Americans swear a great deal--more and worse than the English. I wish no one would swear. It is a very bad practice I believe." Tookoolito's spirit and example had done much to improve her people, especially the women; these, many of them, had adopted her habit of dressing her hair, and of cleanliness of person and abode. In her and her husband, whom we shall meet often, we shall see the Esquimo as modified by a partial Christian civilization. Mr. Hall made frequent visits to the Esquimo village on shore, mingling with the people, conforming to their habits, and studying their character. Their summer, skin-covered huts--tupics--had now given way to the _igloos_, the snow-house, essentially like those we have before seen. We will accompany Mr. Hall in a visit made in October. He found on creeping into a hut a friend whom he knew as a pilot and boatman; his name was Koojesse. He was sitting in the midst of a group of women drinking with a gusto hot seal blood. Our white visitor joined them, and pronounced the dish excellent. On going out he was met by blind George. "Mitter Hall! Mitter Hall!" shouted the blind man on hearing Mr. Hall's voice. There was a pensive earnestness in the call which arrested his attention. "Ugarng come to-day!" continued George. "He come to-day. My little Kookooyer way go! She here now. Speak-um, Ugarng! My little pickaninny way go! Speak-um." The facts were these: Ugarng, who, as we have stated, had married George's wife, and taken with the mother his little daughter, was at the village attended by the latter. George, who was very fond of the child, desired her company for a while. Mr. Hall did of course "speak-um." Ugarng and the darling Kookooyer were soon seen in happy intimacy with her father. Mr. Hall's attention was attracted by an excited crowd, who were listening to the harangue of a young man. He was evidently master of the situation, for at one moment his audience clenched their fists and raved like madmen, and then, under another touch of his power, they were calm and thoughtful, or melted to tears. He was an _Angekok_, and was going through a series of _ankootings_, or incantations. His howlings and gesticulations were not unlike those of the heathen priests of the East, and of the medicine men of our Indians. On seeing Mr. Hall the Angekok left his snow-platform, from which he had been speaking, and ran to him with the blandest smiles and honied words. He put his arm in his and invited him into his tent, or place of worship, as it might be called; others ran ahead, and it was well filled with worshipers. Koojesse, who was passing at the time with water for the ship, on a wave of the Angekok's hand set his pail down and followed. All faithful Esquimo in this region obey the Angekok. If he sees one smoking, and signifies that he wishes the pipe, the smoker deposits it in the Angekok's pocket. When in the tent the Angekok placed Koojesse on one side, and Mr. Hall facing him on the other side. Now commenced the service. The Angekok began a rapid clapping of his hands, lifting them at times above his head, then passing them round in every direction, and thrusting them into the faces of the people, muttering the while wild, incoherent expressions. The clapping of his hands was intermitted by a violent clapping of the chest on which he sat, first on the top, then on the sides and end. At times he would cease, and sit statue-like for some moments, during which the silence of death pervaded the audience. Then the clapping and gesticulations broke forth with increased violence. Now and then he paused, and stared into the farthest recess of the tent with the fiery eyes and the hideous countenance of a demon. At the right time, to heighten the effect, the wizard, by a quick sign or sharp word, ordered Koojesse to fix his eyes on this point of the tent, then on that, intimating in mysterious undertones that in such places _Kudlago's spirit shook the skin covering_! Koojesse, though one of the most muscular and intelligent of the natives, obeyed with trembling promptness, while the profuse sweat stood in drops upon his nose, (Esquimo perspire freely _only_ on the nose,) and his countenance beamed with intense excitement. The climax was at hand. The Angekok's words began to be plain enough for Mr. Hall's ears. Kudlago's spirit was troubled. Would the white man please give it rest? One of his double-barreled guns would do it! White man! white man! give Kudlago's spirit rest! Give the double-barreled gun! The cunning wizard! But Mr. Hall, who, though brimful of laugh, had been a sober-looking listener, was not to be caught with this chaff, _except in his own interest_. He whispers to Koojesse, "Would the Angekok be a good man to go with me in the spring to King William's Land?" "Yes," was the reply. Then Mr. Hall turned to the Angekok and said aloud, "If you go with me next spring on my explorations you shall have one of my best guns." Thinking the gift was to be given immediately, his crafty reverence shouted, thanked Mr. Hall, threw his arms about his neck, and danced with an air of triumph about the tent, seeming to say as he looked upon his amazed followers, "I have charmed a kablunah"--white man. Mr. Hall tried to set him right about the terms of the gift--that it was to be when he had served him in the spring. But he would understand it as he would have it. His joy found a fullness of expression when, pointing to his two wives, he said to Mr. Hall, "One shall be yours; take your choice." He was disgusted when the white man told him that he had a wife, and that kabluna wanted but one wife. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE DYING ESQUIMO. CHRISTMAS and New Year's (1861) were not forgotten as holidays by the sojourners in the regions of cold and ice. Mr. Hall gave his friend Tookoolito a Bible as a memento of December twenty-fifth. She was much pleased, and at once spelled out on the title-page, _Holy Bible_. Mr. Hall having heard that an Esquimo named Nukerton was seriously sick, invited Tookoolito to visit her with him. Sitting down with the sick one, with Tookoolito as an interpreter, Mr. Hall spoke to her of Jesus and the resurrection, while many of her friends stood listening with intense interest. Tookoolito bent over her sick friend weeping, and continued the talk about God, Christ, and heaven, after Mr. Hall had ceased. Mr. Hall visited the sick one daily, administering to her bodily and spiritual wants. Going to see her on the fourth of January, he found that a new snow-hut had been built for the dying one, and her female friends had carried her into it, opening, to pass her in, a hole on the back side. It was at once her dying chamber and her tomb. For this purpose it was built in conformity to the Esquimo usage. He found Nukerton in her new quarters of stainless snow, on a bed of snow covered with skins, happy at the change though she knew that she had been brought there to die, _and to die alone_, as was the custom of her people. Mr. Hall proposed to carry her to die on board the ship. But even Tookoolito objected to this. It was better she should die alone; such was the custom of their fathers. Mr. Hall remained to watch alone with the dying one, but, on his leaving her igloo to do an errand at a neighboring tent, her friends sealed up its entrance. He threw back the blocks of snow piled against it and crept in. Nukerton was not dead; she breathed feebly; the lamp burned dimly, and the cold was intense; the solemn stillness of the midnight hour had come; sound of footsteps were heard, and a rustling at the entrance. Busy hands were fastening it up, not knowing, perhaps, that Mr. Hall was within. "Stop! stop!" he shouted, and all was silent as the grave. "Come in!" he again said. Koodloo, Nukerton's cousin, and a woman came in. They remained a few moments and left. Mr. Hall was alone again, and remained until the spirit of the dying woman departed. He gently closed her eyes, laid out the body as if for Christian burial, closed up the igloo, and departed. Mr. Hall knew cases, later in his stay with this people, in which the dying were for some time alone before the vital spark was extinguished. The only attendance that the sick have is the howling and mummery of the Angekoks, who are sometimes women. They give no medicine. Mr. Hall made several sledge excursions with his Innuit friends. One to Cornelius Grinnell Bay was full of thrilling incidents, of storms, of perils by the breaking up suddenly of the ice on which he had encamped, and one showing the wolfish rapacity of Esquimo dogs. He also had a bear chase and capture. But these, though full of exciting interest, are similar to those of other explorers, already related. The Esquimo themselves, with all their knowledge of the ice and storms, have many desperate adventures. A party of them was once busily engaged in spearing walrus, when the floe broke up and they went out to sea, and remained three months on their ice-raft! The walrus were plenty, and they had a good time of it, and returned safely. We have given our readers an incident relating to Mr. Hall's dog, Barbekark--a not very creditable incident, it will be remembered, so far as that dog's discernment of moral right is concerned. But then we must remember that heathen dogs are not supposed to know much in that respect. Barbe, as we will call him for shortness, appears again in our story in a way which shows that he was very knowing about some matters at least. One day, at nine in the morning, a party of the ship's company, attended by the native Koojesse, started for an excursion into Frobisher Bay. When well out of sight of the vessel a blinding storm arose, making farther progress both difficult and dangerous. Koojesse counseled an immediate construction of a snow-hut, and a halt until the storm subsided, which was the right thing to do. But the white leader ordered a return march. The dogs, as they generally will with a fierce wind blowing in their face, floundered about in reckless insubordination. Their leader, a strong animal, finally assumed his leadership, and dragged them for a while toward some islands just appearing in sight. But Barbe set back in his harness, pricked up his ears, and took a deliberate survey of the situation. To be sure he could _see_ only a few rods in any direction, but his mind was made up. He turned his head away from the islands, and drew with such vigor and decision that all, both men and dogs, yielded to his guidance. Through the drifts, and in the face of bewildering clouds of snow which darkened their path, he brought the party straight to the ship! A few hours more of exposure and all would have perished. Young Barbe was a brave hunter as well as skillful guide. On a bright morning in March, the lookout on the deck of the "Henry" shouted down the gangway that a herd of deer were in sight. Immediately the excitement of men and dogs was at fever-heat. The dogs, however, did not get the news until Koojesse had crept out, and from behind an island had fired upon the deer. His ball brought down no game, but the report of the gun called out Barbe with the whole pack of wolfish dogs at his heels, in full pursuit of the flying, frightened deer. The fugitives made tortuous tracks, darting behind the islands, now this way, and then off in another direction. But Barbe struck across their windings along the straight line toward the point at which they were aiming, while the rest of the dogs followed their tracks, and so fell behind. Koojesse returned to the vessel, the hope which just now was indulged of a venison dinner was given up, and the affair was nearly forgotten, except that some anxiety was felt lest the dogs should come to harm in their long and reckless pursuit. About noon Barbe came on board having his mouth and body besmeared with blood. He ran to this one, and then to that, looking beseechingly into their faces, and then running to the gangway stairs, where he stopped and looked back, as much as to say, "An't you coming? Do come, I'll show you something worth seeing!" His strange movements were reported to Mr. Hall in the cabin, but being busy writing he took no notice of it. One of the men having occasion to go toward the shore Barbe followed him, but finding that he did not go in the right direction he whined his disappointment, and started out upon the floe, and then turned and said as plainly as a dog could speak, "Come on; this is the way!" A party from the ship determined now to follow. Barbe led them a mile northward, then, leaving them to follow his foot-prints in the snow, he scampered off two miles in a western direction. This brought the men to an island, under the shelter of which they found the dogs. Barbe was sitting at the head of a slaughtered deer, and his companions squatting round as watchful sentinels. The deer's throat had been cut with Barbe's teeth, the jugular vein being severed as with a knife. The roots of the tongue, with bits of the windpipe, had been eaten, the blood sipped up, but nothing more. Several crows were pecking away at the carcass unforbidden by Barbe, who petted crows as his inferiors. Barbe wagged his tail and shook his head as the men came up, and said in expressive dog-language, "See here, now! didn't I tell you so!" The disturbed and blood-stained snow around showed that the deer had fought bravely. One of his legs was somewhat broken in the bloody conflict, which incident might have determined Barbe's victory. The men skinned the deer, and bore the skin and dissected parts to the vessel. CHAPTER XXXVIII. CUNNING HUNTERS. OUR sketch of Mr. Hall's Esquimo life brings us to the early summer of 1861. He had made many excursions in and about Frobisher and Field Bays which we have not noted. Their results were mainly valuable for the relics obtained of the visits here of the famous old explorer Frobisher, nearly three hundred years ago. There were, too, he ascertained, traditions among the natives of these visits, as well as that of Parry, nearly fifty years before, which so well accorded with the known facts as to show the reliability of such traditions. An incident occurred during one of these excursions which illustrates the deceitful effect of refraction in the northern atmosphere. He landed on a headland in Frobisher Bay, and secured an enchanting view of land and sea. Points of historic interest were under his eye, and nature was clothed with a wild Arctic beauty. But an object of still more thrilling interest comes in view. A steamer! Yes, there is her hull and smoke-pipe, all very unmistakable! See, she tacks, now this way, then that, working her way no doubt toward the land on which he stands. Mr. Hall ran to the camp, and told the good news to Koojesse and Ebierbing, his companions. His mind was fairly bewitched with visions of news from civilization, from his country, and perhaps letters from his dear ones of the family circle. Each shouldered his loaded gun, and walked round to the point on the shore toward which the steamer was coming. They would make a loud report with their guns, and _compel_ those on board to notice them. When they reached the spot there was no steamer. The Esquimo looked with blank amazement, and turned inquiringly toward Mr. Hall. Had she sailed away? No, that was impossible. It was only that rock yonder, half buried in snow! There, it does even now look like a steamer! Wait a while. No, it no more looks like a steamer than it looks like a cow! It is a cruel "sell!" It will be recollected that the "George Henry" had made her winter-quarters in a little nook in Field Bay called Rescue Harbor. From his home in her cabin Mr. Hall was going forth on his explorations. But the whalers had made a "whaling depot" on a cape of Frobisher Bay, which commanded a view of its waters and of the waters of Davis Strait. Here they watched for whales, or made excursions after them. To this depot Mr. Hall made an excursion with Koojesse about the middle of June. On their way over the ice, Koojesse gave illustrations of two Esquimo methods of taking seal that were very peculiar. The dogs scented the seal and broke into a furious run, making the sledge "spin" over the ice. Soon Koojesse perceived him lying with his head near his hole. On the instant the dogs and their driver set up a vociferous, startling yell. The seal lifted up his head, frightened almost out of his wits, so that the dogs were within a few rods of him before he so far recovered his senses as to plunge into his hole and escape. Koojesse said that only young seals are so caught. In this case fright had nearly cost the poor seal his life. At another time Koojesse saw a seal sunning himself, and lying, as is their habit, near his hole. The hunter stopped the sledge, took his gun, and, keeping back the dogs, lay down and drew himself along upon his breast, making at the same time a peculiar, plaintive sound, varied in intonation. To this "seal talk," as the Esquimo term it, the animal listens, and is charmed into a pleasant persuasion that some loving friend is near. He looks, listens, and then lays his head languidly upon the ice. So the wily hunter approaches within easy range, the rifle cracks, and the fatal ball goes through the vitals of the confiding seal. Thus seals, like men, sometimes die of alarm, and are sometimes taken in the flatterer's snare. Mr. Hall found the whale depot a busy place. Numerous tents of the white men and Esquimo were grouped together, in the midst of which, on a substantial flag-staff, the stars and stripes were waving. The Esquimo and dogs proclaimed their welcome in their peculiar way, and the officers and crew made the visitor feel at home. The question soon discussed concerned a boat for Mr. Hall's journey to King William's Land. Captain Buddington said seriously that the question had been much on his mind, and had been anxiously considered, and his painful conclusion was that he had no whale-boat adequate for the undertaking. The boat made on purpose for that service, which had been lost when the "Rescue" was wrecked, was the only one brought into those waters which could convey him safely. To go in any other would be to throw away his life. So Mr. Hall said heroically: "I will make the best of my stay here, in explorations and study of the Esquimo traits and language. Do you return to the States, get another suitable boat, and, God willing, I will yet go to King William's Land." Touching incidents of Innuit life were constantly passing before Mr. Hall. Here is one. There was a young man, Etu, about twenty-five years of age, whom our old acquaintance, Ugarng, had taken into his favor. Etu had the misfortune to be born spotted all over his body, precisely like the snow-white and black spotting of the skin of one species of seal. His heathen parents seemed on this account to have loathed their child, for, after enduring his presence a few years in the family, the father carried him to an unfrequented barren island to die. But God, who cared for the child Ishmael and the little Moses, watched over Etu. He caught the sea-birds which flocked to the land _with his hands_--an extraordinary exploit. The summer thus passed and winter came, and the boy yet lived. It so happened--shall we not the rather say, God so ordered--that a kayak of natives rowed that way. They were surprised when they saw a boy alone on a drear island, and the child was frightened at their presence. But when they made friendly signs he rushed into their arms. The boy returned to his people, but being shunned and slighted he became discouraged and indolent. Such was his situation when Ugarng took him into his family. One day Mr. Hall entered the tent of Ebierbing and found there a girl thirteen years of age, Ookoodlear, weeping as though her heart would break. She also was of Ugarng's family, but had been staying with the kind Tookoolito, wife of Ebierbing. Her trouble was that Ugarng was coming to take her away and make her the wife of Etu! Marry a seal-spotted man! the thought was awful! Then, she was so young! Ebierbing took with him a friend, and called upon Etu and told him the dislike felt toward him of the girl. Poor Etu! Then Tookoolito agreed with Ugarng to take charge of Ookoodlear, so the marriage was prevented. Marriage contracts among the Esquimo are made by the parents or other friends, often in the childhood of the parties. Those immediately concerned seldom have any thing to do or say in the matter. Among the Esquimo of Whale Sound the proposed bridegroom was sometimes required to be able to carry off to his igloo, in spite of herself, his intended bride. The resistance in such cases on the part of the woman is supposed to depend upon circumstances. There is no marriage ceremony. In these Esquimo communities the two great events, marriage and death, transpire without special note. Among the natives of the region we are now visiting the newborn child generally first sees the light alone with its mother, and in an igloo built expressly for her. Late in July the ice broke up and liberated the "George Henry" from her icy prison. The sailors returned on board, and she sailed away on a whaling cruise. Mr. Hall was left alone with his Innuit friends. He had planned a voyage of exploration in his whale-boat with a crew of them, to be absent about two months. On his return, if he found the whalers in those regions he would go to the States in one of them; if not, he would remain in Esquimo life until their return. Ebierbing and Tookoolito were of course to be of his party. But Ebierbing was taken seriously sick and so was prevented from accompanying him, much to his regret. His crew, as finally selected, were Koojesse and wife, Charley (his Esquimo name is too long to write) and his wife, Koodloo, and a widow, Suzhi, remarkable for her great size and strength, weighing two hundred. The party were off the ninth of August. They passed through Lupton Channel, a narrow run of water connecting Field Bay with Frobisher Bay. A white whale preceded them, leisurely keeping the lead, as if conscious that there were no harpoons in the boat; perhaps he assumed his safety from the presence of the women. The sea-fowl were abundant. The Esquimo, to save ammunition, adopted one of their own amusing yet cruel ways of capturing them. They rowed softly and swiftly to a cluster of them in the water. Just as the birds were about to fly the whole crew set up a most terrific yell, at the same time stamping and throwing their arms about with wild gesticulations. Down go the frightened birds, diving, instead of flying, to escape the enemy. The crew now seize their oars, and the steerer guides the boat by the disturbed surface of the water to the spot where they come up. The moment they show their heads the uproar is renewed. Down go the birds again without taking breath. This course, though exciting sport to the hunters, is soon death to the poor birds, which, exhausted and finally drowned, are picked from the surface of the water. One of the ducks taken in this way was a mother with a fledgeling. As the parent gasped in its dying agony, the child would put its little bill in her mouth for food, and then nestle down under her for protection. The explorers having entered Frobisher Bay, sailed west along its northern shore. They camped at night on the land, and made slow progress by day. The Esquimo were in no hurry, while Mr. Hall would make good time to the extreme west of the bay and survey that line of coast, as the waters had hitherto been deemed a strait. But his free and easy companions were more disposed to have a good time than to add to geographical knowledge. At one time Koojesse, taking up Mr. Hall's glass, saw a bear some miles away on an island. Fresh duck was plenty on board, and a chase after "_ninoo_" at the expense of time was unnecessary. But it would be _fun_; that settled the matter. Away sped the rickety old whale-boat, impelled by strong hands. Bruin soon snuffed the strangers, stood and looked, then comprehending the danger, turned and ran over to the other side of the island. Soon the boat was in sight of him, and he plunged into the water. The Esquimo now adopted a part of the game they had played so successfully on the ducks. They occasionally made a sudden and deafening uproar. Ninoo would stop and turn round to see what was the matter, and so time was gained by his pursuers. But he made good speed for the main land, and after a while began so far to comprehend the situation that no noise arrested his course. On he went for dear life. The balls soon reached him and dyed his coat in crimson, yet he halted not until one struck his head. This enraged him; he deemed the play decidedly foul. He turned, showed his teeth, and this brought the boat to a stand-still. The hunters did not care for a hand-to-paw fight. The rifle settled the unequal conflict, and ninoo's body was towed ashore. The bladder of the bear was inflated, and with some other _charms_, put on a staff to be elevated on the top of the tupic when the party encamped, and in the bow of the boat when sailing. This insured good luck according to Esquimo notions. The explorers were, while in camp at one time, in want of oil for their lamp. Koodloo found some strips of sea-blubber and carried it to Suzhi, who was "in tuktoo"--that is, in bed. She sat up, rested upon her elbows, put a dish before her, took the blubber, bit off pieces, chewed it and sucked the oil out, and then spirted it out into the dish. In this way she "milled" oil enough to fill two large lamps. This done she lay down again and slept, with unwashen hands and face. There were no white sheets to be soiled. CHAPTER XXXIX. ROUND FROBISHER BAY. THE explorers found occasionally during their voyage encampments of natives. In these many incidents occurred illustrating Esquimo habits. At one place the women were busily employed on seal-skins, making women's boots. One of them was diligently sewing while her big boy _stood_ at her breast nursing! Before reaching the head of the bay Mr. Hall's party was joined by a boat load of Esquimo, and several women canoes. A beautiful river emptied into the bay here which abounded with salmon, which proved most excellent eating. Vegetation was abundant. The women brought Mr. Hall a good supply of berries, resembling, in size and color, blueberries. They were deemed a great luxury. Wolves barked and howled about the camp. The aurora danced and raced across the heavens in strange grandeur. The deer roamed about the rocky coast undisturbed except by the occasional visits of the Innuits. Mr. Hall, having pretty thoroughly explored the head of the bay, purposed to return on the side opposite that on which he came. Here were hills covered with snow. It had no attractions for his Esquimo companions, and they muttered their discontent at the route. Ascending one of these hills, Mr. Hall planted on it, with much enthusiasm, a flag-staff from which floated the stripes and stars. On returning to the encampment he found his tent occupied by several Esquimo busily engaged in various items of work. One of the women having done him a favor he gave her some beads, asking her at the same time what she had done with those he had given her on a former occasion. She said she had given them to the Angekok for his services in her sickness. Mr. Hall went to a tin box and took out a copy of the Bible and held it up before the woman, saying, "This talks to me of heaven!" Instantly, as though a light from heaven had flashed upon them all, both men and women left their work, and springing to their feet looked at Mr. Hall. At first they seemed terrified; then a smile of joy came over their faces, and they said, "Tell us what it talks of heaven." As well as he was able, with but a slight knowledge of their language, he unfolded to them the great truths of Revelation. When he paused one of his hearers pointed downward, inquiring if it talked of the grave, or perhaps meaning the place of the wicked. When he answered "Yes," they looked at each other with solemnity and surprise. But an incident which occurred soon after showed that these Esquimo did not feel the presence of eternal things. A white whale had been seen and chased by the men and women. He escaped, and the men returned in bad humor. As one of the women was helping to unload the boat her husband threw a seal-hook at her with great force. She parried the blow, and it caught in her jacket. She calmly removed it, and continued at her work as if nothing had happened. Esquimo men are generally the mildest, if not the most affectionate, of savages in their relation of husbands; yet in their fits of passion they throw any thing that is at hand at their wives, a hatchet, stone, knife, or spear, as they would at a dog. At one time the Esquimo men all left Mr. Hall's boat on a hunt. He continued his voyage with the three women rowers. The boat was pleasantly gliding along, when in passing an island it fell into a current which rushed over a bed of slightly covered rocks with the rapidity of a mill-race, seething and whirling in its course. The women, though frightened, rowed with great vigor, Suzhi showing herself more than an ordinary man in the emergency. For some time the struggle was fearful and uncertain. To go with the current was certain death; to get out of it seemed impossible. At last slowly, steadily, they gained on the rushing current, and then the boat shot into a little cove in tranquil waters. They landed and rested six hours. Mr. Hall had now, September twelfth, been out thirty-five days, and he determined to return to Rescue Harbor, hoping to find that the "George Henry" had returned from her whaling trip. This pleased the Esquimo, but they did not like his south-side route. Koojesse would, in spite of Mr. Hall, steer the boat toward the opposite side, and the rowers enjoyed the joke. At one time our explorer wished to stop and make further examination of a certain locality, but Koojesse was heading the boat northward. His captain urged him to stop, and he replied with savage sharpness, "You stop; I go!" Even the women rowers when alone with Mr. Hall set up an independent authority at one time, and it was only after considerable urging that they yielded to the white man. Once when Koojesse was acting contrary to orders, Mr. Hall turned upon him with tones of authority and a show of determination. He yielded, and five minutes afterward the whole Esquimo crew were as jovial as if nothing had occurred. Yet it was not quite certain that this was a safe course. The life of the lone white man was in their hands. During this voyage Mr. Hall was treated without stint to the delights of one Esquimo practice. We have spoken of the wild songs of their incantations, rising often into a dismal howl. One of the crew, a woman, had a gift in this way, and when she _ankooted_ the rest accompanied, or came in on the chorus. In this way they often made the night of their encampment hideous. One day the boat was gliding smoothly along under the steady strokes of the rowers. The unemployed were nestling down in their furs, dreamily musing, while the dreary expanse of sky and sea was profoundly still, save the distant screech of the sea-fowl, and the occasional bark of the seal. Suddenly the female enchanter commenced her mystical song. Her voice was shrill as a night-bird's, and varied by sharp and sudden cracks, like fourth-of-July firecrackers. The Esquimo crew came in on the chorus, and the rowers put forth at the same time a frantic energy, their eyes glaring and countenances fearfully distorted. The whole scene was intensely demoniac. The enchanters seemed intoxicated with their howlings, and continued them through the night and most of the two following days. Only one incident more of a noticeable character occurred on this excursion. When one of their nightly encampments had just commenced _a gold fever_ seized the Esquimo, and shook the little community as if they had been white folks. A huge lump of gold had been found! It was precisely the article for which the sovereign of England and her savans had sent here, three hundred years before, the sturdy Frobisher, with a fleet of empty ships. It was emphatically _fool's gold_. Friday, September twenty-seventh, 1861, the explorers arrived at Rescue Harbor. The "George Henry" was already there. Her energetic officers and crew had toiled through all the season and taken nothing! The explorer and the ship's commander, after a warm supper, sat in the cabin talking over the incidents of their experience while separated until a late hour of the night. The whole community were jubilant at their return, as fears were indulged that the crazy craft had sunk with all its occupants. Mr. Hall was not long in finding the tupic of his friends, Ebierbing and wife. When the wife of Tookoolito saw him she buried her face in her hands and burst into tears so great was her joy. While chatting with them, Mr. Hall heard the plaintive sound of an infant voice. Turning back the folds of Tookoolito's fur wrapper a little boy was seen only twenty-four days old, an only child. October twentieth came, and the whalers had secured three whales--an encouraging success after a long failure. But her captain had not intended to stay another winter. His time was out, and so, nearly, were his provisions. But while Rescue Harbor was yet clear of ice, and he was getting ready to return, purposing to take with him the still enthusiastic explorer, the heavy "pack" was outside of the harbor in Davis Strait. It had come, an untimely, unwelcome voyager from the north. While the anxious whalemen were looking for a "lead" to open and permit them to sail homeward the Frosty King of the north waved his icy scepter, and Davis Strait was as unnavigable as the solid land. Another winter was spent in Rescue Harbor, and it was not until early in August, 1862, that the vessel was set free and spread her sails for home. This year, too, was diligently improved by Mr. Hall in explorations and the further study of the Esquimo language and character. He confidently expected to return, after a short stay in the United States, and carry out his proposed plan of explorations in King William's Land. He took home with him Ebierbing and Tookoolito, with their infant boy, Tuk-e-lik-e-ta. The dog Barbekark made one of the returning party. They arrived in New London September thirteenth, 1862, after an absence of two years and three and a half months. CHAPTER XL. THE "POLARIS." WE have seen that Mr. Hall's enthusiasm for arctic research was unabated when he returned from his first adventure. In 1864 he was off again. He sailed from New London in the whaler "Monticello," accompanied by his Esquimo friends, Ebierbing and Tookoolito. The "Monticello" entered Hudson Bay, landed the daring explorers on its northern shores, and left them to their fortunes. From thence they made the long, dreary journey to King William's Land, where the relics of Franklin's party had been found, some of whom Hall hoped to find alive. For five years he lived an Esquimo life, experiencing many thrilling adventures, and escaping many imminent dangers. At one time he saved his own life only by shooting an assailant who was leading against him a party who had conspired to murder him. The result of his long sojourn in this region of cold was a store of knowledge of the Esquimo habits and language, but nothing important relating to the fate of the Franklin expedition. Many sad confirmations were indeed found of the fact before generally accepted, that they had all miserably perished. On his return, Mr. Hall, nothing daunted by hardships and failures, commenced writing and lecturing on the theory of an open Polar Sea. As he had done before, so now he succeeded in impressing not only the popular mind but scientific men and statesmen with the plausibility of his theory and the practicability of his plans. Another North Pole expedition was proposed; Congress appropriated to it fifty thousand dollars, and Mr. Hall was appointed its commander. A craft of about four hundred tons, being larger than either of its predecessors on the same errand, was selected, and named the "Polaris." She was a screw-propeller, and rigged as a fore-topsail schooner. Her sides were covered with a six-inch white oak planking, nearly doubling their strength. Her bows were nearly solid white oak, made sharp, and sheathed with iron. One of her boilers was fitted for the use of whale or seal oil, by which steam could be raised if the coal was exhausted. She was supplied with five extraordinary boats. One of these must have been the last Yankee invention in the boat line. It is represented as having a capacity to carry twenty-five men, yet weighing only two hundred and fifty pounds; when not in use it could be folded up and packed snugly away. The "Polaris" was, of course, amply equipped and ably manned, and great and useful results were expected from her. President Grant is said to have entered with interest into this enterprise of Captain Hall, and the nation said, "God bless him and his perilous undertaking!" though many doubted the wisdom of any more Arctic expeditions. A few days before his departure Mr. Hall received from the hand of his friend, Henry Grinnell, a flag of historic note. It had fluttered in the wind near the South Pole with Lieutenant Wilkes, in 1838; had been borne by De Haven far northward; it had gone beyond De Haven's highest in the Kane voyage, and was planted still farther North Poleward by Hayes. "I believe," exclaimed Captain Hall, on receiving it, "that this flag, in the spring of 1872, will float over a new world, in which the North Pole star is its crowning jewel." The "Polaris" left New York June 29, 1871, tarried for a few days at New London, and was last heard from as she was ready to steam northward, the last of August, from Tussuissak, the most northern of the Greenland outposts. At this place Captain Hall met our old acquaintance, Jensen, of the Hayes expedition. He was flourishing as "governor" of a few humble huts occupied by a few humbler people, and he put on consequential airs in the presence of his white brother. He would not be a dog-driver again to an Arctic exploration--not he! Hall says he had "a face of brass in charging for his dogs." But the full complement of sixty was made up here, and his stock of furs was increased. As our voyagers are now about to enter upon the terribly earnest conflicts of North Pole explorers, and as their complement of men _and women_ are complete, we will further introduce them to our readers. The commander, Hall, they know; he is well-proportioned, muscular, of medium height, quiet, but completely enthusiastic in his chosen line of duty, believing thoroughly in himself and his enterprise, yet believing well too easily of others, especially of the rough men of his command, some of whom have grown up under the harsh discipline of the whale-ship or the naval service. The next in command is the sailing-master, Captain S. O. Buddington of our last narrative. Captain Tyson, commissioned as assistant navigator to the expedition, has been introduced to the reader at Frobisher Bay, while in command there of a whale-ship. We shall have occasion to become very intimate with him. Here is our old acquaintance, William Morton, whom we knew so favorably by his heroic deeds in the Dr. Kane expedition; he is second mate now. Of course, Captain Hall's old friends of his first and second Arctic experience, Ebierbing and Tookoolito, his wife, are here. They are now known as Joe and Hannah, and although it does some violence to our taste to drop their Esquimo names, we will conform to the usage about us, and know them in this narrative by these English names. They are accompanied by an adopted daughter from among their people, about ten years old, whom they call Puney. [Illustration: Captain Buddington.] And here, too, is our old friend Hans, taken on board at Upernavik. Having been with Kane and Hayes, nothing daunted by the perils of their voyages, he is here to see, if possible, with Hall, the North Pole, though no doubt thinking much more of his twenty-five dollars a month as hunter and dog-driver than of the desired discoveries. His wife and their three children are with him, for, like a good husband and father, he would not be separated from his family. The children are Augustina, a girl about thirteen years, heavy built, and most as large as her mother; Tobias, a boy of perhaps eight, and a little girl, Succi, of four years. Think of such a group daring the known and unknown perils of Arctic ice and cold! With the rest of the ship's company we shall form acquaintance as our narrative progresses. On the twenty-fourth of August the "Polaris" left Tussuissak, and fairly began her Arctic fight in the ice, current, and wind encounters of Melville Bay. But on she steamed, passing in a few days through the Bay into the North Water, into Smith Sound, passing Hayes's winter-quarters, yet steaming on by Dr. Kane's winter-quarters, not even pausing to salute our old friends Kalutunah and Myouk, sailing up the west side of Kennedy Channel, the scene of Dr. Hayes's conflicts and heroic achievements, the "Polaris" finally brings up in the ice barriers of north latitude 82° 16´. The highest points of previous voyages in this direction are far south. That new world of which the North Pole star is "the crowning jewel," is less than six hundred miles farther. If that open sea located in this latitude by confident explorers was only a fact, how easily and how soon would the brave "Polaris" be there! But the ice-floe, strong and defiant, and the southern current, were facts, and the open sea nowhere visible. The "Polaris" was taken in hand by the ice and current in the historic, Arctic fashion, and set back about fifty miles. The Ice King had said, "Thus far and no farther," and pointed with his frosty fingers southward. The "Polaris" early in September was glad to steam in under the land, anchor to an iceberg, and make her winter-quarters. Captain Hall called the harbor "Thank-God Harbor," and the friendly anchorage "Providence Berg." He had a right here now, for a little farther north, at a place he called "Repulse Harbor," he went ashore, threw the stripes and stars to the breeze, and took possession of the land "in the name of God and the President of the United States." We shall not expect to hear that a territorial representative from this land enters the next Congress. If this part of our national domain has a representative in the life-time of our distinguished acquaintance, Kalutunah, we nominate him for the position, as one of the nearest known inhabitants. Now commenced in earnest preparations for an Arctic winter. We have seen how this is done, and Hall and some, at least, of his officers knew how to do it. The hunters were abroad at once, and an early prize was a musk-ox weighing three hundred pounds. His meat was tender and good, having no musky odor. This was but the beginning of the good gunning afforded by this far northern region. Two seals were soon after shot. The country was found to abound in these, and in geese, ducks, rabbits, wolves, foxes, partridges, and bears. The scurvy was not likely to venture near our explorers. A pleasant incident occurred on shipboard about this time which the reader will better appreciate as our story progresses. It was September twenty-fourth. The Sabbath religious service of the preceding day had been conducted by Chaplain Bryant in his usual happy manner. At its close Commander Hall made some kind, earnest remarks to the men by which their rough natures were made tender, and they sent a letter from the forecastle to the cabin expressing to him their thanks. To this he replied in the following note:-- "SIRS: The reception of your letter of thanks to me of this date I acknowledge with a heart that deeply feels and fully appreciates the kindly feeling that has prompted you to this act. I need not assure you that your commander has, and ever will have, a lively interest in your welfare. You have left your homes, friends, and country; indeed, you have bid farewell for a time to the whole civilized world, for the purpose of aiding me in discovering the mysterious, hidden parts of the earth. I therefore must and shall care for you as a prudent father cares for his faithful children." October tenth, after careful preparation, Captain Hall started northward on an experiment in the way of sledging. He purposed more extended sledge journeys in the spring, until the Pole itself should be reached. He took two sledges, drawn by seven dogs each. Captain Hall and Joe accompanied one, and Mr. Chester, the mate, and Hans, the other. Their experience on this trip was simply of the Arctic kind, of which we have seen so much. Deep snows, treacherous ice, which was in a state of change by the action of winds and currents, intense cold, and vexed and vicious dogs, all put in their appearance. But Captain Hall says, "These drawbacks are nothing new to an Arctic traveler. We laugh at them, and plod on determined to execute the service faithfully to the end." The sledge expedition was gone two weeks, and traveled north fifty miles. They discovered a lake and a river. They came to the southern cape of a bay which they had seen from the "Polaris" in her drift from above. They named the bay Newman Bay, and attached Senator Sumner's name to the cape. From the top of an iceberg they surveyed the bay, and believed it extended inland thirty miles. Crossing the mouth of the bay they clambered up its high northern cape, which they called Brevoort. Here they looked westward over the waters up which a good distance past this point the "Polaris" had sailed, and which they had named Robeson Strait. They peered longingly into the misty distance, and fondly hoped to penetrate it with sledge or steamer in the spring. Joe, the architect of the journey, built here their sixth snow-hut. It was warmer than at Thank-God Harbor, and birds, musk-oxen, foxes, and rabbits, were seen, and bear and wolf tracks were in the vicinity. Captain Hall was joyous at the future prospect. He wrote a dispatch from this high latitude in which he says, "We have all been well up to this time." A copy of it was placed in a copper cylinder and buried under a pile of stones. The party turned their faces homeward; Captain Hall's Arctic explorations were ended. CHAPTER XLI. DISASTER. [Illustration: Unloading Stores from the "Polaris."] ABOUT noon of October twenty-fourth Captain Hall and his party were seen in the distance approaching the ship. Captain Tyson, the assistant navigator, went out to meet them. Not even a dog had been lost, and Captain Hall was jubilant over his trip and the future of the expedition. While he was absent the work of banking up the "Polaris" with snow as an increased defense against the cold, the building of a house on shore for the stores, and their removal to it from the ship, had gone forward nearly to completion. He looked at the work, greeted all cheerfully, and entered the cabin. He obtained water, and washed and put on clean underclothes. The steward, Mr. Herron, asked him what he would have to eat, expressing at the same time a wish to get him "something nice." He thanked him, but said he wanted only a cup of coffee, and complained of the heat of the cabin. He drank a part of the cup of coffee and set it aside. Soon after he complained of sickness at the stomach, and threw himself into his berth. Chester, the mate, and Morton, second mate, watched with him all night, during which he was at times delirious. It was thought he was partially paralyzed. The surgeon, Dr. Bessel, was in constant attendance, but after temporary improvement he became wildly delirious, imagining some one had poisoned him, and accused first one, then another. He thought he saw blue gas coming from the mouths of persons about him. He refused clean stockings at the hand of Chester, thinking they were poisoned, and he made others taste the food tendered him before taking it himself, even that from sealed cans opened in his cabin. During the night of November seventh he was clear in his mind, and as Surgeon Bessel was putting him to bed and tucking him in, he said in his own kind tone, "Doctor, you have been very kind to me, and I am obliged to you." Early in the morning of November eighth he died, and with his death the American North Polar Expedition was ended. The grave of their beloved commander was dug by the men under Captain Tyson, inland, southeast, about a half mile from the "Polaris." The frozen ground yielded reluctantly to the picks, and the grave was of necessity very shallow. On the eleventh a mournful procession moved from the "Polaris" to the place of burial. Though not quite noon it was Arctic night. A weird, electric light filled the air, through which the stars shone brilliantly. Captain Tyson walked ahead with a lantern, followed by Commander Buddington and his officers, and then by the scientific corps, which included the chaplain, Mr. Bryan; the men followed, drawing the coffin on a sled, one of their number bearing another lantern. The fitting pall thrown over the coffin was the American flag. Following the sled were the Esquimo--last in the procession but not the least in the depth and genuineness of their sorrow. At the grave, Tyson held the light for the chaplain to read the burial service. As the solemn, yet comforting words were uttered, "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord," all were subdued to tears. Only from the spirit of the Gospel, breathing its tender influence through these words, was there any cheerful inspiration. The day was cold and dismal, and the wind howled mournfully. Inland over a narrow snow-covered plain, and in the shadowy distance, were huge masses of slate-rock, the ghostly looking sentinels of the barren land beyond. Seaward was the extended ice of Polaris Bay, and the intervening shore strown with great ice-blocks in wild confusion. About five hundred paces away was the little hut called an observatory, and from its flag-staff drooped at half-mast the stars and stripes. Far away were his loved family and friends, whose prayers had followed him during his adventures in the icy north, who even now hoped for his complete success and safe return; and far away the Christian burial place where it would have been to them mournfully pleasant to have laid him. But he who had declared that he loved the Arctic regions, and to whose ears there was music in its wailing winds, and to whose eyes there was beauty in its rugged, icy barrenness, had found his earthly resting-place where nature was clothed in its wildest Arctic features. A board was erected over his grave in which was cut:-- "TO THE MEMORY OF C. F. HALL, _Late Commander of the North Polar Expedition._ Died November 8, 1871, Aged fifty years." When the funeral procession had returned to the ship, all moved about in the performance of their duty in gloomy silence. It is sad to record that the great affliction caused by the death of Hall was rendered more intense by the moral condition of the surviving party. Two hideous specters had early in the expedition made their appearance on board the "Polaris." They were the spirits of Rum and Discord! Commander Hall had forbidden the admission of liquor on shipboard, but it had come _with_ the medicines whether _of_ them or not. It was put under the key of the locker, but it broke out--no, we will not do injustice even to this foulest of demons: _an officer_, selected to guard the safety and comfort of the ship's company, broke open the locker and let it out. This brought upon him a reprimand from Captain Hall, and later a letter of stricture upon his conduct. The doctor's alcohol could not be safely kept for professional purposes, which raised "altercations" on board. So Rum and Discord, always so closely allied, went stalking through the ship, with their horrid train. Insubordination, of course, was from the first in attendance. Hall had, it would seem, in part _persuaded_ into submission this ghastly specter. Where, on shipboard, the lives of all depend upon submission to one will, rebellion becomes, in effect, murder. We have seen that Dr. Kane argued down this bloody intruder by a pistol in a steady hand leveled at the head of the chief rebel; and that Dr. Hayes saved his boat party by the same persuasive influence over Kalutunah. But Hall was not reared in the navy, and was cast in a gentle mold. On the Sunday following the burial of Hall it was announced that from that time the Sunday service would be omitted. "Each one can pray for himself just as well," it was remarked. The faithful chaplain, however, seems to have held religious service afterward for such as pleased to attend. Hall had taken great pleasure in it, and it had, we think, attended every Arctic expedition through which we have carried the reader. After such a purpose to dismiss public worship from the vessel we are not surprised to learn that "the men made night hideous by their carousings." Nature without had ceased to distinguish night from day, and our explorers did not follow the example of their predecessors in this region, and _make_ day and night below decks by requiring the light to be put out at a stated hour. So the noise and card-playing had all hours for their own. Under these circumstances, as if to make the "Polaris" forecastle the counterpart of one of our city "hells," pistols were put into the hands of the men. Discord was now armed, and Alcohol was at the chief place of command. The Christmas came, but no religious service with it. New-Year's day brought nothing special. The winter dragged along but not the wind, which roared in tempests, and rushed over the floe in currents traveling fifty-three miles an hour. It played wild and free with the little bark which had intruded upon its domains, breaking up the ice around it, and straining at its moorings attached to the friendly berg. Spring came at last. Hunting became lively and successful. His majesty, the bear, became meat for the hunters after a plucky fight, in which two dogs had their zeal for bear combat fairly subdued. Musk-oxen stood in stupid groups to be shot. White foxes would not be hit at any rate. Birds, trusting to their spread wings, were brought low, plucked and eaten. Seals coming out of their holes, and stretching themselves on the ice to enjoy dreamily a little sunshine, to which they innocently thought they had a right as natives of the country, were suddenly startled by the crack of the rifles of Hans and Joe, and often under such circumstances died instantly of lead. It seemed hardly fair. In fact we are confident that the animals about Polaris Bay contracted a prejudice against the strangers, except the white foxes, who could not see what _hurt_ these hunters did--at least to foxes--and they were of a mind that it was decided fun to be hunted by them. The Esquimo have been in this high latitude in the not distant past, as a piece of one of their sledges was found. Soon after Hall's death the chief officers had mutually pledged in writing that, "It is our honest intention to honor our flag, and to hoist it upon the most northern point of the earth." During the spring and summer some journeys northward were made, but were not extended beyond regions already visited. The eye which would have even now looked with hope and faith to the region of the star which is the "crowning jewel" of the central north, was dim in death. Captain Buddington, now in chief command, had faith and hope in the homeward voyage only. [Illustration: Perilous Situation of the "Polaris."] On the twelfth of August, 1872, the "Polaris" was ready, with steam up, for the return trip. On that very day there was added to the family of Hans a son. All agreed to name him Charlie Polaris, thus prettily suggesting the name of the late commander and of the ship. Little Charlie was evidently disgusted with his native country, for he immediately turned his back upon it, the ship steaming away that afternoon. The "Polaris" had made a tolerably straight course up, but now made a zig-zag one back. On she went, steaming, drifting, banging against broken floes, through the waters over which we have voyaged with Kane and Hayes, until they came into the familiar regions of Hayes's winter-quarters. On the afternoon of the fifteenth of October the wind blew a terrific gale from the north-west. The floe, in an angry mood, _nipped_ the ship terribly. She groaned and shrieked, in pain but not in terror, for with her white oak coat of mail she still defied her icy foe, now rising out of his grasp, and then falling back and breaking for herself an easier position. The hawsers were attached to the floe, and the men stood waiting for the result of the combat on which their lives depended. At this moment the engineer rushed to the deck with the startling announcement that the "Polaris" had sprung a leak, and that the water was gaining on the pumps. "The captain threw up his arms, and yelled the order to throw every thing on the ice." No examination into the condition of the leak seems to have been made. A panic followed, and overboard went every thing in reckless confusion, many valuable articles falling near the vessel, and, of course, were drawn under by her restless throes and lost. Overboard went boats, provisions, ammunition, men, women, and children, nobody knew what nor who. It was night--an intensely dark, snowy, tempestuous night. It was in this state of things, when the ship's stores and people were divided between the floe and her deck, that the anchors planted in the floe tore away, and the mooring lines snapped like pack-thread, and away went the "Polaris" in the darkness, striking against huge ice-cakes, and drifting none knew where. "Does God care for sparrows?" and will he not surely care for these imperiled explorers, both those in the drifting steamer, and those on the floe whom he alone can save, unhoused in an Arctic night on which no sun will rise for many weeks, exposed to the caprice of winds, currents, and the ever untrustworthy ice-raft on which they are cast? We will leave the floe party awhile in His care, and follow the fortunes of the brave little vessel and her men. CHAPTER XLII. THE LAST OF THE "POLARIS." THOSE left on board of the "Polaris" were oppressed with fears both for themselves and those on the floe. The leak in the ship was serious, and the water was gaining in the hold, and threatened to reach and put out the fires, and thus render the engine useless. Besides, the deck pumps were frozen up, and only two lower ones could be used. But "just before it was too late," hot water was procured from the boiler and poured in buckets-full into the deck-pumps, and they were thawed out. The men then worked at the pumps with an energy inspired by imminent danger of death. They had already been desperately at work for six unbroken hours, and ere long the fight for life was on the verge of failure. Just then came to the fainting men the shout "steam's up," and tireless steam came to the rescue of weary muscles. As the dim light of the morning of October sixteenth dawned on the anxious watchers, they saw that they had been forced by the violent wind out of Baffin Bay into Smith Sound. Not until now, since the hour of separation, had they counted their divided company. The assistant navigator, the meteorologist, all the Esquimo, and six seamen were missing; part of the dogs had also gone with the floe party. Fourteen men remained, including the commander and the mate, the surgeon, and the chaplain. Men were sent to the mast-head to look for the missing ones, but the most careful gaze with the best glass failed to discern them. Hope of their safety was inspired by the fact that they had all the boats, even to the little scow; yet it was not certainly known that the boats had not been sunk or drifted off in the darkness, and thus lost to them. So all was tantalizing uncertainty. An examination revealed the encouraging fact that a good supply of fuel and provisions remained on board. A breeze sprung up at noon by whose aid the "Polaris" was run eastward, through a fortunate lead, as near to the land as possible. Here lines were carried out on the floe and made fast to the hummocks, all the anchors having been lost. She lay near the shore, and grounded at low water. An examination showed that the vessel was so battered and leaky, that surprise was excited that she had not gone down before reaching the shore. It was decided at once that she could not be made to float longer. The steam-pumps were stopped, the water filled her hold, and decided her fate. The sheltered place into which the "Polaris" had by Divine guidance entered was Life-Boat Cove, only a little north of Etah Bay, every mile of which we have surveyed in former visits. The famous city of Etah with its two huts was not far away, but out of it and its vicinity had come timely blessings to other winter-bound explorers. Our party at once commenced to carry ashore the provisions, clothing, ammunition, and all such articles from the vessel as might make them comfortable. The spars, sails, and some of the heavy wood-work of the cabin, were used in erecting a house. When done their building was quite commodious, being twenty-two feet by fourteen. The sails aided in making the roof, which proved to be water-tight, and the snow thrown up against the sides made it warm. Within, it was one room for all, and for all purposes. "Bunks" were made against the sides for each of the fourteen men. A stove with cooking utensils was brought from the ship and set up; lamps were suspended about the room, and a table with other convenience from the cabin were put in order. But before this was done a party of Esquimo with five sledges made their appearance. They stopped at a distance, and signified their friendly purpose by their customary wild gesticulations and antics. The white men at first took them for the floe party, and raised three rousing cheers of welcome. We doubt not, though it is not stated, that they were led on by our special friend, Kalutunah. The surly Sipsu, it will be remembered, had received what he had sought to give to another, a harpoon planted in the back, and was dead. So there was left none to rival Kalutunah. Myouk, the boy that was, in Kane's day, was reported as an old man now. Esquimo grow old rapidly. The whole party went to work with a will, having pleasant visions before them of a new stock of needles, knives, and other white-man treasures. They clambered over the hummocky floe, bringing loads of coal from the ship, and with their sleds brought fresh-water ice for the melting apparatus. Several families finally came, built their huts near the vessel, and spent the winter. The ship-wrecked whites had nearly worn out their fur suits, and their supply had been greatly reduced by the losses on the floe. So the Esquimo replenished their stock, and their women repaired the worn ones. Thus God makes the humblest and the weakest able at times to render essential help to the strong, and none need be useless. The winter wore off. There was no starvation, nor even short rations. The coal burned cheerfully in the stove until February, and then fuel torn from the "Polaris" supplied its place. The friendly natives brought fresh walrus meat, and scurvy was kept away. For all their valuable services the Esquimo felt well repaid in the coveted treasures which were given them. The time during the sunless days was passed in reading, writing, amusements, and discussions, according to the taste and inclination of each. Of course there were some daily domestic duties to be done. The scientific men pursued their inquiries so far as circumstances allowed. The dismal story which has so often pained our ears concerning the Esquimo was true of them generally during the winter--they were suffering with cold and hunger, and three, one of whom was Myouk, died. The explorers returned the Esquimo kindness by sharing with them, in a measure, their own stock of provisions. The spring came, and with it successful hunting. One deer was shot, and some hares caught. Chester, the mate, who seems to have been _the_ Yankee of the party, planned, and assisted the carpenter in building two boats. The material was wrenched from the "Polaris." They were each twenty-five feet long and five feet wide, square fore and aft, capable of carrying, equally divided between them, the fourteen men, two months' provisions, and other indispensable articles. When these were done they made a smaller boat, and presented it to the Esquimo; it would aid them in getting eggs and young birds about the shore. Clear water did not reach Life-Boat Cove until the last of May. On its appearance in the immediate vicinity the waiting explorers put every thing in readiness for their departure. The boats were laden, and each man assigned his place. Bags were made of the canvas sails in which to carry the provisions. What remained of the "Polaris" was given to the Esquimo chief--we guess to our friend Kalutunah--as an acknowledgment of favors received. On the third of June, in fine spirits and good health, the explorers launched their boats and sailed southward. At first the boats leaked badly, but they sailed and rowed easily, and proved very serviceable. It was continuous day, and the weather favorable. Seals could be had for the pains of hunting them, and the sea-fowl were so plenty that ten were at times brought down at a shot. On the downward trip old localities were touched, such as Etah, Hakluyt Island, and Northumberland Island. The average amount of Arctic storms were encountered, the drift ice behaved in its usual manner, though not as badly as it has been known to do. The little crafts had their hair-breadth escapes, and were battered not a little. Every night, when the toils of the day were over, the boats were drawn upon the floe, every thing taken out, and the only hot meal of the day was prepared. Each boat carried pieces of rope from the "Polaris," and a can of oil. With these a fire was made in the bottom of an iron pot. Over this fire they made their steaming pots of tea. The party halted a while at Fitz Clarence Rock in Booth Bay, about sixteen miles south of Cape Parry, and within sight of the high, bleak plain on which Dr. Hayes's boat-party spent their fearful winter. On the tenth day of their voyaging they had reached Cape York. In comparison to Dr. Kane's trip over the same waters, theirs was as a summer holiday excursion. But Melville Bay was now before them with its defiant bergs, hummocks, currents, stormy winds, and blinding snows--a horrid crew! No wonder that the fear prevailed among them that if not rescued they could never reach any settlement. Chester, however, said, "We can, and will." But the rescuers were not afar off. For another ten days they were made to feel that their battle for life was to be a hard-fought one. On the twenty-third they saw, away in the distance, what appeared to be a whaler. Could it be! They dared scarcely trust their eyes, for the object was ten miles away. Yes, it was a steamer, and beset, too, so she could not get away. New courage was inspired, and they toiled on. But for this timely spur to their zeal they would have lost heart, for one of the boats in being lifted over the hummocks was badly stove, and their provisions were giving out, though they had calculated that they had two months' supply. Soon after they saw the steamer they were seen by the watch from the mast-head. They were taken for Esquimo, but a sharp lookout was kept upon their movement, which soon showed them to be white men. Signals of recognition were immediately given, and eighteen picked men were sent to their relief. Seeing this, Captain Buddington sent forward two men, and the rescuers soon met and returned with them. With even this addition to their strength, it took six hours to drag the boats the twelve miles which intervened between them and the whaler. They were received with a kind-hearted welcome by the noble Scotchman, Captain Allen, of the "Ravenscraig," of Dundee. Their toils were over, and their safety insured. We will return to those on the floe. CHAPTER XLIII. THE FEARFUL SITUATION. ONE of the anchors of the "Polaris," in starting on the night of the separation, tore off a large piece of the floe with three men upon it. As the "Polaris" swept past them they cried out in agony, "What shall we do?" Captain Buddington shouted back, "We can do nothing for you. You have boats and provisions; you must shift for yourselves." This was the last word from the "Polaris." Seeing the sad plight of these men, Captain Tyson, who from the first had been upon the floe, took "the donkey," a little scow which had been tossed upon the ice, and attempted to rescue them. But the donkey almost at once sunk, and he jumped back upon the floe and launched one of the boats. Some of the other men started in the other boat at the same time, and the three men were soon united to the rest of the floe party. One of the last things Tyson drew out of the way of the vessel as its heel was grinding against the parting floe were some musk-ox skins. They lay across a widening crack, and in a moment more would have been sunk in the deep, or crushed between colliding hummocks. Rolled up in one of them, and cozily nestling together, were two of Hans's children! Does not God care for _children_! Our darkness and storm-beset party did not dare to move about much, for they could not tell the size of the ice on which they stood, nor at what moment they might step off into the surging waters. So they rolled themselves up in the musk-ox skins and _slept_! Captain Tyson alone did not lie down, but walked cautiously about during the night. The morning came, and with it a revelation of their surroundings. Huge bergs were in sight which had in the storm and darkness charged upon the floe, and caused the breaking up of the preceding night. It had been a genuine Arctic assault. Their own raft was nearly round, and about four miles in circumference, and immovably locked between several grounded bergs. It was snow-covered, and full of hillocks and intervening ponds of water which the brief summer sun had melted from their sides. Those who had laid down were covered with snow, and looked like little mounds. When the party roused, the first thing they thought of was the ship. But she was nowhere to be seen. A lead opened to the shore inviting their escape to the land. Captain Tyson ordered the men to get the boats in immediate readiness, reminding them of the uncertainty of the continued opening of the water, and of the absolute necessity of instant escape from the floe in order to regain the ship and save their lives. But the men were in no hurry, and obedience to orders had long been out of their line. They were hungry and tired, and were determined to eat first; and they didn't want a cold meal, and so they made tea and chocolate, and cooked canned meat. This done they must change their wet clothes for dry ones. In the mean time the drifting ice _was_ in a hurry and had shut up in part the lead. But Tyson was determined to try to reach the shore though the difficulties had so greatly increased during the delay. The boats were laden and launched, but when they were about half way to the shore the lead closed, and they returned to the floe and hauled up the boats. Just then the "Polaris" was seen under both steam and sail. She was eight or ten miles away, but signals were set to attract her attention, and she was watched with a glass with intense interest until she disappeared behind an island. Soon after, Captain Tyson sent two men to a distant part of the floe to a house made of poles, which he had erected for the stores soon after they began to be thrown from the vessel. In going for these poles the steamer was again seen, apparently fast in the ice behind the island. She could not then come to the floe party, being beset and without boats, and so Tyson ordered the men to get the boats ready for another attempt to reach the land, and thus in time connect with the vessel. He lightened the boats of all articles not absolutely necessary, that they might be drawn to the water safely and with speed. He then went ahead to find the nearest and best route for embarking. The grounded bergs in the mean while, relaxed their grasp upon the explorers' ice-raft, and they began to drift southward. With malicious intent, on came a terrific snow-storm at the same time. Tyson hurried back to hasten up the men. They were in no hurry, but, with grumbling and trifling, finally made ready as they pretended, one boat crowded with every thing both needful and worthless. When at last it was dragged to the water's edge, it was ascertained that the larger part of the oars and the rudder had been left at the camp far in the rear. In this crippled condition the boat was launched. But not only oars and rudder, but _will_ on the part of the men was wanting. So the boat was drawn upon the floe, and left with all its valuables near the water. The night was approaching, the storm was high, and the men were weary, so no attempt was made to return it to the old camp. All went back to the middle of the floe. Tyson, Mr. Meyers, one of the scientific corps, and the Esquimo, made a canvas shelter, using the poles as a frame, and the others camped near them. Captain Tyson, after eating a cold supper, rolled himself in a musk-ox skin, and lay down for the first sleep he had sought for forty-eight hours. His condition seemed to be a specially hard one. While, on the night of the great disaster, he was striving to save the general stores, the saving of which proved the salvation of the company, others were looking after their personal property, so they had their full supply of furs and fire-arms, while his were left in the ship. He, however, slept soundly until the morning, when he was startled by a shriek from the Esquimo. The floe had played them an Arctic trick; it had broken and set the whole party adrift on an ice-raft not more than one hundred and fifty yards square. What remained of their old floe of four miles' circumference contained the house made of poles, in which remained six bags of bread, and the loaded boat, in which were the greater part of their valuables. Here was a fearful state of things! Yet one boat remained with which they might have gone after the other one, but the men seemed infatuated and refused to go. Away the little raft sailed, crumbling as it went, assuring its passengers that they must all stow away in their one boat or soon be dropped in the sea. For four days they thus drifted, during which the Esquimo shot several seals. On the twenty-first Joe was using the spy-glass, and suddenly shouted for joy. He had spied the lost boat lodged on a part of the old floe which had swung against the little raft of our party. He and Captain Tyson, with a dog-team, instantly started for it, and after a hard pull returned with boat and cargo. Soon after, their old floe, in an accommodating mood, thrust itself against the one they were on, the boats were passed over, and every thing was again together--boats and provisions. Let us now look around upon our party more critically. The whole number was twenty, including the ten weeks' old Charlie Polaris, who, of course, was somebody. As we have stated, _all_ the Esquimo were of this party. Both the cook and steward were here. Much the larger number of the dogs belonging to the expedition were on the floe, but no sledges. Fortunately, in addition to the two boats, one of the kayaks had been saved. It might, in the skillful hands of a Joe, meet some emergency. As there was only faint hope now of again seeing the "Polaris," and as their ice-boat seemed to sail farther and farther from the shore, they began to make the best winter-quarters their circumstances allowed. Under the direction of Joe, as architect and builder, several snow houses were put up. One was occupied by Captain Tyson and Mr. Myers; one by Joe and family; a larger one by the men; and one was used for the provisions, and one for a cook house. All these were united by an arched passage way. Hans and family located their house apart from the others, but near. The huts erected, their next pressing need was sledges. The men, with great difficulty, dragged some lumber from the old store-house, and a passable one was made. Though the quantity of provisions was quite large, yet with nineteen persons to consume it, (not to reckon little Charlie's mouth, who looked elsewhere for his supply,) and with possibly no addition for six months, it was alarmingly small. Besides, in their unprincipled greed, some of the party broke into the store-room and took more than a fair allowance. So the party agreed upon two meals a day, and a weighed allowance at each meal. It was now the last of October. The sun had ceased to show his pleasant face, and the long night was setting in. To add to their discomfort, the question of light and fuel assumed a serious aspect. The men, either from want of skill or patience, or both, did not succeed well in using seal fat for these purposes, in the Esquimo fashion; so they began, with a reckless disregard to their future safety, to break up and burn one of the boats. Hans, with a true Esquimo instinct, when the short allowance pinched him, began to kill and eat the dogs. He might be excused, however. Four children, with their faces growing haggard, looked to him for food. Thus situated, our floe party drifted far away from the land--drifting on and on, whether they slept or woke--drifting they knew not to what end. CHAPTER XLIV. THE WONDERFUL DRIFT. EARLY in November Captain Tyson saw through his glass, about twelve miles off to the southeast, the Cary Islands, so they were in the "North water" of Baffin Bay, and south-west from Cape Parry, where we have been so many times. From this cape, or a little south of it, it would not be a great sledge trip to where they last saw the "Polaris," and where they had reason to think she now was. So our party made one more effort to reach the shore. The boats being in readiness the night before, they started early in the morning. Of course their day was now only a noon twilight, and the _morning_ was most midday. But the floe was not in a favoring mood. The hummocks were as hard in their usage of the boats and men as usual. The deceitful cracks in the ice at one time put the lives of the dogs and men in great peril; and, as if these obstacles were not enough, a storm brought up its forces against them. They had dragged the boats half way to the shore when they retreated "before superior forces." Their huts being of perishable material, were reconstructed. A little later the men built a large snow hut as "a reserve." All were weak through insufficient food. Mr. Meyers was nearly prostrate, and went to live with the men; Captain Tyson, whose scanty clothing, added to care and short rations, caused him to suffer much, took up his quarters with Joe and Hannah, and their little Puney. Not the least of the trial in the Esquimo huts were the piteous cries of the children for food. Joe and Hans were out with their guns every day during the three hours' twilight, hunting seals. The first one captured was shot by Joe, November sixth. Nearly two weeks passed before any further success attended the hunters; then several were shot, and Captain Tyson, who was ready to perish, had one full meal--a meal of uncooked seal meat, skin, hair, and all, washed down with seal blood. _Some_ others had not been so long without a full meal, as the bread continued to be stolen. The _home_ Thanksgiving Day came. A little extra amount of the canned meat was allowed each one, and all had a taste of mock-turtle soup and canned green corn, kept for this occasion, to which was added a few pieces of dried apple. How far it all fell short of the _home_ feast may be judged by the fact that Captain Tyson, to satisfy the fierce hunger which remained after dinner, finished "with eating strips of frozen seals' entrails, and lastly seal skin, hair and all." The hunters had seen tracks of bears, so they were on the lookout for them while they hunted seal. One day Joe and Hans went out as usual with their guns. They lost sight of each other and of the camp. Joe returned quite late, expecting to find Hans already in his hut. When he learned that he had not returned, he, as well as others, felt concerned about him. Accompanied by one of the men, he went in search of him. As the two, guns in hand, were stumbling over the hummocks, they saw in the very dim twilight, as they thought, a bear. Their guns were instantly leveled and brought to the sight, and their mouths almost tasted a bear-meat supper. "Hold on there! That's not a bear! what is it?" "Why, it's Hans!" Well, he _did_ look in the darkness like a bear, as in his shaggy coat he clambered, on all-fours, over the ice-hills. December came in with its continuous night. Seals could not be successfully hunted in the darkness, and where seals could not be seen bears would not make their appearance. The rations became smaller than ever, and ghastly, horrid starvation seemed encamped among our drifting, forlorn party. Under these circumstances a specter even _worse_ than starvation appeared to Joe. To him, at least, it was a terrifying reality. It was the demon form of Cannibalism! He had looked into the eyes of the men in the big hut, and they spoke to him of an intention to save themselves by first killing and eating Hans and family, and then taking him and his. He and Hannah were greatly terrified, and he handed his pistol to Captain Tyson, which he was not willing to part with before. He was assured that the least child should not be touched for so horrid a purpose without such a defense as the pistol could give. Christmas came. The last ham had been kept for this occasion, and it was divided among all, with a few other dainties, in addition to the usual morsel. The shore occasionally appeared in the far away distance. They were drifting through Baffin Bay toward the _western_ side, so that their craft evidently did not intend to land them at any of the familiar ports of Greenland. It seemed to have an ambition to drop them nearer home. As the year was going out, and Joe's family were gnawing away at some _dried_ seal skin, submitted, to be sure, to a process Hannah called cooking, a shout was heard from him. "Kayak! kayak!" he cried. He had shot a seal, and it was floating away. Fortunately the kayak was at hand, and the game was bagged. As usual, it was divided among all. The _eyes_ were given to Charlie Polaris, and they were nice in his eyes, and mouth, too. New Year's came, and Captain Tyson dined on two feet of frozen seal entrails, and a little seal fat. There was now nothing to burn except what little seal blubber they could spare for that purpose. One boat had been burned, their only sled had gone the same way, and the reckless, desperate men could hardly be restrained from burning the only one now remaining, and thus cut off all good hope of final escape. To be sure, their provocation to this act was very great; the temperature was thirty-six below zero! In their strait, the desperate expedient was entertained of trying to get to land. The emaciated men would have to drag the loaded boat over the hummocky ice without a sledge. The women and children must be added to the load or abandoned. It would be a struggle for life against odds more fearful than that which now oppressed them. But what _should_ they do! God knew! Hark! what shout is that! "Kayak! kayak!" The kayak was at hand, but it had to be carried a mile. Yet it paid, for a seal shot by Joe was secured just in time to keep the men from utter desperation. To this item of comfort another was added a few days later. The sun reappeared January nineteenth, after an absence of eighty-three days, and remained shining upon them two hours. He brought hope to fainting hearts. Through January there was a seal taken at long intervals, but one always came just before it was too late! The men continued to grumble and deceive themselves with the idea of soon getting to Disco, "where rum and tobacco were plenty." How sad that man can sink _below_ the brute, which, however hungry, never cries out for "rum and tobacco!" Leaving for a moment the white men, let us look into the Esquimo huts and see how the terrible condition of things affects them. The men are almost always out hunting, but just now, as we step into Joe's snow dwelling, he is at home. The only light or fire is that which comes from the scanty supply of seal oil. Captain Tyson is trying to write with a pencil in his journal, but he appears cold in his scanty covering of furs, and looks weak and hungry. Joe and Hannah are striving to pass away the weary hours by playing checkers on an old piece of canvas which the captain has marked into squares with his pencil. They are using buttons for men, and seem quite interested in the game. Little Puney is sitting by, wrapped in a musk-ox skin, uttering at intervals a low, plaintive cry for food. It is the most cheerful home "on board" the floe, but surely it is cheerless enough. We shall not wish to tarry long in the hut of Hans, for besides the unavoidable misery of the place, Mr. and Mrs. Hans are noted for the boarders they keep--about their persons. Under the most favorable circumstances they regard bathing as one of the barbarous customs of civilization. The reader will recollect that the first experience Mrs. Hans had of a personal cleansing was on board Dr. Hayes's vessel, and she then thought it a joke imposed by the white people's religion, too grievous to be borne. On another exploring vessel she and her husband were cruelly required to put off their long-worn garments, wash and put on clean ones, and put the old "in a strong pickle," for an obvious reason. It is not certainly known that they were ever washed at any other times. Mrs. Hans's hut is not in the most tidy order, but the circumstances must be taken into the account, and also the fact of the sad neglect of her early domestic education. We have just drifted from her native land--or, rather, _ice_--where she was married, in Dr. Kane's time, it being a runaway match, at least on the part of the husband. Well, here they are, father, mother, and four children, on a voyage unparalleled in the history of navigation. Mr. and Mrs. Hans do not play any household games; they do not know what to do at home, except to eat, and feed the children, and make and mend skin clothing. We know full well to what sad disadvantage the eating is subjected at the time of our call, and we are authorized to say, to the credit of Mrs. Hans, that as to the making and mending, she has been of real service to the men on this voyage. The children of Hans cannot fail to attract our attention and sympathy. Augustina, the first-born, usually fat and rugged if not ruddy, is thin and pale now, and sits chewing a bit of dried seal skin, or something of the sort, and trying to get from it a drop of nourishment; her brother, Tobias, has thrown his head into her lap as she sits on the ground. The poor little fellow has been sick, unable to eat even the small allowance of meat given him, and has lived, one hardly knows how, on a little dry bread. Succi, the four-year-old girl, squats on the ground--that is, the canvas-covered ice floor--hugging her fur skin about her, and in a low, moaning tone repeats, "I is _so_ hungry!" Her mother is trying to pick from the lamp, for the children, a few bits of "tried-out" scraps of blubber. Little Charlie's head is just discernible in the fur hood which hangs from the mother's neck at her back. If he gets enough to eat, which we fear is not the case, he is sweetly ignorant of the perils of this, his first trip, in the voyage of life. We shall not want to stay longer in this sad place. February was a dreadful month on board the floe. The huts were buried under the snow. It was with difficulty that Joe and Hans, almost the entire dependence of the party, could go abroad for game, and when they did they secured a few seals only, very small, and now and then a dovekie, a wee bit of a pensive sea-bird. Norwhal, the sea unicorn, were shot in several instances, but they sunk in every case and were lost. Hunger and fear seemed to possess the men in the large tent, and Joe and Hannah began to be again terrified by the thought that these hunger-mad men would kill and eat them. Now, will not God appear to help those in so helpless a condition? Yes, his hand has ever been wonderfully apparent in all Arctic perils. On the second of March, just when the dark cloud of these drifting sufferers was never darker, it parted, and a flood of light burst upon their camp. Joe shot an _oogjook_, belonging to the largest species of seal. He was secured and dragged by all hands to the huts. He measured nine feet, weighed about seven hundred pounds, and contained, by estimation, thirty gallons of oil. There was a shout of seal in the camp! The warm blood was relished like new milk, and drank freely. All eat and slept, and woke to eat again, and hunger departed for the time from the miserable huts it had so long haunted. Joe and Hannah dismissed their horrid visions of cannibalism. God was, the helper of these hungry ones, and they _were_ helped. CHAPTER XLV. THE WONDERFUL ESCAPE. OUR voyagers needed all the strength and courage which the timely capture of the great seal had given them. They had drifted into a warmer sea, and windy March was well upon them. Their floe began to herald its fast approaching dissolution. The weary and anxious drifters were startled by day, and awakened suddenly by night, by a rumbling, mingled with fearful grindings and crashes underneath them. Heavy ice-cakes, over-rode by the heavier floe, ground along its under surface, and when finding an opening of thin ice, rushed with a thundering sound to the upper surface. The din was at times so great that it seemed to combine all alarming sounds:-- "Through all its scale the horrid discord ran; Now mocked the beast--now took the groan of man." On the eleventh a storm commenced. Whole fleets of icebergs, having broken away from the icy bands in which the floe had held them, hovered round to charge upon the helpless campers. The vast area of ice on which they had been riding for so many months was lifted in places by mighty seas beneath, causing it to crack with a succession of loud reports and dismal sounds, some of which seemed to be directly under them. The wind drove before it a dense cloud of snow, so that one could scarcely see a yard. Night came with a darkness that could be felt. The icy foundation of their camp might separate at any moment, and tumble their huts about their ears, or plunge them in the sea. They gathered their few treasures together, and stood ready to fly--but where? Death seemed to guard every avenue of escape. Suddenly, soon after the night set in, the disruption came. Their floe was shattered, with a fearful uproar, into hundreds of pieces, and they went surging off among the fragments on a piece less than a hundred yards square. They were within twenty yards of its edge, but God had kindly forbid the separation to run through their camp and sever them from their boat or from each other. After raging sixty hours the storm abated, and their little ice-ship drifted rapidly in the pack. A goodly number of seals were shot, and they began to breathe more freely. After a short time another _oogjook_ was captured, so food was plenty. March wore away, seals were plenty, and readily taken; and though the bergs ground together and made fierce onsets into the pack, our ice-ship held gallantly on her way. One night the inmates of Joe's hut were about retiring, when a noise was heard outside. "What is it, Joe? is the ice breaking up?" Joe does not stop to answer, but rushes out. But in ten seconds he comes back in a greater hurry, pale and breathless. "There's a bear close to my kayak," he exclaims in an excited tone. Now the situation was this: The kayak was within ten paces of the entrance to the hut, and the loaded guns, which can never be kept in an Esquimo hut on account of the moisture, were in and leaning against the kayak. If the bear should take a notion to put his nose at the hut door, and, liking the odor, knock down the snow wall with his strong paw, and commence a supper on one of its inmates, what was to hinder him? But bears, like many young people, often fail to improve their golden opportunities. He found some seal fat and skins in the kayak, and these he pulled out, and walked off with them a rod or two to enjoy the feast. Joe crept out of the hut, and ran to alarm the men. Captain Tyson followed, slipped softly up to the kayak and seized his gun, but in taking it he knocked down another one and alarmed the bear, who looked up and growled his objections to having his supper disturbed. Tyson leveled his rifle, snapped it, but it missed fire. He tried a second and third time, and it did not go--but _he_ did, for his bearship was taking the offensive. Content to see his enemy flee, the bear returned to his supper. How many foolish bears have we seen on our explorations lose their lives by an untimely _eating_; but some men, more foolish, lose _more than life_ BY DRINKING. The captain returned to the field with a new charge in his gun. This time it sent a ball _through_ the bear; the ball entering the left shoulder and passing through the heart, came out at the other side. He staggered, but before he fell Joe had sent another ball into his vitals. He dropped dead instantly. This affair occurred when it was too dark to see many yards, and was much pleasanter in its results than in its duration. The seal hunting was successful, and with bear meat and blubber, a full store, there was no hunger unappeased; but the wind blew a gale, and the sailless, rudderless, oarless little ice-ship, now banging against a berg, and now in danger of being run down by one, all the while growing alarmingly smaller, finally shot out into the open sea away from the floe. This would not do. So, feeling that they might soon be dropped into the sea, they loaded the boat with such things as was strictly necessary, and all hands getting aboard, sailed away. A part of their ammunition, their fresh meat, a full month's supply, and many other desirable things, were abandoned. The boat, only intended to carry eight persons, was so overloaded with its twenty, including children, that it was in danger of being swamped at any moment. The frightened children cried, and the men looked sober. They sailed about twenty miles west, and landed on the first tolerably safe piece of ice which they met. Hans and family nestled down in the boat, and the rest, spreading on the floe what skins they had, set up a tent, and all, after eating a dry supper of bread and pemmican, lay down to rest. Thus, boating by day, and camping on the ice at night for several days, they drew up on the fourth of April upon a solid looking floe. Snow-huts were built, seals were taken, and hope revived. But what is hope, resting on Arctic promises? The gale was abroad again, the sea boisterous, and their floe was thrown into a panic. Fearful noises were heard beneath and around them, and their icy foundations quaked with fear. Joe's snow-hut was shaken down. He built it again, and then lot and house fell off into the sea and disappeared. Thus warned, the camp was pushed farther back from the water. But they did not know where the crack and separation would next come. Thus they lived in anxious watchings through weary days, the gale unabated. Finally, one night, the feared separation came. All hands except Mr. Meyers were in the tent; near them, so near a man could scarcely walk between, was the boat, containing Meyers and the kayak; but with mischievous intent, the crack run so as to send the boat drifting among the breaking and over-lapping ice. Mr. Meyers could not manage it, of course, under such circumstances, and the kayak was of no use to any but an Esquimo, so he set it afloat, hoping it would drift to the floe-party. Here was a fearful situation! The floe-party, as well as Mr. Meyers, was sure to perish miserably if the boat was not returned. There was only a dim light, and objects at a short distance looked hazy. It was a time for instant and desperate action. Joe and Hans took their paddles and ice-spears and started for the boat, jumping from one piece of floating, slippery ice to another. They were watched in breathless suspense until they _seemed_, in the shadowy distance, to have reached the boat, and then all was shut out in the darkness. The morning came, and the floe party were glad to see that the boat had three men in it. It was a half mile off, and the kayak was as far away in another direction. It was soon clear that the boat could not be brought back without a stronger force. Tyson led the way, and finally all but two of the men made the desperate passage of the floating ice to the imperiled craft. It was with difficulty that, with their combined force, the boat was returned to the floe. The kayak was also recovered. For a brief time there was quiet all around. The aurora gleamed, and displayed its wonderful beauty of form and motion; while the majestic icebergs, in every varied shape, reflected its sparkling light. The grandeur of sea and sky seemed a mockery to the danger-beset voyagers. The elements might be grand, but they had combined to destroy them, for a new form of peril now appeared. The sea came aboard of their icy craft. They were sitting one evening under their frail tent, the boat near, when a wave swept over their floe, carrying away tent, clothing, provisions--every thing except what was on their persons or in the boat. The women and children had been put on board in fear of such an occurrence, and the men had just time to save themselves by clinging to the gunwale. The boat itself was borne into the middle of the floe. When the wave subsided the boat was dragged back, lest another push by a succeeding one might launch it into the sea from the other side. It was well they did this, for another wave bore it to the opposite edge and partly slipped it into the water. This game of surging the boat from one side to the other of the floe, was kept up from nine o'clock in the evening to seven in the morning. All this time the men were in the water, fighting the desperate battle for its safety, and the preservation of their own lives; the conflict being made more terrible by the fact that every wave bore with it ice-blocks from a foot square to those measuring many yards, having sharp edges and jagged corners, with which it battered their legs until they were black and blue. It was the severest test of their courage and endurance yet experienced. But God was their helper. Not one perished, and when the defeated sea was by his voice commanded to retire, and the day appeared, they were not seriously harmed. But they were cold and wet, without a change of clothes and utterly provisionless. It is not surprising that after their rough handling on the floe they should seek a larger and safer one. This they did, launching their crowded boat into the turbulent sea, and, working carefully along, succeeded in landing safely on one stronger looking; nothing worse happening than the tumbling overboard of the cook, who was quickly rescued. Here, cold, half-drowned, hungry, and weary to faintness, they tried to dry and warm themselves in the feeble rays of the sun, and wait for their food at the hand of the great Provider in the use of such means as were yet left to them. They had preserved their guns and a small supply of powder and shot. Snow and rain came on, and continued until noon of the next day, April twenty-second. Their hunger was fearful. Mr. Meyers had been slightly frost-bitten when drifting away alone in the boat, his health seemed broken, and he was actually starving. In the afternoon of this day Joe went as usual with his gun. He had caught nothing on this floe, and now there were no signs of seals, though it was his fourth time out that day. What should they do? God had their relief all arranged. Joe saw what he did not expect to see, and what was seldom seen so far south--a bear! He ran back to the boat, called Hans with his trusty rifle, and the two lay down behind the hummocks. All were ordered to lie down, keep perfectly quiet, and feign themselves seals, the Esquimo helping out the deception by imitating the seal bark. Bruin came on cautiously. He, too, was hungry. What are those black objects, and what is that noise, he seemed to say? They don't look _quite_ like seals! The noise is not _just_ like the seal cry! But hunger is a weighty reason with men and bears, on the side of what they desire to believe, so the bear came on. When fairly within an easy range both rifles cracked, and he fell dead. The whole party arose with a shout. Polar was dragged to the boat and skinned. His warm blood slaked their raging thirst. His meat, tender and good, satisfied their gnawing hunger. They were saved from a terrible death! Seals were secured soon after, and hope again revived. It was not long before their ice-craft crumbled away, so they were obliged to repeat the experiment, always full of danger, of launching into the sea and making for a larger and safer one. April twenty-eighth they were beset by a fleet of bergs, which were crashing against each other with a thundering noise, and occasionally turning a threatening look toward the frail craft of our drifters. So angrily at last did one come down upon them that they abandoned their floe and rowed away. Surely there is no peace for them by night or day, on the floe or afloat in their boat. They dare not lie down a moment without keeping one half of their number on the watch. But what is that in the distance? A steamer! A thrill of joy goes through the boat's company. Every possible signal is given, but she does not see them, and another night is spent on the floe. The next morning every eye was straining to see a whaler. Soon one appears. They shout, raise their signals, and fire every gun at once. But she passes out of sight. April thirtieth, as the night was setting in foggy and dark, the shout from the watch of "steamer" brought all to their feet. She was right upon them in the fog before she was seen. Hans was soon alongside of her in his kayak, telling their story as best he could. In a few moments the whaler was alongside of their piece of ice. Captain Tyson removed his old well-worn cap, called upon his men, and three cheers were given, ending with a "tiger" such as the poor fellows had not had a heart to give for many long months. The cheers were returned by a hundred men from the rigging and deck of the vessel. It was the sealer "Tigress," Captain Bartlett, of Conception Bay, Newfoundland. They soon had the planks of a good ship beneath them instead of a treacherous floe; curious but kind friends beset them, instead of threatening bergs; and every comfort succeeded to utter destitution. They had been on the floe six months, and floated more than sixteen hundred miles. They were speedily conveyed, by the way of Conception Bay and St. Johns, to their own homes, the telegraph having flashed throughout the length and breadth of the land their coming, and the nation rejoiced. But there were tears mingled with the joy, that one, the noble, the true, the Christian commander of the expedition, Charles Francis Hall, lay in his icy grave in the far north. As speedily as possible the "Tigress" was purchased and fitted out by the United States Government in search of the "Polaris" party. Captain Tyson and Joe were among her men. She reached Life-boat Cove about two months after Captain Buddington and his men had left. They learned that, much to the grief of the natives, the "Polaris" had floated off and sunk. The Buddington party arrived home in the fall, by the way of England. As we may not meet our Esquimo friends again, with whom we have made so many voyages, the reader will want to know the last news from them. Hans and his family returned to Greenland in the "Tigress." Joe has bought a piece of land and a house near New London, Connecticut, and intends, with his family, to remain there, getting a living by fishing. Thus ended the last American North Pole Expedition. The last from other Governments have not been more successful. Yet, while we write, England and Austria are reported as getting ready further North Polar expeditions to start in the spring of 1875. It must be allowed that the icy sceptered guardian of the North has made a good fight against the invaders into his dominions. 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Original read (utter darkness the most) Page 276, "coaked" changed to "croaked" (raven croaked a welcome) Page 277, "clifts" changed to "cliffs" (ice-covered cliffs of) Page 292, "been" added to text (Hall had been giving special) Page 321, "Tookolito" changed to "Tookoolito" (with the kind Tookoolito) Page 365, "Hugh" changed to "Huge" (Huge bergs were in) Page 394, "Live" changed to "Life" (Love in Daily Life) 
48528	----	THE GREAT PROBABILITY OF A NORTH WEST PASSAGE. [Illustration: _A_ General Map _OF_ _the DISCOVERIES of_ ADMIRAL DE FONTE, Exhibiting _the great Probability of a_ North-west Passage BY Thomas Jefferys, _Geographer to the KING._ ] THE GREAT PROBABILITY OF A NORTH WEST PASSAGE: DEDUCED FROM OBSERVATIONS ON THE Letter of Admiral DE FONTE, Who sailed from the _Callao_ of _Lima_ on the Discovery of a Communication BETWEEN THE SOUTH SEA and the ATLANTIC OCEAN; And to intercept some Navigators from _Boston_ in _New England_, whom he met with, Then in Search of a NORTH WEST PASSAGE. PROVING THE AUTHENTICITY of the Admiral's LETTER. With Three Explanatory MAPS. 1st. A Copy of an authentic _Spanish_ Map of _America_, published in 1608. 2d. The Discoveries made in _Hudson_'s Bay, by Capt. _Smith_, in 1746 and 1747. 3d. A General Map of the Discoveries of Admiral _de Fonte_. By THOMAS JEFFERYS, Geographer to the King. WITH AN APPENDIX. Containing the Account of a Discovery of Part of the Coast and Inland Country of LABRADOR, made in 1753. The Whole intended for The Advancement of TRADE and COMMERCE. LONDON: Printed for THOMAS JEFFERYS, at Charing Cross. MDCCLXVIII. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLS EARL OF HILLSBOROUGH, _&c._ _&c._ _&c._ ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE, FIRST LORD COMMISSIONER OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, AND F.R.S. The Discovery of a North-west Passage having deserved the particular Attention of that great Minister of State Sir _Francis Walsingham_, with the Approbation of the greatest Princess of that Age, I presumed to ask the Permission to inscribe the following Sheets, on the same Subject, to your Lordship, wrote with no View of setting any further Expeditions on Foot, or with respect to any particular System, but as a candid and impartial Enquiry, to shew the great Probability there is of a North-west Passage. The Importance of the Subject, treated with the greatest Regard to Truth, are the only Pretensions I have to merit your Patronage. Your Lordship will appear, to the latest Posterity, in the amiable Light of being zealous for the Glory of his Majesty, the Honour of the Nation, for promoting the commercial Interests, the Happiness of his Majesty's Subjects in general, and of those in _America_ in particular. I therefore have the most grateful Sense of your Benevolence and Humanity in condescending to grant me this Favour, as it will be known for Part of that Time that I had the Honour to be YOUR LORDSHIP'S MOST HUMBLE AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. THE PREFACE. The Opinion of there being a North-west Passage between the _Atlantic_ and _Southern Ocean_ hath continued for more than two Centuries; and though the Attempts made to discover this Passage have not been attended with the desired Success, yet in Consequence of such Attempts great Advantages have been received, not by the Merchant only but by the Men of Science. It must be a Satisfaction to the Adventurer, though disappointed in his principal Design, that his Labours have contributed to the Improvement of Science, and the Advancement of Commerce. There was a Generosity with respect to the Discovery of a North-west Passage, or a Respect to the great Abilities of those who promoted the various Undertakings for making such Discovery, to the Crown which patronized them, and the Estates of the Kingdom who promised a most munificent Reward to such who should compleat such Discovery, that those who were of a contrary Opinion treated the Subject with a becoming Decency. But the Censures that have been of late made by our Countrymen, and more particularly by Foreigners, our Ancestors have been treated as so many Fools, or infatuated Persons, busied to compleat an impracticable and a merely chimerical Project, and are accused by a foreign Geographer to have proceeded so far as to forge a fictitious Account under the Title of a Letter of Admiral _de Fonte_. That the Iniquity of the _English_ Writers is not such (neither was ever known to be such) nor, was it in their Inclination, could they so easily deceive the World; and the Falshood of this Assertion could be no otherway made apparent than by considering such Letter with a just Criticism, and examining the Circumstances relating thereto. Though the present Age may not pay much Regard to these Censures, yet if they are passed unnoticed, might hereafter be considered as Truths unanswerable at the Time those Censures were made. Therefore to do Justice to the Character of our Ancestors, to the present Age in which such great Encouragement hath been given to these Undertakings, and that Posterity might not be deceived, were Motives (had they been duly considered without a Regard to the Importance of the Subject) which might incite an abler Pen to have undertaken to vindicate the Authenticity of _de Fonte_'s Letter. As for a long Time nothing of this Kind appeared, nor could I hear that any Thing was undertaken of this Sort, by any Person to whom I could freely communicate my Sentiments, and the Informations which I had collected on this Subject, as the Discovery of a North-west Passage hath been the Object of my Attention for some Years, considered myself under the disagreeable Necessity of becoming an Author in an Age of such refined Sentiments, expressed in the greatest Purity of Language: But if I have succeeded in the greater Matters, I hope to be excused in the lesser. I have inserted the Letter of _de Fonte_, as first published in the _Monthly Miscellany_, or _Memoirs of the Curious_, in _April_ and _June_ 1708, very scarce or in very few Hands; not only as I thought it consistent with my Work, but that the Curious would be glad to have a Copy of such Letter exactly in the same Manner in which it was first published, to keep in their Collections. As to the Observations respecting the Circumstances of the Letter of _de Fonte_, the Manner by which it was attained, its being a Copy of such Letter which the Editors procured to be translated from the _Spanish_, and as to such Matters as are to be collected from the Title of such Letter, and from the Letter in Support of its Authenticity, I submit those Observations to superior Judgments: If confuted, and it appears I have misapprehended the Matter, am not tenacious of my Opinion, but shall receive the Conviction with Pleasure, being entirely consistent with my Design, which is, That the Truth may be discovered, whether this Account is authentick or not. In my Remarks of the Letter I have endeavoured to distinguish what was genuine, from what hath been since added by other Hands; have made an exact Calculation of the Courses; have considered the Circumstances of such Letter, giving the Reasons of the Conduct that was used in the various Parts of the Voyage, and shewing the Regularity and Consistency there is through the Whole, and without Anachronisms or Contradictions as hath been objected, part of which I was the better enabled to do from some Experience which I have had in Affairs of this Sort. I must observe, the Calculations were made without any Regard had to the Situation of _Hudson_'s or _Baffin_'s Bay; but begun at the _Callao_ of _Lima_, and pursued as the Account directs from the Westward: And it was an agreeable Surprize to find what an Agreement there was as to the Parts which, by such Courses, it appeared that the Admiral and his Captain were in, consistent with the Purpose they were sent on, and the Proximity of where they were to _Hudson_'s and _Baffin_'s Bay. To state particularly all the Objections which have been made to this Account, I thought would have greatly increased the Bulk of the Work. There is no material Objection which I have any where met with, but is here considered. Also to have added all the Authorities which I have collected and made Use of, would have made it more prolix; so have contented myself with only giving such Quotations as appeared absolutely necessary to insert and then to mention the Authors particularly. I think I have not perverted the Meaning, or forced the Sense, of any Author made Use of, to serve my Purpose. To shew the Probability of a Passage, have traced the Opinions relating to it from the Time such Opinions were first received; and also determined where it was always supposed to be or in what Part such Passage was: Have considered the various Evidence that there is relating to such Passage; and proposed what appears to be the properest Method at present for prosecuting the Discovery. There are three Maps, all of which appeared necessary for the better understanding this Account. The one contains Part of _Asia_ and the _Russian_ Discoveries on the Coast of _America_; the Expedition of _de Fonte_, and clears up that seeming Inconsistency of the _Tartarian_ and _Southern Ocean_ being contiguous in that Part of _America_, from the Authority of the _Japanese_ Map of _Kempfer_, which must be of some Repute, as it is so agreeable to the _Russian_ Discoveries: If true in that Part, there is no Reason to suppose but it is in like Manner true as to the other Part which is introduced into this Map. This Map exhibits the Streight that _de Fuca_ went up, the Communication which there may be supposed agreeable to the Lights which the Accounts afford us between the Sea at the Back of _Hudson_'s Bay with that Bay, or with the _North Sea_ by _Hudson_'s Streights, or through _Cumberland_ Isles. There is also added a second Map, to shew what Expectations may be had of a Passage from _Hudson_'s Bay, according to the Discoveries made in the Year 1747. The third Map is an exact Copy from that published in the _Monarquia Indiana de Torquemada_, in which the Sea Coast of _America_ is exhibited in a different Manner from what it usually was in the Maps of that Time, compleated by the Cosmographers of _Philip_ the Third. The Work itself is in few Hands, and the Map, as far as appears, hath been only published in that Book, is now again published, as it illustrates this Work, and may be otherwise agreeable to the Curious; having a Desire not to omit any Thing which would render the Work compleat, or that would be acceptable to the Publick. I have used uncommon Pains to be informed as to what could be any way serviceable to render this Work more compleat; and must make this publick Acknowledgement, as to the Gentlemen of the _British Museum_, who, with great Politeness and Affability, gave me all the Assistances in their Power to find if the Copy from which the Translation was made was in their Possession, which after an accurate Search for some Weeks it did not appear to be, and also their Assistance as to any other Matters which I Supposed would be of Service. I cannot pass by Mr. _Jefferys_'s Care and Exactness in executing the Maps, whose Care and Fidelity to the Publick not to impose any Thing that is spurious, but what he hath an apparent and real Authority for, is perhaps not sufficiently known. The Voyage, an Extract from which is added by Way of Appendix, was made from _Philadelphia_, in a Schooner of about sixty Tons, and fifteen Persons aboard, fitted out on a Subscription of the Merchants of _Maryland_, _Pennsylvania_, _New York_, and _Boston_, on a generous Plan, agreeable to Proposals made them, with no View of any Monopoly which they opposed, not to interfere with the _Hudson_'s Bay Trade, or to carry on a clandestine Trade with the Natives of _Greenland_, but to discover a North-west Passage, and explore the _Labrador_ Coast, at that Time supposed to be locked up under a pretended Right, and not frequented by the Subjects of _England_, but a successful Trade carried on by the _French_; to open a Trade there, to improve the Fishery and the Whaling on these Coasts, cultivate a Friendship with the Natives, and make them serviceable in a political Way: Which Design of theirs of a publick Nature, open and generous, was in a great Measure defeated by private Persons interfering, whose Views were more contracted. They did not succeed the first Year as to their Attempt in discovering a North-west Passage, as it was a great Year for Ice; that it would be late in the Year before the Western Part of _Hudson_'s Bay could be attained to, and then impossible to explore the _Labrador_ that Year, therefore the first Part of the Design was dropped, and the _Labrador_ was explored. The next Year a second Attempt was made as to a Passage; but three of the People who went beyond the Place appointed by their Orders, and inadvertently to look for a Mine, Samples of which had been carried home the Year before, and this at the Instigation of a private Person before they set out from home, without the Privity of the Commander, were killed by the _Eskemaux_, and the Boat taken from them. After which Accident, with some disagreeable Circumstances consequent thereon amongst the Schooner's Company, and after an Experiment made of their Disinclination to proceed on any further Discovery, it was thought most prudent to return. This short Account is given by the Person who commanded in this Affair, to prevent any Misrepresentation hereafter of what was done on these Voyages. CONTENTS. Page Letter of Admiral _de Fonte_ as published in _April_ 1708 1 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- _June_ 6 OBSERVATIONS _on the Title affixed_, &c. 11 The Reason of this Work. The Translation made from a Copy of the Letter. Title and the Copy of the Letter wrote in the _Spanish_ Language. Copiest assured there was such an Expedition as this of Admiral _de Fonte_ 12 An Account of this Expedition not published in _Spain_. The Consequence of such Expedition not being published 14 The Knowledge or Certainty of this Expedition from Journals only 15 Mons. _de Lisle_ his Account of a Journal. This Account by Mons. _de Lisle_ defended 17 This Translation of _de Fonte_'s Letter how considered when first published. Don _Francisco Seyxas y Lovera_ his Account of a Voyage of _Thomas Peche_ 18 Observations on that Account 19 The Tradition of there being a Passage between the _Atlantic_ and _Southern Ocean_ credible 20 Accounts received from various Persons relating thereto not to be discredited. _Indians_, their Account of the Situation of such Streight how to be considered 21 The Reasons why we cannot obtain a particular Information as to the original Letter of _de Fonte_ 22 Evidence relating to this Account of _de Fonte_, which Distance of Time or other Accidents could not deface, yet remains 24 No authenticated Account of the Equipment of the Fleet to be expected from _New Spain_ 25 This Account of _de Fonte_ authentick, and no Forgery. The Editors published this Account as authentick 26 The Reflection that this Account is a Forgery of some _Englishman_ obviated 27 The Design in publishing this Translation. The Purpose of _de Fonte_'s writing this Letter not understood by the Editors 28 The Editors unjustly reproached with a Want of Integrity. The Censures as to the Inauthenticity of this Account of _de Fonte_ not founded on Facts. Invalidity of the Objection that no Original hath been produced. The Suspicion of the Account being a Deceit or Forgery from whence. The original Letter was in the _Spanish_ Language 29 Observations as to the Name _Bartholomew de Fonte_ 30 _De Fonte_ was a Man of Family 31 The _Spanish_ Marine not in so low a Condition as they were under a Necessity to apply to _Portugal_ for Sea Officers to supply the principal Posts. What is to be understood of _de Fonte_ being President of _Chili_ 31 REMARKS _on the Letter of Admiral_ de Fonte. The Advice of the Attempt from _Boston_, in what Manner transmitted from _Old Spain_ to the Viceroys. The Appellation of industrious Navigators conformable to the Characters of the Persons concerned. The Court of _Spain_ knew that the Attempt was to be by _Hudson_'s Bay. This Attempt particularly commanded the Attention of the Court of _Spain_ 34 As to the Computation by the Years of the Reign of King _Charles_. The Times mentioned in the Letter do not refer to the Times the Voyage was set out on. There was sufficient Time to equip the four Ships 35 How the Design of this Attempt might come to the Knowledge of the Court of _Spain_. Reasons why both Viceroys should be informed 36 _De Fonte_ received his Orders from _Old Spain_. Wrote his Letter to the Court of _Spain_. _De Fonte_ and the Viceroys did not receive their Orders from the same Persons 37 What is the Purpose of the introductory Part of this Letter. The Names of the Ships agreeable to the _Spanish_ Manner. _From_ Callao _to_ St. Helena. Observations as to the Computation of Course and Distance in the Voyage of _de Fonte_ 38 From whence _de Fonte_ takes his Departure. As to the Distance between the _Callao_ of _Lima_ and _St. Helena_, no Fault in the Impression. An Account of the Latitude and Longitude made Use of, which agrees with _de Fonte_'s Voyage. Remarks as to the Expression, anchored in the Port of _St. Helena_ within the Cape 39 An Interpolation of what is not in the original Letter. Observations as to the taking the Betumen aboard. An Error as to Latitude corrected 40 An Error as to the Course corrected. _From_ St. Helena _to the River_ St. Jago. Observations as to _de Fonte_ taking fresh Provision aboard at the River _St. Jago_ 41 A Comment or spurious Interpolation. The Course _de Fonte_ sailed from the River _St. Jago_. _From_ St. Jago _to_ Realejo. A Proof that Glosses and Comments have been added to the original Text 42 The Latitude not mentioned in the original Letter of _de Fonte_. The Times that _de Fonte_ is sailing between the respective Ports from the _Callao_ to _Realejo_ no Objection to the Authenticity of this Account. Boats provided for _de Fonte_ before he arrived at _Realejo_ 43 _From_ Realejo _to the Port of_ Salagua. Observations as to the Islands of _Chiametla_. ---- ---- ---- Port of _Salagua_. ---- ---- ---- Master and Mariners 44 An Interpolation or Comment added. The Translator not exact as to his Translation. Remark as to the Information _de Fonte_ received as to the Tide at the Head of the Bay of _California_ 45 _Pennelossa_ appointed to discover whether _California_ was an Island. The Account given of _Pennelossa_, as to his Descent, not in the original Letter. _From the Port of_ Salagua _to the_ Archipelagus _of_ St. Lazarus _and_ Rio Los Reyes. _De Fonte_ leaves _Pennelossa_ within the Shoals of _Chiametla_ 46 Course corrected. Remark as to Cape _Abel_. ---- as to the Weather and the Time he was running eight Hundred and sixty Leagues 47 A Neglect as to inserting a Course. Computation of Longitude altered 48 The Course _de Fonte_ steered, he accounts as to the Land being in a Latitude and Longitude agreeable to the late _Russian_ Discoveries. Acts with great Judgment as a Seaman. The Agreement of the Table of Latitude and Longitude with the _Russian_ Discoveries. And the _Suesta del Estrech D'Anian_ not laid down on a vague Calculation 49 Former Authorities for it. So named by the _Spaniards_. A superior Entrance to that of _Martin Aguilar_ and of _de Fuca_. The _Archipelago_ of _St. Lazarus_, properly so named by _de Fonte_. A North-east Part of the _South Sea_ that _de Fonte_ passed up 50 His Instructions were to fall in with the Islands which formed the _Archipelago_, and not the main Land. _Rio los Reyes_, in what Longitude. A further Proof that his Course was to the Eastward 51 _Proceedings of Admiral_ de Fonte _after his Arrival at_ Rio de los Reyes. The Translation very inaccurate in this Part. The Date of the 22d of _June_ an Error. _De Fonte_ dispatches one of his Captains to _Bernarda_ with Orders. Jesuits had been in those Parts, from whose Accounts the Instructions were formed 52 Remarks as to the Orders sent _Bernarda_. De Fonte _sails up_ Rio de los Reyes. _De Fonte_ sets out on his Part of the Expedition 53 Was at the Entrance of _Los Reyes_ the 14th of _June_. Observed the Tides in _Los Reyes_ and _Haro_. Precaution to be used in going up the River. An additional Note as to the Jesuits. Observations as to the Jesuits. Knew not of a Streight 54 Could not publish their Mission without Leave. De Fonte _arrives at_ Conosset. Receives a Letter from _Bernarda_ dated 27th of _June_ 55 The 22d of _June_ was not the Time _Bernarda_ received his Dispatches. The Letter is an Answer to the Dispatches he received from _de Fonte_. Remarks on the Letter. Alters the Course directed by _de Fonte_. Assures _de Fonte_ he will do what was possible, and is under no Apprehension as to a Want of Provisions 56 The Name of _Haro_, and of the Lake _Velasco_, a particular Compliment. This Letter of _de Fonte_ wrote in _Spanish_. _Description of_ Rio de los Reyes _and Lake_ Belle. _De Fonte_ not inactive from the 14th to the 22d of _June_ 57 Very particular in his Account. Shews how far the Tides came to from Westward. De Fonte _leaves his Ships before the Town of_ Conosset. The Time _de Fonte_ had staid at _Conosset_ 58 Was before acquainted with the Practicability of _Bernarda_ sending a Letter. How the Letter from _Bernarda_ was sent. _De Fonte_ waited to receive the Letter before he proceeded. _Parmentiers_, whom he was. _Frenchmen_ were admitted into _Peru_. Reasons for the Jesuits coming into these Parts without passing the intermediate Country 59 _Parmentiers_ had been before in these Parts. His Motive for going into those Parts, and surveying the River _Parmentiers_ 60 The People Captain _Tchinkow_ met with, no Objection to the Character of the _Indians_ in these Parts. _Parmentiers_ not a general Interpreter 61 Voyages had been made to these Parts. An Omission in the Translator. _A Description of the River_ Parmentiers, _Lake_ de Fonte, _and the adjacent Country._ The Form of the Letter again observed by the Translator 62 Lake _de Fonte_, so named in Compliment to the Family he was of. Lake _de Fonte_ a Salt Water Lake. A Comparison of the Country with other Parts. Why _de Fonte_ stopped at the Island South of the Lake 63 De Fonte _sails out of the East North-east End of the Lake_ de Fonte, _and passes the Streight of_ Ronquillo. An additional Comment. _De Fonte_'s Observation as to the Country altering for the worse. A purposed Silence as to the Part come into after passing the Streight of _Ronquillo_. De Fonte _arrives at the_ Indian _Town, and receives an Account of the Ship._ A further Instance of _Parmentiers_ having been in these Parts 64 _De Fonte_ had been on the Inquiry. _The Proceedings of_ de Fonte _after meeting with the Ship._ The Reason of the Ship's Company retiring to the Woods 65 _De Fonte_ had particularly provided himself with some _Englishmen_. _Shapley_, the Navigator of the Ship, first waits on the Admiral. Particulars as to _Shapley_. A Disappointment of the Intelligence the Author hoped to attain 66 A Tradition amongst the antient People of there having been such a Voyage. _Major Gibbons_, an Account of him 67 _Seimar Gibbons_, a Mistake of the Translator 68 _Massachusets_, the largest Colony in _New England_ at that Time. The Ship fitted out from _Boston_. Remarks on _de Fonte_'s Address to _Major Gibbons_, and Conduct on this Occasion. _De Fonte_ only mentions what is immediately necessary for the Court to know 70 The _Boston_ Ship returned before _de Fonte_ left those Parts. A remarkable Anecdote from the Ecclesiastical History of _New England_. The Circumstances of which Account agree with this Voyage 72 A further Tradition as to _Major Gibbons_. That the Persons met by _Groseliers_ were not _Major Gibbons_ and his Company. De Fonte _returns to_ Conosset. The various Courses, Distances, _&c._ from _Rio de los Reyes_ to the Sea to the Eastward of _Ronquillo_ 73 The prudent Conduct observed in the Absence of the Admiral 74 De Fonte _receives a Letter from_ Bernarda. The Latitude and Longitude of _Conibasset_, &c. 75 Observations as to the Messenger who carried the first Letter from _Bernarda_. Observations as to the Messenger with the second Letter 76 The various Courses, Distances, _&c._ that _Bernarda_ went. The Probability of sending a Seaman over Land to _Baffin_'s Bay. Remarks on the Report made by the Seaman 77 _Bernarda_ going up the _Tartarian Sea_ is agreeable to the _Japanese_ Map. A Parallel drawn between _Conosset_ and Port _Nelson_. The physical Obstacles considered 78 _Bernarda_'s Observations as to the Parts he had been in. Whether the Parts about _Baffin_'s Bay were inhabited 79 An Objection as to the Affability of the Inhabitants further considered. As to the Dispatch used by _Indians_ in carrying Expresses. _Bernarda_ directed by the Jesuits as to the Harbour where he meets _de Fonte_. _De Fonte_ sent a Chart with his Letter 80 _Miguel Venegas_, a _Mexican_ Jesuit, his Observation as to the Account of _de Fonte_'s Voyage, _&c._ The Design with which his Work was published. Arguments for putting into immediate Execution what he recommends 81 _Don Cortez_ informs the King of _Spain_ that there is a Streight on the Coast of the _Baccaloos_. Attempts made by _Cortez_ 82 What is comprehended under the Name of _Florida_. King of _Portugal_ sends _Gasper Corterealis_ on Discovery. The Name _Labrador_, what it means. _Promonterum Cortereale_, what Part so named. _Hudson_'s Streights named the River of _Three Brothers_ or _Anian_. When the finding a Streight to Northward became a Matter of particular Attention of the _Spaniards_ 83 Undertaken by the Emperor. By _Philip_ the Second. By _Philip_ the Third, and the Reasons 84 The Opinions of _Geographers_ as to the North Part of _America_. How the Maps were constructed at that Time 85 Unacquainted with what _Cortez_ knew of the Streight 86 Instanced by the Voyage of _Alarcon_ that the Land was thought to extend farther to Northward than afterwards supposed by the Voyage of _Juan Roderique de Cabrillo_ 87 _Vizcaino_, his Voyage, and the Discovery of _Aguilar_. _Spaniards_ never meant by the Streights of _Anian_, _Beerings_ Streight 88 Remarks on the Deficiency of the _Spanish_ Records. Uncertainty of attaining any Evidence from such Records. Father _Kimo_'s Map of _California_ altered by Geographers 90 The Objection of _Venegas_ as to the Authenticity of _de Fonte_'s Account considered 91 Misrepresents the Title of the Letter 92 Doth not deny but that there was such a Person as _de Fonte_. The _Jesuits_ and _Parmentiers_ having been before in these Parts not improbable 93 Master and Mariners mentioned by _de Fonte_, a probable Account. Whence the Tide came at the Head of the Gulph of _California_ 94 _De Fonte_ retires, Command taken by Admiral _Cassanate_. _Seyxas y Lovera_, the Authority of his Account defended 95 _Venegas_ omits some Accounts for Want of necessary Authenticity. Most of the Discoveries are reported to be made by Ships from the _Moluccas_ 96 What Ships from the _Moluccas_ or _Philippines_ were forced to do in case of bad Weather. The Probability of a Discovery made by a Ship from the _Philippines_ or _Moluccas_. The People of the _Philippine_ Islands those who most talked of a Passage. _Salvatierra_, his Account of a North-west Passage discovered 97 This Account gained Credit 98 Was the Foundation of _Frobisher_'s Expedition. _Thomas Cowles_, his Account defended 99 _Juan de Fuca_, his Account 100 Remarks on that Account 101 Expeditions which the Court of _Spain_ order correspond in Time with the Attempts for Discovery from _England_ 103 The Discovery of the Coast of _California_ for a Harbour for the _Aquapulco_ Ship not the Sole Design 104 Reasons that induced _Aguilar_ to think the Opening where he was was the Streight of _Anian_ 105 Observation on the preceding Accounts. Have no certain Account of what Expeditions were in those Parts 106 An exact Survey of those Coasts not known to have been made until the Year 1745. The Streight of _Anian_ at present acknowledged 107 The first Discoverers gave faithful Accounts. Reasons for _de Fonte_'s Account being true 108 Accounts of Voyages not being to be obtained no just Objection to their Authenticity. As to the Inference in _de Fonte_'s Letter of there being no North-west Passage 109 The Proximity of the _Western Ocean_ supposed by all Discoverers 111 Observations on the Northern Parts of _America_ being intermixed with Waters. The Objection as to the Distance between the _Ocean_ and the _Sea_ at the Back of _Hudson_'s Bay 112 Reasons why a Passage hath not been discovered. A great Channel to Westward by which the Ice and Land Waters are vented. Accounts of _de Fonte_, _de Fuca_, and _Chacke_, agree 113 _Indians_ mentioned by _de Fonte_ and those by _de Fuca_ not the same. Why _de Fonte_ did not pass up the North-east Part of the _South Sea_ 114 The Persons who were in those Parts got no Information of a Streight 115 The Representation of the _Jesuits_ the Foundation of _de Fonte_'s Instructions. The Court of _Spain_ not of the same Opinion with _de Fonte_ or the Jesuits on his Return 116 There is a Sea to Westward of _Hudson_'s Bay 117 _Joseph le France_, his Account considered 118 Agrees with the Account of _de Fonte_ and _de Fuca_ 119 Improbability of the _Tete Plat_ inhabiting near the Ocean 120 Which Way the _Boston_ Ship made the Passage, uncertain. Whether through _Hudson_'s Bay 122 Observations as to _Chesterfield_'s Inlet. As to _Pistol_ Bay and _Cumberland_ Isles 123 A Quotation from _Seyxas y Lovera_. Observations thereon 124 Observations as to its having been the constant Opinion that there was a North-west Passage 125 The great Degree of Credibility there is from the Circumstances of _de Fonte_'s Voyage. What Foundation those who argue against a North-west Passage have for their Argument 126 Where the Passage is supposed, and an Explanation of the Map 127 Remarks as to Expeditions to be made purposely for the Discovery. The Inconveniencies which attended on former Expeditions. Prevented for the future by a Discovery of the Coast of _Labrador_. The advantageous Consequences of that Attempt 128 Method to be pursued in making the Discovery. APPENDIX. Fall in with the Coast of _Labrador_ 131 Stand more to Southward. Tokens of the Land 132 Meet with the _Eskemaux_. Enter a Harbour 133 The Country described. People sent to the Head of the Harbour report they had seen a House 134 A more particular Account. The Report of Persons sent to survey the Country. Proceed on a further Discovery 136 Enter up an Inlet. Prevented proceeding in the Schooner by Falls 137 Proceed in a Boat, meet with Falls. Description of the Country. Sail out of the Inlet and go to Northward 139 See Smokes and go in Pursuit of the Natives 140 Proceed up a third Inlet. See Smokes again. Enter a fourth Inlet. Meet with a _Snow_ from _England_ 143 The Captain of the _Snow_, his Account and other Particulars. Observations as to the _Eskemaux_ 145 _Snow_ had joined Company with a _Sloop_ from _Rhode Island_. An Account of where the _Eskemaux_ trade 147 _Eskemaux_ come along-side 147 _Schooner_ leaves the _Snow_. _Eskemaux_ come aboard the Schooner 148 Mate of _Snow_ comes aboard the _Schooner_, and his Account 150 Why mentioned 151 The Trade in these Parts could only be established by the Regulations of the _Government_. _Eskemaux_ coming to trade with the Schooner intercepted. The Inlet searched 152 Pass into three other Inlets. An Account of them and the Country. Reasons for leaving off the Discovery 153 _Fishing Bank_ sought for and discovered. An Island of Ice of a surprising Magnitude and Depth. MEMOIRS for the CURIOUS. [Sidenote: April 1708.] _A Letter from Admiral_ Bartholomew de Fonte, _then Admiral of_ New Spain _and_ Peru, _and now Prince of_ Chili; _giving an Account of the most material Transactions in a Journal of his from the Calo of_ Lima _in_ Peru, _on his Discoveries, to find out if there was any North West Passage from the_ Atlantick _Ocean into the South and Tartarian Sea._ The Viceroys of _New Spain_ and _Peru_, having advice from the Court of _Spain_, that the several Attempts of the _English_, both in the Reigns of Queen _Elizabeth_, King _James_, and of Capt. _Hudson_ and Capt. _James_, in the 2d, 3d and 4th Years of King _Charles_, was in the 14th Year of the said King _Charles_, A. D. 1639, undertaken from some Industrious Navigators from _Boston_ in _New England_, upon which I Admiral _de Fonte_ received Orders from _Spain_ and the Viceroys to Equip four Ships of Force, and being ready we put to Sea the 3d of _April_ 1640, from the Calo of _Lima_, I Admiral _Bartholomew de Fonte_ in the Ship _St Spiritus_, the Vice-Admiral _Don Diego Pennelossa_, in the Ship _St Lucia_, _Pedro de Bonardæ_, in the Ship _Rosaria_, _Philip de Ronquillo_ in the _King Philip_. The 7th of _April_ at 5 in the Afternoon, we had the length of _St Helen_, two hundred Leagues on the _North_ side of the Bay of _Guajaquil_, in 2 Degrees of _South_ Lat. and anchored in the Port _St Helena_, within the Cape, where each Ship's Company took in a quantity of _Betumen_, called vulgarly _Tar_, of a dark colour with a cast of Green, an excellent Remedy against the Scurvy and Dropsie, and is used as Tar for Shipping, but we took it in for Medicine; it Boils out of the Earth, and is there plenty. The _10th_ we pass'd the Equinoctial by Cape _del Passao_, the _11th_ Cape _St Francisco_, in one Degree and seven Minutes of Latitude North from the Equator, and anchor'd in the Mouth of the [1]River _St Jago_, where with a Sea-Net we catch'd abundance of good Fish; and several of each Ship's Company went ashoar, and kill'd some Goats and Swine, which are there wild and in plenty; and others bought of some Natives, 20 dozen of _Turkey_ Cocks and Hens, Ducks, and much excellent Fruit, at a Village two _Spanish_ Leagues, six Mile and a half, up the River _St Jago_, on the Larboard side or the Left hand. The River is Navigable for small Vessels from the Sea, about 14 _Spanish_ Leagues _South East_, about half way to the fair City of _Quita_, in 22 Minutes of _South_ Latitude, a City that is very Rich. The _16th_ of _April_ we sailed from the River _St Jago_ to the Port and Town _Raleo_, 320 Leagues W. N. W. a little Westerly, in about 11 Degrees 14 Min. of N. Latitude, leaving Mount _St Miguel_ on the Larboard side, and Point _Cazamina_ on the Starboard side. The Port of _Raleo_ is a safe Port, is covered from the Sea by the Islands _Ampallo_ and _Mangreza_, both well inhabited with Native _Indians_, and 3 other small Islands. [2]_Raleo_ is but 4 Miles over Land from the head of the Lake _Nigaragua_, that falls into the North Sea in 12 Degrees of North Latitude, near the Corn or Pearl Islands. Here at the Town of _Raleo_, where is abundance of excellent close grain'd Timber, a reddish Cedar, and all Materials for building Shipping; we bought 4 long well sail'd Shallops, built express for sailing and riding at Anchor and rowing, about 12 Tuns each, of 32 foot Keel. The _26th_, we sailed from _Raleo_ for the Port of _Saragua_, or rather of _Salagua_, within the Islands and Shoals of _Chamily_, and the Port is often call'd by the _Spaniards_ after that Name; in 17 Degrees 31 Minutes of North Latitude, 480 Leagues North West and by West, a little Westerly from _Raleo_. From the Town of _Saragua_, a little East of _Chamily_ at _Saragua_, and from _Compostilo_ in the Neighbourhood of this Port, we took in a Master and six Mariners accustomed to Trade with the Natives on the East side of _California_ for Pearl; the Natives catch'd on a Bank in 19 Degrees of Latitude North from the _Baxos St Juan_, in 24 Degrees of North Latitude 20 Leagues N. N. E. from Cape St _Lucas_, the South East point of _California_. The Master Admiral _de Fonte_ had hir'd, with his Vessel and Mariners, who had informed the Admiral, that 200 Leagues North from Cape St _Lucas_, a Flood from the North, met the South Flood, and that he was sure it must be an Island, and _Don Diego Pennelossa_ (Sisters Son of [3]_Don Lewis de Haro_) a young Nobleman of great Knowledge and Address in Cosmography and Navigation, and undertook to discover whether _California_ was an Island or not; for before it was not known whether it was an Island or a _Peninsula_; with his Ship and the 4 Shallops they brought at _Raleo_, and the Master and Mariners they hir'd at _Salagua_, but Admiral _de Fonte_ with the other 3 Ships sailed from them within the Islands _Chamily_ the _10th_ of _May_ 1640. and having the length of Cape _Abel_, on the W. S. W. side of _California_ in 26 Degrees of N. Latitude, 160 Leagues N. W. and W. from the Isles _Chamily_; the Wind sprung up at S. S. E. a steady Gale, that from the _26th_ of _May_ to the _14th_ of _June_, he had sail'd to the River _los Reyes_ in 53 Degrees of N. Latitude, not having occasion to lower a Topsail, in sailing 866 Leagues N. N. W. 410 Leagues from Port _Abel_ to Cape Blanco, 456 Leagues to _Rio los Reyes_, all the time most pleasant Weather, and sailed about 260 Leagues in crooked Channels, amongst Islands named the [4]_Archipelagus de St Lazarus_; where his Ships Boats sail'd a mile a head, sounding to see what Water, Rocks and Sands there was. The 22d of _June_, Admiral _Fonte_ dispatched one of his Captains to _Pedro de Barnarda_, to sail up a fair River, a gentle Stream and deep Water, went first N. and N. E. N. and N. W. into a large Lake full of Islands, and one very large _Peninsula_ full of Inhabitants, a Friendly honest People in this Lake; he named Lake _Valasco_, where Captain _Barnarda_ left his Ship; nor all up the River was less than 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 Fathom Water, both the Rivers and Lakes abounding with Salmon Trouts, and very large white Pearch, some of two foot long; and with 3 large _Indian_ Boats, by them called _Periagos_, made of two large Trees 50 and 60 foot long. Capt. _Barnarda_ first sailed from his Ships in the Lake _Valasco_, one hundred and forty Leagues West, and then 436 E. N. E. to 77 Degrees of Latitude. Admiral _de Fonte_, after he had dispatch'd Captain _Barnarda_ on the Discovery of the North and East part of the _Tartarian_ Sea, the Admiral sail'd up a very Navigable River, which he named _Rio los Reyes_, that run nearest North East, but on several Points of the Compass 60 Leagues at low Water, in a fair Navigable Channel, not less than 4 or 5 Fathom Water. It flow'd in both Rivers near the same Water, in the River _los Reyes_, 24 foot Full and Change of the Moon; a S. S. E. Moon made high Water. It flow'd in the River _de Haro_ 22 foot and a half Full and Change. They had two [5]Jesuits with them that had been on their Mission to the 66 Degrees of North Latitude, and had made curious Observations. The Admiral _de Fonte_ received a Letter from Captain _Barnarda_, dated the 27th of _June_, 1640. that he had left his Ship in the Lake _Valasco_, betwixt the Island _Barnarda_ and the Peninsula _Conibasset_, a very safe Port; it went down a River from the Lake, 3 falls, 80 Leagues, and fell into the _Tartarian_ Sea in 61 Degrees, with the Pater Jesuits and 36 Natives in three of their Boats, and 20 of his _Spanish_ Seamen; that the Land trended away North East; that they should want no Provisions, the Country abounding with Venison of 3 sorts, and the Sea and Rivers with excellent Fish (Bread, Salt, Oyl and Brandy they carry'd with them) that he should do what was possible. The Admiral, when he received the Letter from Captain _Barnarda_, was arrived at an _Indian_ Town called _Conosset_, on the South-side the Lake _Belle_, where the two Pater Jesuits on their Mission had been two Years; a pleasant Place. The Admiral with his two Ships, enter'd the Lake the 22d of _June_, an Hour before high Water, and there was no Fall or Catract, and 4 or 5 Fathom Water, and 6 and 7 generally in the Lake _Belle_, there is a little fall of Water till half Flood, and an Hour and quarter before high Water the Flood begins to set gently into the Lake _Belle_; the River is fresh at 20 Leagues distance from the Mouth, or Entrance of the River _los Reyes_. The River and Lake abounds with Salmon, Salmon-Trouts, Pikes, Perch and Mullets, and two other sorts of Fish peculiar to that River, admirable good, and Lake _Belle_; also abounds with all those sorts of Fish large and delicate: And Admiral _de Fonte_ says, the Mullets catch'd in _Rios Reyes_ and Lake _Belle_, are much delicater than are to be found, he believes, in any part of the World. The rest shall be incerted in our next. [1] _Eighty Leagues N. N. W. and 25 Leagues E. and by S._ [2] _The great Ships that are built in_ New Spain _are built in_ Raleo. [3] Don Lewis de Haro _was great Minister of_ Spain. [4] _So named by_ de Fonte, _he being the first that made that Discovery._ [5] _One of those that went with Capt._ Barnarda _on his Discovery._ MEMOIRS for the CURIOUS. [Sidenote: June 1708.] _The Remainder of Admiral_ Bartholomew de Fonte'_s Letter; giving an Account of the most material Transactions in a Journal of his from the Calo of_ Lima _in_ Peru, _on his Discoveries to find out if there was any North West Passage from the_ Atlantick _Ocean into the South and Tartarian Sea; which for want of Room we could not possibly avoid postponing._ [Sidenote: _See the Memoirs for April 1708, and you'll find the beginning of this Curious Discovery._] We concluded with giving an Account of a Letter from Capt. _Barnarda_, dated the 27th of _June_, 1640. on his Discovery in the Lake _Valasco_. The first of _July_ 1640, Admiral _de Fonte_ sailed from the rest of his Ships in the Lake _Belle_, in a good Port cover'd by a fine Island, before the Town _Conosset_ from thence to a River I named _Parmentiers_, in honour of my Industrious Judicious Comrade, Mr _Parmentiers_, who had most exactly mark'd every thing in and about that River; we pass'd 8 Falls, in all 32 foot, perpendicular from its Sourse out of _Belle_; it falls into the large Lake I named Lake _de Fonte_, at which place we arrived the 6th of _July_. This Lake is 160 Leagues long and 60 broad, the length is E. N. E. and W. S. W. to 20 or 30, in some places 60 Fathom deep; the Lake abounds with excellent Cod and Ling, very large and well fed, there are several very large Islands and 10 small ones; they are covered with shrubby Woods, the Moss grows 6 or 7 foot long, with which the Moose, a very large sort of Deer, are fat with in the Winter, and other lesser Deer, as Fallow, _&c._ There are abundance of wild Cherries, Strawberries, Hurtleberries, and wild Currants, and also of wild Fowl Heath Cocks and Hens, likewise Partridges and Turkeys, and Sea Fowl in great plenty on the South side: The Lake is a very large fruitful Island, had a great many Inhabitants, and very excellent Timber, as Oaks, Ashes, Elm and Fur-Trees, very large and tall. The 14th of _July_ we sailed out of the E. N. E. end of the Lake _de Fonte_, and pass'd a Lake I named _Estricho de Ronquillo_, 34 Leagues long, 2 or 3 Leagues broad, 20, 26, and 28 Fathom of Water; we pass'd this strait in 10 hours, having a stout Gale of Wind and whole Ebb. As we sailed more Easterly, the Country grew very sensibly worse, as it is in the North and South parts of _America_, from 36 to the extream Parts North or South, the West differs not only in Fertility but in Temperature of Air, at least 10 Degrees, and it is warmer on the West side than on the East, as the best _Spanish_ Discoverers found it, whose business it was in the time of the Emperor _Charles_ the V. to _Philip_ the III. as is noted by _Aloares_ and a _Costa_ and _Mariana_, &c. The 17th we came to an _Indian_ Town, and the _Indians_ told our Interpreter Mr _Parmentiers_, that a little way from us lay a great Ship where there had never been one before; we sailed to them, and found only one Man advanced in years, and a Youth; the Man was the greatest Man in the Mechanical Parts of the Mathematicks I had ever met with; my second Mate was an _English_ Man, an excellent Seaman, as was my Gunner, who had been taken Prisoners at _Campechy_, as well as the Master's Son; they told me the Ship was of _New England_, from a Town called _Boston_. The Owner and the whole Ships Company came on board the 30th, and the Navigator of the Ship, Capt. _Shapley_, told me, his Owner was a fine Gentleman, and Major General of the largest Colony in _New England_, called the _Maltechusets_; so I received him like a Gentleman, and told him, my Commission was to make Prize of any People seeking a North West or West Passage into the South Sea but I would look upon them as Merchants trading with the Natives for Bevers, Otters, and other Furs and Skins, and so for a small Present of Provisions I had no need on, I gave him my Diamond Ring, which cost me 1200 Pieces of Eight, (which the modest Gentleman received with difficulty) and having given the brave Navigator, Capt. _Shapley_ for his fine Charts and Journals, 1000 Pieces of Eight, and the Owner of the Ship, _Seimor Gibbons_ a quarter Cask of good _Peruan_ Wine, and the 10 Seamen each 20 Pieces of Eight, the 6th of _August_, with as much Wind as we could fly before, and a Currant, we arrived at the first Fall of the River _Parmentiers_, the 11th of _August_, 86 Leagues, and was on the South side of the Lake _Belle_ on board our Ships the 16th of _August_, before the fine Town _Conosset_, where we found all things well; and the honest Natives of _Conosset_ had in our absence treated our People with great humanity, and Capt. _de Ronquillo_ answer'd their Civility and Justice. The 20th of _August_ an _Indian_ brought me a Letter to _Conosset_ on the Lake _Belle_, from Capt. _Barnarda_, dated the 11th of _August_, where he sent me word he was returned from his Cold Expedition, and did assure me there was no Communication out of the _Spanish_ or _Atlantick_ Sea, by _Davis_ Strait; for the Natives had conducted one of his Seamen to the head of _Davis_ Strait, which terminated in a fresh Lake of about 30 Mile in circumference, in the 80th Degree of North Latitude; and that there was prodigious Mountains North of it, besides the North West from that Lake, the Ice was so fix'd, that from the Shore to 100 Fathom Water, for ought he knew from the Creation; for Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, especially near the North and South Poles; he writ further, that he had sailed from _Basset_ Island North East, and East North East, and North East and by East, to the 79th Degree of Latitude, and then the Land trended North, and the Ice rested on the Land. I received afterwards a second Letter from Capt. _Barnarda_, dated from _Minhanset_, informing me, that he made the Port of _Arena_, 20 Leagues up the River _los Reyes_ on the 29th of _August_, where he waited my Commands. I having store of good Salt Provisions, of Venison and Fish, that Capt. _de Ronquillo_ had salted (by my order) in my absence, and 100 Hogsheads of _Indian_ Wheat or Mais, sailed the 2d of _September_ 1640. accompanied with many of the honest Natives of _Conosset_, and the 5th of _September_ in the Morning about 8, was at an Anchor betwixt _Arena_ and _Mynhanset_, in the River _los Reyes_, sailing down that River to the North East part of the South Sea; after that returned home, having found that there was no Passage into the South Sea by that they call the North West Passage. The Chart will make this much more demonstrable. _Tho the Style of the foregoing Piece is not altogether so Polite, (being writ like a Man, whose livelihood depended on another way) but with abundance of Experience and a Traveller, yet there are so many Curious, and hitherto unknown Discoveries, that it was thought worthy a place in these_ Memoirs; _and 'tis humbly presum'd it will not be unacceptable to those who have either been in those Parts, or will give themselves the trouble of reviewing the Chart._ OBSERVATIONS ON _The Title affixed, and on other Circumstances relating to the Letter of Admiral_ de Fonte, _shewing the Authenticity of that Letter, and of the Account therein contained._ Observations have been made by several Geographers of different Nations on the Letter of Admiral _de Fonte_, to shew that such Letter is not deserving of Credit, is to be thought of as a mere Fiction or Romance, and is a Forgery composed by some Person to serve a particular Purpose. But it will appear, as we proceed in a more particular Consideration of the Title and Circumstances relative to the Letter of Admiral _de Fonte_ than hath been hitherto used, and from the following Remarks on the Subject of such Letter[6], That those Observations made by the Geographers have many of them no just Foundation, the rest afford not a sufficient Evidence to invalidate the Authenticity of that Letter, and of the Account it contains. [6] Memoires et Observations Geographiques et Critiques sur la Situation de Pays Septientrionaux, &c. a Lausanne, 1765.--Pa. 115, &c. It is only from a Copy of the Letter of _de Fonte_ that the Translation hath been made, which is now published, as is plain from a Title being affixed, _A Letter from Admiral_ Bartholomew de Fonte, _then Admiral of_ New Spain _and_ Peru, _and now Prince of_ Chili. As _Prince_ is never used in this Sense with us, it is apparently a literal Translation of the _Spanish_ Word _Principe_, consequently this Title was wrote in the _Spanish_ Language, and we cannot otherwise conclude but in the same Language with the Letter. From this and other Defects of the like Sort, which will be noticed as we proceed in our Observations, the Translator must be acquitted from all Suspicion of being any way concerned in this pretended Forgery. By the Copiest affixing this Title, it is evident he was well assured that there had been such an Expedition. The Anecdotes, as to the Vice-admiral _Pennelossa_, in the Body of the Letter, what is therein mentioned as to the Jesuits, evidence that a minute and particular Inquiry was made by the Copiest; that he had thoroughly informed himself of every Particular of this Affair; that he was assured that the Account by him copied contained the most material Transactions in a Journal of _de Fonte_'s, and that _de Fonte_ was then, probably from his advanced Age, in the Service of the Government in another Station. This Expedition not being solely to intercept the Navigators from _Boston_, but also to discover whether there was a Passage in those Parts thro' which the _English_ expected to make a Passage, _viz._ by the back Part of _Virginia_, by _Hudson_'s or by _Baffin_'s Bay; it was an Undertaking which required that the Person who had the conducting of it should not only be a Man of good Understanding, but a judicious and experienced Seaman. The Time required to attain such Qualifications implies, that _de Fonte_ must have been of a mature Age when he went on this Command; and _de Fonte_ being alive at the Time that the Copy was taken, it must have been taken within twenty Years, or in a less Time after such Expedition, as the Copiest speaks of _Pennelossa_ as a young Nobleman. The Copiest therefore could not be imposed on, as his Inquiries were made in such a Time, either with respect to the Persons concerned, or with respect to the Letter not being a genuine Account of the Voyage. A Person might be so circumstanced as to attain the Favour of copying such Letter, induced by some private Motive, without an Intention of making it publick, as Publications were not at that Time so frequent as of late Days; neither is it less probable that a Copy so taken may, in Process of Time, come into other Hands and then be published. Mr. _Gage_ observes, in his Dedication to Lord _Fairfax_, 'The Reason of his publishing a New Survey of the _West Indies_ to be, because that nothing had been written of these Parts for these hundred Years last past, which is almost ever since from the first Conquest thereof by the _Spaniards_, who are contented to lose the Honour of that Wealth and Felicity, which they have since purchased by their great Endeavours, so that they may enjoy the Safety of retaining what they have formerly gotten in Peace and Security.' And though _de Fonte_ declares that there was no North-west Passage, yet that there should be no Publication of the Account of the Voyage is consistent with this established Maxim. The North-west Passage he mentions is not to be understood, in an unlimited Sense, for a Passage between the _Atlantick_ and Western Ocean to the Northward, but the Meaning is confined to that Passage expected by _Hudson_'s Bay: For _de Fonte_ says, that he was to make a Prize of _any seeking a North-west or West Passage_[7]; by the latter he meant where _Pennelossa_ was sent to search; and _Bernarda_ says, there was no Communication out of the _Spanish_ or _Atlantick_ Sea, by _Davis_ Streight; and there was an Extent of Coast which _de Fonte_ only ran along, and had, but at Times, a distant View of; and as to the Jesuits, by whatever Means they got into those Parts, it is evident they had not seen all the intermediate Country. Therefore tho' the Court of _Spain_ was satisfied that the Passage was not where _de Fonte_ had searched; yet there might be a Passage where he had not searched, and publishing this Account of the Voyage would be an Assistance to the Adventurers, as it would confine them in their Searches to those other Parts which were cursorily passed by _de Fonte_, and where perhaps they might succeed: Or this Account particularly describing the Northern and Western Part of _America_, not hitherto known, would be of great Service to Rovers, who had already found their Way into those Seas, by directing them to the Coast and Harbours, and giving them an Account of a Country where they could retire to with tolerable Security from any Interruption from the _Spaniards_, a good Climate, hospitable People, and a Plenty of Provisions to be had; Circumstances which might enable them to continue their cruizing in those Seas much longer than without such Lights as they would receive from this Account they would be enabled to do. [7] Vide Letter. It is well known that the _Spaniards_ claimed all to the Northward as their Dominion, which they intended in due Time to acquire the Possession of, and the Publication might give an Insight to the _English_; Settlers in _America_ to be beforehand with them in attaining a Settlement in those Parts. Their Attempt to intercept the _English_ Subjects, when made Publick to the World, would have given Umbrage to the Court and People of _England_, which the _Spaniards_ would not unnecessarily, and especially at a Time when they had their Hands full of a War with the _French_, who had also incited the _Catalonians_ to rebel, and had joined them with their Troops. The _Spaniards_ were, at the same Time, endeavouring to recover the Dominions of _Portugal_. And _de Fonte_ had respect to the critical Situation their Affairs were in, even before he set out on his Voyage, hence his political Behaviour when he met with the Navigators from _Boston_, committed no Act of Hostility, yet made Use of the most effective Means to prevent their proceeding further. As no Publication was permitted of this Expedition, this therefore could come but to the Knowledge only of a very few Persons in _Old Spain_. Such a singular Transaction being soon, from their Attention to other Matters, and their Ministry soon after entirely changed, no more talked of, unless it should have been revived by something of the like Nature again happening on the Part of the _English_. As no Attempt was made by the _English_ for almost a Century, this Transaction, in that Time, fell into Oblivion. At the Time such Attempt was renewed, then the _Spaniards_ were better acquainted with the Purpose of our settling in _America_, they had altered their Designs of extending their own Possessions, there was also another Power who might pretend that such Passage, if made, was Part in their Dominion, so obstruct our free proceeding and interrupt our settling; the _Spaniards_ therefore having no immediate Occasion for any Researches back to the Records to acquaint themselves as to the Practicability or Impracticability of our Attempts, or to take Directions for their own Proceedings, the Remembrance of this Expedition continued dormant. In _New Spain_, the fitting four Ships to go on Discovery, as such Undertakings had been very frequent, it would not engage any extraordinary Attention of the Publick there; it often happened that what was done on such Voyages was kept a Secret. The more curious and inquisitive Persons would attain but an imperfect Account, by Inquiry from the People on board the Ships, as the Ships were divided, and they would receive no satisfactory Information of what was most material, and the principal Object of their Inquiry by those who went in the Boats, as Seamen delighting in Stories often tell what they neither heard or saw. The Consequences of the Voyage not known, because not understood, a weak Tradition of this Expedition would remain to Posterity; and the only Knowledge or Certainty to be acquired, as to this Expedition, would be from Journals accidentally preserved, of some Persons who had gone the Voyage. Mons. _de Lisle_ gives us an Extract of a Letter from Mons. _Antonio de Ulloa_, wrote from _Aranguer_ the 19th of _June_ in the Year 1753[8], to Mons. _Bouguer e le Mounier_, to answer the Queries they had made on the Subject of the Letter of Admiral _de Fuente_. That curious and able _Spanish_ Officer sent them in Answer, That in the Year 1742 he commanded a Ship of War the _Rose_, in the South Sea; he had on board him a Lieutenant of the Vessel named _Don Manuel Morel_, an antient Seaman, who shewed him a Manuscript; _Mons. Ulloa_ forgot the Author's Name, but believes it to be _Barthelemi de Fuentes_, the Author in that Manuscript reported, that in Consequence of an Order which he had received from the then Viceroy of _Peru_, that he had been to the Northward of _California_, to discover whether there was a Passage by which there was a Communication between the North and South Sea; but having reached a certain Northern Latitude, which _Mons. Ulloa_ did not recollect, and having found nothing that indicated such Passage, he returned to the Port of _Callao_, &c. _Mons. Ulloa_ adds, he had a Copy of such Relation, but he lost it when he was taken by the _English_ on his return from _America_. [8] Novelles Cartes des Decovertes de L'Amiral de Fonte, et autres Navigateurs, &c. Par de Lisle. Paris 1753.--P. 30. It is evident, from this Account being seen in 1742, it is not the same from which the Translation is made which we now have, that being published in 1708. And as _Mons. de Lisle_ asserts, that the Letter is conformable with what _Mons. Ulloa_ said at _Paris_ three Years before, with this Difference only, that he said positively at that Time, that the Relation which he had seen at _Peru_, and of which he had taken a Copy, was of Admiral _de Fonte_, this Manuscript, which contained the Account of the Voyage, may rather be supposed to be a Relation, or Journal kept by some Person, who was aboard Admiral _de Fonte_'s Ship, a Friend or Ancestor of _Morel_, than a Copy the same with this Letter, as it only mentioned the Purport of the Voyage, seems not to have the particular Circumstances as to intercepting the _Boston_ Men. This Account is an Evidence so far in Favour of this Letter, as it proves that this Letter is not the only Account that there is of this Voyage, and that another Account was seen and copied at _Peru_ many Years after this Letter was published in _England_. But if it be supposed that it is one and the same Account, and that from the _English_, it would not have been accepted of and kept by _Morel_, and shewed as a Curiosity, unless he was satisfied that it was a true genuine Account of such Voyage, and as to which he would naturally inquire, being on the Spot, where he might probably be informed, and unless he was at a Certainty that what that Account contained was true, would he have produced the Manuscript, or permitted his Captain to take a Copy of it as genuine; yet we may with greater Probability suppose, that this Manuscript which _Morel_ had was no Translation from the _English_, but in itself an Original. Mons. _Ulloa_ speaking of _Morel_ as an antient Seaman, cannot mean that he was in the Expedition of _de Fonte_, only implies his being acquainted with some one who was, with whom, from his Course of Years, he might have sailed, and attained this Journal. What is said in the Letter of Mons. _Ulloa_, that he forgot the Name of the Author of the Manuscript, but believes it was _Bartelemi de Fuentes_, that the Author of that Manuscript gave an Account of. It must be considered, that when Mons. _Ulloa_ wrote he was in _Old Spain_, many Years after he had seen the Account, and three Years after he was at _Paris_; and though he genteelly answers the Inquiries sent him, agreeable to his Conversation at _Paris_, yet does not express himself so positively as when at _Paris_, as in the Letter he only believes it to be _Bartelemi de Fonte_. _Mons. Ulloa_ would sooner not have answered the Letter than deny what he had formerly said; and if Mons. _de Lisle_ had advanced that for which he had no proper Authority, both as a Gentleman and an Officer he would not have submitted to such a Falshood: But from Mons. _Ulloa_ being tender in the Account, being of a Matter which might not make any great Impression on him at the Time he received it, ten Years since, out of his Hands, and three Years after he was at _Paris_, this Account is more worthy of Credit, and he might be more cautious, now he was to give it under his Hand, to soften the Reproach of his Countrymen for his not acting like a true _Spaniard_, in being so communicative in this Matter. The Account which Mons. _de Lisle_ hath given, was with a Permission of Mons. _Ulloa_ to make Use of his Name, as the Letter Mons. _Ulloa_ sent testifies. Where Mons. _de Lisle_ hath not the Liberty to mention the Name of his Author, he only says, that there was a Person equally curious, and as well instructed in the Affair as Mons. _de Ulloa_, who assured him positively that there was such a Relation. Though Mons. _de Lisle_ had a particular System to support, yet, at the same Time, he had a great publick Character to preserve. Mons. _Bougier_, _Mounier_, and _Ulloa_, were living at the Time he gave this Account to the Publick; they would be asked as to what they knew of the Affair; and a more particular Inquiry would be made of Mons. _de Lisle_, as to the Information he received from the nameless Person; and as there were several of his Countrymen who did not adopt his System, a Trip in this Affair, as to the Evidence he brings in Support of the Authority of this Account of _de Fonte_, would have given them an Advantage which they would not have neglected, and have done Justice to the Publick, by letting them know there was little of Truth in this Account; but as no Reflections have appeared, we have no Reason to question the Veracity of Mons. _de Lisle_ in this Relation, on any Surmises of Strangers, on no better Authority than meer Opinion, without a single Reason produced in Support of what they insinuate. This Letter, when published in 1708, was considered only as an Account that was curious; was looked on as of no Importance, and did not engage the Attention of the Publick until the Discovery of the North-west Passage became the Topick of common Conversation, and would have lain, without having any further Notice taken of it, had not the Attempts to discover a North-west Passage been revived. It is from their being produced in a proper Season, that Accounts of this Sort become permanent, assisting in some favourite Design, being thus useful they are preserved from Obscurity and Oblivion. We have an Account, the Author Captain _Don Francisco de Seixas_, a Captain in the _Spanish_ Navy, and is frequently quoted by the _Spanish_ Writers, though he is little known amongst us.--He says, P. 71. '_Thomas Peche_, an _Englishman_, having been at Sea twenty-eight Years, and made eight Voyages to the _East-Indies_ and _China_ during sixteen Years of that Time, spent the other twelve in Trading and Piracies in the _West-Indies_, from whence he returned to _England_ in 1669; and, after continuing there four Years, in 1673, with other Companions, fitted out at the Port of _Bristol_ one Ship of five hundred Tons, with forty-four Guns, and two light Frigates of one hundred and fifty Tons, and in each eighteen Guns, giving out that he was bound on a trading Voyage to the _Canaries_; whence they bore away with the three Vessels, and went through the Streight _Le Maire_, with two hundred and seventy Men, which he carried directly to trade at the _Moluccas_ and _Philippinas_. 'And after continuing in those Parts twenty-six Months and some Days, it appearing to the said _Thomas Peche_ that from the _Philippinas_ he could return to _England_ in a shorter Time by the Streight of _Anian_ than by the East or Streight _Magellan_, he determined to pass this Rout with his large Ship, and one small one, the other having lost Company by bad Weather, or worse Design in those who commanded it. 'And having, as he says, sailed one hundred and twenty Leagues within the Streights of _Anian_, relates, that as the Month of _October_ was far advanced, in which the northerly Winds reign much, and drove the Waters from the North to the South, that the Currents of the said Streight of _Anian_ were such, and so strong, that had they continued longer they must, without Doubt, have been lost; wherefore, finding it necessary to return back, sailing along the Coast of _California_ (after having sailed out of the Channel of _Anian_) and those of _New Spain_ and _Peru_, he went through the Streight of _Magellan_ into the North Sea in sixteen Hundred and seventy-seven, with the Vessels and much Riches, great Part whereof was of a _Spanish_ Vessel which they took on the Coast of _Lugan_.' Wherefore passing over all the rest of what the Author says in his Voyage, only mentioning what regarded the Currents, he relates, that when he entered into the Streight of _Anian_ he found, from Cape _Mendocino_ in _California_, for above twenty Leagues within the Channel, the Currents set to the N. E. all which and much more the Curious will find in the Voyage of the said _Thomas Peche_, which in sixteen Hundred and seventy-nine was printed in _French_ and _English_, in many Parts of _Holland_, _France_, and _England_, in less than twenty Sheets Quarto: And (he adds) further I can affirm, that I have seen the Author many Times in the Year eighty-two, three and four in _Holland_, who had along with him a _Spanish_ Mestize born in the _Philippinas_, together with a _Chinese_. It can scarce be imagined the Whole is without Foundation, though no such Voyage is at present to be come at, _Seyxas_ publishing his Work soon after the Publication by _Peche_, to which he particularly refers, seems to obviate all Doubt of his Sincerity; and there are too many Circumstances, which are collateral Evidence, mentioned, to imagine he could be entirely deceived. He published his Work at _Madrid_ in sixteen Hundred and eighty-eight, dedicated to the King, as President in his Royal Council of the _Indies_, and to the Marquis _de les Velez_; the Work intituled, _Theatro Naval Hydrographico de Los Fluxos_, &c. This Account was received as a true and faithful Relation of a Voyage performed, as it was published in various Languages; yet the Want of this Account is a Particular, some Reason for Exception with us, that we cannot receive it as a Certainty. And we are more suspicious as to the Truth of any Accounts that we have received relating to the North-west Part of _America_, than to any other Part of the Globe. Our Opinion being in a great Measure influenced by the System we embrace, as, Whether there is a North-west Passage, or not? And for this Reason only, no Part of the Globe hath more engaged the Attention of the Geographers, and with respect to which they had more different Opinions. Those whose Opinion it was that _Asia_ and _America_ were contiguous, had, for many Years, their Opinion rejected, but now confirmed to be true by the _Russian_ Discoveries; and we may conclude they had a good Authority for what they advanced, which was not transmitted down to us, as they had such an Assurance of what they had advanced, as they supposed there could never be the least Doubt of it. Those who advanced that there was Passage between the _Atlantick_ and Southern Ocean, by a Streight in the Northern and Western Parts of _America_, and very likely on a good Authority, have their Opinion opposed, all Accounts of Voyagers treated as fabulous, and for the same Reason that the Opinion of _Asia_ and _America_ being contiguous was rejected, as they could produce nothing further for it than Tradition, and as to which the Tradition now appears to have had its Foundation in Truth. Soon after _America_ was discovered, and the _Spaniards_ had settled in _New Spain_, the Report of there being a Streight prevailed, the Truth of this Report hath not been disproved, and we have no just Reason to reject this Tradition for positive Assertions which are produced without any Evidence, but that our Attempts have not succeeded. Which is an Inference deduced from a false Principle, for our not having had the expected Success hitherto, doth not imply that we may not succeed hereafter, as we proceed in our future Attempts; and all that hath been said, as to there being no North-west Passage, is not adequate to the Tradition of there being such a Passage. This Tradition is also supported by a few Accounts, which we reject too absolutely. These Accounts are given by various Persons, at different Times, without any Concern, Connection, or even Acquaintance the one with the other; which Accounts shew that the Opinion of their being such a Streight prevailed. These Accounts were given by Foreigners; we could not receive them from any other, as we did not frequent those Seas, and at present have no ready Access to them. And as it was but occasionally that any Persons went into those Parts, it is but by a few Persons only we could receive any Information respecting thereto. Nor could we attain such Information as we have in another Manner, than from what our own Countrymen accidentally picked up, as a regular Publication of such Account was not permitted, and as some thought themselves interested to keep the most material Part a Secret, in hopes to turn it to Advantage, by being employed, or receiving a Gratuity for their Discovery. And Allowances should be made, without declaring a Person immediately too credulous, who reports what he hears only in Conversation from another; he may, in such Conversation, omit many Circumstances which it would have been necessary for him to be informed of, in order to give that Satisfaction to others to whom he reports this Information, which he himself received of the Truth of what was related to him at the Time of the Conversation. And we have no Reason to censure those as too credulous who have published these Accounts, until we get a more perfect Information as to the North-west Parts of _America_, which at present remain unknown. A Dispute arises as to the Situation of such a Streight; and Accounts given by _Indians_ are produced to prove that the Streight cannot be in such a Part, where it is supposed to be so far to the Southward as to have its Entrance from the South Sea, in Latitude 51; whereas, on a little Examination, it would appear that those _Indians_, whose Accounts are produced, are almost equal Strangers as to those Parts with the _Europeans_. They do not seek inhospitable Countries, where there is little Produce, no Plenty of Fuel, great and frequent Waters, Mountains and Swamps, having no Inducement from Trade or on Account of War, as they would not go into those Parts to seek their Enemy, whom, with less Hazard and a greater Certainty of finding them, they could attack when returned from their Summer hunting and fishing to their Retirements, where they live more comfortably than in those Parts into which, by Necessity, they are obliged to go on Account of the Chace, as they could not otherwise subsist themselves and Families. And on due Examination it will appear all the Accounts we have from the _Indians_ are erroneously made use of, to evince that there is no Streight in the Part that is contended for. Instead of too severe a Censure on the Credulity of others, we should be cautious that our Diffidence does not lead us into an unreasonable Incredulity, and prevent our using such Testimony as is presented to us so candidly as we ought to do, and prevent our getting a true Insight into an Affair of such Importance; and the utmost that can be said of it is, that it is a Point yet undetermined, whether there is a North-west Passage or not. As to the original Letter of _de Fonte_, we interest ourselves in the important Matter it contains, and therefore become more suspicious and diffident, as to its Authenticity, than upon a due Use of our Reason it will appear that we ought to be. As we have no Reason, as is apparent from what hath been said, that the original Letter should ever come to our Hands; and if it appear, as we proceed, that it is rather to be attributed to inevitable Accidents, than there not having been such a Letter, that we cannot attain any particular Information respecting thereto. If it is considered that we have a Publication of such Letter, the Deficiencies in which are not, as it will appear, any other than the Errors of the Translator and Printer. That there are a great many concurring Circumstances in Support of and conformable with what the Letter contains. And the Account is composed of such Particulars as exceed the Industry and Ingenuity of those who employ their Fancy in composing ingenious Fictions. These various Branches of Evidence cannot be rejected, if we make a fair Judgment in this Matter: There must be a Prepossession from common Fame, a Prejudice from a prior Opinion, or an Interest and Design to support a particular System, that prevents our accepting of it, as a Probability next to a Certainty, of this being a true Account; and there is only wanting, to our receiving it absolutely as such, that the Copy be produced from which the Translation was made, or a full and compleat Evidence as to what is become of such Copy. Why we cannot obtain a particular Information as to the original Letter of _de Fonte_, appears from the Account, which shews that the Court of _Spain_ had a secret Intelligence of this Undertaking. And as that Court would not openly declare that they had such an Information, or how they intended to defeat the Design, the Orders sent, and consequently the Account of the Execution of those Orders, and whatever related thereto, would be _secret_ Papers, and as such kept in a Manner that few Persons would have a free Access; and by those few who had, as the publick Business did not require it, might never be taken in Hand, unless they accidentally catched the Eye of some who was particularly curious. Thus neglected, in a Century of Time it might not be known, if the Subject was revived, where they were deposited, and being so few in Number would take up but a small Space, which might make it difficult to find them. The Politeness and Civility which prevail in this Age, will not admit of such a Complaisance to curious Inquirers as to gratify them in that, which, in Policy, from good Reasons of State, might as well be omitted. There are Instances of late Discoveries being made, as to the Whole of which, from particular Views, as it is said, the Curious have not been gratified. And if this Expedition of _de Fonte_ was remembered, and the Papers relating thereto could be brought to light, it might immediately encourage us to proceed on making a further Attempt for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, therefore we can have no Reason to expect the Court of _Spain_ would assist us with what might determine us to a Proceeding at which they must take Umbrage, as we are now become the only Power who share _North America_ with them, from the Advantages that such a Discovery would give us in case of a future Rupture between the two Crowns; though our present Intention is to increase our Commerce, by opening a Trade to _Japan_, and carrying on a Trade in a more advantageous Manner to _China_. We cannot be assured, if full Permission was given to find these Papers, and more particular Pains and Application used, than is customary with People in publick Offices, when the Occasion of the Search being to little other Purpose than satisfying Curiosity, whether such Search might not be rendered unsuccessful, by such Papers being burnt amongst many other State Papers, in the Fire in the _Escurial_, the common Depository for State Papers at that Time. If we consider the Changes that have happened, as to the Succession to the Crown of _Spain_, the Changes in the Ministry, Foreigners introduced into their Ministry, there must have been many Particulars, not only of this but of other Kinds, which they are not at present acquainted with, the Ministry having no Occasion to give themselves any Concern about them. _Don Olivarez_, who was the Minister at this Time, was known to do his Business by Juntos of particular People, as the Resolutions of Government thereby remained an inviolable Secret, which was not always the Case when the Business was managed by publick Councils. They also gave their Advice in a particular Manner, by written Billets, which were handed to the King, that every Thing was conducted in a very mysterious Manner during the Time that he was in the Ministry, contrary to the former Practice, and which was also disused afterwards. If Inquiry hath been made by the most intelligent amongst the _Spaniards_ as to this Expedition, and the Commands of the Monarch to make Discovery of these Papers, and the Orders relating thereto, have been duly executed, but they cannot be found. The Reasons are apparent, the Voyage being scarce spoke of at the Time, went soon out of Remembrance, and whatever may be in private Hands relating thereto, is not immediately recollected by the Possessors, and the Originals, if not secreted or mislaid, are burnt in the _Escurial_ in the Year 1671, the usual Residence of the Court, and therefore where this Letter may be supposed to be received and lodged. For the Evidence relative to this Account, which the Distance of Time or other Accidents could not deface, yet remains. If _de Fonte_ was Governor or President of _Chili_, from the Nature of his Office it must appear, amongst some Records or Instruments of Writing, and we accordingly are informed, that there was a Person in that Office named _Fuente_, which is synonymous. That we have not more minute Particulars, is by reason that the Account is from those Parts where we have not a free and ready Access to make our Enquiries, and from a People, excepting a few Individuals, who are not very communicative to Foreigners. But where we have not laboured under the like Disadvantage, we have found that there was one _Gibbons_, also _Shapley_, Persons exactly circumstanced as the Letter mentions, upon the Authority of Records, the Tradition of antient Men, in those Parts where they had lived, and also other Accounts, supporting the Authenticity of this Letter, as will be shewn when we proceed to consider of the Subject of the Letter. There is therefore just Reason to conclude, was it possible to have the like Pains taken in _New Spain_ or _Peru_, we might meet with Particulars respecting this Matter, which would put the Truth of this Account out of all Doubt; and any Failure in the Inquiries there, may be owing to their not having been made with an equal Industry, and which it is not in our Power to procure in those Parts so distant and inaccessable. The Circumstances of the Inhabitants of _Boston_, and the neighbouring Provinces, during this Period of Time since the Expedition of _de Fonte_, have been very different, they have not been subjected to the like fatal Accidents with the People of _Lima_, and that Neighbourhood, who several Times have had their City laid in Ruins, and almost entirely depopulated by Earthquakes, particularly in _April_ 1687, and in the Year 1746. The Buildings becoming an entire Heap of Ruins, and many People perishing, must lessen the Force of Tradition, and affect, in some sort, the publick Records; and if the Marine Office was at the _Calloa_ of _Lima_, the _Calloa_ having been twice overwhelmed by the Sea, then there is no Reason to expect from _New Spain_ an authenticated Account of the Equipment of this Fleet under the Command of Admiral _de Fonte_. Those who argue against the Authenticity of this Account, must admit that he was a Person of Capacity and Abilities who composed it, and should assign us some Reason, if a Fiction, why a sensible Person should undertake it, as there could be no Inducement either in Point of Reputation or Profit: For, if a Fiction, it is neither entertaining or instructive. Neither can any political Motive be urged for this Undertaking, as the Subject must then have been treated in a Manner entirely different; so managed as to shew that a North-west Passage was absolutely impracticable, and to let nothing be introduced that would afford the least Incitement to Adventurers to come into those Parts. But it is apparent, that in this Account the Facts are related in a plain and simple Manner, without any Violation of Truth, as they are related without any Consideration of their Consequences. The Representations made, as to the Tides, as to the different Sorts of Fish that came into the Waters from Westward and Eastward, would have been an Encouragement to a further Trial as to a North-west Passage, had such Account been published; and if the Phænomena as to the Tides, and the Difference as to the Fish, was not from its communicating with the _South Sea_, and the Attempt had proved successless as to the Discovery of a North-west Passage, yet to countervail, in some Measure, that Disappointment, there was a Prospect of a lucrative Trade, in all Appearance to be carried on in those Western Parts where _de Fonte_ is represented to have been in, with greater Convenience than that which had been carried on by the _Boston_ People from the East before and at this Time in _Hudson_'s Bay, and the _English_ might be invited, if successful in their Trading, to make a Settlement, an Event which the _Spaniards_ were apprehensive of, and earnestly desirous to prevent. These are Defects which the Capacity and Abilities of the Author would not permit him to run into, if he was writing a fictitious Account, as he must easily see that such Representations to destroy the Notion of a North-west Passage, and prevent the _English_ settling there, were absolutely contrary to his Purpose. To give a greater Plausibility to a fictitious Tale, the Scene may be laid in distant Parts, by this Means introducing, more securely, Names and Characters of Persons as real who never were; and though this Account mentions Persons who lived at a great Distance, and in an obscure Part, yet there were such Persons as the Account mentions. Also the Period of Time when this Voyage was performed, so corresponds with their Transactions, as the Author could fix on no other Period so agreeing with the Circumstance of Major _Gibbons_ being so long, and at that very Time, absent from home; and his Absence can be attributed to no other Cause than his being out on a Voyage. Here is more Plainness and Consistency than is usual in Fiction, with such a Variety of Particulars, and so circumstanced, as would perplex the most pregnant Fancy to invent, which can be no Way so naturally accounted for as by admitting that the Letter contains a genuine Account of a Voyage made by Admiral _de Fonte_, not a Forgery to support political Views; or that it is the Production of a sporting Fancy to contrast some other Performance, or in order to expose the Credulous to publick Ridicule. The Editors of this Letter, whose Business it was to know whether this Account was authentick, gave an entire Credit to it as being authentick, not only as they assured the Publick in a general Way, and with respect to all their Pieces that they should publish, that they would only exhibit such as were of unquestionable Authority, but by their annexing an Advertisement to the Letter, have given us a particular Assurance of the Account being authentick; and we have just Reason to conclude they _could_ have given us that further Satisfaction we now desire; but what they have done was thought by them sufficient, as they had no Idea of the _Importance_ of the Subject. They comprehended not further of this Account, _Than that it contained many curious and unknown Discoveries; and they humbly presumed_, being Strangers to any further Merit that it had, _that it would not, on that Account, be unacceptable to the Publick_. Had this Letter been published at a Time a North-west Passage was under Consideration of the Publick, there might be some Suspicion that the Editors had some further Design. But as to a North-west Passage after the Voyage of Captain _James_, and after the Discovery was entrusted to a Company, and no Success consequent, it was generally received, many Years before this Letter was published, that to find such a Passage was a Thing impracticable. The Opinion of there being such a Passage was treated as a Chimera: And the Affair of a North-west Passage lay in a State of Silence and Oblivion near thirty Years after the Publication was made. We may observe, that there is no Art in the Composition of this Advertisement; it was inserted by Men of Honour and Veracity, who had no other Intention in publishing these Memoirs than the Advancement of Science; who, from their general Knowledge, could not be imposed on, and cannot, from their known Characters, be supposed to have a Design to impose on others. And what further or other Evidence than that which they have given could be expected from the Editors, unless they had been acquainted with the Importance which the Letter now appears to be of? It was all that was at that Time necessary, as they did not expect that there would be any invidious Imputation of Forgery, for then they would have vindicated it from all Suspicion in a more particular Manner than they have done. They thought it a sufficient Proof of its Authenticity their receiving it into their Collection. As to that mean Reflection that this Account is a Forgery of some _Englishman_, it is thoroughly obviated if we consider on what a Foundation such a Supposition must be grounded, which is, That some _Englishman_ composed this Account, translated it into _Spanish_, though there were but few and very indifferent Linguists at that Time in _England_, to be again translated by the Editors, the better to impose on them and the Publick. The Publick is a Name which comprehends many Persons of Curiosity and Sagacity, for whom chiefly these Memoirs were published; and by these Persons, as well as by all others, the Account was received at that Time as genuine, without the least Suspicion of there being any Fraud or Imposture. The principal Object or Design of the Publication was, that the Account contained a Discovery made of those Parts, as to the Knowledge of which the Geographers were at that Time very deficient; and the Editors being satisfied as to the Authenticity, all they thought necessary was to give a Translation of the Letter. And, from their Avocations to their own private Affairs, did not consider it in so minute a Manner as it required, as is plain from their Apology made as to the Stile of the Letter, not being _altogether so polite, being wrote like a Man whose Livelihood depended on another Way, and with an Abundance of Experience_. Whereas the Politeness of Stile would have been an absolute Objection as to the Authenticity of the Account. That as it was a Letter wrote by Admiral _de Fonte_ to lay before the Court of _Spain_, what had passed in the Course of the Voyage, though _de Fonte_ might express himself in proper and well chosen Terms, yet he was to use a Stile that was natural and simple. On the several Lights in which the Editors have been considered, as to the Part which they undertook, it must appear that they are unjustly reproached with Want of Integrity; they acted consistently, having no Occasion to say more with respect to this Account than they have done. Their Neglect was not from Want of Penetration or Design. Their genuine Characters were such as they could not suppose it would be ever suspected, that they could have any Inducement to impose a spurious Account on the Publick. Those who censure this Account of _de Fonte_ as a Cheat and a Forgery imposed by some one on the World, have produced no Evidence from Facts, or urged any Thing to shew the Improbability of this Account; as to the Argument they so strongly insist on that the Original was never produced, it is highly improbable that the Original ever should be produced in these Parts; and there is a Uniformity in the Circumstance that a Copy only came to the Hands of the Editors, which turns the Argument against the Objectors. The Suspicion of there being any Deceit or Forgery, hath arose from there having been different Systems advanced by Geographers respecting these Parts: Those in whose System this Account is not adopted have been the Occasion of such Suspicions being raised, and have given some Countenance to such their Suspicions from the imperfect Manner in which this Account hath been exhibited; though that is not to be attributed to the Account in its genuine Dress, but as broken and disfigured by the Translator and Printer. The Glosses and Comments added by the Person who took the Copy, and those added by the Translator in Explanation of the Text, are inserted in the same Character, and without any Distinction from the Text, and those by the Translator ignorantly introduced. Marginal Notes are inserted as Part of the Narration; Courses are omitted; others mistaken from the Translator's Inattention to the _Spanish_ Compass; Dates misplaced by the Printer: The Translator also deviates from the Mode of Expression, and renders, in an inaccurate, confused and obscure Manner, a very material Part in this Account. Many of these Faults we may attribute to Precipitation, from the Translator wanting due Time to study the Letter, occasioned by a Persecution of the Printer, who pressed him to finish that the Printer might compleat his monthly Number, and, from the same Necessity, the immediate Publication, it may be that the Faults of the Press are so many. Such numerous Defects make it evident that this Account could never have been originally constructed in this Manner; and it is on these Defects only that they rely, or from which their principal Arguments are drawn to invalidate the Authenticity of this Account. They might have perceived that a Relation, so mutilated and impaired, must have had a more uniform or regular Shape at one Time or other: And the Editors, in their Index, when the Year's Numbers were compleated, stile it _an original and very entertaining Letter of Admiral de Fonte_, by which they mean for the Curious; and by stiling it an Original, they are not only to be understood that it was never before published, but also that it was wrote by _de Fonte_; which implies that they had a _Spanish_ Account, and of which, as being consistent with their Purpose, they gave only a Translation: Also the Impression of the first Part, being so uncorrect and full of Faults, the second Part more correct, and the Mode of Expression resumed, shews that the first Composition is not their own, but that it is a Translation which the Editors have given us. The Defects and Imperfections of which being pointed out, we shall comprehend what little Reason there is to dispute the Authenticity of this Account, from the Disfigurements which have prevented our seeing it in its proper Shape, and for suspecting those Persons to be Authors of the Fiction who meant well; but their Fault consisted in their Inattention to the Translator, who did not therefore give a successful Conclusion to their good Design, as by rendering the Account obscure and unintelligible, he afforded Matter for Cavil and Dispute as to this Account of the Voyage, whether credible or not, and which a just Translation would have confirmed to be true. As to the Name _Bartholomew de Fonte_, we may observe that when the Translator can render the Names in the _Spanish_ by _English_ Names which are answerable thereto, he doth not insert the _Spanish_ Names, but the _English_. Thus, as to the Ships, he calls one the King _Philip_; but when they cannot be rendered by a resembling Denomination in the _English_, and the Name hath its Original from the _Latin_, he passes by the new Name, or as it is wrote in the _Spanish_, and gives us the antient Name, or according to the Latin _St. Spiritus_, _St. Lucia_, _Rosaria_, for _de Espiritu Santo_, _Santa Lucia_, _del Rosaria_. Hath rendered _Bartholomew de Fonte_, _Philip de Ronquillo_ both in _English_ and _Latin_. From which Management of the Translator, in giving the Name according to the _Latin_ and not giving it as it hath been transformed or changed agreeable to the _Spanish_ Orthography, there is just Reason to conclude the Name which is here rendered _Fonte_, was _Fuente_ or _Fuentes_ in the Original. But if it was wrote _Fonte_, it was in the provincial Dialect, different from the Manner of writing the good Writers introduced, which did not immediately prevail in all Parts alike, but was gradually received. For Instance, they wrote _Fuenterabia_ in _Castile_, when the _Biscayners_ continued to write _Fonterabia_; and it is as often spelt the one Way as the other in our Books and Maps. _Fuente_ and _Fuentes_ are not of one Termination. _Fonte_ or _Fuente_, in the Titles of the _Marquis Aguila de Fuente_, so in _de Fuente de Almexi_, is of the singular Number, or the Title is taken from the Water of _Almexi_. But _Fuentes_, in the Titles of the _Marquis de Fuentes_, and in _Conde Fuentes de Valde Pero_, or of _Don Pedro Enriques Conde de Fuentes_, expresses a plural Number, which the Translator, through his Indifference as to the Subject which he was employed to translate, might not observe. _Don Pedro Enriques Conde de Fuentes_ was raised to the Honour of being a Grandee by _Philip_ the Third, in the Year 1615, in respect to his great Services in the Wars; was descended from a Branch of that illustrious Family the _Enriques_. Nine of which Family were successively Admirals of _Castile_; and the ninth, _Don Joan Alonso Enriques_, was in that high Post at the Time of this Expedition. There were Intermarriages between the Families of _Enriques_ and _Valasco_; and _Don Pedro_ was succeeded in his Estate and Title by _Don Luis de Haro_, of the principal House of _Valasco_, and Son-in-Law to _Don Olivarez_. These Circumstances considered, we have a further Reason to suspect that the Name _de Fonte_ is not duly rendered by the Translator, as there is a Consistency in a Relation of the _Conde de Fuentes_ being advanced to be Admiral of _New Spain_ and _Peru_, which coincides with what is reported from _New Spain_, of the Name being _Fuentes_ of the Person who was President of _Chili_. It was also apparent that _de Fonte_ was a Man of Family, from those who took the respective Commands under him. _Pennelossa_, of whom more particular mention is made in the Letter: _Philip de Ronquillo_, seemingly allied to _John de Ronquillo_, who did considerable Service in the Year 1617, and was Governor of the _Philippine_ Islands. There was also _Ronquillo_ a Judge, sent to reduce the Insurgents at the City of _Segovia_, in the Time of the Civil Wars in _Spain_. _Pedro de Bonardæ_, who is afterwards called Captain _Barnarda_: Of him we must have the least to say; and we could not expect to be any Way successful in our Inquiries from this Inaccuracy. He seems not to have had so distinguished an Alliance as the others, and employed on this Expedition on the Account of his Abilities, being allotted to a Service not like that of _Pennelossa_, or _Ronquillo_, disagreeable in respect to the Climate, fatiguing and hazardous. That he was a Gentleman by his Descent, is evident from his being named _de Bonardæ_. The _Spanish_ Fleet was but in a mean Condition at the Conclusion of the Ministry of the Duke of _Lerma_; but when an Expedition was set out to recover _St. Salvador_ in the Year 1626, was much improved; the _Portuguese_ had twenty-six Sail, but the _Spanish_ Fleet were now numerous. It doth not appear that the Fleets from _Lisbon_, when _Portugal_ was under the Crown of _Spain_, were sent otherwhere than to the _East Indies_, _Brazil_, and the Perlieus; and those from _Old Spain_, that sailed from _Cadiz_, went to _New Spain_, and the Islands under that Dominion. In the Year 1596, when Sir _Francis Drake_ took _Cadiz_, he burnt the Fleet that was lying there bound for _Mexico_; and Mr. _Gage_, in the Year 1625, sailed with a Fleet of sixteen Sail, all for _Mexico_, and to the _West Indies_ seventeen Sail, besides eight Galleons for a Convoy, all under two _Spanish_ Admirals. The Inconsistency that _de Fonte_, a _Portugueze_, should be in such a Post as _Admiral of New Spain_, a great Objection to the Authenticity of this Account, is removed by the Observations that have been made as to the Name _de Fonte_, by which it appears that he was not a _Portugueze_, and their having Sea Commanders, _Spaniards_ by Birth, with whom they could supply the principal Posts in the Marine, without being under the Necessity of applying to _Portugal_ for Persons qualified to fill those Stations. As to _de Fonte_ being afterwards President of _Chili_, it is meant of the _Audience of Chili_, subordinate to the _Viceroy of Peru_. REMARKS ON The LETTER of Admiral DE FONTE. The Viceroys of _New Spain_ and _Peru_, having Advice from the Court of _Spain_, and not from _the Court_ and the _Council of Spain_; which latter is the common Form of Expression used in any Matter which had been under the Consideration of the _Supreme Council of the Indies_, implies that such Advice must have proceeded from the Secret Council, or from the King through his Minister, that the Design of the Equipment of the four Ships, and the Attempt of the Industrious Navigators from _Boston_ might remain a Secret. The Appellation of Industrious Navigators was conformable to the Characters of _Gibbons_ and _Shapley_. Sir _Thomas Button_, in the Extract which there is from his Journal, gives _Gibbons_ a great Eulogium as to his being an able Navigator; and this was the Character of _Shapley_ amongst his Cotemporaries. The Court of _Spain_ knew that this Attempt to discover a Passage between the _Atlantick_ and the _Western Ocean_, was intended by the Northward and Westward; and though they allude to all the Attempts to make such Discovery which had been at any Time made, by mentioning the several Reigns in which any such Attempts were made, yet they hint more particularly, that they expect this Attempt will be by _Hudson_'s Bay, as they mention expresly in their Advice the two Voyages of _Hudson_ and _James_. For what is here said, _That the several Attempts_, &c. is a Recital from the Advice sent by the Court to the Viceroys, or from the Orders that _de Fonte_ received. This Expedition from _Boston_ particularly commanded the Attention of the Court of _Spain_, as Captain _James_ had not absolutely denied there was a North-west Passage; and _Fox_, though not mentioned here, had published an Account in 1635, by which he had positively declared that there was a North-west Passage; and Sir _Thomas Button_, who kept his Journal a Secret, was very confident of a Passage, and is said to have satisfied King _James_ the First. The Death of his Patron _Prince Henry_ prevented his being fitted out again. _Gibbons_, his Intimate, had made the Voyage with him: Afterwards had made a second Attempt by himself, but lost his Season by being detained in the Ice. And now, though a married Man, had a Family, a Person in Trust and Power where he resided, engages in a third Attempt from _Boston_. _The second, third, and fourth Year of the Reign of King Charles_ refers solely to the Voyage of Captain _James_; to the Time he was engaging Friends to fit him out; and the Time when such Voyage was concluded on. As the _English_ used the _Julian_, and the _Spaniards_ the _Gregorian_ Account, these Transactions which refer to Captain _James_'s Expedition, could not be made to coalesce as to the Time, from the Difference there was between these two Computations, in any other Manner than by putting the Year of the King of _England_'s Reign. As King _Charles_ began his Reign the 27th of _March_ 1625, two Days after the Commencement of the Year, according to the _Julian_ Account, and the second Year of his Reign would not begin until the 27th of _March_ 1626, two Days also after that Year commenced, but according to the _Gregorian_ Account, the Year 1626 began in _January_; from the 1st of _January_ to the 27th of _March_, the Year 1626, according to the _Gregorian_ Account, would correspond with the first Year of the Reign of King _Charles_. As to this Expedition from _Boston_, it is mentioned to be in the Year 1639, and in the fourteenth Year of the Reign of King _Charles_; but the Year 1639, according to the _Julian_ Account, is the fifteenth Year of that King's Reign; but according to the _Gregorian_ Account, the Year 1639 corresponds from _January_ to _March_ with the fourteenth Year of that King's Reign. The Times mentioned in this Letter do not refer to the Times when the Voyages were actually set out on, but when undertaken or resolved on, as it is expressed in the Letter, _undertaken_ by some industrious Navigators from _Boston_. Captain _James_ did not sail until the Year one Thousand six Hundred and Thirty-one, not getting the King's Protection early enough in one Thousand six Hundred and Thirty, to proceed that Year, or in the fourth Year of the King's Reign. That is, he did not get it early enough in Spring to be ready by the latter End of _March_, as he must have been to proceed that Year; so the fourth Year of the King well agrees with this Proceeding. And _de Fonte_ did not sail until one Thousand six Hundred and Forty, which was a Year after the Court of _Spain_ had received Intelligence of such Undertaking from _Boston_. Which they would use the first Opportunity to transmit to _New Spain_; _de Fonte_ therefore had at least six Months for the Equipment of the four Ships to go on this Expedition; a Time sufficient, in so fine a Climate, and every Thing that was necessary to be done was enforced by Orders of the Crown. Had this Equipment been executed in a much smaller Space of Time, there would have been nothing so admirable in it: Therefore the Objection, as to the Impossibility that Ships should be fitted between the Time the Court received this Information, and their sailing, drops to the Ground. It is not any way strange that this Design, as it appears to have been, was made known to the Court of _Spain_ the Year before that it was set out on; as that Court entertained a continual Jealousy of these Undertakings, as is apparent from their sending Vessels to intercept _Davis_; their having Informations as to Captain _James_'s Voyage also, and the Consequences of it, as may be collected from this Letter. Major General _Gibbons_, if he had not the King's Protection, yet he had Friends at the Court of _England_ who made Application for him to be Captain of the Fort at _Boston_, and one of the Council, the latter End of the Year one Thousand six Hundred and Thirty-eight, or in the Beginning of the Year one Thousand six Hundred and Thirty-nine. That the most secret Affairs of the Court were at that Time betrayed, I believe will be admitted, and the Secret of his designed Attempt might be known, by his applying for Leave of Absence from his Post during the Time that he should be engaged in this Undertaking. Or the Persons with whom he corresponded in _England_ might be apprized of his intended Voyage, as he could not, at that Time of Day, be supplied with every Thing that was necessary thereto in _America_; and as he intended to trade, he would be for procuring his Goods from _England_. By some of these Means probably his Design perspired, and was secretly and unexpectedly, transmitted to the Court of _Spain_. There are several Reasons to be assigned why both Viceroys should be informed, not only the Viceroy of _Peru_, in whose District the Ships were to be fitted, but the Viceroy of _New Spain_ also. That if a Passage was made by any other Way than where the Ships were to be stationed to intercept the _Boston_ Men, or they accidentally passed such Ships, the Viceroys might order a Look-out also to be kept. And such a Provision being made, it would be scarce possible, if a Passage was obtained, that the _Boston_ People should get clear out of those Seas, and not fall into the Hands of the _Spaniards_. Another Reason is, that such Particulars as _de Fonte_ was to put in for on the Coast of _Mexico_ might be ready, that _de Fonte_ might not meet with the least Delay, as such Delay might occasion the Disappointment of his Design. The Letter proceeds, 'Upon which, I Admiral _de Fonte_, received Orders from _Spain_ and the Viceroys to equip four Ships of Force.' These Words, _upon which_, I understand not to allude to the Advice given the Viceroys, but refer to the Attempt intended from _Boston_, and as to which he had received his Orders from _Spain_. But from the Viceroys he received Orders only as to the Equipment of the four Ships, as Orders of that Nature would regularly proceed from them. If it was otherwise, and he had also received his Orders from them, containing Instructions as to the Conduct of his Voyage, he would have made his Report to the Viceroys as to the Manner in which he had conducted his Voyage, and they would have reported it to the Court. _De Fonte_ mentioning the Viceroys so simply and plainly, without any respectful or distinguishing Additions, is an Instance that this Letter was wrote to the Court of _Spain_, it not being proper, in a Letter so addressed, to mention the Viceroys in any other Manner; and as it is also evident from the Expression, _I Admiral de Fonte_, that he did not write this Letter in his private Capacity, but as an Admiral, therefore this Letter could not be otherwhere addressed than to such Court, to transmit an Account how he had executed these Orders, which he had received immediately from _Spain_. _De Fonte_ mentioning that the Advice which the Viceroys received was from the Court of _Spain_, and that the Orders he received were from _Spain_, carries a Distinction with it as though the Advice and the Orders were not transmitted from the same Persons. Those who transmitted the Advice to the Viceroys were not seemingly in the Secret, as to the particular Orders or Instructions which were sent to _de Fonte_, as to the Manner in which he was to conduct his Voyage. It was the Province of the Admiral of _Castile_, who was stiled Captain General of the Sea, who was subject to no Controul but the King's, to issue all Orders relative to maritime Affairs, and therefore _de Fonte_'s Orders might come from him. Or otherwise these Orders were immediately transmitted by the _Conde de Olivarez_, who was on ill Terms with the Admiral, and regarded no Forms, under the Sanction of the Favour he had with the King, whom he influenced to authorize all his Measures. It is also consistent with the Conduct of _Don Olivarez_ that this Affair should be managed in this Manner, who was always mysterious, confided in his own Judgment, singular in his Manners, and therefore was called a Lover of Projects, and supposed a meer Visionary in some of them. He did not want for Persons of the greatest Abilities to assist him, and the Accuracy with which the Orders are composed that were sent to _de Fonte_, (as may be collected from the Manner in which the Voyage is conducted, and in which it cannot be supposed _de Fonte_ was left to his Discretion) is an Instance there had been no Want of the Assistance of able, sagacious and experienced Persons in the composing of such Orders and Instructions. The Design of this introductory Part is to shew the Proceedings in this Affair previous to his Voyage; that the Advice was received, and the Orders subsequent were obeyed; and it is drawn with peculiar Care and a Conciseness which would be censured in a Voyage Writer, but is used with the greatest Propriety on this Occasion. The Names of the Ships are agreeable to the Manner that the _Spaniards_ name theirs; and by Ships of Force is not meant either their Caracks or Galeons, but Country Ships, which the Equipment seems to imply, made defensible against any Attacks of the Natives, and to have nothing to fear from the _Boston_ Men, and these Ends could be obtained in Vessels which had no great Draught of Water, as the Rivers they were to pass up and the Lakes required, and of a Tonnage suitable to those Northern Seas, therefore _de Fonte_ only expresses their Names, and their Commanders, says nothing of their Rates. _De Fonte_, in his Course from the _Callao_ of _Lima_, and in all his subsequent Courses through the Voyage, computes his Distance after the Marine Manner, from that Land from where he takes his Departure to the Land made when he enters a Harbour, or the Termination of the Land which makes such Harbour to Seaward; and here takes his Departure from the extreme Part of the _Callao_ of _Lima_, which is in the Latitude 11° 5´ S. Longitude 80° 39´ W. and from which to _St. Helena_, being North of the Bay of _Guiaguil_, in Lat. 2° 5´ S. Long. 84° 6´ W. is two hundred Leagues; and there is no Fault in the Impression, as hath been supposed. Though these Words, _on the North Side of the Bay_ of _Guiaguil_ seem to be an Interpolation. The Distance said to be run between the _Callao_ of _Lima_ and _St. Helena_ is not reconcileable with the Accounts published by _Dampier_, _Wood Rogers_, or the Accounts in general, excepting with a Copy of a _Spanish_ Manuscript, of the Latitudes and Longitudes of the most noted Places in the _South Seas_, corrected from the latest Observations, by _Manuel Monz. Prieto_, Professor of Arts in _Peru_, whose Computation of Longitude is from the Meridian of _Paris_; but he fixes _Lima_ at full eighty Degrees. I use _Prieto_'s Tables in this, and principally in all my subsequent Computations, though _de Fonte_ no where mentions the Longitude in this Letter, as he only regards the Difference of the Meridian of _Lima_. And it by no Means invalidates but favours the Authenticity of this Account, that _de Fonte_ differs in his Computation from the _English_ and _French_ Accounts at, and after those Times, which also differ from each other, as they only ranged along the Coasts of those Seas, judged of their Distances according to their Journals, and must have made many vague Observations, as to the Latitude of Places, by Inspection of the Land from Sea, and which Land they might not certainly know. Their best Directions they got from Manuscript Journals, or Sea Waggoners, composed for their own Use by Coasters. But the navigating of the King's Ships were better provided for in this respect; and we may well suppose that _de Fonte_ was not, on this Occasion, deficient in Artists well versed in the Theory as well as the Practice of Navigation, and under this Character of an Artist we may consider _Parmentiers_. The Truth, as to the Latitude, once fixed is not variable by Time; and in this respect _de Fonte_ and _Prieto_ must agree, though a Century between the Time of their Computations. The Expression, 'anchored in the Port of _St. Helena_ (in _Spanish_, _Santa Elena_) _within the Cape_,' hath something more particular in it than appears on a transient View. The Point of _St. Helena_ is thus described in the sailing Directions in the _Atlas Maritimus_, published in 1728. 'The Point itself is high, but as you come nearer in there is a lower Point runs out sharpening towards the Sea. And there are two distinct Anchorages within this Port, one within the lower Point, here Vessels ride without Shelter, and amongst Banks and Shoals. Under the high Land, there is the other Anchorage, deep Water, and secure riding.' Under this high Land, being called the Port within the Cape, is a Distinction which I do not find made by the Voyage Writers, or in any other of the sailing Directions for these Parts that I have seen; and _de Fonte_ particularly mentions, as it may be supposed, being in Conformity with his Instructions. _De Fonte_ taking in the _Betumen_ must have been in pursuance of his Instructions, and there provided for him by Order of the Viceroy. That which follows, called vulgarly Tar, _&c._ seems to be an Interpolation, or additional Comment, though not distinguished as such; and it may be observed here is a different Mode of Expression, and a Want of that Conciseness which apparently precedes. If with these Words took _a Quantity of Betumen_, we connect _on the 10th we passed the Equinoctial_, then that Conciseness and Simplicity of the Narration is preserved. It is inconsistent that _de Fonte_ should inform the Court, that it was not for Want of Tar that he put into this Port, and that he did not procure this _Betumen_ to use instead of Tar, but to make Use of it as Medicine. The taking the _Betumen_ aboard sufficiently intimated his Compliance with his Instructions. The Expression, _we took it in for Medicine_, hath something particular in it, seems to be a Note or Memorandum added by some Person who made the Voyage, to instruct a Friend for whom he made, or to whom he gave, a Copy of this Letter. The one Degree seven Minutes of Latitude is misplaced, Cape _St. Francisco_ being by no Geographers or Voyage Writers placed in that Latitude; the one Degree seven Minutes is the Latitude of the River _St. Jago_, and which _Prieto_ lays down in one Degree eight Minutes. As to the Courses and Distances eighty Leagues N. N. W. and twenty-five Leagues E. and by S. which were placed in the Margin in the first Edition, but are since crept into the Text. N. N. W. is a Course entirely contrary, and instead of one there is two Courses, North and North East, and which two Courses are consistent with the E. and by S. Course twenty-five Leagues, as that Course will then terminate in the Latitude and Longitude of the River _Jago_. This Error of North West for North East may be accounted for by remarking, that in the _Spanish_ Compass North East and North West are rendered _Nord Este_ and _Nord Oeste_: The Omission of the _O_ in _este_ is a Fault which may be committed even by a careful Transcriber, or may be a Mistake in the Translator, for Want of due Attention to the Compass. In the Passage from _St. Helena_ he would keep the Coast aboard, for the Benefit of a fair and fresh Wind, and which he would have without any Interruption from the Land Breezes, and by standing N. W. to clear the Islands of _Solango_ and _Paita_, and then stand North Easterly would form a North Course of one Hundred and Thirty-two Miles, or forty-four Leagues, and then be off Cape _Passao_, in N. Lat. 8´. Long. 83° 59´ W. and well in with such Cape, as it is evident he was from the Expression in the Letter by the Cape _del Passao_ with a North East Course, thirty-six Leagues, they would be in Lat. 1° 23´ North, Long. 82° 50´, and so have passed Cape _Francisco_, N. Lat. 50´, Long. 82° 55´, and with an East and by South Course twenty-five Leagues, would be in the Lat. 1° 8´, Long. 81° 36´, the Latitude and Longitude of the River _St. Jago_. There was not such a Provision Country, it appears from later Accounts, on any Part of the Coast between this and _Lima_; nor could the Ships be any where brought up with greater Safety: _St. Helena_ is described as a poor and barren Part of the Country. The Health of his People, liable to scorbutick Disorders in the northern Climates whither he was going, was an Object that must be attended to, in order that the Voyage should meet with the desired Success. Therefore after the _Betumen_, he recruits what he had consumed of his fresh Provision in his run from _Lima_, and lays in a great additional Store, as is apparent if we consider that their Consumption in this respect is not proportionable to ours, from their Mode of dressing it. And we may judge from having so great a Quantity of Fowl ready, with Goats and Hogs, the People had received Orders to be thus provided against the Ships Arrival; the Sailors would be a great Assistance in curing the Provisions, the Flesh as well as the Fish, and would do it in the most suitable Manner for the Sea Service; a Number of Hands, gave an Expedition so as the Provisions would not be spoiled by the Heat of the Sun; and his Victualling detained _de Fonte_ four Days. _Six Miles and a half, or the Left Hand the River is navigable for small Vessels_, and all that follows seems by Way of Comment, and to be a spurious Interpolation, as also, _which are there wild and in plenty_. 'The 16th of _April_ we sailed from the River of _St. Jago_ to the Port and Town _Raleo_, 320 Leagues W. N. W. a little westerly, in about 11 Degrees 14 Min. of N. Latitude, leaving Mount _St. Miguel_, &c.' The Point of _Yeaxos_, or the _Sandy Strand_, in Lat. 11° 58´, Long. 93° 31´, which covers the Port of _Raleo_ (or _Realejo_) is three Hundred and twenty Leagues from the River _St. Jago_; but the Course N. 47° 30´ W. or N. W. almost a Quarter West, and by the Expression _a little_ Westerly, the W. N. W. seems to mean, he steered first West from the River _St. Jago_, until he made the high Land, and then North-west, a little Westerly. Between Mount _Miguel_ and Point _Cazarnina_ (rightly _Caravina_) is the Entrance in the Bay of _Amapalla_, which is to the Northward of the Port of _Realejo_; therefore the leaving Mount _St. Miguel_ on the Larboard, _&c._ being an absolute Contradiction to _de Fonte_ entering the Port of _Realejo_, is an Interpolation and not inserted by the Person who wrote the Letter, but a Comment very injudiciously added by Way of Explanation. From this Circumstance the Truth of my Assertion appears, as to there being Glosses and Comments added to the original Text, and that I had good Reason to believe several Places in the preceding Part of this Account to be Interpolations added by Way of Comment. The great Ships that are built in _New Spain_ are built in _Raleo_ is disposed in the Margin in the first Edition; but in all the subsequent Editions hath crept into the Text. We may suppose the W. N. W. Course hath crept into the Text in the first Edition to make room for this Comment, as may be judged from the Course between _St. Helena_ and _St. Jago_ being placed in the Margin: And there is an apparent Reason for the Course and Distances being so placed, for when inserted in the Text, they interrupt the Attention; and as the Courses and Distances were all that was necessary to be mentioned, the Latitudes have been since added by some injudicious Person.--The Latitude of _Passao_, of Cape _St. Francisco_, is not mentioned, and the Latitude of _Raleo_ is wrong, which the Course and Distance shews, and its Latitude is in most Maps agreeable to the Course and Distance here given. The Run, allowing _de Fonte_ eight Days, would be but one hundred Miles in twenty-four Hours, which is very moderate going. Nor can there be any Objection, as to the Truth of this Account, from the Time that _de Fonte_ is sailing between the _Callao_ of _Lima_ to _St. Helena_, from _St. Helena_ to _St. Jago_. All that belongs to the original Letter I take to be this, The 16th of _April_ we sailed from the River _St. Jago_ to the Port and Town of _Raleo_; here we bought (which probably might as well be rendered procured) four long well-sailed Shallops, built express for sailing, riding at Anchor, _&c._ The 320 Leagues W. N. W. a little Westerly, I suppose to have been placed in the Margin. It cannot be supposed that Boats so fitted, and four of them, could be procured in so small a Time as _de Fonte_ staid here, it implies they were previously provided before that he arrived, to be ready at the Arrival of the Ships. 'The _26th_ we sailed from _Raleo_ for the Port of _Saragua_, or rather of _Salagua_, within the Islands and Shoals of _Chamily_, 480 Leagues N. W. and by West, a little Westerly from _Raleo_. From the Town of _Saragua_, a little East of _Chamily_ at _Saragua_, and from _Compostilo_ in the Neighbourhood of this Port, we took in a Master and six Mariners accustomed to trade with the Natives for Pearl the Natives catched on a Bank in 19 Degrees of Latitude North from the _Baxos_ of _St. Juan_ in 24 Degrees of North Latitude, 20 Leagues N. N. E. from Cape _Saint Lucas_, the South-east Point of _California_.' The Point of _Yeaxos_ is laid down in Lat. 11 Deg. 58 Min. Long. 93 Deg. 31 Min. and with a Course North-west and by West, a little Westerly, Distance four Hundred and eighty Leagues, _de Fonte_ would be at the Islands of _Chiametlas_, in Lat. 22 Deg. 10 Min. Long. 114 Deg. 29 Min. The Port of _Saragua_, or rather of _Salagua_ (which is properly _Zuelagua_) is thus described. 'The Mount of _Sant Jago_ is in the Port of _Zuelagua_. There are two very good Harbours which have good anchoring Ground, and will hold a great many Ships, by reason they are great and are called the _Calletas_. On the North-west Side of the said Bay is another very good Port, which is called likewise the Port of _Zuelagua_. You will find in it a River of fresh Water, and several Plantations. At the Sea Side is a Pathway that leads to the Town of _Zuelagua_, being four and a half Miles from the Port within Land. Between the Port of _Zuelagua_ and the white Ferrelon (or Rock) is a very good Port, in which you are Land-locked from all Winds.' From this Description it is easy to comprehend what is _de Fonte_'s Meaning as to the Port of _Zuelagua_, where he took in his Master and Mariners on the North-west Side of the Bay, and which he expresses by, at _Saragua_ a little East of _Chamily_; and which Master and Mariners were not promiscuously taken, but were chosen Men, as they were taken both from _Zuelagua_ and _Compostilo_, in the Neighbourhood of the Port. _Zuelagua_ seems originally the City which was called _Xalisco_; but from its unhealthy Situation, _Compostilo_ was built more within Land; yet the former continuing to be a Port, some Inhabitants remained there. The Islands and Shoals of _Chiametla_, which the Translation renders _Chamily_, which is a Name given to Islands South of Cape _Corientes_. But the Distinction is the Islands to Northward of Cape _Corientes_ are called _Chiametla_, those to Southward _Chametla_ and _Camilli_. _Prieto_ agrees with _de Fonte_'s Account first mentioning the Islands of _Chiametlas_ in Lat. 22. 10. Long. 114. 29. and then _El mal Pays y mal outradu_. This Master and Mariners were accustomed to trade with the Natives for Pearl, which the Natives catched on a Bank in nineteen Degrees of Latitude, being North from the _Baxos of St. Juan_, or the Bank of _St. John_, which is in twenty-four Degrees of North Latitude, and twenty Leagues North North-east from Cape _Saint Lucas_, the South-east Point of _California_; and this Account _de Fonte_ had either from themselves, or the Character that was sent with them, to shew the most proper Persons had been provided to answer the Purpose for which they were procured. And all that belongs to the Text is, which the Natives catched on a Bank North from the _Baxos St. Juan_, twenty Leagues N. N. E. from Cape _St. Lucas_. 'The Master Admiral _de Fonte_ had hired, with his Vessel and Mariners, who had informed the Admiral that, 200 Leagues North from Cape _St. Lucas_, a Flood from the North met the South Flood, and that he was sure it must be an Island, and _Don Diego Pennelossa_ undertook to discover whether it was an Island or not, with his Ship and the four Shallops they bought at _Raleo_, and the Master and Mariners they hired at _Zuelagua_.' Here the Thread of the Letter is broke, and the Translator proceeds as with a common Narrative of a Voyage. The Master might be easily deceived as to the Tide, as Time hath shewn in many Instances as to other Persons having been deceived in like Manner in other Parts. That we have no Account of what was the Event of this Expedition _Pennelossa_, who had undertaken the Charge, being no more to join _de Fonte_, as it was unnecessary and to no Purpose, _Pennelossa_ would return first and send his Account to Court. _De Fonte_ could in this Case do no further than shew he had sent him on this Service, it must be supposed, agreeable to his Instructions. Which, from the Boats brought from _Realejo_, (and must be of a particular Constructure, the like of which were not to be any where else on the Coast) and the Master and Mariners hired here, it is evident, was before proposed, that _Pennelossa_ should go on this Part of the Expedition, not on the Master's declaring that there was a Tide from the Northward, and so _California_ an Island. This was only mentioned by _de Fonte_, to shew what Intelligence he had got in this Affair. The Account given of _Pennelossa_ could be evidently no Part of the Letter. What is said as to his Descent, his being a Nobleman, his Address to Cosmography, and the Undertaking of this Discovery, must evidence as already said, whoever inserted the Account was satisfied as to their being such a Person so accomplished, and who aspired to undertake this Part of the Expedition. A Discovery of these Parts would carry, at this Time particularly, great Reputation and Honour with it, and by this Opportunity to intercept Persons on a Design so prejudicial to the Interests of the Court of _Spain_ in those Parts, as it was then thought, had _Pennelossa_ succeeded; he would have had no small Share of Merit; or if he did not succeed, the Merit of the Attempt would be accounted of, and not unjustly, it would be a Means of his Promotion through the Connections he had, as they would urge he did not pursue those Sciences for Speculation only, but to carry them into Practice for the Service of his Country. And according to the Regulations Don _Olivarez_ had made, there was no Preferment but what was in consequence of Service. Sister's Son of _Don Lewis de Haro_, and a young Nobleman, expresses as of the Time present, when the Copy was taken from which we have the Publication; and _Don Haro, Prime Minister of Spain_, was a Gloss added by another Hand. Neither is _Don Luis de Haro_ the Person here meant, for he does not seem to have been of an Age to have had a Sister who could be Mother to _Don Pennelossa_; but _Don Lopez de Haro_ is the Person meant, _Marquis de Carpio_, the Father of _Don Luis_, who was at that Time Gentleman of the Chamber to the King, and afterwards Prime Minister, and must be understood the Son of his Wife's Sister, who was a Daughter of _Olivarez_, married to the _Marquis de Valderiabano_. 'But Admiral _de Fonte_, with the other three Ships, sailed from them within the Islands of _Chamilly_ the 10th _May_ 1640, and having the Length of Cape _Abel_ on the W. S. W. Side of _California_, in 26 Degrees of N. Latitude, 160 Leagues N. W. and W. from the Isles _Chamilly_; the Wind sprung up at S. S. E. a steady Gale, that from the _26th_ of _May_ to the _14th_ of _June_ he had sailed to the River _Los Reys_, in 53 Degrees of North Latitude, not having Occasion to lower a Topsail, in sailing 866 Leagues N. N. W. 410 Leagues from Port _Abel_ to Cape _Blanco_, 456 Leagues to _Rio los Reyes_, all the Time most pleasant Weather, and sailed about 260 Leagues in crooked Channels, amongst Islands named the _Archipelagus de St. Lazarus_; where his Ships Boats always sailed a Mile a-head, sounding to see what Water, Rocks, and Sands, there was.' _De Fonte_ and _Pennelossa_ both put out to Sea together; but as their Courses were various, one to the Westward of _California_, and the other to enter the Gulf. They parted within the Shoals of _Chiametla_ the tenth of _May_ 1640; and _de Fonte_ attaining the Length of _Cape Abel_ in Latitude 26, one Hundred and sixty Leagues North North-west and West from the Isles of _Chiametla_, he then meets with a fair Wind from South South-east. By the Latitude of Cape _Abel_, and the Distance run, it is apparent that the Islands _Chiametla_ mentioned, are the Islands here meant. _De Fonte_, after running one Hundred and sixty Leagues from the Isles of _Chiametla_, in Lat. 22 Deg. 10 Min. and Long. 114 Deg. 29 Min. attaining the Length of Cape _Abel_ in Latitude 26, his Course could not be North-west and West, but North-west by West westerly, or 61° 22´. _and_, instead of, _by_, may be supposed an Error of the Press. Dr. _Heylin_ mentions a convenient Haven named _St. Abad_, who wrote near these Times. But it is _Christabel_, or _Christeval_, the Name of a Cape the Extremity of the Land, which forms a Harbour or Port of the same Name _Christabel_. _Prieto_ mentions no Place on the main Land but the three Islands of _Casonas_, which lie off at Sea, so more to Westward than this Cape. They are in Lat. 26 Deg. Long. 122 Deg. 24 Min. the Longitude of Cape _Abel_ I make in 122 Deg. 11 Min. and he lays down the Point of _Madelena_ in 26 Deg. 30 Min. and the Long. 123 Deg. 24 Min. which seems to be the northermost Land of such Harbour. By _de Fonte_ mentioning the Latitude of this Cape, and not any other, he may be supposed to take from hence a new Departure, as was usual with the _Spaniards_ when they came to this Length in these Seas, so _Prieto_ mentions _Las Bajas de los Abraja, Primier Meridiano_. Lat. 25° 15´. Long. 121 Deg. 54 Min. from _Lima_. _De Fonte_ in his Run from _Chiametla_ met with contrary Winds; but when the Length of Cape _Abel_, he had Wind and Weather rather unexpected in those Parts; and the Spring not being much advanced, he rather expected to have been, at Times, under his Courses, which is meant by the Expression afterwards used, that he never had occasion to lower a Topsail, and is conformable with its being a steady Gale, or did not overblow. As the Run to _Los Reys_ terminated the fourteenth of _June_, _de Fonte_, for the whole eight Hundred and sixty Leagues, sailed after the Rate of forty-five Leagues in twenty-four Hours, which is consistent with and agreeable to the Seamens common Experience, when favoured with such Wind and Weather. Amongst the Islands would have the Assistance of the Floods, and Wind enough to stem the Ebbs. The Computation of the eight Hundred and sixty-six Leagues is four Hundred and ten Leagues to Cape _Blanquial_, to which there is a Course assigned North North-west; and as to four Hundred and fifty-six Leagues to _Rio los Reys_, no Courses are added, which we may assign to the Courses being originally in the Margin, when one was introduced into the Copy the other was neglected. And we have just Reason to suspect the Carelessness here, as it is first called _Cape Abel_, then _Port Abel_, and the River _Los Reys_ in 53 Degrees, and afterwards _Rio los Reys_, as tho' they were distinct and separate. With the N. N. W. Course _Rio los Reys_ could not be in the Latitude _de Fonte_ mentions. _Port Abel_, Latitude 26, Long. 122° 11´, and the _Callao_ of _Lima_, being laid down Longitude 60 West from the first Meridian of _Fero_, and hitherto we have carried on our Computation of Longitude 80 from _Paris_, we shall hereafter compute from _Fero_ and _London_; and Cape _Christabel_ we compute 102° 11´ from the Meridian of _Fero_, or 119° 46´ from the Meridian of _London_. The Course four Hundred and ten Leagues North North-west, _de Fonte_ made Cape _Blanquial_ in Latitude 45, Longitude from _London_ 129° 28´, from the Meridian of _Fero_ 111° 53´, to Northward and Westward of the Entrance of _Martin Aquilar_. Sufficient Observations have not been made to determine by the Geographers as to the true Latitudes and Longitudes of these Places, and, until they attain more perfect Informations, must disagree. The Course from _Blanquial_ is not inserted, but is to be determined by the Distance two Hundred and sixty Leagues, ending in Latitude 53 at _Rio los Reys_. _De Fonte_ had, during the whole Time between _Abel_ and _Los Reys_, the Wind in his Favour. Therefore his Course must have been to the Northward of the East; and if he run two Hundred and sixty Leagues, with a Course East 52° North, he would make 2 Deg. 1 Min. Latitude, and 20 Deg. 24 Min. Longitude. To correspond with which _de Fonte_ must, for the one Hundred and ninety-six Leagues, made his Course North 52 Deg. West, which would determine in Latitude 50 Deg. 59 Min. and in Long. 141 Deg. 12 Min. from _London_, in 123 Deg. 27 Min. West from _Fero_. _De Fonte_ would then be about thirty Leagues from the Land, agreeable to the _Russian_ Discoveries, tho' this Voyage was made so many Years before that Attempt; a great Evidence of the Authenticity of this Account. His Conduct also in this Case was necessary, consistent with the Character of a good Seaman, not to make the Coast direct, or immediately engage with this _Archipelago_, to which he was a Stranger, and in Parts unknown, or where he had no sailing Directions but to form such Course as gradually to fall in with the Land, and, as the Wind was, if he saw Occasion, could at any Time stand off. _De Fonte_ by this Course, agreeable to the Latitude of the _Suesta del Estrech D'Anian_, which is laid down by _Prieto_ in Latitude 51, would be to the Southern Part of the Entrance into such _Archipelago_, had he been Northward, as the Wind was, he would have regained it with great Difficulty and Loss of Time. As this Table of _Prieto_ was composed before the _Russian_ Discoveries, and this Land, the _Suesta del Estrech D'Anian_, is computed in Longitude 141 Deg. 47 Min. computing _Lima_ at 80 Deg. answerable to 238 Deg. 13 Min. East Longitude from _Fero_, it is a little singular that these Accounts should agree so well, as to the Longitude of this Part of _America_; is an Instance that _Prieto_ did not proceed upon vague Calculations; had acquired a more exact Account than could be even supposed in these unfrequented Parts, and in his Care and Exactness, as to the more known Parts, we have no Reason to doubt but he hath laid down the Latitude and Longitude of the _Suesta del Estrech de Anian_, with the greatest Certainty that he could attain to. I shall not controvert it whether these are the proper Streights of _Anian_. This Entrance was commonly called amongst the Navigators into those Parts by that Name, as is evident from former Accounts; and _Hornius_, from his Maps, which may be seen in _Purchase_, lays it down in the same Manner. My Intention is answered in producing an Authority from the _Spaniards_ of _New Spain_, that there is an Entrance here agreeable to the Account in this Letter; also, in all Appearance, a superior Entrance to that of _Martin Aguilar_, which _Prieto_ doth not expresly mention; neither could he properly; but inserts Cape _Escondido_ in Lat. 43, and Cape _Blanquial_ in Lat. 45, an intermediate Distance of one Hundred and twenty Miles. Again mentions the Port of _Salagua_ in Lat. 46, and then the Port of _Salado_ in Lat. 48; in which Interspace the Entrance of _de Fuca_ is supposed to be. By the Name _Archipelago_, _de Fonte_, who would give the Name with Propriety, expresses it to be a Sea; and on his Return says, he sailed down the River _Los Reys_ to the North-east _Part_ of the _South Sea_; after that returned home. Where the Word _Part_, properly speaking, or to use the Word as it really imports, can be no otherwise understood than as an Arm or Branch of the _South Sea_. Had he steered eight Hundred and sixty-six Leagues North North-west, he must necessarily have traversed the Courses of those brave Discoverers Capt. _Beering_ and _Tschirikow_, which were from Lat. 45 in _Asia_, to Lat. 56 and 58 in _America_, and who were not interrupted by any such Islands. Capt. _Tschirikow_ positively says, the Coast was without Islands where he was in Lat. 56; by Capt. _Beering_'s Account in Lat. 58, the Islands lay only _along_ the Coast; and _de Fonte_ in his Account mentions, that he sailed in crooked Channels, amongst Islands. These various Descriptions shew that these Accounts relate to various Parts. As _de Fonte_ could not, in the whole Extent between _Asia_ and _America_, meet with such Islands, and yet was under a Necessity to pass up crooked Channels, with no small Hazard, as the Boats being a-head express, his Course must have been to the Eastward of where Captain _Tschirikow_ fell in with the Land, and for the Distance of the two Hundred and thirty Leagues before _de Fonte_ came to a River, to _Los Reyes_, was then passing up the North-east Part of the _South Sea_, as he terms it, and in some Part of which there were Islands, which he names the _Archipelagus of St. Lazarus_. There is a Singularity of Expression in the Letter, _where_ his Boats always sailed a-head, the Word _where_ limits the Islands to a certain Space, and that they were not extended the whole two Hundred and thirty Leagues, which is consistent with the Expedition he made, as otherwise the Ships must have often shortened sail, and it could not be avoided, and must have frequently brought up at Night. As _de Fonte_ did neither make the South or North Shore of this Streight, the most comprehensive Way of expressing himself was to say, he passed up these Islands, by which those who had composed his Instructions well knew the Parts he meant. It must be considered _de Fonte_ was not as to this Part on Discovery, the Whole would be pointed out to him by his Instructions, which being to fall in with the Islands, or Entrance in such a Latitude, to mention either the North or South Limit of the Entrance would be improper; whereas the contrary was the Case as to Cape _St. Helena_, _Francisco_, _Passao_, and Cape _Abel_, as his Instructions were express, as to the making these Lands. As _de Fonte_ made a true Course East 81° North, subtract the Longitude 20 Deg. 24 Min. from the Longitude 141 Deg. 12 Min. from _London_, and from the 123 Deg. 27 Min. from _Fero_. The Entrance to the River _Los Reys_ lies in Lat. 53 Deg. Long. 120 Deg. 48 Min. from _London_, and 103 Deg. 3 Min. West from _Fero_. And that his Course was now Easterly is plain from the subsequent Words of the Letter, _as they sailed more Easterly_. It was also confident with the Purpose they were sent on, to meet a Vessel from _Boston_. 'The 22d of _June_ Admiral _de Fonte_ dispatched one of his Captains to _Pedro de Barnarda_, to sail up a fair River, a gentle Stream, and deep Water, went first N. and N. E. N. and N. W. into a large Lake full of Islands, and one very large _Peninsula_ full of Inhabitants, a friendly honest People in this Lake, he named Lake _Valasco_, where Captain _Barnarda_ left his Ship; nor all up the River was less than 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Fathom Water, both the Rivers and Lakes abounding with Salmon Trouts, and very large white Perch, some of two Foot long; and with three large _Indian_ Boats, by them called _Periagos_, made of two large Trees 50 or 60 Foot long. Capt. _Barnarda_ first sailed from his Ships in the Lake _Valasco_, one Hundred and forty Leagues West, and then 436 E. N. E. to 77 Degrees of Latitude. Admiral _de Fonte_, after he had dispatched Capt. _Barnarda_ on the Discovery of the North and East Part of the _Tartarian Sea_.' We may suppose, from the Manner in which this Part was managed, that there was a great Necessity to get the Translation finished in any Manner. As the Difficulties of the Translation increased, the Design of this Account being only Amusement, the Translator thought it would answer the Purpose to give the Account in gross. The Date, the 22d _June_, is an apparent Error, by reason _de Fonte_ did not enter into Lake _Belle_, as will be shewn hereafter, until that Time. Admiral _de Fonte_ dispatched one of his Captains to _Pedro de Barnarda_, to sail up a fair River, gentle Stream, and deep Water. Then the Translation breaks off abruptly, and the Translator renders the following Part as an Account of _Bernarda_'s Voyage, not observing how just a Connection there is with _de Fonte_ dispatching one of his Captains to _Bernarda_; and what follows being the Orders sent by him, and the Instructions for _Bernarda_; instead of being _Bernarda_'s Account of his Expedition, and not observing how consistent it is with being a summary Recital of those Instructions these Words are which follow, Admiral _de Fonte_, after he had dispatched Captain _Bernarda_ on the Discovery, _&c._ As to his dispatching one of his Captains, he must be supposed to have besides the Captain of the Ship he was in, also one called an Admiral's Captain. The Instructions were of such Consequence, that a less Person might not be so properly employed, nor consistent with the Respect due to _Bernarda_. _De Fonte_ and _Bernarda_ were Strangers here; but these Parts had been already discovered, as it is expresly said that _two Pater Jesuits_ had been here two Years, and made Observations as far as the Latitude 66. From their Discoveries we may conclude, that these Instructions were formed which _Bernarda_ received, and those of the whole Course of the Voyage; and it was necessary that _de Fonte_ should not only mention that he had dispatched _Bernarda_, but should also, with the Brevity due to a Letter, mention the Orders with which he dispatched him. And further from what is expressed in those Orders, as to the River, the Course and Soundings, what Fish were in the River and Lake, the Road or Harbour which was to be found in the Lake, the Temper and Disposition of the Inhabitants, it evidently appears that there had been a prior Discovery of these Parts, and Observations made of every Thing worthy of Consideration, and necessary also at this Time to be mentioned to _Bernarda_. To let him know that his Ship could pass up the River, would find a Harbour in the Lake, he had nothing to fear from the Natives, and would meet with Provisions. There leaving his Ship he might be furnished with _Periagos_ to proceed. And I understand his Directions to steer first North and North-east, then North and North-west, that he might make no Mistake by pursuing or entering into any other Openings which might present themselves in his Course up, and which from their Appearance might perplex him, as to which of them he was to enter; no uncommon Thing, as those who have been to Northward on like Undertakings will allow. 'The Admiral sailed up a very navigable River, which he named _Rio los Reys_, that run nearest N. E. but on several Points of the Compass 60 Leagues, at low Water, in a fair navigable Channel, not less than 4 or 5 Fathom Water. It flowed on both Rivers near the same Water, in the River _Los Reys_, 24 Feet Full and Change of the Moon; a S. S. E. Moon made high Water. It flowed in the River _Haro_, 22 Feet and a half Full and Change. They had two Jesuits with them, that had been on their Mission to 66 Degrees of North Latitude, and had made curious Observations.' _De Fonte_, having dispatched _Bernarda_, sets out on his Part of the Expedition, and proceeds up the River _Los Reys_, at the Entrance of which he had arrived the fourteenth of _June_. During his Stay, until _Bernarda_ was dispatched and sailed, he seems to have taken an accurate Account of the Tides in both Rivers. The Distance up the River was more than sixty Leagues, and though a good navigable Channel, yet would require a great Precaution in his Proceeding with the two Ships; Tide Times and the Night would make it necessary for him to bring too; for had he touched the Ground with either of them, the Delay that might have followed on such Accident, might have defeated this Part of the Undertaking, and the most important, and which, therefore, was allotted to him to execute. Their having had two Jesuits with them seems an additional Note. That two Jesuits should be sent into those Parts to make Observations, is but consistent with the general Practice of the Jesuits to go on Missions into all Parts of the Globe, engaged by a special Vow, not injoined any other Order, to be always ready to go and preach whithersoever they shall be sent. These Jesuits are by no Means a singular Instance of the People of that Order being great Adventurers, when we consider those who ventured to the _Philippinas_ and _Japan_, enforced by the Vow, puffed up with the Vanity of popular Applause, the Favour of the President, and the Hope of being acceptable to the rest of the Order on their return from such Mission, expecting by such Mission to add to the Wealth or Reputation of the Order. The Effect of this Mission seems to have been they had acquired the Favour of the Natives. Had made some Observations of the Country, but principally to Northward, as to which they seem not to have got a perfect Account; though they did a great deal for the Time, the Unseasonableness of the Winter, and the melting Weather in the Spring considered; nor is it strange they should not get a perfect Account, in a Country so intermixed with Waters, which hide themselves in their Courses between inaccessible Mountains; and in many Places where they are to be come at, are deceitful in their Appearance, as to what they really are, whether Lakes, Gulphs of the Sea, or Inlets. As they proceeded to the Northward, they thought it the Part that principally claimed their Observation. Were of Opinion as to the Northward, that it was Part of the Continent of _New Spain_, or they would not have lead _de Fonte_ to _Los Reys_, but caused him to proceed up that Streight which separated the Part they had been in from _New Spain_. As to this Mission not being known to the Publick, these Jesuits must have been sent from _Europe_ into _New Spain_; and they would so far regard their Obedience to the Pope, as to pay due Respect to the King of _Spain_'s Authority, in observing the established Maxim of the Time, as to keep their Discoveries a Secret from the Publick or other Nations. And as to all Missionaries who went into _New Spain_, the King of _Spain_ hath a Power to call them to Account, by the Pope's Permission, though not permitted in _Old Spain_ to meddle with ecclesiastical Affairs, or ecclesiastical Men. 'A Letter from Captain _Barnarda_, dated the 27th of _June_ 1740, that he had left his Ship in the Lake _Valasco_, betwixt the Islands _Barnarda_ and the Peninsula _Conibasset_, a very safe Port; it went down the River from the Lake 3 Falls, 80 Leagues, and fell into the _Tartarian_ Sea in 61 Deg. with the Pater Jesuits, and 36 Natives, in three of their Boats, and 20 of his _Spanish_ Seamen; that the Land trended away North East; that they should want no Provision, the Country abounding with Venison of three Sorts, and the Sea and Rivers with excellent Fish (Bread, Salt, Oil, and Brandy they carried with them) that he should do what was possible. The Admiral, when he received the Letter from Captain _Barnarda_, was arrived at an _Indian_ Town called _Conosset_, on the South Side Lake _Belle_, where the two Pater Jesuits on their Mission had been two Years; a pleasant Place. The Admiral, with his two Ships, enter'd the Lake the 22d of _June_.' The Letter from _Bernarda_ being dated the 27th of _June_, it is impossible he should finish all that Business in four Days, which he gives _de Fonte_ an Account of: This also confirms its being a Mistake as to the 22d of _June_, being the Time he received his Dispatches. It might well take _Bernarda_ from the fourteenth of _June_ to the twenty-seventh to receive his Dispatches, to pass up the River, and to the Peninsula in Lake _Valasco_, procure the Natives, who were not under his Command, get all Things fitted, and set out. And what this Letter contains, makes it evident it could be no Account of his Voyage that was before-mentioned. This Letter is apparently an Answer to the Dispatches _Bernarda_ received from _de Fonte_. He mentions, that he had left his Ship, agreeable to Orders, and in a safe Port; gives an Account how he was equipped to proceed; the Number of the Persons he had with him; that he had thirty-six of the Natives, which is conformable to the Character given of them, a friendly honest People, and shews the Influence of the Jesuits. These Natives, by joining in the Expedition, were Hostages for the good Behaviour of the others towards his People left behind, and an Assurance to _Bernarda_ for the Security of his Ship left at the Port, were of great Use as Pilots as to the Coast, and also in sailing and managing their _Periagos_. Their having these _Periagos_ implies they had a Country abounding with Waters; and it was their usual Way of passing from one Part to another, Time and Experience had made them expert in the Management of them; and by shifting from one Part to the other as the Seasons required for hunting or fishing, and by Excursions out of their own Country either for War or Curiosity, as is the Nature of _Indians_, they were become acquainted not only with the inland Waters, but also the Sea Coasts. _De Fonte_ had ordered Captain _Bernarda_ that he should sail one Hundred and fifty Leagues West (but is rather to be believed a Mistake from not understanding the Compass, _Oeste_ and _Este_ being so similar) and then four Hundred and thirty-six Leagues East North East to 77 Degrees of Latitude. In Answer to which _Bernarda_ here mentions, that from the Lake _Valasco_ there was a River in which there was three Falls, eighty Leagues in Distance, and fell into the _Tartarian Sea_, in Latitude 61; that the Land trended away North East, and that he would do what was possible. By which Expression it is plain, that he did not pursue the exact Course that _de Fonte_ directed; probably that Course was pointed out to _Bernarda_ by which the Jesuits had travelled to Latitude 66, but pursued a Course more immediate and direct to attain to Latitude 77, the Back of _Baffin_'s Bay, as to which the Natives had informed him; and that though he did not pursue the Course directed by _de Fonte_, which he found not to be so consistent with the Design he was sent on, yet he would do all that was possible to answer that Design. And the Expression also implies, that he was sensible he should meet with Difficulties, which he might expect from the Climate, the Ice, and the Fatigue; but as to the Article of Provisions, was in no Fear on that Account. As to what is mentioned as to Venison of three Sorts, they were the small Deer, the Moose, and the Elk, all which are in the Northern Parts about _Hudson_'s Bay, and the _Labrador_ Coast. The Name of _Haro_ given to the River is a particular Compliment to _Don Haro_, who was the Head of the Houses of _Valasco_; and the Name of _Valasco_, in Compliment to the other Houses, of that Family. Which Respect shewn by _de Fonte_ seems to indicate a particular Connection with, or his being related to that Family, as already mentioned. _Valasco_, as here wrote, with a _va_, as those Families did write it at that Time, and one of that Family, who was Constable of _Castile_, in his Titles is named _John Ferdinandes de Vallasco_, Constable of _Castilia_, &c. now Lord of the Houses of _Vallasco_, &c. and by the Orthography in the Letter being so conformable with that which was used at that Time, and not with a _ve_ as at present, we have very good Reason to suppose, that the Letter was not only wrote in _Spanish_, but also by _de Fonte_ on his return from his Voyage. Don _Ferdinandez_ was living in 1610, and succeeded by his Son, in his Title and Honour of Constable of _Castile_, _Don Bernardino_, who was living at the Time of the Voyage. 'The Admiral entered the Lake an Hour before high Water, and there was no Fall or Cataract, and 4 and 5 Fathom Water, and 6 and 7 Fathom Water generally in the Lake _Belle_. There is a little Fall of Water half Flood, and an Hour and Quarter before high Water the Flood begins to set gently into Lake _Belle_: The River is fresh at 20 Leagues Distance from the Mouth or Entrance of the River _Los Reyes_. The River and Lake abounds with Salmon, Salmon Trouts, Pikes, Perch and Mullets, and two other Sorts of Fish peculiar to that River, admirable good; and Lake _Belle_ also abounds with all those Sorts of Fish large and delicate: And Admiral _de Fonte_ also says, the Mullets catched in _Rios Reyes_ and Lake _Belle_, are much delicater than are to be found, he believes, in any Part of the World.' _De Fonte_ was not inactive from the 14th to the 22d of _June_. Various Courses, contrary Winds, waiting for the Tides at times; from the Circumstance of the Tide as to Lake _Belle_, that there is a Fall until half Flood, and it is an Hour and Quarter only before high Water that the Flood makes in, evidences that there was a Current against him; and it is further evident, as on his return he was but two Days running from _Conosset_ to the Entrance of the River _Los Reyes_. _De Fonte_ is very particular in his Account, being now to take a Survey of the Parts through which a Passage was expected, and in which Parts he now was. He mentions the Trial of the Tides at _Los Reyes_ and _Haro_; gives a particular Account of the Navigation up _Los Reyes_, and to Lake _Belle_; that it was fresh Water after they were sixty Miles up the River; and what is no immaterial Circumstance in this Affair, shews how far the Waters from Westward flowed up, which he instances in the Account of the Fish. That such as came out of the Sea into the Land or fresh Waters to spawn at those Seasons, and afterwards return to the Sea, went no further than Lake _Belle_; for here he found the Mother Fish, as he describes them, large and delicate, superior to those in the River, and indulges his Fancy, so delicate as, he believes, they are not to be exceeded in any other Part of the World. _De Fonte_, in his Orders to _Bernarda_, shewed it was fresh Water in Part of _Haro_, and in the Lake _Conibasset_, from the Salmon and Perch, in which he means Sea Perch, which come into fresh Waters at this Season of the Year. 'The first of _July_ 1640, Admiral _de Fonte_ sailed from the rest of his Ships in the Lake _Belle_, in a good Port, covered by a fine Island, before the Town of _Conosset_, from thence to a River I named _Parmentiers_, in Honour of my industrious judicious Comrade Mr. _Parmentiers_, who had most exactly marked every Thing in and about that River.' We now proceed to consider the Remainder of Admiral _de Fonte_'s Letter, which was published in _June_ 1708. Admiral _de Fonte_, when he received the Letter from Capt. _Bernarda_, was arrived at an _Indian_ Town called _Conosset_, in the Lake _Belle_; and as he entered such Lake the twenty-second, probably arrived at the Town the same Day; staid eight Days, and then sailed the first of _July_. That _Bernarda_ should write, as to the Situation of his Affairs, must have been before concerted between them, they having been informed by the Jesuits or _Parmentiers_, that it was practicable for _Bernarda_ to send such Message, that the Admiral might know whether _Bernarda_ had met with any Accident as to his Ship, or any other Obstacle to his Proceeding, as he might assist him from those Ships Companies then with the Admiral. How the Letter was conveyed is not expressed; probably by a Seaman with an _Indian_ Guide (the Distance between the Admiral and _Bernarda_, at this Time, will be considered hereafter) who would use all possible Expedition both by Land and Water: Had the Advantage of very short Nights. _De Fonte_ would not proceed until he received this Account, though ready as soon as he received it. As _de Fonte_ sailed on the first of _July_, that Account must have come to his Hand the thirtieth of _June_. The Ships being secure in a good Harbour, and the Command left with _Ronquillo_, the Admiral proceeds to the River _Parmentiers_, so named in Honour of Mons. _Parmentiers_, whom he stiles his Comrade, and commends his Industry and Judgment in the Survey of such River, and the Parts adjacent. From his being stiled his Comrade, he was in no Command, as he could not have a Commission without having been bred in the Service, and a Native of _Spain_. Therefore being a Person immediately necessary for to have on this Occasion, he is introduced under the Character of a Friend and Companion. Mr. _Gage_ mentions, Chap. xv. of his new Survey of the _West Indies_, one _Thomas Rocalono_, a _Frenchman_, a Prior of the Cloister of _Cemitlan_, who, with himself, was the only Stranger in that Country, by which he means in that Part where he was; and it implies there being others in other Parts, which falsifies the Assertion that no _Frenchman_ was ever admitted in _Peru_. The Countries of _Quivira_ and _Anian_ were represented, at that Time, to be barren or desolate; as is also evident from the Description of the Inhabitants eating raw Flesh, drinking Blood, and in all Respects suitable to the Character of the _Eskemaux Indians_, who by Choice, not Necessity, make Use of such Diet when out a hunting or travelling, which expresses those Parts to be very inhospitable, and where the _Indians_ only frequent at certain Seasons, in Pursuit of the wild Game, and for fishing. And _Cibola_ is represented as a Country which hath a Cultivation, where the _Indians_ constantly live, and seem a different People from those of _Quivira_ and _Anian_. This is agreeable to the Accounts given at that Time, which is sufficient to shew that the Jesuits could not expect that they should be able, or would undertake to pass through such a Country as _Quivira_ and _Anian_ in Pursuit of their Discoveries to Northward; therefore must have taken some Opportunity of being conveyed there, which could only be by some Persons who had been on these Coasts, and had, through Necessity, Interest, or Curiosity, passed up these Waters, and surveyed the adjacent Country in Pursuit of something which might turn out to their private Emolument: Nor were such Attempts unprecedented, even on our Parts, though the Hazards were much greater. The private Trade carried on by the People from _Boston_, in _Hudson_'s Bay, before there was a Grant to the Company; which Trading might not have come to the Knowledge of the People in _England_, or been known to the Publick for a Series of Years, had it not been for an Accident which happened to Captain _Gillam_, who thereupon made a Discovery of this Trade. Nor is there the least Improbability but that _Parmentiers_ had, on some Occasion, introduced himself into these Parts, had invited the Jesuits to a Mission there, who, on other Missions, had undertaken what hath been much more hazardous, and succeeded. There were sufficient Motives for that Undertaking; the Northern Bounds were then unknown, so that they could not affirm _America_ to be Continent, nor certainly to be an Island distinguished from the old World. This is the Account Mr. _Gage_ gives us, Chap. xiii. and mentioning that he will not write, as many do, by Relation and Hearsay, but by more sure Intelligence, Insight and Experience. He says _Quivira_ is seated on the most Western Part of _America_, just over against _Tartary_; from whence, being not much distant, some suppose that the Inhabitants came into this new World. The West Side of _America_, if it be not Continent with _Tartary_, it yet disjoined by a small Streight. Here then was a sufficient Matter to encourage a Mission of this Sort, and to keep a Progress to the Eastward, or in _America_, with the Discoveries that were going on by the Missionars sent to _Japan_; and there was a Propriety in this being done, as the Coasts of both were supposed to be at no great Distance from each other: And this was expresly the Purpose of their Mission, as it is said they had been to Latitude 66, and made curious Observations, on which Account they were with _Bernarda_. As _Parmentiers_ went to the Eastward with _de Fonte_, who must have had a different Motive from them for coming into those Parts, he must have had his own private Emolument in view, his better Success in which depended on his Secrecy, as he thereby prevented others from interfering; which Consideration would prevail with him, as with all Traders, superior to any Satisfaction the Publick might have from his Informations; and as Trade would be carried on most successfully where the Inhabitants were more numerous, we find he had found his Way to Eastward, apparently the most populous, as the Jesuits had gone to the Northward and Westward, principally as most consistent with their Plan; tho' _Conosset_ was where the Jesuits had been first introduced, where their courteous Behaviour and Management of the Natives, would be of Advantage to _Parmentiers_. In searching for the most popular and inhabited Part of the Country, he would become acquainted with the Geography of those Parts necessarily, Depths of Water, Shoals, Tides, which his own Preservation, and the better conducting of himself would naturally lead him to observe; but there might be a more particular Reason for his Observation of the River _Parmentiers_, and of all the Parts about it; and therefore he had been so exact as to the Falls, which were the Obstruction of the Ship Navigation through to the Eastern Sea, that lay beyond the Streights of _Ronquillo_, for his own private Advantage; by opening a new and extensive Trade, he would have greatly promoted it if he had found this Communication practicable for Ships of Burthen. The People that Captain _Tchirikow_ met with on the Coast is no Objection to the Character given of those within Land in this Letter, as it is from Experience known that the _Eskemaux_, who are along the Coast of the _Labrador_, are cruel and thievish; but that _Indians_ of a different Disposition live within Land. As to _Parmentiers_ being the general Interpreter for all, he is not said to be so. He would, for the Benefit it would be to him in his Trade, endeavour to learn the Language, and would of course acquire something of it unavoidably, as he frequented amongst the _Indians_: And it must be observed, though there are many different Nations, and there is a Difference in Dialect, yet there is a Language which all those Nations will understand, called the Council Language. That Voyages had been made to these Parts more than once is evident, as the Jesuits staid there two Years, therefore did not return with the same Opportunity by which they came there, but another; and it is probable that there had been a Voyage prior to that, which had encouraged them to undertake this Mission. In what Manner _de Fonte_ proceeded, the Boats and Number of Persons he had with him, the Translator hath omitted. It is mentioned, that _de Fonte_ sailed from the rest of his Ships; the River _Parmentiers_ hath Falls of thirty-two Feet perpendicular Height from its Source to where it issues into Lake _de Fonte_; so again, on the South Side Lake _Belle_ on board our Ships; and had it been with his Ship, his Inference that there was no North-west Passage would have been unjust, as his meeting with this Ship the Vessel from _Boston_, would have effectually proved the contrary. 'We passed eight Falls, in all 32 Foot, perpendicular from its Source out of Lake _Belle_; it falls into the large Lake I named Lake _de Fonte_, at which Place we arrived the 6th of _July_. This Lake is 160 Leagues long, and 60 broad; the Length is East North East, and West South West, to twenty or thirty, in some Places sixty Fathom deep; the Lake abounds with excellent Cod and Ling, very large and well fed; there are several very large Islands, and ten small ones; they are covered with shrubby Woods; the Moss grows six or seven Foot long, with which the Moose, a very large Sort of Deer, are fat with in the Winter, and other lesser Deer, as Fallow, _&c._ There are Abundance of wild Cherries, Strawberries, Hurtleberries, and wild Currants; and also of wild Fowls, Heath Cocks and Hens; likewise Partridges and Turkeys; and Sea Fowl in great Plenty. On the South Side the Lake is a very large fruitful Island, had a great many Inhabitants, and very excellent Timber, as Oaks, Ashes, Elm and Fir Trees, very large and tall.' We here again see the Form of the Letter, _de Fonte_ expressing himself, as in the first Part of the Letter, _I named Parmentiers_, _my industrious_; and there are other Instances. The River _Parmentiers_, which is the Communication by which the Waters of Lake _Belle_ are conveyed into the Lake _de Fonte_, so named we may suppose not in Compliment to himself, which would be absurd, but of his Family, as the Expression is, _I named Lake de Fonte_, though it almost deserves the Name of a Mediterranean Sea; but from having a superior Water near it, with which it communicated, _de Fonte_ calls it a Lake. It is not a casual naming of Places, or Waters, as _Hudson_'s Bay, given to that great Mediterranean Sea, and continued, but the Names of the Waters he passed through, would be given with Exactness and Propriety. In the Lake _de Fonte_ there was a great Depth of Water, also Banks, as there is said to be in some Parts twenty or thirty Fathom Water, as is also evident from the Cod and Ling there, and which instance it to be a Salt Water Lake. It was the Season when these Fish come to the Northward to spawn. The shrubby Wood on the Islands, the Moss for the Subsistence of the Deer hanging on the Trees, the wild Cherries and other Fruits ripening at that Season of the Year, are all corresponding Tokens of his being advanced to the North-east Part of _America_, is agreeable in all the above Respects to the Country Northward and Westward in _Canada_, about the River _St. Lawrence_, to the interior Parts of the Country of _Labrador_, in Lat. 56; but as you proceed further to Northward, the high rocky Mountains, which in this Part are only confined to the Coast, then extend more inland, increase in their Height, and in Lat. 59° and 60°, the whole Country, as far as _Baffin_'s Bay, seems to consist only of Ridges of barren Mountains, interspersed with Waters; and the Progress of the Productions, as to Trees and Plants, gradually decreases from a more flourishing to an inferior Sort, as you proceed to Northward; in Lat. 59, on the Western Side of _Hudson_'s Bay to the Northward of _Seal_ River, there is no Wood, only Grass and a small Shrub of about a Foot in Heighth, which continues, as far as it is known to Westward, and a thin Soil, with a hard rocky Stone just below the Surface, and very frequently there are large Ponds of standing Water. _De Fonte_ seems to have made a Stop at the Island at the South of Lake _de Fonte_, to take Refreshment, and make Inquiry as to the _Boston_ Ship, it being out of his Course, or on any other Account to go there. 'The 14th of _July_ we sailed out of the East North-east End of the Lake _de Fonte_, and passed a Lake I named the _Estricho de Ronquillo_, thirty-four Leagues long, two or three Leagues broad, twenty, twenty-six and twenty-eight Fathom of Water; we passed this Streight in ten Hours, having a stout Gale of Wind, and a whole Ebb. As we sailed more Easterly the Country grew very sensibly worse.' What follows, 'as it is in the North and South Parts of _America_,' appears to me an additional Comment. _De Fonte_ mentions, as he went more Easterly the Country grew worse; from which it may be supposed he found the Alteration to begin when he was come to the Eastern Part of the Lake, and more so, as he passed the Streights of _Ronquillo_. Where the Streight of _Ronquillo_ terminated _de Fonte_ makes no mention; gives us no Account of the Soundings or Tides; but his Silence here, and the preceding Circumstances, sufficiently prove that he thought himself then in some Branch of the _Atlantick Ocean_. And it is to be observed there is the same affected Silence here as to the Part he was come into, as when he had left the Western Ocean and entered the North-east Part of the _South Sea_ to pass up to _Los Reys_. 'The 17th we came to an _Indian_ Town, and the _Indians_ told our Interpreter Mons. _Parmentiers_, that a little Way from us lay a great Ship, where there never had been one before.' The _Indian_ telling the Interpreter _Parmentiers_, which expresses a Kind of Acquaintance made between them, and _de Fonte_'s passing out of the Lake into the Sea, coming to a Town, and _Parmentiers_ knowing the Language, is an Evidence of _Parmentiers_' having been there before. And we may suppose, that from the Time they left the River _Parmentiers_, _de Fonte_ had been on the Inquiry, it being now Time to expect the People from _Boston_; and what the _Indian_ told him was in pursuance of such Inquiry. 'We sailed to them, and found only one Man advanced in Years, and a Youth; the Man was the greatest Man in the Mechanical Parts of the Mathematicks, I had ever met with; my second Mate was an _Englishman_, an excellent Seaman, as was my Gunner, who had been taken Prisoners at _Campechy_, as well as the Master's Son; they told me the Ship was of _New England_, from a Town called _Boston_. The Owner and the whole Ship's Company came on board the thirtieth; and the Navigator of the Ship, Captain _Shapley_, told me, his Owner was a fine Gentleman, and _Major General_ of the largest Colony in _New England_, called the _Maltechusets_; so I received him like a Gentleman, and told him my Commission was to make a Prize of any People seeking a North-west or West Passage into the _South Sea_; but I would look on them as Merchants trading with the Natives for Bevers, Otters and other Furs and Skins, and so for a small Present of Provisions I had no need on, I gave him my Diamond Ring, which cost me twelve Hundred Pieces of Eight (which the modest Gentleman received with difficulty) and having given the brave Navigator _Captain Shapley_, for his fine Charts and Journals, a Thousand Pieces of Eight, and the Owner of the Ship, _Seimor Gibbons_, a quarter Cask of good _Peruan_ Wine, and the ten Seamen, each twenty Pieces of Eight, the sixth of _August_, with as much Wind as we could fly before and a Current, we arrived at the first Fall of the River _Parmentiers_.' _De Fonte_ makes no Delay, but immediately proceeds as the Case required; finds an old Man aboard, the Man (as being a great Mechanick might be very useful on such an Expedition) and a Youth, might venture to stay, their Age would plead as to any Severity that might be intended by _de Fonte_; and through the Fear of which Severity the others retired into the Woods, where they could manage without being sensible of those Difficulties which _Europeans_ apprehend. To leave the Ship without any one aboard, _de Fonte_ could of Course have taken her as being deserted; and by their Retirement into the Woods, his Pursuit of them there would have alarmed the _Indians_, and more especially if he had attempted any Severity, it might have been fatal to him and his Company, from the Resistance they might have met with, not only from the _Boston_ People, but the _Indians_ assisting them, as they would have considered it as an Insult, an Exercise of Power which they would apprehend he had no Right to use in those Parts, as to a People who were trading with them, and been the Occasion that the _Spaniards_ would have been no more received as Friends in those Parts. _De Fonte_ had particularly provided himself with some _Englishmen_, who, by a friendly Converse with the People from _Boston_, might endeavour to learn their Secrets, and prepare them the better by what they would be instructed to tell them to come to a Compliance with the Admiral's Intentions. The Result of this Affair _de Fonte_ only mentions; but they would not have staid away so long, would have returned sooner aboard, had they only left the Ship on Account of Trade. Trade was only a secondary Object, the Discovery was the principal, and they would not have staid in one Place, at this Season, had they not been necessitated through a Fear of _de Fonte_ so to do. It may be supposed the _Englishmen_ who were with _de Fonte_, two of whom were from _Campechy_, and the other become Catholick, as he was married to the Master's Daughter, they would not act either with much Sincerity or Truth as to their own Countrymen, but managed with the old Man to bring the Owner, Navigator, and rest of the Crew aboard. On their return the Navigator of the Ship was the first who waited on the Admiral, and he calls him Captain _Shapley_, his Name _Nicholas Shapley_, who was famous as a Navigator, for his Knowledge in the Mathematicks and other Branches of Science, that the common People supposed he dealt in the Magick Art, and had the Name given him of _Old Nick_, not by the People of _Boston_, but by a Set of Libertines as they termed them, and who had separated from the People of _Boston_, and gone to live by themselves at _Piscatua_, where he was settled at a Place called _Kittery_, in the Province of _Main_; the Name of _Kittery_ given by his Brother _Alexander Shapley_, to a Tract of Land he had settled on there; and they write the Name _Shapley_ exactly in the Manner in which it is wrote in the Letter. The Brother _Alexander_ was a Cotemporary at _Oxford_ with Captain _James_, who went on Discovery, and his Acquaintance. The Descendants of _Alexander_, a genteel People, were not many Years since living at _Kittery_; but _Nicholas Shapley_ retired to _New London_, where he had a Son that was living in the Year one Thousand seven Hundred and fifty-two, a Fisherman. The Family at _Kittery_ were very shy as to giving any Information as to what they knew in this Affair, upon an Application by the Author of these Observations, or looking into _Alexander_'s Papers, as an officious Person had got beforehand, and discouraged them from giving any Gratification of this Sort, under Pretence, if their Papers were seen, it might give some Insight into a Lawsuit depending between the Branches of the Family, or expected to be commenced; and that there was a great Reward for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, which, if the Account was attained from them they would be intitled to a Part, which by this Means they would be deprived of. Jealousies of this Kind raised by a pretended, at least an ignorant Friend, against the Application of a Stranger, who assured them he was superior to any Trick of that Sort, and would give them any Satisfaction in his Power as they should propose, occasioned a Disappointment. The Son of Captain _Nicholas_, upon an Application made by the Author likewise, had nothing but his Father's Sea Chest, in which, there were once a great many Papers, and which his Mother, the Wife of Captain _Nicholas_, made a great Account of; but the Son being an illiterate Man, had made Use of them in the Family as waste Paper. I have mentioned him as illiterate, but he was a well meaning Man, and he had heard his Mother talk something about such an Affair; but I shall not lay a Stress upon the Account he gave, as he may be supposed prompted by the earnest Manner of the Inquiry to give grateful Answers, in Expectation of a Reward. The Number of Settlers in all _Piscatua_, the Province of _Main_ included, did not at that Time exceed four Hundred People, but is now become a well settled Country; yet there was amongst the antient People about _Kittery_, a Tradition of Captain _Nicholas_ having been on such a Voyage, and as to which, on proper Application to Persons who have Influence, and will make due Inquiry, it appears to me the Publick will receive a farther Satisfaction than they may at present expect. A considerable Merchant who lived at _Falmouth_ in _Piscatua_, a Man of Character, no Way biassed for or against a North-west Passage, but as he is since dead, I may take the Liberty to say, married a Daughter of his late Excellency Governor _Weymouth_, mentioned an Anecdote respecting his Father, who was a very antient Man: That when the Dispute was between the late Governor _Dobbs_ and Captain _Middleton_, he said, Why do they make such a Fuzz about this Affair, our _Old Nick_ (meaning Captain _Shapley_) was through there? And this antient Gentleman had been an Intimate of Captain _Shapley_'s. Early in the Year before this Voyage Major General _Gibbons_ went with others over to _Piscatua_, to have a Conference about Church Matters; and Mr. _Alexander Shapley_ was one on the Part of the Settlers in _Piscatua_, and who had but returned from _England_ the Fall before. At this Meeting, probably, they fixed on the Time and Manner of executing the Design, which they had before concerted. This whole Affair was concerted in an obscure Part, the Affair not known to the People of _Boston_, as it was more to the Purpose of those who undertook it to keep it a Secret; and probably Major _Gibbons_ was more inclined it should be so, as he had before met with two Disappointments. The Characters of the Persons were such, as by whom it is very reasonable to suppose such an Expedition might be undertaken. Mr. _Alexander Shapley_ was a Merchant, a lively, active, enterprising Man; sufficient to this Purpose hath been said of his Brother: And we may add to the Character of Major General _Gibbons_, it was said of him, that he was much of a Gentleman, a brave, social and friendly Man, had the latter End of the Year 1639 a Commission to be Captain of the Fort, was one of the Council, also concerned in Church Matters, as appears from Records. But during the Time that this Voyage was making, that worthy Pastor of _Boston_ and great Antiquarian Mr. _Prince_, who, from a generous Disposition to get at the Truth, used extraordinary Industry in this Affair, by searching the Records in the old Church there in the Year 1752, could not find his Hand set to any Thing, or any Matters relating to Major General _Gibbons_, tho' he found Papers signed by him frequently before, and other Transactions in which he is mentioned to be concerned, also after the Time of this Voyage, and the only Objection that he could find was, that the Wife of Major General _Gibbons_ must have had a seven Months Child, if he went on such Voyage, as it was a Custom in the Church of _Boston_, at that Time, that the Child should be brought to be baptized the _Sunday_ after it was born; and by the Register it appears that this was the Case, according to the Time that it must be supposed he returned. The Name was _Edward Gibbons_; and _Seimor_ is a Mistake of the Translator, not observing that as _de Fonte_ respectfully stiles _Shapley_ Captain, he would not mention the Owner by his Christian Name only, a fine Gentleman and a Major General, but stiles him agreeable thereto after the _Spanish_ Manner _Sennor_; and this Mistake of the Translator, as to the Name, and not observing that the _Major General_ and the Owner were one and the same Person, shews that the Translator and Editors knew nothing of the Persons mentioned. What is said of the largest Colony in _New England_, called the _Maltechusets_: The Dominions of _New England_ consisted, at that Time, of the Colonies of _Plymouth_, _Massachusets_, and _Connecticut_, of which _Massachusets_ was the largest, as _New Hampshire_, _Piscatua_, and the Province of _Main_, were under its Jurisdiction: And it is a little remarkable that the Admiral should call it the _Maltechusets_; he apprehended it a Mistake, though so exact as to the Names _Shapley_ and _Gibbons_; seems to have given the Alteration agreeable to his own Ideas, and that it must have Reference to _Malta_. The old Man told them the Ship was of _New England_, from the Town called _Boston_, which was the only Place where they could fit out properly or conveniently, the Part where _Shapley_ lived consisting only of a few scattered Houses, and as it was very frequent from _Boston_ to make Voyages to the Northward, their true Design for further Discoveries might remain a Secret to all but themselves. _De Fonte_'s Address to _Gibbons_ as the Owner, represented so on this Occasion to serve the Purpose, though the Vessel seems to have been _Alexander Shapley_'s, implies that he understood, or took the Advantage on finding they had been trading with the _Indians_, that they had two Purposes in their Undertaking, to discover a Passage, and to trade. As to the first, _de Fonte_ tells him he had an Order to make a _Prize of any People seeking a West or North-west Passage_, speaking in general Terms, not of them only, so concealing the Advice he had received as to their particular undertaking of this Discovery; nor could it be peculiarly understood as to the Subjects of _England_, for the _Danes_ also, to their immortal Honour, had before attempted the same Discovery; and in Consequence let him know that the Part he was in was of the Dominions of the Crown of _Spain_, as his Commission could be of no Force beyond the Extent of that Dominion. _De Fonte_'s Address likewise implied, that as he would consider them only as Traders, that he would not make Prisoners of them on that Account; but expected after this Adventure that others would learn to keep nearer home, for Fear of falling into a like Accident, and meeting not with the same favourable Treatment. Nevertheless he takes effectual Measures to embarrass them on their Return, and obliges them to stay no longer in those Parts, as he takes from them what _de Fonte_ calls a small Present of Provisions, which he had no Need on, but he knew they might, and as to which, the Affair of Provisions, he gave such an Attention to, through the Course of his Voyage; and though small what he accepted in respect to the Subsistance of those he had with him, yet as the Sequel will shew, was afterwards the Occasion of infinite Distress to the _Boston_ People. The Gift in return, which is pompously mentioned at twelve Hundred Pieces of Eight, when we consider the Price Things bore of this Sort where he purchased it, in _Peru_, as he estimates by Pieces of Eight, the Manner of Valuation in those Parts, would not be to _Gibbons_ a Hundred Pounds Sterling; and the Present to the Seamen must be considered as in lieu of these Provisions; and by this Means of mutual Presents countenanced what was absolutely extorted by Force, as was the Case with _Shapley_, as to his Charts and Journals, which he would not have parted with, but constrained through Fear; and by his _English_ Seamen _de Fonte_ could let them know that the Provisions, Charts, and Journals would be acceptable. He executed his Design in this Manner, that if the _Boston_ People returned there could be no proper Foundation for the Court of _England_ to take Umbrage at his Proceeding. The Generosity of _de Fonte_ so exceeding what their Present and the Charts and Journals could be worth, would be considered as to make them some Satisfaction for their Disappointment; for the Fears they had been put into, and their being detained there; the Gift of Wine, might be from a Respect to _Major General Gibbons_, as an Officer, whom _de Fonte_ stiles modest, tho' he might perceive it to be the Effect of his Uneasiness on being thus intercepted. In all other Respects, what he gave was a Debt which the Crown of _Spain_ would pay, would be considered as Money advanced in their Service; a Sum of no Consideration with them, as he had met with these People, procured their Charts by which they got into the Secret, by what Way they had advanced so far, and probably very particular Charts and Journals of the other Voyagers whom _Gibbons_ was acquainted with; and he would endeavour to be furnished with all Materials which he could probably procure before that he set out. It would be greatly commended by the Court of _Spain_ the artful Management of _de Fonte_ in distressing these People, and not with a seeming Intention, and giving an absolute Discouragement to other Adventurers, who would be afraid of falling into the _Spaniards_ Hands, whom it would be supposed constantly frequented those Parts. _De Fonte_ only mentions the Issue of this Affair, what would be immediately necessary for the Court to know; he mentions no intervening Circumstances, nor what Time there was between their Examination and the Presents, whether he or they sailed first, but it must be supposed they were more than a Day together, and that _de Fonte_ would see them out of those Parts, as, if they had staid longer, they might probably have supplied themselves well with Provisions, and proceeded further; but as they were circumstanced, they would be put under a Necessity to set out for home, would be glad to leave him the first Opportunity; and as _de Fonte_ seems to be waiting for a Wind, which he had the sixth of _August_, and it had in the interim been fair for the _Boston_ People, they were certainly gone before that _de Fonte_ set out on his Return. In the Ecclesiastical History of _New England_, by the Reverend _Cotton Mather_, published at _London_ in 1702, in Folio, in his Account of wonderful Sea Deliverances, Book the sixth, is _The wonderful Story of Major Gibbons_. 'Among remarkable _Sea Deliverances_, no less than three several Writers have published that wherein Major _Edward Gibbons_ was concerned. A Vessel bound from _Boston_ to some other Parts of _America_, was, through the Continuance of contrary Winds, kept so long at Sea, that the People aboard were in extreme straits for Want of Provision, and seeing that nothing here below could afford them any Relief, they looked upwards unto Heaven, in humble and fervent Supplications. The Winds continuing still as they were, one of the Company made a sorrowful Motion that they should, by a _Lot_, single out _One_ to die, and by Death to satisfy the ravenous Hunger of the rest. After many a doleful and fearful Debate upon this Motion, they came to a Result, that _it must be done_! The _Lot_ is cast; one of the Company is taken; but where is the Executioner that shall do the terrible Office upon a poor Innocent? It is a Death now to think who shall act this bloody Part in the Tragedy: But before they fall upon this involuntary and unnatural Execution, they once more went unto their zealous _Prayers_; and, behold, while they were calling upon God, he answered them, for there leaped a mighty Fish into their Boat, which, to their double Joy, not only quieted their outrageous Hunger, but also gave them some Token of a further Deliverance: However, the Fish is quickly eaten; the horrible _Famine_ returns, the horrible Distress is renewed; a black Despair again seizes their Spirits: For another Morsel they come to a second _Lot_, which fell upon another Person; but still they cannot find an Executioner: They once again fall to their importunate Prayers; and, behold, a second Answer from above; a great Bird lights, and fixes itself on the mast; one of the Men spies it, and there it stands until he took it by the Wing with his Hand. This was a second _Life from the Dead_. This Fowl, with the Omen of a further Deliverance in it, was a sweet Feast unto them. Still their Disappointments follow them; they can see no Land; they know not where they are: Irresistable Hunger once more pinches them: They have no Hope to be saved but by _a third Miracle_: They return to another _Lot_; but before they go to the Heart-breaking Talk of slaying the Person under _Designation_, they repeat their Addresses unto the God of Heaven, their former _Friend in Adversity_; and now they look and look again, but there is nothing: Their Devotions are concluded, and nothing appears; yet they hoped, yet they staid, yet they lingered: At last one of them spies a Ship, which put a new Hope and Life into them all: They bear up with their Ship; they man their Longboat; they go to board the Vessel, and are admitted. It proves a _French_ Pyrate: Major _Gibbons_ Petitions for a little Bread, and offers all for it; but the Commander was one who had formerly received considerable Kindnesses of Major _Gibbons_ at _Boston_, and now replied chearfully, Major _Gibbons_, not an Hair of you, or your Company, shall _perish if it lies in my Power to_ preserve _you_. Accordingly he supplied their Necessities, and they made a comfortable End of their Voyage.' There are nine other Accounts, in each of which the Places the Persons were bound to are particularly mentioned. In this Account (the Design being only to shew the wonderful Deliverance of _Gibbons_) Dr. _Mather_ could not mention the Place to which the Voyage had been made in any other Manner, than _to some other Parts of America_, which hath an exact Correspondence with the Voyage in which Major _Gibbons_ was intercepted by _de Fonte_; for that Voyage was properly to several Parts, not being to one particular Part of _America_; which Parts were, at that Time, nameless. It is said further, that their Misfortune was occasioned by contrary Winds. _De Fonte_ had a fair Wind from the sixth of _August_ to the fifth of _September_, and for a longer Time, so contrary to the _Boston_ Ship; afterwards they had the Wind again contrary, when they came into the Ocean, being North-west or to Westward of it, as they could see no Land; the Land expected to be seen may be supposed the Land of _Newfoundland_, or they were to Eastward and Southward of the Gulph of _St. Lawrence_: And which Account of the Weather is agreeable to the Time of the Year that they were there, the latter End of _September_, or Beginning of _October_, being the Equinoctial Gales. Also as to the Fish which must have been a Sturgeon, which Fish frequently jump into Boats; and shews, as the Boat was out, that they had then moderate Weather, but contrary; though a hard Gale succeeded, as one of the Birds of Passage, which are also then going to Southward, was blown off the Coast and tired, rested on the Mast. Far be it from me to reckon these as mere Accidents, and not the Assistances of the Almighty, but a Relief which the Almighty sent them by Contingencies which are natural: And as to the Ship, which was a _French_ Pirate, she had probably come with a fresh Wind out of the Gulph of _St. Lawrence_, and Standing to Eastward of _Sables_ to clear that Island and _Nautuchet_, for which she had a fair Wind; and it is said the Commander had an Acquaintance with Major _Gibbons_, and received Favours from him at _Boston_; but I must add an Anecdote, to shew that there might also be another Reason assigned, which would not be suitable to be published with that Account; _Alexander Shapley_ had used to hold a Correspondence with these Kind of Gentry, as is evident from a severe Censure on him on that Account, recorded in the Council Book at _Boston_. It was a _Ship_ that Major _Gibbons_ was in when intercepted by _de Fonte_; and this Account also mentions a Ship. After the Death of _Major Gibbons_, his Family, according to the Account of a very ancient Gentlewoman at _Boston_, removed to _Bermuda_; which Lady, who was near ninety Years of Age, had some traditional Account of the _Major_ having been such a Voyage to discover a new Way to the _East Indies_, and suffered much from the Snow and Ice, went through a great many Hardships, and, she said, she thought it was from _Boston_ that he set out. The Persons discovered by Mons. _Groseliers_, at what he calls an _English_ Settlement, near Port _Nelson_, as it is now termed, were _Benjamin_ the Son of Captain _Zachary Gillam_, and some others, from _Boston_, who were the same Year taken to _Canada_, whose Journal of that Voyage the Author hath seen, and this Circumstance is mentioned in it, which Persons have been mistaken for Major _Gibbons_ and his Company. 'We arrived at the River _Parmentiers_ the 11th of _August_ 86 Leagues, and was on the South Side Lake _Belle_ on board our Ships the 16th of _August_, before the fine Town _Conosset_, where we found all Things well, and the honest Natives of _Conosset_ had, in our Absence, treated our People with great Humanity, and Capt. _de Ronquillo_ answered their Civility and Justice.' We have been before told, that the Admiral went sixty Leagues up _Los Reyes_, which I take to be the whole Distance between the Entrance of _Los Reyes_ to _Conosset_ in Lake _Belle_; and if we transpose the above Words, 'arrived at _Parmentiers_ the eleventh of _August_, and was on the South Side Lake _Belle_ eighty-six Leagues on board our Ships the sixteenth of _August_,' then we have the Distances respecting every Part of _de Fonte_'s Course thro' Land, from _Los Reyes_ to _Conosset_ sixty Leagues, from _Conosset_ to Lake _de Fonte_ _eighty-six Leagues_, from the Entrance of Lake _de Fonte_ to the Streight of _Ronquillo_ one Hundred and sixty Leagues, from the Entrance of the Streight of _Ronquillo_ to the Sea thirty-six Leagues. The Time that _de Fonte_ was passing down the River of _Parmentiers_, and the Time he took to return, are equal, which is plainly owing to his being obliged to wait the Tides for getting over the Falls both Ways. The sixth of _July_ they had entered the Lake _de Fonte_, and by the fifteenth were through the Streights of _Ronquillo_, and at the _Indian_ Town the seventeenth, so they were eleven Days from their Entrance into the Lake _de Fonte_; but in their return the same Way only five, favoured by a strong Current which the Wind occasioned to set into the Lake, and having as much Wind as they could fly before, and now came directly back; whereas in their Passage out they had made some Delays. The Course to _Conosset_ being nearest North-east, I compute it to be in Lat. 56 Deg. Long. 118° 2´ from _London_. The Entrance of Lake _de Fonte_ (supposing the Course of the River _Parmentiers_ and from _Conosset_ East North East) in Lat. 59° 4´. Long. 113°. The Entrance of the Streights of _Ronquillo_ East North East, in Lat. 61 Deg. 8 Min. Long. 98 Deg. 48 Min. the Course through the Streights to enter the Sea North by East, such Entrance to be in Lat. 62 Deg. 48 Min. Long. 98 Deg. 2 Min. which Course must be consistent with _de Fonte_'s Account that a strong Current set in, as by this Course such Current must be accelerated, if it set to the Southward, by the Wind from the Northward, or if it was from the Southward, would be opposed in going to the Northward. _De Fonte_ proceeds to give an Account of the good Estate in which he found all Things on his Return; mentions the Honesty and Humanity of the Natives, and the prudent Conduct of Captain _Ronquillo_, who answered their Civility and Justice. For they had, during the Time of _de Fonte_'s Absence, procured, by dealing with the Natives, Store of good Provisions to salt, Venison, Fish; also one Hundred Hogsheads of _Indian_ Maiz; besides the Service this would be of on their Return, procured pursuant to _de Fonte_'s Order, it employed the People, with the other necessary Work about the Ships after so long a Run, and kept them from brangling with the Natives. The Natives were also employed to their Interest, which preserved them in good Humour; and a Justice in dealing preserved their Friendship. 'The 20th of _August_ an _Indian_ brought me a Letter to _Conosset_, on the Lake _Belle_, from Captain _Bernarda_, dated the 11th of _August_, where he sent me Word he was returned from his cold Expedition, and did assure me there was no Communication out of the _Spanish_ or _Atlantick_ Sea, by _Davis_ Streight; for the Natives had conducted one of his Seamen to the Head of _Davis_ Streight, which terminated in a fresh Lake, of about 30 Mile in Circumference, in the 80th Degree of North Latitude; and that there was prodigious Mountains North of it, besides the North-west from that Lake the Ice was so fixed, that from the Shore to 100 Fathom of Water, for ought he knew from the Creation; for Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, near the North and South Poles: He writ further, that he had sailed from _Basset_ Island North East, and East North East, and North East and by East, to the 79th Degree of Latitude, and the Land trended North, and the Ice rested on the Land.' The Orders _Bernarda_ received were to sail up a River North and North East, North and North West, which River I suppose to have emptied itself near to _Los Reyes_ into the South-east Part of the _South Sea_; and it is not uncommon, in _America_, that two great Rivers should have their Entrances contiguous to each other; and I suppose _Conabasset_, afterwards called _Basset_, to be in Lat. 58 Deg. 10 Min. to the Westward of _Los Reyes_ in Long. 122 Deg. 9 Min. from _London_. The Course up the River _Haro_ North 14 Deg. West; and as _Conosset_ is laid down in Lat. 56 Deg. Long. 118 Deg. 2 Min. the Distance from _Basset_ to _Conosset_ is one Hundred and seventy-seven Miles; the Course North 46 Deg. West. The Letter by the first Messenger was dated the 27th of _June_, and is received the fourth Day, as he could not come a direct Course, we may suppose he travelled fifty Miles a Day, which is an extraordinary Allowance, the greatest Part by Water, and Light most of the Night. We know he would go Part by Water in Lake _Belle_, and Lake _Belle_ issuing its Waters both by _Los Reyes_ and the River _Parmentiers_, must receive some considerable Influx of Waters by which it is formed, as well as to give a constant Supply of the Waters that issue from it, and which must be principally or only from the Northward, for it cannot be supposed to receive its Waters from the Southward, and discharge them there again, and which the Messenger would make Use of as soon as possible, and come down Stream. The second Messenger, who is expresly mentioned to be an _Indian_, is nine Days a coming. But _Bernarda_ mentions nothing as to his Ship or People in this Account, only says he is returned from his cold Expedition, therefore probably he sent away the _Indian_ as soon as he could after he entered the River, which ran into the _Tartarian_ Sea, in Lat. 61. If this was the Case, we may suppose that the Waters which came into the Lake _Belle_ head a great Way up in the Country. _Bernarda_ had Directions, after he left Lake _Valasco_, to sail one Hundred and forty Leagues West, and then four Hundred and thirty Leagues North East by East to seventy-seven Degrees of Latitude. _Bernarda_, in his Letter of the 27th of _June_ observes, there was a River eighty Leagues in Length, not comprehended in his Instructions or Orders, and emptied itself in the _Tartarian_ Sea; and says, in his Letter of the 11th of _August_, that he sailed from the Island _Basset_ North-east; with that Course, when he entered the _Tartarian_ Sea, in Latitude 61, his Longitude would be 116 Deg. he then begins the Course _de Fonte_ directed him, one Hundred and forty Leagues East North East; and he mentions on his Return he had steered that Course, keeping the Land aboard. So that _West_ and the Land trending _North East_, are Mistakes in the Publication in _April_; but the mentioning how the Land trended, shews he was then entering the Sea; for to talk of Land, with respect to a River, is absurd; and with the Course and Distance he steered would be in Lat. 63 Deg. 39 Min. and Long. 110 Deg. from _London_: Then he steers four Hundred and thirty-six Leagues North East and by East, and that brings him into Latitude 79 Deg. Long. 87 Deg. from _London_. But the Land trending North, and with Ice, which would be dangerous for the _Periagos_; and as the Land trended North, where he was appearing to him to be the nearest Part he could attain to to go to the Head of _Davis_ Streight; and as to the Distance over Land, and the Propriety of sending a Messenger, the _Indians_ would inform him; he sends a Seaman over with an _Indian_ to take a Survey of the Head of such Streights, by us called _Baffin_'s Bay; which Name was not at that Time generally received. Which Seaman reports, that it terminated in the eightieth Degree of Latitude, in a Lake of about thirty Miles in Circumference, with prodigious Mountains North of it, which indeed formed that Lake, or is a Sound, as that of Sir _James Lancaster_ and of _Alderman Jones_; and along the Shore, from the Lake North-west, the Ice was fixed, lying a great Distance out, which was very consistent with there being no Inlets there, the Waters from which would have set it off. The Distance that the _Indian_ and Sailor travelled would not exceed fifty Miles; and their mentioning the high Mountains to Northward imply, that they were in a more level Country where they were to take this View. Light all Night, the Snow off the Ground, and the Heighth of Summer there. It is no vain Conjecture to suppose that the Journey was practicable, even if performed all the Way by Land, and much easier, which is not the least improbable, if they had an Opportunity of making Part of it by Water. _Bernarda_ proceeding thus far in the _Tartarian_ Sea, and entering in Latitude 61, is no Way contradictory to the _Russian_ Discoveries; and by the _Tartarian_ Sea is meant, the Sea which washes the Northern Coasts of _Tartary_, and is supposed to extend round the Pole. Those Discoveries are agreeable to the _Japanese_ Map, as to the North-east Parts of _Asia_, and North-west Parts of _America_, brought over by _Kemper_, and in which Map there is expressed a Branch of the _Tartarian_ Sea or Gulph, extending to the Southward, agreeable to this Account of _de Fonte_. Who calls it, with respect to _Asia_, the North and East Part of the _Tartarian_ Sea. Which compared with what _de Fonte_ says, as to sailing down the River to the North-east Part of the _South Sea_, these Expressions cast a mutual Light on each other, and that the _Archipelagus of Saint Lazarus_ is a Gulph or Branch of the Sea, in the like Manner. Places which are in one and the same Latitude, have not an equal Degree of Heat or Cold, or are equally fertile or barren, the Difference in these Respects chiefly consists in their Situation. The Country of _Labrador_, which is to Eastward of _Hudson_'s _Bay_, in Latitude 56, almost as high a Latitude as Port _Nelson_, is a Country capable of being improved by Agriculture, and would supply all the Necessaries of Life, though intermixed with rugged and craggy Mountains. The Winter's not so severe as in the more Southern Parts of _Hudson_'s _Bay_, as the Earth is not froze there, as it is in the same and lower Latitudes about that Bay: Also People have wintered in the _Labrador_, wearing only their usual Cloathing: Therefore drawing a Parallel between Port _Nelson_ and _Conosset_, as to the Infertility of one, therefore the other being in the same Latitude, could not produce Maiz to supply _Ronquillo_, is an Objection which hath no Foundation in it. The higher the Latitude the quicker is the Vegetation; and as _Indian Corn_ or _Maiz_ may be planted and gathered in three Months in lower Latitudes, it may be in an equal or less Time in higher Latitudes, in a good Soil. As to Port _Nelson_, or _York Fort_, in _Hudson_'s _Bay_, it is a low Country through which two large Rivers pass, with the Bay in Front, and nothing is certainly known of the more inland Parts. The physical Obstacles that are produced against our giving Credit to this Account of _de Fonte_, from the Depth of the Falls at the Entrance of Lake _Belle_ in the River _Parmentiers_, and from the River _Bernarda_ passed up, are, from not understanding what is expressed by the Word Falls amongst the _Americans_. They mean by a Fall wherever there is the least Declivity of the Water; and the Fall of thirty-two Feet in the River _Parmentiers_, doth not mean a perpendicular Fall, as the Objector would have it understood, however ridiculous to suppose it, but eight gradual Descents, from the Beginning of which to the Extremity of the last there was a Difference of thirty-two Feet, and which became level or even at the Time of high Water. What _Bernarda_ says as to his cold Expedition, a Person used to the Climate of _Peru_ might justly say so, of the Nights and Evenings and Mornings, at that Time of the Year, in the Latitude of seventy-nine, though temperate in Latitude fifty-six; and the whole Disposition of the Country, the immense high Lands, their barren and desert Aspect, in Places their Summits covered with perpetual Snow, the Ice fixed to the Shores, Sheets of floating Ice in the Waters, the immense Islands, frequently seeing Whales, Sea-horse, and a great Variety of the Inhabitants of those Waters, which do not frequent the Southern Parts: The Whole a Scene so different from the Verdure and Delights of the Plains about _Lima_, and from the pleasing Views that present themselves on running along the Coasts of _Peru_, _Bernarda_ might well be affected with such Scene as to express himself, that Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, especially near the North and the South Poles. But he was not so ignorant as to report, that he saw Mountains of Ice on the Land, as well as in the Sea, though he might see them forming between Points of Land, which jetted out into the Sea; and such a Column of Ice would appear to him as something very curious. That these Parts were inhabited does not appear, for it was a Native of _Conibasset_ that conducted the Seaman over the Land; and, at that Season of the Year, the fresh Waters are thawed, no Snow on the low and level Lands, only on the extreme Summits of the Hills. What is objected as to the Affability of the Inhabitants, that it is not consistent with the Character of the _Indians_. Hospitality is the Characteristick of the _Indians_ towards Strangers, until such Time as they are prejudiced from some ill Treatment; and by the Account given by Sir _Francis Drake_, as to the _Indians_ of _California_, and by the _Spaniards_ who surveyed the Western Coasts, and the Islands lying off, they are represented in general as a kind, tractable People, and of a docile Temper. As to the Dispatch used by _Indians_ in carrying Expresses, or their Runners as they term them, to carry Messages from one Nation to another, they will gird themselves up with the Rhind of Trees, and keep going incessantly great Distances with a surprising Agility Night and Day, taking little either of Sleep or other Refreshments, and keep a direct Course, and in the Night steer either by the Moon or Stars. Nor is there any Thing miraculous in these Journeys, which the Expresses performed, either as to Distance or as to Time, especially as they passed through a Country abounding with Waters, and which Country being inhabited they could be supplied with Canoes, or they would find Floats at the Places where they usually pass the Waters. _Bernarda_ meeting _de Fonte_ at a Port up the River _Rio los Reyes_, shews he had Persons aboard who could direct him there, therefore must have been previously there; and they can be supposed to be no other than the Jesuits, which is a further Proof of the Jesuits having been before in these Parts. It was consistent that the Ships should join and return home together. From where _Bernarda_ came to with his Ship was one Hundred and twenty Miles to _Conosset_: His Letter from thence was dated the 29th of _August_, and _de Fonte_ sailed the second of _September_: It may be supposed the Letter came to Hand the first of _September_, which is four Days, and the Express had now all the Way by Water, and mostly against Stream. _De Fonte_, to shew that he had preserved the Affection of the Natives, mentions that he was accompanied with them; and they were of Assistance to him in the Pilotage down the River. _De Fonte_ adds, he had sent a Chart with the Letter, which is misunderstood, as if such Chart had come to the Hands of the Editors; _which will make this much more demonstrative_, were Words added by them; but it was usual in all the Naval Expeditions to have Persons aboard whom they called _Cosmographers_, to take Draughts of Places, and compose their Charts, and at that Time a very reputable Employment. _Miguel Venegas_, a _Mexican_ Jesuit, published at _Madrid_ in 1758, a Natural and Civil History of _California_; a Translation of which was published in _London_ in 1759, in two Volumes; and Vol. i. P. 185, says, 'To this �ra (the last Voyage he mentions was in 1636) belongs the Contents of a Paper published at _London_, under the Title of the Narrative of _Bartholomew de Fuentes_, Commander in Chief of the Navy in _New Spain_ and _Peru_, and President of _Chili_, giving an Account of the most remarkable Transactions and Adventures in this Voyage, for the Discovery of a Passage from the _South Sea_, to that of the North in the Northern Hemisphere, by Order of the Viceroy of _Peru_ in the Year 1640. This Writing contains several Accounts relating to _California_; but without entering into long Disputes, let it suffice to say, that little Credit is to be given to this Narrative. For the same Reason we have before omitted the Accounts of Voyages made from the _South Sea_ to the North round beyond _California_, and those of a contrary Direction, of which an Account is given by Captain _Seixas_ and _Lobero_, in _Theatro Naval_, in _Spanish_ and _French_; and particularly of that _Spaniard_ who is supposed, in three Months, to have come from _Puerto de Navidad_ and _Cabo Corientes_ to _Lisbon_. These and other Accounts dispersed in different Books, we designedly omit, as they want the necessary Authenticity.' This Work was published with a Design to induce the Court of _Spain_ to a further Conquest of, an intire Reduction of, and the full settling of _California_, as of the utmost Importance to Religion and the State; and one of the Arguments is, for their immediate putting what he recommends in Execution, the repeated Attempts of the _English_ to find a Passage into the _South Sea_. And observes, 'Should they one Day succeed in this, why may not the _English_ come down through their Conquests, and even make themselves Masters of _New Mexico_, _&c._' which implies, that he did not look on such an Attempt as void of all Hopes of Success; and he again says, 'Whoever is acquainted with the present Disposition of the _English_ Nation, and has heard with what Zeal and Ardour the Project for a North-west Passage has been espoused by many considerable Persons, will be convinced that the Scheme is not romantick, and it would not be surprizing if the Execution of it should one Day come under Deliberation.' Thus artfully hints, should the Scheme come under Deliberation, the Event would be to be feared; and though he ascribes his Opinion of its not being romantick, is, to many considerable Persons having espoused the Scheme, yet he tacitly applies to their own Knowledge, to what the Court of _Spain_ knows as to this Passage. He then proceeds, 'If this should ever happen,' the Deliberation, 'what would be the Condition of our Possessions?' The Deliberation would, from Consequences that would follow on such a Deliberation, endanger our Possessions. _Don Cortez_ informed the King, by a Letter of the 15th of _October_ 1524, that he was building two Ships, to get a Knowledge of the Coast yet undiscovered between the River of _Panaco_ and _Florida_, and from thence to the Northern Coast of the said Country of _Florida_, as far as the _Baccaloo_, 'It being certain, as he expresses himself, that on that Coast is a Streight running into the _South Sea_'--'God grant that the Squadron may compass the End for which it is designed, namely, to discover the Streight, which I am fully persuaded they will do, because in the Royal Concerns of your Majesty nothing can be concealed; and no Diligence or Necessaries shall be wanting in me to effect it.' Again, 'I hereby inform your Majesty, that by the Intelligence I have received of the Countries on the upper Coast of the sending the Ships along, it will be attended with great Advantage to me, and no less to your Majesty. But acquainted as I am with your Majesty's Desire of knowing this Streight, and likewise of the great Service it would be to your Royal Crown.' Vol. i. P. 130. Agreeable to this Letter several Attempts were made by Sea to discover whether _Florida_ was Part of the Continent, or separated by a Streight; but whether _Cortez_ pursued his Design by searching between _Florida_ along the Coast of _Baccaloos_, _Newfoundland_, and the _Terra de Labrador_, for a Streight, by which there was a Passage from the _North_ to the _South Sea_ is uncertain. _Florida_ comprehended the Country from the Cape of _Labrador_ to the Cape _de los Martires_, or of _Martyrs_, opposite to the Island of _Cuba_. From thence to the Streights of _Magellan_ was called _Peruan Part_. The King of _Portugal_, with a View of finding a shorter Passage to those Parts of the _Indies_, which he had discovered, than by the Cape of _Good Hope_, sent, in the Year fifteen Hundred, _Gasper de Corte Real_ to the North of _America_, who landed on the _Terra de Labrador_; also gave his Name to a Promontory on that Coast which he called _Promonterium Corteriale_. The Name of _Labrador_ implies a fertile Country, and given in Distinction from the high barren mountainous Country to Northward, which _Gasper_ discovered in Latitude sixty, and to the Southward of it. But this Distinction seems to have been soon lost, and the Name of _Labrador_ is now given to the whole Coast. From the Knowledge we have of these Parts we may conclude, that the _Promonterium Corteriale_ was what we at present name _Cape Chidley_, and the Islands _de Demonios_, where _Gasper_ lost a Vessel, those Islands now named _Button_'s Islands; and it was _Hudson_'s Streights to which he gave the Name of the River of the _Three Brothers_, though the Reason of his giving that Name is not known to us. We may perceive from this Account of _Gasper_'s Voyage, who did not proceed to Westward to make a Passage, but coasted down the main Land, the Accounts of their being a _Portuguese_ who made a Voyage through the Streights of _Anian_, calling a Promontory after his Name _Promonterium Corteriale_, hath had some Foundation in Truth; and in what is said by _Frisius_, an antient Geographer, calling it the Streights of _Three Brothers_, or _Anian_ (which that Word imports) because three Brothers had passed through a Streight from the _North_ to the _South Sea_. It is also apparent that the Name of _Anian_ was first given by _Gasper Corterialis_ (for some particular Reason unknown to us) to that Part, which is now _Hudson_'s Streights. Though in Time this became a proper Name to express a Streight by which there is a Passage from the _North_ to the _South Sea_, and is contended for to be the proper Name of the Streight that divides _Asia_ from _America_, by which there is a Communication with the _Tartarian_ and _Southern Ocean_. After a Discovery of these Coasts had been made to Northward, the following Year the King of _Portugal_ sent _Americus Vespusino_ to Southward, to discover the Land there. _Cortez_'s Designs seem to have their Foundation in these Expeditions of the _Portuguese_; but it was not until after the Year 1513, that the _South Sea_ was discovered, and the _Portugueze_ had discovered the _Moluccas_, that the finding a Streight to the Northward, by which a Passage might be made to the _South Sea_, became a Matter of particular Attention, and was the first and principal Object of _Cortez_'s Attention after he had become Master of the Capital of _Mexico_ in 1521; and this Opinion of a Passage to Northward continued during the Reign of _Charles_ the Fifth. Who in the Year 1524 sent from _Old Spain_ to discover a Passage to the _Moluccas_ by the North of _America_, without Success; but _Esteven Gomez_, who was sent on that Expedition, brought some _Indians_ home with him. Then in the Year 1526 _Charles_ the Fifth wrote to _Cortez_, in Answer to his Letters, and orders him to send the Ships at _Zacapila_ to discover a Passage from _New Spain_ to the _Moluccas_. From this Time, the Year 1526, the Opinion of there being a Streight was generally received, though on what Foundation does not appear. It was certainly on some better Reason than _Gasper_'s Discoveries; and a Consideration of the Importance such a Passage would be of to the King of _Spain_ with respect to the _Spice_ Islands. It is not consistent with the Characters of the Emperor _Charles_ the Fifth, and of _Cortez_, when there were so many other solid Projects to pursue and this was preferred, to suppose that they should go, at that Time, on a meer visionary Scheme. The same Opinion of a Passage to Northward prevailed in the Time of _Philip_ the Second, and in the Year 1596 he sent Orders to the Viceroy of _Mexico_ for discovering and making Settlements in proper Parts of _California_, and one Reason assigned was, 'There was much Talk about the Streight of _Anian_, through which the _South Sea_ was said to communicate with that of the _North_, near _Newfoundland_; and should the _English_ find out a practicable Passage on that Side, our Dominions, which then included all _Portuguese India_, would be no longer secure, all the Coast from _Acapulco_ to _Culiacan_ being quite defenceless, and from _Culiacan_ Northward, not one single Settlement was made on the whole Coast.' Hist. Cal. V. i. P. 163. That now not only the Opinion of there being a Streight prevailed, but it was also fixed as to the Part, and had the Name of _Anian_. The Opinion of a Passage still existed in the Reign of _Philip_ the Third; and the same political Motives induced him to order the Conquest of _California_ to be undertaken with all possible Expedition; and one Reason assigned is, 'His Majesty also found among other Papers a Narrative delivered by some Foreigners to his Father, giving an Account of many remarkable Particulars which they saw in that Country, when driven thither by Stress of Weather from the Coast of _Newfoundland_; adding, they had passed from the _North Sea_ to the _South_, by the Streight of _Anian_, which lies beyond Cape _Mendocino_; and that they had arrived at a populous and opulent City, walled and well fortified, the Inhabitants living under a regular Policy, and were a sensible and courteous People; with many other Particulars well worth a further Enquiry.' It must be considered this is given us in the History of _California_, V. ii. P. 239, from the _Monarchia Indiana_ of _Juan Torquemada_, a learned _Franciscan_, published at _Madrid_ in 1613, and republished in 1723, Vol. i. P. 629, That a Paper of this Sort was found in the Cabinet of _Philip_ the Second, was thought deserving the Attention of _Philip_ the Third. However the Matter of it is represented here, for nothing could be published but what was first perused and altered, so as to make it consistent with the Interest of Holy Church, the State, or good Manners, before it was licensed, such Paper must have contained some material Intelligence as to a Passage; and if is said to have contained _some remarkable Particulars_. Neither would the Work have been licensed, if what is related as to their having been such a Paper, had not been true. _Torquemada_, Vol. i. P. 20, quotes _Francisco Lopez de Gomara_, deemed a careful Writer, and Author of the History of the _Indies_. Who says the Snowy Mountains are in forty Degrees, and the furthermost Land that is laid down in our Maps; but the Coast runs to the Northward until it comes to form an Island by the _Labrador_, or as separated from _Greenland_; and this Extremity of the Land is five Hundred and ten Leagues in Length. As to what is said as to the Latitude of forty Degrees in this Quotation from _Gomara_, _Torquemada_ hath prefixed a Map to his Work, _agreeable_ to that formed by the King's Cosmographers, in which he hath made the most Western and Northern Part of the Land in almost forty-seven Degrees, and then the Land trends to the Eastward, and the _Serras Nevadas_ are represented to extend a great Length along the Coast, and to Latitude 57 Degrees. Mentions, Vol. i. P. 16, the Royal Cosmographers do not insert any Thing in their Charts of the Sea Coasts but what they have upon Oath, or from creditable Persons; and 'They make a Supputation in the Northern Parts of Islands, which do not lie near or contiguous to the Lands of _Europe_; as to which Islands, not long since discovered, the one is called _Iceland_, the other _Greenland_, which are the Bounds, Limits, or Marks, that divide the Land of the _Indies_ from any other Part howsoever situated or disposed;' afterwards observes, which Islands are not far from the _Labrador_; from which it is plain he calls _America_ an Island. And this is agreeable to what _Acosta_ says, in the Sense which I understand him, that _Quivira_ and _Anian_ extend to the Western Extremity of _America_; and that the Extremity of the Kingdom of _Anian_ to the North extends under the _Polar_ or _Artick_ Circle, and, if the Sea did not prevent it, would be found to join the Countries of _Tartary_ and _China_; and the Streight of _Anian_ takes its Course through the Northern Region, under the Polar Circle, towards _Greenland_, _Iceland_, _England_, and to the Northern Parts of _Spain_. By _Greenland_ I understand the Land to Northward, which is the North Part of _Hudson_'s Streights, and _Cumberland_ Isles; and that this Streight should determine here is agreeable to what _Cortez_ says he would send to search as far as the _Baccallaos_, (which was a Name given by _Cabot_ in 1496) for the Streight by which he expected a Passage from the _North_ to the _South Sea_. By _Iceland_ is meant, as is apparent from a View of such Map hereunto annexed, the Land to Northward of Cape _Farewel_, or the _Proper Greenland_. _Gomara_ mentions these Islands had not been long discovered. It is apparent from the Map, that they had a very imperfect Account of these Discoveries, which were made by _Frobisher_ and _Davis_, who also were far from being exact in their Computations of the Longitude. In this Map prefixed to _Torquemada_'s Work, and here annexed, the Southern Part of _Newfoundland_ is laid down in Lat. 55, nine Degrees more to the Northward than it ought to be, for which Reason the _Labrador_, _Greenland_, and _Iceland_, are placed much further to Northward than they ought to be placed, and are made to extend beyond the Polar Circle. It is from this Supposition of _Newfoundland_ being in so high a Latitude that _Acosta_ says, _the Streight of Anian_ takes its Course through the Northern Region under the Polar Circle towards _Greenland_ and _Iceland_. In the same Map the extremest Point of _California_, answerable to Cape _St. Lucas_, is laid down in Longitude 105 Degrees from the Meridian of _Ferro_, and the Extremity of the Land to Westward a Cape to Northward of Cape _Fortunes_, but to which no Name is given, and in Latitude 47, is placed in 135 Degrees from the Meridian of _Ferro_; the Difference of Longitude is 30 Degrees. This Map, published by _Torquemada_, was constructed before the Year 1612, therefore prior to a Map published in _Holland_ in 1619, under the Title of _Nova Totius Orbis Descriptio_, prefixed to the Voyage of _George Spilbergen_, in which the Errors of _Torquemada_'s Map, as to the Situation of _Newfoundland_, and the Places to Northward are corrected; yet great Errors are committed as to the Parts to Westward of _America_, making eighty-five Degrees of Longitude between Cape _St. Lucas_ and the Extremity of the Land to Westward and Northward in Lat. 42; and ninety-five Degrees between Cape _St. Lucas_ and the Extremity of the Land nearest to _Asia_. The Reason of this Difference is plain, they both err with respect to those Parts, of which they had not authenticated Accounts. [Illustration: Map of the Americas. _The_ Original _from which this_ Map _is copied was published in 1608 by the authority of_ Philip IV. King of Spain, _in the 1^(st) Edition of_ Torquemadas MONARQUIA INDIANA _Vol. 1._] _Cortez_ wrote to the Emperor that he had sent People on Discovery, both by Land and Water, it was not designed that their Discoveries should be communicated, as _Cortez_ intended to turn them to his own private Advantage. But when _Mendoza_ fitted out two Armaments, one by Land under the Command of _Coronado_, and the other by Sea under _Alarcon_; _Alarcon_ was ordered to Latitude 53, to join the Land Forces, and to make a Survey of the Coast, and see if there was a Passage or a Communication by Water through those Countries which _Coronado_ was to discover and subdue, with the _South Sea_. As to _Coronado_, the _Franciscans_ had been before in those Parts, and they gave Information and Direction as to his Part of the Expedition; but as to the Part that _Alarcon_ had, on what Information he was ordered to go to Latitude 53, and what Probability there was that it was possible for him to find such Passage, and join the Land Forces, does not appear. But from his not finding such Passage, not joining the Land Forces, and proceeding no further than the Lat. 36, though his Reason for not going further is, that the Land then trended to the Northward, which he supposed would put him further off from the Army, whom he knew were in ten Days March of him, and the Excuse of Sickness and ill Condition of his Vessels, occasioned him to return before his Time; yet his Conduct threw the whole Disgrace of the ill Success of that Expedition on _Alarcon_, both with the Emperor and the Viceroy: And what he wrote to the Emperor was not attended to. He wrote to the Emperor, 'That it was for him only, and not in Subordination to the Viceroy, that he had conquered, discovered, and entered on the _Californias_, and all those Lands on the Coasts of the _South Sea_; that he had learnt that some of those Lands were not far from the Coasts of _Grand China_; that there was but a small Navigation to the _Spice_ Islands, which he knew was wished for at that Time; that it engaged all his Thoughts, and was his most ardent Desire to undertake such Navigation.' _Torquem._ Vol. i. P. 609. On _Alarcon_'s Return _Juan Rodrique de Cabrillo_ was fitted out, who went as far as Lat. 44. Sickness, Want of Provisions, and his Ships not being of sufficient Strength for those Northern Seas, obliged him to return, though he was designed to go further to Northward. The Ships returning from the _Philippines_, which was also an Expedition in the Time of Viceroyship of _Mendoza_, fell in with the Land in Lat. 42, and found it all to be _Terra Firma_, from a Cape there, which they named _Mendocino_ to the Port of _La Navidad_. In 1602 _Vizcaino_ went, and then the Discovery was made by _Martin de Aguilar_; and _Torquemada_ tells us, Vol. i. Lib. 5. P. 725. That if there had not been, only fourteen healthy Persons when they were at Cape _Blanco_, they were resolved to pass thro' the Streight, which they named _Anian_, and which Streight is said to be there; and P. 719, speaking of the Entrance of _Martin Aguilar_, it is understood to be a River, by which you may pass to a great City, which the _Hollanders_ discovered coming through the Streight, which is the Streight of _Anian_, and which City, he says, was named _Quivira_. These Voyages, and we have Accounts of no others, could not have furnished the Cosmographers the principal Materials for composing their Map, and it must have been agreeable to those Materials, besides the Accounts of these Voyages sent to _Old Spain_, that they set down the utmost Limits of the Western Coast to be in the Longitude of 135 Decrees from the Meridian of _Ferro_. Therefore it was their Opinion at that Time that one Hundred and thirty-five Degrees was near the Difference of Longitude of the Entrance of the Streight of _Anian_ in the _South Sea_, accounting the Longitude from the Meridian of _Ferro_. For which Reason the _Spaniards_ can never be understood to mean by the Streight of _Anian_ the Streight which separates _Asia_ and _America_, now named _Beering_'s _Streight_, and by which there is a Communication between the Sea of _Tartary_, or the _Frozen Ocean_, and the _South Sea_. It is something remarkable, and supports what hath been before said as to Deficiency of the _Spanish_ Records, what Jesuit _Venegas_, the Author of the History of _California_, says, Vol. ii. P. 228, 'I was extremely desirous of finding Capt. _Sebastian Vizcaino_'s Narrative, and the Representations of the Council to his Majesty _Philip_ the Third, especially the Maps, Plans, Charts of his Voyage and Discoveries, in order to communicate the Whole to the Publick. Accordingly at my Request Search was made in the Secretary's Office of the Council of the _Indies_: But in this Intention of being serviceable to the Publick I have been disappointed.' And he again observes, on the Governor of _Cinaloa_ being ordered to pass over and take a Survey of the Coasts, Islands, Bays, Creeks, and the Disposition of the Ground of _California_, in the Year 1642, Vol. i. P. 188, 'There would have been little Occasion, says he, for this preparatory Survey, after so many others which had been continually making for above a Century, had the Reports, Narratives, Charts, Draughts and Maps, which were made, or should have been made, by so many Discoveries still continued in being. But these are the Effects of a Want of a proper Care in preserving Papers, a Fault to be regretted by Persons in Power, to whom they would be of Service in the Conduct of Affairs, and by private Persons, on the Account of their Interest, or as Entertainments of a commendable Curiosity.'--'But by the Loss of some Papers, either thro' a Change in the Government, or Irregularity in the Records, the whole Advantage of an Expedition is lost.' From this Declaration by one who being a Jesuit, and of _Mexico_, composing a Work entirely for the publick Service, under the Direction of the Jesuits; by their Influence could attain the Sight of any Papers which were thought interesting as to the Work he was composing; and his last Reflection is not confined to the Records of _Old Spain_ only; it is apparent what Uncertainty there is of attaining any Evidence from such Records, as to the Discoveries made in the first Century after the Conquest of _Mexico_, and for a long Time after. The Narrative of _Vizcaino_'s Voyage, and every Thing thereto relating, as to any remaining Records might have become disputable, had not _Torquemada_ collected it, and published it amongst other Accounts; yet what _Torquemada_ hath preserved is but imperfect, as is apparent from a Journal of that Voyage, preserved in a private Hand at _Manilla_, and a Sight of large Extracts from which the Author hath been favoured by a Gentleman in _London_. It is owing to what _Torquemada_ and some others have collected of the Accounts which the Religious were the Authors of, that the Publick have the Accounts of those Parts; but such Voyages and Accounts as have not met with the same Means of being preserved, the Publick, from such Neglect, know nothing of them. It is plain from _Gomara_'s Account, also from _Acosta_'s, that great Discoveries had been made in these Parts, but as to many of such Discoveries, by whom is not known; and _Venegas_ says, Vol. i. P. 30, the River _Santo Thome_ was discovered in the Year 1684; 'And tho' I do not find, says he, in the Narratives of that Expedition (of Admiral _Otondo_) that _Otondo_ ever went ashore only to visit the Harbours of the Eastern Coast and the Gulph; yet from the ardent Curiosity of Father _Kino_, and the great Concern he had in the Affairs of _California_, I cannot think that he should be mistaken in any Particular relating to the Discovery: That Father _Kino_, both in his large Manuscript Map, and likewise in the lesser Impression, places the River of _Santo Thome_ as rising between the 26th and 27th Degrees of N. Latitude, and, after crossing the whole Peninsula, discharging itself into the _South Sea_, in the 26th Deg. and forming at its Mouth a large Harbour, which he calls _Puerto de Anno Nuevo_, being discovered in the Year 1685. On both Sides the River are Christian Villages, as is evident from their Names; _Santiago_, _Santo Innocentes_, _&c._ yet, in the Accounts of that Time, I do not meet with any Intelligence of this Discovery; to which I must add, that in the subsequent Relations no mention is made of any such River, Settlements or Harbours, though even little Brooks, are taken Notice of.' And he observes many other Difficulties occur about this Coast. This Harbour made by the River _Santo Thome_, is evidently that which _de Fonte_ and others call _Christabel_. Some Settlements had been made there, as these Names were given, but either deserted from the Barrenness of the Country, or had been only frequented by those who went out private Adventurers, in order to trade with the Natives. But as to which River, Settlements and Harbour, were not the Names preserved by Father _Kino_, it would not have been known that any Persons had been in those interior Parts of _California_, or that there were such River and Harbour. Father _Kino_ looked upon it as a Thing so well known, as he had no Occasion to defend himself, by giving the Reason of his inserting those Names to protect himself from the Reproach of Posterity. And _Venegas_ before tells us, that as to the Discoveries which had been made for a Century passed, the Papers were lost. Between the Year sixteen Hundred and eighty-five, and the Time of _Venegas_'s Publication, though in the Year sixteen Hundred and eighty-five, it was well known that there was such a River as _St. Thome_, this River is exploded out of the Maps by the Geographers, on Account of the Uncertainty; not duly considering that there was as full a Proof as could be required with respect to so unfrequented a Part. The Account being from a Person whose Business it was to make Observations there, who had been so laborious and accurate as to discover, what had been so long desired to be known, whether _California_ was an Island or not, as to which he was believed; and the Truth hath been confirmed by later Observations of what he had reported, That it was not an Island. Therefore there was no Foundation for any Uncertainty in this Case, the same as with respect to the Letter of _de Fonte_, owing to the Neglect of a proper Enquiry into the Circumstances relating to it, by such an Inquiry the Uncertainty would have been removed. What hath been said is to shew that the Argument on which so great a Stress is laid, that there is no Account of this Voyage amongst the _Spanish_ Records, is an Argument of no Weight against the Authenticity of this Account; and that as a Publication of this Voyage was not permitted, an Account of such Voyage could not be perpetuated by the Religious, the only probable Means at that Time of preferring it from Oblivion. As it was intended what was the Effect of this Expedition should be kept a Secret, it is not consistent there should be many written Accounts of it; the Officers concerned would be cautious of letting Transcripts be made from their Journals; and it may be attributed to an extraordinary Accident, rather than to what could be expected, that a Copy of the Letter of _de Fonte_ should ever come into the Possession of the _English_. These Observations being previously made, we are better enabled to consider, what we have before inserted, the Objection of _Venegas_ for not inserting this Account of _de Fonte_, as being of little Credit; but he seems rather to wish that we would be of his Opinion, than to imagine that he could convince us by any Arguments; therefore excuses himself as to the Length of the Dispute he might be engaged in. His Manner of expressing himself with respect to this Disappointment in the Secretary's Office, shews he hath a Manner of Address that his Words will admit of a further constructive Meaning than what is set down. The principal Object of his Writing is to incite the Court of _Spain_ to prepare in Time against the ill Consequences of the _English_ making a Discovery of a Passage; and he is to be understood, that it is not only his Opinion that the finding of such a Passage is practicable, but he apprehends it is of the Opinion of the Court also. Declares, that such Opinion hath prevailed from the first settling of _Mexico_, and that there really is a Passage in such a Manner as a Person who published an Account of this Sort would be permitted to express himself, to have it pass the Approbation of the Licenser; and does not desire to suppress the Account of _de Fonte_, as it is an absolute Contradiction to what he would infer, there being a Passage, and in such Letter it is declared there is no North-west Passage. For he must have had further and better Authorities for his Assertions of there being a Passage than such, as that single Assertion would prevail against. But desired to suppress this Account, as it was an Account which he knew it was more consistent with the Designs of the Court, it should be continued in Oblivion than revived. Mentions it therefore as the _Contents of a_ Paper published in _London_, which contained a Narrative of little Credit; and to give the better Authority to what he says, as he could not trust to the Opinion that might be had of such Account on a fair Representation of the Title; to support the Character he gave of it, therefore uses Art, misrepresenting such Title; says it was _by Order of the Viceroy of_ Peru, _in the Year_ 1640, and _giving an Account of the most material Transactions and Adventures in this Voyage_. Was the Letter so entituled, the _Transactions_ and _Adventures_ of a Commander in Chief of the Navy, in _New Spain_, he would not be singular in his Opinion, but it would be understood by every one as a Romance, and not deserving of Credit. This Misrepresentation is intentionally done; for if he never saw the Letter, or had not a right Account of it, on what Authority could he assert it was of little Credit; and that it would engage him in a long Dispute, a Dispute which his Sagacity would point out to him how to determine in a very few Lines, by proving that there was no such Person as _de Fonte_, Admiral of _New Spain_; which it was in his Power to do had it been the Case. But what he mentions is so far from a Denial of there being such a Person Admiral of _New Spain_, that he gives us the Name, and sets forth the Character _de Fonte_ was in, in a more proper Manner than we have it expressed in the Title of the Letter. _Bartholomew de Fuentes, Commander in Chief of the Navy in New Spain and Peru, and President of Chili_; and he is to be understood not to mean that there was no such Person, but that the Narrative is not credible as to any such Voyage having been made by Admiral _de Fonte_. By a Schedule of the King of _Spain_ in 1606 to the Governor of the _Philippines_, _Vizcaino_ was to be again fitted out to discover a Harbour on the Western Coast of _California_, for the Reception of the _Aquapulco_ Ship; but the Death of _Vizcaino_ prevented that Design being carried into Execution; as the Court had found so many Disappointments, and such ill Success in these Undertakings, they did not think proper to entrust it to any other Person in the _Philippines_ or _New Spain_. And _Venegas_ says, Hist of _Cal._ Vol. i. P. 180. 'During the succeeding nine Years inconsiderable Voyages only were made to _California_, and these rather to fish for Pearls, or procure them by Barter, than to make any Settlement, and therefore they have been thought below any separate Account, especially as in the subsequent Royal Commissions they are only mentioned in general without any Circumstances.' Though Commissions were given to go into these Parts, without any Account remaining to whom, and on what particular Occasion; it is not to be doubted as in all Commissions of this Nature they would be under an Obligation to make a Report to the Court, and it is not to be understood that these Commissions were continued for nine Years only; and therefore what hath been said as to _Parmentiers_ and the Jesuits, their having been in these Parts, is not the least improbable. By these Commissions they were not confined to the Gulph of _California_, is evident from Father _Kino_, as already mentioned, giving Names in his Map to Villages, or occasional Settlements rather, on the River _Santo Thome_: And he says, P. 299, what made Father _Kino_ desirous of discovering whether _California_ was an Island or not, 'That all the Moderns had placed it as an Island, there being extant also some Journals of Mariners, according to which they went round _California_ through a Streight, and gave the Parts and Places through which they passed their own Names.' It appears from this Account they were permitted, by these Commissions, to rove about, though not to make Settlements, induced by their private Advantage, and the Advantage to the Government was from their Discoveries. Also Vol. i. P. 182, he mentions, 'That a great many private Persons, from the Coast of _Culiacan_ and _Chametla_, made Trips in small Boats to the Coast of _California_, either to fish for Pearls, or purchase them of the _Indians_;' which is agreeable to _de Fonte_'s Account of the Master and Mariners he procured at _Zalagua_ and _Compostilo_. We may also observe what the Missionaries say, as to the Tides at the Head of the Bay, which still adds to the Authenticity of this Account. 'In those Parts the Tide shifts every six Hours; the Flood, with a frightful Impetuosity, rises from three to seven Fathoms, overflowing the flat Country for some Leagues, and the Ebb necessarily returns with the same dangerous Violence.--However the Pilot went on Shore in the Pinnace, at several Parts, in order to make a complete Drawing of it for his Chart; was equally convinced that this Cape was the Extremity of the Gulph of _California_, and that the Waters beyond it were those of the River _Colorado_.' Therefore it was, from the exact Observation of the Tide which this Pilot took so much Pains to make, an unsettled Point from whence the Tide proceeded. Which, at the Time of _de Fonte_'s Expedition, was said to come from the Northward, agreeable to the then prevailing Opinion of _California_ being an Island. According to the usual Practice, though the true Cause of a Phænomena is unknown, to quote that Phænomena that favours a System which there is a Desire to establish as a Truth, not only in support of but to confirm such System, as to render the Truth of it unquestionable. After _Vizcaino_'s Death, and though the Court of _Spain_ was disappointed as to finding able and sufficient Persons in _New Spain_ whom they could intrust, yet Adventures were made by private Persons, at their own Expence, both for Discovery and Settlements; yet these could not be undertaken without the Permission of his Majesty, who had taken it into his own Hand to grant such Commissions, and mostly required a Voyage to _Old Spain_ to attain them; and the next Expedition that was made, at the Crown's Expence, was conducted by an Admiral from _Old Spain_, who arrived in _New Spain_ in 1643, Admiral _Cassanate_, with full Power and Necessaries to equip a Fleet, and make Settlements in _California_; and he sailed on such Expedition in 1644. By which it is apparent that there were Ships at that Time in _New Spain_ proper for such Expeditions. As he came into these Parts within three Years after _de Fonte_'s Expedition, and took the Command as Admiral of _New Spain_ when he arrived, it is to be supposed the Expedition _Cassanate_ was sent on was too fatiguing for _de Fonte_, who was therefore retired to his Government of _Chili_. In the Year 1649 Admiral _Cassanate_, in Reward for his Services, being after the same Manner promoted to the Government of _Chili_, _de Fonte_ must be dead at that Time. This Circumstance fixes the Period in which the Copy of this Letter was taken. As what _Venegas_ says as to the Account (which Account hath been before mentioned) given by _Seyxas y Lovera_, as to its wanting the necessary Authenticity. Besides the usual Licences, wherein the Licencers declare there is nothing contrary to good Manners, and besides being dedicated to the King in his Royal and Supreme Council of the _Indies_, _Seyxas_'s Book hath the Licence and Approbation of the Professor of Divinity in the University of _Alcara_, Preacher to the King, and Principal of a College of Jesuits in _Madrid_. Hath also the Approbation and Licence of the Professor of Erudition and Mathematicks in the Imperial College of the Company of the Jesuits at _Madrid_. What unfavourable Opinion soever we may entertain of the Principles of these Persons, we must have such an Opinion of their Prudence, that they would not sign their Approbation to a Book while it contained an unnecessary Lie, which could be easily expunged, or until they were satisfied as to the Authenticity of this Account which _Seyxas_ gives of _Peche_'s Voyage, having been published in various Places. And it is indisputable from the Countenance his Book received, he was looked on at that Time as a deserving honest Man. _Venegas_ designedly omits other Accounts dispersed in various Books for Want of necessary Authenticity; but it is not to be understood that he absolutely denies that such Accounts are true. Neither is there so great an Improbability in such Discoveries having been made, as some of these Accounts mention, as is imagined, when such Accounts are duly considered. We have already mentioned one Account which engaged the Attention of the King of _Spain_, therefore must have been of some Authority. There is another Account (unless it be the same Account differently represented) of a Ship that, to the Northward of Cape _Blanco_, on the Coast of _California_, passed through the Streight into the _North Sea_, and to _Old Spain_, which was also made known to the King of _Spain_, mentioned by _Torquemada_, Vol. i. P. 725. Most of the Discoveries are reported to have been made by Ships coming from the _Moluccas_, or from the _Philippine_ Islands to the Eastward, and which have met with bad Weather. And what, in those Times, Ships were necessitated to do, if there was a Continuance of hard Gales of Wind, we may learn from the Schedule of _Philip_ the Third, History of _California_, Vol. i. P. 175, after mentioning a Harbour found by _Vizcaino_, on the Western Coast of _California_, adds, 'And lies very convenient for Ships returning from the _Philippine_ Islands to put into, and thus, in case of Storms, avoid the Necessity of making for _Japan_, as they have several Times done, and expended great Sums of Money. Besides, they usually have Sight of the Coast of _China_, which is an additional Benefit, as knowing where they are, they will not as formerly, in case of bad Weather, make for _Japan_, or those Islands, as the same Winds which would carry them thither, bring them into this Harbour. Again, P. 177, considering how much it concerns the Security of Ships coming from those Islands, in a Voyage of no less than 2000 Leagues, on a wide and tempestuous Sea, that they should be provided with a Port where they might put in and furnish themselves with Water, Wood, and Provisions: That the said Port of _Monterey_ lies in 37 Degrees, nearly about half Way the Voyage.' A Ship flying before the Wind, and the People steering her towards the Coast of _America_, to avoid _Japan_ and the Islands, making a Cape Land on the Coast of _California_, would run for what they supposed a Harbour, and the bad Weather continuing might proceed up the Bay or Opening they were then in, to meet with the Inhabitants, in order to obtain Refreshments, and to learn where they were, by which Means find a Passage. As Ships were distressed in hard Gales of Wind, in the Manner the Schedule mentions, there is no Improbability of a Passage being first accidentally discovered by a single Ship coming from Sea with a leading Wind into a large Opening, in Expectation of a Harbour, though such Discovery hath not been made by Ships intentionally sent along Shore for that Purpose. It is to be observed, the People of the _Philippine_ Islands are those who most talked of a Passage: They informed _Peche_ and others; and it is easily accounted for why they should do so: For if the _Portugueze_ made the Discovery in a Ship from the _Moluccas_, there was a constant Intercourse between them and the People of the _Philippines_; and whether the Discovery was made by the _Spaniards_ or _Portugueze_, some of the Company who were aboard such Ship as had passed through the Streight from the _South_ to the _North Sea_, would return to the _Moluccas_ or the _Philippines_; and others would meet their Acquaintance from thence in _Portugal_ or _Old Spain_; who would take Pleasure in relating to them the Accounts of their Voyage, and which they who heard those Accounts would be equally fond of communicating to others, especially when they returned back to the _Indies_. By which Means it would be known that there had been such a Discovery; and it would be out of the Power of the King of _Spain_ or _Portugal_ to prevent its being so far known, but could prevent the Account of such Discovery being published, or the Particulars communicated to Foreigners. In the Year 1568 _Salvatierra_, a Gentleman of _Spain_, who had accidentally landed in _Ireland_ from the _West Indies_, gave an Account of a Passage having been made by one _Andrew Urdanietta_, and by the Circumstances of that Account it was about the Year 1556 or 1557. This _Urdanietta_ was a Friar, was with and greatly assisted _Andrew Miguel Lopez de Legaspi_ in the Expedition to the _Philippine_ Islands in the Year 1564, and was called the celebrated Religious _Andrew de Urdanietta_. His being thus employed, and so serviceable in this Expedition to the _Philippine_ Islands, as he is said to have been, implies, that he had a prior Knowledge of those Parts, and must have been there before; and the Character that _Salvatierra_ gave of him to Sir _Hugh Sydney_, then Lord Deputy of _Ireland_, and Sir _Humphrey Gilbert_, was, that he was the greatest Discoverer by Sea that was in that Age. _Salvatierra_ said that _a North-west Passage_ was constantly believed to be in _America_ navigable; and that _Urdanietta_ had shewed him at _Mexico_ eight Years before _Salvatierra_ arrived in _Ireland_, a Chart made from his own Observations in a Voyage in which he came from _Mare del Zur_ into _Germany_, through this North-west Passage, wherein such Passage was expressed, agreeing with _Ortelius_'s Map: That _Urdanietta_ had told the King of _Portugal_ of it as he came there from _Germany_ in his return home; but the King earnestly intreated him not to discover this Secret to any Nation: _For that_ (said he) _if_ England _had once a Knowledge and Experience of it, it would greatly hinder the King of_ Spain _and me_. And _Salvatierra_ was himself persuaded of a Passage by the Friar _Urdanietta_, and by the common Opinion of the _Spaniards_ inhabiting _America_. It was this Account with some other that gained the Attention of the greatest Men of that Age to pursue the Discovery of a North-west Passage. Neither would _Dudley_, _Walsingham_, or Sir _Humphrey Gilbert_, and other honourable Persons about the Court, be deceived with fictitious Stories, and pursue a Phantom. Could the great Abilities and Penetration of a _Walsingham_ be defective in this Respect, which was so perfect in all other Respects, as to be the Admiration of the present Age. Those who condemn this Account, and some other Accounts of this Sort, have not considered, that upon a slight Surmise or Suspicion only they put their Judgments in Competition with and in Contradiction to the Judgments of those great Men, who embraced no Opinion as to any Matter but what was founded in Reason, and all the Circumstances relating to which they had first fully considered, and which Opinion they adhered to. As to a North-west Passage, making a Distinction between the Disappointments as to the effecting the Discovery of a Passage, and the Probability there was of their being such Passage. The King of _Spain_ was equally successless as to the Execution, and at the same Time as much assured of the Practicability of making it; for which Reason Secretary _Walsingham_ was concerned at his Death, as the Attention of the Publick was drawn to a _North-east_ Passage, by which nothing more was proposed than a Trade to _Cathæy_ or _China_, and that a North-west Passage was neglected on the Part of the _English_. It was an Opinion received in _England_ in the Year 1560, or earlier, that there was such a Passage; and before the _Philippines_ were settled by the _Spaniards_. Soon after the Discovery of _Urdanietta_, _Frobisher_, who set out in 1576, is said to have projected his Design, and made an Application for fifteen Years before. Did not succeed in the City probably, as they might not see any certain Advantage; but when he applied to the Court he succeeded. On what Plan he went is also evident, to find an Entrance to Northward of the _Labrador_; for when he fell in with the South-west Part of _Greenland_, it was supposed by him to be the _Labrador_ Coast. There is another Account on the Oath of _Thomas Cowles_ of _Bedmester_, taken the 9th of _April_ 1579, at a Time when Oaths were considered by all People as solemn and sacred Obligations to declare the Truth. He says that six Years before, he heard a _Portugueze_ read a Book which he set out six Years before in print in the _Portugal_ Tongue, declaring that he, _Martin Chacke_, had found, now twelve Years past, a Way from the _Portugal Indies_ through the Gulph of _Newfoundland_, which he thought to be in Latitude 59° of the North Pole, by Means that he being in the said _Indies_ with four Ships of great Burthen, and he himself being in a small Ship of eighty Ton, far driven from the Company of the other four Ships with a West Wind; after that he had passed along by a great Number of Islands, which were in the Gulph of the said _Newfoundland_, and after that he overshot the Gulph, he set no more Sight on any other Land, until he fell in with the North-west Part of _Ireland_; and from thence he took his Course homeward, and by that Means came to _Lisbon_ four or five Weeks before the other Ships. But the Books were afterwards called in by the King's Order. This Passage was made about ten Years after that of _Urdanietta_; and it is probable _Chacke_ was encouraged to proceed through such Passage, from the Report or an Account which he had heard of such Passage having been before made. It is evident he met with some Difficulties in such Passage which delayed him, as the Ships were at _Lisbon_ so soon after him, and as he expresses that he was far driven from the other four Ships he left them in a low Latitude, and being got to the Northward, without any Expectation of rejoining them, proceeded intentionally to make his Voyage by the Passage; which he would not have done to the Hazard of losing his Vessel and Cargo, for he was not on Discovery, but returning to _Lisbon_ in Company with other loaden Vessels, from whom he was separated, unless he had been assured that what he undertook was practicable, and a Passage had been made by some Vessel before that Time. This Account was received as a Truth by the principal People of the Kingdom, who certainly made a due Enquiry as to the Character of the Person who made the Affidavit with respect to his Capacity, there would be a proper Precaution also, at the Time of administering such Affidavit, that it was exact and only what he knew positively as to this Matter, tho' there might be other Circumstances which he was not so positive in. And as this Account was at that Time believed, it must have been on better Reasons than can be at present urged by any one to call the Veracity of this Account in Question. _Juan de Fuca_ (the Account is from _Purchase_ and _North-west Fox_) was an ancient Pilot, who had been in the _West India_ of _Spain_ for near forty Years, and had sailed as Mariner and Pilot to many Places thereof in Service of the _Spaniards_. He was Pilot of three small Ships which the _Viceroy_ of _Mexico_ sent from thence, armed with a hundred Soldiers, under a _Spaniard_ Captain, to discover the Streights of _Anian_ along the Coast of the _South Sea_, and to fortify in that Streight, to resist the Passage of the _English_ Nation, but by Reason of a Mutiny which happened amongst the Soldiers, for some ill Practices of the Captain, the Voyage was overset, and they returned to _New Spain_. The Viceroy sent _de Fuca_ out again in 1592, with a small Caravel and Pinnace, armed with Mariners only, for the Discovery of the said Streights. Finding the Land to trend North and North-east, with a broad Inlet between 47 and 48, he entered it, and sailing therein more than twenty Days, found the Land trending still, sometimes North-west, sometimes North-east, and also South-eastward, far broader Sea than at the said Entrance; and passed by diverse Islands in that Entrance. He went upon Land in several Places, and saw some People on Land, clad in Beasts Skins; and that the Land was very fruitful, and rich of Gold and Silver, and Pearls, and other Things like _Nova Hispania_. Being entered thus far in the said Streight, and come into the _North Sea_ already, and finding the Sea wide enough every where, and to be about thirty or forty Leagues wide in the Streight where he entered; he thought he had well discharged his Office, and done the Thing he was sent to do; and that he not being armed to resist the Force of the savage People, that might happen to assault him, therefore set sail and returned to _Nova Hispania_, where he arrived at _Aquapulco, Anno 1592_, hoping to be well rewarded by the Viceroy for his Voyage so performed. The Viceroy received him kindly, and gave him Promises; but after an Expectation of two Years the Viceroy wished him to go to _Spain_, where the King would reward him; and he accordingly went. He was well received at Court; but after long Suit could get no Reward to his Content, so stole away and came to _Italy_, to live amongst his Kindred in his own Country, being very old, a _Greek_ by Birth, born in the Island of _Sepholonica_, and his proper Name _Apostollos Valerianos_. _De Fuca_ went first to _Leghorn_, then to _Florence_, where he met one _John Dowlass_, an _Englishman_, a famous Mariner, ready coming for _Venice_, to be a Pilot for a _Venetian_ Ship to _England_; they went in Company to _Venice_. _Dowlass_ being acquainted with Mr. _Lock_, at least a considerable Merchant if not a Consul there; gave him an Account of this _de Fuca_, and introduced him to Mr. _Lock_, who gave Mr. _Lock_ the preceding Account; and made a Proposal, if Queen _Elizabeth_ would make up the Loss which he had sustained aboard the _Aquapulco_ Ship taken by Captain _Cavendish_, which was to the Value of sixty Thousand Ducats, he would go to _England_, and serve her Majesty to discover the _North-west Passage_ into the _South Sea_, and engage his Life for the Performance, with a Ship of forty Tons and a Pinnace. They had two several Meetings on this Occasion; and _Lock_, at _de Fuca_'s Request, wrote to the old Lord _Treasurer Cecil_, Sir _Walter Rawleigh_, and Mr. _Richard Hackluit_, the Cosmographer, desiring a Hundred Pounds for to pay his Passage to _England_. His Friends wrote _Lock_ Word, the Action was very well liked, if the Money could be procured. As no great Expectations were to be had from this Answer, _de Fuca_ left _Venice_ in a Fortnight after, pursued his Design of going to _Greece_, and there died. There is nothing in this Relation but what is very natural and simple. _De Fuca_'s Demand was excessive, for which Reason, probably, as a Man who over-rated his Services, he was not rewarded by the _Viceroy_ or the _King_; yet the _Viceroy_ availed himself of him, by sending him to Court to give an Account of his Voyage, which he might be ordered to do, as another Expedition was desired, and a Representation for that Purpose made by the Viceroy _Luis Velasco_, as is mentioned in the Schedule of the King. History of _California_, P. 173. It did not appear that he could certainly perform what he undertook, concluding he was in the _North Sea_, from such Sea returned back to _New Spain_, therefore had not acquired a Knowledge of the Entrance into the Streights from the Eastward; which was the Difficulty that obstructed this Discovery on the Part of the _English_, and had been so much sought after, but unsuccessfully. His Age was also a very material Objection, that he would scarce be able to bear the Fatigue of such a Voyage, his Desire to undertake which immediately proceeded from his Avarice: Nor was it confident that the Hundred Pounds should be sent over to bring him to _England_, if the other Part of the Terms could not be complied with; which seems to be the Meaning of the Expression, the Action is well liked of if the Money could be procured. And _de Fuca_, whose Motive for proposing this Undertaking, was to be satisfied for his Loss by Captain _Cavendish_, would not have altered his Design of going into his own Country, and proceeded to _England_, unless he was assured of his being so gratified on a Performance of what he undertook. _Dowlass_, who was a good Mariner, as he travelled with him, and kept his Company, would have had particular and frequent Conversation with _de Fuca_, and who, as a Mariner, was more capable of finding out if his Account was true, and was thoroughly satisfied it was so, as he spoke to Mr. _Lock_ about him. Neither _Lock_ nor _Dowlass_ could have any sinister Views, but only animated by a publick Spirit to do their Country so acceptable a Service, which it was thought to be in _England_, as it is said the Action is well liked of. As to _de Fuca_ being taken Prisoner by Captain _Cavendish_, and how did he escape out of the Hands of the _English_? When the Ship was taken all the People were put ashore on the Coast of _California_, the Goods were taken out, and then the Ship was set a Fire, which burnt to the Water Mark, the Wreck floated ashore, they erected Jury-masts in her, and fortunately got to _Aquapulco_. _De Fuca_ says, the Cause he thought of the ill Reward he had of the _Spaniards_ was, that they understood very well the _English_ Nation had now given over all their Voyages for the Discovery of a _North-west Passage_, wherefore they feared not them to come any more that Way into the _South Sea_; and therefore they needed not his Service therein any more: Which is so far agreeable to the Accounts of those Times, that, after the Death of Sir _Francis Walsingham_, the Discovery of a North-west Passage had no Patron at Court; and Sir _Francis_ had particularly interested himself in procuring _Davis_ to go on his last Expedition. The Discovery was not re-assumed until the Year 1602, by the _Muscovy_ Company, who had never engaged as a Company in this Discovery; but having made some successless Attempts, as to the North-east Passage, fitted out Capt. _George Weymouth_ for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, which it is observable was the same Year with _Vizcaino_'s Expedition. And it is observable the next Expedition for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, was not until the Year 1606, when Mr. _John Knight_ was fitted out; and the same Year the King of _Spain_ orders _Vizcaino_ on a third Expedition, but _Vizcaino_ died, though in the interim _Vizcaino_ had been to _Old Spain_, to make Application to make a fresh Attempt, at his own Expence, and he could not obtain Permission of his Majesty. As the Expeditions which the Court of _Spain_ order peremptorily to be undertaken, correspond as to the Time with those from _England_, shews a Jealousy on the Part of the King of _Spain_ that the _English_ might succeed as to a Passage through the Streights. And though it is mentioned as the principal Design in the Expeditions by Order of the King of _Spain_, is the Discovery of a Harbour for the _Aquapulco_ Ship, the Publick understood there was yet a farther Design, and as much may be collected from the King of _Spain_'s Schedule in 1606. Count _de Monterey_, 'by pursuing the Discovery intended by _Don Luis de Velasco_, wrote to me concerning, and was of Opinion that small Vessels from the Harbour of _Aquapulco_ were the fittest; and that in the Discovery might be included the Coasts and Bays of the Gulph of _California_, and of the Fishery, to which, in my Letter of the 27th of _September_ 1599, I ordered to be answered, that the Discovery, and making Draughts, with Observations of that Coast, and the Bays along it, having appeared to me _highly convenient_, it was my Will he should immediately put it in Execution, without troubling himself about _California_, unless occasionally--And _Sebastian Vizcaino_ carefully informed himself of these _Indians_, and many others, whom he discovered along the Coast for above eight Hundred Leagues; and they all told him, that up the Country there were large Towns, Silver, and Gold; whence he is inclined to believe that great Riches may be discovered, especially as, in some Parts of the Land, Veins of Metal are to be seen; and that the Time of their Summer being known, a farther Discovery might be made of them by _going within_ the Country, and that the Remainder of it may be discovered along the Coast, as it reaches beyond 42 Degrees, the Limits specified to the said _Sebastian Vizcaino_ in his Instructions.' Though these Orders were received in _Mexico_ in 1599, no Voyage was set out on until 1602, the Time that _Weymouth_ sailed, then probably enforced by additional Orders from the Court of _Spain_. The Expedition which was overturned by the Mutiny of the Soldiers, seems to have been about the Time of Captain _Davis_'s Expedition; for _de Fuca_ says, after the Voyage was so ill ended, the Viceroy set him out again in 1592, which implies a Distance of Time between the first and second Voyage. The Instructions _Vizcaino_ had in the first Voyage were given by the Viceroy, for it was the Viceroy who appointed him, and were formed according to the Opinion that the Land beyond forty-two Degrees took a Course to Westward and Southward of West. And the Maps were constructed agreeable thereto, therefore the King says, '_Vizcaino_ had represented to him that the Coast, as far as 40 Degrees, lies North-west and South-east, and that in the two other Degrees, which makes up the 42 Degrees, it lies North and South,' and, as before mentioned, says, 'and that the Remainder of it may be discovered along the Coasts, as it reaches beyond 42 Degrees, the Limits specified to the said _Sebastian Vizcaino_ in his Instructions.' Therefore when _Martin Aguilar_ got to 43 Degrees and found an Opening, he concluded, as the Coast was represented to be terminated to the Northward, by the Maps and Charts in Use, that this must be the desired Streights; and therefore said on their Return, 'they should have performed a great deal more, had their Health not failed them; for it is certain that only fourteen Persons enjoyed it at _Cape Blanco_. The General and those that were with him had a mind to go through the Streight, which they call of _Anian_, and is said to be thereabouts. It had been entered by the foreign Ship, who gave Intelligence of it to the King, describing its Situation, and how through that Passage one might reach the _North Sea_, and then sail back to _Spain_, along _Newfoundland_ and the Islands of _Baccalaos_, to bring an Account of the Whole to his Majesty.' _Torquemada_, Vol. i. P. 725. But it is very plain the King had another Information of this Matter, and as to the Extent of the Land to Northward. _Luis de Velasco_ was the Viceroy in whose Time the Expedition of _de Fuca_ was; and the Expedition of _Vizcaino_ was under the Direction of the Count _de Monterey_, who was either not informed of what had been done by _de Fuca_, or might not think _de Fuca_'s Account of sufficient Authority to justify him, the Viceroy, in drawing his Instructions agreeable thereto; contrary to the general Opinion of the Cosmographers at that Time, and the Description they gave of the Coasts in their Maps. It must appear from what hath been said that there are no such great Improbabilities in the Accounts of _Salvatierre_, _Chacke_, or _de Fuca_, as hath been represented. It is also evident that the _English_ had great Expectations of succeeding; and the Court of _Spain_ had great Apprehensions we should meet with Success, and be enabled to attain a Passage by the Streight of _Anian_ into the _South Sea_; for which there must have been some reasonable Foundation both on the Part of the one and the other. The _English_ were first induced to attempt the Discovery of such a Passage, from the Accounts which they had from _Spain_ of there being such a Passage. The Court of _Spain_ entertained, as hath been shewn, an Opinion of there being such a Passage from the Time they conquered _Mexico_; and, agreeable to what _Torquemada_ says, had a certain Account of it, or at least an Account which appeared to the King to be authentick. What that Account really contained we do not know, nor was it consistent that it should be made publick; therefore what is said as to the Particulars of it are but Conjecture, and Representations upon Reports, for which the Reporters could have no real Authority. As _Vizcaino_ regretted being prevented, by the Sickness of his People that he could not go round the World, and have carried home to _Old Spain_ his Account of his Expedition. This firm Persuasion that he should have accomplished his Passage to _Old Spain_, by the Streight of _Anian_, must have been from some Information which he had received before he set out, that such Passage was practicable: Neither is it mentioned as if he proposed making a Discovery of it, but as of a Thing before done. It was the Opinion of all those who were with him, that it was practicable; which is agreeable to what _Salvatierra_ informed Sir _Hugh Sydney_, and Sir _Humphrey Gilbert_, That a _North-west Passage from us to_ Cathay _was constantly believed in_ America _navigable_. _Vizcaino_, who is represented as a Commander of great Conduct and Discretion (and which the Account of his Voyage expresses him to have been) would not have attempted to make a Passage thro' such Streights, to the Hazard, perhaps entire Loss, of the King's Ships, and what he had before done rendered of no Effect, unless he had a discretionary Power either to pass to _Old Spain_ by these Streights, or return to _Aquapulco_. After the Expedition of _Knight_ failed, and _Vizcaino_ died, we hear of no other Expeditions at the Expence of or by the positive Order of the Court of _Spain_ until that of Admiral _Cassanate_, who went the third Year after the Expedition of _de Fonte_, to make a Survey of the Coast of _California_; yet we have no Reason to conclude there were no other Expeditions, but it is rather to be supposed that, after the _English_ had proceeded in their Discoveries as far as _Hudson_'s Bay, the Court of _Spain_ thought it necessary, and found an effectual Way of keeping their Expeditions, both in respect to their Equipment and what was done on such Expeditions a Secret, by sending Officers from _Old Spain_ to conduct them, and as to which the Religious would not think themselves at Liberty to make any Publication without the Permission of the Court. Having no Intercourse by Trade with those Parts, we cannot be acquainted with what is transacted in those Parts, any further than what the _Spanish_ Writers are permitted to inform us, and the imperfect and uncertain Intelligence of those who have been cruizing in those Seas. The _Spanish_ Nation have been particularly cautious of keeping the Knowledge of their Coast secret: Neither was it known, in the Year 1745, that an exact Survey was made of those Coasts until _Pasco Thomas_ annexed to his Account of Lord _Anson_'s Expedition, published in 1745, a Copy of a Manuscript, which Manuscript contained an Account of the Latitudes and Longitudes of all the most noted Places in the _South Sea_, corrected from the latest Observations by _Manuel Monz Prieto_, Professor of Arts in _Peru_, and are composed with as much Precision and Exactness, as Tables of that Sort are usually made; but when these Coasts were surveyed to the Northward, to attain a Knowledge of which was formerly attended with such immense Difficulty; and to what Purpose and what Trade is carried on there, we are at present entire Strangers to. It is by Accident only that we have this Account; and if the _Spanish_ Nation have used this Precaution, with respect to the Knowledge of their Coasts, undoubtedly they would use the same Caution with respect to giving us any Insight as to how we might find a more ready Access to such Coasts by a _North-west_ Passage. The Point of _Sueste del Estrech d'Anian_, inserted in such Tables, shews the Opinion of the Streights is far from being exploded; but it is acknowledged by the Geographers of _Peru_ and _New Spain_, at the present Time, that there are such Streights. The naming the _South Point_ of the _Streight_ implies there is Land to the Northward, as to which it doth not seem to be consistent with the Purpose of the Person who composed this Table to take any Notice, but that there is such Land is confirmed by the _Russian_ Discoveries. The Extent of _America_ to Northward and Westward, that _America_ and _Asia_ were contiguous and only separated by a Streight, that _California_ was an Island, that a _Passage_ by the _North-east_ was practicable, have been by later _Geographers_ treated as _Chimeras_, contrary to the earliest Accounts, and the Reports of the first Discoverers, and which, by later Accounts, the Consequence of actual Observations are found to be true. There was a Simplicity and Honour in the People of that Age; there was no Motive for telling the Lie, that they faithfully reported the Discoveries they made, and if a Falshood was discovered it might be dangerous in the Consequences; their Voyages were not lucrative Jobs, in Hopes of a Repetition of which they formed their Accounts accordingly. There was no particular System to support, for the Parts they went to were entirely unknown, that a Reward and Reputation should be procured through a prevailing Interest to such as spoke in Favour of the System. While those to whose Fidelity and Assiduity alone it would be owing that such Discoveries were made, though repeated Endeavours were used to render the Undertaking ineffectual; and through whose Means alone the Truth would be made known to the Publick; should be ill spoken of, accused of Bribery, discountenanced, and the whole Merit ascribed to, where it would be least deserved, and, in Truth, where there could not be the least Pretension. Nevertheless the Reward given would be an Instance of a generous Regard in those who had Power to bestow of rewarding Merit, though they were inevitably deceived as to the proper Persons to whom such Reward should have been given. No Authorities have been produced from Tradition or History which oppose the Probability of there being a North-west Passage, or the Reality of this Account of _de Fonte_, which the more we examine the less there appears to be of a Falsity, the Circumstances of it so consistent and united, and there are so many extra Circumstances which concur with that Account, that we cannot but admit to be an incontestable Truth. We have not had a full Account of the Voyages and Expeditions of the _Spaniards_ in _New Spain_, as some of them have not been permitted to be published. _Venegas_ particularly mentions, Vol. i. P. 14, and in other Parts, There are also Accounts of Voyages made to other Parts of the World, which are only preserved in the Collections of the Curious, and it is known but to few Persons that such Voyages were ever made. There are some Voyages which are mentioned to have been made, but cannot, after the most diligent Inquiries, be procured; yet it is no just Objection to the Authenticity of such Voyages, or as to their not having been made. What the first Discoverers represented as to the Extent of _America_, its being contiguous to _Asia_, as to _California_, and as to a North-east Passage, being in all Respects found to be true, there is the greatest Reason to believe that there is a North-west Passage; and it is consistent with that Precaution which the _Spanish_ Nation have made Use of, that we should not have any authentick Accounts relating to such Passage, which they were desirous of discovering as a shorter Way to the _Spice_ Islands and the _Indies_. But when the King of _Portugal_ and _Spain_ came to an Agreement as to the _Moluccas_, the principal Reason for making such Discovery was determined, and it became their mutual Interest that it should not be known that there was such a Passage. Their continued Silence with respect to such Passage, implies they are acquainted with there being such a Passage, though not to an Exactness. It cannot imply they are dubious, when we consider the Number of Circumstances there are already mentioned, which express the contrary. There are Circumstances in _de Fonte_'s Account which shew the Inference of there being no _North-west Passage_ is not just, though just as far as it appeared to _de Fonte_, as the River _Parmentiers_ was not navigable for Shipping. One Circumstance is, that in the River _Haro_, and Lake _Velasco_, there were Salmon Trouts and large white Perch; also in _Los Reyes_ and Lake _Belle_, but in Lake _de Fonte_ excellent Cod and Ling; which are Fish that always abide in the Salt Water, the others come out of the Salt Water into the fresh Waters to spawn. Which _de Fonte_ would account for that they came into the Lake _de Fonte_ from the _North Sea_, and when he passed the Streight of _Ronquillo_, supposed himself to be in that Sea, or from the Intelligence that he obtained from _Shapley_ that he was in a Gulph or Branch of it. Another Circumstance, as it flowed in the River _Los Reyes_ twenty-two Feet, and in _Haro_ twenty-four, and but a small Tide went into Lake _Belle_, _de Fonte_ concluded that the Western Tide terminated there, and that as the Waters rose to such a Heighth at the Entrance of those Rivers, that it was a Gulph he was in which confined these Waters and occasioned their rise at such Entrances of the Rivers. That the Tides in _Parmentiers_, Lake _de Fonte_, and the Streights of _Ronquillo_, were from the _North Sea_. But by later Observations of the Rise of the Tides, a Tide cannot proceed from _Hudson_'s Bay to that Sea where _Shapley_ was met by _de Fonte_, than through the Streights of _Ronquillo_ into the great Lake of _de Fonte_, and afterwards to rise so high in the River _Parmentiers_. Neither can such a Tide proceed through the broken Land to Northwards of _Hudson_'s Streights, named _Cumberland_ Isles (formerly _Estotland_) and which extend as far as Latitude 70; for it is evident the Strength of such Tides is spent in _Hudson_'s Bay and _Baffin_'s Bay: For at the Bottom of _Hudson_'s Bay it flowed but two Feet, at the Bottom of _Fretum Davis_ or _Baffin_'s Bay, but one Foot. Which is agreeable to the Opinion of all the Discoverers of that Time, as to the Eastern Tide from the Proportion that the great Spaces or Seas which were to receive it bore to the Inlets by which it came in, that the Force of such Tide must be consumed in such Seas, and therefore expected to meet with a Tide from Westward, which counterchecked the Eastern Tide. On the other Hand, if we consider this Tide to be from the Western Ocean, such Tide forced through various Entrances up a Streight as that of _de Fuca_, must enter the Sea where _Shapley_ was met, with great Impetuosity; rise in Heighth proportionable to the Width in all Openings that there are to receive it. As it is the Tide round _Greenland_, and that which comes from the Southward along the Coast of _Labrador_, being both received in those Indraughts of _Hudson_'s Streights, and the broken Lands of _Cumberland_ Isles, which causes the Rise of the Tides there. It may be supposed that the _North-east_ Part of the _South Sea_, and the Streight of _de Fuca_, received the Tides which set to Eastward along the Western Main from _Beering_'s Streights, and the Tide which comes from the Southward along the Coast of _California_. That the Tide is not from the _Tartarian Sea_, in Lake _de Fonte_, _&c._ is evident from _Bernarda_'s Account, who shews there is no Communication with that Sea and the Sea that _Shapley_ was met in. As to the Cod and Ling in Lake _de Fonte_, or as to Salmon, it is not known that there are either Cod, Ling or Salmon in _Hudson_'s Bay: Neither have there been found Shoals or Banks to which the Cod could repair; nor is it known that any Cod have been catched beyond Latitude 57; an Article to which _Davis_ was particularly attentive: Therefore it is not probable that they should come from the _North Sea_ through _Hudson_'s Bay to Lake _de Fonte_. _De Fonte_ mentions Shoals in the North-east Part of the _South Sea_, which he passed up. And in _Vizcaino_'s Voyage there is an Account that, off the Island _Geronymo_ on the Coast of _California_, the Ships Companies supplied themselves with Cod and Ling; which shews there are Cod and Ling in those Seas. It was reasonable for _de Fonte_ to suppose that the Cod and Ling came from the Eastward from the _Baccaloos_, neither could he otherwise suppose, as the contrary is only known from Observations made much later than that Time. _Fox_ had advanced in 1635, when he published the Account of his Voyage, that there was a free and open Communication of the Western Ocean with _Hudson_'s Bay: Which was looked on as an incontestable Fact until the Voyage of Captain _Middleton_. What _Fox_ said was consistent with the Opinion which all the Discoverers had of the Proximity of the Western Ocean; who therefore judged of the Probability of their Success in the Parts they went into, from the Course of the Tides, which if there was no Western Tide there was no Passage. This probably prevented that Success, as to a Discovery of a Passage, which through their Assiduity might otherwise have been obtained, had they not paid such a Regard to the Tides, but made a due Survey of the Inlets and Openings of the Coast, which on their not finding that a Western Tide came from thence they deserted, which was also the Case as to Captain _Moor_ in the Search of _Pistol Bay_ as called, to Southward of Lord _Southwell_'s Isles, there was no Western Tide; therefore a compleat Discovery of that Part was not made. It is to be considered that the Northern and Eastern Parts of _America_, are more intermixed with Waters than the Parts to Southward are, being a high mountainous Country. The Mountains chiefly consisting of a brown rocky Substance, not penetrable by the melting Snows or Spring Rains, which therefore run off into the Levels and Valleys, and form inland Seas, great Lakes, and Inlets, which vent their Waters into the Ocean, necessary for carrying off that great Quantity and vast Bodies of Ice which are formed in the Winter in those Parts, not to be dissolved, as the greater Part is which is formed to the Southward, by the Influence of the Sun. The Northern and Westward Part of _America_ is also mountainous, and high Ridges of Mountains were seen from the Head of _Wager_ Bay on the opposite Shore of what appeared to be a Lake; therefore there must be Lakes and Seas to Westward, Reservoirs for the melting Snows and Rains, also some Outlet or Channel to carry off the great Quantities of Ice also formed in those Parts; and with which _Barnarda_'s Account is consistent, and the greatest Reservoir and Discharge seems to be to the Northward by that North-east Part of the _Tartarian Sea_. The Lake _Velasco_, Lake _Belle_, Lake _de Fonte_, may be all supposed to proceed from the same Cause, the melting Snows and Rains, receive the Ice from the Waters which run into them, which, from the Strength of the Currents and Tides, is soon shot from the Shores of such Lakes, broken to Pieces and carried off into some Passage or Inlet into the _South Sea_; and such a Vent or Channel to carry off such Bodies of Ice must necessarily be, agreeable to what is known by Observation in other Parts. The Objection of the great Distance it is between the Ocean and the Sea at the Back of _Hudson_'s Bay, and where _Shapley_ was met, will appear of no Validity when we consider the Distance between the Streights of _Gibraltar_ and the Northern Part of the _Black Sea_. Between the Entrance of the _Sound_ to the Entrance of the _White Sea_, between which there is Communication of Waters, or very nearly so. And from Point _Comfort_ in _Hudson_'s Bay to Alderman _Smith_'s Sound in _Baffin_'s Bay, between which there is a Communication of Waters without entering into the _Ocean_ or _Davis_ Streights. From Lake _Superior_ to the Streights of _Belle Isle_ at the Back of _Newfoundland_, or to _Cape Breton_, is near forty Degrees of Longitude, or equal to 390 Leagues. And Lake _Superior_ hath a Communication with _Hudson_'s Bay. This great Afflux of Waters form such Meanders and Labyrinths, as it is impossible to say whether there is a Communication of Waters, or whether the Waters are divided by smaller or larger Tracts or Slips of Land, without an absolute Survey. The Lands so double or fold one within the other, that unless you get a proper Sight of such Lands so as to distinguish this, to discover the Opening that is between them, there is an Appearance of a Continuance of the Land, and consequently of a Termination of the Waters. So long as the Tide Argument prevailed it was not thought necessary to be so accurate in the Searches. A Sight of the Land trending a Course contrary to that Course which the Discoverers were to pursue to make a Passage, and the Tide coming from the Eastward, rendered a Search any further in those Parts unnecessary: and it may be owing to the great Impropriety of adopting a particular System, more than to any other Cause, that the Discovery of a North-west Passage was not made by those brave industrious Discoverers, who in a Series succeeded each other from _Frobisher_ to _James_ and _Fox_. This seems to be certain, that there must be one great Channel, as _Hudson_'s Streights are to Eastward, also to Westward though intricate by which the Waters to Westward pass into the _South Sea_, and as that to Northward, the North-east Part of the _Tartarian Sea_. We already know there is not a Communication by _Hudson_'s Bay, thro' any Inlet by which the Waters do come in there or sufficient for that Purpose; neither round the Head of _Repulse_ Bay, for then the Current would have been met coming from Westward. Therefore such Channel must be to Southward and Westward, consistent with _de Fuca_'s Account of a Streight, in some such Manner as is represented in the Map annexed. Which Account also agreeable to that of _Peche_. _De Fuca_ says, he sailed twenty-six Days up such Streight before he entered the Sea; that the Streight grew wider before he entered the Sea. If we allow him fifteen Leagues a Day, from the Entrance of such Streights out of the _South Sea_ to where he entered the Sea, by him supposed the _North Sea_, the Distance is 390 Leagues. As he mentions that he found it wide enough every where, this Expression shews that he did not suppose himself in the Ocean, but in a Gulph of the Ocean. And _Martin Chacke_ expresses himself, that after he overshot the _Gulph_, he set no more Sight on any other Land. Therefore the Distance is agreeable to that Distance which _de Fuca_ must have gone to come into that Sea where _de Fonte_ met _Shapley_; the Description that he saw both Shores, makes a Consistency also in those Accounts. Before _de Fonte_'s Expedition, _Hudson_'s Bay had been discovered, yet that Discovery made no Alteration as to the Accounts of _de Fuca_ and _Chacke_, as _Fox_ said beyond Lat. 64, round that Land there was incontestably a Communication with the Western Ocean. Here is an Agreement in three Accounts, by separate Persons at a Distance of Time, who had no Intelligence of what had been done by each other; for _Chacke_ was a _Portugueze_; and as _de Fuca_ had made his Report to the Viceroy of _New Spain_ of what he had done, and what he had done seems to be mostly accounted of by himself, therefore no Regard might be had to it in drawing _de Fonte_'s Instructions: All which three Accounts agree in there being a Sea to Westward of _Hudson_'s Bay. _De Fuca_ mentions he was ashore; saw Marks of Gold and Silver; Marquisates the same which was made such an Account of after _Frobisher_'s return from his first Voyage, and from which it may be inferred it was a barren mountainous Country which _de Fuca_ passed through. He was afraid of the Natives, who were clad in Beast Skins; and from whose Behaviour he must have had some Apprehension that they would cut him off, as he mentions that he was not armed against them. _De Fonte_ is very express as to the civil Behaviour of those _Indians_ he met with, so contrary to the Character of those whom _de Fuca_ saw. Therefore those whom _de Fuca_ saw were the _Eskemaux_, who frequent the mountainous and desolate Parts, and near to the Salt Waters where they can catch Fish, also the Seal and the Whale, from which they get many Conveniencies besides what is necessary for their Subsistance; who are mentioned to be also on other Parts of the Coast of _California_; are represented as a fierce and barbarous People, who hold no Treaty or Amity with their Neighbours, who are always in Fear of them. That _de Fonte_ should not pass up the North-east Part of the _South Sea_, but go through Land, must have been, that the North-east Part of the _South Sea_ was represented as a Gulph, not a Streight, from some Observations made prior to that Expedition, as to which the Observers might be deceived, by its taking a Southerly Course through some Inlet or Opening obscured by Islands, or the Entrance narrow, that they concluded it only to be some small Branch which soon terminated; having, at the same Time, a large open Channel before them, which they finding afterwards surrounded with Land, concluded there was no Communication with any other Waters, but that they had seen the Extremity of these Waters to Eastward. That these Waters took a Course through that desert mountainous Country, until they joined with the Waters of the Streights that _de Fuca_ came up, the People of _Conosset_ might not be able to give a just Account of, as they lived so far to Northward and Eastward. Though they, as the Natives of _Conibasset_ also came occasionally into the North-east Part of the _South Sea_; the one mostly frequented to Northward and Eastward, the other to Northward and Westward, as is apparent from _de Fonte_'s Account; where they had level and fruitful Tracts, as they produced so much Maiz; a hunting Country, as there were three Sorts of Deer; also Fish in their Waters. Whereas the Country on the opposite Shore of the North-east Part of the _South Sea_, as is apparent from being the Resort of the _Eskemaux_, would be rugged, rocky, and remarkably barren, with little Intermixtures of level and fruitful Spots. Therefore the People of _Conosset_, or _Conibasset_, would have no Inducements to go into those Parts. May be supposed the opposite Coast was the Limits of their Enemy's Country, with whom if they went to War, and knew that the Waters of the North-east Part of the _South Sea_ did communicate to Southward with other Waters; yet it cannot be imagined that they went up those Waters so far in their Enemy's Country of so wild a Disposition, where they were always in Danger of being surprized, as to know whether those Waters joined with the Sea in which _Shapley_ was met. Might also be jealous if the Jesuits, or _Parmentiers_, or others who came there, were very particular in their Enquiries, that they intended to go and reside amongst their Enemies, which, as the Nature of _Indians_ is, would cause them to be on the Reserve, and slack in their Informations, as to those Parts. That those Persons who were in those Parts before this Expedition of _de Fonte_, got no Information of this Streight, or of the Waters, as to the Course of them to Southward, there must be a considerable main Land to Southward of Lake _Belle_ and Lake _de Fonte_, as is expressed in the Map, and as to the Sea to Eastward, that Part of it which was to Southward of _Ronquillo_, no more would be apprehended of it, being unacquainted as to the Streight, than that it was a Part of that Sea contiguous to _Hudson_'s Bay; and it not being known at that Time but the Tides came from the Eastward, would have no Reason to infer, from the Sea running to Southward, that it communicated with a Streight there. To take away the Improbability of what is here advanced, we should reflect what Assurances former Discoverers gave, that had but the Season permitted to proceed, they should certainly have made a Passage; though when an Attempt was again made they found their Mistake; and from Observations then made, they saw good Reason to have a different Opinion as to the Nature of the Passage from what they had before, and very reasonable, as their Searches were made in Parts entirely unknown; and as to the Appearance of the Land, the Course of the Waters, and the Set of the Tides, the most judicious might be deceived. The _Spanish_ Nation had not been able to make out a Passage by their various Attempts, agreeable to the Accounts of private Persons, which probably might give an Opportunity for the Representations of the Jesuits to be attended to, who would urge every Argument in Behalf of their Discovery, and endeavour to invalidate the former Accounts as to a Passage; which by that Time, from the ill Success as to discovering a Passage, might not be at that Time so much thought of; and as Difference in Time produces a Change in Opinions, whatever makes for the reigning Opinion is adopted, as every Thing that is contradictory is depreciated. The Arguments for the Opinion which prevailed before for a navigable Passage might be treated as fallacious and insignificant, and the Instructions for the Expedition of _de Fonte_ might be drawn agreeable to the Jesuits Plan, whom it is evident knew nothing of a Streight, but considered the Land of _America_ as one continued Continent to Latitude 66. And whatever Weight this Conjecture may have, it is apparent from the Consideration of _de Fonte_'s Letter, that the Instructions were drawn from the Information of some who had been before in those Parts: And by whom can it be supposed more properly that the Court received the Information which they had than from the Jesuits, whose Understanding and Character would admit them to a free Converse with the Minister on a less Occasion than they would now have, to give an Account of those Parts they had been in. The _Court_ of _Spain_ does not seem, from the Proceedings, to be of the same Opinion with the _Jesuits_, or _de Fonte_ after his return. As the Governor of _Cinoloa_ is immediately ordered to take a Survey of the Coasts and Harbours of _California_. And the next Year Admiral _Cassanate_ is sent from _Old Spain_; and it is probable the Court was not of the Opinion of the _Jesuits_ when they gave this Information, but formed the Instructions for _de Fonte_ agreeable thereto. As the most expedient Method, at that Time, for intercepting the People from _Boston_, was to go the Way they gave an Account of with the Boats through Land, as the Ships might meet with Difficulties and Delays in passing up the Streights, also ran great Hazard; the _Boston_ Ship might pass them unperceived. Whereas, on the Plan which was pursued, if they heard by the Natives that the _Boston_ Ship had passed, and taken her Course further to Southward or Westward, _de Fonte_ would have repaired aboard his Ship, proceeded down _Los Reyes_, and with the Diligence which he would have made Use of, fell in with the _Boston_ Ship either in such _North-east_ Part of the _South Sea_, or on the Coast of _California_, leaving Orders for _Barnardo_ how to act in this Respect on his return. From which Conduct, and the Look-out that was kept on the Coast of _Mexico_ and _Peru_, it would have been also impossible for the _Boston_ People, unacquainted with these Parts, and not expecting such a Diligence was used to intercept them, to have made a successful Voyage. That there is a Sea to the Westward of _Hudson_'s Bay is reported by the _Indians_, and is represented to have Ice in it like _Hudson_'s Bay. Governor _Dobbs_, in his Account of the Countries adjoining to _Hudson_'s Bay (P. 19.) mentions from _Joseph le France_, that their Savages reported that in the Bottom of the Northern Bay there is a Streight, they can easily discover Land on the other Side: They had never gone to the End of that Streight. They say there is Ice there all the Year, which is drove by the Wind, sometimes one Way sometimes another. The _Indians_, who are called _Northern Indians_, having their Habitations to North-west of _Churchill_, mention a Sea to the Westward of them, and which is from _Churchill_ Factory in _Hudson_'s Bay twenty-five Days Journey, not a direct Course, but from the round they are obliged to take. They speak of the _Eskemaux Indians_ to Eastward of them, but never give an Account of any other Nations to Northward or Westward of them. Mr. _Scroggs_, who was sent out by the _Hudson_'s Bay Company in 1722, had two Northern _Indians_, whom he carried with him, when he was in about Lat. 62. knew the Country very well, and had a great Desire to go home, saying they were but two or three Days Journey from their Family. And the Northern _Indians_ who were with Captain _Middleton_, were desirous of his going near the Shore, between Lat. 62 Deg. and 64. In Lat. 63° and 14´, Captain _Middleton_ put two of the _Indians_ ashore, who were desirous of returning to their own Country. And the Author saw an _Indian_, whose Daughter had married a Northern _Indian_ and been home with her, direct his own Son to sketch out on a Board with a burnt Stick, the Coast of that Sea, which his Son did, and the Father afterwards took and corrected it where he said the Son had mistook. Governor _Dobbs_, in the Account mentioned P. 45, mentions, 'that _Joseph le France_ was acquainted with an _Indian_, who lived at some Distance from _Nelson_ River in _Hudson_'s Bay, who, about 15 Years before that Time, went to War against a Nation living Northward on the Western Ocean of _America_. When they went they carried their Families with them, and hunted and fished from Place to Place for two Winters and one Summer, having left their Country in Autumn, and in _April_ following came to the Sea Side, on the Western Coast, where they immediately made their Canoes. At some little Distance they saw an Island, which was about a League and a Half long when the Tide was out, or Water fell, they had no Water betwixt them and the Island, but when it rose it covered all the Passage betwixt them and the Island, as high up as the Woods upon the Shore. There they left their Wives and Children, and old Men, to conduct them home and provide them with Provisions, by hunting and shooting for them on the Road; and he, with thirty Warriors, went in Quest of their Enemies the _Tete Plat_. After they parted with their Families they came to a Streight, which they passed in their Canoes. The Sea Coast lay almost East and West; for he said the Sun rose upon his Right Hand, and at Noon it was almost behind him as he passed the Streight, and always set in the Sea. After passing the Streight they coasted along the Shore three Months, going into the Country or Woods as they went along to hunt for Provisions. He said they saw a great many large black Fish spouting up Water in the Sea. After they had coasted for near three Months, they saw the Footsteps of some Men on the Sand; then judged they were near their Enemies, quitted their Canoes, went five Days through the Woods to the Banks of a River, found their Enemy's Town, made an Attack, the Enemy rallied and put them to flight.' Then proceeds, 'upon which they fled to the Woods, and from thence made their Escape to their Canoes before their Enemies overtook them, and after a great deal of Fatigue got to the Streight; and, after getting over, they all died one after the other, except this old Man, of Fatigue and Famine, leaving him alone to travel to his own Country, which took him up about a Year's Time.' When he reached the River _Sakie_ he met his Friends again, who relieved him. The _Indians_ that this antient _Indian_ went to War against, (and this _Indian_ was living at _York Fort_ in _Hudson_'s Bay in 1746) are mentioned to be the _Tete Plat_, or _Plascotez de Chicus_. The Part which they inhabit is variously laid down by the Geographers; by some in Lat. 67, Long. 265 East from _Ferro_, which is the extremest Longitude that their Country is laid down in. Mons. _de Lisle_ and others place them in Lat. 63, and Long. 280 East from _Ferro_, so their true Situation is uncertain. Yet it is apparent that they do not live near to or on the Coast of the _South Sea_, or Western Ocean. For what _Joseph le France_ in this Account, and so of all _Indians_, meant by the Word Sea is any Mass or Collection of Salt Waters which have a Tide. P. 38, in the same Work, giving an Account of the _Indians_ passing down to _York Fort_. 'The River _de Terre Rouge_, and from that Place they descend gradually to the Sea.' By which _Joseph le France_ means _Hudson_'s Bay. Governor _Dobbs_ mentioning the Western Ocean of _America_ is a Mistake, which he was led into as having a Consistency with the System which he had adopted. These Warriors left their own Country in Autumn, are said to have lived near _Port Nelson_ or _York Fort_, and were at the Sea Side in _April_. Their not being sooner is not to be attributed to the Length of the Journey but to the Season of the Year. The old _Indian_ was a Year returning to his own Country; but he was fatigued and almost famished, so labouring under a great Debility, and had his Food to seek in whatever Manner he could procure it. The Winter also came on soon after his return from the Enemy. They were on the Western Side of the Land, which separates _Hudson_'s Bay from that Sea, where they saw so great a Tide. Afterwards passed a Streight, which Streight lay North and South. The Sea they came from and the Sea they passed into after such Streight, laid East and West. They continually kept the Western Shore, as that was the Side on which their Enemy lived; and though they were so long as three Months in their Passage, they were obliged to go every Day ashore to hunt, being thirty in Company, required a pretty considerable Subsistance. Their Canoes can bear no Serge or Wave when the Wind blows, therefore are obliged to keep close to the Shore, and must go to the Bottom of each Bay. This Account agrees both with that of _de Fonte_ and _de Fuca_. The Sea they imbarked on was that at the Back of _Hudson_'s Bay, and the Streight might be formed by some Island, or both the Shores approach each other, tho' the Account is not sufficiently intelligible to make any Description of it in the Map. _De Fuca_ says the Streight grew wider when he entered such Sea, which seems to imply it had been narrow. And the _Indians_, as before-mentioned, said there was a Streight, and they can perceive the Land on the other Side. _De Fuca_ also mentions he went ashore, and found the Land fruitful, and rich of Gold and Silver and Pearls, and other Things, like _Nova Hispania_. Which shews it was a mixed Country; for a fruitful Country and a Produce of Gold and Silver is not a Description compatible with one and the same Part. The one we may suppose the Description of the Parts nearer the Ocean, the other of the Parts where the _Tete Plat_ live: But the old _Indian_ seems also to make a Distinction; for he says they went to hunt in the Country and the Woods. When they had passed the Streight, they came into the broader Part of the Streight of _Anian_, which appeared to them to be a Sea. As to the Place of their Imbarkation, they would be directed by where they could procure Birch to make their Canoes. The true Situation of the Part they went to, nor where they imbarked is not to be determined with any Certainty; but it doth not carry the least Probability that they went to War with a People more than a thousand Miles distant. It is scarce probable they had ever heard the Name of the Inhabitants of those Parts, much more so acquainted with their Situation as to be able to form a Plan of going to conquer them. There must have been some particular Cause for their going to War with a People so far off; what that was it would be difficult to imagine; if it was only to shew their Prowess, they must have had Enemies nearer home, against whom there was a greater Probability of succeeding. Neither could it be at that Distance, as they had one continued Scene of Fatigue until they reached the Streights; their Hearts broken by Reason of the Disappointment, the Heat of Summer, no venturing ashore but for a very short Time, either for Food or Refreshment, as they expected the Conquerors to follow them with Canoes, it would have been impossible for them to have reached the Streight. If they had a hundred Leagues a direct Course until they attained the Place of their Imbarkation, and by going round the Bays, might be near twice that Distance, the Current also against them, it would be sufficient, stout young Fellows, and full of Blood as they were, for what they underwent to be fatal to them. It is evident the Streight was not far from where they imbarked, and the Relation seems to express it so, as they had such a Fatigue in attaining to it. Allowing the _Tete Plat_ to be in Long. 108 Degrees from _London_, and the true Course was W. S. W. or E. N. E. on their return, with a Distance of a hundred Leagues, they would alter their Latitude 114 Miles, and make 277 Miles Departure, which, with 27 Miles to a Degree, would make the Place of their Imbarkation to be in Longitude 98 from _London_, about the Longitude of _Ronquillo_. As to the Latitude where the _Tete Plat Indians_ live, and as to the Longitude it is but conjecture; there is such a Discordancy and Contradiction in the Maps, there is such Uncertainty, that the North-west and West Parts beyond _Hudson_'s Bay in the Latitude of _Churchill_, seem to be entirely unknown. But this is to be observed, and which has been my Direction in these Observations, the _Northern Indians_ and the _Home Indians_ about the Factory of _York_ Fort, mention these _Tete Plat Indians_, and speak of them as their Enemies, therefore they cannot be at so great a Distance as the Western Ocean, neither further than where I have supposed their Country to be. For as the Time the _Indians_ were going there three Months, that is not to be considered so much with respect to the Distance, as they would choose a proper Season, when there were the fewest _Indians_ in the Towns, and were mostly engaged abroad in their Summer hunting. Perhaps there are no People who plan better in the Partizan Way, and execute with more Success. They fix the Time they intend to make their Attack before they set out, then proceed easily and gradually towards their Enemy's Country, allowing a Sufficiency of Time in which they may recover any Accident by which they might be delayed, as unseasonable Weather, Difficulty and Disappointments as to procuring Subsistance, or any Indisposition, that they go to Action in their full Strength and Vigour; as an _Indian_ who conducts an Expedition would be as much contemned for Want of Prudence, on his Return to the Towns, as he would for his Want of Conduct in leading his People to an Attack, and when the Enemy was too powerful not bringing them off without the Loss of a Scalp. In either of which Cases the young People, who observe freely the most exact Discipline, and implicitly obey what he orders, would not go any more to War with him. Which Way the _Boston_ Ship made this Passage is uncertain. _Gibbons_ was acquainted with _Bylot_, was Shipmate with him in Sir _Thomas Button_'s Voyage. _Bylot_ was also with _Gibbons_ the Time he lost his Season, by being detained in the Ice. _Bylot_ made an Expedition for Discovery of a Passage in the Year 1615, on Sir _Thomas Button_ having at a Trial of a Tide off the Island of _Nottingham_, in _Hudson_'s Streights, found it came from the North-west, and to be from an Opening at the Back of _Cary_'s _Swans-nest_, this Tide he went in Pursuit of; and was as far up as Lat. 65 Deg. 26 Min. then supposed where he was was nothing but a Bay, but could not (he had gone up the East) return down the West Shore. Whether _Gibbons_ took his Information from _Bylot_, and pursued his Plan, is uncertain, and found his Way round the Head of _Repulse_ Bay. He was also acquainted with what _Fox_ had done, who went into Lat. 66 Deg. 5 Min. so further than _Bylot_, who did not return down the Western Shore; but his People being indisposed, and not finding a North-west Tide, he hastened home. These Parts, therefore, were not properly searched, the Conclusion drawn for there not being a Passage there, being that the Tide came from the Eastward. Or whether _Gibbons_ went through _Hudson_'s Bay is equally uncertain. The undiscovered Parts of which Bay, or the Openings that were not determined in the Expedition in the Year 1747, are in a Map hereto annexed. But the Termination of _Chesterfield_'s or _Bowden_'s Inlet hath been since searched by the Direction of the _Hudson_'s Bay Company, and a Plan made of it, which I have not seen. Their Design was to go as far up such Inlet until it terminated, or there was a Passage into another Water. But as it is terminated by Land, and if there is no Inlet or Opening left on the North or South Shore unsearched, or a Survey taken from the Heights, by which they could be satisfied there was no Communication with any other Waters by which there could be a Passage, it is to be concluded that _Chesterfield_ Inlet is no Streight or Passage as was expected, and it appeared to be as far as the _Californias_ Boat went up, according to the Report made at that Time. The People who had been in the Boat belonging to the _California_, when the Ship was going up _Wager_ Bay, where, from the Depth of the Water, the Breadth between both Shores, the high mountainous Land, there was great Reason to believe there was a Streight or Passage: Those People declared, if there was a Streight they were assured that _Chesterfield_ Inlet was a Streight also. There remains then to be searched for the Discovery of a Passage, the Opening called _Pistol Bay_, in _Hudson_'s Bay. That Part which _Bylot_ and _Fox_ left undetermined, along the Coast to Southward of _Baffins_ Bay called _Cumberland_ Isles, which entirely consists of large Inlets and broken Lands. We may be too premature in our Conclusions as to the Impracticability of such a Passage from the high Latitude and the Shortness of the Season, as we have the Instance of the _Boston_ Ship, which was so far advanced in the Sea to Westward of _Hudson_'s Bay in the Month of _August_; and some Time would be taken up in finding out the Way. The strong Tides that set in, and the Current when to Westward, which there is apparently in the other Sea, may give an Expedition that may compensate against the Shortness of the Season. It is but a short Time that would be required to pass that Part of the Passage which lies in those high Latitudes, as the Course would be soon altered to the Southward. [Illustration: Map of The _DISCOVERIES_ made in the NORTH WEST PARTS _OF_ HUDSONS BAY. By Cap^t. Smith in 1746 & 1747.] _Seyxas y Lovera_, in his _Theatro Naval Hydrographico_, in the seventh Chapter, P. 426, says, 'North-east of _America_ there is the Coast of _Greenland_, from sixty to sixty-eight Degrees, where there is to the East the Entrance of the Streight of _Frobisher_. North-west in the different Islands which compose the Northern Parts of _America_, there is the Entrance of the Streight of _Hudson_, where the _North Sea_ communicates with the _South Sea_, passing out of the Entrance of the Streight of _Anian_, which runs North-east and South-west to the Northward of the Island of _California_, which Streight is hid by great Gulphs on the Part that is North of _America_, which contain such great Islands, as _Cumberland_ (or _Estoliland_) that are more than one hundred Leagues in Length from North-east to South-west, and their Extremity from East to West more than seventy Leagues.'--Page 44. 'Some hold it for certain that you can sail from _Spain_ to _China_ through those Streights, or to _Japan_, or to the Lands of _Eso_, in three Months. As says also Doctor _Pedro de Syria_; but it is the Opinion of _D. T. V. Y._ Author of the History of the _Imperial_ States of the World, that he holds it for uncertain whether there is such Streight by which you can pass from the _North_ to the _South Sea_.--P. 45. There were some of the Subjects of the King of _France_, who offered themselves, if they could get his Majesty's Licence, to perform that Voyage in four Months; entering the _Canal de Hudson_ from out of the Ocean, with a Course North-west or West North-west, taking always a Sight of the Coast at Noon, they should attain to the Height of the _Arctic_ Circle, or one Degree more, as in making that Voyage they will be favoured in that Part by the Currents and Winds from the East and South-east, and afterwards in their Passage by the Streight of _Anian_, the Winds and Currents would be from the North.--It is said that some Strangers (on what Occasion is not said) have gone that Rout; and that there is in the Archives of the Admiralty of _Lisbon_, and of the _Contratacion at Seville_, a Copy of such Rout; what I here observe is the same with what _Don Francisco de San Millan_ observes, from which or from the Copy of which Rout to be seen in various Languages, or the Disposition of the said Streights, he holds it for certain that there is such a Course, and relates, That a _Hollander_, on the Evidence of a _Spaniard_ who was aboard his Ship, from the North of _California_, forced by the Winds from South-west, attained to sixty-six Degrees North-east, afterwards took a Course East, and East South-east, came into fifty-eight Degrees, when he entered the _North Sea_ to Northward of _Terra Nova_, from thence to _Scotland_, and from _Scotland_ to _Lisbon_, in less than three Months from the Port of _Nativadad_ to _Lisbon_, of which Voyage he makes no Doubt.' And _Seyxas_ observes, he hath seen many other Accounts of Voyages made from _Holland_, also from _England_, to the _South Sea_ in three or four Months, which he much doubts, from the Shortness of the Time; also as in the _Spanish_ Historians they have an Account of what passes in the several Parts of the _South Sea_, in _Cathay_, and _China_, and no such Thing is to be found in the _Bibliotheca_ of the Licentiate _Antonio de Leon_, which sets forth all the Discoveries and Voyages which have been made from any Region from the Year 1200 in _America_. It is plain from the Account of _Seyxas_, he doth not determine absolutely for a Passage, but that there is a Passage is his Opinion. His chief Objection is to the Accounts from the Brevity of the Time in which the Voyages were said to be performed, and there being no Account in a careful Writer of the Discoveries made in those Parts. He doth not confine the Passage to _Hudson_'s Bay, as I understand him, but to the Streight and the other Openings to Northward through _Cumberland_ Isles, and that they go up into as high a Latitude as the _Arctic_ Circle. Which is agreeable to _Acosta_'s Account, and gives a further Explanation to his Meaning than I have already done. As to which Isles, and to the Northward and Eastward of _Cary_'s _Swans-nest_, it is apparent, from the Perusal of the Voyages, there hath been no certain Account on a compleat Discovery as to those Parts. What he says as to the Voyage of the _Hollander_, it must be observed it was while _Holland_ was under the _Spanish_ Government in the Reign of _Philip_ the Second, and seems to be the same Voyage, of which Mention hath been made that an Account was found amongst the Papers of that Prince. It hath been shewn to have been the constant Opinion of there being a North-west Passage, from the Time soon after which the _South Sea_ was discovered near the Western Part of _America_, and that this Opinion was adopted by the greatest Men not only in the Time they lived, but whose Eminence and great Abilities are revered by the present Age. That there is a Sea to Westward of _Hudson_'s Bay, there hath been given the concurrent Testimony of _Indians_; and of Navigators and _Indians_ that there is a Streight which unites such Sea with the Western Ocean. The Voyage which lead us into these Considerations, hath so many Circumstances relating to it, which, now they have been considered, shew the greatest Probability of its being authentick; which carry with them as much the Evidence of a Fact, afford as great a Degree of Credibility as we have for any Transaction done a long Time since, which hath not been of a publick Nature and transacted in the Face of the World, so as to fall under the Notice of every one, though under the Disadvantage that the Intent on one Part must have been to have it concealed and buried in Oblivion. Transacted also by Persons in a private Part of the World, who only spoke of it amongst their Friends at home, being themselves Strangers to what they had effected, and made little Account of their Voyage. Besides the Chagrin of their Disappointment, and the illnatured Reflections it might subject them to, they might think it also best not to communicate it to the Publick, as it might encourage others to the like Undertaking, and so they fall into the Hands of the _Spaniards_, not only at the Hazard of their Ship, but their Lives, or at least subject them to many Hardships such as they had sustained to no Purpose. Therefore they thought proper to say little about their Discovery, as it might only be a Means of entrapping some brave Adventurers, who might be animated by their Example to a like Undertaking. These would be and were, by its being so little published on their Parts, (and no Accounts of it in _England_, which shews their Friends were under an Injunction not to make it publick) the Resolutions of such sensible and sagacious Men as _Gibbons_ and _Shapley_ were agreeable to which they acted. All which Circumstances considered, what Degree of Evidence can be required more than hath been given to authenticate this Account of _de Fonte_? Those who argue against a North-west Passage have no better Foundation for their Arguments, Than that there is no Tide from Westward. Which is arguing only for the Truth of a System, and hath nothing to do with the Reality of a Passage, and in all Probability hath been the principal Occasion that a Passage hath not been compleated: For a different Course of the Land, and no Tide from Westward, concluded any further Searches in such Part, but on a due Survey made of the Map, as the Tide will enter up the Streight of _de Fuca_, and probably other contiguous Entrances which are not yet known, besides the North-east Branch of the _South Sea_, which we suppose to join with such Streight; the Tide would fill that Sea on the Back of _Hudson_'s Bay, and the Openings but be checked to the Northward by the Current; and may be hindered from coming into _Hudson_'s Bay through the Inlet from Causes not known, or there being great Indraughts on the opposite Shore, which may take off the Force of the Tide, and cause it to come but a small Way up such Inlet. There is Reason to believe the proper Passage is up the Streight of _de Fuca_, therefore that is the proper Streight of _Anian_, as _de Fonte_ proceeded no further than _Los Reyes_, and declared there was no North-west Passage; but the North-east Part of the _South Sea_ hath a Communication, as is expressed in the Map, in describing which a Certainty cannot be expected, or an Exactness but what may be contradicted if a Discovery be made. The Design of the Map, besides what relates to the Expedition of _de Fonte_, is to shew there is a Streight, called the Streight of _de Fuca_. A Sea at the Head of that Streight, at the Back of _Hudson_'s Bay, from which Sea there is a Passage either by an Inlet into _Hudson_'s Bay, or by a Streight at the Head of _Repulse_ Bay, and so to Northward of _Hudson_'s Bay; from which Streight there is a Passage into the _North Sea_, either to Eastward of the Land of _Cary_'s _Swans-nest_ into _Hudson_'s Streight, or by _Cumberland_ Isles, and expressed in the Map in the Manner that the respective Accounts represent, according to our Understanding of them, with a Submission to Correction and superior Judgment. But an absolute Contradiction without invalidating the Accounts on which such Map is constructed, or to say there is no North-west Passage, which it is impossible should be determined until a Search is made in the Parts which remain to be searched, are no Objections, are only Opinions, without any Authority to support them, which Time must rectify. To make an Expedition to discover whether there is a Passage by those Parts which remain unsearched, purposely from _England_, is what I think an honest, disinterested, or impartial Person cannot recommend, as such Expeditions might be repeated with great Expence, and the Event uncertain. The Government gave their Assistance, and the Generosity of the Merchants hath been sufficiently experienced, both in _England_ and _America_: Therefore it becomes every one whose Intention it is solely that such a beneficial Service should be done to avoid proposing what, might, in the Consequence, be an unnecessary Expence to Government, and abuse the Generosity of the Merchants. The Ships which went on these Expeditions, after they left the _Orkneys_, had no Place to put into, neither could they there Wood or Water, or conveniently repair a Damage. If they met with a Delay in passing _Hudson_'s Streights, they were obliged, from the small Part of the Season that was remaining, to go to the _Hudson_'s Bay Factories to winter; that they might have the more Time the next Year; were obliged to go to the Factories earlier than they were necessitated on Account of the Weather, in order to get their Ships laid up, and every other Convenience for wintering prepared before that the Winter set in. The _Hudson_'s Bay Company, jealous of a Design to interfere with their Trade, probably their Fears not ill grounded, the Consequence was, there was no Cordiality between the Factors and the Captains. The Ships People, by wintering, suffered in their Health, great Wages going on, a Consumption of Provisions, a Spirit of Discontent and Opposition amongst the inferior Officers, which obstructed the Success of the next Summer. To obviate all which in any future Proceedings, a Discovery was undertaken on the Coast of _Labrador_, to find Harbours on that Coast which Ships; could repair to if necessary on their Voyage out, or to repair to on their return, which they could be at sooner than at the Factories, stay longer on Discovery, and return the same Year to _England_. How well this Attempt answered the Design, may be collected from the Extract from a Journal of a Voyage hereunto annexed, performed in the Year 1753, giving an Account of the Coast of _Labrador_. As what is now to be done in the Discovery of a Passage in _Hudson_'s Bay may be effected in a Summer, and if there is the desired Success, an Inlet found by which there is a Passage into the Sea adjacent out of that Bay, the Vessel which makes such Discovery, and all Ships at their return by such Inlet, will have no Occasion to go to the Southern Part of the Bay, it will be out of their Course, but proceed through the Streights to _Labrador_, there Wood and Water, get fresh Fish, and other Refreshments; can repair any Damage either as to their Masts, or their Hull, and return the same Year to _England_ by the common Tract of the _Newfoundland_ Ships, and not to go to the _Orkneys_. That there was a good fishing Bank, a Coast convenient for carrying on a Fishery, a Fur Trade, also for Whalebone and Oil with the _Eskemaux Indians_, was a Discovery the Consequence of that Attempt from _America_. To take the Benefit of which Discovery seems now to be the Intention of the Publick. And a Survey of such Coast being ordered to be made by the Government, if such Survey is extended so far as to those Parts, in which as already mentioned such Passage must be, and without it is so far extended, the Design of attaining a true Geographical Account of the Northern Coasts of _America_ would be incompleat. By this Means it must be known whether there is such a Passage, the Probability of which is unquestionable. Also by such Survey a better Account will be got which Way the Whales take their Courses, and consequently where it is best to go in Pursuit of them. Also as to those _Eskemaux_ who frequent to Northward of _Hudson_'s Streights, where they retire to, and a proper Place be found to keep a Fair with them. As these _Eskemaux_ as well as those on _Greenland_ Side, who have not come into those Parts any long Duration of Time, being the same Kind of _Indians_ with those in the _South Sea_, and as they transport themselves and Families from one Part to another by Water, it seems highly probable that it is by such a Passage or Streight that they have got so far to Eastward. This Discovery of a Passage can be made without any additional Expence, wove in with other Services, as was in the Discoveries which were ordered to be made by the King of _Spain_ on the Coasts of _California_. The Propriety of a Vessel to make such a Survey, and the Abilities and Fidelity of the Persons will be undoubtedly taken Care for. The Run from _Labrador_, let it be from any Harbour, will be but small to any where, where it is necessary to make the Survey. The Persons sent will go fresh out of Harbour, whereas, with a Run from the _Orkneys_, the People are fatigued; will now be refreshed as if they had not come from _Europe_. Will be out from such Harbour but a few Weeks, in a fine Season of the Year, no Way debilitated by the Scurvy, and in a few Summers will be enabled to compleat their Survey of that Coast; using such an Assiduity as they proceed as not to leave any Part on Supposition or Trust, but being assured where any Inlet or Opening determines. A Person who understands _Eskemaux_, and one or more _Eskemaux_ to be procured, would be of Service as Pilots, and to give an Account of the adjacent Country. And there is no Vessel (it is mentioned as perhaps it is not so very well known) so proper and serviceable for this long-shore Work as a Marble-head Schooner, about sixty Tons, fortified as to the Ice, and would be at all Times a useful Tender, and a proper Boat if necessary to be left at the _Labrador_. What would give due Force to such Expeditions, would be the Commodore of the Man of War being so near, under whose Eye the Whole would be done, who would direct their fitting out, receive their Report on their return, order a Review if necessary, and be the Occasion of that due Subordination and Obedience both of Officers and Men, which it is often very difficult to effect on such Voyages. Merit will then be distinguished, and the Credulity of the Persons at home will not be imposed on, and no Discouragement of those who distinguish themselves in the Execution of such laudable Attempts. Such a Passage being discovered, and the Sea entered to Westward of _Hudson_'s Bay, the Manner of proceeding afterwards must be left to superior Judgment. APPENDIX. AN ACCOUNT Of Part of the Coast and Inland Part of THE LABRADOR: BEING An EXTRACT from a Journal of a Voyage made from _Philadelphia_ in 1753. The Coast of _Labrador_ to Northward of the Latitude of 57 Deg. 30 Min. is represented by Captain _Benjamin Gillam_ (an Extract of whose Journal the Author had) as a perilous Coast, and without any Inlets; therefore the Design was to fall in with the Land to Southward of that Latitude, which was attempted _August_ the 2d; a thick Fog, but expected when more in with the Land to have clear Weather. They saw Ice at times the whole Day, and in the Evening found themselves imbayed in a Body of Ice, and plainly perceiving Points of Rocks amongst the Ice, stood out again during the whole Night for a clear Sea, which they fortunately obtained the next Morning. It was then proposed to stand yet more Southward, to make the Land in Latitude 56°, and search the Inlet of _Davis_. From the 3d to the 9th had various Weather, the Air temperate, Calms and light Winds, thick Fogs for some Days, the latter Part of the Time haizey, with Rain, which was succeeded the 10th of _August_ with a hard Gale of Wind that moderated on the 11th, and clear Weather: Saw Rockweed, some Kelp, Land Birds, a Number of large Islands of Ice, but no flat Ice; concluded in the Afternoon that they saw the Looming of the Land in Lat. 56 Deg. 2 Min. Long. 56 Deg. 42 Min. at Eight at Night had Soundings 95 Fathom, at Ten at Night 80 Fathom. _August_ the 12th, fine pleasant Weather; at Eight o'Clock had 40 Fathom Soundings, and at Ten made the Land, bearing W. by S. ten Leagues. Many Islands of Ice, but the Wind contrary for _Davis_'s Inlet, stood towards another Opening which promised a good Harbour; but not being able to attain it before Night, stood on and off until the next Morning, fine pleasant Weather; and _August_ the 13th, by Four in the Morning, were in with the Land. A Whaleboat, with proper Hands, was sent to sound a-head, and find a Harbour. Soon after a Cry was heard from an Island to Northward; there appeared to be five Persons. Some Rings, Knives, Scissors, and Iron Hoop, being taken by the People into the Boat, after rowing about a League they entered into a small Harbour, near the Place where the five Persons were first seen, but who had retired. Entering the Harbour they saw Shallops built after the _Newfoundland_ Manner, at Anchor, with Buoys and Cables, a Mast, a square Yard athwart, with a Sail bent, a Tilt made of Seal Skins abaft. These Boats were tarred, that Summer's Work. Upon the Sight of these Boats a Doubt arose whether they were _Indians_ whom they had seen, or some unfortunate Shipwrecked People. When the Boat got further into the Harbour two _Eskemaux Indians_ came off, the one a Man in Years, the other a young Man. The elder Man had a small black Beard. The elder Man being presented with a Ring, immediately put it on his Finger; the young Man did the same when one was presented him. Both declined accepting Pieces of Iron Hoop, a very agreeable Present to the _Eskemaux_ on the Western Side _Hudson_'s Bay. They knew what Fire-arms were, which they saw in the Boat: Also asked for some Pork, which they saw, and had been taken into the Boat for Fear the Schooner and the Boat should be separated; and, on the Boatsmen not having a Knife immediately ready, they produced a Knife apiece; and the elder Man used the Word _Capitaine_ in his Address; had a Complaisance in his Behaviour. From these Circumstances it was plain they carried on a Trade with the _French_; tho' the latest _French_ Authors represented them as a savage People, who would never have any Commerce with them. And a Motive for this Undertaking was from an Opinion, that no Trade had been carried on in these Parts, either by _Europeans_ or _Americans_, the printed Accounts and common Report both agreed in this. It was apparent to whom these Boats belonged; and there were more than twenty _Eskemaux_ ashore, of various Sexes and Ages, who kept shaking of old Cloaths for Sale; and the elder Man pressed the People in the Boat very much to come ashore, also to bring the Schooner to an Anchor, which was standing on and off; but as the Day advanced, the Situation the Schooner was in, being many small Islands about, and a fine Opening which promised a good Harbour in the main Land, they declined the Invitation; and there was an _Eskemaux_ ready with a large Coil of Whalebone, seemingly for the Boat to warp in to a small Cove and make fast with. These Civilities were acknowledged by a Present being sent to those ashore, and after shewing where they intended for, the Boat returned aboard the Schooner. The People on board the Schooner, as they advanced towards the Inlet where they expected a Harbour, hoisted their Ensign, which was very large, and fired two Swivels by way of Salute; soon after the _Eskemaux_ displayed on the Rocks a large white Ensign, on a high Pole; and when there was Occasion to lower the Schooner's Colours, the _Eskemaux_ lowered theirs; the Schooner's Colours being again hoisted, they hoisted theirs; but a Squall of Sleet and Rain came on, which prevented their having a further Sight of each other. At Six in the Evening the Schooner was anchored in a convenient Harbour, a level Shore, with high rocky Land, bare in Spots, the other Parts covered with a good Herbage and large Groves of Trees, Firs, Spruce, and Pine. An Evening Gun was fired to give the Natives Notice where the Schooner was, and also a good Watch was set. _August_ the 14th, at Day, they fired a Swivel aboard the Schooner, and displayed their Colours as a Signal for Trade; and a Party went ashore to ascend the Heighths. The largest Trees did not exceed ten Inches Diameter, and fifty Feet in Heighth; many Runs of excellent Water, Ponds in level Spots; the Country had an agreeable Aspect, a plentiful Herbage, the Flowers were now blown, the Berries not ripened, and the _Angelica_, of which there was great Quantity, not seeded. They had a very laborious Walk before they attained the desired Summit; the Musquetoes very troublesome. Being on an extraordinary Eminence they saw the North and South Point of the main Land, or two Capes which form a Bay, the Northermost was computed to be something to the Northward of Latitude 56, and the Southermost in Latitude 55. The Shore high and bold, to Northward a Number of Reefs of Rocks lying out a great Way into the Sea, in the Southern Part of the Bay many Islands and two Inlets. Sixty Islands of Ice of large Dimensions in Sight. In the ascending this Heighth, saw many Moose Deer Paths, Tracts of other Animals; and in the Ponds Trouts of about ten Inches in Length. On the Shores few Fowl but Ducks, and a Plenty of Muscles. The Weather very warm and pleasant. The Schooner's People found a Barrel, a Hogshead Stave, and a Piece of hewed Wood, on which it was conjectured that this was no unfrequented Harbour. The next Morning, the 15th of _August_, the Boat was sent to carry two Persons to the Head of the Harbour, that they might travel to a Mountain about ten Miles off, to take a View of the inland Part of the Country. When the Boat returned, the People brought Word they had seen the Ruins of a Timber House. The Boat was again manned to go and take a Survey of it; and it appeared to have been a House built for some Persons to winter in, of Logs joined together, part standing, with a Chimney of Brick and Stone entire. The House consisted of three Rooms, a Log Tent near, and a Pit dug in which they seemed to have buried their Beer. The Ground cleared at a Distance round: The Woods burnt, several Hogsheads and Barrels, and seemingly a great Waste of Biscuit, Pork, Salt Fish, and other Provisions, which seemed as if those who had been here had retired with great Precipitation; neither had been long gone, as there were fresh Feet Marks on the Strand, and some Trees lately hewn. The Marks on the Cask shewed that the People were from _London_; and it was supposed that as the _Eskemaux_ had not come to trade, there had been a Fray between the _Eskemaux_ and these People; and when they considered the compleat Manner in which the Boats were equipped and rigged, doubted whether the _Eskemaux_ had not overpowered them, and had some of the People with them. The great Earnestness with which the elder of the _Eskemaux_ made Signs for the People in the Boat to go ashore, seemed to be with a particular Design: Therefore it was thought prudent to be very careful in the Watch at Night, to strike the Bell every half Hour, to keep a continual Walk on Deck, and call _All is well_, that the _Eskemaux_ might hear, if they should intend a Surprize, that the People aboard were on their Guard. The Morning of the 16th they run up to the Head of the Harbour with the Schooner, to Wood and Water, there being Plenty of Wood ready cut, and a Place conveniently dammed up to confine a fine Stream of excellent Water which came from the Heighths. There was then found several Pieces of printed Books, in _German_ and _English_, the _English Moravian_ Hymns. Peas, Beans, Turnips, and Radishes planted, which seemed as if they would come to no great Perfection, and judged to have been sowed about three Weeks. The wooding and watering was finished by Ten at Night, but with no small Trouble on Account of the Musquetoes, though great Smoaks made to keep them off. The two Persons who had been sent to view the inland Country returned in the Morning, after having spent a rainy Night in the Woods; gave an Account that they had been forced to go round several small Lakes, which made the Way longer than expected; and the Mountain was very steep and rugged: Saw several large Spots of excellent Meadow: The Timber much the same as that on the Shores of the Harbour: That they saw two Inlets to Northward, extending a great Way into the Land: That it was only the Branch of an Inlet that the Vessel was at Anchor in; but they saw the Termination of the Inlet to be in large Ponds. The 17th of _August_ the Schooner was to return to her first Anchorage, with an Intention to search the Inlets to Northward; but the Wind proved contrary, and a hard Gale, though the Weather pleasant. The 18th the Wind moderated, and the Schooner returned to her former Anchorage; but the Wind did not serve to quit the Harbour until the 19th in the Afternoon; the Interval of Time had been filled up in brewing Spruce Beer, and doing other necessary Work with respect to the Sails and Rigging. At Six in the Evening was close in with the Island, where they had seen the _Eskemaux_, but now gone. It was not until the 21st, by reason of Calms and Currents, that they attained to the Inlet to Northward. Those who had been sent out with the Boat to sound a-head, had seen on the Shore an _Eskemaux_ Encampment, from which they were but very lately retired, and brought from thence a Piece of a Jawbone of a Spermaceti Whale, which was cut with a Hatchet. It was plain from that the _Eskemaux_ were supplied with Iron Tools: They also found a Piece of an Earthen Jar. They judged there had been about eleven Tents. The 22d of _August_, in the Morning, the Ship's Company catched some Cod; they were but small, but fine full Fish. The Whaleboat was sent up with some Hands, to sound and find a Harbour: And three Persons went on Shore to a high Summit, about four Miles off, to view the Country: Saw in their Way many Tracts of Deer, a deep Soil, good Grass, and met with several large level Spots, with Ponds of Water; thick Groves of Timber, and a plentiful Herbage. The Country, from this Summit, appeared to consist of Ridges and Mountains; and as the Weather changed from fine and pleasant, to thick and hazey, they saw the Clouds settle on several Ridges of the Mountain, near them, as also on the Heighth where they were, and under them. And when they returned the People on board said they had had some smart Showers of Rain, which those who had been on the Heighth were not sensible of. In the Afternoon they proceeded with the Schooner to a Harbour which those who had been sent out with the Whaleboat had discovered, an extraordinary fine Harbour; and it may be here observed in general, that most of the Harbours are very fine ones. There are many of them, and not far the one from the other. There were on the Shore, in many Places, the Remainder of _Eskemaux_ Encampments, but some Time since they had been there. Timbers of Boats, on the Shores, which were much decayed, had laid long in the Weather; in the Carpenter's Opinion the Boats they had belonged to must have been built fifteen or twenty Years, seemed to be the Timbers of such Boats as had been seen with the _Eskemaux_. The succeeding Day there was such Weather as they could not proceed; the Day after, the 25th, run up the Inlet about eight Leagues from the Harbour, which was about eighteen Leagues from the Entrance of the Inlet. As they proceeded they found the Country more level, thick Woods, intermixed with Birch Trees, and both Shores afforded a pleasant Verdure. They could not proceed further with the Schooner, by Reason of Falls; which, being surveyed the next Day, might be passed with the Schooner, but with some Difficulty. Therefore early in the Morning of the 27th, at a proper Time of Tide, when the Falls were level, a Party went in a Whaleboat, with a small Boat in tow loaded with Provisions, Bedding, and a Sail for a Tent, to explore the Head of the Inlet. The furthest they could get with the Boat was about five Leagues, being intercepted by impassable Falls, about 300 Feet in Length, and forty Feet their perpendicular Height, though of gradual Descent. The Fall Rocks, but the Bank of the Northern Shore, which was steep, was a Kind of Marl, without any Mixture of Stone; and no frozen Earth here, or in any other Part, usual in _Hudson_'s Bay, as was proved by repeated Experiments: Therefore it may be concluded that this is a more temperate Climate in Winter than in any Part about _Hudson_'s Bay, in the same or lower Latitudes. From the first Falls to the second there were large Levels along Shore, the Mountains at a considerable Distance within Land, especially those on the North Side. The Mountains and Shores thick cloathed with Pine, Spruce, Birch, and Alder, much larger and of better Growth than those Trees nearer the Sea Coast; some Pines measured twenty-five Inches in Diameter. In a Pond, on the North Shore, saw two Beaver Houses, and there were Plenty of Beaver Marks, as Dams, Trees barked and felled by them. The Water was fresh between the first and second Falls. Poles of _Indian_ Tents in many Places along Shore, Lodgments only for single Families, tied together with Strips of Deer Skin, and no Encampments after the _Eskemaux_ Manner, shewed that a different _Indians_ from the _Eskemaux_ resorted into this Part. The whole Country had a pleasant Appearance; but as they came near to the upper Falls, the Verdure of the Woods, barren Points of Rocks that exalted themselves, terminating the View, the Disposition of the Woods which had all the Regularity of Art, joined to the Freedom of Nature, the Gloom of the Evening, the slow steady Course of the Water, and the Echoes of the rumbling Fall, afforded such a Scene as affected even those that rowed; and they said, it was the pleasantest Place they had ever seen. On a level Point, beautifully green, situated at a small Distance from an Opening in the Woods, and in full View of and Hearing of the Falls, there were the Poles of an _Indian_ Tent, which, from the Ashes scarce cold, a Breast-bone of a wild Goose, with some little Meat on it that had been broiled, Pieces of Birch Bark left, seemed to have been not long deserted, and the Situation was such as expressed the late Inhabitants to have the softest Sensations. In coming up the Inlet they had found where there had been a small Fire made, as supposed, to dress Victuals, but put out or covered with Turf, a usual Practice amongst Southern _Indians_ to conceal the Smoke, when they suppose the Enemy is near. The Boats were securely harboured, a Tent erected, with a good Fire before it, and the People rested securely all Night. The next Day, _August_ the 28th, two Persons were detached to a Summit, in Appearance about twelve Miles off, others went and hung Strings of Beads, Combs, Knives, and other Peltry, on the Trees, some at a Mile, and others at a further Distance, from where they kept their Camp all Day, to invite the _Indians_ to a Converse with them; but no _Indians_ were seen, nor any Thing meddled with. Those who had walked to take the View from the Summit, saw the Water above the Falls extend a great Distance into the Country, but not the Termination of it, passing through Meadow Lands of large Dimensions, and by the Foot of small rising Land, they saw a large high Ridge of blue Mountains at a great Distance, running North and South, which was supposed to be the Bounds of the new discovered Sea in _Hudson_'s Bay: Saw several other Ridges of Land, but seemingly more level than those to Seaward; passed over in travelling several Spots of excellent Soil, the Timber of good Size and Growth. There was a great Plenty of Grass and Herbage; walked a great Way in an _Indian_ Path, and saw several marked Trees, as is practised amongst the Southern _Indians_. They returned in the Evening, much fatigued with the Heat of the Sun, and swelled with the Bites of Musquetoes, and a small black Fly, like those in _England_ called a Midge. Those that staid at the Encampment were also much plagued with these Insects. The Latitude of the upper Falls was 54 Deg. 48 Min. near the imaginary Line that bounded the _English_ and _French_ Limits in these Parts; and it being supposed that the two Inlets, seen from the Height above the Harbour where they first anchored, would terminate in the _French_ Limits; they therefore had declined making any Search there, and proceeded to search the Inlet to Northward. The next Morning they set out to return to the Schooner, with a Design to search the other Inlet to Northward, seen from the Mountain at the Back of the first Harbour, but not seen since by Reason of a high Ridge of Mountains, as it was supposed, that covered it. In the Night there had been a sharp Frost, and early in the Morning a thick Fog. About Ten in the Morning they were returned to the Schooner. Several of the People, contrary to the written Instructions which were left, had rambled from the Vessel, got on the Heights, rolled down the _Indian_ Marks, which are Stones that they put up one on another on the Knolls and Summits of Hills, to direct them in their journeying; a Proceeding which was highly dissatisfactory to the Commander, considering the Disposition which it was found the Natives were in, and whom, with the greatest Industry, they could not get a Sight of. The People had shot some few Fowl, which were plentier in this Inlet than any where that they had seen, but very shy and wild. They sailed that Afternoon to the Harbour which they were at when they first entered this Inlet. _August_ the 29th they sailed out of this Inlet to go to the Northward, keeping within a Ledge of Islands, as they might pass no Part of the Coast unsearched. Met with some Difficulties amongst the Shoals and Rocks; but about Four in the Afternoon were clear of all, and plyed to Windward to enter the third or more Northern Inlet, which they had now open. Saw at the Head of a pretty deep Cove, on the South Side in that Inlet, a strong Smoke arise, and that immediately answered by a lesser Smoke on the Northern Side of the Inlet. The Smoke on the Northern Side the Inlet continued towering and freshening; on seeing which they immediately steered for the Cove, supposing the Smoke to be made by the Natives as a Signal for Trade; but were delayed entering by the Tide of Ebb. At Sunset were surprised with a Squall of Wind, which came on in a Moment, and the Schooner in extreme Danger of being ashore on the Rocks. A hard Gale succeeded, but they fortunately attained a Harbour, which had been before discovered by the Boat, and rode secure. The 31st of _August_, the Weather being moderate, two Persons went over the Heights to the Head of the Cove, in Pursuit of the Natives; and three Persons went in a Boat to the Head of the Cove, with some trading Goods, and to pass the two who walked, over the Water if it ran up into the Country, and the Natives should be on the opposite Shore; but after rowing up about two Leagues they found a Termination of the Water, landed and ascended the Heights, where they found a very large Plain, without Ponds, and a fine Soil, which they passed over and descended into a Valley, thick Groves, good Grass, and large Ponds. Here they met with a Bear; which one of the People firing too precipitately missed. Several Bears had been seen before, some Foxes, many Tracts of Wolves, both on the Shores and Inland, and in one Place Otter Paths. Three of the People were sent to return with the Boat aboard, and two set out to go up a Mountain which promised a good Sight of the Country, and seemed possible that they might attain to the Summit of it, and return to the Schooner that Night; but were deceived by the Height of the Mountain as to the Distance they were from it. In the Ascent they found great Declivities and Hollows in the Sides of the Mountain, the Rocks rent in a most surprising Manner, having Rents or Fissures in them from thirty to seventy Feet in Depth; some tremendous to look down, and not above two or three Feet in Breadth. The Dogs that were with them would not, after looking down, jump over them, but howled and took a Sweep round. In the Levels and Hollows on the Side there lay great Heaps of fallen Rock. Some Stones or solid Pieces of ten or fifteen Tons Weight, besides innumerable lesser Pieces. And found a Patch of Snow in one of the Hollows, about forty Feet in Breadth, and fourteen Feet in perpendicular Height, frozen solid, and seemed of the same Consistence with the Islands of Ice. The Persons, though constantly labouring, did not attain to the Top of the Mountain until about Half an Hour before Sunset, where they found a thin Air, and a fresh sharp cold Wind; though below, and in their Ascent, they had experienced pleasant warm Weather, and little Wind. From the Mountain they perceived a Smoke, about ten Miles off more inland, the usual Practice of the _Indians_ in the Evenings, when they form their Camps, to make a Fire to dress their Provisions, and to be by all Night; and it was then suspected that they were flying more inland, and that the Smokes seen the Night before were Signals from one Party to another to retire on seeing the Schooner, supposing us Enemies. It was too late that Night to return to the Head of the Cove, therefore encamped that Night on the Side of the Mountain in the Woods, near to a level Spot without the least Unevenness of above six Hundred Feet in Breadth, and three Hundred over, exactly resembling a Pavement without any Fissure or Opening in it. The next Day got to the Head of the Cove, near twelve Miles from the Mountain; on a Signal made the Boat fetched them aboard, where the People expressed in their Countenances a universal Joy at seeing their Commander safe returned, which was a great Satisfaction to him, as it was an Instance more sincerely expressed than by formal Words addressed to him, that they looked on their Security to depend on his Preservation. The Wind was contrary to their getting out of the Harbour that Afternoon; but the Boats were employed in seeking the best Channel for the Schooner to go out at. The Morning of _September_ the 2d, the Wind proved favourable, and that Evening they got a good Way up the third Inlet. When they were some Way up the Inlet, they discovered a Smoke upon an Island at the Entrance of the Inlet, and, when at Anchor, a Smoke also on the North Shore. Therefore by Day-light, _September_ the 3d, the Time when Smokes are most discernable and looked out for by the _Indians_, a Person was sent to fire the Brush on an Eminence ashore, to answer that Smoke seen on the North Shore the Night before. Then the Schooner proceeded up the Inlet, and by Ten o'Clock was come to the Extremity of it, which terminated in a Bay of very deep Water, surrounded by very steep Mountains, with Groves of Trees on them; but they found a good Anchorage in a Cove, and an excellent Harbour. The Heights being ascended, it was perceived there was a narrow Streight out of this Inlet, which communicated with Ponds. And that there was a fourth Inlet to Northward, and which extended further to Westward than the Inlet which the Vessel was now in, and about four Miles off, beyond the Hills there appeared a towering Smoke, upon the Sight of which the Persons who went to take the View returned aboard to get some Provisions, and a Parcel of trading Goods, and set out again with an Intention to seek the Natives, and spend the Night amongst them. The Boat put them ashore where it was thought most convenient and nearest Place to the Smoke, but it proved otherwise; for after travelling about three Miles they fell in with a Chain of Ponds, which they were forced to go round. Hot sultry Weather, the Woods thick, without the least Breath of Wind, infinite Number of Musquetoes and Midges. But by being thus to go round the Ponds, had the Satisfaction of seeing several Beavers Dams made to keep out the Tide Waters. They saw a Continuance of the Smoke, and shaped a Course for it; but when on the Heights perceived that the Smoke was on an Island about two Miles off the Shore in the fourth Inlet, therefore returned to the Vessel that Night. The 4th of _September_, in the Morning, they towed out of the Harbour they were in, the Wind soon after sprung up, and by Night they go out of the Inlet, and anchored amongst some Islands, just at the Entrance of the fourth Inlet. The next Morning, _September_ the 5th, entered the fourth Inlet; but being becalmed a small Time catched above fifty Cod, much such as they had before taken. By Twelve o'Clock were abreast of the Island where they had seen the Smoke on the 3d, and which was four Leagues from the Entrance: Could perceive no Natives, but several Fires, and that there had been a great burning of the Brush; soon after saw a Snow lying at an Anchor, which hoisted _English_ Colours, and fired a Gun. They hoisted the Colours aboard the Schooner, fired a Swivel, and bore away for the Snow. The Wind was fresh, and, as the Schooner was entering the Harbour, two People came running over the Rocks, hailed, but it could not be well understood what they said; but it was a friendly Precaution as to some Rocks which lay off there. The Snow's People then took to their Boat, and made a Trip to view the Schooner as she was coming to an Anchor, and then returned aboard. A Whaleboat was hoisted out, and a Person sent in it to go aboard the Snow, and know where she was from, and to let the Captain know they would be glad to see him aboard the Schooner. The Person sent, and Capt. _Elijah Goff_ the Commander of the Snow, returned aboard in a short Time; and the Particulars of what the Captain related were, That the Snow was fitted out by Mr. _Nesbit_, a Merchant in _London_: That he, the present Captain, had been the Year before Mate of the same Vessel on this Coast: That she was then fitted out by _Bell, Nesbit_ and Company; the intended Voyage kept a great Secret. They had, the Year before as a Captain, a _Dane_ who had used the _Greenland_ Trade, and could talk the _Eskemaux_ Language. That the Snow had been at _Newfoundland_, and afterwards came on the _Labrador_ Coast; but being Strangers to the Coast, and the Captain very obstinate, the Vessel was several Times in Danger, which raised a Mutiny amongst the People, who had formed a Resolution of seizing the Ship, and bearing away for _Newfoundland_; which Mutiny was appeased, and the People consented to go to the _Labrador_, where they harboured _July_ the 20th, in the same Harbour which the Schooner first entered this Year. They brought with them four of the _Unitas Fratrum_, or _Moravian_ Brethren, who were to remain during the Winter, to attain an Acquaintance with the Natives, and lay a Foundation of Trade: That the House, the Ruins of which the Discoverer saw, was built for the Residence of these Brethren; and, being compleated by the Beginning of _September_, the Snow left them in Possession of it, and set out to make Discoveries, and pursue a Trade to Northward: That they had some Trade in _Nesbit_'s Harbour, the Name they had given to the Harbour where the House was, and also on the Coast before they arrived at the Harbour: That when they went to Northward; in about Lat. 55° 40´ off the Islands, amongst which the Schooner had harboured the preceding Night, some _Eskemaux_ came aboard, and told the _Dane_ Captain there were some trading Boats come from the Northward, with Plenty of Trade, and advised the Captain to come where they were. The Captain asked, Why they would not come along Side? The _Eskemaux_ said, It was dangerous on Account of the Surf. The Captain and six others went in the Ship's Boat, with a Quantity of Goods to trade, but had no Fire Arms with them, though advised to take them; but the Captain said, No, they were very honest Fellows. Captain _Goff_ saw the Boat go round an Island, upon which there was a Number of Natives; but the Island hindered him from having any further Sight of the Boat. After the Boat had been gone about an Hour, he saw one or two of the _Eskemaux_ with his Glass peep over the Rocks; but never after saw any more of the Boat, the Snow's People, or the _Eskemaux_. That the Snow lay at a League Distance from the Island; he had no other Boat, one being left with the _Moravian_ Brethren. Capt. _Goff_ waited three Days, and then returned with the Snow to the Harbour where the House was. The Snow being short of Hands, he took the _Moravian_ Brethren aboard, leaving a Quantity of Provisions sufficient to subsist the unhappy People who were missing should they come there, until his Return. They put the Key of the House and a Letter in a Hole of a Tree; but on his Return this Year found the House in Ruins, the Casks and Hogsheads broke to Pieces, and the Key and Letter gone. That what was sowed there was by Way of Experiment. Capt. _Goff_ judged that the _Eskemaux_ traded with the _French_, as their Fishgiggs, Knives, and Boats, were _French_; and the _Eskemaux_ told them there was a Settlement of twenty _Europeans_ to Southward, which they supposed to be somewhere to Southward of Lat. 55, the Latitude of the Cape they had named Cape _Harrison_, which is the Southermost Cape that forms the Bay in which is _Nesbit_'s Harbour, and the high Saddleback Land within, which is first seen off at Sea they named _St. John_'s. He said that one of the _Eskemaux_ offered a Quantity of Whalebone for a Cutlass, which they are very fond of; the _Danish_ Captain insisted on having more, the _Eskemaux_ answered, If he would not take it that Capt. _Saleroo_ would; alluding, as supposed, to the Captain or Factor at the _French_ Settlement. The Boats the _Eskemaux_ had were _French_: They spoke many _French_ Words. And the Women worked the Boats, turned them to Windward, and were very expert in the Management of them. The Account given by the Master who went in the Schooner's Boat to fish for Cod (Capt. _Goff_ not having yet got any) to the People in the Boat was, That Mr. _Nesbit_ was only, in this Case, an Agent or Factor for the _Moravian_ Brethren, who aimed at a Settlement in these Parts, and to attain a Propriety by a prior Possession, but that no Propriety would be allowed of by our Government: That Petitions had been flung into the Board of Trade for Patents for the _Labrador_, but were rejected, and a free Trade would be permitted to all the Subjects of _Great Britain_; which open Trade was the original Design on which this Discovery was undertaken by the People in _America_; the Execution of which was not only interrupted by private Persons stealing the Scheme, and being before hand, but hath been a great Hindrance to the Fisheries being carried on in those Parts, a Trade established with the inland _Indians_ and the _Eskemaux_, and further Advantages which will be known, on our being better acquainted with those Parts. For as to this Severity of the _Eskemaux_, inexcusably barbarous, yet there were some Provocations which might have been avoided, and which incited those _Eskemaux_ to this Act, whose Hatred and Revenge, the Character of most _Indians_, are rouzed at the slightest Causes. It appears from a Journal of the Boatswain, wherein he makes a Valuation of the Trade, that they had bought a Hundred Weight of Whalebone for Six-pence. The _Eskemaux_ were also treated with great Contempt and Rudeness. A Person aboard had bought a Pair of _Eskemaux_ Boots; and carrying them into his Cabbin, an _Eskemaux_ followed claiming the Boots as his, saying that he who sold them had no Right to sell them; and the Buyer settled the Matter by presenting a Pistol at his Head. On which the _Eskemaux_ cried out in the _French_, _Tout_, _Comerado_, and retired. Capt. _Goff_ came this Year in Hopes to recover the People who were missing with the Boat, and to make a further Essay as to the Trade, but brought no Settlers with him, intended immediately for the Coast, which he could not attain to on Account of the Ice, and went to _Trinity_ Bay in _Newfoundland_, where he staid some Time. Sailed from thence the 27th of _June_; the 2d of _July_ saw _French_ Ships in the Streights of _Belle Isle_, retarded by the Ice; and the 9th of _July_ joined Capt. _Taylor_ in a Sloop of about 35 Tons, fitted out from _Rhode Island_ to go in Pursuit of a _North-west Passage_; and if not successful to come down on the Coast of _Labrador_. Capt. _Goff_ said he had learned by Capt. _Taylor_ that the _Philadelphia_ Schooner would be out, and he should have suspected this to be her, but she entered the Inlet so readily, and came up with that Boldness as could not but think that the Schooner was a _French_ Vessel acquainted with the Coast; and he had received Orders to avoid any Harbour in which a _French_ Ship should appear. Capt. _Taylor_ had seen a large _French_ Sloop in Latitude 53, and to the Northward three hundred _Eskemaux_, who had nothing to trade but their old Cloaths, and who were going further to Northward, but were hindered by the Ice. Capt. _Goff_ and _Taylor_, who had entered into an Agreement to associate, were eight Days grappled to the Ice, and did not arrive at _Nesbit_'s Harbour until the 20th of _July_. But had traded with some of the _Eskemaux_ before, though for small Matters, and had some of these _Eskemaux_ aboard for three successive Days, who then left them, and came no more aboard the Vessels. Capt. _Goff_ suspected, though he had altered his Dress, that they had then recollected him. The 1st of _August_ they sailed from _Nesbit_'s Harbour, and attained to this Inlet where he now was; and on the 11th sailed to the Northward, when Capt. _Taylor_ left him; and on the 25th returned here again. That the Smoke which the Persons saw on the Island when they travelled over Land, and which the Schooner passed that Day, was made by his Order, but that he had not made any other Smoke, and this was for a Direction for his Longboat, gone to the Northward to trade, and to signify to Capt. _Taylor_ his being in the Harbour, whose Return he expected. Capt. _Goff_ said he had been in no Inlet but _Nesbit_'s Harbour, and in this where the Snow was; and that Capt. _Taylor_, in the Snow's Longboat, had searched the Head of this Inlet, shewed a Draught of the Coast, which was defective, as he knew nothing of the intermediate Inlets. Had no Account of the inland Country; of there being any Beaver or other Furs to be acquired there; or of there being any Mines, of which the Schooner's People had seen many Instances, and had collected some Ore. Capt. _Goff_ had two _Dutch_ Draughts of the Coast, made from late Surveys; but they were very inaccurate, the Views taken from Sea, and there the Land appeared close and continued; the Inlets, excepting that in which they now were, appearing like small Bays, their Entrance being covered by Islands. They had, this Year, found the Corpse of one of those who went in the Boat, stripped and lying on an island. It being rainy Weather, and the Wind contrary to the Schooner's going up the Inlet, they were detained, and on _September_ the 8th the Snow's Longboat returned, after having been out fourteen Days, with some Whalebone, and a Quantity of _Eskemaux_ Cloathing, which being examined to find out if the _Eskemaux_ wore Furs, there was only seen a small Slip of Otter Skin on one of the Frocks. And Capt. _Goff_, being asked, said he never saw any Furs amongst them. It is pretty evident the _Eskemaux_ only pass along this Coast, to go and trade with the _Eskemaux_ in _Hudson_'s Streights, and occasionally put in as Weather or other Occasions may make it necessary, which keeps the Native or inland _Indians_ from the Coast, as they are their Enemies. The _Eskemaux_ go up to Latitude 58, or further North; there leave their great Boats, pass a small Neck of Land, taking their Canoes with them, and then go into another Water which communicates with _Hudson_'s Streights. Carry their Return of Trade into _Eskemaux_ Bay, where they live in Winter; and the _French_ made considerable Returns to _Old France_, by the Whalebone and Oil procured from these People. And this Account is agreeable to the best Information that could be procured. While the Schooner's People were viewing the Cloaths, Word was brought that the _Eskemaux_ were coming, who may be heard shouting almost before that they can be discerned, the Schooner's People repaired aboard. On the Colours aboard the Snow being hoisted, the Schooner's People displayed theirs; but the Snow being the nearest, and the Snow's People so urged the _Eskemaux_ to come along-side them, that they were afraid to pass. The _Eskemaux_ had no large Boats with them, only their Canoes, three of which came afterwards along-side the Schooner. It was perceived that none of the leading People were in the Canoes; they exposed no Marks or Shew of any Trade they had, which was usual for them to lay on the Outside their Canoes; nevertheless they were presented with Rings. It was some Time before they began to trade with the Snow's People, and then it was carried on in a very peremptory Manner. The People in the Schooner, a light Wind springing up, weighed Anchor, with a Design to proceed up the Inlet, expecting to be followed by the _Eskemaux_, when they saw that they were not Associates with the Snow's People, so to have a future Opportunity of trading with them. It was also consistent with the Design they had of searching this Inlet, the first Opportunity that offered. They took their Leave of Capt. _Goff_ as they passed, and when advanced further beat their Drum. The _Eskemaux_ quitted the Snow and came after the Schooner. The Fire Arms were all primed and in order aboard the Schooner, but concealed; each Man had his Station; and they were ordered to treat the _Eskemaux_ as Men, and to behave to them in an orderly Manner; no hallooing, jumping, or wrestling with them when they came aboard; not to refuse some of the _Eskemaux_ to come aboard, and let others, as there were but nine Canoes in all. As the _Eskemaux_ came along-side the Schooner, they were presented each with a Biscuit, a Person standing in the main Chains with a Basket of Biscuit for that Purpose. Then they aboard the Schooner shewed a Kettle, a Hatchet, and some other Things, which seemed much to please the _Eskemaux_. One of them attempting to get into the Schooner, two of the People helped him in: He was received civilly on the Quarter-deck; the trading Box shewed him, a Spoon, a Knife, and a Comb with which he touched his Hair and seemed desirous of, were given him. Other _Eskemaux_ were by this Time aboard. They were presented with Fish-hooks, small Knives, Combs, and a King _George_'s Shilling apiece, which they carefully put into their Sleeves. In the interim the _Eskemaux_ who came first aboard was gone to the Side, and called to another yet in the Canoe under the Title of _Capitaine_. The _Eskemaux_ so called to immediately came aboard, saluted the Commander with three Congees, and kissed each Cheek. He was presented with a Spoon and a Knife. Being shewn the Goods, appeared very desirous of a File, offering old Cloaths for it. But the Commander signified he would not trade for old Cloaths, but _Shoeeock_ (which is Whalebone in their Language) or Skins; and the latter he denoted to the _Capitaine_ by a Piece of white Bear Skin that the _Capitaine_ had brought in his Hand. The _Capitaine_ expressed by his Action that he had not either Bone or Skins: He was then presented with the File; was shewed a Matchcoat, which he surveyed very accurately; signed to the Commander if he was not come round from the South-west, meaning, as supposed, from _Quebeck_ or the Gulph of _St. Lawrence_. Afterwards took the Commander under his Arm, and shewed a Desire of going into the Cabbin, which was complied with. He passed the Door first, and sat down in as regular a Manner as any _European_, having first accurately looked about him; but there were no Fire-Arms in Sight. Refused Wine, drank Spruce Beer; was shewed a Sample of all the Kind of Goods, with which he seemed well pleased; and it was signified to him that there was Plenty of them. While in the Cabbin the other _Eskemaux_ who were on Deck, called to their _Capitaine_, they were invited down. Three of the _Eskemaux_ came, but it was observable the _Capitaine_ covered the Goods with a Woollen Cloth, which lay on the Table. They were presented with Beef and Pudding, which they took, and returned on Deck. The _Eskemaux Capitaine_ put the Goods into the Box himself very honestly, and seeming to admire a small Brass-handled Penknife, it was presented to him. He then returned on Deck, pointed to the Sun, lowered his Hand a little, then made a Sign of sleeping by shutting his Eyes, and laying his Hand to his Cheek, and shewed with his Hand to have the Schooner to come to an Anchor just above. By which it was understood that a little after that Time the next Day he would be there with Trade. The Schooner, being by this Time opposite to a narrow Passage or Streight formed by Islands, through which the _Eskemaux_ had come into this Inlet, the _Capitaine_ ordered his People into their Canoes, and retired with a Congee himself, after repeating the Commander's Name, to see if he had it right, and which he had been very industrious to learn while he was in the Cabbin. The Commander attended him to the Side; and seeing in his Canoe a War-bow and Arrows, which are of a curious Construction, pressed him to let him have them, though the same Thing as asking a Man to part with the Sword he wore. The _Capitaine_, by Signs, shewed he could not part with it, and seemed to express it with great Reluctance that he could not. This Circumstance, and their having no Women with them, caused the Schooner's People to think they looked upon themselves, when they set out, as coming amongst their Enemies. The Drum was beat until they were out of Sight; and the _Capitaine_, just before he lost Sight of the Schooner by being shut in by the Islands, pointed to the Sun, and the anchoring Place. The _Eskemaux_, while aboard, behaved with great Decency and Silence; though at first they began to jump and halloo, as they had done aboard the Snow; but finding the People of the Schooner not so disposed, soon left off. Soon after the Schooner was anchored in an excellent Harbour, the Snow's Boat came along-side, with the first Mate and Agent. They were asked to mess; and it being enquired of them how far they had been with the Longboat in the last Trip, said to Latitude 57° 14´: Had seen no _Eskemaux_, but within a few Days, though they had been out fourteen Days. The Mate said, that he had chased a trading Boat, with two _Eskemaux_ in it, who had endeavoured to avoid them, and dodged amongst the Islands; but he came up with them as though he had been a Privateer's Boat; run bolt aboard them, and so frightened the _Eskemaux_ that they fell on their Knees, cried out, _Tout Comerado_, and they would have given him all they had. He said they took out the Whalebone, which he brought aboard, about a Hundred and fifty Weight, and paid them for it as much as he saw the Captain give. He saw other _Eskemaux_ at times ashore, where they invited him, but would not venture; and fired a Blunderbuss, charged with thirteen Bullets, over them, which caused some of them to fall down, others to bow. Some _Eskemaux_ came along-side, and traded their Cloaths; but with great Fear, crying out, _Tout Comerado_, as he had four Men armed standing in the Bow of the Boat. Said that those _Eskemaux_ had, who were just gone from the Schooner, the Peoples Cloaths who had been trepanned the last Year, particularly a brown Waistcoat, which had had white Buttons on it, and a white Great-coat. The Great-coat meant was a _French_ Matchcoat, which the _Eskemaux_ Captain had on, made up in a Frock according to the Manner that they wear them. The supposed brown Jacket was a _French_ brown Cloth, and there were two _Eskemaux_ who had them. The Mate said the Schooner's People had talked of some Inlets; but no Answer was made, on which he declared there was no Inlet between _Nesbit_'s Harbour and where they then were, nor any Inlet to Northward between that and Latitude 57° 14´. After making some Enquiries, as to what the Schooner's People further intended, quitted, and made for the Streight the _Eskemaux_ had passed through. This is mentioned as an Instance of what Caution should be used, as to the Choice of Persons sent on Expeditions to explore unfrequented or unknown Parts, as the Adventurers may be Sufferers, and the Reason of their being so a Secret, and thereon pronounce decisively no Advantages are to be made, thus deprived of what might be greatly to their private Emolument in Time under a proper Conduct, and to the Benefit of the Publick. And there is a further Misfortune attending an improper Choice, which every social and generous Man will consider. That according to the Impressions that _Indians_ receive on the first Acquaintance, a lasting Friendship may be expected, or an Enmity and Jealousy very difficult to remove, who, in the interim, will execute their Revenge; not on those who gave the Offence, but on all indiscriminately of the same Complexion, when an Opportunity offers. Reasons would be unnecessarily urged in Support of what Experience proves, and of which there have been several melancholy Examples on this Coast. By a Privateer from _New York_, some Years since, the first Offence was given; those who have gone since have done nothing to mollify or abate this Enmity and Revenge. There could be no Expectation of a Reconciliation with these _Indians_, to the great Improvement of Commerce in various Branches, but by the Measures taken, the sending some of his Majesty's Ships into these Parts to explore and get a Knowledge of the Coast; and the Commanders to establish a Regulation, which will be a Satisfaction and Encouragement to every fair Trader; and where the Trade long since might have been brought to some Perfection, had it not been from the little dirty Avarice of those employed by private Adventurers, who hindered the original Design having a due Effect; and by interfering the one with the other, to their mutual Prejudice, they prevented those Returns on their Voyages which might have been otherwise made. The Consequence was, all future Attempts were dropt, and it was indeed rendered almost impossible that any fresh Undertakings should meet with Success, by the Difficulties flung in the Way on Account of the Natives, but which will now be effectually removed by the Government giving their Assistance. The next Morning three People were sent from the Schooner to go on the Heights, to discover the Water the _Eskemaux_ had gone into, and to see if the _Eskemaux_ were coming. The Account brought back was, that there was seen an _Indian_ trading Boat or Shallop under Sail, which presently tacked and stood towards four other Shallops. They all lowered Sail, and the _Eskemaux_ seemed to be consulting together. Soon after the People saw the Snow's Longboat coming, the Shallops hoisted Sail, then went one Canoe, afterwards two more, to the Snow's Longboat, while the Shallops crouded away. The Schooner's People, after this Time, had no Opportunity of seeing the _Eskemaux_; and attributed their coming no more to their Fear of meeting the Longboat, or the bad Weather, it being wet and blustering for the several succeeding Days. But they learned, after the Schooner had returned to _Philadelphia_, that those in the Snow's Longboat followed the Shallops, came up with them, and took what they had. The Reason is apparent for their not coming to the Schooner as they had no Trade, and as they might have a Suspicion that the Schooner's People had a Connivance with those in the Boat, especially as they might see the three People from the Schooner standing on the Heights. The Commander searched the Head of this Inlet, the Shores of which were the most barren of any that had yet been seen, from the Sea to the Head of it, about nine Leagues. Upon their Return they found the Snow gone; they then went through the Streight by which they saw the _Eskemaux_ pass to explore that Water. From this the Discoverer passed between Islands, without going out to Sea into a second Inlet; and from that to a third from where he had met the Snow, and the seventh from _Nesbit_'s Harbour. And the seventh or last Inlet ran a North and Westerly Course, and terminated the furthest inland, or had the most Western Longitude of any of the Inlets; and its Head about fifteen Leagues from the Sea. These last three Inlets to Seaward are separated by very large Islands, and have Islands lying off directly athwart their Entrance, so that it is difficult to discover, when within these Islands, that there is any Outlet to the Sea. The Islands have little Wood on them, and are mostly barren Rock; but the main Land much as in the other Parts, only the Inland more level. The blue Ridge of Mountains appeared plainer than from any other Part. The Latitude of the furthest Inlet about 56. Having explored these respective Waters and adjacent Country, and _Davis_'s Inlet, consequently, though it is difficult to which properly to affix the Name; and the Autumn being far advanced, as was apparent from the Birch Leaves becoming yellow, the Berries Frost-bit, the Pines and Spruce turning brown, severe Gales, Snow and Sleet at times, and excessive cold on the high Land; so as nothing further could be carried on with any Spirit, but excessive Fatigue, and the Health of the People, as well preserved as on first setting out, would be now impaired, with no certain Prospect of doing any Thing further that was material, sufficient Harbours having been found; on the 20th of _September_ they set out on their Return. Leaving the Land favoured with pleasant Weather, an Opportunity waited for to make an accurate Survey of the Fishing Bank, and to find the Distance it lay from the Land, which from the Soundings on making the Land, the seeing the Islands of Ice aground, and the Account of _Davis_, was known to be there, and named by him _Walsingham_'s Bank, after the true Patriot and generous Patron of a Discovery of a North-west Passage. Sounding about a League from Land, with one Hundred and fifty Fathom of Line, had no Ground. At about six Leagues from Land, twenty-five Fathoms afterwards various Soundings, and catched a great many Cod, large and full fed, reckoned by the People aboard, to be very extraordinary Fish, some of whom from _Boston_ followed the Employ of fishing for Cod. The Bank was concluded to be about nine Leagues broad, and ninety Fathom Soundings on the going off it, on the Eastern Side; and it was concluded, on a pretty good Assurance, that it reaches from Lat. 57 to Lat. 54, if not further; but the Weather proving boisterous, as they ran to the Southward, could not continue their Soundings. The Schooner sounded with a Hundred and fifty Fathom of Line, close by an Island of Ice, of a surprising Magnitude, between the Bank and the Shore, which was aground, and they did not get Soundings. FINIS. ERRATA. Page 16. L. 23. de Fuentes. The, _read_ de Fuentes, the. 44. L. 11. de Fonte's, _read_ de Fonte's Account. 45. L. 36. Don Ronquillo, _read_ Don Pennelossa. 49. L. 18. from, _read_ in. 54. L. 11. to the Southward, _read_ to the Northward. 61. L. 15. it, _read_ this Mission. 67. L. 29. as that worthy, _read_ that worthy. 82. L. 6. New Spain, _read_ Florida. L. 9. Florida, _read_ Peruan Part. 83. L. 28. is consistent, _read_ is not consistent. 90. L. 17. Rivers and Harbours, _read_ River and Harbour. 106. L. 32. in the Year 1746, _read_ until the Year 1745. 111. L. 6. between the Sea, _read_ the Ocean and the Sea. 136. L. 14. nigh Summit, _read_ high Summit. DIRECTIONS for placing the MAPS. Map of _de Fonte_'s Discoveries, in Front. Map of _New Spain_, from _Torquemada_, Page 86. Map of the Discoveries in _Hudson_'s Bay, Page 122. Just published, in QUARTO, Very proper to be bound with this Book, I. VOYAGES from ASIA to AMERICA, Made by the _Russians_ for completing the Discoveries of the North-west Coast of _America_. Translated from the _High Dutch_ of M. MULLER, of the Royal Academy of _Petersburgh_. Illustrated with Maps. The Second Edition. II. The History of KAMTSCHATKA and the KURILSKI ISLANDS, with the Countries adjacent. Illustrated with Maps and Cuts. Published at _Petersburgh_ in the _Russian_ Language, by Order of her Imperial Majesty; and translated into _English_ by JAMES GRIEVE, M.D. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes The sidenotes April 1708 and June 1708 were printed at the beginning of each page of the chapter in the original. This duplication has been removed. The corrections in the Errata list have been implemented, the first of which is on page 15, not 16. Hyphenation has been standardised. Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Other variations in spelling, punctuation and accents are as in the original. Italics are represented thus _italic_. The long s has been replaced throughout. 
60948	----	[Frontispiece: The Summit of Mount Everest. (_By permission of the Mount Everest Committee._)] THE LAST SECRETS The Final Mysteries of Exploration By JOHN BUCHAN THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD. LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK _First Impression, September 1923_ PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE PRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS TO THE MEMORY OF BRIG.-GEN. CECIL RAWLING, C.M.G., C.I.E. WHO FELL AT THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES AN INTREPID EXPLORER A GALLANT SOLDIER AND THE BEST OF FRIENDS PREFACE The first two decades of the twentieth century will rank as a most distinguished era in the history of exploration, for during them many of the great geographical riddles of the world have been solved. This book contains a record of some of the main achievements. What Nansen said of Polar exploration is true of all exploration; its story is a "mighty manifestation of the power of the Unknown over the mind of man." The Unknown, happily, will be always with us, for there are infinite secrets in a blade of grass, and an eddy of wind, and a grain of dust, and human knowledge will never attain that finality when the sense of wonder shall cease. But to the ordinary man there is an appeal in large, bold, and obvious conundrums, which is lacking in the _minutiæ_ of research. Thousands of square miles of the globe still await surveying and mapping, but most of the exploration of the future will be the elucidation of details. The main lines of the earth's architecture have been determined, and the task is now one of amplifying our knowledge of the groyning and buttresses and stone-work. There are no more unvisited forbidden cities, or unapproached high mountains, or unrecorded great rivers. "The world is disenchanted; oversoon Must Europe send her spies through all the land." It is in a high degree improbable that many geographical problems remain, the solving of which will come upon the mind with the overwhelming romance of the unveilings we have been privileged to witness. The explorer's will still be a noble trade, but it will be a filling up of gaps in a framework of knowledge which we already possess. The morning freshness has gone out of the business, and we are left with the plodding duties of the afternoon. Some of the undertakings described in these pages have not been completed. The foot of man has not yet stood on the last snows of Everest, or on the summit of Carstensz. One notable discovery I have not dealt with--the great Turfan Depression in the heart of Central Asia, far below the sea level, the existence of which was first established by the Russian, Roborowski, before the close of last century, and the details of which have been described by Sir Aurel Stein in his _Ruins of Desert Cathay_ and _Serindia_. But Sir Aurel's interest was chiefly in the antiquities of the place, and the more strictly geographical results have not yet been given to the world. Today, if we survey the continents, we find nothing of which the main features have not been already expounded. The Amazon basin might be regarded as an exception, and only a little while ago men dreamed of discovering among the wilds of the Bolivian frontier the remains, perhaps even the survival, of an ancient civilization. It would appear that these dreams are baseless. The late President Roosevelt did, indeed, succeed in putting upon the map a new river, the Rio Roosevelt, 1,500 kilometres long, of which the upper course was entirely unknown, and the lower course explored only by a few rubber collectors--a river which is the chief affluent of the Madeira, which is itself the chief affluent of the Amazon. But now all the tributaries have been traced, and though there is much unexplored ground in the Amazon valley, it consists of forest tracts lying between the rivers, all more or less alike in their general character, and with nothing to repay the explorer except their flora and fauna. Africa is now an open book, even though many parts have been little travelled. The map of Asia alone holds one blank patch which may well be the last of the great secrets--the Desert of Southern Arabia, which lies between Yemen and Oman, 800 by 500 miles of waterless sands. Long ago there were routes athwart it, and hidden in its recesses some great news may await the traveller. But its crossing will be a hazardous affair for whoever undertakes it, since he will have to lean upon the frail reed of milk camels for food and transport. For the rest, the problems are now of survey and scientific enquiry rather than of exploration in the grand manner. I have many acknowledgments to make. My thanks are due in the first place to Mr. Charles Turley Smith, who has contributed the chapters on Arctic and Antarctic Exploration, subjects on which he is specially equipped to write; and, in order to put the conquest of the two Poles in its proper light, has supplied a sketch of the long story of Polar exploration. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Arthur R. Hinks, the Secretary, and to Mr. Edward Heawood, the Librarian, of the Royal Geographical Society for their help and advice. I have also to express my thanks to Messrs. Constable and Company for permission to reproduce illustrations and to quote from works published by them; to Major G. H. Putnam and Messrs. Seeley, Service, and Company for the same kindness; to Major F. M. Bailey, C.I.E., the British Political Officer in Sikkim, for the story of the Brahmaputra Gorges; and to my friends of the Mount Everest Committee for their assent to my use of their beautiful photographs of that mountain. J. B. CONTENTS I. Lhasa II. The Gorges of the Brahmaputra III. The North Pole IV. The Mountains of the Moon V. The South Pole VI. Mount McKinley VII. The Holy Cities of Islam VIII. The Exploration of New Guinea IX. Mount Everest LIST OF PLATES The Summit of Mount Everest ... _Frontispiece_ View of the Potala Monastery at Lhasa, with the Chortan in the foreground Ruwenzori from the Hill near Kaibo The Valley to the West of Mount Baker Mount McKinley: View of the Southern Approach The Summit of Mount McKinley View of Medina View of Mecca New Guinea Canoes New Guinea Pygmies contrasted with ordinary Natives The _massif_ of Mount Everest The Chang La from the Lhakpa La, with Mount Everest on the left LIST OF MAPS The Expedition to Lhasa The Gorges of the Brahmaputra North Polar Regions The Peaks and Valleys of Ruwenzori The Route to Ruwenzori South Polar Regions Mount McKinley Wavell's Journey to Mecca The Exploration of New Guinea The Route of the Mount Everest Expedition I LHASA LHASA (_Map_, p. 24.) Till the summer of 1904 if one had been asked what was the most mysterious spot on the earth's surface the reply would have been Lhasa. It was a place on which no Englishman had cast an eye for a hundred years and no white man for more than half a century. In our prosaic modern world there remained one city among the clouds about which no tale was too strange for belief. The greatest of mountain barriers shut it off from the south, and on the north it was guarded by leagues of waterless desert. Explorer after explorer had set out on the quest, but all had stopped short before the golden roofs of the sacred city could be seen from any hill-top. Even in early days the place had never been explored, for the visitors had been jealously watched and hurried quickly away. In the Potala might be treasures of a culture long hidden to the world, lost treatises of Aristotle, unknown Greek poems, relics, perhaps, of the mystic kingdom of Kubla Khan, riches of gold and jewels drawn from the four corners of Asia..... And then suddenly in 1904 we went there, not as apologetic travellers taken by side paths, but as an armed force marching along the highway to the very heart of the mystery, and letting loose at once upon the world a flood of accurate knowledge. For a moment we were carried centuries away from high politics and every modern invention, and were back in the great ages of discovery: with the Portuguese in their quest for Ophir or Prester John, or with Raleigh looking for Manoa the Golden. It was impossible for the least sentimental to avoid a certain regret for the drawing back of that curtain which had meant so much to the imagination of mankind. The shrinkage of the world goes on so fast, our horizon grows so painfully clear, that the old untiring wonder which cast its glamour over the ways of our predecessors is vanishing from the lives of their descendants. With the unveiling of Lhasa fell the last stronghold of the older romance. I Tibet had always been a forbidden land, and, as a rule, adventurers only penetrated its fringes. Somewhere about the year 1328 a certain Friar Odoric of Pordenone, travelling from Cathay, is said to have entered Lhasa; and in the middle of the sixteenth century, Fernao Mendes Pinto may have reached it. In 1661 the Jesuits, Grueber and D'Orville, made a journey from Peking to Lhasa, and thence by way of Nepal into India. In the early part of the eighteenth century there was a temporary unveiling, and a Capuchin Mission was established in the Holy City. Various Jesuits also reached the place, notably one Desideri; and in 1730 came Samuel Van der Putte, a Doctor of Laws of Leiden, who stayed long enough to learn the language. In 1745 the Capuchin Mission came to an end, and the curtain descended. In 1774 George Bogle of the East India Company was in Tibet on a mission from Warren Hastings, but the first Englishman did not reach Lhasa till 1811, when Thomas Manning, of Caius College, Cambridge, a friend of Charles Lamb, arrived and stayed for five months on his unsuccessful journey from Calcutta to Peking. Till 1904 Manning was the solitary Englishman who was known for certain to have entered the sacred city, though there was a tale of one William Moorcroft reaching the place in 1826, and living there for twelve years in disguise. In 1844 the French missionaries, Huc and Gabet, reached Lhasa from China, and recorded their experiences in one of the most delightful of all books of travel. They were the last Europeans to have the privilege up to the entry of the British army. But throughout the last half of the nineteenth century Indian natives in the Government service were employed in the survey of Tibet, men of the type of the Babu whom Mr. Kipling has described in _Kim_. The whole business was kept strictly secret. The agents were known only by the letters of the alphabet, and when they crossed the Tibetan borders they were aware that they had passed beyond the protection of the British Raj. More than one reached Lhasa by fantastic routes, with the result that the Indian Government had accurate information about the city filed in its archives, while the world at large knew the place only from the story of Huc and Gabet, and from the drawing of the Potala made by Grueber in the seventeenth century. Of the later European travellers none reached the capital. Mr. Littledale in 1895 was not stopped by the Tibetan authorities till he was within fifty miles of the city, and Sven Hedin in 1901 got within fourteen days of Lhasa from the north. But meantime events were happening which were to impel the Government of India to interfere more actively in Tibetan policy than by merely sending native agents to collect news. The traditional policy was to preserve Tibet as a sanctuary, but a sanctuary is only a sanctuary if all the neighbours combine to hold it inviolate. In 1903 the position of Britain and Tibet was like that of a big boy at school who is tormented by an impertinent youngster. He bears it for some time, but at last is compelled to administer chastisement. The Convention of 1890 and the Trade Regulations of 1893 were outraged by the Tibetans in many of their provisions; our letters of protest were returned unopened; and, since news travels fast upon the frontier, our protected peoples began to wonder what made the British Raj so tolerant of ill-treatment. This was bad enough for our prestige in the East, but the danger became acute when we discovered that the Dalai Lama was in treaty with Russia, and that an avowed Russian agent, one Dorjieff, was in residence at his court. The two powers in Lhasa were the Dalai Lama, who speedily fell under Russian influence, and the Tsong-du, or Council, composed of representatives of the great priestly caste, who suspected all innovations, and were in favour of maintaining the traditional policy of exclusion against Russia and Britain alike. China, though the nominal suzerain, was impotent, her Viceroy, the Amban, being partially insulted by both parties. In these circumstances Britain could only make her arrangements by going direct to headquarters. Dorjieff had played his cards with great skill, and seemed to be winning everywhere. The Dalai Lama was wholly with him, and had received from the Tsar a complete set of vestments of a Bishop of the Greek Church. The Russian monarch was recognized as a Bodisat incarnation, representing no less a person than Tsong-kapa, the Luther of Lamaism; and Russia was popularly believed to be a Buddhist Power, or, at any rate, the sworn protector of the Buddhist faith. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of these doings; but at the same time Russian influence was rather potential than actual. The Cossacks who accompanied Sven Hedin were headed off from the Holy City as vigorously as any English explorer, and the tales of arming with Russian rifles which filtered through to India were rather intelligent anticipations than records of facts. There were thus two parties in Tibet pulling against each other, but both in different ways hostile to our interests. The Dalai Lama and Dorjieff favoured a departure from the traditional Tibetan policy in favour of Russia. The Tsong-du and the Lamaist hierarchy in general were all for exclusion, but in their wilfulness declined to observe treaties or behave with neighbourly honesty. This internal strife, which alone made possible the success of our expedition, also made its dispatch inevitable, for neither party was prepared to listen to any argument but force. Few enterprises have ever been undertaken by Britain more unwillingly, and her decision was only arrived at under the compulsion of stark necessity. There were many who reprobated what they assumed to be a violation of the sacred places of an ancient, pure, and pacific religion. But there was no need for compunction on that score, since Lamaism was the grossest perversion of Buddhism in all Asia. Spiritually it had more kinship with the aboriginal devil-worship of Tibet than the gentle creed of Gautama. Practically it was a political tyranny of monks, who battened upon a mild and industrious population and ruled them with coarse theological terrors. Our reception by the monasteries was sufficiently gruff; but to the common people we came rather in the guise of friends. In July, 1903, Colonel Younghusband, as he then was, Mr. White, and Captain O'Connor went to Khamba Jong, a place in Southern Tibet, just north of Sikkim. There they met the Abbot of Tashilhunpo and certain emissaries from Lhasa, but nothing could be done; and, with the concurrence of the Indian Office, it was arranged that a Mission should go to Gyangtse, the chief town of Southern Tibet, accompanied by a small escorting force. While troops were being collected, the Commissioner, Colonel Younghusband, went to Tuna, on the bleak plain above the Tang La, where he waited through three weary winter months. Meanwhile General Macdonald, a soldier who had had a distinguished record in Central Africa, took up his quarters at Chumbi, while Major Bretherton, the chief transport and supply officer, accumulated stores in that valley and prepared the line of communications. Those were anxious months of waiting for the Mission, for the Tibetans were in force in the neighbourhood, and daily threatened to attack the small post; but nothing happened till the escort joined them in the end of March, 1904, and all things were ready for the advance. [Illustration: The Expedition to Lhasa.] It is worth while looking back upon the road to Tuna from the plains of Bengal, surely one of the most wonderful of the Great North Roads of the world. At Siliguri the little toy railway to Darjeeling runs up the hill-side; but the path for the troops lay along the gorge of the Teesta River, through forests of sal and gurjun, which give place in turn to teak and bamboo, till the altitude increases and the tree-fern and rhododendron take their places, and at last the pines are reached and the fringe of the snows is near. From the glorious sub-tropical vegetation of Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, the road runs through difficult ravines till it passes the tree-line at Lagyap and climbs over the frozen summit of the Natu La. From this point Tibet is visible, with the majestic snows of Chumulhari hanging like a cloud in the north. Then you descend to the Chumbi valley, the Debatable Land of Tibet, where stands Ta-Karpo, the great White Rock which recalls a famous passage in the Odyssey. Right under Chumulhari and just south of the Tang La, lies Phari Jong, the first of the minor Tibetan fortalices, which looks as if it were a bad copy of some European model. A little farther and you are over the pass and on the great plateau of Tuna, where icy winds blow from the hills and drive the gritty soil in blizzards about the traveller. There are few places in the world where in so short a time so complete a climatic and scenic change can be experienced. II On the 31st March the expedition left Tuna; and after an unfortunate encounter with the Tibetans, which cost the latter many lives, and in which Mr. Edmund Candler, the distinguished war correspondent, was wounded, the enemy made a further stand at Red Idol Gorge. Nothing of importance, however, occurred till the town of Gyangtse was reached and occupied without a shot. Very soon it became apparent that no more could be done here than at Khamba Jong, and the Government of India were obliged to sanction a farther advance to Lhasa. For this preparations must be made; so the Commissioner, with a small escort, took up his quarters at Gyangtse, while General Macdonald returned to Chumbi for reinforcements. The jong was found to be deserted, but, unfortunately, was neither held nor destroyed, the Mission residing in the plain below. At first the waiting among those iris-clad meadows was pleasant and idyllic enough; the country people brought abundant supplies, and members of the staff rode through the neighbourhood and had tea with various dignitaries of the Church; but early in May things took a turn for the worse. It was reported that the Tibetans were fortifying the Karo La, the next pass on the Lhasa road; and, since it is the first principle of frontier warfare to strike quickly, Colonel Brander was dispatched with the larger part of the garrison to disperse them. He performed the task with conspicuous success, and the incident is remarkable for one of the strangest pieces of fighting in our military history. It was necessary to enfilade a sangar in which the enemy was ensconced, and a native officer, Wassawa Singh, with twelve Gurkhas, was detached for the work. They climbed by means of cracks and chimneys up a 1,500 feet cliff--an exploit which would have done credit to any Alpine club, even if the climbers had not been cumbered with weapons, exposed to fire, and labouring at a height of nearly 19,000 feet. During the engagement disquieting news arrived from Gyangtse that the jong had been reoccupied by the enemy and that the Mission was undergoing a continuous bombardment. Colonel Brander hurried back, to find that the world had moved fast in his absence, and that there was a new type of Tibetan army to be faced--a type possessed of both dash and persistence, with some notion of strategy, and with guns which, at short range, could do real execution. So began the blockade of the Mission house; an imperfect blockade, for the telegraph wires remained intact, the mail was delivered with fair regularity, and the besieged endured no special privations. "The honours," says Mr. Perceval Landon,* "were pretty evenly divided. Neither the Tibetans nor we were able to storm the other's defences; a mutual fusillade compelled each side to protect its occupants by an elaborate system of traverses; and straying beyond the narrow tracts of the fortifications was, on either side, severely discouraged by the other." * _Lhasa_, by Perceval Landon. An attempt to cut our communications failed, and by the capture of Pala the garrison greatly strengthened its position. Our troops had an experience of the type of fighting which has scarcely been known since the great sackings of the Thirty Years' War. In an upland country we expect attacks on fortified hilltops, and long-range encounters, such as we saw in South Africa. But in an episode like the capture of Naini, it was mediæval street fighting that we had to face. The Castle of Otranto provided no more endless labyrinths than those Tibetan monasteries. "Bands of desperate swordsmen were found in knots under trap-doors and behind sharp turnings. They would not surrender, and had to be killed by rifle shots fired at a distance of a few feet." On the 26th June General Macdonald arrived with a relieving force, and soon after came the Tongsa Penlop, the temporal ruler of Bhutan, a genial potentate in rich vari-coloured robes and a Homburg hat. The Tibetan offensive had weakened, but the jong had to be taken before the Mission could advance. Down the middle of the precipitous south-eastern face of the great rock ran a deep fissure, across which walls had been built. It was decided to breach these walls by our gun fire and then to attack by way of the cleft. The actual assault was a brilliant and intrepid exploit, for which Lieutenant Grant of the 8th Gurkhas most deservedly received the Victoria Cross. With our guns battering the walls above, he and his men scrambled up the ravine, while masses of rubble poured down on them, and every now and then carried off a man. Then the Gurkhas' bugles warned the guns to cease, and the last climb began up a face so steep that there was no possible shelter from the enemy's fire. By such desperate mountaineering the invaders at last reached the wreckage of the Tibetan wall. Grant and one of the Gurkhas were the first two men over, and to the observers below their death seemed a certainty. They were two against the whole enemy force in the Jong, and had the Tibetans reserved their fire and waited at the bastions, they could have picked off every man of the assault as his head appeared above the breach. But the bold course proved the wise one, and presently the garrison surrendered. Rarely has the Victoria Cross been better earned, and it is satisfactory to know that Lieutenant Grant reaped the reward of perfect fearlessness and received only a slight wound. III On the 14th July the expedition moved out from Gyangtse along the road to Lhasa. Grass and a glory of flowers covered the glens which led up to the Karo La. The serious fighting was over, and the second crossing of that pass was remarkable only for the fact that some rock platforms and caves had to be cleared by our panting troops at an altitude of over 19,000 feet. In the rest of the story the soldier finds little place, and the interest attaches itself to the durbars of the Commissioner and the treasure-house of natural and artistic wonders which the Mission was approaching. For after Gyangtse the resistance of the Tibetans was at an end. Half-sullenly and half-curiously they permitted our advance, delaying us a little with fruitless negotiations, while in Lhasa the game of high politics which the Dalai Lama had played was turning against him, and, like another deity, he was meditating a pilgrimage. After the Karo La came the Yam-dok--or, as some call it, the Yu-tso or Turquoise Lake--the most wonderful natural feature of the plateau. Its curious shape, its pale blue waters, its shores of white sand fringed with dog-roses and forget-me-nots, the cloud of fable which has always brooded over it, and its august environment, make it unique among the lakes of the world. I quote a fragment of Mr. Landon's description:-- "Below lie both the outer and the inner lakes, this following with counter-indentations the in-and-out windings of the other's shore-line. The mass and colour of the purple distance is Scotland at her best--Scotland, too, in the slow drift of a slant-roofed raincloud in among the hills. At one's feet the water is like that of the Lake of Geneva. But the tattered outline of the beach, with its projecting lines of needle-rocks, its wide, white curving sandspits, its jagged islets, its precipitous spurs, and, above all, the mysterious tarns strung one beyond another into the heart of the hills, all these are the Yam-dok's own, and not another's. If you are lucky, you may see the snowy slopes of To-nang gartered by the waters, and always on the horizon are the everlasting ice-fields of the Himalayas, bitterly ringing with argent the sun and colour of the still blue lake. You will not ask for the added glories of a Tibetan sunset; the grey spin and scatter of a rain-threaded afterglow, or the tangled sweep of a thundercloud's edge against the blue, will give you all you wish, and you will have seen the finest view in all this strange land." On the shore lies the convent of Samding, the home of the Dorje Phagmo, or pig goddess, which was jealously respected by the troops, since its abbess had nursed Chundra Dass, one of the adventurous agents of the Indian Government, when he fell sick during his travels. The present incarnation, a little girl of six, declined to reveal herself. Nothing was more satisfactory in the whole tale of the expedition than the way in which any service done at any time to a British subject, white or black, met with full recognition. Such conduct cannot have failed to have raised the prestige of the Power which showed itself so mindful of its servants. Prestige and reputation of a kind, indeed, we already possessed. Tibetan monasteries had a trick of sending their most valuable belongings to the nearest convent, for, they argued, the English do not enter nunneries or war with women. [Illustration: View of the Potala Monastery at Lhasa, with the Chortan in the foreground.] On July 24th the expedition crossed the Khamba La and descended to the broad green valley of the Tsangpo. The crossing of that river, a work of real difficulty, was made tragic by the death of Major Bretherton, the brilliant transport officer, to whom, perhaps, more than to any other soldier, the military success in the enterprise was due. Not the least of the mysteries of Tibet was this secret stream, which the traveller, after miles of bleak upland, finds flowing among English woods and meadows. In Assam and Bengal it was the Brahmaputra; but when it entered the hills it was as unknown to civilized man as Alph or the Four Rivers of Eden. What its middle course was like and how it broke through the mountain barrier were questions which no one had answered,* nor at the time was there any accurate knowledge of its upper valleys. * See Chapter II. Once on the north bank Lhasa was but a short way off, and in growing excitement the expedition covered the last stages. It was one of the great moments of life, and we can all understand and envy the final hurried miles, till through the haze the eye caught the gleam of golden roofs and white terraces. The first prospect brought no disappointment. If the streets were squalid, they were set in a green plain seamed with waters; trees and gardens were everywhere; while, above, the huge Assisi-like citadel of the Potala typified the massive secrecy of generations, and the ring of dark hills reminded the onlooker that this garden ground was planted on the roof of the world. Meanwhile the expedition set itself down outside the gates to abide the pleasure of the sullen and perturbed masters. The deity of the place had gone on a journey, no one quite knew whither. He had kept his moonlight flitting a secret, and had gone off on the northern road with Dorjieff and a small escort to claim the hospitality of his spiritual brother of Urga. He had played his impossible game with spirit and subtlety, and he had a pretty taste for romance in its ending. "When one looks for mystery in Lhasa," wrote Mr. Candler, "one's thoughts dwell solely on the Dalai Lama and the Potala. I cannot help dwelling on the flight of the thirteenth incarnation. It plunges us into mediævalism. To my mind there is no picture so engrossing in modern history as that exodus when the spiritual head of the Buddhist Church, the temporal ruler of six millions, stole out of his palace by night, and was borne away in his palanquin." The romance which Mr. Candler saw in the Potala, Mr. Landon found most conspicuously in the church of the Jo-kang. The palace was magnificent from the outside, but within it was only a warren of small rooms and broken stairways. The great cathedral, on the other hand, was hidden away among trees and streets, so that its golden roof could only be seen from a distance, but inside it was a shrine of all that was mysterious and splendid. The contrast was allegorical of the difference between the temporal ruler of Lamaism--gaudy, tyrannical, and hollow--and the sway of the Buddhist Church, which by hidden ways and unseen agencies dominated the imagination of Asia. The Chinese Amban, having a natural desire to pay back the people who had so grossly neglected him, invited certain members of the Mission to enter this Holy of Holies. The visitors were the first white men to approach the inner sanctuary of the Buddhist faith. They were stoned on leaving the building, but the sight was one worth risking much to see. In the central shrine sat the great golden Buddha, roped with jewels, crowned with turquoise and pearl, surrounded by dim rough-hewn shapes which loomed out fitfully in the glare of the butter-lamps, while the maroon-clad monks droned their eternal chant before the silver altar. And the statue was as strange as its environment. "For this is no ordinary presentation of the Master. The features are smooth and almost childish; beautiful they are not, but there is no need of beauty here. There is no trace of that inscrutable smile which, from Mukden to Ceylon, is inseparable from our conception of the features of the Great Teacher. Here there is nothing of the saddened smile of the Melancholia, who has known too much and has renounced it all as vanity. Here, instead, is the quiet happiness and the quick capacity for pleasure of the boy who had never yet known either pain, or disease, or death. It is Gautama as a pure and eager prince, without any thought for the morrow or care for to-day." Mr. Landon has other pictures of almost equal charm. He takes us to the famous Ling-kor, the sacred road which encircled the town, worn with the feet of generations of men seeking salvation. We see the unclean abode of the Ragyabas, that strange unholy caste of beggar scavengers; we walk in the gardens of the Lu-kang, by the willow-fringed lake and the glades of velvet turf; and, not least, we visit the temple of the Chief Wizard, where every form of human torment is delicately portrayed in fresco and carving. But if we wish to realize the savagery at the heart of this proud theocracy, we must go with Mr. Candler to the neighbouring Depung monastery on the quest for supplies, and see the tribe of inquisitors buzzing out like angry wasps, and submitting only when the guns were trained on them. For these weeks of waiting in Lhasa were an anxious time for all concerned. Our own position was precarious in the extreme, and, had the Lhasans once realized it, impossible. Winter was approaching, the Government was urging the Mission to get its Treaty and come home, and yet day after day had to pass without result, and the Commissioner could only wait, and oppose to the obstinacy of the monks a stronger and quieter determination. Sir Francis Younghusband was indeed almost the only man in the Empire fitted for the task. "He sat through every durbar," says Mr. Candler, "a monument of patience and inflexibility, impassive as one of their own Buddhas. Priests and councillors found that appeals to his mercy were hopeless. He, too, had orders from his King to go to Lhasa; if he faltered, his life also was at stake; decapitation would await him on his return. That was the impression he purposely gave them. It curtailed palaver. How in the name of all their Buddhas were they to stop such a man?" At last on 1st September, when after a month's diplomacy the Tibetans had only admitted two of our demands, the time came to deliver our ultimatum. The delegates were told that if all our terms were not accepted within a week, General Macdonald would consider the question of using stronger arguments. Our forbearance was justified by its results, for the opposition suddenly subsided, and we gained what we asked without any coercion. It was a diplomatic triumph of a high order, obtained in the face of difficulties which seemed to put diplomacy out of the question. The final scene came on 7th September, when in the audience chamber of the Potala the Treaty was signed by the Commissioner, and by the acting Regent, who affixed the seal of the Dalai Lama, the four Shapes, a representative of the Tsong-du, and the heads of the great monasteries. Thereafter came a limelight photograph of the gathering, and with this very modern climax the great Asian mystery became a thing of the past. The Dalai Lama had already been formally deposed, his spiritual powers were transferred to our friend the Tashe Lama, and, with the Treaty in our baggage and a real prestige in our wake, we began the homeward march. IV What were the results of the expedition? Geographically they appeared a little barren, for we stuck too close to the highroad to solve many of the greater mysteries. One fact of cardinal importance was established: our conception of Tibet was revolutionized, and instead of an arid plateau we learned that about one-third of it was nearly as fertile and well-watered as Kashmir. For the rest, the two most interesting expeditions were forbidden--down the Brahmaputra to Assam, and to the mountains, nine days north of Lhasa, which had formed the southern limit of Sven Hedin's exploration. One valuable expedition was, however, undertaken. Western Tibet had hitherto been the best known part of the tableland, and now our knowledge of it was linked on to the Lhasan district. On 10th October Captains Ryder, Rawling, and Wood, and Lieutenant Bailey,* with six Gurkhas, left Gyangtse, and made their way by Shigatse up the Tsangpo. They explored the river to its source, and, passing the great Manasarowar lakes, arrived at Gartok, on the Upper Indus. Thence they entered the Sutlej valley, and, crossing the Shipki Pass of over 18,000 feet, reached Simla in the first week of January 1905. Much was added also to our knowledge of the Himalaya. The fact was established that the old report of northern rivals to Everest was unfounded; and, moreover, the highest mountain in the world was seen from the northern side, where the slopes are easier, and the possibility of an attempt on it occurred to various minds--a hope which seventeen years later was realized.** * See Chapter II. ** See Chapter IX. On the political side the true achievement was not the formal Treaty, but the going to Lhasa. We taught the Tibetans that their mysterious capital could not be shut against our troops, and that Russian promises were less real than British performances. We showed ourselves strong, and, above all things, humane, and we earned respect, and, it would also appear, a kind of affection. When the venerable Regent solemnly blessed the Commissioner and General Macdonald for their clemency, and presented each with a golden image of Buddha--an honour rarely granted to the faithful, and never before to an unbeliever--he gave expression to the general feeling of the people. Tibet was enveloped once more in its old seclusion--a deeper seclusion, indeed, since we guaranteed it. A final result was that we vindicated our claim to protect our subjects and those who served us. We took our Gurkhas into the forbidden land, which their native traditions had invested with a miraculous power, and showed them the truth. As for Bhutan, up to 1904 it was as obscure as Tibet and its people were strangers. They were now, in the Commissioner's phrase, "our enthusiastic allies." Their ruler in his Homburg hat joined us in the march, and acted as master of ceremonies in introducing us to the Lhasa notables. Nearly twenty years have passed, and much water has since run under the bridges. In 1906 China adhered to the Treaty, and in 1907 came the Anglo-Russian Convention which provided for the secluding of the country by both Powers, and recognized China's suzerain rights. In 1909 the Dalai Lama, who had been restored, was ejected by Chinese troops, and in 1910 he was at Darjeeling, a refugee claiming our hospitality. Once again he was reinstated, and he has ever since been a faithful ally of Britain. At the outbreak of the Great War he offered 1,000 Tibetan troops, and informed the King that lamas through the length and breadth of Tibet were praying for the success of the British arms and for the happiness of the souls of the fallen. Since 1904 both China and Russia have crumbled into anarchy. There is no peril to India through the eastern Himalayan passes, and the strategic importance of Tibet has dwindled. It is still a forbidden country, but it is no longer a secret one. Posts run regularly to Lhasa, and a telegraph line has been laid to that mysterious capital. But it is mysterious only by a literary convention. The true mystery is gone; the secret, such as it was, has been revealed, and the human mind can no longer play with the unknown. Childe Roland had reached the dark tower and found it not so marvellous after all. It is hard not to sympathize with Mr. Candler's plaint: "There are no more forbidden cities which men have not mapped and photographed. Our children will laugh at modern travellers' tales. They will have to turn again to Gulliver and Haroun al Raschid. And they will soon tire of these. For now that there are no real mysteries, no unknown land of dreams, where there may still be genii and mahatmas and bottle-imps, that kind of literature will be tolerated no longer. Children will be sceptical and matter-of-fact and disillusioned, and there will be no sale for fairy stories any more. But we ourselves are children. Why could we not have left at least one city out of bounds?" These reflections do not detract from the romance of the expedition itself and the privilege of the fortunate men who shared in it. For them it was assuredly a great adventure--one which could never be repeated. It may be summed up, as Mr. Landon has summed it up, in certain famous lines from the _Odyssey_ which have not only a curious local application, but embody the true spirit of the adventure:-- "Over the tides of Ocean on they pressed, On past the great White Rock beside the stream, On, till, through God's high bastions east and west, They reached the plains with pale-starred iris dressed, And found at last the folk of whom men dream." II THE GORGES OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA THE GORGES OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA (_Map_, p. 48.) Fifty years ago one of the questions most debated among geographers was the origin of the Brahmaputra. The great river, navigable for 800 miles from its mouth, was familiar enough in its course through the plains of India; but it flowed from the wild Abor country, and no part of the Indian borders was less known than those north-eastern foothills. Meantime in Tibet, north of the main chain of the Himalayas, there was a large river, the Tsangpo, flowing from west to east. Did the Tsangpo ultimately become the Brahmaputra, or did it flow into the Irrawadi, or even into the Yang-tse Kiang? All three views were held, but there was no evidence to decide between them. In 1874 a native explorer, the pundit Nain Singh, started on his famous journey from Leh to Lhasa, and was instructed, if possible, to follow the Tsangpo and see where it went. He reached Lhasa, and on his return struck the Tsangpo at Tsetang, well to the east of the point where the British expedition crossed in 1904. He followed its course for thirty miles farther down, but was prevented from continuing his journey and compelled to return by the direct route to India. In 1878 another native explorer, G.M.N., seems to have followed the Tsangpo down as far as Gyala, which is not far from the point where the river turns sharply to the south, but his reports were not considered reliable. In 1884 another native, Kinthup, succeeded in following the Tsangpo to a point called Pemakochung. There he found an enormous gorge, and was compelled to make a detour out to the north and east, rejoining the stream where it entered the Abor country. Kinthup's report was of the highest interest. He had stood at the beginning of an apparently impassable gorge, and he reported a fall at Pemakochung of 150 feet. He was, however, quite illiterate and was only able to make his report from memory, and it presently appeared that the height might be only 50 feet, and that the higher fall was not in the main stream but in a small tributary. One fact, however, of the utmost importance had been established by his expedition. The Tsangpo was beyond reasonable doubt the Brahmaputra in its upper course. [Illustration: The Gorges of the Brahmaputra.] The Lhasa expedition in 1904 would fain have traced the river to the plains had not the Government interposed a veto. In the years that followed, the source of the Tsangpo was discovered by Captain Rawling. In 1911 the Abor expedition increased our knowledge of the course of the Brahmaputra right up to the skirts of the main range. The problem now was not the linking up of the Tsangpo and the Brahmaputra, but what happened to the river in the hairpin bend between Pemakochung and its debouchment in the Abor valleys. The elevation of the stream at the point where the main road to Lhasa crossed it was in the neighbourhood of 12,000 feet. From there as far as Pemakochung we knew that there was no very great loss in altitude, but when the Brahmaputra appeared in the Abor foothills it was only between 1,000 and 2,000 feet above the sea. The stretch of unknown course was perhaps 200 miles, and in that section the river broke through the main range of the Himalaya. It was possible--nay, it was probable--that somewhere in those gorges, which Kinthup had thought impassable, lay hidden the most tremendous waterfall in the world. The secret of the Brahmaputra gorges was one of the topics that most fascinated geographers between the years 1904 and 1913. In that latter year the mystery was solved, and the _ignotum_ proved not to be the _magnificum_. This is the story of the solution. The course of the Brahmaputra through Assam is roughly from north-east to south-west, but at a place called Sadiya the main stream, there known as the Dihang, turns sharply to the north. At that point, too, it receives an important tributary on its left bank called the Dibang. During the winter of 1912-13 Captain F. M. Bailey, an officer of the Indian Political Service, was employed by the Government to survey the Dibang basin, while another party had gone through the Abor country to survey the Dihang. Early in 1913 Captain Bailey and Captain Morshead of the Royal Engineers collected what stores they could and started off from the village of Mipi on the upper waters of the Dibang. Their aim was to cross into the Dihang valley, and to follow the river upstream to the Tibetan plateau. Captain Bailey had been with the Lhasa expedition, and had had a long record of exploration in different parts of Tibet, so he had all the qualifications needed by the pioneer. But his party was imperfectly equipped, since it started more or less on the spur of the moment, and had no time to obtain proper stores from India. He trusted to the prestige won by the Abor expedition, and his experience of the ways of the Tibetans, to furnish him with coolies and local supplies. The reader's attention is now prayed for the map. The first business was to cross the high passes separating the Dibang from the Dihang. The weather proved abominable, and for part of the route only half rations could be issued. As they descended into the valley of the Dihang they found once more cultivation and villages, and they were able to supplement their stores by shooting game, especially pheasants, which teemed by the roadside. It was necessary to establish touch with the Abor Survey party lower down the river, and accordingly they had to halt for some days. At a place called Kapu they managed to take the altitude in the river bed, and found the height above sea level to be 2,610 feet--an important result, for they were able to take no other observation at water level below the main gorges. These foothills of the Himalaya were inhabited chiefly by savage tribes akin to the Abors, who were known generically as Lopas. But as the expedition advanced up the river they came to the country of the Pobas, who were under Tibetan influence. At Lagung, which is about the centre of the hairpin bend, the course of the river turned west. It might have been possible for them to have followed it some thirty miles farther, but they were pressed by a Poba official, with whom they made friends, to go north-east into the absolutely unknown country of Po-me, which would enable them to make a circuit and reach Gyala at the head of the gorges. Captain Bailey considered that it would be easier to explore the gorges by going downstream. On 21st June they crossed a pass of over 13,000 feet into the valley of the river known as the Po-Tsangpo, an affluent of the Brahmaputra. It was a stream 80 yards wide, and of such rapidity that its current was one whirl of foam. The natives were in great fear of the Chinese, and it was necessary to go boldly to Showa, the capital, where a letter could be received from the Abor Survey party vouching for their respectability. The Chinese had burned the place, killed the chief, and decapitated the council, and the inhabitants looked askance at the travellers because of the Chinese writing on a tablet of Indian ink which they carried. After three days, however, a letter arrived from the Abor party, which persuaded them that Captain Bailey and Captain Morshead were at any rate servants of the English King. The explorers now moved north-eastwards down the Po-Tsangpo, finding great difficulty in crossing the tributaries, where the bridges had mostly been destroyed. It was a beautiful land, bright with primula, iris, and blue poppy, and the roads were lined with raspberries. They were now leaving the Po-me country and travelling among a more civilized type of Tibetan, who wore hats like clergymen, made out of yak's hair. After crossing a pass of over 15,000 feet they returned to the main stream of the Tsangpo. This country was under the charge of Tzongpen of Tsela, who came to meet the travellers--an urbane gentleman whose son was at Rugby and a promising cricketer. They were now on the Tsangpo above the mysterious gorges. They had left behind them the hot valleys of the lower stream and found a dry Tibetan dale, where the chief crops were barley and buckwheat. The river was broad and slow, at one point stretching into a lake 600 yards wide, and its altitude was 9,680 feet. The problem was now to follow it down from that point to the point of their last observation, where the altitude was only 2,610 feet. Somewhere in the intervening tract of gorge it must make the enormous descent of over 7,000 feet. The first stage was the twenty-two miles down to Gyala, which had been visited in 1878. The stream was in flood owing to melting snows, and the water-side track was difficult. Four days' march below Gyala they reached Pemakochung, the limit of Kinthup's exploration. So far they had passed various small rapids, but nothing in the nature of a fall. A mile below Pemakochung they came on Kinthup's cascade. It proved to be only some 30 feet high and not vertical. The road now became extraordinarily intricate. Great spurs ran down to the river and blocked the glen, and it was necessary to cut paths through dense forest and thickets of rhododendron to surmount them. There was no track of any kind, and the tributaries descending from the adjacent glaciers were often hard to cross. They ran short of food, and could get no reliable information as to the possibility of their descending the stream. Captain Morshead and the coolies accordingly returned to Gyala, and Captain Bailey, with one man and fifteen pounds of flour, attempted to descend the Tsangpo by the route which a party of Monbas was said to have recently taken. He found the Monbas, but they were wild and suspicious and far from helpful. They refused to take him to their village, and declined to show him the road round the difficult cliffs. Apparently they considered that a traveller who had only one servant, and who carried most of his baggage himself, must be a person of small importance and not worth troubling about. He managed, however, to pick up from them certain news about the lower valley. He returned to Gyala and rejoined Captain Morshead, and they proceeded to piece their knowledge together. At Gyala a small stream drops from the cliffs, making a waterfall, in which the god Shingche Chogye is concealed. The image of the deity is carved or painted in the rock behind the fall, but it is only possible to see it in winter when there is little water. This, apparently, was Kinthup's fall of 150 feet. Now, why should so meagre a natural feature have attained such celebrity among the Tibetans, for the fame of it had spread far and wide over the country? The reason seems to be that it is unique, because there are no other high falls. Had this deduction been made from Kinthup's evidence, the mystery of the Brahmaputra gorges would have been solved long ago. The travellers collected their observations on the altitude of the river level and the speed of the current. At Pe, where they had first struck the Tsangpo, the height was 9,680 feet; thirty-four miles below it the river level was 8,730 feet, giving a drop of 28 feet a mile. At Pemakochung the altitude was 8,380 feet, and the drop 24 feet a mile. Three miles farther down the altitude was 8,090, giving a drop of 97 feet a mile, which included the 30-feet drop of Kinthup's fall. At the lowest point Captain Bailey reached in the river bed the altitude was 7,480 feet, giving a drop of 48 feet a mile. The next point on the river which they had visited was Lagung, below the gorges, where they could not take an observation in the river bed; but forty-five miles downstream the altitude was 2,610 feet. There remained, therefore, some fifty miles of gorge which had not been, and could not be, explored, and the information about it was only indirect. From Lagung upstream to where the Po-Tsangpo joined the Tsangpo, lay a stretch which many natives had visited. The altitude of the junction was estimated at 5,700 feet, which would give a drop of 3,090 feet in the seventy-five miles down to their observation of 2,610 feet--a fall of some 41 feet per mile. Here there was clearly no waterfall. From the junction of the two streams to the point where Captain Bailey turned back was not more than twenty miles, and the drop 1,780 feet, giving a fall of 89 feet a mile. The Monbas whom he met told him that they had hunted on the right bank of the stream throughout this unknown stretch, and that, though there were many rapids, there were no big cascades. We are not concerned with the rest of the journey of Captain Bailey and Captain Morshead, which took them upstream to Tsetang, where Nain Singh had gone in 1874, and back to India by the wild country of the Bhutan border. Their evidence may be considered to have finally solved the riddle of how the great river breaks through the highest range on the globe. It does it by means of a hundred miles of marvellous gorges, where the stream foams in rapids, but there is no fall more considerable than can be found in many a Scottish salmon river. I am not sure that the reality is not more impressive than the romantic expectation. The mighty current is not tossed in spray over a great cliff, but during the æons it has bitten a deep trough through that formidable rock wall. Curiously enough, the rivers which break through the Himalaya chose the highest parts of the range through which to cut. South of Pemakochung is the great peak of Namcha Barwa, 25,445 feet high; north of it is the peak of Gyala Peri, 23,460 feet. The distance between these mountains is only some fourteen miles, and through this gap, at an altitude of just under 9,000 feet, flows the great river. III THE NORTH POLE THE NORTH POLE (_Map_, p. 80.) I When sceptical people say that Polar exploration has been of no benefit to mankind, it is permissible to think that their judgment is as unsound as their point of view is limited. Not only have Polar explorers added enormously to the scientific knowledge of the world, but they have also materially aided commerce. But even if these voyages had been barren of scientific and commercial results, they would have been infinitely worth making. For among Polar explorers are many men who must be universally regarded as heroes. No training was more rigorous and dangerous, no work has ever called for more endurance, resource, and courage. A nation which is without its heroes is in a sad plight; a nation which has them and ignores their example can only be looked upon with pity. The spirit of high adventure is one that no country can afford to neglect. The history of geographical discovery is, in its initial stages, almost solely one of conquest. Men, either for their own or their country's profit--and sometimes for both--went out in search of unknown lands because they wanted to trade with them. Pytheas, who has been described as "one of the most intrepid explorers the world has ever seen," was the first man to bring news of the Arctic regions to the civilized world. He did not pretend to have visited them, but in or about 330 B.C. he set out from Marseilles and journeyed north. During this voyage, which must have lasted for several years, he visited Britain, and then, proceeding to the most northerly point of the British Isles, he heard of an Arctic land called Thule, which at one time of the year enjoyed perpetual day, and at another had to endure perpetual night. With a leap over a few hundred years we come to Ptolemy, whose influence on geography was almost paramount from the second century to comparatively modern times. No one is more dangerous than a bad cartographer, or more valuable than a good one; but although Ptolemy made many mistakes, he also did such splendid work that it is quite easy to forget them. To him we owe the names of latitude and longitude, and it has been well said of him that he held the extraordinary "distinction of being the greatest authority on astronomy and geography for over fifteen hundred years." Ptolemy's work may have required to be corrected and amplified, but, at least, he gave the world something which was worthy of correction. In the eighth and ninth centuries the Norsemen became terrors in Europe. "Harold of the fair hair" reigned from 860 to 930 A.D., and these seventy years formed a period of great adventure. During Harold's reign the Norsemen colonized Iceland, and in 983 Erik the Red founded a colony in Greenland, which flourished until the Norwegians ceased to take an interest in it. Not until the fifteenth century did English seamen begin to turn their attention to the North. They were more or less forced to do so. Portugal and Spain were all-powerful in the East and West, and so England began earnestly to think of discovering a way to Cathay and the Spice Islands by a northern route. But if we were a little slow in beginning to pay attention to the Arctic regions, we have every cause to be satisfied with our work after we had once begun it. The fifteenth century saw considerable activity as regards Scandinavia, but it was not until 1505 that a charter was granted to the Company of Merchant Adventurers, and from that year we can date our real interest in Arctic discovery. It is well, perhaps, to bear in mind, while thinking of Polar exploration, that there is a marked difference between the two Polar regions. The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continental lands; the Antarctic is a continental land surrounded by oceans. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby set out to try and find a north-east passage to the Indies. On this voyage--in which Willoughby lost his life--Novaya Zemlya was discovered, and Richard Chancellor, who took part in the expedition, reached Archangel; and then, travelling overland to Moscow, was received graciously by Ivan the Terrible, the Tsar of Russia. This visit was of importance, because it helped to establish trade between England and Russia. Competition to find a route northwards to China and the Indies had by this time become acute in Europe, and many bold navigators set out from England. Among the sailors who were maintaining her high record on the seas Sir Martin Frobisher deserves especially to be mentioned. In 1576 he set out, cheered doubtless by knowing that Queen Elizabeth had "good liking of their doings," to find a north-west passage. On three occasions Frobisher voyaged northwards, and he reached Greenland and discovered the strait that was named after him. "He is not worthy," Sir Humphrey Gilbert wrote in the latter part of the sixteenth century, "to live at all who, for fear of danger or death, shunneth his country's service or his own honour, since death is inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal." Most assuredly our Elizabethan sailors did not shun their "country's service," and Elizabeth herself was the first to appreciate and encourage their enterprise. In 1585 yet another distinguished explorer, John Davis, embarked upon his career, and during his voyages he made discoveries that "converted the Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined area." He found several passages towards the west, and thus strengthened the hope of finding a north-west passage; and he also reached "the farthest north," 72° 12' N., some eleven hundred miles from the geographical North Pole. As yet no one had turned his thoughts to the North Pole itself, but it may truly be said that Davis and men of his calibre were already beginning to prepare the way for the time when it would be reached. For his discoveries, like those of many of the earlier explorers, were both important in themselves and also acted as a guide and incentive to those who followed. In the meantime, Davis had obtained the record for the "farthest north," a record which Great Britain, with the exception of a very few years, continued to hold until 1882. Many English navigators did great work in maintaining this record, and among them was Henry Hudson, who set out in 1607 with the object of finding a north-west passage to the Indies. Hudson, in this voyage, reached 80° N., and did most valuable work in the Spitzbergen quadrant. It is also reported that two of his men saw a mermaid, which may at least be taken as evidence that they were more than ordinarily observant. Both geographically and commercially, Hudson's voyages were of the first importance. He not only made many discoveries, including that of the river which bears his name, but he also brought back the news that led directly to the establishment of the Spitzbergen whale fishery, an industry that was extremely lucrative to Holland. In 1615 William Baffin discovered the land that is called after him; and then, for some time, English discovery in the Arctic regions ceased to be noteworthy. Baffin made no less than five voyages to the North, and, scientifically, his observations were permanently valuable to subsequent explorers. Apart from geographical discovery, these Arctic voyages had so far been a great stimulant to trade. In Greenland, Davis Strait, and the Spitzbergen seas, trade had followed discovery, and what had happened in those parts of the Arctic also took place in Hudson Bay, after the Hudson's Bay Company was formed in 1668. In fact, for the time being, the desire to make geographical discoveries was almost obliterated by the desire to trade. It is, however, pleasant to note that during the eighteenth century some of our Governments took an intelligent interest in geographical discovery. They offered a reward of £5,000 for reaching 89° N., and £20,000 was offered to any one who could find the North-West Passage. In the earlier part of the eighteenth century the part that the Russians took in Arctic discovery must not be omitted. In 1728 Peter the Great sent out an expedition under the command of Vitus Bering, a Dane, in which Bering Strait and other discoveries were made; and although it is impossible to mention them in detail, the contributions that the Russians made in revealing the New World to the Old were most creditable to them as a nation. In 1773 Captain Phipps conducted an expedition, which now derives its chief interest from the fact that Horatio Nelson, then a young midshipman, took part in it. "Great," says Sir Clements Markham, "as are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic discovery, and still greater as are its scientific results, the most important of all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school for our future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for distinction to young naval officers in time of peace." And it is incontestably true that many of our finest sailors have learnt their trade in the severe school of geographical exploration. With the advent of the nineteenth century many expeditions were sent to the Far North. The desire actually to reach the North Pole itself did not enter the thoughts of these courageous navigators, the main object of their voyages being either to find the North-West Passage round North America to the Indies, or the North-East Passage round Asia. Nevertheless, each one of these voyages added to the store of knowledge that was being accumulated, each expedition solved some of the mysteries of the North and prepared the way for the solution of what came to be considered the greatest mystery of all. In 1819 Sir Edward Parry embarked upon the first of the Arctic voyages which have made his name famous in the annals of exploration. A sailor by profession, Parry was happy in possessing the qualities that fitted him to lead men. During his first expedition, the prize offered by the English Government to the first navigator who passed the 110th meridian was won. Parry and his party spent a winter in the Arctic--a winter which, thanks to their leader's careful preparations, was passed without mishap; and then, when the winter was over, an expedition to explore the interior of Melville Island was made. Thus Arctic travelling was inaugurated by Parry. Other successful voyages under the same leadership followed, and when, in 1827, our Admiralty began favourably to consider the idea of getting as near as possible to the Pole by way of Spitzbergen, Parry was naturally chosen to command the expedition. So, for the fourth time, Parry sailed northwards, and having reached the north coast of Spitzbergen, he found a good harbour for his ship, the _Hecla_, and left her there. The explorers had taken specially-fitted boats with them, and these they hoped to be able to haul over the ice. The summer, however, had begun to break up the floes, and in consequence the travellers had constantly to take the steel runners off the boats so that the stretches of open water could be crossed. Moreover, the floes that they did find seemed to resent such treatment, for most of them were small and bestrewn with most obstructive hummocks. Not until they had been pulling and hauling for nearly a month did they meet with large floes, and by that time the southerly drift of the ice was in full swing. However hard Parry and his men pulled, they found that the drift was as strong as they were--or stronger. After terrific labour Parry reached 82° 45', a higher latitude than any reached during the next fifty years. It was a great attempt by a man whose devotion to his duty is beyond all praise. Before we come to the most tragic story in the history of Arctic exploration, reference must be made to the discoveries of Captain John Ross. In his first expedition to the North, Captain Ross was not successful; but in his second voyage, when he was accompanied by his nephew, James C. Ross (who afterwards gained distinction in the Antarctic), the magnetic North Pole was discovered, and the British flag fixed there in 70° 5' 17" N., and 76° 16' 4" W. Ross's expedition spent four consecutive winters in the Far North, discovered over two hundred miles of coastline, and returned with a bountiful crop of scientific knowledge. We may well admire the love of adventure and the desire to make geographical and scientific discoveries which induced these constant expeditions to parts of the world that cannot possibly be called inviting. Honour was, and is, due to the men who undertook them, but to John Franklin's memory especial honour is paid, for his name is connected with both heroism and tragedy. As a boy, Franklin, in spite of his father's opposition, determined to be a sailor. At the age of fourteen he was in the _Polyphemus_ at the battle of Copenhagen, and subsequently he was present at the battle of Trafalgar. Peace, then as always, brought unemployment for sailors with it, and at the age of twenty-nine Franklin found himself unwanted in the Navy. When, however, the Admiralty decided, in 1818, to send expeditions to find the North Pole and the North-West Passage, Franklin was chosen to command the _Trent_. This ship was totally unsuited for such a task, and owing to official economy--not to say parsimony--Franklin had to return without achieving any success. In the following year he was again sent out with orders to explore the northern coast of Arctic America, and "the trending of that coast from the mouth of the Coppermine eastwards." Not until 1822 did this expedition of discovery come to a close, after 5,550 miles had been covered by water and land. The tale of its adventures, extraordinary as they were, is only the preface to Franklin's life as an explorer. So famous indeed was he, that when, in 1844, he returned from Tasmania, where he had been Governor for seven years, he was offered the command of an important Arctic expedition. At this time he was nearly sixty years old, but he was anxious to resume his exploratory work, and in 1845 he sailed with the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_ (ships that had already won their laurels under Sir James Ross in the Antarctic). In the hope of finding the North-West Passage, so much coveted and so long concealed, Franklin was instructed to try a route by Wellington Channel, if ice did not block the way. The channel was found to be clear, and the explorers made their way up it, until they reached 77° N. Then their advance was blocked by ice, and they turned south and found winter quarters off Beechey Island. All, so far, had gone well, and when the ships were released from the ice at the end of the winter, hopes of further success must have run high. But presently a mistake was made that had fatal results--a mistake due to an error of the chart-makers. For some time the ships sailed gaily on, important discoveries being made from day to day. Then came the fatal decision. All was open to the south. "If they had continued on their southerly course, the two ships would have reached Bering Strait. There was the navigable passage before them. But, alas! the chart-makers had drawn an isthmus (which only existed in their imagination) connecting Boothia with King William Land. They altered their course to the west, and were lost."* Soon the ships were surrounded by a dense ice-pack, and were dangerously imprisoned. In the spring of 1847 travelling parties were sent out, and one of them, under Graham Gore's command, discovered a North-West Passage, and consequently proved the connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. When the parties returned Franklin was seriously ill, and he died on 11th June, 1847. * Markham's _The Lands of Silence_ (Cambridge University Press). No more beautiful epitaph has ever been written than the one in Westminster Abbey, which Tennyson wrote in honour of John Franklin, his uncle-in-law:-- "Not here! The cold North hath thy bones, and thou, Heroic sailor soul, Art passing on thy happier voyage now Towards no earthly pole." A terrible winter for this gallant band of explorers followed. For months and months the ice remained impenetrable, and at last the ships had to be abandoned. Even if the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_ could have been freed from the ice, it was more than doubtful if they would float, so battered were they by their long, slow drift. Food was both inadequate in quantity and poisonous in quality. Twenty-two officers and men died during that winter of horror; the rest were so weak from privations that, although they knew their only chance was to retreat by Back's Fish River, none of them had the strength successfully to undertake such a march. It is useless to dwell over the sufferings of these heroic men. Captain Crozier and Captain Fitzjames took every precaution, and made all preparations that were under the circumstances possible, but the dice were too heavily loaded against them. With their two heavy boat-sledges they started on 22nd April, 1848, to make their desperate effort. Not one of them survived. The _Erebus_ sank when the ice released her. The _Terror_ also sank, but not until she had drifted on to the American coast and been plundered by Eskimos. It is pitiable to think that prompt action from England might have saved some, at least, of these valuable lives. But at first, although there was considerable anxiety about their fate, no effort was made to find them. Not until 1848 were expeditions sent out in search of Franklin's party, and neither of these was successful in finding any traces. One of these expeditions was, however, noteworthy, for Leopold M'Clintock, who subsequently became so renowned as a sledge-traveller, took part in it. By 1850 the whole country had become thoroughly aroused, and the Government decided to send out strongly equipped expeditions. The _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, under Captains Collinson and M'Clure, were sent out to search by way of Bering Strait; and four ships, under Captain Austin, were to seek for traces of the missing party by way of Lancaster Sound. Austin's expedition failed to find the missing men, but it was excellently conducted and organized, and its sledge-travellers (among whom was M'Clintock) covered over 7,000 miles, and discovered more than 1,200 miles of new land. When Captain Austin returned to England nothing had been heard of the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, and after some discussion and consequent delay, it was resolved again to send the four ships to the Arctic. Not only Franklin's men, but also the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_ had now to be searched for. It was a case of search-parties looking for search-parties. In their main object--that of clearing up the mystery of Franklin and his companions--these expeditions were not successful, but in other ways they more than justified themselves. Both Collinson in the _Enterprise_ and M'Clure in the _Investigator_ succeeded in finding a North-West Passage, and much-needed help was brought to M'Clure by the expedition sent out partly for the purpose of aiding him and Collinson. Further, the sledge journeys of M'Clintock and Mecham during these expeditions were unrivalled in result and a real triumph of organization. Owing to the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, popular interest in the fate of the Franklin expedition diminished, but Lady Franklin remained loyal to the object to which so many years of her life had been dedicated; and after the Government had refused to assist her further, she decided to fit out a private expedition, of which Captain M'Clintock took command. In June, 1857, the _Fox_, a steam yacht of 177 tons, started on her voyage to Greenland, but on reaching Melville Sound, M'Clintock found it extraordinarily packed with ice. The little vessel was firmly imprisoned, and had to spend the winter in the drifting pack. During eight months she drifted southward for nearly 1,200 geographical miles, and she was not liberated from her prison until April, 1858. After such an experience many leaders would have made for a port in which to refit, but M'Clintock was of a different temper. No sooner had the _Fox_ freed herself from her perilous position than he turned her head towards the north, and once more took up the work that he had been sent out to do. And this determination to concentrate, at all costs, on the definite object in hand ultimately met with its sad reward. In June, 1859, it was proved beyond any doubt that the report of the Eskimos (which had been received in England in 1854), to the effect that they had seen the dead bodies of several of Franklin's men, was true. "All the coastline along which the retreating crews performed their fearful march must," M'Clintock wrote, "be sacred to their names alone." Among the many feats that M'Clintock and his men performed during this last search, were a march round King William Island, the discovery of the one navigable North-West Passage, and the discovery of some 800 miles of new coastline. As far as geographical discovery was concerned, the main result of the many expeditions sent out in search of Franklin was that the islands to the north of North America had been mapped out. In 1853 an American expedition, under Elisha Kane, which was sent out in search of Franklin, to the north of Smith Sound, was fruitful in geographical discovery, and outlined what has been called the American route to the Pole. Interest in the Smith Sound route began to grow in England, and was stimulated by another American expedition, led by Charles Hall, in 1871. But although the desire to undertake more Arctic research was strongly felt by many Englishmen, it cannot be said that it was encouraged in official circles. In 1872 Mr. Lowe and Mr. Goschen did receive a deputation of Arctic enthusiasts, but were by no means encouraging in their replies. An expedition, however, under Commander Albert Markham, set out in 1873, and succeeded in capturing twenty-eight whales, which were worth nearly £19,000; and the result of this voyage was to stimulate the idea of further Arctic enterprise. In November, 1874, Lord Beaconsfield, who was at the time Prime Minister, announced that an Arctic expedition to encourage maritime enterprise and to explore the regions round the Pole would be sent out. Sir Clements Markham and other Arctic enthusiasts in England were delighted with this announcement, but their delight was short-lived. These enthusiasts had for years been advocating that exploratory work should be undertaken in the region round the Pole, but they did not consider that a mere rush to the Pole should be undertaken until, at any rate, work of more value to mankind had been done. The conduct of the projected expedition was taken over by the Admiralty, and great was the consternation of Sir Clements and his friends when it was announced that "the main object of the expedition was to attain the highest latitude and, if possible, to reach the North Pole." However displeasing such an object was to these enthusiasts, they could not but rejoice at the interest shown in the expedition, and in the fact that Captain Nares was appointed to command it. At the end of May, 1875, the ships sailed from Portsmouth, and on arriving in the Arctic regions Nares had to bear in mind his definite instructions. In short, exploratory work was to give way to an effort to reach, if possible, the Pole itself. But anxious as he was to carry out his orders, one terrible scourge stood in his way. Scurvy, that deadly disease, attacked his party during the winter, and nearly half of his men suffered from it. Under such conditions he was severely handicapped, but he decided to send out three sledge-parties--eastward, westward, and to the north. Lieutenant Pelham Aldrich was in charge of the western party, and although most of the sledge crew were weakened by scurvy, they marched over 600 miles, and succeeded in reaching 82° 48' N., a few miles farther north than Parry had reached some fifty years previously. In 1882 an American expedition, under Lieutenant Greely, although terribly unfortunate in some respects, was successful in wresting the record for "farthest north" from the British. [Illustration: North Polar Regions.] We must turn aside for a moment from these efforts to get farther and farther north, to mention the exploits of that distinguished Swedish explorer, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld. As early as 1873 Nordenskiöld began to think that the North-East Passage by the Siberian coast might, when found, prove to be of great commercial value, and after some preliminary expeditions he, in 1878, set out in the _Vega_ on his great voyage, and in August the ship passed Cape Chelyuskin, the most northerly point of the Old World. By September, however, the _Vega_, when very near to the completion of her task, was so surrounded by ice that she could proceed no farther, and for ten months she was held a prisoner. Not until the following July was the Vega free to resume her voyage, and shortly afterwards she rounded East Cape, and saluted "the easternmost coast of Asia in honour of the completing of the North-East Passage." Nordenskiöld, both as an explorer and as a man of science, has left the world greatly in his debt, and it has been well said that "when he died, a vast amount of knowledge died with him." Nordenskiöld's name, like Fridtjof Nansen's, is intimately connected with exploratory work in Greenland. Nansen was born in 1861, and he was only twenty-seven years of age when his devotion to discovery led him to make an expedition on lines that were as courageous as they were original. Up to this date, 1888, the recognized method employed in Polar exploratory work had been to establish a base where stores were placed, and from this base to march as far as possible in various directions. But when Nansen determined to cross Greenland from east to west, he paid no attention to recognized methods. With five companions he, in June, 1888, was taken in the _Jason_ to the ice's edge on the east coast of Greenland, and there the explorers, hoping shortly to reach land, took to their boats. Some time, however, passed before they could make a landing, but eventually a suitable place was found, and then they began their great march. With no base to which they could return, the party had literally taken their lives into their hands, for failure almost certainly meant death. Starting on 22nd August, the party, four days later, had mounted to a height of 6,000 feet, and by the middle of September had reached the summit (8,250 feet). Eventually the explorers managed to reach the Danish settlement at Godthaab, and in the following year returned to Norway. It was a fine effort, fruitful alike in geographical discovery and in meteorological results; and, famous as Nansen's name subsequently and deservedly became, by no means his least claim to honour is derived from this great march across Greenland. Between 1892 and 1895 the American Lieutenant Peary, using dogs for purposes of traction, made two successful marches across Greenland, and so prepared himself for the attacks on the North Pole itself--attacks which he was ultimately to bring to a successful conclusion. The date 1893 will always be renowned in the history of Arctic exploration, for during that year Nansen embarked upon his remarkable voyage in his no less remarkable ship, the _Fram_. From careful observations and investigations Nansen was convinced that there was a continuous drift of ice from the north-east shore of Siberia across the Arctic Ocean. Hitherto, Arctic explorers had struggled hard to avoid being beset by ice. Far from following in their wake, it was Nansen's plan to get his vessel frozen in the pack, and then to drift towards the Pole. It would be untruthful to say that his plan was encouraged by the majority of Arctic experts, but Nansen was not the man to be dissuaded from any project which, after consideration, he had taken in hand. For such a voyage an especially constructed ship was necessary, and so Mr. Colin Archer was instructed to build a vessel specially designed to resist ice-pressure. The main object of Nansen and Archer was that "she should slip like an eel out of the embraces of the ice." Nansen calculated that the drift would take about three years, and he provisioned the _Fram_ for five years. On this historic voyage Nansen was accompanied by twelve other adventurous men. Sailing from Norway in July, 1893, the Kara Sea was crossed, and early in September Cape Chelyuskin was rounded. About a fortnight later the ship was frozen in, and the great drift began. During the next months the _Fram_ was given ample opportunity to prove her worth, and she seized it nobly. In October great pressure from the ice was experienced, but both then and later the ship resisted, and rose to, the pressure. During her first year in the ice the _Fram_ drifted a distance of 189 miles. During the second winter, Nansen, taking Frederik Johansen with him, and leaving Otto Sverdrup in charge of the ship, decided to leave the _Fram_ and try to reach the Pole. A start was made in March, 1895, and in less than a month 86° 28' N. was reached. At that point the explorers had to turn south, and after many perilous adventures, they landed, at the end of August, on an island of the Franz-Josef group. There they decided to winter, and there they had to remain for nine long months. When at last they were able to proceed, a grave disaster was only prevented by Nansen's promptitude and courage. The explorers were on shore, when Johansen noticed that their kayaks (Eskimo canoes of light wooden framework covered with seal skins) were adrift. The loss of these boats could scarcely have meant less than death to the explorers, and Nansen immediately jumped into the icy water and swam to retrieve them. It was an action as prompt as it was heroic, and it saved the situation; but Nansen's condition, when he brought back the kayaks to land, has been described as "more dead than alive," and some time passed before he fully recovered from the results of his effort. Some weeks later the kayaks were once more made as seaworthy as was possible under the circumstances, and Nansen and Johansen were again embarking on their adventurous voyage when, by good fortune, they were found by Frederick Jackson, the leader of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, which did such good work in Franz-Josef Land. This meeting between Nansen and Jackson has been compared with the famous one between Livingstone and Stanley, and even if the latter was the more dramatic, the former was as opportune, for there is no gainsaying that Nansen and his companion were in a most perilous position. In the meantime the drift of the _Fram_ under Sverdrup's able leadership continued, and she did not return to Norway until August, 1896. The results of the _Fram_ expedition were exceptionally important. "They threw," Sir Clements Markham wrote, "new light on the whole Arctic problem. Nansen lifted the veil, and his expedition was the most important in modern times. It was discovered that there was a deep-sea ocean to the north of Spitzbergen and Franz-Josef Land, extending beyond the Pole...." In 1897 a meeting was held in the Albert Hall in honour of Nansen, whose work, both geographically and scientifically, more than deserved the great welcome given to him in England. In an introduction to his _In the Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times_, Nansen quotes words from the old Norse chronicle, the _King's Mirror_, that are curiously illuminating:-- "If you wish to know what men seek in this land [the Arctic regions], or why men journey thither in so great danger of their lives, then it is the threefold nature of man that draws him thither. One part of him is emulation and desire of fame, for it is a man's nature to go where there is likelihood of great danger, and to make himself famous thereby. Another part is the desire of knowledge, for it is man's nature to wish to know and see those parts of which he has heard, and to find out whether they are as it was told him or not. The third part is the desire of gain, seeing that men seek after riches in every place where they learn that profit is to be had, even though there is great danger in it." And, indeed, it may well be admitted that the factors which have helped to make the modern world are mainly a desire for fame, a desire for knowledge, and a desire for riches; and woe betide the nation that forgets the first and second of these factors, and loses its soul in concentration upon the last of them. II During the years succeeding Nansen's expedition the desire to reach the North Pole itself took possession of the minds of many brave men. Bit by bit the Arctic regions had been mapped out; gradually the obstacles that maintained the Pole in its splendid isolation were being overcome. Some years were to pass before its mysteries were unveiled, but in those years there was an almost continuous effort to probe those mysteries. Nansen had discovered beyond any doubt that the Pole lay in an ice-covered sea, an inhospitable place enough; but this fact did not prevent explorers from wanting actually to locate it, and in 1900 the Duke of the Abruzzi tried to reach it by way of Franz-Josef Land. Owing to a frost-bitten hand, the Duke could not take part in the main journey of his expedition, and so Captain Cagni commanded it. The Pole withstood this effort, but Cagni did succeed in reaching 86° 33' N., and thus beat Nansen's record for "farthest north." Previous to the Abruzzi expedition, Robert Peary had launched his first great attack upon the Pole. This expedition lasted for four years--1898 to 1902--but Peary encountered such dense packs of ice, which blocked his way to the Polar Ocean, that he failed in his main object. Another attempt followed in 1906, and although this was not crowned with complete success, Peary made a world's record for "farthest north" by reaching 87° 6'. In this expedition he nearly lost his life, but he returned to America with the grim determination to make yet another attempt. Experience had been bought by Peary in abundance and at a great cost, and to this was added an energy that was remarkable even among Polar explorers. This third voyage to the Polar regions had, in the nature of things, to be his last. He was, when he set out upon it, fifty-three years of age, and although, after spending over twenty years in Arctic work, he had an experience that was invaluable, even experience cannot make an Arctic explorer forget that youth is also a great asset in the Polar regions. In May, 1908, Peary published his programme, the main features of which are worthy of record. He decided to use the same ship, the _Roosevelt_, which had taken him to the north in his 1906 expedition. His route was to be by way of Smith Sound; his winter quarters were to be at Cape Sheridan, or even nearer to the Pole if the ship could proceed farther; he intended to use sledges and Eskimo dogs for traction; and, lastly, he placed his confidence in Eskimos, the Arctic Highlanders, as the rank-and-file of his sledge parties. Most careful preparations were made for this expedition, and while Peary was making them he received much practical support, but also some suggestions that were not notably helpful. For instance, one cheerful crank invited him to become a "human cannon-ball"--some sort of machine was to be taken to the North, and then, when it was pointed towards the Pole, the inventor assured Peary that it would shoot him there in no time. The explorer did not see his way to accepting such an abrupt means of transit! When the _Roosevelt_ sailed on 17th July, 1908, she had twenty-two men on board, including Peary himself, Robert Bartlett, master of the _Roosevelt_, George Wardwell, Dr. Goodsell, Professor Marvin, Donald McMillan, George Borop, and Matthew Henson, Peary's negro assistant, who had accompanied him on many expeditions. When Peary's vast knowledge of the Polar regions is remembered, his remarks on the essentials required in an Arctic sledge journey must admittedly be valuable. "The essentials, and the only essentials," he writes, "needed in a serious Arctic sledge journey, no matter what the season, the temperature, or the duration of the journey--whether one month or six--are four: pemmican, tea, ship's biscuit, condensed milk."* And it is interesting to note that of these commodities he took 50,000 lbs. of pemmican, 10,000 lbs. of biscuit, 800 lbs. of tea, and 100 cases of condensed milk on this expedition. * Robert Peary's _The North Pole_ (Hodder and Stoughton). The _Roosevelt_ reached Cape York, Greenland, on 1st August, and there she said a temporary good-bye to the civilized world. There also Peary met the Eskimos, whose friendship he had gained by many and continuous acts of kindness. The Eskimos are, within their limits, a lovable and loyal people; their good qualities are those of nice children, their bad qualities those of mischievous children. "I have made it a point," Peary says, "to be firm with them, but to rule them by love and gratitude rather than by fear and threats. An Eskimo, like an Indian, never forgets a broken promise--nor a fulfilled one." These Eskimos live on the verge of starvation for many months in the year, but if they are not troubled by questions of morality in one sense of the word, they are at any rate ready to share what they have got in the way of food, or of means to obtain it, with those who are less fortunate than themselves. Religion, as we understand it, does not enter into their scheme of things, but they pay studious attention to spirits--especially to Tornarsuk, who is the devil himself, and consequently leader of all evil spirits. One can appreciate the childlikeness of people who will rip an old garment to shreds so that the devil may be prevented from wearing it! After leaving Cape York, Peary transferred himself for some days to the _Erik_, his auxiliary supply steamer, so that he could collect as many Eskimos and dogs as he required. By 11th August the _Erik_ reached Etah, and rejoined the _Roosevelt_. Finally, Peary selected 49 Eskimos and 246 dogs, and having transferred them to the _Roosevelt_, the explorers set out to fight their way through the 350 miles of ice-blocked water that separated Etah from Cape Sheridan. And the ice during that journey was in no gentle mood. So great were the risks that the ship might at any time be crushed, that the boats, fully equipped and provisioned, were always ready to be lowered at a moment's notice. A terrific battle with that uncompromising opponent, the ice, followed, but not until 30th August did the struggle reach its climax. On that day the ship was "kicked about by the floes as if she had been a football," and the pressure was so terrific that Peary decided to dynamite the ice. This operation was successful in relieving the situation, but some days passed before even the greatest optimist in the ship could consider her free from danger. But on 5th September the _Roosevelt_ managed to fight her way through to Cape Sheridan; and after a project to take her on to Porter Bay had been abandoned, the work of unloading her was begun, and with her lighter load Captain Bartlett proceeded to get her as near the shore as possible. The first stage on the way to the Pole was behind the explorers, and if the next stage was shorter in distance, it was no less important a part of the whole scheme. This second stage consisted of the transportation of supplies from Cape Sheridan to Cape Columbia, ninety miles north-west of the ship. Cape Columbia is the most northerly point of Grant Land, and from there Peary had determined to make his dash over the ice to the Pole. But to move an enormous quantity of supplies over such a distance was work that needed much thought and care, for in the first place some of Peary's companions were unused to driving sledges, and, secondly, neither the weather nor the track were likely to give them much assistance. These sledging parties on the way to Cape Columbia were soon organized, and, in addition, hunting parties were sent out, and a supply of fresh meat for the winter was obtained. "Imagine us," Peary wrote, "in our winter home on the _Roosevelt_ ... the ship held tight in her icy berth, a hundred and fifty yards from the shore, the ship and the surrounding world covered with snow, the wind creaking in the rigging, whistling and shrieking round the corners of the deck houses, the temperatures ranging from zero to sixty below, and the ice-pack in the channel outside groaning and complaining with the movement of the tides." In these words Peary gives us an excellent picture of the explorers' winter home--a home upon which the sun never shone for many months, but which, in spite of the darkness, was a home of unceasing industry and preparation. And among the innumerable activities that took place, none was more important than the task of attending to the dogs. Early in November, Peary had become anxious about these all-important factors of his expedition. Over fifty of them were already dead, and a few days later only 160 dogs out of the 245 with which he had arrived were left. A change of diet from whale to walrus meat put an end to these appalling losses; but Peary's anxiety until he discovered a way to prevent them can be easily imagined. For without any adequate supply of dogs he knew all too well that neither he nor any one else would ever reach the Pole. By the end of the autumn season snow igloos had been built on the track to Cape Columbia. We have the best authority--namely, Peary's--for saying that one of these snow-houses can be built by four good workmen in an hour. Into this shelter the traveller literally crawls, for the only means of entrance is a hole at the bottom of one side, and when the last man of the party has got in, this opening is closed up by a block of snow already cut for the purpose. Except for one most alarming experience, when in a terrific gale the ice made a stupendous attempt against the invading ship, the winter was spent rather with anxiety about the future than with worry about the present. No wonder that Peary speculated over what awaited him when he started upon his great march. After leaving Cape Columbia, over 400 miles separated him from his goal, and these miles had to be travelled over the ice of the Polar sea. "There is no land," he writes, "_between Cape Columbia and the North Pole, and no smooth and very little level ice._" But even ice through which the traveller must sometimes pick-axe his way is not the most serious impediment to those who would reach the Pole. The great obstacles--the ever-present source of anxiety--are the "leads" which constantly appear. These "leads" are really patches of open water, varying in extent, which the winds and tides cause in the ice's movement. For no reason that is apparent, these dangerous obstacles suddenly block the explorer's advance, and little can be done save to wait for them to remove themselves. These "leads" were to be Peary's greatest impediment in his march, and were destined to be fatal to one valued member of his party. The final attack on the Pole began on 15th February, 1909, when Bartlett, with a pioneer party, left the Roosevelt, and a week later Peary started on his way. At this time 7 members of the expedition, 19 Eskimos, 140 dogs, and 28 sledges, divided into various parties, were engaged in the great effort to reach the Pole. It was arranged that all of these parties should meet Peary at Cape Columbia on the last day of February; and on that day Bartlett and Borop started from the cape with advance parties. The duties of these advance parties were as onerous as they were important. For it was to Bartlett that Peary looked for a trail by which the main party could travel. On the second day's march, after Peary had left Cape Columbia and the land behind him, he met with his first open "lead," and a slight delay occurred. But on the following day this "lead" was covered with young ice, and Peary determined to cross it. "If the reader," he wrote, "will imagine crossing a river on a succession of gigantic shingles, one, two, or three deep, and all afloat and moving, he will perhaps form an idea of the uncertain surface over which we crossed this 'lead.' Such a passage is distinctly trying, as any moment may lose a sledge and its team, or plunge a member of the party into the icy water." And later on, when Borop was crossing an open crack, his dogs fell into the water, and the loss both of the dogs and the sledge with its invaluable load of provisions was only prevented by Borop's exceptional quickness and strength. The explorers had advanced nearly 50 miles from Cape Columbia, when they were held up by a big "lead," which refused most obstinately to cover itself with ice strong enough to bear the sledges. For a week this open water delayed the expedition, and Peary had good reason to wonder if his most careful preparation and organization were once more to miss the success that they deserved. On 11th March, however, the parties managed to cross the "lead," and on the march that followed they crossed the 84th parallel. When the explorers started on this journey, Peary did not announce how far each one of his companions was to accompany him on the march, and presently Dr. Goodsell and MacMillan, with Eskimos, sledges, and dogs, turned back. Then the main expedition consisted of 16 men, 12 sledges, and 100 dogs. On 19th March, Peary revealed the programme he intended to follow to Bartlett, Marvin, Borop, and Henson. First of all Borop was to turn back; five marches farther on Marvin was to go; and after another five marches Bartlett was to leave the Polar party, which would then consist of 6 men, 40 dogs, and 5 sledges. Unlike most programmes, this one of Peary's was faithfully carried out. Borop returned when 85° 23' was reached, and during the next days the explorers advanced so rapidly that they succeeded in passing both Nansen's and the Duke of the Abruzzi's record for farthest north. In turn, first Bartlett and then Marvin started upon the homeward track, and Peary was left with 4 Eskimos--Egingwah, Seegloo, Ootah, and Ooqueah--Henson, 5 sledges, and 40 dogs. Of these Eskimos, Ooqueah was the only one who had not been in any previous expedition; but all the same he was the most romantic of the party, because he was intent upon winning the rewards that would enable him to marry the girl of his choice. Glimmering before his eyes Ooqueah saw a whale-boat, a rifle, and other prizes which Peary had promised to those who went with him to the farthest point. Not for a moment was there any doubt about Ooqueah's keenness, for he was spurred on by two of the greatest incentives that any young man can have--a desire to be wealthy, and a desire to marry. Left alone with Henson and the Eskimos, Peary still had 133 nautical miles* to travel before he reached his goal. This distance he intended to cover in five marches, and, provided that the gales would leave him in peace and not open the "leads" of water, he had every hope of carrying out his intention. * A nautical mile is approximately 2,026 yards. Up to this stage in the march Peary had been whipper-in, but in the last stages he led the van. And during the concluding stages it must be admitted that fortune smiled upon the travellers. True, that in this almost breathless rush for the Pole "leads" were not entirely absent, but such as were encountered did not seriously delay the marches. As, however, Peary got nearer and nearer to the Pole, the fear that the prize might at the last moment be snatched away from him by an impassable "lead" was constantly with him. On 5th April the party reached 89° 25' N., and were within 35 miles of the Pole. So near, indeed, were they, that Peary writes: "By some strange shift of feeling the fear of the "leads" had fallen from me completely. I now felt that success was certain...." And his confidence was justified. On April 6, 1909, Peary, with his coloured assistant, Matthew Henson, and the four Eskimos, reached the Pole, and there the leader of this successful party wrote the following note;-- "90° N. Lat., North Pole, 6_th April_ 1909. "I have to-day hoisted the national ensign of the United States of America at this place, which my observations indicate to be the North Pole axis of the earth, and have formally taken possession of the entire region and adjacent, for and in the name of the President of the United States of America. I leave this record and United States flag in possession. "ROBERT E. PEARY, "United States Navy." The explorers spent thirty hours at the Pole, and then started upon the long journey back to the coast of Grant Land. By 23rd April, favoured by beautiful weather, the party had reached Cape Columbia; so favoured, indeed, had they been that Ootah remarked on their arrival that "the devil is asleep or having trouble with his wife, or we should never have come back so easily." On that same day Peary wrote in his diary: "I have got the North Pole out of my system after twenty-three years of effort, hard work, disappointments, hardships, privations, more or less suffering, and some risks." The joy of success, tremendous as it was, could not but be dimmed by the news that awaited Peary on his return to the ship. For Marvin had lost his life, on the return journey, in trying to cross some young and treacherous ice, and the loss of this gallant and able man illustrates all too sadly the "some risks" of which Peary wrote--risks which all explorers in greater or less measure have to run. As a conclusion to this chapter of adventure and determined effort, the words of that prince of explorers, Fridtjof Nansen, seem peculiarly appropriate. "From first to last," he wrote, "the history of Polar exploration is a single mighty manifestation of the power of the Unknown over the mind of man." IV THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (_Map_, p. 112.) Twenty-four centuries ago a line of Æschylus--"Egypt nurtured by the snow"--embodied a geographical theory which descended from Heaven knows what early folk-wandering. Aristotle with his _'aryuroun oros_, the Mountain of Silver from which the Nile flowed, continued the tradition in literature. Meantime Sabæan Arabs, trading along the east coast of Africa, and making expeditions to the interior, came back with stories of great inland seas and snow mountains near them. What they saw may have been only Kilimanjaro and Kenia, but the popular acceptance of their reports points to the earlier tale linking the snows with the Nile valley. Greek and Roman travellers spread the rumour, and presently it found its way, probably through Marinus of Tyre, into the pages of the geographer Ptolemy. Ptolemy had no doubt about these snows. He called them the Mountains of the Moon, and definitely fixed them as the source of the river of Egypt. For centuries after him the question slumbered, and men were too busied with creeds and conquests to think much of that fount of the Nile which Alexander the Great saw in his dreams. When the exploration of Equatoria began in last century the story revived, and the discovery of Kenia and Kilimanjaro seemed to have settled the matter. It was true that these mountains were a long way from the Nile watershed, but then Ptolemy had never enjoyed much of a reputation for accuracy. Still doubt remained in some minds, and explorers kept their eyes open for snow mountains which should actually feed the Nile, since, after all, so ancient a tradition had probably some ground of fact. Speke in 1861 thought he had discovered them in the chain of volcanoes between Lake Kivu and Lake Albert Edward, but these mountains held no snow. He received a hint, however, which might have led to success, for he heard from the Arabs of Unyamwezi of a strange mountain west of Lake Victoria, seldom visible, covered with white stuff, and so high and steep that no man could ascend it. In 1864 Sir Samuel Baker was within sight of Ruwenzori, and actually saw dim shapes looming through the haze, to which he gave the name of "Blue Mountains." In 1875 Stanley encamped for several days upon the eastern slopes, but he did not realize the greatness of the heights above him. He thought they were something like Elgon, and he christened them Mount Edwin Arnold (a name happily not continued); but he had no thought of snow or glacier, and he disbelieved the native stories of white stuff on the top. In 1876 Gordon's emissary, Gessi, recorded a strange apparition, "like snow mountains in the sky," which his men saw, but he seems to have considered it a hallucination. Stranger still, Emin Pasha lived for ten years on Lake Albert and never once saw the range--a fact which may be partly explained by his bad eyesight. Ruwenzori keeps its secret well. The mists from the Semliki valley shroud its base, and only on the clearest days, and for a very little time, can the traveller get such a prospect as Mr. Grogan got on his famous walk from the Cape to Cairo--"a purple mass, peak piled upon peak, black-streaked with forest, scored with ravine, and ever mounting till her castellated crags shoot their gleaming tops far into the violet heavens." The true discoverer was Stanley, who, in 1888, suddenly had a vision of the range from the south-west shore of Lake Albert. Every one remembers the famous passage:-- "While looking to the south-east and meditating upon the events of the last month, my eyes were directed by a boy to a mountain said to be covered with salt, and I saw a peculiar-shaped cloud of a most beautiful silver colour, which assumed the proportions and appearance of a vast mountain covered with snow. Following its form downward, I became struck with the deep blue-black colour of its base, and wondered if it portended another tornado; then as the sight descended to the gap between the eastern and western plateaus I became for the first time conscious that what I gazed upon was not the image or semblance of a vast mountain, but the solid substance of a real one, with its summit covered with snow.... It now dawned upon me that this must be Ruwenzori, which was said to be covered with a white metal or substance believed to be rock, as reported by Kavali's two slaves." Stanley had neither the time nor the equipment for mountain expeditions, though to the end of his life Ruwenzori remained for him a centre of romance. It was his "dear wish," as he told the Royal Geographical Society shortly before his death, that some lover of Alpine climbing would take the range in hand and explore it from top to bottom. In 1889 one of his companions, Lieutenant Stairs, made an attempt from the north-west, and reached a height of nearly 11,000 feet. Two years later Dr. Stuhlmann, a member of Emin's expedition, made a bold journey up the Butagu valley on the west, discovered the wonderful mountain vegetation, and nearly reached the snow level. In 1895 came Mr. Scott Elliot, who was primarily a botanist, but who, in spite of bad malaria, managed to struggle as far as 13,000 feet. Then followed troubles in Uganda, and it was not till 1900 that the work of exploration was resumed. To make the story clear, it is necessary to explain that the range runs practically north and south, and that about half-way it is cut into by two deep valleys--the Mobuku running to the east and the Butagu running to the Semliki on the west. Fort Portal at the northern end is the nearest station; and as from it the eastern side is the more accessible, it was natural that the Mobuku valley should be chosen as the best means of access. In 1900 Mr. Moore reached its head, and ascended the mountain called Kiyanja to the height of 14,900 feet. He had no sight of the range as a whole, but he believed this to be the highest peak, and put the summit at about 16,000 feet. In the same year Sir Harry Johnston followed this route. He ascended to the height of 14,828 feet on Kiyanja, and saw from the Mobuku valley a mountain to the north, which he named Duwoni. He came to the conclusion that the highest altitude of the range was not under 20,000 feet, and in this view he was followed by other travellers, like Mr. Wylde, Mr. Grogan, and Major Gibbons, none of whom, however, actually made ascents of any peak. The first serious mountaineering expedition was made in 1905 by Mr. Douglas Freshfield and Mr. A. L. Mumm, who suffered from such appalling weather that they had to give up the attempt. Being experienced mountaineers, however, they reached some valuable conclusions. From the plains they had a clear view of the tops, and ascertained that the mountain called Kiyanja at the head of the Mobuku valley was certainly lower than a twin-peaked snow mountain beyond it to the west. They also placed the extreme height of the range at no more than 18,000 feet. Meanwhile Lieutenant Behrens, of the Anglo-German Boundary Commission, had made an elaborate triangulation, and gave to the twin tops of the highest peak altitudes of 16,625 feet and 16,549 feet--measurements, let it be noted, which were only a few hundred feet out. One other expedition, which occupied the close of the same year and the beginning of 1906, deserves mention. Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston, of a British Museum party, found an old ice-axe in a hut (probably left by Mr. Freshfield), and, with a few yards of rotten rope, set off with a companion to climb Kiyanja. He reached a height of 16,379 feet, and also climbed a peak to the north, which he believed wrongly to be Duwoni, and which now very properly bears his name. The whole performance was a brilliant adventure, and Mr. Wollaston has published the story of his travels in a delightful book.* * _From Ruwenzori to the Congo_ (John Murray). Such was the position when, in April, 1906, the Duke of the Abruzzi and his party left Italy to solve once and for all the riddle of the mountains. The Duke was perhaps the greatest of living mountaineers. As a rock-climber his fame has filled the Alps, and no name is more honoured at Courmayeur or the Montanvert. He had led Polar expeditions, and had made the first ascent of the Alaskan Mount St. Elias. His experience, therefore, had made him not only a climber but an organizer of mountain travel. It was to this latter accomplishment that he owed his success, for Ruwenzori was not so much a climber's as a traveller's problem. The actual mountaineering is not hard, but to travel the long miles from Entebbe to the range, to cut a path through the dense jungles of the valleys, and to carry supplies and scientific apparatus to the high glacier camps, required an organizing talent of the first order. The Duke left no contingency unforeseen. He took with him four celebrated Courmayeur guides, and a staff of distinguished scientists, as well as Cav. Vittorio Sella, the greatest of living mountain photographers. So large was the expedition that two hundred and fifty native porters were required to carry stores from Entebbe to Fort Portal. It was not a bold personal adventure, like Mr. Wollaston's, but a carefully planned, scientific assault upon the mystery of Ruwenzori. The Duke did not only seek to ascend the highest peak, but to climb every summit, and map accurately every mountain, valley, and glacier. The story of the work has been officially written,* not indeed by the leader himself, who had no time to spare, but by his friend and former companion, Sir Filippo de Filippi. It is an admirable account, clear and yet picturesque, and it is illustrated by photographs and panoramas which have not often been equalled in mountaineering narratives. * _Ruwenzori; An Account of the Expedition of H.R.H. the Duke of the Abruzzi_ (London: Constable). The charm of the book is its strangeness. It tells of a kind of mountaineering to which the world can show no parallel. When Lhasa had been visited, Ruwenzori remained, with the gorges of the Brahmaputra, one of the few great geographical mysteries unveiled. Happily the unveiling has not killed the romance, for the truth is stranger than any forecast. If the Mountains of the Moon are lower than we had believed, they are far more wonderful. Here you have a range almost on the Equator, rising not from an upland, like Kilimanjaro, but from the "Albertine Depression," which is 600 or 700 feet below the average level of Uganda; a range of which the highest peaks are 1,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc, which is draped most days of the year in mist, and accessible from the plains only by deep-cut glens choked with strange trees and flowers. The altitude would in any case give every stage of climate from torrid to arctic, but the position on the Line adds something exotic even to familiar mountain sights, draping a glacier moraine with a tangle of monstrous growths, and swelling the homely Alpine flora into portents. The freakish spirit in Nature has been let loose, and she has set snowfields and rock _arêtes_ in the heart of a giant hothouse. [Illustration: The Peaks and Valleys of Ruwenzori. The Route to Ruwenzori.] The Duke of the Abruzzi was faced at the start with a deplorable absence of information. Even the season when the weather was most favourable was disputed. Mr. Freshfield, following Sir Harry Johnston's advice, tried November, and found a perpetual shower-bath. Warned by this experience, the Duke selected June and July for the attempt, and was fortunate enough to get sufficient clear days to complete his task, though he was repeatedly driven into camp by violent rain. Another matter in doubt was the best means of approach to the highest snows. The obvious route was the Mobuku valley, but by this time it was pretty clear that Kiyanja, the peak at its head, was not the highest, and it was possible that there might be no way out of the valley to the higher western summits. Still, it had been the old way of travellers, and since the alternative was the Butagu valley right on the other side of the range, the Duke chose to follow the steps of his predecessors. Just before Butiti he got his first sight of the snow, and made out that a double peak, which was certainly not Johnston's Duwoni, was clearly the loftiest. Duwoni came into view again in the lower Mobuku valley, and the sight, combined with the known locality of Kiyanja, enabled the expedition to take its bearings. Duwoni was seen through the opening of a large tributary valley, the Bujuku, which entered the Mobuku on the north side between the Portal Peaks. Now it had been clear from the lowlands that the highest snows were to the south of Duwoni, and must consequently lie between that peak and the Mobuku valley. The conclusion was that the Bujuku must lead to the foot of the highest summits, while the Mobuku could not. The discovery was the key of the whole geography of the range. But the Duke did not at once act upon it. He wisely decided to explore Kiyanja first; so, thinning out his caravan and leaving his heavier stores at the last native village, he with his party pushed up the Mobuku torrent. The Mobuku valley falls in stages from the glacier, and at the foot of each stage is a cliff face and a waterfall. The soil everywhere oozes moisture, and where an outcrop of rock or a mat of dead boughs does not give firmer going, it is knee-deep in black mud. The first stage is forest land--great conifers with masses of ferns and tree-ferns below, and above a tangle of creepers and flaming orchids. At the second terrace you come to the fringe of Alpine life. Here is the heath forest, of which let the narrative tell:-- "Trunks and boughs are entirely smothered in a thick layer of mosses which hang like waving beards from every spray, cushion and englobe every knot, curl and swell around each twig, deform every outline and obliterate every feature, till the trees are a mere mass of grotesque contortions, monstrous tumefactions of the discoloured leprous growth. No leaf is to be seen save on the very topmost twigs, yet the forest is dark owing to the dense network of trunks and branches. The soil disappears altogether under innumerable dead trunks, heaped one upon another in intricate piles, covered with mosses, viscous and slippery when exposed to the air; black, naked, and yet neither mildewed nor rotten where they have lain for years and years in deep holes. No forest can be grimmer and stranger than this. The vegetation seems primeval, of some period when forms were uncertain and provisory." But the third terrace is stranger still. There one is out of the forest and in an Alpine meadow between sheer cliffs, with far at the head the gorge of Bujongolo and the tongue of the glacier above it. But what an Alpine meadow!-- "The ground was carpeted with a deep layer of lycopodium and springy moss, and thickly dotted with big clumps of the papery flowers, pink, yellow, and silver white, of the helichrysum or everlasting, above which rose the tall columnar stalks of the lobelia, like funeral torches, beside huge branching groups of the monster senecio. The impression produced was beyond words to describe; the spectacle was too weird, too improbable, too unlike all familiar images, and upon the whole brooded the same grave deathly silence." It is a commonplace to say that in savage Africa man is surrounded by a fauna still primeval; but in these mountains the flora, too, is of an earlier world--that strange world which is embalmed in our coal seams. Under the veil of mist, among cliffs which lose themselves in the clouds, the traveller walks in an unearthly landscape, with the gaunt candelabra of the senecios, the flambeaus of the lobelias, and the uncanny blooms of the helichryse like decorations at some ghostly feast. The word "helichryse" calls up ridiculous Theocritean associations, as if the sunburnt little "creeping-gold" of Sicily were any kin to these African marvels! Our elders were wise when they named the range the Mountains of the Moon, for such things might well belong to some lunar gorge of Mr. Wells's imagination. Beyond Kiyanja the Duke found a little lake where a fire had raged and the senecios were charred and withered. It was a veritable Valley of Dry Bones. [Illustration: Ruwenzori from the Hill near Kaibo. (_By permission of Messrs. Arch. Constable & Co., Ltd._)] Bujongolo offered the expedition a stone-heap overhung by a cliff, and there the permanent camp was fixed. Among mildews and lichens and pallid mist and an everlasting drip of rain five weeks were passed with this unpromising spot as their base. The first business was to ascend Kiyanja. This gave little trouble, for the ridge was soon gained, and an easy _arête_ to the south led to the chief point. The height proved to be 15,988 feet, and the view from the summit settled the geography of the range and confirmed the Duke's theories. For it was now clear that the ridge at the head of the Mobuku was no part of the watershed of the chain, and that the Duwoni of Johnston was to the north, not of the Mobuku, but of the Bujuku. The highest summits stood over to the west, rising from the col at the head of the Bujuku valley. The Duke saw that they might also be reached by making a detour to the south of Kiyanja, and ascending a glen which is one of the high affluents of the Butagu, the great valley on the west side of the system. It may be convenient here to explain the main features of the range, giving them the new names which the expedition invented, and which are now adopted by geographers. Kiyanja became Mount Baker, and its highest point is called Edward Peak after the then King of England. Due south, across the Freshfield Pass, stands Mount Luigi di Savoia, a name given by the Royal Geographical Society and not by the Duke, who wished to christen it after Joseph Thomson the traveller. Due north from Mount Baker, and separated from it by the upper Bujuku valley, is Mount Speke (the Duwoni of Johnston), with its main summit called Vittorio Emanuele. West of the gap between Baker and Speke stands the highest summit of all, Mount Stanley, with its twin peaks Margherita and Alexandra. North of Mount Speke is Mount Emin, and east of the latter is Mount Gessi. Five of the great massifs cluster around the Bujuku valley, while the sixth, Mount Luigi di Savoia, stands by itself at the south end of the chain. The assault on Mount Stanley was delayed for some days by abominable weather. At last came a clear season, and the Duke with his guides crossed Freshfield Pass and ascended the valley at the back of Mount Baker. There they spent an evening, which showed what Ruwenzori could be like when clouds are absent. They found a little lake, embosomed in flowers, under the cliffs, and looking to the west they saw the sun set in crimson and gold over the great spaces of the Congo Forest. Next day they reached the col which bears the name of Scott Elliot, and encamped on one of the Mount Stanley glaciers at the height of 14,817 feet. At 7.30 on the following morning they reached the top of the first peak, Alexandra, 16,749 feet high. A short descent and a difficult piece of step-cutting through snow cornices took them to the summit of Margherita (16,815 feet), the highest point of the range:-- "They emerged from the mist into splendid clear sunlight. At their feet lay a sea of fog. An impenetrable layer of light ashy-white cloud-drift, stretching as far as the eye could reach, was drifting rapidly north-westward. From the immense moving surface emerged two fixed points, two pure white peaks sparkling in the sun with their myriad snow crystals. These were the two extreme summits of the highest peaks. The Duke of the Abruzzi named these summits Margherita and Alexandra, 'in order that, under the auspices of these two royal ladies, the memory of the two nations may be handed down to posterity--of Italy, whose name was the first to resound on these snows in a shout of victory, and of England, which in its marvellous colonial expansion carries civilization to the slopes of these remote mountains.' It was a thrilling moment when the little tricolor flag, given by H.M. Queen Margherita of Savoy, unfurled to the wind and sun the embroidered letters of its inspiring motto, 'Ardisci e Spera.'" The conquest of Mount Stanley was the culminating point of the expedition. After that, the topography being known, it only remained to ascend the four massifs of Speke, Emin, Gessi, and Luigi di Savoia. In addition, the Bujuku valley, with its tributary the Migusi, was thoroughly explored. The aim of the Duke being completeness, many of the peaks were ascended several times to verify the observations. There is an account of how from one peak in a sudden blink of fine weather the leader saw two portions of the expedition in different parts of the range moving about their allotted tasks. The result of this wise organization is that to-day the world knows every peak, glacier, and valley in Ruwenzori far more minutely than many habitable parts of the East African plateau. The expedition was not only a fine adventure, but a wonderful piece of solid and enduring scientific work. No Englishman will grudge that the honours of the pioneer fell to so brilliant a climber and so unwearied a traveller as the Duke of the Abruzzi. The Italian name has always stood high in mountaineering annals, and the Duke has long ago earned his place in that inner circle of fame which includes Mummery and Guido Rey, Moore and Zsigmondy. [Illustration: The Valley to the West of Mount Baker. (_By permission of Messrs. Arch. Constable & Co., Ltd._)] The riddle of equatorial snow has been solved, and there is nothing very startling in the answer. The upper part of the mountains has no marvels to show equal to the giant groundsels and lobelias and the forests of heath on the lower slopes. The glaciers are all small, without tributaries, as in Norway; and there are no real basins, but merely "a sort of glacier caps from which ice digitations flow down at divers points." All the same, the glacier formation is more respectable than Mr. Freshfield thought, for he saw only the small ice-stream at the head of the Mobuku, and was not aware of the much greater one from Mount Stanley which descends to the upper Bujuku valley. The limit of perpetual snow is about 14,600 feet. Mr. Freshfield was so struck by the small size of the Mobuku torrent where it issues from the glacier, and by its clearness, that he thought it must come from some underground spring rather than from a real melting of the ice. He maintained that tropical glaciers were consumed mainly by evaporation and only in a small degree by melting. The Duke has, however, made it clear that the glaciers of Ruwenzori are subject to the same conditions as those of the Alps, and that their streams are true glacier torrents. The limpidity of the water he ascribes to their almost complete immobility, which means that there is no grinding of the detritus in their beds. On the whole, the range offers no great scope for the energies of the mountaineer. The ice and snow work is easy, and even the huge cornices, such as are found on Margherita, are fairly safe for the climber, owing to the way in which they are propped by a forest of ice stalactites caused by the rapid melting of the snow. On the other hand, there is abundance of rock climbing of every degree of difficulty, for the mountains below the snow-line fall very sheer to the valleys. Luigi di Savoia, Emin, and Gessi are virtually rock peaks; an isolated summit, Mount Cagni, is wholly rock; and there are fine rock faces on Mount Baker and the Edward and Savoia Peaks of Mount Stanley. I doubt, however, if Ruwenzori will ever be a centre for the rock gymnast. The weather would damp the ardour of the most earnest _habitué_ of Chamonix or San Martino. A few hours of sunshine once a week are not enough in which to plan out routes up cliffs whose scale far exceeds the measure of the Alps. The Grepon or the Dru would have long remained virgin if their crags had been for ever slimy with moisture and draped in mist, and the climber had to descend to no comfortable Montanvert, but to a clammy tent among swamps and mildews. And yet those peaks remain almost the strangest of the world's wonders, and their ascent will always be one of the finest of human adventures. They are Mountains of the Moon rather than of this common earth. The first discoverers brought back tales which were scarcely credible--ice-peaks of Himalayan magnitude, soaring out of flame-coloured tropic jungles. For long mountaineers were consumed with curiosity as to what mysteries lay behind that veil of mist. For all they knew, equatorial snow might be difficult beyond the skill of man, and Ruwenzori the eternal and unapproachable goal of the adventurer's ambition. The truth is prosaic beside these imaginings. Any man who can afford the time and the money, who selects the right time of year, and is sound in wind and limb, can stand on the dome of Margherita. But the experience will still be unique, for these mountains have no fellows on the globe. There is a certain kinship between the tale of the first ascent of Mount McKinley in Alaska,* and that of the Duke of the Abruzzi. That gaunt icy peak is as unlike the ordinary snow mountain as Ruwenzori. The climb began from the glacier at a height of 1,000 feet, and 19,000 feet of snow and ice had to be surmounted. The Alaskan giant and the Mountains of the Moon stand at the opposite poles of climate, but both are alike in being outside the brotherhood of mountains. They are extravagances of Nature, moulded without regard to human needs. For mountains, when all has been said, belong to the habitable world. They are barriers between the settlements of man, and from their isolation the climber looks to the vineyards and cornlands and cities of the plains. An ice-peak near the Pole and a range veiled in the steaming mists of the Line are solitudes more retired and sanctuaries more inviolate. The common mountain-top lifts a man above the tumult of the lowlands, but these seem to carry him beyond the tumult of the world. * See Chapter VI. V THE SOUTH POLE THE SOUTH POLE (_Map_, p. 144.) I The imaginations of bold men were captured by the idea of Arctic exploration for centuries before the Antarctic was even thought of as a field for discovery. The Arctic regions have a history dating back to the days of King Alfred; the Antarctic can make no such boast as this, and it is true to say that attention was first drawn to the Far South by the map-makers. Much praise is due to the early map-makers; but as regards the Far South it must be admitted that they indulged in considerable guesswork. Ortelius, for instance, in his map of the world which was published in Antwerp in 1570, had the temerity to draw the coast of "Terra Australia nondum cognita" round the world as far north, in two places, as the Tropic of Capricorn. Hakluyt did, in 1599, omit the Southern continent from his celebrated map of the world, an abstinence on his part that deserves to be mentioned. But fictions, in spite of Hakluyt, continued to appear in later maps; and if they did nothing else, they were at least useful in directing the thoughts of navigators towards the Antarctic. Accident rather than design was, however, responsible for the first discoveries in the South. In 1520 Magellan found the strait which is known by his name, and during the sixteenth century what discoveries were made in the direction of the South were due to contrary winds. Owing to gales, Sir Francis Drake, in 1578, reached in latitude 56° S. "the uttermost part of the land towards the South Pole," and so, sadly against his will, made discoveries. And it was owing to what has happily been called "a discovery-causing gale" that some Dutch ships, which had set out in 1598 for the exciting but scarcely laudable purpose of plundering the coasts of Chile and Peru, were scattered in all directions. One of these ships, a mere baby of 18 tons, was driven to 64° S., and there her captain, Dirk Gerritsz, sighted "high land with mountains covered with snow, like the land of Norway." If proof of the universal ignorance of the South at the beginning of the seventeenth century is needed, we have the expedition of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Quiros was commissioned by the King of Spain, Philip III., to undertake a voyage for the purpose of annexing the South Polar continent; and after this annexation had been completed, he was commanded to convert the inhabitants to the true faith. It was an ambitious programme, and it was far indeed from being carried out. In fact, the result of the expedition was almost comical. Quiros discovered the largest island of the New Hebrides, and in the belief that it was part of the Southern continent, he not only annexed it, but also the South Pole itself, to the Crown of Spain! This expedition must be considered the first Antarctic expedition, but there is no denying that its results were more ludicrous than encouraging. Little progress was made during the seventeenth century in adding to the world's knowledge of the South, but in one way and another the map-makers received severe buffets. Towards the end of that century and the beginning of the next, some ships reached 62° S. and 63° S., and encountering great icebergs, gained knowledge that tended to disperse the idea of a huge continent, from which men could reap wealth and live in comfort while reaping it. In spite, however, of this waning belief in a fertile and populous Southern continent, several voyages were undertaken to look for it; but it is to be noted that the men who made these adventurous journeys were not in the least interested in exploration for exploration's sake. The reason why they made these expeditions was mainly because they hoped to enrich themselves. Not until the latter half of the eighteenth century was there any change in what may be called the spirit of exploration; and then, in 1764, the English Government issued instructions to Commodore Byron which clearly showed that the importance of discovery, for discovery's sake alone, was beginning to be realized. Science had been making progress, and the desire really to know, and no longer to guess at, the extent and nature of the world, perceptibly increased. Scientists, engaged solely on scientific work, accompanied both the expeditions of Marion and Kerguelen, and when Captain James Cook sailed in 1772 from Deptford, on what was the first British Antarctic expedition, he was also accompanied by scientists. The name of James Cook will always be given a place of honour among explorers, for, quite apart from the discoveries that he made, he set an example of courage in facing dangers and difficulties that can never be forgotten. He and all the earlier navigators, we must remember, had to undertake their voyages in ships that were totally unfit to encounter ice. And when this fact is realized, we are compelled to admire the pertinacity with which they carried out their work, and to recognize that the results of their efforts were, under the circumstances, magnificent. It has been well said that James Cook defined the Antarctic region and that James Ross discovered it; and, indeed, it would be difficult to overestimate the importance either of Cook's voyages or of those subsequently undertaken by Ross. January 17, 1773, was a red-letter day in the annals of exploration, for during its forenoon Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time. Icebergs and loose pack-ice were then surrounding him, but he pushed on until he sighted closely packed ice. In his opinion he might possibly have pushed his way through this ice, but in such a ship as the _Resolution_ (462 tons) he did not consider himself justified in making so dangerous an experiment. The latitude that he reached was 71° 10' S., longitude 106° 54' W. Cook's expedition returned to Portsmouth in July, 1775, and then the value of his voyage was recognized. He had made the circuit of the Southern ocean in a high latitude, and had for ever crushed the idea of a fertile and fruitful Southern continent. If land lay beyond the Antarctic Circle, Cook thought that it must consist of "countries condemned to everlasting rigidity by Nature, never to yield to the warmth of the sun, for whose wild and desolate aspect I find no words." Cook, in short, had revealed the limits of the habitable globe, and his accounts of what he had encountered in the Far South did not encourage men, who were anxious to find land in which fortunes could quickly be made, to think longingly of the Antarctic. After Cook's return no serious attempt at geographical discoveries in the South was made until the Russian Government, in 1819, sent an expedition, under Captain Bellingshausen, to the Southern seas. Bellingshausen's ambition was to rival Cook's feat of making the circuit of the Southern ocean in high latitude, and he achieved it. He was also the first explorer definitely to discover land within the Antarctic Circle. Two or three years later James Weddell, whose real business was sealing, reached a latitude of 74° 15' S., more than three degrees to the south of Cook's farthest point; and for nearly twenty years Weddell's record remained intact. During the first half of the nineteenth century the Southern seas became the scene of extensive sealing industries, and however much we may regret the wholesale slaughter that took place, we have to confess that some of these sealers made important geographical discoveries. Both Captain John Biscoe and Captain John Balleny were engaged in the Antarctic sealing trade, but they were fortunate enough to be employed by the firm of Enderby. Charles Enderby instructed his captains not to neglect geographical discovery, and his instructions were faithfully carried out. To the enterprise of Enderby, and to the courage and perseverance of his captains, we owe the discovery of Graham Land, Enderby Land, Kempe Island, and Sabrina Land. A French expedition under Captain D'Urville, and an American one under Captain Wilkes, followed in 1840. D'Urville, who encountered so many icebergs that he felt as if he was "in the narrow streets of a city of giants," sighted land in latitude 66° S., longitude 140° E., and named this coast Adélie Land. Wilkes also claimed to have discovered land; but of his claims one of our greatest explorers has written: "Had he been more circumspect in his reports of land, all would have agreed that his voyage was a fine performance." Two or three years before D'Urville and Wilkes set out upon their voyages, Colonel Sabine, at a meeting of the British Association, read a paper on the subject of terrestrial magnetism, and the result was that Polar exploration received a great incentive. By this time the importance of terrestrial magnetism in regard to the navigation of ships was admitted, and the Government was petitioned to send a naval expedition for the purpose of increasing our knowledge of this science in the South. A favourable reply was received from Lord Melbourne, and in 1839 Sir James Ross was appointed to command an expedition whose object was rather magnetic research than geographical discovery. Two old bomb vessels, the _Erebus_ (370 tons) and the _Terror_ (340 tons), were selected by Ross, and when their bows had been strengthened he had at his disposal the first vessels that could be navigated among the Southern pack-ice. A detailed account of Ross's achievements cannot be given, but of them Captain Scott wrote: "The high mountain ranges and the coastline of Victoria Land were laid down with comparative accuracy from Cape North in latitude 71 to Wood Bay in latitude 74, and their extension was indicated less definitely to McMurdo Bay in latitude 77½.... Few things could have looked more hopeless than an attack upon that ice-bound region which lay within the Antarctic Circle; yet out of this desolate prospect Ross wrested an open sea, a vast mountain region, a smoking volcano (Erebus), and a hundred problems of interest to the geographer."* * _The Voyage of the "Discovery"_ (John Murray), page 16. The highest latitude reached by Ross was 78° 10' S., and he described the huge wall of ice which he sighted there and named the Great Barrier, as a "mighty and wonderful object, far beyond anything we could have thought of or conceived." This Barrier was in later years found to be 400 miles wide, and of even greater length. Slowly, very slowly, the Far South was being compelled to reveal some of its secrets, but in spite of the interest and enthusiasm caused by Ross's discoveries, many years passed, after his return to England in 1843, before further steps were taken to make geographical discoveries in the Antarctic. But during this period, in which geographical enterprise languished, scientific research was being carried on. A great desire to increase the knowledge of the science of oceanography had sprung up, and as a practical outcome of the labours of scientists and inventors, the Challenger expedition, excellently equipped for scientific research, set out under the command of Captain Nares in January 1873. This expedition was in itself most important, but it is not belittling it to say that part of its value in the history of Antarctic exploration lies in the fact that it stimulated interest in the Far South, and this interest gradually increased until the wish to solve the mysteries of the South Polar regions became dominant in the minds of many men in England and Germany. In 1885 the British Association appointed an Antarctic Committee, and some two years later this Committee reported in favour of further exploration. Great difficulties, chiefly financial, had, however, to be faced by the supporters of this expedition, and a shrewd blow was received when the Board of Trade refused to recommend a grant of money because there were no trade returns from the Antarctic regions!--a reply that might produce a derisive smile from the most zealous of economists. For the moment the idea of Antarctic exploration had received a decided setback. But determined men were working to conquer the practical difficulties; and none more determined than Sir Clements Markham, who was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in May 1893. No sooner was it generally known that a real effort was being made in England to make further discoveries in Antarctica--as it was by this time called--than several other countries were stimulated at various dates to send out expeditions. Borchgrevink, a Norwegian, De Gerlache, a Belgian, Otto Nordenskiöld, a Swede, and Charcot, a Frenchman, led expeditions, all of which did valuable work in the South. II In November, 1893, a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society was held, and the duties of the projected British expedition were stated. The first duty was "to determine the nature and extent of the Antarctic continent;" the fifth was "to obtain as complete a series as possible of magnetic and meteorological observations." Such an expedition was intended both to encourage maritime enterprise and to add to the world's knowledge. From the outset the promoters had decided that their expedition should be under naval control, but the Government could not be persuaded to take charge of it. The Admiralty, however, assisted both with the loan of instruments and by granting leave to officers and men on full pay. Innumerable obstacles continued to hamper the promoters on every side, but they were slowly removed, and at last the ship was launched at Dundee in March, 1901, and christened the _Discovery_. Sir Clements Markham, fourteen years before, had, in his own mind, selected the fittest commander if an expedition to the South ever became practicable. The name of this commander was Robert Falcon Scott, and after much opposition had been overcome--opposition which Sir Clements described as "harder to force a way through than the most impenetrable of ice-packs"--Scott's appointment was confirmed. A great attack upon the Antarctic regions was about to be made, but it is worthy of record that in the instructions issued to Captain Scott no mention of the South Pole as an objective was made. By July the labour of preparation for the expedition was almost finished, and on August 5, 1901, the _Discovery_ was visited by King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra, and then started on her adventurous voyage. We can easily understand Scott's anxiety to be up and away, for he had no Polar experience to help and guide him, and his desire to justify the confidence placed in him must have been intense. In the _Discovery_, in addition to Scott himself, were several men whose names were destined to become famous in the history of Polar exploration. Ernest H. Shackleton was a second-lieutenant; Ernest A. Wilson was described as surgeon, artist, and vertebrate zoologist; Edgar Evans was a petty officer; Frank Wild and Thomas Crean were A.B.'s; William Lashley was a stoker. Surely the nucleus of a goodly company. Lyttelton, New Zealand, had been chosen for the headquarters of the expedition in the South, and the _Discovery_ arrived there on 30th November. She stayed for three weeks to re-fit and take in provisions, and then started upon the next stage of her eventful journey. The Antarctic Circle was crossed on 3rd January, and soon afterwards the pack was on all sides of the ship; but she behaved splendidly, and Scott was delighted with the way she forced herself through the ice. Scott's original intention had been that the _Discovery_ should not winter in the Antarctic, but that, having landed a party of men, she should return northward before the ice made such a journey impossible. A hut had been provided for this party, but in February a spot was found in McMurdo Sound in which it was thought that the ship would pass the winter in safety. Consequently Scott decided to use the _Discovery_ as his headquarters, and to utilize the hut for other purposes. The task of erecting the huts (in addition to the main hut there were two smaller ones for magnetic work) was difficult, but it was eventually accomplished, and the party began to settle down to spend the approaching winter. Before, however, the winter set in, Scott, knowing how ignorant he and his companions were of sledging, was anxious to gain as much experience as possible. And the result of the sledging expeditions that were made only showed how urgently this experience was needed. "Even at this time [early in March]," Scott wrote, "I was conscious how much there was to be learnt, and felt that we must buy our experience through many a discomfort; and on looking back I am only astonished that we bought that experience so cheaply, for clearly there were the elements of catastrophe as well as of discomfort in the disorganized condition in which our sledge-parties left the ship."* * _The Voyage of the "Discovery,"_ page 170. When the _Discovery_ was brought into McMurdo Sound there was good reason to suppose that she would soon be frozen in. But weeks passed before the sea became frozen, and until the ship was firmly fixed in the ice there was always a chance that she might be driven away by a gale and be unable to return. This uncertainty hampered operations for some time, and it was not until the last days of March, 1902, that the ship was satisfactorily frozen in. The sun departed at the end of April, and during the long winter that followed the party of explorers had much to occupy them and to discuss. Scott had taken dogs with him for sledging purposes, but although he knew that they must increase his radius of action, he always detested the idea of using them because of the suffering that must necessarily be caused. But the question of using dogs was only one of the many problems in connection with sledging that was debated during that Antarctic winter. In judging the journeys that followed in the spring, it is to be remembered that as far as the Antarctic regions are concerned they were pioneer efforts, and also that the conditions of Antarctic sledging differ considerably from those of the Arctic. In these journeys Scott and his companions were taught lessons that were afterwards of the greatest value to other explorers as well as to themselves--lessons that nothing except experience could teach. The journey that Scott, with Wilson, Shackleton, and several dogs, began on 2nd November with the object of pushing as far south as possible, was accompanied at the outset by a supporting party; but this party turned back by the 15th, and Scott, Wilson, and Shackleton had immediate cause to know how strenuous a task they had before them. The dogs were already causing anxiety, and were quite unable to do the work expected from them. Relay work, which meant that each mile had to be travelled three times, became the order of the day, and in consequence the advance towards the South was greatly hindered. Soon afterwards the men themselves began to suffer from blistered noses, cracked lips, and painful eyes; but on the 21st Scott took a meridian altitude, and found the latitude to be 80° 1'. In spite of all discomforts and anxieties, Scott was in a happy mood that night when he wrote: "All our charts of the Antarctic regions show a plain white circle beyond the eightieth parallel.... It has always been our ambition to get inside that white space, and now we are there the space can no longer be a blank; this compensates for a lot of trouble." [Illustration: South Polar Regions.] As the advance laboriously continued, the condition of the dogs, to Scott's poignant sorrow, went from bad to worse, and by 21st December the question of turning back had to be considered. At this time additional anxiety was caused by Shackleton, who was showing symptoms of scurvy; but Christmas Day was in sight, and as on that festival the travellers had decided to have a really satisfying meal, they resolved to push on farther. Their meal on Christmas Day put new life into the party; but they realized all too acutely that their food supplies were so inadequate that, if they were to continue the advance they must be prepared to face the risk of famine. There were, however, strong incentives to urge them on their way. Each day took them farther and farther into regions hitherto untrodden by the feet of men. Who can blame them for taking the risks that were involved in their determination to continue the march? But on 27th December, Wilson, whose industry in sketching and determination not to give in were beyond praise, was suffering so severely from snow-blindness that he had to march blindfold; and at last the decision to turn back had to be made. Observations taken at their last camp showed that they had reached between 82° 16' and 82° 17' S.--a finer record than Scott anticipated, after he had realized that the dogs were unable to fulfill the hopes placed in them. The return march was a prolonged period of suspense. By January 9, 1903, only four out of the nineteen dogs which had started on the journey were alive, and on the 15th the last of them had to be killed. "I think," Scott wrote, "we could all have wept." Even more serious was the fact that at this time Shackleton became seriously ill. A grim struggle followed, for although Shackleton showed unending courage he was suffering severely from scurvy, and Scott and Wilson, who were themselves attacked in a lesser degree by this disease, often had cause to wonder whether this return journey was not beyond their powers. It was with feelings of profound thankfulness that, at the beginning of February, Scott and his companions reached the ship. For ninety-three days they had been on the march, and during that time they had travelled 960 statute miles. When the explorers reached their goal they found that the relief ship, the _Morning_, had arrived, and Shackleton returned in her; but the _Discovery_, after being so reluctant to freeze firmly into the ice, refused entirely to thaw out, and consequently Scott and most of his original party spent a second winter in the Antarctic. During this additional year Scott, with Edgar Evans and Lashley as his companions, made a wonderful western journey, in which adventures enough to last ordinary men for a lifetime were almost part of the daily routine. Not until February, 1904, was the _Discovery_ freed from the ice, and on 10th September she reached Spithead after an absence from England of over three years. In those years a crop of most useful information had been gathered, and many geographical discoveries had been made. Among the latter were King Edward Land, Ross Island, and the Victoria Mountains, and--most important of all--the great ice-cap on which the South Pole is situated. Not for some years yet was the South Pole to reveal its secret, but Scott's first expedition may truthfully be said to have shown the way towards that revelation. In the years to come Amundsen frankly admitted how carefully he and his companions studied the accounts of Scott's and Shackleton's expeditions. III After Scott's return from his first visit to the Antarctic no further attempt was immediately made to visit the Far South. But that great explorer, Ernest Shackleton, had seen enough of the South to be gripped by the desire to solve more of its problems, and in the _Geographical Journal_ of March, 1907, he stated the programme of a proposed expedition. In this programme Shackleton said: "I do not intend to sacrifice the scientific utility of the expedition to a mere record-breaking journey, but say frankly, all the same, that one of my great efforts will be to reach the southern geographical Pole." The financial difficulties that seemed to be inseparable from Polar expeditions followed, but they were ultimately removed, and on July 30, 1907, the _Nimrod_ sailed for New Zealand. Bearing in mind the failure of the dogs in Scott's expedition, Shackleton decided to use Manchurian ponies as his principal means of traction. The utmost care was taken in preparing the equipment and in choosing the staff to accompany the expedition. Shackleton intended to land a shore party, and among this party were Frank Wild and Ernest Joyce (who had been with Scott), Douglas Mawson, Lieutenant J. B. Adams, Dr. E. Marshall, Raymond Priestley, and G. E. Marston. Before leaving England, Shackleton decided, if possible, to establish his winter quarters on King Edward VII. Land in preference to Scott's old quarters at Hut Point in McMurdo Sound; but he was unable to carry out this plan, and ultimately he landed close to Cape Royds on the east coast of Ross Island. On February 22, 1908, his ship, the _Nimrod_, started upon her journey to New Zealand. The winter quarters that had necessarily to be chosen were separated from Hut Point by some 20 miles of frozen ice, and Shackleton was greatly disappointed that he was prevented from landing on King Edward VII. Land, where he would not only have broken fresh ground, but would also have been considerably nearer to the Pole. In the light of subsequent events it is of interest to note that Shackleton, in his search for winter quarters off the Barrier, looked with eagerness upon a bay which he named "The Bay of Whales," but owing to the conditions of the ice he thought it necessary to leave this spot as quickly as possible. In another respect this expedition met with poor fortune--namely, in the loss of ponies. When the party settled down to spend the winter only four ponies were still alive, and it is no cause for wonder that they were watched with the closest attention. And as a Manchurian pony has been endowed with more than his fair share of original sin, he requires a very great deal of watching. Before the winter set in, an attempt was made to reach the top of Mount Erebus, and this attempt met with a success that acted as a tonic both to those who took part in it and to those who had remained in winter quarters. As soon as mid-winter day had passed, Shackleton began to make arrangements for the sledging work that had to be done in the approaching spring. Depots had to be laid in the direction of the South Pole, which was over 880 statute miles distant from Cape Royds. These preparations went on apace, and with a view to starting on the Southern march from the nearest possible point to the Pole, stores, etc., were transferred to Hut Point, and depots were also laid to help the travellers on their way. Adams, Marshall, and Wild were chosen to accompany Shackleton in this determined effort to reach the South Pole, and on 29th October they set out with the four ponies and the four sledges. By 3rd November they had left the sea-ice and were on the Barrier; but instead of finding a better surface they found it increasingly difficult. At the outset, however, the ponies did splendid work, though one of them, on 9th November, nearly disappeared into "a great fathomless chasm." At the time the travellers were in a nest of crevasses, and Adams's pony suddenly went down a crack. Fortunately, with help from Wild and Shackleton, the pony and the sledge were saved from falling into this abyss; but it was an alarming incident, for, as all the cooking gear and biscuits and a large portion of the oil were on this sledge, the loss of it would have been an irretrievable disaster to the Southern journey. The 26th November was a day to be remembered by Shackleton and his companions, for at night they found that they had reached latitude 82° 18' S., and so had passed Scott's "farthest south." On 1st December, latitude 83° 16' S. was reached, but by this time three of the ponies had been killed, and only one was left. A few days later this last pony disappeared down a crevasse, and nearly took Wild and the sledge with him. Serious as the loss of this gallant pony was, there was great cause for thankfulness that Wild and the sledge had almost miraculously been saved. Had the sledge gone, only two sleeping bags would have been left for the four men, and the equipment would have been so short that the explorers could scarcely have got back to winter quarters. Presently the travellers left the Barrier and attacked the great Beardmore Glacier which was between them and the plateau. On 9th December, 340 geographical miles lay between them and the Pole, and progress was painfully slow, for the surface consisted mainly of rotten ice through which their feet continually broke. A week later they had travelled over nearly 100 miles of crevassed ice, and had risen 6,000 feet; but the plateau which they so eagerly longed to reach still lay ahead of them. "Never," Shackleton wrote, "do I expect to meet anything more tantalizing than the plateau." Appalling surfaces, to walk on which Wild described as like walking over the glass roof of a station, continued after the plateau had been reached, and before Christmas arrived it was obvious, if the advance was to be continued, that absolute hunger, amounting almost to starvation, stared the explorers in the face. On the evening of New Year's Day, 1909, the Pole was only 172½ miles distant, but the men's strength was nearly exhausted. The thermometer remained obstinately below zero, and on 6th January there were over 50 degrees of frost, with a blizzard and drift. A last dash onwards followed, and on 9th January Shackleton and his party reached 88° 23' S., and left the Union Jack flying on the plateau. The attempt to reach the Pole had failed; but it was a gallant attempt, and the homeward marches that followed show clearly enough that to have advanced farther was beyond the powers of the men. Indeed, the return journey was a terrible experience--a grim struggle against starvation; and to add to the misery of it, dysentery--owing, in Shackleton's opinion, to eating diseased pony's meat--attacked each member of the party. All that was possible had been done, and had not the wind been behind the explorers during one of their acutest periods of suffering, it is improbable that they would ever have reached their winter quarters. While Shackleton was making his great march, a party, consisting of David, Mawson, and Mackay, had set out, with a view to determining the position of the south magnetic Pole. In this they were successful, the mean position of the magnetic Pole being marked down by Mawson as in latitude 72° 25' S., longitude 155° 16'. This was a great triumph for the explorers, and, needless to say, it was not gained without many perilous adventures and narrow escapes. In March, 1909, the _Nimrod_ returned safely to Lyttelton, New Zealand, where Shackleton and his men met with the warmest of welcomes. Once again the South Pole had resisted the attempt to locate it, but the time was drawing near for its mysteries to be disclosed. IV When, on September 13, 1909, Captain Scott published his plans for a British Antarctic expedition in the following year, Roald Amundsen was not thinking about the Far South. The _Fram_, it is true, was being prepared for a third voyage, but the Arctic was again to be her destination. Then, during the September of 1909 came the news that Peary had reached the North Pole. One of the great secrets of the world had been revealed; but another was still undiscovered, and Amundsen's thoughts were promptly turned from the Arctic to the Antarctic. For various reasons Amundsen did not announce his change of plans, and when the _Fram_ sailed in August, 1910, only a very few people knew where she was bound for. Not until the ship left Madeira did Amundsen announce his destination to the men who were accompanying him, and they received the news with joy. In two or three respects Amundsen's expedition differed considerably from Scott's new expedition. Amundsen, for instance, relied on dogs for his motive power; Scott relied on ponies. Then, again, Amundsen decided to make his winter headquarters off the Bay of Whales, which was a degree farther south than McMurdo Sound, where Scott wintered. Scott was to take the Beardmore Glacier as his route to the South Pole; Amundsen's plan, when he set out for the Pole, was to leave Scott's route alone and push straight south from his starting-place. "Our starting-point lay 350 geographical miles," Amundsen wrote, "from Scott's winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, so there could be no question of encroaching upon his sphere of action." Lastly, it must be mentioned that the Norwegians were as at home on ski as they were on their feet, while most of Scott's men were at their best only moderate performers upon ski. All went well with the _Fram_ on her voyage to the South. She crossed the Antarctic Circle on January 2, 1911, and twelve days later she was in the Bay of Whales. In landing on the Great Barrier, Amundsen knew that he was taking a considerable amount of risk, for there was no certainty that it was not afloat where he landed on it from the Bay of Whales. In Amundsen's opinion, however, the Barrier there rests "upon a good solid foundation, probably in the form of small islands, skerries, or shoals."* * Amundsen's _The South Pole_ (John Murray), Vol. I., page 49. And indeed the Barrier treated him well. The landing was performed with supreme ease, and enough seals were found to relieve any possible anxiety as to the supply of fresh meat. Penguins, those delightful birds which provide both humour and food for visitors to Antarctica, were not plentiful, and those that were seen were chiefly of the Adélie species. "Framheim," the hut in which the South Pole party were to live during the winter, was soon erected, and Amundsen found infinite satisfaction in the number of dogs which were safely landed. So far from losing dogs on the voyage, he had started with 97 and finished with 116, a most welcome addition. The _Fram_, leaving eight men to winter on shore, was due to sail in the middle of February upon an oceanographical cruise, but before leaving she received some unexpected visitors. On 4th February, Captain Scott's ship, the _Terra Nova_, with the party which had vainly hoped to land on King Edward VII. Land, came into the Bay of Whales. The news that Amundsen was safely established reached Scott on 22nd February, and he could not fail to be impressed by it. "One thing only," he wrote characteristically, "fixes itself definitely in my mind. The proper, as well as the wiser, course for us is to proceed exactly as though this had not happened; to go forward and do our best for the honour of the country without fear or panic. There is no doubt that Amundsen's plan is a very serious menace to ours. He has a shorter distance to the Pole by 60 miles. I never thought he could have got so many dogs safely to the ice. But above and beyond all, he can start his journey early in the season--an impossible condition with ponies."* Words that, in the light of future events, are more than ordinarily significant. * _The Voyages of Captain Scott_ (John Murray), page 259. Before the winter set in Amundsen determined to deposit food, etc., on the way to the Pole, and on 10th February he set out on his first journey with three men, three sledges, and eighteen dogs. This first trip upon the Barrier was full of exciting possibilities. Amundsen was without knowledge of the ground over which he had to travel, and he did not know whether the dogs would respond to the demands made upon them, or if his outfit would stand the severe test to which it was to be put. This was essentially a trial trip, and the travellers were naturally anxious that it should be successful. Eighty degrees South was reached, and in every respect save one Amundsen was satisfied with his journey. The only fly in his ointment was that time had been wasted in preparations before the party was ready to start in the mornings. But it was only a small fly, and Amundsen knew that with thought it could easily be removed. The dogs had responded so splendidly to the calls made upon them, that perhaps the most important question of all had been satisfactorily answered. More depot-laying expeditions followed, and before the winter closed around the explorers, they had placed three tons of supplies at depots in latitudes 80°, 81°, and 82° S. Amundsen and his men could, therefore, settle down for their period of waiting with justifiable hopes that the great spring march to the Pole would end in triumph. The winter was spent in paying attention to the minutest details of equipment, and the inhabitants of "Framheim" were kept gloriously busy and contented. But with the coming of spring Amundsen began to be impatient to be up and away on his great journey. Temperatures, however, remained very low--somewhere in the neighbourhood of -60° F.--and until they ceased "to grovel in the depths," no start could be made. With the beginning of September the temperatures began to improve, and Amundsen was determined to start as soon as he possibly could, arguing that he could turn round and come back if he found that he had started too soon. So on 8th September he did set out, and soon discovered that the dogs could not endure the intense cold. On the 11th the temperature was -67.9° F.; on the following day it was -61.6° F., with a breeze dead against the travellers. On reaching the 80° S. depot, Amundsen deposited more stores, and then returned to "Framheim." More than a month passed before the South Pole party was able to make another start, and it is of interest to note that, whereas Amundsen ultimately got off on 19th October, Scott was unable to start before 1st November. The South Pole party which set out from "Framheim" consisted of Amundsen, Hanssen, Wisting, Hassel, and Bjaaland, and they were accompanied by fifty-two dogs drawing four sledges. As an illustration of the dangers that lay between the explorers and the Pole, it is enough to say that on the first day's journey a terrible disaster was only avoided by a few inches. In the thick weather they had steered too far to the east, and almost fell into what Amundsen describes as "a yawning black abyss, large enough to have swallowed us all, and a little more." On the 21st Bjaaland's sledge sank down a crevasse, and had to be unloaded before it could be brought again to the surface. Wisting, with the Alpine rope fastened round him, went down and unloaded the sledge, and when he came up again and was asked if he was not glad to be out of such a position, he replied, "It was nice and warm down there." It is true that such events are far from unusual in the lives of Polar explorers, but Wisting's answer is worth quoting, because it is typical of the cheerful spirit shown by Amundsen's companions during the whole of the journey. In temperament they were admirably suited for the task that they had undertaken. With a view to landmarks on the return journey, Amundsen, rightly leaving nothing more to chance than he could help, decided to build snow-beacons. The first beacon was built in 80° 23' S., and altogether 150 beacons were erected, six feet in height. Up to 82° S. the course had already been travelled by depot-laying parties, but when, on 6th November, they left 82° S. behind them, their journey was absolutely into the unknown. At this time they were marching about 23 miles daily, and at this rate they advanced a degree in three days. On reaching 83° S., the explorers deposited provisions for five men and twelve dogs for four days, and depots were subsequently made at 84° S., and 85° S. It was from the latter depot that they decided to make what may, without exaggeration, be called their dash for the Pole. From their camp at 85° S., the distance to the Pole and back was 683 miles. After consideration Amundsen determined to take forward provisions, etc., for sixty days on the sledges, and depot the rest of the supplies and outfit. A weary ascent to the plateau lay before the explorers, and they started upon it on 17th November. Three days later they had reached the plateau, but although they were happy enough in having accomplished a long and dangerous climb, their first camp on the plateau was not one of happy memory. Grim work had to be done. Amundsen arrived on the plateau with forty-two dogs, but twenty-four of them had to be killed when the plateau was reached. It was a sacrifice that had to be made if the success of the expedition was to be considered; but no one can read Amundsen's account of it without recognizing how bitterly he and his companions regretted the necessity. This camp, not without reason, was called "The Butcher's Shop," and as both the men and dogs required rest before setting out on the final stages of their march, it had been decided to remain there for two days. The eighteen remaining dogs were divided into three teams, with six dogs in each team, and one sledge was left behind. But owing to the weather the explorers could not leave this hated "Butcher's Shop" until 25th November, and when they did set out again a blizzard was blowing. So tired, however, were they of waiting in such an inhospitable and gruesome spot, that all of them were eager to quit it--whatever the conditions of the weather might be. Fog subsequently impeded the party, and again and again Amundsen blessed the assistance that they received from ski. "I am not," he wrote, "giving too much credit to our excellent ski when I say that they not only played a very important part, but possibly the most important of all, on our journey to the South Pole. Many a time we traversed stretches of surface so cleft and disturbed that it would have been an impossibility to get over them on foot."* * _The South Pole_, Vol. II., page 89. The 7th December was a great day for the expedition, because during it they passed Shackleton's "farthest south," 88° 23' S. They proceeded for another two miles, and then determined to make their last depot. So important to them was this depot that they not only marked it at right angles to their course, but also by snow beacons at every two miles to the south. As the explorers approached the Pole, Amundsen, very naturally, was beset by nervousness. "Would he be there first?" was a question that kept on recurring in his mind. There was no cause to worry. Blessed by fine weather, he and his companions reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911, and the five of them together planted the pole from which the Norwegian flag flew. "Thus we plant thee, beloved flag, at the South Pole, and give to the plain on which it lies the name of King Haakon VII.'s Plateau." On this day Scott was still struggling on his great march to the same destination, which he reached in the third week of January. The calculations that Amundsen carried out at the South Pole gave its latitude as 89° 56' S. Amundsen had won the race, and with his victory had revealed one of the great secrets of the world. His success had been gained by strenuous labour, great courage, and infinite care. And if Britons connect Scott's name inseparably with the South Pole, and honour it as that of one of their heroes, they do not for a moment grudge Amundsen the honour due to him as one of the greatest explorers of all time. For Amundsen was the first to discover the South Pole, and no one wishes, or is likely, to forget it. The Norwegians reached the Pole with seventeen dogs, one of which had to be killed there, and they travelled back with two sledges, a team of eight dogs in each sledge. On his return journey Amundsen was fortunate enough to meet with favourable winds and weather, and the explorers arrived at "Framheim" on January 25, 1912, having travelled 1,860 miles in ninety-nine days. It was a glorious achievement, a great victory over conditions that are scarcely conceivable to any one unacquainted with the Antarctic or Arctic regions. V To pass from Amundsen's expedition to Scott's last expedition is to turn from one splendid exploit to another. Scott, as every one knows, was beaten in the actual race for the South Pole. But he and his friends reached their goal, and the tale of their struggle against misfortune after reaching it is one of the finest and most pathetic in the world. When Scott's intentions to lead another Antarctic expedition were known, no less than eight thousand applicants volunteered to go with him, and among this enormous number were several men whose names will for ever find a place in the history of Polar exploration. When the _Terra Nova_ sailed from Lyttelton, New Zealand, for the Antarctic regions, on November 29, 1910, she carried both ponies and dogs. Three motor-sledges, one of which was lost in landing, were also taken, and Scott, with his intense dislike for the cruelty inseparably connected with the use of animals for motive power, hoped that these sledges would do much to save the ponies and dogs. Owing to engine trouble these hopes were not realized, but in connection with them Sir Clements Markham has written: "Captain Scott was quite on the right tack, and, with more experience, his idea of Polar motors will hereafter be made feasible, a consummation which was very dear to his heart."* * _The Lands of Silence_ (John Murray), page 490. The _Terra Nova_ was by no means as fortunate as the _Discovery_ in making her way to the Antarctic. At the beginning of December she encountered a prolonged and terrific storm, and subsequently she had to fight her passage through some 370 miles of ice. Not until January 3, 1911, did she reach the Barrier, five miles east of Cape Crozier. Here Scott had hoped to make his winter quarters, but owing to the swell no landing could be made, and on the following day he decided to land at Cape Evans, 14 miles north of the _Discovery's_ winter quarters. Strenuous work followed, and in a few days everything necessary had been landed from the ship, the house was soon built, and the explorers were ready to start laying depots in preparation for the march to the Pole. On his first depot-laying journey Scott was accompanied by eleven men, eight ponies, and twenty-six dogs. He was more than a little doubtful about the dogs, but thought his ponies were bound to be a success. "They work," he wrote, "with such extraordinary steadiness.... The great drawback is the ease with which they sink into soft snow--they struggle pluckily, but it is trying to watch them." This depot-laying party reached latitude 79° 29' S., and there left over a ton of stores; consequently the name of One Ton Camp was bestowed upon it. On the return journey disasters happened that seriously affected the success of the expedition, for six out of the eight ponies were lost. "Everything out of joint with the loss of our ponies, but mercifully with all the party alive and well," is Scott's comment on this grave misfortune. Ten ponies still remained. During the winter Wilson, Bowers, and Cherry-Garrard started on June 27, 1911, upon their famous journey to Cape Crozier to visit the Emperor penguin rookery, and they did not return to Cape Evans until 1st August. During these weeks they had to fight against appallingly low temperatures. When, for instance, they started from Cape Evans, their three sleeping-bags weighed 52 lbs., but owing to the ice that had collected upon them these three bags weighed 118 lbs. when the travellers returned. Scott considered that no praise was too high for men who would face such weather during the Polar winter. With the beginning of August preparations for the great march went on apace, but it was not until 1st November that a start could be made from Cape Evans. Night-marching was decided upon, and the order of marching was at first settled by the speed of the ponies, for some of them were slow, some fairly fast, and some were "fliers." The motors, with E. R. Evans, Day, Lashley, and Hooper with them, had already started, and the dogs, under the control of Meares and Demetri, were to follow behind the last detachment of men and ponies. Very soon, however, the motor-party were in trouble, and this party had to abandon their machines and push on as a man-hauling party. By 15th November Scott reached One Ton Camp, and fears about the ponies began to take shape. At Camp 19 the explorers were within 150 miles of the Beardmore Glacier, but some of the ponies were beginning to fail, and at the next camp the first of them ("the gallant Jehu") had to be shot. From this camp it was arranged that Day and Hooper should turn back. At Camp 22 the Middle Barrier depot was made in latitude 81° 35', and then for some days the march was impeded by extraordinarily foul weather. Scott's desire was to take the ponies as far as the entrance to the Beardmore Glacier; but although, on 29th November, at Camp 5, they were only 70 miles from what he calls his "pony-goal," some of the willing animals were very tired. At Camp 29 six ponies were still left out of the ten which had started, but although the chances of getting through successfully to the glacier were good, the weather still remained as obstructive as possible. On 5th December a terrific fall of snow added to the anxieties of the explorers, who found themselves within 12 miles of the glacier, but hopelessly held up by such a violent and unexpected storm. It was natural enough for Scott to be anxious, for on 7th December the food that he had hoped only to use after the glacier was reached had to be begun on. Two days later, however, by marching under terrible conditions, the entrance to the glacier was gained, and then at Camp 31, which was called Shambles Camp, the last of the ponies were killed. On 9th December, Wilson wrote: "Nobby [Wilson's special pony] had all my biscuits last night and this morning, and by the time we camped I was just ravenously hungry. Thank God the horses are now all done with, and we begin the heavy work ourselves." At Camp 32 the Lower Glacier depot was built, and soon afterwards Meares and Demetri, with the dogs, turned back for home. At this time the parties were made up of-- Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Gates, and P. O. Evans. Sledge 2. E. Evans, Atkinson, Wright, and Lashley. Sledge 3. Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Crean, and Keohane. But by 21st December, in latitude 85° S., Scott had to send back four of these men, and Atkinson, Wright, Cherry-Garrard, and Keohane returned. The Upper Glacier depot was made, and the returning men took back a letter from Scott in which he wrote: "So here we are practically on the summit, and up to date in the provision line. We ought to get through." On New Year's Day, 1912, the party were within 170 miles of the Pole. Three Degree depot was made. Then in latitude 87° 32' S., Scott was compelled to send back E. B. Evans, Crean, and Lashley. When all of the men were so anxious to go on it was hard to have to part with any of them; but questions of food made it absolutely necessary that some of the party should return. The ages of the five men who marched on to the Pole were: Scott, forty-three years old; Wilson, thirty-nine; P. O. Evans, thirty-seven; Gates, thirty-two; and Bowers, twenty-eight. Again and again Scott expressed his admiration of his four companions: Wilson, "never wavering from start to finish"; Evans, "a giant worker"; Bowers, "a marvel--he is thoroughly enjoying himself"; Gates, "goes hard all the time." With such men Scott felt confident, in spite of terrible surfaces, of reaching the Pole. But as he approached it, fears that Amundsen had already arrived were constantly besetting him; and on 16th January, when within a few miles of the longed-for goal, there was no longer any doubt that the Norwegian party had won the race. Sledge and ski tracks and the traces of dogs were all too evident. Faced by such a grievous blow, not one of Scott's party could sleep that night, but on the day following they marched on some 14 miles and reached the Pole. "The Pole," Scott wrote, "yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected." It is impossible to conceive a greater blow, and when it is remembered that Scott and his four companions were already fatigued--if not completely exhausted--by their tremendous labours, it is easy to realize how heavily the disappointment hung on their minds. Nevertheless they had set out to reach the Pole, and they had reached it. All honour is due to them; and the fact that Amundsen had preceded them in no way diminished the glory of their achievement. The altitude of the Pole, as estimated by Scott, is about 9,500 feet. A cairn was built, and the Union Jack hoisted. And then on Thursday, 18th January, they turned their backs upon their goal, and began the long march that separated them from Cape Evans. Anxiety about food began at once--not until Three Degree depot was reached could it be lessened; and very soon anxiety at Evans's condition was added to the danger of the scarcity of food. On Wednesday, 31st January, the weary travellers reached the Three Degree depot, but by this time Evans had dislodged two finger-nails, and his general condition was very bad. Their next objective was the Upper Glacier depot, and on Monday night, 5th February, they were within from 25 to 30 miles of it; but so critical had the health of Evans become that Scott was desperately eager to get off the plateau. "Things," he wrote, "may mend for him [Evans] on the glacier, and his wounds get some respite under warmer conditions." On the evening of 7th February they reached the Upper Glacier depot, and then, after turning aside to collect geological specimens (which proved to be most valuable), they met with terrible surfaces and weather. On 14th February, with 30 miles still to go before the Lower Glacier depot was reached, Scott's anxiety about the condition of the party was acute. Indeed, poor Evans had almost reached the limit of human endurance, and during the night of 17th February he became unconscious, and died quietly at 12.30 a.m. It was a terrible experience for men, already supremely fatigued both in mind and body, to meet, and it was a sorrowful party which, on Sunday afternoon, arrived at Shambles Camp. There horse meat in plenty awaited them, and this gave them the renewal of strength that was sadly needed. For the moment the prospects of the explorers looked a little more hopeful, but from this point of their march they began to suffer from a lack of oil. When, at length, they succeeded in arriving at the Middle Barrier depot, on 2nd March, they found so little oil that it was scarcely enough, however economically used, to carry them on to the next depot, which was 71 miles distant. Another irretrievable disaster was the fact that Oates's feet were very badly frost-bitten. On 4th March, Scott wrote: "I don't know what I should do if Wilson and Bowers weren't so determinedly cheerful over things." And in all truth the position had become desperate. On the 7th, when still 16 miles short of Mount Hooper depot, Oates, though wonderfully brave, was in terrible pain. During the next day they arrived at Mount Hooper, but the shortage of oil was not relieved. Over 70 miles separated the exhausted travellers from One Ton Camp, and they struggled onwards with death staring them ever nearer and nearer in the face. With no helping wind, and bad surfaces, they could not advance more than six miles a day, and on the night of the 11th, Scott reckoned up the situation in these words: "We have seven days' food, and should be about 55 miles from One Ton Camp to-night; 6x7=42, leaving us 13 miles short of our distance, even if things get no worse." Unhappily, instead of any improvement in the situation, misfortunes became more and more plentiful. It was obvious that Oates was near the end, and on the morning of the 15th or 16th, when the blizzard was blowing, he walked out of the tent. "I am just going outside, and may be some time," were the last words he spoke to his companions in distress. "We knew," said Scott, who still continued to write his journal, "that poor Oates was walking to his death ... it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman." Oates sacrificed himself in the hope of helping the others, and no brave man ever performed a braver act. But his sacrifice was of no avail. Fortune had declared too strong a hand against the explorers for them to be able to resist it. By midday on 18th March, Scott, Wilson, and Bowers had struggled on to within 21 miles of One Ton depot, and during the afternoon of the following day they managed to advance another 10 miles. And then they made what was destined to be their last camp. The men themselves were in a pitiable condition, and blizzard following blizzard, they were utterly unable to march a step farther. On 29th March, Scott wrote: "Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece, and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot, _eleven miles_ away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift.... We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more." And then follows those pathetic words: "Last entry. For God's sake, look after our people." It was not until 30th October that Atkinson, on whom the leadership of the expedition had fallen, was able to take out a search party. And nearly a fortnight later the bodies of these three friends and explorers were found. No more fitting words could be found with which to conclude this chapter of great deeds than those which were left in the metal cylinder on the grave of these heroes:-- "November 12, 1912, latitude 79° 50' S. This cross and cairn are erected over the bodies of Captain Scott, C.V.O., R.N.; Doctor E. A. Wilson, M.B., B.C. (Cantab.); and Lieutenant H. R. Bowers, Royal Indian Marine. A slight token to perpetuate their successful and gallant attempt to reach the Pole. This they did on January 17, 1912, after the Norwegian expedition had already done so. Inclement weather, with lack of fuel, was the cause of their death. Also to commemorate their two gallant comrades, Captain L. E. G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who walked to his death in a blizzard to save his comrades, about 18 miles south of this position; also of Seaman Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. "The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord." VI MOUNT McKINLEY MOUNT McKINLEY (_Map_, p. 184.) The ascent of Ruwenzori unriddled the mystery of equatorial snows. There now remained the question of great peaks in the extreme North, where the mountaineering problems must obviously be very different from those found at a similar altitude in the temperate zones. Something had been done to solve the problem by the ascent of Mount St. Elias, in Alaska, on July 31, 1897. But Mount St. Elias was only just over 18,000 feet, and it was peculiarly accessible, for it lies close to the coast, on the borders of British and American territory. The eyes of explorers began to turn towards Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, which reached a height of 20,300 feet. Its latitude was 63° N., and so within 250 miles of the Arctic Circle. The nearest salt water, Cook Inlet, was 140 miles from the southern face as the crow flies. It was therefore almost unreachable, lying as it did in the midst of an unexplored wilderness and surrounded by a mighty glacier system. On the south these glaciers were drained by the Susitna River, with its tributaries the Yentna and the Chulitna, and on its northern face by the affluents of the Yukon. If the traveller attempted to reach it in summer he might find a difficult waterway up to the beginning of the glaciers, but then he had thirty miles of ice to cross before he reached the base, and over these he must transport everything on his back. In winter the journey might be made by dogs, but winter in those latitudes was scarcely the time to travel. Moreover, Mount McKinley, unlike the other great peaks in the world, rose from a low elevation. In the case of the South American and Himalayan peaks climbing does not begin until an altitude of at least 10,000 feet has been reached, and their line of perpetual snow is very high. It is possible, for example, to cover the 22,860 feet of Aconcagua without ever touching snow. But in Mount McKinley the snow-line was not much more than 2,500 feet, and there was something like 15,000 feet of climbing. Again, its position so far north did not permit the snows to melt properly in the summer, or to grow hard and pack. Its snowfall was so great that the snow never got into the condition which eases the path of the mountaineer. Finally--and this applied especially to a winter journey--it was situated in a land of desperate storms. The severest weather conditions ever recorded by the American Meteorological Bureau occurred at Mount Washington, which is only 6,000 feet above the sea, where the temperature was 40 degrees below zero and the wind 180 miles an hour. What might the climber expect 20,000 feet up in the sky, with nothing between him and the North Pole? The attempt on Mount McKinley, therefore, was not a thing to be lightly undertaken. It meant a journey to the remote Alaskan coast, and then some 200 miles through difficult and little known country before even the base was reached. What the climbing would be like no one could tell. The obvious route, as the map will show, was the Susitna River, by which, indeed, its first explorer, a young Princeton graduate called Dickey, had approached it in 1896. It was he who christened it Mount McKinley. He fell into an argument with another prospector who was a rabid champion of free silver, and after many weary days' dispute retaliated by naming the mountain after the champion of the gold standard. In 1903 an expedition, led by the too famous Dr. Cook, reached the base from the north, but failed to do any climbing. Then, in 1906, began the explorations of Professor Parker and Mr. Belmore Browne, who were destined six years later to be the conquerors of the peak. I The 1906 expedition may be roughly sketched, for, though it was a failure, it at least taught its leaders what routes were not possible. They started with pack-horses and a motor-boat, with the intention of trying the north-western face. They ascended the Yentna River, which enters the Susitna from the west, but found it impossible to cross the southern flanks of the Alaskan range. They then turned up the south side of the range, and reached the glacier out of which the Tokositna River flows. By this time their transport was in a precarious condition, and their horses could go no farther. They were within view of Mount McKinley, and saw not only the impossibility of the southern face, but the extraordinary difficulties of approaching even its base from that direction. They accordingly returned to the coast, where Dr. Cook left them, announcing that he intended to make one final desperate attempt on the mountain. [Illustration: Mount McKinley.] Presently Professor Parker and Mr. Belmore Browne heard, to their surprise, the rumour that Dr. Cook had succeeded. Knowing that the feat was impossible in so short a time, they disbelieved the tale, and stated their views publicly in New York. Then appeared Dr. Cook's notorious book; but before it was published he had departed for the Arctic regions. Geographical circles in America were torn with the controversy. A committee of the Explorers' Club investigated the question, but Dr. Cook refused to give evidence. Professor Parker and Mr. Belmore Browne were meantime busy with their own plans for another attempt. The 1910 expedition was again directed to the southern face. Their reasons were that for most of the journey to that face a water route was possible, and that if they failed there they believed they would be able to go on to the southern North-East ridge, which, from what they had heard and seen, they believed to be the most promising avenue of attack. They also wished to duplicate the photographs which Dr. Cook had published, and so prove or disprove his bona fides. Also, the northern side of the great mountain had been already fairly well mapped, but nothing had been done on the south side. The notion of a pack train was discarded, and all their energies were directed towards designing the right kind of boat in which to ascend the Susitna and its tributary the Chulitna till they reached the glaciers. The party consisted of eight, including a young man from Seattle, Mr. Merl La Voy, who was exceptionally fitted by Providence for the work of a pioneer. The present writer had many dealings with Mr. La Voy during the Great War, and can confidently say that he never met any one more intrepid, audacious, and resourceful. It was a summer-time expedition, and the party left Susitna station on the 26th May. The ascent of the two rivers was difficult and exciting enough, but they reached without misadventure the foot of the Tokositna tributary, where they established their base camp. This camp was thirty-seven and a half miles from Mount McKinley, and a few miles away was the terminal moraine of a great glacier, which they hoped would give them a roadway to the mountain. Up that glacier they would have to carry all their belongings on their backs. In Mr. Belmore Browne's narrative there is an interesting passage describing the process by which men are hardened to wilderness work. "The day's work consisted in travelling through brush, soft sand, swamps, and glacier streams for about ten hours. With the exception of one or two men, who put a biscuit in their pockets, we took no food with us. The day's work was in no way difficult, for we carried (during the preliminary reconnaissance) no loads; our condition from the _civilized standpoint_ was splendid; we were well-fed, sun-browned, and fairly hard--and yet we all came into camp _thoroughly tired out_. Two months after our adventures on Mount McKinley's ice flanks we came down through the same stretch of country. The snow, however, had melted, leaving dense thickets through which we had to chop our way; mosquitoes hung in clouds, and four of us ... were carrying packs running from 95 to 120 lbs. From the civilized standpoint _we were not well-fed_ and we did not look well--our eyes and cheeks were sunken and our bodies were worn down to bone and sinew; and yet we came into camp as fresh and happy as children, and after a bite to eat and a smoke we could have gone on cheerfully." It was no light task carrying an outfit of 1,200 lbs. over the thirty-seven and a half miles of glacier, a distance which by the actual route used was much farther. Most of the weight was in pemmican and alcohol for the stoves. The pemmican consisted of pulverized raw meat, mixed with sugar, raisins, currants, and tallow. Their principal drink was tea. On 11th June they had their last wood fire, and after that there was only the stove. The days were spent in sheer hard navvy labour, trudging along on snow-shoes under heavy packs, and trotting back for others. They had various misadventures. Frequent blizzards of wind and snow compelled them to shut up their tent fast at night, with the result that on one occasion they were nearly asphyxiated. On 27th June they reached the head of the main glacier, beyond which, through a narrow gorge, a secondary glacier descended from the mountains, Another glacier came down on their right, and here they achieved an interesting piece of detective work. At the top of it they saw some peaks which recalled an illustration in Dr. Cook's book. The illustration purported to be the summit of Mount McKinley, and showed on the left a rock shoulder which Dr. Cook described as a cliff of 8,000 feet. It was really a faked picture of the small peaks at the head of this glacier, miles and miles from the main mountain, and the cliff of 8,000 feet turned out only to rise 300 feet above the floor, and to be only 5,300 feet above sea-level. One legend at any rate had been dispelled for ever. Now began the patient relaying of provisions up the great gorge. It was desperately hard manual labour, their faces were burnt black by the glare of the sun, and every now and then there would be a slip into a crevasse, which only the highest good fortune saved from being a tragedy. After thirty-six days of hard travelling, they were at last within two miles of the base of the southern cliffs of Mount McKinley. They found themselves in a great ice basin, hemmed in by colossal precipices down which avalanches thundered. Before them rose the mountain, 15,000 feet of rock and ice. Their glasses showed them that the South-West ridge became utterly unclimbable after an altitude of about 15,000 feet. The southern North-East ridge looked more promising, and to this they turned their attention. In that Northern summer there was no dark. "The advance and retreat of the night shadows went on with scarcely a pause, and sometimes we would be uncertain whether the Alpine glow on the big mountain's icy crest was the light of the rising or the setting sun." They had now a short spell of rest from their toil; and as the mind of man on such occasions turns to food, they invented out of their scanty larder a new pudding. Here is the recipe. "First soak three broken hard-tack in snow-water until they are soft. Add 60 raisins and pemmican the size of 4½ eggs. Stir slowly but energetically until the mess is thoroughly amalgamated. Boil slowly over an alcohol stove, add three tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, and serve in a granite-ware cup." But between them and the North-East ridge lay a gigantic _serac_. For a day and a half they lay storm-bound under it, and then, on the morning of 11th July, tried to cut their way up the ice wall. It proved most difficult and dangerous work, and presently, owing to the diminishing provisions, they realized it was impossible. Again and again they attempted it, for only that way was there a road to the North-East ridges. But at last they had to give it up as hopeless, and turn their attention to the South-West _arête_. This, too, proved too hard for them. They laboured on under constant ice-falls and avalanches, and reached a height of 10,300 feet, where they had perforce to halt. During these days they saw some marvellous mountain scenery. "The whole of the great cliffs of the box-cañon appeared at first glance to be on fire. Unnumbered thousands of tons of soft snow were avalanching from the southern flanks of Mount McKinley on to the glacier floor 5,000 feet below. The snow fell so far that it was broken into heavy clouds that rolled downward like heavy waves. The force of the rolling mass was terrific, and as it struck the blue-green glacier mail it threw a great snow cloud that raced like a live thing for 500 feet; whirling in the wind the avalanche had caused, the white wall swept across the valley, and almost before we were aware of it we were struggling and choking in a blinding and stinging cloud of ice dust." They began their retreat, and their return to greenery and summer out of a hyperborean hell was like a man's recovery from a dangerous illness. Though the expedition failed, they were a merry party, for though every man was sunken-eyed and lean and hatchet-faced, he was in the pink of condition. It was nothing to them to carry a load of 120 lbs., which would have broken their backs in the first days. The party included men of diverse temperaments and multifarious attainments, and Mr. La Voy observed, "It is an education to travel with a bunch like ours; if anything should happen you can listen to a whole dictionary." In the end they came to their cache on the Chulitna, and they emptied it as children empty their Christmas stockings. "We were actually ravenous," says Mr. Belmore Browne, "and as jars of chow-chow, cans of maple-syrup, and tins of meat appeared we hugged them in our arms and danced delirious dances on the sand! One of the great truths of life that one learns to understand in the North is that it is well worth while to go without the things one wants, for the greater the sacrifice the greater the reward when the wish is consummated. I have eaten with all manner of hungry men, from the sun-browned riders of the sage to the bidarka-men of the Aleutians, and I have feasted joyously on 'seal-liver,' 'seagull-omelets,' and 'caribou spinach'; but never have I seen men eat more, or better food!" II As soon as the explorers returned to civilization they began to plan a third attempt. It was clear to them that the western and southern faces of the mountain were impracticable, and that their best chance was on the North-East ridge. This, however, could not be approached from the south; so it became their object to get in on the north side. Their explorations in 1910 had proved the difficulties of a summer trip, for loads had to be transported on men's backs over many miles of glacier. They therefore decided to make a winter expedition of it and to use Alaskan dog teams. The best route seemed to be up the Susitna and Chulitna rivers, and they hoped somewhere near the head of the Chulitna to find a pass in the Alaskan range which would take them round the north face of Mount McKinley. [Illustration: Mount McKinley: View of the Southern Approach. (_From the painting by Mr. Belmore Browne. By permission of Messrs. Putnam's Sons._)] In October, 1911, Mr. La Voy began to relay supplies up the Chulitna, the plan being for him to join Professor Parker and Mr. Belmore Browne at Susitna in February of 1912. As Cook Inlet is choked by ice during winter the travellers had to leave the steamer at Seward, and make a long and difficult overland journey by way of Glacier City and the Knik fjord to the Susitna River. There they found Mr. La Voy with the dog teams. He reported that he had taken the bulk of the outfit to a cache on the Chulitna, several miles beyond the mouth of the Tokositna. The journey up the Susitna, which was now a flat snow trail, went easily and pleasantly. When they reached the cache they found to their disgust that a wolverine, which is the arch-fiend of those northern wildernesses, had managed to break in, though it was placed for greater security on a platform of logs among the trees. The brute had destroyed a good deal of the dog-feed and bacon, and a new and expensive camera of Mr. La Voy's, which had been swung on the top of a 30-foot pole. The wolverine had climbed the pole, cut off the corners of the leather case, and gnawed its way into the camera! From the cache began a long system of relays, for it was impossible to carry all the equipment in one journey. There was now no trail, and a road had to be "broken" before each stage. The route lay up the Chulitna, and the travellers hoped to find some large stream coming down on their left which would indicate a gap in the Alaskan range. Any such gap would, of course, be filled with glaciers, the water from which must form a river. On the whole, winter travelling compared favourably with summer. The men used snow-shoes to break the trail, and after equipment had been transported for five miles, returned on the empty sleds for new loads. Winter had not killed all signs of wild life, though hunting was difficult, and the snow was dotted with the tracks of innumerable wild things. Even a finch was heard singing. Camping was perfectly comfortable, and in a tent with the stove lit and beds of green spruce prepared, the nights were warm and peaceful. At last, as the trees began to thin, they came to a point where the valley split and a great cañon turned north towards the range. Travel now became rougher, for the broad level flats gave way to snow-covered rapids and big drifts. As they advanced up the gorge a glacier was seen winding down from the centre of the mountains. One night Mr. Belmore Browne had an accident which might have proved serious. He went out to shoot an owl for food, and as the ejector of his little rifle had been removed the cartridge came back on his eye and just missed his right eyeball. It gave him an eerie feeling to see the friendly dogs lapping up the bloodstained snow. Shortly after he made a reconnaissance of twenty-five miles ahead, and found the glacier they had seen from afar off running like a great white road into the hills. The route seemed possible, but there were ugly ice precipices at the head which suggested that the crossing of the pass might not be easy. A second reconnaissance took him to the head of the glacier. At first no crossing could be discerned, but suddenly at the head of the right-hand basin the mountains broke away and he saw a smooth snow-field leading to the crest. He climbed to the top of it, and at first saw nothing but a sheer precipice. At length, however, he discovered on the right a gentle snow slope leading down into a great snow cup, and realized that the pass could be crossed. On 3rd April the main camp was pushed up to a height of 6,000 feet. Then came a delay from a blizzard, which confined the explorers for twenty-four hours to their tents. It was bitterly cold, and everything, including the alarm clock, froze stiff. They managed, however, to get a little fire with an empty pemmican case, and, with the stove, had a sort of party in the tent--men, dogs, and everything. The party was, however, unceremoniously broken up by one of the dogs backing into the stove, and filling the tent with a cloud of smoke from singed hair. Next morning they crossed the divide, partly shooting and partly lowering their belongings over the 1,000-feet drop into the hollow. They were no sooner across when another blizzard arrived, and they were storm-bound for thirty-six hours. But their spirits were high. For the time they were done with uphill climbs, and they saw that by crossing a low pass at the head of another glacier they could reach the great Muldrow Glacier, which had been known to the world since 1902. This glacier would take them into the very heart of the mountain. Without much difficulty they crossed the pass, and, descending to the Muldrow moraine, they realized with joy that they were on the northern side of the Alaskan range. It was now nearly the middle of April, and they found themselves in the kind of country that hunters dream of. There was a chance of fresh meat, and, to men who had been seventeen days on the ice, the hope of a change in their menu and the sight of vegetation were an intoxication. Mr. Belmore Browne went out one morning, and fell in with a herd of white sheep (_Ovis Dalli_). He secured three, and that night the camp feasted. "In cold weather," he writes, "one has a craving for fat, and in the wilderness one is less particular about the way meat is cooked. Our desire for fat was so intense that we tried eating the raw meat, and finding it good beyond words, we ate freely of the fresh mutton. I can easily understand now why savage tribes make a practice of eating uncooked flesh." The white sheep was not the only game. There was a special variety of caribou; there was the Alaskan moose; there was an occasional grizzly; and there were quantities of ptarmigan. The travellers showed the most sportsmanlike spirit in refraining from killing females or immature beasts. From the Muldrow Glacier they turned westward and struck the McKinley fork of the Kantishna River, which flows to the Yukon. Presently they were in timber country, and realized that they had crossed the Alaskan range "from wood to wood," and incidentally had added two new glacier systems to the map. After snow and ice and pemmican they had greenery and fresh meat, and, as they worked their way to the lowlands, the first flush of spring. Above all, they had the North-East ridges (of which there were three) above them to offer an apparently possible route to the summit. They saw a glacier running between the central and northern North-East ridges which they decided would be their road. Mr. Belmore Browne went out to prospect, and, climbing the head of a valley, found himself looking down upon the upper Muldrow Glacier, which he now realized was split in two by the central North-East ridge. He saw also that the northern branch of it gave a road to the very base of the central peak. A base camp was established on 24th April, and four days later began the chief reconnaissance. They took with them a dog team, and, for equipment, their mountain tent, instruments, alcohol lamps, and provisions of pemmican, chocolate, hard-tack, sugar, and raisins. The total outfit weighed about 600 lbs. They started at night, when the snow was in better condition, and found the northern branch of the Muldrow, which they called the McKinley Glacier, rising in steps like a huge staircase. Camp was pitched at the base of a serac between two great cliffs of solid blue ice. On 3rd May they reached the top of the serac at an altitude of 8,500 feet, after a very difficult journey. Mr. La Voy, who was leading, fell into a crevasse, and the strain on the rope pulled Mr. Belmore Browne to the very edge. Mr. La Voy, however, stuck on a ledge of ice, which eased the strain; without that ledge it may well be that the whole expedition would have ended in tragedy. Bit by bit they fought their way to the head of the glacier, suffering severely from the glare of the sun, though the temperature was only one degree above freezing. They had now attained an altitude of 11,000 feet, and saw a low col on the mountain ridge, where they decided to make a high camp. This would be about 12,000 feet high, which would leave them between 3,000 and 5,000 more feet to climb before they reached the basin between the north and south peaks. It was now time to send the dogs home; so, after caching their equipment, they started back for the base camp, which they reached on the evening of 8th May. Some pleasant days were spent at the base camp. When they left it the countryside had still been in the grip of winter, but now everywhere there were grass and flowers and running streams. So far they had managed well. They had crossed the Alaskan range early enough to find the snow in good condition for dog sledding, and they had cached 300 lbs. weight of mountain provisions at 11,000 feet. They could therefore afford to wait till the days lengthened before venturing on a final climb. Here is Mr. Belmore Browne's picture of the landscape:-- "The mountain country at the northern base of Mount McKinley is the most beautiful stretch of wilderness that I have ever seen, and I will never forget those wonderful days when I followed up the velvety valleys or clambered among the high rocky peaks as my fancy led me. In the late evening I have trotted downward through valleys that were so beautiful that I was forced against my will to lie down in the soft grass and drink in the wild beauty of the spot, although I knew that I would be late for supper, and that the stove would be cold. The mountains were bare of vegetation, with the exception of velvety carpets of green grass that swept downward from the snow-fields; in the centres of the cup-shaped hollows ran streams of crystal-clear water; as the sun sank lower and lower the hills would turn a darker blue, until the cold, clean air from the snow-fields would remind you that night was come and that camp was far away." [Illustration: The Summit of Mount McKinley. (_From photographs by Mr. Belmore Browne. By permission of Messrs. Putnam's Sons._)] The sight of big avalanches on Mount McKinley warned the explorers that great risks had to be faced. On the 5th day of June they started out for their final attack. Unfortunately the weather became very bad, and soon they were enveloped in a heavy snowstorm. Mr. La Voy had hurt his knee hunting, and the ascent through the seracs was for him very arduous. The nervous strain, too, was great, for they had to be perpetually on the outlook for avalanches. They feared that one might have buried their cache, and it was an immense relief when they reached the 11,000-feet point and saw the top of their sled sticking out of the snow. They now moved their supplies up to a camp on the col of the ridge at a height of 11,800 feet. On 19th June they made a reconnaissance, taking with them food for six days, and intending to climb up to the big basin between the two main peaks. They reached a height of 13,200 feet up a sensational _arête_, when Mr. La Voy's knee gave out and they were compelled to return. Three days later they made a camp on the ridge at 13,600 feet. It was a wild and most laborious journey, with a drop of 5,000 feet on the left and of 2,000 on the right. It would take them two hours of hard work to make 500 feet. Apart from the handicap of Mr. La Voy's knee, Mr. Belmore Browne's eyes were very bad. They now realized that they could not reach the summit with their food supply of six days' rations, and they were forced to change their plans, and go back for more food. They returned to the camp on the col and packed up ten days' rations. With tremendous difficulty they transported them up to a 15,000-feet camp on the ridge, where they were on the edge of the big glacier-filled basin between the two summits. All three found their health beginning to suffer. The pemmican proved to be impossible food, giving them all violent stomach pains, and they were forced to confine themselves to tea and hard-tack. The cold was intense, and inside the tent, with the alcohol stove burning and the warmth of three bodies, the temperature at 7.30 p.m. was five degrees below zero, and three hours later nineteen degrees below zero. "Despite elaborate precautions," says Mr. Belmore Browne, "I can say in all honesty that I did not have a single night's normal sleep above 15,000 feet on account of the cold." By this time their appearance was, as Mr. La Voy said, "sufficient to frighten children into the straight and narrow path." All were more or less snow-blind, burnt black, unshaven, with lips, noses, and hands swollen, cracked, and bleeding. On 27th June the packs were carried in relays to just under the last serac, which was the highest point in the big basin. The altitude was 16,615 feet. Their one comfort was that a snow-field seemed to lead easily up to the sky-line of the central North-East ridge, and that from there they saw what appeared to be a reasonable gradient to the final summit. On 28th June they rested and prepared for their last effort. They were now convinced that nothing could stop them except storm. The night was fine, and the weather promised well for the morrow. The summit appeared to them to be nearly flat with a slight hummocky rise, which must be the highest point in North America. On 29th June they left camp at 6 a.m., moving very quietly and steadily and conserving their strength. Mr. La Voy and Mr. Belmore Browne led alternately. Slowly they made their way up the snow slopes at the rate of about 400 feet an hour. At 18,500 feet they stopped and congratulated each other, for they had beaten the Duke of the Abruzzi's record on Mount St. Elias. Presently they were on the sky-line of the ridge, and looking down on the arena where they had struggled two years before. Now, for the first time, came a threat from the weather. The sky was clear to the north, but from the south a great sea of clouds rolled against the mountain like surf on a shore. As they moved up the ridge breathing became more difficult. At 19,000 feet they had passed the last rock, and were looking at the summit. It rose as innocently as a snow-covered tennis court, but now the wind was rising and the southern sky darkening, and just at the base of the last lift the gale broke. In a fierce scurry of snow they crawled up the round dome, Mr. La Voy leading and hacking steps. Then came Mr. Belmore Browne's turn, and he realized that his hands were freezing, and that the bitter wind was cutting through his flesh. He dare not get dry mittens from his rucksack lest his hands should be frozen during the change. When his second turn was three-fourths finished, Professor Parker's barometer registered 20,000 feet, and they were within 300 feet of the top. The rest was an evil dream. To each man the other two seemed to be lost in the ice mist, and the cold was freezing their marrow. The storm was growing fiercer, and as they topped a little rise its full fury burst upon them. The story must be given in Mr. Belmore Browne's own words:-- "The breath was driven from my body, and I held to my axe with stooped shoulders to stand against the gale; I could not go ahead. As I brushed the frost from my glasses and squinted upward through the stinging snow I saw a sight that will haunt me to my dying day. _The slope above me was no longer steep_! That was all I could see. What it meant I will never know for certain--all I can say is that we were close to the top!" There was no going on in the teeth of that gale. The three chopped a seat in the ice, trying to find a shelter; but they were not huddled there a second before they discovered they were freezing. There was nothing for it but to return, for the snow was obliterating their back trail. Dead tired and sick at heart they began the journey back, and found that the steps they had cut had disappeared. It took them nearly two hours to go down an easy slope of 1,000 feet. They reached the base of the dome, guiding themselves only by the direction of the wind, and at last at 7.35 p.m. crawled into their upper camp. All their apparel down to their underclothes was filled with ice. They were beaten by the wind, and by the wind only. On a conservative estimate its pace was fifty-five miles an hour, and the temperature fifteen degrees below zero. Otherwise they suffered little from the altitude. Mr. Belmore Browne was able to roll and smoke a cigarette between 18,000 and 19,000 feet. They spent a day in their tent, trying to thaw their clothes. Pemmican they could not touch, their chocolate was finished, and their food was tea, sugar, hardtack, and raisins. It was a cruel fate that they had lost ten days' rations in useless pemmican since leaving their 13,200-feet camp, and they had not only lost the food but carried useless weight. They made one more attempt on the summit, and reached the base of the final dome; but there another storm assailed them, and, after waiting an hour, they went back. There was now a real risk of being caught with insufficient food in a blizzard which would destroy life, and they made haste down the mountain. They had spent seven days above 15,000 feet, six days above 16,000 feet, and four days above 16,650 feet. As they descended their health improved, and at last they came off the glacier on to the moraine, and lay down on the bare earth. It was the first time for thirty days that they had lain on anything but snow and ice. They slept like logs till the afternoon, and when they awoke a warm wind was blowing up the pass, carrying with it the smell of grass and flowers. "Never can I forget," says Mr. Belmore Browne, "the flood of emotions that swept over me. Professor Parker and La Voy were equally affected by this first smell of the lowlands, and we were wet-eyed and chattered like children as we prepared our packs for the last stage of our journey." How dangerous was the climatic condition of the mountain may be judged from what happened on the evening of 6th July. From their camp in the foothills they saw the sky suddenly turn a sickly green. There came a deep rumbling from the Alaskan range, and as they looked the mountains melted into mist and the earth began to heave and roll. In front of them a boulder weighing 200 lbs. broke loose from the earth and moved. The surface of the hills seemed to open and the cracks to spout liquid mud. The whole range was wrapped in dust, and as it cleared they saw the peaks spouting avalanches. Had this earthquake overtaken them on the high ground all must have perished. III The story has always seemed to me one of the boldest and most patient adventures in the history of mountaineering. Slowly the travellers fought their way to the discovery of the only practical route. Mount McKinley was conquered, though they had failed to cover the hundred or so feet which would have given them the actual summit. They had blazed the path to the top and solved its mysteries. Only that maleficent blizzard at the last moment robbed them of the full fruit of six years' pioneering. Next year the actual summit was reached. The late Dr. Hudson Stuck, the Archdeacon of the Yukon, ever since he came to the country nine years before, had contemplated an attempt on the mountain. In the autumn of 1912 he sent on supplies by way of the Kantishna River to a point fifty miles from the base. In March, 1913, he and Mr. W. P. Karstens set out to reach the peak from the north. At their base camp, 4,000 feet up, they made a fresh supply of caribou pemmican which proved more satisfactory than that used by Professor Parker and Mr. Belmore Browne. The road taken was the same as that of their predecessors--up the Muldrow Glacier and then up the central North-East ridge. They found that the earthquake of 1912 had completely changed the character of that ridge, and instead of being a reasonable snow gradient, it had become a confused mass of rock and ice, most difficult to surmount. Bit by bit they forced their way up it till they reached the upper basin, and then, being favoured with clear, bright, still weather, they managed to attain the highest point, the southern summit. There had been a story of two miners, called McGonogall and Anderson, who had reached the top in 1910. Dr. Stuck discovered that the top they had reached was the lesser northern peak, for he saw the remains of their flagstaff. With this ascent the story of the conquest of Mount McKinley is complete.* * Dr. Stuck argued with much reason that the present name of the mountain is unsuitable, and that the Indian name "Denali"--which means "the Great One"--should be restored. It is to be feared that the suggestion comes too late in the day. Ever since the expedition of 1906 Mount McKinley has become too familiar a name in the Western Hemisphere to be readily changed for another. The story of the Parker-Browne expedition is contained in _The Conquest of Mount McKinley_ (New York, Putnams, 1913), and that of Dr. Stuck in _The Ascent of Denali_ (New York, Scribners, 1914). VII THE HOLY CITIES OF ISLAM THE HOLY CITIES OF ISLAM (_Map_, p. 216.) The "spell of far Arabia" has been a potent thing from the days when the Egyptians drew wealth from the spice-land of Punt, and Greek traders brought stories of the gums and jewels of Araby the Blessed. But ever since it became the Holy Land of Islam a veil of secrecy, other than that of its stern climate and inhospitable deserts, has descended upon it. It is one of the oldest of arenas of adventure, and it is still one of the least exploited; indeed, in its great Southern Desert it holds one of the few unriddled mysteries of the globe. Except for the semi-mythical Gregorio, who may be read of in Albuquerque's Commentaries, no one who did not profess the creed of Islam has entered its two Holy Cities and lived. But the greatest tale of Arabian exploration is not concerned with Mecca and Medina. It is to be found rather in the journeys of the English soldier Captain Sadlier in Nejd; of Sir Richard Burton in the land of Midian; of Wallin, who crossed the great Nafud sands; of William Gilford Palgrave, who may, or may not, have been an agent of Napoleon III.; and, above all, of Charles Montague Doughty, who, as an avowed Christian, explored the Northern Hedjaz, and in his _Arabia Deserta_ has written one of the foremost classics of travel in the English tongue. Compared with some of these wanderings, a visit to the Holy Cities was a simple matter, requiring only a firm nerve, a good knowledge of Arabic and of Mohammedan ritual, and a real or professed adherence to the creed of Islam. At the beginning of this century the list of Europeans who had entered Mecca and Medina was a long one. They were mostly renegades--French, English, Irish, Scottish, and Italian. In 1807 a certain Domingo Badia y Leblich of Cadiz, travelling as a Moslem prince called Ali Bey, and probably in the pay of Napoleon, entered Mecca in state; but he had become a genuine Mussulman. In 1815 one Thomas Keith, a deserter from the 72nd Highlanders, was Governor of Medina--surely one of the strangest posts ever held even by a Scot! The great European travellers like Burckhardt, Wallin, and Burton went to the Holy Cities in order that by attaining the rank and fame of a Hadji they might win an advantage for travelling in other Moslem lands. More than one of them has described minutely the interior of both Mecca and Medina and the ritual of the great ceremonies. The Holy Places, though few Western eyes had seen them, were sufficiently well known to the Western world. Their true unveiling may be said to have come about during the Great War, when Hussein, the Sherif of Mecca, fought as an ally with the British, and, as King of the Hedjaz, proclaimed his independence of Turkey. Yet one journey was taken just before the Great War which must rank by itself. It told the world nothing that was not known before; but it had the merit of giving a picture of Mecca and Medina under the latest conditions--a picture drawn with such vigour and in such detail that it may fairly claim to have revealed the Holy Cities in a new light to the ordinary man. Mr. A. J. B. Wavell greatly distinguished himself in command of Arab scouts in East Africa in the early part of the Great War, and was responsible for the brilliant affair at Gazi. In that campaign he gave his life for his country.* He had been at Winchester, and in 1908, when he made the plan for visiting Mecca, had been living for some time at Mombasa, where he had acquired Arabic and Swahili, and a considerable knowledge of Moslem customs. His motive was partly curiosity, partly, as he says, to accustom himself to Arab ways, with a view to further explorations in Arabia, and partly in order to obtain the useful prestige of a Hadji. He chose as his companions a certain Abdul Wahid, an Arab from Aleppo who was established in Berlin, and Masaudi, a Mombasa native. The three met at Marseilles on September 23, 1908. They started in good time, for though the pilgrimage was not to take place till the beginning of the following January, Mr. Wavell wanted to go first to Medina, and also to prepare himself by a preliminary discipline in Eastern life. He managed to secure a Turkish passport, which described him as one Ali bin Mohammed, aged twenty-five, a subject of Zanzibar on his way to Mecca. * He fell on January 8, 1916. The three found a vessel at Genoa which took them to Alexandria, where they managed, not without trouble, to get their medicine chest, pistols, and ammunition past the Customs. They then took passages on a Khedivial mail ship for Beyrout. Mr. Wavell had feared that the language difficulty would be serious, but he found it less formidable than he expected, since the dialects of Arabic are many. He explained to those who found imperfections in his accent that in Zanzibar the colloquial language was Swahili and that no one talked Arabic; and on the few occasions when he had to speak Swahili he inverted the story, announcing that, having been born in Muscat, his real language was Arabic. As Sir Richard Burton discovered in his own journey, it was rare indeed to find any one sufficiently well acquainted with both languages to find him out. Meantime he had changed at Alexandria into Arab clothes and shaved his head. [Illustration: Wavell's Journey to Mecca.] They reached Beyrout safely, and proceeded at once by rail to Damascus. As they did not propose to start for Medina for some weeks, they took rooms and settled down, devoting great attention to the various Moslem ceremonies, and picking up the right kind of phrases and quotations and greetings. It is on such small things that the efficacy of a disguise depends. "There are nearly as many white men at Mecca," Mr. Wavell writes in his account of his adventures,* "as there are men black or brown in colour. Syrian 'Arabs' not infrequently have fair hair and blue eyes, as likewise have some of the natives of the Holy Cities themselves. I was once asked what colour I stained myself for this journey. The question reveals the curious ignorance that lies at the bottom of the so-called race prejudice, of which some people are so proud. You might as well black yourself all over to play Hamlet!" * _A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca_, by A. J. B. Wavell (Constable, 1912). Abdul Wahid had brought letters of introduction to a local merchant, who was most hospitable, and supervised the preparations for the journey. They passed safely through the period of Ramadan, and so complete was Mr. Wavell's get-up, and so stalwart his Moslem respectability, that it was with some difficulty that he prevented a middle-aged lady and her two daughters from joining his party for the pilgrimage. He bought the "Ihram," the white robes which are required when entering Mecca, a full camp equipment, and a certain number of stores, and deposited his money with his merchant friend, who gave him two cheques on his agents, one at Medina and one at Mecca. He proposed to travel to Medina by the Hedjaz railway, a very different method from those used by earlier adventurers when aiming at Mecca. The third-class carriages were desperately crowded, and the train started to the accompaniment of gramophones--a modern invention which is very popular in the Hedjaz. On the way Mr. Wavell had a touch of malaria, and his fellow pilgrims showed him every kindness. Presently the train reached Medain Salih, the boundary of the Hedjaz, which no infidel is permitted to pass. On the fourth day the rocky hills opened, and through a gap appeared the minarets of the Prophet's mosque. They arrived at Medina in the middle of a battle, for the Turkish garrison had come to loggerheads with the neighbouring Bedawin, and the Holy City was more or less in a state of siege. The railway was spoiling trade for the neighbouring tribes, and they were demanding compensation, which Constantinople would not pay. Medina lies in an open plain some 3,000 feet above sea-level. To the south the country is open, but on the north and west, between five and ten miles distant, rise rocky mountains. The city, which has a population of some 30,000, lives entirely on the pilgrims, as an English watering-place lives on summer visitors. The pilgrims are classified by their lands of origin, and there are official guides, called Mutowifs, attached to each group. The first trouble arose from these guides. If Mr. Wavell went about with the Zanzibar Mutowifs he was certain to meet some one who knew him in Mombasa, even if he were not caught out in the language. So it was arranged that Abdul Wahid should profess to come from Bagdad, while Mr. Wavell passed as "a Derweish," and Masaudi as his slave. A "Derweish," which denotes properly a member of certain monastic orders, is a title occasionally assumed by pilgrims who do not wish to be identified with any particular nationality. Happily, at the station there were no Zanzibar guides, and the party were able to find rooms in a retired corner at the moderate rate of £2 a month. The landlord was an Abyssinian called Iman, a man of some private means, who had been captured as a child by Arab slavers and sold in Mecca. He proved a most useful friend to the party during their stay. So began a curious life of endless religious observations. Apart from the sacred places, which few European eyes had beheld, there was a perpetual interest in the study of the pilgrims. "A large caravan came in from Yembu, bringing crowds of Indians, Javanese, and Chinamen. Every Eastern race might be identified in the motley crowd, and every variety of costume, till the whole resembled nothing so much as a fancy dress ball. In the same line of prayer stand European Turks, with their frock coats and stick-up collars; Anatolians, with enormous trousers and fantastic weapons; Arabs from the West, who look as if they were arrayed for burial; the Bedou (Bedawin), with their spears and scimitars; and Indians, who, in spite of their being the richest class there, managed, as usual, to look the most unkempt and the least clean. Then, besides, were the Persians, Chinese, Javanese, Japanese, Malayans, a dozen different African races, Egyptians, Afghans, Baluchies, Swahilis, and 'Arabs' of every description." Representatives of half the races of the globe may be picked out in the mosque any day during the month before the pilgrimage. The behaviour of the pilgrims, who now saw with their own eyes the tomb of the Prophet, which from their childhood they had been taught to regard with awe, was a proof of the living reality of the Islamic faith. "Many burst into tears and frantically kissed the railings: I have seen Indians and Afghans fall down apparently unconscious. They seem to be much more affected here than before the Kaaba itself. At Mecca the feeling is of awe and reverence; here the personal element comes in. The onlooker might fancy that they were visiting the tomb of some dear friend, one whom they had actually known and been intimate with in his lifetime. With frantic interest they listen to their guides as they describe the surroundings. Here is the place where the Prophet prayed, the pulpit he preached from, the pillar against which he leant; there, looking to the mosque, is the window of Abu Bakar's house, where for long he stayed as a guest; and beyond is the little garden planted by his daughter Fatima." Moreover, there is no suggestion of infidel authority, the Moslem standards float over the town, Moslem cannon protect its gates, and no unbeliever may enter. But there are startling touches of modernity. In the shops you may buy European tinned goods and note advertisements of Cadbury's chocolates and Huntley and Palmer's biscuits! The party had brought introductions from Damascus and Abdul Wahid had made various friends, so they saw a good deal of society. The time was just after the rising of the Young Turks and the grant of the Constitution. Mr. Wavell, who was a staunch Tory, found to his disgust that every one talked parliamentarianism and Liberal principles. England and the English were everywhere in high favour because of our attitude in the recent quarrel with Austria over the annexation of Bosnia. "I am afraid I managed to give the impression that Zanzibar is a sadly backward state, or that I myself am peculiarly stupid. Not to know a word of any European language is to be held very ignorant, even in Medina. Most people of the class with whom I associated had at any rate a smattering of French, and sometimes of English too. I was careful never to know anything." Their stay in Medina was much enlivened by the Bedawin siege. Mr. Wavell tried to get enlisted in the defence force, and when that plan failed, succeeded in getting into a very warm corner just outside the gates. They visited like industrious tourists every possible place of interest, and few pilgrims can have spent a more enlightening three weeks. During the whole time they were never in real danger. They had, indeed, a scuffle with a Persian Mutowif, who would insist that Mr. Wavell was a Persian; but by vigorous bluffing they made him apologize, and afterwards employed him as a guide. Once only was there a hint of trouble. Masaudi, standing in the mosque one day before the noonday prayer, found himself face to face with five Mombasa Swahilis who knew him intimately, and, what was worse, knew Mr. Wavell. Masaudi showed remarkable gifts of mendacity. He said he had left Mr. Wavell in England, and having saved a little money thought the present was a good time to perform the pilgrimage. He was in Medina, he said, as a servant of some rich Egyptian pilgrims. As he walked back after prayer he dropped his string of beads. The Swahilis asked where his house was, and he promised to show it them; but half-way up the street he suddenly remembered the beads, bolted back, and lost himself in the crowd. The incident convinced Mr. Wavell that he had better start without delay for Mecca. Their plan was to go to the coast at Yembu, for which a caravan was starting at once. They arranged for three camels, one to carry a _shugduf_, which is a cross between a pannier and a howdah, and the other two for luggage; and they bought the necessary food. They took with them a Persian called Jaffa as cook, and his brother Ibrahim as general servant. The luggage was carried down to the big square where the caravan was parked, and where the travellers had to pass the night. That evening there occurred an untoward event. Mr. Wavell was going to a shop for some small purchase, when he met two Mutowifs who demanded to know his nationality. The Mutowifs, being a strict trades union, were convinced that he was defrauding the brotherhood. He took a high line and showed his pistol, and, fortunately, his late landlord came down the street at the moment and took his side. What might have been an ugly experience ended in a minor street brawl. [Illustration: View of Medina. (_By permission of Messrs. Arch. Constable & Co., Ltd._)] The journey to Yembu was little better than a nightmare. The fashionable road from Medina to Mecca is overland, or back to Damascus and so direct to Jiddah by the Suez Canal. Only poor people go by the Yembu route, which is supposed to be the most hazardous and the roughest in the Hedjaz. There were no escort or police arrangements, no daily market, and each traveller had to carry his own provisions and water. The Bedawin hired out the camels, which numbered about 5,000, and a Bedawi sheikh was in charge. The countryside was infested by robbers who constantly cut off stragglers. The ground, too, was difficult going, being a rough mountain-land, and, while the noons were scorching, the nights were bitterly cold. Every night an encampment was made, roughly circular in shape, into which the whole caravan was packed in the smallest possible space. "While I was trying to get warm a man stumbled against me and nearly knocked me into the fire. Turning round, I was shocked to see a figure, stained almost from head to foot with blood from a tremendous gash in the head, obviously a sword cut. He asked for water, and I went into the tent to get him some, but returning, found him gone. We heard the next day that no less than six men had been murdered that night and many others wounded; and so it went on till we reached Yembu. These unfortunates were mostly people who could not afford camels, and so had to perform the journey on foot. Straying from the main body in search of firewood they got picked up by the marauders hanging on the flanks, who seized every opportunity to plunder such stragglers of their miserable possessions, and killed unhesitatingly any who resisted." It was in this country that Charles Doughty spent part of his time, and Mr. Wavell thinks that one reason of his success was that he carried nothing worth stealing. The fact that Doughty denied neither his religion nor his nationality seemed to him not the most remarkable fact about the achievement. "The Bedou themselves are not fanatical on these points, and he did not attempt to enter the forbidden cities. Of course, the fact of a stranger being a Christian is always a good excuse for knocking him on the head; but failing it they will soon find another if they want to do so, and will be quite uninfluenced by it if they don't." They had one row with their camel man, Saad, who tried to extort bakhsheesh. Suddenly he quieted down, and became all politeness to the end of the journey. The reason for this was that that resourceful liar Ibrahim had told him that Mr. Wavell was a nephew of the Governor of Yembu. This story served the travellers well. It spread through the caravan, and many of the pilgrims who were being blackmailed by their camel-men came to him and begged his protection, and received it. At last, on the dawn of the sixth day, after trekking without a stop for the last twenty hours, they reached the gates of Yembu. Here they were delayed some time, owing to the fact that the pilgrim ship to take them to Jiddah--an old Greek vessel chartered by a syndicate of Persians--would not start till its owners considered that sufficient pilgrims had arrived. Abdul Wahid now became the popular leader. At the head of a mob of passengers he seized the Persians and carried them off to the Governor. Mounted on a pile of sugar bags he delivered an impassioned address, concluding with "We had better be dealing with Christians than Moslems, who cheat their brethren in this fashion." "Murmurs of protest," says Mr. Wavell, "deprecated this revolting comparison. We all thought he was going a little too far." The Persians finally capitulated, and the ship got under way. But there came one last _contretemps_. A party of Megribi Arabs had passed the quarantine and were half-way out to the ship when one of them died. The shore authorities refused to let them land again and the Persians declined to take the corpse aboard. The Arabs could not throw it into the sea because there were certain ceremonial washings to be performed and certain prayers to be said. An Egyptian lawyer on board gave it as his opinion that the man, having taken his ticket, was entitled to his passage, dead or alive, there being no saving clause in the contract. Finally the Megribis got sick of arguing, swarmed over the bulwarks, and hoisted up their departed comrade. Their fierce faces and long knives settled the point of law. At half-past four in the afternoon the syren blew to announce that the pilgrims were within that latitude where they must exchange their ordinary clothes for the Ihram--the garb which has to be worn by all travellers who attain a certain distance from Mecca. The costume consists of two white bath towels, one worn round the loins and the other over the shoulders. The head is unprotected, but deaths from sunstroke are singularly few. The costume is not becoming, especially in the case of a fat man. "A party of elderly European Turks close to us looked peculiarly ludicrous, their appearance suggesting members of the Athenæum Club suddenly evicted from a Turkish bath." The party remained four days at Jiddah, visiting among other places the tomb of Eve, who apparently was about a quarter of a mile in height, so it was a tiring business to make the necessary perambulation of her sepulchre. Owing to their behaviour at Yembu they had acquired much kudos among the pilgrims and had no difficulties during their stay. The only anxiety was about the Mombasa Swahilis, and also about a certain Mombasa sheikh who knew Mr. Wavell and was proposing to go to Mecca that year. As neither sheikh nor Swahilis arrived, they decided to risk it and go on to Mecca, after Mr. Wavell had left a letter for the sheikh requesting him to hold his tongue. They found a Mutowif who was a local agent of one of the principal Mecca guides, to whom he wrote recommending them. They never intended to employ this guide, but the recommendation gave them an excuse to refuse to employ others. Having taken every precaution they could think of, they prepared for the last stage of the journey. "Abdul Wahid made a vow that if he returned safely he would present three dollars to the poor of Jiddah. We told him we thought he was asking the Almighty to do it too cheaply and that he had much better make it a sovereign. To our disgust, when he did get back, he utterly declined to disgorge the promised sum." The journey from Jiddah to Mecca can be performed in a day, for it is only some forty miles. The road is protected by a line of blockhouses, every mile or so there is a restaurant or a booth for refreshment, and all day long during the pilgrimage season there is a continuous caravan. A strange silence broods over everything. There is no shouting or singing or firing of guns, and the camels move over the deep soft sand with scarcely a sound, for to the Moslem it is the approach to the holy of holies. "To him it is a place hardly belonging to this world, overshadowed like the Tabernacle of old by the almost tangible presence of the deity. Five times daily throughout his life has he turned his face towards this city, whose mysteries he is now about to view with his own eyes. Moreover, according to the common belief, pilgrimage brings certain responsibilities and even perils along with its manifold blessings. Good deeds in Mecca count many thousand times their value elsewhere, but sin that is committed there will reap its reward in hell." Mr. Wavell and his companions, decently but simply clad in their bath towels, approached the city repeating the ceremonial prayers. To one which began, "O Lord, Who hast brought me in safety to this place, do Thou bring me safely out again," he said a fervid "Amen." Mecca lies in a deep-cut hollow of the hills, and is not visible till travellers are at its gates. Presently they found themselves in the great square which contains the Kaaba, the black covering of which is in startling contrast with the dazzling white marble of the pavement. The Kaaba itself is a cube about forty feet square, built of granite blocks, and let into the wall is a great black stone. This stone is believed to have fallen from heaven, which it probably did, as it is clearly a meteorite. Barefooted, the little party moved round it the requisite seven times, chanting the proper prayers. Then a small circular patch of hair was shaved from their heads, and the first part of the ceremony was over. Mecca was then under the semi-independent rule of Sherif Hussein, and, on the whole, seemed to be well governed; but the problem of the municipal authorities in looking after the vast crowd of pilgrims was no easy one. As at Medina, every race on earth was represented there. Mr. Wavell was most struck by the Javanese, who were present in great numbers, for there was then a strong Islamic revival in the Far East. The party found comfortable lodgings in a quiet street, and, as at Medina, went much into society, owing to the wide acquaintance of Abdul Wahid. Mecca is one of the few places remaining where there is an open slave-market, and female slaves may be bought for prices ranging from £20 to £100, though Georgians and Circassians fetch more. Masaudi discovered an acquaintance in a boy called Kepi from Mombasa, whose father had died on the pilgrimage, and was now left destitute. Kepi was accordingly attached to the party. Mr. Wavell heard the good news that the Mombasa sheikh, whose coming he had been warned of, had now written saying that he would not arrive that year. [Illustration: View of Mecca. (_By permission of Messrs. Arch. Constable & Co., Ltd._)] The time passed pleasantly in sight-seeing and giving and receiving hospitality. Mr. Wavell gave one dinner to no less than twelve guests, which, since he had an excellent cook, was very successful. There are few more curious incidents in the literature of travel than this party given by a disguised Christian in the Moslem holy of holies to a company which included Arabs from Bussorah and Mecca, two Persian merchants, and a Turkish officer from the Bagdad Corps. Most Western luxuries can be obtained in Mecca, including ice cream, which, according to Mr. Wavell, is a frozen mixture of tinned milk, dirty water, and cholera germs! Alcoholic liquor can also be got if you know where to go for it. The great festival was now approaching. A white linen band was fastened round the black covering of the Kaaba, which remained there till the great day, when the covering was changed. A new covering is brought every year from Egypt, made of dull black silk and cotton, embroidered with the name of God on every square foot. It is prepared in Constantinople, and is said to cost £3,600. The main ceremony of the festival is as follows: On a certain fixed day all adults must leave the city before nightfall, and go to a village called Mina, some five miles to the north. They pass the night there, and go nine miles farther on the next morning to Mount Arafat, where they remain till sunset. They then return, and sleep at Nimrah, half-way between Arafat and Mina. The third day they must be back at Mina in the morning, go through the ceremony of throwing stones at the Three Devils, proceed to Mecca for other ceremonies, and return to Mina for the night. The fourth day is spent at Mina, and at noon on the fifth day they return to Mecca. The bath towels of the Ihram are now relinquished, and the pilgrim dons the best new clothes which he can afford. He is then entitled to the name of Hadji, and thereafter through life can wear a special headgear, such as a green turban. The exodus from the city to Mina was a strange sight. The different holy carpets were escorted by regiments and brass bands, that of Egypt marching to the tune of the "Barren Rocks of Aden." Sherif Hussein was there on horseback, accompanied by a crowd of spearmen and a squadron of racing camels. The ride to Mina beggared description. "The best idea of what it is like," Mr. Wavell wrote, "will be gained by considering that at least half a million people are traversing these nine miles of road between sunrise and ten o'clock this day; that about half of them are mounted, and that many of them possess baggage animals as well. The roar of this great column is like a breaking sea, and the dust spreads for miles over the surrounding country. When, passing through the second defile, we came in sight of Arafat itself, the spectacle was stranger still. The hill was literally black with people, and tents were springing up around it, hundreds to the minute, in an ever-widening circle. As we approached, the dull murmur caused by thousands of people shouting the formula, 'Lebéka, lebéka, Allahooma lebéka,' which had long been audible, became so loud that it dominated every other sound. In the distance it sounded rather ominous, suggestive of some deep disturbance of great power, like the rumble of an earthquake." The hygienic conditions of the exodus were of course abominable. Tanks and springs were soon fouled by people bathing in them, and the condition of the hill-side was filthy beyond description. Often some infectious disease like cholera decimates the pilgrims, but our travellers were fortunate in escaping it. They went through all the proper ceremonies, and stoned the Three Devils at Mina with gusto. The Three Devils are three stone pillars, and, in a mob of many thousands of bad shots, a good many pilgrims are bound to suffer. They bought a sheep to sacrifice, like the others, and a mess of offal and blood was soon added to the attractions of the countryside. They then went back to Mecca, kissed the Black Stone, had another square inch of hair shaved from their temples, and were free to put off the bath towels. Now was the moment for the new clothes. Abdul Wahid appeared in a bilious yellow garment brought from Damascus; Masaudi in an obsolete regimental mess waistcoat; while Mr. Wavell was chastely arrayed in white cloth robes, a black jubba, and a gold sash with a dagger. Thus attired they set out again for Mina for the last ceremonies. In the night a thief got into their tent, and carried off Masaudi's new turban, £5 in gold, and various oddments, including a couple of pistols. In the morning they went to salute the Sherif, and when they had returned and were sitting in their tent, passed through the most dangerous moment of the adventure. The wall of the tent was down, as is usual in the heat of the day, and they were squatting on the carpet, when suddenly they heard an exclamation from Masaudi. Looking round, they saw, standing within a few feet of them and looking straight into the tent, three of the Mombasa Swahilis whom they had met at Medina. It scarcely seemed possible that they could miss seeing Masaudi, and if they did they would certainly come into the tent to greet him, when Mr. Wavell was bound to be recognized. The morning sun, however, was shining right in their eyes, so they saw nothing, and passed on. As soon as they had turned their backs Mr. Wavell and Masaudi ran out of the tent on the other side and mingled with the crowd. They returned to Mecca, to be congratulated by their friends on the successfully accomplished pilgrimage, and Mr. Wavell was free to go into the world as Hadji Ali bin Mohammed. It was now their business to get out of Mecca as soon as possible, especially as money was running low. They paid the necessary farewell visits, hired the transport, and started, intending to do the journey in one day. They were, however, held up by a sentry on the road, and had to spend a cold and comfortless night in the open, and did not enter Jiddah till sunrise. At Jiddah they separated; Masaudi went to Mombasa, Abdul Wahid to Persia, and Mr. Wavell to Egypt. In summing up the expedition, Mr. Wavell was disposed to attribute his success not to any histrionic gifts of his own, but to the ignorance of the inhabitants of the Holy Cities, and their lack of interest in the outside world, even the Islamic world. "There are so many different sects in Islam, and its adherents are found in so many different countries, that I seriously believe that if some one invented for himself a country and a language that did not exist at all, and journeyed thus to Mecca, no one there would know enough geography to find him out. Yet with all, they are quick enough in their way, and if some Mutowif would take the trouble to write a book on ethnography in its relation to the Islam of to-day, and classify the different races that come to Mecca, such a deception as I practised would become impossible." They did, as a matter of fact, excite a certain suspicion, and their two servants, though they were Persians and knew little Arabic, must have had their own views. The great assets of the travellers were their knowledge of Arabic and Moslem ceremonial, and the fact that Mr. Wavell took up his disguise long before he approached the Hedjaz. He considered that Medina was much the more dangerous place of the two, and that no traveller should go there who was not thoroughly at home in his oriental character. Whatever may be said, the journey is one of extreme danger and delicacy, and demands not only great knowledge, but perpetual vigilance. It must be remembered that a European is all the time in the midst of a fanatical and devout people, and that the highest merit would be acquired by any one who might discover and denounce the unbeliever. In spite of every precaution there must be an enormous element of luck, and Mr. Wavell's conclusion is that his escape was due rather to a series of happy chances than to his own good management. VIII THE EXPLORATION OF NEW GUINEA THE EXPLORATION OF NEW GUINEA (_Map_, p. 248.) Almost every part of the globe has suffered some change in the past century. It may have altered its appearance by settlement and cultivation and the growth of cities; or, if it still remains a wilderness, there are routes of commerce through it which bring it to the knowledge of the world. But the great island of New Guinea is almost as little changed to-day by the advent of white adventurers as when, in the year 1527, Jorge de Meneses, the Portuguese Governor of the Spice Islands, first landed on its swampy shores. In 1545, eighteen years later, it received the name by which it is known to-day. The Portuguese Empire decayed, and during the seventeenth century the Dutch appeared. In the eighteenth century many famous voyagers, like Dampier, Carteret, and Captain Cook, touched the island, and in the last century the rapid opening up of the world by travellers and missionaries bore fruit even in those remote seas. The Dutch held the western end; in 1884 Germany laid claim to the north-eastern part; and that same year the south-eastern section, which had been formally taken over in 1883 by Queensland, was annexed to the British Crown. In 1899 the Dutch boundary was delimited, and Holland, with the assent of the Powers, assumed direct control of her share. The one change to-day in these arrangements is that the former German section is now administered under mandate by the Commonwealth of Australia. The first decade of this century saw great exploring activity on the part of all three European masters. The Dutch especially did excellent work, and Dr. Lorentz was the first man to reach the snows of the inland mountains. But few of the secrets of the island--geographical, zoological, and botanical--have yet been unriddled. The place is so remote from Europe, its climate is so deadly, its inhabitants so treacherous, and its forests and swamps so impenetrable, that exploration there is in many ways a more desperate undertaking than anywhere else on the globe. I have selected two expeditions as an example of what the pioneer must undergo. In 1910 the Ornithologists' Union sent out an expedition to investigate the New Guinea fauna and collect specimens. Captain Cecil Rawling, whose thirst for the unknown was unquenchable, accompanied it on the geographical side, and Mr. A. F. R. Wollaston as medical officer. There was no proper survey equipment, as the mission was primarily one of naturalists. Ten Gurkhas were enlisted from India, and the Dutch Government supplied a certain number of Javanese troops. Coolies also were recruited in Java, who turned out to be hopelessly unsuitable both in physique and character for any serious travel in the wilds. The majority were about sixteen years of age, and they appeared in the jungle decently dressed in black frock coats and bowler hats! The part selected was the southern coast of the Dutch territory, and it was Captain Rawling's hope that they would be able to penetrate to that belt of snow mountains, at the head of the coastal rivers, running from the Nassau Range in the west to Wilhelmina Peak in the east, where Dr. Lorentz had been the pioneer. Obviously it was vital to find a river which would take them direct to the hills. But they had no previous information to go upon, and were compelled to select their stream at random. Had they gone farther east, and chosen the Utakwa, they would have found a current navigable for an ocean-going steamer for seventeen miles from its mouth, and for launches for many miles more--a river, moreover, running directly from the highest snows of Mount Carstensz. As it was, they hit upon a river called the Mimika, a small jungle-fed stream rising in the low foothills sixty miles to the west of Carstensz, and twenty miles or so short of the main range. The Mimika, too, was full of endless windings and liable to sudden and violent floodings. Hence it was of little use to the expedition in the way of transport. This was the more regrettable since transport was the essence of the problem. From the foothills of the mountains to the sea lies a belt of forest like a barbed-wire entanglement. This forest is so dense that the cutting of a road can only progress at the rate of 100 yards a day. It is swampy, and often, in flood-time, under water, and filled with every form of noxious insect life. Unless this nightmare land can be circumvented by the use of a broad river channel, it must take even a strong party many months before they reach the base of the hills. This was what happened to Captain Rawling. On January 26, 1910, after a base camp had been established at Wakatimi, not far from the Mimika mouth, he set off to ascend the river. Here is his description of the country:-- "It is quite impossible for any one who has not visited these parts of New Guinea to realize the density of the forest growth. The vegetation, through which only the scantiest glimpses of the sky can be obtained, appears to form, as it were, two great horizontal strata. The first comprises the giant trees, whose topmost boughs are 150 feet or more above the ground; the other, the bushes, shrubs, and trees of lesser growth, which never attain a greater height than 30 to 40 feet. Such is the richness of the soil that not one square foot remains untenanted, and the never-ending struggle to reach upwards towards the longed-for light goes on silently and relentlessly. Creepers and parasites in endless variety cling to every stem, slowly but surely throttling their hosts. From tree to tree their tentacles stretch out, seizing on to the first projecting branch and limb, and forming such a close and tangled mass that the dead and dying giants of the forest are prevented from falling to the ground.... "The various devices recommended in the books of one's childhood, and, it may be added, in learned books as well, whereby the traveller is enabled to recover a lost trail or regain the right direction, are here of no avail. For instance, moss does not grow more on one side of a tree-trunk than on the other; trees do not lean away from the prevailing wind; nor is the position of the sun a guide, for it is seldom visible. In fact, the traveller has nothing to rely upon but the compass or a local guide, and even the latter is often at fault. Hopeless indeed does the outlook appear when the wanderer, hedged in by a wall of scrub and creeper which limits his vision to a distance of ten or twelve yards, realizes that he has lost his bearings; when the vastness of the forest seems to press upon him, and there is no sound to be heard but the drip, drip of the water-laden trees and the bubbling of the stinking bog underfoot. His only chance of escape is to find a stream, and follow it down till it joins a main river." The first big episode was the discovery of the Pygmies who lived in the foothills, and were assiduously hunted by the forest tribes. The average height of these little men was 4 feet 7 inches, and Captain Rawling penetrated to their village in a clearing above the head waters of the Mimika. The Mimika source was reached, but led them nowhere, and they fared no better with another small stream to the west, called the Kapare. Then by accident a secret native path was discovered running eastward--a mere tunnel in the matted forest. By this route they were able to reach a parallel river, called the Tuaba, which was a tributary of the larger Kamura. From a village called Ibo as a centre, the expedition made various casts east and north, but found it impossible to get near the skirts of the hills. Captain Rawling returned to the coast and made excursions along the eastern shore, but found no adjacent river mouth which promised better. By this time it was June, and the floods began with such vigour that practically the whole country between the mountains and the sea was under water. When the floods ebbed, a resolute attempt was made to push east from Ibo, and with a good deal of trouble another parallel stream was reached, called the Wataikwa. The party founded a camp there, and explored the upper waters of that stream. Travelling was extremely difficult, because the only decent road was the river bed, and this route was promptly made impossible by a new spate. The travellers had to face the fact that the farther they went eastward the greater became the labour of carrying supplies, for their base camp remained on the Mimika. Still, an effort must be made unless the expedition was to admit failure. It was decided that the best plan was to try and cut a road through the forest to the next stream on the east, in the hope that it would lead them into the hills. This was done, and the Iwaka River was reached after much severe toil. They had entered a desperate country, strewn with moss-covered boulders and seamed with gullies covered with an impenetrable mass of timber. The density of this growth was unbelievable; through it no man could force a way unless with an axe in hand, and as most of the trees were of very hard wood--the stems varying from four to eight inches in diameter--and clothed from top to bottom with damp earth covered with moss, progress at times became impossible. An idea of the labour involved in the task of clearing a two-foot path through this forest may be judged by the fact that a stretch of five thousand yards required three weeks' constant work before a man could pass freely along. On one day two cutters achieved a length of two hundred and ten yards, and on another, when Captain Rawling was working by himself, all he could add was a piece of ninety yards in length. No wonder he asks, "Can this forest, with its horrible monotony and impregnability, be equalled by any other in the world?" [Illustration: The Exploration of New Guinea] Down came the rain again, and in August the country was all under water. The advance was not renewed till the beginning of 1911, when fresh supplies had arrived from England, and the old motor-boat had been put in repair. So far, a year's hard labour had not taken the explorers within measurable distance of their goal. With the help of a launch, food supplies for eight weeks were stored at the head of the Mimika. One story may be quoted as a piece of comic relief in a very grim campaign. On 4th January two men quarrelled in camp and killed each other. "The sergeant who, by the way, was a foreigner, took charge of the burial ceremonials, and was evidently quite determined that, for his part, nothing should be lacking which the importance of the occasion demanded. Drawing his sword, and placing himself between the graves, he harangued the spectators. 'Men,' he said, 'this day two servants of the Government have lost their lives at the hands of each other. Were they not both good men? hein.' 'One man very bad man,' chipped in an officious convict, but a glance from the offended sergeant made him wish that he had never spoken. 'Whether they will both go to heaven I cannot say,' exclaimed he, 'but I think Allah'--pointing upwards with his sword--'will first purge them with a fire. Take this as a lesson.' Then, drawing himself up to his full height as befitted the occasion, he returned his sword with a clank to the scabbard, and, as far as the public was concerned, the ceremony was at an end. The sergeant, however, had not yet finished. Returning to his hut, he refreshed himself with a few glasses of gin, and played on the mouth-organ the national anthems of the three flags under which he had served. This terminated the funeral obsequies, and with the exception of the official report and the entry in the accounts 'To one bottle gin for disinfecting corpse,' nothing remained to mark the sanguinary affair." The Iwaka was safely reached, and the last stage began. At first the advance was up its right bank, but this only brought the travellers back to the upper glen of the Wataikwa, which they had already found impossible. It was clear that the Iwaka must be crossed and the ridges to the east ascended. Getting over that stream was an ugly business, and it was achieved only by the heroism of one of the Gurkhas, who managed to haul himself hand over hand along a thin rope. Captain Rawling records that it was "one of the best actions carried out in cold blood that I have ever had the good fortune to witness." A rough bridge was constructed, and on the morning of February 8, 1911, thirteen months after their first landing on the coast, the party had at last a road to the upper ridges. It was thick, misty weather, and of the farther mountains they only had occasional glimpses. Camp was pitched at an altitude of 5,400 feet, but not on solid ground, for all the climbing had been done on the top of live or dead timber. The following morning they hacked their way to a clear space on the ridge at a height of 5,600 feet, and there they were at last favoured with the view for which they had longed, and were able to fix the position of the main peaks. Looking southward they saw the sea, and between it and them the dark green of the forest through which they had struggled for so many months. The gloom was broken at rare intervals by a streak of light, which was a river. Nearly five miles away stood Mount Godman, and beyond it the huge southern face of the range, a gigantic black cliff, eighty miles from east to west, with a clear drop of nearly a mile and three-quarters--by far the greatest precipice in the world. Behind this scarp rose the snow mountains--Mount Leonard Darwin, to the north-west, 13,882 feet; and to the north-east Mount Idenburg, 15,379 feet, and the glittering top of Carstensz, which is almost 16,000 feet. The great peaks seemed, below, a mass of wild, black precipices, cleft with fissures; but, above, a long, easy snow-field, curving gently to the summits. It was such a view as the old Portuguese adventurers might have had when, after struggling for months through the coastal jungles, they suddenly came in sight of Kenya or Kilimanjaro. But for Captain Rawling and his party it would be no more than a Pisgah-sight. Advance was impossible. The fatal choice of the Mimika route meant that they had taken the worst road conceivable to the great snows. The attainment of the peaks must be left to their successors. He who would understand the full difficulties and miseries of that expedition must read Captain Rawling's own narrative.* * _The Land of the New Guinea Pygmies_, by Captain C. G. Rawling (Seeley, Service, and Co., 1913). Rarely has a more thoroughly comfortless expedition been undertaken. To begin with, the food was bad and unsuitable, for they had the surplus stores from Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, and the joys of bully-beef, pea-soup, and pickles under an equatorial sky may be imagined. It was impossible to get good local assistance, for the natives were a preposterous race, treacherous and unreliable when they were not actively malevolent. They were subject to sudden panics, when they fled to the jungle, and to wild outbursts of sorrow, when they would weep and sob for hours. The imported Javanese were, if possible, more hopeless. Then there was every kind of noxious insect--mosquitoes without end, gigantic leeches dangling from every leaf which made a speciality of attacking the eyeballs, ticks, stinking caterpillars, immense blue-bottles which swarmed in clouds over any food left uncovered, crickets which ate a man's clothes up in a night, and a plague of minute bees which settled in myriads on the heated face of the traveller. Above all, there was the rain. The whole country was water-logged by the flooding rivers and the incessant deluge. In the dry season the average rainfall was about two and a half inches a day! Mr. Wollaston took the trouble to keep a meteorological diary, and found that during the first year rain fell on 330 days, and that on 295 days it was accompanied by thunder and lightning. Of the 400 men of all races employed during the first year, 12 per cent. died in the country from hardships, and 83 per cent. of the total force was invalided from New Guinea. Of the Europeans and natives who landed during that year, only eleven lasted out the whole fifteen months of the expedition. Of these eleven, four were Europeans, four Gurkhas, two Javanese soldiers, and one a convict. When it is remembered that eight months is the maximum period allowed by the Dutch authorities for continued service in New Guinea, the marvel is that these eleven escaped with their lives. It was with no regret that Captain Rawling said farewell to what must be by far the most unpleasant land on earth. "Wild shrieks had greeted us on our first arrival in the country, and wild shrieks echoed down the still reach of the river as the boats crept towards the sea." [Illustration: New Guinea Canoes. [It was in such canoes that Mr. Staniforth Smith made part of his journey.] (_By permission of Messrs. Seeley, Service, & Co._)] Mount Carstensz still awaits its conqueror. Since the Rawling expedition much has been done in the exploration of the central mountains. In 1913 Mount Wilhelmina (15,580 feet), of which Dr. Lorentz had trodden the lower snows, was finally ascended by Captain Herderschee. In 1921 Captain Kremer reached the same summit from the north, and found a means of crossing the range at a height of 13,480 feet. A German expedition under Dr. Moszkowski, which was projected in 1913 to attempt Carstensz from the north, was stopped by the war. Meantime, in September, 1912, Mr. Wollaston, Captain Rawling's companion, had returned to New Guinea and ascended the Utakwa River. Its head waters led him direct to Carstensz, and by establishing a series of depots for food in the foothills, he was able to reach the main massif of the mountain. Above 8,000 feet he left the jungles behind; but the mountain proved very difficult, and the rain, as usual, fell without intermission. At 14,200 feet he reached the snow-line, and on February 1, 1913, from a camp above 12,000 feet, he climbed to 14,866 feet, a thousand feet or so below the summit. There he was stopped by an ice fall, and lack of provisions and the weakness of his party prevented him from finding a way to turn it. The top of the mountain is an ice cap which breaks down very sheer on the south side, and Mr. Wollaston is of opinion that the easiest ascent would be from the north. This closes for the present the history of the exploration of Carstensz. For the second story we move east into British territory. There the general configuration is the same--swamps near the shore, then a tangled forest, then a range of inland mountains, though these are much less conspicuous than the ranges in Dutch territory, and scarcely rise above 6,000 feet. In 1911 the Hon. Miles Staniforth Smith, who had been Mayor of Kalgoorlie, and a senator representing West Australia in the Commonwealth Parliament, and was at the time Administrator of Papua, set out across the centre of the unexplored part of his province to investigate the sources of the rivers emptying into the Papuan Gulf. As the travelling was of the roughest, and the aim was exploration rather than scientific research, the party was kept very small--three white men, Mr. Staniforth Smith, Mr. Bell, the Chief Inspector of Native Affairs, and Mr. Pratt, a Staff Surveyor, together with eleven native police and seventeen carriers. They started from the head of the navigable waters of the Kikor or Aird River, meaning to push north to the top of Mount Murray, and then traverse to the west along the ridge. Mount Murray, which is some 6,000 feet high, was safely reached, and the explorers found themselves moving along a high limestone plateau, much fissured by streams and diversified by parallel ranges. They hoped ultimately to reach the Strickland River, which is a tributary of the great Fly River, and so complete the rest of their journey by rafts. Presently they found such a river running in a deep gorge, and from certain rapids which had been noted by earlier explorers, they assumed it to be the Strickland. Now began their adventures. The stream seemed to be a series of wild rapids; but as the Strickland had already been descended in rafts, the risks appeared to be justifiable, and four rafts were built. Mr. Staniforth Smith started out first with three police and two carriers, and Mr. Bell and Mr. Pratt arranged to follow in quick succession with the rest. In two hundred yards the first raft was upset, but its occupants managed to hang on. Instead of the rapids disappearing they grew worse, and after four or five wild miles the party dashed into a timber block. One of the natives was so seriously injured that he died next morning. Mr. Staniforth Smith then started to go back along the river, in the hope of joining his companions, but found that he was on an island with swift streams on either side. Next morning the party tried to ford the river, and with some difficulty succeeded. As they were cutting a track up a bank they met two of the police, who had lost their rifles, and who informed them that Mr. Bell and Mr. Pratt were on the other bank of the river, and that several of the carriers had been drowned. The party had now been two days without food, so Mr. Staniforth Smith resolved to turn and travel down the stream in the hope of finding smoother water and a native village. They had no means of making a fire, and in any case there were no sago or bread-fruit trees in the neighbourhood. [Illustration: New Guinea Pygmies contrasted with ordinary Natives. (_By permission of Messrs. Seeley, Service, & Co._)] For five and a half days the explorers hacked their way downstream. During all that time they had no food of any kind, and no shelter from torrential rains except a few palm leaves. On the sixth day, after travelling twenty miles, they saw natives on the opposite bank. They built a rough raft and managed to cross. It was just in time, for they were now utterly exhausted; but the food which the natives gave them revived them. Curiously enough, as they were at their meal the party of Mr. Bell and Mr. Pratt came out of the jungle. They had, if possible, suffered even worse disasters. Both the white men, though powerful swimmers, had been nearly drowned, and seven of the carriers had lost their lives. They would certainly have perished had they not had the luck the day before to shoot a wild pig. By this time it was clear that whatever stream they were on it was not the Strickland, for the Strickland flowed south-west, and this river ran nearly due east. The natives, who had never seen a white man before, took them to their village and treated them kindly. The good repute of the British official throughout the wilds now stood them in good stead. They hoped that the river would soon be clear of rapids; but to their consternation there was nothing but gorges and whirlpools for another hundred miles. The stream was the Kikor in its middle reaches, the same stream as they had ascended from the coast. It took them twenty-nine days to pass the hundred miles of gorges, and during that time they rarely had a full meal. On one occasion the whole party worked for seven days without getting anything to eat except a few handfuls of soup-powder and a few tins of cocoa, saved from the capsized rafts. They had no matches, so they had to keep a fire burning day and night. They slept in caves and under palm leaves, which made no pretence of keeping out the rain. By the twenty-ninth day the river seemed smooth enough for rafts, and the explorers again embarked, and managed to cover fifty miles without any serious misadventure. But next day the rapids began again, and their two canoes, made of hollow logs, were upset. They descended the rapids for ten miles, hanging on to the upturned logs, before they could land. That night they spent in the rain, without food; and starting again at daybreak, they suddenly saw, to their immense relief, European tents, and were welcomed by an officer of the constabulary, who had been sent out to look for them. They had reached the exact spot from which they had struck north to Mount Murray at the beginning of their journey! When, two days later, they arrived at the coast, they had travelled in fifteen weeks approximately 524 miles through utterly unknown country--374 miles on foot and 150 by river. Mr. Staniforth Smith encountered every misfortune that can meet the traveller except one--he had no trouble with the natives. Indeed, by his tact and patience he made friends everywhere with the bushmen, and the survivors of the party owed to them their lives. By some strange system of bush telegraphy the repute of the white men was spread from village to village. It was the one piece of good fortune that befell the explorers, and it was final in its effect, for it made the difference between life and death. I do not know any narrative of exploration which contains adventures more desperate than those whirling voyages on upturned rafts through black ravines; or that month when starving men hacked their way through the jungle along the torrent's bank in a perpetual tempest of rain.* * For this journey Mr. Staniforth Smith received in 1923 the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. IX MOUNT EVEREST MOUNT EVEREST (_Map_, p. 272.) I The Himalaya not only contain the loftiest peaks on the globe, but can boast at least eighty summits loftier than those of any other range. The Andes come next, but their highest point, Aconcagua, is only 23,060 feet. In the huge mountain land which bounds India on the north, and which stretches as great a distance as from the English Channel to the Caspian, there are more than eighty peaks above 24,000 feet, some twenty above 26,000, and six above 27,000. Mount Everest, the highest, is, according to the latest measurements, 29,140 feet high. Its true character was not always recognized. At one time Chimborazo, in the Andes, was thought to "outsoar Himalay." In the middle of last century Kanchenjunga, which fills the eye of the traveller who looks north from Darjeeling, was believed to be the loftiest of the world's mountains. At that time officers of the Indian Government were conducting the great Trigonometrical Survey, during which they discovered a summit for which they could find no native name, and which they labelled Peak XV. In 1852, when the observations had been worked out, an official rushed breathlessly into the room of the Surveyor-General in Calcutta with the news that Peak XV. proved to be 29,002 feet high, and was therefore the chief mountain in the world. As its native name was unknown, it was called after Sir George Everest, who had been in charge of the survey. The name is beautiful in itself, and may well stand; though, had the circumstances been otherwise, there would have been much to be said for the Tibetan name, "Chomolungmo," which means "Goddess Mother of the Mountains." The ascent of Everest was a project which only slowly entered into men's minds. When the great peak was first discovered mountaineering was still in its infancy, and for a generation afterwards climbers were preoccupied with the Alps. Then mountaineers began to look farther afield, and first the Caucasus and then the Andes were conquered, till some thirty years ago the ambitious began to turn their eyes to the Himalaya. Gradually the limit of achievement on high snows was extended. On Trisul, Dr. Longstaff in ten and a half hours ascended from 17,450 feet to the summit of 23,360 feet. On Kamet, Mr. Charles Meade took coolies up to a camp of 23,600 feet. The Duke of the Abruzzi, after his ascent of Ruwenzori, attacked, with a splendidly equipped party, K2, that icy lump in the Karakoram, the second highest of the world's mountains, and reached a height of 24,600 feet, which, till the year 1921, remained the world's record. In 1920 Dr. Kellas found that on reasonable snow he could ascend at a rate of 600 feet an hour above 21,000 feet. It was inevitable that, when the Great War was over, lovers of high places should fix their thoughts on Everest. It had long been a dream of mountaineers. Lord Curzon, when Viceroy of India, had suggested the exploration of Everest to the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. But there were political difficulties connected with the journey through Tibet or Nepal, and even a reconnaissance of the mountain proved impossible. Cecil Rawling (who fell at the Third Battle of Ypres as a Brigadier-General with the 21st Division), during his journey in 1904 to the head waters of the Brahmaputra, saw for the first time, from a distance of sixty miles, the north side of Everest, and believed that it might be climbed. I well remember how in the year before the war he and I planned an expedition which was to cover two seasons, and explore that northern side. In March, 1919, Captain Noel urged the Royal Geographical Society to undertake the work, and Sir Francis Younghusband, the President of the Society in the following year, in conjunction with the Alpine Club, entered into negotiations with the Government of India. Permission was obtained from the Tibetan authorities, and in January 1921 a Joint Committee of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club proceeded to organize an expedition. There were many to ask what was the use of such an enterprise, which would be costly, difficult, and certainly dangerous. The answer is that it was no earthly use, and that in that lay its supreme merit. The war had called forth the finest qualities of human nature, and with the advent of peace there seemed a risk of the world slipping back into a dull materialism. Men had begun to ask of everything its cash value, and to cherish, as if it were a virtue, a narrow utilitarian commonsense. To embark upon something which had no material value was a vindication of the essential idealism of the human spirit. In Sir Francis Younghusband's words, "The sight of climbers struggling upwards to the supreme pinnacle would have taught men to lift their eyes to the hills--to raise them off the ground and divert them, if only for a moment, to something pure and lofty and satisfying to that inner craving for the worthiest which all men have hidden in their souls. And when they see men thrown back at first, but returning again and again to the assault, till, with faltering footsteps and gasping breaths, they at last reach the summit, they will thrill with pride. They will no longer be obsessed with the thought of what mites they are in comparison with the mountains--how insignificant they are beside their material surroundings. They will have a proper pride in themselves, and a well-grounded faith in the capacity of spirit to dominate material." These are almost the words of Theophile Gautier's defence of mountaineers: "Ils sont la volonté protestante contre l'obstacle aveugle, et ils plantent sur l'inaccessible le drapeau de l'intelligence humaine." If the climber wants a further statement of his creed let it be that of Mr. Belloc, when he first saw the Alps from the ridge of the Jura. "Up there, the sky above and below them, the great peaks made communion between that homing, creeping part of me which loves vineyards, and dances, and a slow movement among pastures, and that other part which is only properly at home in Heaven.... These, the great Alps, seen thus, link one in some way to one's immortality. Nor is it possible to convey, or even to suggest, these few fifty miles and these few thousand feet; there is something more. Let me put it thus: that from the height of Weissenstein I saw, as it were, my religion. I mean humility, the fear of death, the terror of height or of distance, the glory of God, the infinite potentiality of reception, whence springs that divine thirst of the soul; my aspiration also towards completion and my confidence in the dual destiny. For I know that we laughers have a gross cousinship with the most high, and it is this constant and perpetual quarrel which feeds the spring of merriment in the soul of a sane man. Since I could now see such a wonder, and it could work such things in my mind, therefore some day I should be part of it. That is what I feel. That it is also which leads some men to climb mountain-tops, but not me, for I am afraid of slipping down."* * _The Path to Rome._ And now for the great mountain itself. First of all, it is a rock peak. All the upper part is a great pyramid of stone, with three main _arêtes_--the West, the South-West, and the North-East. It lies exactly on the frontier between Tibet and Nepal, and from the Nepalese side and the plains of India it is hard to get a good view of it, for only a wedge of white is seen peeping between and over other peaks. On the Tibetan side, however, it stands clear, and its pre-eminence over its neighbours is patent. Now, in all attacks upon a great peak the first question is how to get to it--a problem most difficult in the case of other Himalayan summits like K2, and of peaks like Mount McKinley in Alaska and Mount Robson in Canada. It is not only the question of the climbers getting there, but of transporting the food and tents and accessories required by a well-equipped expedition. Had the only route to Everest lain through the deep-cut gorges of Nepal, the transport problem might have been insuperable. But here came in the value of Tibet, which is a high plateau, averaging twelve or thirteen thousand feet. It was possible to take a large party, with baggage animals, up through the passes of Sikkim to the Kampa Dzong (Kampa Jong), and then westwards along the north side of the range to a base camp at Tingri Dzong, due north of the mountain. Everest itself would be forty or fifty miles from such a base camp, but there was a clear road to it by the upper glens and glaciers of the Arun, which flows north and east before it turns south and cuts its way through the Himalayan wall. The problem of access to the base was, therefore, not a hard one. The problem of the ascent was two-fold--part physiological, part physical. Could human beings survive at an altitude of 29,000 feet--human beings who were forced to carry loads and to move their limbs? Aviators, of course, had risen to greater heights, but they had not been compelled to exert themselves. Could a man in action support life in that rarified air? Above 20,000 feet a cubic foot of air contains less than half the oxygen which it holds at sea-level. As the working of the body depends upon the oxygen supplied through the lungs, this fact was bound to lessen enormously man's physical energy. On the other hand, it had been found that the human frame could adapt itself to great altitudes by increasing the number of red blood corpuscles. Dr. Kellas had been able to climb 600 feet an hour above 21,000 feet, and Mr. Meade had camped in comparative comfort at 23,600 feet. Still, the highest altitude yet reached had been only 24,600 feet, and no one could say what difference the extra 4,500 feet might make. Clearly, before the final climbing began it would be necessary to acclimatize the party. In the last resort oxygen might be artificially supplied to the climbers. The physiological problem was of the kind which could only be solved in practice. The second was the physical. A man might live and even move slowly above, say, 26,000 feet, but it was quite certain that no human being would be capable of the severe exertions required by difficult climbing. If the last stage of Everest proved to be like the last stages of many Himalayan mountains, then the thing was strictly impossible. The hope was that on the Tibetan side the _arêtes_ might be easy going. It all depended upon finding an easy route, and being able to make an ultimate camp at some point like 26,000 feet. There was good hope that the first might be possible, judging from Rawling's survey at a distance of sixty miles and the known geographical features of the Tibetan side of the range. The other physical difficulties would be the gigantic scale of Himalayan obstacles, the hugeness of the ice-fields and glaciers, the immensity of the rock-falls and avalanches. Also at a great height there would be the bitter cold to lower vitality, and the likelihood of violent winds. Much would depend on the weather, which was still an unknown quantity. Indeed, all the physical factors were in the region of speculation; only a reconnaissance could determine them. It might be that the expedition would have to turn back at once, confessing its task impossible. General Bruce, who was the chief living authority on Himalayan travelling, was unable to accompany the party, so Colonel Howard-Bury was selected as leader. An elaborate scientific equipment was prepared, and steps were taken to get the full scientific value out of the journey. But the primary object was mountaineering: first a reconnaissance, and then, if fortune favoured, an effort to reach the summit. The four climbers chosen were Mr. Harold Raeburn, who, in 1920, had done good work on the spurs of Kanchenjunga; Dr. Kellas, who had reached 23,400 feet on Kamet; and two younger men, Mr. George Leigh Mallory and Mr. Bullock, distinguished members of the Alpine Club, who had been together at Winchester. In India they were to be joined by Major Morshead and Major Wheeler, of the Indian Survey. Early in May 1921, the party assembled at Darjeeling. II The start from Darjeeling was on 18th May. The first stage through Sikkim, and by way of the Chumbi valley to the Tibetan plateau, was over familiar ground, which need not be described. There was a good deal of trouble with the mules, which had been badly chosen, but no incident of importance happened till Dochen was reached, the point where their road left the main road to Lhasa. At Kampa Dzong, Dr. Kellas died suddenly from heart failure--an irreparable loss to the expedition, for he had been one of the mountaineers from whom most was looked for, and he was the only member of the party qualified by his medical knowledge to carry out experiments in oxygen and blood pressure. There, too, Mr. Raeburn fell sick, and had to return to Sikkim. [Illustration: The Route of the Mount Everest Expedition.] The expedition made its way almost due west behind the main chain of the Himalaya, until one evening its members saw, almost due south of them, a beautiful peak which was apparently very high. The natives called it Chomo-Uri, which means the "Goddess of the Turquoise Peak," and from observations next morning it was clear that it was Everest. They passed some wonderful monasteries perching on the face of perpendicular crags, and eventually, on 19th June, they reached Tingri Dzong, after a month's travelling from Darjeeling. This was the spot they had decided upon for their base camp. The obvious route to Everest seemed to be by way of the Rongbuk valley, where the great Rongbuk Glacier flowed from its northern face. There, accordingly, the two climbers, Mr. Mallory and Mr. Bullock, established themselves. The preliminary reconnaissance, however, proved to be a somewhat intricate matter. It was soon plain that there were no easy approaches from the west, so Colonel Howard-Bury moved his headquarters to Kharta, on the east side, close to the Arun. That river, which there is about one hundred yards wide, a little farther down enters great gorges, in which, within a course of twenty miles, it drops from 12,000 feet to 7,500 feet, or over 200 feet in a mile--a far more wonderful spectacle than anything on the Brahmaputra. On 2nd August, Mr. Mallory and Mr. Bullock started their exploration of the eastern approaches to the mountain. This was no easy business, for the valleys were separated by ridges, the lowest point of which was higher than any mountain in Europe, and every route had to be explored personally, for no information could be had from the natives. The two main valleys running down on the east side of Everest are the Kharta and, farther south, the Kama. The latter valley was first explored, and it was found that it ended under the precipitous eastern face of the mountain, and that there was no way from it of reaching the North-East ridge. It was a marvellous valley for scenery, but for mountaineering impracticable. A move was accordingly made to the Kharta valley to the north. Mr. Mallory and Mr. Bullock proceeded up this till they reached the glacier of the Kharta River, and at last found a valley which seemed to lead them straight to the North-East ridge. It was now, however, early August, the monsoon was blowing, and everywhere there was deep, soft, fresh snow. They returned accordingly to the camp at Kharta to wait till weather conditions became better. What was called the Advance Base Camp was established in the Kharta valley at a height of 17,350 feet, in a grassy hollow well sheltered from the wind, and amid a glory of Alpine flowers. Meantime Mr. Mallory and Mr. Bullock spent their time in carrying wood and stores to a camp higher up the valley. This was finally established at a height of some 20,000 feet, well up the Kharta Glacier. At the glacier head was a pass called the Lhakpa La, or "Windy Gap," and the next step was to form a camp there at a height of 22,350 feet. It was in this neighbourhood that the tracks, probably of a wolf, were found, which the coolies attributed to the "Wild Men of the Snows." From the Lhakpa La the mountaineers were now looking straight at Everest, and at last were able to unriddle its tangled topography. The attention of the reader is called to the map. It will be seen that the great Rongbuk Glacier, which descends from the western side of the northern face, receives as a feeder the East Rongbuk Glacier. The entrance to the latter is so small that Mr. Mallory and Mr. Bullock had failed to notice it in their exploration of the main glacier. This lesser Rongbuk Glacier ends on the eastern part of the northern face of the mountain, and between its head and that of the main glacier is the pass called the Chang La, or North Col. From the Lhakpa La one looks into the East Rongbuk Glacier with the North Col straight in front. If the North Col could be attained, it seemed to the mountaineers to be possible, by working up the easy northern face, to attain the North-East ridge at a point above the main difficulties. The camp on the Lhakpa La was not a comfortable place, with a howling wind, 34 degrees of frost, and little stuffy tents which gave dubious protection and inevitable headaches. It was decided that the two expert Alpine climbers, with a few picked coolies, should alone attempt the North Col, and, if fortune favoured, prospect the farther route, while the others returned to the 20,000-feet camp. We are now concerned with the doings only of Mr. Mallory and Mr. Bullock, who were to attempt the North Col. In the weeks since their arrival in the neighbourhood of Everest they had been studying its contours with the eyes of trained mountaineers. They saw that it was a great rock mass, "coated often with a thin layer of white powder, which is blown about its sides, and bearing perennial snow only on the gentler ledges and on several wide faces less steep than the rest." They saw that from the point of the North-East shoulder a more or less broad _arête_ fell northward to the snow col called the Chang La. If they could reach that snow col the road to the North-East ridge looked reasonably simple. They had seen that the Chang La would be very difficult of attainment from the Rongbuk Glacier, and that was why they had turned their minds to an eastern approach. Here is their conclusion, in Mr. Mallory's words, reached about the third week in July: "If ever the mountain were to be climbed, the way would not lie along the whole length of any one of its colossal ridges. Progress could only be made along comparatively easy ground, and anything like a prolonged sharp crest or a series of towers would inevitably bar the way, simply by the time it would require to overcome such obstacles. But the North _arête_, coming down to the gap between Everest and the North Peak, Changtse, is not of this character. From the horizontal structure of the mountain there is no excrescence of rock pinnacles in this part, and the steep walls of rock which run across the north face are merged with it before they reach this part, which is comparatively smooth and continuous, a bluntly rounded edge.... The great question before us now was to be one of access. Could the North Col be reached from the east, and how could we attain this point?" We have seen the two climbers as far on their journey as the Lhakpa La, looking over the East Rongbuk Glacier to the North Col. The chief difficulty, it was soon evident, would be the wall under the col, which must be over 500 feet high, and appeared to be very steep. On the morning of 23rd September, Mr. Mallory, Mr. Bullock, and Mr. Wheeler started from the camp on the Lhakpa La with ten coolies, some of whom were mountain-sick, and all of whom were affected by the height. They started late, and resolved to make an easy day, pitching their tents that night in the open snow under the North Col. They had looked for a sheltered camp, but the place proved to be a temple of the winds, and no one that night had much sleep. Next morning, the 24th, a few hours after sunrise, they began to climb the slopes under the wall, and found them easier than they had feared. By 11.30 the party was on the col. Only three coolies had accompanied them, two of whom were already very tired. Of the three sahibs, only Mr. Mallory was in anything like good condition. The place was scourged by icy blasts, and frequently in a whirl of powdery snow, but there could be no doubt that the _arête_ in front of them was accessible. In that gale, however, they dare not attempt it, so they struggled back to their camp below the wall. Next morning, the 25th, a council of war was held. It was clear that they must either go on or go back. In their plan they had dreamed of making a camp at 26,000 feet, but that was now out of the question. It was too late in the season, the weather was too bad, and the party was too weak. There was nothing for it but to return, and accordingly they struggled over the Lhakpa La, back to the Kharta valley and the road to England. The reconnaissance of 1921 had established certain facts of the first importance. The first was as to the proper season for the attempt. The rainfall in the Himalaya that year was abnormal, and the monsoon began and finished later than usual. But it was clear that between its end and the coming of winter there was not sufficient time to give the climbers a chance of good weather. The next attempt must obviously be made before the coming of the monsoon--that is, in May or June. The second fact established was the best way of attempting the summit. The only feasible route lay from the Chang La up the subsidiary ridge to the shoulder of the North-East _arête_. The distance from the Chang La to the top was not more than two miles, and the rise not more than 6,000 feet. So far as the climbers on the pass could judge--and their conclusion was supported by numerous photographs from other points--there seemed to be no very great difficulties on this route in the shape of steep rocks. It looked as if it might be practicable to find a site for a camp at about 26,000 feet. By this route the North-East _arête_ would be reached at about 28,000 feet. The thousand feet from that point to the summit looked slightly more difficult, and appeared to possess certain rook towers, which, however, might be circumvented. The actual top seemed to be a cap of snow with a steep blunt edge on the side of the ridge. [Illustration: The _massif_ of Mount Everest.] The transport question must always be difficult. The thousand feet from the East Bongbuk Glacier to the Chang La, half of which was very steep, might give trouble to laden coolies, especially earlier in the season when the ice was uncovered by snow. An advanced base camp on the Chang La would, of course, be essential if a high camp were to be made at 26,000 feet. But the physical problem might be regarded as solved--at any rate as far as the shoulder of the North-East _arête_. On the physiological question little light had been thrown. The climbers in September 1921 were all more or less tired from spending long periods in high camps, and could not be regarded as at the top of their form. Yet in the case of most members of the party the process of acclimatization had been rapid, and Mr. Mallory on the Chang La was remarkably fit. What would happen, however, at the higher altitudes? The effect of these upon the human body had not been decided. The conclusion from the year's work was that while no insuperable difficulty had been proved in the problem, yet for success there must be a combination of happy chances in the shape of weather, the condition of the snow, the endurance of the transport coolies, and the bodily fitness of the climbers. A second attempt would be justified, but it could not be regarded with anything like confidence. The enterprise was seriously and responsibly envisaged, and no better expression of the spirit of those who undertook it can be found than in Mr. Mallory's own words: "It might be possible for two men to struggle somehow to the summit, disregarding every other consideration. It is a different matter to climb the mountain as mountaineers would have it climbed. Principles, time-honoured in the Alpine Club, must, of course, be respected in the ascent of Mount Everest. The party must keep a margin of safety. It is not to be a mad enterprise, rashly pushed on regardless of danger. The ill-considered acceptance of any and every risk has no part in the essence of persevering courage. A mountaineering enterprise may keep sanity and sound judgment, and remain an adventure. And of all principles to which we hold, the first is that of mutual help. What is to be done for a man who is sick or abnormally exhausted at these high altitudes? His companions must see to it that he is taken down at the first opportunity, and with an adequate escort; and the obligation is the same whether he be sahib or coolie. If we ask a man to carry our loads up the mountain, we must care for his welfare at need." III The 1922 party had as its leader Brigadier-General the Hon. C. G. Bruce, the supreme authority upon the Himalaya, to the exploration of which he had devoted much of his life. He knew the hill people, too, as no other man knew them, and his advice was invaluable in the selection of porters. The climbers were Mr. Mallory, Mr. Finch (who had been selected for the expedition of the year before, but had been unable to accompany it), Mr. Norton, and Mr. Somervell--all of whom were trained mountaineers; and Captain Geoffrey Bruce, who had never done any serious climbing before. Major Morshead was also of the party. The 1921 expedition had discovered what seemed a possible route to the summit by the North Col, and the new expedition proposed to follow its tracks. It was stronger in _personnel_ than its predecessor, and much stronger in equipment, for it had learned many lessons from the experiences of the year before. Among other things, it carried a supply of oxygen in bottles, and the necessary apparatus to use it. The party, being resolved to make the attempt before the monsoon broke, made straight for the old advanced base camp in the Kharta valley. Thanks to General Bruce's consummate skill in the organization of mountain travel, it reached that point on the date fixed and with everybody in good health. The next duty was to establish an advanced camp one stage before the North Col, up to which porters could be brought without undue fatigue. The summit of the Lhakpa La was abandoned, and an advanced base, known as Camp No. 3, was established under the west side of the pass, close to the East Rongbuk Glacier. The next step was to ascertain whether the road to the North Col was practicable, for when Mr. Mallory's party had travelled it the year before there had been fresh snow, and at this early season there was a danger of bare ice. Mr. Somervell and Mr. Mallory, on 13th May, with one coolie, set forth from Camp No. 3 on a reconnaissance, and found that the route they had followed the year before was one sheet of glittering ice. They saw, however, that they could cut their way into a corridor filled with good snow, which would lead them up to the foot of the final slope, and that final slope proved also to be snow and not ice. On the North Col they found a difficulty they had not looked for. Between the point at which they reached it and Everest itself was an ice cliff, which the year before they had circumvented. Now they found their way barred by a hopeless crevasse. Ultimately they discovered a route at the far end of the ice cliff, and reached the level snow from which the north ridge of Everest springs. The next few days were occupied in bringing up supplies to Camp 4 on the North Col. They had only nine porters available, and this decided them that it would not be feasible to make two camps on the face of the mountain. They resolved to attempt to make one camp at about 26,000 feet, and from that to make their final effort. On the 19th the four climbers, Mr. Mallory, Mr. Norton, Major Morshead, and Mr. Somervell, left Camp 3 at a quarter to nine in the morning, and an hour after mid-day were busy putting up tents and arranging stores at Camp 4 on the North Col. The sun set at 4.30, and they turned in for the night in the best of spirits. On the morrow they proposed to carry up two of the small tents, two double sleeping-sacks, food for a day and a half, cooking-pots, and two thermos flasks. They would make four loads of the stuff, which would give two porters to each load, with a man to spare. On 20th May, Mr. Mallory got up at 5 a.m., and found that there was no sign of life in the tents in which the nine porters were quartered. The coolies had shut themselves in so hermetically that they were all unwell, and four of them were suffering badly from mountain-sickness. Only five were able to embark on the day's work. Breakfast was a slow business, because everything was frozen hard, and the dish of spaghetti which they had promised themselves could only be prepared after an elaborate process of thawing. A start was made at 7 a.m., and everything went smoothly at first, for ropes had been fixed between their camp and the col itself, so as to help them on their return. From the col a broad snow ridge went up at an easy angle, and all the climbers felt that bodily fitness which is the assurance of success. Then their troubles began. The first was the cold. The sun had no more warmth in it than a candle, and a bitter wind began to blow from the west. They came to an end of the ridge of stones on which they had been progressing easily, and realized that they must get some shelter from the wind by moving to the east side of the shoulder. Step-cutting was now necessary, and at that height the exertion required was extraordinarily severe. Moreover, the cold was telling upon them, and the porters especially suffered badly. After some 300 feet of steps they rested about noon under the shelter of some rocks at 25,000 feet. It seemed to them that they could not get their loads much higher, and that they had better look out for a camp, for the porters had to return to the North Col. But a camping ground was not easy to find. At last, on the east side of the ridge, they discovered a steep slab, up to which they could level the ground. It was a poor place, for the incline was sharp, most of the floor was composed of broken rocks, and men lying down would inevitably slip on top of each other. There, however, they placed the little tents, each with its double sleeping-bag, and melted snow for their makeshift supper. The porters started back for the North Col, and the climbers, two in each bed, did their best to keep warm. All four had suffered a good deal from the cold. Mr. Norton's ear was badly swollen, three of Mr. Mallory's fingers were touched with the frost, and Major Morshead was chilled to the bone and clearly unwell. The wind dropped in the evening, and during the night fresh snow fell. At 6.50 on the morning of 21st May they crawled from their sleeping-bags and made a laborious and exiguous breakfast, for only one thermos flask had turned up. At eight o'clock they started, none of them feeling their best after the stuffy, headachy night. Major Morshead was unable to go with them, for his illness had increased, and most regretfully the other three went on without him. A good deal of fresh snow had fallen, but the first hours of climbing were not very difficult. The worst trouble was the perverse stratification of the mountain, for all the ledges tilted the wrong way. Slowly they crawled up, first regaining the ridge by turning west, and then following the ridge itself in the direction of the point of the North-East _arête_. They decided that they must turn back at about two o'clock if they were to make the descent in reasonable safety. Besides, they had to consider Major Morshead left alone in Camp 5. [Illustration: The Chang La from the Lhakpa La, with Mount Everest on the left. (_By permission of the Mount Everest Committee._)] At 2.15 they reached the head of the rocks, about 500 feet below the point where the north shoulder joined the North-East _arête_. Here they had a clear view of the summit. The aneroid gave the elevation as 26,800 feet, but it is possible that it may have been nearly 200 feet more. Their advance had for some time been reduced to a very slow crawl, but none of the party were really exhausted. It was wise, however, to turn while they had sufficient strength to get back to Camp 4. They tried moving westward, where there seemed to be more snow, but they found that the snow slopes were a series of slabs with an ugly tilt under a thin covering of new snow; so they went back to the ridge and followed their old tracks. At four o'clock they reached Camp 5, and picked up Major Morshead and their tents and sleeping-bags. After that the going became more difficult, as the fresh-fallen snow had made even easy ground treacherous. One slip did occur, and the three men were held only by the rope secured round Mr. Mallory's ice axe. The descent now became a race with the fast-gathering darkness. When they got to the snow ridge they could find no trace of the steps they had made the day before, and had to cut them over again. At this point they were in sight of the watchers far below at Camp 3 on the glacier. Major Morshead was suffering severely and could only move a few steps at a time. As the night drew in, lightning began to flicker from the clouds in the west, but happily the wind did not rise. They were soon at the crevasses and the ice cliff, and, as the air was calm, it was possible to light a lantern to guide them. They hunted desperately to find the fixed rope, which would take them down to the terrace, where they could see their five tents awaiting them, but the rope was covered with snow, and at that moment the lantern gave out. Happily somebody hooked up the buried rope, and after that it was plain going to the tents. They reached them at 11.30, and could find no fuel or cooking-pots. Their mouths were parched with thirst, and the best beverage they could concoct was a mixture of jam and snow with frozen condensed milk. Mr. Mallory ascribes to the influence of this stuff "the uncontrollable shudderings, spasms of muscular contraction in belly and back, which I suffered in my sleeping-bag, and which caused me to sit up and inhale again great whiffs from the night air, as though the habit of deep breathing had settled upon me indispensably." The four men did not waste time next morning on the North Col, for they were tormented by thirst and hunger. It took them six hours to reach Camp 3, for they had to make a staircase beneath the new snow which the porters could use, in order to fetch down their baggage, since they did not intend to spend the night at Camp 3 without their sleeping-bags. At midday they were back in comparative comfort, with certain solid conclusions as the result of the venture. One was as to the difficulties of new snow and the precariousness of the weather; another was as to the unexpected capacity of the porters. But the most important was as to the need of oxygen. They had reached a point very little below 27,000 feet, and that left 2,000 feet to be surmounted before the summit was reached. For success, a higher camp was needed than Camp 5, and the men who started from it must, if possible, have an extra stimulus to counteract the malign effects of altitude. If Everest chose to clothe itself with air containing less oxygen than a man needed, the defect must be supplied. If a climber used extra clothes to counteract the cold, he must use some extra device to supplement the atmosphere. IV We come now to the second attempt of 1922, in which oxygen was used. Certain eminent scientists at home had held that Everest could never be conquered without its aid, and the expedition had brought a very full equipment--oxygen stored in light steel cylinders, and a somewhat complex apparatus for its use. There had been oxygen drill parades among the party, and perhaps it might have been well had they used it straight away for one main attempt, instead of making the first effort without it. Unfortunately the apparatus needed overhauling, and it was not till 22nd May, when Mr. Mallory and his party were coming down from the mountain, that four sets were ready for use. As to the legitimacy of such a device in mountaineering, Mr. Finch's arguments are final. "Few of us, I think, who stop to ponder for a brief second, will deny that our very existence in this enlightened twentieth century, with all its amenities of modern civilization is ... 'artificial.' Most of us have learned to respect progress, and to appreciate the meaning and advantages of adaptability. For instance, it is a fairly firmly established fact that warmth is necessary to life. The mountaineer, acting on this knowledge, conserves, as far as possible, his animal heat by wearing especially warm clothing. No one demurs; it is the commonsense thing to do. He pours his hot tea from a thermos bottle--and never blushes! Nonchalantly, without fear of adverse criticism, he doctors up his insides with special heat- and energy-giving foods and stimulants! From the sun's ultra-violet rays and the wind's bitter cold he boldly dares to protect his eyes with Crookes' anti-glare glasses. Further, he wears boots that to the average layman look ridiculous! The use of caffeine, to supply just a little more buck to an almost worn-out frame, is not cavilled at, despite its being a synthetic drug, the manufacture of which involves the employment of complicated plant and methods. If science could prepare oxygen in tabloid form, or supply it to us in thermos flasks that we might imbibe it like our hot tea, the stigma of 'artificiality' would, perhaps, be effectually removed. But when it has to be carried in special containers, its whole essence is held to be altered, and, by using it, the mountaineer is taking a sneaking, unfair advantage of the mountain! In answer to this grave charge, I would remind the accuser that, by the inhalation of a little life-giving gas, the climber does not smooth away the rough rocks of the mountain, or still the storm; nor is he an Aladdin who, by a rub on a magic ring, is wafted by invisible agents to his goal. Oxygen renders available more of his store of energy, and so hastens his steps, but it does not, alas! fit the wings of Mercury to his feet. The logic of the anti-oxygenist is surely faulty." On 20th May, Mr. Finch and Captain Geoffrey Bruce arrived at Camp 3, accompanied by Tejbir, one of the four Gurkha non-commissioned officers lent to the expedition. There they found the oxygen apparatus in bad condition, and had to tinker at it for four days. During this period they made a trial trip to Camp 4 on the North Col, using oxygen. A good deal of new step-cutting had to be done, for fresh snow had fallen, but in spite of that, the oxygen enabled them to get to the col in three hours and to return in fifty minutes, with halts to take three dozen photographs. On 24th May, Mr. Finch, Captain Bruce, Captain Noel, the official photographer, and Tejbir, with twelve porters, went up to the North Col and camped for the night. Next morning, the 25th, brought a clear, windy sky, and at eight o'clock the twelve porters, with the camp outfit, provisions for one day, and the oxygen cylinders, started up the North ridge, followed an hour and a half later by Mr. Finch, Captain Bruce, and Tejbir, each carrying a load of over thirty pounds. All fifteen used oxygen. It was their intention to make a camp above 26,000 feet; but after one o'clock the wind freshened and snow began, so it was deemed advisable, in order to ensure the safe return of the porters to the North Col, to camp at 25,500 feet. The camping place was no better than that which Mr. Mallory had found; the place was on the actual crest of the ridge, for the west side was scourged by wind, and there was no good position on the east side. The tent was pitched on a little platform on the edge of precipices falling to the East Rongbuk Glacier, 4,000 feet below. The tent was secured as well as possible by guy-ropes; but when the climbers got into their sleeping-bags it was both blowing and snowing hard, and minute flakes filled the tent. Snow was melted, and a tepid meal was cooked--a really warm meal was out of the question, for at that altitude water boils at so low a temperature that a man can hold his hand in it without discomfort. As the night closed in, the two climbers comforted themselves with the assurance that next day they would get to the top. But after sunset the wind increased to a gale so furious that even the ground sheet with the three men lying on it was lifted completely off the earth. They blocked up the small openings as well as they could, but before midnight everything inside was covered with spindrift. It was impossible to sleep. They had to be constantly on the watch to prevent the flaps being torn open and to hold the tent down; for they realized that if once the gale got hold of their shelter the whole outfit would be blown on to the glacier below. Few adventurers have ever spent a more awful night. Tejbir had all the placidity of his race, and Captain Bruce, who was making his first serious mountaineering expedition on the highest of the world's mountains, was as cheerful as if he had been sleeping in an ordinary Alpine _cabane_. Here is Mr. Finch's own description:-- "By one o'clock on the morning of the 26th the gale reached its maximum. The wild flapping of the canvas made a noise like that of machine-gun fire. So deafening was it that we could scarcely hear each other speak. Later there came interludes of comparative lull, succeeded by bursts of storm more furious than ever. During such lulls we took it in turn to go outside to tighten up slackened guy-ropes, and also succeeded in tying down the tent more firmly with our Alpine rope. It was impossible to work in the open for more than three or four minutes at a stretch, so profound was the exhaustion induced by this brief exposure to the fierce cold wind." Morning broke with no lull in the violence of the elements. They prepared a make-shift meal, and spent the forenoon hours in desperate anxiety. At midday the storm seemed to reach the summit of its fury, and matters were made more awkward by a stone cutting a great hole in the tent. Mercifully an hour later the wind suddenly dropped, and the anxious occupants of the tent could prospect the weather. The sensible thing would have been to make a retreat to the North Col, but there was no thought of giving up. The party were unanimous in resolving to hang on and make the attempt the following day. With the last of their fuel they cooked supper--a frugal meal, for, since they had only carried provisions for one day, they were now on very short rations. As they settled down for the night voices were heard outside, and the porters from the North Col appeared, bringing thermos flasks of hot beef-tea and tea, sent by Captain Noel. In a little more comfort they tried to sleep. All three, however, were strained and weak from their labours of the past twenty-four hours, and they felt a numbing cold creeping up their limbs. Mr. Finch had the happy inspiration to use oxygen, and so arranged the apparatus that each could breathe a small quantity throughout the night. "The result was marvellous. We slept well and warmly. Whenever the tube delivering the gas fell out of Bruce's mouth as he slept, I could see him stir uneasily in the eerie greenish light of the moon as it filtered through the canvas. Then, half unconsciously replacing the tube, he would fall once more into a peaceful slumber." Next morning, the 27th, they woke well and hungry, and after a struggle with their boots, which were frozen stiff, started off at 6.30, Captain Bruce and Mr. Finch carrying each over forty pounds, and Tejbir some fifty pounds. Their plan was to take Tejbir as far as the North-East shoulder, and there to relieve him of his load and send him back. It was cold clear weather, and the wind was not too strong. Presently, however, it began to freshen, and after they had gained a few hundred feet it was Tejbir who showed the first signs of weakness. He collapsed entirely, and had to be relieved of his cylinders and sent back. The height was about 26,000 feet, the highest point which any native had yet reached. In order to move more quickly, Mr. Finch and Captain Bruce dispensed with the rope. The rocks were quite easy, and at 26,500 feet they had passed two admirable sites for a camp. But the wind was steadily increasing in force, and they were compelled to leave the ridge and traverse out across the great north face. This was bad luck, for the ridge was easy climbing and the face was not. The stratification of the rocks was most awkward, and it was hard to find any good footholds. The climbers were unroped, and it was a severe test of Captain Bruce, who had had no mountaineering experience to give him confidence. Sometimes they were on treacherous slopes, sometimes on more treacherous snow, and they often had to cross heaps of scree that moved with every step. They stopped occasionally to replace an empty cylinder of oxygen with a new one, each of which meant five pounds off their load. Presently the aneroid gave their height as 27,000 feet. They now ceased traversing, and began to climb straight upward to a point on the North-East ridge, half way between the shoulder and the summit. Soon they were at 27,300 feet, and the top of Everest was the only mountain they could see without looking down. The peaks which had seemed so formidable from the glacier had now sunk into insignificant humps. They were 1,700 feet below the summit, well within half a mile of it, and they could distinguish stones and a patch of scree just under its highest point. But it was very clear that they could go no farther. Weak with hunger and the anxiety and labours of the past forty-eight hours, it was plain to Mr. Finch that if they went on even for another 500 feet they would not both get back alive. Like wise and brave men they decided to retreat. It was now about midday, and for greater safety they roped together. At first they followed their old tracks, and then moved towards the North ridge at a point higher than where they had left it. They reached the ridge at two o'clock, and there reduced their burden by dumping four oxygen cylinders at a place to which future climbers could be directed. The weather was getting worse. A violent wind from the west was bringing up mist, but happily there was no snow. Half an hour later they reached their camp of the night before, where they found Tejbir sound asleep, wrapped up in all the three sleeping-bags. The porters from the North Col were a mile below, and Tejbir was instructed to go down with them. The rest of the descent was a nightmare. The knees of the climbers knocked together, and their limbs did not seem to respond to the direction of the brain. Often they staggered and slipped, and often they were forced to sit down. But at four o'clock in the afternoon they reached the North Col. Happily they still felt famished; they had not yet reached the limit of a man's strength when hunger vanishes. At the North Col they had hot tea and spaghetti, and three-quarters of an hour later they started off for Camp 3 in the company of Captain Noel. The journey was made in record time--forty minutes--and at 5.30 they had reached Camp 3, having descended since midday 6,000 feet. That evening made amends for the long hours of famine. "Four whole quails, truffled in _paté de foie gras_, followed by nine sausages, left me asking for more. The last I remember of that long day was going to sleep, warm in the depths of our wonderful sleeping-bag, with the remains of a tin of toffee tucked away in the crook of my elbow." Captain Brace's feet were badly frost-bitten, but Mr. Finch had come off scot-free, which was neither more nor less than a physical miracle. As Captain Bruce, on the way down to the base camp, turned to take his last close view of Everest, his farewell was: "Just you wait, old thing. You will be for it soon." It was the logical conclusion. He and Mr. Finch had got to 27,300 feet after exertions and deprivations which might well have unfitted a man for the ascent of the Rigi. These misfortunes were accidental and not inevitable. The value--the superlative value--of oxygen had been abundantly proved. It may be fairly said that the 1922 expedition, though it had not set foot on the summit, had solved the secret of Everest. The mountain could almost certainly be climbed, provided a little luck attended the climbers. Now that the quality of the native porters has been proved, there seems no reason why, with the help of oxygen, a sixth camp could not be arranged on one of the flat places under 27,000 feet which Mr. Finch noted. A night in such a camp would be no more trying than a night at 25,000 feet. If the climbers, starting from 27,000 feet, and, after a good night, fell in with reasonable weather, there seems little doubt that the remaining 2,000 feet could be ascended and the peak conquered, with a good prospect of a safe return on the same day to the North Col. There remains, of course, the possibility of physical breakdown, such as happened to Major Morshead and Tejbir. But against this may be set the fact that Mr. Mallory, Mr. Somervell, Mr. Norton, Mr. Finch, and Captain Bruce, at great altitudes and after severe physical labour, were not specially distressed, and suffered no bad effects afterwards. The conquest of Everest will always remain one of the most difficult adventures which man can undertake. But it is a reasonable adventure, and not a piece of crazy foolhardiness, which could only succeed by the help of the one chance in a million. The two reconnaissance expeditions have shown that for its achievement every available human resource is necessary. But granted the utilization of these resources, and the possibility, which our familiarity with the lower slopes may soon permit, of waiting upon a spell of kindly weather, the ultimate conquest would seem to be assured. The secret of Everest has been solved. We know now that there is a way to the top, and we know what that way is.* * The narratives on which the above account is based will be found in _Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance_ (Edwin Arnold, 1921), and the papers by Mr. Mallory and Mr. Finch in the _Alpine Journal_ of November, 1922. THE END. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE PRESS OF THE PUBLISHERS. 
12693	----	Proofreading Team from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions ** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y'e = the; y't = that; w't = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. Additional notes on corrections, etc. are signed 'KTH' ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION, VOLUME XI AFRICA Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER. AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoueries OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN AFRICA. * * * * * The voyage of Henrie Eatle of Derbie, after Duke of Hereford, and lastly Henry the fourth King of England, to Tunis in Barbarie, with an army of Englishmen mitten by Polidore Virgill. pag. 1389. Franci interim per inducias nacti ocium, ac simul Genuensium precibus defatigati, bellum in Afros, qui omnem oram insulásque Italiae latiocinijs infestas reddebant, suscipiunt. Richardus quoque rex Angliæ rogatus auxilium, mittit Henricum comitem Derbiensem cum electa Anglicæ pubis manu ad id bellum faciendum. Igitur Franci Anglíque viribus et animis consociatis in Africam traijciunt, qui vbi littus attigere, eatenus à Barbaris descensione prohibiti sunt, quoad Anglorum sagittariorum virtute factum est, vt aditus pateret: in terram egressi recta Tunetam vrbem regiam petunt, ac obsident. Barbari timore affecti de pace ad eos legates mittunt, quam nostris dare placuit, vt soluta certa pecuniae summa ab omni deinceps Italiae, Galliaeque ora mamis abstinerent. Ita peractis rebus post paucos menses, quàm eo itum erat, domum repediatum est. The same in English. The French in the meane season hauing gotten some leasure by meanes of their truce, and being sollicited and vrged by the intreaties of the Genuois vndertooke to wage warre against the Moores, who robbed and spoyled all the coasts of Italy, and of the Ilandes adiacent. Likewise Richard the second, king of England, being sued vnto for ayde, sent Henry the Earle of Derbie with a choice armie of English souldiers vnto the same warfare. Wherefore the English and French, with forces and mindes vnited, sayled ouer into Africa, who when they approached vnto the shore were repelled by the Barbarians from landing, vntill such time as they had passage made them by the valour of the English archers. Thus hauing landed their forces, they foorthwith marched vnto the royall citie of Tunis, and besieged it. Whereat the Barbarians being dismayed, sent Ambassadours vnto our Christian Chieftaines to treat of peace, which our men graunted vnto them, vpon condition that they should pay a certaine summe of money, and that they should from thencefoorth abstaine from piracies vpon all the coasts of Italy and France. And so hauing dispatched their businesse, within a fewe moneths after their departure they returned home. This Historie is somewhat otherwise recorded by Froysard and Holenshed in manner following, pag 473. In the thirteenth yeere of the reigne of King Richard the second, the Christians tooke in hand a iourney against the Saracens of Barbarie through sute of the Genouois, so that there went a great number of Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen of France and England, the Duke of Burbon being their Generall. Out of England there went Iohn de Beaufort bastarde sonne to the Duke of Lancaster (as Froysard hath noted) also Sir Iohn Russell, Sir Iohn Butler, Sir Iohn Harecourt and others. They set forwarde in the latter ende of the thirteenth yeere of the Kings reigne, and came to Genoa, where they remayned not verie long, but that the gallies and other vessels of the Genouois were ready to passe them ouer into Barbarie. And so about midsomer in the begining of the foureteenth yere of this kings reigne the whole army being embarked, sailed forth to the coast of Barbary, where neere to the city of Africa they landed: [Sidenote: The Chronicles of Genoa] at which instant the English archers (as the Chronicles of Genoa write) stood all the company in good stead with their long bowes, beating backe the enemies from the shore, which came downe to resist their landing. After they had got to land, they inuironed the city of Africa (called by the Moores Mahdia) with a strong siege: but at length, constrained with the intemperancy of the scalding ayre in that hot countrey, breeding in the army sundry diseases, they fell to a composition vpon certaine articles to be performed in the behalfe of the Saracens: and so 61 dayes after their arriuall there they tooke the seas againe, and returned home, as in the histories of France and Genoa is likewise expressed. Where, by Polidore Virgil it may seeme, that the lord Henry of Lancaster earle of Derbie should be generall of the English men, that (as before you heard) went into Barbary with the French men and Genouois. * * * * * The memorable victories in diuers parts of Italie of Iohn Hawkwood English man in the reigne of Richard the second, briefly recorded by M. Camden. Ad alteram ripam fluuij Colne oppositus est Sibble Heningham, locus natalis, vt accepi, Ioannis Hawkwoodi (Itali Aucuthum corruptè vocant) quem illi tantopere ob virtutem militarem suspexerunt, vt Senatus Florentinus propter insignia merita equestri statua et tumuli honore in eximiæ fortitudinis, fideíque testimonium ornauit. Res eius gestas Itali pleno ore prædicant; Et Paulus Iouius in elogijs celebrat: sat mihi sit Iulij Feroldi tetrastichon adijcere. Hawkoode Angloram decus, et decus addite genti Italicæ, Italico presidiúmque solo, Vt tumuli quondam Florentia, sic simulachri Virtutem Ionius donat honore tuam. William Thomas in his Historie of the common wealthes of Italy, maketh honorable mention of him twise, to wit, in the commonwealth of Florentia and Ferrara. * * * * * The Epitaph of the valiant Esquire M. Peter Read in the south Ile of Saint Peters Church in the citie of Norwich, which was knighted by Charles the fift at the winning of Tunis in the yeere of our Lord 1538. Here vnder lieth the corpes of Peter Reade Esquire, who hath worthily serued, not onely his Prince and Countrey, but also the Emperour Charles the fift, both at his conquest of Barbarie, and at his siege at Tunis, and also in other places. Who had giuen him by the sayd Emperour for his valiant deedes the order of Barbary. Who dyed the 29 day of December, in the yeere of our Lord God 1566. * * * * * The voyage of Sir Thomas Chaloner to Alger with Charles the fift 1541, drawen out of his booke De Republica instauranda. Thomas Chalonerus patria Londinensis, studio Cantabrigensis, educatione aulicus, religione pius, veréque Christianus fuit. Itaque cum iuuenilem ætatem, mentémque suam humanioribus studijs roborasset, Domino Henrico Kneuetto à potentissimo rege Henrico eius nominis octauo ad Carolum quintum imperatorem transmisso legato, vnà cum illo profectus est, tanquam familiaris amicus, vel eidem, à consilijs. Quo quidem tempore Carolo quinto nauali certamine à Genua et Corsica in Algyram in Africa contra Turcas classem soluente ac hostiliter proficiscente, ornatissimo illo Kneuetto legato regis, Thoma Chalonero, Henrico Knolleo, et Henrico Isamo, illustribus viris eundem in illa expeditione suapte sponte sequentibus, paritérque militantibus, mirifice vitam suam Chalonerus tutatus est. Nam triremi illa, in qua fuerat, vel scopulis allisa, vel grauissimis pro cellis conquassata, naufragus cum se diù natatu defendisset, deficientibus viribus, brachijs manibusque languidis ac quasi eneruatis, prehensa dentibus cum maxima difficultate rudenti, quæ ex altera triremi iam propinqua tum fuerat eiecta, non sine dentium aliquorum iactura sese tandem recuperauit, ac domum integer relapsus est. The same in English. Thomas Chaloner was by birth a Londiner, by studie a Cantabrigian, by education a Courtier, by religion a deuout and true Christian. Therefore after he had confirmed his youth and minde in the studies of good learning, when Sir Henry Kneuet was sent ambassadour from the mighty Prince Henry the 8. to the Emperour Charles the fift, he went with him as his familiar friend, or as one of his Councell. At which time the said Charles the 5. passing ouer from Genoa and Corsica to Alger in Africa in warlike sort, with a mighty army by sea, that honourable Kneuet the kings ambassadour, Thomas Chaloner, Henry Knolles, and Henry Isham, right worthy persons, of their owne accord accompanied him in that expedition, and serued him in that warre, wherin Thomas Chaloner escaped most wonderfully with his life. For the galley wherein he was, being either dashed against the rockes, or shaken with mighty stormes, and so cast away, after he had saued himselfe a long while by swimming, when his strength failed him, his armes and hands being faint and weary, with great difficulty laying hold with his teeth on a cable, which was cast out of the next gally, not without breaking and losse of certaine of his teeth, at length recouered himselfe, and returned home into his countrey in safety. * * * * * The woorthy enterprise of Iohn Foxe an Englishman in deliuering 266. Christians out of the captiuitie of the Turkes at Alexandria, the 3 of Ianuarie 1577. Among our Merchants here in England, it is a common voiage to traffike into Spaine: whereunto a ship, being called The three halfe Moones, manned with 38. men, and well fensed with munitions, the better to encounter their enemies withall, and hauing wind and tide, set from Portsmouth, 1563. and bended her iourney toward Siuill a citie in Spaine, intending there to traffique with them. [Sidenote: Iohn Foxe taken 1563.] And felling neere the Streights, they perceiued themselues to be beset round with eight gallies of the Turkes, in such wise, that there was no way for them to flie or escape away, but that either they must yeeld or els be sunke. Which the owner perceiuing, manfully encouraged his company, exhorting them valiantly to shew their manhood, shewing them that God was their God, and not their enemies, requesting them also not to faint in seeing such a heape of their enemies ready to deuour them; putting them in mind also, that if it were Gods pleasure to giue them into their enemies hands, it was not they that ought to shew one displeasant looke or countenance there against; but to take it patiently, and not to prescribe a day and time for their deliuerance, as the citizens of Bethulia did, but to put themselues vnder his mercy. And againe, if it were his mind and good will to shew his mighty power by them, if their enemies were ten times so many, they were not able to stand in their hands; putting them likewise in mind of the old and ancient woorthinesse of their countreymen, who in the hardest extremities haue alwayes most preuailed and gone away conquerors, yea, and where it hath bene almost impossible. Such (quoth he) hath bene the valiantnesse of our countreymen, and such hath bene the mightie power of our God. With other like incouragements, exhorting them to behaue themselues manfully, they fell all on their knees making their prayers briefly vnto God: who being all risen vp againe perceiued their enemies by their signes and defiances bent to the spoyle, whose mercy was nothing els but crueltie, whereupon euery man tooke him to his weapon. Then stood vp one Groue the master, being a comely man, with his sword and target, holding them vp in defiance agaynst his enemies. So likewise stood vp the Owner, the Masters mate, Boateswaine, Purser, and euery man well appointed. Nowe likewise sounded vp the drums, trumpets and flutes, which would haue encouraged any man, had he neuer so litle heart or courage in him. Then taketh him to his charge Iohn Foxe the gunner in the disposing of his pieces in order to the best effect, and sending his bullets towards the Turkes, who likewise bestowed their pieces thrise as fast toward the Christians. But shortly they drew neere, so that the bowmen fel to their charge in sending forth their arrowes so thicke amongst the Gallies, and also in doubling their shot so sore vpon the gallies, that there was twise so many of the Turkes slaine, as the number of the Christians were in all. But the Turks discharged twise as fast against the Christians, and so long, that the ship was very sore stricken and bruised vnder water. Which the Turkes perceiuing, made the more haste to come aboord the Shippe: which ere they could doe, many a Turke bought it deerely with the losse of their liues. Yet was all in vaine, and boorded they were, where they found so hote a skirmish, that it had bene better they had not medled with the feast. For the Englishmen shewed themselues men in deed, in working manfully with their browne bils and halbardes: where the owner, master, boateswaine, and their company stoode to it so lustily, that the Turkes were halfe dismaied. [Sidenote: The valour and death of their Boatswaine.] But chiefly the boateswaine shewed himself valiant aboue the rest: for he fared amongst the Turkes like a wood Lion: for there was none of them that either could or durst stand in his face, till at the last there came a shot from the Turkes, which brake his whistle asunder, and smote him on the brest, so that he fell downe, bidding them farewell, and to be of good comfort, encouraging them likewise to winne praise by death, rather then to liue captiues in misery and shame. Which they hearing, in deed intended to haue done, as it appeared by their skirmish: but the prease and store of the Turkes was so great, that they were not able long to endure, but were so ouerpressed, that they could not wield their weapons: by reason whereof, they must needs be taken, which none of them intended to haue bene, but rather to haue died: except onely the masters mate, who shrunke from the skirmish, like a notable coward, esteeming neither the valure of his name, nor accounting of the present example of his fellowes, nor hauing respect to the miseries, whereunto he should be put. But in fine, so it was, that the Turks were victors, whereof they had no great cause to reioyce, or triumph. Then would it haue grieued any hard heart to see these Infidels so violently intreating the Christians, not hauing any respect of their manhood which they had tasted of, nor yet respecting their owne state, how they might haue met with such a bootie, as might haue giuen them the ouerthrow; but no remorse hereof, or any thing els doth bridle their fierce and tirannous dealing, but that the Christians must needs to the gallies, to serue in new offices: and they were no sooner in them, but their garments were pulled ouer their eares, and torne from their backes, and they set to the oares. I will make no mention of their miseries, being now vnder their enemies raging stripes. I thinke there is no man wil iudge their fare good, or their bodies vnloden of stripes, and not pestered with too much heate, and also with too much cold: but I will goe to my purpose, which is, to shew the ende of those, being in meere miserie, which continually doe call on God with a steadfast hope that he will deliuer them, and with a sure faith that he can doe it. Nigh to the citie of Alexandria, being a hauen towne, and vnder the dominion of the Turkes, there is a roade, being made very fensible with strong wals, whereinto the Turkes doe customably bring their gallies on shoare euery yeere, in the winter season, and there doe trimme them, and lay them vp against the spring time. In which road there is a prison, wherein the captiues and such prisoners as serue in the gallies, are put for all that time, vntill the seas be calme and passable for the gallies, euery prisoner being most grieuously laden with irons on their legges, to their great paine, and sore disabling of them to any labour taking. [Sidenote: The Englishmen carried prisoners vnto an Hauen nere Alexandria.] Into which prison were these Christians put, and fast warded all the Winter season. But ere it was long, the Master and the Owner, by meanes of friends, were redeemed: the rest abiding still by the miserie, while that they were all (through reason of their ill vsage and worse fare, miserably starued) sauing one Iohn Fox, who (as some men can abide harder and more miserie, then other some can, so can some likewise make more shift, and worke more deuises to helpe their state and liuing, then other some can doe) being somewhat skilfull in the craft of a Barbour, by reason thereof made great shift in helping his fare now and then with a good meale. Insomuch, til at the last, God sent him fauour in the sight of the keeper of the prison, so that he had leaue to goe in and out to the road, at his pleasure, paying a certaine stipend vnto the keeper, and wearing a locke about his leg: which libertie likewise, sixe more had vpon like sufferance: who by reason of their long imprisonment, not being feared or suspected to start aside, or that they would worke the Turkes any mischiefe, had libertie to go in and out at the sayd road, in such maner, as this Iohn Fox did, with irons on their legs, and to returne againe at night. In the yeere of our Lord 1577. in the Winter season, the gallies happily comming to their accustomed harborow, and being discharged of all their mastes, sailes, and other such furnitures, as vnto gallies doe appertaine, and all the Masters and mariners of them being then nested in their owne homes: there remained in the prison of the said road two hundred threescore and eight Christian prisoners, who had bene taken by the Turks force, and were of sixteen sundry nations. Among which there were three Englishmen, whereof one was named Iohn Foxe of Woodbridge in Suffolke, the other William Wickney of Portsmouth, in the Countie of Southampton, and the third Robert Moore of Harwich in the Countie of Essex. Which Iohn Fox hauing bene thirteene or fourteene yeres vnder their gentle entreatance, and being too too weary thereof, minding his escape, weighed with himselfe by what meanes it might be brought to passe: and continually pondering with himself thereof, tooke a good heart vnto him, in hope that God would not be alwayes scourging his children, and neuer ceassed to pray him to further his pretended enterprise, if that it should redound to his glory. Not farre from the road, and somewhat from thence, at one side of the Citie, there was a certaine victualling house, which one Peter Vnticaro had hired, paying also a certaine fee vnto the keeper of the road. This Peter Vnticaro was a Spaniard borne, and a Christian, and had bene prisoner about thirtie yeeres, and neuer practised any meanes to escape, but kept himselfe quiet without touch or suspect of any conspiracie: vntill that nowe this John Foxe vsing much thither, they brake one to another their mindes, concerning the restraint of their libertie and imprisonment. So that this Iohn Fox at length opening vnto this Vnticaro the deuise which he would faine put in practise, made priuie one more to this their intent. Which three debated of this matter at such times as they could compasse to meete together: insomuch, that at seuen weekes ende they had sufficiently concluded how the matter should be, if it pleased God to farther them thereto: who making fiue more priuie to this their deuise, whom they thought they might safely trust, determined in three nights after to accomplish their deliberate purpose. Whereupon the same Iohn Fox, and Peter Vnticaro, and the other sixe appointed to meete all together in the prison the next day, being the last day of December: where this Iohn Fox certified the rest of the prisoners, what their intent and deuise was, and how and when they minded to bring their purpose to passe: who thereunto perswaded them without much a doe to further their deuise. Which the same Iohn Fox seeing, deliuered vnto them a sort of files, which he had gathered together for this purpose, by the meanes of Peter Vnticaro, charging them that euery man should be readie discharged of his yrons by eight of the clocke on the the next day at night. [Sidenote: Januarie.] On the next day at night, this said Iohn Fox, and his sixe other companions, being all come to the house of Peter Vnticaro, passing the time away in mirth for feare of suspect, till the night came on, so that it was time for them to put in practise their deuise, sent Peter Vnticaro to the master of the roade, in the name of one of the Masters of the citie, with whom this keeper was acquainted, and at whose request he also would come at the first: who desired him to take the paines to meete him there, promising him, that he would bring him backe againe. The keeper agreed to goe with him, willing the warders not to barre the gate, saying, that he would not stay long, but would come againe with all speede. In the meane season, the other seuen had prouided them of such weapons, as they could get in that house: and Iohn Fox tooke him to an olde rustie sword blade, without either hilt or pomell, which he made to serue his turne, in bending the hand ende of the sword, in steed of a pomell, and the other had got such spits and glaiues as they found in the house. The keeper now being come vnto the house, and perceiuing no light, nor hearing any noyse, straight way suspected the matter: and returning backward, Iohn Fox standing behind the corner of the house, stepped foorth vnto him: who perceiuing it to be Iohn Fox, saide, O Fox, what haue I deserued of thee, that thou shouldest seeke my death? Thou villaine (quoth Fox) hast bene a bloodsucker of many a Christians blood, and now thou shalt know what thou hast deserued at my handes: wherewith he lift vp his bright shining sword of tenne yeeres rust, and stroke him so maine a blowe, as therewithall his head claue a sunder, so that he fell starke dead to the ground. Whereupon Peter Vnticaro went in, and certified the rest how the case stood with the keeper: who came presently foorth, and some with their spits ranne him through, and the other with their glaiues hewed him in sunder, cut off his head, and mangled him so, that no man should discerne what he was. Then marched they toward the roade, whereinto they entered softly, where were six warders, whom one of them asked, saying, who was there? quoth Fox and his company, all friendes. Which when they were all within, proued contrary: for, quoth Fox, my masters, here is not to euery man a man, wherefore looke you play your parts. Who so behaued themselues in deede, that they had dispatched these sixe quickly. Then Iohn Fox intending not to be barred of his enterprise, and minding to worke surely in that which he went about, barred the gate surely, and planted a Canon against it. Then entred they into the Gailers lodge, where they found the keyes of the fortresse and prison by his bed side, and there had they all better weapons. In this chamber was a chest, wherein was a rich treasure, and all in duckats, which this Peter Vnticaro, and two more, opening, staffed themselues so full as they could, betweene their shirts and their skinne: which Iohn Fox would not once touch, and sayde, that it was his and their libertie which he sought for, to the honour of his God, and not to make a marte of the wicked treasure of the Infidels. Yet did these words sinke nothing into their stomakes, they did it for a good intent: so did Saul saue the fattest Oxen, to offer vnto the Lord, and they to serue their owne turnes. But neither did Saul scape the wrath of God therefore, neither had these that thing which they desired so, and did thirst after. Such is Gods iustice. He that they put their trust in, to deliuer them from the tyrannous hands of their enemies, he (I say) could supply their want of necessaries. Nowe these eight being armed with such weapons as they thought well of, thinking themselues sufficient champions to encounter a stronger enemie, and coming vnto the prison, Fox opened the gates and doores thereof, and called forth all the prisoners, whom he set, some to ramming vp the gate, some to the dressing vp of a certaine gallie, which was the best in all the roade, and was called the captaine of Alexandria, whereinto some caried mastes, sailes, oares, and other such furniture as doth belong vnto a gallie. At the prison were certaine warders, whom Iohn Fox and his companie slewe: in the killing of whom, there were eight more of the Turkes, which perceiued them, and got them to the toppe of the prison: vnto whom Iohn Fox, and his company, were faine to come by ladders, where they found a hot skirmish. For some of them were there slaine, some wounded, and some but scarred, and not hurt. As Iohn Fox was thrise shot through his apparell, and not hurt. Peter Vnticaro, and the other two, that had armed them with the duckats, were slaine, as not able to weild themselues, being so pestered with the weight and vneasie carying of the wicked and prophane treasure: and also diuerse Christians were aswell hurt about that skirmish, as Turkes slaine. Amongst the Turkes was one thrust thorowe, who (let vs not say that it was ill fortune) fell off from the toppe of the prison wall, and made such a lowing, that the inhabitants thereabout (as here and there scattering stoode a house or two) came and dawed [Footnote: To awaken: here to bring back to his senses. I know of no other instance where it bears just this meaning. "The other side from whence the morning daws." (_Polyolbion X._)] him, so that they vnderstood the case, how that the prisoners were paying their ransomes: wherewith they raised both Alexandria which lay on the west side of the roade, and a Castle which was at the Cities end, next to the roade, and also an other Fortresse which lay on the Northside of the roade: so that nowe they had no way to escape, but one, which by mans reason (the two holdes lying so vpon the mouth of the roade) might seeme impossible to be a way for them. So was the red sea impossible for the Israelites to passe through, the hils and rockes lay so on the one side, and their enemies compassed on the other. So was it impossible, that the wals of Iericho should fall downe, being neither vndermined, nor yet rammed at with engines, nor yet any mans wisedome, pollicie, or helpe set or put thereunto. Such impossibilities can our God make possible. He that helde the Lyons iawes from renting Daniel asunder, yea, or yet from once touching him to his hurt: can not he hold the roring cannons of this hellish force? He that kept the fiers rage in the hot burning Ouen, from the three children, that praised his name, can not he keepe the fiers flaming blastes from among his elect? Now is the road fraught with lustie souldiers, laborers, and mariners, who are faine to stand to their tackling, in setting to euery man his hand, some to the carying in of victuals, some munitions, some oares, and some one thing, some another, but most are keeping their enemie from the wall of the road. But to be short, there was no time mispent, no man idle, nor any mans labour ill bestowed, or in vaine. So that in short time, this gally was ready trimmed vp. Whereinto euery man leaped in all haste, hoyssing vp the sayles lustily, yeelding themselues to his mercie and grace, in whose hands are both winde and weather. Now is this gally on flote, and out of the safetie of the roade: now haue the two Castles full power vpon the gally, now is there no remedy but to sinke: how can it be auoided? The canons let flie from both sides, and the gally is euen in the middest, and betweene them both. What man can deuise to saue it? there is no man, but would thinke it must needes be sunke. There was not one of them that feared the shotte, which went thundring round about their eares, nor yet were once scarred or touched, with fiue and forty shot, which came from the Castles. Here did God hold foorth his buckler, he shieldeth now this gally, and hath tried their faith to the vttermost. Now commeth his speciall helpe: yea, euen when man thinks them past all helpe then commeth he himselfe downe from heauen with his mightie power, then is his present remedie most readie prest. For they saile away, being not once touched with the glaunce of a shot, and are quickly out of the Turkish canons reach. Then might they see them comming downe by heapes to the water side, in companies like vnto swarmes of bees, making shew to come after them with gallies, in bustling themselues to dresse vp the gallies, which would be a swift peece of worke for them to doe, for that they had neither oares, mastes, sailes, gables, nor any thing else ready in any gally. But yet they are carrying them into them, some into one gally, and some into another, so that, being such a confusion amongst them, without any certaine guide, it were a thing impossible to ouertake them: beside that, there was no man that would take charge of a gally, the weather was so rough, and there was such an amasednes amongst them. And verely I thinke their God was amased thereat: it could not be but he must blush for shame, he can speake neuer a word for dulnes, much lease can he helpe them in such an extremitie. Well, howsoeuer it is, he is very much to blame, to suffer them to receiue such a gibe. But howsoeuer their God behaued himselfe, our God shewed himselfe a God indeede, and that he was the onely liuing God: for the seas were swift vnder his faithfull, which made the enemies agast to behold them, a skilfuller Pilot leades them, and their mariners bestirre them lustily: but the Turkes had neither mariners, Pilot, nor any skilfull Master, that was in a readinesse at this pinch. When the Christians were safe out of the enemies coast, Iohn Fox called to them all, willing them to be thankfull vnto almighty God for their deliuerie, and most humbly to fall downe vpon their knees, beseeching him to aide them vnto their friends land, and not to bring them into an other daunger, sith hee had most mightily deliuered them from so great a thraldome and bondage. Thus when euery man had made his petition, they fell straight way to their labour with the oares, in helping one another, when they were wearied, and with great labour striuing to come to some Christian land, as neere as they could gesse by the starres. But the windes were so diuers, one while driuing them this way, that they were now in a newe maze, thinking that God had forsaken them, and left them to a greater danger. And forasmuch as there were no victuals now left in the gally, it might haue beene a cause to them (if they had beene the Israelites) to haue murmured against their God: but they knew how that their God, who had deliuered them out of Ægypt, was such a louing and mercifull God, as that hee would not suffer them to be confounded, in whom he had wrought so great a wonder: but what calamitie soeuer they sustained, they knew it was but for their further triall, and also (in putting them in mind of their farther miserie) to cause them not to triumph and glory in themselues therefore. [Sidenote: Extremity of famine.] Hauing (I say) no victuals in the galley, it might seeme that one miserie continually fel vpon an others neck: but to be briefe, the famine grew to be so great, that in 28 dayes, wherein they were on the sea, there died eight persons, to the astonishment of all the rest. So it fell out, that vpon the 29 day, after they set from Alexandria, they fell on the Isle of Candie, and landed at Gallipoli, where they were made much of by the Abbot and Monks there, who caused them to stay there, while they were well refreshed and eased. [Sidenote: John Fox his sword kept as a monument in Gallipoli.] They kept there the sworde, wherewith Iohn Fox had killed the keeper, esteeming it as a most precious iewell, and hung it vp for a monument. When they thought good, hauing leaue to depart from thence, they sayled along the coast, till they arriued at Tarento, where they solde their gallie, and deuided it, euery man hauing a part thereof. The Turkes receiuing so shamefull a foile at their hand, pursued the Christians, and scoured the seas, where they could imagine that they had bent their course. And the Christians had departed from thence on the one day in the morning, and seuen gallies of the Turkes came thither that night, as it was certified by those who followed Fox, and his companie, fearing least they should haue bene met with. And then they came a foote to Naples, where they departed a sunder, euery man taking him to his next way home. From whence Iohn Fox tooke his iourney vnto Rome, where he was well entertayned of an Englishman, who presented his worthy deede vnto the Pope, who rewarded him liberally, and gaue him his letters vnto the king of Spaine, where he was very well entertained of him there, who for this his most worthy enterprise gaue him in fee twenty pence a day. From whence, being desirous to come into his owne countrie, he came thither at such time as he conueniently could, which was in the yeere of our Lorde God, 1579. Who being come into England, went vnto the Court, and shewed all his trauell vnto the Councell: who considering of the state of this man, in that hee had spent and lost a great part of his youth in thraldome and bondage, extended to him their liberalitie, to helpe to maintaine him now in age, to their right honour, and to the incouragement of all true hearted Christians. * * * * * The copie of the certificate for Iohn Fox, and his companie, made by the Prior, and the brethren of Gallipoli, where they first landed. We the Prior, and Fathers of the Couent of the Amerciates, of the city of Gallipoli, of the order of Preachers doe testifie, that vpon the 29 of Ianuary last past, 1577, there came into the said citie a certaine gally from Alexandria, taken from the Turkes, with two hundreth fiftie and eight Christians, whereof was principal Master Iohn Fox, an Englishman, a gunner, and one of the chiefest that did accomplish that great worke, whereby so many Christians haue recouered their liberties. In token and remembrance whereof, vpon our earnest request to the same Iohn Fox, he hath left here an olde sworde, wherewith he slewe the keeper of the prison: which sword we doe as a monument and memoriall of so worthy a deede, hang vp in the chiefe place of our Couent house. And for because all things aforesaid, are such as we will testifie to be true, as they are orderly passed, and haue therefore good credite, that so much as is aboue expressed is true, and for the more faith thereof, we the Prior, and Fathers aforesaide, haue ratified and subscribed these presents. Geuen in Gallipoly, the third of Februarie 1577. I Frier Vincent Barba, Prior of the same place, confirme the premisses, as they are aboue written. I Frier Albert Damaro, of Gallipoly, Subprior, confirme as much. I Frier Anthony Celleler of Gallipoly, confirme as aforesaid. I Frier Bartlemew of Gallipoly, confirme as aboue said. I Frier Francis of Gallipoly, confirme as much. * * * * * The Bishop of Rome his letters in the behalfe of Iohn Fox. Be it knowen vnto all men, to whom this writing shall come, that the bringer hereof Iohn Fox Englishman, a Gunner, after he had serued captiue in the Turkes gallies, by the space of foureteene yeeres, at length, thorough God his helpe, taking good opportunitie, the third of Ianuarie last past, slew the keeper of the prison, (whom he first stroke on the face) together with four and twentie other Turkes, by the assistance of his fellow prisoners: and with 266. Christians (of whose libertie he was the author) launched from Alexandria, and from thence arriued first at Gallipoly in Candie, and afterwardes at Tarento in Apulia: the written testimony and credite of which things, as also of others, the same Iohn Fox hath in publike tables from Naples. Vpon Easter eue he came to Rome, and is now determined to take his iourney to the Spanish Court, hoping there to obtaine some reliefe toward his liuing: wherefore the poore distressed man humbly beseecheth, and we in his behalfe do in the bowels of Christ, desire you, that taking compassion of his former captiuitie, and present penurie, you doe not onely suffer him freely to passe throughout all your cities and townes, but also succour him with your charitable almes, the reward whereof you shall hereafter most assuredly receiue, which we hope you will afford to him, whom with tender affection of pitie wee commende vnto you. At Rome, the 20 of Aprill 1577. Thomas Grolos Englishman Bishop of Astraphen. Richard Silleum Prior Angliæ. Andreas Ludouicus Register to our Soueraigne Lord the Pope, which for the greater credit of the premises, haue set my seale to these presents. At Rome, the day and yeere aboue written. Mauricius Clement the gouernour and keeper of the English Hospitall in the citie. * * * * * The King of Spaine his letters to the Lieutenant, for the placing of Iohn Fox in the office of a Gunner. To the illustrious Prince, Vespasian Gonsaga Colonna, our Lieutenant and Captaine Generall of our Realme of Valentia. Hauing consideration, that Iohn Fox Englishman hath serued vs, and was one of the most principall, which tooke away from the Turkes a certaine gallie, which they haue brought to Tarento, wherein were two hundred, fiftie, and eight Christian captiues: we licence him to practise, and giue him the office of a Gunner, and haue ordained, that he goe to our said Realme, there to serue in the said office in the Gallies, which by our commandement are lately made. And we doe commaund, that you cause to be payed to him eight ducats pay a moneth, for the time that he shall serue in the saide Gallies as a Gunner, or till we can otherwise prouide for him, the saide eight duckats monethly of the money which is already of our prouision, present and to come, and to haue regarde of those which come with him. From Escuriall the tenth of August, 1577. I the King, Iuan del Gado. And vnder that a confirmation of the Councell. * * * * * The voyage made to Tripolis in Barbarie, in the yeere 1583. with a ship called the Iesus, wherein the aduentures and distresses of some Englishmen are truely reported, and other necessary circumstances obserued. Written by Thomas Sanders. This voyage was set foorth by the right worshipfull sir Edward Osborne knight, chiefe merchant of all the Turkish company, and one master Richard Staper, the ship being of the burden of one hundred tunnes, called the Iesus, she was builded at Farmne a riuer by Portsmouth. The owners were master Thomas Thomson, Nicholas Carnaby, and Iohn Gilman. The master was one Aches Hellier of Black-wall, and his Mate was one Richard Morris of that place: their Pilot was one Anthonie Ierado a Frenchman, of the prouince of Marseils: the purser was one William Thomson our owners sonne: the merchants factors were Romane Sonnings a Frenchman, and Richard Skegs seruant vnto the said master Staper. The owners were bound vnto the marchants by charter partie therevpon, in one thousand markes, that the said ship by Gods permission should goe for Tripolis in Barbarie, that is to say, first from Portsmouth to Newhauen in Normandie, from thence to S. Lucar, otherwise called Saint Lucas, in Andeluzia, and from thence to Tripolie, which is in the East part of Africa, and so to returne vnto London. [Sidenote: Man doth purpose, and God doth dispose.] But here ought euery man to note and consider the workes of our God, that many times what man doth determine God doth disappoint. The said master hauing some occasion to goe to Farmne, tooke with him the Pilot and the Purser, and returning againe by meanes of a perrie of winde, the boat wherein they were, was drowned, with the said master, the purser, and all the company: onely the said Pilot by experience in swimming saued himselfe: these were the beginnings of our sorrowes. [Sidenote: A new master chosen.] After which the said masters mate would not proceed in that voiage, and the owner hearing of this misfortune, and the unwillingnesse of the masters mate, did send downe one Richard Deimond, and shipped him for master, who did chuse for his Mate one Andrew Dier, and so the said ship departed on her voiage accordingly: that is to say, about the 16. of October, in An. 1583. she made saile from Portsmouth, [Sidenote: The new master died.] and the 18 day then next following she arriued at Newhauen, where our saide last master Deimond by a surfeit died. The factors then appointed the said Andrew Dier, being then masters mate, to be their master for that voiage, who did chuse to be his Mates the two quarter masters of the same ship, to wit, Peter Austine, and Shillabey, and for Purser was shipped one Richard Burges. Afterward about the 8. day of Nouember we made saile forthward, and by force of weather we were driuen backe againe into Portesmouth, where we renued our victuals and other necessaries, and then the winde came faire. About the 29. day then next following we departed thence, and the first day of December by meanes of a contrarie winde, we were driuen to Plimmouth. The 18. day then next following, we made foorthward againe, and by force of weather we were driuen to Falmouth, where we remained vntill the first day of Ianuary: at which time the winde comming faire, we departed thence, and about the 20. day of the said moneth we arriued safely at S. Lucar. [Sidenote: The Iesus arriued in Tripolis.] And about the 9. day of March next following, we made saile from thence, and about the 18. day of the same moneth we came to Tripolis in Barbarie, where we were verie well intertained by the king of that countrey, and also of the commons. The commodities of that place are sweete oiles: the king there is a merchant, and the rather (willing to preferre himselfe before his commons) requested our said factors to traffique with him, and promised them that if they would take his oiles at his owne price, they should pay no maner of custome, and they tooke of him certaine tunnes of oile: and afterwarde perceiuing that they might haue farre better cheape notwithstanding the custome free, they desired the king to licence them to take the oiles at the pleasure of his commons, for that his price did exceede theirs: whereunto the king would not agree, but was rather contended to abate his price, insomuch that the factors bought all their oyles of the king custome free, and so laded the same aboord. [Sidenote: Another ship of Bristow came to Tripolis.] In the meane time there came to that place one Miles Dickenson in a ship of Bristow, who together with our said Factors tooke a house to themselues there. Our French Factor Romane Sonnings desired to buy a commodity in the market, and wanting money, desired the saide Miles Dickenson to lend him an hundred Chikinoes vntill he came to his lodging, which he did, and afterward the same Sonnings mette with Miles Dickenson in the streete, and deliuered him money bound vp in a napkin: saying, master Dickenson there is the money I borrowed of you, and so thanked him for the same: hee doubted nothing lesse then falshoode, which is seldome knowne among marchants, and specially being together in one house, and is the more detestable betweene Christians, they being in Turkie among the heathen. The said Dickenson did not tell the money presently, vntill he came to his lodging, and then finding nine Chikinoes lacking of his hundred, which was about three pounds, for that euery Chikino is woorth seuen shillings of English money, he came to the sayde Romane Sonnings and deliuered him his handkerchiefe, and asked him howe many Chikinoes hee had deliuered him! Sonnings answered, an hundred: Dickenson, said no: and so they protested and swore on both parts. But in the ende the said Romane Sonnings did sweare deepely with detestable othes and curses, and prayed God that he might shewe his workes on him, that other might take ensample thereby, and that he might be hanged like a dogge, and neuer come into England againe, if he did not deliuer vnto the sayde Dickenson an hundred Chikinoes. And here beholde a notable example of all blasphemers, curses and swearers, how God rewarded him accordingly: for many times it cometh to passe, that God sheweth his miracles vpon such monstrous blasphemers, to the ensample of others, as nowe hereafter you shall heare what befell to this Romane Sonnings. There was a man in the said towne a pledge, whose name was Patrone Norado, who the yere before had done this Sonnings some pleasure there. The foresaid Patrone Norado was indebted vnto a Turke of that towne in the summe of foure hundred and fiftie crownes, for certain goods sent by him into Christendome in a ship of his owne, and by his owne brother, and himselfe remained in Tripolis as pledge vntill his said brothers returne: and, as the report went there, after his brothers arriual into Christendome, he came among lewde companie, and lost his brothers said ship and goods at dice, and neuer returned vnto him againe. [Sidenote: A conspiracie practiced by the French Factor, to deceiue a Turkish marchant of 450 crowns.] The said Patrone Norado being voyde of all hope, and finding now opportunitie, consulted with the said Sonnings for to swimme a seaboorde the Islands, and the ship being then out of danger, should take him in (as after was confessed) and so to goe to Tolan in the prouince of Marseilis with this Patrone Norado, and there to take in his lading. The shippe being readie the first day of May, and hauing her sayles all aboorde, our sayde Factors did take their leaue of the king, who very courteously bidde them farwell, and when they came aboorde, they commanded the Master and the companie hastily to get out the ship: the Master answered that it was vnpossible, for that the winde was contrary and ouer-blowed. And he required vs vpon forfeiture of our bandes, that we should doe our endeuour to get her foorth. Then went wee to warpe out the shippe, and presently the king sent a boate aboord of vs, with three men in her, commaunding the saide Sonnings to come a shoare: at whose coming, the king demaunded of him custome for the oyles: Sonnings answered him that his highnesse had promised to deliuer them custome free. But notwithstanding the king weighed not his said promise, and as an infidell that hath not the feare of God before his eyes, nor regarde of his worde, albeit he was a king, hee caused the sayde Sonnings to pay the custome to the vttermost penie. And afterwarde willed him to make haste away, saying, that the Ianizaries would haue the oyle ashoare againe. These Ianizaries are souldiers there vnder the great Turke, and their power is aboue the Kings. And so the saide Factor departed from the king, and came to the waterside, and called for a boate to come aboorde, and he brought with him the foresaid Patrone Norado. [Sidenote: The beginning of their troubles, and occasion of all their miserie.] The companie inquisitiue to know what man that was, Sonnings answered, that he was his countrymen, a passenger: I pray God said the companie, that we come not into trouble by this man. Then said Sonnings angerly, what haue you to do with any matters of mine? if any thing chance otherwise then well, I must answer for all. Now the Turke vnto whom this Patrone Norado was indebted, missing him (supposed him to be aboorde of our shippe) presently went vnto the King, and tolde him that hee thought that his pledge Patrone Norado was aboord of the English ship, whereupon the King presently sent a boat aboord of vs, with three men in her commanding the said Sonnings to come a shoare, and not speaking any thing as touching the man, he saide that he would come presently in his owne boate, but as soone as they were gone, he willed vs to warp foorth the ship, and saide that he would see the knaues hanged before he would goe a shoare. And when the king sawe that he came not a shoare, but still continued warping away the shippe, he straight commaunded the gunner of the bulwarke next vnto vs, to shoote three shootes without ball. Then we came all to the said Sonnings, and asked of him what the matter was that we were shot at, he said that it was the Ianizaries who would haue the oyle a shoare againe, and willed vs to make haste away, and after that he had discharged three shots without ball, he commaunded all the gunners in the towne to doe their indeuour to sinke vs, but the Turkish gunners could not once strike vs, wherefore the king sent presently to the Banio: (this Banio is the prison whereas all the captiues lay at night) and promised if that there were any that could either sinke vs, or else cause vs to come in againe, he should haue a hundred crownes, and his libertie. With that came foorth a Spaniard called Sebastian, which had bene an olde seruitor in Flanders, and he said, that vpon the performance of that promise, hee would vndertake either to sinke vs, or to cause vs to come in againe, and therto he would gage his life, and at the first shotte he split our rudders head in pieces, and the second shotte he shotte vs vnder the water, and the third shotte he shotte vs through our foremast with a Coluering shot, and thus he hauing rent both our rudder and maste, and shot vs vnder water, we were inforced to goe in againe. This Sebastian for all his diligence herein, had neither his liberty, nor an hundred crownes, so promised by the said king, but after his seruice done was committed againe to prison, whereby may appeare the regard that the Turke or infidell hath of his worde, although he be able to performe it, yea more, though he be a king. Then, our merchants seeing no remedie, they together with fiue of our companie went a shoare, and then they ceased shooting: they shot vnto vs in the whole, nine and thirtie shootes, without the hurt of any man. And when our marchants came a shoare, the King commaunded presently that they with the rest of our companie that were with them, should be cheined foure and foure, to a hundred waight of yron, and when we came in with the ship, there came presently aboue an hundred Turks aboord of vs, and they searched vs, and stript our very clothes from our backes, and brake open our chests, and made a spoyle of all that we had: and the Christian caitifes likewise, that came a boord of vs made spoyle of our goods, and vsed vs as ill as the Turkes did. And our masters mate hauing a Geneua Bible in his hand, there came the kings chiefe gunner, and tooke it out from him, who shewed me of it, and I hauing the language, went presently to the kings treasurer, and tolde him of it, saying, that sith it was the will of God that we should fall into their handes, yet that they should grant us to vse our consciences to our owne discretion, as they suffered the Spaniards and other nations to vse theirs, and he graunted vs: then I told him that the maister gunner had taken away a Bible from one of our men: the Treasurer went presently and commaunded him to deliuer vp the Bible againe, which he did: and within a litle after he tooke it from the man againe, and I shewed the Treasurer of it, and presently he commaunded him to deliuer it againe: saying, thou villaine, wilt thou turne to Christianitie againe? for he was a Renegado, which is one that first was a Christian, and afterwards becommeth a Turke, and so he deliuered me the Bible the second time. And then I hauing it in my hand, the gunner came to me, and spake these wordes, saying, thou dogge, I wil haue the booke in despight of thee, and tooke it from me, saying: If thou tell the kings treasurer of it any more, by Mahomet I will be reuenged of thee. Notwithstanding I went the third time vnto the kings Treasurer, and tolde him of it, and he came with me, saying thus unto the gunner: by the head of the great Turke, if thou take it from him againe, thou shalt haue an hundred bastonadoes. And foorthwith he deliuered me the booke, saying, he had not the value of a pin of the spoyle of the ship, which was the better for him, as hereafter you shall heare: for there was none, neither Christian nor Turke that tooke the value of a peniworth of our goods from vs, but perished both bodie and goods within seuenteene moneths following, as hereafter shall plainely appeare. Then came the Guardian Basha, which is the keeper of the kings captiues, to fetch vs all a shoare, and then I remembring the miserable estate of poore distressed captiues, in the time of their bondage to those infidels, went to mine owne chest, and tooke out thereof a iarre of oyle, and filled a basket full of white Ruske to carie a shoare with me, but before I came to the Banio, the Turkish boyes had taken away almost all my bread, and the keeper saide, deliuer me the iarre of oyle, and when thou commest to the Banio thou shalt haue it againe, but I neuer had it of him any more. But when I came to the Banio, and sawe our Marchants and all the rest of our company in chaines, and we all ready to receiue the same reward, what heart in the world is there so hard, but would haue pitied our cause, hearing or seeing the lamentable greeting there was betwixt vs: all this happened the first of May 1584. [Sidenote: The Englishmen arraigned.] And the second day of the same moneth, the King with all his counsell sate in Judgment vpon vs. The first that were had forth to be arraigned, were the Factors, and the Masters, and the King asked them wherefore they came not a shoare when he sent for them. And Romaine Sonnings answered, that though he were king on shoare, and might commaunde there, so was hee as touching those that were vnder him: and therefore said, if any offence be, the fault is wholly in my selfe, and in no other. Then foorthwith the king gaue iudgement, that the saide Romaine Sonnings should be hanged ouer the Northeast bulwarke: from whence he conueyed the forenamed Patrone Norado, and then he called for our Master Andrew Dier, and vsed fewe wordes to him, and so condemned him to be hanged ouer the walles of the Westermost bulwarke. Then fell our other Factor (named Richard Skegs) vpon his knees before the king, and said, I beseech your highnesse either to pardon our Master, or else suffer me to die for him, for he is ignorant of this cause. And then the people of that countrey fauouring the said Richard Skegs besought the king to pardon them both. So then the king spake these wordes: Beholde for thy sake, I pardon the Master. Then presently the Turkes shouted, and cried, saying: Away with the Master from the presence of the king. And then he came into the Banio whereas we were, and tolde vs what had happened, and we all reioyced at the good hap of master Skegs, that hee was saued, and our Master for his sake. [Sidenote: Master Dier condemned to be hanged ouer a bulwarke.] But afterward our ioy was turned to double sorrow, for in the meane time the kings minde was altered: for that one of his counsell had aduised him, that vnlesse the Master died also, by the lawe they could not confiscate the ship nor goods, neither captive any of the men: whereupon the king sent for our Master againe, and gaue him another iudgement after his pardon for one cause, which was that hee should be hanged. Here all true Christians may see what trust a Christian man may put in an infidels promise, who being a King pardoned a man nowe, as you haue heard, and within an houre after hanged him for the same cause before a whole multitude: and also promised our Factors their oyles custome free, and at their going away made them pay the vttermost penie for the custome thereof. [Sidenote: A Frenshman turned Turke, in hope of his life, and afterwards was hanged.] And when that Romaine Sonnings saw no remedy but that he should die, he protested to turne Turke, hoping thereby to haue saued his life. Then said the Turke, if thou wilt turne Turke, speake the words that thereunto belong: and he did so. Then saide they vnto him, Now thou shalt die in the faithe of a Turke, and so hee did, as the Turkes reported that were at his execution. And the forenamed Patrone Norado, whereas before he had libertie and did nothing he then was condemned slaue perpetuall, except there were paiment made of the foresaid summe of money. Then the king condemned all vs, who were in number sixe and twentie, of the which, two were hanged (as you haue heard) and one died the first day wee came on shoare, by the visitation of Almightie God: and the other three and twentie he condemned slaues perpetually vnto the great Turke, and the ship and goods were confiscated to the vse of the great Turke: and then we all fell downe vpon our knees, giuing God thankes for this sorrowfull visitation, and giuing our selues wholy to the Almightie power of God, vnto whom all secrets are knowen, that he of his goodnesse would vouchsafe to looke vpon vs. Here may all true Christian hearts see the wonderfull workes of God shewed vpon such infidels, blasphemers, whoremasters, and renegate Christians, and so you shall reade in the ende of this booke, of the like vpon the vnfaithfull king and all his children, and of as many as tooke any portion of the said goods. [Sidenote: Euery fiue men allowed but two pence of bread a day.] But first to shewe our miserable bondage and slauerie, and vnto what small pittance and allowance wee were tied, for euery fiue men had allowance but fiue aspers of bread in a day, which is but two pence English: and our lodging was to lye on the bare boards, with a very simple cape to couer vs, wee were also forceably and most violently shauen, head and beard, and within three dayes after, I and six more of my fellowes, together with fourescore Italians and Spaniards were sent foorth in a Galeot to take a Greekish Carmosell, which came into Africa to steale Negroes, and went out of Tripolis vnto that place, which was two hundred and fourtie leagues thence, but wee were chained three and three to an oare, and wee rowed naked aboue the girdle, and the Boteswaine of the Galley walked abaft the maste, and his Mate afore the maste, and eche of them a bulls pissell dried in their handes, and when their diuelish choller rose, they would strike the Christians for no cause: and they allowed vs but halfe a pound of bread a man in a day without any other kinde of sustenance, water excepted. And when we came to the place whereas wee saw the Carmosell, we were not suffered to haue neither needle, bodkin, knife, or any other weapon about vs, nor at any other time in the night, vpon paine of one hundred bastonadoes: wee were then also cruelly manackled in such sort, that we could not put our handes the length of one foote asunder the one from the other, and euery night they searched our chaines three times, to see if they were fast riueted: Wee continued fight with the Carmosell three houres, and then wee tooke it, and lost but two of our men in that fight, but there were slaine of the Greekes fiue, and foureteene were cruelly hurt, and they that were sound, were presently made slaues and chained to the oares: and within fifteene dayes after we returned againe into Tripolis, and then wee were put to all maner of slauerie. [Sidenote: The Turkes builded a church.] I was put to hewe stones, and other to cary stones, and some to draw the Cart with earth, and some to make morter, and some to draw stones, (for at that time the Turkes builded a church:) And thus we were put to all kinde of slauerie that was to be done. And in the time of our being there, the Moores that are the husbandmen of the countrey rebelled against the king, because he would haue constrained them to pay greater tribute then heretofore they had done, so that the Souldiours of Tripolis marched foorth of the towne to haue ioyned battell against the Moores for their rebellion, and the King sent with them foure pieces of Ordinance, which were drawen by the captiues twenty miles into the Country after them, and at the sight thereof the Moores fled and then the Captaines returned backe againe. Then I and certaine Christians more were sent twelue miles into the countrey with a Cart to lode timber, and we returned againe the same day. [Sidenote: The Christians sent 3. times a weeke 30 miles to fetch wood.] Nowe the king had 18. captiues, which three times a weeke went to fetch wood thirtie miles from the towne: and on a time he appointed me for one of the 18. and wee departed at eight of the clocke in the night, and vpon the way as wee rode vpon the camels, I demaunded of one of our company, who did direct vs the way? he sayd, that there was a Moore in our company which was our guide: and I demavnded of them how Tripolis and the wood bare one of the other? and hee said, East Northeast and West Southwest. And at midnight or neere thereabouts, as I was riding vpon my camel, I fell asleepe, and the guide and all the rest rode away from me, not thinking but I had bene among them. When I awoke, and finding my selfe alone durst not call nor hallow for feare least the wilde Moores should heare me, because they holde this opinion, that in killing a Christian they do God good seruice: and musing with my selfe what were best for me to do, if I should goe foorth, and the wilde Moores should hap to meete with mee, they would kill mee: and on the other side, if I should returne backe to Tripolis without any wood or company, I should be most miserably vsed: therefore of two euils, rather I had to goe foorth to the loosing of my life, then to turne backe and trust to their mercie, fearing to bee vsed as before I had seene others: for vnderstanding by some of my company before, howe Tripolis and the saide wood did lie one off another, by the North starre I went forth at aduenture, and as God would haue it, I came right to the place where they were, euen about an houre before day: there altogether wee rested and gaue our camels prouender, and assoone as the day appeared, we rode all into the wood: and I seeing no wood there, but a sticke here and a sticke there, about the bignesse of a mans arme growing in the sand, it caused mee to maruile how so many camels should be loden in that place. The wood was Iuniper, we needed no axe nor edge toole to cut it, but pluckt it vp by strength of hands rootes and all, which a man might easily do, and so gathered it together, a little at one place and so at another, and laded our camels, and came home about seuen of the clocke that night following: because I fell lame, and my camel was tired, I left my wood in the way. [Sidenote: Eighteene captiues run away from Tripolis.] There was in Tripolis that time a Venetian, whose name was Benedetto Venetiano, and seuenteene captiues more of his company, which ranne away from Tripolis in a boate, and came in sight of an Island called Malta, which lieth fourtie leagues from Tripolis right North, and being within a mile of the shoare, and very faire weather, one of their company said, In dispetto de Dio adesso venio a pilliar terra, which is as much to say: In the despite of God I shall now fetch the shoare, [Sidenote: The iudgement of God vpon blasphemers.] and presently there arose a mighty storme, with thunder and raine and the wind at North, their boate being very small, so that they were inforced to beare vp roome, and to sheare right afore the winde ouer against the coast of Barbarie from whence they came, and rowing vp and downe the coast, their victuals being spent, the 21. day after their departure they were inforced through the want of food to come ashoare, thinking to haue stolne some sheepe: but the Moores of the country very craftily perceiuing their intent, gathered together a threescore horsemen, and hid themselues behinde a sandie hill, and when the Christians were come all a shoare, and past vp halfe a mile into the countrey, the Moores rode betwixt them and their boate, and some of them pursued the Christians, and so they were all taken and brought to Tripolis, from whence they had before escaped: and presently the king commaunded that the foresaide Benedetto with one more of his company should lose their eares, and the rest should be most cruelly beaten, which was presenly done. [Sidenote: The Greene Dragon.] This king had a sonne which was a ruler in an Island called Gerbi, whereunto arriued an English shippe called the Greene Dragon, of the which was Master one M. Blonket, who hauing a very vnhappy boy in that shippe, and vnderstanding that whosoeuer would turne Turke should be well enterteined of the kings sonne, this boy did runne a shoare, and voluntarily turned Turke. Shortly after the kings sonne came to Tripolis to visite his father, and seeing our company, hee greatly fancied Richard Burges our Purser, and Iames Smith: they were both yong men, therefore he was very desirous to haue them to turne Turkes, but they would not yeeld to his desire, saying: We are your fathers slaues, and as slaues wee will serue him. Then his father the king sent for them, and asked them if they would turne Turkes? And they saide: If it please your highnesse, Christians we were borne, and so we will remaine, beseeched the king that they might not bee inforced thereunto. [Sidenote: The Kings sonne had a captiue that was sonne to one of the Queenes Maiesties guard, that was forced to turne Turke.] The king had there before in his hosue a sonne of a yeoman of our Queenes guard, whom the kings sonne had inforced to turne Turke, his name was Iohn Nelson: him the king caused to be brought to these yong men, and thea said vnto them: Wil not you beare this your countreymen company, and be Turke as hee is? And they saide, that they would not yeeld thereunto during life. But it fell out, that within a moneth after, the kings sonne went home to Gerbi againe, being sixe score miles from Tripolis, and carried our two foresaid yong men with him, which were Richard Burges, and Iames Smith: and after their departure from vs, they sent vs a letter, signifying that there was no violence shewed vnto them as yet, but within three dayes after they were violently vsed, for that the kings sonne demaunded of them againe, if that they would turne Turke? Then answered Richard Burges, a Christian I am, and so I will remaine. Then the kings sonne very angerly said vnto him: By Mahomet thou shall presently be made Turke. Then called he for his men, and commaunded them to make him Turke, and they did so, and circumcised him, and would haue had him speake the wordes that thereunto belonged, but he answered them stoutly that he would not: and although they had put on him the habite of a Turke, yet sayd he, A Christian I was borne, and so I will remaine, though you force me to doe otherwise. And then he called for the other, and commaunded him to be made Turke perforce also: but he was very strong, for it was so much as eight of the kings sonnes men could doe to holde him, so in the ende they circumcised him, and made him Turke. Now to passe ouer a little, and so to shewe the maner of our deliuerance out of that miserable captiuitie. [Sidenote: The first motion for those Engmens deliuerie.] In May aforesaid, shortly after our apprehension, I wrote a letter into England vnto my father dwelling in Tauistoke in Deuonshire, signifying vnto him the whole estate of our calamities: and I wrote also to Constantinople, to the English Embassadour, both which letters were faithfully deliuered. But when my father had receiued my letter, and vnderstood the trueth of our mishap, and the occasion thereof, and what had happened to the offenders, he certified the right honourable the earle of Bedford thereof, who in short space acquainted her highnesse with the whole cause thereof, and her Maiestie like a most mercifull princesse tendering her Subiects, presently tooke order for our deliuerance. Whereupon the right worshipful sir Edward Osborne knight directed his letters with all speed to the English Embassadour in Constantinople, to procure our deliuery: and he obtained the great Turkes Commission, and sent it foorthwith to Tripolis, by one Master Edward Barton, together with a Iustice of the great Turkes, and one souldiour, and another Turke, and a Greeke which was his interpretour, which could speake besides Greeke, Turkish, Italian, Spanish and English. And when they came to Tripolis, they, were well interteined. And the first night they did lie in a Captaines house in the towne: all our company that were in Tripolis came that night for ioy to Master Barton and the other Commissioners to see them. Then master Barton said vnto vs, welcome my good countreymen, and louingly interteined vs, and at our departure from him, he gaue vs two shillings, and said, Serue God, for to morrow I hope you shall be as free as euer you were; We all gaue him thankes and so departed. The next day in the morning very early, the King hauing intelligence of their comming, sent word to the keeper, that none of the Englishmen (meaning our company) should goe to worke. Then he sent for Master Barton and the other Commissioners, and demaunded of the saide Master Barton his message: the Iustice answered, that the great Turke his Souereigne had sent them vnto him, signifying that he was informed that a certaine English shippe, called the Iesus, was by him the saide king confiscated, about twelue months since, and nowe my saide Souereigne hath here sent his especiall commission by vs vnto you, for the deliuerance of the saide shippe and goods, and also the free libertie and deliuerance of the Englishmen of the same shippe, whom you haue taken and kept in captiuitie. [Sidenote: The Englishmen released.] And further the same Iustice saide, I am authorized by my said soueraigne the great Turke to see it done: And therefore I commaund you by vertue of this commission, presently to make restitution of the premisses or the value thereof: and so did the Justices deliuer vnto the King the great Turkes commission to the effect aforesaide, which commission the king with all obedience receiued: and after the perusing of the same, he foorthwith commanded all the English captiues to be brought before him, and then willed the keeper to strike off all our yrons, which done, the king said, You Englishmen, for that you did offend the lawes of this place, by the same lawes therefore some of your company were condemned to die as you knowe, and you to bee perpetuall captiues during your liues: notwithstanding; seeing it hath pleased my soueraigne lord the great Turke to pardon your said offences, and to giue you your freedome and libertie, beholde, here I make deliuery of you to this English Gentleman: so hee deliuered vs all that were there, being thirteene in number, to Master Barton, who required also those two yong men which the Kings sonne had taken with him. Then the king answered that it was against their lawe to deliuer them, for that they were turned Turkes: and touching the ship and goods, the king said, that he had solde her, but would make restitution of the value, and as much of the goods as came vnto his hands, and so the king arose and went to dinner, and commaunded a Iew to goe with Master Barton and the other commissioners, to shew them their lodging, which was a house prouided and appointed them by the said king. And because I had the Italian and Spanish tongues, by which their most trafique in that countrey is, Master Barton made me his Cater to buy his victuals for him and his company, and deliuered me money needfull for the same. Thus were wee set at libertie the 28. day of April, 1585. [Sidenote: The plagues and punishments that happened to the King and his people.] Nowe to returne to the kings plagues and punishments, which Almighty God at his will and pleasure sendeth vpon men in the sight of the world, and likewise of the plagues that befell his children and others aforesaide. First when we were made bondmen, being the second day of May 1584. the king had 300. captiues, and before the moneth was expired, there died of them of the plague 150. [Sidenote: The king lost 150. camels taken by the wilde Moores.] And whereas they were 26. men of our company, of whom two were hanged, and one died the same day that wee were made bondslaues: that present moneth there died nine more of our company of the plague, and other two were forced to turne Turkes as before is rehearsed: and on the fourth day of June next following the king lost 150 camels, which were taken from him by the wilde Moores: and on the 28. day of the saide moneth of Iune, one Geffrey Maltese, a renegado of Malta, ranne away to his countrey, and stole a Brigandine which the king had builded for to take the Christians withall, and carried with him twelue Christians more which were the kings captiues. Afterward about the tenth day of Iuly next following, the king road foorth vpon the greatest and fairest mare that might be seene, as white as any swanne: hee had not ridden fourtie paces from his house, but on a sudden the same mare fell downe vnder him starke dead, and I with sixe more were commaunded to burie her, skinne, shoes and all, which we did. And about three moneths after our deliuerie, Master Barton, with all his residue of his company departed from Tripoli to Zante, in a vessell, called a Settea, of one Marcus Segoorus, who dwelt in Zante, and after our arriuall at Zante we remained fifteene dayes there aboorde our vessell, before wee could haue Platego, (that is, leaue to come a shoare) because the plague was in that place, from whence wee came: and about three dayes after we came a shoare, thither came another Settea of Marseils bound for Constantinople. [Sidenote: Two Englishmen shipped to Constantinople with M. Barton.] Then did Master Barton, and his company, with two more of our company, shippe themselues as passengers in the same Settea, and went to Constantinople. But the other nine of vs, that remained in Zante, about three moneths after, shipt our selues in a ship of the said Marcus Segoorus, which came to Zante, and was bound for England. [The souldiers of Tripolis kil the king.] In which three moneths, the souldiers of Tripolie killed the said king. And then the kings sonne, according to the custome there, went to Constantinople, to surrender vp all his fathers treasure, goods, captiues, and concubines, vnto the great Turke, and tooke with him our saide Purser Richard Burges, and Iames Smith, and also the other two Englishmen, which he the said kings sonne had inforced to become Turkes, as is aforesayd. And they the said Englishmen finding now some opportunitie, concluded with the Christian captiues which were going with them vnto Constantinople, being in number about one hundred and fiftie, to kill the kings sonne, and all the Turkes which were aboorde of the Galley, and priuily the saide Englishmen conueyed vnto the saide Christian captiues, weapons for that purposes. And when they came into the maine Sea, towards Constantinople (vpon the faithfull promise of the sayde Christian captiues) these foure Englishmen lept suddenly into the Crossia, that is, in the middest of the Galley, where the canon lieth, and with their swordes drawne, did fight against all the foresaid Turkes, and for want of helpe of the saide Christian captiues, who falsly brake their promises, the said Master Blonkets boy was killed, and the sayde Iames Smith, and our Pursser Richard Surges, and the other Englishman, were taken and bound into chaines, to be hanged at their arriual in Constantinople: and as the Lordes will was, about two dayes after, passing through the gulfe of Venice, at an Island called Cephalonia, they met with two of the duke of Venice his Gallies, [Marginal Note: Two Gallies of Venice tooke the King of Tripolie his galley, and killed the kings sonne, and all the Turkes in it, and released all the Christians being in number 150.] which tooke that Galley, and killed the kings sonne, and his mother, and all the Turkes that were there, in number 150. and they saued the Christian captiues, and would haue killed the two Englishmen because they were circumcised, and become Turkes, had not the other Christian captiues excused them, saying, that they were inforced to be Turkes, by the kings sonne, and shewed the Venetians also, how they did enterprise at sea to fight against all the Turks, and that their two fellowes were slaine in that fight. Then the Venetians saued them, and they, with all the residue of the said captiues, had their libertie, which were in number 150. or thereabouts, and the said Gallie, and all the Turkes treasure was confiscated to the vse of the state of Venice. And from thence our two Englishmen traueiled homeward by land, and in this meane time we had one more of our company, which died in Zante, and afterward the other eight shipped themselues at Zante, in a shippe of the said Marcus Segorus, which was bound for England: and before we departed thence, there arriued the Assension, and the George Bonauenture of London in Cephalonia, in a harbour there, called Arrogostoria, whose Marchants agreed with the Marchants of our shippe, and so laded all the marchandise of our shippe into the said ships of London, who tooke vs eight in as passengers, and so we came home, and within two moneths after our arriuall at London, our said Purser Richard Surges, and his fellow came home also: for the which we are bound to praise Almightie God, during our liues, and as duetie bindeth vs, to pray for the preseruation of our most gracious Queene, for the great care her Maiestie had ouer vs, her poore Subjects, in seeking and procuring of our deliuerance aforesaide: and also for her honourable priuie Counsell, and I especiall for the prosperitie and good estate of the house of the late deceased, the right honourable the Earle of Bedford, whose honour I must confesse, most diligently at the suite of my father now departed, traueiled herein: for the which I rest continually bounden to him, whose soule I doubt not, but is already in the heauens in ioy, with the Almightie, vnto which place he vouchsafe to bring vs all, that for our sinnes suffered most vile and shameful death vpon the Crosse, there to liue perpetually world without ende, Amen. * * * * * The Queenes letters to the Turke 1584. for the restitution of the shippe called the Iesus, and the English captiues detained in Tripolie in Barbarie, and for certaine other prisoners in Argier. ELIZABETHA, Dei ter maxhni et vnici coeli terræque conditoris gratia, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Regina, fidei Christianæ contra omnes omnium inter Christianos degentium, Christíque nomen falsò profitentium idololatrias, inuistissima et potentissima defensatrix: augustissimo, inuictissimôque principi, Zultan Murad Can, Musulmanici regni dominatori potentissimo, imperijque Orientis Monarchæ, supra omnes soli et supremo salutem, et multos cum summa rerum optimarum affluentia foelices et fortunatos annos. Augustissime et potentissime Imperator, biennio iam peracto, ad Cæsaream vestram Maiestatem scripsimus, vt dilectus noster famulus Guilielmus Harebornus, vir ornatissimus pro legato nostro Constantinopoli, alijsque Musulmanici imperij ditionibus, sublimi vestra authoritate reciperetur: simul etiam Angli subditi nostri commercium et mercaturam, in omnibus illis prouincijs exerceant, non minùs liberè quàm Galli, Poloni, Veneti, Germani, cæteríque vestri confoederati, qui varias Orientis partes peragrant, operam nauantes, vt mutuis commercijs coniungatur Oriens, cum Occidente. Quæ priuilegia, cum nostris subditis Anglis inuictissima vestra Maiestas literis et diplomate suo liberalissimè indulserit, facere non potuimus, quin quas maximas animus noster capere potest gratias, eo nomine ageremus: sperantes fore, vt hæc instituta commerciorum ratio maximas vtilitates, et commoda vtrinque, tam in imperij vestri ditiones, quàm regni nostri prouincias secum adferat. Id vt planè fiat, cûm nuper subditi nostri nonnulli Tripoli in Barbaria et Argellæ ab eius loci incolis voluntatem vestram fortè nescientibus malè habiti fuerint, et immaniter diuexati, Cæsaream vestram Maiestatem beneuolè rogamus, vt per Legatum nostrum eorum causam cognoscas, et postremò earum prouinciarum proregibus ac præfectis imperes, vt nostri liberè in illis locis, sine vi aut iniuria deinceps versari, et negotia gerere possint. Et nos omni opera vicissim studebimus ea omnia præstare, quæ Imperatoriæ vestræ Maiestati vllo pacto grata fore intelligemus: quam Deus vnicus mundi conditor optimus maximus diutissimè incolumem et florentem seruet. Datæ in palatio nostro Londini, quinto die Mensis Septembris: anno IESV CHRISTI Seruatoris nostri, 1584. Regni verò nostri vicessimo sexto. The same in English. Elizabeth, by the grace of the most high God, and onely maker of heauen and earth, of England, France and Ireland Queene, and of the Christian faith, against all the Idolaters and false professors of the Name of CHRIST dwelling among the Christians, most inuincible and puissant defender: to the most valiant and invincible Prince, Zultan Murad Can, the most mightie ruler of the kingdome of Musulman, and of the East Empire the onely and highest Monarch aboue all, health and many happy and fortunate yeres, with great aboundance of the best things. Most noble and puissant Emperour, about two yeeres nowe passed, wee wrote vnto your Imperiall Maiestie, that our welbeloued seruant, William Hareborne, a man of great reputation and honour, might be receiued vnder your high authoritie, for our Ambassadour in Constantinople, and other places, vnder the obedience of your Empire of Musulman: And also that the Englishmen, being our Subiects, might exercise entercourse and marchandize in all those Prouinces, no lesse freely then the French, Polonians, Venetians, Germanes, and other your confederats, which traueile through diuers of the East parts: endeuouring that by mutuall trafique, the East may be ioyned and knit to the West. Which priuileges, when as your most puissant Maiestie, by your letters and vnder your dispensation most liberally and fauourably granted to our Subiects of England, wee could no lesse doe, but in that respect giue you as great thankes, as our heart could conceiue, trusting that it wil come to passe, that this order of trafique, so well ordeined, will bring with it selfe most great profits and commodities to both sides, as well to the parties subiect to your Empire, as to the Prouinces of our kingdome. Which thing that it may be done in plaine and effectuall maner, whereas some of our Subiects of late at Tripolis in Barbarie, and at Argier, were by the inhabitants of those places (being perhaps ignorant of your pleasure) euill intreated and grieuously vexed, wee doe friendly and louingly desire your Imperial Maiestie, that you will vnderstand their causes by our Ambassadour, and afterward giue commaundement to the Lieutenants and Presidents of those Prouinces, that our people may henceforth freely, without any violence, or iniurie, traueile, and do their businesse in those places. And we againe with all endeuour, shall studie to performe all those things, which we shall in any wise vnderstand to be acceptable to your Imperiall Maiestie, which God, the onely maker of the world, most best and most great, long keepe in health, and flourishing. Given in our pallaice at London, the fift day of the moneth of September, in the yeere of IESVS CHRIST our Saviour, 1534. And of our raigne, the 26. * * * * * The Turkes letter to the King of Tripolis in Barbarie, commanding the restitution of an English ship, called the Iesus, with the men, and goods, sent from Constantinople, by Mahomet Beg, a Iustice of the Great Turkes, and an English Gentleman, called Master Edward Barton. Anno 1584. Honourable, and worthy Bassa Romadan Beglerbeg, most wise and prudent Iudge of the West Tripolis, wee wish the ende of all thy enterprises happie, and prosperous. By these our highnesse letters, wee certifie thee, that the right honourable, William Hareborne, Ambassadour in our most famous Porch, for the most excellent Queenes Maiestie of England, in person, and by letters hath certified our highnesse, that a certaine shippe, with all her furniture, and artillerie, worth two thousand duckets, arriuing in the port of Tripolis, and discharged of her lading and marchandize, paide our custome according to order, and againe, the marchants laded their shippe with oyle, which by constraint they were inforced to buy of you and hauing answered in like maner the custome for the same, determined to depart: a Frenchman assistant to the Marchant, vnknowen to the Englishmen, caried away with him another Frenchman indebted to a certaine Moore in foure hundred duckets, and by force caused the Englishmen, and shippe to depart: who neither suspecting fraude, nor deceite, hoised sailes. In the meane time, this man, whose debter the Frenchman had stollen away, went to the Bassa with the supplication, by whose meanes, and force of the Castle, the Englishmen were constrained to returne into the port, where the Frenchman, author of the euill, with the Master of the ship an Englishman, innocent of the crime were hanged, and sixe and twentie Englishmen, cast into prison, of whom through famine, thirst, and stinke of the prison, eleuen died, and the rest like to die. Further, it was signified to our Maiestie also, that the marchandise and other goods, with the shippe, were worth 7600. duckets: which things if they be so, this is our commandemeht, which was granted and giuen by our Maiestie, that the English shippe, and all the marchandize, and whatsoeuer else taken away bee wholy restored, and that the Englishmen be let goe free, and suffered to returne into their countrey. Wherefore when this our commaundement shall come vnto thee, wee straightly commaund, that the foresaid businesse be diligently looked vnto, and discharged. And if it be so, that a Frenchman, and no Englishman hath done this craft, and wickednesse vnknowen to the Englishmen, and as authour of the wickednesse is punished, and that the Englishmen committed nothing against the peace and league, or their articles: also if they payd custome according to order, it is against law, custome of Countreys, and their priuilege, to hinder or hurt them. Neither is it meete, their shippe, marchandise, and all their goods taken, should be withholden. We will therefore, that the English shippe, marchandize, and all other their goods, without exception, be restored to the Englishmen: also that the men bee let goe free, and if they will, let none hinder them, to returne peaceably into their Countrey: do not commit, that they another time complaine of this matter, and how this businesse is dispatched, certifie vs at our most famous porche. Dated in the Citie of Constantinople, in the 992. yeere of Mahomet, and in the ende of the moneth of October; and in the yeere of IESVS 1584. * * * * * A letter of Master William Hareborne, the English Ambassadour, Ligier in Constantinople, to the Bassa Romadan, the Beglerbeg of Tripolis in Barbarie, for the restoring of an English shippe called the Iesus, with the goods, and men, detained as slaues, Anno 1585. Molto magnifico Signor, Noi ha stato significato per diuerse lettere di quanto ha passato circa diuina naue nostra chiamata Iesus, sopra il quale in agiuto di Ricciardo Skegs, vno de gli nostri mercanti di essa gia morto, veniua vn certo Francese per sopra cargo, chiamato Romano Sonings, il quale per non esser ben portato secondo che doueua, volendo importer seco vn altro Francese debitore a certi vostri sensa pagarcene, per giusticia era appiccato col patron Inglese Andre Dier, che come simplice credendo al detto Francese, senza auedercene de la sua ria malitia non retornaua, quando da vostra magnifica Signoria gli era mandato. La morte del detto tristo Francese approuiamo como cosa benfatta. [Sidenote: Edoardo Barton et Mahumed Beg.] Ma al contrario, doue lei ha confiscato la detta naue e mercantia en essa, et fatto sciaui li marinari, como cosa molto contraria a li priuilegij dal Gran Signor quattro anni passati concessi, et da noi confirmati di parte de la Serenissima Magesta d'Ingilterra nostra patrona, e molto contraria a la liga del detto Gran Signor, il quale essendo dal sopra detto apieno informato, noi ha conceduto il suo regale mandamento di restitutione, la qual mandiamo a vostra magnifica Signoria col presente portator Edoardo Barton, nostro Secretario, et Mahumed Beg, droguemano di sua porta excelsa, con altre lettere del excellentissimo Vizir, et inuictissimo capitan di mar: chiedendo, tanto di parte del Gran Signor, quanto di sua Serenissima Magesta di V. S. M. che gli huomini, oglij, naue col fornimento, danare, et tutti altri beni qualconque, da lei et per vestro ordine da gli nostri tolti siano resi à questo mio Secretario liberamente senza empacho alcuno, como il Gran Signor da sua gratia noi ha conceduto, specialmente per esser detti oglij comprati per ordine di sua Serenissima Magestà, per prouisione della Corte sua. Il qual non facendo, protestiamo per questa nostra al incontra di esso tutti futuri danni che puono succedere per questa cagione, como authore di quelli, contrario à la Santa liga giurata de li duoi Rei, patroni nostri, como per li priuilegij, che lei mostrerà il nostra, consta: per obseruatione de gli quali noi stiamo di fermo en questa excelsa Porta. Et cosi responderete nel alro mondo al solo Iddio, et quà al Gran Signor questo massimo peccato commesso da lei al incontra di tanti poueracchi, che per questa crudeltà sono in parte morti, in parti retenuti da esso en duro cattiuerio. Al contrario, piacendo lei euitar questo incommodo et restarcene en gratia del Signor Iddio, et li nostri patroni, amicheuolmente, (como conuien à par vostro di mostrarsi prudente gouernatore, et fidel seruitor al patrono) ad impirete questa nostra guistissima domanda, per poter resultarui à grand honore et commodò per la tratta di marchantia, che faronno a laduenire li nostri in quella vostra prouincia. Li quali generalmente, tanto quelli, como tutti altri che nel mar riscontrarete, siano, secondo che manda il Grand Signor, de vostra Signoria magnifica amicheuolmente recolti et receunti: Et noi non mancharemo al debito di ottimo amico en qualconche occurenza vostra, piacendo lei amicitia nostra como desideramo. Il Signor Iddio lei conceda (adimpiendo questa nostra giusta rechiesta, per cauar noi di piu futura fatica in questo negocio, et lei di disgratia) ogni vera felicità, et supremo honore. Data in Palazzo nostro che fu da Rapamat appresso Pera di 15. di Genero 1585. Il Ambassiatore de la Majesta Serenissima d'Ingilterra, amico de vostra Signoria magnifica, piacendo lei. The same in English. Right honourable Lord, it hath bene signified vnto vs by diuers letters, what hath fallen out, concerning a certaine shippe of ours, called the Iesus, into which, fore the helpe of Richard Skegs, one of our Marchants in the same, nowe deceased, there was admitted a certaine Frenchman called Romaine Sonnings, which for his ill behauiour, according to his deserts, seeking to cary away with him another Frenchman, which was indebted to certaine of your people, without paying his creditours, was hanged by sentence of iustice, together with Andrew Dier, the master of the said ship, who simply and without fraude, giuing credite to the said Frenchman, without any knowledge of his euil fact, did not returne when hee was commaunded, by your honourable Lordship. The death of the said lewde Frenchman we approue as a thing well done, but contrarywise, whereas your Lordship hath confiscated the said ship with the goods therein, and hath made slaues of the Mariners, as a thing altogether contrary to the priuileges of the Grand Signior, granted foure yeeres since, and confirmed by vs on the behalfe of the most excellent the Queenes Maiestie of England our Mystresse, and altogether contrary to the league of the saide Grand Signior, who being fully informed of the aforesaid cause, hath granted vnto vs his royall commandement of restitution, which we send vnto your honourable Lordship, by the present bearer Edward Barton our Secretaire, and Mahomet Beg, one of the Iustices of his stately Court, with other letters of the most excellent Admirall, and most valiant Captaine of the Sea, requiring your honourable Lordship, as well on the behalfe of the Grand Signior, as of the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, my Mystresse, that the men, oyles, shippe, furniture, money, and all other goods whatsoeuer, by your Lordship, and your order taken from our men, be restored vnto this my Secretary freely, without delay, as the Grand Signior of his goodnesse hath graunted vnto vs, especially in regard that the same oyles were bought by the commaundement of our Queenes most excellent Maiestie, for the prouision of her Court. Which if you performe not, wee protest by these our leters against you, that you are the cause of all the inconueniences which may ensue vpon this occasion, as the authour thereof, contrary to the holy league sworne by both our Princes, as by the priuileges, which this our seruant will shewe you, may appeare. For the seeing of which league performed, wee remaine here as Ligier in this stately Court. And by this meanes you shall answere in another world vnto God alone, and in this world vnto the Grand Signior, for this hainous sinne committed by you against so many poore soules, which by this your cruelty are in part dead, and in part detained by you in most miserable captiuitie. Contrarywise, if it shall please you to auoyd this mischiefe, and to remaine in the fauour of Almighty God, and of our Princes, you shall friendly fulfill this our iust demaund (as it behooueth you to shew your selfe a prudent Gouernour, and faithfull seruant vnto your Lord) and the same may turne to your great honour, and profite, by the trade of marchandize, which our men in time to come, may vse in that gouernment of yours: which generally, as well those poore men, as all others, which you shall meete at the sea, ought to be according to the commandement of the Grand Signior, friendly entertained and receiued of your honourable Lordship, and we will not faile in the dueties of a speciall friend, whensoeuer you shall haue occasion to vse vs, as we desire. Almighty God grant vnto your Lordship (in the fulfilling of this our iust request, whereby wee may be deliuered from further trouble in this matter, and your selfe from further displeasure) all true felicitie, and increase of honour. Giuen in our Pallace from Rapamat in Pera, the 15 of Ianuarie 1585. * * * * * The voyage passed by sea into Aegypt, by Iohn Euesham Gentleman. Anno 1586. The 5 of December 1586 we departed from Grauesend in the Tiger of London, wherein was Master vnder God for the voyage Robert Rickman, and the 21. day at night we came to the Isle of Wight: departing from thence in the morning following we had a faire winde, so that on the 27 day wee came in sight of the rocke of Lisbone, and so sayling along we came in sight of the South Cape, the 29 of the same, and on the morrowe with a Westerly winde we entered the straights: and the second of Ianuary being as high as Cape de Gate, we departed from our fleete towards Argier. And the 4 day we arriued at the port of Argier aforesaid, where we staied till the first of March. [Sidenote: Tunis.] At which time we set saile towardes a place called Tunis, to the Eastward of Argier 100 leagues, where we arriued the 8 of the same. This Tunis is a small citie vp 12 miles from the sea, and at the port or rode where shipping doe ride, is a castle or fort called Goletta, sometimes in the handes of the Christians, but now of the Turkes; at which place we remained till the third of Aprill: at which time wee set saile towardes Alexandria, and hauing sometime faire windes, sometime contrary, we passed on the 12 day betweene Sicilia and Malta (where neere adioyning hath beene the fort and holde of the knights of the Rhodes) and so the 19 day we fell with the Isle of Candy, and from thence to Alexandria, where we arriued the 27 of April, and there continued till the 5 of October. [Sidenote: The description of Alexandria.] The said citie of Alexandria is an old thing decayed or ruinated, hauing bene a faire and great citie neere two miles in length, being all vauted vnderneath for prouision of fresh water, which water commeth thither but once euery yeere, out of one of the foure riuers of paradise (as it is termed) called Nilus, which in September floweth neere eighteene foote vpright higher then his accustomed manner, and so the banke being cut, as it were a sluce, about thirty miles from Alexandria, at a towne called Rossetto, it doth so come to the saide Citie, with such aboundance, that barkes of twelue tunne doe come vpon the said water, which water doth fill all the vaults, cesternes, and wels in the said Citie, with very good water, and doth so continue good, till the next yeere following: for they haue there very litle raine or none at all, yet have they exceeding great dewes. Also they haue very good corne, and very plentifull; all the Countrey is very hot, especially in the moneths of August, September, and October. Also within the saide Citie there is a pillar of Marble, called by the Turkes, King Pharaoes needle, and it is foure square, euery square is twelue foote, and it is in height 90 foote. Also there is without the wals of the said Citie, about twentie score paces, another marble pillar, being round, called Pompey his pillar: this pillar standeth vpon a great square stone, euery square is fifteene foote, and the same stone is fifteene foote high, and the compasse of the pillar is 37 foote, and the height of it is 101 feete, which is a wonder to thinke how euer it was possible to set the said pillar vpon the said square stone. The port of the said Citie is strongly fortified with two strong Castles, and one other Castle within the citie, being all very well planted with munition: [Sidenote: Cayro.] and there is to the Eastward of this Citie, about three dayes iourney the citie of Grand Cayro, otherwise called Memphis: it hath in it by report of the registers bookes which we did see, to the number of 2400 Churches, and is wonderfully populous, and is one dayes iourney about the wals, which was iourneyed by one of our Mariners for triall thereof. Also neere to the saide citie there is a place called the Pyramides, being as I may well terme it, one of the nine wonders of the world: that is, seuen seuerall places of flint and marble stone, foure square, the wals thereof are seuen yards thicke in those places that we did see: the squarenes is in length about twentie score euery square, being built as it were a pointed diamond, broad at the foote, and small or narrow at the toppe: the heigth of them, to our judgement, doth surmount twise the heighth of Paules steeple: within the said Pyramides, no man doth know what there is, for that they haue no entrance but in the one of them, there is a hole where the wall is broken, and so we went in there, hauing torch light with vs, for that it hath no light to it, and within the same, is as it were a great hall, in the which there is a costly tombe, which tombe they say, was made for kinq Pharao in his life time, but he was not buried there, being drowned in the red sea: also there are certaine vauts or dungeons, which goe downe verie deepe vnder those Pyramides with faire staires, but no man dare venter to goe downe into them, by reason that they can cary no light with them, for the dampe of the earth doth put out the light: the red sea is but three dayes iourney from this place, and Ierusalem about seuen dayes iourney from thence: but to returne to Cayro. There is a Castle wherein is the house that Pharaoes wiues were kept in, and in the Pallace or Court thereof stande 55 marble pillars, in such order, as our Exchange standeth in London: the said pillars are in beigth 60 foote: and in compasse 14 foote: also in the said Citie is the castle were Joseph was in prison, where to this day they put in rich men, when the king would haue any summe of money of them: there are seuen gates to the sayd prison, and it goeth neere fiftie yardes downe right: also, the water that serueth this castle, commeth out of the foresaide riuer of Nilus, vpon a wall made with arches, fiue miles long, and it is twelue foote thicke. Also there are in old Cayro two Monasteries, the one called S. Georges, the other S. Maries: and in the Courts where the Churches be, was the house of king Pharao. In this Citie is great store of marchandize, especially pepper, and nutmegs, which come thither by land, out of the East India: and it is very plentifull of all maner of victuals, especially of bread, rootes, and hearbes: to the Eastwards of Cayro, there is a Well, fiue miles off called Matria, and as they say, when the Virgin Marie fled from Bethleem, and came into Ægypt, and being there, had neither water, nor any other thing to sustaine them, by the prouidence of God, an Angell came from heauen, and strake the ground with his wings, where presently issued out a fountaine of water: and the wall did open where the Israelites did hide themselues, which fountains or well is walled foure square till this day. [Sidenote: Carthage.] Also we were at an old Citie, all ruinated and destroyed, called in olde time, the great Citie of Carthage where Hannibal and Queene Dido dwelt: this Citie was but narrow, but was very long: for there was, and is yet to bee seene, one streete three mile long, to which Citie fresh water was brought vpon arches (as afore) aboue 25 miles, of which arches some are standing to this day. [Sidenote: Argier.] Also we were at diuers other places on the coast, as we came from Cayro, but of other antiquities we saw but few. The towne of Argier which was our first and last part, within the streights standeth vpon the side of an hill, close vpon the sea shore: it is very strong both by sea and land, and it is very well victualed with all manner of fruites bread and fish good store, and very cheape. It is inhabited with Turkes, Moores, and Iewes, and so are Alexandria and Cayro. In this towne are a great number of Christian captiues, whereof there are of Englishmen onely fifteene, from which port we set sayle towardes England, the seuenth of Ianuarie, Anno 1587, and the 30 day of the sayd moneth, we arriued at Dartmouth on the coast of England. * * * * * The second voyage of M. Laurence Aldersey, to the Cities of Alexandria, and Cayro in Aegypt. Anno 1586. I Embarked my selfe at Bristoll, in the Hercules, a good ship of London, and set saile the 21 day of Februarie, about ten of the clocke in the morning, hauing a merry winde: but the 23 day, there arose a very great storme, and in the mids of it we descried a small boate of the burden of ten tunnes, with foure men in her, in very great danger, who called a maine for our helpe. Whereupon our Master made towards them, and tooke them into our ship, and let the boate, which was laden with timber, and appertained to Chepstow, to runne a drift. The same night about midnight arose another great storme, but the winde was large with vs, vntill the 27 of the same moneth, which grew then somewhat contrary: yet notwithstanding we held on our course, and the tenth day of March, we described a saile about Cape Sprat, which is a little on this side the streight of Gibraltare, but we spake not with her. The next day we described twelue saile more, with whom we thought to haue spoken, to haue learned what they were, but they made very fast away, and we gaue them ouer. Thursday the 16 of March, we had sight of the streights, and of the coast of Barbary. The 18 day we passed them, and sailed towards Patras. Vpon the 23 of March, we met with the Centurion of London which came from Genoa, by whom we sent letters to England, and the foure men also which we tooke in, vpon the coast of England, before-mentioned. The 29th of March we came to Goleta a small Iland, and had sight of two shippes, which we iudged to be of England. Tuesday the fourth of April, we were before Malta, and being there becalmed, our Maister caused the two ship boates to be had out, and they towed the ship, till we were out of sight of the Castle of Malta. The 9 day of April we came to Zante, and being before the towne, William Aldridge, seruant to Master Thomas Cordall of London, came aboord us, with whom our Master and twelue more of our company, thought to haue gone on shoare: but they could not be permitted: so we all came aboard againe, and went to Patras, where we arriued vpon good Friday, and lay there with good enterteinement at the English house, where was the Consull Master Grimes, Ralph Ashley, and Iohn Doddington, who very kindly went with vs, and shewed vs the pleasures of the towne. They brought vs to the house of the Cady, who was made then to vnderstand of the 20 Turks that wee had aboard, which were to goe to Constantinople, being redeemed out of captiuitie, by sir Francis Drake in the West Indies, and brought with him into England, and by order of the Queenes Maiestie sent now into their Countrey. Whereupon the Cady commanded them to be brought before him, that he might see them: and when, he had talked with them, and vnderstood howe strangely they were deliuered, he marueiled much, and admired the Queenes Maistie of England, who being but a woman, is notwithstanding of such power and renowne amongst all the princes of Christendome, with many other honourable wordes of commending her Maiestie. So he tooke the names of those 20 Turkes, and recorded them in their great bookes, to remaine in perpetuall memory. After this, our foresaid countreyman brought mee to the Chappel of S. Andrew where his tombe or sepulchre is, and the boord vpon which he was beheaded, which boord is now so rotten, that if any man offer to cut it, it falleth to powder, yet I brought some of it away with me. Vpon Tuesday in Easter weeke, wee set out towards Zante againe, and the 24. of April with much adoe, wee were all permitted to come on shoare, and I was caried to the English house in Zante, where I was very well entertained. The commodities of Zante are Currants and oyle: the situation of the Towne is vnder a very great hill, vpon which standeth a very strong Castle, which commaundeth the Towne. At Zante wee tooke in a Captaine and 16. souldiers, with other passengers. Wee departed from Zante vpon Tuesday the 15. of April, and the next day we ankered at a small Iland, called Striualia, which is desolate of people, sauing a fewe religious men, who entertained vs well, without taking any money: but of courtesie we bestowed somewhat vpon them for their maintenance, and then they gaue vs a couple of leane sheepe, which we caried aboord. The last day of Aprill, wee arriued at Candie, at a Castle, called Sowday, where wee set the Captaine, Souldiers, and Mariners ashoare, which wee tooke in at Zante, with all their carriage. [Sidenote: The Islands of Milo, in olde time called Sporades.] The second day of May wee set saile againe, and the fourth day came to the Islands of Milo, where we ankered, and found the people there very courteous, and tooke in such necessaries as we wanted. The Islands are in my iudgement a hundred in number, and all within the compasse of a hundred miles. The 11. day, the Chaus, which is the greatest man there in authoritie, for certaine offences done in a little Chappell by the water side, which they saide one of our shippe had done, and imputed it to mee, because I was seene goe into it three dayes before, came to vs, and made much a doe, so that we were faine to come out of our shippe armed: but by three pieces of golde the brabling was ended, and we came to our shippe. This day wee also set saile, and the next day passed by the Castle of Serpeto, which is an old ruinated thing, and standeth vnder a hils side. The 13. day we passed by the Island of Paris, and the Island of the bankes of Helicon, and the Island called Ditter, where are many boares, and the women bee witches. The same day also wee passed by the Castle of Timo, standing vpon a very high mountaine, and neere vnto it is the Island of Diana. The 15. of May, wee came to Sio, where I stayed thirtie and three dayes. In it is a very proper Towne, after the building of that Countrey, and the people are civil: and while we were here there came in sixe Gallies, which had bene at Alexandria, and one of them which was the Admiral, had a Prince of the Moores prisoner, whom they tooke about Alexandria, and they meant to present him to the Turke. The towne standeth in a valley, and a long the water side pleasantly. There are about 26. winde-mils about it, and the commodities of it are cotton wooll, cotton yarne, mastike, and some other drugs. As we remained at Sio, there grew a great controuersie betweene the mariners of the Hercules, and the Greekes of the towne of Sio, about the bringing home of the Turkes, which the Greekes took in ill part, and the boyes cried out, Viue el Re Philippe: whereupon our men beate the boyes, and threwe stones, and so a broile beganne, and some of our men were hurt: but the Greekes were fetcht out of their houses, and manacled together with yrons, and threatned to the Gallies: about fortie of them were sent to the prison, and what became of them when we were gone, we know not, for we went thence within two dayes after, which was the 19. of Iune. The 20. day wee passed by the Island of Singonina, an Island risen by the casting of stones in that place: the substance of the ground there is brimstone, and burneth sometimes so much that it bloweth vp the rockes. The 24. of Iune wee came to Cyprus, and had sight in the way of the aforesaide sixe Gallies, that came from Alexandria, one whereof came vnto vs, and required a present for himselfe, and for two of the other Gallies, which we for quietnesse sake gaue them. The 27. of Iune, wee came to Tripolie, where I stayed till the fift of Iuly, and then tooke passage in a smal barke called a Caramusalin, which was a passage boat, and was bound for Bichieri, thirteene miles on this side Alexandria, which boate was fraighted with Turkes, Moores, and Iewes. The 20. day of Iuly, this barke which I passed in ranne vpon a rocke, and was in very great danger, so that we all began some to be ready to swimme, some to leape into the shippe boate, but it pleased God to set vs quickly off the rocke, and without much harme. [Sidenote: The English house in Alexandria.] The 28. of Iuly I came to Bichieri, where I was well entertained of a Iewe which was the Customer there, giuing me Muskadine, and drinking water himselfe: hauing broken my fast with him, he prouided mee a Camell for my carriage, and a Mule for mee to ride vpon, and a Moore to runne by me to the City of Alexandria, who had charge to see mee safe in the English house, whether I came, but found no Englishmen there: but then my guide brought me aboord a ship of Alderman Martins, called the Tyger of London, where I was well receiued of the Master of the said ship, whose name was Thomas Rickman, and of all the company. The said Master hauing made me good cheere, and made me also to drinke of the water of Nilus, hauing the keyes of the English house, went thither with me himselfe, and appointed mee a faire chamber, and left a man with me to prouide me all things that I needed, and euery day came himselfe to me, and caried me into the City, and shewed me the monuments thereof, which be these. [Sidenote: The monuments of Alexandria.] Hee brought mee first to Pompey his pillar, which is a mighty thing of gray marble, and all of one stone, in height by estimation about 52. yards, and the compasse about sixe fadome. The City hath three gates, one called the gate of Barbaria, the other of Merina, and the thirde of Rossetto. He brought me to a stone in the streete of the Citie, whereupon S. Marke was beheaded: to the place where S. Katerine died, hauing there hid herselfe, because she would not marry: also to the Bath of S. Katerine. I sawe there also Pharaos needle, which is a thing in height almost equall with Pompeys pillar, and is in compasse fiue fadome, and a halfe, and all of one stone. I was brought also to a most braue and daintie Bath, where we washed our selues: the Bath being of marble, and of very curious workemanship. The Citie standeth vpon great arches, or vawtes, like vnto Churches, with mightie pillars of marble, to holde vp the foundation: which arches are built to receiue the water of the riuer of Nilus, which is for the vse of the Citie. It hath three Castles, and an hundred Churches: but the part that is destroyed of it, is sixe time more then that part which standeth. The last day of Iuly, I departed from Alexandria towards Cayro in a passage boate, wherein first I went to Rossetto, standing by the riuer side, hauing 13. or 14. great churches in it, their building there is of stone and bricke, but as for lodging, there is little, except we bring it with vs. From Rosetto wee passed along the riuer of Nilus, which is so famous in the world, twise as broad as the Thames at London: on both sides grow date trees in great abundance. The people be rude, insomuch that a man cannot traueile without a Ianizary to conduct him. [Sidenote: The Turkes Lent.] The time that I stayed in Ægypt, was the Turkes and Moores Lent, in all which time they burne lamps in their churches, as many as may hang in them: their Lent endureth 40. dayes, and they haue three Lents in the yere: during which time they neither eate nor drinke in the day time, but all the night they do nothing else. Betwixt Rossetto and Cayro there are along the water side three hundred cities and townes, and the length of the way is not aboue three hundred miles. To this famous Citie of Cayro I came the fift day of August, where I found M. William Alday, and William Cæsar, who intertained me in very good sort. M. Cæsar brought mee to see the Pyramides which are three in number, one whereof king Pharao made for his owne tombe, the tombe it selfe is almost in the top of it: the monuments bee high and in forme 4. square, and euery of the squares is as long as a man may shoote a rouing arrowe, and as high as a Church, I sawe also the ruines of the Citie of Memphis hard by those Pyramides. The house of Ioseph is yet standing in Cayro, which is a sumptuous thing, hauing a place to walke in of 56. mighty pillars, all gilt with gold, but I saw it not, being then lame. The 11. day of August the lande was cut at Cayro, to let in the water of the riuer of Nilus, which was done with great ioy and triumph. The 12. of August I set from Cayro towards Alexandria againe, and came thither the 14. of August The 26. day there was kept a great feast of the Turkes and Moores, which lasted two dayes, and for a day they neuer ceased shooting off of great Ordinance. [Sidenote: The English Consul at Argier.] From Alexandria I sailed to Argier, where I lay with M. Typton Consull of the English nation, who vsed me most kindly, and at his owne charge. Hee brought mee to the kings Court, and into the presence of the King, to see him, and the maners of the Court: the King doeth onely beare the name of a king, but the greatest gouernment is in the hands of the souldiers. The king of Potanca is prisoner in Argier, who comming to Constantinople, to acknowledge a duety to the great Turke, was betrayed by his owne nephew, who wrote to the Turke, that he went onely as a spy, by that meanes to get his kingdome. I heard at Argier of seuen Gallies that were at that time cast away at a towne called Formentera: three of them were of Argier, the other foure were the Christians. We found here 13. Englishmen, which were by force of weather put into the bay of Tunis, where they were very ill vsed by the Moores, who forced them to leaue their barke: whereupon they went to the Councell of Argier, to require a redresse and remedy for the iniurie. They were all belonging to the shippe called the Golden Noble of London, whereof Master Birde is owner. The Master was Stephen Haselwood, and the Captaine Edmond Bence. The thirde day of December, the pinnesse called the Mooneshine of London, came to Argier with a prize, which they tooke vpon the coast of Spaine, laden with sugar, hides, and ginger: the pinnesse also belonging to the Golden Noble: and at Argier they made sale both of shippe and goods, where wee left them at our comming away, which was the seuenth day of Ianuarie, and the first day of February, I landed at Dartmouth, and the seuenth day came to London, with humble thankes to Almightie God, for my safe arriuall. * * * * * A letter of the English Ambassadour to M. Haruie Millers, appointing him Consull for the English nation in Alexandria, Cairo, and other places of Egypt. Hauing to appoint our Consull in Cayro, Alexandria, Egypt, and other parts adiacent, for the safe protection of body and goods of her Maiesties subiects; being well perswaded of your sufficient abilitie; in her Maiesties name I doe elect and make choise of you, good friend Haruie Millers, to execute the same worshipfull office, as shall be required for her Maiesties better seruice, the commodity of her subiects, and my contentation: hauing and enioying for merit of your trauell in the premises the like remuneration incident to the rest of ours in such office in other parts of this Empire. Requiring you (all other affaires set aside) to repaire thither with expedition, and attend vpon this your charge, which the Almighty grant you well to accomplish. For the due execution whereof, wee heerewith send you the Grand Signiors Patent of priuilege with ours, and what els is needfull therefore, in so ample maner, as any other Consull whosoeuer doeth or may enioy the same. In ayd whereof, according to my bounden duety to her Maiesty our most gracious Mistresse, I will be ready alwayes to employ my selfe to the generall benefit of her Maiesties subiects, for your maintenance in all iust causes incident to the same. And thus eftsoones requiring and commanding you as aboue sayd, to performe my request, I bid you most heartily well to fare, and desire God to blesse you. From my mansion Rapamat night Pera this 25 of April 1583. * * * * * A letter to the right honourable William Hareborne her Majesties Ambassadour with the Grand Signior from Alger. Right honorable, we haue receiued your honors letters dated in Constantinople the 5. of Nouember, and accordingly deliuered that inclosed to the king of this place, requiring of him, according as you did command vs in her Maiesties name, that he would vouchsafe to giue order to all his Captaines and Raies that none of them should meddle with our English shippes comming or going to or from these parts, for that they haue order not to passe by the Christian coast, but vpon the coast of Barbary, and shewing him of the charter giuen by the Grand Signior, requiring him in like case that for the better fulfilling of the amity, friendship and holy league betweene the Grand Signior and her Maiesty, he would giue us fiue or six safe-conducts for our ships, that meeting with any of his gallies or galliots, they might not meddle with them neither shoot at them: who made me answere he would neither giue me any safe conduct nor commission to his men of war not to meddle with them, for that he trusted to take some of them this yere, and made good account thereof. In like maner I spake to the chiefe of the Ianisers and the Leuents, who made me answere, the best hope they had this yere was to take some of them, and although they haue the Grand Signiors commandement we care not therefore: for we will by policy, or one meanes or other prouoke them to shoot some ordinance, which if they do but one piece, the peace is broken, and they be good prizes. And some of them say further, we care not for his safe-conduct, for if they shew it vs, we will conuey it away, we are sure the dogs cannot be beleeued against vs. The premisses considered, your honour is with all speed to procure the Grand Signior his fauorable letters directed to Hazan, the Cady, Captaines, Ianisers, and Leuents, and another like to Romadan Bassa, king of Tripolis, commanding them in no maner whatsoeuer to deale with our English ships bound into those parts or returning thence with their commodities, although they should shoot one at another: for when our ships shall meet them, for that, as your honor is aduertised, the gallies of Carthagena, Florence, Sicilia and Malta haue made a league to take all our ships comming in or going out of the Grand Signiors dominions, therefore if they meet with any of these gallies of Alger or Tripolis, thinking they be of them, and not knowing them a far off, they may shoot at them, which if therefore they should make them prizes, were against Gods lawes, the Grand Signior his league, all reason and conscience, considering that all the world doth know that Marchants ships laden with marchandise do not seeke to fight with men of warre, but contrariwise to defend themselues from them, when they would do them harme. Wherefore if your honour do not get out two letters of the Grand Signior as aforesayd, and send them hither with all speed by some one of your gentlemen accompanied with a chaus of the Court, or some other of the Grand Signiors servants, it is impossible that our English ships can escape freely from these or the Christians: for either they must of force go on the Christian coast, and so fall into their hands, or els on this coast, and fall into the kings of this towne, or Tripolis, their hands which if they should, will neuer be recouered. And if your honor cannot obtaine this thing, I beseech your honour in the behalfe of all the English marchants (who sent me hither to follow such order as your honour should giue me) to certifie her Maiesty, to the end that they may be commanded to leaue off traffique, and not to lose their goods, and her poore subiects the Mariners. And thus humbly taking my leaue, I desist from troubling your honor. From Algier the tenth of February 1583. * * * * * A letter of M. Harborne to Mustapha, challenging him for his dishonest dealing in translating of three of the Grand Signior his commandements. Domine Mustapha, nescimus quid sibi velit, cum nobis mandata ad finem vtilem concessa perperàm reddas, quæ male scripta, plus damni, quàm vtilitatis adferant: quemadmodum constat ex tribus receptis mandatis, in quibus summum aut principale deest aut aufertur. In posterum noli ita nobiscum agere. Ita enim ludibrio erimus omnibus in nostrum et tuum dedecus. Cum nos multarum actionum spem Turcicè scriptarum in tua prudentia reponimus, ita prouidere debes, vt non eueniant huiusmodi mala. Quocirca deinceps cum mandatum aut scriptum aliquod accipias, verbum ad verbum conuertatur in Latinum sermonem, ne damnum insequatur. Nosti multos habere nos inimicos conatibus nostris inuidentes, quorum malitiæ vestræ est prudentiæ aduersari. Hi nostri, Secretarius et minimus interpres ex nostra parte dicent in tribus illis receptis mandatis errata. Vt deinceps similes errores non eueniant precamur. Ista emendes, et cætera Serenissimæ regiæ Maiestatis negocia, vti decet vestræ conditionis hominem, meliùs cures. Nam vnicuique suo officio strenuè est laborandum vt debito tramite omnia succedant: quod spero te facturum. Bene vale. * * * * * The Pasport in Italian granted to Thomas Shingleton Englishman, by the king of Algier. 1583. Noi Assan Basha Vicere et lochotenente e capitan della iurisditione de Algier doniamo e concediamo libero saluo condutto a Thomas Shingleton mercadante, che possi con suo vassello e marinare de che natione se siano, e mercadantia di qual si voglia natione, andare et venire, e negotiari, e contrattare liberamente in questa citta de Algier et altri locha de la nostra iurisditione cosi di ponente comi di Leuante: et cosi anchora commandiamo al capitan di maare di Algier et d'altri lochi de nostra iurisditione, Rais de Vasselli et Capitani de Leuante, et altri capitani di vasselli tanto grossi como picholi, si comnanda a qual si voglia, che truando il sopradetto Thomas Shingleton Inglese nelli mari di Genua, Francia Napoli, Calabria, e Sardigna con suo vassello e mercantia, et homini de che nationi si siano, non gli debba molestare, ne piggliare, ne toccare cosa de nessuna manero tanto di denare, como di qual si voglia altra robba, sotto la pena e disgratia di perdir la vita et la robba: Et per quanto hauete a caro la gratia del Gran Signor nostro patrone Soltan Murates Ottomano, lo lasciarete andare per suo camino senza dargli nessuno impedimento. Dato in Algieri in nostro regio Palazzo, sigillato del nostro reggio sigillo, e fermato della gran ferma, et scritto del nostro reggio Secretario, il di 23 de Ienaro, 1583. The same in English. We Assan Bassha Viceroy and lieutenant, and captaine of the iurisdiction of Algier, giue and grant free safeconduct to Thomas Singleton marchant, that with his ship and mariners, of what nation soeuer they be, and with his marchandize of what countrey soeuer, he may go and come, and trade and traffique freely in this city of Algier, and other places of our iurisdiction, as well of the West as of the East. And in like sort we further command the captaine of the sea of Algier, and other places of our iurisdiction, the Reiz of vessels and captaines of the Leuant, and other captaines of vessels aswell great as small, whosoeuer they be, we do command them, that finding the forsayd Thomas Shingleton Englishman in the seas of Genua, France, Naples, Calabria, and Sardinia, with his ship and merchandize, and men of what nation soeuer they be, that they molest them not, neither take nor touch any kind of thing of theirs, neither money nor any other kind of goods, vnder paine and peril of loosing of their liues and goods: and as you make account of the fauour of the Grand Signor our lord Sultan Murates Hottoman, so see you let him passe on his way without any maner of impediment. Dated at Alger in our kingly palace, signed with our princely Signet, and sealed with our great seale, and writen by our Secretarie of estate, the 23. of Ianuarie, 1583. * * * * * A letter written in Spanish by Sir Edward Osborne, to the king of Alger, the 20. of Iuly, 1584 in the behalfe of certeine English captiues there detained. Muy alto y poderoso Rey, Sea seruida vostra alteza. Como la muy alta y potentissima magestad del Gran Sennor tiene hecho articulos de priuilegios con la Serenissima Magestad de nuestra Reyna d'Inglatierra, para los vassalos della poder libremente yr y boluer, y tratar por mar y tierra en los dominios de su potentissima Magestad, Como a la clara paresce por los dichos articulos, de che embiamos el tractado al Senor Iuan Tipton nuestro commissario, para le muestrar a vostra Alteza. Contra el tenor de los quales articulos por dos galeras de su ciudad de Alger ha sido hechado al fondo en la mar vn des nuestros nauios que venia de Patras, que es en la Morea, cargado de corintes y otras mercaderias, que alla se compraron, y las mas de la gente del la matados y ahogados en la mar, y el resto est an detenidos por esclauos: cosa muy contraria a los dichos articulas y priuilegios. Que es occasion, que por esto supplicamos a vostra Alteza muy humilmente, que, pues que la potentissimo magestad del grand Sennor es seruida nos fauorescer por los dichos articulos, tambien sea seruida vostra Alteza assistimos en ellos, otorgandonos por vostra autoridad su auida y fauor, segun que esperamos, para que puedan estar libres, y boluer para aca aquellos pobres hombres ansi hechos esclauos, como dicho es. Y ansi mismo, que mande vostra Alteza dar orden a los capitanes, maestres y gente de las galeras, que nos dexen de aqui adelante hazer nuestro trafico con seys naos cada anno para Turquia a los dominios del Gran Sennor a paz y a saluo, por no cotrariar a los dichos nuestros priuilegios, Lleuando cada vna de nuestras dichas naos pot se conoscer vn saluo condutto de su alta et potentissima magestad. Y con esta vostra tan senallada merced y fauor que en esso reciberemos, quedaremos nosotros con grandissima obligation a vostra Alteza de seruir la por ello, segun que el dicho Sennor Iuan Tipton, a quien nos reportamos de todo lo demas, mejor informira vostra Alteza: Cuya serenissima persona y estado supplicamos y pidimos a Dios omnipotente prosperu y accrescente con toda felicitad y honra. Del la ciuidad de Londres a los veynte dias de Iulio del mil y quinientos y ocbenta y quatro annos. Al seruitio de vuestra Alteza per y en hombre de todos los tratantes en Tutquia, lo el Mayor de Londres, Edward Osborne. The same in English. Right high and mightie king, May it please your highnesse to vnderstand, that the most high and most mightie maiestie of the Grand Signor hath confirmed certaine articles of priuileges with the most excellent maiestie of our Queene of England, that her subjects may freely go and come, and traffique by sea and land in the dominions of his most mighty maiesty, as appeareth more at large by the said articles, whereof we haue sent the copy vnto M. Iohn Tipton our Commissarie to shew the same vnto your highnes. [Sidenote: An English ship sunke by two gallies of Alger.] Against the tenor of which articles, one of our ships which came from Patras which is in Morea, laden with corants and other merchandizes which were bought in those parts, was sunke by 2. gallies of your citie of Alger, and the greatest number of the men thereof were slain and drowned in the sea, the residue being detained as slaues: An acte very contrary to the meaning of the aforesaid articles and priuileges: which is the occasion that by these presents we beseech your highnesse very humbly that since it hath pleased the most mightie maiestie of the Grand Signor to fauour vs with the sayd priuileges, it would please your Highnesse in like maner to assist vs in the same, graunting vs by your authoritie, your ayde and fauour, according as our hope is that these poore men so detained in captiuitie, as is aforesaid, may be set at libertie, and returne into their countrey. And likewise that your highnesse would send to giue order to the captaines, masters and people of your gallies, that from hencefoorth they would suffer vs to vse our traffique with sixe ships yerely into Turkie vnto the dominions of the Grand Signor in peace and safetie, that they do not withstand those our said priuileges, euery one of our foresaid ships carying with them a passeport of his most high and most mightie maiestie to be knowen by. And for that your so singular fauour and curtesie which in so doing we shall receiue, we on our part with all bounden duetie vnto your highnesse, will seeke to honour you in that behalfe, according as the sayd Master Iohn Tipton (to whom wee referre our selues touching all other circumstances) shall more at large informe your highnesse, whose most excellent person and estate, we pray and beseech Almighty God to prosper and increase with all felicitie and honour. From the Citie of London, the 20. of Iuly, 1584. At the seruice of your highnesse, for and in the name of our whole company trading into Turkie, I Maior of London. Edward Osburne. * * * * * Notes concerning the trade of Alger. The money that is coined in Alger is a piece of gold called Asiano, and Doublaes, and two Doublaes make an Asiano, but the Doubla is most vsed, for all things be sold by Doublaes, which Doubla is fiftie of their Aspers there. The Asper there is not so good by halfe and more, as that in Constantinople; for the Chekin of gold of the Turkes made at Constantinople is at Alger worth an 150 Aspers, and at Constantinople, it is but 66. Aspers. The pistolet and roials of plate are most currant there. The said pistolet goeth for 130. Aspers there: and the piece of 4 roials goeth for 40 Aspers, but oftentimes is sold for more, as men need them to carie vp into Turkie. Their Asianos and Doublaes are pieces of course gold, worth here but 40. s. the ounce, so the same is currant in no place of Turkie out of the kingdom of Alger, neither the Aspers, for that they be lesse then others be, for they coine them in Alger. The custome to the king is inward 10. per centum, to the Turke, to be paid of the commoditie it selfe, or as it shall be rated. There is another custome to the Ermine, of one and an halfe per centum, which is to the Iustice of the Christians: the goods for this custome are rated as they are for the kings custome. Hauing paid custome inwards, you pay none outwards for any commoditie that you doe lade, more then a reward to the gate keepers. The waight there is called a Cantare for fine wares, as mettals refined, and spices &c. which is here 120. li. subtil. Mettall not refined, as lead, iron, and such grosse wares, are sold by a great Cartare, which is halfe as big againe: so it is 180. li. subtil of ours here. The measure of corne is by a measure called a Curtia, which is about 4. bushels of our measure, and corne is plentiful there and good cheape, except when there hapneth a very dry yeere. The surest lodging for a Christian there is in a Iewes house: for if he haue any hurt, the Iew and his goods shall make it good, so the Iew taketh great care of the Christian and his goods that lieth in his house, for feare of punishment. An Englishman called Thomas Williams, which is M. Iohn Tiptons man, lieth about trade of merchandize in the streete called The Soca of the Iewes. * * * * * Notes concerning the trade in Alexandria. Alexandria in Egypt is a free port, and when a man commeth within the castles, presently the Ermyn sends aboord to haue one come and speake with him to know what goods are aboord: and then hee will set guards aboord the ship to see all the goods discharged. And then from the Ermin you goe to the Bye, [Marginal note: This is another officer.] onely for that he will inquire newes of you, and so from thence to the Consuls house where you lie. The Venetians haue a Consul themselues. But all other nations goe to the French nations Consul, who will giue you a chamber for your selues apart, if you will so haue it. The customs inward of all commodities are ten in the hundred, and the custome is paid in wares also that you buy: for the same wares in barter you pay also ten in the hundred, at the lading of the wares. [Marginal note: Other smal customs you pay besides, which may be at two in the hundred: and for Consulage you pay two in the hundred.] But if you sell for mony, you pay no more custome but the ten aforesaid, and one and a halfe in the hundred, which is for the custome of the goods you lade for the sayd mony, for more custome you pay not. But for all the money you bring thither you pay nothing for the custome of the same. And if you sell your wares for mony, and with the same money buy wares, you pay but two in the hundred for the custome thereof. And if you steale any custome, if it be taken, you pay double custome for that you steale. The weight of Alexandria is called Pois Forforeine, which is a kintal in that place, which maketh at Marseils 109. li. of Marseils waight, at 15 ounces the pound, which is 103. li. of 16. ounces to the li. There is another waight called Pois Gerrin, which is 150. li. of Marseils waight, by which are sold all things to eate: but spice is sold by the former waight. From Alexandria to Cairo is three daies journey, but you must take a Ianissarie with you: and to go vp thither by water it is 8. dayes journey. Roials of Spaine are currant mony there, and are the best money you can cary. And 4. roials are worth 13. Medins, and 2. Medins, are 3. Aspers. Pistolets and crownes of France and Dollers will goe, but of all Roials are best. Rice is not permitted to goe out of the land, but is kept for a victuall. But with a present to the Bye and Ermine some may passe. All sortes of spices be garbled after the bargaine is made, and they be Moores which you deale withall, which be good people and not ill disposed. And after you be searched and haue leaue to passe, you must presently depart out of the port, and if you doe not, they will search you againe. And you must depart in the day, for in the night the castles will not suffer you to depart. The duetie to the Consul is 2 in the hundred, for his aide, and meate, and drinke and all. And the port of Alexandria is good when one is within it with good ankers and cables. Silver is better currant then gold in Alexandria, but both are good. Commonly the Carauans come thither in October from Mecca to Cairo, and from thence to Alexandria, where the merchants be that buy the spices, and therefore the spices are brought most to Alexandria, where each Christian nation remaineth at the Consuls houses. Yet oftentimes the Christians go vp to Cairo to buy drugs and other commodities there, as they see cause. And the commodities there vendible are all sorts of kersies, but the most part blewes, and of clothes all colours except mingled colours and blacks. Pepper is usually sold for 24. ducats the quintal, Ginger for 14. ducats. You most take canuas to make bags to put your commoditie in from Alexandria, for there is none. There is also fine flaxe, and good store of Buffe hides. * * * * * A letter of the English ambassador to M. Edward Barton. Master Barton I send you 3. commandements in Turkish, with a copy thereof in English, to the ende our ships might not come in danger of breach of league, if they should shoote at the gallies of those of Algier, Tunis, and Tripolis in the West: which after you haue shewed the Bassas, receiue againe into your hands, and see them registred, and then deliuer one of them to our friend M. Tipton, and the like you are to do with the priuilege which you cary with you, and see them iointly registered in the Cadies booke, deliuering the copy of the said priuilege sealed by the Cadi, also to the sayd our friend M. Tipton, taking a note of his hand for the receipt thereof, and for deliuerie at all times to vs or our assignes. And require them in her maiesties and the grand Signors name, that they will haue our ships passing too and fro vnder licence and safeconduct for recommended in friendly maner. Touching your proceedings in Tripolis with Romadan, as I haue not receiued any aduise thereof, since your departure, so must I leaue you to God and my former direction. The ship patronised of Hassan Rayes, which you wrote to be ours, prooued to be a Catalonian. As for ours, by report of that Hassan and other Iewes in his ship, it was affirmed to be sold to the Malteses, which with the rest you are to receiue there. And hauing ended these affaires and registred our priuilege, and these three commandements, in Tripolis, Tunis, and Alger, I pray you make speedy returne, and for that which may be recouered, make ouer the same either to Richard Rowed for Patrasso in Morea, or otherwise hither to Iohn Bate in the surest maner you may, if the registring of that your priuilege and these commandements will not suffer you in person to returne with the same. From my mansion Rapamat in Pera this 24. of Iune 1584. * * * * * The commaundement obtained of the Grand Signior by her Maiesties ambassador M. Wil. Hareborne, for the quiet passing of her subiects to and from his dominions, sent in An. 1584 to the Viceroyes of Algier, Tunis, and Tripolis in Barbary. To our Beglerbeg of Algier. We certifie thee by this our commandement, that the right honorable Will. Hareborne ambassador to the Queenes maiestie of England hath signified vnto vs, that the ships of that countrey in their comming and returning to and from our Empire, on the one part of the Seas haue the Spaniards, Florentines, Sicilians, and Malteses, on the other part our countreis committed to your charge: which abouesaid Christians will not quietly suffer their egresse and regresse, into, and out of our dominions, but doe take and make the men captiues, and forfeit the shippes and goods, as the last yeere the Maltese did one, which they tooke at Gerbi, and to that end do continually lie in wait for them to their destruction, whereupon they are constrained to stand to their defence at any such time as they might meet with them. Wherefore considering by this means they must stand vpon their guard, when they shall see any gallie afarre off, whereby if meeting with any of your gallies and not knowing them, in their defence they do shoot at them, and yet after when they doe certainly know them, do not shoote any more, but require to passe peaceably on their voiage, which you would deny, saying, the peace is broken because you haue shot at vs, and so make prize of them contrary to our priuileges, and against reason: for the preuenting of which inconuenience the said ambassadour hath required this our commaundement. We therefore command thee, that vpon sight hereof thou doe not permit any such matter in any sort whatsoeuer, but suffer the sayd Englishmen to passe in peace according to the tenour of our commandement giuen, without any disturbance or let by any meanes vpon the way, although that meeting with thy gallies, and not knowing them afarre off, they taking them for enemies should shoote at them, yet shall you not suffer them to hurt them therefore, but quietly to passe. Wherefore looke thou that they may haue right, according to our priuilege giuen them, and finding any that absenteth himself, and wil not obey this our commandement, presently certify vs to our porch, that we may giue order for his punishment, and with reverence giue faithfull credite to this our commandement, which hauing read, thou shalt againe returne it vnto them that present it. From our palace in Constantinople, the 1. of Iune 1584. * * * * * A letter of the honorable M. Wil. Hareborne her maiesties ambass. with the grand Signior to M. Tipton, appointing him Consul of the English in Algier, Tunis, and Tripolis of Barbarie. Master Tipton, I haue receiued among others, yours of the 10. of Nouember 1584. by Soliman Sorda, certifying the receipt of mine of the 24. of Iune 1584. with the 3. commandements, which not being registred, let it now be done. Where you write the force of the priuilege to be broken by our ships in shooting, and therefore be lawfully taken, you are deceiued, for of those taken in then, hath the grand Signior now deliuered vs free, Wil. Moore, and Rob. Rawlings, and further promised the rest in like case, wheresoeuer they be, and that hereafter no violence shalbe shewed, considering ours be merchants ships which go peaceably in their voiage, and were ignorant of the orders of Algier, neither knew afar off, whether they were friends or the Christians gallies in league with vs, of whom they most doubted, who not suffring our ships to come into these parts, wil make prize of the goods and captiue the men, so as they are not to let them come nigh them: and since ours haue not done contrary to the articles of the same priuilege, wherein is no order for Algier prescribed vs, as both by the originall now sent vs, and also by the copy now sent you from London you may perceiue, they according to right are as abouesaid to be set free, and their goods restored, which if it be not there accomplished as the grand Signior hath now commanded, and most faithfully promised, neither yet in case of their denial, those offenders punished here, and our injuries redressed, we are to demand our Congie, and command our merchants her maiesties subiects, to end their traffike here, which in our countrey commodities is prooued and found by the great Signior to be so beneficial to his countries as we are assured so well thereof, as also for the honor which his ancestors neuer had of friendship with so mighty a prince as is her maiesty, he wil not but maintaine the faith promised her, and the intercourse in due force. And where you say that the grand Signor his letters, in the behalf of the French, were no more accepted there, then of a mean man, nor tooke no place, that is not material to vs, our letters are after another sort much more effectuall. For our case and theirs be found far different, in that they be not onely now out of fauour with him, but also the commodities which they bring hither, as sugar, paper, bracelets, ropes of bast, almonds, &c., all which may be here wel spared, and we contrarily so wel esteemed, as he neuer denied vs any thing since our comming demanded, which neither their ambassador, nor the Venetian could haue here, and therefore we rest perswaded, knowing the wisdom of the Beglebeg, who is aduised by his friends from hence, of this our credite with his master, he wil so respect his commandements, as to accomplish the tenor thereof according to our desire. And where you say that the Ianizers rule all there, I know right wel that if things be not done as the grand Signior commandeth, his lieutenant must answer it. And therefore I am fully perswaded if he doe what he may they dare not resist him, for if they should, those rebels should not be vnpunished of the grand Signior. And though they speake their pleasures among themselues there, yet they be not so brutish, but they wel consider that their master the grand Signior may not be gainsaid or mocked of any. For vpon his word dependeth the life or death euen of the chiefest, as I have seene since my comming hither. So whatsoever these Ianizaries say, they will be better aduised in their deedes then to withstand their Viceroy, if he himselfe wil vse his lawfull power, which if hee doe not, hee cannot purge himselfe here of their euill proceedings against the grand Signiors friends: for the feet may not rule the bodie, but contrarywise, the head, the feete, and all the rest of the members. And for that neither for feare, affection or otherwise you omit as a faithfull true subiect to her maiestie to do your dutie, I do by my warrant going herewith charge you, and in her maiesties name, to the vttermost to vse your good and faithfull endeuour, as becommeth a true subiect, and in all things that may concerne her maiesties good seuice, assisting the Chaus with the rest of our messengers in counsel, trauel, and what els shall be thought requisite for your good discharge of your duetie. And to the end you may boldly proceed herein as also for the good opinion sir Edward Osborne and the company haue of you, and I no lesse perswaded of youre wisedome, vpright dealing, and good experience in those parts, do send you herewith the grand Signiors and our patents for exercising the office of Consul there, in Tripolis and Tunis: by virtue of which authoritie you may without feare proceed as the office doeth chalenge in defence of our priuilege, to redresse all iniuries offred our nation. Which if you cannot get reformed there of the Beglerbies vpon your complaint, I thereof aduertised, shal doe it here, and to the vttermost maintaine you in al rightful causes whatsoeuer, doubt you not. And hereafter according to your aduise, I wil and doe giue our ships order not to fight with any gallies of Alger, but to hoise out their skiffe and go aboord to shew them their safeconduct, and to present the captain with a garment, and you there in such like case are to take order that they do not forceably take any thing from them. [Sidenote: The Inuentorie of our ships and goods sunke and taken by the gallies of Alger.] Nothing doubting but the Viceroy (whose friendship in her maiesties behalfe I desire) will not onely performe the same your iust request, and according to right, restore to libertie our men since the priuilege taken, but also cause those that tooke and sunke our ships to answere the value, which I haue set down truly, and rather with the least in the Inuentorie translated into Turkish, whereof the inclosed is the copy in English, which I send to the end you may be the better informed of my demand by this our Chaus Mahomet, with whom in all things you are to conferre of matters expedient, for the honor of her maiesties countrey, and the commoditie, and libertie of poore captiues, which if the Viceroy do wel consider, according to his wisdome, as the grand Signior doeth thereof, he shal wel perceiue it not onely a great honour to his master as aforesaid, to continue this amitie with her maiestie, but chiefly to the whole estate of his kingdom exceeding profitable, which by this means shall be abundantly serued with the chiefest commodities they want, with many other things of more importance to the grand Signior his contentation, not herein to be mentioned. For I know the Viceroies experienced wisdom can wel consider thereof, in such sort as he wil not deny to accomplish his masters commandement, and our earnest request in so small a matter as this we require, whereof I expect no refusall: for thereby he shall increase his honor with the grand Signior, be in credite with her maiestie, be void of trouble which hereafter by future suite against him may happen, and his gallies free of such doubtful issue as doeth chance, fighting with our ships. Which, as it is well knowen to all the world, haue so great hearts as neuer cowardly to yeeld to their enemies. And that therefore in that respect (after the prouerbe, like esteeme of their like) they are the more of such a valiant prince as is their Viceroy and his couragious souldiers to be in all friendship cherished and better esteemed. If the captaine Bassa had bene returned from Capha, I would in like maner haue procured his letters, which for that he is not, I doubt nothing but that the grand Signiors will suffise. Thus commending your selfe and these proceedings to the almighty his merciful direction, I bid you most heartily wel to fare. From my mansion Rapamat nigh Pera, this 30. of March, 1585. * * * * * Series vel registrum valoris nauium, bonorum, et hominum per triremes Argerienses ereptorum, vna cum captiuorum hominum nominibus, Beglerbego Argeriensi Hassano. 1 Salomon de Plimmouth habuit 36. homines, onerata cum sale, onere trecentorum doliorum, valore Florenorum 5600. 2 Elizabetha de Garnesey cum decem hominibus Anglis, reliquis Britonibus, valore Florenorum 2000. 3 Maria Martin de London onere centum et triginta doliorum, rectore Thoma More cum triginta quinque hominibus, reuertens de Patrasso cum mandato Cæsareo, valore Florenorum 1400. 4 Elizabeth Stokes de London, rectore Dauid Fillie de London, Patrassum veniens cum mandato Cæsareo: huius præcipuus valor erat in talleris numeratis, quos habuit Richardus Gibben, qui adduxit etiam Serenissimæ Reginæ: maiestatis literas Cæsari et oratori. Valor reliquus in mercibus vna cum superiori in talleris, effecit Florenorum 21500. 5 Nicolaus de London, rectore Thoma Forster, onerata cum vuis siccis, valore Florenorum 4800. In tempore Romadan Beglerbegi Argiræ spoliatæ et ereptæ naues, merces, et homines. 1 Iudith de London, rectore Iacobo Beare, cum hominibus 24. valore Florenorum 3100. 2 Iesus de London, rectore Andræa Dier, cum 21. hominibus. Valorem huius et 14. homines, reliquis mortuis, reddidit Romadan Bassa Tripolitanus Secretario legati, Edwardo Barten, valore Florenorum 9000. Nomina hominum mancipatorum et viuentium tunc temporis, quando Cæsar illustrissimus, et dominus Orator Chauseum Mahumetem miserunt Algiram. 1 Ante foedus initum in naue Peter de Bristow. Iohn Winter, Robert Barton. 2 In naue Swallow de London. Rich. Crawford, Anthony Eluers, Wil. Rainolds. Post foedus initum in naue Britona. Iames Yoong. 1 In naue Rabnet de Hampton. Thomas Lisney. 1 In naue Salomon. Iohn Tracie, Wil. Griffith, Wil. Cocke. 1 In naue Elizabeth. Iohn Woodward, Giles Naper, Leonard Iames, Oliuer Dallimore, and Richard Maunsell. 2 In naue Maria Martin. Thomas Moore, Wil. White, Wil. Palmer, Nich. Long, Peter March, Rich. Haslewood, Wil. Dewly, Wil. Cowel, Iohn Franke, Henry Parker, Iohn Cauendish, Moises Robinson, Iames Sotherich, Henry Howel, Nich. Smith, Henry Ragster, Rich. Dauison, Rich. Palmer. 3 In naue Elizabeth Stokes. Dauid Fillie, Walter Street, Laurence Wilkins, Morgan Dauis, Iohn Quinte, Ambrose Harison, Iohn Peterson, Tristram Vois, Roger Ribbe. 4 In naue Nicholas, Thomas Forster rector nauis et eius nautæ. * * * * * To Assan Aga, Eunuch and Treasurer to Hassan Bassa king of Alger, which Assan Aga was the sonne of Fran. Rowlie of Bristow merchant, taken in the Swalow. I receiued your letters of Will. Hamor gentleman my seruant very thankfully, aswel for the feruant faith that by his report I heare you haue in our lord Iesus Christ, by whose onely merits and bloodshedding, you together with vs and all other good Christians so truly beleeuing, shalbe saued, as also for your faithfull obedience like a true subiect to her Maiestie, naturally louing your countrey and countreymen, declared in your fauourable furtherance of the said Wil. Hamore, procuring their redemption. Of which your good and vertuous actions, as I reioice to vnderstand, so wil I impart the same to your singuler commendation, both to our mistresse her Maiestie, and her most honorable counsellors the nobilitie of England, to whom assure your selfe the report shalbe very welcome. And now this second time I am inforced by duetie to God and her maiesty, as also by the smal regard your master had of the Grand Signors former commandements, to complaine vnto him, though not so vehemently as I had occasion by his most vnworthy answer. But I hope, and the rather by your means, he will not contrary this second commandement, threatning him, not obseruing the same, losse of office and life. The due execution whereof by your vertuous and careful industry procured, wil manifest to all the world, especially to her maiesty, and me her ambassador, your true Christian mind and English heart, intentiuely bent to Gods honor, and the libertie of the poore men, for which I trust you be ordained another Ioseph, to folow his example in true pietie, in such sort that notwithstanding your body be subiect to Turkish thraldom, yet your vertuous mind free from those vices, next vnder God addict to the good seruice of your liege Lady and soueraigne princes, her most excellent maiesty, wil continually seeke by all good meanes to manifest the same in this and the like faithful seruice to your singuler commendation, wherby both my selfe and others in that place hauing found you in all good offices faithfully affectionated, may in like case performe the like towards you, when and where you may haue occasion to vse me: which as I for my part do assuredly promise, and wil no lesse faithfully performe: so accordingly I expect herein, and hereafter the like of you, whom most heartily saluted I commend to the diuine tuition and holy direction. From my house Rapamar, this 28. of June 1586. Your louing and good friend her Maiesties Ambassador with the Grand Signor, Wil. Hareborne. * * * * * The originall of the first voyage for traffique into the kingdom of Marocco in Barbarie, begun in the yeere 1551. with a tall ship called the Lion of London, whereof went as captaine Master Thomas Windam, as appeareth by this extract of a letter of Iames Aldaie, to the worshipfull master Michael Locke, which Aldaie professeth himselfe to haue bene the first inuentor of this trade. Worshipful Sir, hauing lately bene acquainted with your intent to prosecute the olde intermitted discouerie for Catai, if therein with my knowledge, trauell or industrie I may doe you seruice, I am readie to doe it and therein to aduenture my life to the vttermost point. Trueth it is, that I haue bene by some men (not my friends) euill spoken of at London, saying that although I be a man of knowledge in the Arte of Nauigation and Cosmographie, and that I haue bene the inuentor of some voyages that be now growen to great effect; yet say they maliciously and without iust cause, that I haue not bene willing at any season to proceed in those voyages that I haue taken in hand, taking example especially of two voyages. The one was when I was master in the great Barke Aucher of the Leuant, in which voyage I went not, but the causes they did not know of my let from the same, nor of the other. But first the very trueth is, that I was from the same voyage letted by the Princes letters, which my Master Sebastian Gabota had obtained for that purpose, to my great griefe. And as touching the second voyage which I inuented for the trade of Barbarie, the liuing God knoweth that I say most true, that when the great sweate was, (whereon the chiefe of those with whom I ioyned in that voyage died, that is to say, Sir Iohn Lutterell, Iohn Fletcher, Henry Ostrich and others) I my selfe was also taken with the same sweate in London, and after it, whether with euill diet in keeping, or how I know not, I was cast into such an extreame feuer, as I was neither able to ride nor goe: and the shippe being at Portesmouth, Thomas Windam had her away from thence, before I was able to stand vpon my legges, by whom I lost at that instant fourescore pound. Besides I was appointed by them that died (if they had liued) to haue had the whole gouernment both of shippe and goods, because I was to them the sole inuenter of that trade. In the first voyage to Barbary there were two Moores, being noblemen, whereof one was of the Kings blood, conuayed by the said Master Thomas Windham into their Countrey out of England, Yours humble at your commandement, Iames Alday. * * * * * The second voyage to Barbary in the yeere 1552. Set foorth by the right worshipfull Sir Iohn Yorke, Sir William Gerard, Sir Thomas Wroth, Master Frances Lambert, Master Cole and others; Written by the relation of Master Iames Thomas then Page to Master Thomas Windham chiefe Captaine of this voyage. The shippes that went on this voyage were three, whereof two were of the Riuer of Thames, That is to say, the Lyon of London, whereof Master Thomas Windham was Captaine and part owner, of about an hundred and fiftie tonnes: The other was the Buttolfe about fourescore tunnes, and a Portugall Carauel bought of certaine Portugals in Newport in Wales, and fraightened for this voyage, of summe sixtie tunnes. The number of men in the Fleete were an hundred and twentie. The Master of the Lyon was one Iohn Kerry of Mynhed in Somersetshire, his Mate was Dauid Landman. The chiefe Captaine of this small Fleete was Master Thomas Windham a Norffolke gentlemen borne, but dwelling at Marshfield-parke in Somerset shire. This Fleete departed out of King-rode neere Bristoll about the beginning of May 1552. being on a Munday in the morning: and the Munday fortnight next ensuing in the euening came to an ancker at their first port in the roade of Zafia, or Asafi on the coast of Barbarie, standing in 32. degrees of latitude, and there put on land part of our Marchandise to be conueied by land to the citie of Marocco: which being done, and hauing refreshed our selues with victuals and water, we went to the second port called Santa Cruz, where we discharged the rest of our goods, being good quantitie of linnen and woollen cloth, corall, amber, Iet, and diuers other things well accepted of the Moores. In which road we found a French ship, which not knowing whether it were warre or peace betweene England and France, drewe her selfe as neere vnder the towne wals as she could possible, crauing aide of the towne for her defence, if need were, which in deed seeing vs draw neere, shot at vs a piece from the wals, which came ouer the Lion our Admirall, between the maine mast and her foremast. [Sidenote: The English were at Santa Cruz the yere before being 1551.] Whereupon we comming to an anker, presently came a pinnes aboord vs to know what we were, who vnderstanding that we had bene there the yere before, and came with the good leaue of their king in marchant wise, were fully satisfied, and gaue vs good leaue to bring our goods peaceably on shore, where the Viceroy, whose name was Sibill Manache, within short time after came to visite vs, and vsed vs with all curtesie. But by diuers occasions we spent here very neere three moneths before we could get in our lading, which was Sugar, Dates, Almonds, and Malassos or sugar Syrrope. And for all our being here in the heate of the Sommer, yet none of our company perished by sicknesse. Our ships being laden, we drew into the Sea for a Westerne wind for England. But being at sea, a great leake fell vpon the Lion, so that we were driuen to Lancerota, and Forteuentura, where, betweene the two Ilands, we came to a road, whence wee put on land out of our sayd ship 70. chests of Sugar vpon Lancerota, with some dozen or sixteene of our company, where the inhabitants supposing we had made a wrongfull prize of our carauell, suddenly came with force vpon our people, among whom I my selfe was one, tooke vs prisoners, and spoiled the sugars: which thing being perceiued from our ships, they manned out three boates, thinking to rescue vs, and draue the Spaniards to flight, whereof they slew eighteene, and tooke their gouernour of the Iland prisoner, who was a very aged gentleman about 70 yeeres of age. But chasing the enemies so farre, for our recouerie, as pouder and arrowes wanted, the Spaniardes perceiuing this, returned, and in our mens retire they slew sixe of them. Then a Parle grew, in the which it was agreed, that we the prisoners should be by them restored, and they receiue their olde gouernour, giuing vs a testimonie vnder his and their hands, what damages wee had there receiued, the which damages were here restored, and made good by the king of Spaine his marchants vpon our returne into England. After wee had searched and mended our leake, being returned aboord, we came vnder saile, and as wee were going to the sea on the one side of the Iland, the Cacafuego and other ships of the king of Portugals Armada entered at the other, and came to anker in the road from whence we were but newly departed, and shot off their great ordinance in our hearing. And here by the way it is to bee vnderstood that the Portugals were much offended with this our new trade into Barbarie, and both in our voiage the yeere before, as also in this they gaue out in England by their marchants, that if they tooke vs in those partes, they would vse vs as their mortall enemies, with great threates and menaces. But by God and good prouidence wee escaped their hands. From this Iland shaping our coast for England, we were seuen or eight weekes before we could reach the coast of England. The first port wee entered into was the hauen of Plimmouth, from whence within short time wee came into the Thames, and landed our marchandise at London, about the ende of the moneth of October, 1552. * * * * * A voiage made out of England vnto Guinea and Benin in Affrike, at the charges of certaine marchants Aduenturers of the Citie of London, in the yeere of our Lord 1553. I was desired by certaine of my friends to make some mention of this Voiage, that some memorie thereof might remaine to our posteritie, if either iniquitie of time consuming all things, or ignorance creeping in by barbarousness and contempt of knowledge should hereafter bury in obliuion so woorthie attempts, so much the greatlier to bee esteemed, as before neuer enterprised by Englishmen, or at the least so frequented, as at this present they are, and may bee, to the great commoditie of our marchants, if the same be not hindered by the ambition of such, as for the conquering of fortie or fiftie miles here and there, and erecting of certaine fortresses, thinke to be Lordes of half the world, enuying that other should enioy the commodities, which they themselues cannot wholly possesse. And although such as haue bene at charges in the discouering and conquering of such landes ought by good reason to haue certaine priuileges, preheminences, and tributes for the same, yet (to speake vnder correction) it may seeme somewhat rigorous, and agaynst good reason and conscience, or rather agaynst the charitie that ought to be among Christian men, that such as inuade the dominions of other should not permit other friendly to vse the trade of marchandise in places neerer, or seldome frequented of them, whereby their trade is not hindered in such places, where they themselues haue at their owne election appointed the Martes of their traffike. But forasmuch as at this present it is not my intent to accuse or defend, approoue or improoue, I will cease to speake any further hereof, and proceed to the description of the first voyage, as briefly and faithfully as I was aduertised of the same, by the information of such credible persons, as made diligent inquisition to know the trueth thereof, as much as shall be requisite, omitting to speake of many particular things, not greatly necessarie to be knowen: which neuerthelesse, with also the exact course of the navigation, shall be more fully declared in the second voiage. And if herein fauour or friendship shall perhaps cause some to thinke that some haue bene sharply touched, let them lay apart fauour and friendship, and giue place to trueth, that honest men may receiue prayse for well doing, and lewd persons reproch, as the iust stipend of their euill desertes, whereby other may be deterred to doe the like, and vertuous men encouraged to proceed in honest attempts. But that these voyages may be more plainly vnderstood of all men, I haue thought good for this purpose, before I intreat hereof, to make a briefe description of Africa, being that great part of the world, on whose West side beginneth the coast of Guinea at Cabo Verde, about twelue degrees in latitude, on this side the Equinoctiall line, and two degrees in longitude from the measuring line, so running from the North to the South, and by East in some places, within 5, 4, and 3 degrees and a halfe vnto the Equinoctiall, and so foorth in maner directly East and by North, for the space of 36 degrees or thereabout, in longitude from the West to the East, as shall more plainly appeare in the description of the second voyage. A briefe description of Afrike gathered by Richard Eden. In Africa the lesse are these kingdoms: the kingdom of Tunis and Constantina, which is at this day under Tunis, and also the region of Bugia, Tripoli, and Ezzah. This part of Afrike is very barren by reason of the great deserts, as the deserts of Numidia and Barca. The principall ports of the kingdome of Tunis are these: Goletta, Bizerta, Potofarnia, Bona, and Stora. The chiefe cities of Tunis are Constantina and Bona, with diuers other. Vnder this kingdom are many Ilands, as Zerbi, Lampadola, Pantalarea, Limoso, Beit, Gamelaro, and Malta, where at this present is the great master of the Rhodes. Vnder the South of this kingdom are the great deserts of Lybia. All the nations in this Africa the lesse are of the sect of Mahomet, and a rusticall people, liuing scattred in villages. The best of this part of Afrike is Barbaria lying on the coast of the sea Mediterraneum. Mauritania (now called Barbaria) is diuided into two parts, as Mauritania Tingitana, and Cæsariensis. Mauritania Tingitania is now called the kingdom of Fes, and the kingdom of Marocco. The principall citie of Fes is called Fessa: and the chiefe citie of Marocco is named Marocco. Mauritania Cæsariensis is at this day called the kingdom of Tremisen, with also the citie called Tremisen or Telensin. This region is full of deserts, and reacheth to the Sea Mediterraneum, to the citie of Oram, with the port of Mersalquiber. The kingdom of Fes reacheth vnto the Ocean Sea, from the West to the citie of Argilla: and the port of the sayd kingdom is called Sala. The kingdom of Marocco is also extended aboue the Ocean Sea, vnto the citie of Azamor and Azafi, which are vpon the Ocean Sea, toward the West of the sayd kingdom. Nere Mauritania Tingitana (that is to say, by the two kingdoms of Fes, and Marocco) are in the Sea, the Ilands of Canarie, called in old time, The fortunate Ilands. Toward the south of this region is the kingdom of Guinea, with Senega, Ialofo, Gambra, and many other regions of the Blacke Moores, called Aethiopians or Negros all which are watered with the riuer Negro, called in old time Niger. In the sayd regions are no cities, but onely certaine lowe cottages made of boughes of trees, plastered with chalke, and couered with strawe. In these regions are also very great deserts. The kingdom of Marocco hath vnder it these seuen kingdoms: Hea, Sus, Guzula, the territorie of Marrocca, Duccala, Hazchora, and Tedle. The kingdom of Fes hath as many: as Fes, Temesne, Azgar, Elabath, Errif, Garet, and Elcair. The kingdom of Tremisen hath these regions: Tremisen, Tenez, and Elgazair, all which are Machometists. But all the regions of Guinea are pure Gentiles, and idolatrous, without profession of any religion, or other knowledge of God, then by the law of nature. Africa the great is one of the three parts of the world, knowen in old time, and seuered from Asia, on the East by the riuer Nilus, on the West from Europe by the pillars of Hercules. The hither part is now called Barbarie, and the people Moores. The inner part is called Lybia and Aethiopia. Afrike the lesse is in this wise bounded: On the West it hath Numidia; On the East Cyrenaica: On the North, the sea called Mediterraneum. In this countrey was the noble city of Carthage. In the East side of Afrike beneath the red sea, dwelleth the great and mighty Emperour and Christian king Prester Iohn, well knowen to the Portugales in their voyages to Calicut. His dominions reach very farre on euery side: and hath vnder him many other Kings both christian and heathen that pay him tribute. This mightie prince is called Dauid the Emperour of Aethiopia. Some write that the king of Portugall sendeth him yeerely eight ships laden with marchandize. His kingdom confineth with the red Sea, and reacheth far into Afrike toward Aegypt and Barbarie. Southward it confineth with the Sea toward the Cape de Bona Speranza: and on the other side with the sea of sand, called Mare de Sabione, a very dangerous sea lying between the great citie of Alcair, or Cairo in Aegypt, and the country of Aethiopia: In the which way are many vnhabitable deserts, continuing for the space of fiue dayes iourney. And they affirme, that if the sayd Christian Emperour were not hindered by those deserts (in the which is great lacke of victuals, and especially of water) he would or now haue inuaded the kingdom of Egypt, and the citie of Alcair. The chiefe city of Ethiopia, where this great emperor is resident, is called Amacaiz, being a faire citie, whose inhabitants are of the colour of an Oliue. There are also many other cities, as the city of Saua vpon the riuer of Nilus, where the Emperour is accustomed to remaine in the Sommer season. There is likewise a great city named Barbaregaf, and Ascon, from whence it is said that the Queene of Saba came to Hierusalem to heare the wisedom of Salomon. This citie is but litle, yet very faire, and one of the chiefe cities in Ethiope. In this prouince are many exceeding high mountains, vpon the which is said to be the earthly paradise: and some say that there are the trees of the Sunne and Moone, whereof the antiquitie maketh mention: yet that none can passe thither by reason of great deserts of an hundred daies iourney. Also beyond these mountains is the Cape of Bona Speranza. And to haue said thus much of Afrike it may suffice. The first voiage to Guinea and Benin. In the yeere of our Lord 1553. the twelfth day of August, sailed from Portsmouth two goodly ships, the Primerose and the Lion, with a pinnas called the Moone, being all well furnished aswell with men of the lustiest sort, to the number of seuen score, as also with ordinance and victuals requisite to such a voiage: hauing also two captaines, the one a stranger called Anthonie Anes Pinteado, a Portugall, borne in a towne named The Port of Portugall, a wise, discreet, and sober man, who for his cunning in sailing, being as well an expert Pilot as a politike captaine, was sometime in great fauour with the king of Portugall, and to whom the coasts of Brasile and Guinea were committed to be kept from the Frenchmen, to whom he was a terrour on the Sea in those parts, and was furthermore a gentleman of the king his masters house. But as fortune in maner neuer fauoureth but flattereth, neuer promiseth but deceiueth, neuer raiseth but casteth downe againe: and as great wealth and fauour haue alwaies companions, emulation and enuie, he was after many aduersities and quarels made against him, inforced to come into England: where in this golden voyage he was euil matched with an vnequal companion, and vnlike match of most sundry qualities and conditions, with vertues few or none adorned. Thus departed these noble ships vnder saile on their voyage: But first captaine Windam putting forth of his ship at Portsmouth a kinsman of one of the head marchants, and shewing herein a muster of the tragicall partes hee had conceiued in his braine, and with such small beginnings nourished so monstrous a birth, that more happy, yea and blessed was that yong man being left behind, then if he had bene taken with them, as some do wish he had done the like by theirs. Thus sailed they on their voyage, vntill they came to the Iland of Madera, where they tooke in certaine wines for the store of their ships, and paid for them as they agreed of the price. At these Ilands they met with a great Galion of the king of Portugall, full of men and ordinance: yet such as could not haue preuailed if it had attempted to withstand or resist our ships, for the which cause it was set foorth, not onely to let and interrupt these our shippes of their purposed voiage, but al other that should attempt the like: yet chiefly to frustrate our voiage. For the king of Portugall was sinisterly informed, that our ships were armed to his castle of Mina in those parties, whereas nothing lesse was ment. After that our ships departed from the Iland of Madera forward on their voiage, began this worthy captaine Pinteados sorow, as a man tormented with the company of a terrible Hydra, who hitherto flattred with him, and made him a faire countenance and shew of loue. Then did he take vpon him to command all alone, setting nought both by captain Pinteado, and the rest of the marchants factors, sometimes with opprobrious words, and sometimes with threatnings most shamfully abusing them, taking from Pinteado the seruice of the boies and certain mariners that were assigned him by the order and direction of the worshipful merchants, and leauing him as a common mariner, which is the greatest despite and grief that can be to a Portugale or Spaniard, to be diminished of their honor, which they esteem aboue all riches. Thus sailing forward on their voiage, they came to the Ilands of Canarie, continuing their course from thence vntil they arriued at the Iland of S. Nicholas, where they victualled themselues with fresh meat, of the flesh of wild goats, whereof is great plenty in that Iland, and in maner of nothing els. From hence following on their course and tarying here and there at the desert Ilands in the way, because they would not come too timely to the countrey of Guinea for the heat, and tarying somewhat too long (for what can be well ministred in a common wealth, where inequalitie with tyrannie wil rule alone) they came at the length to the first land of the country of Guinea, where they fel with the great riuer of Sesto, where they might for their marchandizes haue laden their ships with the graines of that countrey, which is a very hote fruit, and much like vnto a fig as it groweth on the tree. For as the figs are full of small seeds, so is the said fruit full of graines, which are loose within the cod, hauing in the mids thereof a hole on euery side. This kind of spice is much vsed in cold countries, and may there be sold for great aduantage, for exchange of other wares. But our men, by the perswasion or rather inforcement of this tragicall captaine, not regarding and setting light by that commoditie, in comparison of the fine gold they thirsted, sailed an hundred leagues further, vntil they came to the golden land: where not attempting to come neere the castle pertaining to the king of Portugall, which was within the riuer of Mina, they made sale of their ware only on this side and beyond it, for the gold of that country, to the quantitie of an hundred and fiftie pounds weight, there being in case that they might haue dispatched all their ware for gold, if the vntame braine of Windam had, or could haue given eare to the counsell and experience of Pinteado. For when that Windam not satisfied with the gold which he had, and more might haue had if he had taried about the Mina, commanding the said Pinteado (for so he tooke vpon him) to lead the ships to Benin, being vnder the Equinoctial line, and an hundred and fifty leagues beyond the Mina, where he looked to haue their ships laden with pepper: and being counselled of the said Pinteado, considering the late time of the yeere, for that time to go no further, but to make sale of their wares such as they had for gold, wherby they might haue bene great gainers: Windam not assenting hereunto, fell into a sudden rage, reuiling the sayd Pinteado, calling him Iew, with other opprobrious words, saying, This whoreson Iew hath promised to bring vs to such places as are not, or as he cannot bring vs vnto: but if he do not, I will cut off his eares and naile them to the maste. Pinteado gaue the foresaid counsell to go no further for the safegard of the men and their liues, which they should put in danger if they came too late, for the Rossia which is their Winter, not for cold, but for smothering heate, with close and cloudie aire and storming weather, of such putrifying qualitie, that it rotted the coates of their backs: or els for comming to soone for the scorching heat of the sunne, which caused them to linger in the way. [Sidenote: The king of Benin his court.] But of force and not of will brought he the ships before the riuer of Benin, where riding at an Anker, they sent their pinnas vp into the riuer 50 or 60 leagues, from whence certaine of the marchants with captaine Pinteado, Francisco, a Portugale, Nicholas Lambert gentleman, and other marchants were conducted to the court where the king remained, ten leagues from the riuer side, whither when they came, they were brought with a great company to the presence of the king, who being a blacke Moore (although not so blacke as the rest) sate in a great huge hall, long and wide, the wals made of earth without windowes, the roofe of thin boords, open in sundry places, like vnto louers to let in the aire. And here to speake of the great reuerence they giue to their king, it is such, that if we would giue as much to our Sauior Christ, we should remooue from our heads many plagues which we daily deserue for our contempt and impietie. So it is therefore, that when his noble men are in his presence, they neuer looke him in the face, but sit cowring, as we vpon our knees, so they vpon their buttocks, with their elbowes vpon their knees, and their hands before their faces, not looking vp vntil the king command them. And when they are comming toward the king, as far as they do see him, they do shew such reuerence, sitting on the ground with their faces couered as before. Likewise when they depart from him, they turn not their backs toward him, but goe creeping backward with like reuerence. [Sidenote: The communication between the king of Benin and our men.] And now to speake somewhat of the communication that was between the king and our men, you shall first vnderstand that he himselfe could speake the Portugall tongue, which he had learned of a child. Therefore after he had commanded our men to stand vp, and demanded of them the cause of their comming into that countrey, they answered by Pinteado, that they were marchants trauelling into those parties for the commodities of his countrey, for exchange of wares which they had brought from their countries, being such as should be no lesse commodious for him and his people. The king then hauing of old lying in a certaine store house 30 or 40 kintals of Pepper (euery kintall being an hundred weight) willed them to looke vpon the same, and againe to bring him a sight of such marchandizes as they had brought with them. [Sidenote: The kings gentlenes towards our men. ] And thereupon sent with the captaine and the marchants certaine of his men to conduct them to the waters side, with other to bring the ware from the pinnas to the court. Who when they were returned and the wares seen, the king grew to this ende with the merchants to prouide in 30 dayes the lading of al their ships with pepper. And in case their merchandizes would not extend to the value of so much pepper, he promised to credite them to their next returne, and thereupon sent the country round about to gather pepper, causing the same to be brought to the court: So that within the space of 30 dayes they had gathered fourescore tunne of pepper. In the meane season our men partly hauing no rule of themselues, but eating without measure of the fruits of the countrey, and drinking the wine of the Palme trees that droppeth in the night from the cut of the branches of the same, and in such extreme heate running continually into the water, and vsed before to such sudden and vehement alterations (then the which nothing is more dangerous) were thereby brought into swellings and agues: insomuch that the later time of the yeere comming on, caused them to die sometimes three and sometimes 4 or 5 in a day. Then Windam perceiuing the time of the 30 daies to be expired, and his men dying so fast, sent to the court in post to Captaine Pinteado, and the rest to come away and to tary no longer. But Pinteado with the rest, wrote backe to him againe, certifying him of the great quantity of pepper they had alreadie gathered, and looked daily for much more: desiring him furthermore to remember the great praise and name they should win, if they came home prosperously, and what shame of the contrary. With which answere Windam not satisfied, and many of their men dying dayly, willed and commaunded them againe either to come away forthwith, or els threatened to leaue them behinde. When Pinteado heard this answere, thinking to perswade him with reason, hee tooke his way from the court toward the ships, being conducted thither with men by the kings commandement. [Sidenote: The Death of Windham.] In the meane season Windam all raging, brake vp Pinteados Cabin, brake open his chestes, spoiled such prouision of cold stilled waters and suckets as he had prouided for his health, and left him nothing, neither of his instruments to saile by, nor yet of his apparell: and in the meane time falling sicke, himselfe died also. Whose death Pinteado comming aboord, lamented as much as if he had bene the deerest friend he had in the world. [Sidenote: Pinteado euill vsed of the mariners.] But certaine of the mariners and other officers did spit in his face, some calling him Iewe, saying that he had brought them thither to kill them: and some drawing their swords at him, making a shew to slay him. Then he perceiuing that they would needs away, desired them to tarry that he might fetch the rest of the marchants that were left at the court, but they would not grant this request. Then desired he them to giue him the ship-boate, with as much of an old saile as might serue for the same, promising them therwith to bring Nicholas Lambert and the rest into England, but all was in vaine. [Sidenote: This Lambert was a Londiner borne, whose father had bin Lord Maior of London.] Then wrote he a letter to the court to the marchants, informing them of all the matter, and promising them if God would lend him life to returne with all haste to fetch them. And thus was Pinteado kept ashipboord against his will, thrust among the boyes of the ship, not vsed like a man, nor yet like an honest boy, but glad to find fauour at the cookes hand. Then departed they, leauing one of their ships behind them, which they sunke for lacke of men to cary her. [Sidenote: The death of Pinteado.] After this, within 6 or 7 dayes sayling, dyed also Pinteado for uery pensiuenesse and thought that stroke him to the heart. A man worthy to serue any prince, and most vilely vsed. And of seuenscore men came home to Plimmouth scarcely forty, and of them many died. [Sidenote: Pinteado first perswaded our men to the voiage of Guinea.] And that no man should suspect these words which I haue saide in commendation of Pinteado, to be spoken vpon fauour otherwise then trueth, I haue thought good to adde hereunto the copie of the letters which the king of Portugall and the infant his brother wrote vnto him to reconcile him, at such time as vpon the king his masters displeasure (and not for any other crime or offence, as may appeare by the said letters) he was only for pouertie inforced to come into England, where he first perswaded our marchants to attempt the said voyages to Guinea. But as the king of Portugall too late repented him that he had so punished Pinteado, vpon malicious informations of such as enuied the mans good fortune: euen so may it hereby appeare that in some cases euen Lions themselues may either be hindered by the contempt, or aided by the helpe of the poore mise, according vnto the fable of Esope. * * * * * The copie of Anthonie Anes Pinteado his letters patents, whereby the king of Portugall made him knight of his house, after all his troubles and imprisonment, which, by wrong information made to the king, he had susteined of long time, being at the last deliuered, his cause knowen and manifested to the king by a gray Friar the kings Confessor. [Sidenote: Seven hundred reis are ten shillings. Alcayre is halfe a bushell.] I the king doe giue you to vnderstand lord Francis Desseaso, one of my counsell and ouerseer of my house, that in consideration of the good seruice which Anthony Anes Pinteado, the sonne of Iohn Anes, dwelling in the towne called the Port, hath done vnto me, my will and pleasure is, to make him knight of my house, allowing to him in Pension seuen hundred reis monethly, and euery day one alcayre of barly, as long as he keepeth a horse, and to be paid according to the ordinance of my house. Prouiding alwaies that he shall receiue but one marriage gift. And this also in such condition, that the time which is accepted in our ordinance, forbidding such men to marry for getting such children as might succeede them in this allowance, which is 6 yeres after the making of this patent, shalbe first expired before he do marry. I therfore command you to cause this to be entred in the booke called the Matricula of our houshold, vnder the title of knights. And when it is so entred, let the clarke of the Matricula, for the certeintie therof, write on the backside of this Aluala, or patent, the number of the leafe wherein this our grant is entred. Which done, let him returne this writing vnto the said Anthonie Anes Pinteado for his warrant. I Diego Henriques haue written this in Almarin the two and twentie day of September, in the yeere of our Lord 1551. And this beneuolence the king gaue vnto Anthonie Anes Pinteado, the fiue and twentie day of Iuly this present yeere. Rey. The Secretaries declaration written vnder the kings grant. Your Maiestie hath vouchsafed, in respect and consideration of the good seruice of Anthonie Anes Pinteado, dwelling in the port, and sonne of Iohn Anes, to make him knight of your house, with ordinarie allowance, of seuen hundred reis pension by the moneth, and one alcaire of barley by the day, as long as he keepeth a horse: and to be paide according to the ordinance of your house, with condition that hee shall haue but one marriage gift: and that not within the space of sixe yeres after the making of these letters Patents. The Secretaries note. Entred in the booke of the Matricula. Fol. 683. Francisco de Siquera. The copie of the letter of Don Lewes the infant, and brother to the king of Portugall, sent into England to Anthonie Anes Pinteado. Anthony Anes Pinteado, I the infant brother to the king, haue me heartily commended vnto you. Peter Gonsalues is gone to seeke you, desiring to bring you home againe into your countrey. And for that purpose he hath with him a safe conduct for you, granted by the king, that therby you may freely and without all feare come home. And although the weather be foule and stormie, yet faile not to come: for in the time that his Maiestie hath giuen you, you may doe many things to your contentation and gratifying the king, whereof I would be right glad: and to bring the same to passe, I will do all that lieth in me for your profite. But forasmuch as Peter Gonsalues will make further declaration hereof vnto you, I say no more at this present. Written in Lisbone, the eight day of December. Anno 1552. The infant Don Lewes. All these foresaid writings I saw vnder seale, in the house of my friend Nicholas Liese, with whom Pinteado left them, at his vnfortunate departing to Guinea. But, notwithstanding all these friendly letters and faire promises, Pinteado durst not attempt to goe home, neither to keepe companie with the Portugals his countrey men, without the presence of other: forasmuch as he had secrete admonitions that they intended to slay him, if time and place might haue serued their wicked intent. * * * * * The second voyage to Guinea set out by Sir George Barne, Sir Iohn Yorke, Thomas Lok, Anthonie Hickman and Edward Castelin, in the yere 1554. The Captaine whereof was M. Iohn Lok. As in the first voiage I haue declared rather the order of the history, then the course of the nauigation, whereof at that time I could haue no perfect information: so in the description of this second voyage, my chiefe intent hath beene to shew the course of the same, according to the obseruation and ordinarie custome of the mariners, and as I receiued it at the handes of an expert Pilot, being one of the chiefe in this voyage, who also with his owne handes wrote a briefe declaration of the same, as he found and tried all things, not by coniecture, but by the art of sayling, and instruments perteining to the mariners facultie. Not therefore assuming to my selfe the commendations due vnto other, neither so bold as in any part to change or otherwise dispose the order of this voyage so well obserued by art and experience, I haue thought good to set forth the same, in such sort and phrase of speech as is commonly vsed among them, and as I receiued it of the said Pilot, as I haue said. Take it therefore as followeth. [Sidenote: Robert Gainsh was master of the Iohn Euangelist.] In the yeere of our Lord 1554 the eleuenth day of October, we departed the riuer of Thames with three goodly ships, the one called the Trinitie, a ship of the burden of seuenscore tunne, the other called the Bartholomew, a ship of the burden of ninetie, the third was the Iohn Euangelist, a ship of seuen score tunne. With the sayd ships and two pinnesses (wherof the one was drowned on the coast of England) we went forward on our voyage, and stayed at Douer fourteene dayes. We staied also at Rie three or foure dayes. Moreouer last of all we touched at Dartmouth. The first day of Nouember at nine of the clocke at night, departing from the coast of England, we set off the Start, bearing Southwest all that night in the sea, and the next day all day, and the next night after, vntill the third day of the said moneth about noone, making our way good, did runne threescore leagues. The 17. day in the morning we had sight of the Ile of Madera, which doth rise to him that commeth in the Northnortheast part vpright land in the west part of it, and very high: and to the Southsoutheast a low long land, and a long point, with a saddle thorow the middest of it, standing in two and thirtie degrees: and in the West part, many springs of water running downe from the mountaine, and many white fieldes like vnto corne fields, and some white houses to the Southeast part of it: and the toppe of the mountaine sheweth very ragged, if you may see it, and in the Northeast part there is a bight or bay as though it were a harborow: Also in the said part, there is a rocke a little distance from the shoare, and ouer the sayd bight you shall see a great gappe in the mountaine. The 19 day at twelue of the clocke we had sight of the isle of Palmes and Teneriffa and the Canaries. The Ile of Palme riseth round, and lieth Southeast and Northwest, and the Northwest part is lowest. In the South is a round hill ouer the head land, and another round hill aboue that in the land. There are between the Southeast part of the Ile of Madera and the Northwest part of the Ile of Palme seuen and fifty leagues. This Isle of Palme lieth in eight and twenty degrees. And our course from Madera to the Ile of Palme was South and South and by West, so that we had sight of Teneriffa and of the Canaries. The Southeast part of the Ile of the Palme, and the Northnortheast of Teneriffa lie Southeast and Northwest, and betweene them are 20 leagues. Teneriffa and the great Canary called Gran Canaria, and the West part of Forteuentura stande in seuen and twenty degrees and a halfe. Gomera is a faire Island but very ragged, and lieth Westsouthwest off Teneriffa. And whosouer wil come betweene them two Ilands must come South and by East, and in the South part of Gomera is a towne and a good rode in the said part of the Iland: and it standeth in seuen and twentie degrees and three terces. Teneriffa is an high land, with a great high pike like a sugar loafe, and vpon the said pike is snow throughout all the whole yeere. And by reason of that pike it may be knowen aboue all other Ilands, and there we were becalmed the twentieth day of Nouember, from sixe of the clocke in the morning, vntill foure of the clocke at afternoone. The two and twentieth day of Nouember, vnder the Tropike of Cancer the Sunne goeth downe West and by South. Vpon the coast of Barbarie fiue and twentie leagues by North Cape blanke, at three leagues off the maine, there are fifteene fadomes and good shelly ground, and sande among and no streames, and two small Ilands standing in two and twentie degrees and a terce. From Gomera to Cape de las Barbas is an hundred leagues, and our course was South and by East. The said Cape standeth in two and twentie and a halfe: and all that coast is flatte, sixteene or seuenteene fadome deepe. Seuen or eight leagues off from the riuer del Oro or Cape de las Barbas, there vse many Spaniardes and Portugals to trade for fishing, during the moneth of Nouember: and all that coast is very low lands. Also we went from Cape de las Barbas Southsouthwest, and Southwest and by South, till we brought our selues in twentie degrees and a halfe, reckoning our selues seuen leagues off: and there were the least sholes of Cape Blanke. Then we went South vntil we brought our selues in 13 degrees, reckoning our selues fiue and twentie leagues off. And in 15 degrees we did reare the Crossiers, and we might haue reared them sooner if we had looked for them. They are not right a crosse in the moneth of Nouember, by reason that the nights are short there. Neuertheless we had the sight of them the 29 day of the said moneth at night. The first of December, being in 13 degrees we set our course South and by East, vntill the fourth day of December at 12 of the clocke the same day. Then we were in nine degrees and a terce, rekoning our selues 30 leagues of the sholes of the riuer called Rio Grande, being Westsouthwest off them, the which sholes be 30 leagues long. The fourth of December we beganne to set our course Southeast, we being in sixe degrees and a halfe. The ninth day of December we set our course Eastsoutheast: the fourteenth day of the sayde moneth we set our course East, we being in fiue degrees and a halfe, reckoning our selues thirty and sixe leagues from the coast of Guinea. The nineteenth of the said moneth we set our course East and by North, reckoning our selues seuenteene leagues distant from Cape Mensurado, the said Cape being Eastnortheast of vs, and the riuer of Sesto being East. The one and twentieth day of the said moneth, we fell with Cape Mensurado to the Southeast, about two leagues off. This Cape may be easily knowen, by reason yet the rising of it is like a Porpose-head. Also toward the Southeast there are three trees, whereof the Eastermost tree is the highest, and the middlemost is like a hie stacke, and the Southermost like vnto a gibet: and vpon the maine are foure or fiue high hilles rising one after another like round hommocks or hillocks. And the Southeast of the three trees, brandiernwise: and all the coast along is white sand. The said Cape standeth within a litle in sixe degrees. The two and twentieth of December we came to the riuer of Sesto, and remained there vntill the nine and twentieth day of the said moneth. Here we thought it best to send before vs the pinnesse to the riuer Dulce, called Rio Dulce, that they might haue the beginning of the market before the comming of the Iohn Euangelist. At the riuer of Sesto we had a tunne of graines. This riuer standeth in sixe degrees, lacking a terce. From the riuer of Sesto to Rio Dulce are fiue and twentie leagues. Rio Dulce standeth in fiue degrees and a halfe. The river of Sesto is easie to be knowen, by reason there is a ledge of rockes on the Southeast part of the Rode. And at the entring into the hauen are fiue or sixe trees that beare no leaues. The is a good harborow, but very narow at the entrance into the riuer. There is also a rocke in the hauens mouth right as you enter. And all that coast betweene Cape de Monte, and cape de las Palmas, lieth Southeast and by East, Northwest and by West, being three leagues off the shore. And you shal haue in some places rocks two leagues off: and that, betweene the riuer of Sesto and cape de las Palmas. Betweene the riuer of Sesto and the riuer Dulce are fiue and twentie leagues: and the high land that is betweene them both, is called Cakeado, being eight leagues from the riuer of Sesto. And to the Southeastwarde of it is a place called Shawgro, and another called Shyawe or Shauo, where you may get fresh water. Off this Shyawe lieth a ledge of rockes: and to the Southeastwarde lieth a hedland called Croke. Betweene Cakeado and Croke are nine or ten leagues. To the Southeastward off, is a harborow called S. Vincent: Right ouer against S. Vincent is a rocke vnder the water two leagues and a halfe off the shore. To the Southeastward of that rocke you shal see an island about three or foure leagues off: this island is not past a league off the shore. To the Eastsoutheast of the island, is a rocke that lieth aboue the water, and by that rocke goeth in the riuer Dulce, which you shall know by the said riuer and rocke. The Northwest side of the hauen is flat sand, and the Southeast side thereof is like an Island, and a bare plot without any trees, and so is it not in any other place. In the Rode you shall ride in thirteene or foureteene fadomes, good oaze and sand, being the markes of the Rode to bring the Island and the Northeast land together, and here we ankered the last of December. The third day of Ianuarie, we came from the riuer Dulce. Note that Cape de las Palmas is a faire high land, but some low places thereof by the water side looke like red cliffes with white strakes like hie wayes, a cable length a piece, and this is the East part of the cape. This cape is the Southermost land in all the coast of Guinea, and standeth in foure degrees and a terce. The coast from Cape de las Palmas to Cape Trepointes, or de Tres Puntas, is faire and cleare without rocke or other danger. Twentie and fiue leagues from Cape de las Palmas, the land is higher then in any place, vntill we come to Cape Trepointes: And about ten leagues before you come to Cape Trepointes, the land riseth still higher and higher, vntill you come to Cape Trepointes. Also before you come to the said Cape, after other 5 leagues to the Northwest part of it, there is certaine broken ground, with two great rockes, and within them in the bight of a bay, is a castle called Arra, perteining to the king of Portugall. You shall know it by the said rockes that lie off it: for there is none such from Cape de las Palmas to Cape Trepointes. This coast lieth East and by North, West and by South. From Cape de las Palmas to the said castle is fourescore and fifteene leagues. And the coast lieth from the said castle to the Westermost point of Trepoyntes, Southeast and by South, Northwest and by North. Also the Westermost point of Trepoyntes is a low lande, lying halfe a mile out in the sea: and vpon the innermost necke, to the land-ward, is a tuft of trees, and there we arriued the eleuenth day of Ianuary. The 12 day of Ianuary we came to a towne called Samma or Samua, being 8 leagues from Cape Trepointes toward Eastnortheast. Betweene Cape Trepointes and the towne of Samua is a great ledge of rockes a great way out in the sea. [Sidenote: The pledge was sir Iohn Yorke his Nephew.] We continued foure dayes at that Towne, and the Captaine thereof would needs haue a pledge a shore. But when they receiued the pledge, they kept him still, and would trafficke no more, but shot off their ordinance at vs. They haue two or three pieces of ordinance and no more. The sixteenth day of the said month we made reckoning to come to a place called Cape Corea, where captaine Don Iohn dwelleth, whose men entertained vs friendly. This Cape Corea is foure leagues Eastwarde of the castle of Mina, otherwise called La mina, or Castello de mina, where we arriued the 18 day of the month. [Sidenote: The castle of Mina perteining to the king of Portugall.] Here we made sale of all our cloth, sauing two or three packes. The 26 day of the same moneth we weighed anker, and departed from thence to the Trinitie, which was seuen leagues Eastward of vs, where she solde her wares. Then they of the Trinitie willed vs to go Eastward of that eight or nine leagues, to sell part of their wares, in a place called Perecow, and another place named Perecow Grande, being the Eastermost place of both these, which you shal know by a great round hill neere vnto it, named Monte Rodondo, lying Westward from it, and by the water side are many high palme trees. From hence did we set forth homeward the thirteenth day of February, and plied vp alongst till we came within seuen or eight leagues to Cape Trepointes. About eight of the clocke the 15 day at afternoone, wee did cast about to seaward: and beware of the currants, for they will deceiue you sore. Whosoeuer shall come from the coast of Mina homeward, let him be sure to make his way good West, vntill he reckon himselfe as farre as Cape de las Palmas, where the currant setteth alwayes to the Eastward. And within twentie leagues Eastward of Cape de las Palmas is a riuer called De los Potos, where you may haue fresh water and balast enough, and plenty of iuory or Elephants teeth. This riuer standeth in foure degrees, and almost two terces. [Sidenote: Cabo de las Palmas.] And when you reckon your selfe as farre shot as Cape de las Palmas, being in a degree, or a degree and a halfe, you may go West, and West by North, vntill you come in three degrees: and then you may go Westnorthwest, and Northwest and by West, vntill you come in fiue degrees, and then Northwest. And in sixe degrees, we met Northerly windes, and great ruffling of tides. And as we could iudge, the currants went to the Northnorthwest. Furthermore betweene Cape de Monte, and Cape Verde, go great currants, which deceiue many men. The 22 day of Aprill, we were in 8 degrees and two terces: and so we ran to the Northwest, hauing the winde at Northeast and Eastnortheast, and sometimes at East, vntill we were at 18 degrees and a terce, which was on May day. And so from 18 and two terces, we had the winde at East and Eastnortheast, and sometimes at Eastsoutheast: and then we reckoned the Island of Cape verde Eastsoutheast of vs, we iudging our selues to be 48 leagues off. And in 20 and 21 degrees, we had the winde more Easterly to the Southward then before. And so we ran to the Northwest and Northnorthwest, and sometimes North and by West and North, until we came into 31 degrees, where we reckoned our selues a hundred and fourescore leagues Southwest and by South of the Island de los Flores, and there wee met with the winde at Southsoutheast, and set our course Northeast. In 23 degrees we had the winde at the South and Southwest, and then we set our course Northnortheast, and so we ran to 40 degrees, and then we set our course Northeast, the winde being at the Southwest, and hauing the Ile de Flores East of us, and 17 leagues off. In the 41 degrees we met with the winde at Northeast, and so we ran Northwestward, then we met with the winde Westnorthwest, and at the West within 6 leagues, running toward the Northwest, and then we cast about, and lay Northeast, vntill we came in 42 degrees, where we set our course Eastnortheast, iudging the Ile of Coruo South and by West of vs, and sixe and thirty leagues distant from vs. A remembrance, that the 21st day of May we communed with Iohn Rafe, and he thought it best to goe Northeast, and iudged himselfe 25 leagues Eastward to the Isle de Flores, and in 39 degrees and a halfe. Note, that on the fourth day of September, vnder nine degrees, we lost the sight of the North starre. Note also, that in 45 degrees, the compasse is varied 8 degrees to the West. Item, in 40 degrees the compasse did varie 15 degrees in the whole. Item, in 30 degrees and a halfe, the compasse is varied 5 degrees to the West. Be it also in memory that two or three daies before we came to Cape de 3 puntas, the pinnesse went alongst the shore, thinking to sell some of our wares, and so we came to anker three or foure leagues West and by South of the Cape de 3 puntas, where we left the Trinitie. Then our pinnesse came aboord with all our men, the pinnesse also tooke in more wares. They told me moreouer that they would goe to a place where the Primrose was, and had receiued much gold at the first voyage to these parties, and tolde me furthermore that it was a good place: but I fearing a brigantine that was then vpon the coast, did wey and follow them, and left the Trinitie about foure leagues off from vs, and there we rode against that towne foure dayes: so that Martine by his owne desire, and assent of some of the Commissioners that were in the pinnesse, went a shoare to the towne, and there Iohn Berin went to trafique from vs, being three miles off trafiquing at an other towne. The towne is called Samma or Samua, for Samma and Sammaterra, are the names of the two first townes, where we did trafique for gold, to the Northeast of Cape de 3 puntas. Hitherto continueth the course of the voyage, as it was described by the sayde Pilot. Nowe therefore I will speake somewhat of the countrey and people, and of such things as are brought from thence. They brought from thence at the last voyage foure hundred pound weight and odde of gold, of two and twentie carrats and one graine in finenesse: also sixe and thirtie buts of graines, and about two hundred and fiftie Elephants teeth of all quantities. Of these I saw and measured, some of nine spans in length, as they were crooked. Some of them were as bigge as a mans thigh aboue the knee, and weyed about fourescore and ten pound weight a peece. They say that some one hath bin seene of an hundred and fiue and twentie pound weight. Other there were which they call the teeth of calues, of one or two or three yeeres, whereof some were a foot and a halfe, some two foot, and some 3 or more, according to the age of the beast. These great teeth or tusks grow in the vpper iaw downeward, and not in the nether iaw vpward, wherein the Painters and Arras workers are deceiued. At this last voyage was brought from Guinea the head of an Elephant, of such huge bignesse, that onely the bones or cranew thereof, beside the nether iaw and great tusks, weighed about two hundred weight, and was as much as I could well lift from the ground: insomuch that considering also herewith the weight of two such great teeth, the nether iaw with the lesse teeth, the tongue, the great hanging eares, the bigge and long snout or troonke, with all the flesh, braines, and skinne, with all other parts belonging to the whole head, in my iudgement it could weigh litle lesse then fiue hundred weight. [Sidenote: Sir Andrew Iudde. The contemplation of Gods works.] This head diuers haue seene in the house of the worthy marchant sir Andrew Iudde, where also I saw it, and beheld it, not only with my bodily eyes, but much more with the eye of my mind and spirit, considering by the worke, the cunning and wisedome of the workemaister: without which consideration, the sight of such strange and wonderfull things may rather seeme curiosities, then profitable contemplations. [Sidenote: The decription and properties of the Elephant.] The Elephant (which some call an Oliphant) is the biggest of all foure footed beasts, his forelegs are longer then his hinder, he hath ancles in the lower part of his hinder legges, and fiue toes on his feete vndiuided, his snout or tronke is so long, and in such forme, that it is to him in the stead of a hand: for he neither eateth nor drinketh but by bringing his tronke to his mouth, therewith he helpeth vp his Master or keeper, therewith he ouerthroweth trees. Beside his two great tusks, he hath on euery side of his mouth foure teeth, wherewith he eateth and grindeth his meate: either of these teeth are almost a span in length, as they grow along in the iaw, and are about two inches in height, and almost as much in thicknesse. The tuskes of the male are greater then of the female: his tongue is very litle, and so farre in his mouth, that it cannot be seene: of all beastes they are most gentle and tractable, for by many sundry wayes they are taught, and doe vnderstand: insomuch that they learne to doe due honor to a king, and are quick sense and sharpenesse of wit. When the male hath once seasoned the female, he neuer after toucheth her. The male Elephant liueth two hundreth yeeres, or at the least one hundred and twentie: the female almost as long, but the floure of their age is but threescore yeres, as some write. They cannot suffer winter or cold: they loue riuers, and will often go into them vp to the snout, wherewith they blow and snuffe, and play in the water: but swimme they cannot, for the weight of their bodies. Plinie and Soline write, that they vse none adulterie. If they happen to meete with a man in wildernesse being out of the way, gently they wil go before him, and bring him into the plaine way. Ioyned in battel, they haue no small respect vnto them that be wounded: for they bring them that are hurt or weary into the middle of the army to be defended: they are made tame by drinking the iuise of barley. [Sidenote: Debate between the Elephant and the Dragon.] They haue continual warre against Dragons, which desire their blood, because it is very cold: and therefore the Dragon lying awaite as the Elephant passeth by, windeth his taile (being of exceeding length) about the hinder legs of the Elephant, and so staying him, thrusteth his head into his tronke and exhausteth his breath, or else biteth him in the eare, whereunto he cannot reach with his tronke, and when the Elephant waxeth faint, he falleth downe on the serpent, being now full of blood, and with the poise of his body breaketh him: so that his owne blood with the blood of the Elephant runneth out of him mingled together, which being colde, is congealed into that substance which the Apothecaries call Sanguis Draconis, (that is) Dragons blood, otherwise called Cinnabaris, although there be an other kinde of Cinnabaris, commonly called Cinoper or Vermilion, which the Painters vse in certaine colours. [Sidenote: Three kinds of Elephants.] They are also of three kinds, as of the Marshes, the plaines, and the mountaines, no lesse differing in conditions. Philostratus writeth, that as much as the Elephant of Libya in bignes passeth the horse of Nysea, so much doe the Elephants of India exceed them of Libya: for the Elephants of India, some haue bene seene of the height of nine cubits: the other do so greatly feare these, that they dare not abide the sight of them. Of the Indian Elephants onely the males haue tuskes, but of them of Ethiopia and Libya both kindes are tusked: they are of diuers heights, as of twelue, thirteene, and fourteene dodrants, euery dodrant being a measure of nine inches. Some write that an Elephant is bigger then three wilde Oxen or Buffes. They of India are black, or of the colour of a mouse, but they of Ethiope or Guinea are browne: the hide or skinne of them all is very hard, and without haire or bristles: their eares are two dodrants broad, and their eyes very litle. Our men saw one drinking at a riuer in Guinea, as they sailed into the land. Of other properties and conditions of the Elephant, as of their marueilous docilitie, of their fight and vse in the warres, of their generation and chastitie, when they were first seene in the Theatres and triumphes of the Romanes, how they are taken and tamed, and when they cast their tusks, with the vse of the same in medicine, who so desireth to know, let him reade Plinie, in the eight booke of his naturall history. He also writeth in his twelft booke, that in olde time they made many goodly workes of iuory or Elephants teeth: as tables, tressels, postes of houses, railes, lattesses for windowes, images of their gods, and diuers other things of iuory, both coloured, and vncoloured, and intermixt with sundry kindes of precious woods, as at this day are made certaine chaires, lutes, and virginals. They had such plenty thereof in olde time, that (as far as I remember) Iosephus writeth, that one of the gates of Hierusalem was called Porta Eburnea, (that is) the Iuory gate. The whitenesse thereof was so much esteemed, that it was thought to represent the natural fairenesse of mans skinne: insomuch that such as went about to set foorth (or rather corrupt) naturall beautie with colours and painting, were reproued by this prouerbe, Ebur atramento candefacere, that is, To make iuory white with inke. The Poets also describing the faire necks of beautifull virgins, call them Eburnea colla, that is, Iuory necks. And to haue said thus much of Elephants and Iuory, it may suffice. [Sidenote: The people of Africa.] Now therefore I will speake somewhat of the people and their maners, and maner of liuing, with an other briefe description of Africa also. It is to be vnderstood, that the people which now inhabite the regions of the coast of Guinea, and the midle parts of Africa, as Libya the inner, and Nubia, with diuers other great and large regions about the same, were in old time called Æthiopes and Nigritæ, which we now call Moores, Moorens, or Negroes, a people of beastly liuing, without a God, lawe, religion, or common wealth, and so scorched and vexed with the heat of the sunne, that in many places they curse it when it riseth. Of the regions and people about the inner Libya (called Libya interior) Gemma Phrysius writeth thus. Libya interior is very large and desolate, in the which are many horrible wildernesses and mountaines, replenished with diuers kinds of wilde and monstrous beastes and serpents. First from Muritania or Barbary toward the South is Getulia, a rough and sauage region, whose inhabitants are wilde and wandering people. After these follow the people called Melanogetuli and Pharusij, which wander in the wildernesse, carrying with them great gourdes of water. [Sidenote: Æthiopes, Nigritæ. The riuer Nigritis or Senega.] The Ethiopians called Nigritæ occupy a great part of Africa, and are extended to the West Ocean. Southward also they reach to the riuer Nigritis, whose nature agreeth with the riuer of Nilus, forasmuch as it is increased and diminished at the same time, and bringeth forth the like beasts as the Crocodile. By reason whereof, I thinke this to be the same riuer which the Portugals called Senega: For this riuer is also of the same nature. It is furthermore marueilous and very strange that is said of this river: And this is, that on the one side thereof, the inhabitants are of high stature and black, and on the other side, of browne or tawne colour, and low stature, which thing also our men confirme to be true. [Sindenote: People of Libya.] There are also other people of Libya called Garamantes, whose women are common: for they contract no matrimonie; neither haue respect to chastitie. After these are the nations of the people called Pyrei, Sathiodaphnitæ, Odrangi, Mimaces, Lynxamatæ, Dolopes, Aganginæ, Leuci Ethiopes, Xilicei Ethiopei, Calcei Ethiopes, and Nubi. These haue the same situation in Ptolome that they now giue to the kingdome of Nubia. Here are certaine Christians vnder the dominion of the great Emperour of Æthiopia, called Prester Iohn. From these toward the West is a great nation of people called Aphricerones, whose region (as faire as may be gathered by coniecture) is the same that is now called Regnum Orguene, confining vpon the East parts of Guinea. From hence Westward, and somewhat toward the North, are the kingdoms of Gambra and Budomel, not farre from the riuer of Senega. And from hence toward the inland regions, and along by the sea coast, are the regions of Ginoia or Guinea, which we commonly call Ginnee. [Sidenote: The Portugals Nauigation to Brasile.] On the Westside of these regions toward the Ocean, is the cape or point called Cabo verde, or Caput viride, (that is) the greene cape, to the which the Portugals first direct their course when they saile to America, or the land of Brasile. Then departing from hence, they turne to the right hand toward the quarter of the winde called Garbino, which is betweene the West and the South. But to speake somewhat more of Æthiopia: although there are many nations of people so named, yet is Æthiopia chiefly diuided into two parts, whereof the one is called Aethiopia vnder Aegypt, a great and rich region. To this perteineth the Island Meroe, imbraced round about with the stremes of the riuer Nilus. In this Island women reigned in old time. Iosephus writeth, that it was sometime called Sabea: and that the Queene of Saba came from thence to Ierusalem, to heare the wisedom of Salomon. [Sidenote: Prester Iohn Emperour of Aethiopia.] From hence toward the East reigneth the said Christian Emperour Prester Iohn, whom some cal Papa Iohannes, and other say that he is called Pean Iuan (that is) great Iohn, whose Empire reacheth far beyond Nilus, and is extended to the coasts of the Red sea and Indian sea. The middle of the region is almost in 66. degrees of longitude, and 12. degrees of latitude. [Sidenote: People of the Eastside of Africa.] About this region inhabite the people called Clodi, Risophagi, Bobylonij, Axiuntæ, Molili, and Molibæ. After these is the region called Troglodytica, whose inhabitants dwel in caues and dennes: for these are their houses, and the flesh of serpents their meat, as writeth Plinie, and Diodorus Siculus. They haue no speach, but rather a grinning and chattering. There are also people without heads, called Blemines, hauing their eyes and mouth in their breast. Likewise Strucophagi, and naked Ganphasantes: Satyrs also, which haue nothing of men but onely shape. Moreouer Oripei, great hunters. Mennones also and the region of Smyrmophora, which bringeth foorth myrrhe. After these is the region of Azania, in the which many Elephants are found. A great part of the other regions of Africke that are beyond the Aequinoctiall line, are now ascribed to the kingdome of Melinde, whose inhabitants are accustomed to trafique with the nations of Arabia, and their king is ioyned in friendship with the king of Portugal, and payeth tribute to Prester Iohn. The other Ethiope, called Æthiopia interior (that is) the inner Ethiope, is not yet knowne for the greatnesse thereof, but onely by the sea coastes: yet is it described in this manner. First from the Aequinoctiall toward the South, is a great region of Aethiopians, which bringeth forth white Elephants, Tygers, and the beastes called Rhinocerotes. Also a region that bringeth foorth plenty of cynamome, lying betweene the branches of Nilus. Also the kingdome of Habech or Habasi, a region of Christian men, lying both on this side and beyond Nilus. Here are also the Aethiopians, called Ichthiopagi (that is) such as liue onely by fish, and were sometimes subdued by the warres of great Alexander. Furthermore the Aethiopians called Rhapsij, and Anthropophagi, that are accustomed to eat mans flesh, inhabite the regions neere vnto the mountains called Montes Lunæ (that is) the mountaines of the Moone. Gazati is vnder the Tropike of Capricorne. After this followeth the front of Afrike, the Cape of Buena Speranza, or Caput Bonæ Spei, that is, the Cape of good hope, by the which they passe that saile from Lisbon to Calicut. But by what names the Capes and gulfes are called, forasmuch as the same are in euery globe and card, it were here superfluous to rehearse them. Some write that Africa was so named by the Grecians, because it is without colde. For the Greeke letter Alpha or A signifies priuation, voyd, or without: and Phrice signifies colde. For in deed although in the stead of Winter they haue a cloudy and tempestuous season, yet is it not colde, but rather smothering hote, with hote showres of raine also, and somewhere such scorching windes, that what by one meanes and other, they seeme at certaine times to liue as it were in fornaces, and in maner already halfe way in Purgatorie or hell. Gemma Phrisius writeth, that in certaine parts of Africa, as in Atlas the greater, the aire in the night season is seene shining, with many strange fires and flames rising in maner as high as the Moone: and that in the element are sometime heard as it were the sound of pipes, trumpets and drummes: which noises may perhaps be caused by the vehement and sundry motions of such firie exhalations in the aire, as we see the like in many experiences wrought by fire, aire and winde. [Sidenote: The middle region of the aire is cold.] The hollowness also, and diuers reflexions and breaking of the cloudes may be great causes hereof, beside the vehement colde of the middle region of the aire, whereby the said fiery exhalations, ascending thither, are suddenly stricken backe with great force: for euen common and dayly experience teacheth vs, by the whissing of a burning torch, what noise fire maketh in the aire, and much more where it striueth when it is inclosed with aire, as appeareth in gunnes, and as the like is seene in onely aire inclosed, as in Organ pipes, and such other instruments that go by winde. [Sidenote: The strife of Elements. Winde.] For winde (as say the Philosophers) is none other then aire vehemently moued, as we see in a paire of bellowes, and such other. [Sidenote: The heate of the Moone.] Some of our men of good credite that were in this last voiage to Guinea, affirme earnestly that in the night season they felt a sensible heat to come from the beames of the moone. [Sidenote: The nature of the starres.] The which thing, although it be strange and insensible to vs that inhabite cold regions, yet doeth it stand with good reason that it may so be, forasmuch as the nature of starres and planets (as writeth Plinie) consisteth of fire, and conteineth in it a spirit of fire, which cannot be without heat. And, that the Moone giueth heate vpon the earth the Prophet Dauid seemeth to confirme in his 121. Psalme, where speaking of such men as are defended from euil by Gods protection, hee saith thus: Per diem Sol non exuret te, nec Luna per noctem. That is to say, In the day the Sunne shall not burne thee, nor the Moone by night. They say furthermore, that in certaine places of the sea they saw certaine streames of water, which they call spouts, falling out of the aire into the sea, and that some of these are as bigge as the great pillars of Churches: insomuch that sometimes they fall into shippes, and put them in great danger of drowning. Some faine that these should be the Cataracts of heauen, which were all opened at Noes floud. But I thinke them rather to be such fluxions and eruptions as Aristotle in his booke de Mundo saith, to chance in the sea. For speaking of such strange things as are seene often times in the sea, he writeth thus. Oftentimes also euen in the sea are seene euaporations of fire, and such eruptions and breaking foorth of springs, that the mouthes of riuers are opened. Whirlepooles, and fluxions are caused of such other vehement motions, not only in the middest of the sea, but also in creeks and streights. At certaine times also, a great quantity of water is suddenly lifted vp and carried about with the Moone, &c. By which wordes of Aristotle it doth appeare that such waters be lifted vp in one place at one time, and suddenly fall downe in an other place at another time. [Sidenote: A strange thing.] And hereunto perhaps perteineth it that Richard Chancellor told me that he heard Sebastian Cabot report, that (as farre as I remember) either about the coasts of Brasile or Rio de Plata, his shippe or pinnesse was suddenly lifted from the sea, and cast vpon land, I wot not howe farre. [Sidenote: The power of nature.] The which thing, and such other like wonderfull and strange workes of nature while I consider, and call to remembrance the narrownesse of mans vnderstanding and knowledge, in comparison of her mightie power, I can but cease to maruell and confesse with Plinie, that nothing is to her impossible, the least part of whose power is not yet knowen to men. Many things more our men saw and considered in this voyage, woorthy to be noted, whereof I haue thought good to put some in memory, that the reader may aswell take pleasure in the variety of things, as knowledge of the historie. Among other things, therefore touching the maners and nature of the people, this may seeme strange, that their princes and noble men vse to pounce and rase their skinnes with pretie knots in diuers formes, as it were branched damaske, thinking that to be a decent ornament. [Sidenote: Fine iewels. A bracelet.] And albeit they goe in maner all naked, yet are many of them, and especially their women, in maner laden with collars, bracelets, hoopes, and chaines, either of gold, copper, or iuory. I my selfe haue one of their brassets of Iuory, weighing two pound and sixe ounces of Troy weight, which make eight and thirtie ounces: this one of their women did weare vpon her arme. It is made of one whole piece of the biggest part of the tooth, turned and somewhat carued, with a hole in the midst, wherein they put their handes to wear it on their arme. Some haue on euery arme one, and as many on their legges, wherewith some of them are so galled, that although they are in maner made lame thereby, yet will they by no meanes leaue them off. Some weare also on their legges great shackles of bright copper, which they thinke to bee no lesse comely. They weare also collars, bracelets, garlands, and girdles, of certain blew stones like beads. Likewise some of their women weare on their bare armes certaine foresleeues made of the plates of beaten golde. On their fingers also they weare rings, made of golden wires, with a knot or wreath, like vnto that which children make in a ring of a rush. Among other things of golde that our men bought of them for exchange of their wares, were certaine dog-chaines and collers. They are very wary people in their bargaining, and will not lose one sparke of golde of any value. They vse weights and measures, and are very circumspect in occupying the same. They that shall haue to doe with them, must vse them gently: for they will not trafique or bring in any wares if they be euill vsed. At the first voyage that our men had into these parties, it so chanced, that at their departure from the first place where they did trafick, one of them either stole a muske Cat, or tooke her away by force, not mistrusting that that should haue hindered their bargaining in another place whither they intended to goe. But for all the haste they coulde make with full sailes, the fame of their misusage so preuented them, that the people of that place also, offended thereby, would bring in no wares: insomuch that they were inforced either to restore the Cat, or pay for her at their price before they could trafique there. Their houses are made of foure postes or trees, and couered with boughes. Their common feeding is of roots, and such fishes as they take, whereof they haue great plenty. There are also such flying fishes as are seene in the sea of the West Indies. Our men salted of their fishes, hoping to prouide store thereof: but they would take no salt, and must therefore be eaten forthwith as some say. Howbeit other affirme, that if they be salted immediately after they be taken, they wil last vncorrupted ten or twelue dayes. But this is more strange, that part of such flesh as they caried with them out of England, which putrified there, became sweete againe at their returne to the clime of temperate regions. They vse also a strange making of bread, in this maner. They grinde betweene two stones with their handes as much corne as they thinke may suffice their family, and when they haue thus brought it to floure, they put thereto a certaine quantitie of water, and make thereof very thinne dough, which they sticke vpon some post of their houses, where it is baked by the heate of the Sunne: so that when the master of the house or any of his family will eate thereof, they take it downe and eate it. They haue very faire wheate, the eare whereof is two handfuls in length, and as bigge as a great Bulrush, and almost foure inches about where it is biggest. The stemme or straw seemeth to be almost as bigge as the litle finger of a mans hand, or litle lesse. The graines of this wheate are as big as our peason, round also, and very white, and somewhat shining, like pearles that haue lost their colour. Almost all the substance of them turneth into floure, and maketh little bran or none. I told in one eare two hundred and threescore graines. The eare is inclosed in three blades longer than it selfe, and of two inches broad a piece. And by this fruitfulnes the Sunne seemeth partly to recompence such griefes and molestations as they otherwise receiue by the feruent heate thereof. It is doubtlesse a worthy contemplation to consider the contrary effects of the sunne: or rather the contrary passions of such things as receiue the influence of his beames, either to their hurt or benefit. Their drinke is either water, or the iuise that droppeth from the cut branches of the barren Date trees, called Palmitos. For either they hang great gourdes at the said branches euery euening, and let them so hang all night, or else they set them on the ground vnder the trees, that the droppes may fall therein. They say that this kinde of drinke is in taste much like vnto whey, but somewhat sweeter, and more pleasant. They cut the branches euery euening, because they are seared vp in the day by the heate of the Sunne. They haue also great beanes as bigge as chestnuts, and very hard, with a shell in the stead of a huske. Many things more might be saide of the maners of the people, and of the wonders and monstrous things that are engendered in Africke. But it shall suffice to haue saide this much of such things as our men partly sawe, and partly brought with them. And whereas before speaking of the fruit of graines, I described the same to haue holes by the side (as in deede it hath, as it is brought hither) yet was I afterward enfourmed, that those holes were made to put stringes or twigges through the fruite, thereby to hang them vp to dry at the Sunne. They grew not past a foote and a halfe, or two foote from the ground, and are as red as blood when they are gathered. The graines themselues are called of the Phisicions Grana Paradisi. [Sidenote: Shels that cleaue to ships.] At their comming home the keeles of their shippes were marueilously ouergrowne with certaine shelles of two inches length and more, as thicke as they could stand, and of such bignesse that a man might put his thumbe in the mouthes of them. They certainely affirme that in these there groweth a certaine slimie substance, which at the length slipping out of the shell and falling in the sea, becommeth those foules which we call Barnacles. The like shelles haue bene seene in ships returning from Iseland, but these shels were not past halfe an inch in length. Of the other that came from Guinea, I sawe the Primerose lying in the docke, and in maner couered with the said shels, which in my iudgement should greatly hinder her sayling. Their ships were also in many places eaten with the wormes called Bromas or Bissas, whereof mention is made in the Decades. These creepe betweene the plankes, which they eate through in many places. [Sidenote: A secret.] Among other things that chanced to them in this voyage, this is worthy to be noted, that whereas they sailed thither in seuen weekes, they could returne in no lesse space then twentie weekes. The cause whereof they say to be this: That about the coast of Cabo Verde the winde is euer at the East, by reason whereof they were enforced to saile farre out of their course into the maine Ocean, to finde the winde at the West to bring them home. [Sidenote: The death of our men.] There died of our men at this last voyage about twentie and four, whereof many died at their returne into the clime of the colde regions, as betweene the Islands of Azores and England. [Sidenote: Fiue blacke Moores brought into England. Colde may be better abiden then heate.] They brought with them certaine black slaues, whereof some were tall and strong men, and could wel agree with our meates and drinkes. The colde and moyst aire doth somewhat offend them. Yet doubtlesse men that are borne in hot Regions may better abide colde, then men that are borne in colde Regions may abide heate, forasmuch as vehement heate resolueth the radicall moysture of mens bodies, as colde constraineth and preserueth the same. This is also to be considered as a secret worke of nature, that throughout all Africke, vnder the Æquinoctial line, and neere about the same on both sides, the regions are extreeme hote, and the people very blacke. Whereas contrarily such regions of the West Indies as are vnder the same line are very temperate, and the people neither blacke, nor with curlde and short wooll on their heads, as they of Afrike haue, but of the colour of an Oliue, with long and blacke heare on their heads: the cause of which variety is declared in diuers places in the Decades. It is also worthy to be noted that some of them that were at this voyage told me: That is, that they ouertooke the course of the Sunne, so that they had it North from them at noone, the 14. day of March. And to haue said thus much of these voyages, it may suffice. * * * * * The first voyage made by Master William Towrson Marchant of London, to the coast of Guinea, with two Ships, in the yeere 1555. Vpon Munday the thirtieth day of September wee departed from the Isle of Wight, out of the hauen of Neuport with two good shippes, the one called the Hart, the other the Hinde, both of London, and the Masters of them were Iohn Ralph, and William Carter, for a voyage to bee made vnto the Riuer de Sestos in Guinea, and to other hauens thereabout. It fell out by the varietie of windes, that it was the fourteenth day of October before wee coulde fetch Dartmouth: and being there arriued wee continued in that roade sixe dayes, and the 20. of October we warpt out of the hauen, and set saile, directing our course towards the Southwest, and the next morning we were runne by estimation thirty leagues. The first of Nouember we found our selues to be in 31. degrees of latitude by the reckoning of our Master. This day we ranne about 40. leagues also. The second day we ranne 36. leagues. The third day we had sight of Porto Santo, which is a small Island lying in the sea, about three leagues long, and a league and a halfe broad, and is possessed by Portugals. It riseth as we came from the Northnorthwest like two small hilles neere together. The East end of the same Island is a high land like a saddle with a valley, which makes it to beare that forme. The West ende of it is lower with certaine small round hillocks. This Island lieth in thirty and three degrees. The same day at 11. of the clocke we raysed the Isle of Madera, which lieth 12. leagues from Porto Santo, towards the Southwest: that Island is a faire Island and fruitfull, and is inhabited by Portugals, it riseth afarre off like a great whole land and high. By three of the clocke this day at after noone we were thwart of Porto Santo, and we set our course Southwest, to leaue the Isle of Madera to the Eastward, as we did Porto Santo. These two Islands were the first land that we saw since wee left the coast of England. About three of the clocke after midnight wee were thwart of Madera, within three leagues of the West ende of it, and by meanes of the high hilles there, we were becalmed: We suppose we ranne this day and night 30. leagues. The fourth day we lay becalmed vnder thejsle of Madera, vntill one of the clocke at afternoone, and then, the winde comming into the East, wee went our course, and ranne that day fifteene leagues. The 5. day we ranne 15. leagues more. The 6. day in the morning we raysed the Isle of Tenerif, otherwise called the Pike, because it is a very high Island, with a pike vpon the top like a loafe of suger. The same night we raised the Isle of Palma, which is a high land also, and to the Westward of the Isle of Tenerif. The 7. day we perceiued the Isle of Gomera, which is an Island standing betwixt Tenerif and Palma, about 12. leagues Eastward from Palma, and 8. leagues Westward from Tenerif: and for feare of being becalmed with the Isle of Tenerif, we left both it, and Gomera to the Eastward of vs, and went betwixt Palma and Gomera. We ranne this day and night 30. leagues. Note that these Islands be 60. leagues from Madera, and that there are 3 Islands more to the Westward of Tenerif, named the Grand Canaria, Forte-ventura, and Lancerot, of which Island we came not in sight: they being inhabited by Spaniards. This day also we had sight of the Isle of Ferro, which is to the Southwards 13. leagues from the other Islands, and is possessed by Spaniards. All this day and night by reason of the winde we could not double the point of the Isle of Ferro, except we would haue gone to the Westward of it, which had bene much out of our course: therefore we kept about, and ranne backe fiue houres Eastnortheast to the ende we might double it vpon the next boord, the winde continuing Southeast, which hath not bene often seene vpon that coast by any traueilers: for the winde continueth there for the most part Northeast, and East Northeast: so vpon the other boord by the next morning we were in a maner with the Island, and had roome ynough to double the same. The 8. day we kept our course as neere the winde as wee could, because that our due course to fetch the coast of Barbary was Southeast and by East, but by the scant winde we could not goe our due course, but went as neere it as we could, and ranne this day and night 25. leagues. The 9. day we ranne 30. leagues, the 10. 25. leagues, the 12. 24. The 12. day we saw a saile vnder our Lee, which was as we thought a fishermen, so that wee went roome to haue spoken with him, but within one houre there fell such a fogge, that wee could not see the shippe nor one of vs the other: we shot off diuers pieces to the Hinde, but she heard them not: at afternoone she shot off a piece which wee heard, and made her answere with another: and within one halfe houre after the fogge brake vp, and we were within 4. leagues of the shoare vpon the coast of Barbary, and wee sounded and had 14. fadom water. The Barke also came roome with vs and their ankered by reason of the contrary winde. When we fell with the land, we could not iudge iustly what part of the land it was, because the most part of that coast is lowe land, and no part to be iudged of it but the fore part of the shoare, which is white like chalke or sand, and very deepe vnto the hard shoare: there immediatly we began to fish, and found great store of a kinde of fish which the Portugals commonly fish for vpon that coast, which they cal Pergosses, the Frenchmen call them Saders, and our men salt-water breames. Before the clearing vp of the fogge, the shippe which we followed shaped such a course that we could see her no more, by reason of our shooting off to finde the Hinde againe. This part of the coast of Barbary, by our Pilots reckoning, is about 16. leagues to the Eastwards of the riuer del Oro. The 13. day in the afternoone wee spyed a saile comming towards vs, which wee iudged to be the saile that wee sawe the day before, and as soone as we spied him, wee caused the Hinde to way her ancre and to goe towardes him, and manned out our Skiffe in like case to lay him aboorde, or to discerne what hee was, and wee our selues within halfe an houre after wayed also: but after the saile had espied vs, hee kept about, and turned backe againe, and shortly after there fell such another fogge, that wee coulde not see him: which fogges continued all that night, so that wee were constrained to leaue the chase. This afternoone the winde came about, and wee went our course Southwest and by West, to goe cleare off the coast, wee ranne that night sixteene leagues. The foureteenth day in the morning was verie foggie: but about twelue a clocke wee espied a Caruell of 60. tunne which was fishing, and we sent our Skiffe to him with fiue men, and all without any weapon sauing their Oares. [Sidenote: A Caruell taken.] The Caruell for haste let slippe her ancre, and set saile; and they seeing that, fearing that they should not fetch her, would tarry for no weapons, and in the ende ouertooke the Caruel, and made her to strike saile, and brought her away, although they had foureteene or fifteene men aboord, and euery man his weapon, but they had not the hearts to resist our men. After they were come to vs, they let fall their ancre, for wee had cast ancre because the winde was not good: I caused then the Skiffe to come for mee, and I went aboorde of them to see that no harme should bee done to them, nor to take any thing but that which they might spare vs for our money. [Sidenote: Great store of fish vpon the coast of Barbary.] So wee tooke of them 3. Tapnets of figges, two small pots of oyle, two pipes of water, foure hogsheads of saltfish which they had taken vpon the coast, and certaine fresh fish which they did not esteeme, because there is such store vpon that coast, that in an houre and sometime lesse, a man may take as much fish as will serue twentie men a day. For these things, and for some wine which wee dranke aboord of them, and three or foure great Cannes which they sent aboord of our shippes, I payed them twentie and seuen Pistoles, which was twise as much as they willingly would haue taken: and so let them goe to their ancre and cable which they had let slippe, and got it againe by our helpe. After this wee set saile, but the winde caused vs to ancre againe about twelue leagues off the riuer del Oro, as the Portugals tolde vs. There were fiue Caruels more in this place, but when they sawe vs, they made all away for feare of vs. The 15. day we ridde still because of the winde. [Sidenote: The Tropike of Cancer in 23. and a halfe.] The 16. day we set saile and ranne our course 40. leagues. This day, by the reckoning of our Pilots, we were right vnder the Tropike of Cancer. The 17. we ranne 25. leagues within sight for the most part of the coast of Barbary. The 18. day wee ranne thirtie leagues, and at twelue of the clocke by the reckoning of our Pilots we were thwart of Cape Blanke. The 22. day our Pilots reckoned vs to be thwart Cape Verde. [Sidenote: The coast of Guinea.] The 12. day of December we had sight of land of Guinea, which as soone as we saw we halled into the land Northeast, and about 12. of the clocke at night we were neere the shoare within lesse then 2. leagues: and then we kept about and sounded, and found 18. fadom water. Afterwards we saw a light towards the shoare, which we thought to haue bene a ship, and thereby iudged it to be the riuer de Sestos, which light as soone as we espied, we came to an anker and armed our tops, and made all things ready to fight, because we doubted that it might be some Portugal or French man: this night we remained at an anker, but in the morning we saw no man, only we espied 4. rockes about 2. English miles from vs, one great rocke, and the 3. other smal ones, which when we sawe, we supposed that the light came from the shore, and so wayed, and set saile East Southeast along the shoare, because the Master did not well know the place, but thought that we were not so farre to the East as the riuer de Sestos. This land all along is a low land, and full of very high trees all along the shoare, so that it is not possible to know the place that a man doth fall withall, except it be by the latitude. In these 24. houres I thinke we ran 16. leagues, for all the night we had a great gale as we were vnder saile, and had withall store of thunder and lightnings. The 13. day for the most part we ran East Southeast all along the shoare, within two leagues alwayes of the same, and found the land all as at the first, ful of woods and great rocks hard aboord the shoare, and the billow beating so sore, that the seas brake vpon the shoare as white as snow, and the water mounted so high that a man might easily discerne it 4. leagues off, in such wise that no boate could land there. Thus we ran vntil 12. of the clocke, and then they tooke the Sunne and after iudged themselues to be 24. leagues past the riuer de Sestos to the Eastwards, by reason whereof we halled into the shoare within two English miles, and there ancred and found fifteene fadom water, and all off from the shoare the sea so smooth, that we might wel haue rid by an Hawser. All that after-noone we trimmed our boate and made her a saile, to the ende that she might go along by the shoore to seeke some place to water in: for wee could not goe back againe to the riuer de Sestos, because the winde blowes alwayes contrary, and the Currant runneth alwayes to the Eastwards, which was also against vs. The 14. day we set saile and went back againe along the coast, and sent our boats hard aboord the shoare to seeke a watering place, which they found about 12. of the clock, and we being farre into the sea, met with diuers boats of the Countrey, small, long and narrow, and in euery boate one man and no more: we gaue them bread which they did eat, and were very glad of it. About 4. of the clocke our boats came to vs with fresh water: and this night we ankered against a Riuer. The 15. day we wayed and set saile to goe neere the shoare, and with our leade wee sounded all the way, and found sometimes rockes, and sometimes faire ground, and at the shallowest found 7. fadoms alwayes at the least. So in fine we found 7. fadom and a halfe within an English mile of the shoare, and there we ankered in a maner before the mouth of the Riuer, and then wee sent our boats into the Riuer for water, which went about a mile within the Riuer, where they had very good water. [Sidenote: Riuer S. Vincent.] This Riuer lieth by estimation 8. leagues beyond the Riuer de Sestos, and is called in the Carde Riuer S. Vincent, but it is so hard to finde, that a boat being within halfe a mile of it shall not be able to discerne that it is a Riuer: by reason that directly before the mouth of it there lyeth a ledge of rockes, which is much broader then the Riuer, so that a boate must runne in along the shoare a good way betwixt the rockes and the shoare before it come to the mouth of the Riuer, and being within it, it is a great Riuer and diuers other Riuers fall into it: The going into it is somewhat ill, because that at the entring the seas doe goe somewhat high, but being once within it, it is as calme as the Thames. [Sidenote: Cloth made of the barke of trees.] There are neere to the sea vpon this Riuer diuers inhabitants, which are mighty bigge men and go al naked except some thing before their priuie parts, which is like a clout about a quarter of a yard long made of the barke of trees, and yet it is like a cloth: for the barke is of that nature, that it will spin small after the maner of linnen. [Sidenote: The Negroes race their skinnes.] Some of them also weare the like vpon their heades being painted with diuers colours, but the most part of them go bare headed, and their heads are clipped and shorne of diuers sorts, and the most part of them haue their skin of their bodies raced with diuers workes, in maner of a leather Ierkin. The men and women goe so alike, that one cannot know a man from a woman but by their breastes, which in the most part be very foule and long, hanging downe like the vdder of a goate. The same morning we went into the Riuer with our Skiffe, and caried certaine basons, manels, &c. [Sidenote: Graines of Guinea.] And there we tooke that day one hogs-head and 100 li. waight of Graines, and two Elephants teeth at a reasonable good reckoning. We solde them both basons, and Manellios, and Margarits, but they desired most to haue basons: For the most part of our basons wee had by estimation about 30. li. for a piece, and for an Elephants tooth of 30. li. waight, we gaue them 6. The 16. day in the morning we went into the riuer with our Skiffe, and tooke some of euery sort of our marchandize with vs, and shewed it to the Negroes, but they esteemed it not, but made light of it, and also of the basons, Manellios and Margarits, which yesterday they did buy: howbeit for the basons they would haue giuen vs some graines, but to no purpose, so that this day wee tooke not by estimation aboue one hundreth pound waight of Graines, by meanes of their Captaine, who would suffer no man to sell any thing but through his hands, and at his price: he was so subtile, that for a bason hee would not giue 15. pound waight of Graines, and sometimes would offer vs smal dishfuls whereas before wee had baskets full, and when he saw that wee would not take them in contentment, the Captaine departed, and caused all the rest of the boates to depart, thinking belike that wee would haue followed them, and haue giuen them their owne askings. [Sidenote: The description of their townes and houses.] But after that we perceiued their fetch, wee wayed our Grapnel and went away, and then wee went on land into a small Towne to see the fashions of the Countrey, and there came a threescore of them about vs, and at the first they were afraid of vs, but in the end perceiuing that wee did no hurt, they would come to vs and take vs by the hand and be familiar with vs, and then we went into their Townes, which were like to twentie small houels, all couered ouer with great leaues and baggage, and all the sides open, and a scaffolde vnder the house about a yarde high, where they worke many pretie things of the barkes of trees, and there they lye also. In some of their houses they worke yron and make faire dartes, and diuers other things to worke their boates, and other things withall, and the women worke as well as the men. But when wee were there diuers of the women to shew vs pleasure danced and sung after their maner, full ill to our eares. Their song was thus: Sakere, sakere, ho, ho. Sakere, sakore, ho, ho. And with these words they leape and dance, and clap their hands. Beastes we could see none that they had, but two goates, small dogges, and small hennes: other beastes we saw none. After that we had well marked all things we departed and went aboord our ships: which thing the Captaine of the other towne perceiuing, sent two of his seruants in a boat with a basket of Graines, and made vs signes that if when wee had slept wee would come againe into their riuer, wee should haue store of Graines, and so shewed vs his Graines and departed. The 17. day in the morning because we thought that the Negroes would haue done something because the Captaine sent for vs, I required the Master to goe on shoare, and sent the rest of our Marchants with him, and taried aboord my selfe by reason that the last day he esteemed our things so litle: so when the Master and the rest came into the riuer, the captaine with diuers others came to them, and brought Graines with them, and after that he saw that I was not there, he made signes to know where I was, and they made signes to him againe that I was in the ships: [Sidenote: Diago the name of a Captaine.] and then hee made signes to know who was Captaine by name of Diago, for so they call their Captaine, and they pointed to the master of the ship: then he began to shew his Graines, but he held them so vnreasonably, that there was no profit to be made of them: which things the Master perceiuing, and seeing that they had no store of Graines, came away, and tooke not aboue 50. pound waight of Graines. Then he went a shoare to the litle Towne where we were the day before, and one of them plucked a Gourd, wherewith the Negroes were offended, and came many of them to our men with their darts and great targets, and made signes to them to depart: which our men did, hauing but one bow and two or three swords, and went aboord the boate and came away from them: and assoone as they were come aboord we wayed and set saile, but the winde was off the Sea, so that we could not get out cleare of certaine rocks, and therefore we came to an ancre againe. [Sidenote: The latitude of S. Vincent riuer is 4. degrees and a halfe.] This riuer is called Riuer S. Vincent, standing in 4. degrees and a halfe, and ebbeth and floweth there every 12. houres, but not much water when it ebbeth the most: while wee were there, it ebbeth one fadome and a halfe water. [Sidenote: Leaues of exceeding length.] This countrey as farre as we could perceiue is altogether woody, and al strange trees, whereof wee knewe none, and they were of many sorts, with great leaues like great dockes, which bee higher then any man is able to reach the top of them. [Sidenote: Long pease stalkes.] There are certaine peason by the Sea side, which grow vpon great and very long stalkes, one of the stalkes I measured and found it 27. paces long, and they grow vpon the sand like to trees, and that so neere the Sea, that sometimes the Sea floweth into the woods as we might perceiue by the water markes. [Sidenote: Long womens breasts.] The trees and all things in this place grow continually greene. Diuers of the women haue such exceeding long breasts, that some of them wil lay the same vpon the ground and lie downe by them, but all the women haue not such breasts. At this place all the day the winde bloweth off the Sea, and all the night off the land, but wee found it to differ sometimes, which our Master marueiled at. This night at 9. of the clocke the winde came vp at the East, which ordinarily about that time was wont to come out of the North Northwest off the shoare: yet we wayed and halled off South with that winde all night into the Sea, but the next morning we halled in againe to the lande, and tooke in 6. Tunnes of water for our ship, and I thinke the Hinde tooke in as much. I could not perceiue that here was any gold, or any other good thing: for the people be so wilde and idle, that they giue themselues to seeke out nothing: if they would take paines they might gather great store of graines, but in this place I could not perceiue two Tunne. There are many foules in the Countrey, but the people will not take the paines to take them. I obsetued some of their words of speach, which I thought good here to set downe. Bezow, bezow, Is their salutation. Manegete afoye, Graines ynough. Crocow, afoye, Hennes ynough. Zeramme, afoye, Haue ynough. Begge sacke Giue me a knife. Begge come, Giue me bread Borke, Holde your peace. Coutrecke. Ye lye. Veede, Put foorth, or emptie. Brekeke, Rowe. Diago, Their Captaine, and some call him Dabo. These and other wordes they speake very thicke, and oftentimes recite one word three times together, and at the last time longer then at the two first. The 18. day towards night, as we were sailing along the coast, we met with certaine boats in the sea, and the men shewed vs that there was a riuer thwart of vs, where there were Graines to be sold, but we thought it not good to tary there, least the other ships should get before vs. This riuer hath lying before it three great rockes, and 5. small rocks, one great tree, and a little tree right by the riuer, which in height exceeded all the rest: we halled this night along the coast 16. leagues. The 19. day as we coasted the shoare, about twelue of the clocke there came out to vs 3. boates to tell vs that they had graines, and brought some with them for a shew, but we could not tary there. We proceeded along the coast, and ancred by the shore all the night, and ran this day 10. leagues. The 20. day the Hinde hauing ankered by vs amongst rockes, and foule gronnd, lost a small anker. At noone, as we passed along the coast, there came forth a Negro to vs, making signes, that if we would goe a shoare, wee should haue Graines, and where wee ankered at night, there came another to vs, and brought Graines, and shewed vs them, and made signes that wee should tary, and made a fire vpon the land in the night, meaning thereby to tell vs where we should land, and so they did in diuers other places vpon the coast, where they saw vs to anker. [Sidenote: The tides and nature of the shore.] In al the places where we haue ancred, since we came from our watring place, we haue found the tide alwayes running to the Westwards, and all along the coast many rockes hard aboord the shoare, and many of them a league off the shoare or more, we ran this day 12. leagues. The 21 day, although we ranne all day with a good gale of winde, yet the tides came so sore out of the coast, that we were not able to runne aboue sixe leagues: and this day there came some Negroes to vs, as there had done other times. The 22. wee ranne all day and night to double a point, called Das Palmas, and ranne sixteene leagues. The 23. day about 3. of the clocke we were thwart of the point, and before we came to the Westermost part of it, we saw a great ledge of rocks, which lie West from the Cape about 3. leagues and a league or more from the land. Shortly after we had sight of the Eastermost part of the Cape, which lieth 4. leagues from the Westermost part, and vpon the very corner thereof lie two greene places, as it were closes, and to the Westwards of the Cape the land parted from the Cape, as it were a Bay, whereby it may well be knowen. Foure leagues more beyonde that there lieth a head-land in the sea, and about two leagues beyond the head-land there goeth in a great Bay, as it were a riuer, before which place we ankered all that night, which wee did, least in the night wee should ouerrunne a riuer where the last yeere they had all their Elephants teeth. [Sidenote: That was the yeere 1554.] This Cape Das palmas lieth vnder foure degrees and a halfe, and betwixt the said Cape, and the riuer de Sestos is the greatest store of Graines to be had, and being past the said Cape there is no great store else where. Where we ankered this night, we found that the tide, which before ran alwayes to the Westward, from this Cape runneth all to the Eastward: this day we ranne some 16. leagues. The 24. day running our course, about eight of the clock there came forth to vs certaine boats, which brought with them small egges, which were soft without shels, and they made vs signes, that there was within the land fresh water, and Goates: and the Master thinking that it was the riuer which we sought, cast ancker and sent the boate on shoare, with one that knew the riuer, and comming neere the shoare, hee perceiued that it was not the riuer, and so came backe againe, and went along the shoare, with their oares and saile, and wee weyed and ranne along the shoare also: and being thirteene leagues beyond the Cape, the Master perceiued a place which he iudged to be the riuer, when wee were in deede two miles shot past it: yet the boate came from the shoare, and they that were in her saide, that there was no riuer: notwithstanding wee came to an ancker, and the Master and I tooke fiue men with vs in the boat, and when hee came neere the shoare, hee perceiued that it was the same riuer which hee did seeke: so we rowed in, and found the entrance very ill, by reason that the sea goeth so high: and being entred, diuers boats came to vs, and shewed vs that they had Elephants teeth, and they brought vs one of about eight pound, and a little one of a pound, which we bought: then they brought certaine teeth to the riuer side, making signes, that if the next day we would come againe, they would sell vs them: so we gaue vnto two Captaines, to either of them a manillio, and so we departed, and came aboord, and sent out the other boate to another place, where certaine boats that came into the sea, made vs signes that there was fresh water: and being come thither, they found a towne, but no riuer, yet the people brought them fresh water, and shewed them an Elephants tooth, making signes that the next day they would sel them teeth, and so they came aboord. This riuer lieth by the Carde thirteene leagues from the Cape Das palmas, and there lieth to the Westwards of the same a rocke about a league in the sea, and the riuer it selfe hath a point of lande comming out into the Sea, whereupon grow fiue trees, which may well bee discerned two or three leagues off, comming from the Westward, but the riuer cannot bee perceiued vntill such time as a man be hard by it, and then a man may perceiue a litle Towne on ech side the riuer, and to ech Towne there belongeth a Captaine. The riuer is but small, but the water is good and fresh. Two miles beyond the riuer, where the other towne is, there lieth another point into the Sea, which is greene like a close, and not aboue sixe trees vpon it, which growe one of them from the other, whereby the coast may well be knowen: for along all the coast that we haue hitherto sailed by, I haue not seene so much bare land. In this place, and three or foure leagues to the Westward of it, al along the shoare, there grow many Palme trees, whereof they make their wine de Palma. These trees may easily be knowen almost two leagues off, for they be very high and white bodied, and streight, and be biggest in the midst: they haue no boughes, but onely a round bush in the top of them: and at the top of the same trees they boare a hoale, and there they hang a bottell, and the iuyce of the tree runneth out of the said hole into the bottle, and that is their wine. From the Cape das Palmas, to the Cape Tres puntas, there are 100. leagues: and to the port where we purpose to make sales of our cloth beyond the Cape Tres puntas, 40. leagues. Note, that betwixt the riuer De Sestos, and the Cape Das palmas, is the place where all the graines be gathered. The language of the people of this place, as far as I could perceiue, differeth not much from the language of those which dwel where we watred before: but the people of this place be more gentle in nature then the other, and goodlier men: their building and apparel is all one with the others. Their desire in this place was most of all to haue Manillios and Margarites: as for the rest of our things, they did litle esteeme them. [Sidenote: Their maner of swearing by the water of the Sea.] About nine of the clocke there came boates to vs foorth, from both of the places aforsaid, and brought with them certaine teeth, and after they had caused me to sweare by the water of the Sea that I would not hurt them, they came aboord our ship three or foure of them, and we gaue them to eate of all such things as we had, and they did eate and drinke of all things, as well as we our selues. Afterwards we bought all their teeth, which were in number 14. and of those 14. there were 10. small: afterwards they departed, making vs signes that the next day we should come to their Townes. [Sidenote: Two townes.] The 26. day because we would not trifle long at this place I required the Master to goe vnto one of the townes, and to take two of our marchants with him, and I my selfe went to the other, and tooke one with me, because these two townes stand three miles asunder. To these places we caried somewhat of euery kind of marchandize that we had: and hee had at the one Towne, nine teeth, which were but small, and at the other towne where I was, I had eleuen, which were also not bigge, and we left aboord with the Master certaine Manillios, wherewith he bought 12. teeth aboord the ship, in our absence: and hauing bought these of them, wee perceiued that they had no more teeth: so in that place where I was one brought to me a small goat, which I bought, and to the Master at the other place they brought fiue small hennes, which he bought also, and after that we saw there was nothing else to be had, we departed, and by one of the clocke we met aboord, and then wayed, and went East our course 18. leagues still within sight of land. The 28. the wind varied, and we ranne into the sea, and the winde comming againe off the sea, wee fell with the land againe, and the first of the land which we raised shewed as a great red cliffe round, but not very high, and to the Eastward of that another smaller red cliffe, and right aboue that into the land a round hammoke and greene, which we tooke to be trees. We ranne in these 24. houres, not aboue foure leagues. The 29. day comming neere to the shoare, we perceiued the red cliffe aforesaide to haue right vpon the top of it a great heape of trees, and all to the Westwards of it ful of red cliffes as farre as we could see, and all along the shoare, as well vpon the cliffes, as otherwise, full of wood: within a mile of the said great cliffe there is a riuer to the Eastwards, and no cliffes that we could see, except one small cliffe, which is hard by it. We ran this day and night 12. leagues. The windes that wee had in this place by the reports of the people and of those that haue bene there, haue not bene vsuall, but in the night, at North off the lande, and in the day South off the Sea, and most commonly Northwest, and Southwest. The 31. day we went our course by the shoare Northwards: this land is al along a low shoare, and full of wood, as all the coast is for the most part, and no rockes. This morning came out many boates which went a fishing, which bee greater boates then those which we sawe before, so that in some of them there sate 5. men, but the fashion of the boats is all one. In the afternoone about three of the clocke wee had sight of a Towne by the sea side, which our Pilots iudged to be 25. leagues to the Westwards of the Cape Tres puntas. The third of Ianuary in the morning we fell with the Cape Tres puntas, and in the night passed, as our Pilots saide, by one of the Portugals castles, which is 8. leagues to the Westwards of the Cape: vpon the first sight of the Cape wee discerned it a very high land, and all growen ouer with trees, and comming neere to it, we perceiued two head lands, as it were two Bayes betwixt them, which opened right to the Westward, and the vttermost of them is the Easterne Cape, there we perceiued the middle Cape, and the Eastermost Cape: the middle Cape standeth not aboue a league from the West Cape, although the Card sheweth them to be 3. leagues one from the other: and that middle Cape hath right before the point of it a small rocke so neere to it, that it cannot be discerned from the Cape, except a man be neere to the shoare, and upon the same Cape standeth a great heape of trees, and when a man is thwart the same Cape to the Eastward, there riseth hard by it a round greene hommoke, which commeth out of the maine. The thirde Cape is about a league beyond the middle Cape, and is a high land like to the other Capes, and betwixt the middle, and the thirde commeth out a little head or point of a land out of the maine, and diuers rocks hard aboord the shoare. Before we came to the Capes, being about 8. leagues off them, wee had the land Southeast, and by East, and being past the Capes, the land runneth in againe East Northeast. About two leagues beyond the farthest Cape there is a lowe glade about two miles long, and then the land riseth high againe, and diuers head lands rise one beyond another, and diuers rockes lie at the point of the first head-land. The middest of these Capes is the neerest to the Southwards, I meane, further into the sea than any of the other, so that being to the Eastward of it, it may be discerned farre off, and being so to the Eastward it riseth with two small rockes. This day we ankered for feare of ouershooting a towne called S. Iohns. Wee ran this day not aboue 8. leagues. In the afternoone this day there came a boate of the countrey from the shoare, with fiue men in her, and went along by vs, as we thought, to discerne our flagges, but they would not come neere vs, and when they had well looked vpon vs, they departed. The fourth day in the morning, sailing by the coast, we espied a ledge of rockes by the shoare, and to the Westwards of them two great grene hils ioyning together, so that betweene them it was hollow like a saddle: and within the said rockes the Master thought the aforenamed Towne had stoode, and therefore we manned our boates, and tooke with vs cloth, and other marchandize, and rowed ashoare, but going along by the coast, we sawe that there was no towne, therefore wee went aboord againe. From these two hils aforesaid, about two leagues to the Eastward, lie out into the Sea almost two miles a ledge of rockes, and beyond that a great Bay, which runneth into the North Northwestward, and the land in this place lieth North Northeast along the shoare: but the vttermost point of land in that place that we could see, lay Northeast, and by East from vs. After that we were with a small gale of winde runne past that vttermost head-land, we sawe a great red cliffe, which the Master againe iudged to be the towne of S. Iohns, and then wee tooke our boate with marchandize, and went thither, and when we came thither, we perceiued that there was a towne vpon the toppe of the hill, and so wee went toward it, and when we were hard by it, the people of the towne came together a great sort of them, and waued vs to come in, with a peece of cloth, and so we went into a very faire Bay, which lieth to the Eastward of the cliffe, whereupon the towne standeth, and being within the cliffe, wee let fall our grapnell, and after that we had taried there a good space, they sent a boate aboord of vs, to shewe vs that they had golde, and they shewed us a peece about halfe a crowne weight, and required to know our measure, and our weight, that they might shewe their Captaine thereof: and wee gaue them a measure of two elles, and a waight of two Angels to shew vnto him, which they tooke, and went on shoare, and shewed it vnto their Captaine, and then they brought vs a measure of two elles, one quarter and a halfe, and one Crusado-weight of gold, making vs signes that so much they would giue for the like measure, and lesse they would not haue. After this, we taried there about an houre, and when we sawe that they would doe no otherwise, and withall vnderstood, that all the best places were before vs, wee departed to our shippes and wayed, and ranne along the shoare, and went before with our boate, and hauing sailed about a league, we came to a point where there lay foorth a ledge of rockes, like to the others before spoken of, and being past that people, the Master spied a place which hee saide plainely was the towne of Don Iohn: and the night was come vpon vs, so that we could not well discerne it, but we ankered as neere vnto the place as we could. [Sidenote: The towne of Don Iohn.] The fift day in the morning we perceiued it to be the same towne in deede, and we manned our boates and went thither, and because that the last yeere the Portugals at that place tooke away a man from them, and after shot at them with great bases, and did beate them from the place, we let fall our grapnel almost a base shot off the shoare, and there we lay about two houres, and no boats came to vs. Then certaine of our men with the Hindes boate went into the Bay which lieth to the Eastward of the towne, and within that Bay they found a goodly fresh riuer, and afterwards they came and waued to vs also to come in, because they perceiued the Negroes to come downe to that place, which we did: and immediately the Negroes came to vs, and made vs signes that they had golde, but none of them would come aboord our boates, neither could we perceiue any boates that they had to come withall, so that we iudged that the Portugals had spoiled their boates, because we saw halfe of their towne destroyed. Wee hauing stayed there a good space, and seeing that they would not come to vs, thrust our boates heads a shoare, being both well appointed, and then the Captaine of the Towne came downe being a graue man: and he came with his dart in his hand, and sixe tall men after him, euery one with his dart and his target, and their darts were all of yron, faire and sharpe, and there came another after them which caried the Captaines stoole: wee saluted him, and put off our caps, and bowed our selues, and hee like one that thought well of himselfe, did not mooue his cap, nor scant bowed his body, and sate him downe very solemnly, vpon his stoole: but all his men put off their caps to vs, and bowed downe themselues. He was clothed from the loines down with a cloth of that Countrey making, wrapped about him, and made fast about his loynes with a girdle, and his cap of a certaine cloth of the Countrey also, and bare legged, and bare footed, and all bare aboue the loynes, except his head. His seruants, some of them had cloth about their loines, and some nothing but a cloth betwixt their legges, and made fast before, and behinde to their girdles, and cappes of their owne making, some like a basket, and some like a great wide purse of beasts skinnes. [Sidenote: Their weapons.] All their cloth, cordes, girdles, fishing lines, and all such like things which they haue, they make of the bark of certaine trees, and thereof they can worke things very pretily, and yron worke they can make very fine, of all such things as they doe occupy, as darts, fishhookes, hooking yrons, yron heads, and great daggers, some of them as long as a woodknife, which be on both sides exceeding sharpe, and bended after the maner of Turkie blades, and the most part of them haue hanging at their left side one of those great daggers. Their targets bee made of such pils as their cloth is made of, and very closely wrought, and they bee in forme foure square, and very great, and somewhat longer then they bee broad, so that kneeling downe, they make their targets to couer their whole body. Their bowes be short, and of a pretie strength, as much as a man is able to draw with one of his fingers, and the string is of the barke of a tree, made flat, and about a quarter of an inch broad: as for their arrowes, I haue not as yet seene any of them, for they had wrapped them vp close, and because I was busie I could not stand about it, to haue them open them. Their golde also they worke very well. When the Captaine was set, I sent him two elles of cloth, and two basons, and gaue them vnto him, and hee sent againe for a waight of the same measure, and I sent him a weight of two Angels, which he would not take, nether would hee suffer the towne to buy any thing, but the basons of brasse: so that wee solde that day 74. basons vnto the men of the towne, for about half an Angel weight, one with another, and nine white basons, which we solde for a quarter of an Angell a peece, or thereabouts. We shewed them all our other things which we had, but they did not esteeme them. About two of the clocke, the Captaine who did depart in the morning from vs, came againe, and brought with him to present mee withall, a henne, and two great rootes, which I receiued, and after made me signes that the countrey would come to his towne that night, and bring great store of gold, which in deed about 4. of the clocke they did: for there came about 100. men vnder 3. Captaines, well appointed with their darts and bowes, and when they came to vs, euery man sticked downe his dart vpon the shoare, and the Captaines had stooles brought them, and they sate downe, and sent a young man aboord of vs, which brought a measure with him of an ell, and one fourth part, and one sixteenth part, and he would haue that foure times for a waight of one Angell and twelue graines: I offered him two elles, as I had done before for two Angels weight, which he esteemed nothing, but still stucke at his foure measures aforesaide: yet in the ende, when it grew very late, and I made him signes, that I would depart, he came to foure elles for the weight abouesaid, and otherwise he would not deale, and so we departed. This day we tooke for basons sixe ounces and a halfe and one eight part. The sixt day in the morning we manned our boates and the skiffe well, for feare of the Portugals which the last yeere had taken away a man from the other ships, and went on shoare, and landed, because they had no boates to come to vs, and so the young man which was with vs the night before was sent aboord, who seemed to haue dealt and bargained before with the Portugals for he could speake a litle Portuguise, and was perfect in weights and measures: at his comming be offered vs, as he had done before, one Angell, and twelue graines for four elles, and more he would not giue, and made signes, that if we would not take that, we should depart, which we did: but before we did indeede depart, I offered him of some rotten cloth three elles for his waight of an Angell and twelue graines, which he would not take, and then we departed making signes to him that we would go away, as indeede we would haue done, rather then haue giuen that measure, although the cloth was ill, seeing we were so neere to the places, which we iudged to be better for sale. Then we went aboord our ships which lay about a league off, and came backe againe to the shoare for sand and balaste: and then the Captaine perceiuing that the boats had brought no marchandize but came onely for water and sand, and seeing that we would depart, came vnto them, making signes againe to know whether would we not giue the foure elles, and they made signes againe, that we would giue them but three, and when they sawe that the boates were ready to depart, they came vnto them and gaue them the weight of our Angell and twelue graines, which we required before and made signes, that if we would come againe, they would take three elles. So when the boates came aboord, we layde wares in them both, and for the speedier dispatch I and Iohn Sauill went in one boat, and the Maister Iohn Makeworth, and Richard Curligin, in the other, and went on shoare, and that night I tooke for my part fiftie and two ounces, and in the other boate they tooke eight ounces and a quarter, all by one weight and measure, and so being very late, we departed and went aboord, and took in all this day three pound. The seuenth day we went a shoare againe, and that day I tooke in our boate three pound 19 ounces, so that we dispatched almost all the cloth that we caried with us before noone, and then many of the people were departed and those that remained had litle golde, yet they made vs signes to fetch them some latten basons which I would not because I purposed not to trifle out the time, but goe thence with speede to Don Iohns towne. But Iohn Sauill and Iohn Makeworth were desirous to goe againe: and I, loth to hinder them of any profite, consented, but went not my selfe: so they tooke eighteene ounces of gold and came away, seeing that the people at a certaine crie made, were departed. While they were at the shoare, there came a young fellow which could speake a little Portuguise, with three more with him, and to him I solde 39 basons and two small white sawcers, for three ounces, &c., which was the best reckoning that we did make of any basons: and in the forenoone when I was at the shoare, the Master solde fiue basons vnto the same fellow, for halfe an ounce of golde. [Sidenote: 60. Portugales in the castle of Mina.] This fellow, as farre as we could perceiue, had bene taken into the Castle by the Portugales, and was gotten away from them, for he tolde vs that the Portugales were bad men, and that they made them slaues if they could take them, and would put yrons vpon their legges, and besides he tolde vs, that as many Frenchmen or Englishmen, as they could take (for he could name these two very well) they would hang them: he tolde vs further, that there were 60 men in the castle, and that euery yeere there came thither two shippes, one great, and one small caruell, and further, that Don Iohn had warres with the Portugals, which gaue mee the better courage to goe to his towne, which lieth not foure leagues from the Castle, wherehence our men were beaten the last yeere. [Sidenote: The English in anno 1544 tooke away 5 Negroes.] This fellowe came aboord our shippe without much feare, and assoone as he came, he demaunded, why we had not brought againe their men, which the last yeere we tooke away, and could tell vs that there were fiue taken away by Englishmen: we made him answere, that they were in England well vsed, and were there kept till they could speake the language, and then they should be brought againe to be a helpe to Englishmen in this Countrey: and then he spake no more of that matter: Our boates being come aboord, we wayed and set saile and a litle after spied, a great fire vpon the shoare, and by the light of the fire we might discerne a white thing, which they tooke to be the Castle, and for feare of ouersbooting the towne of Don Iohn we there ankered two leagues off the shoare, for it is hard to fetch vp a towne here, if a ship ouershoot it. This day we tooke seuen pound, and fiue ounces of gold. This towne lieth in a great Bay, which is very deepe. The people in this place desired most to haue basons and cloth. They would buy some of them also many trifles, as kniues, horsetailes, hornes: and some of our men going a shoare, sold a cap, a dagger, a hat, &c. They shewed vs a certain course cloth, which I thinke to be made in France, for it was course wooll, and a small threed, and as thicke as wosted, and striped with stripes of greene, white, yellow &c. Diuers of the people did weare about their neckes great beades of glasse of diuerse colours. Here also I learned some of their language, [Marginal note: This language seemeth partly to be corrupt.] as followeth: Mattea, mattea, Is their salutation. Dassee, dassee, I thanke you. Sheke, Golde. Cowrte, Cut. Cracca, Kniues. Bassina, Basons. Foco, foco, Cloth. Molta, Much, or great store. [Sidenote: Sight of the casle of Mina.] The eight day in the morning we had sight of the Castle, but by reason of a miste that then fell we could not haue the perfect sight of it, till we were almost at the towne of Don Iohn, and then it cleared vp, and we saw it and a white house, as it were a Chappell, vpon the hill about it, and then we halled into the shoare, within two English miles of Don Iohns towne, and there ankered in seuen fadome water. Here, as in many other places before, we perceiued that the currant went with the winde. The land here is in some places low and in some high, and full of wood altogether. [Sidenote: Don Iohns towne described.] The towne of Don Iohn is but litle, of about twentie houses, and the most part of the towne is walled in with a wall of a mans height, made with reede or sedge, or some such thing. Here we staied two or three houres after we had ankered, to see if any man would come vnto vs: and seeing that none did come, we manned our boates and put in marchandize, and went and ankered with our boates neere to the shoare: then they sent out a man to vs who made vs signes that that was the towne of Don Iohn, and that he himselfe was in the Countrey, and would be at home at the going downe of the Sunne, and when he had done, he required a reward, as the most part of them will doe which come first aboord, and I gaue him one ell of cloth and he departed, and that night we heard no more of him. The ninth day in the morning we went againe with our boates to the shoare, and there came foorth a boate to vs, who made signes that Don Iohn was not come home, but would be at home this day: and to that place also came another boate from the other towne a mile from this, which is called Don Deuis, and brought with him gold to shew vs, making signes that we should come thither. I then left in this place Iohn Sauill, and Iohn Makeworth, and tooke the Hinde, and went to the other towne and there ankered, and tooke cloth and went to shore with the boate, and by and by the boates came to vs and brought a measure of foure yards long and a halfe, and shewed vs a weight of an angell and twelue graines, which they would giue for so much, and not otherwise: so I staied and made no bargaine. And all this day the barke lay at Don Iohns towne, and did nothing, hauing answere that he was not come home. The tenth day we went againe to the shoare, and there came out a boat with good store of gold, and hauing driuen the matter off a long time, and hauing brought the measure to a nayle lesse then three elles, and their weight to an angell and twentie graines, and could not bring them to more, I did conclude with them and solde, and within one quarter of an houre I tooke one pound and a quarter of an ounce of golde: and then they made me signes to tary, till they had parted their cloth vpon the shoare as their manner is, and they would come againe, and so they went away, and layde the cloth all abroad vpon the sande peece by peece, and by and by one came running downe from the towne to them, and spake vnto them, and foorthwith euery man made as much haste as he could away, and went into the woods to hide his golde and his cloth: we mistrusted some knauery, and being waued by them to come a shoare, yet we would not, but went aboorde the Hinde, and perceiued vpon the hill 30 men whom we iudged to be Portugals: and they went vp to the toppe of the hill and there mustered and shewed themselues, hauing a flagge with them. Then I being desirous to knowe what the Hart did, tooke the Hindes boate and went towards her, and when I came neere to them they shot off two pieces of ordinance which I marueiled at: I made as much haste as I could to her, and met her boate and skiffe comming from the shoare in all haste, and we met aboord together. [Sidenote: The Portugales of the castle of Mina inuaded our men.] They shewed me that they had beene a shoare all that day, and had giuen to the two sonnes of Don Iohn, to either of them three yardes and a halfe of doth, and three basons betwixt them, and had deliuered him 3 yards of cloth more and the weight of an angell and 12 graines, and being on land did tarie for his answere, and in the meane time the Portugals came running from the hill vpon them, whereof the Negroes a litle before had giuen them warning, and bad them to go away, but they perceiued it not. The sonne of Don Iohn conspired with the Portugales against them, so that they were almost vpon them, but yet they recouered their boate and set off from the shoare, and the Portugales shot their calieuers at them, but hurt no man, and then the shippe perceiuing it, shot off the two peeces aforesayde among them. Hereupon we layde bases in both the boates, and in the Skiffe and manned them well, and went a shoare againe, but because of the winde we could not land, but lay off in the sea about ten score and shot at them, but the hill succoured them, and they from the rockes and from the hilles shot at vs with their halfe hakes, and the Negroes more for feare then for loue stoode by them to helpe them, and when we saw that the Negroes were in such subiction vnto them that they durst not sell vs any thing for feare of them we went aboord, and that night the winde kept at the East, so that we could not with our ship fetch the Hinde, but I tooke the boate in the night and went aboord the barke to see what was there to be done, and in the morning we perceiued the towne to be in like case layde with Portugales, so we wayed and went along the coast. [Sidenote: The towne of Don Iohn de Viso.] This towne of Iohn de Viso standeth vpon an hill like the towne of Don Iohn, but it hath beene burned, so that there are not passing sixe houses in it: the most part of the golde that comes thither comes out of the countrey, and no doubt if the people durst for feare of the Portugals bring forth their gold, there would be had good store: but they dare not sell any thing, their subiection is so great to the Portugales. The 11 day running by the shoare we had sight of a litle towne foure leagues from the last towne that we came from, and about halfe a league from that, of another towne vpon a hill, and halfe a league from that also of another great towne vpon the shoare: whither we went to set what could there be done: if we could doe nothing, then to returne to the other towne, because we thought that the Portugales would leaue the towne vpon our departure. Along from the castle vnto this place are very high hilles which may be seene aboue all other hilles, but they are full of wood, and great red cliffes by the sea side. The boates of these places are somewhat large and bigge, for one of them will carie twelue men, but their forme is alike with the former boates of the coast. There are about these townes few riuers: their language differeth not from the language vsed at Don Iohns towne: but euery one can speake three or foure words of Portuguise, which they vsed altogether to vs. We sawe this night about 5 of the clocke 22 boates running along the shoare to the Westward, whereupon we suspected some knauery intended against vs. The 12 day therefore we set sayle and went further along the coast, and descried more townes wherein were greater houses then in the other townes, and the people came out of the townes to looke vpon vs, but we could see no boates. Two mile beyond the Eastermost towne are blacke rocks, which blacke rockes continue to the vttermost cape of the land, which is about a league off, and then the land runnes in Eastnortheast, and a sandy shoare againe: vpon these blacke rockes came downe certaine Negroes, which waued vs with a white flagge, but we perceiuing the principall place to be neere, would not stay, but bare still along the shoare: and as soone as we had opened the point of the land, we raysed another headland about a league off the point, which had a rocke lying off it into the sea, and that they thought to be the place which we sought. When we came thwart the place they knew it, and we put wares into our boate, and the ship being within halfe a mile of the place ankered in fiue fadome water and faire ground. We went on shoare with our boate, and ankered about ten of the clocke in the forenoone: we saw many boates lying vpon the shoare, and diuers came by vs, but none of them would come neere vs, being as we iudged afraid of vs: [Sidenote: Foure men taken away by the English.] because that foure men were taken perforce the last yeere from this place, so that no man came to vs, whereupon we went aboord againe, and thought here to haue made no saile: yet towardes night a great sort came downe to the water side, and waued vs on shoare with a white flagge, and afterwarde their Captaine came downe and many men with him, and sate him downe by the shoare vnder a tree: which when I perceiued, I tooke things with me to giue him: at last he sent a boat to call to vs, which would not come neere vs, but made vs signes to come againe the next day: but in fine, I got them to come aboord in offering them things to giue to their captaine, which were two elles of cloth, one latten bason, one white bason, a bottle, a great piece of beefe, and sixe bisket cakes, which they receiued making vs signes to come againe the next day, saying, that their Captain was Grand Capitane as appeared by those that attended vpon him with their darts and targets, and other weapons. This towne is very great and stands vpon a hill among trees, so that it cannot well be seene except a man be neere it: to the Eastward of it vpon the hill hard by the towne stand 2. high trees, which is a good marke to knowe the towne. And vnder the towne lieth another hill lower then it, whereupon the sea beates: and that end next the sea is all great blacke rockes, and beyonde the towne in a bay lieth another small towne. The 13 day in the morning we tooke our boate and went to shoare, and stayed till ten a clocke and no man came to vs: we went about therefore to returne aboord, and when the Negroes saw that, they came running downe with a flagge to waue vs againe, so we ankered againe, and then one shewed vs that the Captaine would come downe by and by: we sawe a saile in the meane time passe by vs but it was small, and we regarded it not. [Sidenote: The like they doe in the countrey of Prette Ianni.] Being on shore we made a tilt with our oares and sayle, and then there came a boate to vs with fiue men in her, who brought vs againe our bottle, and brought me a hen, making signes by the sunne, that within two houres the marchants of the countrey would come downe and buy all that we had: so I gaue them sixe Manillios to carry to their Captaine, and they made signes to haue a pledge of vs, and they would leaue vs another man: and we willing to do so, put one of our men in their boate, but they would not giue vs one of theirs, so we tooke our man againe, and there tarried for the marchants: and shortly after one came downe arrayed like their Captaine with a great traine after him, who saluted us friendly, and one of the chiefest of them went and sate downe vnder a tree, where the last yere the Captaine was wont to sit: and at last we perceiued a great many of them to stand at the ende of a hollow way, and behinde them the Portugales had planted a base, who suddenly shotte at vs but ouershot vs, and yet we were in a manner hard by them, and they shot at vs againe before we could ship our oares to get away but did no hurt. Then the Negroes came to the rocks hard by vs, and disharged calieuers at vs, and againe the Portugales shot off their base twise more, and then our ship shot at them, but the rockes and hilles defended them. [Sidenote: Master Robert Gainshes voyage to Guinea in anno 1554.] Then we went aboord to goe from this place, seeing the Negroes bent against vs, because that the last yeere M. Gainsh did take away the Captaines sonne and three others from this place with their golde, and all that they had about them: [Sidenote: The English were offered to build a towne in Guine.] which was the cause that they became friends with the Portugales, whom before they hated, as did appeare the last yeere by the courteous intertainement which the Trinitie had there, when the Captaine came aboord the shippe, and brought them to his towne, and offered them ground to build a Castle in, and there they had good sales. The 14 day we wayed and plyed backe againe to seeke the Hinde, which in the morning we met, and so we turned both back to the Eastwardes to see what we could doe at that place where the Trinitie did sell her eight frises the last yeere. The Hinde had taken eighteene ounces and a halfe more of golde of other Negroes, the day after that we left them. This day about one of the clocke we espied certaine boates vpon the sand and men by them and went to them with marchandizes, and tooke three ounces of gold for 18 fuffs of cloth, euery fuffe three yards and a halfe after one angell and 12 graines the fuffe, and then they made me signes that the next day I should haue golde enough: so the Master took the Hinde with Iohn Sauill and Iohn Makeworth, and went to seeke the place aforesaid, and I with Richard Pakeman remained in this place to see what we could do the next day: and when the Negroes perceiued our ship to go away, they feared that the other would follow, and so sent forth 2 boats to vs with 4 men in them, requiring vs to tary and to giue them one man for a pledge, and 2 of them should tary with vs for him, so Edward M. Morleis seruant seeing these men so earnest therein offered himselfe to be pledge, and we let him goe for two of them, one whereof had his waights and scales, and a chaine of golde aboute his necke, and another about his arme. They did eate of such things as we had and were well contented. In the night the Negroes kept a light vpon the shoare thwart of vs, and about one of the clocke we heard and saw the light of a base which shot off twise at the said light, and by and by discharged two calieuers, which in the end we perceiued to be the Portugals brigandine which followed vs from place to place, to giue warning to the people of the countrey, that they should not deale with vs. The 15 day in the morning the Captaine came downe with 100 men with him, and brought his wife, and many others brought their wiues also, because their towne was 8 miles vp in the countrey, and they determined to lie by the sea side till they had brought what they would. When he was come he sent our man aboord, and required to haue two men pledges, and he himselfe would come aboord, and I sent him two, of whom he tooke but one, and so came aboord vs, he and his wife with diuers of his friends, and brought me a goate and two great rootes, and I gaue him againe a latten bason, a white bason, 6 manillios, and a bottell of Malmesie, and to his wife a small casket. After this we began to make our measure and weight: and he had a weight of his owne which held one angell and 14 graines, and required a measure of 4 elles and a halfe. In fine we concluded the 8 part for one angell and 20 graines, and before we had done, they tooke mine owne weight and measure. The 16 day I tooke 8 li. 1 ounce of gold: and since the departure of the Hinde I heard not of her, but when our pledge went into the countrey the first night, he said he saw her cast anker aboue fiue leagues from this place. The 17 day I sold about 17 pieces of cloth, and tooke 4 li. 4 ounces and a halfe of gold. The 18 day the captaine desired to haue some of our wine, and offered halfe a ducket of gold for a bottell: but I gaue it him freely, and made him and his traine drinke besides. And this day also I tooke 5 li. 5 ounces of gold. The 19 day we sold about 18 clothes, and tooke 4 li. 4 ounces and one quarter of golde. The 20 day tooke 3 li. sixe ounces and a quarter of golde. The 21 we tooke 8 li. 7. ounces and a quarter. The 22. 3. li. 8. ounces and a quarter. And this night about 4 of the clocke the Captaine who had layen all this while vpon the shoare, went away with all the rest of the people with him. The 23 day we were waued a shoare by other Negroes, and sold them cloth, caskets, kniues, and a dosen of bels, and tooke 1 li. 10 ounces of gold. The 24 likewise we sold bels, sheetes, and thimbles, and tooke two li. one ounce and a quarter of gold. The 25 day we sold 7 dosen of smal bels and other things, and then perceiuing their gold to be done, we wayed and set sayle and went to leeward to seeke the Hinde, and about 5 of the clocke at night we had sight of her, and bare with her, and understood that shee had made some sales. The 26 day wee receiued out of the Hinde 48 li. 3 ounces and one eight part of golde, which they had taken in the time that we were from them. And this day vpon the request of a Negro that came vnto vs from a captaine, we went to shoare with our marchandize, and tooke 7 li. and one ounce of gold. At this place they required no gages of vs, but at night they sent a man aboord vs, which lay with vs all night, because we might knowe that they would also come to vs the next day. The 27 day in both our shippes we tooke 8. li. one ounce, three quarters and halfe a quarter of golde. The 28 we made sales for the companie, and tooke one pound and half an ounce of gold. The 29 day in the morning we heard two calieuers shot off vpon the shore, which we iudged to be either by the Portugales or by the Negroes of the Portugales: we manned our boates and armed our selues and went to shoare, but coulde finde nothing: for they were gone. The 30 day we made more sales for the companie and for the Masters. The 31 we sent our boate to shoare to take in sand for balast, and there our men met the Negroes, with whom they had made sale the day before a fishing which did helpe them to fill sand, and hauing no gold, sold fish to our men for their handkerchiefs and nightkerchiefes. The 1 day of February we wayed and went to another place, and tooke 1 li. 9. ounces 3 quarters of gold. The 2 day we made more sales: but hauing viewed our victuals we determined to tarie no long time vpon the coast, because the most part of our drinke was spent, and that which remained grew sowre. [Sidenote: They returne for England.] The 3 and 4 dayes we made some sales, though not great, and finding the wind this 4. day to come off the shoare, we set saile and ranne along the shoare to the Westwards: vpon this coast we found by experience that ordinarily about 2 of the clocke in the night the winde comes off the shoare at Northnortheast, and so continueth vntil eight of the clocke in the morning: and all the rest of the day and night it comes out of Southwest: and as for the tide or currant vpon this shoare, it goeth continually with the winde. The 5 day we continued sayling and thought to haue met with some English ships, but found none. The sixt day we went our course Southwest to fetch vnder the line, and ranne by estimation 24 leagues. The 13 day wee thought our selues by our reckoning to be cleare off the Cape das Palmas, and ranne 12 leagues. The 22 day we were thwart of the Cape de Monte, which is to the Westward of the Riuer de Sestos, about 30 leagues. The first day of March in a Ternado we lost the Hinde, whereupon we set vp a light and shot off a piece but could not heare of her, so that then we strooke our saile and taried for her, and in the morning had sight of her againe three leagues a sterne off vs. Vpon the 22 day we found our selues to be in the height of Cape Verde, which stands in 14 degrees and a halfe. From this day till the 29 day we continued our course, and then we found our selues to be in 22 degrees. This day one of our men called William King, who had bene long sicke, died in his sleepe, his apparel was distributed to those that lackt it, and his money was kept for his friends to be deliuered them at his comming home. The 30 day we found our selues to be vnder the Tropike. The 31 day we went our course, and made way 18 leagues. From the first day of Aprill to the 20 we went our course, and then found our selues to bee in the height of the Asores. The seuenth day of May we fell with the South part of Ireland, and going on shoare with our boate had fresh drinke, and two sheepe of the countrey people, which were wilde Kernes, and we gaue them golde for them, and bought further such other victuals as we had neede of, and thought would serue vs till we arriued in England. The 14. day with the afternoone tide we went into the Port of Bristoll called Hungrode, and there ankered in safetie and gaue thankes to God for our safe arriuall. * * * * * The second voyage made by Maister William Towrson to the coast of Guinea, and the Castle of Mina, in the yeere 1556. with the Tiger of London, a ship of 120 tunnes, the Hart of London of 60 tunnes, and a Pinnesse of sixteene tunnes. The fourteenth day of September, the yeere abouesayd, we departed from Harwich, and directed our course for the Isle of Sillie, to meete there with the Hart and Pinnesse, which were rigged and victualed at Bristoll, but arriuing there the eight and twientieth day we found them not, and therefore after long lying at Hull to tarrie for them, but not espying them, we turned backe to Plimmouth the 12 day of October, and being there, the Hart and the Pinnesse came to vs, so that the 15 of Nouember we all departed together from Plimmouth at one of the clocke in the after noone, and the 28 day we had sight of the Isle of Porto Santo, and the next day in the morning of Madera. The third day of December we fell with the Ile of Palma, and the 9 we were thwart of Cape Blanke, and found there certaine Carauels fishing for Pargoes. The 19 we found our selues in the height of Sierra Leona, and all this day we ranne thwart of certaine Currants, which did set to the West Southwestward so fast as if it had bene the ouerfall of a sand, making a great noyse like vnto a streame or tide-gate when the water is shoale: and to prooue whither we could finde ground in this place, we sounded and had 150 fadome, and no ground, and so departed. The 30 of December we fell with the coast of Guinea, and had first sight of it about 4 leagues off. The best marke that we could take of the place to knowe it was three hilles, which lay Northeast and by East from vs: betwixt the Northermost two hilles there are two high and great trees standing in sight as it were a sailes breadth one from another, and a litle more to the Northwestwards are certaine hommocks. Hauing sayled somewhat into the shoare wee tooke our selues to be shotte somewhat past the riuer de Sestos, so that we kept about to fetch it. And a litle after we had sight of three sayles of shippes and two pinnesses which were in the weather of vs, and hauing sight of them we made our selues readie to meete them, and halled off our ships to fetch the winde as neere as we could: and hauing sayled about an houre or two, they also went about, and went as we went to make themselues readie, and when we had them in chase, they went away from vs: but when they had made themselues readie, they kept about againe, and came with vs verie finely appointed with their streamers, and pendants and ensignes, and noyse of trumpets very brauely: so when we met, they had the weather of vs, and we being determined to fight, if they had bene Portugals, waued them to come vnder our Lee, which they denied stoutly: then we demaunded of them whence they were, and they sayd of France, we told them againe that we were of London in England. They asked of vs what Portugals wee had seene, we answered, none but Fishermen: then they told vs that there were certaine Portugall ships gone to the Mina to defend it, and that they met with another at the riuer de Sestos, which was a ship of two hundred which they had burned, and had saued none but the master and two or three Negroes, and certaine others which were sore burned which they left a shoare there. Then they desired to come aboord of vs with their boates to talke with vs, and wee gaue them leaue. Then the captaine of the Admirall and diuers others came aboord very friendly, desiring vs to keepe them company because of the Portugals, and to goe to the Mina with them: wee told them that we had not watered, and that we were but now fallen with the coast, and they shewed vs that we were fiftie leagues past the riuer de Sestos: notwithstanding there was water enough to be had, and they would helpe vs to water with their owne boates because they would haue our companie. And told vs further, that they had bene sixe weekes vpon the coast, and had gotten but three tunnes of graines amongst them all: and when wee had heard them, we made our reckoning that although the Mina were cleare, yet if they did goe before vs, they would marre our market; and if it were not cleare, then if the Portugals were there and did take them, they would vnderstand that we were behind, and so would waite for vs. [Sidenote: They admit certaine Frenchmen into their companie.] And further we made account that if we went with them we should doe as well as they, if the coast were cleare: if it were not cleare, then by them we were assured to be the stronger. Therefore hauing considered thus much of their gentle offers, we tolde them that the next day wee would conferre more largely of the matter. Whereupon they desired me to come the next day to dinner to them, and to bring the masters of our ships with me, and such merchants as I thought good, promising to giue vs water out of their owne ships if we would take it, or els to tarie with vs and helpe vs to water with their own boats and pinnasses. The 31 day in the morning the Admirall sent his boat aboord for me, and I tooke our masters and certaine of our marchants and went to him, who had prouided a notable banquet for vs, and intreated vs very friendly, desiring vs still to keepe his company, promising that what victuals were in his ships, or other things that might doe vs pleasure vntill the end, we should haue the one halfe of it, offering vs if we would to furle his Flags, and to bee at our commaundement in all things. In the ende we agreed to come to an anker, and to send our boat on shore with the Admirals boat, and one of his pinnasses, and an Almaine which they had brought out of France, to seeke water, as for our pinnasse she came to an anker to seaward of vs all, and would not come at vs. All this night the boats continued on shore. The first day of Ianuary our boats came to vs againe and had found no riuer. Whereupon we weighed and set saile, and ankred againe at another riuer. The 2 day we went into the riuer and bargained, and tooke 5 small Elephants teeth. The 3 day we tooke 5 more. [Sidenote: An assault vpon elephants.] The fourth day the French Admirall and wee tooke fifteene small teeth. This day wee tooke thirtie men with vs and went to seeke Elephants, our men being all well armed with harquebusses, pikes, long bowes, crossebowes, partizans, long swordes, and swordes and bucklers: wee found two Elephants which wee stroke diuers times with harquebusses and long bowes, but they went away from vs and hurt one of our men. The fift day we set saile and ranne along the coast. The 6 day we fell with the riuer de S. Andre, at which place the land is somewhat high to the Westward of the riuer, and a faire Baie also to the Westward of it: but to the Eastward of it it is lowe land. The 7 day we went into the Riuer and found no village, but certaine wild Negros not accustomed to trade. It is a very great riuer and 7 fadome water in some places at the entring. Here we filled water, and after set saile. The 8 day we sailed along the shore and came to the red cliffes, and went forward in sailing the 9 day also. The 10 day we came together to confer with captaine Blundel Admiral of the French ships, Ierom Baudet his vice admiral, and Iohn de Orleans master of a ship of 70 tunne, and with their marchants, and agreed that when God should send vs to any place where wee might make sale, that we should be of one accord and not one of vs hurt the market of the other, but certaine of our boates to make the price for all the rest, and then one boate to make sale for euery shippe. This night our boats going to the shore met with certaine Negros, who said that they had gold, and therefore we here cast anker. The 11 day all the day we tooke but one halfe angel weight of 4 graines, which we tooke by hand, for the people of this place had no weight: the Negros called this place Allow. The 12 day we ran along the coast and found but one towne, but no boates would come out to vs, and therefore we went our course. The 13 day I tooke my boat and went along the shore, and passed by diuers small townes, and was waued to come on shore at 3 places, but the sea went so high vpon the shore, that it was not possible for vs to land, neither could they come to vs if they had had boats, as I could see none but at one place, where there was one that would haue come vnto vs, but the Land-wash went so sore that it ouerthrew his boat, and one of the men was drowned, which the people lamented, and cried so sore, that we might easily heare them, and they got his body out of the sea, and caried it amongst them to their towne. [Sidenote: The castle of Mina.] The 14 day we came within Saker-shot of the castle, and straightway they set forth an Almade to descry vs, and when they perceiued that we were no Portugals, they ranne within the towne againe: for there is a great towne by the Castle which is called by the Negros Dondou. Without this there lie two great rockes like Ilands, and the castle standeth vpon a point which sheweth almost like an Iland. Before we came at this castle, we found the land for fiue or six leagues to be high land, and about seuen leagues before we came to the castle, lowe land, vntil we came at the castle, and then wee found the land high againe. This castle standeth about fiue leagues to the East of Cape de Tres puntas. Here I tooke the boate with our Negros and ranne alongst the shore till I came to the Cape and found two small townes, but no boates at them, neither any traffique to be had. At these places our Negros did vnderstand them well, and one of them went ashore at all the places and was well receiued of them. This night we ankred at the Cape de Tres puntas. The 15 day I tooke our boat and went along the shore, and about 3 leagues beyond the Eastermost part of the Cape we found a faire Bay where we ran in, and found a smal towne and certaine boates which belonged to the same towne, but the Negros in a long time would not come to vs, but at the last by the perswasion of our owne Negros, one boat came to vs, and with him we sent George our Negro a shore, and after he had talked with them, they came aboard our boates without feare, and I gaue to their captaine a bason, and two strings of Margarets, and they shewed vs about 5 duckats weight of gold, but they required so much for it that wee would not take it, because the Frenchman and we had agreed to make price of our goods all in one boat, and the price being made then euery man to sell in his owne boat, and no man to giue more then the price which should be set by vs al. This place is called Bulle, and here the Negros were very glad of our Negros, and shewed them all the friendship they could, when they had told them that they were the men that were taken away being now againe brought by vs. The Negros here shewed vs that a moneth since there were 3 ships that fought together, and the two shippes put the other to flight: and before that at the castle of Mina there were 4 ships of the Portugals which met with one Frenchman, which Frenchman caused them all to flee, which shippe we tooke to be the Roebarge: for the Frenchmen of our company iudged her to be thereabout that time with her pinnasse also. And further, that after her went a shippe of twelue score named the Shaudet all alone, and after her a ship of fourescore, and both for the Mina. And there were two others also which they left, one at Cape Verde called the Leuriere of Diepe, and another at the riuer De Sestos, besides these 3 which all this time be in our company, whose names be these: The Espoier of Hableneff which is the Admirall, whose captaine is Denis Blundell. The Leuriere of Roan Viceadmirall, whose master is Ierome Baudet. The other is of Hunfleur whose master is called Iohn de Orleans. The sixteenth day I went along the shore with two pinasses of the Frenchmen, and found a Baie and a fresh riuer, and after that went to a towne called Hanta, twelue leagues beyond the Cape. At this towne our Negros were well knowen, and the men of the towne wept for ioy when they saw them, and demanded of them where Anthonie and Binne had bene: and they told them that they had bene at London in England, and should bee brought home the next voyage. So after this, our Negros came aboord with other Negros which brought a weight with them, which was so small that wee could not giue them the halfe of that which they demaunded for it. The Negros here told vs that there were fiue Portugall shippes at the Castle, and one pinnasse, and that the Portugals did much harme to their Countrey, and that they liued in feare of them, and we told them againe, that we would defend them from the Portugals whereof they were very glad. The 17 day we went a shoare and the Frenchmen with vs, but did no great good, the Negros were so vnreasonable, we sold 80. Manellios for one ounce of gold. [Sidenote: The Negros brought home by our men.] Then wee departed and went to Shamma, and went into the riuer with fiue boates well appointed with men and ordinance, and with our noises of trumpets and drummes, for we thought here to haue found some Portugals but there were none: so wee sent our Negros on shoare, and after them went diuers of vs, and were very well receiued, and the people were very glad of our Negros, specially one of their brothers wiues, and one of their aunts, which receiued them with much ioy, and so did all the rest of the people, as if they had bene their naturall brethren: we comforted the captaine and told him that hee should not feare the Portugals, for wee would defend him from them: whereupon we caused our boats to shoote off their bases and harquebusses, and caused our men to come on shore with their long bowes, and they shot before the captaine, which he, with all the rest of the people, wondred much at, specially to see them shoot so farre as they did, and assaied to draw their bowes but could not. When it grew to be late, we departed to our ships, for we looked euery houre for the Portugals. And here the Negros shewed vs that there was an English ship at the Mina, which had brought one of the Negros againe, which Robert Gaynsh tooke away. The 18 day we went into the riuer with no lesse strength then before, and concluded with the Negros to giue them for euery Fuffe two yardes and three nailes of Cloth, and to take for it one angel-duckat: so that we tooke in all 70 Duckats, whereof the Frenchmen had fortie, and wee thirtie. The nineteenth day wee went a shore euery man for himselfe, and tooke a good quantitie of gold, and I for my part tooke foure pound and two ounces and a halfe of gold, and our Hartes boate tooke one and twentie ounces. At night the Negros shewed vs that the next day the Portugals would be with vs by land or by Sea: and when we were ready to depart, we heard diuers harquebusses shoote off in the woods by vs which wee knew to bee Portugals, which durst come no neerer to vs, but shot off in the woods to see if they could feare vs and so make vs to leaue our traffique. The 20 day we manned our fiue boats, and also a great boat of the Frenchmens with our men and the Admirals, 12 of them in their murrians and corsets, and the rest all well appoynted, with foure trumpets, a drumme and a Fife, and the boate all hanged with streamers of Silke and pendants very faire, and went into the riuer and traffiqued, our man of warre lying off and on in the riuer to waft vs, but we heard no more of the Portugals. This day the Negros told vs that there were certain ships come into Hanta, which towne is about two leagues to the Westward of this place. This 21 day we manned our boats againe and went to a place a league from this to the Westwards, and there found many Negros with another Captaine, and sold at the same rate that wee had done with the others. The 22 day we went ashore againe and traffiqued in like sort quietly, and I tooke 4 pound and six ounces of gold. The 23 day about night the Negros with their captaine came to vs and told vs that the king of Portugals ships were departed from the Castle, meaning the next day to plie to the windward to come to vs, giuing vs warning to take heed to our selues: we told them againe that wee were very glad of their comming, and would be ready at all times to meet them, and to assure them that wee were glad of it, wee sounded our trumpets, and shot off certaine bases whereof the Negros were very glad, and requested vs that if the Portugals sought to hinder our traffique, to shew them all the extremitie that we could, promising vs that if they came by land, they would aduertise vs thereof. The 24 we went a shore with our trumpets and drummes, and traffiqued, and I bade the captaine of the towne to dinner. [Sidenote: Fiue sailes of Portingals descried.] The 25 day we being a shore, our ships had descried fiue sailes of the king of Portugals, and our ships shot off ordinance to call vs away, and we threw euery man his caske ashore for water, and went to our ships, and by that time we had weighed and giuen order one to another what to do, it was night, so that that night nothing was done. We set saile and lay close all night to get the wind if we could: we were neere some of them, and one shot off a piece which wee iudged to be the Admirall of the Portugals, to cause the rest to come and speake with him: so all this night we made our selues ready for fight. The 26 we came in with the shore and had sight of the Portugals where they rid at anker, and we bare with them, and we gaue all our men white scarffes, to the ende that the Frenchmen might know one the other if we came to boording: but the night came vpon vs that we could not fetch them, but we ankered within demie-Culuering shot of them. [Sidenote: The fight with the Portugals.] The 27 day we weighed and so did the Portugals, and about eleuen of the clocke wee had the wind of them, and then we went roome with them, which when they pereeiued, they kept about to the shore againe, and wee after them, and when they were so neere the shore that they could not well runne any further on that boord, they kept about againe, and lay to the Seaward, and then we kept about with them, and were a head of them, and tooke in our topsailes and taried for them: and the first that came vp was a small barke which sailed so well that she cared not for any of vs, and caried good ordinance: and as soone as she came vp, she shot at vs, and ouershot vs, and then she shot at the Admirall of the Frenchmen, and shot him through in two or three places, and went forth a head of vs, because we were in our fighting sailes: then came vp another carauell vnder our Lee in like case which shot at vs and at the Frenchman, and hurt two of his men and shot him through the maine maste. And after them came vp the Admirall vnder our Lee also, but he was not able to doe vs so much harme as the small shippes, because he caried ordinance higher then they, neither were we able to make a good shot at any of them, because our shippe was so weake in the side, that she laid all her ordinance in the Sea: [Sidenote: The French forsake our men.] wherefore we thought to lay the great ship aboord, and as soone as the French Admirall went roome with him, be fell a sterne and could not fetch him, and after he fell asterne of two carauels more and could fetch none of them, but fell to Leeward of them all: and when he was to Leeward, he kept about to the shoreward, and left vs, and then we put out our topsailes and gaue them chase, and both the other Frenchmen kept the wind, and would not come neere vs, and our owne ship was a sterne so that she could not come to vs: and after we had folowed them about two houres to the seaward, they kept about againe towards the shore, thinking to pay vs as they went along by, and to haue the wind of the French Admirall which before ran in towards the shore, and we kept about with them, and kept still the wind of them thinking that our Viceadmiral and the other would haue folowed vs as wee willed them to do: but after that the Portugall was past by them, and euery one had shot at vs and our Viceadmirall, both our Viceadmirall and the two Frenchmen, and our owne pinnasse left vs in the laps, and ran to seaward, and we ran still along, and kept the wind of them to succour the French Admirall, who was vnder all of their Lees, and when they met with him, euery one went roome with him, and gaue him the broad side, and after they cast about againe, and durst not boord him, because they sawe vs in the weather of them, or els without doubt they had taken or sunke them, for three of them which were the smallest went so fast that it was not possible for a ship to boord them, and caried such ordinance that if they had had the weather of vs, they would haue troubled 3 of the best ships that we had, and as for their Admirall and Viceadmirall they were both notablie appointed. When the Frenchman was cleare of them, hee laie as neere the winde as hee could, and wee followed them still towardes the shore, and there the Admirall ranne to Sea after the rest, and left vs all alone: and when the Portugals perceiued that we were alone, and gaue them chase, they kept about with vs and we with them, to keepe the wind of them, and we ranne still within base shot of them, but they shot not at vs, because we had the weather of them, and sawe that they could do vs no hurt: and thus we folowed one another vntil night, and in the night we lost them, but as for all the rest of our ships, they packed on all the sailes that they could and ranne to sea, and as they themselues confesse, they praied for vs, but as for helpe at their hands we could haue none. The 28 day we met with our Viceadmirall, our pinnasse, and two of the Frenchmen, and the third was fled which was a ship of fourscore tunne, and belonged to Roan: and when I had the sight of the rest of our ships, I tooke our skiffe and went to them to know why they lost vs in such a case, and Iohn Kire made me answere that his ship would neither reare nor steere, and as for the pinnasse, Iohn Dauis made me answere that she would doe nothing, and that he could cary her no further, for her rudder was broken, so that the Hart was glad to towe her. Then I went to the French Admirall, and found himselfe to be a man of good stomacke, but the one halfe of his men were sicke and dead: and then I talked with the smaller Frenchman, and hee made me answere that he could doe nothing, saying, that his ship would beare no saile, and had 16 of his men dead and sicke, so he made vs plaine answere that he was able to doe nothing. After this the Frenchman durst not anker for feare of the Portugales. The 29 day the master of the pinnasse came to vs and sayd that they were not able to keepe her any longer, and then wee viewed her and seeing there was no remedie, her rudder with all the iron worke being broken both aloft and belowe, wee agreed to breake her vp and to put the men into the Hart. So wee tooke out of her foure bases, one anker, and certaine fire wood, and set her on fire, and afterwards ran along the coast. The thirtie day we went in to the shore, and spake with certaine Negros, who told vs that some French shippes had bene there, but wee could not bargaine with them they were so vnreasonable. The 31 day I went to shore but did not traffike. The 1 day of Februarie we weighed, seeing we could not bring the Negros to any reason, and came to another place which standeth vpon an hill. The third day I went to a towne foure leagues from vs, and shot off two pieces, and the Captaine came to vs, and I sent Thomas Rippen a land who knew the Captaine, and assoone as he came on shore, the Captaine knew him and diuers of the Negros who then began to aske for mee, and hauing told the Captaine that I was in the boate, hee made no longer tarying but by and by caused two boates to be put to the Sea, and came to me himselfe, and when he sawe me, he cryed to me before hee came to the boat and seemed to be the gladdest man aliue, and so did all the companie that knew mee, and I gaue him a reward as the maner of the Countrey is, and caused the Frenchman to giue another, promising the next day to giue him wine: and that night because it was late, he would not talke of any price but left me a pledge, and tooke another of me and so departed. The 4 day going on shore, I found that the ships of France which had bin there, had done much hurt to our markets but yet I tooke fiue ounces and a halfe of gold. The fift day I tooke eight ounces and one eight part of gold: but I saw that the Negros perceiued the difference in Cloth betwixt ours and that which the Frenchmen had, which was better, and broader then ours: and then I told captaine Blundel that I would goe to the Leeward, because I perceiued that being there where his Cloth was sold, I should do no good, whereof hee was sorie. The 6 day there came an almade and Negros aboord me, requesting me to come to their towne for they had much gold and many marchants: and so I went and found their old Captaine gone, and another in his place: but this night wee did no good, because the marchants were not come downe: so he required a pledge which I let him haue, and tooke another of him. The 7 day George our Negro came to vs, who had followed vs at the least 30 leagues in a small boat, and when he came, the Negros and we soone concluded of price. I tooke this day fiue pound and one ounce, and 3 quarters of gold. This Negro we had left at Shamma at the time of the fight, who said that he saw the fight being on shore, and that when we were gone from the Portugals, the Portugals came into their riuer, and told them that the Englishmen had slaine two Portugals with a piece, which was in deed out of our ship, and they required harbour there, but the captaine of Shamma would not suffer them. The 8 day we tooke nineteene pound three ounces and a halfe. The 9 day we tooke two pound six ounces and a halfe. The 10 day three pound. [Sidenote: The Frenchmen bridled by the English.] The 11 day came to vs Ierome Bawdet the Viceadmiral of the Frenchmen and his pinnasse, and he shewed vs that where we left them there was no good to be done, and sayd he would goe to the Eastward, but we told him hee should not: and thereupon commaunded him to goe to his company which he was appointed to bee with, which hee refused to doe vntill wee had shot three or foure pieces at their pinnasse, and when the ship sawe that, she kept about, and ranne to Seaward, and durst come no neerer to vs, so the pinnasse went after her. We tooke this day one pound fiue ounces. The 12 day there came one of the Frenchmens pinnasses to vs laden with cloth, and would haue made sale, but I would not suffer him, and therefore tooke him and sent him aboord of our ship, and caused him to ride there all day. We tooke fiue pound six ounces and a halfe. The 14 day we tooke of some Negros 4 ounces of gold. The 16 we came to another towne. The 17 day I went a shore and vnderstood that 3 of the Portugall ships were at the Castle, and the other two at Shamma. The captaine of this towne was gone to the principall towne, to speake with their king, and would returne shortly as they told me, and so he did, and brought me a weight and measure, and I sent a man to see that principall towne, and their king. The Portugall ships rid so neere vs, that within 3 houres they might be with vs, yet were all contented to tary for sales. The 18 day certaine of the kings seruants came to vs, and we tooke one pound two ounces, and one eight part of gold. The 10 day we tooke fiue pound one ounce. The 20 day one pound and foure ounces. The 21 I tooke foure pound and one ounce, and the Negroes enquired for fine cloth, and I opened two pieces which were not fine enough, as they sayd, but seeing that we had no other, they bought of them. At night I prouided a gift, or present, and sent one marchant and a mariner with it to the king, to certifie him of our want of victuals, by reason whereof we could not stay long: for in deed we searched our ship, and the most part of our beere was leaked out of all our barrels. The 22 day we tooke three ounces and a halfe. [Sidenote: The offer of the king to the English to build a Fort.] The 23 our men came from the king Abaan, and told vs, that he had receiued them very friendly, but he had litle gold, but promised, if we would tary, to send into all his countrey for gold for vs, and he willed our men at their comming home to speake to our king to send men and prouision into his countrey, to build a castle, and to bring Tailors with them, to make them apparell, and good wares, and they should be sure to sell them: but for that present the Frenchmen had filled them full of cloth. This towne standeth about foure leagues vp in the land, and is by the estimation of our men, as big in circuit as London, but the building is like to the rest of the countrey. They haue about this Towne great store of the wheate of the Countrey, and they iudge, that on one side of the towne there were one thousand rikes of Wheate, and another sorte of Corne which is called Mill, which is much vsed in Spaine. [Sidenote: A pretie deuise to descrie the enemie.] About this towne they keepe good watch euery night, and haue to warne the watchmen certaine cordes made fast ouer their wayes which lead into the town, and certaine bels vpon them, so that if any man touch the cordes, the bels ring, and then the watchmen runne foorth of their watch houses to see what they be: and if they be enemies, if they passe the cord, they haue prouision with certaine nets hanged ouer the wayes, where they must passe, to let fall vpon them, and so take them, and otherwise then by the wayes it is not possible to enter the towne, by reason of the thickets and bushes which are about the same, and the towne is also walled round about with long cords, and bound together with sedge and certaine barkes of tree. [Sidenote: The kings friendly entertainment of our men.] When our men came to the towne, it was about fiue of the clock in the morning, for there they trauell alwayes in the night by reason of the heate of the day: and about nine of the clocke, the king sent for them, for there may no man come to him before he be sent for, and then they would haue carried their present with them: but the Negros told them, that they must bee three times brought before him, before they might offer their gift: and when they came to him, he talked with them, and receiued them very friendly and kept them about half an hour, and then they departed, and after that sent for them againe three times, and last of all, they brought him their present, which he receiued thankfully, and then caused a pot of wine of Palme to be brought foorth, and made them drinke: and before they drinke, both here and in all the Countrey, they vse certaine ceremonies. [Sidenote: Their ceremonies in drinking.] First, they bring foorth their pot of drinke, and then they make a hole in the ground, and put some of the drinke into it, and they cast the earth vpon it, which they digged forth before, and then they set the pot vpon the same, then they take a little thing made of a goord, and with that they take out of the same drinke, and put it vpon the ground in three places, and in diuers places they haue certaine bunches of the pils of Palme trees set in the ground before them, and there they put in some drinke, doing great reuerence in all places to the same Palme trees. All these ceremonies first done, the king tooke a cup of gold, and they put him in wine, and hee dranke of it, and when he dranke, the people cried all with one voice, Abaan, Abaan, with certaine other words, like as they cry commonly in Flanders, vpon the Twelfe night, The kinning [sic--KTH] drinks: and when he had drunke, then they gaue drinke to euery one, and that done, the king licensed them to depart, and euery one that departeth from him boweth 3 times towards him, and waueth with both hands together, as they bow, and then do depart. The king hath commonly sitting by him 8 or 10 ancient men with gray beards. This day we tooke one pound and 10 ounces of gold. The 24 day we tooke 3 pound and 7 ounces. The 25 we tooke 3 ounces and 3 quarters. The 26 day we tooke 2 pound and 10 ounces. The 27 two pound and fiue ounces. The 28 foure pound, and then seeing that there was no more gold to be had, we weighed and went foorth. The first day of March we came to a towne called Mowre, but we found no boats nor people there: but being ready to depart, there came two Almades to vs from another towne, of whom we tooke two ounces and a halfe of gold: and they tolde vs that the Negros that dwelled at Mowre were gone to dwell at Lagoua. The second day we came thwart of the castle, and about two leagues off, and there saw all the fiue Portugall ships at anker, and this day by night we fetched Shamma. [Sidenote: Ships of Portugall.] The third day we had sight of one tall ship, of about two hundred tunnes in the weather of vs, and within lesse then two leagues of our ships, and then we saw two more a sterne of her, the one a ship of fiue hundred or more, and the other a pinnesse: and these were a new fleet at that present arriued out of Portugall. Whereupon we wayed, and made shift to double out of the land, and then the winde comming to the South-southwest, the Hart going roome with them fell three leagues to the leewards of vs. These Portugals gaue vs the chase from nine of the clocke in the morning, till fiue at night, but did no good against vs. At last, we perceiuing the Admirall to be farre a sterne of his company, because his maine topmast was spent, determined to cast about againe with them, because we were sure to weather them, and the winde being as it was, it was our best course: but the Hart was so farre to the leeward, that we could not doe it, except we would lose her company, so that we tooke in some of our sailes, and went roome with him: which when he perceiued, he looffed to, and was able to lie as neere as he did before. At night, when we came to him, he would not speake to vs: then we asked of his company why he went so roome; and they made excuse that they were able to beare no saile by, for feare of bearing their foretopmast ouer boord: but this was a simple excuse. The fourth day, being put from our watring place we began to seethe our meat in salt water, and to rebate our allowance of drinke, to make it indure the longer: and so concluded to set our course thence, for our owne countrey. The 12 of March I found my selfe thwart of Cape das Palmas. The 16 day we fell with the land, which we iudged to be the Cape Mensurado, about which place is very much high land. The 18 day we lost sight of the Hart, and I thinke the willfull Master ran in with the shore of purpose to lose vs, being offended that I tolde him of his owne folly. [Sidenote: Two small Ilands by Sierra Leona. Note.] The 27 day we fell in sight of two small Islands, which lie by our reckoning sixe leagues off the headland of Sierra Leona: and before we came in sight of the same Ilands, we made our reckoning to be forty or thirty leagues at the least off them. Therefore all they that saile this way are to regard the currents which set Northnorthwest, or els they may be much deceiued. The 14 of April we met with two great ships of Portugall, which although they were in the weather of vs, yet came not roome with vs, whereby we iudged that they were bound for Calicut. The 18 day we were in the heigth of Cape verde. The 24 we were directly vnder the tropike of Cancer. The first day of May Henry Wilson our Steward died: and the next day died Iohn Vnderwood. [Sidenote: A French brauado.] The 23 we had sight of a shippe in the weather of vs, which was a Frenchman of 90 tunne, who came with vs as stoutly and as desperately as might be, and comming neere vs perceiued that we had bene vpon a long voyage, and iudging vs to be weake, as in deed we were, came neerer vs, and thought to haue layed vs aboord, and there stept vp some of his men in armour, and commanded vs to strike saile: whereupon we sent them some of our stuffe, crossebarres, and chaineshot, and arrowes, so thicke, that it made the vpper worke of their shippe flit about their eares, and then we spoiled him with all his men, and toare his shippe miserably with our great ordinance, and then he began to fall a sterne of vs, and to packe on his sailes, and get away: and we seeing that, gaue him foure or fiue good pieces more for his farewell; and thus we were rid of this French man, who did vs no harme at all. We had aboord vs a French man a Trumpeter, who being sicke, and lying in his bed, tooke his trumpet notwithstanding, and sounded till he could sound no more, and so died. The 28 we conferred together, and agreed to go into Seuerne, and so to Bristoll, but the same night we had sight of the Lizard, and by reason of the winde, we were not able to double the lands end to go into Seuerne, but were forced to beare in with the Lizard. The 29 day, about nine of the clocke in the morning, we arriued safely in Plimmouth, and praised God for our good arriuall. * * * * * The third and last voyage of M. William Towrson to the coast of Guinie, and the Castle de Mina, in the yeere 1577. The thirtieth day of Ianuary, the yeere abouesayd, we departed out of the sound of Plimmouth, with three ships, and a pinnesse, whereof the names are these: 1 The Minion Admirall of the fleet. 2 The Christopher Viceadmirall. 3 The Tyger. 4 A pinnesse called the Vnicorne: being all bound for the Canaries, and from thence, by the grace of God, to the coast of Guinie. The next day, being the last of this moneth, [Marginal note: It is to be vnderstood, that at this time there was warre betwixt England and France.] we met with two hulks of Dantzick, the one called the Rose, a ship of foure hundred tunnes, and the other called the Vnicorne, of an hundred and fifty tunnes, the Master of the Rose was called Nicholas Masse, and the Master of the Vnicorne Melchior White, both laden at Bourdeaux, and for the most part with wines. When we came to them, we caused them to hoise foorth their boats, and to come and speake with vs, and we examined euery one of them apart, what French mens goods they had in their shippes, and they said they had none: but by the contrarieties of their tales, and by the suspicion which we gathered of their false chartar-parties, we perceiued that they had French mens goods in them: we therefore caused one of them to fetch vp his bils of lading, and because he denied that he had any, we sent certaine with him, who caused him to goe to the place where he had hid them, and by the differences of his billes of lading, and his talke, we gathered, as before, that they had Frenchmens goods. Whereupon we examined them straightly, and first the Purser of the Vnicorne, which was the smaller shippe, confessed that they had two and thirty tunnes and a hogs-head of a French mans. Then we examined the Master in like case, and he acknowledged the same to be true. Then we examined also the Master of the great ship, and he confessed that he had an hundred and eight and twenty tunnes of the same French mans, and more they would not confesse, but sayd that all the rest was laden by Peter Lewgues of Hamburg, to be deliuered to one Henry Summer of Camphire, notwithstanding all their letters were directed to Hamburg, and written in Dutch without, and within in French. When they had confessed that they had thus much French mens goods within their shippes, we conferred together what was best to be done with them. William Cretton and Edward Selman were of the opinion, that it should be good either to carry them into Spaine, and there to make sale of the goods, or els into Ireland, or to returne backe againe into England with them, if the winde would permit it. But I, waying what charge we had of our Masters, first by mouth, and afterwards by writing, that for no such matter we should in any case prolong the time, for feare of losing the voyage, and considering that the time of the yeere was very farre spent, and the money that we should make of the wines not very much, in respect of the commodity which we hoped for by the voyage, perswaded them that to goe into Ireland, the winde being Easterly as it was, might be an occasion that we should be locked in there with that winde, and so lose our voyage: and to cary them into Spaine, seeing they sailed so ill, that hauing all their sailes abroad, we kept them company onely with our foresailes, and without any toppe sailes abroad, so that in euery two dayes sailing they would haue hindered vs more then one; and besides that (the winde being Easterly) we should not be able to seaze the coast with them: besides all this the losse of time when we came thither was to be considered, whereupon I thought it not good to carry them any further. And as for carying them into England, although the winde had bene good, as it was not, considering what charge we had of our Masters, to shift vs out of the way for feare of a stay by reason of the warres, I held it not in any wise conuenient. But notwithstanding all this, certeine of our company not being herewith satisfied went to our Master to know his opinion therein, who made them a plaine answere, that to cary them into any place, it was not the best way nor the profit of their Masters. And he tolde them further, that if the time were prolonged, one moneth longer before they passed the Cape, but a few men would go the voyage. [Sidenote: The French mens goods seazed in the time of the warre vpon the losse of Cales.] All these things considered, we all paused, and determined at the last, that euery man should take out of the hulks so much as he could well bestow for necessaries, and the next morning to conclude what should be further done with them. So we tooke out of them for vs foureteene tunnes and a halfe of wine, and one tunne we put into the pinnesse. More we tooke out one hogshead of Aquauitæ. Sixe cakes of rozzen. A small halser for ties: and certeine chestnuts. The Christopher tooke out, Ten tunnes of wine, and one hogshead. A quantity of Aquauitæ. Shall-lines. Chesnuts. Sixe double bases with their chambers. And then men broke vp the hulks chests, and tooke out their compasses, and running glasses, the sounding leade and line, and candles: and cast some of their beefe ouer board, and spoiled them so much, that of very pity we gaue them a compasse, a running glasse, a leade and a line, certaine bread and candles, but what apparel of theirs we could finde in their ship, we gaue them againe, and some money also of that which William Crompton tooke for the ransome of a poore Frenchman, who being then Pilot downe the Riuer of Bordeux, they were not able to set him a shore againe, by reason of the foule weather. The Tyger also tooke out of the smaller hulke sixe or seuen tunnes of wine, one hogshead of Aquauitæ, and certeine rozzen, and two bases he tooke out of the great hulke. The first day of February in the morning we all came together againe sauing W. Crompton who sent vs word mat he was contented to agree to that order which we should take. Now Edward Selman was of this opinion, that it was not best to let the ships depart, but put men into them to cary them into England, which thing neither we nor our Master would agree vnto, because we thought it not good to vnman our ships going outward, considering how dangerous the time was: so that in fine we agreed to let them depart, and giue them the rest of the wine which they had in their ships of the Frenchmens for the fraight of that which we had taken, and for their ordinance, rozzen, aquauitæ, chesnuts, and other things which the company had taken from them. So we receiued a bill of their handes, that they confessed how much Frenchmens goods they had, and then we let them depart. The 10 day we reckoned our selues to be 25 leagues from the Grand Canarie, and this day about nine of the clocke our pinnesse brake her rudder, so that we were forced to towe her at the sterne of the Minion, which we were able to doe, and yet kept company with the rest of our ships. About eleuen of the clocke this day we had sight of the Grand Canarie. The 11 day when we came to the Iland we perceiued that it was the Ile of Tenerif, and then indeed wee had sight of the Grand Canarie, which lieth 12 leagues to the Eastwards of Tenerif: and because the road of Tenerif is foule ground, and nothing was there to be gotten for the helping of our pinnesse, hauing the winde long, we agreed to go with the Grand Canarie. The 12 day we came into the roade of the towne of Canarie, which lieth one league from the same towne. And after we had shot off diuers pieces of ordinance to salute the towne and the castle, the gouernour and captiues of the Iland sent to vs which were the captaines of the ships, requiring vs to come a shoare. [Sidenote: Two English Marchants Legiers in the Grand Canary.] And when we came to them they receiued vs very friendly, offering vs their owne Iennets to ride to the towne, and what other friendship they could shew vs: and we went to the towne with two English Marchants which lay there, and remained in their house that day. The second day following we came aboord to deliuer our marchandise, and to get our pinnesse mended. The 14 day came into the road the Spanish fleet which was bound to the Emperours Indies, which were in number nineteene saile, whereof sixe were ships of foure hundred and fiue hundred a piece, the rest were of two hundred, an hundred and fifty, and of an hundred. When they were come to an ancre they saluted vs with ordinance, and so we did them in like case. And afterwards the Admirall (who was a knight) sent his pinnesse to desire me to come to him; and when I came to him he receiued me friendly, and was desirous to heare somewhat of the state of England and Flanders. And after he had me a banquet, I departed; and I being gone vnto the boat, hee caused one of his gentlemen to desire Francisco the Portugall, which was my interpreter, to require me to furle my flagge, declaring that hee was Generall of the Emperours fleet. Which thing (being come aboord) Francisco shewed me: and because I refused to furle it, and kept it foorth still, certaine of the souldiers in the ships shot diuers harquebush shot about the ship, and ouer the flagge: and at the same time there came certeine gentlemen aboord our ship to see her: to whom I sayd, that if they would not cause those their men to leaue shooting, I would shoot the best ordinance I had thorow their sides. And when they perceuied that I was offended, they departed, and caused their men of warre and souldiers to shoot no more, and afterwards they came to me againe, and tolde me that they punished their men. That done, I shewed them the ship, and made them such cheere as I could, which they receiued very thankfully: and the day following they sent for mee to dine with them, and sent me word that their General was very sory that any man should require me to furle my flagge, and that it was without his consent: and therefore he requested me not to thinke any vngentlenesse to be in him, promising that no man of his should misdemeane himselfe. The 17 day we set saile in the road of Grand Canarie, and proceeded on our voyage. The 20 in the morning we had sight of the coast of Barbarie, and running along the shore we had sight of Rio del Oro, which lieth almost vnder the tropike of Cancer. The 21 day we found our selues to be in 20 degrees and a halfe, which is the heigth of Cape Blank. The 25 we had sight of the land in the bay to the Northward of Cape Verde. [Sidenote: Cape verde. Foure Ilands.] The 26 I tooke Francisco and Francis Castelin with me, and went into the pinnesse, and so went to the Tyger which was neerer the shore then the other ships, and went aboord her, and with her and the other ships we ranne West and by South, and West southwest, vntill about foure of the clocke, at which time we were hard aboord the Cape, and then we ran in Southwest, and beyond the Cape about foure leagues we found a faire Iland, and besides that two or three Ilands, which were of very high rocks being full of diuers sorts of sea foule, and of pigeons, with other sorts of land-foules, and so many, that the whole Iland was couered with the dung thereof, and seemed so white as if the whole Iland had bene of chalke; and within those Ilands was a very faire bay, and hard aboord the rocks eighteene fadom water, and faire ground. [Sidenote: A great trade of the Frenchmen at Cape verde.] And when we perceiued the bay, and vnderstanding that the Frenchmen had a great trade there, which we were desirous to know, we came to an ancre with the Tyger. And after that the Minion and the Christopher ancred in like case: then we caused the pinnesse to runne beyond another Cape of land, to see if there were any place to trade in there. It being neere night I took our cocke and the Tygers skiffe, and went to the Iland, where we got certaine foules like vnto Gannards: and then I came aboord againe and tooke two of the Gannards which we had taken, and caried them to the captaine of the Christopher, and when I had talked with him I found him not willing to tary there, neither was I desirous to spend any long time there, but onely to attempt what was to be done. The Master of the Christopher told me he would not tary, being not bound for that place. [Sidenote: A faire Iland where the French trade.] The 27 the Captaine of the Tyger and Edward Selman came to me, and Iohn Makeworth from the Christopher, and then we agreed to take the pinnessse, and to come along the shore, because that where we rid no Negros came to vs, and the night before our pinnesse brought vs word that there was a very faire Iland. And when I came beyond the point I found it so, and withall a goodly bay, and we saw vpon the maine certaine Negros which waued vs on shore, and then we came to an ancre with the pinnesse, and went a shore with our cocke, and they shewed vs where their trade was, and that they had Elephants teeth, muske, and hides, and offered vs to fetch downe their Captaine, if we would send a man with them, and they would leaue a pledge for him: then we asked him when any ship had bene there; and some of them sayd not in eight moneths, others, in sixe moneths, and others in foure and that they were Frenchmen. Then we perceuing, the Christopher not willing to tary, departed from them, and set saile with the pinnesse and went aboord the Tyger. The 10 day of March we fell with the coast of Guinea, fiue leagues to the Eastward of Cape de Monte, beside a riuer called Rio das Palmas. The 11 we went to the shore, and found one man that could speake some Portuguise, who tolde vs that there were three French ships passed by; one of them two moneths past, and the other one moneth past. At this place I receiued nineteene Elephants teeth, and two ounces and halfe a quarter of golde. The 12 we set saile to go to the riuer de Sestos. The 13 at night we fell with the same riuer. The 14 day we sent in our boats to take water, and rommaged our shippes, and deliuered such wares to the Christopher and Tyger, as they had need of. The 15 we came together, and agreed to send the Tyger to another riuer to take in her water, and to see what she could do for graines. After that we tooke marchandise with vs, and went into the riuer, and there we found a Negro which was borne in Lisbone, left there by a ship of Portugal which was burned the last yere at this riuer in fighting with three Frenchmen: and he told vs further, that two moneths past there were three Frenchmen at this place; and sixe weeks past there were two French ships at the riuer: and fifteene dayes past there was one. All which ships were gone towards the Mina. This day we tooke but few graines. The 19 day considering that the Frenchman were gone before vs, and that by reason of the vnholesome aires of this place foureteene of our men in the Minion were fallen sicke, we determined to depart, and with all speed to go to the Mina. The 21. wee came to the riuer de Potos, where some of our boats went in for water, and I went in with our cocke, and tooke 12 small Elephants teeth. The 23. day, after we had taken as many teeth as we could get, about nine of the clocke we set saile to go towards the Mina. The 31 we came to Hanta, and made sale of certaine Manillios. [Sidenote: They descrie fiue saile of the Portugals.] The first Aprill we had sight of fiue saile of Portugals, wherevpon we set saile and went off to sea to get the winde of them, which wee should haue had if the winde had kept his ordinary course, which is all the day at the Southwest, and West-southwest: but this day with a flaw it kept all the day at the East, and East-southeast, so that the Portugals had the winde of vs, and came roome with the Tyger and vs untill night, and brought themselues all saue one, which sailed not so well as the rest, within shot of vs: then it fell calme, and the winde came vp to the Southwest, howbeit it was neere night, and the Christopher, by meanes of her boat, was about foure leagues to the leewards of vs. We tacked and ranne into the weather of the Admirall, and three more of his company, and when we were neere him we spake to him, but he would not answere. [Sidenote: The fight.] Then we cast about and lay in the weather of him; and casting about he shot at vs, and then wee shot at him, and shot him foure or fiue times thorow. They shot diuers times thorow our sailes, but hurt no man. The Tyger and the pinnesse, because it was night, kept out their sailes, and would not meddle with them. After we had thus fought together 2 houres or more, and would not lay him aboord because it was night, we left shooting one at the other, and kept still the weather of them. Then the Tyger and the pinnesse kept about and came to vs, and afterwards being neere the shore, we three kept about and lay to the sea, and shot off a piece to giue warning to the Christopher. This night about 12 of the clocke, being very litle winde, and the Master of the Tyger asleepe, by the ill worke of his men the ship fel aboord of vs, and with her sheare-hooks cut our maine-saile, and her boat being betwixt vs was broken and suncke, with certaine marchandise in her, and the ships wales were broken with her outleger: yet in the ende we cleared her without any more hurt, but she was in hazzard to be broken downe to the water. The second day we had sight of the Christopher, and were neere vnto her, so that I tooke our boat and went to her. And when I came thither, they shewed me, that after the Portugals had left vs, they went all roome with him, and about twelue a clocke at night met him, and shot at him, and hee at them, and they shot him thorow the sailes in diuers places, and did no other great hurt. And when we had vnderstood that they had bene with him as well as with vs, we agreed altogether to seeke them (if wee might finde them) and keepe a weather our places of traffique. The third day we ran all day to the Southwestwards to seeke the Portugals, but could haue no sight of them, and halled into the shore. The fourth day, when we had sight of land, we found that the current had set vs thirty leagues to the Eastwards of our reckoning, which we woondered at: for the first land we made was Lagua. Then I caused our boat to be manned, and the Christophers also, and went to the shore and tooke our Negro with vs. And on shore we learned that there were foure French ships vpon the coast: one at Perinnen, which is six leagues to the Westward of Laguoa: another at Weamba, which is foure leagues to the Eastward of Laguoa; a third at Perecow, which is foure leagues to the Eastward of Weamba: and the fourth at Egrand, which is foure leagues to the Eastward of Perecow. When we had intelligence of these newes we agreed to go to the Eastwards with the Frenchmen to put them from their traffique, and shot off two or three pieces in our boats to cause the ships to way: and hauing bene about one houre vnder saile, we had sight of one of the French men vnder saile, halling off from Weamba to whome we gaue chase, and agreed in the night for feare of ouershooting them, that the Minion should first come to ancre, and after that about three houres, the Tyger and the Christopher to beare along all night. The 5. day we found three of the French ships at ancre: one called La foye de Honfleur, a ship of 220 tunnes, another called the Ventereuse or small Roebarge of Honfleur, of 100 tunnes, both appertaining to Shawdet of Honfleur, the third was called the Mulet de Batuille a ship of 120 tunnes, and this ship belonged to certaine Marchants of Roan. [Sidenote: the English boord the Frenchmen.] When we came to them, we determined to lay the Admiral aboord, the Christopher the Viceadmirall, and the Tyger the smallest: but when we came nere them they wayed, and the Christopher being the headmost and the weathermost man, went roome with the Admirall: the Roebarge went so fast that wee could not fetch her. The first that we came to was the Mullet, and her wee layed aboord, and our men entred and tooke her, which ship was the richest except the Admirall: for the Admirall had taken about 80 pound of golde, and Roeberge had taken but 22 pound: and all this we learned of the Frenchmen, who knew it very well: for they were all in consort together, and had bene vpon the coast of Mina two moneths and odde dayes: howbeit the Roebarge had bene there before them with another ship of Diepe, and a carauel, which had beaten all the coast, and were departed one moneth before our arriuing there, and they three had taken about 700 pound of golde. Assoone as we had layed the ship aboord, and left certaine men in her to keepe her, we set saile and gaue chase to the other two ships, and chased them all day and night, and the next day vntill three a clocke in the afternoone, but we could not fetch them: and therefore seeing that we brought our selues very farre to leeward of our place, we left the chase, and kept about againe to go with the shore. The 7 day I sent for the captaine, marchants and Masters of the other ships, and when they came we weighed the golde which we had from the Frenchmen, which weighed fifty pound and fiue ounces of golde: this done we agreed to put men out of euery ship into the prise to keepe her. The 12 day we came to the further place of the Mina called Egrand, and being come to an ancre, discharged all the marchants goods out of the prise, and would haue sold the ship with the victuals to the Frenchmen, but because she was leake they would not take her, but desired vs to saue their liues in taking them into our owne ships: then we agreed to take out the victuals and sinke the ship, and diuide the men among our ships. The 15 at night we made an end of discharging the prise, and diuided all the Frenchmen except foure which were sicke and not able to helpe themselues; which foure both the Christopher and the Tyger refused to take, leauing them in their ship alone in the night, so that about midnight I was forced to fetch them into our ship. The 15 of April, moouing our company for the voyage to Benin, the most part of them all refused it. The 16, seeing the vnwillingnesse of the company to goe thither, we determined to spend as much time vpon the coast as we could, to the end we might make our voyage, and agreed to leaue the Minion here at Egrand, the Tyger to go to Pericow which is foure leagues off, and the Christopher to goe to Weamba, which is ten leagues to the weatherward of this place: and if any of them both should haue sight of more sailes then they thought good to meddle withall to come roome with their fellowes; to wit, first the Christopher to come with the Tyger, and then both they to come with vs. We remained in this place called Egrand, vntill the last day of April, in which time many of our men fell sicke: and sixe of them died. And here we could haue no traffique with the Negros but three or foure dayes in the weeke, and all the rest of the weeke they would not come at vs. The 3 of May not hauing the pinnesse sent vs with cloth from the other ships, as they promised, we solde French cloth, and gaue but three yards thereof to euery fuffe. The 5 day the Negros departed, and told vs they would come to vs againe within foure dayes, which we determined there to tary, although we had diuers of our men sicke. The 8 day, all our cloth in the Minion being sold, I called the company together, to know whether they would tary the sale of the cloth taken in the prise at this place or no: they answered, that in respect of the death of some of their men, and the present sicknesse of twentie more, they would not tary, but repaire to the other ships, of whom they had heard nothing since the 27 of April: and yet they had our pinnesse with them, onely to cary newes from one to another. The 9 day we determined to depart hence to our fellowes, to see what they had done, and to attempt what was to be done at the towne of Don Iohn. The 10 day in the morning we sat saile to seeke the Christopher and the Tyger. The ll day the Captaine of the Christopher came to vs, and told vs that they could finde small doings at the places where they had bene. The 12 William Crompton and I in our small pinnesse went to the Tyger and the Christopher at Perenine. The 13 we sent away the Tyger to Egrand, because we found nothing to doe at Perenine, worth the tarying for. The 14 our great pinnesse came to vs, and presently we put cloth into her, and sent her backe to Weamba, where she had bene before, and had taken there ten pound of golde. The 15 the Minion came to vs, and the next day we went a shore with our boats, and tooke but one ounce of golde. The 19 day hauing set saile we came to an ancre before Mowre, and there we tarried two dayes, but tooke not an ounce of golde. The 21 we came to an ancre before Don Iohns towne. [Sidenote: the great towne of Don Iohn.] The 22 we manned our boats and went to shore, but the Negros would not come at vs; then the Captaine of the Christopher and I tooke a skiffe and eight men with vs, and went and talked with the Negros, and they sayd that they would send a man to the great towne, where Don Iohn himselfe lay, to aduertise him of our comming. The 23 we went ashore againe, and the Negros tolde vs that this day the marchants of Don Iohn would come downe: so we tarried there vntill night, and no man would come to vs: but diuers of the Negros made vs signes to depart. The 24 the Captaine of the Christopher tooke his boat and went to Mowre, and when he came thither, certaine Negros came to him to know the price of his wares, but in the end there came an Almade, which he iudged came from the castle, and caused all the Negros to depart from him: and when he saw they would come no more to him, he went ashore and tooke certaine men with him, and then the Negros cast stones at them, and would not suffer them to come vp to their towne. And when they saw that, they tooke certaine of the Almades, and put them to the sea, and afterwards departed. The same morning I went a shore at Don Iohns towne, and tooke a white flag with me, but none of the Negros could come to me, which caused vs to iudge that the Portugals were in the towne. After this, our boat came to vs well manned, and I sent one man vp to the towne with a white flag in his hand, but when he was come thither, all the Negros went away and would not speake with him. Then I sent one alone into the woods after them, but they in no case would come to vs. When we saw that, we tooke twelue goats and fourteene hennes, which we found in the towne, and went aboord without doing any farther hurt to the towne: and when I came aboord, I found our pinnesse come from Cormatin, which had taken there two pound and fiue ounces of golde. Then after much ado with the froward Mariners, we went thitherwards with our ship, and the Christopher went to Mowre. [Sidenote: A fight with the Negros.] The 25 day the Master of the Christopher sent his boat to the shore for balast, and the Negros would haue beaten the company from the shore, whereupon the company resisted them, and slew and hurt diuers of them, and hauing put them to flight, burned their towne, and brake all their boats. The 26 day our pinnesse came to vs from Cormatin, and had taken two pound and eleuen ounces of golde: and Iohn Shirife tolde vs that the Negros of that place were very desirous to haue a ship come back againe to their towne. The 27 we wayed and went to Cormatin. The 28 the Christopher came to vs from Mowre and traffiqued there two dayes. The second day of Iune the Tyger came to vs from Egrand, and the pinnesse from Weamba, and they two had taken about fifty pound of golde since they departed from vs. The 4 day we departed from Cormatin to plie vp to Shamma, being not able to tary any longer vpon the coast for lacke of victuals, and specially of drinke. The 7 day we had sight of fiue of the king of Portugals ships which came to an ancre besides the castle. The 8 day George and Binny came to vs, and brought with them two pound of golde. The 10 day in the morning I tooke our small pinnesse, and the Captaine of the Christopher with me, and manned her well, and went to the castle to view the Portugals ships, and there we found one ship of about 300 tunne, and foure carauels: when we had well viewed them, we returned backe againe to our ships which we found seuen leagues at sea. The 11 day in the morning we found our selues wel shot toward Shamma, and the Tyger with vs, but the Minion and the pinnesse had not wayed that night, so that we were out of sight of them: and hauing brought our selues in the weather of the Portugals ships, we came to an ancre to tary for the Minion, or els we might haue fetched Shamma. At night the Minion and the pinnesse came vp to vs, but could not fetch so farre to the weatherward as we, and therefore they ancred about a league a weather The castle, and we waied in the Christopher, and went roome with her. The 12 day the Tyger came roome with vs, and she and the Christopher finding themselues to stand in great need of victuals, would haue gone with the Portugals ships to haue fetched some of them forth: but our master and company would in no case consent to goe with them, for feare of hanging when we came home: and the other two ships being fully minded to haue gone, and fearing that their owne company would accuse them, durst not go to them. After this, by reason of the want of victuals in the pinnesse, which could receiue no victuals from the other shippes, but from vs onely, we tooke out all our men, and put twelue Frenchmen into her, and gaue them victuals to bring them to Shamma. The 19 day the Tyger and Minion arrived at Shamma, and the Christopher within two leagues off them, but could not fetch the winde by reason of the scantnesse of the winde, which hath bene so scant, that in fifteene dayes we haue plied to the windewards but twelue leagues, which before we did in one day and a night. The 20 day I tooke our pinnesse, and went to the towne of Shamma to speake with the captaine, and he tolde me that there was no golde there to be had, nor as much as a hen to be bought, and all by reason of the accord which he had made with the Portugals, and I seeing that departed peaceably from him. The 21 I put such things as we had into our small pinnesse, and tooke one marchant of our ship, and another of the Tyger, and sent her to Hanta, to attempt, if she could doe any thing there. That night they could doe nothing but were promised to haue golde the next day. The next day (which was the 22) being come, we sent our pinnesse to Hanta againe, but there neither the captaine nor the Negros durst traffike with vs, but intised vs from place to place, and all to no purpose. This day we put away our pinnesse, with fiue and twenty Frenchmen in her, and gaue them such victuals as we could spare, putting fifteene of them to the ransome of sixe crownes a man. The 23 of Iune our pinnesse came to vs from Hanta, and tolde vs that the Negros had dealt very ill with them, and would not traffike with them to any purpose. [Sidenote: Shamma burnt by the English.] The 24 we tooke our boat and pinnesse and manned them well, and went to the towne of Shamma, and because the Captaine thereof was become subiect to the Portugals we burned the towne, and our men seeking the spoile of such trifles as were there found a Portugals chest, wherein was some of his apparell, and his weights, and one letter sent to him from the castle, whereby we gathered that the Portugall had bene there of a long time. The 25 day, about three of the clocke at afternoone, we set saile, and put into the sea, for our returne to England. The last day of this moneth we fell with the shore againe, and made our reckoning to be eighteene leagues to the weatherward of the place where we set off. When we came to make the land, we found our selues to be eighteene leagues to the leeward of the place, where we set off, which came to passe, by reason of the extreme currant that runneth to the Eastward: when we perceiued our selues so abused, we agreed to cast about againe, and to lie as neere the winde as we could, to fetch the line. The seuenth of Iuly we had sight of the Ile of S. Thome, ana thought to haue sought the road to haue arriued there: but the next morning the wind came about, and we kept our course. The ninth, the winde varying, we kept about againe, and fell with the Iland of S. Thome, and seeking the road, were becalmed neere the Iland, and with the currant were put neere the shore, but could haue no ground to ancre: so that we were forced to hoise out our pinnesse, and the other ships their skiffs to towe from the Iland, which did litle good, but in the ende the winde put vs three leagues off the shore. The tenth day the Christopher and the Tyger cast about, whereby we iudged them to haue agreed together, to goe seeke some ships in the road, and to leaue vs: our men were not willing to goe after them, for feare of running in with the Iland againe, and of putting our selues into the same danger that we were in the night before: but we shot off a piece, and put out two lights, and they answered vs with lights againe: whereupon we kept our course, and thought that they had followed vs, but in the morning we could not see them, so that they left vs willingly, and we determined to follow them no more. But the eleuenth day we altered our opinion and course, and consented to cast about againe for the Iland, to seeke our ships; and about foure of the clocke in the afternoone we met with them. The 13 we fell againe with the Iland of S. Thome; and the same night we found our selues directly vnder the line. [Sidenote: The description of the Ile of S. Thome.] This Iland is a very high Iland, and being vpon the West side of it, you shall see a very high pike, which is very small, and streight, as it were the steeple of a church, which pike lieth directly vnder the line, and at the same South end of the Iland to the Westward thereof lieth a small Iland, about a mile from the great Iland. The third of August we departed from the Ile of S. Thome, and met the winde at the Southwest. The 12 day we were in the height of Cape Verde. The 22 day we fell with one of the Iles of Cape verde, called the Ile of Salt, and being informed by a Scotish man that we tooke among the Frenchmen vpon the coast, that there were fresh victuals to be had, we came to an ancre there. The 23 day in the morning we manned our skiffe, and went a shore, and found no houses, but we saw foure men, which kept themselues alwayes farre from vs, as for cattell we could finde none, but great store of goats, and they were so wilde, that we could not take aboue three or foure of them: but there we had good store of fish, and vpon a small Iland which lay by the same we had great store of sea-birds. At night the Christopher brake her cradle, and lost an ancre, so that she could tary no longer, so we all wayed, and set saile. Vpon the same Iland we left the Scotish man, which was the occasion of our going aland at that place, but how he was left we could not tell: but, as we iudged, the people of the Iland found him sleeping, and so caried him away; for at night I went my selfe to the Iland to seeke him, but could hear nothing of him. [Sidenote: The great inconuenience by late staying vpon the coast of Guinie.] The 24 day the Master of the Tyger came aboord vs, and tolde vs that his men were so weake, and the shippe so leake, that he was not able to keepe her aboue the water, and therefore requested vs to go backe againe to the Iland, that we might discharge her, and giue her vp: but we intreated him to take paine with her awhile, and we put a French Carpenter into her, to see if he could finde the leake. This day we tooke a view of all our men, both those that were hole, and the sicke also, and we found that in all the three ships, were not aboue thirty sound men. The 25 we had sight of the Ile of S. Nicholas, and the day following of the other Iles, S. Lucia, S. Vincent, and S. Anthony; which four Iles lie the one from the other Northwest, and by West, Souteast and by East. The 26 we came againe with the Iland of S. Anthony, and could not double the Cape. This day Philip Iones, the Master of the Christopher, came aboord vs, who had beene aboord the Tyger, and tolde vs that they were not able to keepe the Tyger, because she was leake, and the Master very weake, and sayd further, he had agreed with the Master and the company, that if the next day we could double the Iland, we should runne to the leeward of it, and there discharge her: but if we could not double it, then to put in betwixt the Iland of S. Vincent and S. Anthony, to see if we could discharge her. The third day of September I went aboord the Tyger, with the Master and Marchants with me, to view the shippe and men: and we found the shippe very leake, and onely six labouring men in her, whereof one was the Master gunner: so that we seeing that they were not able to keepe the ship, agreed to take in the men, and of the goods what we could saue, and then to put the ship away. The fift day we went to discharge the Tyger. The eight day, hauing taken out the artillery, goods, victuals, and gold of the Tyger, we gaue her vp 25 degrees by North the line. The 27 we had sight of two of the Iles of the Azores, S. Mary, and S. Michael. The fourth of October we found ourselues to be 41 degrees and a halfe from the line. The sixt day the Christopher came to vs, and willed vs to put with the Cape, for they also were so weake, that they were not able to keepe the sea, and we being weake also, agreed to go for Vigo, being a place which many English men frequent. The 10 day the Christopher went roome with the Cape, but we having a mery wind for England, and fearing the danger of the enemies, which ordinarily lie about the Cape: besides, not knowing the state of our countrey and Spaine, and although it were peace, yet there was little hope of friendship at their hands, considering the voyage that we had made, and we also being so weake, that by force and violence we could come by nothing, and doubting also that the king of Portugall knowing of our being there, might worke some way with the Counsell of Spaine to trouble vs: and further, considering that if we did put in with any harbor, we should not be able to come out againe, till we sent for more men into England, which would be a great charge, and losse of time, and meanes of many dangers. All these things pondred, we agreed to shoot off two pieces of ordinance, to warne the Christopher, and then we went our course for England: she hearing our pieces followed vs, and we carried a light for her, but the next day in the morning it was thicke, and we could not see her in the afternoone neither, so that we suspected that either she was gone with Spaine, or els that she should put foorth more sailes then we in the night, and was shot a head of vs, so that then we put forth our top-sailes, and went our course with England. At the time when the Christopher left vs, we were within 120 leagues of England, and 45 leagues Northwest and by West from Cape Finister: and at the same time in our ships we had not aboue sixe Mariners and sixe Marchants in health, which was but a weake company for such a ship to seeke a forren harbour. The 16 day about sixe of the clocke at night, we met with a great storme at the West-south-west, and West, and our men being weake, and not able to handle our sailes, we lost the same night our maine saile, foresaile, and spreetsaile, and were forced to lie a hulling, vntill the eighteenth day, and then we made ready an olde course of a foresaile, and put it to the yard, and therewith finding our selues far shot into the sleeue, we bare with our owne coast; but that foresaile continued not aboue two houres, before it was blowen from the yard with a freat, and then we were forced to lie a hull againe, vntil the nineteenth day of October in the morning, and then we put an olde bonnet to our foreyard, which, by the good blessing and prouidence of God, brought vs to the Ile of Wight, where we arriued the 20 of October in the afternoone. * * * * * The commodities and wares that are most desired in Guinie, betwixt Sierra Liona and the furthest place of the Mine. Manils of brasse, and some of loade. Basons of diuers sorts, but the most lattin. Pots of course tinne, of a quart and more. Some wedges of yron. Margarites, and certaine other sleight beads. Some blew Corall. Some horse tailes. Linnen cloth principally. Basons of Flanders. Some red cloth of low price, and some kersie. Kettles of Dutch-land with brasen handles. Some great brasse basons graued, such as in Flanders they set vpon their cupboords. Some great basons of pewter, and ewers grauen. Some lauers, such as be for water. Great kniues of a low price. Sleight Flanders-caskets. Chests of Roan of a lowe price, or any other chests. Great pinnes. Course French couerings. Packing sheets good store. Swords, daggers, frise mantels, and gownes, clokes, hats, red caps, Spanish blankets, axe heads, hammers, short pieces of yron, sleight belles, gloues of a lowe price, leather bags, and what other trifles you will. * * * * * Certaine Articles deliuered to M. Iohn Lok, by Sir William Gerard Knight, M. William Winter, M. Beniamin Gonson, M. Anthony Hickman, and M. Edward Castelin the 8 of September 1561, touching a voyage to Guinea. A remembrance for you M. Lok at your comming to the coast of Guinie. First, when God shal send you thither, to procure, as you passe alongst the coast, to understand what riuers, hauens, or harboroughs there be; and to make your selfe a plat thereof, setting those places which you shall thinke materiall in your sayd plat, with their true eleuations. Also you shall learne what commodities doe belong to the places where you shall touch, and what may be good for them. It is thought good, that hauing a fort vpon the coast of Mina in the king of Habaans country, [Marginal note: The English marchants intend to fortifie in Ghinea, in the king of Habaans country.] it would serve to great purpose: wherfore you are especially sent to consider where the fort might be best placed, and vpon what ground: wherein are to be noted these things following. 1. That the ground so serue, that it ioyne to the sea on the one part, so as shippes and boats may come to lade and vnlade. 2. What molde of earth the ground is of. 3. What timber or wood may be had, and how it will be caried. 4. What prouision of victuals may be had in the countrey: and what kinde of our victuals will best serve to continue. 5. The place must be naturally strong, or such as may be made strong with a small charge, and afterwards kept with a few men. 6. How water may be prouided, if there be none to be had in the ground where the fort shall stand, or neere to it. 7. What helpe is to be had from the people of the country, either for the building of it, or for the defence thereof. To mooue the king of Haban a farre off, for the making of a fort, and to note how he will like it; but vse your communication so, that although there might fall out good cause for the doing of it, yet he do not vnderstand your meaning. Search the countrey so farre as you may, both alongst the coast, and into the land. To learne what became of the marchants that were left at Benin. The matters which shall be of importance to be noted we nothing doubt that you will omit, wherefore we referre the order of these affaires to your discretion. Also we pray you as occasion shall serue that you ayd and helpe our factours, both with your counsell and otherwise; and thus God send you safely to returne. William Gerrard, William Winter, Beniamin Gonson, Anthony Hickman, Edward Castelin. * * * * * A letter of M. Iohn Lok to the worshipfull company of Marchants aduenturers for Guinie, written 1561, shewing reasons for his not proceeding in a voyage then intended to the foresayd countrey. Worshipfull sirs; since the arriuall of M. Pet and Buttoll Monioy (as I vnderstand) for the voyage it is concluded that the Minion shall proceed on her voyage, if within 20 dayes she may be repaired of those hurts she hath receiued by the last storme: or in the moneth of Ianuary also, if the wind wil serue therfore. Wherefore for that your worships shall not be ignorant of my determined purpose in the same, with the reasons that haue perswaded me thereunto; I haue thought good to aduertise you thereof, trusting that your worships will weigh them, as I vprightly and plainly meane them. And not for any feare or discouragement that I haue of my selfe by the raging of the stormes of the sea, for that (I thanke the Lord) these haue not beene the first that I haue abiden, neither trust I they shalbe the last. First the state of the ship, in which, though I thinke not but M. Pet can do more for her strengthening than I can conceiue, yet for all that, it will neither mend her conditions, nor yet make her so stanch that any cabin in her shalbe stanch for men to lie drie in: the which sore, what a weakening it will be to the poore men after their labour, that they neither can haue a shift of apparell drie, nor yet a drie place to rest in, I referre to your discretion. For though that at Harwich she was both bound and caulked as much as might be, both within and without, yet for all that she left not, afore this flaw, in other weathers, being stressed, to open those seames, and become in the state she was before; I meane, in wetting her men: notwithstanding her new worke. And my iudgement, with that litle experience I haue had, leadeth me to thinke that the ship whose water works and footings be spent and rotten cannot be but leake for men. Next, the vnseasonable time of the yeere which is now present. And how onely by meanes of the vnseasonable times in the returne from the voyage home, many thereby haue decayed, to the great misery and calamity of the rest, and also to the great slander of the voyage, (which I much respect) the last and other voyage haue declared. And what it is to make the voyage in vnseasonable time, that hath the second voyage also declared. Wherefore weying and foreseeing this (as I may wel terme it) calamity and vneuitable danger of men, and that by men she must be brought home againe (except that God will shew an extraordinary miracle) I purpose not nor dare I venture with a safe conscience to tempt God herein. Againe, forsomuch as she is alone, and hath so little helpe of boat or pinnesse in her trade, and also for her watering, where a long time of force must be spent, my going, to the accomplishment of your expectations, will be to small effect for this time, because I shall want both vessell and men to accomplish it. And I would not gladly so spend my time and trauell, to my great charges and paine, and after, for not falling out accordingly, to lose both pot and water, as the prouerbe is. As for the Primrose, if she be there, her trade will be ended or euer we come there, so that she of force, by want of prouision, must returne: yea, though we should carry with vs a supply for her, yet is the meeting of her doubtfull, and though we met her, yet will the men not tarry, as no reason is they should: howbeit my opinion of her is that she is put into Ireland. The Flowerdeluce was in Milford. Thus for that your worships might vnderstand the whole cause why I doe not proceed, I haue troubled you at this time with this my long Letter. And, as God is my Iudge, not for feare of the Portugals, which there we shall meet (and yet alone without ayde) as here is a shippe which was in Lisbon, whose men say that there are in a readinesse (onely to meet vs) foure great ships, of the which one is accounted 700 tunnes, and other pinnesses: yet not for feare of them, nor raging of the seas (whose rage God is aboue to rule) but onely for the premisses: the sequell whereof must by reason turne to a great misery to the men; the which I for my part (though it might turne me to as much gaine as the whole commeth to) yet would I not be so tormented, as the sight thereof would be a corsiue to my heart, and the more, because foreseeing the same, I should be so leud, as yeelding, to haue runne into the danger thereof, and therefore I haue absolutely determined with my selfe not to goe this voyage. Howbeit if in a seasonable time of the yeere I had but one ship sufficient, though much lesse by the halfe, I would not refuse (as triall being made thereof should appeare) or if I had ability of my selfe to venture so much, it should well be seene. And this I speake to giue you to vnderstand that I refuse not this for feare: If you purpose to proceed heerein, send some one whom you please; to whom I will not onely deliuer the articles which I haue receiued, but also will giue some particular notes which I haue noted in the affaires which you haue committed vnto mee, with the best helpe and counsell I can. Thus the liuing God keepe your worships all. Bristoll this 11 of December 1561. Your worships to comand to his power. Iohn Lok. * * * * * The relation of one William Rutter to M. Anthony Hickman his master touching a voyage set out to Guinea in the yeere 1562, by Sir William Gerard, Sir William Chester, M. Thomas Lodge, the sayd Anthony Hickman, and Edward Castelin, which voyage is also written in verse by Robert Baker. Worshipfull sir, my duty remembered, this shalbe to declare vnto you the discourse of this our voyage, since our departure out of England from Dartmouth; at which time I gaue you to vnderstand of our departure, which was the 25 of February 1562. Then hauing a prosperous winde we departed from thence, and sailed on our voyage vntill we arriued at Cauo verde the 20 of March, making no abode there, but sailed along the coast to our first appointed port Rio de Sestos, at which port we arriued the third of Aprill in the morning, hauing the sight of a Frenchman, who assoone as he perceiued vs, set saile and made to the sea: in the meane time we came to an anker in the rode: and after that he had espied our flag, perceiuing vs to be Englishman, he bare with the shore, and hailed our ships with his ordinance, at which time we the merchants of both the ships were in the riuer in traffike, and had vnderstanding of the Negroes that he had bene there three dayes before our comming: so we concluded together, that if he sent his pinnesse to traffike, we would not suffer him, vntill we had taken further order with their captaine and marchants. In the afternoone the pinnesse came into the riuer, whose men we willed to make no traffike vntill we had talked further with their captaine, whom we willed that night to come aboord our admirall: which was done. At which sayd time M. Burton and Iohn Munt went aboord the Minion where the Frenchmen were, and there concluded that they should tary by vs eight dayes, and suffer vs quietly to traffike, wherewith they were not well pleased. Wherevpon the next morning they departed from vs, sailing alongst the coast to the Eastward towards Potis, which he did to hinder our traffike that way: wherefore the marchants of the Minion and we concluded (forasmuch as at that present we vnderstood that were no sailes past alongst) that we should go before, to the end we might not be hindered of our traffike by the Frenchmen; which thing we did: and at our comming thither we found the Frenchmen in traffike to the West of Potis, by whom we passed, and arriued at Rio de Potis the 12 of April, where we remained in traffike vntill the 15 of the sayd moneth, and then departed from thence along the coast toward Sant Andre, where we appointed by agreement to tary for the Minion; and the 17 at night we came to the riuer of S. Andre, in which very day the Minion came vnto vs, telling vs that they met at cauo das Palmas a great ship and a caruell of the king of Portugals bound to the Mina, who gaue chase vnto them, and shot freely at them, and the Minion in her defence returned her the like: but God be praised the Minion had no hurt for that time. In the end we concluded to hasten towards cauo de tres puntus to haue put them from the castle, if by any meanes wee might; and when wee were come to the Cape, we lay a hull one night and two dayes, and doubting they had bene past, the Minion went neere the shore, and sent her merchants to a place called Anta, where beforetime we had traffike, and the next morning very early being the 21 of the sayd moneth, we againe had sight of the ship and the carauell a good way to sea-boord of vs. Then we presently set saile, and bare with the formost of them, hoping to haue got betweene the castle and them, but we came short of our purpose, which was no small griefe vnto vs all; and when they had gotten the castle to friend, they shot at vs freely, and we at them, and the castle at vs; but we profited litle. In the afternoone we set saile and came to the town of Don Iuan called Equi, where the 22 in the morning we went a shoare to traffike, but the Negros would not vntill they had newes from Don Luis, for at that time Don Iuan was dead, and the 23 came Don Luis his sonne and Pacheco minding to traffike with vs, at which said day came two gallies rowing along the shoare from the castle, minding to keepe vs from our traffike. The 24 we set saile and chased the galies to the castle againe. The Negroes being glad of that required vs to goe to Mowre, which is some 3 leagues behind, and thither would they come for that they stood in feare of the Portugals, and there we remained for the marchants that came out of the countrey which were come with their gold, but Anthonio don Luis his sonne, and Pacheco were aboord the Minion. And the 25 in the morning came the two galies from the castle againe vnto vs, the weather being very calme, they shot at vs and hit vs 3 times, and shortly after the wind came from the shore, at which instant we descried the ship, and the carauell comming toward vs, then we weighed and set saile, and bare as neere vnto them as we could: but it was night or euer wee met with them, and the night being very darke we lost them. The next day plying to the shore, at night we agreed to go with Cormantin, but the next morning being the 28 we were but a litle distant from the great ship and the 2 galies, hauing no wind at all, and the carauell hard aboord the shore. Then being calme, came the 2 galies rowing to the sterne of the Minion, and fought with her the most part of the forenoone: [Sidenote: Much hurt done in the Minion with firing a barrel of gunpouder.] and in the fight a mischance hapned in the Minions steward-roome by means of a barrell of pouder that tooke fire, wherewith were hurt the master gunner, the steward, and most part of the gunners: which the galies perceiuing, began to be more fierce vpon them, and with one shot cut halfe her foremast in twaine, that without present remedie shee was not able to beare saile, and presently vpon this the great ship sent her boat to the galies, who suddenly departed from vs. And after their departure we went aboord the Minion to counsell what were best to be done, at which time they were sore discomfited. Whereupon we deuised what was best to be done: and because wee knew that the Negros neither would nor durst traffike so long as the galies were on the coast it was therefore agreed that we should prepare our selues to depart to Rio de Sestos, and so we departed that day. [Sidenote: They returne.] The 14 of May in the rooming we fell with the land, and when wee came to it, we doubted what place it was, and sent our boates on land to know the trueth, and we found it to be Rio de Barbos, which is to be Eastward of sant Andre, and there remained in getting of water until the 21, where we lost the day before 5 of our men by meanes of overthrowing our black pinnasse. The 22 we departed from thence to Rio de Sesto, where we arriued the 2 of Iune, and the 4 wee departed from Rio de Sesto, and arriued (God bee thanked) the 6 of August within sight of the Stert in the West part of England, our men being very sicke and weake. We haue not at this present aboue 20 sound men that are able to labour, and we haue of our men 21 dead, and many more very sore hurt and sicke. Master Burton hath bene sicke this 6 weekes, and at this present (God strengthen him) is so weake that I feare he will hardly escape. Herein inclosed your worship shall receiue a briefe of all the goods sold by vs, and also what commodities we haue receiued for the same. Thus I leaue to trouble your worship, reseruing all things als to our generall meeting, and to the bringer hereof. From aboord the Primerose the 6 of August 1563. Your obedient seruant William Rutter. There are brought home this voiage An. 1363. Elephants teeth 166 weighing 1758 pounds. Graines 22 buts full. * * * * * A meeting at Sir William Gerards house the 11 of Iuly 1564. for the setting foorth of a voyage to Guinea, with the Minion of the Queens, the Iohn Baptist of London, and the Merline of M. Gonson. At this meeting were these chiefe aduenturers, Sir William Gerrard, sir William Chester, sir Thomas Lodge, Anthonie Hickman, and Edward Castelin. Where it was agreed that Francis Ashbie should be sent to Deptford to M. Gonson for his letters to Peter Pet to goe about the rigging of the Minion vpon the Queenes maiesties charges, and so the said Francis to repaire with the same letters to Gillingham with money to supplie our charge there. Also that euery one of the fiue partners shall foorthwith call vpon their partners to supply towards this new rigging and victualling, 29 li. 10s. 6d. for euery 100. li. value. Also that euery one of the fiue partners shall foorthwith bring in 50 li. towards the furniture of the premisses. Likewise it is agreed that if M. Gonson giue his consent that the Merline shall be brought about from Bristoll to Hampton, that a letter be drawen whereunto his hand shall be, before order be giuen for the same. * * * * * The successe of this Voiage in part appeareth by certaine briefe relations extracted out of the second voyage of Sir Iohn Hawkins to the West Indies, made in the sayd yeere 1564, which I thought good to set downe for want of further instructions, which hitherto I could not by any meanes come by, albeit I haue vsed all possible indeuour for the obtaining of the same: Take them therefore in the meane season as foloweth. Master Iohn Hawkins, with the Iesus of Lubeck a ship of 700. tonnes, and the Salomon, a ship of 7 score, the Tiger a barke of 50, and the Swalow 30 tonnes, being all well furnished with men to the number of one hundred threescore and ten, as also with ordinance and victuall requisite for such a voiage, departed out of Plimmouth the 18 day of October in the yeere of our Lord 1564. with a prosperous winde: at which departing, in cutting the foresaile, a marueilous misfortune happened to one of the officers in the ship, who by the pullie of the sheat was slaine out of hand, being a sorowfull beginning to them all. And after their setting out 10 leagues to the Sea, hee met the same day with the Minion a ship of the Queens Maiesties, whereof was captaine Dauid Carlet, and also her consort the Iohn Baptist of London being bound to Guinea likewise, who hailed one the other after the custome of the sea, with certaine pieces of ordinance for ioy of their meeting: which done, the Minion departed from him to seeke her other consort the Merline of London, which was a stone out of sight, leauing in M. Hawkins companie the Iohn Baptist her other consort. Thus sailing forwards on their way with a prosperous wind until the 21 of the same moneth, at that time a great storme arose, the wind being at Northeast about 9 of the clocke at night, and continued so 23 houres together, in which storme M. Hawkins lost the company of the Iohn Baptist aforesaid, and of his pinnasse called the Swallow, the other 3 ships being sore beaten with the storme. The 23 day the Swalow, to his no small reioicing, came to him againe in the night 10 leagues to the Northward of Cape Finister, hauing put roomer and not being able to double the Cape, in that there rose a contrary wind at Southwest. The 25 the wind continuing contrary, he put into a place in Galicia called Ferol, where he remained 5 daies and appointed all the masters of his ships an order for the keeping of good company. [Sidenote: The firing and sinking of the Merline bound for Guinea.] The 26 day the Minion came in also where he was, for the reioycing whereof he gaue them certaine pieces of ordinance after the curtesie of the Sea for their welcome, but the Minions men had no mirth because of their consort the Merline, whom at their departure from M. Hawkins vpon the coast of England, they went to seeke, and hauing met with her, kept company two dayes together, and at last by misfortune of fire (through the negligence of one of the gunners) the pouder in the gunners roome was set on fire, which with the first blast stroke out her poope, and therewithall lost 3 men, besides many sore burned (which escaped by the Brigandine being at her sterne) and immediatly to the great losse of the owners, and most horrible sight of the beholders, she sunke before their eies. The 30 day of the moneth M. Hawkins with his consorts and company of the Minion hauing now both the Brigandines at her sterne, weighed anker, and set saile on their voiage hauing a prosperous wind thereunto. The 4 of Nouember they had sight of the Iland of Madera, and the 6 day of Teneriffa, which they thought to haue bene the Canarie, in that they supposed themselues to haue bene to the Eastward of Teneriffa but were not: but the Minion beyng 3 or 4 leagues a head of vs kept on her course to Teneriffa, hauing better sight thereof then the other had, and by that means they parted company. The foresaid Sir Iohn Hawkins passing on his voiage by Cauo Verde and Sierra Leona, and afterward crossing ouer the maine Ocean comming to the towne of Burboroata vpon the coast of Terra firma in the West Indies, had further information of the euill successe of this Guinean voyage, as in the same hereafter is verbatim mentioned. The 29 of April, we being at anker without the road, a French ship called the green Dragon of Newhauen, whereof was captaine one Bon Temps came in, who saluted vs after the maner of the sea, with certaine pieces of ordinance, and we resaluted him with the like againe: with whom hauing communication, he declared that hee had bene at the Mina in Guinea, and was beaten off by the Portugals gallies, and enforced to come thither to make sale of such wares as he had: and further that the like was hapned vnto the Minion: also that captaine Dauid Carlet, and a marchant, with a dozen mariners were betraied by the Negros at their first arriuall thither, remaining prisoners with the Portugals, besides other misaduentures of the losse of their men hapned through the great lacke of fresh water, with great doubts of bringing home the ships: which was most sorrowfull for vs to vnderstand. * * * * * The voyage of M. George Fenner to Guinie, and the Islands of Cape Verde, in the yeere of 1566. with three ships, to wit the Admirall called the Castle of Comfort, the May Flower, and the George, and a pinnasse also: Written by Walter Wren. The 10 day of December, in the yeere abouesayd, we departed from Plimmouth, and the 12 day we were thwart of Vshant. The 15 day in the morning being Sunday, wee had sight of Cape Finister, and the same night we lost the company of our Admiral, wherefore we sayled along the coast of Portugall, hoping that our Admiral had bene before vs. The 18 day we met with a French ship of whom wee made inquirie for our Admirall, but he could not tell vs newes of him: so we followed our course to the Ilands of the Canaries. The 25 day in the morning we fell with a small Iland called Porto Santo, and within 3 houres wee had sight of another Iland called Madera which is 6 leagues from Porto Santo. The said 25 day being the day of the Natiuitie, we hoised out our boat, and fet Master Edward Fenner captaine of the May Flower aboord vs, being in the George, with the master whose name was Robert Cortise and others of the sayd shippe, and feasted them with such cheere as God had sent vs. The 28 day we fel with an Iland called Tenerif, which is 27 leagues from the said Iland, and on the East side thereof we came to an anker in 40 fadome water, within a base shot of the shore, in a little Baie wherein were 3 or 4 small houses: which Baie and houses were distant from a litle towne called Santa Cruz, a league or thereabout, and as we rode in the said Baie, we might see an Iland called The grand Canarie, which was 6 or 7 leagues from vs. The 29 day the May Flower for that she could not fet into ye road where we were at an anker, by reason the wind was off the shore, and because she bare more roomer from the land then we did, in the morning came bearing in with the towne of Santa Cruz, thinking to come to an anker in the road against the towne, and before she came within the reach of any of their ordinance, they shot at her foure pieces which caused her to come roome with vs, and came at last to an anker by vs. And about one of the clocke in the afternoone, the forenamed captaine of the May Flower wrote a letter a shoare, directing it to the head officer of the towne of Santa Cruz, to the intent to vnderstand the pretense of the shooting off the said ordinance. The letter being written, Robert Courtise master of the May Flower, and Walter Wren were appointed to deliuer the same a land at 3 or 4 houses to bee conueid to the foresayd towne, and so went with six men in the boate, and rowed to the shore as neere as they might, for setting the boate on ground, for the sea went cruelly at the shore. The people stood in number 30 persons with such armour as they had: the foresayd Wren called to them in Spanish, declaring to them that they had a letter which they would very gladly haue conueid vnto the towne, shewing that they would traffique with them as marchants, desiring their helpe for the conuenience of the same letter. With that one of the Spaniards willed vs to come on land, and we should be welcome, but doubting the worst, the said Walter answered them that they would not come on land, vntill they had answere of their letter which they had brought. Whereupon one of the Spaniards vnraied himselfe, and lept into the water, and swam to the boat, whom we receiued. And he saluted vs, and demaunded what our request was: we made him answere, that by misfortune we lost the companie of our Admirall, and being bound to this Iland to traffique for wines and other things necessary for vs, do here mind to stay vntill he come. Concerning our letter he made vs answere, that he would with all diligence cary it, and deliuer it according to the direction, and so the said Walter knit the letter in a bladder, and deliuered it unto him, and also gaue him foure roials of Spanish money for his paines: and promising that we should haue answere of it, he tooke his leaue and swamme againe on shore, where the people stood ready to receiue him. And after that they had talked with him, and vnderstood our meaning, some of them threw vp their hats, and the other put them off holding them in their hands, and made vs very curteous signes, alwaies desiring that the boat would come a land, but we resaluting them rowed backe againe aboord. The 30 day the Gouernors brother of Santa Cruz came aboord the May Flower with sixe or seuen Spaniards with him, who concluded with the Captaine that we might come a shoare and traffique with them, but that day we did not, for we had sufficient pledge of theirs for our assurance. Our Captaine entertained them well, and at their departure gaue them foure pieces of ordinance for a farewell, and bestowed vpon them two cheeses with other things. The said Gouernors brother promised our Captaine that hee should haue sufficient pledges the morrow following, which was not done, whereupon wee grew suspicious, and went not that day a shore. The first day of Ianuary our captaine sent Nicholas Day and Iohn Sumpter a shore, who were very well entertained with as many of our company as went after them. In the said Iland is a maruellous high hill called the Pike, which is a far off more like a cloud in the aire, then any other thing: the hill is round and somewhat small at the top, it hath not bene knowen that euer any man could goe vp to the top thereof. And although it stand in 28 degrees which is as hote in January, as it is in England at Midsommer, yet is the top of the said hil Winter and Sommer seldome without snow. In this Iland about two leagues from the said Santa Cruz is a citie called Anagona. The third day wee departed about the Westerne point of the Iland, about 12 or 14 leagues from Santa Cruz, into a Baie which is right agaynst the house of one Petro de Souses, in which Baie we came to an anker the 5 day, where we heard that our Admirall had bene there at an anker 7 dayes before vs, and was gone thence to an Iland called Gomera, whereupon we set saile presently to seeke him. The 6 day we came to an anker against the towne of Gomera, where we found our Admirall, which was very ioyfull of our comming, and we also of his sight. In the sayd road we found Edward Cooke, in a tall ship, and a shippe of the Coppersmiths of London, which the Portugals had trecherously surprised in the Baie of Santa Cruz, vpon the coast of Barbarie, which ship we left there all spoiled. Our General and merchants bought in the said towne for our provision, 14 buts of wine, which cost 15 duckats a but, which were offred vs at Santa Cruz in Tenerif for 8, 9, and 10 duckats. The 9 day we departed from this road to another Baie, about 3 leagues off and there tooke in fresh water: and so the 10 day we set saile towards Cape Blanke, which is on the coast of Guinea. The 12 day we fell into a Baie to the Eastward of Cape Pargos, which is 35 leagues from Cape Blanke. But hauing no knowledge of that coast, we went with Cape Blanke, and at the fall of the land we sounded and had 16 fadome water two leagues from the shore. The land is very lowe and white sand. [Sidenote: A good caueat.] Vpon the fall of the sayd coast beware how you borow in 12 or 10 fadome, for within 2 or 3 casts of the lead you may be on ground. The 17 day we set saile from Cape Blanke, directing our course South and by East and South among, and so fell into a Baie to the Eastward of Cape Verde, about 16 leagues, and about sixe leagues from the shore. The sayd land seemed vnto vs as if it had bene a great number of shippes vnder saile, being indeed nothing els but the land which was full of Hummoks, some high some lowe, with high trees on them. We bare with the said land till we were within 3 leagues of the shore, and then we sounded, and found 28 fadome water, black oase. This day we saw much fish in sundry sculs swimming with their noses with the brim of the water. Passing along this coast we might see two small round hils, seeming to vs about a league one from the other, which is the Cape, and betweene them are great store of trees, and in all our dayes sailing we saw no land so high as the said two hils. The 19 day we came to an anker at the Cape, in a roade fast by the Westermost side of two hils in 10 fadome of water where you may ride in fiue or sixe fadome, for the ground is faire, and alwayes you shall haue the winde off the shore. And as soone as we were all at an anker our Generall came aboord vs, and with him the master of the Admirall, whose name was William Bats, and with them the captaine of the Viceadmirall, whose name was master Edward Fenner, and Robert Curtise the master, and dined aboord of vs being in the George, wherein was Captaine Iohn Heiwood, and Iohn Smith of Hampton master, and there we concluded to goe a land, which was halfe a mile from vs: [Sidenote: The foolish rashness of Wil. Bats perswading company to land unarmed.] and by the counsel of William Bats both Captaine and marchants and diuers of the companie went without armour: for he sayd, that although the people were blacke and naked, yet they were ciuill: so that hee would needs giue the venter without the consent of the rest to go without weapon. Thus they rowed to shore, where we being in the shippe might see a great companie of Negros naked, walking to and fro by the sea side where the landing place was, waiting for the comming of our men, who came too soone, and landed to their losse as it fell out afterwards. There went a shore the Admirals skiffe, and the May Flowers boate, and in them the number of 20 persons or thereabouts, as M. George Fenner the Generall, his brother M. Edward Fenner, Thomas Valentine, Iohn Worme and Francis Leigh marchants, Iohn Haward, William Bats, Nicholas Day, Iohn Thomson and others. At their comming to the shore there were 100 Negros or vpward, with their bowes and arrowes: our Captaines and merchants talked with them, and according to the vse of the country, the one demanded pledges of the other, and they were content to deliuer 3 of their Negros for 5 of our men. Our 5 mens names were these, Iohn Haward, Wil. Bats, Nich. Day, Ioh. Tomson, and Iohn Curtise: these were deliuered them, and we receiued 3 Negros into our Admirals skiffe. Our men being a shore among the Negros, began to talke with them, declaring what ware and marchandize we had, as woollen cloth, linnen cloth, iron, cheese and other things. The Negros answered againe, they had ciuet, muske, gold and graines, which pleased our captaines and marchants very well. Then the Negros desired to haue a sight of some of our wares, to the which our marchants were content, and foorthwith sent aboord one of the boats for part of their marchandise, and in the meane time while the boate went to the ship, our fiue men were walking on the shore with the Negros, and our Generall and marchants staied in the other boat by the sea side, hauing the 3 Negros with them. Our boate then came againe and brought iron and other marchandise, with bread, wine, and cheese which they gave vnto him. Then two of the Negros (which were the pledges) made themselues sicke, desiring to goe a shore, promising to send other two for them. Captaine Haiward perceiuing that our men had let the Negros come a shore, asked what they meant, and doubting the worst began to drawe toward the boate, and two or three of the Negros folowed him. And when hee came to the boate they began to stay him, and he made signes vnto them that hee would fetch them more drinke and bread: notwithstanding, when he was entering into the boate, one of them caught him by the breeches and would haue staied him, but hee sprang from him and leapt into the boate, and as soone as hee was in, one of the Negros a shore beganne to blow a pipe, and presently the other Negro that was in our boate sitting on the boates side, and master Wormes sword by him, suddenly drew the sword out of the scabberd, and cast himselfe into the Sea, and swamme a shore, and presently the Negros laied handes on our men that were on shore, and tooke three of them with great violence, and tore all their apparell from their backes and left them nothing to couer them, and many of them shot so thicke at our men in our boates, that they could scarse set hand to any Oare to rowe from the shore, yet (by the helpe of God) they got from them with their boates although many of them were hurt with their poysoned arrowes: and the poison is vncurable, if the arrow enter within the skin and drawe blood, and except the poison be presently suckt out, or the place where any man is hurt bee foorthwith cut away, he dieth within foure dayes, and within three houres after they bee hurt or pricked, wheresoeuer it be, although but at the litle toe, yet it striketh vp to the heart, and taketh away the stomacke, and causeth the partie marueilously to vomite, being able to brooke neither meat nor drinke. The Negros hauing vsed our men with such cruelty, whose names were Nicholas Day, William Bats, and Iohn Tomson, led them away to a towne which was within a mile of the water side, or thereabout. The 20 day we sent to land a boate or skiffe wherein were eight persons, and one of them was the foresayd Iohn Tomson and our interpreter which was a Frenchman, (for there was one of the Negros which spake good French:) and they caried with them two harquebusses, two targets and a mantell. The cause of sending them was to learne what ransome they demaunded for Bats and Day whom they detained. And when they came to the shore and told the Negros what they desired, they went and fetched them from among the trees, and brought them loose among fortie or fiftie of them. And being come within a stones cast of the sea side, William Bats brake from them, and ran as fast as he could into the sea towards the boat, and he was not so soone in the water but hee fell downe, either breath or his foote failing him in the sand being soft: so that the Negros came and fell on him and tooke him and haled him, that we thought they had torne him in pieces: [Sidenote: The danger of poysoned arrowes.] for they tore againe all the apparell from his backe, so that some of them caried our men againe to the towne, and the rest shot at vs with their poisoned arrowes, and hurt one of our men called Androwes in the smal of the leg, who being come aboord, (for all that our Surgeons could do) we thought he would haue died. Our Generall (notwithstanding all this villanie) sent agayne to them, and offered them any thing that they desired for the raunsome of our men, but they would not deliuer them: giuing vs this answere: That there was in the foresayd roade, three weekes before we came, an English shippe which had taken three of their people, and vntill we did bring or send them againe, wee should not haue our men although wee would giue our three shippes with their furniture. The 21 day a French shippe of the burden of 80 tunnes (or thereabouts,) came to the place where we were, being bound to traffique at the Cape: we told them of the detaining of our two men by the Negros: and seeing that these Frenchmen were very well welcome to the Negros, we wished them to see whether they could procure them againe of the Negros, and bring them along with them, and our Generall promised the Frenchmen 100 li. to obtaine them. So wee committed the matter to the Frenchmen and departed. Of our men that were hurt by the Negros arrowes, foure died, and one to saue his life had his arme cut off. Androwes that was last of all hurt, lay lame not able to helpe himselfe: onely two recouered of their hurts. So we placed other men in the roomes of those that we lost, and set saile. The 26 day between Cape Verde and Bona vista we sawe many flying fishes of the bignesse of herrings, whereof two flew into our boat, which we towed at our sterne. The 28 day we fell with an Iland called Bona vista, which is from Cape Verde 86 leagues. The Northside of the sayde Iland is full of white sandie hils and dales, and somewhat high land. The sayd day wee came to an anker within the Westermost point, about a league within the point and found in our sounding faire sand in ten fadome water, but you may go neere till you be in fiue or six fadome, for the ground is faire. As soone as we were at an anker, our Generall sent his pinnasse a land, and found fiue or sixe small houses, but the people were fled into the mountains: and the next day he sent a shore againe, and met with two Portugals, who willingly went aboord with his men, and at their comming he welcommed them, although they were but poore and simple, and gaue each of them a paire of shoes, and so set them a shore againe. The 30 day we weighed and sailed into a Bay within a small Iland about a league from vs, and tooke plentie of diuers sortes of fishe. The foresayd Iland lieth in sixteene degrees. And if you meane to anker in the said Bay, you may borow in four or fiue fadome of the Southermost point of the sayd Iland, which you may see when you ride in the road. But beware of the middle of the Baie, for there lieth a ledge of rocks, which at lowe water breaketh, yet there is three fadome water ouer them. The last day of Ianuarie our Generall with certaine of his men went a shore in the Baie to the houses, where be found 12 Portugals. In all the Iland there were not aboue 30 persons, which were banished men for a time, some for more yeeres, some for lesse, and amongst them there was one simple man which was their captaine. They liue vpon goats flesh, cocks, hennes, and fresh water: other victuals they haue none, sauing fish, which they esteeme not, neither haue they any boats to take them. They reported that this Iland was giuen by the king of Portugall to one of his gentlemen, who hath let it foorth to rent for one hundreth duckats a yeere, which rent is reared onely in goates skinnes. For by their speaches there hath bene sent foorth of the sayd Iland into Portugall 40000 skins in one yeere. We were to these men marueilously welcome, and to their powers very wel entertained, and they gaue vs the flesh of as many hee-goates as wee would haue, and tooke much paines for vs in taking them, and bringing them from the mountains vpon their asses. They haue there great store of the oyle of Tortoises, which Tortoise is a fish which swimmeth in the Sea, with a shell on his backe as broad as a target. It raineth not in this Iland but in three moneths of the yeere, from the midst of Iuly to the midst of October, and it is here alwayes very hote. Kine haue bene brought hither, but by reason of the heate and drought they haue died. The 3 of February wee departed from this Iland, and the same day fell with another Iland called the Iland of Maiyo, which is 14 leagues from the other Iland: there is in the midst of the way between these two Ilands a danger which is alwayes to be seene. We ankred in the Northwest side of the sayd Ile in a faire Baie of eight fadomes water and faire sand, but here we staied not, but the fourth day weighed and sailed to another Iland called S. Iago, which lieth off the said Iland of Maiyo East and by South, and about fiue leagues one from the other. Being come within the Westermost point, we saw a faire road, and a small towne by the water side, and also a fort or platforme by it: there we purposed to come to anker, and our marchants to make some sale. But before we came within their shot, they let flie at vs two pieces, whereupon we went roomer and sailed along the shore two or three leagues from the road, where we found a small Baie and two or three small houses, where we came to an anker in 14 fadome faire ground. Within an houre after we had ankered we might see diuers horsemen and footmen on the land right against vs riding and running to and fro. The next day being the fift of Februarie, a great companie of their horsemen and footmen appeared on the shoare side, vnto whom our Generall sent to vnderstande whether they would quietly trafike with vs: And they sent him worde againe, desiring that they might speake with him, promising that if he came to trafike as a marchant he should be welcome, and also that he should haue any thing that he or the marchant would with reason demaund. When this answere was brought vnto our Generall he was very glad thereof and the whole companie, and presently (with as much speede as he could) he caused his boates to be made readie: but doubting the villanie of the Portugales, he armed his boates putting a double base in the head of his pinnesse, and two single bases in the head of the Skiffe, and so sent to the May-floure, and the George, and willed them in like sort to man their two boates. These boates being thus manned and well appointed, our Generall entered into his Skiffe, and with the rest rowed to the shoare where were threescore horsemen or more, and two hundreth footemen readie to receiue them. Our Generall marueiled that they came in so great a number and all armed, and therefore with a flagge of truce sent to them to knowe their pleasure: and they answered him with many faire promises and othes, that their pretence was all true, and that they meant like Gentlemen and Marchantes to trafike with him, declaring also that their Captaine was comming to speake with him, and therefore desired our Generall to come and speake with him himselfe. With this answere the boate returned, and then our Generall caused his pinnesse to rowe to them, and as he came neere the shoare they came in a great companie with much obeysance, opening their hands and armes abroade, bowing themselues with their bonnets off, with as much humble salutations outwardly as they might: earnestly desiring our Generall and Marchants to come on lande to them, wherevnto he would not agree without sufficient gages of Gentlemen and Marchants. At length they promised to sende two gages to our Generals contentment, promising fresh water, victuall, money, or Negroes for ware, if it were such as they liked: and therefore desired our Generall and Marchants to sende them a shoare in writing the quantitie of their wares, and the names of them: all which our Generall departed to performe, looking for their answere the morrowe following. And being gone a litle from the shoare, he caused his bases, curriers, and harquebusses to be shot off, and our ships in like case shot off fiue or sixe pieces of great ordinance, and so came aboord to prepare the note. The Portugales most of them departed, sauing those that were left to watch and to receiue the note, which about foure or five a clocke in the afternoone was sent, and it was receiued. [Sidenote: The treason of the Portugals in S. Iago to our men.] But all the purposes of the Portugal were villainously to betray vs, (as shal appeare hereafter) although we meant in truth and honestie, friendly to trafike with them. There was to the Westward of vs and about two leagues from vs, a towne behinde a point fast by the sea side, where they had certaine carauels, or shippes and also two Brigandines, whereof they (with all the speede that they might) made readie foure Carauels, and both the brigandines which were like two Gallies, and furnished them both with men and ordinance as much at they could carrie, and as soone as it was night, they came rowing and falling towardes vs: so that the land being high and the weather somewhat cloude or mystie, and they comming all the way close vnder the shoare we could not see them till they were right against one of our ships called the May-floure. By this time it was about one or two of the clocke in the morning, and the May-floure roade neerer them then the other two by a base shotte, so they made a sure account either to haue taken her or burnt her. In the meane time our men that had the watch (litle thinking of such villainous treacheries after so many faire wordes) were singing and playing one with the other and made such a noyse, that (being but a small gale of winde, and riding neere the lande) they might heare vs from the shoare: so that we supposed that they made account that we had espyed them, which indeede we had not, neither had any one piece of ordinance primed, or any other thing in a readinesse. They came so neere vs that they were within gunshot of vs, and then one of our men chanced to see a light, and then looking out spied the 4 ships, and suddenly cried out, Gallies, gallies, at which crie we were all amazed, and foorthwith they shot at vs all the great ordinance that they had, and their harquebusses, and curriers, and so lighted certaine tronkes or pieces of wilde fire, and all of them with one voice (as well they on the shoare as they in the shippes) gaue a great shoute, and so continued hallowing with great noyses, still approaching neerer and neerer vnto the May-floure. We (with all the speede that we might) made readie one piece of ordinance and shotte at them, which caused them somewhat to stay, so they charged their ordinance and shot at vs freshly againe, and while they shotte this second time at vs, we had made readie three pieces which we shot at them, but they approched still so neere, that at last we might haue shot a sheafe arrowe to them. Wherevpon we hauing a gale of winde off the shoare hoysed our foresayle, and cut our cable at the hawse, and went towarde our Admirall, and they continued following and shooting at vs, and sometime at our Admirall, but our Admirall shotte one such piece at them, that it made them to retire, and at length to worpe away like traiterous villaines, and although they thus suddenly shot all their shot at vs, yet they hurt neither man or boye of ours, but what we did to them we know not. But seeing the villanie of these men we thought it best to stay there no longer, but immediately set sayle towardes an Iland, called Fuego, 12 leagues from the said Iland of S. Iago. At which Island of Fuego we came to an anker the 11 day of this moneth, against a white chappell in the West end of the sayd Iland, within half a league of a litle towne, and with in a league or thereabout of the vtternost point of the said Island. In this Island is a marueilous high hill which doth burne continually, and the inhabitants reported that about three yeeres past the whole Island was like to be burned with the abundance of fire that came out of it. About a league from the chappel to the Westward is a goodly spring of fresh water, where we had as much as we would. Wheate they haue none growing here, but a certaine seede that they call Mill, and certaine peason like Guinie peason, which Mill maketh good breade, but they haue here good store of rother beasts and goates. [Sidenote: Cotton in Fuego.] Their marchandize is cotton, which groweth there. The inhabitants are Portugals which haue commandement from the king to trafike neither with Englishmen nor Frenchmen for victuall or any other thing, except they be forced so to doe. There lieth off this Iland another called Ila Braua, which is not passing two leagues ouer, it hath good store of goates and many trees, but there are not passing three or foure persons dwelling in it. [Sidenote: They returne.] The 25 day of February we departed towardes the Islands at Azores: and on the 23 day March we had sight of one of them called Flores, and then wee might see another Island to the Northward of it called Cueruo, lying two leagues or thereabouts off the other. The 27 we came to an anker in Cueruo ouer against a village of about twelue simple houses; but in the night by a gale of winde, which caused vs to drawe our anker after vs we hoysed sayle and went to the aforesayd Island of Flores, where we sawe strange streames of water running downe from the high cliffes by reason of the great abundance of raine that had suddenly fallen. The 29 day we came againe to Cueruo and cast anker, but a storme arose and continued seuen or eight houres together, so that we let slip a cable and anker, and after the storme was alayed we came againe thinking to haue recouered the same, but the Portugals had either taken it, or spoiled it: the cable was new and neuer wet before, and both the cable and anker were better worth then 40 li. So that we accompt our selues much beholding to the honest Portugales. The 18 day of April we tooke in water at the Island of Flores, and hauing ankered our cable was fretted in sunder with a rocke and so burst, where wee lost that cable and anker also, and so departed to our coast. Then wee set sayle to an Islande named Faial, about the which lie three other Islands, the one catted Pico, the other Saint George, and the other Graciosa, which we had sight of on the eight and twentieth day. The 29 we came to an anker in the Southwest side of Faial in a faire bay, and 22 fadom water against a litle towne where we had both fresh water and fresh victuall. In this Iland by the report of the inhabitants, there groweth certaine greene woad, which by their speeches is faire better then the woad of S. Michael or of Tercera. The 8 day of May we came to Tercera where we met with a Portugall ship, and being destitute of a cable and anker, our Generall caused vs to keepe her companie, to see if she could conueniently spare vs any. The next morning we might see bearing with vs a great shippe and two Carauels, which we iudged to be of the king of Portugals Armada, and so they were, wherevpon we prepared our selues for our defence. [Sidenote: A Portugall Galiasse of 400 tunnes.] The said ship was one of the kings Galliasses, about the burden of foure hundred tunnes, with about three hundred men in her, the shippe being well appointed with brasse pieces both great and small, and some of them so bigge that their shot was as great as a mans head, the other two Carauels were also very warlike and well appointed both with men and munition. [Sidenote: A fight betweene one English ship and 7 Portugals.] As soone as they were within shotte of vs, they waued vs amaine with their swords, we keeping our course, the greatest shippe shot at vs freely and the carauell also, and we prepared our selues, and made all things cleare for our safegard as neere as we could. Then the great shippe shot at vs all her broad side, and her foure greatest pieces that lay in her sterne, and therewith hurt some of our men, and we did the best we could with our shot to requite it. At last two other Carauels came off the shoare, and two other pinnesses full of men, and deliuered them aboord the great shippe, and so went backe againe with two men in a piece of them. The ship and the Carauell gave vs the first day three fights, and when the night was come they left off shooting, yet notwithstanding kept hard by vs all the night. In the meane time we had as much as wee could doe all the night to mende our ropes, and to strengthen our bulwarkes, putting our trust in God, and resoluing our selues rather to die in our defence then to bee taken by such wretches. The next day being the 10 of May in the morning, there were come to the aide the said Portugals foure great Armadas or Carauels more which made seuen, of which 4 three of them were at the least 100 tunnes a piece, the other not so bigge, but all well appointed and full of men. All these together came bearing with vs being in our Admirall, and one of the great Carauels came to lay vs aboorde (as we iudged) for they had prepared their false nettings, and all things for that purpose, so that the Gallias came vp in our larboord side, and the Carauell in our starboord side. Our Captaine and master perceiuing their pretence, caused our gunners to make all our ordinance readie with crossebarres, chaineshotte and haileshot: so the ship and Carauell came vp, and as soone as they were right in our sides, they shotte at vs as much ordinance as they could, thinking to haue layde vs presently aboord: whereupon we gaue them such a heate with both our sides, that they were both glad to fall asterne of vs, and so paused the space of two or three houres being a very small gale of winde. Then came vp the other fiue and shot all at vs, and so fell all asterne of vs, and then went to counsell together. Then our small barke named the George came to vs, and wee confered together a great space. And as the Portugall shippes and Carauels were comming to vs againe, our barke minding to fall asteme of vs and so to come vp againe, fell quickly vpon the lee, and by reason of the litle winde, it was so long before she could fill her sailes againe, that both the shippe and Carauels were came vp to vs, and she falling in among them made reasonable shift with them, but they got a head of her, so that she could not vs: then 5 of the Carauels followed her, but we saw she defended her selfe against them all. Then came the great shippe and the Carauell to vs, and fought with vs all that day with their ordinance. The May-floure our other consort being very good by the winde, tooke the benefite thereof and halde all that day close by the winde, but could not come neere vs. So when night againe was come, they gaue ouer their fight and followed vs all the night. In these many fights it could not otherwise be but needes some of our men must be slaine, (as they were indeede) and diuers hurt, and our tackle much spoyled: yet for all this we did our best indeuour to repaire all things, and to stand to it to the death with our assured trust in the mercie and helpe of God. This night the May-floure came vp to vs, and our Captaine tolde them his harmes and spoyles, and wished them if they could spare halfe a dosen fresh men to hoyse out their boate and sende them to him, but they could not spare any, and so bare away againe. Which when our enemies sawe in the next morning that we were one from another, they came vp to vs againe and gaue vs a great fight with much hallowing and hooping, making accompt either to boorde vs or els to sinke vs: but although our companie was but small, yet least they should see vs any whit dismayed, when they hallowed we hallowed also as fast as they, and waued to them to come and boorde vs if they durst, but that they would not, seeing vs still so couragious: [Sidenote: The 7 Portugals depart with shame from one English ship.] and hauing giuen vs that day foure fights, at night they forsooke vs with shame, as they came to vs at the first with pride. They had made in our ship some leakes with their shot which we againe stopped with al speed, and that being done, we tooke some rest after our long labour and trouble. The next day in the morning the May-floure came to vs, and brought vs sixe men in her boate which did vs much pleasure, and we sent to them some of our hurt men. Then we directed our course for our owne countrey, and by the second day of Iune we were neere to our owne coast and sounded being thwart the Lyzard. The third day we had sight of a shippe which was a Portugall, who bare with vs, and at his comming to vs (the weather being calme) our Captaine caused him to hoyse foorth his boate to come aboord to speake with him, and at their comming our Captaine and Marchants demanded of them what ware they had, and whether they were bound, and they made answere that their lading was sugar and cotton. Then our Captaine and Marchants shewed them fiue Negroes that we had, and asked them whither they would buy them, which they were very desirous to doe, and agreed to giue for them 40 chests of sugar, which chests were small hauiug not aboue 26 loaues in a piece: so they with their boate did fetch fiue of the chestes and deliuered them and went for more, and when they had laden their boate and were come againe, we might see bearing with vs a great ship and a small, which our Captaine supposed to be men of warre or Rouers, [Marginal Note: A Portugall ship (notwithstanding all their villanies) defended by our men from Rouers.] and then willed the Portugales to carie their sugar to their ship againe, purposing to make our selues readie for our defence. But the Portugales earnestly intreated our Captaine not so to forsake them, and promised him (if he would safegard them) to giue him aboue the bargain ten chests of sugar: whereupon our Captaine was content, and the Portugall not being good of sayle, we spared our topsayles for her; so at last the foresaid ship bare with vs, and (seeing that we did not feare them) gaue vs ouer. And the next morning came two others bearing with vs, and seeing vs not about to flie a iot from them forsooke vs also. The 5 day of Iune we had sight of the Stert, and about noone we were thwart of the bay of Lime, and so sounded and had 35 fadom water. The sixt day we came in at the Needles and so came to an anker vnder the Isle of Wight at a place called Meadhole, and from thence sayled to Southampton where we made an ende of this voyage. * * * * * The Ambassage of M. Edmund Hogan, one of the sworne Esquires of her Maiesties person, from her Highnesse to Mully Abdelmelech Emperour of Marocco, and king of Fes and Sus: in the yeere 1577, written by himselfe. I Edmund Hogan being appointed Ambassadour from the Queenes Maiestie to the aboue named Emperour and King Mully Abdelmelech, departed with my company and seruants from London the two and twentie day of April 1577, being imbarked in the good ship called the Gallion of London, and arriued in Azafi a port of Barbarie the one and twentie day of May next following. Immediatly I sent Leonell Edgerton a shoare with my letters directed to Iohn Williams and Iohn Bampton, who dispatched a Trottero to Marocco to knowe the kings pleasure for my repaire to the Court, which letters came to their hands on the Thursday night. They with all speede gaue the king understanding of it, who being glad thereof speeded the next day certaine Captaines with souldiers and tents, with other prouision to Azafi, so that vpon Whitsunday at night the said Captaines with Iohn Bambton, Robert Washborne, and Robert Lion, and the kings officers came late to Azafi. In the meane time I remained a boord, and caused some of the goods to be discharged for lightning of the shippe, and I wrote in my letter that I would not lande, till I knewe the Kings pleasure. The 22 day being Saturday, the Make-speede arriued in the roade about two of the clocke in the afternoone. The 27 day, being Whitsunday, came aboord the Gallion Iohn Bampton, and others, giuing me to vnderstande how much the King reioyced of my safe arriuall, comming from the Queenes Maiestie, and how that for my safe conduct to the Court he had sent foure Captaines and an hundred souldiers well appointed, with a horse furnished which he vsed himselfe to ride on with all other furniture accordingly: they wished mee also to come on lande in the best order I could, as well for my selfe as my men, which I did, hauing to the number of tenne men, whereof three were trumpetters. The ships being foure appointed themselues in the best order they could for the best shew, and shot off all their ordinance to the value of twentie Markes in powder. At my comming a shoare, I found all the souldiers well appointed on horsebacke, the Captaines and the Gouernour of the towne standing as neere the water side as they could, with a Iennet of the kings, and receiued mee from the boate declaring how glad his maiestie was of my safe arriuall, comming from the Queenes Maiestie my Mistresse, and that hee had sent them to attend vpon me, it being his pleasure that I should tarie there on shore fiue or sixe dayes for my refreshing. So being mounted vpon the Iennet, they conducted mee through the Towne into a faire fielde vpon the Sea-side where was a tent prouided for mee, and all the ground spread with Turkie carpets, and the Castle discharged a peale of ordinance, and all things necessarie were brought into my tent, where I both tooke my table and lodging, and had other conuenient tents for my seruants. The souldiers enuironed the tents, and watched about vs day and night as long as I lay there, although I sought my speedier dispatch. On the Wednesday towards night, I tooke my horse and traueiled ten miles to the first place of water that we could finde, [Marginal Note: In Barbarie they haue no Innes but they lodge in open fieldes where they can find water.] and there pitched our tents till the next morning, and so traueiled till ten of the clocke, and then pitched our tents till foure, and so traueiled as long as day light would suffer about 26 miles that day. The next day being Friday I traueiled in like order but eight and twentie miles at the most, and by a Riuer being about sixe miles within sight of the Citie of Marocco we pitched our tents. [Sidenote: The singular humanitie of the king to our Ambassadour.] Immediatly after came all our English marchants, and the French on horsebacke to meete me, and before night there came an Alcayde from the king with fiftie men, and diuers mules laden with victuall and banket, for my supper, declaring vnto me how glad the king shewed himselfe to heare of the Queenes Maiestie, and that his pleasere was I should be receiued into his country as neuer any Christian the like: and desired to knowe what time the next day I would come into his citie, because he would that all the Christians as also his nobilitie should meete me, and willed Iohn Bampton to be with him early in the morning, which he did. About seuen of the clocke being accompanied with the French and English marchants, and a great number of souldiers, I passed towards the citie, and by that time I had traueiled 2 miles, there met me all the Christians of the Spaniards and Portugals to receiue me, which I knowe was more by the kings commandement then of any good wils of themselues: for some of them although they speake me faire hung downe their heads like dogs, and especially the Portugales, and I countenanced them accordingly. [Marginal Note: The Spaniards and Portugales were commanded by the king in paine of death, to meete the English Ambassadour.] So I passed on till I came within two English miles of the Citie, and then Iohn Bampton returned, shewing me that the king was so glad of my comming, that hee could not deuise to doe too much, to shewe the good will that hee did owe to the Queenes Maiestie, and her Realme. His counsellors met me without the gates, and at the entrie of the gates, his footmen and guard were placed on both sides of my horse, and so brought me to the kings palace. The king sate in his chaire with his Counsell about him, as well the Moores as the Elchies, and according to his order giuen vnto me before, I there declared my message in Spanish, and made deliuerie of the Queenes Maiesties letters, and all that I spake at that present in Spanish, hee caused one of his Elchies to declare the same to the Moores present, in the Larbe tongue. Which done, he answered me againe in Spanish, yeelding to the Queenes Maiestie great thankes, and offering himselfe and his countrey to bee at her Graces commaundement, and then commaunded certaine of his Counsellers to conduct mee to my lodging, not being farre from the Court. The house was faire after the fashion of that countrey, being daily well furnished with al kind of victuall at the kings charge. The same night he sent for mee to the Court, and I had conference with him about the space of two houres, where I throughly declared the charge committed vnto mee from her Maiestie, finding him conformable, willing to pleasure and not to vrge her Maiestie with any demaundes, more then conueniently shee might willingly consent vnto, hee knowing that out of his countrey the Realme of England might be better serued with lackes, then bee in comparison from vs. [Sidenote: The king of Spaine sought to disgrace the Queene and her Ambassadour.] Further he gaue me to vnderstand, that the king of Spaine had sent vnto him for a licence, that an Ambassadour of his might come into his countrey, and had made great meanes that if the Queenes maiesty of England sent any vnto him, that he would not giue him any credit or intertainment, albeit (said he) I know what the king of Spaine is, and what the Queene of England and her Realme is: for I neither like of him nor of his religion, being so gouerned by the Inquisition that he can doe nothing of himselfe. Therefore when he commeth vpon the licence which I haue granted, he shall well see how litle account I will make of him and Spaine, and how greatly will extoll you for the Queenes maiestie of England. He shall not come to my presence as you haue done, and shall dayly: for I minde to accept of you as my companion and one of my house, whereas he shall attend twentie dayes after he hath done his message. After the end of this speech I deliuered Sir Thomas Greshams letters, when as he tooke me by the hand, and led me downe a long court to a palace where there ranne a faire fountaine of water, and there sitting himselfe in a chaire, he commanded me to sit downe in another, and there called for such simple Musicians as he had. [Sidenote: The king of Barbarie sent into England for Musicians.] Then I presented him with a great base Lute, which he most thankfully accepted, and then he was desirous to heare of the Musicians, and I tolde him that there was great care had to prouide them, and that I did not doubt but vpon my returne they should come with the first ship. He is willing to giue them good intertainment with prouision of victuall, and to let them liue according to their law and conscience wherein he vrgeth none to the contrary. I finde him to be one that liueth greatly in the feare of God, being well exercised in the Scriptures, as well in the olde Testament as also in the New, and he beareth a greater affection to our Nation then to others because of our religion, which forbiddeth worship of Idols, and the Moores called him the Christian king. [Sidenote: A rich gift bestowed upon our Ambassadour.] The same night being the first of Iune, I continued with him till twelue of the clocke, and he seemed to haue so good liking of me, that he tooke from his girdle a short dagger being set with 200 stones, rubies and turkies, and did bestow it vpon me, and so I being conducted returned to my lodging for that time. The next day because he knew it to be Sunday and our Sabbath day he did let me rest. But on the Munday in the afternoone he sent for me, and I had conference with him againe, and musicke. Likewise on the Tuesday by three of the clocke he sent for me into his garden, finding him layd vpon a silke bed complayning of a sore leg: yet after long conference he walked into another Orchard, where as hauing a faire banketting-house and a great water, and a new gallie in it, he went aboord the gallie and tooke me with him, and passed the space of two or three houres, shewing the great experience he had in Gallies, wherein (as he said) he had excercised himselfe eighteene yeeres in his youth. After supper he shewed me his horses and other commodities that he had about his house, and since that night I haue not seene him, for that he hath kept in with his sore legge, but he hath sent to me daily. The 13 of Iune at sixe of the clocke at night I had againe audience of the king, and I continued with him till midnight, hauing debated as well for the Queenes commission as for the well dealing, with her marchants for their traffike here in these parts, saying, he would do much more for the Queenes maiesty and the Realme offering that all English ships with her subiects may with good securitie enter into his ports and dominions as well in trade of marchandise, as for victuall and water, as also in time of warre with any her enemies to bring in prises and to make sales, as occasion should serue, or else to depart againe with them at their pleasure. Likewise for all English ships that shall passe along his coast of Barbarie, and thorow the straites into the Leuant seas, that he would graunt safe conduct that the said ships and marchants with their goods might passe into the Leuant seas, and so to the Turks dominions, and the king of Argiers, as his owne, and that he would write to the Turke and to the king of Argier his letters for the well vsing of our ships and goods. Also that hereafter no Englishmen that by any meanes be taken captiues, shall be solde within any of his dominions: whereupon I declared that the Queenes maiesty accepting of these his offers was pleased to confirme the intercourse and trade of our marchants within this his countrey, as also to pleasure him with such commodities as he should haue need of, to furnish the necessities and wants of his countrey in trade of marchandise, so as he required nothing contrarie to her honour and law, and the breach of league with the Christian princes her neighbours. [Sidenote: A good prouiso.] The same night I presented the king with the case of combes, and desired his maiestie to haue special regard that the ships might be laden backe againe, for that I found litle store of saltpeter in readinesse in Iohn Bamptons hands. He answered me that I should haue all the assistance therein that he could, but that in Sus he thought to haue some store in his house there, as also that the Mountayners had made much in a readinesse: I requested that he would send downe, which he promised to doe. The eighteene day I was with him againe and so continued there till night, and he shewed me his house with pastime in ducking with water-Spaniels, and baiting buls with his English dogges. At this time I moued him againe for the sending downe to Sus, which he granted to doe, and the 24. day there departed Alcayde Mammie, with Lionell Edgerton, and Rowland Guy to Sus, and caried with them for our accompts and his company the kings letters to his brother Muly Hammet, and Alcayde Shauan, and the Viceroy. The 23. day the king sent me out of Marocco to his garden called Shersbonare, with his gard, and Alcayde Mamoute, and the 24. at night I came to the court to see a Morris dance, and a play of his Elchies. He promised me audience the next day being Tuesday, but he put it off till Thursday: and the Thursday at night I was sent for to the king after supper, and then he sent Alcayde Rodwan, and Alcayde Gowry to conferre with me, but after a little talke I desired to be brought to the King for my dispatch. And being brought to him, I preferred two bils of Iohn Bamptons which he had made for prouision of Salt-peter: also two bils for the quiet traffique of our English marchants, and bils for sugars to be made by the Iewes, as well for the debts past, as hereafter, and for good order in the Ingenios. Also I mooued him againe for the Salt-peter, and other dispatches, which he referred to be agreed vpon by the two Alcaydes. But the Friday being the 20. the Alcaydes could not intend it, and vpon Saturday Alcayde Rodwan fell sicke, so on Sunday we made meanes to the King, and that afternoone I was sent for to conferre vpon the bargaine with the Alcaydes and others, but did not agree. Vpon Tuesday I wrote a letter to the King for my dispatch, and the same afternoone I was called againe to the Court, and referred all things to the King, accepting his offer of Salt-peter. That night againe the King had me into his Gallie, and the Spaniels did hunt the ducke. The Thursday I was appointed to way the 300. kintals grosse of Salt-peter, and that afternoone the Tabybe came vnto mee to my lodging, shewing mee that the king was offended with Iohn Bampton for diuers causes. The Sunday night late being the 7. of Iuly, I got the King to forgiue all to Iohn Bampton, and the King promised me to speake againe with me vpon Munday. Vpon Tuesday I wrote to him againe for my dispatch, and then hee sent Fray Lewes to mee, and said that he had order to write. Vpon Wednesday I wrote againe, and he sent me word that vpon Thursday I should come and be dispatched, so that I should depart vpon Friday without faile, being the twelfth of Iuly. [Sidenote: The Emperor of Maroco his priuileges to the English.] So the Friday after according to the kings order and appointment I went to the court, and whereas motion and petition was made for the confirmation of the demaunds which I had preferred, they were all granted, and likewise the priuileges which were on the behalfe of our English marchants requested, were with great fauour and readinesse yeelded vnto. And whereas the Iews there resident were to our men in certaine round summes indebted, the Emperors pleasure and commandement was, that they should without further excuse or delay, pay and discharge the same. And thus at length I was dismissed with great honour and speciall countenance, such as hath not ordinarily bene shewed to other Ambassadors of the Christians. And touching the priuate affaires intreated vpon betwixt her Maiestie and the Emperour, I had letters from him to satisfie her highnesse therein. So to conclude, hauing receiued the like honourable conduct from his Court, as I had for my part at my first landing, I embarked my selfe with my foresaid company, and arriuing not long after in England, I repaired to her Maiesties court, and ended my Ambassage to her highnesse good liking, with relation of my seruice performed. * * * * * The voyage of Thomas Stukeley, wrongfully called Marques of Ireland, into Barbary 1578. Written by Iohannes Thomas Freigius in Historia de cæde Sebastiani Regis Lusitaniæ. Venerant autem ad regem etiam sexcenti Itali, quos Papa subministrarat, Comiti Irlandiæ: qui cum Vlissiponem tribus instructis nauibus appulisset Regi operam suam condixit, eumque in bellum sequi promisit. Cap. 7. Totum exercitum diuisit in quatuor acies quadratas: In dextro latere primum agmen erat Velitum et militum Tingitanorum, eosque ducebat Aluarus Peresius de Tauara: sinistram aciem seu mediam tenebant Germani et Ital, quibus imperabat Marchio Irlandiæ, etc. Cap 11. Inter nobiles qui in hoc prælio ceciderunt, fuerunt, præter regem Sebastianum, dux de Auero, Episcopi Conimbricensis et Portuensis, Commissarius generalis à Papa missus Marchio Irlandiæ, Christophorus de Tauora, et plures alij. Cap. 13. The same in English. There came also to Don Sebastian the King of Portugal 600. Italians, whom the Pope sent vnder the conduct of the Marques of Irland: [Marginal note: Thomas Stukeley was wrongfully indued with this title.] who being arriued at Lisbone with three tall ships, proffered his seruice to the king, and promised to attend vpon him in the warres, &c. He diuided the whole Armie into 4 squadrons: vpon the right wing stood the first squadron, consisting of men lightly armed or skirmishers and of the souldiers of Tangier, Generall of whom was Don Aluaro Perez de Tauara: the left or midle squadron consisted of Germanes and Italians, vnder the command of the Marques of Irland, &c. cap. 7. Of Noblemen were slaine in this battel (besides Don Sebastian the king) the duke de Auero, the two bishops of Coimbra and of Porto, the Marques of Irland sent by the Pope as his Commissary generall, Christopher de Tauara, and many others, cap. 13. It is further also to be remembred, that diuers other English gentlemen were in this battell, whereof the most part were slaine; and among others M. Christopher Lyster was taken captiue, and was there long detained in miserable seruitude. Which gentleman although at length he happily escaped the cruel hands of the Moores; yet returning home into England, and for his manifold good parts being in the yeere 1586. employed by the honourable the Earle of Cumberland, in a voyage intended by the Streights of Magellan for the South sea, as Viceadmirall, (wherein he shewed singular resolution and courage) and appointed afterward in diuers places of speciall command and credite, was last of all miserably drowned in a great and rich Spanish prize vpon the coast of Cornwall. * * * * * Certaine reports of the prouince of China learned through the Portugals there imprisoned, and chiefly by the relation of Galeotto Perera, a gentleman of good credit, that lay prisoner in that Countrey many yeeres. Done out of Italian into English by Richard Willes. This land of China is parted into 13. Shires, the which sometimes were ech one a kingdome by it selfe, but these many yeeres they haue bene all subiect vnto one King. Fuquien is made by the Portugals the first Shire, because there their troubles began, and they had occasion thereby to know the rest. In the shire be 8 cities, but one principally more famous then others called Fuquieo, the other seuen are reasonably great, the best knowen whereof vnto the Portugals is Cinceo, in respect of a certaine hauen ioyning thereunto, whither in time past they were wont for marchandise. Cantan is the second shire, not so great in quantitie, as well accompted of, both by the king thereof, and also by the Portugals, for that it lieth neerer vnto Malacca then any other part of China, and was first discried by the Portugals before any other shire in that prouince: this shire hath in it seuen Cities. Chequeam is the third shire, the chiefest Citie therein is Donchion, therein also standeth Liampo, with other 13. or 14. boroughes: countrey townes therein are too too many to be spoken of. The fourth shire is called Xutiamfu, the principall Citie thereof is great Pachin, where the King is alwayes resident. In it are fifteene other very great Cities: of other townes therein, and boroughes well walled and trenched about, I will say nothing. The fift shire hath name Chelim: the great Citie Nanquin chiefe of other fifteene cities was herein of ancient time the royall seat of the Chinish kings. From this shire, and from the aforesaid Chequeam forward bare rule the other kings, vntil the whole region became one kingdome. [Sidenote: Quianci, or, Quinzi.] The 6. shire beareth the name Quianci, as also the principal City thereof, wherein the fine clay to make vessels is wrought. The Portugals being ignorant of this Countrey, and finding great abundance of that fine clay to be solde at Liampo, and that very good cheape, thought at the first that it had bene made there, howbeit in fine they perceiued that the standing of Quinzi more neere vnto Liampo then to Cinceo or Cantan was the cause of so much fine clay at Liampo: within the compasse of Quinci shire be other 12. cities. The 7. shire is Quicin, the 8. Quansi, the 9. Confu, the 10. Vrnan, the 11. Sichiua. In the first hereof there be 16. Cities, in the next 15: how many Townes the other 3. haue, wee are ignorant as yet, as also of the proper names of the 12. and 13. shires, and the townes therein. This finally may be generally said hereof, that the greater shires in China prouince may bee compared with mightie kingdomes. In eche one of these shires bee set Ponchiassini and Anchiassini, before whom are handled the matters of other Cities. There is also placed in ech one a Tutan, as you would say, a gouernour, and a Chian, that is a visiter, as it were: whose office is to goe in circuit, and to see iustice exactly done. By these meanes so vprightly things are ordered there, that it may be worthily accompted one of the best gouerned prouinces in all the world. The king maketh alwayes his abode in the great city Pachin, as much to say in our language, as by the name thereof I am aduertised, the towne of the kingdome. This kingdome is so large, that vnder fiue moneths you are not able to trauaile from the Townes by the Sea side to the Court, and backe againe, no not vnder three moneths in poste at your vrgent businesse. The post-horses in this Countrey are litle of body, but swift of foote. Many doe traueile the greater part of this iourney by water in certaine light barkes, for the multitude of Riuers commodious for passage from one Citie to another. The king, notwithstanding the hugenesse of his kingdome, hath such a care thereof, that euery Moone (for by the Moones they reckon their monethes) hee is aduertised fully of whatsoeuer thing happeneth therein, by these meanes following. The whole prouince being diuided into shires, and each shire hauing in it one chiefe and principall Citie, whereunto the matters of all the other Cities, Townes and boroughes, are brought, there are drawen in euery chiefe Citie aforesaid intelligences of such things as doe monethly fall out, and be sent in writing to the Court. If happely in one moneth euery Post be not able to goe so long a way, yet doeth there notwithstanding once euery moneth arriue one Poste out of the shire. Who so commeth before the new moone stayeth for the deliuery of his letters vntil the moone be changed. Then likewise are dispatched other Posts backe into all the 13. shires againe. Before that we doe come to Cinceo wee haue to passe through many places, and some of great importance. For this Countrey is so well inhabited neere the Sea side, that you cannot goe one mile but you shall see some Towne, borough or hostry, the which are so aboundantly prouided of all things, that in the Cities and townes they liue ciuily. Neuertheles such as dwel abrode are very poore, for the multitude of them euery where is so great, that out of a tree you shall see many times swarme a number of children, where a man would not haue thought to haue found any one at all. From these places in number infinite, you shall come vnto wo Cities very populous, and, being compared with Cinceo, not possibly to be discerned which is the greater of them. These Cities are as well walled as any Cities in all the world. As you come into either of them, there standeth so great and mighty a bridge, that the like thereof I haue neuer seene in Portugal nor else where. I heard one of my fellowes say, that hee tolde in one bridge 40. arches. The occasion wherefore these bridges are made so great is, for that the Countrey is toward the sea very plaine and low, and ouerflowed euer as the sea water encreaseth. The breadth of the bridges, although it bee well proportioned vnto the length thereof, yet are they equally built no higher in the middle then at either ende, in such wise that you may see directly from the one ende to the other: the sides are wonderfully well engraued after the maner of Rome-workes. But that we did most marueile at was therewithall the hugenesse of the stones, the like whereof, as we came into the Citie, we did see many set vp in places dis-habited by the way, to no small charges of theirs, howbeit to little purpose, whereas no body seeth them but such as doe come by. The arches are not made after our fashion, vauted with sundry stones set together: but paued, as it were, whole stones reaching from one piller to an other, in such wise that they lye both for the arches heads, and galantly serue also for the highway. I haue bene astonied to beholde the hugenesse of the aforesaid stones: some of them are xii. pases long and vpward, the least ii. good pases long, and an halfe. The wayes echwhere are galantly paued with fouresquare stone, except it be where for want of stone they vse to lay bricke: in this voyage wee trauailed ouer certaine hilles, where the wayes were pitched, and in many places no worse paued then in the plaine ground. This causes vs to thinke, that in all the world there bee no better workemen for buildings, then the inhabitants of China. The Countrey is so well inhabited, that no one foote of ground is left vntilled: small store of cattell haue we seene this day, we sawe onely certaine oxen wherewithall the countrey, men do plow their ground. One oxe draweth the plough alone not onely in this shire, but in other places also, wherein is greater store of cattell. These countreymen by arte do that in tillage, which we are constrained to doe by force. Here be solde the voydings of close stooles, although there wanteth not the dung of beastes: and the excrements of man are good marchandise throughout all China. The dungfermers seek in euery streete by exchange to buy this dirtie ware for herbs and wood. The custome is very good for keeping the Citie cleane. There is great aboundance of hennes, geese, duckes, swine, and goates, wethers haue they none: the hennes are solde by weight, and so are all other things. Two pound of hennes flesh, geese, or ducke, is worth two foi of their money, that is, d. ob. sterling. Swines flesh is sold at a penie the pound. Beefe beareth the same price, for the scarcitie thereof, howbeit Northward from Fuquieo and farther off from the seacoast, there is beefe more plentie and solde better cheape; We haue had in all the Cities we passed through, great abundance of all these victuals, beefe onely excepted. And if this Countrey were like vnto India, the inhabitants whereof eate neither henne, beefe, nor porke, but keepe that onely for the Portugals and Moores, they would be sold here for nothing. But it so falling out, that the Chineans are the greatest eaters in all the world, they do feed vpon all things, specially on porke, which, the fatter it is, is vnto them the lesse lothsome. The highest price of these things aforesaid I haue set downe, better cheap shal you sometimes buy them for the great plentie thereof in this countrey. Frogs are solde at the same price that is made of hennes, and are good meate amongst them, as also dogs, cats, rats, snakes, and all other vncleane meates. The Cities be very gallant, specially neere vnto the gates, the which are marueilously great, and couered with iron. The gate houses are built on high with towers, and the lower part thereof is made of bricke and stone, proportionally with the walls, from the walles vpward the building is of timber, and many stories in it one aboue the other. The strength of their townes is in the mightie walles and ditches, artillerie haue they none. The streetes in Cinceo, and in all the rest of the Cities we haue seene are very faire, so large and so straight, that it is wonderfull to behold. Their houses are built with timber, the foundations onely excepted, the which are layed with stone: in ech side of the streetes are pentises or continuall porches for the marchants to walke vnder: the breadth of the streets is neuertheless such, that in them 15. men may ride commodiously side by side. As they ride they must needs passe vnder many high arches of triumph that crosse ouer the streetes made of timber, and carued diuersly, couered with tiles of fine clay: vnder these arches the Mercers do vtter their smaller wares, and such as list to stand there are defended from raine and the heate of the Sunne. The greater gentlemen haue these arches at their doores: although some of them be not so mightily built as the rest. I shall haue occasion to speake of a certaine order of gentlemen that are called Louteas. I wil first therefore expound what this word signifieth. Loutea is as much to say in our language as Sir, and when any of them calleth his name, he answereth Sir: and as we do say, that the king hath made some gentlemen, so say they, that there is made a Loutea. And for that amongst them the degrees are diuers both in name and office, I will tell you onely of some principals, being not able to aduertise you of all. The maner how gentlemen are created Louteas, and do come to that honour and title, is by the giuing of a broad girdle, not like to the rest, and a cap, at the commaundement of the king. The name Loutea is more generall and common vnto mo, then the qualitie of honour thereby signified agreeth withall. Such Louteas as doe serue their prince in weightie matters for iustice, are created after trial made of their learning: but the other which serue in smaller affaires, as Captaines, constables, sergeants by land and sea, receiuers and such like, whereof there be in euery citie, as also in this, very many, are made for fauour: the chiefe Louteas are serued kneeling. The whole prouince of China is diuided, as I haue said, into 13. shires, in euery shire at the least is one gouernour called there Tutan, in some shires there be two. [Sidenote: Chian, or, Chaen.] Chiefe in office next vnto them be certaine other named Chians, that is, high Commissioners as you would say, visiters, with full authoritie in such wise, that they doe call vnto an accompt the Tutans themselues, but their authoritie lasteth not in any shire longer then one yere. Neuerthelesse in euery shire being at the least 7. cities, yea, in some of them 15. or 16. beside other boroughes and townes not well to be numbred, these visiters where they come are so honoured and feared, as though they were some great princes. At the yeres end, their circuit done, they come vnto that Citie which is chiefe of others in the shire, to do iustice there: finally busying themselues in the searching out of such as are to receiue the order of Louteas, whereof more shalbe said in another place. Ouer and beside these officers, in the chiefe Citie of ech one of these aforesaid 13. prouinces, is resident one Ponchiassi, Captaine thereof, and treasurer of all the kings reuenues. This Magistrate maketh his abode in one of the foure greatest houses that be in all these head Cities. And although the principall part of his function be to be Captaine, to be treasourer of the reuenues in that prouince, and to send these reuenues at appointed times to the Court: yet hath he notwithstanding by his office also to meddle with matters appertaining vnto iustice. [Sidenote: Anchiassi, or Hexasi.] In the second great house dwelleth an other Magistrate called Anchiassi, a great officer also, for he hath dealings in all matters of iustice. Who although he be somewhat inferior in dignitie vnto the Ponchiassi, yet for his great dealings and generall charge of iustice, whosoeuer seeth the affaires of the one house and the other might iudge this Anchiassi to be the greater. Tuzi, an other officer so called, lieth in the thirde house, a magistrate of importance, specially in things belonging vnto warfare, for thereof hath he charge. There is resident in the 4 house a fourth officer, bearing name Taissu. In this house is the principall prison of all the Citie. Ech one of these Magistrates aforesaide may both lay euill doers in prison, and deliuer them out againe, except the fact be heinous and of importance: in such a case they can do nothing, except they do meet al together. And if the deed deserueth death, all they together cannot determine thereof, without recourse made vnto the Chian wheresoeuer hee be, or to the Tutan; and eft soones it falleth put, that the case is referred vnto higher power. In all Cities, not onely chiefe in ech shire, but in the rest also, are meanes found to make Louteas. Many of them do study at the prince his charges, wherefore at the yeeres ende they resort vnto the head Cities, whither the Chians doe come, as it hath bene earst aside, as well to giue these degrees, as to sit in iudgement ouer the prisoners. The Chians go in circuit euery yeere, but such as are to be chosen to the greatest offices meete not but from three yeeres to three yeeres, and that in certaine large halles appointed for them to be examined in. Many things are asked them, whereunto if they doe answere accordingly, and be found sufficient to take their degree, the Chian by and by granteth it them: but the Cap and girdle, whereby they are knowen to be Louteas, they weare not before that they be confirmed by the king. Their examination done, and triall made of them, such as haue taken their degree wont to be giuen them with all ceremonies, vse to banquet and feast many dayes together (as the Chineans fashion is to ende all their pleasures with eating and drinking) and so remaine chosen to do the king seruice in matters of learning. The other examinates founde insufficient to proceed are sent backe to their studie againe. Whose ignorance is perceiued to come of negligence and default, such a one is whipped, and sometimes sent to prison, where lying that yere when this kinde of acte was, we found many thus punished, and demaunding the cause thereof, they saide it was for that they knew not how to answere vnto certaine things asked them. It is a world to see how these Louteas are serued and feared, in such wise, that in publike assemblies at one shrike they giue, all the seruitors belonging vnto iustice tremble thereat. At their being in these places, when they list to mooue, be it but euen to the gate, these seruitors doe take them vp, and carry them in seates of beaten gold. After this sort are they borne when they goe in the City, either for their owne businesse abroade, or to see ech other at home. For the dignitie they haue, and office they doe beare, they be all accompanied: the very meanest of them all that goeth in these seates is vshered by two men at the least, that cry vnto the people to giue place, howbeit they neede it not, for that reuerence the common people haue vnto them. They haue also in their company certaine Sergeants with their maces either siluered or altogether siluer, some two, some foure, other sixe, other eight, conueniently for ech one his degree. The more principal and chiefe Louteas haue going orderly before these Sergeants, many other with staues, and a great many catchpoules with rods of Indish canes dragged on the ground, so that the streets being paued, you may heare affarre off as well the noyse of the rods, as the voyce of the criers. These fellowes serue also to apprehend others, and the better to be knowen they weare liuery red girdles, and in their caps peacocks feathers. Behinde these Louteas come such as doe beare certaine tables hanged at staues endes, wherein is written in siluer letters, the name, degree, and office of that Loutea, whom they follow. In like maner they haue borne after them hattes agreeable vnto their titles: if the Loutea be meane, then hath he brought after him but one hat, and that may not be yealowe: but if he be of the better sort, then may he haue two, three, or foure: the principall and chiefe Louteas may haue all their hats yealow, the which among them is accompted great honour. The Loutea for warres, although he be but meane, may notwithstanding haue yealow hats. The Tutans and Chians, when they goe abroad, haue besides all this before them ledde three or foure horses with their guard in armour. Furthermore the Louteas, yea and all the people of China, are wont to eate their meate sitting on stooles at high tables as we doe, and that very cleanely, although they vse neither tableclothes nor napkins. Whatsoeuer is set downe vpon the boord is first carued before that it be brought in: they feede with two sticks, refraining from touching their meate with their hands, euen as we do with forkes: for the which respect they lesse do need any table clothes. Ne is the nation only ciuill at meate, but also in conuersation, and in courtesie they seeme to exceede all other. Likewise in their dealings after their maner they are so ready, that they farre passe all other Gentiles and Moores: the greater states are so vaine, that they line their clothes with the best silke that may be found. The Louteas are an idle generation, without all maner of exercises and pastimes, except it be eating and drinking. Sometimes they walke abroad in the fields to make the souldiers shoot at pricks with their bowes, but their eating passeth: they will stand eating euen when the other do draw to shoot. The pricke is a great blanket spread on certaine long poles, he that striketh it, hath of the best man there standing a piece of crimson Taffata, the which is knit about his head: in this sort the winners be honoured, and the Louteas with their bellies full returne home againe. The inhabitants of China be very great Idolaters, all generally doe worship the heauens: and, as wee are wont to say, God knoweth it: so say they at euery word, Tien Tautee, that is to say, The heauens doe know it. Some doe worship the Sonne, and some the Moone, as they thinke good, for none are bound more to one then to another. [Sidenote: After the Dutch fashion.] In their temples, the which they do call Meani, they haue a great altar in the same place as we haue, true it is that one may goe round about it There set they vp the image of a certaine Loutea of that countrey, whom they haue in great reuerence for certaine notable things he did. At the right hand standeth the diuel much more vgly painted then we doe vse to set him out, whereunto great homage is done by such as come into the temple to aske counsell, or to draw lottes: this opinion they haue of him, that he is malicious and able to do euil. If you aske them what they do thinke of the souls departed, they will answere that they be immortall, and that as soone as any one departeth out of this life, he becommeth a diuel if he haue liued well in this world, if otherwise, that the same diuel changeth him into a bufle, oxe, or dogge. [Marginal note: Pythagorean like.] Wherefore to this diuel they doe much honour, to him doe they sacrifice, praying him that he will make them like vnto himselfe, and not like other beastes. They haue moreouer another sort of temples, wherein both vpon the altars and also on the walls do stand many idols well proportioned, but bare headed; these beare name Omithofon, accompted of them spirits, but such as in heauen doe neither good nor euill, thought to be such men and women as haue chastly liued in this world in abstinence from fish and flesh, fed onely with rise and salates. Of that diuel they make some accompt: for these spirits they care litle or nothing at all. Againe they hold opinion that if a man do well in this life, the heauens will giue him many temporall blessings, but if he doe euil, then shall he haue infirmities, diseases, troubles, and penurie, and all this without any knowledge of God. Finally, this people knoweth no other thing then to liue and die, yet because they be reasonable creatures, all seemed good vnto them we speake in our language, though it were not very sufficient; our maner of praying especially pleased them, and truely they are well ynough disposed to receiue the knowledge of the trueth. Our Lord grant for his mercy all things so to be disposed, that it may sometime be brought to passe, that so great a nation as this is perish not for want of helpe. Our maner of praying so well liked them, that in prison importunately they besought vs to write for them somewhat as concerning heauen, the which we did to their contentation with such reasons as we knew, howbeit not very cunningly. As they do their idolatry they laugh at themselues. If at any time this countrey might be ioyned in league with the kingdome of Portugale, in such wise that free accesse were had to deale with the people there, they might all be soone conuerted. The greatest fault we doe finde in them is Sodomie, a vice very common in the meaner sort, and nothing strange among the best. This sinne were it left of them, in all other things so well disposed they be, that a good interpreter in a short space might do there great good: If, as I said, the countrey were ioyned in league with vs. Furthermore the Louteas, with all the people of China, are wont to solemnise the dayes of the new and full Moones in visiting one an other, and making great banquets: for to that end, as I earst said, do tend all their pastimes, and spending their dayes in pleasure. They are wont also to solemnise ech one his birth day, whereunto their kindred and friends do resort of custome with presents of iewels or money, receiuing againe for their reward good cheare. They keepe in like maner a generall feast with great banquets that day their king was borne. But their most principall and greatest feast of all, and best cheare, is the first day of new yeere, namely the first day of the new Moone of February, so that their first moneth is March, and they reckon the times accordingly, respect being had vnto the reigne of their princes: as when any deed is written, they date it thus, Made such a day of such a moone, and such a yeere of the reigne of such a king. And their ancient writings beare date of the yeeres of this or that king. Now will I speake of the maner which the Chineans doe obserue in doing of iustice, that it be knowen how farre these Gentiles do herein exceed many Christians, that be more bounden then they to deale iustly and in trueth. Because the Chinish king maketh his abode continually in the city of Pachin, his kingdome is so great, and the shires so many, as tofore it hath bene said: in it therefore the gouernours and rulers, much like vnto our Shireffs, be appointed so suddenly and speedily discharged againe, that they haue no time to grow naught. Furthermore to keepe the state in more securitie, the Louteas that gouerne one shire are chosen out of some other shire distant farre off, where they must leaue their wiues, children and goods, carying nothing with them but themselues. True it is, that at their comming thither they doe finde in a readinesse all things necessary, their house, furniture, seruants, and all other things in such perfection and plentie, that they want nothing. Thus the king is well serued without all feare of treason. In the principall Cities of the shires be foure chiefe Louteas, before whom are brought all matters of the inferiour Townes, throughout the whole Realme. Diuers other Louteas haue the managing of iustice, and receiuing of rents, bound to yeelde an accompt thereof vnto the greater officers. Other do see that there be no euil rule kept in the Citie: ech one as it behoueth him. [Sidenote: The Italians call it the strapado.] Generally all these doe imprison malefactors, cause them to be whipped and racked, hoysing them vp and downe by the armes with a cord, a thing very vsuall there, and accompted no shame. These Louteas do vse great diligence in the apprehending of theeues, so that it is a wonder to see a theefe escape away in any City, towne or village. Vpon the sea neere vnto the shoare many are taken, and looke euen as they are taken, so be they first whipped, and afterward layde in prison, where shortly after they all die for hunger and cold. At that time when we were in prison, there died of them aboue threescore and ten. If happely any one, hauing the meanes to get food, do escape, he is set with the condemned persons, and prouided for as they be by the King, in such wise as hereafter it shalbe said. Their whips be certaine pieces of canes, cleft in the middle, in such sort that they seeme rather plaine then sharpe. He that is to be whipped lieth groueling on the ground: vpon his thighes the hangman layeth on blowes mightily with these canes, that the standers by tremble at their crueltie. Ten stripes draw a great deale of blood, 20. or 30. spoile the flesh altogether, 50. or 60. will require long time to bee healed, and if they come to the number of one hundred, then are they incurable. The Louteas obserue moreouer this: when any man is brought before them to be examined, they aske him openly in the hearing of as many as be present, be the offence neuer so great. Thus did they also behaue themselues with vs: For this cause amongst them can here be no false witnesse, as daily amongst vs it falleth out. This good commeth thereof, that many being alwayes about the Iudge to heare the euidence, and beare witnesse, the processe cannot be falsified, as it happeneth sometimes with vs. The Moores, Gentiles, and Iewes haue all their sundry othes, the Moores do sweare by their Mossafos, the Brachmans by their Fili, the rest likewise by the things they do worship. The Chineans though they be wont to sweare by heauen, by the Moone, by the Sunne, and by all their Idoles, in iudgement neuertheless they sweare not at all. If for some offence an othe be vsed of any one, by and by with the least euidence he is tormented, so be the witnesses he bringeth, if they tell not the trueth, or do in any point disagree, except they be men of worship and credit, who are beleeued without any further matter: the rest are made to confesse the trueth by force of torments and whips. Besides this order obserued of them in examinations, they do feare so much their King, and he where he maketh his abode keepeth them so lowe, that they dare not once stirre. Againe, these Louteas as great as they be, notwithstanding the multitude of Notaries they haue, not trusting any others, do write all great processes and matters of importance themselues. Moreouer one vertue they haue worthy of great praise, and that is, being men so wel regarded and accompted as though they were princes, yet they be patient aboue measure in giuing audience. We poore strangers brought before them might say what we would, as all to be lyes and fallaces that they did write, ne did we stand before them with the usuall ceremonies of that Countrey, yet did they beare with vs so patiently, that they caused vs to wonder, knowing specially how litle any aduocate or Iudge is wont in our Countrey to beare with vs. For wheresoeuer in any Towne of Christendome should be accused vnknowen men as we were, I know not what end the very innocents cause would haue: but we in a heathen Countrey, hauing our great enemies two of the chiefest men in a whole Towne, wanting an interpreter, ignorant of that Countrey language, did in the end see our great aduersaries cast into prison for our sake, and depriued of their Offices and honour for not doing iustice, yea not to escape death: for, as the rumour goeth, they shalbe beheaded. Somewhat is now to be said of the lawes that I haue bene able to know in this Countrey, and first, no theft or murther is at any time pardoned: adulterers are put in prison, and the fact once prooued, are condemned to die, the womans husband must accuse them: this order is kept with men and women found in that fault, but theeues and murderers are imprisoned as I haue said, where they shortly die for hunger and cold. If any one happely escape by bribing the Gailer to giue him meate, his processe goeth further, and commeth to the Court where he is condemned to die. [Sidenote: A pillory boord.] Sentence being giuen, the prisoner is brought in publique with a terrible band of men that lay him in Irons hand and foot, with a boord at his necke one handfull broad, in length reaching downe to his knees, cleft in two parts, and with a hole one handfull downeward in the table fit for his necke, the which they inclose vp therein, nailing the boord fast together; one handfull of the boord standeth vp behinde in the necke: The sentence and cause wherefore the fellon was condemned to die, is written in that part of the table that standeth before. This ceremony ended, he is laid in a great prison in the company of some other condemned persons, the which are found by the king as long as they do liue. The bord aforesaid so made tormenteth the prisoners very much, keeping them both from rest, and eke letting them to eat commodiously, their hands being manacled in irons vnder that boord, so that in fine there is no remedy but death. In the chiefe Cities of euery shire, as we haue erst said, there be foure principall houses, in ech of them a prison: but in one of them, where the Taissu maketh his abode, there is a greater and a more principall prison then in any of the rest: and although in euery City there be many, neuerthelesse in three of them remaine onely such as be condemned to die. Their death is much prolonged, for that ordinarily there is no execution done but once a yeere, though many die for hunger and cold, as we haue seene in this prison. Execution is done in this maner. The Chian, to wit, the high Commissioner or Lord chiefe Iustice, at the yeres end goeth to the head City, where he heareth againe the causes of such as be condemned. Many times he deliuereth some of them, declaring that boord to haue bene wrongfully put about their necks: the visitation ended, he choseth out seuen or eight, not many more or lesse of the greatest malefactors, the which, to feare and keepe in awe the people, are brought into a great market place, where all the great Louteas meete together, and after many ceremonies and superstitions, as the vse of the Countrey is, are beheaded. This is done once a yeere: who so escapeth that day, may be sure that he shall not be put to death all that yeere following, and so remaineth at the kings charges in the greater prison. In that prison where we lay were alwayes one hundred and mo of these condemned persons, besides them that lay in other prisons. These prisons wherein the condemned caytifes do remaine are so strong, that it hath not bene heard, that any prisoner in all China hath escaped out of prison, for in deed it is a thing impossible. The prisons are thus builded. First all the place is mightily walled about, the walles be very strong and high, the gate of no lesse force: within it three other gates, before you come where the prisoners do lye, there many great lodgings are to be seene of the Louteas, Notaries, Parthions, that is, such as do there keepe watch and ward day and night, the court large and paued, on the one side whereof standeth a prison, with two mighty gates, wherein are kept such prisoners as haue committed enormious offences. This prison is so great, that in it are streets and Market places wherein all things necessary are sold. Yea some prisoners liue by that kind of trade, buying and selling, and letting out beds to hire: some are dayly sent to prison, some dayly deliuered, wherefore this place is neuer void of 7. or eight hundred men that go at libertie. Into one other prison of condemned persons shall you go at three yron gates, the court paued and vauted round about, and open aboue as it were a cloister. In this cloister be eight roomes with yron doores, and in ech of them a large gallerie, wherein euery night the prisoners do lie at length, their feet in the stocks, their bodies hampered in huge wooden grates that keep them from sitting, so that they lye as it were in a cage, sleepe if they can: in the morning they are losed againe, that they may go into the court. Notwithstanding the strength of this prison, it is kept with a garrison of men, part whereof watch within the house, part of them in the court, some keepe about the prison with lanterns and watch-bels answering one another fiue times euery night, and giuing warning so lowd, that the Loutea resting in a a chamber not neere thereunto, may heare them. In these prisons of condemned persons remaine some 15, other 20. yeres imprisoned, not executed, for the loue of their honorable friends that seeke to prolong their liues. Many of these prisoners be shoomakers, and haue from the king a certaine allowance of rise: some of them worke for the keeper, who suffreth them to go at libertie without fetters and boords, the better to worke. Howbeit when the Loutea called his checke roll, and with the keeper vieweth them, they all weare their liuerses, that is, boords at their necks, yronned hand and foot. When any of these prisoners dieth, he is to be seene of the Loutea and Notaries, brought out of a gate so narrow, that there can but one be drawen out there at once. The prisoners being brought forth, one of the aforesaid Parthions striketh him thrise on the head with an yron sledge, that done he is deliuered vnto his friends, if he haue any, otherwise the king hireth men to cary him to his buriall in the fields. Thus adulterers and theeues are vsed. Such as be imprisoned for debt once knowen, lie there vntill it be paied. [Sidenote: Of like the first lenders be the more wealthie.] The Taissu or Loutea calleth them many times before him by the vertue of his office, who vnderstanding the cause wherefore they do not pay their debts, appointeth them a certaine time to do it, within the compasse whereof if they discharge not their debts being debtors in deed, then they be whipped and condemned to perpetuall imprisonment: if the creditors be many, and one is to be paied before another, they do, contrary to our maner, pay him first of whom they last borrowed, and so ordinarily the rest, in such sort that the first lender be the last receiuer. The same order is kept in paying legacies: the last named receiueth his portion first. They accompt it nothing to shew fauour to such a one as can do the like againe: but to do good to them that haue litle or nothing, that is worth thanks, therefore pay they the last before the first, for that their intent seemeth rather to be vertuous then gainefull. When I said, that such as be committed to prison for theft and murther were iudged by the Court, I ment not them that were apprehended in the deed doing, for they need no triall, but are brought immediatly before the Tutan, who out of hand giueth sentence. Others not taken so openly, which do need trial, are the malefactors put to execution once a yere in the chiefe cities, to keepe in awe the people: or condemned, do remaine in prison, looking for their day. Theeues being taken are caried to prison from one place to another in a chest vpon mens shoulders, hired therefore by the king, the chest is 6. handfuls high, the prisoner sitteth therein vpon a bench, the couer of the chest is two boords, amid them both a pillery-like hole, for the prisoners necke, there sitteth he with his head without the chest, and the rest of his body within, not able to mooue or turne his head this way or that way, nor to plucke it in; the necessities of nature he voydeth at a hole in the bottome of a chest, the meate he eateth is put into his mouth by others. There abideth he day and night during his whole iourney: if happily his porters stumble, or the chest do iogge or be set down carelessly, it turneth to his great paines that sitteth therein, al such motions being vnto him hanging as it were. Thus were our companions carried from Cinceo, 7. dayes iourney, neuer taking any rest as afterward they told vs, and their greatest griefe was to stay by the way: as soone as they came, being taken out of the chests, they were not able to stand on their feet, and two of them died shortly after. When we lay in prison at Fuquieo, we came many times abroad, and were brought to the pallaces of noble men, to be seene of them and their wiues, for that they had neuer seene any Portugale before. Many things they asked vs of our Countrey, and our fashions, and did write euery thing, for they be curious in nouelties aboue measure. The gentlemen shew great curtesie vnto strangers, and so did we finde at their hands, and because that many times we were brought abroad into the City, somewhat wil I say of such things as I did see therein, being a gallant City, and chiefe in one of the 13. shires aforesaid. The City Fuquieo is very great, and mightily walled with square stone both within and without, and, as it may seeme by the breadth thereof, filled vp in the middle with earth, layd ouer with brick and couered with tyle, after the maner of porches or galleries, that one might dwel therein. The staires they vse are so easily made, that one may go them vp and downe a horse-backe, as eftsoones they do: the streets are paued, as already it hath bin said: there be a great number of Marchants, euery one hath written in a great table at his doore such things as he hath to sel. In like maner euery artisane painteth out his craft: the market places be large, great abundance of al things there be to be sold. The city standeth vpon water, many streames run through it, the banks pitched, and so broad that they serue for streets to the cities vse. Ouer the streams are sundry bridges both of timber and stone, which being made leuel with the streets, hinder not the passage of the barges too and fro, the chanels are so deepe. Where the streames come in and go out of the city, be certaine arches in the wal, there go in and out their Parai, that is a kind of barges they haue, and that in the day time only: at night these arches are closed vp with gates, so do they shut vp al the gates of the City. These streames and barges do ennoblish very much the City, and make it as it were to seeme another Venice. The buildings are euen, wel made, high, not lofted, except it be some wherein marchandize is laid. It is a world to see how great these cities are, and the cause is, for that the houses are built euen, as I haue said, and do take a great deale of roome. One thing we saw in this city that made vs al to wonder, and is worthy to be noted: namely, ouer a porch at the comming in to one of the aforesaid 4. houses, which the king hath in euery shire for his gouernors, as I haue erst said, standeth a tower built vpon 40. pillers, ech one whereof is but one stone, ech one 40. handfuls or spans long: in bredth or compasse 12, as many of vs did measure them. Besides this, their greatnesse is such in one piece, that it might seeme impossible to worke them: they be moreouer cornered, and in colour, length and breadth so like, that the one nothing differeth from the other. This thing made vs all to wonder very much. We are wont to cal this country China, and the people Chineans, but as long as we were prisoners, not hearing amongst them at any time that name, I determined to learne how they were called: and asked sometimes by them thereof, for that they vnderstood vs not when we called them Chineans, I answered them, that al the inhabitants of India named them Chineans, wherefore I praied them that they would tel me, for what occasion they are so called, whether peraduenture any city of theirs bare that name. Hereunto they alwayes answered me, that they haue no such name, nor euer had. Then did I aske them what name the whole Country bareth, and what they would answere being asked of other nations what countrymen they were? It was told me that of ancient time in this country had bin many kings, and though presently it were al vnder one, ech kingdom neuertheles enioyed that name it first had, these kingdomes are the prouinces I spake of before. [Sidenote: Tamen the proper name of China.] In conclusion they said, that the whole country is called Tamen, and the inhabitants Tamegines, so that this name China or Chineans, is not heard of in that country. I thinke that the neernesse of another prouince thereabout called Cochinchina, and the inhabitants thereof Cochinesses, first discovered before China was, lying not far from Malacca, did giue occasion to ech of the nations, of that name Chineans, as also the whole country to be named China. But their proper name is that aforesaid. I haue heard moreover that in the City of Nanquim remaineth a table of gold, and in it written a kings name, as a memory of that residence the kings were wont to keepe there. This table standeth in a great pallace, couered alwayes, except it be on some of their festiuall dayes, at what time they are wont to let it be seene, couered neuertheless as it is, all the nobilitie of the City going of duetie to doe it euery day reuerence. The like is done in the head Cities of all the other shires in the pallaces of the Ponchiassini, wherein these aforesaid tables doe stand with the kings name written in them, although no reuerence be done thereunto but in solemn feastes. [Sidenote: Pochan, or Pachin.] I haue likewise vnderstood that the city Pachin, where the king maketh his abode, is so great, that to go from one side to the other, besides the Suburbs, the which are greater then the City it selfe, it requireth one whole day a horseback, going hackney pase. In the suburbs be many wealthy marchants of all sorts. They tolde me furthermore that it was moted about, and in the moates great store of fish, whereof the King maketh great gaines. [Sidenote: Their enemies.] It was also told me that the king of China had no kings to wage battel withall, besides the Tartars, with whom he had concluded a peace more then 80. yeres ago. Neuerthelesse their friendship was not so great, that the one nation might marry with the other. [Sidenote: Marriage of the kings children.] And demanding with whom they married, they said, that in olde time the Chinish kings when they would marry their daughters, accustomed to make a solemne feast, whereunto came all sorts of men. The daughter that was to be married, stood in a place where she might see them all, and looke whom she liked best, him did she chuse to husband, and if happely he were of a base condition, hee became by and by a gentleman: but this custome hath bene left long since. Now a dayes the king marrieth his daughters at his owne pleasure, with great men of the kingdome: the like order he obserueth in the marriage of his sonnes. They haue moreouer one thing very good, and that which made vs all to maruelle at them being Gentiles: namely, that there be hospitals in all their Cities, alwayes full of people, we neuer saw any poore body begge. [Marginal note: He speaketh not here of all China, but of the Cities, for in other places there be beggers, as you haue seene already, swarming out of trees.] We therefore asked the cause of this: answered it was, that in euery City there is a great circuit, wherein be many houses for poore people, for blinde, lame, old folke, not able to trauaile for age, nor hauing any other meanes to liue. These folke haue in the aforesaid houses euer plentie of rice during their liues, but nothing else. Such as be receiued into these houses, come in after this maner. When one is sicke, blinde or lame, he maketh a supplication to the Ponchiassi, and prouing that to be true he writeth, he remaineth in the aforesaid great lodging as long as he liueth: besides this they keepe in these places swine and hennes, whereby the poore be relieued without going a begging. I said before that China was full of riuers, but now I minde to confirme the same anew: for the farther we went into the Countrey, the greater we found the riuers. Sometimes we were so farre off from the sea, that where we came no sea fish had bene seene, and salt was there very deare, of fresh water fish yet was there great abundance, and that fish very good: they keep it good after this maner. Where the riuers do meete, and so passe into the sea, there lieth great store of boats, specially where no salt-water commeth, and that in March and April. These boates are so many that it seemeth wonderfull, ne serue they for other then to take small fish. By the riuers sides they make leyres of fine and strong nettes, that lye three handfulls vnder water, and one aboue to keepe and nourish their fish in, vntill such time as other fishers do come with boates, bringing for that purpose certaine great chests lined with paper, able to holde water, wherein they cary their fish vp and downe the riuer, euery day renuing the chest with fresh water, and selling their fish in euery City, towne and village where they passe, vnto the people as they neede it: most of them haue net leyres to keepe fish in alwayes for their prouision. Where the greater boates cannot passe any further forward, they take lesser, and because the whole Countrey is very well watered, there is so great plenty of diuers sorts of fish, that it is wonderfull to see: assuredly we were amazed to behold the maner of their prouision. [Sidenote: Meanes to fat fish.] Their fish is chiefly nourished with the dung of Bufles and oxen, that greatly fatteth it. Although I said their fishing to be in March and April at what time we saw them do it, neuerthelesse they told vs that they fished at all times, for that vsually they do feed on fish, wherefore it behoueth them to make their prouision continually. When we had passed Fuquien, we went into Quicin shire, [Sidenote: He speaketh of Fuquien shire.] where the fine clay vessell is made, as I said before: and we came to a City, the one side whereof is built vpon the the foote of a hill, whereby passeth a riuer nauigable: there we tooke boat, and went by water toward the Sea: on ech side of the riuer we found many Cities, Townes and villages, wherein we saw great store of marchandize, but specially of fine clay: there did we land by the way to buy victuals and other necessaries. Going downe this riuer Southward, we were glad that wee drew neere vnto a warmer Countrey, from whence we had bene farre distant: this Countrey we passed through in eight dayes, for our iourney lay downe the streame. Before that I doe say any thing of that shire we came into, I will first speake of the great City of Quicin, wherein alwayes remaineth a Tutan, that is a gouernour, as you haue seene, though some Tutans do gouerne two or three shires. That Tutan that was condemned for our cause, of whom I spake before, was borne in this Countrey, but he gouerned Foquien shire: nothing it auailed him to be so great an officer. This Countrey is so great, that in many places where we went, there had bene as yet no talke of his death, although he were executed a Whole yere before. [Sidenote: Aliàs Cenchi.] At the Citie Quanchi whither we came, the riuer was so great it seemed a Sea, though it were so litle where we tooke water, that we needed small boats. One day about nine of the clocke, beginning to row neere the walls with the streame, we came at noone to a bridge made of many barges, ouerlinked al together with two mightie cheines. There stayed we vntill it was late, but we saw not one go either vp thereon or downe, except two Louteas that about the going downe of the Sunne, came and set them down there, the one on one side, the other on the other side. Then was the bridge opened in many places, and barges both great and small to the number of sixe hundred began to passe: those that went vp the streame at one place, such as came downe at an other. When all had thus shot the bridge, then was it shut vp againe. [Sidenote: The kings reuenues.] We heare say that euery day they take this order in all principall places of marchandize, for paying of the Custome vnto the king, specially for salt, whereof the greatest reuenues are made that the king hath in this Countrey. The passage of the bridge where it is opened, be so neere the shoare, that nothing can passe without touching the same. To stay the barges at their pleasure, that they goe no further forward, are vsed certaine iron instruments The bridge consisteth of 112. barges, there stayed we vntill the euening that they were opened, lothsomely oppressed by the multitude of people that came to see vs, so many in number, that we were enforced to go aside from the banke vntil such time as the bridge was opened: howbeit we were neuerthelesse thronged about with many boates full of people. And though in other Cities and places where we went, the people came so importunate vpon vs, that it was needfull to withdraw our selues: yet were we here much more molested for the number of people: and this bridge is the principall way out of the Citie vnto another place so wel inhabited, that were it walled about, it might be compared to the Citie. When we had shot the bridge, we kept along the Citie vntil it was night, and then met we with another riuer that ioyned with this, we rowed vp that by the walls vntill we came to another bridge gallantly made of barges, but lesser a great deale then that other bridge ouer the greater streame: here stayed we that night, and other two dayes with more quiet, being out of the preasse of the people. These riuers do meet without at one corner point of the City. In either of them were so many barges great and small, that we all thought them at the least to be aboue three thousand: the greater number thereof was in the lesser riuer, where we were. Amongst the rest here lay certaine greater vessels, called in their language Parai, that serue for the Tutan, when he taketh his voyage by other riuers that ioyne with this, towards Pachin, where the king maketh his abode. For, as many times I haue erst said, all this Countrey is full of riuers. Desirous to see those Parai we got into some of them, where we found some chambers set foorth with gilded beds very richly, other furnished with tables and seats, and all other things so neat and in perfection, that it was wonderfull. Quiacim shire, as farre as I can perceiue, lieth vpon the South. On that side we kept at our first entry thereinto, trauayling not farre from the high mountaines we saw there. Asking what people dwelleth beyond those monntaines, it was told me that they be theeues and men of a strange language. And because that vnto sundry places neere this riuer the mountaines doe approch, whence the people issuing downe do many times great harme, this order is taken at the entry into Quiacim shire. To guard this riuer whereon continually go to and fro Parai great and small fraught with salt, fish poudred with peper, and other necessaries for that countrey, they do lay in diuers places certaine Parai, and great barges armed, wherin watch and ward is kept day and night on both sides of the riuer, for the safety of the passage, and securitie of such Parai as do remaine there, though the trauailers neuer go but many in company. In euery rode there be at the least thirtie, in some two hundred men, as the passage requireth. This guard is kept vsually vntill you come to the City Onchio, where continually the Tutan of this shire, and eke of Cantan, maketh his abode. From that City vpward, where the riuer waxeth more narrow, and the passage more dangerous, there be alwayes armed one hundred and fiftie Parai, to accompany other vessels fraught with marchandize, and all this at the Kings charges. This seemed to me one of the strangest things I did see in this Countrey. When we lay at Fuquien, we did see certaine Moores, who knew so litle of their secte, that they could say nothing else but that Mahomet was a Moore, my father was a Moore, and I am a Moore, with some other wordes of their Alcoran, wherewithall, in abstinence from swines flesh, they liue vntill the diuel take them all. This when I saw, and being sure that in many Chinish Cities the reliques of Mahomet are kept, as soone as we came to the City where these fellowes be, I enfourmed my selfe of them, and learned the trueth. [Sidenote: Great ships comming from the North.] These Moores, as they tolde me, in times past came in great ships fraught with marchandise from Pachin ward, to a port granted vnto them by the king, as hee is wont to all them that traffique into this Countrey, where they being arriued at a litle Towne standing in the hauens mouth, in time conuerted vnto their sect the greatest Loutea there. When that Loutea with all his family was become Moorish, the rest began likewise to doe the same. In this part of China the people be at libertie, euery one to worship and folow what him liketh best. Wherefore no body tooke heede thereto, vntil such time as the Moores perceiuing that many followed them in superstition, and that the Loutea fauoured them, they began to forbid wholy the eating of swines flesh. But all these countreymen and women chosing rather to forsake father and mother, then to leaue off eating of porke, by no meanes would yeeld to that proclamation. For besides the great desire they all haue to eate that kinde of meate, many of them do liue thereby: and therefore the people complained vnto the Magistrates, accusing the Moores of a conspiracie pretended betwixt them and the Loutea against their king. In this countrey, as no suspition, no not one traiterous word is long borne withall, so was the king speedily aduertised thereof, who gaue commandement out of hand that the aforesaid Loutea should be put to death, and with him the Moores of most importance: the other to be layde first in prison, and afterward to be sent abroad into certaine Cities, where they remained perpetuall slaues vnto the king. To this City came by happe men and women threescore and odde, who at this day are brought to fiue men and foure women, for it is how twenty yeeres since this happened. [Sidenote: That is their temples.] Their offspring passeth the number of two hundreth, and they in this City, as the rest in other Cities whither they were sent, haue their Moscheas, whereunto they all resort euery Friday to keepe their holy day. But, as I thinke, that will no longer endure, then whiles they doe liue that came from thence, for their posteritie is so confused, that they haue nothing of a Moore in them but abstinence from swines flesh, and yet many of them doe eate thereof primly. [Sidenote: It should seeme by their voyage to be Cardandan in Ortelius.] They tell mee that their natiue Countrey hath name Camarian, a firme land wherein be many kings, and the Indish countrey well knowen vnto them. It may so be: for as soone as they did see our seruants (our seruants were Preuzaretes) they iudged them to be Indians: many of their wordes sounded vpon the Persian tongue, but none of vs coulde vnderstand them. I asked them whether they conuerted any of the Chinish nation vnto their secte: they answered mee, that with much a doe they conuerted the women with whom they doe marry, yeelding me no other cause thereof, but the difficultie they finde in them to be brought from eating swines flesh and drinking of wine. I am perswaded therefore, that if this Countrey were in league with vs, forbidding them neither of both, it would be an easie matter to draw them to our Religion, from their superstition, whereat they themselues do laugh when they do then idolatry. [Sidenote: A Northerne Sea.] I haue learned moreouer that the Sea, whereby these Moores that came to China were wont to trauaile, is a very great gulfe, that falleth into this Countrey out from Tartaria and Persia, leauing on the other side all the Countrey of China, and land of the Mogores, drawing alwayes toward the South: and of all likelyhood it is euen so, because that these Moores, the which we haue seene, be rather browne then white, whereby they shewe themselues to cone from some warmer Countrey then China is neere to Pachin, where the riuers are frosen in the Winter for colde, and many of them so vehemently that carts may passe ouer them. We did see in this Citie many Tartars, Mogores, Brames, and Laoynes, both men and women. The Tartars are men very white, good horsemen and archers, confining with China on that side where Pachin standeth, separated from thence by great mountaines that are bewixt these kingdomes. Ouer them be certaine wayes to passe, and for both sides, Castles continually kept with Souldiers: in time past the Tartars were wont alwayes to haue warres with the Chineans, but these fourescore yeeres past they were quiet, vntill the second yeere of our imprisonment. The Mogores be in like maner white, and heathen, we are aduertised that of one side they border vpon these Tartars, and confine with the Persian Tartars on the other side, whereof we sawe in them some tokens, as their maner of clothes, and that kinde of hat the Saracens doe weare. The Moores affirmed, that where the king lyeth, there be many Tartars and Mogores, that brought into China certaine blewes of great value: all we thought it to be Vanil of Cambaia wont to be sold at Ormus. So that this is the true situation of that Countrey, not in the North parts, as many times I haue heard say, confining with Germanie. As for the Brames we haue seene in this city Chenchi certaine men and women, amongst whom there was one that came not long since, hauing as yet her haire tied vp after the Pegues fashion: this woman, and other mo with whom a black Moore damsel in our company had conference, and did vnderstand them wel ynough, had dwelt in Pegu. This new come woman, imagining that we ment to make our abode in that citie, bid vs to be of good comfort, for that her countrey was not distant from thence aboue fiue dayes iourney, and that out of her countrey there lay a high way for vs home into our owne. Being asked the way, she answered that the first three daies the way lieth ouer certaine great mountaines and wildernesse, afterward people are met withall againe. [Sidenote: Southward from Chenchi to the sea.] Thence two dayes iourney more to the Brames countrey. Wherefore I doe conclude, that Chenchi is one of the confines of this kingdome, separated by certaine huge mountaines, as it hath bene alreadie said, that lie out towards the South. In the residue of these mountaines standeth the prouince of Sian, the Laoyns countrey, Camboia, Campaa, and Cochinchina. This citie chiefe of other sixteene is situated in a pleasant plaine abounding in all things necessarie, sea-fish onely excepted, for it standeth farre from the sea: of fresh fish so much store, that the market places are neuer emptie. The walles of this city are very strong and high: one day did I see the Louteas thereof go vpon the walles to take the view thereof, borne in their seates which I spake of before, accompanied with a troupe of horsemen that went two and two: It was tolde me they might haue gone three and three. We haue seene moreouer, that within this aforesayd Citie: the king hath moe then a thousande of his kinne lodged in great pallaces, in diuers partes of the Citie: their gates be redde, and the entrie into their houses, that they may be knowen, for that is the kings colour. These Gentlemen, according to their neerenesse in blood vnto the king, as soone as they be married receiue their place in honour: this place neither increaseth nor diminisheth in any respect as long as the king liueth, the king appointeth them their wiues and familie, allowing them by the moneth all things necessarie abundantly, as he doth to his gouernours of shires and Cities, howbeit, not one of these hath as long as he liueth any charge or gouernement at all. They giue themselues to eating and drinking, and be for the most part burly men of bodie, insomuch that espying any one of them whom we had not seene before, we might knowe him to be the King his cosin. They be neuerthelesse very pleasant, courteous, and faire conditioned: neither did we find, all the time wee were in that citie, so much honour and good intertainement any where as at their hands. They bid vs to their houses to eate and drinke, and when they found vs not, or we were not willing to go with them, they bid our seruants and slaues, causing them to sit downe with the first. Notwithstanding the good lodging these Gentlemen haue, so commodious that they want nothing, yet are they in this bondage, that during life they neuer goe abroad. The cause, as I did vnderstand, wherefore the king so vseth his cosins is, that none of them at any time may rebell against him: and thus he shutteth them vp in three or foure other cities. Most of them can play on the Lute, and to make that kinde of pastime peculiar vnto them onely, all other in the cities where they doe liue be forbidden that instrument, the Curtisans and blinde folke onely accepted, who be musicians and can play. This king furthermore, for the greater securitie of his Realme and the auoiding of tumults, letteth not one in all his countrey to be called Lord, except he be of his blood. Manie great estates and gouernours there be, that during their office are lodged Lord-like, and doe beare the port of mightie Princes: but they be so many times displaced and other placed a new, that they haue not the time to become corrupt. True it is that during their office they be well prouided for, as afterward also lodged at the kings charges, and in pension as long as they liue, payed them monethly in the cities where they dwell by certaine officers appointed for that purpose. The king then is a Lord onely, not one besides him as you haue seene, except it be such as be of his blood. A Nephew likewise of the king, the kings sisters sonne, lyeth continually within the walles of the citie in a strong pallace built Castlewise, euen as his other cousins do, remayning alwayes within doores, serued by Eunuches, neuer dealing with any matters. On their festiuall dayes, new moones, and full moones the magistrates make great bankets, and so do such as be of the king his blood. [Sidenote: Goa is a city of the Portugals in the East Indies.] The kings Nephew hath to name Vanfuli, his pallace is walled about, the wall is not high but fouresquare, and in circuit nothing inferiour to the wals of Goa, the outside is painted red, in euery square a gate, and ouer each gate a tower made of timber excellently well wrought: before the principall gate of the foure that openeth in to the high street no Loutea, be he neuer so great, may passe on horsebacke, or carried in his seat. Amidst this quadrangle standeth the pallace where that Nobleman lyeth, doubtlesse worth the sight, although we came not in to see it. By report the roofes of the towers and houses are glased greene, and the greater part of the quadrangle set with sauage trees, as Okes, Chesnuts, Cypresse, Pineapples, Cedars, and other such like that we do want, after the manner of a wood, wherein are kept Stags, Oxen, and other beasts, for that Lord his recreation neuer going abroad as I haue sayd. One preheminence this citie hath aboue the rest where we haue bene, and that of right, as we do thinke, that besides the multitude of market places wherein all things are to be sold through euery streete continually are cryed all things necessary, as flesh of all sortes, freshfish, hearbes, oyle, vineger, meale, rise: in summa, all things so plentifully, that many houses neede no servants, euery thing being brought to their doores. Most part of the marchants remaine in the suburbes, for that the cities are shut vp euery night, as I haue said. The marchants therefore, the better to attend their businesse, do chuse rather to make their abode without in the suburbes then within the citie. I haue seene in this riuer a pretie kinde of fishing, not to be omitted in my opinion, and therefore I will set it downe. [Marginal note: Odeicus writeth of the like.] The king hath in many riuers good store of barges full of sea-crowes that breede, are fedde and doe die therein, in certaine cages, allowed monethely a certaine prouision of rise. These barges the king bestoweth vpon his greatest magistrates, giuing to some two, to some three of them as be thinketh good, to fish therewithal after this manner. At the houre appointed to fish, all the barges are brought together in a circle, where the riuer is shalow, and the crowes tyed together vnder the wings are let leape downe into the water some vnder, some aboue, woorth the looking vpon: each one as he hath filled his bagge, goeth to his owne barge and emptieth it, which done, he returneth to fish againe. Thus hauing taken good store of fish, they set the crowes at libertie, and do suffer them to fish for their owne pleasure. There were in that city where I was, twentie barges at the least of these aforesayd crowes. I went almost euery day to see them, yet could I neuer be throughly satisfyed to see so strange a kind of fishing. * * * * * Of the Iland Iapan, and other litle Iles in the East Ocean. By R. Willes. The extreame part of the knowen world vnto vs is the noble Iland Giapan, written otherwise Iapon and Iapan. This Island standeth in the East Ocean, beyond all Asia, betwixt Cathayo and the West Indies sixe and thirtie degrees Northward from the Equinoctial line, in the same clime with the South part of Spain and Portugall, distant from thence by sea sixe thousand leagues: the trauile thither, both for ciuill discord, great pyracie, and often shipwracks is very dangerous. This countrey is hillie and pestered with snow, wherefore it is neither so warme as Portugall, nor yet so wealthy, as far as we can learne, wanting oyle, butter, cheese, milke, egges, sugar, honny, vinegar, saffron, cynamom and pepper. Barleybranne the Ilanders doe vse in stead of salt: medicinable things holsome for the bodie haue they none at all. Neuerthelesse in that Iland sundry fruites doe growe, not much vnlike the fruites of Spaine: and great store of Siluer mynes are therein to be seene. The people are tractable, ciuill, wittie, courteous, without deceit, in vertue and honest conuersation exceeding all other nations lately discouered, but so much standing vpon their reputation, that their chiefe Idole may be thought honour. The contempt thereof causeth among them much discord and debate, manslaughter and murther: euen for their reputation they doe honour their parents, keepe their promises, absteine from adulterie and robberies, punishing by death the least robbery done, holding for a principle, that whosoeuer stealeth a trifle, will, if he see occasion, steale a greater thing. It may be theft is so seuerely punished of them, for that the nation is oppressed with scarcitie of all things necessary, and so poore, that euen for miserie they strangle their owne children, preferring death before want. These fellowes doe neither eate nor kill any foule. They liue chiefely by fish, hearbes, and fruites, so healthfully, that they die very old. Of Rice and Wheat there is no great store. No man is ashamed there of his pouertie, neither be their gentlemen therefore lesse honoured of the meaner people, neither will the poorest gentleman there matche his childe with the baser sort for any gaine, so much they do make more account of gentry then of wealth. The greatest delight they haue is in armour, each boy at fourteene yeeres of ages, be he borne gentle or otherwise, hath his sword and dagger: very good archers they be, contemning all other nations in comparison of their manhood and prowesse, putting not vp one iniurie be it neuer so small in worde or deede, among themselues. They feede moderately, but they drinke largely. The vse of vines they knowe not, their drinke they make of Rice, vtterly they doe abhorre dice, an all games, accounting nothing more vile in a man, then to giue himselfe vnto those things that make vs greedy and desirous to get other mens goods. If at any time they do sweare, for that seldome they are wont to doe, they sweare by the Sunne: many of them are taught good letters, wherfore they may so much the sooner be brought vnto Christianitie. Each one is contented with one wife: they be all desirous to learne, and naturally inclined vnto honesty and courtesie: godly talke they listen vnto willingly, especially when they vnderstand it throughly. Their gouernment consisteth of 3 estates. The first place is due vnto the high Priest, by whose laws and decrees all publike and priuate matters appertayning to religion are decided. The sects of their clergie men, whom they doe call Bonzi, be of no estimation or authoritie except the high Priest by letters patent doe confirme the same: he confirmeth and alloweth of their Tundi, who be as it were Bishops, although in many places they are nominated by sundry Princes. These Tundi are greatly honoured of all sorts: they doe giue benefices vnto inferiour ministers, and do grant licences for many things as to eate flesh vpon those dayes they goe in pilgrimage to their Idoles with such like priuileges. Finally, this High Priest wont to be chosen in China for his wisedome and learning, made in Iapan for his gentry and birth, hath so large a Dominion and reuenues so great, that eftsones he beardeth the petie Kings and Princes there. Their second principal Magistrate, in their language Vo, is the chiefe Herehaught, made by succession and birth, honoured as a God. This gentleman neuer toucheth the ground with his foote without forfaiting of his office, he neuer goeth abroad out of his house, nor is at all times to be seene. At home he is either carried about in a litter, or els he goeth in wooden Choppines a foote high from the ground: commonly he sitteth in his chaire with a sword in one side, and a bow and arrows in the other, next his bodie he wearth blacke, his outward garments be red, all shadowed ouer with Cypresse, at his cappe hang certaine Lambeaux much like vnto a Bishop Miter, his forehead is painted white and red, he eateth his meat in earthen dishes. This Herehaught determineth in all Iapan the diuerse titles of honour, whereof in that Iland is great plentie, each one particularly knowen by his badge, commonly seene in sealing vp their letters, and dayly altered according to their degrees. About this Vo euery Noble man hath his Solicitor, for the nation is so desirous of praise and honour, that they striue among themselues who may bribe him best. By these meanes the Herehaught groweth so rich, that although hee haue neither land nor any reuenues otherwise, yet may he be accounted the wealthiest man in all Iapan. For three causes this great Magistrate may loose his office: first, if he touch the ground with his foote, as it hath beene alreadie said: next, if he kill any body: thirdly, if he be found an enemie vnto peace and quietnesse, howbeit neither of these aforesaid causes is sufficient to put him to death. Their third chiefe officer is a Iudge, his office is to take vp and to end matters in controuersie, to determine of warres and peace, that which he thinketh right, to punish rebels, wherein he may commaund the noble men to assist him vpon paine of forfeiting their goods: neuerthelesse at all times he is not obeyed, for that many matters are ended rather by might and armes, then determined by law. Other controuersies are decided either in the Temporall Court, as it seemeth good vnto the Princes, or in the Spirituall consistorie before the Tundi. Rebelles are executed in this manner, especially if they be noble men or officers. The king looke what day he giueth sentence against any one, the same day the partie, wheresoeuer he be, is aduertised thereof, and the day told him of his execution. The condemned person asketh of the messenger whether it may bee lawful for him to kill himselfe: the which thing when the king doeth graunt, the partie taking it for an honour, putteth on his best apparel and launcing his body a crosse from the breast downe all the belly, murthereth himselfe. This kind of death they take to be without infamie, neither doe their children for their fathers crime so punished, loose their goods. But if the king reserue them to be executed by the hangman, then flocketh he together his children, his seruants, and friends home to his house, to preserue his life by force. The king committeth the fetching of him out vnto his chiefe Iudge, who first setteth vpon him with bow and arrowes, and afterward with pikes and swords, vntill the rebell and family be slaine to their perpetuall ignominie and shame. The Indie-writers make mention of sundry great cities in this Iland, as Cangoxima a hauen towne in the South part thereof, and Meaco distant from thence three hundred leagues northward, the royall seat of the king and most wealthy of all other townes in that Iland. The people thereabout are very noble, and their language the best Iaponish. In Maco are sayd to be ninetie thousande houses inhabited and vpward, a famous Vniuersitie, and in it fiue principall Colleges, besides closes and cloysters of Bonzi, Leguixil, and Hamacata, that is, Priests, Monks and Nunnes. Other fiue notable Vniuersities there be in Iapan, namely, Coia, Negru, Homi, Frenoi, and Bandu. The first foure haue in them at the least three thousand and fiue hundred schollers: in the fift are many mo. For Bandu prouince is very great and possessed with sixe princes, fiue whereof are vassals vnto the sixt, yet he himselfe subiect vnto the Iaponish king, vsually called the great king of Meaco: lesser scholes there be many in diuers places of this Ilande. And thus much specially concerning this glorious Iland, among so many barbarous nations and rude regions, haue I gathered together in one summe, out of sundry letters written from thence into Europe, by no lesse faithfull reporters than famous trauellers. [Sidenote: Petrus Maffeius de rebus Iaponicis.] For confirmation wherof, as also for the knowledge of other things not conteyned in the premisses, the curious readers may peruse these 4 volumes of Indian matters written long ago in Italian, and of late compendiously made Latine, by Petrus Maffeius my old acquainted friend, entituling the same, De rubus Iaponicis. One whole letter out of the fift booke thereof, specially intreating of that countrey, I haue done into English word for word in such wise as followeth. Aloisius Froes to his companions in Iesus Christ that remaine in China and India. The last yeere, deare brethren, I wrote vnto you from Firando, how Cosmus Turrianus had appointed me to trauile to Meaco to helpe Gaspar Vilela, for that there the haruest was great, the labourers few, and that I should haue for my companion in that iourney Aloisius Almeida. It seemeth now my part, hauing by the helpe of God ended so long a voiage, to signifie vnto you by letter such things specially as I might thinke you would most delight to know. And because at the beginning Almeida and I so parted the whole labour of writing letters betwixt vs, that he should speake of our voyage, and such things as happened therein, I should make relation of the Meachians estate, and write what I could well learne of the Iapans manners and conditions: setting aside all discourses of our voyage, that which standeth me vpon I will discharge in this Epistle, that you considering how artificially, how cunningly, vnder the pretext of religion, that craftie aduersary of mankind leadeth and draweth vnto perdition the Iapanish mindes, blinded with many superstitions and ceremonies, may the more pitie this Nation. The inhabiters of Iapan, as men that had neuer had greatly to doe with other Nations, in their Geography diuided the whole world into three parts, Iapan, Sian, and China. And albeit the Iapans receiued out of Sian and China their superstitions and ceremonies, yet doe they neuertheless contemne all other Nations in comparison of themselues, and standing in their owne conceite doe far preferre themselues before all other sorts of people in wisedome and policie. Touching the situation of the countrey and nature of the soyle, vnto the things eftsoones erst written, this one thing I will adde: in these Ilands, the sommer to be most hot, the winter extreme cold. In the kingdom of Canga, as we call it, falleth so much snow, that the houses being buried in it, the inhabitants keepe within doores certaine moneths of the yeere, hauing no way to come foorth except they break vp the tiles. Whirlewindes most vehement, earthquakes so common, that the Iapans dread such kind of feares litle or nothing at all. The countrey is ful of siluer mines otherwise barren, not so much by fault of nature, as through the slouthfulnesse of the inhabitants: howbeit Oxen they keepe and that for tillage sake onely. The ayre is holesome, the waters good, the people very faire and well bodied: bare headed commonly they goe, procuring baldnesse with sorrow and teares, eftsoones rooting vp with pinsars all the haire of their heads as it groweth, except it be a litle behind, the which they knot and keepe with all diligence. Euen from their childhood they weare daggers and swords, the which they vse to lay vnder their pillowes when they goe to bed: in shew courteous and affable, in deede haughtie and proud. They delight most in warlike affaires, and their greatest studie is armes. Mens apparel diuersely coloured is worne downe halfe the legges and to the elbowes: womens attire made handsomely like vnto a vaile, is somewhat longer: all manner of dicing and theft they do eschewe. The marchant although he be wealthy, is not accounted of. Gentlemen, be they neuer so poore, retaine their place: most precisely they stand vpon their honour and worthinesse, ceremoniously striuing among themselues in courtesies and faire speeches. Wherein if any one happily be lesse carefull than he should be, euen for a trifle many times he getteth euill will. Want though it trouble most of them, so much they doe detest, that poore men cruelly taking pittie of their infantes newly borne, especially girles, do many times with their owne feete strangle them. Noble men, and other likewise of meaner calling generally haue but one wife a peece, by whom although they haue issue, yet for a trifle they diuorse themselues from their wiues, and the wiues also sometimes from their husbands, to marry with others. After the second degree cousins may there lawfully marry. Adoption of other mens children is much vsed among them. In great townes most men and women can write and reade. This Nation feedeth sparingly, their vsuall meat is rice and salets, and neere the sea side fish. They feast one another many times, wherein they vse great diligence, especially in drinking one to another, insomuch that the better sort, least they might rudely commit some fault therein, does vse to reade certaine bookes written of duties and ceremonies apperteyning vnto banquets. To be delicate and fine, they put their meate into their mouthes with litle forkes, accounting it great rudenesse to touch it with their fingers: winter and sommer they drinke water as hot as they may possibly abide it. Their houses are in danger of fire, but finely made and cleane, layde all ouer with strawe-pallets, whereupon they doe both sit in stead of stooles, and lie in their clothes with billets under their heads. For feare of defiling these pallets, they goe either bare foote within doores, or weare strawe pantofles on their buskins when they come abroad, the which they lay aside at their returne home againe. Gentlemen for the most part do passe the night in banketting, musicke, and vaine discourses, they sleepe the day time. In Meaco and Sacaio there is good store of beds, but they be very litle, and may be compared vnto our pues. In bringing vp children they vse words only to rebuke them, admonishing as diligently and aduisedly boyes of sixe or seuen yeeres of age, as though they were olde men. They are giuen very much to intertaine strangers, of whom most curiously they loue to aske euen in trifles what forraine nations doe, and their fashions. Such arguments and reasons as be manifest, and are made plaine with examples, doe greatly persuade them. They detest all kinde of theft, whosoeuer is taken in that fault may be slaine freely of any bodie. No publike prisons, no common gayles, no ordinary Iusticers: priuately each householder hath the hearing of matters at home in his owne house, and the punishing of greater crimes that deserue death without delay. Thus vsually the people is kept in awe and feare. About foure hundred yeeres past (as in their olde recordes we finde) all Iapan was subiect vnto one Emperour whose royall seat was Meaco, in the Iaponish language called Cubucama. But the nobtlitie rebelling against him, by litle and litle haue taken away the greatest part of his dominion, howbeit his title continually remayneth, and the residue in some respect doe make great account of him still, acknowledging him for their superior. Thus the Empyre of Iapan, in times past but one alone, is now diuided into sixtie sixe kingdomes, the onely cause of ciuill warres continually in that Iland, to no small hinderance of the Gospell, whilest the kings that dwell neare together inuade one another, each one coueting to make his kingdome greater. Furthermore in the citie Meaco is the pallace of the high Priest, whom that nation honoureth as a God, he hath in his house 306 Idoles, one whereof by course is euery night set by his side for a watchman. He is thought of the common people so holy, that it may not be lawfull for him to goe vpon the earth: if happily he doe set one foote to the ground, he looseth his office. He is not serued very sumptuously, he is maintained by almes. The heads and beards of his ministers are shauen, they haue name Cangues, and their authoritie is great throughout all Iapan. The Cubucama vseth them for Embassadores to decide controuersies betwixt princes, and to end their warres, whereof they were wont to make very great game. It is now two yeres since or there about, that one of them came to Bungo, to intreate of peace betwixt the king thereof and the king of Amanguzzo. This Agent fauouring the king of Bungo his cause more then the other, brought to passe that the foresayd king of Bungo should keepe two kingdomes, the which he had taken in warres from the king of Amanguzzo. Wherefore he had for his reward of the king of Bungo aboue 30000 ducats. And thus farre hereof. I come now to other superstitions and ceremonies, that you may see, deare brethren, that which I said in the beginning, how subtilly the diuell hath deceiued the Iaponish nation, and how diligent and readie they be to obey and worship him. And first, al remembrance and knowledge not onely of Christ our Redeemer, but also of that one God the maker of all things is cleane extinguished and vtterly abolished out of the Iapans hearts. Moreouer their superstitious sects are many, whereas it is lawfull for each one to follow that which liketh him best: but the principall sects are two, namely the Amidans and Xacaians. Wherefore in this countrey shall you see many monasteries, not onely of Bonzii men, but also of Bonziæ women diuersely attired, for some doe weare white vnder, and blacke vpper garments, other goe apparelled in ash colour, and their idole hath to name Denichi: from these the Amidanes differ very much. Againe the men Bonzii for the most part dwell in sumptuous houses, and haue great reuenues. These fellowes are chaste by commandement, marry they may not vpon paine of death. In the midst of their temple is erected an altar, whereon standeth a woodden Idole of Amida, naked from the girdle vpward, with holes in his eares after the manner of Italian gentlewomen, sitting on a wooden rose goodly to behold. They haue great libraries, and halles for them all to dine and sup together, and bels wherewith they are at certaine houres called to prayers. In the euening the Superintendent giueth each one a theame for meditation. After midnight before the altar in their Temple they do say Mattens at it were out of Xaca his last booke, one quier one verse, the other quier another. Early in the morning each one giueth himselfe to meditation one houre: they shaue their heads and beards. Their cloysters be very large, and within the precinct thereof, Chappels of the Fotoquiens, for by that name some of the Iapanish Saints are called: their holydaies yeerely be very many. Most of these Bonzii be gentlemen, for that the Iapanish nobility charged with many children, vse to make most of them Bonzii, not being able to leaue for each one a patrimony good enough. The Bonzii most coueteously bent, know all the wayes how to come by money. They sell vnto the people many scrolles of paper, by the helpe whereof the common people thinketh it selfe warranted from all power of the deuils. They borrow likewise money to be repayed with great vsury in an other worlde, giuing by obligation vnto the lender an assurance thereof, the which departing out of his life he may carry with him to hell. There is another great company of such as are called Inambuxu, with curled and staring haire. They make profession to finde out againe things either lost or stolen, after this sort. They set before them a child whom the deuill inuadeth, called vp thither by charmes: of that child then doe they aske that which they are desirous to know. These mens prayers both good and bad are thought greatly to preuaile, insomuch that both their blessings and their curses they sell vnto the people. The nouices of this order, before they be admitted, goe together two or three thousand in a company, vp a certaine high mountaine to doe pennance there, threescore dayes voluntarily punishing themselues. In this time the deuill sheweth himselfe vnto them in sundry shapes: and they like young graduats, admitted as it were fellowes into some certaine companie, are set foorth with white tassels hanging about their neckes, and blacke Bonnets that scarcely couer any more then the crawne of their heads. Thus attyred they range abroade in all Iapan, to set out themselues and their cunning to sale, each one beating his bason which he carieth alwayes about with him, to giue notice of their comming in al townes where they passe. There is also an other sort called Genguis, that make profession to shewe by soothsaying where stollen things are, and who were the theeues. These dwell in the toppe of an high mountaine, blacke in the face: for the continuall heate of the sunne, for the cold windes, and raines they doe continually endure. They marry but in their owne tribe and line: the report goeth that they be horned beasts. They climbe vp most high rockes and hilles, and go ouer very great riuers by the onely arte of the deuill, who to bring those wretches the more into errour, biddeth them to goe vp a certaine high mountaine, where they stande miserably gazing and earnestly looking for him as long as the deuill appointeth them. At the length at noonetide or in the euening commeth that deuill, whom they call Amida among them to shew himselfe vnto them: this shew breedeth in the braines and hearts of men such a kinde of superstition, that it can by no meanes be rooted out of them afterward. The deuill was wont also in another mountaine to shew himselfe vnto the Iapanish Nation. Who so was more desirous than other to go to heauen and to enioy Paradise, thither went he to see that sight, and hauing seene the deuill followed him (so by the deuill persuaded) into a denne vntil he came to a deepe pit. Into this pit the deuill was wont to leape and to take with him his worshipper whom he there murdred. This deceit was thus perceiued. An old man blinded with this superstition, was by his sonne diswaded from thence, but all in vaine. Wherefore his sonne followed him priuily into that denne with his bow and arrows, where the deuill gallantly appeared vnto him in the shape of a man. Whilest the old man falleth downe to worshippe the deuill, his sonne speedily shooting an arrow at the spirit so appearing, strooke a Foxe in stead of a man so suddenly was that shape altered. This olde manne his sonne tracking the Foxe so running away, came to that pit whereof I spake, and in the bottome thereof he found many bones of dead men, deceiued by the deuill after that sort in time past. Thus deliuered he his father from present death, and all other from so pestilent an opinion. There is furthermore a place bearing name Coia, very famous for the multitude of Abbyes which the Bonzii haue therein. The beginner and founder whereof is thought to be one Combendaxis a suttle craftie fellowe, that got the name of holinesse by cunning speech, although the lawes and ordinances he made were altogether deuillish: he is said to haue found out the Iapanish letters vsed at this day. In his latter yeeres this Sim suttle buried himselfe in a fouresquare graue, foure cubites deepe, seuerely forbidding it to be opened, for that then he died not, but rested his bodie wearied with continuall businesse, vntill many thousand thousands of yeeres were passed, after the which time a great learned man named Mirozu should come into Iapan, and then would he rise vp out of his graue againe. About his tombe many lampes are lighted, sent thither out of diuerse prouinces, for that the people are perswaded that whosoeuer is liberall and beneficiall towardes the beautifying of that monument shall not onely increase in wealth in this world, but in the life to come be safe through Combendaxis helpe. Such as giue themselues to worship him, liue in those Monasteries or Abbyes with shauen heads, as though they had forsaken all secular matters, whereas in deede they wallow in all sortes of wickednesse and lust. In these houses, the which are many (as I sayd) in number, doe remaine 6000 Bonzii, or thereabout besides the multitude of lay men, women be restrained from thence vpon paine of death. Another company of Bonzii dwelleth at Fatonochaiti. They teach a great multitude of children all tricks and sleights of guile and theft: whom they do find to be of great towardnes, those do they instruct in al the petigrues of princes, and fashions of the nobilitie, in chiualrie and eloquence, and so send them abroad into other prouinces, attired like yong princes, to this ende, that faining themselues to be nobly borne, they may with great summes of money borowed vnder the colour and pretence of nobilitie returne againe. Wherefore this place is so infamous in all Iapan, that if any scholer of that order be happily taken abroad, he incontinently dieth for it. Neuerthelesse these cousiners leaue not daily to vse their woonted wickednesse and knauerie. [Sidenote: A warrelike people 300 leagues to the North of Meaco.] North from Iapan, three hundred leagues out of Meaco, lieth a great countrey of sauage men clothed in beasts skinnes, rough bodied, with huge beards and monstrous muchaches, the which they hold vp with litle forkes as they drinke. These people are great drinkers of wine, fierce in warres, and much feared of the Iapans: being hurt in fight, they wash their wounds with salt water, other Surgerie haue they none. In their breasts they are sayd to cary looking glasses: their swordes they tie to their heads, in such wise, that the handle doe rest vpon their shoulders. Seruice and ceremonies haue they none at all, onely they are woont to worship heauen. To Aquita a great towne in that Iaponish kingdom, which we call Geuano, they much resort for marchandise, and the Aquitanes likewise doe trauell in to their countrey, howbeit not often, for that there many of them are slaine by the inhabiters. Much more concerning this matter I had to write: but to auoyd tediousnesse I will come to speake of the Iapans madnesse againe, who most desirous of vaine glory doe thinke then specially to get immortall fame, when they procure themselues to be most sumptuously and solemnly buried: their burials and obsequies in the citie Meaco are done after this maner. [Sidenote: The Iapanish funerals.] About one houre before the dead body be brought fourth, a great multitude of his friends apparelled in their best aray goe before vnto the fire, with them goe their kinswomen and such as bee of their acquaintance, clothed in white, (for that is the mourning colour there) with a changeable coloured vaile on their heads. Each woman hath with her also, according to her abilitie, all her familie trimmed vp in white mockado: the better sort and wealthier women goe in litters of Cedar artificially wrought and richly dressed. In the second place marcheth a great company of footemen sumptuously apparelled. Then afarre off commeth one of these Bonzii master of the ceremonies for that superstition, brauely clad in silkes and gold, in a large and high litter excellently well wrought, accompanied with 30 other Bonzii or thereabout, wearing hats, linnen albes, and fine blacke vpper garments. Then attired in ashe colour (for this colour also is mourning) with a long torch of Pineaple, he sheweth the dead body the way vnto the fire, lest it either stumble or ignorantly go out of the way. Well neere 200 Bonzii folow him singing the name of that deuill the which the partie deceassed chiefly did worship in his life time, and therewithall a very great bason is beaten euen to the place of fire instead of a bell. Then follow two great paper baskets hanged open at staues endes full of paper roses diuersly coloured, such as beare them doe march but slowly, shaking euer now and then their staues, that the aforesayd flowers may fall downe by litle and litle as it were drops of raine: and be whirled about with wind. This shower say they is an argument that the soule of the dead man is gone to paradise. After al this, eight beardles Bonzii orderly two and two drag after them on the ground long speares, the points backward, with flags of one cubite a piece, wherein the name also of that idole is written. Then there be caried 10 lanterns trimmed with the former inscription, ouercast with a fine vaile, and candles burning in them. [Sidenote: They burne their dead.] Besides this, two yoong men clothed in ashe colour beare pineaple torches, not lighted, of three foote length, the which torches serue to kindle the fire wherein the dead corpes is to bee burnt. In the same colour follow many other that weare on the crownes of their heads faire, litle, threesquare, blacke Lethren caps tied fast vnder their chinnes (for that is honorable amongst them) with papers on their heads, wherein the name of the deuill I spake of, is written. And to make it the more solemne, after commeth a man with a table one cubite long, one foot broad, couered with a very fine white vaile, in both sides whereof is written in golden letters the aforesayd name. At the length by foure men is brought fourth the corps sitting in a gorgeous litter clothed in white, hanging downe his head and holding his hands together like one that prayed: to the rest of his apparell may you adde an vpper gowne of paper, written full of that booke the which his God is sayd to haue made, when he liued in the world, by whose helpe and merites commonly they doe thinke to be saued. The dead man his children come next after him most gallantly set foorth, the yongest wherof carieth likewise a pineaple torch to kindle the fire. Last of all foloweth a great number of people in such caps as I erst spake of. When they are al come to the place appointed for the obsequie, al the Bonzii with the whole multitude for the space of one houre, beating pannes and basons with great clamours, call vpon the name of that deuill, the which being ended, the Obsequie is done in this maner. In the midst of a great quadrangle railed about, hanged with course linnen, and agreeably vnto the foure partes of the world made with foure gates to goe in and out at, is digged a hole: in the hole is laied good store of wood, whereon is raised gallantly a waued roofe; before that stand two tables furnished with diuers kindes of meates, especially drie Figs, Pomegranates and Tartes good store, but neither Fish nor Flesh: vpon one of them standeth also a chafer with coales, and in it sweete wood to make perfumes. When all this is readie, the corde wherewith the litter was caried, is throwen by a long rope into the fire: as many as are present striue to take the rope in their handes, vsing their aforesayd clamours, which done, they goe in procession as it were round about the quadrangle thrise. Then setting the litter on the wood built vp ready for the fire that Bonzius who then is master of the ceremonies, saieth a verse that no bodie there vnderstandeth, whirling thrise about ouer his head a torch lighted, to signifie thereby that the soule of the dead man had neither any beginning, ne shall haue at any time an ende, and throweth away the torch. Two of the dead man his children, or of his neere kinne, take it vp againe, and standing one at the East side of the litter, the other at the West, doe for honour and reuerence reach it to each other thrise ouer the dead corps, and so cast it into the pile of wood: by and by they throw in oyle, sweete wood, and other perfumes, accordingly as they haue plentie, and so with a great flame bring the corps to ashes: his children in the meane while putting sweete wood into the chafer at the table with odours, doe solemnly and religiously worship their father as a Saint: which being done, the Bonzii are paied each one in his degree. The master of the ceremonies hath for his pact fiue duckats, sometimes tenne, sometimes twentie, the rest haue tenne Iulies a piece, or els a certaine number of other presents called Caxæ. The meate that was ordained, as soone as the dead corps friends and all the Bonzii are gone, is left for such as serued at the obsequie, for the poore and impotent lazars. The next day returne to the place of obsequie the dead man his children, his kindred and friends, who gathering vp his ashes, bones, and teeth, doe put them in a gilded pot, and so carie them home, to bee set vp in the same pot couered with cloth, in the middest of their houses. Many Bonzii returne likewise to these priuate funerals, and so do they againe the seuenth day: then cary they out the ashes to be buried in a place appointed, laying thereupon a fouresquare stone, wherein is written in great letters drawen all the length of the stone, the name of that deuil the which the dead man worshipped in his life time. Euery day afterward his children resort vnto the graue with roses and warme water that the dead corps thirst not. Nor the seuenth day onely, but the seuenth moneth and yeere, within their owne houses they renue this obsequie, to no small commodities and gaine of the Bonzii: great rich men doe spend in these their funerals 3000 duckats or thereabout, the meaner sort two or three hundred. Such as for pouertie be not able to go to that charges, are in the night time darke long without all pompe and ceremonies buried in a dunghill. They haue another kinde of buriall, especially neere the Sea side, for them that bee not yet dead. These fellowes are such, as hauing religiously with much deuotion worshipped Amida, now desirous to see him, doe slay themselues. And first they goe certaine dayes begging almes, the which they thrust into their sleeues, then preach they in publique a sermon vnto the people, declaring what they mind to doe, with the great good liking of all such as doe heare them: for euery body wondreth at such a kinde of holinesse. Then take they hookes to cut downe briars and thornes that might hinder them in their way to heauen, and so embarke themselues in a new vessell, tying great stones about their neckes, armes, loines, thighes, and feete: thus they launching out into the main Sea be either drowned there, their shippe bouged for that purpose, or els doe cast themselues ouer-boord headlong into the Sea. The emptie barke is out of hand set a fire for honours sake by their friends that folow them in another boat of their owne, thinking it blasphemie that any mortall creature should afterward once touch the barke that had bene so religiously halowed. Truly when we went to Meaco, eight dayes before we came to the Ile of Hiu at Fore towne, sixe men and two women so died. To all such as die so the people erecteth a Chappell, and to each of them a pillar and a pole made of Pineaple for a perpetuall monument, hanging vp many shreds of paper in stickes all the roofe ouer, with many verses set downe in the walles in commendation of that blessed company. Wherefore vnto this place both day and night many come very superstitiously in pilgrimage. It happened euen then as Aloisius Almeida and I went to christen a childe wee traueiled that way at what time foure or fiue olde women came foorth out of the aforesayd chappell with beades in their handes (for in this point also the deuill counterfeiteth Christianitie) who partly scorned at vs for follie, partly frowned and taunted at our small deuotion, for passing by that holy monument without any reuerence or worship done thereunto at all. It remaineth now we speake two or three wordes of those Sermons the Bonzii are woont to make, not so many as ours in number, but assuredly very well prouided for. The Pulpit is erected in a great temple with a silke Canopie ouer it, therein standeth a costly seate, before the seate a table with a bell and a booke. At the houre of Sermon each sect of the Iapans resorteth to their owne doctors in diuers Temples. Vp goeth the doctor into the Pulpit, and being set downe, after that hee hath lordlike looked him about, signifieth silence with his bell, and so readeth a fewe wordes of that booke we spake of, the which he expoundeth afterward, more at large. These preachers be for the most part eloquent, and apt to drawe with their speach the mindes of their hearers. Wherefore to this ende chieflie (such is their greedinesse) tendeth all their talke, that the people bee brought vnder the colour of godlinesse to enrich their monasteries, promising to each one so much the more happinesse in the life to come, how much the greater costes and charges they bee at in Church matters and obsequies: notwithstanding this multitude of superstitious Sects and companies, and the diuersities thereof amongst themselues: yet in this principally all their Superintendents doe trauell so to perswade their Nouices in their owne tales and lies, that they thinke nothing els trueth, nothing els sure to come by euerlasting saluation, nothing els woorth the hearing. Whereunto they adde other subtleties, as in going grauitie, in countenance, apparell, and in all outward shew, comelinesse. Whereby the Iapans mindes are so nousled in wicked opinions, and doe conceiue thereby such trust and hope of euerlasting saluation, that not onely at home, but also abroad in euery corner of the towne continually almost they run ouer their beades, humbly asking of Amida and Xaca, wealth, honour, good health, and euerlasting ioyes. Thus then, deare brethren, may you thinke how greatly they need the helpe of God, that either doe bring the Gospell into this countrey, or receiuing it brought vnto them, doe forsake idolatrie and ioine themselues with Christ, being assaulted by so many snares of the deuill, troubled with the daily dissuasions of their Bonzii, and finally, so iniuriously, so hardly, so sharpely vexed of their kinred and friends, that except the grace of God obtained by the sacrifices and prayers of the Catholique church doe helpe vs, it cannot be chosen but that the faith and constancie of many, if not of all, in these first beginnings of our churches, will greatly be put in ieopardie. So much the more it standeth you vpon that so earnestly long for the health of soules, to commend specially these Iapanish flocks vnto our Lord. We came to Sacaio the eight and twentie day of Ianuary: Aloisius Almeida first for businesse, but afterward let by sicknesse, staied there some while, but I parting the next day from thence came thirteene leagues off to Meaco the last of Ianuarie. Of my comming all the Christians tooke great comfort, but specially Gaspar Vilela who in 6 yeres had seen none of our companie at Meaco: his yeeres are not yet fortie, but his grey haires shew him to be seuentie, so vehemently is his litle body afflicted and worne with extreme cold. Hee speaketh Iapanish so skilfully after the phrase of Meaco (the which for the renowne of this people and royal seat of the king is best accounted of) that hee doeth both confesse and preach in that language. Certaine godly bookes also he hath done into that speach, not omitting to translate other as laisure suffreth him. To make an ende, our Lord for his goodnesse vouchsafe to preserue vs all continually, and to giue vs ayde both rightly to interprete his will, and well to doe the same. From Meaco the 19 of February 1565. Other such like matter is handled both in other his letters, and also in the Epistles written by his companions to be seene at large in the aforesaid volume. Amongst the rest this seemed in my iudgement one of the principall, and therefore the rather I tooke vpon me to doe it into English. * * * * * Of the Iles beyond Iapan in the way from China to the Moluccas. Amongst other Iles in the Asian sea betwixt Canton a Chinish hauen in Cathaio and the Moluccas, much spoken of in the Indian histories and painted out in Maps, Ainan and Santianum are very famous. Ainan standeth 19 degrees on this side of the Equinoctiall line neere China, from whence the Chinish nation haue their prouision for shipping and other necessaries requisite for their Nauie. There staied Balthasar Gagus a great traueiler 5 moneths, who describeth that place after this maner. [Sidenote: De reb. Iap. li. 4.] Ainan is a goodly countrey ful of Indian fruits and all kinds of victuals, besides great store of iewels and pearle, well inhabited, the townes built of stone, the people rude in conditions, apparelled in diuers coloured rugs, with two oxe hornes, as it were, made of fine cypres hanging downe about their eares, and a paire of sharpe cyzers at their foreheads. The cause wherefore they go in such attire I could not vnderstand, except it bee for that they do counterfeit the deuil in the forme of a brute beast, offring themselues vp to him. Santianum is an Ile neere vnto the hauen Cantan in the confines likewise of China, famous for the death of that worthy traueiler and godly professour and painfull doctor of the Indian nation in matters concerning religion, Francis Xauier, who after great labours, many iniuries, and calamities infinite suffred with much patience, singular ioy and gladnesse of mind, departed in a cabben made of bowes and rushes vpon a desert mountaine, no lesse voyd of all worldly commodities, then endued with all spirituall blessings, out of this life, the 2 day of December, the yeere of our Lord 1552. after that many thousand of these Easterlings were brought by him to the knowledge of Christ. Of this holy man, his particular vertues, and specially trauell, and wonderfull works in that region, of other many litle Iles (yet not so litle, but they may right wel be written of at laisure) all the latter histories of the Indian regions are full. * * * * * An excellent treatise of the kingdome of China, and of the estate and gouernment thereof: Printed in Latine at Macao a citie of the Portugals in China, An. Dom. 1590. and written Dialogue-wise. The speakers are Linus, Leo, and Michael. LINUS. Concerning the kingdome of China (Michael) which is our next neighbour, we haue heard and daily do heare so many reports, that we are to request at your hands rather a true then a large discourse and narration thereof. And if there be ought in your knowledge besides that which by continual rumours is waxen stale among vs, we will right gladly giue diligent eare vnto it. MICHAEL. Because the report of this most famous kingdome is growen so common among vs, reducing diuers and manifold particulars into order, I will especially aime at the trueth of things receiued from the fathers of the societie, which euen now at this present are conuersant in China. [Sidenote: The situation and limites of China.] First of all therefore it is not vnknowen, that of all parts of the maine continent this kingdom of China is situate most Easterly: albeit certaine Ilands, as our natiue Iapon, and the Ile of Manilia stand more Easterly then China it selfe. As touching the limites and bounds of this kingdom, we may appoint the first towards the West to be a certaine Ile commonly called Hainan, which standeth in 19 degrees of Northerly latitude. For the continent next adioining vnto this Ile trendeth towardes the East, and that especially, where the promontorie of the citie called Nimpo or Liampo doeth extend it selfe. Howbeit, from that place declining Northward, it stretcheth foorth an huge length, insomuch that the farthest Chinian inhabitants that way doe behold the North pole eleuated, at least 50 degrees, and perhaps more also: whereupon a man may easilie coniecture (that I may speake like an Astronomer) how large the latitude of this kingdom is, when as it containeth about more then 540 leagues in direct extension towards the North. But as concerning the longitude which is accounted from East to West, it is not so exactly found out, that it may be distinguished into degrees. [Sidenote: Chinian Cosmographers.] Howbeit certaine it is, that according to the Map wherein the people of China describe the forme of their kingdom, the latitude thereof doeth not much exceed the longitude. This kingdom therefore is, without all peradventure, of all earthly kingdoms the most large and spacious: for albeit diuers other kings vnder their iurisdiction containing in dimensions more length and breadth then all China, do possesse very many kingdoms and far distant asunder: yet none of them all enioyeth any one kingdom so large and so ample, as the most puissant king of China doeth. [Sidenote: The rich reuenues of the king of China.] Now, if we shall make enquirie into his reuenues and tributes, true it is, that this king, of all others, is endued with the greatest and the richest, both in regard of the fertilitie and greatnes of his dominions, and also by reason of the seuere collection and exaction of his duties: yea, tributes are imposed vpon his subiects, not onely for lands, houses, and impost of marchandise, but also for euery person in each family. It is likewise to be understood, that almost no lord or potentate in China hath authoritie to leuie vnto himselfe any peculiar reuenues, or to collect any rents within the precincts of his seigniories, al such power belonging onely vnto the king: whereas in Europe the contrary is most commonly seen, as we haue before signified. In this most large kingdom are conteined 15 prouinces, euery one of which were in it selfe sufficient to be made one great kingdom. Six of these prouinces do border vpon the sea, namely (that I may vse the names of the Chinians themselues) Coantum, Foquien, Chequiam, Nanquin, Xantum, Paquin: the other 9 be in-land prouinces, namely, Quiansi, Huquam, Honan, Xiensi, Xansi, Suchuon, Queicheu, Iunan, Coansi. [Sidenote: The seats roiall of the king of China.] Amongst all the foresayd prouinces, two are allotted for the kings court and seat roial, that is to say, Paquin for his court in the North, and Nanquin for his court in the South. For the kings of China were woont to be resident altogether at the South court: but afterward by reason of the manifold and cruell warres mooued by the Tartars, they were constrained to defixe their princely seate and habitation in that extreme prouince of the North. Whereupon it commeth to passe, that those Northren confines of the kingdom doe abound with many moe fortresses, marciall engines, and garrisons of souldiers. LEO. I haue heard, amongst those munitions, a certaine strange and admirable wall reported of, wherewith the people of China doe represse and driue backe the Tartars attempting to inuade their territories. MICHAEL. Certes that wall which you haue heard tell of is most woorthie of admiration; for it runneth alongst the borders of three Northerlie prouinces, Xiensi, Xansit and Paquin, and is sayd to contayne almost three hundred leagues in length, and in such sort to bee built, that it hindereth not the courses and streames of any riuers, their chanels being ouerthwarted and fortified with wonderfull bridges and other defences. Yet is it not vnlikely, that the sayd wall is built in such sort, that onely lowe and easie passages bee therewith stopped and enuironed; but the mountaines running betweene those lowe passages are, by their owne naturall strength, and inaccessible heigth, a sufficient fortification agaynst the enemie. LINUS. Tell vs (Michael) whether the kingdome of China be so frequented with inhabitants, as wee haue often bene informed, or no? MICHAEL. It is (Linus) in very deed a most populous kingdom, as I haue bene certified from the fathers of societie: who hauing seene sundry prouinces of Europe renoumed for the multitude of their inhabitants, doe notwithstanding greatly admire the infinite swarmes of people in China. Howbeit these multitudes are not pel-mel and confusiuely dispersed ouer the land, but most conueniently and orderly distributed in their townes and famous cities: of which assemblies there are diuers kindes among the Chinians. For they haue certaine principal cities called by the name of Fu: other inferior cities called Cheu: and of a third kind also named Hien, which be indeed walled townes, but are not priuileged with the dignities and prerogatiues of cities. To these may be added two other kindes of lesser townes, which are partly villages, and partly garrisons of souldiers. Of the first and principall kind is that most noble citie standing neere vnto the port of Macao, called by the Chinians Coanchefu, but by the Portugals commonly termed Cantam, which is rather the common name of the prouince, then a word of their proper imposition. Vnto the third kind appertaineth a towne, which is yet nigher vnto the port of Macao, called by the Portugals Ansam, but by the Chinians Hiansanhien. Al the foresayd prouinces therefore haue their greater cities named Fu, and their lesser cities called Cheu, vnto both of which the other townes may be added. Moreouer in euery prouince there is a certain principal city which is called the Metropolitane thereof, wherein the chief magistrates haue their place of residence, as the principal citie by me last mentioned, which is the head of the whole prouince called Coantum. The number of the greater cities throughout the whole kingdom is more then 150, and there is the same or rather a greater multitude of inferiour cities. Of walled townes, not endued with the priuileges of cities there are mo then 1120: the villages and garrisons can scarce be numbred: ouer and besides the which conuents it is incredible what a number of countrie fames or granges there be: for it is not easie to find any place desert or void of inhabitants in all that land. [Sidenote: The Chinian riuers greatly inhabited.] Now in the sea, in riuers, and in barks there are such abundance of people, and of whole families inhabiting, that euen the Europæans themselues doe greatly wonder thereat: insomuch that some (albeit beyond measure) haue bene perswaded that there are as many people dwelling vpon the water as vpon the land. Neither were they induced so to thinke altogether without probabilitie: for whereas the kingdom of China is in all parts thereof interfused with commodious riuers, and in many places consisteth of waters, barges and boats being euery-where very common, it might easily bee supposed, that the number of watermen was equal vnto the land inhabitants. Howbeit, that is to be vnderstood by amplification, whereas the cities do swarme so ful with citizens and the countrie with peasants. [Sidenote: Holesome aire, plenty and peace in China.] LEO. The abundance of people which you tell vs of seemeth very strange: whereupon I coniecture the soile to be fertile, the aire to be holesome, and the whole kingdom to be at peace. MICHAEL. You haue (friend Leo) ful iudicially coniectured those three: for they do all so excel that which of the three in this kingdom be more excellent, it is not easie to discerne. And hence it is that this common opinion hath been rife among the Portugals, namely, that the kingdom of China was neuer visited with those three most heauy and sharpe scourges of mankind, warre, famine, and pestilence. But that opinion is more common then true: sithens there haue bene most terrible intestine and ciuile warres, as in many and most autenticall histories it is recorded: sithens also that some prouinces of the sayd kingdom, euen in these our dayes, haue bene afflicted with pestilence and contagious diseases, and with famine. [Sidenote: Chinian stories.] Howbeit, that the foresaid three benefits do mightily flourish and abound in China, it cannot be denied. For (that I may first speake of the salubritie of the aire) the fathers of the societie themselues are witnesses; that scarcely in any other realme there are so many found that liue vnto decrepite and extreme old age: so great a multitude is there of ancient and graue personages: neither doe they vse so many confections and medicines, nor so manifold and sundry wayes of curing diseases, as wee saw accustomed in Europe. For amongst them they haue no Phlebotomie or letting of blood: but all their cures, as ours also in Iapon, are atchieued by fasting, decoctions of herbes, and light or gentle potions. But in this behalfe let euery nation please themselues with their owne customes. Now, in fruitfulnes of soile this kingdom certes doth excel, far surpassing all other kingdoms of the East: yet it is nothing comparable vnto the plentie and abundance of Europe, as I haue declared at large in the former treatises. But the kingdom of China is, in this regard, so highly extolled, because there is not any region in the East partes that aboundeth so with marchandise, and from whence so much traffique is sent abroad. [Sidenote: The city of Coanchefu, _aliàs_ Cantam.] For whereas this kingdome is most large and full of nauigable riuers, so that commodities may easilie be conueyed out of one prouince into another: the Portugals doe find such abundance of wares within one and the same Citie, (which perhaps is the greatest Mart throughout the whole kingdome) that they are verily perswaded, that the same region, of all others, most aboundeth with marchandise: which notwithstanding is to be vnderstood of the Orientall regions: albeit there are some kindes of marchandise, wherewith the land of China is better stored then any other kingdom. [Sidenote: Great abundance of gold in China.] This region affordeth especially sundry kinds of mettals, of which the chiefe, both in excellencie and in abundance, is gold, whereof so many Pezoes are brought from China to India, and to our countrey of Iapon, that I heard say, that in one and the same ship, this present yeere, 2000 such pieces consisting of massie gold, as the Portugals commonly call golden loaues, were brought vnto vs for marchandise: and one of these loaues is worth almost 100 duckats. Hence it is that in the kingdom of China so many things are adorned with gold, as for example, beds, tables, pictures, images, litters wherein nice and daintie dames are caried vpon their seruants backes. Neither are these golden loaues onely bought by the Portugals, but also great plentie of gold-twine and leaues of gold: for the Chinians can very cunningly beate and extenuate gold into plates and leaues. [Sidenote: Great store of siluer.] There is also great store of siluer, whereof (that I may omit other arguments) it is no small demonstration, that euery yeere there are brought into the citie commonly called Cantam by the Portugal marchants to buie wares, at the least 400 Sestertium thereof, and yet nothing in a maner is conueied out of the Chinian kingdom: because the people of China abounding with all necessaries, are not greatly inquisitiue or desirous of any marchandise from other kingdomes. I doe here omit the Siluer mines whereof there are great numbers in China, albeit there is much circumspection vsed in digging the siluer thereout: for the king standeth much in feare least it may bee an occasion to stirre vp the couetous and greedie humour of many. Nowe their siluer which they put to vses is for the most part passing fine, and purified from all drosse, and therefore in trying it they vse great diligence. What should I speake of their iron, copper, lead, tinne, and other mettals, and also of their quick-siluer. Of all which in the realme of China there is great abundance, and from thence they are transported into diuers countreys. Hereunto may bee added the wonderfull store of pearles, which, at the Ile of Hainan, are found in shell-fishes taken very cunningly by certaine Diuers, and doe much enlarge the kings reuenues. [Sidenote: Great store of silke in China.] But now let vs proceed vnto the Silke or Bombycine fleece, whereof there is great plentie in China: so that euen as the husbandmen labour in manuring the earth, and in sowing of Rice; so likewise the women doe employ a great part of their time in preseruing of silke-wormes, and in keeming and weauing of Silke. Hence it is that euery yeere the King and Queene with great solemnitie come foorth into a publique place, the one of them touching a plough, and the other a Mulberie tree, with the leaues whereof Silke-wormes are nourished: and both of them by this ceremonie encouraging both men and women vnto their vocation and labour: whereas otherwise, all the whole yeere throughout, no man besides the principall magistrates, may once attaine to the sight of the king. [Sidenote: Silke brought into Iapon.] Of this Silke or Bombycine fleece there is such abundance, that three shippes for the most part comming out of India to the port of Macao, and at the least one euery yeere comming vnto vs, are laden especially with this fraight, and it is vsed not onely in India, but caried euen vnto Portugal. Neither is the Fleece it selfe onely transported thence, but also diuers and sundry stuffes wouen thereof, for the Chinians do greatly excel in the Art of weauing, and do very much resemble our weauers of Europe. Moreouer the kingdom of China aboundeth with most costlie spices and odours, and especially with cynamom (albeit not comparable to the cynamom of Zeilan) with camphire also and muske, which is very principal and good. Muske deriueth his name from a beast of the same name (which beast resembleth a Beuer) from the parts whereof bruseda and putrified proceedeth a most delicate and fragrant smel which the Portugals highly esteem, commonly calling those parts of the foresaid beasts (because they are like vnto the gorges of foules) Papos, and conuey great plenty of them into India, and to vs of Iapon. [Sidenote: Cotton wooll, whereof Calicut-cloth is made.] But who would beleeue, that there were so much gossipine or cotton-wool in China; whereof such variety of clothes are made like vnto linnen; which we our selues do so often vse, and which also is conueied by sea into so many regions? Let vs now intreat of that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white, and is to be esteemed the best stuffe of that kind in the whole world: whereof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed. I say, it is the best earthen matter in all the world, for three qualities; namely, the cleannesse, the beauty, and the strength thereof. There is indeed other matter to be found more glorious, and more costly, but none so free from vncleannes, and so durable: this I adde, in regard of glasse, which indeed is immaculate and cleane, but may easily be broken in pieces. This matter is digged, not thorowout the whole region of China, but onely in one of the fifteene prouinces called Quiansi, wherein continually very many artificers are employed about the same matter: neither doe they only frame thereof smaller vessels, as dishes, platters, salt sellers, ewers, and such like, but also certaine huge tunnes, and vessels of great quantity, being very finely and cunningly wrought, which, by reason of the danger and difficulty of carriage, are not transported out of the realme, but are vsed onely within it, and especially in the kings court. The beauty of this matter is much augmented by variety of picture, which is layed in certaine colours vpon it, while it is yet new, golde also being added thereunto, which maketh the foresayd vessels to appeare most beautifull. It is wonderfull how highly the Portugals do esteeme thereof, seeing they do, with great difficulty transport the same, not onely to vs of Iapon and into India, but also into sundry prouinces of Europe. Vnto the marchandize aboue-mentioned may be added diuers and sundry plants, the rootes whereof be right holesome for mens bodies, and very medicinable, which are brought vnto our Iles of Iapon, and vnto many other Ilands, amongst the which that wood may be reckoned, which (by a synechdoche) is called The Wood of China, being of notable force to expell out of mens bodies those humours, which would breed contagious diseases. To these you may adde sugar-canes (for in the realme of China there is great store of excellent sugar) which is conueyed by the Portugals very plentifully, both into our countrey, and also into India. My speeches vttered immediatly before concerned marchandize onely, in regard whereof this kingdome is beneficiall not to itselfe alone, but most profitable to many other nations also. [Sidenote: China in a maner destitute of corne, wine, and oile.] As for those fruits which pertaine to yerely sustenance and common food, they can scarse be numbred: albeit, of those three commodities which they of Europe so greatly account of; namely of cornes, vines, and oliues the land of China is not very capable: for the Chinians know not so much as the name of an Oliue tree (out of the fruit whereof oile is expressed) neither yet the name of a vine. The prouince of Paquin is not altogether destitute of wine, but whether it be brought from other places, or there made, I am not able to say: although it aboundeth with many other, and those not vnpleasant liquors, which may serue in the stead of wine it selfe. Now, as touching corne, there is indeed wheat sowen in all the prouinces, howbeit rise is in farre more vse and request then it: and so in regard of these two commodities profitable for mans life; namely, wine and come; the kingdome of China and our countrey of Iapon may be compared together. LEO. You haue discoursed (Michael) of the fruitfulnesse of China, whereof I haue often heard, that it is no lesse pleasant than fruitful, and I haue bene especially induced so to thinke, at the sight of the Chinian maps. MICHAEL. The thing it selfe agrees right well with the picture: for they that haue seene the mediterran or inner parts of the kingdome of China, do report it to be a most amiable countrey, adorned with plenty of woods, with abundance of fruits and grasse, and with woonderfull variety of riuers, wherewith the Chinian kingdome is watered like a garden; diuers of which riuers doe naturally flowe, and others by arte and industry are defined into sundry places. But now I will intreat of the tranquility and peace of China, after I haue spoken a word or two concerning the maners of the inhabitants. [Sidenote: The disposition and maners of the Chinians.] This nation is indued with excellent wit and dexterity for the attaining of all artes, and being very constant in their owne customes, they lightly regard the customes or fashions of other people. They vse one and the same kinde of vesture, yet so, that there is some distinction betweene the apparell of the magistrate and of the common subiect. They all of them do weare long haire vpon their heads, and, after the maner of women, do curiously keame their dainty locks hanging downe to the ground, and, hauing twined and bound them vp, they couer them with calles, wearing sundry caps thereupon, according to their age and conditon. It seemeth that in olde time one language was common to all the prouinces: notwithstanding, by reason of variety of pronunciation, it is very much altered, and is diuided into sundry idiomes or proprieties of speech, according to the diuers prouinces: howbeit, among the magistrates, and in publike assemblies of iudgement, there is one and the very same kinde of language vsed thorowout the whole realme, from the which (as I haue sayd) the speech of ech prouince differeth not a little. [Sidenote: Their loyaltie vnto their superiours.] Moreouer this people is most loyall and obedient vnto the king and his magistrates, which is the principall cause of their tranquility and peace. For whereas the common sort doe apply themselues vnto the discretion and becke of inferiour magistrates, and the inferiour magistrates of the superiour, and the superiour magistrates of the king himselfe, framing and composing all their actions and affaires vnto that leuell: a world it is to see, in what equability and indifferency of iustice all of them do leade their liues, and how orderly the publike lawes are administred. Which thing notwithstanding shall be handled more at large, when we come to intreat of the gouernment. LINUS. Tell vs now (Michael) of the industry of that people, whereof we haue heard great reports. MICHAEL. Their industry is especially to be discerned in manuary artes and occupations, and therein the Chinians do surpasse most of these Easterly nations. For there are such a number of artificers ingeniously and cunningly framing sundry deuices out of golde, siluer, and other mettals, as likewise of stone, wood and other matters conuenient for mans vse, that the streets of cities being replenished with their shops and fine workemanship, are very woonderfull to beholde. Besides whom also there are very many Painters, vsing either the pensill or the needle (of which the last sort are called Embrotherers) and others also that curiously worke golde-twine vpon cloth either of linnen or of cotton: whose operations of all kinds are diligently conueyed by the Portugals into India. Their industry doth no lesse appeare in founding of gunnes and in making of gun-powder, whereof are made many rare and artificiall fire-works. To these may be added the arte of Printing, albeit their letters be in maner infinite and most difficult, the portraitures whereof they cut in wood or in brasse, and with maruellous facilitie they dayly publish huge multitudes of books. Vnto these mechanicall and illiberall crafts you may adde two more; that is to say, nauigation and discipline of warre; both of which haue bene in ancient times most diligently practised by the inhabitants of China: for (as we haue before signified in the third dialogue) the Chinians sailing euen as farre as India, subdued some part thereof vnto their owne dominion: howbeit afterward, least they should diminish the forces of their realme by dispersing them into many prouinces, altering their counsell, they determined to containe themselues within their owne limits: within which limits (as I haue sayd) there were in olde time vehement and cruell wares, both betweene the people of China themselues, and also against the Tartarian king, who inuaded their kingdome, and by himselue and his successours, for a long season, vsurped the gouernment thereof. Howbeit the kings of the Tartarian race being worne out, and their stocke and family being vtterly abolished, the Chinians began to lift vp their heads, and to aduance themselues, inioying for these 200 yeeres last past exceeding peace and tranquility, and at this day the posterity of the same king that expelled the Tartars, with great dignity weareth the crowne, and wieldeth the royall scepter. Albeit therefore the people of China (especially they that inhabit Southerly from the prouince of Paquin) are, for the most part, by reason of continuall ease and quiet, growen effeminate, and their courage is abated, notwithstanding they would prooue notable and braue souldiers, if they ioyned vse and exercise vnto their naturall fortitude. As a man may easily obserue in them, that maintaine continuall warres against the most barbarous and cruell Tartars. Howbeit in this kingdome of China there is so great regard of military discipline, that no city nor towne there is destitute of a garison, the captaines and gouernours keeping ech man his order; which all of them, in euery prouince, are subiect vnto the kings lieutenant generall for the warres, whom they call Chumpin, and yet he himselfe is subiect vnto the Tutan or viceroy. Let vs now come vnto that arte, which the Chinians do most of all professe, and which we may, not vnfitly, call literature or learning. For although it be commonly reported, that many liberall sciences, and especially naturall and morall phylosophy are studied in China, and that they haue Vniuersities there, wherein such ingenuous artes are deliuered and taught, yet, for the most part this opinion is to be esteemed more popular then true; but I will declare, vpon what occasion this conceit first grew. The people of China doe, aboue all things, professe the arte of literature; and learning it most diligently, they imploy themselues a long time and the better part of their age therein. For this cause, in all cities and townes, yea, and in pety villages also, there are certaine schole-masters hired for stipends to instruct children: and their literature being (as ours in Iapon is also) in maner infinite, their children are put to schole euen from their infancy and tender yeeres, from whence notwithstanding such are taken away, as are iudged to be vnfit for the same purpose, and are trained vp to marchandize or to manuary sciences: but the residue do so dedicate themselues to the study of learning, that (a strange thing it is to consider) being conuersant in the principall books, they will easily tel you, if they be asked the question, how many letters be conteined in euery page, and where ech letter is placed. Now, for the greater progresse and increase of learning, they (as the maner is in Europe) do appoint three degrees to the attaining of noble sciences; that is to say, the lowest, the middle degree, and the highest. Graduates of the first degree are called Siusai, of the second Quiugin, and of the third Chinzu. And in each city or walled towne there is a publique house called the Schoole, and vnto that all they doe resort from all priuate and pety-schooles that are minded to obtaine the first degree; where they do amplifie a sentence or theame propounded vnto them by some magistrate: and they, whose stile is more elegant and refined, are, in ech city, graced with the first degree. Of such as aspire vnto the second degree triall is made onely in the metropolitan or principall city of the prouince, whereunto, they of the first degree, euery third yere, haue recourse, and, in one publike house or place of assembly, doe, the second time, make an oration of another sentence obscurer then the former, and doe vndergo a more seuere examination. Now, there is commonly such an huge multitude of people, that this last yere, in the foresayd famous city of Cantam, by reason of the incredible assembly of persons flocking to that publike act or commencement, at the first entrance of the doores, there were many troden vnder foot, and quelled to death, as we haue bene most certainly informed. Moreouer they that sue for the highest degree are subiect vnto a most seuere and exact censure, whereby they are to be examined at the Kings Court onely, and that also euery third yere next ensuing the sayd yere wherein graduates of the second degree are elected in ech prouince, and, a certaine number being prescribed vnto euery particular prouince, they do ascend vnto that highest pitch of dignity, which is in so great regard with the king himselfe, that the three principall graduates do, for honours sake, drinke off a cup filled euen with the Kings owne hand, and are graced with other solemnities. [Marginal note: Note the extraordinary honor vouchsafed by the great King of China vpon his learned graduates.] Out of this order the chiefe magistrates are chosen: for after that they haue attained vnto this third degree, being a while trained vp in the lawes of the realme, and in the precepts of vrbanity, they are admitted vnto diuers function. Neither are we to thinke that the Chinians be altogether destitute of other artes. For, as touching morall philosophy, all those books are fraught with the precepts thereof, which, for their instructions sake, are alwayes conuersant in the hands of the foresayd students, wherein such graue and pithy sentences are set downe, that, in men void of the light of the Gospell, more can not be desired. [Sidenote: Naturall philosophy.] They haue books also that intreat of things and causes naturall, but herein it is to be supposed, that aswell their books as ours do abound with errors. There be other books among them, that discourse of herbs and medicines, and others of chiualry and martiall affaires. Neither can I here omit, that certaine men of China (albeit they be but few, and rare to be found) are excellent in the knowledge of astronomy, by which knowledge of theirs the dayes of the new moone incident to euery moneth are truly disposed and digested, and are committed to writing and published: besides, they doe most infallibly foretell the eclipses of the Sun and Moone: and whatsoeuer knowledge in this arte we of Iapon haue, it is deriued from them. LEO. We doe freely confesse that (Michael) sithens our books intreating of the same arte are a great part of them, written in the characters or letters of China. [Sidenote: The politike gouernment of China.] But now, instruct you vs as touching their maner of gouernment, wherein the Chinians are sayd greatly to excell. MICHAEL. That, that, in very deed, is their chiefe arte, and vnto that all their learning and exercise of letters is directed. Whereas therefore, in the kingdome of China, one onely king beares rule ouer so many prouinces, it is strange what a number of Magistrates are by him created to admister publique afiaires. For (to omit them which in ech Towne and City haue iurisdiction ouer the townesmen and citizens) there are three principall Magistrates in euery prouince. The first is he that hath to deale in cases criminall, and is called Ganchasu: the second is the Kings Fosterer, and is called Puchinsu: the third is the Lieutenant-generall for the warres, named, as we sayd before, Chumpin. These three therefore haue their place of residence in the chiefe City of the prouince: and the two former haue certaine associates of their owne order, but of inferiour authority, appointed in diuers Cities and Townes, vnto whom, according to the variety of causes, the Gouernours of Townes and the Maiors of Cities doe appeale. Howbeit the three forenamed Magistrates are in subjection vnto the Tutan, that is, the Vice-roy, ordained in ech prouince. And all these Magistrates beare office for the space of three yeeres together: yet so, that for the gouerning of ech province, not any of the same prouince, but strangers, that is, men of another prouince, are selected: whereof it commeth to passe, that the Iudges may giue sentence with a farre more entire and incorrupt minde, then if they were among their owne kinesfolke and allies. Ouer and besides all these, there is an annuall or yeerely Magistrate, which is called Chaien, whose duety it is to make inquisition of all crimes, and especially the crimes of Magistrates, and also to punish common offences: but concerning the faults of the great magistrates to admonish the king himselfe. Of this order, euery yere, are sent out of the Kings Court, for ech prouince, one; and going ouer all the Cities and Townes thereof, they do most diligently ransacke and serch out all crimes, and vpon them which are imprisoned they inflict due punishment, or, being found not guilty, they dismisse them vnpunished. Hence it is, that all Magistrates greatly fearing to be called in question by the Chaien are well kept within the limits of their callings. [Sidenote: Two Senates or Counsels continually holden in China.] Besides all these Magistrates there is at either Court, namely in the North, and in the South, a Senate or honourable assembly of graue counsellors, vnto the which, out of all prouinces, according to the neerenesse and distance of the place, affaires of greater weight and moment are referred, and by their authority diuers Magistrates are created: howbeit the managing and expedition of principall affaires is committed vnto the Senate of Paquin. Moreouer there are euery yeere certaine Magistrates appointed in ech prouince, to goe vnto the king; and euery third yeere all the Gouernours of Cities and of Townes do visit him at once, what time triall is made of them that aspire vnto the third degree: vpon which occasion there is at the same time an incredible number of people at the Kings Court. [Sidenote: The causes of peace in China.] By reason of this excellent order and harmony of Magistrates placed one vnder another, it can scarse be imagined, what sweete peace and tranquility flourisheth thorowout the whole realme, especially sithens, after speedy inquisition, persons that are guilty be put (as the maner is there) to the punishment of the bastinado: neither yet are suits or actions any long time delayed. [Sidenote: Learning the only step to honour in China.] Also it is not to be omitted, that for the obtaining of any dignity or magistracy, the way is open, without all respect of gentry or blood, vnto all men, if they be learned, and especially if they haue attained vnto the third and highest degree aforesaid. [The stately and formidable procession of the Chinian magistrates.] Neither can it be expressed how obedient and duetifull the common sort are vnto their Magistrates, and with what magnificence and pompe the sayd Magistrates come abroad: for the most part of them haue fiftie or threescore Sergeants attending vpon them, and going before them, two and two in a ranke: some of them carrying Halberds, Maces and Battle-axes: some trailing yron chaines vpon the ground: others holding great roddes or staues of a certaine kinde of reede, wherewith malefactours are punished, in their hands: and two there are that carry, inclosed in a case, the Kings seale peculiar for ech office: and many others also, that shew sundry spectacles vnto the people: whereunto may be added the horrible out-cries and showtes, which betweene whiles they vtter, to strike a terrour into the hearts of all men: and at length come the Magistrates themselues, being carried in a throne vpon the backs of foure men, sixe men, or eight men, according to the dignity of their office. [Sidenote: The houses of the Chinian magistrates.] Now, as concerning their houses, they are very large and stately, being built and furnished with all necessary stuffe, at the Kings owne cost, in the which, so long as their magistracy lasteth, they leade a braue and an honourable life. The sayd houses are without variety of stories one aboue another, which in the kingdome of China and in our Iles of Iapon also are not ordinarily vsed for habitation, but either to keepe watch and ward, or els for solace and recreations sake (for the which purposes, eight most lofty turrets of nine stories high are built) or els for the defence of Cities. Howbeit in other regardes these buildings doe shew foorth no small magnificence: for they haue their cisternes for the receit of raine-water, which are adorned with beautifull trees, set in order, round about them: and they haue also their places designed for the administration of iustice, and diuers other conuenient roomes to bestow their wiues and families in. Within the doores of the foresayd habitations a certain number of Sergeants and officers, hauing cabbins or little houses allotted them on both sides, doe alwayes giue their attendance; and so long as matters of iudgement are in deciding, they be alwayes ready at hand, that, at the direction of the Magistrates they may either beat malefactours, or by torments constraine them to tell the trueth. [Sidenote: The magistrates barges.] The sayd Magistrates also haue their peculiar barges wherein to take the water; being in breadth and length not much vnlike to galleys of Europe, but for swiftnesse and multitude of orres, farre inferiour vnto them. The rowers, sitting vpon galleries without the hatches or compasse of the barge, doe mooue it on forward with their oares: whereupon it commeth to passe, that the middle part of the barge affordeth sufficient roome for the Magistrates themselues to abide in, containing chambers therein almost as conuenient and handsome, as in any of their foresayd publique houses, together with butteries and kitchins, and such other places necessary for the prouision and stowage of victuals. LEO. All these things agree right well with the reports, which we haue heard of the stately and renowmed kingdome of China: I would now right gladly know somewhat concerning the order which is obserued in the obtaining of magistracies. MICHAEL. You haue enquired of a matter most woorthy to be knowen, which I had almost omitted to entreat of. [Sidenote: The maner of electing magistrates in China.] The Chinians therefore doe vse a kinde of gradation in aduancing men vnto sundry places of authority, which for the most part is performed by the Senatours of Paquin. For first they are made iudges of townes: then of Cities: afterward they are elected to be of that order, which decreeth punishments in cases criminall without further appeale, or of their order, that are the kings fosterers. [Sidenote: Degrees vnto honour.] And in both of these Orders, which are very honourable, there are many places and degrees, so that from the inferiour place they must ascend vnto the superiour, vntill they haue attained vnto the highest dignity of all: and immediatly after that they come to be Vice-royes, howbeit this gradation is not alwayes accomplished in one and the same prouince, but in changing their offices they change places and prouinces also. Moreouer, next after the office of Vice-roy they are capable to be chosen Senatours of Nanquin, and last of all to be elected into the Senate of Paquin. Now, there is such an order and methode obserued in the ascending vnto these dignities, that all men may easily coniecture, what office any one is to vndertake. [Sidenote: Riding post.] And there is so great diligence and celerity vsed for the substitution of one into the roome of another, that for the same purpose, messengers are dispatched by land, vpon swift post-horses, vnto diuers prouinces, almost twenty dayes iourney from the Kings Court. And, to be short, there is such district seuerity in degrading those that vniustly or negligently demeane themselues, from an honourable vnto an inferiour and base office, or altogether in depriuing them of the kings authority: that all Magistrates doe stand in feare of nothing in the world more then of that. [Sidenote: Martiall dignities.] The same order, almost, is obserued among the Captaines and Lieu-tenants generall for the warres: except onely in them, that their birth and offspring is respected: for many there be, who descending by parentage from such men as haue in times past atchieued braue exploits in warfare, so soone as they come to sufficient yeeres, are created Centurions, Colonels, and Gouernours, vntill at last they attaine to be Lieu-tenants generall and Protectours of some whole prouince; who notwithstanding (as I haue sayd) are in all things subiect vnto the Vice-roy. All the foresayd Magistrates both of warre and of peace haue a set number of attendants allotted vnto them, enioying a stipend, and carying certaine ensignes and peculiar badges of their office: and (besides the ordinary watch, which souldiers appointed for the same purpose doe in the night season, after the City gates be shut, keepe in their forts) wheresoeuer any Magistrate is, either at his house or in his barge, the sayd attendants striking vpon a cymball of brasse, at certaine appointed times, do keepe most circumspect and continuall watch and ward about his person. LINUS. You haue (Michael) sufficiently discoursed of the Magistrates: informe vs now of the king himselfe, whose name is so renowmed and spread abroad. [Sidenote: The king of China.] MICHAEL. Concerning this matter I will say so much onely as by certaine rumours hath come to my knowledge; for of matters appertaining vnto the kings Court we haue no eye-witnesses, sithens the fathers of the society haue not as yet proceeded vnto Paquin, who so soone as (by Gods assistance) they shall there be arriued, will by their letters more fully aduertise vs. [Sidenote: Van-Sui.] The king of China therefore is honoured with woonderfull reuerence and submission thorowout his whole realme; and whensoeuer any of his chiefe Magistrates speaketh vnto him, he calleth him VAN-SVI, signifying thereby that be wisheth tenne thousands of yeeres vnto him. [Sidenote: The succession of the crowne.] The succession of the kingdome dependeth vpon the bloud royall: for the eldest sonne borne of the kings first and lawfull wife obtaineth the kingdome after his fathers decease: neither doe they depriue themselues of the kingly authority in their life time (as the maner is in our Ilands of Iapon) but the custome of Europe is there obserued. [Sidenote: The kings yonger brethren.] Now, that the safety and life of the king may stand in more security, his yoonger brethren, and the rest borne of concubines are not permitted to liue in the kings Court: but places of habitation are by the king himselfe assigned vnto them in diuers prouinces farre distant asunder, where they dwell most commodiously, being comparable vnto kings for their buildings and revenues: howbeit they exercise no authority ouer the people, but all the gouernment of those cities wherein they dwell concerneth the Magistrates, who notwithstanding haue the sayde Princes in high regard and honour, and doe visit them twise in a moneth, and salute them kneeling vpon their knees, and bowing their faces downe to the earth: and yet they communicate nothing vnto them as touching the administration of the Common-wealth. These are they which may properly be called the Peeres or Princes of the Realme of China: for they deriue their houses and reuenues vnto their posterity, and so are these royall families continually preserued. But to returne vnto the king himselfe, hee is most chary in obseruing the Chinian lawes and customes, and diligently exerciseth himselfe in learning so much as concernes his estate, sheweth himselfe dayly vnto his chiefe Magistrates, and communeth of matters appertaining to the publique commodity of the Realme. [Sidenote: Twelue chariots.] His palace is of woonderfull largenesse and capacity, out of the which he very seldome takes his progresse; and whensoeuer he doeth so, there are twelue chariots brought foorth, all of them most like one to another both in workemanship and in value, that no man may discerne in which the king himselfe is placed. [Sidenote: The idolatrous religion of the king.] He followeth in religion especially the opinions of the Magistrates, attributing diuine power vnto heauen and earth as vnto the parents of all, and with great solemnity sacrificing vnto them. He hath diuers most sumptuous Temples dedicated vnto his ancestours, whereunto likewise he ascribeth diuine honour, and yet ceaseth hee not to fauour Priests of other sects, yea, hee erecteth Temples vnto their Patrons, endowing them with most rich reuenues; and so often as any vrgent necessity requireth, he enioynes continuall fastings and prayers vnto them: and after this sort he doeth in a maner patronize all the idolatrous sects of his Realme, and shewing himselfe ready to embrace any false religion whatsoeuer, be liueth in sundry and manifolde kindes of superstition. [Sidenote: The ciuill gouernment of China most agreeable to the instinct of nature.] Out of all the former particulars by me alledged, you may easily coniecture that the administration of kingdome of China doeth, for the most parts agree with the instinct of nature, authority being committed, not vnto rude and vnskilfull persons, but vnto such as haue beene conuersant in the vse and exercise of learning, yea, and in promoting learned men vnto magistracies, great consideration is had of their wisedom, justice, and of other virtues esteemed by the Chinian: wherefore the way being open for all men, without any respect of degree or parentage, to obtaine any of the foresayd dignities, it can not be but that this most mighty and famous kingdome must needes enioy exceeding peace and tranquility. LEO. I would nowe (Michael) right gladly vnderstand, what kinde of vrbanity or ciuill demeanour both the common people and the Magistrates doe vse one towardes another: for it is not likely that where such due administration of iustice is, common ciuility, which so well beseemeth all men, should be wanting. [Sidenote: The fiue vertues principally esteemed among the Chinians.] MICHAEL. You haue hit euen the very naile on the head: for among the fiue vertues, which the Chinians principally regard, vrbanity or courtesy is one, the rest are piety, a thankefull remembrance of benefites, true dealing in contracts or bargaines, and wisedome in atchieuing of matters: with the praises and commendations of which vertues the Chinian bookes are full fraught. [Sidenote: Vrbanity.] Now as touching their vrbanity, it is much vnlike vnto ours in Iapan, and vnto that of Europe: howbeit vnder two principall kindes the rule of their vrbanity or courtesie may be comprehended: whereof one is obserued betweene equals, and the other betweene superiours and inferiours. For when men of equall dignity meet together, they stand bending their backes, and bowing their heads downe to the ground, and this they doe either once or twice, or sometimes thrise. Now when the inferiour meets with his superiour, the sayd inferiour, for the most part kneeling lowly on his knees, enclineth his countenance downe to the earth. But how often and when this obeizance is to be performed it is woonderfull what a number of rules and prescriptions are set downe, which to recount would require a long time. [Sidenote: The Chinians great piety towards their parents.] Somewhat also I wil say as touching their piety, and especially of the piety which they vse towards their parents, which verily is so exceeding great, that for the space of three whole yeres together, the sonnes being cladde in mourning vestures doe bewaile the death of their parents, which duety is performed not onely by the common sort, but euen by all the Magistrates themselues, and that most curiously and diligently. And that all men may wholly giue their attendance vnto this businesse, it is prouided by a most inuiolable law among the Chinians, that Magistrates, vpon the death of their parents, must foorthwith renounce their authority, and three whole yeeres, for the performance of their fathers exequies, must betake themselues vnto a priuate kinde of liuing: which also is most duely put in practise by the Senatours of the Kings owne Councell. For albeit a man be right gracious in the eyes of his Prince, yea, and such an one, as vpon whom the administration of the Realme doeth principally depend; yet hauing heard of the death of his parents, that is, of his father or his mother, he hies himselfe immediately home to solemnise their funerals: insomuch that if the king would retaine him still in his office, he should be esteemed by the people, as a transgressour of the lawes and customes of China: which accident (as it is recorded) in ancient times fel out euen so. [Sisdenote: A memorable story.] For whenas a certain king most familiarly vsed a certaine Senatour of his about the managing and expedition of publike affaires, and vnderstanding well how necessary the helpe of his foresayd Senatour was, would gladly, after the death of his father, haue retained him still in his office: yet a certaine other man, being a welwiller vnto the Chinian lawes, could in no case abide it, but checking his Prince with sharpe rebukes, obiected the transgression of the law against him. The king waxing wroth menaced present death vnto the man; but when the party being no wit danted with the terrour of death, persisted still in his sayings, the king changing his determination dismissed the Senatour to mourne for his father, but as for his reprehender be aduanced him vnto an higher dignity. LINUS. I perceiue (Michael) that drawing to an end of these dialogues, and being weary of your long race, you begin to affect breuity: yet let it not seeme troublesome vnto you to speake somewhat of the religion of China, which onely thing seemes to be wanting in this present dialogue. [Sidenote: The religion of China.] MICHAEL. I confesse indeed that I endeuour to be briefe, not so much in regard of wearisomnesse, as for feare least I haue bene ouer tedious vnto you: howbeit I will not faile but accomplish that which I haue vndertaken, and (according to your request) adde somewhat more concerning religion. Whereas therefore the kingdome of China hath hitherto bene destitute of true religion, and now the first beginnings thereof are included in most narrow bounds, that nation being otherwise a people most ingenious, and of an extraordinory and high capacity, hath alwayes liued in great errours and ignorance of the trueth, being distracted into sundry opinions, and following manifolde sects. [Sidenote: Three principall sectes among the Chinians.] And among these sects there are three more famous then the rest: [Sidenote: Confucius authour of the first sect.] the first is of them that professe the doctrine of one Confucius a notable philosopher. This man (as it is reported in the history of his life) was one of most vpright and incorrupt maners, whereof he wrote sundry treatises very pithily and largely, which aboue all other books, are seriously read and perused by the Chinians. The same doctrine do all Magistrates embrace, and others also that giue their mindes to the study of letters, a great part whereof Confucius is sayd to haue inuented: and he is had in so great honour, that all his followers and clients, vpon the dayes of the new and full Moone, doe assemble themselues at the common Schoole, which I haue aboue mentioned, and before his image, which is worshipped with burning of incense and with tapers, they doe thrise bend their knees, and bow their heads downe to the ground; which not onely the common scholars, but the chiefe Magistrates do performe. [The summe of Confucius his doctrine.] The summe of the foresayd doctrine is, that men should follow the light of nature as their guide, and that they should diligently endeuour to attaine vnto the vertues by me before mentioned: and lastly, that they should employ their labour about the orderly gouernment of their families and of the Common-wealth. All these things are in very deed praise-worthy, if Confucius had made any mention of almighty God and of the life to come, and had not ascribed so much vnto the heauens, and vnto fatall necessity, nor yet had so curiously intreated of worshipping the images of their forefathers. In which regard he can very hardly or not at all be excused from the crime of idolatry: notwithstanding it is to be granted, that none other doctrine among the Chinians approacheth so neere vnto the trueth as this doeth. [Sidenote: Xequiam author of the second sect, whose followers are called Cen or Bonzi.] The second sect is of them which followethe the instructions of Xaquam, or as the Chinians call him Xequiam, whose opinions, because they are well knowen amongst vs, it were bootlesse for me to repeat; especially sithens, in the Catechisme composed by our grave visitour, they are notably refuted. This doctrine doe all they embrace, which are in China called Cen, but with vs at Iapon are named Bonzi. [Sidenote: Note.] For this I doe briefly and by the way giue you to vnderstand, that all words of the Chinians language are of one sillable onely, so that if there be any word that consisteth of more sillables then one, it consisteth also of more wordes then one. These sectaries called Cen doe shaue their beards and their heads, and doe for the most part, together with diuers of their associates, inhabit the Temples of Xaquam, or of others which in regard of the same profession haue in their Kalenders beene canonized for Saints, and doe rehearse certaine prayers after their maner, either vpon books or beads, vsing other ceremonies after the maner of our Bonzi. These men haue some inckling of the life to come, and of the rewardes of good men, and the punishments of the wicked: howbeit all their assertions are fraught with errours. [Sidenote: The third sect.] The third sect is of them which are called Tauzu: and those doe imitate a certaine other man, to be adored, as they thinke, for his holinesse. These also are Priests after their kinde, howbeit they let their haire grow, and doe in other obseruations differ from the former. Now, because the sect of Confucius is the most famous of all the three, and the two other sects called Cen and Tauzu are not much adicted vnto learning, their religion preuailing onely among the common sort, the Priests of both the sayd sects doe leade a most base and seruile life amongst the Chinians, insomuch that they kneele downe before the Magistrates, and are not permitted to sit beside them, sometimes, if the Magistrate please, are abased vnto the punishment of the bastonado: whereas in our Iles of Iapon it is farre otherwise, Priests, euen of false religion, being had in so great honour among vs. [Sidenote: The superstition of the Saracens.] LEO. I heard also (Michael) that the Saracens superstition takes place in China: now, whether it doth or no, you can resolue vs. MICHAEL. That forren superstition was brought into China what time the Tartars inuaded the kingdome, and vsurped the gouernment thereof. All the Saracens therefore in China are originally descended of the Tartars, who, because they were an infinite number, could not vtterly be expelled and rooted out of the kingdome, but remaining still there, haue propagated their posterity, though not their religion. These therefore are souldiers for the greater part of them, and sometimes doe obtaine martiall dignities: and except a few ceremonies of their superstition which is nowe become stale and almost worne out, they doe liue, altogether after the Chinians fashion, their predecessours being brought into the same kingdome about foure hundred yeeres agoe. [Sidenote: Christian religion planted in China.] LINUS. Now (Michael) let vs heare you say somewhat of the Christian religion, which as we hope hath set most happy footing in that kingdome. MICHAEL. I could say much concerning those most wished and acceptable beginnings were they not already published in Iapon by the letters of the fathers: howbeit I will make a briefe rehearsall of all things, that I may not seem altogether to haue abandoned this labour. You know that from the time wherein the fathers of the society arriued in our Ilands, to the end they might augment Christian religion, they were in like sort most carefull how they might insinuate themselues into the innermost parts of the kingdome of China. In the middst of this endeauour and trauell Francis Xauier, a most deuout man of the foresayd society, departed out of this present life at the Ile of Sancian (which some call Sangiam) leauing an example vnto the rest of his associates, how they should likewise doe their best to plant the religion of Christ in that nation. [Sidenote: An ancient custome worthy the obseruation.] This man was seconded by others, who vsed all meanes, and left no practise vnattempted, that they might bring these good beginnings vnto a prosperours issue: howbeit they were greatly hindered by reason of an ancient custome in China, in regard whereof they doe not without great difficulty and circumspection admit any strangers into their dominions, except those which hauing a long time executed the office of ambassadours doe ordinarily euery third yeere present themselues before the king: in the admission of whom likewise there is maruellous care vsed, that they may not easily espie and become acquainted with the affaires of the Realme. [Sidenote: The Chinians contemne other nations.] Hereunto may be added, that the Chinians are great contemners of other nations, and most constant obseruers of their owne lawes and customes: in all which respects it came to passe that there was wonderfull labour and diligence employed aboue thirty yeeres together, onely to get an entrance, vntill in the yeere one thousand fiue hundred fourescore and three, two fathers of the foresayd society, that had pretty skill in the letters and language of China, vtterly despairing of mans helpe, and depending vpon the prouidence of almighty God, obtained licence of the Tutan or Vice-roy to build them an house and a Church in the City of Xauquin, which by reason of the commodiousnesse thereof is the seat of the Viceroy himselue. This worke being begunne, the sayd fathers of the society, for the nouelty therof, were a few yeeres right well entreated by the Magistrates: inasmuch that two others out of India had free and easie accesse vnto them, one couple remaining still in their foresayd house at Xauquin, and the other two taking their iourney for the inner prouinces, to conuert more people vnto the faith: who notwithstanding afterward, other Magistrates not approouing of their attempts, were constrained to retire. Nowe all the time wherein the foresayd fathers abode at Xauquin (being more then fiue yeeres) certaine of the common people were restrained from false superstition to Christian religion, and seuenty persons were baptised. But the enemy of mankinde, who omitteth none opportunity for the hinderance of Christian religion, suggested into the mindes of the Chinians (being, as I sayd, of their owne nature, a people estranged from the traffique and acquaintance of other nations, and alwayes being too suspicious of strangers) that they should exhibit letters of supplication vnto the Caien and the Tutan their principall Magistrates, to haue the fathers expelled out of Xauquin: which Magistrates repairing vnto their foresayed house and Church entered consultation how they might bannish them out of the sayd City of Xauquin: in which thing verily they vsed great moderation, not any way offending or exasperating the mindes of the fathers, but onely signifying that they had regard vnto the estate of their Common-wealth. For the Tutan or Vice-roy calling the fathers vnto him, and (to let passe other accidents) vsing courteous and familiar conference with them, declared by many arguments, that their habitation in the City of Xauquin was not conuenient, especially sithens so many Magistrates resorted vnto that City, who would take great offence at the presence of strangers. For the which cause he perswaded them to accept some part of the money which they had bestowed in the building of their house, and so to returne either home into their own countrey, or vnto the port of Macao. Howbeit, such was the instant supplication of the fathers, and so woorthy of compassion, that the Tutan or Vice-roy, in the extreame and mediterrane borders of the prouince of Coantum, assigned vnto them a new habitation at the city called Xaucheo, commending them also to a certaine Magistrate, who was come from the same place to salute him. Thither therefore the sayd others, not without great sorrow and griefe of the Christians, hied themselues, and as we are informed by their last letters, they haue euen now layed the foundation of their first building, and haue also written that they are like to liue much more peaceably and conueniently for the propagating of Christian religion. These be the first beginnings of Christianity in China, where, euen as in other places of the Christian Common-wealth, the seed is to be sowen with great labour and teares, that acceptable fruits may be reaped with gladnesse. LEO. It is euen as you haue sayd (Michael) and nowe for this your pleasant and eloquent discourse we do acknowledge our selues much bounden vnto you. * * * * * A Letter written from Goa, the principall City of all the East Indies, by one Thomas Steuens an English man, and sent to his father, M. Thomas Steuens: Anno 1579. After most humble commendations: These shall be to crave your dayly blessing, with like commendations vnto my mother; and withall, to certifie you of my being: according to your will and my duety. I wrote vnto you taking my iourney from Italy to Portugall, which letters I thinke are come to your hands, so that presuming therupon, I thinke I haue the lesse need at this time to tell you the cause of my departing, which nevertheless in one word I may conclude, if I do but name obedience. I came to Lisbon toward the end of March, eight dayes before the departure of the shippes, so late that if they had not bene stayed about some weighty matters, they had bene long gone before our comming: insomuch that there were others ordained to goe in our places, that the kings prouision and ours also might not be in vaine. Neuerthelesse our sudden comming tooke place, and the fourth of Aprill fiue ships departed for Goa, wherein besides shipmen and souldiers, there were a great number of children which in the seas beare out better than men, and no maruell, when that many women also passe very well. The setting foorth from the port I need not to tell how solemne it is with trumpets, and shooting of ordinance, you may easily imagine it, considering that they go in the maner of warre. The tenth of the foresayd moneth we came to the sight of Porto Santo neere vnto Madera, where an English shippe set vpon ours (which was then also alone) with a few shots, which did no harme, but after that our ship had layed out her greatest ordinance, they straight departed as they came. The English shippe was very faire and great, which I was sorry to see so ill occupied, for she went rouing about, so that we saw her againe at the Canarian Iles, vnto the which we came the thirteenth of the sayd moneth, and good leisure we had to woonder at the high mountaine of the Iland Tenerif, for we wandred betweene that and great Canaria foure dayes by reason of contrary windes: and briefly, such euill weather we had vntill the foureteenth of May, that they despaired, to compasse the Cape of Good hope that yeere. Neuertheless, taking our voyage betweene Guinea and the Ilands of Capo Verde, without seeing of any land at all, we arriued at length vnto the coast of Guinie, which the Portugals so call, chiefly that part of the burning Zone, which is from the sixt degree vnto the Equinoctiall, in which parts they suffered so many inconueniences of heats, and lacke of windes, that they thinke themselues happy when they haue passed it: for sometimes the ship standeth there almost by the space of many dayes, sometimes she goeth, but in such order that it were almost as good to stand still. And the greatest part of this coast not cleare, but thicke and cloudy, full of thunder and lightening, and raine so vnholesome, that if the water stand a little while, all is full of wormes, and falling on the meat which is hanged vp, it maketh it straight full of wormes. Along all that coast we often times saw a thing swimming vpon the water like a cocks combe (which they call a ship of Guinea) but the colour much fairer; which combe standeth vpon a thing almost like the swimmer of a fish in colour and bignesse, and beareth vnderneath in the water, strings which saue it from turning ouer. This thing is so poisonous, that a man cannot touch it without great perill. In this coast, that is to say, from the sixt degree vnto the Equinoctiall, we spent no lesse than thirty dayes, partly with contrary windes, partly with calme. The thirtieth of May we passed the Equinoctiall with contentation, directing our course as well as we could to passe the promontory, but in all that gulfe, and in all the way beside, we found so often calmes, that the expertest mariner wondred at it. And in places where there are alwayes woont to be most horrible tempests, we found most quiet calmes which was very troublesome to those ships which be the greatest of all other, and cannot go without good windes. Insomuch, that when it is tempest almost intollerable for other ships, and maketh them maine all their sailes, these hoise vp, and saile excellent well, vnlesse the waters be too furious, which seldome happened in our nauigation. You shall vnderstand, that being passed the line, they cannot straightway go the next way to the promontory: but according to the winde, they draw always as neere South as they can to put themselues in the latitude of the point, which is 35 degrees and an halfe, and then they take their course towards the East, and so compass the point. But the winde serued vs so, that at 33 degrees we did direct our course toward the point or promontory of Good hope. You know that it is hard to saile from East to West, or contrary, because there is no fixed point in all the skie, whereby they may direct their course, wherefore I shall tell you what helps God prouided for these men. There is not a fowle that appereth, or signe in the aire, or in the sea, which they haue not written, which haue made the voyages heretofore. [Sidenote: The variation of the compasse.] Wherfore, partly by their owne experience, and pondering withall what space the ship was able to make with such a winde, and such direction, and partly by the experience of others, whose books and nauigations they haue, they gesse whereabouts they be, touching degrees of longitude, for of latitude they be alwayes sure: but the greatest and best industry of all is to marke the variation of the needle or compasse, which in the Meridian of the Iland of S. Michael, which is one of the Azores in the latitude of Lisbon, is iust North, and thence swarueth towards the East so much, that betwixt the Meridian aforesayd, and the point of Africa it carrieth three or foure quarters of 32. And againe in the point of Afrike, a little beyond the point that is called Cape das Agulias (in English the needles) it returneth againe vnto the North, and that place passed, it swarueth againe toward the West, as it did before proportionally. [Sidenote: Signes about the Cape of Bona Speransa.] As touching our first signes, the neerer we came to the people of Afrike, the more strange kindes of fowles appeared, insomuch that when we came within no lesse then thirty leagues (almost an hundred miles) and sixe hundred miles as we thought from any Iland, as good as three thousand fowles of sundry kindes followed our ship: some of them so great that their wings being opened from one point to the other, contained seuen spannes, as the Mariners sayd. A maruellous thing to see how God prouided, so that in so wide a sea these fowles are all fat, and nothing wanteth them. The Portugals haue named them all according to some propriety which they haue: some they call Rushtailes, because their tailes be not proportionable to their bodies, but long and small like a rush, some forked tailes because they be very broad and forked, some Veluet sleeues, because they haue wings of the colour of veluet, and bowe them as a man boweth his elbow. This bird is alwayes welcome, for he appeareth neerest the Cape. I should neuer make an end if I should tell all particulars: but it shall suffice briefly to touch a few, which yet shall be sufficient, if you marke them, to giue occasion to glorifie almighty God in his wonderfull works, and such variety in his creatures. [Sidenote: Fishes on sea coast of Africa.] And to speake somewhat of fishes in all places of calme, especially in the burning Zone, neere the line (for without we neuer saw any) there waited on our ship fishes as long as a man, which they call Tuberones, they come to eat such things as from the shippe fall into the sea, not refusing men themselues if they light vpon them. And if they finde any meat tied in the sea, they take it for theirs. These haue waiting on them six or seuen small fishes (which neuer depart) with gardes blew and greene round about their bodies, like comely seruing men: and they go two or three before him, and some on euery side. Moreouer, they haue other fishes which cleaue alwayes vnto their body, and seeme to take such superfluities as grow about them, and they are sayd to enter into their bodies also to purge them if they need. The Mariners in time past haue eaten of them, but since they haue seene them eate men their stomacks abhorre them. Neuerthelesse, they draw them vp with great hooks, and kill of them as many as they can, thinking that they haue made a great reuenge. There is another kind of fish as bigge almost as a herring, which hath wings and flieth, and they are together in great number. These haue two enemies, the one in the sea, the other in the aire. In the sea the fish which is called Albocore, as big as a Salmon, followeth them with great swiftnesse to take them. This poore fish not being able to swim fast, for he hath no finnes, but swimmeth with moouing of his taile, shutting his wings, lifteth himselue aboue the water, and flieth not very hie: the Albocore seeing that, although he haue no wings, yet he giueth a great leape out of the water, and sometimes catcheth him, or els he keepeth himselfe vnder the water going that way on as fast as he flieth. And when the fish being weary of the aire, or thinking himselue out of danger, returneth into the water, the Albocore meeteth with him: but sometimes his other enemy the sea-crow, catcheth him before he falleth. [Sidenote: Note.] With these and like sights, but alwayes making our supplications to God for good weather and saluation of the ship, we came at length vnto the point, so famous and feared of all men: but we found there no tempest, only great waues, where our Pilot was a little ouerseene: for whereas commonly al other neuer come within sight of land, but seeing signes ordinary, and finding bottome, go their way sure and safe, he thinking himselfe to haue wind at will, shot so nigh the land that the winde turning into the South, and the waues being exceeding great, rolled vs so neere the land, that the ship stood in lesse then 14 fadoms of water, no more then sixe miles from the Cape, which is called Das Agulias, and there we stood as vtterly cast away: for vnder vs were rocks of maine stone so sharpe, and cutting, that no ancre could hold the ship, the shore so euill, that nothing could take land, and the land itselfe so full of Tigers, and people that are sauage, and killers of all strangers, that we had no hope of life nor comfort, but onely in God and a good conscience. Notwithstanding, after we had lost ancres, hoising vp the sailes for to get the ship a coast in some safer place, or when it should please God, it pleased his mercy suddenly, where no man looked for helpe, to fill our sailes with wind from the land, and so we escaped, thanks be to God. And the day following, being in the place where they are alwayes wont to catch fish, we also fell a fishing, and so many they tooke, that they serued all the ship for that day, and part of the next. [Sidenote: Corall.] And one of them pulled vp a corall of great bignesse and price. For there they say (as we saw by experience) that the corals doe grow in the maner of stalks vpon the rocks in the bottome, and waxe hard and red. The day of perill was the nine and twentieth of Iuly. [Sidenote: Two wayes beyond the cape of Good hope.] And you shall vnderstand that, the Cape passed, there be two wayes to India: one within the Ile of S. Lawrence, which they take willingly, because they refresh themselues at Mosambique a fortnight or a moneth, not without great need, and thence in a moneth more land in Goa. The other is without the Ile of S. Lawrence, which they take when they set foorth so late, and come so late to the point, that they have no time to take the foresayd Mosambique, and then they goe heauily, because in this way they take no port. And by reason of the long nauigation, and want of food and water, they fall into sundry diseases, their gummes waxe great, and swell, and they are faine to cut them away, their legges swell and all the body becommeth sore, and so benummed, that they cannot stirre hand nor foot, and so they die for weaknesse, others fall into fluxes and agues, and die thereby. And this way it was our chance to make: yet though we had more then one hundred and fifty sicke, there died not past seuen and twentie; which losse they esteemed not much in respect of other times. Though some of ours were diseased in this sort, yet, thanks be to God, I had my health, contrary to the expectation of many: God send me my health so well in the land, if it may be to his honour and seruice. This way is full of priuy rocks and quicke-sands, so that sometimes we durst not saile by night, but by the prouidence of God we saw nothing, nor neuer found bottom vntill we came to the coast of India. When we had passed againe the line, and were come to the third degree or somewhat more, we saw crabs swimming on the water that were red as though they had bene sodden: but this was no signe of land. After about the eleuenth degree, the space of many days, more than ten thousand fishes by estimation followed round about our ship, whereof we caught so many, that for fifteene days we did eate nothing els, and they serued our turne very well: for at this time we had neither meate nor almost any thing els to eate, our nauigation growing so long that it drew neere to seuen moneths, where as commonly they goe it in fiue, I mean when they saile the inner way. [Sidenote: They commonly sail from Lisbon to Goa in 5 moneths.] But these fishes were not signe of land, but rather of deepe sea. At length we tooke a couple of Birds which were a kinde of Hawks, whereof they ioyed much, thinking that they had bene of India, but indeed they were of Arabia, as we found afterward. And we that thought we had bene neere India, were in the same latitude neere Zocotoro, an Ile in the mouth of the Red sea. [Sidenote: Running seas very dangerous.] But there God sent vs great winds from the Northeast or Northnortheast, wherevpon vnwillingly they bare vp towards the East, and thus we went tenne dayes without seeing signe of land, whereby they perceived their errour: for they had directed their course before always Northeast, coueting to multiply degrees of latitude, but partly the difference of the Needle, and most of all the running seas, which at that time ran Northwest, had drawen vs to this other danger, had not God sent vs this winde, which at length waxed larger, and restored vs to our right course. These running seas be so perillous that they deceiue the most part of the gouernours, and some be so little curious, contenting themselues with ordinary experience, that they care not to seeke out any meanes to know when they swarue, neither by the compasse, nor by any other triall. [Sidenote: Certaine signs of land.] The first signe of land were certaine fowles which they knew to be of India: the second, boughes of palmes and sedges: the third, snakes swimming on the water, and a substance which they call by the name of a coine of money, as broad and as round as a groat, wonderfully printed and stamped of nature, like vnto some coine. And these two last signes be so certaine, that the next day after, if the winde serve, they see lande, which we did to our great joy, when all our water (for you know they make no beere in those parts) and victuals began to faile vs. [Sidenote: They arriued at Goa the 24 of October.] And to Goa we came the foure and twentieth day of October, there being receiued with passing great charity. The people be tawny, but not disfigured in their lips and noses, as the Moores and Cafres of Ethiopia. They that be not of reputation, or at least the most part, goe naked, sauing an apron of a span long, and as much in breadth before them, and a lace two fingers broad before them, girded about with a string and no more: and thus they thinke them as well as we with all our trimming. Of the fruits and trees that be here I cannot now speake, for I should make another letter as long as this. For hitherto I haue not seene a tree here whose like I haue seene in Europe, the vine excepted, which neuerthelesse here is to no purpose, so that all the wines are brought out of Portugall. The drinke of this countrey is good water, or wine of the Palme tree, or of a fruit called Cocos. And this shall suffice for this time. If God send me my health, I shall haue opportunity to write to you once againe. Now the length of my letter compelleth me to take my leaue, and thus I wish your most prosperous health. From Goa the tenth of Nouember, 1579. Your louing sonne Thomas Steuens. * * * * * A briefe relation of the great magnificence and rich traffike of the kingdome of Pegu beyond the East India, written by Frey Peter of Lisbon, to his cousin Frey Diego of Lisbon, from Cochin. [Sidenote: The coast of India greatly troubled with Moores.] I receiued your letters in the harbour of Damaon by a carauell of aduise that came from Malacca, which brought shot, powder, and other prouision for the furnishing of foure gallies and a great Gallion, which are now in building, to keepe our coast for feare of great store of men of warre, being Moores, which trouble vs very sore. At that instant when I receiued your letters I was newly come from the kingdome of Pegu, where I had remained one yeere and an halfe, and from thence I departed to the city of Cochin in October 1587. The newes which I can certifie you of concerning these countreys are: that this king of Pegu is the mightiest king of men, and the richest that is in these parts of the world: for he bringeth into the field at any time, when he hath warres with other princes, aboue a million of fightingmen: howbeit they be very leane and small people, and are brought vnto the field without good order. [Sidenote: Abundance of golde, siluer, pearles, and precious stones in Pegu.] He is lord of the Elephants, and of all the golde and siluer mines, and of all the pearles and precious stones: so that he hath the greatest store of treasure that euer was heard of in these parts. The countrey people call him the God of trueth and of iustice. I had great conference with this king, and with the head captaine of the Portugals, which is one of the countrey. They demanded of me many questions as touching the law and faith of Iesus Christ, and as touching the Ten Commandements. And the king gaue his consent that our Order should build a Church in his countrey, which was halfe builded; but our peruerse and malicious Portugals plucked it downe againe: [Sidenote: The great gaine of the Portugals in Pegu.] for whereas it is a countrey wherein our nation gaine very much by their commodities, they fearing that by the building of this Church there would be greater resort thither, and so their trade should be impaired if their great gaines should be knowen vnto others then those which found this countrey out first, therefore they were so vnwilling that the building of this church should goe forward. Our Portugals which are here in this realme are woorse people then the Gentiles. I preached diuers times among those heathen people; but being obstinate they say, that as their father beleeued so they will beleeue: for if their forefathers went to the diuell so they will. Whereupon I returned backe againe to our monastery to certifie our Father prouinciall of the estate of this new found countrey. It is the best and richest countrey in all this East India: and it is thought to be richer then China. [Sidenote: Pegu the best and richest countrey in all the East Indies.] I am afrayd that the warres which his Maiestie hath with England will be the vtter vndoing and spoile of Spaine: for these countreys likewise are almost spoiled with ciull warres, which the Moores haue against the Gentiles: for the kings here are vp in armes all the countrey ouer. Here is an Indian which is counted a prophet, which hath prophesied that there will a Dragon arise in a strange countrey, which will do great hurt to Spaine. How it will fall out onely God doth know. And thus I rest: from this monastery of Cochin the 28 of December, 1589. [Sidenote: A prophesie of an Indian against Spaine.] Your good cousin and assured friend frier Peter of Lisbon. * * * * * A voyage with three tall ships, the Penelope Admirall, the Marchant royall Viceadmirall, and the Edward Bonaduenture Rereadmirall, to the East Indies, by the Cape of Buona Speransa, to Quitangone neere Mosambique, to the Iles of Comoro and Zanzibar on the backeside of Africa, and beyond Cape Comori in India, to the Iles of Nicubar and of Gomes Polo, within two leagues of Sumatra, to the Ilands of Pulo Pinaom, and thence to the maine land of Malacca, begunne by M. George Raymond, in the yeere 1591, and performed by M. Iames Lancaster, and written from the mouth of Edmund Barker of Ipswich, his lieutenant in the sayd voyage, by M. Richard Hakluyt. Our fleet of the three tall ships abouenamed departed from Plimmouth the 10 of April 1591, and arrived at the Canarie-ilands the 25 of the same, from whence we departed the 29 of April. The second of May we were in the height of Cape Blanco. The fift we passed the tropique of Cancer. The eight we were in the height of Cape Verde. All this time we went with a faire winde at Northeast, alwayes before the winde vntil the 13 of the same moneth, when we came within 8 degrees of the Equinoctiall line, where we met with a contrary winde. Here we lay off and on in the sea vntil the 6 of Iune, on which day we passed the sayd line. While we lay thus off and on, we tooke a Portugal Carauel laden by merchants of Lisbon for Brasile, in which Carauel we had some 60 tunnes of wine, 1200 iarres of oyle, about 100 iarres of oliues, certaine barrels of capers, three fats of peason, with diuers other necessaries fit for our voyage; which wine, oyle, oliues and capers were better to vs then gold. [Sidenote: Three occasions of sicknes neere the line.] We had two men died before wee passed the line, and diuers sicke, which took their sicknesse in those hote climates: for they be wonderfull vnwholesome from 8 degrees of Northerly latitude vnto the line, at that time of the yeere: for we had nothing but Ternados, with such thunder, lightning, and raine, that we could not keep our men drie 3 houres together, which was an occasion of the infection among them, and their eating of salt victuals, with lacke of clothes to shift them. After we passed the line, we had the wind still at Eastsoutheast, which carried vs along the coast of Brasil 100 leagues from the maine, til we came in 26 degrees to the Southward of the line, where the wind came vp to the North, at which time we did account, that the Cape of Buona esperansa did beare off vs East and by South, betwixt 900 and 1000 leagues. Passing this gulfe from the coast of Brasil vnto the Cape we had the wind often variable as it is vpon our coast, but for the most part so, that we might lie our course. The 28 of Iuly we had sight of the foresayd Cape of Buona esperansa: vntill the 31 we lay off and on with the wind contrary to double the Cape, hoping to double it, and so to haue gone seuentie leagues further to a place called Agoada de S. Bras, before we would haue sought to haue put into any harbour. But our men being weake and sicke in all our shippes, we thought good to seeke some place to refresh them. With which consent we bare vp with the land to the Northward of the Cape, and going along the shoare, we espied a goodly Baie with an Iland lying to Seawards of it into which we did beare, and found it very commodious for our ships to ride in. [Sidenote: Agoada de Saldanha.] This Baie is called Agoada de Saldanha, lying 15 leagues Northward on the hither side of the Cape. The first of August being Sunday we came to an anker in the Baie, sending our men on land, and there came vnto them certaine blacke Saluages very brutish which would not stay, but retired from them. For the space of 15 or 20 dayes we could finde no reliefe but onely foules which wee killed with our pieces, which were cranes and geese: there was no fish but muskles and other shel-fish, which we gathered on the rockes. [Sidenote: Great store of Penguins and Seales.] After 15 or 20 dayes being here, our Admirall went with his pinnasse vnto the Iland which lieth off this Baie, where hee found great store of Penguines and Seales, whereof he brought good plenty with him. And twise after that we sent certain of our men, which at both times brought their bots lading vnto our ships. After we had bene here some time, we got here a Negro, whom we compelled to march into the countrey with vs, making signs to bring vs some cattel; but at this time we could come to the sight of none, so we let the Negro goe with some trifles. [Sidenote: Bullocks, oxen, and sheepe, dog-cheape.] Within 8 dayes after, he with 30 or 40 other Negroes, bought vs downe some 40 bullocks and oxen, with as many sheepe: at which time we brought but few of them. But within 8 dayes after they came downe with as many more, and then we bought some 24 oxen with as many sheepe. We bought an oxe for two kniues, a stirke for a knife, and a sheepe for a knife, and some we bought for lesse value then a knife. The oxen be very large and well fleshed, but not fat. The sheepe are very big and very good meat, they haue no woll on their backs but haire, and haue great tailes like the sheepe in Syria. There be diuers sorts of wild beests, as the Antilope, (whereof M. Lancaster killed one of the bignes of a yong colt) the red and fallow Deere, with other great beasts vnknowen vnto vs. Here are also great store of ouer-growen monkies. As touching our proceeding vpon our voyage, it was thought good rather to proceed with two ships wel manned, then with three euill manned: for here wee had of sound and whole men but 198, of which there went in the Penelope with the Admiral 101, and in the Edward with the worshipfull M. captaine Lancaster 97. We left behind 50 men with the Roiall marchant, whereof there were many pretily well recouered, of which ship was master and gouernour Abraham Kendal, which for many reasons we thought good to send home. The disease that hath consumed our men hath bene the skuruie. Our souldiers which haue not bene vsed to the Sea, haue best held out, but our mariners dropt away, which (in my iudgement) proceedeth of their euill diet at home. [Sidenote: Cape de Buona Speransa doubled. Cape dos Corrientes.] Sixe dayes after our sending backe for England of the Marchant Roiall from Agoada de Saldanha, our Admirall M. captaine Raimond in the Penelope, and M. Iames Lancaster in the Edward Bonaduenture, set forward to double the Cape of Buona esperansa, which they did very speedily. [Sidenote: Here they are seuered from the Penelope.] But being passed as far as Cape dos Corrientes the 14 of September we were encountred with a mighty storme and extreme gusts of wind, wherein we lost our Generals companie, and could neuer heare of him nor his ship any more, though we did our best endeuour to seeke him vp and downe a long while, and staied for him certaine dayes at the Iland of Comoro, where we appointed to stay one for another. [Sidenote: Foure men slaine with a clap of thunder.] Foure days after this uncomfortable seperation in the morning toward ten of the clocke we had a terrible clap of thunder, which slew foure of our men ovtright, the necks being wrung in sonder without speaking any word, and of 94 men there was not one vntouched, whereof some were striken blind, others were bruised in their legs and armes, and others in their brests, so that they voided blood two days after, others were drawen out at length as though they had been racked. But (God be thanked) they all recouered sauing onely the foure which were slain out right. Also with the same thunder our maine maste was torn very grieuously from the head to the decke, and some of the spikes that were ten inches into the timber, were melted with the extreme heate thereof. [Sidenote: The Shoulds of S. Laurence.] From thence we shaped our course to the Northeast, and not long after we fell vpon the Northwest end of the mighty Iland of S. Laurence: which one of our men espied by Gods good blessing late in the euening by Moone light, who seeing afarre off the breaking of the Sea, and calling to certaine of his fellowes, asked them what it was: which eft soones told him that it was the breaking of the Sea vpon the Shoulds. Whereupon in very good time we cast about to auoyd the danger which we were like to haue incurred. [Sidenote: Quitangone neere Mozambique.] Thus passing on forward, it was our lucke to ouer-shoote Mozambique, and to fall with a place called Quitangone two leagues to the Northward of it, and we tooke three or foure Barkes of Moores, which Barkes in their language they call Pangaias, laden with Millio, hennes and ducks, with one Portugall boy, going for the prouision of Mozambique. [Sidenote: The Ile of Comoro.] Within few dayes following we came to an Iland an hundred leagues to, the Northeast of Mozambique called Comoro, which we found exceedingly full of people, which are Moores of tawnie colour and good stature, but they be very trecherous and diligently to be taken heed of. Here wee desired to store our selues with water, whereof we stood in great need, and sent sixteene of our men well armed on in our boate: whom the people suffred quietly to land and water, and diuers of them with their king came aboord our ship in a gowne of crimosine Sattin pinked after the Moorish fashion downe to the knee, whom we entertained in the best maner, and had some conference with him of the state of the place and marchandises, vsing our Portugall boy which we had taken before for our interpreter, and in the end licensed the king and his company to depart, and sent our men againe for more water, who then also dispatched their businesse and returned quietly: the third time likewise we sent them for more, which also returned without any harme. [Sidenote: 32 of our men betraid at the Ile of Comoro.] And though we thought our selues furnished, yet our master William Mace of Radcliffe pretending that it might be long before we might finde any good watering place, would needes goe himselfe on shore with thirtie men, much against the will of our captaine, and hee and 16 of his company, together with one boat which was all that we had, and 16 others that were a washing ouer against our ship, were betrayed of the perfidious Moores, and in our sight for the most part slaine, we being not able for want of a boat to yeeld them any succour. [Sidenote: Zanzibar Iland.] From thence with heauie hearts we shaped our course for Zanzibar the 7 of Nouember, where shortly after we arriued and made vs a new boat of such boards as we had within boord, and rid in the road vntill the 15 of February, where, during our aboad, we sawe diuers Pangaias or boates, which are pinned with wooden pinnes, and sowed together with Palmito cordes, and calked with the husks of Cocos shels beaten, whereof they made Occam. [Sidenote: A Portugall Factorie in Zanzibar.] At length a Portugal Pangaia comming out of the harborow of Zanzibar, where they haue a small Factorie, sent a Canoa with a Moore which had bene christened, who brought vs a letter wherein they desired to know what wee were, and what we sought. We sent them word we were Englishmen come from Don Antonio vpon businesse to his friends in the Indies: with which answere they returned, and would not any more come at vs. Whereupon not long after wee manned out our boat and tooke a Pangaia of the Moores, which had a priest of theirs in it, which in their language they call a Sherife: whom we vsed very courteously: which the king tooke in very good part, hauing his priests in great estimation, and for his deliuerance furnished vs with two moneths victuals, during all which time we detained him with vs. These Moores informed vs of the false and spitefull dealing of the Portugals towards vs, [Marginal note: The treason of the Portugals towards the English.] which made them beleeue that we were cruell people and men-eaters, and willed them if they loued their safetie in no case to come neere vs. Which they did onely to cut us off from all knowledge of the state and traffique of the countrey. While we road from the end of Nouember vntil the middle of February in this harborough, which is sufficient for a ship of 500 tuns to ride in, we set vpon a Portugall Pangaia with our boat, but because it was very litle, and our men not able to stirre in it, we were not able to take the sayd Pangaia which was armed with 10 good shot like our long fouling pieces. [Sidenote: An excellent place for refreshing.] This place for the goodnesse of the harborough and watering, and plentifull refreshing with fish, whereof we tooke great store with our nets, and for sundry sorts of fruits of the countrey, as Cocos and others, which were brought vs by the Moores as also for oxen and hennes, is carefully to be sought for by such of our ships, as shall hereafter passe that way. [Sidenote: A gallie Frigate.] But our men had need to take good heed of the Portugals: for while we lay here the Portugall Admiral of the coast from Melinde to Mozambique, came to view and betray our boat if he could haue taken at any time aduantage, in a gallie Frigate of ten tunnes with 8 or 9 oares on a side. Of the strength of which Frigate and their trecherous meaning we were aduertised by an Arabian Moore which came from the king of Zanzibar diuers times vnto vs about the deliuerie of the priest aforesayd, and afterward by another which we caried thence along with vs: for whersoeuer we came, our care was to get into our hands some one or two of the countreys to learne the languages and states of those partes where we touched. [Sidenote: Another thunder-clap.] Moreouer, here againe we had another clap of thunder which did shake our foremast very much, which wee fisht and repaired with timber from the shore, whereof there is good store thereabout of a kind of tree some fortie foot high, which is a red and tough wood, and as I suppose, a kind of Cedar. [Sidenote: Heat in the head deadly. Letting of blood very necessary.] Here our Surgeon Arnold negligently catching a great heate in his head being on land with the master to seeke oxen, fell sicke and shortly died, which might haue bene cured by letting of blood before it had bin settled. Before our departure we had in this place some thousand weight of pitch, or rather a kind of gray and white gumme like vnto frankincense, as clammie as turpentine, which in melting groweth as blacke as pitch, and is very brittle of it selfe, but we mingled it with oile, whereof wee had 300 iarres in the prize which we tooke to the Northward of the Equinoctiall, not farre from Guinie, bound for Brasil. Sixe days before wee departed hence, the Cape marchant of the Factorie wrote a letter vnto our capitaine in the way of friendship, as he pretended, requesting a iarre of wine and a iarre of oyle, and two or three pounds of gunpowder, which letter hee sent by a Negro his man, and Moore in a Canoa: we sent him his demaunds by the Moore, but tooke the Negro along with vs because we vnderstood he had bene in the East Indies and knew somewhat of the Countrey. [Sidenote: A Iunco laden with pepper and drugs.] By this Negro we were aduertised of a small Barke of some thirtie tunnes (which the Moores call a Iunco) which was come from Goa thither laden with Pepper for the Factorie and seruice of that kingdome. Thus hauing trimmed our shippe as we lay in this road, in the end we set forward for the coast of the East Indie, the 15 of February aforesayd, intending if we could to haue reached to Cape Comori, which is the headland or Promontorie of the maine of Malauar, and there to haue lien off and on for such ships as should haue passed from Zeilan, Sant Tome, Bengala, Pegu, Malacca, the Moluccos, the coast of China, and the Ile of Japan, which ships are of exceeding wealth and riches. [Sidenote: The currents set to the North-west.] But in our course we were very much deceiued by the currents that set into the gulfe of the Red sea along the coast of Melinde. [Sidenote: Zocotora.] And the windes shortening vpon vs to the Northeast and Easterly, kept vs that we could not get off, and so with the putting in of the currents from the Westward, set vs in further vnto the Northward within fourscore leagues of the Ile of Zocotora, farre from our determined course and expectation. But here we neuer wanted abundance of Dolphins, Bonitos, and flying fishes. Now while we found our selues thus farre to the Northward, and the time being so farre spent, we determined to goe for the Red sea, or for the Iland of Zocotora, both to refresh our selues, and also for some purchase. But while we were in this consultation, the winde very luckily came about to the Northwest and caried vs directly toward Cape Comori. [Sidenote: The Isles of Mamale.] Before we should haue doubled this Cape, we were determined to touch at the Ilands of Mamale, of which we had aduertisement, that one had victuals, standing in the Northerly latitude of twelue degrees. Howbeit it was not our good lucke to finde it, which fell out partly by the obstinacie of our master: for the day before we fell with part of the Ilands the wind came about to the Southwest, and then shifting our course we missed it. So the wind increasing Southerly, we feared we should not haue bene able to haue doubled the Cape, which would haue greatly hazarded our casting away vpon the coast of India, the Winter season and Westerne Monsons already being come in, which Monsons continue on that coast vntil August. [Sidenote: Cape Comori doubled 1592.] Neuertheless it pleased God to bring the wind more Westerly, and so in the moneth of May 1592, we happily doubled Cape Comori without sight of the coast of India. From hence thus hauing doubled this Cape, we directed our course for the Ilands of Nicubar, which lie North and South with the Westerne part of Sumatra, and in the latitude of 7 degrees to the Northward of the Equinoctiall. From which Cape of Comori vnto the aforesayd Ilands we ranne in sixe days with a very large wind though the weather were foule with extreme raine and gustes of winde. These Ilands were missed through our masters default for want of due obseruation of the South starre. [Sidenote: The Iles of Gomes Polo.] And we fell to the Southward of them within the sight of the Ilands of Gomes Polo, [Sidenote: Sumatra.] which lie hard vpon the great Iland of Sumatra the first of Iune, and at the Northeast side of them we lay two or three dayes becalmed, hoping to haue had a Pilote from Sumatra, within two leagues whereof we lay off and on. [Sidenote: The Iles of Pulo Pinauo.] Now the Winter coming vpon vs with much contagious weather, we directed our course from hence with the Ilands of Pulo Pinaou, (where by the way it is to be noted that Pulo in the Malaian tongue signifieth an Iland) at which Ilands wee arriued about the beginning of Iune, where we came to an anker in a very good harborough betweene three Ilands: at which time our men were very sicke and many fallen. Here we determined to stay vntil the Winter were ouerpast. This place is in 6 degrees and a halfe to the Northward, and some fiue leagues from the maine betweene Malacca and Pegu. Here we continued vntil the end of August. Our refreshing in this place was very smal, onely of oysters growing on rocks, great wilks, and some few fish which we tooke with our hookes. Here we landed our sicke men on these vninhabited Ilands for their health, neuertheless 26 of them died in this place, whereof John Hall our master was one, and M. Rainold Golding another, a marchant of great honestie and much discretion. [Sidenote: Trees fit for mastes.] In these Ilands are abundance of trees of white wood, so right and tall, that a man may make mastes of them being an hundred foote long. The winter passed and hauing watered our ship and fitted her to goe to Sea, wee had left vs but 33 men and one boy, of which not past 22 were sound for labour and helpe, and of them not past a third part sailers: [Sidenote: Malacca.] thence we made saile to seeke some place of refreshing, and went ouer to the maine of Malacca. The next day we came to an anker in a Baie in six fadomes water some two leagues from the shore. Then master Iames Lancaster our captaine, and M. Edmund Barker his lieutenant, and other of the companie manning the boat, went on shoare to see what inhabitants might be found. And comming on land we found the tracking of some barefooted people which were departed thence not long before: for we sawe their fire still burning, but people we sawe none, nor any other living creature, saue a certaine kind of foule called oxe birds, which are a gray kind of Sea-foule, like a Snite in colour, but not in beake. Of these we killed some eight dozen with haile-shot being very tame, and spending the day in search, returned toward night aboord. The next day about two of the clocke in the afternoone we espied a Canoa which came neere vnto vs, but would not come aboord vs, hauing in it some sixteen naked Indians, with whom neuertheles going afterward on land, we had friendly conference and promise of victuals. [Sidenote: Three ships of Pegu laden with pepper.] The next day in the morning we espied three ships, being all of burthen 60 or 70 tunnes, one of which wee made to strike with our very boate: and vnderstanding that they were of the towne of Martabam, [Sidenote: Martabam.] which is the chiefe hauen towne for the great citie of Pegu, and the goods belonging to certaine Portugal Iesuites and a Biscuit baker a Portugall we tooke that ship and did not force the other two, because they were laden for marchants of Pegu, but hauing this one at our command, we came together to an anker. The night folowing all the men except twelue, which we tooke into our ship, being most of them borne in Pegu, fled away in their boate, leauing their ship and goods with vs. [Sidenote: Pera.] The next day we weighed our anker and went to the Leeward of an Iland hard by, and tooke in her lading being pepper, which shee and the other two had laden at Pera, which is a place on the maine 30 leagues to the South. Besides the aforesaid three ships we tooke another ship of Pegu laden with pepper, and perceiuing her to bee laden with marchants goods of Pegu onely, wee dismissed her without touching any thing. [Sidenote: Pulo Sambilam.] Thus hauing staied here 10 daies and discharged her goods into the Edward, which was about the beginning of September, our sicke men being somewhat refreshed and lustie, with such reliefe as we had found in this ship, we weighed anker, determining to runne into the streights of Malacca to the Ilands called Pulo Sambilam, which are some fiue and fortie leagues Northward of the citie of Malacca, to which Ilands the Portugals must needs come from Goa or S. Thome, for the Malucos, China, and Iapan. And when wee were there arriued, we lay too and agayne for such shipping as should come that way. [Sidenote: A ship of Negapatan taken.] Thus hauing spent some fiue dayes, vpon a Sunday we espied a saile which was a Portugall ship that came from Negapatan a towne on the maine of India ouer-against the Northeast part of the Ile of Zeilan; and that night we tooke her being of 250 tunnes: she was laden with Rice for Malacca. Captaine Lancaster commanded their captaine and master aboord our shippe, and sent Edmund Barker his lieutenant and seuen more to keepe this prize, who being aboord the same, came to an anker in thirtie fadomes water: for in that chanell, three or foure leagues from the shore you shall finde good ankorage. [Sidenote: A ship of S. Thome.] Being thus at an anker and keeping out a light for the Edward, another Portugall ship of Sant Thome of foure hundred tunnes, came and ankered hard by vs. The Edward being put to Leeward for lacke of helpe of men to handle her sailes, was not able the next morning to fetch her vp, vntil we which were in the prize with our boate, went to helpe to man our shippe. Then comming aboord we went toward the shippe of Sant Thome, but our ship was so foule that shee escaped vs. After we had taken out of our Portugall prize what we thought good, we turned her and all her men away except a Pilot and foure Moores. [Sidenote: The galeon of Malacca of 700 taken.] We continued here vntill the sixt of October, at which time we met with the ship of the captaine of Malacca of seuen hundred tunnes which came from Goa: we shot at her many shot, and at last shooting her maine-yard through, she came to an anker and yeelded. We commaunded her Captaine, Master, Pilot, and Purser to come aboord vs. But the Captaine accompanied by one souldier onely came, and after certaine conference with him, he made excuse to fetch the Master, and Purser, which he sayd would not come vnless he went for them: but being gotten from vs in the edge of the euening, he with all the people which were to the number of about three hundred men, women and children gote a shore with two great boates and quite abandoned the ship. [Sidenote: Wares fit to carry into the East India.] At our comming aboord we found in her sixteene pieces of brasse, and three hundred but of Canarie wine, and Nipar wine, which is made of the palme trees, and raisin wine which is also very strong: as also all kinds of Haberdasher wares, as hats, red caps knit of Spanish wooll, worsted stockings knit, shooes, veluets, taffataes, chamlets, and silkes, abundance of suckets, rice, Venice glasses, certaine paper full of false and counterfeit stones which an Italian brought from Venice to deceiue the rude Indians withall, abundance of playing cardes, two or three packs of French paper. Whatsoeuer became of the treasure which vsually is brought in roials of plate in this gallion, we could not find it. After that the mariners had disordredly pilled this rich shippe, the Captaine because they would not follow his commandement to vnlade those excellent wines into the Edward, abandoned her and let her driue at Sea, taking out of her the choisest things that she had. [Sidenote: The kingdom of Iunsaloam.] And doubting the forces of Malaca, we departed thence to a Baie in the kingdom of Iunsalaom, which is betweene Malacca and Pegu eight degrees to the Northward, to seeke for pitch to trimme our ship. Here we sent our souldier, which the captaine of the aforesaid galion had left behind him with vs, because he had the Malaian language, to deale with the people for pitch, which hee did faithfully, and procured vs some two or three quintals with promise of more, and certaine of the people came vnto vs. [Sidenote: Amber-greese. The hornes of Abath.] We sent commodities to their king to barter for Amber-griese, and for the hornes of Abath, whereof the king onely hath the traffique in his hands. [Sidenote: The female Vnicorne.] Now this Abath is a beast which hath one horne onely in her forehead, and is thought to be the female Vnicorne, and is highly esteemed of all the Moores in those parts as a most soueraigne remedie against poyson. We had only two or three of these hornes which are of the colour of a browne gray, and some reasonable quantitie of Amber-griese. At last the king went about to betray our Portugall with our marchandise: but he to get aboord vs, told him that we had gilt armour, shirtes of maile and halberds, which things they greatly desire: for hope whereof he let him returne aboord, and so he escaped the danger. [Marginal note: Some small quantitie hereof may be caried to pleasure those kings.] Thus we left this coast and went backe againe in sight of Sumatra, and thence to the Ilands of Nicubar, where we arriued and found them inhabited with Moores, [Sidenote: They arriue at the Iles of Nicubar, which are inhabited by Moores.] and after wee came to an anker, the people daily came aboord vs in their Canoas, with hennes, Cocos, plantans, and other fruits: and within two dayes they brought vnto vs roials of plate, giuing vs them for Calicut cloth: which roials they nude by diuing for them in the Sea, which were lost not long before in two Portugall ships which were bound for China and were cast away there. They call in their language the Coco Calambe, the Plantane Pison, a Hen Iam, a Fish Iccan, a Hog Babee. From thence we returned the 21 of Nouember to goe for the Iland of Zeilan, and arriued there about the third of December 1592, and ankered vpon the Southside in sixe fadomes water, where we lost our anker, the place being rockie and foule ground. Then we ranne along the Southwest part of the sayd Iland, to a place called Punta del Galle, where we ankered, determining there to haue remained vntill the comming of the Bengala Fleet of seuen or eight ships, and the Fleete of Pegu of two or three sailes, and the Portugall shippes of Tanaseri being a great Baie to the Southward of Martabam in the kingdome of Siam: which ships, by diuers intelligences which we had, were to come that way within foureteene daye to bring commodities to serue the Caraks, which commonly depart from Cochin for Portugall by the middest of Ianuarie. The commodities of the shippes which come from Bengala bee fine pauillions for beds, wrought quilts, fine Calicut cloth, Pintados and other fine workes, and Rice, and they make this voiage twise in the yeere. Those of Pegu bring the chiefest stones, as Rubies and Diamants, but their chiefe fraight is Rice and certaine cloth. Those of Tanaseri are chiefly freighted with Rice and Nipar wine, which is very strong, and in colour like vnto rocke water, somewhat whitish, and very hote in taste like vnto Aqua vitæ. Being shot vp to the place aforesayd, called Punta del Galle, wee came to an anker in foule ground and lost the same, and lay all that night a drift, because we had nowe but two ankers left vs, which were vnstocked and in hold. Whereupon our men tooke occasion to come home, our Captaine at that time lying very sicke more like to die then to liue. In the morning wee set our foresaile determining to lie vp to the Northward and there to keepe our selues to and againe out of the current, which otherwise would haue set vs off to the Southward from all knowen land. Thus hauing set our foresayle, and in hand to set all our other sayles to accomplish our aforesayd determination, our men made answere that they would take their direct course for England and would stay there no longer. Nowe seeing that they could not bee perswaded by any meanes possible, the captaine was constrained to giue his consent to returne, leauing all hope of so great possibilities. Thus the eight of December 1592, wee set sayle for the Cape of Buona Speransa, passing by the Ilands of Maldiua, and leauing the mightie Iland of S. Laurence on the starreboord or Northward in the latitude of 26 degrees to the South. In our passage ouer from S. Laurence to the maine we had exceeding great store of Bonitos and Albocores, which are a greater kind of fish; of which our captain, being now recouered of his sicknesse, tooke with a hooke as many in two or three howers as would serue fortie persons a whole day. And this skole of fish continued with our ship for the space of fiue or sixe weekes, all which while we tooke to the quantitie aforesayd, which was no small refreshing to vs. In February 1593 we fell with the Eastermost land of Africa at a place called Baia de Agoa some 100 leagues to the Northeast of the Cape of Good Hope: and finding the winds contrary, we spent a moneth or fiue weekes before we could double the Cape. After wee had doubled it in March following wee directed our course for the Iland of Santa Helena, and arriued there the third day of Aprill, where we staied to our great comfort nineteene dayes: in which meane space some one man of vs tooke thirtie goodly Congers in one day, and other rockie fishe and some Bonitos. After our arriual at Santa Helena, I Edmund Barker went on shore with foure or fiue Peguins or men of Pegu which we had taken, and our Surgion, where in an house by the Chappell I found an Englishman one Iohn Segar of Burie in Suffock, [Marginal note: Iohn Segar an Englishman left 18 moneths alone in the Ile of santa Helena.] who was left there eighteene moneths before by Abraham Kendall, who put in there with the Roiall marchant and left him there to refresh him on the Iland, being otherwise like to haue perished on shipboord: and at our comming wee found him as fresh in colour and in as good plight of body to our seeming as might be, but crazed in minde and halfe out of his wits, as afterwards wee perceiued: for whether he was put in fright of vs, not knowing at first what we were, whether friends or foes, or of sudden ioy when he vnderstand we were his olde consorts and countreymen, hee became idle-headed, and for eight dayes space neither night nor day tooke any naturall rest, and so at length died for lacke of sleepe. [Marginal note: A miraculous effect of extreme feare or extreme ioy.] Here two of our men, whereof the one was diseased with the skuruie, and the other had bene nine moneths sicke of the fluxe, in short time while they were on the Iland, recouered their perfect health. We found in this place great store of very holesome and excellent good greene figs, orenges, and lemons very faire, abundance of goates and hogs, and great plentie of partriges, Guiniecocks, and other wilde foules. [Marginal note: The description of the commodities of the ile of santa Helena.] Our mariners somewhat discontented being now watered and hauing some prouision of fish, contrary to the will of the capitaine, would straight home. The capitaine because he was desirous to goe for Phernambuc in Brasil, granted their request. And about the 12 of Aprill 1593. we departed from S. Helena, and directed our course for the place aforesayd. The next day our capitaine calling vpon the sailers to finish a foresaile which they had in hand, some of them answered that vnlesse they might goe directly home, they would lay their hands to nothing; whereupon he was constrained to folow their humour. And from thence-foorth we directed our course for our countrey, which we kept vntill we came 8 degrees to the Northward of the Equinoctiall, betweene which 8 degrees and the line, we spent some sixe weekes, with many calme and contrary winds at North, and sometimes to the Eastward, and sometimes to the Westward: which losse of time and expense of our victuals, whereof we had very smal store, made vs doubt to keepe our course and some of our men growing into a mutinie threatned to breake vp other mens chests, to the ouerthrow of our victuals and all our selues, for euery man had his share of his victuals before in his owne custody, that they might be sure what to trust to, and husband it more thriftily. [Sidenote: The gulfe of Paria, or Bocca del Dragone passed.] Our captaine seeking to preuent this mischiefe, being aduertised by one of our companie which had bene at the Ile of Trinidada in M. Chidleis voyage, that there we should be sure to haue refreshing, hereupon directed his course to that Iland, and not knowing the currents, we were put past it in the night into the gulfe of Paria in the beginning of Iune, wherein we were 8 dayes, finding the current continually setting in, [Sidenote: A good note.] and oftentimes we were in 3 fadomes water, and could find no going out vntil the current had put vs ouer to the Westernside vnder the maine land, where we found no current at all, and more deep water; and so keeping by the shore, the wind off the shore euery night did helpe vs out to the Northward. [Sidenote: The Ile of Mona.] Being cleare, within foure or fiue days after we fell with the Ile of Mona where we ankered and rode some eighteene dayes. In which time the Indians of Mona gaue vs some refreshing. And in the meane space there arriued a French ship of Cane in which was capitaine one Monsieur de Barbaterre, of whom wee bought some two buts of wine and bread, and other victuals. Then wee watered and fitted our shippe, and stopped a great leake which broke on vs as we were beating out of the gulfe of Paria. And hauing thus made ready our ship to goe to Sea, we determined to goe directly for Newfound-land. But before we departed, there arose a storme the winde being Northerly, which put vs from an anker and forced vs the Southward of Santo Domingo. [Sidenote: The Ile of Sauona enuironed with flats.] This night we were in danger of shipwracke vpon an Iland called Sauona, which is enuironed with flats lying 4 or 5 miles off; yet it pleased God to cleare vs of them, [Sidenote: Cape de Tiberon.] and so we directed our course Westward along the Iland of Santo Domingo, and doubled Cape Tiberon, and passed through the old channell betweene S. Domingo and Cuba for the cape of Florida: And here we met againe with the French ship of Caen, whose Captaine could spare vs no more victuals, as he said, but only hides which he had taken by traffike vpon those Ilands, wherewith we were content and gaue him for them to his good satisfaction. After this, passing the Cape of Florida, and cleere of the channell of Bahama, we directed our course for the banke of Newfound-land. Thus running to the height of 36 degrees, and as farre to the East as the Ile of Bermuda the 17 of September finding the winds there very variable, contrarie to our expectation and all mens writings, we lay there a day or two the winde being northerly, and increasing continually more and more, it grewe to be a storme and a great frete of wind: which continued with vs some 24 houres, with such extremetie, as it caried not onely our sayles away being furled, but also made much water in our shipppe, so that wee had six foote water in hold, and hauing freed our ship thereof with baling, the winde shifted to the Northwest and became dullerd: but presently vpon it the extremetie of the storme was such that with the labouring of our ship we lost our foremaste, and our ship grewe as full of water as before. The storme once ceased, and the winde contrary to goe our course, we fell to consultation which might be our best way to saue our liues. Our victuals now being vtterly spent, and hauing eaten hides 6 or 7 daies, we thought it best to beare back againe for Dominica, and the Islands adioyning, knowing that there we might haue some reliefe, whereupon we turned backe for the said Islands. But before we could get thither the winde scanted vpon vs, which did greatly endanger vs for lacke of fresh water and victuals; so that we were constrained to beare vp to the Westward to certaine other Ilandes called the Neublas or cloudie Ilands, towards the Ile of S. Iuan de porto Rico, where at our arriuall we found land-crabs and fresh water, and tortoyses, which come most on lande about the full of the moone. Here hauing refreshed our selues some 17 or 18 dayes, and hauing gotten some small store of victuals into our ship, we resolued to returne againe for Mona: vpon which our determination fiue of our men left vs, remaining still on the Iles of Neublas for all perswasions that we could vse to the contrary, which afterward came home in an English shippe. From these Iles we departed and arriued at Mona about the twentieth of Nouember 1593, and there comming to an anker toward two or three of the clocke in the morning, the Captaine, and Edmund Barker his Lieutenant with some few others went on land to the houses of the olde Indian and his three sonnes, thinking to haue gotten some foode, our victuals being all spent, and we not able to proceede any further vntill we had obteyned some new supply. We spent two or three daies in seeking prouision to cary aboord to relieue the whole companie. And comming downe to go aboord, the winde then being northerly and the sea somewhat growne, they could not come on shore with the boate, which was a thing of small succour and not able to rowe in any rough sea, whereupon we stayed vntill the next morning, thinking to haue had lesse winde and safer passage. But in the night about twelue of the clocke our ship did driue away with fiue men and a boy onely in it, our carpenter secretly cut their owne cable, leauing nineteene of vs on land without boate or any thing, to our great discomfort. In the middest of these miseries reposing our trust in the goodnesse of God, which many times before had succoured vs in our greatest extremities, we contented our selues with our poore estate, and sought meanes to preserue our liues. And because one place was not able to sustaine vs, we tooke our leaues one of another, diuiding our selues into seuerall companies. The greatest reliefe that we sixe which were with the Captaine could finde for the space of nine and twentie dayes was the stalkes of purselaine boyled in water, and now and then a pompion, which we found in the garden of the olde Indian, who vpon this our second arriual with his three sonnes stole from vs, and kept himselfe continually aloft in the mountaines. After the ende of nine and twentie dayes we espied a French shippe, which afterwards we vnderstood to be of Diepe, called the Luisa, whose Captaine was one Monsieur Felix, vnto whom wee made a fire, at sight whereof he tooke in his topsayles, bare in with the land, and shewed vs his flagge, whereby we iudged him French: so comming along to the Westerne ende of the Island there he ankered, we making downe with all speede vnto him. At this time the Indian and his three sonnes came downe to our Captaine Master Iames Lancaster and went along with him to the shippe. This night he went aboord the French man who gaue him good entertainement, and the next day fetched eleuen more of vs aboord entreating vs all very courteously. This day came another French shippe of the same towne of Diepe which remayned there vntil night expecting our other seuen mens comming downe: who, albeit we caused certaine pieces of ordinance to be shot off to call them, yet came not downe. Whereupon we departed thence being deuided sixe into one ship, and sixe into another, and leauing this Iland departed for the Northside of Saint Domingo, where we remained vntill April following 1594, and spent some two moneths in traffike with the inhabitants by permission for hides and other marchandises of the Countrey. In this meane while there came a shippe of New-hauen to the place where we were, whereby we had intelligence of our seuen men which wee left behinde vs at the Isle of Mona: which was, that two of them brake their neckes with ventring to take foules vpon the cliffes, other three were slaine by the Spaniards, which came from Saint Domingo, vpon knowledge giuen by our men which went away in the Edward, the other two this man of New-hauen had with him in his shippe, which escaped the Spaniards bloodie hands. From this place Captaine Lancaster and his Lieutenant Master Edmund Barker, shipped themselues in another shippe of Diepe, the Captaine whereof was one Iohn La Noe, which was readie first to come away, and leauing the rest of their companie in other ships, where they were well intreated, to come after him, on Sunday the seuenth of Aprill 1594 they set homewarde, and disbocking through the Caijcos from thence arriued safely in Diepe within two and fortie dayes after, on the 19 of May, where after two dayes we had stayed to refresh our selues, and giuen humble thankes vnto God, and vnto our friendly neighbours, we tooke passage for Rie and landed there on Friday the 24 of May 1594, hauing spent in this voyage three yeeres, sixe weekes and two dayes, which the Portugales performe in halfe the time, chiefely because wee lost our fit time and season to set foorth in the beginning of our voyage. We vnderstood in the East Indies by certaine Portugeles which we tooke, that they haue lately discouered the coast of China, to the latitude of nine and fiftie degrees, finding the sea still open to the Northward: giuing great hope of the Northeast or Northwest passage. Witnesse Master Iames Lancaster. * * * * * Certaine remembrances of an intended voyage to Brasill, and the Riuer of Plate, by the Edward Cotton, a ship of 260 Tunnes of Master Edward Cotton of Southampton, which perished through extreme negligence neare Rio Grande in Guinie, the 17 of July 1583. Articles of Couenants agreed vpon betweene Edward Cotton Esquier, owner of the good ship called the Edward Cotton of Southampton, and of all the marchandizes in her laden, of the one part, and William Huddie gentleman, Captaine of the said ship, Iohn Hooper his Lieutenant, Iohn Foster Master, Hugh Smith Pilot for the whole voyage, and William Cheesman marchant, on the other part. 1 To obserue and keepe the dayly order of Common prayer aboord the ships, and the companie to be called thereunto, at the least once in the day, to be pronounced openly. 2 Item, that they be ready with the first faire winde, to set saile and sailes in the voyage, and not to put into any port or harbour, but being forcibly constrained by weather, or other apparent and vrgent cause. 3 Item, that they take in, at or about the Isles of Cape Verde, to the quantitie of 25 or 30 tuns of salt, to be imployed among other the owners marchandize, at Santos, and S. Vincent, to his onely behoofe, and the rest of the salt, so much as shall be needed for victuall, and for sauing of the hides to be kept aboord, and the same salt to be prouided either at the fishermens hands neere the said Isles for trucke of commodities, or els to be taken in at the aforesayd Isles, at discretion of the aboue-named. 4 Item, vpon the due performance of this voiage, the owner bindeth himselfe by this deede, to yeeld vnto any such of the companie, as shall refuse their shares before they depart from the coast of England, 20 markes a single share, for the dutie of the whole voiage, making not aboue 75. shares single in the whole. 5 Item, the company according as they be appointed by the officers of the said ship aboue named, shall at all times be most ready to doe their painfull indeuor, not onely aboord, but in all labours at the land, according to the direction giuen by the aboue named officers, vpon paine of forfeiture of their shares and wages, the same to be diuided amongst the company. 6 Item, that the shares be taken at their returne out of al the traine oile, and hides of the seales, and of all other commodities gotten by their handie labour, and of the salt that shall be vended and other commodities, at, or neere the coast of Brasil, to allow after 9 li. the tunne freight, whereof one third to goe to the company. 7 Item, that if any man shall practise by any deuise or deuises whatsoeuer, to alter the voiage from the true purpose and intent of the owner, viz. to make their first port at Santos, and Saint Vincent, and there to revictuall and traffike, and from thence to the riuer of Plate to make their voyage by the traine, and hide of the seales, with such other commodities as are there to be had, according as the owner, with diuers that haue gouernment in the said ship, are bound to her highnesse by their deedes obligatorie in great summes, that all such practisers, vpon due proofe made, shall lose their whole intertainement due by shares or otherwise for this sayde voyage to be adiuged by the Captaine, his Lieutenant, the Master, Pilot, and marchant, or three of them at least, whereof the Captaine to be one. 8 Item, that the pinnesse be ready at al times to serue the marchants turne vpon his demand, to take in wares and commodities, and to cary and recary to and from the shore, when, and as oft as neede shall be, and to giue due attendance at the marchant and marchants direction during the whole voyage. 9 Item, that no head or chiefe officer being set downe for such an officer vnder the hand of the owner, at the going to sea of the said shippe, shall or may be displaced from his said place or office, without great cause, and his misdemeanor to be adiudged by the Captaine, and his Lieutenant, the Master, the Pilot, and the marchant, or by the consent of three of them at least. 10 Item, that vpon the returne of the shippe to the coast of England, the Maister and Pilot put not into any port or harbour, to the Westward of Southampton, but forced by weather, or such like vrgent cause. William Huddie. Iohn Hooper. Hugh Smith. John Foster. William Cheesman. * * * * * A direction as well for the Captaine, and other my friends of the shippe, as especially for William Cheesman Marchant, for the voyage to the riuer of Plate. [Sidenote: The Ile of S. Sebastian.] At your comming to the Isle of Saint Sebastian, vpon the coast of Brasill, you shall according to your discretions, make sale of such commodities, as you may thinke will be thereabout well vented, and likewise to buy commodities without making longer stay there then your victuals be prouiding, but rather to bespeake commodities against your returne from the riuer of Plate, especially of Amber, Sugar, Greene ginger, Cotton wooll, and some quantitie of the peppers of the countrey there. Also for Parats and Munkies, and the beast called Serrabosa. Also you shall barrell vp of the beefe called Petune, two or three barrels, and to lose no good opportunitie, to gather of the Indian figges, and the graines of them to preserue drie, in such quantitie as conueniently may be done: and touching the making of the traine, and preseruing of the hides, I leaue it wholly to the order and the discretion of the chiefe of the companie. Also that in any road where the ship shall ride vpon the coast of America, triall be made with the dragges, for the pearle Oisters, and the same being taken, to be opened and searched for pearle in the presence of the Captaine, his Lieutenant, the Master, the Pilot, and marchant, or three of them, whereof the Captaine or his Lieutenant to be one, and to remaine in the custodie of the Captaine and marchant, vnder two lockes, either of them to haue a key to his owne locke, and that a true inuentorie be deliuered also to the Master and Pilot of the said pearle or other iewels of price gotten in the said voiage, to the intent that no partie be defrauded of his due, and that no concealment be made of any such thing vpon forfeiture, the partie to lose his share and dutie for the voyage that shall so conceale and not reueale it vnto the officers aboue named. Also to doe your best indeuour to try for the best Ore of golde, siluer, or other rich mettals whatsoeuer. Forget not also to bring the kernels and seeds of strange plants with you, the Palmito with his fruit inclosed in him. Serue God, keepe good watch, and stand alwayes vpon your garde. Edward Cotton. These things being thus ordered, and the ship of the burden of 260 tunnes, with 83 men of all sortes furnished, and fully appointed for the voyage, began to set saile from Hurst Castle vpon Friday the 20 of May, Anno 1583, and the 17 day of Iuly ensuing fell with the coast of Guinie, to take in fresh water, where, through meere dissolute negligence, she perished vpon a sand, with the most part of the men in her, as appeareth by the confession of one that escaped, the substance and tenor whereof is this. * * * * * The confession of William Bends Masters Mate in the Edward Cotton, the 21 of October, Ann. 1584. He sayth, that the 17 day of Iuly, Anno 1583. hauing some lacke of fresh water, they put roome vpon the coast of Guinie, where they were set vpon a sand about 8 leagues from the shore, and this Examinate, with 29 more, got into the pinnesse, who arriued in an Island, being desolate of people, and fiue miles in compasse, where they rested 18 dayes through force of weather, hauing nought to eate but grasse. [Sidenote: Rio Grande.] The rest of the company the ship being splitted in two and in quarters, got them into one of the after quarters, and by the helpe of raftes came also a shore into another Island neere to Rio Grande, where they all died as he supposeth. The other 30 in the pinnesse, at the end of 18 dayes, departed that Island, and came to Saint Domingo, where comming on shore, they were taken of the Moores, and stripped naked. And they buried one Coxe [Marginal note: One Coxe an old English man buried aliue by the Moores of Rio Grande in Guinea.] an olde man aliue, notwithstanding his pitifull lamentation and skrikings: the rest hauing Rice and water allowed them, liued there a certaine time. This Examinate was at last sold to a Portugall, with whom he dwelt the space of a quarter of a yere, and in the end, a Portugall Carauel comming, thither, his master laded the same with Negroes, and he obtained leaue of his master to goe in the same Carauell, and by that meanes arriued at Lisbone, and from thence came into England the 17 of October, 1584, leauing behinde him of his companie aliue, Richard Hacker, Iohn Baker, Iohn Mathew, and a boy, with two others which were gone beyond Saint Domingo: all which, as he saith, were so sicke and diseased, that he iudged them to be long before this time dead. * * * * * The Letters patents or priuiledges granted by her Maiestie to certaine Noble men and Marchants of London, for a trade to Barbarie, in the yeere 1585. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. to the Treasurer & Barons of our Eschequer, and to al Maiors, shirifs, constables, customers, collectors of our customes and subsidies, controllers, searchers, and keepers of our hauens and creekes, ports and passages, within this our realme of England and the dominions of the same and to al our officers, ministers and subiects, and to all other whosoeuer to whom it shall or may appertaine, and to euery of them greeting. Whereas it is made euidently and apparently knowen vnto vs, that of late yeeres our right trustie and right welbeloued councellors, Ambrose Erle of Warwike, and Robert Erle of Leicester, and also our louing and naturall subiects, Thomas Starkie of our citie of London Alderman, Ierard Gore the elder, and all his sonnes, Thomas Gore the elder, Arthur Atie gentleman, Alexander Auenon, Richard Staper, William Iennings, Arthur Dawbeney, William Sherington, Thomas Bramlie, Anthony Garrard, Robert How, Henry Colthirst, Edward Holmden, Iohn Swinnerton, Robert Walkaden, Simon Lawrence, Nicholas Stile, Oliuer Stile, William Bond, Henrie Farrington, Iohn Tedcastle, Walter Williams, William Brune, Iohn Suzan, Iohn Newton, Thomas Owen, Roger Afield, Robert Washborne, Reinold Guy, Thomas Hitchcocke, George Lydiat, Iohn Cartwright, Henry Paiton, Iohn Boldroe, Robert Bowyer, Anthonie Dassell, Augustine Lane, Robert Lion, and Thomas Dod, all of London, Marchants now trading into the Countrey of Barbary, in the parts of Africa, vnder the gouernement of Muly Hammet Sheriffe, Emperor of Morocco, and king of Fesse and Sus, haue sustained great and grieuous losses, and are like to sustaine greater if it should not be preuented: In tender consideration whereof, and for that diuers Marchandize of the same Countries are very necessary and conuenient for the vse and defence of this our Realme of England, and for diuers other causes vs specially mouing, minding the reliefe and benefit of our said subiects, and the quiet trafique and good gouernment to be had, and vsed among them in their said trade, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion haue giuen and granted, and by those presents for vs, our heires and successors, doe giue and grant vnto the saide Earles of Warwike and Leicester, Thomas Starkie, Ierard Gore the elder, Arthur Atie gentleman, Alexander Auenon, Richard Staper, William Iennings, Arthur Dawbenie, William Sherrington, Thomas Bramlie, Anthonie Gerrard, Robert Howe, Henry Colthirst, Edward Holmden, Iohn Swinnerton, Robert Walkaden, Simon Lawrence, Nicholas Stile, Oliuer Stile, William Bond, Henry Farrington, Iohn Tedcastle, Walter Williams, William Brune, Iohn Suzan, Iohn Newton, Thomas Owen, Roger Afild, Robert Washborne, Rainold Guie, Thomas Hitchcocke, George Lidiate, Iohn Cartwright, Henry Payton, Iohn Baldroe, Robert Bowyer, Anthony Dassell, Augustine Lane, Robert Lion, and Thomas Dod, that they and euery of them by themselues or by their factors or seruants, and none others, shall and may, for, and during the space of 12. yeeres, haue and enioy the whole freedome and libertie in the saide trafique or trade, vnto or from the said countrey of Barbary, or to or from any part thereof, for the buying and selling of all maner of wares and marchandizes whatsoeuer, that now or accustomably heretofore haue bene brought or transported, from, or to the said country of Barbary, or from or to any of the cities, townes, places, ports, roades, hauens, harbors, or creeks of the said country of Barbary, any law, statute, graunt, matter, customes or priuileges, to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And for the better establishing, ordering and gouerning of the said Erles of Warwike and Leicester, Thomas Starkie, &c. abouesaid, their factors, seruants and assignes in the trade aforesaid, we for vs, our heires and successors, doe by these presents giue and graunt full licence to the saide Thomas Starke, Ierard Gore the elder, and the rest aforesaide, and euery of them from time to time, during the said terme of twelue yeeres, at their pleasures to assemble and meete together in any place or places conuenient within our citie of London, or elsewhere, to consult of, and for the said trade, and with the consent of the said Erie of Leicester, to make and establish good and necessary orders and ordinances for and touching the same, and al such orders and ordinances so made, to put in vse and execute, and them or any of them with the consent of the said Erle of Leicester, to alter, change and make voyde, and if need be, to make new, at any time during the saide terme, they or the most part of them then liuing and trading, shall finde conuenient. Prouided alwayes, that the ordinances or any of them bee not contrary or repugnant to the lawes, statutes or customes of this our Realme of England. And to the intent that they onely to whom the said libertie of trafique is graunted by these our Letters patents, and none other our Subiects whatsoeuer, without their special consent and licence before had, should during the said terme haue trade or trafique for any maner of Marchandizes, to, or from the said countrey of Barbary, or to, or from any Citie, town, place, port, harbor or creeke within the said countrey of Barbary, to, or out of our said Realmes and dominions, wee doe by these presents straightly charge, commaund, and prohibite all and euery our Subiects whatsoeuer, other then only the said Erles of Warwike and Leicester, Thomas Starkie, and the rest abouesaid, and euery of them by themselues, or by their Factors or seruants during the saide terme, to trade or trafique, for or with any marchandize, to, or from the saide Countrey of Barbary, or to, or from any the dominions of the same, as they tender our fauour, and will auoyde our high displeasure, and vpon paine of imprisonment of his and their bodies, at our will and pleasure, and of forfeiting all the marchandizes, or the full value thereof, wherewith they or any of them during the saide terme, shall trade or trafique to or from the said countrey of Barbary, or to, or from the dominions of the same, contrary to this our priuilege and prohibition, vnlesse it be by and with the expresse licence, consent, and agreement of the saide Erles of Warwike and Leicester, Thomas Starkie, Ierard Gore the elder, and all his sonnes, Thomas Gore the elder, Arthur Atie Gentleman, Alexander Auenon, Richard Straper, William Iennings, Arthur Dawbnie, William Sherington, Thomas Bramlie, Anthonie Gerrard, Robert Howe, Henry Colthirst, Edward Holmden, Iohn Swinnerton, Robert Walkaden, Simon Lawrence, Nicholas Stile, Oliuer Stile, William Bond, Henry Farington, Iohn Tedcastle, Walter Williams, William Brune, Iohn Suzan, Iohn Newton, Thomas Owen, Roger Afield, Robert Washborne, Rainold Guy, Thomas Hitchcock, George Lidiate, &c. or by, and and with the expresse licence and consent of the more part of them then liuning and trading, first had and obtained, so alwayes, that the sayd Earle of Leicester be one, if hee bee liuing. And we further for vs, our heires and successors of our speciall grace, meere motion and certaine knowledge, do graunt to the said Erles of Warwike and Leicester, Thomas Starkie, and the rest abouesaid, and to euery of them, that nothing shall be done, to be of force or validitie touching the said trade or trafique, or the exercise thereof, without or against the consent of the saide Erles, Thomas Starkie, (and the others before named) during the time of these our Letters patents for 12. yeeres as aforesaid. And for that the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. and euery of them aforesaid should not be preuented or interrupted in this their said trade, we do by these presents for vs, our heires and successours, straightly prohibite and forbid all maner of person or persons, as well strangers of what nation or countrey soeuer, as our owne Subiects, other then onely the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. and euery of them as aforesaid, that they nor any of them from hencefoorth during the said terme of 12. yeeres, do or shall bring, or cause to be brought into this our Realme of England, or to any the dominions thereof, any maner of marchandizes whatsoeuer growing, or being made within the said Countrey of Barbary, or within any the dominions thereof, vnlesse it be by and with the license of the more part of them then liuing, first had and obtained, so alwayes that the sayd Erle of Leicester (if hee be liuing) be one, vnder the paine that euery one that shall offend or doe against this our present prohibition here last aboue mentioned in these presents, shall forfeite and lose all and singular the said marchandizes to be landed in any our realmes and dominions, contrary to the tenor and true meaning of this our prohibition in that behalfe prouided: the one moitie of all and euery which said forfaitures whatsoeuer mentioned or specified in these our present Letters patents, shalbe to vs, our heires and successors: And the other moity of al and euery the said forfaitures, we doe by these presents of our certaine knowledge and meere motion clearely and wholy for vs, our heires and successors giue and graunt vnto the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. And these our Letters patents, vpon the onely sight thereof, without any further warrant, shal bee sufficient authoritie to our Treasurer of England for the time being, to our Barons of the Exchequer, and to all other our officers that shall haue to deale in this behalfe, to make full allowance vnto the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. their deputies or assignes of the one moitie of all and singular the goods, marchandizes and things whatsoever mentioned in these our present Letters patents, to be forfaited at any time or times during the said terme of twelue yeres: which said allowance we doe straightly charge and commaund from time to time to be made to the sayd Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. and to euery of them accordingly, without any maner of delay or deniall or any of our officers whatsoever, as they tender our fauour and the furtherance of our good pleasure. And wee doe straightly charge and commaund, and by these presents prohibite all and singular Customers and Collectors of our customes and subsidies, and comptrollers, of the same, of and within our Citie and port of London, and all other portes, creekes, and places within this our Realme of England, and euery of them, that they ne any of them take or perceiue, or cause, or suffer to be taken, receiued, or perceiued for vs and in our name, or to our vse, or to the vses of our heires or successors of any person or persons, any sum or summes of money, or other things whatsoeuer during the said terme of 12. yeeres, for, and in the name and liew or place of any custome, subsidy and other thing or duties to vs, our heires or successors due or to be due for the customes and subsidies of any marchandizes whatsoeuer growing, being made or comming out of the said countrey of Barbary, or out of the dominions thereof, nor make, cause, nor suffer to be made any entrie into our or their books of customs and subsidies, nor make any agreement for the subsidies and customs, of, and for any the said marchants, sauing onely with, and in the name of the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. or the most part of them, as they and euery of them will answers at their vttermost perils to the contrary. And for the better and more sure obseruation of this our graunt, wee will, and grant for vs, our heires and successors by these presents, that the Treasurer and barons of our Exchequer for the time being, by force of this our graunt or enrolment thereof in the said court at al and euery time and times during the said terme of 12 yeeres, at and vpon request made vnto them by the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. or by the atturneis, factors, deputies or assignes of them, or the most part of them then liuing and trading, shall and may make and direct vnder the seale of the said Exchequer, one or more sufficient writ or writs, close or patents, vnto euery or any of our said customers, collectors or controllers of our heires and successors in all and euery, or to any port or ports, creeke, hauens, or other places within this our realme of England, as the Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c. or any the atturneis, factors, deputies or assignes of them or the most part of them then liuing and trading, shall at any time require, commaunding and straightly charging them and euery of them, that they nor any of them at any time or times during the said term of 12. yeeres, make any entrie of any wares or marchandizes whatsoeuer, growing, being made or comming out or from the said countrey of Barbary, or the dominions thereof, nor receiue or take any custome, subsidie or other entrie, or make any agreement for the same, other then with or in the name of the said Erles, Thomas Starkie, &c, the factor or factors, deputies or assignes of them or the most part of them then liuing and trading, according to this our graunt, and the true meaning thereof, and according to our saide will and pleasure before in these presents declared. In witnesse whereof we haue caused these our Letters to be made patents. Witnesse our selfe at Westminster the 5. day of Iuly in the 27. yeere of our reigne. * * * * * The Ambassage of Master Henry Roberts, one of the sworne Esquires of her Maiesties person, from her highnesse to Mully Hamet Emperour of Morocco and the King of Fesse and Sus, in the yeere 1585: who remained there as Liger for the space of 3. yeeres. Written briefly by himselfe. Vpon an incorporation granted to the Company of Barbary Marchants resident in London, I Henry Roberts one of her Maiesties sworne Esquires of her person, was appointed her highnesse messenger, and Agent vnto the aforesaid Mully Hamet Emperor of Marocco, king of Fesse, and Sus. And after I had receiued my Commission, instructions, and her Maiesties letters, I departed from London the 14. of August in the yeere 1585. in a tall ship called the Ascension, in the company of the Minion and Hopewell, and we all arriued in safetie at Azafi a port of Barbary, the 14. of September next following. The Alcaide of the towne (being the kings officer there, and as it were Maior of the place) recalled mee with all humanitie and honour, according to the custome of the Countrey, lodging me in the chiefest house of the towne, from whence I dispatched a messenger (which in their language they call a Trottero) to aduertise the Emperour of my arriuall: who immediately gaue order, and sent certaine souldiers for my guard and conduct, and horses for my selfe, and mules for mine owne and my companies carriages. Thus being accompanied with M. Richard Euans, Edward Salcot, and other English Marchants resident there in the Countrey, with my traine of Moores and carriages, I came at length to the riuer of Tensist, which is within foure miles of Marocco: and there by the water side I pitched my tents vnder the Oliue trees: where I met with all the English Marchants by themselues, and the French and Flemish, and diuers other Christians, which attended my comming. And after we had dined, and spent out the heat of the day, about foure of the clocke in the afternoone we all set forward toward the Citie of Marocco, where we arriued the said day, being the 14. of September, and I was lodged by the Emperours appointment in a faire house in the Iudaria or Iurie, which is the place where the Iewes haue their abode, and is the fairest place, and quietest lodging in all the Citie. After I had reposed my selfe 3 dayes, I had accesse to the kings presence, delinered my message and her Maiesties letters, and was receiued with all humanitie, and had fauourable audience from time to time for three yeeres: during which space I abode there in his Court, as her Maiesties Agent and Ligier: and whensoeuer I had occasion of businesse, I was admitted either to his Maiestie himselfe, or to his vice Roy, whose name was Alcayde Breme Saphiana, a very wise and discreet person, and the chiefest about his Maiestie. The particulers of my seruice, for diuers good and reasonable causes, I forbeare here to put downe in writing. After leaue obtained, and an honourable reward bestowed by the Emperour vpon me, I departed from his Court at Marocco the 18. of August 1588. toward a garden of his, which is called Shersbonare, where he promised mee I should stay but one day for his letters: howbeit, vpon some occasion I was stayed vntil the 14. of September at the kings charges, with 40. or 50. shot attending vpon me for my guard and safetie. From thence at length I was conducted with all things necessary to the port of Santa Cruz, being sixe dayes iourney from Marocco, and the place where our shippes do commonly take in their lading, where I arriued the 21. of the same moneth. In this port I stayed 43. dayes, and at length the second of Nouember I embarqued my selfe, and one Marshok Reiz a Captaine and a Gentleman, which the Emperour sent with mee vpon an Ambassage to her Maiestie: and after much torment and foule weather at Sea, yet New-yeres day I came on land at S. Iues in Cornwall, from whence passing by land both together vp towards London, we were met without the Citie with the chiefest marchants of the Barbary Company, well mounted all on horsebacke, to the number of 40. or 50. horse, and so the Ambassadour and myselfe being both in Coche, entred the citie by torchlight, on Sunday at night the 12. of Ianuary 1589. * * * * * Este es vn traslado bien y fielmente sacado da vna carta real del Rey Muley Hamet de Fes y Emperador de Marruecos, cuyo tenor es este, que Segue. Con el nombre de Dios piadoso y misericordioso, &c. El sieruo de Dios soberano, el conquistador per su causa, el successor ensalçado por Dios, Emperador de los Moros, hijo del Emperador de los Moros, Iariffe, Haceni, el que perpetue su honora, y ensalçe su estado. Se pone este nuestro real mandado en manos de los criados de neustras altas puertas los mercadores Yngleses; para que por el sepan todos los que la presente vieren, come nuestro alto Conseio les anpara con el fauor de Dios de todo aquello, que les enpeciere y dannare en qualquiera manera, que fueren offendidos, y en qualquiera viaie, que fueren, ninguno les captinarà en estos nuestros reynos, y puertos, y lugares, que a nos pertenescen: y que les cubre el anporo de nuestro podor de qualquiera fatiga; y ningun los impida commano de enemistad, ni se darà causa, de que se agrauien en qualquiera manera con el fauor de Dios y de sua comparo. Y mandamos à los Alcaydes de los nuestros puertos y fortalezas, y à los que en estos nuestros reynos tienen cargo, y à toda la gente commun, que no les alleguen en ninguna manera, con orden, de que sean offendidos en ninguna manera; y esto serà necessariamente: Que es escrita en los medios dias de Rabel, segundo anno de nueue çientos, y nouenta y seys. Concorda el dia d'esta cara con veynte dias de Março del anno de mil y quiniento y ochenta y siete, lo qual yo Abdel Rahman el Catan, interprete per su Magestad saquè, y Romançe de verbo ad verbum, como en el se contiene, y en Fee dello firmo de my nombre, fecho vt supra. Abdel Rahman el Catan. The same in English. This is a copy well and truely translated of an edict of Muley Hamet king of Fez and Emperour of Marocco, whose tenor is as followeth: To wit, that no Englishmen should be molested or made slaues in any part of his Dominions, obtained by the aforesaid M. Henry Roberts. In the name of the pitifull and the mercifull God, &c. The seruant of the supreme God, the conqueror in his cause, the successor aduanced by God, the Emperour of the Moores, the sonne of the Emperour of the Moores, the Iariffe, the Haçeny, whose honour God long increase and aduance his estate. This our princely commandement is deliuered into the hands of the English marchants, which remaine in the protection of our stately palaces: to the ende that all men which shall see this present writing, may vnderstand that our princely counsaile wil defend them by the fauor of God, from any thing that may impeach or hurt them in what sort soeuer they shalbe wronged: and that, which way soeuer they shall trauaile, no man shall take them captiues in these our kingdomes, ports, and places which belong vnto vs, which also may protect and defend them by our authoritie from any molestation whatsoeuer: and that no man shall hinder them by laying violent hand vpon them, and shall not giue occasion that they may be grieued in any sort by the fauour and assistance of God. And we charge and command our officers of our hauens and fortresses, and all such as beare any authority in these our dominions, and likewise all the common people, that in no wise they do molest them, in such sort that they be no way offended or wronged. And this our commandement shall remaine inuiolable, being registred in the middest of the moneth of Rabel in the yeere 996. The date of this letter agreeth with the 20. of March 1587. which I Abdel Rahman el Catan, interpretour for his Maiestie, haue translated and turned out of the Arabian into Spanish word for word as is conteined therein: and in witnesse thereof haue subscribed my name as aforesaid. Abdel Rahman el Catan. * * * * * En nombre de Dios el piadoso piadador. Oracion de Dios sobre nuestro Sennor y Propheta Mahumet, y los allegados à el. [Sidenote: A letter of Mully Hamet to the Earle of Leicester.] El sieruo de Dios, y muy guerrero, y ensalsado por la graçia de Dios, Myra Momanyn, hijo de Myra Momanyn, nieto de Myra Momanyn, el Iarif, el Hazeny, que Dios sustenga sus reynos, y enhalse sus mandados, para el Sennor muy affamado y muy illustre, muy estimado, el Conde de Leycester, despues de dar las loores deuidas à Dios, y las oraçiones, y saludes deuidas à le propheta Mahumet. Seruirà esta por os hazer saber que llegò a qui à nuestra real Corte vuestra carta, y entendimos lo que en ella se contiene. Y vuestro Ambaxador, que aqui esti en nuestra corte me dio à entender la causa de la tardança de los rehenes hasta agora: el qual descuento reçebimos, y nos damos por satisfechos. Y quanta à lo que à nos escriueys por causa de Iuan Herman, y lo mesmo que nos ha dicho el Ambaxador sobre el, antes que llegâsse vuestra carta por la quexa del ambaxador, que se auia quexado del, ya auiamos mandado prender lo, y assi que da aora preso, y quedera, hasta que se le haga la iusticia que mas se le ha de hazer. Y con tanto nuestro Sennor os tenga en su guardia. Hecha en nuestra corte real en Marruecos, que Dios sostenga, et 28. dias del mes de Remodan anno 996. The same in English. In the Name of the mercifull and pitifull God. The blessing of God light vpon our Lord and prophet Mahumet, and those that are obedient vnto him. The seruant of God both mightie in warre and mightily exalted by the grace of God Myra Momanyn, the son of Myra Momanyn, the Iarif, the Hazeni, whose kingdoms God maintaine and aduance his authoritie: Vnto the right famous, right noble, and right highly esteemed Erle of Leicester, after due praises giuen vnto God, and due blessings and salutations rendered vnto the prophet Mahumet. These are to giue you to vnderstand, that your letters arriued here in our royal Court, and we wel perceiue the contents thereof. And your Ambassador which remaineth here in our Court told me the cause of the slownesse of the gages or pledges vntil this time: which reckoning we accept of, and holde our selues as satisfied. And as touching the matter wherof you write vnto vs concerning Iohn Herman, and the selfe same complaint which your Ambassador hath made of him, before the comming of your letter, we had already commaunded him to be taken vpon the complaint which your Ambassadour had made of him, whereupon he still remaineth in hold, and shall so continue vntil further iustice be done vpon him according to his desert. And so our Lord keepe you in his safeguard. Written at our royall court in Marocco, which God maintaine, the 28. day of the moneth Remodan, Anno 996. [Marginal note: Which is with vs 1587.] * * * * * The Queenes Maiesties letters to the Emperour of Marocco. [Sidenote: The Queenes letters to the Emperour.] Muy alto, y muy poderoso Sennor, Auiendo entendido de parte de nuestro Agente la mucha aficion, y volontad, que nos teneys, y quanta honta, y fauor le hazeys por amor nuestro, para dar nos tanto mayor testimonio de vuestra amistad, hemos recebido de lo vno y de le otro muy grande contento, y satisfacion; y assy no podemos dexar de agradesceroslo, como mereceys. Vuestras cartas hemos tambien recibido, y con ellas holgadonos infinitamente, por venir de parte de vn Principe, à quien tenemos tanta obligacion. Nuestro Agente nos ha escripto sobre ciertas cosas, que desseays ser os embiadas de aqui: Y, aunque queriamos poder os en ello puntualmente conplazer, como pidiz, ha succedido, que las guerras, en que stamos al presente occupadas, no nos lo consienten del todo: Hemos però mandado que se os satisfaga en parte, y conforme à lo que por agora la necessitad nos permite, como mas particularmente os lo declararà nuestro Agente: esperando, que lo reciberreys en buena parte y conforme al animo, con que os lo concedemos. Y porque nos ha sido referido, que aueys prometido de proceder contra vn Iuan Herman vassallo nuestro, (el qual nos ha grauemente offendido) de la manera, que os lo demandaremos, auemos dado orden à nuestro dicho Agente de deziros mas parcularmente lo que desseamos ser hecho a cerca deste negocio, rogando os, que lo mandeys assi complir: y que seays seruido de fauorescer siempre al dicho Agente, y tener lo en buen credito, como hasta agora aueys hecho, sin permiter, que nadie os haga mudar de parecer a cerca de las calumnias, que le podran leuantar, ny dudar, que no complamos muy por entero todo, lo que de nuestra parte os prometiere. Nuestro Sennor guarde vostra muy alta y muy poderosa persona: Hecha en nuestra Corte Real de Grenewich a 20. de Iulio 1587. The same in English. Right high and mightie Prince, Hauing vnderstood from our Agent the great affection and good wil which you beare vs, and how great honour and fauor you shew him for our sake, to the end to giue vs more ample testimonie of your friendship, we haue receiued very great contentment and satisfaction, as wel of the one as of the other: and withall we could not omit to magnifie you, according to your desert. We haue also receiued your letters, and do not a litle reioyce thereof, because they come from a prince vnto whom we are so much beholden. Or Agent hath written vnto vs concerning certaine things which you desire to bee sent vnto you from hence. And albeit we wish that we could particularly satisfie you, as you desire, yet it is fallen out, that the warres, wherein at this present we be busied wil not suffer vs fully to doe the same: neuerthelesse, wee haue commaunded to satisfie you in part, and according as the present necessitie doeth permit vs, as our Agent will declare vnto you more particularly, hoping you will receiue it in good part, and according to the good will wherewith wee graunt the same. [Sidenote: Iohn Herman an English rebel.] And because it hath bene signified vnto vs that you haue promised to proceed in iustice against one Iohn Herman our subiect, which hath grieuously offended vs, in such sort as wee haue sent word vnto you, wee haue giuen order to our said Agent, to informe you more particularly in that which we desire to be done in this busines, praying you also to command the same to be put in execution: and that it would please you alwayes to fauour our said Agent and to hold him in good credite, as you haue done hitherto, not suffering your selfe to be changed in your opinion, for all the false reports which they may raise against him, nor to doubt that wee will not accomplish at large all that he shall promise you on our behalfe. Our Lord keepe and preserue your right high and mightie person. Written in our royall Court at Greenwich the 20. of Iuly 1587. * * * * * A Patent granted to certaine Marchants of Exeter, and others of the West parts, and of London, for a trade to the Riuer of Senega and Gambia in Guinea, 1588. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. To our Treasurer and Admirral of England, our Treasurer and Barons of our Exchequer, and all and euery our Officers, ministers and subiects whatsoeuer, greeting. Whereas our welbeloued subiects William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicolas Spicer, and Iohn Doricot of our City of Exeter marchants, Iohn Yong of Coliton in our county of Deuon marchant, Richard Doderige of Barnstable in our saide County of Deuon Marchant, Anthonie Dassell, and Nicolas Turner of our Citie of London Marchants, haue bene perswaded and earnestly moued by certaine Portugals resident within our Dominions, to vndertake and set forward a voyage to certaine places on the coast of Guinea; Videlicit, from the Northermost part of the Riuer commonly called by the name of the Riuer of Senega, and from and within that Riuer all along that coast vnto the Southermost part of another Riuer commonly called by the name of Gambra, and within that Riuer: [Sidenote: A former voyage to Gambra.] which, as we are informed they haue already once performed accordingly: And for that we are credibly giuen to vnderstand that the further prosecuting of the same voyage, and the due and orderly establishing of an orderly trafique and trade of marchandize into those Countries, wil not only in time be very beneficial to these our Realmes and dominions, but also be a great succour and reliefe vnto the present distressed estate of those Portugals, who by our princely fauour liue and continue here vnder our protection: And considering that the aduenturing and enterprising of a newe trade cannot be a matter of small charge and hazard to the aduenturers in the beginning: we haue therefore thought it conuenient, that our said louing subiects William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Young, Richard Doderige, Anthonie Dassell, and Nicholas Turner, for the better incouragement to proceede in their saide aduenture and trade in the said Countreis, shal haue the sole vse and exercise thereof for a certaine time. In consideration whereof, and for other waightie reasons and considerations, vs specially moouing, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, we haue giuen and graunted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successors doe giue and graunt vnto the said William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Young, Richard Doderide, Anthony Dassell and Nicholas Turner, and to euery of them, and to such other our Subiects as they or the most part of them shall thinke conuenient to receiue into their Company and society, to be the traders with them into the said Contreis, that they and euery of them by themselues or by their seruants or Factors and none others, shall and may for and during the full space and terme of tenne yeeres next ensuing the date of these presents, haue and enioy the free and whole trafique, trade and feat of marchandise, to and from the said Northermost part of the said Riuer, commonly called by the name of the Riuer of Senega: and from and within that riuer all along the coast of Guinea, vnto the Southermost part of the said Riuer, commonly called by the name of the Riuer of Gambra, and within that Riuer also. And that they the said William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthony Dassel and Nicholas Turner, and euery of them, by themselues or by their seruants or Factors, and such as they or the most part of them shall receiue into their Company and societie, to be traders with them into the sayd Countreis (as is aforesaid) and none others, shall and may, for, and during the said space and terme of 10. yeres, haue and enioy the sole and whole trafique or trade of marchandize into and from the said places afore limitted and described, for the buying and selling, bartering and changing of and with any goods, wares, and marchandizes whatsoeuer, to be vented had or found, at or within any the cities, townes, or places situated or being in the countries, partes and coastes of Guinea before limitted, any law, statute, or graunt, matter, custome or priuileges to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And for the better ordering, establishing, and gouerning of the said societie and Company in the said trade and trafique of marchandizes, and the quiet, orderly, and lawfull exercise of the same, We for vs, our heires, and successors, do by these presents giue and graunt full license and authority vnto the said William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthonie Dassell, and Nicholas Turner, and to such others as they shall receiue into their saide societie and company to be traders into the said countreis, as is aforesaid, and to euery of them, that they or the most part of them shall and may at all conuenient times at their pleasures, assemble and meete together in any place or places conuenient, aswell within our citie of Exeter, as elsewhere within this our Realme of England, or other our dominions, during the said terme of ten yeere, to consult of, for, and concerning the saide trade and trafique of marchandize, and from time to time to make, ordaine, and stablish good, necessary, and reasonable orders, constitutions, and ordinances, for, and touching the same trade. And al such orders, constitutions, and ordinances so to be made, to put in vse and execute, and them, or any of them, to alter, change, and make voyd, and, if neede be, to make new, as at any time, during the said terme of ten yeeres, to them, or the most part of them then trading, as is aforesaide, shall be thought necessary and conuenient. Vnto all and euery which said orders, constitutions, and ordinances, they, and euery of them, and all other persons which shall hereafter be receiued into the saide societie and Company, shall submit themselues, and shall well and duely obserue, performe, and obey the same, so long as they shall stand in force, or else shall pay and incurre such forfeitures, paines, and penalties, for the breach thereof, and in such maner and forme, and to such vses and intents, as by the saide orders, constitutions, and ordinances shall be assessed, limitted and appointed. So alwayes, as the same orders, constitutions and ordinances be not repugnant or contrary to the lawes, statutes, and customes of this Realme of England, nor any penaltie to exceede the reasonable forme of other penalties, assessed by the Company of our Marchants, named Aduenturers. And to the intent that they onely, to whom the said power and libertie of trafique and trade of marchandize is graunted by these our letters patent aforesaid, and none others whatsoeuer, without their speciall consent and license before had, shall, during the said terme of ten yeeres, vse, or haue trade or trafique, with or for any maner of goods or marchandizes, to and from the saide coastes or parts of Guinea afore limited: Wee doe by these presents, by our royall and supreme authoritie, straightly charge and commaund, that no person or persons whatsoeuer, by themselues, or by their factors, or seruants, during the said terme of 10. yeres, shall in any wise trade or trafique, for or with any goods or marchandizes, to or from the said coasts and parts of Guinea afore limitted, other then the said William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthony Dassell, and Nicholas Turner, and such as from time to time, they, or the most part of them, shall receiue into their societie and company, to be traders with them, as is aforesaid, as they tender our fauour, and will auoyde our high displeasure, and vpon paine of imprisonment of his or their bodies, at our will and pleasure, and to lose and forfeit the ship or shippes, and all the goods, wares, and marchandizes, wherewith they, or any of them, shal, during the said terme of 10. yeres, trade, or trafique to or from the said Countries, or any part thereof, according to the limitation aboue mentioned, contrary to our expresse prohibition and restraint, in that behalfe. And further, we do by these presents giue and graunt full power and authoritie to the said William Braily, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthony Dassell, and Nicholas Turner, and to such other persons, as they shal receiue into their society and company, to be traders with them, as is aforesaid, and the most part of them, for the time being: that they, and euery of them, by themselues, their factors, deputies, or assignes, shall and may, from time to time, during the said terme of 10. yeres, attach, arrest, take, and sease all, and all maner of ship, and ships, goods, wares, and marchandizes whatsoeuer, which shall be brought from, or caried to the said coasts and parts of Guinea afore limited, contrary to our will and pleasure, and the true meaning of the same, declared and expressed in these our letters patents. Of all and euery which said forfaitures whatsoeuer, the one third part shall be vnto vs, our heires, and successors, and another thirde part thereof we giue and graunt by these presents, for and towards the reliefe of the saide Portugals continuing here vnder our protection, as is aforesaid. And the other third part of al the same forfaitures, we do by these presents, of our certaine knowledge and meere motion, for vs, our heires and successors, giue and grant cleerely and wholy vnto the said William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthony Dassel, and Nicholas Turner, and such other persons, as they shall receiue into their societie, and company, as is aforesaid. And these our letters patents, or the inrolment or exemplification of the same, without any further or other warrant, shall from time to time, during the said tenne yeeres, be a sufficient warrant and authoritie to our Treasurer of England, for the time being, and to the barons of our Exchequer, and to all other our officers and ministers whatsoeuer, to whom it shall or may appertaine, to allow, deliuer, and pay one thirde part of all the said forfeitures, to the vse of the said Portugals, and one other thirde part of the same forfeitures, to the saide William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthony Dassell, and Nicholas Turner, and such other persons, as they shall receiue into their societie and Company, to be traders with them, as aforesaide, to their owne proper vse and behoofe: which said allowances and paiments thereof, our will and pleasure is, and we do straightly charge and commaund, to bee from time to time duely made and performed accordingly, without any delay or denial of any our officers aforesaid, or any other our officers or ministers whatsoeuer. And we do straightly charge and command, and by these presents probibite all and singular our customers, collectors, and farmers of our Customes and subsidies, and controllers of the same, of and within our ports of the citie of London, and the Citie of Exeter, and all other ports, creekes, and places, within this our Realme of England, and euery of them, and all other our officers and ministers whatsoeuer, which haue or shall haue any dealing or intermedling, touching our said Customes and subsidies, that they, ne any of them by themselues, their clearks, deputies, or substitutes, or any of them take or receiue, or in any wise cause or suffer to be taken or receiued for vs, or in our name, or to our vse, or for, or in the names or to the vses of our heires or successors, or any person, or persons, any summe or summes of money, or other things whatsoeuer, during the saide terme of ten yeeres, for, or in the name, lieu, or place of any Custome, subsidie, or other thing or duetie, to vs, our heires, or successors, due, or to be due, for the Customes or subsidies of any such goods, wares, or marchandizes, to be transported, caried, or brought to or from the priuileged places, before in these presents mentioned, or any of them: nor make, nor cause to be made any entry into, or of the bookes of subsidies or customes, nor make any agreement for the Customes or subsidies, of, or for any goods, wares or merchandizes, to bee sent to, or returned from any the priuleged places, before in these presents mentioned, sauing onely with, and in the name, and by the consent of the saide William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Antonie Dassel, and Nicholas Turner, or of some of them, or of such as they or the most part of them shall receiue into their societie and Company, as aforesaid. Prouided alwaies, that if at any time hereafter, we our selves, by our writing signed with our proper hand, or any sixe or more of our priuie Counsell, for the time being, shall by our direction, and by writing signed and subscribed with their hands, signifie and notifie to the said William Brayley, Gilbert Smith, Nicholas Spicer, Iohn Doricot, Iohn Yong, Richard Doderige, Anthony Dassell, and Nicholas Turner, or to any of them, or to any other, whom they or the most part of them shal receiue into their Companie and society, as is aforesaid, or otherwise to our officers in our ports of Exeter, or Plimouth, by them to be notified to such as shall haue interest in this speciall priuilege, that our will and pleasure is, that the said trade and trafique shal cease, and be no longer continued into the saide coastes and partes of Guinea before limited: then immediatly from and after the ende of sixe moneths next insuing, after such signification and notification so to be giuen to any of the said Company and societie, as is aforesaid, or otherwise to our Officers in our ports of Exeter or Plimouth, by them to be notified to such as shall haue interest in this speciall priuilege, these our present letters Patents, and our graunt therein contained shall be vtterly voyde, and of none effect, ne validitie in the lawe, to all intents and purposes: any thing before mentioned to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. Witnesse our selfe at Westminster, the thirde day of May, in the thirtieth yere of our Reign 1588. * * * * * A voyage to Benin beyond the Countrey of Guinea, set foorth by Master Bird and Master Newton Marchants of London, with a shippe called the Richard of Arundell, and a Pinesse; Written by Iames Welsh, who was chiefe Master of the said voyage, begunne in the yeere 1588. Vpon the twelft of October wee wayed our ankers at Ratcliffe and went to Blackwall. And the next day sayling from thence, by reason of contrary winde and weather, wee made it the 25. of October before wee were able to reach Plimouth, and there we stayed (to our great expense of victuals) for lacke of winde and weather vnto the 14. of December. On Saturday the said 14. of December we put from thence, and about midnight were thwart of the Lizart. [Sidenote: Rio del oro is in 22. degrees and 47. min.] Thursday the second of Ianuary wee had sight of the land neere Rio del oro, God be thanked, and there had 22. degrees of latitude, and 47. minutes. [Sidenote: Cauo de las Barbas.] The thirde of Ianuary wee had sight of Cauo de las Barbas, and it bare Southeast fiue leagues off. [Sidenote: Crosiers.] The 4. we had sight of the Crosiers in the morning. [Sidenote: Cauo Verde in 14. degr. 43. m.] Tuesday the 7. day we had sight of Cauo verde, and I find this place to be in latitude 14. degrees, and 43. minutes, being 4. leagues from the shoare. [Sidenote: Cauo de Monte.] Friday the 17. Cauo de Monte bare off vs North Northeast, we sounded and had 50. fathom blacke oase, and at 2. of the clocke it bare North Northwest 8. leagues off. [Sidenote: Cauo Mensurado.] And Cauo Mensurado bare of vs East and by South, and wee went Northeast with the maine: here the current setteth to the East Southeast alongst the shoare, and at midnight wee sounded and had 26. fathome blacke oase. The 18. in the morning we were thwart of a land, much like Cauo verde, and it is as I iudge 9. leagues from Cauo Mensurado; it is a hill sadlebacked, and there are 4. or 5. one after another: and 7. leagues to the Southward of that, we saw a row of hils sadlebacked also, and from Cauo Mensurado are many mountaines. [Sidenote: Rio de Sestos. Cauo dos Baixos.] The 19. we were thwart Rio de Sestos, and the 20. Cauo dos Baixos was North and by West 4. leagues off the shoare, [Sidenote: Tabanoo.] and at afternoone there came a boate frome the shoare with 3. Negroes, from a place (as they say) called Tabanoo. And towards euening we were thwart of an Island, and a great many of small Islands or rockes to the Southward, and the currant came out of the Souther-boord: we sounded and had 35. fathomes. [Sidenote: A French ship at Ratire. Crua.] The 21. wee had a flat hill that bare North Northeast off vs, and wee were from the shoare 4. leagues, and at 2. a clocke in the afternoone we spake with a Frenchman riding neere a place called Ratire, and another place hard by called Crua. [Sidenote: A current to the Southeastward.] This Frenchman caried a letter from vs to M. Newton: wee layd it on hull while wee were writing of our letter; and the current set vs to the Southward a good pase alongst the shore South Southeast. The 25. we were in the bight of the Bay that is to the Westward of Capo de Tres puntas: the currant did set East Northeast. The 28. we lay sixe glasses a hull tarying for the pinesse. [Sidenote: Caou de tres puntas.] The last of Ianuary the middle part of Cape de tres puntas was thwart of vs three leagues at seuen of the clocke in the morning: and at eight the pinnesse came to an anker: and wee prooued that the current setteth to the Eastward: and at sixe at night the Vttermost lande bare East and by South 5. leagues, and we went Southwest, and Southwest and by South. Saturday the first of February 1588. we were thwart of a Round foreland, which I take to be the Eastermost part of Capo de tres puntas: and within the saide Round foreland was a great bay with an Island in the said bay. [Sidenote: The Castle of Mina.] The second of February wee were thwart of the Castle of Mina, and when the thirde glasse of our Looke-out was spent, we spied vnder our Larbord-quarter one of their Boates with certaine Negroes, and one Portugale in the Boate, wee haue had him to come aboord, but he would not. [Sidenote: Two white watch-houses.] And ouer the castle upon the hie rockes we did see as it might be two watch-houses, and they did shew very white: and we went eastnortheast. [Sidenote: Monte Redondo.] The 4 in the morning we were thwart a great high hill, and vp into the lande were more high ragged hilles, and those I reckoned to be but little short of Monte Redondo. Then I reckoned that we were 20 leagues Southeastward from the Mina, and at 11 of the clocke I sawe two hilles within the land, these hils I take to be 7 leagues from the first hils. And to sea-ward of these hilles is a bay, and at the east end of the bay another hill, and from the hils the landes lie verie low. We went Eastnortheast, and East and by North 22 leagues, and then East along the shore. [Sidenote: Villa longa.] The 6 we were short of Villa longa, and there we met with a Portugall Carauell. The 7 a faire temperate day, and all this day we road before Villa longa. The 8 at noone we set saile from Villa longa, and ten leagues from thence we ankered againe and stayed all that night in ten fadom water. [Sidenote: Rio de Lagos.] The ninth we set saile, and all alongst the shore were very thicke woodes, and in the afternoone we were thwart a riuer, and to the Eastward of the riuer a litle way off was a great high bush-tree as though it had no leaues, and at night we ankered with faire and temperate weather. The 10 we set sayle and went East, and East and by South 14 leagues along the shoare, which was so full of thicke woods, that in my iudgement a man should haue much to doe to passe through them, and towards night we ankered in 7 fadome with faire weather. [Sidenote: Very shallow water.] The 11 we sayled East and by South, and three leagues from the shore we had but 5 fadome water, and all the wood vpon the land was as euen as if it had beene cut with a paire of gardeners sheeres, and in running of two leagues we descerned a high tuft of trees vpon the brow of a land, which shewed like a Porpose head, and when wee came at it, it was but part of the lande, and a league further we saw a head-land very low and full of trees, and a great way from the land we had very shallow water, then we lay South into the sea, because of the sands for to get into the deepe water, and when we found it deepe, we ankered in fiue fadom thwart the riuer of Iaya, in the riuers mouth. The 12. in the morning we road still in the riuers mouth. This day we sent the pinnesse and the boat on land with the marchants, but they came not againe vntil the next morning. The shallowest part of this riuer is toward the West, where there is but 4 fadom and a halfe, and it is very broad. [Sidenote: Rio de Iaya.] The next morning came the boate aboord, and they also said it was Rio de Iaya. Here the currant setteth Westward, and the Eastermost land is higher then the Westermost Thursday the 13 we set saile, and lay South Southeast along the shore, where the trees are wonderfull euen, and the East shore is higher then the West shore, and when wee had sayled 18 leagues we had sight of a great riuer, then we ankered in three fadom and a halfe, and the currant went Westward. [Sidenote: Rio Benin.] This riuer is the riuer of Benin, and two leagues from the maine it is very shallowe. [Sidenote: A currant Westward.] The 15 we sent the boat and pinesse into the riuer with the marchants, and after that we set saile, because we road in shallow water, and went Southsoutheast, and the starboard tacke aboord vntill we came to fiue fadom water, where we road with the currant to the Westward: then came our boat out of the harbour and went aboord the pinnesse. The West part of the land was high browed much like the head of a Gurnard, and the Eastermost land was lower, and had on it three tufts of trees like stackes of wheate or corne, and the next day in the morning we sawe but two of those trees, by reason that we went more to the Eastward. And here we road still from the 14 of Februarie vntill the 14 of Aprill, with the winde at Southwest. The 16 of Februarie we rode still in fiue fadom, and the currant ranne still to the Westward, the winde at Southwest, and the boat and pinnesse came to vs againe out of the riuer, and told vs that there was but ten foote water vpon the barre. All that night was drowsie, and yet reasonable temperate. The 17 a close day, the winde at Southwest. Our marchants wayed their goods and put them aboord the pinnesse to goe into the riuer, and there came a great currant out of the riuer and set to the Westward. The 18 the marchants went with the boat and pinnesse into the riuer with their commodities. This day was close and drowsie, with thunder, raine, and lightning. The 24 a close morning and temperate, and in the afternoone the boat came to vs out of the riuer with our marchants. Twesday the 4 of March, a close soultry hot morning, the currant went to the Westward, and much troubled water came out of the riuer. [Sidenote: Sicknesse among our men.] The 16 our pinnesse came a boord and Anthonie Ingram in her, and she brought in her 94 bags of pepper, and 28 Elephants teeth, and the Master of her and all his company were sicke. This was a temperate day and the winde at Southwest. The 17. 18. and 19 were faire temperate weather and the winde at Southwest. This day the pinnesse went into the riuer againe, and carried the Purser and the Surgion. The 25 of the said moneth 1589 we sent the boate into the riuer. [Sidenote: The death of the Captaine. Pepper and Elephants Teeth.] The 30 our pinnesse came from Benin, and brought sorowfull newes, that Thomas Hemstead was dead and our Captaine also, and she brought with her 159 Cerons or sackes of pepper and Elephants teeth. [Sidenote: A good note.] Note that in all the time of our abiding here, in the mouth of the riuer of Benin, and in all the coast hereabout it is faire temperate weather, when the winde is at Southwest. And when the winde is at Northeast and Northerly, then it raineth, with lightning and thunder, and is very intemperate weather. The 13 of Aprill 1589 we set saile homewards in the name of Iesus. In the morning we sayled with the winde at Southwest, and lay West and by North, but it prooued calme all that night, and the currant Southeast. The 14 the riuer of Benin was Northeast 7 leagues from the shore, and there was little winde and towards night calme. The l7 a faire temperate day the winde variable, and we had of latitude foure degrees and 20 minutes. The 25 a faire temperate day the winde variable, and here we had three degrees and 29 minuts of latitude. [Sidenote: A deceiptfll currant.] The 8 of May we had sight of the shore, which was part of Cauo de Monte, but we did not thinke we had beene so farre, but it came so to passe by reason of the currant. In this place M. Towrson was in like maner deceiued with the currant. The 9 we had sight of Cauo de monte. The 17 a darke drowsie day, this was the first night that I tooke the North starre. The 26 a temperate day with litle winde, and we were in 12 degrees and 13 minutes of latitude. The 30 we met a great sea out of the Northwest. The 6 of Iune we found it as temperate as if we had beene in England, and yet we were within the height of the sunne, for it was declined 23 degrees, and 26 minuts to the Northward, and we had 15 degrees of latitude. The 8 faire and temperate as in England, here we met with a counter sea, out of the Southborde. The 15 a faire temperate day, the winde variable, here we had 18 degrees and fiftie nine minutes; [Sidenote: Rockweed or Saragasso all along the sea.] The 12 of Iuly in 30 degrees of latitude we met with great store of rockweed, which did stick together like clusters of grapes, and this continued with vs vntill the 17 of the said moneth, and then we saw no more, at which 17 day we were in two and thirtie degrees sixe and fortie minutes of latitude. The 25 at sixe of the clocke in the morning, we had sight of the Ile of Pike, it bare North and by East from vs, we being 15 leagues off. The 27 we spake with the poste of London and she told vs good newes of England. The nine and twentieth we had sight of the Island of Cueruo, and the 30 we saw the Island of Flores. The 27 of August in 41 degrees of latitude we saw 9 saile of Britons, and three of them followed vs vntill noone, and then gaue vs ouer. The 30 we had sight of Cape Finisterre. The eight of September at night wee put into Plimouth sound, and road in Causon Bay all night. The 9 we put into Catwater and there stayed vntill the 28 of September, by reason of want of men and sicknesse. The nine and twentieth we set sayle from Plimouth, and arriued at London the second of October 1589. The commodities that we caried in this voyage were cloth both linnen and woollen, yron worke of sundry sorts, Manillios or bracelets of copper, glasse beades, and corrall. The commodities that we brought home were pepper and Elephants teeth, oyle of palme, cloth made of Cotton wool very curiously wouen, and cloth made of the barke of palme trees. Their monie is pretie white shels, for golde and siluer we saw none. [Sidenote: Inamia, a kind of bread in Benin.] They haue also great store of cotton growing: their bread is a kind of roots, they call it Inamia, and when it is well sodden I would leaue our bread to eat of it, it is pleasant in eating, and light of digestion, the roote thereof is as bigge as a mans arme. Our men vpon fish-dayes had rather eate the rootes with oyle and vineger, then to eate good stockfish. [Sidenote: Wine of palm trees.] There are great store of palme trees, out of which they gather great store of wine, which wine is white and very pleasant, and we should buy two gallons of it for 20 shels. They haue good store of sope, and it smelleth like beaten violets. Also many pretie fine mats and baskets that they make, and spoones of Elephants teeth very curiously wrought with diuers proportions of foules and beasts made vpon them. There is vpon the coast wonderfull great lightning and thunder, in so much as I neuer hard the like in no Countrey, for it would make the decke or hatches tremble vnder our feete, and before we were well acquainted with it, we were fearefull, but God be thanked we had no harme. The people are very gentle and louing, and they goe naked both men and women vntill they be married, and then they goe couered from the middle downe to the knees. [Sidenote: Abundance of honey.] They would bring our men earthen pottes of the quantitie of two gallons, full of hony and hony combes for 100 shelles. They would also bring great store of Oranges and Plantans which is a fruit that groweth upon a tree, and is like vnto a Cucumber but very pleasant in eating. It hath pleased God of his mercefull goodnesse to give me the knowledge how to preserue fresh water with little cost, [Marginal note: This preseruatiue is wrought by casting into an hogshead of water an handful of bay-salt, as the author told me.] which did serve vs sixe moneths at the sea, and when we came into Plimmouth it was much wondered at, of the principal men of the towne, who said that there was not sweeter water in any spring in Plimmouth. Thus doth God prouide for his creatures, vnto whom be praise now and for euermore, Amen. * * * * * The voiage set forth by M. Iohn Newton, and M. Iohn Bird marchants of London to the kingdome and Citie of Benin in Africa, with a ship called the Richard of Arundell, and a pinnesse, in the yere 1588. briefly set downe in this letter following, written by the chiefe Factor in the voyage to the foresaid Marchants at the time of the ships first arriual at Plimouth. Worshipful Sirs, the discourse of our whole proceeding in this voyage wil aske more time and a person in better health then I am at this present, so that I trust you will pardon me, till my comming vp to you: in the meane time let this suffice. Whereas we departed in the moneth of December from the coast of England with your good ship the Richard of Arundell and the pinnesse, we held on our direct course towards our appointed port, and the 14 day of Februarie following we arriued in the hauen of Benin, where we found not water enough to carry the ship ouer the barre, so that we left her without in the road, and with the pinnesse and ship boat, into which we had put the chiefest of our marchandise, [Sidenote: Goto in Benin.] we went vp the riuer to a place called Goto, where we arriued the 20 of February, the foresaid Goto being the neerest place that we could come to by water, to go for Benin. [Sidenote: The great citie of Benin.] From thence we presently sent Negroes to the king, to certifie him of our arriuall, and of the cause of our comming thither: who returned to vs againe the 22 day with a noble man in their company to bring vs vp to the Citie, and with 200 Negroes to carrie our commodities: hereupon the 23 day we deliuered our marchandize to the Kings Factor, and the 25 day we came to the Citie of Benin, where we were well intertained: The sixe and twenty day we went to the Court to haue spoken with the king, which (by reason of a solemne feast then kept amongst them) we could not doe: but yet we spake with his Veadore, or chiefe man, that hath the dealing with the Christians: and we conferred with him concerning our trading, who answered vs, that we should have all thing to our desire, both in pepper and Elephants teeth. The first of March, we were admitted to the kings presence, and he made vs the like courteous answere for our traffike: the next day we went againe to the Court, where the foresaid Veadore shewed vs one basket of greene pepper, and another of dry in the stalkes: wee desired to haue it plucked from the stalks and made cleane, who answered, that it would aske time, but yet it should be done: and that against another yeere it should be in better readines, and the reason why we found it so vnprepared was, because in this kings time no Christians had euer resorted thither, to lade pepper. The next day there were sent vs 12 baskets, and so a litle euery day vntill the 9 of March at which time we had made vpon 64 serons of pepper, and 28 Elephants teeth. In this time of our being at Benin (our natures at this first time not so well acquainted with that climate) we fell all of vs into the disease of the feuer, whereupon the Captaine sent me downe with those goods which we alreadie had receiued, to the rest of our men at Goto: where being arriued, I found all the men of our pinnesse sicke also, and by reason of their weaknes not able to conuey the pinnesse and goods downe to the place where our ship road: but by good hap within two houres after my comming to Goto, the boate came vp from the ship, to see how all things stood with vs, so that I put the goods into the boat, and went downe towards the ship: but by that time I was come aboord, many of our men died: namely, Master Benson, the Cooper, the Carpenter, and 3 or 4 more, and my selfe was also in such a weake state that I was not able to returne againe to Benin. Whereupon I sent vp Samuel Dunne, and the Chirurgian with him to our men, that were about to let them blood, if it were thought needfull: who at their comming to Benin, found the Captaine and your sonne William Bird dead, and Thomas Hempsteede very weake, who also died within two dayes after their comming thither. This sorrowfull accident caused them with such pepper and teeth, as they could then find, speedily to returne to the ship, as by the Cargason will appeare: at their comming away the Veadore tolde them, that if they could or would stay any longer time, he would vse all possible expedition to bring in more commodities: but the common sicknesse so increased and continued amongst vs all, that by the time our men which remained were come aboord, we had so many sicke and dead of our companie, that we looked all for the same happe, and so thought to loose both our ship, life, countrey and all. Very hardly and with much adoe could we get vp our ankers, but yet at last by the mercie of God hauing gotten them vp, but leauing our pinnesse behind vs, we got to sea, and set saile, which was vpon the 13 of Aprill. After which by little and little our men beganne to gather vp their crums and to recouer some better strength: and so sailing betwixt the Ilands of Cape Verde, and the maine we came to the Islands of the Azores vpon the 25 of Iuly, where our men beganne a fresh to grow ill, and divers died, among whom Samuel Dun was one, and as many as remained liuing were in a hard case: but in the midst of our distresse, it fell so well out, by Gods good prouidence, that we met with your ship the Barke Burre, on this side the North cape, which did not only keepe vs good companie, but also sent vs sixe fresh men aboord, without whose helpe, we should surely haue tasted of many inconueniences. But by this good meanes we are now at the last arriued in Plimouth, this 9 day of September: and for want of better health at this time, I referre the further knowledge of more particularities till my comming to London. Yours to commaund Antony Ingram. * * * * * The second voyage to Benin, set foorth by Master Iohn Newton, and Master Iohn Bird Marchants of London in the yeere 1590 with a ship called the Richard of Arundell of the burthen of one hundreth tunnes, and a small pinnesse, in which voyage Master Iames Welsh was chiefe Maister. The third of September 1590 we set saile from Ratclife, and the 18 of the said moneth we came into Plimouth sound, and the two and twentieth we put to sea againe, and at midnight we were off the Lisart, and so passed on our voyage vntill the 14 of October, on which day we had sight of Forteuentura one of the Canarie Islands, which appeared very ragged as we sailed by it. The 16 of October, in the latitude of 24 degrees and nine minutes we met with a great hollow sea, the like whereof I neuer saw on this coast, and this day there came to the ships side a monstrous great fish (I thinke it was a Gobarto) which put vp his head to the steepe tubs where the cooke was in shifting the victuals, whom I thought the fish would haue caried away. The 21 in this latitude of 18 degrees we met with a countersea out of the North boord, and the last voyage in this very place we had the countersea out of the South, being very calme weather as now it is also. [Sidenote: A token of a Northerly winde.] The 24 we had sight of Cauo Verde, and the 25 we met with a great hollow sea out of the North, which is a common signe that the winde will be Northerly, and so it prooued. The 15 of Nouember we met with three currants out of the West and Northwest, one after another, with an houres time betweene each currant. This was in the latitude of 6 degrees and 42 minutes. [Sidenote: Great currants.] The 18 day we met with two other great currants out of the Southwest, and the 20 we saw another current out of the Northeast, and the 24 we had a great current out of the Southsouthwest, and at 6 of the clocke towards night we had 3 currents more. The 27 we thought that we had gone at the least 2 leagues and a halfe euery watch, and it fell out that we sailed but one league euery watch for the space of 24 houres, by meanes of a great billow and current that came still out of the South. The 5 of December in setting the watch we cast about and lay East Northeast, and Northeast, and here in 5 degrees and a halfe our pinnesse lost vs wilfully. The 7 at the going downe of the Sunne we saw a great blacke spot in the Sunne, and the 8. day both at rising and setting we saw the like, which spot to our seeming was about the bignesse of a shilling, being in 5 degrees of latitude, and still there came a great billow of the southerboord. The 14 we sounded and had 15 fadom water and grosse red sand, and 2 leagues from the shore the currant set Southeast along the shore with a billow still out of the southerboord. [Sidenote: Two rocks.] The 15 we were thwart a rocke somewhat like the Mewstone in England, it was 2 leagues from vs, here we sounded and had 27 fadom, but the rocke is not aboue a mile from the shore, and a mile farther we saw another rocke and betweene them both broken ground; here we sounded and had but 20 fadome and blacke sand, and we might see plaine that the rockes went not along the shore, but from the land to the seaward, and about 5 leagues to the Southwards we sawe a great bay, here we had 4 degrees and 27 minuts. [Sidenote: A French ship of Hunfleur.] The 16 we met with a French ship of Hunfleur, who robbed our pinnesse, we sent a letter by him, and this night we saw another spot in the sunne at his going downe. And towards euening we were thwart of a riuer, and right ouer the riuer was a high tuft of trees. [Sidenote: Cauo del las Palmas.] The 17 we ankered in the riuers mouth, and then we found the land to be Cauo de las Palmas, and betweene vs and the cape was a big ledge of rockes, one league and a halfe into the sea, and they bare to the West of the Cape, we saw also an Island off the point of the foreland, thus it waxed night that we could perceiue no more of the lande, but onely that it trended in like a bay, where there runneth a streame as if it were in the riuer of Thames, and this was the change day of the Moone. The 19 a faire temperate day, and the wind South, we went East, and the lande a sterne of vs West, and it shewed low by the water side like Islands, this was the East of Cauo de las Palmas, and it trended in with a great sound, and we went East all night, and in the morning wee were but 3 or 4 leagues from the shore. The 20 we were thwart of a riuer railed Rio de los Barbos. The 21 we went along the shore East, and 3 or 4 leagues to the West of Cauo de tres puntas, I find the bay to be set deeper then it is by 4 leagues, and at 4 of the clocke the land begun to shewe high, and the first part of it full of Palme trees. The 24 still going by the shore, the land was very low and full of trees by the water side, and at 12 of the clocke we ankered thwart of the riuer called, Rio de Boilas. Here we sent our boate a shore with the marchants, but they durst not put into the riuer because of a great billow that continually brake at the entrance vpon the barre. The 28 we sailed alongst the shore, and ankered at night in seuen fadom because a great current would haue put vs backe, which came from the East Southeast from Papuas. [Sidenote: Arda.] The 29 at noone we were thwart of Arda, and there we tooke a Carauel but the men were fled on land, then we went aboord her, but she had nothing in her but only a litle oyle of Palme trees, and a few roots. The next morning, our Captaine and marchants went to meete Portugals, that came in a boate to speake with vs, where they communed about the buying of the Carauell of our men againe, and the Portugals promised that we should haue for the Carauell, certaine bullocks and Elephants teeth, and they gaue vs one tooth and one bullocke presently, and sayd they would bring vs the rest the next day. [Sidenote: Ianuarie.] The first of Ianuarie our Captaine went on land to speake with the Portugales, but when he saw they did dissemble, he came aboord againe, and presently we vnrigged the Carauell, and set her on fire before the towne. Then we set saile and went along the coast, where we saw a Date tree, the like whereof is not in all that coast vpon the water side, also we fell on ground a litle in one place: [Sidenote: Villa longa.] Thus we went to Villa longa, and there ankered. [Sidenote: Rio de Lagoa.] The third we were as far shot as Rio de Lagoa, where our marchants went a shore and vpon the barre they found 3 fadom flat, but they went not in because it was late. There is also to the Eastward of this riuer a Date tree higher than all the rest of the other trees thereabout. Thus we went along the coast, and euery night ankered, and al the shore as we went was full of trees and thicke woods. [Sidenote: The riuer Iaya.] The 6 day in the morning it was very foggy, so that we could not see the land, and at three of the clocke in the afternoone it cleared vp, and then we found our selues thwart of the riuer of Iaya, and when we found the shallow water, we bare into the sea South, as we did the voyage before, and came to an ancre in fiue fadom water. [Sidenote: The riuer Benin.] The next day we set saile againe, and towards noone we were thwart of the riuer of Benin in foure fadom water. The 10 day our Captaine went on land with the shallop at 2 a clocke in the afternoone. All this weeke it was very foggy euery day vntill ten a clocke, and all this time hitherto hath beene as temperate as our summer in England. This day we went into the road and ankered, and the west point of the road bare East northeast off vs, wee riding in foure fadome water. [Sidenote: Goto.] The 21 a faire temperate day, this day M. Hassald went to the towne of Goto, to heare newes of the Captaine. The 23 came the Carauell, and Samuell in her, and she brought 63 Elephants teeth, and three bullocks. The 28 a faire temperate day, and towards night there fell much raine, lightning, and thunder, this day our boate came aboord from Goto. The 24 of Februarie, we tooke in 298 Cerons or sackes of pepper, and 4 Elephants teeth, and the winde was at Southeast. And the 26 we put the rest of our goods into the Carauell, and M. Hassald went with her to Goto. The 5 of March the Carauel came againe and brought 21 Cerons of pepper, and 4 Elephants teeth. The 9 of Aprill our Carauell came aboord with water for our prouision for the sea, and this day also we lost our shallope. The 17 a drowsie rainie day, and in the afternoone we saw 3 great spoutes of raine, two on our larbord side, and one right with the ships head, but God be thanked, they came not at vs, and this day we tooke in the last of our water for the sea, and the 26 we victualed our Carauell to go with vs to the sea. The 27 we set saile to goe homewarde with the winde at Southwest, and at two a clocke in the afternoone, the riuer of Benin was Northeast 8 leagues from vs. The 3 of May we had such a terrible gust with raine, lightning and thunder, that it tore and split our fore saile, and also the Carauels foresayle and maine-sayle, with the wind at Southeast. The 12 a faire temperate day, much like our sommer mornings in England, being but one degree and a halfe from the line, but at midnight we had a cruell gust of raine; and the wind at northeast. The 24 we were South from Cauo de las Palmas 37 leagues. The first of Iuly we had sight of the Iland of Braua, and it bare East 7 leagues off, and this Island is one of the Islands of Cauo Verde. The 13 of August we spake with the Queenes ships, the Lord Thomas Howard being Admirall, and sir Richard Greeneuill Viceadmirall. They kept vs in their company vntill the 15 day night, themselues lying a hull, in waight for purchase 30 leagues to the Southwest of the Island of Flores. [Sidenote: We departed in company of a prise.] The 15 we had leaue to depart with a fly-boat laden with sugar that came from Sant Thome, which was taken by the Queenes ships, whereof my Lord Admirall gaue me great charge, not to leaue her vntill she were harbored in England. The three and twentieth the Northeast part of the Island of Coruo bare of vs East and by South sixe leagues off. The 17 of September we met with a ship of Plimouth that came out of the West Indies, but she could tell vs no newes. The next day we had sight of another sayle, this day also one of our company named M. Wood died. The 23 we spake with the Dragon of my Lord of Cumberland, whereof Master Iuie was Maister. The second of October we met with a ship of New-castle which came from Newfoundland, and out of her we had 300 couple of Newland fish. The 6 we had sight of Sillie, and with raine and winde we were forced to put into S. Maries sound, where we staied all night, and 4 dayes after. The 11 we set saile againe, and comming out had three fadom vpon the barre at a high water, then we lay out Southeast, through Crow-sand, and shortly after we had sight of the lands end, and at ten of the clocke we were thwart of the Lysart. The 13 we were put into Dartmouth, and there we stayd vntill the 12 of December. From thence we put out with the winde at West, and the 18 of December, God be praised, we ankered at Limehouse in the Thames, where we discharged 589 sacks of Pepper, 150 Elephants teeth, and 32 barrels of oile of Palme trees. The commodities that we caried out this second voyage were Broad cloth, Kersies, Bayes, Linnen cloth, Yron vnwrought, Bracelets of Copper, Corall, Hawks belles, Horsetails, Hats, and such like. This voyage was more comfortable vnto vs then the first, because we had good store of fresh water, and that very sweet: for as yet we haue very good water in the shippe which we brought out of the riuer of Benin the first day of Aprill 1591. and it is at this day (being the 7 of Iune 1592.) to be seene aboord the ship as cleare and as sweet as any fountaine can yeeld. In this voyage we sailed 350 leagues within halfe a degree of the equinoctiall line, and there we found it more temperate than where we rode. [Marginal note: It is more temperate vnder the equinoctiall, then on the coast of Guinie and Benin.] And vnder the line we did kill great store of small Dolphines, and many other good fishes, and so did we all the way, which was a very great refreshing vnto vs, and the fish neuer forsooke vs vntil we were to the Northwards of the Ilands of Azores, and then we could see no more fish, but God be thanked wee met with good company of our countrey ships which were great comfort vnto vs, being fiue moneths before at Sea without any companie. By me Iames Welsh master of the Richard of Arundell, in both these voyages to the riuer of Benin. * * * * * An Aduertisement sent to Philip the second king of Spaine from Angola by one Baltazar Almeida de Sousa, touching the state of the forsayd countrey, written the 21 of May. 1591. The 26 of Iuly I certified your maiestie by Iohn Frere de Bendanha your majesties pay-master and commissioner, with the gouernour Paulo Dias, which is lately deceased, of all things that happened the 28 of December in the yere last past 1590. Now I thought it conuenient to aduertise your maiestie what hath fallen out since that time, which is as foloweth. The gouernour Luis Serrano encamped himselfe eight leagues from Cabasa, where the Negro king dwelleth with 350 Portugal souldiers: and afterward being there encamped, it hapned that the King of Matamba sent a strong and mightie army, and in warlike maner, with strange inuentions for the sayd purpose. [Sidenote: 114 Portugals slaine in Angola.] So the king of Angola gaue this other king battell, and the gouernour sent 114 souldiers Portugals to helpe the said king of Angola: in which battell it was the will of God that our army was ouerthrown and all slaine, as well our Portugals as the Moores which tooke part with them. So with this ouerthrow it happened that this realme the second time hath rebelled against your maiestie. Herevpon the Governour assembling the rest of his Portugal souldiers, to the number of 250 altogether, went to Amasanguano, which is now his place of abode. Moreouer, besides the manifold losses which haue befallen the Portugals in this realme, your maiestie hath sustained other great misfortunes in your lands and goods. And because I cannot personally come to certifie your maiestie thereof, I thought it good to write some part of the same whereby your maiestie may vnderstand the estate of this countrey. This realme for the most part thereof hath twise benne wonne, and twise lost for want of good gouernment For here haue bene many gouernours which haue pretended to do iustice, but haue pitifully neglected the same, and practised the cleane contrary. [Sidenote: The only way to reduce a rebellous kingdom vnto obedience.] And this I know to be most true. But the onely way to recouer this realme, and to augment your maiesties lands, goods and treasure, must be by sending some noble and mighty man to rule here, which must bring authoritie from your maiestie, and by taking streight order that euery captaine which doeth conquere here may bee rewarded according to his deserts. Likewise your maiestie must send hither 2000 good souldiers, with munition and sufficient store of prouision for them. And by this means your highnesse shall know what yeerely reuenue Angola will yeeld vnto your coffers, and what profit will grow thereof. Otherwise your maiestie shall reape but litle benefit here. If with my presence I may doe your maiestie any seruice in giuing information of the state of this realme, as one which haue had experience thereof, and haue seene the order of it, vpon the vnderstanding of your maiesties pleasure herein, I will do my best endeuour. [Sidenote: An vsuall trick of lewd gouernours.] And the cause whereof I haue not done this heretofore hath bene, by reason that the Gouernors of this realme would suffer none of the captaines which haue conquered this countrey to informe your maiestie of that which is needfull for your seruice, and the augmenting of this conquest. Our lord preserue your catholique person with increase of many kingdomes, and the augmentation of youre crowne. Written, in the conquest of the realme of Angola the 21 of May 1591. Your majesties most loiall subiect, Baltazar Almeida de Souza. * * * * * Confimatio treugarum inter Regem Angliæ Eduardum quartum, et Ioannem secundum Regem Portugalliæ, datarum in oppido montis Maioris 8 Februarij, et apud Westmonasterium 12 Septembris, 1482, anno regni 22 Regis Eduardi quarti, lingua Lusitanica ex opere sequenti excerpta. Libro das obras de Garcia de Resende, que tracta da vida è feitos del Rey dom Ioham secundo. Embaixada que el Ray mandou à el Rey d'Inglaterra, cap.33 Eda qui de Monte Mor mandou el Rey por embaixadores à el rey dom Duarte de Inglaterra Ruy de Sousa pessoa principal è de muyto bon saber é credito, de que el Rey muyto confiaua, é ho doutor Ioam d'Eluas, é Fernam de Pina por secretario. E foram por mar muy honradamente com muy boa companhia: hos quaes foram en nome del Rey confirmar as ligas antiquas com Inglaterra, que polla condisan dellas ho nouo Rey de hum reyno é do outro era obrigado à mandar confirmar: é tambien pera mostrarem ho titolo que el rey tinha no senhorio de Guinee, pera que depois de visto el rey d'Inglaterra defendesse em todos seus reynos, que ninguen armasse nem podesse mandar à Guinee: é assi mandasse desfazer buna armada, que pera las faziam, per mandado do Duque de Medina Sidonia, hum Ioam Tintam é hum Guilherme Fabiam Ingreses. Com ha qual embaixada el rey d'Inglaterra mostrou receber grande contentamento, é foy delle com muyta honra recebida, é em tudo fez inteiramente ho que pellos embaixadores lhe foy requerido. De que elles trouxeran autenticas [Marginal note: These writings are in the tower.] escrituras das diligencias que con pubricos pregones fizeram: é assi as prouisones das aprauasones que eran necessarias: é com tudo muyto ben acabado, é ha vontade del rey se vieram. The Ambassage which king Iohn the second, king of Portugall, sent to Edward the fourth king of England, which in part was to stay one Iohn Tintam, and one William Fabian English men, from proceeding in a voyage which they were preparing fot Guinea, 1481, taken out of the booke of the workes of Garcias de Resende, which intreateth of the life and acts of Don Iohn the second, king of Portugall. Chap. 33. And afterwards the king sent as Ambassadours from the towne of Monte maior to king Edward the fourth of England, Ruy de Sousa, a principall person, and a man of great wisedome and estimation, and in whom the king reposed great trust, with doctor Iohn d'Eluas, and Ferdinand de Pina, as secretarie. And they made their voyage by sea very honourably, being very well accompanied. [Sidenote: The first cause of this ambassage.] These men were sent on the behalfe of their king, to confirme the ancient leagues England, wherein it was conditioned that the new king of the one and of the other kingdome, should be bound to send to confirme the olde leagues. [Sidenote: The second cause.] And likewise they had order to shew and make him acquainted with the title which the king held in the segneury of Ginnee, to the intent that after the king of England had seene the same, he should giue charge thorow all his kingdomes, that no man should arme or set foorth ships to Ginnee: [Sidenote: The third cause.] and also to request him, that it would please him to giue commandement to dissolue a certaine fleet, which one Iohn Tintam and one William Fabian, English men, were making, by commandement of the duke of Medina Sidonia, to goe to the aforesayd parts of Ginnee. With which ambassage the king of England seemed to be very well pleased, and they were receiued of him with very great honour, and he condescended vnto all that the ambassadours required of him, at whose hands they receiued authenticall writings of the diligence which they had performed, with publication thereof by the heralds: and also prouisoes of those confirmations which were necessary. And hauing dispatched all things well, and with the kings good will, they returned home into their countrey. * * * * * A relation sent by Melchior Petoney to Nigil de Moura at Lisbon, from the Iland and Castle of Arguin, standing a little to the southward of Cape Blanco, in the Northerly latitude of 19 degrees, concerning the rich and secret trade from the inland of Africa thither: Anno 1591. [Sidenote: Commodities fit for Arguin.] As concerning the trade to this Castle and Iland of Arguin, your worship is to vnderstand, that if it would please the kings maiesty to send hither two or three carauels once in a yeere with Flanders and Spanish commodities, as Bracelets of glasse, Kniues, Belles, Linnen-cloth, Looking-glasses, with other kindes of small wares, his hignesse might do great good here. For 50 leagues vp into the land the Moores haue many exceedingly rich golde mines; insomuch that they bring downe their golde to this Castle to traffique with vs: and for a small trifle they will give vs a great wedge of gold. And because here is no trade, the sayd Moores cary their golde to Fez being 250 leagues distant from hence, and there doe exchange the same for the forsayd kindes of commodities. By this meanes also his maiesty might stop that passage, and keepe the king of Fez from so huge a mass of golde. [Sidenote: Scarlet and fine Purple cloth greatly accepted.] Scarlet-clothes, and fine Purples are greatly accepted of in these parts. It is a most fertile country within the land, and yeeldeth great store of Wheat, flesh of all kindes, and abundance of fruits. [Sidenote: A good harbor before the Castle of Arguin.] Therefore if it were possible, you should do well to deale with his maiesty, either himselfe to send a couple of carauels, or to giue your worship leaue to traffique here: for here is a very good harbour where ships may ride at ancre hard by the Castle. The countrey where all the golde-mines are is called The kingdome of Darha. [Marginal note: Concerning this kingdome reade Leo Africanus a little after the beginning of his 6 booke.] In this kingdome are great store of cities and townes; and in euery city and towne a Captaine with certaine souldiers; which Captaines are lords and owners of the sayd townes. One city there is called Couton, another Xanigeton, as also the cities of Tubguer, Azegue, Amader, Quaherque, and the towne of Faroo. The which townes and cities are very great and fairely built, being inhabited by rich Moores, and abounding with all kinde of cattell, Barley and Dates. And here is such plenty of golde found vpon the sands by the riuers side, that the sayd Moores usually cary the same Northward to Marocco, and Southward to the city of Tombuto in the land of Negros, which city standeth about 300 leagues from the kingdome of Darha; and this kingdome is but 60 leagues from this Iland and Castle of Arguin. Wherefore I beseech your worship to put his maiesty in remembrance hereof; for the sayd cities and townes are but ten dayes iourney from hence. I heartily wish that his maiesty would send two or three marchants to see the state of the Countrey, who might trauell to the aforesayd cities, to understand of their rich trade. For any man may go safe and come safe from those places. And thus without troubling of your worship any further, I humbly take my leaue. From the Iland and Castle of Arguin the 20 of Ianuary 1591. Your worships seruant Melchior Petoney. * * * * * The voyage of Richard Rainolds and Thomas Dassel to the riuers of Senega and Gambra adioning vpon Guinea, 1591 with a discourse of the treasons of certaine of Don Antonio his seruants and followers. By vertue of her Maiesties most gracious charter giuen in the yeere 1588, and in the thirtieth yeere of her Highnesse reigne, certaine English marchants are granted to trade, in and from the riuer of Senega to and in the riuer of Gambra, on the Westerne coast of Africa. The chiefest places of traffique on that coast betweene these riuers, are these: [Sidenote: The names of the chiefe places of traffike between Senega and Gambra.] 1 Senega riuer: The commodities be hides, gumme, elephants teeth, a few graines, ostrich feathers, amber-griece, and some golde. 2 Beseguiache, a towne by Capo Verde * [sic--KTH] leagues from Senega riuer: The commodities be small hides, and a few teeth. 3 Refisca Vieio, a towne 4 leagues from Beseguiache: The commodities be small hides, and a few teeth now and then. 4 Palmerin, a towne 2 leagues from Refisca: The commodities be small hides, and a few elephants teeth now and then. 5 Porto d'Ally, a towne 5 leagues from Palmerin: The commodities be small hides, teeth, amber-griece, and a little golde: and many Portugals are there. 6 Candimal, a towne halfe a league from Porto d'Ally: The commodities be small hides, and a few teeth now and then. 7 Palmerin, a towne 3 leagues from Candimal: The commodities be small hides, and a few teeth now and then. 8 Ioala, a towne 6 leagues from Palmerin: The commodities be hides, waxe, elephants teeth, rice, and some golde: and many Spaniards and Portugals are there. 9 Gambra riuer: The commodities are rice, waxe, hides, elephants teeth, and golde. The Frenchmen of Diepe and New-hauen haue traded thither aboue thirty yeres: and commonly with four or five ships a yere, whereof two small barks go into the riuer of Senega. The other were wont (vntill within these foure yeres, that our ships came thither) to ride with their ships in the road of Porto d'Ally and so sent their small shaloups of sixe or eight tunnes to some of these places on the Sea coast before repeated. Where in all places generally they were well beloued and as courteously entertained of the Negros, as if they had been naturally borne in the country. And very often the Negros come into France and returne againe, which is a further increasing of mutuall loue and amity. Since our comming to that coast the Frenchmen ride with their shippes at Refisca Vieio and suffered vs to ancre with our shippes at Porto d'Ally. The Frenchmen neuer vse to go into the riuer of Gambra: which is a riuer of secret trade and riches concealed by the Portugals. For long since one Frenchman entered the riuer with a small barke which was betrayed, surprised and taken by two gallies of the Portugals. In our second voyage and second yeere there were by vile treacherous meanes of the Portugals and the king of the Negros consent in Porto d'Ally and Ioala about forty Englishmen cruelly slaine and captiued, and most or all of their goods confiscated: whereof there returned onely two, which were marchants. And also by procurement of Pedro Gonsalues, one of Don Antonio the kings seruants, Thomas Dassel and others had bene betrayed, if it had not pleased Almighty God to reueale the same, whereby it was preuented. From the South side of Senega riuer on the Sea coast vnto about Palmerin is all one kingdome of Negros. The kings name is Melick Zamba, who dwelleth two dayes iourney within the land from Refisca. The 12 of Nouember 1591, I Richard Rainolds and Thomas Dassel factors in a ship called the Nightingale of London 125 tunnes, and a pinnesse called the Messenger of 40 tonnes arriued neere vnto Capo Verde at a little Iland called The Iland of liberty. At this Iland we set vp a small pinnesse, with which we cary our marchandise on land when wee traffique. And in the meane time Thomas Dassel went with the great pinnesse to traffike with Spaniards or Portugals in Porto d'Ally or Ioala. Ouer against the sayd Iland on the maine is an habitation of the Negros called Besegueache. The alcaide or gouernor thereof with a great traine came aboord in their canoas to receiue the kings dueties for ankerage and permitting the quiet setting vp of our pinnesse: who liked passing well that no Portugall came in the shippe, saying, we should be better thought of by the king and people, if we neuer did bring Portugall, but come of our selues as the Frenchmen euer did and doe. And to purchase the more loue, I Richard Rainolds gaue him and all his company courteous entertainment. Also vpon his intreaty, hauing sufficient pledge aboord, I and others went on land with him. At this instant there was great warre betweene this alcaide and another gouernor of the next prouince. Neuerthelesse vpon our arriuall truce was taken for a space; and I with our company conducted among both enemies to the gouernors house in Besegueache, and were gently and friendly feasted after their maner, and with some presents returned safe aboord againe. The next day the alcaide came aboord againe, to wil me to send some yron and other commodities in the boat to traffike with the Negros, and also requested me that I would go to Refisca with the ship; which I did. And one thing I noted, that a number of Negros attended the alcaides landing in warlike maner with bowes and poisoned arrowes, darts poisoned, and swords, (because that the enemies by reason of the truce taken were there also to view the ship) who for the most part approched to him kneeling downe and kissed the backe of his hand. The 17 of Nouember we weyed anker; and by reason no French ship was yet come, I went to the road of Refisca: where I sent for the alcaides interpreters, who came thither aboord, and receiued of me the kings duties for to haue free traffike with the Negros, with whom dayly I exchanged my yron and other wares for hides and some elephants teeth, finding the people very friendly and tractable. And the next day after our arriuall I went vp into the land about three miles to the towne of Refisca, where I was friendly vsed and well entertained of the alcaide, and especially of a yoong nobleman called Conde Amar Pattay, who presented me with an oxe for my company, goats and some yoong kids, assuring me that the king would be glad to heare of the arriuall of a Christians ship, whom they called Blancos, that is, white men: especially of an English ship. And so dayly the yong Conde came with a small company of horsemen to the sea side, feasting me very kindly and courteously. And the fift of December he with his traine came aboord to see the ship; which to them seemed woonderfull, as people that seldome had seene the like: who tolde me that his messenger from the king was returned; and the king reioyed much to heare that English men were come with a ship to trade in his ports; and being the first Englishman that euer came with a ship, I was the better welcome; promising that I or any Englishman hereafter should be wel intreated and find good dealing at their hands. And further the Conde on the kings behalfe and his owne, earnestly requested, that before my departure off the coast I would returne againe to his road to conferre with him for the better continuance and confirming of amity betweene them and Englishmen: which I agreed vnto. And so shewing him and his company the best friendship and courtesie I could, he went on shore, and should haue had the honor of our ordinance but that he desired the contrary, being amazed at the sight of the ship and noise of the gunnes, which they did greatly admire. The 13 of December at night we weighed anker, and arriued the 14 day at the road of Porto d'Ally, which is another kingdome: the king thereof is called Amar Meleck, and sonne to Meleck Zamba the other king, and dwelleth a dayes iourney and an halfe from Porto d'Ally. When we had ankered, the kings kinsmen being gouernors, with all the officers of that towne came aboord to receiue all duties for the ship and licence to traffike due to the king; who there generally seemed to be very glad that no Portugall was come in our ship out of England; saying it was the kings pleasure we should bring none hereafter; for that the king did esteeme them as people of no truth; and complained of one Francisco de Costa seruant to Don Antonio, how he had often and the last yere also abused and deluded their king Amar Meleck in promising to bring him certaine things out of England, which he neuer performed, and deemed that to be the cause of his staying behinde this voyage, and that neither Spaniard nor Portugall could abide vs, but reported very badly and gaue out hard speeches tending to the defamation and great dishonour of England: [Sidenote: The monstrous lies of a Portugall.] and also affirmed that at the arriuall of an English ship called The Command, of Richard Kelley of Dartmouth, one Pedro Gonsalues a Portugall that came in the sayd ship from Don Antonio reported vnto them, that we were fled out of England and come away vpon intent to rob and do great spoile vpon this coast to the Negros and Portugals, and that Thomas Dassel had murdered Francisco de Acosta since our comming from England, who was comming to their king in our ship with great presents from Don Antonio, and desired that at our arriuall stay might be made of our goods and our selues in secret maner; which they denied, not giuing credit to his report, hauing bene often abused by such friuolous and slanderous speeches by that nation; telling me their king was sory for the former murder and captiuity of our nation, and would neuer yeeld to the like, hauing the Portugals and Spaniards in generall hatred euer since, and conceiueth much better of our countrey, and vs, then these our enemies report of. [Sidenote: Port Dally the chief place of trade.] For which I yeelded them hearty thanks, assuring them they should finde great difference betweene the loyalty of the one and disloyalty of the other; and so payed their dueties: and for that it was the chiefe place of trade, I shewed them how I was resolued to goe to their king with certaine presents which we had brought out of England; which we determined for the more honor and credit of our countrey, and augmenting of their better affection toward vs. All this while Thomas Dassel was with our great pinnesse at the towne of Ioala, being in the kingdome of king Iocoel Lamiockeric, traffiking with the Spaniards and Portugals there. And the forenamed Pedro Gonsalues, which came out of England, was there also with other English marchants about the busines of Rich. Kelley; and as it should seeme, for that he could not obtaine his mischieuous pretended purpose against Thomas Dassel and others at the towne of Porto d'Ally, where I Richard Rainolds remained, he attempted with consent of other Portugals which were made priuy to his intent to betray the sayd Thomas Dassel at this towne, and had with bribes seduced the chiefe commanders and Negros to effect his wicked and most villanous practise: which as God would, was reuealed to the sayd Thomas Dassel by Rich. Cape an Englishman and seruant to the forenamed Rich. Kelley: to whom this sayd Pedro Gonsalues had disclosed his secret treachery, willing him with all expedition to stand vpon his guard. [The Cherubin of Lime at Ioala.] Whereupon Thomas Dassel went aboard a small English barke called The Cherubin of Lime, and there one Iohn Payua a Portugall and seruant of Don Antonio declared, that if he and one Garcia a Portugall of the sayd towne would haue consented with Pedro Gonsalues, the sayd Thomas Dassel had bene betrayed long before. And vpon this warning Thomas Dassel the next day hauing gotten three Portugals aboord, aduised for our better securities to send two on land, and detained one with him called Villa noua, telling them that if the next day by eight of the clocke, they would bring Pedro Gonsalues aboard to him, he would release the sayd Villa noua, which they did not. And Thomas Dassel hauing intelligence that certaine Negros and Portugals were ridden post ouerland to Porto d'Ally with intent to haue Richard Rainolds and his company stayd on land, being doubtfull what friendship soeuer the vnconstant Negros professed (by reason they be often wauering being ouercome with drinking wine) how they would deale, to preuent the dangerous wiles that might be effected in the road by Portugals, and for better strength, the 24 of December he came with his pinnesse and Portugall to ride in the road of Porto d'Ally, where our great shippe the Nightingall was: who was no sooner arriued but he had newes also from the shore from Iohn Baily Anthony Dassels seruant, who was there with our goods detained by the Portugals means, that aboue 20 Portugals and Spaniards were come from Ioala by land, and Pedro Gonsalues in their company, to take order for the releasing of Villa noua. So hauing had conference two or three dayes with the Commanders, the Negros, some Spaniards, and some Portugals, in the end by due examination of the matter the Negros seeing how vilely Pedro Gonsalues had delt, he being in their power, sayd he should suffer death or be tortured, for an example to others. But we in recompense of his cruelty pitied him and shewed mercy, desiring the Negros to intreat him well though vndeserued: and therevpon the Commanders brought him aboord the pinnesse to Thomas Dassel to do with him what he would: where at his comming from the shore, for lauish speeches which he used of Princes, he was well buffetted by a Spaniard, and might haue bene slaine, if for our sakes he had not bene rescued. [Sidenote: Note.] While I went on shore with Villa noua, the sayd Pedro Gonsalues confessed vnto Thomas Dassel that he did enquire of some Negros and Portugals if he might not stay him and his goods in the land, and that he did nothing but by commission from his king by his letters which he receiued from London in Dartmouth after we were departed from London, for that we presumed to come to Guinea to traffike without a seruant of his: and further, that he had power or procuration from Francisco de Costa the Portugall that stayed behinde in England to detaine the goods of Anthony Dassel in Guinea. By consent of M. Francis Tucker, Iohn Browbeare, and the rest of the factours of Richard Kelley, with whom this Pedro Gonsalues came, for auoiding further mischiefe that might be practised, we agreed that the sayd Pedro Gonsalues should stay aboord our shippe, and not goe any more on land vntill they departed. So the ninth of Ianuary he was deliuered aboord to goe for England in the same ship wherein he came: who was all the time of his abode in our shippe both courteously and friendly vsed at my hands, much against the mariners willes, who could not abide such a wicked creature and caitiue, that is nourished and relieued in our countrey, and yet by villanous meanes sought the destruction of vs all. The Spaniards and Portugals though they be dissemblers and not to be trusted, when they perceiued how king Amar Melicks Negros befriended and fauored vs, and that it would be preiudiciall to their trade for diuers respects, if we should any way be iniuried, renounced the sayd practises, detesting the author, and protested to defend vs in such cases with all faithfulnesse: desiring we would, as the king of Negros had commanded vs, neuer bring Portugal with vs more: vsing this phrase in disdaine of such as came out of England, let your Portugals be barres of yron: for in trueth in regard of the rich trade maintained by Frenchmen and by vs of late, they esteeme more of one barre of yron then of twenty Portugals which we should bring out of England: who at their comming thither very subtilly disaduantage vs, and doe great hurt to euery party. At the beginning of these broiles the king Amar Melick had sent his chiefe secretary and three horses for me Richard Rainolds: but I denied to goe by reason of the hurley burley, though I might haue had Negros of account for pledges aboord: yet we sent the presents vnto the king; who so soone as he vnderstood the cause why I came not to him, being sory and offended thereat, commanded presently by proclamation, that no iniury should be offered vs in his dominions by his owne people, or suffered to be done by Spaniards or Portugals. And if the Negros ioyning to his kingdome should confederate with the Spaniards and Portugals to molest or trouble vs; that his subiects the Negros should be ready to ayde, succor and defend vs. In which people appeared more confident loue and good will toward vs, then euer we shall finde either of Spaniards or Portugals, though we should relieue them of the greatest misery that can be imagined. In the riuer of Senega no Spaniard or Portugall vse to trade: and onely one Portugall called Ganigoga dwelleth farre within the riuer, who was maried to a kings daughter. [Sidenote: Note this trade.] In the townes of Porto d'Ally and Ioala, being townes of chiefest trade, and in the townes of Canton and Cassan in the riuer of Gambra are many Spaniards and Portugals resident by permission of the Negros; who haue rich trades there along the coast, especially to San Domingo and Rio grande, not far distant from Gambra riuer; whither they transport the yron which they buy of Frenchmen and vs, and exchange it for Negros; which be caried continually to the West Indies in such ships as came from Spaine. [Sidenote: A rich trade for golde in Rio grande.] Also by the gouernors order and Renters of Castel de Mina and other places, where golde is, vpon the coast of Guinea, they haue a place limited how farre they must go to trade within the riuer of Gambra; and further they may not go vpon paine of confiscation of their goods, and losse of life: for that the Renters themselues send at certaine times their owne barkes within the riuer to such places, where as they haue great store of golde. And in all these places hereabouts, where we vse to trade, they haue no Fort, Castle, or place of strength, but onely trading by the Negros safeconduct and permission. And the most part of the Spaniards and Portugals that be resident in these places be banished men or fugitiues, for committing most hainous crimes and incestuous acts, their life and conuersation being agreeable; and they are of the basest behauiour that we haue euer seene of these nations in any other countrey. * * * * * A briefe relation concerning the estate of the cities and prouinces of Tombuto and Gago written in Marocco the first of August 1594, and sent to M. Anthony Dassel marchant of London. My hearty commendations premised: your letter of late I receiued, and found that you would haue me discouer vnto you the estate and quality of the countreyes of Tombuto and Gago. And that you may not thinke me to slumber in this action, wherein you would be truely and perfectly resolued, you shall vnderstand, that not ten dayes past here came a Cahaia of the Andoluzes home from Gago, and another principall Moore, whom the king sent thither at the first with Alcaide Hamode, and they brought with them thirty mules laden with gold. I saw the same come into the Alcasaua with mine owne eies: and these men themselues came not poore, but with such wealth, that they came away without the kings commandement; and for that cause the king will pay them no wages for the time they haue beene there. On the other side they dare not aske the king for any wages. And when Alcaide Hamode saw that the Cahaia of the Andoluzes would not stay in Gago with him, he thought good to send these thirty mules laden with golde by him, with letters of commendations, by which the king smelled their riches that they brought with them: and this was the cause of the kings displeasure towards them. So now there remaineth in Gago Alcaide Hamode, and Alcaide Iawdara, and Alcaide Bucthare. And here are in a readinesse to depart in the end of next September Alcaide Monsor, Ben Abdrahaman Allies, Monsor Rico with fiue thousand men, most of the fettilase, that is to say, of fier match, and muskets. [Sidenote: Commodities for Gago.] There is gone good store of reds and yellowes: and this yere here was want of the same commodity; but I trust the next yere wil be no want. But in fine the king doth prosper wel in those parts, and here are many pledges come hither, and namely three of the kings sonnes of Gago and the Iustice; I saw them come in with the treasure. Now when Alcaide Monsor commeth to Gago, the which will be in Ianuary next, then returneth hither Alcaide Hamode with all the treasure, and Alcaide Monsor is to keepe Gago vntill the king take further order. And thus much for Gago. Thus not hauing any other thing to write at this present, I commend you to the mercifull tuition of the almighty. From Marocco the first of August 1594. Your assured friend Laurence Madoc. * * * * * Another briefe relation concerning the late conquest and exceeding great riches of the cities and prouinces Tombuth and Gogo, written from Morocco the 30 August 1594, to M. Anthony Dassel marchant of London aforesayd. Louing friend M. Dassel, two of your letters I haue receiued, one by the shippe called The Amity, the other by the Concord: the chiefest matter therein was to be satisfied of the king of Morocco his proceedings in Guinea. Therefore these are to let you vnderstand that there went with Alcaide Hamode for those parts seuenteene hundred men: who passing ouer the sands, for want of water perished one third part of them: [Sidenote: Tombuto taken.] and at their comming to the city of Tombuto, the Negros made some resistence: but to small purpose, for that they had no defence but with their asagaies or iauelings poisoned. [Sidenote: Gago taken.] So they tooke it, and proceeded to the city of Gago, where the Negros were in numbers infinite, and meant to stand to the vttermost for their countrey: but the Moores slew them so fest, that they were fain to yeeld, and do pay tribute by the yere. The rent of Tombuto is 60 quintals of golde by the yeere: the goodnesse whereof you know. What rent Gago will yeeld, you shall know at the Spring, for then Alcaide Hamode commeth home. The rent of Tombuto is come by the cafelow or carouan, which is, as aboue mentioned, 60 quintals. The report is, that Mahomed bringeth with him such an infinite treasure as I neuer heard of: it doth appeare that they haue more golde then any other parte of the world beside. The Alcaide winneth all the countrey where he goeth without fighting and is going downe towards the sea coast. The king of Marocco is like to be the greatest prince in the world for money, if he keepe this countrey. But I make account assoone as the king of Spaine hath quietnesse in Christendome, he wil thrust him out: for that the kings force is not great as yet; but he meaneth to be stronger. There is a campe ready to go now with a viceroy: the speech is with 3000 men: but I thinke they will be hardly 2000; for by report, 3000 men are enough to conquer all the countrey: for they haue no defence of importance against an enemy. I thinke Hamode will be returned home in Ianuary or thereabout: for he stayeth but for the comming of the viceroy. Mulley Balasen the kings sonne of Marocco was slaine in Guinea by his own men, and they were presently killed, because they should tell no tales. And thus leauing to trouble you, I commit you to God, who prosper you in all your proceedings. From Marocco the first of August 1594. Yours to command for euer Laurence Madoc. Of these two rich cities and kingdomes of Tombuto and Gago Leo Africanus writeth at large in the beginning of his seuenth booke of the description of Africa, which worthy worke is to be annexed vnto the end of this second volume. * * * * * A briefe extract of a patent granted to M. Thomas Gregory of Tanton, and others, for traffique betweene the riuer of Nonnia and the riuers of Madrabumba and Sierra Leona on the coast of Guinea, in the yeere 1592. In May the 34 yeere of our gracious soueraigne Queene Elizabeth, a patent of speciall licence was granted to Thomas Gregory of Tanton in the county of Somerset, and to Thomas Pope, and certaine other marchants to traffique into Guinea from the Northermost part of the riuer of Nonnia to the Southermost parts of the riuers of Madrabumba and Sierra Leona, and to other parts as well to the Southeast as to the Northwest, for a certaine number of leagues therein specified which amount to an hundred or thereabout. Which patent was granted for the terme of ten yeeres: as appeareth at large in the sayd patent recorded in the Rolles in her Majesties Chancery. * * * * * The maner of the taking of two Spanish ships laden with quicksiluer and the Popes bulles, bound for the West Indies, by M. Thomas White in the Amity of London, 1592. The 26 of Iuly 1592, in my returning out of Barbary in the ship called the Amity of London, being in the height of 36 degrees or thereabout, at foure of the clocke in the morning we had sight of two shippes, being distant from vs about three or foure leagues: by seuen of the clocke we fetched them vp, and were within gunshot: whose boldnesse, hauing the king of Spaines armes displayed, did make vs judge them rather ships of warre then laden with marchandise. And as it appeared by their owne speeches, they made full account to haue taken vs: it being a question among them, whether it were best to cary vs to S. Lucar, or to Lisbon. We waued ech other a maine. They hauing placed themselues in warlike order one a cables length before another, we began the fight. In the which we continued, so fast as we were able to charge and discharge, the space of fiue houres, being neuer a cables length distant either of vs from other. In which time we receiued diuers shot both in the hull of our ship, masts, and sailes, to the number of 32 great, besides 500 musket shot and harquebuzes a crocke at the least, which we tolde after the fight. And because we perceiued them to be stout, we thought good to boord the Biscaine, which was on head the other: where lying aboord about an houre, and plying our ordinance and small shot; in the end we stowed all his men. Now the other in the flieboat, thinking we had entred our men in their fellow, bare roome with vs, meaning to haue layed vs aboord, and so to haue intrapped vs betwixt them both: which we perceiuing, fitted our ordinance so for him, as we quitted our selues of him, and he boorded his fellow: by which meanes they both fell from vs. Then presently we kept our loofe, hoised our top-sailes, and weathered them, and came hard aboord the flieboat with our ordinance prepared, and gaue her our whole broad side, with the which we slew diuers of their men; so as we might see the blood run out at the scupper holes. After that we cast about, and new charged all our ordinance, and came vpon them againe, willing them to yeeld, or els we would sinke them: whereupon the one would haue yeelded, which was betweene winde and water; but the other called him traitor. Vnto whom we made answere, that if he would not yeeld presently also, we would sinke him first. [Sidenote: Marke this othe.] And thereupon he understanding our determination, presently put out a white flag, and yeelded, and yet refused to strike their own sailes, for that they were sworne neuer to strike to any Englishman. We then commanded their captaines and masters to come aboord vs; which they did. And after examination and stowing them, we sent certaine of our owne men aboord them, and strook their sailes, and manned their ships: finding in them both 126 persons liuing, and 8 dead, besides those which they themselues had cast ouerboord. So it pleased God to giue vs the victory being but 42 men and a boy, whereof 2 were killed and 3 wounded: for the which good successe we giue God the only praise. These two rich prizes laden with 1400 cheste of quicksiluer with the armes of Castile and Leon fastened vpon them, and with a great quantity of bulles or indulgences, and gilded Missals or Seruice books, with an hundred tonnes of excellent wines, we brought shortly after into the riuer of Thames vp to Blacke-wall. By the taking of this quicksiluer, about 1400 chests, the king of Spaine loseth for euery quintall of the same a quintall of siluer that should haue beene deliuered him by the masters of the mines there, which amounteth to 600000 pounds. More by taking of his bulles, to wit, two millions and 72 thousand for liuing and dead persons for the prouinces of Noua Hispania, Iucatan, Guatimala, the Honduras, and the Phillippinas, taxed at two reals the piece. And more for eighteene thousand bulles taxed at foure reals, amounteth all to 107700 pounds. Summa totalis 707700 li. More there were taken ten fardels of gilt missals and breuiaries sent for the kings account. So the hindrance that the king receiueth by the losse of his bulles and quicksiluer amounteth as is abouesaid: besides the sacking of his wines, about 100 tunnes, whereby his fleet is disappointed of a great part of their prouision. * * * * * A true report of the honourable seruice at Sea perfourmed by Sir Iohn Burrough Knight, Lieutenant generall of the fleet prepared by the honour. Sir Walter Ralegh Knight, Lord warden of the Stanneries of Cornwall and Deuon. Wherein chiefly the Santa Clara of Biscay, a ship of 600 tunnes was taken, and the two East Indian caraks, the Santa Cruz and the Madre de Dios were forced, the one burnt, and the other taken and brought into Dartmouth the seuenth of September, 1592. Sir Walter Ralegh vpon commission receiued from her Maiesty for an expedition to be made to the West Indies, slacked not his vttermost diligence to make full prouision of all things necessary, as both in his choise of good ships, and sufficient men to performe the action euidently appeared. For his shippes which were in numbre 14 or 15, those two of her Maiesties, the Garland and the Foresight were the chiefest; the rest either his owne or his good friends or aduenturers of London. For the gentlemen his consorts and officers, to giue them their right, they were so well qualited in courage, experience, and discretion, as the greatest prince might repute himselfe happy to be serued with their like. The honor of Lieutenant generall was imposed vpon sir Iohn Burrough, a gentleman, for his manifold good and heroicall parts, thought euery way worthy of that commandement: with whom after sir W. R. returned was ioyned in commission sir Martin Frobisher, who for his speciall skill and knowledge in marine causes had formerly caried imploiments of like or greater place. The rest such as heretofore had giuen to the world sufficient proofe of their valour in diuers seruices of the like nature. With these ships thus manned sir Walter Ralegh departed towards the West countrey, there to store himselfe with such further necessaries as the state of his voyage did needfully require: where the Westerly windes blowing for a long time contrary to his course, bound and constrained him to keepe harborough so many weeks, that the fittest season for his purpose was gone, the mindes of his people much altered, his victuals consumed: and withall, her Maiesty vnderstanding how crosly all this sorted, began to call the proceeding of this preparation into question: insomuch that, whereas the sixt of May was first come before sir Walter could put to sea, the very next day sir Martin Frobisher in a pinnesse of my lord Admirals called The Disdaine, met him, and brought to him from her Maiesty letters of reuocation, with commandement to relinquish (for his owne part) the intended attempt, and to leaue the charge and conduct of all things in the hands of sir Iohn Burrough and sir Martin Frobisher, But sir Walter finding his honor so farre engaged in the vndertaking of this voyage, as without proceeding he saw no remedy either to salue his reputation, or to content those his friends which had put in aduentures of great summes with him; and making construction of the Queenes letters in such sort as if her commandement had bene propounded in indifferent termes, either to aduance forward or to retire, at his owne discretion; would in no case yeeld to leaue his fleet now vnder saile. Wherefore continuing his course into the sea, he met within a day or two, with certaine sailes lately come from Spaine: among which was a ship appertaining to Monsieur Gourdon gouernor of Caleis, and found aboord her one M. Neuel Dauies an Englishman, who hauing endured a long and miserable captiuity for the space of twelue yeeres, partly in the inquisition in Spaine, was now by good fortune escaped, and vpon returne to his countrey. This man, among other things, reported for certaine, that there was little hope of any good this yeere to be done in the West India; considering that the king of Spaine had sent expresse order to all the Ports both of the Ilands and of Terra firma, that no ship should stirre that yeere, nor any treasure be layed aboord for Spaine. But neither this vnpleasant relation nor ought els could stay his proceedings, vntill a tempest of strange and vncouth violence arising vpon Thursday the 11 of May, when he was athwart the Cape Finister, had so scattered the greater part of the fleet, and sunke his boats and pinnesses, that as the rest were driuen and seuered, some this way and some that, sir Walter himselfe being in the Garland of her Maiesty was in danger to be swallowed vp of the Sea. Whereupon sir W. Ralegh finding that the season of the yere was too farre gone to proceed with the enterprise which he had vpon Panama, hauing bene held on the English coast from February till May, and thereby spent three moneths victuals; and considering withall, that to lie vpon the Spanish coast or at the Ilands to attend the returne of the East or West Indian fleets was rather a worke of patience then ought els: he gaue directions to sir Iohn Burgh and sir M. Frobisher to diuide the fleet in two parts; sir M. with the Garland, cap. George Gifford, cap. Henry Thin, cap. Grenuile and others to lie off the South cape, thereby to amaze the Spanish fleet, and to holde them on their owne coast; while sir I. Burgh, capt. Robert Crosse, capt. Tomson, and others should attend at the Ilands for the caraks or any other Spanish ships comming from Mexico or other parts of the West Indies. Which direction tooke effect accordingly; for the king of Spaines Admirall receiuing intelligence that the English fleet was come on the coast, attended to defend the South parts of Spaine, and to keepe himselfe as nere sir Mart. Frobisher as he could, to impeach him in all things which he might vndertake; and thereby neglected the safeconduct of the caraks, with whom it fared as hereafter shall appeare. Before the fleet seuered themselues they mette with a great Biscain on the Spanish coast called Santa Clara a ship of 600 tunnes. The noise of the artillery on both sides being heard, immediatly they drew to their fleet; where after a reasonable hot fight, the ship was entred and mastered, which they found freighted with all sorts of small yron-worke, as horse shoes, nailes, plough-shares, yron barres, spikes, boults, locks, gimbols, and such like, valued by vs at 6000 or 7000 li. but woorth to them treble the value. This Biscain was sailing towards S. Lucar, there to take in some further prouision for the West India. This ship being first roomaged, and after sent for England, our fleet coasted along towards the Southcape of S. Vincent, and by the way about the Rocke neere Lisbon, sir Iohn Burrough in the Robucke spying a saile a farre off, gaue her present chase; which being a flieboat and of good saile, drew him farre Southwards before he could fetch her; but at last she came vnder his lee and strooke saile. The master of which flieboat comming aboord him, confessed that the king indeed had prepared a great fleet in S. Lucar and Cadiz, and (as the report in Spaine was currant) for the West Indies. But indeed the Spanish king had prouided this fleet vpon this counsell. He receiued intelligence, that sir Walter Ralegh was to put out strong for the West India: to impeach him, and to ranconter his force he appointed this fleet; although looking for the arriuall of his East Indian caraks, he first ordained those ships to waft them from the Açores. But perswading himselfe, that if the fleet of sir Walter Ralegh did go for the West India, then the Ilands should haue none to infest them but some small men of warre, which the caraks of themselues would be well able to match; his order was to Don Alonso de Baçan brother to the Marques of Santa Cruz, and Generall of his armada, to pursue sir Walters fleet, and to confront him, what course soeuer he held. [Sidenote: Sir Iohn Burrough in great danger of the Spanish fleet.] And that this was true, our men in short time by proofe vnderstood: for sir Iohn Burrough, not long after the taking of his last prize the flieboat, as he sailed backe againe towards the rest of his company, discouered the Spanish fleet to sea-ward of him: which hauing likewise espied him betwixt them and the shore, made full account to bring him safe into Spanish harbour; and therefore spred themselues in such sort before him, that indeed his danger was very great: for both the liberty of the sea was brought into a narrow straight, and the shore being enemy could giue him no comfort of reliefe: so that trusting to Gods helpe onely and his good saile, he thrust out from among them in spight of all their force, and to the notable illusion of all their cunning, which they shewed to the vttermost, in laying the way for his apprehension. [Sidenote: The Ile of S. Michael.] But now sir Iohn Burrough hauing happily escaped their clouches, finding the coast guarded by this fleet, and knowing it was but folly to expect a meeting there with sir Martin Frobisher (who vnderstanding of this armada aswell as himselfe, would be sure not to come that way) beganne to shape his course to the Açores according to sir W. Raleghs direction, and came in sight of S. Michael, running so neere by Villa Franca, that he might easily discerne the shippes lying there at anker. [Sidenote: Diuers small ships taken.] Diuers small carauels both here and betweene S. Georges and the Pike in his course towards Flores he intercepted; of which no great intelligence for his affaires could be vnderstood. [Sidenote: Santa Cruz a village in the Ile of Flores.] Arriuing before Flores vpon Thursday the 21 of Iune, towards euening, accompanied onely with captaine Caufield and the Master of his shippe, the rest not being yet arriued, he made towards the shore with his boat, finding all the people of Santa Cruz, a village of that Iland, in armes, fearing their landing, and ready marshalled to defend their towne from spoile. Sir Iohn contrariwise made signes of amity vnto them by aduancing a white flagge, a common token of peace, which was answered againe of them with the like: whereupon ensued entercourses of good friendship; and pledges were taken on both sides, the captaine of the towne for them, and captaine Caufield for our: so that whatsoeuer our men wanted, which that place could supply either in fresh water, victuals, or the like, was very willingly granted by the inhabitants; and good leaue had they to refresh themselues on shore as much and as oft as they would without restraint. [Sidenote: Newes of the East Indian caraks.] At this Santa Cruz sir Iohn Burrough was informed, that indeed there was among them no expectation of any fleet to come from the west, but from the East, that no longer since then three dayes before his arriuall a carak was passed by for Lisbon, and that there were foure carafes more behinde, of one consort. Sir Iohn being very glad of this newes, stayed no longer on shore, but presently imbarqued himselfe, hauing onely in company a small barke of threescore tunnes belonging to one M. Hopkins of Bristoll. In the meane while that these things thus passed at Flores, part of the rest of the English fleet, which sir Iohn Burrough had left vpon the coast of Spaine, drew also towards the Açores: and whereas he quickly at sea had discouered one of the caraks, the same euening he might descry two or three of the Earle of Cumberlands ships (whereof one M. Norton was captaine) which hauing in like sort kenned the carak, pursued her by that course which they saw her to runne towards the Ilands. But on no side was there any way made by reason of a great calme which yeelded no breath to spread a saile. Insomuch that fitly to discouer her what she was, of what burthen, force, and countenance sir Iohn Burrough tooke his boat, and rowed the space of three miles, to make her exactly: and being returned, he consulted with the better sort of the company then present, vpon the boording her in the morning. [Sidenote: A carak called The Santa Cruz set on fire.] But a very mighty storme arising in the night, the extremity thereof forced them all to wey ankers, yet their care was such in wrestling with the weather not to lose the carak, that in the morning the tempest being qualified, and our men bearing againe with the shore, they might perceiue the carak very neere the land, and the Portugals confusedly carrying on shore such things as they could any maner of way conuey out of her; and seeing the haste our men made to come vpon them, forsook her; but first, that nothing might be left commodious to our men, set fire to that which they could not cary with them, intending by that meanes wholly to consume her; that neither glory of victory nor benefit of shippe might remaine to ours. And least the approch and industry of the English should bring meanes to extinguish the flame, thereby to preserue the residue of that which the fire had not destroyed; being foure hundred of them in number and well armed, they entrenched themselues on land so neere to the carak, that she being by their forces protected, and our men kept aloofe off, the fire might continue to the consumption of the whole. This being noted by sir Iohn Burrough he soone prouided a present remedy for this mischiefe. [Sidenote: An hundred of our men land.] For landing one hundred of his men, whereof many did swim and wade more then brest high to shore, and easily scattering those that presented themselues to guard the coast, he no sooner drew toward their new trenches, but they fled immediatly, leauing as much as the fire had spared to be the reward of our mens paines. Here was taken among others one Vincent Fonseca a Portugall, Purser of the carak, with two others, one an Almaine and the second a Low-dutchman, canoniers: who refusing to make any voluntary report of those things, which were demanded of them, had the torture threatened, the feare whereof at the last wrested from them this intelligence, that within fifteene dayes three other greater caraks then that lately fired would arriue at the same Iland: and that being fiue caraks in the fleet at their departure from Goa, to wit, the Buen Iesus admirall, the Madre de Dios, the S. Bernardo, the S. Christophoro, and the S. Cruz, (whose fortune you haue already heard) they had receiued speciall commandement from the king not to touch in any case at the Iland of S. Helena, where the Portugall caraks in their returne from the East India were alwayes till now woont to arriue to refresh themselues with water and victuals. And the kings reason was; because of the English men of warre, who (as he was informed) lay there in wait to intercept them. [Sidenote: Angola a new watering place for caraks.] If therefore their necessity of water should driue them to seeke supply any where, he appointed them Angola in the maine of Africa, with order there to stay onely the taking in of water to auoid the inconuenience of infections where unto that hot latitude is dangerously subiect. The last rendeuous for them all was the Iland of Flores, where the king assured them not to misse of his armada thither sent of purpose for their wafting to Lisbon. Vpon this information sir Iohn drew to counsel, meeting there Captaine Norton, captain Dountain, captain Abraham Cocke, captaines of three ships of the Earle of Cumberland, M. Tomson of Harwich cap. of the Dainty of sir Iohn Haukins, one of sir W. Raleghs fleet, and M. Christopher Newport cap. of the Golden dragon newly returned from the West India, and others. These being assembled, he communicated with them what he had vnderstood of the foresaid examinates, and what great presumptions of trueth their relation did cary: wishing that forasmuch as God and good fortune had brought them together in so good a season, they would shew the vttermost of their indeuors to bring these Easterlings vnder the lee of the English obedience. Hereupon a present accord on all sides followed not to part company or leaue of those seas till time should present cause to put their consultations in execution. The next day her Maiesties good ship the Foresight commanded by sir Rob. Crosse came in to the rest: and he likewise informed of the matter was soone drawen into this seruice. Thus sir Iohn with al these ships departing thence 6 or 7 leagues to the West of Flores, they spread themselues abroad from the North to the South, ech ship two leagues at the least distant from another. By which order of extension they were able to discouer the space of two whole degrees at sea. In this sort they lay from the 29 of Iune to the third of August, what time cap. Thomson in the Dainty had first sight of the huge carak called the Madre de Dios, one of the greatest receit, belonging to the crowne of Portugall. The Dainty being of excellent saile got the start of the rest of our fleet, and begun the conflict somewhat to her cost, with the slaughter and hurt of diuers of her men. Within a while after, sir Iohn Burrough in the Robucke of sir W. Raleghs, was at hand to second her, who saluted her with shot of great ordinance, and continued the fight within musket shot assisted by cap. Tomson and cap. Newport till sir R. Crosse viceadmirall of the fleet came vp being to leeward, at whose arriuall sir I. Burgh demanded of him what was best to be done, who answered, that if the carak were not boorded she would recouer the shore and fire herselfe as the other had done. Whereupon sir I. Burgh concluded to entangle her; and sir R. Crosse promised also to fasten himselfe to her together at the instant; which was performed: but after a while sir Iohn Burgh receiuing a shot with a canon perier vnder water and ready to sinke, desired sir R. C. to fall off, that he might also cleere himselfe, and saue his ship from sinking, which with difficulty he did: for both the Roebucke and the Foresight were so intangled, as with much adoe could they cleere themselues. [Sidenote: The Madre de Dios taken.] The same euening sir R. Crosse finding the carak then sure and drawing neere the Iland perswaded his company to boord her againe, or els there was no hope to recouer her: who after many excuses and feares, were by him incouraged, and so fell athwart her foreships all alone; and so hindered her sailing that the rest had time to come vp to his succour, and to recouer the carak yer she recouered the land: and so toward the euening after he had fought with her alone three houres single, my lord of Cumberlands two ships came vp, and with very little losse entred with sir R. Crosse, who had in that time broken their courages, and made the assault easie for the rest. The generall hauing disarmed the Portugals, and stowed them for better security on all sides, first had presented to his eyes the true proportion of the vast body of this carak, which did then and may still iustly prouoke the admiration of all men not formerly acquainted with such a sight. But albeit this first apparance of the hugenesse thereof yeelded sights enough to entertaine our mens eyes: yet the pitifull obiect of so many bodies slaine and dismembred could not but draw ech mans eye to see, and heart to lament, and hands to helpe those miserable people, whose limnes were so torne with the violence of shot, and paine made grieuous with the multitude of woundes. No man could almost steppe but vpon a dead carkase or a bloody floore, but specially about the helme, where very many of them fell suddenly from stirring to dying. For the greatnesse of the stirrage requiring the labour of twelue or fourteene men at once, and some of our shippes beating her in at the sterne with their ordinance often times with one shot slew foure or fiue labouring on either side of the helme; whose roomes being still furnished with fresh supplies, and our artillery still playing vpon them with continuall volleys, it could not be but that much bloud should be shed in that place. [Sidenote: Exceeding humanity shewed to the enemy.] Whereupon our Generall moued with singular commiseration of their misery, sent them his owne chyrurgions, denying them no possible helpe or reliefe that he or any of his company could affoord them. Among the rest of those, whose state this chance had made very deplorable, was Don Fernando de Mendoça Grand captaine and Commander of this Carake: who indeed was descended of the house of Mendoça in Spaine; but being married into Portugall, liued there as one of that nation; a gentleman well stricken in yeeres, well spoken, of comely personage, of good stature, but of hard fortune. In his seuerall seruices against the Moores he was twise taken prisoner, and both times ransomed by the king. In a former voyage of returne from the East India he was driuen vpon the Baxos or sands of Iuda nere the coast of Cephala, being then also captaine of a caracke which was there lost, and himselfe, though escaping the sea-danger, yet fell into the hands of infidels on land; who kept him vnder long and grieuous seruitude. Once more the king carying a louing respect to the man, and desirous to better his condition, was content to let him try his fortune in this Easterly nauigation, and committed vnto him the conduct of this caracke, wherein he went from Lisbon Generall of the whole fleet, and in that degree had returned, if the Vice-rey of Goa embarked for Portugall in the Bon Iesus had not, by reason of his late office, bene preferred. Sir Iohn intending not to adde too much affliction to the afflicted, moued with pity and compassion of humane misery, in the end resolued freely to dismisse this captaine and the most part of his followers, to their owne countrey, and for the same purpose bestowed them in certaine vessels furnished with all kindes of necessary prouision. This businesse thus dispatched, good leasure had he to take such view of the goods as conueniency might affoord. And hauing very prudently (to cut off the vnprofitable spoile and pillage whereunto he saw the minds of many inclined) seised vpon the whole to her Maiesties vse, after a short and slender romaging and searching of such things as first came to hand, he perceiued that the wealth would arise nothing disanswerable to expectation; but that the variety and grandure of all rich commodities would be more then sufficient to content both the aduenturers desire and the souldiers trauell. And here I cannot but enter into the consideration and acknowledgement of Gods great fauor towards our nation, who by putting this purchase into our hands hath manifestly discouered those secret trades and Indian riches, which hitherto lay strangely hidden, and cunningly concealed from vs; whereof there was among some few of vs some small and vnperfect glimse onely, which now is turned into the broad light of full and perfect knowledge. Whereby it should seeme that the will of God for our good is (if our weaknesse could apprehend it) to haue vs communicate with them in those East Indian treasures, and by the erection of a lawfull traffike to better our meanes to aduance true religion and his holy seruice. The caracke being in burden by the estimation of the wise and experienced no lesse then 1600 tunnes had full 900 of those stowed with the grosse bulke of marchandise, the rest of the tunnage being allowed, partly to the ordinance which were 32 pieces of brasse of all sorts, partly to the passengers and the victuals, which could not be any small quantity, considering the number of the persons betwixt 600 and 700, and the length of the nauigation. To giue you a taste (as it were) of the commodities, it shall suffice to deliuer you a generall particularity of them, according to the catalogue taken at Leadenhall the 15 of September 1592. [Sidenote: A briefe catalogue of the sundry rich commodities of the Madre de Dios.] Where vpon good view it was found, that the principall wares after the iewels (which were no doubt of great value, though they neuer came to light) consisted of spices, drugges, silks, calicos, quilts, carpets and colours, &c. The spices were pepper, cloues, maces, nutmegs, cinamom, greene ginger: the drugs were beniamin, frankincense, galingale, mirabolans, aloes zocotrina, camphire: the silks, damasks, taffatas, sarcenets, altobassos, that is, counterfeit cloth of gold, vnwrought China silke, sleaued silke, white twisted silke, curled cypresse. The calicos were book-calicos, calico-launes, broad white calicos, fine starched calicos, course white calicos, browne broad calicos, browne course calicos. There were also canopies, and course diaper-towels, quilts of course sarcenet and of calico, carpets like those of Turky; whereunto are to be added the pearle, muske, ciuet, and amber-griece. The rest of the wares were many in number, but lesse in value; as elephants teeth, porcellan vessels of China, coco-nuts, hides, eben-wood as blacke as iet, bedsteads of the same, cloth of the rindes of trees very strange for the matter, and artificiall in workemanship. All which piles of commodities being by men of approued iudgement rated but in reasonable sort amounted to no lesse then 150000 li. sterling, which being diuided among the aduenturers (whereof her Maiesty was the chiefe) was sufficient to yeeld contentment to all parties. [Sidenote: The capacity and dimensions of the Madre de Dios.] The cargazon being taken out, and the goods fraighted in tenne of our ships sent for London, to the end that the bignesse, heigth, length, bredth, and other dimensions of so huge a vessell might by the exact rules of Geometricall obseruations be truly taken, both for present knowledge, and deriuation also of the same vnto posterity, one M. Robert Adams, a man in his faculty of excellent skill, omitted nothing in the description, which either his arte could demonstrate, or any mans iudgement thinke woorthy the memory. After an exquisite suruey of the whole frame he found the length from the beak-head to the sterne (whereupon was erected a lanterne) to containe 165 foote. The breadth in the second close decke whereof she had three, this being the place where there was most extension of bredth, was 46 feet and ten inches. She drew in water 31 foot at her departure from Cochin in India, but not aboue 26 at her arriual in Dartmouth, being lightened in her voyage by diuers meanes some 5 foote. She caried in height 7 seuerall stories, one maine Orlop, three close decks, one fore-castle, and a spar-decke of two floores a piece. The length of the keele was 100 foote, of the maine-mast 121 foot, and the circuite about at the partners 10 foote 7 inches, the maine-yard was 106 foote long. By which perfect commensuration of the parts appeareth the hugenesse of the whole, farre beyond the mould of the biggest shipping vsed among vs either for warre or receit. Don Alonso de Baçan hauing a great Fleet and suffering these two caraks, the Santa Cruz to be burnt, and the Madre de Dios to be taken, was disgraced by his prince for this negligence. * * * * * The firing and sinking of the stout and warrelike Carack called Las Cinque Llaguas, or, The fiue Wounds, by three tall Ships set foorth at the charges of the right honorable the Erle of Cumberland and his friends: Written by the discreet and valiant captaine M. Nicholas Downton. In the latter ende of the yeere 1593. the right honourable Erle of Cumberland, at his owne charges and his friends, prepared 3 ships, all at equall rate, and either of them had like quantitie of victuals, and like numbers of men, there being embarked in all 3 ships 420 men of al sorts. [Marginal note: Besides these three ships there was a pinnas called the Violet, or the Why not I.] The Roial Exchange went as Admirall, wherein M. George Caue was captaine. The May-flower Viceadmirall vnder the conduct of William Anthonie: and the Sampson, the charge whereof it pleased his honour to commit vnto me Nicholas Dounton. Our directions were sent vs to Plimmouth, and we were to open them at sea. The sixt of Aprill 1594 we set sayle in the sound of Plimmouth, directing our course toward the coast of Spaine. The 24 of the sayd moneth at the Admirals direction wee diuided our selues East and West from ech other, being then in the heigth of 43 degrees, with commaundement at night to come together againe. The 27 day in the morning we descried the May-flower and the litle Pinnasse with a Prise that they had taken, being of Viana in Portugall, and bound for Angola in Africa. This Barke was of 28 tunnes, hauing some 17 persons in the same. [Sidenote: Commodities fit for Angola.] There were in her some 12 Buts of Galicia wine, whereof we tooke into euery shippe a like part, with some Ruske in chests and barrels, with 5 buts of blew course cloth, and certaine course linnen-cloth for Negros shirts, which goods were diuided among our fleet. The 4 of May we had sight of our Pinnasse, and the Admirals Shallop which had taken three Portugall Carauels, whereof they had sent two away and kept the third. The second of Iune we had sight of S. Michael. The third day in the morning we sent our small pinnasse, which was of some 24 tunnes, with the small Carauell which we had taken at the Burlings to range the road of all the Ilands, to see if they could get any thing in the same: appointing them to meet vs W. S. W. 12 leagues from Faiall. Their going from vs was to no purpose. They missed comming to vs when we appointed, as also we missed them, when we had great cause to haue vsed them. The 13 of Iune we met with a mightie Carack of the East. Indies, called Las cinque Llagas, or The fiue wounds. The May-flower was in fight with her before night. I, in the Sampson, fetched her vp in the euening, and as I commanded to giue her the broad side, as we terme it, while I stood very heedefully prying to discouer her strength: and where I might giue counsel to boord her in the night when the Admirall came vp to vs, and as I remember at the very first shot she discharged at vs, I was shot in a litle aboue the belly, whereby I was made vnseruiceable for a good while after, without touching any other for that night. Yet by meanes of an honest truehearted man which I had with me, one captaine Grant, nothing was neglected: vntill midnight when the Admirall came vp, the May-flower, and the Sampson neuer left by turnes to ply her with their great ordinance; but then captaine Caue wished vs to stay till morning, at what time each one of vs should giue her three bouts with our great ordinance, and so clap her aboord: but indeed it was long lingered in the morning vntil 10 of the clocke before wee attempted to boord her. The Admirall laid her a boord in the mid ship: the May-flower comming vp in the quarter, as it should seeme, to lie at the sterne of the Admirall on the larboord-side. The captaine of the sayd May-flower was slaine at the first comming vp: whereby the ship fell to the sterne of the out-licar of the Carack, which (being a piece of timber) so wounded her foresaile, that they sayd they could come no more to fight, I am sure they did not, but kept aloofe from vs. The Sampson went aboord on the bow, but hauing not rome enough, our quarter lay on the Exchanges bow, and our bowe on the Caracks bowe. The Exchange also at the first comming had her captaine M. Caue shot into both the legs, the one whereof he neuer recouered, so he for that present was not able to doe his office, and in his absence he had not any that would vndertake to lead out his company to enter vpon the enemie. My friend captaine Grant did lead my men on the Caracks side, which being not manfully backed by the Exchanges men, his forces being smal, made the enemie bolder than he would haue bene, whereby I had sixe men presently slaine and many more hurt, which made them that remained vnhurt to returne aboord, and would neuer more giue the assault. I say not but some of the Exchanges men did very well, and many more (no doubt) would haue done the like, if there had bene any principall man to haue put them forward, and to haue brought all the company to the fight, and not to haue run into corners themselues. But I must needs say, that their ship was as well prouided for defence, as any that I haue seene. And the Portugals peraduenture encouraged by our slacke working, plaied the men and had Barricados made, where they might stand without any danger of our shot. They plied vs also very much with fire, so that most of our men were burnt in some place or other: and while our men were putting out of the fire, they would euer be plying them with small shot or darts. This vnusuall casting of fire did much dismay many of our men and made them draw backe as they did. When we had not men to enter, we plied our great ordinance much at them as high vp as they might be mounted, for otherwise we did them little harme, and by shooting a piece out of our forecastle being close by her, we fired a mat on her beak head, which more and more kindled, and ran from thence to the mat on the bow-sprit, and from the mat vp to the wood of the bow-sprit, and thence to the top saile yard, which fire made the Portugals abaft in the ship to stagger, and to make shew of parle. But they that had the charge before encouraged them, making shew, that it might easily be put out, and that it was nothing. Whereupon againe they stood stifly to their defence. Anone the fire grew so strong, that I saw it beyond all helpe, although she had bene already yeelded to vs. Then we desired to be off from her, but had little hope to obtaine our desire; neuerthelesse we plied water very much to keep our ship well. Indeed I made little other reckoning for the ship, my selfe, and diuers hurt men, then to haue ended there with the Carak, but most of our people might haue saved themselues in boats. And when my care was most, by Gods prouidence onely, by the burning asunder of our spritsaile-yard with ropes and saile, and the ropes about the spritsaile-yarde of the Carack, whereby we were fast intangled, we fell apart, with burning of some of our sailes which we had then on boord. The Exchange also being farther from the fire, afterward was more easily cleared, and fell off from abaft And as soone as God had put vs out of danger, the fire got into the fore-castle, where, I think, was store of Beniamin, and such other like combustible matter, for it flamed and ran ouer all the Carack at an instant in a maner. The Portugals lept ouer-boord in great numbers. Then sent I captaine Grant with the boat, with leaue to vse his owne discretion in sauing of them. So he brought me aboord two gentlemen, the one an old man called Nuno Velio Pereira, which (as appeareth by the 4 chapter in the first booke of the woorthy history of Huighen de Linschoten) was gouernour of Moçambique and Cefala, in the yeere 1582. and since that time had bene likewise a gouernour in a place of importance in the East Indies. And the shippe wherein he was comming home was cast away a little to the East of the Cape of Buona Speranza, and from thence be traueiled ouer-land to Moçambique, and came as a passenger in this Carack. The other was called Bras Carrero, and was captaine of a Carack which was cast away neere Moçambique, and came likewise in this ship for a passenger. Also three men of the inferior sort we saued in our boat, onely these two we clothed and brought into England. The rest which were taken vp by the other ship boats, we set all on shore in the Ile of Flores, except some two or three Negros, whereof one was borne in Moçambique, and another in the East Indies. This fight was open off the Sound between Faial and Pico 6 leagues to the Southward. The people which we saued told vs that the cause why they would not yeeld, was, because this Carack was for the king, and that she had all the goods belonging to the king in the countrey for that yeere in her, and that the captaine of her was in fauor with the king, and at his returne into the Indies should haue bene Viceroy there. And withall this ship was nothing at all pestered neither within boord nor without, and was more like a ship of warre then otherwise: moreouer she had the ordinance of a Carak that was cast away at Moçambique, and the company of her, together with the company of another Carack that was cast away a little to the Eastwards of the Cape of Buona Speranza. Yet through sicknesse which they caught at Angola, where they watered, they say, they had not now aboue 150 white men, but Negros a great many. They likewise affirmed that they had three noblemen and three ladies in her, but we found them to differ in most of their talke. All this day and all the night she burned, but the next morning her poulder which was lowest being 60 barrels blew her abroad, so that most of the ship did swim in parts aboue the water. Some of them say, that she was bigger then the Madre de Dios, and some, that she was lesse: but she was much vndermastered, and vndersailed, yet she went well for a ship that was so foule. The shot which wee made at her in great Ordinance before we layde her aboord might be at seuen bouts which we had, and sixe or 7 shot at a bout, one with another, some 49 shot: the time we lay aboord might be two houres. The shot which we discharged aboord the Carack might be some twentie Sacars. And thus much may suffice concerning our daungerous conflict with that vnfortunate Carack. The last of Iune after long traversing of the seas we had sight of another mightie Carack which diuerse of our company at the first tooke to be the great S. Philip the Admiral of Spaine, but the next day being the first of Iuly fetching her vp we perceiued her indeede to be a Carack, which after some few shot bestowed vpon her we summoned to yeeld; but they standing stoutly to their defence vtterly refused the same. Wherefore seeing no good could be done without boording her I consulted what course we should take in the boording. But by reason that wee which were the chiefe captaines were partly slaine and partly wounded in the former conflict, and because of the murmuring of some disordered and cowardly companions, our valiant and resolute determinations were crossed: and to conclude a long discourse in few words, the Carack escaped our hands. After this attending about Coruo and Flores for some West Indian purchase, and being disappointed of our expectation, and victuals growing short, we returned for England, where I arriued at Portesmouth the 28 of August. * * * * * The casting away of the Tobie neere Cape Espartel corruptly called Cape Sprat, without the Straight of Gibraltar on the coast of Barbarie. 1593. The Tobie of London a ship of 250 tunnes manned with fiftie men, the owner whereof was the worshipful M. Richard Staper, being bound for Liuorno, Zante and Patras in Morea, being laden with marchandize to the value of 11 or 12 thousand pounds sterling, set sayle from Black-wall the 16 day of August 1593, and we went thence to Portesmouth where we tooke in great quantine of wheate, and set sayle foorth of Stokes bay in the Isle of Wight, the 6. day of October, the winde being faire: and the 16 of the same moneth we were in the heigth of Cape S. Vincent, where on the next morning we descried a sayle which lay in try right a head off vs, to which we gaue chase with very much winde, the sayle being a Spaniard, which wee found in fine so good of sayle that we were faine to leaue her and giue her ouer. Two dayes after this we had sight of mount Chiego, which is the first high-land which we descrie on the Spanish coast at the entrance of the Straight of Gibraltar, where we had very foule weather and the winde scant two dayes together. Here we lay off to the sea. The Master, whose name was George Goodley, being a young man, and one which neuer tooke charge before for those parts, was very proud of that charge which he was litle able to discharge, neither would take any counsel of any of his company, but did as he thought best himselfe, and in the end of the two dayes of foule weather cast about, and the winde being faire, bare in with the straights mouth. The 19 day at night he thinking that he was farther off the land than he was, bare sayle all that night, and an houre and an halfe before day had ranne our shippe ypon the ground on the coast of Barbarie without the straight foure leagues to the South of Cape Espartel. Whereupon being all not a litle astonied, the Master said vnto vs, I pray you forgiue me; for this is my fault and no mans else. The company asked him whether they should cut off the main mast: no said the Master, we will hoyse out our boate. But one of our men comming speedily vp, said, Sirs, the ship is full of water, well sayd the Master, then cut the mayne-mast ouer boord: which thing we did with all speede. But the afterpart suddenly split a sunder in such sort that no man was able to stand vpon it, but all fled vpon the foremast vp into the shrouds thereof; and hung there for a time: but seeing nothing but present death approch (being so suddenly taken that we could not make a raft which we had determined) we committed our selues vnto the Lord and beganne with dolefull tune and heauy hearts to sing the 12 Psalme. Helpe Lord for good and godly men &c. Howbeit before we had finished foure verses the waues of the sea had stopped the breathes of most of our men. For the foremast with the weight of our men and the force of the sea fell downe into the water, and vpon the fall thereof there were 38 drowned, and onely 12 by Gods prouidence partly by swimming and other meanes of chests gote on shoare, which was about a quarter of a mile from the wracke of the ship. The master called George Goodley, and William Palmer his mate, both perished. M. Cæsar also being captaine and owner was likewise drowned: none of the officers were saued but the carpenter. We twelue which the Lord had deliuered from extreme danger of the Sea, at our comming ashore fell in a maner into as great distresse. At our first comming on shore we all fell downe on our knees, praying the Lord most humbly for his merciful goodnesse. Our prayers being done, we consulted together what course to take, seeing we were fallen into a desert place, and we traueled all that day vntill night, sometimes one way and sometimes another, and could finde no kinde of inhabitants; onely we saw where wilde beasts had bene, and places where there had bene houses, which after we perceiued to haue bene burnt by the Portugals. So at night falling into certaine groues of oliue trees, we climed vp and sate in them to auoid the danger of lions and other wilde beasts, whereof we saw many the next morning. The next day we trauelled vntill three of the clocke in the afternoone without any food but water and wilde date roots: then going ouer a mountaine, we had sight of Cape Espartel; whereby we knew somewhat better which way to trauell, and then we went forward vntill we came to an hedgerow made with great long canes; we spied and looked ouer it, and beheld a number of men aswell horsemen as footmen, to the number of some fiue thousand in skirmish together with small shot and other weapons. And after consultation what we were best to do, we concluded to yeeld our selues vnto them, being destitute of all meanes of resistance. So rising vp we marched toward them, who espying vs, foorthwith some hundred of them with their iauelings in their hands came running towards vs as though they would haue run vs thorow: howbeit they onely strooke vs flatling with their weapons, and said that we were Spaniards: and we tolde them that we were Englishmen: which they would not beleeue yet. By and by the conflict being ended, and night approching, the captaine of the Moores, a man of some 56 yeres olde, came himselfe vnto vs, and by his interpreter which spake Italian, asked what we were and from whence we came. One Thomas Henmer of our company which could speake Italian, declared vnto him that we were marchants, and how by great misfortune our ship, marchandise, and the greatest part of our company were pitifully cast away vpon their coast. But he void of all humainity and all manhood, for all this, caused his men to strip vs out of our apparel euen to our shirts to see what money and iewels we had about vs: which when they had found to the value of some 200 pounds in golde and pearles they gaue vs some of our apparel againe, and bread and water onely to comfort vs. The next morning they carried vs downe to the shore where our shippe was cast away, which was some sixteene miles from that place. In which iourney they vsed vs like their slaues, making vs (being extreame weake,) to carry their stuffe, and offering to beat vs if we went not so fast as they. We asked them why they vsed vs so, and they replied, that we were their captiues: we said we were their friends, and that there was neuer Englishman captiue to the king of Marocco. So we came downe to the ship, and lay there with them seuen dayes, while they had gotten all the goods they could, and then they parted it amongst them. After the end of these seuen dayes the captaine appointed twenty of his men wel armed, to bring vs vp into the countrey: and the first night we came to the side of a riuer called Alarach, where we lay on the grasse all that night: so the next day we went ouer the riuer in a frigate of nine oares on a side, the riuer being in that place aboue a quarter of a mile broad: and that day we went to a towne of thirty houses, called Totteon: there we lay foure dayes hauing nothing to feed on but bread and water: and then we went to a towne called Cassuri, and there we were deliuered by those twenty souldiers vnto the Alcaide, which examined vs what we were: and we tolde him. He gaue vs a good answere, and sent vs to the Iewes house, where we lay seuen dayes. In the meane while that we lay here, there were brought thither twenty Spaniards and twenty Frenchmen, which Spaniards were taken in a conflict on land, but the Frenchmen were by foule weather cast on land within the Straights about Cape de Gate, and so made captiues. Thus at the seuen dayes end we twelue Englishmen, the twelue French, and the twenty Spaniards were all conducted toward Marocco with nine hundred souldiers horsemen and fotmen, and in two dayes iourney we came to the riuer of Fez, where we lodged all night, being prouided of tents. The next day we went to a towne called Salle, and lay without the towne in tents. From thence we trauelled almost an hundred miles without finding any towne, but euery night we came to fresh water, which was partly running water and sometime raine water. So we came at last within three miles of the city of Marocco, where we pitched our tents: and there we mette with a carrier which did trauel in the countrey for the English marchants: and by him we sent word vnto them of our estate; and they returned the next day vnto vs a Moore, which brought vs victuals, being at that instant very feeble and hungry: and withall sent vs a letter with pen, inke, and paper, willing vs to write vnto them what ship it was that was cast away, and how many and what men there were aliue. For said they we would knowe with speed, for to morow is the kings court: and therefore we would know, for that you should come into the citie like captiues. But for all that we were carried in as captiues and with ropes about our neckes as well English as the French and Spaniards. And so we were carried before the king: and when we came before him he did commit vs all to ward, where wee lay 15 dayes in close prison: and in the end we were cleared by the English Marchants to their great charges; for our deliuerance cost them 700 ounces, euery ounce in that country contayning two shillings. And when we came out of prison we went to the Alfandica, where we continued eight weekes with the English marchants. At the end of which time being well apparelled by the bountie of our marchants we were conueyed downe by the space of eight dayes iourney to S. Cruz, where the English ships road: where we tooke shipping about the 20 of March, two in the Anne Francis of London, and fiue more of vs fiue dayes after in the Expedition of London, and two more in a Flemish flie-boat, and one in the Mary Edward also of London, other two of our number died in the countrey of the bloodie-fluxe: the one at our first imprisonment at Marocco, whose name was George Hancock, and the other at S. Cruz, whose name was Robert Swancon, whose death was hastened by eating of rootes and other vnnatural things to slake their raging hunger in our trauaile, and by our hard and cold lodging in the open fields without tents. Thus of fiftie persons through the rashnesse of an vnskilfull Master ten onely suruiued of vs, and after a thousand miseries returned home poore, sicke, and feeble into our countrey. Richard Iohnson. William Williams Carpenter. Iohn Durham. Abraham Rouse. Iohn Matthewes. Thomas Henmore. Iohn Siluester. Thomas Whiting. William Church. Iohn Fox. * * * * * The letters of the Queenes most excellent Maiestie sent by one Laurence Aldersey vnto the Emperour of Aethiopia, 1597. Inuictissimo potentissimoque Abassenorum regi, magnoque vtriusque Aethiopiæ imperatori &c. Elizabetha Dei gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ regina, fidei defensor &c. summo ac potentissimo Æthiopiæ imperatori salutem. Quod ab omnibus qui vbiuis terrarum ac gentium sunt regibus principibusque præstari par et æquum est, vt quanquàm maximo locorum interuallo dissiti, et moribus ac legibus discrepantes, communem tamen generis humani societatem tueri et conseruare, mutuáque vt occasio ferret, charitatis et beneuolentiæ officia velint exercere: in eo nos de vestra fide atque humanitate spem certissimam concipientes huic subito nostro Laurentio Alderseio in regnum vestrum proficiscenti, hasce literas nostras, quibus et nostra erga vos beneuolentia testata sit, et illum hinc profectum esse constet, potissimùm vobis indicandus dedimus. Qui cùm orbis terrarum perscrutandi cognoscendique studio permotus, multis antehàc regionibus peragratis, iam tandem in eas regiones, quæ vestræ ditionis sunt, longum, periculosumque iter instituat: cùm ipse existimauit, tum nos etiam sumus in eadem opinione, ad incolumitatem suam, atque etiam ad gratiam apud vos, plurimum illi prafuturum, si diplomate nostro munitus, beneuolenentiæ nostræ et profectionis hinc suæ testimonium ad vos deferret. Nam cum summus ille mundi conditor rectorque præpotens Deus, regibus principibusque qui suam vicem gerunt, orbem terrarum, suis cuique finibus pro rata portione designatis, regendum atque administrandum dederit; eoque munere ius quoddam inter eos fraternæ necessitudinis, æternumque foedus ab illis colendum sanxerit: non erit (vt arbitramur) ingratum vobis, cùm beneuolentiæ nostræ significationem, tàm immensa maris ac terrarum spatia transgressam, ab vltima Britannia ad vos in Aetheiopiam perferri intellexeritis. Nobisque rursùs erit incundum, cùm subditorum nostrorum prædicatione, ab ipsis Nili fontibus, et ab ijs regionibus quæ solis cursum definiunt, fama vestri nominis ad nos recurret. Erit igitur humanitatis vestræ huic subdito nostro eam largiri gratiam, vt in ditionem vestram sub præsidio ac tutela vestri nominis intrare, ibique saluus et incolumis manere possit: quod ipsum etiam ab aliis principibus, per quorum regiones illi transeundum erit magnoperè petimus, nobisque ipsis illud honoris causa tributum existimabimus: néque tamèn maiorem hac in re gratiam postulamus, quàm vicissim omnium principum subditis, omniumque gentium hominibus ad nos commeantibus liberrimè concedimus. Datum Londini quinto die Nouembris: anno regni nostri tricesimo nono: annoque Dom. 1597. The same in English. To the most inuincible and puissant king of the Abassens, the mightie Emperour of Aethiopia the higher and the lower. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. To the most high and mightie Emperour of Aethiopia greeting. Whereas it is a matter requisite and well beseeming all kings and princes of what lands or nations soeuer, be they neuer so much disseuered in place or differing in customes and lawes, to maintaine and preserue the common societie of mankinde, and, as occassion shall be offered, to performe mutuall duties of charitie and beneuolence: we for that cause concerning most undoubted hope of your princely fidelity and courtesie, haue giuen vnto this our subiect Laurence Aldersey intending to trauell into your dominions, these our letters to be deliuered without faile vnto your Highnesse, to the end they may be a testimony of our good will towards you and of our saide subiect his departure from England. Who, after his trauels in many forren countreys, being as yet enflamed with a desire more throughly to surueigh and contemplate the world, and now at length to vndertake a long and daungerous iourney into your territories and regions: both the sayd Laurence thought, and our selues also deemed, that it would very much auaile him, as well for his owne safetie as for the attayning of your fauour, if, being protected with our broad seale, hee might transport vnto your Highnesse a testimony of our louing affection and of his departure from hence. For sithence almightie God the highest creatour and gouernour of the world hath allotted vnto kings and princes his vicegerents [sic--KTH] ouer the face of the whole earth, their designed portions and limits to be ruled and administred by them; and by this his gift hath established among them a certaine law of brotherly kindnesse, and an eternall league by them to be obserued: it will not (we hope) seeme vnpleasant vnto your highnesse, when you shall haue intelligence of our louing letters sent so huge a distance ouer sea and land, euen from the farthest realme of England vnto you in Aethiopia. On the other side our selues shall take great solace and delight, when as by the relation of our owne subiects, the renowme of your name shall be brought vnto vs from the fountains of Nilus, and from those regions which are situate vnder the Southerne Tropike. May it please you therefore of your princely clemencie to vouchsafe so much fauour on this our subiect, that he may, vnder the safeguard and protection of your name, enter into your highnesse dominions, and there remaine safe and free from danger. Which fauour and courtesie wee doe likewise most earnestly request at the hands of other princes, through whose Seigniories our said subject is to passe; and we shall esteeme it as done vnto our selfe and for our honours sake. Neither do we require any greater fauour in this behalfe, then we are vpon the like occasion most ready to graunt unto the subiects of all princes and the people of all Nations, trauelling into our dominions. Given at London the fift day of Nouember, in the thirtie and ninth yeere of our reigne: and in the yeare of our Lord 1597. APPENDIX THE OMISSIONS OF CALES VOYAGE. [Footnote: The Editor takes this opportunity of making grateful acknowledgements to the Marquis of Stafford, for his permission to print this Tract from his curious Manuscript; and to the Reverend H. J. Todd, for furnishing him with the accurate transcript from which it is printed.] The first and greatest occasion let slip in our Voyage was, that we did not possess ourselues of the fleete that was bound for the Indies, the lading whereof would not onelie haue paid all charges of the iorneie, but haue enabled vs a great while to wage warre with Spaine, with the meanes of Spaine. To which I aunswere, that if either I had ben followed the first morning of our comminge before the harbor when I bare with it, or if we had entred the same Sundaie in the afternoone when we were vnder saile, and within cannon shot of the enemies fleete, or after the men of warre were taken and burnt, the nexte daie if anie shipping had gone vp as I vrged by mine owne speech sent by Sir Anthonie Ashlie, who being secretaire at wars was to record euerie mans seruice or omission; if anie of these had ben don, then I saie had that fleete ben easilie possessed. For the first morning they had neither their men aboard, as it was since confessed by our prisoners, nor were provided of any counsel what to doe. In the afternoone the same daie we had found the men of warre and the Marchaunts fleet altogether in one bodie, and engaged them both at once, so as at the same time we had defeated the one, we had possessed the other. And the next daie presentlie vpon the fight and victorie against the Kings shipps, we had found them all so amazed and confounded as they would haue thought of nothing but of sauing themselues, and we had taken the ships, the riches in them, and the fleet of gallies, without striking a blow; as both our prisoners and captaines out of the gallies haue assured vs. But the first morninge when I boare with the harbor, almost all the fleet came to an ancker by the point Saint Sebastian a league wide of me, and gaue the enemie leasure to send men and all necessaries aboard. When I was gon in, I could neither get my companion to waigh his anckor, nor most of those that were waied to goe in with me. And the next daie I had much a do to make our ships fight at all. And when God had giuen vs victorie, my perswasions nor protestations could make them that were sea-commaunders go or send vp to possess the fleet of the Indies, whiles we assailed the towne, so as the enemie had almost 48. howers to burne his owne shipps. The second imputation that maie be laid to vs, was, that we did abandon Cales, when we were possesst of it, whereas the holding of it would haue ben a naile not in the foote of this great monarch but in his side, and haue serued for a diversion of all the wars in these parts. To which I aunswere, that some of our sea-commaunders, and especiallie my colleague, did not onelie oppose themselues to that designe, (whose oppositions mine instructions made an absolute barre,) but when we came to see how the forces that should be left there might be victualed till succours came, the victualls were for the most part hidden and embeazled, and euery ship began at that instant to feare their wants, and to talke of goeing home; soe as I should neither haue had one ship to staie at Cales, nor victualls for the garrison for 2. moneths. And therefore I was forced to leaue Cales, and did not choose to abandon it. The third obiection we haue to aunswere is, whie we did not lie for the carricks and Indian ships, seing we were on the coast the verie time that is thought fittest for their intercepting and vsual of their retourne. In which I must first cite the testimonie of all our commanders by land and sea, that when we had in our retourne from Cales doubled the Cape St. Vincent comonlie called the South Cape, I vrged our going to th' Islands of Ozores, founding my selfe vpon these reasons: first, that it was more certaine to attend them at the land-fall where theie must needs touch, then to seeke them in the wide sea; and next, that the aduises sent out of Spaine and Portingall since our being of myght meete them at the Islands, and make them divert from coming thither. Besides, the Spaniards after theie saw vs engaged at Cales would neuer suspect or dreame of our goeing to the Islands. And when this counsell was reiected, and we come in the sight of Lisbon, I there againe pressed the lieing for them with a selected fleet, and offered vpon that condition to send home the land-forces, and all such ships as want of victualls, leaks sickness, or anie thing els had made vnfit to staie out at sea. But first the L. Admirall and Sr. Wa[l]ter Rawligh did directlie by attestation vnder their hands contradict the first proposition that I made, that some ships should attend that seruice. And when we came to the hypothesis, which were fitt and their captaines content to staie out in all the fleet, except the Low Countrie Squadron, there could be found but two, my L. Thom. Howard and my selfe; so as by the whole counsell at wars, it was resolued that as well my offer and opinion, as euerie mans els amongst vs, should be kept vnder his hand, for our particuler discharges, and I be barred of staieing, except my L. Admirall would assent to leaue some 8. or 10. of the Marchaunts ships besides 2. of the Queenes: which he refused to doe: and soe our dessigne brake of. The last omission maie seeme to be in this, that since all our seruice consisted in taking or distroyinge the Spanish shipping and sea prouisions, that we did not looke into all his chiefe ports, and do him in that kind as much hurt as we might haue done. To which I aunswere, that first my end in going to Cales was not onlie because it was a principall port and the likeliest to be held by vs, by cause of the seat and naturall strength of it; but also for that it was the farthest good porte south-ward; so as beginning with it we might, if some greater seruice did not diuert vs, goe to all the good ports betwixt that and the northmost ports of Biskaie: which was a better waie then to haue begonne or giuen the enemie an alarum in the middest of his Countrie, or the neerest ports to vs; for so our attempts would haue ben more difficile, and our retreats at last from those farthest ports less safe; considering the wants, infections, and other inconveniences that for the most parte doe accompanie the retraicts of our fleet and armies in long iourneies. But after we had ended at Cales, it was by all our seamen thought a capitall offence to name the goeing ouer the Barre at St. Lucars. Betwixt St Lucars and Lisbone there is no good porte. From Lisbone I was barred by name, if it had bene free for vs to haue gone. Yet our seamen are made of the same stuffe, Sr. Francis D: and his companie was, when theie lost the occasion of his taking Lisbone, for feare of passing by the castle of St. Iulian's. From Lisbone to the Groine there is no port to hold the Kings or anie other great shipping. To the Groin with cart-ropes I drew them: for both I vowed and protested against their refusall, and parted companie with them when they offered to hold another course. But when we came to the mouth of the harbor, and sent in some of our small vessells, we saw there was nothing there, nor yet at Furroll; for into that port also we made our discouveries to looke. After which discouverie we held our last counsell. And then I vrged our goeing to St. Audica, the passage St. Sebastian, and all other good ports all along the coast. But mine associat did altogether refuse to goe farther alonge the coaste, complaininge of wants, and obiecting our being embayed, and I know not what. In which opinion Sir Walter Rawlighe strengthened him; and theie were both desirous to take vpon them the honnor of breaking that dessigne. And of landing at the Groyne, or attempting the towne, theie would not heare by anie meanes. And presentlie euery man cried to set saile homewards. Since which time theie haue made such haste, as I, tarieing behind to bring along with me the St. Andrew taken at Cales and the flie boate that carries our artillarie haue lost them all, sauing Monsieur Oauerworme and his squadron, and some few small shipps. [These "Omissions" were not included in the early editions, but appeared in Woodfall's edition of 1812]. INDICES. Where the same Document a given in Latin and English, the reference is to the English Version. N.B. The large print indicates that the _whole_ section refers to the subject mentioned. INDEX TO VOL. VIII. ACHIM, (Sultan of Egypt). ACRE. AIGUES MORTES. AILWIN, founds Ramsey Abbey. ALBEMARLE (John, Earl of). ALCAYR. See _Cairo_. ALFRED, (King), sends Sighelmus to India. ALURED, (Bishop of Worcester). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. AMAZONS. AMBASSADORS SENT TO CONSTANTINOPLE BY EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. ARABIA. ARUNDEL (Earl of), HIS VOYAGE. ASSUR. ATHELARD. HIS TRAUAILES. BABYLON. BALDWIN (Archbishop of Canterbury), HIS LIFE AND TRAUAILES. BALDWIN (of Bouillon). BALDWIN (King of Jerusalem), defeats Saracens. BALE, quoted, --HIS LIFE OF MANDEVILLE. BANGOR COLLEGE, Pelagius its head. BASSET (William). BATH (Abbey of). BAUGIE (F. de). BEAUCHAMP, family. BEDA, quoted. BETHLEHEM. BOHUN (Henry), his death. BRENSE (Peter de). BRUNO, murdered by Sweyn. CÆLIUS (Mount). CÆSARIA. CAIRO. CANUTE. CAYPHAS (city). CELESTINE. CHANTENAY (P. de). CHAPMAN, quoted. CHESTER. CHESTER (Earl of). HIS VOYAGE. CHRONICON HIEROSOLYMITANUM, quoted. CLERMONT. CONRAD, Emperor of Germany. CONSTANTINOPLE. CROYLAND (Abbey). CRUSADE, preached by Urban. CURSON, (Robert). HIS TRAUAILES. CYPRUS. DAMIETTA, (Siege of). DES ROCHES, (Pierre). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. DEWIN, (P. de). DEWIN, (W. de). EARTH, its form. EDGAR (Prince). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. EDMUND (Prince). EDWARD (The Confessor). SENDS AMBASSADORS TO CONSTANTINOPLE. EDWARD I. HIS VOYAGE INTO ASIA. EGYPT. EPHESUS (Seven Sleepers of). FONTENELLE (Abbey). FORTIS (W.). FURNIVALL (Gerard). FURNIVALL (Thomas). FURNIVALL (William). GENNADIUS, quoted. GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, quoted. GLOUCESTER Cathedral founded. GODERICUS; HIS ADVENTURES IN HOLY LAND. GODFREY (de Bouillon). GODWIN (Earl). GREEK ALPHABET. GUIMUNDE, Patriarch of Jerusalem. GUTUERE, HER VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. HADERWERCK (of Westphalia). HARDINE. HIS ADVENTURES IN HOLY LAND. HAROLD (King). HEBREW ALPHABET. HENRY II. ASSIGNS MONEY TO THE CRUSADES. HERMANNUS, companion of Robertus Kettenensis. HOLINSHED, quoted. HOLY LAND, _passim_. HONORIUS, quoted, --pope. HOVEDEN (Roger), quoted. HUGH of Tabaria, Patriarch, --Killed. HUNGARY. ICONIUM, --Battle of. INGULPHUS'S Journey to Jerusalem, --quoted, --notice of. JAVA, Mandeville's account of. JERUSALEM. SWEYN'S JOURNEY to, --ALURED'S JOURNEY, --JOURNEY OF INGULPHUS, --JOURNEY OF ROBERT CURTHOSE, --VOYAGE OF GUTUERE, --VOYAGE OF PRINCE EDGAR, --VOYAGE OF JOHN LACY, --W. MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGE, --VOYAGE OF PIERRE DES ROCHES, --described by Mandeville. JOHN (King). HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE HOLY LAND. JOPPA, --VISITED BY A FLEET OF ENGLISH, DANES, ETC. JULIAN (the Apostate). LACY (John). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. LEDET (W.). LELAND, quoted. LIEGE. LOUIS (King of France). LUCY (Geoffrey de). LYNN. MAHOMET. MALLOW, (P. De). MANDEVILLE, (Sir J). HIS LIFE BY BALE, --HIS EPITAPH, --CONTENTS OF HIS BOOK, --HIS VOYAGES IN LATIN BEGIN, --IN ENGLISH, --Prologue, --From England to Constantinople, --Of the cross and crown of Jesu Christ, --Of the city of Constantinople and the faith of the Greeks, --From Constantinople to Jerusalem, --Of St John the Evangelist, --Legend of the daughter of Hippocrates, --Of the Soudans and the tower of Babiloyn, --Of the desert between the church of St Catherine and Jerusalem, --Of the dry tree, --How roses came first in the world, --Of the pilgrimages in Jerusalem and of the holy places thereabout, --Of the temple of our Lord, Of the crueltie of King Heroud, --Of Mount Syon, --Of Probatica Piscina, --Of Natatorium Siloe, --Of the Dead Sea, --Of Jordan, --Of the Head of St. John the Baptist, --Of the Samaritans, --Of Galilee, --Of Antichrist, --Of Nazareth, --Of the age of our Lady, --Of the day of Doom, --Of the Jacobites, --Of the Surryenes, --Of the Georgians, --Of Damascus, --Of three ways to Jerusalem, --Of the Saracens, --Of Mahomet, --Of Albany and Lybia, --Of the Wisshinges for Wacchinge of the Sperhauk, --Of Noah, --Of the land of Job, --Of the Chaldeans, --Of Amazons, --Of the true diamond, --Of Indian islands, --Of idols, --Of pepper, --Of a marvellous well, --Of St Thomas, --Of the citie Of Calamye, --Of the isle of Lamary, --Of the form of the Earth, --Of Java, --Of Oracles, --Some wonderful nations, --Of the Great Khan of Cathay. MANDEVILLE, (William), Earl of Essex. HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. MANICHES, Emperor of Constantinople. MANUEL, Emperor of Constantinople. His LETTER TO HENRY II. MARASIA. MARSEILLES. MATTHEW OF WESTMINSTER, quoted. MAXIMUS, King of Britain. MONTFORT, (Simon de). NAZARETH, --taken. NEVEL or NEVILLE (John). OCTOBONUS. OLYMPIC games. OLYMPUS. ORIEL COLLEGE,(_note_). OTHO (of Roges). PAMPELUNA, 30. PARIS (Matthew), quoted. PASHED, meaning of word. PELAGIAN HERESY, hatched. PELAGIUS, LIFE AND TRAUAILES OF. PESMES (Gerald). PETRUS DE RUPIBUS, _see Des Roches_. RAMA, Siege of. RAMSEY ABBEY, --Its foundation. RICHARD, (Canonicus), HIS TRAUAILES. RICHARD, (Earl of Cornwall). HIS VOYAGE TO SYRIA. ROBERT, (Curthose); HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. ROBERT (son of Godwin), accompanies Prince Edgar to Jerusalem. ROBERTUS KETENENSIS. HIS TRAUAILES. ST. ALBANS. ST. AUMOND (A. de). SALISBURY (William Longespee, Earl of), HIS VOYAGE TO SYRIA, --his death. SHERBORNE Abbey. SIGHELMUS (Bishop of Sherborne). A TESTIMONIE OF HIS MISSION TO INDIA, --A SECOND TESTIMONY. STANLAW Abbey, founded. SWANUS, HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. SYRIA. TABARIA (see TIBERIAS). TABOR (Mount). TEMPLARS (Knights). TIBERIAS. TILNEY, (Sir Frederick). A NOTE CONCERNING HIM. TILNEY, (Thomas). TRAPANI. TURNEHAM (R.), HIS TRAUAILL. TYRE. URBAN (Pope). VIRGIL (Polydore), quoted. VOISIE (J.). WAKE (Hugh). WALDEN'S epistle to Martin the fifth, quoted. WALTER (Hubert). HIS TRAUAILES. WHITEMAN, (Andrew). HIS TRAUAILES. WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, quoted. WILLIAM OF NEWBURY, quoted. WILLIAM OF TYRE, quoted, --HIS LIFE AND TRAUAILES. WINCHESTER, (Earl of). HIS VOYAGE. WITRAZH, (Bernard). WOLSTAN, Abbot of Gloucester. VOL. IX. ADAM'S MOUNT. ALDERSEY, (Laurence). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. ALDRIDGE, (M.). ALEXANDRIA. ASCENSION, (Ship). ASSASSINS, (nation). AUGUSTA, (island). AZARON. BABEL, (Tower of). BABYLON, --coins and measures. BARNACLES, growing on trees. BARNARD CASTLE. BARRETT (W). HIS ACCOUNT OF THE MONEY AND MEASURES OF THE EAST. BARTON, (E.). HIS VOYAGE TO SYRIA. BASAN. BASSORA, --coins and measures. BECK (Anthony). MADE PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM. BETHLEHEM. BEZENEGAR. BIR. BODIN OR DADIN, (island). BOLINGBROKE, (Henry, Earl of). His quarrel with Thomas Mowbray. BROADBANK, (W.). BUSHELL, (E.). CADIZ. CÆSAR, (F.), quoted. CAIDO. CAIRO. CAKAM. CALVARY. CAMBAIA. CAMBALETH. CAMPA. CANDIA. CARMEL. (mount). CASSAN or CASSIBIN. CASTLER, (N.). CATZA. CEPHALONIA, (island). CEUSKALA. CEYLON. CHALDEANS. Their manners. CHARGES FROM ALEPPO TO GOA. CHATAGAN. CHAUL. CHILENSO. CHIO. CICERO. His tomb. CLEMENT V., Pope. CLOVES. COCHIN --Coins and measures. COINS --ancient. COMUM. CORFU. CORNARI FAMILY. CREMATION of dead. CROCODILES CUSTOMS, (strange). CYPRUS --ruins in. DAMAN. DIAMONDS. DIU. ELIZABETH (Queen), a present from the Sultan of Turkey's wife. ELTHAM. FAMAGUSTA. FEASTS of the Tartars. FILA CAVENNA (ship). FILLIE (D.). FISH, an abundance of --Caught by birds. FOSTER (R.), appointed Consul in Syria --Letter of directions to. FREDERICK (Cæsar), HIS VOYAGE TO THE EAST. FROISSART, quoted. FUCO. GANGES (river). GELBER, (A.), death of. GESTE. GINGER. GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, quoted. GOA --Besieged --Coins and measures. GREECE (Patriarch of). GRIDA. HAKLUYT'S NOTE TO MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGE. HAREBORNE, (W.). HENRY IV. HIS INTENDED VOYAGE TO THE HOLY LAND. HEWISH (R.). HICKOCKE (T.), HIS TRANSLATION OF FREDERICK'S VOYAGE. HOLLINSHED, quoted. HUNTINGTON (Earl of), HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. IANZU. IDOL (a strange). INDIA (Upper). INNS. JAVA. JENISE, (M.). JERUSALEM --JOHN LOCKE'S VOYAGE --L. Aldersey's voyage. JOPPA. KARAMORON river. KEELE (J.). LELAND, quoted. LEZINA (island). LINDSEY. LISSA (island). LOCKE, (J.), HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM --Testimonial to him from the vicar of Mount Syon. MAHOMET, his dress. MALABAR. MALACCA --Coins and measures. MALIAPOR. MANCY (province). MANDEVILLE, HIS VOYAGE CONTINUED --Of the Tartars --Of the Emperor of Persia --Of various countries --Of Prester John --Of the Valley Perilous --Some curious nations --Of the Isle of Bragman --of King Alexander --Of the name of Prester John --Of Pissemyres --Of the rivers of Paradise --Of various islands --Conclusion --Hakluyt's note on Mandeville's voyage --Passage of Pliny illustrating above. MANNA. MARTAVAN. MATAPAN (cape). MATTHEW GONSON (ship). MECCA, A DESCRIPTION OF THE PILGRIMAGE TO --Described. MEDINA. MELEDA (island). MELISTORTE. MERCHANDISE, WHENCE VARIOUS KINDS ARE PROCURED. MONSOON. MOUMORAN (island). MURAD KHAN, Emperour of Turkey. NEGAPATAN. NESTORIANS. NORFOLK (Thomas Mowbray, duke of). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. NUTMEGS. ODORICUS. HIS JOURNEY AMONG THE TARTARS. --His journey from Pera to Thana --To further India --His return --His death. OLD MAN of the Mountains --His death. OPIUM. ORISA. ORMUS --coins and measures. OSBORNE, (E.). PALM TREES. PEARL FISHERIES. PEGU. PELAGOSA (island). PELICANS. PEPPER, how grown. PERA. PIGMIES. PLINY, quoted. POLUMBRUM. QUINZAI. RAGUSA, tributary of Turkey. RAMUSIUS, quoted. RAYNOLDS (ship). ROSETTO. ROVIGNIO. RUBIES. RUBRICIS, (W de), quoted. SAILS made of reeds. ST. THOMAS --His tomb. SALARIES OF OFFICERS OF GRAND SIGNOR'S COURT. SATAGAN. SIAM. SOBISSACLAO. STAPER, (R.). SULTANIA. SUMACOTO. SUMATRA. SYLAN (island). See _Ceylon_. TATHALAMASIN (island). TAURIS. THALAY, a river. THANA. THIBET. TORTOISES. TREBIZONDE. TREES, (curious). TRIPOLIS. TURKS, number of soldiers sent against Emperor. TYPHOON. VENICE. VIRGILE, (P.) quoted. WALSINGHAM (T.) quoted. WILKINSON (T.). WINCHESTER (Bishop of). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM. WRAG (Richard). HIS LETTER TO ROWLAND HEWISH. ZAITON. ZANTE. INDEX TO VOL. X. ABILFADA ISMAEL, quoted. AGRA. ALDWORTH, (R). ALEPPO, ENTERED BY SOLIMAN, --Mentioned. AMURATH I. AMURATH II. ANDERSON, (H.). ANSELL, (E.). ANTOGIL (Bay of). ARCULFUS. ARTILLERY, of Mahomet II. ASHLEY, (R.). ASPLEY, (W.), Bookseller. BABEL (Tower of). BABYLON. BAJAZET I. BALSARA. BALY (island). BANNING, (A.). BANNING, (P.). BANTAM --described. BARNE, (George). BARNES, (P.). BARRETT, (W.). BATE, (R.). BEAUVAIS, (V. de). BELLAPORE. BELLERGAN. BIRRA. BISAPORE. BLUNT, (J.). BOND, (G.). BONDE, (M.). BORROUGH, (W.). BOSTOCK, (T.). BRAHMINS. BROOKE, (R.). BURSE. CAMBAIETTA. CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. CARPINI, (J. de P.). CAVIARE. CEYLON. CHAUL. CHINA (King of). CLARKE, (R.). CLAUDIAN, quoted. COMMENUS, family. COMORIN, (cape). CONSTANTINOPLE. CORDALL, (T.). COUCHE, (? Quichew). COWLTHIRST, (H.). COXE, (R.). CREMATION, of dead. CUSTOMS, (curious). DALKINS (T.). DANSEY (A.). DARSALL (R.). DIU. DOFFIE (C.). DORRINGTON (F.). DOWE (R.). DRAKE (Sir Francis). DUCANGE quoted. EBONY. ELDRED (John), --HIS VOYAGE TO TRIPOLIS ELEPHANTS. ELIZABETH (Queen), HER LETTER TO ZELABDIN ECHEBAR --TO THE KING OF CHINA --HER SECOND CHARTER TO THE LEVANT COMPANY. EMANTUEL (ship). EUPHRATES (river). FAITH (C.). FARRINGTON (T.). FATEPOR. FELUGIA. FITCH (Ralph), mentioned --A LETTER TO LEONARD POORE --HIS VOYAGE TO THE EAST --Imprisoned. FLORIDA. FONES (A.). FONSECA (V.), Archbishop of Goa. GALVANO (A.), quoted. GANGES. GARROWAY (T.). GARROWAY (W.). GERMAIN (J.), biographical notice. GIBBON, quoted. GOA. GOLCONDA or GULCONDA. GRIMES (P.). GUILLAME (P.). HAKLUYT (R.) HAREBORNE (W.) HARTE (J.) HAWKINS (Sir John) HETTON HEWET (H.) HOLMEDEN (E.) HUIGHEN (J.) --HIS ACCOUNT OF NEWBURY AND FITCH INDIES, A VOYAGE OF CERTAIN SHIPS OF HOLLAND JACKSON (A.) JANISSARIES JAPAN JAVA, currency of --THE VOYAGE TO JAVA OF A DUTCH FLEET JEAN SANS PEUR JENKINSON (A.), HIS ACCOUNT OF SOLIMAN'S ENTRY INTO ALEPPO --HIS SAFE CONDUCT FROM SOLIMAN JERUSALEM, VOYAGE OF LA BROCQUIERE JOHN PALÆOLOGUS (Emperor) JONES (P.) LA BROCQUIERE, (B. de). HIS VOYAGE TO JERUSALEM --Discours préliminaire --Seconde partie --Quitte la Bourgogne --Arrive à Turin --Bologne --Florence --Rome --Venise --Corfou --Modon --Jaffa --Jerusalem --Bethlehem --Vallée d'Hebron --Retourne à Gaza, --Visite Nazareth --Sur --Bayreuth --Damas --Retourne à Nazareth --Visite Balbec --Antioch --Adène --Therse --Larande --Cohonge --Burse --Pera --Constantinople --Arrive à Andrianople --Lessère --Belgrade --Son opinion des Turcs et de la manière de les attaquer --Arrive à Pest --rencontre Albert II, Duc d'Autriche --Arrive à Vienne --Constance --Bâle --Arrive à Dijon LAHORE LANGHENEZ (B.) his account of the Dutch voyage to India LAURENCE (S.) LAURENCE (P.) LEATE (N.) LEECH (W.). See _Leeds_ LEEDS (W) LEGRAND D'AUSSY, his translation of La Brocquière LETHLANDE, (E.) LEVANT COMPANY, their second charter LINCHOTEN (J. Huighen van). See _Huighen_. MAHOMET MALACCA MANDEVILLE (Sir J.) MARRIAGES (strange) MARTAVAN MARTIN V. (Pope) MARTIN (R.) MARTIN (R. jun.) MASSAM (W.) MASULIPATAN MAURITIUS MAY (R.) MEXICO MIDDLETON (T.) MOGUL, (the great) MOLUCCAS MOSLEY, (N.) NEWBURY (John). HIS LETTER TO RICHARD HAKLUYT --A LETTER TO LEONARD POORE --ANOTHER LETTER TO THE SAME --A LETTER TO JOHN ELDRED AND WILLIAM SHALS --A SECOND LETTER TO THE SAME --A THIRD LETTER TO LEONARD POORE --His imprisonment NEWTON (J.) NORDEN (T.) OFFLEY (R.), 69. ORMUS OSBORNE, (Sir E.) --First Governor of Levant Company PARVIS (H.) PATANAW or PATNA PEARDE (N.) PEGU PEPPER PERA PERU PHILLIP (W.) HIS TRANSLATION OF THE DUTCH VOYAGE TO INDIA PITCH issues from Earth POORE (Leonard) PORTER (E.) PORTER (G.) POWER (L.) See _Poore_. RATCLIFFE (A.) RAYNOLDS or REINOLDS (ship) RUBRUQUIS (W. de) RUTILIUS quoted SADLER (E.) SADLER (R.) ST. HELENA (island) ST. LAURENCE (island) SALTER (G.) SALTONSTALL (R.) SANDIE (R.) SCANDERBERG SCUDAMORE (Sir J.) Dedication to SERREPORE SERVIDORE SHALS (W.) SIAM SIGISMUND (Emperor) SIMONS (T.) SOFIA SOLIMAN. HIS ENTRY INTO ALEPPO --HIS SAFE CONDUCT TO ANTHONY JENKINSON SOME (S.) SPENCER (J.) STAPER (J.) STAPER, (R.) STEVENS, (T.) Biographical notice STILE, (N.) STILE, (O.) STILICHO STORY, (J.) STROPENE, (M.) SUMATRA TARTARS TRIPOLIS (Syria) TYGER (ship) VIRGINIA WARNER (W.) WATTES (J.) WILKES, (W.) WOLFE (J.), Printer ZELABDIN ECHEBAR INDEX TO VOL. XI. ADAMS (R.) AFRICA, DESCRIBED BY R. EDEN --nations of ALDAIE (J.) HIS ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST VOYAGE to MOROCCO ALDERSEY (L.) HIS SECOND VOYAGE TO EGYPT --mentioned ALDRIDGE (W.) ALEXANDRIA ALGIERS AMITY, (ship) ANGOLA ASHBIE (F.) ASHLEY (R.) ASSAN AGA, A LETTER TO AUSTINE (P.) AZORES BAKER (R.) BARBARY, SECOND VOYAGE TO --CHARTER TOR TRADE TO BARNE (Sir G.) BARTHOLOMEW (ship) BARTON (E.) BARTON (R.) BEARE (J.) BEAUFORT (John de) BENCE (E.) BENDS (W.). His account of the loss of the Edward Cotton BENIN, WELSH'S VOYAGE TO --NEWTON AND BIRD'S VOYAGE TO --THEIR SECOND VOYAGE BERRIN (J.) BIRD (J.) HIS VOYAGE TO BENIN --HIS SECOND VOYAGE BLANCO (cape) BLONKET (M.) BRISTOL BRITON (ship) BURGES (R.) BURROUGH (Sir J.) HIS SERVICES AT SEA BUTLER (Sir J.) BUTTOLFE (ship) CABOT (S.) CAIRO CALAIS VOYAGE, OMISSIONS OF CAMDEN CANARIES (islands) CANDIA CAPE OF GOOD HOPE CARNABY (R.) CARTER (W.) CARTHAGE CASTELIN (E.) CASTLE OF COMFORT (ship). CAVENDISH. CENTURION (ship). CEPHALONIA. CHALONER (Sir Th.), HIS VOYAGE TO ALGER. CHANCELLOR (R.). CHARLES V. CHEESMAN (W.). CHESTER (Sir W.). CHIAN. CHINA, ACCOUNT OF, FROM PORTUGUESE PRISONERS --described. CHRISTOPHER (ship). COCKE (W). CORDALL (T.). COREA (cape). CORRIENTES (cape). COTTON (E.). COWEL (W.). CRAWFORD (R.). CREMATION. CRETTON (W.). CROMPTON (W.). CYPRUS. DALLIMORE (O.). DARTMOUTH. DASSEL (T.), HIS VOYAGE TO GUINEA. DAVIES (N.). DAVIS (M.). DAVISON (R.). DAWED, meaning of. DEIMOND (R.). DEWLY (W.). DICKENSON (M.). DIER (A.), --hanged. DODDINGTON (J.). DOVER, 84. DOWNTON (N.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE SINKING OF LAS CINQUE LLAGAS. DRAGONS. DRAKE (Sir F.). EDEN (R.) HIS DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. EDWARD IV. EDWARD BONAVENTURE (ship). EDWARD COTTON (ship). EGYPT. ELEPHANTS. ELIZABETH (Queen), HER LETTERS FOR THE RELEASE OF THE JESUS --HER CHARTER FOR TRADE TO BARBARY --HER LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF MOROCCO --HER PATENT TO EXETER MERCHANTS FOR A TRADE TO GUINEA --HER PATENT TO T. GREGORY --HER LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF ÆTHIOPIA. ELIZABETH (ship). ELIZABETH STOKES (ship). ELVERS (A.). EPITAPH OF P. READ. ETHIOPIA, Emperor of. EVESHAM (J.), HIS VOYAGE INTO EGYPT. EXETER. FABIAN (W.). FALMOUTH. FENNER (G.), HIS VOYAGE TO GUINEA. FERRO, (island). FILLIE (D.). FORSTER (T.). FOSTER, (J.). FOX (J.), HIS ENTERPRISE IN DELIVERING 266 CHRISTIANS --HIS CERTIFICATE FROM THE PRIOR OF GALIPOLI --THE BISHOP OF ROME'S LETTERS IN HIS BEHALF --THE KING OF SPAIN'S LETTERS IN HIS FAVOR. FRANKE (J.). FREIGIUS (J.T.), HIS ACCOUNT OF STUKELEY'S VOYAGE TO BARBARY. FROBISHER (Sir M.). FROES (A.), Letter of. FROISSART, quoted. FUQUIEN. GAGO. GAINSH (R.). GALIPOLI (Candia). GARAMANTES have their women in common. GENOA, chronicles of, quoted. GEORGE (ship). GEORGE BONAVENTURE (ship). GERARD (Sir W.). GERBI (island). GIBBEN (R.). GIBRALTAR (straits of). GIFFORD (G.). GILMAN (J.). GOA. GOLDEN NOBLE, (ship). GOMERA (island). GONSON (B.). GRAND CANARY. GRAVESEND. GREEN DRAGON (ship). GREGORY (T.), HIS PATENT. GRENVILLE (Capt.). GRIFFITH (W.). GRIMES (Master). GROLOS (T.), Bishop of Astraphen. GROVE (Master). GUINEA. HAKLUYT (R.), HIS ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE TO THE EAST INDIES. HAMOR (W.). HARCOURT (Sir J.). HAREBORNE (W.), --A LETTER TO THE SULTAN OF TRIPOLIS --HIS LETTER TO HARVIE MILLERS --A LETTER TO, FROM ALGIERS --A LETTER TO MUSTAPHA --A LETTER TO EDWARD BARTON --Obtains a commandment from the Grand Signor --A LETTER TO T. TYPTON --A LETTER TO ASSAN AGA. HARISON (A.). HART (ship). HARWICH. HASLEWOOD (R.) HASLEWOOD (S.). HASSAN BASSA. HAWKINS (Sir J.). HAWKWOOD, HIS VICTORIES IN ITALY. HELLIER (A.). HENRY IV. HIS VOYAGE TO TUNIS. HENRY VIII. HERCULES (ship). HERMAN (J.). HEXASI. HICKMAN (A.). HIND (ship). HOGAN (E.), HIS EMBASSY TO MOROCCO. HOLINSHED, quoted. HOOPER (J.). HOWARD (Lord T.). HOWEL (H.). HUDDIE (W.). ISHAM (H.). JAMES (Leonard). JANISSARIES. JAPAN, PORTUGUESE ACCOUNT OF. JESUS (ship). JONES (P.). JOHN II. OF PORTUGAL, --HIS EMBASSY TO EDWARD IV. JOHN BAPTIST (ship). JOHN EVANGELIST (ship). JUDDE (Sir A.). JUDITH (ship). KERRY (J.). KING (W.). KNEVET (Sir H.). KNOLLES (H.). LAMBERT (F.). LAMBERT (N.). LANCASTER (J.), HIS VOYAGE TO THE EAST INDIES. LANDMAN (D.). LAS BARBAS, (cape). LEICESTER (Earl of). LION (ship). LISNEY (T.). LISTER (C.). LOCK (G.), HIS VOYAGE TO GUINEA --ARTICLES DELIVERED TO. LOCK, (M.). LOCK (T.). LODGE (T.). LONG (N.). LUIZ (Don), HIS LETTER TO PINTEADO. MACAO. MADEIRA. MAFFEIUS (P.), quoted. MAKEWORTH (J.). MALACCA. MALTA. MALTA, Knights of. MAUNSELL (R.). MARCH (P.). MARCHANT ROYAL (ship). MARIA MARTIN (ship). MARTABAN. MARTIN (Alderman). MASSE (N.). MAYFLOWER (ship). MENSURADO (cape). MERLIN (ship). MILLERS (H.). MILO (island). MINION (ship). MOON (ship). MOONSHINE (ship). MOORE (R.). MOORE (W.). MORE (T.). MOROCCO, FIRST VOYAGE TO --Mentioned. MORRIS (R.). MOURA (N. de). MULY HAMET, HIS LETTER TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER. MURAD KHAN, Sultan of Turkey, --HIS LETTER TO THE SULTAN OF TRIPOLI FOR THE RESTITUTION OF THE JESUS. NAPER (G.). NELSON (J.). NEWHAVEN. NEWTON (J.), HIS VOYAGE TO BENIN, --HIS SECOND VOYAGE. NICHOLAS (ship). NIGRITIS. _See Senegal_. NORWICH. ODORICUS, quoted. OMISSIONS OF CALES VOYAGE. OSBORNE (Sir E.), --HIS LETTER TO THE KING OF ALGIERS. PACHIN. PALMAS (cape). PALMER (R.). PALMER (W.). PALMES (island). PARKER, (H.). PATRAS. PEGU, described. PENELOPE (ship). PET (P.). PETER (ship). PETERSON (J.). PETONEY (M.), HIS ACCOUNT OF AFRICAN TRADE. PHILIP II., King of Spain. PINTEADO (A.), --HIS DEATH --HIS PATENT FROM THE KING OF PORTUGAL --LETTER FROM DON LUIZ. PLYMOUTH. PORTO SANTO (island). PORTSMOUTH. PRESTER JOHN. PRIMROSE (ship). QUANCHAI. QUINTE (J.). QUINZI. RABNET (ship). RAGSTER (H.). RAINOLDS (R.), HIS VOYAGE TO GUINEA. RAINOLDS (W.). RALEIGH (Sir W.), HIS ACCOUNT OF BURROUGH'S VICTORIES AT SEA --mentioned. RALPH (J.). RAWLINGS (R.). RAYMOND (G.). READ (P), HIS EPITAPH. RESENDE (Garcia de), quoted. RIBBE (R.). RICHARD II. RICKMAN (R.). RIO DEL ORO. RIO DULCE. RIO GRANDE. ROBERTS (H.), HIS EMBASSY TO MOROCCO. ROBINSON (M.). ROSE (ship). ROSSETTA. ROWLIE (F.). RUSSELL (Sir J.). RUTTER (W.), HIS VOYAGE TO GUINEA. RYE. ST. LUCAR or LUCAS. ST. SEBASTIAN (island). ST. THOME (island). ST. VINCENT (river). SALOMON (ship). SANDERS (Thomas), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF THE JESUS. SARAGASSO or SARGASSO (weed). SCIO (island). SELMAN (E.). SENEGAL (river). SEVILLE. SHINGLETON (T), HIS PASSPORT FROM THE KING OF ALGIERS. SIBBLE HERNINGHAM. SKEGS (R.). SMITH (H.). SMITH (J.). SMITH (N.). SONNINGS (W.). SOTHERICK (J.). SOUSA (B. A. de), HIS ADVERTISEMENT TO PHILIP II. SPARTEL (cape). SPORADES (island). STAFFORD (Marquis of). STAPER (N.). STEVENS (T.). STREET (W.). STUKELEY (T.), HIS VOYAGE TO BARBARY. SUMATRA. SWALLOW (ship). TAVISTOCK. TENERIFFE. THIN (H.). THOMAS (J.) HIS ACCOUNT OF THE SECOND VOYAGE TO BARBARY. THOMAS (W.), quoted. THOMSON (T.). TIGER (ship). TINTAM (J.). TOBIE (ship), CAST AWAY. TODD (Rev. H. J.). TOMBUTO. TOWRSON (W.), HIS FIRST VOYAGE TO GUINEA --HIS SECOND VOYAGE TO GUINEA --HIS THIRD VOYAGE TO GUINEA. TRACIE (J.). TRINITY (ship). TRIPOLIS. TUNIS. TYPTON (Master). UNDERWOOD (J.). UNICORN. UNICORN (ship). UNTICARO (P.). VERDE (cape). VERDE (islands). VIRGIL (P.), quoted. VOIS (T.). WELSH (J.), HIS VOYAGE TO BENIN --SECOND VOYAGE. WHITE (M.). WHITE (W.). WHITE (T.), HIS CAPTURE OF TWO SPANISH SHIPS. WICKNEY (W.). WIGHT (isle of). WILKINS (W.). WILLES. HIS TRANSLATION OF THE PORTUGUESE ACCOUNTS OF CHINA --OF JAPAN. WILLIAMS (T.). WILSON (H.). WINDHAM (T,), --His death. WINTER (J.). WINTER (W.). WOODBRIDGE. WOODFALL, HIS EDITION OF HAKLUYT. WOODWARD (J.). WREN (W.), HIS ACCOUNT OF FENNER'S VOYAGE TO GUINEA. WROTH (Sir T.). YORKE (Sir J.). YOUNG (J.). ZANTE. ZANZIBAR. CONTENTS TO VOL. VIII. I. The Life and trauailes of Pelagius borne in Wales. II. A Testimonie of the sending of Sighelmus, Bishop of Shirburne, by King Alphred, vnto Saint Thomas of India in the yeare of our Lord 883, recorded by William of Malmesburie. III. A Second testimonie of the foresaid Sighelmus, etc. IV. The trauailes of Andrew Whiteman, alias Leucander V. The Voyages of Swanus, the son of Earl Godwin, to Jerusalem, recorded by William of Malmesburie. VI. A Voyage of three Ambassadours who in the time of Edward the Confessor, were sent vnto Constantinople, and from thence to Ephesus, recorded by William of Malmesburie. VII. The Voyage of Alured, bishop of Worcester, vnto Jerusalem. Recorded by Roger Hoveden. VIII. The Voyage of Ingulphus, Abbat of Croyland, vnto Jerusalem, described by the said Ingulphus. IX. Diuers of the hon. family of the Beauchamps, with Robert Curtoys sonne of William the Conqueror, made a Voyage to Jerusalem, 1096. (From Hol. pag. 22. vol. 2.) X. The Voyage of Gutuere toward Jerusalem, 1097. XI. The Voyage of Prince Edgar vnto Jerusalem, 1102. Recorded by William of Malmesburie. XII. Mention made of one Godericus, etc. XIII. Mention made of one Hardine, etc. XIV. A fleete of Englishmen, Danes, etc. arriued at Joppa. written in the Chronicles of Jerusalem. XV. The trauailes of one Athelard, recorded by Master Bale. XVI. The life and trauailes of one William of Tyre. XVII. The trauailes of Robertus Ketenensis. XVIII. A Voyage of certaine Englishmen vnder the conduct of Lewes King of France vnto the Holy Land. XIX. The Voyage of John Lacy to Jerusalem. XX. The Voyage of William Mandeuile to Jerusalem. XXI. A great supply of money to the Holy Land by Henry II. XXII. A letter from Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople vnto Henrie the second, King of England. Recorded by Roger Houeden. XXIII. The Life and Trauailes of Balwinus Deuonius, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury. XXIV. An annotation concerning the said Baldwine, taken out of Giraldus Cambrensis. XXV. A note touching Sir Frederike Tilney. XXVI. The trauailes of Richard Canonicus. XXVII. The large contribution to the succour of the Holy Land made by King John of England. 1201. XXVIII. The trauailes of Hubert Walter, bishop of Salisburie. XXIX. The trauailes of Robert Curson. XXX. The voyage of Ranulph Earle of Chester and others to the Holy Land. 1218. XXXI. The voyage of Henry Bohun and Saer Quincy to the Holy Land. XXXII. The trauailes of Ranulph Glanuile, Earle of Chester. XXXIII. The voyage of Petrus de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, to Jerusalem. 1231. XXXIV. The voyage of Richard Earle of Cornewall. into Syria. XXXV. The voyage of William Longespee into Asia. 1248. XXXVI. The voyage of Prince Edward into Asia. 1170. XXXVII. The Trauaile of Robert Turneham. XXXVIII. The Life of Sir John Mandeville, written by Master Bale. XXXIX. The Tomb and Epitaph of Sir John Mandeville from Ortelius. XL. Tabula Libri Joannis Mandevil. XLI. Liber Joannis Mandevil de Turcia, Armenia, Ægypto, Lybia, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Chaldæa, Tartaria, India, et infinitis insulis civitatibus et locis. The English version begins. CONTENTS TO VOL. IX. I. Mandeville's voyage continued. II. Richardi Hakluyti brevis admonitio ad lectorem. III. Verba C. Plinii secundi. IV. Plinius de Scythis. V. Anthony Beck Bishop of Durisme made Patriarch of Hierusalem from Leland. VI. Itinerarium fratris Odorici. _Sub-section_ 1 His journey from Pera to Thana. 2 Of the maners of the Chaldæans and of India. 3 How pepper is had and where it groweth. 4 Of a strange idol &c. 5 Of certaine trees yielding meale, hony, and poyson. 6 Of the abundance of fishes, &c. 7 Of the island of Sylan and of the mountain where Adam mourned for Abel. 8 Of Upper India, &c. 9 Of the city Fuco. 10 Of a monastery where many strange beastes doe live. 11 Of the city of Cambaleth. 12 Of the Glory of the great Can. 13 Of certain innes or hospitals, &c. 14 Of the four feasts which the Great Can solemnizeth. 15 Of divers provinces and cities. 16 Of a certaine rich man who is fed, &c. by fiftie virgins. 17 Of the death of Senex de Monte. 18 Of the honour and reverence done unto the great Can. 19 Of the death of Frier Odoricus. VII. The voyage of the Lord John of Holland, Earl of Huntington to Jerusalem. 1394. VIII. The voyage of Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk to Jerusalem. 1399. IX. The voyage of the Bishop of Winchester to Jerusalem. 1417. X. A preparation of a voyage of King Henry IV. to the Holy Land, &c. XI. The voyage of M. John Locke to Jerusalem. XII. The first voyage made by M. Laurence Aldersey to Jerusalem, &c. 1581. XIII. The passport made by the great master of Malta to the Englishmen in the barque Reynolds, 1582. XIV. Commission given by M. William Harebourne, to Richard Foster, etc. XV. A letter of directions to Richard Foster. XVI. A commandement for Chio. XVII. A description of the yearly voyage unto Mecca. XVIII. The voyage of M. Cæsar Frederick into East India and beyond. XIX. The money and measures of Babylon, Balsara, and the Indies, written by W. Barret. XX. A note of charges from Aleppo to Goa. XXI. A declaration of the places from whence sundry goods come. XXII. The times or monsons wherein ships depart in the East Indies. XXIII. A briefe extract specifying the daily payments by the grand Signior to the officers of his court. XXIV. The Turkes chiefe officers. XXV. The number of souldiers attending upon the Beglerbegs, &c. XXVI. The Turkes yeerely revenue. XXVII. Ambassadors allowances. XXVIII. Letter from Richard Wrag to Richard Hewish. XXIX. A description of a voyage to Constantinople and Lyria, by Master Edward Barton, 1595. XXX. The number of Turkish souldiours which were appointed to goe into Hungary against the Christian Emperour, 1594. CONTENTS TO VOL. X. I. The manner of the entring of Soliman the great Turke into Aleppo, noted by Anthony Jenkinson. 1553. II. A note of the presents that were given to the grand Signior. III. The safe conduct given by Soliman to Anthony Jenkinson. IV. Letters concerning the voyage of John Newbury and Ralph Fitch to the East. 1583. _Sub-section_ 1 A letter from the Queen to Zelabdin Echebar 2 A letter from the Queen to the King of China 3 A letter of John Newbury to Richard Hakluyt 4 A letter from the said J. Newbury to Leonard Poore 5 Another letter from the same to the same 6 A letter from J. Newbury to John Eldred and William Shals 7 A second letter from the same to the same 8 A letter from the same to Leonard Poore 9 A letter from Ralph Fitch to Leonard Poore V. The voyage of Ralph Fitch to the East. 1583-91. VI. The report of John Huighen van Linchoten, concerning J. Newbury and R. Fitch's imprisonment. VII. The voyage of John Eldred to Tripolis in Syria. VIII. The second letters patents graunted by the Queenes Maiestie to the companie of the English marchants for the Levant. 1592. IX. Voyage d'Outremer et retour de Jérusalem en France par la voie de terre par Bertrandon de La Brocquière remis en Français moderne par Le grand d'Aussy. X. A voyage made by certaine ships of Holland into the East Indies. 1595-7. XI. A true report of the voyage to Java performed by a fleet from Holland. 1598. XII. A briefe description of a voiage before handled, in maner of a iournall. CONTENTS TO VOL. XI. I. The voyage of Henry, Earl of Derby, afterwards Henry IV., to Tunis, from P. Virgil. II. The same story from Froissart and Holinshead. III. The memorable victories of John Hawkwood, from Camden. IV. The Epitaph of Peter Read at Norwich. V. The voyage of Sir Thomas Chaloner to Alger. VI. The woorthy enterprise of John Foxe in delivering 266 Christians out of captivity at Alexandria, 1577. VII. The copie of the certificate for John Fox. VIII. The Bishop of Rome, his letters in the behalfe of Iohn Fox. IX. The king of Spaine his letters for the placing of John Fox in the office of gunner. X. The voyage made to Tripolis in Barbary in the Jesus, written by Thomas Sanders. 1583. XI. The Queene's letters to the Turke for the restitution of the Jesus. XII. The Turkes letter to the King of Tripolis commanding restitution of the Jesus. XIII. A letter of Master William Hareborne for the release of the Jesus. XIV. The voyage of John Evesham into Egypt. XV. The second voyage of Laurence Aldersey to Alexandria and Cairo. XVI. A letter of the English Ambassador to M. Harvie Millers. XVII. A letter to W. Hareborne from Alger. XVIII. A letter of W. Hareborne to Mustapha. XIX. The passport granted to Thomas Shingleton by the king of Algier. XX. A letter of Sir Edward Osborne to the king of Alger. XXI. Notes concerning the trade of Alger. XXII. Notes concerning the trade in Alexandria. XXIII. A letter of the English Ambassador to Edward Barton. XXIV. A commaundement obtained of the Grand Signor by W. Hareborne. XXV. A letter of William Hareborne to T Typton. XXVI. Registrum valoris navium, &c. per trirenes Argerienses ereptorum. XXVII. A letter to Assan Aga. XXVIII. The originall of the first voyage for traffique into Marocco. 1551. XXIX. The second voyage to Barbary. 1552. XXX. A voyage into Guinea and Benin. 1553. XXXI. A briefe description of Afrike by Richard Eden. XXXII. Anthonie Pinteado, his letters patents from the king of Portugal. XXXIII. The letter of Don Lewis to Anthonie Pinteado. XXXIV. The second voyage to Guinea. XXXV. The first voyage made by William Towrson to Guinea. XXXVI. The second voyage of W. Towrson to Guinea. XXXVII. The third voyage of W. Towrson to Guinea. XXXVIII. Certaine articles deliuered to Mr. John Lock. XXXIX. A letter of John Lock to the company of marchants adventurers for Guinea. XL. The relation of William Rutter to Anthony Hickman touching a voyage to Guinea. 1562. XLI. A meeting at Sir William Gerard's house. 1564. XLII. Relations extracted from Sir John Hawkin's voyage. XLIII. The voyage of George Fenner to Guinea written by Walter Wren. XLIV. The ambassage of Edmund Hogan to the Emperor of Morocco. 1577. XLV. The voyage of Thomas Stukeley into Barbary. XLVI. Certaine reports of the province of China learned from Portugalls taken prisoners. XLVII. Of the island Japan and other isles, by R. Willes. XLVIII. An excellent treatise of the kingdom of China printed at Macao. 1590. XLIX. A letter by Thomas Stevens to his father. L. A briefe relation of the kingdom of Pegu. LI. A voyage to the East Indies by the Cape of Buona Speranza, written by R Hakluyt. LII. Certaine remembrances of an intended iourney to Brassil. 1583. LIII. The letters patents granted by Her Majestie for a trade to Barbarie. 1583. LIV. The Ambassage of Henry Roberts to the Emperour of Marocco. 1585. LV. A letter from Muly Hamet to the Earl of Leicester. LVI. The Queenes letters to the Emperour of Marocco. LVII. A patent to certaine merchants of Exeter for a trade to the river of Senega and Gambra in Guinea, 1588. LVIII. A voyage to Benin, 1588. Written by James Welsh. LIX. The voiage of John Newton and John Bird to Benin. 1588. LX. The second voyage of John Newton and John Bird to Benin. 1590. LXI. An advertisement sent to Philip II. king of Spaine from Angola by Baltazar Almeida de Sousa. 1591. LXII: Confirmatio treugarum inter Eduardum quartum et Joannem secundum. 1482. LXIII. The ambassage which John II. king of Portugall, sent to Edward IV. LXIV. A relation sent by Melchior Peloney to Nigil de Moura. 1591. LXV. The Voyage of Richard Rainolds and Thomas Dassel to Guinea. LXVI. A briefe relation concerning the cities of Tombuto and Gago. LXVII. Another relation concerning the same. LXVIII. A briefe extract of a patent granted to Thomas Gregory, of Tanton. LXIX. The maner of the taking of two Spanish ships by Thomas White, 1592. LXX. A true report of the honourable service at sea perfourmed by Sir John Burrough, prepared by Sir Walter Raleigh. LXXI. The firing and sinking of the stout and warrelike Carack called Las Cinque Llagas, by Nicholas Downton. LXXII. The casting away of the Tobie, 1593. LXXIII. The letters of the Queene sent by Laurence Aldersey to the Emperour of Æthiopia, 1597 LXXIV. The Omissions of Cales voyage. LXXV. Indices, viz.-- Vol. VIII. Vol. IX. Vol. X. Vol. XI. LXXVI. Tables of Contents, viz:-- Vol. VIII. Vol. IX. Vol. X. Vol. XI. END OF VOL. XI 
23107	----	[Frontispiece: PTOLEMY'S MAP OF THE WORLD, ORIGINALLY DRAWN ABOUT A.D. 150. From the first printed edition of 1472 (the first book to have printed maps) and the famous Rome edition of 1508. It is only necessary to compare this map with the mythical geography represented in a mediaeval map such as the Hereford map of the world, made _eleven centuries_ later to recognise the extraordinary accuracy and scientific value of Ptolemy's geography.] A BOOK OF DISCOVERY THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S EXPLORATION, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FINDING OF THE SOUTH POLE By M. B. SYNGE, F.R.Hist.S. AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF THE WORLD" "A SHORT HISTORY OF SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND" ETC. _FULLY ILLUSTRATED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES AND WITH MAPS_ [Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ (_From the Chart of "Drake's Voyages"_)] LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD. 35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., & EDINBURGH INTRODUCTION "Hope went before them, and the world was wide." Such was the spirit in which the exploration of the world was accomplished. It was the inspiration that carried men of old far beyond the sunrise into those magic and silent seas whereon no boat had ever sailed. It is the incentive of those to-day with the wander-thirst in their souls, who travel and suffer in the travelling, though there are fewer prizes left to win. But "The reward is in the doing, And the rapture of pursuing Is the prize." "To travel hopefully," says Stevenson, "is a better thing than to arrive." This would explain the fact that this Book of Discovery has become a record of splendid endurance, of hardships bravely borne, of silent toil, of courage and resolution unequalled in the annals of mankind, of self-sacrifice unrivalled and faithful lives laid ungrudgingly down. Of the many who went forth, the few only attained. It is of these few that this book tells. "All these," says the poet in Ecclesiastes--"all these were honoured in their generation, and were the glory of their times ... their name liveth for evermore." But while we read of those master-spirits who succeeded, let us never forget those who failed to achieve. "Anybody might have found it, but the Whisper came to Me." Enthusiasm too was the secret of their success. Among the best of crews there was always some one who would have turned back, but the world would never have been explored had it not been for those finer spirits who resolutely went on--even to the death. This is what carried Alexander the Great to the "earth's utmost verge," that drew Columbus across the trackless Atlantic, that nerved Vasco da Gama to double the Stormy Cape, that induced Magellan to face the dreaded straits now called by his name, that made it possible for men to face without flinching the ice-bound regions of the far North. "There is no land uninhabitable, nor sea unnavigable," asserted the men of the sixteenth century, when England set herself to take possession of her heritage in the North. Such an heroic temper could overcome all things. But the cost was great, the sufferings intense. "Having eaten our shoes and saddles boiled with a few wild herbs, we set out to reach the kingdom of gold," says Orellana in 1540. "We ate biscuit, but in truth it was biscuit no longer, but a powder full of worms,--so great was the want of food, that we were forced to eat the hides with which the mainyard was covered; but we had also to make use of sawdust for food, and rats became a great delicacy," related Magellan, as he led his little ship across the unknown Pacific. Again, there is Franklin returning from the Arctic coast, and stilling the pangs of hunger with "pieces of singed hide mixed with lichen," varied with "the horns and bones of a dead deer fried with some old shoes." The dangers of the way were manifold. For the early explorers had no land map or ocean chart to guide them, there were no lighthouses to warn the strange mariner of dangerous coast and angry surf, no books of travel to relate the weird doings of fierce and inhospitable savages, no tinned foods to prevent the terrible scourge of sailors, scurvy. In their little wooden sailing ships the men of old faced every conceivable danger, and surmounted obstacles unknown to modern civilisation. "Now strike your Sails ye jolly Mariners, For we be come into a quiet Rode." For the most part we are struck with the light-heartedness of the olden sailor, the shout of gladness with which men went forth on these hazardous undertakings, knowing not how they would arrive, or what might befall them by the way, went forth in the smallest of wooden ships, with the most incompetent of crews, to face the dangers of unknown seas and unsuspected lands, to chance the angry storm and the hidden rock, to discover inhospitable shores and savage foes. Founded on bitter experience is the old saying-- "A Passage Perilous makyth a Port Pleasant." For the early navigators knew little of the art of navigation. Pytheas, who discovered the British Isles, was "a great mathematician." Diego Cam, who sailed to the mouth of the Congo, was "a knight of the King's household." Sir Hugh Willoughby, "a most valiant gentleman." Richard Chancellor, "a man of great estimation for many good parts of wit in him." Anthony Jenkinson, a "resolute and intelligent gentleman." Sir Walter Raleigh, an Elizabethan courtier, and so forth. It has been obviously impossible to include all the famous names that belong to the history of exploration. Most of these explorers have been chosen for some definite new discovery, some addition to the world's geographical knowledge, or some great feat of endurance which may serve to brace us to fresh effort as a nation famous for our seamen. English navigators have been afforded the lion's share in the book, partly because they took the lion's share in exploring, partly because translations of foreign travel are difficult to transcribe. Most of these stories have been taken from original sources, and most of the explorers have been allowed to tell part of their own story in their own words. Perhaps the most graphic of all explorations is that written by a native of West Australia, who accompanied an exploring party searching for an English lad named Smith, who had been starved to death. "Away, away, away, away; we reach the water of Djunjup; we shoot game. Away, away, away through a forest away, through a forest away; we see no water. Through a forest away, along our tracks away; hills ascending, then pleasantly away, away, through a forest away. We see a water--along the river away--a short distance we go, then away, away, away through a forest away. Then along another river away, across the river away. Still we go onwards, along the sea away, through the bush away, then along the sea away. We sleep near the sea. I see Mr. Smith's footsteps ascending a sandhill; onwards I go regarding his footsteps. I see Mr. Smith dead. Two sleeps had he been dead; greatly did I weep, and much I grieved. In his blanket folding him, we scraped away the earth. The sun had inclined to the westward as we laid him in the ground." The book is illustrated with reproductions from old maps--old primitive maps, with a real Adam and Eve standing in the Garden of Eden, with Pillars of Hercules guarding the Straits of Gibraltar, with Paradise in the east, a realistic Jerusalem in the centre, the island of Thule in the north, and St. Brandon's Isles of the Blest in the west. Beautifully coloured were the maps of the Middle Ages, "joyous charts all glorious with gold and vermilion, compasses and crests and flying banners, with mountains of red and gold." The seas are full of ships--"brave beflagged vessels with swelling sails." The land is ablaze with kings and potentates on golden thrones under canopies of angels. While over all presides the Madonna in her golden chair. The Hereford Mappa Mundi, drawn in the thirteenth century on a fine sheet of vellum, circular in form, is among the most interesting of the mediaeval maps. It must once have been gorgeous, with its gold letters and scarlet towns, its green seas and its blue rivers. The Red Sea is still red, but the Mediterranean is chocolate brown, and all the green has disappeared. The mounted figure in the lower right-hand corner is probably the author, Richard de Haldingham. The map is surmounted by a representation of the Last Judgment, below which is Paradise as a circular island, with the four rivers and the figures of Adam and Eve. In the centre is Jerusalem. The world is divided into three--Asia, "Affrica," and Europe. Around this earth-island flows the ocean. America is, of course, absent; the East is placed at Paradise and the West at the Pillars of Hercules. North and South are left to the imagination. And what of the famous map of Juan de la Cosa, once pilot to Columbus, drawn in the fifteenth century, with St. Christopher carrying the infant Christ across the water, supposed to be a portrait of Christopher Columbus carrying the gospel to America? It is the first map in which a dim outline appears of the New World. The early maps of "Apphrica" are filled with camels and unicorns, lions and tigers, veiled figures and the turrets and spires of strange buildings-- "Geographers in Afric maps With savage pictures fill their gaps." "Surely," says a modern writer,--"surely the old cartographer was less concerned to fill his gaps than to express the poetry of geography." And to-day, there are still gaps in the most modern maps of Africa, where one-eleventh of the whole area remains unexplored. Further, in Asia the problem of the Brahmaputra Falls is yet unsolved; there are shores untrodden and rivers unsurveyed. "God hath given us some things, and not all things, that our successors also might have somewhat to do," wrote Barents in the sixteenth century. There may not be much left, but with the words of Kipling's _Explorer_ we may fitly conclude-- "Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges-- Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!" Thanks are due to Mr. S. G. Stubbs for valuable assistance in the selection and preparation of the illustrations, which, with few exceptions, have been executed under his directions. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. A LITTLE OLD WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. EARLY MARINERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 III. IS THE WORLD FLAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 IV. HERODOTUS--THE TRAVELLER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 V. ALEXANDER THE GREAT EXPLORES INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . 35 VI. PYTHEAS FINDS THE BRITISH ISLES . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 VII. JULIUS CAESAR AS EXPLORER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 VIII. STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 IX. THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND PLINY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 X. PTOLEMY'S MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 XI. PILGRIM TRAVELLERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 XII. IRISH EXPLORERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 XIII. AFTER MOHAMMED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 XIV. THE VIKINGS SAIL THE NORTHERN SEAS . . . . . . . . . . . 93 XV. ARAB WAYFARERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 XVI. TRAVELLERS TO THE EAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 XVII. MARCO POLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 XVIII. THE END OF MEDIAEVAL EXPLORATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 XIX. MEDIAEVAL MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 XX. PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 XXI. BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ REACHES THE STORMY CAPE . . . . . . . . 150 XXII. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 XXIII. A GREAT NEW WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 XXIV. VASCO DA GAMA REACHES INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 XXV. DISCOVERY OF THE SPICE ISLANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 XXVI. BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC OCEAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 XXVII. MAGELLAN SAILS ROUND THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 XXVIII. CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . 205 XXIX. EXPLORERS IN SOUTH AMERICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 XXX. CABOT SAILS TO NEWFOUNDLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 XXXI. JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 XXXII. SEARCH FOR A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 XXXIII. MARTIN FROBISHER SEARCHES FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . . . 245 XXXIV. DRAKE'S FAMOUS VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . 249 XXXV. DAVIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 XXXVI. BARENTS SAILS TO SPITZBERGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 XXXVII. HUDSON FINDS HIS BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 XXXVIII. BAFFIN FINDS HIS BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 XXXIX. SIR WALTER RALEIGH SEARCHES FOR EL DORADO . . . . . . . 285 XL. CHAMPLAIN DISCOVERS LAKE ONTARIO . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 XLI. EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 XLII. TASMAN FINDS TASMANIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 XLIII. DAMPIER DISCOVERS HIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 XLIV. BEHRING FINDS HIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 XLV. COOK DISCOVERS NEW ZEALAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 XLVI. COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE AND DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 XLVII. BRUCE'S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 XLVIII. MUNGO PARK AND THE NIGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 XLIX. VANCOUVER DISCOVERS HIS ISLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 L. MACKENZIE AND HIS RIVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 LI. PARRY DISCOVERS LANCASTER SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 LII. THE FROZEN NORTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 LIII. FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH . . . . . . . . . . 382 LIV. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 LV. THE SEARCH FOR TIMBUKTU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 LVI. RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER DISCOVER THE MOUTH OF THE NIGER 399 LVII. ROSS DISCOVERS THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE . . . . . . . . . 403 LVIII. FLINDERS NAMES AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 LIX. STURT'S DISCOVERIES IN AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 LX. ROSS MAKES DISCOVERIES IN THE ANTARCTIC SEAS . . . . . . 428 LXI. FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . . . . . . . 432 LXII. DAVID LIVINGSTONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 LXIII. BURTON AND SPEKE IN CENTRAL AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . 450 LXIV. LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA . . . . . . . 456 LXV. EXPEDITION TO VICTORIA NYANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 LXVI. BAKER FINDS ALBERT NYANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 LXVII. LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 LXVIII. THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486 LXIX. NORDENSKIOLD ACCOMPLISHES THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE . . . . 501 LXX. THE EXPLORATION OF TIBET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 LXXI. NANSEN REACHES FARTHEST NORTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 LXXII. PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 LXXIII. THE QUEST FOR THE SOUTH POLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS Ptolemy's Map of the World about A.D. 150 . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ Taken from the first printed edition of 1472 and the Rome edition of 1508. FACING PAGE The Polos leaving Venice for their Travels to the Far East . . . 118 From a Miniature at the head of a late 14th century MS. of the _Travels of Marco Polo_, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The Hereford Mappa Mundi of 1280 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 The original, made by RICHARD DE HALDINGHAM, Prebendary of Hereford, hangs in the Chapter House Library, Hereford Cathedral. Map of the World drawn in 1500, the first to show America . . . . 168 By JUAN DE LA COSA. The Dauphin Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Made by PIERRE DESCELLIERS 1546, by order of Francis I. for the Dauphin (Henri II.) of France. Barents's Ship among the Arctic Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 From a coloured woodcut in Barents's _Three Voyages_ (De Veer), published in 1598. Ross's Winter Quarters in Felix Harbour . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 The First Communication With Eskimos at Boothia Felix, 1830 . . . 404 From Drawings by ROSS in the _Narrative of his Expedition to the North Magnetic Pole, A Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage_, 1829-33. Shackleton's Ship, the _Nimrod_, among the Ice in McMurdo Sound . 538 From _The Heart of the Antarctic_ (published by Heinemann), by kind permission of Sir ERNEST SHACKLETON. BLACK & WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of Homer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of Ptolemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the end of the 13th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 The Best Portrait of Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 From the original Painting by an unknown artist in the Naval Museum, Madrid. The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Amerigo Vespucci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 From the Sculpture by GRAZZINI at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Ferdinand Magellan, the first Circumnavigator . . . . . . . . . . 198 From the Engraving by FERDINAND SELMA. Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to sail round the World . 252 After the Engraving attributed to HONDIUS. The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Karakakova Bay, where Captain Cook was murdered . . . . . . . . . 334 From the Engraving in the Atlas to COOK'S _Voyages_. The Unrolling of the Clouds: the World as known at the time of Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336 Mungo Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 From the Engraving in PARK'S _Travels into the Interior of Africa_, 1799. Search for a North-West Passage: Parry's Ships cutting through the Ice into Winter Harbour, 1819 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 From a Drawing by WILLIAM WESTALL, A.R.A., of a Sketch by Lieut. BEECHEY, a member of the expedition. From PARRY'S _Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of the North-West Passage_. Lhasa and the Potala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 From a Photograph by a member of Younghusband's Expedition to Thibet. At the North Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 From the Photograph in Admiral PEARY'S book _The North Pole_. Captain Roald Amundsen taking Sights at the South Pole . . . . . 544 From a Photograph. Acknowledgment is due to the courtesy of Mr. John Murray and the _Illustrated London News_ for the photograph taken at the South Pole, facing page 544; to Admiral Peary for that taken at the North Pole, facing page 534; and to Sir Ernest Shackleton and Mr. Heinemann for the colour-plate of the _Nimrod_. Permissions have also been granted by Mr. John Murray (for illustrations from Livingstone's books and Admiral McClintock's _Voyage of the Fox_); by Messrs. Macmillan (for the colour-plate of the Polos leaving Venice, from the Bodleian); and by Messrs. Sampson, Low, Marston, & Co. (for illustrations from Sir H. M. Stanley's books). LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAGE The Garden of Eden with its Four Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 From the Hereford Map of the World. Babylonian Map of the World on Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 In the British Museum. The oldest known Ships: between 6000 and 5000 B.C. . . . . . . . 4 From a pre-Egyptian Vase-painting. Egyptian Ship of the Expedition to Punt, about 1600 B.C. . . . . 7 From a Rock-carving at Der el Bahari. The Ark on Ararat, and the Cities of Nineveh and Babylon . . . . 8 From LEONARDO DATI'S Map of 1422. A Phoenician Ship, about 700 B.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 From a Bas-relief at Nineveh. Map of the Voyage of the Argonauts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Pillars of Hercules, as shown in a Mediaeval Map . . . . . . 20 HIGDEN'S Map of the World. 1360 A.D. The Pillars of Hercules, as shown in the Anglo-Saxon Map of the World, 10th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 A Greek Galley, about 500 B.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 From a Vase-painting. Jerusalem, the Centre of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 From the Hereford Map of the World, 13th century. A Merchant-Ship of Athens, about 500 B.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 From a Vase-painting. The Coast of Africa, after Ptolemy (Mercator's Edition), showing Hanno's Voyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 A Sketch Map of Alexander's Chief Exploratory Marches from Athens to Hyderabad and Gaza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Alexandria in Pizzigani's Map, 14th century . . . . . . . . . . . 44 North Britain and the Island of Thule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 From MERCATOR'S edition of Ptolemy's Map. A Portion of an old Roman Map of the World, showing the roads through the Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 From the Peutinger Table. The World-Island according to Strabo, 18 A.D. . . . . . . . . . . 65 Hull of a Roman Merchant-Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 From a Roman model at Greenwich. A Roman Galley, about 110 A.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 From Trajan's Column at Rome. The First Stages of a Mediaeval Pilgrimage, London to Dover . . . 78 From MATTHEW OF PARIS'S _Itinerary_, 13th century. Jerusalem and the East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 From MATTHEW OF PARIS'S _Itinerary_, 13th century. Ireland and St. Brandon's Isle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 From the Catalan Map, 1375. The Mysterious Isle of St. Brandon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 From MARTIN BEHAIM'S Map, 1492. The World-Map of Cosmas, 6th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 The oldest Christian Map. The Mountain of Cosmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 A Viking Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 From Professor MONTELIUS'S book on Scandinavian archaeology. A Khalif on his Throne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 From the Ancona Map, 1497. A Chinese Emperor giving Audience, 9th century . . . . . . . . . 100 From an old Chinese MS. at Paris. The Scene of Sindbad's Voyages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 From EDRISI'S Map, 1154. Sindbad's Giant Roc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 From an Oriental Miniature Painting. Jerusalem and the Pilgrims' Ways to it, 12th century . . . . . . 109 From a Map of the 12th century at Brussels. Two Emperors of Tartary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 From the Catalan Map, 1375. A Tartar Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 From the Borgian Map, 1453. Initial Letter from the MS. of Rubruquis at Cambridge . . . . . . 113 How the Brothers Polo set out from Constantinople with their nephew Marco for China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 From a Miniature Painting in 14th century _Livre des Merveilles_. Marco Polo lands at Ormuz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 From a Miniature in the _Livre des Merveilles_. Kublai Khan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 From an old Chinese Encyclopaedia at Paris. Marco Polo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 From a Woodcut in the first printed edition of MARCO POLO'S _Travels_, 1477. A Japanese Fight against the Chinese at the time when Marco Polo first saw the Japanese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 From an ancient Japanese Painting. Sir John Mandeville on his Travels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 From a MS. in the British Museum. An Emperor of Tartary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 From the Map ascribed to SEBASTIAN CABOT, 1544. A Caravan in Cathay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 From the Catalan Map, 1375. The Turin Map of the World, 8th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 A T-map, 10th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 A T-map, 13th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 The Kaiser holding the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 From a 12th-century MS. The "Anglo-Saxon" Map of the World, drawn about 990 A.D. . . . . 137 From the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum. Africa--from Ceuta to Madeira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 From FRA MAURO'S Map, 1457. The Voyage to Cape Blanco from Cape Bojador . . . . . . . . . . . 142 From FRA MAURO'S Map, 1457. A Portion of Africa illustrating Cadamosto's Voyage beyond Cape Blanco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 From FRA MAURO'S Map, 1457. Sketch of Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 From FRA MAURO'S Map of the World, 1457. Negro Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 From CABOT'S Map, 1544. The West Coast of Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 From MARTIN BEHAIM'S Map, 1492. The Parting of Columbus with Ferdinand and Isabella, 3rd August 1492 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 From DE BRY'S account of the _Voyages to India_, 1601. Columbus's Ship, the _Santa Maria_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 From a Woodcut of 1493, supposed to be after a Drawing by COLUMBUS. Columbus landing on Hispaniola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 From a Woodcut of 1494. The first Representation of the People of the New World . . . . . 163 From a Woodcut published at Augsburg between 1497 and 1504. The Town of Isabella and the Colony founded by Columbus . . . . . 166 From a Woodcut of 1494. Vasco da Gama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 From a contemporary Portrait. Africa as it was known after da Gama's Expeditions . . . . . . . 175 From JUAN DE LA COSA'S Map of 1500. Calicut and the Southern Indian Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 From JUAN DE LA COSA'S Map, 1500. The Malabar Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 From FRA MAURO'S Map. A Ship of Albuquerque's Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 From a very fine Woodcut in the British Museum. A Ship of Java and the China Seas in the 16th century . . . . . . 187 From LINSCHOTEN'S _Navigatio ac Itinerarium_, 1598. One of the first Maps of the Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 From DIEGO RIBERO'S Map, 1529. Magellan's Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 From MERCATOR'S _Mappe Monde_, 1569. A Ship of the 16th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 From AMORETTI'S translation of _Magellan's Voyage round the World_. "Hondius his Map of the Magellan Streight" . . . . . . . . . . . 201 From a Map by JODOCUS HONDIUS, about 1590. The first Ship that sailed round the World . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Magellan's _Victoria_, from HULSIUS'S _Collection of Voyages_, 1602. Hernando Cortes, Conqueror of Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 After the original Portrait at Mexico. The Battles of the Spaniards in Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 From an ancient Aztec Drawing. Pizarro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 From the Portrait at Cuzco. Peru and South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 From the Map of the World, 1544, usually ascribed to SEBASTIAN CABOT. Peruvian Warriors of the Inca Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 From an ancient Peruvian Painting. Part of North America, showing Sebastian Cabot's Voyage to Newfoundland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 From the Map of 1544, usually ascribed to CABOT. Jacques Cartier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 From an old Pen-drawing at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Canada and the River St. Lawrence, showing Quebec . . . . . . . . 231 From LESCARBOT'S _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, 1609. New France, showing Newfoundland, Labrador, and the St. Lawrence 233 From JOCOMO DI GASTALDI'S Map, about 1550. Ivan Vasiliwich, King of Muscovie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 From an old Woodcut. Anthony Jenkinson's Map of Russia, Muscovy, and Tartary . . . . 242-3 Published in 1562. Greenlanders as seen by Martin Frobisher . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 From Captain BESTE'S Account of Frobisher's _Voyages_, 1578. Sir Francis Drake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 From HOLLAND'S _Heroologia_, 1620. The Silver Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 From Medallion in British Museum. The Silver Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 From Medallion in British Museum. The _Golden Hind_ at New Albion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 From the Chart of Drake's _Voyages_. The _Golden Hind_ at Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 From the Chart of Drake's _Voyages_. An Eskimo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 From a Water-colour Drawing by JOHN WHITE, about 1585. A Ship of the late 16th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 From Ortelius, 1598. Nova Zembla and the Arctic Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 From a Map in DE BRY'S _Grands Voyages_, 1598. Barents in the Arctic--"Hut wherein we wintered" . . . . . . . . 269 From DE VEER'S Account of the _Voyages of Barents_, 1598. Hudson's Map of his Voyages in the Arctic . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 From his Book published in 1612. A Ship of Hudson's Fleet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 From his _Voyages_, 1612. Baffin's Map of his Voyages to the North . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 From original MS., drawn by BAFFIN, in the British Museum. Sir Walter Raleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Raleigh's Map of Guinea, El Dorado, and the Orinoco Coast . . . . 289 From the original Map, drawn by RALEIGH, in British Museum. The first Settlement at Quebec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 From CHAMPLAIN'S _Voyages_, 1613. The Defeat of the Iroquois by Champlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 From a Drawing in CHAMPLAIN'S _Voyages_, 1613. An early Map of "Terra Australis" called "Java la Grande" . . . . 297 From the "Dauphin" Map of 1546. The Wreck of Captain Pelsart's Ship, the _Batavia_, on the Coast of New Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 From the Dutch account of PELSART'S _Voyages_, 1647. Van Diemen's Land and two of Tasman's Ships . . . . . . . . . . . 304 From the Map drawn by TASMAN in his "Journal." Dampier's Ship, the _Cygnet_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 From a Drawing in the Dutch edition of his _Voyage Round the World_, 1698. Dampier's Strait and the Island of New Britain . . . . . . . . . 311 From a Map in DAMPIER'S _Voyages_, 1697. Chart of Behring's Voyage from Kamtchatka to North America . . . 317 From a Chart drawn in 1741 by Lieut. WAXELL. The Island of Otaheite, or St. George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 From a Painting by WILLIAM HODGES. A Maori Fort on the Coast between Poverty Bay and Cape Turnagain 323 From an Engraving in the Atlas to COOK'S first _Voyage_. Captain Cook's Vessel beached at the Entrance of Endeavour River 327 From an Engraving in the Atlas to COOK'S first _Voyage_. Captain James Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 From the Painting by DANCE in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital. Port Jackson and Sydney Cove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 From the Atlas to the _Voyage de l'Astrolabe_. A Nile Boat, or Canja . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 From BRUCE'S _Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile_. An Arab Sheikh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 From BRUCE'S _Travels_. The Camp of Ali, the Mohammedan Chief, at Benown . . . . . . . . 353 From a Sketch by MUNGO PARK. Kamalia, a Native Village near the Southern Course of the Niger . 355 From a Sketch by MUNGO PARK. A Native Woman washing Gold in Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 From a Sketch by MUNGO PARK, made on his last expedition. Vancouver's Ship, the _Discovery_, on the Rocks in Queen Charlotte's Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 From a Drawing in VANCOUVER'S _Voyage_, 1798. Parry's Ships, the _Hecla_ and _Griper_, in Winter Harbour . . . 369 From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, 1821. The North Shore of Lancaster Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, 1821. A Winter View of Fort Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 From a Drawing, by WILLIAM BACK, in Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1823. Franklin's Expedition to the Polar Sea on the Ice . . . . . . . . 377 From a Drawing, by WILLIAM BACK, in Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1823. An Eskimo watching a Seal Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1824. Fort Franklin, on the Great Bear Lake, in the Winter . . . . . . 383 From a Drawing in FRANKLIN'S _Second Expedition to the Polar Sea_, 1828. Franklin's Expedition crossing Back's Inlet . . . . . . . . . . . 385 From a Drawing, by Lieut. BACK, in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar Sea_, 1828. The Boats of Parry's Expedition hauled up on the Ice for the Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 From a Drawing in PARRY'S _Attempt to Reach the North Pole_, 1828. Major Denham and his Party received by the Sheikh of Bornu . . . 393 From a Drawing by Major DENHAM. The first European Picture of Timbuktu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 From a Drawing in CAILLE'S _Tomboctou_, 1829. Richard and John Lander paddling down the Niger . . . . . . . . . 401 From a Drawing in the account of LANDER'S _Travels_, 1835. The Rosses on their Journey to the North Magnetic Pole . . . . . 407 From a Drawing in ROSS'S _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1835. "Somerset House," Ross's Winter Quarters on Fury Beach . . . . . 409 From a Drawing in ROSS'S _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1835. Matthew Flinders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 Cape Catastrophe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 From FLINDERS' _Voyages_. The Huts of the Crew of the _Porpoise_ on the Sandbank, Wreck Reef . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 From FLINDERS' _Voyages_. Captain Sturt at the Junction of the Rivers Darling and Murray . 423 From the _Narrative of Sturt's Expedition_. The Burke and Wills Expedition leaving Melbourne, 1860 . . . . . 425 From a Drawing by WILLIAM STRUTT, an acquaintance of Burke. Burke and Wills at Cooper's Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 From a Woodcut in a contemporary Australian account of the expedition. Part of the Great Southern Ice Barrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 From ROSS'S _Voyage in the Antarctic Regions_. Eskimos at Cape York watching the approach of the _Fox_ . . . . . 434 From McCLINTOCK'S _Voyage in Search of Franklin_. The Three Graves on Beechey Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 From McCLINTOCK'S _Voyage in Search of Franklin_. Exploring Parties starting from the _Fox_ . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 From McCLINTOCK'S _Voyage in Search of Franklin_. Livingstone, with his Wife and Family, at the Discovery of Lake Ngami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 From LIVINGSTONE'S _Missionary Travels_. The "Smoke" of the Zambesi (Victoria) Falls . . . . . . . . . . . 447 After a Drawing in LIVINGSTONE'S _Missionary Travels_. Burton in a Dug-out on Lake Tanganyika . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 After a Drawing by BURTON. Burton and his Companions on the march to Victoria Nyanza . . . . 453 From a Humorous Sketch by BURTON. The _Ma-Robert_ on the Zambesi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 After a Drawing in LIVINGSTONE'S _Expedition to the Zambesi_. M'tesa, King of Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462 From SPEKE'S _Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_. The Ripon Falls on the Victoria Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 From SPEKE'S _Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_. Captains Speke and Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 Baker and his Wife crossing the Nubian Desert . . . . . . . . . . 469 From BAKER'S _Travels_. Baker's Boat in a Storm on Lake Albert Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . 471 From BAKER'S _Albert Nyanza_. The Discovery of Lake Bangweolo, 1868 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 From LIVINGSTONE'S _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John Murray. Livingstone at Work on his Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481 From a Sketch by H. M. STANLEY. Livingstone entering the Hut at Ilala on the Night that he Died . 483 From LIVINGSTONE'S _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John Murray. The last Entries in Livingstone's Diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 Susi, Livingstone's Servant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 From a Sketch by H. M. STANLEY. Stanley and his Men marching through Unyoro . . . . . . . . . . . 489 From a Sketch, by STANLEY, in _Through the Dark Continent_. "Towards the Unknown": Stanley's Canoes starting from Vinya Njara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 From _Through the Dark Continent_. The Seventh Cataract--Stanley Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 From _Through the Dark Continent_. The Fight below the Confluence of the Aruwimi and Livingstone Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 From a Sketch, by STANLEY, in _Through the Dark Continent_. Nordenskiold's Ship, the _Vega_, saluting Cape Chelyuskin . . . . 505 From a Drawing in HOVGAARD'S _Nordenskiold's Voyage_. Menka, Chief of the Chukches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 The _Vega_ frozen in for the Winter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509 From a Drawing in HOVGAARD'S _Nordenskiold's Voyage_. The Potala at Lhasa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513 From KIRCHER'S _China Illustrata_. Dr. Nansen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525 After a Photograph. The Ship that went Farthest North: the _Fram_ . . . . . . . . . . 527 From a Photograph. A BOOK OF DISCOVERY CHAPTER I A LITTLE OLD WORLD No story is complete unless it begins at the very beginning. But where is the beginning? Where is the dawn of geography--the knowledge of our earth? What was it like before the first explorers made their way into distant lands? Every day that passes we are gaining fresh knowledge of the dim and silent past. Every day men are patiently digging in the old heaps that were once the sites of busy cities, and, as a result of their unwearying toil, they are revealing to us the life-stories of those who dwelt therein; they are disclosing secrets writ on weather-worn stones and tablets, bricks and cylinders, never before even guessed at. Thus we read the wondrous story of ancient days, and breathlessly wonder what marvellous discovery will thrill us next. For the earliest account of the old world--a world made up apparently of a little land and a little water--we turn to an old papyrus, the oldest in existence, which tells us in familiar words, unsurpassed for their exquisite poetry and wondrous simplicity, of that great dateless time so full of mystery and awe. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.... And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God ... divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.... And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.... And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas." Thus beautifully did the children of men express their earliest idea of the world's distribution of land and water. And where, on our modern maps, was this little earth, and what was it like? Did trees and flowers cover the land? Did rivers flow into the sea? Listen again to the old tradition that still rings down the ages-- "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ... and a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison ... and the name of the second river is Gihon; the name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris). And the fourth river is Euphrates." [Illustration: THE GARDEN OF EDEN WITH ITS FOUR RIVERS. From the Hereford Map of the World.] Now look at a modern map of Asia. Between Arabia and Persia there is a long valley watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, rivers which rise in Armenia and flow into the Persian Gulf. This region was the traditional "cradle of the human race." Around and beyond was a great world, a world with great surging seas, with lands of trees and flowers, a world with continents and lakes and bays and capes, with islands and mountains and rivers. There were vast deserts of sand rolling away to right and to left; there were mountains up which no man had climbed; there were stormy seas over which no ship had ever sailed. But these men of old had never explored far. They believed that their world was just a very little world with no other occupants than themselves. They believed it to be flat, with mountains at either end on which rested a solid metal dome known as the "firmament." In this shining circle were windows, in and out of which the sun would creep by day and the moon and stars by night. And the whole of this world was, they thought, balanced on the waters. There was water above, the "waters that be above the firmament," and water below, and water all round. [Illustration: BABYLONIAN MAP OF THE WORLD ON CLAY. Showing the ocean surrounding the world and the position of Babylon on the Euphrates. In the British Museum.] Long ages pass away. Let us look again at the green valley of the Euphrates and Tigris. It has been called the "nursery of nations"--names have been given to various regions round about, and cities have arisen on the banks of the rivers. Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria--all these long names belonged to this region, and around each centres some of the most interesting history and legend in the world. Rafts on the river and caravans on the land carried merchandise far and wide--men made their way to the "Sea of the Rising Sun," as they called the Persian Gulf, and to the "Sea of the Setting Sun," as they called the Mediterranean. They settled on the shores of the Caspian Sea, on the shores of the Black Sea, on the shores of the Red Sea. They carried on magnificent trade--cedar, pine, and cypress were brought from Lebanon to Chaldea, limestone and marble from Syria, copper and lead from the shores of the Black Sea. And these dwellers about Babylonia built up a wonderful civilisation. They had temples and brick-built houses, libraries of tablets revealing knowledge of astronomy and astrology; they had a literature of their own. Suddenly from out the city of Ur (Kerbela), near the ancient mouth of the Euphrates, appears a traveller. There had doubtless been many before, but records are scanty and hard to piece together, and a detailed account of a traveller with a name is very interesting. "Abram went ... forth to go into the land of Canaan.... And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there." He would have travelled by the chief caravan routes of Syria into Egypt. Here about the fertile mouth of the Nile he would have found an ancient civilisation as wonderful as that to which he was accustomed in Babylonia. It was a grain-growing country, and when there was famine in other lands, there was always "corn in Egypt"--thanks to the mighty life-giving Nile. But we must not linger over the old civilisation, over the wonderful Empire governed by the Pharaohs or kings, first from Memphis (Cairo) and then from the hundred-gated Thebes; must not linger over these old pyramid builders, the temple, sphinxes, and statues of ancient Egypt. Before even Abram came into their country we find the Egyptians famous for their shipping and navigation. Old pictures and tombs recently discovered tell us this. [Illustration: THE OLDEST KNOWN SHIPS: BETWEEN 6000 AND 5000 B.C. From a pre-Egyptian vase-painting.] On the coast of the Red Sea they built their long, narrow ships, which were rowed by some twenty paddlers on either side, and steered by three men standing in the stern. With one mast and a large sail they flew before the wind. They had to go far afield for their wood; we find an Egyptian being sent "to cut down four forests in the South in order to build three large vessels ... out of acacia wood." Petrie tells us of an Egyptian sailor who was sent to Punt or Somaliland "to fetch for Pharaoh sweet-smelling spices." He was shipwrecked on the way, and this is the account of his adventures-- "'I was going,' he relates, 'to the mines of Pharaoh and I went down on the sea on a ship with a hundred and fifty sailors of the best of Egypt, whose hearts were stronger than lions. They had said that the wind would be contrary, or that there would be none. But as we approached the land the wind rose and threw up high waves. As for me, I seized a piece of wood; but those who were in the vessel perished, without one remaining. A wave threw me on an island; after that I had been three days alone without a companion beside my own heart, I laid me in a thicket, and the shadow covered me. I found figs and grapes, all manner of good herbs, berries and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes and birds. I lighted a fire and I made a burnt-offering unto the gods. Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook and the earth was moved. I uncovered my eyes and I saw that a serpent drew near; his body was as if overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli.' "'What has brought thee here, little one, to this isle, which is in the sea and of which the shores are in the midst of the waves?' asked the serpent. "The sailor told his story kneeling on his knees, with his face bowed to the ground. "'Fear not, little one, and make not thy face sad,' continued the serpent, 'for it is God who has brought thee to this isle of the blest, where nothing is lacking and which is filled with all good things. Thou shalt be four months in this isle. Then a ship shall come from thy land with sailors, and thou shalt go to thy country. As for me, I am a prince of the land of Punt. I am here with my brethren and children around me; we are seventy-five serpents, children and kindred.' "Then the grateful sailor promised to bring all the treasures of Egypt back to Punt, and 'I shall tell of thy presence unto Pharaoh; I shall make him to know of thy greatness,' said the Egyptian stranger. "But the strange prince of Punt only smiled. "'Thou shalt never more see this isle,' he said; 'it shall be changed into waves.'" Everything came to pass as the serpent said. The ship came, gifts were lavished on the sailor from Egypt, perfumes of cassia, of sweet woods, of cypress, incense, ivory tusks, baboons, and apes, and thus laden he sailed home to his own people. [Illustration: EGYPTIAN SHIP OF THE EXPEDITION TO PUNT, ABOUT 1600 B.C. From a rock-carving at Der el Bahari.] Long centuries after this we get another glimpse at the land of Punt. This time it is in the reign of Queen Hatshepsu, who sent a great trading expedition into this famous country. Five ships started from Thebes, sailing down the river Nile and probably reaching the Red Sea by means of a canal. Navigation in the Red Sea was difficult; the coast was steep and inhospitable; no rivers ran into it. Only a few fishing villages lay along the coasts used by Egyptian merchants as markets for mother-of-pearl, emeralds, gold, and sweet-smelling perfumes. Thence the ships continued their way, the whole voyage taking about two months. Arrived at Punt, the Egyptian commander pitched his tents upon the shore, to the great astonishment of the inhabitants. "Why have ye come hither unto this land, which the people of Egypt know not?" asked the Chief of Punt. "Have ye come through the sky? Did ye sail upon the waters or upon the sea?" Presents from the Queen of Egypt were at once laid before the Chief of Punt, and soon the seashore was alive with people. The ships were drawn up, gang-planks were very heavily laden with "marvels of the country of Punt." There were heaps of myrrh, resin, of fresh myrrh trees, ebony and pure ivory, cinnamon wood, incense, baboons, monkeys, dogs, natives, and children. "Never was the like brought to any king of Egypt since the world stands." And the ships voyaged safely back to Thebes with all their booty and with pleasant recollections of the people of Somaliland. [Illustration: THE ARK ON ARARAT AND THE CITIES OF NINEVEH AND BABYLON. From Leonardo Dati's map of 1422.] In spite of these little expeditions the Egyptian world seemed still very small. The Egyptians thought of the earth with its land and sea as a long, oblong sort of box, the centre of which was Egypt. The sky stretched over it like an iron ceiling, the part toward the earth being sprinkled with lamps hung from strong cables lighted by night and extinguished by day. Four forked trunks of trees upheld the sky roof. But lest some storm should overthrow these tree trunks there were four lofty peaks connected by chains of mountains. The southern peak was known as the "Horn of the Earth," the eastern, the "Mountain of Birth," the western, the "Region of Life," the northern was invisible. And why? Because they thought the Great Sea, the "Very Green," the Mediterranean, lay between it and Egypt. Beyond these mountain peaks, supporting the world, rolled a great river, an ocean stream, and the sun was as a ball of fire placed on a boat and carried round the ramparts of the world by the all-encircling water. So we realise that the people living in Babylonia about the river Euphrates, and those living in Egypt about the river Nile, had very strange ideas about the little old world around them. CHAPTER II EARLY MARINERS The law of the universe is progress and expansion, and this little old world was soon discovered to be larger than men thought. Now in Syria--the highway between Babylonia and Egypt--dwelt a tribe of dusky people known as Phoenicians. Some have thought that they were related to our old friends in Somaliland, and that long years ago they had migrated north to the seacoast of that part of Syria known as Canaan. Living on the seashore, washed by the tideless Mediterranean, they soon became skilful sailors. They built ships and ventured forth on the deep; they made their way to the islands of Cyprus and Crete and thence to the islands of Greece, bringing back goods from other countries to barter with their less daring neighbours. They reached Greece itself and cruised along the northern coast of the Great Sea to Italy, along the coast of Spain to the Rock of Gibraltar, and out into the open Atlantic. How their little sailing boats lived through the storms of that great ocean none may know, for Phoenician records are lost, but we have every reason to believe that they reached the northern coast of France and brought back tin from the islands known to them as the Tin Islands. In their home markets were found all manner of strange things from foreign unknown lands, discovered by these master mariners--the admiration of the ancient world. [Illustration: A PHOENICIAN SHIP, ABOUT 700 B.C. From a bas-relief at Nineveh.] "The ships of Tarshish," said the old poet, "did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas; thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas." All the world knew of the Phoenician seaports, Tyre and Sidon. They were as famous as Memphis and Thebes on the Nile, as magnificent as Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. Men spoke of the "renowned city of Tyre," whose merchants were as princes, whose "traffickers" were among the honourable of the earth. "O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea," cries the poet again, when the greatness of Tyre was passing away, "which art a merchant of the people from many isles.... Thy borders are in the midst of the seas; thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship-boards of fir trees ... they have taken cedars of Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks of Basan have they made thy oars.... Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail.... The inhabitants of Sidon ... were thy mariners; thy wise men were thy pilots." As time goes on, early groups round the Euphrates and the Nile continue, but new nations form and grow, new cities arise, new names appear. Centuries of men live and die, ignorant of the great world that lies about them--"Lords of the eastern world that knew no west." England was yet unknown, America undreamt of, Australia still a desolate island in an unknown sea. The burning eastern sun shone down on to vast stretches of desert-land uninhabited by man, great rivers flowed through dreary swamps unrealised, tempestuous waves beat against their shores, and melancholy winds swept over the face of endless ocean solitudes. And still, according to their untutored minds, the world is flat, the world is very small and it is surrounded by ever-flowing waters, beyond which all is dark and mysterious. Around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, revealed by the boundless energy and daring skill of the Phoenicians, there were colonies along the coasts of Africa and Europe, though they were not yet called by their names. They have discovered and explored, but they have kept their information to themselves, and they have specially refused to divulge their voyages to the Greeks. A story is told at a later date than this of a Phoenician shipmaster who was bound for the Tin Islands, when he suddenly discovered that he was being followed by a strange ship evidently bent on finding out where these unknown islands lay. The Phoenician purposely ran his ship on to a shoal in order to keep the secret of the discovery. When he returned home his conduct was upheld by the State! But though the Phoenicians have left us no record of their travels and voyages, they had been the carriers of knowledge, and it was from them that the Greeks learnt of "the extreme regions of the world" and of the dim "far west." Indeed, it is highly probable that from the Phoenicians they got material for their famous legend of the Argonauts and their adventures in the Black Sea. Though the story is but legendary, and it has been added to with the growing knowledge of the world, yet it gives an idea of the perils that beset the sailors of those remote ages and of their limitations. And again we must remind ourselves that both the Phoenicians and early Greeks had, like the Egyptians and Babylonians, childish ideas as to the form of the earth. To them it was a circular plane, encircled by the ocean, which they believed to be a broad, deep-running river flowing round and round the world. Into this ocean stream ran all the rivers and seas known to them. Over the earth was raised a solid firmament of bronze in which the stars were set, and this was supported on tall pillars "which kept the heaven and the earth asunder." The whole delightful story of the Argonauts can be read in Kingsley's "Heroes." It is the story of brave men who sailed in the ship _Argo_, named after the great shipbuilder Argos, to bring back the Golden Fleece from Colchis in the Black Sea. Nowhere in all the history of exploration have we a more poetical account of the launching of a ship for distant lands: "Then they have stored her well with food and water, and pulled the ladder up on board, and settled themselves each man to his oar and kept time to Orpheus' harp; and away across the bay they rowed southward, while the people lined the cliffs; and the women wept while the men shouted at the starting of that gallant crew." They chose a captain, and the choice fell on Jason, "because he was the wisest of them all"; and they rowed on "over the long swell of the sea, past Olympus, past the wooded bays of Athos and the sacred isle; and they came past Lemnos to the Hellespont, and so on into the Propontis, which we call Marmora now." So they came to the Bosphorus, the "land then as now of bitter blasts, the land of cold and misery," and a great battle of the winds took place. [Illustration: A MAP OF THE VOYAGE OF THE ARGONAUTS. Drawn according to the principal classical traditions. The voyage through the ocean which, according to the ancient idea, surrounded the world will be especially noted.] Then the Argonauts came out into the open sea--the Black Sea. No Greek had ever crossed it, and even the heroes, for all their courage, feared "that dreadful sea and its rocks and shoals and fogs and bitter freezing storms," and they trembled as they saw it "stretching out before them without a shore, as far as the eye could see." Wearily they sailed on past the coast of Asia; they passed Sinope and the cities of the Amazons, the warlike women of the east, until at last they saw the "white snow peaks hanging glittering sharp and bright above the clouds. And they knew that they were come to Caucasus at the end of all the earth--Caucasus, the highest of all mountains, the father of the rivers of the East. And they rowed three days to the eastward, while the Caucasus rose higher hour by hour, till they saw the dark stream of Phasis rushing headlong to the sea and, shining above the treetops, the golden roofs of the Child of the Sun." How they reached home no man knows. Some say they sailed up the Danube River and so came to the Adriatic, dragging their ship over the snowclad Alps. Others say they sailed south to the Red Sea and dragged their ship over the burning desert of North Africa. More than once they gave themselves up for lost, "heartbroken with toil and hunger," until the brave helmsman cried to them, "Raise up the mast and set the sail and face what comes like men." After days and weeks on the "wide wild western sea" they sailed by the coast of Spain and came to Sicily, the "three-cornered island," and after numerous adventures they reached home once more. And they limped ashore weary and worn, with long, ragged beards and sunburnt cheeks and garments torn and weather-stained. No strength had they left to haul the ship up the beach. They just crawled out and sat down and wept, till they could weep no more. For the houses and trees were all altered, and all the faces which they saw were strange; and their joy was swallowed up in sorrow while they thought of their youth and all their labour, and the gallant comrades they had lost. And the people crowded round and asked them, "Who are you that sit weeping here?" "We are the sons of your princes, who sailed away many a year ago. We went to fetch the Golden Fleece and we have brought it back." Then there was shouting and laughing and weeping, and all the kings came to the shore, and they led the heroes away to their homes and bewailed the valiant dead. Old and charming as is the story of the Argonauts, it is made up of travellers' tales, probably told to the Greeks by the Phoenicians of their adventures on unknown seas. The wanderings of Ulysses by the old Greek poet Homer shows us that, though they seldom ventured beyond the Mediterranean Sea, yet the Greeks were dimly conscious of an outer world beyond the recognised limits. They still dreamt that the earth was flat, and that the ocean stream flowed for ever round and round it. There were no maps or charts to guide the intrepid mariners who embarked on unknown waters. The siege of Troy, famous in legend, was over, and the heroes were anxious to make their way home. Ulysses was one of the heroes, and he sailed forth from Asia Minor into the AEgean Sea. But contrary winds drove him as far south as Cape Malea. "Now the gatherer of the clouds," he says, in telling his story, "aroused the North Wind against our ships with a terrible tempest, and covered land and sea alike with clouds, and down sped night from heaven. Thus the ships were driven headlong, and their sails were torn to shreds by the might of the wind. So we lowered the sails into the hold in fear of death, and rowed the ships landward apace." Throughout all ages Cape Malea has been renowned for sudden and violent storms, dreaded by early mariners as well as those of later times. "Thence for nine whole days was I borne by ruinous winds over the teeming deep; but on the tenth day we set foot on the land of the lotus-eaters who eat a flowery food." Now ten days' sail to the south would have brought Ulysses to the coast of North Africa, and here we imagine the lotus-eaters dwelt. But their stay was short. For as soon as the mariners tasted the "honey-sweet fruit of the lotus" they forgot their homes, forgot their own land, and only wanted to stay with the "mild-eyed melancholy lotus-eaters." "They sat them down upon the yellow sand, Between the sun and moon upon the shore; And sweet it was to dream of Fatherland, Of child, and wife, and slave; but evermore Most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar, Weary the wandering fields of barren foam. Then someone said: 'We will return no more'; And all at once they sang, 'Our island home Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam.'" "Therefore," said Ulysses, "I led them back to the ships, weeping and sore against their will, and dragged them beneath the benches. Soon they embarked and, sitting orderly, they smote the grey sea water with their oars. Thence we sailed onward, stricken at heart. And we came to the land of the Cyclops." No one knows exactly where the land of the Cyclops is. Some think it may be Sicily and the slopes of Mount Etna facing the sea. The famous rock of Scylla and whirlpool of Charybdis, known to the ancients as two sea-monsters, near the Straits of Messina, next claimed his attention. Let us see how Ulysses passed them. "We began to sail up the narrow strait," he says, lamenting. "For on the one side lay Scylla and on the other mighty Charybdis sucking down the salt sea water. Like a cauldron on a great fire she would seethe up through all her troubled deeps, and overhead the spray fell on the top of either cliff--the rock around roared horribly, and pale fear gat hold on my men. Toward her, then, we looked, fearing destruction; but Scylla meanwhile caught from out my hollow ships six of my company. They cried aloud in their agony, and there she devoured them shrieking at her gates, they stretching forth their hands to me in their death struggles. And the most pitiful thing was this, that mine eyes have seen of all my travail in searching out the paths of the sea." Some have thought that the terrifying stories of Scylla, Charybdis, and the Cyclops were stories invented by the Phoenicians to frighten travellers of other nations away from the sea that they wished to keep for themselves for purposes of trade. It would take too long to tell of the great storm that destroyed the ships and drowned the men, leaving Ulysses to make a raft on which he drifted about for nine days, blown back to Scylla and Charybdis and from thence to the island of Ogygia, "in the centre of the sea." Finally he reached his home in Ithaca so changed, so aged and weather-worn, that only his dog Argus recognised him. This, very briefly, is Homer's world-picture of a bygone age, when those who were seized with a thirst for travel sailed about the Mediterranean in their primitive ships, landing on unnamed coasts, cruising about unknown islands, meeting strange people, encountering strange adventures. It all reads like an old fairy tale to us to-day, for we have our maps and charts and know the whereabouts of every country and island about the tideless Mediterranean. [Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--I. The world as known at the time of Homer.] CHAPTER III IS THE WORLD FLAT? Still, although the men of ancient time were learning fast about the land and sea, they were woefully ignorant. Hesiod, a Greek poet, who lived seven hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, declared that the world was flat, and the ocean stream or the "perfect river," as he called it, flowed round and round, encompassing all things. Still, there was something beyond the water--something dim, mysterious, unknowable. It might be the "Islands of the Blest"; it might be the "sacred isle." One thing he asserted firmly: "Atlas upholds the broad Heaven ... standing on earth's verge with head and unwearied hands," while the clear-voiced Hesperides guarded their beautiful golden apples "beyond the waters of Ocean." "Hesperus and his daughters three That sung about the golden tree." But who thinks now of the weary Titan doomed for ever to support the ancient world on his head and hands, when the atlas of to-day is brought forth for a lesson in geography? About this time comes a story--it may be fact or it may be fiction--that the Phoenicians had sailed right round Africa. The voyage was arranged by Neco, an enterprising Egyptian king, who built his ships in the Red Sea in the year 613 B.C. The story is told by Herodotus, the Greek traveller, many years afterwards. "Libya," he says, "is known to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was first made by Neco, the Egyptian king, who sent a number of ships manned by Phoenicians with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar), and return to Egypt through them and by the Mediterranean Sea. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean Sea, and so sailed into the Southern Ocean. When autumn came (it is supposed they left the Red Sea in August) they went ashore, wherever that might happen to be, and, having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they set sail, and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules and made good their voyage home. On their return they declared (I, for my part, says Herodotus, do not believe them, but perhaps others may) that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered." [Illustration: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, AS SHOWN IN A MEDIAEVAL MAP. Higden's Map of the World, 1360 A.D.] To modern students, who have learnt more of Phoenician enterprise, the story does not seem so incredible as it did to Herodotus; and a modern poet, Edwin Arnold, has dreamed into verse a delightful account of what this voyage may have been like. Ithobal of Tyre, Chief Captain of the seas, standing before Neco, Pharaoh and King, Ruler of Nile and its lands, relates the story of his two years' voyage, of the strange things he saw, of the hardships he endured, of the triumphant end. He tells how, with the help of mechanics from Tarshish, Tyre, and Sidon, he built three goodly ships, "Ocean's children," in a "windless creek" on the Red Sea, how he loaded them with cloth and beads, "the wares wild people love," food-flour for the ship, cakes, honey, oil, pulse, meal, dried fish and rice, and salted goods. Then the start was made down the Red Sea, until at last "the great ocean opened" east and south to the unknown world and into the great nameless sea, by the coast of that "Large Land whence none hath come" they sailed. Ithobal had undertaken no light task; contrary winds, mutiny on board, want of fresh water, all the hardships that confront the mariner who pilots his crews in search of the unknown. Strange tribes met them on the coast and asked them whither they went. "We go as far as the sun goes As far as the sea rolls, as far as the stars Shine still in sky. To find for mighty Pharaoh what his world Holds hidden." South and ever south they sailed, "day after day and night succeeding night, close clinging to the shore." New stars appeared, lower and lower sank the sun, moons rose and waned, and still the coast stretched southwards till they reached a "Cape of Storms" and found the coast was turning north. And now occurred that strange phenomenon mentioned by Herodotus, that while sailing westwards the sun was on their right hand. "No man had seen that thing in Syria or in Egypt." A year and a half had now passed away since they left home, but onward to the north they now made their way, past the mouth of the golden waters (Orange River), past the Congo, past the Niger, past the island of Gorillas described by Hanno, who explored the west coast under Neco either before or after this time, until at last the little Phoenician ships sailed peacefully into the Mediterranean Sea. "Here is the Ocean-Gate. Here is the Strait Twice before seen, where goes the Middle Sea Unto the Setting Sun and the Unknown-- No more unknown, Ithobal's ships have sailed Around all Africa. Our task is done. These are the Pillars, this the Midland Sea. The road to Tyre is yonder. Every wave Is homely. Yonder, sure, Old Nilus pours Into this Sea, the Waters of the World, Whose secret is his own and thine and mine." It will ever remain one of the many disputed points in early geography whether or not Africa was circumnavigated at this early date. If the Phoenicians did accomplish such a feat they kept their experiences a secret as usual, and the early maps gave a very wrong idea of South Africa. On the other hand, we know they had good seaworthy ships in advance of their neighbours. [Illustration: THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, AS SHOWN IN THE ANGLO-SAXON MAP OF THE WORLD, TENTH CENTURY.] "I remember," says Xenophon, "I once went aboard a Phoenician ship, where I observed the best example of good order that I ever met with; and especially it was surprising to observe the vast numbers of implements which were necessary for the management of such a small vessel. What numbers of oars, stretchers, ship-hooks, and spikes were there for bringing the ship in and out of the harbour! What numbers of shrouds, cables, ropes, and other tackling for the ship! What a vast quantity of provisions were there for the sustenance and support of the sailors!" Captain and sailors knew where everything was stowed away on board, and "while the captain stood upon the deck, he was considering with himself what things might be wanting in his voyage, what things wanted repair, and what length of time his provisions would last; for, as he observed to me, it is no proper time, when the storm comes upon us, to have the necessary implements to seek, or to be out of repair, or to want them on board; for the gods are never favourable to those who are negligent or lazy; and it is their goodness that they do not destroy us when we are diligent." [Illustration: A GREEK GALLEY ABOUT 500 B.C. From a vase-painting.] There is an old story which says that one day the Greeks captured a Phoenician ship and copied it. However this may be, the Greeks soon became great colonisers themselves, and we have to thank a Greek philosopher living in Miletus, on the coast of Asia Minor, for making the first map of the ancient world. Of course, the Babylonians and Egyptians had made maps thousands of years before this, but this Greek--Anaximander introduced the idea of map-making to the astonished world about the year 580 B.C. What was the map like? It was "a bronze tablet, whereupon the whole circuit of the Earth was engraved with all its seas and rivers." This is all we know. But this map-making Greek was famous for another idea in advance of his time. He used to study the heavens and the earth, and after much study he made up his mind that the earth was round and not flat. He taught that the world hung free in the midst of the universe, or rather in the midst of the waters. The centre of the earth was at Delphi. In the world of legend there was a reason for this. Two eagles had been let loose, one from the eastern extremity of the world, the other from the west, and they met at Delphi--hence it was assumed that Delphi was at the centre of the world. And Delphi at this time was such a wonderful city. On the slopes of Mount Parnassus it stood high on a rock--on the heights stood the temple of Apollo with its immense riches, its golden statue of the great god, and its ever-smoking fire of wood. [Illustration: JERUSALEM, THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD. From the Hereford Map of the World, thirteenth century.] In the same way, in those days of imperfect geography, as we hear of Delphi being the centre of the Greek world, so we hear of Jerusalem being considered the central point of the world. "This is Jerusalem," says Ezekiel, "in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her." In the Mappa Mundi (thirteenth century) in Hereford Cathedral, Jerusalem is still the centre of the earth. Following close on these ideas came another. It, too, came from Miletus, now famous for its school of thought and its searchers after truth. A _Tour of the World_ is the grand-sounding title of the work of Hecataeus, who wrote it about 500 years B.C. It contains an account of the coast and islands of the Mediterranean Sea and an outline of all the lands the Greeks thought they knew. In the fragments that have come down to us, the famous old geographer divides both his work and the world into two parts. One part he calls Europe, the other Asia, in which he includes Africa bounded by the river Nile. He held that these two parts were equal. They were divided from one another by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, while round the whole flat world still flowed the everlasting ocean stream. CHAPTER IV HERODOTUS--THE TRAVELLER The greatest traveller of olden times now comes upon the scene--Herodotus, the Greek, the "Father of History." He is a traveller as well as a writer. He has journeyed as one eager for knowledge, with a "hungry heart" and a keen, observant eye. He tells us what he has seen with his eyes, what he has heard with his ears. He insists that the world is flat, he acknowledges that it is divided into two parts--Europe and Asia; but he can afford to laugh at those who draw maps of the world "without any sense to guide them," in which they make the whole world round as if drawn with a pair of compasses, with the ocean stream running round it, making Europe and Asia of equal size. His first journey is to Egypt. "I speak at length about Egypt," he says, "because it contains more marvellous things than any other country--things too strange for words. Not only is the climate different from that of the rest of the world and the rivers unlike any other rivers, but the people also, in most of their manners and customs, reverse the common practice of mankind. The women are employed in trade and business, while the men stay at home to spin and weave. Other nations in weaving throw the woof up the warp, but an Egyptian throws it down. In other countries, sons are constrained to make provision for their parents; in Egypt it is not only the sons, but the daughters. In other countries the priests have long hair; in Egypt their heads are shaven. Other nations fasten their ropes and hooks to the outside of their sails, but the Egyptians to the inside. The Greeks write and read from left to right, but the Egyptians from right to left." After sailing for some seven hundred miles up the river Nile from the coast, past Heliopolis, the once famous city of Ancient Egypt, past Memphis, the old capital, past Thebes, with its hundred gates, to Elephantine, the "ivory island," opposite to what is now Assuan, he is more than ever puzzled about its course and the reason of its periodical floods. "Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information from the priests. I was particularly anxious to learn from them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer solstice, begins to rise and continues to increase for a hundred days--and why, as soon as that number is past, it forthwith retires and contracts its stream, continuing low during the whole of the winter until the summer solstice comes round again. On none of these points could I obtain any explanation from the inhabitants, though I made every inquiry." The sources of the Nile entirely baffled Herodotus as they baffled many another later explorer long years after he had passed away. "Of the sources of the Nile no one can give any account, since the country through which it passes is desert and without inhabitants," he explains, his thirst for knowledge unsatisfied. Some priest volunteers this explanation. On the frontiers of Egypt are two high mountain-peaks called Crophi and Mophi; in an unfathomable abyss between the two rose the Nile. But Herodotus does not believe in Crophi and Mophi; he inclines to the idea that the Nile rises away in the west and flows eastward right across Libya. He travelled a little about Libya himself, little realising the size of the great continent of Africa through which he passed. Many a strange tale of these unknown parts did he relate to his people at home. He had seen the tallest and handsomest race of men in the world, who lived to the age of one hundred and twenty years--gold was so abundant that it was used even for the prisoners' chains--he had seen folks who lived on meat and milk only, never having seen bread or wine. [Illustration: A MERCHANT-SHIP OF ATHENS, ABOUT 500 B.C. From a vase-painting.] Some thirty days' journey from the land of the lotus-eaters he had found tribes who hunted with four-horse chariots and whose oxen walked backwards as they grazed, because their horns curve outwards in front of their heads, and if they moved forwards these horns would stick in the ground. Right across the desolate sandy desert of the north, Herodotus seems to have made his way. The "region of the wild beasts" must have been truly perilous, "for this is the tract," he says, "in which huge serpents are found, and the lions, the elephants, the bears, and the horned asses." He also tells us of antelopes, gazelles, asses, foxes, wild sheep, jackals, and panthers. There is no end to the quaint sights he records. Here is a tribe whose wives drive the chariots to battle, here another who paint themselves red and eat honey and monkeys, another who grow their hair long on the right side of their heads and shave it close on the left. Back through Egypt to Syria went our observant traveller, visiting the famous seaport of Tyre on the way. "I visited the temple of Hercules at that place and found two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night." That temple was already two thousand three hundred years old. Herodotus makes some astounding statements about various parts of the world. He asserts that a good walker could walk across Asia Minor, from north to south, in five days, a distance we know now to be three hundred miles! He tells us that the Danube rises in the Pyrenees Mountains and flows right through Europe till it empties its waters into the Black Sea, giving us a long and detailed account of a country he calls Scythia (Russia) with many rivers flowing into this same Black Sea. But here we must leave the old traveller and picture him reading aloud to his delighted hearers his account of his discoveries and explorations, discussing with the learned Greeks of the day the size and wonders of the world as they imagined it. News travelled slowly in these bygone days, and we know the Phoenicians were very fond of keeping their discoveries secret, but it seems strange to think that Herodotus never seems to have heard the story of Hanno the Carthaginian, who coasted along the west of North Africa, being the first explorer to reach the place we know as "Sierra Leone." Hanno's "Periplus," or the "Coasting Survey of Hanno," is one of the few Phoenician documents that has lived through the long ages. In it the commander of the expedition himself tells his own story. With an idea of colonising, he left Carthage--the most famous of the Phoenician colonies--with sixty ships containing an enormous number of men and women. "When we had set sail," says Hanno shortly, "and passed the pillars (of Hercules) after two days' voyage, we founded the first city. Below this city lay a great plain. Sailing thence westward we came to a promontory of Libya thickly covered with trees. Here we built a temple to the Sea-god and proceeded thence half a day's journey eastward, till we reached a lake lying not far from the sea and filled with abundance of great reeds. Here were feeding elephants and a great number of other wild animals. After we had gone a day's sail beyond the lakes we founded cities near to the sea." Making friends with the tribes along the coast, they reached the Senegal River. Here they fell in with "savage men clothed with the skins of beasts," who pelted them with stones so that they could not land. Past Cape Verde they reached the mouth of the Gambia, "great and broad and full of crocodiles and river-horses," and thence coasted twelve days to the south and again five days to the south, which brought them to Sierra Leone--the Lion Mountain as it was called long years after by the Portuguese. Here Hanno and his party landed, but as night approached they saw flames issuing from the island and heard the sound of flutes and cymbals and drums and the noise of confused shouts. "Great fear then came upon us; we sailed therefore quickly thence much terrified, and passing on for four days found at night a country full of fire. In the middle was a lofty fire, greater than all the rest, so that it seemed to touch the stars. When day came on we found that this was a great mountain which they called the chariot of the gods." They had a last adventure before they turned homewards at what they called the Isle of Gorillas. Here they found a "savage people" (Gorillas) whom they pursued, but were unable to catch. At last they managed to catch three. "But when these, biting and tearing those that led them, would not follow us, we slew them and, flaying off their skins, carried them to Carthage." Then abruptly this quaint account of the only Phoenician voyage on record stops. "Further," says the commander, "we did not sail, for our food failed us." [Illustration: THE COAST OF AFRICA, AFTER PTOLEMY (MERCATOR'S EDITION). This map shows the extent of Hanno's voyage from the Pillars of Hercules, past the Equator, to what is now called Sierra Leone.] Further knowledge of the world was now supplied by the Greeks, who were rapidly asserting themselves and settling round the coast of the Mediterranean as the Phoenicians had done before them. As in more ancient days Babylonians and Egyptians had dominated the little world, so now the power was shifting to the Greeks and Persians. The rise of Persia does not rightly belong to this story, which is not one of conquest and annexation, but of discovery, so we must content ourselves by stating the fact that Persia had become a very important country with no less than fifty-six subject States paying tribute to her, including the land of Egypt. Efforts to include Greece had failed. In the year 401 B.C. one Artaxerxes sat on the throne of Persia, the mighty Empire which extended eastwards beyond the knowledge of Greeks or Phoenicians, even to the unknown regions of the Indus. He had reigned for many years, when Cyrus, his brother, a dashing young prince, attempted to seize the throne. Collecting a huge army, including the famous Ten Thousand Greeks, he led them by way of Phrygia, Cilicia, and along the banks of the Euphrates to within fifty miles of the gates of Babylon. The journey took nearly five months, a distance of one thousand seven hundred miles through recognised tracks. Here a battle was fought and Cyrus was slain. It was midwinter when the Ten Thousand Greeks who had followed their leader so loyally through the plains of Asia Minor found themselves friendless and in great danger in the very heart of the enemy's country. How Xenophon--a mere Greek volunteer, who had accompanied the army from the shores of Asia Minor--rose up and offered to lead his countrymen back to Greece is a matter of history. It would take too long to tell in detail how they marched northward through the Assyrian plains, past the neighbourhood of Nineveh, till they reached the mountain regions which were known to be inhabited by fierce fighters, unconquered even by the powerful Persians. Up to this time their line of retreat had followed the "royal road" of merchants and caravans. Their only chance of safety lay in striking north into the mountains inhabited by this warlike tribe who had held out amid their wild and rugged country against the Persians themselves. They now opposed the Greeks with all their might, and it took seven days of continuous fighting to reach the valley which lay between them and the high tableland of Armenia. They crossed the Tigris near its source, and a little farther on they also crossed the Euphrates not far from its source, so they were informed by the Armenians. They now found themselves some five or six thousand feet above sea-level and in the midst of a bitter Armenian winter. Snow fell heavily, covering all tracks, and day after day a cold north-east wind, "whose bitter blast was torture," increased their sufferings as they ploughed their way on and on through such depths of snow as they had never seen before. Many died of cold and hunger, many fell grievously sick, and others suffered from snow-blindness and frostbite. But Xenophon led his army on, making his notes of the country through which they were toiling, measuring distances by the day's march, and at last one day when the soldiers were climbing a steep mountain, a cry, growing louder and more joyous every moment, rent the air-- "Thalassa! Thalassa! The sea! The sea!" True enough, on the distant horizon, glittering in the sunlight, was a narrow silver streak of sea--the Black Sea--the goal of all their hopes. The long struggle of five months was over; they could sail home now along the shores of the Black Sea. They had reached the coast near the spot Colchis, where the Argonauts landed to win the Golden Fleece long centuries before. In a work known as the _Anabasis_, Xenophon wrote the adventures of the Ten Thousand Greeks, and no geographical explorer ever recorded his travels through unknown countries more faithfully than did the Greek leader of twenty-three hundred years ago. CHAPTER V ALEXANDER THE GREAT EXPLORES INDIA Still greater light was shed on the size of the world by Alexander the Great on his famous expedition to India, by which he almost doubled the area of the world known to the people of his time. It was just sixty years after Xenophon had made his way right across Asia to the shores of the Black Sea when Alexander resolved to break, if possible, the power of the Persians. The great Persian Empire extended from the shores of the Mediterranean right away to the east, far beyond the knowledge of the Greeks. Indeed, their knowledge of the interior of Asia was very imperfect, and Alexander's expedition was rather that of an explorer than of a conqueror. How he overthrew the Persians and subdued an area as large as Europe in the space of twelve years reads like a romance rather than fact, and it is not for us to tell the story in detail. Rather let us take up the story, after Alexander has fought and conquered the Persians twice, besieged Tyre, taken the Phoenician fleet, occupied Egypt, marched across the desert and crossed the Euphrates, passed over the plain and followed the Tigris to near Nineveh, where he crossed that river too, fought another famous battle over the Persians, which decided the fate of King and Monarchy and opened to him the capitals of Babylon and Susa, wherein the immense treasures of the Persian Empire were stored. King of all Asia, he sat on the throne of the Persian kings under a golden canopy in the palace of Persepolis. So far the whole expedition was over country known, if imperfectly, to the Greeks. Now we have to follow the conquering hero more closely as he leads us into an unknown land away to the east, known as "the farthest region of the inhabited world towards the east, beyond which lies the endless sandy desert void of inhabitants." And all the while the great land of India lay beyond, and beyond again was China, and away far over the ocean sea lay America--and they knew it not. Alexander was a young man yet, only twenty-six. It was four years since he had left Europe, and in that short time he had done wonders. He had conquered the whole western half of the Persian Empire. Now he resolutely turned his face to the unknown east and started forth on an expedition of exploration. Following the main highway from Media, which to-day leads from Teheran, capital of modern Persia, into the land of the Turkomans and the borders of Russia, he found himself between the great salt desert and the mountains, which to-day mark the frontier of Persia. Suddenly, to his great surprise, the Caspian Sea came into sight. It seemed about the same size as the Black Sea, and he concluded it was connected with the Sea of Azof, though the men of his day were certain enough that it was the most northern of four great gulfs connected with the outer ocean which flowed round the world. Onwards towards the east he marched with his great army. To conciliate the tribes through which he passed, he adopted Persian dress. This annoyed his Greek countrymen, but, "as they admired his other virtues, they thought he might be suffered to please himself a little and enjoy his vanity." Arrived at the modern boundary between Persia, Afghanistan, and Russia, he and his men pushed on across Afghanistan, by the caravan route that had long existed from the shores of the Caspian, by modern Herat, Kandahar,[1] which still bears the conqueror's name, and Kabul to India. Their way lay through deep snow, deeper than they had ever seen before; and by the time they had reached the mountains of Kabul it was midwinter. [Footnote 1: Kandahar = Alexandria in a modern form.] Between Alexander and India still lay the lofty range of the Hindu Koosh or Indian Caucasus. But before going south toward India, he turned northwards to explore the unknown country which lay about the river Oxus. They found the Oxus, a mighty stream, swollen with melting snows. There were no boats and no wood to build them, so Alexander pioneered his men across in "life-preservers" made out of their leather tent coverings and stuffed with straw. This river impressed the Greeks even more than the Euphrates and Tigris, as it impressed many an explorer and poet since these early days. Let us recall Matthew Arnold's famous description of the Oxus, now seen for the first time by the Greeks. "But the majestic river floated on, Out of the mist and hum of that low land, Into the frosty starlight, and there moved * * * * * Brimming, and bright, and large; then sands begin To hem his watery march and dam his streams, And split his currents; that for many a league The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles-- Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had, In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere, A foil'd circuitous wanderer--till at last The long'd for dash of waves is heard, and wide His luminous home of waters opens, bright And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea." Here in this valley the Greeks met more determined opposition than they had yet encountered since entering Asia, and over two years were occupied in reducing this single district (now Bokhara and Turkestan) to submission, though it was only some three hundred and fifty miles square, and in one single year Alexander had conquered a kingdom over one thousand miles in width. It was not till the spring of 327 B.C. that he was ready to cross the Hindu Koosh and begin the great expedition into India. The night before the start Alexander discovered that his troops were now so heavily laden with spoils that they were quite unfit for the long march. So in the early morning, when they were all ready to start, he suddenly set fire to his own baggage, and, giving orders that all his men were to do the same, the army started for the passes of the lofty mountain range. And-- "... as a troop of pedlars from Kabul Cross underneath the Indian Caucasus, That vast sky neighbouring mountain of milk snow; Crossing so high, that, as they mount, they pass Long flocks of travelling birds dead on the snow, Choked by the air, and scarce can they themselves Slake their parch'd throats with sugar'd mulberries-- In single file they move, and stop their breath, For fear they should dislodge the o'erhanging snows." The banks of the river of Kabul were reached at last. Sending part of the army by the now famous Kyber Pass toward the Indus, Alexander himself undertook to subdue the mountain tribes and get control of the Chitral passes. The shepherds of this region opposed him vigorously, but swiftly and pitilessly the King of Asia sacked their peaceful homes, and city after city fell to him as he advanced towards the boundaries of Kashmir. At last the valley of the Indus was reached. A bridge of boats was hastily thrown over, and Alexander and his army passed to the other side. Porus, the ruler of the country between the Indus and the river Hydaspes (Jehlam), sent presents of welcome to the invader, including three thousand animals for sacrifice, ten thousand sheep, thirty elephants, two hundred talents of silver, and seven hundred horsemen. The new king was also greeted with presents of ivory and precious stones. Even from far Kashmir came greetings to Alexander, whose fame was spreading rapidly. He now entered the Punjab, the "Land of the Five Rivers." But on the other side of the river Hydaspes a different reception awaited him. There the king (Porus) had assembled a sturdy, well-disciplined troop to dispute the passage of the river, which still separated the new King of Asia from his territory. But under cover of a mighty thunderstorm Alexander contrived to cross, though the river was rushing down yellow and fierce after the rains. Secretly the Greeks put together their thirty-oared galleys hidden in a wood, and utterly surprised Porus by landing on the other side. In their strange wanderings the Greeks had fought under varying conditions, but they had never faced elephants before. Nevertheless, they brilliantly repulsed an onslaught of these animals, who slowly retreated, "facing the foe, like ships backing water, and merely uttering a shrill, piping sound." Despite the elephants the old story was repeated, civilised arms triumphed over barbarians, and the army of Porus was annihilated, his chariots shattered, and thirty-three thousand men slain. The kingdom beyond the Hydaspes was now Alexander's. Ordering a great fleet of rafts and boats to be built for his proposed voyage to the mouth of the Indus, he pushed on to complete the conquest of the Five Stream Land, or the Punjab--the last province of the great Persian Empire. This was India--all that was known at this time. The India of the Ganges valley was beyond the knowledge of the Western world--the Ganges itself unknown to the Persians. And Alexander saw no reason to change his mind. "The great sea surrounds the whole earth," he stoutly maintained. But when he reached the eastern limit of the Punjab and heard that beyond lay a fertile land "where the inhabitants were skilled in agriculture, where there were elephants in yet greater abundance and men were superior in stature and courage," the world stretched out before him in an unexpected direction, and he longed to explore farther, to conquer new and utterly unknown worlds! But at last his men struck. They were weary, some were wounded, some were ill; seventy days of incessant rain had taken the heart out of them. "I am not ignorant, soldiers," said Alexander to the hesitating troops, "that during the last few days the natives of this country have been spreading all sorts of rumours to work upon your fears. The Persians in this way sought to terrify you with the gates of Cilicia, with the plains of Mesopotamia, with the Tigris and Euphrates, and yet this river you crossed by a ford and that by means of a bridge. By my troth, we had long ago fled from Asia could fables have been able to scare us. We are not standing on the threshold of our enterprise, but at the very close. We have already reached the sunrise and the ocean, and unless your sloth and cowardice prevent, we shall thence return in triumph to our native land, having conquered the earth to its remotest bounds. I beseech you that ye desert not your king just at the very moment when he is approaching the limits of the inhabited world." But the soldiers, "with their heads bent earthwards," stood in silence. It was not that they _would_ not follow him beyond the sunset; they _could_ not. Their tears began to flow, sobs reached the ears of Alexander, his anger turned to pity, and he wept with his men. "Oh, sir," at last cried one of his men, "we have done and suffered up to the full measure of the capacity of mortal nature. We have traversed seas and lands, and know them better than do the inhabitants themselves. We are standing now almost on the earth's utmost verge, and yet you are preparing to go in quest of an India unknown even to the Indians themselves. You would fain root out, from their hidden recesses and dens, a race of men that herd with snakes and wild beasts, so that you may traverse as a conqueror more regions than the sun surveys. But while your courage will be ever growing, our vigour is fast waning to its end. See how bloodless be our bodies, pierced with how many wounds and gashed with how many scars! Our weapons are blunt, our armour worn out! We have been driven to assume the Persian dress! Which of us has a horse? We have conquered all the world, but are ourselves destitute of all things." The conqueror was at last conquered. The order to turn back was reluctantly given by the disappointed king and leader. It was received with shouts of joy from the mixed multitudes of his followers, and the expedition faced for home. Back they marched through the new lands where no less than two thousand cities had owned his sway, till they came to the banks of the river where the ships were building. Two thousand boats were ready, including eighty thirty-oared galleys. It was now September 326 B.C. Nearchus from Crete was made Admiral of the new fleet, which at dawn one October morning pushed out upon the river Hydaspes and set sail downstream towards the unknown sea, Alexander standing proudly on the prow of the royal galley. The trumpets rang out, the oars moved, and the strange argosy, "such as had never been seen before in these parts," made its way down the unknown river to the unknown sea. Natives swarmed to the banks of the river to wonder at the strange sight, marvelling specially to see horses as passengers on board! The greater part of the army followed the ships on land, marching along the shores. At last the waters of the Hydaspes mingled with those of the Indus, and onwards down this great river floated the Persian fleet. Alexander had no pilots, no local knowledge of the country, but with his "unquenchable ambition to see the ocean and reach the boundaries of the world," he sailed on, "ignorant of everything on the way they had to pass." In vain they asked the natives assembled on the banks how far distant was the sea; they had never heard of the sea! At last they found a tide mixing its salt waters with the fresh. Soon a flood-tide burst upon them, forcing back the current of the river, and scattering the fleet. The sailors of the tideless Mediterranean knew nothing of the rise and fall of tides. They were in a state of panic and consternation. Some tried to push off their ships with long poles, others tried to row against the incoming tide; prows were dashed against poops, oars were broken, sterns were bumped, until at last the sea had flowed over all the level land near the river mouth. Suddenly a new danger appeared! The tide turned and the sea began to recede. Further misfortunes now befell the ships. Many were left high and dry; most of them were damaged in some way or another. Alexander sent horsemen to the seashore with instructions to watch for the return of the tide and to ride back in haste so that the fleet might be prepared. Thus they got safely out to sea on the next high tide. Alexander's explorations were now at an end. Leaving Nearchus to explore the seacoast at the mouth of the Indus, he left the spot near where the town of Hyderabad now stands, and turned his face toward the home he was never to reach. We must not linger over his terrible coast journey through the scorching desert of Beluchistan the billows of sand, the glare of the barren sea, the awful thirst, the long hungry marches of forty miles a day under the burning Eastern sun. [Illustration: A SKETCH-MAP OF ALEXANDER'S CHIEF EXPLORATORY MARCHES FROM ATHENS TO HYDERABAD AND GAZA. The dotted line shows the course of Nearchus' voyage down the river Indus, along the northern shores of the Indian Ocean, and up the Persian Gulf to Babylonia.] Our story is one of discovery, and we must turn to Nearchus, Admiral of the fleet, left behind at the mouth of the Indus to explore the coast to the Persian Gulf, where he was to meet Alexander if possible. Shortly after the fleet had emerged from the mouth of the Indus a violent south-west monsoon began to blow and Nearchus was obliged to seek shelter in a harbour, which he called the port of Alexander, but which to-day is known as Karachi, the most western seaport of India. The waters of the Indian Ocean were quite unknown to the Greeks, and they could only coast along in sight of land, anchoring at different points for the men to land and get water and food. Past the wild barren shores of Beluchistan they made their way; the natives subsisted on fish entirely even as they do to-day--even their huts being made of fish bones and their bread of pounded fish. They had but one adventure in their five months' cruise to the Persian Gulf, but we have a graphic account of how the terrified Greeks met a shoal of whales and how they frightened the whales away. Here is the story. One day towards daybreak they suddenly saw water spouting up from the sea, as if being violently carried upwards by whirlwinds. The sailors, feeling very frightened, asked their native guides what it meant. The natives replied that it was caused by whales blowing the water up into the air. At this explanation the Greek sailors were panic-stricken and dropped the oars from their hands. Nearchus saw that something must be done at once. So he bade the men draw up their ships in line as if for battle and row forward side by side towards the whales, shouting and splashing with their oars. At a given signal they duly advanced, and when they came near the sea-monsters they shouted with all their might and blew their trumpets and made all possible noise with their oars. On hearing which, says the old story, "the whales took fright and plunged into the depths, but not long after came to the surface again close to the sterns of the vessels and once more spouted great jets of water. Then the sailors shouted aloud at their happy and unlooked-for escape," and Nearchus was cheered as the saviour of the fleet. It is not uncommon to-day for steamers bound from Aden to Bombay to encounter what is called a "school of whales" similar to those which alarmed the fleet of Nearchus in the year 323 B.C. The expedition was completely successful and Nearchus pioneered his fleet to the mouth of the Euphrates. But the death of Alexander the Great and the confusion that followed set back the advance of geographical discovery in this direction for some time. [Illustration: ALEXANDRIA IN PIZZIGANI'S MAP, FOURTEENTH CENTURY. The river with the buildings on its bank is the Nile.] Alexandria--one of the many towns founded by Alexander--had become the world centre of the learned from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its position was unrivalled. Situated at the mouth of the Nile, it commanded the Mediterranean Sea, while by means of the Red Sea it held easy communication with India and Arabia. When Egypt had come under the sway of Alexander, he had made one of his generals ruler over that country, and men of intellect collected there to study and to write. A library was started, and a Greek, Eratosthenes, held the post of librarian at Alexandria for forty years, namely, from 240-196 B.C. During this period he made a collection of all the travels and books of earth description--the first the world had ever known--and stored them in the Great Library of which he must have felt so justly proud. But Eratosthenes did more than this. He was the originator of Scientific Geography. He realised that no maps could be properly laid down till something was known of the size and shape of the earth. By this time all men of science had ceased to believe that the world was flat; they thought of it as a perfect round, but fixed at the centre in space. Many had guessed at the size of the earth. Some said it was forty thousand miles round, but Eratosthenes was not content with guessing. He studied the length of the shadow thrown by the sun at Alexandria and compared it with that thrown by the sun at Syene, near the first cataract of the Nile, some five hundred miles distant, and, as he thought, in the same longitude. The differences in the length of these two shadows he calculated would represent one-fiftieth of the circumference of the earth which would accordingly be twenty-five thousand miles. There was no one to tell him whether he had calculated right or wrong, but we know to-day that he was wonderfully right. But he must know more. He must find out how much of this earth was habitable. To the north and south of the known countries men declared it was too hot or too cold to live. So he decided that from north to south, that is, from the land of Thule to the land of Punt (Somaliland), the habitable earth stretched for some three thousand eight hundred miles, while from east to west--that is, from the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) to India--would be some eight thousand miles. All the rest was ocean. Ignoring the division of the world into three continents, he divided it into two, north and south, divided by the Mediterranean and by a long range of mountains intersecting the whole of Asia. Then the famous librarian drew a map of the world for his library at Alexandria, but it has perished with all the rest of the valuable treasure collected in this once celebrated city. We know that he must have made a great many mistakes in drawing a map of his little island world which measured eight thousand miles by three thousand eight hundred miles. It must have been quaintly arranged. The Caspian Sea was connected with a Northern Ocean, the Danube sent a tributary to the Adriatic, there was no Bay of Biscay, the British Isles lay in the wrong direction, Africa was not half its right size, the Ganges flowed into the Eastern Ocean, Ceylon was a huge island stretching east and west, while across the whole of Asia a mountain chain stretched in one long unbroken line. And yet, with all his errors, he was nearer the truth than men three centuries later. CHAPTER VI PYTHEAS FINDS THE BRITISH ISLES For some centuries past men had been pushing eastward, and to west, vast lands lay unexplored, undreamt of, amongst them a little far-off island "set in a silver sea." Pytheas was the first explorer to bring the world news of the British Isles. About the time that Alexander was making his way eastward through Persia, Pytheas was leaving the Greek colony of Marseilles for the west and north. The Phoenicians, with their headquarters at Carthage, had complete command of the mineral trade of Spain--the Mexico of the ancient world. They knew where to find the gold and silver from the rivers--indeed, they said that the coast, from the Tagus to the Pyrenees, was "stuffed with mines of gold and silver and tin." The Greeks were now determined to see for themselves--the men of Carthage should no longer have it all their own way. Where were these tin islands, kept so secret by the master-mariners of the ancient world? A committee of merchants met at Marseilles and engaged the services of Pytheas, a great mathematician, and one who made a study of the effect of the moon on the tides. All sorts of vague rumours had reached the ears of Pytheas about the northern regions he was about to visit. He would discover the homes of the tin and amber merchants, he would find the people who lived "at the back of the north wind," he would reach a land of perpetual sunshine, where swans sang like nightingales and life was one unending banquet. So Pytheas, the mathematician of Marseilles started off on his northern trip. Unfortunately, his diary and book called _The Circuit of the Earth_ have perished, and our story of geographical discovery is the poorer. But these facts have survived. The ships first touched at Cadiz, the "Tyre of the West," a famous port in those days, where Phoenician merchants lived, "careless and secure" and rich. This was the limit of Greek geographical knowledge; here were the Pillars of Hercules, beyond which all was dim and mysterious and interesting. Five days' sail, that is to say, some three hundred miles along the coast of Spain, brought Pytheas to Cape St. Vincent. He thought he was navigating the swift ocean river flowing round the world. He was, therefore, surprised to find as he rounded the Cape that the current had ceased, or, in his own words, the "ebb came to an end." Three days more and they were at the mouth of the Tagus. Near this part of the coast lay the Tin Islands, according to Greek ideas, though even to-day their exact locality is uncertain. Pytheas must have heard the old tradition that the Cassiterides were ten in number and lay near each other in the ocean, that they were inhabited by people who wore black cloaks and long tunics reaching to the feet, that they walked with long staves and subsisted by their cattle. They led a wandering life; they bartered hides, tin, and lead with the merchants in exchange for pottery, salt, and implements of bronze. That these islands had already been visited by Himilco the Carthaginian seems fairly certain. He had started from Cadiz for the north when Hanno started for the south. From the Tin Islands his fleet had ventured forth into the open sea. Thick fogs had hidden the sun and the ships were driven south before a north wind till they reached, though they did not know it, the Sargasso Sea, famous for its vast plains of seaweed, through which it was difficult to push the ships. "Sea animals," he tells us, "crept upon the tangled weed." It has been thought that with a little good fortune Himilco might have discovered America two thousand years before the birth of Columbus. But Himilco returned home by the Azores or Fortunate Islands, as they were called. Leaving the Tin Islands, Pytheas voyaged on to Cape Finisterre, landing on the island of Ushant, where he found a temple served by women priests who kept up a perpetual fire in honour of their god. Thence Pytheas sailed prosperously on up the English Channel till he struck the coast of Kent. Britain, he announced, was several days' journey from Ushant, and about one hundred and seventy miles to the north. He sailed round part of the coast, making notes of distances, but these are curiously exaggerated. This was not unnatural, for the only method of determining distance was roughly based on the number of miles that a ship could go in an hour along the shore. Measuring in this primitive fashion, Pytheas assures us that Britain is a continent of enormous size, and that he has discovered a "new world." It is, he says, three cornered in shape, something like the head of a battleaxe. The south side, lying opposite the coast of France, is eight hundred and thirty-five miles in length, the eastern coast is sixteen hundred and sixty-five miles, the western two thousand two hundred and twenty-two--indeed, the whole country was thought to be over four thousand miles in circumference. These calculations must have been very upsetting to the old geographers of that age, because up to this time they had decided that the whole world was only three thousand four hundred miles long and six thousand eight hundred broad. He tells us that he made journeys into the interior of Britain, that the inhabitants drink mead, and that there is an abundance of wheat in the fields. "The natives," he says, "collect the sheaves in great barns and thrash out the corn there, because they have so little sunshine that an open thrashing-place would be of little use in that land of clouds and rain." He seems to have voyaged north as far as the Shetland Islands, but he never saw Ireland. Having returned from the north of the Thames, Pytheas crossed the North Sea to the mouth of the Rhine, a passage which took about two and a half days. He gives a pitiable account of the people living on the Dutch coast and their perpetual struggle with the sea. The natives had not learnt the art of making dykes and embankments. A high tide with a wind setting toward the shore would sweep over the low-lying country and swamp their homes. A mounted horseman could barely gallop from the rush and force of these strong North Sea tides. But the Greek geographers would not believe this; they only knew the tideless Mediterranean, and they thought Pytheas was lying when he told of the fierce northern sea. Pytheas sailed past the mouth of the Elbe, noting the amber cast upon the shore by the high spring tides. But all these interesting discoveries paled before the famous land of Thule, six days' voyage north of Britain, in the neighbourhood of the frozen ocean. Grand excitement reigned among geographers when they heard of Thule, and a very sea of romance rose up around the name. Had Pytheas indeed found the end of the world? Was it an island? Was it mainland? In the childhood of the world, when so little was known and so much imagined, men's minds caught at the name of Thule--Ultima Thule--far-away Thule, and weaved round it many and beautiful legends. But to-day we ask: Was it Iceland? Was it Lapland? Was it one of the Shetland Isles? [Illustration: NORTH BRITAIN AND THE ISLAND OF THULE. From Mercator's edition of Ptolemy's map.] "Pytheas said that the farthest parts of the world are those which lie about Thule, the northernmost of the Britannic Isles, but he never said whether Thule was an island or whether the world was habitable by man as far as that point. I should think myself"--the speaker is Strabo, a famous Greek traveller who wrote seventeen books of geography--"I should think myself that the northern limit of habitude lies much farther to the south, for the writers of our age say nothing of any place beyond Ireland, which is situate in front of the northern parts of Britain." Pytheas said that Thule was six days' sail north of Britain. "But who in his senses would believe this?" cries Strabo again. "For Pytheas, who described Thule, has been shown to be the falsest of men. A traveller, starting from the middle of Britain and going five hundred miles to the north, would come to a country somewhere about Ireland, where living would be barely possible." The first account of the Arctic regions likewise reads like pure romance to the ignorant and untravelled. "After one day's journey to the north of Thule," says Pytheas, "men come to a sluggish sea, where there is no separation of sea, land, and air, but a mixture of these elements like the substance of jelly-fish, through which one can neither walk nor sail." Here the nights were very short, sometimes only two hours, after which the sun rose again. This, in fact, was the "Sleeping Palace of the Sun." With all this wealth of discovery, Pytheas returned home by the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the Gironde; thence he sailed up the Garonne, and from the modern town of Bordeaux he reached Marseilles by an overland journey. CHAPTER VII JULIUS CAESAR AS EXPLORER Our next explorer is Julius Caesar. As Alexander the Great had combined the conqueror with the explorer, so now history repeats itself, and we find the Roman Caesar not only conquering, but exploring. It was Caesar who first dispelled the mist that lay over the country about the French Seine, the German Rhine, the English Thames--Caesar who gives us the first graphic account of crossing the English Channel from France to England. Pytheas had hinted at the fog-bound lands of the north--Caesar brought them into the light of day. Since the days of Alexander the centre of Empire had shifted from Greece to Rome, and Rome was now conquering and annexing land, as Persia had done in the olden days. Hence it was that Julius Caesar was in the year 58 B.C. appointed Governor of a new province recently brought under Roman sway, stretching from the Alps to the Garonne and northward to the Lake of Geneva, which at this time marked the frontier of the Roman Empire. Caesar made no secret of his intentions to subdue the tribes to the north of his province and bring all Gaul under the dominion of Rome. His appointment carried with it the command of four legions, including some twenty thousand soldiers. His chance soon came, and we find Caesar, with all the ability of a great commander, pushing forward with his army into the very heart of France one hundred and fifty miles beyond the Roman frontier. On the banks of the river Saone he defeated a large body of Celtic people who were migrating from Switzerland to make their homes in the warmer and roomier plains at the foot of the Pyrenees. While the defeated Celts returned to their chilly homes among the mountains, victorious Caesar resolved to push on at the head of his army toward the Rhine, where some German tribes under a "ferocious headstrong savage" threatened to overrun the country. After marching through utterly unknown country for three days, he heard that fresh swarms of invaders had crossed the Rhine, intending to occupy the more fertile tracts on the French side. They were making for the town we now call Besancon--then, as now, strongly fortified, and nearly surrounded by the river Doubs. By forced marches night and day, Caesar hastened to the town and took it before the arrival of the invaders. Accounts of the German tribes even now approaching were brought in by native traders and Gaulish chiefs, until the Roman soldiers were seized with alarm. Yes, said the traders, these Germans were "men of huge stature, incredible valour, and practised skill in wars; many a time they had themselves come across them, and had not been able to look them in the face or meet the glare of their piercing eyes." The Romans felt they were in an unknown land, about to fight against an unknown foe. Violent panic seized them, "completely paralysing every one's judgment and nerve." Some could not restrain their tears; others shut themselves up in their tents and bemoaned their fate. "All over the camp men were making their wills," until Caesar spoke, and the panic ceased. Seven days' march brought them to the plain of Alsace, some fifty miles from the Rhine. A battle was fought with the German tribes, and "the enemy all turned tail and did not cease their flight until they reached the Rhine." Some swam across, some found boats, many were killed by the Romans in hot pursuit. For the first time Romans beheld the German Rhine--that great river that was to form a barrier for so long between them and the tribes beyond. But Caesar's exploration was not to end here. The following year found him advancing against the Belgae--tribes living between the Rhine and the Seine. In one brilliant campaign he subdued the whole of north-eastern Gaul from the Seine to the Rhine. Leaving Roman soldiers in the newly conquered country, he returned to his province, and was some eight hundred miles away when he heard that a general rebellion was breaking out in that part we now know as Brittany. He at once ordered ships to be built on the Loire, "which flows into the ocean," oarsmen to be trained, seamen and pilots assembled. The spring of 56 B.C. found Caesar at the seat of war. His ships were ready on the Loire. But the navy of the Veneti was strong. They were a sea-going folk, who knew their own low rocky coast, intersected by shallow inlets of the sea; they knew their tides and their winds. Their flat-bottomed boats were suitable to shallows and ebbing tides. Bows and stern stood high out of the water to resist heavy seas and severe gales; the hulls were built of oak. Leather was used for sails to withstand the violent ocean storms. The long Roman galleys were no match for these, and things would have gone badly had not Caesar devised a plan for cutting the enemy's rigging with hooks "sharpened at the end and fixed to long poles." With these, the Romans cut the rigging of the enemy's ships forming the fleet of Brittany; the sails fell and the ships were rendered useless. One after another they were easily captured, and at sunset the victory lay with the Romans. The whole of Gaul, from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, seemed now subdued. Caesar had conquered as he explored, and the skill of his well-disciplined army triumphed everywhere over the untrained courage of the barbarian tribes. Still, the German tribes were giving trouble about the country of the Rhine, and in the words of the famous _Commentaries_, "Caesar was determined to cross the Rhine, but he hardly thought it safe to cross in boats. Therefore, although the construction of a bridge presented great difficulties on account of the breadth, swiftness, and depth of the stream, he nevertheless thought it best to make the attempt or else not cross at all." Indeed, he wanted to impress the wild German people on the other side with a sense of the vast power of the Roman Empire. The barbarian tribes beyond must, indeed, have been impressed with the skill of the Roman soldier. For in ten days the bridge was completed: timber had been hewn from the forest, brought to the banks of the Rhine, worked into shape, piles driven into the bed of the river, beams laid across. And Caesar led his army in triumph to the other side. They stood for the first time in the land of the Germans, near the modern town of Coblenz, and after eighteen days on the farther side, they returned to Gaul, destroying the bridge behind them. Caesar had now a fresh adventure in view. He was going to make his way to Britain. The summer of 55 B.C. was passing, and "in these parts, the whole of Gaul having a northerly trend, winter sets in early," wrote Caesar afterwards. There would be no time to conquer, but he could visit the island, find out for himself what the people were like, learn about harbours and landing-places, "for of all this the Greeks knew practically nothing. No one, indeed, readily undertakes the voyage to Britain except traders, and even they know nothing of it except the coast." Caesar summoned all the traders he could collect and inquired the size of the island, what tribes dwelt there, their names, their customs, and the shortest sea passage. Then he sent for the ships which had vanquished the fleet of Brittany the previous year; he also assembled some eighty merchant ships on the northern coast of Gaul, probably not very far from Calais. It was near the end of August, when soon after midnight the wind served and he set sail. A vision of the great Roman--determined, resolute--rises before us as, standing on the deck of the galley, he looks out on to the dark waters of the unknown sea bound for the coast of England. After a slow passage the little fleet arrived under the steep white cliffs of the southern coast about nine o'clock next morning. Armed forces of barbarians stood on the heights above Dover, and, finding it impossible to land, Caesar gave orders to sail some seven miles farther along the coast, where they ran the ships aground not far from Deal. But the visit of the Romans to Britain on this occasion lasted but three days, for a violent storm scattered the ships with the horses on board. "The same night," says Caesar, "it happened to be full moon, which generally causes very high tides in the ocean, a fact of which our men were not aware." Indeed, we may well believe that a night of full moon and an unusually high tide would be a mystery to those children of the Mediterranean. Their ships had been beached and were lying high and dry when the rapidly rising tide overwhelmed them. Cables were broken, anchors lost, panic ensued. But Caesar's glory lay in overcoming obstacles, and it is well known how he got his troops and ships safely back across the Channel, and how preparations were hurried on in Gaul for a second invasion of Britain. This is not the place for the story of his campaign. He was the first to raise the curtain on the mysterious islands discovered by Pytheas. "Far to the west, in the ocean wide, Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies, Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old." Caesar's remarks on this new-found land are interesting for us to-day. He tells us of "a river called the Thames, about eight miles from the sea." "The interior of Britain," he says, "is inhabited by a people who, according to tradition, are aboriginal. The population is immense; homesteads closely resembling those of the Gauls are met with at every turn, and cattle are very numerous. Gold coins are in use, or iron bars of fixed weight. Hares, fowls, and geese they think it wrong to taste; but they keep them for pastime or amusement. The climate is more equable than in Gaul, the cold being less severe. The island is triangular in shape, one side being opposite Gaul. One corner of this side, by Kent--the landing-place for almost all ships from Gaul--has an easterly, and the lower one a westerly, aspect. The extent of this side is about five hundred miles. The second trends off towards Spain. Off the coast here is Ireland, which is considered only half as large as Britain. Halfway across is an island called 'Man,' and several smaller islands also are believed to be situated opposite this coast, in which there is continuous night for thirty days. The length of this side is eight hundred miles. Thus the whole island is two thousand miles in circumference. The people of the interior do not, for the most part, cultivate grain, but live on milk and flesh-meat, and clothe themselves with skins. All Britons, without exception, stain themselves with woad, which produces a bluish tint. They wear their hair long." Caesar crossed the Thames. "The river can only be forded at one spot," he tells us, "and there with difficulty." Farther he did not go. And so this is all that was known of Britain for many a long year to come. CHAPTER VIII STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY Strabo wrote his famous geography near the beginning of the Christian era, but he knew nothing of the north of England, Scotland, or Wales. He insisted on placing Ireland to the north, and scoffed at Pytheas' account of Thule. And yet he boasted a wider range than any other writer on geography, "for that those who had penetrated farther towards the West had not gone so far to the East, and those on the contrary who had seen more of the East had seen less of the West." Like Herodotus, Strabo had travelled himself from Armenia and western Italy, from the Black Sea to Egypt and up the Nile to Philae. But his seventeen volumes--vastly important to his contemporaries--read like a romance to us to-day, and a glance at the map laid down according to his descriptions is like a vague and distorted caricature of the real thing. And yet, according to the men of his times, he "surpasses all the geographical writings of antiquity, both in grandeur of plan and in abundance and variety of its materials." Strabo has summed up for us the knowledge of the ancient world as it was in the days of the Emperor Caesar Augustus of the great Roman Empire, as it was when in far-off Syria the Christ was born and the greater part of the known earth was under the sway of Rome. A wall-map had already been designed by order of Augustus to hang in a public place in Rome--the heart of the Empire--so that the young Romans might realise the size of their inheritance, while a list of the chief places on the roads, which, radiating from Rome, formed a network over the Empire, was inscribed on the Golden Milestone in the Forum. [Illustration: A PORTION OF AN OLD ROMAN MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING THE ROADS THROUGH THE EMPIRE, RIVERS, MOUNTAINS, AND THE SURROUNDING SEAS. This is a portion--a few inches--taken from the famous Peutinger Table, a long strip map on parchment, of the fourth century, derived from Augustan maps according to the measurements of Caesar Augustus Agrippa. It will be noticed how the roads, beginning with the Twelve Ways, which start from Rome in the centre, go in straight lines over all obstacles to the towns of the Empire. Distances are marked in stadia (about 1/9 mile).] We may well imagine with what keen interest the schoolmen of Alexandria would watch the extension of the Roman Empire. Here Strabo had studied, here or at Rome he probably wrote his great work toward the close of a long life. He has read his Homer and inclines to take every word he says as true. Herodotus he will have none of. "Herodotus and other writers trifle very much," he asserts, "when they introduce into their histories the marvellous like an interlude of some melody." In like manner he disbelieves poor Pytheas and his accounts of the land of Ultima Thule and his marvellous walks through Britain, while he clings to the writings of Eratosthenes. But in common with them all Strabo believes the world to be one vast island, surrounded on all sides by ocean into which the rivers flow, and the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf are but inlets. So is also the Mediterranean or "Our Sea," as he prefers to call it. This earth-island reaches north to south, from Ireland, "barely habitable on account of the cold," to the cinnamon country (Somaliland), "the most southerly point of the habitable earth." From west to east it stretches from the Pillars of Hercules right "through the middle of Our Sea" to the shores of Asia Minor, then across Asia by an imaginary chain of mountains to an imaginary spot where the Ganges, lately discovered, emptied its waters into the world-surrounding ocean stream. [Illustration: THE WORLD-ISLAND ACCORDING TO STRABO, 18 A.D. The blank space within the circle is one vast sea surrounding the world.] The breadth of the habitable earth is three thousand miles, the length about seven thousand--a little world, indeed, with the greater world lying all around it, still undreamt of by the old student of geography and the traveller after truth. He begins his book with a detailed account of southern Spain. He tells of her two hundred towns. "Those best known are situated on the rivers, estuaries, and seas; but the two which have acquired the greatest name and importance are Cordova and Cadiz. After these Seville is the most noted.... A vast number of people dwell along the Guadalquivir, and you may sail up it almost a hundred and twenty miles from the sea to Cordova and the places a little higher up. The banks and little inlets of this river are cultivated with the greatest diligence. The eye is also delighted with groves and gardens, which in this district are met with in the highest perfection. For fifty miles the river is navigable for ships of considerable size, but for the cities higher up smaller vessels are employed, and thence to Cordova river-boats. These are now constructed of planks joined together, but they were formerly made out of a single trunk. A chain of mountains, rich in metal, runs parallel to the Guadalquivir, approaching the river, sometimes more, sometimes less, toward the north." He grows enthusiastic over the richness of this part of southern Spain, famous from ancient days under the name of Tartessus for its wealth. "Large quantities of corn and wine are exported, besides much oil, which is of the first quality, also wax, honey, and pitch ... the country furnishes the timber for their shipbuilding. They have likewise mineral salt and not a few salt streams. A considerable quantity of salted fish is exported, not only from hence, but also from the remainder of the coast beyond the Pillars. Formerly they exported large quantities of garments, but they now send the unmanufactured wool remarkable for its beauty. The stuffs manufactured are of incomparable texture. There is a superabundance of cattle and a great variety of game, while on the other hand there are certain little hares which burrow in the ground (rabbits). These creatures destroy both seeds and trees by gnawing their roots. They are met with throughout almost the whole of Spain. It is said that formerly the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca sent a deputation to the Romans requesting that a new land might be given them, as they were quite driven out of their country by these animals, being no longer able to stand against their vast multitudes." The seacoast on the Atlantic side abounds in fish, says Strabo. "The congers are quite monstrous, far surpassing in size those of Our Sea. Shoals of rich fat tunny fish are driven hither from the seacoast beyond. They feed on the fruit of stunted oak, which grows at the bottom of the sea and produces very large acorns. So great is the quantity of fruit, that at the season when they are ripe the whole coast on either side of the Pillars is covered with acorns thrown up by the tides. The tunny fish become gradually thinner, owing to the failure of their food as they approach the Pillars from the outer sea." He describes, too, the metals of this wondrous land--gold, silver, copper, and iron. It is astonishing to think that in the days of Strabo the silver mines employed forty thousand workmen, and produced something like 900 pounds a day in our modern money! But we cannot follow Strabo over the world in all his detail. He tells us of a people living north of the Tagus, who slept on the ground, fed on acorn-bread, and wore black cloaks by day and night. He does not think Britain is worth conquering--Ireland lies to the north, not west, of Britain; it is a barren land full of cannibals and wrapped in eternal snows--the Pyrenees run parallel to the Rhine--the Danube rises near the Alps--even Italy herself runs east and west instead of north and south. His remarks on India are interesting. "The reader," he says, "must receive the accounts of this country with indulgence. Few persons of our nation have seen it; the greater part of what they relate is from report. Very few of the merchants who now sail from Egypt by the Nile and the Arabian Gulf to India have proceeded as far as the Ganges." He is determined not to be led astray by the fables of the great size of India. Some had told him it was a third of the whole habitable world, some that it took four months to walk through the plain only. "Ceylon is said to be an island lying out at sea seven days' sail from the most southerly parts of India. Its length is about eight hundred miles. It produces elephants." Strabo died about the year 21 A.D., and half a century passed before Pliny wrote _An Account of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, and Peoples who now Exist or Formerly Existed_. Strange to say, he never refers in the most distant way to his famous predecessor Strabo. He has but little to add to the earth-knowledge of Strabo. But he gives us a fuller account of Great Britain, based on the fresh discoveries of Roman generals. CHAPTER IX THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND PLINY In the year 43 A.D. the Emperor Claudius resolved to send an expedition to the British coast, lying amid the mists and fog of the Northern Ocean. A gigantic army landed near the spot where Caesar had landed just a hundred years before. The discovery and conquest of Britain now began in real earnest. The Isle of Wight was overrun by Romans; the south coast was explored. Roman soldiers lost their lives in the bogs and swamps of Gloucestershire. The eastern counties, after fierce opposition, submitted at the last. The spirit of Caractacus and Boadicea spread from tribe to tribe and the Romans were constantly assailed. But gradually they swept the island. They reached the banks of the river Tyne; they crossed the Tweed and explored as far as the Firths of Clyde and Forth. From the coast of Galloway the Romans beheld for the first time the dim outline of the Irish coast. In the year 83 A.D. Agricola, a new Roman commander, made his way beyond the Firth of Forth. "Now is the time to penetrate into the heart of Caledonia and to discover the utmost limits of Britain," cried the Romans, as they began their advance to the Highlands of Scotland. While a Roman fleet surveyed the coasts and harbours, Agricola led his men up the valley of the Tay to the edge of the Highlands, but he could not follow the savage Caledonians into their rugged and inaccessible mountains. To the north of Scotland they never penetrated, and no part of Ireland ever came under Roman sway, in that air "the Roman eagle never fluttered." The Roman account of Britain at this time is interesting. "Britain," says Tacitus, "the largest of all the islands which have come within the knowledge of the Romans, stretches on the east towards Germany, on the west towards Spain, and on the south it is even within sight of France.... The Roman fleet, at this period first sailing round this remotest coast, gave certain proof that Britain was an island, and at the same time discovered and subdued the Orkney Islands, till then unknown. Thule was also distinctly seen, which winter and eternal snow had hitherto concealed.... The sky in this country is deformed by clouds and frequent rains; but the cold is never extremely rigorous. The earth yields gold and silver and other metals--the ocean produces pearls." The account of Ireland is only from hearsay. "This island," continues Tacitus, "is less than Britain, but larger than those of Our Sea. Situated between Britain and Spain and lying commodiously to the Bay of Biscay, it would have formed a very beneficial connection between the most powerful parts of the Empire. Its soil, climate, and the manners and dispositions of its inhabitants are little different from those of Britain. Its ports and harbours are better known from the concourse of merchants for the purposes of commerce." Not only the British Isles, but a good deal of the wild North Sea and the low-lying coast on the opposite side were explored by Roman ships and Roman soldiers. Caesar had crossed the Rhine; he had heard of a great forest which took a man four months to cross, and in 16 A.D. a Roman general, Drusus, penetrated into the interior of Germany. Drusus crossed the Rhine near the coast, made his way across the river Weser, and reached the banks of the Elbe. But the fame of Drusus rests mainly on his navigation of the German Ocean or North Sea in a Roman fleet. Near the mouth of the Rhine a thousand ships were quickly built by expert Romans. "Some were short, with narrow stern and prow and broad in the middle, the easier to endure the shock of the waves; some had flat bottoms that without damage they might run aground; many were fitted for carrying horses and provisions, convenient for sails and swift with oars." The Roman troops were in high spirits as they launched their splendid fleet on the Northern Ocean and sailed prosperously to the mouth of the Elbe, startling the Frisians into submission. But no friendliness greeted them on the farther side of the river. The Germans were ready to defend their land, and further advance was impossible. Returning along the northern coast, the Romans got a taste of the storms of this northern ocean, of which they were in such complete ignorance. "The sea, at first calm," says Tacitus, "resounded with the oars of a thousand ships; but presently a shower of hail poured down from a black mass of clouds, at the same time storms raging on all sides in every variety, the billows rolling now here, now there, obstructed the view and made it impossible to manage the ships. The whole expanse of air and sea was swept by a south-west wind, which, deriving strength from the mountainous regions of Germany, its deep rivers and boundless tract of clouded atmosphere, and rendered still harsher by the rigour of the neighbouring north, tore away the ships, scattered and drove them into the open ocean or upon islands dangerous from precipitous rocks or hidden sandbanks. Having got a little clear of these, but with great difficulty, the tide turning and flowing in the same direction as that in which the wind blew, they were unable to ride at anchor or bale out the water that broke in upon them; horses, beasts of burthen, baggage, even arms were thrown overboard to lighten the holds of the ships, which took in water at their sides, and from the waves, too, running over them. Around were either shores inhabited by enemies, or a sea so vast and unfathomable as to be supposed the limit of the world and unbounded by lands. Part of the fleet was swallowed up; many were driven upon remote islands, where the men perished through famine. The galley of Drusus or, as he was hereafter called, Germanicus, alone reached the mouth of the Weser. Both day and night, amid the rocks and prominences of the shore, he reproached himself as the author of such overwhelming destruction, and was hardly restrained by his friends from destroying himself in the same sea. At last, with the returning tide and a favouring gale, the shattered ships returned, almost all destitute or with garments spread for sails." [Illustration: HULL OF A ROMAN MERCHANT-SHIP. From a Roman model in marble at Greenwich.] The wreck of the Roman fleet in the North Sea made a deep impression on the Roman capital, and many a garbled story of the "extreme parts of the world" was circulated throughout the Empire. Here was new land outside the boundaries of the Empire--country great with possibilities. Pliny, writer of the _Natural History_, now arises and endeavours to clear the minds of his countrymen by some account of these northern regions. Strabo had been dead some fifty years, and the Empire had grown since his days. But Pliny has news of land beyond the Elbe. He can tell us of Scandinavia, "an island of unknown extent," of Norway, another island, "the inhabitants of which sailed as far as Thule," of the Seamen or Swedes who lived in the "northern half of the world." "It is madness to harass the mind with attempts to measure the world," he asserts, but he proceeds to tell us the size of the world as accepted by him. "Our part of the earth, floating as it were in the ocean, which surrounds it, stretching out to the greatest extent from India to the Pillars at Cadiz, is eight thousand five hundred and sixty-eight miles ... the breadth from south to north is commonly supposed to be half its length." But how little was known of the north of Europe at this time is shown by a startling statement that "certain Indians sailing from India for the purposes of commerce had been driven by tempests into Germany." "Thus it appears," concludes Pliny, "that the seas flow completely round the globe and divide it into two parts." How Balbus discovered and claimed for the Empire some of the African desert is related by Pliny. He tells us, too, how another Roman general left the west coast of Africa, marched for ten days, reached Mt. Atlas, and "in a desert of dark-coloured sand met a river which he supposed to be the Niger." The home of the Ethiopians in Africa likewise interested Pliny. "There can be no doubt that the Ethiopians are scorched by their vicinity to the sun's heat, and that they are born like persons who have been burned, with beard and hair frizzled, while in the opposite and frozen parts of the earth there are nations with white skins and long light hair." Pliny's geography was the basis of much mediaeval writing, and his knowledge of the course of the Niger remained unchallenged, till Mungo Park re-discovered it many centuries after. [Illustration: A ROMAN GALLEY, ABOUT 110 A.D. From Trajan's Column at Rome.] CHAPTER X PTOLEMY'S MAPS And so we reach the days of Ptolemy--the last geographer of the Pagan World. This famous Greek was born in Egypt, and the great Roman Empire was already showing signs of decay, while Ptolemy was searching the great Alexandrian library for materials for his book. Alexandria was now the first commercial city of the world, second only to Rome. She supplied the great population in the heart of the Empire with Egyptian corn. Ships sailed from Alexandria to every part of the known world. It was, therefore, a suitable place for Ptolemy to listen to the yarns of the merchants, to read the works of Homer, Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Pliny, and others, to study and observe, and finally to write. He begins his great geography with the north-west extremities of the world--the British Isles, Iverna, and Albion as he calls Ireland and England. But he places Ireland much too far north, and the shape of Scotland has little resemblance to the original.[2] He realised that there were lands to the south of Africa, to the east of Africa, and to the north of Europe, all stretching far away beyond his ken. He agrees with Pliny about the four islands in the neighbourhood of Scandinavia, and draws the Volga correctly, He realises, too, that the Caspian is an inland sea, and unconnected with the surrounding ocean. [Footnote 2: If Ptolemy's longitudes are adjusted, he becomes extraordinarily correct.] [Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--II. THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO PTOLEMY AND THE ROMANS.] Perhaps the most remarkable part of Ptolemy's geography is that which tells us of the lands beyond the Ganges. He knows something of the "Golden Chersonese" or Malay Peninsula, something of China, where "far away towards the north, and bordering on the eastern ocean, there is a land containing a great city from which silk is exported, both raw and spun and woven into textures." The wonder is that Ptolemy did not know more of China, for that land had one of the oldest civilisations in the world, as wondrous as those of Assyria and Egypt. But China had had little or no direct intercourse with the West till after the death of Ptolemy. Merchants had passed between China and India for long centuries, and "the Indians had made journeys in the golden deserts in troops of one or two thousand, and it is said that they do not return from these journeys till the third or fourth year." This was the Desert of Gobi, called golden because it opened the way to wealth. But perhaps the most interesting part of this great geography, which was to inform the world for centuries yet to come, was the construction of a series of twenty-six maps and a general map of the known world. This was one of the most important maps ever constructed, and forms our frontispiece from mediaeval copies of the original. The twelve heads blowing sundry winds on to the world's surface are characteristic of the age. The twenty-six maps are in sections. They are the first maps to be drawn with lines of latitude and longitude. The measurements are very vague. The lines are never ruled; they are drawn uncertainly in red; they are neither straight nor regular, though the spaces between the lines indicate degrees of fifty miles. The maps are crowded with towns, each carefully walled in by little red squares and drawn by hand. The water is all coloured a sombre, greeny blue, and the land is washed in a rich yellow brown. A copy can be seen at the British Museum. It is only by looking back that we can realise the progress made in earth-knowledge. Ptolemy wrote just a thousand years after Homer, when the little world round the Mediterranean had become a great Empire stretching from the British Isles to China. Already the barbaric hordes which haunted the frontiers of the Roman Empire were breaking across the ill-defended boundaries, desolating streams were bursting over the civilised world, until at last the storm broke, the unity of the Empire was ended, commerce broken up, and the darkness of ignorance spread over the earth. During this time little in the way of progress was made, and for the next few centuries our only interest lies in filling up some of the shadowy places of the earth, without extending its known bounds. CHAPTER XI PILGRIM TRAVELLERS Meanwhile a new inspiration had been given to the world, which affected travelling to no small extent. In far-off Roman province of Syria, the Christ had lived, the Christ had died. And His words were ringing through the land: "Go ye and make disciples of all the nations, preach the gospel to every creature." Here at once was a new incentive to travel, a definite reason for men to venture forth into the unknown, to brave dangers, to endure hardship. They must carry their Master's words "unto the ends of the world." The Roman Empire had brought men under one rule; they must now be brought to serve one God. So men passed out of Syria; they landed on the islands in the Mediterranean, they made their way to Asia Minor and across to Greece, until in the year 60 A.D. we get the graphic account of Paul the traveller, one of the first and most famous of the missionaries of the first century. Jerusalem now became, indeed, the world centre. A very stream of pilgrim travellers tramped to the Holy City from far-away lands to see for themselves the land where the Christ had lived and died. The pilgrim age begins with the journey of a woman--the beautiful and learned daughter of the King of Britain, Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine. She was a student of divinity and a devoted Christian. In the year 326 she undertook the difficult journey to Jerusalem, where she is reported to have discovered the "true cross," which had been buried, with Pilate's inscription in "Hebrew and Greek and Latin." When the news of her discovery was noised abroad a very rush of pilgrims took place from every part of the world. Indeed, one pilgrim--his name is unknown--thought it worth while to write a guide-book for the benefit of his fellow-travellers. His _Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem_ is very interesting, being the first Christian guide-book and one of the earliest travel-documents ever written for the use of travellers. This ancient "Bradshaw" has been translated into English and throws light on fourth-century travelling. Enthusiastic indeed must these early pilgrims have been to undertake the long and toilsome journey. [Illustration: THE FIRST STAGES OF A MEDIAEVAL PILGRIMAGE: LONDON TO DOVER. From Matthew of Paris's _Itinerary_, thirteenth century.] The guide-book takes them, save for crossing the Bosphorus, entirely by land. It leads them from the "city of Bordeaux, where is the river Garonne in which the ocean ebbs and flows for one hundred leagues more or less," to Arles, with thirty changes and eleven halts in three hundred and seventy-two miles. There were milestones along the Roman roads to guide them, and houses at regular intervals where horses were kept for posting. From Arles the pilgrim goes north to Avignon, crosses the Alps, and halts at the Italian frontier. Skirting the north of Italy by Turin, Milan, and Padua, he reaches the Danube at Belgrade, passes through Servia and Bulgaria and so reaches Constantinople--the great new city of Constantine. "Grand total from Bordeaux to Constantinople, two thousand two hundred and twenty-one miles, with two hundred and thirty changes and one hundred and twelve halts." "From Constantinople," continues the guide-book, "you cross the strait and walk on through Asia Minor, passing the spot where lies King Hannibal, once King of the Africans." Thus onward through the long dreary miles to Tarsus, where "was born the Apostle Paul," till Syria is reached at last. Then the "Bradshaw" becomes a "Baedeker." Long and detailed accounts are given of the country through which the pilgrim has to pass. From Caesarea he is led to Jezreel by the spot "where David slew Goliath," by "Job's country house" to Sichem, "where Joseph is laid," and thence to Jerusalem. Full accounts follow of the Holy City and Mount Sion, "the little hill of Golgotha where the Lord was crucified," the Mount of Olives, Jericho, Jordan, Bethlehem, and Hebron. "Here is a monument of square form built of stone of wondrous beauty," in which lie Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rebecca, and Leah. "From Constantinople to Jerusalem is one thousand one hundred and fifty-nine miles, with sixty-nine changes and fifty-eight halts." Here the guide-book ends abruptly with a brief summary of distances. Thither then flocked the pilgrims, some by land and some by sea, men and women from all parts of the world. "Even the Briton, separated from our world, leaves the setting sun and seeks a place known to him only by fame and the narrative of the Scriptures." One of the earliest was Paula of Rome--a weak, fragile woman accustomed to a life of luxury and ease, but, fired with the enthusiasm of her religion, she resolved to brave the dangers and hardships of a journey to the East. Her travels were written by St. Jerome. "When the winter was spent and the sea was open," he writes, "she longed and prayed to sail.... She went down to the harbour, accompanied by her brother, her relatives, her connections and, more than these, by her children, who strove to surpass the affection of the kindest of mothers. Soon the sails were swelling in the breeze, and the ship, guided by the oars, gained the open sea. Little Lexotinus piteously stretched forth his hands from the shore. Rufina, a grown-up girl, by her tears silently besought her mother to stay until she was married. Yet she herself, without a tear, turned her eyes heavenward, overcoming her love for her children by her love for God.... Meanwhile the ship was ploughing the sea--the winds were sluggish and all speed slow." But the ship passed between Scylla and Charybdis and reached Antioch in safety. From this spot she followed the guide-book directions until she arrived at Jerusalem. How Paula and one of her young daughters walked over the rough ground, endured the hardships of desert-life, and finally lived twenty years at Bethlehem, would take too long to tell. And she was but one of many. [Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE EAST. From Matthew of Paris's _Itinerary_, thirteenth century.] Sylvia of Aquitaine, travelling at the same time, wrote a strangely interesting account of her travels. The early part of her manuscript is lost, and we find her first in Arabia. All was new and strange. "Meanwhile as we walked we arrived at a certain place, where the mountains between which we were passing opened themselves out and formed a great valley, very flat and extremely beautiful; and beyond the valley appeared Sinai, the holy mount of God.... This is the same great and flat valley in which the children of Israel waited during the days when holy Moses went up into the Mount of God.... It was late on the Sabbath when we came to the mountain, and, arriving at a certain monastery, the kindly monks who lived there entertained us, showing us all kindliness." Sylvia had to ascend the mountain on foot "because the ascent could not be made in a chair," but the view over "Egypt and Palestine and the Red Sea and the Mediterranean which leads to Alexandria, also the boundless territory of the Saracens, we saw below us, hard though it is to believe, all of which things these holy men pointed out to us." But we must not follow her to Jerusalem, or to Mesopotamia, where she saw "the great river Euphrates, rushing down in a torrent like the Rhine, but greater." She reached Constantinople by the guide-book route, having spent four years in travel, and walked two thousand miles to the very "limit of the Roman Empire." Her boundless energy is not exhausted yet. "Ladies, my beloved ones," she writes, "whilst I prepare this account for your pious zeal, it is already my purpose to go to Asia." But we must turn away for a moment from the stream of pilgrim travellers wending their weary way from Britain, France, Spain, and the east to Jerusalem, to follow the travels of St. Patrick through the wilds of Ireland. CHAPTER XII IRISH EXPLORERS Patrick had been a pilgrim to Rome from the banks of the Clyde, where he lived, and, having seen the Pope, he had returned to Ireland by sea, landing on the Wicklow coast in the year 432. Hungry and tired after the long voyage, he tried to get some fish from the fishermen, but they replied by throwing stones at him, and he put out to sea again and headed north. Past Bray Head, past the Bay of Malahide he sailed, but he could get neither fish nor food till he reached a spot between the Liffey and the Boyne, where he built his first Christian church. Now in the fifth century, when light first breaks over Ireland, it breaks over a land torn by perpetual tribal strife, a land in the chaos of wild heathendom. It was reserved for St. Patrick to save her from increasing gloom. Patrick and his companions now sailed on past Louth, by the low-lying shore with long stretches of sandy flats, on under the shadow of great peaks frowning over the sea. He landed near Downpatrick, founded another church, and spent the winter in these parts, for the autumn was far advanced. Spring found him sailing back to the Boyne and attacking the fierce heathen king at Tara, the capital of Ireland. From Tara five great roads led to different parts of the island. St. Patrick now made his way through Meath to the very heart of the country, building churches as he went. Thence he crossed the Shannon, entered the great plain of Roscommon, passed by Mayo, and at length reached the western sea. He had now been eight years in Ireland, eight laborious years, climbing hills, wading through waters, camping out by night, building, organising, preaching. He loved the land on the western sea, little known as yet. "I would choose To remain here on a little land, After faring around churches and waters. Since I am weary, I wish not to go further." St. Patrick climbed the great peak, afterwards called Croaghpatrick, and on the summit, exposed to wind and rain, he spent the forty days of Lent. From here he could look down on to one of the most beautiful bays in Ireland, down on to the hundred little islands in the glancing waters below, while away to the north and south stretched the rugged coast-line. And he tells us how the great white birds came and sang to him there. It would take too long to tell how he returned to Tara and started again with a train of thirteen chariots by the great north-western road to the spot afterwards known as Downpatrick Head; he passed along the broken coast to the extreme north where the great ocean surf breaks on the rugged shore, returning again to the Irish capital. He travelled over a great part of Ireland, founded three hundred and fifty churches, converted heathen tribes to Christianity and civilisation, and finally died at Armagh in 493. His work was carried on by St. Columba, a native of Ireland, who, "deciding to go abroad for Christ," sailed away with twelve disciples to a low rocky island off the west coast of Scotland, where he founded the famous monastery of Iona, about 563. Thence he journeyed away to the Highlands, making his way through rugged and mountainous country that had stayed the warlike Romans long years before. He even sailed across the stormy northern sea to the Orkney Islands. Let us picture the Scotland of the sixth century in order to realise those long lonely tramps of St. Columba and his disciples across the rough mountains, through the dense forests, across bleak moors and wet bogs, till after dreary wanderings they reached the coast, and in frail ships boldly faced the wild seas that raged round the northern islands. "We can see Columba and his disciples journeying on foot, as poor and as barely provided as were Christ and His disciples, with neither silver nor gold nor brass in their purses, and over a wilder country and among a wilder people." [Illustration: IRELAND AND ST. BRANDON'S ISLE. From the Catalan map, 1375.] These pilgrims tramped to and fro clad in simple tunics over a monkish dress of undyed wool, bound round the waist by a strong cord, all their worldly goods on their backs and a staff in their hands. The hermit instinct was growing, and men were sailing away to lonely islands where God might be better served apart from the haunts of men. Perhaps it was this instinct that inspired St. Brandon to sail away across the trackless ocean in search of the Island of Saints reported in the western seas. His voyage suggests the old expedition of Ulysses. A good deal of it is mythical, some is added at a later date, but it is interesting as being an attempt to cross the wide Atlantic Ocean across which no man had yet sailed. For seven years St. Brandon sailed on the unknown sea, discovering unknown islands, until he reached the Island of Saints--the goal of his desires. And the fact remains that for ten centuries after this an island, known as Brandon's Isle, was marked on maps somewhere to the west of Ireland, though to the end it remained as mysterious as the island of Thule. Here is the old story. Brandon, abbot of a large Irish monastery containing one thousand monks, sailed off in an "osier boat covered with tanned hides and carefully greased," provisioned for seven years. After forty days at sea they reached an island with steep sides, where they took in fresh supplies. Thence the winds carried the ship to another island, where they found sheep--"every sheep was as great as an ox." "This is the island of sheep, and here it is ever summer," they were informed by an old islander. This may have been Madeira. They found other islands in the neighbourhood, one of which was full of singing-birds, and the passing years found them still tossing to and fro on the unknown sea, until at last the end came. "And St. Brandon sailed forty days south in full great tempest," and another forty days brought the ship right into a bank of fog. But when the fog lifted "they saw the fairest country eastward that any man might see, it was so clear and bright that it was a heavenly sight to behold; and all the trees were charged with ripe fruit." And they walked about the island for forty days and could not find the end. And there was no night there, and the climate was neither hot nor cold. "Be ye joyful now," said a voice, "for this is the land ye have sought, and our Lord wills that you laden your ship with the fruit of this land and hie you hence, for ye may no longer abide here, but thou shalt sail again into thine own country." [Illustration: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLE OF ST. BRANDON IN MARTIN BEHAIM'S MAP, 1492. As geographical knowledge increased, map-makers were compelled to put Brandon's Isle farther and farther away from Ireland, until here we find it off the coast of Africa and near the Equator.] So the monks took all the fruit they could carry, and, weeping that they might stay no longer in this happy land, they sailed back to Ireland. Hazy, indeed, was the geography of the Atlantic in the sixth century. Nor can we leave St. Brandon's story without quoting a modern poet, who believed that the voyage was to the Arctic regions and not in the Atlantic. "Saint Brandon sails the Northern Main, The brotherhood of saints are glad. He greets them once, he sails again: So late! Such storms! The saint is mad. He heard across the howling seas Chime convent bells on wintry nights; He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides, Twinkle the monastery lights: But north, still north, Saint Brandon steered, And now no bells, no convents more, The hurtling Polar lights are reached, The sea without a human shore." Some three hundred years were to pass away before further discoveries in these quarters revealed new lands, three hundred years before the great energy of the Vikings brought to light Iceland, Greenland, and even the coast of America. CHAPTER XIII AFTER MOHAMMED So once more we turn back to the East. Jerusalem is still the centre of the earth. But a change has passed over the world, which influenced not a little the progress of geography. Mohammed in the seventh century lived and died in Arabia. "There is but one God, and Mohammed is His prophet," proclaimed his followers, the Arabs or Saracens as they were called. And just as men had travelled abroad to preach Christianity to those who knew it not, so now the Mohammedans set forth to teach the faith of their Lord and Master. But whereas Christianity was taught by peaceful means, Mohammedanism was carried by the sword. The Roman provinces of Syria and Egypt had been conquered by the Arabs, and the famous cities of Jerusalem and Alexandria were filled with teachers of the new faith. The Mohammedans had conquered Spain and were pressing by Persia towards India. What deep root their preaching took in these parts is still evident. Still the weary fight between the two religions continues. The first traveller of note through this distracted Europe was a Frenchman named Arculf, a Christian bishop. When he had visited the Holy Land and Egypt his ship was caught in a violent storm and driven on to the west coast of Scotland. After many adventures Arculf found himself at the famous convent of Iona, made welcome by an Irish monk Adamnan, who was deeply interested in Arculf's account of his wanderings, and wrote them down at his dictation, first on waxed tablets, copied later on to parchment. How tenderly the two monks dwell on all the glories of Jerusalem. "But in that beautiful place where once the Temple had been, the Saracens now frequent a four-sided house of prayer, which they have built, rudely constructing it by raising boards and great beams on some remains of ruins, which house can hold three thousand men at once." And Arculf draws on the waxed tablet the picture of some church or tomb to make his narrative clearer to his friend Adamnan. Perhaps the most interesting part of all the travels is the account of the lofty column that Arculf describes in the midst of Jerusalem. "This column," he says, "as it stands in the centre of the heaven, shining straight down from above, proves that the city of Jerusalem is situated in the middle of the earth." Arculf's journey aroused great interest among the newly converted Christians of the north, and Willibald, a high-born Englishman, started off in 721 to explore farther. But the road through Europe was now full of danger. The followers of Mohammed were strong, and it required true courage to face the perils of the long journey. Willibald was undaunted, and with his father and two brothers he sailed from Southampton, crossed to France, sailed up the Seine to Rouen, and reached Italy. Here the old father died. Willibald and his brothers travelled on through "the vast lands of Italy, through the depths of the valleys, over the steep brows of the mountains, over the levels of the plains, climbing on foot the difficult passes of the Alps, over the icebound and snow-capped summits," till they arrived at Rome. Thence they made their way to Syria, where they were at once thrown into prison by Mohammedan conquerors. They were brought before the ruler of the Mohammedan world, or Khalif, whose seat was at Damascus. He asked whence they came. "These men come from the western shore, where the sun sets: and we know not of any land beyond them, but water only," was the answer. Such was Britain to the Mohammedans. They never got a footing in that country: their Empire lay to the east, and their capital was even now shifting to Bagdad. [Illustration: THE WORLD-MAP OF COSMAS, SIXTH CENTURY. This is the oldest Christian map. It shows the flat world surrounded by the ocean, with the four winds and the four sacred rivers running out of the terrestrial Paradise; beyond all is the "terra ultra oceanum," "the world beyond the ocean, where men dwelt before the flood."] But before turning to their geographical discoveries we must see how Cosmas, the Egyptian merchant-monk, set the clock back by his quaint theories of the world in the sixth century. Cosmas hailed from "Alexander's great city." His calling carried him into seas and countries remote from home. He knew the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. He had narrowly escaped shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, which in those days was regarded with terror on account of its violent currents and dense fogs. As the ship carrying the merchant approached this dread region, a storm gathered overhead, and flocks of albatross, like birds of ill-omen, hovered about the masts. "We were all in alarm," relates Cosmas, "for all the men of experience on board, whether passengers or sailors, began to say that we were near the ocean and called out to the pilot: 'Steer the ship to port and make for the gulf, or we shall be swept along by the currents and carried into the ocean and lost.' For the ocean rushing into the gulf was swelling with billows of portentous size, while the currents from the gulf were driving the ship into the ocean, and the outlook was altogether so dismal that we were kept in a state of great alarm." That he eventually reached India is clear, for he relates strange things concerning Ceylon. "There is a large oceanic island lying in the Indian Sea," he tells us. "It has a length of nine hundred miles and it is of the like extent in breadth. There are two kings in the island, and they are at feud the one with the other. The island, being as it is in a central position, is much frequented by ships from all parts of India, and from Persia and Ethiopia, and from the remotest countries, it receives silk, aloes, cloves, and other products ... farther away is the clove country, then Tzinista (China), which produces silk. Beyond this there is no other country, for the ocean surrounds it on the east." Cosmas was the first to realise that China was bounded on the east by the ocean. He tells us a good story about the "Lord of India," who always went to war with two thousand elephants. "Once upon a time this king would lay siege to an island city of the Indians, which was on every side protected by water. A long while he sat down before it, until, what with his elephants, his horses, and his soldiers, all the water had been drunk up. He then crossed over to the city dryshod and took it." [Illustration: THE MOUNTAIN OF COSMAS, CAUSING NIGHT AND DAY AND THE SEASONS.] But, strange as are the travels and information of Cosmas, still stranger is his _Christian Topography_. His commercial travelling done he retired, became a devout Christian monk, and devoted his leisure time in trying to reconcile all the progress of geographical knowledge with old Biblical ideas. He assures us that the world is flat and not round, and that it is surrounded by an immense wall supporting the firmament. Indeed, if we compare the maps of Cosmas in the sixth century with those of the Babylonians thousands of years before, there is mighty little difference. With amazing courage he refutes all the old theories and draws the most astounding maps, which, nevertheless, are the oldest Christian maps which survive. CHAPTER XIV THE VIKINGS SAIL THE NORTHERN SEAS A more interesting force than the pilgrim travellers now claims our attention, and we turn to the frozen north, to the wild region at the back of the north wind, for new activity and discovery. Out of this land of fable and myth, legend and poetry, the fierce inhabitants of Scandinavia begin to take shape. Tacitus speaks of them as "mighty in fame," Ptolemy as "savage and clothed in the skins of wild beasts." From time to time we have glimpses of these folk sailing about in the Baltic Sea. They were known to the Finns of the north as "sea-rovers." "The sea is their school of war and the storm their friend; they are sea-wolves that live on the pillage of the world," sang an old Roman long years ago. The daring spirit of their race had already attracted the attention of Britons across the seas. The careless glee with which they seized either sword or oar and waged war with the stormy seas for a scanty livelihood, raiding all the neighbouring coasts, had earned them the name of Vikings or creek men. Their black-sailed ships stood high out of the water, prow and stern ending in the head and tail of some strange animal, while their long beards, their loose shirts, and battleaxe made them conspicuous. "From the fury of the Northmen save us, Lord," prayed those who had come in contact with these Vikings. In the ninth century they spring into fame as explorers by the discovery of Iceland. It was in this wise. The chief of a band of pirates, one Naddod, during a voyage to the Faroe Islands was driven by a storm upon the eastern coast of an unknown land. Not a soul was to be seen. He climbed a high mountain covered with snow and took a look round, but though he could see far and wide, not a human being could he detect. So he named it Snow-land and sailed home to relate his adventures. A few years later another Viking, Gardar, bound for the west coast of Scotland, was likewise blown by a storm on to the coast of Snow-land. He sailed right round and found it to be an island. Considering that it was unsafe to navigate the icy northern seas in winter, he built himself a hut on the island, lived there till the spring, and returned home. His account of the island fired the enthusiasm of an old Viking called Floki, who sailed away, meaning to take possession of the newly discovered country. At the Faroe Islands he let fly three ravens. The first returned, the second came back to the ship, the third guided the navigator to the island which he sought. He met a quantity of drift ice about the northern part of the island and called it Ice-land, the name it has borne ever since. But amid the Arctic ice he spent a desolate winter; the island seemed full of lofty mountains covered with eternal snow. His companions, however, were delighted with the climate and the soil. "Milk drops from every plant and butter from every twig," they said; "this was a land where men might live free from the tyranny of kings." Free, indeed, for the island was totally uninhabited. [Illustration: A VIKING SHIP. A reconstruction (from Prof. Montelius's book on Scandinavian archaeology) of an actual Viking ship found, almost complete, at Gokstad, Norway.] Iceland soon became a refuge for pirates and other lawless characters. Among these was a young Viking called Erik the Red. He was too lawless even for Iceland, and, being banished for three years, he sailed away in 985 in search of new lands. At the end of his three years he returned and reported that he had discovered land with rich meadows, fine woods, and good fishing, which he had named Green-land. So glowing was his description that soon a party of men and women, with household goods and cattle, started forth in twenty-five ships to colonise the new land. Still the passion for discovery continued, and Erik's son Lief fitted out a vessel to carry thirty-five men in quest of land already sighted to the west. It was in the year 1000 that they reached the coast of North America. It was a barren and rocky shore to which Lief gave the name of Rock-land. Sailing farther, they found a low coast wooded to its edge, to which they gave the simple name of Woody-land. Two days later an island appeared, and on the mainland they discovered a river up which they sailed. On low bushes by the banks of the river they found sweet berries or wild grapes from which a sort of wine was made, so Lief called the land Vin-land. It is now supposed that Vinland and Woodyland are really Newfoundland and Labrador on the shores of North America. After this, shipload followed shipload from Iceland to colonise Vinland. But without success. So the Viking discoveries in these cold and inhospitable regions were but transitory. The clouds lifted but for a moment to settle down again over America, till it was rediscovered some five hundred years later. Before leaving these northern explorers let us remind ourselves of the old saga so graphic in its description of their ocean lives-- "Down the fiord sweep wind and rain; Our sails and tackle sway and strain; Wet to the skin We're sound within. Our sea-steed through the foam goes prancing, While shields and spears and helms are glancing From fiord to sea, Our ships ride free, And down the wind with swelling sail We scud before the gathering gale." Now, while these fierce old Vikings were navigating unknown seas, Alfred the Great was reigning over England. Among his many and varied interests he was deeply thrilled in the geography of the world. He was always ready to listen to those who had been on voyages of discovery, and in his account of the geography of Europe he tells us of a famous old sea captain called Othere, who had navigated the unknown seas to the north of Europe. "Othere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt northmost of all Northmen, on the land by the western sea. He said that the land is very long thence to the north; but it is all waste save that in a few places here and there Finns reside. He said that he wished to find out how far the land lay right north, or whether any man dwelt to the north of the waste. Then he went right north near the land, and he left all the way the waste land on the right and the wide sea on the left for three days. There was he as far north as the whale-hunters ever go. He then went yet right north, as far as he could sail in the next three days. After sailing for another nine days he came to a great river; they turned up into the river, but they durst not sail beyond it on account of hostility, for the land was all inhabited on the other side. He had not before met with any inhabited land since he came from his own home, for the land was uninhabited all the way on his right save by fishermen, hunters, and fowlers, and they were all Finns, and there was always a wide sea on his left." And as a trophy of distant lands and a proof of his having reached farthest north, Othere presented the King with a "snow-white walrus tooth." But King Alfred wanted his subjects to know more of the world around them, and even in the midst of his busy life he managed to write a book in Anglo-Saxon, which sums up for us the world's knowledge some nine hundred years after Ptolemy--nine hundred barren years as far as much geographical progress was concerned. Alfred does not even allude to Iceland, Greenland, or Vinland. The news of these discoveries had evidently not reached him. He repeats the old legend of Thule to the north-west of Ireland, "which is known to few, on account of its very great distance." So ends the brief but thrilling discoveries of the Northmen, who knew not fear, and we turn again to landsmen and the east. CHAPTER XV ARAB WAYFARERS And now we leave the fierce energy of the Northmen westwards and turn to another energy, which was leading men toward the east, to the lands beyond the Euphrates, to India, across central Asia, even into far Cathay. These early travellers to the east were for the most part Arabs. Mohammed had bidden his followers to spread his teaching far and wide; this teaching had always appealed more to the eastern than to the western mind. So farther and farther to the east travelled the Arabs, converting the uncivilised tribes that Christianity had not reached. What a contrast are these Arabs to the explorers of the vigorous north. They always travelled by land and not by that sea which was life to the Viking folk. To the Arabs the encircling ocean was a very "Sea of Darkness"; indeed, the unknown ocean beyond China was called the "Sea of Pitchy Darkness." Their creed taught that the ocean was boundless, so that ships dared not venture out of sight of land, for there was no inhabited country beyond, and mariners would assuredly be lost in mists and fogs. So, while the Vikings tossed fearlessly about the wild northern seas, the Arab wayfarers rode eastward by well-known caravan tracks, trading and teaching the ways of Mohammed. Arabic enterprise had pushed on far beyond Ptolemy's world. The Arab centre lay in the city of Bagdad, the headquarters of the ruler or Khalif of the Mohammedan world. They had already opened up a considerable trade with the rapidly rising Mongol Empire, which no European had yet reached. [Illustration: A KHALIF ON HIS THRONE. From the Ancona map, 1497.] But as this country was to play a large part in the travels of the near future, it will be interesting to hear the account given by two Mohammedan friends who journeyed thither in the year 831, just four hundred years before Marco Polo's famous account. The early part of their story is missing, and we raise the curtain when they have arrived in the land of China itself, then a very small empire compared with what it is now. "The Emperor of China reckons himself next after the King of the Arabs, who they all allow to be the first and beyond all dispute the most powerful of kings, because he is the head of a great religion. In this great kingdom of China they tell us there are over two hundred cities; each city has four gates, at each of which are five trumpets, which the Chinese sound at certain hours of the day and of the night. There are also within each city ten drums, which they beat at the same time as a public token of their obedience to the Emperor, as also to signify the hour of the day and of the night, to which end they also have dials and clocks with weights. "China is a pleasant and fruitful country; the air is much better than the Indian provinces: much rain falls in both these countries. In India are many desert tracts, but China is inhabited and peopled throughout its whole extent. The Chinese are handsomer than the Indians, and come nearer the Arabs, not only in countenance, but in dress, in their way of riding, in their manners, and in their ceremonies. They wear long garments and girdles in form of belts. The Chinese are dressed in silk both winter and summer, and this kind of dress is common to the prince and the peasant. Their food is rice, which they often eat with a broth which they pour upon the rice. They have several sorts of fruits, apples, lemons, quinces, figs, grapes, cucumbers, walnuts, almonds, plums, apricots, and cocoanuts." [Illustration: A CHINESE EMPEROR GIVING AUDIENCE, NINTH CENTURY. From an old Chinese MS. at Paris, showing an Emperor of the dynasty that was ruling when the two Mohammedans visited China in 831.] Here, too, we get the first mention of tea, which was not introduced into Europe for another seven hundred years, but which formed a Chinese drink in the ninth century. This Chinese drink "is a herb or shrub, more bushy than the pomegranate tree an of a more pleasant scent, but somewhat bitter to the taste. The Chinese boil water and pour it in scalding hot upon this leaf, and this infusion keeps them from all distempers." Here, too, we get the first mention of china ware. "They have an excellent kind of earth, wherewith they make a ware of equal fineness with glass and equally transparent." There is no time here to tell of all the curious manners and customs related by these two Mohammedans. One thing struck them as indeed it must strike us to-day. "The Chinese, poor and rich, great and small, learn to read and write. There are schools in every town for teaching the poor children, and the masters are maintained at public charge.... The Chinese have a stone ten cubits high erected in the public squares of their cities, and on this stone are engraved the names of all the medicines, with the exact price of each; and when the poor stand in need of physic they go to the treasury where they receive the price each medicine is rated at." It was out of such travels as these that the famous romance of "Sindbad the Sailor" took shape--a true story of Arab adventures of the ninth and tenth centuries in a romantic setting. As in the case of Ulysses, the adventures of many voyages are ascribed to one man and related in a collection of tales which bears the title of _The Arabian Nights_. Of course, Sindbad was a native of Bagdad, the Arab centre of everything at this time, and of course he journeyed eastwards as did most Mohammedans. "It occurred to my mind," says Sindbad, "to travel to the countries of other people; then I arose and collected what I had of effects and apparel and sold them, after which I sold my buildings and all that my hand possessed and amassed three thousand pieces of silver. So I embarked in a ship, and with a company of merchants we traversed the sea for many days and nights. We had passed by island after island and from sea to sea and land to land, and in every place we sold and bought and exchanged merchandise. We continued our voyage until we arrived at an island like one of the gardens of Paradise." Here they anchored and lit fires, when suddenly the master of the ship cried aloud in great distress: "Oh, ye passengers, come up quickly into the ship, leave your merchandise and flee for your lives, for this apparent island, upon which ye are, is not really an island, but it is a great fish that hath become stationary in the midst of the sea, and the sand hath accumulated upon it and trees have grown upon it, and when ye lighted a fire it felt the heat, and now it will descend with you into the sea and ye will all be drowned." As he spoke the island moved and "descended to the bottom of the sea with all that were upon it, and the roaring sea, agitated with waves, closed over it." Let Sindbad continue his own story: "I sank in the sea with the rest. But God delivered me and saved me from drowning and supplied me with a great wooden bowl, and I laid hold upon it and gat into it and beat the water with my feet as with oars, while the waves sported with me. I remained so a day and a night, until the bowl came to a stoppage under a high island whereupon were trees overhanging the sea. So I laid hold upon the branch of a lofty tree and clung to it until I landed on the island. Then I threw myself upon the island like one dead." After wandering about he found servants of the King of Borneo, and all sailed together to an island beyond the Malay Peninsula. And the King of Borneo sent for Sindbad and heaped him with honours. He gave him costly dress and made him superintendent of the seaport and adviser of affairs of state. And Sindbad saw many wonders in this far-distant sea. At last "one day I stood upon the shore of the sea, with a staff in my hand, as was my custom, and lo! a great vessel approached wherein were many merchants." They unloaded their wares, telling Sindbad that the owner of their goods, a man from Bagdad, had been drowned and they were selling his things. "What was the name of the owner of the goods?" asked Sindbad. "His name was Sindbad of the Sea." Then Sindbad cried: "Oh, master, know that I am the owner of the goods and I am Sindbad of the Sea." Then there was great rejoicing and Sindbad took leave of this King of Borneo and set sail for Bagdad--the Abode of Peace. [Illustration: THE SCENE OF SINDBAD'S VOYAGES AS SHOWN IN EDRISI'S MAP, 1154. The romance of "Sindbad the Sailor" is really a true story of Arab adventures at sea during the ninth and tenth centuries, put into a romantic setting and ascribed to one man. In the above map, which is a portion of the map of the world made by the famous Arab geographer, Edrisi, in 1154 A.D., many of the places to which Sindbad's story relates have been identified. Their modern names are as follows:-- Kotroba is (probably) Socotra. Rami, the "Island of Apes," Koulam Meli is Coulan, near Cape is Sumatra. Comorin. Maid Dzaba, the "island with the HIND is INDIA. volcano," is Banca. Serendib is Ceylon. Senf is Tsiampa, S. Cochin--China. Murphili (or Monsul), the "Valley Mudza (or Mehrage) is Borneo. of Diamonds," is Masulipatam. Kamrun is Java. Roibahat, the "Clove Islands," are Maid, the Camphor Island, is the Maldive Islands. Formosa. Edrisi's names are those which are used in the _Arabian Nights_.] But the spirit of unrest was upon him and soon he was off again. Indeed, he made seven voyages in all, but there is only room here to note a few of the most important points in each. This time he sailed to the coast of Zanzibar, East Africa, and, anchoring on the beautiful island of Madagascar, amid sweet-smelling flowers, pure rivers, and warbling birds, Sindbad fell asleep. He awoke to find the ship had sailed away, leaving him without food or drink, and not a human being was to be seen on the island. "Then I climbed up into a lofty tree and began to look from it to the right and left, but saw nothing save sky and water and trees and birds and islands and sands." At last he found an enormous bird. Unwinding his turban, he twisted it into a rope and, tying one end round his wrist, tied the other to one of the bird's great feet. Up flew the giant bird high into the sky and Sindbad with it, descending somewhere in India in the Valley of Diamonds. This bird was afterwards identified as an enormous eagle. "And I arose and walked in that valley," says Sindbad, "and I beheld its ground to be composed of diamonds, with which they perforate minerals and jewels, porcelain, and the onyx, and it is a stone so hard that neither iron nor rock have any effect upon it. All that valley was likewise occupied by serpents and venomous snakes." Here Sindbad found the camphor trees, "under each of which trees a hundred men might shade themselves." From these trees flowed liquid camphor. "In this island, too, is a kind of wild beast, called rhinoceros--it is a huge beast with a single horn, thick, in the middle of its head, and it lifteth the great elephant upon its horn." Thus, after collecting heaps of diamonds, Sindbad returned to Bagdad--a rich man. [Illustration: SINDBAD'S GIANT ROC. From an Oriental miniature painting.] Again his soul yearns for travel. This time he starts for China, but his ship is driven out of its course and cast on the Island of Apes, probably Sumatra. These apes, "the most hideous of beasts, covered with hair like black felt," surrounded the ship. They climbed up the cables and severed them with their teeth to Sindbad's great alarm. He escaped to the neighbouring islands known as the Clove Islands, and again reached Bagdad safely. Again and yet again he starts forth on fresh adventures. Now he is sailing on the seas beyond Ceylon, now his ship is being pursued by a giant roc whose young have been killed and eaten by Sindbad. Sindbad as usual escapes upon a plank, and sails to an island, where he meets the "Old Man of the Sea," probably a huge ape from Borneo. On he passed to the "Island of Apes," where, every night, the people who reside in it go forth from the doors of the city that open upon the sea in their fear of the apes lest they should come down upon them in the night from the mountains. After this we find Sindbad trading in pepper on the Coromandel coast of modern India and discovering a wealth of pearls by the seashore of Ceylon. But at last he grew tired of seafaring, which was never congenial to Arabs. "Hateful was the dark blue sky, Vaulted o'er the dark blue sea; Sore task to heart, worn out by many wars; And eyes grown dim with gazing on the pilot stars." So he leaves private adventuring alone and is appointed by the Khalif of Bagdad to convey a letter and present to the Indian prince of Ceylon--an expedition that lasts him twenty-seven years. The presents were magnificent. They included a horse worth ten thousand pieces of gold, with its saddle adorned with gold set with jewels, a book, a splendid dress, and some beautiful white Egyptian cloth, Greek carpets, and a crystal cup. Having duly delivered these gifts, he took his leave, meaning to return to his own country. But the usual adventures befell him. This time his ship was surrounded by a number of boats on board of which were men like little devils with swords and daggers. These attacked the ship, captured Sindbad, and sold him to a rich man as a slave. He set him to shoot elephants from a tree with bows and arrows. At last, after many other adventures and having made seven long voyages, poor Sindbad reached his home. CHAPTER XVI TRAVELLERS TO THE EAST But if the Sindbad saga is based on the stories of Mohammedan travellers and sum up Arab adventure by sea in the tenth century, we must turn to another Arab--Massoudy by name--for land travel of the same period. Massoudy left his home at Bagdad very young and seems to have penetrated into every Mohammedan country from Spain to farther India. In his famous _Meadows of Gold_, with its one hundred and thirty-two chapters, dedicated to "the most illustrious Kings," he describes the various lands through which he has travelled, giving us at the same time a good deal of incorrect information about lands he has never seen. "I have gone so far towards the setting sun That I have lost all remembrance of the east, And my course has taken me so far towards the rising sun That I have forgotten the very name of west." One cannot but look with admiration on the energetic Arab traveller, when one remembers the labour of travel even in the tenth century. There were the long, hot rides through central Asia, under a burning sun, the ascent of unknown mountains, the crossing of unbridged rivers. From his lengthy work we will only extract a few details. Though he had "gone so far toward the setting sun," his knowledge of the West was very limited, and while Vikings tossed on the Atlantic westwards, Massoudy tells us that it is "impossible to navigate beyond the Pillars of Hercules, for no vessel sails on that sea; it is without cultivation or inhabitant, and its end, like its depth, is unknown." Such was the "Green Sea of Darkness" as it was called by the Arabs. Massoudy is more at home when he journeys towards the rising sun to the East, but his descriptions of China, the "Flowery Land," the "Celestial Country," were to be excelled by others. We must pass over Edrisi, who in 1153 wrote on "The going abroad of a curious Man to explore all the Wonders of the World," which wonders he explored very imperfectly, though he has left us a map of the world, which may be seen to-day at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. But we cannot pass over Benjamin of Tudela in so few words. "Our Benjamin" he is called by Pinkerton, who in the eighteenth century made a wonderful collection of voyages and travels of all ages. "Our Benjamin" was a Jew hailing from Tudela in Spain, and he started forth on his travels with a view to ascertaining the condition and numbers of Jews living in the midst of the great Mohammedan Empire. Benjamin made his way in the year 1160 to the "exceeding great city" of Constantinople, which "hath none to compare with it except Bagdad--the mighty city of the Arabs." With the great temple of St. Sophia and its pillars of gold and silver, he was immensely struck. In wrapt admiration he gazed at the Emperor's palace with its walls of beaten gold, its hanging crown suspended over the Imperial throne, blazing with precious stones, so splendid that the hall needed no other light. No less striking were the crimson embroidered garments worn by the Greeks, who rode to and from the city like princes on horseback. Benjamin turns sadly to the Jewish quarter. No Jew might ride on horseback here. All were treated as objects of contempt; they were herded together, often beaten in the streets. [Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE PILGRIMS' WAYS TO IT IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. From a map of the twelfth century at Brussels.] From the wealth and luxury of Constantinople Benjamin makes his way to Syria. At Jerusalem he finds some two hundred Jews commanding the dyeing trade. And here we must remind ourselves that the second crusade was over and the third had not yet taken place, that Jerusalem, the City of Peace, had been in the hands of the Mohammedans or Saracens till 1099, when it fell into the hands of the Crusaders. From Jerusalem, by way of Damascus, Benjamin entered Persia, and he gives us an interesting account of Bagdad and its Khalifs. The Khalif was the head of the Mohammedans in the same way that the Pope was the head of the Christians. "He was," says "Our Benjamin," "a very dignified personage, friendly towards the Jews, a kind-hearted man, but never to be seen." Pilgrims from distant lands, passing through Bagdad on their way to Mecca, prayed to be allowed to see "the brightness of his face," but they were only allowed to kiss one end of his garment. Now, although Benjamin describes the journey from Bagdad to China, it is very doubtful if he ever got to China himself, so we will leave him delighting in the glories of Bagdad, with its palm trees, its gardens and orchards, rejoicing in the statistics of Jews, and turn to the adventures of one, Carpini, who really did reach Tartary. This Carpini, or Friar John, was a Franciscan who was chosen by the Pope to go to the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which was threatening to overrun Christendom. On 16th April 1245, Friar John left the cloister for the unknown tract of country by which he had to pass into China. By way of Bohemia he passed into Russia, and, having annexed Brother Benedict in Poland and Brother Stephen in Bohemia, together with a guide, Carpini made his way eastwards. It was mid-winter; the travellers had to ride on Tartar horses, "for they alone could find grass under the snow, or live, as animals must in Tartary, without hay or straw." Sometimes Friar John fell so ill that he had to be placed in a cart and carried through the deep snow. [Illustration: TWO EMPERORS OF TARTARY. From the Catalan map, 1375.] It was Easter 1246, just a year after their start, that Friar John and his companions began the last section of their journey beyond the Volga, and "most tearfully we set out," not knowing whether it was "for life or for death." So thin had they all become that not one of them could ride. Still they toiled on, till one July day they entered Mongolia and found the headquarters of the Great Khan about half a day's journey from Karakorum. They arrived in time to witness the enthronement of the new Khan in August. Here were crowds of ambassadors from Russia and Persia as well as from outlying parts of the growing Mongol Empire. These were laden with gifts--indeed, there were no less than five hundred crates full of silks, satins, brocades, fur, gold embroidery. Friar John and his companions had no gifts to offer save the letter from the Pope. Impressive, indeed, in the eyes of the once cloistered friar must have been this first sight of Eastern splendour. High on a neighbouring hill stood the Khan's tent, resting on pillars plated with gold, top and sides covered with silk brocades, while the great ceremony took place. But the men of the West were not welcomed by the new Emperor of the East. It was supposed that he intended shortly to unfurl his Standard against the whole of the Western world, and in November Friar John and his companions found themselves formally dismissed with a missive from the Great Khan to the Pope, signed and sealed by the Khan himself. [Illustration: A TARTAR CAMP. From the Borgian map, 1453.] The return journey was even more trying; winter was coming on, and for nearly seven months the Pope's faithful envoys struggled on across the endless open plains of Asia towards Russia, resting their eyes on vast expanses of snow. At last they reached home, and Friar John wrote his _Book of the Tartars_, in which he informs us that Mongolia is in the east part of the world and that Cathay is "a country in the east of Asia." To the south-west of Mongolia he heard of a vast desert, where lived certain wild men unable to speak and with no joints in their legs. These occupy themselves in making felt out of camel's hair for garments to protect them from the weather. Again Carpini tells us about that mythical character figuring in the travel books of this time--Prester John. "The Mongol army," he says, "marched against the Christians dwelling in the greater India, and the king of that country, known by the name of Prester John, came forth with his army to meet them. This Prester John caused a number of hollow copper figures to be made, resembling men, which were stuffed with combustibles and set upon horses, each having a man behind on the horse, with a pair of bellows to stir up the fire. At the first onset of the battle these mounted figures were sent forward to the charge; the men who rode behind them set fire to the combustibles and then strongly blew with the bellows; immediately the Mongol horses and men were burnt with wild-fire and the air was darkened with smoke." We shall hear of Prester John again. For within a few years of the return of Friar John, another Franciscan friar, William de Rubruquis, was sent forth, this time by the French king, Louis, to carry letters to the Great Khan begging him to embrace Christianity and acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. William and his chosen companions had a painful and difficult journey of some months before they reached the camps on the Volga of one of the great Mongol lords. Indeed, "if it had not been for the grace of God and the biscuit which we brought with us, we had surely perished," remarks the pious friar in the history of his adventures. Never once did they enjoy the shelter of a house or tent, but passed the nights in the open air in a cart. At last they were ordered to appear at the Court of the great ruler with all their books and vestments. "We were commanded to array ourselves in our sacred vestments to appear before the prince. Putting on, therefore, our most precious ornaments, I took a cushion in my arms, together with the Bible I had from the King of France and the beautiful Psalter which the Queen bestowed upon me: my companion at the same time carried the missal and a crucifix; and the clerk, clothed in his surplice, bore a censer in his hand. In this order we presented ourselves ... singing the Salve Regina." It is a strange picture this--the European friars, in all the vestments of their religion, standing before the Eastern prince of this far-off country. They would fain have carried home news of his conversion, but they were told in angry tones that the prince was "not a Christian, but a Mongol." [Illustration: INITIAL LETTER FROM THE MS. OF RUBRUQUIS AT CAMBRIDGE. Probably representing the friars starting on their journey.] They were dismissed with orders to visit the Great Khan at Karakorum. Resuming their journey early in August, the messengers did not arrive at the Court of the Great Khan till the day after Christmas. They were miserably housed in a tiny hut with scarcely room for their beds and baggage. The cold was intense. The bare feet of the friars caused great astonishment to the crowds of onlookers, who stared at the strange figures as though they had been monsters. However, they could not keep their feet bare long, for very soon Rubruquis found that his toes were frozen. Chanting in Latin the hymn of the Nativity, the visitors were at last admitted to the Imperial tent, hung about with cloth of gold, where they found the Khan. He was seated on a couch--a "little man of moderate height, aged about forty-five, and dressed in a skin spotted and glossy like a seal." The Mongol Emperor asked numerous questions about the kingdom of France and the possibility of conquering it, to the righteous indignation of the friars. They stayed in the country till the end of May, when they were dismissed, having failed in their mission, but having gained a good deal of information about the great Mongol Empire and its somewhat mysterious ruler. But while the kingdoms in Europe trembled before the growing expansion of the Mongol Empire and the dangers of Tartar hordes, the merchants of Venice rejoiced in the new markets which were opening for them in the East. CHAPTER XVII MARCO POLO Now Venice at this time was full of enterprising merchants--merchants such as we hear of in Shakspere's _Merchant of Venice_. Among these were two Venetians, the brothers Polo. Rumours had reached them of the wealth of the mysterious land of Cathay, of the Great Khan, of Europeans making their way, as we have seen, through barren wildernesses, across burning deserts in the face of hardships indescribable, to open up a highway to the Far East. So off started Maffio and Niccolo Polo on a trading enterprise, and, having crossed the Mediterranean, came "with a fair wind and the blessing of God" to Constantinople, where they disposed of a large quantity of their merchandise. Having made some money, they directed their way to Bokhara, where they fell in with a Tartar nobleman, who persuaded them to accompany him to the Court of the Great Khan himself. Ready for adventure, they agreed, and he led them in a north-easterly direction; now they were delayed by heavy snows, now by the swelling of unbridged rivers, so that it was a year before they reached Pekin, which they considered was the extremity of the East. They were courteously received by the Great Khan, who questioned them closely about their own land, to which they replied in the Tartar language which they had learnt on the way. Now since the days of Friar John there was a new Khan named Kublai, who wished to send messengers to the Pope to beg him to send a hundred wise men to teach the Chinese Christianity. He chose the Polo brothers as his envoys to the Pope, and accordingly they started off to fulfil his behests. After an absence of fifteen years they again reached Venice. The very year they had left home Niccolo's wife had died, and his boy, afterwards to become the famous traveller, Marco Polo, had been born. The boy was now fifteen. [Illustration: HOW THE BROTHERS POLO SET OUT FROM CONSTANTINOPLE WITH THEIR NEPHEW MARCO FOR CHINA. From a miniature painting in the fourteenth century _Livre des Merveilles_.] The stories told by his father and uncle of the Far East and the Court of the greatest Emperor on earth filled the boy with enthusiasm, and when in 1271 the brothers Polo set out for their second journey to China, not only were they accompanied by the young Marco, but also by two preaching friars to teach the Christian faith to Kublai Khan. [Illustration: MARCO POLO LANDS AT ORMUZ. From a miniature in the _Livre des Merveilles_.] Their journey lay through Armenia, through the old city of Nineveh to Bagdad, where the last Khalif had been butchered by the Tartars. Entering Persia as traders, the Polo family passed on to Ormuz, hoping to take ship from here to China. But, for some unknown reason, this was impossible, and the travellers made their way north-eastwards to the country about the sources of the river Oxus. Here young Marco fell sick of a low fever, and for a whole year they could not proceed. Resuming their journey at last "in high spirits," they crossed the great highlands of the Pamirs, known as the "roof of the world," and, descending on Khotan, found themselves face to face with the great Gobi Desert. For thirty days they journeyed over the sandy wastes of the silent wilderness, till they came to a city in the province of Tangut, where they were met by messengers from the Khan, who had heard of their approach. But it was not till May 1275 that they actually reached the Court of Kublai Khan after their tremendous journey of "one thousand days." The preaching friars had long since turned homewards, alarmed at the dangers of the way, so only the three stout-hearted Polos were left to deliver the Pope's message to the ruler of the Mongol Empire. [Illustration: THE POLOS LEAVING VENICE FOR THEIR TRAVELS TO THE FAR EAST. From a miniature which stands at the head of a late 14th century MS. of the _Travels of Marco Polo_ (or the Book of the Grand Khan) in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The drawing shows the Piazzetta at Venice, with the Polos embarking, and in the foreground indications of the strange lands they visited.] "The lord of all the earth," as he was called by his people, received them very warmly. He inquired at once who was the young man with them. "My lord," replied Niccolo, "he is my son and your servant." "Then," said the Khan, "he is welcome. I am much pleased with him." So the three Venetians abode at the Court of Kublai Khan. His summer palace was at Shang-tu, called Xanadu by the poet Coleridge-- "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan A stately pleasure dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sacred sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground, With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery." So the three Venetians abode at the Court of the Chinese Emperor for no less than seventeen years. Young Marco displayed so great intelligence that he was sent on a mission for the Khan some six months' journey distant; and so well did he describe the things he had seen and the lands through which he had passed, that the Khan heaped on him honours and riches. Let us hear what Marco says of his lord and master. [Illustration: KUBLAI KHAN. From an old Chinese Encyclopaedia at Paris.] "The Great Khan, lord of lords, named Kublai, is of middle stature, neither too full nor too short: he has a beautiful fresh complexion, his colour is fair, his eyes dark." The capital of the Empire, Pekin, two days' journey from the sea, and the residence of the Court during the months of December, January, and February, called out the unbounded enthusiasm of the Polos. The city, two days' journey from the ocean, in the extreme north-east of Cathay, had been newly rebuilt in a regular square, six miles on each side, surrounded by walls of earth and having twelve gates. "The streets are so broad and so straight," says Marco, "that from one gate another is visible. It contains many beautiful houses and palaces, and a very large one in the midst, containing a steeple with a large bell which at night sounds three times, after which no man must leave the city. At each gate a thousand men keep guard, not from dread of any enemy, but in reverence of the monarch who dwells within it, and to prevent injury by robbers." This square form of Pekin, the great breadth of the straight streets, the closing of the gates by sound of a bell--the largest in the world--is noted by all travellers to this far-eastern city of Cathay. But greater even than Pekin was the city of Kin-sai (Hang-tcheou-fou), the City of Heaven, in the south of China. It had but lately fallen into the hands of Kublai Khan. "And now I will tell you all its nobleness," says Marco, "for without doubt it is the largest city in the world. The city is one hundred miles in circumference and has twelve thousand stone bridges, and beneath the greater part of these a large ship might pass. And you need not wonder there are so many bridges, because the city is wholly on the water and surrounded by it like Venice. The merchants are so numerous and so rich that their wealth can neither be told nor believed. They and their ladies do nothing with their own hands, but live as delicately as if they were kings. These females also are of most angelic beauty, and live in the most elegant manner. The people are idolaters, subject to the Great Khan, and use paper money. They eat the flesh of dogs and other beasts, such as no Christian would touch for the world. In this city, too, are four thousand baths, in which the citizens, both men and women, take great delight and frequently resort thither, because they keep their persons very cleanly. They are the largest and most beautiful baths in the world, insomuch that one hundred of either sex may bathe in them at once. Twenty-five miles from thence is the ocean, and there is a city (Ning-po) which has a very fine port, with large ships and much merchandise of immense value from India and other quarters." [Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--III. The world as known at the end of the thirteenth century after the travels of Marco Polo and his contemporaries.] But though Marco revels in the description of wonderful cities, he is continually leading us back to the Great Khan himself. His festivals were splendid. The tables were arranged so that the Emperor sat higher than all the others, always with his face to the south. His sons and daughters were placed so that their heads were on a level with his feet. Some forty thousand people feast on these occasions, but the Khan himself is served only by his great barons, their mouths wrapped in rich towels embroidered in gold and silver, that their breath might not blow upon the plates. His presents were on a colossal scale; it was no rare occurrence for him to receive five thousand camels, one hundred thousand beautiful horses, and five thousand elephants covered with cloth of gold and silver. "And now I will relate a wonderful thing," says Marco. "A large lion is led into his presence, which, as soon as it sees him, drops down and makes a sign of deep humility, owning him its lord and moving about without any chain." His kingdom was ruled by twelve barons all living at Pekin. His provinces numbered thirty-four, hence their method of communication was very complete. "Messengers are sent to divers provinces," says Marco, "and on all the roads they find at every twenty-five miles a post, where the messengers are received. At each is a large edifice containing a bed covered with silk and everything useful and convenient for a traveller ... here, too, they find full four hundred horses, whom the prince has ordered to be always in waiting to convey them along the principal roads.... Thus they go through the provinces, finding everywhere inns and horses for their reception. Moreover, in the intervals between these stations, at every three miles are erected villages of about forty houses inhabited by foot-runners also employed on these dispatches. They wear large girdles set round with bells, which are heard at a great distance. Receiving a letter or packet, one runs full speed to the next village, when his approach being announced by bells, another is ready to start and proceed to the next, and so on. By these pedestrian messengers the Khan receives news in one day and night from places ten days' journey distant; in two days from those twenty off, and in ten from those a hundred days' journey distant. Thus he sends his messengers through all his kingdoms and provinces to know if any of his subjects have had their crops injured through bad weather; and, if any such injury has happened, he does not exact from them any tribute for that season--nay, he gives them corn out of his own stores to subsist on." This first European account of China is all so delightful that it is difficult to know where to stop. The mention of coal is interesting. "Throughout the whole province of Cathay," says Marco, "are a kind of black stones cut from the mountains in veins, which burn like logs. They maintain the fire better than wood. If you put them on in the evening they will preserve it the whole night, and it will be found burning in the morning. Throughout the whole of Cathay this fuel is used. They have also wood, but the stones are much less expensive." Neither can we pass over Marco's account of the wonderful stone bridge with its twenty-four arches of pure marble across the broad river, "the most magnificent object in the whole world," across which ten horsemen could ride abreast, or the Yellow River (Hoang-ho), "so large and broad that it cannot be crossed by a bridge, and flows on even to the ocean," or the wealth of mulberry trees throughout the land, on which lived the silkworms that have made China so famous for her silk. Then there are the people famous for their manufacture of fine porcelain ware. "Great quantities of porcelain earth were here collected into heaps and in this way exposed to the action of the atmosphere for some forty years, during which time it was never disturbed. By this process it became refined and fitted for manufacture." Such is Marco's only allusion to china ware. With regard to tea he is entirely silent. But he is the first European to tell us about the islands of Japan, fifteen hundred miles from the coast of China, now first discovered to the geographers of the West. "Zipangu," says Marco, "is an island situated at a distance from the mainland. The people are fair and civilised in their manners--they possess precious metals in extraordinary abundance. The people are white, of gentle manners, idolaters in religion under a king of their own. These folk were attacked by the fleet of Kublai Khan in 1264 for their gold, for the King's house, windows, and floors were covered with it, but the King allowed no exportation of it." [Illustration: MARCO POLO. From a woodcut in the first printed edition of Marco Polo's _Travels_, Nuremburg, 1477.] Thus Marco Polo records in dim outline the existence of land beyond that ever dreamed of by Europeans--indeed, denied by Ptolemy and other geographers of the West. In the course of his service under Kublai Khan he opened up the eight provinces of Tibet, the whole of south-east Asia from Canton to Bengal, and the archipelago of farther India. He tells us, too, of Tibet, that wide country "vanquished and wasted by the Khan for the space of twenty days' journey"--a great wilderness wanting people, but overrun by wild beasts. Here were great Tibetan dogs as large as asses. Still on duty for Kublai Khan, Marco reached Bengal, "which borders upon India." But he was glad enough to return to his adopted Chinese home, "the richest and most famous country of all the East." At last the Polo family wearied of Court honours, and they were anxious to return to their own people at Venice. However, the Khan was very unwilling to let them go. One day their chance came. The Persian ruler was anxious to marry a princess of the house of Kublai Khan, and it was decided to send the lady by sea under the protection of the trusted Polos, rather than to allow her to undergo the hardships of an overland journey from China to Persia. So in the year 1292 they bade farewell to the great Kublai Khan, and with the little princess of seventeen and her suite they set sail with an escort of fourteen ships for India. Passing many islands "with gold and much trade," after three months at sea they reached Java, at this time supposed to be the greatest island in the world, above three thousand miles round. At Sumatra they were detained five months by stress of weather, till at last they reached the Bay of Bengal. Sailing on a thousand miles westwards, they reached Ceylon--"the finest island in the world," remarks Marco. It was not till two years after their start and the loss of six hundred sailors that they arrived at their destination, only to find that the ruler of Persia was dead. However, they gave the little bride to his son and passed on by Constantinople to Venice, where they arrived in 1295. [Illustration: A JAPANESE FIGHT AGAINST THE CHINESE AT THE TIME WHEN MARCO POLO FIRST SAW JAPANESE. From an ancient Japanese painting.] And now follows a strange sequel to the story. After their long absence, and in their travel-stained garments, their friends and relations could not recognise them, and in vain did they declare that they were indeed the Polos--father, son, and uncle--who had left Venice twenty-four long years ago. It was no use; no one believed their story. So this is what they did. They arranged for a great banquet to be held, to which they invited all their relations and friends. This they attended in robes of crimson satin. Then suddenly Marco rose from the table and, going out of the room, returned with the three coarse, travel-stained garments. They ripped open seams, tore out the lining, and a quantity of precious stones, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and emeralds poured forth. The company were filled with wonder, and when the story spread all the people of Venice came forth to do honour to their famous fellow-countrymen. Marco was surnamed Marco of the Millions, and never tired of telling the wonderful stories of Kublai Khan, the great Emperor who combined the "rude magnificence of the desert with the pomp and elegance of the most civilised empire in the Old World." CHAPTER XVIII THE END OF MEDIAEVAL EXPLORATION The two names of Ibn Batuta and Sir John Mandeville now conclude our mediaeval period of travel to the Eastward. Both the Arab and the Englishman date their travels between the years 1325 and 1355; but while Ibn Batuta, the traveller from Tangiers, adds very valuable information to our geographical knowledge, we have to lay the travel volumes of Sir John Mandeville aside and acknowledge sadly that his book is made up of borrowed experiences, that he has wantonly added fiction to fact, and distorted even the travel stories told by other travellers. And yet, strange to say, while the work of Ibn Batuta remains entirely disregarded, the delightful work of the Englishman is still read vigorously to-day and translated into nearly every European language. In it we read strange stories of Prester John, "the great Emperor of India, who is served by seven kings, seventy-two dukes, and three hundred and sixty earls"; he speaks of the "isle of Cathay": he repeats the legend of the island near Java on which Adam and Eve wept for one hundred years after they had been driven from Paradise; he speaks of giants thirty feet high, and of Pigmies who came dancing to see him. [Illustration: SIR JOHN MANDEVILLE ON HIS TRAVELS. From a MS. in the British Museum.] We turn to the Arab traveller for a solid document, which rings more true, and we cannot doubt his accounts of shipwreck and hardships encountered by the way. Ibn Batuta left Tangiers in the year 1324 at the early age of twenty-one on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He made his way across the north of Africa to Alexandria. Here history relates he met a learned and pious man named Imam. "I perceive," said Imam, "that you are fond of visiting distant countries?" "That is so," answered Ibn Batuta. "Then you must visit my brother in India, my brother in Persia, and my brother in China, and when you see them present my compliments to them." Ibn Batuta left Alexandria with a resolve to visit these three persons, and indeed, wonderful to say, he found them all three and presented to them their brother's compliments. He reached Mecca and remained there for three years, after which he voyaged down the Red Sea to Aden, a port of much trade. Coasting along the east coast of Africa, he reached Mombasa, from which port, so soon to fall into the hands of the Portuguese, he sailed to Ormuz, a "city on the seashore," at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Here he tells us of the head of a fish "that might be compared to a hill: its eyes were like two doors, so that people could go in at one eye and out at the other." Crossing central Arabia and the Black Sea, he found himself for the first time in a Christian city, and was much dismayed at all the bells ringing. He was anxious to go north through Russia to the Land of Darkness, of which he had heard such wonderful tales. It was a land where there were neither trees, nor stones, nor houses, where dogs with nails in their feet drew little sledges across the ice. Instead he went to Constantinople, arriving at sunset when the bells were ringing so loud "that the very horizon shook with the noise." Ibn was presented to the Emperor as a remarkable traveller, and a letter of safe conduct was given to him. He then made his way through Bokhara and Herat, Kandahar and Kabul, over the Hindu Koosh and across the Indus to Delhi, "the greatest city in the world." But at this time it was a howling wilderness, as the inhabitants had fled from the cruelty of the Turkish Emperor. Into his presence our traveller was now called and graciously received. "The lord of the world appoints you to the office of judge in Delhi," said the Emperor; "he gives you a dress of honour with a saddled horse and a large yearly salary." Ibn held this office for eight years, till one day the Emperor called him and said: "I wish to send you as ambassador to the Emperor of China, for I know you are fond of travelling in foreign countries." The Emperor of China had sent presents of great value to the Emperor of India, who was now anxious to return the compliment. Quaint, indeed, were the gifts from India to China. There were one hundred high-bred horses, one hundred dancing girls, one hundred pieces of cotton stuff, also silk and wool, some black, some white, blue-green or blue. There were swords of state and golden candlesticks, silver basins, brocade dresses, and gloves embroidered with pearls. But so many adventures did Ibn Batuta have on his way to China that it is certain that none of these things ever reached that country, for eighty miles from Delhi the cavalcade was attacked and Ibn was robbed of all he had. For days he wandered alone in a forest, living on leaves, till he was rescued more dead than alive, and carried back to Delhi. The second start was also unfortunate. By a circuitous route he made his way to Calicut on the Malabar coast, where he made a stay of three months till the monsoons should permit him to take ship for China. The harbour of Calicut was full of great Chinese ships called junks. These junks struck him as unlike anything he had seen before. "The sails are made of cane reed woven together like a mat, which, when they put into port, they leave standing in the wind. In some of these vessels there will be a thousand men, sailors and soldiers. Built in the ports of China only, they are rowed with large oars, which may be compared to great masts. On board are wooden houses in which the higher officials reside with their wives." [Illustration: AN EMPEROR OF TARTARY. From the map ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, 1544.] The time of the voyage came; thirteen huge junks were taken, and the imperial presents were embarked. All was ready for a start on the morrow. Ibn stayed on shore praying in the mosque till starting-time. That night a violent hurricane arose and most of the ships in the harbour were destroyed. Treasure, crew, and officers all perished, and Ibn was left alone and almost penniless. He feared to return to Delhi, so he took ship, which landed him on one of a group of a thousand islands, which Ibn calls "one of the wonders of the world." The chief island was governed by a woman. Here he was made a judge, and soon became a great personage. But after a time he grew restless and set sail for Sumatra. Here at the court of the king, who was a zealous disciple of Mohammed, Ibn met with a kind reception, and after a fortnight, provided with provisions, the "restless Mohammedan" again voyaged northwards into the "Calm Sea," or the Pacific as we call it now. It was so still, "disturbed by neither wind nor waves," that the ship had to be towed by a smaller ship till they reached China. "This is a vast country," writes Ibn, "and it abounds in all sorts of good things--fruit, corn, gold, and silver. It is traversed by a great river--the Waters of Life--which runs through the heart of China for a distance of six months' journey. It is bordered with villages, cultivated plains, orchards, and markets, just like the Nile in Egypt." Ibn gives an amusing account of the Chinese poultry. "The cocks and hens are bigger than our geese. I one day bought a hen," he says, "which I wanted to boil, but one pot would not hold it and I was obliged to take two. As for the cocks in China, they are as big as ostriches." "'Pooh,' cried an owner of Chinese fowls, 'there are cocks in China much bigger than that,' and I found he had said no more than the truth." "Silk is very plentiful, for the worms which produce it require little attention. They have silk in such abundance that it is used for clothing even by poor monks and beggars. The people of China do not use gold and silver coin in their commercial dealings. Their buying and selling is carried on by means of pieces of paper about the size of the palm of the hand, carrying the seal of the Emperor." The Arab traveller has much to say about the superb painting of China. They study and paint every stranger that visits their country, and the portrait thus taken is exposed on the city wall. Thus, should a stranger do anything to make flight necessary, his portrait would be sent out into every province and he would soon be discovered. "China is the safest as well as the pleasantest of all the regions on the earth for a traveller. You may travel the whole nine months' journey to which the Empire extends without the slightest cause to fear, even if you have treasure in your charge. But it afforded me no pleasure. On the contrary, my spirit was sorely troubled within me to see how Paganism had the upper hand." [Illustration: A CARAVAN IN CATHAY. From the Catalan map, 1375.] Troubles now broke out among the Khan's family, which led to civil wars and the death of the Great Khan. He was buried with great pomp. A deep chamber was dug in the earth, into which a beautiful couch was placed, on which was laid the dead Khan with his arms and all his rich apparel, the earth over him being heaped to the height of a large hill. Batuta now hurried from the country, took a junk to Sumatra, thence to Calicut and by Ormuz home to Tangier, where he arrived in 1348. He had done what he set forth to do. He had visited the three brothers of Imam in Persia, India, and China. In addition he had travelled for twenty-four years and accomplished in all about seventy-five thousand miles. With him the history of mediaeval exploration would seem to end, for within eighty years of his death the modern epoch opens with the energies and enthusiasm of Prince Henry of Portugal. For the last few centuries we have found all travel undertaken more or less as a religious crusade. So far during the last centuries, travel had been for the most part by land. Few discoveries had been made by sea. Voyages were too difficult and dangerous. The Phoenicians had ventured far with intrepid courage. The Vikings had tossed fearlessly over their stormy northern seas to the yet unknown land of America, but this was long ago. Throughout the Middle Ages hardly a sail was to be seen on the vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, no ships ventured on what was held to be the Sea of Darkness, no man was emboldened to risk life and money on the unknown waters beyond his own safe home. CHAPTER XIX MEDIAEVAL MAPS We cannot pass from the subject of mediaeval exploration without a word on the really delightful, if ignorant, maps of the period, for they illustrate better than any description the state of geography at this time. The Ptolemy map, summing up all the Greek and Roman learning, with its longitudes and latitudes, with its shaped continents and its many towns and rivers, "indicates the high-water mark of a tide that was soon to ebb." With the decline of the Roman Empire and the coming of Christianity we get a new spirit inspiring our mediaeval maps, in which Jerusalem, hitherto totally obscure, dominates the whole situation. The _Christian Topography_ of Cosmas in the sixth century sets a new model. Figures blowing trumpets representing the winds still blow on to the world, as they did in the days of Ptolemy, but the earth is once more flat and it is again surrounded by the ocean stream. Round this ocean stream, according to Cosmas, is an outer earth, the seat of Paradise, "the earth beyond the ocean where men dwelt before the Flood." Although these maps of Cosmas were but the expression of one man's ideas, they served as a model for others. There is, at Turin, a delightful map of the eighth century with the four winds and the ocean stream as usual. The world is divided into three--Asia, Africa, and Europe. Adam and Eve stand at the top; to the right of Adam lies Armenia and the Caucasus; to the left of Eve are Mount Lebanon, the river Jordan, Sidon, and Mesopotamia. At their feet lie Mount Carmel, Jerusalem, and Babylon. [Illustration: THE TURIN MAP OF THE WORLD, EIGHTH CENTURY.] In Europe we find a few names such as Constantinople, Italy, France. Britannia and Scotland are islands in the encircling sea. Africa is suitably represented by the Nile. Of much the same date is another map known as the Albi, preserved in the library at Albi in Languedoc. The world is square, with rounded corners; Britain is an island off the coast of Spain, and a beautiful green sea flows round the whole. An example of tenth-century map-making, known as the Cottoniana or Anglo-Saxon map, is in the British Museum. Here is a mixture of Biblical and classical knowledge. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are in their place and the Pillars of Hercules stand at the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea. The British Isles are still distorted, and quantities of little unnamed islands lie about the north of Scotland. In the extreme east lies an enormous Ceylon; in the north-east corner of Asia is drawn a magnificent lion with mane and curling tail, with the words around him: "Here lions abound." Africa as usual is made up of the Nile, Alexandria at its mouth, and its source in a lake. [Illustration: A T-MAP, TENTH CENTURY.] [Illustration: A T-MAP, THIRTEENTH CENTURY.] There is another form of these early maps. They are quite small and round. They are known as T-maps, being divided into three parts--Europe, Asia, and Africa. Jerusalem is always in the centre, and the ocean stream flows round. [Illustration: THE HEREFORD MAPPA MUNDI OF 1280. Drawn by Richard de Haldingham and Lafford, who was Prebendary of Lincoln (hence his name Lafford) before 1283, and Prebendary of Hereford in 1305. The original map hangs in the Chapter House Library of Hereford Cathedral. In it the original green of the seas reproduced here as green has become a dark brown by age.] After the manner of these, only on a very large scale, is the famous _Mappa Mundi_, by Richard of Haldingham, on the walls of the Hereford Cathedral of the thirteenth century. Jerusalem is in the centre, and the Crucifixion is there depicted. At the top is the Last Judgment, with the good and bad folk divided on either side. Adam and Eve are there, so are the Pillars of Hercules, Scylla and Charybdis, the Red Sea coloured red, the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon, strange beasts and stranger men. With the Hereford map came in that pictorial geography that makes the maps of the later Middle Ages so delightful. [Illustration: THE KAISER HOLDING THE WORLD. From a twelfth-century MS.] "This is indeed the true way to make a map," says a modern writer. "If these old maps erred in the course of their rivers and the lines of their mountains and space, they are not so misleading as your modern atlas with its too accurate measurements. For even your most primitive map, with Paradise in the east--a gigantic Jerusalem in the centre--gives a less distorted impression than that which we obtain from the most scientific chart on Mercator's projection." [Illustration: THE "ANGLO-SAXON" MAP OF THE WORLD, DRAWN ABOUT 990 A.D. This map, which is found in one of the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum, is a geographical achievement remarkable in the age which produced it. It may perhaps be the work of an Irish scholar-monk. It shows real knowledge and scientific insight in one of the gloomiest of the "dark ages" of Europe.] CHAPTER XX PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL But now a new era was about to begin--a new age was dawning--and we open a wonderful chapter in the history of discovery, perhaps the most wonderful in all the world. In Portugal a man had arisen who was to awaken the slumbering world of travel and direct it to the high seas. And the name of this man was Henry, a son of King John of Portugal. His mother was an Englishwoman, daughter of "John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster." The Prince was, therefore, a nephew of Henry IV. and great-grandson of Edward III. of England. But if English blood flowed in his veins he, too, was the son of the "greatest King that ever sat on the throne of Portugal," and at the age of twenty he had already learned something of the sea that lay between his father's kingdom and the northern coast of Africa. Thus, when in the year 1415 King John planned a great expedition across the narrow seas to Ceuta, an important Moorish city in North Africa, it fell to Prince Henry himself to equip seven triremes, six biremes, twenty-six ships of burden, and a number of small craft. These he had ready at Lisbon when news reached him that the Queen, his mother, was stricken ill. The King and three sons were soon at her bedside. It was evident that she was dying. "What wind blows so strongly against the side of the house?" she asked suddenly. "The wind blows from the north," replied her sons. "It is the wind most favourable for your departure," replied Philippa. And with these words the English Queen died. This is not the place to tell how the expedition started at once as the dead Queen had wished, how Ceuta was triumphantly taken, and how Prince Henry distinguished himself till all Europe rang with his fame. Henry V. of England begged him to come over and take command of his forces. The Emperor of Germany sent the same request. But he had other schemes for his life. He would not fight the foes of England or of Germany, rather would he fight the great ocean whose waves dashed high against the coast of Portugal. He had learned something of inland Africa, of the distant coast of Guinea, and he was fired with the idea of exploring along this west coast of Africa and possibly reaching India by sea. Let us recall what was known of the Atlantic only six centuries ago. "It was," says an old writer, "a vast and boundless ocean, on which ships dared not venture out of sight of land. For even if the sailors knew the direction of the winds they would not know whither those winds would carry them, and, as there is no inhabited country beyond, they would run great risk of being lost in mist and vapour. The limit of the West is the Atlantic Ocean." The ocean was a new and formidable foe, hitherto unconquered and unexplored. At last one had arisen to attempt its conquest. As men had lifted the veil from the unknown land of China, so now the mists were to be cleared from the Sea of Darkness. On the inhospitable shores of southern Portugal, amid the "sadness of a waste of shifting sand, in a neighbourhood so barren that only a few stunted trees struggled for existence, on one of the coldest, dreariest spots of sunny Portugal," Prince Henry built his naval arsenal. In this secluded spot, far from the gaieties of Court life, with the vast Atlantic rolling measureless and mysterious before him, Prince Henry took up the study of astronomy and mathematics. Here he gathered round him men of science; he built ships and trained Portuguese sailors in the art of navigation, so far as it was known in those days. Then he urged them seawards. In 1418 two gentlemen of his household, Zarco and Vaz, volunteered to sail to Cape Bojador towards the south. They started off and as usual hugged the coast for some way, but a violent storm arose and soon they were driven out to sea. They had lost sight of land and given themselves up for lost when, at break of day, they saw an island not far off. Delighted at their escape, they named it Porto Santo and, overjoyed at their discovery, hastened back to Portugal to relate their adventures to Prince Henry. They described the fertile soil and delicious climate of the newly found island, the simplicity of its inhabitants, and they requested leave to return and make a Portuguese settlement there. To reward them, Prince Henry gave them three ships and everything to ensure success in their new enterprise. But unfortunately he added a rabbit and her family. These were turned out and multiplied with such astonishing rapidity that in two years' time they were numerous enough to destroy all the vegetation of the island. So Porto Santo was colonised by the Portuguese, and one Perestrello was made Governor of the island; and it is interesting to note that his daughter became the wife of Christopher Columbus. But the original founders, Zarco and Vaz, had observed from time to time a dark spot on the horizon which aroused their curiosity. Sailing towards it, they found an island of considerable size, uninhabited and very attractive, but so covered with woods that they named it Madeira, the Island of Woods. But although these two islands belong to Portugal to-day, and although Portugal claimed their discovery, it has been proved that already an Englishman and his wife had been there, and the names of the islands appear on an Italian map of 1351. [Illustration: AFRICA--FROM CEUTA TO MADEIRA, THE CANARIES, AND CAPE BOJADOR. From Fra Mauro's map, 1457.] The story of this first discovery is very romantic. In the reign of Edward III. a young man named Robert Machin sailed away from Bristol with a very wealthy lady. A north-east wind carried them out of their course, and after thirteen days' driving before a storm they were cast on to an island. It was uninhabited and well wooded and watered. But the sufferings and privations proved too much for the poor English lady, who died after three days, and Machin died a few days later of grief and exposure. The crew of the ship sailed away to the coast of Africa, there to be imprisoned by the Moors. Upon their escape in 1416 they made known their discovery. So Zarco and Vaz divided the island of Madeira, calling half of it Funchal (the Portuguese for fennel, which grew here in great quantities) and the other half Machico after the poor English discoverer Machin. The first two Portuguese children born in the island of Madeira were called Adam and Eve. Year after year Prince Henry launched his little ships on the yet unknown, uncharted seas, urging his captains to venture farther and ever farther. He longed for them to reach Cape Bojador, and bitter was his disappointment when one of his squires, dismayed by travellers' tales, turned back from the Canary Islands. "Go out again," urged the enthusiastic Prince, "and give no heed to their opinions, for, by the grace of God, you cannot fail to derive from your voyage both honour and profit." [Illustration: THE VOYAGE TO CAPE BLANCO FROM CAPE BOJADOR. From Fra Mauro's map, 1457.] And the squire went forth from the commanding presence of the Prince resolved to double the Cape, which he successfully accomplished in 1434. Seven years passed away, till in 1441 two men--Gonsalves, master of the wardrobe (a strange qualification for difficult navigation), and Nuno Tristam, a young knight--started forth on the Prince's service, with orders to pass Cape Bojador where a dangerous surf, breaking on the shore, had terrified other navigators. There was a story, too, that any man who passed Cape Bojador would be changed from white into black, that there were sea-monsters, sheets of burning flame, and boiling waters beyond. The young knight Tristam discovered the white headland beyond Cape Bojador, named it Cape Blanco, and took home some Moors of high rank to the Prince. A large sum was offered for their ransom, so Gonsalves conveyed them back to Cape Blanco and coasted along to the south, discovering the island of Arguin of the Cape Verde group and reaching the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, reached by Hanno many centuries before this. Here he received some gold dust, and with this and some thirty negroes he returned to Lisbon, where the strange black negroes "caused the most lively astonishment among the people." The small quantity of gold dust created a sensation among the Portuguese explorers, and the spirit of adventure grew. No longer had the Prince to urge his navigators forth to new lands and new seas; they were ready and willing to go, for the reward was now obvious. The news was soon noised abroad, and Italians, then reckoned among the most skilful seamen of the time, flocked to Portugal, anxious to take service under the Prince. "Love of gain was the magic wand that drew them on and on, into unknown leagues of waters, into wild adventures and desperate affrays." The "Navigator" himself looked beyond these things. He would find a way to India; he would teach the heathen to be Christians. He was always ready to welcome those with superior knowledge of navigation; so in 1454 he sent an Italian, known to history as Cadamosto, to sail the African seas. The young Venetian was but twenty-one, and he tells his story simply. "Now I--Luigi Ca da Mosto--had sailed nearly all the Mediterranean coasts, but, being caught by a storm off Cape St. Vincent, had to take refuge in the Prince's town, and was there told of the glorious and boundless conquests of the Prince, the which did exceedingly stir my soul--eager it was for gain above all things else. My age, my vigour, my skill are equal to any toil; above all, my passionate desire to see the world and explore the unknown set me all on fire with eagerness." In 1455 Cadamosto sailed from Portugal for Madeira, now "thickly peopled with Portuguese." From Madeira to the Canaries, from the Canaries to Cape Blanco, "natives black as moles were dressed in white flowing robes with turbans wound round their heads." Here was a great market of Arab traders from the interior, here were camels laden with brass, silver, and gold, as well as slaves innumerable. But Cadamosto pushed on for some four hundred miles by the low, sandy shore to the Senegal River. The Portuguese had already sailed by this part of the coast, and the negroes had thought their ships to be great birds from afar cleaving the air with their white wings. When the crews furled their sails and drew into shore the natives changed their minds and thought they were fishes, and all stood on the shore gazing stupidly at this new wonder. Cadamosto landed and pushed some two hundred and fifty miles up the Senegal River, where he set up a market, exchanging cotton and cloth for gold, while "the negroes came stupidly crowding round me, wondering at our white colour, which they tried to wash off, our dress, our garments of black silk and robes of blue cloth." Joined by two other ships from Portugal, the Italian explorer now sailed on to Cape Verde, so called from its green grass. "The land here," he tells us, "is all low and full of fine, large trees, which are continually green. The trees never wither like those in Europe; they grow so near the shore that they seem to drink, as it were, the water of the sea. The coast is most beautiful. Many countries have I been in, to East and West, but never did I see a prettier sight." But the negroes here--big, comely men--were lawless and impossible to approach, shooting at the Portuguese explorers with poisoned arrows. They discovered that the capital of the country was called Gambra, where lived a king, but the negroes of the Gambra were unfriendly; there was little gold to be had; his crews fell sick and ill, and Cadamosto turned home again. But he had reached a point beyond all other explorers of the time, a point where "only once did we see the North Star, which was so low that it seemed almost to touch the sea." We know that he must have been to within eleven degrees of the Equator, and it is disappointing to find the promising young Italian disappearing from the pages of history. [Illustration: A PORTION OF AFRICA FROM FRA MAURO'S MAP ILLUSTRATING CADAMOSTO'S VOYAGE BEYOND CAPE BLANCO.] And now we come to the last voyage planned by Prince Henry, that of Diego Gomez, his own faithful servant. It followed close on Cadamosto's return. No long time after, the Prince equipped a ship called the _Wren_ and set over it Diego Gomez, with two other ships, of which he was commander-in-chief. Their orders were to go as far as they could. Gomez wrote his own travels, and his adventures are best told in his own words. We take up his story from the far side of Cape Blanco. "After passing a great river beyond Rio Grande we met such strong currents in the sea that no anchor could hold. The other captains and their men were much alarmed, thinking we were at the end of the ocean, and begged me to put back. In the mid-current the sea was very clear, and the natives came off from the shore and brought us their merchandise. As the current grew even stronger we put back and came to a land, where were groves of palms near the shore, with their branches broken. There we found a plain covered with hay and more than five thousand animals like stags, but larger, who showed no fear of us. Five elephants with two young ones came out of a small river that was fringed by trees. We went back to the ships, and next day made our way from Cape Verde and saw the broad mouth of a great river, which we entered and guessed to be the Gambia. We went up the river as far as Cantor (some five hundred miles). Farther than this the ships could not go, because of the thick growth of trees and underwood. When the news spread through the country that the Christians were in Cantor, they came from Timbuktu in the north, from Mount Gelu in the south. Here I was told there is gold in plenty, and caravans of camels cross over there with goods from Carthage, Tunis, Fez, Cairo, and all the land of the Saracens. I asked the natives of Cantor about the road to the gold country. They told me the King lived in Kukia and was lord of all the mines on the right side of the river of Cantor, and that he had before the door of this palace a mass of gold just as it was taken from the earth, so large that twenty men could hardly move it, and that the King always fastened his horse to it. While I was thus trafficking with these negroes, my men became worn out with the heat, and so we returned towards the ocean." [Illustration: SKETCH OF AFRICA FROM FRA MAURO'S GREAT MAP OF THE WORLD, 1457. In the African portions of Fra Mauro's map which have already been given they are shown exactly as Fra Mauro drew them, with the north at the _bottom_ and the south at the _top_, as is nearly always the case in mediaeval maps. In this outline of Africa, which is generally supposed to show the results of Prince Henry's labours, the map has been put the right way up. It was prepared between 1457 and 1459.] But Diego Gomez had succeeded in making friends with the hostile natives of this part. He left behind him a better idea of Christian men than some of the other explorers had done. His own account of the conversion of the Mohammedan King who lived near the mouth of the river Gambia, which was visited on the return voyage, is most interesting. "Now the houses here are made of seaweed, covered with straw, and while I stayed here (at the river mouth) three days, I learned all the mischief that had been done to the Christians by a certain King. So I took pains to make peace with him and sent him many presents by his own men in his own canoes. Now the King was in great fear of the Christians, lest they should take vengeance upon him. When the King heard that I always treated the natives kindly he came to the river-side with a great force, and, sitting down on the bank, sent for me. And so I went and paid him all respect. There was a Bishop there of his own faith, who asked me about the God of the Christians, and I answered him as God had given me to know. At last the King was so pleased with what I said that he sprang to his feet and ordered the Mohammedan Bishop to leave his country within three days." So when the Portuguese returned home, Prince Henry sent a priest and a young man of his own household to the black King at the mouth of the Gambia. This was in 1458. "In the year of our Lord 1460, Prince Henry fell ill in his town on Cape St. Vincent," says his faithful explorer and servant, Diego Gomez, "and of that sickness he died." Such was the end of the man who has been called the "originator of modern discovery." What had he done? He had inspired and financed the Portuguese navigators to sail for some two thousand miles down the West African coast. "From his wave-washed home he inspired the courage of his men and planned their voyages, and by the purity of his actions and the devotion of his life really lived up to his inspiring motto, 'Talent de bien faire.'" And more than this. For each successive discovery had been carefully noted at the famous Sagres settlement, and these had been worked up by an Italian monk named Fra Mauro into an enormous wall-map over six feet across, crammed with detail--the work of three years' incessant labour. CHAPTER XXI BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ REACHES THE STORMY CAPE But though Prince Henry was dead, the enthusiasm he had aroused among Portuguese navigators was not dead, and Portuguese ships still stole forth by twos and threes to search for treasure down the West African coast. In 1462 they reached Sierra Leone, the farthest point attained by Hanno of olden days. Each new headland was now taken in the name of Portugal: wooden crosses already marked each successive discovery, and many a tree near the coast bore the motto of Prince Henry carved roughly on its bark. Portugal had officially claimed this "Kingdom of the Seas" as it was called, and henceforth stone crosses some six feet high, inscribed with the arms of Portugal, the name of the navigator, and the date of discovery, marked each newly found spot. It was not until 1471 that the navigators unconsciously crossed the Equator, "into a new heaven and a new earth." They saw stars unknown in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Northern Pole star sank nearly out of sight. Another thirteen years and Diego Cam, a knight of the King's household, found the mouth of the Congo and erected a great Portuguese pillar on the famous spot. It was in the year 1484 that Diego Cam was ordered to go "as far to the south as he could." He crossed the Equator, which for past years had been the limit of knowledge, and, continuing southwards he reached the mouth of the mighty river Congo, now known as the second of all the African rivers for size. The explorer ascended the river, falling in with peacefully inclined natives. But they could not make themselves understood, so Cam took back four of them to Portugal, where they learned enough Portuguese to talk a little. They were much struck with Portugal and the kind treatment they received from the King, who sent them back to their country laden with presents for their black King at home. So with Diego Cam they all sailed back to the Congo River. They were received by the King in royal state. Seated on a throne of ivory raised on a lofty wooden platform, he could be seen from all sides, his "black and glittering skin" shining out above a piece of damask given to him to wear by the Portuguese explorer. From his shoulder hung a dressed horse's tail, a symbol of royalty; on his head was a cap of palm leaves. It was here in this Congo district that the first negro was baptized in the presence of some twenty-five thousand heathen comrades. The ceremony was performed by Portuguese priests, and the negro King ordered all idols to be destroyed throughout his dominions. Here, too, a little Christian church was built, and the King and Queen became such earnest Christians that they sent their children to Portugal to be taught. [Illustration: NEGRO BOYS, FROM CABOT'S MAP, 1544.] But even the discoveries of Diego Cam pale before the great achievement of Bartholomew Diaz, who was now to accomplish the great task which Prince Henry the Navigator had yearned to see fulfilled--the rounding of the Cape of Storms. The expedition set sail for the south in August 1486. Passing the spot where Diego Cam had erected his farthest pillar, Diaz reached a headland, now known as Diaz Point, where he, too, placed a Portuguese pillar that remained unbroken till about a hundred years ago. Still to the south he sailed, struggling with wind and weather, to Cape Voltas, close to the mouth of the Orange River. Then for another fortnight the little ships were driven before the wind, south and ever south, with half-reefed sails and no land in sight. Long days and longer nights passed to find them still drifting in an unknown sea, knowing not what an hour might bring forth. At last the great wind ceased to blow and it became icy cold. They had sailed to the south of South Africa. Steering north, Diaz now fell in with land--land with cattle near the shore and cowherds tending them, but the black cowherds were so alarmed at the sight of the Portuguese that they fled away inland. We know now, what neither Diaz nor his crew even suspected, that he had actually rounded, without seeing, the Cape of Good Hope. The coast now turned eastward till a small island was reached in a bay we now call Algoa Bay. Here Bartholomew Diaz set up another pillar with its cross and inscription, naming the rock Santa Cruz. This was the first land beyond the Cape ever trodden by European feet. Unfortunately the natives--Kafirs--threw stones at them, and it was impossible to make friends and to land. The crews, too, began to complain. They were worn out with continual work, weary for fresh food, terrified at the heavy seas that broke on these southern shores. With one voice they protested against proceeding any farther. But the explorer could not bear to turn back; he must sail onwards now, just three days more, and then if they found nothing he would turn back. They sailed on and came to the mouth of a large river--the Great Fish River. Again the keen explorer would sail on and add to his already momentous discoveries. But the crews again began their complaints and, deeply disappointed, Diaz had to turn. "When he reached the little island of Santa Cruz and bade farewell to the cross which he had there erected, it was with grief as intense as if he were leaving his child in the wilderness with no hope of ever seeing him again." To him it seemed as though he had endured all his hardships in vain. He knew not what he had really accomplished as yet. But his eyes were soon to be opened. Sailing westward, Diaz at last came in sight of "that remarkable Cape which had been hidden from the eyes of man for so many centuries." [Illustration: THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA. From Martin Behaim's map, 1492.] Remembering their perils past, he called it "the Stormy Cape" and hastened home to the King of Portugal with his great news. The King was overjoyed, but he refused to name it the Cape of Storms. Would not such a name deter the seamen of the future? Was not this the long-sought passage to India? Rather it should be called the Cape of Good Hope, the name which it has held throughout the centuries. In the course of one voyage, Diaz had accomplished the great task which for the past seventy years Prince Henry had set before his people. He had lifted for the first time in the history of the world the veil that had hung over the mysterious extremity of the great African continent. The Phoenicians may have discovered it some seventeen hundred years before Diaz, but the record of tradition alone exists. Now with the new art of printing, which was transforming the whole aspect of life, the brilliant achievement of Bartholomew Diaz was made known far and wide. It was shortly to be followed by a yet more brilliant feat by a yet more brilliant navigator, "the most illustrious that the world has seen." The very name of Christopher Columbus calls up the vision of a resolute man beating right out into the westward unknown seas and finding as his great reward a whole new continent--a New World of whose existence mankind had hardly dreamt. CHAPTER XXII CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS Every event in the eventful life of Christopher Columbus is of supreme interest. We linger over all that leads up to the momentous start westwards: we recall his birth and early life at Genoa towards the middle of the fifteenth century, his apprenticeship to his father as a weaver of cloth, his devotion to the sea, his love of the little sailing ships that passed in and out of the busy Genoese harbour from all parts of the known world. At the age of fourteen the little Christoforo went to sea--a red-haired, sunburnt boy with bright blue eyes. He learnt the art of navigation, he saw foreign countries, he learnt to chart the seas, to draw maps, and possibly worked with some of the noted Italian draughtsmen. At the age of twenty-eight, in 1474, he left Genoa for Portugal, famous throughout the world for her recent discoveries, though as yet the Stormy Cape lay veiled in mystery. Columbus wanted to learn all he could about these discoveries; he made voyages to Guinea, Madeira, and Porto Santo. He also went to England and "sailed a hundred leagues to the island of Thule in 1477." He was now a recognised seaman of distinction, with courteous manners and fine appearance. He set himself to study maps and charts at Lisbon, giving special attention to instruments for making observations at sea. For many long years he had been revolving a scheme for reaching India by sailing westward instead of the route by Africa. The more he studied these things the more convinced he became that he was right. "What if wise men had, as far back as Ptolemy, Judged that the earth like an orange was round. None of them ever said, 'Come along, follow me, Sail to the West and the East will be found.'" It was not till the year 1480 that Columbus proposed to the King of Portugal his idea of sailing westwards. He explained his reasons: how there were grounds for thinking there was an unknown land to the west, how artistically sculptured pieces of wood had been driven across the ocean by the west wind, suggesting islands not yet discovered, how once the corpses of two men with broad faces, unlike Europeans, had been washed ashore, how on the west coast of Ireland seeds of tropical plants had been discovered. The King listened and was inclined to believe Columbus. But his councillors persuaded him to get from the Genoese navigator his plans, and while they kept Columbus waiting for the King's answer they sent off some ships privately to investigate the whole matter. The ships started westward, encountered a great storm, and returned to Lisbon, scoffing at the scheme of the stranger. When this news reached his ears, Columbus was very angry. He would have nothing more to do with Portugal, but left that country at once for Spain to appeal to the King and Queen of that land. Ferdinand and Isabella were busy with affairs of state and could not give audience to the man who was to discover a New World. It was not till 1491 that he was summoned before the King and Queen. Once more his wild scheme was laughed at, and he was dismissed the Court. Not only was he again indignant, but his friends were indignant too. They believed in him, and would not rest till they had persuaded the Queen to take up his cause. He demanded a good deal. He must be made Admiral and Viceroy of all the new seas and lands he might discover, as well as receiving a large portion of his gains. The Queen was prevailed on to provide means for the expedition, and she became so enthusiastic over it that she declared she would sell her own jewels to provide the necessary supplies. Columbus was created Admiral of the Ocean in all the islands and continents he might discover; two little ships were made ready, and it seemed as though the dream of his life might be fulfilled. The explorer was now forty-six; his red hair had become grey with waiting and watching for the possibility of realising his great scheme. [Illustration: THE PARTING OF COLUMBUS WITH FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, 3RD AUGUST 1492. From De Bry's account of the _Voyages to India_, 1601.] At last the preparations were complete. The _Santa Maria_ was to lead the way with the Admiral on board; she was but one hundred tons' burden, with a high poop and a forecastle. It had been difficult enough to find a crew; men were shy about venturing with this stranger from Genoa on unknown seas, and it was a motley party that finally took service under Columbus. The second ship, the _Pinta_, was but half the size of the flagship; she had a crew of eighteen and was the fastest sailer of the little squadron, while the third, the _Nina_ of forty tons, also carried eighteen men. [Illustration: COLUMBUS'S SHIP, THE _SANTA MARIA_. From a woodcut of 1493 supposed to be after a drawing by Columbus himself.] On 3rd August 1492 the little fleet sailed forth from Spain on a quest more perilous perhaps than any yet on record. No longer could they sail along with a coast always in sight; day after day and night after night they must sail on an unknown sea in search of an unknown land. No one ever expected to see them again. It has well been said that, "looking back at all that has grown out of it in the four centuries that have elapsed, we now know that the sailing of those three little boats over the bar was, since the Fall of Rome, the most momentous event in the world's history." The ships steered for the Canary Islands, and it was not till 9th September that the last land faded from the eyes of that daring little company. [Illustration: THE BEST PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. From the original painting (by an unknown artist) in the Naval Museum at Madrid.] Something of a panic among the sailors ensued when they realised their helpless position; some even burst into tears, begging to be taken home. The days passed on. By the 16th they had come within the influence of the trade winds. "The weather was like April," says Columbus in his journal. Still westward they sailed, eagerly looking for signs of land. Now they see two pelicans, "an indication that land was near," now a large dark cloud to the north, another "sign that land is near." As the days pass on, their hopes die away and "the temper of the crews was getting uglier and uglier as the three little vessels forged westward through the blue weed-strewn waters." On 9th October hope revives; all night they hear birds passing through the still air. On the evening of the 11th a light was seen glimmering in the distance; from the high stern deck of the _Santa Maria_ it could be plainly seen, and when the sun rose on that memorable morning the low shores of land a few miles distant could be plainly seen. "Seabirds are wheeling overhead heedless of the intruders, but on the shore human beings are assembling to watch the strange birds which now spread their wings and sail towards the island. "The _Pinta_ leads and her crew are raising the 'Te Deum.' The crews of the _Santa Maria_ and the _Nina_ join in the solemn chant and many rough men brush away tears. Columbus, the two Pinzons, and some of the men step into the cutter and row to the shore." Columbus, fully armed under his scarlet cloak, sprang ashore, the unclothed natives fleeing away at sight of the first white man who had ever stepped on their shores. Then, unfurling the royal standard of Spain and setting up a large cross, the great navigator fell on his knees and gave thanks to God for this triumphant ending to his perilous voyage. He named the island San Salvador and formally took possession of it for Spain. It was one of the Bahama group, and is now known as Watling Island (British). "Thus was the mighty enterprise achieved, mighty in its conception, still more important in its results." But Columbus thought he had discovered the Indies, a new route to the east and the Cathay of Marco Polo. He had done more than this; he had discovered another continent. He had sailed over three thousand miles without seeing land, a feat unparalleled in the former history of discovery. He made friends with the natives, who resembled those of the Canary Islands. "I believe they would easily become Christians," wrote Columbus. "If it please our Lord at the time of my departure, I will take six from here that they may learn to speak." He also notes that they will make good slaves. [Illustration: COLUMBUS LANDING ON HISPANIOLA. From a woodcut of 1494.] From island to island he now made his way, guided by natives. He hoped to find gold; he hoped to find Cathay, for he had a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella to deliver to the Great Khan. The charm and beauty of these enchanted islands were a source of joy to the explorer: "The singing of the little birds is such that it appears a man would wish never to leave here, and the flocks of parrots obscure the sun." The island of Cuba "seemed like heaven itself," but Columbus could not forget that he was searching for gold, for Oriental spices, for the land of Marco Polo, as he hastened from point to point, from island to island. Already the _Pinta_ under Martin Pinzon had gone off independently in search of a vague land of gold, to the vexation of the Admiral. A worse disaster was now to befall him. On Christmas Day, off the island of Hayti, the _Santa Maria_ struck upon a reef and went over. Columbus and his crew escaped on board the little _Nina_. But she was too small to carry home the double crew, and Columbus made a little fortress on the island where the native King was friendly, and left there a little colony of Spaniards. He now prepared for the homeward voyage, and one January day in 1493 he left the newly discovered islands and set his face for home in company with the _Pinta_, which by this time had returned to him. For some weeks they got on fairly well. Then the wind rose. A violent storm came on; the sea was terrible, the waves breaking right over the little homeward-bound ships, which tossed about helplessly for long days and nights. Suddenly the _Pinta_ disappeared. The wind and sea increased. The little forty-ton _Nina_ was in extreme peril, and the crew gave themselves up for lost; their provisions were nearly finished. Columbus was agonised lest he should perish and the news of his great discovery should never reach Spain. Taking a piece of parchment, he noted down as best he could amid the tossing of the ship a brief account of his work, and, wrapping it in a waxed cloth, he put it into an empty cask and threw it overboard. Then, while the mountainous seas threatened momentary destruction, he waited and prayed. Slowly the storm abated, and on 18th February they reached the Azores. A few days for refreshment and on he sailed again, feverishly anxious to reach Spain and proclaim his great news. But on 3rd March the wind again rose to a hurricane and death stared the crew in the face. Still, "under bare poles and in a heavy cross-sea," they scudded on, until they reached the mouth of the Tagus. The news of his arrival soon spread, and excited crowds hurried to see the little ship that had crossed the fierce Atlantic. Bartholomew Diaz came aboard the _Nina_, and for a short time the two greatest explorers of their century were together. An enthusiastic welcome awaited him in Spain. Was he not the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy of the Western Indies," the only man who had crossed the unknown for the sake of a cherished dream? "Seven months had passed since Columbus had sailed from Spain in the dim light of that summer morning. Now he was back. Through tempestuous seas and raging winter gales he had guided his ship well, and Spain knew how to do him honour. His journey from the coast to the Court was like a royal progress. The roads were lined with excited people; the air was rent with shouts of joy." [Illustration: THE FIRST REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE NEW WORLD. From a woodcut published at Augsburg between 1497 and 1504. The only copy known is in the British Museum. The inscription states that the Americans "eat each other," "become a hundred and fifty years of age, and have no government."] On Palm Sunday, 1493, he passed through the streets of Seville. A procession preceded him in which walked the six natives, or Indians as they were called, brought home by Columbus; parrots and other birds with strange and radiant colouring were also borne before the triumphant explorer, who himself rode on horseback among the mounted chivalry of Spain. From windows and roofs a dense throng watched Christopher Columbus as he rode through the streets of Seville. From here he passed on to Barcelona, to be received by the King and Queen. "The city decked herself To meet me, roar'd my name: the king, the queen, Bad me be seated, speak, and tell them all The story of my voyage, and while I spoke The crowd's roar fell as at the 'Peace be still.' And when I ceased to speak, the king, the queen, Sank from their thrones, and melted into tears, And knelt, and lifted hand and heart and voice In praise to God who led me thro' the waste. And then the great 'Laudamus' rose to heaven." It is curious to think what a strange mistake caused all their rejoicing. Not only Spain, but the whole civilised world firmly believed that Columbus had discovered some islands off the coast of Asia, not far from the land of the Great Khan, in the Indian seas. Hence the islands were called the West Indies, which name they have kept to this day. CHAPTER XXIII A GREAT NEW WORLD The departure of Columbus six months later on his second voyage was a great contrast to the uncertain start of a year ago. The new fleet was ready by September 1493. The three largest ships were some four hundred tons' burden, with fourteen smaller craft and crews of fifteen thousand men. There was no dearth of volunteers this time. High-born Spaniards, thirsting for the wealth of the Indies, offered their services, while Columbus took his brother James and a Benedictine monk chosen by the Pope. They took orange and lemon seeds for planting in the new islands, horses, pigs, bulls, cows, sheep, and goats, besides fruit and vegetables. So, full of hope and joyful expectation, they set sail; and so well had Columbus calculated his distance and direction with but imperfect instruments at his disposal, that he arrived at the islands again on 3rd November. It was another new island, which he named Domenica, as the day was Sunday. Making for the island of Hayti, where he had left his little Spanish colony, he passed many islands, naming Guadeloupe, San Martin, Santa Cruz, and others. Porto Rico was also found, but they arrived at Hayti to find no trace of Spaniards. Disaster had overtaken the colony, and the deserted men had been killed by the natives who had apparently been so friendly. Another spot was selected by Columbus, and a town was soon built to which he gave the name of Isabella. [Illustration: THE TOWN OF ISABELLA AND THE COLONY FOUNDED BY COLUMBUS. From a woodcut of 1494.] This is not the place to tell of the miserable disputes and squabbles that befell the little Spanish colony. We are here concerned with the fuller exploration of the West Indies by Columbus. Taking three ships provisioned for six months, with a crew of fifty-two, he set out for the coast of Cathay. Instead of this, he found the island of Jamaica, with its low, hazy, blue coast of extreme beauty. Still convinced that he was near the territory of the Great Khan, he explored the coast of Cuba, not realising that it was an island. He sailed about among the islands, till he became very ill, fever seized him, and at last his men carried him ashore at Isabella, thinking that he must die. He recovered to find a discontented colony, members of which had already sent back stories to Spain of the misdeeds of their founder. Columbus made up his mind to return to Spain to carry a true report of the difficulties of colonisation in the Indies. "It was June 1496 before he found himself again in the harbour of Cadiz. People had crowded down to greet the great discoverer, but instead of a joyous crew, flushed with new success and rich with the spoils of the golden Indies, a feeble train of wretched men crawled on shore--thin, miserable, and ill. Columbus himself was dressed as a monk, in a long gown girded with a cord. His beard was long and unshaven. The whole man was utterly broken down with all he had been through." But after a stay of two years in Spain, Columbus again started off on his third voyage. With six ships he now took a more southerly direction, hoping to find land to the south of the West Indies. And this he did, but he never lived to know that it was the great continent of South America. Through scorching heat, which melted the tar of their rigging, they sailed onwards till they were rewarded by the sight of land at last. Columbus had promised to dedicate the first land he saw to the Holy Trinity. What, then, was his surprise when land appeared from which arose three distinct peaks, which he at once named La Trinidad. The luxuriance of the island pleased the Spaniards, and as they made their way slowly along the shore their eyes rested for the first time, and unconsciously, on the mainland of South America. It appeared to the explorer as a large island which he called Isla Santa. Here oysters abounded and "very large fish, and parrots as large as hens." Between the island and the mainland lay a narrow channel through which flowed a mighty current. While the ships were anchoring here a great flood of fresh water came down with a great roar, nearly destroying the little Spanish ships and greatly alarming both Columbus and his men. It was one of the mouths of the river Orinoco, to which they gave the name of the Dragon's Mouth. The danger over, they sailed on, charmed with the beautiful shores, the sight of the distant mountains, and the sweetness of the air. [Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--IV. The world as known at the end of the fifteenth century after the discoveries of Columbus and his age.] Columbus decided that this must be the centre of the earth's surface, and with its mighty rivers surely it was none other than the earthly Paradise with the rivers of the Garden of Eden, that "some of the Fathers had declared to be situated in the extreme east of the Old World, and in a region so high that the flood had not overwhelmed it." The world then, said Columbus, could not be a perfect round, but pear-shaped. With these conclusions he hastened across to Hayti where his brother was ruling over the little colony in his absence. But treachery and mutiny had been at work. Matters had gone ill with the colony, and Columbus did not improve the situation by his presence. He was a brilliant navigator, but no statesman. Complaints reached Spain, and a Spaniard was sent out to replace Columbus. This high-handed official at once put the poor navigator in chains and placed him on board a ship bound for Spain. Queen Isabella was overwhelmed with grief when the snowy-haired explorer once again stood before her, his face lined with suffering. He was restored to royal favour and provided with ships to sail forth on his fourth and last voyage. But his hardships and perils had told upon him, and he was not really fit to undertake the long voyage to the Indies. However, he arrived safely off the coast of Honduras and searched for the straits that he felt sure existed, but which were not to be found till some eighteen years later by Magellan. The natives brought him cocoanuts, which the Spaniards now tasted for the first time; they also brought merchandise from a far land denoting some high civilisation. Columbus believed that he had reached the golden east, whence the gold had been obtained for Solomon's temple. Had Columbus only sailed west he might have discovered Mexico with all its wealth, and "a succession of splendid discoveries would have shed fresh glory on his declining age, instead of his sinking amidst gloom, neglect, and disappointment." At the isthmus of Darien, Columbus gave up the search. He was weary of the bad weather. Incessant downpours of rain, storms of thunder and lightning with terrific seas--these discouraged him. Disaster followed disaster. The food was nearly finished; the biscuit "was so full of maggots that the people could only eat it in the dark, when they were not visible." Columbus himself seemed to be at the point of death. "Never," he wrote, "was the sea seen so high, so terrific, so covered with foam; the waters from heaven never ceased--it was like a repetition of the deluge." He reached Spain in 1504 to be carried ashore on a litter, and to learn that the Queen of Spain was dead. He was friendless, penniless, and sick unto death. "After twenty years of toil and peril," he says pitifully, "I do not own a roof in Spain." "I, lying here, bedridden and alone, Cast off, put by, scouted by count and king, The first discoverer starves." And so the brilliant navigator, Christopher Columbus, passed away, all unconscious of the great New World he had reached. Four centuries have passed away, but-- "When shall the world forget The glory and the debt, Indomitable soul, Immortal Genoese? Not while the shrewd salt gale Whines amid shroud and sail, Above the rhythmic roll And thunder of the seas." It has been well said, "injustice was not buried with Columbus," and soon after his death an attempt was made, and made successfully, to name the New World after another--a Florentine pilot, Amerigo Vespucci. [Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD, DRAWN IN 1500, THE FIRST TO SHOW AMERICA. By Juan de la Cosa, who is supposed to have been the pilot of Columbus. At the top, between the two green masses representing America, La Cosa has drawn Columbus as St. Christopher carrying the infant Christ, according to the legend.] It was but natural that when the first discoveries by Columbus of land to westward had been made known, that others should follow in the track of the great navigator. Among these was a handsome young Spaniard--one Hojeda--who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. Soon after, he fitted out an expedition, 1499, reaching the mainland of the yet unknown continent near the Trinidad of Columbus. With him was Amerigo Vespucci. Here they found a native village with houses built on tree trunks and connected by bridges. It was so like a bit of old Venice that the explorers named it Little Venice or Venezuela, which name it bears to-day. Nothing was publicly known of this voyage till a year after the death of Columbus, when men had coasted farther to the south of Venezuela and discovered that this land was neither Asia nor Africa, that it was not the land of Marco Polo, but a new continent indeed. "It is proper to call it a New World," says Amerigo Vespucci. "Men of old said over and over again that there was no land south of the Equator. But this last voyage of mine has proved them wrong, since in southern regions I have found a country more thickly inhabited by people and animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa." [Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI. From the sculpture by Grazzini in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.] These words among others, and an account of his voyages published in Paris, 1507, created a deep impression. A letter from Columbus announcing his discoveries had been published in 1493, but he said nothing, because he knew nothing, of a New World. Men therefore said that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent, "wherefore the new continent ought to be called America from its discoverer Amerigo, a man of rare ability, inasmuch as Europe and Asia derived their names from women." CHAPTER XXIV VASCO DA GAMA REACHES INDIA Thus the name of America was gradually adopted for the New World, though the honour and glory of its first discovery must always belong to Christopher Columbus. But while all this wonderful development westwards was thrilling the minds of men, other great discoveries were being made to the East, whither the eyes of the Portuguese were still straining. Portugal had lost Columbus; she could lay no claim to the shores of America discovered by Spaniards, but the sea-route to India by the East was yet to be found by one of her explorers, Vasco da Gama. His achievement stands out brilliantly at this time; for, within a few years of the discovery of the New World, he had been able to tell the world that India and the East could be reached by the Cape of Good Hope! The dream of Prince Henry the Navigator was fulfilled! How Vasco da Gama was chosen for the great command has been graphically described by a Portuguese historian, whose words are received with caution by modern authorities. The King of Portugal--Dom Manuel--having set his kingdom in order, "being inspired by the Lord, took the resolution to inform himself about the affairs of India." He knew that the province of India was very far away, inhabited by dark people who had great riches and merchandise, and there was much risk in crossing the wide seas and land to reach it. But he felt it a sacred duty to try and reach it. He ordered ships to be built according to a design of Bartholomew Diaz, the Hero of the Cape, "low amidships, with high castles towering fore and aft; they rode the water like ducks." The ships ready, the King prayed the Lord "to show him the man whom it would please Him to send upon this voyage." Days passed. One day the King was sitting in his hall with his officers when he raised his eyes and saw a gentleman of his household crossing the hall. It suddenly occurred to the King that this was the man for his command, and, calling Vasco da Gama, he offered him the command at once. He was courageous, resolute, and firm of purpose. On his knees he accepted the great honour. A silken banner blazing with the Cross of the Order of Christ was bestowed upon him; he chose the _S. Gabriel_ for his flagship, appointed his brother to the _S. Raphael_, and prepared for his departure. Books and charts were supplied, Ptolemy's geography was on board, as well as the _Book of Marco Polo_. All being ready, Vasco da Gama and his captains spent the night in the little chapel by the sea at Belem, built for the mariners of Henry the Navigator. Next morning--it was July--they walked in solemn procession to the shore, lighted candles in their hands, priests chanting a solemn litany as they walked. The beach was crowded with people. Under the blazing summer sun they knelt once more before taking leave of the weeping multitudes. Listen to the Portuguese poet, Camoens, who makes Vasco da Gama the hero of his "Lusiad"-- "The neighbouring mountains murmur'd back the sound, As if to pity moved for human woe; Uncounted as the grains of golden sand, The tears of thousands fell on Belem's strand." So the Portuguese embarked, weighed anchor, and unfurled the sails that bore the red cross of the Order of Christ. The four little ships started on what was to be the longest and most momentous voyage on record, while crowds stood on the shore straining their eyes till the fleet, under full sail, vanished from their sight. [Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA. From a contemporary portrait.] After passing Cape Verde, in order to escape the currents of the Gulf of Guinea, Vasco da Gama steered south-west into an unknown part of the South Atlantic. He did not know that at one time he was within six hundred miles of the coast of South America. Day after day, week after week passed in dreary monotony as they sailed the wide ocean that surrounds St. Helena, "a lonely, dreary waste of seas and boundless sky." Everything ends at last, and, having spent ninety-six days out of sight of land and sailed some four thousand five hundred miles, they drifted on to the south-west coast of Africa. It was a record voyage, for even Columbus had only been two thousand six hundred miles without seeing land. November found them in a broad bay, "and," says the old log of the voyage, "we named it St. Helena," which name it still retains. After a skirmish with some tawny-coloured Hottentots the explorers sailed on, putting "their trust in the Lord to double the Cape." But the sea was all broken with storm, high rolled the waves, and so short were the days that darkness prevailed. The crews grew sick with fear and hardship, and all clamoured to put back to Portugal. With angry words Vasco da Gama bade them be silent, though "he well saw how much reason they had at every moment to despair of their lives"; the ships were now letting in much water, and cold rains soaked them all to the skin. "All cried out to God for mercy upon their souls, for now they no longer took heed of their lives." At last the storm ceased, the seas grew calm, and they knew that, without seeing it, they had doubled the dreaded Cape, "on which great joy fell upon them and they gave great praise to the Lord." But their troubles were not yet over. The sea was still very rough, "for the winter of that country was setting in," and even the pilot suggested turning back to take refuge for a time. When Vasco da Gama heard of turning backward he cried that they should not speak such words, because as he was going out of the bar of Lisbon he had promised God in his heart not to turn back a single span's breadth of the way, and he would throw into the sea whosoever spoke such things. None could withstand such an iron will, and they struggled on to Mossel Bay, already discovered by Diaz. Here they landed "and bought a fat ox for three bracelets. This ox we dined off on Sunday; we found him very fat, and his meat nearly as toothsome as the beef of Portugal"--a pleasant meal, indeed, after three months of salted food. Here, too, they found "penguins as large as ducks, which had no feathers on their wings and which bray like asses." But there was no time to linger here. They sailed onwards till they had passed and left behind the last pillar erected by Diaz, near the mouth of the Great Fish River. All was new now. No European had sailed these seas, no European had passed this part of the African coast. On Christmas Day they found land to which, in commemoration of Christ's Nativity, they gave the name of Natal. Passing Delagoa Bay and Sofala without sighting them, Vasco da Gama at last reached the mouth of a broad river, now known as Quilimane River, but called by the weary mariners the River of Mercy or Good Tokens. Here they spent a month cleaning and repairing, and here for the first time in the history of discovery the fell disease of scurvy broke out. The hands and feet of the men swelled, their gums grew over their teeth, which fell out so that they could not eat. This proved to be one of the scourges of early navigation--the result of too much salted food on the high seas, and no cure was found till the days of Captain Cook. Arrived at Mozambique--a low-lying coral island--they found no less than four ocean-going ships belonging to Arab traders laden with gold, silver, cloves, pepper, ginger, rubies, and pearls from the East. [Illustration: AFRICA AS IT WAS KNOWN AFTER DA GAMA'S EXPEDITIONS. From Juan de la Cosa's map of 1500.] There were rumours, too, of a land belonging to Prester John where precious stones and spices were so plentiful that they could be collected in baskets. His land could only be reached by camels. "This information rendered us so happy that we cried with joy, and prayed God to grant us health that we might behold what we so desired," relates the faithful journal. But difficulties and delays prevented their reaching the ever-mythical land of Prester John. Their next landing-place was Mombasa. Here they were nearly killed by some treacherous Mohammedans, who hated these "dogs of Christians" as they called them. And the Portuguese were glad to sail on to Melindi, where the tall, whitewashed houses standing round the bay, with their coco-palms, maize fields, and hop gardens, reminded them of one of their own cities on the Tagus. Here all was friendly. The King of Melindi sent three sheep and free leave for the strangers to enter the port. Vasco, in return, sent the King a cassock, two strings of coral, three washhand basins, a hat, and some bells. Whereupon the King, splendidly dressed in a damask robe with green satin and an embroidered turban, allowed himself to be rowed out to the flagship. He was protected from the sun by a crimson satin umbrella. Nine days were pleasantly passed in the port at Melindi, and then, with a Christian pilot provided by the King, the most thrilling part of the voyage began with a start across the Arabian Gulf to the west coast of India. For twenty-three days the ships sailed to the north-east, with no land visible. Suddenly the dim outline of land was sighted and the whole crew rushed on deck to catch the first glimpse of the unknown coast of India. They had just discerned the outline of lofty mountains, when a thunderstorm burst over the land and a downpour of heavy rain blotted out the view. [Illustration: CALICUT AND THE SOUTHERN INDIAN COAST. From Juan de la Cosa's map, 1500.] At last on 21st May--nearly eleven months after the start from Portugal--the little Portuguese ships anchored off Calicut. "What has brought you hither?" cried the natives, probably surprised at their foreign dress; "and what seek ye so far from home?" "We are in search of Christians and spice," was the ready answer. "A lucky venture. Plenty of emeralds. You owe great thanks to God for having brought you to a country holding such riches," was the Mohammedan answer. "The city of Calicut," runs the diary, "is inhabited by Christians. They are of a tawny complexion. Some of them have big beards and long hair, whilst others clip their hair short as a sign that they are Christians. They also wear moustaches." Within the town, merchants lived in wooden houses thatched with palm leaves. It must have been a quaint sight to see Vasco da Gama, accompanied by thirteen of his Portuguese, waving the flag of their country, carried shoulder high through the densely crowded streets of Calicut on his way to the chief temple and on to the palace of the King. Roofs and windows were thronged with eager spectators anxious to see these Europeans from so far a country. Many a scuffle took place outside the palace gates; knives were brandished, and men were injured before the successful explorer reached the King of Calicut. The royal audience took place just before sunset on 28th May 1498. The King lay on a couch covered with green velvet under a gilt canopy, while Vasco da Gama related an account of Portugal and his King, the "lord of many countries and the possessor of great wealth exceeding that of any King of these parts, adding that for sixty years the Portuguese had been trying to find the sea-route to India. The King gave leave for the foreigners to barter their goods, but the Indians scoffed at their offer of hats, scarlet hoods, coral, sugar, and oil. "That which I ask of you is gold, silver, corals, and scarlet cloth," said the King, "for my country is rich in cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, and precious stones." Vasco da Gama left India with a scant supply of Christians and spices, but with his great news he now hurried back to Portugal. What if he had lost his brother Paul and over one hundred of his men after his two years' absence, he had discovered the ocean-route to India--a discovery more far-reaching than he had any idea of at this time. "And the King," relates the old historian, "overjoyed at his coming, sent a Nobleman and several Gentlemen to bring him to Court; where, being arrived through Crowds of Spectators, he was received with extraordinary honour. For this Glorious Price of Service, the Privilege of being called Don was annexed to his Family: To his Arms was added Part of the King's. He had a Pension of three thousand Ducats yearly, and he was afterwards presented to greater Honours for his Services in the Indies, where he will soon appear again." CHAPTER XXV DISCOVERY OF THE SPICE ISLANDS It was but natural that the Portuguese, flushed with victory, should at once dispatch another expedition to India. Was there some vexation in the heart of the "Admiral of India" when the command of the new fleet was given to Pedro Cabral? History is silent. Anyhow, in the March of 1500 we find this "Gentleman of Great Merit" starting off with thirteen powerfully armed ships and some fifteen hundred men, among them the veteran explorer Bartholomew Diaz, a party of eight Franciscan friars to convert the Mohammedans, eight chaplains, skilled gunners, and merchants to buy and sell in the King's name at Calicut. The King himself accompanied Cabral to the waterside. He had already adopted the magnificent title, "King, by the Grace of God, of Portugal, and of the Algarves, both on this side the sea and beyond it in Africa, Lord of Guinea and of the Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India." Then Cabral, flying a banner with the royal arms of Portugal, started on a voyage which was to secure for Portugal "an empire destined to be richer and greater than all her dominions in Asia." Sailing far to the west, he fell in with the South American continent and was carried to a new land. The men went on shore and brought word that "it was a fruitful country, full of trees and well inhabited. The people were swarthy and used bows and arrows." That night a storm arose and they ran along the coast to seek a port. Here Mass was said and parrots exchanged for paper and cloth. Then Cabral erected a cross (which was still shown when Lindley visited Brazil three hundred years later) and named the country the "Land of the Holy Cross." This name was, however, discarded later when the new-found land was identified with Brazil already sighted by Pinzon in one of the ships of Christopher Columbus. Meanwhile, unconscious of the importance of this discovery, Cabral sailed on towards the Cape of Good Hope. There is no time to tell of the great comet that appeared, heralding a terrific storm that suddenly burst upon the little fleet. In the darkness and tempest four ships went down with all hands--amongst them old Bartholomew Diaz, the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who thus perished in the waters he had been the first to navigate. September found Cabral at last at anchor off Calicut. He found the King yet more resplendent than Vasco da Gama the year before. The old historians revel in their descriptions of him. "On his Head was a Cap of Cloth of Gold, at his Ears hung Jewels, composed of Diamonds, Sapphires, and Pearls, two of which were larger than Walnuts. His Arms, from the Elbow to the Wrist and from the knees downwards, were loaded with bracelets set with infinite Precious Stones of great Value. His Fingers and Toes were covered with Rings. In that on his great Toe was a large Rubie of a surprising Lustre. Among the rest there was a Diamond bigger than a large Bean. But all this was nothing, in comparison to the Richness of his Girdle, made with precious stones set in Gold, which cast a Lustre that dazzled every Body's Eyes." He allowed Cabral to establish a depot at Calicut for European goods, so a house was selected by the waterside and a flag bearing the arms of Portugal erected on the top. For a time all went well, but the Mohammedans proved to be difficult customers, and disputes soon arose. A riot took place; the infuriated native traders stormed the depot and killed the Portuguese within. Cabral in revenge bombarded the city, and, leaving the wooden houses in flames, he sailed away to Cochin and Cananor on the coast of Malabar. Soon after this he returned home with only six out of the thirteen ships, and from this time he disappears from the pages of history. Just before his return, the King of Portugal, thinking trade was well established between India and his own country, dispatched a "valiant gentleman" in command of four ships to carry merchandise to the newly discovered country. But his voyage and adventures are only important inasmuch as he discovered the island of Ascension when outward bound and the island of St. Helena on the way home. So favourable was the account of this island that all Portugal admirals were ordered for the future to touch there for refreshments. The news of Cabral's adventures at Calicut inspired a yet larger expedition to the East, and Vasco da Gama, now Admiral of the Eastern seas, was given command of some fifteen ships which sailed from the Tagus in February 1502. The expedition, though avowedly Christian, was characterised by injustice and cruelty. Near the coast of Malabar the Portuguese fleet met with a large ship full of Mohammedan pilgrims from Mecca. The wealth on board was known to be enormous, and Don Vasco commanded the owners to yield up their riches to the King of Portugal. This they somewhat naturally refused to do. Whereupon the Portuguese fired, standing calmly to watch the blazing ships with their human freight of men, women, and children. True, one historian declares that all the children were removed to the Portuguese ship to be converted into good little Catholics. Another is more nearly concerned with the money. "We took a Mecca ship on board of which were three hundred and eighty men and many women and children, and we took from it fully twelve thousand ducats, with goods worth at least another ten thousand. And we burned the ship and all the people on board with gunpowder on the first day of October." [Illustration: THE MALABAR COAST. From Fra Mauro's map.] Their instructions to banish every Mohammedan in Calicut was faithfully obeyed. Don Vasco seized and hanged a number of helpless merchants quietly trading in the harbour. Cutting off their heads, hands, and feet, he had them flung into a boat, which was allowed to drift ashore, with a cruel suggestion that the severed limbs would make an Indian curry. Once more Calicut was bombarded and Don Vasco sailed on to other ports on the Malabar coast, where he loaded his ships with spices taken from poor folk who dared not refuse. He then sailed home again, reaching Portugal "safe and sound, _Deo gratias_," but leaving behind him hatred and terror and a very quaint idea of these Christians who felt it their duty to exterminate all followers of Mohammed. Conquest usually succeeds discovery, and the Portuguese, having discovered the entire coast of West, South, and a good deal of East Africa and western coast of India, now proceeded to conquer it for their own. It was a far cry from Portugal to India in these days, and the isolated depots on the coast of Malabar were obviously in danger, when the foreign ships laden with spoil left their shores. True, Vasco da Gama had left six little ships this time under Sodrez to cruise about the Indian seas, but Sodrez wanted treasure, so he cruised northwards and found the southern coasts of Arabia as well as the island of Socotra. He had been warned of the tempestuous seas that raged about these parts at certain seasons, but, heeding not the warning, he perished with all his knowledge and treasure. Expedition after expedition now left Portugal for the east coast of Africa and India. There were the two cousins Albuquerque, who built a strong fort of wood and mud at Cochin, leaving a garrison of one hundred and fifty trained soldiers under the command of one Pacheco, who saved the fort and kept things going under great difficulties. On the return of Albuquerque, the hero of Cochin, the King decided to appoint a Viceroy of India. He would fain have appointed Tristan d'Acunha,--the discoverer of the island that still bears his name,--but he was suddenly struck with blindness, and in his stead Dom Francisco Almeida, "a nobleman of courage and experience," sailed off with the title of Viceroy. Not only was he to conquer, but to command, not only to sustain the sea-power of Portugal, but to form a government. There is a story told of the ignorance of the men sent to man the ships under Almeida. So raw were they that they hardly knew their right hand from their left, still less the difference between starboard and larboard, till their captain hit on the happy notion of tying a bundle of garlic over one side of the ship and a handful of onions over the other, so the pilot gave orders to the helmsman thus: "Onion your helm!" or "Garlic your helm!" [Illustration: A SHIP OF ALBUQUERQUE'S FLEET. From a very fine woodcut, published about 1516, of Albuquerque's siege and capture of Aden. In the British Museum.] On the way out, Almeida built a strong fortress near Zanzibar, organised a regular Portuguese Indian pilot service, and established his seat of government at Cochin. Then he sent his son, a daring youth of eighteen, to bombard the city of Quilon, whose people were constantly intriguing against the Portuguese. Having carried out his orders, young Lorenzo, ordered to explore the Maldive Islands, was driven by a storm to an "island opposite Cape Comorin, called Ceylon, and separated from thence by a narrow sea," where he was warmly received by the native King, whose dress sparkled with diamonds. Lorenzo erected here a marble pillar with the arms of Portugal carved thereon and took possession of the island. He also sent back to Portugal the first elephant ever sent thither. Ceylon was now the farthest point which flew the flag of Portugal toward the east. Doubtless young Lorenzo would have carried it farther, but he was killed at the early age of twenty-one, his legs being shattered by a cannon-ball during a sea-fight. He sat by the mainmast and continued to direct the fighting till a second shot ended his short but brilliant career. The Viceroy, "whose whole being was centred in his devotion to his only son, received the tidings with outward stoicism." "Regrets," he merely remarked, "regrets are for women." Nevertheless he revenged the death of his son by winning a victory over the opposing fleet and bidding his captains rejoice over "the good vengeance our Lord has been pleased, of His mercy, to grant us." But the days of Almeida were numbered. He had subdued the Indian coast, he had extended Portuguese possessions in various directions, his term of office was over, and he was succeeded by the famous Albuquerque, who had already distinguished himself in the service of Portugal by his efforts to obtain Ormuz for the Portuguese. Now Viceroy of India, he found full scope for his boundless energy and vast ambition. He first attacked Calicut and reduced it to ashes. Then he turned his attention to Goa, which he conquered, and which became the commercial capital of the Portuguese in India for the next hundred years. Not only this, but it was soon the wealthiest city on the face of the earth and the seat of the government. Albuquerque's next exploit was yet more brilliant and yet more important. [Illustration: A SHIP OF JAVA AND THE CHINA SEAS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. From Linschoten's _Navigatio ac Itinerarium_, 1598.] In 1509 he had sent a Portuguese explorer Sequira with a small squadron to make discoveries in the East. He was to cross the Bay of Bengal and explore the coast of Malacca. Sequira reached the coast and found it a centre for trade from east and west, "most rich and populous." But he had reason to suspect the demonstrations of friendship by the king of these parts, and refused to attend a festival prepared in his honour. This was fortunate, for some of his companions who landed for trade were killed. He sailed about the island of Sumatra, "the first land in which we knew of men's flesh being eaten by certain people in the mountains who gild their teeth. In their opinion the flesh of the blacks is sweeter than that of whites." Many were the strange tales brought back to Cochin by Sequira from the new lands--rivers of oil--hens with flesh as black as ink--people with tails like sheep. Anyhow, Albuquerque resolved that Malacca should belong to the Portuguese, and with nineteen ships and fourteen hundred fighting men he arrived off the coast of Sumatra, spreading terror and dismay among the multitudes that covered the shore. The work of destruction was short, though the King of Pahang and King Mahomet came out in person on huge elephants to help in the defence of their city. At last every inhabitant of the city was driven out or slain, and the Portuguese plundered the city to their hearts' content. The old historian waxes eloquent on the wealth of the city, and the laden ships started back, leaving a fort and a church under the care of Portuguese conquerors. The amount of booty mattered little, as a violent storm off the coast of Sumatra disposed of several ships and a good deal of treasure. The fall of Malacca was one of vast importance to the Portuguese. Was it not the key to the Eastern gate of the Indian Ocean--the gate through which the whole commerce of the Spice Islands, the Philippines, Japan, and far Cathay passed on its road to the Mediterranean? Was it not one of the largest trade markets in Asia, where rode the strange ships of many a distant shore? The fame of Albuquerque spread throughout the Eastern world. But he was not content with Malacca. The Spice Islands lay beyond--the Spice Islands with all their cloves and nutmegs and their countless riches must yet be won for Portugal. Up to this year, 1511, they had not been reached by the Portuguese. But now Francisco Serrano was sent off from Malacca to explore farther. Skirting the north of Java, he found island after island rich in cloves and nutmeg. So struck was he with his new discoveries that he wrote to his friend Magellan: "I have discovered yet another new world larger and richer than that found by Vasco da Gama." It is curious to remember how vastly important was this little group of islands--now part of the Malay Archipelago and belonging to the Dutch--to the explorers of the sixteenth century. Strange tales as usual reached Portugal about these newly found lands. Here lived men with "spurs on their ankles like cocks," hogs with horns, hens that laid their eggs nine feet under ground, rivers with living fish, yet so hot that they took the skin off any man that bathed in their waters, poisonous crabs, oysters with shells so large that they served as fonts for baptizing children. Truly these mysterious Spice Islands held more attractions for the Portuguese explorers than did the New World of Columbus and Vespucci. Their possession meant riches and wealth and--this was not the end. Was there not land beyond? Indeed, before the Spice Islands were conquered by Portugal, trade had already been opened up with China and, before the century was half over, three Portuguese seamen had visited Japan. CHAPTER XXVI BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC OCEAN It is said that Ferdinand Magellan, the hero of all geographical discovery, with his circumnavigation of the whole round world, had cruised about the Spice Islands, but what he really knew of them from personal experience no one knows. He had served under Almeida, and with Albuquerque had helped in the conquest of Malacca. After seven years of a "vivid life of adventure by sea and land, a life of siege and shipwreck, of war and wandering," inaction became impossible. He busied himself with charts and the art of navigation. He dreamt of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing _west_, and after a time he laid his schemes before the King of Portugal. Whether he was laughed at as a dreamer or a fool we know not. His plans were received with cold refusal. History repeats itself. Like Christopher Columbus twenty years before, Magellan now said good-bye to Portugal and made his way to Spain. Since the first discovery of the New World by Spain, that country had been busy sending out explorer after explorer to discover and annex new portions of America. Bold navigators, Pinzon, Mendoza, Bastidas, Juan de la Cosa, and Solis--these and others had almost completed the discovery of the east coast, indeed, Solis might have been the first to see the great Pacific Ocean had he not been killed and eaten at the mouth of the river La Plata. This great discovery was left to Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who first saw beyond the strange New World from the Peak of Darien. Now his discovery threw a lurid light on to the limitation of land that made up the new country and illuminated the scheme of Magellan. Balboa was "a gentleman of good family, great parts, liberal education, of a fine person, and in the flower of his age." He had emigrated to the new Spanish colony of Hayti, where he had got into debt. No debtor was allowed to leave the island, but Balboa, the gentleman of good family, yearned for further exploration; he "yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange roads go down." And one day the yearning grew so great that he concealed himself in a bread cask on board a ship leaving the shores of Hayti. For some days he remained hidden. When the ship was well out to sea he made his appearance. Angry, indeed, was the captain--so angry that he threatened to land the stowaway on a desert island. He was, however, touched by the entreaties of the crew, and Balboa was allowed to sail on in the ship. It was a fortunate decision, for when, soon after, the ship ran heavily upon a rock, it was the Spanish stowaway Balboa who saved the party from destruction. He led the shipwrecked crew to a river of which he knew, named Darien by the Indians. He did _not_ know that they stood on the narrow neck of land--the isthmus of Panama--which connects North and South America. The account of the Spanish intrusion is typical: "After having performed their devotions, the Spaniards fell resolutely on the Indians, whom they soon routed, and then went to the town, which they found full of provisions to their wish. Next day they marched up the country among the neighbouring mountains, where they found houses replenished with a great deal of cotton, both spun and unspun, plates of gold in all to the value of ten thousand pieces of fine gold." A trade in gold was set up by Balboa, who became governor of the new colony formed by the Spaniards; but the greed of these foreigners quite disgusted the native prince of these parts. "What is this, Christians? Is it for such a little thing that you quarrel? If you have such a love of gold, I will show you a country where you may fulfil your desires. You will have to fight your way with great kings whose country is distant from our country six suns." So saying, he pointed away to the south, where he said lay a great sea. Balboa resolved to find this great sea. It might be the ocean sought by Columbus in vain, beyond which was the land of great riches where people drank out of golden cups. So he collected some two hundred men and started forth on an expedition full of doubt and danger. He had to lead his troops, worn with fatigue and disease, through deep marshes rendered impassable with heavy rains, over mountains covered with trackless forest, and through defiles from which the Indians showered down poisoned arrows. At last, led by native guides, Balboa and his men struggled up the side of a high mountain. When near the top he bade his men stop. He alone must be the first to see the great sight that no European had yet beheld. With "transports of delight" he gained the top and, "silent upon a peak in Darien," he looked down on the boundless ocean, bathed in tropical sunshine. Falling on his knees, he thanked God for his discovery of the Southern Sea. Then he called up his men. "You see here, gentlemen and children mine, the end of our labours." The notes of the "Te Deum" then rang out on the still summer air, and, having made a cross of stones, the little party hurried to the shore. Finding two canoes, they sprang in, crying aloud joyously that they were the first Europeans to sail on the new sea, whilst Balboa himself plunged in, sword in hand, and claimed possession of the Southern Ocean for the King of Spain. The natives told him that the land to the south was _without end_, and that it was possessed by powerful nations who had abundance of gold. And Balboa thought this referred to the Indies, knowing nothing as yet of the riches of Peru. [Illustration: ONE OF THE FIRST MAPS OF THE PACIFIC. From Diego Ribero's map, 1529.] It is melancholy to learn that the man who made this really great discovery was publicly hanged four years later in Darien. But his news had reached Magellan. There was then a great Southern Ocean beyond the New World. He was more certain than ever now that by this sea he could reach the Spice Islands. Moreover, he persuaded the young King of Spain that his country had a right to these valuable islands, and promised that he would conduct a fleet round the south of the great new continent westward to these islands. His proposal was accepted by Charles V., and the youthful Spanish monarch provided Spanish ships for the great enterprise. The voyage was not popular, the pay was low, the way unknown, and in the streets of Seville the public crier called for volunteers. Hence it was a motley crew of some two hundred and eighty men, composed of Spaniards, Portuguese, Genoese, French, Germans, Greeks, Malays, and one Englishman only. There were five ships. "They are very old and patched," says a letter addressed to the King of Portugal, "and I would be sorry to sail even for the Canaries in them, for their ribs are soft as butter." Magellan hoisted his flag on board the _Trinidad_ of one hundred and ten tons' burden. The largest ship, _S. Antonio_, was captained by a Spaniard--Cartagena; the _Conception_, ninety tons, by Gaspar Quesada; the _Victoria_ of eighty-five tons, who alone bore home the news of the circumnavigation of the world, was at first commanded by the traitor Mendoza; and the little _Santiago_, seventy-five tons, under the brother of Magellan's old friend Serrano. What if the commander himself left a young wife and a son of six months old? The fever of discovery was upon him, and, flying the Spanish flag for the first time in his life, Magellan, on board the _Trinidad_, led his little fleet away from the shores of Spain. He never saw wife or child again. Before three years had passed all three were dead. Carrying a torch or faggot of burning wood on the poop, so that the ships should never lose sight of it, the _Trinidad_ sailed onwards. "Follow the flagship and ask no questions." Such were his instructions to his not too loyal captains. CHAPTER XXVII MAGELLAN SAILS ROUND THE WORLD They had left Seville on 20th September 1519. A week later they were at the Canaries. Then past Cape Verde, and land faded from their sight as they made for the south-west. For some time they had a good run in fine weather. Then "the upper air burst into life" and a month of heavy gales followed. The Italian count, who accompanied the fleet, writes long accounts of the sufferings of the crew during these terrific Atlantic storms. "During these storms," he says, "the body of St. Anselm appeared to us several times; one night that it was very dark on account of the bad weather the saint appeared in the form of a fire lighted at the summit of the mainmast and remained there near two hours and a half, which comforted us greatly, for we were in tears only expecting the hour of perishing; and, when that holy light was going away from us, it gave out so great a brilliancy in the eyes of each, that we were like people blinded and calling out for mercy. For without any doubt nobody hoped to escape from that storm." Two months of incessant rain and diminished rations added to their miseries. The spirit of mutiny now began to show itself. Already the Spanish captains had murmured against the Portuguese commander. "Be they false men or true, I will fear them not; I will do my appointed work," said the commander firmly. It was not till November that they made the coast of Brazil in South America, already sighted by Cabral and explored by Pinzon. But the disloyal captains were not satisfied, and one day the captain of the _S. Antonio_ boarded the flagship and openly insulted Magellan. He must have been a little astonished when the Portuguese commander seized him by the collar, exclaiming: "You are my prisoner!" giving him into custody and appointing another in his place. Food was now procurable, and a quantity of sweet pine-apples must have had a soothing effect on the discontented crews. The natives traded on easy terms. For a knife they produced four or five fowls; for a comb, fish for ten men; for a little bell, a basket full of sweet potatoes. A long drought had preceded Magellan's visit to these parts, but rain now began with the advent of the strangers, and the natives made sure that they had brought it with them. Such an impression once made there was little difficulty in converting them to the Christian faith. The natives joined in prayer with the Spaniards, "remaining on their knees with their hands joined in great reverence so that it was a pleasure to see them," writes one of the party. The day after Christmas again found them sailing south by the coast, and early in the New Year they anchored at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, where Solis had lost his life at the hands of the cannibals some five years before. He had succeeded Vespucci in the service of Spain, and was exploring the coast when a body of Indians, "with a terrible cry and most horrible aspect," suddenly rushed out upon them, killed, roasted, and devoured them. Through February and March, Magellan led his ships along the shores of bleak Patagonia seeking for an outlet for the Spice Islands. Winter was coming on and no straits had yet been found. Storm after storm now burst over the little ships, often accompanied by thunder and lightning; poops and forecastles were carried away, and all expected destruction, when "the holy body of St. Anselm appeared and immediately the storm ceased." [Illustration: AN ATLANTIC FLEET OF MAGELLAN'S TIME. From Mercator's _Mappe Monde_, 1569, where the drawing is spoken of as "Magellan's ships."] It was quite impossible to proceed farther to the unknown south, so, finding a safe and roomy harbour, Magellan decided to winter there. Port St. Julian he named it, and he knew full well that there they must remain some four or five months. He put the crew on diminished rations for fear the food should run short before they achieved their goal. This was the last straw. Mutiny had long been smouldering. The hardships of the voyage, the terrific Atlantic storms, the prospect of a long Antarctic winter of inaction on that wild Patagonian coast--these alone caused officers and men to grumble and to demand an immediate return to Spain. But the "stout heart of Magellan" was undaunted. On Easter Day the mutiny began. Two of the Spanish captains boarded the _S. Antonio_, seized the Portuguese captain thereof, and put him in chains. Then stores were broken open, bread and wine generously handed round, and a plot hatched to capture the flagship, kill Magellan, seize his faithful Serrano, and sail home to Spain. The news reached Magellan's ears. He at once sent a messenger with five men bearing hidden arms to summon the traitor captain on board the flagship. Of course he stoutly refused. As he did so, the messenger sprang upon him and stabbed him dead. As the rebellious captain fell dead on the deck of his ship, the dazed crew at once surrendered. Thus Magellan by his prompt measures quelled a mutiny that might have lost him the whole expedition. No man ever tried to mutiny again while he lived and commanded. The fleet had been two whole months in the Port S. Julian without seeing a single native. "However, one day, without any one expecting it, we saw a giant, who was on the shore of the sea, dancing and leaping and singing. He was so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist; he was well built; he had a large face, painted red all round, and his eyes also were painted yellow around them, and he had two hearts painted on his cheeks; he had but little hair on his head and it was painted white." The great Patagonian giant pointed to the sky to know whether these Spaniards had descended from above. He was soon joined by others evidently greatly surprised to see such large ships and such little men. Indeed, the heads of the Spaniards hardly reached the giants' waists, and they must have been greatly astonished when two of them ate a large basketful of biscuits and rats without skinning them and drank half a bucket of water at each sitting. With the return of spring weather in October 1520, Magellan led the little fleet upon its way. He was rewarded a few days later by finding the straits for which he and others had been so long searching. [Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN, THE FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATOR OF THE WORLD. After the engraving by Selma in Navarrete's _Coleccion de los Viages_.] "It was the straight," says the historian simply, "now cauled the straight of Magellans." A struggle was before them. For more than five weeks the Spanish mariners fought their way through the winding channels of the unknown straits. On one side rose high mountains covered with snow. The weather was bad, the way unknown. Do we wonder to read that "one of the ships stole away privily and returned into Spain," and the remaining men begged piteously to be taken home? Magellan spoke "in measured and quiet tones": "If I have to eat the leather of the ships' yards, yet will I go on and do my work." His words came truer than he knew. On the southern side of the strait constant fires were seen, which led Magellan to give the land the name it bears to-day--Tierra del Fuego. It was not visited again for a hundred years. [Illustration: A SHIP OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. From Amoretti's translation of _Magellan's Voyage round the World_.] At last the ships fought their way to the open sea--Balboa's Southern Ocean--and "when the Captain Magellan was past the strait and saw the way open to the other main sea he was so glad thereof that for joy the tears fell from his eyes." The expanse of calm waters seemed so pleasant after the heavy tiring storms that he called the still waters before him the Pacific Ocean. Before following him across the unknown waters, let us recall the quaint lines of Camoens-- "Along these regions, from the burning zone To deepest south, he dares the course unknown. A land of giants shall his eyes behold, Of camel strength, surpassing human mould; And, onward still, thy fame his proud heart's guide, Beneath the southern stars' cold gleam he braves And stems the whirls of land-surrounded waves, For ever sacred to the hero's fame, These foaming straits shall bear his deathless name. Through these dread jaws of rock he presses on Another ocean's breast, immense, unknown, Beneath the south's cold wings, unmeasur'd, wide, Received his vessels, through the dreary tide, In darkling shades, where never man before Heard the waves howl, he dares the nameless shore." Three little ships had now emerged, battered and worn, manned by crews gaunt and thin and shivering. Magellan took a northerly course to avoid the intense cold, before turning to cross the strange obscure ocean, which no European had yet realised. Just before Christmas the course was altered and the ships were turned to the north-west, in which direction they expected soon to find the Spice Islands. No one had any idea of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. [Illustration: "HONDIUS HIS MAP OF THE MAGELLAN STREIGHT." From a map by Jodocus Hondius, about 1590. It gives a particularly clear picture of the ideas held by the age following Magellan's discovery of the land which, it was supposed, enveloped the southern point of South America.] "Well was it named the Pacific," remarks the historian, "for during three months and twenty days we met with no storm." Two months passed away, and still they sailed peacefully on, day after day, week after week, across a waste of desolate waters. "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide sea." At last one January day they sighted a small wooded island, but it was uninhabited; they named it S. Paul's Island and passed on their way. They had expected to find the shores of Asia close by those of America. The size of the world was astounding. Another island was passed. Again no people, no consolation, only many sharks. There was bitter disappointment on board. They had little food left. "We ate biscuit, but in truth it was biscuit no longer, but a powder full of worms. So great was the want of food that we were forced to eat the hides with which the main yard was covered to prevent the chafing against the rigging. These hides we exposed to the sun first to soften them by putting them overboard for four or five days, after which we put them on the embers and ate them thus. We had also to make use of sawdust for food, and rats became a great delicacy." No wonder scurvy broke out in its worst form--nineteen died and thirteen lay too ill to work. For ninety-eight days they sailed across the unknown sea, "a sea so vast that the human mind can scarcely grasp it," till at last they came on a little group of islands peopled with savages of the lowest type--such expert thieves that Magellan called the new islands the Ladrones or isle of robbers. Still, there was fresh food here, and the crews were greatly refreshed before they sailed away. The food came just too late to save the one Englishman of the party--Master Andrew of Bristol--who died just as they moved away. Then they found the group afterwards known as the Philippines (after Philip II. of Spain). Here were merchants from China, who assured Magellan that the famous Spice Islands were not far off. Now Magellan had practically accomplished that he set out to do, but he was not destined to reap the fruits of his victory. With a good supply of fresh food the sailors grew better, and Magellan preferred cruising about the islands, making friends of the natives and converting them to Christianity, to pushing on for the Spice Islands. Here was gold, too, and he busied himself making the native rulers pay tribute to Spain. Easter was drawing near, and the Easter services were performed on one of the islands. A cross and a crown of thorns was set upon the top of the highest mountain that all might see it and worship. Thus April passed away and Magellan was still busy with Christians and gold. But his enthusiasm carried him too far. A quarrel arose with one of the native kings. Magellan landed with armed men, only to be met by thousands of defiant natives. A desperate fight ensued. Again and again the explorer was wounded, till "at last the Indians threw themselves upon him with iron-pointed bamboo spears and every weapon they had and ran him through--our mirror, our light, our comforter, our true guide--until they killed him." Such was the tragic fate of Ferdinand Magellan, "the greatest of ancient and modern navigators," tragic because, after dauntless resolution and unwearied courage, he died in a miserable skirmish at the last on the very eve of victory. [Illustration: THE FIRST SHIP THAT SAILED ROUND THE WORLD. Magellan's _Victoria_, from Hulsius's _Collection of Voyages_, 1602.] With grief and despair in their hearts, the remaining members of the crew, now only one hundred and fifteen, crowded on to the _Trinidad_ and _Victoria_ for the homeward voyage. It was September 1522 when they reached the Spice Islands--the goal of all their hopes. Here they took on board some precious cloves and birds of Paradise, spent some pleasant months, and, laden with spices, resumed their journey. But the _Trinidad_ was too overladen with cloves and too rotten to undertake so long a voyage till she had undergone repair, so the little _Victoria_ alone sailed for Spain with sixty men aboard to carry home their great and wonderful news. Who shall describe the terrors of that homeward voyage, the suffering, starvation, and misery of the weary crew? Man after man drooped and died, till by the time they reached the Cape Verde Islands there were but eighteen left. When the welcome shores of Spain at length appeared, eighteen gaunt, famine-stricken survivors, with their captain, staggered ashore to tell their proud story of the first circumnavigation of the world by their lost commander, Ferdinand Magellan. We miss the triumphal return of the conqueror, the audience with the King of Spain, the heaped honours, the crowded streets, the titles, and the riches. The proudest crest ever granted by a sovereign--the world, with the words: "Thou hast encompassed me"--fell to the lot of Del Cano, the captain who brought home the little _Victoria_. For Magellan's son was dead, and his wife Beatrix, "grievously sorrowing," had passed away on hearing the news of her husband's tragic end. CHAPTER XXVIII CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO One would have thought that the revelation of this immense sheet of water on the far side of America would have drawn other explorers to follow, but news was slowly assimilated in those days, and it was not till fifty-three years later that the Pacific was crossed a second time by Sir Francis Drake. In the maps of the day, Newfoundland and Florida were both placed in Asia, while Mexico was identified with the Quinsay of Marco Polo. For even while Magellan was fighting the gales of the Atlantic _en route_ for his long-sought strait, another strange and wonderful country was being unveiled and its unsurpassed wealth laid at the feet of Spain. The starting-place for further Spanish exploration had been, from the days of Columbus, the West Indies. From this centre, the coast of Florida had been discovered in 1513; from here, the same year, Balboa had discovered the Pacific Ocean; from here in 1517 a little fleet was fitted out under Francisco Hernando de Cordova, "a man very prudent and courageous and strongly disposed to kill and kidnap Indians." As pilot he had been with Columbus on his fourth voyage some fourteen years before. He suggested that his master had heard rumours of land to the West, and sure enough, after sailing past the peninsula of Yucatan, they found signs of the Eastern civilisation so long sought in vain. "Strange-looking towers or pyramids, ascended by stone steps, greeted their eyes, and the people who came out in canoes to watch the ships were clad in quilted cotton doublets and wore cloaks and brilliant plumes." They had heard of the Spaniards. Indeed, only one hundred miles of sea divided Yucatan from Cuba, and they were anything but pleased to see these strangers off their coast. "Couez cotoche" (Come to my house), they cried, for which reason Cordova called the place Cape Catoche, as it is marked in our maps to-day. Along the coast sailed the Spaniards to a place called by the Indians Quimpeche, now known as Campechy Bay. They were astonished to find how civilised were these natives, and how unlike any others they had met in these parts. But the inhabitants resented the landing of Cordova and his men, and with arrows and stones and darts they killed or wounded a great number of Spaniards, including the commander himself, who sent an account of his voyage to the Governor of Cuba and died a few days later. His information was interesting and inspiring, and soon young Juan Grijalva was on his way to the same land, accompanied by "two hundred and fifty stout soldiers" and the old pilot, Alvarado, who had led both Columbus and Cordova. Grijalva explored for the first time the coast of this great new country. "Mexico, Mexico," repeated the Indians with whom they conversed. Gold, too, was produced, gold ornaments, gold workmanship, until the young and handsome Grijalva was fitted out completely with a complete suit of gold armour. He returned enthusiastic over the new land where lived a powerful ruler over many cities. Surely this was none other than the Great Khan of Marco Polo fame, with the riches and magnificence of an Eastern potentate--a land worthy of further exploration. The conqueror of Mexico now comes upon the scene--young, bold, devout, unscrupulous, "a respectable gentleman of good birth"--Hernando Cortes. Great was the enthusiasm in Cuba to join the new expedition to the long-lost lands of the Great Khan; men sold their lands to buy horses and arms, pork was salted, armour was made, and at last Cortes, a plume of feathers and a gold medal in his cap, erected on board his ship a velvet flag with the royal arms embroidered in gold and the words: "Brothers, follow the cross in faith, for under its guidance we shall conquer." [Illustration: HERNANDO CORTES, CONQUEROR OF MEXICO. After the original portrait at Mexico.] His address to his men called forth their devotion: "I hold out to you a glorious prize, but it is to be won by incessant toil. Great things are achieved only by great exertions, and glory was never the reward of sloth. If I have laboured hard and staked my all on this undertaking, it is for the love of that renown, which is the noblest recompense of man. But if any among you covet riches more, be but true to me, as I will make you masters of such as our countrymen have never dreamed of. You are few in number, but strong in resolution; doubt not but that the Almighty, who has never deserted the Spaniard in his contest with the infidel, will shield you, for your cause is a just cause, and you are to fight under the banner of the Cross." In this spirit of enthusiasm the fleet sailed from the shores of Cuba on 18th February 1519, and was soon on its way to the land of Mexico. The pilot Alvarado was with this expedition also. Rounding Cape Catoche and coasting along the southern shores of Campechy Bay, with a pleasant breeze blowing off the shore, Cortes landed with all his force--some five hundred soldiers--on the very spot where now stands the city of Vera Cruz. "Little did the conqueror imagine that the desolate beach on which he first planted his foot was one day to be covered by a flourishing city, the great mart of European and Oriental trade--the commercial capital of New Spain." On a wide, level plain Cortes encamped, his soldiers driving in stakes and covering them with boughs to protect themselves from the scorching rays of the fierce, tropical sun. Natives came down to the shore, bringing their beautiful featherwork cloaks and golden ornaments. Cortes had brought presents for the great King--the Khan as he thought--and these he sent with a message that he had come from the King of Spain and greatly desired an audience with the Great Khan. The Indians were greatly surprised to hear that there was another King in the world as powerful as their Montezuma, who was more god than king, who ate from dishes of gold, on whose face none dared look, in whose presence none dared speak without leave. To impress the messengers of the King, Cortes ordered his soldiers to go through some of their military exercises on the wet sands. The bold and rapid movement of the troops, the glancing of the weapons, and the shrill cry of the trumpet filled the spectators with astonishment; but when they heard the thunder of the cannon and witnessed the volumes of smoke and flame issuing from these terrible engines, the rushing of the balls as they hissed through the trees of the neighbouring forest shivering their branches, they were filled with consternation. To the intense surprise of the Spaniards, these messengers sketched the whole scene on canvas with their pencils, not forgetting the Spanish ships or "water-houses" as they called them, with their dark hulls and snow-white sails reflected in the water as they swung lazily at anchor. Then they returned to the King and related the strange doings of the white strangers who had landed on their shores; they showed him their picture-writing, and Montezuma, king of the great Mexican empire which stretched from sea to sea, was "sore troubled." He refused to see the Spaniards--the distance of his capital was too great, since the journey was beset with difficulties. But the presents he sent were so gorgeous, so wonderful, that Cortes resolved to see for himself the city which produced such wealth, whatever its ruler might decree. Here was a plate of gold as large as a coach wheel representing the sun, one in silver even larger, representing the moon; there were numbers of golden toys representing dogs, lions, tigers, apes, ducks, and wonderful plumes of green feathers. The man who had sailed across two thousand leagues of ocean held lightly the idea of a short land journey, however difficult, and Cortes began his preparations for the march to Mexico. He built the little settlement at Vera Cruz, "The Rich Town of the True Cross," on the seashore as a basis for operations. Although the wealth allured them, there were many who viewed with dismay the idea of the long and dangerous march into the heart of a hostile land. After all they were but a handful of men pitted against a powerful nation. Murmurs arose which reached the ears of Cortes. He was equal to the occasion and resolutely burnt all the ships in the harbour save one. Then panic ensued. Mutiny threatened. "I have chosen my part!" cried Cortes. "I will remain here while there is one to bear me company. If there be any so craven as to shrink from sharing the dangers of our glorious enterprise, let them go home. There is still one vessel left. Let them take that and return to Cuba. They can tell there how they have deserted their commander and their comrades, and patiently wait till we return loaded with the spoils of Mexico." He touched the right chord. Visions of future wealth and glory rose again before them, confidence in their leader revived, and, shouting bravely, "To Mexico! to Mexico!" the party started off on their perilous march. It was 16th August 1519 when the little army, "buoyant with high hopes and lofty plans of conquest," set forth. The first part of the way lay through beautiful country rich in cochineal and vanilla, with groves of many-coloured birds and "insects whose enamelled wings glistened like diamonds in the blazing sun of the tropics." Then came the long and tedious ascent of the Cordilleras leading to the tableland of Mexico. Higher and higher grew the mountains. Heavy falls of sleet and hail, icy winds, and driving rain drenched the little Spanish party as they made their way bravely upwards, till at last they reached the level of seven thousand feet to find the great tableland rolling out along the crest of the Cordilleras. Hitherto they had met with no opposition among the natives they had met. Indeed, as the little army advanced, it was often found that the inhabitants of the country fled awestruck from before them. Now the reason was this. The Mexicans believed in a god called the Bird-Serpent, around whom many a legend had grown up. Temples had been built in his honour and horrible human sacrifices offered to appease him, for was he not the Ruler of the Winds, the Lord of the Lightning, the Gatherer of the Clouds? But the bright god had sailed away one day, saying he would return with fair-skinned men to possess the land in the fulness of time. Surely, then, the time had come and their god had come again. Here were the fair-skinned men in shining armour marching back to their own again, and Cortes at their head--was he not the god himself? The cross, too, was a Mexican symbol, so Cortes was allowed to put it up in the heathen temples without opposition. The inhabitants of Tlascala--fierce republicans who refused to own the sway of Montezuma--alone offered resistance, and how Cortes fought and defeated them with his handful of men is truly a marvel. It was three months before they reached the goal of all their hopes--even the golden city of Mexico. The hardships and horrors of the march had been unsurpassed, but as the beautiful valley of Mexico unfolded itself before them in the early light of a July morning, the Spaniards shouted with joy: "It is the promised land! Mexico! Mexico!" "Many of us were disposed to doubt the reality of the scene before us and to suspect we were in a dream," says one of the party. "I thought we had been transported by magic to the terrestrial paradise." Water, cultivated plains, shining cities with shadowy hills beyond lay like some gorgeous fairyland before and below them. At every step some new beauty appeared in sight, and the wonderful City of the Waters with its towers and shining palaces arose out of the surrounding mists. The city was approached by three solid causeways some five miles long. It was crowded with spectators "eager to behold such men and animals as had never been seen in that part of the world." At any moment the little army of four hundred and fifty Spaniards might have been destroyed, surrounded as they were by overwhelming numbers of hostile Indian foes. It was a great day in the history of European discovery, when the Spaniard first set foot in the capital of the Western world. Everywhere was evidence of a crowded and thriving population and a high civilisation. At the walls of the city they were met by Montezuma himself. Amid a crowd of Indian nobles, preceded by officers of state bearing golden wands, was the royal palanquin blazing with burnished gold. It was borne on the shoulders of the nobles, who, barefooted, walked slowly with eyes cast to the ground. Descending from his litter, Montezuma then advanced under a canopy of gaudy featherwork powdered with jewels and fringed with silver. His cloak and sandals were studded with pearls and precious stones among which emeralds were conspicuous. Cortes dismounted, greeted the King, and spoke of his mission to the heathen and of his master, the mighty ruler of Spain. Everywhere Cortes and his men were received with friendship and reverence, for was he not the long-lost Child of the Sun? The Spanish explorer begged Montezuma to give up his idols and to stop his terrible human sacrifices. The King somewhat naturally refused. Cortes grew angry. He was also very anxious. He felt the weakness of his position, the little handful of men in this great populous city, which he had sworn to win for Spain. The King must go. "Why do we waste time on this barbarian? Let us seize him and, if he resists, plunge our swords into his body!" cried the exasperated commander. This is no place for the pathetic story of Montezuma's downfall. Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_ is within the reach of all. It tells of the Spanish treachery, of the refusal of the Mexican ruler to accept the new faith, of his final appeal to his subjects, of chains, degradation, and death. It tells of the three great heaps of gold, pearls, and precious stones taken by Cortes, of the final siege and conquest. [Illustration: THE BATTLES OF THE SPANIARDS IN MEXICO. From an ancient Aztec drawing, showing a leader of the Spaniards with his native allies defeating the Mexicans.] The news of this immense Mexican Empire, discovered and conquered for Spain, brought honours from the King, Charles V., to the triumphant conqueror. Nor did Cortes stop even after this achievement. As Governor and Captain-General of Mexico, he sent off ships to explore the neighbouring coasts. Hearing that Honduras possessed rich mines and that a strait into the Pacific Ocean might be found, Cortes led an expedition by land. Arrived at Tabasco, he was provided with an Indian map of cotton cloth, whereon were painted all the towns, rivers, mountains, as far as Nicaragua. With this map and the mariner's compass, he led his army through gloomy woods so thick that no sun ever penetrated, and after a march of one thousand miles reached the seacoast of Honduras, took over the country for Spain to be governed with Mexico by himself. This enormous tract of country was known to the world as "New Spain." CHAPTER XXIX EXPLORERS IN SOUTH AMERICA The success of Cortes and his brilliant conquest of Mexico gave a new impulse to discovery in the New World. The spirit of exploration dominated every adventurous young Spaniard, and among those living in the West Indies there were many ready to give up all for the golden countries in the West, rumours of which were always reaching their ears. No sooner had these rich lands been realised than the news of Magellan's great voyage revealed the breadth of the ocean between America and Asia, and destroyed for ever the idea that the Spice Islands were near. Spanish enterprise, therefore, lay in the same direction as heretofore, and we must relate the story of how Pizarro discovered Peru for the King of Spain. He had accompanied Balboa to Darien, and had with him gazed out on to the unknown waters of the Pacific Ocean below. With Balboa after crossing the isthmus of Darien he had reached Panama on the South Sea, where he heard of a great nation far to the south. Like Mexico, it was spoken of as highly civilised and rich in mines of gold and silver. Many an explorer would have started off straightway for this new country, but there was a vast tract of dark forest and tangled underwood between Panama and Peru, which had damped the ardour of even the most ardent of Spanish explorers. But Pizarro was a man of courage and dauntless resolution, and he was ready to do and dare the impossible. He made a bad start. A single ship with some hundred men aboard left Panama under the command of Pizarro in 1526. He was ignorant of southern navigation, the Indians along the shore were hostile, his men died one by one, the rich land of Peru was more distant than they had thought, and, having at length reached the island of Gallo near the Equator, they awaited reinforcements from Panama. Great, then, was the disappointment of Pizarro when only one ship arrived and no soldiers. News of hardships and privations had spread through Panama, and none would volunteer to explore Peru. By this time the handful of wretched men who had remained with Pizarro, living on crabs picked up on the shore, begged to be taken home--they could endure no longer. Then came one of those tremendous moments that lifts the born leader of men above his fellows. Drawing his sword, Pizarro traced a line on the sand from east to west. "Friends," he cried, turning to the south, "on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death, and on this side ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches, here Panama and its poverty. For my part, I go south." So saying, he stepped across the line. Twelve stout-hearted men followed him. The rest turned wearily homewards. The reduced but resolute little party then sailed south, and a voyage of two days brought them within sight of the long-sought land of Peru. Communication with the natives assured them that here was wealth and fortune to be made, and they hurried back to Panama, whence Pizarro sailed for Spain, for permission to conquer the empire of Peru. It is interesting to find Cortes contributing some of his immense wealth from Mexico towards this new quest. In February 1531 three small ships with one hundred and eighty soldiers and thirty-six horses sailed south under Pizarro. It was not till the autumn of 1532 that he was ready to start on the great march to the interior. A city called Cuzco was the capital--the Holy City with its great Temple of the Sun, the most magnificent building in the New World, had never yet been seen by Europeans. But the residence of the King was at Caxamalea, and this was the goal of the Spaniards for the present. Already the news was spreading through the land that "white and bearded strangers were coming up from the sea, clad in shining panoply, riding upon unearthly monsters, and wielding deadly thunderbolts." [Illustration: PIZARRO. From the portrait at Cuzco.] Pizarro's march to the heart of Peru with a mere handful of men was not unlike that of Cortes' expedition to Mexico. Both coveted the rich empire of unknown monarchs and dared all--to possess. Between Pizarro and his goal lay the stupendous mountain range of the Andes or South American Cordilleras, rock piled upon rock, their crests of everlasting snow glittering high in the heavens. Across these and over narrow mountain passes the troops had now to pass. So steep were the sides that the horsemen had to dismount and scramble up, leading their horses as best they might. Frightful chasms yawned below them, terrific peaks rose above, and at any moment they might be utterly destroyed by bodies of Peruvians in overwhelming numbers. It was bitterly cold as they mounted higher and higher up the dreary heights, till at last they reached the crest. Then began the descent--precipitous and dangerous--until after seven days of this the valley of Caxamalea unrolled before their delighted eyes, and the little ancient city with its white houses lay glittering in the sun. But dismay filled the stoutest heart when, spread out below for the space of several miles, tents as thick as snowflakes covered the ground. It was the Peruvian army. And it was too late to turn back. "So, with as bold a countenance as we could, we prepared for our entrance into Caxamalea." The Peruvians must already have seen the cavalcade of Spaniards, as with banners streaming and armour glistening in the rays of the evening sun Pizarro led them towards the city. As they drew near, the King, Atahualpa, covered with plumes of feathers and ornaments of gold and silver blazing in the sun, was carried forth on a throne followed by thirty thousand men to meet the strangers. It seemed to the Spanish leader that only one course was open. He must seize the person of this great ruler at once. He waved his white scarf. Immediately the cavalry charged and a terrible fight took place around the person of the ruler of Peru until he was captured and taken prisoner. Atahualpa tried to regain his liberty by the offer of gold, for he had discovered--amid all their outward show of religious zeal--a greed for wealth among these strange white men from over the stormy seas. He suggested that he should fill with gold the room in which he was confined as high as he could reach. Standing on tiptoe, he marked the wall with his hand. Pizarro accepted the offer, and the Spaniards greedily watched the arrival of their treasure from the roofs of palace and temple. They gained a sum of something like three million sterling and then put the King to death. Pizarro was the conqueror of Peru, and he had no difficulty in controlling the awestruck Peruvians, who regarded the relentless Spaniards as supernatural--the Children of the Sun indeed. [Illustration: PERU AND SOUTH AMERICA. From the Map of the World of 1544, usually ascribed to Sebastian Cabot. At the top is shown the river Amazon, discovered by Orellana in 1541.] A year later these Children of the Sun entered the old town of Cuzco--the capital of this rich empire--where they found a city of treasure surpassing all expectation. Meanwhile Almagro, one of the most prominent among the Spanish explorers, had been granted a couple of hundred miles along the coast of Chili, which country he now penetrated; but the cold was so intense that men and horses were frozen to death, while the Chilians, clad in skins, were difficult to subdue. Almagro decided that Cuzco belonged to him, and miserable disputes followed between him and Pizarro, ending in the tragic end of the veteran explorer, Almagro. As the shiploads of gold reached the shores of Spain, more and more adventurers flocked over to the New World. They swarmed into "Golden Castile," about the city of Panama, and journeyed into the interior of the yet new and unknown world. There are terrible stories of their greed and cruelty to the native Indians. One story says that the Indians caught some of these Spaniards, tied their hands and feet together, threw them on the ground, and poured liquid gold into their mouths, crying, "Eat, eat gold, Christian!" Amongst other adventurers into South America at this time was Orellana, who crossed the continent from ocean to ocean. He had accompanied one of Pizarro's brothers into the land of the cinnamon forests, and with him had crossed the Andes in search of another golden kingdom beyond Quito. The expedition under Pizarro, consisting of some three hundred and fifty Spaniards, half of whom were horsemen, and four thousand Indians, set forward in the year 1540 to penetrate to the remote regions in the Hinterland, on the far side of the Andes. Their sufferings were intense. Violent thunderstorms and earthquakes terrified man and beast; the earth opened and swallowed up five hundred houses; rain fell in such torrents as to flood the land and cut off all communication between the explorers and cultivated regions; while crossing the lofty ridge of the Andes the cold was so intense that numbers of the party were literally frozen to death. At length they reached the land of the cinnamon trees, and, still pushing on, came to a river which must be crossed to reach the land of gold. They had finished their provisions, and had nothing to subsist on now save the wild fruit of the country. After following the course of the river for some way, Pizarro decided to build a little vessel to search for food along the river. All set to work, Pizarro and Orellana, one of his chief captains, working as hard as the men. They set up a forge for making nails, and burnt charcoal with endless trouble owing to the heavy rains which prevented the tinder from taking fire. They made nails from the shoes of the horses which had been killed to feed the sick. For tar they used the resin from the trees, for oakum they used blankets and old shirts. Then they launched the little home-made boat, thinking their troubles would be at an end. For some four hundred miles they followed the course of the river, but the supply of roots and berries grew scarcer and men perished daily from starvation. So Pizarro ordered Orellana to go quickly down the river with fifty men to some inhabited land of which they had heard, to fill the boat with provisions, and return. Off started Orellana down the river, but no villages or cultivated lands appeared; nothing was to be seen save flooded plains and gloomy, impenetrable forests. The river turned out to be a tributary of a much larger river. It was, indeed, the great river Amazon. Orellana now decided to go on down this great river and to desert Pizarro. True, his men were utterly weary, the current was too strong for them to row against, and they had no food to bring to their unhappy companions. There was likewise the possibility of reaching the kingdom of gold for which they were searching. There were some among his party who objected strongly to the course proposed by Orellana, to whom he responded by landing them on the edge of the dense forest and there leaving them to perish of hunger. It was the last day of 1540 that, having eaten their shoes and saddles boiled with a few wild herbs, they set out to reach the kingdom of gold. It was truly one of the greatest adventures of the age, and historic, for here we get the word El Dorado, used for the first time in the history of discovery--the legendary land of gold which was never found, but which attracted all the Elizabethan sailors to this romantic country. It would take too long to tell how they had to fight Indian tribes in their progress down the fast-flowing river, how they had to build a new boat, making bellows of their leather buskins and manufacturing two thousand nails in twenty days, how they found women on the banks of the river fighting as valiantly as men, and named the new country the Amazon land, and how at long last, after incredible hardship, they reached the sea in August 1541. They had navigated some two thousand miles. They now made their rigging and ropes of grass and sails of blankets, and so sailed out into the open sea, reaching one of the West India islands a few days later. And the deserted Pizarro? Tired of waiting for Orellana, he made his way sorrowfully home, arriving after two years' absence in Peru, with eighty men left out of four thousand three hundred and fifty, all the rest having perished in the disastrous expedition. And so we must leave the Spanish conquerors for the present, still exploring, still conquering, in these parts, ever adding glory and riches to Spain. Indeed, Spain and Portugal, as we have seen, entirely monopolise the horizon of geographical discovery till the middle of the sixteenth century, when other nations enter the arena. [Illustration: PERUVIAN WARRIORS OF THE INCA PERIOD. From an ancient Peruvian painting.] CHAPTER XXX CABOT SAILS TO NEWFOUNDLAND It was no longer possible for the Old World to keep secret the wealth of the New World. English eyes were already straining across the seas, English hands were ready to grasp the treasure that had been Spain's for the last fifty years. While Spain was sending Christopher Columbus to and fro across the Atlantic to the West Indies, while Portugal was rejoicing in the success of Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, in the service of England, was making his way from Bristol to the New World. News of the first voyage of Columbus had been received by the Cabots--John and his son Sebastian--with infinite admiration. They believed with the rest of the world that the coast of China had been reached by sailing westward. Bristol was at this time the chief seaport in England, and the centre of trade for the Iceland fisheries. The merchants of the city had already ventured far on to the Atlantic, and various little expeditions had been fitted out by the merchants for possible discovery westward, but one after another failed, including the "most scientific mariner in all England," who started forth to find the island of Brazil to the west of Ireland, but, after nine miserable weeks at sea, was driven back to Ireland again by foul weather. Now Columbus had crossed the Atlantic, Cabot got leave from the English King, Henry VII., "to sail to the east, west, or north, with five ships carrying the English flag, to seek and discover all the islands, countries, regions, or provinces of pagans in whatever part of the world." Further, the King was to have one-fifth of the profits, and at all risks any conflict with Spain must be avoided. Nothing daunted, Cabot started off to fulfil his lord's commands in a tiny ship with eighteen men. We have the barest outlines of his proceedings. Practically all is contained in this one paragraph. "In the year 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, and his son Sebastian discovered on the 24th of June, about five in the morning, that land to which no person had before ventured to sail, which they named Prima Vista or first seen, because, as I believe, it was the first part seen by them from the sea. The inhabitants use the skins and furs of wild beasts for garments, which they hold in as high estimation as we do our finest clothes. The soil yields no useful production, but it abounds in white bears and deer much larger than ours. Its coasts produce vast quantities of large fish--great seals, salmons, soles above a yard in length, and prodigious quantities of cod." [Illustration: PART OF NORTH AMERICA, SHOWING SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGE TO NEWFOUNDLAND. From the Map of 1544, usually ascribed to Cabot. The names in brackets are inserted in order to make this extract and its reference to Cabot's discoveries clear.] So much for the contemporary account of this historic voyage. A letter from England to Italy describes the effect of the voyage on England. "The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol in quest of new islands, is returned and says that seven hundred leagues hence he discovered land, the territory of the Great Khan. He coasted for three hundred leagues and landed; he saw no human beings, but he has brought hither to the King certain snares which had been set to catch game and a needle for making nets. He also found some felled trees. Wherefore he supposed there were inhabitants, and returned to his ships in alarm. He was there three months on the voyage, and on his return he saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time being precious, as he was short of provisions. He says the tides are slack and do not flow as they do here. The King of England is much pleased with this intelligence. The King has promised that in the spring our countryman shall have ten ships to his order, and at his request has conceded to him all the prisoners to man his fleet. The King has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then, and he is now at Bristol with his wife and sons. His name is Cabot, and he is styled the great Admiral. Vast honour is paid to him; he dresses in silk, and the English run after him like mad people." Yet another letter of the time tells how "Master John Cabot has won a part of Asia without a stroke of the sword." This Master John, too, "has the description of the world in a chart and also in a solid globe which he has made, and he shows where he landed. And they say that it is a good and temperate country, and they think that Brazil wood and silks grow there, and they affirm that that sea is covered with fishes." But "Master John" had set his heart on something greater. Constantly hugging the shore of America, he expected to find the island of Cipango (Japan) in the equinoctial region, where he should find all the spices of the world and any amount of precious stones. But after all this great promise Master John disappears from the pages of history and his son Sebastian continues to sail across the Atlantic, not always in the service of England, though in 1502 we find him bringing to the King of England three men taken in the Newfoundland, clothed in beasts' skins and eating raw flesh, and speaking a language which no man could understand. They must have been kindly dealt with by the King, for two years later the poor savages are "clothed like Englishmen." Though England claimed the discovery of this Newfoundland, the Portuguese declared that one of their countrymen, Cortereal--a gentleman of the royal household--had already discovered the "land of the cod-fish" in 1463. But then had not the Vikings already discovered this country five hundred years before? CHAPTER XXXI JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA All the nations of Europe were now straining westward for new lands to conquer. French sailors had fished in the seas washing the western coast of North America; Verazzano, a Florentine, in the service of France, had explored the coast of the United States, and a good deal was known when Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, steps upon the scene and wins for his country a large tract of land about the river St. Lawrence. His object was to find a way across America to Cathay. With two little ships of sixty tons and sixty-one "chosen men," Cartier left St. Malo on 20th April 1534. With prosperous weather he tells us he made the coast of Newfoundland in three weeks, which would mean sailing over one hundred miles a day. He was a little too early in the season, for the easterly winds which had helped him on his way had blocked the east coast of the island with Arctic ice. Having named the point at which he first touched land Cape Bona Vista, he cruised about till, the ice having melted, he could sail down the straits of Belle Isle between the mainland of Labrador and Newfoundland, already discovered by Breton fishermen. Then he explored the now familiar Gulf of St. Lawrence--the first European to report on it. All through June the little French ships sailed about the Gulf, darting across from island to island and cape to cape. Prince Edward Island appealed to him strongly. "It is very pleasant to behold," he tells us. "We found sweet-smelling trees as cedars, yews, pines, ash, willow. Where the ground was bare of trees it seemed very fertile and was full of wild corn, red and white gooseberries, strawberries, and blackberries, as if it had been cultivated on purpose." It now grew hotter, and Cartier must have been glad of a little heat. He sighted Nova Scotia and sailed by the coast of New Brunswick, without naming or surveying them. He describes accurately the bay still called Chaleur Bay: "We named this the Warm Bay, for the country is warmer even than Spain and exceedingly pleasant." They sailed up as far as they could, filled with hope that this might be the long-sought passage to the Pacific Ocean. Hope Cape they named the southern point, but they were disappointed by finding only a deep bay, and to-day, by a strange coincidence, the point opposite the northern shore is known as Cape Despair--the Cap d'Espoir of the early French mariners. Sailing on to the north amid strong currents and a heavy sea, Cartier at last put into a shelter (Gaspe Bay). Here, "on the 24th of July, we made a great cross thirty feet high, on which we hung up a shield with three fleurs-de-lis, and inscribed the cross with this motto: 'Vive le roi de France.' When this was finished, in presence of all the natives, we all knelt down before the cross, holding up our hands to heaven and praising God." [Illustration: JACQUES CARTIER. From an old pen drawing at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.] Storms and strong tides now decided Cartier to return to France. He knew nothing of the Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and the land afterwards called Nova Scotia, so he guided his little ships right through the Straits of Belle Isle, and after being "much tossed by a heavy tempest from the east, which we weathered by the blessing of God," he arrived safely home on 5th September, after his six months' adventure. He was soon commissioned to continue the navigation of these new lands, and in May 1535 he safely led three ships slightly larger than the last across the stormy Atlantic. Contrary winds, heavy gales, and thick fogs turned the voyage of three weeks into five--the ships losing one another not to meet again till the coast of Labrador was reached. Coasting along the southern coast, Cartier now entered a "very fine and large bay, full of islands, and with channels of entrance and exit in all winds." Cartier named it "Baye Saint Laurens," because he entered it on 10th August--the feast of St. Lawrence. Do any of the English men and women who steam up the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the great ocean steamers to-day, on their way to Canada, ever give a thought to the little pioneer French ships that four hundred years ago thought they were sailing toward Cathay? "Savages," as Cartier calls the Indians, told him that he was near the mouth of the great river Hochelaga (now the St. Lawrence), which became narrower "as we approach towards Canada, where the water is fresh." "On the first day of September," says Cartier, "we set sail from the said harbour for Canada." Canada was just a native word for a town or village. It seems strange to read of the "lord of Canada" coming down the river with twelve canoes and many people to greet the first white men he had ever seen; strange, too, to find Cartier arriving at "the place called Hochelaga--twenty-five leagues above Canada," where the river becomes very narrow, with a rapid current and very dangerous on account of rocks. For another week the French explorers sailed on up the unknown river. The country was pleasant, well-wooded, with "vines as full of grapes as they would hang." On 2nd October, Cartier arrived at the native town of Hochelaga. He was welcomed by hundreds of natives,--men, women, and children,--who gave the travellers as "friendly a welcome as if we had been of their own nation come home after a long and perilous absence." The women carried their children to him to touch them, for they evidently thought that some supernatural being had come up from the sea. All night they danced to the light of fires lit upon the shore. [Illustration: CANADA AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE, SHOWING QUEBEC (KEBEC). From Lescarbot's _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, 1609.] The next morning Cartier, "having dressed himself splendidly," went ashore with some of his men. All were well armed, though the natives seemed peacefully disposed. They marched along a well-beaten track to the Indian city, which stood in the midst of cultivated fields of Indian corn and maize. Again the inhabitants met them with signs of joy and gladness, and the King was carried shoulder high, seated on a large deer-skin with a red wreath round his head made of the skins of hedgehogs instead of a crown. A curious scene then took place. The King placed his crown on the head of the French explorer, before whom he humbled himself as before a god. Thus evidently did the people regard him, for they brought to him their blind, their lame, and their diseased folk that he might cure them. Touched with pity at the groundless confidence of these poor people, Cartier signed them with the sign of the cross. "He then opened a service book and read the passion of Christ in an audible voice, during which all the natives kept a profound silence, looking up to heaven and imitating all our gestures. He then caused our trumpets and other musical instruments to be sounded, which made the natives very merry." Cartier and his men then went to the top of the neighbouring mountain. The extensive view from the top created a deep impression on the French explorer; he grew enthusiastic over the beauty of the level valley below and called the place Mont Royal--a name communicated to the busy city of Montreal that lies below. Winter was now coming on, and Cartier decided against attempting the homeward voyage so late in the year; but to winter in the country he chose a spot between Montreal and Quebec, little thinking what the long winter months would bring forth. The little handful of Frenchmen had no idea of the severity of the Canadian climate; they little dreamt of the interminable months of ice and snow when no navigation was possible. Before Christmas had come round the men were down with scurvy; by the middle of February, "out of one hundred and ten persons composing the companies of our three ships, there were not ten in perfect health. Eight were dead already. The sickness increased to such a pitch that there were not above three sound men in the whole company; we were obliged to bury such as died under the snow, as the ground was frozen quite hard, and we were all reduced to extreme weakness, and we lost all hope of ever returning to France." From November to March four feet of snow lay upon the decks of their little ships. And yet, shut up as they were in the heart of a strange and unknown land, with their ships icebound and nought but savages around, there is no sound of murmur or complaint. "It must be allowed that the winter that year was uncommonly long" is all we hear. [Illustration: NEW FRANCE, SHOWING NEWFOUNDLAND, LABRADOR, AND THE ST. LAWRENCE. From Jocomo di Gastaldi's Map, about 1550. The "Isola de Demoni" is Labrador, and "Terra Nuova" and the islands south of it make up Newfoundland. The snaky-like line represents a sandbank, which was then thought, and agreed, to be the limit of fishing. Montreal (Port Real) will be noticed on the coast.] May found them free once more and making for home with the great news that, though they had not found the way to Cathay, they had discovered and taken a great new country for France. A new map of the world in 1536 marks Canada and Labrador, and gives the river St. Lawrence just beyond Montreal. A map of 1550 goes further, and calls the sea that washes the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador the "Sea of France," while to the south it is avowedly the "Sea of Spain." [Illustration: THE "DAUPHIN" MAP OF THE WORLD. MADE BY PIERRE DESCELIERS, 1546, TO THE ORDER OF FRANCIS I., FOR THE DAUPHIN (HENRI II. OF FRANCE). This map gives a remarkably clear and interesting view of geographical knowledge in the first half of the sixteenth century. (It is to be noted that all objects on one side of the Equinoctial are reversed.)] CHAPTER XXXII SEARCH FOR A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE England was now awaking from her sleep--too late to possess the Spice Islands--too late for India and the Cape of Good Hope--too late, it would seem, for the New World. The Portuguese held the eastern route, the Spaniards the western route to the Spice Islands. But what if there were a northern route? All ways apparently led to Cathay. Why should England not find a way to that glorious land by taking a northern course? "If the seas toward the north be navigable we may go to these Spice Islands by a shorter way than Spain and Portugal," said Master Thorne of Bristol--a friend of the Cabots. "But the northern seas are blocked with ice and the northern lands are too cold for man to dwell in," objected some. "_There is no land uninhabitable, nor sea unnavigable_," was the heroic reply. "It was in this belief, and in this heroic temper, that England set herself to take possession of her heritage, the north. But it was not till the reign of Edward VI. that a Company of Merchant Adventurers was formed for the discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and places unknown," with old Sebastian Cabot as its first governor, and not till the year 1553 that three little ships under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor were fitted out for a northern cruise. They carried letters of introduction from the boy-king of England to "all Kings, Princes, Rulers, Judges, and Governors of the Earth in all places under the universal heaven," including those "inhabiting the north-east parts of the world toward the mighty Empire of Cathay." Sir Hugh Willoughby, "a most valiant gentleman," hoisted the English flag on the _Bona Esperanza_, a good little ship of one hundred and twenty tons. The next in command was Richard Chancellor, "a man of great estimation for many good parts of wit in him," who sailed the _Edward Bonadventure_, which though not so fast as the flag-ship, was slightly larger. So certain were the promoters that the ships would reach the hot climates beyond Cathay that they had them sheathed with lead to protect them from worms which had proved so destructive in the tropics before. The account of the start of these first English Arctic explorers is too quaint to be passed in silence. "It was thought best that by the 20th of May the Captains and Mariners should take shipping and depart if it pleased God. They, having saluted their acquaintance, one his wife, another his children, another his kinsfolk, and another his friends dearer than his kinsfolk, were ready at the day appointed. The greater ships are towed down with boats and oars, and the mariners, being all apparelled in sky-coloured cloth, made way with diligence. And being come near to Greenwich (where the Court then lay), the Courtiers came running out and the common people flocked together, standing very thick upon the shore: the Privy Council, they looked out of the windows of the Court, and the rest ran up to the tops of the towers, and the mariners shouted in such sort that the sky rang again with the noise thereof. But, alas! the good King Edward--he only by reason of his sickness was absent from this show." The ships dropped down to Woolwich with the tide and coasted along the east coast of England till "at the last with a good wind they hoisted up sail and committed themselves to the sea, giving their last adieu to their native country--many of them could not refrain from tears." Richard Chancellor himself had left behind two little sons, and his poor mind was tormented with sorrow and care. By the middle of July the North Sea had been crossed, and the three small ships were off the shores of Norway, coasting among the islands and fiords that line that indented kingdom. Coasting still northward, Willoughby led his ships to the Lofoten Islands, "plentifully inhabited by very gentle people" under the King of Denmark. They sailed on-- "To the west of them was the ocean, To the right the desolate shore." till they had passed the North Cape, already discovered by Othere, the old sea-captain who dwelt in Helgoland. A terrible storm now arose, and "the sea was so outrageous that the ships could not keep their intended course, but some were driven one way and some another way to their great peril and hazard." Then Sir Hugh Willoughby shouted across the roaring seas to Richard Chancellor, begging him not to go far from him. But the little ships got separated and never met again. Willoughby was blown across the sea to Nova Zembla. "The sea was rough and stormy, The tempest howled and wailed, And the sea-fog like a ghost Haunted that dreary coast. But onward still I sailed." The weather grew more and more Arctic, and he made his way over to a haven in Lapland where he decided to winter. He sent men to explore the country, but no signs of mankind could be found; there were bears and foxes and all manner of strange beasts, but never a human being. It must have been desperately dreary as the winter advanced, with ice and snow and freezing winds from the north. What this little handful of Englishmen did, how they endured the bitter winter on the desolate shores of Lapland, no man knows. Willoughby was alive in January 1554--then all is silent. And what of Richard Chancellor on board the _Bonadventure_? "Pensive, heavy, and sorrowful," but resolute to carry out his orders, "Master Chancellor held on his course towards that unknown part of the world, and sailed so far that he came at last to the place where he found no night at all, but a continual light and brightness of the Sun, shining clearly upon the huge and mighty Sea." After a time he found and entered a large bay where he anchored, making friends with the fisher folk on the shores of the White Sea to the north of Russia. So frightened were the natives at the greatness of the English ships that at first they ran away, half-dead with fear. Soon, however, they regained confidence and, throwing themselves down, they began to kiss the explorer's feet, "but he (according to his great and singular courtesy) looked pleasantly upon them." By signs and gestures he comforted them until they brought food to the "new-come guests," and went to tell their king of the arrival of "a strange nation of singular gentleness and courtesy." Then the King of Russia or Muscovie--Ivan Vasiliwich--sent for Master Chancellor to go to Moscow. The journey had to be made in sledges over the ice and snow. A long and weary journey it must have been, for his guide lost the way, and they had travelled nearly one thousand five hundred miles before Master Chancellor came at last to Moscow, the chief city of the kingdom, "as great as the city of London with all its suburbs," remarks Chancellor. Arrived at the King's palace, Master Chancellor was received by one hundred Russian courtiers dressed in cloth of gold to the very ankles. The King sat aloft on a high throne, with a crown of gold on his head, holding in his hand a glittering sceptre studded with precious stones. The Englishman and his companions saluted the King, who received them graciously and read the letter from Edward VI. with interest. They did not know that the boy-king was dead, and that his sister Mary was on the throne of England. The King was much interested in the long beards grown by the Englishmen. That of one of the company was five foot two inches in length, "thick, broad, and yellow coloured." "This is God's gift," said the Russians. [Illustration: IVAN VASILIWICH, KING OF MUSCOVIE. From a sixteenth century woodcut.] To Edward VI. of England the King sent a letter by the hands of Richard Chancellor, giving leave readily for England to trade with Russia. Master Chancellor seems to have arrived home again safely with his account of Russia, which encouraged the Merchant Adventurers to send forth more ships to develop trade with this great new country of which they knew so little. To this end Anthony Jenkinson, "a resolute and intelligent gentleman," was selected, and "with four tall, well-appointed ships he sailed on 12th May 1557 toward the land of Russia." He reached Cape North on 2nd July, and a few days later he passed the spot where Sir Hugh Willoughby and all his company had perished. Anchoring in the Bay of St. Nicholas, he took a sledge for Moscow, where he delivered his letters safely to the King. So icebound was the country that it was April 1558 before he was able to leave Moscow for the south, to accomplish, if possible, the orders of the Merchant Adventurers to find an overland route to Cathay. With letters of introduction from the Russian King to the princes and kings through whose dominions he was to pass, Master Jenkinson made his way to the Volga, whence he continued his voyage with a Russian captain who was travelling south in great style to take up a command at Astrakan with five hundred boats laden with soldiers, stores, food, and merchandise. After three months' travelling, and having passed over some one thousand two hundred miles, the Englishman reached the south. The city of Astrakan offered no attractions and no hope of trade, so Jenkinson boldly took upon himself to navigate the mouth of the Volga and to reach the Caspian Sea. He was the first Englishman to cross Russia from the White Sea to the Caspian. Never before on the Caspian had the red cross of St. George been seen flying from the masthead of a ship sailed by Englishmen. After three weeks' buffeting by contrary winds, they found themselves on the eastern shores, and, getting together a caravan of one thousand camels, they went forward. No sooner had they landed than they found themselves in a land of thieves and robbers. Jenkinson hastened to the Sultan of these parts, a noted robber himself, to be kindly received by the Tartar Prince, who set before him the flesh of a wild horse and some mare's milk. Then the little English party travelled on for three weeks through desolate land with no rivers, no houses, no inhabitants, till they reached the banks of the Oxus. "Here we refreshed ourselves," says the explorer, "having been three days without water and drink, and tarried there all the next day making merry with our slain horses and camels." For a hundred miles they followed the course of this great river until they reached another desert, where they were again attacked by bands of thieves and robbers. It was Christmas Eve when they at last reached Bokhara, only to find that the merchants were so poor that there was no hope of any trade worth following, though the city was full of caravans from India and the Far East. And here they heard that the way to Cathay was barred by reason of grievous wars which were going on. Winter was coming on; so Jenkinson remained for a couple of months before starting on his long journey home. With a caravan of six hundred camels he made his way back to the Caspian, and on 2nd September he had reached Moscow safely with presents of "a white cow's tail of Cathay and a drum of Tartary" for the King, which seemed to give that monarch the greatest pleasure. He evidently stayed for a time in Russia, for it is not till the year 1560 that we find him writing to the Merchant Adventurers that "at the next shipping I embark myself for England." [Illustration: ANTHONY JENKINSON'S MAP OF RUSSIA, MUSCOVY, AND TARTARY, PUBLISHED IN 1562.] While Jenkinson was endeavouring to reach the Far East by land, a Portuguese named Pinto had succeeded in reaching it by sea. The discovery of Japan is claimed by three people. Antonio de Mota had been thrown by a storm on to the island of Nison, called by the Chinese Jepwen--Japan--in the year 1542. Pinto claims to have discovered it the same year. It seems that the Japanese were expecting the return of a god, and as the white men hove in sight they exclaimed: "These are certainly the Chinchi cogies spoken of in our records, who, flying over the waters, shall come to be lords of the lands where God has placed the greatest riches of the world. It will be fortunate for us if they come as friends." Now men of the time refused to believe in the travels of Mendex Pinto. "He should be called Mendax Pinto," said one, "whose book is one continued chain of monstrous fiction which deserves no credit," while a hundred and fifty years later Congreve wrote-- "Ferdinando Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, Thou liar of the first magnitude." CHAPTER XXXIII MARTIN FROBISHER SEARCHES FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE So far the expeditions of Willoughby, Chancellor, and Jenkinson had all failed to reach the Far East. The Spanish had a way thither by Magellan's Strait, the Portuguese by the Cape of Good Hope. England in the middle of the sixteenth century had no way. What about a North-West Passage leading round Labrador from the Atlantic to the Pacific? England was waking up to possibilities of future exploration. She was also ready and anxious to annoy Spain for having monopolised the riches and wealth of the New World. And so it was that Queen Elizabeth turned with interest to the suggestions of one of her subjects--Martin Frobisher--"a mariner of great experience and ability," when he enthusiastically consulted her on the navigation of the North-West Passage. For the last fifteen years he had been trying to collect ships and men for the enterprise. "It is the only thing in the world left undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate," he affirmed. But it was not till the year 1576 that he got a chance of fitting out two small ships--two very small ships--the _Gabriel_ of twenty tons, the _Michael_ of twenty-five tons, to explore the icy regions of the north. A wave of the Queen's hand gladdened his heart as he sailed past the palace of Greenwich, where the Court resided, and he was soon sailing northward harassed and battered by many storms. His little ten-ton pinnace was lost, and the same storm that overtook the little fleet to the north of Scotland so terrified the captain of the _Michael_ that he deserted and turned home with the news that Frobisher had perished with all hands. Meanwhile Frobisher, resolute in his undertaking, was nearing the coast of Greenland--alone in the little _Gabriel_ with a mere handful of men all inexperienced in the art of navigating the Polar seas. "And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold" as Frobisher sailed his storm-beaten ship across the wintry seas. But "I will sacrifice my life to God rather than return home without discovering a north-west passage to Cathay," he told his eighteen men with sublime courage. Passing Cape Farewell, he sailed north-west with the Greenland current, which brought him to the icebound shores near Hudson's Bay. He did not see the straits afterwards discovered by Hudson, but, finding an inlet farther north, he sailed some hundred miles, in the firm belief that this was the passage for which he was searching, that America lay on his left and Asia on his right. Magellan had discovered straits in the extreme south; Frobisher made sure that he had found corresponding straits to the extreme north, and Frobisher's Straits they were accordingly named, and as such they appeared on the maps of the day till they had to be renamed Lumley's Inlet. The snow and ice made further navigation impossible for this year, and full of their great news they returned home accompanied by an Eskimo. These natives had been taken for porpoises by our English explorers, but later they were reported to be "strange infidels whose like was never seen, read, or heard of before." [Illustration: GREENLANDERS AS SEEN BY MARTIN FROBISHER. From Captain Beste's account of Frobisher's voyages, 1578.] Martin Frobisher was received with enthusiasm and "highly commended of all men for his great and notable attempt, but specially famous for the great hope he brought of the passage to Cathay." Besides the Eskimo the explorers carried home a black stone, which, when thrown on the fire by one of the sailor's wives, glittered like gold. The gold refiners of London were hastily called in, and they reported that it contained a quantity of gold. A new incentive was now given to Polar exploration. The Queen herself contributed a tall ship of some two hundred tons to the new expedition that was eagerly fitted out, and the High Admiral of all seas and waters, countries, lands, and isles, as Frobisher was now called, sailed away again for the icy north, more to search for gold than to discover the North-West Passage. He added nothing more to the knowledge of the world, and though he sailed through the strait afterwards known as Hudson's Strait, he never realised his discovery. His work was hampered by the quest for gold, for which England was eagerly clamouring, and he disappears from our history of discovery. The triumphant return of Francis Drake in 1580 laden with treasure from the Spice Islands put into the shade all schemes for a north-west passage for the moment. Nevertheless, this voyage of Martin Frobisher is important in the history of exploration. It was the first attempt of an Englishman to make search amid the ice of the Arctic regions--a search in which so many were yet to lay down their lives. CHAPTER XXXIV DRAKE'S FAMOUS VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD "Call him on the deep sea, call him up the sound, Call him when ye sail to meet the foe; Where the old trade's plyin' and the old flag flyin', They shall find him ware an' wakin', as they found him long ago!" HENRY NEWBOLT. Drake's famous voyage, as it is known to history (1577-1580), was indeed famous, for although Magellan's ship had sailed round the world fifty years before, Drake was the first Englishman to do so, and, further, he discovered for us land to the south of Magellan's Strait round which washed the waters of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, showing that the mysterious land marked on contemporary maps as Terra Australis and joined to South America was a separate land altogether. He also explored the coast of America as far north as Vancouver Island, and disclosed to England the secret of the Spice Islands. The very name of Drake calls up a vision of thrilling adventure on the high seas. He had been at sea since he was a boy of fifteen, when he had been apprenticed to the master of a small ship trading between England and the Netherlands, and many a time he had sailed on the grey North Sea. "But the narrow seas were a prison for so large a spirit born for greater undertakings," and in 1567 we find Drake sailing forth on board the _Judith_ in an expedition over to the Spanish settlements in America under his kinsman, John Hawkins. Having crossed the Atlantic and filled his ships with Spanish treasure from "the Spanish Main," and having narrowly escaped death from the hands of the Spaniards, Drake had hurried home to tell of the riches of this new country still closed to all other nations. Two years later Drake was off again, this time in command himself of two ships with crews of seventy-three young men, their modest aim being nothing less than to seize one of the Spanish ports and empty into their holds the "Treasure House of the World." What if this act of reckless daring was unsuccessful? The undertaking was crowned with a higher success than that of riches, for Drake was the first Englishman to see the waters of the Pacific Ocean. His expedition was not unlike that of Balboa some sixty years before, as with eighteen chosen companions he climbed the forest-clad spurs of the ridge dividing the two great oceans. Arrived at the top, he climbed up a giant tree, and the Golden Sea of which he had so often heard--the Pacific Ocean of Magellan, the waters washing the golden shores of Mexico and Peru--all lay below him. Descending from the heights, he sank upon his knees and "humbly besought Almighty God of His goodness to give him life and leave to sail once in an English ship in that sea." [Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. From Holland's _Heroologia_, 1620.] Jealously had the Spanish guarded this beautiful Southern Sea, now her secrets were laid bare, for an Englishman had gazed upon it and he was not likely to remain satisfied with this alone. In 1573 Drake came home with his wonderful news, and it was not long before he was eagerly talking over with the Queen a project for a raid into this very Golden Sea guarded by the Spaniards. Elizabeth promised help on condition that the object of the expedition should remain a secret. Ships were bought for "a voyage to Egypt"; there was the _Pelican_ of one hundred tons, the _Marygold_ of thirty tons, and a provision ship of fifty tons. A fine new ship of eighty tons, named the _Elizabeth_, mysteriously added itself to the little fleet, and the crews numbered in all some one hundred and fifty men. No expense was spared in the equipment of the ships. Musicians were engaged for the voyage, the arms and ammunition were of the latest pattern. The flagship was lavishly furnished: there were silver bowls and mugs and dishes richly gilt and engraved with the family arms, while the commander's cabin was full of sweet-smelling perfumes presented by the Queen herself. Thus, complete at last, Drake led his gay little squadron out of Plymouth harbour on 15th November 1577, bound for Alexandria--so the crews thought. Little did Drake know what was before him, as, dressed in his seaman's shirt, his scarlet cap with its gold band on his head, he waved farewell to England. Who could foresee the terrible beginning, with treachery and mutiny at work, or the glorious ending when the young Englishman sailed triumphantly home after his three years' voyage--the world encompassed? Having reached the Cape de Verde Islands in safety, the object of the expedition could no longer remain a secret, and Drake led his squadron boldly across the Atlantic Ocean. On 5th April the coast of Brazil appeared, but fogs and heavy weather scattered the ships and they had to run into the mouth of the La Plata for shelter. Then for six weary weeks the ships struggled southward, battered by gales and squalls during which nothing but the daring seamanship of the English navigators saved the little vessels from destruction. It was not till 20th June that they reached Port St. Julian of Magellan fame, on the desolate shores of Patagonia. As they entered the harbour, a grim sight met their eyes. On that windswept shore was the skeleton of the man hung by Magellan years before. [Illustration: THE SILVER MAP OF THE WORLD. From the medallion in the British Museum, probably struck in 1581, showing the line of Drake's voyage from England in 1577 westwards through the Magellan Strait to California and New Albion.] History was to repeat itself, and the same fate was now to befall an unhappy Englishman guilty of the same conduct. Drake had long had reason to suspect the second in command, Doughty, though he was his dear friend. He had been guilty of worse than disobedience, and the very success of the voyage was threatened. So Drake called a council together and Doughty was tried according to English law. After two days' trial he was found guilty and condemned to die. One of the most touching scenes in the history of exploration now took place. One sees the little English crews far away on that desolate shore, the ships lying at anchor in the harbour, the block prepared, the altar raised beside it, the two old friends, Drake and Doughty, kneeling side by side, then the flash of the sword and Drake holding up the head of his friend with the words, "Lo, this is the end of traitors." It was now midwinter, and for six weeks they remained in harbour till August came, and with three ships they emerged to continue their way to the Straits of Magellan. At last it was found and boldly they entered. From the towering mountains that guarded the entry, tempests of wind and snow swept down upon the "daring intruders." As they made their way through the rough and winding waters, they imagined with all the other geographers of their time that the unknown land to the south was one great continent leading beyond the boundaries of the world. Fires lit by the natives on this southern coast added terror to the wild scene. But at the end of sixteen days they found themselves once more in the open sea. They were at last on the Pacific Ocean. But it was anything but pacific. A terrible tempest arose, followed by other storms no less violent, and the ships were driven helplessly southward and westward far beyond Cape Horn. When they once more reached the coast they found in the place of the great southern continent an indented wind-swept shore washed by waves terrific in their height and strength. In the ceaseless gale the _Marygold_ foundered with all hands and was never heard of again. A week later the captain of the _Elizabeth_ turned home, leaving the _Pelican_, now called the _Golden Hind_, to struggle on alone. After nearly two months of storm, Drake anchored among the islands southward of anything yet known to the geographers, where Atlantic and Pacific rolled together in one boisterous flood. Walking alone to the farthest end of the island, Drake is said to have laid himself down and with his arms embraced the southernmost point of the known world. [Illustration: THE SILVER MAP OF THE WORLD. The reverse half, showing the route of Drake's voyage home from California in 1579-1580, through the Spice Islands and the Indian Ocean. The end of the homeward track, round the Azores, will be seen on the previous Silver Map illustration.] He showed that the Tierra del Fuego, instead of being part of a great continent--the Terra Australis--was a group of islands with open sea to east, south, and west. This discovery was first shown on a Dutch silver medallion struck in Holland about 1581, known as The Silver Map of the world, and may be seen to-day in the British Museum. [Illustration: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN TO SAIL ROUND THE WORLD. After the engraving attributed to Hondius.] Remarking that the ocean he was now entering would have been better called "Mare Furiosum" than "Mare Pacificum," Drake now directed his course along the western coast of South America. He found the coast of Chili, but not as the general maps had described it, "wherefore it appeareth that this part of Chili hath not been truly hitherto discovered," remarked one on board the _Golden Hind_. Bristling with guns, the little English ship sailed along the unknown coast, till they reached Valparaiso. Here they found a great Spanish ship laden with treasure from Peru. Quickly boarding her, the English sailors bound the Spaniards, stowed them under the hatches, and hastily transferred the cargo on to the _Golden Hind_. They sailed on northwards to Lima and Panama, chasing the ships of Spain, plundering as they went, till they were deeply laden with stolen Spanish treasure and knew that they had made it impossible to return home by that coast. So Drake resolved to go on northward and discover, if possible, a way home by the north. He had probably heard of Frobisher's Strait, and hoped to find a western entrance. As they approached the Arctic regions the weather grew bitterly cold, and "vile, thick, stinking fogs" determined them to sail southward. They had reached a point near what we now know as Vancouver Island when contrary winds drove them back and they put in at a harbour, now known as San Francisco, to repair the ship for the great voyage across the Pacific and home by the Cape of Good Hope. Drake had sailed past seven hundred miles of new coast-line in twelve days, and he now turned to explore the new country, to which he gave the name of New Albion. The Indians soon began to gather in large quantities on the shore, and the King himself, tall and comely, advanced in a friendly manner. Indeed, he took off his crown and set it on the head of Drake and, hanging chains about his neck, the Indians made him understand that the land was now his and that they were his vassals. [Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ AT NEW ALBION. From the Chart of Drake's Voyages. 1589.] Little did King Drake dream, as he named his country New Albion, that Californian gold was so near. His subjects were loving and peaceable, evidently regarding the English as gods and reverencing them as such. The chronicler is eloquent in his detailed description of all the royal doings. "Before we left," he says, "our General caused to be set up a monument of our being there, as also of Her Majesty's right and title to that kingdom, namely, a plate of brass, fast nailed to a great and firm post, whereon is engraved Her Grace's name and the day and year of our arrival here, and of the free giving up of the province, both by the people and king, into Her Majesty's hands, together with Her Highness' picture and arms in a piece of sixpence current money. The Spanish never so much as set foot in this country--the utmost of their discoveries reaching only to many degrees southward of this place. "And now, as the time of our departure was perceived by the people, so did the sorrows and miseries seem to increase upon them--not only did they lose on a sudden all mirth, joy, glad countenance, pleasant speeches, agility of body, but with signs and sorrowings, with heavy hearts and grieved minds, they poured out woeful complaints and moans, with bitter tears and wringing of their hands, tormenting themselves. And, as men refusing all comfort, they only accounted themselves as those whom the gods were about to forsake." Indeed, the poor Indians looked on these Englishmen as gods, and, when the day came for them to leave, they ran to the top of the hills to keep the little ship in sight as long as possible, after which they burnt fires and made sacrifices at their departure. Drake left New Albion on 23rd July 1579, to follow the lead of Magellan and to pass home by the southern seas and the Atlantic Ocean. After sixty-eight days of quick and straight sailing, with no sight of land, they fell in with the Philippine Islands, and on 3rd November with the famous Spice Islands. Here they were well received by the King--a magnificent person attired in cloth of gold, with bare legs and shoes of Cordova skins, rings of gold in his hair, and a chain "of perfect gold" about his neck. The Englishmen were glad enough to get fresh food after their long crossing, and fared sumptuously on rice, hens, "imperfect and liquid sugar," sugar-canes, and a fruit they call figo, with plenty of cloves. On a little island near Celebes the _Golden Hind_ was thoroughly repaired for her long voyage home. But the little treasure-laden ship was nearly wrecked before she got away from the dangerous shoals and currents of these islands. "Upon the 9th of January we ran suddenly upon a rock, where we stuck fast from eight of the clock at night till four of the clock in the afternoon the next day, being, indeed, out of all hope to escape the danger; but our General, as he had always hitherto showed himself courageous, so now he and we did our best endeavours to save ourselves, which it pleased God so to bless, that in the end we cleared ourselves most happily of the danger." [Illustration: THE _GOLDEN HIND_ AT JAVA. From the Chart of Drake's Voyages.] Then they ran across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in calm weather, abusing the Portuguese for calling it the most dangerous Cape in the world for intolerable storms, for "This Cape," said the English, "is a most stately thing and the finest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth." And so they came home. After nearly three years' absence Drake triumphantly sailed his little _Golden Hind_ into Plymouth harbour, where he had long ago been given up as lost. Shouts of applause rang through the land at the news that an Englishman had circumnavigated the world. The Queen sent for Drake to tell his wonderful story, to which she listened spellbound. A great banquet was held on board the little ship, at which Elizabeth was present and knighted Drake, while she ordered that the _Golden Hind_ should be preserved "as a worthy rival of Magellan's _Victoria_" and as "a monument to all posterity of that famous and worthy exploit of Sir Francis Drake." It was afterwards taken to pieces, and the best parts of wood were made into a chair at Oxford, commemorated by Cowley's lines-- "To this great ship, which round the world has run And matched in race the chariot of the sun; * * * * * Drake and his ship could ne'er have wished from fate A happier station or more blest estate; For lo, a seat of endless rest is given To her in Oxford and to him in Heaven." Sir Francis Drake died at sea in 1596. "The waves became his winding sheet, the waters were his tomb, But for his fame the ocean sea was not sufficient room." [Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--V. The world as known after its circumnavigation by Sir Francis Drake in the years 1577-1580.] CHAPTER XXXV DAVIS STRAIT But even while Drake was sailing round the world, and Frobisher's search for a north-west passage had been diverted into a quest for gold, men's minds were still bent on the achievement of reaching Cathay by some northern route. A discourse by Sir Humphrey Gilbert to prove the existence of a passage by the north-west to Cathay and the East Indies, in ten chapters, was much discussed, and the Elizabethan seamen were still bent on its discovery. "When I gave myself to the study of geography," said Sir Humphrey, "and came to the fourth part of the world, commonly called America, which by all descriptions I found to be an island environed round by sea, having on the south side of it the Strait of Magellan, on the west side the Sea of the South, which sea runneth toward the north, separating it from the east parts of Asia, and on the north side the sea that severeth it from Greenland, through which Northern Seas the Passage lieth which I take now in hand to discover." The arguments of Sir Humphrey seemed conclusive, and in 1585 they chose John Davis, "a man well grounded in the principles of the art of navigation," to search for the North-West Passage to China. They gave him two little ships, the _Sunshine_ of fifty tons, with a crew of seventeen seamen, four musicians, and a boy, and the _Moonshine_ of thirty-five tons. It was a daring venture, but the expedition was ill-equipped to battle with the icebound seas of the frozen north. The ships left Dartmouth on 7th June, and by July they were well out on the Atlantic with porpoises and whales playing round them. Then came a time of fog and mist, "with a mighty great roaring of the sea." On 20th July they sailed out of the fog and beheld the snow-covered mountains of Greenland, beyond a wide stream of pack-ice--so gloomy, so "waste, and void of any creatures," so bleak and inhospitable that the Englishmen named it the Land of Desolation and passed on to the north. Rounding the point, afterwards named by Davis Cape Farewell, and sailing by the western coast of Greenland, they hoped to find the passage to Cathay. Landing amid the fiords and the "green and pleasant isles" about the coast, they anchored a while to refresh, and named their bay Gilbert Sound, after Sir Humphrey and Davis' own little boy, Gilbert, left at home. "The people of the country," says Davis, "having espied our ships, came down unto us in their canoes, holding up their right hand toward the sun. We doing the like, the people came aboard our ships, men of good stature, unbearded, small-eyed, and of tractable conditions. We bought the clothes from their backs, which were all made of seals' skins and birds' skins, their buskins, their hose, their gloves, all being commonly sewed and well dressed." [Illustration: AN ESKIMO. From a water-colour drawing by John White, about 1585, who may have seen Eskimo either in Frobisher's or Davis's voyages.] These simple Greenlanders who worshipped the sun gave Davis to understand that there was a great and open sea to the north-west, and full of hope he sailed on. But he soon abandoned the search, for the season was advancing, and, crossing the open sea, he entered the broad channel named after him Davis Strait, crossed the Arctic Circle, and anchored under a promontory, "the cliffs whereof were orient as gold," naming it Mount Raleigh. Here they found four white bears of "a monstrous bigness," which they took to be goats or wolves, till on nearer acquaintance they were discovered to be great Polar bears. There were no signs of human life, no wood, no grass, no earth, nothing but rock, so they coasted southwards, and to their joy they found an open strait to the west free from ice. Eagerly they sailed the little _Moonshine_ and _Sunshine_ up the opening, which they called Cumberland Sound, till thick fogs and adverse winds drove them back. Winter was now advancing, the six months' provisions were ended, and, satisfied with having found an open passage westward, Davis sailed home in triumph to fit out another expedition as soon as spring came round. His news was received with delight. "The North-West Passage is a matter nothing doubtful," he affirmed, "but at any time almost to be passed, the sea navigable, void of ice, the air tolerable, and the waters very deep." With this certainty of success the merchants readily fitted out another expedition, and Davis sailed early in May 1586 with four ships. The little _Moonshine_ and _Sunshine_ were included in the new fleet, but Davis himself commanded the _Mermaid_ of one hundred and twenty tons. The middle of June found him on the west coast of Greenland, battling his way with great blocks of ice to his old quarters at Gilbert Sound. What a warm welcome they received from their old Eskimo friends; "they rowed to the boat and took hold on the oars and hung about with such comfortable joy as would require a long discourse to be uttered." Followed by a wondering crowd of natives eager to help him up and down the rocks, Davis made his way inland to find an inviting country, "with earth and grass such as our moory and waste grounds of England are"; he found, too, mosses and wild flowers in the sheltered places. But his business lay in the icy waters, and he boldly pushed forward. But ice and snow and fog made further progress impossible; shrouds, ropes, and sails were turned into a frozen mass, and the crew was filled with despair. "Our men began to grow sick and feeble and hopeless of good success, and they advised me that in conscience I ought to regard the safety of mine own life with the preservation of theirs, and that I should not through my over-boldness leave their widows and fatherless children to give me bitter curses." So Davis rearranged his crews and provisions, and with the _Moonshine_ and a selection of his best men he determined to voyage on "as God should direct him," while the _Mermaid_ should carry the sick and feeble and fainthearted home. Davis then crossed over the strait called by his name and explored the coast about Cumberland Sound. Again he tried here to discover the long-sought passage, but the brief summer season was almost past and he had to content himself with exploring the shores of Labrador, unconsciously following the track made by John Cabot eighty-nine years before. But on his return home the merchants of London were disappointed. Davis had indeed explored an immense extent of coast-line, and he had brought back a cargo of cod-fish and five hundred seal skins, but Cathay seemed as far off as ever. One merchant prince, Sanderson by name, was still very keen, and he helped Davis to fit out yet another expedition. With three ships, the _Sunshine_, the _Elizabeth_, and the _Helen_, the undaunted Arctic explorer now found himself for the third summer in succession at his old halting-place, Gilbert's Sound, on the west coast of Greenland. Leaving his somewhat discontented crews to go fishing off the coast of Labrador, he took the little twenty-ton pinnace, with a small party of brave spirits like his own, and made his way northwards in a free and open sea. The weather was hot, land was visible on both sides, and the English mariners were under the impression that they were sailing up a gulf. But the passage grew wider and wider, till Davis found himself with the sea all open to west and north. He had crossed the Arctic Circle and reached the most northerly point ever yet reached by an explorer. Seeing on his right a lofty cliff, he named it "Sanderson his Hope," for it seemed to give hope of the long-sought passage to Cathay. It was a memorable day in the annals of discovery, 30th June 1587, when Davis reached this famous point on the coast of Greenland. "A bright blue sea extended to the horizon on the north and west, obstructed by no ice, but here and there a few majestic icebergs with peaks snowy shooting up into the sky." To the eastward were the granite mountains of Greenland, and beyond them the white line of the mightiest glacier in the world. Rising immediately above the tiny vessel was the beetling wall of Hope Sanderson, with its summit eight hundred and fifty feet above sea-level. At its base the sea was a sheet of foam and spray. It must have been a scene like fairyland, for, as Davis remarked, there was "no ice towards the north, but a great sea, free, large, very salt and blue, and of an unsearchable depth." But again disappointment awaited him. That night a wind from the north barred further advance as a mighty bank of ice some eight feet thick came drifting down toward the Atlantic. Again and again he attempted to get on, but it was impossible, and reluctantly enough he turned the little ship southwards. "This Davis hath been three times employed; why hath he not found the passage?" said the folk at home when he returned and reported his doings. How little they realised the difficulties of the way. The commander of the twenty-ton _Ellen_ had done more than any man had done before him in the way of Arctic exploration. He had discovered seven hundred and thirty-two miles of coast from Cape Farewell to Sanderson's Hope; he had examined the whole coast of Labrador; he had "converted the Arctic regions from a confused myth into a defined area." "He lighted Baffin into his bay. He lighted Hudson into his strait. He lighted Hans Egede to the scene of his Greenland labour." And more than this, says his enthusiastic biographer: "His true-hearted devotion to the cause of Arctic discovery, his patient scientific research, his loyalty to his employers, his dauntless gallantry and enthusiasm form an example which will be a beacon-light to maritime explorers for all time to come." "And Davis three times forth for the north-west made, Still striving by that course t'enrich the English trade; And as he well deserved, to his eternal fame, There, by a mighty sea, immortalised his name." CHAPTER XXXVI BARENTS SAILS TO SPITZBERGEN With the third failure of John Davis to find the North-West Passage the English search for Cathay came to an end for the present. But the merchants of Amsterdam took up the search, and in 1594 they fitted out an expedition under William Barents, a burgher of Amsterdam and a practical seaman of much experience. The three voyages of Barents form some of the most romantic reading in the history of geographical discovery, and the preface to the old book compiled for the Dutch after the death of Barents sums up in pathetic language the tragic story of the "three Voyages, so strange and wonderful that the like hath never been heard of before." They were "done and performed three years," says the old preface, "one after the other, by the ships of Holland, on the North sides of Norway, Muscovy, and Tartary, towards the kingdoms of Cathay and China, showing discoveries of the Country lying under 80 degrees: which is thought to be Greenland; where never any man had been before, with the cruel Bears and other Monsters of the sea and the unsupportable and extreme cold that is found to be in these places. And how that in the last Voyage the Ship was enclosed by the Ice, that it was left there, whereby the men were forced to build a house in the cold and desert country of Nova Zembla, wherein they continued ten months together and never saw nor heard of any man, in most great cold and extreme misery; and how after that, to save their lives, they were constrained to sail about one thousand miles in little open boats, along and over the main Seas in most great danger and with extreme labour, unspeakable troubles, and great hunger." Surely no more graphic summary of disaster has ever appeared than these words penned three hundred and fourteen years ago, which cry to us down the long, intervening ages of privation and suffering endured in the cause of science. [Illustration: A SHIP OF THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. From Ortelius, 1598.] In the year 1594, then, four ships were sent forth from Amsterdam with orders to the wise and skilful pilot, William Barents, that he was to sail into the North Seas and "discover the kingdoms of Cathay and China." In the month of July the Dutch pilot found himself off the south coast of Nova Zembla, whence he sailed as the wind pleased to take him, ever making for the north and hugging the coast as close as possible. On 9th July they found a creek very far north to which they gave the name of Bear Creek, because here they suddenly discovered their first Polar bear. It tried to get into their boat, so they shot it with a musket, "but the bear showed most wonderful strength, for, notwithstanding that she was shot into the body, yet she leapt up and swam in the water; the men that were in the boat, rowing after her, cast a rope about her neck and drew her at the stern of the boat, for, not having seen the like bear before, they thought to have carried her alive in the ship and to have showed her for a strange wonder in Holland; but she used such force that they were glad they were rid of her, and contented themselves with her skin only." This they brought back to Amsterdam in great triumph--their first white Polar bear. But they went farther north than this, until they came to a plain field of ice and encountered very misty weather. Still they kept sailing on, as best they might, round about the ice till they found the land of Nova Zembla was covered with snow. From "Ice Point" they made their way to islands which they named Orange Islands after the Dutch Prince. Here they found two hundred walrus or sea-horses lying on the shore and basking in the sun. [Illustration: NOVA ZEMBLA AND THE ARCTIC REGIONS. From a map in De Bry's _Grands Voyages_, 1598.] "The sea-horse is a wonderful strong monster of the sea," they brought back word, "much bigger than an ox, having a skin like a seal, with very short hair, mouthed like a lion; it hath four feet, but no ears." The little party of Dutchmen advanced boldly with hatchets and pikes to kill a few of these monsters to take home, but it was harder work than they thought. The wind suddenly rose, too, and rent the ice into great pieces, so they had to content themselves by getting a few of their ivory teeth, which they reported to be half an ell long. With these and other treasures Barents was now forced to return from these high latitudes, and he sailed safely into the Texel after three and a half months' absence. His reports of Nova Zembla encouraged the merchants of Amsterdam to persevere in their search for the kingdoms of Cathay and China by the north-east, and a second expedition was fitted out under Barents the following year; but it started too late to accomplish much, and we must turn to the third expedition for the discovery which has for ever made famous the name of William Barents. It was yet early in the May of 1596 when he sailed from Amsterdam with two ships for the third and last time, bound once more for the frozen northern seas. By 1st June he had reached a region where there was no night, and a few days later a strange sight startled the whole crew, "for on each side of the sun there was another sun and two rainbows more, the one compassing round about the suns and the other right through the great circle," and they found they were "under 71 degrees of the height of the Pole." Sighting the North Cape of Lapland, they held on a north-westerly course till on 9th June they came upon a little island which they named Bear Island. Here they nearly met their end, for, having ascended a steep snow mountain on the island to look around them, they found it too slippery to descend. "We thought we should all have broken our necks, it was so slippery, but we sat up on the snow and slid down, which was very dangerous for us, and break both our arms and legs for that at the foot of the hill there were many rocks." Barents himself seems to have sat in the boat and watched them with intense anxiety. They were once more amid ice and Polar bears. In hazy weather they made their way north till on the 19th they saw land, and the "land was very great." They thought it was Greenland, but it was really Spitzbergen, of which he was thus the discoverer. Many things astonished the navigators here. Although they were in such high latitudes, they saw grass and leafy trees and such animals as bucks and harts, while several degrees to the south "there groweth neither leaves nor grass nor any beasts that eat grass or leaves, but only such beasts as eat flesh, as bears and foxes." [Illustration: BARENTS IN THE ARCTIC: "HUT WHEREIN WE WINTERED." From De Veer's account of the voyages of Barents, 1598.] By 1st July he had explored the western shore and was sailing south to Bear Island. He never landed on the coast of Spitzbergen: so we have no further account of this Arctic discovery. Sailing across the wide northern sea now known as Barents Sea, he made land again in the north of Nova Zembla, and, hugging the western shore, came to Ice Point. Here they were sorely harassed by Polar bears and floating ice and bitter gales of wind. Still they coasted on till they had rounded the northern end of Nova Zembla and unexpectedly sailed into a good harbour where they could anchor. The wind now blew with redoubled vigour, the "ice came mightily driving in" until the little ship was nearly surrounded, "and withal the wind began more and more to rise and the ice still drave harder and harder, so that our boat was broken in pieces between the ship and the ice, and it seemed as if the ship would be crushed in pieces too." As the August days passed on, they tried to get out of their prison, but it was impossible, and there was nothing for it but to winter "in great cold, poverty, misery, and grief" in this bleak and barren spot. The successful pilot was to explore no more, but the rest of the tragic tale must be shortly told. With the ice heaping high, "as the salt hills that are in Spain," and the ship in danger of going to pieces, they collected trees and roots driven on to the desolate shores from Tartary, "wherewith as if God had purposely sent them unto us we were much comforted." Through the September days they drew wood across the ice and snow to build a house for the winter. Only sixteen men could work and they were none too strong and well. [Illustration: BARENTS'S SHIP AMONG THE ARCTIC ICE. From a coloured woodcut in the account of Barents's three voyages by Gerard de Veer, published in 1598.] Throughout October and November they were snowed up in their winter hut, with "foul stormie weather" outside, the wind blowing ceaselessly out of the north and snow lying deep around. They trapped a few foxes from day to day to eat, making warm caps out of their fur; they heated stones and took them into their cabin beds, but their sheets froze as they washed them and at last their clock froze too. "They looked pitifully upon one another, being in great fear that if the extremity of the cold grew to be more and more we should all die there with the cold." Christmas came and went and they comforted one another by remembering that the sun was as low as it could go, and that it must begin to come to them again; but "as the day lengthens, so the cold strengthens," and the snow now lay deeper until it covered the roof of their house. The New Year found them still imprisoned, "with great cold, danger, and disease." January, February, March, April passed and still the little ship was stuck fast in the ice. But as the sun began to gain power, hope revived, and they began to repair their boats, to make new sails, and repair tackle. They were too weak and ill to do much work, but by the middle of June the boats were fairly ready and they could cut a way through the ice to the open sea. This was their only hope of escape, to leave the ship behind and embark in two little open boats for the open sea. "Then William Barents wrote a letter, which he put into a musket's charge and hanged it up in the chimney, showing how we came out of Holland to sail to the kingdom of China, and how we had been forced in our extremity to make that house and had dwelt ten months therein, and how we were forced to put to sea in two small open boats, for that the ship lay fast in the ice." Barents himself was now too ill to walk, so they carried him to one of the little boats, and on 14th June 1597 the little party put off from their winter quarters and sailed round to Ice Point. But the pilot was dying. "Are we about Ice Point?" he asked feebly. "If we be, then I pray you lift me up, for I must view it once again." Then suddenly the wind began to rise, driving the ice so fast upon them "that it made our hair stand upright upon our heads, it was so fearful to behold, so that we thought verily that it was a foreshadowing of our last end." They drew the boats up on to the ice and lifted the sick commander out and laid him on the icy ground, where a few days later he died--"our chief guide and only pilot on whom we reposed ourselves next under God." The rest of the story is soon told. On 1st November 1597 some twelve gaunt and haggard men, still wearing caps of white fox and coats of bearskin, having guided their little open boats all the way from Nova Zembla, arrived at Amsterdam and told the story of their exploration to the astonished merchants, who had long since given them up as dead. It was not till 1871 that Barents' old winter quarters on Nova Zembla were discovered. "There stood the cooking-pans over the fireplace, the old clocks against the wall, the arms, the tools, the drinking vessels, the instruments and the books that had beguiled the weary hours of that long night, two hundred and seventy-eight years ago." Among the relics were a pair of small shoes and a flute which had belonged to a little cabin-boy who had died during the winter. CHAPTER XXXVII HUDSON FINDS HIS BAY Henry Hudson was another victim to perish in the hopeless search for a passage to China by the north. John Davis had been dead two years, but not till after he had piloted the first expedition undertaken by the newly formed East India Company for commerce with India and the East. It was now more important than ever to find a short way to these countries other than round by the Cape of Good Hope. So Henry Hudson was employed by the Muscovy Company "to discover a shorter route to Cathay _by sailing over the North Pole_." He knew the hardships of the way; he must have realised the fate of Willoughby, the failure of Frobisher, the sufferings of Barents and his men, the difficulties of Davis--indeed, it is more than probable that he had listened to Davis speaking on the subject of Arctic exploration to the merchants of London at his uncle's house at Mortlake. Never did man start on a bolder or more perilous enterprise than did this man, when he started for the North Pole in a little boat of eighty tons, with his little son Jack, two mates, and a crew of eight men. "Led by Hudson with the fire of a great faith in his eyes, the men solemnly marched to St. Ethelburga Church, off Bishopsgate Street, London, to partake of Holy Communion and ask God's aid. Back to the muddy water front, opposite the Tower, a hearty God-speed from the gentlemen of the Muscovy Company, pompous in self-importance and lace ruffles--and the little crew steps into a clumsy river-boat with brick-red sails." After a six weeks' tumble over a waste of waters, Hudson arrived off the coast of Greenland, the decks of the little _Hopewell_ coated with ice, her rigging and sails hard as boards, and a north-east gale of wind and snow against her. A barrier of ice forbade further advance; but, sailing along the edge of this barrier--the first navigator to do so--he made for the coast of Spitzbergen, already roughly charted by Barents. Tacking up the west coast to the north, Hudson now explored further the fiords, islands, and harbours, naming some of them--notably Whale Bay and Hakluyt Headland, which may be seen on our maps of to-day. By 13th July he had reached his Farthest North, farther than any explorer had been before him, farther than any to be reached again for over one hundred and fifty years. It was a land of walrus, seal, and Polar bear; but, as usual, ice shut off all further attempts to penetrate the mysteries of the Pole, thick fog hung around the little ship, and with a fair wind Hudson turned southward. "It pleased God to give us a gale and away we steered," says the old ship log. Hudson would fain have steered Greenland way and had another try for the north. But his men wanted to go home, and home they went, through "slabbie" weather. But the voice of the North was still calling Hudson, and he persuaded the Muscovy Company to let him go off again. This he did in the following year. Only three of his former crew volunteered for service, and one of these was his son. But this expedition was devoid of result. The icy seas about Nova Zembla gave no hope of a passage in this direction, and, "being void of hope, the wind stormy and against us, much ice driving, we weighed and set sail westward." [Illustration: HUDSON'S MAP OF HIS VOYAGES IN THE ARCTIC. From his book published in 1612.] Hudson's voyages for the Muscovy Company had already come under the notice of the Dutch, who were vying with the English for the discovery of this short route to the East. Hudson was now invited to undertake an expedition for the Dutch East India Company, and he sailed from Amsterdam in the early spring of 1609 in a Dutch ship called the _Half-Moon_, with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, including once more his own son. Summer found the enthusiastic explorer off the coast of Newfoundland, where some cod-fishing refreshed the crews before they sailed on south, partly seeking an opening to the west, partly looking for the colony of Virginia, under Hudson's friend, Captain John Smith. In hot, misty weather they cruised along the coast. They passed what is now Massachusetts, "an Indian country of great hills--a very sweet land." On 7th August, Hudson was near the modern town of New York, so long known as New Amsterdam, but mist hid the low-lying hills and the _Half-Moon_ drifted on to James River; then, driven back by a heat hurricane, he made for the inlet on the old charts, which might lead yet east. It was 2nd September when he came to the great mouth of the river that now bears his name. He had been beating about all day in gales and fogs, when "the sun arose and we saw the land all like broken islands. From the land which we had first sight of, we came to a large lake of water, like drowned land, which made it to rise like islands. The mouth hath many shores and the sea breaketh on them. This is a very good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see. At three of the clock in the afternoon we came to three great rivers. We found a very good harbour and went in with our ship. Then we took our nets to fish and caught ten great mullets of a foot and a half long each, and a ray as great as four men could haul into the ship. The people of the country came aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming, and brought green tobacco--they go in deer skins, well-dressed, they desire clothes and are very civil--they have great store of maize, whereof they make good bread. The country is full of great and tall oaks." To this he adds that the women had red copper tobacco pipes, many of them being dressed in mantles of feathers or furs, but the natives proved treacherous. Sailing up the river, Hudson found it a mile broad, with high land on both sides. By the night of 19th September the little _Half-Moon_ had reached the spot where the river widens near the modern town of Albany. He had sailed for the first time the distance covered to-day by magnificent steamers which ply daily between Albany and New York city. Hudson now went ashore with an old chief of the country. "Two men were dispatched in quest of game," so records Hudson's manuscript, "who brought in a pair of pigeons. They likewise killed a fat dog and skinned it with great haste with shells. The land is the finest for cultivation that ever I in my life set foot upon." Hudson had not found a way to China, but he had found the great and important river that now bears his name. Yet he was to do greater things than these, and to lose his life in the doing. The following year, 1610, found him once more bound for the north, continuing the endless search for a north-west passage--this time for the English, and not for the Dutch. On board the little _Discovery_ of fifty-five tons, with his young son, Jack, still his faithful companion, with a treacherous old man as mate, who had accompanied him before, with a good-for-nothing young spendthrift taken at the last moment "because he wrote a good hand," and a mixed crew, Hudson crossed the wide Atlantic for the last time. He sailed by way of Iceland, where "fresh fish and dainty fowl, partridges, curlew, plover, teale, and goose" much refreshed the already discontented crews, and the hot baths of Iceland delighted them. The men wanted to return to the pleasant land discovered in the last expedition, but the mysteries of the frozen North still called the old explorer, and he steered for Greenland. He was soon battling with ice upon the southern end of "Desolation," whence he crossed to the snowy shores of Labrador, sailing into the great straits that bear his name to-day. For three months they sailed aimlessly about that "labyrinth without end" as it was called by Abacuk Prickett who wrote the account of this fourth and last voyage of Henry Hudson. But they could find no opening to the west, no way of escape. [Illustration: A SHIP OF HUDSON'S FLEET. From his _Voyages_, 1612.] Winter was coming on, "the nights were long and cold, and the earth was covered with snow." They were several hundred miles south of the straits, and no way had been found to the Pacific; they had followed the south shore "to the westernmost bay of all," James Bay, but lo! there was no South Sea. Hudson recognised the fact that he was land-bound and winter-bound in a desolate region, with a discontented crew, and that the discontent was amounting to mutiny. On 1st November they hauled up the ship and selected a wintering place. Ten days later they were frozen in, and snow was falling continuously every day. "We were victualled for six months, and of that which was good," runs the record. For the first three months they shot "partridges as white as milk," but these left with the advent of spring, and hunger seized on the handful of Englishmen wintering in this unknown land. "Then we went into the woods, hills, and valleys--and the moss and the frog were not spared." Not till the month of May did the ice begin to melt and the men could fish. The first day this was possible they caught "five hundred fish as big as good herrings and some trout," which revived their hopes and their health. Hudson made a last despairing effort to find a westward passage. But now the men rose in mutiny. "We would rather be hanged at home than starved abroad!" they cried miserably. So Hudson "fitted all things for his return, and first delivered all the bread out of the bread room (which came to a pound apiece for every man's share), and he wept when he gave it unto them." It was barely sufficient for fourteen days, and even with the fourscore small fish they had caught it was "a poor relief for so many hungry bellies." With a fair wind in the month of June, the little _Discovery_ was headed for home. A few days later she was stopped by ice. Mutiny now burst forth. The "master" and his men had lost confidence in each other. There were ruffians on board, rendered almost wild by hunger and privation. There is nothing more tragic in the history of exploration than the desertion of Henry Hudson and his boy in their newly discovered bay. Every detail of the conspiracy is given by Prickett. We know how the rumour spread, how the crew resolved to turn the "master" and the sick men adrift and to share the remaining provisions among themselves. And how in the early morning Hudson was seized and his arms bound behind him. "What does this mean?" he cried. "You will know soon enough when you are in the shallop," they replied. The boat was lowered and into it Hudson was put with his son, while the "poor, sick, and lame men were called upon to get them out of their cabins into the shallop." Then the mutineers lowered some powder and shot, some pikes, an iron pot, and some meal into her, and the little boat was soon adrift with her living freight of suffering, starving men--adrift in that icebound sea, far from home and friends and all human help. At the last moment the carpenter sprang into the drifting boat, resolved to die with the captain sooner than desert him. Then the _Discovery_ flew away with all sail up as from an enemy. And "the master" perished--how and when we know not. Fortunately the mutineers took home Hudson's journals and charts. Ships were sent out to search for the lost explorer, but the silence has never been broken since that summer's day three hundred years ago, when he was deserted in the waters of his own bay. CHAPTER XXXVIII BAFFIN FINDS HIS BAY Two years only after the tragedy of Henry Hudson, another Arctic explorer appears upon the scene. William Baffin was already an experienced seaman in the prime of life; he had made four voyages to the icy north, when he was called on by the new Company of Merchants of London--"discoverers of the North-West Passage"--formed in 1612, to prepare for another voyage of discovery. Distressed beyond measure at the desertion of Henry Hudson, the Muscovy Company had dispatched Sir Thomas Button with our old friend Abacuk Prickett to show him the way. Button had reached the western side of Hudson's Bay, and after wintering there returned fully convinced that a north-west passage existed in this direction. Baffin returned from an expedition to Greenland the same year. The fiords and islets of west Greenland, the ice-floes and glaciers of Spitzbergen, the tidal phenomena of Hudson's Strait, and the geographical secrets of the far-northern bay were all familiar to him. "He was, therefore, chosen as mate and associate" to Bylot, one of the men who had deserted Hudson, but who had sailed three times with him previously and knew well the western seas. So in "the good ship called the _Discovery_," of fifty-five tons, with a crew of fourteen men and two boys, William Baffin sailed for the northern seas. May found the expedition on the coast of Greenland, with a gale of wind and great islands of ice. However, Baffin crossed Davis Strait, and after a struggle with ice at the entrance to Hudson's Strait he sailed along the northern side till he reached a group of islands which he named Savage Islands. For here were Eskimos again--very shy and fearful of the white strangers. "Among their tents," relates Baffin, "all covered with seal skins, were running up and down about forty dogs, most of them muzzled, about the bigness of our mongrel mastiffs, being a brindled black colour, looking almost like wolves. These dogs they used instead of horses, or rather as the Lapps do their deer, to draw their sledges from place to place over the ice, their sledges being shod or lined with bones of great fishes to keep them from wearing out, and the dogs have furniture and collars very fitting." The explorers went on bravely till they were stopped by masses of ice. They thought they must be at the mouth of a large bay, and, seeing no prospect of a passage to the west, they turned back. When, two hundred years later, Parry sailed in Baffin's track he named this place Baffin Land "out of respect to the memory of that able and enterprising navigator." The _Discovery_ arrived in Plymouth Sound by September, _without the loss of one man_--a great achievement in these days of salt junk and scurvy. "And now it may be," adds Baffin, "that some expect I should give my opinion concerning the Passage. To these my answer must be that doubtless there _is_ a Passage. But within this Strait, which is called Hudson Strait, I am doubtful, supposing to the contrary." Baffin further suggested that if there was a Passage it must now be sought by Davis Strait. Accordingly another expedition was fitted out and Baffin had his instructions: "For your course, you must make all possible haste to Cape Desolation; and from hence you, William Baffin, as pilot, keep along the coast of Greenland and up Davis Strait, until you come toward the height of 80 degrees, if the land will give you leave. Then shape your course west and southerly, so far as you shall think it convenient, till you come to the latitude of 60 degrees, then direct your course to fall in with the land of _Yedzo_, leaving your further sailing southward to your own discretion: although our desires be if your voyage prove so prosperous that you may have the year before you that you go far south as that you may touch the north part of Japan from whence we would have you bring home one of the men of the country and so, God blessing you, with all expedition to make your return home again." The _Discovery_ had proved a good little ship for exploration, so she was again selected by Baffin for this new attempt in the far north. Upon 26th March 1616 she sailed from Gravesend, arriving off the coast of Greenland in the neighbourhood of Gilbert Sound about the middle of May. Working against terrible winds, they plied to the northward, the old ship making but slow progress, till at last they sighted "Sanderson his Hope," the farthest point of Master Davis. Once more English voices broke the silence of thirty years. The people who appeared on the shore were wretchedly poor. They lived on seals' flesh, which they ate raw, and clothed themselves in the skins. Still northwards they sailed, cruising along the western coast. Though the ice was beginning to disappear the weather kept bitterly cold, and on Midsummer Day the sails and ropes were frozen too hard to be handled. Stormy weather now forced them into a sound which they named Whale Sound from the number of whales they discovered here. It was declared by Baffin to be the "greatest and largest bay in these parts." But beyond this they could not go; so they sailed across the end of what we now know as Baffin's Bay and explored the opposite coast of America, naming one of the greater openings Lancaster Sound, after Sir James Lancaster of East India Company fame. "Here," says Baffin pitifully, "our hope of Passage began to grow less every day." It was the old story of ice, advancing season, and hasty conclusions. [Illustration: BAFFIN'S MAP OF HIS VOYAGES TO THE NORTH. From the original MS., drawn by Baffin, in the British Museum.] "There is no hope of Passage to the north of Davis' Straits," the explorer further asserts; but he asserts wrongly, for Lancaster Sound was to prove an open channel to the West. So he returned home. He had not found the Passage, but he had discovered the great northern sea that now bears his name. The size of it was for long plunged in obscurity, and the wildest ideas centred round the extent of this northern sea. A map of 1706 gives it an indefinite amount of space, adding vaguely: "Some will have Baffin's Bay to run as far as this faint Shadow," while a map of 1818 marks the bay, but adds that "it is not now believed." For the next two hundred years the icebound regions of the north were practically left free from invasion, silent, inhospitable, unapproachable. But while these Arctic explorers were busy battling with the northern seas to find a passage which should lead them to the wealth of the East, others were exploring the New World and endeavouring by land and river to attain the same end. CHAPTER XXXIX SIR WALTER RALEIGH SEARCHES FOR EL DORADO It is pleasant to turn from the icy regions of North America to the sunny South, and to follow the fortunes of that fine Elizabethan gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh, to "the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana and the Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spaniards call El Dorado)." Ever since the conquest of Peru, sixty years before, there had floated about rumours of a great kingdom abounding in gold. The King of this Golden Land was sprinkled daily with gold dust, till he shone as the sun, while Manoa was full of golden houses and golden temples with golden furniture. The kingdom was wealthier than Peru; it was richer than Mexico. Expedition after expedition had left Spain in search of this El Dorado, but the region was still plunged in romantic mists. Raleigh had just failed to establish an English colony in Virginia. To gain a rich kingdom for his Queen, to extend her power and enrich her treasury was now his greatest object in life. What about El Dorado? "Oh, unwearied feet, travelling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado." February 1595 found him ready and leaving England with five ships and, after a good passage of forty-six days, landing on the island of Trinidad, and thence making his way to the mouth of the Orinoco. Here Raleigh soon found that it was impossible to enter the Orinoco with his English ships, but, nothing daunted, he took a hundred men and provisions for a month in three little open boats, and started forward to navigate this most difficult labyrinth of channels, out of which they were guided by an old Indian pilot named Ferdinando. They had much to observe. The natives, living along the river-banks, dwelt in houses all the summer, but in the winter months they constructed small huts to which they ascended by means of ladders. These folk were cannibals, but cannibals of a refined sort, who "beat the bones of their lords into powder" and mixed the powder with their drinks. The stream was very strong and rapid, and the men rowed against it in great discomfort, "the weather being extreme hot, the river bordered with very high trees that kept away the air, and the current against us every day stronger than the other," until they became, as Raleigh tells us, "wearied and scorched and doubtful." The heat increased as they advanced, and the crews grew weaker as the river "ran more violently against them." But Raleigh refused to return yet, lest "the world would laugh us to scorn." Fortunately delicious fruits hung over the banks of the Orinoco, and, having no bread and for water only the thick and troubled water of the river, they refreshed themselves gladly. So they rowed on up the great river, through province after province of the Indians, but no El Dorado appeared. Suddenly the scene changed as if by magic, the high banks giving way to low-lying plains; green grass grew close to the water's edge, and deer came down to feed. "I never saw a more beautiful country," says Raleigh, "nor more lively prospects, hills raised here and there over the valleys, the river winding into different branches, plains without bush or stubble, all fair green grass, deer crossing our path, the birds towards evening singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes, herons of white, crimson, and carnation perching on the riverside, the air fresh with a gentle wind, and every stone we stooped to pick up promised either gold or silver." His account of the great cataract at the junction of the tributary Caroni is very graphic. They had already heard the roar, so they ran to the tops of some neighbouring hills, discovering the wonderful "breach of waters" which ran down Caroli, and from that "mountain see the river how it ran in three parts, about twenty miles off, and there appeared some ten or twelve overfalls in sight, every one as high over the other as a church tower, which fell with that fury that the rebound of waters made it seem as if it had been all covered over with a great shower of rain; and in some places we took it at the first for a smoke that had risen over some great town." [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH.] The country was the province of Guiana, but it was not El Dorado, the object of their quest. And though it was very beautiful, it was inhabited by cannibals; moreover, winter was advancing, and they were already some four hundred miles from their ships in little open boats and in the heart of a strange country. Suddenly, too, the river began to rise, to "rage and overflow very fearfully," rain came down in torrents accompanied by great gusts of wind, and the crews with no change of clothes got wet through, sometimes ten times a day. "Whosoever had seen the fury of that river after it began to rise would perchance have turned his back somewhat sooner than we did if all the mountains had been gold or precious stones," remarked Raleigh, who indeed was no coward. So they turned the boats for home, and at a tremendous rate they spun down the stream, sometimes doing as much as one hundred miles a day, till after sundry adventures they safely reached their ships at anchor off Trinidad. Raleigh had not reached the golden city of Manoa, but he gave a very glowing account of this country to his Queen. "Guiana," he tells her, "is a country that hath yet her maidenhood. The face of the earth hath not been torn, the graves have not been opened for gold. It hath never been entered by any army of strength, and never conquered by any Christian prince. Men shall find here more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with gold, than either Cortes found in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru, and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those of the Spanish nation." But Raleigh had brought back no gold, and his schemes for a conquest of Guiana were received coldly by the Queen. She could not share his enthusiasm for the land-- "Where Orinoco, in his pride, Rolls to the main no tribute tide, But 'gainst broad Ocean wages far A rival sea of roaring war; While in ten thousand eddies driven The billows fling their foam to heaven; And the pale pilot seeks in vain Where rolls the river, where the main." But, besides the Orinoco in South America, there was the St. Lawrence in North America, still very imperfectly known. Since Jacques Cartier had penetrated the hitherto undisturbed regions lying about the "river of Canada," little had been explored farther west, till Samuel Champlain, one of the most remarkable men of his day, comes upon the scene, and was still discovering land to the west when Raleigh was making his second expedition to Guiana in the year 1617. [Illustration: RALEIGH'S MAP OF GUINEA, EL DORADO, AND THE ORINOCO COAST. From the original map, drawn by Raleigh, in the British Museum. This map, like so many of the older charts, is drawn upside down, the South being at the top and the East on the left, while the Panama Isthmus is at the bottom on the right. The river above the "Lake of Manoa" is the Amazon.] CHAPTER XL CHAMPLAIN DISCOVERS LAKE ONTARIO To discover a passage westward was still the main object of those who made their way up the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. This, too, was the object of Samuel Champlain, known as "the Father of New France," when he arrived with orders from France to establish an industrial colony "which should hold for that country the gateway of the Golden East." He had already ascended the river Saguenay, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, till stopped by rapids and rocks, and the natives had told him of a great salt sea to the north, which was Hudson's Bay, discovered some seven years later, in 1610. He now made his way to a spot called by the natives Quebec, a word meaning the strait or narrows, this being the narrowest place in the whole magnificent waterway. He had long been searching for a suitable site for a settlement, but "I could find none more convenient," he says, "or better situated than the point of Quebec, so called by the savages, which was covered with nut trees." Accordingly here, close to the present Champlain market, arose the nucleus of the city of Quebec--the great warehouse of New France. [Illustration: THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT QUEBEC. From Champlain's _Voyages_, 1613. The bigger house in front is Champlain's own residence.] Having passed the winter of 1608 at Quebec, the passion of exploration still on him, in a little two-masted boat piloted by Indians, he went up the St. Lawrence, towards Cartier's Mont Royal. From out the thick forest land that lined its banks, Indians discovered the steel-clad strangers and gazed at them from the river-banks in speechless wonder. The river soon became alive with Indian canoes, but the Frenchmen made their way to the mouth of the Richelieu River, where they encamped for a couple of days' hunting and fishing. Then Champlain sailed on, his little two-masted boat outstripping the native canoes, till the unwelcome sound of rapids fell on the silent air, and through the dark foliage of the islet of St. John he could see "the gleam of snowy foam and the flash of hurrying waters." The Indians had assured him that his boat could pass unobstructed through the whole journey. "It afflicted me and troubled me exceedingly," he tells us, "to be obliged to return without having seen so great a lake, full of fair islands and bordered with the fine countries which they had described to me." He could not bear to give up the exploration into the heart of a land unvisited by white men. So, sending back his party, accompanied only by two Frenchmen as brave as himself, he stepped into an Indian canoe to be carried round the rapids and so continue his perilous journey--perilous, indeed, for bands of hostile natives lurked in the primeval forests that clothed the river-banks in dense masses. As they advanced the river widened out; the Indian canoes carried them safely over the broad stream shimmering in the summer sun till they came to a great silent lake over one hundred miles long, hitherto unexplored. The beauty of the new country is described with enthusiasm by the delighted explorer, but they were now in the Mohawk country and progress was fraught with danger. They travelled only by night and lay hidden by day in the depth of the forest, till they had reached the far end of the lake, named Lake Champlain after its discoverer. They were near the rocky promontory where Fort Ticonderoga was afterwards built, when they met a party of Iroquois; war-cries pealed across the waters of the lake, and by daybreak battle could no longer be averted. Champlain and his two companions, in doublet and hose, buckled on their breastplates, cuisses of steel and plumed helmets, and with sword and arquebus advanced. Their firearms won the day, but all hope of further advance was at an end, and Champlain returned to Quebec with his great story of new lands to the south. It was not till the spring of 1611 that he was again free to start on another exploring expedition into the heart of Canada. [Illustration: THE DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS BY CHAMPLAIN AND HIS PARTY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN. From a drawing in Champlain's _Voyages_, 1613.] His journey to the rapids of the St. Louis has been well described: "Like specks on the broad bosom of the waters, two pigmy vessels held their course up the lonely St. Lawrence. They passed abandoned Tadoussac, the channel of Orleans, the tenantless rock of Quebec, the wide Lake of St. Peter with its crowded archipelago, and the forest plain of Montreal. All was solitude. Hochelaga had vanished, and of the savage population that Cartier had found sixty-eight years before, no trace remained." In a skiff with a few Indians, Champlain tried to pass the rapids of St. Louis; but oars, paddles, and poles alike proved vain against the foaming surges, and he was forced to return, but not till the Indians had drawn for him rude plans of the river above, with its chain of rapids and its lakes and its cataracts. They were quite impassable, said the natives, though, indeed, to these white strangers everything seemed possible. "These white men must have fallen from the clouds," they said. "How else could they have reached us through the woods and rapids which even we find it hard to pass?" Champlain wanted to get to the upper waters of the Ottawa River, to the land of the cannibal Nipissings, who dwelt on the lake that bears their name; but they were enemies, and the natives refused to advance into their country. Two years later he accomplished his desire, and found himself at last in the land of the Nipissings. He crossed their lake and steered his canoes down the French river. Days passed and no signs of human life appeared amid the rocky desolation, till suddenly three hundred savages, tattooed, painted, and armed, rushed out on them. Fortunately they were friendly, and it was from them that Champlain learned the good news that the great freshwater lake of the Hurons was close at hand. What if the Friar Le Caron, one of Champlain's party, had preceded him by a few days, Champlain was the first white man to give an account of it, if not the first to sail on its beautiful waters. For over one hundred miles he made his way along its eastern shores, until he reached a broad opening with fields of maize and bright patches of sunflower, from the seeds of which the Indians made their hair-oil. After staying a few days at a little Huron village where he was feasted by friendly natives, Champlain pushed on by Indian trails, passing village after village till he reached the narrow end of Lake Simcoe. A "shrill clamour of rejoicing and the screaming flight of terrified children" hailed his approach. The little fleet of canoes pursued their course along the lake and then down the chain of lakes leading to the river Trent. The inhabited country of the Hurons had now given place to a desolate region with no sign of human life, till from the mouth of the Trent, "like a flock of venturous wild fowl," they found themselves floating on the waters of Lake Ontario, across which they made their way safely. It was a great day in the life of Champlain when he found himself in the very heart of a hostile land, having discovered the chain of inland lakes of which he had heard so much. But they were now in the land of the Iroquois--deadly foes of the Hurons. There was nothing for it but to fight, and a great battle now took place between the rival tribes, every warrior yelling at the top of his voice. Champlain himself was wounded in the fray, and all further exploration had to be abandoned. He was packed up in a basket and carried away on the back of a Huron warrior. "Bundled in a heap," wrote the explorer, "doubled and strapped together after such a fashion that one could move no more than an infant in swaddling clothes, I never was in such torment in my life, for the pain of the wound was nothing to that of being bound and pinioned on the back of one of our savages. As soon as I could bear my weight, I got out of this prison." How Champlain wintered with the Hurons, who would not allow him to return to Quebec, how he got lost while hunting in one of the great forests in his eagerness to shoot a strange-looking bird, how the lakes and streams froze, and how his courage and endurance were sorely tried over the toilsome marches to Lake Simcoe, but how finally he reached Montreal by way of Nipissing and the Ottawa River, must be read elsewhere. Champlain's work as an explorer was done. Truly has he been called the Father of New France. He had founded Quebec and Montreal; he had explored Canada as no man has ever done before or since. Faithful to the passion of his life, he died in 1635 at Quebec--the city he had founded and loved. CHAPTER XLI EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AUSTRALIA While the French and English were feverishly seeking a way to the East, either by the North Pole or by way of America, the Dutch were busy discovering a new land in the Southern Seas. And as we have seen America emerging from the mist of ages in the sixteenth century, so now in the seventeenth we have the great Island Continent of Australia mysteriously appearing bit by bit out of the yet little-known Sea of the South. There is little doubt that both Portuguese and Spanish had touched on the western coast early in the sixteenth century, but gave no information about it beyond sketching certain rough and undefined patches of land and calling it Terra Australis in their early maps; no one seems to have thought this mysterious land of much importance. The maritime nations of that period carefully concealed their knowledge from one another. The proud Spaniard hated his Portuguese neighbour as a formidable rival in the race for wealth and fame, and the Dutchman, who now comes on the scene, was regarded by both as a natural enemy by land or sea. Magellan in 1520 discovered that the Terra Australis was not joined to South America, as the old maps had laid down; and we find Frobisher remarking in 1578 that "Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firm land, lying under and about the South Pole, not thoroughly discovered. It is known at the south side of the Strait of Magellan and is called Terra del Fuego. It is thought this south land about the pole Antarctic is far bigger than the north land about the pole Arctic; but whether it be so or not, we have no certain knowledge, for we have no particular description thereof, as we have of the land about the North Pole." [Illustration: AN EARLY MAP OF "TERRA AUSTRALIS," CALLED "JAVA LA GRANDE" IN ITS SUPPOSED EASTERN PART. From the "Dauphin" map of 1546. There was then supposed to be a great mainland of Java, separated from the island of "Java Minor" by a narrow strait. See the copy of the whole of this map in colour, where it will be seen that the "Terra Australis" was supposed to stretch from east to west.] And even one hundred years later the mystery was not cleared up. "This land about the straits is not perfectly discovered whether it be continent or islands. Some take it for continent, esteeming that Terra Australis or the Southern Continent may for the largeness thereof take a first place in the division of the whole world." The Spaniards were still masters of the sea, when one Lieutenant Torres first sailed through the strait dividing Australia from New Guinea, already discovered in 1527. As second in command, he had sailed from America under a Spaniard, De Quiros, in 1605, and in the Pacific they had come across several island groups. Among others they sighted the island group now known as the New Hebrides. Quiros supposed that this was the continent for which he was searching, and gave it the name of "Terra Australis del Espirito Santo." And then a curious thing happened. "At one hour past midnight," relates Torres in his account of the voyage, "the _Capitana_ (Quiros' ship) departed without any notice given us and without making any signal." After waiting for many days, Torres at last set sail, and, having discovered that the supposed land was only an island, he made his way along the dangerous coast of New Guinea to Manila, thus passing through the straits that were afterwards named after him, and unconsciously passing almost within sight of the very continent for which he was searching. This was the end of Spanish enterprise for the present. The rivals for sea-power in the seventeenth century were England and Holland. Both had recently started East India Companies, both were keen to take a large part in East Indian trade and to command the sea. For a time the Dutch had it all their own way; they devoted themselves to founding settlements in the East Indies, ever hoping to discover new islands in the South Seas as possible trade centres. Scientific discovery held little interest for them. As early as 1606 a Dutch ship--the little _Sun_--had been dispatched from the Moluccas to discover more about the land called by the Spaniards New Guinea, because of its resemblance to the West African coast of Guinea. But the crews were greeted with a shower of arrows as they attempted a landing, and with nine of their party killed, they returned disheartened. A more ambitious expedition was fitted out in 1617 by private adventurers, and two ships--the _Unity_ and the _Horn_--sailed from the Texel under the command of a rich Amsterdam merchant named Isaac Le Maire and a clever navigator, Cornelius Schouten of Horn. Having been provided with an English gunner and carpenter, the ships were steered boldly across the Atlantic. Hitherto the object of the expedition had been kept a secret, but on crossing the line the crews were informed that they were bound for the Terra Australis del Espirito Santo of Quiros. The men had never heard of the country before, and we are told they wrote the name in their caps in order to remember it. By midwinter they had reached the eastern entrance of the Straits of Magellan, through which many a ship had passed since the days of Magellan, some hundred years before this. Unfortunately, while undergoing some necessary repairs here, the little _Horn_ caught fire and was burnt out, the crews all having to crowd on to the _Unity_. Instead of going through the strait they sailed south and discovered Staaten Land, which they thought might be a part of the southern continent for which they were seeking. We now know it to be an island, whose heights are covered with perpetual snow. It was named by Schouten after the Staaten or States-General of Holland. Passing through the strait which divided the newly discovered land from the Terra del Fuego (called later the Straits of Le Maire after its discoverer), the Dutchmen found a great sea full of whales and monsters innumerable. Sea-mews larger than swans, with wings stretching six feet across, fled screaming round the ship. The wind was against them, but after endless tacking they reached the southern extremity of land, which Schouten named after his native town and the little burnt ship--_Horn_--and as Cape Horn it is known to-day. But the explorers never reached the Terra Australis. Their little ship could do no more, and they sailed to Java to repair. Many a name on the Australian map to-day testifies to Dutch enterprise about this time. In 1616, Captain Dirck Hartog of Amsterdam discovered the island that bears his name off the coast of Western Australia. A few years later the captain of a Dutch ship called the _Lewin_ or _Lioness_ touched the south-west extremity of the continent, calling that point Cape Lewin. Again a few years and we find Captain Nuyts giving his name to a part of the southern coast, though the discovery seems to have been accidental. In 1628, Carpentaria received its name from Carpenter, a governor of the East India Company. Now, one day a ship from Carpenter's Land returned laden with gold and spice; and though certain men had their suspicions that these riches had been fished out of some large ship wrecked upon the inhospitable coast, yet a little fleet of eleven ships was at once dispatched to reconnoitre further. Captain Pelsart commanded the _Batavia_, which in a great storm was separated from the other ships and driven alone on to the shoals marked as the Abrolhos (a Portuguese word meaning "Open your eyes," implying a sharp lookout for dangerous reefs) on the west coast of Australia. It was night when the ship struck, and Captain Pelsart was sick in bed. He ran hastily on to the deck. The moon shone bright. The sails were up. The sea appeared to be covered with white foam. Captain Pelsart charged the master with the loss of the ship, and asked him "in what part of the world he thought they were." "God only knows that," replied the master, adding that the ship was fast on a bank hitherto undiscovered. Suddenly a dreadful storm of wind and rain arose, and, being surrounded with rocks and shoals, the ship was constantly striking. "The women, children, and sick people were out of their wits with fear," so they decided to land these on an island for "their cries and noise served only to disturb them." The landing was extremely difficult owing to the rocky coast, where the waves were dashing high. When the weather had moderated a bit, Captain Pelsart took the ship and went in search of water, thereby exploring a good deal of coast, which, he remarked, "resembled the country near Dover." But his exploration amounted to little, and the account of his adventures is mostly taken up with an account of the disasters that befell the miserable party left on the rock-bound islands of Abrolhos--conspiracies, mutinies, and plots. His was only one of many adventures on this unknown and inhospitable coast, which about this time, 1644, began to take the name of New Holland. [Illustration: THE WRECK OF CAPTAIN PELSART'S SHIP THE _BATAVIA_ ON THE COAST OF NEW HOLLAND, 1644. From the Dutch account of Pelsart's _Voyages_, 1647.] CHAPTER XLII TASMAN FINDS TASMANIA At this time Anthony Van Diemen was governor at Batavia, and one of his most trusted commanders was Abel Tasman. In 1642, Tasman was given command of two ships "for making discoveries of the Unknown South Land," and, hoisting his flag on board the _Sea-Hen_, he sailed south from Batavia without sighting the coast of Australia. Despite foggy weather, "hard gales, and a rolling sea," he made his way steadily south. It was three months before land was sighted, and high mountains were seen to the southeast. The ship stood in to shore. "As the land has not been known before to any European, we called it Anthony Van Diemen's Land in honour of our Governor-General, who sent us out to make discoveries. I anchored in a bay and heard the sound of people upon the shore, but I saw nobody. I perceived in the sand the marks of wild beasts' feet, resembling those of a tiger." Setting up a post with the Dutch East India Company's mark, and leaving the Dutch flag flying, Tasman left Van Diemen's Land, which was not to be visited again for over one hundred years, when it was called after its first discoverer. He had no idea that he was on an island. Tasman now sailed east, and after about a week at sea he discovered a high mountainous country, which he named "Staaten Land." "We found here abundance of inhabitants: they had very hoarse voices and were very large-made people; they were of colour between brown and yellow, their hair long and thick, combed up and fixed on the top of their heads with a quill in the very same manner that Japanese fastened their hair behind their heads." Tasman anchored on the north coast of the south island of New Zealand, but canoes of warlike Maoris surrounded the ships, a conflict took place in which several Dutch seamen were killed, the weather grew stormy, and Tasman sailed away from the bay he named Murderer's Bay--rediscovered by Captain Cook about a hundred years later. "This is the second country discovered by us," says 'Tasman. "We named it Staaten Land in honour of the States-General. It is possible that it may join the other Staaten Land (of Schouten and Le Maire to the south of Terra del Fuego), but it is uncertain; it is a very fine country, and we hope it is part of the unknown south continent." Is it necessary to add that this Staaten Land was really New Zealand, and the bay where the ships anchored is now known as Tasman Bay? When the news of Tasman's discoveries was noised abroad, all the geographers, explorers, and discoverers at once jumped to the conclusion that this was the same land on whose coast Pelsart had been wrecked. "It is most evident," they said, "that New Guinea, Carpentaria, New Holland, Van Diemen's Land make all one continent, from which New Zealand seems to be separated by a strait, and perhaps is part of another continent answering to Africa as this plainly does to America, making indeed a very large country." After a ten months' cruise Tasman returned to Batavia. He had found Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand, without sighting Australia. A second expedition was now fitted out. The instructions for the commodore, Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, make interesting reading. The orders are detailed and clear. He will start the end of January 1644, and "we shall expect you in July following attended with good success." "Of all the lands, countries, islands, capes, inlets, bays, rivers, shoals, reefs, sands, cliffs, and rocks which you pass in this discovery you are to make accurate maps--be particularly careful about longitude and latitude. But be circumspect and prudent in landing with small craft, because at several times New Guinea has been found to be inhabited by cruel, wild savages. When you converse with any of these savages behave well and friendly to them, and try by all means to engage their affection to you. You are to show the samples of the goods which you carry along with you, and inquire what materials and goods they possess. To prevent any other European nation from reaping the fruits of our labour in these discoveries, you are everywhere to take possession in the name of the Dutch East India Company, to put up some sign, erect a stone or post, and carve on them the arms of the Netherlands. The yachts are manned with one hundred and eleven persons, and for eight months plentifully victualled. Manage everything well and orderly, take notice you see the ordinary portion of two meat and two pork days, and a quarter of vinegar and a half-quarter of sweet oil per week." [Illustration: VAN DIEMAN'S LAND AND TWO OF TASMAN'S SHIPS. From the map drawn by Tasman in his "Journal."] He was to coast along New Guinea to the farthest-known spot, and to follow the coast _despite adverse winds_, in order that the Dutch might be sure "whether this land is not divided from the great known South Continent or not." What he accomplished on this voyage is best seen in "The complete map of the Southern Continent surveyed by Captain Abel Tasman," which was inlaid on the floor of the large hall in the Stadthouse at Amsterdam. The Great South Land was henceforth known as New Holland. CHAPTER XLIII DAMPIER DISCOVERS HIS STRAIT It was not long before the great stretch of coast-line carefully charted by Tasman became known to the English, and while the Dutch were yet busy exploring farther, Dampier--the first Englishman to visit the country--had already set foot on its shores. "We lie entirely at the mercy of the Dutch East India Company's geography for the outline of this part of the coast of New Holland: for it does not appear that the ships of any other nation have ever approached it," says an old history of the period. Some such information as this became known in South America, in which country the English had long been harassing the Spaniards. It reached the ears of one William Dampier, a Somersetshire man, who had lived a life of romance and adventure with the buccaneers, pillaging and plundering foreign ships in these remote regions of the earth. He had run across the Southern Pacific carrying his life in his hand. He had marched across the isthmus of Panama--one hundred and ten miles in twenty-three days--through deep and swiftly flowing rivers, dense growths of tropical vegetation full of snakes, his only food being the flesh of monkeys. Such was the man who now took part in a privateering cruise under Captain Swan, bound for the East Indies. On 1st March 1686, Swan and Dampier sailed away from the coast of Mexico on the voyage that led to Dampier's circumnavigation of the globe. For fifty days they sailed without sighting land, and when at last they found themselves off the island of Guam, they had only three days' food left, and the crews were busy plotting to kill Captain Swan and eat him, the other commanders sharing the same fate in turn. "Ah, Dampier," said Captain Swan, when he and all the men had refreshed themselves with food, "you would have made but a poor meal," for Dampier was as lean as the Captain was "fat and fleshy." Soon, however, fresh trouble arose among the men. Captain Swan lost his life, and Dampier on board the little _Cygnet_ sailed hurriedly for the Spice Islands. [Illustration: DAMPIER'S SHIP THE _CYGNET_. From a drawing in the Dutch edition of his _Voyage Round the World_, 1698.] He was now on the Australian parallels, "in the shadow of a world lying dark upon the face of the ocean." It was January 1688 when Dampier sighted the coast of New Holland and anchored in a bay, which they named Cygnet Bay after their ship, somewhere off the northern coast of eastern Australia. Here, while the ship was undergoing repairs, Dampier makes his observations. "New Holland," he tells us, "is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a main continent, but I am certain that it joins neither to Africa, Asia, or America." "The inhabitants of this country," he tells us, "are the miserablest people in the world. They have no houses, but lie in the open air without any covering, the earth being their bed and the heaven their canopy. Their food is a small sort of fish, which they catch at low tide, while the old people that are not able to stir abroad by reason of their age and the tender infants wait their return, and what Providence has bestowed on them they presently broil on the coals and eat it in common. They are tall and thin, and of a very unpleasing aspect; their hair is black, short, and curled, like that of the negroes of Guinea." This Englishman's first description of the Australian natives cannot fail to be interesting. "After we had been here a little while, we clothed some of the men, designing to have some service from them for it; for we found some wells of water here, and intended to carry two or three barrels of it aboard. But it being somewhat troublesome to carry to the canoes, we thought to have made these men to have carry'd it for us, and therefore we gave them some clothes; to one an old pair of breeches, to another a ragged shirt, to a third a jacket that was scarce worth owning. We put them on, thinking that this finery would have brought them to work heartily for us; and our water being filled in small, long barrels, about six gallons in each, we brought these our new servants to the wells and put a barrel on each of their shoulders. But they stood like statues, without motion, but grinn'd like so many monkeys staring one upon another. So we were forced to carry the water ourselves." They had soon had enough of the new country, weighed anchor, and steered away to the north. Dampier returned to England even a poorer man than he had left it twelve years before. After countless adventures and hairbreadth escapes, after having sailed entirely round the world, he brought back with him nothing but one unhappy black man, "Prince Jeoly," whom he had bought for sixty dollars. He had hoped to recoup himself by showing the poor native with his rings and bracelets and painted skin, but he was in such need of money on landing that he gladly sold the poor black man on his arrival in the Thames. But Dampier had made himself a name as a successful traveller, and in 1699 he was appointed by the King, William III., to command the _Roebuck_, two hundred and ninety tons, with a crew of fifty men and provisions for twenty months. Leaving England in the middle of January 1699, he sighted the west coast of New Holland toward the end of July, and anchored in a bay they called Sharks Bay, not far from the rocks where the _Batavia_ was wrecked with Captain Pelsart in 1629. He gives us a graphic picture of this place, with its sweet-scented trees, its shrubs gay as the rainbow with blossoms and berries, its many-coloured vegetation, its fragrant air and delicious soil. The men caught sharks and devoured them with relish, which speaks of scarce provisions. Inside one of the sharks (eleven feet long) they found a hippopotamus. "The flesh of it was divided among my men," says the Captain, "and they took care that no waste should be made of it, but thought it, as things stood, good entertainment." As it had been with Pelsart, so now with Dampier, fresh water was the difficulty, and they sailed north-east in search of it. They fell in with a group of small rocky islands still known as Dampier's Archipelago, one island of which they named Rosemary Island, because "there grow here two or three sorts of shrubs, one just like rosemary." Once again he comes across natives--"very much the same blinking creatures, also abundance of the same kind of flesh-flies teasing them, with the same black skins and hair frizzled." Indeed, he writes as though the whole country of New Holland was a savage and worthless land inhabited by dreadful monsters. "If it were not," he writes, "for that sort of pleasure which results from the discovery even of the barrenest spot upon the globe, this coast of New Holland would not have charmed me much." His first sight of the kangaroo--now the emblem of Australia--is interesting. He describes it as "a sort of raccoon, different from that of the West Indies, chiefly as to the legs, for these have very short fore-legs, but go jumping upon them as the others do, and like them are very good meat." This must have been the small kangaroo, for the large kind was not found till later by Captain Cook in New South Wales. But Dampier and his mates could not find fresh water, and soon wearied of the coast of New Holland; an outbreak of scurvy, too, decided them to sail away in search of fresh foods. Dampier had spent five weeks cruising off the coast; he had sailed along some nine hundred miles of the Australian shore without making any startling discoveries. A few months later the _Roebuck_ stood off the coast of New Guinea, "a high and mountainous country, green and beautiful with tropical vegetation, and dark with forests and groves of tall and stately trees." Innumerable dusky-faced natives peeped at the ship from behind the rocks, but they were not friendly, and this they showed by climbing the cocoanut trees and throwing down cocoanuts at the English, with passionate signs to them to depart. But with plenty of fresh water, this was unlikely, and the crews rowed ashore, killed and salted a good load of wild hogs, while the savages still peeped at them from afar. Thus then they sailed on, thinking they were still coasting New Guinea. So doing, they arrived at the straits which still bear the name of the explorer, and discovered a little island which he called New Britain. He had now been over fifteen months at sea and the _Roebuck_ was only provisioned for twenty months, so Dampier, who never had the true spirit of the explorer in him, left his discoveries and turned homewards. The ship was rotten, and it took three months to repair her at Batavia before proceeding farther. With pumps going night and day, they made their way to the Cape of Good Hope; but off the island of Ascension the _Roebuck_ went down, carrying with her many of Dampier's books and papers. But though many of the papers were lost, the "Learned and Faithful Dampier" as he is called, the "Prince of Voyagers," has left us accounts of his adventures unequalled in those strenuous ocean-going days for their picturesque and graphic details. [Illustration: DAMPIER'S STRAITS AND THE ISLAND OF NEW BRITAIN. From a map in Dampier's _Voyages_, 1697.] CHAPTER XLIV BEHRING FINDS HIS STRAIT In the great work of Arctic exploration during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is to England and Russia that we owe our knowledge at the present day. It is well known how Peter the Great of Russia journeyed to Amsterdam to learn shipbuilding under the Dutch, and to England to learn the same art under the English, and how the Russian fleet grew in his reign. Among the Danish shipbuilders at Petersburg was one Vitus Behring, already a bold and able commander on the high seas. The life of the great Russian Czar was drawing to its close--he was already within a few weeks of the end--when he planned an expedition under this same Vitus Behring, for which he wrote the instructions with his own hands. "(1) At Kamtchatka two decked boats are to be built. (2) With these you are to sail northward along the coast and, as the end of the coast is not known, this land is undoubtedly America. (3) For this reason you are to inquire where the American coast begins, and go to some European colony and, when European ships are seen, you are to ask what the coast is called, note it down, make a landing, and after having charted the coast return." Were Asia and America joined together, or was there a strait between the two? The question was yet undecided in 1725. Indeed, the east coast of Asia was only known as far as the island of Yezo, while the Pacific coast of America had been explored no farther than New Albion. Peter the Great died on 28th January 1725. A week later Behring started for Kamtchatka. Right across snow-covered Russia to the boundary of Siberia he led his expedition. March found him at Tobolsk. With rafts and boats they then made their way by the Siberian rivers till they reached Yakutsk, where they spent their first winter. Not till the middle Of June 1726 did Behring reach the capital of East Siberia. The rest of the journey was through utterly unknown land. It was some six hundred and eighty-five miles eastwards to Okhotsk through a rough and mountainous country, cut up by deep and bridgeless streams; the path lay over dangerous swamps and through dense forest. The party now divided. Behring, with two hundred horses, travelled triumphantly, if painfully, to Okhotsk in forty-five days. The town consisted of eleven huts containing Russian families who lived by fishing. Snow lay deep on the frozen ground, and the horses died one by one for lack of food, but the undaunted explorer had soon got huts ready for the winter, which was to be spent in felling trees and pushing forward the building of his ship, the _Fortuna_, for the coming voyage of discovery. Behring himself had made a successful journey to the coast, but some of the party encountered terrible hardships, and it was midsummer 1727 before they arrived, while others were overtaken by winter in the very heart of Siberia and had to make their way for the last three hundred miles on foot through snow in places six feet deep. Their food was finished, famine became a companion to cold, and they were obliged to gnaw their shoes and straps and leathern bags. Indeed, they must have perished had they not stumbled on Behring's route, where they found his dead horses. But at last all was ready and the little ship _Fortuna_ was sailing bravely across the Sea of Okhotsk some six hundred and fifty miles to the coast of Kamtchatka. This she did in sixteen days. The country of Kamtchatka had now to be crossed, and with boats and sledges this took the whole winter. It was a laborious undertaking following the course of the Kamtchatka River; the expedition had to camp in the snow, and few natives were forthcoming for the transport of heavy goods. It was not till March 1728 that Behring reached his goal, Ostrog, a village near the sea, inhabited by a handful of Cossacks. From this point, on the bleak shores of the Arctic sea, the exploring party were ordered to start. It had taken over three years to reach this starting-point, and even now a seemingly hopeless task lay before them. After hard months of shipbuilding, the stout little _Gabriel_ was launched, her timber had been hauled to Ostrog by dogs, while the rigging, cable, and anchors had been dragged nearly two thousand miles through one of the most desolate regions of the earth. As to the food on which the explorers lived: "Fish oil was their butter and dried fish their beef and pork. Salt they were obliged to get from the sea." Thus supplied with a year's provisions, Behring started on his voyage of discovery along an unknown coast and over an unknown sea. On 13th July 1728 the sails of the _Gabriel_ were triumphantly hoisted, and Behring, with a crew of forty-four, started on the great voyage. His course lay close along the coast northwards. The sea was alive with whales, seals, sea-lions, and dolphins as the little party made their way north, past the mouth of the Anadir River. The little _Gabriel_ was now in the strait between Asia and America, though Behring knew it not. They had been at sea some three weeks, when eight men came rowing towards them in a leathern boat. They were the Chukches--a warlike race living on the north-east coast of Siberia, unsubdued and fierce. They pointed out a small island in the north, which Behring named the Isle of St. Lawrence in honour of the day. Then he turned back. He felt he had accomplished his task and obeyed his orders. Moreover, with adverse winds they might never return to Kamtchatka, and to winter among the Chukches was to court disaster. After a cruise of three months they reached their starting-point again. Had he only known that the coast of America was but thirty-nine miles off, the results of his voyage would have been greater. As it was, he ascertained that "there really does exist a north-east passage, and that from the Lena River it is possible, provided one is not prevented by Polar ice, to sail to Kamtchatka and thence to Japan, China, and the East Indies." The final discovery was left for Captain Cook. As he approached the straits which he called after Behring, the sun broke suddenly through the clouds, and the continents of Asia and America were visible at a glance. There was dissatisfaction in Russia with the result of Behring's voyage, and though five years of untold hardship in the "extremest corner of the world" had told on the Russian explorer, he was willing and anxious to start off again. He proposed to make Kamtchatka again his headquarters, to explore the western coast of America, and to chart the long Arctic coast of Siberia--a colossal task indeed. So the Great Northern Expedition was formed, with Behring in command, accompanied by two well-known explorers to help, Spangberg and Chirikoff, and with five hundred and seventy men under him. It would take too long to follow the various expeditions that now left Russia in five different directions to explore the unknown coasts of the Old World. "The world has never witnessed a more heroic geographical enterprise than these Arctic expeditions." Amid obstacles indescribable the north line of Siberia, hitherto charted as a straight line, was explored and surveyed. Never was greater courage and endurance displayed. If the ships got frozen in, they were hauled on shore, the men spent the long winter in miserable huts and started off again with the spring, until the northern coast assumed shape and form. One branch of the Great Northern Expedition under Behring was composed of professors to make a scientific investigation of Kamtchatka! These thirty learned Russians were luxuriously equipped. They carried a library with several hundred books, including _Robinson Crusoe_ and _Gulliver's Travels_, seventy reams of writing-paper, and artists' materials. They had nine wagonloads of instruments, carrying telescopes fifteen feet long. A surgeon, two landscape painters, one instrument maker, five surveyors accompanied them, and "the convoy grew like an avalanche as it worked its way into Siberia." Behring seems to have moved this "cumbersome machine" safely to Yakutsk, though it took the best part of two years. Having left Russia in 1733, it was 1741 when Behring himself was ready to start from the harbour of Okhotsk for the coast of America with two ships and provisions for some months. He was now nearly sixty, his health was undermined with vexation and worry, and the climate of Okhotsk had nearly killed him. On 18th July--just six weeks after the start--Behring discovered the continent of North America. The coast was jagged, the land covered with snow, mountains extended inland, and above all rose a peak towering into the clouds--a peak higher than anything they knew in Siberia or Kamtchatka, which Behring named Mount St. Elias, after the patron saint of the day. He made his way with difficulty through the string of islands that skirt the great peninsula of Alaska. Through the months of August and September they cruised about the coast in damp and foggy weather, which now gave way to violent storms, and Behring's ship was driven along at the mercy of the wind. He himself was ill, and the greater part of his crew were disabled by scurvy. At last one day, in a high-running sea, the ship struck upon a rock and they found themselves stranded on an unknown island off the coast of Kamtchatka. Only two men were fit to land; they found a dead whale on which they fed their sick. Later on sea-otters, blue and white foxes, and sea-cows provided food, but the island was desolate and solitary--not a human being was to be seen. [Illustration: THE CHART OF BEHRING'S VOYAGE FROM KAMTCHATKA TO NORTH AMERICA. From a chart drawn in 1741 by Lieut. Waxell, a member of Behring's expedition. It is also interesting for the drawing of the sea-cow, one of the very few authentic drawings of this curious animal, which has long been extinct, and is only known by these drawings.] Here, however, the little party was forced to winter. With difficulty they built five underground huts on the sandy shore of the island now known as Behring Island. And each day amid the raging snowstorms and piercing winds one man went forth to hunt for animal food. Man after man died, and by December, Behring's own condition had become hopeless. Hunger and grief had added to his misery, and in his sand-hut he died. He was almost buried alive, for the sand rolled down from the pit in which he lay and covered his feet. He would not have it removed, for it kept him warm. Thirty more of the little expedition died during that bitter winter on the island; the survivors, some forty-five persons, built a ship from the timbers of the wreck, and in August 1742 they returned to Kamtchatka to tell the story of Behring's discoveries and of Behring's death. CHAPTER XLV COOK DISCOVERS NEW ZEALAND But while the names of Torres, Carpenter, Tasman, and Dampier are still to be found on our modern maps of Australia, it is the name of Captain Cook that we must always connect most closely with the discovery of the great island continent--the Great South Land which only became known to Europe one hundred and fifty years ago. Dampier had returned to England in 1701 from his voyage to New Holland, but nearly seventy years passed before the English were prepared to send another expedition to investigate further the mysterious land in the south. James Cook had shown himself worthy of the great command that was given to him in 1768, although exploration was not the main object of the expedition. Spending his boyhood in the neighbourhood of Whitby, he was familiar with the North Sea fishermen, with the colliers, even with the smugglers that frequented this eastern coast. In 1755 he entered the Royal Navy, volunteering for service and entering H.M.S. _Eagle_ as master's mate. Four years later we find him taking his share on board H.M.S. _Pembroke_ in the attack on Quebec by Wolfe, and later transferred to H.M.S. _Northumberland_, selected to survey the river and Gulf of St. Lawrence. So satisfactory was his work that a few years later he was instructed to survey and chart the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. While engaged on this work, he observed an eclipse of the sun, which led to the appointment that necessitated a voyage to the Pacific Ocean. It had been calculated that a Transit of Venus would occur in June 1769. A petition to the King set forth: "That, the British nation being justly celebrated in the learned world for their knowledge of astronomy, in which they are inferior to no nation upon earth, ancient or modern, it would cast dishonour upon them should they neglect to have correct observations made of this important phenomenon." The King agreed, and the Royal Society selected James Cook as a fit man for the appointment. A stout, strongly built collier of three hundred and seventy tons was chosen at Whitby, manned with seventy men, and victualled for twelve months. With instructions to observe the Transit of Venus at the island of Georgeland (Otaheite), to make further discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean and to explore New Zealand if possible, Cook hoisted his flag on H.M.S. _Endeavour_ and started in May 1768. It was an interesting party on board, joined at the last moment by Mr. Joseph Banks, a very rich member of the Royal Society and a student of Natural History. He had requested leave to sail in "the ship that carries the English astronomers to the new-discovered country in the South Sea." "No people ever went to sea better fitted out for the purpose of Natural History, nor more elegantly," says a contemporary writer. "They have a fine library, they have all sorts of machines for catching and preserving insects, they have two painters and draughtsmen--in short, this expedition will cost Mr. Banks 10,000 pounds." Their astronomical instruments were of the best, including a portable observatory constructed for sixteen guineas. But most important of all was the careful assortment of provisions, to allay, if possible, that scourge of all navigators, the scurvy. A quantity of malt was shipped to be made into wort, mustard, vinegar, wheat, orange and lemon juice and portable soup was put on board, and Cook received special orders to keep his men with plenty of fresh food whenever this was possible. He carried out these orders strenuously, and at Madeira we find him punishing one of his own seamen with twelve lashes for refusing to eat fresh beef. Hence they left Rio de Janeiro "in as good a condition for prosecuting the voyage as on the day they left England." [Illustration: THE ISLAND OF OTAHEITE, OR ST. GEORGE. From a painting by William Hodges, who accompanied Captain Cook.] Christmas Day was passed near the mouth of the river Plate, and, early in the New Year of 1769, the _Endeavour_ sailed through the Strait of Le Maire. The wealthy Mr. Banks landed on Staaten Island and hastily added a hundred new plants to his collection. Then they sailed on to St. George's Island. It had been visited by Captain Wallis in the _Dolphin_ the previous year; indeed, some of Cook's sailors had served on board the _Dolphin_ and knew the native chiefs of the island. All was friendly, tents were soon pitched, a fort built with mounted guns at either side, the precious instruments landed, and on 3rd June, with a cloudless sky and in intolerable heat, they observed the whole passage of the planet Venus over the sun's disk. After a stay of three months they left the island, taking Tupia, a native, with them. Among other accomplishments this Tupia roasted dogs to perfection, and Cook declares that dogs' flesh is "next only to English lamb." They visited other islands in the group--now known as the Society Islands and belonging to France--and took possession of all in the name of His Britannic Majesty, George III. All through the month of September they sailed south, till on 7th October land was sighted. It proved to be the North Island of New Zealand, never before approached by Europeans from the east. It was one hundred and twenty-seven years since Tasman had discovered the west coast and called it Staaten Land, but no European had ever set foot on its soil. Indeed, it was still held to be part of the Terra Australis Incognita. The first to sight land was a boy named Nicholas Young, hence the point was called "Young Nick's Head," which may be seen on our maps to-day, covering Poverty Bay. The natives here were unfriendly, and Cook was obliged to use firearms to prevent an attack. The Maoris had never seen a great ship before, and at first thought it was a very large bird, being struck by the size and beauty of its wings (sails). When a small boat was let down from the ship's side they thought it must be a young unfledged bird, but when the white men in their bright-coloured clothes rowed off in the boat they concluded these were gods. Cook found the low sandy coast backed by well-wooded hills rising to mountains on which patches of snow were visible, while smoke could be seen through the trees, speaking of native dwellings. The natives were too treacherous to make it safe landing for the white men, so they sailed out of Poverty Bay and proceeded south. Angry Maoris shook their spears at the Englishmen as they coasted south along the east coast of the North Island. But the face of the country was unpromising, and Cook altered his course for the north at a point he named Cape Turnagain. Unfortunately he missed the only safe port on the east coast between Auckland and Wellington, but he found good anchorage in what is now known as Cook's Bay. Here they got plenty of good fish, wild fowl, and oysters, "as good as ever came out of Colchester." Taking possession of the land they passed in the name of King George, Cook continued his northerly course, passing many a river which seemed to resemble the Thames at home. A heavy December gale blew them off the northernmost point of land, which they named North Cape, and Christmas was celebrated off Tasman's islands, with goose-pie. [Illustration: AN IPAH, OR MAORI FORT, ON THE COAST BETWEEN POVERTY BAY AND CAPE TURNAGAIN. From an engraving in the Atlas to Cook's first _Voyage_.] The New Year of 1770 found Cook off Cape Maria van Diemen, sailing south along the western coast of the North Island, till the _Endeavour_ was anchored in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte's Sound, only about seventy miles from the spot where Tasman first sighted land. Here the English explorer landed. The country was thickly wooded, but he climbed a hill, and away to the eastward he saw that the seas washing both east and west coasts of the northern island were united. He had solved one problem. Tasman's Staaten Land was not part of a great southern continent. He now resolved to push through his newly discovered straits between the two islands, and, having done this, he sailed north till he reached Cape Turnagain. And so he proved beyond a doubt that this was an island. The men thought they had done enough. But Cook, with the true instinct of an explorer, turned a deaf ear to the murmurings of his crew for roast beef and Old England, and directed his course again south. From the natives he had learned of the existence of two islands, and he must needs sail round the southern as he had sailed round the northern isle. Storms and gales harassed the navigators through the month of February as they made their way slowly southwards. Indeed, they had a very narrow escape from death towards the end of the month, when in a two days' gale, with heavy squalls of rain, their foresail was split to pieces and they lost sight of land for seven days, nearly running on to submerged rocks which Cook named The Traps. It was nearly dark on 14th March when they entered a bay which they suitably christened Dusky Bay, from which they sailed to Cascade Point, named from the four streams that fell over its face. "No country upon earth," remarks Cook, "can appear with a more rugged and barren aspect than this does from the sea, for, as far inland as the eye can reach, nothing is to be seen but the summit of these rocky mountains." At last on 24th March they rounded the north point of the South Island. Before them lay the familiar waters of Massacre Bay, Tasman Bay, and Queen Charlotte Sound. "As we have now circumnavigated the whole of this country, it is time for me to think of quitting it," Cook remarks simply enough. Running into Admiralty Bay, the _Endeavour_ was repaired for her coming voyage home. Her sails, "ill-provided from the first," says Banks, "were now worn and damaged by the rough work they had gone through, particularly on the coast of New Zealand, and they gave no little trouble to get into order again." While Banks searched for insects and plants, Cook sat writing up his _Journal_ of the circumnavigation. He loyally gives Tasman the honour of the first discovery, but clearly shows his error in supposing it to be part of the great southern land. The natives he describes as "a strong, raw-boned, well-made, active people rather above the common size, of a dark brown colour, with black hair, thin black beards, and white teeth. Both men and women paint their faces and bodies with red ochre mixed with fish oil. They wear ornaments of stone, bone, and shells at their ears and about their necks, and the men generally wear long white feathers stuck upright in their hair. They came off in canoes which will carry a hundred people; when within a stone's throw of the ship, the chief of the party would brandish a battleaxe, calling out: 'Come ashore with us and we will kill you.' They would certainly have eaten them too, for they were cannibals." The ship was now ready and, naming the last point of land Cape Farewell, they sailed away to the west, "till we fall in with the east coast of New Holland." They had spent six and a half months sailing about in New Zealand waters, and had coasted some two thousand four hundred miles. Nineteen days' sail brought them to the eagerly sought coast, and on 28th April, Cook anchored for the first time in the bay known afterwards to history as Botany Bay, so named from the quantity of plants found in the neighbourhood by Mr. Banks. Cutting an inscription on one of the trees, with the date and name of the ship, Cook sailed north early in May, surveying the coast as he passed and giving names to the various bays and capes. Thus Port Jackson, at the entrance of Sydney harbour, undiscovered by Cook, was so named after one of the Secretaries of the Admiralty--Smoky Cape from smoke arising from native dwellings--Point Danger by reason of a narrow escape on some shoals--while Moreton Bay, on which Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, now stands, was named after the President of the Royal Society. As they advanced, the coast became steep, rocky, and unpromising. "Hitherto," reports Cook, "we had safely navigated this dangerous coast, where the sea in all parts conceals shores that project suddenly from the shore and rocks that rise abruptly like a pyramid from the bottom more than one thousand three hundred miles. But here we became acquainted with misfortune, and we therefore called the point which we had just seen farthest to the northward, Cape Tribulation." It was the 10th of May. The gentlemen had left the deck "in great tranquillity" and gone to bed, when suddenly the ship struck and remained immovable except for the heaving of the surge that beat her against the crags of the rock upon which she lay. Every one rushed to the deck "with countenances which sufficiently expressed the horrors of our situation." Immediately they took in all sails, lowered the boats, and found they were on a reef of coral rocks. Two days of sickening anxiety followed, the ship sprang a leak, and they were threatened with total destruction. To their intense relief, however, the ship floated off into deep water with a high tide. Repairs were now more than ever necessary, and the poor battered collier was taken into the "Endeavour" river. Tupia and others were also showing signs of scurvy; so a hospital tent was erected on shore, and with a supply of fresh fish, pigeons, wild plantains, and turtles they began to improve. Here stands to-day the seaport of Cooktown, where a monument of Captain Cook looks out over the waters that he discovered. [Illustration: CAPTAIN COOK'S VESSEL BEACHED AT THE ENTRANCE OF ENDEAVOUR RIVER, WHERE THE SEAPORT OF COOKTOWN NOW STANDS. From an engraving in the Atlas to Cook's first _Voyage_.] The prospect of further exploration was not encouraging. "In whatever direction we looked, the sea was covered with shoals as far as the eye could see." As they sailed out of their little river, they could see the surf breaking on the "Great Barrier Reef." Navigation now became very difficult, and, more than once, even Cook himself almost gave up hope. Great, then, was their joy when they found themselves at the northern promontory of the land which "I have named York Cape in honour of His late Royal Highness the Duke of York. We were in great hopes that we had at last found out a passage into the Indian Seas." And he adds an important paragraph: "As I was now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I am confident no European had ever seen before, I once more hoisted the English colours, and I now took possession of the whole eastern coast in right of His Majesty King George III., by the name of New South Wales, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it." This part of the new land was called by the name of New South Wales. So the _Endeavour_ sailed through the straits that Torres had accidentally passed one hundred and sixty-four years before, and, just sighting New Guinea, Cook made his way to Java, for his crew were sickly and "pretty far gone with longing for home." The ship, too, was in bad condition; she had to be pumped night and day to keep her free from water, and her sails would hardly stand the least puff of wind. They reached Batavia in safety and were kindly received by the Dutch there. Since leaving Plymouth two years before, Cook had only lost seven men altogether--three by drowning, two frozen, one from consumption, one from poisoning--none from scurvy--a record without equal in the history of Navigation. But the climate of Batavia now wrought havoc among the men. One after another died, Tupia among others, and so many were weakened with fever that only twenty officers and men were left on duty at one time. Glad, indeed, they were to leave at Christmas time, and gladder still to anchor in the Downs and to reach London after their three years' absence. The news of his arrival and great discoveries seems to have been taken very quietly by those at home. "Lieutenant Cook of the Navy," says the _Annual Register_ for 1771, "who sailed round the globe, was introduced to His Majesty at St. James's, and presented to His Majesty his _Journal_ of his voyage, with some curious maps and charts of different places that he had drawn during the voyage; he was presented with a captain's commission." CHAPTER XLVI COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE AND DEATH Although the importance of his discoveries was not realised at this time, Cook was given command of two new ships, the _Resolution_ and _Adventure_, provisioned for a year for "a voyage to remote parts," a few months later. And the old _Endeavour_ went back to her collier work in the North Sea. Perhaps a letter written by Cook to a friend at Whitby on his return from the second voyage is sufficient to serve our purpose here; for, though the voyage was important enough, yet little new was discovered. And after spending many months in high latitudes, Cook decided that there was no great southern continent to the south of New Holland and New Zealand. "DEAR SIR,"--he writes from London in September 1775--"I now sit down to fulfil the promise I made you to give you some account of my last voyage. I left the Cape of Good Hope on 22nd November 1772 and proceeded to the south, till I met with a vast field of ice and much foggy weather and large islets or floating mountains of ice without number. After some trouble and not a little danger, I got to the south of the field of ice; and after beating about for some time for land, in a sea strewed with ice, I crossed the Antarctic circle and the same evening (17th January 1773) found it unsafe, or rather impossible, to stand farther to the south for ice. "Seeing no signs of meeting with land in these high latitudes, I stood away to the northward, and, without seeing any signs of land, I thought proper to steer for New Zealand, where I anchored in Dusky Bay on 26th March and then sailed for Queen Charlotte's Sound. Again I put to sea and stood to the south, where I met with nothing but ice and excessive cold, bad weather. Here I spent near four months beating about in high latitudes. Once I got as high as seventy-one degrees, and farther it was not possible to go for ice which lay as firm as land. Here we saw ice mountains, whose summits were lost in clouds. I was now fully satisfied that there was no Southern Continent. I nevertheless resolved to spend some time longer in these seas, and with this resolution I stood away to the north." In this second voyage Cook proved that there was no great land to the south of Terra Australis or South America, except the land of ice lying about the South Pole. But he did a greater piece of work than this. He fought, and fought successfully, the great curse of scurvy, which had hitherto carried off scores of sailors and prevented ships on voyages of discovery, or indeed ships of war, from staying long on the high seas without constantly landing for supplies of fresh food. It was no uncommon occurrence for a sea captain to return after even a few months' cruise with half his men suffering from scurvy. Captain Palliser on H.M.S. _Eagle_ in 1756 landed in Plymouth Sound with one hundred and thirty sick men out of four hundred, twenty-two having died in a month. Cook had resolved to fight this dreaded scourge, and we have already seen that during his three years' cruise of the _Endeavour_ he had only to report five cases of scurvy, so close a watch did he keep on his crews. In his second voyage he was even more particular, with the result that in the course of three years he did not lose a single man from scurvy. He enforced cold bathing, and encouraged it by example. The allowance of salt beef and pork was cut down, and the habit of mixing salt beef fat with the flour was strictly forbidden. Salt butter and cheese were stopped, and raisins were substituted for salt suet; wild celery was collected in Terra del Fuego and breakfast made from this with ground wheat and portable soup. The cleanliness of the men was insisted on. Cook never allowed any one to appear dirty before him. He inspected the men once a week at least, and saw with his own eyes that they changed their clothing; equal care was taken to keep the ship clean and dry between decks, and she was constantly "cured with fires" or "smoked with gunpowder mixed with vinegar." For a paper on this subject read before the Royal Society in 1776, James Cook was awarded a gold medal (now in the British Museum). But although the explorer was now forty-eight, he was as eager for active adventure as a youth of twenty. He had settled the question of a southern continent. Now when the question of the North-West Passage came up again, he offered his services to Lord Sandwich, first Lord of the Admiralty, and was at once accepted. It was more than two hundred years since Frobisher had attempted to solve the mystery, which even Cook--the first navigator of his day--with improved ships and better-fed men, did not succeed in solving. He now received his secret instructions, and, choosing the old _Resolution_ again, he set sail in company with Captain Clerke on board the _Discovery_ in the year 1776 for that voyage from which there was to be no return. He was to touch at New Albion (discovered by Drake) and explore any rivers or inlets that might lead to Hudson's or Baffin's Bay. After once more visiting Tasmania and New Zealand, he made a prolonged stay among the Pacific Islands, turning north in December 1777. Soon after they had crossed the line, and a few days before Christmas, a low island was seen on which Cook at once landed, hoping to get a fresh supply of turtle. In this he was not disappointed. Some three hundred, "all of the green kind and perhaps as good as any in the world," were obtained; the island was named Christmas Island, and the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ sailed upon their way. A few days later they came upon a group of islands hitherto unknown. These they named after the Earl of Sandwich, the group forming the kingdom of Hawaii--the chief island. Natives came off in canoes bringing pigs and potatoes, and ready to exchange fish for nails. Some were tempted on board, "the wildness of their looks expressing their astonishment." Anchorage being found, Cook landed, and as he set foot on shore a large crowd of natives pressed forward and, throwing themselves on their faces, remained thus till Cook signed to them to rise. [Illustration: CAPIAIN JAMES COOK. From the painting by Dance in the gallery of Greenwich Hospital.] With a goodly supply of fresh provisions, Cook sailed away from the Sandwich Islands, and after some five weeks' sail to the north the "longed-for coast of New Albion was seen." The natives of the country were clad in fur, which they offered for sale. They exacted payment for everything, even for the wood and water that the strangers took from their shores. The weather was cold and stormy, and the progress of the little English ships was slow. By 22nd March they had passed Cape Flattery; a week later they named Hope Bay, "in which we hoped to find a good harbour, and the event proved we were not mistaken." All this part of the coast was called by Cook King George's Sound, but the native name of Nootka has since prevailed. We have an amusing account of these natives. At first they were supposed to be dark coloured, "till after much cleaning they were found to have skins like our people in England." Expert thieves they were. No piece of iron was safe from them. "Before we left the place," says Cook, "hardly a bit of brass was left in the ship. Whole suits of clothes were stripped of every button, copper kettles, tin canisters, candlesticks, all went to wreck, so that these people got a greater variety of things from us than any other people we had visited." It was not till 26th April that Cook at last managed to start forward again, but a two days' hard gale drove him from the coast and onwards to a wide inlet to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. Here the natives were just like the Eskimos in Hudson's Bay. The ships now sailed westward, doubling the promontory of Alaska, and on 9th August they reached the westernmost point of North America, which they named Cape Prince of Wales. They were now in the sea discovered by Behring, 1741, to which they gave his name. Hampered by fog and ice, the ships made their way slowly on to a point named Cape North. Cook decided that the eastern point of Asia was but thirteen leagues from the western point of America. They named the Sound on the American side Norton Sound after the Speaker of the House of Commons. Having passed the Arctic Circle and penetrated into the Northern Seas, which were never free from ice, they met Russian traders who professed to have known Behring. Then having discovered four thousand miles of new coast, and refreshed themselves with walrus or sea-horse, the expedition turned joyfully back to the Sandwich Islands. On the last day of November, Cook discovered the island of Owhyhee (Hawaii), which he carefully surveyed, till he came to anchor in Karakakooa Bay. The tragic death of Captain Cook at the hands of these natives is well known to every child. The reason for his murder is not entirely understood to-day, but the natives, who had hitherto proved friendly, suddenly attacked the English explorer and slew him, and "he fell into the water and spoke no more." [Illustration: CAPTAIN COOK, THE DISCOVERER OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, WITH HIS SHIPS IN KEALAKEKUA BAY, HAWAII, WHERE HE WAS MURDERED. From an engraving in the Atlas to _Cook's Voyages_, 1779.] Such was the melancholy end of England's first great navigator--James Cook--the foremost sailor of his time, the man who had circumnavigated New Zealand, who had explored the coast of New South Wales, named various unknown islands in the Pacific Ocean, and discovered the Sandwich Islands. He died on 14th February 1779. It was not till 11th January 1780 that the news of his death reached London, to be recorded in the quaint language of the day by the _London Gazette_. "It is with the utmost concern," runs the announcement, "that we inform the Public, that the celebrated Circumnavigator, Captain Cook, was killed by the inhabitants of a new-discover'd island in the South Seas. The Captain and crew were first treated as deities, but, upon their revisiting that Island, hostilities ensued and the above melancholy scene was the Consequence. This account is come from Kamtchatka by Letters from Captain Clerke and others. But the crews of the Ships were in a very good state of health, and all in the most desirable condition. His successful attempts to preserve the Healths of his Crews are well known, and his Discoveries will be an everlasting Honour to his Country." _Cook's First Voyages_ were published in 1773, and were widely read, but his account of the new country did not at once attract Europeans to its shores. We hear of "barren sandy shores and wild rocky coast inhabited by naked black people, malicious and cruel," on the one hand, "and low shores all white with sand fringed with foaming surf," with hostile natives on the other. [Illustration: "THE UNROLLING OF THE CLOUDS"--VI. The world as known after the voyages of Captain Cook (1768-1779).] It was not till eighteen years after Cook's death that Banks--his old friend--appealed to the British Government of the day to make some use of these discoveries. At last the loss of the American colonies in 1776 induced men to turn their eyes toward the new land in the South Pacific. Banks remembered well his visit to Botany Bay with Captain Cook in 1770, and he now urged the dispatch of convicts, hitherto transported to America, to this newly found bay in New South Wales. So in 1787 a fleet of eleven ships with one thousand people on board left the shores of England under the command of Captain Phillip. After a tedious voyage of thirty-six weeks, they reached Botany Bay in January 1788. Captain Phillip had been appointed Governor of all New South Wales, that is from Cape York to Van Diemen's Land, still supposed to be part of the mainland. But Phillip at once recognised that Botany Bay was not a suitable place for a settlement. No white man had described these shores since the days of Captain Cook. The green meadows of which Banks spoke were barren swamps and bleak sands, while the bay itself was exposed to the full sweep of violent winds, with a heavy sea breaking with tremendous surf against the shore. "Warra, warra!" (begone, begone), shouted the natives, brandishing spears at the water's edge as they had done eighteen years before. In an open boat--for it was midsummer in these parts--Phillip surveyed the coast; an opening marked Port Jackson on Cook's chart attracted his notice and, sailing between two rocky headlands, the explorer found himself crossing smooth, clear water with a beautiful harbour in front and soft green foliage reaching down to the water's edge. Struck with the loveliness of the scene, and finding both wood and water here, he chose the spot for his new colony, giving it the name of Sydney, alter Lord Sydney, who as Home Secretary had appointed him to his command. [Illustration: PORT JACKSON AND SYDNEY COVE A FEW YEARS AFTER COOK AND PHILLIP. From the Atlas to the _Voyage de l'Astrolabe_.] "We got into Port Jackson," he wrote to Lord Sydney, "early in the afternoon, and had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect security." "To us," wrote one of his captains, "it was a great and important day, and I hope will mark the foundation of an empire." But, interesting as it is, we cannot follow the fortunes of this first little English colony in the South Pacific Ocean. The English had not arrived a day too soon. A few days later the French explorer, La Perouse, guided hither by Cook's chart, suddenly made his appearance on the shores of Botany Bay. The arrival of two French men-of-war caused the greatest excitement among the white strangers and the black natives. La Perouse had left France in 1785 in command of two ships with orders to search for the North-West Passage from the Pacific side--a feat attempted by Captain Cook only nine years before--to explore the China seas, the Solomon Islands, and the Terra Australis. He had reached the coast of Alaska in June 1786, but after six weeks of bad weather he had crossed to Asia in the early part of the following year. Thence he had made his way by the Philippine Islands to the coasts of Japan, Korea, and "Chinese Tartary." Touching at Quelpart, he reached a bay near our modern Vladivostock, and on 2nd August 1787 he discovered the strait that bears his name to-day, between Saghalien and the North Island of Japan. Fortunately, from Kamtchatka, where he had landed, he had sent home his journals, notes, plans, and maps by Lesseps--uncle of the famous Ferdinand de Lesseps of Suez Canal fame. On 26th January 1788 he landed at Botany Bay. From here he wrote his last letter to the French Government. After leaving this port he was never seen again. Many years later, in 1826, the wreck of his two ships was found on the reefs of an island near the New Hebrides. CHAPTER XLVII BRUCE'S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA Perhaps one of the strangest facts in the whole history of exploration is that Africa was almost an unknown land a hundred years ago, and stranger still, that there remains to-day nearly one-eleventh of the whole area still unexplored. And yet it is one of the three old continents that appear on every old chart of the world in ancient days, with its many-mouthed Nile rising in weird spots and flowing in sundry impossible directions. Sometimes it joins the mysterious Niger, and together they flow through country labelled "Unknown" or "Desert" or "Negroland," or an enterprising cartographer fills up vacant spaces with wild animals stalking through the land. The coast tells a different tale. The west shores are studded with trading forts belonging to English, Danes, Dutch, and Portuguese, where slaves from the interior awaited shipment to the various countries that required negro labour. The slave trade was the great, in fact the only, attraction to Africa at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In pursuit of this, men would penetrate quite a long way into the interior, but through the long centuries few explorers had travelled to the Dark Continent. Towards the end of the century we suddenly get one man--a young Scottish giant, named James Bruce, thirsting for exploration for its own sake. He cared not for slaves or gold or ivory. He just wanted to discover the source of the Nile, over which a great mystery had hung since the days of Herodotus. The Mountains of the Moon figure largely on the Old World maps, but Bruce decided to rediscover these for himself. Herodotus had said the Nile turned west and became the Niger, others said it turned east and somehow joined the Tigris and Euphrates. Indeed, such was the uncertainty regarding its source that to discover the source of the Nile seemed equivalent to performing the impossible. James Bruce, athletic, daring, standing six feet four, seemed at the age of twenty-four made for a life of travel and adventure. His business took him to Spain and Portugal. He studied Arabic and the ancient language of Abyssinia. He came under the notice of Pitt, and was made consul of Algiers. The idea of the undiscovered sources of the Nile took strong hold of Bruce's imagination. "It was at this moment," he says, "that I resolved that this great discovery should either be achieved by me or remain--as it has done for three thousand years--a defiance to all travellers." A violent dispute with the old bey of Algiers ended Bruce's consulate, and in 1765, the spirit of adventure strong upon him, he sailed along the North African coast, landed at Tunis, and made his way to Tripoli. On the frontier he found a tribe of Arabs set apart to destroy the lions which beset the neighbourhood. These people not only killed but ate the lions, and they prevailed on Bruce to share their repast. But one meal was enough for the young explorer. In burning heat across the desert sands he passed on. Once a great caravan arrived, journeying from Fez to Mecca, consisting of three thousand men with camels laden with merchandise. But this religious pilgrimage was plundered in the desert soon after. Arrived at Bengazi, Bruce found a terrible famine raging, so he embarked on a little Greek ship bound for Crete. It was crowded with Arabs; the captain was ignorant; a violent storm arose and, close to Bengazi, the ship struck upon a rock. Lowering a boat, Bruce and a number of Arabs sprang in and tried to row ashore. But wave after wave broke over them, and at last they had to swim for their lives. The surf was breaking on the shore, and Bruce was washed up breathless and exhausted. Arabs flocking down to plunder the wreck, found Bruce, and with blows and kicks stripped him of all his clothes and left him naked on the barren shore. At last an old Arab came along, threw a dirty rag over him, and led him to a tent, whence he reached Bengazi once more, and soon after crossed to Crete. [Illustration: A NILE BOAT, OR CANJA. From Bruce's _Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile_.] It was not till July 1768 that the explorer at last reached Cairo _en route_ for Abyssinia, and five months later embarked on board a Nile boat, or canja. His cabin had close latticed windows made not only to admit fresh air, but to be a defence against a set of robbers on the Nile, who were wont to swim under water in the dark or on goatskins to pilfer any passing boats. Then, unfurling her vast sails, the canja bore Bruce on the first stage of his great journey. The explorer spent some time in trying to find the lost site of old Memphis, but this was difficult. "A man's heart fails him in looking to the south," he says; "he is lost in the immense expanse of desert, which he sees full of pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene of vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm trees, he becomes dispirited from the effect of the sultry climate." For some days the canja, with a fair wind, stemmed the strong current of the Nile. "With great velocity" she raced past various villages through the narrow green valley of cultivation, till the scene changed and large plantations of sugar-canes and dates began. "The wind had now become so strong that the canja could scarcely carry her sails; the current was rapid and the velocity with which she dashed against the water was terrible." Still she flew on day after day, till early in January they reached the spot "where spreading Nile parts hundred-gated Thebes." Solitude and silence reigned over the magnificent old sepulchres; the hundred gates were gone, robbers swarmed, and the traveller hastened away. So on to Luxor and Karnac to a great encampment of Arabs, who held sway over the desert which Bruce had now to cross. The old sheikh, whose protection was necessary, known as the Tiger from his ferocious disposition, was very ill in his tent. Bruce gave him some lime water, which eased his pain, and, rising from the ground, the old Arab stood upright and cried: "Cursed be those of my people that ever shall lift up their hand against you in the desert." He strongly advised Bruce to return to Kenne and cross the desert from there instead of going on by the Nile. Reluctantly Bruce turned back, and on 16th February 1769 he joined a caravan setting out to cross the desert to the shores of the Red Sea. "Our road," he says, "was all the way in an open plain bounded by hillocks of sand and fine gravel--perfectly hard, but without trees, shrubs, or herbs. There are not even the traces of any living creature, neither serpent, lizard, antelope, nor ostrich--the usual inhabitants of the most dreary deserts. There is no sort of water--even the birds seem to avoid the place as pestilential--the sun was burning hot." In a few days the scene changed, and Bruce is noting that in four days he passes more granite, porphyry, marble, and jasper than would build Rome, Athens, Corinth, Memphis, Alexandria, and half a dozen more. At last after a week's travel they reached Cossier, the little mud-walled village on the shores of the Red Sea. Here Bruce embarked in a small boat, the planks of which were sewn together instead of nailed, with a "sort of straw mattress as a sail," for the emerald mines described by Pliny, but he was driven back by a tremendous storm. Determined to survey the Red Sea, he sailed to the north, and after landing at Tor at the foot of Mount Sinai, he sailed down the bleak coast of Arabia to Jidda, the port of Mecca. [Illustration: AN ARAB SHEIKH. From Bruce's _Travels_.] By this time he was shaking with ague and fever, scorched by the burning sun, and weather-beaten by wind and storm--moreover, he was still dressed as a Turkish soldier. He was glad enough to find kindly English at Jidda, and after two months' rest he sailed on to the Straits of Babelmandeb. Being now on English ground, he drank the King's health and sailed across to Masuah, the main port of Abyssinia. Although he had letters of introduction from Jidda he had some difficulty with the chief of Masuah, but at last, dressed in long white Moorish robes, he broke away, and in November 1769 started forth for Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia. It was nearly one hundred and fifty years since any European of note had visited the country, and it was hard to get any information. His way led across mountainous country--rugged and steep. "Far above the top of all towers that stupendous mass, the mountain of Taranta, probably one of the highest in the world, the point of which is buried in the clouds and very rarely seen but in the clearest weather; at other times abandoned to perpetual mist and darkness, the seat of lightning, thunder, and of storm." Violent storms added to the terrors of the way, trees were torn up by the roots, and swollen streams rushed along in torrents. Bruce had started with his quadrant carried by four men, but the task of getting his cumbersome instruments up the steep sides of Taranta was intense. However, they reached the top at last to find a huge plain, "perhaps one of the highest in the world," and herds of beautiful cattle feeding. "The cows were completely white, with large dewlaps hanging down to their knees, white horns, and long silky hair." After ninety-five days' journey, on 14th February Bruce reached Gondar, the capital, on the flat summit of a high hill. Here lived the King of Abyssinia, a supposed descendant of King Solomon; but at the present time the country was in a lawless and unsettled condition. Moreover, smallpox was raging at the palace, and the royal children were smitten with it. Bruce's knowledge of medicine now stood him again in good stead. He opened all the doors and windows of the palace, washed his little patients with vinegar and warm water, sent away those not already infected, and all recovered. Bruce had sprung into court favour. The ferocious chieftain, Ras Michael, who had killed one king, poisoned another, and was now ruling in the name of a third, sent for him. The old chief was dressed in a coarse, dirty garment wrapped round him like a blanket, his long white hair hung down over his shoulders, while behind him stood soldiers, their lances ornamented with shreds of scarlet cloth, one for every man slain in battle. Bruce was appointed "Master of the King's horse," a high office and richly paid. But "I told him this was no kindness," said the explorer. "My only wish was to see the country and find the sources of the Nile." But time passed on and they would not let him go, until, at last, he persuaded the authorities to make him ruler over the province where the Blue Nile was supposed to rise. Amid great opposition he at last left the palace of Gondar on 28th October 1770, and was soon on his way to the south "to see a river and a bog, no part of which he could take away"--an expedition wholly incomprehensible to the royal folk at Gondar. Two days' march brought him to the shores of the great Lake Tsana, into which, despite the fact that he was tremendously hot and that crocodiles abounded there, the hardy young explorer plunged for a swim. And thus refreshed he proceeded on his way. He had now to encounter a new chieftain named Fasil, who at first refused to give him leave to pass on his way. It was not until Bruce had shown himself an able horseman and exhibited feats of strength and prowess that leave was at last granted. Fasil tested him in this wise. Twelve horses were brought to Bruce, saddled and bridled, to know which he would like to ride. Selecting an apparently quiet beast, the young traveller mounted. "For the first two minutes," he says, "I do not know whether I was most in the earth or in the air; he kicked behind, reared before, leaped like a deer all four legs off the ground--he then attempted to gallop, taking the bridle in his teeth; he continued to gallop and ran away as hard as he could, flinging out behind every ten yards, till he had no longer breath or strength and I began to think he would scarce carry me to the camp." On his return Bruce mounted his own horse, and, taking his double-barrelled gun, he rode about, twisting and turning his horse in every direction, to the admiration of these wild Abyssinian folk. Not only did Fasil now let him go, but he dressed him in a fine, loose muslin garment which reached to his feet, gave him guides and a handsome grey horse. "Take this horse," he said, "as a present from me. Do not mount it yourself; drive it before you, saddled and bridled as it is; no man will touch you when he sees that horse." Bruce obeyed his orders, and the horse was driven in front of him. The horse was magic; the people gave it handfuls of barley and paid more respect to it than to Bruce himself, though in many cases the people seemed scared by the appearance of the horse and fled away. On 2nd November the Nile came into sight. It was only two hundred and sixty feet broad; but it was deeply revered by the people who lived on its banks. They refused to allow Bruce to ride across, but insisted on his taking off his shoes and walking through the shallow stream. It now became difficult to get food as they crossed the scorching hot plains. But Bruce was nearing his goal, and at last he stood at the top of the great Abyssinian tableland. "Immediately below us appeared the Nile itself, strangely diminished in size, now only a brook that had scarcely water to turn a mill." Throwing off his shoes, trampling down the flowers that grew on the mountain-side, falling twice in his excitement, Bruce ran down in breathless haste till he reached the "hillock of green sod" which has made his name so famous. "It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at that moment, standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of both ancients and moderns for the course of near three thousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the heads of their armies--fame, riches, and honour had been held out for a series of ages without having produced one man capable of wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of mankind or adding this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here over kings and their armies. I was but a few minutes arrived at the source of the Nile, through numberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed me but for the continual goodness and protection of Providence. I was, however, but then half through my journey, and all those dangers which I had already passed awaited me again on my return. I found a despondency gaining ground fast upon me and blasting the crown of laurels I had too rashly woven for myself." Bruce then filled a large cocoa-nut shell, which he had brought from Arabia, full of the Nile water, and drank to the health of His Majesty King George III. CHAPTER XLVIII MUNGO PARK AND THE NIGER Bruce died in the spring of 1794. Just a year later another Scotsman, Mungo Park, from Selkirk, started off to explore the great river Niger--whose course was as mysterious as that of the Nile. Most of the early geographers knew something of a great river running through Negroland. Indeed, Herodotus tells of five young men, the Nasamones, who set out to explore the very heart of Africa. Arrived at the edge of the great sandy desert, they collected provisions and supplied themselves with water and plunged courageously into the unknown. For weary days they made their way across to the south, till they were rewarded by finding themselves in a fertile land well watered by lakes and marshes, with fruit trees and a little race of men and women whom they called pigmies. And a large river was flowing from west to east--probably the Niger. But the days of Herodotus are long since past. It was centuries later when the Arabs, fiery with the faith of Mohammed, swept over the unexplored lands. "With a fiery enthusiasm that nothing could withstand, and inspired by a hope of heaven which nothing could shake, they swept from district to district, from tribe to tribe," everywhere proclaiming to roving multitudes the faith of their master. In this spirit they had faced the terrors of the Sahara Desert, and in the tenth century reached the land of the negroes, found the Niger, and established schools and mosques westward of Timbuktu. Portugal had then begun to play her part, and the fifteenth century is full of the wonderful voyages inspired by Prince Henry of Portugal, which culminated in the triumph of Vasco da Gama's great voyage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. Then the slave trade drew the Elizabethan Englishmen to the shores of West Africa, and the coast was studded with forts and stations in connection with it. Yet in the eighteenth century the Niger and Timbuktu were still a mystery. In 1778 the African Association was founded, with our old friend Sir Joseph Banks as an active member inquiring for a suitable man to follow up the work of the explorer Houghton, who had just perished in the desert on his way to Timbuktu. The opportunity produced the man. Mungo Park, a young Scotsman, bitten with the fever of unrest, had just returned from a voyage to the East on board an East India Company's ship. He heard of this new venture, and applied for it. The African Association instantly accepted his services, and on 22nd May 1795, Mungo Park left England on board the _Endeavour_, and after a pleasant voyage of thirty days landed at the mouth of the river Gambia. The river is navigable for four hundred miles from its mouth, and Park sailed up to a native town, where the _Endeavour_ was anchored, while he set out on horseback for a little village, Pisania, where a few British subjects traded in slaves, ivory, and gold. Here he stayed a while, to learn the language of the country. Fever delayed him till the end of November, when the rains were over, the native crops had been reaped, and food was cheap and plentiful. On 3rd December he made a start, his sole attendants being a negro servant, Johnson, and a slave boy. Mungo Park was mounted on a strong, spirited little horse, his attendants on donkeys. He had provisions for two days, beads, amber, and tobacco for buying fresh food, an umbrella, a compass, a thermometer and pocket sextant, some pistols and firearms, and "thus attended, thus provided, thus armed, Mungo Park started for the heart of Africa." [Illustration: MUNGO PARK. From the engraving in Park's _Travels into the Interior of Africa_, 1799.] Three days' travelling brought him to Medina, where he found the old king sitting on a bullock's hide, warming himself before a large fire. He begged the English explorer to turn back and not to travel into the interior, for the people there had never seen a white man and would most certainly destroy him. Mungo Park was not so easily deterred, and taking farewell of the good old king, he took a guide and proceeded on his way. A day's journey brought him to a village where a curious custom prevailed. Hanging on a tree, he found a sort of masquerading dress made out of bark. He discovered that it belonged to a strange bugbear known to all the natives of the neighbourhood as Mumbo Jumbo. The natives or Kafirs of this part had many wives, with the result that family quarrels often took place. If a husband was offended by his wife he disappeared into the woods, disguised himself in the dress of Mumbo Jumbo, and, armed with the rod of authority, announced his advent by loud and dismal screams near the town. All hurried to the accepted meeting-place, for none dare disobey. The meeting opened with song and dance till midnight, when Mumbo Jumbo announced the offending wife. The unlucky victim was then seized, stripped, tied to a post, and beaten with Mumbo's rod amid the shouts of the assembled company. A few days before Christmas, Park entered Fatticonda--the place where Major Houghton had been robbed and badly used. He therefore took some amber, tobacco, and an umbrella as gifts to the king, taking care to put on his best blue coat, lest it should be stolen. The king was delighted with his gifts; he furled and unfurled his umbrella to the great admiration of his attendants. "The king then praised my blue coat," says Park, "of which the yellow buttons seemed particularly to catch his fancy, and entreated me to give it to him, assuring me that he would wear it on all public occasions. As it was against my interests to offend him by a refusal, I very quietly took off my coat--the only good one in my possession--and laid it at his feet." Then without his coat and umbrella, but in peace, Park travelled onward to the dangerous district which was so invested with robbers that the little party had to travel by night. The howling of wild beasts alone broke the awful silence as they crept forth by moonlight on their way. But the news that a white man was travelling through their land spread, and he was surrounded by a party of horsemen, who robbed him of nearly all his possessions. His attendant Johnson urged him to return, for certain death awaited him. But Park was not the man to turn back, and he was soon rewarded by finding the king's nephew, who conducted him in safety to the banks of the Senegal River. Then he travelled on to the next king, who rejoiced in the name of Daisy Korrabarri. Here Mungo learnt to his dismay that war was going on in the province that lay between him and the Niger, and the king could offer no protection. Still nothing deterred the resolute explorer, who took another route and continued his journey. Again he had to travel by night, for robbers haunted his path, which now lay among Mohammedans. He passed the very spot where Houghton had been left to die of starvation in the desert. As he advanced through these inhospitable regions, new difficulties met him. His attendants firmly refused to move farther. Mungo Park was now alone in the great desert Negroland, between the Senegal and the Niger, as with magnificent resolution he continued his way. Suddenly a clear halloo rang out on the night air. It was his black boy, who had followed him to share his fate. Onward they went together, hoping to get safely through the land where Mohammedans ruled over low-caste negroes. Suddenly a party of Moors surrounded him, bidding him come to Ali, the chief, who wished to see a white man and a Christian. Park now found himself the centre of an admiring crowd. Men, women, and children crowded round him, pulling at his clothes and examining his waistcoat buttons till he could hardly move. Arrived at Ali's tent, Mungo found an old man with a long white beard. "The surrounding attendants, and especially the ladies, were most inquisitive; they asked a thousand questions, inspected every part of my clothes, searched my pockets, and obliged me to unbutton my waistcoat and display the whiteness of my skin--they even counted my toes and fingers, as if they doubted whether I was in truth a human being." He was lodged in a hut made of corn stalks, and a wild hog was tied to a stake as a suitable companion for the hated Christian. He was brutally ill-treated, closely watched, and insulted by "the rudest savages on earth." The desert winds scorched him, the sand choked him, the heavens above were like brass, the earth beneath as the floor of an oven. Fear came on him, and he dreaded death with his work yet unfinished. At last he escaped from this awful captivity amid the wilds of Africa. Early one morning at sunrise, he stepped over the sleeping negroes, seized his bundle, jumped on to his horse, and rode away as hard as he could. Looking back, he saw three Moors in hot pursuit, whooping and brandishing their double-barrelled guns. But he was beyond reach, and he breathed again. Now starvation stared him in the face. To the pangs of hunger were added the agony of thirst. The sun beat down pitilessly, and at last Mungo fell on the sand. "Here," he thought--"here after a short but ineffectual struggle I must end all my hopes of being useful in my day and generation; here must the short span of my life come to an end." [Illustration: THE CAMP OF ALI, THE MOHAMMEDAN CHIEF, AT BENOWN. From a sketch by Mungo Park.] But happily a great storm came and Mungo spread out his clothes to collect the drops of rain, and quenched his thirst by wringing them out and sucking them. After this refreshment he led his tired horse, directing his way by the compass, lit up at intervals by vivid flashes of lightning. It was not till the third week of his flight that his reward came. "I was told I should see the Niger early next day," he wrote on 20th July 1796. "We were riding through some marshy ground, when some one called out 'See the water!' and, looking forwards, I saw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission--the long-sought-for majestic Niger glittering to the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly _to the eastward_. I hastened to the brink and, having drunk of the water, lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of all things, for having thus far crowned my endeavours with success. The circumstance of the Niger's flowing towards the east did not excite my surprise, for although I had left Europe in great hesitation on this subject, I had received from the negroes clear assurances that its general course was _towards the rising sun_." He was now near Sego--the capital of Bambarra--on the Niger, a city of some thirty thousand inhabitants. "The view of this extensive city, the numerous canoes upon the river, the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the surrounding country, formed altogether a prospect of civilisation and magnificence which I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa." The natives looked at the poor, thin, white stranger with astonishment and fear, and refused to allow him to cross the river. All day he sat without food under the shade of a tree, and was proposing to climb the tree and rest among its branches to find shelter from a coming storm, when a poor negro woman took pity on his deplorable condition. She took him to her hut, lit a lamp, spread a mat upon the floor, broiled him a fish, and allowed him to sleep. While he rested she spun cotton with other women and sang: "The winds roared and the rains fell. The poor white man, faint and weary, came and sat under our tree. He has no mother to bring him milk, no wife to grind his corn"; and all joined in the chorus: "Let us pity the white man, no mother has he." [Illustration: KAMALIA, A NATIVE VILLAGE NEAR THE SOUTHERN COURSE OF THE NIGER. From a sketch by Mungo Park.] Mungo Park left in the morning after presenting his landlady with two of his last four brass buttons. But though he made another gallant effort to reach Timbuktu and the Niger, which, he was told, "ran to the world's end," lions and mosquitoes made life impossible. His horse was too weak to carry him any farther, and on 29th July 1796 he sadly turned back. "Worn down by sickness, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, half-naked, and without any article of value by which I might get provisions, clothes, or lodging, I felt I should sacrifice my life to no purpose, for my discoveries would perish with me." Joining a caravan of slaves, he reached the coast after some nineteen hundred miles, and after an absence of two years and nine months he found a suit of English clothes, "disrobed his chin of venerable encumbrance," and sailed for home. He published an account of the journey in 1799, after which he married and settled in Scotland as a doctor. But his heart was in Africa, and a few years later he started off again to reach Timbuktu. He arrived at the Gambia early in April 1805. "If all goes well," he wrote gaily, "this day six weeks I expect to drink all your healths in the water of the Niger." He started this time with forty-four Europeans, each with donkeys to carry baggage and food, but it was a deplorable little party that reached the great river on 19th August. Thirty men had died on the march, the donkeys had been stolen, the baggage lost. And the joy experienced by the explorer in reaching the waters of the Niger, "rolling its immense stream along the plain," was marred by the reduction of his little party to seven. Leave to pass down the river to Timbuktu was obtained by the gift of two double-barrelled guns to the King, and in their old canoes patched together under the magnificent name of "His Majesty's schooner the _Joliba_" (great water), Mungo Park wrote his last letter home. [Illustration: A NATIVE WOMAN WASHING GOLD IN SENEGAL. From a sketch by Mungo Park made on his last expedition.] "I am far from desponding. I have changed a large canoe into a tolerably good schooner, on board of which I shall set sail to the east with a fixed resolution to discover the termination of the Niger or perish in the attempt; and though all the Europeans who are with me should die, and though I myself were half-dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least die on the Niger." It was in this spirit that the commander of the _Joliba_ and a crew of nine set forth to glide down a great river toward the heart of savage Africa, into the darkness of the unexplored. The rest is silence. CHAPTER XLIX VANCOUVER DISCOVERS HIS ISLAND While Mungo Park was attempting to find the course of the Niger, the English were busy opening up the great fur-trading country in North America. Although Captain Cook had taken possession of Nootka Sound, thinking it was part of the coast of New Albion, men from other nations had been there to establish with the natives a trade in furs. The Spaniards were specially vigorous in opening up communications on this bleak bit of western coast. Great Britain became alarmed, and decided to send Captain Vancouver with an English ship to enforce her rights to this valuable port. Vancouver had already sailed with Cook on his second southern voyage; he had accompanied him on the _Discovery_ during his last voyage. He therefore knew something of the coast of North-West America. "On the 15th of December 1790, I had the honour of receiving my commission as commander of His Majesty's sloop the _Discovery_, then lying at Deptford, where I joined her," says Vancouver. "Lieutenant Broughton having been selected as a proper officer to command the _Chatham_, he was accordingly appointed. At day dawn on Friday the 1st of April we took a long farewell of our native shores. Having no particular route to the Pacific Ocean pointed out in my instructions, I did not hesitate to prefer the passage by way of the Cape of Good Hope." In boisterous weather Vancouver rounded the Cape, made some discoveries on the southern coast of New Holland, surveyed part of the New Zealand coast, discovered Chatham Island, and on 17th April 1792 he fell in with the coast of New Albion. It was blowing and raining hard when the coast, soon after to be part of the United States of America, was sighted by the captains and crews of the _Discovery_ and _Chatham_. Amid gales of wind and torrents of rain they coasted along the rocky and precipitous shores on which the surf broke with a dull roar. It was dangerous enough work coasting along this unsurveyed coast, full of sunken rocks on which the sea broke with great violence. Soon they were at Cape Blanco (discovered by Martin D'Aguilar), and a few days later at Cape Foulweather of Cook fame, close to the so-called straits discovered by the Greek pilot John da Fuca in 1592. Suddenly, relates Vancouver, "a sail was discovered to the westward. This was a very great novelty, not having seen any vessel during the last eight months. She soon hoisted American colours, and proved to be the ship _Columbia_, commanded by Captain Grey, belonging to Boston. He had penetrated about fifty miles into the disputed strait. He spoke of the mouth of a river that was inaccessible owing to breakers." (This was afterwards explored by Vancouver and named the Columbia River on which Washington now stands.) Having examined two hundred and fifteen miles of coast, Vancouver and his two ships now entered the inlet--Da Fuca Straits--now the boundary between the United States and British Columbia. All day they made their way up the strait, till night came, and Vancouver relates with pride that "we had now advanced farther up this inlet than Mr. Grey or any other person from the civilised world." "We are on the point of examining an entirely new region," he adds, "and in the most delightfully pleasant weather." Snowy ranges of hills, stately forest trees, vast spaces, and the tracks of deer reminded the explorers of "Old England." The crews were given holiday, and great joy prevailed. Natives soon brought them fish and venison for sale, and were keen to sell their children in exchange for knives, trinkets, and copper. As they advanced through the inlet, the fresh beauty of the country appealed to the English captain: "To describe the beauties of this region will be a very grateful task to the pen of a skilful panegyrist--the serenity of the climate, the pleasing landscapes, and the abundant fertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only to be enriched by the industry of man with villages, mansions, and cottages to render it the most lovely country that can be imagined." A fortnight was spent among the islands of this inlet, which "I have distinguished by the name of Admiralty Inlet," and on 4th June 1792 they drank the health of the King, George III., in a double allowance of grog, and on his fifty-fourth birthday took formal possession of the country, naming the wider part of the strait the Gulf of Georgia and the mainland New Georgia. The two ships then made their way through the narrow and intricate channels separating the island of Vancouver from the mainland of British Columbia, till at last, early in August, they emerged into an open channel discovered by an Englishman four years before and named Queen Charlotte's Sound. Numerous rocky islets made navigation very difficult, and one day in foggy weather the _Discovery_ suddenly grounded on a bed of sunken rocks. The _Chatham_ was near at hand, and at the signal of distress lowered her boats for assistance. For some hours, says Vancouver, "immediate and inevitable destruction presented itself." She grounded at four in the p.m. Till two next morning all hands were working at throwing ballast overboard to lighten her, till, "to our inexpressible joy," the return of the tide floated her once more. Having now satisfied himself that this was an island lying close to the mainland, Vancouver made for Nootka Sound, where he arrived at the end of August. [Illustration: VANCOUVER'S SHIP, THE _DISCOVERY_, ON THE ROCKS IN QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S SOUND. From a drawing in Vancouver's _Voyage_, 1798.] At the entrance of the Sound he was visited by a Spanish officer with a pilot to lead them to a safe anchorage in Friendly Cove, where the Spanish ship, under one Quadra, was riding at anchor. Civilities were interchanged "with much harmony and festivity. As many officers as could be spared from the vessel, and myself dined with Senor Quadra, and were gratified with a repast we had lately been little accustomed to. A dinner of five courses, consisting of a superfluity of the best provisions, was served with great elegance; a royal salute was fired on drinking health to the sovereigns of England and Spain, and a salute of seventeen guns to the success of the service in which the _Discovery_ and _Chatham_ were engaged." But when the true nature of Vancouver's mission was disclosed, there was some little difficulty, for the Spaniards had fortified Nootka, built houses, laid out gardens, and evidently intended to stay. Vancouver sent Captain Broughton home to report the conduct of the Spaniards, and spent his time surveying the coast to the south. Finally all was arranged satisfactorily, and Vancouver sailed off to the Sandwich Islands. When he returned home in the autumn of 1794 he had completed the gigantic task of surveying nine thousand miles of unknown coast chiefly in open boats, with only the loss of two men in both crews--a feat that almost rivalled that of Captain Cook. It has been said that Vancouver "may proudly take his place with Drake, Cook, Baffin, Parry, and other British navigators to whom England looks with pride and geographers with gratitude." CHAPTER L MACKENZIE AND HIS RIVER Even while Vancouver was making discoveries on the western coast of North America, Alexander Mackenzie, an enthusiastic young Scotsman, was making discoveries on behalf of the North-Western Company, which was rivalling the old Hudson Bay Company in its work of expansion. His journey right across America from sea to sea is worthy of note, and it has well been said that "by opening intercourse between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and forming regular establishments through the interior and at both extremes, as well as along the coasts and islands, the entire command of the fur trade of North America might be obtained. To this may be added the fishing in both seas and the markets of the four quarters of the globe." Mackenzie had already explored the great river flowing through North America to the Arctic seas in 1789. He had brought back news of its great size, its width, its volume of water, only to be mistrusted, till many years later it was found that every word was true, and tributes were paid not only to his general accuracy, but to his general intelligence as an explorer. In 1792 he started off again, and this time he discovered the immense country that lay hidden behind the Rocky Mountains, known to-day as British Columbia. He ascended the Peace River, which flows from the Rocky Mountains, and in the spring of 1793, having made his way with much difficulty across this rugged chain, he embarked on a river running to the south-west. Through wild mountainous country on either side he paddled on; the cold was still intense and the strong mountain currents nearly dashed the canoes to pieces. His Indian guides were obstinate, ignorant, and timid. Mackenzie relates some of his difficulties in graphic language: "Throughout the whole of this day the men had been in a state of extreme ill-humour, and as they did not choose to vent it openly upon me, they disputed and quarrelled among themselves. About sunset the canoe struck upon the stump of a tree, which broke a large hole in her bottom, a circumstance that gave them an opportunity to let loose their discontents without reserve. I left them as soon as we had landed and ascended an elevated bank. It now remained for us to fix on a proper place for building another canoe, as the old one was become a complete wreck. At a very early hour of the morning every man was employed in making preparations for building another canoe, and different parties went in search of wood and gum." While the boat was building, Mackenzie gave his crew a good lecture on their conduct. "I assured them it was my fixed unalterable determination to proceed in spite of every difficulty and danger." The result was highly satisfactory. "The conversation dropped and the work went on." In five days the canoe was ready and they were soon paddling happily onwards towards the sea, where the Indians told him he would find white men building houses. They reached the coast some three weeks later. The Salmon River, as it is called, flows through British Columbia and reaches the sea just north of Vancouver Island, which had been discovered by Vancouver the year before. Alexander Mackenzie had been successful. Let us hear the end of his tale: "I now mixed up some vermilion in melted grease, and inscribed in large characters, on the south-east face of the rock on which we had slept last night, this brief memorial--'Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety three.'" CHAPTER LI PARRY DISCOVERS LANCASTER SOUND The efforts of Arctic explorers of past years, Frobisher, Davis, Baffin, Behring, and Cook, had all been more or less frustrated by the impenetrable barrier of ice, which seemed to stretch across the Polar regions like a wall, putting an end to all further advance. Now, early in the nineteenth century, this impenetrable bar of ice had apparently moved and broken up into detached masses and icebergs. The news of a distinct change in the Polar ice was brought home by various traders in the Greenland waters, and soon gave rise to a revival of these voyages for the discovery of the North Pole and a passage round the northern coast of America to the Pacific Ocean. For this coast was totally unknown at this time. Information was collected from casual travellers, whale-fishers, and others, with the result that England equipped two ships for a voyage of discovery to the disputed regions. These were the _Isabella_ (385 tons) and the _Alexander_ (252 tons), Commander Ross being appointed to one and Lieutenant Parry to the other. Parry had served on the coast of North America, and had written a little treatise on the stars in the Northern Hemisphere. He was thinking of offering his services for African discovery when he caught sight of a paragraph in a paper about an expedition for the discovery of the North-West Passage. He wrote at once that "he was ready for hot or for cold--Africa or the Polar regions." And he was at once appointed to the latter. The object of the voyage was clearly set forth. The young explorers were to discover a passage from Davis Strait along the northern coast of America and through the Behring Strait into the Pacific Ocean. Besides this, charts and pictures were to be brought back, and a special artist was to accompany the expedition. Ross himself was an artist, and he has delightfully illustrated his own journals of the expedition. The ships were well supplied with books, and we find the journals of Mackenzie, Hearne, Vancouver, Cook, and other old travelling friends taken for reference--thirty Bibles and sixty Testaments were distributed among the crews. For making friends with the natives, we find a supply of twenty-four brass kettles, one hundred and fifty butchers' knives, three hundred and fifty yards of coloured flannel, one hundred pounds of snuff, one hundred and fifty pounds of soap, forty umbrellas, and much gin and brandy. The expedition left on 18th April 1818, and "I believe," says Ross, "there was not a man who did not indulge after the fashion of a sailor in feeling that its issue was placed in His hands whose power is most visible in the Great Deep." Before June had set in, the two ships were ploughing their way up the west coast of Greenland in heavy snowstorms. They sailed through Davis Strait, past the island of Disco into Baffin's undefined bay. Icebergs stood high out of the water on all sides, and navigation was very dangerous. Towards the end of July a bay to which Ross gave the name of Melville Bay, after the first Lord of the Admiralty, was passed. "Very high mountains of land and ice were seen to the north side of Melville's Bay, forming an impassable barrier, the precipices next the sea being from one thousand to two thousand feet high." The ships were sailing slowly past the desolate shores amid these high icebergs when suddenly several natives appeared on the ice. Now Ross had brought an Eskimo with him named Sacheuse. "Come on!" cried Sacheuse to the astonished natives. "No--no--go away!" they cried. "Go away; we can kill you!" "What great creatures are these?" they asked, pointing to the ships. "Do they come from the sun or the moon? Do they give us light by night or by day?" Pointing southwards, Sacheuse told them that the strangers had come from a distant country. "That cannot be; there is nothing but ice there," was the answer. Soon the Englishmen made friends with these people, whom they called Arctic Highlanders, giving the name of the Arctic Highlands to all the land in the north-east corner of Baffin's Bay. Passing Cape York, they followed the almost perpendicular coast, even as Baffin had done. They passed Wolstenholme Sound and Whale Sound; they saw Smith's Sound, and named the capes on either side Isabella and Alexander after their two ships. And then Ross gave up all further discovery for the time being in this direction. "Even if it be imagined that some narrow strait may exist through these mountains, it is evident that it must for ever be unnavigable," he says decidedly. "Being thus satisfied that there could be no further inducement to continue longer in this place, I shaped my course for the next opening which appeared in view to the westward." This was the Sound which was afterwards called "Jones Sound." "We ran nine miles among very heavy ice, until noon, when, a very thick fog coming on, we were obliged to take shelter under a large iceberg." Sailing south, but some way from land, a wide opening appeared which answered exactly to the Lancaster Sound of Baffin. Lieutenant Parry and many of his officers felt sure that this was a strait communicating with the open sea to westward, and were both astonished and dismayed when Ross, declaring that he was "perfectly satisfied that there was no passage in this direction," turned back. He brought his expedition back to England after a seven months' trip. But, though he was certain enough on the subject, his officers did not agree with him entirely, and the subject of the North-West Passage was still discussed in geographical circles. When young Lieutenant Parry, who had commanded the _Alexander_ in Ross' expedition, was consulted, he pressed for further exploration of the far north. And two expeditions were soon fitted out, one under Parry and one under Franklin, who had already served with Flinders in Australian exploration. Parry started off first with instructions to explore Lancaster's Sound; failing to find a passage, to explore Alderman Jones Sound, failing this again, Sir Thomas Smith's Sound. If he succeeded in getting through to the Behring Strait, he was to go to Kamtchatka and on to the Sandwich Islands. "You are to understand," ran the instructions, "that the finding of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific is the main object of this expedition." On board the _Hecla_, a ship of three hundred and seventy-five tons, with a hundred-and-eighty-ton brig, the _Griper_, accompanying, Parry sailed away early in May 1819. The first week in July found him crossing the Arctic Circle amid immense icebergs against which a heavy southerly swell was violently agitated, "dashing the loose ice with tremendous force, sometimes raising a white spray over them to the height of more than a hundred feet, accompanied with a loud noise exactly resembling the roar of distant thunder." The entrance to Lancaster Sound was reached on 31st July, and, says Parry: "It is more easy to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the Sound." Officers and men crowded to the masthead as the ships ran on and on till they reached Barrow's Strait, so named by them after the Secretary of the Admiralty. "We now began to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the Polar Sea, and some of the most sanguine among us had even calculated the bearing and distance of Icy Cape as a matter of no very difficult accomplishment." Sailing westward, they found a large island, which they named Melville Island after the first Lord of the Admiralty, and a bay which still bears the name of Hecla and Griper Bay. "Here," says Parry, "the ensigns and pendants were hoisted, and it created in us no ordinary feelings of pleasure to see the British flag waving, for the first time, in those regions which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits of the habitable world." [Illustration: PARRY'S SHIPS, THE _HECLA_ AND _GRIPER_, IN WINTER HARBOUR, DECEMBER 1819. From a drawing in Parry's _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, 1821.] Winter was now quickly advancing, and it was with some difficulty that the ships were forced through the newly formed ice at the head of the Bay of the Hecla and Griper. Over two miles of ice, seven inches thick, had to be sawn through to make a canal for the ships. As soon as they were moored in "Winter Harbour" the men gave three loud and hearty cheers as a preparation for eight or nine months of long and dreary winter. By the end of September all was ready; plenty of grouse and deer remained as food through October, after which there were foxes and wolves. To amuse his men, Parry and his officers got up a play; _Miss in her Teens_ was performed on 5th November, the last day of sun for ninety-six days to come. He also started a paper, _The North Georgian Gazette and Winter Chronicle_, which was printed in England on their return. The New Year, 1819, found the winter growing gloomier. Scurvy had made its appearance, and Parry was using every device in his power to arrest it. Amongst other things he grew mustard and cress in boxes of earth near the stove pipe of his cabin to make fresh vegetable food for the afflicted men. Though the sun was beginning to appear again, February was the coldest part of the year, and no one could be long out in the open without being frostbitten. It was not till the middle of April that a slight thaw began, and the thermometer rose to freezing point. On 1st August the ships were able to sail out of Winter Harbour and to struggle westward again. But they could not get beyond Melville Island for the ice, and after the ships had been knocked about by it, Parry decided to return to Lancaster Sound once more. Hugging the western shores of Baffin's Bay, the two ships were turned homewards, arriving in the Thames early in November 1820. "And," says Parry, "I had the happiness of seeing every officer and man on board both ships--ninety-three persons--return to their native country in as robust health as when they left it, after an absence of nearly eighteen months." [Illustration: THE SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE: THE CREWS OF PARRY'S SHIPS, THE _HECLA_ AND _GRIPER_, CUTTING THROUGH THE ICE FOR A WINTER HARBOUR, 1819. Drawn by William Westall, A.R.A., after a sketch by Lieut. Beechey, a member of the expedition.] Parry had done more than this. He not only showed the possibility of wintering in these icy regions in good health and good spirits, but he had certainly discovered straits communicating with the Polar sea. [Illustration: THE NORTH SHORE OF LANCASTER SOUND. From a drawing in Parry's _Voyage for the North-West Passage_, 1821.] CHAPTER LII THE FROZEN NORTH Meanwhile Franklin and Parry started on another expedition in the same month and year. While Parry's orders were to proceed from east to west, Franklin was to go from west to east, with a chance--if remote--that they might meet. He was to go by Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Copper Mine River and then make his way by sea eastward along the coast. Franklin had made himself a name by work done in the Spitzbergen waters; he was to succeed in the end where others had failed in finding the North-West Passage. The party selected for this work consisted of Captain Franklin, Dr. Richardson, a naval surgeon, two midshipmen, Back and Hood, one of whom was afterwards knighted, and an English sailor named John Hepburn. Just a fortnight after Parry's start these five English explorers sailed on board a ship belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, but it was the end of August before they arrived at the headquarters of the Company. They were cordially received by the Governor, and provided with a large boat well stored with food and arms. Amid a salute of many guns and much cheering the little party, with some Canadian rowers, started off for Cumberland House, one of the forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company. Six weeks' hard travelling by rivers and lakes, now dragging the boats round rapids, now sleeping in "buffalo-robes" on the hard ground, brought the party to the first stage of their journey. Snow was now beginning to fall, and ice was thick on the rivers, when Franklin resolved to push on to Lake Athabasca that he might have more time to prepare for the coming voyage in the summer. Leaving Richardson and Hood at the fort, he started off with Back and the faithful Hepburn on 18th January 1820, in the very heart of the Arctic winter. Friends at the fort had provided him with Indian snowshoes turned up at the toes like the prow of a boat--with dog sledges, furs, leather trousers, drivers, and food for a fortnight. The snow was very deep, and the dogs found great difficulty in dragging their heavy burdens through the snow. But the record was good. A distance of eight hundred and fifty-seven miles was accomplished in sixty-eight days, with the thermometer at fifty degrees below zero. The hardships endured are very briefly recorded: "Provisions becoming scarce; dogs without food, except a little burnt leather; night miserably cold; tea froze in the tin pots before we could drink it." Lake Athabasca was reached on the 26th of March and preparations for the voyage were pushed forward. Four months later they were joined by Richardson and Hood. "This morning Mr. Back and I had the sincere gratification of welcoming our long-separated friends, Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who arrived in perfect health with two canoes." This is the simple entry in Franklin's journal. Everything was now ready. Spring in these northern climates was enchanting. "The trees quickly put on their leaves after the long, hard winter months, and the whole vegetable world comes forth with a luxuriance no less astonishing than agreeable." At the same time clouds of mosquitoes and stinging sand-flies made the nights horrible. On 18th July the little party in high glee set forward in canoes rowed by Canadian boatmen, hoping to reach the Copper Mine River before winter set in. But the difficulties of the way were great, provisions were scarce, the boatmen grew discontented, ice appeared early, and Franklin had to satisfy himself with wintering at a point five hundred and fifty miles from Lake Athabasca, which he called Fort Enterprise. Here there was prospect of plenty, for large herds of reindeer were grazing along the shores of the lake, and from their flesh "pemmican" was made; but the winter was long and cheerless, and Franklin soon realised that there was not enough food to last through it. So he dispatched the midshipman Back to Lake Athabasca for help. Back's journey was truly splendid, and we cannot omit his simple summary: "On the 17th of March," he says, "at an early hour we arrived at Fort Enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a day. I had the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health, after an absence of nearly five months, during which time I had travelled one thousand one hundred and four miles on snow-shoes and had no other covering at night than a blanket and deer skin, with the thermometer frequently at forty degrees below zero, and sometimes two or three days without tasting food." By his courage and endurance he saved the whole party at Fort Enterprise. By June the spring was sufficiently advanced to set out for the Copper Mine River, and on July they reached the mouth after a tedious journey of three hundred and thirty-four miles. [Illustration: A WINTER VIEW OF FORT ENTERPRISE. From a drawing, by Wm. Back, in Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1823.] The real work of exploration was now to begin, and the party embarked in two canoes to sail along the southern coast of the Polar sea, with the possibility always of meeting the Parry expedition. But the poor Canadian boatmen were terrified at the sight of the sea on which they had never yet sailed, and they were with difficulty persuaded to embark. Indeed, of the two crews, only the five Englishmen had ever been on the sea, and it has been well said that this voyage along the shores of the rock-bound coast of the Arctic sea must always take rank as one of the most daring and hazardous exploits that have ever been accomplished in the interest of geographical research. The two canoes hugged the icy coast as they made their way eastward, and Franklin named the bays, headlands, and islands for a distance of five hundred and fifty-five miles, where a point he called Cape Turnagain marks his farthest limit east. Here is George IV. Coronation Gulf studded with islands, Hood's River, Back's River, Bathurst's Inlet, named after the Secretary of State, and Parry Bay after "my friend, Captain Parry, now employed in the interesting research for a North-West Passage." [Illustration: FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION TO THE POLAR SEA ON THE ICE. From a drawing, by Wm. Back, in Franklin's _Journey to the Polar Sea_, 1823.] The short season for exploration was now over; rough weather and want of food turned them home, only half satisfied with their work. The worst part of their journey was yet to come. Perhaps never, even in the tragic history of Arctic exploration, had greater hardships been endured than Franklin and his handful of men were to endure on their homeward way. On 22nd August the party left Point Turnagain, hoping by means of their newly discovered Hood River to reach Fort Enterprise. The ground was already covered with snow, and their food was reduced to one meal a day when they left the shores of the Arctic sea for their long inland tramp. Needless to say, the journey had to be performed on foot, and the way was stony and barren. For the first few days nothing was to be found save lichen to eat, and the temperature was far below freezing-point. An uncooked cow after six days of lichen "infused spirit into our starving party," relates Franklin. But things grew no better, and as they proceeded sadly on their way, starvation stared them in the face. One day we hear of the pangs of hunger being stilled by "pieces of singed hide mixed with lichen"; another time the horns and bones of a dead deer were fried with some old shoes and the "putrid carcase of a deer that had died the previous spring was demolished by the starving men." At last things grew so bad that Franklin and the most vigorous of his party pushed on to Fort Enterprise to get and send back food if possible to Richardson and Hood, who were now almost too weak and ill to get along at all. Bitter disappointment awaited them. "At length," says Franklin, "we reached Fort Enterprise, and to our infinite disappointment and grief found it a perfectly desolate habitation. There were no provisions--no Indians. It would be impossible for me to describe our sensations after entering this miserable abode and discovering how we had been neglected; the whole party shed tears, not so much for our own fate as for that of our friends in the rear, whose lives depended entirely on our sending immediate relief from this place." A few old bones and skins of reindeer were collected for supper and the worn-out explorers sat round a fire made by pulling up the flooring of the rooms. It is hardly a matter of surprise to find the following entry in Franklin's journal: "When I arose the following morning my body and limbs were so swollen that I was unable to walk more than a few yards." Before November arrived another tragedy happened. Hood was murdered by one of the party almost mad with hunger and misery. One after another now dropped down and died, and death seemed to be claiming Franklin, Richardson, Back, and Hepburn when three Indians made their appearance with some dried deer and a few tongues. It was not a moment too soon. The Indians soon got game and fish for the starving men, until they were sufficiently restored to leave Fort Enterprise and make their way to Moose Deer Island, where, with the Hudson Bay officers, they spent the winter recovering their health and strength and spirits. When they returned to England in the summer of 1822 they had accomplished five thousand five hundred and fifty miles. They had also endured hardships unsurpassed in the history of exploration. When Parry returned to England the following summer and heard of Franklin's sufferings he cried like a child. He must have realised better than any one else what those sufferings really were, though he himself had fared better. While Franklin had been making his way to the Copper Mine River, Parry on board the _Fury_, accompanied by the _Hecla_, started for Hudson's Strait, by which he was to penetrate to the Pacific, if possible. Owing to bad weather, the expedition did not arrive amid the icebergs till the middle of June. Towering two hundred feet high, the explorers counted fifty-four at one time before they arrived at Resolution Island at the mouth of Hudson Strait. There were already plenty of well-known landmarks in the region of Hudson's Bay, and Parry soon made his way to Southampton Island and Frozen Strait (over which an angry discussion had taken place some hundred years before). He was rewarded by discovering "a magnificent bay," to which he gave the name of the "Duke of York's Bay." The discovery, however, was one of little importance as there was no passage. The winter was fast advancing, the navigable season was nearly over, and the explorers seemed to be only at the beginning of their work. The voyage had been dangerous, harassing, unproductive. They had advanced towards the Behring Strait; they had discovered two hundred leagues of North American coast, and they now prepared to spend the winter in these icebound regions. As usual Parry arranged both for the health and amusement of his men during the long Arctic months--even producing a "joint of English roast beef" for Christmas dinner, preserved "by rubbing the outside with salt and hanging it on deck covered with canvas." There were also Eskimos in the neighbourhood, who proved a never-ceasing source of interest. [Illustration: AN ESKIMO WATCHING A SEAL HOLE. From a drawing in Parry's _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1824.] One day in April--snow had been falling all night, news spread that the Eskimos "had killed something on the ice." "If the women," says Parry, "were cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. A general shout of joy re-echoed through the village; they ran into each others' huts to communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight. When the first burst of joy had at last subsided the women crept one by one into the apartment where the sea-horses had been conveyed. Here they obtained blubber enough to set all their lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat for their children and themselves. Fresh cargoes were continually arriving, the principal part being brought in by the dogs and the rest by the men, who tied a thong round their waist and dragged in a portion. Every lamp was now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited a blaze of light, and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while the cutting up of the walruses continued." For three solid hours the Eskimos appeared to be eating walrus flesh. "Indeed, the quantity they continued to get rid of is almost beyond belief." It was not till early in July that the ship could be moved out of their winter's dock to renew their efforts towards a passage. They were not a little helped by Eskimo charts, but old ice blocked the way, and it was the middle of August before Parry discovered the Strait he called after his two ships, "the Strait of the Fury and Hecla," between Melville Peninsula and Cockburn Island. Confident that the narrow channel led to the Polar seas, Parry pushed on till "our progress was once more opposed by a barrier of the same impenetrable and hopeless ice as before." He organised land expeditions, and reports, "The opening of the Strait into the Polar sea was now so decided that I considered the principal object of my journey accomplished." September had come, and once more the ships were established in their winter quarters. A second month in among the ice must have been a severe trial to this little band of English explorers, but cheerfully enough they built a wall of snow twelve feet high round the _Fury_ to keep out snowdrifts. The season was long and severe, and it was August before they could get free of ice. The prospect of a third winter in the ice could not be safely faced, and Parry resolved to get home. October found them at the Shetlands, all the bells of Lerwick being set ringing and the town illuminated with joy at the arrival of men who had been away from all civilisation for twenty-seven months. On 14th November 1823 the expedition arrived home in England. Still the restless explorer was longing to be off again; he was still fascinated by the mysteries of the Arctic regions, but on his third voyage we need not follow him, for the results were of no great importance. The _Fury_ was wrecked amid the ice in Prince Regent's Inlet, and the whole party had to return on board the _Hecla_ in 1825. CHAPTER LIII FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH The northern shores of North America were not yet explored, and Franklin proposed another expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, where the party was to divide, half of them going to the east and half to the west. Nothing daunted by his recent sufferings, Franklin accepted the supreme command, and amid the foremost volunteers for service were his old friends, Back and Richardson. The officers of the expedition left England in February 1825, and, travelling by way of New York and Canada, they reached Fort Cumberland the following June; a month later they were at Fort Chipewyan on the shores of Lake Athabasca, and soon they had made their way to the banks of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake into the Mackenzie River, down which they were to descend to the sea. They decided to winter on the shores of the Bear Lake; but Franklin could never bear inaction, so he resolved to push on to the mouth of the Great River with a small party in order to prospect for the coming expedition. So correct had been Mackenzie's survey of this Great River, as it was called, that Franklin, "in justice to his memory," named it the Mackenzie River after its "eminent discoverer," which name it has borne ever since. In a little English boat, with a fair wind and a swift current, Franklin accomplished three hundred and twelve miles in about sixty hours. The saltness of the water, the sight of a boundless horizon, and the appearance of porpoises and whales were encouraging signs. They had reached the Polar sea at last--the "sea in all its majesty, entirely free from ice and without any visible obstruction to its navigation." On reaching the coast a silken Union Jack worked by Franklin's dying wife was unfurled. She had died a few days after he left England, but she had insisted on her husband's departure in the service of his country, only begging him not to unfurl her flag till he arrived at the Polar shores. As it fluttered in the breeze of these desolate shores, the little band of Englishmen cheered and drank to the health of the King. "You can imagine," says Franklin, "with what heartfelt emotion I first saw it unfurled; but in a short time I derived great pleasure in looking at it." It was too late to attempt navigation for this year, although the weather in August was "inconveniently warm," so on 5th September, Franklin returned to winter quarters on the Great Bear Lake. During his absence a comfortable little settlement had grown up to accommodate some fifty persons, including Canadian and Indian hunters with their wives and children. In honour of the commander it had been called Fort Franklin, and here the party of explorers settled down for the long months of winter. [Illustration: FORT FRANKLIN, ON THE GREAT BEAR LAKE, IN THE WINTER. From a drawing in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar Sea_, 1828.] "As the days shortened," says Franklin, "it was necessary to find employment during the long evenings for those resident at the house, and a school was established from seven to nine for their instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, attended by most of the British party. Sunday was a day of rest, and the whole party attended Divine Service morning and evening. If on other evenings the men felt the time tedious, the hall was at their service to play any game they might choose, at which they were joined by the officers. Thus the men became more attached to us, and the hearts and feelings of the whole party were united in one common desire to make the time pass as agreeably as possible to each other, until the return of spring should enable us to resume the great object of the expedition." April brought warmer weather, though the ground was still covered with snow, and much boat-building went on. In May swans had appeared on the lake, then came geese, then ducks, then gulls and singing birds. By June the boats were afloat, and on the 24th the whole party embarked for the Mackenzie River and were soon making their way to the mouth. Here the party divided. Franklin on board the _Lion_, with a crew of six, accompanied by Back on board the _Reliance_, started westwards, while Richardson's party was to go eastwards and survey the coast between the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Copper Mine. On 7th July, Franklin reached the sea, and, with flags flying, the _Lion_ and the _Reliance_ sailed forth on the unknown seas, only to ground a mile from shore. Suddenly some three hundred canoes full of Eskimos crowded towards them. These people had never seen a white man before, but when it was explained to them that the English had come to find a channel for large ships to come and trade with them, they "raised the most deafening shout of applause." They still crowded round the little English boats, till at last, like others of their race, they began to steal things from the boats. When detected they grew furious and brandished knives, they tore the buttons off the men's coats, and for a time matters looked serious till the English showed their firearms, when the canoes paddled away and the Eskimos hid themselves. With a fair wind the boats now sailed along the coast westward, till stopped by ice, which drove them from the shore. Dense fogs, stormy winds, and heavy rain made this Polar navigation very dangerous; but the explorers pushed on till, on 27th July, they reached the mouth of a broad river which, "being the most westerly river in the British dominions on this coast and near the line of demarcation between Great Britain and Russia, I named it the Clarence," says Franklin, "in honour of His Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral." A box containing a royal medal was deposited here, and the Union Jack was hoisted amid hearty cheers. [Illustration: FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION CROSSING BACK'S INLET. From a drawing, by Lieut. Back, in Franklin's _Second Expedition to the Polar Sea_, 1828.] Still fogs and storms continued; the farther west they advanced, the denser grew the fog, till by the middle of August, winter seemed to have set in. The men had suffered much from the hard work of pulling and dragging the heavy boats; they also endured torments from countless swarms of mosquitoes. They were now some three hundred and seventy-four miles from the mouth of the Mackenzie River and only half-way to Icy Cape; but Franklin, with all his courage and with all his enthusiasm, dared not risk the lives of his men farther. "Return Reef" marks his farthest point west, and it was not till long after that he learnt that Captain Beechey, who had been sent in the _Blossom_ by way of Behring Strait, had doubled Icy Cape and was waiting for Franklin one hundred and sixty miles away. On 21st September, Fort Franklin was reached after three months' absence. Dr. Richardson had already returned after a successful coast voyage of some eight hundred miles. When he had left Franklin he had, on board the _Dolphin_, accompanied by the _Union_, sailed along the unknown coast eastward. Like Franklin's party, his expedition had also suffered from fogs, gales, and mosquitoes, but they had made their way on, naming inlets, capes, and islands as they passed. Thus we find Russell Inlet, Point Bathurst, Franklin's Bay, Cape Parry, the Union and Dolphin Straits, named after the two little ships, where the _Dolphin_ was nearly wrecked between two masses of ice. They had reached Fort Franklin in safety just before Franklin's party, and, being too late to think of getting home this year, they were all doomed to another winter at the Fort. They reached England on 26th September 1827, after an absence of two years and a half. Franklin had failed to find the North-West Passage, but he and Richardson had discovered a thousand miles of North American coast, for which he was knighted and received the Paris Geographical Society's medal for "the most important acquisition to geographical knowledge" made during the year. It was a curious coincidence that the two Arctic explorers, Franklin and Parry, both arrived in England the same month from their various expeditions, and appeared at the Admiralty within ten minutes of one another. CHAPTER LIV PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE Parry had left England the preceding April in an attempt to reach the North Pole by means of sledges over the ice. To this end he had sailed to Spitzbergen in his old ship the _Hecla_, many of his old shipmates sailing with him. They arrived off the coast of Spitzbergen about the middle of May 1827. Two boats had been specially built in England, covered with waterproof canvas and lined with felt. The _Enterprise_ and _Endeavour_ had bamboo masts and paddles, and were constructed to go on sledges, drawn by reindeer, over the ice. "Nothing," says Parry, "can be more beautiful than the training of the Lapland reindeer. With a simple collar of skin round his neck, a single trace of the same material attached to the sledge and passing between his legs, and one rein fastened like a halter round his neck, this intelligent and docile animal is perfectly under the command of an experienced driver, and performs astonishing journeys over the softest snow. Shaking the rein over his back is the only whip that is required." Leaving the _Hecla_ in safe harbour on the Spitzbergen coast, Parry and James Ross, a nephew of John Ross, the explorer, with food for two months, started off in their two boat-sledges for the north. They made a good start; the weather was calm and clear, the sea smooth as a mirror--walruses lay in herds on the ice, and, steering due north, they made good progress. Next day, however, they were stopped by ice. Instead of finding a smooth, level plain over which the reindeer could draw their sledges with ease, they found broken, rugged, uneven ice, which nothing but the keen enthusiasm of the explorer could have faced. The reindeer were useless, and they had to be relinquished; it is always supposed that they were eaten, but history is silent on this point. The little party had to drag their own boats over the rough ice. They travelled by night to save snow-blindness, also that they could enjoy greater warmth during the hours of sleep by day. [Illustration: THE BOATS OF PARRY'S EXPEDITION HAULED UP ON THE ICE FOR THE NIGHT. From a drawing in Parry's _Attempt to Reach the North Pole_, 1828.] Parry describes the laborious journey: "Being 'rigged' for travelling," he says, "we breakfasted upon warm cocoa and biscuit, and after stowing the things in the boats we set off on our day's journey, and usually travelled about five and a half hours, then stopped an hour to dine, and again travelled five or six hours. After this we halted for the night as we called it, though it was usually early in the morning, selecting the largest surface of ice we happened to be near for hauling the boats on. The boats were placed close alongside each other, and the sails supported by bamboo masts placed over them as awnings. Every man then put on dry socks and fur boots and went to supper. Most of the officers and men then smoked their pipes, which served to dry the awnings. We then concluded our day with prayers and, having put on our fur dresses, lay down to sleep," alone in the great ice desert. Progress was slow and very tedious. One day it took them four hours to cover half a mile. On 1st July they were still labouring forward; a foot of soft snow on the ground made travelling very exhausting. Some of the hummocks of ice were as much as twenty-five feet above sea-level; nothing was to be seen but ice and sky, both often hidden by dense fog. Still the explorers pushed on, Parry and Ross leading the way and the men dragging the boat-sledges after. July 12th was a brilliant day, with clear sky overhead--"an absolute luxury." For another fortnight they persevered, and on 23rd July they reached their farthest point north. It was a warm, pleasant day, with the thermometer at thirty-six in the shade; they were a hundred and seventy-two miles from Spitzbergen, where the _Hecla_ lay at anchor. "Our ensigns and pendants were displayed during the day, and severely as we regretted not having been able to hoist the British flag in the highest latitude to which we had aspired, we shall perhaps be excused in having felt some little pride in being the bearers of it to a parallel considerably beyond that mentioned in any other well-authenticated record." On 27th July they reluctantly turned to the south, and on 21st August they arrived on board the _Hecla_ after an absence of sixty-one days, every one of the party being in good health. Soon after they sailed for England, and by a strange coincidence arrived in London at the same time as Franklin. Many an attempt was yet to be made to reach the North Pole, till at last it was discovered by Peary, an American, in 1909. CHAPTER LV THE SEARCH FOR TIMBUKTU It is a relief to turn from the icy north to the tropical climate of Central Africa, where Mungo Park had disappeared in 1805. The mystery of Timbuktu and the Niger remained unsolved, though more than one expedition had left the coast of Africa for the "mystic city" lying "deep in that lion-haunted inland." Notwithstanding disaster, death, and defeat, a new expedition set forth from Tripoli to cross the great Sahara Desert. It was under Major Denham, Lieutenant Clapperton, and Dr. Oudney. They left Tripoli in March 1822. "We were the first English travellers," says Denham, "who had determined to travel in our real character as Britons and Christians, and to wear our English dress: the buttons on our waistcoats and our watches caused the greatest astonishment." It was the end of November before they were ready to leave the frontier on their great desert journey. The long enforced stay in this unhealthy border town had undermined their health; fever had reduced Denham, Dr. Oudney was suffering from cough and pains in his chest, Clapperton was shivering with ague--a state of health "ill-calculated for undertaking a long and tedious journey." A long escort of men and camels accompanied them into the merciless desert, with its burning heat and drifting sands--"the Sea of Sahara" as the old cartographer calls it. December found them still slowly advancing over the billowy sand, deeply impressed and horrified at the number of slave skeletons that lay about the wind-swept desert. The new year brought little relief. "No wood, no water," occurs constantly in Denham's journal. "Desert as yesterday; high sandhills." Still they persevered, until, on 4th February 1823, they were rewarded by seeing a sheet of water, "the great Lake Tchad, glowing with the golden rays of the sun in its strength." Was this, after all, the source of the Niger? Its low shores were surrounded with reedy marshes and clumps of white water-lilies, there were flocks of wild ducks and geese, birds with beautiful plumage were feeding on the margin of the lake, pelicans, cranes, immense white spoonbills, yellow-legged plover--all were dwelling undisturbed in this peaceful spot. And this most remarkable lake lay eight hundred feet above the Atlantic, between the watersheds of Nile, Niger, and Congo. But Lake Tchad was not their goal; they must push on over new country where no European had been before. A fortnight later they reached Kukawa, the capital of Bornu, once a great Mohammedan empire. "We were about to become acquainted with a people who had never seen or scarcely heard of a European," says Denham, "and to tread on ground, the knowledge and true situation of which had hitherto been wholly unknown. We advanced towards the town of Kuka in a most interesting state of uncertainty, whether we should find its chief at the head of thousands, or be received by him under a tree, surrounded by a few naked slaves." Their doubts were soon set at rest by the sight of several thousand cavalry, drawn up in line. They were received by an Arab general, "a negro of noble aspect, dressed in a figured silk robe and mounted on a beautiful horse." They had passed from the region of hidden huts to one of great walled cities, from the naked pagan to the cultivated follower of Mohammed, from superstition to mosques and schools, from ignorance to knowledge. The Sheikh, who received the travellers in a small room with armed negroes on either side, asked the reason of their long and painful journey across the desert. "To see the country," answered the Englishmen, "and to give an account of its inhabitants, produce, and appearance, as our sultan was desirous of knowing every part of the globe." [Illustration: MAJOR DENHAM AND HIS PARTY RECEIVED BY THE SHEIKH OF BORNU. From a drawing by Major Denham.] The Sheikh's hospitality was overwhelming; he had huts built for them, "which," says Denham, "were so crowded with visitors that we had not a moment's peace, and the heat was insufferable." He sent presents of bullocks, camel-loads of wheat and rice, leather skins of butter, jars, and honey. The market of Kuka was famous. It was attended by some fifteen thousand persons from all parts, and the produce sold there was astonishing. Here Clapperton and Dr. Oudney stayed all through the summer months, for both were ill, and Oudney was growing rapidly worse. Denham meanwhile went off on exploring expeditions in the neighbourhood. On 14th December, Clapperton and Oudney left the friendly Sheikh and made their way to Kano. But the rough travelling proved too much for Oudney; each day found him weaker, but he valiantly journeyed on. On 12th January he ordered the camels to be loaded as usual, and he was dressed by Clapperton, but he was too ill to be lifted on to his camel, and a few hours later he died. Clapperton was now alone "amid a strange people" in a land "hitherto never trodden by European foot," and very ill himself. But he reached Kano, the famous trading centre of the Haussas, containing some forty thousand inhabitants. Here again the market impressed him deeply, so full was it of cosmopolitan articles from far-distant lands. After a month's stay at Kano, now the capital of the northern province of Nigeria of that name, he set out for Sokoto, though very ill and weak at the time. He was assured of kind treatment by the Sultan. He arrived on 16th March, and "to impress them with my official importance I arrayed myself in my lieutenant's coat trimmed with gold lace, white trousers, and silk stockings, and, to complete my finery, I wore Turkish slippers and a turban." Crowds collected on his arrival, and he was conducted to the Sultan, who questioned him closely about Europe. "I laid before him a present in the name of His Majesty the King of England, consisting of two new blunderbusses, an embroidered jacket, some scarlet breeches, cloves and cinnamon, gunpowder, razors, looking-glasses, snuff-boxes, and compasses." "Everything is wonderful!" exclaimed the Sultan; "but you are the greatest curiosity of all! What can I give that is acceptable to the King of England?" "Co-operate with His Majesty in putting a stop to the slave trade," was Clapperton's answer. "What, have you no slaves in England?" The Englishman replied, "No!" to which the Sultan answered: "God is great; you are a beautiful people." But when Clapperton asked for leave in order to solve the mystery of the Niger, the Sultan refused, and he was obliged to return to Kuka, where he arrived on 8th July. A week later he was joined by Denham. "It was nearly eight months since we had separated," says Denham, "and I went immediately to the hut where he was lodged; but so satisfied was I that the sunburnt, sickly person that lay extended on the floor, rolled in a dark-blue shirt, was not my companion, that I was about to leave the place, when he convinced me of my error by calling me by my name. Our meeting was a melancholy one, for he had buried his companion. Notwithstanding the state of weakness in which I found Captain Clapperton, he yet spoke of returning to Sudan after the rains." But this was not to be, and a month later we find the two explorers turning homewards to Tripoli, where they arrived at the end of January. But, with all his long travelling in Africa, Clapperton had not seen the Niger, and, although the effects of his fever had not worn away, he spent but two months in England before he was off again. This time he sailed to the Gulf of Guinea, and from a place on the coast near the modern Lagos he started by a new and untried route to reach the interior of the great Dark Continent. It was September 1825 when he left the coast with his companions. Before the month was over, the other Europeans had died from the pestilential climate of Nigeria, and Clapperton, alone with his faithful servant, Richard Lander, pushed on. At last he saw the great Niger near the spot where Mungo Park and his companions had perished. At Bussa they made out the tragic story of his end. They had descended the river from Timbuktu to Bussa, when the boat struck upon some rocks. Natives from the banks shot at them with arrows; the white men then, seeing all was lost, jumped into the river and were drowned. The Niger claimed its explorer in the end, and the words of Mungo Park must have occurred to Clapperton as he stood and watched: "Though I myself were half-dead, I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least die on the Niger." From Bussa, Clapperton made his way to Kano and Sokoto; but on 13th April 1827, broken down by fever, he died in the arms of his faithful servant. With his master's papers and journal, Lander made his way home, thus establishing for the first time a direct connection between Benin and Tripoli, the west coast and the north. Still the mouth of the Niger had not been found. This discovery was reserved for this very Richard Lander and his brother John. Just a year after the death of Clapperton a young Frenchman, Rene Caille, tempted by the offer of ten thousand francs offered by the French Geographical Society for the first traveller who should reach that mysterious city, entered Timbuktu 20th April 1829, after a year's journey from Sierra Leone. And from his pen we get the first direct account of the once important city. "At length," he says, "we arrived safely at Timbuktu, just as the sun was touching the horizon. I now saw this capital of the Sudan, to reach which had so long been the object of my wishes. To God alone did I confide my joy. I looked around and found that the sight before me did not answer my expectations. I had formed a totally different idea of the grandeur and wealth of it. The city presented nothing but a mass of ill-looking houses, built of earth. Nothing was to be seen in all directions but immense plains of quicksand of a yellowish white colour. The sky was a pale red as far as the horizon, all nature wore a dreary aspect, and the most profound silence prevailed: not even the warbling of a bird was to be heard. The heat was oppressive; not a breath of air freshened the atmosphere. This mysterious city, which has been the object of curiosity for many ages, and of whose civilisation, population, and trade with the Sudan such exaggerated notions have prevailed, is situated in an immense plain of white sand, having no vegetation but stunted trees and shrubs, and has no other resources save its trade in salt." [Illustration: THE FIRST EUROPEAN PICTURE OF TIMBUKTU. From a drawing in Caille's _Tomboctou_, 1829.] It is curious to note what a burst of interest was aroused in England at this time with regard to Timbuktu. Thackeray wrote in 1829-- "In Africa (a quarter of the world) Men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curl'd; And somewhere there, unknown to public view, A mighty city lies, called Timbuktu." while the same year Tennyson's poem on Timbuktu won for him the prize at Cambridge University for the best poem of the year. CHAPTER LVI RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER DISCOVER THE MOUTH OF THE NIGER Lander, the "faithful attendant of the late Captain Clapperton," as he is called in his instructions, was burning to be off again to explore further the mysterious Niger. No pecuniary reward was to be his; he was a poor man, and just for the love of exploring the unknown he started off. He had inspired his brother with a desire to solve the great mystery; so on 22nd February 1830 the two brothers arrived at Cape Coast Castle and made their way to Bussa, which place they entered on 18th June. Sitting on a rock overlooking the spot where Mungo Park had perished, the brothers resolved to "set at rest for ever the great question of the course and termination of the great Niger." It was 20th September before preparations were completed for the eventful voyage from Bussa to the mouth of the Niger. For provisions they took three large bags of corn and one of beans, a couple of fowls, and two sheep to last a month, while the king added rice, honey, onions, and one hundred pounds of vegetable butter. Then in two native canoes the Landers embarked on the great river, the "Dark Water" as it was more often called, while the crowds who came down to the riverside to bid them farewell knelt with uplifted hands, imploring for the explorers the protection of Allah and their prophet. It was indeed a perilous undertaking; sunken reefs were an ever-present danger, while the swift current ran them dangerously near many jagged rocks. For nearly a month they paddled onward with their native guides in anxiety and suspense, never knowing what an hour might bring forth. On 7th October a curious scene took place when the King of the Dark Water came forth in all his pomp and glory to see the white strangers who were paddling down the great river. Waiting under the shade of a tree, for the morning was very hot, the Landers observed a large canoe paddled by twenty young black men singing as they rowed. In the centre of the boat a mat awning was erected: in the bows sat four little boys "clad with neatness and propriety," while in the stern sat musicians with drums and trumpets. Presently the king stepped forth. He was coal black, dressed in an Arab cloak, Haussa trousers, and a cap of red cloth, while two pretty little boys about ten years of age, acting as pages, followed him, each bearing a cow's tail in his hand to brush away flies and other insects. Six wives, jet black girls in neat country caps edged with red silk, accompanied him. To make some impression on this pompous king, Lander hoisted the "Union flag." "When unfurled and waving in the wind, it looked extremely pretty, and it made our hearts glow with pride and enthusiasm as we looked at the solitary little banner. I put on an old naval uniform coat, and my brother dressed himself in as grotesque and gaudy a manner as our resources would afford; our eight attendants also put on new white Mohammedan robes." Other canoes joined the royal procession and the little flotilla moved down the river. "Never did the British flag lead so extraordinary a squadron," remarks Lander. As the King of the Dark Water stepped on shore the Englishmen fired a salute, which frightened him not a little till the honour was explained. Having now exchanged their two canoes for one of a larger size, they continued their journey down the river. [Illustration: RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER PADDLING DOWN THE NIGER. From a drawing in the account of Lander's _Travels_, 1835.] On 25th October they found the waters of the Niger were joined by another large river known to-day as the Benue, the Mother of Waters, flowing in from the east. After this the banks of the river seemed to grow hilly, and villages were few and far between. "Our canoe passed smoothly along the Niger, and everything was silent and solitary; no sound could be distinguished save our own voices and the plashing of the paddles with their echoes; the song of birds was not heard, nor could any animal whatever be seen; the banks seemed to be entirely deserted, and the magnificent Niger to be slumbering in its own grandeur." "One can imagine the feelings," says a modern writer, "in such circumstances of the brothers, drifting they knew not whither, in intolerable silence and loneliness on the bosom of a river which had caused the death of so many men who had endeavoured to wrest from it its secret." Two days later a large village appeared, and suddenly a cry rang through the air: "Holloa, you Englishmen! You come here!" It came from a "little squinting fellow" dressed in an English soldier's jacket, a messenger from the Chief of Bonney on the coast, buying slaves for his master. He had picked up a smattering of English from the Liverpool trading ships which came to Bonney for palm-oil from the river. There was no longer any doubt that the mouth of the Niger was not far off, and that the many-mouthed delta was well known to Europeans under the name of the "Oil Rivers" flowing into the Bight of Benin. Lander pushed on till he had paddled down the Brass River, as one of the many branches was called, when he heard "the welcome sound of the surf on the beach." The mystery of the Niger, after a lapse of two thousand five hundred years since its existence had been recorded by Herodotus, was solved at last. CHAPTER LVII ROSS DISCOVERS THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE The first attempt to discover the North-West Passage by means of steam instead of sail was made by Captain Ross, who, since his expedition in 1819, had been burning to set off again for the Arctic regions. The reward of 20,000 pounds held out to the discoverer of a north-west passage had been repealed, but an old friend, Felix Booth, decided to finance Ross, the Government having refused. "After examining various steamships advertised for sale," says Ross, "I purchased the _Victory_, which had been once employed as a packet." With food and fuel for one thousand days, and accompanied by his nephew, James Ross, who had been with Parry on his recent Polar voyage, he left England the end of May 1829, not to return for many a long year. Disasters soon began. The _Victory_ began to leak, her engines were defective, and there was nothing for it but to heave up her paddles and trust to sail. Sailing to the northward, they found the sea smooth and the weather so warm that they could dine without a fire and with the skylights off. Entering Lancaster Sound, they sailed up Prince Regent's Inlet. They soon discovered the spot where the _Fury_ had been wrecked four years before and abandoned by Captain Parry with whom was James Ross, who now found the stores which had been safely hidden on that occasion. As they made their way up the inlet, strong currents and vast masses of ice hard and solid as granite more than once threatened them with destruction. "Imagine," says Captain Ross, "these mountains hurled through a narrow strait by a rapid tide, meeting with the noise of thunder, breaking from each other's precipices huge fragments, till, losing their former equilibrium, they fall over headlong, lifting the sea around in breakers and whirling it in eddies." Escaping these perils, Ross entered a fine harbour. Here he landed, hoisted the colours, and took possession of the new land he had found, and, drinking the King's health, called the land Boothia, after his patron. For the next two months, August and September, he carefully explored the coast of this newly discovered Boothia for some three hundred miles, naming points and capes and islands after friends at home and on board. Heavy squalls of snow and ever-thickening ice pointed out the necessity of winter quarters, and 1st October found the _Victory_ imprisoned by thick immovable ice. "The prison door was shut upon us for the first time," says Ross sadly. "Nothing was to be seen but one dazzling, monotonous extent of snow. It was indeed a dull prospect. Amid all its brilliancy, this land of ice and snow has ever been, and ever will be, a dull, dreary, heart-sinking, monotonous waste, under the influence of which the very mind is paralysed. Nothing moves and nothing changes, but all is for ever the same--cheerless, cold, and still." The explorers little thought that this was to be their home for the next three years. They spent a fairly cheerful Christmas with mince pies and "iced cherry brandy" taken from the stores of the _Fury_, and early in 1830 the monotony was broken by the appearance of Eskimos. These were tremendously dressed up in furs, a shapeless mass, and Ross describes one as resembling "the figure of a globe standing on two pins." They soon became friendly, taking the Englishmen to see their snow huts, drawing them charts of Boothia Gulf beyond Felix Harbour, while in exchange the explorers taught English to the little Eskimo children and ministered to their ailments, the ship's carpenter even making a wooden leg for one of the natives. [Illustration: ROSS'S WINTER QUARTERS IN FELIX HARBOUR.] [Illustration: THE FIRST COMMUNICATION WITH ESKIMOS AT BOOTHIA FELIX, JANUARY 1830. SIR JOHN ROSS'S EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE, 1829-1833. From drawings by Ross in his _Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage_.] So the long winter passed away. A few land journeys with sledges only ended in disappointment, but at last the vessel was free of ice and joyfully they hoisted her sails. But worse disappointment was in store. She had sailed for three miles when they met a ridge of ice, and a solid sea forbade any further advance. In vain did they try to saw through the ice. November found the poor _Victory_ hopelessly icebound and her crew doomed to another winter in the same region. It was not till May that a journey across the land of Boothia to the west coast was possible. Ross and his nephew had been calculating the position of the North Magnetic Pole all the long winter, and with signs of spring they set forth. "Our journey had a very new appearance. The mother of two Eskimos led the way with a staff in her hand, my sledge following with the dogs and one of the children, guided by one of the wives with a child on her back. After a native sledge came that of Commander Ross, followed by more Eskimos. Many halts were made, as our burdens were heavy, the snow deep, and the ice rough." After a fortnight's travelling past the chain of great lakes--the woman still guiding them--the Rosses, uncle and nephew, separated. James Ross now made for the spot where the Magnetic Pole was supposed to be. His own account shows with what enthusiasm he found it. "We were now within fourteen miles of the calculated position of the Magnetic Pole and now commenced a rapid march, and, persevering with all our might, we reached the calculated place at eight in the morning of the 1st of June. I must leave it to others to imagine the elation of mind with which we found ourselves now at length arrived at this great object of our ambition. It almost seemed as if we had accomplished everything that we had come so far to see and to do; as if our voyage and all its labours were at an end, and that nothing remained for us but to return home and be happy for the rest of our days. Amid mutual congratulation we fixed the British flag on the spot and took possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in the name of Great Britain and King William IV. We had plenty of materials for building, and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude under which we buried a canister containing a record of the interesting fact." Another fortnight found the successful explorers staggering back to the _Victory_ with their great news, after an absence of twenty-eight days. Science has shown that the Magnetic Pole revolves, and that Ross's cairn will not again mark its exact position for many a long year to come. [Illustration: THE ROSSES ON THEIR JOURNEY TO THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE. From a drawing in Ross's _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1835.] By the end of August the ice had broken and the _Victory_ was once more in full sail, but gales of wind drove her into harbour, which she never left again. Despite their colossal efforts, it soon became apparent that yet another winter would have to be passed in the frozen seas. The entries in Ross's journal become shorter and more despondent day by day. "The sight of ice to us is a plague, a vexation, a torment, an evil, a matter of despair. Could we have skated, it would not have been an amusement; we had exercise enough and, worst of all, the ice which surrounds us obstructed us, imprisoned us, annoyed us in every possible manner, had become odious to our sight." By October there was no open water to be seen; "the hopeful did not hope more, and the despondent continued to despair." This was their third winter in the ice--food was growing scarce, the meat was so hard frozen that it had to be cut with a saw or thawed in warm cocoa. Snow-blindness afflicted many of the men badly. At last came the summer of 1833, but the _Victory_ was still fast in her winter quarters, and all attempts to release her had failed. They now decided to abandon her and to drag their boats over the ice to the wreck of the _Fury_, replenishing their stores and trusting to some whaler to take them home. We get a pathetic picture. "The colours were hoisted," says Ross, "and nailed to the mast, we drank a parting glass to our poor old ship, and, having seen every man out, I took my own adieu of the _Victory_ in the evening. She had deserved a better fate. It was like parting with an old friend." On 23rd April the weary explorers began dragging their boats and the last month's provisions over the ice in the face of wind and snow. The journey was painful and distressing. They found Barrow's Strait full of impenetrable ice, and resolved to pass the winter on Fury beach, which seemed almost like home to the half-starved men. Erecting a house which they called "Somerset House," they prepared for a fourth winter. For severity it was unequalled, the crew developed scurvy, and all were suffering sorely when, in the following August, the unfortunate party was rescued by the whaler, "_Isabella_ of Hull, once commanded by Captain Ross." It was the ship in which Ross had made his first Arctic exploration. At first the mate refused to believe the story of these "bear-like" men. The explorers and Ross had been lost these two years. But, almost frantic with delight, the explorers climbed on board the _Isabella_ to be received with the heartiest of cheers when their identity was disclosed. "That we were a repulsive-looking people, none could doubt," says poor Ross, "unshaven since I know not when, dirty, dressed in rags of wild beasts, and starved to the very bones, our gaunt and grim looks, when contrasted with those of the well-dressed and well-fed men around us, made us all feel what we really were, as well as what we seemed to others." Then followed a wild scene of "washing, dressing, shaving, eating, all intermingled," while in the midst of all there were questions to be asked and the news from England to be heard. Long accustomed to a cold bed on the hard snow or the bare rock, few of them could sleep that night in the comfort of the new accommodation. They were soon safely back in England, large crowds collecting to get a glimpse of Captain Ross. His own words best end the account of his travels. "On my arrival in London," he says, "on the 20th of October 1883, it became my first duty to repair to the royal palace at Windsor, with an account of my voyage, and to lay at the feet of His Majesty the British flag which had been hoisted on the Magnetic Pole." [Illustration: "SOMERSET HOUSE," ROSS'S WINTER QUARTERS ON FURY BEACH. From a drawing in Ross's _Second Voyage for a North-West Passage_, 1835.] CHAPTER LVIII FLINDERS NAMES AUSTRALIA We must now return to Australia, as yet so imperfectly explored, and take up the story of the young colony at Sydney. For seven years it thrived under the careful management of Governor Phillips, who was then replaced by one Hunter. With the new governor from England arrived two young men destined to distinguish themselves in the exploration of New South Wales. They were midshipman Matthew Flinders and surgeon George Bass. The reading of _Robinson Crusoe_ had created in young Flinders a passion for sea-adventure, and no sooner had the _Reliance_ anchored in Sydney harbour than the two young friends resolved on an exploring expedition to the south. For there were rumours afloat that Van Diemen's Land did not join the main continent of New South Wales. Little enough help was forthcoming for the expedition, and the friends had to content themselves with a little boat eight feet long--the _Tom Thumb_--and only a boy to help them. But with all the eager enthusiasm of youth they sailed from Port Jackson on 25th March 1796. It is impossible to follow all their adventures as they attempted the survey of the coast. A storm on the 29th nearly swallowed up the little _Tom Thumb_ and her plucky sailors. "At ten o'clock," says Flinders, "the wind, which had been unsettled and driving electric clouds in all directions, burst out in a gale. In a few minutes the waves began to break, and the extreme danger to which this exposed our little bark was increased by the darkness of the night and the uncertainty of finding any place of shelter. Mr. Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawing in a few inches occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy sea following. I was steering with an oar. A single wrong movement or a moment's inattention would have sent us to the bottom. After running near an hour in this critical manner, some huge breakers were distinguished ahead; it was necessary to determine what was to be done at once, for our bark could not live ten minutes longer. On coming to what appeared to be the extremity of the breakers, the boat's head was brought to the wind, the mast and sail taken down, and the oars taken out. Pulling then towards the reef during the intervals of the heaviest seas, in three minutes we were in smooth water--a nearer approach showed us the beach of a well-sheltered cove in which we anchored for the rest of the night. We thought Providential Cove a well-adapted name for the place." [Illustration: MATTHEW FLINDERS.] Important local discoveries were made by the young explorers, and their skill and courage earned for them a better equipment for further exploration. A whale-boat provisioned for six weeks, and a crew of six, were placed at the disposal of Bass in order that he might discover whether Van Diemen's Land was joined to the mainland or whether there was a strait between. Cook had declared that there was no strait. Flinders now tells the story of his friend's triumphant success in finding the straits that now bear his name. He tells how Bass found the coast turning westward exposed to the billows of a great ocean, of the low sandy shore, of the spacious harbour which "from its relative position to the hitherto known parts of the coasts was called Port Western." His provisions were now at an end and, though he was keen to make a survey of his new discovery, he was obliged to return. This voyage of six hundred miles in an open boat on dangerous and unknown shores is one of the most remarkable on record. It added another three hundred miles of known coast-line, and showed that the shores of New Holland were divided from Van Diemen's Land. So highly did the colonists appreciate this voyage of discovery that the whale-boat in which Bass sailed was long preserved as a curiosity. A small boat of twenty-five tons, provisioned for twelve weeks, was now put at the disposal of the two friends, Flinders and Bass, to complete the survey of Van Diemen's Land, and in October 1798 they sailed for the south. With gales and strong winds blowing across the channel now known as Bass Strait, they made their way along the coast--the northern shores of Van Diemen's Land--till they found a wide inlet. Here they found a quantity of black swans, which they ate with joy, and also kangaroos, mussels, and oysters. This inlet they called Port Dalrymple, after the late hydrographer to the Admiralty in England. On 9th December, still coasting onward, they passed Three-Hummock Island and then a whole cluster of islands, to which, "in honour of His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, I gave the title of Hunter's Isles." And now a long swell was noticed from the south-west. "It broke heavily upon a small reef and upon all the western shores, but, although it was likely to prove troublesome and perhaps dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual congratulation, as announcing the completion of our long-wished-for discovery of a passage into the southern Indian Ocean." Calling the point where the island coast turned Cape Grime, they sailed along the western shores, their little boat exposed to the swell of the southern ocean. Sailing joyfully from point to point and naming them at will, the two explorers reached the extreme west, which they called South-West Cape. This had been already sighted by one of Cook's party in 1773. South Cape and Tasman's Head had been likewise charted as points at the extreme south of New South Wales. So the explorers sailed right round the island on which Tasman had landed one hundred and fifty-six years before, and after an absence of five months they reached Sydney with their important news. Bass now disappears from the annals of exploration, but his friend Flinders went off to England and found in our old friend Banks a powerful friend. He was given a stout north-country ship, H.M.S. _Investigator_ of three hundred and thirty-four tons, with orders to return to New Holland and make a complete survey of the coast, and was off again in July 1801 with young John Franklin, his nephew, aboard. The _Investigator_ arrived at Cape Leuwin in December and anchored in King George's Sound, discovered by Vancouver some ten years before. By the New Year he was ready to begin his great voyage round the Terra Australis, as the new country was still called. Indeed, it was Flinders who suggested the name of Australia for the tract of land hitherto called New Holland. His voyage can easily be traced on our maps to-day. Voyaging westward through the Recherches group of islands, Flinders passed the low, sandy shore to a cape he named Cape Pasley, after his late Admiral; high, bleak cliffs now rose to the height or some five hundred feet for a distance of four hundred and fifty miles--the great Australian Bight. Young Franklin's name was given to one island, Investigator to another, Cape Catastrophe commemorated a melancholy accident and the drowning of several of the crew. Kangaroo Island speaks for itself. Here they killed thirty-one dark-brown kangaroos. "The whole ship's company was employed this afternoon skinning and cleaning the kangaroos, and a delightful regale they afforded after four months' privation from almost any fresh provisions. Half a hundredweight of heads, forequarters, and tails were stewed down into soup for dinner, and as much steaks given to both officers and men as they could consume by day and night." [Illustration: CAPE CATASTROPHE. From Flinders' _Voyages_.] In April 1802 a strange encounter took place, when suddenly there appeared a "heavy-looking ship without any top-gallant masts up," showing a French ensign. Flinders cleared his decks for action in case of attack, but the strangers turned out to be the French ship _Le Geographe_, which, in company with _Le Naturaliste_, had left France, 1800, for exploration of the Australian coasts. Now it was well known that Napoleon had cast longing eyes upon the Terra Australis--indeed, it is said that he took with him to Egypt a copy of _Cook's Voyages_. Flinders, too, knew of this French expedition, but he was not specially pleased to find French explorers engaged on the same work as himself. The commanders met as friends, and Baudin, the French explorer, told how he had landed also near Cape Leuwin in May 1801, how he had given the names of his two ships to Cape Naturaliste and Geographe Bay, and was now making his way round the coast. Flinders little guessed at this time that the French were going to claim the south of New South Wales as French territory under the name of Terra Napoleon, though it was common knowledge that this discovery was made by Englishmen. "Ah, captain," said one of the French crew to Flinders, "if we had not been kept so long picking up shells and catching butterflies at Van Diemen's Land you would not have discovered this coast before us." When Baudin put in at Port Jackson a couple of months later, he inquired of the Governor the extent of British claims in the Pacific. "The whole of Tasmania and Australia are British territory," was the firm answer. After this encounter Flinders discovered and named Port Phillip, at the head of which stands the famous city of Melbourne to-day, and then made his way on to Port Jackson. He had managed his crews so well that the inhabitants of Port Jackson declared they were reminded of England by the fresh colour of the men amongst the _Investigator_ ship's company. The Frenchmen had not fared so well. One hundred and fifty out of one hundred and seventy were down with scurvy and had to be taken to the hospital at Sydney. Before the end of July, Flinders was off again, sailing northwards along the eastern coast of New South Wales. October found him passing the Great Barrier reefs, and on the 21st he had reached the northernmost point, Cape York. Three days of anxious steering took the _Investigator_ through Torres Strait, and Flinders was soon sailing into the great Gulf of Carpentaria. Still hugging the coast, he discovered a group of islands to the south of the gulf, which he named the Wellesley Islands, after General Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. Here he found a wealth of vegetation; cabbage palm was abundant, nutmegs plentiful, and a sort of sandal-wood was growing freely. He spent one hundred and five days exploring the gulf; then he continued his voyage round the west coast and back to Port Jackson by the south. He returned after a year's absence with a sickly crew and a rotten ship. Indeed, the _Investigator_ was incapable of further service, and Flinders decided to go back to England for another ship. As passenger on board the _Porpoise_, early in August 1802, he sailed from Sydney for the Torres Strait accompanied by two returning transports. All went well for the first four days, and they had reached a spot on the coast of Queensland, when a cry of "Breakers ahead!" fell on the evening air. In another moment the ship was carried amongst the breakers and struck upon a coral reef. So sudden was the disaster that there was no time to warn the other ships closely following. As the _Porpoise_ rolled over on her beam ends, huge seas swept over her and the white foam leapt high. Then the mast snapped, water rushed in, and soon the _Porpoise_ was a hopeless wreck. A few minutes later, one of the transports struck the coral reef: she fell on her side, her deck facing the sweeping rollers, and was completely wrecked. The other transport escaped, sailed right away from the scene of disaster, and was never seen again by the crew of the _Porpoise_. The dawn of day showed the shipwrecked crew a sandbank, to which some ninety-four men made their way and soon set sailcloth tents on the barren shore. They had saved enough food for three months. Flinders as usual was the moving spirit. A fortnight later in one of the ship's boats, with twelve rowers and food for three weeks, he left Wreck Reef amid ringing cheers to get help from Sydney for the eighty men left on the sandbank. "The reader," says the hero of this adventure, "has perhaps never gone two hundred and fifty leagues at sea in an open boat or along a strange coast inhabited by savages; but, if he recollect the eighty officers and men upon Wreck Reef, and how important was our arrival to their safety and to the saving of the charts, journals, and papers of the _Investigator's_ voyage, he may have some idea of the pleasure we felt, particularly myself, at entering our destined port." Half-starved, unshaven, deplorable indeed were the men when they staggered into Sydney, and "an involuntary tear started from the eye of friendship and compassion" when the Governor learnt how nearly Flinders and his friends had lost their lives. [Illustration: THE HUTS OF THE CREW OF THE _PORPOISE_ ON THE SANDBANK, WRECK REEF. From Flinders' _Voyages_.] A few days later Flinders left Sydney for the last time, in a little home-built ship of twenty-nine tons, the _Cumberland_. It was the first ship ever built in the colony, and the colonists were glad it should be of use to the man who had done so much for their country. With all his papers and his beloved journals, Flinders put to sea accompanied by a ship to rescue the men left on Wreck Reef. Three months later, owing to the leaky condition of the ship, he landed at Mauritius. Here he was taken prisoner and all his papers and journals were seized by the French. During his imprisonment a French_ Voyage of Discovery_ was issued, Napoleon himself paying a sum of money to hasten publication. All the places discovered by Flinders, or "Monsieur Flinedore" as the French called him, were called by French names. Fortunately before reaching Mauritius, Flinders had sent duplicate copies of his charts home, and the whole fraud was exposed. Flinders did not reach home till 1810. A last tragedy awaited him. For he died in 1814, on the very day that his great book, _The Voyage to Terra Australis_, was published. Flinders was a true explorer, and as he lay dying he cried, "I know that in future days of exploration my spirit will rise from the dead and follow the exploring ship!" CHAPTER LIX STURT'S DISCOVERIES IN AUSTRALIA Since the days of Flinders, much discovery had been done in the great new island-continent of Australia. The Blue Mountains had been crossed, and the river Macquarie discovered and named after the governor of that name. But Sturt's famous discovery of the river Darling and his descent of the Murray River rank among the most noteworthy of a bewildering number of lesser expeditions. Captain Sturt landed with his regiment, the 39th, at Sydney in the year 1827, "to guard the convicts." His first impressions of Sydney are interesting. "Cornfield and orchard," he says, "have supplanted wild grass and brush; on the ruins of the forest stands a flourishing town; and the stillness of that once desert shore is now broken by the bugle and by the busy hum of commerce. It is not unusual to see from thirty to forty vessels from every quarter of the globe riding at anchor at one time." Sir Ralph Darling, Governor of New South Wales, soon formed a high opinion of Sturt's ability, and when an expedition was proposed into the interior for further exploration, he appointed him leader. There was a universal opinion in the colony that in the middle of the unknown continent lay a large inland sea. Oxley had made his way to a shallow ocean of reeds where the river Macquarie disappeared; natives spoke of "large waters" containing "great fish." To open up the country and to ascertain the truth of these rumours were the objects of this new expedition which left Sydney in November 1828. It consisted of Hamilton Hume, the first Australian-born explorer, two soldiers, eight convicts, fifteen horses, ten bullocks, and a small boat on a wheeled carriage. Across the roadless Blue Mountains they started, followed the traces of Oxley, who had died just a week before they started, and about Christmas time they passed his last camp and began to break new ground. Through thickets of reeds and marshy swamps they pushed on; the river Macquarie had entirely disappeared, but on 2nd February they suddenly found a large river some eighty yards broad enclosing an unbroken sheet of deep water. "Our surprise and delight," says Sturt, "are better imagined than described. Our difficulties seemed at an end. The banks were too steep to allow of watering the cattle, but the men eagerly descended to quench a thirst increased by the powerful sun. Never shall I forget their cry of amazement, nor the terror and disappointment with which they called out that the water was too salt to drink!" Leaving his party, Sturt pushed on, but no fresh water was to be found, so he named the river the Darling, after the Governor, and returned, but not till he had discovered brine springs in the bed of the river, which accounted for its saltness. Sturt had found no inland sea, but in the Darling he had discovered a main channel of the western watershed. He now proposed to follow the line of the Murrumbidgee, "a river of considerable size and impetuous current," and to trace it if possible into the interior. Several of his old party again joined him, and once more he rode out of Sydney on this new quest. The journey to the banks of the Murrumbidgee lay through wild and romantic country, but as they journeyed farther, broad reed belts appeared by the river, which was soon lost in a vast expanse of reeds. For a moment or two Sturt was as one stunned; he could neither sleep nor rest till he had regained the river again. When at last he did so he found the water was deep, the current rapid, and the banks high. But he turned on all hands to build the whale-boat which he had designed at Sydney for the purpose. Early in January he writes home: "I was checked in my advance by high reeds spreading as far as the eye can reach. The Murrumbidgee is a magnificent stream. I do not yet know its fate, but I have taken to the boats. Where I shall wander to God only knows. I have little doubt, however, that I shall ultimately make the coast." By 6th January the boat was ready and Sturt started on his memorable voyage. After passing the junction of the Lachlan, the channel gradually narrowed; great trees had been swept down by the floods and navigation rendered very dangerous. Still narrower grew the stream, stronger the current. "On a sudden, the river took a general southern direction. We were carried at a fearful rate down its gloomy banks, and at such a moment of excitement had little time to pay attention to the country through which we were passing. At last we found we were approaching a junction, and within less than a minute we were hurried into a broad and noble river. It is impossible to describe the effect upon us of so instantaneous a change. We gazed in silent wonder on the large channel we had entered." The Murrumbidgee had joined the great Murray River as Sturt now called it, after Sir George Murray of the Colonial Department. To add to the unknown dangers of the way, numbers of natives now appeared in force on the banks of the river, threatening the white men with "dreadful yells and with the beating of spears and shields." Firearms alone saved the little crew, and the rage of the natives was turned to admiration as they watched the white men paddling on their great river while some seventy black men swam off to the boat like "a parcel of seals." The explorers now found a new and beautiful stream flowing into the Murray from the north, up which the boat was now turned, natives anxiously following along the grassy banks, till suddenly a net stretched across the stream checked their course. Sturt instinctively felt he was on the river Darling again. "I directed that the Union Jack should be hoisted, and we all stood up in the boat and gave three distinct cheers. The eye of every native was fixed upon that beautiful flag as it waved over us in the heart of a desert." While they were still watching, Sturt turned the head of the boat and pursued his way down the great Murray River. Stormy weather at the end of January set in; though they were yet one hundred and fifteen miles from the coast, the river increased in breadth, cliffs towered above them, and the water dashed like sea-waves at their base. On the 5th of February they were cheered by the appearance of sea-gulls and a heavy swell up the river, which they knew must be nearing the sea. On the twenty-third day of their voyage they entered a great lake. Crossing to the southern shore, they found to their bitter grief that shoals and sandbanks made it impossible for them to reach the sea. They found that the Murray flowed into Encounter Bay, but thither they could not pass. The thunder of the surf upon the shore brought no hope to the tired explorers. They had no alternative but to turn back and retrace their way. Terrible was the task that lay before them. On half-rations and with hostile natives to encounter they must fight their way against wind and stream. And they did it. They reached the camp on the Murrumbidgee just seventy-seven days after leaving it; but to their dismay it was deserted. The river, too, had risen in flood and "poured its turbid waters with great violence." [Illustration: CAPTAIN STURT AT THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVERS DARLING AND MURRAY. From the _Narrative of Sturt's Expedition_.] "For seventeen days," says Sturt, "we pulled against stream with determined perseverance, but in our short daily journeys we made but trifling way against it." The effects of severe toil were painfully evident. The men lost the muscular jerk with the oars. Their arms were nerveless, their faces haggard, their persons emaciated, their spirits wholly spent. From sheer weariness they fell asleep at the oar. No murmur, however, escaped them. "I must tell the captain to-morrow," said one, thinking that Sturt was asleep, "that I can pull no more." But when the morrow came he said no word, but pulled on with his remaining strength. One man went mad. The last ounce of flour was consumed when relief arrived, and the weary explorers at last reached Sydney with their great news. The result of this discovery was soon seen. In 1836 a shipload of English emigrants arrived off Kangaroo Island, and soon a flourishing colony was established at the mouth of the Murray River, the site of the new capital being called Adelaide, after the wife of William IV. After this Sturt tried to cross Australia from south to north; but though he opened up a good deal of new country, he failed to reach the coast. He was rewarded by the President of the Royal Geographical Society, who described him as "one of the most distinguished explorers and geographers of our age." The feat of crossing Australia from south to north, from shore to shore, was reserved for an Irishman called Burke in the year 1861. The story of his expedition, though it was successful, is one of the saddest in the history of discovery. The party left Melbourne in the highest spirits. No expense had been spared to give them a good outfit; camels had been imported from India, with native drivers, and food was provided for a year. The men of Melbourne turned out in their hundreds to see the start of Burke with his four companions, his camels, and his horses. Starting in August 1860, the expedition arrived at Cooper's Creek in November with half their journey done. But it was not till December that the party divided, and Burke with his companions, Wills, King, and Gray, six camels, and two horses, with food for three months, started off for the coast, leaving the rest at Cooper's Creek to await their return in about three months. After hard going they reached a channel with tidal waters flowing into the Gulf of Carpentaria on 28th March, but they could not get a view of the open ocean because of boggy ground. [Illustration: THE BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION LEAVING MELBOURNE, 1860. From a drawing by Wm. Strutt, an acquaintance of Burke.] They accomplished their task, but the return journey was disastrous. Short rations soon began to tell, for they had taken longer than they had calculated, and no food was to be found by the way. Gray was the first to fail and to die. Heavy rains made the ground impossibly heavy, and the camels sank to the ground exhausted. Finally they had to be killed and eaten. Then the horses went. At long last the three weary men and two utterly worn-out camels dragged themselves to Cooper's Creek, hoping to find their companions and the food they had left there four months ago. It was 21st April. Not a soul was to be seen! "King," cried Wills, in utter despair, "they are _gone_!" As the awful truth flashed on them Burke--their leader--threw himself on to the ground, realising their terrible situation. They looked round. On a tree they saw the word "Dig." In a bottle they found a letter: "We leave the camp to-day, 21st April 1861. We have left you some food. We take camels and horses." [Illustration: BURKE AND WILLS AT COOPER'S CREEK. From a woodcut in a contemporary Australian account of the expedition.] Only a few hours ago the party had left Cooper's Creek! And the explorers were too weak and tired to follow! They ate a welcome supper of oatmeal porridge and then, after resting a couple of days; they struggled on their way, three exhausted men and two tired camels. Their food was soon finished, and they had to subsist on a black seed like the natives called "nardoo." But they grew weaker and weaker, and the way was long. The camels died first. Then Wills grew too ill to walk, and there was nothing for it but to leave him and push on for help. The natives were kind to him, but he was too far gone, and he died before help could arrive. Burke and King sadly pushed on without him, but a few days later Burke died, and in the heart of Australia the one white man, King, was left alone. It was not till the following September that he was found "sitting in a hut that the blacks had made for him. He presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to a shadow and hardly to be distinguished as a civilised being except by the remnants of clothes on him." So out of that gay party of explorers who left Melbourne in the summer of 1860 only one man returned to tell the story of success and the sadder story of suffering and disaster. CHAPTER LX ROSS MAKES DISCOVERIES IN THE ANTARCTIC SEAS Now, while explorers were busy opening up Australian inland, Ross was leaving the Australian waters for his voyage to the south. Four years after the return of the Ross polar expedition, Sir John Franklin had been made Governor of Van Diemen's Land, where he was visited by the ships sent out from England on the first Antarctic expedition under the command of Sir James Ross, who had returned to find himself famous for his discovery of the North Magnetic Pole. An expedition had been fitted out, consisting of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_--ships which later on made history, for did they not carry Sir John Franklin to his doom in the Arctic regions some years later? The ships sailed in the autumn of 1839 by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and excited great interest at Hobart Town, where the commanders, Ross and Crozier, were warmly received by the Governor. In a bay, afterwards called Ross Cove, the ships were repaired after the long voyage, while an observatory was built by the convicts under the personal supervision of Sir John Franklin. Interesting news awaited the explorers, too, at Hobart Town. Exploration had taken place in the southern regions by a French expedition under D'Urville and an American, Lieutenant Wilkes--both of which had made considerable discoveries. Ross was somewhat surprised at this, for, as he said, "England had ever _led_ the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the northern regions," but he decided to take a more easterly course, and, if possible, to reach the South Magnetic Pole. On 5th November 1840 the ships were off again, shaping their course for Auckland Island, nine hundred miles from Hobart Town. The island had been discovered in 1806 by Captain Bristow. He had left some pigs, whose rapid increase filled the explorers with surprise. Christmas Day found them still sailing south, with strong gales, snow, and rain. The first iceberg was seen a few days later, and land on 11th January. "It was a beautifully clear evening," says Ross, "and we had a most enchanting view of the two magnificent ranges of mountains whose lofty peaks, perfectly covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations of ten thousand feet above the level of the ocean." These icy shores were inhospitable enough, and the heavy surf breaking along its edge forbade any landing. Indeed, a strong tide carried the ships rapidly and dangerously along the coast among huge masses of ice. "The ceremony of taking possession of these newly discovered lands in the name of our Most Gracious Sovereign Queen Victoria was proceeded with, and on planting the flag of our country amid the hearty cheers of our party, we drank to the health, long life, and happiness of Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Albert." The end of the month found them farther south than any explorer had sailed before. Everything was new, and they were suddenly startled to find two volcanoes, one of which was active; steam and smoke rising to a height of two thousand feet above the crater and descending as mist and snow. Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, Ross called them, in memory of his two ships. They sailed on, but soon were stopped by a huge barrier of solid ice like a great white wall, one thousand feet thick and one hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. They knew now they could get no farther this season--they had reached a point one hundred and sixty miles from the Pole. Could they but have wintered here "in sight of the brilliant burning mountain and at so short a distance from the Magnetic Pole," they might easily have reached it the following spring,--so they thought,--but reluctantly Ross had to turn. "Few can understand the deep feelings of regret with which I felt myself compelled to abandon the perhaps too ambitious hope I had so long cherished of being permitted to plant the flag of my country on both Magnetic Poles of our globe." The whole of the great southern land they had discovered received the name of Queen Victoria, which name it keeps to-day. They had been south of the Antarctic Circle for sixty-three days, when they recrossed it on 4th March. A few days later they narrowly escaped shipwreck. An easterly wind drove them among some hundreds of icebergs. "For eight hours," says Ross, "we had been gradually drifting towards what to human eyes appeared inevitable destruction; the high waves and deep rolling of our ships rendered towing with boats impossible, and our situation was the more painful from our inability to make any effort to avoid the dreadful calamity that seemed to await us. The roar of the surf, which extended each way as far as we could see, and the dashing of the ice fell upon the ear with painful distinctness as we contemplated the awful destruction that threatened in one short hour to close the world and all its hopes and joys and sorrows upon us for ever. In this deep distress we called upon the Lord ... and our cry came before Him. A gentler air of wind filled our sails; hope again revived, and before dark we found ourselves far removed from every danger." [Illustration: PART OF THE GREAT SOUTHERN ICE BARRIER, 450 MILES LONG, 180 FEET ABOVE SEA-LEVEL, AND 1000 FEET THICK. From Ross's _Voyage in Antarctic Regions_.] April found them back again in Van Diemen's land, and though Ross sailed again the following autumn into southern latitudes, he only reached a point some few miles farther than before--being again stopped by a great wall barrier of thick ice. After this he took his ship home by way of Cape Horn, and "the shores of Old England came into view on the 2nd of September 1843." After an absence of four years Ross was welcomed home, and honours were showered on him, including the award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Paris. "Till then they had deemed that the Austral earth, With a long, unbroken shore, Ran on to the Pole Antarctic, For such was the old sea lore." CHAPTER LXI FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE The whole coast-line of North America had now been charted, but the famous North-West Passage, for which so many lives had been laid down, had yet to be found. Sir John Barrow, "the father of modern Arctic discovery," Secretary to the Admiralty, now decided to dispatch another expedition to forge this last link and to connect, if possible, the chain of all former discoveries. Many were the volunteers who came forward to serve in the new Arctic expedition. But Sir John Franklin claimed the command as his special right. "No service," he declared, "is nearer to my heart." He was reminded that rumour put his age at sixty, and that after a long life of hard work he had earned some rest. "No, no!" cried the explorer; "I am only fifty-nine!" This decided the point, and Franklin was appointed to the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, recently returned from the Antarctic expedition of Sir James Ross. The ships were provisioned for three years, and with a crew of one hundred and twenty-nine men and several officers, Sir John Franklin left England for the last time on 19th May 1845. He was never seen again! All were in the highest spirits, determined to solve the mystery of the North-West Passage once and for all! So certain were they of success that one of the officers wrote to a friend: "Write to Panama and the Sandwich Islands every six months." On 4th July the ships anchored near the island of Disco on the west coast of Greenland. After which all is silence. The rest of the story, "one of the saddest ever told in connection with Arctic exploration," is dovetailed together from the various scraps of information that have been collected by those who sailed in search of the lost expedition year by year. In 1848, Sir James Ross had sailed off in search of his missing friend, and had reached a spot within three hundred miles of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ four months after they had been abandoned, but he returned with no news of Franklin. Then Sir John Richardson started off, but found no trace! Others followed. The Government offered 20,000 pounds, to which Lady Franklin added 3000 pounds, to any one who should bring news of Franklin. By the autumn of 1850 there were fifteen ships engaged in the search. A few traces were found. It was discovered that Sir John Franklin had spent his first winter (1845-46) at Beechey Island. Captain McClure sailed along the north coast of America and made his way from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean--thus showing the existence of a north-west passage, for which he and his men were highly rewarded, for at this time no one knew that Franklin had already found a passage though he had not lived to tell the story of triumph and success. But it was not till after years of silence that the story of the missing expedition was cleared up. Lady Franklin purchased and fitted out a little steam yacht, the _Fox_, of one hundred and seventy-seven tons. The command was given to Captain McClintock, known to be an able and enthusiastic Arctic navigator. He was to rescue any "possible survivor of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, and to try and recover any records of the lost expedition." [Illustration: ESKIMOS AT CAPE YORK WATCHING THE APPROACH OF THE _FOX_. From McClintock's _Voyage in Search of Franklin_.] The 12th August found the little _Fox_ in Melville Bay made fast to an iceberg, and a few days later she was frozen firmly into an ice-pack. For two hundred and forty-two days she was beset, drifting all through the long, bitter winter with the ice, till on 25th April 1858, after having been carried over a thousand miles, she was released. McClintock, undaunted by danger, turned northwards, and by May he had reached Melville Bay. Thence up Lancaster Sound, he reached Beechey Island in August and found there three lonely graves of three sailors from the _Erebus_ and _Terror_. Here the English commander erected a tablet sent out by Lady Franklin. [Illustration: THE THREE GRAVES ON BEECHEY ISLAND. From McClintock's _Voyage in Search of Franklin_.] On the morning of 16th August, McClintock sailed from Beechey Island, but the short summer was passing quickly and they had no fresh news of the Franklin expedition. Half-way through Bellot Strait the _Fox_ was again icebound, and another long winter had to be faced. By the middle of February 1859 there was light enough to start some sledging along the west coast of Boothia Felix. Days passed and McClintock struggled on to the south, but no Eskimos appeared and no traces of the lost explorers were to be found. Suddenly they discovered four men walking after them. A naval button on one of the Eskimos attracted their attention. "It came," said the Eskimo, "from some white people who were starved upon an island where there are salmon, but none of them had seen the white men." Here was news at last--McClintock travelled on some ten miles to Cape Victoria, where the Eskimos built him a "commodious snow-hut in half an hour." Next morning the entire village of Eskimos arrived--some forty-five people--bringing relics of the white men. There were silver spoons, part of a gold chain, buttons, knives made of the iron and wood of the wrecked ships. But none of these people had seen the white men--one man said he had seen their bones upon the island where they died, but some were buried. They said a ship "having three masts had been crushed by the ice out in the sea to the west of King William's Island." One old man made a rough sketch of the coast-line with his spear upon the snow; he said it was eight journeys to where the ship sank. McClintock hastened back to the ship with his news--he had by his sleigh-journey added one hundred and twenty miles to the old charts and "completed the discovery of the coast-line of Continental America." [Illustration: EXPLORING PARTIES STARTING FROM THE _FOX_. From McClintock's _Voyage of the_ "Fox" _in Search of Franklin_.] On 2nd April more sledge-parties started out to reach King William's Island--the cold was still intense, the glare of the sun painful to their eyes. The faces and lips of the men were blistered and cracked; their fingers were constantly frostbitten. After nearly three weeks' travelling they found snow-huts and Eskimos at Cape Victoria. Here they found more traces of Franklin's party--preserved meat tins, brass knives, a mahogany board. In answer to their inquiries, they heard that two ships had been seen by the natives of King William's Island; one had been seen to sink in deep water, the other was forced on shore and broken up. "It was in the fall of the year (August or September)," they said, when the ships were destroyed, that all the white people went away to the large river, taking a boat with them, and that in the following winter their bones were found there. McClintock now made his way to the opposite coast of King William's Island. Here he found Eskimos with pieces of silver-plate bearing the crest and initials of Sir John Franklin and some of his officers. They said it was five days' journey to the wreck, of which little now remained. There had been many books, said the Eskimos, but they had been destroyed by the weather. One woman volunteered a statement. "Many of the white men," she said, "dropped by the way as they went to the Great River. Some were buried and some were not. Their bodies were discovered during the winter following." Moving onwards, McClintock reached the Great Fish River on the morning of 12th May. A furious gale was raging and the air was heavy with snow, but they encamped there to search for relics. With pickaxes and shovels they searched in vain. No Eskimos were to be found, and at last in despair the little party of explorers faced homewards. McClintock was slowly walking near the beach, when he suddenly came upon a human skeleton, lying face downwards, half buried in the snow. It wore a blue jacket with slashed sleeves and braided edging and a greatcoat of pilot-cloth. The old woman was right. "They fell down and died as they walked along." And now the reward of the explorers was at hand. On the north-west coast of King William's Island was found a cairn and a blue ship's paper, weatherworn and ragged, relating in simple language, written by one of the ship's officers, the fate of the Franklin expedition. The first entry was cheerful enough. In 1846 all was well. His Majesty's ships, _Erebus_ and _Terror_, wintered in the ice--at Beechey Island, after having ascended Wellington Channel and returned to the west side of Cornwallis Island. Sir John Franklin was commanding the expedition. The results of their first year's labour was encouraging. In 1846 they had been within twelve miles of King William's Island, when winter stopped them. But a later entry, written in April 1848, states that the ships were deserted on 22nd April, having been beset in ice since September 1846--that Sir John Franklin had died on 11th June 1847, and that Captain Crozier was in command. Then came the last words, "And start to-morrow twenty-sixth for Back's Fish River." That was all. After a diligent search in the neighbourhood for journals or relics, McClintock led his party along the coast, till on 30th May they found another relic in the shape of a large boat, with a quantity of tattered clothing lying in her. She had been evidently equipped for the ascent of the Great Fish River. She had been built at Woolwich Dockyard; near her lay two human skeletons, a pair of worker slippers, some watches, guns, a _Vicar of Wakefield_, a small Bible, New Testament, and Prayer Book, seven or eight pairs of boots, some silk handkerchiefs, towels, soap, sponge, combs, twine, nails, shot, and cartridges, needle and thread cases, some tea and chocolate, and a little tobacco. Everything was carefully collected and brought back to the ship, which was reached on 19th June. Two months later the little _Fox_ was free from ice and McClintock reached London towards the end of September, to make known his great discovery. The rest of the story is well known. Most of us know the interesting collection of Franklin relics in the United Service Institution in London, and the monument in Waterloo Place to "the great navigator and his brave companions who sacrificed their lives in completing the discovery of the North-West Passage." It was acknowledged "that to Sir John Franklin is due the priority of discovery of the North-West Passage--that last link to forge which he sacrificed his life." And on the marble monument in Westminster Abbey, Tennyson, a nephew of Sir John Franklin, wrote his well-known lines-- "Not here, the white north hath thy bones, and thou, Heroic Sailor Soul, Art passing on thy happier voyage now Towards no earthly pole." CHAPTER LXII DAVID LIVINGSTONE "I shall open up a path to the interior or perish." Such were the words of one of the greatest explorers of Africa in the nineteenth century. Determination was the keynote of his character even as a young boy. At the age of ten he was at work in a cotton factory in Scotland: with his first week's wages he bought a Latin grammar. Fourteen hours of daily work left little time for reading, but he educated himself, till at nineteen he was resolved to be a medical missionary. "In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I resolved to devote my life to the alleviation of human misery." He was accepted for service by the London Missionary Society, and in the year 1840 he sailed for South Africa. After a voyage of three months he arrived at Cape Town and made his way in a slow ox-waggon seven hundred miles to Kuruman, a small mission station in the heart of Bechuanaland where Dr. Moffat had laboured for twenty years. He did well, and two years later he was sent north to form another mission station at Mabotsa (Transvaal). Having married Moffat's daughter Mary, he worked in these parts till June 1849, when, with his wife and three children, he started with oxen and waggon for a journey northwards. Across the great Kalahari Desert moved the exploring family, till they came to the river called Zouga, which, said the natives, led to a large lake named Lake Ngami. In native canoes, Livingstone and his little family ascended this beautifully wooded river, "resembling the river Clyde above Glasgow," till on 1st August 1849, Lake Ngami appeared, "and for the first time," says Livingstone, "this fine sheet of water was beheld by Europeans." The lake was two thousand eight hundred feet above the sea, but the climate was terribly unhealthy. The children grew feverish, and mosquitoes made life a misery to them, while the tsetse fly made further exploration for the moment impossible. So the family journeyed back to headquarters for a time. But Livingstone was unsatisfied, and once more in 1851 we find him starting again with wife and children to seek the great river Zambesi, known to exist in central Africa, though the Portuguese maps represented it as rising far to the east of Livingstone's discovery. [Illustration: LIVINGSTONE, WITH HIS WIFE AND FAMILY, AT THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE NGAMI. From Livingstone's _Missionary Travels_.] "It was the end of June 1851," he tells us, "that we were rewarded by the discovery of the Zambesi in the centre of the continent. This was an important point, for that river was not previously known to exist there at all. As we were the very first white men the inhabitants had ever seen, we were visited by prodigious numbers of Makololo in garments of blue, green, and red baize." Livingstone wanted to know more of this unknown river, but he now decided that exploring with a wife and family was not only perilous, but difficult, so he returned to the coast, put them on a homeward-bound ship for England, and returned to central Africa to continue his work of exploration alone. It was 11th November 1853 when Livingstone left the town of Linyanti in the very heart of central Africa for his great journey to the west coast to trace the course of the Zambesi. "The Zambesi. Nobody knows Whence it comes and whither it goes." So ran an old canoe-song of the natives. With twenty-seven faithful black Makololos, with "only a few biscuits, a little tea and sugar, twenty pounds of coffee and three books," with a horse rug and sheepskin for bedding and a small gipsy tent and a tin canister, fifteen inches square, filled with a spare shirt, trousers, and shoes for civilised life, and a few scientific instruments, the English explorer started for a six months' journey. Soon his black guides had embarked in their canoes and were making their way up the Zambesi. "No rain has fallen here," he writes on 30th November, "so it is excessively hot. The atmosphere is oppressive both in cloud and sunshine." Livingstone suffered badly from fever during the entire journey. But the blacks took fatherly care of him. "As soon as we land," he says, "the men cut a little grass for my bed, while the poles of my little tent are planted. The bed is made and boxes ranged on each side of it, and then the tent pitched over all. Two Makololos occupy my right and left both in eating and sleeping as long as the journey lasts, but my head boatman makes his bed at the door of the tent as soon as I retire." As they advanced up the Barotse valley, rains had fallen and the woods had put on their gayest hue. Flowers of great beauty grew everywhere. "The ground begins to swarm with insect life, and in the cool, pleasant mornings the place rings with the singing of birds." On 6th January 1854 they left the river and rode oxen through the dense parts of the country through which they had now to pass. Through heavy rains and with very little food, they toiled on westward through miles and miles of swamp intersected by streams flowing southward to the Zambesi basin. One day Livingstone's ox, Sindbad, threw him, and he had to struggle wearily forward on foot. His strength was failing. His meagre fare varied by boiled zebra and dried elephant, frequent wettings and constant fever, were reducing him to a mere skeleton. At last on 26th March he arrived at the edge of the high land over which he had so long been travelling. "It is so steep," he tells us, "that I was obliged to dismount, and I was so weak that I had to be led by my companions to prevent my toppling over in walking down. Below us lay the valley of the Kwango in glorious sunlight." Another fortnight and they were in Portuguese territory. The sight of white men once more and a collection of traders' huts was a welcome sight to the weary traveller. The commandant at once took pity on Livingstone, but after a refreshing stay of ten days the English explorer started off westward to the coast. For another month he pursued his way. It was 31st May 1854. As the party neared the town of Loanda, the black Makololos began to grow nervous. "We have stood by each other hitherto and will do so to the last," Livingstone assured them, as they all staggered into the city by the seashore. Here they found one Englishman sent out for the suppression of the slave trade, who at once gave up his bed to the stricken and emaciated explorer. "Never shall I forget," he says, "the luxury I enjoyed in feeling myself again on a good English bed after six months' sleeping on the ground." Nor were the Makololos forgotten. They were entertained on board an English man-of-war lying off the coast. Livingstone was offered a passage home, but he tells us: "I declined the tempting offers of my friends, and resolved to take back my Makololo companions to their Chief, with a view of making a path from here to the east coast by means of the great river Zambesi." With this object in view, he turned his back on home and comfort, and on 20th September 1854 he left Loanda and "the white man's sea," as the black guides called the Atlantic Ocean that washes the shores of West Africa. Their way lay through the Angola country, rich in wild coffee and cotton plantations. The weather was as usual still and oppressive, but slowly Livingstone made his way eastward. He suffered badly from fever as he had done on the outward journey. It had taken him six months to reach Loanda from central Africa; it took a year to complete the return journey, and it was September 1855 before Linyanti was again reached. Waggons and goods left there eighteen months before were safe, together with many welcome letters from home. The return of the travellers after so long an absence was a cause of great rejoicing. All the wonderful things the Makololos had seen and heard were rehearsed many times before appreciative audiences. Livingstone was more than ever a hero in their eyes, and his kindness to his men was not forgotten. He had no difficulty in getting recruits for the journey down the Zambesi to the sea, for which he was now making preparations. On 3rd November he was ready to resume his long march across Africa. He was much better equipped on this occasion; he rode a horse instead of an ox, and his guide, Sekwebu, knew the river well. The first night out they were unfortunately caught in a terrific thunderstorm accompanied by sheet-lightning, which lit up the whole country and flooded it with torrents of tropical rain. A few days' travelling brought the party to the famous Zambesi Falls, called by the natives "where smoke sounds," but renamed by Livingstone after the Queen of England, Victoria. The first account of these now famous Falls is very vivid. "Five columns of vapour, appropriately named smoke, bending in the direction of the wind, appeared to mingle with the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful. It had never been seen before by European eyes. When about half a mile from the Falls, I left the canoe and embarked in a lighter one with men well acquainted with the rapids, who brought me to an island in the middle of the river and on the edge of the lip over which the water rolls. Creeping with care to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi. In looking down into the fissure one sees nothing but a dense white cloud; from this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapour exactly like steam, and it mounted two or three hundred feet high." [Illustration: THE "SMOKE" OF THE ZAMBESI (VICTORIA) FALLS. After a drawing in Livingstone's _Missionary Travels_.] Livingstone now continued his perilous journey with his hundred men along the Zambesi, the country once densely populated, now desolate and still. The Bakota tribes, "the colour of coffee and milk," were friendly, and "great numbers came from all the surrounding villages and expressed great joy at the appearance of a white man and harbinger of peace." They brought in large supplies of food, and expressed great delight when Livingstone doctored their children, who were suffering from whooping-cough. As they neared the coast, they became aware of hostile forces. This was explained when they were met by a Portuguese half-caste "with jacket and hat on," who informed them that for the last two years they had been fighting the natives. Plunging thus unconsciously into the midst of a Kafir war rendered travelling unpleasant and dangerous. In addition, the party of explorers found their animals woefully bitten by the tsetse fly, rhinoceroses and elephants were too plentiful to be interesting, and the great white ant made itself tiresome. It was 3rd March before Livingstone reached Tete, two hundred and sixty miles from the coast. The last stages of the journey had been very beautiful. Many of the hills were of pure white marble, and pink marble formed the bed of more than one of the streams. Through this country the Zambesi rolled down toward the coast at the rate of four miles an hour, while flocks of water-fowl swarmed upon its banks or flew over its waters. Tete was the farthest outpost of the Portuguese. Livingstone was most kindly received by the governor, but fever again laid him low, and he had to remain here for three weeks before he was strong enough to start for the last stage of his journey to the coast. He left his Makololos here, promising to return some day to take them home again. They believed in him implicitly, and remained there three years, when he returned according to his word. Leaving Tete, he now embarked on the waters of the Zambesi, high with a fourth annual rise, which bore him to Sena in five days. So swift is the current at times that twenty-four hours is enough to take a boat from Tete to Sena, whereas the return journey may take twenty days. "I thought the state of Tete quite lamentable," says Livingstone, but that of Sena was ten times worse. "It is impossible to describe the miserable state of decay into which the Portuguese possessions here have sunk." Though suffering badly from fever, Livingstone pushed on; he passed the important tributary of the Zambesi, the Shire, which he afterwards explored, and finally reached Quilimane on the shores of the Indian Ocean. It was now 20th May 1856, just four years after he had left Cape Town on his great journey from west to east, since when he had travelled eleven thousand miles. After waiting six weeks on the "great mud bank, surrounded by extensive swamps and rice grounds," which form the site of Quilimane, Livingstone embarked on board a gunboat, the _Frolic_, for England. He had one Makololo with him--the faithful Sekwebu. The poor black man begged to be allowed to follow his master on the seas. "But," said Livingstone, "you will die if you go to such a cold country as mine." "Let me die at your feet," pleaded the black man. He had not been to Loanda, so he had never seen the sea before. Waves were breaking over the bar at Quilimane and dashing over the boat that carried Sekwebu out to the brig. He was terribly alarmed, but he lived to reach Mauritius, where he became insane, hurled himself into the sea, and was drowned! On 12th December 1856, Livingstone landed in England after an absence of sixteen years. He had left home as an obscure missionary; he returned to find himself famous. The Royal Geographical Society awarded him its gold medal; France and Scotland hastened to do him honour. Banquets and receptions were given for him, and finally this "plain, single-minded man, somewhat attenuated by years of toil, and with his face tinged by the sun of Africa," was received by the Queen at Windsor. The enthusiasm aroused by this longest expedition in the history of African travel was unrivalled, and the name of Livingstone was on every lip. But meanwhile others were at work in central Africa, and we must turn from the discoveries of Livingstone for the moment. CHAPTER LXIII BURTON AND SPEKE IN CENTRAL AFRICA Livingstone had just left Loanda and was making his way across Africa from west to east, when an English expedition set forth to find the Great Lakes still lying solitary and undiscovered, although they were known to exist. If we turn to the oldest maps of Africa, we find, rudely drawn and incorrectly placed, large inland waters, that may nevertheless be recognised as these lakes just about to be revealed to a wondering world. Ptolemy knew of them, the Arabs spoke of them, Portuguese traders had passed them, and a German missionary had caught sight of the Mountains of the Moon and brought back strange stories of a great inland lake. The work of rediscovering the lakes was entrusted to a remarkable man named Richard Burton, a man whose love of adventure was well known. He had already shown his metal by entering Mecca disguised as a Persian, and disguised as an Arab he had entered Harar, a den of slave traders, the "Timbuktu of Eastern Africa." On his return he was attacked by the Somalis; one of his companions was killed, another, Speke, escaped with terrible spear-wounds, and he himself was badly wounded. Such were the men who in 1856 were dispatched by the Royal Geographical Society for the exploration of the mysterious lakes in the heart of central Africa. Speke gives us an idea of the ignorance prevailing on this subject only fifty-six years ago: "On the walls of the Society's rooms there hung a large diagram constructed by two missionaries carrying on their duties at Zanzibar. In this section map, swallowing up about half of the whole area of the ground included in it, there figured a lake of such portentous size and such unseemly shape, representing a gigantic slug, that everybody who looked at it incredulously laughed and shook his head--a single sheet of sweet water, upwards of eight hundred miles long by three hundred broad, equal in size to the great salt Caspian." It was April 1857 before Burton and Speke had collected an escort and guides at Zanzibar, the great slave market of East Africa, and were ready to start for the interior. "We could obtain no useful information from the European merchants of Zanzibar, who are mostly ignorant of everything beyond the island," Burke wrote home on 22nd April. At last on 27th June, with thirty-six men and thirty donkeys, the party set out for the great malarious coast-belt which had to be crossed before Kaze, some five hundred miles distant, could be reached. After three months' arduous travelling--both Burton and Speke were badly stricken with fever--they reached Kaze. Speke now spread open the map of the missionaries and inquired of the natives where the enormous lake was to be found. To their intense surprise they found the missionaries had run three lakes into one, and the three lakes were Lake Nyassa, Tanganyika, and Victoria Nyanza. They stayed over a month at Kaze, till Burton seemed at the point of death, and Speke had him carried out of the unhealthy town. It was January before they made a start and continued their journey westward to Ugyi. "It is a wonderful thing," says Drummond, "to start from the civilisation of Europe, pass up these mighty rivers, and work your way alone and on foot, mile after mile, month after month, among strange birds and beasts and plants and insects, meeting tribes which have no name, speaking tongues which no man can interpret, till you have reached its sacred heart and stood where white man has never trod before." [Illustration: BURTON IN A DUG-OUT ON LAKE TANGANYIKA. After a drawing by Burton.] As the two men tramped on, the streams began to drain to the west and the land grew more fertile, till one hundred and fifty miles from Kaze they began to ascend the slope of mountains overhanging the northern half of Lake Tanganyika. "This mountain mass," says Speke, "I consider to be the True Mountains of the Moon." From the top of the mountains the lovely Tanganyika Lake could be seen in all its glory by Burton. But to Speke it was a mere mist. The glare of the sun and oft-repeated fever had begun to tell on him, and a kind of inflammation had produced almost total blindness. But they had reached the lake and they felt sure they had found the source of the Nile. It was a great day when Speke crossed the lake in a long canoe hollowed out of the trunk of a tree and manned by twenty native savages under the command of a captain in a "goatskin uniform." On the far side they encamped on the opposite shore, Speke being the first white man to cross the lake. Having retired to his hut for the night, Speke proceeded to light a candle and arrange his baggage, when to his horror he found the whole interior swarming with black beetles. Tired of trying to brush them away, he put out his light and, though they crawled up his sleeves and down his back, he fell asleep. Suddenly he woke to find one crawling into his ear, and in spite of his frantic efforts it crept in farther and farther till it reached the drum, which caused the tired explorer intense agony. Inflammation ensued, his face became drawn, he could with difficulty swallow a little broth, and he was quite deaf. He returned across the lake to find his companion, Burton, still very ill and unfit for further exploration. So Speke, although still suffering from his ear, started off again, leaving Burton behind, to find the great northern lake spoken of as the sea of Ukerewe, where the Arabs traded largely in ivory. There was a great empire beyond the lake, they told him, called Uganda. But it was July 1858 when the caravan was ready to start from Kaze. Speke himself carried Burton's large elephant gun. "I commenced the journey," he says, "at 6 p.m., as soon as the two donkeys I took with me to ride were caught and saddled. It was a dreary beginning. The escort who accompanied me were sullen in their manner and walked with heavy gait and downcast countenance. The nature of the track increased the general gloom. "For several weeks the caravan moved forward, till on 3rd August it began to wind up a long but gradually inclined hill, until it reached its summit, when the vast expanse of the pale blue waters of the Nyanza burst suddenly upon my eyes! It was early morning. The distant sea-line of the north horizon was defined in the calm atmosphere, but I could get no idea of the breadth of the lake, as an archipelago of islands, each consisting of a single hill rising to a height of two or three hundred feet above the water, intersected the line of vision to the left. A sheet of water extended far away to the eastward. The view was one which even in a well-known country would have arrested the traveller by its peaceful beauty. But the pleasure of the mere view vanished in the presence of those more intense emotions called up by the geographical importance of the scene before me. I no longer felt any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to that interesting river (Nile), the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation and the object of so many explorers. This is a far more extensive lake than Tanganyika; it is so broad that you could not see across it, and so long that nobody knew its length. This magnificent sheet of water I have ventured to name Victoria after our gracious sovereign." [Illustration: BURTON AND HIS COMPANIONS ON THE MARCH TO THE VICTORIA NYANZA. From a humorous sketch by Burton.] Speke returned to Kaze after his six weeks' eventful journey, having tramped no less than four hundred and fifty-two miles. He received a warm welcome from Burton, who had been very uneasy about his safety, for rumours of civil war had reached him. "I laughed over the matter," says Speke, "but expressed my regret that he did not accompany me, as I felt quite certain in my mind I had discovered the source of the Nile." Together the two explorers now made their way to the coast and crossed to Aden, where Burton, still weak and ill, decided to remain for a little, while Speke took passage in a passing ship for home. When he showed his map of Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza to the President of the Royal Geographical Society in London, Sir Roderick Murchison was delighted. "Speke, we must send you there again," he said enthusiastically. And the expedition was regarded as "one of the most notable discoveries in the annals of African discovery." CHAPTER LXIV LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA Burton and Speke had not yet returned from central Africa, when Livingstone left England on another expedition into the interior, with orders "to extend the knowledge already attained of the geography of eastern and central Africa and to encourage trade." Leaving England on 10th March 1858, he reached the east coast the following May as British Consul of Quilimane, the region which lies about the mouth of the Zambesi. Livingstone had brought out with him a small steam-launch called by the natives the _Ma-Robert_ after Mrs. Livingstone, the mother of Robert, their eldest child. In this little steam-launch he made his way up the Shire River, which flows into the Zambesi quite near its mouth. "The delight of threading out the meanderings of upwards of two hundred miles of a hitherto unexplored river must be felt to be appreciated," says Livingstone in his diary. At the end of this two hundred miles further progress became impossible because of rapids which no boat could pass. "These magnificent cataracts we called the Murchison Cataracts, after one whose name has already a world-wide fame," says Livingstone. Leaving their boat here, they started on foot for the Great Lake described by the natives. It took them a month of hard travelling to reach their goal. Their way lay over the native tracks which run as a network over this part of the world. "They are veritable footpaths, never over a foot in breadth, beaten as hard as adamant by centuries of native traffic. Like the roads of the old Romans, they run straight on over everything, ridge and mountain and valley." [Illustration: THE _MA-ROBERT_ ON THE ZAMBESI. After a drawing in Livingstone's _Expedition to the Zambesi_.] On 18th April, Lake Shirwa came into sight, "a considerable body of bitter water, containing leeches, fish, crocodiles, and hippopotami. The country around is very beautiful," adds Livingstone, "and clothed with rich vegetation, and the waves breaking and foaming over a rock, added to the beauty of the picture. Exceedingly lofty mountains stand near the eastern shore." No white man had gazed at the lake before. Though one of the smaller African lakes, Shirwa is probably larger than all the lakes of Great Britain put together. Returning to Tete, the explorer now prepared for his journey to the farther Lake Nyassa. This was to be no new discovery. The Portuguese knew the locality of Lake Shirwa, and at the beginning of the seventeenth century Nyassa was familiar to them under another name. Landing at the same spot on the Shire banks as before, Livingstone, with thirty-six Makololo porters and two native guides, ascended the beautiful Shire Highlands, some twelve hundred feet above sea-level, and crossed the range on which Zomba, the residence of the British Commissioner for Nyassaland, now stands. When within a day's march of their goal they were told that no lake had ever been heard of in the neighbourhood, but, said the natives, the river Shire stretched on, and it would take two months to reach the end, which came out of perpendicular rocks which towered almost to the skies. "Let us go back to the ship," said the followers; "it is no use trying to find the lake." But Livingstone persevered, and he was soon rewarded by finding a sheet of water, which was indeed the beginning of Lake Nyassa. It was 16th September 1859. "How far is it to the end of the lake?" he asked. "The other end of the lake? Who ever heard of such a thing? Why, if one started when a mere boy to walk to the other end of the lake, he would be an old grey-headed man before he got there," declared one of the natives. Livingstone knew that he had opened up a great waterway to the interior of Africa, but the slave trade in these parts was terrible, gangs being employed in carrying the ivory from countries to the north down to the east coast. The English explorer saw that if he could establish a steamer upon this Lake Nyassa and buy ivory from the natives with European goods he would at once strike a deadly blow at the slave trade. His letters home stirred several missionaries to come out and establish a settlement on the banks of the Shire River. Bishop Mackenzie and a little band of helpers arrived on the river Shire two years later, and in 1862 Mrs. Livingstone joined them, bringing out with her a little new steamer to launch on the Lake Nyassa. But the unhealthy season was at its height, and "the surrounding low land, rank with vegetation and reeking from the late rainy season, exhaled the malarious poison in enormous quantities." Mrs. Livingstone fell ill, and in a week she was dead. She was buried under a large baobab tree at Shapunga, where her grave is visited by many a traveller passing through this once solitary region first penetrated by her husband. The blow was a crushing one for Livingstone, and for a time he was quite bewildered. But when his old energy returned he superintended the launching of the little steamer, the _Lady Nyassa_. But disappointment and failure awaited him, and at last, just two years after the death of his wife, he took the _Lady Nyassa_ to Zanzibar by the Rovuma River and set forth to reach Bombay, where he hoped to sell her, for his funds were low. On the last day of April 1864 he started on his perilous journey. Though warned that the monsoon would shortly break, he would not be deterred. And after sailing two thousand five hundred miles in the little boat built only for river and lake, "a forest of masts one day loomed through the haze in Bombay harbour," and he was safe. After a brief stay here, Livingstone left his little launch and made his way to England on a mail-packet. But no one realised at this time the importance of his new discoveries. No one foresaw the value of "Nyassaland" now under British protectorate. Livingstone had brought to light a lake fifteen hundred and seventy feet above the sea, three hundred and fifty miles long and forty broad, up and down which British steamers make their way to-day, while the long range of mountains lining the eastern bank, known as the Livingstone range, testify to the fact that he had done much, even if he might have done more. CHAPTER LXV EXPEDITION TO VICTORIA NYANZA While Livingstone was discovering Lake Nyassa, Speke was busy preparing for a new expedition to find out more about the great sheet of water he had named Victoria Nyanza and to solve the vexed question: Was this the source of the Nile? In April 1860, accompanied by Captain Grant, an old friend and brother sportsman, he left England, and by way of the Cape reached Zanzibar some five months later. The two explorers started for their great inland journey early in October, with some hundred followers, bound for the great lake. But it was January 1861 before they had covered the five hundred miles between the coast and Kaze, the old halting-station of Burton and Speke. Through the agricultural plains known as Uzarana, the country of Rana, where many negro porters deserted, because they believed the white men were cannibals and intended to eat them when safe away from the haunts of men; through Usagara, the country of Gara, where Captain Grant was seized with fever; through Ugogo's great wilderness, where buffalo and rhinoceros abounded, where the country was flooded with tropical rains, on to the land of the Moon, three thousand feet above sea-level, till the slowly moving caravan reached Kaze. Here terrible accounts of famine and war reached them, and, instead of following Speke's route of 1858, they turned north-west and entered the Uzinza country, governed by two chieftains of Abyssinian descent. Here Speke was taken desperately ill. His cough gave him no rest day or night; his legs were "reduced to the appearance of pipe-sticks." But, emaciated as he was, he made his way onwards, till the explorers were rewarded by finding a "beautiful sheet of water lying snugly within the folds of the hills," which they named the Little Windermere, because they thought it was so like "our own English lake of that name. To do royal honours to the king of this charming land, I ordered my men," says Speke, "to put down their loads and fire a volley." The king, whom they next visited, was a fine-looking man, who, with his brother, sat cross-legged on the ground, with huge pipes of black clay by their sides, while behind them, "squatting quiet as mice," were the king's sons, six or seven lads, with little dream-charms under their chins! The king shook hands in true English fashion and was full of inquiries. Speke described the world, the proportions of land and water, and the large ships on the sea, and begged to be allowed to pass through his kingdom to Uganda. The explorers learnt much about the surrounding country, and spent Christmas Day with a good feast of roast beef. The start for Uganda was delayed by the serious illness of Grant, until at last Speke reluctantly decided to leave him with the friendly king, while he made his way alone to Uganda and the Lake Victoria Nyanza. It was the end of January 1861 when the English explorer entered the unknown kingdom of Uganda. Messengers from the king, M'tesa, came to him. "Now," they said, "you have really entered the kingdom of Uganda, for the future you must buy no more food. At every place that you stop for the day, the officer in charge will bring you plantains." [Illustration: M'TESA, KING OF UGANDA. From Speke's _Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_.] The king's palace was ten days' march; the way lay along the western coast of the Lake Victoria Nyanza, the roads were "as broad as our coach roads cut through the long grass straight over the hills and down through the woods. The temperature was perfect. The whole land was a picture of quiescent beauty, with a boundless sea in the background." On 13th February, Speke found a large volume of water going to the north. "I took off my clothes," he says, "and jumped into the stream, which I found was twelve yards broad and deeper than my height. I was delighted beyond measure, for I had, to all appearance, found one of the branches of the Nile's exit from the Nyanza." But he had not reached the Nile yet. It was not till the end of July that he reached his goal. "Here at last," he says, "I stood on the brink of the Nile, most beautiful was the scene, nothing could surpass it--a magnificent stream from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks, the former occupied by fishermen's huts, the latter by crocodiles basking in the sun. I told my men they ought to bathe in the holy river, the cradle of Moses." Marching onwards, they found the waterfall, which Speke named the Ripon Falls, "by far the most interesting sight I had seen in Africa." The arm of the water from which the Nile issued he named "Napoleon Channel," out of respect to the French Geographical Society for the honour they had done him just before leaving England in presenting their gold medal for the discovery of Victoria Nyanza. [Illustration: THE RIPON FALLS ON THE VICTORIA NYANZA. From Speke's _Journey to Discover the Source of the Nile_.] The English explorers had now spent six months in Uganda. The civilisation in this country of M'tesa's has passed into history. Every one was clothed, and even little boys held their skin-cloaks tightly round them lest their bare legs might by accident be seen! Everything was clean and orderly under the all-powerful ruler M'tesa. Grant, who arrived in the end of May, carried in a litter, found Speke had not yet obtained leave from the king to "open the country to the north, that an uninterrupted line of commerce might exist between England and Uganda by means of the Nile." But at last on 3rd July he writes with joy: "The moment of triumph has come at last and suddenly the road is granted." The explorers bid farewell to M'tesa. "We rose with an English bow, placing the hand on the heart, whilst saying adieu; and whatever we did M'tesa in an instant mimicked with the instinct of a monkey." In five boats of five planks each tied together and caulked with rags, Speke started with a small escort and crew to reach the palace of the neighbouring king, Kamrasi, "father of all the kings," in the province of Unyoro. After some fierce opposition they entered the palace of the king, a poor creature. Rumours had reached him that these two white men were cannibals and sorcerers. His palace was indeed a contrast to that of M'tesa. It was merely a dirty hut approached by a lane ankle-deep in mud and cow-manure. The king's sisters were not allowed to marry; their only occupation was to drink milk from morning to night, with the result that they grew so fat it took eight men to lift one of them, when walking became impossible. Superstition was rife, and the explorers were not sorry to leave Unyoro _en route_ for Cairo. Speke and Grant now believed that, except for a few cataracts, the waterway to England was unbroken. The Karuma Falls broke the monotony of the way, and here the party halted a while before plunging into the Kidi wilderness across which they intended to march to save a great bend of the river. Their path lay through swampy jungles and high grass, while great grassy plains, where buffaloes were seen and the roar of lions was heard, stretched away on every side. [Illustration: CAPTAINS SPEKE AND GRANT.] Suddenly they reached a huge rock covered with huts, in front of which groups of black men were perched like monkeys, evidently awaiting the arrival of the white men. They were painted in the most brilliant colours, though without clothes, for the civilisation of Uganda had been left far behind. Pushing on, they reached the Madi country, where again civilisation awaited them in the shape of Turks. It was on 3rd December that they saw to their great surprise three large red flags carried in front of a military procession which marched out of camp with drums and fifes playing. "A very black man named Mohammed, in full Egyptian regimentals, with a curved sword, ordered his regiment to halt, and threw himself into my arms endeavouring to kiss me," says Speke. "Having reached his huts, he gave us two beds to sit upon, and ordered his wives to advance on their knees and give us coffee." "I have directions to take you to Gondokoro as soon as you come," said Mohammed. Yet they were detained till 11th January, when in sheer desperation they started off, and in two days reached the Nile. Having no boats, they continued their march overland till 15th February, when the masts of Nile boats came in sight, and soon after the two explorers walked into Gondokoro. Then a strange thing happened. "We saw hurrying on towards us the form of an Englishman, and the next moment my old friend Baker, famed for his sports in Ceylon, seized me by the hand. What joy this was I can hardly tell. We could not talk fast enough, so overwhelmed were we both to meet again. Of course we were his guests, and soon learned everything that could be told. I now first heard of the death of H.R.H. the Prince Consort. Baker said he had come up with three vessels fully equipped with armed men, camels, horses, donkeys, and everything necessary for a long journey, expressly to look after us. Three Dutch ladies also, with a view to assist us (God bless them!), had come here in a steamer, but were driven back to Khartum by sickness. Nobody had dreamt for a moment it was possible we could come through." Leaving Baker to continue his way to central Africa, Speke and Grant made their way home to England, where they arrived in safety after an absence of three years and fifty-one days, with their great news of the discovery of Uganda and their further exploration of Victoria Nyanza. When Speke reached Alexandria he had telegraphed home: "The Nile is settled." But he was wrong. The Nile was not settled, and many an expedition was yet to make its way to the great lakes before the problem was to be solved. CHAPTER LXVI BAKER FINDS ALBERT NYANZA Baker had not been long at Gondokoro when the two English explorers arrived from the south. "In March 1861," he tells us, "I commenced an expedition to discover the sources of the Nile, with the hope of meeting the East African expedition of Captains Speke and Grant that had been sent by the English Government from the south _via_ Zanzibar for that object. From my youth I had been innured to hardship and endurance in tropical climates, and when I gazed upon the map of Africa I had a wild hope that I might by perseverance reach the heart of Africa." These are the opening lines of the published travels of Samuel Baker, famous as an elephant-hunter in Ceylon and engineer of the first railway laid down in Turkey. Like Livingstone, in his early explorations, Baker took his wife with him. "It was in vain that I implored her to remain, and that I painted the difficulties and perils still blacker than I supposed they really would be; she was resolved to share all dangers and to follow me through each rough footstep of the wild life before me." On 15th April 1861, Baker and his wife left Cairo to make their way southward to join the quest for the source of the Nile. They reached Korosko in twenty-six days, and crossed the Nubian desert on camels, a "very wilderness of scorching sand, the simoon in full force and the thermometer in the shade standing at 114 degrees Fahr." By Abu Hamed and Berber they reached Atbara. It now occurred to Baker that without some knowledge of Arabic he could do little in the way of exploration, so for a whole year he stayed in northern Abyssinia, the country explored by Bruce nearly ninety years before. [Illustration: BAKER AND HIS WIFE CROSSING THE NUBIAN DESERT. From Baker's _Travels_.] It was therefore 18th December 1862 before he and Mrs. Baker left Khartum for their journey up the Nile through the slave-driven Sudan. It was a fifty days' voyage to Gondokoro. In the hope of finding Speke and Grant, he took an extra load of corn as well as twenty-two donkeys, four camels, and four horses. Gondokoro was reached just a fortnight before the two explorers returned from the south. Baker's account of the historical meeting between the white men in the heart of Africa is very interesting: "Heard guns firing in the distance--report that two white men had come from the sea. Could they be Speke and Grant? Off I ran and soon met them; hurrah for Old England. They had come from the Victoria Nyanza from which the Nile springs. The mystery of ages solved! With a heart beating with joy I took off my cap and gave a welcome hurrah as I ran towards them! For the moment they did not recognise me; ten years' growth of beard and moustache had worked a change, and my sudden appearance in the centre of Africa appeared to them incredible. As a good ship arrives in harbour battered and torn by a long and stormy voyage, so both these gallant travellers arrived in Gondokoro. Speke appeared to me the more worn of the two. He was excessively lean; he had walked the whole way from Zanzibar, never having ridden once during that wearying march. Grant was in rags, his bare knees projecting through the remnants of trousers." Baker was now inclined to think that his work was done, the source of the Nile discovered, but after looking at the map of their route, he saw that an important part of the Nile still remained undiscovered, and though there were dangers ahead he determined to go on his way into central Africa. "We took neither guide nor interpreter," he continues. "We commenced our desperate journey in darkness about an hour after sunset. I led the way, Mrs. Baker riding by my side and the British flag following close behind us as a guide for the caravan of heavily laden camels and donkeys. And thus we started on our march in central Africa on the 26th of March 1863." It would take too long to tell of their manifold misfortunes and difficulties before they reached the lake they were in search of on 16th March 1864. How they passed through the uncivilised country so lately traversed by Speke and Grant, how in the Obbo country all their porters deserted just a few days before they reached the Karuma Falls, how Baker from this point tried to follow the Nile to the yet unknown lake, how fever seized both the explorer and his wife and they had to live on the common food of the natives and a little water, how suddenly Mrs. Baker fell down with a sunstroke and was carried for seven days quite unconscious through swamp and jungle, the rain descending in torrents all the time, till Baker, "weak as a reed," worn out with anxiety, lay on the ground as one dead. It seemed as if both must die, when better times dawned and they recovered to find that they were close to the lake. Baker's diary is eloquent: "The day broke beautifully clear, and, having crossed a deep valley between the hills, we toiled up the opposite slope. I hurried to the summit. The glory of our prize burst suddenly upon me! There, like a sea of quicksilver, lay far beneath us the grand expanse of water, a boundless sea-horizon on the south and south-west, glittering in the noonday sun, while at sixty miles' distance, blue mountains rose from the lake to a height of about seven thousand feet above its level. It is impossible to describe the triumph of that moment; here was the reward for all our labour! England had won the sources of the Nile! I looked from the steep granite cliff upon those welcome waters, upon that vast reservoir which nourished Egypt, upon that great source so long hidden from mankind, and I determined to honour it with a great name. As an imperishable memorial of one loved and mourned by our gracious Queen, I called this great lake 'the Albert Nyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert Lakes are the two sources of the Nile." Weak and spent with fever, the Bakers descended tottering to the water's edge. "The waves were rolling upon a white pebbly beach. I rushed into the lake and, thirsty with heat and fatigue, I drank deeply from the sources of the Nile. My wife, who had followed me so devotedly, stood by my side pale and exhausted--a wreck upon the shores of the great Albert Lake that we had long striven to reach. No European foot had ever trod upon its sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned its vast expanse of water." [Illustration: BAKER'S BOAT IN A STORM ON LAKE ALBERT NYANZA. From Baker's _Albert Nyanza_.] After some long delay, the Bakers procured canoes, "merely single trees neatly hollowed out," and paddled along the shores of the newly found lake. The water was calm, the views most lovely. Hippopotami sported in the water; crocodiles were numerous. Day after day they paddled north, sometimes using a large Scotch plaid as sail. It was dangerous work. Once a great storm nearly swamped them. The little canoe shipped heavy seas; terrific bursts of thunder and vivid lightning broke over the lake, hiding everything from view. Then down came the rain in torrents, swept along by a terrific wind. They reached the shore in safety, but the discomforts of the voyage were great, and poor Mrs. Baker suffered severely. On the thirteenth day they found themselves at the end of the lake voyage, and carefully examined the exit of the Nile from the lake. They now followed the river in their canoe for some eighteen miles, when they suddenly heard a roar of water, and, rounding a corner, "a magnificent sight suddenly burst upon us. On either side of the river were beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of three hundred feet and rushing through a gap that cleft the rock. The river pent up in a narrow gorge roared furiously through the rock-bound pass, till it plunged in one leap of about one hundred and twenty feet into a dark abyss below. This was the greatest waterfall of the Nile, and in honour of the distinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society I named it the Murchison Falls." Further navigation was impossible, and with oxen and porters they proceeded by land. Mrs. Baker was still carried in a litter, while Baker walked by her side. Both were soon attacked again with fever, and when night came they threw themselves down in a wretched hut. A violent thunderstorm broke over them, and they lay there utterly helpless, and worn out till sunrise. Worse was to come. The natives now deserted them, and they were alone and helpless, with a wilderness of rank grass hemming them in on every side. Their meals consisted of a mess of black porridge of bitter mouldy flour "that no English pig would notice" and a dish of spinach. For nearly two months they existed here, until they became perfect skeletons. "We had given up all hope of Gondokoro," says Baker, "and I had told my headman to deliver my map and papers to the English Consul at Khartum." But they were not to die here. The king, Kamrasi, having heard of their wretched condition, sent for them, treated them kindly, and enabled them to reach Gondokoro, which they did on 23rd March 1865, after an absence of two years. They had long since been given up as lost, and it was an immense joy to reach Cairo at last and to find that, in the words of Baker, "the Royal Geographical Society had awarded me the Victoria Gold Medal at a time when they were unaware whether I was alive or dead and when the success of my expedition was unknown." CHAPTER LXVII LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY In the year 1865 "the greatest of all African travellers" started on his last journey to central Africa. "I hope," he said, "to ascend the Rovuma, and shall strive, by passing along the northern end of Lake Nyassa and round the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, to ascertain the watershed of that part of Africa." Arrived at Zanzibar in January 1866, he reached the mouth of the Rovuma River some two months later, and, passing through dense thickets of trees, he started on his march along the northern bank. The expedition consisted of thirteen sepoys from Bombay, nine negroes from one of the missions, two men from the Zambesi, Susi, Amoda, and others originally slaves freed by Livingstone. As beasts of burden, they had six camels, three Indian buffaloes, two mules, four donkeys, while a poodle took charge of the whole line of march, running to see the first man in the line and then back to the last, and barking to hasten him up. "Now that I am on the point of starting on another trip into Africa," wrote Livingstone from Rovuma Bay, "I feel quite exhilarated. The mere animal pleasure of travelling in a wild, unexplored country is very great. Brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear, the step firm, and a day's exertion makes the evening's repose thoroughly enjoyable." But misfortunes soon began. As they marched along the banks of the Rovuma the buffaloes and camels were badly bitten by the tsetse fly, and one after another died. The cruelty of the followers to the animals was terrible. Indeed, they were thoroughly unsatisfactory. One day a party of them lagged behind, killed the last young buffalo, and ate it. They told Livingstone that it had died and tigers had come and devoured it. "Did you see the stripes of the tiger?" asked Livingstone. Yes; all declared that they had seen them distinctly--an obvious lie, as there are no striped tigers in Africa. On 11th August, Livingstone once more reached Lake Nyassa. "It was as if I had come back to an old home I never expected again to see, and pleasant it was to bathe in the delicious waters again. I feel quite exhilarated." Having sent word to the Arab chief of Kota-Kota on the opposite coast, and having received no reply to his request to be ferried across the lake, he started off and marched by land round the southern end, crossing the Shire River at its entrance. He continued his journey round the south-western gulf of Lake Nyassa, till rumours of Zulu raids frightened his men. They refused to go any farther, but just threw down their loads and walked away. He was now left with Susi and Chuma and a few boys with whom he crossed the end of a long range of mountains over four thousand feet in height, and, pursuing a zigzag track, reached the Loangwa River on 16th December 1866, while his unfaithful followers returned to the coast to spread the story that Livingstone had been killed by the Zulus! Meanwhile the explorer was plodding on towards Lake Tanganyika. The beauty of the way strikes the lonely explorer. The rainy season had come on in all its force, and the land was wonderful in its early green. "Many gay flowers peep out. Here and there the scarlet lily, red, yellow, and pure white orchids, and pale lobelias. As we ascended higher on the plateau, grasses which have pink and reddish brown seed-vessels were grateful to the eye." Two disasters clouded this month of travel. His poor poodle was drowned in a marsh and his medicine-chest was stolen. The land was famine-bound too; the people were living on mushrooms and leaves. "We get some elephants' meat, but it is very bitter, and the appetite in this country is always very keen and makes hunger worse to bear, the want of salt probably making the gnawing sensation worse." On 28th January, Livingstone crossed the Tshambezi, "which may almost be regarded as the upper waters of the Congo," says Johnstone, though the explorer of 1867 knew it not. "Northwards," says Livingstone, "through almost trackless forest and across oozing bogs"; and then he adds the significant words, "I am frightened at my own emaciation." March finds him worse. "I have been ill of fever; every step I take jars in my chest, and I am very weak; I can scarcely keep up the march." At last, on 1st April, "blue water loomed through the trees." It was Lake Tanganyika lying some two thousand feet below them. Its "surpassing loveliness" struck Livingstone. "It lies in a deep basin," he says, "whose sides are nearly perpendicular, but covered well with trees, at present all green; down some of these rocks come beautiful cascades, while buffaloes, elephants, and antelopes wander and graze on the more level spots, and lions roar by night. In the morning and evening huge crocodiles may be observed quietly making their way to their feeding-grounds, and hippopotami snort by night." Going westwards, Livingstone met a party of Arabs amongst whom he remained for over three months, till he could make his way on to Lake Meoro, reported to be only three days' journey. It took him sixteen days to reach it. "Lake Meoro seems of goodly size," he says, "and is flanked by ranges of mountains on the east and west. Its banks are of coarse sand and slope gradually down to the water. We slept in a fisherman's cottage on the north shore." After a stay of six weeks in the neighbourhood, Livingstone returned to the Arabs, until the spring of 1868, when he decided to explore the Lake Bangweolo. In spite of opposition and the desertion of more men, he started with five attendants and reached this--one of the largest of the central African lakes--in July. Modestly enough he asserts the fact. "On the 18th I saw the shores of the lake for the first time. The name Bangweolo is applied to the great mass of water, though I fear that our English folks will bogle at it or call it Bungyhollow. The water is of a deep sea-green colour. It was bitterly cold from the amount of moisture in the air." This moisture converted the surrounding country into one huge bog or sponge, twenty-nine of which Livingstone had to cross in thirty miles, each taking about half an hour to cross. [Illustration: THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE BANGWEOLO, 1868: LIVINGSTONE ON THE LAKE WITH HIS MEN. From Livingstone's _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John Murray.] The explorer was still greatly occupied on the problem of the Nile. "The discovery of the sources of the Nile," he says, "is somewhat akin in importance to the discovery of the North-West Passage." It seemed to him not impossible that the great river he found flowing through these two great lakes to the west of Tanganyika might prove to be the Upper Nile. It was December before he started for Tanganyika. The new year of 1868 opened badly. Half-way, he became very ill. He was constantly wet through; he persistently crossed brooks and rivers, wading through cold water up to his waist. "Very ill all over," he enters in his diary; "cannot walk. Pneumonia of right lung, and I cough all day and all night. I am carried several hours a day on a frame. The sun is vertical, blistering any part of the skin exposed, and I try to shelter my face and head as well as I can with a bunch of leaves." On 14th February 1869 he arrived on the western shores of the lake, and after the usual delay he was put into it canoe for Ujiji. Though better, he was still very ill, and we get the pathetic entry, "Hope to hold out to Ujiji." At last he reached the Arab settlement on the eastern shores, where he found the goods sent to him overland from Zanzibar, and though much had been stolen, yet warm clothes, tea, and coffee soon revived him. After a stay of three months he grew better, and turned westwards for the land of the Manyuema and the great rivers reported to be flowing there. He was guided by Arabs whose trade-route extended to the great Lualaba River in the very heart of Africa some thousand miles west of Zanzibar. It was an unknown land, unvisited by Europeans when Livingstone arrived with his Arab escort at Bambarra in September 1869. "Being now well rested," he enters in his diary, "I resolved to go west to Lualaba and buy a canoe for its exploration. The Manyuema country is all surpassingly beautiful. Palms crown the highest heights of the mountains, and the forests about five miles broad are indescribable. Climbers of cable size in great numbers are hung among the gigantic trees, many unknown wild fruits abound, some the size of a child's head, and strange birds and monkeys are everywhere." With the Arab caravan he travelled almost incessantly zigzagging through the wonderful Manyuema country until, after a year's wandering, he finally reached the banks of the Lualaba (Congo) on 31st March 1871. It was a red-letter day in his life. "I went down," he says, "to take a good look at the Lualaba here. It is a mighty river at least three thousand yards broad and always deep. The banks are steep; the current is about two miles an hour away to the north." Livingstone was gazing at the second-largest river in the world--the Congo. But he thought it was the Nile, and confidently relates how it overflows all its banks annually as the Nile does. At Nyangwe, a Manyuema village, Livingstone stayed for four months. The natives were dreadful cannibals. He saw one day a man with ten human jaw-bones hung by a string over his shoulder, the owners of which he had killed and eaten. Another day a terrible massacre took place, arising from a squabble over a fowl, in which some four hundred perished. The Arabs too disgusted him with their slave-raiding, and he decided that he could no longer travel under their protection. So on 20th July 1871 he started back for Ujiji, and after a journey of seven hundred miles, accomplished in three months, he arrived, reduced to a skeleton, only to find that the rascal who had charge of his stores had stolen the whole and made away. But when health and spirit were failing, help was at hand. The meeting of Stanley and Livingstone on the shores of the Lake Tanganyika is one of the most thrilling episodes in the annals of discovery. Let them tell their own story: "When my spirits were at their lowest ebb," says Livingstone, "one morning Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out, 'An Englishman! I see him!' and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head of a caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, and cooking-pots made me think, 'This must be a luxurious traveller and not one at his wits' end, like me.'" It was Henry Morton Stanley, the travelling correspondent of the _New York Herald_, sent at an expense of more than 4000 pounds to obtain accurate information about Dr. Livingstone if living, and if dead to bring home his bones. [Illustration: LIVINGSTONE AT WORK ON HIS JOURNAL. From a sketch by H. M. Stanley.] And now Stanley takes up the story. He has entered Ujiji and heard from the faithful Susi that the explorer yet lives. Pushing back the crowds of natives, Stanley advanced down "a living avenue of people" till he came to where "the white man with the long grey beard was standing." "As I advanced slowly towards him," says Stanley, "I noticed he was pale, looked worried, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat and a pair of grey tweed trousers. I walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said, 'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?' "'Yes,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly. "Then we both grasp hands and I say aloud, 'I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.' "'You have brought me new life--new life,' murmured the tired explorer," and for the next few days it was enough for the two Englishmen to sit on the mud verandah of Livingstone's house, talking. Livingstone soon grew better, and November found the two explorers surveying the river flowing from the north of Tanganyika and deciding that it was not the Nile. Stanley now did his best to persuade Livingstone to return home with him to recruit his shattered health before finishing his work of exploration. But the explorer, tired and out of health though he was, utterly refused. He must complete the exploration of the sources of the Nile before he sought that peace and comfort at home for which he must have yearned. So the two men parted--Stanley to carry Livingstone's news of the discovery of the Congo back to Europe, Livingstone to end his days on the lonely shores of Lake Bangweolo, leaving the long-sought mystery of the Nile sources yet unsolved. On 25th August 1872 he started on his last journey. He had a well-equipped expedition sent up by Stanley from the coast, including sixty men, donkeys, and cows. He embarked on his fresh journey with all his old eagerness and enthusiasm, but a few days' travel showed him how utterly unfit he was for any more hardships. He suffered from intense and growing weakness, which increased day by day. He managed somehow to ride his donkey, but in November his donkey died and he struggled along on foot. Descending into marshy regions north of Lake Bangweolo, the journey became really terrible. The rainy season was at its height, the land was an endless swamp, and starvation threatened the expedition. To add to the misery of the party, there were swarms of mosquitoes, poisonous spiders, and stinging ants by the way. Still, amid all the misery and suffering, the explorer made his way on through the dreary autumn months. Christmas came and went; the new year of 1873 dawned. He could not stop. April found him only just alive, carried by his faithful servants. Then comes the last entry in his diary, 27th April: "Knocked up quite. We are on the banks of R. Molilamo." [Illustration: LIVINGSTONE ENTERING THE HUT AT ILALA ON THE NIGHT THAT HE DIED. From Livingstone's _Last Journals_, by permission of Mr. John Murray.] [Illustration: THE LAST ENTRIES IN LIVINGSTONE'S DIARY.] They laid him at last in a native hut, and here one night he died alone. They found him in the early morning, just kneeling by the side of the rough bed, his body stretched forward, his head buried in his hands upon the pillow. The negroes buried his heart on the spot where he died in the village of Ilala on the shores of Lake Bangweolo under the shadow of a great tree in the still forest. Then they wrapped his body in a cylinder of bark wound round in a piece of old sailcloth, lashed it to a pole, and a little band of negroes, including Susi and Chuma, set out to carry their dead master to the coast. For hundreds of miles they tramped with their precious burden, till they reached the sea and could give it safely to his fellow-countrymen, who conveyed it to England to be laid with other great men in Westminster Abbey. "He needs no epitaph to guard a name Which men shall praise while worthy work is done. He lived and died for good, be that his fame. Let marble crumble: this is living-stone." [Illustration: SUSI, LIVINGSTONE'S SERVANT. From a sketch by H. M. Stanley.] CHAPTER LXVIII THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT The death of Livingstone, the faithfulness of his native servants in carrying his body and journals across hundreds of miles of wild country to the coast, his discovery of the great river in the heart of Africa, and the great service in Westminster Abbey roused public interest in the Dark Continent and the unfinished work of the great explorer. "Never had such an outburst of missionary zeal been known, never did the cause of geographical exploration receive such an impetus." The dramatic meeting between Livingstone and Stanley on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1871 had impressed the public in England and America, and an expedition was now planned by the proprietors of two great newspapers, the _London Daily Telegraph_ and the _New York Herald_. Stanley was chosen to command it. And perhaps there is hardly a better-known book of modern travels than _Through the Dark Continent_, in which he has related all his adventures and discoveries with regard to the Congo. Leaving England in August 1874 with three Englishmen and a large boat in eight sections, the _Lady Alice_, for the navigation of lake and river, the little exploring party reached Zanzibar a few weeks later and started on their great inland journey. The way to Victoria Nyanza lay through what is now known as German East Africa. They reached Ugogo safely and turned to the north-west, entering an immense and silent bush-field, where no food was obtainable. On the eighth day five people died of starvation and the rest of the expedition was only saved by the purchase of some grain from a distant village. But four more died and twenty-eight miles under a hot sun prostrated one of the white men, who died a few days later. Thus they entered Ituru, "a land of naked people, whose hills drained into a marsh, whence issue the southernmost waters of the Nile." Here they were surrounded by angry savages on whom they had to fire, and from whose country they were glad to escape. On 27th February 1875, after tramping for one hundred and three days, they arrived at their destination. One of the white men who was striding forward suddenly waved his hat, and with a beaming face shouted out, "I have seen the lake, sir; it is grand." Here, indeed, was the Victoria Nyanza, "which a dazzling sun transformed into silver," discovered by Speke sixteen years before, and supposed to be the source of the Nile. The men struck up a song of triumph-- "Sing, O friends, sing; the journey is ended. Sing aloud, O friends; sing to the great Nyanza. Sing all, sing loud, O friends, sing to the great sea; Give your last look to the lands behind, and then turn to the sea. Lift up your heads, O men, and gaze around. Try if you can to see its end. See, it stretches moons away, This great, sweet, fresh-water sea." "I thought," says Stanley, "there could be no better way of settling, once and for ever, the vexed question, than by circumnavigating the lake." So the _Lady Alice_ was launched, and from the shores of Speke Gulf, as he named the southern end, the explorer set forth, leaving the two remaining Englishmen in charge of the camp. "The sky is gloomy," writes Stanley, "the rocks are bare and rugged, the land silent and lonely. The rowing of the people is that of men who think they are bound to certain death; their hearts are full of misgivings as slowly we move through the dull dead waters." The waters were not dead for long. A gale rose up and the lake became wild beyond description. "The waves hissed as we tore along, the crew collapsed and crouched into the bottom of the boat, expecting the end of the wild venture, but the _Lady Alice_ bounded forward like a wild courser and we floated into a bay, still as a pond." So they coasted along the shores of the lake. Their guide told them it would take years to sail round their sea, that on the shores dwelt people with long tails, who preferred to feed on human beings rather than cattle or goats. But, undaunted, the explorer sailed on, across the Napoleon Channel, through which flowed the superfluous waters of the lake rushing northward as the Victoria Nile. "On the western side of the Channel is Uganda, dominated by an Emperor who is supreme over about three millions of people. He soon heard of my presence on the lake and dispatched a flotilla to meet me. His mother had dreamed the night before that she had seen a boat sailing, sailing like a fish-eagle over the Nyanza. In the stern of the boat was a white man gazing wistfully towards Uganda." On reaching the port a crowd of soldiers, "arrayed in crimson and black and snowy white," were drawn up to receive him. "As we neared the beach, volleys of musketry burst out from the long lines. Numerous kettles and brass drums sounded a noisy welcome, flags and banners waved, and the people gave a great shout." [Illustration: STANLEY AND HIS MEN MARCHING THROUGH UNYORO. From a sketch, by Stanley, in _Through the Dark Continent_.] Such was Stanley's welcome to M'tesa's wonderful kingdom of Uganda, described by Speke sixteen years before. The twelve days spent at the court of this monarch impressed Stanley deeply. Specially was the king interested in Christianity, and the English explorer told the story of the Creation and the birth of the Messiah to this intelligent pagan and his courtiers. "Ten days after we left the genial court, I came upon the scene of a tragedy. We were coasting the eastern side of a large island, having been thirty-six hours without food, looking for a port where we could put in and purchase provisions. Natives followed our movements, poising their spears, stringing their bows, picking out the best rocks for their slings. We were thirteen souls, they between three and four hundred. Seeing the boat advance, they smiled, entered the water, and held out inviting hands. The crew shot the boat towards the natives; their hands closed on her firmly, they ran with her to the shore and dragged her high and dry about twenty yards from the lake. Then ensued a scene of rampant wildness and hideous ferocity of action beyond description. The boat was surrounded by a forest of spears and two hundred demons contended for the first blow. I sprang up to kill and be killed, a revolver in each hand, but as I rose to my feet the utter hopelessness of our situation was revealed to me." To make a long story short, the natives seized the oars, and, thinking the boat was now in their power, they retired to make their plans. Meanwhile Stanley commanded his crew to tear the bottom boards up for paddles, and, pushing the boat hastily into the water, they paddled away, their commander firing the while with his elephant rifle and explosive bullets. They were saved. On 6th May the circumnavigation was finished and the _Lady Alice_ was being dragged ashore in Speke Gulf with shouts of welcome and the waving of many flags. But sad news awaited him. He could see but one of his white companions. "Where is Barker?" he asked Frank Pocock. "He died twelve days ago," was the melancholy answer. Stanley now took his whole expedition to Uganda, and after spending some months with the King he passed on to Lake Tanganyika, crossing to Ujiji, where he arrived in May 1876. Here five years before he had found Livingstone. "We launched our boat on the lake and, circumnavigating it, discovered that there was only a periodical outlet to it. Thus, by the circumnavigation of the two lakes, two of the geographical problems I had undertaken to solve were settled. The Victoria Nyanza had no connection with the Tanganyika. There now remained the grandest task of all. Is the Lualaba, which Livingstone had traced along a course of nearly thirteen hundred miles, the Nile, the Niger, or the Congo? I crossed Lake Tanganyika with my expedition, lifted once more my gallant boat on our shoulders, and after a march of nearly two hundred and twenty miles arrived at the superb river. Where I first sighted it, the Lualaba was fourteen hundred yards wide, pale grey in colour, winding slowly from south and by east. We hailed its appearance with shouts of joy, and rested on the spot to enjoy the view. I likened it to the Mississippi as it appears before the impetuous, full-volumed Missouri pours its rusty brown water into it. A secret rapture filled my soul as I gazed upon the majestic stream. The great mystery that for all these centuries Nature had kept hidden away from the world of science was waiting to be solved. For two hundred and twenty miles I had followed the sources of the Livingstone River to the confluence, and now before me lay the superb river itself. My task was to follow it to the ocean." Pressing on along the river, they reached the Arab city of Nyangwe, having accomplished three hundred and thirty-eight miles in forty-three days. And now the famous Arab Tippu-Tib comes on the scene, a chief with whom Stanley was to be closely connected hereafter. He was a tall, black-bearded man with an intelligent face and gleaming white teeth. He wore clothes of spotless white, his fez was smart and new, his dagger resplendent with silver filigree. He had escorted Cameron across the river to the south, and he now confirmed Stanley in his idea that the greatest problem of African geography, "the discovery of the course of the Congo," was still untouched. "This was momentous and all-important news to the expedition. We had arrived at the critical point in our travels," remarks Stanley. "What kind of a country is it to the north along the river?" he asked. "Monstrous bad," was the reply. "There are large boa-constrictors in the forest suspended by their tails, waiting to gobble up travellers. You cannot travel without being covered by ants, and they sting like wasps. There are leopards in countless numbers. Gorillas haunt the woods. The people are man-eaters. A party of three hundred guns started for the forest and only sixty returned." Stanley and his last remaining white companion, Frank Pocock, discussed the somewhat alarming situation together. Should they go on and face the dwarfs who shot with poisoned arrows, the cannibals who regarded the stranger as so much meat, the cataracts and rocks--should they follow the "great river which flowed northward for ever and knew no end"? "This great river which Livingstone first saw, and which broke his heart to turn away from, is a noble field," argued Stanley. "After buying or building canoes and floating down the river day by day, either to the Nile or to some vast lake in the far north or to the Congo and the Atlantic Ocean." "Let us follow the river," replied the white man. So, accompanied by Tippu-Tib, with a hundred and forty guns and seventy spearmen, they started along the banks of the river which Stanley now named the Livingstone River. "On the 5th of November 1876," says Stanley, "a force of about seven hundred people, consisting of Tippu-Tib's slaves and my expedition departed from the town of Nyangwe and entered the dismal forest-land north. A straight line from this point to the Atlantic Ocean would measure one thousand and seventy miles; another to the Indian Ocean would measure only nine hundred and twenty miles; we had not reached the centre of the continent by seventy-five miles. "Outside the woods blazed a blinding sunshine; underneath that immense roof-foliage was a solemn twilight. The trees shed continual showers of tropic dew. As we struggled on through the mud, the perspiration exuded from every pore; our clothes were soon wet and heavy. Every man had to crawl and scramble as he best could. Sometimes prostrate forest-giants barred the road with a mountain of twigs and branches. For ten days we endured it; then the Arabs declared they could go no farther. I promised them five hundred pounds if they would escort us twenty marches only. On our way to the river we came to a village whose sole street was adorned with one hundred and eighty-six human skulls. Seventeen days from Nyangwe we saw again the great river and, viewing the stately breadth of the mighty stream, I resolved to launch my boat for the last time. Placing thirty-six of the people in the boat, we floated down the river close to the bank along which the land-party marched. Day after day passed on and we found the natives increasing in wild rancour and unreasoning hate of strangers. At every curve and bend they 'telephoned' along the river warning signals; their huge wooden drums sounded the muster for fierce resistance; reed arrows tipped with poison were shot at us from the jungle as we glided by. On the 18th of December our miseries culminated in a grand effort of the savages to annihilate us. The cannibals had manned the topmost branches of the trees above the village of Vinya Njara to shoot at us." A camp was hastily constructed by Stanley in defence, and for several days there was desperate fighting, at the end of which peace was made. But Tippu-Tib and his escort refused to go a step farther to what they felt was certain destruction. Stanley alone was determined to proceed. He bought thirty-three native canoes and, leading with the _Lady Alice_, he set his face towards the unknown country. His men were all sobbing. They leant forward, bowed with grief and heavy hearts at the prospect before them. Dense woods covered both banks and islands. Savages with gaily feathered heads and painted faces dashed out of the woods armed with shields and spears, shouting, "Meat! meat! Ha! ha! We shall have plenty of meat!" "Armies of parrots screamed overhead as they flew across the river; legions of monkeys and howling baboons alarmed the solitudes; crocodiles haunted the sandy points; hippopotami grunted at our approach; elephants stood by the margin of the river; there was unceasing vibration from millions of insects throughout the livelong day. The sun shone large and warm; the river was calm and broad and brown." [Illustration: "TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN": STANLEY'S CANOES STARTING FROM VINYA NJARA. From _Through the Dark Continent_.] By January 1877 the expedition reached the first cataract of what is now known as the Stanley Falls. From this point for some sixty miles the great volume of the Livingstone River rushed through narrow and lofty banks in a series of rapids. For twenty-two days he toiled along the banks, through jungle and forest, over cliffs and rocks exposed all the while to murderous attacks by cannibal savages, till the seventh cataract was passed and the boats were safely below the falls. "We hastened away down river in a hurry, to escape the noise of the cataracts which for many days and nights had almost stunned us with their deafening sound. We were once more afloat on a magnificent stream, nearly a mile wide, curving north-west. 'Ha! Is it the Niger or Congo?' I said." [Illustration: THE SEVENTH CATARACT, STANLEY FALLS. From _Through the Dark Continent_.] But day after day as they dropped down stream new enemies appeared, until at last, at the junction of the Aruwimi, a tributary as large as the main stream, a determined attack was made on them by some two thousand warriors in large canoes. A monster canoe led the way, with two rows of forty paddlers each, their bodies swaying to a barbarous chorus. In the bow were ten prime young warriors, their heads gay with the feathers of the parrot, crimson and grey: at the stern eight men with long paddles decorated with ivory balls guided the boat, while ten chiefs danced up and down from stem to stern. The crashing of large drums, a hundred blasts from ivory horns, and a song from two thousand voices did not tend to assure the little fleet under Stanley. The Englishman coolly anchored his boats in mid-stream and received the enemy with such well-directed volleys that the savages were utterly paralysed, and with great energy they retreated, pursued hotly by Stanley's party. [Illustration: THE FIGHT BELOW THE CONFLUENCE OF THE ARUWIMI AND THE LIVINGSTONE RIVERS. From a sketch, by Stanley, in _Through the Dark Continent_.] "Leaving them wondering and lamenting, I sought the mid-channel again and wandered on with the current. In the voiceless depths of the watery wilderness we encountered neither treachery nor guile, and we floated down, down, hundreds of miles. The river curved westward, then south-westward. Ah, straight for the mouth of the Congo. It widened daily. The channels became numerous." Through the country of the Bangala they now fought their way. These people were armed with guns brought up from the coast by native traders. It was indeed an anxious moment when, with war-drums beating, sixty-three "beautiful but cruel canoes" came skimming towards Stanley with some three hundred guns to his forty-four. For nearly five hours the two fleets fought until the victory rested with the American. "This," remarks Stanley, "was our thirty-first fight on the terrible river, and certainly the most determined conflict we had endured." They rowed on till the 11th of March; the river had grown narrower and steep, wooded hills rose on either side above them. Suddenly the river expanded, and the voyagers entered a wide basin or pool over thirty square yards. "Sandy islands rose in front of us like a seabeach, and on the right towered a long row of cliffs white and glistening, like the cliffs of Dover." "Why not call it Stanley Pool and those cliffs Dover Cliffs?" suggested Frank Pocock. And these names may be seen on our maps to-day. Passing out of the Pool, the roar of a great cataract burst upon their ears. It was the first of a long series of falls and rapids which continued for a distance of one hundred and fifty-five miles. To this great stretch of cataracts and rapids Stanley gave the name of the "Livingstone Falls." At the fifth cataract Stanley lost his favourite little native page-boy, Kalulu. The canoe in which he was rowing shot suddenly over the rapids, and in the furious whirl of rushing waters poor little Kalulu was drowned. He had been born a prince and given to Stanley on his first expedition into Africa. Stanley had taken him to Europe and America, and the boy had repaid his kindness by faithful and tender devotion till that fatal day, when he went to his death over the wild Livingstone Falls. Stanley named the rapid after him, Kalulu Falls. But a yet more heart-rending loss was in store for him. Progress was now very slow, for none of the cataracts or rapids could be navigated; canoes as well as stores had to be dragged over land from point to point. Frank Pocock had fallen lame and could not walk with the rest. Although accidents with the canoes were of daily occurrence, although he might have taken warning by the death of Kalulu, he insisted that his crew should try to shoot the great Massassa Falls instead of going round by land. Too late he realised his danger. The canoe was caught by the rushing tide, flung over the Falls, tossed from wave to wave, and finally dragged into the swirling whirlpool below. The "little master" as he was called was never seen again! Stanley's last white companion was gone! Gloom settled down on the now painfully reduced party. "We are all unnerved with the terrible accident of yesterday," says Stanley. "As I looked at the dejected woe-stricken servants, a choking sensation of unutterable grief filled me. This four months had we lived together, and true had been his service. The servant had long ago merged into the companion; the companion had become the friend." Still Stanley persevered in his desperate task, and in spite of danger from cataracts and danger from famine, on 31st July he reached the Isangila cataract. Thus far in 1816 two explorers had made their way from the ocean, and Stanley knew now for certain that he was on the mighty Congo. He saw no reason to follow it farther, or to toil through the last four cataracts. "I therefore announced to the gallant but wearied followers that we should abandon the river and strike overland for Boma, the nearest European settlement, some sixty miles across country." At sunset on 31st July they carried the _Lady Alice_ to the summit of some rocks above the Isangila Falls and abandoned her to her fate. "Farewell, brave boat!" cried Stanley; "seven thousand miles up and down broad Africa thou hast accompanied me. For over five thousand miles thou hast been my home. Lift her up tenderly, boys--so tenderly--and let her rest." Then, wayworn and feeble, half starved, diseased, and suffering, the little caravan of one hundred and fifteen men, women, and children started on their overland march to the coast. "Staggering, we arrived at Boma on 9th August 1877; a gathering of European merchants met me and, smiling a warm welcome, told me kindly that I had done right well. Three days later I gazed upon the Atlantic Ocean and saw the powerful river flowing into the bosom of that boundless, endless sea. But grateful as I felt to Him who had enabled me to pierce the Dark Continent from east to west, my heart was charged with grief and my eyes with tears at the thought of the many comrades and friends I had lost." The price paid had indeed been great; he had lost his three English companions and one hundred and seventy natives besides. But for years and years to come, in many a home at Zanzibar, whither Stanley now took his party by sea, the story of this great journey was told, and all the men were heroes and the refrain of the natives was chanted again and again-- "Then sing, O friends, sing: the journey is ended; Sing aloud, O friends, sing to this great sea." Stanley had solved the problem of the Congo River at last. CHAPTER LXIX NORDENSKIOLD ACCOMPLISHES THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE The North-West Passage, for the accomplishment of which so many brave lives had been laid down, had been discovered. It now remained for some explorer to sail round the North-East Passage, which was known to exist, but which, up to this time, no man had done. Nordenskiold the Swede was to have this honour. Born in 1832 in Finland, he had taken part in an Arctic expedition in 1861, which attempted to reach the North Pole by means of dog-sledges from the north coast of Spitzbergen. Three years later he was appointed to lead an expedition to Spitzbergen, which succeeded in reaching the highest northern latitude which any ship had yet attained. In 1870 his famous journey to Greenland took place, and two years later he left Sweden on another Polar expedition; but misfortunes beset the expedition, and finally the ships were wrecked. The following year he commanded a reconnoitring expedition. He passed Nova Zembla and reached the mouth of the Yenisei. This was the first time that a ship had accomplished the voyage from the Atlantic Ocean. Thus Nordenskiold had gained considerable knowledge of the Northern Seas, and he was now in a position to lay a plan of his schemes before King Oscar, who had always interested himself in Arctic discovery. His suggestions to the King are of singular interest. "It is my intention," he says, "to leave Sweden in July 1878 in a steamer specially built for navigation among ice, which will be provisioned for two years at most. The course will be shaped for Nova Zembla, where a favourable opportunity will be awaited for the passage of the Kara Sea. The voyage will be continued to the mouth of the Yenisei, which I hope to reach in the first half of August. As soon as circumstances permit, the expedition will continue its voyage along the coast to Cape Chelyuskin, where the expedition will reach the only part of the proposed route which has not been traversed by some small vessel, and is rightly considered as that which it will be most difficult for a vessel to double during the whole North-East Passage; but our vessel, equipped with all modern appliances, ought not to find insuperable difficulties in doubling this point, and if that can be accomplished, we will probably have pretty open water towards Behring's Straits, which ought to be reached before the end of September. From Behring Strait the course will be shaped for some Asiatic port and then onwards round Asia to Suez." King Oscar and others offered to pay the expenses of the expedition, and preparations were urged forward. The _Vega_ of 300 tons, formerly used in walrus-hunting in northern waters, was purchased, and further strengthened to withstand ice. On 22nd June all was ready, and with the Swedish flag with a crowned O in the middle, the little _Vega_, which was to accomplish such great things, was "peacefully rocking on the swell of the Baltic as if impatient to begin her struggle against waves and ice." She carried food for thirty people for two years, which included over three thousand pounds of bacon, nine thousand pounds of coffee, nine thousand pounds of biscuits. There were pemmican from England, potatoes from the Mediterranean, cranberry juice from Finland. Fresh bread was made during the whole expedition. A few days later the _Vega_ reached Copenhagen and steamed north in the finest weather. "Where are you bound for?" signalled a passing ship. "To Behring Sea," was the return signal, and the Swedish crew waved their caps, shouting their joyful news. At Gothenburg they took on eight sledges, tents, and cooking utensils, also two Scotch sheep dogs and a little coal-black kitten, which lived in the captain's berth till it grew accustomed to the sea, when it slept in the forecastle by day and ran about stealing the food of the sleeping sailors by night. On 16th July they crossed the Polar Circle. "All on board feel they are entering upon a momentous period of their life," says the explorer. "Were we to be the fortunate ones to reach this goal, which navigators for centuries had striven to reach?" The south-west coast of Nova Zembla was reached on 28th July, but the weather being calm and the sea completely free of ice, Nordenskiold sailed onwards through the Kara Strait or Iron Gates, which during the winter was usually one sheet of ice, until they anchored outside the village of Khabarova. The "village" consisted of a few huts and tents of Russian and Samoyedes pasturing their reindeer on the Vaygets Island. On the bleak northern shores stood a little wooden church, which the explorers visited with much interest. It seemed strange to find here brass bas-reliefs representing the Christ, St. Nicholas, Elijah, St. George and the Dragon, and the Resurrection; in front of each hung a little oil lamp. The people were dressed entirely in reindeer skin from head to foot, and they had a great collection of walrus tusks and skins such as Othere had brought centuries before to King Alfred. Nordenskiold's account of a short drive in a reindeer sledge is amusing. "Four reindeer were put side by side to each sledge," he says. "Ivan, my driver, requested me to hold tight; he held the reins of all four reindeer in one hand, and away we went over the plain! His request to keep myself tight to the sledge was not unnecessary; at one moment the sledge jumped over a big tussock, the next it went down into a pit. It was anything but a comfortable drive, for the pace at which we went was very great." On 1st August the _Vega_ was off again, and soon she had entered the Kara Sea, known in the days of the Dutch explorers as the "ice-cellar." Then past White Island and the estuary of the great Obi River, past the mouth of the Yenisei to Dickson Island, lately discovered, she sailed. Here in this "best-known haven on the whole north coast of Asia they anchored and spent time in bear and reindeer hunting." "In consequence of the successful sport we lived very extravagantly during these days; our table groaned with joints of venison and bear-hams." They now sailed north close bound in fog, till on 20th August "we reached the great goal, which for centuries had been the object of unsuccessful struggles. For the first time a vessel lay at anchor off the northernmost cape of the Old World. With colours flying on every mast and saluting the venerable north point of the Old World with the Swedish salute of five guns, we came to an anchor!" [Illustration: NORDENSKIOLD'S SHIP, THE _VEGA_, SALUTING CAPE CHELYUSKIN, THE MOST NORTHERLY POINT OF THE OLD WORLD. From a drawing in Hovgaard's _Nordenskiold's Voyage_.] The fog lifting for a moment, they saw a white Polar bear standing "regarding the unexpected guests with surprise." When afterwards a member of the expedition was asked which moment was the proudest of the whole voyage, he answered, without hesitation: "Undoubtedly the moment when we anchored off Cape Chelyuskin." It had been named thus by the "Great Northern Expedition" in 1742 after Lieutenant Chelyuskin, one of the Russian explorers under Laptieff, who had reached this northern point by a land journey which had entailed terrible hardships and suffering. "Next morning," relates Nordenskiold, "we erected a cairn on the shore, and in the middle of it laid a tin box with the following document written in Swedish: 'The Swedish Arctic Expedition arrived here yesterday, the 19th of August, and proceeds in a few hours eastward. The sea has been tolerably free from ice. Sufficient supply of coals. All well on board. "'A. E. NORDENSKIOLD.' And below in English and Russian were the words, 'Please forward this document as soon as possible to His Majesty the King of Sweden.'" Nordenskiold now attempted to steam eastwards towards the New Siberian Islands, but the fog was thick, and they fell in with large ice-floes which soon gave place to ice-fields. Violent snowstorms soon set in and "aloft everything was covered with a crust of ice, and the position in the crow's nest was anything but pleasant." They reached Khatanga Bay, however, and on 27th August the _Vega_ was at the mouth of the Lena. "We were now in hopes that we should be in Japan in a couple of months; we had accomplished two-thirds of our way through the Polar sea, and the remaining third had been often navigated at different distances." So the _Vega_ sailed on eastwards with an ice-free sea to the New Siberian Islands, where lie embedded "enormous masses of the bones and tusks of the mammoth mixed with the horns and skulls of some kind of ox and with the horns of rhinoceros." All was still clear of snow, and the New Siberian Islands lying long and low in the Polar seas were safely passed. It was not till 1st September that the first snows fell; the decks of the _Vega_ were white with snow when the Bear Islands were reached. Fog now hindered the expedition once more, and ice was sighted. "Ice right ahead!" suddenly shouted the watch on the forecastle, and only by a hair's-breadth was the _Vega_ saved. On 3rd September a thick snowstorm came on, the Bear Islands were covered with newly fallen snow, and though the ice was growing more closely packed than any yet encountered they could still make their way along a narrow ice-free channel near the coast. Snowstorms, fog, and drifting ice compelled careful navigation, but a pleasant change occurred early in September by a visit from the natives. We have already heard of the Chukches from Behring--the Chukches whom no man had yet vanquished, for when Siberia was conquered by a Kossack chief in 1579, the Chukches in this outlying north-eastern corner of the Old World, savage, courageous, resolute, kept the conquerors at bay. For the last six weeks the explorers had not seen a human being on that wild and desolate stretch of coast, so they were glad enough to see the little Chukches with their coal-black hair and eyes, their large mouths and flat noses. "Although it was only five o'clock in the morning, we all jumped out of our berths and hurried on deck to see these people of whom so little was known. The boats were of skin, fully laden with laughing and chattering natives, men, women, and children, who indicated by cries and gesticulations that they wished to come on board. The engine was stopped, the boats lay to, and a large number of skin-clad, bare-headed beings climbed up over the gunwale and a lively talk began. Great gladness prevailed when tobacco and Dutch clay pipes were distributed among them. None of them could speak a word of Russian; they had come in closer contact with American whalers than with Russian traders." The Chukches were all very short and dressed in reindeer skins with tight-fitting trousers of seal-skin, shoes of reindeer-skin with seal-skin boots and walrus-skin soles. In very cold weather they wore hoods of wolf fur with the head of the wolf at the back. [Illustration: MENKA, CHIEF OF THE CHUKCHES.] But Nordenskiold could not wait long. Amid snow and ice and fog he pushed on, hoping against hope to get through to the Pacific before the sea was completely frozen over. But the ice was beginning to close. Large blocks were constantly hurled against the ship with great violence, and she had many a narrow escape of destruction. At last, it was 28th September, the little _Vega_ was finally and hopelessly frozen into the ice, and they made her fast to a large ice-block. Sadly we find the entry: "Only one hundred and twenty miles distant from our goal, which we had been approaching during the last two months, and after having accomplished two thousand four hundred miles. It took some time before we could accustom ourselves to the thought that we were so near and yet so far from our destination." Fortunately they were near the shore and the little settlement of Pitlekai, where in eight tents dwelt a party of Chukches. These little people helped them to pass the long monotonous winter, and many an expedition inland was made in Chukche sledges drawn by eight or ten wolf-like dogs. Snowstorms soon burst upon the little party of Swedish explorers who had made the _Vega_ their winter home. "During November we have scarcely had any daylight," writes Nordenskiold; "the storm was generally howling in our rigging, which was now enshrouded in a thick coat of snow, the deck was full of large snowdrifts, and snow penetrated into every corner of the ship where it was possible for the wind to find an opening. If we put our heads outside the door we were blinded by the drifting snow." Christmas came and was celebrated by a Christmas tree made of willows tied to a flagstaff, and the traditional rice porridge. By April large flocks of geese, eider-ducks, gulls, and little song-birds began to arrive, the latter perching on the rigging of the _Vega_, but May and June found her still icebound in her winter quarters. [Illustration: THE _VEGA_ FROZEN IN FOR THE WINTER. From a drawing in Hovgaard's _Nordenskiold's Voyage_.] It was not till 18th July 1879 that "the hour of deliverance came at last, and we cast loose from our faithful ice-block, which for two hundred and ninety-four days had protected us so well against the pressure of the ice and stood westwards in the open channel, now about a mile wide. On the shore stood our old friends, probably on the point of crying, which they had often told us they would do when the ship left them." For long the Chukches stood on the shore--men, women, and children--watching till the "fire-dog," as they called the _Vega_, was out of sight, carrying their white friends for ever away from their bleak, inhospitable shores. "Passing through closely packed ice, the _Vega_ now rounded the East Cape, of which we now and then caught a glimpse through the fog. As soon as we came out of the ice south of the East Cape, we noticed the heavy swell of the Pacific Ocean. The completion of the North-East Passage was celebrated the same day with a grand dinner, and the _Vega_ greeted the Old and New Worlds by a display of flags and the firing of a Swedish salute. Now for the first time after the lapse of three hundred and thirty-six years was the North-East Passage at last achieved." Sailing through the Behring Strait, they anchored near Behring Island on 14th August. As they came to anchor, a boat shot alongside and a voice cried out in Swedish, "Is it Nordenskiold?" A Finland carpenter soon stood in their midst, and they eagerly questioned him about the news from the civilised world! There is no time to tell how the _Vega_ sailed on to Japan, where Nordenskiold was presented to the Mikado, and an Imperial medal was struck commemorating the voyage of the _Vega_, how she sailed right round Asia, through the Suez Canal, and reached Sweden in safety. It was on 24th April 1880 that the little weather-beaten _Vega_, accompanied by flag-decked steamers literally laden with friends, sailed into the Stockholm harbour while the hiss of fireworks and the roar of cannon mingled with the shouts of thousands. The Royal Palace was ablaze with light when King Oscar received and honoured the successful explorer Nordenskiold. CHAPTER LXX THE EXPLORATION OF TIBET Perhaps no land in the world has in modern times exercised a greater influence over the imagination of men than the mysterious country of Tibet. From the days of Herodotus to those of Younghusband, travellers of all times and nations have tried to explore this unknown country, so jealously guarded from Europeans. Surrounded by a "great wilderness of stony and inhospitable altitudes" lay the capital, Lhasa, the seat of the gods, the home of the Grand Lama, founded in 639 A.D., mysterious, secluded, sacred. Kublai Khan, of Marco Polo fame, had annexed Tibet to his vast Empire, and in 1720 the mysterious land was finally conquered by the Chinese. The history of the exploration of Tibet and the adjoining country, and of the various attempts to penetrate to Lhasa, is one of the most thrilling in the annals of discovery. We remember that Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth century, Carpini and William de Rubruquis in the thirteenth, all assert that they passed through Tibet, but we have no certain records till several Italian Capuchin friars succeeded in reaching Lhasa. There they lived and taught for some thirty-eight years, when they were withdrawn. And the little "Tibetan Mission," as it was called, came to an end. It was yet early in the eighteenth century. England was taking up her great position in India, and Warren Hastings was anxious to open up friendly relations with Tibet beyond the great Himalaya ranges. To this end he sent an Englishman, George Bogle, with these instructions: "I desire you will proceed to Lhasa. The design of your mission is to open a mutual and equal communication of trade between the inhabitants of Tibet and Bengal. You will take with you samples, for a trial of such articles of commerce as may be sent from this country. And you will diligently inform yourself of the manufactures, productions, and goods which are to be procured in Tibet. The following will also be proper subjects for your inquiry, the nature of the roads between the borders of Bengal and Lhasa and the neighbouring countries. I wish you to remain a sufficient time to obtain a complete knowledge of the country. The period of your stay must be left to your discretion." Bogle was young; he knew nothing of the country, but in May 1774 his little expedition set off from Calcutta to do the bidding of Warren Hastings. By way of Bhutan, planting potatoes at intervals according to his orders, Bogle proceeded across the eastern Himalayas toward the Tibetan frontier, reaching Phari, the first town in Tibet, at the end of October. Thence they reached Gyangtse, a great trade centre now open to foreigners, crossed the Brahmaputra, which they found was "about the size of the Thames at Putney," and reached the residence of the Tashi Lama, the second great potentate of Tibet. This great dignitary and the young Englishman made great friends. "On a carved and gilt throne amid cushions sat the Lama, cross-legged. He was dressed in a mitre-shaped cap of yellow broadcloth with long bars lined with red satin, a yellow cloth jacket without sleeves, and a satin mantle of the same colour thrown over his shoulders. On one side of him stood his physician with a bundle of perfumed sandal-wood rods burning in his hand; on the other stood his cup-bearer." Such was this remarkable man as first seen by the English, "venerated as God's vice-regent through all the eastern countries of Asia." He had heard much of the power of the "Firinghis," as he called the English. "As my business is to pray to God," he said to Bogle, "I was afraid to admit any Firinghis into the country. But I have since learned that they are a fair and just people." [Illustration: THE POTALA AT LHASA: A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY VIEW. From Kircher's _China Illustrata_. The only good representation of the Potala until photographs were obtainable in the twentieth century.] Bogle would have proceeded to Lhasa, the home of the Grand Lama, but this permission was refused, and he had to return to India with the information he had collected. The next Englishman to enter Tibet was Thomas Manning, the first to reach the sacred city of Lhasa. He was a private adventurer, who had lived in China and learnt the language. Attended by a Chinese servant, and wearing a flowing beard of singular length, he left Calcutta, crossed into Bhutan, and arrived at the Tibetan border in October 1811. Then he crossed the Brahmaputra in a large ferry-boat, and arrived within seven miles of Lhasa. On 9th December the first European entered the sacred city since the expulsion of the Capuchin friars. The view of the famous Potala, the lofty towering palace, filled him with admiration, but the city of which Europe, knowing nothing, had exalted into a magnificent place, was very disappointing. "We passed under a large gateway," says Manning, "whose gilded ornaments were so ill-fixed that some leaned one way and some another. The road as it winds round the palace is royally broad; it swarmed with monks, and beggars were basking in the sun. There is nothing striking in its appearance; the habitations are begrimed with smut and dirt. The avenues are full of dogs--in short, everything seems mean and gloomy. Having provided himself with a proper hat, Manning went to the Potala to salute the Grand Lama, taking with him a pair of brass candlesticks with two wax candles, some 'genuine Smith's lavender water, and a good store of Nankin tea, which is a rare delicacy at Lhasa. Ushered into the presence of the Grand Lama, a child of seven, he touched his head three times on the floor, after the custom of the country, and, taking off his hat, knelt to be blessed by the little monarch.' He had the simple and unaffected manners of a well-educated princely child. His face was affectingly beautiful--his beautiful mouth was perpetually unbending into a graceful smile, which illuminated his whole countenance." Here Manning spent four months, at the end of which time he was recalled from Pekin, and reluctantly he was obliged to return the way he came. The next man to reach the forbidden city was a Jesuit missionary, the Abbe Huc, who reached Lhasa in 1846 from China. He had adopted the dress of the Tibetan Lama--the yellow cap and gown--and he piloted his little caravan across the wide steppes on horseback, while his fellow-missionary, Gabet, rode a camel and their one Tartar retainer rode a black mule. It took them a year and a half to reach the sacred city of Lhasa, for many and great were the difficulties of the way. Their first difficulty lay in crossing the Yellow River, which was in flood. "It is quite impossible to cross the Yellow River," they were told. "Eight days ago the river overflowed its banks and the plains are completely flooded." "The Tartars only told us the truth," remarked Huc sadly. "The Yellow River had become a vast sea, the limits of which were scarcely visible: houses and villages looked as though they were floating upon the waves. What were we to do? To turn back was out of the question. We had vowed that, God willing, we would go to Lhasa whatever obstacles impeded." And so they did. The camels were soon up to their knees in a thick slimy compost of mud and water, over which the poor animals slid on their painful way. Their courage was rewarded, native ferry-boats came to their rescue, and they reached the other side in safety. They were now on the main caravan route to the Tibetan frontier and the Koko-Nor. Immense caravans were met, with strings of camels extending for miles in length. Three times between the Yellow River and the Koko-Nor Lake did they pass the Great Wall built in 214 A.D. After over four months of travel Huc arrived at the monastery of Kunkum on the borderland of Tibet. This was the home of four thousand Lamas all clothed in red dresses and yellow mitres, and thither resorted the worshippers of Buddha from all parts of Tartary and Tibet. "The site is one of enchanting beauty," says Huc. "Imagine in a mountain-side a deep, broad ravine adorned with fine trees and alive with the cawing of rooks and yellow-beaked crows and the amusing chatter of magpies. On the two sides of the ravine and on the slopes of the mountain rise the white dwellings of the Lamas. Amid the dazzling whiteness of these modest habitations rise numerous Buddhist temples with gilt roofs, sparkling with a thousand brilliant colours. Here the travellers stayed for three months, after which they made their way on to the Koko-Nor Lake. "As we advanced," says Huc, "the country became more fertile, until we reached the vast and magnificent pasturage of Koko-Nor. Here vegetation is so vigorous that the grass rose up to the stomachs of our camels. Soon we discovered far before us what seemed a broad silver riband. Our leader informed us that this was the Blue Sea. We urged on our animals, and the sun had not set when we planted our tent within a hundred paces of the waters of the great Blue Lake. This immense reservoir of water seems to merit the title of sea rather than merely that of lake. To say nothing of its vast extent, its waters are bitter and salt, like those of the ocean." After a month spent on the shores of the Blue Lake, an opportunity offered for the advance. Towards the end of October they found that an embassy from Lhasa to Pekin was returning in great force. This would afford Huc and his companion safe travelling from the hordes of brigands that infested the route through Tibet. The caravan was immense. There were fifteen hundred oxen, twelve hundred horses, and as many camels, and about two thousand men. The ambassador was carried in a litter. Such was the multitude which now started for the thousand miles across Tibet to Lhasa. After crossing the great Burkhan Buddha range, the caravan came to the Shuga Pass, about seventeen thousand feet high, and here their troubles began. "When the huge caravan first set itself in motion," says Huc, "the sky was clear, and a brilliant moon lit up the great carpet of snow with which the whole country was covered. We were able to attain the summit by sunrise. Then the sky became thickly overcast with clouds and the wind began to blow with a violence which became more and more intense." Snow fell heavily and several animals perished. They marched in the teeth of an icy wind which almost choked them, whirlwinds of snow blinded them, and when they reached the foot of the mountain at last, M. Gabet found that his nose and ears were frostbitten. As they proceeded, the cold became more intense. "The demons of snow, wind, and cold were set loose on the caravan with a fury which seemed to increase from day to day." "One cannot imagine a more terrible country," says poor Huc. Not only were the animals dying from cold and exposure, but men were beginning to drop out and die. Forty of the party died before the plateau of Tangla had been crossed, a proceeding which lasted twelve days. The track, some sixteen thousand feet above the sea, was bordered by the skeletons of mules and camels, and monstrous eagles followed the caravan. The scenery was magnificent, line upon line of snow-white pinnacles stretched southward and westward under a bright sun. The descent was "long, brusque, and rapid, like the descent of a gigantic ladder." At the lower altitude snow and ice disappeared. It was the end of January 1846, when at last our two travellers found themselves approaching the longed-for city of Lhasa. "The sun was nearly setting," says Huc, "when we found ourselves in a vast plain and saw on our right Lhasa, the famous metropolis of the Buddhist world. After eighteen months' struggle with sufferings and obstacles of infinite number and variety, we were at length arrived at the termination of our journey, though not at the close of our miseries." Huc's account of the city agrees well with that of Manning: "The palace of the Dalai Lama," he says, "merits the celebrity which it enjoys throughout the world. Upon a rugged mountain, the mountain of Buddha, the adorers of the Lama have raised the magnificent palace wherein their Living Divinity resides in the flesh. This place is made up of various temples; that which occupies the centre is four storeys high; it terminates in a dome entirely covered with plates of gold. It is here the Dalai Lama has set up his abode. From the summit of his lofty sanctuary he can contemplate his innumerable adorers prostrate at the foot of the divine mountain. But in the town all was different--all are engaged in the grand business of buying and selling, all is noise, pushing, excitement, confusion." Here Huc and his companion resided for two and a half months, opening an oratory in their house and even making a few Christian converts. But soon they were ordered to leave, and reluctantly they travelled back to China, though by a somewhat different route. After this the Tibetans guarded their capital more zealously than before. Przhevalsky, "that grand explorer of Russian nationality," spent years in exploring Tibet, but when within a hundred and sixty miles of Lhasa he was stopped, and never reached the forbidden city. Others followed. Prince Henri of Orleans got to within one hundred miles of Lhasa, Littledale and his wife to within fifty miles. Sven Hedin, the "Prince of Swedish explorers," who had made so many famous journeys around and about Tibet, was making a dash for the capital disguised as a Mongolian pilgrim when he, too, was stopped. "A long black line of Tibetan horsemen rode towards us at full gallop," he relates. "It was not raining just at that moment, so there was nothing to prevent us from witnessing what was in truth a very magnificent spectacle. It was as though a living avalanche were sweeping down upon us. A moment more and we should be annihilated! We held our weapons ready. On came the Tibetans in one long line stretching across the plain. We counted close upon seventy in all. In the middle rode the chief on a big handsome mule, his staff of officers all dressed in their finest holiday attire. The wings consisted of soldiers armed to the teeth with gun, sword, and lance. The great man, Kamba Bombo, pulled up in front of our tent." After removing a red Spanish cloak and hood he "stood forth arrayed in a suit of yellow silk with wide arms and a little blue Chinese skull-cap. His feet were encased in Mongolian boots of green velvet. He was magnificent." "You will not go another step towards Lhasa," he said. "If you do you will lose your heads. It doesn't the least matter who you are or where you come from. You must go back to your headquarters." So an escort was provided and sorrowfully Sven Hedin turned his back on the jealously guarded town he had striven so hard to reach. The expedition, or rather mission, under Colonel Younghusband in 1904 brings to an end our history of the exploration of Tibet. He made his way to Lhasa from India; he stood in the sacred city, and "except for the Potala" he found it a "sorry affair." He succeeded in getting a trade Treaty signed, and he rode hastily back to India and travelled thence to England. The importance of the mission was accentuated by the fact that the flag, a Union Jack bearing the motto, "Heaven's Light our Guide," carried by the expedition and placed on the table when the Treaty was signed in Lhasa, hangs to-day in the Central Hall at Windsor over the statue of Queen Victoria. The veil so long drawn over the capital of Tibet had been at last torn aside, and the naked city had been revealed in all its "weird barbarity." Plans of the "scattered and ill-regulated" city are now familiar, the Potala has been photographed, the Grand Lama has been drawn, and if, with the departure of Younghusband, the gates of Lhasa were once more closed, voices from beyond the snowy Himalayas must be heard again ere long. [Illustration: THE WORLD'S MOST MYSTERIOUS CITY UNVEILED: LHASA AND THE POTALA. From a photograph by a member of Younghusband's expedition to Tibet and Lhasa, 1909(?).] CHAPTER LXXI NANSEN REACHES FARTHEST NORTH No names are better known in the history of Arctic exploration than those of Nansen and the _Fram_, and although others have done work just as fine, the name of Nansen cannot be omitted from our _Book of Discovery_. Sven Hedin had not long returned from his great travels through eastern Turkestan and Tibet when Nansen was preparing for his great journey northwards. He had already crossed Greenland from east to west, a brilliant achievement only excelled by Peary, who a few years later, crossed it at a higher latitude and proved it to be an island. Now the movement of ice drift in the Arctic seas was occupying the attention of explorers at this time. A ship, the _Jeannette_, had been wrecked in 1881 off the coast of Siberia, and three years later the debris from the wreck had been washed up on the south-west coast of Greenland. So it occurred to Nansen that a current must flow across the North Pole from Behring Sea on one side to the Atlantic Ocean on the other. His idea was therefore to build a ship as strong as possible to enable it to withstand the pressure of the ice, to allow it to become frozen in, and then to drift as the articles from the _Jeannette_ had drifted. He reckoned that it would take three years for the drift of ice to carry him to the North Pole. Foolhardy and impossible as the scheme seemed to some, King Oscar came forward with 1000 pounds toward expenses. The _Fram_ was then designed. The whole success of the expedition lay in her strength to withstand the pressure of the ice. At last she was ready, even fitted with electric light. A library, scientifically prepared food, and instruments of the most modern type were on board. The members of the expedition numbered thirteen, and on Midsummer Day, 1893, "in calm summer weather, while the setting sun shed his beams over the land, the _Fram_ stood out towards the blue sea to get its first roll in the long, heaving swell." Along the coast of Norway, past Bergen, past Trondhjem, past Tromso, they steamed, until in a north-westerly gale and driving snow they lost sight of land. It was 25th July when they sighted Nova Zembla plunged in a world of fog. They landed at Khabarova and visited the little old church seen fifteen years before by Nordenskiold, anxiously inquiring about the state of the ice in the Kara Sea. Here, amid the greatest noise and confusion, some thirty-four dogs were brought on board for the sledges. On 5th August the explorer successfully passed through the Yugor Strait into the Kara Sea, which was fairly free from ice, and five weeks later sailed past Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost point of the Old World. "The land was low and desolate," says Nansen. "The sun had long since gone down behind the sea; only one star was to be seen. It stood straight above Cape Chelyuskin, shining clearly and sadly in the pale sky. Exactly at four o'clock our flags were hoisted and our last three cartridges sent out a thundering salute over the sea." The _Fram_ was then turned north to the west of the New Siberian Islands. "It was a strange thing to be sailing away north," says Nansen, "to unknown lands, over an open rolling sea where no ship had been before. On to the north, steadily north with a good wind, as fast as steam and sail can take us through unknown regions." They had almost reached 78 degrees north when they saw ice shining through the fog, and a few days later the _Fram_ was frozen in. "Autumn was well advanced, the long night of winter was approaching, there was nothing to be done except prepare ourselves for it, and we converted our ship as well as we could into comfortable winter quarters." By October the ice was pressing round the _Fram_ with a noise like thunder. "It is piling itself up into long walls and heaps high enough to reach a good way up the _Fram's_ rigging: in fact, it is trying its very utmost to grind the _Fram_ into powder." Christmas came and went. The New Year of 1894 dawned with the thermometer 36 degrees below zero. By February the _Fram_ had drifted to the 80th degree of latitude. "High festival in honour of the 80th degree," writes Nansen. "Hurrah! Well sailed! The wind is whistling among the hummocks, the snow flies rustling through the air, ice and sky are melted into one, but we are going north at full speed, and are in the wildest of gay spirits. If we go on at this rate we shall be at the Pole in fifty months." On 17th May the 81st degree of latitude was reached. Five months passed away. By 31st October they had drifted to the 82nd. "A grand banquet to-day," says Nansen, "to celebrate the 82nd degree of latitude. We are progressing merrily towards our goal; we are already half-way between the New Siberian Islands and Franz Josef Land, and there is not a soul on board who doubts that we shall accomplish what we came out to do; so long live merriment." Now Nansen planned the great sledge journey, which has been called "the most daring ever undertaken." The winter was passed in peaceful preparation for a start in the spring. When the New Year of 1895 dawned the _Fram_ had been firmly frozen in for fifteen months. A few days later, the ship was nearly crushed by a fresh ice pressure and all prepared to abandon her if necessary, but after an anxious day of ice roaring and crackling--"an ice pressure with a vengeance, as if Doomsday had come," remarked Nansen--it quieted down. They had now beaten all records, for they had reached 83 degrees latitude. And now preparations for the great sledge journey were complete. They had built kayaks or light boats to sail in open water, and these were placed on the sledges and drawn by dogs. Nansen decided only to take one companion, Johansen, and to leave the others with the _Fram_. "At last the great day has arrived. The chief aim of the expedition is to push through the unknown Polar sea from the region around the New Siberian Islands, north of Franz Josef Land and onward to the Atlantic Ocean near Spitzbergen or Greenland." Farewells were said, and then the two men bravely started off over the unknown desert sea with their sledges and twenty-eight dogs. For the first week they travelled well and soon reached 85 degrees latitude. "The only disagreeable thing to face now is the cold," says Nansen. "Our clothes are transformed more and more into complete suits of ice armour. The sleeve of my coat actually rubbed deep sores in my wrists, one of which got frostbitten; the wound grew deeper and deeper and nearly reached the bone. At night we packed ourselves into our sleeping-bags and lay with our teeth chattering for an hour before we became aware of a little warmth in our bodies." [Illustration: DR. NANSEN. After a photograph.] Steadily, with faces to the north, they pressed on over the blocks of rough ice, stretching as far as the horizon, till on 8th April further progress became impossible. Nansen strode on ahead and mounted one of the highest hummocks to look around. He saw "a veritable chaos of ice-blocks, ridge after ridge, and nothing but rubble to travel over." He therefore determined to turn and make for Franz Josef Land some four hundred and fifty miles distant. They had already reached 86 degrees of latitude, farther north than any expedition had reached before. As they travelled south, they rejoiced in the warmth of the sun, but their food was growing scarce, and they had to kill a dog every other day to feed the others, till by May they had only thirteen dogs left. June found them having experienced tremendous snowstorms with only seven dogs left. Although they were in the latitude of Franz Josef Land, no welcome shores appeared. It was now three months since they had left the _Fram_; the food for the dogs was quite finished and the poor creatures were beginning to eat their harness of sailcloth. Mercifully before the month ended they managed to shoot a seal which provided them with food for a month. "It is a pleasing change," says Nansen, "to be able to eat as much and as often as we like. Blubber is excellent, both raw and fried. For dinner I fried a highly successful steak, for supper I made blood-pancakes fried in blubber with sugar, unsurpassed in flavour. And here we lie up in the far north, two grim, black, soot-stained barbarians, stirring a mess of soup in a kettle, surrounded on all sides by ice--ice covered with impassable snow." A bear and two cubs were shot and the explorers stayed on at "Longing Camp" as they named this dreary spot, unable to go on, but amply fed. On 24th July we get the first cheerful entry for many a long day: "Land! land! after nearly two years we again see something rising above that never-ending white line on the horizon yonder--a new life is beginning for us!" Only two dogs were now left to drag the sledges, so the two explorers were obliged to help with the dragging. For thirteen days they proceeded in the direction of land, dragging and pushing their burdens over the ridges of ice with thawing snow. At last on 7th August they stood at the edge of the ice. Behind lay their troubles; before was the waterway home. Then they launched their little kayaks, which danced over the open waters, the little waves splashing against their sides. When the mist cleared they found themselves on the west coast of Franz Josef Land, discovered by an Austro-Hungarian expedition in 1874. They were full of hope, when a cruel disappointment damped their joy. They had landed and were camping on the shore, when a great storm arose and the wind blew the drift ice down till it lay packed along the coast. The little ships were frozen in, and there was no hope of reaching home that winter. Here they were doomed to stay. Fortunately there were bears and walrus, so they could not starve, and with magnificent pluck they set to work to prepare for the winter. For many a long day they toiled at the necessary task of skinning and cutting up walrus till they were saturated with blubber, oil, and blood, but soon they had two great heaps of blubber and meat on shore well covered over with walrus hides. [Illustration: THE SHIP THAT WENT FARTHEST NORTH: THE _FRAM_. From a photograph.] September was occupied in building a hut amid the frost and snow with walrus hides and tusks, warmed inside with train-oil lamps. Here under bear skins they slept and passed the long months of winter. In October the sun disappeared, the days grew darker. Life grew very monotonous, for it was the third Polar winter the explorers had been called on to spend. They celebrated Christmas Day, Nansen by washing himself in a "quarter of a cup of warm water," Johansen by turning his shirt. The weather outside was stormy and almost took their breath away with its icy coldness. They longed for a book, but they wiled away the hours by trying to calculate how far the _Fram_ could have drifted and when she was likely to reach home. They were distressed at the dirt of their clothes, and longed to be able to throw away the heavy oily rags that seemed glued to their bodies. They had no soap, and water had no effect on the horrible grease. It was May before the weather allowed them to leave the hut at last. Hopefully they dragged their kayaks over the snow, the sledge runners fastened on to their feet, and so made their way southwards down Franz Josef Land. Once Nansen was very nearly drowned. The explorers had reached the south of the Islands, and, having moored their little boats together, they ascended a hummock close by, when to their horror they saw the kayaks were adrift. Nansen rushed down, threw off some clothes, and sprang into the water after them. He was none too soon, for already the boats were drifting rapidly away. The water was icy cold, but it was a case of life or death. Without the boats they were lost men. "All we possessed was on board," says Nansen, "so I exerted myself to the utmost. I redoubled my exertions though I felt my limbs gradually stiffening; at last I was able to stretch out my hand to the edge of the kayak. I tried to pull myself up, but the whole of my body was stiff with cold. After a time I managed to swing one leg up on to the edge and to tumble up. Nor was it easy to paddle in the double vessel; the gusts of wind seemed to go right through me as I stood there in my wet woollen shirt. I shivered, my teeth chattered, and I was numb all over. At last I managed to reach the edge of the ice. I shook and trembled all over, while Johansen pulled off the wet things and packed me into the sleeping-bag. The critical situation was saved." And now came one of those rare historic days in the history of exploration. It was 17th June 1896. Nansen was surveying the lonely line of coast, when suddenly the barking of a dog fell on his ear, and soon in front he saw the fresh tracks of some animal. "It was with a strange mixture of feelings," he says, "that I made my way among the numerous hummocks towards land. Suddenly I thought I heard a human voice--the first for three years. How my heart beat and the blood rushed to my brain as I halloed with all the strength of my lungs. Soon I heard another shout and saw a dark form moving among the hummocks. It was a man. We approached one another quickly. I waved my hat; he did the same. As I drew nearer I thought I recognised Mr. Jackson, whom I remembered once to have seen. I raised my hat; we extended a hand to one another with a hearty 'How do you do?' Above us a roof of mist, beneath our feet the rugged packed drift ice." "Ar'n't you Nansen?" he said. "Yes, I am," was the answer. And, seizing the grimy hand of the Arctic explorer, he shook it warmly, congratulating him on his successful trip. Jackson and his companions had wintered at Cape Flora, the southern point of Franz Josef Land, and they were expecting a ship, the _Windward_, to take them home. On 26th July the _Windward_ steamed slowly in, and by 13th August she reached Norway, and the news of Nansen's safe arrival was made known to the whole world. A week later the little _Fram_, "strong and broad and weather-beaten," also returned in safety. And on 9th September 1896, Nansen and his brave companions on board the _Fram_ sailed up Christiania Fjiord in triumph. He had reached a point farthest North, and been nearer to the North Pole than had any explorer before. CHAPTER LXXII PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE The 6th April 1909 is a marked day in the annals of exploration, for on that day Peary succeeded in reaching the North Pole, which for centuries had defied the efforts of man; on that day he attained the goal for which the greatest nations of the world had struggled for over four hundred years. Indeed, he had spent twenty-three years of his own life labouring toward this end. He was mainly inspired by reading Nordenskiold's _Exploration of Greenland_, when a lieutenant in the United States Navy. In 1886 he got leave to join an expedition to Greenland, and returned with the Arctic fever in his veins and a scheme for crossing that continent as far north as possible. This after many hardships he accomplished, being the first explorer to discover that Greenland was an island. Peary was now stamped as a successful Arctic explorer. The idea of reaching the North Pole began to take shape, and in order to raise funds the enthusiastic explorer delivered no less than one hundred and sixty-eight lectures in ninety-six days. With the proceeds he chartered the _Falcon_ and left the shores of Philadelphia in June 1893 for Greenland. His wife, who accompanied him before, accompanied him again, and with sledges and dogs on board they made their way up the western coast of Greenland. Arrived at Melville Bay, Peary built a little hut; here a little daughter was born who was soon "bundled in soft warm Arctic furs and wrapped in the Stars and Stripes." No European child had ever been born so far north as this; the Eskimos travelled from long distances to satisfy themselves she was not made of snow, and for the first six months of her life the baby lived in continuous lamplight. But we cannot follow Peary through his many Polar expeditions; his toes had been frozen off in one, his leg broken in another, but he was enthusiastic enough when all preparations were complete for the last and greatest expedition of all. The _Roosevelt_, named after the President of the United States, had carried him safely to the north of Greenland in his last expedition, so she was again chosen, and in July 1908, Peary hoisted the Stars and Stripes and steamed from New York. "As the ship backed out into the river, a cheer went up from the thousands who had gathered on the piers to see us off. It was an interesting coincidence that the day on which we started for the coldest spot on earth was about the hottest which New York had known for years. As we steamed up the river, the din grew louder and louder; we passed President Roosevelt's naval yacht, the _Mayflower_, and her small gun roared out a parting salute--surely no ship ever started for the ends of the earth with more heart-stirring farewells." President Roosevelt had himself inspected the ship and shaken hands with each member of the expedition. "I believe in you, Peary," he had said, "and I believe in your success, if it is within the possibility of man." So the little _Roosevelt_ steamed away; on 26th July the Arctic Circle was crossed by Peary for the twentieth time, and on 1st August, Cape York, the most northerly home of human beings in the world, was reached. This was the dividing line between the civilised world on one hand and the Arctic world on the other. Picking up several Eskimo families and about two hundred and fifty dogs, they steamed on northwards. "Imagine," says Peary--"imagine about three hundred and fifty miles of almost solid ice, ice of all shapes and sizes, mountainous ice, flat ice, ragged and tortured ice; then imagine a little black ship, solid, sturdy, compact, strong, and resistant, and on this little ship are sixty-nine human beings, who have gone out into the crazy, ice-tortured channel between Baffin Bay and the Polar sea--gone out to prove the reality of a dream in the pursuit of which men have frozen and starved and died." The usual course was taken, across Smith's Sound and past the desolate wind-swept rocks of Cape Sabine, where, in 1884, Greely's ill-fated party slowly starved to death, only seven surviving out of twenty-four. Fog and ice now beset the ship, and on 5th September they were compelled to seek winter quarters, for which they chose Cape Sheridan, where Peary had wintered before in 1905. Here they unloaded the _Roosevelt_, and two hundred and forty-six Eskimo dogs were at once let loose to run about in the snow. A little village soon grew up, and the Eskimos, both men and women, went hunting as of yore. Peary had decided to start as before from Cape Columbia, some ninety miles away, the most northerly point of Grant Land, for his dash to the Pole. On 12th October the sun disappeared and they entered cheerfully into the "Great Dark." "Imagine us in our winter home," says Peary, "four hundred and fifty miles from the North Pole, the ship held tight in her icy berth one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, ship and the surrounding world covered with snow, the wind creaking in the rigging, whistling and shrieking around the corners of the deck houses, the temperature ranging from zero to sixty below, the icepack in the channel outside us groaning and complaining with the movement of the tides." Christmas passed with its usual festivities. There were races for the Eskimos, one for the children, one for the men, and one for the Eskimo mothers, who carried babies in their fur hoods. These last, looking like "animated walruses," took their race at a walking pace. At last, on 15th February 1909, the first sledge-party left the ship for Cape Columbia, and a week later Peary himself left the _Roosevelt_ with the last loads. The party assembled at Cape Columbia for the great journey north, which consisted of seven men of Peary's party, fifty-nine Eskimos, one hundred and forty dogs, and twenty-eight sledges. Each sledge was complete in itself; each had its cooking utensils, its four men, its dogs and provisions for fifty or sixty days. The weather was "clear, calm, and cold." On 1st March the cavalcade started off from Cape Columbia in a freezing east wind, and soon men and dogs became invisible amid drifting snow. Day by day they went forward, undaunted by the difficulties and hardships of the way, now sending back small parties to the depot at Cape Columbia, now dispatching to the home camp some reluctant explorer with a frostbitten heel or foot, now delayed by open water, but on, on, till they had broken all records, passed all tracks even of the Polar bear, passed the 87th parallel into the region of perpetual daylight for half the year. It was here, apparently within reach of his goal, that Peary had to turn back three years before for want of food. Thus they marched for a month; party after party had been sent back, till the last supporting party had gone and Peary was left with his black servant, Henson, and four Eskimos. He had five sledges, forty picked dogs, and supplies for forty days when he started off alone to dash the last hundred and thirty-three miles to the Pole itself. Every event in the next week is of thrilling interest. After a few hours of sleep the little party started off shortly after midnight on 2nd April 1909. Peary was leading. "I felt the keenest exhilaration as I climbed over the ridge and breasted the keen air sweeping over the mighty ice, pure and straight from the Pole itself." They might yet be stopped by open water from reaching the goal. On they went, twenty-five miles in ten hours, then a little sleep, and so on again, then a few hours' rest and another twenty miles till they had reached latitude 89 degrees. Still breathlessly they hurried forward, till on the 5th they were but thirty-five miles from the Pole. "The sky overhead was a colourless pall, gradually deepening to almost black at the horizon, and the ice was a ghastly and chalky white." On 6th April the Pole was reached. "The Pole at last!" writes Peary in his diary. "The prize of three centuries! My dream and goal for twenty years. Mine at last! I cannot bring myself to realise it. It all seems so simple and commonplace." Flags were at once hoisted on ice lances, and the successful explorer watched them proudly waving in the bright Arctic sunlight at the Pole. Through all his perilous expeditions to the Arctic regions, Peary had worn a silken flag, worked by his wife, wrapped round his body. He now flew it on this historic spot, "which knows no North, nor West, nor East." [Illustration: PEARY'S FLAG FLYING AT THE NORTH POLE, APRIL 1909. By the courteous permission of Admiral Peary, from his book _The North Pole_, published by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton.] Not a vestige of land was to be seen; nothing but ice lay all around. They could not stay long, for provisions would run short, and the ice might melt before their return journey was accomplished. So after a brief rest they started off for Cape Columbia, which they reached after a wild rush of sixteen days. It had taken them thirty-seven days to cover the four hundred and seventy-five miles from Cape Columbia to the Pole, from which they had returned at the rate of thirty miles a day. The whole party then started for the _Roosevelt_, and on 18th July she was taken from her winter quarters and turned towards home. Then came the day when wireless telegraphy flashed the news through the whole of the civilised world: "Stars and Stripes nailed to the North Pole." The record of four hundred years of splendid self-sacrifice and heroism unrivalled in the history of exploration had been crowned at last. CHAPTER LXXIII THE QUEST FOR THE SOUTH POLE An American had placed the Stars and Stripes on the North Pole in 1909. It was a Norwegian who succeeded in reaching the South Pole in 1911. But the spade-work which contributed so largely to the final success had been done so enthusiastically by two Englishmen that the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton must find a place here before we conclude this _Book of Discovery_ with Amundsen's final and brilliant dash. The crossing of the Antarctic Circle by the famous _Challenger_ expedition in 1874 revived interest in the far South. The practical outcome of much discussion was the design of the _Discovery_, a ship built expressly for scientific exploration, and the appointment of Captain Scott to command an Antarctic expedition. In August 1901, Scott left the shores of England, and by way of New Zealand crossed the Antarctic Circle on 3rd January 1902. Three weeks later he reached the Great Ice Barrier which had stopped Ross in 1840. For a week Scott steamed along the Barrier. Mounts Erebus and Terror were plainly visible, and though he could nowhere discover Parry Mountains, yet he found distant land rising high above the sea, which he named King Edward VII.'s Land. Scott had brought with him a captive balloon in which he now rose to a height of eight hundred feet, from which he saw an unbroken glacier stream of vast extent stretching to the south. It was now time to seek for winter quarters, and Scott, returning to McMurdo Bay named by Ross, found that it was not a bay at all, but a strait leading southward. Here they landed their stores, set up their hut, and spent the winter, till on 2nd November 1902 all was ready for a sledge-journey to the south. For fifty-nine days Scott led his little land-party of three, with four sledges and nineteen dogs, south. But the heavy snow was too much for the dogs, and one by one died, until not one was left and the men had to drag and push the sledges themselves. Failing provisions at last compelled them to stop. Great mountain summits were seen beyond the farthest point reached. "We have decided at last we have found something which is fitting to bear the name of him whom we most delight to honour," says Scott, "and Mount Markham it shall be called in memory of the father of the expedition." It was 30th December when a tremendous blizzard stayed their last advance. "Chill and hungry," they lay all day in their sleeping-bags, miserable at the thought of turning back, too weak and ill to go on. With only provisions for a fortnight, they at last reluctantly turned home, staggering as far as their depot in thirteen days. Shackleton was smitten with scurvy; he was growing worse every day, and it was a relief when on 2nd February they all reached the ship alive, "as near spent as three persons can well be." But they had done well: they had made the first long land journey ever made in the Antarctic; they had reached a point which was farthest south; they had tested new methods of travel; they had covered nine hundred and sixty miles in ninety-three days. Shackleton was now invalided home, but it was not till 1904 that the _Discovery_ escaped from the frozen harbour to make her way home. Shackleton had returned to England in 1903, but the mysterious South Pole amid its wastes of ice and snow still called him back, and in command of the _Nimrod_ he started forth in August 1907 on the next British Antarctic expedition, carrying a Union Jack, presented by the Queen, to plant on the spot farthest south. He actually placed it within ninety-seven miles of the Pole itself! With a petrol motor-car on board, Eskimo dogs, and Manchurian ponies, he left New Zealand on 1st January 1908, watched and cheered by some thirty thousand of his fellow-countrymen. Three weeks later they were in sight of the Great Ice Barrier, and a few days later the huge mountains of Erebus and Terror came into sight. Shackleton had hoped to reach King Edward VII.'s Land for winter quarters, but a formidable ice-pack prevented this, and they selected a place some twenty miles north of the _Discovery's_ old winter quarters. Getting the wild little Manchurian ponies ashore was no light job; the poor little creatures were stiff after a month's constant buffeting, for the _Nimrod's_ passage had been stormy. One after another they were now led out of their stalls into a horse-box and slung over the ice. Once on _terra firma_ they seemed more at home, for they immediately began pawing the snow as they were wont to do in their far-away Manchurian home. [Illustration: SHACKLETON'S SHIP, THE _NIMROD_, AMONG THE ICE IN McMURDO SOUND, THE WINTER LAND QUARTERS OF THE BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. _By Sir Ernest Shackleton's permission from his book "The Heart of the Antarctic," published by Mr. Heinemann_.] The spacious hut, brought out by Shackleton, was soon erected. Never was such a luxurious house set up on the bleak shores of the Polar seas. There was a dark room for developing, acetylene gas for lighting, a good stove for warming, and comfortable cubicles decorated with pictures. The dark room was excellent, and never was a book of travels more beautifully illustrated than Shackleton's _Heart of the Antarctic_. True, during some of the winter storms and blizzards the hut shook and trembled so that every moment its occupants thought it would be carried bodily away, but it stood its ground all right. The long winter was spent as usual in preparing for the spring expedition to the south, but it was 29th October 1908 before the weather made it possible to make a start. The party consisted of Shackleton, Adams, Marshall, and Wild, each leading a pony which dragged a sledge with food for ninety-one days. "A glorious day for our start," wrote Shackleton in his diary, "brilliant sunshine and a cloudless sky. As we left the hut where we had spent so many months in comfort we had a feeling of real regret that never again would we all be together there. A clasp of the hands means more than many words, and as we turned to acknowledge the men's cheer, and saw them standing on the ice by the familiar cliffs, I felt we must try to do well for the sake of every one concerned in the expedition." New land in the shape of ice-clad mountains greeted the explorers on 22nd November. "It is a wonderful place we are in, all new to the world," says Shackleton; "there is an impression of limitless solitude about it that makes us feel so small as we trudge along, a few dark specks on the snowy plain." They now had to quit the Barrier in order to travel south. Fortunately they found a gap, called the Southern Gateway, which afforded a direct line to the Pole. But their ponies had suffered badly during the march; they had already been obliged to shoot three of them, and on 7th December the last pony fell down a crevasse and was killed. They had now reached a great plateau some seven thousand feet above the sea; it rose steadily toward the south, and Christmas Day found them "lying in a little tent, isolated high on the roof of the world, far from the ways trodden by man." With forty-eight degrees of frost, drifting snow, and a biting wind, they spent the next few days hauling their sledges up a steep incline. They had now only a month's food left. Pressing on with reduced rations, in the face of freezing winds, they reached a height of ten thousand and fifty feet. It was the 6th of January, and they were in latitude 88 degrees, when a "blinding, shrieking blizzard" made all further advance impossible. For sixty hours the four hungry explorers lay in their sleeping-bags, nearly perished with cold. "The most trying day we have yet spent," writes Shackleton, "our fingers and faces being continually frostbitten. To-morrow we will rush south with the flag. It is our last outward march." The gale breaking, they marched on till 9th January, when they stopped within ninety-seven miles of the Pole, where they hoisted the Union Jack, and took possession of the great plateau in the King's name. "We could see nothing but the dead-white snow plain. There was no break in the plateau as it extended towards the Pole. I am confident that the Pole lies on the great plateau we have discovered miles and miles from any outstanding land." And so the four men turned homewards. "Whatever our regret may be, we have done our best," said the leader somewhat sadly. Blinding blizzards followed them as they made their way slowly back. On 28th January they reached the Great Ice Barrier. Their food was well-nigh spent; their daily rations consisted of six biscuits and some horse-meat in the shape of the Manchurian ponies they had shot and left the November before. But it disagreed with most of them, and it was four very weak and ailing men who staggered back to the _Nimrod_ toward the end of February 1909. Shackleton reached England in the autumn of 1909 to find that another Antarctic expedition was to leave our shores in the following summer under the command of Scott, in the _Terra Nova_. It was one of the best-equipped expeditions that ever started; motor-sledges had been specially constructed to go over the deep snow, which was fatal to the motor-car carried by Shackleton. There were fifteen ponies and thirty dogs. Leaving England in July 1910, Scott was established in winter quarters in McMurdo Sound by 26th January 1911. It was November before he could start on the southern expedition. "We left Hut Point on the evening of 2nd November. For sixty miles we followed the track of the motors (sent on five days before). The ponies are going very steadily. We found the motor party awaiting us in latitude 80-1/2 degrees south. The motors had proved entirely satisfactory, and the machines dragged heavy loads over the worst part of the Barrier surface, crossing several crevasses. The sole cause of abandonment was the overheating of the air-cooled engines. We are building snow cairns at intervals of four miles to guide homeward parties and leaving a week's provisions at every degree of latitude. As we proceeded the weather grew worse, and snowstorms were frequent. The sky was continually overcast, and the land was rarely visible. The ponies, however, continued to pull splendidly." As they proceeded south they encountered terrific storms of wind and snow, out of which they had constantly to dig the ponies. Christmas passed and the New Year of 1912 dawned. On 3rd January when one hundred and fifty miles from the Pole, "I am going forward," says Scott, "with a party of five men with a month's provisions, and the prospect of success seems good, provided that the weather holds and no unforeseen obstacles arise." Scott and his companions successfully attained the object of their journey. They reached the South Pole on 17th January only to find that they had been forestalled by others! And it is remarkable to note that so correct were their observations, the two parties located the Pole within half a mile of one another. Scott's return journey ended disastrously. Blinding blizzards prevented rapid progress; food and fuel ran short; still the weakened men struggled bravely forward till, within a few miles of a depot of supplies, death overtook them. Scott's last message can never be forgotten. "I do not regret this journey which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardship, help one another, and meet death with as great fortitude as ever in the past.... Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale; but surely, surely, a great, rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent upon us are properly provided for." It was on 14th December 1911 that Captain Amundsen had reached the Pole. A Norwegian, fired by the example of his fellow-countryman, Nansen, Amundsen had long been interested in both Arctic and Antarctic exploration. In a ship of only forty-eight tons, he had, with six others, made a survey of the North Magnetic Pole, sailed through the Behring Strait, and accomplished the North-West Passage, for which he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. On his return he planned an expedition to the North Pole. He had made known his scheme, and, duly equipped for North Polar expedition in Nansen's little _Fram_, Amundsen started. Suddenly the world rang with the news that Peary had discovered the North Pole, and that Amundsen had turned his prow southwards and was determined to make a dash for the South Pole. Landing in Whales Bay some four hundred miles to the east of Scott's winter quarters, his first visitors were the Englishmen on board the _Terra Nova_, who were taking their ship to New Zealand for the winter. Making a hut on the shore, Amundsen had actually started on his journey to the Pole before Scott heard of his arrival. "I am fully alive to the complication in the situation arising out of Amundsen's presence in the Antarctic," wrote the English explorer, "but as any attempt at a race might have been fatal to our chance of getting to the Pole at all, I decided to do exactly as I should have done had not Amundsen been here. If he gets to the Pole he will be bound to do it rapidly with dogs, and one foresees that success will justify him." Although the Norwegian explorer left his winter quarters on 8th September for his dash to the Pole, he started too early; three of his party had their feet frostbitten, and the dogs suffered severely, so he turned back, and it was not till 20th October, just a week before Scott's start, that he began in real earnest his historic journey. He was well off for food, for whales were plentiful on the shores of the Bay, and seals, penguins, and gulls abounded. The expedition was well equipped, with eight explorers, four sledges, and thirteen dogs attached to each. "Amundsen is a splendid leader, supreme in organisation, and the essential in Antarctic travel is to think out the difficulties before they arise." So said those who worked with him on his most successful journey. Through dense fog and blinding blizzards the Norwegians now made their way south, their Norwegian skis and sledges proving a substantial help. The crevasses in the ice were very bad; one dog dropped in and had to be abandoned; another day the dogs got across, but the sledge fell in, and it was necessary to climb down the crevasse, unpack the sledge, and pull up piece by piece till it was possible to raise the empty sledge. So intense was the cold that the very brandy froze in the bottle and was served out in lumps. "It did not taste much like brandy then," said the men, "but it burnt our throats as we sucked it." The dogs travelled well. Each man was responsible for his own team; he fed them and made them fond of him. Thus all through November the Norwegians travelled south, till they reached the vast plateau described by Shackleton. One tremendous peak, fifteen thousand feet high, they named "Frithjof Nansen." On 14th December they reached their goal; the weather was beautiful, the ground perfect for sledging. "At 3 p.m. we made halt," says Amundsen. "According to our reckoning, we had reached our destination. All of us gathered round the colours--a beautiful silken flag; all hands took hold of it, and, planting it on the spot, we gave the vast plateau on which the Pole is situate the name of 'The King Haakon VII.' It was a vast plain, alike in all directions, mile after mile." Here in brilliant sunshine the little party camped, taking observations till 17th December, when, fastening to the ground a little tent with the Norwegian flag and the _Fram_ pennant, they gave it the name "Polheim" and started for home. [Illustration: CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN TAKING SIGHTS AT THE SOUTH POLE. From a photograph, by permission of Mr. John Murray and the _Illustrated London News_.] So the North and South Poles yielded up their well-hoarded secrets after centuries of waiting, within two and a half years of one another. They had claimed more lives than any exploration had done before, or is ever likely to do again. And so ends the last of these great earth-stories--stories which have made the world what it is to-day--and we may well say with one of the most successful explorers of our times, "The future may give us thrilling stories of the conquest of the air, but the spirit of man has mastered the earth." DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS PAGE DATE 4 The oldest known Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . B.C. 6000-5000 7 Expedition to Punt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 1600 11 Phoenician Expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 700 19 Neco's Fleet built . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 613 23 Anaximander, the Greek, invents Maps . . . . . . " 580 25 Hecataeus writes the First Geography . . . . . . " 500 27 Herodotus describes Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . " 446 30 Hanno sails down West Coast of Africa . . . . . . " 450 32 Xenophon crosses Asia Minor . . . . . . . . . . . " 401 38 Alexander the Great finds India . . . . . . . . . " 327 41 Nearchus navigates the Indian Ocean . . . . . . . " 326 45 The Geography of Eratosthenes . . . . . . . . . . " 240-196 48 Pytheas discovers the British Isles and Thule . . " 333 55 Julius Caesar explores France, Britain, Germany . " 60-54 61 Strabo's Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A.D. 18 68 Agricola discovers the Highlands . . . . . . . . " 83 71 Pliny's Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 170 74 Ptolemy's Geography and Maps . . . . . . . . . . " 159 78 The First Guide for Travellers . . . . . . . . . Fourth century 83 St. Patrick explores Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432-93 85 St. Columba reaches the Orkney Isles . . . . . . . . . . . 563 85 St. Brandon crosses the Atlantic . . . . . . . . Sixth century 90 Willibald travels from Britain to Jerusalem . . . . . . . . 721 92 The Christian Topography of Cosmas . . . . . . . Sixth century 94 Naddod the Viking discovers Iceland . . . . . . . . . . . . 861 95 Erik the Red discovers Greenland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985 95 Lief discovers Newfoundland and North American Coast . . . 1000 97 Othere navigates the Baltic Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890 99 Mohammedan Travellers to China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831 103 Edrisi's Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154 108 Benjamin of Tudela visits India and China . . . . . . . . . 1160 110 Carpini visits the Great Khan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246 112 William de Rubruquis also visits the Great Khan . . . . . . 1255 115 Maffio and Niccolo Polo reach China . . . . . . . . . . 1260-71 117 Marco Polo's Travels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271-95 126 Ibn Batuta's Travels through Asia . . . . . . . . . . . 1324-48 126 Sir John Mandeville's Travels published . . . . . . . . . . 1372 134 Hereford Mappa Mundi appeared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1280 137 Anglo-Saxon Map of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990 138 Prince Henry of Portugal encourages Exploration . . . . . . 1418 140 Zarco and Vaz reach Porto Santo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1419 140 Zarco discovers Madeira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1420 142 Nuno Tristam discovers Cape Blanco . . . . . . . . . . . . 1441 143 Gonsalves discovers Cape Verde Islands . . . . . . . . . . 1442 144 Cadamosto reaches the Senegal River and Cape Verde . . . . 1455 145 Diego Gomez reaches the Gambia River . . . . . . . . . . . 1458 148 Death of Prince Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1460 149 Fra Mauro's Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1457 150 Diego Cam discovers the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1484 152 Bartholomew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope . . . . . . . 1486 153 Martin Behaim makes his Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1492 160 Christopher Columbus discovers West Indies . . . . . . . . 1492 166 Columbus finds Jamaica and other Islands . . . . . . . . . 1493 167 Columbus finds Trinidad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1498 169 Death of Columbus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1504 170 Amerigo Vespucci finds Trinidad and Venezuela . . . . . . . 1499 175 First Map of the New World by Juan de la Cosa . . . . . . . 1500 177 Vasco da Gama reaches India by the Cape . . . . . . . . . . 1497 181 Pedro Cabral discovers Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1500 188 Francisco Serrano reaches the Spice Islands . . . . . . . . 1511 192 Balboa sees the Pacific Ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513 203 The First Circumnavigation of the World . . . . . . . . 1519-22 206 Cordova discovers Yucatan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1517 206 Juan Grijalva discovers Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1518 209 Cortes conquers Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1519 217 Pizarro conquers Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1531 221 Orellana discovers the Amazon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1541 225 Cabot sails to Newfoundland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1497 228 Jacques Cartier discovers the Gulf of St. Lawrence . . . . 1534 236 Sir Hugh Willoughby finds Nova Zembla . . . . . . . . . . . 1553 238 Richard Chancellor reaches Moscow _via_ Archangel . . . . . 1554 240 Anthony Jenkinson crosses Russia to Bokhara . . . . . . . . 1558 244 Pinto claims the discovery of Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . 1542 245 Martin Frobisher discovers his Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . 1576 249 Drake sails round the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1577-80 260 Davis finds his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1586 269 Barents discovers Spitzbergen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1596 275 Hudson sails into his Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610 281 Baffin discovers his Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1616 285 Sir Walter Raleigh explores Guiana . . . . . . . . . . . . 1595 290 Champlain discovers Lake Ontario . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1615 298 Torres sails through his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605 299 Le Maire rounds Cape Horn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1617 302 Tasman finds Tasmania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1642 306 Dampier discovers his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1698 312 Behring finds his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1741 322 Cook discovers New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1769 326 Cook anchors in Botany Bay, Australia . . . . . . . . . . . 1770 333 Cook discovers the Sandwich Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . 1777 338 La Perouse makes discoveries in China Seas . . . . . . . 1785-8 347 Bruce discovers the source of the Blue Nile . . . . . . . . 1770 353 Mungo Park reaches the Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1796 359 Vancouver explores his Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1792 362 Mackenzie discovers his River and British Columbia . . 1789-93 366 Ross discovers Melville Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1818 368 Parry discovers Lancaster Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1819 372 Franklin reaches the Polar Sea by Land . . . . . . . . 1819-22 378 Parry's discoveries on North American Coast . . . . . . . . 1822 382 Franklin names the Mackenzie River . . . . . . . . . . . . 1825 386 Beechey doubles Icy Cape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826 388 Parry attempts the North Pole by Spitzbergen . . . . . . . 1827 392 Denham and Clapperton discover Lake Tchad . . . . . . . . . 1822 396 Clapperton reaches the Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826 397 Rene Caille enters Timbuktu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829 402 Richard and John Lander find the Mouth of the Niger . . . . 1830 404 Ross discovers Boothia Felix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829 405 James Ross finds the North Magnetic Pole . . . . . . . . . 1830 411 Bass discovers his Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1797 413 Flinders and Bass sail round Tasmania . . . . . . . . . . . 1798 416 Flinders surveys South Coast of Australia . . . . . . . . 1801-4 421 Sturt traces the Darling and Murray Rivers . . . . . . 1828-31 424 Burke and Wills cross Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861 429 Ross discovers Victoria Land in the Antarctic . . . . . . . 1840 432 Franklin discovers the North-West Passage . . . . . . . . . 1847 440 Livingstone crosses Africa from West to East . . . . . 1849-56 452 Burton and Speke discover Lake Tanganyika . . . . . . . . . 1857 454 Speke sees Victoria Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1858 457 Livingstone finds Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa . . . . . . . 1858-64 461 Speke and Grant enter Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1861 468 Baker meets Speke and Grant at Gondokoro . . . . . . . . . 1861 470 Baker discovers Albert Nyanza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1864 477 Livingstone finds Lakes Meoro and Bangweolo . . . . . . . . 1868 482 Stanley finds Livingstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1871 484 Livingstone dies at Ilala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1873 499 Stanley finds the Mouth of the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . 1877 509 Nordenskiold solves the North-East Passage . . . . . . . . 1879 519 Younghusband enters Lhasa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1904 524 Nansen reaches Farthest North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1895 534 Peary reaches the North Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1909 544 Amundsen reaches the South Pole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911 INDEX Abram, 4. Abyssinia, 344-7. Afghanistan, 36. Africa, 20-2, 72, 103, 127, 339. " Central, 349-56, 391-402, 442-500. " South, 152, 173-6, 440. " West Coast, 22, 30, 139, 143-51, 349. Agricola, 68. Alaska, 317, 334, 338. Albert Nyanza, 470. Albuquerque, Alphonso d', 184-8. Alexander the Great, 35-43. Alexandria, 45, 74. Alfred the Great, 96. Almagro, Diego de, 220. Almeida, Francisco, 184-6. " Lorenzo, 185-6. Alvarado, Pedro de, 206, 208. Amazon, 221. America (Central), 168, 170, 191, 205. " (North), 95, 228, 255, 275, 316, 358. " (South), 167, 170, 180, 196, 215, 252. Amundsen, R., 542-4. _Anabasis_ (of Xenophon), 34. Anaximander, 23. Andes, 217, 220. Antarctic regions, 331, 428-31, 536-44. Arab explorers, 98-107, 126. _Arabian Nights, The_, 101. Arctic regions, 53, 238, 259-84, 312-8, 365-90, 403-9, 501-10, 521-35. Arculf, 88-90. Argonauts, 13-6. Auckland, 429. Australia, 296-301, 307-11, 326-38, 410-27. Babylonia, 3-4, 32. Back, Sir George, 372-4, 382. Baffin, William, 280-3. Baffin's Bay, 282-3. Bagdad, 109. Bahamas, 160. Baker, Sir Samuel, 465-73. Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, 190-3. Balbus, 72. Bangweolo, Lake, 477. Banks, Sir Joseph, 320, 336, 349, 413. Barents, William, 265-72. Bass, George, 410-3. Baudin, Nicholas, 414. Behring, Vitus, 312-8. Behring's Strait, 312-8, 334. Benjamin of Tudela, 108. Black Sea, 14. Bogle, George, 512. _Book of the Tartars_, 97. Boothia, 404. Borneo, 102. Botany Bay, 326, 336. Brandon's Isle, 86-7. Brazil, 181, 196. British Columbia, 358, 362. " Isles, 48, 50-2, 57-60, 66-9, 74. Bruce, James, 339-48. Burke, R. O'Hara, 424. Burton, Sir Richard, 450-5. Button, Sir Thomas, 280. Cabot, John and Sebastian, 224-7. Cabral, Pedro, 180-2. Cadamosto, Luigi, 143-5. Caille, Rene, 396. Calicut, 129, 177-8, 181-3, 186. California, 255. Cam, Diego, 150-1. Canada, 228-34. Cano, Juan del, 204. Carpentaria, 300, 416. Carpini, Johannes, 110. Cartier, Jacques, 228-34. Caspian Sea, 36, 240. Cassiterides, _see_ "Tin Islands." Cathay, _see_ China. Ceylon, 91, 105, 124, 185-6. Champlain, Samuel, 290-5. Chancellor, Richard, 235-9. Chatham Island, 358. Chelyuskin, Cape, 504, 522. Chili, 220, 254. China, 75, 92, 99-101, 110-24, 130-1. Chitral, 38. _Christian Topography_, 92, 133. Christmas Island, 333. Chukches, 315, 507. Circumnavigation of Africa, 19-22. " " the World, 196-204, 249-57, 308. Clapperton, Lieut. Hugh, 391-6. Cochin, 184-5. Columbus, Christopher, 155-70. Cook, James, 319-35. Congo River, 150-1, 480, 491-500. Cordova, Francisco Hernando de, 205. Cortes, Hernando, 207-14. Cosmas, 90-2, 132. Cuba, 161, 166. Dampier, William, 306-11. Darien, 168, 191-2. Davis, John, 259-64. Davis Strait, 260, 281. Delphi, 24. Denham, Major, 391-5. Diaz, Bartholomew, 151-4, 180-1. Drake, Sir Francis, 249-58. Drusus (Germanicus), 69-71. Edrisi, 108. Egypt, 4-8, 26. "El Dorado," 222, 285. Eratosthenes, 45-7. Erik, 94. Eskimos, 246, 262, 281, 367, 379, 385, 405, 435. Flinders, Matthew, 410-8. Floki, 94. Florida, 205. France, _see_ Gaul. Franklin, Sir John, 368, 372-8, 382-7, 482-9. Franz Joseph Land, 526-8. "Friar John," _see_ Carpini. Frobisher, Martin, 245-8, 296. Gama, Vasco da, 171-9, 182-3. Gambia River, 30, 145, 349, 355. Gardar, 94. Gaul, 53-8. Germany, 55-7, 69-71. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 259. Gobi Desert, 75, 118. Gomez, Diego, 145-8. Good Hope, Cape of, 21, 152-4, 174, 181, 257. Grant, Captain J. A., 460-6. Greenland, 95, 246, 260-3, 274, 282, 501, 521. Grijalva, Juan, 206. Guiana, 287-8. Hanno, 29-32. Hawaii, 333, 335. Hawkins, Sir John, 250. Hayti, 161, 168, 191. Hecataeus, 25. Hedin, Sven, 518. Helena, 77-8. Henry of Portugal, Prince, 138-49. Herodotus, 19-22, 26-9. Himilco, 49. Holland, 51. Homer, 16-8. Honduras, 213-4. Horn, Cape, 253, 300. Houghton, Major, 350-1. Huc, Abbe, 514-8. Hudson, Henry, 273-9. Hudson River, 276. " Strait, 248, 277, 281. Hudson's Bay, 246, 372. Huron Lake, 294. Ibn Batuta, 126-32. Iceland, 94, 277. India, 38-43, 66, 128, 177-86. Ireland, 59, 63, 66, 69, 83-6. Ithobal, 20-3. _Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem_, 78-9. Jamaica, 166. Japan, 123, 241, 282. Java, 124, 328. Jenkinson, Anthony, 240-1. Jerusalem, 24, 77-9, 89. Julius Caesar, 54-60. Kamtchatka, 313-8. Kara Sea, 504, 522. " Strait, 503. King Edward VII.'s Land, 536. Kin Sai, 120. Kublai Khan, 115-25. Kyber Pass, 38. Labrador, 96, 228, 262-4. Ladrones Islands, 202. Lander, John and Richard, 396, 399-402. La Perouse, Comte de, 338. Lapland, 238. Le Maire, Isaac, 299. Lhasa, 511-20. Libya, 20, 27-9. Lief, 95. Livingstone, David, 440-9, 456-9, 474-85. Machin, Robert, 141. McClintock, Sir Leopold, 433-9. McClure, Sir R. J. Le M., 433. Mackenzie, Alexander, 362-4, 382. Madagascar, 103. Madeira, 86, 140. Magellan, Ferdinand, 190, 193-202, 296. Magellan's Strait, 198-9, 253. Magnetic Poles, 405, 430. Malabar, 182-3. Malacca, 187-8. Malay Archipelago, 188-9. Mandeville, Sir John, 126. Manilla, 298. Manning, Thomas, 513. Maoris, 303, 322. Maps (ancient), 24, 46, 62, 75, 92, 108, 133-7, 149, 305. Massoudy, 107. _Meadows of Gold_, 107. Mesopotamia, 2-4. Mexico, 206-14. Mongolia, _see_ China. Montreal, 232, 292, 295. Mota, Antonio de, 241. Mozambique, 176. Mumbo Jumbo, 350. Murchison Falls, 472. Murray River, 421. Murrumbidgee River, 420-4. Naddod, 94. Nansen, Fridtjof, 521-9. Natal, 175. Nearchus, 41-5. Neco, 19-20. New Albion, 255, 333, 358. Newfoundland, 96, 225-7, 275. New Guinea, 298, 303-5, 310. New Holland, _see_ Australia. New South Wales, 328, 410, 415. New Zealand, 303, 322-6. Niger River, 72, 348, 353-6, 396, 399-402. Nigeria, 394-402. Nile, The, 4-9, 27, 339-42, 345-7, 454-62, 468, 470. Nordenskiold, Baron, 501-10. North-East Passage, 235-40, 315, 501-10. North-West Passage, 245-64, 290, 332, 366, 403, 433. North Pole, 531-5. Nova Scotia, 229. Nova Zembla, 237, 265-72, 503. Nyassaland (and lake), 458-9, 475. Ontario, 294. Orellana, Francisco de, 220-2. Orinoco, 167, 285-8. Otaheite, 320-2. Othere, 96. Oudney, Dr., 391-4. Oxus, 37, 117, 241. Pacific Ocean, 130, 192, 199-203, 250, 253. Panama, 191, 250, 306. Park, Mungo, 348-56, 396. Parry, Sir W. E., 365-71, 378-81, 388-90. Patagonia, 196-9, 252. Paula, 80. Peary, R. E., 530-5. Pekin, 115, 119. Pelsart, Captain, 300, 309. _Periplus_ (of Hanno), 29. Persia, 32-3, 117. Peru, 216-20. Philippine Islands, 202, 256. Phillip, Captain, 336. Phoenicians, 10-3, 19-23, 29-32. Pilgrims, 77-92. Pinto, Mendex, 241-2. Pizarro, Francisco, 215-23. Pliny, 66, 71-3. Polo, Niccolo, Maffio, and Marco 115-25. Prester John, 111, 126, 176. Prickett, Abacuk, 277, 280. Przhevalsky, N. M., 518. Ptolemy, 74-6. Punjab, 39. Punt, 5-8. Pytheas, 48-53. Quebec, 290. Quilimane River, 175. Quiros, Pedro Fernandez De, 298. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 285-9. Red Sea, 5-7, 20-1, 343. Richardson, Sir John, 372-87. Ripon Falls, 463. Ross, Sir James, 388, 403-9, 428-31, 433. Ross, Sir John, 365-8, 403-9. Rubruquis, William de, 112-4. Russia, 238-40, 313. Sahara, 391. St. Brandon, 85-7. St. Columba, 84-5. St. Lawrence River, 228, 230, 290. St. Louis River, 292. St. Patrick, 83-4. St. Paul's Island, 200. Sandwich Islands, 333, 335. San Francisco, 255. Sargasso Sea, 50. Scandinavia, 72, 93, 97. Schouten, Cornelius, 299. Scotland, 68, 84-5. Scott, Captain R. F., 536-42. Senegal River, 30, 144, 351. Sequira, Diogo Lopes de, 186. Serrano, Francisco, 188, 194. Shackleton, Sir E. H., 536-40. Shirwa, Lake, 457. Siberia, 313-8. Sierra Leone, 29-30, 143. "Sindbad the Sailor," 101-6. Society Islands, 322. Socotra, 184. Solis, Juan Diaz de, 196. Somaliland, _see_ Punt. South Pole, 536-44. Spain, 49, 64. Speke, J. H., 450-5, 460-6. Spice Islands, 188-90, 203, 256. Spitzbergen, 269, 274, 388, 501. Staaten Land, 299, 303, 324. Stanley, Sir H. M., 480-2, 486-500. Stanley Falls, 494. Strabo, 52, 61-7. Sturt, Captain, 418-24. Sudan, The, 468. Sumatra, 104, 124, 130, 187. Sydney, 337. Sylvia of Aquitaine, 80-2. Tacitus, 69-71. Tanganyika, 452, 476, 491. Tartary, 110. Tasman, Abel Jansen, 302-5. Tasmania, 302-5, 413. Tchad, Lake, 392. Thule, 51-3, 97. Tibet, 123, 511-20. Tierra del Fuego, 199, 254. Timbuktu, 391-8. "Tin Islands," The, 10, 12, 48-50. Tippu Tib, 492. Torres, Luiz Vaez de, 298. Torres Strait, 298. Trinidad, 167. Tsana, Lake, 345. Tyre, 29. Uganda, 461, 488. Ulysses, 16-8. Vancouver, 255, 357-61. Vancouver, Captain, 357-61. Van Diemen's Land, 302, 410-2. Vasco da Gama, _see_ Gama. Vera Cruz, 208-9. Vespucci, Amerigo, 169-70. Victoria Falls, 445. " Nyanza, 454, 462, 487. Vikings, 93-6. West Indies, 160-1, 164-8. White Sea, 238. Willibald, 90. Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 235-8. Wills, W. J., 424-6. Xenophon, 22-4, 33-4. Younghusband, Sir F. E., 519. Zambesi River, 442-8. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 
4581	----	THE THRALL OF LEIF THE LUCKY A Story of Viking Days By Ottilie A. Liljencrantz CONTENTS CHAPTER I Where Wolves Thrive Better than Lambs CHAPTER II The Maid in the Silver Helmet CHAPTER III A Gallant Outlaw CHAPTER IV In a Viking Lair CHAPTER V The Ire of a Shield-Maiden CHAPTER VI The Song of Smiting Steel CHAPTER VII The King's Guardsman CHAPTER VIII Leif the Cross-Bearer CHAPTER IX Before the Chieftain CHAPTER X The Royal Blood of Alfred CHAPTER XI The Passing of the Scar CHAPTER XII Through Bars of Ice CHAPTER XIII Eric the Red in His Domain CHAPTER XIV For the Sake of the Cross CHAPTER XV A Wolf-Pack in Leash CHAPTER XVI A Courtier of the King CHAPTER XVII The Wooing of Helga CHAPTER XVIII The Witch's Den CHAPTER XIX Tales of the Unknown West CHAPTER XX Alwin's Bane CHAPTER XXI The Heart of a Shield-Maiden CHAPTER XXII In the Shadow of the Sword CHAPTER XXIII A Familiar Blade in a Strange Sheath CHAPTER XXIV For Dear Love's Sake CHAPTER XXV "Where Never Man Stood Before" CHAPTER XXVI Vinland the Good CHAPTER XXVII Mightier than the Sword CHAPTER XXVIII "Things that are Fated" CHAPTER XXIX The Battle to the Strong CHAPTER XXX From Over the Sea CONCLUSION FOREWORD THE Anglo-Saxon race was in its boyhood in the days when the Vikings lived. Youth's fresh fires burned in men's blood; the unchastened turbulence of youth prompted their crimes, and their good deeds were inspired by the purity and whole-heartedness and divine simplicity of youth. For every heroic vice, the Vikings laid upon the opposite scale an heroic virtue. If they plundered and robbed, as most men did in the times when Might made Right, yet the heaven-sent instinct of hospitality was as the marrow of their bones. No beggar went from their doors without alms; no traveller asked in vain for shelter; no guest but was welcomed with holiday cheer and sped on his way with a gift. As cunningly false as they were to their foes, just so superbly true were they to their friends. The man who took his enemy's last blood-drop with relentless hate, gave his own blood with an equally unsparing hand if in so doing he might aid the cause of some sworn brother. Above all, they were a race of conquerors, whose knee bent only to its proved superior. Not to the man who was king-born merely, did their allegiance go, but to the man who showed himself their leader in courage and their master in skill. And so it was with their choice of a religion, when at last the death-day of Odin dawned. Not to the God who forgives, nor to the God who suffered, did they give their faith; but they made their vows to the God who makes men strong, the God who is the never-dying and all-powerful Lord of those who follow Him. The Thrall of Leif the Lucky CHAPTER I WHERE WOLVES THRIVE BETTER THAN LAMBS Vices and virtues The sons of mortals bear In their breasts mingled; No one is so good That no failing attends him, Nor so bad as to be good for nothing. Ha'vama'l (High Song of Odin). It was back in the tenth century, when the mighty fair-haired warriors of Norway and Sweden and Denmark, whom the people of Southern Europe called the Northmen, were becoming known and dreaded throughout the world. Iceland and Greenland had been colonized by their dauntless enterprise. Greece and Africa had not proved distant enough to escape their ravages. The descendants of the Viking Rollo ruled in France as Dukes of Normandy; and Saxon England, misguided by Ethelred the Unready and harassed by Danish pirates, was slipping swiftly and surely under Northern rule. It was the time when the priests of France added to their litany this petition: "From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, good Lord." The old, old Norwegian city of Trondhjem, which lies on Trondhjem Fiord, girt by the river Nid, was then King Olaf Trygvasson's new city of Nidaros, and though hardly more than a trading station, a hamlet without streets, it was humming with prosperity and jubilant life. The shore was fringed with ships whose gilded dragon-heads and purple-and-yellow hulls and azure-and-scarlet sails were reflected in the waves until it seemed as if rainbows had been melted in them. Hillside and river-bank bloomed with the gay tents of chieftains who had come from all over the North to visit the powerful Norwegian king. Traders had scattered booths of tempting wares over the plain, so that it looked like fair-time. The broad roads between the estates that clustered around the royal residence were thronged with clanking horsemen, with richly dressed traders followed by covered carts of precious merchandise, with beautiful fair-haired women riding on gilded chair-like saddles, with monks and slaves, with white-bearded lawmen and pompous landowners. Along one of those roads that crossed the city from the west, a Danish warrior came riding, one keen May morning, with a young English captive tied to his saddle-bow. The Northman was a great, hulking, wild-maned, brute-faced fellow, capped by an iron helmet and wrapped in a mantle of coarse gray, from whose folds the handle of a battle-axe looked out suggestively; but the boy was of the handsomest Saxon type. Though barely seventeen, he was man-grown, and lithe and well-shaped; and he carried himself nobly, despite his clumsy garments of white wool. His gold-brown hair had been clipped close as a mark of slavery, and there were fetters on his limbs; but chains could not restrain the glance of his proud gray eyes, which flashed defiance with every look. Crossing the city northward, they came where a trading-booth stood on its outskirts--an odd looking place of neatly built log walls tented over with gay striped linen. Beyond, the plain rose in gentle hills, which were overlooked in their turn by pine-clad snow-capped mountains. On one side, the river hurried along in surging rapids; on the other, one could see the broad elbow of the fiord glittering in the sun. At the sight of the booth, the Saxon scowled darkly, while the Dane gave a grunt of relief. Drawing rein before the door, the warrior dismounted and pulled down his captive. It was a scene of barbaric splendor that the gay roof covered. The walls displayed exquisitely wrought weapons, and rare fabrics interwoven with gleaming gold and silver threads. Piles of rich furs were heaped in the corners, amid a medley of gilded drinking-horns and bronze vessels and graceful silver urns. Across the back of the booth stretched a benchful of sullen-looking creatures war-captives to be sold as slaves, native thralls, and two Northmen enslaved for debt. In the centre of the floor, seated upon one of his massive steel-bound chests, gorgeous in velvet and golden chains, the trader presided over his sales like a prince on his throne. The Dane saluted him with a surly nod, and he answered with such smooth words as the thrifty old Norse proverbs advise every man to practise. "Greeting, Gorm Arnorsson! Here is great industry, if already this Spring you have gone on a Viking voyage and gotten yourself so good a piece of property! How came you by him?" Gorm gave his "property" a rough push forward, and his harsh voice came out of his bull-thick neck like a bellow. "I got him in England last Summer. We ravaged his father's castle, I and twenty ship-mates, and slew all his kinsmen. He comes of good blood; I am told for certain that he is a jarl's son. And I swear he is sound in wind and limb. How much will you pay me for him, Karl Grimsson?" The owner of the booth stroked his long white beard and eyed the captive critically. It seemed to him that he had never seen a king's son with a haughtier air. The boy wore his fetters as though they had been bracelets from the hands of Ethelred. "Is it because you value him so highly that you keep him in chains?" he asked. "In that I will not deceive you," said the Dane, after a moment's hesitation. "Though he is sound in wind and limb, he is not sound in temper. Shortly after I got him, I sold him to Gilli the Wealthy for a herd-boy; but because it was not to his mind on the dairy-farm, he lost half his herd and let wolves prey on the rest, and when the headman would have flogged him for it, he slew him. He has the temper of a black elf." "He does not look to be a cooing dove," the trader assented. "But how came it that he was not slain for this? I have heard that Gilli is a fretful man." The Dane snorted. "More than anything else he is greedy for property, and his wife Bertha advised him not to lose the price he had paid. It is my belief that she has a liking for the cub; she was an English captive before the Wealthy One married her. He followed her advice, as was to be expected, and saddled me with the whelp when I passed through the district yesterday. I should have sent him to Thor myself," he added with a suggestive swing of his axe, "but that silver is useful to me also. I go to join my shipmates in Wisby. And I am in haste, Karl Grimsson. Take him, and let me have what you think fair." It seemed as if the trader would never finish the meditative caressing of his beard, but at last he arose and called for his scales. The Dane took the little heap of silver rings weighed out to him, and strode out of the tent. At the same time, he passed out of the English boy's life. What a pity that the result of their short acquaintance could not have disappeared with him! The trader surveyed his new possession, standing straight and slim before him. "What are you called?" he demanded. "And whence come you? And of what kin?" "I am called Alwin," answered the thrall; "and I come from Northumbria." He hesitated, and the blood mounted to his face. "But I will not tell you my father's name," he finished proudly, "that you may shame him in shaming me." The trader's patience was a little chafed. Peaceful merchants were also men of war between times in those days. Suddenly he unsheathed the sword that hung at his side, and laid its point against the thrall's breast. "I ask you again of what kin you come. If you do not answer now, it is unlikely that you will be alive to answer a third question." Perhaps young Alwin's bronzed cheeks lost a little of their color, but his lip curled scornfully. So they stood, minute after minute, the sharp point pricking through the cloth until the boy felt it against his skin. Gradually the trader's face relaxed into a grim smile. "You are a young wolf," he said at last, sheathing his weapon; "yet go and sit with the others. It may be that wolves thrive better than lambs in the North." CHAPTER II THE MAID IN THE SILVER HELMET In a maiden's words No one should place faith, Nor in what a woman says; For on a turning wheel Have their hearts been formed, And guile in their breasts been laid. Ha'vama'l Day after day, week after week, Alwin sat waiting to see where the next turn of misfortune's wheel would land him. Interesting people visited the booth continually. Now it was a party of royal guardsmen to buy weapons,--splendid mail-clad giants who ate at King Olaf's board, slept a his hall, and fought to the death at his side. Again it was a minstrel, with a harp at his back, who stopped to rest and exchange a song for a horn of mead. Once the Queen herself, riding in a shining gilded wagon, came in and bought some of the graceful spiral bracelets. She said that Alwin's eyes were as bright as a young serpent's; but she did not buy him. The doorway framed an ever changing picture,--budding birch trees along the river-bank; men ploughing in the valley; shepherds tending flocks that looked like dots of cotton wool on the green hillsides. Sometimes bands of gay folk from the King's house rode by to the hunt, spurs jingling, horns braying, falcons at their wrists. Sometimes brawny followers of the visiting chiefs swaggered past in groups, and the boy could hear their shouting and laughter as they held drinking-bouts in the hostelry near by. Occasionally their rough voices would grow rougher, and an arrow would fly past the door; or there would be a clash of weapons, followed by a groan. One day, as Alwin sat looking out, his chin resting in his hand, his elbow on his knee, his attention was caught by two riders winding swiftly down a hill-path on the right. At first, one was only a blur of gray and the other a flame of scarlet; they disappeared behind a grove of aspens, then reappeared nearer, and he could make out a white beard on the gray figure and a veil of golden hair above the scarlet kirtle. What hair for a boy, even the noblest born! It was the custom of all free men to wear their locks uncut; but this golden mantle! Yet could it be a girl? Did a girl ever wear a helmet like a silver bowl, and a kirtle that stopped at the knee? If it was a girl, she must be one of those shield-maidens of whom the minstrels sang. Alwin watched the pair curiously as they galloped down the last slope and turned into the lane beside the river. They must pass the booth, and then... His brain whirled, and he stood up in his intense interest. Something had startled the white steed that bore the scarlet kirtle; he swerved aside and rose on his haunches with a suddenness that nearly unseated his rider; then he took the bronze bit between his teeth and leaped forward. Whitebeard and his bay mare were left behind. The yellow hair streamed out like a banner; nearer, and Alwin could see that it was indeed a girl. She wound her hands in the reins and kept her seat like a centaur. But suddenly something gave way. Over she went, sidewise; and by the wrist, tangled in the reins, the horse dragged her over the stony road. Forgetting his manacled limbs, Alwin started forward; but it was all over in an instant. One of the trader's servants flew at the animal's head and stopped him, almost at the door of the booth. In another moment a crowd gathered around the fallen girl and shut her from his view. Alwin gazed at the shifting backs with a dreadful vision of golden hair torn and splashed with blood. She must be dead, for she had not once screamed. His head was still ringing with the shrieks of his mother's waiting-women, as the Danes bore them out of the burning castle. Whitebeard came galloping up, puffing and panting. He was a puny little German, with a face as small and withered as a winter apple, but a body swaddled in fur-trimmed tunics until it seemed as fat as a polar bear's. He rolled off his horse; the crowd parted before him. Then the English youth experienced another shock. Bruised and muddy, but neither dead nor fainting, the girl stood examining her wrist with the utmost calmness. Though her face was white and drawn with pain, she looked up at the old man with a little twisted smile. "It is nothing, Tyrker," she said quickly; "only the girth broke, and it appears that my wrist is out of joint. We will go in here, and you shall set it." Tyrker blinked at her for a moment with an expression of mingled affection and wonder; then he drew a deep breath. "Donnerwetter, but you are a true shield-maiden!" he said in a wavering treble. The trader received them with true Norse hospitality; and Alwin watched in speechless amazement while the old man ripped up the scarlet sleeve and wrenched the dislocated bones into position, without a murmur from the patient. Despite her strange dress and general dishevelment, he could see now that she was a beautiful girl, a year or two younger than himself. Her face was as delicately pink-and-pearly as a sea-shell, and corn-flowers among the wheat were no bluer than the eyes that looked out from under her rippling golden tresses. When the wrist was set and bandaged, the trader presented them with a silken scarf to make into a sling, and had them served with horns of sparkling mead. This gave a turn to the affair that proved of special interest to Alwin. There is an old Norse proverb which prescribes "Lie for lie, laughter for laughter, gift for gift;" so, while he accepted these favors, Tyrker began to look around for some way to repay them. His gaze wandered over fabrics and furs and weapons, till it finally fell upon the slaves' bench. "Donnerwetter!" he said, setting down his horn. "To my mind it has just come that Leif a cook-boy is desirous of, now that Hord is drowned." The girl saw his purpose, and nodded quickly. "It is unlikely that you can make a better bargain anywhere." She turned to examine the slaves, and her eyes immediately encountered Alwin's. She did not blush; she looked him up and down critically, as if he were a piece of armor, or a horse. It was he who flushed, with sudden shame and anger, as he realized that in the eyes of this beautiful Norse maiden he was merely an animal put up for sale. "Yonder is a handsome thrall," she said; "he looks as though his strength were such that he could stand something." "True it is that he cannot a lame wolf be who with the pack from Greenland is to run," Tyrker assented. "That it was, which to Hord was a hindrance. For sport only, Egil Olafson under the water took him down and held him there; and because to get away he was not strong enough, he was drowned. But to me it seems that this one would bite. How dear would this thrall be?" "You would have to pay for him three marks of silver," said the trader. "He is an English thrall, very strong and well-shaped." He came over to where Alwin sat, and stood him up and turned him round and bent his limbs, Alwin submitting as a caged tiger submits to the lash, and with much the same look about his mouth. Tyrker caught the look, and sat for a long while blinking doubtfully at him. But he was a shrewd old fellow, and at last he drew his money-bag from his girdle and handed it to the trader to be weighed. While this was being done, he bade one of the servants strike off the boy's fetters. The trader paused, scales in hand, to remonstrate. "It is my advice that you keep them on until you sail. I will not conceal it from you that he has an unruly disposition. You will be lacking both your man and your money." The old man smiled quietly. "Ach, my friend," he said, "can you not better read a face? Well is it to be able to read runes, but better yet it is to know what the Lord has written in men's eyes." He signed to the servant to go on, and in a moment the chains fell clattering on the ground. Alwin looked at him in amazement; then suddenly he realized what a kind old face it was, for all its shrewdness and puny ugliness. The scowl fell from him like another chain. "I give you thanks," he said. The wrinkled, tremulous old hand touched his shoulder with a kindly pressure. "Good is it that we understand each other. _Nun_! Come. First shall you go and Helga's horse lead, since it may be that with her one hand she cannot manage him. Why do you in your face so red grow?" Alwin grew still redder; but he could not tell the good old man that he would rather follow a herd of unbroken steers all day, than walk one mile before a beautiful young Amazon who looked at him as if he were a dog. He mumbled something indistinctly, and hastened out after the horses. Helga rose stiffly from the pile of furs; it was evident that every new motion revealed a new bruise to her, but she set her white teeth and held her chin high in the air. When she had taken leave of the trader, she walked out without a limp and vaulted into her saddle unaided. The sunlight, glancing from her silver helm, fell upon her floating hair and turned it into a golden glory that hid rents and stains, and redeemed even the kirtle, which stopped at the knee. As he helped the old man to mount, Alwin gazed at her with unwilling admiration. Perhaps some day he would show her that he was not so utterly contemptible as... She made him an imperious gesture; he stalked haughtily forward, he took his place at her bridle rein, and the three set forth. CHAPTER III A GALLANT OUTLAW Two are adversaries; The tongue is the bane of the head; Under every cloak I expect a hand. Ha'vama'l For a while the road of the little party ran beside the brawling Nid, whose shores were astir with activity and life. Here was a school of splashing swimmers; there, a fleet of fishing-smacks; a provision-ship loading for a cruise as consort to one of the great war vessels. They passed King Olaf's ship-sheds, where fine new boats were building, and one brilliantly-painted cruiser stood on the rollers all ready for the launching. Along the opposite bank lay the camps of visiting Vikings, with their long ships'-boats floating before them. The road bent to the right, and wound along between the high fences that shut in the old farm-like manors. Ail the houses had their gable-ends faced to the front, like soldiers at drill, and little more than their tarred roofs showed among the trees. Most of the commons between the estates were enlivened by groups of gaily-ornamented booths. Many of them were traders' stalls; but in one, over the heads of the laughing crowd, Alwin caught a glimpse of an acrobat and a clumsy dancing bear; while in another, a minstrel sang plaintive love ballads to a throng that listened as breathlessly as leaves for a wind. The wild sweet harp-music floated out and went with them far across the plain. The road swerved still farther to the right, entering a wood of spicy evergreens and silver-stemmed birches. In its green depths song-birds held high carnival, and an occasional rabbit went scudding from hillock to covert. From the south a road ran up and crossed theirs, on its way to the fiord. As they reached this cross-road, a horseman passed down it at a gallop. He only glanced toward them; and all Alwin had time to see was that he was young and richly dressed. But Helga started up with a cry. "Sigurd! Tyrker, it was Sigurd!" Slowly drawing rein, the old man blinked at her in bewilderment. "Sigurd? Where? What Sigurd?" "Our Sigurd--Leif's foster-son! Oh, ride after him! Shout!" She stretched her white throat in calling, but the wind was against her. "That is now impossible that Jarl Harald's son it should be," Tyrker said soothingly. "On a Viking voyage he is absent. Besides, out of breath it puts me fast to ride. Some one else have you mistaken. Three years it has been since you have seen--" "Then I will go myself!" She snatched the reins from Alwin, but Tyrker caught her arm. "Certain it is that you would be injured. If you insist, the thrall shall go. He looks as though he would run well." "But what message?" Alwin began. Helga tried to stamp in her stirrups. "Will you stand there and talk? Go!" They were fast runners in those days, by all accounts. It is said that there were men in Ireland and the North so swift-footed that no horse could overtake them. In ten minutes Alwin stood at the horseman's side, red, dripping, and furious. The stranger was a gallant young cavalier, with floating yellow locks and a fine high-bred face. His velvet cloak was lined with ermine, his silk tunic seamed with gold; he had gold embroidery on his gloves, silver spurs to his heels, and a golden chain around his neck. Alwin glared up at him, and hated him for his splendor, and hated him for his long silken hair. The rider looked down in surprise at the panting thrall with the shaven head. "What is your errand with me?" he asked. It was not easy to explain, but Alwin framed it curtly: "If you are Sigurd Haraldsson, a maiden named Helga is desirous that you should turn back." "I am Sigurd Haraldsson," the youth assented, "but I know no maiden in Norway named Helga." It occurred to Alwin that this Helga might belong to "the pack from Greenland," but he kept a surly silence. "What is the rest of her name?" "If there is more, I have not heard it." "Where does she live?" "The devil knows!" "Are you her father's thrall?" "It is my bad luck to be the captive of some Norse robber." The straight brows of the young noble slanted into a frown. Alwin met it with a black scowl. Suddenly, while they faced each other, glowering, an arrow sped out of the thicket a little way down the road, and whizzed between them. A second shaft just grazed Alwin's head; a third carried away a tress of Sigurd's fair hair. Instantly after, a man crashed out of the underbrush and came running toward them, throwing down a bow and drawing a sword as he ran. Forgetting that no weapon hung there now, Alwin's hand flew to his side. Young Haraldsson, catching only the gesture, stayed him peremptorily. "Stand back,--they were aimed at me! It is my quarrel." He threw himself from his saddle, and his blade flashed forth like a sunbeam. Evidently there was no need of explanations between the two. The instant they met, that instant their swords crossed; and from the first clash, the blades darted back and forth and up and down like governed lightnings. Alwin threw a quieting arm around the neck of the startled horse, and settled himself to watch. Before many minutes, he forgot that he had been on the point of quarrelling with Sigurd Haraldsson. Anything more deft or graceful than the swiftness and ease with which the young noble handled his weapon he had never imagined. Admiration crowded out every other feeling. "I hope that he will win!" he muttered presently. "By St. George, I hope that he will win!" and his soothing pats on the horse's neck became frantic slaps in his excitement. The archer was not a bad fighter, and just now he was a desperate fighter. Round and round went the two. A dozen times they shifted their ground; a dozen times they changed their modes of attack and defence. At last, Sigurd's weapon itself began to change from one hand to the other. Without abating a particle of his swiftness, in the hottest of the fray he made a feint with his left. Before the other could recover from parrying it, the weapon leaped back to his right, darted like a hissing snake at the opening, and pierced the archer's shoulder. He fell, snarling, and lay with Sigurd's point pricking his throat and Sigurd's foot pressing his breast. "I think you understand now that you will not stand over my scalp," young Haraldsson said sternly. "Now you have got what you deserved. You managed to get me banished, and you shot three arrows at me to kill me; and all because of what? Because in last fall's games I shot better than you! It was in my mind that if ever I caught you I would drive a knife through you." He kicked him contemptuously as he took his foot away. "Sneaking son of a wolf," he finished, "I despise myself that I cannot find it in my heart to do it, now that you are at my mercy; but I have not been wont to do such things, and you are not worth beginning on. Crawl on your miserable way." While the archer staggered off, clutching his shoulder, Sigurd came back to his horse, wiping his sword composedly. "It was obliging of you to stay and hold High-flyer," he said, as he mounted. "If he had been frightened away, I should have been greatly hindered, for I have many miles before me." That brought them suddenly back to their first topic; but now Alwin handled it with perfect courtesy. "Let me urge you again to turn back with me. It is not easy for me to answer your questions, for this morning is the first time I have seen the maiden; but she is awaiting you at the cross-roads with the old man she calls Tyrker, and--" "Tyrker!" cried Sigurd Haraldsson. "Leif's foster-father had that name. It is not possible that it is my little foster-sister from Greenland!" "I have heard them mention Greenland, and also the name of Leif," Alwin assured him. Sigurd smote his knee a resounding thwack. "Strangest of wonders is the time at which this news comes! Here have I just been asking for Leif in the guardroom of the King's house; and because they told me he was away on the King's business, I was minded to ride straight out of the city. Catch hold of the strap on my saddle-girth, and we will hurry." He wheeled Highflyer and spurred him forward. Alwin would not make use of the strap, but kept his place at the horse's shoulder without much difficulty. Only the pace did not leave him breath for questions, and he wished to ask a number. It was not long, however, before most of his questions were asked and answered for him. Rounding a curve, they came face to face with the riders, who had evidently tired of waiting at the cross-roads. Tyrker, peering anxiously ahead, uttered an exclamation of relief at the sight of Alwin, whom he had evidently given up as a runaway. Helga welcomed Sigurd in a delighted cry. The young Northman greeted her with frank affection, and saluted Tyrker almost as fondly. "This meeting gladdens me more than tongue can tell. I do not see how it was that I did not recognize you as I passed. And yet those garments, Helga! By St. Michael, you look well-fitted to be the Brynhild we used to hear about!" Helga's fair face flushed, and Alwin smiled inwardly. He was curious to know what the young Viking would do if the young Amazon boxed his ears, as he thought likely. But it seemed that Helga was only ungentle toward those whom she considered beneath her friendliness. While she motioned Alwin with an imperious gesture to hand her the rein she had dropped, she responded good-naturedly to Sigurd: "Nay, now, my comrade, you will not be mean enough to scold about my short kirtle, when it was you who taught me to do the things that make a short kirtle necessary! Have you forgotten how you used to steal me away from my embroidery to hunt with you?" "By no means," Sigurd laughed. "Nor how Thorhild scolded when we came back! I would give a ring to know what she would say if she were here now. It is my belief that you would get a slap, for all your warlike array." Helga's spur made her horse prance and rear defiantly. "Thorhild is not here, nor do I expect that she will ever rule over me again. She struck me once too often, and I ran away to Leif. For two years now I have lived almost like the shield-maidens we were wont to talk of. Oh, Sigurd, I have been so happy!" She threw back her head and lifted her beautiful face up to the sunlit sky and the fresh wind. "So free and so happy!" Alwin thrilled with sudden sympathy. He understood then that it was not boldness, nor mere waywardness, that made her what she was. It was the Norse blood crying out for adventure and open air and freedom. It did not seem strange to him, as he thought of it. It occurred to him, all at once, as a stranger thing that all maidens did not feel so,--that there were any who would be kept at spinning, like prisoners fettered in trailing gowns. Tyrker nodded in answer to Sigurd's look of amazement. "The truth it is which the child speaks. Over winters, stays she at the King's house with one of the Queen's women, who is a friend of Leif; and during the summer, voyages she makes with me. But to me it appears that of her we have spoken enough. Tell to us how it comes that you are in Norway, and--whoa! Steady!--Wh--o--a!" "And tell us also that you will ride on to the camp with us now," Helga put in, as Tyrker was obliged to transfer his attention to his restless horse. "Rolf Erlingsson and Egil Olafsson, whom you knew in Greenland, are there, and all the crew of the 'Sea-Deer'." "The 'Sea-Deer'!" ejaculated Sigurd. "Surely Leif has got rid of his ship, now that he is in King Olaf's guard." The backing and sidling and prancing of Tyrker's horse forced him to leave this also to Helga. "Certainly he has not got rid of his ship. When he does not follow King Olaf to battle with her, Tyrker takes her on trading voyages, and she lies over-winter in the King's ship-shed. There are forty of the crew, counting me,--there is no need for you to smile, I can take the helm and stand a watch as well as any. Can I not, Tyrker?" The old man relaxed his vigilance long enough to nod assent; whereupon his horse took instant advantage of the slackened rein to bolt off homeward, despite all the swaying and sawing of the rider. That set the whole party in motion once more. "You will come with me to camp, Sigurd my comrade?" Helga urged. "It is but a little way, on the bank across the river. Come, if only for a short time." Sigurd gathered up his rein with a smile and a sigh together. "I will give you a favorable answer to that. It seems that you have not heard of the mishap that has befallen me. The lawman has banished me from the district." It pleased Alwin to hear that he was likely to see more of the young Norseman. Helga was filled with amazement. On the verge of starting, she stopped her horse to stare at him. "It must be that you are jesting," she said at last. "You, who are the most amiable person in the world,--it is not possible that you can have broken the law!" Sigurd laughed ruefully. "In my district I am not spoken of as amiable, just now. Yet there is little need to take it heavily, my foster-sister. I have done nothing that is dishonorable,--should I dare to come before Leif's face if I had? It will blow over in time to come." Helga leaned from her saddle to press his hand in a friendly grasp. "You have come to the right place, for nowhere in the world could you be more welcome. Only wait and see how Rolf and Egil will receive you!" She gave the thrall a curt shake of her head, as he stepped to her bridle-rein; and they rode off. As Helga had said, the camp was not far away. Once across the river, they turned to the left and wound along the rolling woody banks toward the fiord. Entering a thicket of hazel-bushes on the crest of the gentle slope, they were met by faint sounds of shouting and laughter. Emerging into a green little valley, the camp lay before them. Half a dozen wooden booths tented over with gay striped linen and adorned with streaming flags, a leaping fire, a pile of slain deer, a string of grazing horses, and a throng of brawny men skinning the deer, chasing the horses, scouring armor, drinking, wrestling, and lounging,--these were Alwin's first confused impressions. "There it is!" cried Helga. "Saw you ever a prettier spot? There is Tyrker under that ash tree. And there,--do you remember that black mane? Yonder, bending over that shield? That is Egil Olafsson. Now it comes to my mind again! To-night we go to a feast at the King's house; that is why he is so busy. And yonder! Yonder is Rolf wrestling. He is the strongest man in Greenland; did you know that? Even Valbrand cannot stand against him. Whistle now as you were wont to for the hawks, and see if they will not remember." They swept down the slope, the high sweet notes rising clear above the clatter. One man glanced up in surprise, then another and another; then suddenly every man dropped what he was doing, and leaped up with shouts of greeting and welcome. Sigurd disappeared behind a hedge of yellow heads and waving hands. Alwin felt himself clutched eagerly. "Donnerwetter, but I have waited a long time for you!" said the old German, short-breathed and panting. "That beast was like the insides of me to have out-shaken. Bring to me a horn of ale; but first give me your shoulder to yonder booth." CHAPTER IV IN A VIKING LAIR Leaving in the field his arms, Let no man go A fool's length forward: For it is hard to know When, on his way, A man may need his weapon. Ha'vama'l The camp lay red in the sunset light, and the twilight hush had fallen upon it so that one could hear the sleepy bird-calls in the woods around, and the drowsy murmur of the river. Sigurd lay on his back under a tree, staring up into the rustling greenery. From the booth set apart for her, Helga came out dressed for the feast. She had replaced her scarlet kirtle and hose by garments of azure-blue silk, and changed her silver helmet for a golden diadem such as high-born maidens wore on state occasions; but that was her only ornament, and her skirt was no longer than before. Sigurd looked at her critically. "It does not appear to me that you are very well dressed for a feast," said he. "Where are the bracelets and gold laces suitable to your rank? It looks ill for Leif's generosity, if that is the finest kirtle you own." "That is unfairly spoken," Helga answered quickly. "He would dress me in gold if I wished it; it is I who will not have it so. Have you forgotten my hatred against clothes so fine that one must be careful of them? But this was to be expected," she added, flushing with displeasure; "since the Jarl's son has lived in Normandy, a maiden from a Greenland farm must needs look mean to him." She was turning away, but he leaped up and caught her by her shoulders and shook her good-naturedly. "Now are you as womanish as your bondmaid. You know that all the gold on all the women in Normandy is not so beautiful as one lock of this hair of yours." At least Helga was womanish enough to smile at this. "Now I understand why it is that men call you Sigurd Silver-Tongue," she laughed. Suddenly she was all earnestness again. "Nay, but, Sigurd, tell me this,--I do not care how you scold about my dress,--tell me that you do not despise me for it, or for being unlike other maidens." Sigurd's grasp slipped from her shoulders down to her hands, and shook them warmly. "Despise you, Helga my sister? Despise you for being the bravest comrade and the truest friend a man ever had?" She grew rosy red with pleasure. "If that is your feeling, I am well content." She took a step toward the place where her horse was tethered, and looked back regretfully. "It seems inhospitable to leave you like this. Will you not come with us, after all?" Sigurd threw himself down again with an emphatic gesture of refusal. "I like better to be left so than to be left in a mound with my head cut off, which is what would happen were an outlaw to visit the King uninvited." "I shall not deny that that would be disagreeable," Helga assented. "But do not let your mishap stand in the way of your joy. Leif has great favor with King Olaf; there is no doubt in my mind that he will be able to plead successfully for you." "I hope so, with all my heart," Sigurd murmured. "When all brave men are fighting abroad or serving the King at home, it is great shame for me to be idling here." And he sighed heavily as Helga passed out of hearing. As she went by the largest of the booths, which was the sleeping-house of the steersman Valbrand and more than half the crew, Alwin came out of the door and stood looking listlessly about. He had spent the afternoon scouring helmets amid a babble of directions and fault-finding, accented by blows. Helga did not see him; but he gazed after her, wondering idly what sort of a mistress she was to the young bond-girl who was running after her with the cloak she had forgotten,--wondering also what there was in the girl's brown braids that reminded him of his mother's little Saxon waiting-maid Editha. The sound of a deep-drawn breath made him turn, to find himself face to face with a young mail-clad Viking, in whose shaggy black locks he recognized the Egil Olafsson whom Helga had that morning 'pointed out. But it was not the surprise of the meeting that made Alwin leap suddenly backward into the shelter of the doorway; it was the look that he caught in the other's dark face,--a look so full of hate and menace that, instead of being strangers meeting for the first time, one would have supposed them lifelong enemies. Still eying him, Egil said slowly in a voice that trembled with passion: "So you are the English thrall,--and looking after her already! It seems that Skroppa spoke some truth--" He broke off abruptly, and stood glaring, his hand moving upward to his belt. For once Alwin was fairly dazed. "Either this fellow has gotten out of his wits," he muttered, crossing himself, "or else he has mistaken me for some--" He had not time to finish his sentence. Young Olafsson's fingers had closed upon the haft of his knife; he drew it with a fierce cry: "But I will make the rest of it a lie!" Throwing himself upon Alwin, he bore him over backwards across the threshold. It is likely that that moment would have seen the end of Alwin, if it had not happened that Valbrand the steersman was in the booth, arraying himself for the feast. He was a gigantic warrior, with a face seamed with scars and as hard as the battle-axe at his side. He caught Egil's uplifted arm and wrested the blade from his grasp. "It is not likely that I will allow Leif's property to be damaged, Egil the Black. Would you choke him? Loose him, or I will send you to the Troll, body and bones!" Egil rose reluctantly. Alwin leaped up like a spring released from a weight. "What has he done," demanded Valbrand, "that you should so far forget the law as to attack another man's thrall?" Instead of bursting into the tirade Alwin expected, Egil flushed and looked away. "It is enough that I am not pleased with his looks," he said sullenly. Valbrand tossed him his knife with a scornful grunt. "Go and get sense! Is he yours, that you may slay him because you dislike the tilt of his nose? Go dress yourself. And you," he added, with a nod over his shoulder at Alwin, "do you take yourself out of his sight somewhere. It is unwisdom to tempt a hungry dog with meat that one would keep." "If I had so much as a hunting-knife," Alwin cried furiously, "I swear by all the saints of England, I would not stir--" Valbrand wasted no time in argument. He seized Alwin and threw him out of the door, with energy enough to roll him far down the slope. The force with which he struck inclined Alwin to stay where he was for a while; and gradually the coolness and the quietness about him soothed him into a more reasonable temper. Egil Olafsson was mad; there could be no question of that. Undoubtedly it was best to follow Valbrand's advice and keep out of his way,--at least until he could secure a weapon with which to defend himself. He stretched himself comfortably in the soft, dewy grass and waited until the revellers, splendid in shining mail and gay-hued mantles, clanked out to their horses and rode away. When the last of them shouted his farewell to Sigurd and disappeared amid the shadows of the wood-path, Alwin arose and walked slowly back to the deserted camp. Even the sunset light had left it now; a soft grayness shut it in, away from the world. The air was full of night-noises; and high in the pines a breeze was whispering softly. Very softly and sweetly, from somewhere among the booths, the voice of the bond-girl arose in a plaintive English ballad. Alwin recognized the melody with a throb that was half of pleasure, half of pain. In the old days, Editha had sung that song. Poor little gentle-hearted Editha! The last time he had seen her, she had been borne past him, white and unconscious, in the arms of one of the marauding Danes. He shook himself fiercely to drive off the memory. Turning the corner of Helga's booth, he came suddenly upon the singer, a slender white-robed figure leaning in the shadow of the doorway. Sigurd still lounged under the trees, half dozing, half listening. As the thrall stepped out of the shadow into the moonlight, the singer sprang to her feet, and the song merged into a great cry. "My lord Alwin!" It was Editha herself. Running to meet him, she dropped on her knees before him and began to kiss his hands and cry over them. "Oh, my dear lord," she sobbed, "you are so changed! And your hair--your beautiful hair! Oh, it is well that Earl Edmund and your lady mother are dead,--it would break their hearts, as it does mine!" Forgetting her own plight, she wept bitterly over his, though he tried with every gentle word to soothe her. It was a sad meeting; it could not be otherwise. The memory of their last terrible parting, the bondage in which they found each other, the shameful, hopeless future that stretched before them,--it was all full of bitterness. When Editha went in at last, her poor little throat was bursting with sobs. Alwin sank down on the trunk of a fallen tree and buried his head in his hands, and the first groan that his troubles had wrung from him was forced now from his brave lips. He had forgotten Sigurd's presence. In their preoccupation, neither of them had noticed the young Viking watching them curiously. Now Alwin started like a colt when a hand fell lightly on his shoulder. "It appears to me," came in Sigurd's voice, "that a man should be merry when he has just found a friend." Alwin looked up at him with eyes full of savage despair. "Merry! Would you be merry, had you found Helga the drudge of an English camp?" He shook off the other's hand with a fierce motion. But Sigurd answering instantly, "No, I would look even blacker than you, if that were possible," the thrall was half appeased. The young Viking dropped down beside him, and for a while they sat in silence, staring away where the moonlit river showed between the trees. At last Sigurd said dreamily: "It came to my mind, while you two were talking, how unevenly the Fates deal things. It appears, from what the maiden said, that you are the son of an English jarl who has often fought the Northmen. Now I am the son of a Norwegian jarl who has not a few times met the English in battle. It would have been no more unlikely than what has happened had I been the captive and you the victor." "That is true," said Alwin slowly. He did not say more, but in some odd way the idea comforted and softened him. Neither of the young men turned his eyes from the river toward the other, yet in some way something friendly crept into their silence. After a while Sigurd said, still without looking around, "It seems to me that the right-minded thing for me in this matter is to do what I should desire you to do if you were in my place; therefore I offer you my friendship." Something blurred the bright river for an instant from Alwin's sight. "I give you thanks," he said huskily. "Save Editha, I have not a friend in the world." He hesitated a while; then slowly, bit by bit, he set forth the story that he had never expected to unfold to Northern ears. "The Danes set fire to my father's castle, and he was burned with many of my kinsmen. The robbers came in the night, and a Danish churl opened the gates to them,--though he had been my father's man for four seasons. It was from him that I learned to speak the Northern tongue. They took me while I slept, bound me, and carried me out to their boats. They carried out also the young maidens who attended my mother,--Editha among them,--and not a few of the youth of the household, all that they chose for captives. They took out all the valuables that they wanted. After that, they threw great bales of hay into the hall, and set fire to them, and--" "The bloody wolves!" Sigurd burst out. "Did they not offer your mother to go out in safety?" "Nay, they had the most hatred against her." The bearing of his head grew more haughty. "My mother was a princess of the blood of Alfred." It happened that Sigurd had heard of that great monarch. His face kindled with enthusiasm. "Alfred! He who got the victory over the Danes? Small wonder they did not love his kin after they had known his cunning! I know a fine song about him,--how he went alone into the Danish camp, though they were hunting him to kill him; and while they thought him a simple--minded minstrel, he learned all their secrets. By my troth, that is good blood to have in one's veins! Were I English, I would rather be his kinsman than Ethelred's." He stared at Alwin with glowing eyes; they were facing each other now. Suddenly he stretched out his hand. "It is naught but a piece of bad luck that you are Leif's thrall. It might just as easily have happened that I were in your place. Now I will make a bargain with you that hereafter I will remember this, and never hold your thraldom against you." Such a concession as that, few of the proud Viking race were generous enough to make. Alwin could not but be moved by it. He took the outstretched hand in a hard grip. "Will you do that?" he said; and it seemed for a time as though he could not find words to answer. At last he spoke: "If you will do that, I promise on my side that I will forgive your Northern blood and your lordship over me, and love you as my own brother." CHAPTER V THE IRE OF A SHIELD-MAIDEN With insult or derision Treat thou never A guest or wayfarer; They often little know, Who sit within, Of what race they are who come. Ha'vama'l Alwin was sitting on the ground in front of the provision-shed, grinding meal on a small stone hand-mill, when Editha came to seek him. "If it please you, my lord--" He broke into a bitter laugh. "By Saint George, that fits me well! 'If it please you,' and 'my lord,' to a short-haired, callous-handed hound of a slave!" Tears filled her eyes, but her gentle mouth was as obstinate as gentle mouths can often be. "Have they drawn Earl Edmund's blood out of you? Until they have done that, you will be my lord. Your lady mother in heaven would curse me for a traitor if I denied your nobility." Alwin ground out a resigned sigh with his last handful of meal. "Go on then, if you must. We spoke enough of the matter last night. Only see to it that no one hears you. I warn you that I shall kill the first who laughs,--and who could help laughing?" She was too wise to answer that. Instead, she motioned over her shoulder toward the group of late-risen revellers who were lounging under the trees, breaking their fast with an early meal. "Tyrker bids you come and serve the food." "If it please me?" "My dear lord, I pray you give over all bitterness. I pray you be prudent toward them. I have not been a shield-maiden's thrall for nearly a year without learning something." "Poor little dove in a hawk's nest! Certainly I think you have learned to weep!" "You need not pity me thus, Lord Alwin. It is likely that my mistress even loves me in her own way. She has given me more ornaments than she keeps for herself. She would slay anyone who spoke harshly to me. What is it if now and then she herself strikes me? I have had many a blow from your mother's nurse. I do not find that I am much worse than before. No, no; my trouble is all for you. My dearest lord, I implore you not to waken their anger. They have tempers so quick,--and hands even quicker." Remembering his encounter with Egil the evening before, Alwin's eyes flared up hotly. But he would make no promises, as he arose to answer the summons. The little maid carried an anxious heart to her task of mending Helga's torn kirtle. No one seemed to notice the young thrall when he came among them and began to refill the empty cups. The older men, sprawling on the sun-flecked grass and over the rude benches, were still drowsy from too deep soundings in too many mead horns. The four young people were talking together. They sat a little apart in the shade of some birch trees which served as rests for their backs,--Helga enthroned on a bit of rock, Rolf and Sigurd lounging on either side of her, the black-maned Egil stretched at her feet. Between them a pair of lean wolf-hounds wandered in and out, begging with glistening eyes and poking noses for each mouthful that was eaten,--except when a motion of Helga's hand toward a convenient riding-switch made them forget hunger for the moment. "I wonder to hear that Leif was not at the feast last night," Sigurd was saying, as he sipped his ale in the leisurely fashion which some of the old sea-rovers in the distance condemned as French and foolish. Swallowing enough of the smoked meat in her mouth to make speaking practicable, Helga answered: "He will be away two days yet; did I not tell you? He has gone south with a band of guardsmen to convert a chief to Christianity." "Then Leif himself has turned Christian?" Sigurd exclaimed in astonishment. "The son of the pagan Eric a Christian! Now I understand how it is that he has such favor with King Olaf, for all that he comes of outlawed blood. In Wisby, men thought it a great wonder, and spoke of him as 'Leif the Lucky,' because he had managed to get rid of the curse of his race." Rolf the Wrestler shook his head behind his uplifted goblet. He was an odd-looking youth, with chest and shoulders like the forepart of an ox, and a face as mild and gently serious as a lamb's. As he put down the curious gilded vessel, he said in the soft voice that matched his face so well and his body so ill: "If you have a boon to ask of your foster-father, comrade, it is my advice that you forget all such pagan errors as that story of the curse. Egil, here, came near being spitted on Leif's sword for merely mentioning Skroppa's name." Alwin recognized the name with a start. Egil scowled in answer to Sigurd's curious glance. "Odin's ravens are not more fond of telling news, than you," the Black One growled. "At meal-time I have other uses for my jaws than babbling. Thrall, bring me more fish." Alwin waited long enough to possess himself of a sharp bronze knife that lay among the dishes; then he advanced, alertly on his guard, and shovelled more herrings upon the flat piece of hard bread that served as a plate. Egil, however, noticed him no more than he did the flies buzzing around his food. Whatever the cause of their enmity, it was evidently a secret. The English youth was retiring in surprise, when Rolf took it into his head to accost him. The wrestler pointed to a couple of large flat stones that he had placed, one on top of the other, beside him. "This is very tough bread that you have given me, thrall," he said reproachfully. Their likeness to bread was not great, and the jest struck Alwin as silly. He retorted angrily: "Do you suppose that my wits were cut off with my hair, so that I cannot tell stones from bread?" Not a flicker stirred the seriousness of Rolf's blue eyes. "Stones?" he said. "I do not know what you mean. Can they be stones that I am able to treat like this?" His fist arose in the air, doubled itself into the likeness of a sledge-hammer, and fell in a mighty blow. The upper stone lay in fragments. Whereupon Alwin realized that it had all been a flourish to impress him. So, though unquestionably impressed, he refused to show it. A second time he was turning his back on them, when Helga stopped him. "You must bring something that I want, first. In the northeast corner of the provision shed, was it not, Sigurd?" Young Haraldsson was scrambling to his feet in futile grabs after one of the hounds that was making off with his herring, but he nodded back over his shoulder. Helga looked from one to the other of her companions with an ecstatic smack of her lips. "Honey," she informed them. "Sigurd ran across a jar of it last night. That pig of an Olver yonder hid it on the highest shelf. Very likely the goldsmith's daughter gave it to him and it was his intention to keep it all for himself. We will put a trick upon him. Bring it quickly, thrall. Yet have a care that he does not see it as you pass him. That is he with the bandaged head. If he looks sharply at you, hide the jar with your arm and it is likely he will think that you have been stealing some food for yourself, and be too sleepy to care." Lord Alwin of Northumbria lost sight of the lounging figures about him, lost sight of Sigurd chasing the circling hound, lost sight of everything save the imperious young person before him. He stared at her as though he could not believe his ears. She waved him away; but he did not move. "Let him think that _I_ am _stealing_!" he managed to gasp at last. The grass around Helga's foot stirred ominously. "I have told you that he is too sleepy to care. If he threatens to flog you, I promise that I will interfere. Coward, what are you afraid of?" She caught her breath at the blazing of his face. He said between his clenched teeth: "I will not let him think that I would steal so much as one dried herring,--were I starving!" The fire shot out of Helga's beautiful eyes. Egil and the Wrestler sprang up with angry exclamations; but words would not suffice Helga. Leaping to her feet, she caught up the riding-whip from the grass beside her and lashed it across the thrall's face with all her might. A bar of livid red was kindled like a flame along his cheek. "You are cracking the face of Leif's property," Rolf murmured in mild remonstrance. Egil laughed, a hateful gloating laugh, and settled himself against a tree to see the finish. As Helga's arm was flung up the second time, the thrall leaped upon her and tore the whip from her grasp and broke it in pieces. He would that he might have broken her as well; he thirsted to,--when he caught sight of the laughing Egil, and everything else was blotted out of his vision. Without a sound, but with the animal passion for killing upon his white face, he wheeled and leaped upon the Black One, crushing him, pinioning him against the tree, strangling him with the grip of his hands. CHAPTER VI THE SONG OF SMITING STEEL To his friend A man should be a friend,-- To him and to his friend; But no man Should be the friend Of his foe's friend. Ha'vama'l In the madness of his rush, Alwin blundered. Springing upon Egil from the left, he left his enemy's right arm free. Instantly this arm began forcing and jamming its way downward across Egil's body. Should it find what it sought--! Alwin saw what was coming. He set his teeth and struggled desperately; but he could not prevent it. Another moment, and the Black One's fingers had closed upon his sword-hilt; the blade hissed into the air. Only an instant wrenching away, and a lightning leap aside, saved the thrall from being run through. His short bronze knife was no match for a sword. He gave himself up for lost, and stiffened himself to die bravely,--as became Earl Edmund's son. He had yet to learn that there are crueler things than sword-thrusts. As Egil advanced with a jeering laugh, Helga caught his sleeve; and Rolf laid an iron hand upon his shoulder. "Think what you do!" the Wrestler admonished. "This will make the third of Leif's thralls that you have slain; and you have no blood-money to pay him." "Shame on you, Egil Olafsson!" cried Helga. "Would you stain your honorable sword with a thing so foul as thrall-blood?" Rolf's grip brought Egil to a standstill. The contempt in Helga's words was reflected in his face. He sheathed his sword with a scornful gesture. "You speak truth. I do not know how it was that I thought to do a thing so unworthy of me. I will leave Valbrand to draw the fellow's blood with a stirrup leather." He turned away, and the others followed. Those of the crew who had raised their muddled heads to see what the trouble was, laid them down again with grunts of disappointment. Alwin was left alone, untouched. Yet truly his anguish would not have been greater had they cut him in pieces. Without knowing what he did, he sprang after them, crying hoarsely: "Cowards! Churls! What know you of my blood? Give me a weapon and prove me. Or cast yours aside,--man to man." His voice broke with his passion and the violence of his heart-beats. But the mocking laughter that burst out died in a sudden hush. A moment before, Sigurd had concluded his pursuit of the thieving hound and rejoined the group,--in time to gather something of what had passed. The instant Alwin ceased, he stepped out and placed himself at the young thrall's side. He was no longer either the courteous Sigurd Silver-Tongue or Sigurd the merry comrade; his handsome head was thrown up with an air of authority which reminded all present that Sigurd, the son of the famous Jarl Harald, was the highest-born in the camp. He said sternly: "It seems to me that you act like fools in this matter. Can you not see that he is no more thrall-born than you are? Or do you think that ill luck can change a jarl's son into a dog? He shall have a chance to prove his skill. I myself will strive against him, to any length he chooses. And what I have thought it worth while to do, let no one else dare scorn!" He unbuckled his own gold-mounted weapon and forced it into Alwin's hands, then turned authoritatively to the Wrestler: "Rolf, if you count yourself my friend, lend me your sword." It was yielded him silently; and they stepped out face to face, the young noble and the young thrall. But before their steel had more than clashed, Egil came between and knocked up their blades with his own. "It is enough," he said gruffly. "What Sigurd Haraldsson will do, I will not disdain. I will meet you honorably, thrall. But you need not sue for mercy." A gleam of that strange groundless hatred played over his savage face. It did not daunt Alwin; it only helped to warm his blood. "This steel shall melt sooner than I ask for quarter!" he cried defiantly, springing at his enemy. _Whish-clash_! The song of smiting steel rang through the little valley. The spectators drew back out of the way. Again the half-drunken loungers rose upon their elbows. They were well matched, the two. If Alwin lacked any of the Black One's strength, he made it up in skill and quickness. The bright steel began to fly fast and faster, until its swish was like the venomous hiss of serpents. The color came and went in Helga's cheek; her mouth worked nervously. Sigurd's eyes were fixed upon the two like glowing lamps, as to and fro they went with vengeful fury. In all the valley there was no sound but the fierce clash and clatter of the swords. The very trees seemed to hold their breath to listen. Egil uttered a panting gasp of triumph; his, blade had bitten flesh. A widening circle of red stained the shoulder of Alwin's white tunic. The thrall's lips set in a harder line; his blows became more furious, as if pain and despair gave him an added strength. Heaving his sword high in the air, he brought it down with mighty force on Egil's blade. The next instant the Black One held a useless weapon, broken within a finger of the hilt. A murmur rose from the three watchers. Helga's hand moved toward her knife. Rolf shook his head gently. "Fair play," he reminded her; and she fell back. Tossing away his broken blade, Egil folded his arms across his breast and waited in scornful silence; but in a moment Alwin also was empty-handed. "I do no murder," he panted. "Man to man we will finish it." With lowered heads and watchful eyes, like beasts crouching for a spring, they moved slowly around the circle. Then, like angry bears, they grappled; each grasping the other below the shoulder, and striving by sheer strength of arm to throw his enemy. Only the blood that mounted to their faces, the veins that swelled out on their bare arms, told of the strain and struggle. So evenly were they matched, that from a little distance it looked as if they were braced motionless. Their heels ground deep into the soft sod. Their breath began to come in labored gasps. It could not last much longer; already the great drops stood on Alwin's forehead. Only a spurt of fury could save him. Suddenly, in changing his hold, Egil grasped the other's wounded shoulder. The grip was torture,--a spur to a fainting horse. The blood surged into Alwin's eyes; his muscles stiffened into iron. Egil swayed, staggered, and fell headlong, crashing. Mad with pain, Alwin knelt on his heaving breast. "If I had a sword," he gasped; "if I had a sword!" Shaken and stunned, Egil still laughed scornfully. "What prevents you from getting your sword? I shall not run away. Do you think it matters to me how soon my death-day comes?" Alwin was still crazy with pain. He snatched the bronze knife from his belt and laid it against Egil's throat. Sigurd's brow darkened, but no one spoke or moved,--least of all, Egil; his black eyes looked back unshrinkingly. It was their calmness that brought Alwin to himself. As he felt their clear gaze, it came back to him what it meant to take a human life,--to change a living breathing body like his own into a heap of still, dead clay. His hand wavered and fell away. The passion died out of his heart, and he arose. "Sigurd Haraldsson," he said, "for what you have done for me, I give you your friend's life." Sigurd's fine face cleared. "Only," Alwin added, "I think it right that he should explain the cause of his enmity toward me, and--" Egil leaped to his feet; his proud indifference flamed into sudden fury. "That I will never do, though you tear out my tongue-roots!" he shouted. Even his comrades regarded him in amazement. Alwin tried a sneer. "It is my belief that you fear to speak of Skroppa." "Skroppa?" a chorus of astonishment repeated. But only two scarlet spots on Egil's cheeks showed that he heard them. He gave Alwin a long, lowering look. "You should know by this time that I fear nothing." Helga made an unfortunate attempt. "I think it is no more than honorable, Egil, to tell him why you are his enemy." Unconsciously she spoke of the thrall now as of an equal. He noticed it; Egil also saw it. It seemed to enrage him beyond bearing. "If you speak in his favor," he thundered, seizing her wrist, "I will sheathe my knife in you!" But even before she had freed herself, and Rolf and Sigurd had turned upon him, he realized that he had gone too far. Leaving them abruptly, he went and stood a little way off with his back toward them, his head bowed, his hands clenched, struggling with himself. For a long time no one spoke. Sigurd questioned with his eyes, and Rolf answered by a shrug. Once, as Helga offered to approach the Black One, Sigurd made a warning gesture. They waited in dead silence. While the voices of the other men came to them faintly, and the insects chirped about their feet, and the birds called in the trees above them. At last Egil came slowly back, sullen-eyed and grim-mouthed. He held a branch in his hands and was bending and breaking it fiercely. "It is shame enough," he began after a while, "that any man should have had it in his power to spare me. I wonder that I do not die of the disgrace! But it would be a still fouler shame if, after he had spared my life, I let myself keep a wolf's mind toward him." His eyes suddenly blazed out at Alwin, but he controlled himself and went on. "The reason for my enmity I will not tell; wild steers should not tear it out of me. But,--" He stopped and drew a hard breath, and set his teeth afresh; "but I will forego that enmity. It is more than my life is worth. It is worth a dozen lives to him,--" his voice broke with rage,--"yet because it is honorable, I will do it. If you, Sigurd Haraldsson, and you, Rolf, will pledge your friendship to this man, I will swear him mine." It was well that he had reached the end, for he could not have spoken another syllable. Bewilderment tied Alwin's tongue. Sigurd was the first to speak. "That seems to me a fair offer; and half the condition is already fulfilled. I clasped his hand last night." Rolf answered with less promptness. "I say nothing against the Englishman's courage or his skill; yet--I will not conceal it--even in payment for a comrade's life, I do not like to give my friendship to one of thrall-birth." That loosened Alwin's tongue. "In my own country," he said haughtily, "you would be done honor by a look from me. Editha will tell you that my father was Earl of Northumbria, and my mother a princess of the royal blood of Alfred." Helga uttered an exclamation of surprise and interest; but he would not deign to look at her. For a while longer Rolf hesitated, looking long and strangely at Egil, and long and keenly at Sigurd. But at last he put forth his huge paw. "Alwin of England," he said slowly, "though you little know how much it means, I offer you my hand and my friendship." Alwin took it a little coldly. "I will not give you thanks for a forced gift; yet I pledge you my faith in return." Though his face still worked with passion, Egil's hand was next extended. "However much I hate you, I swear that I will always act as your friend." In his secret heart Alwin murmured, "The Fiend take me if ever I turn my back on your knife!" But aloud he merely repeated his former compact. When it was finished, Sigurd laid an affectionate hand upon his shoulder. "We cannot bind our friend-ship closer, but it is my advice that you do not leave Helga out of the bargain. Truer friend man never had." The bar across Alwin's cheek grew fiery with his redder flush. He stood before her, rigid and speechless. Helga too blushed deeply; but there was nothing of a girl's shyness about her. Her beautiful eyes looked frankly back into his. "I will not offer you my friendship," she said simply, "because I read in your face that you have not forgiven the foul wrong I put upon you,--not knowing that you were brave, high-born and accomplished. I can understand your anger. Were I a man, and a woman should do such a thing to me, it is likely that I should kill her on the spot. But it may be that, in time to come, the memory will fade out of your mind, even as the scar will fade from your face. Then, if you have seen that my friendship is worth having, do you come and ask me for it, and I will give it to you." Before Alwin had time to think of an answer that would say neither more nor less than he meant, she had walked away with Sigurd. He looked after her with a scowl,--because he saw Egil watching him. But it surprised him that, search as he would, he could nowhere find that great soul-stirring rage which he had first felt against her. CHAPTER VII THE KING'S GUARDSMAN Something great Is not always to be given. Praise is often for a trifle bought. Ha'vama'l It was the day after this brawl, when the guardsman Leif returned to Nidaros. Alwin was brought to the notice of his new master in a most unexpected fashion. For one reason or another, the camp had been deserted early. At day-break, Egil slung his bow across his back, provided himself with a store of arrows and a bag of food, and set out for the mountains,--to hunt, he told Tyrker, sullenly, as he passed. Two hours later, Valbrand called for horses and hawks, and he and young Haraldsson, with Helga and her Saxon waiting-maid, rode south for a day's sport in the pine woods. Helga was the best comrade in the camp, whether one wished to go hawking, or wanted a hand at fencing, or only asked for a quiet game of chess by the leaping firelight. Her ringing laugh, her frank glance, and her beautiful glowing face made all other maidens seem dull and lifeless. Alwin dimly felt that hating her was going to be no easy task, and he dared not raise his eyes as she rode past him. Instead he forced himself to stare at the reflection of his scarred face in the silver horn he was wiping; and he blew and blew upon the sparks of his anger. Noticing it, Helga frowned regretfully. "I cannot blame him if he will not speak to me," she said to Sigurd Haraldsson. "The nature of a high-born man is such that a blow is like poison in his blood. It must rankle and fester and break out before he can be healed. I do not think he could have been more lordlike in his father's castle than he was yesterday. Hereafter I shall treat him as honorably as I treat you, or any other jarl-born man." "In this you show yourself as high-minded as I have always thought you," answered Sigurd, turning toward her a face aglow with pleasure. By the middle of the forenoon, everyone had gone, this way or that, to hunt, or fish, or swim, or loiter about the city. There were left only a man with a broken leg and a man with a sprained shoulder, throwing dice on a bench in the sun; Alwin, whistling absently as he swept out the sleeping-house; and Rolf the Wrestler sitting cross-legged under a tree, sharpening his sword and humming snatches of his favorite song: "Hew'd we with the Hanger! Hard upon the time 't was When in Gothlandia going To give death to the serpent." Rolf had declined to go hunting, on the plea of his horse's lameness. Now, as he sat working and humming, he was presumably thinking up some other diversion,--and the frequent glances he sent toward the thrall seemed to indicate that the latter was to be concerned in it. Finally Rolf called to Alwin: "Ho there, Englishman! Come hither and tell me what you think of this for a weapon." It needed no urging to make Alwin exchange a broom for a sword. He came and lifted the great blade, and made passes in the air, and examined the hilt of brass-studded wood. "Saw I never a finer weapon," he admitted. "The hilt fits to one's hand better than those gold things on Sigurd Haraldsson's sword. What is it called?" For in those days a good blade bore a name as certainly as a horse or a ship. Rolf answered, in his soft voice: "It is called 'The Biter.' And it has bitten not a few,--but it is fitting that others should speak of that. Since the handle fits your grasp so well, will you not hold it a little longer, while I borrow Long Lodin's weapon here, and we try each other's skill?" He made a motion to rise, then checked himself and hesitated: "Or it may be," he added gently, "that you do not care to strive against one as strong as I?" "Now, by St. Dunstan, you need not spare me thus!" Alwin cried hotly. "Never have I turned my back on a challenge; and never will I, while the red blood runs in my veins. Get your weapon quickly." He shook the big blade in the air, and threw himself into a posture of defence. But the Wrestler made no move to imitate him. He remained sitting and slowly shaking his head. "Those are fine words, and I say nothing against your sincerity; but my appetite has changed. I will tell you what we will do instead. When your work is done, we will betake ourselves across the river to Thorgrim Svensson's camp and see the horse-fight he is going to have. He has a black stallion of Keingala's breed, named Flesh-tearer, that it is not necessary to prod with a stick. When he stands on his hind legs and bites, you would swear he had as many feet as Odin's gray Sleipnir. Do you not think that would be good entertainment?" For a moment Alwin did not know what to think. He did not believe that Rolf was afraid of him; and if the challenge was withdrawn, surely that ended the matter. A horse fight? He had enjoyed no such spectacle as that since the Michaelmas Day when his father had the great bear-baiting in the pit at his English castle. And a ramble through the sun and the wind, a taste of liberty--! "It seems to me that it would be very enjoyable," he agreed. He started eagerly to finish his work, when a thought caught him like a lariat and whirled him back. "I am forgetting the yoke upon my neck, for the first time in a twelvemonth! Is it allowed a dog of a slave to seek entertainment?" Mild displeasure stiffened Rolf's big frame. He said gravely: "It is plain your thoughts do not do me much honor, since you think I have so little authority. I tell you now that you will always be free to do whatever I ask of you. If there is anything wrong in the doing, it is I who must answer for it, not you. That is the law, while you are bound and I am free." A fresh sense of the shame of his thraldom broke over Alwin like a burning wave. It benumbed him for a second; then he laughed with jeering bitterness. "It is true that I have become a dog. I can follow any man's whistle, and it is the man who is responsible. I ask you to forget that for a moment I thought myself a man." In sudden frenzy, he whirled the great sword around his head and lunged at the pine tree behind Rolf, so that the blade was left quivering in the trunk. It was weather to gladden a man's heart,--a sunlit sky overhead, and a fresh breeze blowing that set every drop of blood a-leaping with the desire to walk, walk, walk, to the very rim of the world. The thrall started out beside the Wrestler in sullen silence; but before they had gone a mile, his black mood had blown into the fiord. River bank and lanes were sweet with flowers, and every green hedge they passed was a-flutter with nesting birds. The traders' booths were full of beautiful things; musicians, acrobats, and jugglers with little trick dogs, were everywhere,--one had only to stop and look. A dingy trading vessel lay in the river, loaded with great red apples, some Norman's winter store. One of the crew who knew Rolf threw some after him, by way of greeting; and the two munched luxuriously as they walked along. They passed many Viking camps, gay with streamers and striped linens, where groups of brawny fair-haired men wrestled and tried each other's skill, or sat at rough tables under the trees, drinking and singing. In one place they were practising with bow and arrow; and, being quite impartial in their choice of a target, one of the archers sent a shaft within an inch of Rolf's head, purely for the expected pleasure of seeing him start and dodge. Finding that neither he nor Alwin would go a step faster, they rained shafts about their ears as long as they were within bow-shot, and saw them out of range with a cheer. The road branched into one of the main thoroughfares, and they met pretty maidens who smiled at them, melancholy minstrels who frowned at them, and grim-mouthed warriors whose eyes were too intent on future battles even to see them. Occasionally Rolf quietly saluted some young guardsman; and, to the thrall's surprise, the warrior answered not only with friendliness but even with respect. It seemed strange that one of Rolf's mild aspect should be held in any particular esteem by such young fire-eaters. Once they encountered a half-tipsy seaman, who made a snatch at Rolf's apple, and succeeded in knocking it from his hand into the dust. The Wrestler only fixed his blue eyes upon him in a long look, but the man went down on his knees as though he had been hit. "I did not know it was you, Rolf Erlingsson," he hiccoughed over and over in maudlin terror. "I beg you not to be angry." "It is seldom that I have seen such a coward as that," Alwin said in disgust as they walked on. Rolf turned upon him his gentle smile. "It is your opinion, then, that a man must be a coward to fear me?" Alwin did not answer immediately: of a sudden it occurred to him to doubt the Wrestler's mild manner. While he was still hesitating, Rolf caught him lightly around the waist and swung him over a hedge into a field where a dozen red-and-yellow tented booths were clustered. "These are Thorgrim Svensson's tents," he explained, following as coolly as though that were the accepted mode of entrance. "Yonder he is,--that lean little man with the freckled face. He is a great seafaring man. I promise you that you will see many precious things from all over the world." Approaching the booths, Alwin had immediate proof of this statement, for bench and bush and ground were littered with garments and furs and weapons, and odds-and-ends of spoil, as if a ship had been overturned on the spot. The lean little man whom Rolf had pointed out stood in the midst of it all, examining and directing. He was dressed in coarse homespun of the dingy colors of trading vessels, gray and brown and rusty black, which contrasted oddly with the mantle of gorgeous purple velvet he was at that moment trying on. His little freckled face was wrinkled into a hundred shrewd puckers, and his eyes were two twinkling pin-points of sharpness. He seemed to thrust their glance into Alwin, as he advanced to meet his visitors; and the men who were helping him paused and looked at the thrall with expectant grins. Rolf said blandly, "Greeting, Thorgrim Svensson! We have come to see your horse-fight. This is Alwin, Edmund Jarl's son, of England. Bad luck has made him Leif's thrall, but his accomplishments have made me his friend." He spoke with the utmost mildness, merely glancing at the grinning crew; yet they sobered as though their mirth had been turned off by a faucet, and Thorgrim gave the thrall a civil welcome. "It is a great pity," he continued, addressing the Wrestler, "that you cannot see the Flesh-Tearer, since you came for that purpose; but it has happened that he has lamed himself, and will not be able to fight for a week. Do not go away on that account, however. My ship has brought me some cloaks even finer than the one you covet,"--here it seemed to Alwin as if the little man winked at Rolf,--"and if the Englishman is as good a swordsman as you have said--ahem!" He broke off with a cough, and endeavored to hide his abruptness by turning away and picking a fur mantle off a pile of costly things. Alwin's momentary surprise was forgotten at sight of the treasure thus disclosed. Beneath the cloak, thrown down like a thing of little value, lay an open book. It was written in Anglo-Saxon letters of gold and silver; its crumpled pages were of rarest rose-tinted vellum; its covers, sheets of polished wood gold-embossed and adorned with golden clasps. Even Alfred's royal kinswoman had never owned so splendid a volume. The English boy caught it up with an exclamation of delight, and turned the pages hungrily, trying whether his mother's lessons would come back to him. He was brought to himself by the touch of Rolf's hand on his shoulder. They were all looking at him, he found,--once more with expectant grins. Opposite him an ungainly young fellow in slave's garb--and with the air of belonging in it--stood as though waiting, a naked sword in his hand. "Now I have still more regard for you when I see that you have also the trick of reading English runes," the Wrestler said. "But I ask you to leave them a minute and listen to me. Thorgrim here has a thrall whom he holds to be most handy with a sword; but I have wagered my gold necklace against his velvet cloak that you are a better man than he." The meaning of the group dawned on Alwin then: he drew himself up with freezing haughtiness. "It is not likely that I will strive against a low-born serf, Rolf Erlingsson. You dare to put an insult upon me because luck has left your hair uncut." A sound like the expectant drawing-in of many breaths passed around the circle. Alwin braced himself to withstand Rolf's fist; but the Wrestler only drew back and looked at him reprovingly. "Is it an insult, Alwin of England, to take you at your word? It is not three hours since you vowed never to turn your back on a challenge while the red blood ran in your veins. Have witches sucked the blood out of you, that your mind is so different when you are put to the test?" At least enough blood was left to crimson Alwin's cheeks at this reminder. Those had been his very words, stung by Rolf's taunt. The smouldering doubt he had felt burst into flame and burned through every fibre. What if it were all a trap, a plot?--if Rolf had brought him there on purpose to fight, the horses being only a pretext? Thorgrim's wink, his allusion to Alwin's swordsmanship, it had all been arranged between them; the velvet cloak was the clew! Rolf had wished to possess it. He had persuaded Thorgrim to stake it on his thrall's skill,--then he had brought Alwin to win the wager for him. _Brought_ him, like a trained stallion or a trick dog! He turned to fling the deceit in the Wrestler's teeth. Rolf's fair face was as innocent as those of the pictured saints in the Saxon book. Alwin wavered. After all, what proof had he? Jeering whispers and half-suppressed laughter became audible around him. The group believed that his hesitation arose from timidity. Ignoring the smart of yesterday's wound, he snatched the sword Rolf held out to him, and started forward. His foot struck against the Saxon book which he had let fall. As he picked it up and laid it reverently aside, it suggested something to him. "Thorgrim Svensson," he said, pausing, "because I will not have it said that I am afraid to look a sword in the face, I will fight your serf,--on one condition: that this book, which can be of no use to you, you will give me if I get the better of him." The freckled face puckered itself into a shrewd squint. "And if you fail?" "If I fail," Alwin returned promptly, "Rolf Erlingsson will pay for me. He has told me that while he is free and I am bound, he is answerable for what I do." At this there was some laughter--when it was seen that the Wrestler was not offended. "A quick wit answered that, Alwin of England," Rolf said with a smile. "I will pay willingly, if you do not save us both, as I expect." Anxious to be done with it, Alwin fell upon the thrall with a fierceness that terrified the fellow. His blade played about him like lightning; one could scarce follow its motions. A flesh-wound in the hip; and the poor churl, who had little real skill and less natural spirit, began to blunder. A thrust in the arm that would have only redoubled Alwin's zeal, finished him completely. With a roar of pain, he threw his weapon from him, broke through the circle of angry men, and fled, cowering, among the booths. There were few words spoken as the cloak and the book were handed over. The set of Thorgrim's mouth suggested that if he said anything, it would be something which he realized might be better left unsaid. His men were like hounds in leash. Rolf spoke a few smooth phrases, and hurried his companion away. The sense that he had been tricked to the level of a performing bear came upon Alwin afresh. When they stood once more in the road, he looked at the Wrestler accusingly and searchingly. Rolf began to talk of the book. "Nothing have I seen which I think so fine. I must admit that you men of England are more skilful than we of the North in such matters. It is all well enough to scratch pictures on a rock or carve them on a door; but what will you do when you wish to move? Either you must leave them behind, or get a yoke of oxen. To have them painted on kid-skin, I like much better. You are in great luck to come into possession of such property." Alwin forgot his resentful suspicions in his pleasure. "Let us sit down somewhere and examine it," said he. "Yonder, where those trees stretch over the fence and make the grass shady,--that will be a good place." "Have it your own way," Rolf assented. To the shady spot they proceeded accordingly. Rolf stretched himself comfortably in the long grass and made a pillow of his arms. Alwin squatted down, his back planted against the fence, the book open on his knees. The reading-matter was attractive enough, with its glittering characters and rose-tinted pages, and every initial letter inches high and shrined in azure-blue traceries. But the splendor of the pictures!--no barbaric heart could resist them. What if the straight lines were crooked,--if the draperies were wooden,--the hands and the feet ungainly? They had been drawn with sparkles of gold and gleams of silver, in blue and scarlet and violet, until nothing less than a stained-glass window glowing in the sun could even suggest their radiance. Rolf warmed into unusual heartiness. "By the hilt of my sword, he was an accomplished man who was able to make such pictures! Look at that horse,--it does not keep you guessing a moment to tell what it is. And yonder man with the red flames leaping about him,--I wish I knew why he was bound to that post!" Alwin also was bitten with curiosity. "I tell you what I will do," he offered. "You must not suppose that reading is as easy as swimming, or handling a sword. My father did not have the accomplishment, and his hair was gray. Neither would my mother have learned it, had it not been that Alfred was her kinsman and she was proud of his scholarship. Nor should I have known how, if she had not taught me. And I have forgotten much. But this I will offer you: I will read the Saxon words to myself, and then tell you in the Northern tongue what they mean." He spread the book open on a spot of clean turf, stretched himself on his stomach, gripped one leg around the other, planted his chin on his clenched fists, and began. It was slow work. He had forgotten a good deal; and every other word was linked with distracting memories: his mother leaning from her embroidery frame to follow the line with her bodkin; his mother, erect and stern, bidding Brother Ambrose bear him away and flog him for his idleness; his mother hearing his lesson with one arm around him and the other hand holding the sweetmeat she would give him if he succeeded. He did not notice that Rolf's eyes were gradually closing, and his bated breath lengthening into long even sighs. He plodded on and on. All at once a thunder of approaching hoof-beats reached him from up the road. Nearer and nearer they came; and around the curve swept a party of the King's guardsmen,--yellow hair and scarlet cloaks flying in the wind, spurs jingling, weapons clattering, armor clashing. Alwin glanced up and saw their leader,--and his interest in pale pictured saints dropped dead. "It must be King Olaf himself!" he murmured, staring. A head taller than the other tall men, with shoulders a palm's-width broader, the leader sat on his mighty black horse like a second Thor. Light flashed from his steel tunic and gilded helmet. His bronzed face had an eagle's beak for a nose, and eyes of the blue of ice or steel, piercing as a two-edged sword. A white cross was painted on his shield of gold. As he swept past, he glanced toward the pair by the fence. Catching sight of the sleeping Rolf, he checked his horse sharply, made a motion bidding the others go on without him, and, wheeling, rode back, followed only by a mounted thrall who was evidently his personal attendant. Alwin leaped up and attempted to arouse his companion, but the guardsman saved him the trouble. Leaning out of his saddle, he struck the Wrestler a smart blow with the flat of his sword. "What now, Rolf Erlingsson!" he demanded, in tones of thunder. "Because I go on a five days' journey, must it happen that my men lie like drunken swine along the roadside? For this you shall feel--" Before his eyes were fairly open, Rolf was on his feet, tugging at his sword. Luckily, before he thrust, he got a glimpse of his assailant. "Leif, the son of Eric!" he cried, dropping his weapon. "Welcome! Hail to you!" The warrior's frown relaxed into a grim smile, as he yielded his hand to his young follower's hearty grip. "Is it possible that you are sober after all? What in the Fiend's name do you here, asleep by the road in company with a thrall and a purple cloak?" Rolf relaxed into his customary drawl. "That is unjustly spoken, chief. I have not been asleep. I have found a new and worthy enjoyment. I have been listening while this Englishman read aloud from a Saxon book of saints." "A Saxon book of saints!" exclaimed the guardsman. "I would see it." When its owner had handed it up, he looked it through hastily, yet turning the leaves with reverence, and crossing himself whenever he encountered a pictured cross. As he handed it back, he turned his eyes on Alwin, blue and piercing as steel. "It is likely that you are a high-born captive. That you can read is an unusual accomplishment. It is not impossible that you might be useful to me. Who is your master? Is it of any use to try to buy you from him?" Rolf laughed. "Certainly you are well named 'the Lucky,' since you only wish for what is already yours. This is the cook-boy whom Tyrker bought to fill the place of Hord." "So?" said Leif, in unconscious imitation of his old German foster-father. He sat staring down thoughtfully at the boy,--until his attendant took jealous alarm, and put his horse through a manoeuvre to arouse him. The guardsman came to himself with a start and a hasty gathering up of his rein. "That is a good thing. We will speak further of it. Now, Olaf Trygvasson is awaiting my report. Tell them I will be in camp to-morrow. If I find drunken heads or dulled weapons--!" He looked his threat. "I will heed your orders in this as in everything," Rolf answered, in the courtier-phrase of the day. His chief gave him a short nod, struck spurs to his horse, and galloped after his comrades. CHAPTER VIII LEIF THE CROSS-BEARER Inquire and impart Should every man of sense, Who will be accounted sage. Let one only know,-- A second may not; If three, all the world knows. Ha'vama'l It was early the next morning, so early that the world was only here and there awake. The town was silent; the fields were empty; the woods around the camp slept in darkness and silence. Only the little valley lay fresh and smiling in the new light, winking back at the sun from a million dewy eyes. Under the trees the long white-scoured tables stood ready with bowl and trencher, and Alwin carried food to and fro with leisurely steps. From Helga's booth her voice arose in a weird battle-chant; while from the river bank came the voices and laughter and loud splashing of many bathers. Gradually the shouts merged into a persistent roar. The roar swelled into a thunder of excitement. Alwin paused, in the act of ladling curds into the line of wooden bowls, and listened smiling. "Now they are swimming a race back to the bank. I wonder whom they will drive out of the water today." For that was the established penalty for being last in the race. The thunder of cheering reached its height; then suddenly it split into scattered jeers and hootings. There was a crackling of dead leaves, a rustling of bushes, and Sigurd appeared, dripping and breathless. Panting and spent, he threw himself on the ground, his shining white body making a cameo against the mossy green. "You! You beaten!" Alwin cried in surprise. Sigurd gave a breathless laugh. "Even I myself. Certainly it is a time of wonders!" He looked eagerly at the spread table, and held up his hand. "And I am starving besides! Toss me something, I beg of you." When Alwin had thrown him a chunk of crusty bread, he consented to go on and explain his defeat between mouthfuls. "It was because my shoulder is still heavy in its movements. I broke it wrestling last winter. I forgot about it when I entered the race." "That is a pity," said Alwin. But he spoke absently, for he was thinking that here might be an opening for something he wished to say. He filled several bowls in silence, Sigurd watching over his bread with twinkling eyes. After a while Alwin went on cautiously: "This mishap is a light one, however. I hope it is not likely that you will have to endure a heavier disappointment when Leif arrives today." Back went Sigurd's yellow head in a peal of laughter. "I would have wagered it!" he shouted. "I would have wagered my horse that you were aiming at that! So every speech ends, no matter where it begins. I talk with Helga of what we did as children and she answers: 'You remember much, foster-brother; do not forget the sternness of Leif's temper.' I enter into conversation with Rolf, and he returns, 'Yes, it is likely that Leif has got greater favor than ever with King Olaf. I cannot be altogether certain that he will shelter one who has broken Olaf's laws.' Tyrker advises me,--by Saint Michael, you are all as wise as Mimir!" He flung the crust from him with a gesture of good-humored impatience. "Do you all think I am a fool, that I do not know what I am doing? It appears that you forget that Leif Ericsson is my foster-father." Alwin deposited the last curd in the last bowl, and stood licking the horn-spoon, and looking doubtfully at the other. "Do you mean by that that you have a right to give him orders? I have heard that in the North a foster-son does not treat his foster-father as his superior, but as his servant. Yet Leif did not look to be--" Sigurd shouted with laughter. "He did not! I will wager my head he did not! Certainly the foster-son who would show disrespect to Leif the Lucky would be putting his life in a bear's paw. It makes no difference that it is customary for many silly old men of lower birth to allow themselves to be trampled upon by fiery young men of higher rank, like old wolves nipped by young ones. King Olaf's heir dare not do so to Leif Ericsson. No; what I would have you understand is that I know what I am doing because I know Leif's temper as you know your English runes. From the time I was five winters old to the time I was fifteen, I lived under his roof in Greenland, and he was as my father to me. I know his sternness, but I know also his justice and what he will dare for a friend, though Olaf and all his host oppose him." He let fly a Norman oath as, splod! a handful of wet clay struck between his bare shoulders. Turning, he saw among the bushes a mischievous hand raised for a second throw, and scrambled laughing to his feet. "The trolls! First to drive me from my bath and then to throw mud on me! Poison his bowl, if you love me, Alwin. Ah, what a throw! It is not likely that you could hit a door. What bondmaids' aiming! Shame!" Mocking, and dodging this way and that, he gained the welcome shelter of the sleeping-house. A rush of big white bodies, a gleam of dampened yellow hair, an outburst of boisterous merriment, and the camp was swarming with hungry uproarious giants, who threw shoes at each other and shoved and quarrelled around the polished shield, before which they parted their yellow locks, stamping, singing and whistling as they pulled on their tunics and buckled their belts. "Leif is coming!--the Lucky, the Loved One!" Helga sang from her booth; and the din was redoubled with cheering. "By Thor, it seems to me that he is coming now!" said Valbrand, suddenly. He had finished his toilet, and sat at the table, facing the thicket. Every one turned to look, and beheld Leif's thrall-attendant gallop out of the shadows toward them. No one followed, however, and a murmur of disappointment went round. "It is nobody but Kark!" Kark rose in his stirrups and waved his hand. He was of the commonest type of colorless blond, and coarse and ignorant of face; but his manners had the assurance of a privileged character. "It is more than Kark," he shouted. "It is news that is worth a hearing. Ho, for Greenland! Greenland in three days!" "Greenland?" echoed the chorus. "Greenland?" cried Helga, appearing in her doorway, with blanching cheeks. They rushed upon the messenger, and hauled him from his horse and surged about him. And what had seemed Babel before was but gentle murmuring compared with what now followed. "Greenland! What for?"--"You are jesting." "That pagan hole!"--"In three days? It is impossible!"--"Is the chief witch-ridden?"--"Has word come that Eric is dead?"--"Has Leif quarrelled with King Olaf, that the King has banished him?"--"Greenland, grave-mound for living men!"--"What for?"--"In the Troll's name, why?"--"You are lying; it is certain that you are."--"Speak, you raven!" "In a moment, in a moment,--give me breath and room, my masters," the thrall answered boldly. "It is the truth; I myself heard the talk. But first,--I have ridden far and fast, and my throat is parched with--" A dozen milk-bowls were snatched from the table and passed to him. He emptied two with cool deliberation, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "I give you thanks. I shall not keep you waiting. It happened last night when Leif came in to make his report to the King. Olaf was seated on the throne in his hall, feasting. Many famous chiefs sat along the walls. You should have heard the cheer they gave when it was known that Leif had the victory!" Here Kark's roving eyes discovered Alwin among the listeners; he paused, and treated him to a long insolent stare. Then he went on: "I was saying that they cheered. It is likely that the warriors up in Valhalla heard, and thought it a battle-cry. Olaf raised his drinking-horn and said, 'Hail to you, Leif Ericsson! Health and greeting! Victory always follows your sword.' Then he drank to him across the floor, and bade him come and sit beside him, that he might have serious speech with him." A second cheer, loud as a battle-cry, went up to Valhalla. But mingling with its echo there arose a chorus of resentment. "Yet after such honors why does he banish him?"--"Did they quarrel?"--"Is it possible that there is treachery?"--"Tell us why he is banished!"--"Yes, why?"--"Answer that!" The messenger laughed loudly. "Who said that he was banished? Rein in your tongues. As much honor as is possible is intended him. It happened after the feast--" "Then pass over the feast; come to your story!" was shouted so impatiently that even Kark saw the wisdom of complying. "It shall be as you like. I shall begin with the time when every warrior had gone to bed, except those lying drunk upon the benches. I sat on Leif's foot-stool, with his horn. It is likely that I also had been asleep, for what I first remember was that Leif and the King had ceased speaking together, and sat leaning back staring at the torches, which were burning low. It was so still that you could hear the men snore and the branches scraping on the roof. Then the King said, while he still looked at the torch, 'Do you purpose sailing to Greenland in the summer?' It is likely that Leif felt some surprise, for he did not answer straightway; but he is wont to have fine words ready in his throat, and at last he said, 'I should wish to do so, if it is your will.' Then the King said nothing for a long time, and they both sat looking at the pine torch that was burning low, until it went out. Then Olaf turned and looked into Leif's eyes and said, 'I think it may well be so. You shall go my errand, and preach Christianity in Greenland.'" From Kark's audience burst another volley of exclamations. "It is because he is always lucky!"--"It cannot be done. Remember Eric!"--"The Red One will slay him!"--"You forget Thorhild his mother!" "Hail to the King!"--"It is a great honor!" "Silence!" Valbrand commanded. Kark went on: "Leif said that he was willing to do whatever the King wished; yet it would not be easy. He spoke the name of Eric, and after that they lowered their voices so that I could not hear. Then at last Olaf leaned back in his high-seat and Leif stood up to go. Olaf stretched forth his hand and said, 'I know no man fitter for the work than you. You shall carry good luck with you.' Leif answered: 'That can only be if I carry yours with me.' Then he grasped the King's hand and they drank to each other, looking deep into each other's eyes." There was a pause, to make sure the messenger had finished. Then there broke out cheers and acclamations and exulting. "Hail to Leif! Hail to the Lucky One!"--"Leif and the Cross!"--"Down with the hammer sign!"--"Down with Thor!"--"Victory for Leif, Leif and the Cross!" Shields clashed and swords were waved. Kark was thrown bodily into the air and tossed from hand to hand. A wave of mad enthusiasm swept over the group. Only Helga stood like one stunned, her hands wound in her long tresses, her face set and despairing. The Black One was the first to notice her amid the confusion. He dropped the cloak he was waving and stared at her wonderingly for a moment; then he burst into a boisterous laugh. "Look at the shield-maiden, comrades,--look at the shield-maiden! It has come into her mind that she is going back to Thorhild!" For a moment Alwin wondered who Thorhild might be. Then vaguely he remembered hearing that it was to escape a strong-minded matron of that name that Helga had fled from Greenland. That now she must go back to be civilized, and made like other maidens, struck him also as an excellent joke; and he joined in the laugh. One after another caught it up with jests and mocking. "Back to Thorhild the Iron-Handed!"--"No more short kirtles!"--"She has speared her last boar!"--"After this she will embroider boar-hunts on tapestry!"--"Embroider? Is it likely that she knows which end of the needle to put the thread through?"--"It will be like yoking a wild steer!"--"Taming a shield-maiden!"--"There will be dagger-holes in Thorhild's back!"--They crowded around her, bandying the jest back and forth, and roaring with laughter. Always before, Helga had taken their chaff in good part; always before, she had joined them in making merry at her expense. But now she did not laugh. She rose slowly and stood looking at them, her breast heaving, her eyes like glowing coals. At last she said shrilly, "Oh, laugh! If you see a jest in it--laugh! Because I am going to lose my freedom--my rides over the green country,--never to stand in the bow and feel the deck bounding under me,--is it such sport to you, you stupid clods? Would you think it a jest if the Franks should carry me off, and shut me up in one of their towers, and load me with fetters, and force me to toil day and night for them? You would take that ill enough. How much better is it that I am to be shut in a smothering women's-house and wound around with cloth till I trip when I walk, and made to waste the daylight, baking to fill your swinish stomachs, and sewing tapestries that your dull eyes may have something to look at while you swallow your ale? Clods! I had rather the Franks took me. At least they would not call themselves my friends while they ill-used me. Heavy-witted churls, laugh if you want to! Laugh till you burst!" She whirled away from them into her booth, and the door-curtain fell behind her. All day long she sat there, neither eating nor speaking, Editha crouching in a corner, afraid to approach her. CHAPTER IX BEFORE THE CHIEFTAIN At home let a man be cheerful, And toward a guest liberal; Of wise conduct he should be, Of good memory and ready speech. Ha'vama'l In the river, on the city-side, the "Sea-Deer" lay at anchor, stripped to her hulk, as the custom was. Her oars and her rowing-benches, her scarlet-and-white sail, her gilded vanes and carven dragon-head, were all carefully stored in the booths at the camp. With the eagerness of lovers, her crew rushed down to summon her from her loneliness and once more hang her finery about her. All day long their brushes lapped her sides caressingly, and their hammers rang upon her decking. All day long the ship's boat plied to and fro, bringing her equipments across the river. All day long Alwin was hurried back and forth with messages, and tools, and coils of rope. The last trip he made, Sigurd Haraldsson walked with him across the bridge and along the city-bank of the river. The young Viking had spent the day riding around the country with Tyrker, getting prices on a ship-load of corn. Corn, it seemed, was worth its weight in gold in Greenland. "Leif shows a keen wit in taking Eric a present of corn," Sigurd explained, as they dodged the loaded thralls running up and down the gangways. "He will like it better than greater valuables. His pleasure will come near to converting him." Alwin shook his head doubtfully,--not at this last observation, but at the prospect in general. "The more I think of going to Greenland," he said, "the more excellent a place I find Norway." He looked appreciatively at the river beside them, and ahead at the great shining fiord. Scattered over its sunlit waters trim clipper-built craft rode at anchor; between them, long-oared skiffs darted back and forth like long-legged water-bugs. Along the shore a chain of ships stretched as far as eye could reach,--graceful war cruisers, heavily-laden provision ships, substantial trading vessels. On the flat beach and along the wooded banks rose great storehouses and lines of fine new ship-sheds. Rich merchandise was piled before them; rows of covered carts stood in waiting. Everywhere were busy throngs of traders and seamen and slaves. His eye kindled as it passed from point to point. "It seems that Northmen are something more than pirates," he said, thoughtfully. "It seems that your speech is something more than free," said Sigurd, in displeasure. Alwin realized that it had been, and explained: "I but spoke of you as southerners do who have not seen your country. I tell you truly that, after England, I believe Norway to be the finest country in the world." Sigurd swung along with recovered good-humor. "I will not quarrel with you over that exception. And yonder is Valbrand just come ashore,--at the fore-gangway. Go and do your errand with him, and then we will walk over to that pier and see what it is that the crowd is gathered about, to make them shout so." The attraction proved to be a chattering brown ape that some sailor had brought home from the East. Part of the spectators regarded it as a strange pagan god; part believed it to be an unfortunate being deformed by witchcraft; and the rest took it for a devil in his own proper person,--so there was great shrieking and scattering, whichever way it turned its ugly face. It happened that Sigurd was better informed, having seen a similar specimen kept as a pet at the court of the Norman Duke; so the terror of the others amused him and his companion mightily. They stayed until the creature put an end to the show by breaking away from its captor and taking refuge in the rigging. It was a fascinating place altogether,--that beach,--and difficult to get away from. Almost every ship brought back from its voyage some beast or bird or fish so outlandish that it was impossible to pass it by. Twilight had fallen before the pair turned in among the hills. Between the trees shone the red glow of the camp-fires. Through the dusk came the pleasant odors of frying fish and roasting pork, with now and then a whiff of savory garlic. Alwin turned on his companion in sudden excitement. "It is likely that Leif is already here!" Sigurd laughed. "Do you think it advisable for me to climb a tree?" They stepped out of the shadow into the light of the leaping flames. On the farther side of the long fire, men were busy with dripping bear-steaks and half-plucked fowls; while others bent over the steaming caldron or stirred the big mead-vat. On the near side, ringed around by stalwart forms, showing black against the fire-glow, the chief sat at his ease. The flickering light revealed his bronzed eagle face and the richness of his gold-embroidered cloak. At his elbow Helga the Fair waited with his drinking-horn. Tyrker hovered behind him, touching now his hair and now his broad shoulders with an old man's tremulous fondness. All were listening reverently to his quick, curt narrative. Sigurd's laughing carelessness fell from him. He walked forward with the gallant air that sat so well upon his handsome figure. "Health and greeting, foster-father!" he said in his clear voice. "I have come back to you, an outlaw seeking shelter." Helga spilled the ale in her consternation. The old German began a nervous plucking at his beard. The heads that had swung around toward Sigurd, turned back expectantly. More than one heart sank when it was seen that the chief neither held out his hand nor moved from his seat. Silver-Tongued and sunny-hearted, the Jarl's son was well-beloved. There was a long pause, in which there was no sound but the crackling of flames and the loud sputtering of fat. At last Leif said sternly, "You are my foster-son, and I love your father more than anyone else, kinsman or not; yet I cannot offer you hand or welcome until I know wherein you have broken the law." Through the breathless hush, Sigurd answered with perfect composure: "That was to be expected of Leif Ericsson. I would not have it otherwise. All shall be without deceit on my side." He folded his arms across his breast, and, standing easily before his judge, told his story. "In the games last fall it happened that I shot against Hjalmar Oddsson until he was obliged to acknowledge himself beaten; and for that he wished me ill luck. When the Assembly was held in my district this spring, he came there and three times tried to make me angry, so that I should forget that the Assembly Plain is sacred ground. The first time, he spoke lightly of my skill; but I thought that a jest, since it had proved too much for him. The second time, he spoke slightingly of my courage, saying that the reason I did not go in my father's Viking ship this spring was because I was wont to be afraid in battle. Now it had been seen by everybody that I wished to go. I had spent the winter in Normandy, yet I returned by the first ship, that I might make one of my father's crew. It was not my doing that my ship got lost in the fog and did not fetch me here until after the Jarl had sailed. It angered me that such slander should be spoken of me. Yet, remembering that men are peace-holy on the Assembly Plain, I did manage to turn it aside. A third time he threw himself in my way, and began speaking evil of a friend of mine, a man with whom I have sworn blood-brotherhood. I forgot where we stood, and what was the law, and I drew my sword and leaped upon him; and it is likely the daylight would have shone through him, but that he had friends hidden who ran out and seized me and dragged me before the law-man. Seeing me with drawn sword, he knew without question that I had broken the law; so, without caring what I urged, he passed sentence upon me, banishing me from my district for three seasons. My father and my kinsmen are away on Viking voyages; I cannot take service with King Olaf, and I will not serve under a lesser man. It was not easy to know where to go, until I thought of you, Leif Ericsson. It was you who taught me that 'He who is cold in defence of a friend, will be cold so long as Hel rules.' There is no fear in my mind that you will send me away." He finished as composedly as he had begun, and stood waiting. But not for long. Leif rose from his seat, sweeping the circle with a keen glance. "It is likely," he said grimly, "that someone has told you that an unfavorable answer might be expected, because I feared to lose King Olaf's favor. You have done well to trust my friendship, foster-son." He stretched out his hand, a rare gleam of pleasure lighting his deep-set eyes. "You have behaved well to your friend, Sigurd Haraldsson; there is the greatest excuse for you in this affair. I bid you welcome, and I offer you a share in everything I own. If it is your choice, you shall go back to Brattahlid with me; and my home shall be your home for whatever time you wish." Sigurd thanked him with warmth and dignity. Then a twinkle of mischief shone at the comers of his handsome mouth; after the fashion of the French court, he bent over the brawny outstretched hand and kissed it. A murmur of mingled amazement and amusement went up from the group. Leif himself gave a short laugh as he jerked his hand away. "This is the first time that ever my fist was mistaken for a maiden's lips. It is to be hoped that this is not the most useful accomplishment you have brought from France. Now go and try your fine manners on Helga,--if you do not fear for your ears. I wish to speak with this thrall." But Helga had not now spirit enough to avenge the salute. She drooped over the fire, staring absently into the embers; the heat toasting her delicate face rose-red, the light touching her hair into a wonderful golden web. She looked up at Sigurd with a faint frown; then dropped her chin back into her hands and forgot him. Alwin came and placed himself before the chief's seat, where the young Viking had stood. He was not so picturesque a figure, with his shorn head and his white slaves'-dress; but he stood straight and supple in his young strength, his head haughtily erect, his eyes bright and fearless as a young falcon's. Leif put his questions. "What are you called?" "I am called Alwin, Edmund Jarl's son." "Jarl-born? Then it is likely that you can handle a sword?" "Not a few of your own men can bear witness to that." Rolf spoke up with his quiet smile. "The boy speaks the truth. One would think that he had drunk nothing but dragon's blood since his birth." "So?" said Leif dryly. "It may be that I should be thankful my men are not torn to pieces. But these accomplishments count for naught; none here but have them. You must accomplish something that I think of more importance, or I shall sell you and buy a man-thrall who has been trained to work. It seems that you can read runes: can you also write them?" In a flash of memory, Alwin saw again Brother Ambrose's cell, and his rebellious self toiling at the desk; and he marvelled that in this far-off place and time that toil was to be of use to him. "To some small degree I can," he answered. "I learned in my boyhood; but last summer, on the dairy farm of Gilli of Trondhjem, I practised on sheep-skins--" "Gilli of Trondhjem?" Leif repeated. He sat suddenly erect, and shot a glance at the unconscious Helga; and the old German, peering from the shadows behind him, did the same. Alwin regarded them wonderingly. "Yes, Gilli the trader, whom men call the Wealthy. It was he who first had me in my captivity." For a long time the chief sat tugging thoughtfully at his yellow mustache. Tyrker bent over and whispered in his ear; and he nodded slowly, with another glance at Helga. "But for this I should never have thought of him,--yet, it is certainly one way out of the matter." Suddenly he made a motion with his hand, so that the circle fell back out of hearing. He turned and fixed his piercing eyes on the thrall as though he would probe his brain. "I ask you to tell me what manner of man this Gilli is?" It happened that Alwin asked nothing better than a chance to free his mind. He answered instantly: "Gilli of Trondhjem is a low-minded man who has gained great wealth, and is so greedy for property that he would give the nails off his hands and the tongue out of his head to get it. He is an overbearing churl." Leif's eyes challenged him, but he did not recant. "So!" said the chief abruptly; then he added: "I am told for certain that his wife is a well-disposed woman." "I say nothing against that," Alwin assented. "She is from England, where women are taught to bear themselves gently." His eulogy was cut short by an exclamation from the old German. "Donnerwetter! That is true! An English captive she was. Perhaps she their runes also understands?" Finding this a question addressed to him, Alwin answered that he knew her to understand them, having heard her read from a book of Saxon prayers. Tyrker rolled up his eyes devoutly. "Heaven itself it is that so has ordered it for the shield-maiden! You see, my son? This youth here can make runes,-she can read them; so can you speak with her without that the father shall know." "Bring torches into the sleeping-house," Leif called, rising hastily. "Valbrand, take your horse and lay saddle on it. You of England, get bark and an arrow-point, or whatever will serve for rune writing, and follow me." What took place behind the log walls, no one knew. When it was over, and Valbrand had ridden away in the darkness, Rolf sought out the scribe and gently gave him to understand that he was curious in the matter. But Alwin only cast a doubtful glance across the fire at Helga, and begged him to talk of something else. Late the next afternoon, Valbrand returned, his horse muddy and spent, and was closeted for a long time with Leif and the old German. But none heard what passed between them. CHAPTER X THE ROYAL BLOOD OF ALFRED Brand burns from brand, Until it is burnt out; Fire is from fire quickened. Man to man Becomes known by speech, But a fool by his bashful silence. Ha'vama'l Brave with fluttering pennant and embroidered linen and sparkling gilding, amid cheers and prayers and shouts of farewell, on the third day the "Sea-Deer" set sail for Greenland. Newly clad from head to foot in a scarlet suit of King Olaf's giving, Leif stood aft by the great steering oar. The wind blew out his long hair in a golden banner. The sun splintered its lances upon his gilded helm. Upon his breast shone the silver crucifix that had been Olaf's parting gift. His hand was still warm from the clasp of his King's; no chill at his heart warned him that those hands had met for the last time, no thought was in him that he had looked his last upon the noble face he loved. Gazing out over the tumbling blue waves, he thought exultantly of the time when he should come sailing back, with task fulfilled, to receive the thanks of his King. Bravely and merrily the little ship parted from the land and set forth upon her journey. Every man sat in his place upon the rowing-benches; every back bent stoutly to the oar. Dripping crystals and flashing in the sun, the polished blades rose and fell, as the "Sea-Deer" bounded forward. To those upon her decks, the mass of scarlet cloaks upon the pier merged into a patch of flame, and then became a fiery dot. The sunny plain of the city and the green slope of the camp dwindled and faded; towering cliffs closed about and hid them from the rowers' view. Leaving the broad elbow of the fiord, they soon entered the narrow arm that ran in from the sea, like a silver lane between giant walls. Passing out with the tide, they reached the ocean. The salt wind smote their faces; the snowy sail drew in a long glad breath and swelled out with a throb of exultation, and the world of waters closed around their little craft. It was a beautiful world, full of the shifting charms of color and of motion, of the joy of sun and wind; but Alwin found it a wearily busy world for him. Since he was not needed at the oars, they gave him the odds and ends of drudgery about the ship. He cleared the decks, and plied the bailing-scoop, and stood long tedious watches. He helped to tent over the vessel's decks at night, and to stow away the huge canvas in the morning. He ground grain for the hungry crew, and kept the great mead-vat filled that stood before the mast for the shipmates to drink from. He prepared the food and carried it around and cleared the remnants away again. He was at the beck and call of forty rough voices; he was the one shuttlecock among eighty brawny battledores. It was a peaceful world, stirred by no greater excitement than a glimpse of a distant sail or the mystery of a half-seen shore; yet things could happen in it, Alwin found. The second day out, the earl-born captive for the first time came in direct contact with the thrall-born Kark. Kark was not deferential, even toward his superiors; there was barely enough discretion in his roughness to save him from offending. Among those of his own station, he dispensed even with discretion. And he had looked upon Alwin with unfriendly eyes ever since Leif's first manifestation of interest in his English property. It often happens that the whole of earth's dry land proves too small to hold two uncongenial spirits peaceably. One can imagine, then, how it fared when two such opposites were limited to some hundred-odd feet of timber in mid-ocean. "Ho there, you cook-boy!" Kark's rough voice came down to the foreroom where Alwin was working. "Get you quickly forward and wipe up the beer Valbrand has spilled over his bench." For a moment, Alwin's eyes opened wide in amazement; then they drew together into two menacing slits, and his very clothing bristled with haughtiness. He deigned no answer whatsoever. A pause, and Kark followed his voice. "What now, you cub of a lazy mastiff! I told you, quickly; the beer will get on his clothes." With immovable calmness, Alwin went on with his grinding. Only after the fourth round he said coldly: "It would save time if you would do your work yourself." Kark gasped with amazement. This to him, the slave-born son of Eric's free steward, who held the whip-hand over all the thralls at Brattahlid! His china-blue eyes snapped spitefully. "It does not become the bowerman of Leif Ericsson to do the dirty work of a foreign whelp. If you have the ambition to be more than--" He was interrupted by the sound of approaching thunder. Valbrand descended upon them, his new tunic drenched, the scars on his battered old face showing livid red. "Is it likely that I will wait all day while two thralls quarrel over precedence?" he roared. "The Troll take me if I do not throw one of you to Ran before the journey is over! Go instantly--" "I am sharpening Leif's blade," Kark struck in; he had indeed drawn a knife and sharpening-stone from his girdle. "It is not becoming for me to leave the chief's work for another task." The argument was unassailable. To the unlucky man-of-all-work the steersman's anger naturally reverted. "Then you, idle dog that you are! What is it that keeps you? Would you have him attend on Leif and do your work as well? You may choose one of two conditions: go instantly or have your back cut into ribbons." If he had not added that, it is possible that Alwin would have obeyed; but to yield in the face of a threat, that was too low for his stiff-necked pride to stoop. The earl-born answered haughtily, "Have your will,--and I will have mine." If he had had any idea that they would not go so far, it was quickly dashed out of him. One moment of struggle and confusion, and he found himself stripped to the waist, his hands bound to the mast, a man standing over him with a knotted thong of walrus hide. All Sigurd's furious eloquence could not restrain the storm of sickening blows. On the other hand, if they had had the notion that their victim's obstinacy would run from him with his blood, they also were mistaken. The red drops came, but no sign of weakening. At last, with the subsiding of his anger, Valbrand ordered him to be set free. "The same shall overtake you if you are disobedient to me again," was all he said. Stripped and bloody, dizzy with pain and blind with rage, Alwin staggered forward, caught at Sigurd to save himself from falling, and looked unsteadily about him. When he found what he sought, his wits were cleared as a foggy night by lightning. With a hoarse cry, he caught up a fragment of broken oar and struck Kark over the head so that he fell stunned upon the deck, blood reddening his colorless face. "In the Troll's name!" Valbrand swore, after a moment of utter stupefaction. Alwin laughed between his teeth at Sigurd's despairing glance, and waited to feel the steersman's knife between his ribs. Instead, he was dragged aft to where the chief sat on the deck beside the steering-oar. Leif was deep in consultation with his shrewd old foster-father. Without pausing in his argument, he sent an impatient glance over his shoulder; when it fell upon the gory young madman, he turned sharply and faced the group. Alwin was in the mood to suffer torture with a smile. The more outrageous Valbrand depicted him, the better he was pleased. Leif made no comment whatever, but sat pulling at his long mustaches and eying them from under his bushy brows. When the steersman had finished, he asked, "Is Kark slain?" Glancing back, Valbrand saw the bowerman sitting up and feeling of his wounds. "Except a lump on his head, I do not think he is worse than before," he answered. "So," said Leif with an accent of relief. "Then it is not worth while to say much. If he had been killed, his father would have taken it ill; and that would have displeased Eric and hurt my mission. It would have become necessary for me to slay this boy to satisfy them. Now it is of little importance." He straightened abruptly and waved them away. "What more is there to do about it?" he added. "This fellow has been punished, and Kark has got one of the many knocks his insolence deserves. Let us end this talk,--only see to it that they do not kill each other. I do not wish to lose any more property." He motioned them off, and turned back to Tyrker. But there was more to it. Something,--Leif's curtness, or the touch of Valbrand's hand upon his naked shoulder,--roused Alwin's madness afresh. Shaking off the hand, fighting it off, he bearded the chief himself. "I will kill him if ever he utters his cur's yelp at me again. You are blind and simple to think to keep an earl-born man under the feet of a churl. You are a fool to keep an accomplished man at work that any simpleton might do. I will not bear with your folly. I will slay the hound the first chance I get." He ended breathless and trembling with passion. Valbrand stood aghast. Leif's brows drew down so low that nothing but two fiery sparks showed of his eyes. Through Alwin went the same thrill he had felt when the trader's sword-point pricked his breast. Yet the lightning did not strike. Alwin glanced up, amazed. While he stared, a subtle change crept over the chief. Slowly he ceased to be the grim curt Viking: slowly he became the nobleman whose stateliness minstrels celebrated in their songs, and the King spoke of with praise. A stillness seemed to gather round them. Alwin felt his anger cooling and sinking within him. After a time, Leif said with the calmness of perfect superiority: "It may be that I have not treated you as honorably as you deserve. Yet what am I to think of these words of yours? Is it after such fashion that a jarl-born man with accomplishments addresses his lord in your country?" To the blunt old steersman, to the ox-like Olver, to the half-dozen others who heard it, the change was incomprehensible. They stared at their master, then at each other, and finally gave it up as a whim past their understanding. It may be that Leif was curious to see whether it would be incomprehensible to Alwin as well. He sat watching him intently. Alwin's eyes fell before his master's. The stately quietness, the noble forbearance, were like voices out of his past. They called up memories of his princess-mother, of her training, of the dignity that had always surrounded her. Suddenly he saw, as for the first time, the roughness and coarseness of the life about him, and realized how it had roughened and coarsened him. A dull red mounted to his face. Slowly, like one groping for a half forgotten habit, he bent his knee before the offended chief. Unconsciously, for the first time in his thraldom, he gave to a Northman the title a Saxon uses to his superior. "Lord, you are right to think me unmannerly. I was mad with anger so that I did not weigh my words. I will say nothing against it if you treat me like a churl." To the others, this also was inexplicable. They scratched their heads, and rubbed their ears, and gaped at one another. Leif smiled grimly as he caught their looks. Picking a silver ring from his pouch, he tossed it to Valbrand. "Take this to Kark to pay him for his broken head, and advise him to make less noise with his mouth in the future." When they were gone he turned to Alwin and signed him to rise. "You understand a language that churls do not understand. I will try you further. Go dress yourself, then bring hither the runes you were reading to Rolf Erlingsson." Alwin obeyed in silence, a tumult of long-quiet emotions whirling through his brain,--relief and shame and gratification, and, underneath it all, a new-born loyalty. All the rest of the day, until the sun dropped like a red ball behind the waves, he sat at the chief's feet and read to him from the Saxon book. He read stumblingly, haltingly; but he was not blamed for his blunders. His listener caught at the meanings hungrily, and pieced out their deficiencies with his keen wit and dressed their nakedness in his vivid imagination. Now his great chest heaved with passion, and his strong hand gripped his sword-hilt; now he crossed himself and sighed, and again his eyes flashed like smitten steel. When at last the failing light compelled Alwin to lay down the book, the chief sat for a long time staring at him with keen but absent eyes. After a while he said, half as though he was speaking to himself: "It is my belief that Heaven itself has sent you to me, that I may be strengthened and inspired in my work." His face kindled with devout rapture. "It must have been by the guidance of Heaven that you were trained in so unusual an accomplishment. It was the hand of God that led you hither, to be an instrument in a great work." Awe fell upon Alwin, and a shiver of superstition that was almost terror. He bowed his head and crossed himself. But when he looked up, the thread had snapped; Leif was himself again. He was eying the boy critically, though with a new touch of something like respect. He said abruptly: "It is not altogether befitting that one who has the accomplishments of a holy priest should go garbed like a base-bred thrall. What is the color of the clothes that priests wear in England?" Alwin answered, wondering: "They wear black habits, lord. It is for that reason that they are called Black Monks." Rising, Leif beckoned to Valbrand. When the steersman stood before him, he said: "Take this boy down to my chests and clothe him from head to foot in black garments of good quality. And hereafter let it be understood that he is my honorable bowerman, and a person of breeding and accomplishments." The old henchman looked at the new favorite as dispassionately as he would have looked at a weapon or a dog that had taken his master's fancy. "I would not oppose your will in this, any more than in other things; yet I take it upon me to remind you of Kark. If you make this cook-boy your bowerman, to keep the scales balancing you must make him who was your bowerman into a cook-boy. It is in my mind that Kark's father will take that as ill as--" A sweep of Leif's arm swept Kark out of the path of his will. "Who is it that is to command me how I shall choose my servants? The Fates made Kark a cook-boy when he was born; let him go back where he belongs. I have endured his boorishness long enough. Am I to despise a tool that Heaven has sent me because a clod at my feet is jealous? What kind of luck could that bring?" Convinced or not, Valbrand was silenced. "It shall be as you wish," he muttered. Alwin fell on his knee, and, not daring to kiss the chief's hand, raised the hem of the scarlet cloak to his lips. "Lord," he said earnestly; then stopped because he could not find words in which to speak his gratitude. "Lord--" he began again, and again he was at a loss. At last he finished bluntly, "Lord, I will serve you as only a man can serve whose whole heart is in his work." CHAPTER XI THE PASSING OF THE SCAR A ship is made for sailing, A shield for sheltering, A sword for striking, A maiden for kisses. Ha'vama'l "When the sun rises tomorrow it is likely that we shall see Greenland ahead of us," growled Egil. With Sigurd and the Wrestler, he was lounging against the side, watching the witch-fires run along the waves through the darkness. The new bower-man stood next to Sigurd, but Egil could not properly be said to be with him, for the two only spoke under the direst necessity. Around them, under the awnings, in the light of flaring pine torches, the crew were sprawled over the rowing-benches killing time with drinking and riddles. "It seems to me that it will gladden my heart to see it," Sigurd responded. "As I think of the matter, I recall great fun in Greenland. There were excellent wrestling matches between the men of the East and the West settlements. And do you remember the fine feasts Eric was wont to make?" Rolf gently smacked his lips and laid his hands upon his stomach. "By all means. And remember also the seal hunting and the deer-shooting!" Sigurd's eyes glistened. "Many good things may be told of Greenland. There is no place in the world so fine to run over on skees. By Saint Michael, I shall be glad to get there!" He struck Egil a rousing blow upon the sullen hump of his shoulders. Unmoved, the Black One continued to stare out into the darkness, his chin upon his fists. "Ugh! Yes. Very likely," he grunted. "Very likely it will be clear sailing for you, but it is my belief that some of us will run into a squall when we have left Leif and gone to our own homes, and it becomes known to our kinsmen that we are no longer Odin-men. It is probable that my father will stick his knife into me." There was a pause while they digested the truth of this; until Rolf relieved the tension by saying quietly: "Speak for yourself, companion. My kinsman is no such fool. He has been on too many trading voyages among the Christians. Already he is baptized in both faiths; so that when Thor does not help him, he is wont to pray to the god of the Christians. Thus is he safe either way; and not a few Greenland chiefs are of his opinion." Sigurd's merry laugh rang out. "Now that is having a cloak to wear on both sides, according to the weather! If only Eric were so minded--" "Is Eric the ruler in Greenland?" Alwin interrupted. All this while he had been looking from one to the other, listening attentively. The two sons of Greenland chiefs answered "No!" in one breath. Sigurd raised quizzical eyebrows. "I admit that he is not the ruler in name, Greenland being a republic, but in fact--?" They let him go on without contradiction. "Thus it stands, Alwin. Eric the Red was the first to settle in Greenland, therefore he owns the most land. Besides Brattahlid, he owns many fishing stations; and he also has stations on several islands where men gather eggs for him and get what drift-wood there is. And not only is he the richest man, but he is also the highest-born, for his father's father was a jarl of Jaederan; and so--" It is to be feared that Alwin lost some of this. He broke in suddenly: "Now I know where it is that I have heard the name of Eric the Red! It has haunted me for days. In the trader's booth in Norway a minstrel sang a ballad of 'Eric the Red and his Dwarf-Cursed Sword.' Know you of it?" He was answered by the involuntary glances that the others cast toward the chief. Rolf said with a shrug: "It is bondmaids' gabble. There is little need to say that a dwarf cursed Eric's sword, to explain how it comes that he has been three times exiled for manslaughter, and driven from Norway to Iceland and from Iceland to Greenland. He quarrelled and slew wherever he settled, because he has a temper like that of the dragon Fafnir." A faint red tinged Egil's dark cheeks. "Nevertheless, Skroppa's prophecy has come true," he muttered, "that after the blade was once sheathed in the new soil of Greenland, it would bring no more ill-luck." "Skroppa!" cried Alwin. But he got no further, for Sigurd's hand was clapped over his mouth. "Lower your voice when you speak that name, comrade," the Silver-Tongued warned him. "Do not speak it at all," Egil interrupted brusquely. "The English girl is coming aft. It is likely she brings some message from Helga." They faced about eagerly. Editha's smooth brown head was indeed to be seen threading its way between the noisy groups. They agreed that it was time they heard from the shield-maiden. For her to take advantage of her womanhood, and turn the forecastle into a woman's-house, and forbid their approach, was something unheard-of and outrageous. "It would be treating her as she deserves if we should refuse to go now when she sends for us," Egil growled, though without any apparent intention of carrying out the threat. To the extreme amusement of his fellows, Sigurd began to settle his ornaments and rearrange his long locks. "It may be that she accepts my invitation to play chess. Leif spoke with her for a long time this afternoon; it is likely that he roused her from her black mood." "It is likely that he roused her," Alwin said slowly. There was something so peculiar in his voice that they all turned and looked at him. He had suddenly grown very red and uncomfortable. "It seems that anyone can be foreknowing at certain times," he said, trying to smile. "Now my mind tells me that the summons will be for me." "For you!" Egil's brows became two black thunder-clouds from under which his eyes flashed lightnings at the thrall. Alwin yielded to helpless laughter. "There is little need for you to get angry. Rather would I be drowned than go." It was Sigurd's turn to be offended. "I had thought better of you, Alwin of England, than to suppose that you would cherish hatred against a woman who has offered to be your friend." "Hatred?" For a moment Alwin did not understand him; then he added: "By Saint George, that is so! I had altogether forgotten that it was my intention to hate her! I swear to you, Sigurd, I have not thought of the matter these two weeks." "Which causes me to suspect that you have been thinking very hard of something else," Rolf suggested. But Alwin closed his lips and kept his eyes on Editha's approaching figure. The little bondmaid came up to them, dropped as graceful a curtsey as she could manage with the pitching of the vessel, and said timidly: "If it please you, my lord Alwin, my mistress desires to speak with you at once." "Hail to the prophet!" laughed Sigurd, pretending to rumple the locks that he had so carefully smoothed. "Now Heaven grant that I am a false prophet in the rest of my foretelling," Alwin murmured to himself, as he followed the girl forward. "If I am forced to tell her the truth, I think it likely she will scratch my eyes out." She did not look dangerous when he came up to her. She was sitting on a little stool, with her hands folded quietly in her lap, and on her beautiful face the dazed look of one who has heard startling news. But her first question was straight to the mark. "Leif has told me that Gilli and Bertha of Trondhjem are my father and mother. He says that you have seen them and know them. Tell me what they are like." It was an instant plunge into very deep water. Alwin gasped. "Lady, there are many things to be said on the subject. It may be that I am not a good judge." He was glad to stop and accept the stool Editha offered, and spend a little time settling himself upon it; but that could not last long. "Bertha of Trondhjem is a very beautiful woman," he began. "It is easy to believe that she is your mother. Also she is gentle and kind-hearted--" Helga's shoulders moved disdainfully. "She must be a coward. To get rid of her child because a man ordered it! Have you heard that? Because when I was born some lying hag pretended to read in the stars that I would one day become a misfortune to my father, he ordered me to be thrown out--for wolves to eat or beggars to take. And my mother had me carried to Eric, who is Gilli's kinsman, and bound him to keep it a secret. She is a coward." "It must be remembered that she had been a captive of Gilli," Alwin reminded the shield-maiden. "Even Norse wives are sometimes--" "She is a coward. Tell me of Gilli. At least he is not witless. What is he like?" Again the deep water. Alwin stirred in his seat and fingered at the silver lace on his cap. He was dressed splendidly now. Left's wardrobe had contained nothing black that was also plain, so the bowerman's long hose were of silk, his tunic was seamed with silver, his belt studded with steel bosses, his cloak lined with fine gray fur. "Lady," he stammered, "as I have said, it may be that I am not a fair judge. Gilli did not behave well to me. Yet I have heard that he is very kind to his wife. It is likely that he would give you costly things--" Helga's foot stamped upon the deck. "What do I care for that?" He knew how little she cared. He gave up any further attempts at diplomacy. But her next words granted him a respite. "What was the message that you wrote to my mother for Leif?" "I think I can remember the exact words," he answered readily, "it gave me so much trouble to spell them. It read this way, after the greeting: 'Do you remember the child you sent to Eric? She is here in Norway with me. She is well grown and handsome. I go back the second day after this. It will be a great grief to her if she is obliged to go also. If her father could see her, it is likely he would be willing to give her a home in Norway. It would even be worth while coming all the way to Greenland after her. It is certain that Gilli would think so, if you could manage that he should see her.' I think that was all, lady." "If Gilli is what I suspect him to be, that is more than enough," Helga said slowly. She raised her head and looked straight into his eyes. "Answer me this,--you know and must tell,--is he a high-minded warrior like Leif, or is he a money-loving trader?" "Lady," said Alwin desperately, "if you will have the truth, he is a mean-spirited churl who thinks that the only thing in the world is to have property." Helga drew a long breath, and her slender hands clenched in her lap. "Now I have found what I have suspected. Answer this truthfully also: If I go back to him, is it not likely that he will marry me to the first creature who offers to make a good bargain with him?" "Yes," said Alwin. For days he had been watching her with uneasy pity, whenever in his mind's eye he saw her in the power of the unscrupulous trader, It had made him uncomfortable to feel that he was the tool that had brought it about, even though he knew he was as innocent as the bark on which he had written. Drop by drop the blood sank out of Helga's face. Spark by spark, the light died out of her eyes. Like some poor trapped animal, she sat staring dully ahead of her. It was more than Alwin could bear in silence. He leaned forward and shook her arm. "Lady, do anything rather than despair. Get into a rage with me,--though Heaven knows I never intended your misfortune! Yet it is natural you should feel hard toward me. I--" She stared at him dully. "Why should I be angry with you? You could not help what you did; and Leif thought I would wish rather to go to my own mother than to Thorhild." It had never occurred to Alwin that she would be reasonable. His remorse became the more eager. He bethought himself of some slight comfort. "At least it cannot happen for a year, lady. And in--" She raised her head quickly. "Why can it not happen for a year?" "Because Gilli is away on a trading voyage, and will not be back until fall, when it will be too late to start for Greenland. Nor will he come early in spring and so lose the best of his trading season. It is sure to be more than a year." Youth can construct a lifeboat out of a straw. Hope crept back to Helga's eyes. "A year is a long time. Many things can happen in a year. Gilli may be slain,--for every man a mistletoe-shaft grows somewhere. Or I may marry someone in Greenland. Already two chiefs have asked my hand of Leif, so it is not likely that I shall lack chances." "That is true; and it may also happen that the Lady Bertha will never get my runes. She was absent on a visit when Valbrand left them at her farm. Or even if she gets them, she may lack courage to tell the news to Gilli. Or he may dislike the expense of a daughter. Surely, where there are so many holes, there are many good chances that the danger will fall through one of them." Helga flung up her head with a gallant air. "I will heed your advice in this matter. I will not trouble myself another moment; and I will love Brattahlid as a bird loves the cliff that hides it! And Thorhild? What if her nature is such that she is cross? She is no coward. She would defend those she loved, though she died for it. I should like to see Eric bid her to abandon a child. There would not be a red hair left in his beard. Better is it to be brave and true than to be gentle like your Lady Bertha. Is it because she is my mother that you give that title to me also?" Alwin hesitated and reddened. "Yes. And because I like to remember that there is English blood in you." Helga paused in the midst of her excitement, and her face softened. She looked at him, and her starry eyes were full of frank good-will. She said slowly, "Since there is English blood in me, it may be that you will some time ask for the friendship I have offered you." At that moment, it seemed to Alwin that such simplicity and frankness were worth more than all the gentle graces of his country-women. He put out his hand. "You need not wait long for me to ask that," he said. "I would have asked it a week ago, but I could not think it honorable to call myself your friend when I had injured you so." Helga's slim fingers gave his a firm clasp, but she laughed merrily. "That is where you are mistaken. If you had not injured me, you would never have forgotten that I had injured you. Now we are even, and we start afresh. That is a good thing." CHAPTER XII THROUGH BARS OF ICE A day should be praised at night; A sword when it is tried; Ice when it is crossed. Ha'vama'l A dim line of snowy islands, so far apart that it was hard to believe they were only the ice-tipped summits of Greenland's towering coast, stretched across the horizon. Standing at Helga's side in the bow, Alwin gazed at them earnestly. "To think," he marvelled, "that we have come to the very last land on this side of the world! Suppose we were to sail still further west? What is it likely that we would come to? Does the ocean end in a wall of ice, or would we fall off the earth and go tumbling heels over head through the darkness--? By St. George, it makes one dizzy!" Helga's ideas were not much clearer. It was nearly five hundred years before the time of Columbus. But she knew one thing that Alwin did not know. "Greenland is not the most western land," she corrected. "There is another still further west, though no one knows how big it is or who lives in it." She turned, laughing, to where young Haraldsson sat counting the wealth of his pouch and calculating how valuable could be the presents he could afford to bestow on his arrival. "Sigurd, do you remember that western land Biorn Herjulfsson saw? and how we were wont to plan to run away to it, when I grew tired of embroidering and Leif kept you overlong at your exercises?" "I have not thought of it since those days," laughed Sigurd. He swept the mass of gold and silver trinkets back into the velvet pouch at his belt, and came over and joined them. "What fine times we had planning those trips, over the fire in the evenings! By Saint Michael, I think we actually started once; have you forgotten?--in the long-boat off Thorwald's whaling vessel! And you wore a suit of my clothes, and fought me because I said anyone could tell that you were a girl." Helga's laughter rang out like a chime of bells. "Oh, Sigurd I had forgotten it! And we had nothing with us to eat but two cheeses! And Valbrand had to launch a boat and come after us!" They abandoned themselves to their mirth, and Alwin laughed with them; but his curiosity had been aroused on another subject. "I wish you would tell me something concerning this farther land," he said, as soon as he could get them to listen. "Does it in truth exist, or is it a tale to amuse children with?" They both assured him that it was quite true. "I myself have talked with one of the sailors who saw it," Sigurd explained. "He was Biorn's steersman. He saw it distinctly. He said that it looked like a fine country, with many trees." "If it was a real country and no witchcraft, it is strange that he contented himself with looking at it. Why did he not land and explore?" "Biorn Herjulfsson is a coward," Helga said contemptuously. "Every man who can move his tongue says so." Sigurd frowned at her. "You give judgment too glibly. I have heard many say that he is a brave man. But he was not out on an exploring voyage; he was sailing from Iceland to Greenland, to visit his father, and lost his way. And he is a man not apt to be eager in new enterprises. Besides, it may be that he thought the land was inhabited by dwarfs." "There, you have admitted that I am right!" Helga cried triumphantly. "He was afraid of the dwarfs; and a man who is afraid of anything is a coward." But Sigurd could fence with his tongue as well as with his sword. "What then is a shield-maiden who is afraid of her kinswoman?" he parried. And they fell to wrangling laughingly between themselves. Unheeding them, Alwin gazed away at the mysterious blue west. His eyes were big with great thoughts. If he had a ship and a crew,--if he could sail away exploring! Suppose kingdoms could be founded there! Suppose--his imaginings became as lofty as the drifting clouds, and as vague; so vague that he finally lost interest in them, and turned his attention to the approaching shore. They had come near enough now to see that the scattered islands had connected themselves into a peaked coast, a broken line of dazzling whiteness, except where dark chasms made blots upon its sides. But sighting Greenland and landing upon it were two very different matters, he found. A little further, and they encountered the border of drift-ice that, travelling down from the northeast in company with numerous icebergs, closes the fiord-mouths in summer like a magic bar. "I shall think it great luck if this breaks up so that we can get through it in a month," Valbrand observed phlegmatically. "A month?" Alwin gasped, overhearing him. The old sailor looked at him in contempt. "Does a month seem long to you? When Eric came here from Iceland, he was obliged to lie four months in the ice." Four months on shipboard, with nothing more cheerful to look at than barren cliffs and a gray sea paved with grinding ice-cakes! The consternation of Alwin's face was so great that Sigurd took pity on him even while he laughed. "It will not be so bad as that. And we will steer to a point north of the fiord and lie there in the shelter of an island." "Shelter!" muttered the English youth. "Twelve eiderdown beds would be insufficient to shelter one from this wind." Nor was the island of any more inviting appearance when finally they reached it. What of it was not barren boulders was covered with black lichens, the only hint of green being an occasional patch of moss nestling in some rocky fissure. To heighten the effect, icy gales blew continually, accompanied by heavy mists and chilling fogs. Amid these inhospitable surroundings they were penned for two weeks,--Norse weeks of but five days each, but seemingly endless to the captives from the south. Editha retired permanently into the big bear-skin sleeping-bag that enveloped the whole of her little person and was the only cure for the chattering of her teeth. Alwin wrapped himself in every garment he owned and as many of Sigurd's as could be spared, and strove to endure the situation with the stoicism of his companions; but now and then his disgust got the better of his philosophy. "How intelligent beings can find it in their hearts to return to this country after the good God has once allowed them to leave it, passes my understanding!" he stormed, on the tenth day of this sorry picnicking. "At first it was in my mind to fear lest such a small ship should sink in such a great sea; now I only dread that it will not, and that we will be brought alive to land and forced to live there." Rolf regarded him with his amiable smile. "If your eyes were as blue as your lips, and your cheeks were as red as your nose, you would be considered a handsome man," he said encouragingly. And again it was Sigurd who took pity on Alwin. "Bear it well; it will not last much longer," he said. "Already a passage is opening. And inside the fiord, much is different from what is expected." Alwin smiled with polite incredulity. The next day's sun showed a dark channel open to them, so that before noon they had entered upon the broad water-lane known as Eric's Fiord. The silence between the towering walls was so absolute, so death-like, as to be almost uncanny. Mile after mile they sailed, between bleak cliffs ice-crowned and garbed in black lichens; mile after mile further yet, without passing anything more cheerful than a cluster of rocky islands or a slope covered with brownish moss. The most luxuriant of the islands boasted only a patch of crowberry bushes or a few creeping junipers too much abashed to lift their heads a finger's length above the earth. Alwin looked about him with a sigh, and then at Sigurd with a grimace. "Do you still say that this is pleasanter than drowning?" he inquired. Sigurd met the fling with obstinate composure. "Are you blind to the greenness of yonder plain? And do you not feel the sun upon you?" All at once it occurred to Alwin that the icy wind of the headlands had ceased to blow; the fog had vanished, and there was a genial warmth in the air about him. And yonder,--certainly yonder meadow was as green as the camp in Norway. He threw off one of his cloaks and settled himself to watch. Gradually the green patches became more numerous, until the level was covered with nothing else. In one place, he almost thought he caught a gleam of golden buttercups. The verdure crept up the snow-clad slopes, hundreds and thousands of feet; and here and there, beside some foaming little cataract tumbling down from a glacier-fed stream, a rhododendron glowed like a rosy flame. They passed the last island, covered with a copse of willows as high as a tall man's head, and came into an open stretch of water bordered by rolling pasture lands, filled with daisies and mild-eyed cattle. Sigurd clutched the English boy's arm excitedly. "Yonder are Eric's ship-sheds! And there--over that hill, where the smoke is rising--there is Brattahlid!" "There?" exclaimed Alwin. "Now it was in my mind that you had told me that Eric's house was built on Eric's Fiord." "So it is,--or two miles from there, which is of little importance. Oh, yes, it stands on the very banks of Einar's Fiord; but since that is a route one takes only when he visits the other parts of the settlement, and seldom when he runs out to sea--Is that a man I see upon the landing?" "If they have not already seen us and come down to meet us, their eyes are less sharp than they were wont to be three years ago," Rolf began; when Sigurd answered his own question. "They are there; do you not see? Crowds of them--between the sheds. Someone is waving a cloak. By Saint Michael, the sight of Normandy did not gladden me like this!" "Let down sail! drop anchor, and make the boats ready to lower," came in Valbrand's heavy drone. CHAPTER XIII ERIC THE RED IN HIS DOMAIN Givers, hail! A guest is come in; Where shall he sit? Water to him is needful Who for refection comes, A towel and hospitable invitation, A good reception; If he can get it, Discourse and answer. Ha'vama'l Ten by ten, the ship's boat brought them to land, and into the crowd of armed retainers, house servants, field hands, and thralls. A roar of delight greeted the appearance of Helga; and Sigurd was nearly overturned by welcoming hands. It seemed that the crowd stood too much in awe of Leif to salute him with any familiarity, but they made way for him most respectfully; and a pack of shaggy dogs fell upon him and almost tore him to pieces in the frenzy of their joyful recognition. A fusillade of shoulder-slapping filled the air. Not a buxom maid but found some brawny neck to fling her arms about, receiving a hearty smack for her pains. Nor were the men more backward; it was only by clinging like a burr to her mistress's side that Editha escaped a dozen vigorous caresses. Alwin, with his short hair and his contradictorily rich dress, was stared at in outspoken curiosity. The men whispered that Leif had become so grand that he must have a page to carry his cloak, like the King himself. The women said that, in any event, the youth looked handsome, and black became his fair complexion. Kark scowled as he stepped ashore and heard their comments. "Where is my father, Thorhall?" he demanded, giving his hand with far more haughtiness than the chief. "He has gone hunting with Thorwald Ericsson," one of the house thralls informed him. "He will not be back until to-night." Whereupon Kark's colorless face became mottled with red temper-spots, and he pushed rudely through the throng and disappeared among the ship-sheds. "Is my brother Thorstein also in Greenland?" Leif asked the servant. But the man answered that Eric's youngest son was absent on a visit to his mother's kin in Iceland. When the boat had brought the last man to land, the "Sea-Deer" was left to float at rest until the time of her unloading; and they began to move up from the shore in a boisterous procession. Between rich pastures and miniature forests of willow and birch and alder, a broad lane ran east over green hill and dale. Amid a babel of talk and laughter, they passed along the lane, the rank and file performing many jovial capers, slipping bold arms around trim waists and scuffling over bundles of treasure. Over hill and dale they went for nearly two miles; then, some four hundred feet from the rocky banks of Einar's Fiord, the lane ended before the wide-thrown gates of a high fence. If the gates had been closed, one might have guessed what was inside; so unvarying was the plan of Norse manors. A huge quadrangular courtyard was surrounded by substantial buildings. To the right was the great hall, with the kitchens and storehouses. Across the inner side stood the women's house, with the herb-garden on one hand, and the guest-chambers on the other. To the left were the stables, the piggery, the sheep-houses, the cow-sheds, and the smithies. No sooner had they passed the gates than a second avalanche of greetings fell upon them. Gathered together in the grassy space were more armed retainers, more white-clad thralls, more barking dogs, more house servants in holiday attire, and, at the head of them, the far-famed Eric the Red and his strong-minded Thorhild. One glance at the Red One convinced Alwin that his reputation did not belie him. It was not alone his floating hair and his long beard that were fiery; his whole person looked capable of instantaneous combustion. His choleric blue eyes, now twinkling with good humor, a spark could kindle into a blaze. A breath could fan the ruddy spots on his cheeks into flames. As Alwin watched him, he said to himself, "It is not that he was three times exiled for manslaughter which surprises me,--it is that he was not exiled thirty times." Alwin looked curiously at the plump matron, with the stately head-dress of white linen and the bunch of jingling keys at her girdle, and had a surprise of a different kind. Certainly there were no soft curves in her resolute mouth, and her eyes were as keen as Leif's; yet it was neither a cruel face nor a shrewish one. It was full of truth and strength, and there was comeliness in her broad smooth brow and in the unfaded roses of her cheeks. Ah, and now that the keen eyes had fallen upon Leif, they were no longer sharp; they were soft and deep with mother-love, and radiant with pride. Her hands stirred as though they could not wait to touch him. There was a pause of some decorum, while the chief embraced his parents; then the tumult burst forth. No man could hear himself, much less his neighbor. Under cover of the confusion, Alwin approached Helga. Having no greetings of his own to occupy him, he made over his interest to others. The shield-maiden was standing on the very spot where Leif had left her, Editha clinging to her side. She was gazing at Thorhild and nervously clasping and unclasping her hands. Alwin said in her ear: "She will make you a better mother than Bertha of Trondhjem. It is my advice that you reconcile yourself to her at once." "It was in my mind," Helga said slowly, "it was in my mind that I could love her!" Shaking off Editha, she took a hesitating step forward. Thorhild had parted from Leif, and turned to welcome Sigurd. Helga took another step. Thorhild raised her head and looked at her. When she saw the picturesque figure, with its short kirtle and its shirt of steel, she drew herself up stiffly, and it was evident that she tried to frown; but Helga walked quickly up to her and put her arms about her neck and laid her head upon her breast and clung there. By and by the matron slipped an arm around the girl's waist, then one around her shoulders. Finally she bent her head and kissed her. Directly after, she pushed her off and held her at arm's length. "You have grown like a leek. I wonder that such a life has not ruined your complexion. Was cloth so costly in Norway that Leif could afford no more for a skirt? You shall put on one of mine the instant we get indoors. It is time you had a woman to look after you." But Helga was no longer repelled by her severity; she could appreciate now what lay beneath it. She said, "Yes, kinswoman," with proper submissiveness, and then looked over at Alwin with laughing eyes. Eric's voice now made itself heard above the din. "Bring them into the house, you simpletons! Bring them indoors! Will you keep them starving while you gabble? Bring them in, and spread the tables, and fill up the horns. Drink to the Lucky One in the best mead in Greenland. Come in, come in! In the Troll's name, come in, and be welcome!" Rolf smiled his guileless smile aside to Egil. "It is likely that he will say other things 'in the Troll's name' when he finds out why the Lucky One has come," he murmured. CHAPTER XIV FOR THE SAKE OF THE CROSS A wary guest Who to refection comes Keeps a cautious silence; With his ears listens, And with his eyes observes: So explores every prudent man. Ha'vama'l In accordance with the fashion of the day, Brattahlid was a hall not only in the sense of being a large room, but in being a building by itself,--and a building it was of entirely unique appearance. Instead of consisting of huge logs, as Norse houses almost invariably did, three sides of it had been built of immense blocks of red sandstone; and for the fourth side, a low, perpendicular, smooth rock had been used, so that one of the inner walls was formed by a natural cliff between ten and twelve feet high. Undoubtedly it was from this peculiarity that the name Brattahlid had been bestowed upon it, Brattahlid signifying 'steep side of a rock.' Its style was the extreme of simplicity, for a square opening in the roof took the place of a chimney, and it had few windows, and those were small and filled with a bladder-like membrane instead of glass; yet it was not without a certain impressiveness. The hall was so large that nearly two hundred men could find seats on the two benches that ran through it from end to end. Its walls were of a symmetry and massiveness to outlast the wear of centuries; and the interior had even a certain splendor. To-night, decked for a feast, it was magnificent to behold. Gay-hued tapestries covered the sides, along which rows of round shields overlapped each other like bright painted scales. Over the benches were laid embroidered cloths; while the floor was strewn with straw until it sparkled as with a carpet of spun gold. Before the benches, on either side of the long stone hearth that ran through the centre of the hall, stood tables spread with covers of flax bleached white as foam. The light of the crackling pine torches quivered and flashed from gilded vessels, and silver-covered trenchers, and goblets of rarely beautiful glass, ruby and amber and emerald green. "I have nowhere seen a finer hall," Alwin admitted to Sigurd, as they pushed their way in through the crowd. "If the high-seats were different, and the fire-place was against the wall, and there were reeds upon the floor instead of straw, it would not be unlike what my father's castle was." "If I were altogether different, would I look like a Saxon maiden also?" Helga's voice laughed in his ear. She had come in through the women's door, with Thorhild and a throng of high-born women. Already she was transformed. A trailing gown of blue made her seem to have grown a head taller. Bits of finery--a gold belt at her waist, a gold brooch on her breast, a string of amber beads around the white neck that showed coquettishly above the snowy kerchief--banished the last traces of the shield-maiden, For the first time, it occurred to Alwin that she was more than a good comrade,--she was a girl, a beautiful girl, the kind that some day a man would love and woo and win. He gazed at her with wonder and admiration, and something more; gazed so intently that he did not see Egil's eyes fastened upon him. Helga laughed at his surprise; then she frowned. "If you say that you like me better in these clothes, I shall be angry with you," she whispered sharply. Fortunately, Alwin was not obliged to commit himself. At that moment the headwoman or housekeeper, who was also mistress of ceremonies in the absence of the steward, came bustling through the crowd, and divided the men from the women, indicating to every one his place according to the strictest interpretation of the laws of precedence. If there had been more time for preparation there would have been a larger company to greet the returned guardsman. Yet the messengers Thorhild had hastily despatched had brought back nearly a score of chiefs and their families; and what with their additional attendants, and Leif's band of followers, and Eric's own household, there were few empty places along the walls. According to custom, Eric sat in his high-seat between two lofty carved pillars midway the northern length of the hall. Thorhild sat in the seat with him; the high-born men were placed upon his right; the high-born women were upon her left. Opposite them, as became the guest of honor and his father's eldest son, Leif was established in the other high-seat. Tyrker, weazened and blinking, and swaddled in furs, sat on one side of him; Jarl Harald's son was on the other, merry-eyed, fresh-faced, and dressed like a prince. On either hand, like beads on a necklace, the crew of the "Sea-Deer" were strung along. Kark came the very last of the line, in the lowest seat by the door. Alwin had fresh cause to be grateful to the fate that had changed their stations. His place was on the foot-stool before Leif's high-seat, guarding the chief's cup. It was an honorable place, and one from which he could see and hear, and even speak with Sigurd when anything happened that was too interesting to keep to himself. Among Leif's men there were many temptations to consult together. Not one but was waiting in tense expectancy for the move that should disclose the guardsman's mission. They had sternest commands from Leif to take no step without his order. They had equally positive word from Valbrand to defend their chief at all hazards. Between the two, they sat breathless and strained, even while they swallowed the delicacies before them. When the towels and hand-basins had gone quite around, and all the food had been put upon the table, and the feast was well under way, three musicians were brought in bearing fiddles and a harp. Their performance formed a cover under which the guests could relieve their minds. "Do you observe that he has let his crucifix slide around under his cloak where it is not likely to be noticed?" one whispered to another. "It is my belief that he wishes to put off the evil hour." "When the horse-flesh is passed to him he will be obliged to refuse, and that will betray him," the other answered. But Eric did not see when Leif shook his head at the bearer of the forbidden meat; and that danger passed. Rolf murmured approvingly in Sigurd's ear: "He is wise to lie low as long as possible. It is a great thing to get a good foothold before the whirlwind overtakes one." Sigurd shook his head in his goblet. "When you wish to disarm a serpent, it is best to provoke him into striking at once, and so draw the poison out of his fangs." Under the shelter of some twanging chords, Alwin whispered up to them: "If you could sit here and see Kark's face, you would think of a dog that is going to bite. And he keeps watching the door. What is it that he expects to come through it?" Neither could say. They also took to watching the entrance. Meanwhile the feasting went merrily on. The table was piled with what were considered the daintiest of dishes,--reindeer tongues, fish, broiled veal, horse-steaks, roast birds, shining white pork; wine by the jugful, besides vats of beer and casks of mead; curds, and loaves of rye bread, mounds of butter, and mountains of cheese. Toasts and compliments flew back and forth. Alwin was kept leaping to supply his master's goblet, so many wished the honor of drinking with him. His news of Norway was listened to with breathless attention; his opinion was received with deference. Often it seemed to Alwin that he had only to speak to have his mission instantly accomplished. The English youth noticed, however, that amid all Leif's flowing eloquence there was no reference to the new faith. The feast waxed merrier and noisier. One of the fiddlers began to shout a ballad, to the accompaniment of the harp. It happened to be the "Song of the Dwarf-Cursed Sword." Sigurd swallowed a curd the wrong way when the words struck his ear; even Valbrand looked sideways at his chief. But Leif's face was immovable; and only his followers noticed that he did not join in the applause that followed the song. Some of the crew let out sighs of impatience. They could fight,--it was their pleasure next after drinking,--but these waits of diplomacy were almost too much for them. It was fortunate that some trick-dogs were brought in at this point. Watching their antics, the spectators forgot impatience in boisterous delight. While they were cheering the dog that had jumped highest over his pole, and pounding on the table to express their approval, through chinks in the uproar there came from outside a sound of voices, and horses neighing. "It is Thorwald, home from hunting!" Sigurd said eagerly, looking toward the door. In a moment he was proved correct, for the door had opened and admitted the sportsman and his companion. Thorwald Ericsson was as unlike his brother Leif as the guardsman was different from some of the plain farmers around him. He was long and lean and wiry, and his thin lips were set in cruel lines. His dress was shabby, and out of all decent order. Patches of fur had been torn out of his cloak; he was muddy up to his knees, and there was blood on his tunic and on his hands. He stood staring at the gay company in surprise, blinking in the sudden light, until his gaze en-countered Leif, when he cried out joyously and hastened forward to seize his hand. Alwin drew away in disgust from the touch of his ill-smelling garments. As he did so, his eye fell upon Kark, who had laid hold of Thorwald's companion and was talking rapidly in his ear. The new-comer was not an amiable-looking man. Above his gigantic body was a lowering face that showed a capacity for slyness or viciousness, whichever better served his turn. As Kark talked to him, his brow grew blacker and he plucked savagely at his knife-hilt. It dawned upon Alwin then that he must be Kark's father, the steward Thorhall of whom Valbrand had spoken. "In which case it is likely that something is about to happen," he told himself, and tried to communicate the news to Sigurd. But Thorwald stood between them, still pressing Leif's hand. When the hunter had passed on down the line of the crew, Thorhall came forward and greeted Leif with great civility. Only as he was retiring his eye appeared to fall upon Alwin for the first time; he stopped in pained surprise. "What is this I see, chief? You have got another bowerman in place of my son, whom your father gave to you? It must be that Kark has done something which you dislike. Tell me what it is, and I will slay him with my own hand." Again Valbrand looked sideways at his master, as if to remind him that he had warned him of this. Tyrker began to fumble at his beard with shaking hands, and to blink across at Eric. This time they had attracted the Red One's attention. His palm was curved around his ear that he might not lose a word; his eyes were fastened upon Leif. The guardsman's face was as inscrutable as the side of his goblet. "If Kark had deserved to be slain, he would not be living now. He is less accomplished than this man, therefore I changed them." The steward bent his head in apparent submission. "Now, as always, you are right. Rather than a boorish Odin-man, better is it to have a man of accomplishments,--even though he be a hound of a Christian." He turned away, as one quite innocent of the barb in his words. An audible murmur passed down the line of Leif's men. No one doubted that this was Thorhall's trap to avenge the slights upon his son. Would the chief let this also pass by? Though their faces remained set to the front, their eyes slid around to watch him. Leif drew himself up haughtily and also very quietly. "It is unadvisable for you to speak such words to me," he said. "I also am a Christian." Flint had struck steel. Eric leaped to his feet in a blaze. "Say that again!" Thorwald and a dozen of the guests shook their heads frantically at him, but Leif repeated the declaration. Crash! Down went Eric's goblet, to shiver into a thousand pieces on the table edge. With a furious curse he flung himself back in his chair, and leaned there, panting and glaring. A hum of voices arose around the room. Men called out soothing words to the Red One and expostulations to Leif. Others felt furtively for their weapons. Some of the women turned pale and clung to each other. Helga arose, her beautiful face shining like a star, and left their ranks and came over and seated herself on Leif's foot-stool, though the voice of Thorhild rose high and shrill in scolding. Leif's men straightened themselves alertly, and fixed upon their master the eyes of expectant dogs. Thorwald hurried to his brother, and laid hands on his shoulders, and endeavored to argue with him. Leif put him aside, as he arose and faced his father. Through the tumult his voice sounded quiet and strong, the quiet of perfect self-command, the strength of a fearless heart and an iron will. "It is a great grief to me that you dislike what I have done; yet now I think it best to tell you the whole truth, that you cannot feel that I have acted underhanded in anything." Eric gave vent to a sound between a growl and a snarl, and flounced in his chair. Thorhild made her son a gesture of entreaty. But Leif, looking back into the frowning faces, calmly continued: "Olaf Trygvasson converted me to Christianity two winters ago, and I tell you truly that I was never so well helped as I have been since then. And not only am I a Christian, but every man who calls himself mine is also one, and will let blood-eagles be cut in his back rather than change his faith." No sound came from Eric; but his mouth was half open, as though his rage were choking him, and his face was purple and twitched with passion. He had picked up the ugly little bronze battle-axe that leaned against his chair, and was hefting it and fingering it and shifting it from hand to hand. Gradually the eyes of all the company centred upon the gleaming wedge, following it up and down and back and forth, expecting, dreading. "If he does not wish to go so far as to slay his own son, he has yet an easy mark in me," Alwin murmured, his eyes following the motions like snake-charmed birds. "If he raises it again like that, I think I shall dodge." Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see many movements of uneasiness among Leif's men. Only Leif went on quietly: "You have always known that your gods must die, so it should not surprise you to be told now that they are dead; and it should gladden your hearts to know that One has been found who is both ever-living and willing to help. Therefore King Olaf has sent me to lay before you, that if you will accept this faith as the men of Trondhjem have done--" Helga sprang aside with a shriek of warning. Eric's arm had shot up and back. With a bellow of rage, he leaped to his feet and hurled the axe at his son's head. Simultaneously came an oath from Valbrand and a roar from the crew; then a thundering blow, as the axe, missing the Lucky One by ever so small a space, buried itself deep in the wall behind him. Instantly every man of the crew was on his feet, and there was clashing of weapons and a tumult of angry voices. Eric's men were not behindhand, and many of the guests drew swords to protect themselves. They were on the verge of a bloody scene, when again Leif's voice sounded above the uproar. He had drawn no weapon, nor swerved nor moved from his first position. "Put up your swords!" he said to his men. Those who caught the under-note in his voice hastened to obey, even while they protested. He turned again to his father, and into his manner came that strange new gentleness that is known as courtesy, which set him above the raging Red One as a man is above a beast. "It seems strange to me that the one who taught me the laws of hospitality should be the one to break them with me. Nevertheless, now that I have been frank with you, I will not anger you by speaking further of my mission. And since you do not wish to lodge us, I and my men will go back to my ship and sleep there until my errand is accomplished. Valbrand, do you go first, that the others may follow you in order." The old warrior hesitated as he wheeled. "It is you who should go first, my chief. The heathens will murder you. We--" "You will do as I command," Leif interrupted him distinctly; and after one glance at his face, they obeyed. Nothing like this had ever been seen before. A hush of awe fell upon Eric's men and Eric's guests. One by one the crew filed out, with rumbling threats and scowling faces, but wordless and empty-handed. Alwin took advantage of his close attendance to be the last to go, but finally even he was forced to leave. Helga marched out beside him, her head held very high, her eyes dealing sharper stabs than her dagger, Leif's scarlet colors flying in her cheeks. Thorhild called to her, but she swept on, unheeding. At the door, Alwin paused to look back. He would not be denied that. Leif still stood before his high-seat, holding Eric with his keen calm eyes as a man holds a mad dog at bay. Never had he looked grander. Alwin silently swore his oath of fealty anew. That no one should accuse him of cowardice, the guardsman waited until the door had closed upon the last one of his men. Then, slowly, with the utmost composure, he walked out alone between the ranks of his enemies. An involuntary murmur applauded him as he passed. Thorhild, torn as she was between anger and pride, was quick to catch its meaning and to use it. Whatever Leif's faith, she was still his mother. Taking her life in her hand, she bent over and whispered in Eric's ear. The darkness of his face became midnight blackness,--then was suddenly rent apart as with lightning. He brought his fist down upon the table with a mighty crash. "Stop! When did I say anything against lodging you? Do you think to throw shame upon my hospitality before my guests? I will have none of your religion,--I spit upon it. You are no longer my son,--I disown you. But you shall sleep under my roof and eat at my board so long as you remain in Greenland, you and your following. No man shall breathe a word against the hospitality of Eric of Brattahlid. Thorhall, light them to sleeping rooms!" His breath, which had been growing shorter and shorter, failed him utterly. He finished with a savage gesture, and threw himself back in his chair. If Leif had consulted his pride, it is likely that that night Greenland would have seen the last of him. But foremost in his heart, before any consideration for himself, was the success of his mission. After a moment's hesitation, he accepted the offer courteously, and permitted Thorhall's obsequious attendance. One can imagine the amazement of his followers when he came out to them, not only unharmed, but waited upon by the steward and a dozen torch-bearers. "It is because he is the Lucky One," they whispered to each other. "His God helps him in everything. It is a faith to live and die for." They followed him across the grassy courtyard to the foot of the steps leading up to his sleeping-room, and would not leave him until he had consented that Valbrand and Olver should go in with him for a bodyguard. "And this boy also," he added, signing to Alwin. As Alwin approached, Kark had the impudence to shoulder himself forward also. "Chief, are you going to turn me out to lie with the swine in the kitchen?" he said boldly. "Remember that every time you have slept in this room before, I have lain across your threshold." Leif's glance pierced him through and through. "Is it sense for a man to trust his slumbers to a dog that has bitten him once? Go lie in the kennel. If it were not for provoking Eric, you would not wait long to feel my blade." He turned and walked up the steps, with his hand on Alwin's shoulder. CHAPTER XV A WOLF-PACK IN LEASH He utters too many Futile words Who is never silent; A garrulous tongue, If it be not checked, Sings often to its own harm. Ha'vama'l Out in the courtyard the four juniors of Leif's train were resting in the shade of the great hall, after a vigorous ball-game. It was four weeks since the crew of the "Sea-Deer" had come into shore-quarters; and though the warmth of August was in the sunshine, the chill of dying summer was already in the shadow. Sigurd drew his cloak around him with a shiver. "Br-r-r! The sweat drops are freezing on me. What a place this is!" Rolf, leaning against the door-post, whittling, finished his snatch of song, "'Hew'd we with the Hanger! It happed that when I young was East in Eyrya's channel Outpoured we blood for grim wolves,'"-- and looked down with his gentle smile. "If you mean that it is this doorstep that is not to your mind, you take too much trouble. We must leave it in a moment; do you not hear that?" He jerked his head toward the gateway, from which direction they suddenly caught the faint notes of hunters' horns. "It is Eric's men returning from their sport. In a little while they will be here, and we must try our luck elsewhere." He straightened himself lazily, flicking the chips from his dress; but the other three sat doggedly unmoved. Alwin said, testily: "I do not see why we must be kept jumping like frightened rabbits because Leif has ordered us to avoid quarrels. What trouble can we get into if we remain here without speaking, and give them plenty of room to pass by us into the hall?" Rolf smiled amiably at the three scowling faces. "Certainly you are good mates to Ann the Simpleton, if you cannot tell any better than that what would happen? They would go a rod out of their way to bump into one of us. If they have been successful, their blood will be up so that they will wish to fight for pleasure. If they have failed, they will be murderous with anger. It took less than that to start the brawl in which Olver was slain,--which I dare say you have not forgotten." Alwin winced, and Sigurd shivered with something besides the cold. It was not the bloody tumult of the fight that they remembered the most clearly; it was what came after it. True to his interpretation of hospitality, Eric had punished the murder of his guest's servant by lopping off, with his own sword, the right hand of the murderer; whereupon Leif had sworn to mete the same justice to any man of his who should slay a follower of Eric. Slowly, as the blaring horns and trampling hoofs drew nearer, the three rose to their feet. Only Alwin struck the ground a savage blow with the bat he still held. "By Saint George! it is unbearable that we should be forced to act in such a foolish way! Has Leif less spirit than a wood-goat? I do not see what he means by it." "Nor I," echoed Sigurd. "Nor I," growled Egil. "I believed he had some of Eric's temper in him." "I do not see why, myself," Rolf admitted; "but I see something that seems to me of greater importance, and that is how he looked when he gave the order." They followed him across the grassy enclosure, though they still grumbled. "Where shall we go?" "The stable also is full of Eric's men." "Before long we shall be shoved off the land altogether. We will have to swim over to Biorn's dwarf-country." "I propose that we go to the landing place," exclaimed Sigurd. "It may be that the ship which Valbrand sighted this morning is nearly here." "I say nothing against that," Rolf assented. They wheeled promptly toward a gate. But at that moment, Alwin caught sight of a blue-gowned figure watering linen in front of the women's-house. "Do you go on without me," he said, drawing back. "I will follow in a moment." Sigurd threw him a keen glance. "Is it your intention to do anything exciting, like quarrelling with Thorhall as you did last night? Let me stay and share it." There was a little embarrassment in Alwin's laugh. "No such intention have I. I wish to see the hunters ride in." The hunters were an imposing sight, as they swept into the court, and broke ranks with a cheer that brought heads to every door. White-robed thralls ran among the champing horses, unsaddling them; scarlet-cloaked sportsmen tumbled heaps of feathered slain out of their game-bags upon the grass; horns brayed, and hounds bayed and struggled in the leash. But Alwin forgot to notice it, he was hurrying so eagerly to where Helga, Gilli's daughter, walked between her strips of bleaching linen, sprinkling them with water from a bronze pan with a little broom of twigs. The outline of her face was sharper and the roses glowed more faintly in her cheeks, but she welcomed him with her beautiful frank smile. "I was hoping some of you would think it worth while to come over here. It is a great relief for me to speak to a man again. I am so tired of women and their endless gabble of brewing and spinning. Yesterday Freydis, Eric's daughter, drove over, and all the while she was here she talked of nothing but--" "Eric's daughter?" Alwin repeated in surprise. "Not until now have I heard that Leif had a sister. Why is she never spoken of? Where does she live?" Helga shrugged impatiently. "She lives at Gardar with a witless man named Thorvard, whom she married for his wealth. She is a despisable creature. And the reason no one speaks of her is that if he did he would feel Thorhild's hands in his hair. There is great hatred between them. Yesterday they quarrelled before Freydis had been here any time at all. And I was about to say that I was glad of it, since it brought about Freydis' departure: all the time she was here she spoke of nothing save her ornaments and costly things. Oh, I do not see why Odin had the wish to create women! It would have been pleasanter if they had remained elm-trees." Alwin regarded her with eyes of the warmest good-will. "It would become a heavy misfortune to me if you were an elm-tree,--though it is likely that I should speak with you then quite as often as I do now. Except at meals, I seldom see you. But I never pass your window that I do not remember that you are toiling within, and say to myself that I am sorry for your bad luck." "I give you thanks," answered Helga, with her friendly smile. "Where have the other men gone? I wished to speak with Sigurd." "They have gone to the landing-place, to watch for a ship that Valbrand sighted this morning from the rocks." She cried out joyfully: "A ship in Einar's Fiord? Then it belongs to some chief of the settlement, who is returning from a Viking voyage! There will be a fine feast made to welcome him." Alwin followed her doubtfully up the lane between the white patches. "Is it likely that that will do us any good? It is possible that Leif will not be invited." The heat of her scorn was like to have dried the drops she was scattering. "You are out of your senses. Do you think men who trade among the Christians are so little-minded as Eric? Leif is known to be a man of renown, and the friend of Olaf Trygvasson. They will be proud to sit at table with him." "It may be that he will refuse to feast with heathens." "That is possible," Helga admitted. She emptied her pan with a little flirt of impatience, and sighed. "How tiresome everything is! To sit at a table where one is afraid to move lest there be a fight! I speak the truth when I say that this is the merriest diversion I have,--standing out here, watering linen, and watching who comes and goes. And now that my pan is empty, I must betake myself indoors again. Yonder is Valbrand beckoning you." It is probable that Alwin would not have hurried to obey the summons, but with a nod and a smile Helga turned away, and there was nothing for him but to go forward to meet the steersman. The old warrior regarded the young favorite with his usual apathy. "It is the wish of Leif that you attend upon him directly." "Is he in his sleeping-room?" "Yes." It occurred to Alwin to wonder at this summons. His usual hour for reading came after Leif had retired for the night. If the chief had overheard the dispute with Thorhall! He lingered, meditating a question; but a second glance at Valbrand's battered face dissuaded him. He turned sharply on his heel, and strode across to the storehouse that had become Leif's headquarters. A loft that could be reached only by a ladder-like outer stairway, and was without fireplace or stove or means of heating, does not appear inviting. But one has a keener sense of appreciation when he considers that the other alternative was a bed in the great hall, where the air was as foul as it was warm, and the room was shared with drunken men and spilled beer and bones and scraps left from feasting. Alwin had no inclination to hold his nose high in regard to his master's new lodgings. England itself offered nothing more comfortable. When he had come up the long flight of steps and swung open the heavy door, he had even an impulse of admiration. This, the state guest-chamber, was not without softening details. It was large and high and weather-proof, and boasted three windows. The box-like straw-filled beds, that were built against the wall, were spread with snowy linen and covers of eiderdown. The long brass-bound chests that stood on either side the door were piled with furs until they offered the softest and warmest of resting-places. A score of Leif's rich dresses, hanging from a row of nails, covered the bare walls as with a gorgeous tapestry. The table was provided with graceful bronze water-pitchers and wash-basins of silver, and was littered over with silver scissors and gold-mounted combs and bright-hilted knives, and a medley of costly trinkets. Near the table stood a great carved arm-chair. At the sight of the man who leaned against its flaming red cushions of eiderdown, Alwin forgot his admiration. The chief's eyebrows made a bushy line across his nose. The young bowerman knew, without words, why he had been sent for. He stopped where he was, a pace within the door, angry and embarrassed. After a while, Leif said sternly: "You are very silent now, but it appears to me that I heard your voice loud enough in the hall last night." "It was only that I was accusing Thorhall of a trick that he tried to put upon me. He allowed me to go up to the loft above the provision house without telling me that the flooring had been taken up, so that they might pour the new mead into the vat in the room below. In one more step I should have fallen through the opening and been drowned. It is plain he did it to avenge Kark. I should have burst if I had not told him so." "I have commanded that my men shall not hold speech with the men of Eric except on friendly matters; that they shall avoid a quarrel as they would avoid death." His tone of quiet authority had begun to have its usual effect upon his young follower; Alwin's head had bent before him. But suddenly he looked up with a daring flash. "Then I have not been disobedient to you, lord; for I would not avoid death if it seemed to me that such shirking were cowardly." A moment the retort brought a grim smile to Leif's lips; then suddenly his face froze into a look of terrible anger. He half started from his chair. "Do you dare tell me to my face that, because I order you to keep the peace, I am a coward?" Alwin gave a great gasp. "Lord, there is no man in the world who would dare speak such words to you. I but meant that I cannot bear such treatment as Thorhall's in silence." Had another said this, the answer might have been swift and fierce; but Leif's manner toward this follower was always different from his way with others,--whether out of respect for his accomplishment, or a fancy for him, or because he discerned in him some refinement that was rare in that brutal age. The anger faded from his face and he said quietly: "Can you not bear so small a thing as that, for so great a cause as the spreading of your faith?" The boy started. "Without peace in which to gain their friendship so that they will hear us willingly, our cause is lost. It is not because I am a craven that I bear to be the guest of the man who sought my life, who turns his face from me when I sit at his board, who allows his servants to insult me. Sometimes I think it would be easier to bear the martyrdom of the blessed saints!" He made a sudden fierce movement in his chair, as though the fire in his veins had leaped out and burnt his flesh. Then, for the first time, Alwin understood. He bent before him, rebuked and humbled. "Lord, I see that I have done wrong. I ask you to pardon it. Say what you would have me do." "Put my commands ahead of your desires, as I put King Olaf's wish before my pride, and as he sets the will of God before his will." "I promise I will not fail you again, lord." "See that you do not," Leif answered, with a touch of sternness. CHAPTER XVI A COURTIER OF THE KING A better burden No man bears on the way Than much good sense; That is thought better than riches In a strange place: Such is the recourse of the indigent. Ha'vama'l The next afternoon when Helga came out to water the linen, she found Alwin waiting for her, on the pretext of hunting in the long grass for a lost arrow-head. He greeted her gayly: "I will offer you three chances to guess my news." She paused, with her twig broom raised and dripping, and scanned him eagerly. "Is it anything about the ship that came yesterday? I heard among the women that it is the war-vessel of Eric's kinsman, Thorkel Farserk, just come back from ravaging the Irish coast. Is his wife going to make a feast to welcome him?" "I will not deny that you have proved a good guesser. And, by Dunstan! he deserves to be received well. Never saw I such a sight as that landing! There were more slaves than there were men in the crew. Not a man but had a bloody bandage on his head or his body, and the arms and legs of some were lacking. Two of the crew were not there at all, and their sweethearts had come down to the shore to meet them; and when they found that they had been slain, they tore their hair and tried to kill themselves with knives." "That was foolish of them," said Helga, calmly. "Better was it that their lovers should die in good repute than live in the shame of cowardice. But tell me the news. Has it happened, as I supposed, that there is going to be a feast, and Leif is asked to it?" "Messengers came this morning from Farserk's wife. But you dare not guess the rest." "I dare throw this pan of water over you if you do not tell me instantly." "It would not matter much if you did. I am to have new clothes,--of black velvet with bands of ermine. But hearken now: Leif has accepted the invitation! Even Valbrand thinks this a great wonder. At this moment Sigurd is selecting the chief's richest dress, and Rolf is getting out the most costly of the gifts that were brought from Norway." Helga set down her pan for the express purpose of clapping her hands. "Now I am well content; for at last they will see him in all his glory, and know what manner of man they have treated with disrespect. I have hoped with all my heart for such a thing as this, but by no means did I think he cared enough to do it." Alwin shook his head hastily. "You must not get it into your mind that it is to improve his own honor that he does it now. I know that for certain. It is to give his mission a good appearance." Helga picked up her pan with a sigh. "When he begins to preach that to them, he will knock it all over again." Alwin considered it his duty to frown at this; but it must be confessed that something very similar was in his own thoughts as he followed his lord into Thorkel Farserk's feasting-hall that night. Whatever his religion, the guardsman's rank and his gallant appearance and fine manners compelled admiration and respect. It could not but seem a pity to his admirers that soon, with one word, he would be forced to undo it all. "It is harder than the martyrdom of the saints," Alwin murmured bitterly. Then his eye fell upon the silver crucifix, shining pure and bright on Leif's breast, and he realized the unworthiness of his thoughts, and resigned himself with a sigh. But he found that even yet Leif's purposes were beyond him. Never, by so much as a word, did the guardsman refer to the subject of the new religion,--though again and again his skilful tongue won for him the attention of all at the table. He spoke of battles and of feasts, and of the grandeur of the Northmen. With the old men he discussed Norwegian politics; with the young ones he talked of the famous champions of King Olaf's guard. To the women who wished to know concerning the King's house, and the Queen, he answered with the utmost patience. He described everything, from weddings to burials, with the skill of a minstrel and the weight of an authority, and always with the tact of a courtier. Gradually whispers of praise circled around the board, whispers that fell like sweetest music on the jealous ears of Leif's followers. Thorhild leaned back from her food and watched him with open pride,--and though Eric kept his face still turned away, he set his ear forward so that he should hear everything. Alwin was almost beside himself with nervousness. "If the crash does not come soon, I shall go out of my wits," he whispered to Rolf. The Wrestler turned upon him a face of such unusual excitement that he was amazed. "Do you not see?" he whispered. "There will not be any crash. I have just begun to understand. It was this he meant when he spoke to you of gaining their friend-ship that they might hear him willingly. Do you not see?" Alwin's relief was so great that at first he dared not believe it. When the truth of it dawned upon him, he was overcome with wonder and admiration. In those days, nine men out of every ten could draw their swords and rave and die for their principles; it was only the tenth man that was strong enough to keep his hand off his weapon, or control his tongue and live to serve his cause. "Luck obeys his will as the helm his hand. I shall never worry over him again," he said contentedly, as with the others he waited in the courtyard for Leif to come out of the feasting-hall. Sigurd laughed gayly. "Do you know what I just overheard in the crowd? Some of Thorkel's men were praising Leif, and one of Eric's churls thought it worth while to boast to them how he had known the Lucky One when he was a child. Certainly the tide is beginning to turn." "Leif Ericsson is an ingenious man," Rolf said, with unusual decision. "I take shame upon me that ever I doubted his wisdom." Egil uttered the kind of sullen grunt with which he always prefaced a disagreeable remark. "Ugh! I do not agree with you. I think his behavior was weak-kneed. Knowing their hatred against the word Christian, all the more would I have dinged it into their ears; that they might not think they had got the better of me. Now they believe he has become ashamed of his faith and deserted it." The three broke in upon him in an angry chorus. Alwin said sternly: "You speak in a thoughtless way, Egil Olafsson. You forget that he still wears the crucifix upon his breast. How can they believe that he has forgotten his faith or given it up, when they cannot look at him without seeing also the sign of his God?" Egil turned away, silenced. This feast of Thorkel Farserk was the first of a long line of such events. With the approach of autumn, ships became a common sight in the fiords-Those chieftains who had left Greenland in summer to spear whales in the northern ocean, or make trading voyages to eastern countries, or cruise over the high seas on pirates' missions, now came sailing home again with increased wealth and news-bags bursting. For every traveller, wife or kinsman made a feast of welcome--a bountiful entertainment that sometimes lasted three days, with tables always spread, and horns always filled, and games and horse-races, and gifts for everyone. At each of these celebrations, Leif appeared in all his splendor; and his tactful tongue held for him the place of honor. His popularity grew apace. The only thing that could keep step with it was the exultation of his followers. CHAPTER XVII THE WOOING OF HELGA At love should no one Ever wonder In another; A beauteous countenance Oft captivates the wise, Which captivates not the foolish. A man must not Blame another For what is many men's weakness; For mighty love Changes the sons of men From wise into fools. Ha'vama'l It happened, one day, that an accidental discovery caused Alwin to regard these festivities in a new light. It was a morning in November when he was in the hall, kneeling before master to lace his high boots. Leif stood before the fire, wrapping himself up for a ride across the Settlement. Some unknown cause had made the atmosphere of the breakfast-table so particularly ungenial,--Thorhild sitting with her back to her spouse, and Eric manifesting a growing desire to hurl goblets at the heads of all who looked at him,--that the courtier had judged it discreet to absent himself from the next meal. He now stood arraying himself from a pile of furs, and talking with Tyrker, who sat near him blinking in the fire-glow. Save a couple of house-thralls scrubbing at the lower end of the room, no one else was present, Eric having started on his morning round of the stables, the smithies, and the cow-houses. As he pulled on his fur gloves, Leif smiled satirically. "It is a good thing that I was present last summer when King Olaf converted Kjartan the Icelander. It was then I learned that those who cannot be dealt with by force may often be led by the nose without their knowing it. Olaf said to the fellow, 'The God I worship does not wish that any should be brought to Him by force. As you are averse to the doctrines of Christianity, you may depart in peace.' Whereupon Kjartan immediately replied: 'In this manner I may be induced to be a Christian.' So, because I have kept my promise to speak no more concerning Christianity, men have become curious about it, and yesterday two chiefs came of their own will and asked me questions concerning it." Tyrker poked his head out to say "So?" then snuggled back into his wraps again, to chuckle contentedly. He was so wound up in furs that he looked like a sharp little needle in a fuzzy haystack. Leif's smile gave way to a frown. "Another man came to me also, on a different errand,--Ragner Thorkelsson,--it may be that you saw him? He wished to make a bargain concerning Helga." Alwin gave a great start, so that the leather thong snapped in his hand; but his master went on unheeding. "You know it is my wish that she shall marry as soon as she can make a good match, since she is not happy while she sits at home with Thorhild, and it is not likely that she will like her father much better. It has been in my mind through every feast; but until now, none of the men who have asked for her has seemed to me a good match." Though his hands kept mechanically at their work, Alwin's brain seemed to have come to a standstill. It must be a dream, a foolish dream. It was not possible that such a thing could have been planned without his even suspecting it. He listened numbly. "The first man was too old. The second was not of good enough kin; and the other two had not enough property. Ragner Thorkelsson lacks none of these. He is young; his father's father was a lawman; and he owns eighteen farms and many ships." Though he did not in the least know why, Alwin felt a hot desire to seek out Ragner Thorkelsson and kill him. "So?" said Tyrker, peering forth inquiringly. "Yet never have I heard that he any accomplishments had, or that in battle enemies he had overcome." "No," Leif assented. He did not finish immediately, and there was a pause. From the courtyard came a clashing and jingling of bells, as servants brought the reindeer from the feeding-ground to harness them to the boat-like sledges that stood waiting. "It may be that I have acted unwisely," Leif said at last; "but because I did not believe it would be according to Helga's wish, I told him that I would not bargain with him." Alwin buried a gulping laugh in the fur cloak he had picked up. He had known that it would end in some such way. Of course; it had been idiotic to expect anything else. He listened smilingly for what else Leif had to say. The guardsman drew the last strap through the last buckle on his double fur jacket, and turned toward the door. "It may be that I was unwise, but it may also be that it will not matter much. The most desirable men come home latest; we have not seen them all. It is likely that the next feast will decide it." Long after the door had closed upon Leif, and he had entered the sledge and been whirled through the gate in a flurry of snow and a clamor of bells, Alwin stood there, motionless. Tyrker dozed in the comfort-able warmth, and woke to find him still staring down into the fire. "What hast thou, my son?" he questioned, kindly. Alwin came to himself with a start and a stare, and catching up his cloak, hurried out of the room without replying. "I will find Helga and tell her that she must put a stop to it," he was saying to himself as he went. "That is what I will do. I will tell her that she must stop it." Pulling his cap lower as the keen wind cut his face, he hurried across the courtyard toward the women's-house, trying to frame some excuse that should bring Helga to the door where he could speak to her. Half-way across, he bumped into Rolf. "Hail, comrade! Have you left your eyes behind you in your hurry?" the Wrestler greeted him, catching him by the shoulders and spinning him round and round as he attempted to pass. "You look as sour as last night's beer. What will you give to hear good tidings?" "Nothing. Let me go. I am in a hurry," Alwin fumed. "You have not outrun your curiosity, have you? I have just learned why it is that Thorhild no longer speaks to Eric, and why he is in a mood to smash things." "Why?" asked Alwin, impatiently; but he no longer struggled, for he knew it was useless in Rolf's grip. "Because last night Thorhild told Eric that she had become a Christian. Her bowerwoman told Helga, and when I met Helga--" "Met her? Where? Is she in the women's-house?" Rolf shook him by the shoulders he still held. "Is that all you have to say to news of such importance? Do you not see that now that Thorhild has been converted, Eric's men will no longer dare oppose us; lest in time to come, when she has brought Eric round--" "I say, where did you meet Helga?" roared Alwin. Rolf released him, and stood looking at him with an inscrutable smile. "If I were not your sworn friend, I should enjoy wringing your neck," he said. "I met Helga at the gate yonder. She was going over to Glum Starkadsson's to get something for Thorhild, and also because she wished a walk over the hard snow." "Is it far from here? And in what direction?" "For what purpose do you wish to know that?" "I ask you in what direction it lies." "The Troll take you!" Rolf gave it up with a laugh. "It lies to the north of the fiord,--beyond a bridge that crosses a river that runs through a valley. And it is not far. Have you not yet learned that in Greenland people do not take long strolls in the winter-time?" Alwin pulled a hood over his cap, strapped his cloak still tighter, drew a pair of down-lined mittens from under his girdle and put them on over his gloves, and, without another syllable, turned and made for the gate. It was glorious weather, dry and clear, and so still that very little of the cold penetrated his fur-lined garments. Snow covered everything, fine and firm and dazzling. The smooth white expanse suggested a wish that he had brought the skees he was learning to use; then the sight of the line of boulders he would have had to steer around made him rejoice that he had not. Far ahead of him rose the glittering wall of inland ice,--that mysterious frozen sea that covers all of Greenland except its very border, and never advances and never recedes. What made it stop there, he wondered? And what lay beyond it? And could those tales be true that the old women told, of terrible magical beings living on its silent frozen peaks? The sight of a dark speck moving over the white plain far ahead of him banished every other thought. It might be that it was Helga. He crunched on eagerly. Then he dipped into the valley and lost sight of the speck, found it on the bridge, dipped again, and again it was lost to view. It was not until the fence of Glum Starkadsson's farm was plainly in sight, that he caught another glimpse of it. But this time it was coming toward him, from the gateway. Certainly that long crimson cloak and full crimson hood belonged to Helga. In a moment, she waved her hand at him. Soon he could see her face under the white fur border. Her scarlet lips were curving in a smile. The snow-glare brought out the dazzling fairness of her pearly skin, and her eyes were like two radiant blue stars. It seemed to Alwin that he had never known before how beautiful she was. A strange shyness came over him, that weighted his feet and left him without a word to say when they met. But Helga greeted him cheerily. "Did you ever breathe finer air? I wish Thorhild would run out of gold thread every day in the week. Are you in a hurry?" "No," Alwin began hesitatingly, "I--" She did not wait for the end. "Then turn back with me a little way, and I will tell you something worth hearing." He turned obediently and walked beside her, trying to think how to put what he had come to say. "You remember hearing of Egil's father Olaf, who was so ill-tempered that Egil dared not go home and confess that he had become a Christian? Gunnlaug Starkadsson returned this morning from visiting his wife, and she says that last night the old man's horse threw him so that his head hit against a stone, and it caused his death." She made an impressive pause; but Alwin stalked along in silence, grinding his heels deep into the snow. "Do you not see what that means?" she asked, impatiently. "Egil will now come into his inheritance, and become one of the richest men in the Settlement." The trouble was that, in the first flash, Alwin had seen it all too plainly. He had seen that now Egil would become just such a man as Leif was wishing to bargain with. The thought burnt him like a hot iron, and he opened his lips to pour out his frenzy; but he could not find the words. After a moment he said, sullenly: "I should be thankful if he would leave Leif's service, so that I could sometimes speak to you without having him watch me like a dog at a rabbit-hole." Helga turned toward him with frank interest. "I wonder at that also. He does not act so when I speak to Sigurd or Rolf. But then, he has behaved very strangely to me ever since he talked with Skroppa in Iceland, two seasons ago." "He spoke to me of Skroppa the first time I saw him," Alwin said, absently. Then a flicker of curiosity awoke in him. "I wish that you would tell me what 'Skroppa' stands for. I do not know whether it is man or beast or demon." Even out there in the open, Helga glanced about for listeners before she answered. "Skroppa is a fore-knowing woman, who lives among the unsettled places north of here, in a cabin down in a hollow. Though Leif will not admit it, it was she who took the curse off Eric's sword." It seemed to Alwin that here at last was an opening. He said harshly: "I wonder if she would be wise enough to tell whom Leif will marry you to before the feasting is over?" Helga stood still and looked at him. "What are you talking about?" He stopped in front of her, with a fierce gesture, and in one angry burst told her all he had heard. He could not understand how she could listen so calmly, kicking the snow with the toe of her shoe. When he had finished, she said quietly: "Yes, I know he has that intention in his mind. It is for that reason that every time I go to a feast he gives me costly ornaments, and makes me wear them. I have had great kindness from his hands. But do not let us speak of it further." Alwin caught her roughly by her wrists, and shook her a little as he looked into her eyes. "You must not let him marry you to anyone. Do you hear? You _must_ not, _I_ love you." Helga's look of resentment changed to one of pleased surprise, and she shook his hands heartily. "Do you truly, comrade? I am glad, for I like you very much indeed,--as much as I like Sigurd." "Then swear by your knife that you will not let him marry you to anyone." She pulled her hands away, a little impatiently. "Why do you ask that which is useless?" "But you have just said that you liked me." "I do; but what does that matter, since I cannot marry you?" So light had the yoke of servitude grown on Alwin's shoulders that he had almost forgotten its existence. He opened his lips to ask, "Why?" Then it came back to him that he was a slave, a worthless, helpless dog of a slave. He closed his lips again and walked on without speaking, staring ahead of him with fierce, despairing eyes. CHAPTER XVIII THE WITCH'S DEN Moderately wise Should each one be, But never over-wise: His destiny let know No man beforehand; His mind will be freest from care. Ha'vama'l Because it was Yule Eve, the long deserted temple on the plain was filled with light and sound. Fires blazed upon the floor; the row of gilded idols came out of the shadow and shone in all their splendor. The altars were reddened with the blood of slaughtered cattle; the tapestried walls had been spattered with it. The temple priest dipped a bunch of twigs into the brimming copper bowl, and sprinkled the sacrificial blood over the people who sat along the walls ... They raised the consecrated horns and drank the sacred toasts. To Odin! For victory and power. To Njord! To Frey! For peace and a good year ... Eric of Brattahlid laid his hands upon the atonement boar and made a solemn vow to render justice unto all men, whatsoever their transgressions. The others followed him in this, as in everything. Because this was happening in the temple, Brattahlid, the source of light and good cheer, was dark and gloomy. In the great hall there was no illumination save the flickering firelight. Black shadows blotted out the corners and stretched across the ceiling. The long benches were emptied of all save Leif's followers and Thorhild's band of women. The men sat like a row of automatons, drinking steadily, in deep silence, with furtive glances toward their leader. Leif leaned back in his high-seat, neither speaking nor drinking, scowling down into the flames. "He is angry because Eric keeps up the heathen sacrifice," the women whispered in each other's ears. "He has all of Eric's temper when he is angered. It would be as much as one's life were worth to go near him now." Shivering with nervousness, they crouched on the bench beside their mistress's seat. Thorhild leaned on the arm of her chair, shading her brow with her hand that she might gaze at Leif unseen. Sometimes her eyes dwelt on his face, and sometimes they rested on the silver crucifix that shone on his breast; and so great was her tenderness for the one, that she embraced the other also in a look of yearning love. When the house-thralls had cleared away the tables, they crept into a corner and stayed there, fearing even to go forward and replenish the sinking fire, though gusts of bitter cold came through the broken window behind them. Little as they guessed it, something besides cold was coming through the hole in the window. Even while they shivered and nodded beneath it, a pair of gray Saxon eyes were sending keen glances through it, searching every corner. As the eyes turned back to the outer darkness, Alwin's voice whispered with a long breath of relief: "I am certain they have not noticed that we have gone out." From the darkness, Sigurd's voice interrupted softly: "Is Kark there?" "I think he is still in his comer. The light is bad, and the flames are leaping between, but it seems to me that I can make him out." They emerged from the shadow into the moonlight, and it became evident that Sigurd was shaking his head dubiously. "It seems to me also that I heard the door creak after us, and saw a shadow slip past as we turned this corner. He is always on the watch; it might easily be that our going out aroused his suspicions so that he is hiding somewhere to track us. More than anything else in the world, is he desirous to catch you in some disobedience." Alwin tramped on doggedly. To all appearances, the court was as deserted as a graveyard at midnight. Not even the whinny of a horse broke the stillness. They passed into the shadow of a storehouse, and Alwin dived into, the recess under the steps and began to fumble for something hidden there. When he drew out a pair of skees and proceeded to put them on, Sigurd burst forth with increased vehemence. "Alwin, I implore you to heed my advice. My mind tells me that nothing but evil can come of meddling with Skroppa. There will be no limit to Leif's anger if he--" "I tell you he will not find out," Alwin answered over his shoulder. "His mind is so full of Eric's ill-doings, that he will not notice my absence before I am back again. And to-night is the only night when I am not in danger of being spied upon by Eric's men. It is my only chance." "Yet Kark--" "Kark may go into the hands of the Trolls!" "It is not unlikely that you will accompany him. You are doing a great sin. Harald Fairhair burned his son alive for meddling with witchcraft." Although his toes were thrust into the straps of the runner-like skees, Alwin stamped with exasperation. "You need not tell me that again. I know as well as you that it is a sin. But will not penance make it right?" "You will dishonor Leif's holy mission." "I shall not cause any quarrel, nor offend anyone. What harm can I do?" Sigurd laid his hands on his friend's shoulders and tried to see his face in the dark. "Give it up, comrade; I beseech you to give it up. If you should be discovered, I tell you that though a priest might win you a pardon from Heaven, no power on earth could make your peace with Leif Ericsson." Alwin said slowly: "If he discovers what I have done, I will endure any punishment he chooses, because I owe him some obedience while I eat his bread and wear his clothes. But I am not his born thrall, so I will have my own way first. Urge me no more, brother; my mind is fixed." Sigurd released him instantly. "I will say nothing further,--except that it is my intention to try my luck with you." Stooping into the recess, he drew out an-other pair of skees and began to fasten them on. At the prospect of companionship, Alwin felt a rush of relief,--then a twinge of compunction. "Sigurd, you must not do this thing. There is no reason why you should run this risk." "There would be no reason why you should call me your friend if I did otherwise," Sigurd cut him short. "Do you think me a craven, to let you go alone where you might be tricked or murdered? Have you a weapon?" "Leif will not allow me so much as a dagger, so to-night I borrowed from his table the old brass-hilted knife that Eric gave him in his boyhood. It is unlikely that he will miss that. I have it here." Throwing back his cloak, he showed it thrust through his girdle. "Come, then," said Sigurd curtly. "And have a care for your skees. You are not over-skilful yet." He caught up the long staff that acts something like a balance-pole in skeeing, and darted away. Alwin followed, with an occasional prod of his staff into a shadow that seemed thicker than it should be. By a side-gate, they left the courtyard and struck out across the fields, where the snow was packed as hard as a road-bed. Noiseless as birds, and almost as swift, they skimmed along over the snow-clad plains and half-frozen marshes. As was to have been expected, the young Viking was an expert. To see him shoot down a hillside at lightning speed, his skees as firmly parallel as though they were of one piece, his graceful body bending, balancing, steering, was to see the next best thing to flying. Alwin's runners threw him more than once, lapping one over the other as he was zigzagging up a slope, so that he tripped and rolled until a snow-bank stopped him. As he regained his feet after one of these interruptions, he made some angry remark; but beyond this there was little said. It was a dreary night to be on an uncanny errand, with a chill in the air that seemed to freeze the heart. A fitful, spiteful wind drove the clouds like frightened sheep, and strove to blow out the pale patient moon. Sometimes it seemed almost to succeed; suddenly, when they most needed light to guide their six-foot runners between the great boulders, the light would go out like a torch in the water. The gusts lay in wait for them at the corners, to leap out and lash their faces with a shriek that chattered their teeth. The lulls between the gusts were even worse; it seemed as though the whole world were holding its breath in dread. They held theirs, darting uneasy glances at the glacier wall glittering far ahead of them. When a long, low wail smote their ears, their hearts leaped into their throats. They were travelling along the edge of a black ravine. Halting, they stood with suspended breath, staring down into the darkness. The cry came again, yet more piercing; then suddenly it split into a hissing sound like a kettle boiling over. Alwin broke into a nervous laugh. "Cats!" he said. But Sigurd stiffened as quickly as he had relaxed. "One of Skroppa's! She swarms with them. See! Is not that a light down there?" A sudden flicker there certainly was,--if it was not a ghost-fire. The last cloud scurried from before the face of the long-suffering moon; before the wind could bring up another fleecy flock, the pale light crept down into the hollow and revealed the dark outline of a cabin clinging among the rocks. Alwin slipped out of his skees and made sure of his knife. "That, then, is her house. We will leave the skees here." "Though you never were known to heed advice, I will offer you another piece," Sigurd answered. "We must go softly; and if we find the door unlocked, enter quickly and without knocking. Otherwise it is possible that we will stay outside and talk to the stones." It was a tedious descent, yet somehow the time seemed plenty short enough before they stood at the threshold. The stillness at the bottom of the hollow was death-like; only the flickering light on the window spoke of life. Silently the door yielded to Alwin's touch. Darkness and a dying fire were all that met their eyes. They thought the room empty, and took a step forward. Instantly the space was alive with the green eyes of countless cats. The air was split with yowlings and spittings and hissing. Soft furry bodies bounced against them and bit and clawed around their legs. From the farthest corner came the lisping voice of a toothless old woman. "Who dares interrupt my sleep when the visions of things I wish to know are passing before me? Better would it be for him to put his hand into the mouth of the Fenriswolf." Alwin said slowly, "It is the English thrall." After a pause, the voice answered crossly, "I know no English thrall." "How comes it, then, that more than a year ago you told something concerning him which made Egil Olafsson his mortal foe?" Out of the darkness came a sudden cackling laugh. "That is true. I told the Black One that the maiden he loved would love an English thrall instead. And he wished to stick his sword through me!" "Is that what you told him?" cried Alwin, in amazement. Sigurd echoed the cry. Yet as their minds ran back over Egil's strange actions, they could not doubt that this was the key that unlocked their mystery. From an invisible corner came a stir, a creak, and then the sound of feet lighting softly on the floor. A tiny figure appeared on the edge of the shadows beyond the dying fire. The light fell upon furry gray feet; and Alwin's first thought was that a monstrous cat had dropped down. Then the flames leaped higher, and showed a furry cloak and a furry hood, and from its fuzzy depths protruding, a sharp yellow beak for a nose, and a hairy yellow peak for a chin. Of eyes, one saw nothing at all. Out of the fuzzy depths came a lisping voice. "When a thrall of Leif Ericsson, who is also a Christian, thinks it worth while to risk his life and his soul to consult me, I forgive it that I am wakened at midnight. It is a compliment to my powers that I do not take ill. Say what you wish to learn from me." Alwin felt Sigurd touch him reproachfully, and shame burned in his cheeks; but he had gone too far to retreat. He said bluntly: "I wish to know whether Helga, Gilli's daughter, is to be given to Egil. Each time he speaks across the floor to her, I am as though I were pricked with sharp knives. I have endured it through three feasts; but I look upon her with such eyes of love, that I can bear it no longer." "I will dull those knives, even as Odin blunts the weapons of his enemies. Helga will not be given to Egil, because he is too haughty to ask for her since he knows that she loves you instead of him." It had seemed to Alwin that if he could only know this, he would be satisfied; yet now his questions piled upon each other. "Then do you promise that she will be given to me? How am I to save her? How am I to get my freedom? How long am I to wait?" The Sibyl sank her head upon her breast so that her nose and chin quite disappeared, and she stood before them like some furry headless beast. There was a long pause. Alwin nervously followed the pairs of eyes, noiselessly appearing and disappearing, from floor to ceiling, in every part of the room. Sigurd set his back against the door and carried on a silent struggle with the heavy lumps, hanging by teeth and claws upon his cloak. At last Skroppa raised her head and answered haltingly: "You ask too much, according to the time and the place. To know all that clearly, I should sit on a witches' platform and eat witches' broth, and have women stand about me and sing weird songs. Without music, spirits do not like to help. I can only see bits, vaguely as through a fog... I see your body lying on the ground I see a ship where never ship was seen before I see--I see Leif Ericsson standing upon earth where never man stood before. It seems to me that I read great luck in his face... And I see you standing beside him, though you do not look as you look now, for your hair is long and black. The light is so bright that I cannot... Yes, one thing more is open to my sight. I see that it is in this new land that it will be settled whether your luck is to be good or bad." She stopped. They waited for her to go on; but soon it became evident that the foretelling was finished. With all his prudence, Sigurd began to laugh; and Alwin burst out in a passion of impatience: "For which, you gabbler? For which? I can make nothing of such jargon. Tell me in plain words whether it will be for good or ill." Skroppa answered just one word: "Jargon!" Alwin stormed on unheeding, but Sigurd's laughter stopped: something in the tone of that one word chilled his blood and braced his muscles like a frost. He strained his eyes to pierce the shadow and make out what she was doing; and it seemed to him that he could no longer see her. She had disappeared,--where? In a sudden panic he groped behind him for the door; found it and flung it open. It was well that the moon was shining at that moment. "Alwin!" he shouted. The yellow face was close to the thrall's unconscious shoulder; one evil claw-like hand was almost at his cheek. What she would have done, she alone knew. While his cry was still in the air, Sigurd pulled his companion away and through the door. Up the steep they went like cats. Near the top, Alwin tripped, and his knife slipped from his belt and fell against a boulder. It lay there shining, but neither of them noticed it. Into their skees, and over the crusted plains they went,--reindeer could not have caught them. CHAPTER XIX TALES OF THE UNKNOWN WEST Fire is needful To him who is come in, And whose knees are frozen; Food and raiment A man requires Who o'er the fell has travelled. Ha'vama'l "I tell you I must go over the track once more. It may have slipped out of my girdle at some of the places where I tripped." Alwin's words rose in frosty cloud; for he was Leif's unheated sleeping-room, drawing on an extra pair of thick woollen stockings in preparation for his customary outing. "It is foolishness. Four times already have you been over the ground without finding it. A long brass-halted knife could not have been overlooked if it had been there. I tell you that you lost it among the rocks of the hollow, and that you would be wise to give it up." Sigurd's answer came in muffled though emphatic tones, for he was huddled almost out of sight among the furs on the chest, as he waited for his companion to complete his dressing. Now that genuine winter weather was upon them, the loft was necessarily abandoned as a sleeping apartment; but it still served as a dressing-room for such slight and speedy alterations as were attempted. As he pulled on the big heelless skeeing-shoes, Alwin sighed anxiously. "I must find it. Any day Leif may miss it and ask." "He is not likely to, since he has already gone a week without noticing its absence. And if he should, you have only to say that you borrowed it to protect yourself from wolves. That will not be much of a lie, Skroppa being nearer wolf than human. He will feel that he was wrong to have denied you a weapon, and he will only scold a little." "It is true that he is in a good temper again," Alwin admitted. "Yesterday I heard Tyrker tell Valbrand that many more chiefs had asked concerning Christianity; and last night, after Eric had gone to sleep in his seat, I heard Leif say to Thorhild that if now he could only do some great deed to prove the power of his God, it was his opinion that half of Greenland would be ready to believe." Sigurd crept out of the bearskins with a shiver. "I say nothing against that. But let us end this talk. My blood-drops are so frozen they rattle in my body." He thumped down the steps as though rigid with cold, and jumped and danced and beat his breast before he could bring himself to stand still long enough to fasten on his skees. "Where shall we go, then?" Alwin asked, as they glided out of the gate in the dim light of an Arctic winter day. "It may be that to go over that road again might become a misfortune. Once I saw Kark looking after us with a grin which I would have knocked off his face if I had not been in a hurry." Sigurd instantly faced toward the snow-crusted hills that lay between them and Eric's Fiord. "Then to-day it will be useful to go in another direction, so that any suspicions he has may go to sleep again. If Thorhall had been at home, he would have overtaken you before this. His green eyes are well fitted for spying." Perhaps it was this reference to green eyes that recalled to Alwin the scene of the foretelling. Perhaps it had never gone very far out of his mind. After they had swung along a while in silent enjoyment of the swift motion and the answering tingle in their blood, he said abruptly: "It may be that there was some truth at her tongue-roots, after all." Sigurd made a sly move with his staff, so that the other suddenly tripped and fell headlong; whereupon he said gravely: "Lo, I believe so too, for behold, already it has come true that 'I see your body lying on the ground.'" Alwin consented to laugh, as he picked himself up and untangled his runners; but he was too much in earnest to be turned aside. "I do not mean in regard to that," he said, when they were once more in motion. "I mean what she told concerning some new untrodden land." Sigurd became instantly attentive, as though the reference had been much in his own mind also. "It has occurred to me that perhaps she was speaking of that western land you told me of. It might be that this would be a way out of my difficulties. If I could escape to that land with Helga, so would I at once save her and gain my freedom." Sigurd's eyes brightened, then gloomed again. "Yes,--but that 'if' is like a mile-wide rift in the ice. You can never get over it." "It might be that I could get around it. I tell you I shall go out of my wits if I cannot see some trail to follow, no matter how faint it is. Tell me what else you know of this land." They were starting down a slope at the speed of the wind, but Sigurd suddenly leaped into the air with a cheer; and cheered again as he landed, right-side up and unstaggered, at the bottom of the hill. "By Michael, I will do better than that! I will take you to talk with one of Biorn's own men. One is visiting Aran Bow-Bender now, across the fiord. I heard Brand Knutsson say so last week." "By my troth, Sigurd," Alwin cried eagerly, "when things come to one's hand like that, I believe it is a sign that he should try his luck with them! Would we have time to go there to-day?" "Certainly; do you not see that the light is only just fading from the mountain tops? so it can be but a little past noon. The only difficulty is that the ice may not be in a condition for us to cross the fiord. A warm land-wind has been blowing for three days; and even in the North, where the seal-hunters go, the ice often breaks up under them. But now allow me to get my bearings. That is the smoke from Brattahlid, behind us; and yonder I see the roofs of Eric's ship-sheds. Here,--we will go in this direction until we come to a high point of the bank." Across the white plain that stretched in that direction, they skimmed accordingly. Once they came upon a herd of Eric's reindeer, rooting under the snow for moss; but aside from that, they saw no living thing. Low-hanging gray clouds seemed to have shut out the world. Now and then, from far out in the open water came the grinding and crunching of huge ice-cakes, see-sawing past each other. Once there sounded the reverberating thunder of two icebergs in a duel. "If there were any bears on that ice, they have found by this time that there can be even worse things than men with spears," Sigurd observed, as he listened. It is doubtful whether Alwin had heard the noise at all. He answered, absently: "Yes,--and if we do not wish to come to the subject at once, we can say that we are cold and dropped in to warm ourselves." "To say that we are cold will always be truthfully spoken," Sigurd assented, his teeth chattering like beads. "I do not believe that Stark-Otter was much chillier when he pulled off his clothes and sat in a snow-bank." It turned out to be even more truthful than they imagined. They had little more than left the shore and ventured out upon the ice, when the gentle east wind developed into a gale, that presently wrapped them in the blinding folds of a snow-storm. The ice became invisible a step ahead of their feet. They had retained their staffs when they left their skees upon the bank; but even feeling their way step by step was by no means secure. It was not long before Alwin went through, up to his neck; and if he had been uncomfortable before, he was in wretched plight now, drenched to the skin with ice-water. "If you also get in this condition, we shall both perish," he chattered, when he had managed to clamber out again by the fortunate accident of his staff's falling crosswise over the hole. "I will continue to go first; and do you hoard your strength to save us both when I get too stiff to move." It proved a wise precaution; for in a few minutes he broke through again, and it took all his companion's exertions to pull him out. Before they reached the opposite shore, he had been in four times, and was so benumbed with cold that Sigurd was obliged to drag him up the bank and into the hut of Aran Bow-Bender. One low room was all there was of it, and that was smoky and dirty, the air thick with the smells of stale cooking and musty fur garments. Dogs were lying about, and there was a goat-pen in the corner; but a fire roared in the centre, a ring of steaming hot drinks stood around it, and behind them sat a circle of jovial-hearted sportsmen, who seemed to ask no greater pleasure than to pull off a stranger's drenched garments, rub him to a tingle, and pour him full of hot spicy liquids. To return that night was out of the question. Alwin was too exhausted even to think of it,--beyond a sleepy wonder as to whether a scolding or a flogging would be the penalty of his involuntary truancy. He even forgot the existence of the man he had come to see, though the round, red-faced sailor dozed in a corner directly opposite him. Sigurd, however, was less muddled; and he had, besides, a strong objection to returning the next morning, to be laughed at for his weather-foolishness. "If we do not want to be made fun of, it would be advisable for us to take someone back with us to distract people's attention," he reasoned, and laid plans accordingly. The next day, as they began buckling up their various outer garments preparatory to departure, he suddenly struck into the conversation with a reference to the festivities at Brattahlid. In a moment the sailor-man's eyes opened, like two round windows, above his fat cheeks. The Silver-Tongue spoke on concerning the products of the Brattahlid kitchen, the fat beeves that were slaughtered each week, the gammons and flitches that were taken from the larder, and the barrels of ale that were tapped. As he settled his boots with a final stamp, and stretched out his hand toward the door, Grettir the sailor arose in his corner. "Hold on, Jarl's son," he said thickly. "If it is not against your wish, I will go with you." He made a propitiatory gesture to the group around the fire. "You will not take it ill, shipmates, if I leave you now, with many thanks for a good entertainment. The truth is that it has always been in my mind to visit this renowned Eric, if ever I should be in this part of Greenland; and now that some one is going that way to guide me, I think it would be unadvisable to lose the chance." "The matter shall be as you have fixed it, Grettir," Sigurd said politely, "if you are able to run on skees with us." Grettir laughed in a jovial roar, as he helped himself to a pair of runners that rested on antlers against the wall. "You have a sly wit, Sigurd Jarlsson. You think, because I am round, I am wont to roll like a barrel. I will show you." And it proved that, for all his bulk, he was as light on his feet as either of them. In those days, when every landlubber could handle a boat like a seaman, every sailor knew at least something about farming, and could ride a horse like a jockey. All the way back, he kept them going at a pace that took their breath. In the excitement of welcoming so renowned a character to Brattahlid, reprimands and curiosity were alike forgotten. By the time they had him anchored behind an ale-horn on the bench in the hall, he held the household's undivided attention. Good-natured with feasting, and roused by the babel around him, he began yarn-spinning at the first hint. "The western shore? No man living can tell you more of the wonders of that than I,--not Biorn Herjulfsson himself!" he declared. And forthwith he related the whole adventure, from Biorn's rash setting out into unknown seas, to his final arrival on the Greenland coast. To hear of these strange half-mythical shores from one who had seen them with his own eyes, was more than interesting. The jarls' sons listened breathlessly while he reeled out his tale between swallows. "And the fair winds ceased, and northern winds with fog blew continually, so that for many days we did not know even in what direction we were sailing. Then the sun came into sight, and we could distinguish the quarters of heaven. We hoisted sail, and sailed all day before we saw land, but when we came to it we knew no more what it was than this horn here. Biorn said he did not think it was Greenland, but he wished to go near it. It had no mountains but low hills, and was forest-clad. We kept the land on our left and sailed for two days before we came to other land. This time it was flat and covered with woods. Biorn said that he did not think this was Greenland, for very large glaciers were said to be there. We wished to go ashore, as we lacked both wood and water, and the fair wind had fallen. There were some cross words when Biorn would not, but gave orders to turn the prow seaward. This time we sailed three days with a southwest wind, and more land came in view, which rose high with mountains and a glacier. Biorn said this had an inhospitable look, and he would not allow that we should land here either. But we sailed along the shore, and saw that it was an island. After this we had no more chances, for the fourth land we saw was Greenland." A buzz of comment rose from all sides. "Is that all that you made of such a chance as that?"--"Certainly the gods waste their favors on such as Biorn Herjulfsson."--"Is he a coward, or what does he lack?" "He is as dull as a wooden sword." Now whether or no all this coincided with the private opinion of Grettir the Fat, has nothing to do with the matter. Biorn Herjulfsson had been his chief. The sailor rose suddenly to his feet, with his hand on his knife and an angry look on his red face. "Biorn Herjulfsson is no coward!" he shouted fiercely. "I will avenge it in blood on the head of him who says so." Eric was not there to keep order; a dozen mouths opened to take up the challenge. But before any sound could come out of them, Leif had risen to his feet. "Are you such mannerless churls that I must remind you of what is due to a guest?" he said, sternly. "Learn to be quicker with your hospitality, and slower with your judgment of every act you cannot under-stand. Grettir, I invite you to sit here by me and tell me more concerning your chief's voyage." When Grettir had gone proudly up to take his seat of honor, and the others had returned to their back-gammon and ale, Sigurd looked at Alwin with a comical grimace. "Now I wonder if my cleverness in bringing this fellow here has happened to overshoot the mark! Leif is eager to get renown; suppose he takes it into his head to make this voyage himself?" Alwin sank his voice to a whisper: "The idea came to me as soon as he called Grettir to him. But it was not your doing. Now the saying is proved true that 'things that are fated take place.' Do you remember the prophecy,--that when I stand on that ground I shall stand there by the side of Leif Ericsson?" CHAPTER XX ALWIN'S BANE Much goes worse than is expected. Ha'vama'l The light of the short day had faded, but the wind had not gone down with the sun. Powdery snow choked the air in a blinding storm. One could not distinguish a house, though it were within a foot of his eyes. "If I do not come to the gate before long," Alwin observed to the shaggy little Norwegian pony along whose neck he was bending, "I shall believe that the fences have been snowed under." He had been sent out to find another of Biorn's sailors who chanced to be visiting in the neighborhood, to invite him to come to Brattahlid and tell what else he might know concerning his chiefs voyage,--a subject in which Leif had become strangely interested. Alwin had accomplished his errand, and was returning half-frozen and with a ravenous appetite that made him doubly impatient over their slow progress. "If we do not get there before long," he repeated to the pony, with a dig into his flanks, "I shall get afraid that the drifts have covered the houses also, and that we are already riding over the roofs without knowing it." But as he said it, a tall gate-post rose on either side of him; and the pony turned to the left and began groping his way across the courtyard to his stable. The windows of the great hall glowed with light, and warmth and jovial voices and fragrant smells burst out upon the storm with every swing of the broad door. As soon as he had stabled his horse, Alwin hurried toward it eagerly, and, stamping and shaking off the snow, pushed his way in through the crowd of house-thralls, who were running to and from the pantry with bowls and trenchers and loads of food. He hoped that Leif was there, so that he should not have to go back across the snowy courtyard to the sleeping-loft to make his report. Stopping just inside the threshold, he looked about for him, blinking in the strong light and shaking back the wet fur of his collar. It seemed as though every member of the house-hold except Leif were lounging along the benches, waiting for the evening meal. Eric leaned against one arm of his high-seat, talking jovially with Thorhall the steward, who had returned that morning from seal-hunting. Thorhild bent over the other arm, and gesticulated vigorously with her keys, as she gave her housekeeper some last directions regarding the food. Further along, Sigurd and Helga sat at draughts. Near at hand, a big fur ball, which was the outward and visible sign of Tyrker, was rolled up close to a chess-board. Only Leif's cushioned seat was empty. With petulant force, Alwin jammed his bearskin cap down upon his head and turned to retrace his steps. Turning, his eye fell upon an object that Eric had just taken from the steward and held up to the light to examine. The flames caught at it eagerly, flashing and sparkling, so that even at that distance Alwin had no difficulty in recognizing the brass-hilted knife. Eric burst into a mighty roar of laughter. His voice, never greatly subdued, penetrated to every corner of the room. "I could stake my head that it is Leif's! I myself gave it to him for a name-fastening. And you found it in Skroppa's den? Oh, this is worth a hearing! Here is mirth! In Skroppa's den,--Leif the Christian! Ho, Flein, Asmund, Adils, comrades,--listen to this! No jester ever invented such a jest." He got on his feet and beckoned them with both arms, stamping with laughter. Catching sight of Alwin's white face at the door,--for it was ashen white,--he beckoned him also, with a fresh burst of malicious laughter. "And you, you little priest-robed puppet, come nearer, so you shall not lose a word. Oh, it will be great fun for you! And for you, my Thorhild,--and the haughty-headed Helga! And gray old Tyrker too! Listen now, Graybeard, and learn, even with one foot in the grave. Saw you never such a game as this foster-son of yours has played with unchanging face!" He choked with his laughter, so that his face grew purple; and the household waited, leaning from the benches, nudging and whispering; the servants gaping over the dishes in their hands; Alwin standing by the door, motionless as the dead; Sigurd sitting, still as the dead, in his place. Stamping and rocking himself back and forth, and banging on the arm of his seat, the Red One got his breath at last, and bellowed it out. "Leif the Christian in the den of Skroppa the Witch! His knife proves it; Thorhall found it among the rocks at her very door. Saw I never such slyness! Think of it, comrades; he is driven to ask help of Skroppa,--he who feigns to scowl at her very name!--he who would have us believe in a god that he does not trust in himself! Here is an unheard-of two-facedness! Never was such a fraud since Loki. Here is merriment for all!" He continued to shout it over and over, roaring with mocking laughter; his men nudging each other, sniggering and grinning and calling gibes across the fire. Leif's men sprang up, burning with rage and shame,--then stood speechless, daring neither to deny nor resent it. Alwin made a quick step forward to where the firelight revealed him to all in the room, and cried out hoarsely: "Here is falsehood! My hand, and no other, took Leif Ericsson's knife to the den of Skroppa the Witch." Motion and sound stopped for a moment,--as though the icy blast, that came just then through the opening door, had frozen all the life in the room. Then a voice called out that the thrall was lying to cover his master; and Eric's laughter burst out anew, and the jeering redoubled. But Alwin's voice rose high above it. "Fools! Is it worth while for me to give my life for a lie? Ask Sigurd Haraldsson, if you will not believe me. He knows that I went there on Yule Eve, to ask concerning my freedom. The knife slipped from my belt as I was climbing the rocks. Leif knew of it no more than you. Ask Sigurd Haraldsson, if you will not believe me." Sigurd rose and tried to speak, but his tongue had become like a withered leaf in his mouth, so that he could only bow his head. Yet from him, that was enough. Such an uproar of delight broke from Leif's men as drowned all the jeering that had gone before, and made the rafters ring with exulting. Alwin knew that, whatever else he would have to bear, at least that lie was not upon him, and he drew a deep breath of relief. All the light did not die out of his face, even when Leif stepped out of the shadow of the door and stood before him. She had not spoken falsely who had said that the fire of Eric burned in the veins of his son. In his white-hot anger, the guardsman's face was terrible. Death was in his stern-set mouth, and death blazed from his eyes. Rolf, Sigurd, Helga, even Valbrand, cried out for mercy; but Alwin read the look aright, and asked for nothing that was not there. While their cries were still in the air, Leif's blade leaped from its scabbard, quivered in the light, and flashed down, biting through fur and hair and flesh and bone. Without a sound, Alwin fell forward heavily, and lay upon his face at his master's feet. That all men might know whose hand had done the deed, Leif flung the dripping sword down beside its victim, and without speaking, strode out of the room. Then a strange thing happened. Helga ran over to where the lifeless heap lay in a widening pool of blood, and raised the wounded head in her arms, and rained down upon the still white face such tears as no one had ever thought to see her shed. When Thorhild came to take her away, she cried out, so that every one could hear: "Do you not understand?--I loved him. I did not find it out until now. I loved him with all my heart, and now he will never know! I--loved him." CHAPTER XXI THE HEART OF A SHIELD-MAIDEN Cattle die, Kindred die, We ourselves also die; But the fair fame Never dies Of him who has earned it. Ha'vama'l Out of doors the stir of spring was in the air; snow melting on the hills, grass sprouting on the plains. Editha's troubled face brightened a little, as she turned up the lane against the sun and felt its warmth upon her cheek. "It gives one the feeling that it will melt one's sorrows as it melts the snow," she told herself. Then she passed through the gate into the budding courtyard, where her eye fell upon Leif's sleeping-loft, with Kark running briskly up the steps; and the brightness faded. "But there is some ice the sun cannot melt," she sighed. On the threshold of the great hall, Thorhild stood waiting for her. Inside, all was confusion,--men placing tables and bringing in straw; maids spreading the embroidered cloths and hanging the holiday tapestries. The matron's head-dress was awry; her cheeks were like poppies, and her keys were kept in a perpetual jingle by her bustling motions. She cried out, as soon as Editha came within hearing distance: "How long you have been, you little good-for-nothing! I have looked out four times for you. Was Astrid away from home? Did you return by Eric's Fiord, and learn whose ship it is that is coming in?" The little Saxon maid dropped her respectful curtsey. If at the same time she dropped her eyes with a touch of embarrassment, the matron was too preoccupied to observe it. "I was hindered by necessity, lady. Astrid was not away from home, but she was uncertain whether her son would wish to sell any malt, so I was obliged to wait until he came in from the stables." "Humph," sniffed Thorhild; "Egil Olafsson has become of great importance since his father was mound-laid. This is the third time I have been kept waiting for his leave." She turned on the girl sharply. "By no means do I believe that to be the reason for your long absences. I believe you plead that as an excuse." Editha caught at the door-post, and her face went from red to white and back to red again. "Indeed, lady--" she began. Thorhild shook a menacing finger at her. "One never needs to tell me! She keeps you there to gossip about my household. Though she is my friend, she is as great a gossip as ever wagged a tongue." Even though the hand still threatened her ears, one would have said that Editha looked relieved. She said, with well-feigned reluctance: "It is true that we have sometimes spoken of Brattahlid while I waited. Astrid looks favorably upon my needlework. Once or twice she has said that she would like to buy me--" This time Thorhild snorted. "She takes too much trouble! Helga will never sell you to anyone. You need get no such ideas into your head. Why do you talk such foolishness, and hinder me from my work? Can you not tell me shortly whether or not you got the malt?" "I did, lady. Two thralls will bring it as soon as it can be weighed." "I shall need it, if guests arrive. And what of the ship? Did you learn whose it is? It takes till pyre-and-fire to get anything out of you." Editha's rosy face, usually as full of placid content as a kitten's, suddenly puckered with anxiety. "Lady, as I passed, it was still a long way down the fiord. I could only see that it was a large and fine trading-vessel. But one of the seamen on the shore told me it was his belief that it is the ship of Gilli of Trond-hjem." The house-wife's keys clashed and clattered with her motion of surprise. "Gilli of Trondhjem! Then he has come to take Helga!" Editha nervously clasped and unclasped her hands. "I got afraid it might be so." "Afraid, you simpleton?" The matron laughed excitedly, as she brushed all stray hairs out of her eyes and tightened her apron for action. "It will become a great boon to her. Since the Englishman's death, she has been no better than a crazy Brynhild. To take her out into the world and entertain her with new sights,--it will be the saving of her! Run quickly and tell her the tidings; and see to it that she puts on her most costly clothes. Tell her that if she will also put on the ornaments Leif has given her, I will give her leave to stop embroidering for the day." Editha observed to herself, as she tripped away, that undoubtedly her mistress had already done that without waiting for permission. And it proved very shortly that she was right. In the great work-room of the women's-house, among deserted looms and spindles and embroidery frames, Helga sat in dreamy idleness. The whirlwind of excitement that had swept her companions away at the news of approaching guests, had passed over her without so much as ruffling a hair. Her golden head rested heavily against the wall behind her; her hands lay listlessly upon her lap. Her face was as white as the unmelted snow in the valleys, and the spring sun-shine had brought no sparkle to relieve the shadow in her eyes. Without looking around, she said dreamily: "It was one year ago to-day that I came into the trader's booth in Norway and saw him sitting there among the thralls." Editha stole over to her and lifted one of her hands out of her lap and kissed it. "Lady, do not be all the time thinking of him. You will break your heart, and to no purpose. Besides, I have news of great importance for you. I have seen the ship that is coming up the fiord, and men say it is the vessel of your father, Gilli of Trondhjem." With something of her old fire, Helga snatched her hand away and started up. "Do you know this for certain? And do you believe that Thorhild will give me up to him?" "Worse than that, lady,--she is even anxious that he shall take you, thinking it will be to your advantage." For awhile Helga sat staring before her, with expressions of anger and despair flickering over her face. Then, gradually, they died down like flames into ashes. She sank back against the wall, and her eyes faded dull and absent again. "After all, what does it matter?" she said, listlessly. "I shall not find it any worse there than here. Nothing matters now." Editha made a little moan, like one in sudden pain; but it seemed as though she did not dare to interrupt the other's revery. She stood, softly wringing her hands. It was Helga who finally broke the silence. Suddenly she turned, an angry gleam replacing the dulness in her eyes. "Did the ship bring more tidings of the battle? Is it certain that King Olaf Trygvasson is slain?" Editha answered, in some surprise: "It had not come to land when I was there, lady. I am unable to tell you anything new. But the men who came last week, and first told us of the battle, say that Eric Jarl is now the King over Norway, and there is no doubt that Olaf Trygvasson is dead." Helga laughed, a hateful laugh that made her pretty mouth as cruel as a wolf's. "It gladdens me that he is dead. I am well content that Leif's heart should be black with mourning. He killed the man I loved, and now the King he loved is slain,--and he was not there to fight for him. It is a just punishment upon him. I am glad that he should suffer a little of all that he has made me suffer." Editha moaned again, and flung out her hands with a gesture of entreaty. "Dearest lady, if only you would not allow yourself to suffer so! If only you would bear it calmly, as I have begged of you! Even though you died, it would not help. It is wasting your grief--" She stopped, for her mistress was looking at her fixedly. "I do not understand you," Helga said, slowly. "Is it wasting grief to mourn the death of Alwin of England, than whom God never made a nobler or higher-minded man?" She rose out of her seat, and Editha shrank away from her. "I do not understand you,--you who pretend to have loved him since he was a child. Is it indeed your wish that I should act as though I cared nothing for him? Did you really care nothing for him yourself? Your face has grown no paler since his death-day; you are as fat as ever; you have seldom shed a tear. Was all your loyalty to him a lie? By the edge of my knife, if I thought so I would give you cause to weep! I would drive the blood from your deceitful face forever!" She caught the Saxon girl by the wrist and forced her upon her knees; her beautiful eyes were as awful as the eyes of a Valkyria in battle. The bondmaid screamed at the sight of them, and threw up an arm to shield herself. "No, no! Listen, and I will tell you the truth! Though they kill me, I will tell yon. Put down your head,--I dare not say it aloud. Listen!" Mechanically, Helga bent her head and received into her ear three whispered words. She loosed her hold upon the other's wrists and stood staring at her, at first in anger, and then with a sort of dawning pity. "Poor creature! grief has gotten you out of your wits," she said. "And I was harsh with you because I thought you did not care!" She put out a hand to raise her, but Editha caught it in both of hers, fondling it and clinging to it. "Sweetest lady, I am not out of my wits. It is the truth, the blessed truth. Mine own eyes have proved it. Four times has Thorhild sent me on errands to Egil's house, and each time have I seen--" "Yet said nothing to me! You have let me suffer!" "No, no, spare me your reproaches! How was it possible for me to do otherwise? If you had known, all would have suspected; 'A woman's eyes cannot hide it when she loves.' Sigurd Haraldsson bound me firmly. I was told only because it was necessary that I should carry their messages. It has torn my heart to let you grieve. Only love for him could have kept me to it. Believe it, and forgive me. Say that you forgive me!" Helga flung her arms open wide. "Forgive? I forgive everyone in the whole world--everything!" She threw herself, sobbing, upon Editha's breast, and they clung together like sisters. While they were still mingling their tears and rejoicings, the old housekeeper looked in with a message from Thorhild. "Sniffling, as I had expected! Have the wits left both of you? Even now Gilli of Trondhjem is coming up the lane. It is the command of Thorhild that you be dressed and ready to hand him his ale the moment he has taken off his outer garments. If you have any sense left, make haste." When the door had closed on the wrinkled old visage, Editha sent a doubtful glance at her mistress. But the shield-maiden leaped up with a laugh like a joyful chime of bells. "Gladly will I put on the finest clothes I own, and feast the whole night through! Nothing matters now. So long as he is alive, things must come out right some way. Nothing matters now!" CHAPTER XXII IN THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD It is better to live, Even to live miserably; .......... The halt can ride on horseback; The one-handed, drive cattle; The deaf, fight and be useful; To be blind is better Than to be burnt; No one gets good from a corpse. Ha'vama'l "Egil! Egil Olafsson!" It was Helga's voice, with a note of happiness thrilling through it like the trill in a canary's song. Egil turned from the field in which his men were and came slowly to where she stood leaning over the fence that separated the field from the lane. He guessed from her voice that they had told her the secret, and when he came near enough to see, he knew it from her face; it was like a rose-garden burst into bloom. His lowering brow scowled itself into a harder knot. With the death of his father, he had thrown aside the scarlet clothes of Leif's men, and wore the brown homespun of a farmer. From his neck downward, everything spoke of thrift and industry and peace. But his fierce dark face looked the harsher for the contrast. Helga stretched her hand across the fence. "I am going to see Alwin, for the first time after all these months. They told me two days ago, but this is the first chance I could find. But even before I saw him, I thought it right to see you and thank you for your wondrous goodness. Sigurd has told me how they carried Alwin to you in the night, and you received him and sheltered him, and--" Egil silenced her with a rough gesture. "I kept my oath of friendship; speak no further of it. Do you know where he is hidden?" "Sigurd told me he is in the cabin of your old foster-mother, Solveig. I do not remember whether that is to the left or the right of the lane. But it is a most ingenious hiding-place. No one ever goes there, and Solveig is the most accomplished of nurses." "Since you do not remember where it is, I will walk with you, if it is not against your wish." He shouted some final directions to the men in the field, then leaped over the fence and strode along beside her. He appeared to have nothing to say, after they were once started, and they went through lane and pasture and field in silence. But as soon as she broke out with fresh praise for his kindness, he found his tongue in all its curt vigor. "Enough has been said about that. I have been wishing to speak to you of something that happened at the feast the other night. Do you know that my kinswoman Astrid told Gilli of her wish to buy your bondwoman, and--" For a moment there was something wolfish about Helga's white teeth. She struck in quickly: "Yes, I know. Gilli agreed to sell Editha to her, the day we sail. It is exactly what I expected of him. If Astrid should offer a little more, he would be apt to sell me. He is the lowest-minded--Bah!" It seemed as though words failed her. She threw her hands apart in a gesture of utter detestation. The glow was gone out of her face. "What I wanted to say is, that if it is your wish, I will persuade my mother to withdraw her offer." After a while Helga shook her head. "No. He would only sell her to some one else. It would trouble me to think of her among strangers, and your mother would treat her kindly." She paused, at the top of the stile they were climbing over, to look down at him earnestly. "I should be thankful if you would promise me that, Egil. You are master now, and can have your will about everything. Promise me you will see that she is well treated." "I promise you." Helga threw a grateful look after him, as he went along before her. "Your word is like a rock, Egil. One could hold on to it though everything else should roll away." The cloud was passing from her face. By the time she gained his side, the rose-garden was once more radiant in sunlight. "After all, I do not feel that I have a right to let anything grieve me much, since God has given Alwin back from the dead. I set my mind to thinking of that, and then everything else seems small and easily remedied. Even Gilli's coming it is possible to turn to profit. I have a fine plan--" She broke off abruptly as, through a clump of white-birch trees, she caught sight of a tiny cabin nestled in their green shelter. "That is Solveig's house; now I remember it! How is it possible that it has held such a secret for four months, and still looks just as usual? Let us hurry!" She seized his arm to pull him along. Only when he wrenched away and came to a dead stop, did she slacken her pace to stare at him over her shoulder. "Do you wish to drive me crazy?" he shouted. She thought him already so, and drew back. He waited to take a fresh grip on his self-control. When he spoke at last, it was with labored slowness: "Every week for four months I have come to this door and asked the Englishman how he fared; and he has not wished for anything that I have not given it to him. The night they left him with me, I could have put my fingers around his throat and killed him; and no one would have known. But I held my hands behind me, and allowed him to live. So far, I have kept my oath of friendship. Do you wish me to go in with you and break it now?" Before she could gather her wits together to answer him, he was gone. Standing where he had left her, she stared after him, open-mouthed, until her eye fell upon the cabin among the bushes, when she forgot everything else in the world. She ran toward it and threw open the door. The low room was smoky and badly lighted. Before she could distinguish her lover in the dimness, he was upon her, calling her name over and over, crushing her hands in his. She cried out, and lifted her face, and his lips met hers, warm and living. It was the same as though nothing had happened since last she saw him. No, not quite the same; she saw that, the instant she drew back. Alwin was very thin, and in the half-light his face showed white and haggard. An ugly scar stretched half across his forehead. At the sight of it her eyes flashed, and she reached up and touched with her lips the fiery mark. "How I hate Leif for that!" Then she saw the greatest change of all in him, the quiet grimness that had come upon him out of his nights of pain and days of solitude. "That is unfairly spoken, sweetheart. I have but paid the price I agreed to pay if luck went against me. Leif has dealt with me only according to justice; that I will maintain, though I die under his sword at the last." She drew a quick, sharp breath. In the joy of recovery, she had let herself forget that he is only half alive who lives under the shadow of a death sentence. She set her teeth over her lip to stop its trembling, and stiffened herself to the iron composure of a shield-maiden. "It is true that you are yet in great danger. His anger has not yet departed from him, for not once has your name passed his lips. Sit down here and tell me what you think of your case." Alwin recalled the weeping and fainting of his mother's waiting-women, in that far-off time of trouble, and pressed her hand gratefully as he took his seat by her side upon the bench. "You are my brave comrade as well as my best friend. I can talk with you as I would with Sigurd." Just for a moment she laid her cheek against his shoulder. "It gladdens me that you are content with me as I am, instead of wishing me to be like Bertha of Trondhjem and other women," she whispered. Then the memory linked with that name caused her to straighten again and look at him doubtfully. "Has Solveig told you all the latest tidings?" "She has told me nothing for a week. She is up at the hall just now, helping with the spinning; but Editha was here two days ago. Is it of King Olaf that you are thinking? She told me of the battle; and I am full of sorrow for Leif. She told me that his room was draped in black, and that he stopped preparing for his exploring voyage and shut himself up for four days and four nights, without eating or speaking." "He has begun his preparations again. His sorrow is not worth considering. Or, rather, I shall grieve with him when he grieves for you. The tidings that I mean concern Gilli of Trondhjem. Do you know that he has come to take me away?" She wanted to see the despair in his face, that she might feel how much he cared; then she hastened to reassure him. "But do not trouble yourself over that. Even though I go with him, it will do no harm. If he tries to marry me to anyone, I will pretend that I think the marriage beneath me. I will work upon his greediness, and so trick him into waiting; and in a year you will come and rescue me." "If I am alive!" Alwin interrupted her sharply. He sprang up and began to pace the floor, clenching his fists and knocking them together. "If I am alive I will come. But it is by no means unlikely that Leif will carry out his intention. Then you will be left in Gilli's power forever." She laughed as she went to him and brought him back and pushed him down upon the bench. "See how love makes a coward of a man as well as of a woman! But do not trouble yourself over that, either. Have you never heard the love-tale of Hagberth and Signe? How, the same moment in which she saw him hanged upon the gallows, she set fire to her house and strangled herself with her ribbons, so that their two souls met on the threshold of Paradise and went in together? If you die, I will die too; and that will arrange everything." She clung to him for a moment, and he feared that she was about to dishonor her shield by a burst of tears. But in an instant she looked up at him with her brave smile. "We will end this talk about dying, however. Remember the old saying, 'If a man's time has not come, something is sure to aid him.' There is another fate in store for you than to lose your life in this matter, or you would have died when Leif struck you down. I love the cap that saved you! We will not talk about dying, but only of our hopes. I have planned how Gilli may be made useful, so that on his vessel you can escape to Norway." She put her hand over his mouth as he would have spoken. "No, listen to me before you say anything against it. Gilli will sail next week. At that time Leif will be absent on a visit to Biorn Herjulfsson, who has just returned to Greenland from Norway. With Leif, Kark will go, so that we shall not have his prying eyes to fear. What would prevent you from stealing down to the shore, the night before we sail, and swimming out to the ship and hiding yourself in one of the great chests in the foreroom? The steersman will not hinder you, for I have spoken so many fine words to him, with this deed in view, that he is ready to chop off his head at my bidding. Thus will you get far out at sea before they discover you. Gilli will not know that he has ever seen you before, you are so white and changed; and when he has taken away all the property you have on you, he will say nothing further about the matter. So will you be brought to Norway,--and thence it is not far to your England, though I do not know if that is of any importance. But if you say that this plan is otherwise than ingenious, I shall be angry with you." Alwin vented a short laugh. "It is most ingenious, comrade. The only trouble with it is that I have no ambition to go either to Norway or to England." This time it was he who sealed her lips, as her amazement was about to burst through them. "Give me a hearing and you will understand. I do not wish to go to England because I could do nothing there to improve my credit in any way. My kin have disappeared like withered grass, and the Danes are all-powerful. I do not wish to go to Norway because there I could never be more than a runaway slave; and though I strove to my uttermost, it is unlikely that I could ever acquire either wealth or influence,--and without both how would it ever be possible to win you? See how the North has conquered me! First it was only my body that was bound; and I was sure that, if ever I got my freedom, I should enter the service of some English lord and die fighting against the Danes. And now a Norse maiden has conquered my heart, so that I would not take my liberty if it were offered me! No, no, sweetheart; I have thought of it, night and day, until at last I see the truth. The only chance I have is with Leif." Helga wrung her hands violently. "You must be crazy if you think so! He would strike you down the instant his eyes--" "It is not my intention that he shall know me until he has had cause to soften toward me. Do you not remember Skroppa's prophecy? has not Sigurd told you of it?--that it is in this new untrodden country that my fate is to be decided? I will disguise myself in some way, and go on this exploring expedition among his following. I shall have many chances to be of service to him." "But suppose they should not come soon enough? Suppose your disguise should be too shallow? His eyes are like arrows that pierce everything they are aimed at. Suppose he should recognize you at once?" The new grimness again squared Alwin's mouth. "Then one of two things will happen. Either he will pardon me, for the sake of what I have already endured; or else he will keep to his first intention, and kill me. In neither case will we be worse off than we were four months ago." Such logic admitted of no reply, and Helga gave way to it. But so much anguish was betrayed in her face, that Alwin gave another short laugh and asked her: "Who is it now that love is making a coward of?" She shook her head gravely. "I am no coward. It gladdens me to have you face death in this way, and to know that you will not murmur even if luck goes against you. But I do not wish you to throw your life away; and you know no prudence. Let us speak of this disguise. What have you fixed upon?" "I acknowledge that I have accomplished very little. Solveig has told me of a bark whose juice is such that with it I can turn my skin brown like that of the Southerners. And I have decided to make believe that I am a Frankish man. I know not a little of their tongue, which will help to disguise my speech. But how I am to cover up my short hair, or account for my appearance in Greenland--" He shrugged his shoulders, and dropped his chin upon his fist. Helga clasped her hands around her knee and stared at him thoughtfully. "I have heard Sigurd tell of a strange wonder he saw in France,--I do not know what you call it,--like a hood made of people's hair. A girl who had lost her hair through sickness was wont to wear it; and Sigurd did not even suspect that it was rootless, until one day she caught the ends in her cloak, and pulled it off. If you could get one of those--" "If!" Alwin murmured. But Helga did not hear him. Suddenly, in the dim perspective of her mind, she had caught a glimpse of a plan. As she darted at it, it eluded her; but she chased it to and fro, seeing it more clearly at each turn. Finally she caught it. She leaped up and opened her mouth to shout it forth, when an impulse of Editha's caution touched her, and instead, she threw her arms around his neck and laughed it into his ear. He drew back and gazed at her with dawning appreciation. She nodded excitedly. "Is it not well fitted to succeed? You can escape to Norway as I planned, and after that you can easily reach Normandy. All that you lack is gold, and Leif and Gilli have covered me with that." His face kindled as he mused on it. "It sounds possible. Sigurd's friends would receive me well for his sake; and after I had got everything for my disguise, I would have yet many good chances to return to Nidaros and board the ship of Arnor Gunnarsson, who comes here each summer on a trading voyage. Coming that way, who could suspect me?--particularly when it is everyone's belief that I am dead." "No one!" Helga cried joyously. "No one! It is perfect!" In a sudden burst of gratitude, he caught her hands and kissed them. "All is due to you, then. It is an unheard-of cleverness! You must be a Valkyria! Only a great hero is worthy of a maid like you." Laughing with pleasure, she hid her face on his breast. And it must be that her plan possessed some of the advantages she claimed for it, for it came to pass that, on the same day that Gilli and his daughter set sail for Norway, a fair-skinned thrall with a shaven head disappeared from Greenland so completely that even Kark's keen eyes would have found it impossible to trace him. CHAPTER XXIII A FAMILIAR BLADE IN A STRANGE SHEATH "Now it is related that Bjarni Herjulfsson came from Greenland to Eirek Jarl, who received him well. Bjarni described his voyage and the lands that he had seen. People thought he had shown a lack of interest as he had nothing to tell about them, and he was somewhat blamed for it. He became the Jarl's hirdman and went to Greenland the following summer, Now there was much talk about land discoveries."--FLATEYJARBO'K. The week after Gilli's departure for Norway, Leif returned from his visit to Herjulf's Cape, and made public his intention to take Biorn's barren beginning and carry it out to a definite finish. He brought with him three of the men of Biorn's old crew, and also the same stanch little trading-vessel in which Herjulfsson had made his journey. The ship-sheds upon the shore became at once the scene of endless overhauling and repairing. Thorhild's women laid aside their embroidering for the task of sail-making. There began a ransacking of every hut on the commons and every fishing-station along the coast, for the latest improved hunting-gear and fishing-tackle; and day after day Tyrker rode among the farms, purchasing stores of grain and smoked meats. As the old saga says: "Now there was much talk about land discoveries." The Lucky One became the hero of the hour. With all its stubbornness, Eric's pride could not but be gratified. He began to show signs of relenting. Gradually he ceased to avert his face. One day, he even worked himself up to making a gruff inquiry into their plans. "If we return with great fame, it is likely his pleasure will reconcile him entirely," Leif's men chuckled to each other. The diplomatic guardsman was quick to understand the change, but as usual, he went a step beyond their expectations. The day after his father made this first advance, he invited him to inspect the exploring ship and advise them concerning her equipment. While they stood upon the shore, admiring the coat of scarlet paint that was being laid upon her hull, he suddenly offered the Red One the leadership of the expedition. Eric's eyes caught fire, and his wiry old frame straightened and swelled with eagerness. Then, though his eyes still sparkled, his chest sank like a pierced bladder. "It is not possible for me to go. I am too old, and less able to bear hardship than formerly." Rolf and the steersman, who had overheard the offer, exchanged glances of relief, and allowed themselves to breathe again. But to their consternation, Leif did not take advantage of this loop-hole. He argued and urged, until Eric drew in another long breath of excitement, until his aged muscles tingled and twitched with a spasm of youthful ardor, until at last, in a burst of almost hysterical enthusiasm, he accepted the offer. In the warmth of his pleasure, he grasped his son's hand and publicly received him back into his affections. But at the moment, this was cold comfort for Leif's followers. They turned from their painting and hammering and polishing, to stare at their lord in amazed disapproval. The instant the two chiefs had gone up from the shore, complaints broke out like explosions. "That old heathen at the steering-oar! All the bad luck in the world may be expected!"--"Nowhere lives a man more domineering than Eric the Red." "What is to become of Leif's renown, if the glory is to go to that old pagan?"--"Skroppa has turned a curse against the Lucky One. He has been deprived of his mind." "It is in my mind that part of that is true," Rolf said thoughtfully, leaning on the spear-shaft he was sharpening. "I believe the Saxon Saints' Book has bewitched his reason. From that, I have heard the Englishman read of men who gave up honor lest it might make them vain. I believe Leif Ericsson is humbling his pride, like some beaten monk." He was interrupted by a chorus of disgust. "Yah! If he has become such a woman as that!"--"A man who fears bad luck."--"A brave man bears the result of his action, whatever it is."--"The Saints' Book is befitting old men who have lost their teeth."--"Christianity is a religion for women." Sigurd struck in for the first time. Although he had been frowning with vexation, some touch of compunction had held him silent. "I will not allow you to say that, nor should you wish to speak so." He hesitated, rubbing his chin perplexedly. "I acknowledge that I experience the same disgust that you do; yet I am not altogether certain that we are right. I remember hearing my father say that what these saints did was more difficult than any achievement of Thor. And I have heard King Olaf Trygvasson read out of the Holy Book that a man who controls his own passions is more to be admired than a man who conquers a city." For perhaps two or three minutes there was a lull in the grumbling. But it was not to be expected, in that brutal age, that moral strength should find a keen appreciation. Indeed, Sigurd's words were far from ringing with his own conviction. Little by little, the discontent broke out again. At last it grew so near to mutiny, that the steersman felt called upon to exercise his authority. "All this is foolishly spoken, concerning something you know nothing of. Undoubtedly Leif has an excellent reason for what he does. It may be that he considers it of the greatest importance to secure Eric's friendship. Or it may be that he intends to lead him into some uninhabited place, that he may kill him and get rid of his ill-temper. It is certain that he has some good reason. Go back to your work, and make your minds easy that now, as always, some good will result from his actions." The men still growled as they obeyed him; but however right or wrong he was regarding Leif's motives, he was proved correct in his prophecy. Out of that moment on shore, came the good of a complete reconciliation with Eric. No more were there cold shoulders, and half-veiled gibes, and long evenings of gloomy restraint. No longer were Leif's followers obliged to sit with teeth on their tongues and hands on their swords. The warmth of gratification that had melted the ice of Eric's displeasure seemed to have set free torrents of generosity and good-will. His ruddy face beamed above the board like a harvest moon; if Leif would have accepted it, he would have presented him with the entire contents of Brattahlid. Following their chief's example, his retainers locked arms with their former enemies and swore them eternal brotherhood. Night after night they drank out of the same horns, and strengthened their bonds in lauding their chiefs. Never had the great hall seen a time of such radiant good cheer. By the last week of Leif's preparations, interest and enthusiasm had spread into every corner of inhabited Greenland. Strings of people began to make pilgrimages to stare at the exploring vessel that had once been within sight of the "wonder-shores" and now seemed destined actually to touch them. Men came from ail parts of the country in the hope of joining her crew, and were furious with disappointment when told that her equipment was limited to thirty-five, and that that number had already been made up from among Leif's own followers. Warriors thronged to visit the Lucky One, until the hall benches were filled, and the courtyard was so crowded with attendants that there was barely room for the servants to run between the horses with the ale horns. Outside the fence there was nearly always a mob of children and paupers and thralls lying in wait, like a wolf-pack, to tear information out of any member of the household who should venture beyond the gates. Usually it was only vague rumor and meagre report that fell to the share of these outsiders; but the day before Leif's departure it happened that they got a bit of excitement first-hand. Late that afternoon word went around that the trading-ship of Arnor Gunnarsson was coming up Eric's Fiord. The arrival of that merchant was one of the events of the year. Not only did it occasion great feasting among the rich, which meant additional alms among the poor, but besides a chance to feast one's stomach, it meant an opportunity to feast one's eyes on beautiful garments and wonderful weapons; and in addition to all else, it meant such a budget of news and gossip and thrilling yarns as should supply local conversation with a year's stock of topics,--a stock always run low and rather shopworn towards the end of the long winters. At the first hint of the "Eastman's" approach, a crowd of idlers was gathered out of nowhere as quickly as buzzards are drawn out of empty space. As the heavy dun-colored merchantman came slowly to its berth and the anchor fell with a rattle and a splash, the motley crowd cheered shrilly. When the ruddy gold-bearded trader appeared at the side, ready to clamber into the boat his men were lowering, they cheered again. And they regarded it as an appropriate tribute to the importance of the occasion when one of their number came running over the sand to announce breathlessly that Leif Ericsson himself was riding down to greet the arrivals, accompanied by no less a person than his high-born foster-son. "Although it is no great wonder that the Lucky One feels interest," they told each other. "The last time that Eric the Red came to meet traders, they returned his greeting with a sweep of their arms toward their ships, and an invitation to take whatever of its contents best pleased him." "The strange wonder to me," mumbled one old man, "is that it is always to those who have sufficient wealth to purchase them that presents are given. It may be that Odin knows why gifts are seldom given to the poor: certainly I think one needs to be all-wise to understand it." His companions clapped their hands over his mouth, and pointed at the approaching boat. "Look!"--"Look there!"--"It is a king's son!" they cried. And then it was that their hungry teeth closed upon their morsel of excitement. In the bow of the boat, shining like a jewel against the dark background of the trader's dun mantle, stood a most splendidly arrayed young warrior. The fading sunbeams that played on his gilded helm revealed shining armor and a golden cross embossed upon a gold-rimmed shield. Still nearer, and it could be seen that his cloak was of crimson velvet lined with sables, and that gold-embroideries and jewelled clasps flashed with every motion. Buzzing with curiosity, they crowded down to the water's edge to meet him. The keel bit the sand; he stepped ashore into their very midst, and even that close scrutiny did not lessen his attractions. His olive-tinted face was haughtily handsome; his fine black hair fell upon his shoulders in long silken curls; he was tall and straight and supple, and his bearing was bold and proud as an eagle's. "He is well fitted to be a king's son," they repeated one to another. And those in front respectfully gave way before him, while those behind fell over one another to get near in case he should speak,--and Leif himself paused in his greeting of Arnor Gunnarsson to look at the stranger curiously. The youth stood running his eyes over the faces of those around him, until his gaze fell upon Sigurd Haraldsson. He uttered a loud exclamation, and sprang forward with outstretched hand. Sigurd's cheeks, which had been looking rather pale, suddenly became very red; and he leaped from his horse and started forward. Then he wavered, stopped, and hesitated, staring. "_Mon ami_!" said the stranger, in some odd heathen tongue very different from good plain Norse. "_Mon ami_!" He took another step forward, and this time their palms met. The spectators who were watching Sigurd Haraldsson, whispered that the young warrior must be the last man on earth that he expected to see in Greenland, and also the man that he loved the best of all his sworn brothers. The fair-haired jarl's son and he of the raven locks stood grasping each other's hands and looking into each other's eyes as though they had forgotten there was anyone else in the world. "He looks to be a man to be bold in the presence of chiefs, does he not?" the trader observed to Leif Ericsson, regarding the pair benevolently as he stood twisting his long yellow mustache. "He said to me that the jarl's son was his friend; it is great luck that he should find him so soon. He is somewhat haughty-minded, as is the wont of Normans, but he is free with his gold." And the thrifty merchant patted his money-bag absently. The crowd circulated the news in excited whispers. "He is a friend of Sigurd Haraldsson."--"He is a Norman."--"That accounts for the swarthiness of his skin."--"Is it in the Norman tongue that they are speaking?"--"Normandy? Is that the land Rolf the Ganger laid under his sword?"--"Hush! Sigurd is leading him to the chief."--"Now we shall learn what his errand is." And the boldest of them pushed almost within whip-range of the pair. But there was no difficulty about hearing, for Sigurd spoke out in a loud clear voice: "Foster-father, I wish to make known to you my friend and comrade who has just now arrived on the Eastman's vessel. He is called Robert Sans-Peur, because his courage is such as is seldom found. I got great kindness from his kin when I was in Normandy." The Norman said nothing, but he did what the bystanders considered rather surprising in a knee-crooking Frenchman. Neither bending his body nor doffing his helmet, he folded his arms across his breast and looked straight into the Lucky One's eyes. "As though," one fellow muttered, "as though he would read in the chief's very face whether or not it was his intention to be friendly!" "Hush!" his neighbor interrupted him. "Leif is drawing off his glove. It may be that he is going to honor him for his boldness." And so indeed it proved. In another moment, the chief had extended his bare hand to the haughty Southerner. "I have an honorable greeting for all brave men, even though they be friendless," he said, with lofty courtesy. "How much warmer then is the state of my feelings toward one who is also a friend of Sigurd Haraldsson? Be welcome, Robert Sans-Peur. The best that Brattahlid has to offer shall not be thought too good for you." Whether or not he could speak it, it was evident that the Fearless One understood the Northern tongue. His haughtiness passed from him like a shadow. Uncovering his raven locks, he bowed low,--and would have set his lips to the extended hand if the chief, foreseeing his danger, had not saved himself by dexterously withdrawing it. Sigurd, still flushed and nervous, spoke again: "You have taken this so well, foster-father, that it is in my mind to ask of you a boon which I should be thankful if you would grant. As far off as Normandy, my friend has heard tidings of this exploring-journey of yours; and he has come all this way in the hope of being allowed to join your following. He has the matter much at heart. If my wishes are at all powerful with you, you will not deny him." A murmur of delight ran through the crowd. That this splendid personage should have come to do homage to their hero, was the final dramatic touch which their imaginations craved. It was with difficulty that they repressed a cheer. But the guardsman looked puzzled to the point of incredulity. "Heard the tidings as far as Normandy?" he repeated. "A matter of so little importance to anyone? How is that likely?" Straightening in his saddle, he looked at the Norman for a moment with eyes that were more keen than courteous. "He would be liable to disaster who should try to put a trick upon Leif Ericsson," the thrall-born whispered. Robert Sans-Peur was in no wise disconcerted. Meeting the keen eyes, he answered in plain if halting Norse: "The renowned chief has forgotten that early this season a trading-ship went from here to Trondhjem. Not a few of her shipmates went further than Nidaros. One of them, who was called Gudbrand-wi'-the-Scar, travelled even so far as Rouen, where it was my good fortune to encounter him." "It is true that I had forgotten that," the chief said, slowly. He lowered his gaze to his horse's ears and sat for a while lost in thought. Then once more he extended his hand to the Southerner. "It appears to me that you are a man of energy and resource," he said, with a return of his former cordiality. "Since wind and wave have not hindered you from your desire, it would be unheard-of churlishness for me to refuse you. Get now into my saddle and allow your friend to conduct you to the hall. It is necessary that I oversee the storing of these wares, but after the night-meal we will speak further of the matter." To forestall any further attempts at hand-kissing, he sprang from his horse and strode over to the trader. With an air of grave ceremony that was swallowed open-mouthed by the onlookers, Sigurd held his friend's stirrup; then, quickly remounting his own steed, the pair rode off. This time the mob would not be restrained, but burst into a roar of delight. "Here at last is a great happening that we have seen with our own eyes!" they told each other, as they settled down at a safe distance to watch Leif and the merchant turning over the bales of goods which the sailors were engaged in bringing to shore. "This will be something to relate in time to come,--a great event concerning which we understand everything." "'Concerning which we understand everything!'" Sigurd, overhearing them, repeated laughingly to his friend as they galloped up the lane. Robert the Fearless laughed too, with a vibration of uneasiness in the peal. "Few there are who are capable of making that boast," he answered. "Even you, comrade, are unequal to it. Here now is something that is worth a hearing." Leaning from his saddle, he poured into Sigurd's ear a stream of low-toned words that caused the Silver-Tongued to stop short and stare at him incredulously, and then look back at the anchored ship and pound his knee in a fury of exasperation. The cloud rested on Sigurd's sunny face for the rest of the evening. Thorhild, enchanted at the tribute to her idolized son, plied the stranger with every attention; and Kark himself, for all his foxy eyes, removed the gilded helm from the smooth black locks without a thought to try whether or no they were indigenous to the scalp from which they sprang,--but Sigurd's brow did not lighten. As they put a final polish upon their shields and hung them for the last time upon the wall behind their seats, Rolf said to him with a searching glance: "It is hidden from me why you look so black, comrade. If it were not for the drawback of old Eric at the steering-oar, certainly every circumstance would be as favorable as could be expected." Sigurd arose and pulled his cloak down from its peg with a vicious jerk. "There are other witless people besides Eric the Red who thrust themselves where they are not wanted," he retorted grimly. Then, turning abruptly, he strode out into the darkness; and none of the household saw him again until morning. The sun rose upon a perfect day, warm and bright, with the wind in the right quarter, steady and strong. And as if to make sure that not even one thing should mar so auspicious a beginning, Leif's luck swept away the only drawback that Rolf had been able to name. Down in the lane, midway between the foot where it opened upon the shore and the head where it ended at the fence, there lay a bit of a rock. A small stone or a big pebble was all it was, but in the hands of Leif's luck it took on the importance of a boulder. When the moment of departure arrived, and the cavalcade poured out of the courtyard gates, with a clanking of armor and a flapping of gorgeous new mantles, warmed by the horns of parting ale that had steamed down their throats, singing and boasting and laughing, and cheered by the rabble that ran alongside, their way down to the shore lay directly over the head of this insignificant pebble. Who would have thought of avoiding it? Yet, though a score of children's feet danced over it unharmed, and sixty pairs of horses' hoofs pranced over it unhindered, when Eric reached it his good bay mare stumbled against it and fell, so that her rider was thrown from his saddle and rolled in the dust. There were no bones broken; he was no more than shaken; he was up before they could reach him; but his face was gray with disappointment, and his frame had shrunk like a withered leaf. "It is a warning from the gods that I am on the wrong road," he said hoarsely. "It is a sign that it cannot be my fate to be the discoverer of any other land than the one on which we now live. My luck go with you, my son; but I cannot." Before they could remonstrate, he had wheeled his horse and left them, riding with the bent head and drooping shoulders of an old, old man. A stern sign from Valbrand restrained Leif's men from venting the cheers they were bursting with; but the looks they darted at their leader, and then at each other, said as plainly as words: "It is his never-failing luck. Why did we ever doubt him? We would follow him into the Sea of Worms and believe that it would end favorably." In this promising frame of mind they left their friendly haven and sailed away into an unknown world. CHAPTER XXIV FOR DEAR LOVE'S SAKE He alone knows, Who wanders wide And has much experienced, By what disposition Each man is ruled Who common sense possesses. Ha'vama'l The first night out was a moonless night, that shut down on the world of waters and blotted out even the clouds and the waves that been company for the solitary vessel. The little ship became a speck of light in a gulf of darkness, an atom of life floating in empty space. Under the tent roofs, by the light of flaring torches, the crew drank and sang and amused themselves with games; but beyond that circle, there was only blackness and emptiness and silence. Sigurd gazed out over the vessel's side, with a yawn and a shiver combined. "It feels as though the air were full of ghosts, and we were the only living beings in the whole world," he muttered. A tow-headed giant known as Long Lodin overheard him, and laughed noisily, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the deck where Leif's eagle face showed high above their heads. "_His_ luck could carry us safe through even the world of the dead," he reassured him. But Rolf paused in his chess game to throw his friend a keen glance. "The Silver-Tongue has been one not apt to speak womanish words," he said, gravely. "Something there is on your mind which disturbs you, comrade." Sigurd pulled himself together with an attempt at his usual careless laugh. "Is it your opinion that I am the only person who is thinking of ghosts to-night?" he parried. "Look yonder at Kark, how he fears to turn his back on the shadows, lest the Evil One overtake him! It is my belief that he would like it better to die than to venture into the dark of the foreroom." Following his glance, they beheld the bowerman, leaning against the mast with a face as pale as a toadstool. When a sailor threw a piece of dried fish at him, he jumped as though he had been struck by a stone. Rolf's gentle smile expanded into a broad grin, and he let himself be turned thus easily from his object. "Now that is true; I had not observed him before. He appears as if the goddess Ran already had hold of his feet to pull him down under the water. Let us have a little fun with him. I will send him to the foreroom on an errand." Robert of Normandy set down his drinking-horn with a sharp motion, and Sigurd leaned forward hastily; but the Wrestler's soft voice was already speeding his command. "Ho there, valiant Kark-with-the-white-cheeks! Get you into the foreroom and bring my bag of chess-men from the brass-bound box." Kark heard the order without a motion except an angry scowl, and Sigurd drew back with something like a breath of relief. But Rolf made a sudden move as though to rise to his feet, and the effect was magical. "I am going as soon as is necessary," the thrall growled. "You said nothing of being in haste." And he shuffled over to one of the torches to light a splinter in its flame, and pushed his way forward with dragging feet. Sigurd and the Norman both sprang after him. "I tell you, Rolf, I have something against this!" Sigurd stormed, as the Wrestler's iron hand closed upon his cloak. "My--my--my valuables are in the same chest. I will not have him pawing them over. Let me go, I say!" He managed to slide out of his cloak and dodge under Rolf's arm. A spark of something very like anger kindled the Wrestler's usually mild eyes; he caught the Norman around the waist, as the latter tried to pass him, and swung him bodily into the air. For an instant it seemed possible that he might hurl him over the ship's side into the ocean. But he finally threw him lightly upon a pile of skin sleeping-bags, and turned and hastened after the jarl's son. Guessing that some friendly squabble was in progress, the sailors made way for him good-humoredly, and he reached the forecastle only a moment behind Sigurd. Kark's taper was just disappearing among the shadows beneath the deck. Before the pursuers could speak, the bowerman leaped back upon them with a shriek that cut the air. "Ran is in there! I saw her hair hanging over a barrel. It was long and yellow. It is Ran herself! We shall drown--" Sigurd Haraldsson dealt him a cuff that felled him like a log. "The simpleton is not able to tell a piece of yellow fox-fur from a woman's hair," he said, contemptuously. "Since you are here, Rolf, hold the light for me, and I will get the chess-bag myself." He spoke loudly enough so that the men on the benches heard, laughed, and turned back to their amusements. Then he drew Rolf further into the room, laid a hand over his mouth, and pointed to the farthest comer, where barrels and piled-up bales made a screen half-way across the bow. Hair long and yellow there was, as the simpleton had said; but it was not the vengeful Ran who looked out from under it. Tumbled and dishevelled, paling and flushing, short-kirtled and desperate-eyed, Helga the Fair stood before them. "Behold how a prudent shield-maiden helps matters that are already in a snarl," the jarl's son said, dryly. The Wrestler started back in consternation. Helga dropped her eyes guiltily. "I cannot blame you for being angry," she murmured. "I have become a great hindrance to you." "It is an unheard-of misfortune!" gasped Rolf. "In flying from Gilli you have broken the Norwegian law; and by causing Leif to aid you in your flight you have made him an accomplice. A bad result is certain." Helga's head bent lower. Then suddenly she flung out her hands in passionate entreaty. "Yet I could not help it, comrades! As I live, I could not help it! How could I have the heart to remain in safety, without knowing whether Alwin lived or died? How could I spend my days decking myself in fine clothes, while my best friend fought for his life? Was it to be expected that I could help coming?" She spoke softly, half-crouching in her hiding-place, but her heart was in every word. Her judges could not stand against her. Rolf swore that she would have been unworthy the name of shield-maiden had she acted otherwise. And Sigurd pressed her hand with brotherly tenderness. "You should know that I am not blaming you in earnest, my foster-sister, because I grumble a little when I cannot see my way out of the tangle." He bent over Kark to make sure that he was really as unconscious as he seemed; then he lowered his voice nervously. "What makes it a great mishap is that your presence doubles Alwin's risk, and because one can never be altogether sure to what lengths Eric's son will go,--even with one whom he loves as well as he loves you. If I could find some good way in which to break the news to him before he sees you,--" Helga sprang out of her niche, and stood, straight and rigid, before them. "You shall not endanger yourself to shield me. You will feel it enough for what you have already done. The first burst of his anger I will bear myself, as is my right." Before they had even guessed her intention, she slipped past them, leaped lightly over Kark's motionless body, and delivered herself into the light of the torches. In another instant, a roar of amazement and delight had gone up from the benches; and the men were dropping their games and knocking over their goblets to crowd around her. "She has got out of her wits," Rolf said, wonderingly. "He will kill her," Sigurd answered, between his teeth. "For half as much cause, Olaf Trygvasson struck a queen in the face." They followed her aft, like men walking in a dream; but between the rings of broad shoulders they soon lost sight of her. All they could see was the Norman's dark face, as he stepped upon a bench and silently watched the approaching apparition. "The Troll take him! If he cannot keep that look out of his eyes, why does he not shut them?" Sigurd muttered, irritably. Perhaps it was that look which Helga encountered, as she made the last step that brought her face to face with the chief. At that moment, a great change came over her. When the guardsman pushed back to the extreme limits of his chair to regard her in a sort of incredulous horror, she did not fall at his feet as everyone expected her to, and as she herself had thought to do. Instead, she flung up her head with a spirit that sent the long locks flying. Even when anger began to distort his face,--anger headlong and terrible as Eric's,--her glance crossed his like a sword-blade. "You need not look at me like that, kinsman," she said, fiercely. "It is your own fault for giving me into the power of a mean-minded brute,--you who brought me up to be a free Norse shield-maiden!" If the planks of the deck had risen against them, the men could not have looked at each other more aghast. Her boldness seemed to paralyze even Leif. Or was it the grain of truth in the reproach that stayed him? He let moment after moment pass without replying. He sat plainly struggling to hold back his fury, gripping his chair-arms until the knuckles on his fists gleamed white. After peering at him curiously for awhile, as though trying to divine his wishes, his shrewd old foster-father put aside the chess-board on which they had been playing, and hobbled over and laid a soothing hand on the girl's arm. "Speak you of Gilli?" he inquired. "Tell to us how he has ill-treated you." It was only very slightly that the pause had cooled Helga's valor. "He has treated me like a horse that traders deck out in costly things, and parade up and down for men to see and offer money for," she answered hotly. Though they knew Gilli's conduct was entirely within the law, and there was not a man there who might not have done the same thing, they all grunted contemptuously. Tyrker stroked his beard, with an-other sidelong glance at his foster-son, as he said, cautiously: "So? _Aber_,--how have you managed it from him to escape?" "Little was there to manage. As I told you, he loaded me with precious things; after which he left me to sit at home with his weak-minded wife, while he went on a trading voyage, as was his wont. A horse brought me to Nidaros; gold bought me a passage with Arnor Gunnarsson, and his ship brought me into Eric's Fiord." Then, for the first time, Leif spoke. His words leaped out like wolves eager for a victim. "Do not stop there! Tell how you passed from his ship into mine. Tell whom you found in Eric's Fiord who became a traitor for your gold." She answered him bravely: "No one, kinsman. No one received so much as a ring from me. May the Giant take me if I lie! I swam the distance between the ships under the cover of darkness, and--" His voice crashed through hers like a thunder-peal: "Who kept the watch on board, last night?" Half a dozen men started in sudden consternation; but they were spared the peril of a reply, for Sigurd Haraldsson stepped out of the throng and stood at Helga's side. "I kept the watch last night, foster-father," he said, quietly. "Let none of your men suffer in life or limb. It was I who received her on board, while it was the others' turn to sleep; and I alone who hid her in the foreroom." Those who had hoped that Leif's love for his foster-son might outweigh his anger, gauged but poorly the force of the resentment he had been holding back. At this offer of a victim which it was free to accept, his anger could no more be restrained than an unchained torrent. It burst out in a stream of denunciation that bent Sigurd's handsome head and lashed the blood into his cheeks. Coward and traitor were the mildest of its reproaches; contempt and eternal displeasure were the least of its dooms. Though Helga besought with eyes and hands, the torrent thundered on with a fury that even the ire of Eric had never surpassed. Only a lack of breath brought it finally to an end. The chief dashed himself back into his chair, and leaned there, panting and darting fiery glances from under his scowling brows,--now at Rolf and the Norman, now at Helga, and again at the motionless figure of Sigurd Haraldsson, silently awaiting his pleasure. When he spoke again, it was with the suddenness of a blow. "Nor do I altogether believe that it was to escape from Gilli that she took this venture upon herself. By her own story, Gilli had gone away for the season and left her free. It is my opinion that it took something of more importance to steal the wits out of her." Helga blanched. If he was going to pry into her motives, what might not the next words bring out? Under the Norman's silken tunic, an English heart leaped, and then stood still. There was a pause in which no one seemed to breathe. But the next words were as unexpected as the last. Of a sudden, Leif started up with a gesture of impatience. "Have I nothing to think of besides your follies? Trouble me no longer with the sight of you. Tyrker, take the girl below and see to it that she is cared for." While the culprits stared at him, scarcely daring to credit their ears, he still further signified that the incident was closed, by turning his back upon them and inviting Robert Sans-Peur to take the German's place at the chess-board. In a daze of bewilderment, Sigurd let Rolf lead him away. "What can he mean by such an ending?" he marvelled, as soon as it was safe to voice his thoughts. "How comes it that he will stop before he has found out her real motive? It cannot be that he will drop it thus. Did you not see the black look he gave me as I left?" He raised his eyes to Rolf's face, and drew back resentfully. "What are you smiling at?" he demanded. "At your stupidity," Rolf laughed into his ear. "Do you not see that he believes he has found out her real motive?" As Sigurd continued to stare, the Wrestler shook him to arouse his slumbering faculties. "Simpleton! He thinks it was for love of you that Helga fled from Norway!" "_Nom du diable_!" breathed Sigurd. Yet the longer he thought of it, the more clearly he saw it. By and by, he drew a breath of relief that ended in a laugh. "And he thinks to make me envious by putting my Norman friend before me! Do you see? He in-tends it as a punishment. By Saint Michael, it seems almost too amusing to be true!" CHAPTER XXV "WHERE NEVER MAN STOOD BEFORE" Wit is needful To him who travels far: At home all is easy. Ha'vama'l Four days of threading fog-thickets and ploughing over watery wastes, and the stanch little vessel pushed her way into sight of the first of the unknown lands. It towered up ahead like a storm-cloud, bleak and barren-looking as Greenland itself. From its inhospitable heights and glaciers gleaming coldly in the sunshine, they knew it at once for the last-seen land of Biorn's narrative. "It looks to me like a good omen that we are to begin where Biorn left off," Rolf observed to one of the men engaged in lowering the ship's boat. The fellow was a stalwart Icelander who had every current superstition at his tongue's end, and was even accredited with the gift of second sight. He hunched his shoulders sceptically, as he bent over the ropes. "It is my opinion that good omens have little to do with this land," he returned. "It bears every resemblance to the Giant Country which Thor visited." "I believe it is Helheim itself," quavered Kark. The Wrestler glanced at the thrall's blanching cheeks and laughed a long soft laugh. Such a display was one of the few things that moved him to mirth. Suddenly he caught up the bowerman as one picks up a kitten, and, leaning out over the side, dropped him sprawling into the long-boat. "Here, then, is your chance to enter the world of the dead in good company," he laughed. He stood guard over the gunwale until Leif and the other ten men of the boat's crew were ready to go down; pounding the poor wretch's fingers when he attempted to climb back, while a row of grinning faces mocked him over the side. The unpromising aspect of the shore did not lessen as the explorers approached it. If they had not made an easy landing, on a gravelly strip between two rocky points, they would have felt that their labor had been wasted. From the sea to the ice-tipped mountains there stretched a plain of nothing but broad flat stones. They looked in vain for any signs of life. Not a tree nor a shrub, nor even so much as a grass-blade, relieved the dead emptiness. When they caught sight of a fox, whisking from one rocky den to another, it startled them into crossing themselves. "It is over such wastes as this that the dead like to call to each other," Valbrand muttered in his heard. And his neighbor mumbled uneasily, "I think it likely that this is one of the plains on which the Women who Ride at Night hold their meetings. If it were not for the Lucky One's luck, I would prefer swallowing hot irons to coming here." Then both became silent, for Leif had faced about and was awaiting their full attention before announcing the next move. "I dislike to see brave men disgrace their beards with bondmaids' gabble," he said sternly. "Fix in your minds the shame that was spoken of Biorn Herjulfsson because of his lack of enterprise. The same shall not be said of us. Rolf Erlingsson and Ottar the Red and three others shall follow me; and we will walk inland until the light has entirely faded from the highest mountain peak yonder, and the next point below is yellow as a golden fir-cone. The others of you shall follow Valbrand for the same length of time, but walk southward along the shore, since it may be that something of interest is hidden behind these points--" A howl from Kark interrupted him. "I will not go! By Thor, I will not go! Spirits are hidden behind those points. Who knows what would jump out at us? I will not stir away from the Lucky One. I will not! I will not!" Gibbering with terror, he clutched Leif's cloak and clung there like a cat. For a moment the chief hesitated, looking down at him with disgust unutterable. Then he quietly loosened the golden clasp on his shoulder, flung the mantle off with a sweep that sent the thrall staggering backward, and marched away at the head of his men. Valbrand had handled rebellious slaves before. Shaking the fellow until he no longer had any breath to howl with, the steersman said briefly, "It is very unlikely that we shall see any ghosts, but it is altogether certain that your hide will feel my belt if you do not end this fuss." Kark made his choice with admirable swiftness. He got what comfort he could, poor wretch, out of a carefully selected position. As between two shields, he crept between the mystic Icelander and the dauntless Norman warrior. Valbrand led the way, his flint face set to withstand the Devil and all his angels; and three strapping Swedes brought up the rear, with drawn swords and thumping hearts. If only the way could have lain straight and open before them, even though it bristled with beasts and foes! But for the whole distance it screwed itself into a succession of crescent-shaped beaches, each one lying between rocky spurs of the beetling crags. Each point they rounded disclosed nothing more alarming than lichened boulders and pebbly shore, with here a dead fish, and there a heap of shining snaky kelp, and yonder a flock of startled gulls,--but who could tell what the next projection might be hiding? They walked with their fists gripped hard around their weapons, their eyes shifting, their ears strained, while the waves hissed around their feet and the gulls screamed over their heads. Slowly the light faded from the mountain top and lay upon the next peak, a golden cone against the blue. At last, even Valbrand's sense of duty was satisfied. "We will turn back now," he announced, halting them. "But first I will climb up the cliff, here where it is lowest, and try to see a little way ahead, that we may have as much news as possible to report to the chief." As he spoke, he gave a great spring upward on to a shelving ledge, and pulled himself up to the next projection; a rattling shower of sand and pebbles continued to mark his ascent. Robert the Fearless walked on to look around the rock they had almost reached; but the rest remained where they were, following their leader's movements with anxious eyes. They were so intent that they jumped like startled horses at an exclamation from the Icelander. He was pointing to the strip of beach which lay between Kark and the Norman. "Look there!" he cried. "Look there!" Their alarm was in no way diminished when they had looked and seen that the space was empty. The cold drops came out on their bodies, and the hair rose on their heads. Robert of Normandy, who had caught the cry but not the words, came walking back, inquiring the cause of the excitement; and at that the Icelander cried out louder than before: "Have a care where you go! Do you not see it? You will get blood upon your fine cloak. It is at your feet." In blank amazement, the Norman stared first at the ground and then at the seer. "Have the wits been stolen out of you? There is not even so much as a devil-fish where you are pointing." The Icelander took off his cap, and commenced wiping the great beads from his forehead. "You begin to listen after the song is sung," he answered, peevishly. "The thing ran away as soon as you approached. It was a fox that was bloody all over." A yell of terror distended Kark's throat. "A fox!" he screeched. "My guardian spirit follows me in that shape; a foreknowing woman told me so. It is my death-omen! I am death-fated!" His knees gave way under him so that he sank to the ground and cowered there, wringing his hands. The Icelander shot a look of triumph at the sceptical stranger. "They have no call to hold their chins high who hear of strange wonders for the first time," he said, severely. "It is as certain that men have guardian spirits as that they have bodies. Yours, Robert of Normandy, goes doubtless in the shape of a wolf because of your warrior nature; and I advise you now, that when you see a bloody wolf before you it will be time for you to draw on your Hel-shoes. The animal ran nearest the thrall--" Kark's lamentations merged into a shriek of hope. "That is untrue! It lay at the Norman's feet; you told him so!" While the seer turned to look rather resentfully at him, he climbed up this slender life-line, like a man whom sharks are pursuing. "It was not a fox that you saw, at all; it was a wolf! So excited were you that your eyes were deceitful. It was a wolf, and it was nearest the Norman. A blind man could see what that means." The Icelander pulled off his cap again, but this time it was to scratch his head doubtfully. "It was when the stranger approached it, that it was nearest to him," he persisted. "While this may signify that he will seek death, I am unable to say that it proves that he will overtake it. Yet I will not swear that it was not a wolf. The sun was in my eyes--" Robert the Fearless burst into a scornful laugh. "Oh, call it a wolf, and let us end this talk!" he said, contemptuously. "I shall not die until my death-day comes, though you see a pack of them. Call it a wolf, craven serf, if that will stay your tongue." There was no chance for more, for at that moment Valbrand joined them. "There is naught to be seen which is different from what we have already experienced," he said shortly; and they began the return march. They reached the landing-place first; but it was not long before the heads of their companions appeared above a rocky ridge. This party, it was evident, had had better sport. Several men carried hats filled with sea-birds' eggs. Another explorer had under his arm a fat little bear cub that he had picked up somewhere. Rolf's deftness at stone-throwing had secured him a bushy yellow fox-tail for a trophy. The party had gone inland far enough to discover that creeping bushes grew on the hills, and rushes on the bogs; that it was an island, as Biorn had stated, and that forests equal in size to those of Greenland grew in sheltered places. But they had seen nothing to alter their unflattering first opinion. Vikings though they were, warriors who would have been flayed alive without flinching, relief was manifest on every face when the leader finally gave the word to embark. Probably it was because he understood the danger of pushing their fidelity too far, that the chief gave the order to return so soon. For his own part, he did not seem to be entirely satisfied. With one foot on the stern of the boat, and one still on the rocks, he lingered uncertainly. "Yet we have not acted with this land like Biorn, who did not come ashore," he muttered. Rolf displayed the fox-tall with a flourish. "We have accomplished more than Eric after he had been in Greenland an equally short time, chief. We have taken tribute from the inhabitants." Leif deigned to smile slightly. He stepped into his place, and from the stern he swept a long critical look over the barren coast,--from the fox-dens up to the high-peaked mountains, and back again to the sea. "We will give as well as take," he said at last. "I will give a name to the land, and call it Helluland, for it is indeed an icy plain." They were welcomed on board with a hubbub of curiosity. Almost every article of value upon the ship was offered in exchange for the cub and the fox-tail. The uncanny accounts of the place were swallowed with open-mouthed greediness; so greedily that it was little wonder that at each repetition the narratives grew longer and fuller. Told by torchlight, at a safe distance from Leif, each boulder took on the form of a squatting dwarf; and the faint squeaking of foxes became the shrieking of spirits. The tale of the death-omen swelled to such proportions that Kark would have been terrified out of his wits if he had not rested secure in the conviction that the vision had been a wolf. The explorers who had gotten little pleasure out of their adventure at the time of its occurrence, came to regard it as their most precious possession. The fire of exploration waxed hot in every vein. Every man constituted himself a special look-out to watch for any dawning speck upon the horizon. With Fortune's fondness for surprising mankind, the next of the "wonder-shores" crept upon them in the night. The sun, which had set upon an empty ocean, rose upon a low level coast lying less than twenty miles away. In the glowing light, bluffs of sand shone like cliffs of molten silver; and more trees were massed upon one point than the whole of Greenland had ever produced. Even Leif was moved to exclaim at the sight. "Certainly this is a land which names itself!" he declared. "You need not wait long for what I shall fix upon. It shall be called Markland, after its woods." Sigurd's enthusiasm mounted to rashness. "I will have a share in this landing, if I have to plead with Leif for the privilege," he vowed. And when, for the second time, Rolf was told off for a place in the boat, and for the second time his claims were slighted, he was as reckless as his word. "Has not my credit improved at ail, after all this time, foster-father?" he demanded, waylaying the chief on his descent from the forecastle. "I ask you to consider the shame it will bring upon me if I am obliged to return to Norway without having so much as set foot upon the new-found lands." For awhile Leif's gaze rested upon him absently, as though the press of other matters had entirely swept him out of mind. Presently, however, his brows began to knit themselves above his hawk nose. "Tell those who ask, that you were kept on board because a strong-minded and faithful watchman was needed there," he answered curtly, and turned his back upon him. Robert the Fearless was standing at the side, gazing eagerly toward the shore. As though suddenly reminded of his existence, the chief stopped behind him and touched him on the shoulder. "The Norman is as much too modest as his friend is too bold," he said, with a note of his occasional courtliness. "A man who has thought it worth while to travel so far is certainly entitled to a share in every experience. Let Robert Sans-Peur go down and take the place that is his right." As the boat bounded away with the Fearless One on the last bench, Sigurd's face was a study. Between mortification and amusement, it was so convulsed that Rolf, who shared the Norman's seat, could not restrain his soft laughter. "Whether or not the Silver-Tongued has given his luck to you, it is seen that he has none left for himself," he laughed into his companion's ear. The Norman bent to his oar with a petulant force that drove it deep into the water and far out of stroke. "Whether or not he has any left for himself, it is certain that he has given none of it to me," he muttered. "Here are we at our second landing, and no chance have I had yet to endanger my life for the chief. Nor do I see any reason for expecting favorable prospects in this tame-appearing land. Is it of any use to hope for wild beasts here?" The Wrestler regarded him over his shoulder with amused eyes. "Is it your opinion that Leif Ericsson needs your protection against wild beasts?" he inquired. Under the Norman's swarthy complexion, Alwin of England suddenly flushed. When a wish is rooted in one's very heart, it is difficult to get far enough away to see it in its true proportions. The cliffs of gleaming silver faded, on the boat's approach, into gullied bluffs of weather-beaten sand; but the white beach that met the water, and the green thickets that covered the heights, remained fair and inviting. No fear of dark omens along that shining sand; no danger of evil spirits in that sunlit wood. All was pure and bright and fresh from the hand of God. In place of a spur, the explorers needed a rein,--and a tight one. But for the chief's authority, they would have spread themselves over the place like birds'-nesting boys. "Ye know no more moderation than swine," Leif said sternly, checking their rush to obey the beckoning of the myriad of leafy hands. "And ye are as witless as children, besides. Have ye not learned yet that cold steel often lies hid under a fair tunic? We will divide into two bands, as we did at our first landing; and I forbid that any man shall separate himself from his party, for any reason whatsoever." Then he proceeded to single out those who were to follow him; and to the great joy of Robert of Normandy, he was included in that favored number. Valbrand's men crashed away through bush and bramble; and the chief's following threw themselves, like jubilant swimmers, into the sea of undergrowth. Now, waist-high in thorny bushes, they tore their way through by sheer force of strength. Now they stepped high over a network of low-lying vines, ankle-bonds tougher than walrus hide. Again, imitating the four-footed pioneer that had worn the faint approach to a trail, they crawled on their hands and knees. Every nest they chanced upon, and each berry bush, paid a heavy toll; but they gave the briers a liberal return in the way of cloth and hair and flesh. "I think it likely that I could retrace my steps by no other means than the hair that I have left on the thorns," Eyvind the Icelander observed ruefully, when at last they had paused to draw breath in one of the few open spaces. The Fearless One overheard him and laughed. "When I found that my locks were liable to be pulled off my head entirely, I disposed of them in this manner," he said. He was leaning forward from his seat on a fallen oak to shew how his black curls were tucked snugly inside his collar, when a shriek of pain from the thicket behind them brought every man to his feet. The chief ran his eye over the little group. "It is Lodin that is missing," he said. "Probably he lingered at those last berry bushes." Knife in hand, he plunged into the jungle. While a rustling green curtain still hid the tragedy, the rescuers learned the nature of their companion's peril; for suddenly, above the cries for help and the crash of trampled brush, there rose the roar of an infuriated bear. Alwin's heart leaped in his breast, and his nostrils widened with such a fierce joy as won him the undying respect of the sportsmen around him. Pushing past his comrades, he tore his way through the tangle of twining willowy arms and gained the side of the chief. Leif pushed aside the last overhanging bough, and the conflict was before them. Locked in the embrace of as big a bear as it had ever been their luck to see, stood Lodin the Berry-Eater. That the beast had come upon him from the rear was evident, for the chisel-like claws of one huge paw had torn mantle and tunic and flesh into ribbons; but in some way the Viking must have managed to turn and grapple with his foe, for now his distorted face was close to the dripping jaws. Two bloody mangled spots upon either arm showed where the brute's teeth had been; but if the bear's paws were gripping the man's shoulders, still the man's hands were locked about the bear's ears. That the pair had been down once, leaves and dirt in hair and fur were witness; and now they went down again, ploughing up the earth, screaming and panting, growling and roaring; one of the brute's hind legs drawing up and striking down in a motion of terrible meaning. It was too ghastly a thing to watch inactive. Already every man's knife was in his hand, and three men were crouching for a spring, when the chief swept them back with a stern gesture. "Attacking thus, you can reach no vital part," he reminded them. And he shouted to the struggling man, "Feign death! you can do nothing without your weapon. Feign death." It appeared to Alwin that to do this would require greater courage than to struggle; but while the words were still in the air, the man obeyed. His hands relaxed their hold; his head fell backward on the ground; and he lay under the shaggy body like a dead thing. The black muzzle poked curiously about his face, but he did not stir. After a suspicious sniff, the victor appeared to accept the truth of his conquest. Exactly as though he said, "Come! Here is one good job done; what next?" he got up with a grunt, and, rising to his hind feet, stood growling and rolling his fiery little eyes from one to another of the intruders in the brush. "If now one could only hurl a spear at his heart!" murmured the sailor at Alwin's shoulder. But the difficulties of path-finding through an unbroken thicket had kept the men from cumbering themselves with weapons so unwieldy. Leif spoke up quickly, "There is no way but to trust to our knives. Since I am superior to any in strength, I will grapple with him first. If I fail, which I do not expect, I will preserve my life as Lodin is doing; and the Fearless One here shall take his turn." Alwin was too wild with delight to remember any-thing else. "For that, I thank you as for a crown!" he gasped. Even as he stepped out to meet the foe, Leif smiled ironically. "Certainly you are better called the Fearless than the Courteous," he said. "It would have been no more than polite for you to have wished me luck." Anything further was drowned in the bear's roar, as he took a swift waddling step forward and threw out his terrible paws. Even Leif's huge frame could not withstand the shock of the meeting. His left hand caught the beast by the throat and, with sinews of iron, held off his foaming jaws; but the shock of the grappling lost him his footing. They fell, clenched, and rolled over and over on the ground; those terrible hind feet drawing up and striking down with surer and surer aim. Alwin could endure it no longer. "Let me have him now!" he implored. "It is time to leave him to me. The next stroke, he will tear you to pieces. I claim my turn." It is doubtful if anyone heard him: at that moment, swaying and staggering, the wrestlers got to their feet. In rising, Leif's hold on the bear's throat slipped and the shaggy head shot sideways and fastened its jaws on his naked arm, with a horrible snarling sound. But at the same moment, the man's right arm, knife in hand, shot toward the mark it had been seeking. Into the exposed body it drove the blade up to its hilt, then swerved to the left and went upward. The stroke which the chisel-shod paws had tried for in vain, the little strip of steel achieved. A roar that echoed and re-echoed between the low hills, a convulsive movement of the mighty limbs, and then the beast's muscles relaxed, stiffening while they straightened; and the huge body swayed backward, dead. From the chief came much the same kind of a grunt as had come from the bear at the fall of his foe. Glancing with only a kind of contemptuous curiosity at his wounded arm, he stepped quickly to the side of his prostrate follower and bent over him. "You have got what you deserve for breaking my orders," he said, grimly. "Yet turn over that I may attend to your wounds before you bleed to death." In the activity which followed, Robert of Normandy took no part. He leaned against a tree with his arms folded upon his breast, his eyes upon the slain bear which half of the party were hastily converting into steaks and hide. The men muttered to each other that the Southerner was in a rage because he had lost his chance, but that was only a part of the truth. His fixed eyes no longer saw the bear; his ears were deaf to the voices around him. He saw again a shadowy room, lit by leaping flames and shifting eyes; and once more a lisping voice hissed its "jargon" into his ear. "I see Leif Ericsson standing upon earth where never man stood before; and I see you standing by his side, though you do not look as you look now, for your hair is long and black... I see that it is in this new land that it will be settled whether your luck is to be good or bad..." He said slowly to himself, like a man talking in his sleep, "It has been settled, and it is to be bad." Then the room passed from his vision. He saw in its place Rolf's derisive smile, and heard again his mocking query: "Is it your opinion that Leif Ericsson needs your protection against wild beasts?" Of a sudden he flung back his head and burst into a loud laugh that jarred on the ear like grating steel. When at last Lodin's wounds were dressed so that he could be helped along between two of his comrades, the party began a slow return. By the time they came out on to the shining white beach again, they were a battered-looking lot. There was not a mantle among them but what hung in tatters, nor a scratched face that did not mingle blood with berry juice. But at their head, the huge bear skin was borne like a captured banner. At the sight of it, their waiting comrades burst into shouts of admiration and envy that reached as far as the anchored ship. "Never was such sport heard of!"--"A better land is nowhere to be found!" they clamored. "In one month we could secure enough skins to make us wealthy for the rest of our lives!" And then some muttered asides were added: "It is a great pity to leave such a place."--"It is folly to give up certain wealth for vague possibilities." And though the dissatisfaction rose no louder than a murmur, it spread on every hand like fire in brush. Now there was one man among the explorers who had been a member of Biorn Herjulfsson's crew, and was brimful of conceit and the ambition to be a leader among his fellows. When the command to embark swelled the murmurs almost to an outspoken grumbling, he thought he saw a chance to push into prominence, and swaggered boldly forward. "If it is not your intention to come back and profit by this discovery, chief, I must tell you that we will not willingly return to the ship. Certainly not until we have secured at least one bear apiece. We are free men, Leif Ericsson, and it is not to our minds to be led altogether by the--" Whether or not he had meant to say "nose," no one ever knew. At that moment the chief wheeled and looked at him, with a glance so different from Biorn Herjulfsson's mild gaze that the word stuck in the fellow's throat, and instinctively he leaped backward. Leif turned from him disdainfully, and addressed the men of his old crew. "Ye are free men," he said; "but I am the chief to whom, of your own free wills, you have sworn allegiance on the edge of your swords. Do you think it improves your honor that a stranger should dare to insult your chosen leader in your presence?" "No!" bellowed Valbrand, in a voice of thunder. And Lodin shook his wounded arm at the mutineer. "If my hand could close over a sword, I would split you open with it," he cried. The other men's slumbering pride awoke. Loyalty seldom took more than cat-naps in those days, in spite of all the hard work that was put upon her. "Duck him!"--"Souse him!"--"Dip him in the ocean!" they shouted. And so energetically that the ringleader, cursing the fickleness of rebels, found it all at once advisable to whip out his sword and fall into a posture of defence. But again Leif's hand was stretched forth. "Let him be," he said. "He is a stranger among us, and your own words are responsible for his mistake. Let him be, and show your loyalty to your leader by carrying out his orders with no more unseemly delay." They obeyed him silently, if reluctantly; and it was not long before those who had remained on ship-board were thrown into a second fever of envious excitement. They were not pleasant, however, the days that followed. In the flesh of those who had missed the sport, the bear-fight was as a rankling thorn. The watches, during which a northeast gale kept them scudding through empty seas with little to do and much time to gossip, were golden hours for the growth of the serpent of discontent. Though the creature did not dare to strike again, its hiss could be heard in the distance, and the gleam of its fangs showed in dark corners. If Leif had had Biorn's bad fortune, to begin at the wrong end of his journey, so that a barren Helluland was the climax that now lay before him, the hidden snake might have swelled, like Thora Borga Hiort's serpent-pet, into a devastating dragon. Was it not Leif's luck that the land which was revealed to them, on the third morning, should be as much fairer than their vaunted Markland as that spot was pleasanter than Greenland's wastes?--a land where, as the old books tell, vines grew wild upon the hills, and wheat upon the plains; where the rivers teemed with fish, and the thickets rustled with game, and the islands were covered with innumerable wild fowl; where even the dew upon the grass was honey-sweet! As they gazed upon the blooming banks and woods and low hills, warm and green with sunlight, cries of admiration burst from every throat. Valbrand made bold to warn his chief, "Though I do not dispute your will in this, any more than in anything else, I will say that difficulties are to be expected if men are to be parted from such a land without at least tasting of its good things." Even for those who had been longest with him, the Lucky One was full of surprises. "It has never been my intention to continue sailing after we had accomplished the three landings," he answered quietly. "Ungrateful to God would we be, were we to fail in showing honor to the good things He has led us to. I expect to stay over winter in this place." CHAPTER XXVI VINLAND THE GOOD "... They sailed toward this land, and came to an island lying north of it, and went ashore in fine weather and looked round. They found dew on the grass, and touched it with their hands, and put it to their mouths, and it seemed to them that they had never tasted anything so sweet as this dew. Then they went on hoard and sailed into the channel, which was between the island and the cape which ran north from the mainland. They passed the cape, sailing in a westerly direction. There the water was very shallow, and their ship went aground, and at ebb-tide the sea was far out from the ship. But they were so anxious to get ashore that they could not wait till the high-water reached their ship, and ran out on the beach where a river flowed from a lake. When the high-water set their ship afloat they took their boat and rowed to the ship and towed it up the river into the lake. There they cast anchor, and took their leather-bags ashore, and there built booths."--FLATEYJARBO'K. It was October, and it was the new camp, and it was Helga the Fair tripping across the green background with a skirtful of red and yellow thorn-berries and a wreath of fiery autumn leaves upon her sunny head. Where a tongue of land ran out between a lake-like bay and a river that hurried down to throw herself into its arms, there lay the new settlement. Facing seaward, the five newly-built huts stood on the edge of a grove that crowned the river bluffs. Behind them stretched some hundred yards of wooded highland, ending in a steep descent to the river, which served as a sort of back stairway to the stronghold. Before them, green plains and sandy flats sloped away to the white shore of the bay that rocked their anchored ship upon its bosom. Over their lowly roofs, stately oaks and elms and maples murmured ceaseless lullabies,--like women long-childless, granted after a weary waiting the listening ears to be soothed by their crooning. "I have a feeling that this land has always been watching for us; and that now that we are come, it is glad," Helga said, happily, as she paused where the jarl's son leaned in a doorway, watching Kark's cook-fires leap and wave their arms of blue smoke. "Is it not a wonderful thought, Sigurd, that it was in God's mind so long ago that we should some day want to come here?" "It is a fair land," Sigurd agreed, absently. And then for the first time Helga noticed the frown on his face, and some of the brightness faded from her own. "Alas, comrade, you are brooding over the disfavor I have brought upon you!" she said, laying an affectionate hand upon his arm. "I act in a thoughtless way when I forget it." Sigurd made a good-natured attempt to arouse himself. "Do not let that trouble you, _ma mie_," he said, lightly. "When ill luck has it in her mind to reach a man, she will come in through a window if the door be closed. It is a matter of little importance." He patted the hand on his arm and his smile became even mischievous. "Still, I will not say anything against it if you wish to pay some forfeit," he added. "See,--yonder Leif sits, playing with the bear cub while he waits for his breakfast. Now, as he turns his eyes upon us, do you reach up and give me such an affectionate kiss as shall convince him forever that it was for love of me that you fled from Norway." A vigorous box on the ear was his answer; yet even before her cheeks cooled, Helga relented and turned back. "Even your French foolishness I will overlook, for the sake of the misfortune I have been to you. Take now a handful of these berries, and make the excuse that you wish to give them to the bear. While you do so, speak to Leif strongly and tell him your wish. That he is playing with the cub is a sign that he is in a good humor." Sigurd's eyes wandered wistfully beyond the cook-fires and the storehouses to the last hut in the line, before which a dozen men were buckling on cloaks and arming themselves, in a bustle of joyful anticipation. He thrust out his palm with sudden resolve. "By Saint Michael, I will! I had sworn that I would never entreat his leave again, but this time there is no one near enough to witness my shame if he refuses me. There--that is sufficient! It is needful that I make haste: yonder come Eyvind and Odd with the fish; Kark will not be long in cooking it." Carefully careless, he strolled past the open shed in which the new-found wheat was being stored, past the sleeping-house and a group of fellows mending nets, and came to the great maple-tree under which a rough bench had been placed. There, like a Giant Thrym and his greyhounds, Leif sat stroking his mustache thoughtfully, while with his free hand he tousled the head of the camp pet. Scenting dainties, the bear deserted his friend and shambled forward to meet the newcomer. The chief raised his eyes and regarded his foster-son over his hand, seemingly with less sternness than usual. Yet he did not look to be so blinded by good-nature that he would be unable to see through manoeuvring. Sigurd decided to strike straight from the shoulder. The cub, finding that the treat was not to be had in one delicious gulp, rose upon his haunches and threw open his jaws invitingly. While he tossed the berries, one by one, between the white teeth, Sigurd spoke his mind. "It is two weeks now, foster-father, since the winter booths were finished and you began the practice of sending out exploring parties. In all those days you have but once permitted me to share the sport. I ask you to tell me how long I shall have to endure this?" It appeared that the hand which stroked the chief's mustache also hid a dry smile. "You grasp your weapon by the wrong end, foster-son," he retorted. "You forget that each time I have chosen an exploring party to go out, I have also chosen a party to remain at home and guard the goods. How is it possible that I could spare from their number a man who has shown himself so superior in good sense and firm-mindedness--" Sigurd's foot came down in an unmistakable stamp; and the remaining berries were crushed in his clenching fist. "Enough jests have been strung on that thread! I have submitted to you patiently because it appeared to me that your anger was not without cause, yet it is no more than just for you to remember that I was helpless in the matter. Since the girl was already so far, it would have been dastardly for me to have refused her aid. It is not as though I had enticed her from Norway--" A confusing recollection brought him suddenly to a halt, the blood tingling in his cheeks. He knew that the eyes above the brown hand had become piercing, but there were many reasons why he did not care to meet them. After a moment's hesitation, he frankly abandoned that tack and tried a new one. Dropping on one knee to wipe his berry-stained hand in the grass, he looked up with his gay smile. "There is yet another reason why you should allow me my way, foster-father. Upon the one occasion when I did accompany the party, the discovery was made of those fields of self-sown wheat which you prize so highly. Since then I have remained at home, and nothing of value has come to light. Who knows what you might not find this time, if you would but take my luck along with you?" Leif pushed the cub aside and rose to his feet, the strengthening savor of broiled salmon announcing the imminent approach of the morning meal. "Although I cannot say that I consider that an argument which would win you a case before a law-man," he observed, "yet I will not be so stark as to punish you further. Take your chance with the rovers if you will; though it is not likely that you will have time both to eat your food and to make yourself ready." Sigurd was already gone on a bound. "It will not take me long to choose between the two," he called back joyously, over his shoulder. While the rest feasted noisily at the long table before the provision sheds, the Silver-Tongued hurried between sleeping house and store-room, rummaging out his heaviest boots, his stoutest tunic, his oldest mantle. At the last moment, the edge on his knife was found to be unsatisfactory, and he went and sat down by one of the cook-fires and fell to work with a sharpening stone. On the other side of the fire Kark sat cross-legged upon the ground, skinning rabbits from a heap that had just been brought in by the trappers. He looked up with an impudent grin. "It is a good thing if your fortunes have mended at last, Sigurd Jarlsson. It did not appear that the Norman brought you much luck in return for your support." He glanced toward that part of the table where the black locks of Robert the Fearless shone, sleek as a blackbird's wing, in the morning sun. "The Southerner has an overbearing face," he added. "It reminds me of someone I hate, though I cannot think who." Sigurd's fiery impulse to cuff him was cooled by a sudden frost. He said as carelessly as possible: "You are a churlish fool; but it is likely you have seen Robert Sans-Peur in Nidaros. He was there shortly before we came away." The thrall assented with a nod, but his interest seemed to have taken another turn, for after a while he said absently: "You will call me fool again when I tell you who the Norman made me think of at first. No other than that pig-headed English thrall that Leif killed last winter,--if it were not that one is black and the other was white, and one is living and the other dead." He commenced to grin over his work, a veritable image of malice, quite unconscious that Sigurd's eyes were blazing down upon his head. By and by he broke into a discordant roar. "Too great fun is it to keep silent over! What can it matter, now that Hot-Head is dead? Ah, that was a fine revenge!" He squinted boldly up into Sigurd's face, though he did not raise his voice to be heard beyond. "Did you know that it was not Thorhall the steward who found the knife that betrayed the English-man? Did you dream of that, Jarl's son? Did you know that it was I who followed you out of the hall that night, and listened to you from the shadows, and followed your trail the next sunrise, until I came upon the knife at Skroppa's very door? You never suspected that, Jarl's son. I was too cunning to let you put your teeth into me. Thorhall you could do no harm--" "Wretched spy! Do you boast of your deed?" the young Viking interrupted hotly. "What is to hinder my biting now?" He had leaped the flames, and his hand was on the other's throat before he finished speaking. But the thrall fought him off with unusual boldness. "It is unadvisable for you to injure Leif's property, Sigurd Haraldsson," he panted. "My life is of value to him now. You are not yet out of disgrace. It would be unadvisable for you to offend him again." However contemptible its present mouthpiece, that was the truth. Sigurd paused, even while his fingers twitched with passion. While he hesitated, a shout of summons from Valbrand decided the matter. Loosening his hold, the young warrior vented his rage in one savage kick and hastened to join his comrades. Twelve brawny Vikings with twelve short swords at their sides and twelve long knives in their belts, they stood forth, headed by Valbrand of the Flint-Face and--by Tyrker! The little German had left off the longest of his fur tunics; a very long knife indeed garnished his waist, and he used a spear for a staff. Yet none of these preparations made him appear very formidable. Sigurd stared at him in amazement. "Tyrker! My eyes cannot believe that you have the intention to undertake such a march! Before a hundred steps, it will become such an exertion to you that you will lie down upon a rock in a swoon." The old man blinked at him with his little twinkling eyes. "So?" he said, chuckling. "Then will we a bargain together make; for me shall you be legs, while I be brains for you. Then shall we neither be left behind for wild beasts to eat, nor yet shall our wits like beer-foam off-blown be, if so it happens that a beautiful maiden crosses our path." Sigurd swore an unholy French oath, as the laughter arose. Would those jests never grow stale on their tongues? he wondered. He sent a half-resentful glance to where Robert Sans-Peur stood, calm and lofty, watching the departure. Whatever else threatened Alwin of England, he had none of this nonsense to endure. Over his shoulder, as he marched away, the Silver-Tongued made a sly face at his friend. The Norman caught the grimace, but no answering smile curved the bitter line of his lips. Smiles had been strangers to his gaunt dark face for many weeks now. The sailors said of him, "Since the Southerner lost his chance at the bear, he has had the appearance of a man who has lost his hope of Heaven." When the noise of the departing explorers sank into the distance, Robert Sans-Peur strolled away from the busy groups and stretched himself in the shade of a certain old elm-tree. The chief stripped off his mantle and upper tunic, and betook himself to the woods with an axe over his shoulder. The hammers of the carpenters made merry music as they built the bunks in the new sleeping-house. Out in the sunshine, fishers and trappers came and went; harvesters staggered in under golden sheaves; and a group of bathers shouted and splashed in the lake. But the Norman neither saw nor heard anything of the pleasant stir. Through the long golden hours he lay without sound or motion, staring absently at the green turf and the dying leaves that floated down to him with every breeze. A meal at midday was not a Brattahlid custom; but when the noon-hour came, there was a lull in the activity while Kark carried around bread and meat and ale. Combining prudence with a saving of labor, the thrall made no attempt to approach the brooding stranger; nor did the latter give any sign of noticing the slight. But the chief's keen eyes saw it, as they saw everything. From his seat under the maple-tree, he called out with the voice of authority: "Hardy bear-fighters are not made by abstaining from food; nor are wits sharpened by sulking. I invite the Norman to sit with me, while he drinks his ale and tells me what lies heavy on his mind." It was with more embarrassment than gratification that Robert Sans-Peur responded to this invitation. "It may well be that my head is drowsy because I have had too much ale," he made excuse, as he took his seat. Over the chunk of bread he was raising to his mouth, the chief regarded his guest critically. "There is an old saying," he observed, "that when it happens to a man that his head is sleepy in the day-time, it is because his mind is not in his body but wanders out in the world in another shape. In what land, and in what form, do the Norman's thoughts travel?" After a moment, Robert the Fearless rose to his feet and bowed low. "They have returned to rest contentedly in an unnamed land," he answered; "and they wear the shape of thanks to Leif Ericsson for his many favors. I drink to the Lucky One's health, and to his undying fame! Skoal!" As he set down his horn after the toast, the Norman's glance happened to encounter a glance from the shield-maiden, who was passing. Taking another horn from the thrall, he bowed again, with proverbial French gallantry; then quaffed off the second measure of ale to the honor of Helga the Fair. Leif turned in time to catch a rather unusual expression on the maiden's face, though her courtesy was a model of formality. He held out his hand peremptorily. "Come hither, kinswoman, and tell me how matters go with you," he commanded. "It is to be hoped that Tyrker has not lost you out of his mind, as I have done during these last weeks. How are you entertaining yourself this morning, while he is absent?" Helga sped a guilty thought to a certain green nook on the river bluff; and winged heavenward a prayer of thanks that she had put off until afternoon her daily pilgrimage to the beloved shrine. She answered readily, "I have entertained myself very poorly so far, kinsman, for I have been doing such woman's-work as Thorhild commends. I have been in your sleeping-house, sewing upon the skin curtains that are to make the fourth wall of my chamber." Leif glanced at the Norman with a dry smile. "Chamber!" he commented. "Learn from this, Robert of Normandy, how a Norse maiden regards a stall! Yet, whatever hostile thing attacks us, a Norman lady in her bower would be no safer. Tyrker's sleeping-place, and mine and Valbrand's, lie between the house-door and the chamber of Helga, Gilli's daughter." He freed the girl's hand, though he still held her with his eyes. "Whither do you betake yourself now?" he demanded. "Long rambles are unsafe in an unknown country." In her perfect composure, Helga even laughed; a silvery peal that sent a thrill of pleasure through the brooding old trees. "By my knife, kinsman, you take your responsibility heavily, now that you have remembered it at all!" she retorted. "I do not go far; only a little way up the river, where grow the rushes of which I wish to make baskets." The chief released her then; and soon she disappeared among the trees. One by one, the men finished their meal and drifted back to their various employments. The hammers began again their merry tattoo; and the wrangling voices of dice-throwers replaced the shouts of the bathers. Except for these, however, the place was still. The sun shone hotly, and the trees appeared to nap in the drowsy air. Perhaps because he preferred asking questions to answering them, Robert Sans-Peur began an earnest conversation, concerning the harvest, the traps, and the fishing. But as the hour grew, the gaps between his inquiries stretched wider. As the tree-heads ceased even their nodding and hung motionless, the chief's answers became briefer and slower. At last the moment arrived when no response at all was forthcoming. Glancing up, the Norman found his host tilted back against the maple trunk in placid slumber. The young man let something like a sigh of relief escape him. Still, watching the sleeping face warily, he tried the effect of another question. Oblivion. He rose to his feet with a daring flourish of yawns and stretching, and awaited the result of that test. The deep breathing never faltered. Then Alwin the Lover hesitated no longer. Quietly and directly, as one who treads a familiar path, he walked around the corner of the last hut and disappeared among the trees. Many feet had worn a distinct trail through the woods to the edge of the bluff, and down the steep to the water; but only two pair of feet had ever turned aside, midway the descent, and found the path to Eden. Like a rosy curtain, a tall sumach bush hid the trail's beginning; the overhanging bluffs concealed it from above; the tangle of shrubs and vines which covered the bank from the water's edge screened it from below. Hardly more than a rabbit track, a narrow shelf against the wall of the steep, it ran along for a dozen yards to stop where a ledge of moss-covered rock thrust itself from the soil. When Alwin pushed aside the leafy sprays, Helga stood awaiting him with outstretched hands. "You have been long in coming, comrade. I dare not hope that it is because Leif delayed you with some new friendliness?" Her lover shook his head, as he bent to kiss her hands. "Do not hope anything, sweetheart," he said, wearily. "That is the one way not to be disappointed." He threw himself down on the rock at her feet, unaware that her smooth brows had suddenly drawn themselves into a troubled frown. She said with grave slowness, "I do not like to hear you speak like that. You are foremost among men in courage, yet to hear you now, one would almost imagine you to be faint-hearted." Alwin's mouth bent into a bitter smile, as his eyes stared away at the river. "Courage?" he repeated, half to himself. "Yes, I have that. Once I thought it so precious a thing that I could stake honor and life upon it, and win on the turn of the wheel. But I know now what it is worth. Courage, the boldness of the devil himself, who of the North but has that? It is cheaper than the dirt of the road. If I have not been a coward, at least I have been a fool." All at once, Helga shook out her flying locks like so many golden war banners, and turned to face him resolutely. "You shall not speak, nor think like that," she said; "for I see now that it is not good sense. Before, though my heart told me you were wrong, I did not understand why; but now I have turned it over in my mind until I see clearly. The failure of your first attempt to win Leif's favor is a thing by itself; at least it does not prove that you have not yet many good chances. I will not deny that we may have expected too many opportunities for valiant deeds, yet are there no other ways in which to serve? Was it by a feat of arms that you won your first honor with the chief? It was nothing more heroic than the ability to read runes which, in five days, got you more favor than Rolf Erlingsson's strength had gained him in five years. Are your accomplishments so limited to your weapons that when you cannot use your sword you must lie idle? Many little services will count as much as one big one, when the time of reckoning comes. Shake the sleep-thorn out of your ear, my comrade, and be your brave strong-minded self again. Without courage, never would Robert Sans-Peur have come to Greenland, nor Helga, Gilli's daughter, have followed him to Norway. Despise it not, but mate it with your good sense, and the two shall yet draw us to victory." It was a long time before Alwin answered. The river splashed and murmured below; birds rustled in the bushes around them, or dived into the green depths with a soft whir of wings. A rabbit paused to look at them, and two squirrels quarrelled over a nut, within reach of their hands,--so still were they. But when at last Alwin raised his eyes to hers, their gaze reassured her. "The sleep-thorn is out, sweetheart," he said, slowly. "Now is the whole of my folly clear to me for the first time. Never again shall you have cause to shame my manhood with such words." "Shame! Shame you, who are the best and bravest in the world!" she cried, passionately, and threw herself on her knees by his side, entreating. But he silenced her lips with kisses, and put her gently back upon the rock. "Do not let us speak further of it, dear one. I have thought so much and done so little. After this you shall see how I will bear myself... But let us forget it now, and rest awhile. Let us forget everything in the world except that we are together. Lay your hand in mine and turn your face where I can look into it; and so shall we be sure of this happiness, whatever lies beyond." A vague fear laid its icy finger, for an instant, on Helga's brave heart; but she shook it off fiercely. Locking her hand fast in her comrade's, she let all the love of her soul well up and shine from her beautiful eyes. So they sat, hand in hand, while the hours slipped by and the shadows lengthened about them, and the light on the river grew red. With the sunset, came the sound of distant voices. Helga started up with a finger on her lips. "It is the exploring party, returning! It is possible that one of them might blunder in here. Do you think we can climb the bluff before they turn the bend and see us?" The voices were becoming very distinct now. Alwin shook his head. "I think it better to remain where we are. Sigurd knows that we are likely to be here. He will turn them aside, if need be. See; yonder is his blue cloak now, at the--" He broke off and slowly rose to his feet, a look upon his face that made Helga whirl instinctively and glance over her shoulder. She did not turn back again, but sat as though frozen in the act; for behind the sumach bush Leif stood, watching them. How long he had been there they had no idea, but his eyes were full upon them; and they realized that at last he knew truly for whom it was that Helga, Gilli's daughter, had fled from home. His lips were drawn into a straight line, and his brows into a black frown. The voices came nearer and nearer,--until Sigurd's blue cloak fluttered at the very foot of the trail. When he saw the chief's scarlet mantle mingling with the scarlet of the sumach leaves, the jarl's son gave a great leap forward. It was no longer than the drawing of a breath, however, before he recovered himself. His clear voice rose like a bugle call, "_Diable_! foster-father! I have just made a very different discovery from the one I promised you,--Tyrker has been left behind." The chief was down the bank in three long leaps, shooting a volley of fierce questions. Each member of the party instantly raised his voice to defend himself and blame his neighbor. The remainder of the camp, brought to the spot by the noise, rent the air with upbraiding and alarms. When the shield-maiden suddenly sprang from nowhere and stood in their midst, the men did not even notice her; nor did the appearance of the Norman attract more attention. As an accident, it was incredibly fortunate; as a diversion, it was a master-stroke. Yet it did not take the chief long to quell the up-roar, when at last he had made up his mind what course to pursue. Seizing a shield from a man at his side, he hammered upon it with his sword until every other sound was drowned in the clangor. "Silence!" he shouted. "Silence, fools! Would you save him by deafening each other? We must reach him before wild beasts do: he would be as a child in their clutches. Ten of you who are fresh-footed, get weapons and follow me. The least crazy of you who accompanied him, shall guide us back." Only as he was turning away and ran bodily into him, did he appear to remember the Norman's existence. His eyes gave out an ominous flash. "You also follow," he commanded. As the little column moved over the hills in the fading light, Helga looked after them, half dazed. "What is the meaning of that?" she murmured to the jarl's son at her side. "It is certain that Leif recognized him; yet he chooses him to accompany them. I do not understand it." Nothing could have been sturdier than Sigurd's manner; she did not think to look at his face. "That may easily be," he returned. "Since it angered the chief to find you two together, it would be no more than natural that he should wish to make sure of your separation." Helga did not appear to hear him. She stood transfixed with the horror of a sudden conviction. "It is to kill him!" she gasped. "That is why he has taken him away, that he may kill him quietly and without interference. I will go after them... By running, I can catch up--let me go, Sigurd!" The fact that his foreboding was quite as black as hers did not prevent Sigurd from tightening his grasp, almost to roughness. He said sternly, "Be still. You have done harm enough by such crazy actions. If by any chance he is not discovered, you would be certain to betray him. You can do nothing but harm in any case." As he felt her yield to his grasp, he added, less harshly, "More likely than not, nothing of any importance will happen; if Tyrker is found unharmed, Leif's joy will be too great to allow him to injure anyone, whatever his offence." She interrupted him with a low cry of anguish. "But if Tyrker is not found, Sigurd! If Tyrker is not found, Leif will vent his rage upon the nearest excuse. A Norseman in grief is like a bear with a wound: it matters not whom he bites." Burying her face in her hands, she sank upon the ground and rocked herself back and forth. Out from the bower of long hair that streamed over her, came pitiful moans. "He will slay him and leave him out there in the darkness... I shall not be by to raise his head and weep over him, as I did before .... Oh, thou God, if there is help in Thee--! I shall not be with him... Leif will slay him and leave him out in the darkness, alone..." Sigurd's face grew white as he watched her, and he clenched his hands so that the nails sank deep in the flesh. "There is nothing to do but to wait," he said, briefly. "If Tyrker is found, all will be well." He paced to and fro before her, his ear set toward the river. Over in front of the cook-house, Kark's fires began to twinkle out like altars of good cheer. Like votaries hurrying to worship at them, the hungry men went and threw themselves on the grass in a circle; with dice and stories and jests they whiled away the time pleasantly enough. For the pair in the shadow, the moments dragged on lead-shod feet. Time after time, Sigurd thought he heard the sounds he longed to hear, and started toward the river,--only to come slowly back, tricked. An owl began to call in the tree above them; and ever after, Helga connected that sound with death and despair, and shuddered at it. When at last the distant hum of voices crept upon them, they would not believe it; but sat with eyes glued to the ground, though their ears were strained. But when one of the approaching voices broke into a rollicking drinking-song, which was caught up by the group around the fire and tossed joyously back and forth, there could no longer be any doubt of the matter. Sigurd leaped up and pulled his companion to her feet, with a cheer. "They would not sing like that if they bore heavy tidings," he assured her. "Do not spoil matters now by a lack of caution. Stay here while I run forward to meet them." Then, for the first time since the failing of the blow, Helga recalled with a flush of shame that she was a dauntless shield-maiden; and she took hold of her composure with both hands. Singing and shouting, the rescuers came out of the woods at last and into the circle of firelight. On the shoulders of the two leaders sat Tyrker, his little eyes dancing with excitement, his thin voice squeaking comically in his attempts to pipe a German drinking-song, as he beat time with some little dark object which he was flourishing. The chief walked behind him with a face that was not only clear but almost radiant. Still further back came Robert Sans-Peur, quite un-harmed and vigorous. In the name of wonder, what had happened to them? "It is the strangest thing that ever occurred."--"It is a miracle of God!"--"Growing as thick as crow-berries."--"Such juice will make the finest wine in the world!"--"Biorn Herjulfsson will dash out his brains with envy."--"Was ever such luck as the Lucky One's?" were the disjointed phrases that passed between them. Waving the dark object over his head, Tyrker struggled down from his perch. "Wunderschoen! As in the Fatherland growing! And I went not much further than you,--only a step, and there--like snakes in the trees gecoiled! So solid the bunches, that them your fingers you cannot between pry. The beautiful grapes! Foster-son, for this day's work I ask you to name this country Vine-land. Such a miracle requires that. Ach, it makes of me a child again!" He tossed the fruit into their eager hands and began all at once to wipe his eyes industriously upon the skirt of his robe. Swiftly the bunch passed from hand to hand. Each time a juicy ball found its way down a thirsty throat a great murmur of wonder and delight arose. "There is more where this came from? Plenty, you say?" they inquired, anxiously. And on being assured that hillside after hillside was covered with bending wreaths of purple clusters, their rapture knew no bounds. Ale was all well enough; but wine--! Not only would they live like kings through the winter, but in the spring they would take back such a treasure as would make their home-people stare even more than at the timber and the wheat. "You need have no fear concerning Leif's temper," Sigurd whispered in Helga's ear. "This discovery makes his mission as sure of success as though it were already accomplished. No man's nose rises at timber, but two such miracles as wheat and grapes, planted without hands and growing without care,--these can be nothing less than tokens of divine favor! The Lucky One would spare his deadliest foe tonight." "That sounds possible," Helga admitted, studying the chief's face anxiously. As she looked, Leif's gaze suddenly met hers, and she had the discomfort of seeing a recollection of their last encounter waken in his eyes. Yet they did not darken to the blackness that had lowered from them at the cliff. They took on more of an expression of quiet sarcasm. Turning where the Norman stood, a silent witness of the scene, the chief beckoned to him. "A while ago, Robert Sans-Peur, I had it in my mind to run a sword through you," he said, dryly. "But I have since bethought myself that you are a guest on my hands; and also that it is right to take your French breeding into account. Yet, though it may easily be a Norman habit to look upon every fair woman with eyes of love, it is equally contrary to Norse custom to permit it. Give yourself no further trouble concerning my kinswoman, Robert of Normandy. Attach yourself to my person and reserve your eloquence for my ear,--and my ear only." CHAPTER XXVII MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD Middling wise Should every man be, Never too wise; Happiest live Those men Who know many things well. Ha'vama'l They must have missed a great deal of enjoyment, to whom a new world meant only a new source of gold and slaves. To these men from the frozen north, the new world was an earthly paradise. A long clear day under a warm sun was alone a gift to be thankful for. To plunge unstinted hands into the hoarded wealth of ages, to be the first to hunt in a game-stocked forest and the first to cast hook in a fish-teeming river,--to have the first skimming of nature's cream-pans, as it were,--was a delight so keen that, saving war and love, they could imagine nothing to equal it. Like children upon honey, they fell upon the gift that had tumbled latest out of nature's horn of plenty, and swept through the vineyard in a devastating army. Snuffing the sweet scent of the sun-heated grapes, they ate and sang and jested as they gathered, in the most innocent carousal of their lives. Shouting and singing, they brought in their burdens at night,--litters of purple slain that bent even their stout backs. The roofs were covered with the drying fruit, which was to be doctored into raisins, and cask after cask of sour tangy wine was rolled into the provision shed beside the garnered grain. "The King of Norway does not live better than this," they congratulated each other. "We have found the way into the provision house of the world." Their delight knew no bounds when they found that the arrival of winter would not interfere with sport. Winter at Brattahlid meant icebergs and blizzards, weeks of unbroken twilight and days of idling within doors. Winter in this new land,--why, it was not winter at all! "It is nothing worse than a second autumn," Helga said, wonderingly. "They have patched on a second autumn to reach till spring." The woods continued to be full of game, and the grass on the plains remained almost unwithered. There was only enough frost in the air to make breathing it a tonic, a tingling delight. Not even a crust formed over the placid bay; and the waters of the river went leaping and dancing through the sunshine in airy defiance of the ice-king's fetters. On the last day of December, autumn employments were still in full swing. The last rays that the setting sun sent to the bay through the leafless branches, fell upon a group of fishermen returning with a load of shining fish hanging from their spears. From the grove came the ringing music of axes, the rending shriek of a doomed tree, the crackling, crashing thunder of its fall. Down at the foot of the bluff a boat was thrusting its snout into the soft bank, that an exploring party might land after a three days' journey along the winding highway of the river. In the bow stood the chief, and behind him were Sigurd Haraldsson and Rolf; and behind them, Robert the Norman. With a great racket of joyous hallooing for the benefit of their camp-mates, the crew leaped ashore. While some stayed to load themselves with the skins and game stowed under the seats, the rest began to climb the trail, laughing and talking noisily. Sigurd leaped along between Rolf and the Norman, a hand on the shoulder of each, shaking them when their sentiments were unsatisfactory. "How long am I to wait for you to have a free half-day?" he demanded of his friend from Normandy. "It was over a week before we left that I found those bear tracks, and still am I putting off the sport that you may have a share in it. Is it Leif's intention to keep you dangling at his heels forever, like a tassel on an apron? Certainly he cannot think that there is danger of your talking love to Helga while you are fighting bears." "Though once I would have said that wooing a shield-maiden was a very similar sport," Rolf added, pleasantly. Whereupon Sigurd shook them both, with an energy that sent all three sprawling on their faces, to the huge amusement of those who came after. They scrambled to their feet in front of a tall sumach bush that grew half-way up the slope. Alwin's eyes fell upon a narrow ledge-like path that showed plainly between the bare branches, and he nodded toward it with a smile. "Missing bear-fights is certainly undesirable," he said. "But it was not long ago--and on this same bank--that I anticipated a worse fate than that." "Nevertheless, I have never seen so much service exacted from a king's page," Sigurd growled, as he bent to brush the dirt from his knees. But Rolf shook his head with quiet decision. "One need never tell me that it is only to keep you from saying fine things to Helga that the chief demands your constant presence. It is because he has come to take comfort in your superior intelligence, and to value your attendance above ours. There, he is calling you now! I foretell that you will not fight bears to-morrow either." He gave the broad back a hearty slap that was at the same time a friendly shove forward. The chief's voice had even taken on an impatient accent by the time the young squire reached his side. "I should like much to know what is the cause of your deafness! Are you dead or moonstruck that I must shout twenty times before you answer? If your wits go sleep-walking, then may we as well give up, for I have depended upon them as upon crutches. I want you to keep it in mind for me that it is after the river's second bend to the right, but its fourth bend to the left, that the trees stand which I wish to mark. And the spring--the spring is--" "And the spring is beyond the third turning to the right," the young man finished readily. "The chief need give himself no uneasiness. It is written on my brain as on parchment." Leif turned from him with something like an angry sigh. "It needs to be more than written," he said. "It needs to be carved as with knives." On the crest of the bluff he paused suddenly to shake his fists in a passion of impotence. "A man who has no more than a trained body is of less account than a beast!" he cried. "My brain is near bursting with the details which I have sought to remember concerning these discoveries, and yet what assurance have I that I have got even half of them correct? That I have not remembered what was of least importance, and confused this place with that, and garbled it all so that the next man who comes after me shall call me a liar and laugh at my pretensions? And even though I relate every fact as truly as the Holy Book itself, what will there be left of it by the time it has passed through a hundred sottish brains in Greenland yonder? I tell you, this stained rag of a cloak I wear is nearer to what it was first, than that tale will be after swinish mouths have chewed upon it a day. It is the curse of the old gods upon the heathen. And I fling my curse back at them, for the chains they have hung upon my free hands and the beast-dumbness with which they have gagged my man's mouth." In an abandonment of fury, he shook both fists high over his head at the scattered star faces that were peering out of the pale sky. Not till he had turned and stamped away over the snapping twigs, did his men come out of their trance of bewilderment. As they resumed their climbing, Eyvind the Ice-lander observed sagely, "Never saw I any one whose speech reminded me so strongly of the hot springs we have at home. All of a sudden, without warning or cause, the words shoot up into the air, boiling hot; and it would be as much as one's life is worth to try to stop them. It is incomprehensible." Passing amused comments, they gained the crest and vanished over it, without noticing that the Norman still stood where the chief had left him, with every appearance of being equally bereft of his senses. With parted lips, and hands nervously opening and shutting by his side, he stood staring away into the dusk before him, until the voices of those who were coming after with the spoils fell on his ear and aroused him. Then he raised to the stars a face that was fairly convulsed with excitement, and took the rest of the climb in three wild leaps. "It is open to my sight at last!" he muttered over and over, as he hurried through the darkness toward the lighted booths. "Heaven be thanked, it is open to my sight at last!" As he reached the end of the largest hut and was turning the corner in eager haste, an arm reached quickly out of the shadow and touched his cloak. Instinctively his hand went to his knife; but it fell away the next instant in a very different gesture, as Helga's voice whispered in his ear: "Alwin,--it is I! I have waited for you since the first noise of the landing. I have a--hush, you must not do that! I have need of my lips to speak with No, no! Listen; I wish to warn you--" "And I must tell you what has just occurred." Alwin's excitement bore down her caution. "I have guessed the riddle of what my service is to be,--or, to tell it truthfully, luck has guessed it for me, owl that I am! Here has it--" But Helga's hand fell softly over his mouth. "Dumb as well as blind shall you be, till I have finished! Already I have stayed out long enough to excite suspicion. Listen to my warning; Kark suspects that your complexion is shallow. Yesterday I overheard him put the question to Tyrker, whether or not it were possible that a paint could color a man's skin dark so that it would not wear off." "Devil take the--" "Hush, that is not all! I have never thought it worth while to tell you, in the few words we have had together; but now I know that the creature has suspected us ever since the day when Leif came upon us on the bluff. The day after that, Kark dared to say to me, 'Is a shield-maiden as fickle as other women, for all her steel shirt? In Greenland, Helga, Gilli's daughter, loved an Englishman.' I beat him soundly for it, yet I could not uproot the thought from his mind; and now--" "And now I tell you that it is of no consequence what he thinks," Alwin interrupted her, eagerly. "I have to-night found out a means by which I am as certain to win favor as--" But he could not finish. Crackling steps in the grove behind them made Helga spring away from him like a startled bird. He had only time to whisper after her, "To-night,--watch me across the fire!" before she had vanished among the shadows, like one of them. After a moment the young man went his way around the corner of the cabin and came in through the open doorway, where his companions sat at supper. The hall, which was also the larger of the sleeping-houses, was not an unworthy off-shoot of the splendors of Brattahlid. Here, as there, the rough walls were lined with gleaming weapons and shields that shone like suns in the ruddy glow of the fire. And in lieu of tapestries, there was a noble medley of bears' claws, fish nets, glistening birds' wings, drying hides, branching antlers, and squirrels' tails. The bunk-like beds, built against the walls, displayed a fortune in the skin covers that were spread over them; fox skins covered the benches, and wolf skins lay under foot. The chief's seat no longer boasted carven pillars or embroidered pillows, but it missed none of these when the great bear skin had been flung over the cushions of fragrant pine-needles. And if the table-service was not so fine as the gilded vessels on Eric's board, yet the fish and flesh and fowl that piled the trenchers, and the purple juice that brimmed the horns, had never been equalled in Greenland. "Only to get such wine, the journey would be worth while," Rolf murmured to the shield-maiden, beside whom he sat, when at last the business of eating was over and the pleasure of drinking had begun. As he spoke he tilted his head back, with closed eyes and a beatific smile, and let the contents of his horn run slowly down his throat. Even a woman might have had the sense to leave him undisturbed at such a moment; yet Helga bent forward and jogged his arm without compunction. "Are you going to be forever swallowing?" she whispered, sharply. "Look across the fire and tell me what Alwin is doing with his hands. He has turned aside so that I cannot see." It was with a distinct bang that the Wrestler set down his empty cup, and in a distinct snarl that his answer came over his shoulder. "Not a few men have been slain for such rudeness as that. Why should I care what the Norman is doing? Is it a time to be riding horseback or catching fish? Since there is no babbling woman at his elbow, it is likely that he is drinking." But Helga's hand did not loosen its hold upon his arm. "Hush!" she entreated him. "Something really is going to happen; he warned me of it. Something of great importance. You will act with no more than good will if you look and tell me what you see." Excitement is infectious; even through his sulks Rolf caught it, and leaning forward, he peered curiously over the flames. The Norman sat in his usual place at the chief's left hand. It was evident that his thoughts were far away, for his drinking-horn stood forgotten at his elbow and he was humming absently as he worked. His fingers were busy with a long splinter and a tuft of fox-hairs, that he was pulling carefully from the rug on which he sat. Rolf's eyes widened into positive alarm as he watched. "He has the appearance of a crazy man!" he reported. "Or it may be that he is making a charm and that is the weird song which he is mumbling. See,--he has finally drawn Leif's attention upon him!" "He is not acting without a purpose," Helga persisted. "He told me to watch him. Look! What is he doing now?" Still humming, and with the leisurely air of one who works to please himself alone, the Norman completed his task and held the result up critically to the light. It was nothing more nor less than a clumsy little fox-hair brush. Leaning back on the bear skin the chief continued to gaze at it curiously. But the pair across the fire suddenly turned to each other with a gasp of comprehension. The Norman, still humming carelessly, drew his horn nearer with one hand, and with the other pushed a bowl out of his way. Then dipping his brush in the purple wine, he began to paint strange-looking runes on the fair new boards before him. "It has come to my mind to try whether I can remember the words of that French song which we heard together in Rouen," he said lightly to Sigurd Haraldsson who sat by him. "Was it not thus that the first line ran?" Almost with the weight of a blow, Leif's hand fell upon his shoulder. "Runes!" he cried, in a voice that brought every man to his feet, even those who had fallen asleep over their drinking. "Runes? Is it possible that you have the accomplishment of writing them?" His hold upon the shoulder tightened, of a sudden, to such a pressure that the young man was fain to drop his brush with a gasp of agony, and catch at the crushing hand. "You have had this power all these months that you have known of my great need? How comes it that you have never put forth a hand to help me?" he thundered. Across the fire, Helga, Gilli's daughter, held herself down upon the bench with both hands. But though his lips were twisted with pain, the rune-writer met Leif's gaze unflinchingly. "Help you, chief?" he repeated, wonderingly. "How was I to know that Norman writing would be of assistance to you? When did you ever tell me of your need?" Though his gaze continued to hold the Norman for awhile, Leif's grip on his shoulder slowly relaxed. Then, gradually, his eyes also loosened their hold. Finally he burst into a loud laugh and slapped him on the back. "By the edge of my sword, your wit is as nimble as a rabbit!" he swore. "I cannot blame you for this. At least you lost little time in coming to my support as soon as I had told my need. By the Mass, Robert Sans-Peur, you could not have brought your accomplishment to a better market! I tell you frankly that it is of more value to me than any warrior's skill in the world, and I am not too stingy to pay what it is worth." Unclasping the gold chain from his neck, he threw it over the Norman's head. "Take this to begin with, Robert of Normandy," he said, with grave courtesy. "And I promise you that, if your help proves to be as great as I expect, there will be little that you can ask that I shall not be glad to give." Decked in the shining gold of his triumph, the masquerading thrall stood with bent head, a look that was almost shame-stricken stealing over his face. But it is probable that the chief feared that he meditated another attempt at hand kissing, for that brusque commander began to speak quickly and curtly of purely unsentimental matters. "I have none of the kid-skin of which your Southern books are made. Yet will not a roll of fresh white vadmal offer a fair substitute? And certainly there is enough wine--" There certainly was enough, and more; yet at this suggestion an indignant murmur could not be suppressed. "Though I never dispute your wisdom in anything, that appears to me to be little better than desecration," Valbrand declared, frankly. With an effort the Norman roused himself. "It will not be necessary," he said, absently. "I know how to make a liquid out of barks that will have a dark color and suffer no damage from water." He did not notice the expression that flared up in Kark's eyes; nor did he hear Helga's gasp, nor feel Sigurd's foot. His gaze fell again to the floor in moody abstraction. The chief answered briefly to the murmurs: "It is unadvisable to oppose my whim for writing in wine; who knows but I might exchange it for a fancy to write in blood? Bring hither the vadmal, thrall, and we will lose no more precious moments." Was ever monkish work begun in more unchurch-like surroundings? Alwin wondered, a festal board for a desk and a wine-cup for an ink-horn! The brawling crew along the benches drank and sang and rattled dice in their nightly carousal; and, in a corner, Lodin wrestled with the well-grown bear-cub before a circle of cheering spectators. The firelight flickered over the trophy-laden walls, picking out now a severed paw and now a grinning skull, until the whole place seemed a ghastly shrine of savagery. The warrior-scribe wrote with painful slowness; and more than once, in trying to catch some of Helga's chatter across the fire, he wrote such twisted sentences that it was impossible to unravel them when he came to retranslate. Yet he did write. Ploddingly, haltingly, clumsily, he still caught the fleeting thoughts as they sped, and fastened them down, in purple and white, to last so long as one thread should lie beside another. No longer need anyone torture his brain to remember whether the tallest maple-trees stood beyond the river's second bend to the left or its fourth to the right, or between the third turning to the right and the fifth to the left. The little fox-hair brush sprang upon the fact and pinioned it, a prisoner for the remainder of time. The chief's pleasure was almost too great to be controlled. He went at the work as a starving man goes at food, and he hung over it as a drunkard hangs over his dram. Tyrker rose with considerable bustle to take his departure for the other house; and Vaibrand stamped about noisily as he renewed the torches on the walls; but the monotonous steadiness of the dictation never faltered. One by one, the men about Leif dropped off, snoring; and he heeded it no more than he did the soughing of the wind through the grove. By and by, even the fresh torches began to snore, in angry sputters; and the fire, which had long since begun to wink drowsily, shut its last red eye and lay in total oblivion. Leif sat up reluctantly, and stretched his arms over his head with a regretful sigh. "My mind comes out of it as stubbornly as Sigmund's sword came out of the tree trunk. We will return to it the first thing in the morning. You have done me a service which I shall never forget while my mind lives in me." Leaning back against the bear skin to stretch his arms again and yawn, he added thoughtfully, "Your accomplishments have remedied my misfortune that last winter I was obliged to kill a youth who was of great value to me." The scribe sat thrusting his legs out before him and working the fingers of his cramped hand, in a stupor of weariness. He awoke suddenly and, through the flickering light of the one remaining torch, shot a stealthy glance at the chief's face. After a while he said carelessly, "Obliged, chief? How came that? Could not his value outweigh his crime?" Smothering a yawn, Leif rose to his feet and stood looking down at his follower, while he buckled his cloak around him. "Yes," he said, slowly; "yes, his value might have outweighed his crime,--but not his deceit. It was not only because he broke my strictest orders that I slew him; it was because, while pretending to submit to me, he was in truth scheming to get the better of me. And because he and his hot-headed friend, Sigurd Haraldsson, had the ambition to penetrate the state of my feelings and handle me as you handle your writing-brush there. Is it to be expected that a man would take it well to be fooled by a pair of boys?" The Norman sat for a long time staring at a huge furry skin that hung on the wall in front of him. It shook sometimes in the draught; and when the light flickered over it, it looked like some quivering shapeless animal, crouching to spring upon him out of the shadow. After a while, he laughed harshly. "If he was simple enough to expect that he could play with you and then survive the discovery of his trick, he deserved to die, for nothing more than his folly," he said, bitterly. He straightened himself suddenly and drew a long breath as though to speak further. But at that moment the chief turned and left the booth. While the Southerner stood looking after him, a sound like a smothered laugh came from the corner where Kark slept. Alwin wheeled toward it; but before he could take a step, Rolf's arm stretched out from his bunk by the high seat and caught his friend's belt in a vise. "It is unnecessary to soil your hands with snake's blood, just now," he said, gently. "Besides serpent's fangs, the thrall has also serpent's cunning in his ugly head. He knows that Leif will not, for any reason tongue can name, injure the man who is writing down his history. Wait until the records are finished; then it will be time to act." He pulled his comrade down on the bunk beside him, and held him there until the sleep of utter weariness had taken him into its safe-keeping. CHAPTER XXVIII "THINGS THAT ARE FATED" The fir withers That stands on a fenced field; Neither bark nor foliage shelters it; Thus is a man Whom no one loves; Why should he live long? Ha'vama'l In a chain of lengthening golden days and softening silver nights, the spring came. The instinct which brings animals out of their dens to roam in the sunlight, awoke in the Norsemen's breasts and made them restless in the midst of plenty. The instinct which sets birds to nest-building amid the young green, turned the rovers' hearts toward their ice-bound home. With glad applause, they hailed Leif's proclamation from under the budding maple-tree: "Four weeks from to-day, if the season continues to be a forward one, it is likely that the pack-ice around the mouth of Eric's Fiord will be sufficiently broken to let us through. Four weeks from to-day, God willing, we will set sail for Greenland." The camp entered upon a period of bustling activity. Carpenters fell to work on the re-furnishing of the ship, until all the quiet bay echoed with their pounding. With infinite labor, the great logs were floated down the river and hauled on board. Porters toiled to and from the shore with loads of grain-sacks and wine-kegs. The packers in the store-houses buzzed over the wealth of fruit like so many bees. Even Kark the Indolent caught the infection, and clashed his pots and kettles with joyful energy. "A little time more, and the death-wolf shall claim his due," he sang over his work. "Only a little time more, and the death-wolf shall claim his due!" On the morning of the last day in Vinland, Robert the Norman wrote the last word in the grotesque exploring record and laid down the brush forever. "That ends the matter, chief," he said slowly. They sat in the larger of the sleeping-houses, as they had sat on that December night when the work was begun. But now a flood of yellow sunlight fell through the open door, and a flowering pink bush flattened its sweet face against the window. Leif regarded him with dull, absent eyes. "Yes, it is ended," he said, reluctantly; and was silent for so long that the young man looked up in surprise. An odd expression of something like regret was on the chief's face. As he met his companion's glance, he laughed a short harsh laugh that had in it less of mirth than of scorn. "It is ended," he repeated. "And though I know no better than yourself why it is that I am such a fool, yet I find myself full of sorrow because it is finished. I feel that I have lost out of my life something that was dear to me." He relapsed into another frowning silence; when he came out of it, it was only to motion toward the door. "No sense is in this," he said, savagely; "yet the mood has me, hand and foot. I am in no temper to talk of anything. To-night we will speak of your reward. Go now and spend the rest of the day as best pleases you." He did not look up as his follower obeyed: he sat brooding over the great white roll as though it were the dead body of some one whom he had loved. Out in the blithe spring sunshine, the men stood around in little groups, making hilarious plans for the day's sport. The preparations for the departure being completed, a day of untrammelled freedom lay before them; and what pastime is so dull that it is not given a zest and a relish by the thought that it is engaged in for the last time? In uproarious good spirits, they whetted their knives for a last hunt, and called friendly challenges across to each other. Inviting them to a wrestling bout, Rolf's voice rose loudest of all; but though much laughter and some gibing came in response, there were no acceptances. When the Norman came out of the booth, the Wrestler ceased his proclamations and strolled to meet his friend with a welcoming smile. "Now I think Leif has behaved well," he said, heartily, "to remember that the last day in such a place as Vinland the Good is far too precious to be wasted on monkish tasks. Sigurd will get angry with himself that he did not wait longer for your coming." A shade of disappointment fell over the Norman's face. "Where has Sigurd gone?" he asked. "He swam out to an island in the bay where he has a favorite fishing-place he cannot bear to leave without another visit." "And Helga? Where is she?" The Wrestler looked at him in surprise. "She has gone into the woods somewhere, with Tyrker; but surely you would not be so mad as to accost her, even were she before you." Alwin answered with an odd smile. "A man who is about to die will do many things that would be madness in a man who has life before him," he said. His eyes gazed into his friend's eyes with sombre meaning. "I finished the records this morning." "You finished the records this morning?" Rolf repeated incredulously. A note of impatience sharpened the other's voice. "I fail to understand what there is in that which surprises you. Certainly you must have heard Leif say, last night, that a hundred words more would end the work. And it was your own judgment that Kark would wait no longer than its completion--" Rolf struck the tree they leaned against, with sudden vehemence. "The snake!" he cried. "That, then, is why he showed his fangs at me this morning in such a jeering smile. Yet, how could I believe that a man of your wit would allow such a thing to come to pass? With a mouthful of words you could have persuaded Leif that there was a host of things which he had forgotten. You could have prolonged the task--" Alwin shook his head with stern though quiet decision. "No, I have had enough of lying," he said. "Not for my life, nor for Helga's love, will I carry this deceit further. Such a smothering fog has it become around me, that I can neither see nor breathe through its choking folds... But let us leave off this talk. Since it is likely that my limbs will have a long rest after to-night, let us spend to-day roving about in search of what sport we can find. If I may not pass my last day with the man and woman that I hold dearest, still you are next in my love; you will accompany me, will you not?" "Wherever you choose," Rolf assented. They set forth as silently as on that spring morning, two years before, when they had set out from the Norwegian camp to witness Thorgrim Svensson's horse-fight. Now, as then, the air was golden with spring sunshine, and the whole world seemed a-throb with the pure joy of living. There was gladness in the chirp of the birds, and content in the drone of the insects; and all the squirrels in the place seemed to be gadding on joyful errands, for one could not turn a corner that a group of them did not scatter from before his feet. So common a thing as a dewdrop caught in a cobweb became more beautiful than jewel-spangled lace. The rustling of the quail in the brush, even the glimpse of a coiled snake basking on a sunny spot of earth, was fraught with interest because it spoke of life, glad and fearless and free. They visited the nook on the bluff, screened once more in fragrant, rustling greenness; then descended to the river and walked along its bank, mile after mile. Here and there, they turned aside and threaded their way through the thicket to take a last look at the scene of some fondly recollected hunt, or to inspect some of the traps which they remembered to be there. But when in one snare they found a wretched little rabbit, still alive but frantic with terror, Alwin laid a detaining hand on Rolf's knife. "Let him go," he said, shortly. "You have no need of him, and his life is all he has. Let him keep it,--for my sake." He did not stay to watch the white dot of a tall go bobbing away over the ferns. He hurried on rather shamefaced; and when Rolf overtook him, they walked another mile without speaking. Along in the middle of the forenoon they reached a point on the river where the banks no longer rose in bluffs but lay in grassy slopes, fringed with drooping trees. The sun was hot overhead, and their clothes were heavy upon their backs. Rolf suggested that they stop long enough for a swim. "That will do as well as anything," Alwin assented. But when the delicious coolness of the water had closed about him, and he felt its velvet softness on his dusty skin, he decided that it was the best thing they could have done. The lounge upon the grassy bank, while they dried themselves in the sun, was dreamily pleasant. Even after he had gathered sufficient energy to get into his clothes again, Alwin lingered lazily, waiting for his companion to make the first move toward departure. "This is a restful spot," he said, gazing up at the sky through the network of interlacing branches. "It gives one the feeling that it is so far away that no human foot has ever trod it before, and that none will ever come again when we have left." From the ant-hill which he was idly spearing with grass-blades, Rolf looked up to smile. "Then your feelings are not to be trusted, comrade," he said; "for there are few spots on the river which our men have more frequented. Even that lazy hound of a thrall comes here almost daily to look at the quail-traps in yonder thicket, that being the one food which he likes well enough to make an exertion for. Would that he would visit them to-day!" Alwin did not seem to hear him. His eyes were still intent on the swaying tree-tops. "It is a fair land to be alive in," he said, dreamily; "yet, I cannot help wondering how it will be to be dead here. Does it not seem to you that if my spirit comes out of its grave at night and finds none but wolves and bears to call to, it will experience a loneliness far worse than the pangs of death? Think of it! In this whole land, not one human spirit! To wander through the grove and the camp, and find only emptiness and silence forever!" His body stiffened suddenly, and he flung his arms high above his head and clenched his hands in agony. "God!" he cried. "What have I done to make me deserving of such a doom? Why could I not have died when Leif cut me down? Why could I not have been buried where human feet would pass over me, and human voices fall on my ear at night?" He flung himself over on his face and lay there motionless. Rolf laid a hand on his comrade's shoulder, and for once his voice was honestly kind. "It is hard to know what to say to you, Alwin, my friend. You who have borne trials so manfully have a right to a better fate. There is only one thing which I can offer you: choose what man you will--so long as he be no one with whom I have sworn friendship--and I promise you that before we sail to-morrow, I will pick a quarrel with him and slay him; so that, if worst comes, your spirit shall have at least one ghost for company. I--" He did not finish his sentence. Suddenly his touch upon Alwin's arm became an iron grip, that dragged the Saxon to his feet. "Look!" the Wrestler gasped, as he pulled him behind the great oak in whose shelter they had been lying. "Look! Are those ghosts, or devils?" Half-dazed, Alwin could do no more than stare along the pointing finger. On the opposite bank, some hundred yards below their point of observation, stood two long-haired, skin-clad men. Another pair had already plunged into the river and were nearly half-way across. And as the white men gazed, four more beings crashed out of the underbrush and joined their companions. "Praise the Saint who hung leaves upon the trees as thick as curtains!" Rolf breathed in his comrade's ear. "Up with you, for your life! And make no rustling about it either." With the agility of cats they went up the great bole, and the kind leaves closed behind them. "Is it your opinion that they are ghosts, or devils?" Alwin asked, when each had stretched himself along a branching limb and begun a curious peering through chinks in the enveloping foliage. "It has always been in my mind that ghosts were white and devils black, while these creatures appear to be of the color of bronze." "We shall see more of them before the game is over," Rolf returned. "The first ones are even now coming to land." As he spoke, the two shaggy swimmers clambered out of the water, like dripping spaniels, on the very spot that the white men's bodies had pressed less than an hour before. "I am glad that we are not now lying there without our clothes," Alwin murmured. And Rolf ejaculated under his breath, "Now it is certain that I would rather be the only human being in the land than be in company with such as these, granting them to be human. For by Thor's hammer, they have more the appearance of dwarfs than of men!" They were not imposing, certainly, from all that could be seen of them through the leaves. Two of their lean arms would not have made one of the Wrestler's magnificent white limbs, and the tallest among them could not have reached above Alwin's shoulders. Skins were their only coverings; and the coarseness of their bristling black locks could have been equalled only in the mane of a wild horse. Though two of the eight were furnished with bows and arrows, the rest carried only rudely-shaped stone hatchets, stuck in their belts. When they began talking together, it was in a succession of grunts and growls and guttural sounds that bore more resemblance to animal noises than to human speech. Rolf sniffed with contempt. "Pah! Vermin! I think we could put the whole swarm to flight only by drawing our knives." But at that moment one of the number below raised his face so that Alwin caught a glimpse of the fierce beast-mouth and the small tricky eyes in the great sockets. The Saxon lifted his eyebrows dubiously. "I am far from certain how that attempt would end," he answered. "Though it is likely that it will have to be tried, if their intention is to settle here for the day, as it appears to be." The men of the stone hatchets had indeed settled themselves with every look of remaining. Though one of the bowmen continued to pace the bank like a sentinel, his fellows sprawled themselves upon the turf in comfortable attitudes, carrying on their uncouth conversation with deep earnestness. "We shall certainly have to stay here all day if we do not do something," Rolf bent from his branch to whisper to his companion. Alwin did not answer, for at that moment the harsh voices below ceased abruptly, and there ensued a hush of listening silence. Up in the tree, Saxon gray eyes and Norse blue ones asked each other an anxious question; then answered it with decided head-shakes. It was impossible that their whispers could have carried so far, or have penetrated the growl of those voices. It must have been some noise from beyond. They strained their ears, anxiously intent. There was no trouble in hearing it this time; it rose shrill and piercing on the drowsy noon air, a man's whistle, rapidly approaching from the direction of the Norse camp. While Alwin listened with dilated eyes, Rolf's lips shaped just one word: "Kark!" Almost without breathing they lay peering out between the leaves. At the first sound, the men below had leaped to their feet and grasped their weapons. Now, after a muttered word together, they drew apart noiselessly as shadows and vanished among the bushes, without so much as the snapping of a twig. Smiling innocently in the sunlight, the little nook lay as peaceful and empty as before. Nearer and nearer came the whistler; until the crunching of his feet could be heard upon the dead leaves. Rolf pushed the hair out of his eyes, and settled himself to watch with a sigh of almost child-like pleasure. "Here is sport! Here is a chess game where the pieces are not of ivory. I would not have missed this for a gold chain!" he told his companion. "Imagine Kark's face when they spring out upon him! So intent is his mind upon your death, that he could walk into a pit with open eyes. You can never be sufficiently thankful, Alwin of England, that the Fate which destroys your enemy, gives you also the privilege of sitting by and watching the fun." Uncertainty was on Alwin's face, as he gazed down through the branches and saw the thrall's white tunic suddenly appear among the green bushes. He said slowly, "I do not dispute that it looks like the hand of fate--and it is true that he is my enemy--that it is his life or mine--" A wild yell of alarm cut him short. One by one the lean brown men were gliding out of the bushes and forming in a silent circle around the thrall. They offered him no harm; they did not even touch him; yet the apparition of their shrivelled bodies in their animal-hides, with their beast-faces looking out from under their bristling black locks, was enough to try stouter nerves than Kark's. Shriek after shriek of maddest terror rent the air. Rolf smiled gently as he heard it. "About this time our friend below is beginning to distinguish between death-wolves and death-foxes," he observed. Glancing at his comrade for a response to his amusement, his expression changed. "What is it your intention to do?" he demanded sharply. Alwin had drawn himself into a sitting posture; and with one hand was tugging at the handle of his knife. He flushed shamefacedly at the question, nor did he look up as he answered it. "I am going down to help the beast," he said. "I cannot remedy it if I am a fool. I do not deny that Kark is a cur; yet he is white, as we are; and alone. I cannot watch his murder." He brought his knife out with a jerk; and putting it between his teeth, prepared to turn and descend. Before he could make the move, Rolf had swung down from the limb above and landed beside him. Under his weight the boughs creaked so loudly that, but for the cover of Kark's cries, the pair must surely have been discovered. The Wrestler spoke without drawling or gentleness: "Either you are a child or a silly fool. Do you understand that it is your enemy that they are ridding you of? What is it to you if he is chopped to pieces? You shall not stir one finger to aid him." Forgetful of the dagger between his teeth, Alwin opened his mouth angrily. The weapon slipped from his lips and fell, a shining streak along the tree-trunk, and buried itself noiselessly in the soft sod between the roots. The next instant, a scarf from Rolf's neck was wound around the Saxon's jaws; one of the Wrestler's iron arms reached about him and gathered him up against the broad chest; one of the Wrestler's great hands closed around his wrists like fetters of iron; and a muscular leg bent itself backward over his legs like a hoop of steel. As well fight against steel or iron! Again Rolf's voice became fairly caressing in its gentleness. "Willingly will I endure your struggles if it pleases you to employ your strength that way, comrade; yet I tell you that it would be wiser for you to spare yourself. I shall not let you go, whatever you do; whereas if you lie quietly, I will permit you to move where you can see what is going on. It looks as though it would become interesting." It did indeed. At that moment, wearying perhaps of the howls, the brown men began to make experiments with a view toward changing the tune. Closing in upon the thrall, they commenced to feel of his clothing and his shaven head, and to pinch him tentatively between their lean fingers. A redoubling of his outcries caused a spasm of frantic writhing in Alwin's fettered body, but Rolf's manner was as serene as before. "See now what you are missing by your head-strongness," he reproved his captive. "It is seldom that men have the opportunity to sit, as we sit, and learn from the experience of another what would have been their fate had their fortune been equally bad. Such great luck is it that I get almost afraid for your ingratitude. It will be a great mercy if some god does not punish you for your thanklessness... By Thor! In his terror the fool has attacked them... Ah!" From below came a sudden snarl, a sudden savage yell, the noise of struggling bodies, and then a shriek of another kind from Kark, no longer a cry of mere apprehension, but a sharp piercing scream of bodily agony. "Let me go!" Alwin panted through his muffled jaws. "It is a nithing deed for us--to permit the death of one of our number--so. Let me go, Rolf--he is a human being. Let me go!" A man of wood could not have been more relentless than Rolf; a man of stone could hardly have been less moved. He argued the matter amiably: "It is true that by some mistake or other Kark wears a man's shape," he admitted; "yet it is easily seen that in every other respect he is a dog. Indeed I think there are few dogs that have less of courage and loyalty. Take the matter sensibly, comrade. If you cannot rejoice in the death of your enemy, at least consider what interest it is thus to study the habits of dwarfs. The cur who was useless during his life, will be honored by serving a good purpose in his death. Leif will think it of great importance to learn how these creatures are disposed toward white men. They have the most unusual methods of amusing themselves. Now they are doing things to his ears--" Renewed shrieks for help and mercy drowned the remainder of his words, and called forth fresh exertions from Alwin. But when at last the Fearless One ceased, and lay spent and panting against the brawny chest, he became aware that the cries were growing fainter. "Though they have in no way hurried the matter, I believe that he is almost dead now," Rolf comforted his captive. Even as he spoke, the last faint cry ended in a gurgling choke,--and there was silence. Instantly the scarf was slipped from Alwin's mouth, and the living fetters unclasped themselves from his limbs. "Thanks to me--" Rolf was beginning. The brief interval of silence was shattered by a cry from the sentinel on the river bank, followed either by an echo or an answering whoop from the opposite shore. Rolf stretched himself along the branch, just in time to see the men below scatter in wildest confusion and plunge headlong into the thicket. "In the Troll's name!" he ejaculated. "When dwarfs run like that, giants must be coming!" Alwin had clambered to his feet, and stood with his head thrust up through the leafy roof. "It is more out of the same nest!" he gasped. "They are coming from the other bank, swarms of them ....There! Some of them have landed..." Rolf laughed his peculiar soft laugh of quiet enjoyment. "By Thor, was there ever such a game!" he exclaimed. "I can see them now; they are after the first lot like wolves after sheep--No, Kark was the sheep! These are the hunters after the wolves. Hear them howl!" "The last ones have climbed out of the water," Alwin bent to report. "Do they also follow?" "As dogs follow deer. Saw I never such sport! When we can no longer hear them, it will be time for us to run a race of our own." Alwin made no answer, and they waited in silence. Gradually distance drew soft folds over the sharp cries and muffled them, as women throw their cloaks over the sharp swords of brawlers in the hall. Once again the drone and the chirping became audible about them, and the smile of the sunshine became visible in the air. It occurred to Alwin that the peacefulness of nature was like the gentleness of the Wrestler; and there floated through his head the saying of a wrinkled old nurse of his childhood, "The English can die without flinching; the French can die with laughs on their lips; but only the Northmen can smile as they kill." When the last smothered shout was unmistakably dead, Rolf swung himself down from the bough; hung there for an instant, stretching himself comfortably and shaking the cramps out of his limbs, then let himself down to the ground; and Alwin followed. The soft sod lay trampled and gashed by the grinding heels; and the lengthening shadows pointed dark fingers at the middle of the nook, where a shapeless thing of white and red was lying. Rolf bent over it curiously. "It must be that these people love killing for its own sake, to go to so much trouble over it," he commented. "Evidently it is not the excitement of fighting which they enjoy, but the pleasure of torturing. I will not be sure but what they are trolls after all." "It was a devils' deed," Alwin said hoarsely. He looked down at the ghastly heap with a shudder of loathing. "And we are not without guilt who have permitted it. It is of no consequence what sort of a man he was; he was a human being and of our kind,--and they were fiends. You need not tell me that we could not help it," he added in fierce forestalling. "Had he been Sigurd, we would have helped it or we would both have lain like that." Rolf shrugged his shoulders resignedly as they turned away. "Have it as you choose," he assented. "At least you cannot deny that you were helpless; let that console you. May the gallows take my body if you are not the most thankless man ever I met! Here are you rid of your enemy, and at the moment when he was most a hindrance to you, and not only do you reap the reward of the deed, but you bear no dangerous responsibility--" He was checked by a glimpse of the face Alwin turned toward him. Pride and loathing, passion and sternness, were all mingled in its expression. The Saxon said slowly, "Heaven's mercy on the soul that reaps the reward of this deed! Easier would it be to suffer these tortures a hundredfold increased. Profit by such a deed, Rolf Erlingsson! Do you think that I would live a life that sprang from such a death? To cleanse my hand from the stain of such a murder, though the blood had but spattered on it, I would hew it off at the wrist." CHAPTER XXIX THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG He is happy Who gets for himself Praise and good-will. Ha'vama'l It was a picture of sylvan revelry that the sunset light reddened, as it bade farewell to the Norse camp on the river bluff. On the green before the huts, two of the fair-haired were striving against other in a rousing tug-of-war. Now the hide was stretched motionless between them; now it was drawn a foot to the right, amid a volley of jeers; and now it was jerked back a foot to the left, with an answering chorus of cheers. The chief sat under the spreading maple-tree, watching the sport critically, with an occasional gesture of applause. Over the head of the bear-cub she was fondling, Helga watched it also, with unseeing eyes. Those who had come in from hunting and fishing sprawled at their ease on the turf, and shouted jovial comments over their wine-cups. They welcomed Rolf and the Norman with a shout, when the pair appeared on the edge of the grove. "Hail, comrades!"--"It was in our minds to give you up for lost!" "Your coming we will take as an omen that Kark will also return some time."--"Yes, return and cook us some food."--"We are becoming hollow as bubbles." Rolf accepted their greetings with an easy flourish. "You will become also as thin as bubbles if you wait for Kark to cook your food," he answered, lightly. "I bring the chief the bad tidings that he has lost his thrall." Pushing his companion gently aside, he walked over to where the Lucky One sat. "It will sound like an old woman's tale to you, chief," he warned him; "yet this is nothing but the truth." While the skin-pullers abandoned their contest and dropped cross-legged upon the hide to listen, and the outlying circle picked up its drinking horns and crept closer, he related the whole experience, simply and quite truthfully, from beginning to end. From all sides, exclamations of amazement and horror broke out when he had finished. Only the chief sat regarding him in silence, a skeptical pucker lifting the corner of his mouth. Leif said finally, "Truth came from your mouth when you foretold that this would appear to me as strange as the tales old women tell. Until within the last month we have passed through that district almost daily; and never yet have we found aught betokening the presence of human beings. That they should thus appear to you--" "They came like the monsters in a dream, and vanished like them," Rolf declared. "Saving in the fact that dream monsters do not leave mangled bodies behind them," Leif reminded him; and his eyes narrowed with an unpleasant shrewdness. "Rolf Erlingsson," he advised, "confess that they are the dreams you liken them to. That Kark was no favorite with you or your friend"--he nodded toward the Norman--"was seen by everybody. Confess that it was by the sword of one of you that the thrall met his death." For once the Wrestler's face lost its gentleness. His huge frame stiffened haughtily, as he drew himself up. "Leif Ericsson," he returned, fiercely, "when--for love of good or fear of ill--have you ever known me to lie?" The chief looked at him incredulously. "You will swear to the truth of the tale?" "I will swear to its truth by my knife, by my soul, by the crucifix you wear on your breast." After a moment, Leif arose and extended his hand. "In that case, I would believe a statement that was twice as unlikely," he said, with honorable frankness. And a sound of applause went around as their hands clasped. From the spot where the Norman had halted when his companion pushed forward, there came the rustle of a slight disturbance. Sigurd had caught his friend by his cloak and was pleading with him in a passionate undertone, growing more and more desperate at each resolute shake of the black head. The instant Leif resumed his seat, the Fearless One wrenched himself free and strode forward. Rolf strove to bar his way, but Robert Sans-Peur evaded him also, and took up his stand before the bench under the maple-tree. "The Fates appear to be balancing their scales to-night, chief," he said, grimly. "For the dead man whom you believed to be alive, you see here a living man whom you thought to be dead. For the thrall that you have lost, I present to you another." Winding his hand in his long black locks, he tore them from his head and revealed the crisp waves of his own fair hair. From either hand there arose a buzz of amazement and incredulity mingled with grunts of approval and blunt compliments and half-muttered pleas for leniency. Only two persons neither exclaimed nor moved. Helga stood in the rigid tearless silence she had promised, her eyes pouring into her lover's eyes all the courage and loyalty and love of her brave soul. And the chief sat gazing at the rebel brought back to life, without so much as a wink of surprise, without any expression whatever upon his inscrutable face. After a moment Alwin went on steadily, "I hid myself under this disguise because I believed that luck might grant me the chance to render you some service which should outweigh my offence. Because I was a short-sighted fool, I did not see that the better the Norman succeeded, the worse became the Saxon's deceit. My mind changed when your own lips told me what would be the fate of the man who should deceive you." The chief's face was as impassive as stone, but he nodded slightly. "A man of my age does not take it well to be fooled by boys," he said. "It is a poor compliment to his intelligence, when they have the opinion that they can mould him between their fingers. Though he had rendered me the greatest service in the world, the man who should deceive me should die." Silence fell like a shroud upon the scattered groups. With a queer little smile upon her drawn lips, Helga softly unsheathed her dagger and ran her fingers along its edge. Alwln, earl's son, drew a long breath, and the muscles of his white face twitched a little; then he pulled himself together resolutely. With one hand he plucked the knife from his belt and cast it into the chief's lap; with the other, he tore his tunic open from neck to belt. "I have asked no mercy," he said, proudly. Leif made no motion to pick up the weapon. Instead, a glint of something like dry humor touched his keen eyes. "No," he said, quietly. "You have asked nothing of what you should have asked. You have even failed to ask whether or not you have deceived me." With her dagger half drawn, Helga paused to stare at him. "You--knew--?" she gasped. Leif smiled a dry fine smile. "I have known since the day on which Tyrker was lost," he said. "And I had suspected the truth since the night of the day upon which we sailed from Greenland." He made a gesture toward the shield-maiden that was half mocking and half stern. "You showed little honor to my judgment, kinswoman, when you took it for granted I should not know that love alone could cause a woman to behave as you have done. Or did you think I had not heard to whom your heart had been given? That my ears only had been dead to the love tale which every servant-maid in Brattahlid rolled like honey on her tongue? Or did you imagine that I knew you so little as to think you capable of loving one man in the winter and another in the spring? Even had the Norman borne no resemblance to the Englishman, still would I--" "But..." Helga stammered, "but--I thought that you thought--Rolf said that Sigurd--" For perhaps the first time in his life, Rolf's cheeks burned with mortification as a derisive snap of the chief's fingers fell upon his ear. "Sigurd! Your playmate! With whom you have quarrelled and made up since there were teeth in your head! By Peter, if it were not that the joke appears to lie wholly on my side, I could find it in my heart to punish the four of you without mercy, for no other crime than your opinion of my intelligence!" Alwin took a hesitating step forward. He had been standing where his first defiance had left him, a light of comprehension dawning in his face; and also a spark of resentment kindling in his eyes. Now he said slowly, "It is not your anger which appears strange to us, chief. It is the slowness of your justice. That knowing all this time of our deceit, you have yet remained quiet. That you have allowed us to live in dreams, and led us on to behave ourselves like fools! We have been no better than mice under the cat's paw." He glanced at Helga's thin cheeks and the pain-lines around her mouth, and the full force of his indignation rang out in his voice. "To us it meant life or death, heaven or hell,--was it worthy of a man like you to find amusement in our suffering?" Though it was as faint as the rustling of leaves, unmistakable applause swept around. Rolf dared to clap his hands softly. The chief replied by a direct question, as he leaned back against the maple and eyed his young rebel piercingly. "Befooling and bejuggling were the drinks you prepared for me; was it not just that you should learn from experience how sour a taste they leave in the mouth?" Though moment after moment dragged by, Alwin did not answer that. His eyes fell to the ground, and he stood with bent head and clenched hands. The chief went on. "You who could so easily fathom the workings of my mind, should have no need to ask my motives. It may be that I found entertainment in playing you like a fish on a line. Or it may be that I was not altogether sure of my ground, and waited to be certain before I stepped. Or perhaps I was curious to see what you would do next, and felt able to gratify my curiosity since I knew that, through all your antics, I held you securely in the hollow of my hand. Or perhaps--" Leif hesitated for an instant, and there crept into his voice a note so unusual that all stared at him,--"or perhaps, in becoming sure of my ground, I became uncertain of the honor of the man whom I wished to place highest in my friendship, and so deemed it wisest to remain under cover until he should reveal all the hidden parts of his nature. It may have been for any or all of these reasons. You, who have come nearer to me than any man alive, should have no difficulty in selecting the true one." Was it possible that reproach rang in those last words? It sounded so strangely like it, that Tyrker involuntarily curved his hand around his ear to amend some flaw in his hearing. Alwin's face underwent a great change. Suddenly he flung his arms apart in a gesture of utter surrender. "I will strive against you no longer!" he cried, passionately. "You are as much superior to me as the King to his link-boy. Do as you like with me. I submit to you in everything." He fell upon his knee and hid his face in his hands. Then the tone of Leif's voice became so frankly friendly that Helga's beautiful head was raised as a drooping flower's by the soft spring rain. "Already you have heard your sentence. The fair words I spoke to Robert the Norman I spoke also to Alwin of England. When I promised wealth and friendship and honor to Robert Sans-Peur, I promised them also to you. Take the freedom and dignity which befit a man of your accomplishments and--with one exception--ask of me anything else you choose." With one exception! Helga sprang forward and caught Leif's hand imploringly in hers. And Alwin, still upon his knee, reached out and grasped the chief's mantle. "Lord," he cried, "you have been better to me, a hundredfold better, than I deserve! Yet, would you be kinder still... Lord, grant me this one boon, and take back all else that you have promised." The chief's brawny hand touched Helga's face caressingly. "Do you still believe that I would rub salt on your wounds, if it were in my power to relieve you?" he reproached them. "But one man in the world has the right to say where Helga shall be given in marriage; he is her father, Gilli of Trondhjem. Already I have done him a wrong in permitting, by my carelessness, that one of thrall-estate should steal his daughter's love. In honor, I can do no less than guard the maiden safely until the time when he can dispose of her as pleases him. I do not say that I will not use with him what influence I possess; yet I advise you against expecting anything favorable from the result. I think you both know his mercy." CHAPTER XXX FROM OVER The SEA At night is joyful He who is sure of travelling entertainment; A ship's yards are short; Variable is an autumn night; Many are the weather's changes In five days, But more in a month. Ha'vama'l It developed, however, that the lovers' chances for happiness did not hang upon so frail a thread as the mercy of Gilli of Trondhjem. While the exploring vessel was still at sea, with the icy headlands of Greenland only just beginning to stand out clearly before her bow, unexpected tidings reached those on board. Watching the chief, who stood by the steering oar, erect as the mast, his eyes piercing the distance ahead, Sigurd put an idle question. "Can you tell anything yet concerning the drift-ice, foster-father? And why do you steer the ship so close to the wind?" Without turning his head, Leif answered shortly, "I am attending to my steering, foster-son." But as the jarl's son was turning away, with a shrug of his shoulders for the rebuff, the chief added in the quick, curt tone that with him betrayed unwonted interest, "And I am looking at something else. Where are your eyes that you cannot see anything remarkable? Is that a rock or a ship which I see straight ahead?" Sigurd's aimless curiosity promptly found an object; yet after all the craning of his neck and squinting under his hand, he was obliged to confess that he saw nothing more remarkable than a rock. Leif gave a short harsh laugh. "See what it is to have young eyes," he said. "Not only can I see that it is a rock, but I can make out that there are men moving around upon it." "Men!" cried Sigurd. Excitement spread like fire from stern to bow, until even Helga of the Broken Heart arose from her cushions on the fore-deck and stood listlessly watching the approach. Eyvind the Icelander muttered that any creatures in human shape that dwelt on those rocks, must be either another race of dwarfs, or such fiends as inhabit the ice wastes with which Greenland is cursed; but an old Greenland sailor silenced him contemptuously. "Landlubber! Has it never been given you to hear of shipwrecks? When Eric the Red came to Greenland with thirty-five ships following his lead, no less than four of them went to pieces on that rock. It is the influence of Leif's luck which has caused a shipwreck so that the chief can get still more honor in rescuing the distressed ones." The Icelander grunted. "Then is Leif's luck very much like the sword that becomes one man's bane in becoming another man's pride," he retorted. While he threw all his strength against the great oar, the chief signalled to Valbrand with his head. "Drop anchor and get the boat ready to lower," he commanded. "I want to keep close to the wind so that we may get to them. We must give them help if they need it. If they are not peaceful, they are in our power, but we are not in theirs." As the boat bounded away on its errand of mercy, every man and boy remaining crowded forward to watch its course. In some way it happened that Alwin of England was pushed even so far forward as the very bow of the boat, and the side of the shield-maiden. The sun rose in her glooming face when she turned and saw him beside her. "I have hoped all day that you would come," she whispered; "so I could tell you an expedient I have bethought myself of. Dear one, from the way you have sat all the day with your chin on your hand and your eyes on the sea, I have known that you needed comfort even more than I; and my heart has ached over you till once the tears came into my eyes." Her lover gazed at her hungrily. "Gladly would I give every gift that Leif has lavished on me, if I might take you in my arms and kiss away the smart of those drops." A fierce gleam narrowed Helga's starry eyes. "Before we part," she said between her teeth, "you shall kiss my eyes once for every tear they have shed; and you shall kiss my mouth three times for farewell,--though every man in Greenland should wish to prevent it." Suddenly she hid her face against his shoulder with a little cry of despair. "But you must never come near me after I am married!" she breathed. "The moment after my eyes had fallen upon your face, I should turn upon my husband and kill him." "If it had not happened that I had already slain him," Alwin murmured. Then he said, more steadily, "This is useless talk, sweetheart. Tell me the thought which comforted you. At least it will be a joy to me to cherish in my heart what you have treasured in your brain." Helga looked out over the tumbling water with eyes grown wide and thoughtful. "I will not be so hopeful as to call it a comfort yet," she said, "too vague is its shape for that. It is a faint plan which I have built on my knowledge of Gilli's nature. As well as I, you know that he cares for nothing but what is gainful for him. Now if I could manage to make myself so ugly that no chief would care to make offers for me... is it not likely that my father would cease to value me and be even glad to get rid of me, to you? I would disfigure myself in no such way that the ugliness would be lasting," she reassured him, hastily. "But if I should weep my eyes red and my cheeks pale, and cut off my hair... It would all come right in time; you would not mind the waiting?" Alwin looked at her with a touch of wonder. "And you would go ugly for me?" he asked. "Hide your beauty and become a jest where you have always been a queen, for no other reason than to sink so low that I might reach up and pluck you? Would you think it worth while to do that for me?" But his meaning was lost on Helga's simplicity. She gathered only that he thought the scheme possible, and hope bloomed like roses in her cheeks. "Oh, comrade, do you indeed think favorably of the plan?" she whispered, eagerly. "I had not the heart to hope much from it; everything has failed us so. If you think it in the least likely to succeed, I will cut off my hair this instant." In spite of his misery, Alwin laughed a little. "Do you then imagine that the gold of your hair and the red of your cheeks is all that makes you fair?" he asked. "No, dear one, I think it would be easier to make Gilli generous than you ugly. No man who had eyes to look into your eyes, and ears to hear your voice, could be otherwise than eager to lay down his life to possess you. Trust to no such rootless trees, comrade. And do not raise your face toward me like that either; for, in honor, I may not kiss you, and and you are not ugly yet, sweetheart." Shouts from those around them recalled the lovers to themselves. The returning boat was almost upon them; and from among her burly crew the wan faces of several strangers looked up, while a swooning woman was seen to lie in the bow. Her face, though pinched and pallid, was also fair and lovable, and Helga momentarily forgot disappointment in pity. "Bring her here and lay her upon my cushions," she said to the men who carried the woman on board. Wrapping the limp form in her own cloak, the shield-maiden pulled off such of the sodden garments as she could, poured wine down the stranger's throat, and strove energetically to chafe some returning warmth into the benumbed limbs. While the boat hastened back to bring off the rest of the unfortunates, those of the first load whom wine and hope had sufficiently revived, explained the disaster. The wrecked ship belonged to Thorir of Trondhjem; and that merchant and his wife Gudrid and fourteen sailors made up her company. On the voyage from Nidaros to Greenland with a cargo of timber, their vessel had gone to pieces on a submerged reef, and they had been just able to reach that most inhospitable of rocks and cling there like flies, frozen, wind-battered, and drenched. The waves, in a moment of repentance, had thrown a little of their timber back to them, and this had been their only shelter; and their only food some coarse lichens and a few sea-birds' eggs. It was little wonder that when Leif had brought the last load on board, and drowned their past woes in present comforts, the starved creatures were almost ready to embrace his knees with thankfulness. "It seems to me that we should be called 'the Lucky,' and you 'the Good,'" Thorir said, as the two chiefs stood on the forecastle, watching the anchor and the sail both rising with joyful alacrity. "Without your aid, we could not have lived a day longer." And Gudrid, opening her eyes to see Helga's fair face bending over her to put a wine cup to her lips, murmured faintly, "A Valkyria could not look more beautiful to me than you do. Tell me what you are called, that I may know what name to love you by." "I am called Helga, Gilli's daughter," the shield-maiden answered, with just an edge of bitterness on the last words. Gudrid's gentle eyes opened wide with wonder and alarm. "Not Helga the Fair of Trondhjem," she gasped, "who fled from Gilli to his kinsfolk in Greenland? Alas, my unfortunate child!" In the eagerness in which she clasped her hands, the wine-cup fell clanging from Helga's hold. "Is he dead?" she cried, imploringly. "Only tell me that, and I will serve you all the rest of my life! Is Gilli dead?" But Gudrid had sunk back in another faint. She lay with her eyes closed, moaning and murmuring to herself. Leif, biting sharply at his thick mustache, as he was wont to do when excited, turned sharply on Thorir. "What is the reason of this?" he demanded. "What are these tidings concerning my kinswoman, which your wife hesitates to speak? Is Gilli of Trondhjem dead?" Thorir answered with great haste and politeness, "No, no; naught so bad as that. Naught but what I expect can be easily remedied. But it appears that when Gilli attempted to follow his daughter to Greenland, last fall, he suffered a shipwreck and the loss of much valuable property, barely escaping with his life. From this he drew the rash conclusion that his daughter had become a misfortune to him, as some foreknowing woman had once said she would. And he declared that since the maiden preferred her poorer kinsfolk in Greenland, she might stay with them; and--" The words burst rapturously from Helga's lips: "And he disowned me?" Thorir stared at her in astonishment. "Yes," he said, pityingly. It was just as well that he had not attempted a longer answer, for he never would have finished it. Madness seemed suddenly to fall upon the ship. In the face of her disinheritance, the shield-maiden was radiant. Down in the waist of the ship, two youths who had caught the words threw up their hats with cheers. Leif Ericsson himself laughed loudly, and snapped his fingers in derision. "A mighty revenge!" he said. "My kinswoman could have received no greater kindness at the churl's hands. Could she have accomplished it by a dagger-thrust, I doubt not that she would have let his base blood run from her veins long ere this." He turned to where Helga stood watching him, her heart in her eyes, and pulled her toward him and kissed her. "You chose between honor and riches, kinswoman," he said, "but while there is a ring in my pouch you shall never lack property; you have behaved like a true Norse maiden, and I am free now to say that I honor you for it. Go the way your heart desires, without further hindrance." Helga stayed to press his hand to her cheek; then, before them all, without a thought of shame, she went the way that ended in her lover's arms. They stood side by side in the gilded prow, and he kissed her eyes twice for every tear they had shed; and he kissed her mouth thrice three times, and not a man in the whole world rose up to prevent him. Side by side, they stood in the flying bow, a divinely modelled figure-head, gilded by the light of love. CONCLUSION As the sun's last beams were fading from the mountain tops, the exploring vessel dropped anchor before Eric's ship-sheds and the eager groups that had gathered on the shore at the first signal. Not only idlers made up the throng, but the Red One himself was there, and Thorwald and every soul from Brattahlid; and with them half the high-born men of Greenland, who had lived for the last month as Eric's guests, that they might be on hand for this occasion. They shoved and jostled each other like schoolboys, as they crowded down to meet the first boat-load. The ten sailors who stepped ashore were a prosperous looking band. Their arms were full of queer pets; their pouches were stuffed with samples of wood and samples of wheat, and with nuts and with raisins. All were sleek and fat with a year's good living, and all jubilant with happiness and a sense of their own importance. Even while their arms were clasping their sweethearts' necks, they began to hint at their brave adventures and to boast of the grain and the timber and the wine. The home-keepers heard just enough to set their curiosity leaping and dancing with eagerness for more. And each succeeding boat-load of burly heroes worked their enthusiasm to a higher pitch. Then, gradually, the song ran into a minor key, as Thorir's pitiful crew landed upon the sand. Haggard and worn and almost too weak to walk, they clung to the brawny arms of their rescuers; and the horrors of their privations were written in pitiless letters on Gudrid's fair white face. The rejoicing and laughter sank into wondering questions and pitiful murmuring. While Thorir told the Red One briefly of their sufferings, the throng listened as to their favorite ballad, and shuddered and suffered with him. Then, in words that still rang with joy and gratitude, Thorir told of their rescue by Leif Ericsson. Strongly speeding arrows need only aim to make them reach their target. Flights of wildest enthusiasm had been going up on every side. Now Thorir gave these a mark and an aim. Curiosity and triumph, pity and rejoicing, all merged into one great impulse and rose in a passion of hero-worship. Toward the boat that was bringing the Lucky One to land, they turned, face and heart, and laid their homage at his feet. Never had Greenland glaciers heard such a tumult of acclaim as when the throng cheered and stamped and clashed their weapons. It was a supreme moment. Leif's bronzed face was white, as he stood waiting for the noise to subside that he might answer them. Yet never had his bearing been statelier than when at last he stepped forward and faced them. "I give you many thanks for your favor, friends," he said, courteously. "It is more than I could have expected, and I give you many thanks for it. But I think it right to remind you that I am not one of those men who trust in their own strength alone. What I have done I have been able to do by the help of my God whom you reject. To Him I give the thanks and the glory." In that humility which is higher than pride, he raised the silver crucifix from his breast and bent his head before it. Out of the hush that followed, a man's voice rang strongly,--the voice of one of Greenland's foremost chiefs. "Hail to the God of Leif Ericsson! The God that helped him must be all-powerful. Henceforth I will believe that He and no one else is the only God. Hail to the Cross!" Before he had finished, another voice had taken up the cry--and another--and another; until there were not ten men who were not shouting it over and over, in a delirium of excitement. Eric turned his face away and made over his breast the hammer sign of Thor, but there was only pride in his look when he turned back. Leif stood motionless amid the tumult; looking upward with that strange absent look, as though his eyes would pierce the clouds that veiled Valhalla's walls and search for one beloved face among the warriors upon the benches. Under his breath he said to his English squire, "I pray God that Olaf Trygvasson hears this now, and knows that I have been as faithful to him in his death as I was in his life." He did not feel it when Alwin bent and touched the scarlet cloak-hem with his lips, nor did he hear the fervent murmur, "So faithful will I be to you hereafter." THE END 
49637	----	[Illustration: _GENERAL MAP_ of the RUSSIAN EMPIRE.] ACCOUNT OF THE RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES BETWEEN ASIA AND AMERICA. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE CONQUEST OF SIBERIA, AND THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSACTIONS AND COMMERCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA. By WILLIAM COXE, A. M. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of MARLBOROUGH. LONDON, PRINTED BY J. NICHOLS, FOR T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND. MDCCLXXX. TO JACOB BRYANT, ESQ. AS A PUBLIC TESTIMONY OF THE HIGHEST RESPECT FOR HIS DISTINGUISHED LITERARY ABILITIES, THE TRUEST ESTEEM FOR HIS PRIVATE VIRTUES, AND THE MOST GRATEFUL SENSE OF MANY PERSONAL FAVOURS, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED, BY HIS FAITHFUL AND AFFECTIONATE HUMBLE SERVANT, WILLIAM COXE. Cambridge, March 27, 1780. PREFACE. The late Russian Discoveries between Asia and America have, for some time, engaged the attention of the curious; more especially since Dr. Robertson's admirable History of America has been in the hands of the public. In that valuable performance the elegant and ingenious author has communicated to the world, with an accuracy and judgement which so eminently distinguish all his writings, the most exact information at that time to be obtained, concerning those important discoveries. During my stay at Petersburg, my inquiries were particularly directed to this interesting subject, in order to learn if any new light had been thrown on an article of knowledge of such consequence to the history of mankind. For this purpose I endeavoured to collect the respective journals of the several voyages subsequent to the expedition of Beering and Tschirikoff in 1741, with which the celebrated Muller concludes his account of the first Russian navigations. During the course of my researches I was informed, that a treatise in the German language, published at Hamburg and Leipsic in 1776, contained a full and exact narrative of the Russian voyages, from 1745 to 1770[1]. [Footnote 1: The title of the book is, Neue Nachrichten von denen Neuendeckten Insuln in der See zwischen Asia und Amerika aus mitgetheilten Urkunden und Auszuegen versasset von J. L. S.] As the author has not prefixed his name, I should have paid little attention to an anonymous publication, if I had not been assured, from very good authority, that the work in question was compiled from the original journals. Not resting however upon this intelligence, I took the liberty of applying to Mr. Muller himself, who, by order of the Empress, had arranged the same journals, from which the anonymous author is said to have drawn his materials. Previous to my application, Mr. Muller had compared the treatise with the original papers; and he favoured me with the following strong testimony to its exactness and authenticity: "Vous ferès bien de traduire pour l'usage de vos compatriotes le petit livre sur les isles situées entre le Kamtchatka et l'Amerique. II n'y a point de doute, que l'auteur n'ait eté pourvu de bons memoires, et qu'il ne s'en foit fervi fidelement. J'ai confronté le livre avec les originaux." Supported therefore by this very respectable authority, I considered this treatise as a performance of the highest credit, and well worthy of being more generally known and perused. I have accordingly, in the first part of the present publication, submitted a translation of it to the reader's candour; and added occasional notes to such passages as seemed to require an explanation. The original is divided into sections without any references. But as it seemed to be more convenient to divide it into chapters; and to accompany each chapter with a summary of the contents, and marginal references; I have moulded it into that form, without making however any alteration in the order of the journals. The additional intelligence which I procured at Petersburg, is thrown into an appendix: It consists of some new information, and of three journals[2], never before given to the public. Amongst these I must particularly mention that of Krenitzin and Levasheff, together with the chart of their voyage, which was communicated to Dr. Robertson, by order of the Empress of Russia; and which that justly admired historian has, in the politest and most obliging manner, permitted me to make use of in this collection. This voyage, which redounds greatly to the honour of the sovereign who planned it, confirms in general the authenticity of the treatise above-mentioned; and ascertains the reality of the discoveries made by the private merchants. [Footnote 2: The journals of Krenitzin and Levasheff, the short account of Synd's voyage, and the narrative of Shalauroff's expedition, N^o I. IX. XI.] As a farther illustration of this subject, I collected the best charts which could be procured at Petersburg, and of which a list will be given in the following advertisement. From all these circumstances, I may venture, perhaps, to hope that the curious and inquisitive reader will not only find in the following pages the most authentic and circumstantial account of the progress and extent of the Russian discoveries, which has hitherto appeared in any language; but be enabled hereafter to compare them with those more lately made by that great and much to be regretted navigator, Captain Cooke, when his journal shall be communicated to the public. As all the furs which are brought from the New Discovered Islands are sold to the Chinese, I was naturally led to make enquiries concerning the commerce between Russia and China; and finding this branch of traffic much more important than is commonly imagined, I thought that a general sketch of its present state, together with a succinct view of the transactions between the two nations, would not be unacceptable. The conquest of Siberia, as it first opened a communication with China, and paved the way to all the interesting discoveries related in the present attempt, will not appear unconnected, I trust, with its principal design. The materials of this second part, as also of the preliminary observations concerning Kamtchatka, and the commerce to the new-discovered islands, are drawn from books of established and undoubted reputation. Mr. Muller and Mr. Pallas, from whose interesting works these historical and commercial subjects are chiefly compiled, are too well known in the literary world to require any other vouchers for their judgement, exactness, and fidelity, than the bare mentioning of their names. I have only farther to apprize the reader, that, besides the intelligence extracted from these publications, he will find some additional circumstances relative to the Russian commerce with China, which I collected during my continuance in Russia. * * * * * I cannot close this address to the reader without embracing with peculiar satisfaction the just occasion, which the ensuing treatises upon the Russian discoveries and commerce afford me, of joining with every friend of science in the warmest admiration of that enlarged and liberal spirit, which so strikingly marks the character of the present Empress of Russia. Since her accession to the throne, the investigation and discovery of useful knowledge has been the constant object of her generous encouragement. The authentic records of the Russian History have, by her express orders, been properly arranged; and permission is readily granted of inspecting them. The most distant parts of her vast dominions have, at her expence, been explored and described by persons of great abilities and extensive learning; by which means new and important lights have been thrown upon the geography and natural history of those remote regions. In a word, this truly great princess has contributed more, in the compass of only a few years, towards civilizing and informing the minds of her subjects, than had been effected by all the sovereigns her predecessors since the glorious æra of Peter the Great. CATALOGUE OF BOOKS QUOTED IN THIS WORK In order to prevent the frequent mention of the full title of the books referred to in the course of this performance, the following catalogue is subjoined, with the abbreviations. Müller's Samlung Russischer Geschichte, IX volumes, 8vo. printed at St. Petersburg in 1732, and the following years; it is referred to in the following manner: S. R. G. with the volume and page annexed. From this excellent collection I have made use of the following treatises: vol. II. p. 293, &c. Geschichte der Gegenden an dem Flusse Amur. There is a French translation of this treatise, called Histoire du Fleuve Amur, 12mo, Amsterdam, 1766. vol. III. p. 1, &c. Nachrichten von See Reisen, &c. There is an English and a French translation of this work; the former is called "Voyages from Asia to America for completing the Discoveries of the North West Coast of America," &c. 4to, London, 1764. The title of the latter is Voyages et Decouvertes faites par les Russes, &c. 12mo, Amsterdam, 1766. p. 413. Nachrichten Von der Hanlung in Sibirien. Vol. VI. p. 109, Sibirische Geshichte. Vol. VIII. p. 504, Nachricht Von der Russischen Handlung nach China. Pallas Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs, in Three Parts, 4to, St. Petersburg, 1771, 1773, and 1776, thus cited, Pallas Reise. Georgi Bemerkungen einer Reise im Russischen Reich in Jahre, 1772, III volumes, 4to, St. Petersburg, 1775, cited Georgi Reise. Fischer Sibirische Geschichte, 2 volumes, 8vo, St. Petersburg, cited Fis. Sib. Ges. Gmelin Reise durch Sibirien, Tome IV. 8vo. Gottingen, 1752, cited Gmelin Reise. There is a French translation of this work, called Voyage en Siberie, &c. par M. Gmelin. Paris, 1767. Neueste Nachrichten von Kamtchatka aufgesetst im Junius des 1773^{ten} Yahren von dem dasigen Befehls-haber Herrn Kapitain Smalew. Aus dem abhandlungen der freyen Russischen Gesellschaft Moskau. In the journal of St. Petersburg, April, 1776.--cited Journal of St. Pet. Explanation of some Russian words made use of in the following work. _Baidar_, a small boat. _Guba_, a bay. _Kamen_, a rock. _Kotche_, a vessel. _Krepost_, a regular fortress. _Noss_, a cape. _Ostrog_, a fortress surrounded with palisadoes. _Ostroff_, an island. _Ostrova_, islands. _Quass_, a sort of fermented liquor. _Reka_, a river. The Russians, in their proper names of persons, make use of patronymics; these patronymics are formed in some cases by adding _Vitch_ to the christian name of the father; in others _Off_ or _Eff_: the former termination is applied only to persons of condition; the latter to those of an inferior rank. As, for instance, Among persons of condition _Ivan Ivanovitch_, }Ivan the son of inferior rank, _Ivan Ivanoff_ } of Ivan. _Michael Alexievitch_, } Michael the _Michael Alexeeff_, }son of Alexèy. Sometimes a surname is added, _Ivan Ivanovitch Romanoff_. Table of Russian Weights, Measures of Length, and Value of Money. WEIGHT. A pood weighs 40 Russian pounds = 36 English. MEASURES OF LENGTH. 16 vershocks = an arsheen. An arsheen = 28 inches. Three arsheens, or seven feet = a fathom[3], or sazshen. [Footnote 3: The fathom for measuring the depth of water is the same as the English fathom = 6 feet.] 500 sazshens = a verst. A degree of longitude comprises 104-1/2 versts = 69-1/2 English miles. A mile is therefore 1,515 parts of a verst; two miles may then be estimated equal to three versts, omitting a small fraction. VALUE OF RUSSIAN MONEY. A rouble = 100 copecs. Its value varies according to the exchange from 3s. 8d. to 4s. 2d. Upon an average, however, the value of a rouble is reckoned at four shillings. ERRATA. P. 23, _Reference_, _for_ Appendix I. N^o I. _read_ N^o II. 24, _for_ Appendix I. N^o II. _read_ N^o III. 30, _for_ Rogii _read_ Kogii. 46, _for_ Riksa _read_ Kiska. 96, _for_ Korovin _read_ Korelin. 186, Note--_for_ Tobob _read_ Tobol. 154, Note--Line 2, _after_ handpauken _omitted_ von verschiedenen Klang. 119, _for_ Saktunk _read_ Saktunak. 134, Line 6, _for_ were _read_ was. 188, l. 16. _for_ pretection _read_ protection. 190, l. 5. _for_ nor _read_ not. 195, _for_ Sungur _read_ Sirgut. 225, l. 13. _read_ other has an. 226, _for_ harlbadeers _read_ halberdiers. 234, Note--line 3, _dele_ See hereafter, p. 242. 246, _for_ Marym _read_ Narym. 256, Note--_for_ called by Linnæus Lutra Marina _read_ Lutra Marina, called by Linnæus Mustela Lutris, &c. 257, Line 5, _for_ made of the bone, &c. _read_ made of bone, or the stalk, &c. 278, Note 2--line 2, _for_ Corbus _read_ Corvus. 324, Note--line 4, _dele_ was. 313, Note--line 3, _dele_ that. Ibid. Note--line 10, "I should not" &c. _is a separate note, and relates to the extract in the text beginning_ "In 1648," &c. Omitted in the ERRATA. P. 242. l. 9. _r._ 18, 215. l. 11. _r._ 1, 383, 621. 35. ADVERTISEMENT. As no astronomical observations have been taken in the voyages related in this collection, the longitude and latitude ascribed to the new-discovered islands in the journals and upon the charts cannot be absolutely depended upon. Indeed the reader will perceive, that the position[4] of the Fox Islands upon the general map of Russia is materially different from that assigned to them upon the chart of Krenitzin and Levasheff. Without endeavouring to clear up any difficulties which may arise from this uncertainty, I thought it would be most satisfactory to have the best charts engraved: the reader will then be able to compare them with each other, and with the several journals. Which representation of the new-discovered islands deserves the preferance, will probably be ascertained upon the return of captain Clerke from his present expedition. [Footnote 4: See p. 286.] List of the CHARTS, and Directions for placing them. CHART I. A reduced copy of the general map of Russia, published by the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, 1776. to face the title-page. II. Chart of the voyage made by Krenitzin and Levasheff to the Fox Islands, communicated by Dr. Robertson, to face p. 251. III. Chart of Synd's Voyage towards Tschukotskoi-Noss, p. 300. IV. Chart of Shalauroff's Voyage to Shelatskoi-Noss, with a small chart of the Bear-Islands, p. 323. View of Maimatschin, p. 211. Communicated by a gentleman who has been upon the spot. CONTENTS. Dedication, p. iii. Preface, p. v. Catalogue of books quoted in this work, p. xi. Explanation of some Russian words made use of, p. xiii. Table of Russian Weights, Measures of Length, and Value of Money, p. xiv. Advertisement, p. xv. List of Charts, and Directions for placing them, p. xvi. PART I. Containing Preliminary Observations concerning KAMTCHATKA, and Account of the NEW DISCOVERIES made by the _Russians_, p. 3--16. Chap. I. Discovery and Conquest of _Kamtchatka_--Present state of that Peninsula--Population--Tribute--Productions, &c. p. 3. Chap. II. General idea of the commerce carried on to the New Discovered Islands--Equipment of the vessels--Risks of the trade, profits, &c. p. 8. Chap. III. Furs and skins procured from _Kamtchatka_ and the New Discovered Islands, p. 12. Account of the RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES, p. 19. Chap. I. Commencement and progress of the _Russian_ Discoveries in the sea of _Kamtchatka_--General division of the New Discovered Islands, ibid. Chap. II. Voyages in 1745--First discovery of the _Aleütian Isles_, by _Michael Nevodsikoff_, p. 29. Chap. III. Successive voyages, from 1747 to 1753, to _Beering's_ and _Copper Island_, and to the _Aleütian Isles_--Some account of the inhabitants, p. 37. Chap. IV. Voyages from 1753 to 1756. Some of the further _Aleütian_ or _Fox Islands_ touched at by _Serebranikoff's_ vessel--Some account of the natives, p. 48. Chap. V. Voyages from 1756 to 1758, p. 54. Chap. VI. Voyages in 1758, 1759, and 1760, to the _Fox Islands_, in the _St. Vladimir_, fitted out by _Trapesnikoff_--and in the _Gabriel_, by _Bethshevin_--The latter, under the command of _Pushkareff_, sails to _Alaksu_, or _Alachshak_, one of the remotest Eastern Islands hitherto visited--Some account of its inhabitants, and productions, which latter are different from those of the more Western islands, p. 61. Chap. VII. Voyage of _Andrean Tolstyk_, in the _St. Andrean_ and _Natalia_--Discovery of some New Islands, called _Andreanoffsky Ostrova_--Description of six of those islands, p. 71. Chap. VIII. Voyage of the _Zacharias_ and _Elizabeth_, fitted out by _Kulkoff_, and commanded by _Dausinin_--They sail to _Umnak_ and _Unalashka_, and winter upon the latter island--The vessel destroyed, and all the crew, except four, murdered by the islanders--The adventures of those four _Russians_, and their wonderful escape, p. 80. Chap. IX. Voyage of the vessel called the _Trinity_, under the command of _Korovin_--Sails to the _Fox Islands_--Winters at _Unalashka_--Puts to sea the spring following--The vessel is stranded in a bay of the island _Umnak_, and the crew attacked by the natives--Many of them killed--others carried off by sickness---They are reduced to great streights--Relieved by _Glottoff_, twelve of the whole company only remaining--Description of _Umnak_ and _Unalashka_, p. 89. Chap. X. Voyage of _Stephen Glottoff_--He reaches the _Fox Islands_--Sails beyond _Unalashika_ to _Kadyak_--Winters upon that island--Repeated attempts of the natives to destroy the crew--They are repulsed, reconciled, and prevailed upon to trade with the _Russians_--Account of _Kadyak_--Its inhabitants, animals, productions--_Glottoff_ sails back to _Umnak_--winters there--returns to _Kamtchatka_--Journal of his voyage, p. 106. Chap. XI. _Solovioff's_ voyage--He reaches _Unalashka_, and passes two winters upon that island--Relation of what passed there--fruitless attempts of the natives to destroy the crew--Return of _Solovioff_ to _Kamtchatka_--Journal of his voyage in returning--Description of the islands of _Umnak_ and _Unalashka_, productions, inhabitants, their manners, customs, &c. &c. p. 131. Chap. XII. Voyage of _Otcheredin_--He winters upon _Umnak_--Arrival of _Levasheff_ upon _Unalashka_--Return of _Otcheredin_ to _Ochotsk_, p. 156. Chap. XIII. _Conclusion_--General position and situation of the _Aleütian_ and _Fox Islands_--their distance from each other--Further description of the dress, manners, and custom of the inhabitants--their feasts and ceremonies, &c. p. 164. PART II. Containing the Conquest of SIBERIA, and the History of the Transactions and Commerce between RUSSIA and CHINA, p. 175. Chap. I. First irruption of the _Russians_ into _Siberia_--second inroad--_Yermac_ driven by the Tzar of _Muscovy_ from the _Volga_, retires to _Orel_, a _Russian_ settlement--Enters _Siberia_, with an army of _Cossacs_--his progress and exploits--Defeats _Kutchum Chan_--conquers his dominions--cedes them to the Tzar--receives a reinforcement of _Russian_ troops--is surprized by _Kutchum Chan_--his defeat and death--veneration paid to his memory--_Russian_ troops evacuate _Siberia_--re-enter and conquer the whole country--their progress stopped by the _Chinese_, p. 177. Chap. II. Commencement of hostilities between the _Russians_ and _Chinese_--disputes concerning the limits of the two empires--treaty of _Nershinsk_--embassies from the court of _Russia_ to _Pekin_--treaty of _Kiachta_--establishment of the commerce between the two nations. p. 197. Chap. III. Account of the _Russian_ and _Chinese_ settlements upon the confines of _Siberia_--description of the _Russian_ frontier town _Kiachta_--of the _Chinese_ frontier town _Maitmatschin_--its buildings, pagodas, &c. p. 211. Chap. IV. Commerce between the _Chinese_ and _Russians_--list of the principal exports and imports--duties--average amount of the _Russian_ trade. p. 231. Chap. V. Description of _Zuruchaitu_--and its trade--transport of the merchandize through _Siberia_. p. 244. PART III. APPENDIX I. and II. containing SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNTS OF THE RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES, &c. &c. Appendix I. Extract from the journal of a voyage made by _Captain Krenitzin_ and _Lieutenant Levasheff_ to the _Fox Islands_, in 1768, 1769, by order of the _Empress of Russia_--they sail from _Kamtchatka_--arrive at _Beering's_ and _Copper Islands_--reach the _Fox Islands_--_Krenitzin_ winters at _Alaxa_--_Levasheff_ upon _Unalashka_--productions of _Unalashka_--description of the inhabitants of the _Fox Islands_--their manners and customs, &c. p. 251. N^o II. Concerning the longitude of _Kamtchatka_, and of the Eastern extremity of _Asia_, as laid down by the _Russian_ geographers. p. 267. N^o III. Summary of the proofs tending to shew, that _Beering_ and _Tschirikoff_ either reached _America_ in 1741, or came very near it. p. 277. N^o IV. List of the principal charts representing the _Russian_Discoveries. p. 281. N^o V. Position of the _Andreanoffsky Isles_ ascertained--number of the _Aleutian Isles_. p. 288. N^o VI. Conjectures concerning the proximity of the _Fox Islands_ to the continent of _America_. p. 291. N^o VII. Of the _Tschutski_--reports of the vicinity of _America_ to their coast, first propagated by them, seem to be confirmed by late accounts from those parts. p. 293. N^o VIII. List of the New Discovered Islands, procured from an _Aleütian_ chief--catalogue of islands called by different names in the account of the _Russian_ discoveries. p. 297. N^o IX. Voyage of _Lieutenant Synd_ to the North East of _Siberia_--he discovers a cluster of islands, and a promontory, which he supposes to belong to the continent of _America_, lying near the coast of the _Tschutski_. p. 300. N^o X. Specimen of the _Aleütian_ language. p. 303. N^o XI. Attempts of the _Russians_ to discover a North East passage--voyages from _Archangel_ towards the _Lena_--from the _Lena_ towards _Kamtchatka_--extract from _Muller's_ account of _Deshneff's_ voyage round _Tschukotskoi Noss_--narrative of a voyage made by _Shalauroff_ from the _Lena_ to _Shelatskoi Noss_. p. 304. Appendix II. _Tartarian_ rhubarb brought to _Kiachta_ by the _Bucharian_ merchants--method of examining and purchasing the roots--different species of rheum which yield the finest rhubarb--price of rhubarb in _Russia_--exportation--superiority of the _Tartarian_ over the _Indian_ rhubarb. p. 332. Table of the longitude and latitude of the principal places mentioned in this work. p. 344. PART I. CONTAINING I. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING KAMTCHATKA, AND II. ACCOUNT OF THE NEW DISCOVERIES MADE BY THE RUSSIANS. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING KAMTCHATKA, &c. CHAP. I. Discovery and Conquest of _Kamtchatka_--Present state of that Peninsula--Population--Tribute--Productions, &c. [Sidenote: First Discovery of Kamtchatka.] The Peninsula of Kamtchatka was not discovered by the Russians before the latter end of the last century. The first expedition towards those parts was made in 1696, by sixteen Cossacs, under the command of Lucas Semænoff Morosko, who was sent against the Koriacks of the river Opooka by Volodimir Atlafsoff commander of Anadirsk. Morosko continued his march until he came within four days journey of the river Kamtchatka, and having rendered a Kamtchadal village tributary, he returned to Anadirsk[5]. [Footnote 5: S. R. G. V. III. p. 72.] The following year Atlafsoff himself at the head of a larger body of troops penetrated into the Peninsula, took possession of the river Kamtchatka by erecting a cross upon its banks; and built some huts upon the spot, where Upper Kamtchatkoi Ostrog now stands. [Sidenote: That Peninsula conquered and colonised by the Russians.] These expeditions were continued during the following years: Upper and Lower Kamtchatkoi Ostrogs and Bolcheretsk were built; the Southern district conquered and colonised; and in 1711 the whole Peninsula was finally reduced under the dominion of the Russians. During some years the possession of Kamtchatka brought very little advantage to the crown, excepting the small tribute of furs exacted from the inhabitants. The Russians indeed occasionally hunted in that Peninsula foxes, wolves, ermines, sables, and other animals, whose valuable skins form an extensive article of commerce among the Eastern nations. But the fur trade carried on from thence was inconsiderable; until the Russians discovered the islands situated between Asia and America, in a series of voyages, the journals of which will be exhibited in the subsequent translation. Since these discoveries, the variety of rich furs, which are procured from those Islands, has greatly encreased the trade of Kamtchatka, and rendered it a very important branch of the Russian commerce. The Peninsula of Kamtchatka lies between 51 and 62 degrees of North latitude, and 173 and 182 of longitude from the Isle of Fero. It is bounded on the East and South by the Sea of Kamtchatka, on the West by the Seas of Ochotsk and Penshinsk, and on the North by the country of the Koriacs. [Sidenote: Present State of Kamtchatka.] It is divided into four districts, Bolcheresk, Tigilskaia Krepost, Verchnei or Upper Kamtchatkoi Ostrog, and Nishnei or Lower Kamtchatkoi Ostrog. [Sidenote: Government] The government is vested in the chancery of Bolcheresk, which depends upon and is subject to the inspection of the chancery of Ochotsk. The whole Russian force stationed in the Peninsula consists of no more than three hundred men[6]. [Footnote 6: Journal of St. Petersburg for April 1777.] [Sidenote: Population.] The present population of Kamtchatka is very small, amounting to scarce four thousand souls. Formerly the inhabitants were more numerous, but in 1768, that country was greatly depopulated by the ravages of the small-pox, by which disorder five thousand three hundred and sixty-eight persons were carried off. There are now only seven hundred and six males in the whole Peninsula who are tributary, and an hundred and fourteen in the Kuril Isles, which are subject to Russia. [Sidenote: Tribute.] The fixed annual tribute consists in 279 sables, 464 red foxes, 50 sea-otters with a dam, and 38 cub sea-otters. All furs exported from Kamtchatka pay a duty of 10 per cent. to the crown; the tenth of the cargoes brought from the new discovered islands is also delivered into the customs. [Sidenote: Volcanos.] Many traces of Volcanos have been observed in this Peninsula; and there are some mountains, which are at present in a burning state. The most considerable of these Volcanos is situated near the Lower Ostrog. In 1762 a great noise was heard issuing from the inside of that mountain, and flames of fire were seen to burst from different parts. These flames were immediately succeeded by a large stream of melted snow water, which flowed into the neighbouring valley, and drowned two Kamtchadals, who were at that time upon an hunting party. The ashes, and other combustible matter, thrown from the mountain, spread to the circumference of three hundred versts. In 1767 there was another discharge, but less considerable. Every night flames of fire were observed streaming from the mountain; and the eruption which attended them, did no small damage to the inhabitants of the Lower Ostrog. Since that year no flames have been seen; but the mountain emits a constant smoke. The same phænomenon is also observed upon another mountain, called Tabaetshinskian. [Sidenote: Productions.] The face of the country throughout the Peninsula is chiefly mountainous. It produces in some parts birch, poplars, alders, willows, underwood, and berries of different sorts. Greens and other vegetables are raised with great facility; such as white cabbage, turneps, radishes, beetroot, carrots, and some cucumbers. Agriculture is in a very low state, which is chiefly owing to the nature of the soil and the severe hoar frosts; for though some trials have been made with respect to the cultivation of corn, and oats, barley and rye have been sown; yet no crop has ever been procured sufficient in quality or quality to answer the pains and expence of raising it. Hemp however has of late years been cultivated with great success[7]. [Footnote 7: Journal of St. Petersburg.] Every year a vessel, belonging to the crown, sails from Ochotsk to Kamtchatka laden with salt, provisions, corn, and Russian manufactures; and returns in June or July of the following year with skins and furs. CHAP. II. General idea of the commerce carried on to the New Discovered Islands.--Equipment of the vessels.--Risks of the trade, profits, &c. Since the conclusion of Beering's voyage, which was made at the expence of the crown, the prosecution of the New Discoveries began by him has been almost entirely carried on by individuals. These persons were principally merchants of Irkutsk, Yakutsk, and other natives of Siberia, who formed themselves into small trading companies, and fitted out vessels at their joint expence. [Sidenote: Equipment of the vessels.] Most of the vessels which are equipped for these expeditions are two masted: they are commonly built without iron, and in general so badly constructed, that it is wonderful how they can weather so stormy a sea. They are called in Russian Skitiki or sewed vessels, because the planks are sewed together with thongs of leather. Some few are built in the river of Kamtchatka; but they are for the most part constructed at the haven of Ochotsk. The largest of these vessels are manned with seventy men, and the smallest with forty. The crew generally consists of an equal number of Russians and Kamtchadals. The latter occasion a considerable saving, as their pay is small; they also resist, more easily than the former, the attacks of the scurvy. But Russian mariners are more enterprising and more to be depended upon in time of danger than the others; some therefore are unavoidably necessary. [Sidenote: Expences attending this trade.] The expences of building and fitting out the vessels are very considerable: for there is nothing at Ochotsk but timber for their construction. Accordingly cordage, sails, and some provisions, must be brought from Yakutsk upon horses. The dearness of corn and flour, which must be transported from the districts lying about the river Lena, renders it impossible to lay-in any large quantity for the subsistence of the crew during a voyage, which commonly lasts three or four years. For this reason no more is provided, than is necessary to supply the Russian mariners with quass and other fermented liquors. From the excessive scarcity of cattle both at Ochotsk and [8]Kamtchatka very little provision is laid in at either of those places: but the crew provide themselves with a large store of the flesh of sea animals, which are caught and cured upon Beering's Island, where the vessels for the most part winter. [Footnote 8: In 1772 there were only 570 head of cattle upon the whole Peninsula. A cow sold from 50 to 60 Roubles, an ox from 60 to 100. A pound of fresh beef sold upon an average for 12-1/2 copecs. The excessive dearness of this price will be easily conceived, when it is known, that at Moscow a pound of beef sells for about three copecs. Journ. St. Petersb.] After all expences are paid, the equipment of each vessel ordinarily costs from 15,000 to 20,000 Roubles. And sometimes the expences amount to 30,000. Every vessel is divided into a certain number of shares, generally from thirty to fifty; and each share is worth from 300 to 500 Roubles. The risk of the trade is very great, as shipwrecks are common in the sea of Kamtchatka, which is full of rocks and very tempestuous. Besides, the crews are frequently surprised and killed by the islanders, and the vessels destroyed. [Sidenote: Profits.] In return the profits arising from these voyages are very considerable, and compensate the inconveniencies and dangers attending them. For if a ship comes back after having made a profitable voyage, the gain at the most moderate computation amounts to cent. per cent. and frequently to as much more. Should the vessel be capable of performing a second expedition, the expences are of course considerably lessened, and the shares are at a lower price. Some notion of the general profits arising from this trade (when the voyage is successful), may be deduced from the sale of a rich cargo of furs, brought to Kamtchatka, on the 2d of June, 1772, from the new-discovered islands, in a vessel belonging to Ivan Popoff. The tenth part of the skins being delivered to the customs, the remainder was distributed in fifty-five shares. Each share consisted of twenty sea-otters, sixteen black and brown foxes, ten red foxes, three sea-otter tails; and such a portion was sold upon the spot from 800 to 1000 Roubles: so that according to this price the whole lading was worth about 50,000 Roubles[9]. [Footnote 9: Georgi Reise Tom. I. p. 23, & seq. Journal of St. Petersburg.] CHAP. III. Furs and skins procured from _Kamtchatka_ and the New Discovered Islands. [Sidenote: Furs and Skins brought from Kamtchatka and the New Discovered Islands.] The principal furs and skins procured from the Peninsula of Kamtchatka and the New Discovered Islands are sea-otters, foxes, sables, ermines, wolves, bears, &c.--These furs are transported to Ochotsk by sea, and from thence carried to [10]Kiachta upon the frontiers of Siberia; where the greatest part of them are sold to the Chinese at a very considerable profit. [Footnote 10: See Part II. Chap. III.] [Sidenote: Sea-Otters.] Of all these furs the skins of the sea-otters are the richest and most valuable. Those animals resort in great numbers to the Aleutian and Fox Islands: they are called by the Russians Bobry Morski or sea-beavers, and sometimes Kamtchadal beavers, on account of the resemblance of their fur to that of the common beaver. From these circumstances several authors have been led into a mistake, and have supposed that this animal is of the beaver species; whereas it is the true sea-otter[11]. [Footnote 11: S.R.G. III. p. 530.] The female are called Matka or dams; and the cubs till five months old Medviedki or little bears, because their coat resembles that of a bear; they lose that coat after five months, and then are called Koschloki. The fur of the finest sort is thick and long, of a dark colour, and a fine glossy hue. They are taken four ways; struck with darts as they are sleeping upon their backs in the sea, followed in boats and hunted down till they are tired, surprised in caverns, and taken in nets. Their skins fetch different prices according to their quality. At Kamtchatka[12] the best sell for per skin from 30 to 40 Roubles. Middle sort 20 to 30 Worst sort 15 to 25 At Kiachta[13] the old and middle-aged sea-otter skins are sold to the Chinese per skin from 80 to 100 The worst sort 30 to 40. [Footnote 12: Journal St. Petersburg.] [Footnote 13: Pallas Reise. Part III. p. 137.] As these furs fetch so great a price to the Chinese, they are seldom brought into Russia for sale: and several, which have been carried to Moscow as a tribute, were purchased for 30 Roubles per skin; and sent from thence to the Chinese frontiers, where they were disposed of at a very high interest. [Sidenote: Different species of Foxes.] There are several species of Foxes, whose skins are sent from Kamtchatka into Siberia and Russia. Of these the principal are the black foxes, the Petsi or Arctic foxes, the red and stone foxes. The finest black foxes are caught in different parts of Siberia, and more commonly in the Northern regions between the Rivers Lena, Indigirka, and Kovyma: the black foxes found upon the remotest Eastern islands discovered by the Russians, or the Lyssie Ostrova, are not so valuable. They are very black and large; but the coat for the most part is as coarse as that of a wolf. The great difference in the fineness of the fur, between these foxes and those of Siberia, arises probably from the following circumstances. In those islands the cold is not so severe as in Siberia; and as there is no wood, the foxes live in holes and caverns of the rocks; whereas in the abovementioned parts of Siberia, there are large tracts of forests in which they find shelter. Some black foxes however are occasionally caught in the remotest Eastern Islands, not wholly destitute of wood, and these are of great value. In general the Chinese, who pay the dearest for black furs, do not give more for the black foxes of the new-discovered islands than from 20 to 30 Roubles per skin. The arctic or ice foxes are very common upon some of the New-Discovered Islands. They are called Petsi by the Russians, and by the Germans blue foxes. [Sidenote: Pennant's Synopsis.] Their natural colour is of a bluish grey or ash colour; but they change their coat at different ages, and in differerent seasons of the year. In general they are born brown, are white in winter, and brown in summer; and in spring and autumn, as the hair gradually falls off, the coat is marked with different specks and crosses. At Kiachta[14] all the several varieties sell upon an average to the Chinese per skin from 50 copecs to 2-2/3 Roubles. Stone Foxes at Kamtchatka per skin from 1 to 2-1/2 Red Foxes from 80 copecs to 1 80 copecs. At Kiachta from 80 copecs to 9 Common wolves skins at per skin 2 Best sort per skin from 8 to 16 Sables per ditto 2-1/2 to 10 [Footnote 14: Pallas Reise.] A pood of the best sea-horse teeth[15] sells At Yakutsk for 10 Roubles. Of the middling 8 Inferior ditto from 5 to 7. [Footnote 15: S. R. G. V. III.] Four, five, or six teeth generally weigh a pood, and sometimes, but very rarely, three. They are sold to the Chinese, Monguls, and Calmucs. ACCOUNT OF THE NEW DISCOVERIES MADE BY THE RUSSIANS IN THE EASTERN OCEAN, BETWEEN KAMTCHATKA AND AMERICA. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN. WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR. ACCOUNT OF THE RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES. CHAP. I. Commencement and progress of the _Russian_ Discoveries in the sea of _Kamtchatka_--General division of the New Discovered Islands. A Thirst after riches was the chief motive which excited the Spaniards to the discovery of America; and which turned the attention of other maritime nations to that quarter. The same passion for riches occasioned, about the middle of the sixteenth century, the discovery and conquest of Northern Asia, a country, before that time, as unknown to the Europeans, as Thule to the ancients. [Sidenote: Conquest of Siberia.] The first foundation of this conquest was laid by the celebrated Yermac[16], at the head of a band of adventurers, less civilized, but at the same time, not so inhuman as the conquerors of America. By the accession of this vast territory, now known by the name of Siberia, the Russians have acquired an extent of empire never before attained by any other nation. [Footnote 16: The reader will find an account of this conquest by Yermac in Part II. Chap. I.] [Sidenote: Commencement of the New Discoveries.] The first project[17] for making discoveries in that tempestuous sea, which lies between Kamtchatka and America, was conceived and planned by Peter I. the greatest sovereign who ever sat upon the Russian throne, until it was adorned by the present empress. The nature and completion of this project under his immediate successors are well known to the public from the relation of the celebrated Muller. [Sidenote: Their progress.] No sooner had [18]Beering and Tschirikoff, in the prosecution of this plan, opened their way to islands abounding in valuable furs, than private merchants immediately engaged with ardour in similar expeditions; and, within a period of ten years, more important discoveries were made by these individuals, at their own private cost, than had been hitherto effected by all the expensive efforts of the crown. [Footnote 17: There seems a want of connection in this place, which will be cleared up by considering, that, by the conquest of Siberia, the Russians advanced to the shores of the Eastern Ocean, the scene of the discoveries here alluded to.] [Footnote 18: Beering had already made several expeditions in the sea of Kamtchatka, by orders of the crown, before he undertook the voyage mentioned in the text. In 1728, he departed from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river, in company with Tschirikoff. The purport of this voyage was to ascertain, whether the two Continents of Asia and America were separated; and Peter I. a short time before his death, had drawn up instructions with his own hand for that purpose. Beering coasted the Eastern shore of Siberia as high as latitude 67° 18´; but made no discovery of the opposite Continent. In 1729, he set sail again for the prosecution of the same design; but this second attempt equally failed of success. In 1741, Beering and Tschirikoff went out upon the celebrated expedition (alluded to in the text, and which is so often mentioned in the course of this work) towards the coasts of America. This expedition led the way to all the important discoveries since made by the Russians. Beering's vessel was wrecked in December of the same year; and Tschirikoff landed at Kamtchatka on the 9th of October, 1742. S. R. G. III. Nachrichten von See Reisen, &c. and Robertson's History of America, Vol. I. p. 273, & seq.] Soon after the return of Beering's crew from the island where he was ship-wrecked and died, and which is called after his name, the inhabitants of Kamtchatka ventured over to that island, to which the sea-otters and other sea-animals were accustomed to resort in great numbers. Mednoi Ostroff, or Copper Island, which takes that appellation from large masses of native copper found upon the beach, and which lies full in sight of Beering's Isle, was an easy and speedy discovery. These two small uninhabited spots were for some time the only islands that were known; until a scarcity of land and sea-animals, whose numbers were greatly diminished by the Russian hunters, occasioned other expeditions. Several of the vessels which were sent out upon these voyages were driven by stormy weather to the South-east; and discovered by that means the Aleütian Isles, situated about the 195th[19] degree of longitude, and but moderately peopled. [Footnote 19: The author reckons, throughout this treatise, the longitude from the first meridian of the isle of Fero. The longitude and latitude, which he gives to the Fox Islands, corresponds exactly with those in which they are laid down upon the General Map of Russia. The longitude of Beering's, Copper Island, and of the Aleütian Isles, are somewhat different. See Advertisement relating to the Charts, and also Appendix I. N^o IV.] From the year 1745, when it seems these islands were first visited, until 1750, when the first tribute of furs was brought from thence to Ochotsk, the government appears not to have been fully informed of their discovery. In the last mentioned year, one Lebedeff was commander of Kamtchatka. From 1755 to 1760, Captain Tsheredoff and Lieutenant Kashkareff were his successors. In 1760, Feodor Ivanovitch Soimonoff, governor of Tobolsk, turned his attention to the abovementioned islands; and, the same year, Captain Rtistsheff, at Ochotsk, instructed Lieutenant Shmaleff, the same who was afterwards commander in Kamtchatka, to promote and favour all expeditions in those seas. Until this time, all the discoveries subsequent to Beering's voyage were made, without the interposition of the court, by private merchants in small vessels fitted out at their own expence. [Sidenote: The Empress promotes all attempts towards New Discoveries.] The present Empress (to whom every circumstance which contributes to aggrandize the Russian empire is an object of attention) has given new life to these discoveries. The merchants engaged in them have been animated by recompences. The importance and true position of the Russian islands have been ascertained by an expensive voyage[20], made by order of the crown; and much additional information will be derived from the journals and charts of the officers employed in that expedition, whenever they shall be published. [Footnote 20: The author here alludes to the secret expedition of Captain Krenitzin and Levaheff, whose journal and chart were sent, by order of the Empress of Russia, to Dr. Robertson. See Robertson's History of America, Vol. I. p. 276 and 460. See Appendix I. N^o I.] Meanwhile, we may rest assured, that several modern geographers have erred in advancing America too much to the West, and in questioning the extent of Siberia Eastwards, as laid down by the Russians. It appears, indeed, evident, that the accounts and even conjectures of the celebrated Muller, concerning the position of those distant regions, are more and more confirmed by facts; in the same manner as the justness of his supposition concerning the form of the coast of the sea of Ochotsk[21] has been lately established. With respect to the extent of Siberia, it appears almost beyond a doubt from the most recent observations, that its Eastern extremity is situated beyond[22] 200 degrees of longitude. In regard to the Western coasts of America, all the navigations to the New Discovered Islands evidently shew, that, between 50 and 60 degrees of latitude, that Continent advances no where nearer to Asia than the [23]coasts touched at by Beering and Tschirikoff, or about 236 degrees of longitude. [Footnote 21: Mr. Muller formerly conjectured, that the coast of the sea of Ochotsk stretched South-west towards the river Ud; and from thence to the mouth of the Amoor South-east: and the truth of this conjecture had been since confirmed by a coasting voyage made by Captain Synd.] [Footnote 22: Appendix I. N^o I.] [Footnote 23: Appendix I. N^o II.] As to the New Discovered Islands, no credit must be given to a chart published in the Geographical Calendar of St. Petersburg for 1774; in which they are inaccurately laid down. Nor is the antient chart of the New Discoveries, published by the Imperial Academy, and which seems to have been drawn up from mere reports, more deserving of attention[24]. [Footnote 24: Appendix I. N^o IV.] [Sidenote: Position of the New Discovered Islands.] The late navigators give a far different description of the Northern Archipelago. From their accounts we learn, that Beering's Island is situated due East from Kamtchatkoi Noss, in the 185th degree of longitude. Near it is Copper Island; and, at some distance from them, East-south-east, there are three small islands, named by their inhabitants, Attak, Semitshi, and Shemiya: these are properly the Aleütian Isles; they stretch from West-north-west towards East-south-east, in the same direction as Beering's and Copper Islands, in the longitude of 195, and latitude 54. To the North-east of these, at the distance of 600 or 800 versts, lies another group of six or more islands, known by the name of the Andreanoffskie Ostrova. South-east, or East-south, of these, at the distance of about 15 degrees, and North by East of the Aleütian, begins the chain of Lyssie Ostrova, or Fox Islands: this chain of rocks and isles stretches East-north-east between 56 and 61 degrees of North latitude, from 211 degrees of longitude most probably to the Continent of America; and in a line of direction, which crosses with that in which the Aleütian isles lie. The largest and most remarkable of these islands are Umnak, Aghunalashka, or, as it is commonly shortened, Unalashka, Kadyak, and Alagshak. Of these and the Aleütian Isles, the distance and position are tolerably well ascertained by ships reckonings, and latitudes taken by pilots. But the situation of the Andreanoffsky Isles[25] is still somewhat doubtful, though probably their direction is East and West; and some of them may unite with that part of the Fox Islands which are most contiguous to the opposite Continent. [Footnote 25: These are the same islands which are called, by Mr. Stæhlin, Anadirsky Islands, from their supposed vicinity to the river Anadyr. See Appendix I. N^o V.] The main land of America has not been touched at by any of the vessels in the late expeditions; though possibly the time is not far distant when some of the Russian adventurers will fall in with that coast[26]. More to the North perhaps, at least as high as 70 degrees latitude, the Continent of America may stretch out nearer to the coast of the Tschutski; and form a large promontory, accompanied with islands, which have no connection with any of the preceding ones. That such a promontory really exists, and advances to within a very small distance from Tschukotskoi Noss, can hardly be doubted; at least it seems to be confirmed by all the latest accounts which have been procured from those parts[27]. That prolongation, therefore, of America, which by Delisle is made to extend Westward, and is laid down just opposite to Kamtchatka, between 50 and 60 degrees latitude, must be entirely removed; for many of the voyages related in this collection lay through that part of the ocean, where this imaginary Continent was marked down. [Footnote 26: Appendix I. N^o VI.] [Footnote 27: Appendix I. N^o VII.] It is even more than probable, that the Aleütian, and some of the Fox Islands, now well known, are the very same which Beering fell-in with upon his return; though, from the unsteadiness of his course, their true position could not be exactly laid down in the chart of that expedition[28]. [Footnote 28: This error is however so small, and particularly with respect to the more Eastern coasts and islands, as laid down in Beering's chart, such as Cape Hermogenes, Toomanoi, Shumaghin's Island, and mountain of St. Dolmar, that if they were to be placed upon the general map of Russia, which is prefixed to this work, they would coincide with the very chain of the Fox Islands.] As the sea of Kamtchatka is now so much frequented, these conjectures cannot remain long undecided; and it is only to be wished, that some expeditions were to be made North-east, in order to discover the nearest coasts of America. For there is no reason to expect a successful voyage by taking any other direction; as all the vessels, which have steered a more southerly course, have sailed through an open sea, without meeting with any signs of land. A very full and judicious account of all the discoveries hitherto made in the Eastern ocean may be expected from the celebrated Mr. Muller[29]. Meanwhile, I hope the following account, extracted from the original papers, and procured from the best intelligence, will be the more acceptable to the public; as it may prove an inducement to the Russians to publish fuller and more circumstantial relations. Besides, the reader will find here a narrative more authentic and accurate, than what has been published in the abovementioned calendar[30]; and several mistakes in that memoir are here corrected. [Footnote 29: Mr. Muller has already arranged and put in order several of the journals, and sent them to the board of admiralty at St. Petersburg, where they are at present kept, together with the charts of the respective voyages.] [Footnote 30: A German copy of the treatise alluded to in the text, was sent, by its author, Mr. Stæhlin Counsellor of State to the Empress of Russia, to the late Dr. Maty; and it is mentioned, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1774, under the following title: "A New Map and Preliminary Description of the New Archipelago in the North, discovered a few Years ago by the Russians in the N. E. beyond Kamtchatka." A translation of this treatise was published the same year by Heydinger.] CHAP. II. Voyages in 1745.--First discovery of the _Aleütian Isles_ by _Michael Nevodtsikoff_. A voyage made in the year 1745 by Emilian Bassoff is scarce worth mentioning; as he only reached Beering's Island, and two smaller ones, which lie South of the former, and returned on the 31st of July, 1746. [Sidenote: Voyage of Nevodtsikoff in 1745.] The first voyage which is in any wise remarkable, was undertaken in the year 1745. The vessel was a Shitik named Eudokia, fitted out at the expence of Aphanassei Tsebaefskoi, Jacob Tsiuproff and others; she sailed from the Kamtchatka river Sept. 19, under the command of Michael Nevodtsikoff a native of Tobolsk. [Sidenote: Discovers the Aleütian Islands.] Having discovered three unknown islands, they wintered upon one of them, in order to kill sea-otters, of which there was a large quantity. These islands were undoubtedly the nearest[31] Aleütian Islands: the language of the inhabitants was not understood by an interpreter, whom they had brought with them from Kamtchatka. For the purpose therefore of learning this language, they carried back with them one of the Islanders; and presented him to the chancery of Bolcheretsk, with a false account of their proceedings. This islander was examined as soon as he had acquired a slight knowledge of the Russian language; and as it is said, gave the following report. He was called Temnac, and Att was the name of the island of which he was a native. At some distance from thence lies a great island called Sabya, of which the inhabitants are denominated Rogii: these inhabitants, as the Russians understood or thought they understood him, made crosses, had books and fire-arms, and navigated in baidars or leathern canoes. At no great distance from the island where they wintered, there were two well-inhabited islands: the first lying E. S. E. and S. E. by South, the second East and East by South. The above-mentioned Islander was baptised under the name of Paul, and sent to Ochotsk. [Footnote 31: The small group of islands lying S. E. of Beering's Island, are the real Aleütian isles: they are sometimes called the Nearest Aleütian Islands; and the Fox Islands the Furthest Aleütian Isles.] As the misconduct of the ship's crew towards the natives was suspected, partly from the loss of several men, and partly from the report of those Russians, who were not concerned in the disorderly conduct of their companions, a strict examination took place; by which the following circumstances relating to the voyage were brought to light. [Sidenote: Narrative of the Voyage.] According to the account of some of the crew, and particularly of the commander, after six days sailing they came in sight of the first island on the 24th of September, at mid-day. They sailed by, and towards evening they discovered the second island; where they lay at anchor until the next morning. The 25th several inhabitants appeared on the coast, and the pilot was making towards shore in the small boat, with an intention of landing; but observing their numbers increase to about an hundred, he was afraid of venturing among them, although they beckoned to him. He contented himself therefore with flinging some needles amongst them: the islanders in return threw into the boat some sea-fowl of the cormorant kind. He endeavoured to hold a conversation with them by means of the interpreters, but no one could understand their language. And now the crew endeavoured to row the vessel out to sea; but the wind being contrary, they were driven to the other side of the same island, where they cast anchor. The 26th, Tsiuproff having landed with some of the crew in order to look for water, met several inhabitants: he gave them some tobacco and small Chinese pipes; and received in return a present of a stick, upon which the head of a seal was carved. They endeavoured to wrest his hunting gun from him; but upon his refusing to part with it and retiring to the small boat, the islanders ran after him; and seized the rope by which the boat was made fast to shore. This violent attack obliged Tsiuproff to fire; and having wounded one person in the hand, they all let go their hold; and he rowed off to the ship. The Savages no sooner saw that their companion was hurt, than they threw off their cloaths, carried the wounded person naked into the sea, and washed him. In consequence of this encounter the ship's crew would not venture to winter at this place, but rowed back again to the other island, where they came to an anchor. The next morning Tsiuproff, and a certain Shaffyrin landed with a more considerable party: they observed several traces of inhabitants; but meeting no one they returned to the ship, and coasted along the island. The following day the Cossac Shekurdin went on shore, accompanied by five sailors: two of whom he sent back with a supply of water; and remained himself with the others in order to hunt sea-otters. At night they came to some dwellings inhabited by five families: upon their approach the natives abandoned their huts with precipitation, and hid themselves among the rocks. Shekurdin no sooner returned to the ship, than he was again sent on shore with a larger company, in order to look out for a proper place to lay up the vessel during winter: In their way they observed fifteen islanders upon an height; and threw them some fragments of dried fish in order to entice them to approach nearer. But as this overture did not succeed, Tsiuproff, who was one of the party, ordered some of the crew to mount the height, and to seize one of the inhabitants, for the purpose of learning their language: this order was accordingly executed, notwithstanding the resistance which the islanders made with their bone spears; the Russians immediately returned with their prisoner to the ship. They were soon afterwards driven to sea by a violent storm, and beat about from the 2d to the 9th of October, during which time they lost their anchor and boat; at length they came back to the same island, where they passed the winter. Soon after their landing they found in an adjacent hut the dead bodies of two of the inhabitants, who had probably been killed in the last encounter. In their way the Russians were met by an old woman, who had been taken prisoner, and set at liberty. She was accompanied with thirty-four islanders of both sexes, who all came dancing to the sound of a drum; and brought with them a present of coloured earth. Pieces of cloth, thimbles, and needles, were distributed among them in return; and they parted amicably. Before the end of October, the same persons, together with the old woman and several children, returned dancing as before, and brought birds, fish, and other provision. Having passed the night with the Russians, they took their leave. Soon after their departure, Tsiuproff, Shaffyrin, and Nevodsikoff, accompanied with seven of the crew, went after them, and found them among the rocks. In this interview the natives behaved in the most friendly manner, and exchanged a baidar and some skins for two shirts. They were observed to have hatchets of sharpened stone, and needles made of bone: they lived upon the flesh of sea-otters, seals, and sea-lions, which they killed with clubs and bone lances. So early as the 24th of October, Tsiuproff had sent ten persons, under the command of Larion Belayeff, upon a reconnoitring party. The latter treated the inhabitants in an hostile manner; upon which they defended themselves as well as they could with their bone lances. This resistance gave him a pretext for firing; and accordingly he shot the whole number, amounting to fifteen men, in order to get at their wives. Shekurdin, shocked at these cruel proceedings, retired unperceived to the ship, and brought an account of all that had passed. Tsiuproff, instead of punishing these cruelties as they deserved, was secretly pleased with them; for he himself was affronted at the islanders for having refused to give him an iron bolt, which he saw in their possession. He had, in consequence of their refusal, committed several acts of hostilities against them; and had even formed the horrid design of poisoning them with a mixture of corrosive sublimate. In order however to preserve appearances, he dispatched Shekurdin and Nevodsikoff to reproach Belayeff for his disorderly conduct; but sent him at the same time, by the above-mentioned persons, more powder and ball. The Russians continued upon this island, where they caught a large quantity of sea otters, until the 14th of September, 1746; when, no longer thinking themselves secure, they put to sea with an intention of looking out for some uninhabited islands. Being however overtaken by a violent storm, they were driven about until the 30th of October, when their vessel struck upon a rocky shore, and was shipwrecked, with the loss of almost all the tackle, and the greatest part of the furs. Worn out at length with cold and fatigue, they ventured, the first of November, to penetrate into the interior part of the country, which they found rocky and uneven. Upon their coming to some huts, they were informed, that they were cast away upon the island of Karaga, the inhabitants of which were tributary to Russia, and of the Koraki tribe. The islanders behaved to them with great kindness, until Belayeff had the imprudence to make proposals to the wife of the chief. The woman gave immediate intelligence to her husband; and the natives were incensed to such a degree, that they threatened the whole crew with immediate death: but means were found to pacify them, and they continued to live with the Russians upon the same good terms as before. The 30th of May, 1747, a party of Olotorians made a descent upon the island in three baidars, and attacked the natives; but, after some loss on both sides, they went away. They returned soon after with a larger force, and were again forced to retire. But as they threatened to come again in a short time, and to destroy all the inhabitants who paid tribute, the latter advised the Russians to retire from the island, and assisted them in building two baidars. With these they put to sea the 27th of June, and landed the 21st of July at Kamtchatka, with the rest of their cargo, consisting of 320 sea-otters, of which, they paid the tenth into the customs. During this expedition twelve men were lost. CHAP. III. Successive voyages, from_ 1747 to 1753, to _Beering's_ and _Copper Island,_ and to the _Aleütian Isles_.--Some account of the inhabitants. In the year 1747[32] two vessels sailed from the Kamtchatka river, according to a permission granted by the chancery of Bolckeretsk for hunting sea-otters. One was fitted out by Andrew Wsevidoff, and carried forty-six men, besides eight Cossacs: the other belonged to Feodor Cholodiloff, Andrew Tolstyk, and company; and had on board a crew, consisting of forty-one Russians and Kamtchadals, with six Cossacs. [Footnote 32: It may be necessary to inform the reader, that, in this and the two following chapters, some circumstances are occasionally omitted, which are to be found in the original. These omissions relate chiefly to the names of some of the partners engaged in the equipments, and to a detail of immaterial occurrences prior to the actual departure of the vessels.] The latter vessel sailed the 20th of October, and was forced, by stress of weather and other accidents, to winter at Beering's Island. From thence they departed May the 31st, 1748, and touched at another small island, in order to provide themselves with water and other necessaries. They then steered S. E. for a considerable way without discovering any new islands; and, being in great want of provisions, returned into Kamtchatka River, August 14, with a cargo of 250 old sea-otter-skins, above 100 young ones, 148 petsi or arctic fox-skins, which were all slain upon Beering's Island. We have no sufficient account of Wsevidoff's voyage. All that is known amounts only to this, that he returned the 25th of July, 1749, after having probably touched upon one of the nearest Aleütian Isles which was uninhabited: his cargo consisted of the skins of 1040 sea-otters, and 2000 arctic foxes. [Sidenote: Voyage of Emilian Yugoff.] Emilian Yugoff, a merchant of Yakutsk, obtained from the senate of St. Petersburg the permission of fitting out four vessels for himself and his associates. He procured, at the same time, the exclusive privilege of hunting sea-otters upon Beering's and Copper Island during these expeditions; and for this monopoly he agreed to deliver to the customs the tenth of the furs. October 6, 1750, he put to sea from Bolcheresk, in the sloop John, manned with twenty-five Russians and Kamtchadals, and two Cossacs: he was soon overtaken by a storm, and the vessel driven on shore between the mouths of the rivers Kronotsk and Tschasminsk. October 1751, he again set sail. He had been commanded to take on board some officers of the Russian navy; and, as he disobeyed this injunction, the chancery of Irkutsk issued an order to confiscate his ship and cargo upon his return. The ship returned on the 22d of July, 1754, to New Kamtchatkoi Ostrog, laden with the skins of 755 old sea-otters, of 35 cub sea-otters, of 447 cubs of sea-bears, and of 7044 arctic fox-skins: of the latter 2000 were white, and 1765 black. These furs were procured upon Beering's and Copper Island. Yugoff himself died upon the last-mentioned island. The cargo of the ship was, according to the above-mentioned order, sealed and properly secured. But as it appeared that certain persons had deposited money in Yugoff's hand, for the purpose of equipping a second vessel, the crown delivered up the confiscated cargo, after reserving the third part according to the original stipulation. This kind of charter-company, if it may be so called, being soon dissolved for misconduct and want of sufficient stock, other merchants were allowed the privilege of fitting out vessels, even before the return of Yugoff's ship; and these persons were more fortunate in making new discoveries than the above-mentioned monopolist. [Sidenote: Voyage of the Boris and Glebb.] Nikiphor Trapesnikoff, a merchant of Irkutsk, obtained the permission of sending out a ship, called the Boris and Glebb, upon the condition of paying, besides the tribute which might be exacted, the tenth of all the furs. The Cossac Sila Sheffyrin went on board this vessel for the purpose of collecting the tribute. They sailed in August, 1749, from the Kamtchatka river; and re-entered it the 16th of the same month, 1753, with a large cargo of furs. In the spring of the same year, they had touched upon an unknown island, probably one of the Aleütians, where several of the inhabitants were prevailed upon to pay a tribute of sea-otter skins. The names of the islanders who had been made tributary, were Igya, Oeknu, Ogogoektack, Shabukiauck, Alak, Tutun, Ononushan, Rotogèi, Tschinitu, Vatsch, Ashagat, Avyjanishaga, Unashayupu, Lak, Yanshugalik, Umgalikan, Shati, Kyipago, and Oloshkot[33]; another Aleütian had contributed three sea-otters. They brought with them 320 best sea-otter skins, 480 of the second, and 400 of the third sort, 500 female and middle aged, and 220 medwedki or young ones. [Footnote 33: The author here remarks in a note, that the proper names of the islanders mentioned in this place, and in other parts, bear a surprising resemblance, both in their sound and termination, to those of the Greenlanders.] [Sidenote: Voyage of Andrew Tolstyk to the Aleütian Isles, 1749.] Andrew Tolstyk, a merchant of Selenginsk, having obtained permission from the chancery of Bolsheretsk, refitted the same ship which had made a former voyage; he sailed from Kamtchatka August the 19th, 1749, and returned July the 3d, 1752. According to the commander's account, the ship lay at anchor from the 6th of September, 1749, to the 20th of May, 1750, before Beering's Island, where they caught only 47 sea-otters. From thence they made to those Aleütian Islands, which were[34] first discovered by Nevodsikoff, and slew there 1662 old and middle-aged sea-otters, and 119 cubs; besides which, their cargo consisted of the skins of 720 blue foxes, and of 840 young sea-bears. [Footnote 34: See Chap. II.] The inhabitants of these islands appeared to have never before paid tribute; and seemed to be a-kin to the Tschuktski tribe, their women being ornamented with different figures sewed into the skin in the manner of that people, and of the Tungusians of Siberia. They differed however from them, by having two small holes cut through the bottom of their under-lips, through each of which they pass a bit of the sea-horse tush, worked into the form of a tooth, with a small button at one end to keep it within the mouth when it is placed in the hole. They had killed, without being provoked, two of the Kamtchadals who belonged to the ship. Upon the third Island some inhabitants had payed tribute; their names were reported to be Anitin, Altakukor, and Aleshkut, with his son Atschelap. The weapons of the whole island consisted of no more than twelve spears pointed with flint, and one dart of bone pointed with the same; and the Russians observed in the possession of the natives two figures, carved out of wood, resembling sea-lions. [Sidenote: Voyage of Vorobieff, 1750.] August 3, 1750, the vessel Simeon and John, fitted out by the above-mentioned Wsevidoff, agent for the Russian merchant A. Rybenskoi, and manned with fourteen Russians (who were partly merchants and partly hunters) and thirty Kamtchadals, sailed out for the discovery of new islands, under the command of the Cossac Vorobieff. They were driven by a violent current and tempestuous weather to a small desert island, whose position is not determined; but which was probably one of those that lie near Beering's Island. The ship being so shattered by the storm, that it was no longer in a condition to keep the sea, Vorobieff built another small vessel with drift-wood, which he called Jeremiah; in which he arrived at Kamtchatka in Autumn, 1752. Upon the above-mentioned island were caught 700 old and 120 cub sea-otters, 1900 blue foxes, 5700 black sea-bears, and 1310 Kotiki, or cub sea-bears. A voyage made about this time from Anadyrsk deserves to be mentioned. [Sidenote: Voyage of Novikoff and Bacchoff from Anadyrsk.] August 24, 1749, Simeon Novikoff of Yakutsk, and Ivan Bacchoff of Ustyug, agents for Ivan Shilkin, sailed from Anadyrsk into the mouth of the Kamtchatka river. They assigned the insecurity of the roads as their reason for coming from Anadyrsk to Kamtchatka by sea; on this account, having determined to risk all the dangers of a sea voyage, they built a vessel one hundred and thirty versts above Anadyr, after having employed two years and five months in its construction. [Sidenote: Narrative of te Voyage.] The narrative of their expedition is as follows. In 1748, they sailed down the river Anadyr, and through two bays, called Kopeikina and Onemenskaya, where they found many sand banks, but passed round them without difficulty. From thence they steered into the exterior gulph, and waited for a favourable wind. Here they saw several Tschutski, who appeared upon the heights singly and not in bodies, as if to reconnoitre; which made them cautious. They had descended the river and its bays in nine days. In passing the large opening of the exterior bay, they steered between the beach, that lies to the left, and a rock near it; where, at about an hundred and twenty yards from the rock, the depth of water is from three to four fathoms. From the opening they steered E. S. E. about fifty versts, in about four fathom water; then doubled a sandy point, which runs out directly against the Tshuktshi coast, and thus reached the open sea. From the 10th of July to the 30th, they were driven about by tempestuous winds, at no great distance from the mouth of the Anadyr; and ran up the small river Katirka, upon whose banks dwell the Koriacs, a people tributary to Russia. The mouth of the river is from sixty to eighty yards broad, from three to four fathoms deep, and abounds in fish. From thence they put again to sea, and after having beat about for some time, they at length reached Beering's Island. [Sidenote: Shipwreck upon Beering's Island.] Here they lay at anchor from the 15th of September to the 30th of October, when a violent storm blowing right from the sea, drove the vessel upon the rocks, and dashed her to pieces. The crew however were saved: and now they looked out for the remains of Beering's wreck, in order to employ the materials for the constructing of a boat. They found indeed some remaining materials, but almost entirely rotten, and the iron-work corroded with rust. Having selected however the best cables, and what iron-work was immediately necessary, and collected drift-wood during the winter, they built with great difficulty a small boat, whose keel was only seventeen Russian ells and an half long, and which they named Capiton. In this they put to sea, and sailed in search of an unknown island, which they thought they saw lying North-east; but finding themselves mistaken, they tacked about, and stood far Copper Island: from thence they sailed to Kamtchatka, where they arrived at the time above-mentioned. The new constructed vessel was granted in property to Ivan Shilkin as some compensation for his losses, and with the privilege of employing it in a future expedition to the New Discovered Islands. Accordingly he sailed therein on the 7th of October, 1757, with a crew of twenty Russians, and the same number of Kamtchadals: he was accompanied by Studentzoff a Cossac, who was sent to collect the tribute for the crown. An account of this expedition will be given hereafter[35]. [Footnote 35: See Chap. V.] [Sidenote: Voyage of Durneff, in the St. Nicholas, 1754.] August, 1754, Nikiphor Trapesnikoff fitted out the Shitik St. Nicholas, which sailed from Kamtchatka under the command of the Cossac Kodion Durneff. He first touched at two of the Aleütian Isles, and afterwards upon a third, which had not been yet discovered. He returned to Kamtchatka in 1747. His cargo consisted of the skins of 1220 sea-otters, of 410 female, and 665 cubs; besides which, the crew had obtained in barter from the islanders the skins of 652 sea-otters, of 30 female ditto, and 50 cubs. [Sidenote: Narrative of the Voyage.] From an account delivered in the 3d of May, 1758, by Durneff and Sheffyrin, who was sent as collector of the tributes, it appears that they sailed in ten days as far as Ataku, one of the Aleütian Islands; that they remained there until the year 1757, and lived upon amicable terms with the natives. [Sidenote: Description of the Aleütian Isles.] The second island, which is nearest to Ataku, and which contains the greatest number of inhabitants, is called Agataku; and the third Shemya: they lie from forty to fifty versts asunder. [Sidenote: Account of inhabitants.] Upon all the three islands there are (exclusive of children) but sixty males, whom they made tributary. The inhabitants live upon roots which grow wild, and sea animals: they do not employ themselves in catching fish, although the rivers abound with all kinds of salmon, and the sea with turbot. Their cloaths are made of the skins of birds and of sea-otters. The Toigon or chief of the first island informed them by means of a boy, who understood the Russian language, that Eastward there are three large and well peopled islands, Ibiya, Ricksa, and Olas, whose inhabitants speak a different language. Sheffyrin and Durneff found upon the island three round copper plates, with some letters engraved upon them, and ornamented with foliage, which the waves had cast upon the shore: they brought them, together with other trifling curiosities, which they had procured from the natives, to New Kamtchatkoi Ostrog. Another ship built of larchwood by the same Trapesnikoff, which sailed in 1752 under the conduct of Alexei Drusinin a merchant of Kursk, had been wrecked at Beering's Island, where the crew constructed another vessel out of the wreck, which they named Abraham. In this vessel they bore away for the more distant islands; but being forced back by contrary winds to the same island, and meeting with the St. Nicholas upon the point of sailing for the Aleütian Isles, they embarked on that ship, after having left the new constructed vessel under the care of four of their own sailors. The crew had slain upon Beering's Island five sea-otters, 1222 arctic foxes, and 2500 sea-bears: their share of the furs, during their expedition in the St. Nicholas, amounted to the skins of 500 sea-otters, and of 300 cubs, exclusive of 200 sea-otter-skins, which they procured by barter. CHAP. IV. Voyages from 1753 to 1756. Some of the further _Aleütian_ or _Fox Islands_ touched at by _Serebranikoff's_ vessel.--Some account of the Natives. Three vessels were fitted out for the islands in 1753, one by Cholodiloff, a second by Serebranikoff agent for the merchant Rybenskoy, and the third by Ivan Krassilnikoff a merchant of Kamtchatka. [Sidenote: Cholodiloff's Ship sails from Kamchatka 1753.] Cholodiloff's ship sailed from Kamtchatka, the 19th of August, manned with thirty-four men; and anchored the 28th before Beering's Island, where they proposed to winter, in order to lay-in a flock of provisions: as they were attempting to land, the boat overset, and nine of the crew were drowned. June 30, 1754, they stood out to sea in quest of new discoveries: the weather however proving stormy and foggy, and the ship springing a leak, they were all in danger of perishing: in this situation they unexpectedly reached one of the Aleütian islands, were they lay from the 15th of September until the 9th of July, 1755. In the autumn of 1754 they were joined by a Kamtchadal, and a Koriac: these persons, together with four others, had deserted from Trapesnikoff's crew; and had remained upon the island in order to catch sea-otters for their own profit. Four of these deserters were killed by the islanders for having debauched their wives: but as the two persons above-mentioned were not guilty of the same disorderly conduct, the inhabitants supplied them with women, and lived with them upon the best terms. The crew slew upon this island above 1600 sea-otters, and came back safe to Kamtchatka in autumn 1755. [Sidenote: Departure of Serebranikoff's Vessel.] Serebranikoff's vessel sailed in July 1753, manned also with thirty-four Russians and Kamtchadals: they discovered several new islands, which were probably some of the more distant ones; but were not so fortunate in hunting sea-otters as Cholodiloff's crew. They steered S. E. and on the 17th of August anchored under an unknown island; whose inhabitants spoke a language they did not understand. Here they proposed looking out for a safe harbour; but were prevented by the coming on of a sudden storm, which carried away their anchor. The ship being tost about for several days towards the East, they discovered not far from the first island four others: still more to the East three other islands appeared in sight; but on neither of these were they able to land. [Sidenote: Shipwrecked upon one of the more distant Islands.] The vessel continued driving until the 2d of September, and was considerably shattered, when they fortunately came near an island and cast anchor before it; they were however again forced from this station, the vessel wrecked upon the coast, and the crew with difficulty reached the shore. This island seemed to be right opposite to Katyrskoi Noss in the peninsula of Kamtchatka, and near it they saw three others. Towards the end of September Demitri Trophin, accompanied with nine men, went out in the boat upon an hunting and reconnoitring party: they were attacked by a large body of inhabitants, who hurled darts from a small wooden engine, and wounded one of the company. The first fire however drove them back; and although they returned several times to the attack in numerous bodies, yet they were always repulsed without difficulty. [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants.] These savages mark and colour their faces like the Islanders above-mentioned; and also thrust pieces of bone through holes made in their under-lips. Soon afterwards the Russians were joined in a friendly manner by ten islanders, who brought the flesh of sea-animals and of sea-otters; this present was the more welcome, as they had lived for some time upon nothing but small shell-fish and roots; and had suffered greatly from hunger. Several toys were in return distributed among the savages. [Sidenote: The Crew construct another Vessel, and return to Kamtchatka.] The Russians remained until June, 1754, upon this island: at that time they departed in a small vessel, constructed from the remains of the wreck, and called the St. Peter and Paul: in this they landed at Katyrskoi Noss; where having collected 140 sea-horse teeth, they got safe to the mouth of the Kamtchatka river. During this voyage twelve Kamtchadals deserted; of whom six were slain, together with a female inhabitant, upon one of the most distant islands. The remainder, upon their return to Kamtchatka, were examined; and from them the following circumstances came to light. The island, where the ship was wrecked, is about 70 versts long, and 20 broad. Around it lie twelve other islands of different sizes, from five to ten versts distant from each other. Eight of them appear to be no more than five versts long. All these islands contain about a thousand souls. The dwellings of the inhabitants are provided with no other furniture than benches, and mats of platted grass[36]. Their dress consists of a kind of shirt made of bird-skins, and of an upper garment of intestines stitched together; they wear wooden caps, ornamented with a small piece of board projecting forwards, as it seemed, for a defence against the arrows. They are all provided with stone knives, and a few of them possess iron ones: their only weapons are arrows with points of bone or flint, which they shoot from a wooden instrument. There are no trees upon the island: it produces however the cow-parsnip[37], which grows at Kamtchatka. The climate is by no means severe, for the snow does not lie upon the ground above a month in the year. [Footnote 36: Matten aus einem gevissen Krautgeflochten.] [Footnote 37: Heracleum.] [Sidenote: Departure of Krassilnikoff's Vessel.] Krassilnikoff's vessel sailed in 1754, and anchored on the 18th of October before Beering's Island; where all the ships which make to the New Discovered Islands are accustomed to winter, in order to procure a stock of salted provisions from the sea-cows and other amphibious animals, that are found in great abundance. Here they refitted the vessel, which had been damaged by driving upon her anchor; and having laid in a sufficient store of all necessaries, weighed the 1st of August, 1754. The 10th they were in sight of an island, whose coast was lined with such a number of inhabitants, that they durst not venture ashore. Accordingly they stood out to sea, and being overtaken by a storm, they were reduced to great distress for want of water; at length they were driven upon Copper Island, where they landed; and having taken in wood and water, they again set sail. [Sidenote: Shipwrecked upon Copper Island.] They were beat back however by contrary winds, and dropped both their anchors near the shore; but the storm increasing at night, both the cables were broken, and the ship dashed to pieces upon the coast. All the crew were fortunately saved; and means were found to get ashore the ship's tackle, ammunition, guns, and the remains of the wreck; the provisions, however, were mostly spoiled. Here they were exposed to a variety of misfortunes; three of them were drowned on the 15th of October, as they were going to hunt; others almost perished with hunger, having no nourishment but small shell-fish and roots. On the 29th of December great part of the ship's tackle, and all the wood, which they had collected from the wreck, was washed away during an high sea. Notwithstanding their distresses, they continued their hunting parties, and caught 103 sea-otters, together with 1390 blue foxes. [Sidenote: The Crew reach Beering's Island in two Baidars.] In spring they put to sea for Beering's Island in two baidars, carrying with them all the ammunition, fire-arms, and remaining tackle. Having reached that island, they found the small vessel Abraham, under the care of the four sailors who had been left ashore by the crew of Trapesnikoff's ship: but as that vessel was not large enough to contain the whole number, together with their cargo of furs, they staid until Serebranikoff's and Tolstyk's vessels arrived. These took in eleven of the crew, with their part of the furs. Twelve remained at Beering's Island, where they killed great numbers of arctic foxes, and returned to Kamtchatka in the Abraham, excepting two, who joined Shilkin's crew. CHAP. V. Voyages from 1756 to 1758. [Sidenote: Voyage of Andrean Tolstyk in 1756 to the Aleütian Isles.] September 17, 1756, the vessel Andrean and Natalia, fitted out by Andrean Tolstyk, merchant of Selenginsk, and manned with thirty-eight Russians and Kamtchadals, sailed from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river. The autumnal storms coming on, and a scarcity of provisions ensuing, they made to Beering's Island, where they continued until the 14th of June 1757. As no sea-otters came on shore that winter, they killed nothing but seals, sea-lions, and sea-cows; whose flesh served them for provision, and their skins for the coverings of baidars. June 13, 1757, they weighed anchor, and after eleven days sailing came to Ataku, one of the Aleütian isles discovered by Nevodsikoff. Here they found the inhabitants, as well of that, as of the other two islands, assembled; these islanders had just taken leave of the crew of Trapesnikoff's vessel, which had sailed for Kamtchatka. The Russians seized this opportunity of persuading them to pay tribute; with this view they beckoned the Toigon, whose name was Tunulgasen: the latter recollected one of the crew, a Koriac, who had formerly been left upon these islands, and who knew something of their language. A copper kettle, a fur and cloth coat, a pair of breeches, stockings and boots, were bestowed upon this chief, who was prevailed upon by these presents to pay tribute. Upon his departure for his own island, he left behind him three women and a boy, in order to be taught the Russian language, which the latter very soon learned. The Russians wintered upon this island, and divided themselves, as usual, into different hunting parties: they were compelled, by stormy weather, to remain there until the 17th of June, 1758: before they went away, the above-mentioned chief returned with his family, and paid a year's tribute. This vessel brought to Kamtchatka the most circumstantial account of the Aleütian isles which had been yet received. [Sidenote: Account of those Islands.] The two largest contained at that time about fifty males, with whom the Russians had lived in great harmony. They heard of a fourth island, lying at some distance from the third, called by the natives Iviya, but which they did not reach on account of the tempestuous weather. The first island is about an hundred versts long and from five to twenty broad. They esteemed the distance from the first to the second, which lies East by South, to be about thirty versts, and about forty from the latter to the third, which stands South East. The original dress of the islanders was made of the skins of birds, sea-otters and seals, which were tanned; but the greatest part had procured from the Russians dog-skin coats, and under-garments of sheep-skin, which they were very fond of. They are represented as naturally talkative, quick of apprehension, and much attached to the Russians. Their dwellings are hollowed in the ground, and covered with wooden roofs resembling the huts in the peninsula of Kamtchatka. Their principal food is the flesh of sea animals, which they harpoon with their bone lances; they also feed upon several species of roots and berries: namely [38]cloud-berries, crake-berries, bilberries, and services. The rivulets abound with salmon, and other fish of the trout kind similar to those of Kamtchatka; and the sea with turbot, which are caught with bone hooks. [Footnote 38: Rubus Chamæmorus--Empetrum--Myrtillus--Sorbus.] These islands produce quantities of small osiers and underwood, but no large trees: the sea however drives ashore fir and larch, sufficient for the construction of their huts. There are a great number of arctic foxes upon the first island, as well as sea-otters; and the shores, during stormy weather, are covered with wild geese and ducks. The Russians, according to the order of the chancery of Bolcheretsk, endeavoured to persuade the Toigon of these islands to accompany them to Kamtchatka, but without success: upon their departure they distributed among the islanders some linen, and thirteen nets for the purpose of catching sea-otters, which were very thankfully received. This vessel brought to Kamtchatka the skins of 5030 old and young sea-otters, of 1040 old and young arctic foxes, and of 330 Medwedki or cubs of sea-otters. In the year 1757, Ivan Nikiphoroff, a merchant of Moscow, sent out a vessel: but we have no further account of this voyage, than that she sailed to the Fox Islands, at least as far as Umnak. [Sidenote: Voyage of Ivan Shilkin in the Capiton 1757.] The small vessel Capiton, the same that was built upon Beering's Island, and which was given to the merchant [39]Ivan Shilkin, put to sea September 26, 1757, carrying on board the Cossac Ignatius Studentsoff, who has given an account of the voyage. [Footnote 39: See chap. III.] They had not long sailed, before they were driven back to the shore of Kamtchatka by stress of weather, and the vessel stranded; by which accident they lost the rudder and one of the crew. This misfortune prevented them from putting to sea again until the following year, with thirty-nine of the original crew, several persons being left behind on account of sickness. They made directly to Beering's Island, where they took up two of Krasilnikoff's crew[40], who had been shipwrecked. They again set sail in August of the same year, and touched at the nearest Aleütian Isles, after suffering greatly from storms. They then continued their course to the remoter islands lying between East and South East; and having passed by the first, they anchored before the second. A boat being immediately sent out towards the shore, the crew was attacked by a numerous body of islanders in so sudden a manner, that they had scarcely time to secure themselves by returning to the vessel. They had no sooner got aboard, than a violent gale of wind blowing from the shore broke the cable, and drove them out to sea. [Sidenote: Shipwrecked upon one of the Fox Islands.] The weather became suddenly thick and foggy; and under these circumstances the vessel was forced upon a small island at no great distance from the other, and shipwrecked. The crew got to shore with difficulty, and were able to save nothing but the fire-arms and ammunition. [Footnote 40: See chap. IV.] They had scarcely got to land, before they were beset by a number of savages, rowing in baidars from the Western point of the island. This attack was the more to be dreaded, because several of the Russians were disabled by cold and wet; and there remained only fifteen capable of defending themselves. They advanced however without hesitation to the islanders; and one Nicholas Tsiuproff (who had a slight knowledge of their language) accosted and endeavoured to sooth them, but without success. For upon their approach the savages gave a sudden shout, and saluting them at the same time with a volley of darts, wounded one person in the hand. Upon this the Russians fired, killed two of the assailants, and forced the remainder to retire: and although a fresh body appeared in sight, as if they were coming to the assistance of their companions, yet no new attack was made. Soon afterwards the savages left the island, and rowed across the strait. From the 6th of September to the 23d of April, they underwent all the extremities of famine: during that period their best fare was shell-fish and roots; and they were even at times reduced to still the cravings of their appetite with the leather, which the waves washed ashore from the wreck. Seventeen died of hunger, and the rest would soon have followed their companions, if they had not fortunately discovered a dead whale, which the sea had cast ashore. [Sidenote: The Crew construct a small Vessel, and are again shipwrecked.] They remained upon this island another winter, where they slew 230 sea-otters: and having built a small vessel out of the remains of the wreck, they put to sea in the beginning of summer 1760. They had scarcely reached one of the Aleütian islands, where Serebranikoff's vessel lay at anchor, when they were again shipwrecked, and lost all the remaining tackle and furs. Only thirteen of the crew now remained, who returned on board the above-mentioned vessel to Kamtchatka July 1751. CHAP. VI. Voyages in 1758, 1759, and 1760--to the _Fox Islands_--in the _St. Vladimir_, fitted out by _Trapesnikoff_--and in the _Gabriel_, by _Betshevin_--The latter under the command of _Pushkareff_ sails to _Alaksu_ or _Alachskak_, one of the remotest Eastern Islands hitherto visited--Some account of its inhabitants, and productions, which latter are different from those of the more Western Islands. [Sidenote: Voyage of the St. Vladimir, commanded by Paikoff, 1758.] September 1758, the merchant Simeon Krasilnikoff and Nikiphor Trapesnikoff fitted out two vessels for the purpose of catching sea-otters. One of these vessels, called the St. Vladimir, sailed the 28th under the command of Demetri Paikoff, carrying on board the Cossac Sila Shaffyrin as collector of the tribute, and a crew of forty-five men. In twenty-four hours they reached Beering's Island, where they wintered. July 16, 1759, they steered towards the South in order to discover land, but being disappointed, they bore away to the North for the Aleütian isles: being prevented however by contrary winds from reaching them, they sailed streight towards the distant islands, which are known at present under the name of Lyssie Ostrova or the Fox Islands. [Sidenote: Arrival at the Fox Island.] September 1, they reached the first of these, called by the natives Atchu, and by the Russians Goreloi or the Burnt Island: but as the coasts were very steep and craggy, they made to Amlach, lying at a small distance, where they determined to pass the winter. They divided themselves accordingly into three parties; the first, at the head of which was Alexèy Drusinin, went over to a small island called in the journal Sitkin; the Cossac Shaffyrin led the second, consisting of ten persons, to the island Atach; and Simeon Polevoi remained aboard with the rest of the crew. All these islands were well peopled; the men had bones thrust through their ears, under lips, and gristle of their noses; and the faces of the women were marked with blackish streaks made with a needle and thread in the skin, in the same manner as a Cossac one of the crew had observed before upon some of the Tschutski. The inhabitants had no iron; the points of their darts and lances were tipped with bone and flint. They at first imagined, that Amlach was uninhabited; but in one of their hunting parties they found a boy of eight years old, whom they brought with them: they gave him the name of Hermolai, and taught him the Russian language, that he might serve as an interpreter. After penetrating further they discovered an hut, wherein were two women, four men, and as many boys, whom they treated kindly, and employed in hunting, fishing, and in digging of roots. This kind behaviour encouraged others to pay frequent visits, and to exchange fish and flesh for goat's hair, horses manes, and glass beads. They procured also four other islanders with their wives, who dug roots for them: and thus the winter passed away without any disturbance. In the spring the hunting parties returned; during these excursions one man alone was killed upon the island Atach, and his fire-arms taken away by the natives. June 1760, the same parties were sent again to the same islands. Shaffyrin, who headed one of the parties, was soon afterwards killed, with eleven men, by the inhabitants of Atach, but for what reason is not known.--Drusinin received the first information of this massacre from some inhabitants of Sitkin, where he then was; and immediately set out with the remaining hunters to join their companions, who were left on board. Although he succeeded in regaining the vessel, their number was by this time so considerably reduced that their situation appeared very dangerous: he was soon however relieved from his apprehensions by the arrival of the merchant Betshevin's vessel at the island of Atchu[41]. The two crews entered into partnership: the St. Vladimir received twenty-two men, and transferred eleven of her own to the other vessel. The former wintered at Amlach, and the latter continued at anchor before Atchu. [Footnote 41: Atach and Atchu are two names for the same island, called also by the Russians Goreloi or Burnt Island.] [Sidenote: Voyage of Pushkareff, 1760.] This vessel, fitted out at the expence of Betshevin, a merchant of Irkutsk, was called Gabriel; and put to sea from the mouth of the Bolshaia Reka July 31st, 1760. She was manned with forty Russians and twenty Kamtchadals, and carried on board Gabriel Pushkareff, of the garrison of Ochotsk, Andrew Shdanoff, Jacob Sharypoff, Prokopèi Lobashkoff, together with Nikiphor Golodoff, and Aphanassei Oskoloff, Betshevin's agents. Having sailed through the second strait of the Kuril Isles, they reached the Aleütian Isles on the 24th of August. They stood out from thence in order to make new discoveries among those more remote islands, which lie in one continued chain to the extent of 15 degrees of longitude. [Sidenote: Reaches Atchu, one of the Fox Islands.] September 25 they reached Atchu, or Burnt Island, and found the above-mentioned ship the St. Vladimir, lying twenty versts from that island, before Amlach, in danger of being attacked by the islanders. They immediately joined crews in order to enable the enfeebled company of the St. Vladimir to continue hunting; and as it is usual in such cases, entered into a contract for the division of the profit. During that winter the two crews killed partly upon Siguyam, about 800 sea otters of different sizes, about 100 medwedki or cubs, some river otters, above 400 red, greyish, and black foxes, and collected twelve pood of sea-horse teeth. [Sidenote: Departs from thence.] In June, of the following year, the two crews were distributed equally on board the two vessels: Krassilnikoff's remained at Amlach, with an intention of returning to Kamtchatka, and Belshevin's put to sea from Atchu in quest of other islands. They touched first at Umnak where they met Nikiphoroff's vessel. Here they took in wood and water, and repaired their sails: they then sailed to the most remote island Alaksu[42], or Alachshak, where, having laid up the ship in a bay, they built huts, and made preparations for wintering. [Sidenote: Winters upon Alaksu.] This island was very well inhabited, and the natives behaved at first in a very friendly manner, for they trafficked with the Russians, and even delivered up nine of their children as hostages; but such was the lawless and irregular behaviour of the crew, that the islanders were soon irritated and provoked to hostilities. [Footnote 42: This is probably the same island which is laid down in Krenitzin's chart under the name of Alaxa.] In January 1762, Golodoff and Pushkareff went with a party of twenty men along the shore; and, as they were attempting to violate some girls upon the island Unyumga, were surprised by a numerous body of the natives: Golodoff and another Russian were killed, and three were wounded. Not long afterwards the watch of the crew was suddenly attacked by the islanders; four men were slain upon the spot, as many wounded, and the huts reduced to ashes. May 3, Lobaschkoff and another Russian were killed, as they were going to bathe in the warm springs, which lie about five versts from the haven: upon which seven of the hostages were put to death. The same month the natives attempted to surprise the Russians in their huts; but being fortunately discovered in time were repulsed by means of the fire arms. At length the Russians, finding themselves in continual danger from these attempts, weighed anchor, and sailed for Umnak, where they took up two inhabitants with their wives and children, in order to shew them other islands. They were prevented however by tempestuous weather from reaching them; and were driven out to sea Westward with such violence, that all their sails were carried away: at length on the 23d of September they struck against land, which they took for the peninsula of Kamtchatka; and they found it to be the district of Stobolikoi Ostrog. Six men were immediately dispatched in the small boat and two baidars to land: they carried with them several girls (who had been brought from the new discovered islands) in order to gather berries. Mean while the crew endeavoured to ply the ship to the windward. When the boat returned, those on board were scarcely able, on account of the storm, to row to the ship, and to catch hold of a rope, which was flung out to them. Two men remained with the baidars, and were afterwards carried by some Kamtchadals to New Kamtchatkoi Ostrog. The ship without one sail remaining was driven along the coast of Kamtchatka towards Avatcha, and about seventy versts from that harbour ran into the bay of Kalatzoff on the 25th of September. Their cargo consisted of the skins of 900 old and young sea-otters, and of 350 foxes. Pushkareff and his crew had during this voyage behaved with such inhumanity towards the islanders, that they were brought to trial in the year 1764; and the above-mentioned account is taken from the concurring evidence of several witnesses. It appears also, that they brought away from Atchu and Amleg two Aleütian men and three boys, Ivan an Aleütian interpreter, and above twenty women and girls whom they debauched. Ivan, and one of the boys whom they called Moses, were the only persons who arrived at Kamtchatka. Upon their first approach to that coast, fourteen women were sent ashore to dig roots and to gather berries. Of these, two ran away, and a third was killed, as they were returning to the ship by one Gorelin: upon this the others in a fit of despair leaped into the sea and were drowned. All the remaing Aleütians, excepting the two persons above-mentioned, were immediately thrown overboard by Pushkareff's order. The account which follows, although it is found in the depositions, deserves not to be entirely credited in all particulars. [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants of Alacksu.] The natives of the above-mentioned islands are very tall and strongly made. They make their cloaths of the skins of birds; and thrust bones through their under-lips by way of ornament. They were said to strike their noses until they bled, in order to suck the blood; but we are informed from subsequent accounts, that the blood thus drawn from themselves was intended for other purposes[43]. They were accused even of murdering their own children in order to drink their blood; but this is undoubtedly an invention of the criminals, who represented the islanders in the most hideous colours, in order to excuse their own cruelties. Their dwellings under-ground are similar to those of the Kamtchadals; and have several openings on the sides, through which they make their escape when the principal entrance is beset by an enemy. Their weapons consist of arrows and lances pointed with bone, which they dart at a considerable distance. [Footnote 43: It appears in the last chapter of this translation, that the islanders are accustomed to glue on the point of their darts with blood; and that this was the real motive to the practice mentioned in the text.] [Sidenote: Animals.] The island Alaksu is said to contain rein-deer, bears, wild boars, wolves, otters, and a species of dogs with long ears, which are very fierce and wild. And as the greatest part of these animals are not found upon those Fox Islands which lie nearer to the west, this circumstance seems to prove that Alaksu is situated at no great distance from the Continent of America. As to red, black, and grey foxes, there is so large a quantity, that they are seen in herds of ten or twenty at a time. Wood is driven upon the coast in great abundance. The island produces no large trees, having only some underwood, and a great variety of bulbs, roots, and berries. The coasts are frequented by large flocks of sea-birds, the same which are observed upon the shore of the sea of Penshinsk. [Sidenote: Voyage of the Peter and Paul to the Aleütian Islands, 1759.] August 4, 1759, the Peter and Paul, fitted out at the expence of the merchant Rybenskoi by his agent Andrew Serebranikoff, and manned with thirty-three persons, set sail from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river. They steered southwards until the 20th of September without seeing any land, when they stood for the Aleütian Isles, one of which they reached the 27th of September. They remained there until the 24th of June, 1761; during which time they killed upon this and the two other islands 1900 old and young sea-otters, and obtained 450 more by bartering with the islanders. The Cossac Minyachin, who was on board as collector of the tribute, calls in his account the first island by the Russian name of Krugloi, or Round Island, which he supposes to be about sixty versts in circumference: the largest island lies thirty versts from thence, and is about an hundred and fifty round: the smallest is about thirty versts from the latter, and is forty in circumference. These three islands contain several high rocky mountains. The number of inhabitants were computed to be about forty-two men, without reckoning women and children. CHAP. VII. Voyage of _Andrean Tolstyk_ in the _St. Andrean_ and _Natalia_--Discovery of some New Islands called _Andreanoffskye Ostrova_--Description of six of those Islands. [Sidenote: Voyage of Andrean Tolstyk in the St. Andrean and Natalia, 1760.] The most remarkable voyage hitherto made is that of the St. Andrean and Natalia, of which the following extract is drawn from the Journals of the two Cossacs, Peter Wasyutinskoi and Maxim Lasaroff. This vessel, fitted out by the above-mentioned merchant Andrean Tolstyk, weighed from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river September 27, 1760; she stood out to sea right Eastwards, and on the 29th reached Beering's Island. There she lay at anchor in a bay, from whence the crew brought all the tackle and lading ashore. Soon afterwards they were driven upon the shore by a violent autumnal storm, without any other damage than the loss of an anchor. Here they passed the winter; and having refitted their vessel, put to sea June 24, 1761: they passed by Copper Island, which lies about an hundred and fifty versts from the former, and steered S. E. towards the Aleütian Isles, which they did not reach before the 6th of August. [Sidenote: Reaches Ayagh, one of the Andreanoffikye Islands.] They cast anchor in an open bay near Attak, in order to procure an interpreter from the Toigon Tunulgasen; but the latter being dead, they sent presents to the Toigon Bakutun. As there were already three ships lying at anchor before this Island, on the 19th they again stood out to sea in quest of the more distant islands, for the purpose of exacting a tribute. They carried on board a relation of the Toigon Bakutun, who had a slight knowledge of the Russian language. They steered N. E. and N. E. by E. and were driven, on the 28th, by a high gale of wind towards an island, before which they immediately cast anchor. The following morning the two Cossacs with a party of eight persons went ashore to reconnoitre the island; they saw no inhabitants. August 30, the vessel was brought into a safe bay. The next day some of the crew were sent ashore to procure wood, that the ship might be refitted; but there were no large trees to be met with upon the whole island. Lasaroff, who was one of the party, had been there before in Serebranikoff's vessel: he called the island Ayagh or Kayachu; and another, which lay about the distance of twenty versts, Kanaga. As they were returning to the ship, they saw two islanders rowing in small canoes towards Kanaga, one of whom had served as an interpreter, and was known to Lasaroff. The latter accordingly made them a present of some fresh provision, which the others gratefully accepted, and then continued their course across the strait to Kanaga. Soon afterwards Lasaroff and eight men rowed over to that island, and having invited the Toigon, who was a relation of the above-mentioned interpreter, to pay them a visit at Kayachu, they immediately returned to the ship. Near the place where they lay at anchor, a rivulet falls into the bay; it flows from a lake that is about two or three versts in circumference, and which is formed from a number of small springs. Its course is about eight versts long; and in summer several species of salmon and other fish, similar to those which are found at Kamtchatka, ascend the stream as far as the lake. Lasaroff was employed in fishing in this rivulet, when the Toigon of Kanaga, accompanied with a considerable number of the natives in fifteen baidars, arrived at the ship: he was hospitably entertained, and received several presents. The Russians seized this opportunity of persuading the islanders to acknowledge themselves subject to the Empress, and to pay a regular tribute; to which they made no great objection. By means of the interpreter, the following information was obtained from the Toigon. The natives chiefly subsist upon dried fish and other sea animals. They catch [44]turbot of a very large size, and take seals by means of harpoons, to which they fasten bladders. They fish for cod with bone hooks, and lines made of a long and tough species of sea-weed, which they dip in fresh water and draw out to the size of a fine packthread. [Footnote 44: The author adds, that these turbot [paltus] weigh occasionally seven or eight pood.] As soon as the vessel was laid up in a secure place, Tolstyk, Vassyutin and Lasaroff, with several others, went in four baidars to Kanaga. The first remained upon that island, but the two others rowed in two baidars to Tsetchina, which is separated from Kanaga by a strait about seven versts in breadth: the islanders received them amicably, and promised to pay tribute. The several parties returned all safe to Kayachu, without having procured any furs. Soon afterwards Tolstyk dispatched some hunters in four baidars to Tagalak, Atchu, and Amlach, which lay to the East of Kayachu: none of these party met with any opposition from the natives: they accordingly remained with great tranquillity upon these several islands until the year 1764. Their success in hunting was not however very great; for they caught no more than 1880 full grown sea-otters, 778 middle-aged, and 372 cubs. [Sidenote: Description of the Andreanoffskye Islands.] The following is Lasaroff's description of the above-mentioned six islands[45] which lie in a chain somewhat to the North West of the Fox Islands, and must not be blended with them. The first certain account was brought by this vessel, the St. Andrean and Natalia, from whence they are called the Andreanoffskie Ostrova or the Islands of St. Andrean. [Footnote 45: These are the six Islands described by Mr. Stæhlin in his description of the New Archipelago. See Appendix I. N^o. V.] [Sidenote: Ayagh.] Ayagh is about an hundred and fifty versts in circumference: it contains several high and rocky mountains, the intervals of which are bare heath and moor ground: not one forest tree is to be found upon the whole island. The vegetables seem for the most part like those which grow in Kamtchatka. Of berries there are found [46]crow or crake-berries and the larger sort of bilberries, but in small quantities. Of the roots of burnet and all kinds of snake weed, there is such abundance as to afford, in case of necessity, a plentiful provision for the inhabitants. The above-mentioned rivulet is the only one upon the island. The number of inhabitants cannot sufficiently be ascertained, because the natives pass continually from island to island in their baidars. [Footnote 46: Empetrum, Vaccin. Uliginosum, Sanguisorba, & Bistorta.] [Sidenote: Kanaga.] Kanaga stands West from Ayagh, and is two hundred versts in circumference. It contains an high volcano where the natives find sulphur in summer. At the foot of this mountain are hot springs, wherein they occasionally boil their provision. There is no rivulet upon this island; and the low grounds are similar to those of Ayagh. The inhabitants are reckoned about two hundred souls. [Sidenote: Tsetchina.] Tsetchina lies Eastward about forty versts from Kanaga, and is about eighty in circumference. It is full of rocky mountains, of which the Bielaia Sopka, or the White Peak, is the highest. In the valley there are also some warm springs, but no rivulet abounding in fish: the island contains only four families. [Sidenote: Tagalak.] Tagalak is forty versts in circumference, ten East from Tsetchina: it contains a few rocks, but neither rivulets with fish, nor any vegetable production fit for nourishment. The coasts are rocky, and dangerous to approach in baidars. This island is also inhabited by no more than four families. [Sidenote: Atchu.] Atchu lies in the same position forty versts distant from Tagalak, and is about three hundred in circumference: near it is an harbour, where ships may ride securely at anchor. It contains many rocky mountains; and several small rivulets that fall into the sea, and of which one running Eastwards abounds in fish. The roots which have just before been mentioned, and bulbs of white lilies, are found there in plenty. Its inhabitants amount to about sixty souls. [Sidenote: Amlach.] Amlach is a mountainous island standing to the East more than seven versts from Atchu, and is also three hundred in circumference. It contains the same number of inhabitants as Atchu, has a commodious haven, and produces roots in abundance. Of several small rivulets there is one only which flows towards the North, that contains any fish. Besides these a cluster of other islands were observed stretching farther to the East, which were not touched upon. [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants.] The inhabitants of these six islands are tributary to Russia. They live in holes dug in the earth, in which they make no fires even in winter. Their clothes are made like shirts, of the skins of the [47]guillinot and puffin, which they catch with springes. Over these in rainy weather they wear an upper garment, made of the bladders and other dried intestines of seals and sea-lions oiled and stitched together. They catch cod and turbot with bone hooks, and eat them raw. As they never lay in a store of provision, they suffer greatly from hunger in stormy weather, when they cannot go out to fish; at which time they are reduced to live upon small shell-fish and sea-wrack, which they pick up upon the beach and eat raw. In May and June they kill sea-otters in the following manner: When the weather is calm, they row out to sea in several baidars: having found the animal, they strike him with harpoons, and follow him so closely, that he cannot easily escape. They take sea dogs in the same manner. In the severest weather they make no addition to their usual cloathing. In order to warm themselves in winter, whenever it freezes very hard, they burn a heap of dry grass, over which they stand and catch the heat under their clothes. The clothes of the women and children are made of sea-otter skins, in the same form as those belonging to the men. Whenever they pass the night at a distance from home, they dig a hole in the earth, and lay themselves down in it, covered only with their clothes and mats of platted grass. Regardless of every thing but the present moment, destitute of religion, and without the least appearance of decency, they seem but few degrees removed from brutes. [Footnote 47: Colymbus Troile, Alca Arctica.] As soon as the several baidars sent out upon hunting parties were returned, and the vessel got ready for their departure, the Toigons of these islands (excepting Kanaga) came in baidars to Tolstyk, accompanied with a considerable number of the natives; their names were Tsarkulini, Tshunila, Kayugotsk and Mayatok. They brought with them a voluntary tribute, making presents of pieces of dried salmon, and unanimously expressing their satisfaction upon the good conduct of the Russians. Tolstyk gave them in return some toys and other trifles, and desired them to recommend to the inhabitants of the other islands the like friendly behaviour towards the Russian merchants who should come amongst them, if they had a mind to be treated in the same manner. June 14, 1764, they sailed for Kamtchatka, and anchored on the 19th before Shemiya, one of the Aleütian Islands. The 21st they were forced from their anchor by tempestuous winds, and driven upon a rocky shore. This accident obliged them to send the lading ashore, and to draw the ship upon land in order to repair the damage, which was done not without great difficulty. On the 18th of August they stood out to sea and made towards Atchu, which they reached on the 20th. Having sprung a leak they again refitted the vessel; and, after taking on board the crew of a ship which had been lately cast away, they sailed for Kamtchatka. [Sidenote: The Vessel wrecked upon the Coast of Kamtchatka.] On the 4th of September they came in sight of that peninsula near Tzaschminskoi Ostrog; and on the 18th, as they were endeavouring to run into the mouth of the Kamtchatka river, they were forced by a storm upon the coast. The vessel was destroyed, and the greatest part of the cargo lost. CHAP. VIII. Voyage of the _Zacharias_ and _Elizabeth_, fitted out by _Kulkoff_, and commanded by _Drusinin_--They sail to _Umnak_ and _Unalashka_, and winter upon the latter island--The vessel destroyed, and all the crew, except four, murdered by the islanders--The adventures of these four _Russians_, and their wonderful escape. I Shall here barely mention that a vessel was fitted out in August, 1760, at the expence of Terrenti Tsebaëfskoi: but I shall have occasion to be very circumstantial in my accounts concerning several others, which sailed during the following years: more copious information concerning the Fox Islands having been procured from these voyages, although for the most part unfortunate, than from all the preceding ones. In 1762 four vessels sailed for the Fox Islands: of these only one returned safe to Kamtchatka. [Sidenote: Voyage of Drusinin in the Zacharias and Elizabeth, 1762.] The first was the Zacharias and Elizabeth, fitted out by Kulkoff, a merchant of Vologda and Company, under the command of Drusinin, and manned by thirty-four Russians, and three Kamtchadals. September the 6th, they weighed anchor from Ochotsk, and arrived October the 11th in the haven of St. Peter and Paul, where they wintered. June the 24th, 1763, they again put to sea, and having reached, after eleven days sailing, the nearest Aleütian Islands, they anchored before Atach. They staid here about fourteen days, and took up seven Russians who had been shipwrecked on this coast. Among these was Korelin, who returned to Kamtchatka, and brought back the following account of the voyage. July the 17th, they sailed from Atach towards the more distant islands. In the same month they landed upon an island, where the crew of the Andrean and Natalia was engaged in hunting; and, having laid in a provision of water, continued their voyage. [Sidenote: Arrival at Umnak.] In the beginning of September they arrived at Umnak, one of the Fox Islands, and cast anchor about a verst from the shore. They found there Glottoff's vessel, whose voyage will be mentioned in a succeeding chapter[48]. Drusinin immediately dispatched his first mate Maesnisk and Korelin, with thirty-four of the crew, to land. They passed over to the Eastern extremity of the island, which was distant about seventy versts from the vessel; and returned safe on the 12th of September. During this expedition, they saw several remains of fox-traps which had been set by the Russians; and met with several natives who shewed some tribute-quittances. The same day letters were brought by the islanders from Medvedeff and Korovin[49], who were just arrived at Umnak and Unalashka in two vessels fitted out by the merchants Protassoff and Trapesnikoff. Answers were returned by the same messengers. [Footnote 48: Chap. X.] [Footnote 49: See the following Chapter.] [Sidenote: Winters at Unalashka.] On the 22d, Drusinin sailed to the Northern point of Unalashka, which lies about fifteen versts from Umnak: the crew, having laid up the vessel in a safe harbour, and brought the lading ashore, made preparation to construct an hut. Soon after their arrival, two Toigons of the nearest village brought hostages of their own accord; their example was immediately followed by several of the more distant villages. Here they received information of an hunting party sent from Trapesnikoff's ship. Upon which Maesnyk also dispatched three companies upon the same errand, one consisting of eleven men, among whom was Korelin, under the command of Peter Tsekaleff; a second of the same number, under Michael Kudyakoff; and a third of nine men, under Yephim Kaskitsyn. Of these three parties, Tsekaleff's was the only one of which we have received any circumstantial account: for not a single person of the other two parties, or of the crew remaining on board, ever returned to Kamtchatka. Kaskitsyn remained near the haven, and the two other companies were dispatched to the Northern point of the island. Kudyakoff stopped at a place called Kalaktak, which contained about forty inhabitants; Tsekaleff went on to Inalok, which lies about thirty versts from Kalaktak. He found there a dwelling with about seventy inhabitants, whom he behaved to with kindness: he built an hut for himself and his companions, and kept a constant watch. [Sidenote: All the Crew, except four Russians, destroyed by the Natives.] December the 4th, six of the party being dispatched to look after the pit-falls, there remained only five Russians: namely, Peter Tsekaleff, Stephen Korelin, Dmitri Bragin, Gregory Shaffyrin, and Ivan Kokovin: the islanders took this opportunity of giving the first proofs of their hostile intentions, which they had hitherto concealed. As Tsekaleff and Shaffyrin were upon a visit to the islanders, the latter suddenly, and without any provocation, struck Tsekaleff upon the head with a club, and afterwards stabbed him with knives. They next fell upon Shaffyrin, who defended himself with an hatchet, and, though desperately wounded, forced his way back to his companions. Bragin and Korelin, who remained in the hut, had immediate recourse to their fire-arms; but Kokovin, who was at a small distance, was surrounded by the savages, and thrown down. They continued stabbing him with knives and darts, until Korelin came to his assistance; the latter having wounded two islanders, and driven away the others, brought Kokovin half-dead to the hut. [Sidenote: The Adventures of the four Russians upon Unalaskka.] Soon afterwards the natives surrounded the hut, which the Russians had taken the precaution to provide with shooting-holes. The siege lasted four days without intermission. The islanders were prevented indeed by the fire-arms from storming the hut; but whenever the Russians made their appearance, darts were immediately shot at them from all sides; so that they could not venture to go out for water. At length when Shaffyrin and Kokovin were a little recovered, they all sallied out upon the islanders with their guns and lances; three persons were killed upon the spot, and several wounded; upon which the others fled away and dispersed. During the siege the savages were seen at a little distance bearing some arms and caps, and holding them up in triumph: these things belonged to the six Russians, who had been sent to the pit-falls, and had fallen a sacrifice to the resentment of the natives. The latter no sooner disappeared, than the Russians dragged the baidar into the sea, and rowed without molestation out of the bay, which is about ten versts broad. They next landed near a small habitation: finding it empty they drew the baidar ashore, and went with their fire-arms and lances across the mountains towards Kalaktak, where they had left Kudyakoff's party. As they approached that place towards evening, they fired from the heights; but no signal being returned, they concluded, as was really the case, that this company had likewise been massacred by the inhabitants. They themselves narrowly escaped the same fate; for, immediately upon the report of the fire-arms, numerous bodies of the islanders made their appearance, and closely pursued the Russians: darkness however coming on, the latter found means to escape over the sandy shore of a bay to a rock, where they were sheltered, and could defend themselves. They here made so good a use of their arms, that the islanders thought proper to retire: the fugitives, as soon as their pursuers were withdrawn, seized the opportunity of proceeding towards the haven, where their vessel lay at anchor: they ran without interruption during the whole night, and at break of day, when they were about three versts from the haven, they espied a locker of the vessel lying on the shore. Struck with astonishment at this alarming discovery, they retreated with precipitation to the mountains, from whence they descried several islanders rowing in canoes, but no appearance of their own vessel. During that day they kept themselves closely concealed, and durst not venture again towards the haven before the evening. Upon their arrival they found the vessel broken to pieces, and the dead bodies of their companions lying mangled along the beach. Having collected all the provision which had been untouched by the savages, they returned to the mountains. The following day they scooped out a cavity at the foot of a mountain situated about three versts from the haven, and covered it with a piece of a sail. In the evening they returned to the haven, and found there an image of a saint and a prayer book; all the tackle and lading were taken away, excepting the sacks for provision. These sacks were made of leather: the natives had ript them up probably to see if they contained any iron, and had left them, together with the provision, behind as useless. The Russians collected all that remained, and dragged as much as they were able to carry into the mountains to their retreat, where they lived in a very wretched state from the 9th of December to the 2d of February, 1764. Mean while they employed themselves in making a little baidar, which they covered with the leather of the sacks. Having drawn it at night from the mountains to the sea, they rowed without waiting for break of day along the Northern coast of Unalaschka, in order to reach Trapesnikoff's vessel, which, as they had reason to think, lay at anchor somewhere upon the coast. They rowed at some distance from the shore, and by that means passed three habitations unperceived. The following day they observed at some distance five islanders in a baidar, who upon seeing them made to Makushinsk, before which place the fugitives were obliged to pass. Darkness coming on, the Russians landed on a rock, and passed the night ashore. Early in the morning they discovered the islanders advancing towards them from the bay of Makushinsk. Upon this they placed themselves in an advantageous post, and prepared for defence. The savages rowed close to the beach: part landing, and part remaining in their baidars, they commenced the assault by a volley of darts; and notwithstanding the Russians did great execution with their fire arms, the skirmish continued the whole day. Towards evening the enemy retired, and the fugitives betook themselves with their canoe to an adjoining cavern. The attack was again renewed during the night; but the Russians were so advantageously posted, that they repulsed the assailants without much difficulty. In this encounter Bragen was slightly wounded. They remained in this place three days; but the sea rising at a spring-tide into the rock, forced them to sally out towards a neighbouring cavern, which they reached without loss, notwithstanding the opposition of the islanders. They were imprisoned in this cave five weeks, and kept watch by turns. During that time they seldom ventured twenty yards from the entrance; and were obliged to quench their thirst with snow-water, and with the moisture dripping from the rock. They suffered also greatly from hunger, having no sustenance but small shell-fish, which they occasionally found means to collect, upon the beach. Compelled at length by extreme want, they one night ventured to draw their baidar into the sea, and were fortunate enough to get off unperceived. [Sidenote: Their Escape from Unalaschka to Trapesnikoff's vessel.] They continued rowing at night, but in the day they hid themselves on the shore; by this means they escaped unobserved from the bay of Makushinsk, and reached Trapesnikoff's vessel the 30th of March, 1764. What happened to them afterwards in company with the crew of this vessel will be mentioned in the succeeding chapter, Shaffyrin alone of all the four died of sickness during the voyage; but Korelin, Kohovin, and Bragin[50] returned safe to Kamtchatka. The names of these brave men deserve our admiration, for the courage and perseverance with which they supported and overcame such imminent dangers. [Footnote 50: These Russians were well known to several persons of credit, who have confirmed the authenticity of this relation. Among the rest the celebrated naturalist Mr. Pallas, whose name is well known in the literary world, saw Bragin at Irkutsk: from him he had a narrative of their adventures and escape; which, as he assured me, perfectly tallied with the above account, which is drawn from the journal of Korelin.] CHAP. IX. Voyage of the vessel called the _Trinity_, under the command of _Korovin_--Sails to the _Fox Islands_--Winters at _Unalashka_--Puts to sea the spring following--The vessel is stranded in a bay of the island _Umnak_, and the crew attacked by the natives--Many of them killed--Others carried off by sickness--They are reduced to great streights--Relieved by _Glottoff_, twelve of the whole company only remaining--Description of _Umnak_ and _Unalashka_. [Sidenote: Voyage of Korovin, 1762.] The second vessel which sailed from Kamtchatka in the year 1762, was the Trinity, fitted out by the trading company of Nikiphor Trapesnikoff, merchant of Irkutsk, under the command of Ivan Korovin, and manned with thirty-eight Russians and six Kamtchadals. [Sidenote: Departs from Kamtchatka.] September 15, they sailed down the Kamtchatka river, and stood out to sea the 29th, when they were driven at large for ten days by contrary winds. At last upon the 8th of October they came in sight of Beering's and Copper Island, where they cast anchor before the South side of the former. Here they were resolved to winter on account of the late season of the year. Accordingly they laid up the vessel in a secure harbour, and brought all the lading ashore. [Sidenote: Winters upon Beering's Island.] They staid here until the first of August, 1763: during that time they kilted about 500 arctic foxes and 20 sea-otters; the latter animals resorted less frequently to this island, in consequence of the disturbance given them by the Russian hunters. Korovin, having collected a sufficient store of provision, several skins of sea-cows for the coverings of baidars, and some iron which remained from the wreck of Beering's ship, prepared for his departure. Upon his arrival at Beering's Island the preceding autumn, he found there a vessel fitted out by Jacob Protassoff, merchant of Tiumen, under the command of Dennis Medvedeff[51]. Korovin had entered into a formal contract with Medvedeff for the division of the furs. Here he took on board ten of Medvedeff's crew, and gave him seven in return. August 1, Korovin put to sea from Beering's Island with thirty-seven men, and Medvedeff with forty-nine. [Sidenote: Reaches Unalashka.] They sailed without coming in sight of the Aleütian Isles: on the 15th, Korovin made Unalashka, where Glottoff lay at anchor, and Medvedeff reached Umnak. Korovin received the news of the latter's safe arrival, first by some islanders, and afterwards by letters; both vessels lay at no greater distance from each other than about an hundred and fifty versts, taking a streight line from point to point across the firth. [Footnote 51: This is the fourth vessel which sailed in 1762. As the whole crew was massacred by the savages, we have no account of the voyage. Short mention of this massacre is occasionally made in this and the following chapters.] Korovin cast anchor in a convenient bay at the distance of sixty yards from the shore. On the 16th he landed with fourteen men, and having found nothing but an empty shed, he returned to the vessel. After having taken a reinforcement, he again went ashore in order to look for some inhabitants. About seven versts from the haven, he came to two habitations, and saw three hundred persons assembled together. Among them were three Toigons, who recollected and accosted in a friendly manner one Barnasheff, a native of Tobolsk, who had been there before with Glottoff; they shewed some tribute-quittances, which they had lately received from the Cossac Sabin Ponomareff. Two of these Toigons gave each a boy of twelve years of age as an hostage, whom they passed for their children; and the third delivered his son of about fifteen years of age, the same who had been Glottoff's hostage, and whom Korovin called Alexèy. [Sidenote: Lays up the Ship.] With these hostages he returned to the ship, which he laid up in the mouth of a river, after having brought all the provision and lading ashore. Soon afterwards the three Toigons came to see the hostages; and informed Korovin, that Medvedeff's vessel rode securely at anchor before Umnak. September 15, when every thing was prepared for wintering, Korovin and Barnasheff set out in two baidars, each with nine men and one of the hostages, who had a slight knowledge of the Russian language. They went along the Northern coast of the island, towards its Western extremity, in order to hunt, and to enquire after a certain interpreter called Kashmak, who had been employed by Glottoff on a former occasion. Having rowed about twenty versts, they passed by a village, and landed at another which lay about five versts further. But as the number of inhabitants seemed to amount to two hundred, they durst not venture to the dwellings, but stayed by the baidar. Upon this the Toigon of the place came to them, with his wife and son: he shewed a tribute-quittance, and delivered his son, a boy of thirteen years of age and whom Korovin called Stepanka, as an hostage, for which he received a present of corals. They rowed now further to a third village, about fifteen versts from the former, where they found the interpreter Kashmak; the latter accompanied them to the two Toigons, who gave them a friendly reception, and shewed their tribute-quittances. A few natives only made their appearance; the others, as the Toigons pretended, were gone out to fish. The next morning each Toigon gave a boy as an hostage; one of the boys Korovin called Gregory, and the other Alexèy. The Russians were detained there two days by a violent storm; during which time a letter from Medvedeff was brought by an Aleütian, and an answer was returned by the same person. The storm at length somewhat abating, they rowed back to the next village, where they continued two nights without any apprehensions from the savages. At length Korovin returned in safety with the hostages to the crew. [Sidenote: Builds an Hut, and makes Preparations for Wintering.] In the beginning of October they built a winter-hut, partly of wood and partly of seal-skins, and made all the necessary preparations for hunting. On the 14th, two companies, each consisting of eleven men, were sent out upon an hunting party to the Eastern point of the island; they returned in four days with hostages. About sixty versts from the haven, they had met a party of twenty-five Russians, commanded by Drusinin. About the same time some Toigons brought a present of sturgeon and whale's blubber, and received in return some beads and provision. Korovin and his company now thought themselves secure; for which reason twenty-three men, under the command of the above-mentioned Barnasheff, were dispatched in two baidars upon an hunting party towards the Western point of the island. Eight muskets were distributed to each boat, a pistol and a lance to each man, and also a sufficient store of ammunition and provision. The following day two accounts were sent from Barnasheff; and letters were also received from the crew of Protassoff's vessel. From the 2d of November to the 8th of December, the Russians, who remained with Korovin, killed forty-eight dark-coloured foxes, together with an hundred and seventeen of the common sort: during this expedition one man was lost. Some of the natives came occasionally in baidars, and exchanged sea-otters and fox skins for corals. On the 8th of December letters were again brought from Barnasheff and also from the crew of Protassoff's ship. Answers were returned by the same messengers. After the departure of these messengers, the mother of Alexèy came with a message from the Toigon her husband importing, that a large number of islanders were making towards the ship. Upon this Korovin ordered the men to arms, and soon after seventy natives approached and held up some sea-otter skins. The Russians cried out that no more than ten at a time should come over the brook towards their hut: upon which the islanders left their skins with Korovin, and returned without attempting any hostilities. Their apprehensions were now somewhat quieted, but they were again raised by the arrival of three Kamtchadals belonging to Kulkoff's ship, who flew for protection to Korovin: they brought the account that the crew had been killed by the savages, and the vessel destroyed. It was now certain that the seventy islanders above-mentioned had come with hostile intentions. This information spread such a sudden panic among the Russians, that it was even proposed to burn the vessel, and to endeavour to find their companions, who were gone upon hunting parties. [Sidenote: The Russians attacked by the Natives.] That day however passed without any attack: but towards the evening of the 10th of December, the savages assembled in large bodies, and invested the hut on all sides. Four days and nights they never ceased annoying the Russians with their darts; two of the latter were killed, and the survivors were nearly exhausted by continual fatigue. Upon the fifth day the islanders took post in a neighbouring cavern, where they continued watching the Russians so closely during a whole month, that none of the latter durst venture fifty paces from their dwelling. Korovin, finding himself thus annoyed by the natives, ordered the hut to be destroyed: he then retired to his vessel, which was brought for greater security out of the mouth of the rivulet to the distance of an hundred yards from the beach. There they lay at anchor from the 5th of March to the 26th of April, during which time they suffered greatly from want of provision, and still more from the scurvy. During this period they were attacked by a large body of the natives, who advanced in forty baidars with the hopes of surprising the vessel. Korovin had been warned of their approach by two of the inhabitants, one of whom was a relation of the interpreter Kashmak: accordingly he was prepared for their reception. As soon as the savages came near the vessel, they brandished their darts and got ready for the attack. Korovin however had no sooner fired and killed one person, than they were struck with a panic and rowed away. They were so incensed at this failure of success, that they immediately put to death the two good-natured natives, who had betrayed their design to the Russians. Soon afterwards the father of Alexèy came and demanded his son, who was restored to him: and on the 30th of March Korovin and his three companions arrived as it is mentioned in the preceding chapter. By this reinforcement the number of the crew amounted to eighteen persons. [Sidenote: Korovin puts to Sea. The Vessel stranded upon Umnak.] April 26 Korovin put to sea from Unalashka with the crew and eleven hostages. The vessel was driven until the 28th by contrary winds, and then stranded in a bay of the island Umnak. The ammunition and sails, together with the skins for the construction of baidars, were brought ashore with great difficulty. During the disembarkation one sick man was drowned, another died as soon as he came to land, and eight hostages ran away amidst the general confusion. There still remained the faithful interpreter Kashmak and three hostages. The whole number of the Russians amounted to only sixteen persons; and of these three were sick of the scurvy. Under these circumstances they secured themselves between their baidar and some empty barrels, which they covered with seal-skins, while the sails were spread over them in form of a tent. Two Russians kept watch; and there being no appearance of any islanders, the others retired to sleep. [Sidenote: The Russians in Danger of being destroyed by the Natives.] Before break of day, about an hundred savages advancing secretly from the sea-side, threw their darts at the distance of twenty yards with such force, that many of them pierced through the baidar and the skins; others fell from above through the sails. By this discharge, the two persons who kept watch, together with the three hostages, were killed upon the spot; and all the Russians were wounded. The latter indeed were so effectually surprised, as to be prevented from having recourse to their fire-arms. In this distress Korovin sallied out, in company with four Russians, and attacked the enemy with lances: two of the savages were killed, and the others driven to flight. [Sidenote: The latter repulsed.] Korovin and his party were so severely wounded, that they had scarcely strength sufficient to return to their tent. During the night the storm increased to such a degree, that the vessel was entirely dashed to pieces. The greatest part of the wreck, which was cast on shore by the sea, was carried away by the islanders. They also broke to pieces the barrels of fat, emptied the sacks of provision, and destroyed most of the furs: having thus satisfied their resentment, they went away; and did not again make their appearance until the 30th of April. Upon their retiring, the Russians collected the wretched remains which had been left untouched by the savages, or which the waves had cast on shore since their departure. April 30, a body of an hundred and fifty natives advanced from the Eastern point of the island towards the tent; and, at the distance of an hundred yards, shot at the Russians with fire arms, but luckily without execution. They also set on fire the high grass, and the wind blew the flames towards the tent; but the Russians firing forced the enemy to flight, and gained time to extinguish the flames. This was the last attack which was made upon Korovin; although sickness and misery detained him and his companions upon this spot until the 21st of July. They then put to sea in a baidar eight yards long, which they had constructed in order to make to Protassoff's vessel, with whose fate they were as yet unacquainted. Their number was now reduced to twelve persons, among whom were six Kamtchadals. [Sidenote: The Russians discover the dead Bodies of their Countrymen who had been murdered by the Natives.] After having rowed ten days they landed upon the beach of the same island Umnak; there they observed the remains of a vessel which had been burnt, and saw some clothes, sails, and ropes, torn to pieces. At a small distance was an empty Russian dwelling, and near it a bath-room, in which they found, to their inexpressible terror, twenty dead bodies in their clothes. Each of them had a thong of leather, or his own girdle, fastened about the neck, with which he had been dragged along. Korovin and his companions recollected them to have been some of those who had sailed in Protassoff's vessel; and could distinguish among the rest the commander Medvedeff. They discovered no further traces of the remaining crew; and as none ever appeared, we have no account of the circumstances with which this catastrophe was attended. [Sidenote: Relieved from their Distresses by the Arrival of Glottoff.] After having buried his dead countrymen, Korovin and his companions began to build an hut: they were prevented however from finishing it, by the unexpected arrival of Stephen Glottoff[52], who came to them with a small party by land. Korovin and his companions accordingly joined Glottoff, and rowed the next day to his vessel. [Footnote 52: See the following Chapter.] Soon afterwards Korovin was sent with a party of twenty men to coast the island of Umnak, in order to discover if any part of Medvedeff's crew had made their escape from the general massacre: but his enquiries were without success. In the course of this expedition, as he lay at anchor, in September, before a small island situated between Umnak and Unalashka, some savages rowed towards the Russians in two large baidars; and having shot at them with fire-arms, though without effect, instantly retired. The same evening Korovin entered a bay of the island Umnak, with an intention of passing the night on shore: but as he came near the coast, a large number of savages in an hundred baidars surrounded and saluted him with a volley of darts. Korovin fired and soon dispersed them; and immediately made to a large baidar, which he saw at some distance, in hopes of finding some Russians. He was however mistaken; the islanders who were aboard landed at his approach, and, after shooting at him from their fire-arms, retired to the mountains. Korovin found there an empty baidar, which he knew to be the same in which Barnasheff had sailed, when he was sent upon an hunting party. Within were nothing but two hatchets and some iron points for darts. Three women were seized at the same time; and two natives, who refused to surrender themselves, were put to death. They then made to the dwelling, from which all the inhabitants had run away, and found therein pieces of Russian leather, blades of small knives, shirts, and other things, which had belonged to the Russians. All the information which they could procure from the women whom they had taken prisoners, was, that the crew had been killed, and this booty taken away by the inhabitants, who had retired to the island Unalashka. Korovin gave these women their liberty, and, being apprehensive of fresh attacks, returned to the haven. Towards winter Korovin, with a party of twenty-two men, was sent upon an hunting expedition to the Western point of Unalashka: he was accompanied by an Aleütian interpreter, called Ivan Glottoff. Being informed by some islanders, that a Russian ship, under the command of Ivan Solovioff[53], was then lying before Unalashka, he immediately rowed towards the haven where she was at anchor. On the way he had a sharp encounter with the natives, who endeavoured to prevent him from landing: of these, ten were killed upon the spot; and the remainder fled away, leaving behind them some women and children. [Footnote 53: Chap. XI.] Korovin staid three days aboard Solovioff's vessel, and then returned to the place where he had been so lately attacked. The inhabitants however, for this time, made no opposition to his landing; on the contrary, they received him with kindness, and permitted him to hunt: they even delivered hostages; and entered into a friendly traffic, exchanging furs for beads. They were also prevailed upon to restore several muskets and other things, taken from the Russians who had been massacred. A short time before his departure, the inhabitants again shewed their hostile intentions; for three of them came up to the Russian centinel, and suddenly fell upon him with their knives. The centinel however disengaging himself, and retreating into the hut, they ran away. The Toigons of the village protested ignorance of this treachery; and the offenders were soon afterwards discovered and punished. Korovin, as he was returning to Glottoff, was forced to engage with the islanders upon Unalashka, and also upon Umnak, where they endeavoured to prevent him from landing. Before the end of the year a storm drove the baidar upon the beach of the latter island; and the tempestuous weather setting in, they were detained there until the 6th of April, 1765. During this time they were reduced, from a scarcity of provision, to live chiefly upon sea-wrack and small shell fish. On the 22d they returned to Glottoff; and as they had been unsuccessful in hunting, their cargo of furs was very inconsiderable. Three days after his arrival, Korovin quitted Glottoff, and went over with five other Russians to Solovieff, with whom he returned the following year to Kamtchatka. The six Kamtchadals of Korovin's party joined Glottoff. [Sidenote: Korovin's Description of Umnak and Unalashka.] According to Korovin's account, the islands Umnak and Unalashka are situated not much more Northwards than the mouth of the Kamtchatka river; and, according to the ship's reckoning, about the distance of 1700 versts Eastwards from the same place. The circumference of Umnak is about two hundred and fifty versts; Unalashka is much larger. Both these islands are wholly destitute of trees; drift-wood is brought ashore in large quantities. There were five lakes upon the Northern coast of Unalashka, and but one upon Umnak, of which none were more than ten versts in circumference. These lakes give rise to several small rivulets, which flow only a few versts before they empty themselves into the sea: the fish enter the rivulets in the middle of April, they ascend the lakes in July, and continue there until August. Sea-otters and other sea-animals resort but seldom to these islands; but there is great abundance of red and black foxes. North Eastwards from Unalashka two islands appeared in sight, at the distance of five or ten versts; but Korovin did not touch at them. [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants.] The inhabitants of these islands row in their small baidars from one island to the other. They are so numerous, and their manner of life so unsettled, that their number cannot exactly be determined. Their dwelling caves are made in the following manner. They first dig an hole in the earth proportioned to the size of their intended habitation, of twenty, thirty, or forty yards in length, and from six to ten broad. They then set up poles of larch, firs, and ash driven on the coast by the sea. Across the top of these poles they lay planks, which they cover with grass and earth. They enter through holes in the top by means of ladders. Fifty, an hundred, and even an hundred and fifty persons dwell together in such a cave. They light little or no fires within, for which reason these dwellings are much cleaner than those of the Kamtchadals. When they want to warm themselves in the winter, they make a fire of dry herbs, of which they have collected a large store in summer, and stand over it until they are sufficiently warmed. A few of these islanders wear fur-stockings in winter; but the greatest part go bare-footed, and all are without breeches. The skins of cormorants, puffins, and sea-divers, serve for the mens clothing; and the women wear the skins of sea-bears, seals, and sea-otters. They sleep upon thick mats, which they twist out of a soft kind of grass that grows upon the shore, and have no other covering but their usual clothes. Many of the men have five or six wives; and he that is the best hunter or fisher has the greatest number. The women make their needles of the bones of birds wings, and use sinews for thread. Their weapons are bows and arrows, lances and darts, which they throw like the Greenlanders to the distance of sixty yards by means of a little hand-board. Both the darts and arrows are feathered: the former are about an ell and an half long; the shaft, which is well made considering their want of instruments, is often composed of two pieces that join into each other: the point is of flint, sharpened by beating it between two stones. These darts as well as the lances were formerly tipped with bone, but at present the points are commonly made of the iron which they procure from the Russians, and out of which they ingeniously form little hatchets and two-edged knives. They shape the iron by rubbing it between two stones, and whetting it frequently with sea-water. With these instruments and stone hatchets they build their baidars. They have a strange custom of cutting holes in the under-lip and through the gristle of the nose. They place in the former two little bones, wrought in the form of teeth, which project some inches from the face. In the nose a piece of bone is placed crossways. The deceased are buried with their boat, weapons, and clothes[54]. [Footnote 54: The author repeats here several circumstances which have been mentioned before, and many of them will occur again: but my office as a translator would not suffer me to omit them.] CHAP. X. Voyage of _Stephen Glottoff_--He reaches the _Fox Islands_--Sails beyond _Unalashka_ to _Kadyak_--Winters upon that Island--Repeated attempts of the Natives to destroy the Crew--They are repulsed, reconciled, and prevailed upon to trade with the _Russians_--Account of _Kadyak_--Its inhabitants--animals--productions--_Glottoff_ sails back to _Umnak_--Winters there--Returns to _Kamtchatka_--Journal of his voyage. Here follows one of the most memorable voyages yet made, which extended farther, and terminated more fortunately, than the last mentioned expeditions. [Sidenote: Voyage of Glottoff in the Andrean and Natalia, 1762.] Terenty Tsebaeffskoi and company, merchants of Lalsk, fitted out the Andrean and Natalia under the command of Stephen Glottoff, an experienced and skilful seaman of Yarensk. This vessel sailed from the bay of the river Kamtchatka the 1st of October, 1762, manned with thirty-eight Russians and eight Kamtchadals. In eight days they reached Mednoi Ostroff, or Copper Island, where having sought out a convenient harbour, they unloaded and laid up the vessel for the winter. [Sidenote: Winters upon Copper Island.] Their first care was to supply themselves with provisions; and they killed afterwards a quantity of ice-foxes, and a considerable number of sea-otters. For the benefit of the crown and their own use in case of need, they resolved to take on board all the remaining tackle and iron work of Beering's ship, which had been left behind on Commander's Island, and was buried in the beach. For this purpose they dispatched, on the 27th of May, Jacob Malevinskoy (who died soon after) with thirteen men in a baidar to that island, which was seventy versts distant. They brought back with them twenty-two pood of iron, ten of old cordage fit for caulker's use, some lead and copper, and several thousand beads. Copper Island has its name from the native copper found on the coast, particularly at the Western point on its South side. Of this native copper Malevinskoy brought with him two large pieces weighing together twelve pounds, which were picked up between a rock and the sea on a strand of about twelve yards in breadth. Amongst other floating bodies which the sea drives upon the shores of this Island, the true right camphor wood, and another sort of wood very white, soft, and sweet-scented, are occasionally found. [Sidenote: Sails to the Fox Islands.] Every preparation for continuing the voyage being made, they sailed from Copper Island the 26th of July, 1763, and steered for the Islands Umnak and Agunalashka, where Glottoff had formerly observed great numbers of black foxes. On account of storms and contrary winds, they were thirty days before they fetched Umnak. [Sidenote: Arrive at Kadyak.] Here they arrived the 24th of August, and without dropping anchor or losing any time, they resolved to sail further for the discovery of new islands: they passed eight contiguous to each other and separated by straits, which were to the best of their estimation from twenty to an hundred versts broad. Glottoff however did not land till he reached the last and most Eastward of these islands, called by the inhabitants Kadyak, from which the natives said it was not far to the coast of a wide extended woody continent. No land however was to be seen from a little island called by the natives Aktunak, which is situated about thirty versts more to the East than Kadyak. September 8th, the vessel ran up a creek, lying South East of Aktunak, through which a rivulet empties itself into the sea; this rivulet comes from a lake six versts long, one broad, and about fifty fathoms deep. During the ebb of the tide the vessel was left aground; but the return of the water set her again afloat. Near the shore were four large huts, so crouded with people, that their number could scarcely be counted: however, soon after Glottoff's arrival, all these inhabitants quitted their dwellings, and retired with precipitation. The next day some islanders in baidars approached the vessel, and accosted the people on board: and as Ivan Glottoff, the Aleütian interpreter, did not well understand the language of these islanders, they soon afterwards returned with a boy whom they had formerly taken prisoner from Isanak, one of the islands which lie to the West of Kadyak. Him the Aleütian interpreter perfectly understood: and by his means every necessary explanation could be obtained from the islanders. In this manner they conversed with the savages, and endeavoured to persuade them to become tributary; they used also every argument in their power to prevail upon them to give up the boy for an interpreter; but all their entreaties were for the present without effect. The savages rowed back to the cliff called Aktalin, which lies about three versts to the South of Kadyak, where they seemed to have habitations. On the 6th of September Kaplin was sent with thirteen men to the cliff, to treat peaceably with the islanders. He found there ten huts, from which about an hundred of the natives came out. They behaved seemingly in a friendly manner, and answered the interpreter by the boy, that they had nobody proper for an hostage; but that they would deliver up the boy to the Russians agreeable to their desire. Kaplin received him very thankfully, and brought him on board, where he was properly taken care of: he afterwards accompanied Glottoff to Kamtchatka, and was baptized by the name of Alexander Popoff, being then about thirteen years of age. For some days after this conference the islanders came off in companies of five, ten, twenty, and thirty: they were admitted on board in small numbers, and kindly received, but with a proper degree of circumspection. On the 8th of September the vessel was brought further up the creek without unloading her cargo: and on the 9th Glottoff with ten men proceeded to a village on the shore about two hundred yards from the vessel, where the natives had begun to reside: it consisted of three summer-huts covered only with long grass: they were from eight to ten yards broad, twelve long, and about four high: they saw there about an hundred men, but neither women nor children. Finding it impossible to persuade the savages to give hostages, Glottoff resolved to let his people remain together, and to keep a strong guard. [Sidenote: The Natives attack the Russians, but are defeated.] The islanders visited them still in small bodies; it was however more and more visible that their intentions were bad. At last on the 1st of October, by day break, a great number having assembled together in the remote parts of the island, came unexpectedly across the country. They approached very near without being discovered by the watch, and seeing nobody on deck but those on duty, shot suddenly into the vessel with arrows. The watch found refuge behind the quarter boards, and gave the alarm without firing. Glottoff immediately ordered a volley to be fired over their heads with small arms; upon which they immediately returned with great expedition. As soon as it was day there was no enemy to be seen: but they discovered a number of ladders, several bundles of hay in which the savages had put sulphur, likewise a quantity of birch-tree bark, which had been left behind in their precipitate flight. They now found it very necessary to be on their guard against the attempts of these perfidious incendiaries. Their suspicions were still further increased by the subsequent conduct of the natives: for though the latter came to the vessel in small bodies, yet it was observed that they examined every thing, and more particularly the watch, with the strictest attention; and they always returned without paying any regard to the friendly propositions of the Russians. On the 4th of October about two hundred islanders made their appearance, carrying wooden shields before them, and preparing with bows and arrows for an attack. Glottoff endeavoured at first by persuasion to prevail upen them to desist; but observing that they still continued advancing, he resolved to venture a sally. This intrepidity disconcerted the islanders, and they immediately retreated without making the least resistance. The 26th of October they ventured a third attack, and advanced towards the vessel for this purpose by day-break: the watch however gave the alarm in due time, and the whole crew were immediately under arms. The approach of day-light discovered to their view different parties of the enemy advancing under the protection of wooden screens. Of these moving breast-works they counted seven; and behind each from thirty to forty men armed with bone lances. Besides these a croud of armed men advanced separately to the attack, some of them bearing whale jaw-bones, and others wooden shields. Dissuasion proving ineffectual, and the arrows beginning to fall even aboard the ship, Glottoff gave orders to fire. [Sidenote: The Natives are finally repulsed by the Russians.] The shot from the small arms however not being of force enough to pierce the screens, the islanders advanced under their protection with steadiness and intrepidity. Glottoff nevertheless determined to risk a sally of his whole crew armed with muskets and lances. The islanders instantly threw down their screens, and fled with precipitation until they gained their boats, into which they threw themselves and rowed off. They had about seventeen large baidars and a number of small canoes. The screens which they left behind were made of three rows of stakes placed perpendicularly, and bound together with sea-weed and osiers; they were twelve feet broad, and above half a yard thick. [Sidenote: The Russians winter at Kadyak.] The islanders now appearing to be sufficiently intimidated, the Russians began to build a winter hut of floated wood, and waited in a body the appearance of spring without further annoyance. Although they saw nobody before the 25th of December, yet Glottoff kept his people together; sending out occasionally small hunting and fishing parties to the lake, which lay about five versts from the creek. During the whole winter they caught in the lake several different species of trout and salmon, soles, and herrings of a span and a half long, and even turbot and cod-fish, which came up with the flood into the lake. At last, on the 25th of December, two islanders came to the ship, and conversed at a distance by means of interpreters. Although proposals of peace, and trade were held out to them in the most friendly manner, yet they went off without seeming to put much confidence in these offers: nor did any of them appear again before the 4th of April, 1764. Want of sufficient exercise in the mean time brought on a violent scurvy among the crew, by which disorder nine persons were carried off. On the 4th of April four islanders made their appearance, and seemed to pay more attention to the proposals: one of them at last advanced, and offered to barter two fox-skins for beads. They did not set the least value upon other goods of various kinds, such as shirts, linen, and nankeen, but demanded glass beads of different colours, for which they exchanged their skins with pleasure. [Sidenote: The Natives are reconciled to the Russians.] This friendly traffic, together with Glottoff's entreaties, operated so powerfully, that, after holding a consultation with their countrymen, they returned with a solemn declaration, that their brethren would in future commit no hostilities against the Russians. From that time until their departure a daily intercourse was carried on with the islanders, who brought all sorts of fox and sea-otter skins, and received in exchange a stipulated number of beads. Some of them were even persuaded to pay a tribute of skins, for which receipts were given. Amongst other wares the Russians procured two small carpets, worked or platted in a curious manner, and on one side set close with beaver-wool like velvet: they could not however learn whether these carpets were wrought by the islanders. The latter brought also for sale well-dressed sea-otter skins, the hair of which was shorn quite short with sharp stones, in such a manner, that the remainder, which was of a yellowish brown colour, glistened and appeared like velvet. Their caps had surprising and sometimes very ornamental decorations: some of them had on the forepart combs adorned with manes like an helmet; others, seemingly peculiar to the females, were made of intestines stitched together with rein-deer hair and sinews in a most elegant taste, and ornamented on the crown with long streamers of hair died of a beautiful red. Of all these curiosities Glottoff carried samples to Kamtchatka[55]. [Footnote 55: These and several other ornaments of a similar kind are preserved in the cabinet of curiosities at the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg: a cabinet which well merits the attention of the curious traveller; for it contains a large collection of the dresses of the Eastern nations. Amongst the rest one compartment is entirely filled with the dresses, arms, and implements, brought from the new discovered islands.] [Sidenote: Animals of Kadyak.] The natives differ considerably in dress and language from the inhabitants of the other Fox Islands: and several species of animals were observed upon Kadyak, which are not to be found upon the other islands, viz. ermines, martens, beavers, river otters, wolves, wild boars, and bears: the last-mentioned animal was not indeed actually seen by the Russians, but the prints of its feet were traced. Some of the inhabitants had clothes made of the skins of rein-deer and jevras; the latter of which is a sort of small marmoset. Both these skins were probably procured from the continent of America[56]. Black, brown, and red foxes were seen in great numbers; and the coast abounds with sea-dogs, sea-bears, sea-lions, and sea-otters. The birds are cranes, geese, ducks, gulls, ptarmigans, crows, and magpies; but no uncommon species was any where discovered. [Sidenote: Productions.] The vegetable productions are bilberries, cranberries, wortleberries, and wild lily-roots. Kadyak likewise yields willows and alders, which circumstance affords the strongest proof that it lies at no great distance from the continent of America. The extent of Kadyak cannot be exactly ascertained, as the Russians, through apprehension of the natives, did not venture to explore the country. [Footnote 56: Although this conjecture is probable, yet, when the reader recollects that the island Alaksu is said to contain rein-deer, he will perceive that the inhabitants of Kadyak might have been supplied with the skins of that animal from thence. See p. 68.] [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants.] The inhabitants, like those of the Aleütian and nearer islands, make holes in the under-lips and through the gristle of the nose, in which they insert the bones of birds and animals worked into the form of teeth. Their clothes are made of the skins of birds, foxes, sea-otters, young rein-deer, and marmosets; they sew them together with sinews. They wear also fur-stockings of rein-deer skins, but no breeches. Their arms are bows, arrows, and lances, whose points, as well as their small hatchets, are of sharp flint: some few make knives and lance points of rein-deer bones. Their wooden shields are called kuyaky, which amongst the Greenlanders signifies a small canoe. Their manners are altogether rude. They have not the least disposition to give a courteous reception to strangers: nor does there appear amongst themselves any kind of deference or submission from one to another. Their canoes are some of them so small as to contain only one or two persons; others are large baidars similar to the women's boats of the Greenlanders. Their food consists chiefly of raw and dried fish, partly caught at sea with bone hooks, and partly in rivulets, in bagnets made of sinews platted together. They call themselves Kanagist, a name that has no small resemblance to Karalit; by which appellation, the Greenlanders and Esquimaux on the coast of Labradore distinguish themselves: the difference between these two denominations is occasioned perhaps by a change of pronunciation, or by a mistake of the Russian sailors, who may have given it this variation. Their numbers seem very considerable on that part of the island, where they had their fixed habitations. The island Kadyak[57] makes, with Aghunalashka, Umnak, and the small islands lying between them, a continued Archipelago, extending N. E. and E. N. E. towards America: it lies by the ship's reckoning in 230 degrees of longitude; so that it cannot be far distant from that part of the American coast which Beering formerly touched at. [Footnote 57: Kadyak is not laid down upon any chart of the new discovered islands: for we have no chart of Glottoff's voyage; and no other Russian navigator touched at that island.] The large island Alaksu, lying Northward from Kadyak where Pushkaref[58] wintered, must be still nearer the continent: and the account propagated by its inhabitants of a great promontory, called Atachtak, stretching from the continent N. E. of Alaksu, is not at all improbable. [Footnote 58: See Chap. VI.] Although the conduct of the islanders appeared more friendly, yet on account of their numbers Glottoff resolved not to pass another winter upon Kadyak, and accordingly prepared for his departure. He wanted hoops for repairing his water-casks; and being told by the natives that there were trees on the island at no great distance from the bay, he dispatched on the 25th of April Lukas Ftoruskin with eleven men for the purpose of felling wood. Ftoruskin returned the same day with the following intelligence: that after rowing along the South coast of the island forty or fifty versts from the haven, he observed, about half a verst from the shore, a considerable number of alders, similar to those found in Kamtchatka, growing in vallies between the rocks. The largest trunks were from two to four vershocks in diameter. Of this wood he felled as much as he had occasion for; and returned without having met with either islander or habitation. [Sidenote: Departure from Kadyak, May, 1764.] They brought the vessel down the creek in May; and, after taking in all the peltry and stores, left Kadyak on the 24th. Contrary winds retarded their voyage, and drove them near the island Alaksu, which they passed; their water being nearly exhausted, they afterwards landed upon another island, called Saktunk, in order to procure a fresh stock. [Sidenote: Arrival at Umnak.] At last on the 3d of July, they arrived again at Umnak, and anchored in a bay which Glottoff had formerly visited. He immediately went ashore in a baidar, and soon found out his former hut, which was in ruins: near it he observed another Russian dwelling, that had been built in his absence, in which lay a murdered Russian, but whose face none of them knew. Glottoff, resolving to procure further information, went across the island the 5th of July, accompanied by sixteen of his crew. He discovered the remains of a burnt vessel, some prayer books, images, &c.; all the iron work and cordage were carried off. Near the spot he found likewise a bathing room filled with murdered Russians in their clothes. From some marks, he concluded that this was the vessel fitted out by Protassoff; nor was he mistaken in his conjectures. Alarmed at the fate of his countrymen, Glottoff returned to the ship, and held a consultation upon the measures necessary to be taken; and it was unanimously resolved that they should endeavour to procure more intelligence concerning the vessel. In the mean time seven islanders came rowing off in baidars, and pretended that they wanted to trade. They shewed sea-otter skins at a distance, but would not venture on board; and desired by the interpreter Glottoff and two of his people to come on shore and barter. Glottoff however, having sufficient cause to distrust the savages, refused to comply with their demands: upon this they immediately landed, and shot from the shore with fire-arms, but without doing any execution. They were even bold enough to get into their canoes a second time, and to row near the vessel. In order if possible to procure intelligence from them, every method of persuading them to peace was tried by means of the interpreters; and at last one of them approached the ship and demanded victuals, which being thrown to him, he came on board. He then related the fate of the above-mentioned vessel, of which the islanders had made themselves masters; and gave likewise some intelligence concerning the remaining small body of fugitives under the command of Korovin. He also confessed, that their design was to entice Glottoff on shore, and then to kill him; for which purpose more than thirty islanders were posted in ambush behind the nearest rocks. After cutting off the leader, they imagined it would be an easy matter to seize upon the ship. Upon this information Glottoff detained the islander on board, and landing with a strong party attacked the savages; the latter shot with arrows, as well as from the muskets which they had seized, but without effect, and were soon forced to retire to their canoes. July the 14th a violent storm arose, in which Glottoff's vessel parted her cable, and was forced on shore without any other loss than that of an anchor. The crew likewise, through want of fresh provisions, began to grow so sickly, that they were almost in a defenceless state. Glottoff however, with ten men, set out the 28th of July for that part of the island, where according to information they expected to find Korovin. They discovered only parts of the wreck, but none of the crew, so that they now gave them up for lost. But on the 2d of August, as Glottoff was on his way back, five islanders approached him in canoes, and asked why the baidar had been out; to which a false answer being given, they told him, that on the other side of the island he would find Korovin with his people, who were building an hut on the side of the rivulet. Upon receiving this intelligence, Glottoff and his companions went over land to the place pointed out by the islanders, and found every thing agreeable to their information: in this Korovin had not the least share, not having been made privy to the transaction. The circumstances of his joining, and afterwards separating from Glottoff, have already been mentioned[59]. [Footnote 59: See the preceding Chapter.] [Sidenote: Glottoff winters upon Umnak.] Glottoff now resolved to winter upon Umnak, and accordingly laid up his vessel for that purpose. On the 2d of September Korovin, as is before related, was at his own desire sent out with a hunting party in two baidars. On his return, in May 1765, they had the first intelligence of the arrival of Solovioff's vessel, which lay before Unalashka, and of which an account shall be given[60]. None of the islanders appeared near the harbour during the winter, and there were none probably at that time upon Umnak; for Glottoff made excursions on all sides, and went once round the island. He likewise looked into the habitations of the islanders, and found them empty: he examined the country and caused a strict search to be made after the remains of the plundered vessel. [Footnote 60: Chap. XI.] According to his account Umnak is about 300 versts in circumference. It contains several small rivulets, which take their rise from lakes, and fall into the sea after a very short course. No trees were observed upon the island, and the vegetables were the same as those of Kamtchatka. The following summer small parties of the inhabitants were seen; but they immediately fled upon the approach of the Russians. Some of them however were at last persuaded to a friendly intercourse and to pay a tribute: by these means they got back part of the arms, anchors, and iron work, of the plundered vessel. They continued to barter with the natives during the summer of 1765, exchanging beads for the skins of foxes and sea-otters. [Sidenote: Departure from Umnak.] The following winter hunting parties were sent out in Umnak as well as to Unalashka; and in July 1766 Glottoff, without meeting with any more difficulties began his voyage homewards. We shall here conclude with giving a copy of the journal kept on board Glottoff's vessel, the Andrean and Natalia; from which inferences with regard to the situation of the islands may be drawn. [Sidenote: Journal of the Voyage.] Journal of Glottoff, on board the Andrean and Natalia. 1762. Oct. 1. Sailed from Kamtchatka Bay. 2. Wind Southerly, steered between E. and S. E. three hours. 3. Wind S. E. worked at N. E. course, 16 hours. 4. From midnight sailed East with a fair wind, 18 hours. 5. At Six o'clock A. M. discovered Beering's Island distant about 18 versts. 6. At 1 o'clock came to anchor on the South East point of Copper Island. 7. At 8 A. M. sailed to the South side of the Island, anchored there at 10 o'clock. 1763. July 26. Sailed from Copper Island at 5 P. M. 27. Sailed with a fair S. S. W. wind, 17 hours. 28. Made little way. 29. Drove--wind E. N. E. 30. Ditto. 31. Ditto. Aug. 1. Ditto. 2. At 11 A. M. wind N. E. steered E. 3. Wind W. S. W. sailed 8 knots an hour, 250 versts. 4. Wind South--sailed 150 versts. 5. Wind ditto--sailed 126 versts. 6. Wind ditto, 3 knots, 45 versts. 7. Calm. 8. During the night gentle S. E. wind steered, N. E. at 2-1/2 knots. 9. Forenoon calm. At 2 o'clock P. M. gentle N. E. wind, steered between E. N. E. and S. E. at the rate of three knots. 10. Morning, wind E. N. E. afterwards S. S. W. with which steered N. E. 11. At 5 o'clock the wind S. S. E. steered E. N. E. at the rate of three knots. 12. Wind S. steered E. at 2-1/2 knots, sailed 50 versts. 13. Wind S. S. E. steered E. at 4-1/2 knots, sailed 90 versts. 14. Wind W. N. W. at 2 knots, sailed 30 versts. 15. The wind freshened, at 4 knots, sailed 60 versts. 16. Wind N. N. E. steered E. S. E. at 3 knots, sailed 30 versts. 17. Wind E. S. E. and S. E. light breezes and changeable. 18. Wind S. E. steered N. E. at 3-1/2 knots, sailed in 12 hours 22 versts. 19. Wind S. and light breezes, steered E. at 3 knots, sailed in 8 hours 11 versts. 20. Before day-break calm; three hours after sun-rise a breeze sprung up at S. E. steered E. N. E. at 3 knots, and sailed 20 versts. 22. Calm. 23. Wind S. S. E. during the night, the ship sailed at the rate of 2 knots; the wind afterwards came round to the S. S. W. and the ship sailed at 5 to 6 knots these 24 hours 150 versts. 24. Saw land at day-break, at 3 knots sailed 45 versts. 25. Wind W. S. W. sailed along the coast these 24 hours 50 versts. 26. Wind N. W. steered N. E. at 5-1/2 knots, 100 versts. 27. Wind E. N. E. the ship drove towards land, on which discovered a high mountain. 28. Wind N. E. and stormy, the ship drove. 29. Wind N. W. steered E. N. E. at the rate of 3 knots. 30. Wind S. S. E. at 6 knots, steering again towards land. 31. A violent storm, Wind west. Sept. 1. Wind West, steered N. E. at the rate of 3 knots towards land. 2. Wind S. W. steered N. E. towards land at 5 knots. 3. Wind S. W. drove N. N. E. along the coast. 4. Wind W. N. W. steered N. E. at 4 knots, sailed 100 versts. 5. Wind N. W. steered E. N. E. at 3 knots, and towards evening came to anchor off the Island Kadyak. 1764 May 24. Sailed from Kadyak. 25. Wind N. W. and made but little way W. S. W. 26. Wind W. ship drove towards S. E. 27. Wind W. S. W. ship drove E. S. E. The same day the wind came round to the S. when steered again towards Kadyak. 28. Wind E. S. E. fell in with the island Alaska or Alaksu. 29. Wind S. W. steered N. W. 30. Wind W. N. W. the ship drove under the foresail. 31. Wind W. drove to the Southward. June 1. Wind W. S. W. landed on the Island Saktunak, for a supply of water. 2. Wind S. E. steered S. W. along the island at 3 knots. 3. Wind N. E. steered W. S. W. at the rate of 3 to 4 knots, sailing in these 24 hours 100 versts. 4. Calm. 5. At 8 o'clock A. M. a small breeze S. E. 6. Wind E. afterwards calm. Towards evening the wind S.E. steered S. W. at 3 knots, and unexpectedly discovered land ahead, which kept clear of with difficulty. From the 7th to the 10th at anchor off a small cliff. 10. A hard gale at S. the ship drove foul of the anchor, stood out to sea steering E. 11. Anchored again at a small distance from land. 13. Wind S. S. W. stood out to sea and steered E. S. E. 14. Wind W. S. W. steered S. S. E. at the rate of 1 knot. 15. Calm. 16. Wind S. steered W. at 1 knot, the ship drove a little to the Northward. 17. Wind S. S. E. steered W. S. W. at 3 knots. 18. Calm. 19. Ditto. 20. Wind N. E. steered S. W. and sailed this day about 87 versts. 21. The Wind blowing right ahead, came to anchor off an unknown island, where continued till the 25. When stood out to sea early in the morning. 26. Wind W. N. W. afterwards W. steered S. E. 27. Calm, in the night a small but favourable breeze. 28. Wind N. W. continued the course, at the rate of 2 to 3 knots[61]. 29. Wind N. E. steered W. at 3 to 4 knots, and saw land. 30. Wind N. E. steered S. W. at the rate of 7 knots. July 1. With the same wind and course, at the rate of 5 knots, sailed 200 versts. 2. Fell in with the island Umnak, and came to an anchor under a small island until next day; when brought the ship into the harbour, and laid her up. 1766. June 13. Brought the ship into the harbour, and continued at anchor there until the 3d of July. July 3. Got under way. 4. Wind E. 5. A South West wind drove the ship about 50 versts N. E. 6. Wind S. sailed about 60 versts W. 7. Wind W. S. W. the ship drove to the Northward. 8. Wind N. W. steered S. at the rate of one knot. 9. Wind N. W. steered the whole day W. S. W. 10. Wind S. S. W. sailed about 40 versts W. N. W. 11. Wind S. W. continued the same course, sailing only 5 versts. 12. Continued the same course, and sailed 55 versts. 13. For the most part calm. 14. Wind W. N. W. and stormy, the ship drove under the foresail. 15. Wind S. sailed on the proper course 100 versts. 16. Wind E. S. E. sailed W. S. W. at the rate of 6 knots, 100 versts. 17. Wind N. N. W. sailed S. W. at the rate of 2 knots, 30 versts. 18. Wind S. steered W. at the rate of 5 knots, and sailed 130 versts. 19. Wind S. W. the ship drove under the foresail. 20. Wind E. N. E. steered W. N. W. at the rate of 3 knots. 21. Wind E. N. E. at the rate of 4 to 5 knots, sailed 200 versts. 22. Wind N. E. at 4-1/2 knots, 150 versts. 23. Wind E. N. E. steered W. at 3 knots, 100 versts. 24. Wind E. steered W. at the rate of 3 knots, 50 versts. 25. Wind N. E. steered W. at 5 knots 100 versts. 26. The wind continued N. E. and freshened, steered W. at the rate of 7 knots, 200 versts. 27. A small breeze N. N. W. with which however sailed 150 versts. 28. Wind being W. S. W. drove 24 hours under bare-poles. 29. Wind South, steered W. at the rate of 2 knots, 48 versts--this day saw land. 30. Wind S. S. E. sailed, at the rate of 4 knots, 96 versts, and approached the land, which found to be the island Karaga--From the 1st to the 13th of August, continued our voyage towards the mouth of Kamtchatka river, sometimes plying to windward, sometimes driving, and at last arrived happily with a rich cargo. [Footnote 61: Lief man bey nordwest wind auf den curs zu 2 bis 3 knoten.] CHAP. XI. _Solovioff's_ voyage--he reaches _Unalashka_, and passes two winters upon that island--relation of what passed there--fruitless attempts of the natives to destroy the crew--Return of _Solovioff_ to _Kamtchatka_--journal of his voyage in returning--description of the islands _Umnak_ and _Unalashka_--productions--inhabitants--their manners--customs, &c. &c. [Sidenote: Voyage of Solovioff in the St. Peter and Paul, 1764.] In the year 1764, Jacob Ulednikoff, merchant of Irkutsk and company, fitted out a ship called the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, under the command of Ivan Solovioff: she sailed from the mouth of Kamtchatka river the 25th of August. The crew consisted of fifty-five men, amongst whom were some of the owners, and thirteen Kamtchadals. They steered at first S. E. with the wind at N. W. but on its coming southerly they afterwards shaped their course E. N. E. The 27th one of the Russian sailors died off Kamtchatka point; the 31st they made Beering's Island, which they passed leaving it on their left. The 1st and 2nd of September they were becalmed, and afterwards the wind springing up at W. S. W. they continued their former course; until the 5th they sailed on with the wind at south; but on the 5th and 6th, from changeable breezes and dead calms, made no progress; from the 7th to the 13th, they sailed E. S. E. with Southerly and Westerly winds; and from that time to the fifteenth East, with the wind at West. September 16, they made the island Umnak, where Solovioff had formerly been in Nikiphoroff's vessel. As they sailed along the Northern coast, three islanders came to them in baidars; but, the crew having no interpreter, they would not come on board. As they found no good bay on that shore, they proceeded through a strait of about a verst broad, which separates Umnak from Unalashka. [Sidenote: Arrival at Unalashka.] They lay-to during the night; and early on the 17th dropped anchor at the distance of about two hundred yards from the shore, in a bay on the North side of the last mentioned island. From thence the captain dispatched Gregory Korenoff at the head of twenty men in a baidar, with orders to land, reconnoitre the country, find out the nearest habitations, and report the disposition of the people. Korenoff returned the same day, with an account that he had discovered one of the dwelling-caves of the savages, but abandoned and demolished, in which he had found traces of Russians, viz. a written legend, and a broken musket-stock. In consequence of this intelligence, they brought the ship near the coast, and endeavoured to get into the mouth of a river called by the natives Tsikanok, and by the Russians Osernia, but were prevented by shallow water. They landed however their tackle and lading. No natives made their appearance until the 22d, when two of them came of their own accord, and welcomed the Russians on their arrival. They told their names, and were recognized by Solovioff; he had known them on a former expedition, when Agiak, one of the two, had served as an interpreter; the other, whose name was Kashmak, had voluntarily continued some time with the crew on the same occasion. These two persons recounted the particular circumstances which attended the loss of Kulkoff's, Protassoff's, and Trapesnikoff's vessels; from the last of which Kashmak had, with great hazard of his life, escaped by flight. Agiak had served as interpreter to Protassoff's company, and related that the islanders, after murdering the hunting detachments of the Russians, came to the harbour, and entered the ship under the most friendly appearances. Finding the crew in perfect security, they suddenly attacked and slew them, together with their commander. He added, that he had hid himself under a bench until the murderers were gone: that since that time, he, as well as Kashmak, had lived as fugitives; and in the course of their wanderings had learned the following intelligence from the girls who were gathering berries in the fields. The Toigons of Umnak, Akutan, and Toshko, with their relations of Unalashka, had formed a confederacy. They agreed not to disturb any Russians on their first landing, but to let them go out on different hunting excursions; being thus separated and weakened, the intention of the Toigons were to attack and cut them off at the same time, so that no one party should have assistance from any of the others. They acquainted him also with Glottoff's arrival at Umnak. These unfavourable reports filled Solovioff with anxiety; he accordingly doubled his watch, and used every precaution in his power against attacks from the savages. But wanting wood to repair his vessel, and wishing for more particular information concerning the situation of the island, he dispatched the 29th a party of thirty men, with the above-mentioned interpreter, to its western extremity. In three or four hours they rowed to Ankonom, a point of land, where they saw a village, consisting of two large caves, and over against it a little island at no great distance. The moment the inhabitants saw them approaching, they got into their baidars, and put out to sea, leaving their dwellings empty. The Russians found therein several skeletons, which, in the interpreter's opinion, were the remains of ten murdered sailors of Trapesnikoff's company. With much persuasion the interpreter prevailed on the islanders to return to the place which they had just quitted: they kept however at a wary distance, and were armed for whatever might occur. [Sidenote: Hostilities between Solovioff and the Natives.] Solovioff attempting to cut off their retreat, in order to secure if possible some hostages, they took the alarm, and began themselves the attack. Upon this the Russians fired upon and pursued them; four were killed, and seven taken prisoners, among whom was the Toigon of the little island Sedak. These prisoners, being bound and examined, confessed that a number of Korovin's crew had been murdered in this place; and the Toigon sent people to bring in a number of muskets, some kettles and tackle, which the natives had taken upon that occasion. They also brought intelligence that Korovin, with a party in two baidars, had taken shelter at a place called Inalga. Upon this information, letters were immediately sent to Korovin; upon the receipt of which he joined them the 2d of October. At the time of Korovin's arrival, the savages made another attack on Solovioff's watch with knives; which obliged the latter to fire, and six of the assailants were left dead on the spot. The captive Toigon excused this attempt of his people by ascribing it to their fears, lest Korovin out of revenge should put all the prisoners to death; on which account this effort was made to rescue them. Solovioff, for the greater security, sent the prisoners by land to the haven, while Korovin and his party went to the same place by sea. The Toigon however was treated kindly, and even permitted to return home on condition of leaving his son as an hostage. In consequence of this kind behaviour the inhabitants of three other villages, Agulak, Kutchlok, and Makuski presented hostages of their own accord. [Sidenote: Solovioff lays up the Vessel, and winters upon Unalashka.] From the remaining timber of the old dwelling the Russians built a new hut; and on the fourteenth they laid up the vessel. Koronoff was then sent upon a reconnoitring party to the Southern side of the island, which in that part was not more than five or six versts broad: he proceeded on with his companions, sometimes rowing in canoes, sometimes travelling by land and dragging them after. He returned the twentieth, and reported that he had found upon the coast on the further side of the island an empty habitation. That he rowed from thence Eastward along the shore, and behind the first point of land came to an island in the next bay; there he found about forty islanders of both sexes lodged under their baidars, who by his friendly behaviour had been induced to give him three hostages. These people afterwards settled in the above-mentioned empty hut, and came frequently to the harbour. On the 28th of October, Solovioff himself went also upon a reconnoitring party along the North coast, towards the North-East end of the island. He rowed from the first promontory across a bay; and found on the opposite point of land a dwelling place called Agulok, which lies about four hours row from the harbour. He found there thirteen men and about forty women and children, who delivered up several gun-barrels and ship-stores, and likewise informed him of two of Korovin's crew who had been murdered. November 5, they proceeded farther; and after five or six hours rowing, they saw on a point of land another dwelling called Ikutchlok, beyond which the interpreter shewed them the haven, where Korovin's ship had been at anchor. This was called Makushinshy Bay; and on an island within it they found two Toigons, called Itchadak and Kagumaga, with about an hundred and eighty people of both sexes employed in hunting sea-bears. These natives were not in the least hostile, and Solovioff endeavoured to establish and confirm a friendly intercourse between them and his people. He remained with them until the 10th, when the Toigons invited him to their winter quarters, which lay about five hours sail farther East: there he found two dwelling caves, each of forty yards square, near a rivulet abounding with fish which fell from a lake into a little bay. In the neighbourhood of this village is a hot spring below the sea mark, which is only to be seen at ebb tide. From hence he departed the 25th, but was forced back by storms, and detained there until the 6th of December. Kagumaga then accompanied him to another village called Totchikala; both the Toigon and the interpreter advised him to be on his guard against the natives, whom they represented as very savage, sworn enemies to the Russians, and the murderers of nine of Kulkoff's crew. Solovioff for these reasons passed the night on the open coast, and next morning sent the Toigon before to inspire the natives with more friendly sentiments. Some of them listened to his representations; but the greatest part fled upon Solovioff's approach, so that he found the place consisting of four large dwelling caves almost empty, in which he secured himself with suitable precaution. Here he found three hundred darts and ten bows with arrows, all which he destroyed, only reserving one bow and seventeen arrows as specimens of their arms. By the most friendly arguments he urged the few natives who remained to lay aside their enmity, and to persuade their leaders and relations to return to their habitations and live on terms of amity and friendship. On the 10th about an hundred men and a still greater number of women returned. [Sidenote: Renewal of Hostilities.] But the fairest speeches had no effect on these savages, who kept aloof and prepared for hostilities, which they began on the 17th by an open attack. Nineteen of them were killed, amongst whom was Inlogusak one of their leaders, and the most inveterate fomenter of hostilities against the Russians. The other leader Aguladock being alive confessed, that on receiving the first news of Solovioff's arrival they had resolved to attack the crew and burn the ship. Notwithstanding this confession, no injury was offered to him: in consequence of this kind usage he was prevailed upon to deliver up his son as an hostage, and to order his people to live on friendly terms with the Russians. During the month of January the natives delivered in three anchors, and a quantity of tackle which had been saved from a vessel formerly wrecked on that coast; and at the same time they brought three boys and two young girls as hostages and pledges of their future fidelity. January 25, Solovioff set out for the haven where his ship lay: before his departure the Toigons of Makushinsk paid of their own accord a double tribute. February 1, Kagumaga of Makushink, Agidalok of Totzikala, and Imaginak of Ugamitzi, Toigons of Unalashka, with a great number of their relations, came to Solovioff; they acquainted him with the arrival of a Russian ship at Unimak, the sixth island to the East of Agunalashka, adding that they knew none of the crew excepting a Kamtchadal named Kirilko, who had been there on a former occasion. They likewise informed him that the natives, after having cut off part of the crew who had been sent out in two baidars, had found means to overpower the remainder and to destroy the vessel. From the name of the Kamtchadal they concluded that this must have been another vessel fitted out by Nikiphor Trapesnikoff and company, of which no farther intelligence was ever received. Willing to procure farther intelligence, they endeavoured to persuade the Toigons to send a party of their people to the above-mentioned island; but the latter excused themselves, on account of the great distance and their dread of the islanders. February 16, Solovioff set out a second time for the West end of the island, where they had formerly taken prisoner, and afterwards set at liberty, the Toigon of Sedak. From thence he proceeded to Ikolga, which lies on the bay, and consists of only one hut. On the 26th he came to Takamitka, where there is likewise only one hut on a point of land by the side of a rivulet, which falls from the mountains into the sea. Here he met with Korovin, in whose company he cut the blubber of a whale, which the waves had cast on shore; after this Korovin went across the gulph to Umnak, and he proceeded to Ikaltshinsk, where on the 9th one of his party was carried off by sickness. March 15 he returned to the haven, having met with no opposition from the islanders during this excursion. On his return he found one of the crew dead, and a dreadful scurvy raging amongst the rest; of that distemper five Russians died in March, eight and a Kamtchadal in April, and six more in May. About this time the islanders were observed to pay frequent visits to the hostages; and upon enquiring privately into the reason, some of the latter discovered, that the inhabitants of Makushinsk had formed the design of cutting off the crew, and of making themselves masters of the vessel. Solovioff had now great reasons to be apprehensive, for the crew were afflicted with the scurvy to such a violent degree, that out of the whole number only twelve persons were capable of defending themselves. These circumstances did not escape the observation of the natives; and they were accordingly inspired with fresh courage to renew their hostilities. On the 27th of May the Russians perceived the Toigon of Itchadak, who had formerly paid a voluntary tribute, near the shore: he was accompanied by several islanders in three baidars. Solovioff calling to him by the interpreter he came on shore, but kept at a distance desiring a conference with some of his relations. Solovioff gave orders to seize him; and they were lucky enough to take him prisoner, together with two of his companions. He immediately confessed, that he had come with a view of enquiring of the hostages how many Russians were still remaining: having procured the necessary intelligence, his intention was to surprise the watch at a convenient season, and afterwards to set fire to the ship. As they saw several islanders row past the harbour at the same time, and the Toigon likewise informed them, that they were assembling to execute the abovementioned design; Solovioff resolved to be much upon his guard. They separated, however, without attempting any hostilities. June 5, Glottoff arrived at the harbour on a visit, and returned on the 8th to his ship. The captive Toigon was now set at liberty, after being seriously exhorted to desist from hostilities. In the course of this month two more of the crew died; so that the arrival of Korovin, who joined them about this time, with two of his own and two of Kulkoff's crew, was of course a very agreeable circumstance. The sick likewise began to recover by degrees. July 22, Solovioff, with a party of his people, in two baidars, made another excursion Northwards; he passed by the places formerly mentioned as far as Igonok, which lies ten versts beyond Totzikala. Igonok consists of one dwelling cave on the side of a rivulet, which falls from the mountains, and empties itself into the sea. The inhabitants amounted to about thirty men, who dwelt there with their wives and children. From thence Solovioff proceeded along the shore into a bay; five versts further he found another rivulet, which has its source among the hills and flows through a plain. Upon the shore of the same bay, opposite to the mouth of this rivulet, lay two villages, one of which only was inhabited; it was called Ukunadok, and consisted of six dwelling caves. About thirty-five of the inhabitants were at that time employed in catching salmon in the rivulet. Kulkoff's ship had lain at anchor about two miles from thence; but there were no remains of her to be found. After coming out of the bay he went forwards to the summer village Umgaina distant about seven or eight leagues, and situated on the side of a rivulet, which takes its rise in a lake abounding with salmon. Here he found the Toigon Amaganak, with about ten of the natives, employed in fishing. Fifteen versts farther along the shore they found another summer village called Kalaktak, where there was likewise another rivulet, which came from the hills. The inhabitants were sixty men and an hundred and seventy women and children: they gave Solovioff a very friendly reception; and delivered up two hostages, who were brought from the neighbouring island Akutan; with these he set out on his return, and on the 6th of August joined his crew. On the 11th he went over to the island Umnak, accompanied by Korovin, to bring off some ships stores left there by the latter; and returned to the haven on the 27th. On the 31st Shaffyrin died, the same person whose adventures have been already related. Sept. 19. Korenoff was sent northwards upon an hunting party; he returned the 30th of January, 1766. Although the Russians who remained at the haven met with no molestation from the natives during his absence; yet he and his companions were repeatedly attacked. Having distributed to the inhabitants of the several villages through which he passed nets for the purpose of catching sea-otters, he went to the East part of the island as far as Kalaktak, with an intention of hunting. Upon his arrival at that place, on the 31st of October, the inhabitants fled with precipitation; and as all his efforts to conciliate their affections were ineffectual, he found it requisite to be upon his guard. Nor was this precaution unnecessary; for on the following day they returned in a considerable body, armed with lances, made with the iron of the plundered vessels. Korenoff, however, and his companions, who were prepared to receive them, killed twenty-six, and took several prisoners; upon which the others became more tractable. Nov. 19. Korenoff, upon his return to the haven, came to Makushinsk, where he was kindly received by a Toigon named Kulumaga; but with regard to Itchadak, it was plain that his designs were still hostile. Instead of giving an account of the nets which had been left with him, he withdrew privately: and on the 19th of January, accompanied by a numerous body of islanders, made an attempt to surprise the Russians. Victory, however, again declared for Korenoff; and fifteen of the assailants, amongst whom was Itchadak himself, remained dead upon the spot. Kulumaga assured them, in the strongest manner, that the design had been carried on without his knowledge; and protested, that he had often prevented his friend from committing hostilities against the Russians. Korenoff returned to the haven on the 30th of January; and on the 4th of February he went upon another hunting expedition toward the Western point of the island. During this excursion he met with a party sent out by Glottoff, at a place called Takamitka; he then rowed over to Umnak, where he collected a small tribute, and returned on the 3d of March. During his absence Kyginik, Kulumaga's son, paid a visit to the Russians, and requested that he might be baptized, and be permitted to go aboard the vessel; his demand was immediately complied with. May 13th. Korovin went, with fourteen men, to Umnak, to bring off an anchor, which was buried in the sand. On his return preparations were made for their departure. Before the arrival of Korovin the hunters had killed 150 black and brown foxes; and the same number of old and young sea-otters; since his arrival they had caught 350 black foxes, the same number of common foxes, and 150 sea-otters of different sizes. This cargo being put on board, the interpreter Kashmak set at liberty, with a certificate of, and presents for his fidelity, and the hostages delivered up to the Toigons and their relations, who had assembled at the haven, Solovioff put to sea on the 1st of June, with an Easterly wind. Before his departure he received a letter from Glottoff, informing him that he was likewise preparing for his return. [Sidenote: Journal of the Voyage homewards.] June 2. The wind being contrary, they got but a small way from land. 5. Steered again towards the shore, came to an anchor, and sent a boat for a supply of water, which returned without having seen any body. 6. Weighed and steered W. with a S. E. wind. 7. Favourable wind at N. E. and in the afternoon at N. 8. Wind at N. W. and stormy, the ship drove under the foresail. 9 & 10. Sailed Northwards, with a Westerly wind. 11. Calm till noon; afterwards breeze sprung up at S. with which they steered W. till next day at noon; when the wind coming round to the West, they changed their course, and steered N. W. 12. Calm during the night. 13. A small breeze of Northerly wind, with which they steered W. in the afternoon it fell calm, and continued so till the 16. at noon, when a breeze springing up at East, they steered W. on which course they continued during the 18. with a S. S. E. wind. From the 19 to the 22. The wind was changeable from the S. W. to N. W. with which they still made a shift to get to the Westward. 23. The wind E. they steered betwixt N. & W. which course they continued the 24th, 25th, 26th, with a Northerly wind. 27. A. M. the wind changed to S. W. 28, 29, 30. Wind at West. July 1. The wind changed to E. with which they steered between W. and S. W. with little variations, till the 3d. 4. They reached Kamtchatkoi Noss, and on the 5th. Brought the ship, in good condition, into Kamtchatka river. [Sidenote: Solovioff's Description of the Fox Islands.] Solovioff's description of these islands and the inhabitants being more circumstantial, than the accounts given by former navigators, deserves to be inserted at full length. According to his estimation, the island Unalashka lies between 1500 and 2000 versts due East from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river: the other islands to the Eastward stretch towards N. E. He reckons the length of Akutan at eighty versts; Umnak at an hundred and fifty, and Unalashka at two hundred. No large trees were seen upon any of the islands which he touched at. They produce underwood, small shrubs, and plants, for the most part similar to the common species found in Kamtchatka. The winter is much milder than in the Eastern parts of Siberia, and continues only from November to the end of March. The snow seldom lies upon the ground for any time. Rein-deer, bears, wolves, ice-foxes, are not to be found on these islands; but they abound in black, grey, brown, and red foxes; for which reason they have got the name of Lyffie Ostrova, or Fox Islands. These foxes are stronger than those of Yakutsk, and their hair is much coarser. During the day they lie in caves and clifts of rocks; towards evening they come to the shore in search of food; they have long ago extirpated the brood of mice, and other small animals. They are not in the smallest degree afraid of the inhabitants, but distinguish the Russians by the scent; having experienced the effects of their fire-arms. The number of sea-animals, such as sea-lions, sea-bears, and sea-otters, which resort to these shores, are very considerable. Upon some of the islands warm springs and native sulphur are to be found. [Sidenote: Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants.] The Fox-islands are in general very populous; Unalashka, which is the largest island, is supposed to contain several thousand inhabitants. These savages live together in separate communities, composed of fifty, and sometimes of two or even three hundred persons; they dwell in large caves from forty to eighty yards long, from six to eight broad, and from four to five high. The roof of these caves is a kind of wooden grate, which is first spread over with a layer of grass, and then covered with earth. Several openings are made in the iop, through which the inhabitants go up and down by ladders: the smallest dwellings have two or three entrances of this sort, and the largest five or six. Each cave is divided into a certain number of partitions, which are appropriated to the several families; and these partitions are marked by means of stakes driven into the earth. The men and women sit on the ground; and the children lie down, having their legs bound together under them, in order to make them learn to sit upon their hams. Although no fire is ever made in these caves, they are generally so warm, that both sexes sit naked. These people obey the calls of nature openly, and without esteeming it indecent. They wash themselves first with their own urine, and afterwards with water. In winter they go always bare-footed; and when they want to warm themselves, especially before they go to sleep, they set fire to dry grass and walk over it. Their habitations being almost dark, they use particularly in winter a sort of large lamps, made by hollowing out a stone, into which they put a rush-wick and burn train oil. A stone so hollowed is called Tsaaduck. The natives[62] are whites with black hair; they have flat faces, and are of a good stature. The men shave with a sharp stone or knife, the circumference and top of the head, and let the hair which remains hang from the crown[63]. The women cut their hair in a streight line over the forehead; behind they let it grow to a considerable length, and tie it in a bunch. Some of the men wear their beards; others shave or pull them out by the roots. [Footnote 62: Von gesicht sind sie platt undweiss durchgaengig mit schwarzen haaren.] [Footnote 63: The original in this passage is somewhat obscure. Die maenner scheeren mit einem Scharfen Stein oder messer den Umkreiss des haarkopfs und die platte, und lassen die haare um die krone des kopfs rundum ueberhangen.] They mark various figures on their faces, the backs of their hands, and lower parts of their arms, by pricking them first with a needle, and then rubbing the parts with a sort of black clay. They make three incisions in the under-lip; they place in the middle one a flat bone, or a small coloured stone; and in each of the side-ones they fix a long pointed piece of bone, which bends and reaches almost to the ears. They likewise make a hole through the gristle of the nose, into which they put a small piece of bone in such a manner as to keep the nostrils extended. They also pierce holes in their ears, and wear in them what little ornaments they can procure. Their dress consists of a cap and a fur-coat, which reaches down to the knee. Some of them wear common caps of a party coloured bird-skin, upon which they leave part of the wings and tail. On the fore-part of their hunting and fishing caps they place a small board like a screen, adorned with the jaw-bones of sea-bears, and ornamented with glass beads, which they receive in barter from the Russians. At their festivals and dancing parties they use a much more showy sort of caps. Their fur-coats are made like shirts, being close behind and before, and are put on over the head. The mens dress is made of birds skins, but the womens of sea-otters and sea-bears. These skins are died with a sort of red earth, and neatly sewed with sinews, and ornamented with various stripes of sea-otter skins and leathern fringes. They have also upper garments made of the intestines of the largest sea-calves and sea-lions. Their vessels consist of two sorts: the larger are leathern boats or baidars, which have oars on both sides, and are capable of holding thirty or forty people. The smaller vessels are rowed with a double paddle, and resemble the canoes of the Greenlanders, containing only one or two persons: they never weigh above thirty pounds, being nothing but a thin skeleton of a boat covered with leather. In these however they pass from one island to another, and even venture out to sea to a considerable distance. In calm weather they go out in them to catch turbot and cod with bone-hooks and lines made of sinews or sea-weed. They strike fish in the rivulets with darts. Whales and other sea-animals thrown ashore by the waves are carefully looked after, and no part of them is lost. The quantity of provisions which they procure by hunting and fishing being far too small for their wants, the greatest part of their food consists of sea-wrack and shell-fish, which they find on the shore. No stranger is allowed to hunt or fish near a village, or to carry off any thing fit for food. When they are on a journey, and their provisions are exhausted, they beg from village to village, or call upon their friends and relations for assistance. They feed upon the flesh of all sorts of sea-animals, and generally eat it raw. But if at any time they choose to dress their victuals, they make use of an hollow stone; having placed the fish or flesh therein, they cover it with another, and close the interstices with lime or clay. They then lay it horizontally upon two stones, and light a fire under it. The provision which is intended for keeping is dried without salt in the open air. They gather berries of various sorts, and lily roots of the same species with those which grow wild at Kamtchatka. They are unacquainted with the manner of dressing the cow-parsnip, as practised in that Peninsula; and do not understand the art of distilling brandy or any other strong liquor from it. They are at present very fond of snuff, which the Russians have introduced among them. No traces were found of any worship, neither did they seem to have any sorcerers[64] among them. If a whale happens to be cast on shore, the inhabitants assemble with great marks of joy, and perform a number of extraordinary ceremonies. They dance and beat drums[65] of different sizes: they then cut up the fish, of which the greatest and best part is consumed on the spot. On such occasions they wear showy caps; and some of them dance naked in wooden masks, which reach down to their shoulders, and represent various sorts of sea-animals. Their dances consist of short steps forwards, accompanied with many strange gestures. [Footnote 64: In the last chapter it is said that there are sorcerers among them.] [Footnote 65: The expression in the original is "Schlagen auf grossen platten handpauken," which, being literally translated, signifies "They beat upon large flat hand-kettle drums of different sounds." By the accounts which I procured at Petersburg, concerning the form of these drums, they seem to resemble in shape those made use of by the sorcerers of Kamtchatka, and are of different sizes. I had an opportunity of seeing one of the latter at the Cabinet of Curiosities. It is of an oval form, about two feet long and one broad: it is covered only at one end like the tambour de basque, and is worn upon the arm like a shield.] Marriage ceremonies are unknown among them, and each man takes as many wives as he can maintain; but the number seldom exceeds four. These women are occasionally allowed to cohabit with other men; they and their children are also not unfrequently bartered in exchange for commodities. When an islander dies, the body is bound with thongs, and afterwards exposed to the air in a sort of wooden cradle hung upon a cross-bar, supported by forks. Upon these occasions they cry and make bitter lamentations. Their Toigons or Princes are those who have numerous families, and are skilful and successful in hunting and fishing. Their weapons consist of bows, arrows, and darts: they throw the latter very dexterously, and to a great distance from a hand-board. For defence they use wooden shields, called kuyakin. These islanders are, notwithstanding their savageness, very docile; and the boys, whom the Russians keep as hostages, soon acquire a knowledge of their language. CHAP. XII. Voyage of _Otcheredin_--He winters upon _Umnak_--Arrival of _Levasheff_ upon _Unalashka_--Return of _Otcheredin_ to _Ochotsk_. [Sidenote: Voyage of Otcheredin in the St. Paul, 1765.] In the year 1765 three merchants, namely, Orechoff of Yula, Lapin of Solikamsk, and Shiloff of Ustyug, fitted out a new vessel called the St. Paul, under the command of Aphanassei Otcheredin. She was built in the harbour of Ochotsk: his crew consisted of sixty-two Russians and Kamtchadals, and she carried on board two inhabitants of the Fox Islands named John and Timothy Surgeff, who had been brought to Kamtchatka and baptised. September 10, they sailed from Ochotsk, and arrived the 22d in the bay of Bolcheresk where they wintered. August 1, 1776, they continued their voyage, and having passed the second of the Kuril Isles, steered on the 6th into the open sea; on the 24th they reached the nearest of the Fox Islands, which the interpreters called [66]Atchak. A storm arising they cast anchor in a bay, but saw no inhabitants upon the shore. [Sidenote: Arrival at Umnak.] On the 26th they sailed again, discovered on the 27th Sagaugamak, along which they steered North East, and on the 31st came within seven miles of the island Umnak; where, on account of the lateness of the season and the want of provision and water, they determined to winter. Accordingly on the 1st of September, by the advice of the interpreters, they brought the vessel into a convenient bay near a point of land lying N. W. where they fastened it to the shore with cables. [Footnote 66: Called in a former journal Atchu, p. 63.] Upon their landing they discovered several pieces of a wreck; and two islanders, who dwelled on the banks of a rivulet which empties itself into the bay, informed them, that these were the remains of a Russian vessel, whose commander's name was Denys. From this intelligence they concluded that this was Protassoff's vessel, fitted out at Ochotsk. The inhabitants of Umnak, Unalashka, and of the Five Mountains, had assembled and murdered the crew, when separated into different hunting parties. The same islanders also mentioned the fate of Kulkoff's and Trapesnikoff's ships upon the island Unalashka. Although this information occasioned general apprehensions, yet they had no other resource than to draw the vessel ashore, and to take every possible precaution against a surprize. Accordingly they kept a constant watch, made presents to the Toigons and the principal inhabitants, and demanded some children as hostages. For some time the islanders behaved very peaceably, until the Russians endeavoured to persuade them to become tributary: upon which they gave such repeated signs of their hostile intentions, that the crew lived under continual alarms. In the beginning of September information was brought them of the arrival of a vessel, fitted out by Ivan Popoff merchant of Lalsk, at Unalashka. About the end of the said month the Toigon of the Five Mountains came to Otcheredin, and was so well satisfied with his reception, that he brought hostages, and not only assured them of his own friendship, but promised to use his influence with the other Toigons, and to persuade them to the same peaceable behaviour. But the other Toigons not only paid no regard to his persuasions, but even barbarously killed one of his children. From these and other circumstances the crew passed the winter under continual apprehensions, and durst not venture far from the harbour upon hunting parties. Hence ensued a scarcity of provisions; and hunger, joined to the violent attacks of the scurvy, made great havock amongst them, insomuch that six of them died, and several of the survivors were reduced to so weak a condition, that they were scarce able to move. The health of the crew being re-established in the spring, twenty-three men were sent on the 25th of June in two boats to the Five Mountains, in order to persuade the inhabitants to pay tribute. On the 26th they landed on the island Ulaga, where they were attacked with great spirit by a large body of the inhabitants; and though three of the Russians were wounded, yet the savages were repulsed with considerable loss: they were so terrified by their defeat, that they fled before the Russians during their continuance on that island. The latter were detained there by tempestuous weather until the 9th of July; during which time they found two rusty firelocks belonging to Protassoff's crew. On the 10th they returned to the harbour; and it was immediately resolved to dispatch some companies upon hunting expeditions. Accordingly on the 1st of August Matthew Poloskoff, a native of Ilinsk, was sent with twenty-eight men in two boats to Unalashka with the following orders; that if the weather and other circumstances were favourable, they were to make to Akutan and Akun, the two nearest islands to the East, but to proceed no further. In consequence of this, Poloskoff reached Akutan about the end of the month; and being kindly received by the inhabitants, he left six of his party to hunt; with the remainder he went to Akun, which lies about two versts from Akutan. From thence he dispatched five men to the neighbouring islands, where he was informed by the interpreters there were great quantities of foxes. Poloskoff and his companions continued the whole autumn upon Akun without being annoyed; but on the 12th of December the inhabitants of the different islands assembled in great numbers, and attacked them by land and sea. They informed Poloskoff, by means of the interpreters, that the Russians whom he had sent to the neighbouring islands were killed; that the two vessels at Umnak and Unalashka were plundered, and the crew put to death; and that they were now come to make him and his party share the same fate. The Russian fire-arms however kept them in due respect; and towards evening they dispersed. The same night the interpreter deserted, probably at the instigation of his countrymen, who nevertheless killed him, as it was said, that winter. January 16, the savages ventured to make a second attack. Having surprised the guard by night, they tore off the roof of the Russian dwelling, and shot down into the hut, making at the same time great outcries: by this unexpected assault four Russians were killed, and three wounded; but the survivors no sooner had recourse to their fire-arms, than the enemy was driven to flight. Meanwhile another body of the natives attempted to seize the two vessels, but without success; they however cut off the party of six men left by Poloskoff at Akutan, together with the five hunters dispatched to the contiguous islands, and two of Popoff's crew who were at the Westermost part of Unalashka. Poloskoff continued upon Akun in great danger until the 20th of February; when, the wounded being recovered, he sailed over with a fair wind to Popoff's vessel at Unalashka; and on the 10th of May returned to Otcheredin. In April Popoff's vessel being got ready for the voyage, all the hostages, whose number amounted to forty, were delivered to Otcheredin. July the 30th a vessel belonging to the same Popoff arrived from Beering's Island, and cast anchor in the same bay where Otcheredin's lay; and both crews entered into an agreement to share in common the profits of hunting. Strengthened by this alliance, Otcheredin prevailed upon a number of the inhabitants to pay tribute. August the 22d Otcheredin's mate was sent with six boats and fifty-eight men to hunt upon Unalashka and Akutan; and there remained thirty men with the vessels in the harbour, who kept constant watch. [Sidenote: Otcheredin receives an Account of Levasheff's Arrival at Unalashka.] Soon afterwards Otcheredin and the other commander received a letter from Levasheff Captain Lieutenant of the Imperial fleet, who accompanied Captain Krenitzin in the secret expedition to those islands. The letter was dated September 11, 1768: it informed them he was arrived at Unalashka in the St. Paul, and lay at anchor in the same bay in which Kulkoff's vessel had been lost. He likewise required a circumstantial account of their voyages. By another order of the 24th he sent for four of the principal hostages, and demanded the tribute of skins which had been exacted from the islanders. But as the weather was generally tempestuous at this season of the year, they deferred sending them till the spring. May the 31st Levasheff set sail for Kamtchatka; and in 1771 returned safely from his expedition at St. Petersburg. The two vessels remained at Umnak until the year 1770, during which time the crews met with no opposition from the islanders. They continued their hunting parties, in which they had such good fortune, that the share of Otcheredin's vessel (whose voyage is here chiefly related) consisted in 530 large sea-otter skins, 40 young ones and 30 cubs, the skins of 656 fine black foxes, 100 of an inferior sort, and about 1250 red fox skins. With this large cargo of furs Otcheredin set sail on the 22d of May, 1770, from Umnak, leaving Popoff's crew behind. A short time before their departure, the other interpreter Ivan Surgeff, at the instigation of his relations, deserted. [Sidenote: Return of Otcheredin to Ochotsk.] After having touched at the nearest of the Aleütian Islands, Otcheredin and his crew arrived on the 24th of July at Ochotsk. They brought two islanders with them, whom they baptized. The one was named Alexèy Solovieff; the other Boris Otcheredin. These islanders unfortunately died on their way to Petersburg; the first between Yakutsk and Irkutsk; and the latter at Irkutsk, where he arrived on the 1st of February, 1771. CHAP. XIII. Conclusion--General position and situation of the _Aleütian_ and _Fox Islands_--their distance from each other--Further description of the dress, manners, and customs of the inhabitants--their feasts and ceremonies, &c. [Sidenote: Position of Beering's and Copper Islands.] According to the latest informations brought by Otcheredin's and Popoff's vessels, the North West point of Commandorskoi Ostroff, or Beering's Island, lies due East from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river, at the distance of 250 versts. It is from 70 to 80 versts long, and stretches from North West to South East, in the same direction as Copper Island. The latter is situated about 60 or 70 versts from the South East point of Beering's Island, and is about 50 versts in length. [Sidenote: Of the Aleütian Isles.] About 300 versts East by South of Copper Island lie the Aleütian Isles, of which Attak is the nearest: it is rather larger than Beering's Island, of the same shape, and stretches from West to South East. From thence about 20 versts Eastwards is situated Semitshi, extending from West to East, and near its Eastern point another small island. To the South of the strait, which separates the two latter islands, and at the distance of 40 versts from both of them, lies Shemiya in a similar position, and not above 25 versts in length. All these islands stretch between 54 and 55 degrees of North latitude. [Sidenote: Of the Fox Islands.] The Fox Islands are situated E. N. E. from the Aleütians: the nearest of these, Atchak, is about 800 versts distant; it lies in about 56 degrees North latitude, and extends from W. S. W. towards E. N. E. It greatly resembles Copper Island, and is provided with a commodious harbour on the Notrh. From thence all the other islands of this chain stretch in a direction towards N. E. by East. The next to Atchak is Amlak, about 15 versts distant; it is nearly of the same size; and has an harbour on its South side. Next follows Sagaugamak, at about the same distance, but somewhat smaller; from that it is 50 versts to Amuchta, a small rocky island; and the same distance from the latter to Yunaksan, another small island. About 20 versts from Yunaksan there is a cluster of five small islands, or rather mountains, Kigalgist, Kagamila, Tsigulak, Ulaga, and Tana-Unok, and which are therefore called by the Russians Pät Sopki, or the Five Mountains. Of these Tana-Unok lies most to the N. E. towards which the Western point of Umnak advances within the distance of 20 versts. Umnak stretches from S. W. to N. E.; it is 150 versts in length, and has a very considerable bay on the West end of the Northern coast, in which there is a small island or rock, called Adugak; and on the South side is Shemalga, another rock. The Western point of Aghunalashka, or Unalashka, is separated from the East end of Umnak by a strait near 20 versts in breadth. The position of these two islands is similar; but Aghunalashka is much the largest, and is above 200 versts long. It is divided towards the N. E. into three promontories, one of which runs out in a Westerly direction, forming one side of a large bay on the North coast of the island: the second stretches out N. E. ends in three points, and is connected with the island by a small neck of land. The third or most Southerly one is separated from the last mentioned promontory by a deep bay. Near Unalashka towards the East lies another small island called Skirkin. About 20 versts from the North East promontory of Aghunalashka lie four islands: the first, Akutan, is about half as big as Umnak; a verst further is the small island Akun; a little beyond is Akunok; and lastly Kigalga, which is the smallest of these four, and stretches with Akun and Akunok almost from N. to S. Kigalga is situated about the 61st degree of latitude. About 100 versts from thence lies an island called Unimak[67], upon which Captain Krenitzin wintered; and beyond it the inhabitants said there was a large tract of country called Alashka, of which they did not know the boundaries. [Footnote 67: Krenitzin wintered at Alaxa, and not at Unimak. See Appendix I. N^o I.] The Fox Islands are in general very rocky, without containing any remarkable high mountains: they are destitute of wood, but abound in rivulets and lakes, which are mostly without fish. The winter is much milder than in Siberia; the snow seldom falls before the beginning of January, and continues on the ground till the end of March. There is a volcano in Amuchta; in Kagamila sulphur flows from a mountain; in Taga-Unok there are warm springs hot enough to boil provisions; and flames of sulphur are occasionally seen at night upon the mountains of Unalashka and Akutan. [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants of the Fox Islands.] The Fox Islands are tolerably populous in proportion to their size. The inhabitants are entirely free, and pay tribute to no one: they are of a middle stature; and live, both in summer and winter, in holes dug in the earth. No signs of religion were found amongst them. Several persons indeed pass for sorcerers, pretending to know things past and to come, and are accordingly held in high esteem, but without receiving any emolument. Filial duty and respect towards the aged are not held in estimation by these islanders. They are not however deficient in fidelity to each other; they are of lively and chearful tempers, though rather impetuous, and naturally prone to anger. In general they do not observe any rules of decency, but follow all the calls of nature publicly, and without the least reserve. They wash themselves with their own urine. [Sidenote: Their Food.] Their principal food consists in fish and other sea-animals, small shell-fish and sea-plants: their greatest delicacies are wild lilies and other roots, together with different kinds of berries. When they have laid in a store of provisions, they eat at any time of the day without distinction; but in case of necessity they are capable of fasting several days together. They seldom heat their dwellings; but when they are desirous of warming themselves, they light a bundle of hay, and stand over it; or else they set fire to train oil, which they pour into a hollow stone. They feed their children when very young with the coarsest flesh, and for the most part raw. If an infant cries, the mother immediately carries it to the sea-side, and be it summer or winter holds it naked in the water until it is quiet. This custom is so far from doing the children any harm, that it hardens them against the cold; and they accordingly go bare-footed through the winter without the least inconvenience. They are also trained to bathe frequently in the sea; and it is an opinion generallly received among the islanders, that by that means they are rendered bold, and become fortunate in fishing. [Sidenote: Dress.] The men wear shirts made of the skins of cormorants, sea-divers, and gulls; and, in order to keep out the rain, they have upper garments of the bladders and other intestines of sea-lions, sea-calves, and whales, blown up and dried. They cut their hair in a circular form close to their ears; and shave also a round place upon the top. The women, on the contrary, let the hair descend over the forehead as low as the eye-brows, and tie the remaining part in a knot upon the top of the head. They pierce the ears, and hang therein bits of coral which they get from the Russians. Both sexes make holes in the gristle of the nose, and in the under-lips, in which they thrust pieces of bone, and are very fond of such kind of ornaments. They mark also and colour their faces with different figures. They barter among one another sea-otters, sea-bears, clothes made of bird-skins and of dried intestines, skins of sea-lions and sea-calves for the coverings of baidars, wooden masks, darts, thread made of sinews and reindeer hair, which they get from the country of Alaska. Their houshold utensils are square pitchers and large troughs, which they make out of the wood driven ashore by the sea. [Sidenote: Arms.] Their weapons are bows and arrows pointed with flints, and javelins of two yards in length, which they throw from a small board. Instead of hatchets they use crooked knives of flint or bone. Some iron knives, hatchets, and lances, were observed amongst them, which they had probably got by plundering the Russians. According to the reports of the oldest inhabitants of Umnak and Unalashka, they have never been engaged in any war either amongst themselves or with their neighbours, except once with the people of Alashka, the occasion of which was as follows: The Toigon of Umnak's son had a maimed hand; and some inhabitants of Alashka, who came upon a visit to that island, fastened to his arm a drum, out of mockery, and invited him to dance. The parents and relations of the boy were offended at this insult: hence a quarrel ensued; and from that time the two people have lived in continual enmity, attacking and plundering each other by turns. According to the reports of the islanders, there are mountains upon Alashka, and woods of great extent at some distance from the coast. The natives wear clothes made of the skins of reindeer, wolves, and foxes, and are not tributary to any of their neighbours. The inhabitants of the Fox-islands seem to have no knowledge of any country beyond Alashka. [Sidenote: Feasts.] Feasts are very common among these islanders; and more particularly when the inhabitants of one island are visited by those of the others. The men of the village meet their guests beating drums, and preceded by the women, who sing and dance. At the conclusion of the dance the hosts invite them to partake of the feasts; after which ceremony the former return first to their dwellings, place mats in order, and serve up their best provision. The guests next enter, take their places, and after they are satisfied the diversions begin. First, the children dance and caper, at the same time making a noise with their small drums, while the owners of the hut of both sexes sing. Next, the men dance almost naked, tripping after one another, and beating drums of a larger size: when these are weary, they are relieved by the women, who dance in their clothes, the men continuing in the mean time to sing and beat their drums. At last the fire is put out, which had been kindled for the ceremony. The manner of obtaining fire is by rubbing two pieces of dry wood, or most commonly by striking two flints together, and letting the sparks fall upon some sea-otter's hair mixed with sulphur. If any sorcerer is present, it is then his turn to play his tricks in the dark; if not, the guests immediately retire to their huts, which are made on that occasion of their canoes and mats. The natives, who have several wives, do not withhold them from their guests; but where the owner of the hut has himself but one wife, he then makes the offer of a female servant. Their hunting season is principally from the end of October to the beginning of December, during which time they kill large quantities of young sea-bears for their clothing. They pass all December in feastings and diversions similar to that above mentioned: with this difference, however, that the men dance in wooden masks, representing various sea-animals, and painted red, green, or black, with coarse coloured earths found upon these islands. During these festivals they visit each other from village to village, and from island to island. The feasts concluded, masks and drums are broken to pieces, or deposited in caverns among the rocks, and never afterwards made use of. In spring they go out to kill old sea-bears, sea-lions, and whales. During summer, and even in winter when it is calm, they row out to sea, and catch cod and other fish. Their hooks are of bone; and for lines they make use of a string made of a long tenacious sea-weed, which is sometimes found in those seas near one hundred and sixty yards in length. Whenever they are wounded in any encounter, or bruised by any accident, they apply a sort of yellow root to the wound, and fast for some time. When their head achs, they open a vein in that part with a stone lancet. When they want to glue the points of their arrows to the shaft, they strike their nose till it bleeds, and use the blood as glue. Murder is not punished amongst them, for they have no judge. With respect to their ceremonies of burying the dead, they are as follow: The bodies of poor people are wrapped up in their own clothes, or in mats; then laid in a grave, and covered over with earth. The bodies of the rich are put, together with their clothes and arms, in a small boat made of the wood driven ashore by the sea: this boat is hung upon poles placed cross-ways; and the body is thus left to rot in the open air. The customs and manners of the inhabitants of the Aleütian Isles are nearly similar to those of the inhabitants of the Fox Islands. The former indeed are rendered tributary, and entirely subject to Russia; and most of them have a slight acquaintance with the Russian language, which they have learned from the crews of the different vessels who have landed there. PART II. CONTAINING THE CONQUEST OF SIBERIA, AND THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSACTIONS AND COMMERCE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA. CHAP. I. First irruption of the _Russians_ into _Siberia_--Second inroad--_Yermac_ driven by the Tzar of _Muscovy_ from the Volga, retires to _Orel_ a _Russian_ Settlement--Enters _Siberia_ with an army of _Cossacks_--His progress and exploits--Defeats _Kutchum Chan_--conquers his dominions--cedes them to the Tzar--receives a reinforcement of _Russian_ troops--is surprized by _Kutchum Chan_--his defeat and death--Veneration paid to his memory--_Russian_ troops evacuate _Siberia_--re-enter and conquer the whole country--their progress stopped by the _Chinese_. [Sidenote: First Irruption of the Russians into Siberia under the Reign of Ivan Vassilievitch I.] Siberia was scarcely known to the Russians before the middle of the sixteenth century[68]. For although an expedition was made, under the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch I. into the North Western Parts of that country, as far as the river Oby, by which several Tartar tribes were rendered tributary, and some of their chiefs brought prisoners to Moscow; yet this incursion bore a greater resemblance to the desultory inroads of barbarians, than to any permanent establishment of empire by a civilized nation. Indeed the effects of that expedition soon vanished; nor does any trace of the least communication with Siberia again appear in the Russian history before the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch II. At that period Siberia again became an object of attention, by means of one Anika Strogonoff, a Russian merchant, who had established some salt-works at Solvytshegodskaia, a town in the government of Archangel. [Footnote 68: S. R. G. VI. p. 199-211. Fis. Sib. Ges. Tom. I.] [Sidenote: Anika Strogonoff trades with the People of Siberia.] This person carried on a trade of barter with the inhabitants of the North-Western parts of Siberia, who brought every year to the abovementioned town large quantities of the choicest furs. Upon their return to their country Strogonoff was accustomed to send with them some Russian merchants, who crossed the mountains, and traded with the natives. By these means a considerable number of very valuable furs were procured at an easy rate, in exchange for toys and other commodities of trifling value. This traffic was continued for several years, without any interruption; during which Strogonoff rapidly amassed a very considerable fortune[69]. At length the Tzar Ivan Vassilievitch II. foreseeing the advantages which would accrue to his subjects, from establishing a more general and regular commerce with these people, determined to enlarge the communication already opened with Siberia. [Sidenote: Second Irruption of the Russians into Siberia in the Reign of Ivan Vassilievitch II.] Accordingly he sent a corps of troops into that country. They followed the same route which had been discovered by the Russians in the former expedition, and which was lately frequented by the merchants of Solvytshegodskaia. It lay along the banks of the Petschora, and from thence crossed the Yugorian mountains, which form the North Eastern boundary of Europe. These troops, however, do not seem to have passed the Irtish, or to have penetrated further than the Western branch of the river Oby. Some Tartar tribes were indeed laid under contribution; and a chief, whose name was Yediger, consented to pay an annual tribute of a thousand sables. But this expedition was not productive of any lasting effects; for soon afterwards Yediger was defeated, and taken prisoner by Kutchum Chan; the latter was a lineal descendant of the celebrated Zinghis Chan; and had newly established his empire in those parts. [Footnote 69: S. R. G. VI. p. 220-223. Fis. Sib. Ges. p. 182.] This second inroad was probably made about the middle of the sixteenth century; for the Tzar Ivan Vassilievitch assumed the title of Lord of all the Siberian lands so early as 1558, before the conquests made by Yermac in that kingdom[70]. But probably the name of Siberia was at that time only confined to the district then rendered tributary; and as the Russians extended their conquests, this appellation was afterwards applied to the whole tract of country which now bears that name. [Footnote 70: S. R. G. VI. p. 217.] For some time after the above-mentioned expedition, the Tzar does not appear to have made any attempts towards recovering his lost authority in those distant regions. But his attention was again turned to that quarter by a concurrence of incidents; which, though begun without his immediate interposition, terminated in a vast accession of territory. [Sidenote: Strogonoff forms Settlements upon the Kama and Tchussovaia.] Strogonoff, in recompence for having first opened a trade with the inhabitants of Siberia, obtained from the Tzar large grants of land; accordingly he founded colonies upon the banks of the rivers Kama and Tchussovaia; and these settlements gave rise to the entire subjection of Siberia by the refuge which they not long afterwards afforded to Yermac Timofeeff. This person was nothing more than a fugitive Cossac of the Don, and chief of a troop of banditti who infested the shores of the Caspian sea. But as he was the instrument by which such a vast extent of dominion was added to the Russian Empire, it will not be uninteresting to develop the principal circumstances, which brought this Cossac from the shores of the Caspian to the banks of the Kama; and to trace the progress which he afterwards made in the distant regions of Siberia. By the victories which the Tzar Ivan Vassilievitch had gained over the Tatars of Casan and Astracan, that monarch extended his dominions as far as the Caspian Sea; and thereby established a commerce with the Persians and Bucharians. [Sidenote: Yermac is driven from the Shores of the Caspian Sea. A. D. 1577.] But as the merchants who traded to those parts were continually pillaged by the Cossacs of the Don; and as the roads which lay by the side of that river, and of the Volga, were infested with those banditti; the Tzar sent a considerable force against them. Accordingly, they were attacked and routed; part were slain, part made prisoners, and the rest escaped by flight. Among the latter was a corps of six thousand Cossacs, under the command of the above-mentioned Yermac Timofeeff[71]. [Footnote 71: S. R. G. VI. p. 232. Fis. Sib. Ges. I. p. 185.] [Sidenote: He retires to Orel, one of the Russian Settlements.] That celebrated adventurer, being driven from his usual haunts, retired, with his followers, into the interior part of the province of Casan. From thence he directed his course along the banks of the Kama, until he came to Orel[72]. That place was one of the Russian settlements recently planted, and was governed by Maxim grandson of Anika Strogonoff. Yermac, instead of storming the place, and pillaging the inhabitants, acted with a degree of moderation unusual in a chief of banditti. Being hospitably received by Strogonoff, and supplied with every thing that was necessary for the subsistence of his troops, he fixed his winter quarters at that settlement. [Sidenote: Determines to invade Siberia.] His restless genius however did not suffer him to continue for any length of time in a state of inactivity; and from the intelligence he procured concerning the situation of the neighbouring Tartars of Siberia, he turned his arms toward that quarter. [Footnote 72: S. R. G. VI. p. 233.] [Sidenote: State of Siberia.] Siberia was at that time partly divided among a number of separate princes; and partly inhabited by the various tribes of independent Tartars. Of the former Kutchum Chan was the most powerful Sovereign. His dominions consisted of that tract of country which now forms the South Western part of the province of Tobolsk; and stretched from the banks of the Irtish and Oby to those of the Tobol and Tura. His principal residence was at Sibir[73], a small fortress upon the river Irish, not far from the present town of Tobolsk; and of which some ruins are still to be seen. Although his power was very considerable, yet there were some circumstances which seemed to ensure success to an enterprizing invader. He had newly acquired a large part of his territories by conquest; and had, in a great measure, alienated the affections of his idolatrous subjects by the intolerant zeal, with which he introduced and disseminated the Mahometan religion[74]. [Footnote 73: Several authors have supposed the name of Siberia to derive its origin from this fortress, soon after it was first taken by the Russians under Yermac. But this opinion is advanced without sufficient foundation; for the name of Sibir was unknown to the Tartars, that fort being by them called Isker. Besides, the Southern part of the province of Tobolsk, to which the name of Siberia was originally applied, was thus denominated by the Russians before the invasion of Yermac. This denomination probably first came from the Permians and Sirjanians, who brought the first accounts of Siberia to the Russians. S. R. G. VI. p. 180.] [Footnote 74: S. R. G. VI. p. 180.] Strogonoff did not fail of displaying to Yermac this inviting posture of affairs, as well with a view of removing him from his present station, as because he himself was personally exasperated against Kutchum Chan: for the latter had secretly instigated a large body of Tartars to invade the Russian settlements upon the river Tchussovaia; and had afterwards commenced open hostilities against them with a body of forces under the command of his cousin Mehemet Kul. And although both these attempts had failed of success, yet the troops engaged in them had left behind traces of havock and devastation too lasting to be easily effaced[75]. [Footnote 75: Fis. Sib. Ges. I. p. 187.] [Sidenote: Marches towards Siberia.] All these various considerations were not lost upon Yermac: having therefore employed the winter in preparations for his intended expedition, he began his march in the summer of the following year, 1578, along the banks of the Tchussovaia. The want of proper guides, and a neglect of other necessary precautions, greatly retarded his march, and he was overtaken by the winter before he had made any considerable progress. [Sidenote: Returns to Orel.] And at the appearance of spring he found his stock of provisions so nearly exhausted, that he was reduced to the necessity of returning to Orel. But this failure of success by no means extinguished his ardour for the prosecution of the enterprize; it only served to make him still more solicitous in guarding against the possibility of a future miscarriage. By threats he extorted from Strogonoff every assistance which the nature of the expedition seemed to require. Besides a sufficient quantity of provisions, all his followers, who were before unprovided with fire-arms, were supplied with muskets and ammunition; and, in order to give the appearance of a regular army to his troops, colours were distributed to each company, which were ornamented with the images of saints, after the manner of the Russians. Having thus made all previous arrangements, he thought himself in a condition to force his way into Siberia. [Sidenote: His second Expedition.] Accordingly, in the month of June, 1579, he set out upon this second expedition. His followers amounted to five thousand men; adventurers inured to hardships, and regardless of danger: they placed implicit confidence in their leader, and seemed to be all animated with one and the same spirit. [Sidenote: Arrives upon the Banks of the Tura.] He continued his route partly by land, and partly by water: the navigation however of the rivers was so tedious, and the roads so rugged and difficult, that eighteen months elapsed before he reached Tchingi, a small town upon the banks of the Tura[76]. [Footnote 76: S.R.G. VI. p. 243-248-262.] Here he mustered his troops, and found his army considerably reduced: part had been exhausted by fatigue, part carried off by sickness, and part cut off in skirmishes with the Tartars. The whole remaining number amounted to about fifteen hundred effective men; and yet with this handful of troops Yermac did not hesitate a moment in advancing against Kutchum Chan. That prince was already in a posture of defence; and resolved to guard his crown to the last extremity. Having collected his forces, he dispatched several flying parties against Yermac, himself remaining behind with the slower of his troops: but all these detachments were driven back with considerable loss; and worried in many successive skirmishes. Yermac continued his march without intermission, bearing down all resistance until he reached the center of his adversary's dominions. These successes however were dearly bought; for his army was now reduced to five hundred men. Kutchum Chan was encamped[77] at no great distance upon the banks of the Irtish, with a very superior force, and determined to give him battle. Yermac, who was not to be daunted by the inequality of numbers, prepared for the engagement with a confidence which never forsook him; his troops were equally impatient for action, and knew no medium between conquest and death. The event of the combat corresponded with this magnanimity. [Sidenote: Defeats Ketchum Chan. 1581.] After an obstinate and well fought battle, victory declared in favour of Yermac: the Tartars were entirely routed, and the carnage was so general, that Kutchum Chan himself escaped with difficulty. [Footnote 77: The place where the Tartar army lay encamped was called Tschuvatch: it is a neck of land washed by the Irtish, near the spot where the Tobob falls into that river. Fis. Sib. Ges. I. p. 203.] This defeat proved decisive: Kutchum Chan was deserted by his subjects; and Yermac, who knew how to improve as well as gain a victory, marched without delay to Sibir, the residence of the Tartar princes. He was well aware, that the only method to secure his conquest was to get possession of that important fortress. He expected therefore to have found in that place a considerable garrison, determined to sacrifice their lives in its defence. But the news of the late defeat had diffused universal consternation, and Sibir was entirely deserted. [Sidenote: Seats himself upon the Throne.] A body of troops whom he sent before him, to reduce the fortress, found it quite deserted: he himself soon after made his triumphant entry, and seated himself upon the throne without the least opposition. Here he fixed his residence, and received the allegiance of the neighbouring people, who poured in from all quarters upon the news of this unexpected revolution. The Tartars were so struck with his gallant intrepidity and brilliant exploits, that they submitted to his authority without hesitation, and acquiesced in the payment of the usual tribute. Thus this enterprising Cossac was suddenly exalted from the station of a chief of banditti to the rank of a sovereign prince. It does not appear from history whether it were at first his design to conquer Siberia, or solely to amass a considerable booty. The latter indeed seems the more probable conjecture. The rapid tide of success with which he was carried on, and the entire defeat of Kutchum Chan, afterwards expanded his views, and opened a larger scene to his ambition. But whatever were his original projects, he seems worthy, so far as intrepidity and prudence form a basis of merit, of the final success which flowed in upon him. For he was neither elated with unexpected prosperity, nor dazzled with the sudden glare of royalty: on the contrary, the dignity of his deportment was as consistent and unaffected, as if he had been born a sovereign. And now Yermac and his followers seemed to enjoy those rewards which they had dearly purchased by a course of unremitted fatigue, and by victories which almost exceeded belief. Not only the tribes in the neigbourhood of Sibir wore the appearance of the most unreserved submission; but even princes continued flocking in from distant parts, to acknowledge themselves tributary, and to claim his protection. [Sidenote: Precarious Situation of Yermac.] However, this calm was of short duration. Insurrections were concerted by Kutchum Chan; who, though driven from his dominions, yet still retained no small degree of influence over his former subjects. Yermac saw and felt the precariousness of his present grandeur; the inconsiderable number of his followers who had survived the conquest of Sibir, had been still further diminished by an ambuscade of the enemy; and as he could not depend on the affection of his new subjects, he found himself under the necessity either of calling in foreign assistance, or of relinquishing his dominion. Under these circumstances he had recourse to the Tzar of Muscovy; and made a tender of his new acquisitions to that monarch, upon condition of receiving immediate and effectual support. The judicious manner in which he conducted this measure, shews him no less able in the arts of negotiation than of war. One of his most confidential followers was dispatched to Moscow at the head of fifty Cossacs. [Sidenote: Cedes his Conquests to the Tzar of Muscovy.] He had orders to represent to the court the progress which the Russian troops, under the command of Yermac, had made in Siberia: he was artfully to add, that an extensive empire was conquered in the name of the Tzar; that the natives were reduced to swear allegiance to that monarch, and consented to pay an annual tribute. This representation was accompanied with a present of the choicest and most valuable furs[78]. [Sidenote: 1582.] The embassador was received at Moscow with the strongest marks of satisfaction: a public thanksgiving was celebrated in the cathedral; the Tzar acknowledged and extolled the good services of Yermac; he granted him a pardon for all former offences; and, as a testimony of his favour, distributed presents for him and his followers. Amongst those which were sent to Yermac was a fur robe, which the Tzar himself had worn, and which was the greatest mark of distinction that could be conferred upon a subject. To these was added a sum of money, and a promise of speedy and effectual assistance. [Footnote 78: S.R.G. VI. p. 304.] Meanwhile Yermac, notwithstanding the inferior number of his troops, did not remain inactive within the fortress of Sibir. He defeated all attempts of Kutchum Chan to recover his crown; and took his principal general prisoner. He made occasional inroads into the adjacent provinces, and extended his conquests up to the source of the river Taffda on one side, and on the other as far as the district which lies upon the river Oby above its junction with the Irtish. [Sidenote: Receives a Reinforcement of Russian troops.] At length the promised succours arrived at Sibir. They consisted of five hundred Russians, under the command of prince Bolkosky, who was appointed wayvode or governor of Siberia. Strengthened by this reinforcement, Yermac continued his excursions on all sides with his usual activity; and gained several bloody victories over different princes, who were imprudent enough to assert their independence. In one of these expeditions he laid siege to Kullara, a small fortress upon the banks of the Irtish, which still belonged to Kutchum Chan: but he found it so bravely defended by that monarch, that all his efforts to carry it by storm proved ineffectual. Upon his return to Sibir he was followed at some distance by that prince, who hung unperceived upon his rear; and was prepared to seize any fortunate moment of attack which might occur; nor was it long before a favourable opportunity presented itself. The Russians to the number of about three hundred lay negligently posted in a small island, formed by two branches of the Irtish. The night was obscure and rainy; and the troops, who were fatigued with a long march, reposed themselves without suspicion of danger. [Sidenote: Surprised by Kutchum Chan.] Kutchum Chan, apprised of their situation, silently advanced at midnight with a select body of troops; and having forded the river, came with such rapidity upon the Russians, as to preclude the use of their arms. In the darkness and confusion of the night, the latter were cut to pieces almost without opposition; and fell a resistless prey to those adversaries, whom they had been accustomed to conquer and despise. The massacre was so universal, that only one man is recorded to have escaped, and to have brought the news of this catastrophe to his countrymen at Sibir. [Sidenote: Death of Yermac.] Yermac himself perished in the rout, though he did not fall by the sword of the enemy. In all the hurry of surprise, he was not so much infected with the general panic, as to forget his usual intrepidity, which seemed to be encreased rather than abated by the danger of his present situation. After many desperate acts of heroism, he cut his way through the troops who surrounded him, and made to the banks of the Irtish[79]. Being closely pursued by a detachment of the enemy, he endeavoured to throw himself into a boat which lay near the shore; but stepping short, he fell into the water, and being incumbered with the weight of his armour, sunk instantly to the bottom[80]. [Footnote 79: Many difficulties have arisen concerning the branch of the Irtish in which Yermac was drowned; but it is now sufficiently ascertained that it was a canal, which some time before this catastrophe had been cut by order of that Cossac: Not far from the spot, where the Vagai falls into the Irtish, the latter river forms a bend of six versts; by cutting a canal in a streight line from the two extreme points of this sweep, he shortened the length of the navigation. S. R. G. p. 365-366.] [Footnote 80: Cyprian was appointed the first archbishop of Siberia, in 1621. Upon his arrival at Tobolsk, he enquired for several of the antient followers of Yermac who were still alive; and from them he made himself acquainted with the principal circumstances attending the expedition of that Cossac, and the conquest of Siberia. Those circumstances he transmitted to writing; and these papers are the archives of the Siberian history; from which the several historians of that country have drawn their relations. Sava Yefimoff, who was himself one of Yermac's followers, is one of the most accurate historians of those times. He carries down his history to the year 1636. Fis. Sib. Ges. I. p. 430.] His body was not long afterwards taken out of the Irtish, and exposed, by order of Kutchum Chan, to all the insults which revenge ever suggested to barbarians in the frenzy of success. But these first transports of resentment had no sooner subsided, than the Tartars testified the most pointed indignation at the ungenerous ferocity of their leader. The prowess of Yermac, his consummate valour and magnanimity, virtues which barbarians know how to prize, rose upon their recollection. They made a sudden transition from one extreme to the other: they reproached their leader for ordering, themselves for being the instruments of indignity to such venerable remains. At length their heated imaginations proceeded even to consecrate his memory: they interred his body with all the rites of Pagan superstition; and offered up sacrifices to his manes. [Sidenote: Veneration paid to his Memory.] Many miraculous stories were soon spread abroad, and met with implicit belief. The touch of his body was supposed to have been an instantaneous cure for all disorders; and even his clothes and arms were said to be endowed with the same efficacy. A flame of fire was represented as sometimes hovering about his tomb, and sometimes as stretching in one luminous body from the same spot towards the heavens. A presiding influence over the affairs of the chace and of war was attributed to his departed spirit; and numbers resorted to his tomb to invoke his tutelary aid in concerns so interesting to uncivilised nations. These idle fables, though they evince the superstitious credulity of the Tartars, convey at the same time the strongest testimony of their veneration for the memory of Yermac; and this veneration greatly contributed to the subsequent progress of the Russians in those regions[81]. [Footnote 81: Even so late as the middle of the next century, this veneration for the memory of Yermac had not subsided. Allai, a powerful prince of the Calmucs, is said to have been cured of a dangerous disorder, by mixing some earth taken from Yermac's tomb in water, and drinking the infusion. That prince is also reported to have carried with him a small portion of the same earth, whenever he engaged in any important enterprize. This earth he superstitiously considered as a kind of charm; and was persuaded that he always secured a prosperous issue to his affairs by this precaution. S.R.G. V. VI. p. 391.] With Yermac expired for a time the Russian empire in Siberia. [Sidenote: The Russians quit Siberia.] The news of his defeat and death no sooner reached the garrison of Sibir, than an hundred and fifty troops, the sad remains of that formidable army which had gained such a series of almost incredible victories, retired from the fortress, and evacuated Siberia. Notwithstanding this disaster, the court of Moscow did not abandon its design upon that country; which a variety of favourable circumstances still concurred to render a flattering object of Russian ambition. Yermac's sagacity had discovered new and commodious routes for the march of troops across those inhospitable regions. The rapidity with which he had overrun the territories of Kutchum Chan, taught the Russians to consider the Tartars as an easy prey. Many of the tribes who had been rendered tributary by Yermac, had testified a cheerful acquiescence under the sovereignty of the Tzar; and were inclined to renew their allegiance upon the first opportunity. Others looked upon all resistance as unavailing, and had learned, from dear-bought experience, to tremble at the very name of a Russian. The natural strength of the country, proved not to be irresistible when united, was considerably weakened by its intestine commotions. Upon the retreat of the garrison of Sibir, that fortress, together with the adjacent district, was seized by Seyidyak, son of the former sovereign, whom Kutchum Chan had dethroned and put to death. Other princes availed themselves of the general confusion to assert independency; and Kutchum Chan was able to regain only a small portion of those dominions, of which he had been stripped by Yermac. [Sidenote: The Russians re-enter Siberia.] Influenced by these motives, the court of Moscow sent a body of three hundred troops into Siberia, who penetrated to the banks of the Tura as far as Tschingi almost without opposition. There they built the fort of Tumen, and re-established their authority over the neighbouring district. Being soon afterwards reinforced by an additional number of troops, they were enabled to extend their operations, and to erect the fortresses of Tobolsk, Sungur, and Tara. [Sidenote: Re-conquer their antient Territories.] The erection of these and other fortresses was soon attended with a speedy recovery of the whole territory, which Yermac had reduced under the Russian yoke. This success was only the fore-runner of still greater acquisitions. [Sidenote: All Siberia conquered and colonized.] The Russians pushed their conquest far and wide: wherever they appeared, the Tartars were either reduced or exterminated. New towns were built and colonies were planted on all sides. Before a century had well elapsed, all that vast tract of country now called Siberia, which stretches from the confines of Europe to the Eastern Ocean, and from the Frozen Sea to the present frontiers of China, was annexed to the Russian dominions. [Sidenote: Progress of the Russians checked by the Chinese.] A still larger extent of territory had probably been won; and all the various tribes of independent Tartary which lie between the South-Eastern extremity of the Russian empire, and the Chinese Wall, would have followed the fate of the Siberian hordes, if the power of China had not suddenly interposed. CHAP. II. Commencement of hostilities between the _Russians_ and _Chinese_--Disputes concerning the limits of the two empires--Treaty of Nershinsk--Embassies from the court of _Russia_ to _Pekin_--Treaty of _Kiachta_--Establishment of the commerce between the two nations. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, the Russians were rapidly extending themselves Eastward through that important territory, which lies, on each side of the river[82] Amoor. They soon reduced several independent Tungusian hordes; and built a chain of small fortresses along the banks of the above-mentioned river, of which the principal were Albasin, and Kamarskoi Ostrog. Not long afterwards, the Chinese under[83] Camhi conceived a similar design of subduing the same hordes. [Sidenote: Rise of animosities between the Russians and Chinese.] Accordingly the two great powers of Russia and China, thus pointing their views to the same object, unavoidably clashed; and, after several jealousies and intrigues, broke out into open hostilities about the year 1680. The Chinese laid siege to Kamarskoi Ostrog, and though repulsed in this attempt, found means to cut off several straggling parties of Russians. These animosities induced the Tzar Alexèy Michaelovitch to send an embassy to Pekin; but this measure did not produce the desired effect. [Sidenote: Albasin destroyed by the Chinese.] The Chinese attacked Albasin with a considerable force: having compelled the Russian garrison to capitulate, they demolished that and all the Russian forts upon the Amoor; and returned, with a large number of prisoners, to their own country. [Footnote 82: Amoor is the name given by the Russians to this river; it is called Sakalin-Ula by the Manshurs, and was formerly denominated Karamuran, or the Black River, by the Mongols. S.R.G. II. p. 293.] [Footnote 83: Camhi was the second emperor of the Manshur race, who made themselves masters of China in 1624. The Manshurs were originally an obscure tribe of the Tungusian Tartars, whose territories lay South of the Amoor, and bordered upon the kingdom of Corea, and the province of Leaotong. They began to emerge from obscurity at the beginning of the seventeenth century. About that time their chief Aischin-Giord reduced several neighbouring hordes; and, having incorporated them with his own tribe, under the general name of Manshur, he became formidable even to the Chinese. Shuntschi, grandson of this chief, by an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances, was raised while an infant to the throne of China, of which his successors still continue in possession. Shuntschi died in 1662, and was succeeded by Camhi, who is well known from the accounts of the jesuit missionaries. For an account of the revolution of China, see Duhalde, Descr. de la Chine, Bell's Journey to Pekin, and Fis. Sic. Ges. tom. I. p. 463.] [Sidenote: Albasin rebuilt by the Russians, is besieged by the Chinese.] Not long after their departure, a body of sixteen hundred Russians advanced along the Amoor; and constructed a new fort, under the old name of Albasin. The Chinese were no sooner apprised of their return, than they marched instantly towards that river, and sat down before Albasin with an army of seven thousand men, and a large train of artillery. They battered the new fortress for several weeks, without being able to make a breach, and without attempting to take it by storm. The besieged, though not much annoyed by the unskilful operations of the enemy, were exhausted with the complicated miseries of sickness and famine; and notwithstanding they continued to make a gallant resistance, they must soon have sunk under their distresses, if the Chinese had not voluntarily retired, in consequence of a treaty being set afoot between the two courts of Moscow and Pekin. For this purpose the Russian embassador Golowin had left Moscow so early as the year 1685, accompanied by a large body of troops, in order to secure his person, and enforce respect to his embassy. The difficulty of procuring subsistence for any considerable number of men in those desolate regions, joined to the ruggedness of the roads, and the length of the march, prevented his arrival at Selengisk until the year 1687. From thence messengers were immediately dispatched with overtures of peace to the Chinese government at Pekin. After several delays, occasioned partly by policy, and partly by the posture of affairs in the Tartar country through which the Chinese were to pass, embassadors left Pekin in the beginning of June 1689. Golovin had proposed receiving them at Albasin; but while he was proceeding to that fortress, the Chinese embassadors presented themselves at the gates of Nershinsk, escorted by such a numerous army, and such a formidable train of artillery, that Golovin was constrained, from motives of fear, to conclude the negotiation almost upon their own terms. The conferences were held under tents, in an open plain, near the town of Nershinsk; where the treaty was signed and sealed by the plenipotentaries of the two courts. When it was proposed to ratify it by oath, the Chinese embassadors offered to swear upon a crucifix; but Golovin preferred their taking an oath in the name of their own gods. [Sidenote: Treaty of Nershinsk.] This treaty first checked the progress of the Russian arms in those parts; and laid the foundations of an important and regular commerce between the two nations. By the first and second articles, the South-Eastern boundaries of the Russian empire were formed by a ridge of mountains, stretching North of the Amoor from the sea of Ochotsk to the source of the small river Gorbitza[84], then by that river to its influx into the Amoor, and lastly by the Argoon, from its junction with the Shilka up to its source. [Footnote 84: There are two Gorbitzas; the first falls into the Amoor, near the conflux of the Argoon and Shilka; the second falls into the Shilka. The former was meant by the Russians; but the Chinese fixed upon the latter for the boundary, and have carried their point. Accordingly the present limits are somewhat different from those mentioned in the text. They are carried from the point, where the Shilka and Argoon unite to form the Amoor, Westward along the Shilka, until they reach the mouth of tha Western Gorbitza; from thence they are continued to the source of the last-mentioned river, and along the chain of mountains as before. By this alteration the Russian limits are somewhat abridged.] By the fifth article reciprocal liberty of trade was granted to all the subjects of the two empires, who were provided with pass-ports from their respective courts[85]. [Footnote 85: S.R.G. II. p. 435.] This treaty was signed on the 27th of August, in the year 1689, under the reign of Ivan and Peter Alexiewitch, by which the Russians lost, exclusively of a large territory, the navigation of the river Amoor. The importance of this loss was not at that time understood; and has only been felt since the discovery of Kamtchatka, and of the islands between Asia and America. The products of these new-discovered countries might, by means of the Amoor, have been conveyed by water into the district of Nershinsk, from whence there is an easy transport by land to Kiachta: whereas the same merchandise, after being landed at Ochotsk, is now carried over a large tract of country, partly upon rivers of difficult navigation, and partly along rugged and almost impassable roads. [Sidenote: Rise of the Commerce with China.] In return, the Russians obtained what they long and repeatedly aimed at, a regular and permanent trade with the Chinese. The first intercourse between Russia and China commenced in the beginning of the seventeenth century[86]. At that period a small quantity of Chinese merchandise was procured, by the merchants of Tomsk and other adjacent towns, from the Calmucs. The rapid and profitable sale of these commodities encouraged certain Wayvodes of Siberia to attempt a direct and open communication with China. For this purpose several deputations were sent at different times to Pekin from Tobolsk, Tomsk, and other Russian settlements: these deputations, although they failed of obtaining the grant of a regular commerce, were nevertheless attended with some important consequences. The general good reception, which the agents met with, tempted the Russian merchants to send occasional traders to Pekin. By these means a faint connection with that metropolis was kept alive: the Chinese learned the advantages of the Russian trade, and were gradually prepared for its subsequent establishment. This commerce, carried on by intervals, was entirely suspended by the hostilities upon the river Amoor. But no sooner was the treaty of Nershinsk signed, than the Russians engaged with extraordinary alacrity in this favourite branch of traffic. The advantages of this trade were soon found to be so considerable, that Peter I. conceived an idea of still farther enlarging it. [Sidenote: Caravans allowed to trade to Pekin.] Accordingly, in 1692, he sent Isbrand Ives, a Dutchman in his service, to Pekin, who requested and obtained, that the liberty of trading to China, which by the late treaty was granted to individuals, should be extended to caravans. [Footnote 86: S.R.G. VIII. p. 504, & seq.] In consequence of this arrangement, successive caravans went from Russia to Pekin, where a caravansary was allotted for their reception; and all their expences during their continuance in that metropolis defrayed by the Emperor of China. The right of sending these caravans, and the profits resulting from them, belonged to the crown of Russia. In the mean time, private merchants continued as before to carry on a separate trade with the Chinese, not only at Pekin, but also at the head quarters of the Mongols. The camp of these roving Tartars was generally to be found near the conflux of the Orchon and Tola, between the Southern frontiers of Siberia and the Mongol desert. A kind of annual fair was held at this spot by the Russian and Chinese merchants; where they brought their respective goods for sale; and continued until they were disposed of. This rendezvous soon became a scene of riot and confusion; and repeated complaints were transmitted to the Chinese Emperor of the drunkenness and misconduct of the Russians. These complaints made a still greater impression from a coincidence of similar excesses, for which the Russians at Pekin had become notorious. Exasperated by the frequent representations of his subjects, Camhi threatened to expell the Russians from his dominions, and to prohibit them from carrying on any commerce, as well in China as in the country of the Mongols. [Sidenote: Embassy of Ismailoff to Pekin.] These untoward circumstances occasioned another embassy to Pekin, in the year 1719. Leff Vassilievitch Ismailoff, a captain of the Russian guards, who was sent embassador upon this occasion, succeeded in the negotiation, and adjusted every difficulty to the satisfaction of both parties. At his departure he was permitted to leave behind Laurence Lange, who had accompanied him to Pekin, in the character of agent for the caravans; for the purpose of superintending the conduct of the Russians. [Sidenote: Russians expelled from Pekin.] His residence however in that metropolis was but short; for he was soon afterwards compelled, by the Chinese, to return. His dismission was owing, partly, to a sudden caprice of that suspicious people, and partly to a misunderstanding, which had recently broke out between the two courts, in relation to some Mongol tribes who bordered upon Siberia. A small number of these Mongols had put themselves under the protection of Russia, and were immediately demanded by the Chinese; but the Russians refused compliance, under pretence that no article in the treaty of Nershinsk could, with any appearance of probability, be construed as extending to the Mongols. The Chinese were incensed at this refusal; and their resentment was still further inflamed by the disorderly conduct of the Russian traders, who, freed from all controul by the departure of their agent, had indulged, without restraint, their usual propensity to excess. This concurrence of unlucky incidents extorted, in 1722, an order from Camhi for the total expulsion of the Russians from the Chinese and Mongol territories. These orders were regorously executed; and all intercourse between the two nations immediately ceased. [Sidenote: Embassy of Ragusinski.] Affairs continued in this state until the year 1727, when the count Sava Vladislavitch Ragusinski, a Dalmatian in the service of Russia, was dispatched to Pekin. His orders were at all events to compose the differences between the two courts relating to the Mongol tribes; to settle the Southern frontiers of the Russian empire in that quarter; and to obtain the permission of renewing the trade with China. Accordingly that embassador presented a new plan for a treaty of limits and commerce to Yundschin, son and successor of Camhi; by which the frontiers of the two empires were finally traced as they exist at present, and the commerce established upon a permanent basis, calculated to prevent as far as possible all future sources of misunderstanding. This plan being approved by the emperor, Chinese commissioners were immediately appointed to negotiate with the Russian embassador upon the banks of the Bura, a small river which flows, South of the confines of Siberia, into the Orchon near its junction with the Selenga. [Sidenote: Treaty of Kiatchta.] At this conference, the old limits, which are mentioned in the treaty of Nershinsk, were continued from the source of the Argoon Westwards as far as the mountain Sabyntaban, which is situated at a small distance from the spot where the conflux of the two rivers Uleken and Kemtzak form the Yenisèi: this boundary separates the Russian dominions from the territory of the Mongols, who are under the protection of China. It was likewise stipulated, that for the future all negotiations should be transacted between the tribunal of foreign affairs at Pekin, and the board of foreign affairs at St. Petersburg; or in matters of inferior moment between the commanders of the frontiers[87]. [Footnote 87: This article was inserted, because the Chinese emperor, from a ridiculous idea of superiority, had contemptuously refused to hold any correspondence with the court of Russia.] The most important articles relating to commerce, were as follow: [Sidenote: Account of the Treaty relative to Commerce.] A caravan was allowed to go to Pekin every three years, on condition of its not consisting of more than two hundred persons; during their residence in that metropolis, their expences were no longer to be defrayed by the emperor of China. Notice was to be sent to the Chinese court immediately upon their arrival at the frontiers; where an officer was to meet and accompany them to Pekin. The privilege before enjoyed by individuals of carrying on a promiscuous traffic in the Chinese and Mongol territories was taken away, and no merchandize belonging to private persons was permitted to be brought for sale beyond the frontiers. For the purpose of preserving, consistently with this regulation, the privilege of commerce to individuals, two places of resort were appointed on the confines of Siberia: one called Kiatchta, from a rivulet of that name near which it stands; and the other Zuruchaitu: at these places a free trade was reciprocally indulged to the subjects of the two nations. A permission was at the same time obtained for building a Russian church within the precincts of their caravansary; and for the celebration of divine service, four priests were allowed to reside at Pekin[88]. The same favour was also extended to some Russian Scholars[89], for the purpose of learning the Chinese tongue; in order to qualify themselves for interpreters between the two nations. [Footnote 88: The first Russian church at Pekin was built for the accommodation of the Russians taken prisoners at Albasin. These persons were carried to Pekin, and the place appointed for their habitation in that city was called the Russian Street, a name it still retains. They were so well received by the Chinese, that, upon the conclusion of the treaty of Nershinsk, they refused to return to their native country. And as they intermarried with the Chinese women, their descendants are quite naturalized; and have for the most part adopted not only the language, but even the religion of the Chinese. Hence, the above-mentioned church, though it still exists, is no longer applied to the purpose of divine worship: its priest was transferred to the church, which was built within the walls of the caravansary.] [Footnote 89: The good effects of this institution have already been perceived. A Russian, whose name is Leontieff, after having resided ten years at Pekin, is returned to Petersburg. He has given several translations and extracts of some interesting Chinese publications, viz. Part of the History of China; the Code of the Chinese Laws; Account of the Towns and Revenues, &c. of the Chinese Empire, extracted from a Treatise of Geography, lately printed at Pekin. A short account of this Extract is given in the Journal of St. Petersburg for April, 1779.] This treaty, called the treaty of Kiachta, was, on the fourteenth of June, 1728, concluded and ratified by the count Ragusinski and three Chinese plenipotentaries upon the spot, where Kiachta was afterwards built: it is the basis of all transactions since carried on between Russia and China[90]. [Footnote 90: S.R.G. VIII. p. 513.] One innovation in the mode of carrying on the trade to China, which has been introduced since the accession of the present empress Catherine II. deserves to be mentioned in this place. [Sidenote: Caravans discontinued.] Since the year 1755 no caravans have been sent to Pekin. Their first discontinuance was owing to a misunderstanding between the two courts of Petersburg and Pekin in 1759. Their disuse after the reconciliation had taken place, arose from the following circumstances. The exportation and importation of many principal commodities, particularly the most valuable furs, were formerly prohibited to individuals, and solely appropriated to caravans belonging to the crown. By these restrictions the Russian trade to China was greatly shackled and circumscribed. [Sidenote: Monopoly of the Fur Trade abolished.] The present empress (who, amidst many excellent regulations which characterise her reign, has shewn herself invariably attentive to the improvement of the Russian commerce) abolished, in 1762, the monopoly of the fur trade, and renounced in favour of her subjects the exclusive privilege which the crown enjoyed of sending caravans to Pekin[91]. By these concessions the profits of the trade have been considerably encreased: the great expence, hazard, and delay, of transporting the merchandise occasionally from the frontiers of Siberia to Pekin, has been retrenched; and Kiachta is now rendered the center of the Russian and Chinese commerce. [Footnote 91: S.R.G. VIII. p. 520.] [Illustration: _VIEW of the Chinese Frontier Town_ MAIMATSCHIN _with the_ BROOK KIACHTA, _taken from the West_.] CHAP. III. Account of the _Russian_ and _Chinese_ settlements upon the confines of _Siberia_--description of the _Russian_ frontier town _Kiachta_--of the _Chinese_ frontier town _Maimatschin_--its buildings, pagodas, &c. By the last mentioned treaty it was stipulated, that the commerce between Russia and China should be transacted at the frontiers. [Sidenote: Russian and Chinese Settlement upon the Brook Kiachta.] Accordingly two spots were marked out for that purpose upon the confines of Siberia, where they border upon the Mongol desert; one near the brook Kiachta, and the other at Zuruchaitu. The description of the former of these places forms the subject of this chapter. This settlement consists of a Russian and Chinese town, both situated in a romantic valley, surrounded by high, rocky, and for the most part well-wooded, mountains. This valley is intersected by the brook Kiachta, which rises in Siberia, and, after washing both the Russian and Chinese town, falls into the Bura, at a small distance from the frontiers. [Sidenote: Situation of the Russian Frontier Town Kiachta.] The Russian settlement is called Kiachta from the abovementioned brook: it lies in 124 degrees 18 minutes longitude from the isle of Fero, and 35 degrees N. latitude, at the distance of 5514 versts from Moscow, and 1532 from Pekin. [Sidenote: The Fortress.] It consists of a fortress and a small suburb. The fortress, which is built upon a gentle rise, is a square enclosed with palisadoes, and strengthened with wooden bastions at the several angles. There are three gates, at which guards are constantly stationed: one of the gates faces the North, a second the South towards the Chinese frontiers, and a third the East close to the brook Kiachta. The principal public buildings in the fortress are a wooden church, the governor's house, the custom house, the magazine for provisions, and the guard-house. It contains also a range of shops and warehouses, barracks for the garrison, and several houses belonging to the crown; the latter are generally inhabited by the principal merchants. These buildings are mostly of wood. [Sidenote: Suburb.] The suburb, which is surrounded with a wooden wall covered at the top with chevaux de frize, contains no more than an hundred and twenty houses very irregularly built; it has the same number of gates as the fortress, which are also guarded. Without this suburb, upon the high road leading to Selenginsk, stand a few houses, and the magazine for rhubarb. This settlement is but indifferently provided with water both in quality and quantity; for although the brook Kiachta is dammed up as it flows by the fortress, yet it is so shallow in summer, that, unless after heavy rains, it is scarcely sufficient to supply the inhabitants. Its stream is troubled and unwholesome, and the springs which rise in the neighbourhood are either foul or brackish: from these circumstances, the principal inhabitants are obliged to send for water from a spring in the Chinese district. The soil of the adjacent country is mostly sand or rock, and extremely barren. If the frontiers of Russia were extended about nine versts more South to the rivulet of Bura; the inhabitants of Kiachta would then enjoy good water, a fruitful soil, and plenty of fish, all which advantages are at present confined to the Chinese. The garrison of Kiachta consists of a company of regular soldiers, and a certain number of Cossacs; the former are occasionally changed, but the latter are fixed inhabitants of the place. It is the province of the commander to inspect the frontiers, and, in conjunction with the president of the Chinese merchants, to settle all affairs of an inferior nature; but in matters of importance recourse must be had to the chancery of Selenginsk, and to the governor of Irkutsk. The Russian merchants, and the agents of the Russian trading company, are the principal inhabitants of Kiachta. The limits Westwards from this settlement to the river Selenga, and Eastwards as far as Tchikoi, are bounded with chevaux de frize, placed there to prevent a contraband trade in cattle, for the exportation of which a considerable duty is paid to the crown. All the outposts along the frontiers Westwards as far as the government of Tobolsk, and Eastwards to the mountains of snow, are under the command of the governor of Kiachta. The most elevated of the mountains that surround the valley of Kiachta, and which is called by the Mongols Burgultei, commands the Russian as well as the Chinese town; for this reason, the Chinese, at the conclusion of the last frontier treaty, demanded the cession of this mountain under the pretext, that some of their deified ancestors were buried upon its summit. The Russians gave way to their request, and suffered the boundary to be brought back to the North side of the mountain. [Sidenote: Maimatschin, the Chinese Frontier-Town.] The Chinese town is called, by the Chinese and Mongols, Maimatschin, which signifies fortress of commerce. The Russians term it the Chinese Village (Kitaiskaia Sloboda) and also Naimatschin, which is a corruption of Maimatschin. It is situated about an hundred and forty yards South of the fortress of Kiachta, and nearly parallel to it. Midway between this place and the Russian fortress, two posts about ten feet high are planted in order to mark the frontiers of the two empires: one is inscribed with Russian, the other with Manshur characters[92]. [Footnote 92: Upon the mountain to the West of Kiachta, the limit is again marked, on the Russian side by an heap of stones and earth, ornamented on the top with a cross; and on the Chinese by a pile of stones in the shape of a pyramid. Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 110.] Mainatschin has no other fortification than a wooden wall, and a small ditch of about three feet broad; the latter was dug in the year 1756, during the war between the Chinese and the Calmucs. The town is of an oblong form: its length is seven hundred yards, and its breadth four hundred. On each of the four sides a large gate faces the principal streets; over each of these gates there is a wooden guard-house for the Chinese garrison, which consists of Mongols in tattered clothes, and armed with clubs. Without the gate, which looks to the Russian frontiers, and about the distance of eight yards from the entrance, the Chinese have raised a wooden screen, so constructed as to intercept all view of the streets from without. This town contains two hundred houses and about twelve hundred inhabitants. It has two principal streets of about eight yards broad, crossing each other in the middle at right angles, with two by-streets running from North to South. They are not paved, but are laid with gravel, and kept remarkably clean. [Sidenote: Houses.] The houses are spacious, uniformly built of wood, of only one story, not more than fourteen feet high, plaistered and white-washed; they are constructed round a court yard of about seventy feet square, which is strewed with gravel, and has an appearance of neatness. Each house consists of a sitting room, some warehouses and a kitchen. In the houses of the wealthier sort the roof is made of plank; but in meaner habitations of lath covered over with turf. Towards the streets most of the houses have arcades of wood projecting forwards from the roof like a penthouse, and supported by strong pillars. The windows are large after the European manner, but on account of the dearness of glass and Russian talk are generally of paper, excepting a few panes of glass in the sitting room. The sitting room looks seldom towards the streets: it is a kind of shop, where the several patterns of merchandize are placed in recesses, fitted up with shelves, and secured with paper doors for the purpose of keeping out the dust. The windows are generally ornamented with little paintings, and the walls are hung with Chinese paper. Half the floor is of hard beaten clay; the other half is covered with boards, and rises about two feet in height. Here the family sit in the day-time and sleep at night. By the side of this raised part, and nearly upon the same level, there is a square brick stove, with a streight perpendicular cylindrical excavation, which is heated with small pieces of wood. From the bottom of this stove a tube descends, and is carried zigzag under the boarded floor above-mentioned, and from thence to a chimney which opens into the street. By this contrivance, although the stove is always open and the flame visible, yet the room is never troubled in the least degree with smoke. There is scarcely any furniture in the room, excepting one large dining table in the lower part, and two small lackered ones upon the raised floor: one of these tables is always provided with a chaffing dish, which serves to light their pipes when the stove is not heated. In this room there are several small niches covered with silken curtains, before which are placed lamps that are lighted upon festivals; these niches contain painted paper idols, a stone or metal vessel, wherein the ashes of incense are collected, several small ornaments and artificial flowers: the Chinese readily allow strangers to draw aside the curtains, and look at the idols. The Bucharian[93] merchants inhabit the South West quarter of Maimatschin. Their houses are not so large nor commodious as those of the Chinese, although the greatest part of them carry on a very considerable commerce. [Footnote 93: "The chief merchandizes which the Bucharians bring to Russia, are cotton, stuffs, and half-silks, spun and raw cotton, lamb-skins, precious stones, gold-dust, unprepared nitre, sal-ammoniac, &c." See Russia, or a complete Historical Account of all the nations that compose that empire. V. II. p. 141, a very curious and interesting work lately published.] [Sidenote: The Governor of Maimatschin.] The Surgutschèi, or governor of Maimatschin, has the care of the police, as well as the direction of all affairs relating to commerce: he is generally a person of rank, oftentimes a Mandarin, who has misbehaved himself in another station, and is sent here as a kind of punishment. He is distinguished from the rest by the crystal button of his cap, and by a peacock's[94] feather hanging behind. The Chinese give him the title of Amban, which signifies commander in chief; and no one appears before him without bending the knee, in which posture the person who brings a petition must remain until he receives the governor's answer. His salary is not large; but the presents which he receives from the merchants amount annually to a considerable sum. [Footnote 94: In China the princes of the blood wear three peacock's feathers, nobles of the highest distinction two, and the lower class of the nobility one. It is also a mark of high rank to drive a carriage with four wheels. The governor of Maimatschin rode in one with only two wheels. All the Chinese wear buttons of different colours in their caps, which also denote the rank. Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 126.] The most remarkable public buildings in Maimatschin, are the governor's house, the theatre, and two pagodas. [Sidenote: House of the Governor.] The governor's house is larger than the others, and better furnished; it is distinguished by a chamber where the court of justice is held, and by two high poles before the entrance ornamented with flags. [Sidenote: Theatre.] The theatre is situated close to the wall of the town near the great pagoda: it is a kind of small shed, neatly painted, open in front, and merely spacious enough to contain the stage; the audience stand in the street. Near it are two high poles, upon which large flags with Chinese inscriptions are hoisted on festivals. On such occasions the servants belonging to the merchants play short burlesque farces in honour of their idols. [Sidenote: The small Pagoda.] The smallest of the two Pagodas is a wooden building, standing upon pillars, in the centre of the town at the place where the two principal streets cross. It is a Chinese tower of two stories, adorned on the outside with small columns, paintings, and little iron bells, &c. The first story is square, the second octangular. [Sidenote: The Idol Tien.] In the lower story is a picture representing the God Tien, which signifies, according to the explanation of the most intelligent Chinese, the most high God, who rules over the thirty-two heavens. The Manshurs, it is said, call this idol Abcho; and the Mongols, Tingheru heaven, or the God of heaven. He is represented sitting with his head uncovered, and encircled with a ray[95] of glory similar to that which surrounds the head of our Saviour in the Roman catholic paintings; his hair is long and flowing; he holds in his right hand a drawn sword, and his left is extended as in the act of giving a benediction. On one side of this figure two youths, on the other a maiden and a grey-headed old man, are delineated. [Footnote 95: When Mr. Pallas obtained permission of the governor to see this temple, the latter assured him that the Jesuits of Pekin and their converts adored this idol. From whence he ingeniously conjectures, either that the resemblance between this idol, and the representations of our Saviour by the Roman Catholicks, was the occasion of this assertion; or that the Jesuits, in order to excite the devotion of the converts, have, out of policy, given to the picture of our Saviour a resemblance to the Tien of the Chinese. Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 119.] The upper story contains the picture of another idol in a black and white checquered cap, with the same figures of three young persons and a little old man. There are no altars in this temple, and no other ornaments excepting these pictures and their frames. It is opened only on festivals, and strangers cannot see it without permission. [Sidenote: The great Pagoda and its Idols.] The great Pagoda[96], situated before the governor's house, and near the principal gate looking to the south, is larger and more magnificent than the former. Strangers are allowed to see it at all times, without the least difficulty, provided they are accompanied by one of the priests, who are always to be found in the area of the temple. This area is surrounded with chevaux de frize: the entrance is from the south through two gates with a small building between them. In the inside of this building are two recesses with rails before them, behind which the images of two horses as big as life are coarsly moulded out of clay; they are saddled and bridled, and attended by two human figures dressed like grooms: the horse to the right is of a chesnut colour, the other is dun with a black mane and tail, the former is in the attitude of springing, the latter of walking. Near each horse a banner of yellow silk, painted with silver dragons, is displayed. [Footnote 96: The great Pagoda is omitted in the engraving of Maimatschin prefixed to this chapter; this omission was owing to the artist's being obliged to leave Kiachta before he had time to finish the drawing. In every other respect, the view, as I was informed by a gentleman who has been on the spot, is complete, and represented with the greatest exactness.] In the middle of this area are two wooden turrets surrounded with galleries; a large bell of cart iron which is struck occasionally with a large wooden mallet, hangs in the Eastern turret; the other contains two kettle drums of an enormous size, similar to those made use of in the religious ceremonies of the Calmucs. On each side of this area are ranges of buildings inhabited by the priest of the temple. This area communicates by means of an handsome gateway with the inner court, which is bordered on each side by small compartments open in front, with rails before them; in the inside of these compartments the legendary stories of the idols are exhibited in a series of historical paintings. At the farther extremity of this court stands a large building, constructed in the same style of architecture as the temple. The inside is sixty feet long and thirty broad: it is stored with antient weapons, and instruments of war of a prodigious size; such as spears, scythes, and long pikes, with broad blades, shields, coats of arms, and military ensigns representing hands[97], dragons heads, and other carved figures. All these warlike instruments are richly gilded, and ranged in order upon scaffolds along the wall. Opposite the entrance a large yellow standard, embroidered with foliage and silver dragons, is erected; under it, upon a kind of altar, there is a series of little oblong tables, bearing Chinese inscriptions. [Footnote 97: These hands resemble the manipulary standards of the Romans.] An open gallery, adorned on both sides with flower-pots, leads from the back door of the armoury to the colonade of the temple. In this colonade two slate tablets are placed, in wooden frames, about six feet high and two broad, with long inscriptions relating to the building of the temple. Before one of these plates a small idol of an hideous form stands upon the ground, enclosed in a wooden case. The temple itself is an elegant Chinese building, richly decorated on the outside with columns lackered, and gilded carved-work, small bells, and other ornaments peculiar to the Chinese architecture. Within there is a rich profusion of gilding, which corresponds with the gaudiness of the exterior. The walls are covered thick with paintings, exhibiting the most celebrated exploits of the principal idol. This temple contains five idols of a colossal stature, sitting cross-legged upon pedestals in three recesses, which fill the whole Northern side. [Sidenote: Ghessur Chan, the principal idol.] The principal idol is seated alone, in the middle recess, between two columns, entwined with gilded dragons. Large streamers of silk, hanging from the roof of the temple, veil in some measure the upper part of the image. His name is Ghedsur, or Ghessur Chan[98]; the Chinese call him Loo-ye, or the first and most antient; and the Manshurs, Guanlöe, or the superior god. He is of a gigantic size, surpassing more than fourfold the human stature, with a face glistening like burnished gold, black hair and beard. He wears a crown upon his head, and is richly dressed in the Chinese fashion: his garments are not moulded out of clay, as those of the other idols; but are made of the finest silk. He holds in his hands a kind of tablet, which he seems to read with deep attention. Two small female figures, resembling girls of about fourteen years of age, stand on each side of the idol, upon the same pedestal; one of which grasps a roll of paper. At the right-hand of the idol lie seven golden arrows, and at his left a bow. [Footnote 98: The Mongols and Calmucs call him by this name of Ghessur Chan; and although they do not reckon him among their divinities; yet they consider him as a great hero, the Bacchus and Hercules of Eastern Tartary, who was born at the source of the Choango, and who vanquished many monsters. They have in their language a very long history of his heroical deeds. His title, in the Mongol tongue, is as follows: Arban Zeeghi Essin Ghessur Bogdo Chan: the king of the ten points of the compass, or the monarch Ghessur Chan. I possess a copy of this manuscript, containing the History of Ghessur Chan; it is in the original Mongol language, and was a present from Mr. Pallas: I should be very happy to communicate it to any person versed in the Eastern languages.] Before the idol is a spacious enclosure, surrounded with rails, within which stands an altar with four colossal figures, intended probably to represent the principal mandarins of the deified Ghessur. Two of these figures are dressed like judges, and hold before them small tablets, similar to that in the hands of the principal idol. The two other figures are accoutred in complete armour: one wears a turban; and carries, upon the left shoulder, a large sword sheathed, with the hilt upwards. The other has an hideous copper-coloured face, a large belly, and grasps in his right hand a lance with a broad blade. Although all the remaining idols in the temple are of an enormous size, yet they are greatly surpassed in magnitude by Ghessur Chan. [Sidenote: Maooang.] The first idol in the recess to the right is called Maooang, or the Otschibanni of the Mongols. He has three ghastly copper-coloured faces, and six arms; two of his arms brandish two sabres cross ways over the head; a third bears a looking glass, and a fourth a kind of square, which resembles a piece of ivory. The two remaining arms are employed in drawing a bow, with an arrow laid upon it, ready to be discharged. This idol has a mirror upon his breast, and an eye in his navel: near it are placed two small figures; one holds an arrow, and the other a little animal. [Sidenote: Tsaudsing.] The next idol in the same recess is called by the Chinese Tsaudsing, or the gold and silver god; and by the Mongols Tsagan-Dsambala. He wears a black cap, and is dressed, after the Chinese fashion, in sumptuous robes of state; he bears in his hand a small jewel casket. Near him also stand two little figures, one of which holds a truncated branch. [Sidenote: Chusho.] In the recess to the left is the god Chusho, called by the Manshurs Chua-schan, and by the Mongols Galdi, or the Fire God. He is represented with a frightful fiery reddish face; clad in complete armour he wields a sword half drawn out of the scabbard, and seems on the point of starting up from his seat. He is attended by two little harlbadeers, one of whom is crying; and the other bears a fowl upon his hand, which resembles a sea-pheasant. [Sidenote: Niu-o.] The other idol in the same recess is the god of oxen, Niu-o. He appears to be sitting in a composed posture; he is habited like a Mandarin, and is distinguished by a crown upon his head. He has, in common with the other idols, a mirror upon his breast. The Chinese imagine him to be the same with the Yamandaga of the Mongols; and it is said his Manshurish name is Chain Killova; his Mongol name, which relates to the history of Ghessur, is Bars-Batir, the Hero of Tygers. Before these several idols there are tables, or altars, on which cakes, pastry, dried fruit, and flesh, are placed, on festivals and prayer days: on particular occasions even whole carcases of sheep are offered up. Tapers and lamps are kept burning day and night before the idols. Among the utensils of the temple, the most remarkable is a vessel shaped like a quiver, and filled with flat pieces of cleft reed, on which short Chinese devices are inscribed. These devices are taken out by the Chinese on new-years day, and are considered as oracles, which foretel the good or ill luck of the person, by whom they are drawn, during the following year. There lies also upon a table an hollow wooden black lackered helmet, which all persons of devotion strike with a wooden hammer, whenever they enter the temple. This helmet is regarded with such peculiar awe, that no strangers are permitted to handle it, although they are allowed to touch even the idols themselves. The first day of the new and full moon is appointed for the celebration of worship. Upon each of those days no Chinese ever fails to make his appearance once in the temple; he enters without taking off his cap[99], joins his hands before his face, bows five times to each idol, touches with his forehead the pedestal on which the idol sits, and then retires. Their principal festivals are held in the first month of their year, which answers to February. It is called by them, as well as by the Mongols, the white month; and is considered as a lucky time for the transaction of business; at that time they hoist flags before the temples; and place meat upon the tables of the idols, which the priests take away in the evening, and eat in the small apartments of the interior court. On these solemnities plays are performed in the theatre, in honour of the idols: the pieces are generally satyrical, and mostly written against unjust magistrates and judges. [Footnote 99: They do not take off their caps out of respect; for among the Chinese, as well as other Eastern nations, it is reckoned a mark of disrespect to uncover the head before a superior.] [Sidenote: Superstion of the Chinese.] But although the Chinese have such few ceremonies in their system of religious worship, yet they are remarkably infected with superstition. Mr. Pallas gives the following description of their behaviour at Maimatschin during an eclipse of the moon. At the close of the evening in which the eclipse appeared, all the inhabitants were indefatigable in raising an incessant uproar, some by hideous shrieks, others by knocking wood, and beating cauldrons; the din was heightened by striking the bell and beating the kettle drums of the great Pagoda. The Chinese suppose, that during an eclipse the wicked spirit of the air, called by the Mongols Arachulla, is attacking the moon; and that he is frightened away by these hideous shrieks and noises. Another instance of superstition fell under the observation, of Mr. Pallas, while he was at Maimatschin. A fire broke out in that town with such violence that several houses were in flames. None of the inhabitants, however, attempted to extinguish it; they stood indeed in idle consternation round the fire; and some of them sprinkled occasionally water among the flames, in order to sooth the fire god, who, as they imagined, had chosen their houses for a sacrifice. Indeed if the Russians had not exerted themselves in quenching the fire, the whole place would probably have been reduced to ashes[100]. [Footnote 100: This account of Kiachta and Maimatschin is taken from Mr. Pallas's description of Kiachta, in the journal of his travels through Siberia, p. iii. p. 109-126. Every circumstance relating to the religious worship of the Eastern nations is, in itself so interesting that I thought it would not be unacceptable to my readers to give a translation of the above passages respecting the Chinese Pagodas and Idols: although in a work treating of the new discoveries, and the commerce which is connected with them. In the abovementioned journal the ingenious author continues to describe from his own observations the manners, customs, dress, diet, and several other particulars relative to the Chinese; which, although exceedingly curious and interesting, are foreign to my present purpose, and would have been incompatible with the size of the present work. No writer has placed the religion and history of the Tartar-nations in a more explicit point of view than Mr. Pallas; every page in his interesting journal affords striking proofs of this assertion. He has lately thrown new lights upon this obscure subject, in a recent publication concerning the Tartars, who inhabit parts of Siberia, and the territory which lies between that country and the Chinese-wall. Of this excellent work the first volume appeared in 1776, and contains the genealogy, history, laws, manners, and customs, of this extraordinary people, as they are divided into Calmucs, Mongols, and Burats. The second volume is expected with impatience, and will ascertain, with minuteness and accuracy, the tenets and religious ceremonies which distinguish the votaries of Shamanism from the followers of Dalai-Lama, the two great sects into which these tribes are distinguished. Pallas Samlung historischer Nachrichten ueber die Mongolischen Volkerschafter.] CHAP. IV. Commerce between the _Chinese_ and _Russians_--list of the principal exports and imports--duties--average amount of the _Russian_ trade. [Sidenote: Merchants of Maimatschin.] The merchants of Maimatschin come from the Northern provinces of China, chiefly from Pekin, Nankin, Sandchue, and other principal towns. They are not settled at this place with their wives and families: for it is a remarkable circumstance, that there is not one woman in Maimatschin. This restriction arises from the policy of the Chinese government, which, totally prohibits the women from having the slightest intercourse with foreigners. No Chinese merchant engages in the trade to Siberia who has not a partner. These persons mutually relieve each other. One remains for a stated time, usually a year, at Kiachta; and when, his partner arrives with a fresh cargo of Chinese merchandize, he then returns home with the Russian commodities[101]. [Footnote 101: Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 125.] Most of the Chinese merchants understand the Mongol tongue, in which language commercial affairs are generally transacted. Some few indeed speak broken Russian, but their pronunciation is so soft and delicate, that it is difficult to comprehend them. They are not able to pronounce the R, but instead of it make use of an L; and when two consonants come together, which frequently occurs in the Russian tongue, they divide them by the interposition of a vowel[102]. This failure in articulating the Russian language seems peculiar to the Chinese, and is not observable in the Calmucs, Mongols, and other neighbouring nations[103]. [Footnote 102: Bayer, in his Museum Sinicum, gives several curious instances of the Chinese mode of articulating those sounds, which they have not in their own language. For instance they change B D R X Z into P T L S S. Thus for Maria they say Ma-li-ya; for crux, cu-lu-su; for baptizo, pa-pe-ti-so; for cardinalis, kia-ul-fi-na-li-su; for spiritus, su-pi-li-tu-su; for Adam, va-tam; for Eva, nge-va; for Christus, ki-li-su-tu-su; Hoc, est, corpus, meum--ho-ke, nge-su-tu, co-ul-pu-su, me-vum. Bayer, Mus. Sin. Tom. I. p. 15.] [Footnote 103: Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 134.] The commerce between the Russians and Chinese is entirely a trade of barter, that is, an exchange of one merchandize for another. The Russians are prohibited to export their own coin, nor indeed could the Chinese receive it, even should that prohibition be taken off; for no specie is current amongst them except bullion[104]. And the Russians find it more advantageous to take merchandize in exchange, than to receive bullion at the Chinese standard. The common method of transacting business is as follows. The Chinese merchant comes first to Kiachta, and examines the merchandize he has occasion for in the warehouse of the Russian trader; he then goes to the house of the latter, and adjusts the price over a dish of tea. Both parties next return to the magazine, and the goods in question are there carefully sealed in the presence of the Chinese merchant. When this ceremony is over, they both repair to Maimatschin; the Russian chooses the commodities he wants, not forgetting to guard against fraud by a strict inspection. He then takes the precaution to leave behind a person of confidence, who remains in the warehouse until the Russian goods are delivered, when he returns to Kiachta with the Chinese merchandize[105]. [Footnote 104: The Chinese have no gold or silver coin. These metals are always paid in bullion; and for the purpose of ascertaining the weight, every Chinese merchant is constantly provided with a pair of scales. As gold is very scarce in China, silver is the great vehicle of commerce. When several authors affirm that the Russians draw large quantities of silver from China, they mistake an accidental occurrence for a general and standing fact. During the war between the Chinese and Calmucs, the former had occasion to purchase at Kiachta provision, horses, and camels, for which they paid silver. This traffic brought such a profusion of that metal into Siberia, that its price was greatly reduced below its real value. A pound of silver was at that period occasionally sold at the frontiers for 8 or 9 roubles, which at present fetches 15 or 16. But since the conclusion of these wars by the total reduction of the Calmucs under the Chinese yoke, Russia receives a very small quantity of silver from the Chinese. S.R.G. III. p. 593 & seq. The silver imported to Kiachta is chiefly brought by the Bucharian merchants, who sell cattle to the Chinese in exchange for that metal, which they afterwards dispose of to the Russians for European manufactures. Gold-dust is also occasionally obtained from the same merchants; the quantity however of those metals procured at Kiachta is so inconsiderable, as scarcely to deserve mention. The whole sum imported to Kiachta, in 1777, amounted to only 18,215 roubles.] [Footnote 105: Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 135.] [Sidenote: Russian Exports.] The principal commodities which Russia exports to China are as follow: FURS and PELTRY. It would be uninteresting to enumerate all the furs and skins[106] brought for sale to Kiachta, which form the most important article of exportation on the side of the Russians. The most valuable of these furs are the skins of sea-otters, beavers, foxes, wolves, bears, Bucharian lambs, Astracan sheep, martens, sables, ermines, grey-squirrels. [Footnote 106: The list of all the furs and skins brought to Kiachta, with their several prices, is to be found in Pallas Reise, Part III. p. 136 to p. 142. See hereafter, p. 242.] The greatest part of these furs and skins are drawn from Siberia and the New Discovered Islands: this supply however is not alone fully adequate to the demand of the market at Kiachta. Foreign furs are therefore imported to St. Petersburg, and from thence sent to the frontiers. England alone furnishes a large quantity of beaver and other skins, which she draws from Hudson's Bay and Canada.[107] [Footnote 107: List of furs sent from England to Petersburg in the following years: Beaver-skins. Otter-skins. 1775, | 46460 | 7143 1776, | 27700 | 12086 1777, | 27316 | 10703 The finest Hudson's beavers have been sold upon an average at Petersburg from 70 to 90 roubles per 10 skins. Inferior ditto and best Canada beavers from 50 -- 75 Young or cub-beavers from 20 -- 35 Best otter-skins from 90 -- 100 Inferior ones from 60 -- 80 The qualities of these skins being very different occasion great variations in the prices. At Kiachta, the best Hudson's Bay beaver fetches from 7 to 20 roubles per skin. Otters' ditto 6 -- 35 Black foxes skins from Canada are also sometimes sent from England to Petersburg. At Kiachta they fetch from 1 to 100 roubles per skin.] CLOTH. Cloth forms the second article of exportation which Russia exports to China. The coarse sort is manufactured in Russia; the finer sort is foreign, chiefly English, Prussian, and French. An arshire of foreign cloth fetches, according to its fineness, from 2 to 4 roubles. Camlets. Calimancoes. Druggets. White flannels, both Russian and foreign. The remaining articles are, Rich stuffs. Velvets. Coarse linen, chiefly manufactured in Russia. Russia leather. Tanned hides. Glass ware and looking glasses. Hardware, namely, knives, scissars, locks, &c. Tin. Russian talk. Cattle, chiefly camels, horses, and horned cattle. The Chinese also pay very dear for hounds, greyhounds, barbets, and dogs for hunting wild boars. Provisions[108]. [Footnote 108: In the year 1772, the Chinese purchased meat at Kiachta, at the following prices: A pound of beef 3-2/3 copecs. lamb 2-1/2 Horse flesh for the Tartars 1/2. Pallas Reise, P. III. p.] Meal.--The Chinese no longer import such large quantities of meal as formerly, since they have employed the Mongols to cultivate the lands lying near the river Orchon[109], &c. &c. [Footnote 109: S. R. G. III. p. 495-571. Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 136-144.] [Sidenote: Imports.] List of the most valuable commodities procured from China. RAW AND MANUFACTURED SILK. The exportation of raw silk is prohibited in China under pain of death: large quantities however are smuggled every year into Kiachta, but not sufficient to answer the demands of the Russian merchants. A pood of the best sort is estimated at 150 roubles; of the worst sort at 75 The manufactured silks are of various sorts, fashions, and prices, viz. sattins, taffaties, damasks, and gauzes, scanes of silk died of all colours, ribbands, &c. &c. RAW AND MANUFACTURED COTTON. Raw cotton is imported in very large quantities; a great part of this commodity is employed in packing up the china ware, and by these means is conveyed into the inland part of Russia without any additional expence of carriage. A pood sells for--from 4 roubles, 80 cop. to 12. Of the manufactured cotton, that which the Russians call Kitaika, and the English Nankeen, has the most rapid sale. It is the most durable, and, in proportion to its goodness, the cheapest of all the Chinese stuffs; it is stained red, brown, green, and black. TEAS. The teas which are brought into Russia are much superior in flavour and quality to those which are sent to Europe from Canton. The original goodness of the teas is probably the same in both cases; but it is conjectured, that the transport by sea considerably impairs the aromatic flavour of the plant. This commodity, now become so favourite an object of European luxury, is esteemed by the Russian merchants the most profitable article of importation. At Kiachta a pound of the best tea[110] is estimated at 2 roubles. Common ditto at 1 Inferior at 40 copecs. [Footnote 110: At Petersburg a pound of the best green tea fetches 3 roubles.] PORCELAIN OF ALL SORTS. For some years past the Chinese have brought to Kiachta parcels of porcelain, painted with European figures, with copies of several favourite prints and images of the Grecian and Roman deities. Furniture, particularly Japan cabinets and cases, lackered and varnished tables and chairs, boxes inlaid with mother-of-pearl, &c. &c. Fans, toys, and other small wares. Artificial flowers. Tiger and Panther skins. Rubies[111], but neither in large quantities nor of great value. White lead, vermilion, and other colours. Canes. Tobacco. Rice. Sugar Candy. Preserved ginger, and other sweetmeats. Rhubarb[112]. Musk. [Footnote 111: Rubies are generally procured by smuggling; and by the same means pearls are occasionally disposed of to the Chinese, at a very dear rate. Pearls are much sought for by the Chinese; and might be made a very profitable article.] [Footnote 112: See Appendix II.] It is very difficult to procure the genuine Thibet musk, because the Chinese purchase a bad sort, which comes from Siberia, with which they adulterate that which is brought from Thibet[113]. [Footnote 113: S. R. G. III. p. 572-592. Pallas Reise, p. III. p. 144-153.] [Sidenote: Advantages of this Trade to Russia.] Russia draws great advantages from the Chinese trade. By this traffic, its natural productions, and particularly its furs and skins, are disposed of in a very profitable manner. Many of these furs procured from the most Easterly parts of Siberia, are of such little value that they would not answer the expence of carriage into Russia; while the richer furs, which are sold to the Chinese at a very high price, would, on account of their dearness, seldom meet with purchasers in the Russian dominions. In exchange for these commodities the Russians receive from China several valuable articles of commerce, which they would otherwise be obliged to buy at a much dearer rate from the European powers, to the great disadvantage of the balance of their trade. I have before observed, that formerly the exportation and importation of the most valuable goods were prohibited to individuals; at present only the following articles are prohibited. Among the exports, fire-arms and artillery; gunpowder and ball; gold and silver, coined and uncoined, stallions and mares; skins of deer, reindeer, elks, and horses; beaver's hair, potash, rosin, thread, and [114]tinsel-lace: among the imports, salt, brandy, poisons, copper-money, and rhubarb. [Footnote 114: Tinsel lace is smuggled to the Chinese, with considerable profit; for they pay nearly as much for it as if it was solid silver. S. R. G. III. p. 588.] The duties paid by the Russian-merchants are very considerable; great part of the merchandise is taxed at 25 per cent. Furs, cattle, and provisions, pay a duty of 23. Russian manufactures 18. One per cent. is also deducted from the price of all goods for the expence of deepening the river Selenga; and 7 per cent for the support of the custom-house. Some articles, both of export and import, pay no duty. The exported are, writing, royal, and post paper, Russia cloth of all sorts and colours, excepting peasants cloth. The imported are, satins, raw and stained cottons, porcelain, earthen-ware, glass corals, beads, fans, all musical instruments, furniture, lackered and enamelled ornaments, needles, white-lead, rice, preserved ginger, and other sweet-meats[115]. [Footnote 115: Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 154.] The importance of this trade will appear from the following table. [Sidenote: Table of exportation and importation.] Table of exportation and importation at Kiachta, in the year 1777. Rbles. Cop. Custom-house duties, 481,460. 59-1/2. Importation of Chinese goods, to the value of 1,466,497. 3-3/4. Of gold and silver 11,215. ----------------------- Total of Importation 1,484,712. 3-3/4. ----------------------- Exportation of Russian commodities 1,313,621. 35. From this table it appears, that the total sum of export and import amounts to 2,868,333. In this calculation however the contraband trade is not included, which is very large; and as the year 1777 was not so favourable to this traffic as the preceding ones[116], we may venture to estimate the gross amount of the average trade to China at near 4,000,000 Roubles. [Footnote 116: In the year 1770, 1771, 1772, the custom-house duties at Kiachta (according to Mr. Pallas, P. III. p. 154.) produced 550,000 roubles. By taking therefore the medium between that sum and 481,460, the amount of the duties in 1777, the average sum of the duties will be 515,730; and, as the duties in 1777 make nearly a sixth of the whole sum of exportation and importation, by multiplying 515,730 by 6, we have the gross amount of the average exports and imports at 3,094,380. But as several goods pay no duty, and as the contraband trade according to the lowest valuation is estimated at the fifth part of the exports and imports; the gross amount of the average trade to China may be fairly computed at near 4,000,000, the sum stated above.] CHAP. V. Description of Zuruchaitu--and its trade--Transport of the merchandise through Siberia. The general account of the Russian commerce to China has been given in the preceding chapter, because almost the whole traffic is confined to Kiachta. The description of Zuruchaitu, which was also fixed by the treaty of Kiachta for the purpose of carrying on the same trade, will be comprised of course in a narrow compass. [Sidenote: Description of Zuruchaitu.] Zuruchaitu is situated in 137° longitude, and 49°. 20´ N. latitude, upon the Western branch of the river Argoon, at a small distance from its source. It is provided with a small garrison, and a few wretched barracks surrounded with chevaux de frise. No merchants are settled at this place; they come every summer from Nershinsk, and other Russian towns in order to meet two parties of Mongol troops: these troops are sent from the Chinese towns Naun and Merghen, and arrive at the frontiers about July. They encamp near Zuruchaitu upon the other side of the river Argoon, and barter with the Siberian merchants a few Chinese commodities, which they bring with them. [Sidenote: Commerce.] Formerly the commerce carried on at Zuruchaitu was more considerable; but at present it is so trifling, that it hardly deserves to be mentioned. These Mongols furnish the district of Nershinsk with bad tea and tobacco, bad silks, and some tolerable cottons. They receive in return ordinary furs, cloth, cattle, and Russian leather. This trade lasts about a month or six weeks, and the annual duties of the customs amount upon an average to no more than 500 roubles. About the middle of August the Mongols retire; part proceed immediately to China, and the others descend the stream of the Amoor as far as its mouth, in order to observe if there has been no usurpation upon the limits. At the same time the Russian merchants return to Nershinsk, and, were it not for the small garrison, Zuruchaitu would remain uninhabited[117]. [Footnote 117: S. R. G. III. p. 465. Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 428.] [Sidenote: Transport of the Russian and Chinese Commodities through Siberia.] The Russian commodities are transported by land from Petersburg and Moscow to Tobolsk. From thence the merchants may embark upon the Irtish down to its junction with the Oby; then they either tow up their boats, or sail up the last mentioned river as far as Marym, where they enter the Ket, which they ascend to Makoffskoi Ostrog. At that place the merchandize is carried about ninety versts by land to the Yenisei. The merchants then ascend that river, the Tunguska, and Angara, to Irkutsk, cross the lake Baikal, and go up the river Selenga almost to Kiachta. It is a work of such difficulty to ascend the streams of so many rapid rivers, that this navigation Eastwards can hardly be finished in one summer[118]; for which reason the merchants commonly prefer the way by land. Their general rendezvous is the fair of Irbit near Tobolsk; from thence they go in sledges during winter to Kiachta where they arrive about February, the season in which the chief commerce is carried on with the Chinese. They buy in their route all the furs they find in the small towns, where they are brought from the adjacent countries. When the merchants return in spring with the Chinese goods, which are of greater bulk and weight than the Russian commodities, they proceed by water; they then descend the streams of most of the rivers, namely, the Selenga, Angara, Tunguska, Ket, and Oby to its junction with the Irtish; they ascend that river to Tobolsk, and continue by land to Moscow and Petersburg. [Footnote 118: Some of these rivers are only navigable in spring when the snow water is melting; in winter the rivers are in general frozen.] [Sidenote: Transport of the Furs from Kamtchatka to Kiachta.] Before the passage from Ochotsk to Bolcheresk was discovered in 1716, the only communication between Kamtchatka and Siberia was by land; the road lay by Anadirsk to Yakutsk. The furs[119] of Kamtchatka and of the Eastern isles are now conveyed from that peninsula by water to Ochotsk; from thence to Yakutsk by land on horse-back, or by rein-deer: the roads are so very bad, lying either through a rugged mountainous country, or through marshy forests, that the journey lasts at least six weeks. Yakutsk is situated upon the Lena, and is the principal town, where the choicest furs are brought in their way to Kiachta, as well from Kamtchatka as from the Northern parts of Siberia, which lay upon the rivers Lena, Yana, and Endigirka. At Yakutsk the goods are embarked upon the Lena, towed up the stream of that river as far as Vercholensk, or still farther to Katsheg; from thence they are transported over a short tract of land to the rivulet Buguldeika, down that stream to the lake Baikal, across that lake to the mouth of the Selenga, and up that river to the neighbourhood of Kiachta. [Footnote 119: The furs, which are generally landed upon the Eastern coast of Kamtchatka, are either sent by sea to Bolchoresk, or are transported across the Peninsula in sledges drawn by dogs. The latter conveyance is only used in winter: it is the usual mode of travelling in that country. In summer there is no conveyance, as the Peninsula contains neither oxen, horses, or rein-deer. S. R. G. III. p. 478.] In order to give the reader some notion of that vast tract of country, over which the merchandize is frequently transported by land carriage, a list of the distances is here subjoined. From Petersburg to Moscow 734 versts. Moscow to Tobolsk 2385 Tobolsk to Irkutsk 2918 Irkutsk to Kiachta 471 6508 From Irbit to Tobolsk 420 From Irkutsk to Nershinsk 1129 Nershinsk to Zuruchaitu 370 From Ochotsk to Yakutsk 927 Yakutsk to Irkutsk 2433 From Selenginsk to Zuruchaitu 850 Zuruchaitu to Pekin 1588 Kiachta to Pekin 1532 The Chinese transport their goods to Kiachta chiefly upon camels. It is four or five days journey from Pekin to the wall of China, and forty-six from thence across the Mongol desert to Kiachta[120]. [Footnote 120: Pallas Reise, P. III. p. 134.] PART III. APPENDIX I. & II. CONTAINING SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNTS OF THE RUSSIAN DISCOVERIES, &c. &c. [Illustration: KRENITZIN'S and LEVASHEFF'S _VOYAGE to the_ FOX ISLANDS _in 1768 and 1769_.] APPENDIX I. Extract from the journal of a voyage made by Captain _Krenitzin_ and Lieutenant _Levasheff_ to the _Fox Islands_, in 1768, 1769, by order of the Empress of _Russia_--they sail from _Kamtchatka_--arrive at _Beering's_ and _Copper Islands_--reach the _Fox Islands_--_Krenitzin_ winters at _Alaxa_--_Levasheff_ upon _Unalashka_--productions of _Unalashka_--description of the inhabitants of the _Fox Islands_--their manners and customs, &c. [Sidenote: Krenitzin and Levasheff sail from the Mouth of the Kamtchatka River, 1768.] On the 23d of July Captain Krenitzin sailed in the Galliot St. Catherine from the mouth of the Kamtchatka river towards America: he was accompanied by Lieutenant Levasheff, in the Hooker St. Paul. Their instructions were regulated by information derived from Beering's expedition in 1741. Shaping their course accordingly, they found themselves more to the North than they expected; and were told by the Russian traders and hunters, that a similar[121] mistake was committed in the chart of that expedition. These traders, who for some years past were accustomed to ramble to the distant islands in quest of furs, said that they were situated much more to the South, and farther East than was imagined. [Sidenote: They reach Beering's Island.] On the 27th they saw Commodore's or Beering's Island, which is low and rocky, especially to the S. W. On this side they observed a small harbour, distinguished by two hillocks like boats, and not far from it they found a fresh water lake. [Footnote 121: This passage is obscurely expressed. Its meaning may be ascertaining by comparing Krenitzin's chart with that of Beering's voyage prefixed to Muller's account of the Russian Discoveries. The route of Krenitzin's vessel was confidently to the North of the course held by Beering and Tschirikoff, and consequently he sailed through the middle of what they had supposed to be a continent, and which he found to be an open sea. See Robertson's History of America, p. 461, and p. 26, of this work. [Sidenote: and Copper Island.] To the S. E. lies another island, called by the Russians Mednoi Ostroff, or Copper Island, from a great quantity of copper found upon its N. E. coast, the only side which is known to the Russians. It is washed up by the sea, and covers the shore in such abundance, that many ships may load with it. Perhaps an India trader might make a profitable voyage from thence to China, where this metal is in high demand. This copper is mostly in a metallic or malleable state, and many pieces seem as if they had formerly been in fusion. The island is not high, but has many hillocks, each of which has the appearance of having formerly been the funnel of a volcano. We may here, once for all, observe, that all the islands represented in this chart[122] abound with such funnels, called in Russian Sopka, in so much that no island, however small, was found without one; and many of them consisted of nothing else. In short, the chain of islands here laid down may, without any violent stretch of imagination, be considered as thrown up by some late volcanos. The apparent novelty of every thing seems to justify this conjecture: nor can any objection be derived from the vegetable productions with which these islands abound; for the summer after the lower district of Zutphen in Holland was gained from the sea, it was covered over with wild mustard. All these lands are subject to violent and frequent earth-quakes, and abound in sulphur. The writer of the journal was not able to inform us whether any lava was found upon them; but he speaks of a party-coloured stone as heavy as iron. From this account it is by no means improbable, that the copper abovementioned has been melted in some eruption. [Footnote 122: Namely, the chart which is prefixed to this journal.] [Sidenote: Arrive at the Fox Islands.] After leaving Copper Island, no land was seen from either of the ships (which had parted company in a fog) till on the S. E. quarter of their tract, was discovered the chain of islands or head-lands laid down in the chart. These in general appeared low, the shore bad, without creeks, and the water between them very shallow. During their course outwards, as well as during their return, they had frequent fogs. It appears from the journal, as well as from the relation of the hunters, that it is very uncommon to have clear weather for five days together, even during summer. [Sidenote: Krenitzin winters at Alaxa.] The St. Catherine wintered in the straits of Alaxa, where they hauled her into shoal water. The instructions given to the captain set forth, that a private ship had in 1762 found there a commodious haven; but he looked for it in vain. The entrance of this strait from the N. E. was extremely difficult on account of flats, and strong currents both flood and ebb: the entrance however from the S. E. was afterwards found to be much easier with not less than 5-1/2 fathoms water. Upon surveying this strait, and the coast of Alaxa, many funnels were observed in the low grounds close to the shore, and the soil produced few plants. May not this allow one to suppose that the coast had suffered considerable changes since the year 1762? Few of the islands produce wood, and that only in the vallies by the rivulets. Unalga and Alaxa contain the most; they abound with fresh water streams, and even rivers; from which we may infer that they are extensive. The soil is in general boggy, and covered with moss; but Alaxa has more soil and produces much grass. [Sidenote: Levasheff winters upon Unalashka.] The St. Paul wintered in Unalashka. This wintering place was observed to lie in 53° 29´ North latitude, and its longitude from the mouth of Kamtchatka river, computed by the ship's journal, was 27° 05´ East[123]. Unalashka is about fifty miles long from N. E. to S. W. and has on the N. E. side three bays. One of them called Udagha stretches thirty miles E. N. E. and W. S. W. nearly through the middle of the island. Another called Igunck, lying N. N. E. and S. S. W. is a pretty good harbour, with three and a half fathom water at high tide, and sandy ground. It is well sheltered from the North swell at its entrance by rocks, some of which are under water. The tide flows here five feet at full and change, and the shore is in general bold and rocky, except in the bay, at the mouth of a small river. There are two burning mountains on this island, one called Ayaghish, and the other (by the Russians) the Roaring Mountain. Near the former is a very copious hot spring. The land is in general rocky, with loamy and clayey grounds; but the grass is extremely coarse, and unfit for pasture. Hardly any wood is to be found on it. [Sidenote: Productions of Unalashka.] Its plants are dwarf cherry ([124]Xylosteum of Tournefort), wortle berry, (Vaccinium Uliginosum of Linnæus), rasberry, farana and shikshu of Kamtchatka and kutage, larch, white poplar, pine and birch[125]. The land animals are foxes of different colours, mice, and weasels; there are also beavers[126], sea cats, and sea lions as at Kamtchatka. Among their fish we may reckon cod, perch, pilchards, smelts, roach, needle fish, terpugh, and tchavitcha. The birds are eagles, partridges, ducks, teals, urili, ari, and gadi. The animals for whose Russian names I can find no translations, are (excepting the Ari) described in Krashininikoff's History of Kamtchatka, or in Steller's relation contained in the second volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of Petersburgh. [Footnote 123: According to the general map of Russia, the mouth of the Kamtchatka river is in 178° 25´ from Fero. Unalashka therefore, according to this estimation, is 205° 30´ from Fero, or 187° 55´ 15´´ from Greenwich.] [Footnote 124: The Lonicera Pyrenaica of Linnæus. It is not a dwarf cherry, but a species of honeysuckle.] [Footnote 125: All the other journalists uniformly describe Unalashka as containing nothing but underwood; we must therefore suppose that the trees here mentioned were very low and small, and this agrees with what goes before, "hardly any wood is to be found on it."] [Footnote 126: By beavers the journalists certainly mean sea-otters, called by the Russians sea-beavers. See p. 12. For a description of the sea-otter, called by Linnæus Lutra Marina, see Nov. Com. Petr. vol. II. p. 367, et seq.] [Sidenote: Account of the Inhabitants of the Fox Islands.] The inhabitants of Alaxa, Umnak, Unalaksha, and the neighbouring islands, are of a middle stature, tawny brown colour, and black hair. In summer they wear coats (parki[127]) made of bird skins, over which, in bad weather, and in their boats, they throw cloaks, called kamli, made of thin whale guts. On their heads they wear wooden caps, ornamented with duck's feathers, and the ears of the sea-animal, called Scivutcha or sea-lion; they also adorn these caps with beads of different colours, and with little figures of bone or stone. In the partition of the nostrils they place a pin, about four inches long, made of the bone, or of the stalk of a certain black plant; from the ends of this pin or bodkin they hang, in fine weather and on festivals, rows of beads, one below the other. They thrust beads, and bits of pebble cut like teeth, into holes made in the under-lips. They also wear strings of beads in their ears, with bits of amber, which the inhabitants of the other islands procure from Alaxa, in exchange for arrows and kamli. [Footnote 127: Parki in Russian signifies a shirt, the coats of these islanders being made like shirts.] They cut their hair before just above the eyes, and some shave the top of their heads like monks. Behind the hair is loose. The dress of the women hardly differs from that of the men, excepting that it is made of fish-skins. They sew with bone needles, and thread made of fish guts, fastening their work to the ground before them with bodkins. They go with the head uncovered, and the hair cut like that of the men before, but tied up behind in a high knot. They paint their cheeks with strokes of blue and red, and wear nose-pins, beads, and ear-rings like the men; they hang beads round their neck, and checkered strings round their arms and legs. [Sidenote: Manners and Customs.] In their persons we should reckon them extremely nasty. They eat the vermin with which their bodies are covered, and swallow the mucus from the nose. Having washed themselves, according to custom, first with urine, and then with water, they suck their hands dry. When they are sick, they lie three or four days without food; and if bleeding is necessary, they open a vein with lancets made of flint, and suck the blood. Their principal nourishment is fish and whale fat, which they commonly eat raw. They also feed upon sea-wrack and roots, particularly the saran, a species of lily; they eat a herb, called kutage, on account of its bitterness, only with fish or fat. They sometimes kindle fire by catching a spark among dry leaves and powder of sulphur: but the most common method is by rubbing two pieces of wood together, in the manner practised at Kamtchatka[128], and which Vaksel, Beering's lieutenant, found to be in use in that part of North America which he saw in 1741. They are very fond of Russian oil and butter, but not of bread. They could not be prevailed upon to taste any sugar until the commander shewed the example; finding it sweet, they put it up to carry it home to their wives. [Footnote 128: The instrument made use of by the Kamtchadals, to procure fire, is a board with several holes in it, and a stick; the latter is put into the holes, and turned about swiftly, until the wood within the holes begins to burn, where there is tinder ready to catch the sparks. S. R. G. III. p. 205.] The houses of these islanders are huts built precisely in the manner of those in Kamtchatka, with the entry through a hole in the middle of the roof. In one of these huts live several families, to the amount of thirty or forty persons. They keep themselves warm by means of whale fat burnt in shells, which they place between their legs. The women set apart from the men. Six or seven of these huts or yourts make a village, of which there are sixteen in Unalashka. The islands seem in general to be well inhabited, as may be conjectured from the great number of boats which are seen continually plying along the shore. There are upwards of a thousand inhabitants on Unalashka, and they say that it was formerly much more populous. They have suffered greatly by their disputes with the Russians, and by a famine in the year 1762; but most of all from a change in their way of life. No longer contented with their original simplicity, they long for Russian luxuries: in order therefore to obtain a few delicacies, which are presently consumed, they dedicate the greatest part of their time to hunting, for the purpose of procuring furs for the Russians: by these means, they neglect to lay up a provision of fish and roots; and suffer their children frequently to die of hunger. Their principal food is fish, which they catch with bone hooks. Their boats, in which they row to a great distance from land, are made, like those of the Innuet or Esquimaux, of thin slips of wood and skins: these skins cover the top as well as the sides of the boat, and are drawn tight round the waist of the rower. The oar is a paddle, broad at both ends. Some of their boats hold two persons; one of whom rows, and the other fishes: but these kind of boats seem appropriated to their chiefs. They have also large boats capable of holding forty men. They kill birds and beasts with darts made of bone, or of wood tipped with sharpened stone: they use these kind of darts in war, which break with the blow given by them, and leave the point in the wound. The manners and character of these people are what we should expect from their necessitous situation, extremely rude and savage. The inhabitants however of Unalashka are somewhat less barbarous in their manners and behaviour to each other, and also more civil to strangers than the natives of the other islands; but even they are engaged in frequent and bloody quarrels, and commit murder without the least compunction. Their disposition engages them in continual wars, in which they always endeavour to gain their point by stratagem. The inhabitants of Unimak are formidable to all the rest; they frequently invade the other islands, and carry off women, the chief object of their wars. Alaxa is most subject to these incursions, probably because it is more populous and extensive. They all join in hating the Russians, whom they consider as general invaders, and therefore kill them wherever they can. The people of Unalashka however are more friendly; for Lieutenant Levasheff, being informed that there was a Russian vessel in the straits of Alaxa, prevailed on some Unalashkans to carry a letter, which they undertook, notwithstanding the danger they were exposed to from the inhabitants of the intervening islands. The journalist says, that these people have no kind of religion, nor any notion of a God. We observe however among them sufficient marks of such a religion as might be expected from people in their situation. For the journalist informs us, that they have fortune-tellers employed by them at their festivals. These persons pretend to foretel events by the information of the Kugans or Dæmons. In their divinations they put on wooden masks, made in the form in which they say the Kugan appeared to them; they then dance with violent motions, beating at the same time drums covered with fish skins. The inhabitants also wear little figures on their caps, and place others round their huts, to keep off the devils. These are sufficient marks of a savage religion. It is common for them to have two, three, or four wives, and some have also an object of unnatural affection, who is dressed like the women. The wives do not all live together, but, like the Kamtchadals, in different yourts. It is not unusual for the men to exchange their wives, and even sell them, in time of dearth, for a bladder of fat; the husband afterwards endeavours to get back his wife, if she is a favourite, and if unsuccessful he sometimes kills himself. When strangers arrive at a village, it is always customary for the women to go out to meet them, while the men remain at home: this is considered as a pledge of friendship and security. When a man dies in the hut belonging to his wife, she retires into a dark hole, where she remains forty days. The husband pays the same compliment to his favourite wife upon her death. When both parents die, the children are left to shift for themselves. The Russians found many in this situation, and some were brought for sale. In each village there is a sort of chief, called Tookoo, who is not distinguished by any particular rank or authority. He decides differences by arbitration, and the neighbours enforce the sentence. When he goes out to sea he is exempted from working, and has a servant, called Kalè, for the purpose of rowing the canoe; this is the only mark of his dignity: at all other times he labours like the rest. The office is not hereditary; but is generally conferred on him who is most remarkable for his personal qualities; or who possesses a great influence by the number of his friends. Hence it frequently happens, that the person who has the largest family is chosen. During their festivals, which are held after the fishing season ends in April, the men and women sing songs; the women dance, sometimes singly, and sometimes in pairs, waving in their hands blown bladders; they begin with gentle movements, which become at last extremely violent. The inhabitants of Unalashka are called Kogholaghi. Those of Akutan, and farther East to Unimak, are called Kighigusi; and those of Unimak and Alaxa are called Kataghayekiki. They cannot tell whence they have these names, and now begin to call themselves by the general name of Aleyut, given them by the Russians, and borrowed from some of the [129]Kuril islands. Upon being asked concerning their origin, they said that they had always inhabited these islands, and knew nothing of any other country beyond them. All that could be gathered from them was, that the greatest numbers came from Alaxa, and that they did not know whether that land had any bounds. The Russians surveyed this island very far to the N. E. in boats, being out about a fortnight, and set up a cross at the end of their survey. The boats of the islanders are like those of the Americans. It appears however from their customs and way of life, so far as these are not necessarily prescribed to them by their situation, that they are of Kamtchatdal original. Their huts, their manner of kindling fire, and their objects of unnatural affections, lead to this conjecture. Add to this, the almost continual Westerly winds, which must render the passage Westward extremely difficult. Beering and Tchirikoff could never obtain Easterly winds but by going to the Southward. [Footnote 129: I cannot find, that any of the Kuril Isles are called Aleyut in the catalogue of those islands given by Mr. Muller, S. R. G. III. p, 86-92. Neither are any of them laid down under that name in the Russian charts.] The Russians have for some years past been accustomed to go to these islands in quest of furs, of which they have imposed a tax on the inhabitants. The manner of carrying on this trade is as follows. The Russian traders go in Autumn to Beering's and Copper island, and there winter: they then employ themselves in catching the sea-cat, and afterwards the Scivutcha, or sea-lion. The flesh of the latter is prepared for food, and it is very delicate. They carry the skins of these sea-animals to the Eastern islands. Next summer they go Eastward, to the Fox-islands; and again lay their ships up for the winter. They then endeavour to procure, either by persuasion or force, the children of the inhabitants, particularly of the Tookoos, as hostages. This being accomplished, they deliver to the inhabitants fox-traps, and also skins for their boats, for which they oblige them to bring furs and provisions during the winter. After obtaining from them a certain quantity of furs, by way of tax, for which they give them quittances; the Russians pay for the rest in beads, false pearls, goat's wool, copper kettles, hatchets, &c. In the spring they get back their traps, and deliver up their hostages. They dare not hunt alone, nor in small numbers, on account of the hatred of the natives. These people could not, for some time, comprehend for what purpose the Russians imposed a tribute of skins, which were not to be their own property, but belonged to an absent person; for their Tookoos have no revenue. Nor could they be made to believe, that there were any more Russians than those who came among them; for in their own country all the men of an island go out together. At present they comprehend something of Kamtchatka, by means of the Kamtchadals and Koriacs who come along with the Russians; and on their arrival love to associate with people whose manner of life resembles their own. Krenitzin and Levasheff returned from this expedition into the mouth of the Kamtchatka river in autumn 1769. The chart which accompanies this journal was composed by the pilot Jacob Yakoff, under the inspection of the commanders[130] Krenitzin and Levasheff. The track of the St. Paul is marked both in going out and returning. The harbour of the St. Paul in the island Unalashka, and the straits of Alaxa, are laid down from observations made during the winter 1768; and the islands connected by bearings and distances taken during a cruise of the St. Paul twice repeated. [Footnote 130: Krenitzin was drowned soon after his return to Kamtchatka in a canoe belonging to the natives.] In this chart the variation is said to be In Lat. Long. Points 54° 40´. 204. 2 East. 52 20 201 1-1/2 52 50 198 1-1/2 53 20 192 30 1 53 40 188 1 54 50 182 30 0-3/4 55 00 180 30 0-3/4 N^o II. Concerning the longitude of _Kamtchatka_, and of the Eastern extremity of _Asia_, as laid down by the _Russian_ Geographers. [Sidenote: Longitude of the extreme Parts of Asia.] The important question concerning the longitude of the extreme parts of Asia has been so differently stated by the most celebrated geographers, that it may not be amiss to refer the curious reader to the principal treatises upon that subject. [Sidenote: by Mr. Muller and the Russian Geographers.] The proofs by which Mr. Muller and the Russian geographers place the longitude of the Eastern extremity of Asia beyond 200 degrees from the first meridian of Fero, or 180° 6´ 15´´ from Paris, are drawn from the observations of the satellites of Jupiter, made by Krassilnikoff at Kamtchatka, and in different parts of Siberia, and from the expeditions of the Russians by land and sea towards Tschukotskoi Noss. [Sidenote: by Mr. Engel.] Mr. Engel calls in question the exactness of these observations, and takes off twenty-nine degrees from the longitude of Kamtchatka, as laid down by the Russians. To this purpose he has given to the public, 1. Memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation des Pays Septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'Amerique. A Lausanne, 1765. 2. Geographische und Critische Nachricht ueber die Lage der noerdlichen Gegenden von Asien und America. Mittau, 1772. [Sidenote: by Mr. Vaugondy.] It appears to Monsieur de Vaugondy, that there are not sufficient grounds for so extraordinary a diminution: accordingly he shortens the continent of Asia only eleven degrees of longitude; and upon this subject he has given the two following treatises: 1. Lettre au sujet d'une carte systematique des Pays Septentrionaux de l'Asie et de l'Amerique. Paris, 1768. 2. Nouveau systeme geographique, par lequel on concilie les anciennes connoissances sur les Pays au Nord Ouest de l'Amerique. Paris, 1774. [Sidenote: Mons. Buache supports the System of the Russians against Engel and Vaugondy.] In opposition to these authors, Monsieur Buache has published an excellent treatise, entitled Memoires sur les Pays de l'Asie et de l'Amerique. Paris, 1775. In this memoir he dissents from the opinions of Messrs Engel and Vaugondy; and defends the system of the Russian geographers in the following manner. Monsieur Maraldi, after comparing the observations of the satellites of Jupiter, taken at Kamtchatka by Krassilnikoff, with the tables, has determined the longitude of Ochotsk, Bolcheresk, and the port of St. Peter and Paul from the first meridian of Paris as follows: h ´ ´´ [131]Longitude of Ochotsk 9 23 30 of Bolcheresk 10 17 17 of the Port 10 25 5 Latitude of Ochotsk 59° 22´, of Bolcheresk 52° 55´, of the Port 53° 1´. [Footnote 131: Krassilnikoff compared his observations with corresponding ones taken at Petersburg, which gave results as follow: From comparing an observation of an eclipse of the first satellite, taken at Ochotsk the 17th of January, 1743, with an observation of an eclipse of the same satellite taken at Petersburg on the 15th of January in the same year, the difference of longitude between Petersburg and Ochotsk appeared to be 7^h. 31´ 29´´; from a comparison of two other similar observations the difference of longitude was 7^h. 31´ 3´´, a mean of which is 7^h. 31´ 34´´, being the true difference between the meridians of Petersburg and Ochotsk according to these observations. By adding the difference of the longitude between Petersburg and Paris, which is 1^h. 52´ 25´´, we have the longitude of Ochotsk from Paris 9^h. 23´ 59´´, which differs 29´´ only from the result of Mons. Maraldi. Nov. Comm. Pet. III. p. 470. In the same manner the longitude of Bolcheresk appears from the corresponding observations taken at that place and at Petersburg to be 10h. 20´ 22´´ differing from Mr. Maraldi about 2´ 5´´. Nov. Com. p. 469. But the longitude of the port of St. Peter and Paul, estimated in the same manner from corresponding observations, differs from the longitude as computed by Mons. Maraldi no more than 20 seconds, p. 469.] The comparison of the following results, deduced from corresponding observations[132] of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites taken at Bolcheresk at the port of Peter and Paul by Krassilnikoff, and at Pekin by the Jesuit missionaries, will shew from their near agreement the care and attention which must have been given to the observations; and from hence there is reason to suppose, that the suspicions of inaccuracy imputed to Krassilnikoff are ill founded. [Footnote 132: Obs. Ast. Ecc. Sat. Jovis, &c. Nov. Com. Petr. vol. III. p. 452, &c. Obs. Ast. Pekini factæ. Ant. Hallerstein--Curante Max. Hell. Vindibonæ, 1768.] 1741, Old Stile. h ´ ´´ Jan. 27, Em. I Sat. 12 9 25 at the port of St. Peter and Paul. 9 20 35 at Pekin. ---------- Difference of the meridian at Pekin and the Port 2 48 50 ---------- h ´ ´´ Jan. 30, Imm. III Sat. 12 5 30 at the Port. 9 16 30 at Pekin. ---------- 2 49 0 ---------- h ´ ´´ Feb. 5, I Sat. 8 33 26 at the Port. 5 43 45 at Pekin. ---------- 2 49 41 ---------- h ´ ´´ Feb. 12, Em. I Sat. 10 28 49 7 39 29 ---------- 2 49 20 ----------- And the longitude from Paris to Pekin being 7 36 23 The difference of the meridians of Paris and the Port will be 10 25 36 Which differs only 31 seconds from the determination of Mr. Maraldi. 1741. Old Style. h ´ ´´ March 23, Em. II Sat. 10 55 2 at Bolcheresk. 8 14 0 at Pekin. ----------- 2 41 2 ----------- h ´ ´´ Dec. 31, Im. I Sat. 10 51 58 at Bolcheresk. 8 9 45 at Pekin. ----------- Difference of the meridians 2 42 13 of Pekin and Bolcheresk ----------- h ´ ´´ By taking the medium the difference of the longitude between Bolcheresk and Pekin will be found to be 2 41 37 Between Bolcheresk and Paris 10 18 0 Which differs only one minute and one second from the determination of Mr. Maraldi. In order to call in question the conclusions drawn from the observations of Krassilnikoff, Monsieur de Vaugondy pretends that the instruments and pendulums, which he made use of at Kamtchatka, were much damaged by the length of the journey; and that the person who was sent to repair them was an unskilful workman. But this opinion seems to have been advanced without sufficient foundation. Indeed Krassilnikoff[133] himself allows that his pendulum occasionally stopt, even when necessary to ascertain the true time of the observation. He admits therefore that the observations which he took under these disadvantages (when he could not correct them by preceding or subsequent observations of the sun or stars) are not to be depended upon, and has accordingly distinguished them by an asterisk; there are however a number of others, which were not liable to any exception of this kind; and the observations already mentioned in this number are comprised under this class. [Footnote 133: Nov. Com. Pet. III. p. 444.] * * * * * If the arguments which have been already produced should not appear sufficiently satisfactory, we have the further testimony of Mr. Muller, who was in those parts at the same time with Krassilnikoff, and who is the only competent judge of this matter now alive. For that respectable author has given me the most positive assurances, that the instruments were not damaged in such a manner as to effect the accuracy of the observations when in the hands of a skilful observer. [Sidenote: Accuracy of the Russian Geographers.] That the longitude of Kamtchatka is laid down with sufficient accuracy by the Russian geographers, will appear by comparing it with the longitude of Yakutsk; for as the latter has been clearly established by a variety of observations, taken at different times and by different persons, if there is any error in placing Kamtchatka so far to the East, it will be found in the longitude between Yakutsk and Bolcheresk. A short comparison therefore of some of the different observations made at Yakutsk will help to settle the longitude of Kamtchatka, and will still farther confirm the character of a skilful observer, which has been given to Krassilnikoff. Krassilnikoff in returning from Kamtchatka observed at Yakutsk several eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, of which the following are mentioned by him as the most exact. 1744, Old Style. h ´ ´´ [134]Feb. 7. Imm. I. Sat. 11 18 35 somewhat doubtful. 22. Imm. II. Sat. 10 31 11} 29. Imm. II. Sat. 13 6 54} Mar. 1. Imm. I. Sat. 11 23 0} all exact. Apr. 9. Em. I. Sat. 12 23 50} [Footnote 134: Nov. Comm. Petr. T. III. p. 460.] The same eclipses, as calculated by the tables of Mr. Wargentin, for the meridian of Paris, are as follow: h ´ ´´ h ´ ´´ Feb. 7. Imm. I. 2 49 0 Difference of 8 29 35 27. Imm. I. 12 3 10 the meridians 8 21 1 29. Imm. II. 4 38 17 of Paris-- 8 28 37 Mar. 1. Imm. I. 3 3 37 and Yakutsk 8 29 23 Apr. 9. Em. I. 3 54 12 8 29 46 ---------- The mean of which is 8 29 5 ---------- The observations of Mr. Islenieff[135], made at Yakutsk in the year 1769, to which place he was sent to observe the transit of Venus, have received the sanction of the Imperial Academy. The longitude which he fixes for Yakutsk is 8^h 29´ 34´´. this corresponds, to a sufficient degree of exactness, with the longitude inferred from, the observations of Krassilnikoff. [Footnote 135: For Islenieff's observations at Yakutsk, see Nov. Com. Tom. XIV. Part III. p. 268 to 321.] Thus the longitude of Yakutsk from Paris being 8^h 29° 4´´. or in degrees 127 16 0. and of Bolcheresk 10 17 17, or in degrees 150° 19´ 15. the difference of the longitude of these two places, from astronomical observations, amounts to 1 48 8. or in degrees 27° 3´ 0. The latitude of Bolcheresk is 52° 55´ 0´´. and that of Yakutsk 62° 1´ 50´´. and the difference of their longitudes being from the preceding determination 27 3 0. the direct distance between the places measured on a great circle of the earth will appear by trigonometry to be 16° 57´. or about 1773 versts reckoning 104-1/2 versts to a degree. This distance consists partly of sea, and partly of land; and a constant intercourse is kept up between the two places, by means of Ochotsk, which lies between them. The distance by sea from Bolcheresk to Ochotsk is estimated by ships reckonings to be 1254 versts, and the distance by land from Ochotsk to Yakutsk is 927 versts, making altogether 2181. The direct distance deduced by trigonometry, (on a supposition that the difference of longitude between Bolcheresk and Yakutsk is 27° 3´.) is 1773, falling short of 2181 by 408. a difference naturally to be expected from considering, that neither roads by land, or the course of ships at sea, are ever performed precisely on a great circle of the earth, which is the shortest line that can be drawn on the earth's surface between two places. By this agreement between the distance thus estimated, and that deduced by computation, on supposing the difference of longitude between Yakutsk and Bolcheresk to be 27° 3´. it seems very improbable, that there should be an error of many degrees in the astronomical determination. Since then the longitude between Fero and Petersburgh is acknowledged to be 48°--that between Petersburgh and Yakutsk 99° 21´--and as the distance in longitude between Yakutsk and Bolcheresk cannot be materially less than 27° 3´. it follows that the longitude of Bolcheresk from Fero cannot be much less than 174° 24´. Where then shall we find place for so great an error as 27 degrees, which, according to Mr. Engel, or even of 11°. which, according to Mons. Vaugondy, is imputed to the Russian geographers, in fixing the longitude of Kamtchatka? From the isle of Fero Longitude of Yakutsk 147 0 0 of Ochotsk 160 7 0 of Bolcheresk 174 13 0 of the Port of St. Peter and Paul 176 10 0 [Sidenote: Longitude of the extreme parts of Asia determined by the Russians.] As no astronomical observations have been made further to the East than the Port of St. Peter and Paul, it is impossible to fix, with any degree of certainty, the longitude of the North-Eastern promontory of Asia. It appears however from Beering's and Synd's coasting voyages towards Tschukotskoi Noss, and from other expeditions to the parts by land and sea, that the coast of Asia in lat. 64. stretches at least 23° 2 30. from the Port, or to about 200° longitude from the Isle of Fero. N^o III. Summary of the proofs tending to shew, that _Beering_ and _Tschirikoff_ either reached _America_ in 1741, or came very near it. The coast which Beering reached, and called Cape St. Elias, lay, according to his estimation, in 58°. 28´. N. latitude, and in longitude 236°. from Fero: the coast touched at by Tschirikoff was situated in lat. 56°. long. 241°[136]. [Footnote 136: The reader will find the narrative of this voyage made by Beering and Tschirikoff in Muller's account of the Russian Discoveries, S. R. G. III. 193, &c.] [Sidenote: Arguments advanced by Steller to prove that Beering and Tschirikoff discovered America.] Steller, who accompanied Beering in his expedition towards America, endeavours to prove, that they discovered that continent by the following arguments[137]: The coasts were bold, presenting continued chains of high mountains, some of which were so elevated, that their tops were covered with snow, their sides were cloathed from the bottom to the top with large tracts of thick and fine wood[138]. [Footnote 137: See Krashininikoff's account of Kamtchatka, Chap. X. French Translation; Chap. IV. English translation.] [Footnote 138: The recent navigations in those seas strongly confirm this argument. For in general all the new discovered islands are quite destitute of trees; even the largest produce nothing but underwood, one of the most Easterly Kadyak alone excepted, upon which small willows and alders were observed growing in vallies at some distance from the coast. See p. 118.] Steller went ashore, where he remained only a few hours; during which time he observed several species of birds which are not known in Siberia: amongst these was the bird described by [139]Catesby, under the name of Blue Jay; and which has never yet been found in any country but North America. The soil was very different from that of the neighbouring islands, and at Kamtchatka: and he collected several plants, which are deemed by botanists peculiar to America. [Footnote 139: See Catesby's Natural History of Florida, Carolina, &c. This bird is called by Linnæus Corbus Cristatus. I have seen, in Mr. Pennant's MS account of the history of the animals, birds, &c. of N. America, and the Northern hemisphere, as high as lat. 60, an exact description of this bird. Whenever that ingenious author, to whom we are indebted for many elegant and interesting publications, gives this part of his labours to the world, the zoology of these countries will be fully and accurately considered.] The following list of these plants was communicated to me by Mr. Pallas: I insert them however without presuming to decide, whether they are the exclusive growth of North America: the determination of this point is the province of botany. Trillium Erectum. Fumaria Cucullaria. A species of Dracontium, with leaves like the Canna Indica. Uvularia Perfoliata. Heuchera Americana. Mimulus Luteus, a Peruvian plant. A species of Rubus, probably a variety of the Rubus Idæus, but with larger berries, and a large laciniated red calyx. None of these plants are found in Kamtchatka, or in any of the neighbouring islands[140]. [Footnote 140: According to Mr. Pallas, the plants of the new-discovered islands are mostly alpine, like those of Siberia; this he attributes to the shortness and coldness of the summer, occasioned by the frequency of the North winds. His words are: "Quoique les hivres de ces isles soient assez temperés par l'air de la mer, de façon que les neiges ne couvrent jamais la terre que par intervalles, la plupart des plantes y sont alpines, comme en Siberie, par la raison que l'eté y est tout aussi courte et froide, a cause des vents de nord qui y regnent." This passage is taken from a MS treatise in the French language, relative to the new-discovered islands communicated to me by my very learned and ingenious friend Mr. Pallas, professor of natural history at St. Petersburg; from which I have been enabled to collect a considerable degree of information. This treatise was sent to Mons. Buffon; and that celebrated naturalist has made great use of it in the fifth volume of his Supplement à l'Histoire Naturelle.] Though these circumstances should not be considered as affording decisive proofs, that Beering reached America; yet they will surely be admitted as strong presumptions, that he very nearly approached that continent[141]. [Footnote 141: The reader will recollect in this place, that the natives of the contiguous islands touched at by Beering and Tschirikoff "presented to the Russians the calumet, or pipe of peace, which is a symbol of friendship universal among the people of North America, and an usage of arbitrary institution peculiar to them." See Robertson's Hist. Am. vol. I. p. 276. S. R. G. III. p. 214.] N^o IV. List of the principal charts representing the Russian discoveries. The following is an authentic list of the principal charts of the Russian discoveries hitherto published. It is accompanied with a few explanatory remarks. [Sidenote: List of the Charts of the Russian Discoveries]. 1. Carte des nouvelles dècouvertes au nord de la mer du sud, tant à l'Est de la Siberie et du Kamtchatka, qu'à l'Ouest de la Nouvelle France dressé sur les memoires de Mr. de l'Isle, par Philippe Buache, 1750. A memoir relative to this chart was soon afterwards published, with the following title, Explication de la carte des nouvelles dècouvertes au Nord de la mer du sud par Mr. de l'Isle Paris, 1752, 4to. This map is alluded to, p. 26 of this work. 2. Carte des nouvelles dècouvertes entre la partie orientale de l'Asie et l'Occidentale de l'Amerique, avec des vues sur la grande terre réconnue, par les Russes, en 1741, par Phil. Buache, 1752. 3. Nouvelle carte des dècouvertes faites par des vaisseaux Russiens aux cotés inconnus de l'Amerique septentrionale avec les pais adjacens, dressés sur les memoires authentiques de ceux qui ont assisté à ces dècouvertes, et sur d'autres connoissances; dont on rend raison dans un memoire separé: à St. Petersburg, à l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1754. 1758. This map was published under the inspection of Mr. Muller, and is still prefixed to his account of the Russian discoveries[142]. The part which exhibits the new discovered isles and the coast of America, was chiefly taken from the chart of Beering's expedition. Accordingly that continent is represented as advancing, between 50 and 60 degrees of latitude, to within a small distance of Kamtchatka. Nor could there be any reason to suspect, that such experienced sailors as Beering and Tschirikoff had mistaken a chain of islands for promontories belonging to America, until subsequent navigators had actually sailed through that very part, which was supposed to be a continent. [Footnote 142: This map was published by Jefferys under the following title: "A Map of the Discoveries made by the Russians on the North West coast of America, published by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Petersburg. Republished by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to his Majesty, 1761."] 4. A second chart published by the Academy, but not under the inspection of Mr. Muller, bears the same title as the former. Nouvelle carte des dècouvertes faites par des vaisseaux Russiens aut côtés inconnus de l'Amerique, &c. 1773. It is for the most part a copy of a manuscript chart known in Russia by the name of the chart of the Promyshlenics, or merchant adventurers, and which was sketched from the mere reports of persons who had sailed to the New Discovered Islands. As to the size and position of the New Discovered Islands, this chart of the Academy is extremely erroneous: it is however free from the above-mentioned mistake, which runs through all the former charts, namely, the representing of the coast of America, between 50 and 60 degrees of latitude, as contiguous to Kamtchatka. It likewise removes that part of the same continent lying in latitude 66, from 210° longitude to 224°, and in its stead lays down a large island, which stretches between latitude 64° and 71° 30´, from 207° longitude to 218°, to within a small distance of both continents. But whether this latter alteration be equally justifiable or not, is a question, the decision of which must be left to future navigators[143]. [Footnote 143: Mr. Muller has long ago acknowledged, in the most candid and public manner, the incorrectness of the former chart, as far as it relates to the part which represents America, as contiguous to Kamtchatka: but he still maintains his opinion concerning the actual vicinity of the two continents in an higher latitude. The following quotation is taken from a letter written by Mr. Muller, in 1774, of which I have a copy in my possession. "Posterity must judge if the new chart of the Academy is to be preferred to the former one for removing the continent of America (which is represented as lying near the coast of Tschutski) to a greater distance. Synd, who is more to be trusted than the Promyschlenics, persists in the old system. He places America as near as before to Tschukotskoi Noss, but knows nothing of a large island called Alashka, which takes up the place of the continent, and which ought to be laid down much more to the South or South East."] 5. Carte du nouvel Archipel du Nord decouvert parles Russes dans la mer de Kamtchatka et d'Anadir. This chart is prefixed to Mr. Stæhlin's account of the New Northern Archipelago. In the English translation it is called, A Map of the New Northern Archipelago, discovered by the Russians in the seas of Kamtchatka and Anadyr. It differs from the last mentioned chart only in the size and position of a few of the islands, and in the addition of five or six new ones, and is equally incorrect. The New Discovered Islands are classed in this chart into three groups, which are called the Isles of Anadyr[144], the Olutorian[145] Isles, and the Aleütian Isles. The two last mentioned charts are alluded to, p. 26 of this work. [Footnote 144: Monsieur Buffon has adopted the apellation and erroneous representation of the isles of Anadyr, in his Carte de deux regions Polaires, lately published. See Supplement à l'Hist. Nat. vol. V. p. 615.] [Footnote 145: The Olotorian Isles are so named from the small river of Olotora, which flows into the sea at Kamtchatka, about latitude 61°. The following remarks upon this group of islands are taken from a letter of Mr. Muller mentioned in the last note. "This appellation of Olutorian Isles is not in use at Kamtchatka. These islands, called upon this chart Olutorians, lie according to the chart of the Promyschlenics, and the chart of the Academy, very remote from the river Olutora: and it seems as if they were advanced upon this chart nearer to Kamtchatka only in favour of the name. They cannot be situated so near that coast, because they were neither seen by Beering in 1728, nor by the Promyschlenics, Novikoff and Bacchoff, when they sailed in 1748 from the Anadyr to Beering's Island." See p. 42.] 6. An excellent map of the Empire of Russia, published by the geographical department of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg in 1776, comprehends the greatest part of the New Discovered Islands. A reduced copy of this chart being prefixed to this work, I shall only mention the authorities from whence the compilers have laid down the New Discovered Islands. The Aleütian Isles are partly taken from Beering's chart, partly from [146]Otcheredin's, whose voyage is related in the eleventh chapter, and partly from other MS. charts of different navigators. The islands near the coast of the Tschutski are copied from Synd's chart. The Fox Islands are laid down from the chart of Otcheredin. The reader will perceive, that the position of the Fox Islands, upon this general map of Russia, is materially different from that assigned to them in the chart of Krenitzin's and Levasheff's voyage. In the former they are represented as stretching between 56° 61´ North latitude, and 210° and 230° longitude from the isle of Fero: in the latter they are situated between 51° 40´ and 55° 20´ latitude, and 199° 30´ and 207° 30´ longitude. According to the most recent accounts received from Petersburg, the position given to them upon this general map is considerably too much to the North and East; consequently that assigned to them upon Krenitzin's chart is probably the most to be depended upon. [Footnote 146: I have a MS. copy of Otcheredin's chart in my possession; but as the Fox Islands, in the general Map of Russia, are copied from thence, the reader will find them laid down upon the reduced map prefixed to this work. The anonymous author of the account of the Russian Discoveries, of whose work I have given a translation in Part I. seems to have followed, in most particulars, Otcheredin's chart and journal for the longitude, latitude, size, and position of the New Discovered Islands. For this reason, I should have had his chart engraved if the Fox Islands upon the general map had not been taken from thence: there seemed no occasion therefore for increasing the expence of this work, already too great from the number of charts, by the addition of another not absolutely necessary.] 7. Carte des dècouvertes Russes dans la mer orientale et en Amerique, pour servir à l'Essai[147] sur le commerce de Russie, 1778, Amsterdam. It is natural to expect, that a chart so recently published should be superior to all the preceding ones; whereas, on the contrary, it is by far the most incorrect representation of the New Discovered Islands which has yet appeared. [Footnote 147: The twelfth chapter of this Essay relates to the discoveries and commerce of the Russians in the Eastern Ocean. The account of the Russian discoveries is a translation of Mr. Stæhlin's Description of the New Northern Archipelago. In addition, he has subjoined an account of Kamtchatka, and a short sketch of the Russian commerce to the New Discovered Islands, and to America. If we may believe the author of this Essay, the Russians have not only discovered America, but they also every year form occasional settlements upon that continent, similar to those of the Europeans in Newfoundland. His words are: "Il est donc certain, que les Russes ont dècouvert le continent de l'Amérique; mais on peut assurer qu'ils n'y ont encore aucun port, aucun comptoir. Il en est des établissements de cette nation dans la grande terre, comme de ceux des nations Européennes dans l'isle de Terre Neve. Ses vaisseaux ou frégates arrivent en Amèrique; leurs equipages et les Cosaques chasseurs s'etablissent sur la côte; les uns se retranchent, et les autres y font la chasse et la pêche du chien marin et du narval. Ils reviennent ensuite au Kamtchatka, après avoir été relevès par d'autres frégates sur les mêmes parages, ou à des distances plus ou moins eloignés, &c. &c." See Essai sur le commerce de la Russie, p. 292-293. Thus the publick is imposed upon by fictitious and exaggerated accounts.] N^o V. Position of the _Andreanoffsky Isles_ ascertained--Number of the _Aleütian Isles_. [Sidenote: Position of the Andreanoffsky Isles.] When the anonymous author published his account of the Russian Discoveries in 1766, the position of the Andreanoffsky Isles was not ascertained. It was generally supposed, that they formed part of that cluster of islands, which Synd[148] fell in with in his voyage towards Tschukotskoi Noss; and Buffon[149] represents them to be the same with those laid down in Stæhlin's chart, under the name of Anadirsky Isles. The anonymous author in the passage here referred to, supposes them to be N. E. of the Aleütian Isles; "at the distance of 600 or 800 versts; that their direction is probably East and West, and that some of them may unite with that part of the Fox Islands which are most contiguous to the opposite continent." This conjecture was advanced upon a supposition that the Andreanoffsky Isles lay near the coast of the Tschutski; and that some of the Fox Islands were situated in latitude 61, as they are laid down upon the general map of Russia. But according to subsequent information, the Andreanoffsky Isles lie between the Aleütian and the Fox Islands, and complete the connection between Kamtchatka and America[150]. Their chain is supposed to begin in about latitude 53, near the most Easterly of the Aleütian Isles, and to extend in a scattered series towards the Fox Islands. The most North Easterly of these islands are said to be so near the most Southerly of the Fox Islands, that they seem occasionally to have been taken for them. An instance of this occurs in p. 61 and 62 of this work; where Atchu and Amlach are reckoned among the Fox Islands. It is however more probable, that they are part of the group called by the Aleütian chief Negho[151], and known to the Russians under the name of Andreanoffsky Islands, because they were supposed to have been first discovered by Andrean Tolstyk, whose voyage is related in the seventh chapter of the First Part. [Footnote 148: See N^o IX. of this Appendix.] [Footnote 149: Isles Anadyr ou Andrien. Supp. vol. V. p. 591.] [Footnote 150: P. 58. Some of the remoter islands are said to be E. S. E. of the Aleütian Isles; these must be either part of the Andreanoffsky Isles, or the most Southerly of the Fox Islands.] [Footnote 151: See N^o VIII. of this Appendix.] [Sidenote: Number of the Aleütian Isles.] I take this opportunity of adding, that the anonymous author, in describing the Aleütian Isles, both in the first and last chapter of the account of the Russian discoveries, mentions only three; namely, Attak, Semitshi, Shemiya. But the Aleütian Isles consist of a much larger number; and their chain includes all the islands comprehended by the islander in the two groups of Khao and Sasignan[152]. Many of them are laid down upon the general map of Russia; and some of them are occasionally alluded to in the journals of the Russian voyages[153]. [Footnote 152: See N^o VIII.] [Footnote 153: See p. 30, and particularly p. 46, where some of these islands are mentioned under the names of Ibiya, Kiska, and Olas.] N^o VI. Conjectures concerning the proximity of the _Fox Islands_ to the continent of _America_. The anonymous author, in the course of his account of the Russian discoveries, has advanced many proofs drawn from natural history, from which he supposes the Fox Islands to be at a small distance from the continent of America: hence he grounds his conjecture, that "the time is not far distant when some of the Russian navigators will fall in with that coast." [Sidenote: Proofs of the Vicinity of the Fox Islands to America.] The small willows and alders which, according to Glottoff, were found growing upon Kadyak, do not appear to have been sufficient either in size or quantity to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, the close vicinity of that island to America. River-otters, wolves, bears, and wild boars, which were observed upon the same island, will perhaps be thought to afford a stronger presumption in favour of a neighbouring continent; martens were also caught there, an animal which is not known in the Eastern ports of Siberia, nor found upon any of the other islands. All the above mentioned animals, martens alone excepted, were seen upon Alaksu, which is situated more to the North East than Kadyak, and also rein-deers and wild dogs. To these proofs drawn from natural history, we must add the reports of a mountainous country covered with forests, and of a great promontory called Atachtak, lying still more to the N. E. which were prevalent among the inhabitants of Alaksu and Kadyak. Although these circumstances have been already mentioned[154], yet I have thought proper to recapitulate them here, in order to lay before the reader in one point of view the several proofs advanced by the anonymous author, which seem to shew, that the Fox Islands are situated near America. Many of them afford, beyond a doubt, evident signs of a less open sea; and give certain marks of a nearer approach towards the opposite continent. But how far that distance may be supposed, must be left to the judgment of the reader; and remains to be ascertained by subsequent navigators. All that we know for certain, is, that as far as any Russian vessels have hitherto sailed, a chain of islands has been discovered lying E. or N. E. by E. from Kamtchatka, and stretching towards America. Part of this chain has only been touched at; the rest is unknown; and all beyond is uncertainty and conjecture. [Footnote 154: See p. 68 and 69-116-118-170.] N° VII. _Of the Tschutski--Reports of the vicinity of_ America _to their coast, first propagated by them, seem to be confirmed by late accounts from those parts._ [Sidenote: The Tschutski.] The Tschutski, it is well known, inhabit the North Eastern part of Siberia; their country is a small tract of land, bounded on the North by the Frozen Sea, on the East by the Eastern Ocean; on the South it borders upon river Anadyr, and on that of Kovyma to the West. The N. E. cape of this country is called Tschukotskoi-Noss, or the promontory of the Tschutski. Its inhabitants are the only people of Siberia who have not yet been subdued by the Russians. The anonymous author agrees with Mr. Muller in supposing, that America advances to within a small distance of the coast of the Tschutski; which he says "is confirmed by the latest accounts procured from these parts." The first intelligence concerning the supposed vicinity between Asia and America was derived from the reports of the Tschutski in their intercourse with the Russians. Vague and uncertain accounts, drawn from a barbarous people, cannot deserve implicit credit; but as they have been uniformly and invariably propagated by the inhabitants of those regions from the middle of the last century to the present time, they must merit at least the attention of every curious enquirer. [Sidenote: The Reports concerning the Proximity of America to their Coast.] These reports were first related in Muller's account of the Russian discoveries, and have been lately thought worthy of notice by Dr. Robertson[155], in his history of America. Their probability seems still further increased by the following circumstances. One Plenisner, a native of Courland, was appointed commander of Ochotsk, in the year 1760, with an express order from the court to proceed as far as [156] Anadirsk, and to procure all possible intelligence concerning the North Eastern part of Siberia, and the opposite continent. In consequence of this order Plenisner repaired to Anadirsk, and proceeded likewise to Kovimskoi Ostrog: the former of these Russian settlements is situated near the Southern; the latter near the Western limits of the Tschutski. Not content however with collecting all the information in his power from the neighbouring Koriacs, who have frequent intercourse with the Tschutski; he also sent one Daurkin into their country. This person was a native Tschutski, who had been taken prisoner, and bred up by the Russians: he continued two years with his countrymen, and made several expeditions with them to the neighbouring islands, which lie off the Eastern coast of Siberia. [Footnote 155: Hist. of America, vol. I. p. 274-277.] [Footnote 156: Anadirsk has been lately destroyed by the Russians themselves.] The sum of the intelligence brought back by this Daurkin was as follows: that Tschukotskoi-Noss is a very narrow peninsula; that the Tschutski carry on a trade of barter with the inhabitants of America; that they employ six days in passing the strait which separates the two continents: they direct their course from island to island, and the distance from the one to the other is so small, that they are able to pass every night ashore. More to the North he describes the two continents as approaching still nearer to each other, with only two islands lying between them. This intelligence remarkably coincided with the accounts collected by Plenisner himself among the Koriacs. Plenisner returned to Petersburg in 1776, and brought with him several [157]maps and charts of the North Eastern parts of Siberia, which were afterwards made use of in the compilation of the general map of Russia, published by the academy in 1776[158]. By these means the country of the Tschutski has been laid down with a greater degree of accuracy than heretofore. These are probably the late accounts from those parts which the anonymous author alludes to. [Footnote 157: The most important of these maps comprehends the country of the Tschutski, together with the nations which border immediately upon them. This map was chiefly taken during a second expedition made by major Pauloffsky against the Tschutski; and his march into that country is traced upon it. The first expedition of that Russian officer, in which he penetrated as far as Tschukotskoi-Noss, is related by Mr. Muller, S. R. G. III. p. 134--138. We have no account of this second expedition, during which he had several skirmishes with the Tschutski, and came off victorious; but upon his return was surprised and killed by them. This expedition was made about the year 1750.] [Footnote 158: This detail I procured during my continuance at Petersburg from several persons of credit, who had frequently conversed with Plenisner since his return to the capital, where he died in the latter end of the year 1778.] N^o VIII. List of the new-discovered Islands, procured from an _Aleütian_ chief--Catalogue of islands called by different names in the Account of the _Russian_ Discoveries. [Sidenote: Mr. Muller divides the new-discovered Islands into four Groups.] The subsequent list of the new-discovered islands was procured from an Aleütian chief brought to Petersburg in 1771, and examined at the desire of the Empress by Mr. Muller, who divides them into four principal groups. He regulates this division partly by a similarity of the language spoken by the inhabitants, and partly by vicinity of situation. [Sidenote: First Group, called Sasignan.] The first group[159], called by the islander Sasignan, comprehends, 1. Beering's Island. 2. Copper Island. 3. Otma. 4. Samya, or Shemiya. 5. Anakta. [Footnote 159: These two first groups probably belong to the Aleütian Isles.] [Sidenote: Khao, the second Group.] The second group is called Khao, and comprises eight islands: 1. Immak. 2. Kiska. 3. Tchetchina. 4. Ava. 5. Kavia. 6. Tschagulak. 7. Ulagama. 8. Amtschidga. [Sidenote: Negho, the third Group.] The third general name is Negho, and comprehends the islands known by the Russians under the name of Andreanoffskye Ostrova: Sixteen were mentioned by the islander, under the following names: 1. Amatkinak. 2. Ulak. 3. Unalga. 4. Navotsha. 5. Uliga. 6. Anagin. 7. Kagulak. 8. Illask, or Illak. 9. Takavanga, upon which is a volcano. 10. Kanaga, which has also a volcano. 11. Leg. 12. Shetshuna. 13. Tagaloon: near the coasts of the three last mentioned islands several small rocky isles are situated. 14. An island without a name, called by the Russians Goreloi[160]. 15. Atchu. 16. Amla. [Footnote 160: Goreloi is supposed by the Russian navigators to be the same island as Atchu, and is reckoned by them among the Fox Islands. See part I. p. 61. and N^o V. of this appendix.] [Sidenote: Kavalang, the fourth Group.] The fourth group is denominated Kavalang; and comprehends sixteen islands: these are called by the Russians Lyssie Ostrova, or the Fox Islands. 1. Amuchta. 2. Tschigama. 3. Tschegula. 4. Unistra. 5. Ulaga. 6. Tana-gulana. 7. Kagamin. 8. Kigalga. 9. Schelmaga. 10. Umnak. 11. Aghun-Alashka. 12. Unimga. At a small distance from Unimga, towards the North, stretches a promontory called by the islanders the Land of Black Foxes, with a small river called Alashka, which empties itself opposite to the last-mentioned island into a gulf proper for a haven. The extent of this land is not known. To the South East of this promontory lie four little islands. 13. Uligan. 14. Antun-dussume. 15. Semidit. 16. Senagak. [Sidenote: Islands called by different Names in the Russian Journals.] Many of these names are neither found in the journals or charts; while others are wanting in this list which are mentioned in both journals and charts. Nor is this to be wondered at; for the names of the islands have been certainly altered and corrupted by the Russian navigators. Sometimes the same name has been applied to different islands by the different journalists; at other times the same island has been called by different names. Several instances of these changes seem to occur in the account of the Russian discoveries: namely, Att, Attak, and Ataku. Shemiya and Sabiya. Atchu, Atchak, Atach, Goreloi or Burned Island. Amlach, Amlak, Amleg. Ayagh, Kayachu. Alaksu, Alagshak, Alachshak. Aghunalashka, Unalashka. N^o IX. Voyage of Lieutenant _Synd_ to the North East of _Siberia_--He discovers a cluster of islands, and a promontory, which he supposes to belong to the continent of _America_, lying near the coast of the _Tschutski_. In 1764 lieutenant Synd sailed from Ochotsk, upon a voyage of discovery towards the continent of America. He was ordered to take a different course from that held by the late Russian vessels, which lay due East from the coast of Kamtchatka. As he steered therefore his course more to the North East than any of the preceding navigators, and as it appears from all the voyages related in the first part of this work[161], that the vicinity of America is to be sought for in that quarter alone, any accurate account of this expedition would not fail of being highly interesting. It is therefore a great mortification to me, that, while I raise the reader's curiosity, I am not able fully to satisfy it. The following intelligence concerning this voyage is all which I was able to procure. It is accompanied with an authentic chart. [Footnote 161: See p. 27.] [Illustration: CHART of SYND's _VOYAGE toward Tschukotskoi Noss_.] In 1764 Synd put to sea from the port of Ochotsk, but did not pass (we know not by what accident) the southern Cape of Kamtchatka and Shushu, the first Kuril Isle, before 1766. He then steered his course North at no great distance from the coast of the Peninsula, but made very little progress that year, for he wintered South of the river Uka. The following year he sailed from Ukinski Point due East and North East, until he fell in with a cluster of islands[162] stretching between 61 and 62 degrees of latitude, and 195° and 202° longitude. These islands lie South East and East of the coast of the Tschutski; and several of them are situated very near the shore. Besides these small islands, he discovered also a mountainous coast lying within one degree of the coast of the Tschutski, between 64 and 66 North latitude; its most Western extremity was situated in longitude 38° 15´ from Ochotsk, or 199° 1´ from Fero. This island is laid down in his chart as part of the continent of America; but we cannot determine upon what proofs he grounds this representation, until a more circumstantial account of his voyage is communicated to the public. Synd seems to have made but a short stay ashore. Instead of endeavouring to survey its coasts, or of steering more to the East, he almost instantly shaped his course due West towards the course of the Tschutski, then turned directly South and South West, until he came opposite to Chatyrskoi Noss. From that point he continued to coast the peninsula of Kamtchatka, doubled the cape, and reached Ochotsk in 1768. [Footnote 162: These are certainly some of the islands which the Tschutski resort to in their way to what they call the continent of America.] N^o X. Specimen of the Aleütian language. Sun Agaiya Moon Tughilag Wind Katshik Water Tana Fire Kighenag Earth hut Oollae Chief Toigon Man Taiyaga Wood Yaga Shield Kuyak Sea otter Tscholota Name of the nation. Kanagist. One Tagatak Two Alag Three Kankoos Four Setschi Five Tshaw Six Atoo Seven Ooloo Eight Kapoé Nine Shiset Ten. Asok. It is very remarkable, that none of these words bear the least resemblance to those of the same signification, which are found in the different dialects spoken by the Koriaks, Kamtchadals, and the inhabitants of the Kuril Isles. N^o XI. Attempts of the _Russians_ to discover a North East passage--Voyages from _Archangel_ towards the _Lena_--From the _Lena_ towards _Kamtchatka_--Extract from _Muller's_ account of _Deschneff's_ voyage round _Tschukotskoi Noss_--Narrative of a voyage made by _Shalauroff_ from the _Lena_ to _Shelatskoi Noss_. The only communication hitherto known between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or between Europe and the East Indies, is made either by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, or by doubling Cape Horn. But as both these navigations are very long and dangerous, the great object of several late European voyages has been turned towards the discovery of a North East or a North West passage. As this work is entirely confined to the Russian navigations, any disquisition concerning the North West passage is totally foreign to the purpose; and for the same reason in what relates to the North East, these researches extend only to the attempts of the Russians for the discovery of that passage. The advocates for the North East passage have divided that navigation into three principal parts; and by endeavouring to shew that these three parts have been passed at different times, they conclude from thence, that the whole when taken collectively is practicable. These three parts are, 1. from Archangel to the Lena; 2. from the Lena to Kamtchatka; 3. from Kamtchatka to Japan. With respect to the latter, the connection between the seas of Kamtchatka and Japan first appeared from some Japanese vessels, which were wrecked upon the coast of Kamtchatka in the beginning of this century; and this communication has been unquestionably proved from several voyages made by the Russians from Kamtchatka to Japan[163]. [Footnote 163: S. R. G. III. p. 78, and p. 166, &c.] No one ever asserted that the first part from Archangel to the Lena was ever performed in one voyage; but several persons having advanced that this navigation has been made by the Russians at different times, it becomes necessary to examine the accounts of the Russian voyages in those seas. [Sidenote: Voyages from Archangel to the Yenisèi.] In 1734 lieutenant Morovieff sailed from Archangel toward the river Oby; and got no farther the first year than the mouth of the Petchora. The next summer he passed through the straits ef Weygatz into the sea of Kara; and coasted along the Eastern side of that sea, as high as latitude 72° 30´, but did not double the promontory which separates the sea of Kara from the Bay of Oby. In 1738, the lieutenants Malgyin and Skurakoff doubled that promontory with great difficulty, and entered the bay of Oby. During these expeditions the navigators met with great dangers and impediments from the ice. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to pass from the bay of Oby to the Yenisèi, which was at last effected, in 1738, by two vessels commanded by lieutenants Offzin and Koskeleff. [Sidenote: Unsuccessful Attempt to pass from the Yenisèi to the Lena.] The same year the pilot Feodor Menin sailed from the Yenisèi rowards the Lena: he steered North as high as lat. 73°. 15´. and when he came to the mouth of the Piasida he was stopped by the ice; and finding it impossible to force a passage, he returned to the Yenisèi[164]. [Footnote 164: P. 145 to 149.] [Sidenote: Voyage of Prontshistsheff from the Lena towards the Yenisèi.] July, 1735, lieutenant Prontshistsheff sailed from Yakutsk up the Lena to its mouth, in order to pass from thence by sea to the Yenisèi. The Western mouths of the Lena were so choaked up with ice, that he was obliged to pass through the most Easterly one; and was prevented by contrary winds from getting out until the 13th of August. Having steered North West along the islands which lie scattered before the mouths of the Lena, he found himself in lat. 70° 4´. He saw much ice to the North and North East; and observed ice-mountains from twenty-four to sixty feet in height. He steered betwixt the ice, which in no place left a free channel of greater breadth than an hundred or two hundred yards. The vessel being much damaged, on the 1st of September he ran up the mouth of the Olenek, which, according to his estimation, lies in 72° 30´, near which place he passed the winter[165]. [Footnote 165: Gmelin Reise, II. 425 to 427.] He got out of the Olenek the beginning of August in the following year; and arrived on the third at the mouth of the Anabara, which he found to lie in lat. 73° 1´. There he continued until the 10th, while some of the crew went up the country in search of some mines. On the 10th he proceeded on his voyage: before he reached the mouth of the Chatanga he was so entirely surrounded and hemmed in with ice, that it was not without great difficulty and danger he was able to get loose. He then observed a large field of ice stretching into the sea, on which account he was obliged to continue near the shore, and to run up the Chatanga. The mouth of this river was in lat 74° 9´. From thence he bent his course mostly Northward along the shore, until he reached the mouth of the Taimura on the 18th. He then proceeded further, and followed the coast towards the Piasida. Near the shore were several small islands, between which and the land the ice was immovably fixed. He then directed his course toward the sea, in order to pass round the chain of islands. At first he found the sea more free to the North of the islands, while he observed much ice lying between them. He came at length to the last island, situated in lat. 77° 25´. Between this island and the shore, as well as on the other side of the island which lay most to the North, the ice was firm and immovable. [Sidenote: Prevented by a Chain of Islands and the Ice from getting to the Yenisèi] He attempted however to steer still more to the North; and having advanced about six miles, he was prevented by a thick fog from proceeding: this fog being dispersed, he saw on each side, and before him, nothing but ice; that towards the sea was not fixed; but the accumulated masses were all so close, that the smallest vessel could not have worked its way through. Still attempting however to pass to the North; he was forced by the ice N. E. Apprehensive of being hemmed in, he returned to the Taimura; and from thence got, with much difficulty and danger, to the Olenek, on the 29th of August. This narrative of Prontshistsheff's expedition is extracted from the account of professor[166] Gmelin: according to Mr. Muller[167], who has given a cursory relation of the same voyage, Prontshistsheff did not quite reach the mouth of the Taimura; for he there found the chain of islands stretching from the continent far into the sea. The channels between the islands were so choaked up with ice, that it was impossible to force a passage: after steering as high as lat. 77° 25´, he found such a plain of fixed ice before him, that he had no prospect of getting any farther. Accordingly he returned to the Olenek. [Footnote 166: Gmelin Reise, vol. II. p. 427 to p. 434.] [Footnote 167: S. R. G. III. p. 149, 150.] Another attempt was made to pass from the Lena to the Yenisèi in 1739, by Chariton Laptieff, with equal bad success; and he relates, that between the rivers Piasida and Taimura, a promontory stretches into the sea which he could not double, the sea being entirely frozen up before he could pass round[168]. [Footnote 168: Gmelin Reise, p. 440. Mr. Muller says only, that Laptieff met with the same obstacles which forced Prontshistsheff to return. S. R. G. III. p. 150.] [Sidenote: Cape between the Rivers Chatanga and Piasida never yet doubled.] From all these circumstances we must collect, that the whole space between Archangel and the Lena has never yet been navigated; for in going East from the Yenisèi the Russians could get no farther than the mouth of the Piasida; and, in coming West from the Lena, they were stopped, according to Gmelin, North of the Piasida; and, according to Muller, East of the Taimura. The Russians, who sail almost annually from Archangel, and other towns, to Nova Zemla, for the purpose of catching sea-horses, seals, and white bears, make to the Western Coast; and no Russian vessel has ever passed round its North Eastern extremity[169]. [Footnote 169: Although this work is confined to the Russian Discoveries, yet as the N. E. passage is a subject of such interesting curiosity, it might seem an omission in not mentioning, that several English and Dutch vessels have passed through the Straits of Weygatz into the sea of Kara; they all met with great obstructions from the ice, and had much difficulty in getting through. See Histoire Gen. Des Voyages, tome XV. passim. In 1696 Heemskirk and Barentz, after having sailed along the Western coast of Nova Zemla, doubled the North Eastern cape lying in latitude 77° 20, and got no lower along the Eastern coast than 76°, where they wintered. See an account of this remarkable voyage in Girard Le Ver's Vraye Description De Trois Voyages De Mer, p. 13 to 45; and Hist. Gen. des Voy. tom. XV. p. 111 to 139. No vessel of any nation has ever passed round that Cape, which extends to the North of the Piasida, and is laid down in the Russian charts in about 78° latitude. We have already seen that no Russian vessel has ever got from the Piasida to the Chatanga, or from the Chatanga to the Piasida; and yet some authors have positively asserted, that this promontory has been sailed round. In order therefore to elude the Russian accounts, which clearly assert the contrary, it is pretended, that Gmelin and Muller have purposely concealed some parts of the Russian journals, and have imposed upon the world by a misrepresentation of facts. But without entering into any dispute on this head, I can venture to affirm, that no sufficient proof has been as yet advanced in support of this assertion; and therefore until some positive information shall be produced, we cannot deny plain facts, or give the preference to hearsay evidence over circumstantial and well attested accounts. Mr. Engel has a remarkable passage in his Essai sur une route par la Nord Est, which it may be proper to consider in this place, because he asserts in the most positive manner, that two Dutch vessels formerly passed three hundred leagues to the North East of Nova Zemla; from thence he infers that they must have doubled the above-mentioned Cape, which extends to the North of the Piasida, and have got at least as far East as the mouth of the Olenek. His words are L'Illustre Societé Royale, sous l'an 1675, rapporte ce voyage et dit, que peu d'années auparavant une Societé de merchands d'Amsterdam avoit fait une tentative pour chercher le passage du Nord Est, et équippa deux vaisseaux les quels etant passé au septante neuf ou huitantieme degrè de latitude, avoient poussè selon Wood, jusqu' à trois cent lieues à l'Est de la Nouvelle Zemble, &c. &c. Upon this fact he founds his proof that the navigation from Archangel to the Lena has been performed. Par consequent cette partie de la route a èté faite. He rests the truth of this account on the authority of the Philosophical Transactions, and of Captain Wood, who sailed upon a voyage for the discovery of the North East passage in 1676. The latter, in the relation of his voyage, enumerates several arguments which induced him to believe the practicability of the North East passage.--"The seventh argument," he says, "was another narration, printed in the Transactions, of two ships of late that had attempted the passage, sailed 300 leagues to the Eastward of Nova Zemla, and had after prosecuted the voyage, had there not a difference arose betwixt the undertakers and the East-India company." We here find that Captain Wood refers to the Philosophical Transactions for his authority. The narration printed in the Transactions, and which is alluded to by both Captain Wood and Mr. Engel, is to be found in Vol. IX. of the Philosophical Transactions, p. 209, for December, 1674. It consists of a very curious "Narrative of some observations made upon several voyages, undertaken to find a way for sailing about the North to the East-Indies; together with instructions given by the Dutch East-India Company for the discovery of the famous land of Jesso near Japan." These instructions were, in 1643, given to Martin Geritses Vries, captain of the ship Castricum, "who set out to discover the unknown Eastern coast of Tartary, the kingdom of Catay, and the West coast of America, together with the isles situate to the East of Japan, cried up for their riches of gold and silver." These instructions contain no relation of two Dutch vessels, who passed 300 leagues East of Nova Zemla. Mention is made of two Dutch vessels, "who were sent out in the year 1639, under the command of Captain Kwast, to discover the East coast of the Great Tartary, especially the famous gold and silver islands; though, by reason of several unfortunate accidents, they both returned re infectà." Short mention is afterwards made of Captain Kwast's journal, together with the writings of the merchants who were with him, as fallows: "That in the South Sea, at the 37-1/2 degrees Northern latitude, and about 400 Spanish, or 343 Dutch miles, that is, 28 degrees longitude East of Japan, there lay a very great and high island, inhabited by a white, handsome, kind and civilized people, exceedingly opulent in gold and silver, &c. &c." From these extracts it appears, that, in the short account of the journals of the two Dutch vessels, no longitude is mentioned to the East of Nova Zemla; but the discoveries of Kwast were made in the South sea, to which place he, as well as Captain Vries afterwards, must have sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. The author of the narrative concludes, indeed, that the N. E. passage is practicable, in the following words: "to promote this passage out of the East-Indies to the North into Europe, it were necessary to sail from the East-Indies to the Westward of Japan, all along Corea, to see how the sea-coasts trend to the North of the said Corea, and with what conveniency ships might sail as far as Nova Zemla, and to the North of the same. Where our author saith, that undoubtedly it would be found, that having passed the North corner of Nova Zemla, or, through Weygatz, the North end of Yelmer land, one might go on South-Eastward, and make a successful voyage." But mere conjectures cannot be admitted as evidence. As we can find no other information relative to the fact mentioned by Captain Wood and Mr. Engel, (namely, that two Dutch vessels have passed 300 leagues to the East of Nova Zemla) that we have no reason to credit mere assertions without proof: we may therefore advance as a fact, that hitherto we have no authentic account, that any vessel has ever passed the cape to the East of Nova Zemla, which lies North of the river Piasida. See Relation of Wood's Voyage, &c. in the Account of several late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North, &c. London, 1694, p. 148. See also Engel, Mem. et Obs. Geog. p. 231 to 234. I should not have swelled my book with this extract, if the English translation of Mr. Muller's work was not extremely erroneous in some material passages. S. R. G. III. p. 8-20.] [Sidenote: Attempts of the Russians to pass from the Lena to Kamtchatka.] The navigation from the Lena to Kamtchatka now remains to be considered. If we may believe some authors, this navigation has been open for above a century and an half; and several vessels have at different times passed round the North Eastern extremity of Asia. But if we consult the Russian accounts, we shall find, that frequent expeditions have been unquestionably made from the Lena to the Kovyma; but that the voyage from the Kovyma round Tschukotskoi Noss, into the Eastern ocean, has been performed but once. According to Mr. Muller, this formidable cape was doubled in the year 1648. The material incidents of this remarkable voyage are as follow. [Sidenote: Narrative of Deshneff's voyage round Tschukotskoi-Noss.] "In 1648 seven kotches or vessels sailed from the mouth or the river Kovyma[170], in order to penetrate into the Eastern Ocean. Of these, four were never more heard of: the remaining three were commanded by Simon Deshneff, Gerasim Ankudinoff, two chiefs of the Cossacs, and Fedot Alexeeff, the head of the Promyshlenics. Deshneff and Ankudinoff quarrelled before their departure: this dispute was owing to the jealousy of Deshneff, who was unwilling that Ankudinoff should share with him the honour, as well as the profits, which might result from the expected discoveries. Each vessel was probably manned with about thirty persons; Ankudinoff's, we certainly know, carried that number. Deshneff promised before-hand a tribute of seven fables, to be exacted from the inhabitants on the banks of Anadyr; so sanguine were his hopes of reaching that river. This indeed he finally effected; but not so soon, nor with so little difficulty, as he had presumed. [Footnote 170: Mr. Muller calls it Kolyma.] On the 20th of June, 1648, the three vessels sailed upon this remarkable expedition from the river Kovyma. Considering the little knowledge we have of the extreme regions of Asia, it is much to be regretted, that all the incidents of this voyage are not circumstantially related. Deshneff[171], in an account of his expedition sent to Yakutsk, seems only as it were accidentally to mention his adventures by sea: he takes no notice of any occurrence until he reached the great promontory of the Tschutski; no obstructions from the ice are mentioned, and probably there were none; for he observes upon another occasion, that the sea is not every year so free from ice as it was at this time. He commences his narrative with a description of the great promontory: "It is," says he, "very different from that which is situated West of the Kovyma, near the river Tschukotskia. It lies between North and North East, and bends, in a circular direction, towards the Anadyr. It is distinguished on the Russian (namely, the Western) side, by a rivulet which falls into the sea, close to which the Tschutski have raised a pile, like a tower, with the bones of whales. Opposite the promontory, (it is not said on which side), are two islands, on which he observed people of the nation of the Tschutski, who had pieces of the sea-horse tooth thrust into holes made in their lips. With a good wind it is possible to sail from this promontory to the Anadyr in three days; and the journey by land may be performed in the same space of time, because the Anadyr falls into a bay." Ankudinoff's kotche was wrecked on this promontory, and the crew was distributed on board the two remaining vessels. On the 20th of September Deshneff and Fedot Alexeef went on shore, and had a skirmish with the Tschutski, in which Alexeef was wounded. The two vessels soon afterwards lost sight of each other, and never again rejoined. Deshneff was driven about by tempestuous winds until October, when he was shipwrecked (as it appears from circumstances), considerably to the South of the Anadyr, not far from the river Olutora. What became of Fedot Alexeff and his crew will be mentioned hereafter. Deshneff and his companions, who amounted to twenty-five persons, now sought for the Anadyr; but being entirely unacquainted with the country, ten weeks elapsed before they reached its banks at a small distance from its mouth: here he found neither wood nor inhabitants, &c. [Footnote 171: In order thoroughly to understand this narrative, it is necessary to inform the reader, that the voyage made by Deshneff was entirely forgotten, until the year 1736, when Mr. Muller found, in the archives of Yakutsk, the original accounts of the Russian navigations in the Frozen Ocean. These papers were extracted, under his inspection, at Yakutsk, and sent to Petersburg; where they are now preserved in the library belonging to the Imperial Academy of Sciences: they consist of several folio volumes. The circumstances relating to Deshneff are contained in the second volume. Soliverstoff and Stadukin, having laid claim to the discovery of the country on the mouth of the Anadyr, had asserted, in consequence of this claim, that they had arrived there by sea, after having doubled Tschukotskoi Noss. Deshneff, in answer, sent several memorials, petitions, and complaints, against Stadukin and Soliverstoff, to the commander of Yakutsk, in which he sets forth, that he had the sole right to that discovery, and refutes the arguments advanced by the others. From these memorials Mr. Muller has extracted his account of Deshneff's voyage. When I was at Petersburg I had an opportunity of seeing these papers: and as they are written in the Russian language, I prevailed upon my ingenious friend Mr. Pallas to inspect the part which relates to Deshneff. Accordingly Mr. Pallas, with his usual readiness to oblige, not only compared the memorials with Mr. Muller's account, but even took the trouble to make some extracts in the most material passages: these extracts are here subjoined; because they will not only serve to confirm the exactness of Mr. Muller; but also because they tend to throw some light on several obscure passages. In one of Deshneff's memorials he says, "To go from the river Kovyma to the Anadyr, a great promontory must be doubled, which stretches very far into the sea: it is not that promontory which lies next to the river Tschukotskia. Stadukin never arrived at this great promontory: near it are two islands, whose inhabitants make holes in their under-lips, and insert therein pieces of the sea-horse tush, worked into the form of teeth. This promontory stretches between North and North East: It is known on the Russian side by the little river Stanovie, which flows into the sea, near the spot where the Tschutski have erected a heap of whale-bones like a tower. The coast from the promontory turns round towards the Anadyr, and it is possible to sail with a good wind from the point to that river in three days and nights, and no more: and it will take up no more time to go by land to the same river, because it discharges itself into a bay." In another memorial Deshneff says, "that he was ordered to go by sea from the Indigirka to the Kovyma; and from thence with his crew to the Anadyr, which was then newly discovered. That the first time he sailed from the Kovyma, he was forced by the ice to return to that river; but that next year he again sailed from thence by sea, and after great danger, misfortunes, and with the loss of part of his shipping, arrived at last at the mouth of the Anadyr. Stadukin having in vain attempted to go by sea, afterwards ventured to pass over the chain of mountains then unknown; and reached by that means the Anadyr. Soliverstoff and his party, who quarrelled with Deshneff, went to the same place from the Kovyma by land; and the tribute was afterwards sent to the last mentioned river across the mountains, which were very dangerous to pass amidst the tribes of Koriacs and Yukagirs, who had been lately reduced by the Russians." In another memorial Deshneff complains bitterly of Soliverstoff; and asserts, "that one Severka Martemyanoff, who had been gained over by Soliverstoff, was sent to Yakutsk, with an account that he (Soliverstoff) had discovered the coasts to the North of the Anadyr, where large numbers of sea-horses are found." Deshneff hereupon says, that Soliverstoff and Stadukin never reached the rocky promontory, which is inhabited by numerous bodies of the Tichutski; over against which are islands whose inhabitants wear artificial teeth thrust through their under lips. This is not the first promontory from the river Kovyma, called Svatoi Noss; but another far more considerable, and very-well known to him (Deshneff), because the vessel of Ankunidoff was wrecked there; and because he had there taken prisoners some of the people, who were rowing in their boats; and seen the islanders with teeth in their lips. He also well knew, that it was still far from that promontory to the river Anadyr.] The following year he went further up the river, and built Anadirskoi Ostrog: here he was joined by some Russians on the 25th of April, 1650, who came by land from the river Kovyma. In 1652, Deshneff having constructed a vessel, sailed down the Anadyr as far as its mouth, and observed on the North side a sand bank, which stretched a considerable way into the sea. A sand bank of this kind is called, in Siberia, Korga. Great numbers of sea-horses were found to resort to the mouth of the Anadyr. Deshneff collected several of their teeth, and thought himself amply compensated by this acquisition for the trouble of his expedition. In the following year, Deshneff ordered wood to be felled for the purpose of constructing a vessel, in which he proposed sending the tribute which he had collected by sea to Yakutsk[172]. But this design was laid aside from the want of other materials. It was also reported, that the sea about Tschukotskoi Noss was not every year free from ice. [Footnote 172: That is, by sea, from the mouth of the Anadyr, round Tschukotskoi Noss to the river Lena, and then up that river to Yakutsk.] Another expedition was made in 1654 to the Korga, for the purpose of collecting sea-horse teeth. A Cossac, named Yusko Soliverstoff, was one of the party, the same who had not long before accompanied the Cossac Michael Stadukin, upon a voyage of discovery in the Frozen Sea. This person was sent from Yakutsk to collect sea-horse teeth, for the benefit of the crown. In his instructions mention is made of the river Yentshendon, which falls into the bay of Penshinsk, and of the Anadyr; and he was ordered to exact a tribute from the inhabitants dwelling near these rivers; for the adventures of Deshneff were not as yet known at Yakutsk. This was the occasion of new discontents. Soliverstoff claimed to himself the discovery of the Korga, as if he had sailed to that place in his voyage with Stadukin in 1649. Deshneff, however, proved that Soliverstoff had not even reached Tschukotskoi Noss, which he describes as nothing but bare rock, and it was but too well known to him, because the vessel of Ankudinoff was ship-wrecked there. "Tschukotskoi Noss," adds Deshneff, "is not the first promontory which presents itself under the name of Svatoi Noss[173]. It is known by the two islands situated opposite to it, whose inhabitants (as is before-mentioned) place pieces of the sea-horse tush into holes made in their lips. Deshneff alone had seen these people, which neither Stadukin nor Soliverstoff had pretended to have done: and the Korga, or sand-bank, at the mouth of the river Anadyr, was at some distance from these islands." [Footnote 173: We may collect from Deshneff's reasoning, that Soliverstoff, in endeavouring to prove that he had sailed round the Eastern extremity of Asia, had mistaken a promontory called Svatoi Noss for Tschukotskoi Noss: for otherwise, why should Deshneff, in his refutation of Soliverstoff, begin by asserting, that Svatoi Noss was not Tschukotskoi Noss? The only cape laid down in the Russian maps, under the name of Svatoi Noss, is situated 25 degrees to the West of the Kovyma: but we cannot possibly suppose this to be the promontory here alluded to; because, in sailing from the Kovyma towards the Anadyr, "the first promontory which presents itself" must necessarily be East of the Kovyma. Svatoi Noss, in the Russian language, signifies Sacred Promontory; and the Russians occasionally apply it to any cape which it is difficult to double. It therefore most probably here relates to the first cape, which Soliverstoff reached after he had sailed from Kovyma.] While Deschneff was surveying the sea-coast, he saw in an habitation belonging to some Koriacs a woman of Yakutsk, who, as he recollected, belonged to Fedot Alexieff. Upon his enquiry concerning the fate of her master, she replied, "that Fedot and Gerasim (Ankudinoff) had died of the scurvy; that part of the crew had been slain; that a few had escaped in small vessels, and have never since been heard off." Traces of the latter were afterwards found in the peninsula of Kamtchatka; to which place they probably arrived with a favourite wind, by following the coast, and running up the Kamtchatka river. When Volodimir Atlassoff, in 1697, first entered upon the reduction of Kamtchatka, he found that the inhabitants had already some knowledge of the Russians. A common tradition still prevails amongst them, that long before the expedition of Atlassoff, one[174] Fedotoff (who was probably the son of Fedot Alexeeff) and his companions had resided amongst them, and had intermarried with the natives. They still shew the spot where the Russian habitations stood; namely, at the mouth of the small river Nikul which falls into the Kamtchatka river, and is called by the Russians Fedotika. Upon Atlassoff's arrival none of the first Russians remained. They are said to have been held in great veneration, and almost deified by the inhabitants, who at first imagined that no human power could hurt them, until they quarrelled amongst themselves, and the blood was seen to flow from the wounds which they gave each other: and upon a separation taking place between the Russians, part of them had been killed by the Koriacs, as they were going to the sea of Penshinsk, and the remainder by the Kamtchadals. The river Fedotika falls into the Southern side of the Kamtchatka river about an hundred and eighty versts below Upper Kamtchatkoi Ostrog. At the time of the first expedition to Kamtchatka, in 1697, the remains of two villages still subsisted, which had probably been inhabited by Fedotoff and his companions: and no one knew which way they came into the peninsula, until it was discovered from the archives of Yakutsk in 1636. [Footnote 174: Fedotoff, in the Russian language, signifies the son of Fedot.] [175]No other navigator, subsequent to Deshneff, has ever pretended to have passed the North Eastern extremity of Asia, notwithstanding all the attempts which have been made to accomplish this passage, as well from[176] Kamtchatka as from the Frozen Ocean. [Footnote 175: Mr. Engel indeed pretends that lieutenant Laptieff, in 1739, doubled Tschukotskoi-Noss, because Gmelin says, that "he passed from the Kovyma to Anadirsk partly by water and partly by land." For Mr. Engel asserts the impossibility of getting from the Kovyma to Anadirsk, partly by land and partly by water, without going from the Kovyma to the mouth of the Anadyr by sea; and from thence to Anadirsk by land. But Mr. Muller (who has given a more particular account of the conclusion of this expedition) informs us, that Laptieff and his crew, after having wintered near the Indigirka, passed from its mouth in small boats to the Kovyma; and as it was dangerous, on account of the Tschutski, to follow the coast any farther, either by land or water, he went through the interior part of the country to Anadirsk, and from thence to the mouth of the Anadyr. Gmelin Reise, vol. II. p. 440. S. R. G. III. p. 157. Mention is also made by Gmelin of a man who passed in a small boat from the Kovyma round Tschukotskoi-Noss into the sea of Kamtchatka: and Mr. Engel has not omitted to bring this passage in support of his system, with this difference, that he refers to the authority of Muller, instead of Gmelin, for the truth of the fact. But as we have no account of this expedition, and as the manner in which it is mentioned by Gmelin implies that he had it merely from tradition, we cannot lay any stress upon such vague and uncertain reports. The passage is as follows: "Es find so gar Spuren vorhanden, dass ein Kerl mit einem Schifflein, das nicht viel groesser als ein Schifferkahn gevesen, von Kolyma bis Tschukotskoi-Noss vorbey, und bis nach Kamtschatka gekommen sey." Gmelin Reise, II. p. 437. Mem. et Obs. Geog. &c. p. 10.] [Footnote 176: Beering, in his voyage from Kamtchatka, in 1628, towards Tschukotskoi-Noss, sailed along the coast of the Tschutski as high as lat. 67° 18´. and observing the coast take a Westerly direction, he too hastily concluded, that he had passed the North Eastern extremity. Apprehensive, if he had attempted to proceed, of being locked in by the ice, he returned to Kamtchatka. If he had followed the shore, he would have found, that what he took for the Northern ocean was nothing more than a deep bay: and that the coast of the Tschutski, which he considered as turning uniformly to the West, took again a Northerly direction. S.R.G. III. p. 117.] [Illustration: _CHART of_ SHALAUROF's _Voyage_.] The following narrative of a late voyage performed by one Shalauroff, from the Lena towards Tschukotskoi-Noss, will shew the great impediments which obstruct a coasting navigation in the Frozen Sea, even at the most favourable season of the year. [Sidenote: Voyage of Shalauroff.] Shalauroff, having constructed a shitik at his own expence, went down the Lena in 1761. He was accompanied by an exiled midshipman, whom he had found at Yakutsk, and to whom we are indebted for the chart of this expedition. Shalauroff got out of the Southern mouth of the Lena in July, but was so much embarrassed by the ice, that he ran the vessel into the mouth of the Yana, where he was detained by the ice until the 29th of August, when he again set sail. Being prevented by the ice from keeping the open sea, he coasted the shore; and, having doubled Svatoi-Noss on the 6th of September, discovered at a small distance, out at sea, to the North, a mountainous land, which is probably some unknown island in the Frozen Sea. He was employed from the 7th to the 15th in getting through the strait between Diomed's island and the coast of Siberia; which he effected, not without great difficulty. From the 16th he had a free sea and a fair S. W. wind, which carried them in 24 hours beyond the mouth of the Indigirka. The favourable breeze continuing, he passed on the 18th the Alasca. Soon afterwards, the vessel approaching too near the shore was entangled amongst vast floating masses of ice, between some islands[177] and the main land. [Sidenote: Winters at the Mouth of the Kovyma.] And now the late season of the year obliged Shalauroff to look out for a wintering place; he accordingly ran the vessel into one of the mouths of the river Kovyma, where she was laid up. The crew immediately constructed an hut, which they secured with a rampart of frozen snow, and a battery of the small guns. The wild rein-deers resorted to this place in large herds, and were shot in great plenty from the enclosure. Before the setting in of winter, various species of salmon and trout came up the river in shoals: these fish afforded the crew a plentiful subsistence, and preserved them from the scurvy[178]. [Footnote 177: These islands are Medviedkie Ostrova, or the Bear Islands; they are also called Kreffstoffskie Ostrova, because they lie opposite the mouth of the small river Krestova. For a long time vague reports were propagated that the continent of America was stretched along the Frozen Ocean, very near the coasts of Siberia; and some persons pretended to have discovered its shore not far from the rivers Kovyma and Krestova. But the falsity of these reports was proved by an expedition made in 1764, by some Russian officers sent by Denys Ivanovitch Tschitcherin, governor of Tobolsk. These officers went in winter, when the sea was frozen, in sledges drawn by dogs, from the mouth of the Krestova. They found nothing but five small rocky islands, since called the Bear Islands, which were quite uninhabited; but some traces were found of former inhabitants, namely, the ruins of huts. They observed also on one of the islands a kind of wooden stage built of drift-wood, which seemed as if it had been intended for defence. As far as they durst venture out over the Frozen Sea, no land could be seen, but high mountains of ice obstructed their passage, and forced them to return. See the map of this expedition upon the chart of Shalauroff's voyage prefixed to this number.] [Footnote 178: Raw-fish are considered in those Northern countries as a preservative against the scurvy.] [Sidenote: Departure from thence in July.] The mouth of the Kovyma was not freed from ice before the 21st of July, 1762, when Shalauroff again put to sea, and steered until the 28th N. E. by N. E. 1/4 E. Here he observed the variation of the compass ashore, and found it to be 11° 15´´ East. The 28th a contrary wind, which was followed by a calm, obliged him to come to an anchor, and kept him stationary until the 10th of August, when a favourable breeze springing up he set sail; he then endeavoured to steer at some distance from shore, holding a more Easterly course, and N. E. by E. But the vessel was impeded by large bodies of floating ice, and a strong current, which seemed to bear Westward at the rate of a verst an hour. These circumstances very much retarded his course. On the 18th, the weather being thick and foggy, he found himself unexpectedly near the coast with a number of ice islands before him, which on the 19th entirely surrounded and hemmed in the vessel. He continued in that situation, and in a continual fog, until the 23d, when he got clear, and endeavoured by steering N. E. to regain the open sea, which was much less clogged with ice than near the shore. He was forced however, by contrary winds, S. E. and E. among large masses of floating ice. This drift of ice being passed, he again stood to the N. E. in order to double Shelatskoi Noss[179]; but before he could reach the islands lying near it, he was so retarded by contrary winds, that he was obliged, on account of the advanced season, to search for a wintering place. [Sidenote: Not being able to double Shelatskoi Noss returns towards the Kovyma.] He accordingly sailed South towards an open bay, which lies on the West side of Shelatskoi Noss, and which no navigator had explored before him. He steered into it on the 25th, and got upon a shoal between a small island, and a point of land which juts from the Eastern coast of this bay. Having got clear with much difficulty, he continued for a short time a S. E. course, then turned S. W. He then landed in order to discover a spot proper for their winter residence; and found two small rivulets, but neither trees nor drift wood. The vessel was towed along the Southerly side of the bay as far as the island Sabadèi. On the 5th of September, he saw some huts of the Tschutski close to the narrow channel between Sabadèi and the main land; but the inhabitants fled on his approach. [Footnote 179: He does not seem to have been deterred from proceeding by any supposed difficulty in passing Shelatskoi Noss, but to have veered about merely on account of the late season of the year. Shelatskoi Noss is so called from the Sshelagen, a tribe of the Tschutski, and has been supposed to be the same as Tschukotskoi Noss. S. R. G. III. p. 52.] Not having met with a proper situation, he stood out to sea, and got round the island Sabadèi on the 8th, when he fastened the vessel to a large body of ice, and was carried along by a current towards W. S. W. at the rate of five versts an hour. On the 10th, he saw far to the N. E. by N. a mountain, and steered the 11th and 12th towards his former wintering place in the river Kovyma. [Sidenote: Winters a second Time at the Kovyma, and returns to the Lena.] Shalauroff proposed to have made the following year another attempt to double Shelatskoi Noss; but want of provision, and the mutiny of the crew, forced him to return to the Lena in 1763. It is worth remarking, that during his whole voyage he found the currents setting in almost uniformly from the East. Two remarkable rocks were observed by Shalauroff near the point where the coast turns to the N. E. towards the channel which separates the island Sabadèi from the continent; these rocks may serve to direct future navigators: one is called Saetshie Kamen, or Hare's Rock, and rises like a crooked horn; the other Baranèi Kamen, or Sheep's Rock; it is in the shape of a pear, narrower at the bottom than at top, and rises twenty-nine yards above high-water mark. [Sidenote: Second Expedition of Shalauroff.] Shalauroff, who concluded from his own experience, that the attempt to double Tschukotskoi Noss, though difficult, was by no means impracticable, was not discouraged by his former want of success from engaging a second time in the same enterprize: he accordingly fitted out the same shitik, and in 1764 departed as before from the river Lena. We have no positive accounts of this second voyage; for neither Shalauroff or any of his crew have ever returned. The following circumstances lead us to conclude, that both he and his crew were killed near the Anadyr by the Tschutski, about the third year after their departure from the Lena. About that time the Koriacs of the Anadyr refused to take from the Russians the provision of flour, which they are accustomed to purchase every year. Enquiry being made by the governor of Anadirsk, he found that they had been amply supplied with that commodity by the Tschutski. The latter had procured it from the plunder of Shalauroff's vessel, the crew of which appeared to have perished near the Anadyr. [Sidenote: No Account of this Expedition, he and his Crew being killed by the Tschutski.] From these facts, which have been since confirmed by repeated intelligence from the Koriacs and Tschutski, it has been asserted, that Shalauroff had doubled the N. E. cape of Asia. But this assertion amounts only to conjecture; for the arrival of the crew at the mouth of the Anadyr affords no decisive proof that they had passed round the Eastern extremity of Asia; for they might have penetrated to that river by land, from the Western side of Tschukotskoi-Noss. In reviewing these several accounts of the Russian voyages in the Frozen Sea, as far as they relate to a North East passage, we may observe, that the cape which stretches to the North of the Piasida has never been doubled; and that the existence of a passage round Tschukotskoi Noss rests upon the single authority of Deshneff. Admitting however a practicable navigation round these two promontories, yet when we consider the difficulties and dangers which the Russians encountered in those parts of the Frozen Sea which they have unquestionably sailed through; how much time they employed in making an inconsiderable progress, and how often their attempts were unsuccessful: when we reflect at the same time, that these voyages can only be performed in the midst of a short summer, and even then only when particular winds drive the ice into the sea, and leave the shores less obstructed; we shall reasonably conclude, that a navigation, pursued along the coasts in the Frozen Ocean, would probably be useless for commercial purposes. A navigation therefore in the Frozen Ocean, calculated to answer any end of general utility, must (if possible) be made in an higher latitude, at some distance from the shores of Nova Zemla and Siberia. And should we even grant the possibility of sailing N. E. and East of Nova Zemla, without meeting with any insurmountable obstacles from land or ice; yet the final completion of a N. E. voyage must depend upon the existence of a free passage[180] between the coast of the Tschutski and the continent of America. But such disquisitions as these do not fall under the intention of this work, which is meant to state and examine facts, not to lay down an hypothesis, or to make theoretical enquiries[181]. [Footnote 180: I have said a _free passage_, because if we conclude from the narrative of Deshneff's voyage, that there really does exist such a passage; yet if that passage is only occasionally navigable (and the Russians do not pretend to have passed it more than once) it can never be of any general and commercial utility.] [Footnote 181: I beg leave to assure the reader, that throughout this whole work I have entirely confined myself to the Russian accounts; and have carefully avoided making use of any vague reports concerning the discoveries lately made by captains Cooke and Clerke in the same seas. Many of the geographical questions which have been occasionally treated in the course of this performance, will probably be cleared up, and the true position of the Western coasts of America ascertained, from the journals of those experienced navigators.] APPENDIX II. _Tartarian_ rhubarb brought to _Kiachta_ by the _Bucharian_ Merchants--Method of examining and purchasing the roots--Different species of rheum which yield the finest rhubarb--Price of rhubarb in _Russia_--Exportation--Superiority of the _Tartarian_ over the _Indian_ rhubarb. [Sidenote: Tartarian, or Turkey, Rhubarb.] Europe is supplied with rhubarb from Russia and the East Indies. The former is generally known by the name of Turkey rhubarb, because we used to import it from the Levant in our commerce with the Turks, who procured it through Persia from the Bucharians. And it still retains its original name, although instead of being carried, as before, to Constantinople, it is now brought to Kiachta by the Bucharian merchants, and there disposed of to the Russians. This appellation is indeed the most general; but it is mentioned occasionally by several authors, under the different denominations of Russian, Tartarian, Bucharian, and Thibet, Rhubarb. This sort is exported from Russia in large roundish pieces, freed from the bark, with an hole through the middle: they are externally of a yellow colour, and when cut appear variagated with lively reddish streaks. [Sidenote: Indian Rhubarb.] The other sort is called by the Druggists Indian Rhubarb; and is procured from Canton in longer, harder, heavier, more compact pieces, than the former; it is more astringent, and has somewhat less of an aromatic flavour; but, on account of its cheapness, is more generally used than the Tartarian or Turkey Rhubarb. [Sidenote: Tartarian Rhubarb procured at Kiachta.] The government of Russia has reserved to itself the exclusive privilege of purchasing rhubarb; it is brought to Kiachta by some Bucharian merchants, who have entered into a contract to supply the crown with that drug in exchange for furs. These merchants come from the town of Selin, which lies South Westward of the Koko-Nor, or Blue Lake toward Thibet. Selin, and all the towns of Little Bucharia; viz. Kashkar, Yerken, Atrar, &c. are subject to China. [Sidenote: The Rhubarb Plant grows upon the Mountains of Little Bucharia.] The best rhubarb purchased at Kiachta is produced upon a chain of rocks, which are very high, and for the most part destitute of wood: they lie North of Selin, and stretch as far as the Koko-Nor. The good roots are distinguished by large and thick stems. The Tanguts, who are employed in digging up the roots, enter upon that business in April or May. As fast as they take them out of the earth, they cleanse them from the soil, and hang them upon the neighbouring trees to dry, where they remain until a sufficient quantity is procured: after which they are delivered to the Bucharian merchants. The roots are wrapped up in woollen sacks, carefully preserved from the least humidity; and are in this manner transported to Kiachta upon camels. The exportation of the best rhubarb is prohibited by the Chinese, under the severest penalties. It is procured however in sufficient quantities, sometimes by clandestinely mixing it with inferior roots, and sometimes by means of a contraband trade. The College of Commerce at Petersburg is solely empowered to receive this drug, and appoints agents at Kiachta for that purpose. Much care is taken in the choice; for it is examined, in the presence of the Bucharian merchants, by an apothecary commissioned by government, and resident at Kiachta. [Sidenote: Care taken in examining the roots at Kiachta.] All the worm-eaten roots are rejected; the remainder are bored through, in order to ascertain their soundness; and all the parts which appear in the least damaged or decayed are cut away. By these means even the best roots are diminished a sixth part; and the refuse is burnt, in order to prevent its being brought another year[182]. [Footnote 182: Pallas Reise, part III. p. 155-157. When Mr. Pallas was at Kiachta, the Bucharian merchant, who supplies the crown with rhubarb, brought some pieces of white rhubarb (von milchveissen rhabarber) which had a sweet taste, and was equal in its effects to the best sort.] [Sidenote: Different Species of Rhubarb.] Linnæus has distinguished the different species of rhubarb by the names Rheum Palmatum, R. Rhaphonticum, [183]R. Rhabarbarum, R. Compactum, and R. Ribes. [Footnote 183: See Murray's edition of Linnæus Systema Vegetab. Gott. 1774. In the former editions of Linnæus Rheum Rhabarbarum is called R. Undulatum.] Botanists have long differed in their opinions, which of these several species is the true rhubarb; and that question does not appear to be as yet satisfactorily cleared up. [Sidenote: Rheum Palmatum.] However, according to the notion which is most generally received, it is supposed to be the Rheum[184] Palmatum; the seeds of which were originally procured from a Bucharian merchant, and distributed to the principal botanists of Europe. Hence this plant has been cultivated with great success; and is now very common in all our botanical gardens. The learned doctor [185]Hope, professor of medicine and botany in the university of Edinburgh, having made trials of the powder of this root, in the same doses in which the foreign rhubarb is given, found no difference in its effects; and from thence conclusions have been drawn with great appearance of probability, that this is the plant which produces the true rhubarb. But this inference does not appear to be absolutely conclusive; for the same trials have been repeated, and with similar success, upon the roots of the R. Rhaponticum and R. Rhabarbarum. [Footnote 184: Mr. Pallas (to whom I am chiefly indebted for this account of the Tartarian and Siberian Rhubarb) assured me, that he never found the R. Palmatum in any part of Siberia.] [Footnote 185: Phil. Trans. for 1765, p. 290.] [Sidenote: R. Rhaponticum.] The leaves of the R. Rhaponticum are round, and sometimes broader than they are long. This species is found abundantly in the loamy and dry deserts between the Volga and the Yaik[186], towards the Caspian Sea. It was probably from this sort that the name Rha, which is the Tartarian appellation of the river Volga, was first applied by the Arabian physicians to the several species of rheum. The roots however which grow in these warm plains are rather too astringent; and therefore ought not to be used in cases where opening medicines are required. The Calmucs call it Badshona, or a stomachic. The young shoots of this plant, which appear in March or April, are deemed a good antiscorbutic; and are used as such by the Russians. The R. Rhaponticum is not to be found to the West of the Volga. The seeds of this species produced at Petersburg plants of a much greater size than the wild ones: the leaves were large, and of a roundish cordated figure. [Footnote 186: The Yaik falls into the Caspian Sea, about four degrees to the East of the Volga.] [Sidenote: R. Rhabarbarum.] The R. Rhabarbarum grows in the crevices of bare rocky mountains, and also upon gravelly soils: it is more particularly found in the high vallies of the romantic country situated beyond Lake Baikal. Its buds do not shoot before the end of April; and it continues in flower during the whole month of May. The stalks of the leaves are eaten raw by the Tartars: they produce upon most persons, who are unaccustomed to them, a kind of sphasmodic contraction of the throat, which goes off in a few hours; it returns however at every meal, until they become habituated to this kind of diet. The Russians make use of the leaves in their hodge-podge: accordingly, soups of this sort affect strangers in the manner above mentioned. In Siberia the stalk is sometimes preserved as a sweet-meat; and a custom prevails among the Germans of introducing at their tables the buds of this plant, as well as of the Rheum Palmatum, instead of cauli-flower. [Sidenote: R. Rhaponticum.] The R. Rhaponticum which commonly grows near the torrents has, as well as the R. Rhabarbarum of Siberia, the upper part of its roots commonly rotten, from too much moisture: accordingly, a very small portion of the lower extremity is fit for use. The Russian College of Physicians order, for the use of their military hospitals, large quantities of these roots to be dug up in Siberia, which are prescribed under the name of rhapontic. But the persons employed in digging and preparing it are so ill instructed for that purpose, that its best juices are frequently lost. These roots ought to be drawn up in spring, soon after the melting of the snows, when the plant retains all its sap and strength; whereas they are not taken out of the ground before August, when they are wasted by the increase of the stem, and the expansion of the leaves. Add to this, that the roots are no sooner taken up, than they are immediately sliced in small pieces, and thus dried: by which means the medicinal qualities are sensibly impaired. [Sidenote: Method of drying the Roots of the R. Rhaponticum.] For the same roots, which in this instance were of such little efficacy, when dried with proper precaution, have been found to yield a very excellent rhubarb. The process observed for this purpose, by the ingenious Mr. Pallas, was as follows: The roots, immediately after being drawn out, were suspended over a stove, where being gradually dried, they were cleansed from the earth: by these means, although they were actually taken up in autumn, they so nearly resembled the best Tartarian rhubarb in colour, texture, and purgative qualities, that they answered, in every respect, the same medicinal purposes. A German apothecary, named Zuchert, made similar trials with the same success, both on the Rheum Rhabarbarum and R. Rhaponticum, which grow in great perfection on the mountains in the neighbourhood of Nershinsk. [Sidenote: Plantation of Rhubarb in Siberia.] He formed plantations of these herbs on the declivity of a rock[187], covered with one foot of good mould, mixed with an equal quantity of sand and gravel. If the summer proved dry, the plants were left in the ground; but if the season was rainy, after drawing out the roots he left them for some days in the shade to dry, and then replanted them. By this method of cultivation he produced in seven or eight years very large and sound roots, which the rock had prevented from penetrating too deep; and when they were properly dried, one scruple was as efficacious as half a drachm of Tartarian rhubarb. [Footnote 187: In order to succeed fully in the plantation of rhubarb, and to procure sound and dry roots, a dry, light soil with a rocky foundation, where the moisture easily filters off, is essentially necessary.] [Sidenote: The Roots of the R. Rhaponticum and R. Rhubarbarum, equal in their Effects to the Tartarian Rhubarb.] From the foregoing observations it follows, that there are other plants, besides the Rheum Palmatum, the roots whereof have been found to be similar both in their appearance and effects, to what is called the best rhubarb. And indeed, upon enquiries made at Kiachta concerning the form and leaves of the plant which produces that drug, it seems not to be the R. Palmatum, but a species with roundish scolloped leaves, and most probably the R. Rhaponticum: for Mr. Pallas, when he was at Kiachta, applied for information to a Bucharian merchant of Selin-Chotton, who now supplies the crown with rhubarb; and his description of that plant answered to the figure of the Rheum Rhaponticum. The truth of this description was still further confirmed by some Mongol travellers who had been in the neighbourhood of the Koko-Nor and Thibet; and had observed the rhubarb growing wild upon those mountains. [Sidenote: The true Rhubarb probably procured from different Species of Rheum.] The experiments also made by Zuchert and others, upon the roots of the R. Rhabarbarum and R. Rhaponticum, sufficiently prove, that this valuable drug was procured from those roots in great perfection. But as the seeds of the Rheum Palmatum were received from the father of the above-mentioned Bucharian merchant as taken from the plant which furnishes the true rhubarb, we have reason to conjecture, that these three species, viz. R. Palmatum, R. Rhaponticum, and R. Rhabarbarum, when found in a dryer and milder alpine climate, and in proper situations, are indiscriminately drawn up; whenever the size of the plant seems to promise a fine root. And perhaps the remarkable difference of the rhubarb, imported to Kiachta, is occasioned by this indiscriminate method of collecting them. Most certain it is, that these plants grow wild upon the mountains, without the least cultivation; and those are esteemed the best which are found near the Koko-Nor, and about the sources of the river Koango. Formerly the exportation of rhubarb was confined to the crown of Russia; and no persons but those employed by government were allowed the permission of sending it to foreign countries; this monopoly however has been taken off by the present empress, and the free exportation of it from St. Petersburg granted to all persons upon paying the duty. It is sold in the first instance by the College of Commerce for the profit of the Sovereign; and is preserved in their magazines at St. Petersburg. The current price is settled every year by the College of Commerce. [Sidenote: Price of Rhubarb in Russia.] It is received from the Bucharian merchants at Kiachta in exchange for furs; and the prime cost is rated at 16 roubles per pood. By adding the pay of the commissioners who purchase it, and of the apothecary who examines it, and allowing for other necessary expences, the value of a pood at Kiachta amounts to 25 roubles; add to this the carriage from the frontiers to St. Petersburg, and it is calculated that the price of a pood stands the crown at 30 roubles. The largest exportation of rhubarb ever known from Russia, was made in the year 1765, when 1350 pood were exported, at 65 roubles per pood. [Sidenote: Exportation of Rhubarb from St. Petersburg.] EXPORTATION of RHUBARB From St. PETERSBURG. { at 76-1/4 Dutch[188] dollars, In 1777, 29 poods 13 pounds { or 91 roubles, 30 copecs { per pood. In 1778, 23 poods 7 pounds, at 80 ditto, or 96 roubles. [Footnote 188: If we reckon a Dutch dollar, upon an average, to be worth 1 rouble 20 copecs.] In 1778, 1055 poods were brought by the Bucharian merchants to Kiachta; of which 680 poods 19 pounds were selected. The interior consumption of the whole empire of Russia for 1777 amounted to only 6 poods 5 pounds[189]. [Footnote 189: This calculation comprehends only the rhubarb purchased at the different magazines belonging to the College of Commerce; for what was procured by contraband is of course not included.] [Sidenote: Superiority of the Tartarian over the Indian Rhubarb.] The superiority of this Tartarian Rhubarb, over that procured from Canton, arises probably from the following circumstances. 1. The Southern parts of China are not so proper for the growth of this plant, as the mountains of Little Bucharia. 2. There is not so exact an examination made in receiving it from the Chinese at Canton, as from the Bucharians at Kiachta. For the merchants, who purchase this drug at Canton, are obliged to accept it in the gross, without separating the bad roots, and cutting away the decayed parts, as is done at Kiachta. 3. It is also probable, that the long transport of this drug by sea is detrimental to it, from the humidity which it must necessarily contract during so long a voyage. TABLE OF LONGITUDE AND LATITUDE. [Sidenote: Table of Longitude and Latitude.] For the convenience of the Reader, the following Table exhibits in one point of view the longitude and latitude of the principal places mentioned in this performance. Their longitudes are estimated from the first meridian of the Isle of Fero, and from that of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. The longitude of Greenwich from Fero is computed at 17° 34´ 45´´. The longitude of the places marked * has been taken from astronomical observations. Latitude. Longitude. | | Fero. | Greenwich. | D. M. S. | D. M. S. | D. M. * Petersburg | 59 56 23 | 48 0 0 | 30 25[190] * Moscow | 55 45 45 | 55 6 30 | 37 31 * Archangel | 64 33 24 | 56 15 0 | 38 40 * Tobolsk | 58 12 22 | 85 40 0 | 68 26 * Tomsk | 56 30 0 | 102 50 0 | 85 15 * Irkutsk | 52 18 15 | 122 13 0 | 104 38 * Selenginsk | 51 6 0 | 124 18 30 | 106 44 Kiachta | 35 0 0 | 124 18 0 | 106 43 * Yakutsk | 62 1 50 | 147 0 0 | 129 25 * Ochotsk | 59 22 0 | 160 7 0 | 142 32 * Bolcheresk | 52 55 0 | 174 13 0 | 156 38 * Port of St. Peter and Paul | 53 1 0 | 176 10 0 | 158 36 Eastern Extremity of Siberia | 66 0 0 | 200 0 0 | 182 25 Unalashka (A) | 58 0 0 | 223 0 0 | 205 25 Unalashka (B) | 53 30 0 | 205 30 0 | 187 55 Key: (A) According to the general map of Russia (B) According to the chart of Krenitzin & Levasheff [Footnote 190: I have omitted the seconds in the longitude from Greenwich.] INDEX. A. _Agiak_, an interpreter, p. 133. _Aguladock_, a leader of the Unalashkans, taken prisoner by Solovioff, 139. _Agulok_, a dwelling-place on Unalashka, 137. _Aischin-Giord_, chief of the Manshurs at the beginning of the 17th century, 198. _Aktunak_, an island to the East of Kadyak, 108. _Akun_ (one of the Fox Islands), 159. _Akutan_ (one of the Fox Islands), 159. _Alaksu_, or _Alachshak_, one of the most remote Eastern islands, 65. Customs of the inhabitants, 68. Animals found on that island, _ib._ Conjectured to be not far from the continent of America, 69. _Alaxa_, one of the Fox Islands, 254. _Albasin_, and the other Russian forts on the Amoor, destroyed by the Chinese, 198. The Russians taken there refuse to return from Pekin, 208. _Aleütian Isles_ discovered, 21. 29. their situation and names, 24. Names of persons there, bear a surprising resemblance to those of the Greenlanders, 40. Inhabitants described, 41. 46. Account of those islands, 45. 55. The manners and customs of the inhabitants resemble those of the Fox Islands, 173. Are entirely subject to Russia, 174. Their number, 289. Specimen of the Aleütian language, 303. See _Fox Islands, Ibiya, Novodtsikoff, Tsiuproff_. _Alexeeff (Feodot)._ See _Deshneff_. _Aleyut._ See _Fox Islands_. _Allai_ (a prince of the Calmucs), his superstitious regard for the memory of Yermac, 194. _Amaganak_, a toigon of Unalashka, 143. _America_, most probable course for discovering the nearest coast of that continent, pointed out, 27. See _Islands, Delisle, Alaksu, Kadyak, Fox Islands, Steller_. _Amlach_, one of the Andreanoffskye Islands, 76. _Anadirsky Isles_, or _Isles of Anadyr_, so called by Mr. Stæhlin, and after him by Buffon, p. 25. 284-288. _Amoor_ river, called by the Manshurs Sakalin-Ula; and by the Mongols, Karamuran, or the Black River. _Andrianoffskie Islands_, their situation doubtful, 25. Description of, 74, 75. Must not be blended with the Fox Islands, 74. Account of the inhabitants, 77. Other islands beyond them to the East, _ibid._ Position of the Andreanoffskie-Islands, 289. _Arachulla_, supposed by the Chinese a wicked spirit of the air, 229. _Archangel_, voyages from thence to the Yenisèi, 305. _Artic_, or _Ice Foxes_, description of, 15. _Asia_, the first report of its vicinity to America, learned from the Tschutski, 293. _Atachtak_, a great promontory N. E. of Alaksu, 118. _Ataku_, one of the Aleütian Islands, 45. _Atchu_, one of the Andreanoffsky Islands, description of, 76. _Atchu, Atchak, Atach, Goreloi_, or _Burnt Island_, one of the Fox Islands, 61. _Atlassoff (Volodimir)_, takes possession of the river Kamtchatka, 4. _Atrar_, a town of Little Bucharia, 333. _Att_, one of the Aleütian Isles, 30. _Ayagh_, or _Kayachu_, one of the Andreanoffsky Islands, 72. Description of, 75. B. _Bacchoff._ See _Novikoff_. _Baranèi Kamen_, or _Sheep's Rock_, description of, 328. _Bear Islands._ See _Medvioedkie Ostrova_. _Beering_, his voyage made at the expence of the crown, 8. His voyage (with Tschirikoff) in search of a junction between Asia and America, in 1728 and 1729, unsuccessful, 20. Shipwrecked, _ibid._ and death on an island called after his name, 21. See _Discoveries, Steller_; see also p. 323. _Beering's Island_, the winter-station of all the ships sailing for the new-discovered islands, 52. _Belayeff (Larion)_, treats the inhabitants of the Aleütian Islands in an hostile manner; in which he is under-hand abetted by Tsiuproff, 34. _Bolcheretsk_, a district of Kamtchatka, 5. See _Kamtchatkoi Ostrogs_. _Bolkosky_ (prince), appointed waywode of Siberia, 190. See _Yermac_. _Boris and Glebb._ See _Trapesnikoff_. _Bucharia (Little)_, all subject to China, 333. _Buache_ (Mr.). See _Longitude_. _Burgoltei_, a mountain in the valley of Kiachta, 214. _Burnt Island._ See _Atchu_. _Buttons_ (of different colours), used as marks of distinction among the Chinese, 218. C. _Calumet of peace_, a symbol of friendship peculiar to America, 280. _Camhi_, the second Chinese emperor of the Manshur race, 197. Expels the Russians from his dominions, for their riots and drunkenness, 205. _Camphor wood_ (the true), drove by the sea on Copper Island, 107. _Caravans_ (Russian), allowed to trade to Pekin, 203. Discontinued, and why, 209. See _Russia_. _Chatanga_, the cape between that river and the Piasida never yet doubled, 309-313. _Chinese_, origin of the disputes between them and the Russians, 197. Hostilities commenced between them, 198. Treaty of Nershinsk concluded, 200. Beginning of the commerce between the two nations, 202. Their trade with the Russians, 208, &c. Reckon it a mark of disrepect to uncover the head to a superior, 228. Their superstition in regard to fires, 229. Manner of their pronouncing foreign expressions, 232. No specie but bullion current among them, 233. Advantage of the Chinese trade to Russia, 240. _Cholodiloff._ Voyage of a vessel fitted out by him, 48. _Chusho_, (or the Fire-god), a Chinese idol, 226. See _Chinese_. _Copper Island_, why so called, 21. 107. 252. Probable that all the hillocks in that country have formerly been vulcanoes, _ibid._ Subject to frequent earth-quakes, and abound in sulphur, 253. _Cyprian_ (first archbishop of Siberia), collects the archives of the Siberian history, 192. D. _Daurkin_ (a native Tschutski), employed by Plenisner to examine the islands to the East of Siberia, 295. The intelligence he brought back, _ibid._ _Delisle_, mistaken concerning the Western coast of America, 26. _Deshneff_, his voyage, 313. Extracts from his papers, 315, 316. His description of the great promontory of the Tschutski, 317. Ankudinoff's vessel wrecked on that promontory, _ibid._ Deshneff builds Anadirskoi-Ostrog on the river Anadyr, 318. Dispute between him and Soliverstoff, concerning the discovery of the Korga, 319, 320. No navigator since Deshneff pretends to have passed round the N. E. extremity of Asia, 322. _Discoveries._ The prosecution of those begun by Beering mostly carried on by individuals, 8. The vessels equipped for those discoveries described, _ibid._ Expences attending them, 9. Profits of the trade to the new discovered islands very considerable, 10. List of the principal charts of the Russian discoveries hitherto published, 281. _Dogs_, used for drawing carriages, 247. _Drusinin (Alexei)_, wrecked at Beering's Island, 46. His voyage to the Fox Islands, 80-88. Winters at Unalashka, 82. All the crew, except four Russians, viz. Stephen Korelin, Dmitri Bragin, Gregory Shaffyrin, and Ivan Kokovin, destroyed by the natives, 83. See _Unalashka_. _Durneff (Kodion)._ His voyage, 45. E. _Eclipse_, behaviour of the Chinese at one, 228. _Empress of Russia._ See _Russia_. _Engel_ (Mr.) Disputes the exactness of the longitudes laid down by Muller and the Russian geographers, 267. _Esquimaux Indians_, similarity between their boats and those of the Fox Islands, 260. 264. F. _Feathers_ (peacock's), used for a distinction of rank by the Chinese, 218. _Fedotika._ See _Nikul_. _Foxes_, different species of, described, 14. Value of their skins, 15. _Fox Islands_, sometimes called the farthest Aleütian Isles, 29. Their land and sea-animals, 148. Manners and customs of the inhabitants, 149. Warm springs and native sulphur to be found in some of them, 149. Their dress, 151. 169. Their vessels described, 152. Are very fond of snuff, 153. Their drums described, 154. Their weapons, 155. 170. Food of the inhabitants, 168. Their feasts, 171. Their funeral ceremonies, 173. Account of the inhabitants, 256-261. Their extreme nastiness, 258. Their boats made like those of the Esquimaux Indians in North America, 260. 264. Are said to have no notion of a God, 261; yet have fortune-tellers, who pretend to divination, by the information of spirits, _ibid._ The inhabitants called by the Russians by the general name of Aleyut, 263. Proofs of the vicinity of those islands to America, 291. G. _Geographers (Russian)_, their accuracy, 273. _Ghessur-Chan_, the principal idol at Maimatschin, 224. _Glotoff (Stephen)_, his voyage, 106-123. Winters upon Copper Island, 106. Arrives at Kadyak, the most Eastward of the Fox Islands, 108. Is attacked by the natives, whom he defeats, 110, and finally repulses, 112. Winters at Kadyak, 113. Is reconciled to the natives, 114. Curiosities procured by him at that island, _ibid._ No chart of his voyage, 117. Departs from Kadyak, and arrives at Umnak, 118. 119. Defeats a design formed against him by the natives, 120. Meets with Korovin, 121. Winters on Umnak, 122. Journal of his voyage, 124-130. See _Solovioff, Korovin_. ---- (_Ivan_), an Aleütian interpreter, 101. _Golodoff_, killed at Unyumga, 65. _Goreloi._ See _Atchu_. _Greenlanders_, their proper names nearly similar to those used in the Aleütian Isles, 40. H. _Hare's Rock._ See _Saetshie Kammen_. _Hot Springs_, found in Kanaga, 75. in Tsetchina, 76. I. _Ibiya, Ricksa_, and _Olas_, Three large populous islands to the East of the Aleütian Islands, 46. _Jesuits_, their compliance with the Chinese superstition, 220. _Igonok_, a village of Unalashka, 142. _Igunok_, a bay N. E. of Unalashka, 255. _Ikutchlok_, a dwelling place at Unalashka, 137. _Imperial Academy_, their chart of the New Discovered Islands, not to be depended on, 24. 27. _Indigirka_, a river of Siberia, 14. _Inlogusak_, a leader of the Unalashkans, killed, 139. _Isanak_, one of the islands to the West of Kadyak, 109. _Islands (New Discovered)_, first tribute brought from thence to Ochotsk, 22. List of those islands, according to Mr. Muller, 297. Their names altered and corrupted by the Russian navigators, 299. See _Aleütian Isles_ and _Fox Islands_. _Islenieff_ (Mr.), sent to Yakutsk to observe the transit of Venus, 274. _Itchadek_ and _Kagumaga_, two friendly Toigons, 137. _Ivan Shilkin_, his voyage, 57. 60. Shipwrecked on one of the Fox Islands, 58. Great distresses of his crew on that island, 59. Shipwrecked a second time, 60. _Ivan Vassilievitch_ I. makes the first irruption into Siberia, 177. _Ivan Vassilievitch_ II. took the title of _Lord of all the Siberian lands_ before the conquests of Yermac, 179. See _Russia_. _Ives (Isbrand)_, a Dutchman. Embassador from Peter I. to Pekin, 203. _Iviya_, one of the Aleütian Islands, 55. K. _Kadyak_, one of the Fox Islands, 35. The fondness of the natives for beads, 114. Animals and vegetables found there, 115. 116. Great reason to think it is at no great distance from the continent of America, 117. Account of the inhabitants, 118. See _Glottoff_. _Kagumaga._ See _Itchadek_. _Kalaktak_, a village of Unalashka, 143. _Kama_, a river, 180. _Kamtchatka_, discovered by the Russians, 3. The whole peninsula reduced by the Russians, 4. Of little advantage to the crown at first, but since the discovery of the islands between Asia and America its fur-trade is become a considerable branch of the Russian commerce, _ibid._ Its situation and boundaries, 5. Its districts, government, and population, _ibid_. Fixed and other tributes to the crown, 6. Its soil and climate not favourable to the culture of corn; but hemp has of late years been cultivated there with great success, 7. Supplied yearly with salt, provisions, corn, and manufactures, from Ochotsk, _ibid._ Rout for transporting furs from thence to Kiachta, 247. Manner of procuring fire there, and which Vaksel, Beering's lieutenant, found practised in that part of North America which he saw in 1741, 158. See _Morosko, Atlassoff, Koriacs, Ochotsk_ and _Penshinsk, Bolcheresk, Tigilskaia, Krepost, Verchnei, Nishnei, Kamtchatka Ostrogs, Volcanos, Furs and Skins_. _Kamtchatkoi Ostrogs_ (Upper and Lower) and Bolcheretsk built, 4. _Kanaga_, one of the Andreanoffsky Islands, 72. Description of, 75. _Karaga Island_, tributary to Russia, 35. See _Olotorians_. _Kashkar_, A town of Little Bucharia, 333. _Kashmak_, an interpreter employed by the Russians, 92. _Kataghayekiki_, name of the inhabitants of Unimak and Alaxa, 263. _Kayachu._ See _Ayagh_. _Kiachta_, a frontier town of Siberia, 12. Treaty concluded there between the Russians and Chinese, 206. 209. Is at present the centre of the Russian and Chinese commerce, 210. That place and Zuruchaitu agreed on for transacting the commerce between Russia and China, 211. Description of Kiachta, _ibid._ _Kighigusi_, inhabitants of Akutan so called, 263. _Kitaika_, a Chinese stuff, 238. _Kogholaghi_, inhabitants of Unalashka so called, 263. _Kopeikina_, a bay of the river Anadyr, 43. _Korenoff._ See _Solovioff_. _Korga_, A sand-bank at the mouth of the river Anadyr, 318. See _Soliverstoff_. _Koriacs_, their country the Northern boundary of Kamtchatka, 5. Tributary to Russia, 43. _Korovin (Ivan)_, his voyage 89-105. Arrives at Unalashka, his transactions there, 90-96. Builds an hut, and prepares for wintering, 93. Being attacked by the savages, destroys his hut, and retires to his vessel, 95. Attacked again, repulses the savages, and is stranded on the island of Umnak, 96. After different skirmishes with the natives, is relieved by Glottoff, 99. His description of Umnak and Unalashka, with their inhabitants, 103. See _Solovioff_. _Kovyma_, a river of Siberia, 14. _Krenitzin_ (Captain), commands a secret expedition, 23. _Krenitzin and Levasheff_, their journal and chart sent, by order of the Empress of Russia, to Dr. Robertson, 23. Extract from their journal, 251-255. They arrive at the Fox Islands, 253. Krenitzin winters at Alaxa, and Levasheff at Unalashka, 254. They return to the river of Kamtchatka, 266. Krenitzin drowned, _ibid._ See _Yakoff_. _Krassilnikoff_, Voyage of a vessel fitted out by him, 52. Shipwrecked on Copper Island, _ibid._ The crew return to Beering's Island, 53. _Krassilikoff_ (a Russian astronomer), his accuracy in taking the longitude of Kamtchatka, 273. _Krashininikoff_, his history of Kamtchatka, 256. _Krestova_, a river of Siberia, 324. _Krugloi_, or _Round Island_, one of the Aleütian Islands, 69. _Kulkoff_, his vessel destroyed, and his crew killed by the savages, 94. 157. _Kullara_, a fortress belonging to Kutchum Chan, 190. _Kuril Isles_, subject to Russia, 5. _Kutchum Chan_ (a descendant of Zinghis Chan), defeats Yediger, and takes him prisoner, 179. The most powerful sovereign in Siberia, 182. See _Yermac, Sibir_. L. _Laptieff (Chariton)_, his unsuccessful attempt to pass from the Lena to the Yenisèi, 309. See p. 322. _Latitude of Bolcheresk_, Appendix I. N^o II. See _Longitude_. _Lena_, a river of Siberia, 14. Attempts of the Russians to pass from thence to Kamtchatka, 311. See _Menin_. _Leontieff_ (a _Russian_), has translated several interesting Chinese publications, 208. _Levasheff._ See _Krenitzin_ and _Levasheff_. _Lobaschkoff (Prokopèi)_, killed at Alaksu, 66. _Longitude_, of the extreme parts of Asia, by Mr. Muller and the Russian geographers, 267. By Mr. Engel, _ibid._ By Mr. Vaugondy, 268. The Russian system supported by Mons. Buache, against Engel and Vaugondy, _ibid._ See _Krassilnikoff_. _Longitude of Ochotsk, Bolcheresk_, and _St. Peter_ and _St. Paul_, 269. _Longitude_ and _Latitude_ of the principal places mentioned in this work, 344. _Lyssie Ostrova_, or _Fox Islands_, 14. Their situation and names, 25. Description of the inhabitants, 62. M. _Maimatschin_ (the Chinese frontier town), described, 214. Houses there described, 216. An account of the governor, 218. Theatre described, 219. The small pagoda, 220. The great pagoda, 221. Idols worshiped, _ibid._-227. See _Sitting-Rooms_. _Manshurs_, their origin, 197. _Maooang_, a Chinese idol, 225. _Mednoi Ostroff_, or _Copper Island_, Discovered, 21. See _Copper Island_. _Medvedeff (Dennis)_, his crew massacred by the savages, 90. He and part of Protassoff's crew found murdered on the island of Umnak, 99. _Menin (Feodor)_, his unsuccessful attempt to pass from the Yenisèi to the Lena, 306. _Merghen_, a Chinese town, 244. _Medviodkie Ostrova, Kreffstoffskie Ostrova_, or _Bear Islands_, Discovery of, 324. _Minyachin_ (a Cossac), a collector of the tribute, 69. _Mongol_, the commerce between the Russians and Chinese, mostly carried on in that tongue, 231. _Morosko (Lucas Semænoff)_, commanded the first expedition towards Kamtchatka, 3. _Muller_, (Mr.) His conjecture relating to the coast of the sea of Ochotsk, confirmed by Captain Synd, 23. Part of a letter written by him in 1774, concerning the vicinity of Kamtchatka and America, 283. His list of the New Discovered Islands, 297. N. _Nankin_, 231. _Naun_, a Chinese town, 244. _Nershinsk._ See _Chinese_. _Nevodtsikoff (Michael)_, sails from Kamtchatka river, 29. Discovers the Aleutian Islands, _ibid._ Narrative of his voyage, 31-36. _New Moon_, ceremonies observed at, by the Chinese, 228. _Nikul_, or _Fedotika_, a river which falls into that of Kamtchatka, 321. _Nishnei_, or _Lower Kamtchatkoi Ostrog_, a district of Kamtchatka, 5. _Niu-o_, Chinese idol, 226. _North East Passage_, Russians attempt to discover, 304-331. _Novikoff_ and _Bacchoff_, their voyage from Anadyrsk, 42. 44. Are shipwrecked on Beering's Island, where they build a small boat, and return to Kamtchatka, 44. O. _Oby_ (bay of), 306. _Ochotsk_ and _Penshinsk_, Western boundaries of Kamtchatka, 5. See _Kamtchatka, Muller_. _Offzin_ and _Koskeleff_ (Lieutenants), first effected the passage from the bay of Oby to the Yenisèi, 306. _Olas._ See _Ibiya_. _Olotorian Isles_, whence so called, 284. _Olotorians_, invade the island of Karaga, and threaten to destroy all the inhabitants who pay tribute to Russia, 36. _Onemenskaya_, a bay in the river Anadyr, 43. _Oracles (Chinese)_, 227. _Orel_, a Russian settlement, 181. _Otcheredin, (Aphanassei)_, his voyage to the Fox Islands, 156-163. Winters at Umnak, 157. The toigon of the Five Mountains gives him hostages, for which the other toigons kill one of his children, 158. A party sent by him to Ulaga repulsed the inhabitants, who had attacked them, 159. Is joined by Popoff from Beering's Island, and prevails on the inhabitants to pay tribute, 161. Receives an account of Levasheff's arrival at Unalashka, _ibid._ Returns to Ochotsk, with a large cargo, leaving Popoff at Umnak, 162. Brings home two islanders, who were baptized by the names of Alexey Solovieff and Boris Otcheredin, 163. See _Poloskoff_. P. _Pagoda._ See _Maimatschin_. _Paikoff (Demetri)_, his voyage, 61-63. _Pallas_, receives from Bragin a narrative of his adventures and escape, p. 88. Account of Kiachta and Maimatschin, extracted from his journal, p. 229. His publication concerning the Mongol tribes, 230. List of plants found by Steller upon the coast discovered by Beering in 1741, communicated by Mr. Pallas--quotation from a treatise of his, relative to the plants of the new-discovered islands, 279. Extracts made by him relative to Deshneff's voyage, p. 314-316. _Pauloffsky_, his expedition, in which, after several successful skirmishes with the Tschutski, he is surprised and killed by them, 296. _Peacock._ See _Feathers_. _Pekin._ Russian scholars allowed to settle there, to learn the Chinese tongue, 209. See _Caravans_. _Penshinsk_, 5. _Peter_ I. first projected making discoveries in the seas between Kamtchatka and America, 20. _Petersburg_, length of the different routs between that city and Pekin, 248. _Piasida_, a river of Siberia, 309. _Plenisner_ (a Courlander), sent on discoveries to the N. E. of Siberia, 294. See _Daurkin_. _Poloskoff, (Matthew)_, Sent by Otcheredin to Unalashka, 159. Spends the autumn at Akun, and after twice repulsing the savages, returns to Otcheredin, 159-161. _Popoff (Ivan)_, a vessel fitted out by him arrives at Unalashka, 158. See _Otcheredin_. _Prontshistsheff_ (Lieutenant), his unsuccessful attempt to pass from the Lena towards the Yenisèi, 306-309. _Protassoff_, he and his crew destroyed by the savages, 133. 157. See _Medvedeff_. _Pushkareff (Gabriel)_, his voyage, 64-69. Winters upon Alaksu, 65. He, with Golodoff and twenty others, attempting to violate some girls, on the island Unyumga, are set upon by the natives, and at last obliged to retreat, 65. 66. He and his crew tried for their inhuman behaviour to the islanders during their voyage, 67. R. _Rheum._ See _Rhubarb_. _Rhubarb_, that from Russia generally called Turkey Rhubarb, and why, 332. Description of, _ibid._ Indian rhubarb inferior to the Tartarian or Turkey, 333. A milk-white sort described, 334. Different species, 335-341. Planted in Siberia by M. Zuchert, a German apothecary, 338. Exportation of, 342. Superiority of the Tartarian over the Indian Rhubarb, accounted for, 342. _Ricksa._ See _Ibiya_. _Roaring Mountain._ See _Unalashka_. _Robertson_ (Dr.) See _Krenitzin and Levasheff_. _Round Island._ See _Krugloi_. _Russia_ (present Empress of), a great promoter of new discoveries, 22. No communication between that country and Siberia till the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch II. 178. The empress abolishes the monopoly of the fur-trade, and relinquishes the exclusive privilege of sending caravans to Pekin, 210. _Russia_, a curious and interesting "Historical Account of the nations which compose that Empire" lately published, 218. _Russians_, quit Siberia after the death of Yermac, 194. Recover their antient territories in that country, 195. Their progress checked by the Chinese, 196. Are expelled from the Chinese dominions, 205. Are allowed to build a church (and to have four priests to officiate in it) within their caravansary at Pekin, 208. Commerce between them and the Chinese carried on only by barter, 232. Method of transacting business between them, 233. Russian exports, 234-237. Imports, 237-239. Articles of trade prohibited to individuals, 240. Duties paid by the Russian merchants, 241. The Russians' manner of trading to the Fox Islands, 264. Their attempts to discover a North East passage, 304-331. Held in great veneration by the Kamtchadals, till they quarrelled among themselves, 321. See _Siberia, Chinese, Albasin, Lena_. S _Sabya_, an island at a distance from Att, 30. See _Att_. _Sacred Helmet_, at Maimatschin, 227. _Saetshie Kamen_, or _Hare's Rock_, Description of, 328. _Sagaugamak_, one of the Fox Islands, 157. _St. Petersburg_, the geographical calendar of not to be depended on, 24. _Saktunak_, an island near Alaksu, 119. _Sandchue_, a northern province of China, 231. _Sea-horse teeth_, their value, 16. _Sea-lion_, or _Scivutcha_, its flesh delicate food, 265. _Sea-otters_, Many writers mistaken concerning them, 12. Description of, _ibid._ Value of their skins, 13. _Selin_, a town of Little Bucharia, 333. _Serebranikoff_, voyage of a vessel fitted out by him, 49-52. Shipwrecked on an island opposite Katyrskoi Noss, in the peninsula of Kamtchatka, 50. Description of the island, 51. _Shaffyrin (Sila)_, a Cossac, collector of the tribute, 40. 45. 61. killed, 63. _Shalauroff_, his first voyage from the Lena, 323-328. Winters at a mouth of the Kovyma, 325. Not being able to double Sheletskoi Noss, returns to the Kovyma, winters there a second time, and returns to the Lena, 327. No account of his second expedition, he and his crew being killed by the Tschutski, 328. _Sheep's Rock._ See _Baranèi Kamen_. _Shelatskoi Noss_, whence that name is derived, 326. _Shemiya_, one of the Aleütian Islands, 78. _Shilkin (Ivan)_, his voyage, 45. Wrecked on one of the Fox Islands, 58. where the Russians are attacked by the savages, whom they repulse, 59. After suffering the greatest distress, they build a small vessel, in which they are a second time wrecked, and return at last in Serebranikoff's vessel to Kamtchatka, 59. 60. _Shuntschi_, The first Chinese emperor of the Manshur race, 198. _Shushu_, the first of the Kuril Isles, 301. _Sibir_, the principal residence of Kutchum Chan, 182. _Siberia_, conquest of by Yermac, 19. Second irruption of the Russians into that country, 179. State of at the time of Yermac's invasion, 182. Conjecture concerning the derivation of that name, _ibid._ Totally reduced by the Russians, 196. Transport of the Russian and Chinese commodities through that country, 245. See _Ivan Vassilievitch I. Russia. Kutchum Chan._ _Sitkin_, one of the Fox Islands, 62. _Sitting-rooms, (Chinese)_, described, 216. _Soliverstoff (Yusko)_, his expedition to the Korga, to collect sea-horses teeth, 319. _Solovioff (Ivan)_, his voyage, 131-155. Arrives at Unalashka, 132. Learns the particulars of a confederacy formed by the Toigons of Unalashka, Umnak, Akutan, and Toshko, against the Russians, 134. Is joined by Korovin, 135. Hostilities between him and the natives, _ibid._ Winters at Unalashka, with other transactions at that island, 136. Makes peace with the natives, and receives hostages, 139. Meets with Korovin, 140. His crew being greatly afflicted with the scurvy, the inhabitants of Makushinsk conspire to seize his vessel, 141. But are happily prevented, 142. Is visited by Glottoff, _ibid._ Receives hostages from the inhabitants of Kalaktak, 143. Sends Korenoff in different hunting parties, 144. Journal of his voyage homewards, 144. His description of the Fox Islands, 148. _Solvytshegodskaia._ See _Strogonoff_. _Steller_, His arguments to prove that Beering and Tschirikiff discovered America, 277. _Strogonoff (Anika)_, a Russian merchant, establishes a trade with Solvytshegodskaia in Siberia, 178. Makes settlements upon the Kama and Tschussovaia, 183. See _Yermac_. _Studentzoff_, a Cossac, collector of the tribute, 45. 57. _Svatoi Noss_, that name explained, 320. _Sulphur_ found on the island of Kanaga, 75. See _Copper Islands_. _Synd_ (capt.) his voyage to the N. E. of Siberia, 300. Discovers a cluster of islands, and a promontory, which he supposes to belong to America, 301. T. _Tabaetshinskian_, a mountain of Kamtchatka, emitting a constant smoke, 6. _Tagalak_, one of the Andreanoffskye Islands, description of, 76. _Tartarian Rhubarb._ See _Rhubarb_. _Tchingi_, a town on the banks of the Tura, 185. See _Yermac_. _Tea_, finer in Russia than in Europe, and why, 238. _Temnac_, an Aleutian interpreter, 30. _Tien_, an idol worshiped in the small pagoda at Maimatschin, 220. _Tigilskaia Krepost_, a district of Kamtchatka, 5. _Tolstyk, (Andrean)_, his voyage to the Aleutian Isles, in 1748, 30. Ditto, in 1756, 54. Ditto in 1760, 71-79. Discovers the Andreanoskie Islands, 72. Shipwrecked near the mouth of the Kamtchatka river, 79. _Toshko._ See _Solovioff_. _Totchikala_, a village of Unalashka, 138. _Trapesnikoff (Nikiphor)_, Boris and Glebb, a vessel fitted out by him, her voyage and return, 39. 40. &c. Another vessel fitted out by him destroyed, and the crew cut off, by the natives of Unimak, 140. _Tsaaduck_, a kind of lamp, 150. _Tsaudsing_, a Chinese idol, 226. _Tschirikoff._ See _Beering_. _Tschussovaia_ (a river). See _Strogonoff_. _Tschutski_, a people on the river Anadyr, 43. Boundaries of their country, 293. See _Asia_. _Tschukotskoi Noss_, the N. E. cape of the country of the Tschutski, 293. Stadukin and Soliverstoff claim the discovery of the passage round that promontory, 314. See _Deshneff, Svatoi Noss, Shelatskoi Noss_; see also p. 322. _Tschuvatch._ See _Yermac_. _Tsetchina_, one of the Andreanoffsky Islands, description of, 76. _Tsikanok_, or _Osernia_, a river of Unalashka, 133. _Tsiuproff_, his adventures at the Aleutian Islands, 32. See _Belayeff_. _Turkey Rhubarb._ See _Rhubarb_. U. _Vaksel._ See _Kamtchatka_. _Vassilievitch._ See _Ivan Vassilievitch_. _Vaugondy._ See _Longitude_. _Udagha_, a bay on the N. E. of Unalashka, 255. _Verchnei_, or _Upper Kamtchatkoi Ostrog_, a district of Kamtchatka, 5. _Ukunadok_, a village of Unalashka, 143. _Ulaga_, one of the Fox Islands. See _Otcheredin_. _Umgaina_, a village of Unalashka, 143. _Umnak_, one of the Fox Islands, 81. See _Korovin, Solovioff_. _Unalashka_, or _Agunalashka_, one of the Fox Islands, 82. Adventures of four Russians belonging to Drusinin's crew there, 84-88. Description of, 254. Ayaghish and the Roaring Mountain, two volcanos, on that island, 255. Productions, _ibid._ The inhabitants less barbarous than those of the other Fox Islands, 260. _Unimak_, an island to the East of Agunalashka, 139. See _Trapesnikoff_. _Unyumga._ See _Pushkareff, Golodoff_. _Volcanos_, some burning ones in Kamtchatka, and traces of many former ones to be observed there, 6. One eruption near Lower Ostrog in 1762, and another in 1767, _ibid._ An high volcano on the island of Kanaga, 75. See _Copper Island, Unalashka_. _Vorobieff_, his voyage, 42. W. _Wheels_, a carriage with four wheels a mark, of high distinction among the Chinese, 218. _White month_, explained, 228. _Women_, none allowed to live at Maimatschin, and why, 231. _Wsevidoff (Andrew)_, his voyage to the new-discovered Islands, 38. Y. _Yakoff (Jacob)_, composed the chart of Krenitzin and Levasheff's voyage, 266. _Yediger_ (a Tartar chief), pays tribute to the Russians, 179. See _Kutchum Chan_. _Yenisèi_, a river of Siberia, 305, & seq. _Yerken_, a town of Little Bucharia, 333. _Yermac_, being driven from the Caspian Sea, retires to Orel, 181, where he winters, and determines to invade Siberia, 182. To which he is instigated by Strogonoff, 183. Marches towards Siberia, and returns to Orel, 184. Sets out on a second expedition, and arrives at Tchingi, 185. Defeats Kutchum Chan at Tschuvatch, 186. Marches to Sibir, and seats himself on the throne, 187. Cedes his conquest to the Tzar of Muscovy, 189. Who sends him a reinforcement, under the command of prince Bolkosky, 190. Is surprised by Kutchum Chan, 191. And drowned, 192. Veneration paid to his memory, 193. See _Allai, Russians, Siberia, Ivan Vassielivitch_ II. _Yefimoff (Sava)_, one of Yermac's followers, an accurate historian of those times, 192. _Yugoff (Emilian)_, his voyage, 38. Dies on Copper Island, 39. Z. _Zuchert._ See _Rhubarb_. _Zuruchaitu._ Description of, 244. Its trade very inconsiderable, 245. See _Kiachta_. FINIS. BOOKS printed for T. CADELL. The History of England, from the invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Revolution. A new Edition, printed on a fine paper, with many Corrections and Additions; and a complete Index, 8 vols. Royal Paper, 7l. 7s. * * * Another Edition on small Paper, 4l. 10s. Another Edition in 8 vols. 8vo. 2l. 8s. 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41200	----	WORKS ISSUED BY The Hakluyt Society. THE VOYAGES OF PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS, 1595 TO 1606. SECOND SERIES. No. XIV. THE VOYAGES OF PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS, 1595 TO 1606. Translated and Edited BY SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM, K.C.B., P.R.G.S.; PRESIDENT OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. M.DCCCCIV. COUNCIL OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S., Pres. R.G.S., President. The Right Hon. the Lord Amherst of Hackney, Vice-President. Rear-admiral Sir William Wharton, K.C.B., F.R.S., Vice-President. Colonel George Earl Church. Sir William Martin Conway. George William Forrest, C.I.E. William Foster, B.A. F. H. H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D. The Right Hon. the Lord Hawkesbury. Edward Heawood, M.A. John Scott Keltie, LL.D. Frederic William Lucas. Admiral Sir Albert Hastings Markham, K.C.B. Mowbray Morris. Commr. John Franklin Parry, R.N. Edward John Payne, M.A. Ernest George Ravenstein. Admiral of the Fleet Sir F. W. Richards, G.C.B. Henry William Trinder. Richard Stephen Whiteway. Basil H. Soulsby, B.A., Honorary Secretary. CONTENTS. VOLUME I. Page Dedication ix Introduction xi Note on the Cartography of the Southern Continent. By B. H. Soulsby xxxvii I.--Narrative of the Second Voyage of the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña, by the Chief Pilot Pedro Fernandez de Quiros 3 II.--Narrative of the Voyage of the Adelantado Alvarez de Mendaña de Niera for the Discovery of the Islands of Solomon, written by the Chief Pilot Pedro Fernandez de Quiros for Don Antonio de Morga, Lieutenant-General of the Philippines 149 III.--Narrative of the Voyage of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros in 1606, for the Discovery of the Austrial Regions 161 VOLUME II. IV.--True Account of the Events of the Voyage that the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros made to the unknown Southern lands, by Gaspar de Leza, Chief Pilot of the said Fleet 321 V.--Torquemada's Account of the Voyage of Quiros 407 VI.--Letter from Luis Vaez de Torres to the King of Spain 455 VII.--Legends on the Four Maps signed by Diego de Prado y Tobar 469 APPENDIX. I.--Eighth Memorial of Quiros 477 II.--Memorial of Quiros, 1607 487 III.--Memorial of Quiros, 1609 504 IV.--Memorial of Don Fernando de Castro, 1608 508 V.--Letters from Diego de Prado y Tobar, 1613 511 VI.--Note on the Memorials of Quiros by the Council of the Indies, 1610 514 VII.--Memorial touching Papers printed by Quiros, 1610 516 VIII.--Memorial by Juan Luis Arias 517 Index 537 MAPS. 1.--Planos de las Bahías descubiertas el año de 1606, In Pocket en las islas del Espíritu Santo y de Nueva Guinea at the end. y Dibujadas por D. Diego de Prado y Tovar en Igual Fecha (Soc. Geogr. de Madrid, 1878). 2.--New Hebrides, Banks and Duff Groups, showing In Pocket Discoveries of Quiros in 1606. G. Mackay del. at the end. 3.--Routes of Mendaña, 1595; Quiros, 1606, and Torres, In Pocket 1606. G. Mackay del. at the end. DEDICATION. TO COMMANDER ROBERT FALCON SCOTT, R.N., M.V.O., F.R.G.S.; LEADER OF THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1901 TO 1904. My Dear Scott, I dedicate this translation of the Voyages of Pedro Fernandez de Quiros to you, because the efforts and aspirations of the first navigator who ever conceived the idea of discovering the Antarctic continent cannot fail to have an interest for you who have actually made such great discoveries in the Far South; as a tribute also of admiration for your great qualities as a leader, and of affectionate regard for yourself. Believe me to be ever, my dear Scott, Your attached friend and well-wisher, Clements R. Markham. INTRODUCTION. The Council of the Hakluyt Society has decided that the volumes containing the narratives of the discovery of the Solomon Islands by Mendaña shall be followed by a monograph on the two voyages of Quiros. In the first voyage he was Chief Pilot to Mendaña; the second and most famous voyage was under his own command. The best and most detailed narrative of both voyages is contained in a work which remained in manuscript until twenty-eight years ago, when it was edited and published at Madrid by Don Justo Zaragoza. It is entitled History of the Discovery of the Austrial Regions, made by the General Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. [1] Two copies were known to be in existence: one in the private library of the King of Spain, the other in that of the Ministry of Marine. Both have erroneous titles, written by careless librarians. The narratives were evidently dictated by Quiros, or written from his notes; but Señor Zaragoza gives reasons for the belief that the work, in its present form, was written by Luis de Belmonte Bermudez, a young man who was Secretary to Quiros during the voyage of 1606, and that it contains several passages for which the Secretary was alone responsible. Belmonte Bermudez remained faithful to Quiros in his adversity, and, after his master's death, he became a poet of some celebrity. Señor Zaragoza quotes several passages which show the hand of a poet. [2] There is also a quotation from the Araucana of Ercilla on unknown lands not yet revealed by God, to which is added another version by the young sailor-poet on those unknown lands now revealed by God. [3] The author is mentioned twice in the narrative: once as being nearly drowned in landing on the island of Anaa [4] ("Conversion de San Pablo"), and again in the list of officials for the municipality of the city of New Jerusalem projected by Quiros. [5] The question of authorship is really settled by the poet himself, in a line of his poem entitled La Hispalica, quoted by Zaragoza. Speaking of Quiros as his "Lusitanian master, the star of gallant Portuguese," he adds that, in recording the history of the voyage there was:-- "Want of a writer, which I supplied." The Historia, as published by Zaragoza, is continuous in eighty-one chapters. It has been found more convenient to divide the translation into two parts: the first containing the second voyage of Mendaña, and the second part being the story of the voyage of Quiros in 1606. The present volume commences with the first part of the History of the Discovery of the Austrial Regions. It describes the second voyage of Mendaña in much detail, including the discovery of the Marquesas Islands and of the island of Santa Cruz, the death of Mendaña, and the terrible passage from Santa Cruz to Manilla. It is certainly a most extraordinary story. In the work entitled Hechos del Marques de Cañete, a life of one of the Viceroys of Peru, by Cristoval Suarez de Figueroa, [6] Book VI contains an abbreviated version of the narrative in the Historia, generally copied word for word. Numerous details are omitted, particularly such as are derogatory to the Spanish character. There are also a few passages which are not in the Historia, but none having any bearing on the events of the voyage. Suarez de Figueroa tells us that he had the narrative of Quiros before him as he wrote. For these reasons I have considered it unnecessary to translate the version of Suarez de Figueroa, as it is merely a mutilated version of the narrative in the Historia. The account in the work of Suarez de Figueroa was the only version of the second voyage of Mendaña that was known to our historians of Pacific voyages, Dalrymple and Burney. There is a short report of the second voyage of Mendaña, to Antonio de Morga, the Governor of the Philippines, by Quiros himself. It was translated and printed by Lord Stanley of Alderley, in his edition of the work of Antonio de Morga (Hakluyt Society, 1868). I have caused it to be reprinted in this volume, in order to make the monograph of Quiros complete. For the voyage of Quiros in 1606, when he discovered the Duff and Banks groups of islands, and the New Hebrides, there are no less than four separate accounts. The first, and by far the most important, forms the second part of the Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales, by Belmonte Bermudez. It contains the full narrative, the speeches and reflections of Quiros, as recorded by his Secretary, and the remarks of the poet himself. The royal orders, the curious and interesting instructions of Quiros to his Captains, the act of possession and other strange proceedings at Espiritu Santo, the half-allegorical will of Quiros, and other documents, are included. The second narrative is by Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, the Chief Pilot of the Capitana with Quiros. For the most part it is merely a log, with courses, distances run, winds, and latitudes for each day, with occasional calculations of the distance from Callao. But it also contains accounts of the visits to the newly-discovered islands, and some remarks of interest, which may be compared with the same events described by Quiros, and in the work of Torquemada. The manuscript is in the Royal Library at Madrid (J. 2); and Lord Stanley of Alderley quoted largely from it, in annotating the letter of Torres. But it was first printed by Zaragoza. The third narrative is contained in the Monarquia Indiana, a work on Mexico first published in 1614, by the Franciscan Friar, Juan de Torquemada, who was Provincial of the Order in Mexico in that year (vol. i, pp. 738 to 756 the second edition, 1723) (Lib. V, caps. lxiv to lxix). Torquemada was at Mexico when Quiros and his companions landed at Acapulco, and came up to the capital in the end of 1606. He must have known and conversed both with Quiros and with some of his crew. He thus obtained his information at first hand, and was able to write an authentic account of the voyage. Torquemada's style is more polished and flowing than those of the sailors, or even of the young poet, who relate the events of the same voyage. [7] The fourth narrative is contained in a letter from the second in command, Luis Vaez de Torres, to the King. This letter briefly describes the whole voyage; but it is specially interesting when it relates the events after parting company with Quiros. For Torres, on his voyage from Espiritu Santo to Ternate, was the discoverer of the strait which bears his name. Dalrymple obtained a copy of the letter of Torres, and translated it. This translation was, with the permission of Dalrymple, first published by Burney. Mr. Major reprinted it in his volume of Early Voyages to Australia (Hakluyt Soc., 1859). Lord Stanley of Alderley found another copy in the National Library at Madrid (J. 2), and translated it as Appendix VI of his edition of the work on the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga (p. 402, Hakluyt Soc., 1868). This is a copy of a document mentioned by Navarrete as existing at Simancas. Ever loyal to his chief, though disapproving of his conduct of the expedition, Torres wrote another letter to Quiros. The letter of Torres has such an important bearing on the voyage of Quiros, that I have considered it indispensable to include it in the present volumes. The Memorials of Quiros, and other documents in the Appendix, will be described further on. They complete the materials for a monograph of the famous navigator's work and life. I now propose to state all that I have been able to ascertain respecting his life; and to discuss his character, his attainments, his views and aspirations, and the position his voyages occupy in the history of maritime discovery. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was born at Evora [8], in Portugal, in 1565, the year before Mendaña sailed on his first voyage. The ill-fated Don Sebastian was then King of Portugal. His uncle, the Cardinal Henry, became King in 1578; but in 1580 Philip II, the Cardinal's nephew, succeeded as King of Portugal, as well as of Spain. Quiros, though a Portuguese, then became a subject of the King of Spain, his age being fifteen. We are told, though an enemy is our informant, [9] that young Quiros was brought up in the "Rua nova," then a disreputable part of Lisbon, and that he was a clerk or supercargo in merchant ships. This may or may not be true. He certainly became a good sailor, and an accomplished pilot. In 1589, when he had reached his twenty-fourth year, he had probably been several years at sea. He then married Doña Ana Chacon, of Madrid, daughter of the licentiate Juan Quevedo de Miranda, by Ana Chacon de Miranda. She was a year his senior. A son, named Francisco, was born to them in 1590, and they must then have gone to Peru; for their daughter Jeronima was born some months after Quiros sailed from Peru with Mendaña in 1595. [10] Quiros was thirty years of age when he accepted the post of Chief Pilot in the ship of Alvaro de Mendaña, who had received a concession to colonise the Solomon Islands, which he had discovered thirty years before. Quiros joined this expedition with some misgivings, caused by the quarrelsome character of the Camp Master, the want of order and discipline, and the position assumed by the Commander's wife and her brothers. Mendaña was more than twenty years older than Quiros. The Pilot's position was one of some difficulty: for while on one side he had to exercise tact in his intercourse with the family clique, on the other he found it difficult to avoid friction with a most impracticable and quarrelsome old soldier who was Camp Master, and who had a feud with the brothers-in-law of Mendaña, which continued to increase in bitterness. The expedition culminated at the island of Santa Cruz, a new discovery, with the slaughter of the old Camp Master, the deaths of Mendaña and his brother-in-law Don Lorenzo, the succession of the widow, Doña Isabel, to the command of the expedition, and the disastrous voyage to Manilla. Through all this intrigue and violence the Chief Pilot steered his course with prudence and caution. He was a reliable seaman, and was constantly consulted. He appears, from his own account, to have been a peacemaker, to have avoided quarrels, and to have had some influence. He was, however, a great talker. The widow did not like him, but she was obliged to rely upon him entirely. Her brothers were useless. Quiros stood between the widow's selfish parsimony and a crew on the verge of mutiny from misery and starvation. He brought a sinking ship, with rotten spars and rigging, safely over an unknown sea from Santa Cruz to Manilla. It was during this voyage, and while gaining experience in the navigation of the Pacific Ocean and the treatment of natives, that Quiros conceived his grand project. He was a cartographer, and, in studying existing maps, he saw a great Southern continent extending across the ocean, from the Strait of Magellan to New Guinea. He thought that here was a discovery as famous as had been made by Columbus or Da Gama. He thought that here was not only a great continent extending to the South Pole to be added to the dominions of his sovereign, but millions of souls to be saved and brought within the fold of the Church. He devoted his life to the realisation of this glorious dream with unswerving devotion, never turning aside to the right hand or to the left; undaunted by difficulties or wearisome delays to his dying day; literally killed by Councils and Committees; but succumbing only with his last breath. He became a man with one idea. Alas! he was but a dreamer. It was a dream. The heroic days of Spain and Portugal were passed and gone. Quiros was the last of the long and glorious roll of great Spanish navigators. He spoke, if not to stone-deaf ears, to fast-deafening ears. The Viceroy Don Luis de Velasco, [11] at Lima, to whom Quiros first explained his project, would take no responsibility, and referred him to the Court of Spain and its Councils of State and of the Indies. It was a happy inspiration which led Quiros to go first to Rome, and interest the Pope in the conversion of millions of Antarctic souls; for nothing was more likely to induce the Spanish Government to move in the matter than a strong recommendation, which would be looked upon almost as a command, from the Supreme Pontiff. Quiros was himself a very religious man, deeply imbued with the superstitions of his time and nation. When Quiros arrived at Rome, the Duke of Sesa, a descendant of the Great Captain, was Spanish Ambassador. The Pope was a scion of the noble Roman family of Aldobrandini, and had succeeded, as Clement VIII, in 1592. The Duke of Sesa received Quiros well on his arrival at Rome, made him a member of his household, and was so much interested in his project that he assembled all the most eminent astronomers and geographers in the Eternal City to examine and report to him upon it. Among these experts there was a mathematician of the first rank. Christopher Clavio was born at Bamberg in 1537, and taught mathematics at Rome for twenty years. He corrected the calendar for Gregory XIII, and published his Calendarii Romani Gregoriani Explicatio in 1603. He had previously been the author of a work entitled Gnomonices, and of an edition of Euclid. The other advisers of the Duke were Dr. Mesa and Dr. Toribio Perez, who had been Professors of Geography at Salamanca, and a learned Jesuit named Villalpando. The authority of Clavio cannot be gainsaid. He found Quiros to be an accomplished Pilot and cartographer, and the inventor or improver of two nautical instruments. The Duke of Sesa was satisfied by Clavio and the other experts of the capacity of Quiros as a navigator, and of the importance of his project. He, therefore, introduced him to the Pope, and both Clement VIII and the Duke gave him letters of recommendation to the Spanish Government. Philip III had succeeded his father in 1598 as King of Spain and Portugal. He found the country utterly ruined, and commerce nearly dead. Yet he continued the same fatal policy. He confided the management of affairs to the Duke of Lerma, a man well known to readers of Gil Blas, and the extravagance of the Court helped to lead Spain downwards on the road to decadence and ruin. Quiros arrived at Madrid with his credentials in the spring of 1602, and had interviews with Philip III, and with his Minister, the Duke of Lerma. The Pope's influence secured his success. Within a year he had obtained a royal order, through the Council of State, addressed to the Viceroy of Peru, instructing that dignitary to fit out two ships at Callao, to enable Quiros to undertake an expedition for the discovery of the Antarctic continent. Quiros sailed for Peru in the summer of 1603. He seems to have left his family in Spain. He was shipwrecked near the Island of Curaçoa, in the West Indies, and had to pass some time at Caraccas. Here he found the orphan children of a brother, of whom he had not heard for many years, living with their maternal grandfather: two boys and a girl. He thought it right to take the two nephews with him, leaving the niece with her grandfather. One of the nephews is not heard of again. The other, Lucas de Quiros, was his uncle's companion in the voyage of 1606. He was Royal Ensign for the ceremonies at Espiritu Santo. He is afterwards heard of as a rising cartographer at Lima. [12] Quiros arrived at Lima quite destitute, owing to the refusal of the royal officials on the route to give him any pecuniary assistance, although they had positive orders to do so. He found shelter in the house of a potter; and it was some days before he could get an audience of the Count of Monterey, [13] who was then Viceroy of Peru. Eventually, the Viceroy recognised the necessity for carrying out the royal orders. Vessels were tardily bought and fitted out at Callao, for the expedition of Quiros, in the last months of 1605. There were two ships and a zabra or launch. The ship chosen for Quiros was called the Capitana, and named San Pedro y San Pablo. She was 150 tons. The other ship was called the Almiranta, and named the San Pedro, 120 tons. Her Captain was known as the Admiral, the title of a second in command in those days. Both ships were built on the west coast, probably at Guayaquil. They carried one hundred and thirty men and six friars. The launch was named Los Tres Reyes. Luis Vaez de Torres, the Admiral or second in command under Quiros, was a good sailor and pilot, an energetic and capable leader, and loyal to his chief. He commanded all the landing parties, and relieved Quiros of much anxiety and trouble. His Chief Pilot in the Almiranta, Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, and Pedro Bernal de Cermeño, in command of the launch, were loyal and capable men. The junior Pilot in the Capitana, Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, afterwards Chief Pilot, was also a reliable officer. Quiros had a cousin with him, one Alonso Alvarez de Castro, as well as a nephew, Lucas de Quiros. But his most faithful and devoted friend was young Luis de Belmonte Bermudez. Born at Seville in about 1585, this youth had gone out to seek his fortune, first in Mexico and then at Lima. Fired by the stories told him of the Araucanian war in distant Chile, he composed a panegyric on the youthful deeds of the Marquis of Cañete, the first product of his muse. When Quiros was fitting out his expedition, Belmonte Bermudez accepted the post of Secretary, taking with him the "Araucana," that noble epic of the soldier-poet, Alonso de Ercilla. But Quiros also had in his ship men of a very different stamp. Among them was a Chief Pilot named Juan Ochoa de Bilboa, who had been forced upon him as a protégé of the Viceroy; [14] another officer named Diego de Prado y Tovar; and the accountant, Juan de Iturbe. They stirred up mutiny and disaffection on board. Quiros complained bitterly of the delay in fitting out the expedition, which obliged him to sail so late in the year. He considered that he should have sailed not later than St. Francis, or the 4th of October. He did not obtain his despatch until the 21st of December. Quiros was now free to attempt the realisation of his dream, the discovery of the Antarctic continent and the annexation of the South Pole. All was left to his discretion. There is no reason for the belief that the Viceroy of Peru gave any instructions beyond the letter of farewell which was read to the men. The plan of Quiros was to steer W.S.W. from Callao until he reached latitude 30° S., [15] where he fully expected that he would have reached the continental southern land shown on the maps of his time. He continued on this course from December 21st to January 26th, when he found himself in 26° S. Then Quiros came to the fatal decision to alter course to W.S.W. He says in his narrative that there was a heavy swell, and that he was obliged by the force of the wind and the sea to alter his course. He adds, in one of his memorials, that winter was approaching, that there was a mutinous spirit among his crew, and that he was ill in bed. Torres remonstrated. He wrote: "I gave a declaration under my hand that it was not a thing obvious that we ought to diminish our latitude till we got beyond 30° S." If Quiros had continued on his course, he would have discovered New Zealand, and his dream would have been partly realised. Having turned away from the goal, his plan was to make for the island of Santa Cruz, discovered when he served as Chief Pilot under Mendaña, and thence to make another attempt southward. But this was a lame conclusion. His chance was gone. Antarctic discovery was left to another nation and another century. The latitudes recorded by Quiros, Torres, and Leza, and the courses and distances run, enable us to identify the islands discovered by Quiros in crossing the Pacific. The first inhabited island, reached on February 1st, 1606, has been supposed by Burney and others to be Tahiti. It is in the latitude of Tahiti; but it is described as a low island with a large lagoon in the centre, and no fresh water. This could not by any possibility be Tahiti. Sir William Wharton has identified it as Anaa, or Chain Island, one of the Low Archipelago to the eastward of Tahiti. [16] Quiros named it "Conversion de San Pablo," not "Sagittaria," as Burney supposed. With Anaa as a point of departure, the other islands discovered by Quiros are easily identified. [17] In following the parallel of 10° 20' S. to reach Santa Cruz, Quiros fortunately came upon Taumaco, the principal island of what is now called the Duff group. Here he found a native Chief, from whom he received such detailed information respecting the existence of islands, and, as was understood, even continental lands to the southward, that the most sanguine hopes appeared to be approaching realisation. The project of going to Santa Cruz was abandoned, and Quiros steered S., fully anticipating the consummation of his dreams of discovery. Nor was he destined to be altogether disappointed. Island after island, all lofty and thickly inhabited, rose above the horizon; and at last he sighted such extensive coast lines that he believed the Southern Continent to be spread out before him. The islands of the New Hebrides group, such as Aurora, Leper, and Pentecost, overlapping each other to the S.E., seemed to him to be continuous coast lines, while to the S.W. was the land which he named Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. All appeared to his vivid imagination to be one continuous continental land. Such was the enthusiastic navigator's belief when his vessels anchored in the port of Vera Cruz, at the southern extreme of the great bay of St. Philip and St. James. He had found the largest island of what Captain Cook named the New Hebrides group, yet not a very large island. He showed his belief by his grandiose proceedings. To us they must now appear very pathetic. There was a ceremony of taking possession, in the names of the Church, of the Pope, and of the King. Quiros took possession of "all this region of the south as far as the Pole, which from this time shall be called Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, with all its dependencies for ever and so long as right exists," in the name of King Philip III. A great city was to be founded and named the New Jerusalem, and its river was to be the Jordan. All the municipal and royal officers were nominated, and a knightly order of "Espiritu Santo" was instituted, subject to confirmation by the King. There were processions, religious dances, high masses and fireworks. The great navigator had two serious drawbacks in his rejoicing. He was disabled by a serious illness; and the natives, owing to the misconduct of the Spaniards, were persistently hostile. After being at anchor in this port of Vera Cruz for thirty-five days (from the 3rd of May to the 8th of June, 1606), the little fleet sailed, with the object of completing the discovery of the Southern Continent. Then came the catastrophe. It came on to blow hard from the S.E., with a nasty sea; and it was resolved to return to the anchorage. Late at night Torres brought the Almiranta to anchor, and the launch was also safely brought to. Quiros was too ill to come on deck, the Pilots seem to have lost their heads, were confused between the lights of the other ships and these on shore, and eventually stood out, running before the wind. At dawn they were several leagues to leeward, outside the bay. From the 12th to the 18th they were trying to beat up to the bay, but with topmasts struck it was nearly all leeway. Ships built in Peru would not work to windward: Quiros was in despair. At last, he determined to make for Santa Cruz, which was a rendezvous in the Instructions. But when the latitude of Santa Cruz was reached, there was a consultation. It was resolved to cross the Line, and make for Acapulco: a four months' voyage. Quiros bewailed his position. He had enemies on board. He does not mention any actual mutiny, though his enemy, Prado y Tovar, who must have got his information from the men who remained at Mexico, and perhaps afterwards found their way to the Philippines, makes the assertion. Quiros consoled himself with the reflection that his return would at least enable him to make known his discoveries, and to urge upon the King and his Councils the importance of completing them. He also felt confidence in Torres, his second in command, who was left behind on board the Almiranta, and in his Pilot, Fuentidueña; and with good reason. They were resolute and capable seamen. Quiros hoped that they would continue his discoveries; and he rejoiced when, some years afterwards, he received the news of the successful voyage of Torres. After waiting for some days for the Capitana, Torres continued the voyage by rounding the northern end of Espiritu Santo, and steering a course to the S.W., until he reached a latitude of 21° S. [18] He then altered course to the N., and discovered the bay and islands at the east end of New Guinea. In 1613 Diego de Prado y Tovar sent home four maps from Goa, which throw considerable light on the course of Torres's ship. The first map is a very interesting one of the bay of St. Philip and St. James, in Espiritu Santo. The next is a map of a land named "Buenaventura," with many islands. Torres arrived at this land on July 18th, having sailed from the bay of St. Philip and St. James on the 26th of June. "Buenaventura" is Basilisk Island, so named by Captain Moresby, after his ship, in 1873. The bay of San Millan, accurately delineated by Torres, is Jenkins Bay of Moresby. The port of Santo Toribio of Torres is the China Strait of Moresby. The third map shows the great bay of San Lorenzo, and the port of Monterey, identified with "l'Orangerie" and "Ile Dufaure" of Bougainville (1768), on the S. coast of New Guinea. The names of Saints given to the bays, capes, and islands, throw light on the dates, for it was usual to give to a cape, bay, or island the name of the Saint on whose day it was discovered. The feast of San Lorenzo is on the 10th of August, the date when Torres arrived in the bay, where he appears to have remained for several days. The fourth map is of the bay of San Pedro de Arlanza, whose feast is on the 18th of October. This bay is identified with the Triton Bay of the Dutch. The four maps have been reproduced for this volume, and the legends on the original large-scale maps are given separately. [19] From Triton Bay, Torres proceeded to Ternate, where he left the launch, and thence continued his course to Manilla. His letters to Quiros and to the King from that place are dated June and July, 1607. From the fact that Diego de Prado y Tovar sent the four maps home in December, 1613, it is supposed that Torres had died in the interval. The letter of Torres was first printed in Burney's Voyages, from a copy obtained and translated by Dalrymple, who suggested the name of Torres Strait for the principal discovery of that navigator. The Spanish Government jealously concealed the knowledge acquired by their great explorers, and left their noble deeds in oblivion. It was left to Englishmen to immortalise the names of Quiros and Torres, whose achievements were so long forgotten by their own countrymen. The actual results of the voyages of Quiros and Torres were the discovery of thirteen coral islands in the Pacific, of the Duff and Banks groups, of the New Hebrides, of the eastern end and southern coast of New Guinea, and of Torres Strait, with its innumerable islands: not a barren record. Quiros came to Madrid to urge the Spanish Government to give him command of another expedition for the completion of his discoveries. He had before him a dreary seven years of memorialising Councils, of obstruction and delays. It wore him out; but he was led to believe that he had succeeded. A timely death saved him from the anguish of finding that he had been deceived. He was worried into his grave by Councils and Committees. But before he died he believed that he had at length overcome the obstruction, and his last hours were cheered by the hope of final success. We gather the character of Quiros from his narratives. He was a man of a humane and generous disposition, averse to violence and bloodshed. He was a zealous Catholic, striving to maintain religious feelings and to enforce morality among his people. Brave and resolute himself, full of zeal and enthusiasm, he failed in the management of men. He was often weak and vacillating, and had not the force of will necessary to control the turbulent and to cheer the half-hearted. The Chief Pilot, Juan Ochoa de Bilboa, during the voyage, caused a mutinous feeling on board the Capitana, persuading the crew to go straight to Manilla. Quiros merely sent this Chief Pilot on board the Almiranta under arrest. Torres strongly importuned his chief to punish such insubordination, but he would not. It was the same with another mutinous officer, Diego de Prado y Tobar. He was merely sent on board the Almiranta. To this weakness Torres attributes the slackness and want of zeal, if not something worse, when the Capitana parted company. Juan de Iturbe, the Accountant, in his letter now in the Biblioteca Nacional (J. 2), merely says that the Chief Pilot went over to the ship of Torres because he was disgusted with Quiros. We have the evidence of Torres himself that this was not the reason. Iturbe was another disaffected officer, and disloyal to his chief. There was not a single instance of capital punishment during the expedition, and not a single death, with the exception of the Father Commissary, who died of old age. Quiros was a thorough seaman, and the best Pilot of his time. He was not a self-seeker, but was devoted to a great idea, and persistently strove to realise it with unswerving resolution, until death ended his career. Quiros was very unlike his countryman Magellan. He rather reminds us of the great Genoese. Like Columbus, he was a visionary, full of dreams and religious aspirations. Like Columbus, he was devoted to one idea, which he followed with unchanging fidelity to the day of his death. Like Columbus, he was gentle in dealing with those who opposed him, and often weak. One dream of Quiros was that in his Southern Continent there should be justice to the converted natives, and that the evil deeds perpetrated in Mexico and Peru should not be repeated. [20] It only remains to record the story of the Quiros Memorials, when we shall see the navigator, prematurely old, striving for the means of renewing his efforts: struggling against Councils and Committees while life lasted. Quiros landed at Acapulco, was very coldly received by the officials at Mexico, and reached Madrid on the 9th of October, 1607. He was quite destitute. He only had two maravedis, which he gave to a beggar. But his faithful young Secretary remained true to him. During the first eleven days, he had not money to buy ink or paper. He wrote his first Memorial on the flyleaves of a pamphlet. He got the money for printing it by selling his clothes. To print the second, he sold his bedding; for the third, he pawned the royal banner under which he had taken possession of Espiritu Santo. After seventeen months of extreme penury, the King granted him 500 ducats. Quiros tells us that he sent in fifty memorials in fifty months. Of these, eight have been preserved and printed by Zaragoza. The first was written in 1607. [21] He describes the events of the voyage, and makes excuses for altering course when he had reached 26° S.; and for having parted company with Torres. He explains his view that the Antarctic continent runs from Espiritu Santo S.E. to Magellan Strait, a land of vast extent: "a new world." He says that he gave the name of "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" from His Majesty's title of Austria. He says that the tonnage of his ships was 150 and 120, and that they carried one hundred and thirty men, besides six friars. The cost of the expedition was 184,000 ducats. He concludes by saying that he had no pay, and that he owes 2,500 dollars without one quarto to pay it. The second existing Memorial is the eighth that he sent in. It is given in Purchas, and was reproduced by Dalrymple. It forms the first document in the Appendix. [22] The eighth Memorial was printed at Seville in 1610. Purchas obtained a copy, which he reprinted in his Pilgrimes. Hessel Gerritsz printed a Dutch version, in 1612, in his Detectio Freti Hudsoni, reprinted by Müller at Amsterdam, in 1878, and two French translations appeared in 1617. The third existing Memorial is also given in Purchas and Dalrymple. It forms the second document in the Appendix. [23] The fourth is translated for the first time, and forms the third document in the Appendix. [24] The fifth existing Memorial was the sixteenth he had written. It contains proposals for colonising the new continent; and here Quiros compares himself to Columbus, Da Gama, and Magellan. [25] The sixth existing Memorial refers to a royal order received from the Secretary, Gabriel de Hoa, instructing the Viceroys to despatch Quiros on a new voyage. He submits detailed estimates. He proposes to take one hundred and fifty persons, and mentions the names of three Captains who are willing to accompany him. One of them is Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado, a cosmographer and writer who is best known for his account of the imaginary Strait of Anian, published in 1588. Quiros also gives the names of eighteen Franciscan friars who are ready to go. He refers to his extreme poverty, and asks for his debts to be paid. [26] The seventh extant Memorial is, according to Quiros, the fiftieth that he wrote. It is much the longest, covering 108 pages. It begins by recapitulating the contents of his eighth and sixteenth Memorials. It contains an interesting report by Hernando de los Rios, the Procurator of the Philippines, of a voyage to New Guinea by a Portuguese named Miguel Roxo de Brito; also an extract from a letter received by Quiros from his second in command, Torres, dated June 15th, 1607; and a report by Ruy Gonzalez de Sequiera, the Governor of the Moluccas. Quiros repeats his proposals, and again dwells on the importance of the intended discoveries. The eighth and last extant Memorial is only a further recapitulation. He says he has been sending in memorials constantly for fifty months. The Memorials are tedious, and necessarily full of repetitions. I have only thought it advisable to give three of them in the Appendix, as specimens. The fourth document in the Appendix is a letter from Fernando de Castro, who had married the widow of Mendaña. He prayed that no concession might be made to Quiros, as he, Castro, had inherited the claims of Mendaña on the Solomon Islands. The two letters from Diego de Prado y Tovar, [27] the malignant enemy of Quiros, follow. This man had made the voyage with Torres, and wrote from Goa, on his way home. He forwarded four valuable and very interesting maps, the originals of which are now at Simancas. They are from the surveys of Torres, who had probably died previous to the date of Prado's letters. One is a plan of the Bay of St. Philip and St. James; the other three are plans of bays in New Guinea. They are coloured, with long descriptive titles. [28] Reduced copies, in colour, were published in the Boletin of the Madrid Geographical Society, in 1878, [29] with the long titles printed separately. I have had these maps reproduced for the present work. The abuse of Quiros by this insubordinate officer can be taken for what it is worth. Another detractor of his commander was the disloyal Accountant, Juan de Iturbe. He wrote a long letter from Mexico, dated March 25th, 1607, [30] which was referred to the Council of the Indies and retained for reference. He gives a fairly truthful account of the events connected with the return of the Capitana, while trying inferentially to throw blame on Quiros. He ridiculed the ceremonies at Espiritu Santo, and the creation of an order of knighthood by Quiros; and while representing the importance of the discoveries, he added that Quiros was not a fit man to command a new expedition. I have not thought it necessary to insert the letter of Iturbe, as it contains no new information. The next two documents in the Appendix speak for themselves. One is a Minute of the Council of the Indies on the demands of Quiros, and on the most politic way of treating him. The other is an order to check him in the printing and dissemination of his Memorials, which were to be considered confidential. We know that two at least had been published at Seville, and had fallen into the hands of Purchas and Hessel Gerritsz. The last document in the Appendix is the Memorial on the discovery of the Antarctic continent and the conversion of its inhabitants, by a Chilian lawyer named Juan Luis Arias. It is bound up in a volume in the British Museum, with other documents, chiefly memorials, relating to the Church of Spain. [31] The text was reprinted at Edinburgh in the last century, and translated by Dalrymple in 1773. Its chief interest lies in the statement that Juan Fernandez led an expedition from Chile which discovered the Southern Continent, landed on it, and had intercourse with the inhabitants. Dalrymple and Burney treat this fabrication seriously, and conjecture that the discovered land might have been New Zealand. I have discussed the career of Juan Fernandez in a footnote to the Memorial of Arias in the Appendix. [32] We get a glimpse of the view taken by leading Spanish statesmen under Philip III, of the Memorials and aspirations of Quiros, from the Minutes of a sitting of the Council of State in July, 1609. [33] The Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo, [34] the Constable of Castille, [35] the Duke of Infantado, [36] the Count of Lemos, [37] and other grandees, were present. The letter from Juan de Iturbe, as well as the Memorials of Quiros, were before them. The Count of Lemos wrote a Minute strongly against the employment of Quiros. The feeling was that further expenditure on such voyages was undesirable, and that it would be wiser to spend money in completing the exploration of Peru and Mexico. They looked upon Quiros as a very discontented and dangerous man, who might sell his knowledge and services to the English. The best course would be, they thought, to keep him quiet in Madrid by promises. He might be employed to draw maps and charts. If he continued to insist upon going to Peru, a letter of recommendation might be given to him for the Viceroy. But it was further suggested that the letter of Iturbe should also be sent to the Viceroy, with a contra-despacho, leaving the matter to his discretion, with orders to entertain Quiros and his proposals, but not to despatch his business. This treachery was the final conclusion when Quiros started. Worn out by delays and obstruction, worried almost to death by Councils and Committees, he gladly accepted the promise to give him command of an expedition. Ignorant of the contra-despacho, he put his trust in the honour of the new Viceroy of Peru, a great man, Don Francisco de Borja, Prince of Esquilache, [38] with whom he proceeded on the voyage to Peru, accompanied by his wife and two children. He thought that at length, after years of wearisome solicitation, his grand ideas were to be realised. Fortunately for the brave enthusiast, he was saved from the anguish of being undeceived by a timely death at Panama on his way out. He died at the age of fifty, quite worn out and driven to his grave by Councils and Committees, with their futile talk, needless delays, and endless obstruction. His faithful Secretary, Belmonte Bermudez, who had edited the Memorials for him, stood by him to the last. [39] The ideas of Quiros respecting an Antarctic continent were, no doubt, fixed in his mind by seeing the coast-lines delineated by the map-makers of his time. It, therefore, becomes very interesting to trace this southern coast-line on the principal maps from the time of Ortelius down to the last map that showed it before Captain Cook's second voyage finally disproved its existence. Mr. Basil Soulsby has kindly prepared a note on this subject, which follows the Introduction. The voyage of Quiros was the first event in the story of Antarctic enterprise. Its object was the discovery of the Southern Continent and the annexation of the South Pole. It was the dream of an enthusiast. It was a failure, but not altogether a barren failure. Others of another nation were to follow up his idea. He fell, worried to death by Committees. But he opened the glorious record of Antarctic discovery. Captain Cook made known the Southern Continent imagined by Quiros, and actually seen by Torres. Captain Cook first crossed the Antarctic circle, and searched all round it for the supposed coast-lines of Quiros. Great communities were to arise in the Southern Continent, in Australia and New Zealand, but not of Spanish race. The achievements of the peoples of the Iberian peninsula were of vast importance to the world; but they came to an end with the voyage of Quiros. The mantle of discovery fell on other shoulders. James Ross followed Cook in realising the dream of Quiros; and now we recognise Robert Falcon Scott as the greatest and most successful of Antarctic discoverers. COMPARATIVE LIST OF MAPS OF THE NEW HEBRIDES, ETC., 1570-1904. With British Museum press-marks. 1.--1570. Antwerp. Typus Orbis Terrarum. In Abraham Ortelius's Atlas.--The Terra Australis, with Beach provincia aurifera, extends right across the world, and from the Tropic of Capricorn to the S. Pole. New Guinea appears as an island. The Molucca Islands are shown. [Maps. 46. c. 2.] 2.--1578. Antwerp. Universi Orbis seu Terreni Globi in plano effigies. In G. de Jode's "Speculum Orbis Terrarum," 1578.--New Guinea forms one end of the Terra Australis, in which Terra del Fuego appears in the centre, and which stretches across the whole Circulus Antarcticus. [Maps. 31. c. 5.] 3.--1587. Antwerp. Typus Orbis Terrarum. In Abraham Ortelius's Atlas. 1592 edition.--The Terra Australis. The Solomon Islands, discovered in 1568, appear with this name for the first time. [Maps. 46. d. 2.] 4.--1587. Duisburg. Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio. By Rumold Mercator. In G. Mercator's Atlas, 1589.--The Terra Australis, but without the Solomon Islands. Java Minor appears to the S.E. of Beach province. [Maps. 34. c. 2.] 5.--1589. Antwerp. Totius Orbis cogniti universalis Descriptio. In C. de Jode's "Speculum Orbis Terrarum." 1593.--New Guinea an island. Otherwise as in 2. [Maps. 24. c. 7.] 6.--1590. Amsterdam. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro multis in locis emendatus. Auctore Petro. Plancio.--Terra Australis Magellanica, with Beach provincia aurifera, extends across the Antarctic Circle. "Nova Guinea nuper inventa quez an sit insula an pars continentis australis incertum est." Insulae Salomonis alone of Quiros' islands are shown. [920. (266.)] 7.--1612. Antwerp. In A. Ortelius' Atlas, Latin edition. Same as No. 3. [Maps. 46. d. 12.] 8.--1628. London. A New & Accurate Mappe of the World. By R. Vaughan. (From "The World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake").--"This South part of the world contayning almost the third part of the globe is yet unknowne, certaine sea coasts excepted, which rather show there is a land then discry eyther land people or comodities," appears on "The Southerne Unknowne Land," across the Antarctic Circle. New Guinee is shown. [920. (46.)] 9.--1630. Amsterdam. Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula. By Henricus Hondius. In H. Hexham's English edition of G. Mercator's Atlas. 1636.--The Terra Australis, with the Beach province, is defined in very faint outline. The Ladrones appear, also Baixos de S. Barth, I. d. S. Petro, J. Vesinos, Barbudos, I. de Paxaros. The Solomon Islands are not given. [Maps. 34. d. 8.] 10.--1641. Amsterdam. Same as No. 9. In J. Jansson's Atlas. 1653. [Maps. 88. e. 1.] 11.--1662. Amsterdam. Nova et accuratissima totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula. Joannes Blaeu.--The large Terra Australis has disappeared. Hollandia Nova is outlined, but N. Guinea is only partially outlined. Zelandia Nova has a western coast-line only. Antonii Van Diemans Landt is partly outlined. The words Australia Incognita occur on the circle of the Southern Polar Region. [Maps. 64. e. 1.] 12.--1660. London. A New Map of the Terraqueous Globe according to the latest discoveries and most general divisions of it into continents and oceans. In Edw. Well's "A New Sett of Maps."--"New Zeland supposed to be part of ye Southern unknown Continent." 35° S. "New Holland esteemed to be part of ye Southern unknown continent," mixed up with New Guinea, touching the Equator, and all only partly outlined. The smaller islands are not named. [Maps. 87. d. 3.] 13.--1667. Paris. Mappe-Monde. In N. Sanson's (d'Abbéville) Atlas.--New Guinea appears as an island. The Beach Province is only partially outlined. Terre Magellanique Australe Incogneue is outlined right across the Southern Hemisphere, as in No. 1. Nearly all the islands in the New Hebrides mentioned by Quiros are shown. [Maps. 88. d. 3.] 14.--1668. Paris. Carte Universelle de tout le Monde. Par H. Jaillot.--Terra Australis, showing Beach provincia aurifera, extends right across the Antarctic Circle. Petan Island and Java Minor are to the E. of Beach. Nova Guinea jam recens detecta ab I. Lamero, is partly shown in outline. [920. (61.)] 15.--1674. Rome. Mappa Mondo. By Gio. Lhuilier. In G. G. de Rossi's Mercurio Geografico.--Terra di Quir, N. coast, is shown in outline, S. of Solomon Islands, 10° to 20° S. Nova Guinea appears as an island. Terra Magellanica embraces the Arctic Circle. Nova Olanda is shown, but without the E. coast. The smaller islands are not given. New Zealand appears in outline. [Maps. 64. d. 10.] 16.--1680.--Oxford. Orbis Terrarum nova et accuratissima Tabula. Auctore Joanne à Loon. In Moses Pitt's "The English Atlas," vol. i. 1680.--New Zealand, E. coast, shown in outline. The islands mainly as in No. 13. N. Guinea and Hollandia Nova are shown in outline on W. coast. Van Diemen's Land shown in detail. The Terra Australis does not extend across the Antarctic Circle. [Maps. 85. e. 3.] 17.--1690. Amsterdam. Nova Orbis Tabula in Lucem edita a F. de Wit. In F. de Wit's Atlas.--The small islands are as in No. 9. N. Guinea and Hollandia Nova join, and the western coast is outlined. Zelandia Nova is outlined also on the W. coast. Australia Incognita is printed round the circle of the S. Pole. [Maps. 86. d. 11.] 18.--1690. Amsterdam. Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula. Auctore Nicolao Visscher. In N. Visscher's Atlas Minor. Tom. 1.--Same as No. 17. [Maps. 89. e. 3.] 19.--1696. Paris. Mappe-Monde. By N. Sanson. In H. Jaillot's "Nouveau Atlas."--As in 15. Carpentaria, N.W. coast, appears below Nouvelle Guinée, between 10° and 20° S. [Maps. 84. e. 1.] 20.--1700. Paris. Mappe monde. Par Guillaume Delisle. In G. De L'Isle's Atlas. 1715.--Nouvelle Guinée and Nouvelle Hollande are joined, and are outlined on the W. coast, as in Nle. Zelande. Terre de Diemen is outlined on the S.E. coast. The following routes, in dotted lines, are shown:-- Ferdinand Magellan, 1520. Juan Gaetan, 1542. Mendaña and Gallego, 1568. Mendaña and Quiros, 1595. An English Pilot, reported by Robert Dudley, c. 1600. Olivier du Nord, 1600. Le Maire and Cornelius Schouten, 1616. Pelsart, 1629. Abel Tasman, 1642. William Dampier, 1686. "Isle découverte par Drak" occurs in lat. 66° S., long. 75°, above the S. Polar region. Terre que la flote de Mendaña crut être la Nle. Guinée occurs in lat. 6° S., long. 188°. [Maps. 86 d. 1.] 21.--1705. Paris. Mappe-Monde. In N. de Fer's "Atlas Curieux."--N. Guinée and Nouvelle Hollande are connected, and shown on W. coast. Nouv. Zeelande, W. coast, appears in outline. The smaller islands are not shown. [Maps. 1. c. 46.] 22.--1710. London. A New and Correct Map of the World. By C. Price.--New Guinea and New Holland are not connected, but the E. coast is not shown. Diemen's Land is given, due S. of N. Holland, between 39° and 45°. The smaller islands are as in No. 9. [Maps. 63. f. 2.] 23.--1720. Paris. Mappemonde. Par Guillaume De L'Isle.--In G. De L'Isle's Atlas, 1732.--Mainly as in No. 20. Mendaña's "New Guinea" appears as the Solomon Islands. "Les Marquises de Mendoce" are shown. [Maps. 91. e. 3.] 24.--1720. Amsterdam. Diversa Orbis Terræ ... in Planum Orthographica Projectio. By Peter Schenck. In J. B. Homann's Atlas. 1740.--Hollandia Nova nearly complete. To E. of Carpentaria comes Quiro Regio, between 10° and 20° S. Most of Quiros' smaller islands are shown. Zelandia Nova, and Antoni van Diemen's Land are partly shown. Baye S. Philippe and St. Jacques occur both in Quiro Regio and in Zelandia Nova. The continent of Terra Australis, across the S. Pole, now disappears. [Maps 87. e. 12.] 25.--1730. Augsburg. Diversi Globi Terr-Aquei ... in planum delineati Orthographici Prospectus. In M. Seutter's Atlas Novus.--Same as No. 15, with various route tracks added. Regio habitata detecta per Mendaña, occurs between 10° and 20° N. Terra quam vidit Mendaña occurs on the Equator, 260° Long. Baye de S. Philippe et S. Jaques occurs in Zeelandia Nova, 40° S. The smaller islands are shown. [Maps. 89. e. 4.] 26.--1740. Amsterdam. Hémisphère Meridional. Par G. Delisle.--Terres Australes, Nouvelle Hollande, W. coast shown in outline. Terre Australe du St. Esprit (R. Jordan, Port de la Vraie Croix, R. S. Sauveur, G. de S. Jaque et S. Philippe), shown in outline, E. of Carpentarie. Routes of Quiros and Gallego, Le Maire and Schouten, etc., shown. Cape de la Circoncision, Jan. 1, 1739, between 50° and 68° S. [960. (1.)] 27.--1752. London. A New and Accurate Map of all the Known World.--In Emman. Bowen's "Complete Atlas."--New Guinea, New Holland, and Van Diemen's Land are shown as one continent, New Zeeland, W. coast, in outline. "Land and Is. discovered by Quiros," between 10° and 20° S. but not named. [Maps. 89. d. 2.] 28.--1752. Paris. Mappemonde.--In Robert de Vaugondy's Atlas Universel. 1757.--Terres et isles vues par Quiros en 1605, shown without names. New Guinea continent as in No. 27. Terre découverte par les Vaisseaux de la Compagnie des Indes en Janvier 1739, shown between 50° and 60° S. 30° Long. [Maps. 69. e. 1.] 29.--1753. Paris. Nouvelle Mappe-Monde. Par Guill. De la Haye.--T. du St. Esprit, is shown, 160° Long. [920. (83).] 30.--1755. Paris. Mappemonde.--In J. Palairet's "Atlas Méthodique."--Same as No. 28. [Maps 68. e. 2.] 31.--1761. Paris. Hémisphère Occidental ou du Nouveau Monde. Hémisphère Oriental ou de l'Ancien Monde. Par le Sr. D'Anville.--Nouvelle Guinea and Nouvelle Hollande are one. The E. coast is not defined. Terre du St. Esprit, Terre de Quiros, appear due E. of Nouvelle Hollande, between 10° and 20° S. Nouvelle Zeelande and Terre de Diemen are partly outlined. [920. (272.)] 32.--1773. London. Map of the World, after D'Anville. By T. Kitchen.--Tierra del Spiritu Santo, Land of Quiros, is shown. New Zealand, with two islands, appears in detail; New Holland, with New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, also appears with a complete coast-line, for the first time. [Maps. 86. d. 5.] 33.--1776. London. Chart of Discoveries made in the South Pacific Ocean in H.M. ship Resolution, under ... Captain Cook. 1774. By W. Palmer.--Tierra del Espiritu Santo, and the rest of the New Hebrides, are shown in very complete detail. [981. (4.)] 34.--1786. Paris. Hémisphère Occidentale, etc. (see No. 31. 1761.) Revu par M. Barbié du Bocage.--Terre de Kerguelen appears 50° S. The map is an improvement on 1773, but Nouvelle Guinée is not shown complete, and Terre de Diemen is still part of Australia. [Maps. 86. d. 2.] 35.--1790. London. New World or Western Hemisphere.--Eastern Hemisphere or Old World. In W. Faden's General Atlas.--Shows Cook's Track, 1769-78. Furneaux's Track, 1774. Van Diemen's Land is part of Terra Australis. The smaller islands are clear and more correct. [Maps. 2. e. 1.] 36.--1798. London. Chart of the Pacific Ocean. By A. Arrowsmith.--New Holland (S. coast excepted) in outline. Van Diemen's Land shown as an island. New Guinea only partly shown, and in outline. [980. (10.)] 37.--1799. London. Map of the World, after d'Anville, by T. Kitchen.--Tierra del Spiritu Santo now appears as part of the New Hebrides. Otherwise as in No. 32. 1773. [Maps. 89. e. 6.] 38.--1799. London. Chart containing the greater part of the South Sea, etc. By Laurie and Whittle.--New Zeeland, in two islands. Tierra (Austral) del Spiritu Santo, in New Hebrides. Route of Mendaña in 1567 shown. Below the Society Islands, "Islands seen by Quiros." Between 25° and 30° S. "Santelmo the southernmost island of Quiros according to Ulloa." [981. (2.)] 39.--1799. London. Western (Eastern) Hemisphere. In "Cary's New Universal Atlas," 1808.--New Holland, with New South Wales, is shown complete, except Northernmost point. New Guinea is not complete, and in outline. The islands are as in Laurie and Whittle. [Maps. 92. f. 17.] 40.--1824. St. Pétersbourg. Carte Générale de l'Océan Pacifique. Hémisphère Austral. In Krusenstern's "Atlas de l'Océan Pacifique."--Australia appears so-called for the first time. The islands, Nlles. Hebrides, etc., are shown with the dates of discovery. [Maps. 7. e. 11.] 41.--1827. Bruxelles. Carte d'Assemblage de l'Océanie. In "Ph. Vandermaelen's Atlas Universel."--Nouvelle Hollande and N. Guinée are shown in complete outline. New Zealand in three islands. The smaller islands are now as before. [Maps. 68. e. 1.] 42.--1827. Gotha. Australien. No. 50 in Ad. Stieler's "Hand-Atlas."--Neu Holland and Neu Süd Wales appear as parts of "Austral-Land." Neue Hebriden and the other groups of islands are shown. [Maps. 85. d. 10.] 43.--1835. London. The World, on Mercator's Projection. In J. Arrowsmith's London Atlas.--"New Holland or Australia," without any inland towns. First use of the name of Australia for New Holland in a general Atlas. New South Wales still extends to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, and the other islands are now completely shown. New Zealand, without inland towns, in three islands. Terra Australis or Australia occurs in the Atlas to Capt. Matthew Flinders's "Voyage to Terra Australis, 1801-1803." 2 vols. London, 1814 [455. c. 13, 14. and Tab. 437. a.] In vol. i. pp. vii-x, he mentions Torres's discovery of Australia. In J. Arrowsmith's Map of the Pacific Ocean, 1832, the dates of discovery are given to most of the islands. [Maps. 86. d. 7.] 44.--1866. London. New Caledonia, New Hebrides, and Loyalty Islands. Admiralty Chart.--This is the best modern map of Quiros's islands. The Atlases between 1836 and 1865 do not show much change or much detail. [Sec. xv. (1380.)] 45.--1886. New Hebrides Islands. Banks Group. Surveyed by H.M.S. Dart. Admiralty Chart.--Gaua (Santa Maria) and the other islands are shown on a large scale. [Sec. xv. (174.)] 46.--1892. London. New Hebrides Islands. Malo Island to Efate Island. Admiralty Chart.--This is on a much larger scale, and gives the islands in full detail, surveyed by H.M.S. Dart, 1890-91. [Sec. xv. (1570.)] 47.--1896. London. New Caledonia, New Hebrides, and Loyalty Islands. Admiralty Chart.--This is a new edition of No. 44. The islands are shown in much more exact detail, and with more information. 48.--1904. London. British New Guinea and the Solomon, Santa Cruz, and New Hebrides Islands. In Edward Stanford's London Atlas. 3rd edition. 1904.--This is a very excellent and clear map; scale, 1:4,089,064. 64.537 English miles to 1 inch. BIBLIOGRAPHY, With British Museum Press-marks. Antonio (Nicolas).--Bibliotheca Hispana Nova ... 1500 ad 1684. [Edited by T. A. Sanchez, J. A. Pellicer, and R. Casalbonus.) 2 tom. Apud Joachimum de Ibarra: Matriti, 1783-88. 4°. [2049, e.--126. h. 5, 6,--128. h. 4, 5,--G. 53.] ---- Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus. [Edited by E. Marti.] Roma, 1696. fol. [617. m. 14.--1788.--2049. e.--126. h. 3, 4.--128. h. 2, 3.--G. 52.] Arias (Juan Luis), Dr. [A Memorial addressed to Philip III., King of Spain, respecting the exploration, colonisation, and conversion of the Southern Land.] [Madrid, 1640.] fol. [4745. f. 11. (18.).--1324, k. 5. (72.)] ---- [Another edition.] [571. k. 11. (14.)] Edimbourga, 1773. 4°. ---- [Another edition.] In R. H. Major's "Early Voyages to Terra Australis." Hakluyt Society: London, 1859. 8°. [Ac. 6172-23.] Bougainville (Louis Antoine de) Count.--Voyage autour du Monde par la frégate du Roi La Boudeuse, et la flûte L'Etoile en 1766-69. pp. 417. Saillant & Nyon: Paris, 1771. 4°. The map at p. 19 has the track of Capt. Cook marked in pencil by himself. (C. 28. 1. 10.--454. a. 1.--215. c. 5.--G. 2831.] ---- A Voyage round the World ... 1766-69. Translated by Johann Reinhold Forster. Plates and maps. pp. xxviii. 476. J. Nourse: London, 1772. 4°. [983. d. 1.] Brosses (Charles de).--Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes. [An English translation, with additions, was issued by John Callander in 1766-68.] 2 tom. Durand: Paris, 1756. 4°. [454. a. 17, 18.--566. h. 5, 6.--215. a. 15.--G. 7382-3.] Burney (James), Admiral. A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. 5 vol. pp. 680. G. & W. Nicol: London, 1803-17. 4°. [455. b. 17-2.--G. 7231-2.] Callander (John).--Terra Australis Cognita: or, Voyages to the Terra Australis, or Southern Hemisphere, during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries. [A translation, with additions, of Ch. de Brosses' "Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes.] 3 vol. A. Donaldson: Edinburgh, 1766-68. 8°. [566. c. 1-3.--G. 16065-67.] Clavius (Christophorus).--Gnomonices libri octo. pp.654. Apud Franciscum Zanettum. Romæ, 1581. fol. [533. k.2.] ---- Romani Calendarii Gregorio XIII. P.M. restituti explicatio. pp. 680. Apud Aloysium Zannettum: Romæ, 1603. fol. [532. k. 10.] On the binding of this and the previous work are the arms of King James I of England. See also Euclid. Coleccion de Documentos.--Ineditos para la historia de España. 1842, etc. 8°. See Fernandez de Navarrete (Martin). ---- sacados del Real Archivo de Indias. 1864-83. See Pacheco (Joaquin Francisco). Collingridge (George).--The Discovery of Australia ... Illustrations, Charts, Maps, etc. pp. xv. 376. Hayes Bros.: Sydney, 1895. 4°. [9781. g. 13.] Comedias Escogidas. See Spain. Cook (James), Captain.--A Voyage towards the South Pole and round the World; performed in his Majesties ships, the Resolution and Adventure ... 1772-75, etc. 2 vols. W. Straham & T. Cadell: London, 1777. 4°. [454. h. 7-8.--213. d. 8, 9.--Maps. K. 12. Tab. 21.--G. 7416-17.--K. 12. Tab. 20.] Cordova (Diego de) Fray.--Cronica de la religiosissima provincia de la Orden de San Francisco. Salinas, 1651. [Not in the British Museum. A copy in the Library at Lima.] Daça (Antonio) Fray.--Quarte Parte de la Chronica General de San Francisco y su Apostolica orden, etc. [Being a continuation of M. da Silva's Chronicles of the Friars Minors.] Valladolid, 1611. fol. [4783. d. 5.] Dalrymple (Alexander).--An Account of the Discoveries made in the South Pacifick Ocean previous to 1764. Part 1. pp. xxxi. 103. 7 plates. London, 1767. 8°. [1045. e. 26.] ---- An Historical Collection of the several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean. 2 vols. Printed for the author: London, 1770-71. 4°. [560. h. 9. (2.)--454. h. 5, 6. (1.)--212. d. 11.--C. 1781.] ---- 35 Charts, 1769-98. [460. g. 6.--435. k. 17, 18.--570. h. 1-4.] Daza (Antonio), Fray. See Daça. Duro (Cesario Fernandez). See Fernandez Duro (Cesario). Ercilla y Zuñiga (Alonso de).--La Araucana de Don A. de Erzilla y Çuñiga (Canto primero-quinzeno). Madrid, 1569. 8°. [C. 58. c. 25.] Euclid.--Euclidis Elementorum Lib. xv. ... illustrati ... auctore C. Clavio. 1589. 8°. [8533. aaa. 23.] Fernandez de Navarrete (Martin).--Coleccion de documentos inéditos para la historia de España. (Indice, 1891.) Madrid, 1849, etc. 8°. [9197. f.] Fernandez de Queiros (Pedro).-- See Quiros (Pedro Fernandez de). Fernandez Duro (Cesario).--Disquisiciones náuticas. (lib. 6: Arca de Noe.) 6 lib. Madrid, 1876-81. 8°. [8806. dd. 14.] Figueroa (Christoval Suarez de). See Suarez de Figueroa. Gerritszoon (Hessel). See Hudson (Henry), the navigator. Gil Blas. See Le Sage (Alain René). Hudson (Henry) the Navigator.--Descriptio ac Delineatio Geographica Detectionis Freti ... recens investigati ab. H. Hudsono ... Item Narratio ... Australia Incognitæ ... per P. Ferdinandez de Quir, etc. [Edited by H. Gerritszoon.] Ex officina H. Gerardi: Amsterodami, 1612. 4o. [1045. e. 15. (1.)--G. 7163.--1613. 1045. e. 15. (4.)--500. b. 25. (10.)--G. 7164.] ---- The Arctic North-East and West Passage. Detectio Freti Hudsoni, or H. Gerritsz's Collection of Tracts by himself, Massa, and de Quir, on the N.E. and W. Passage, Siberia and Australia. Reproduced with the maps, in photolithography, in Dutch and Latin after the editions of 1612 and 1613. Augmented with a new English translation by F. J. Millard ... and an Essay on the origin and design of this collection by S. Muller. Amsterdam, 1878. 4o. [10460. bb. 7. This entry does not occur under Hudson in the British Museum Catalogue.] Jiménez de la Espada (Marcos).--Relaciones geográficas de Indias. [Not in the British Museum Catalogue.] Juan y Santacilla (Jorge) and Ulloa (Antonio de) Admiral.--Noticias secretas de America ... escritas ... segun las instrucciones del ... Secretario de Estado y presentadas en informe secreto a S. M. C. ... Fernando VI., por J. Juan y a de Ulloa ... Sacadas a luz para el verdadero conocimiento del gobierno de los Españoles en la America meridional por de Barry. (Apendice. Informe del Intendente de Guamanga Don D. O'Higgins al Ministro de Indias.) 2 pt. John Murray: London, 1826. 4o. [795 m. 5.--G. 6270.] La Espada (Marcos Jiménez de).-- See Jiménez de La Espada (Marcos). Le Sage (Alain René).--Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane. Troisième edition. 3 tom. Rouen, 1721-1724. 8o. [243. h. 25-27. Neither the First nor the Second Editions are in the British Museum.] ---- Avec des notes historiques et littéraires par M. le Comte François de Neufchateau. L. P. 3 tom. (Collection des Classiques François.) Lefèvre: Paris, 1825. 8o. [12512. g. 25.] Mac Kenna (Benjamin Vicuña). See Vicuña Mac Kenna (Benjamin). Major (Richard Henry), of the British Museum.--Early Voyages to Terra Australis, now called Australia. A collection of documents, and extracts from early MSS. Maps,... from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the time of Capt. Cook. Edited with an Introduction by R. H. Major. pp. cxix. 200. 13. 5 Maps. Index. (Ser. 1, 25). Hakluyt Society: London, 1859. 8o. [Ac. 6172/23.] Moresby (John), Admiral.--New Guinea & Polynesia. Discoveries & Surveys in New Guinea and the D'Entrecasteaux Islands: A cruise ... of H.M.S. Basilisk. pp. xviii. 327. John Murray: London, 1876. 8o. [2374. c. 8.] Morga (Antonio de).--Sucesos de las Islas Philipinas. ff. 172. Mexici ad Indos, 1609. 4o. [C. 32. f. 31.--G. 6939.] ---- The Philippine Islands, Moluccas, Siam, Cambodia, Japan and China, at the close of the sixteenth century.... Translated from the Spanish, with notes and a preface, and a Letter from Luis Vaez de Torres, describing his Voyage through the Torres Straits, by the Hon. Henry E. J. Stanley [Lord Stanley of Alderley]. pp. xxiv. 431. 2 Illus. Index. (Ser. 1. 39.) Hakluyt Society: London, 1868. 8o. [Ac. 6172/60.] Navarrete (Martin Fernandez de). See Fernandez de Navarrete (M.) Pacheco (Joaquin Francisco).--Coleccion de Documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones españolas en América y Occeania [sic], sacados, en su mayor parte, del Real Archivo de Indias, bajo la direccion de ... J. F. Pacheco, etc. (Segunda serie, publicada por la Real Academia de la Historia.) 40 tom. Madrid, 1864-83. 8o. [9551. g.] Petherick (Edward Augustus).--Bibliography of Australia. In "The Torch & Colonial Bookseller." vol. i. 89-97, 162-172; ii. 2-8, 127-140; iii. 136-138. Colonial Booksellers' Agency: London, 1887-92. 8o. Quiros (Pedro Fernandez de). See also Hudson (Henry), the Navigator. Quiros (Pedro Fernandez de).--Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales hecho por el General Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Publicada por Don Justo Zaragoza. (Biblioteca Hispana-Ultramarina.) 3 vols. M. G. Hernandez: Madrid, 1876-82. 8o.) [9771. ee. 17.] ---- Begin. Señor. El Capitan Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, etc. [The original petition of P. F. de Quiros to Philip III of Spain concerning the discovery of Australia.] ff. 2. [Seville, 1610.] fol. [G. 7240.] ---- Relation Herrn. P. Fernandes de Quir.... Von dem new erfundnem vierten Theil der Welt, so bissher in Mappis der Land [t]afflen Terra Australis incognita genannt, und desselben Länder.... In Spanischer Sprach ... getruckt, jetzo aber ... ins Teutsch gebracht. pp. 9. C. Dabertzhofer: Augspurg, 1611. 4o. [1295. b. 18.] ---- Account of a Memorial presented to His Majesty [Philip III, King of Spain] by ... P. Fernandez de Quir, concerning the population and discovery of the fourth part of the world, Australia the unknown, its great riches and fertility ... printed ... anno 1610. From the Spanish ["Relacion de un Memorial."] With an introductory notice by W. A. Duncan. Spanish and English, pp. 38. Thomas Richards: Sydney, 1874. 8o. [10492. bbb. 1.] ---- The Copie of a Petition presented to the King of Spaine by Capt. P. F. de Quir, touching the discouerie of the fourth part of the world, called Terra Australis Incognita. [From the Spanish. Another Petition in Spanish, giving an account of his discoveries.] In "Purchas (Samuel), Purchas his Pilgrimes," pt. 4. 1625. fol. [679. h. 14.] ---- Voyage. Memorial presented to Philip II of Spain.--Relation of a Memorial presented ... to His Majesty about the settling ... of ... Australia Incognita. (In Dalrymple (Alexander).--"An Historical Collection," etc.) 1770, etc. 4o. [566. h. 9. (2.)] ---- Fernand de Quiros to Polynesia and Australasia. (In "Callander (John) Terra Australis cognita.") vol. 2. 1766, etc. 8o. [566 c. 2.] Quiros (Pedro Fernandez de).--Voyage de Quiros. (In "Charton (Edouard)), Voyageurs anciens et modernes. tom. 4. 1854, etc. 8o. [10027. g. 2.] ---- MS. in Private Library of the King of Spain. Another copy in Library of the Ministry of Marine, Madrid. ---- Informaciones presentados por el Capitan Pedro Fernandez de Quiros para paser a las Indias con su mujer y hijos, en la casa de contratacion de Sevilla, 24 Marzo, 1615. (Archivo de Indias.) ---- Narratio ... Regi Hispaniæ facta super tractu ... cui Australiæ incognitæ nomen est, recens detecto. (In Hudson (H.)) Descriptio ... geographica detectionis freti ... sive transitus ad Occasum. 1612. 4o. [1045. e. 15. (1.)] ---- [Another copy, with an additional title-page.] Exemplar Libelli supplicis, potentissimo Hispaniarum Regi exhibiti, a Capitaneo Petro Fernandez de Quir: super detectione quintæ Orbis terrarum partis, cui Autraliæ [sic] Incognitæ nomen est, etc. [G. 7165. (2.)] ---- [Another edition.] In Orbis.--Recentes Novi Orbis Historiæ. 1612. 8o. [1061. a. 4.] ---- [Another edition.] In Bry (J. T. de) and (J. I. de) [Indiæ Orientalis. Part. x.] Indiæ Orientalis pars. x. 1613. fol. [986. h. 20. (7.)] ---- [Another edition.] In Hudson (Henry).--Descriptio ac Delineatio Geographica detectionis Freti, etc. 1613. 4o. [1045. e. 15. (4.)] ---- [Another edition.] In Bry (J. T. de) and (J. I. de).--[India Orientalis. Part x. 2nd edition.] India Orientalis pars x. 1633. fol. [215. c. 13. (4.)] ---- De Terra Austriale Incognita. [Another edition.] In Bry (T. de.) (America, Part 13.) Decima tertia pars Historiæ Americanæ, etc. 1634. fol. [566. 1. 9. (2.)] ---- Terra Australis Incognita, or a new Southerne Discoverie, containing a fifth part of the World, lately found out by Ferdinand de Quir. pp. 27. John Hodgetts: London, 1617. 4o. [T. 809. (8.)--C. 32. g. 33.--C. 13 a. 11. (1.)] ---- [Another edition.] pp. 31. W. Bray: London, [1723.] 8o. [B. 513. (1.)--112. a. 67.--G. 15929.] ---- Verhael van seker Memorial ... aengaende de bevolckinghe ende ontdeckinghe van 't vierde deel des Werelts, ghenaemt Australia incognita, etc. [Amsterdam, 1612.] 4o. [1045. e. 15. (2.)] ---- [Another copy.] In "Samoyedes."--Beschryvinghe van der Samoyeden Landt. 1612. 4o. [10055. b. 34.] ---- [Another edition.] In L'Hermite (J.)--Journal van de Nassausche Vloot. J. P. Wachter: Amstelredam, 1643. 4o. [1061. g. 42.] ---- Copie de la Requeste presentee au Roy d'Espagne par le Capitaine Pierre Ferdinand de Quir, sur la descouverte de la cinquiesme partie du monde, appellee la terre Australle, incogneuë, et des grandes richesses et fertilité d'icelle. pp. 16. Paris, 1617. 8o. [10491. aa. 13.] ---- Relation einer wunderbarlichen Supplication, Ihr. Königl. Magest. in Spanien, von ... P. Fernandes de Quir ... belangendt die Entdeckung dess ffünfften Thiels der Welt, Terra Australis incognita genandt.... In Hulsius (L.) [Collection of Voyages & Travels.] Thl. 12. [1598, etc.] 4o. [10028. d. 37.] ---- ---- [Another edition.] See Bry (J. T. de) & (J. I. de). [Indiæ Orientalis. Pt. 10. German.] Zehenden Theil der Orientalischen Indien, etc.) 1613. fol. [10003. e. 13.] ---- ---- [Another edition.] See Bry (T. de). [America. Pt. 13. German.] Dreyzehenden Theil Americæ, etc. 1628. fol. [10003. e. 33. (2.)] Spain.--Primera (--quarenta y ocho) parte de Comedias escogidas de los mejores de España. (Catalogo de Comedias, 1681.) 48 pt. [MS. notes by L. Tieck.] Madrid, 1652-1704. 4o. 11725, b. c. d.--11726. h. MS. notes by J. R. Chorley.] Suarez de Figueroa (Christoval).--Hechos de Don G. Hurtado de Mendoza, quarto Marques de Cañete. [With a prefatory notice by G. Caravajal de Ulloa.] pp. xiv. 324. Emprenta Real: Madrid, 1613. 4o. [1199. h. 18.--278. f. 29.] ---- [Another edition.] Introduction by D. Barros Arana. pp. viii. 126. 1864. In "Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile." Tom. 5. Imprenta del Ferrocarril: Santiago, 1861, etc. 4o. [9772. e. 19.] Torquemada (Fray Juan de) Franciscan.--Ia(--IIIa.) Parte de los veynte y un libros rituales y Monarchia Indiana con el origen y guerras de los Indios Occidentales de sus poblaçones descubrimento, conquista, conversion y otras cosas maravillosas de la mesma tierra. 3 pt. Matthias Claviso: Sevilla, 1615. fol. [601. k. 16.] ---- [Another edition. Edited by A. Gonzales-Barcia.] 3 pt. Nicolas Rodriguez: Madrid, 1723. fol. [146 e. 11-13.--G. 6452-54.] Ulloa (Antonio de) Admiral.--Noticias secretas. See Juan y Santacilla (Jorge) and Ulloa (A. de), Admiral. Ulloa (Antonio de), Admiral.--Relacion historica [by A. de Ulloa] del viage a la América meridional, etc. (Appendix to Tom. iv. Resumen histórico ... de los Incas y demas Soberanos del Peru.) [With plates and maps.] 5 tom. Antonio Marin: Madrid, 1748. 4o. [687. k. 10-14.--983. g. 19, 20.--215. a. 6-9, and 144. e. 14.] ---- [French translation by E. Mauvillon.] Illd. 2 tom. Arkstee & Merkus: Amsterdam, 1752. 4o. [211. c. 7, 8.] Vicuña MacKenna (Benjamin).--History of Juan Fernandez. Santiago, 1883. [Not in the British Museum Catalogue.] NARRATIVE OF THE Second Voyage OF THE Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña, BY THE CHIEF PILOT, PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS. [40] SECOND VOYAGE OF ALVARO DE MENDAÑA. CHAPTER I. How the second voyage to the Isles of Solomon was commenced by the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña, in whose company Pedro Fernandez de Quiros went as Pilot and Captain. Recounts the departure from Callao. Many years having passed in silence since the first voyage of Alvaro Mendaña, God was served that in the city of Kings, residence of Viceroys of Peru, the enterprise should be proclaimed which His Majesty had ordered the Adelantado [41] Alvaro Mendaña to undertake to the Isles of Solomon. He hoisted his flag, his Captain being his brother-in-law, Lorenzo Barreto; and he sent another Captain, named Lope de Vega, to the valleys of Truxillo and Saña, with orders to recruit men and collect provisions. The Adelantado met with some difficulties and obstacles in fitting out the expedition, which Dom Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, and then Viceroy of Peru, helped him to overcome. [42] Thus four vessels were got ready with as much despatch as possible, and the Adelantado went from Lima to Callao, with his wife Doña Isabel Barreto, and all the people he had to take from thence. With the diligence he exercised, he persuaded and induced Pedro Fernandez de Quiros to come with him as Captain and Chief Pilot. The Pilot de Quiros had raised several points with the Adelantado in the conversations they had together respecting the conduct of the voyage, both in going and returning; but all were settled, and he ended by resolving to join the expedition. The disorders which took place in this expedition were numerous; and in order that this history may be clear, it is necessary to say something of them, as it seems to me that they were the cause of the unfortunate ending of the enterprise. The stars of the eighth heaven are unequal in dimensions, for some appear to our vision great, and others so small that they are scarcely visible. There are those who say that if one of these should be wanting in heaven there would be equivalent loss on earth. I mean that the most minute circumstance that has ceased to do harm may have its effect on the course of events. The Master of the Camp [43] embarked, and the first thing he did was to interfere with the Boatswain in matters pertaining to his office, using words to him which oblige little and offend much. The Boatswain excused himself and the Master of the Camp, wishing to be avenged, certain persons in the accounts department prevented him. At the same time the Chief Pilot was talking to Doña Isabel, who said: "The Master of the Camp is severe. If that is the way in which he asserts his position, he may have a prosperous end, though I am very far from thinking so." The Master of the Camp returning, she said that it seemed to her that the Adelantado would not be pleased to have his people treated with the contumely he showed to them, and still more when the occasion was so slight. The Master of the Camp replied with great impertinence: "Oh look! what have we here?" The Chief Pilot, with good reason, showed much indignation. The Master of the Camp then said, in a loud voice: "Know me! Understand that I am the Master of the Camp, and if we sail together in one ship, and I ordered the ship to be run on some rock, what would you do?" The Chief Pilot answered: "When that time comes I shall do what seems to me to be best; and, in this fleet, I do not recognise any other head but the Adelantado, who has delivered the charge of this ship to me, whose Captain I am; and when he comes he will state what my duties are to be. Believe me that if you want to be lord of all that is about to be discovered, rather than be under the orders of one who takes so much upon himself, and shows so little discretion, I would give up the voyage." Two soldiers, who were present at this colloquy, came to the Chief Pilot and said that their persons were at his service, having so much need for him during the voyage. The Pilot valued their good will, but answered that he did not come to form parties. I leave the rest that passed on this occasion. The Adelantado came on board, and, as he said that he would apply a suitable remedy to what had occurred, the Chief Pilot remained. On Friday, the 9th of April, of the year of our Saviour Jesus Christ 1595, orders were given to weigh the anchors and make sail from the port of Callao of the city of the Kings of Peru, which has a latitude of 12° 20', [44] shaping a course for the valleys of Santa Truxillo, and Saña, on the coast of the same province. CHAPTER II. Of what happened to the fleet until it reached the port of Payta, and what ports it touched at. Having made sail, there was so little wind that the ship could not get out of the port. A boat was sent on shore, but presently returned with a report that the beach was full of armed men, who prevented any landing. The night passed, and when the day came the galeot went on, and our other vessel made for Callao. She had been at the ports of the coast, visiting the ships she met, and taking what was wanted out of them. After those on board had behaved like corsairs, they arrived at the port of Santa, where they found a ship on her way from Panama to Lima, laden with merchandize and negroes. They took the vessel, placing a guard to prevent them from going until the Adelantado should arrive, to whom they gave the advice to take her as she was, for his better despatch, sending her value to the owners when God should provide it. The Adelantado would not do this, nor consent that it should be done. The Vicar, zealous for the service of God, reprehended the Captain with sharp speeches, and told him that he was excommunicated, charging him to pay for what he had taken. Having done this he was absolved, and the business was closed. Here a soldier was punished, the reason being kept secret. Making sail, they anchored in the port of Cherrepe, which is that for the town of Santiago de Miraflores, where the Captain, Lope de Vega, had enlisted a good company of married people. Here the Adelantado married this Captain to his sister-in-law, Mariana de Castro, giving him the title of Admiral. There was at anchor in this port a new and strong ship with a cargo of flour, sugar, and other things, bound to Panama. The officers of the Almiranta having made friends with those on board the other ship, they were persuaded, by means of efficacious reasoning, to let the General take her, and receive their vessel instead, which, owing to age and bad construction, they might well do, because thus the King would be better served. But the Adelantado showed great annoyance at these intrigues, and replied that his ship was very good for the service on which it was to be employed. Those who intended evil felt the good intention, and, in order to gain their end, they secretly made seven gimlet-holes in the ship, in order to oblige--as they did oblige--the soldiers to say that they would not go in a ship so unseaworthy if they could not take the other. In consequence of this, the Pilot and Master presented a petition to the Adelantado, setting forth that his ship was making a great deal of water, and was unsuited for so long and risky a voyage as she was intended to make; and begging him to take the remedy that was at hand. The Adelantado, seeing the determination of all, and compelled by necessity, referred the matter to the Master of the Camp, before whom information was taken which proved what was wanted, and if more was wanted, more could be proved. So the General ordered the Master of the Camp to take the ship; and that the carpenters should make an estimate of the excess of value over that of the vessels to be exchanged for it. They reported that the difference amounted to 6600 dols. Presently, the Master of the Camp sent a guard on board the ship, and began to unload her. There was a priest on board, who owned half the cargo. He protested vigorously against the injustice and robbery, when he saw the loss that he would sustain. He made strong protests and claims on the ship, in his own name and in those of other interested parties. He sought the ship, stating that his remedy was there. He came and went to the Capitana with his complaints, but got no redress. It was said that a soldier gave him a push, and threatened to throw him overboard. The priest felt all this very deeply, and loudly declared that when he had to pray to our Lord, in his sacrifices, he would ask that the ship might never reach safety if she was unloaded. The good priest caused great sorrow to the compassionate, both on account of the force with which he was treated and the loss of his property; and the grief was doubled at the enterprise being one that was undertaken by their own masters, to whom he earnestly, but vainly, complained of his loss. At last the ship was unloaded, when the Adelantado satisfied the priest respecting his share, which somewhat quieted him. The Adelantado also undertook to pay the difference before he came from the Solomon Islands to Peru, mortgaging to the creditors all his ships. The Adelantado felt and complained much of this proceeding, which had been forced upon him, and he threatened those who he believed to be the cause of it. As the effects are seen in all things, and even in the justice of God are never wanting, it was understood that usually in that port there was much merchandize, collected in certain warehouses, from all those valleys, to be embarked for Lima, Panama, and other places. They embarked some of these goods, with the owner, his wife and children. Many things were left, and nothing was said about them, for the shadows of things are sufficient to see them by; and expeditions without a royal purse cannot, it would seem, be set forth without some mischief being done. The Master of the Camp, because it was his ordinary and first thought not to keep the peace, had a certain slight difference with the Admiral, which, although trifling, appears to have been the beginning of disorders. For if such exist, however small they be, when the Devil stirs them they revive. The Adelantado was very desirous of entering respectable men only; and so, for reasons that moved him, he put certain men and women on shore. I well believed that he might have turned them all out, and proceeded alone on his voyage. Here, for a slight cause, he turned out a sergeant. Who was the instigator the reader will pardon me for leaving it to be understood, for I am not a friend of telling, though it should be a bad affair. These things being settled, the Adelantado ordered the Chief Pilot to make five charts for the navigation, one for himself and four for each of the Pilots. He was not to show more land on them than the coast of Peru from Arica to Payta, and two points north and south, on one side or the other, the one in 7° and the other in 12°, and 1,500 leagues to the west of Lima, which, he said, was the extreme distance in longitude of the islands of which he was going in search, whose longitude was 1,450 leagues. The other 50° was to be added so as the better to arrive with some margin, and no more land was to be delineated lest some ship should steer to or desert to it. The Admiral embarked on board the new ship, and the provisions were distributed, but they were not in such quantity nor so good as was necessary. The defects were made up by what the soldiers and other people bought, and by other means. It only remained to arrange for the water supply, but the supply was scanty and the port was bad. The Corregidor of the district, Dom Bartolomé de Villavicencio, arrived, and the goodwill he showed is admitted by the Admiral in his report. But as he saw, when he came, the overwork that was being exacted, he went to his house, taking with him all the Indians and horses that were helping us, so as to oblige us to depart. This was the reason that induced the Adelantado to make sail, and pursue his course with only the water that the Chief Pilot had on board. Recognising such a serious defect, the Pilot represented that it was a terrible thing to start with half the jars empty, knowing that we had to enter the largest of the gulfs, and that it must be well considered, lest we should have to leave the land without taking the full supply of water needed for so long and doubtful a voyage. The Adelantado answered that the soldiers asked for it to be obtained in the ports where it was found to be very expensive, and that if a ration of half a gallon ought to be given, a pint might be served out. To this the Chief Pilot replied that it was his duty to see to everything, and not to allow himself to be conquered by the importunities of people who did not know what they were asking. The Adelantado answered to this that he was convinced, and that he would settle the matter with them; which he did with some good and some bad reasons. This done, they made sail, arriving at the port of Payta to take in water. CHAPTER III. Of what passed in the port of Payta, and how the fleet set sail and commenced the voyage. In each port there was disorder, and as this is one of the best ports on the coast of Peru, the best quarrel was reserved for it. The anger of the Master of the Camp, who excused no one, fell upon the Vicar respecting certain proceedings in his department. There were words between them; and there would have been acts as well if the Adelantado had not been present to prevent them. But they remained angry and unfriendly. Bickerings also commenced between the Master of the Camp and the Captain Don Lorenzo, respecting luggage which some of the soldiers had with them. The Master of the Camp gave a blow with a stick to a person of consideration. He said that he did not know about that, but that the party would know very well how much a stick weighed. There was some disturbance; the Master of the Camp drew his sword (at which he was always ready) and struck another soldier, who was annoyed at the blow given to his companion. He fled, but was taken, and incontinently was to be punished. Doña Isabel came out to plead for him. The Master of the Camp showed himself to be so compliant that he threw down the stick and went on board; but this was not that he might not give the Adelantado a faculty against the prisoner. The Chief Pilot would have interceded, but the Adelantado did not wish to hear him, saying that the man had put his hand in his beard, which was a sort of mutiny. The Chief Pilot prayed that nevertheless the Adelantado would hear the case, and dismiss it; or, if he did not wish to do that, that he would judge the matter officially; for that the man had been brought by force, and that it did not seem just to take away his honour. At last, yielding to these prayers, the Adelantado set the prisoner free. The Master of the Camp had gone on shore, and presently he sent for his clothes. But as the Adelantado showed a wish that he should stay, the Admiral and Captain Don Lorenzo persuaded him to return to the ship. It appeared to the Chief Pilot that it was very uncertain what would be the end, when the beginning was so disordered. He, therefore, requested the Adelantado that he might be left behind; and for this course he gave many reasons which did not appear to be bad. The Adelantado threw his arms round the Pilot's neck, declaring that only an angel could conduct things as he said, but that all should be put in good order, and that a remedy should be found. The Chief Pilot still insisted upon his dismissal, saying that where the General's person was, who so well understood the art of navigating, he might well be excused. The Adelantado was much grieved on hearing this, and with his sagacity, he showed himself so kind and friendly, and used such honeyed words, that they induced the Pilot to remain. He went on board and, as he passed the ship, the sailors said: "Ah! Sir Chief Pilot, what goings and comings are these? We are informed of what you think of doing, for no one wants to remain in this ship though it cost all their lives." Jumping on shore, the Admiral, the Lieutenant of Payta, and other persons of the fleet, came to the Pilot, and he gave his reasons to all. At this time the Master of the Camp came up and said, in a loud voice: "Well, Sir! the Devil walks loose among us, to see if he can injure this good work. Let us go whence we came, and let him show himself for what he is. For, though he works with diligence, we will advance forward such a Christian undertaking, and in this voyage we will truly serve God and the King." The Chief Pilot gave him this answer: "Sir Master of the Camp! in all things there should be moderation and fair dealing, but your Honour was very hasty in raising the stick, drawing your sword, and abusing the seamen whose services are so necessary. As I know the mischief that is done by such conduct, I wish to see the remedy, so as to comply with all my obligations." The Master of the Camp, more gentle when he was on shore, answered that a Camp Master could not be so moderate. The Chief Pilot said that he must be both careful and moderate; that as yet they were in Peru, and that the seamen had to bring them to the islands, and to guard the ship when they had arrived; and that if they were aggrieved, as men, there would be serious trouble; that they had to bring the news and return with succour, and speak well of the land, or evil though it was good, for revenge. The Camp Master was not quieted with this argument, but was wedded to his own idea, and answered that men did not do what they were told at sea; that he had to make them stir quickly; and that all he had done was necessary that the fleet might not be disorganised, and that each man to his own office seemed good, and was in order. With this, and many other things that were said at the time, the incident was closed. The two embarked, not very friendly, and the Adelantado engaged a man here, who gave him 2,000 dols. for the place of Sergeant Major; and with this he left off recruiting. He embarked 1,800 jars of water, and gave instructions for the order that was to be maintained, and for the navigation that was to be carried out. They carried in the fleet 378 persons by the list, of whom 280 were capable of bearing arms; 200 arquebuses and other weapons, offensive and defensive, respecting which testimony was given before the Lieutenant of Payta to send to the King our Lord, as was done. The Capitana was named San Jeronimo, and there went in her the Adelantado, his wife, his sister-in-law and her brothers, the chief Officers, and two priests. The Almiranta was named Santa Isabel, under the Admiral Lope de Vega, with two Captains, and a priest. The galeot was named San Felipe, under Captain Felipe Corzo, with his officers and men. The frigate was named Santa Catalina, under Captain Alonso de Leyva. CHAPTER IV. The Island of Magdalena. Having made sail, the fleet shaped a S.W. course, displaying the royal standard and the flags, playing clarions, and feasting on such an auspicious day as this was considered to be. The winds were from the S. and S.S.E., which are the winds of Peru, until we reached a latitude of 9° 30', and from that point the course was W.S.W. as far as 14°. From thence the course was W.N.W. to 21°. The sun was taken at noon, and having made the computation, the result was 10° 50'. At 5 in the afternoon, an island was sighted 10 leagues distant, being N.W. by N. [45] The Adelantado gave it the name of Magdalena, as it was the eve of that day. He thought it was the land that he sought, for which reason he was very joyful in every one's sight, in that he had come in a short time with a fair wind, the victuals good, and the people amicable, healthy, and cheerful. During the voyage there had been fifteen marriages, scarcely a day passing without some one wanting to be married next day. It seemed as if all would run in couples with the good fortune, with high hopes, many stories, and none for the good of the natives. The Adelantado said to the Vicar and Chaplain that they were to chant the "Te Deum laudamus" with all the people on their knees, and that they should give thanks to God for the mercy of sighting land. This was done with great devotion. On the following day, with doubt whether that island was inhabited, the ships were steered to the south of it, and very near the coast. From a point under a peaked hill towards the eastern end, there came out seventy small canoes, not all the same size, made of one piece of wood, with outriggers of cane on each side, after the manner of the gunwales of galleys, which reach to the water on which they press to prevent the canoe from capsizing, and all their paddles rowing. The least number they had in a canoe was three, the greatest ten, some swimming, and others hanging on--altogether, four hundred natives, almost white, and of very graceful shape, well-formed, robust, good legs and feet, hands with long fingers; good eyes, mouth, and teeth, and the same with the other features. Their skin was clear, showing them to be a strong and healthy race, and indeed robust. They all came naked, without any part covered; their faces and bodies in patterns of a blue colour, painted with fish and other patterns. Their hair was like that of women, very long and loose, some had it twisted, and they themselves gave it turns. Many of them were ruddy. They had beautiful youths who, for a people barbarous and naked, it was certainly pleasant to see; and they had much cause to praise their Creator. Among them there was a boy, who appeared to be about ten years of age. [46] He came rowing in a canoe with two others. His eyes were fixed on the ship, and his countenance was like that of an angel, with an aspect and spirit that promised much, of a good colour, not fair but white; his locks like that of a lady who valued them much. He was all that has been said, so that I never in my life felt such pain as when I thought that so fair a creature should be left to go to perdition. [47] The natives came with much speed and fury, rowing their canoes, pointing with their fingers to their port and land, speaking loudly, and often using the words atalut and analut. They came to our ships, and when they arrived they gave us cocoa-nuts, a kind of food rolled up in leaves, good plantains, and large canes [48] full of water. They looked at the ships, the people, and the women who had come out on the galley to see them, at whom they looked, and laughed at the sight. They got one to put his hand on the ship, and, with coaxing, they got him to come on board. The Adelantado dressed him in a shirt and put a hat upon his head, which, when the others saw, they laughed and looked, crying out to the rest. On this about forty came on board, beside whom the Spaniards seemed of small stature. Among them there was one taller than the rest by a head and shoulders, and taller than our best men, though we had one very tall. They began to walk about the ship with great boldness, taking hold of whatever was near them, and many of them tried the arms of the soldiers, touched them in several parts with their fingers, looked at their beards and faces, with other monkey tricks. As they saw that our men were dressed in various colours, they were confused; so the soldiers bared their breasts, let down their stockings, and tucked up their sleeves to satisfy them. When they were shown this, they quieted down, and were much pleased. The Adelantado and some of the soldiers gave them shirts, hats, and other trifling things, which they presently put round their necks, dancing and singing in their fashion, and loudly called to the others to look at what they had been given. Their conduct annoyed the Adelantado, who made signs to them to go; but they not only would not leave the ship, but became more free in taking things they saw. Some cut slices from our bacon and meat with knives made of cane, and wanted to take other things. At last the Adelantado ordered a gun to be fired, and when they felt and heard it, with great terror, they all jumped into the water and swam to their canoes, only one remaining in the ship. He was clinging on to the main channels, and they could not make him let go, until some one wounded him on the hand with a sword, which was shown to the others, and they took him into a canoe. At this time they fastened a rope to the ship's bowsprit, and, by rowing, tried to tow her on shore, thinking they could thus take her. When the native was wounded, they all became warlike, and were marshalled by one who carried a parasol of palm leaves. Among them was one old man with a long and well-ordered beard, who cast fierce looks from his eyes, put both hands into his beard, raised his moustaches, stood up, and cried out, looking in many directions. They played on shells, and striking with their paddles in the canoes they showed their hostility: some taking up the lances which they brought, tied down; others with stones in slings, not having other arms. With good will, they began to hurl stones, and wounded a soldier; but first they had come near the ship, and those with lances threatened to throw them. The soldiers pointed their arquebuses, but, as it had been raining, the powder would not ignite. It was a sight to behold, how the natives came on with noise and shouts; and how some, when they saw weapons pointed at them, jumped from the canoes into the water, or got behind the others. At last, the old man who made the menaces was shot in the forehead, and fell dead, with seven or eight others, while some were wounded. They fled from our ships, and presently three natives came in a canoe, calling out. One held up a green branch, and something white in his hand, which appeared to be a sign of peace. They seemed to be asking us to come to their port; but this was not done, and they departed, leaving some cocoa-nuts. This island has a circumference of about 10 leagues, so far as we could see. It is clear and open towards the sea, lofty and wooded in the ravines, which is where the natives live. The port is on the south side. It is in latitude 10° S., and a thousand leagues from Lima. It is thickly inhabited; for, besides those who came in the canoes, the beaches and rocks were covered with people. The Adelantado did not know the place, and, being undeceived, he said it was not one of the islands he came in search of, but a new discovery. CHAPTER V. How three other islands were sighted, their names, and how they came to a port in that of Santa Cristina. At a short distance from this island three other islands were sighted, for which a course was shaped. The first, to which the Adelantado gave the name of San Pedro, was 10 leagues W.N.W. from Magdalena. It was not ascertained whether it was inhabited, because it was not visited. It is about 4 leagues in circumference, with much forest, but apparently not very high. At the east end there is a rock at a short distance from the coast. There is another island called Dominica, with a circumference of some 15 leagues, bearing N.W. from San Pedro, distant 5 leagues. The island is beautiful to look upon, and runs N.E. to S.W. It has fine plains and mountains, is thickly inhabited, with many groves of trees. To the south of Dominica there is another island to which the name of Santa Cristina was given. It seemed to be about 11 leagues in circumference, and is a little over a league from Dominica, with a clear and deep channel between them. The Adelantado named all four islands together "Las Marquesas de Mendoza," in memory of the Marquis of Cañete; because by this, and in making sail with his ships from any port, he wished to show how grateful he was for the assistance given by that Viceroy in the despatch of the expedition. While tacking off and on, and seeking a port in the island of Dominica, many canoes full of natives came out, who seemed to be of a browner colour, and crying out, showed the same good will as the others. In one canoe there came an old man, carrying a green branch and something white. At this moment the ship was put about, and, thinking that she was going away, the old man began to renew his shouts, make signs with his hair, and pointing downwards with his hair and fingers. The Adelantado wanted to return, but he could not do so because the wind freshened, and no sheltered port for anchoring could be seen: though the frigate, which stood close into the shore, reported having seen many more people than were visible from the ship, and that a native had come on board, who with great ease had lifted a calf by one ear. On the following day the General sent the Camp Master in the boat with twenty soldiers, to seek for a port or a watering place on the island of Santa Cristina. Many natives came out in canoes, and surrounded them. Our people, wishing to make themselves safe, killed some of them. One, to save himself, jumped into the sea with a child in his arms. Clasped together, they were sent to the bottom by a shot from an arquebus that one of the soldiers fired off. He said afterwards, with great sorrow, that the Devil had to take those who were ordained to be taken. The Chief Pilot said to him that he regretted that he had not fired in the air, but the soldier said that he acted as he did lest he should lose his reputation as a good marksman. The Chief Pilot asked him what it would serve him to enter into hell with the fame of being a good shot? The Camp Master returned without having found either a port or a watering place. At the same time four very daring natives had gone on board the ship, and while no one was looking, one of them took a small dog, which was the gift of the Camp Master. Then, with a shout they all jumped overboard with great courage, and swam to their canoes. The next day, which was St. James's day, the General again sent the Camp Master, with twenty soldiers, to the island of Santa Cristina to find a watering place and a port. He effected a landing with the men in good order, and surrounded a village while the inhabitants stood looking on. The Camp Master called to them, and about three hundred came. Our people then drew a line, telling the natives by signs that they were not to go beyond it. On asking for water they brought some in cocoa nuts, and the women brought other kinds of fruit. The soldiers said that many of these women were very pretty, and that they were ready to come near in friendly intercourse, and to give their presents with their hands. The Camp Master sent the natives for water with the jars, but they made signs that our people should carry them; running off with four jars, for which reason we opened fire on them. The General, having seen the port into which the Camp Master had gone, ordered the ship to be taken into it and anchored. But the wind died away under the land, and the ship was taken by a wave to within a lance's length of a rock, with 50 fathoms close to it. There was great consternation at the obvious danger. Sail was made, and God was served that a breeze should spring up, and the ship stood off. Then there came another report that the port was bad, full of sunken rocks, and that it was impossible to get out again if a ship had once entered. The Adelantado was much annoyed to hear the complaints of the hard work, and was moved to continue the voyage, saying that the water they had on board would be sufficient for the voyage to his islands. The Chief Pilot reminded him of the uncertainties of the sea, to which he answered: "If we cannot find a port, what are we to do?" The Chief Pilot replied that we must return to Magdalena, which we had already seen, and where the frigate had anchored, and that for a little more work it was needful to secure more necessaries. Meanwhile, the Camp Master had been coasting along the island; and very near the port that had been entered he found another, which he reported, and there the fleet anchored. CHAPTER VI. How the Adelantado landed on the island of Santa Cristina, and what took place with the natives. On the day after the arrival, which was the 28th of July, the Adelantado went on shore, with his wife and the greater part of the crew, to hear the first mass said by the Vicar. The natives knelt down in silence and attention, imitating all they saw the Christians do. A very beautiful native sat near Doña Isabel, with such red hair that Doña Isabel wished to cut off a few locks; but seeing that the native did not like it she desisted, not wishing to make her angry. The General, in the name of His Majesty, took possession of all the four islands, walked through the village, sowed maize in presence of the natives; and, having had such intercourse as was possible with them, he went on board. The Camp Master remained on shore with all the soldiers, who in a short time began to quarrel among themselves. Then the natives threw many stones and lances, wounding one soldier in the foot, without doing any other harm. They then fled to the mountains with their women and children, our people following them, until they were all in the woods. Being fired at, the natives reached the summits of three high hills, where they entrenched themselves. In the mornings and afternoons they all, with one accord, made a resounding noise, which echoed through the ravines, and was replied to by shouts. They wished to do us harm, hurling stones and lances, but their efforts were in vain. The Camp Master placed guards in three positions to secure the village and the beach, where the women were resting and the sailors getting wood and water for the ships. What I have to say is, that some of these natives, being strong and courageous, used arrows, while there were not wanting others who seemed more cautious. They were very diligent to attack; but seeing how little harm they did, and how much hurt they received from the arquebuses, they tried to establish peace and friendship. For when the soldiers went to their work, they came out to them lovingly, offering them bunches of plantains and other fruits. It seemed that they felt the want of their houses, for they asked, by signs, when the Spaniards would go. Some came to the guards with food, which they gave to the soldiers. One native especially, of good presence, was taught to make the sign of the cross, and to say "Jesus Maria," and the rest. They were in conversation with their comrades, for each one had a comrade, whom they sought out and sat with, when they came; and by signs they asked each other the names of the sky, the earth, the sea, the sun, the moon and stars, and everything else within their vision. All were well content with what they said, calling each other friends and comrades. As this friendship was not without payment, there was a certain man who joyfully said to the General, that he had his dog well fed by the natives, by a forage he had made in the preceding night, when his company had the guard. On another day eleven natives came in two canoes, and two of them stood up with some strings of cocoa nuts in their hands, and shouted while they showed them. Orders were given not to answer, and for the soldiers to be ready with their arquebuses. When the natives found that they were not answered, they came close to the ship, when a volley was fired. Two were killed. The soldiers shot three more, and throwing down what they had, the rest rowed away and fled. They were chased in a boat, but the natives got on shore and fled. Jumping on shore, only three were seen to run to the top of some high hills. Those in the boat took the canoes, with three dead bodies in them, for the rest had fallen into the sea. The cruelty of the Spaniards was such that there were not wanting those who said that the bullet wounds, so fierce and ugly, would frighten the other natives, and that the swords, making wide wounds, would have the same effect. In order that the natives might see, it was ordered that the bodies should be taken on shore, that the Camp Master might hang them up where they would be seen by the natives. It was said that this was done in order that the natives, if they came with false intent in their canoes, might know what the Spaniards could do. But it seemed to me that four armed ships had little to fear from unarmed natives in canoes. The Camp Master hung up the three natives in a place best adapted for the intended object. A certain person came to see them, who gave one of the bodies a lance-thrust, and praised what had been done. At night the natives took the bodies away. An evil example gives rise to licence, and reason conquers him who knows it. A certain person had an arquebus in his hut, and a friend of his loaded it, and pointed it to fire at the natives. The other took it out of his hands, and asked him what he was going to do with so much diligence. He replied, that his diligence was to kill, because he liked to kill. "It is not right," replied his friend, "that you should show such readiness to cause the death of men. What harm have these natives done to you that you should treat them with such cruelty? It is not valorous to show yourself a lion amongst lambs, nor to kill when it takes your fancy. If you do not know what a foul and sinful thing it is to murder a body which contains a soul, it is high time that you learned, and though it has weight it is not profitable." The native who was friendly to the Chaplain came to the guard, and being seen by the General they embarked very joyfully, the native crying out, "Friend! Friend!" The Adelantado received him very cordially, offering him conserves and wine, but he would neither eat nor drink. He began to look at the sheep, and seemed to give them a name; he gazed at the ship and the rigging, counted the masts and sails, went below and noted everything with care, more so than is usual with a native. They told him to say "Jesus Maria," and to make the sign of the cross, which he did with great amusement, showed good will in all things, and presently he asked for persons to take him back to the shore. Such was the intelligence of this native that when he understood that the ships would depart, he showed regret, and wanted to go with us. The Adelantado wanted to colonise these four islands, to make his business with them, and to leave thirty men, some of them married. But the soldiers complained of this, and seeing their ill-will he gave up the idea. It may be held as certain that two hundred natives were killed in these islands, for the impious and inconsiderate soldiers dropped one or two or three. Their evil deeds are not things to do, nor to praise, nor to allow, nor to maintain, nor to refrain from punishing if the occasion permits. CHAPTER VII. In which an account is given of the port, island, and inhabitants; of their customs, and other things. This island of Santa Cristina is very populous, and lofty in the centre. It has its ravines and valleys, where the natives live. The port was named "Madre de Dios." Praise to her! It is in the western part, in latitude 9° 30', sheltered from all winds, only excepting the west, which never was found to blow. Its shape is that of a horse-shoe, with a narrow mouth, and at the entrance it has a clear bottom of sand, with a depth of 30 fathoms, in the middle 24, and 12 near the beach. The marks by which it is known are a hill to the south, rising from the sea, having a peak terminating in three others on its summit; to the north a concave rock; within the port five wooded ravines, all coming down to the sea, and a hill which divides the little beaches of sand, having a stream of excellent water falling from a height of a man's stature and a half, the thickness of a fist, where the barrels can be filled. Near it there is a stream of equally good water, flowing near a village which the natives have there. So that waterfall, stream, and village are all on the shore, which is on the north side of the hill. On the south side of it there are houses scattered among the trees. To the east there are high rocky hills, with some ravines whence the stream descends. Some of the natives of these islands did not appear to be as white as those of Magdalena. They have the same form of speech, the same arms and canoes, with which they communicate. Their village is built on two sides of a square, one north and south, the other east to west, with the surroundings well paved. The rest is a space with very tall and thick trees. The houses appear to be for the community, after the manner of slave quarters, and open to wind and water, the floor being raised above that of the street. It appeared that many people were lodged in each house, for there were many bed-places, and these low. Some houses had low doors, and others had all the front open. They are of wood, interwoven with very large canes having joints of more than 5 palmos [49] in length, and of the thickness of a man's arm. The roof is of the leaves from the trees in the open space. The Chief Pilot did not see anything of the women, because he did not land at the time that they came; but all who saw them reported that they had beautiful legs and hands, fine eyes, fair countenances, small waists, and graceful forms, and some of them prettier than the ladies of Lima, who are famed for their beauty. Respecting their complexion, if it cannot be called white, it is nearly white. They go with a certain covering from the breasts downwards. Apart from the village there was an oracle surrounded by palisades, with the entrance on the west side. Within there was a house, almost in the middle, in which there were some wooden figures badly carved; and here were offerings of food and a pig, which the soldiers took. Wanting to take other things, the natives interfered, saying they must not take anything, showing that they respected that house and the figures. Outside the village they had some very long and well-made canoes of a single tree, with the form of a keel, bow, and stern, and with boards well fastened with ropes made from cocoa fibre. In each one there is room for thirty or forty natives as rowers; and they gave us to understand, when they were asked, that they went in these large canoes to other lands. They work with adzes, which they make of thick fish-bones and shells. They sharpen them with large pebbles, which they have for the purpose. The temperature, health, vigour, and corpulence of these people tell what the climate must be under which they live. One suffers cold at night, but the sun does not cause much molestation by day. There were some showers, not heavy; dew was never felt, but very great dryness, so much so that wet things, when left out all night on the ground, were found quite dry in the morning. But we could not tell whether this was so all the year round. They saw pigs, and fowls of Castille, and the fishery is certain wherever there is sea. The trees which have been mentioned as being in the open space before the village yield a fruit which reaches to the size of a boy's head. Its colour, when it is ripe, is a clear green, and when unripe it is very green. The rind has crossed scales like a pineapple, its shape not quite round, being rather more narrow at the end than near the stem. From the stem grows a leaf-stalk reaching to the middle of the fruit, with a covering sheath. It has no core nor pips, nor anything uneatable except the skin, and that is thin. All the rest is a mass of pulp when ripe, not so much when green. They feed much upon it in all sorts of ways, and it is so wholesome that they call it white food. It is a good fruit and of much substance. The leaves of the tree are large, and much serrated, like those of the papay. [50] They found many caves full of a kind of sour dough, which the Chief Pilot tasted. There is another fruit covered on the outside with prickles like a chestnut, but each as big as six of Castille, with nearly the same taste. Its shape is like a heart, flattened. They eat many, roast and boiled, and leave them on the trees to ripen. There are nuts the size of those of Castille, and appear to be almost the same in taste. The outside is very hard and without joint, and its kernel is not attached to the rind, so that it comes out easily and entire when opened. It is an oily fruit. They ate and took away many of them. They saw calabashes of Castille sown on the beach, and some red flowers pleasant to look on, but without smell. As our people did not go inland, and all the natives retreated into the woods, as has been said, this is all that can be related. The soldiers said that all the trees appeared to bear fruit. Our men were very well received by the natives, but it was not understood why they gave us a welcome, or what was their intention. For we did not understand them; and to this may be attributed the evil things that happened, which might have been avoided if there had been some one to make us understand each other. CHAPTER VII. How the Adelantado departed from this island, and how the murmuring began among the soldiers by reason of faults and of not finding the land. While the Adelantado was at this island he ordered the galeot to be repaired, for one day, before anchoring, she was in great danger from having fouled the bowsprit of the Capitana. He also ordered wood and water to be got on board, the people to be embarked, and the ships to be got ready. On the 5th of August he raised three crosses, each one in its place, and another was cut on a tree, with the day and year. He then weighed, and made sail in search of the islands of his first discovery. A course was shaped W.S.W., with the wind E. varying to S.E. In this way, sometimes altering course to N.W. and due west, they sailed for about 400 leagues. After three or four days, the Adelantado said that on that day they would see the land of which they were in search, news which greatly rejoiced the people. But, looking in all directions, they neither saw land on that day nor on many days afterwards; and for this reason the soldiers began to say things, and to conspire because the voyage was so prolonged. There was scarcity of food and water, for at the news of the proximity of land the people had indulged themselves freely. Now they began to show slackness and suspicion. It is no cause for surprise that in such enterprises those who have to bear the blame and the responsibility should be the chief workers as well as the chief sufferers. On Sunday, the 20th of August, having covered the said 400 leagues, the dawn found us close to four small and low islands, with sandy beaches, and many palm and other trees. Together they appeared to be 8 leagues in circumference, more or less. They are in a square, very close to each other. From S.W. to N.E., and towards E. there are banks of sand, where there are no means of entrance, and a point was found in the reef which goes more to S.W. The General gave the name of "San Bernardo" to these islands, as it was that saint's day. He wanted to find a port among these islands, but desisted at the request of the Vicar. It was not known whether they were inhabited, although the people in the galeot said they had seen canoes, but this was believed to be a mistake. The islands are in 10° 20' S., and in longitude 400 leagues from Lima. Passing these four islands the wind came from S.E., which always blows, sometimes with light showers, and thick dense cloud-masses were not wanting. These masses were of various colours, and, strangely enough, they formed themselves into various figures, and in contemplating them they remained for a long space of time. Sometimes they were so fixed that they were not dissipated during the whole day. As they were in an unknown direction, it was thought that they were indications of land. We continued to steer a westerly course, sometimes N.W. and S.W., always in latitudes in accordance with the will and instructions of the General, which were not to go higher than 12° or lower than 8°. Generally we were in 10° to 11°. On Tuesday, the 29th of August, we sighted a low round island covered with trees, and surrounded by a reef which rose above the water. It was about a league in circumference, and in latitude 10° 40' S., distant from Lima 1,535 leagues. As it was by itself, it was named "Solitaria." The Adelantado ordered the two small vessels to go in shore and seek for a port, so as to get wood, of which the Almiranta was much in need, and to see if water could be procured, of which there was also much scarcity. They anchored in 10 fathoms, and with loud cries told the General to stand off, as the bottom was full of great rocks. They were going and coming with the sounding line sometimes finding 10 fathoms, at others 100 fathoms. There was no bottom in places, and to see the vessel among such rocks aroused alarm. There was no want of haste to get her away into the open sea. All round this island there are a great number of rocks, and the channel between these rocks is to the south. At this time the soldiers, being influenced by their privations, and wearied from the disappointment of their hopes, formed both public and private assemblies to murmur and talk, which was a dissolution of discipline, and an indication of what would happen afterwards. The Camp Master (as has been said) was somewhat violent, and he had quarrels with many people in the ship. In fine, experience and time taught me what should be said, and I saw what should be done with regard to his evil behaviour and menaces. In general we said as follows: "We do not come here to lose but to gain. The Camp Master orders things for the King's service, as the King desires he should order them, and we all have to obey. Do your duty, and leave the things that do not belong to it. Avoid insults and threats to the stick, for we will not suffer it. With so small a company so many heads may be dispensed with. Our General is enough, for we are not going where the usages of Flanders or of Italy are needed; nor are we naked Indians, and for us death-dealing soldiers are not necessary; but we are courageous and well-intentioned persons. Above all, we must watch the General and the Camp Master, that each one may do his part, and carefully and in detail give an account of what he may succeed in hearing; while they conceal things in such a manner that, when asked about them, they know nothing." For unjust eyes have been turned upon those who are far from any fault, and these, when they wish to defend themselves, it would be necessary to have angels for their sureties, for there is no place for a fair hearing. There was little reason, and so life was passed, many saying that there was an end of it, for that we should never find the land; that there was no necessity for so much rule, death being certain. Others said that the Isles of Solomon had fled away, or that the Adelantado had forgotten the place where they were to be found, or that the sea had risen and covered them. Others said that, to call himself a Marquis and advance his own relations, he had taken them, with 400 pounds of biscuit, to perish in that great gulf, to go to the bottom and fish for those wonderful pearls he had talked about. They put forward their arguments and said one thing and another: that we had navigated for so many days in 10°, and the islands we seek are said to be in the same latitude, and yet they are not to be found. Either we have passed them, or they do not exist, for by this road we shall go round the world, or at least we shall come at last to Great Tartary. Neither the Chief Pilot, nor the other Pilots, nor the Adelantado, know where they are taking us to, nor where we are at present. They could easily give or take away rewards to whom they chose, and follow their own likings. The Pilots of the other ships said that they took their vessels on rocks and over the land, because the place where they were painted had been rubbed off for many days, owing to the great and little height they had navigated; and they said other things which were for the soldiers. Also, there were those who said that in hard times and long voyages the soldiers know their true friends. The Chief Pilot, against whom there were suspicions that he would never find the sought-for land, knowing that they had passed far beyond the longitude given by the Adelantado, and yet that he was the authority to whom they all turned, spoke to the General with a view to consoling the soldiers, who were so afflicted. He answered, that they had also said to him that all would be lost. The Chief Pilot, for satisfaction on his part, said many things in a loud voice, and concluded by saying: "Hear me, and do not answer to what is said. Hold yourselves in the belief that my words merit, for consider that I did not come to navigate in order that I myself might perish." The Captain, Don Lorenzo, then came forward with some remarks very far from the mark, to whom the Chief Pilot answered: "Those who do not understand the affair, why should they speak to others?" After these discourses there were those who complained, saying among themselves: "This business is very different from what it was supposed to be. Here there is neither honour nor life, as we are all companions who live in this house without doors, and without tokens of friendship." But there did not want those who said: "What hospitals have been founded or served by those that desire to please God and obtain their desires? Take what is given us with joyful faces, for this is the best way; and this being so, what is wanting will be that which need not concern us." CHAPTER VIII. How an island was discovered, that of the volcano was examined, and the loss of the Almiranta. These complaints caused much suffering to the Adelantado, making him avoid both public and private sins, which he did as much as was in his power, and giving an example in order to obtain peace for all. With the beads in his hand, and without loss of a day, he ordered the "Salve" to be raised before the image of Our Lady of Solitude, which the Chief Pilot had brought for his own devotions. He also caused the vespers of Holy Days to be solemnly observed, banners to be displayed, and streamers to be hoisted, while warlike instruments were played. To practice the soldiers this was done every afternoon, others assisting as much as they could, although it should entail additional work. In this state was the Capitana when the Almiranta asked the Adelantado for a boat-load of wood, saying that, for want of fuel, they had burnt boxes, and were using the upper works of the ship. This was granted, and on another day the Admiral came on board the Capitana to greet the Adelantado, as was customary. He then told the General of his necessities, and begged that they would not part company, and with this promise they were rejoiced. He sought for succour as regards water, saying that he only had nine jars left. The Admiral showed much despondency, saying that the defects of his ship were numerous, but that he was determined to die with his people, because for that he had come. The Adelantado did what he could to cheer him, and ordered him to make sail, saying that the islands could not be far off. The Master represented that, owing to there being little ballast, the ship was very crank, and for this reason she would not bear much sail; that there were one hundred and eighty persons on board, and that he hoped he would at least give them twenty jars of water. The Adelantado, although at that time he had more than four hundred jars full, would not give one, for the report seemed to him false. With these and other misfortunes they sailed on until the 7th of September, when, with a rather fresh S.E. breeze, the ship only had a foresail on her without a bonnet, [51] steering west. There was seen ahead a mass of dark smoke, for which reason the Chief Pilot ordered the galeot and frigate to go on, keeping in sight of each other, and see what land or reefs there were, and to report by burning two lights, and two others in reply or in warning. But they were to return before nightfall. With this anxious doubt they continued to navigate with the care that such a night made necessary. At 9 the Almiranta was seen, and at 11, on the port side, there was a great and thick mass of cloud, which covered the horizon in that direction. The sailors, and all who turned their eyes upon it, were doubtful whether it was land. The fog raised its curtain, which was in the form of a dense shower, and land was clearly seen, less than a league distant. It was announced in the customary way, in a loud voice, and all hands came out to see. The galeot made many signals to the other ships, and, though the night was dark, they could be seen at a great distance. The two ships answered, but no signal was seen from the other. The night was passed praying to God to send the day. When it came, a point was seen rather dark and rounded, being covered with trees, looking very beautiful; but, looking round for the Almiranta, she was nowhere to be seen; on which every one was sad and anxious, showing the feeling that it was natural they should have. It was Mariana de Castro, the Admiral's wife, who felt it most, for she blamed herself, and wept continually. The General, though he wished to do so, could not dissimulate, for all saw that his thoughts were bitter. What may be said is, that he was always apprehensive of the loss of this ship, for many reasons which might be given, some of which were spoken at Saña, now at a distance of 1,085 leagues. Next day, at dawn, they were repeated by a native woman, who mourned for the loss of a soldier, a friend of hers, who was in the ship. When the daylight appeared, they beheld a single pointed mountain rising out of the sea like a sugar-loaf, all cut out, and to the S.E. another small hill. It seemed to be distant about three leagues, being eight from the island, and it has no port, nor any place where one could jump on to the slope. It is quite bare, there being no trees nor anything green. There are some crevices, two especially on the west side, and out of them as well as from the summit of the mountain, a great quantity of sparks and fire came out with much noise. It may be said with truth that ten volcanoes together do not send forth such flames as this one does by itself. When it was first sighted it was not seen to send out flames. It had a very well-formed peak; but, a few days after we anchored at the island, it threw off its crown with a great trembling, insomuch that, being 10 leagues distant from it where we were anchored, we heard it, and it moved the ship. From that time forward, every now and then, there were mighty thunderings within the mountain at the time that the flames burst forth; and when they finished, there was so much and such dense smoke, that it seemed to cover the whole concave of the first heaven. [52] The Adelantado gave orders to the frigate to sail round the volcano, which was to the west, to see if perchance the Almiranta was on the other side of it, and was becalmed under the land, and then to proceed in the direction of the island. He also ordered the soldiers to be confessed, and, to set an example, he himself confessed in public. The Vicar also persuaded them, for they were about to visit an unknown land, where enemies and dangers would not be wanting. CHAPTER IX. How a great number of canoes came out to the ships from the land; gives an account of them and of the natives, and of the rest that took place until they went into port. Being near this island, there came out from it a large canoe with a sail, and behind it a fleet of fifty smaller canoes, the people in them calling to the ships with shouts and waving of hands, our men, though doubtfully, calling in return. They arrived. The natives in them were of a black colour; some of them tawny, with frizzled hair; many of them having it white, red, and of other colours. It certainly must have been dyed, and half of it removed from the head in some, and there were other differences. They were all naked. Their teeth were dyed red. Part of their bodies was covered with woven stuff, and all were painted with lines blacker than their own colour, and they had lines on their faces and bodies. They had many turns of a black reed round their arms, and many strings of very small beads of bone and fish's teeth round their necks, and many plates of mother-of-pearl, small and great, hanging from various parts. The canoes were small, and some came fastened together, two and two, with frames rather high, as counterpoises, like those of the former islands. Their arms were bows, with arrows having very sharp points of toasted wood, and others with bone harpoon-shaped points. Some were feathered, with the point anointed, and carried in quivers. The ointment appeared to be from a herb. Although they do little harm, they carry stones, clubs of heavy wood, which are their swords, and darts of stout wood, with three rows of harpoons, in length more than a palmo [53] to the points. They carried from a shoulder-belt a kind of bag, well worked, and full of biscuits, made from a certain root, which they were all eating as they came along, and readily gave away some of it. When the Adelantado saw their colour, he took them for the people he was in search of, and said: "This is such and such an island or land." He spoke to them in the language he had learnt during his first voyage, but they never understood him, nor did he understand them. They went on to look at the ships, and all went chattering round them; but they would not come on board, though we tried to persuade them. On the contrary, after consulting, they took their arms quickly, apparently incited by a tall and lean old native who was in the front, and without more ado they drew their bows ready to shoot. The old man addressed them, the word was passed from one to the other, and for some time there was indecision; but, finally, their resolution was formed, and, giving a shout, they shot off all their bows, and sent many arrows into the sails and on other parts of the ship, without doing any other harm. Seeing this, orders were given to the soldiers, who were ready, to fire their arquebuses. Some were killed, many others were wounded, and they all fled in great terror. They were followed in the boat by four arquebusiers, and overtaken. Two jumped into the water to save their lives, who were spared, and the rest, jumping out on the beach, hid themselves among the trees. We stood off and on, seeking for a port, which all so much desired, with the patience taught by the severe work they had gone through, understanding that a landing would bring us certain refreshment. The frigate came back without having seen the Almiranta, which aroused our grief and fear afresh, and all three vessels anchored at the mouth of a bay, under the shelter of some rocks. The bottom was dangerous, and with the rising tide the galeot got adrift at about 10 in the evening. Seeing the danger of driving on the rocks, the General came out to give courage to the men, and raise the anchors. The noise and hurry was great, the danger being imminent, and the night time made it appear greater than it was. The negligence of the soldiers was reprehensible, and there were not wanting those who cried out: "The services which merit approval from the King are neither these cares nor want of care. Let the brave Peruvians go below, and let those who get the credit do the work. This ship must be looked after among them, for it is for their credit, and to save their own lives." They did not want to work, and had no shame; but, without their help, God was served by our getting up the anchors. Having made sail, the ship got out into the open sea, though not without some difficulty, for the waves came on board and made her heel over. At dawn the Adelantado went on board the galeot to seek for a port; and the Chief Pilot found one, though small. The volcano bore N.W. The port was sheltered to the S.E., and had 12 fathoms of depth, a village, a river, fuel and timber, and fresh air. The Adelantado came back without having found a port, and the ships entered the bay. As it was late they anchored under a point. The Sergeant landed with twelve arquebusiers to secure a position. The natives of the village came out, and shot off arrows with such force, that our men were obliged to take refuge in a hut. Two volleys were fired from the ship, which put the natives to flight, and the boat was sent for the men. All that night the ships were at sea, and the next day the Adelantado found a harbour sheltered from all winds, where he anchored in 15 fathoms, and near the shore, where there were villages and a river. All night the noise of music and dancing was heard, striking drums and tambourines of hollow wood, at which the natives passed their time. CHAPTER X. How the natives came to see the ships; how they found another better port; of the guazabra that the natives gave; and what happened until the settlement was formed. Having anchored in the place already mentioned, many natives came to see the ships and our people. Most of them had red flowers in their hair and in their nostrils, and some of them were persuaded by our people to come on board the ships, leaving their arms in the canoes. Among them there came a man of fine presence and tawny-coloured skin, with plumes on his head of blue, yellow, and red, and in his hand a bow, with arrows pointed with carved bone. On either side of him were two natives, with more authority than the rest. We understood this man to be a personage, both because he appeared to be greater than the others, and because of the respect with which he was treated. Presently he came forward, and asked by signs who was our chief. The Adelantado received him with much love, and, taking him by the hand, let him know who he was. He said that his name was Malope, and the Adelantado said that his was Mendaña. Malope understood, and said that henceforward his name should be Mendaña, and that Mendaña's name should be Malope. When this exchange of names had been effected, he showed that he put great value on it, and when anyone called him Malope he said no, that his name was Mendaña; and pointing with his finger to the Adelantado, he said that was Malope. He also said that he was called Jauriqui: that name appearing to mean chief or captain. The Adelantado dressed him in a shirt, and gave him a few trifles of little value. To other natives the soldiers gave feathers, little bells, glass beads, bits of cloth and cotton, and even playing-cards, all which they put round their necks. They taught the natives to say "friends," and to make a cross with two fingers, embracing them in token of peace, all which they did learn and constantly practised. They showed them looking-glasses, and with razors they shaved their heads and chins, and with scissors they cut their finger and toe-nails, at all which they rejoiced and were astonished; but they begged hard for the razors and scissors. They also found out what was under the men's clothes, and, being undeceived, they played monkey tricks, such as those used by the natives of the first islands. This continued for four days, and they came and went, and brought what food they had. One day Malope came, for he was the one whose visits were most frequent, and who showed most friendship, the ships being anchored near his village. The natives assembled with fifty canoes, in which they had their arms concealed, all waiting for Malope, who was on board the Capitana. They all fled because they saw a soldier take up an arquebus, and made for the shore, our people following them. On the beach there was another crowd of people, who received them with joy, and they had a great consultation. The soldiers were disappointed at such signs of peace, and would have preferred that they should have given occasion to break the peace and make war. On that same afternoon the natives took all they possessed in the nearest houses, and retreated to the village of Malope. On the following night there were great fires on the other side of the bay, lasting nearly until morning, which seemed to be a signal for war; and this was confirmed when canoes were seen going in great haste from one village to another, as if they were warning or giving notice of something. Next morning a boat was sent from the galeot to take in water at an adjacent stream. While they were thus employed, some concealed natives shouted and fired off arrows, which wounded three of our men. They followed down to the boat, where they were repulsed by the arquebusiers. The wounded were attended to, and the Adelantado at once ordered the Camp Master to land with thirty men, and to do all the harm they could with fire and sword. The natives stood their ground, when five were killed, and the rest fled. Our people retreated, and, embarking, came back to the ships, having cut down palm trees and burnt some huts and canoes. They brought away three pigs, which they killed. On the same day the Adelantado sent the Captain, Don Lorenzo, in the frigate, with twenty soldiers and seamen, to seek for the Almiranta, with instructions to examine all the coast that was in sight, and to return to the place where they anchored on the first night of seeing the land. Thence he was to steer W. and N.W., which was the direction the Almiranta might have taken, beyond the route taken by the Capitana, and he was to see whether anything could be found in that direction. He also ordered the Camp Master to rise early, and go quickly with forty soldiers to some huts which were near a hill, to punish the natives for having hit our men with arrows, in order that, by means of the chastisement inflicted on them, it might have the effect of preventing greater evils. He arrived without alarming the natives, occupied the paths, surrounded the houses, and set them on fire. Seven natives who were inside, seeing the fire and the people, defended themselves like brave men, and attacked our soldiers without regard for their own lives. Six were killed, and the other escaped by running, but was badly wounded. The Camp Master came back to the ship with seven wounded men and five dead pigs. In the afternoon Malope came to the beach, for the houses and canoes that had been burnt belonged to him. In a loud voice, he cried to the Adelantado by the name of Malope, saying: "Malope! Malope!" and beating on his own breast, saying: "Mendaña, Mendaña!" In this way he made his complaint, showing the harm they had done him by pointing with his finger. He also made signs that his people had not shot arrows at our men, but that the aggressors came from the other side of the bay. He strung his bow, intending that we should all go against them, and that his people would help us in taking vengeance. The Adelantado called him with the intention of explaining matters; but he did not come. He went away, returning on another day, and friendship was restored. On the day of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, they made sail from this port, steering for another which was better and more convenient, at a distance of half a league, and in the same bay. While altering our berth, the Captain, Don Lorenzo, came back with the news that in sailing round the island he had found another bay not less good than the one in which we were, and with more people and canoes; also, that further on he saw two fair-sized islands, near the large island, which were thickly peopled. To the S.E., at a distance of 8 leagues, he saw another island; 9 or 10 leagues to E.N.E. from where we hove to for the night when we first sighted land, he came on three islands, one 7 leagues round and the two others very small. They were all inhabited by brown people of a clear colour, covered with palm trees; and many reefs ran out to W.N.W., with openings and channels, of which no end was seen. [54] No sign whatever was seen of the ship of which they were in search. We anchored in the second port, and the natives passed the whole night in shouting, as if they were bull-fighting or having games, and very clearly we heard the word "amigo," and presently shouts. In this and making fires the night was passed. When morning dawned, a troop of about five hundred natives came to the beach, all with their weapons in their hands, menacing and hurling arrows, darts, and stones at the ships in hostile fashion. Seeing that their missiles did not reach, some of them advanced into the water up to their breasts, while others began to swim; in short, all were equal in willingness, diligence, and noise. They came so near that, grappling with the buoys of the ships, they went on shore with them. Seeing their audacity, the Adelantado ordered Captain Lorenzo, his brother-in-law, to take fifteen soldiers in the boat, and to skirmish with them. Those with shields protected the arquebusiers and rowers, so that only two were hit, but there would have been more if it had not been for the shields, which were passed from place to place. The natives fought in very scattered formation and by rushes, but showed themselves to be valorous, so that it was understood that we had met with a people who knew well how to defend their homes. But this only lasted during the time that our arms did not do the harm that they did and saw. As soon as they were undeceived by the death of two or three, and several wounded, they retreated from the beach, and, abandoning their aggressive attitude, took the road to their homes, carrying the dead and wounded, creeping with the speed that we gave them into the woods. They carried the wounded in their arms, and helped others to walk, leaving the trail of their own blood where they went. The Captain, Don Lorenzo, although he had no orders to land, followed the natives with his men, and the Camp Master, who was watching everything from the ship, shouted that the men were being placed in risk, and that if he was in another place he would punish one who assumed a licence that had not been given to him. Doña Isabel felt this very much, and wished it to be understood that, being her brother, for him there was no limit of licence in things military. The Camp Master landed with thirty soldiers, and went in pursuit of the natives, but as he would not wait, he had nothing to report. It may be looked upon as certain that the Camp Master had said to the Captain, Don Lorenzo, that if he would not obey he was not fit to be a Captain; that he must pull up and know his duty, and that there were not wanting those who would teach him. When this came to the knowledge of Doña Isabel, she said things which were very deeply felt by the Camp Master; who did not come back, but went alone to pass the night at one of the villages of the natives which was near, and all that night silence was well kept. CHAPTER XI. How they began to treat of a settlement, and what passed in forming it, and the complaints of the soldiers. The following day, the Camp Master being on shore, he proposed to the soldiers to clear a place which was close to a large stream, and to found a settlement. The soldiers were not pleased with the place, which appeared to be unhealthy, and for this reason some of the married men went on board to inform the Adelantado of the determination of the Camp Master, and to ask leave to go on shore and settle in one of the native villages, where the houses were ready built and the place already used. Others represented that there was no better place than the one selected, and that if the natives had not settled there, it was a token of their bad disposition. If not, they could do what seemed best. The Adelantado agreed to this, and went on shore. As the unmarried men were of the same opinion as the Camp Master, they at once got out axes, wood knives, and spades, and began to cut down trees with smooth trunks, lofty and tufted, but with very diverse leaves. The Adelantado was not at all pleased at the decision, for it was his intention to form the settlement on a bare point near the entrance of the bay, where he went with the Camp Master and the soldiers. All came with the opinion that the land was like Andalusia, that the natives had many farms, and for a settlement that the place was as good as it was agreeable. The soldiers cut down the trees with good will, brought poles with which they built huts, and branches of palms to roof them. Their former work and troubles, and the gift they had left behind, were forgotten, as well as the small store they then had. They did not remember their country, nor that they had left the province of Peru, so rich and extensive, where there is no man who is poor in hopes. They would overcome all the difficulties of which they were told, and which were before their eyes, for their God and their King. The spirit and valour of Spaniards could do all, for neither labour nor ill fortune could daunt them, nor could dangers, however terrible and fearful they might be. So they built their houses and set up their tents, each one doing the best he could, as a beginning of what they would have to perform in parts where they would live and end with honour and fame. The Devil was able to work so well with some of them, that they kept in mind the delights of Lima; and this sufficed to rob the rest of their lofty thoughts, and thus to abate that constancy which it is necessary to preserve and maintain in such affairs. The Adelantado did not disembark, but gave his orders for the good government of his people from the ship. But the soldiers, to whom a limit to what they are permitted to do seldom or ever seems good, began to complain of an order which the Adelantado had given. It had reference to the good treatment of the natives, their houses and property. Those were not wanting who said that they did not want to have a division but a moderate profit, that it was sufficient that they had been brought to that coast, and that all belonged to them. In other ways they noted and reminded themselves of what they had spent and left behind, and of what they had suffered, and of their hopes. Hence complaints arose, and too surely they began to lose their love and loyalty point by point. CHAPTER XII. In which a particular account is given of this bay, the natives, the port, the villages and food, with what else was seen. This bay, to which the Adelantado gave the name of "Graciosa," for so it is, has a circuit of 40 1/2 leagues. It runs N.N.E. and S.S.W., and is at the western end of the island, on its north side, and south of the volcano. Its mouth is half a league wide, and there is a reef on the east side, but the entrance is very open. The bay is formed by an island to the westward, which is very fertile and well peopled, both on the shore and inland. We called it our garden, "Huerta." [55] It is separated from the large island by a short space, full of rocks and reefs, with some small channels, so that only boats and canoes can pass. The port is at the bottom of the bay, where there is a very copious stream of clear and excellent water, which, at the distance of a musket shot, runs under some rocks and so enters the sea. The settlement was formed on the banks of this stream and of the sea. To the east of the stream, at the distance of an arquebus shot, there is a moderate-sized river. The port is in 10° 20' S., and 1,850 leagues from Lima. There are breezes from the S.E., which do little harm. The bottom is mud, with 40, 30, and 20 fathoms, and anchorage close to the shore. In all this bay there is no place for a ship to anchor except in the port, and in the first, which we left because it was small. Over all the rest there is foul ground owing to rocks. There is another spring on a beach of clean sand, of excellent water, and a river and stream, which flow near the houses of Malope, and there enter the sea. In this country there are many pigs, which they roast whole over stones. There are fowls like those of Castille, many of them white. They fly up into the trees and breed there; also partridges, like those of Castille, or of another kind very like them. There are large wild pigeons, grey, with white necks, small doves, herons, black and white, ducks, swallows, and other birds which I do not know. Of reptiles I only saw some black lizards, and ants, but no mosquitos: a new thing in such a low latitude. There are many kinds of fish. The natives fish with three-pronged poles which they have, large, and many of them. The line appears to be of fibre, with floats of light wood, and sinkers of stone. They have many plantains, of seven or eight kinds. Some are reddish, and as broad as the width of a hand; others of the same colour, but very small and tender, even when ripe. Some have the rind green, and the pulp not so green. There are others very large, twisted with one turn, which are of a delicious taste and smell. Each bunch has many plantains. There are great numbers of cocoa-nut trees and very large sweet canes. There are also almonds with three sides, and the pulp of each one contains as much as four almonds of Castille, the taste being delicious. There are some very beautiful pines of the size of a man's head, with the kernels the size of a Spanish almond. The trees on which they grow have few leaves, and those they have are large. There is another kind of very good nuts, which grow in very large and long bunches on small trees with round leaves, and each one, with its rind, will be of the size and shape of a date. There is also the large fruit which we praised much at the first islands, and the nuts and chestnuts like the others. There is another fruit which they called a pippin. It grows on a tall and large tree, and another kind which is not so good, the way of growing being like that of pears. As we did not go all over the land, nor were there all the year round, it is not known what other fruits there may be. There are three or four kinds of roots, all in abundance, which form their bread, and they eat them roast or boiled. One of them has a sweet taste, the other two prick a little when eaten. A soldier ate one raw, from which a great nausea resulted, but he was none the worse. Of these roots the natives make a great quantity of biscuits, dried either in the sun or by fire. They keep them in baskets of palm leaves. This food is sustaining. It has the drawback of being rather heating, but much is eaten of it, and of the roots roasted and boiled, and in pots. There is plenty of fibre, which throughout the east is used as cord. There are large and red amaranths, greens, and a sort of calabash, plenty of sweet basil with a very strong smell, and several kinds of red flowers beautiful to look at, which the natives are very fond of. They have no smell. They train them on small trees, and have them in small pots near their houses. There is plenty of ginger, which grows without being sown. There is also a great quantity of a tall branching shrub called indigo, from which the indigo dye is made. There are aloe trees, much demajagua, [56] from which they make their cords and nets, as well as from the cocoa-nuts, though not so much. There are shells like the curious ones that are brought from China, and pearl oyster-shells, some large and others small. In our settlement, on the banks of the stream, there was a tree which the natives wound in the trunk, and there comes out a liquor of a sweet smell, which is very like turpentine, and with this, or another mixed with it, they fill their calabashes. The natives make bags and purses of palm very well worked, and large sheets or mats which serve as sails for their canoes. They weave a fabric--I do not know from what it is woven--on some small looms they make, which serve for mantles, with which the women are clothed. I have already said that the natives are black and tawny, and they are like the people we have among ourselves of those colours. They make great use of a root which is also used in the East Indies, called betel, and in the Philippines buhio. It is a cordate-shaped leaf of the size of a hand, more or less, its smell, taste, and colour like a clove. They put lime with it, apparently got from shells, and fruit the size of acorns, which grows on wild palms. They spit out the first chewing, and keep the pulp that is left. It is well spoken of as wholesome, and strengthening to the stomach, as well as good for the teeth. Their villages consist of twenty houses, more or less, and they build them round, of boards one over the other, on a single frame of stout wood. They have two lofts, to which they ascend by ladders, with roofs of interlaced palms, like hen lofts in Castille. They are all open, half the height of a man, and surrounded by a wall of loose stones, with an opening instead of a door. The eaves do not reach to the boards of the roof, and serve as a shelter. In each village there is a long house, used as an oracle, with human figures in half relief, badly carved, and another long house, which appeared to be for the community. In the centre of them there were barbacoas of cane. There are ten or twelve of these villages on the sea shore, and in each one or two wells, curiously lined with stones, with steps such as are in use among us, by which they go down, and the opening has its covering of boards. On the shore there are some yards encircled by stones where, when the sea rises, they fish with a certain contrivance, having a pole worked like a pump-handle. They have some large and beautiful canoes, with which they navigate to a distance, for the small ones only serve to go for short distances from their homes. They are flat-bottomed, made of a single tree from stem to stern. They have their hatchway in the middle, out of which they take the water which comes in by the mast. They fix a frame of crossed sticks, very securely fastened with cords, from which comes an outrigger with a cross plank, which steadies the canoe, and prevents it from capsizing. In this way one such vessel will serve for thirty or more men with their things. The sail is large, and made of matting, wide above and narrow below. The canoes are good sailers and weatherly. Our frigate succeeded in getting one, and hoisted her up, under the bowsprit. They have their cultivated patches, and fruit gardens well ordered. The soil is black, spongy, and loose. The parts that are sown are first well cleared. The temperature is the same as that of other lands in the same latitude. There was some thunder and lightning, and many showers, but not much wind. The Adelantado gave the name of Santa Cruz to the island. It appeared to have a circumference of 100 leagues. All the part which I saw runs almost east and west. It is well covered with trees. The land is not very high, though there are hills, ravines, and some beds of reeds. It is clear of rocks, and those that do exist are close to the land. It is well peopled all along the sea shore; but I cannot give an account of the interior, as I never explored it. CHAPTER XIII. How the trouble among the soldiers began with a paper and signatures; what the Adelantado said on the subject to certain soldiers; of some complaints that were made, and some disgraceful things that occurred. As has been said, the Adelantado did not land because no house had been built for him. So that he was in the ship, while the Camp Master was on shore and had charge of the ordering of things there. Our people began to seek for food, and whenever a leader with twelve or fifteen soldiers went to the villages of the natives (which were numerous and near our settlement), or to their cultivated patches, they always came back with from six to twelve pigs, many cocoa nuts and plantains, and everything else that the island supplies. They found the natives submissive and inclined to peace; for though it is true that at first they took to flight, afterwards they remained quietly in their houses, with their wives and children. They themselves brought supplies to near the camp. They were not allowed to enter, lest they should see how small were our numbers. The same was done by them as regards the ship, and their solicitude seemed to show that they were friends. Malope also conducted himself in the same way, and from the goodwill that was shown by all, it seemed to us that the friendship with them was firmly established. It arrived at such a pitch that the Captain Don Lorenzo was able to make an agreement with the natives that they would come to help us to build the houses, praying that their own might be left to them, and showing much feeling when they were pulled down. One day, when they came the Vicar went out to them, and many with him. He made a cross with two poles, ordering all present to show reverence to it. Presently the natives did the same, and went with it to their village in procession. Things being in this condition, there began to arise among the soldiers opinions very different from those of the Adelantado. They said that the land was wretched and very poor, that there was nothing in all the country, and that the position of the settlement was bad. They were dissatisfied with everything. What yesterday appeared very good to them now seemed very bad; guided by their fancies, and forgetful of the obligations of those who follow the banner of their King. At last a document was prepared with several signatures, in which the Adelantado was asked to take them away from that place and find a better one for them, or to take them to the islands he had talked about. The Adelantado had notice of the paper and signatures, through the gossip and the post which the Devil always has ready to carry tales. He fell ill at the trouble of seeing such a bad beginning to what he had hoped would have a good end. Seeing, however, into what disorder things were falling, he went on shore. Meeting one of those who had signed the paper, he said: "Is your worship a ringleader of the party? Do you not know that it is little less than mutiny to sign that paper?" The man replied, with the paper in his hand: "Here is what we want, and if anything else has been said it is a lie." A soldier put forth another argument, and the Adelantado said: "Silence, for you have cause to hold your tongues." He then went on board again, and ordered the Pilot of the galeot to go on shore, where he was received by certain of the soldiers. It is reported that he said to them that they should leave that land, and that in less than thirty days he would take them to a better one. In the midst of these troubles our church was built, for which there was a charitable promise in the future of 10,000 ducats; and each day the priest said mass in it. They had to seek for food, and they cut much fibre to make ropes, collecting all they could get from the natives. Meanwhile the signing of the paper proceeded, and it was considered certain that there would be eighty signatures. Those who asked men to sign did not forget to make the most of the island, and to remind them of their hardships and hard work. Some of the men answered that there was the need to work everywhere, and that the work in that land was of a kind which was quite suitable to them. The deaths of the natives took place in the following way. One of them, being in friendship with us, a soldier shot him in the neck, of which wound he presently died. The other, being in conversation, four soldiers called him apart, and killed him with stabs. These things were done with the object of inducing the natives to make war upon us, and thus produce a scarcity of provisions, so as to make it the desire of all to leave the island. Also it was thought that the natives attacking, the camp would have to be strengthened, the Adelantado would be applied to for the artillery, and he being disarmed they would remain strong. It was said that they wanted to kill some of us, I know not who, but certain persons were followed, with the object of taking their offices and giving them to friends of the disaffected. It was also said that it was intended to give a false alarm at night, and, when those who were loyal to the Adelantado came out of their houses, to set upon them. It was made public that, one night, a troop of armed malcontents came to enter a house where some loyal men were watching, and after they had pointed arquebuses at their breasts, they turned back and went into a tent. There they tried the beds, and, not finding the owners in them, who from fear had fled into the woods, they only terrified their wives. At another place they tried the place in a bed by driving a sword into it, and not feeling anything they went away. This was related by the people themselves. But as the stories wanted evidence, nothing was done. I say myself that a soldier said to me that others had asked him whether he wished to return to Peru; that he had answered in the affirmative, and seeing what his wishes were, they asked him to sign the paper they showed him, to be presented to the Adelantado. As soon as he had signed they said to him: "Now that you have signed you must have your weapons ready, and if you see the Adelantado and the Camp Master opposed, take the side of the Camp Master, and act like a good soldier. Point with your arquebus and fire. You are not told to kill unless," etc. The same thing was said on another occasion: "It is a pity, for at night I am disturbed lest they should not kill as many men as they want to kill." Among the various proposals of the malcontents there was one that they should make gimlet holes in the ships, because it was not desirable that news should be taken to Peru, for the islands would not be found, even if search was made for them they would not be discovered, and thus either all would go or none. To this a well-intentioned person answered that the coming had been for the good of the people of those parts, and that if the King was not informed, so that succour might be sent, the service could not be performed. This honourable answer so enraged the other that he raised his arm in anger, and said that "they would not be converted, a flock of sheep, and as they have been until now, so they will continue to be henceforward; but we are not going to die here when we can be saved." The other, continuing the conversation, said: "I should be fortunate if the Lord granted that I should be the means of one soul being saved; how much more when there are so many here to be saved." This plan of returning to Peru was so fixed in their minds, that they did not even like the Chief Pilot to go out to sea on the important business of his calling; saying, that if he went with the sailors he would not come back again. This had such an effect on the mind of the Adelantado, that he had all the sails unbent, and put them under guard. This was not the only false testimony that was borne; for another lie was told of another person. It was a small thing to take life, so long as they could gain their ends. But it was seen by experience that attempts against truth and innocence profit little, because the author of them is soon discredited. I can well say that the harm they intended me has been pardoned. A friend said to one of them: "Is your worship one of those who wish to leave this land?" The reply was: "What can we do here?" The other answered: "What we came to do! and if all others went away, I should remain to do my duty; and the friend who should deny this ought to be answered, without further ado, with a dagger in his blood." This confused time was good for each one to declare his good will if he had it. Discontented and vacillating soldiers, when they saw no firmness, felt that the door was open for them to try the minds of others, and find out who was resolved and who was not. One said in public: "the Camp Master is my cock; all are afraid of him. What he orders is obeyed. Now things are ripening. Before long we shall see something, and before long we shall have liberty." It was also said that the clothes of Doña Isabel were intended to last two years. Another said that he might think himself fortunate who could take his wife by the hand. Another said: "Such and such could stay, but we intend to go, let it give pain to whom it might pain, for in my kingdom I may rule." Such like nonsense would lead to death. It was also said: "We carry such a one as pilot, who is not known to the world. He will take us to the deserts of Chile, and with that we shall be contented, and we will go to Potosi." In short, each word that was said was mutinous and insubordinate. Well was this tower of confusion built up over the ashes of vindictiveness, vanity, and disordered ambition and avarice, the pests of such an enterprise. This it is to want understanding and prudence. Will it not bring ruin? Further on we shall see. CHAPTER XIV. How the Adelantado went on shore, and what happened, and what he said to the Camp Master; and the transaction between the Vicar and the Chief Pilot. Seeing that there was so much disorder, the Adelantado determined to go on shore, where he met several soldiers with swords in their hands. He asked them why they carried them so, and one replied that it was because there was war. The Camp Master came to the Adelantado, and said: "It is well that your Lordship has come. It seems to me that these bellicose men go and come with complaints, and refer me to your Lordship; and if your Lordship does not apply a remedy, all those will be found some morning hanging from a tree"; and he pointed with his finger. To this the Adelantado answered with great patience, and showing much sorrow. The Camp Master replied: "They are rascals who would not dare to take a crumb from a cat. Apart from your Lordship, whom I hold to be above my head (this with his hat in his hand), I do not care for any of them, from the smallest to the biggest, and I look upon them as the dirt under my feet, and none of them merits notice except myself, for I am a gentleman. All who are here, except your Lordship, want to go away and leave this land, but I must obey and serve your Lordship; God knows that if it had not been for me the honour of your Lordship would have been in the dust; and last night they would have killed all those who were in two of the houses if I had not prevented them. One is the house of such an one, and as to the other I will keep silence." They told me that he said more. I am not any longer informed about it. They can do what they like. On this day a soldier took the liberty to address the General. The Camp Master was present, and he quarrelled with the man. The Adelantado, seeing this, and considering the liberties that had been taken on other days, said: "Now they lose respect for me." The man was respectable, and was on the side and held the views of his chief, and would have stood by him, and for the honour of the King. But the Adelantado took him by the arm, and said: "This is not the time!" The General paid several visits to the camp, to see if his presence would smooth matters. One day he met the Camp Master, and said to him: "For all that is happening the fault is your worship's, for you give the soldiers wings, and they suffer misrepresentation." The Camp Master answered: "The false statements are on board the ship, and I show no favour to the soldiers, but I make them respect your Lordship and obey you as governor." On another occasion the Camp Master took the hand of the Adelantado, and complained of what Doña Isabel had said of him. The Adelantado was more annoyed this time than on others. The Camp Master went away, and the Adelantado went to the corps du garde. He laid down on a chest, and showed much feeling. They had to help him to raise his feet on to it. Presently, the Chief Pilot and some others came, saying that he should not be troubled, and that all were his servants and would follow him. Having rested a little, he went on board, and repeated what he had said to the Camp Master. With arms in his hand the General came for me, and told me, that the Camp Master had said also what a thing it was not to have come provided, as was reasonable, and they had deceived him in not having brought two hundred axes and three hundred wood knives; for they had come to a land where neither God nor the King would be served by their arrival, and if this people were taken to another part it would be a great advantage. These things about the Camp Master I relate partly from the reports of others, for I do not myself remember them all very well. The next time the Adelantado went on shore was to arrange and mark out with the Camp Master a site for a stockade to be used as a fort. Touching this, and the ground for sowing, and other matters relating to the administration of the settlement, he had to give his attention and to hear much folly. There were questions of entails, titles, relationships, and ownerships; such demands, replies and settlements; such wasting of time and breaking of heads. In fine, they did not trust each other. On this day two arquebusiers left the camp, and the ball of one of them went whizzing over the Chief Pilot, who was on board the Capitana. The other ball passed over the frigate, and I know not at what birds they were aiming. On the following night the Chief Pilot was keeping watch, and at dawn Don Diego Barreto came in a canoe to speak to his brother-in-law. Having spoken to him, he said to me that things had come to such a pass in the camp that it did not promise less than his death, and the deaths of his brothers and brother-in-law, with all those who remained true to their duty. At this time the Camp Master was saying on shore, "Arm! Arm!" The Chief Pilot ordered that the Constable should fire off a piece that was pointed at the village, sending the ball in the air, to terrify the natives, or at least to let them understand that we did not sleep without a dog. The noise of all ceased, and that of one voice sounded, saying that the General should send them powder and cord. We were deaf for the time, but at dawn we sent them what they asked for; asking at the same time the cause of the disturbance. The answer was that the branches of trees rubbed against the posts in one part of the camp, and, thinking it was the natives, they had sounded to arms. On the same day the Vicar went on shore to say Mass, according to his custom; for he also still lived on board, there being no house for him in the camp. When he returned in the afternoon, he said to the Chief Pilot: "Those people will go without fail." The Chief Pilot asked where they would go. The Vicar replied, "I only know what I say;" and the Pilot said: "What sailors have they to take them? Will they kill us, or use force?" The Vicar said Yes; that all were determined to do so. He asked the Chief Pilot to procure that the soldiers should be appeased, for if they should go the natives will be the losers. He shrugged his shoulders, saying that with very good will he would spend four years there, teaching the natives. The Pilot answered: "A month has not even passed since we arrived. How can there be so little firmness in honourable men?" CHAPTER XV. How the Chief Pilot asked leave to go, in the name of the General, to speak to the soldiers on shore, and what passed between them. The next day, being a Friday, the Chief Pilot, seeing the determination of the men in the camp, from what the Vicar had said, and the illness and low spirits of the Adelantado, asked permission to go on shore and speak to the soldiers in his name. The Adelantado answered: "I know not whether those people will listen to anything in my favour and that of the land, being so determined, and having declared that they would have their own way." The Pilot went to him a second time, and at last he consented. So the Chief Pilot went on shore, and the first person he met, with a scornful gesture, and his head turned derisively, said: "Are you ordered to go with a report to Peru? Now is the time to take my letters." Then a soldier, who was a friend to the Adelantado, came to the Pilot, and said: "Things look very bad; I know not what will happen." Another said: "Though I wish to see you proceeding with the enterprise, I am very sorry to see you here, because of the menaces with which you will be received." On going further into the camp, many soldiers came to him. Some were saying: "Where have you brought us to? What place is this whence no man goes, and to which no man will return? Even if notice was sent, people would only come to take gold, silver, pearls, or other things of value, and these are not here. The Adelantado is not to send notice, nor will all of us, or any of us, consent to it." Others said: "We did not come to sow: for that purpose there is plenty of land in Peru; that is not the way to follow the service of God or of the King. We have obligations to our own people, not to these savages. These are not the islands the Adelantado told us of, nor will we remain here. Embark us and take us to seek those other islands, or take us to Peru or some part where there are Christians." Resolute words of people without a master! Of these and other like things one and the other talked, in the direction whither their desires guided them, or rather drove them, without attending to whether the things they wanted were profitable or harmful. For mutineers have their wills so unrestrained that they have no bridle to check them, though the words spoken to them may be words of truth. The Chief Pilot enquired for the reasons which made them think that the land was bad, to which they answered that it yielded next to nothing. On this he asked them what they had left in Peru, and what they had brought from there? and what they sought for to pass this life, unless it was money to buy a house and sustenance: a thing which few succeed in doing until late, most men passing their lives in hopes; that the present is good for working, without knowing what may come after, or what may be discovered. They said that when that time came twenty years would have passed away, and they would be old. The Pilot said to them that according to that, they ought to know how to find cities, vineyards, and gardens; to enter a house ready furnished, with the tables spread, and to make the owners give up their property and go into servitude; or they should know how to find mountains, valleys, and plains of emeralds, rubies, and diamonds, ready to be loaded and taken away. It should be remembered that all the provinces in the world had their beginnings; that Seville, Rome, and Venice, and the other cities of the world, were once forests or bare plains; and that it had cost the inhabitants what great things cost to create them, that their successors might enjoy the fruits of their labours, as they do now enjoy them. "What I understand is that you want others to have worked that you may rest, without remembering that all have to work, though the first workers may have made the beginnings." But they looked upon the Chief Pilot with suspicion, and they gave for a reason that it was he who was to go with the news, and he therefore favoured the settlement of this land that he might remain in the other. He asked them what riches they had seen him take that they thought this of him; that he it was who risked most, having to go for their good to discover routes over unknown seas; besides the labour he had to go through, to look out for a rock at night, and to complete calculations. He further addressed them as follows:--"Gentlemen, who is it that deceives you and makes you discontented? What is the bad conception which makes you think that you can all leave this place with the ease that you promise yourselves? Tell me who they are, for I will explain to you the impossibilities there are in going from here to Peru, or any other part whatsoever." One of them answered: "Let that be how it may, for I would rather die at sea than where I am, and between the two we are in irons." The Pilot said to this man: "Know you not that we follow our General, who is in the place of the King, and that we are bound to desire what he desires for the King's service; and to want any other thing is to want to go contrary to the royal service." They all answered: "Here we are not going against the royal service." To this the Pilot replied: "What is it to go against the will of your General; to refuse to improve the land which he has settled in the royal name; and what is it to disobey, incite, and menace those who do not agree with you?" They answered: "We only desire that notice be not sent to Peru, and that, as we are a small body of men, we may be taken from here and taken to the islands of which we are in search, or to some better place." The Pilot replied: "The Adelantado is the person whose duty it is to see that all goes well. It should be left to him, who now wishes a second time to search for the Admiral at the island of San Cristobal, which he was instructed to search for. If it should be found all will be well, and if not, a Christian view of things should be taken. The Adelantado's person and that of his wife were in the same place where they all were, and all would share the dangers together. If the Almiranta was found, all must approve. Moreover, it was not the Chief Pilot who had to go, but the Adelantado, who was well prepared." The Pilot added that their leader was ill, and that it was not reasonable to expect that his person should be exposed to new risks. But when he should wish to go, there should be none to contradict, being such honourable men whose faith could be trusted in this and more. At this time others had come to give their opinions, but as the music was loud and so much out of tune, it did not sound well. Continuing the discussion, the Chief Pilot, whose services in having navigated the fleet and discovered four islands whence they could take a new departure with a fair wind and short voyage, were nearly forgotten, now said: "You should all remember that if God had not given us the island on which we now are, we should all have perished; and as He gave it, we ought to be willing to remain here for a time. Now it may be seen that the same wind which brought us detains us here; the wind that was fair is now contrary, and a return to Peru is impossible without seeking a very high latitude. The ships have many defects, and we cannot careen them, we have no cables, and the rigging is rotten. As for provisions, we have nothing left but a little flour, and the jars for water are diminished in number, as many of them have been broken; while the barrels are out of order, there being no one who can repair them. The route is long and unknown, and we do not know what would be the duration of such a voyage. These things are certain, and cannot be avoided, without the risk of your own lives and those of your comrades." He said further: "I desire that the wind would change, but we must go west, being the only course with a fair wind. We may be certain that we shall not be a longer time on the voyage than we were in coming here, where we can have as much, in the way of supplies, as we started with. Why should we have gone through so much labor, wasting our property and running such great risks, undertaking such an honorable enterprise, if we do not go through with it? "Remember well that the King has had and still has other vassals, who have defended frontiers and maintained provinces against warlike people of great power, and sometimes eating dogs and cats rather than suffer dishonour; and all without expecting any reward such as may be hoped for here. At present neither will supplies be wanting in so fertile a soil, nor will an enemy cause serious danger; nor are there other drawbacks which we are obliged to forget, but which others will not forget. For we have an honourable opportunity which many others would like to have without ever having it offered to them, which we can perpetuate at the cost of much careful management. Why should we avoid such a chance? We should show resolution, for there is time for all things, and it is as well to reach the place we want in May as in September. In short, where is it desired that we should be, if we are to say that we only come to seek our own welfare; and even to procure that we want the spirit, for very soon, and without more cause than our own cowardice, we should be undone. We should be looked upon as the enemies of God and the King, and of the honor of our General and our own, if we abandon such an enterprise and such a land. "Enemies to God, because we abandon so easily, and without sufficient cause, the work we came to do for the honour of God and the salvation of souls. It is the great interest on which we have to turn both our eyes, to rescue from the captivity of the Devil those whom he looks upon as so secure; to turn the worship of the natives from him, and turn it to God, to whom they owe it, and whose it is. "Enemies of the King, for impeding his service, which may be promoted in this place, without making other discoveries, incurring fresh expenses, or risking other fleets. It may be that what was intended will be achieved, for when the new world was discovered it was not known at first how important it was, there being only a few small islands of little or no value; yet, through the constancy of the discoverers, there were afterwards found the great and rich provinces of New Spain and Peru; while the return to Spain, for a long time laborious and difficult, is now made easy through the mercy of God. "Enemies to the honour of our General, because he has expended his resources on the enterprise, leaving what he has left in Peru. Do you wish, solely for your whim, to destroy such Christian aspirations, which have endured so long? "Enemies of our own honour, because, from this position where we now are, there is no place to which we can go that will not be in the dominions of our King, and whose Ministers will exact a very strict account of whence we came, where we have left the General, and what reason we had for abandoning a land which had been settled in the name of the King: more especially such a land as this which is fertile, with friendly and numerous inhabitants. In one way or another we cannot escape from offending our consciences, risking our lives, our honour, and our liberty. For all to go it is not possible, although we may wish it. To leave women and children, and helpless persons, would not be just. Would you go to New Spain? The Adelantado has already taken that route when he was in these parts before, but many died, and all went through terrible hardships during a long voyage; moreover, it is not always the season for such navigation. To go to the Philippines also has its difficulties." Thinking it all over, and doing his best to combat their inconsiderate desire, the Chief Pilot concluded by saying: "Why do you litigate without any grounds, saying that you will embark presently? I will show, with the Adelantado, that what you want to do this day is impossible." Some of them, opening their eyes, appeared to be convinced by these arguments; but others were still obdurate. They preferred to trust to the ship rather than to what the land offered, and the water could be taken in 10,000 cocoa nuts, in joints of the canes, or even in the canoes of the natives, covering and caulking them; and they proposed other equally feasible contrivances. But the Chief Pilot said: "This is only a waste of time. Is it not for the Adelantado to decide what shall be done?" They said that "if the land will yield much food, how is it that we get nothing to eat from it?" "What certainty have you," said the Pilot, "that the provisions obtained here will not get bad." They answered that they were ready to risk that. As to water, they said that they would fall in with other islands on the route whence they could take in water; and that they would listen to reason, for they were reasonable beings. Finally, they went back to their old song that they wanted to go to Manilla, which was a land of Christians. The Pilot said to them that Manilla was also a land of heathens, and that there being Christians was due to the discoverers who settled there; and that in our expedition a similar duty was required of us. In Manilla there are only some soldiers stationed by the King to guard the estates of the settlers; and it is better to remain here where we might become such as they are in fame and honour, than go marching there with shouldered arquebus. To this one of them answered that honour was where the Pope and the King were, and not among Indians. The Pilot then said that it was better to ask for what they wanted from their General, who was not a man to close his ears to a just petition; and that they should consider that their position was very offensive to the General, who desired to do what the King had ordered. What word soever sounded ill there would also follow as many more and as free. To this, one of the soldiers said: "Leave off! leave off! and leave it for he who wants to stay, for we intend to go, dislike it who may." I was without a sword, and he with seven or eight others, went for theirs, and presently came back with heightened colour. Asking for the Camp Master, they all bowed their heads, with their swords in their hands, looking very fierce, not wanting much whispering, and secrets among some who spoke within hearing. They said publicly that they came to kill the Chief Pilot; and there was one who swore that they came saying: "Come, let us kill him, for he is the cause of our being in this land;" and others swore, and went so far with their menaces as to say: "What shall they drink in his skull." Things did not look well. God knows what they intended. He who had declared that they would go, spoke and said: "There is no one who does not wish to go from this land; one who keeps most apart was he who showed most willingness, but it does not signify." He said most on that side, and was most resolved, both then and at other times; but as there were many people, there were as many arguments, and with loud voices. The Chief Pilot concluded what he had to say by declaring that all he had put before them was in the service of God and the King, and that he would sustain it to the death, as he had proved. CHAPTER XVI. How the Camp Master came on board the ship; what passed with the Adelantado, and between the Camp Master and the soldiers on shore, where the Chief Pilot talked to the Camp Master. This was the state of affairs when the Camp Master came on board the ship to speak with the Adelantado, who, had he been alone, would have strangled him and hung him on one of the masts. So Doña Isabel, his wife, urged him (according to her own account), saying to her husband: "Kill him or have him killed. What more do you want? He has fallen into your hands, and if not I will kill him with this knife." The Adelantado was prudent, and did not do so. He understood that the desire of the Camp Master was not to go so far in offences of his own as it was said that he intended. The Camp Master returned to the shore, and said to the soldiers: "Gentlemen! I come from speaking to the General respecting his affairs and this settlement; and he said that it had come to his knowledge that all of you were afflicted and troubled, saying that this is not a good land, and that you wanted to be taken to a better one. He says that you ask for a paper, and that he will answer, which is reasonable, as he is our General." Presently he said: "This is not mutiny, but it is when, without saying anything to their superiors, the soldiers suddenly break out, killing and crying, 'Down with the rascals!' Your worships have a right to ask, and to go and seek the Almiranta; for those on board were our comrades, and it is not just to leave them without making any search. "But if I were not the Master of the Camp, I would do and say more, for it is not understood that in my position I can give consent, when the Adelantado has said that his friends were those who have most declared themselves: a reason for giving all to understand that one enjoys his friendship. "No soldier, whatever his condition may be, can to-day speak a word without its coming to the ear of my General; for I have to be subordinate, though I may be his best friend. My General has given to me his honour and the service of the King, and they are in that place I have to serve. Each one watches another. I am watched because I favour your party. I have not to lose my honour, nor is it ever to be supposed that such evil and unjust things can ever enter the thoughts of a person with my obligations, position, and experience. Nor is it reasonable to think that such honourable soldiers as are in this camp would wish to do by force what is suggested. Each one performs the duty assigned to him, for we only came here to obey and serve the King, and he who serves him not will be punished." The soldiers began to talk among themselves, saying they need not be alarmed nor bear it in mind; and one of them said, referring to a search for the Almiranta, that he would offer to go in search in the name of the rest; that if he volunteered the thing would be safe, as he was more confident than the others, not being altogether ignorant of the art of navigation. Another said that the Adelantado is expert, and could not be deceived; and said that it should be the Camp Master. Another objected that he was not a sailor. He laughed, and said: "Gentlemen, I do not understand those affairs, and can easily be taken in." He added: "Some one has to go, and some one has to be trusted in the business." This ended what was said in public. A witness swore that, the Chief Pilot being there talking, one soldier said to another: "Let us choose this traitor; we will kill him." The Chief Pilot took the Camp Master aside, and asked him to listen for a moment; then looked round carefully, and in a short time discussed many things that have already been referred to. Respecting the navigation, the Pilot said that, when the time came, he would do the work well in accordance with instructions of the Adelantado. The Camp Master said that now he did not value his life, and that he would say nothing unless he was asked to speak. The Chief Pilot then took his leave, and went on board to report what had happened to the General, adding that, in his opinion, it would be well if the General would go on shore and speak to his people; that he thought it would be easy to reduce them to obedience by his presence, his will, and by putting before them the just reasons which actuated him. On the following day the General went on shore. As he jumped out, a servant of his said, while he seized his arms: "There are going to be black puddings." Some soldiers coming towards the Adelantado said to one another: "Our General comes with the martingale. He also comes armed. What think you of the words his servant spoke to him?" That day the Adelantado had arranged with Don Lorenzo and three other soldiers that the Camp Master should be put to death. This was very different from what I had understood that he intended to do, but such things ought to be stated as, in my opinion, will explain the change. A certain person told me that a bad third person had said to the Adelantado that if he would have the Camp Master stabbed (he did not say that he should be killed), but that if he should be killed--Let those of better understanding judge, for I do not hold it to be right to sit in judgment on the living and the dead. CHAPTER XVII. How the Chief Pilot went to seek for provisions, and how Malope came to make peace, and the friendship that was established. On the following day the Chief Pilot asked permission from the Adelantado to go in search of food. Having received it, he went in the boat, with twenty men, to a village where he only saw one man with a little boy. The rest had fled into the woods. On entering and searching the houses, nothing to eat was found. The Pilot followed a path which seemed to lead to the cultivated patches of the natives, and some pigs were seen, which ran into the woods. The Chief Pilot then heard the report of an arquebus, and presently another. On this he went back to the beach, where he had left the boat in charge of four arquebusiers. Arriving on the beach, he found Malope, who had come with two canoes, and said: "Friends; let us all come and eat." These words, and some others, we had learnt. He then told us by signs that we should embark, and come with him to a place where he had many pigs and other food. He sent the other canoe in advance. The Chief Pilot embarked, and told Malope to call the natives of that village. They came back, and arranged, on their return, to have food collected. Malope rowed his canoe, our boat followed, and, arriving at two other villages, a similar arrangement was made. We then entered the village of the warlike natives. They gave us a pig, and a few cocoa-nuts and plantains. As this seemed little, the Chief Pilot asked for more. But the natives took up arms, and retired behind their houses and the trunks of trees with their bows and arrows, shouting and apparently calling to Malope. He seemed to be undecided, looking at one party and then at the other. The Chief Pilot, who always kept Malope by his side, drew his dagger and threatened Malope if he should attempt to go, or should not tell the natives not to shoot off their arrows. If they did, they would all be killed with the arquebuses. With an ignited cord he got ready to fire them off. Malope went to the village, and induced them to offer that, when the sun showed it to be three o'clock, they would come with what they could get ready. Malope called them, and they presently came, giving us many plantains and cocoa-nuts to eat. They also invited us to come and shoot natives on the other side of the bay, and to kill pigs. Having embarked, the boat followed the canoe, but the Chief Pilot marched along the shore with sixteen men and three native guides. Seeing some birds, the natives made signs that we should shoot them with the arquebus. The Chief Pilot would not consent, though some of the men urged it. His reason was that to shoot a ball at a small object would have a doubtful result; and he did not wish the natives to think that the result was uncertain; that they might not lose their fear of the arquebus. Malope landed, the boat and canoe remaining side by side. All being on shore, they found the spring which has been mentioned. Malope sat down by it, and made signs that we should drink. From there we went to a village where the natives had ready for us a great heap of many plantains, sweet canes, cocoa-nuts, almonds, roots, biscuits, mats, and two pigs. Thus we went from village to village, and they gave fourteen pigs and of other things as much as we could take. The natives were always quiet, with the large canoes ready with their paddles, and themselves sitting under the shadow of them. There were some who gave us plantains and roasted roots, open cocoa-nuts, and water taken from the wells, doing all with as much good will as if they had been well paid. Malope showed himself to be contented, and said that we might come further, and he would get more food for us. He took us to a higher part, and all the natives round heard and respected him as Lord or great friend. The Chief Pilot, by signs, told him to make the natives carry that food, and at a word from him they had it all on their shoulders. It was worth seeing when more than a hundred natives went along the shore in a line. Having reached the boat, they put all they carried into it. Malope told the Chief Pilot to embrace the General for him, and took his leave. The Chief Pilot embarked, and went to the villages already mentioned, receiving from the natives what they came out in their canoes to give us. The provisions that we brought were good, but to some it seemed too small a supply. They said to the Chief Pilot that he should let them go on shore; that they would take, burn, and kill; that the natives were dogs, and that they did not come from Peru to be satisfied with nothing. The Chief Pilot replied: "Does a boat laden with what has cost no money, and given with good will by our friend Malope, seem to you to be nothing?" They answered according to their knowledge, and the Chief Pilot proceeded as appeared to be necessary. I have related this in such detail, because it is much to the purpose in this narrative, as will be seen further on. Having arrived at the ship, Doña Isabel told the Chief Pilot that the other day the soldiers went from the camp to kill Malope. The Adelantado sent to tell them of the friendship Malope had shown, and desiring that notice should be given in the camp not to do him any harm, as he had done so much good to us. The Adelantado appreciated what this native had done, praising his good conduct. He rose from his bed to see what had been brought on board, which was very fairly distributed, and he said to the Chief Pilot that he only wanted the same share as a companion. CHAPTER XVIII. How the Adelantado went on shore with the Chief Pilot, and ordered a squadron of soldiers who were going in search of food not to kill Malope. It relates the death of the Camp Master, and other cruelties. When the night came, the Adelantado sent for the Chief Pilot, and made him sit by his bedside, where he was lying ill. With very great caution, he told him that he intended to go on shore the next morning with four men in whom he had most confidence, all armed, and that he would be accompanied by the royal standard, and would proclaim the will of the King at the proper time; for that he had to go and to do justice on the Camp Master, for reasons which moved him so to act. That night the Chief Pilot caused the usual careful watch to be kept, and at dawn they asked for the boat from the camp, with loud voices. On hearing them, Doña Isabel came from her bed, saying: "Alas! alas! they have killed my brothers, and they ask for the boat to come and kill us." The Adelantado would not listen, and as soon as it was day a squadron of thirty soldiers came out of the camp. The Adelantado ordered them to be told not to go on before he had spoken to them. Embarking with his people, he asked who was their leader, who had sent them, and where they were going. The Lieutenant answered that he was the leader, and that they were ordered by the Camp Master to go to the village of Malope and seek for food. The Adelantado warned them not to kill Malope, nor to do him any harm, nor take any of his property, as he was our friend, and that they should take him with them. He knew quite well that they came for food, and, turning to the Chief Pilot, the Adelantado told him to relate to the soldiers all that had passed with Malope the day before. They heard it laughing. The Adelantado had with him the Captain of the galeot, who carried a great wood-knife. [57] On the shore the Captain, Don Lorenzo, his brothers, and a few sailors, were waiting. Having landed, the Adelantado joined those who were on the shore, and went to the fort which the Camp Master was constructing in great haste. Before arriving, there were not wanting those who asked what was it they were wanted to do there, and one was cleaning his arquebus. The General arrived at the camp when the Camp Master was having his breakfast. He came out just as he was, without coat or hat, to receive the General, and when he found himself among so many who were not his friends, he called for staff, dagger and sword. Those who had to do the deed were arriving. The Adelantado raised his eyes to heaven, and, giving a sigh, put his hand to his sword, saying: "Long live the King! Death to traitors!" Upon this, without any delay, one Juan Antonio de la Roca took the Camp Master by the collar, and gave him two stabs, one in the mouth and the other on the breast. Then a Sergeant, with a Bohemian knife, gave him another in the side. The Camp Master cried: "Oh, gentlemen!" He turned to get his sword, but the Captain, with his wood-knife, nearly cut off his right arm. He fell, saying: "Oh, leave me time to confess." One answered that "there was no time. You can well feel contrition." The wretched man was palpitating, stretched on the ground, and crying, "Jesus Maria!" A good woman came up, and helped him to die in peace. One with a kind heart did no more than draw out the sword, and the woman gave it up. So the body was left, and the Adelantado approved the slaughter. This being done, it was presently ordered to be proclaimed that the Camp Master was dead, and that all the rest were pardoned in the name of his Majesty. The Camp Master having expired, the drummer, coveting his clothes, left him naked. The Camp Master was very zealous, a hard worker and good soldier, and in all enterprises he was the first. He appeared to be about sixty years of age, for his hair was quite white, and, though old, he was vigorous, but very impetuous. He knew how to think much, but he could not be silent, and I believe that for no other thing he was killed. At this time Don Luis and the Chief Pilot were talking near the tent of two friends of the Camp Master, and Don Luis seized one of them and stabbed him. The soldier cried out: "For me? For me? What have I done?" Don Luis left the dagger, and drew his sword; but the Chief Pilot defended the man, saying: "What is this, that without more ado men are to be killed thus?" A soldier came out of another tent with his sword drawn, and said: "What is this? Like the Camp Master?" Don Luis attacked him, and many others coming up, the soldier retreated inside, saying: "What have I done? What have I done?" Then the Captain, Don Lorenzo, came, and they killed the soldier by some houses where he had fallen. The drummer stripped them, and soldiers were stationed to guard the goods of both. Don Lorenzo and his brother came with a party of soldiers, but they found the Chief Pilot at the door, who opposed their advance, saying he would report them. Don Lorenzo told him to leave the door, crying "Death to these traitors!" The Chief Pilot said that they were friends. "Kill them! kill them!" they replied, "they deserve it more than the others." The Chief Pilot urged that they should mind what they were doing. Don Lorenzo answered that only St. Peter, if he was there, could induce them to spare the lives of such people. At the cries and noise of arms, the women came out, alarmed and agitated. Some prayed for their husbands; others wrung their hands and lamented. The men were like lunatics, going about with their eyes seeking those they would kill, shouting, with drawn swords: "Long live the King! Death to traitors!" It seemed that this was a day for avenging injuries; but to me it seemed a day of licence to lads who might go any length. After the disturbances the Sergeant-Major came out of his tent, and that he might be able to say that he had also fleshed his sword, he gave a page of the Camp Master a cut on the head, and another to one of his servants. He also tried to wound a black man who had served the Camp Master, but he saved himself by his feet. The two who were wounded went to seek protection from the General, who ordered the Sergeant-Major to leave the boys alone. One came out who was suspected; another, who cried for the King, would have killed him if the Chief Pilot had not protected him. The cry was that traitors came out with their arms; this one should have a rope; dead and alive all need to have honour. They came out, they said, to accompany the royal standard which Don Diego Barreto hoisted, and cried out for the King, to which all answered, "Death to traitors!" The Captain of the wood-knife took the two heads which the General had ordered to be put into nets, and each one was set on a pole near the corps de garde. [58] At this time the boat came from the ship in a great hurry, with the Vicar holding a lance in his hand, and the sailors under arms, crying out, "Long live the King! Death to traitors!" Coming to where they found the Adelantado, they said: "We have all come to serve his Majesty and to die with your Lordship," and they rallied round the royal standard. One of them asked the General whether it was done, and when he replied in the affirmative, the man said it was well done. On seeing the two heads he exclaimed: "A wall has henceforward fallen from before me." At this time Doña Isabel and her sister came from the ship, for the Captain with the wood-knife had been on board to announce the victory to them, and to boast of having given a good stab to the Camp Master, and of having cut off the two heads. He said: "Now you are mistress and marchioness, and I am Captain, for the Camp Master is dead. I say that it is terrible to fear wicked men with licence." When Doña Isabel landed, she went to the corps de garde. At this juncture a soldier came out of the camp, with plumes in his hat, dissimulating, and asking carelessly what was the matter, pretending that he did not know. This was the man who raised all the questions, and to whom all turned their eyes. He was allowed to be free, because the persons were few with whom he had treated. Many were frightened, and they had themselves given the occasion for the insecurity. Some commended themselves to their friends who had really been true, and they freed them. The Adelantado ordered that all should go to the church to hear Mass, which the Vicar said. When he had finished he turned his face to the people, and told them not to be scandalised at the deaths, for it was ordained. He recommended them to be quiet and obedient to the General, reminding them that by that way there was safety. They returned from the Mass in the same way they had come, with the standard, to the corps de garde. The baggage of the dead men was opened, and their enemies made a division of it. The Adelantado ordered the bodies to be buried, with which this first tragedy ended. All were dismissed to assemble again in the afternoon, with the consequence that will be described in the next chapter. CHAPTER XIX. How the soldiers killed Malope; of the arrests that were made in consequence of the murder, with the deaths of an Ensign and of a murderer of Malope. In the afternoon all assembled at the corps de garde, and the Adelantado ordered the heads to be taken down and the standard to be concealed; when one arrived who had gone with the soldiers in the morning, and reported to the Adelantado. He said that when the soldiers came to the house of Malope, he had regaled them and given them what he had. The innocent man felt secure, when a soldier raised his arquebus, pointed it at him, and fired. He fell to the ground palpitating, when a certain person, to put him out of his pain, came to him with a hatchet and cleft his skull, saying we had never done a better thing. In this way they most unjustly killed Malope, returning so much evil for so much good. It was the work rather of a devil than of a man. He had kept the country at peace, and had given us food. He was the means of inducing others to give, and his kindness had been very great. They excused themselves by saying that Malope had intended to commit treason. This seems to have been an invention to give colour to the outrage they had committed. They gave up the murderer, and he said, ordering his arms: "He is well dead. Is there any one who wants to seek my death?" The Adelantado felt it much, and so did every one, not only the deed itself, but the trouble it would lead to. The murderer was brought in a canoe, with his hands tied behind him, and the Adelantado ordered both feet to be put in the stocks. Most of the soldiers came marching along the shore. The Adelantado ordered those who were with him to conceal themselves in the corps de garde, and as they entered, coming four and four, to seize them. The Lieutenant of the Sergeant-Major entered, and four with him, who were seized and put in irons. They looked about in all directions, and, seeing the page of the Camp Master, they asked him with their eyes about his master. The boy took hold of his throat with one hand, meaning that his master was dead. The prisoners showed their sorrow. A nephew of the Camp Master then came in, whom the General honoured much, saying he knew what a good servant of the King he was; and the same with Don Toribio de Bedeterra. Presently the Ensign came with the rest of the soldiers, and Don Lorenzo disarmed him, and delivered him to four arquebusiers with irons, to be taken to a corps de garde at some distance. The wife of the prisoner went crying among the houses and branches, well aware of the danger of her husband, for she was weeping before he came. Don Lorenzo went to call the Chaplain, and the good father, as one seeing a turbulent river, did not dare to pass it. He said: "Sir Captain, what is it that you want with me? Remember that I am a priest. Oh, for the sake of the one God, do not kill me!" "Come with me," said Don Lorenzo, "just for a little." "Here! here!" said the priest; "I cannot go any further." It was explained to him that it was to confess the Ensign, and he was reassured. He presently was taken behind a tree, where the prisoner was. He began to persuade him to confess, as they were going to kill him. The prisoner said: "I to die? wherefore?" The priest undeceived him. Those who were present relate that the Ensign then said: "Let it be then as God wills;" and he knelt down at the feet of the confessor, whose duty it was and who performed his office. A black servant of the General had orders, and, with a knife, gave him a blow and then another, by which his head was cut off, and put with the other two. The body was covered with some branches, and soon afterwards thrown into the sea, at which his wife wept bitterly. The Ensign being finished with, the Captain, Don Lorenzo, in the hearing of the General, asked who should be taken out of the stocks next. He ordered that it should be the Lieutenant of the Sergeant-Major, but all entreated the Adelantado to spare his life, which he did, taking him in his hands and receiving the oath. He then retired, that he might not be asked by the next one who was ordered to be taken out of the stocks, for the Sergeant-Major had him by one arm, the Chief Pilot taking the other; but the prisoner, shaking them off, exclaimed: "Here I am. If I deserve it, cut off my head." Doña Isabel and all the others entreated the Adelantado to spare his life. He made him take the same oath as the other, and pardoned him. Rising up, the prisoner cast his eyes on the head of the Camp Master. With his hands over his face and weeping, he said, in a voice so that we could all hear: "Ah, thou honoured old man! and have you come to this at the end of so many years of service to the King? This is the reward they have given you! a vile death, and your head and grey hairs stuck on a pole." There was a soldier by his side, who said: "I cannot but mourn for the sad fate of the Camp Master, whom we looked upon as a father." The Adelantado heard them, and ordered them to be silent. They said that he should give thanks for having been delivered from the dangers in which he was, and that he should be grateful to his sponsors for the good intercession they made. He gave thanks to all, and embraced his companion with many tears. While this was passing, the murderer of Malope called to the Chief Pilot, and told him of his condition. In the name of God, he entreated the Pilot to be a good intercessor for him in his need, and for a second time he asked him to pray to the Adelantado to pardon his crime. He might be sure how well he would serve hereafter, and he wanted to marry Pancha, the Adelantado's servant (this was a native girl of Peru, of bad character, carachanta, [59] and the rest), whom the Adelantado had in his service. The Chief Pilot reassured him, saying that he might be certain that, without doing what he had pointed out, he would be a good mediator, as he would presently see. The Adelantado came to take him out of the stocks with his own hands, that he might be judged. The Chief Pilot prayed that his life might be spared, but the Adelantado said, almost in a rage: "How am I to pay for the death of my friend Malope but with the death of this man?" The Chief Pilot replied that he might show the heads of the two who were executed to the natives, and make them think that they were punished for the death of Malope; adding, that he must remember we are few, and that the position of affairs made pardon advisable. The Adelantado answered that he would consider that, and would keep him a prisoner. The Chief Pilot gave thanks for the mercy, and the prisoner was taken out of the stocks and sent on board the ship in charge of four men. This man did not care to eat, and drank salt water, turning his head to the wall with shame because some said to him: "Why did you kill that good native without cause?" Others told him he deserved to be quartered for having committed such a crime. At last it seemed to him that it would be better to die than to live. He left off caring for himself, and died very suddenly after a few days, having first received the holy sacrament, a privilege not enjoyed by the others. With this ended the tragedy of the islands where Solomon was wanting. CHAPTER XX. Of the great mourning for Malope among the natives. The great sickness that prevailed in the camp; with the deaths of the Adelantado and the Chaplain, and the victories gained by the natives. Next morning, great cries of sorrow were heard in the village and house of Malope, raised by a large assembly of people. The Adelantado ordered that a party should presently go with the head of the Ensign, and give it to the natives, telling them that, as the best thing that could be done, this other life had been taken for the death of Malope. But when the natives saw the boat coming to their village, leaving their mournings, they all fled into the woods. Those in the boat called to them to come back, holding up the head; but it was no use, they all hid themselves. Seeing this, the head was left at the door of the house, and the boat returned. At the petition of the Vicar, the Adelantado ordered the other two heads to be taken down from the poles, that they might be buried. The burial was neglected; and, as they were left that night on the beach, they were found next morning with all the flesh and skin gone, for the dogs had eaten them. All this time the Adelantado became each day more unwell. He ordered a house to be built for him in great haste, in which, having landed with his family, he established himself. Now the punishment came down from Heaven which we deserved for our treacheries, disorders, and cruelties, in the shape of sickness without the means of curing it. The Captain, Don Lorenzo, in whose charge all things were now placed by land and sea, early one morning sent twenty soldiers and an officer in the boat to seize some boys, with the object of teaching them our language, as we could not understand theirs. The natives, who carefully concealed themselves, defended the landing with such vigour that before our men could get back the officer and seven men were wounded with arrows. Enjoying the occasion, they followed up the repulse with many shots of arrows and stones, and with great shouts. They came so near the camp that Don Lorenzo had to issue forth with the banner displayed, and all the rest of the men who were not sick, to defend the gate. As the natives retired, they fired a volley of arrows which went home, wounding six men and Don Lorenzo himself, who were brought in and attended to. Upon this, Don Lorenzo sent a soldier in charge of a party, to burn canoes and houses, and to do as much damage as possible, the result being eight wounded soldiers. With these three victories, all gained on the same day, the natives became so audacious that they shot arrows into the camp at night, and threw stones with such effect that they wounded two men, one of them dying. Owing to the sickness of the Adelantado, and the number of wounded soldiers, we could only defend and secure the camp, the attempts of our soldiers being confined to getting "bledos," which sometimes cost them dear. On the Vigil of St. Luke the Evangelist, the first of our companions died, the Chaplain, Antonio de Serpa, for whose decease the Vicar mourned deeply, and raised sad lamentation, turning up his eyes to heaven, and saying: "Oh, my God! how great is the punishment that You send for my sins. You leave me, O Lord, without a priest to whom to confess. O, Father Antonio de Serpa! Happy are you to have died after having received the sacrament. Who would not change places with you, and not remain in mine, in which I am so abandoned, for I can confess all who are here, but have no one to confess me." He went about with his face hidden, and would not be consoled He went to the church, and wept at the altar. The good Vicar said that, in mourning for the dead, he opened the tomb where he was buried. On the following night, which was the 17th of October, there was a total eclipse of the moon; when it rose in the east it was completely eclipsed. The Adelantado was so weak that he gave orders about his will, which he could scarcely sign. He left Doña Isabel Barreto, his wife, as general heir, and nominated her as Governess, for his Majesty had issued a special decree giving him power to name any person he chose for his successor. He nominated his brother-in-law, Don Lorenzo, to be Captain-General; and, ordering the Vicar to be called, he complied with all the obligations required for his soul. In this way the night passed, and the day arrived, which was that of St. Luke. Seeing the end so near, the Vicar said that a person of good life knew how much it imported to die well, so that there might be time to make his peace with God. He said other things alike holy and pious, which the Adelantado heard, showing not only attention but great contrition, and making it to be well understood how submissive he was to the will of God who created him. The Vicar had a crucifix brought, in whose presence the Adelantado seemed to bend the knees in his heart. Helping to say the Miserere mei and the Creed, at one o'clock after noon our Adelantado passed from this life, with which there ended his enterprise, so much and for so long a time desired. He was a person zealous for the honour of God and the service of the King, to whom the things ill done did not appear good, nor did those well done appear evil. He was very plain-spoken, not diffuse in giving his reasons, and he himself said that he did not want arguments but deeds. It seemed that he saw clearly those matters which touched his conscience. It seemed to me that he might say with reason that he knew more than he performed, yet he saw nothing that passed by stealth. The Governess felt his death, as did others, though some rejoiced at it. In the afternoon, with as much pomp as the circumstances would admit, we prepared for his sepulture. The body was placed in a coffin covered with black cloth, and carried on the shoulders of eight persons of the highest rank. The soldiers stood with their arquebuses reversed, in accordance with usage at the funerals of Generals. The procession went with two banners displayed, and from two drums covered with mourning cloth came slow and muffled sounds, while the fife expressed the like sentiments. Arrived at the church, the Vicar performed the service, and we then returned to the Governess to condole with her on her misfortune. CHAPTER XXI. How the Vicar delivered some admonitions to the soldiers, and the examples he gave. After the two deaths already described, the Vicar reflected how serious the sickness was, and that one, two, or three died every day, and began to perambulate the camp, crying with a loud voice: "Is there one who wants to confess? Put yourselves well with God, and attend to the welfare of your souls, for a punishment has come upon us, from which none can escape, how numerous soever we may be. The natives will triumph over us, and will remain, enjoying our clothes and arms and all we possess in this place, where God holds us prisoners, to chastise us according to our deserts. Think that if God punishes a whole kingdom for one sin, how will He punish here where they are so many. There are men here who have not confessed for three, five, seven, nine, fourteen and thirty years, and one who has only confessed once in his life. There are men here who have caused the deaths of two and three other men; there is a man who does not know whether he is a Moor or a Christian; others have committed sins so foul and so serious that, being such, I will not name them. Remember how God conferred with David, and told him out of three punishments to choose one. We have among us sickness, war, famine and discord, and we are far from any remedy. Reflect that we have God incensed against us, and that the naked and bloody sword of His justice, with which He goes forth to kill, is ready to put an end to us. Fully justified is His judgment. The punishment is not so great nor so rigorous as we deserve. Confess yourselves! clean your souls, and with the repentance, appease the anger of God, Who wishes not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live. Open your eyes, and see what a terrible chastisement is this." The good priest went about day after day performing his office, giving the sacrament to the sick, burying the dead, and seeking the means of inducing those who did not wish to confess to yield. At other times, with the same anxious spirit, he said that the mercy of Christ was much greater than our sins, how ugly and heinous soever they might be; and that one single drop of the blood which was shed in the Passion was sufficient for the sins of infinite worlds. None of those who were there, be their sins what they may, should lose hope; rather, with the faith and constancy of Christians, they should put their trust in God, Who knows how to pardon sinners. In order further to console and encourage them all by examples, he told the two following anecdotes:-- In a town in Peru there was a Franciscan friar in his convent, of pure life, at whose feet a soldier, who was his neighbour and known to him, knelt down to confess; and as he knelt, he put his eyes on a crucifix, and said in his heart: "O Lord, have mercy on this soul!" On the instant, the image came down from the cross, came half the distance, and said: "Doubt not! confess and be absolved. It was for thee, and other sinners like thee, that I came to the world." The other story was that, in the Indies, there was a man rich in goods, but poor in virtue, who sinned, and had old and well-grown roots in many vices. He was a man who sometimes came to the camp with dagger and lance, closed teeth, and eyes raised to heaven, saying: "O God! come down here, to this place, and come with me to see who is the bravest;" and he said other things, showing as little fear or reverence for God as this. This man, being out one night, and passing a room of his, praying with some beads, heard a voice which said: "Oh! such an one, wherefore do you not recite with devotion on that rosary?" Astonished and full of fear, he struck a light, and looked into the room, but saw no one. Continuing to search, he found an image of Our Lady, painted on paper. Raising it from the ground, he put it on the wall, and, kneeling down, he held it with one hand, while he recited on his rosary. While thus employed, two negroes came to him, put out the light, stripped him naked, and flogged him until he was nearly dead. At this juncture he saw the room brilliantly lighted, and a voice said: "Go! go! and leave this soul which is not thine, for My Son has granted it to Me through His mercy and My prayers." In a moment, the negroes left him, and the light disappeared. The patient went away as well as he could, and laid down on his bed. He sent for a friar, who asked what had happened that he should send for him in the middle of the night. He related what had happened, showed him the wounds and bruises, and begged urgently to be confessed, saying that it was thirty-eight years since he had confessed. The confessor heard and consoled him, saying that much worse sins were pardoned by God with a free hand. His confession lasted for seventeen days, and he was absolved with a small penance. A fever came upon him, and wasted him so, that on the day when he finished his confession he died like a saint. With these stories, and in many other ways, as Christian as these, the Vicar secured the salvation of the souls which could be brought into the right way; and the better to fulfil the duties of his office, he came on shore to live in the house of one of the men who had died. CHAPTER XXII. In which is related what more passed with the natives. Knowing the time, the natives came in pursuit of their vengeance, and sought out our people every day, carrying shields, thinking to defend themselves against the arquebus, as the shields protected us from their arrows. They were very careful to take warning, and so, with this animosity, they shot arrows from among the trees and branches, aiming at the face and legs, which were, they saw, unprotected. It was the soldiers' fault, because they took up the arrows and drove their points against the shields and other protected parts, to show the natives that they did no harm. But it only showed the natives that they must aim at the eyes or legs; so they understood the secret, and always shot at those two places. The General, Don Lorenzo, seeing that they came to seek us in camp, ordered a soldier, with twelve others under him, to go to the village of Malope and do harm there, assuming that it was his people who made the attacks. They burnt the village and returned, the inhabitants having fled into the woods. While this was going on, the natives nearest to the camp were shouting and saying: "See what they are doing to the village of Malope, and the disposition that these people are showing." We called to them from the camp with a flag of peace (they also use the same). After a time some of them came, and the General came out to speak with them, taking the Chief Pilot with him, and six arquebusiers in attendance to be ready for anything that might occur. But the natives, when they saw the arquebusiers, began to go back, at the same time making signs that they were not to come. The General ordered them to stop, and using endearing terms, he said that we were friends, asking why they did not bring in food as they used to do. They complained, saying by signs that if we were friends, why did we kill them, there being peace? They said "Malope! Malope! why friends pu" (the name they gave to an arquebus); meaning that if we were friends of Malope, why had we killed him with an arquebus, and were now burning his village, pointing with a finger. The General replied that those who had done the harm were now dead, and a head had been sent to the village as a punishment for what had been done. They asked for the Jauriqui, [60] their name for the Adelantado, and were told that he was in the camp. Don Lorenzo asked them to bring food; and they did so, coming on the following and subsequent days. These natives appeared to me to be well ordered and easy to be brought into habits of peace; and they kept faith entirely. In my opinion we waged war upon them, while they gave their property to us. All the time that peace was broken with them, we were in great need for want of their helps, and the soldiers could not go out to seek for food. This want was supplied by the flour that had been brought from Peru, which was the life of the expedition. CHAPTER XXIII. In which it is related what happened until the death of the General, Don Lorenzo Barreto. Don Lorenzo, with his infirmity, did what he could for the sustenance and welfare of the camp, and for a third time sent the frigate, with the Captain of artillery, to search for the Almiranta, giving him instructions as to the course he was to pursue. The Captain went, and worked diligently, but did not find her. He shaped a course to one of the three islets already mentioned, surrounded by reefs. Here he captured eight youths, four grown up, and all of tawny colour, well made, with fine eyes, and good presence. He also collected some pearl shells, which he found in a village, and with them he returned to the ship. The General sent Don Diego de Vera, as leader, with some soldiers who were most healthy, to seek for natives, to be held as hostages, so as to induce the rest not to try to do us harm. They brought in three women and six children, and their husbands often came to see them, with many others. They came to pray for their liberation, with many caresses, and to content them we gave them up. There was a movement to seek permission from the Governess to leave that land; and those who worked it ordered the soldiers to sign a document which the Vicar gave them, so that it should be submitted in the name of all. One answered that they should not be ordered to sign, for that the Adelantado had killed the Camp Master and two soldiers for signing a paper. He was assured that if he signed there would now be no penalty, as the time was different. The Vicar drew up a petition in which he gave the reasons, which he said were sufficient, for abandoning the settlement. The Governess and the General ordered that information should be taken, of which, when the magistrate asked for a copy (as he said) they ordered him to pass on: as all the people on shore had signed the paper, they took all the seamen as witnesses. As the Chief Pilot had shown how much the desire to form a settlement would cost, I say that one day a friend of his came to him on board, and, I know not whether it was out of charity or envy, told him to hold his tongue, for if not he would be killed or left alone on that island. His persistence reached such a point that he offered to sow, and maintain the seamen; but the suspicion and hatred they conceived of such a proceeding was such that they never wished to let him go on the excursions they made by sea. Thus they attacked the intention of coming there, after leaving the chances of being able to do much in Peru, to employ themselves on discoveries of such importance. This seems to me to free the land from much that our sailors say about it, that it was the worst that was known: giving as a reason the numerous deaths and the sickness. It is quite clear that to change of temperature, diet, and customs, to work and go about in the sun, to get wet without changing, to settle in woods in winter, to sleep on the ground with damp and other things inimical to health, with men who are not made of stone, will bring on sickness; while the want of medical men who understand what is wrong, and of remedies that should be applied, nor the presence of any one to give them, are the open doors of death. Besides, there are positions more healthy than others in populous cities and towns; so that I understand that only a small part is exposed to the above evils. Even here those who remained on the sea never fell ill. If the land was as unhealthy as was represented, the sick, with so much against them, would not have survived so long. Many lived for weeks and months, and none died suddenly, as happens at Nombre de Dios, Puerto Bello, Panama, Cabo Verde, San Tomé, and other unhealthy places, where, with all needful remedies, the sick succumb in a short time, even in a few hours. The sick continued to die, and it was a sad thing to see them in the clutches of disease, stretched out, some delirious, others nearly so; some wanting to go on board, hoping to find health there, others wanting to go from the ship to the camp, hoping to find it on shore. The General supplied their wants so far as was possible, and the Governess did what she could, other persons helping out of charity; but all that could be done was little, seeing that the needs were great. At this time the Vicar fell ill, and as the land did not seem a good place to him, he returned to the ship. The General who, as has already been mentioned, was wounded in the leg, found it necessary to take to his bed, where he got worse every minute. The camp was now in such a condition that it did not contain fifteen healthy soldiers, and these were all lads who could endure fevers better, though in fifteen days the fever does not run its course. The Chief Pilot went to visit Don Lorenzo, to inquire after his health, but he replied in much affliction: "Ah! Chief Pilot! I shall die without confession;" and presently he said: "Ah, death! in what a condition you take me." With his eyes fixed on the crucifix, he exclaimed: "I am a sinner. O, Lord! pardon me." The Chief Pilot, knowing his great need, consoled him by saying that he would go and ask the Vicar to come as he was. He went on board and entreated the Vicar, for the love of God, to come and confess Don Lorenzo, because he was dying fast. The Vicar replied that he was dying too; that if he would bring Don Lorenzo on board he would confess him. The Chief Pilot answered that Don Lorenzo was passing away; that even to turn him in his bed it was necessary to have a line hung from the roof, and that only with this, and the help of two men, could he be turned. He was young, and the Vicar knew that he ought not to allow him, nor any other person who sought confession, to die without it. "Your worship wishes to kill me," replied the Vicar; "can you not see that I am unable to stand on my feet? So little do you care for my health. Let them carry me where they please, though I may die." So he was put in the boat, trembling and wrapped in a blanket. He was carried to the side of Don Lorenzo in his bed, whom he confessed, as well as all others who wished to confess. A soldier, seeing how ill the Vicar was, said very sorrowfully: "Ah, Sir! what is this that I see? What have we come to?" They returned to the ship. That night Don Lorenzo was much worse, and at break of day, the 2nd of November, he died. May God pardon him! He was mourned for, and buried in the same way as his brother-in-law, the Adelantado. Among the rest a soldier died, who received death with such a cheerful countenance that in the words he spoke, and what he did, he seemed to be a pilgrim on the road to heaven. CHAPTER XXIV. In which the unhappy condition of our people is related, the death of the Vicar, and the embarkation of all hands. Our condition, as above related, had reached such a point that, if only ten determined natives had come, they could have killed us all, and destroyed the settlement. At last the sick, pressed by the evils they suffered, which were great, went on board the ship, and the Governess with them, leaving the flag on shore with the few soldiers who still retained some health, to provide wood and water. On Monday, the 7th of November, the flag and the rest of the people were embarked, and so an end was given to this promising enterprise. I never expected anything else, and it must be left in the claws of him who held it before, [61] until God permits others to come forward who are more desirous of the welfare of those lost ones, that with a finger they may show the way to that salvation for which they were created. The settlement remained a spectacle for sentiment and reflection on the disastrous and brief course of events which took place in it. It was a noteworthy thing to see the dogs running along the beach and barking, as if they were asking why the people went away and left them behind. The smallest dog rushed into the sea, and came swimming to the ship, and for such fidelity was taken on board; and of him it may be said that fortune favours the brave. The Vicar made his will, and three soldiers kept watch with him during the following night. He asked one of them to read to him the "Symbol of the Faith," by Fray Luis de Granada. When day came, the Chief Pilot, seeing the little hope there was for his life, and that he appeared to be dying, said to him that the time was short, and that he should look to what concerned his soul. He answered that it was well, and that he did not grieve for anything. The Chief Pilot said that his was the office of a friend, to tell him that he must not deceive himself, for that he was near his end. "Why did you not tell me so sooner," said the Vicar, and the Chief Pilot answered that he never thought that the illness would bring him to his present condition. The Vicar asked for a crucifix, and with it in his hands he said: "Oh eternal Father who sent me; that which I should do I understand not, and presently power of speech will be gone." Thus his death-agony came, and he gave his soul to the Saviour and Creator. This loss was what we deserved for our sins. Punishment and castigation came that we might not deceive ourselves, but know that God was enraged against us, for after so many bodily afflictions He now took from us our spiritual gift. His death was much felt, though not by all, for all do not know how to feel such losses. The Vicar, Juan Rodriguez de Espinosa, was a very honourable priest, for whom, by reason of his virtue and good parts, much love was due. The Chief Pilot caused him to be buried in the sea; not being willing that it should be on shore, lest the natives should disinter and insult his remains. CHAPTER XXV. How we made two more incursions, which were the last, and what passed until we made sail. Next day the wind was from the north, and, although moderate, three cables parted, by which the ship was secured, leaving only one slight cable which appeared to be too weak to hold a ship. Yet it was so strong that it saved the ship from going on shore, which was very near. Later, Luis Andrada was sent in charge of thirty men to seek for provisions for the voyage. He went to the small island which we called the garden, "Huerta," and found five large canoes in a bay, laden with the biscuit of that country, which the natives had there concealed, and without any difficulty he collected them all and sent them to the ship. He said that he killed one hundred and twenty pigs, of which he brought some. He found the natives peaceful at first; but afterwards they were hostile, because the ill-disposed soldiers illtreated them. They made holes in the narrow paths, covered with branches and earth, and in them they planted upright stakes, on which a soldier hurt his foot. With what was obtained by this incursion, order was taken for the sick, and the ship was supplied with the whole. The leader came back, and soon afterwards the Chief Pilot went, with twenty men, to the same island, following many canoes of the natives. Leaving six men in the boat, he jumped on shore with the rest, and the natives, threatening war, received them with arrows in their hands, making the perneta, shouting and dancing round. The Pilot held up a white flag as a sign of peace, but they danced and shouted all the more. It was a narrow path, with trees on each side, and they began to send arrows and stones from all directions. Two arquebus shots were fired, and the village was entered; but nothing more was found but biscuits in the houses, and roots tasting like oranges, and of the same colour. The natives were followed to a hill, and, reaching the top, we found ourselves on a fine plain, with great abundance of fruit cultivation. The soldiers cut many large bunches of plantains, got a quantity of cocoa nuts, and found a great supply of biscuit in a house. Laden with these provisions, and keeping close to each other, they all got into the boat without any further mishap; and though there was an encounter with the natives, none were either killed or wounded. For the Chief Pilot gave orders to the soldiers not to fire to hit but to frighten. Having done this, he ordered the boat to follow along the shore to a place where he went to cut small palms. But when he arrived, the boat was not to be seen, however much they tried to find her. All agreed that the best plan would be to go back to the place where they first landed. They marched until sunset, when they came to a place where some rocks made a good shelter. For this reason, and having found a canoe there, the Chief Pilot decided on passing the night, and sending a man in the canoe to report their position to the ship, that those on board might send to look for them. The Chief Pilot said that he was anxious about the boat, and much more when he considered the insecure position in which the best sailors were placed, without whom the rest could not take the ship to any place where they would be saved; and thus there would be no notice of the discovery that had been made, nor of the rest that was surmised. He asked what powder the soldiers had. They replied that they had ten rounds. He said that was little, and that it would be better to go on and look for some of the canoes. When taken, if the natives required them, after all the powder was expended, they would defend themselves with swords and shields. If anything had happened to the boat, the natives would have seen, and would have hidden their canoes so that we might not get away. This was agreed to. A soldier was given command of the vanguard, and he, with some others, marched along the beach where the trees grew very thick, no one having touched them since their creation, with some great rocks. It was almost impossible to make a way through this in the day-time; how much less on a dark night. Sometimes the water was up to their knees, and at others to their middles. They went climbing and descending from trunks and rocks, making their way either in the sea or through the woods. Altogether, there were ten of them, two being ill and asking the others to go and leave them, for that they could hold out no longer. The Chief Pilot, who heard this, said that they must not be left behind, but must be brought along, even if it became necessary to carry them. They pushed on a little further, but it was past midnight when they heard two arquebus shots, and presently two more. The companions in front pressed onwards to ascertain the cause, and found that the boat had just arrived. They had been detained by contrary winds, and had made the round of the island. The party got into the boat and returned to the ship, arriving at break of day, and finding all on board anxious, owing to their long absence. On this day the Governess proposed to the Pilots that they should depart from that island in search of San Cristobal, to see if the Almiranta was there, and to do what would be best for the service of God and His Majesty; and that if she was not found, her determination was to go to the city of Manilla in the Philippines, to engage priests and people, and return to complete that discovery. On this subject she asked, persuaded, and ordered each person present to give his views in the form that appeared most convenient. The view and opinion of all was that a W.S.W. course should be shaped so long as was necessary to reach a latitude of 11°, and if neither the island nor the Almiranta were found, then to proceed to the Philippines. They all signed their names, and the Chief Pilot undertook to return in company with the Governess, if she returned as she proposed. The Chief Pilot said to the Governess that the ship being so injured, both in hull and rigging, the sailors few, the men sick, and it being necessary to give thirty of the most healthy to navigate the frigate and the galeot, it would be best to abandon those two small vessels. For if this was done, the voyage of the Capitana would be much more secure; for the two small vessels were in bad order, their pilots were not satisfactory, and their rigging, sails and people would all be serviceable on board the Capitana. To this the Captain of the galeot said that it was because the ships had not cost him any money that he wanted to abandon them. The Chief Pilot replied that he had no other motive than consideration for the good of all; that in Manilla, whither they intended to go, they would find other and better vessels for less than 200 dols., and for such a small sum it was not worth while to risk so much. The Captain of the galeot had on his side certain ill-conditioned enemies of truth and reason, and these the Governess had for her council of state of war and marine. Each one said a little, and so things remained, nothing being done. Presently they wanted to get rid of the trouble and charge of the sick. It was ordered that they should be sent to the frigate. The Chief Pilot protested, saying that it was unjust to send them where the conveniences were much less, or to deprive them of the comfort they had where they were in the ship, especially as all could be accommodated in the large ship, safe from the sun, night air, and damp. They replied that a sail could be set up to form a tent, underneath which they could lie at their pleasure. The Chief Pilot answered that the navigation would not always admit of tents being set up, and that the sick always needed care. It was publicly ordered that they should remain, but nevertheless a sergeant began to get them into the boat. One cried out, and the Chief Pilot came and delivered them from men with so little pity and so much folly. Finally, the Governess ordered that they should stay, and so they remained. In the afternoon the Chief Pilot went to visit the frigate and the galeot, leaving with them the necessary supplies of flour and water. He gave them instructions respecting the navigation they would have to work, and a chart to the Pilot of the frigate, who neither had one nor knew how to use it. At night the Captain, Don Diego de Vera, with some persons of his company, went on shore to disinter the body of the Adelantado, to be taken on board the frigate to Manilla; for on board the Capitana they would not consent to receive it, owing to objections which are never wanting. CHAPTER XXVI. How the ship and the other two vessels departed from the bay of Graciosa; the labours during the voyage; the loss of the galeot; and gives an account of a hermit. The distance from the bay of Graciosa to Manilla is 900 leagues. On the following day, the 18th of November of the same year, the three vessels sailed in quest of the island of San Cristobal; and the gear was in such a state that the falls carried away three times in getting the boat in. In one month forty-seven persons died. Nearly all the rest were ill but joyful, as it seemed to them that their troubles were over. They turned their eyes to the huts of the settlement, saying: "Ah! there you remain, thou corner of Hell, that has cost us so much! mourning for husbands, brothers, and friends," they said; and went on, overcome by their own feelings. On this day and the next they steered W.S.W. Having taken the sun, and made the calculations, the result was 11°. We looked to see if land could be seen in any direction, but none was seen. On this same day the Boatswain and four other seamen fell ill. The five or six who remained well said to the Chief Pilot that the ship was unfit for sea, full of sick, in want of water and food; and that they could not continue to plough the sea in her. The soldiers joined with them, and there was no want of voices; nor was there wind, and the mainstay was carried away. There was appearance of evil, which lasted for a bit, owing to the opinions being different. Things being put right, the Chief Pilot said to the Governess that they were in the latitude of 11°, and that, in accordance with the agreement, she must order what should be done. She replied, that as the island of San Cristobal was not in sight, and the Almiranta could not be found, she would shape a course for Manilla. The Chief Pilot made his course N.W. with the wind S.E. to avoid New Guinea, which was very near, and not to get among the islands. If it had not been for the wretched condition of the ship, I should have given orders to coast along that land, and find out what it was. On this course we continued to sail until the 27th of the month, when we were in 5°. On that day we saw a great trunk, a great mass of reeds, with three almonds like those we had left, much straw and snakes. The wind was S.W., with squalls and showers from that direction. By these signs we understood that New Guinea was close on board. We began to experience great waves coming from N.W. and N.N.W., which knocked the ship about, and it was worse when there were calms or light winds: a sign that these winds come from the other side of the line. This continued nearly as far as the Ladrone Islands. There were also variables up to 5° N., where breezes sprang up from N.E. which lasted all the voyage. If the sun should be near the zenith when it was in Capricorn, I know not how it would be on crossing the equinoctial line. We sailed on until the 10th of December, when I found the latitude half a degree from the line, a position in which the sky was clear, the air quiet, the sea smooth, but no land in sight; but so cold at night that it was necessary to use blankets. Yet in the day the sun was so hot, that even when it was near the horizon the heat could hardly be borne. The galeot had not been seen for several days, for she had parted company; so, wishing to comply with her obligations to the Capitana, the Governess ordered that her Captain should be notified that, on pain of being declared a traitor, he should keep his position, and not be more than half a league off. For it seemed that the Capitana, from her general unseaworthiness, and having her mainmast sprung, could never reach safety. Yet on that night the galeot stood on another tack, and disappeared, without being any more seen. The ration that was served out consisted of half a pound of flour, of which they made mashed-up paste with salt water, baked in the hot ashes; half a quartillo [62] of water full of powdered cockroaches, which made it very nauseous and stinking. There was not much good fellowship, owing to the great sickness and little conformity of feeling. What were most evident were the ulcers coming out on feet and legs, the sadness, groans, hunger, infirmities, and deaths, with mourning for those whom it concerned. Scarcely a day passed without throwing one or two overboard, and on some days there were three and four. It came to this: that there was no little difficulty in carrying the dead up from the between decks. The sick became rabid from the effluvia of mud and filth that was in the ship. Nothing was hidden. All the prayers were for water; some begged for a single drop, showing their tongues, pointing with their fingers, like the rich man and Lazarus. The women, with children at their breasts, prayed for water, while all complained of a thousand things. Here could well be seen the good friend, he who was a father or a son, the charity and patience that was shown. Here, too, might be seen one who could accommodate himself to the times, and who could be resigned. Many deaths without confession took place, and other evils which to think of together were to feel above measure. The Salve was recited in the afternoon, before the image of Our Lady of Solitude, which was all the consolation in this pilgrimage. There had come on this expedition a venerable old man and good Christian, who in Lima was barchilon, [63] and served in the hospital of the natives. His name was Juan Leal, which he was through all the events he was concerned with. This servant of God and worthy man, in poor health, for he was convalescent, without rest, which in good sooth it had been well if he had found, but he only sought time to occupy himself night and day without ceasing--was he who, in camp and on board, and in the present voyage, devoted himself to the service of the sick with cheerful faith. He showed that his bowels were full of charity, for all that was done for the sick passed through his hands. He bled them, cupped them, made their beds, helped them to a good death, prepared and accompanied their bodies to sepulture, or got them out of danger; a man, in short, who did well in word and deed, though deeply feeling the numerous miserable sights he beheld. But there were ears to which his voices reached, and not finding doors, they returned to their master, who afresh converted them into more love and care to help, as he did help with his accustomed piety. CHAPTER XXVII. Of the state in which the ship was as she continued her voyage, and of the death of the hermit. A list was made of the surviving sick, and each one was given, besides his ordinary ration, a plate of fritters helped out with honey and treacle, and in the afternoon a mug of water with a little sugar to help as sustenance. Those who were a little stronger had double rations to enable them to work at the pumps four times a day, at which they suffered fearfully, for some hid themselves, others sat down, and others stopped, saying they could not work. Night passed without being able to give rest from the evil that was so near, for its clamours and forced necessities were two things which it was not possible to remedy. The rigging and sails were so rotten that repairs were incessant, and splicing and sewing was constantly needed. These were evils that could not be amended. The main mast was sprung from the step, and the step of the bowsprit, from not being morticed, hung on one side, taking the bowsprit with it, which caused us great anxiety. The sprit sail with all its gear fell into the sea, and none of it could be recovered. The main stay carried away a second time, and it was necessary to make another stay with part of the hemp cable, and the backstays of the mainmast, which were unrove for the purpose. There was not a yard that was not bent downwards owing to parted lifts, the topsail ties were gone, and perhaps for three days at a time the sail was flapping in the waist, because no one cared to hoist it with a rope that had been spliced thirty-three times. We took down the topsails and mizen in order to mend the courses, which at last were the only sails we used. Of the hull of the ship it may be said with truth that only the beams kept the people above water, for they were of that excellent wood of Guayaquil called guatchapeli, [64] which never seems to grow old. The ship was so open in the dead wood that the water ran in and out of the ship when we sailed on a bowline. The sailors, from the hard work and their weakness, and from seeing the ship in such a state, set no store by their lives; and one of them said to the Chief Pilot that he was tired of being always tired, that he would rather die once than many times, and that they might as well shut their eyes and let the ship go to the bottom. They did not want to work, saying that neither God nor the King required them to do what was impossible. The men said they were without strength, and if one took another in his arms he was unable to hold him up. If they should die, who was there that could revive them? The Chief Pilot answered one of them that if he should jump overboard, the Devil would have him body and soul. Many others said that as he knew how to command, he should give them nourishment from the jars of wine, oil, and vinegar which the Governess had, or that it should be sold to them in exchange for their work; that they would give receipts and pay at Manilla, or make a return in kind. They said this was necessary for them in order to recover strength to work the ship, and that if they all died she would die also. When there was the greatest necessity for them, then they would show her needs and remember what had passed. The Chief Pilot submitted their prayer to the Governess several times during the voyage, saying it was much worse to die than not to expend stores. She said that there was more obligation to her than to the sailors who talked of her favour, and if two were hanged the rest would hold their tongues. The Chief Pilot answered that he only referred to the matter in order to apply a remedy to pressing needs, that the sailors were good men, that if he advocated their cause it was not for any obligation he owed to them, but that the ship might be taken where she herself wished, and that the obligation to please her did not relieve him from the duty of his office, the pay being equal to the debt. At last she served out two jars of oil; but they were soon used up, when the complaints were renewed and continued throughout the voyage. The soldiers seeing so long a time before them (for no time is short to those who suffer) also said a good deal: that they would gladly exchange this life for a sentence of death in a prison, or for a place on a bench in a Turkish galley, where they might die confessed, or live in the hope of a victory or a ransom. Hope in God, whose power is greater than all our necessities, said one, for that will prove an armed voyage, and above poverty. This death, which I hold to be a happy termination to a life of good works when received with meekness, was doing service to the Lord in calling, in good time, our dear Juan Leal, who went to his reward in heaven for the merits of what he had done on earth. He died alone and forsaken, like the rest. He was exemplary in his life and customs, he valued the world and its affairs for what they were worth, he went about dressed in sackcloth next to his skin, and reaching half down his legs, with bare feet, and long hair and beard. He had passed many years in this severe course of life, serving hospitals, after having previously served for many years as a soldier in Chile. On the same night a sick man fell overboard, it was not known how, crying out for help; but he was left and was no more seen. CHAPTER XXVIII. How there was a proposal to elect a General; the reply of the Chief Pilot to it; the advice given by a man to the Governess, and the loss of the frigate. The Chief Pilot took great care of the water, as there was little left, and, by secret means, there were great wasters of it. He was therefore present when it was served out. The Governess used it very largely, requiring it to wash her clothes, for which purpose she sent a jar to be filled. The Chief Pilot said that the position should be considered, and that it did not seem just to use so much water, when there was so little. At this she took great offence, and felt it so much that she said very angrily: "Cannot I do what I please with my own property?" The Chief Pilot answered: "It belongs to all, and it will go to all. The cup is good for him that cannot wash, and it is your duty to curtail your own allowance, that the soldiers may not say that you wash your clothes with their life's blood. You should put a high value on the patience of those who are suffering, for they might take by force what there is in the ship. Starving people sometimes know how to help themselves." Upon this the Governess took the keys of the store room away from the steward, who was an honest man, to whom the Chief Pilot had entrusted them, and gave them to one of her own servants. There were not wanting those who said to the Chief Pilot that he ought not to allow himself to be ruled by a woman, and that if it was put to the vote, the majority would be for a man. But the Chief Pilot answered that they should leave her to enjoy her just title for the brief space that remained. When the time came that he was forced to act, it would then appear more reasonable to say what is now said without considering her. One honest man [65] was anxious to see less bickering in the ship, and more order and peace than prevailed there. Knowing that some of the hungry and suffering people had determined to force their way into the store room when it was opened, and knowing what must happen from this project, whether fights or other mischief, so that the little food that remained would be got by blows--he said many things to the Governess touching her rule. There were not wanting those who told her not to trust him, and knowing this, he spoke thus to her: "Consider, Lady, that those who speak to you are not saints, and well they show it in what they say, for they seek their own benefit and the evil of others. Trust in the men in whom your husband trusted, for have you not seen that in his necessities and your own they have loyally done their duty, seeing your risk. Be assured that here there is no one who desires to rise, nor who would consent to it, nor any who do not owe to you a sole obedience in all that is just." She replied: "Here they come to me with complaints that I do not wish to hear." He answered: "Do not listen to them nor believe them, and treat the men well. See with what heavy loads they are laden. They might throw them off, and refuse to carry them, or make some evil agreement, so as to agree afterwards. Be sure that each one thinks that, although miseries overflow, compensations are not wanting. To these your brethren be considerate. Do not look upon them as a petty government of many heads without feet, or of many feet without a head. Reflect well on what are new affairs. These people wish for little, and here they suffer much. They owe nothing, yet they owe much; and for what they owe to you they dissimulate. If they had not come here, no one would owe anything, nor would what is wanted now be wanted; and to you all is more than owing." At last this man asked her, "What ought he to do who was warned that some wanted to kill others on board the ship?" She answered that he should look out. He then said: "I know that it was you yourself and your brother who plotted to kill me, and you sharpened the knives; but I did not believe it easily, though I was told by a friend. Nor did I fail in caution, though now I may. You see here how it has been made sure, and if you should wish it, you can have assurance, though you may not believe who it was that deceived you. I am not afraid of what I have told you and excused, for there are very few women with such heads as Dido, Zenobia, and Semiramis." With these troubles we went on steering the same course, N.N.W., until Tuesday, the 17th of December, when we were in 3° 30' N. The men in the frigate were worn out by work at the pump, and it was necessary to give them three more to help them at their labour. Sailors were sent to check the water, which was coming in at many places. No diligence availed, and she could not keep up with the Capitana. The people were very sad, yet desirous to save the vessel because the body of the Adelantado was on board. Knowing the danger, the Chief Pilot said to the Governess several times, that it seemed right to abandon the frigate, taking off the people, who would be safe, while the ship would be better manned. As he could not prevail, he said to Don Diego de Vera, Captain of the frigate: "You know how to complain; how is it you do not know how to make things safe? Do you not see that it will be the death of yourself and your companions? Come on board this ship, for here you will be welcomed like brothers." At last the frigate was lost sight of at night, for which cause the Chief Pilot eased off the sheets, and waited until the next day in the afternoon. The soldiers began to make an outcry, saying it was no time to delay the navigation, for that the frigate would not appear, that she may have gone ahead, and that if not it was God for us all and each for himself. The Chief Pilot answered that it would be an ill deed to abandon that vessel full of friends on the high sea, without such a pilot as could take her to safety. If she parted company, she could not be secure of reaching port. She was never more seen. CHAPTER XXIX. How they came in sight of an island bearing north, and of the great danger in which the ship was placed. With the wind from the E. and N.E. the ship continued her N.N.W. course, and on the following Saturday she came in sight of an island, for which they steered cheerfully in hopes of a port and provisions. But as it did not appear well to the Chief Pilot to go too near an unknown land during the night, he ordered the ship to be tacked. The sailors, accustomed to work, said they were not tired, and that they were quite ready to go on. The Chief Pilot eased off the foresheet, put the helm down, and the ship went round. This seemed to be the inspiration of an angel, for if she had not been put about she would certainly have been lost, as will be seen further on. Up to where the ship was the sea was clear and unbroken, but further on it was not known what the ship would strike against. At dawn the ship stood in to where she was before night. A sailor was sent to the mast-head, as was the custom morning and evening, and he reported that to the N.E. there were some great reefs, the termination of which he could not see. The ship had no after sails to enable her to work to windward; and the water was breaking over the rocks. The ship was so near them that there appeared to be no escape, and death seemed ready to swallow us up. A certain person made a prayer and a promise, in his heart, to St. Anthony of Padua; and it served the Lord that on this day, which was that of His holy birth, the ship came out of the danger in which she was placed. At three in the afternoon she doubled the reef, it may be said by a miracle. Natives came in their canoes from the island under sail, others paddling. As they were unable to cross the reef, they jumped on it, and made signs with their hands. In the afternoon one single native in a small canoe came round the end of the reef. He was at a distance to windward, so that we could not see whether he had a beard, the position being near the island of the "Barbados." He seemed to be a good-sized man and naked, with long, loose hair. He pointed in the direction whence he had come, and breaking something white with his hands he ate it, and had cocoa nuts for drink. He was called to, but did not want to come. It was evening, and, for that reason, a sailor went aloft to look out. He reported two small islands and many rocks, by which the ship was surrounded as in a yard. There was reason for despondency, as whatever course was taken (to those who did not understand) seemed to threaten danger. The ship was put on a course steering N.N.W. This islet is in latitude 6°. It is nearly round, and about 30 leagues in circumference. It is not very high. It has many trees, and at their sides there were flowers and cultivated patches. At 3 leagues to the west there are four low islands, and many others near them, all surrounded by reefs. The sea appeared to be more clear to the southward. CHAPTER XXX. How they came in sight of the Ladrone Islands, and what happened there. Continuing on a N.N.W. course, they were in 14° N. latitude on Monday, the 1st of January. The wind was west, and the ship was going free. On Wednesday, the 3rd of the same month, we came in sight of two of the Ladrone islands, for which we were making. One was called Guan, and the other Serpana. We passed between the two, which lie N.E. and S.W., by a channel 10 leagues wide, keeping on the side of Guan. A man who was handing the foresail fell overboard; and in the whole ship there was only one line. It was thrown over where the man had fallen alongside, who got hold of it and came up, thanks be to God! Many canoes came out from Guan under sail, with a number of Ladrone natives in them, who are stout men of a reasonable colour. They were crying out "charume," which means friends, and "heoreque," signifying "Give us iron," which is what they seek, being very fond of it. As so many came there was a great press, and some canoes fouled each other and were overturned, whose masters swimming, turned them over again with great ease. They are built with two prows, so that they can turn the sail without having to turn the canoe. They brought many cocoa nuts, plantains, rice, water, and some large fish, giving all in exchange for old iron. Those of the ship were delighted with these people and their refreshing provisions. The exchange being completed, the natives went away, all but two who were killed by an arquebus, owing to a matter of a piece of cask hoop. [66] The soldiers insisted much with the Chief Pilot that he should go into port at this island and procure provisions. He was very willing; but he gave it up because there was no gear for getting the boat into the water. He said this to all; but they still insisted, saying they could do it with their hands. The Chief Pilot replied: "And how will you get it on board again?" They answered: "Why cannot it be left here?" Then the Chief Pilot said: "It is not well to lose the boat, having to navigate among so many islands of which we go in search." They were very persistent; but he turned a deaf ear, and continued to shape a westerly course until Friday, the 12th, when, on taking the sun, he found the latitude to be 13° N. CHAPTER XXXI. How, when they came in sight of the Philippine Islands, the ship was in many dangers, and how she anchored in a good harbour. The Chief Pilot navigated only by information, and without a chart, seeking for the cape of Espiritu Santo, the first land of the Philippines. At daybreak land was sighted, being the peak of a high mountain; and nothing else was then seen owing to a shower of rain that came on. The land was welcomed with as much content as if we had really reached a safe haven. Some said: "Soon we shall hear Mass and seek God. There is no longer danger of death without confession, for that is a land where Christians dwell." Amidst these anticipations and great rejoicing, there were others so weak that they could not stand on their feet, and who were like skeletons ready to die; and their refrain was that they no longer wished to bring to light their propped-up bones. Presently they all applied for a double ration of water, for the want of it caused the greatest sufferings. But the Chief Pilot said that he could not give more than the cup, for there was very little left, and we should still be at sea some time before we anchored. Having come near the land, a bay was seen on the shore running north and south. The people said that this was a port, and that we should make for it, for God had shown us such signal mercy that He had guided us there. This was also the view of the Chief Pilot; for there was a soldier on board, who, some time before, had made this voyage and knew the coast. We continued to coast along, looking out for signs that would be satisfactory. The wind was strong from the N.E., and there was mist over land, while the sun was obscured. It did not seem advisable to the Chief Pilot to proceed further, nor to enter such a dangerous place, in which, if once embayed, it would not be possible to get out, the wind being contrary, there being few hands, and the whole furniture of the ship being bad. For these reasons he ordered the ship to be put about, intending to see if he could get the latitude by a star observation, or the sun next day, so as to be sure where he was. They began to persuade him to go in, and he told them that it would be better to endure one day more of suffering than to lose their lives. He then examined the soldier in great detail for his reasons for being satisfied that that was the opening that we sought. His replies were as far from the truth as he was near to a mistaken notion. After all this, he and others gave their opinions to the Governess. They made their complaints, and said that the Chief Pilot did not understand how to take advantage of such a good chance. To all this he answered that no one desired the salvation of the ship more than he did, whose duty it was to seek a port on pain of loss of credit in case of failure; while as regards their lives they were all equal. "God has been pleased to bring them there, and He would also take them to Manilla;" adding that if others had the responsibility they would not feel so certain about what they said. The Governess also said that it appeared to be the opening, for that everyone said so. The Chief Pilot answered that she should leave it to him, for that he understood his duty; if not, she could appoint some one else. He knew that for anyone to enter that opening and get the ship into danger, he would not be without blame whoever he might be, and there would be no escape. "And how," he added, "could the sick, and all the women and children they had on board, be saved? Even if they were saved, how could they be fed and taken on their way? And what certainty was there that there was peace in that land? Even if there was, how much better was it to take such measures as would make safety certain, than to make the voyage to Manilla doubtful, it being still 300 leagues distant. Moreover, the night was coming on, which made it necessary to stand away from the land." At last the ship was put about, and kept on that tack with the care that was necessary during a night without moon. At dawn we returned to seek the land, though it was not visible owing to mist, in consequence of which great murmurs were raised against the Chief Pilot. They said that they could only be drowned once, and it would have been better to have taken the ship in when they spoke before than to risk nothing. At last the land came in sight, in the form of a cape a little to windward. They set the bonnet, and ran in for the land, with the intention of coasting along it, the sounding line in the arm, and the deep-sea lead in the hand, ready to anchor, or decide upon what it was most desirable to do. The yard was hoisted up, and the tie was carried away. The sail fell, and the people, who were tired, did not care to apply a remedy. At last, persuaded by good reasons, and by the proximity of dangerous reefs, the yard was got up again, and secured to the mast by stoppers. But these stoppers would not hold; the yard fell again, and to hoist it once more required both hands and tongue. The night before there had been a great swell, and now it was the same, and as the ship, head to wind, laboured much, the rigging almost all carried away, especially the running rigging belonging to the foremast, and there was only one shroud left on each side. The mast appeared so badly supported that the least thing would make it go by the board; but it was a good spar, and held on. Firmness is needful in all cases, for without it all else is worth little or nothing. As for the reefs in sight, they were said to be the Catanduanes, where a ship is in great danger of foundering with all on board; while if anyone escaped by swimming, the natives shoot arrows into him like San Sebastian, which they know how to do very well. Others said we were between those reefs and the island of Manilla, in a part where it was impossible to get out. Others, that the channel was astern, and that the fault was with the Chief Pilot. Others declared that the ship would sink, that he should die who would die; and other disconcerting opinions like these, sufficient to upset the most collected. The Governess, in her retreat, appeared to be making arrangements with death. A book of devotions in her hand, her eyes turned to heaven, making ejaculations, and as afflicted and tearful as the rest. The Chief Pilot regretted that he could not do what he intended. Some clamoured, others appeared sad, and all turned their eyes to the Chief Pilot, with whom was the whole solution. They asked him what land that was, and where they were, as if it was enough merely to see it in order to know it without further ado. At last, at the end of all this and much more, the blame was put on the soldier who professed to know that coast: for it was thought that some devil had possessed him that day, to bring all to their deaths, if the intervention of God did not save them. The Chief Pilot said: "What is it that you want me to say to you? I never saw the land in my life until now, nor am I a sorcerer. I came in search of the Cape of Espiritu Santo. It ought to be here, within two leagues, more or less. Can you not see that the land is covered with clouds, and so is the sky, so that I am prevented from making use of my instruments. Now we will coast along the land, and when we find a port or anchoring ground, we will bring to; for by all means we must keep the ship from grounding." He then told two sailors to set up two backstays to support the foremast, and another strong lad to have the anchor ready to let go as soon as there was bottom. But they turned their backs without answering, and made use of bad language. The ship and crew was in this state when it pleased the Lord to look down with the eyes of clemency, and to be served by turning the bows of the ship right into a bay. A breeze sprang up, and we ran in, with a reef on either side. At this juncture three natives came to reconnoitre us in a canoe, and placed themselves to windward of the ship without saying anything. The only man on board who knew the language spoke to them, and when they saw that we were Christians, they came on board, and showed us the anchorage which we were then seeking. We anchored in the middle of the bay, in 14 fathoms. One of these natives was an interpreter. The other was the man that the English navigator, Thomas Cavendish, took with him to point out to him the channels among these islands. I asked them what land that was. They answered that it was the Cape of Espiritu Santo, and that the bay and port were called "Cobos;" also that the opening was near, and that the ship was on her right course. I asked who was then governing Manilla. They replied that Don Luis Perez de las Mariñas was Governor for the Spaniards. I asked this, because it was reported in Peru that Japan was preparing an attack with a great fleet. This news was given to people who seemed an hour before to be sentenced to death, and now were to live. They could not conceal their joy, and showed it by tears and thanks to God, Who knows how to show these mercies when He pleases to the man who serves Him. CHAPTER XXXII. Of what happened during the time that the ship was in the bay. The natives went to their village, from which others came, one with a wand of justice; and, on seeing it, and a cross on the land, the crew believed the natives to be peaceful and Christian. They brought fowls and pigs, at two or three reals a piece, together with palm wine, by drinking which some of us talked various languages; also many cocoa nuts, plantains, sweet canes, papays, roots, water in bamboo joints, and fuel. They took in exchange reals, knives and glass beads, which they value more than silver. During three days and nights the galley fire was never put out, nor was there any cessation of kneading and cooking, or of eating the boiled of one and the roast of another, so that they were eating day and night. With mouths sweetened and stomachs satisfied, they all remained as contented as it is possible to imagine. The Chief Pilot said that this was the present work, to enable them to arrive at the port they so much desired. Some wanted to embrace him; others said that he had made them happy; and he said to all that they should give thanks to God. He said to the two sailors who would not hear his orders: "Does it seem to you that if you had had your own way you would have given a good account of yourselves? Tell me whether you are better off here, or where you importuned me to take you?" The natives here are of a brown colour, not very tall, and their bodies tattooed. They have no beards, nor any sign of them. Their hair is black and long. Their loins are covered with cloth, and in the villages they wore a tunic of the same material, with no colour, and reaching down to their calves. They have large gold earrings, ivory armlets, and similar ornaments on their legs, of gilded bronze, which deceived some of our people. These natives are so selfish that without silver or something they want in exchange, they will give nothing. The sick, being so little accustomed to abundance of food, and eating without moderation, did themselves serious harm; three or four even died of it. The natives came morning and evening, bringing and bartering their produce, so that in fourteen days provisions were collected for the rest of the voyage. The bay is open to the N.W., and when it blew hard from that quarter there was a heavy sea. The ship rode by a small cable that looked like a thread, so that it was a new mercy of God that strength was given to it to hold the ship during two days and a night, while it strained against its slender cable, with rocks and mangrove swamps to leeward. The Chief Pilot, seeing the danger in which the ship was placed, proposed to the Governess that the royal artillery and munitions should be got out and stored in one of the villages, with her property, and that of the women and children, or at least what was of most value; while, as regards the ship, he would always be on board, with the sailors, ready for anything that might happen. She replied that, for the eight days they were going to stay, what danger could there be? He then said that he would not feel secure of the ship's safety for a single hour; and seeing the want of care of the Governess, he repeated what he had said. As she would not consent, he said he would make a protest for his own security, for she made certain of her own freedom from blame by reason of the care he took. So he drew up a brief protest, saying in it what, in his opinion, ought to be done. When she had read it, a council was called and an act was prepared, ordering that sail should presently be made for Manilla, and that they should not remain in that port. The Chief Pilot said that he gave his protest as a reply, for that the ship was not then fit to go to sea, as first she must be refitted and victualled so far as was necessary; also that the wind was then blowing into the mouth of the bay, being the direction by which they must go; also that he must protest afresh against his request not being complied with, for the ship was not safe for a moment. They drew up another order, that within an hour he should take the ship out and shape a course to Manilla, and that his conduct was disrespectful and mutinous. All these and other similar things happened there, and the Chief Pilot spoke to the soldiers to this effect: "See you not that these concerted replies of mine are to provide for your necessities? I know not what steps to take in order to bring this lady to reason. It ought to be understood that my obligation is to serve her and to endure her. But see you not that this ship is only held by a cable that can be clasped with two fingers?" On this occasion the sailors signed a paper and gave it to the Chief Pilot, asking him, who they looked upon as their commander, that he would give them food, or an instalment of their pay; otherwise, that he would dismiss them soon, that they might go to seek for other service; for here they had sold what they had, and if they applied for rations, or advances, or pay, they had nothing but excuses and evil answers. The Chief Pilot showed the paper to the Governess, and said that their plan was for all to go or to seize the ship. The sailors said that it was tyranny; that the King, being over all, paid, fed, and gave liberty. The Governess to this replied by saying to the Sergeant-Major: "Go to Manilla, and bring me a judge, with soldiers and a frigate, so that they may come to me and punish these people." She spoke as she understood, and would work in this way if she could, having shown her disposition. All complained and all suffered. The Chief Pilot said: "I do not wish to say during this expedition anything more, but rather to suffer a woman as Governess, and her two brothers; and all this from my desire not to offend the name of the King's presence, for now I am in the hands of Doña Isabel Barreto." The Chief Pilot, not neglecting his duties, had soundings taken in a certain port round a cape, whither he presently took the ship and anchored her. With reason, it may be said that to avoid one danger he ran into another which was more certain, the one being quite as much by chance as the other; for both ends of the lee foresheets carried away outside the thimble; the wind was fresh, and the rocks quite close. But at such moments temerity often brings safety, as on this occasion. Sending a hawser on shore, the ship was brought into a safe port. Here he ordered the natives to make a strong cable of fibres, and other ropes, with which he both rigged the foremast and secured the ship. In reply to the sailors, the Governess had ordered a proclamation to be made that no one was to go on shore without leave on pain of death. It happened that a married soldier went on shore without leave to get some food, or with leave according to his own account, and for this he was ordered to be arrested. A council was assembled, and presently an order was given that the prisoner should be flogged. The Sergeant-Major, who had to carry out the order, was not handy in rigging what was required, and at last told the Boatswain to reeve a tackle and hoist up the yard. While this part of the comedy was proceeding, an ensign came up the hatchway, followed by some halberdiers as long and thin as himself. They came by authority of the sentence, with the drum which was nearly passed its work, and the most wonderful costumes, for there is no play without an interlude. The Boatswain was one Marcos Marin, an Aragonese, a large man, now old and very respectable. As he knew better how to understand things, and complain of them, than to pronounce the Castilian language, it was a wonderful thing to hear his honest liberties and well-founded complaints, which he took even to the Adelantado himself. But he was very careful, and highly intelligent in his office. As the Sergeant-Major hurried him very much, and he had very little inclination, he said: "Report, Sir Sergeant-Major, that we are all chastised with so much hunger, sickness, and so many deaths during the time we have been at sea, that it will be better to reflect on all this rather than flog another." The Sergeant-Major replied that he must obey at once, for that the Governess had given the order. The Boatswain answered: "The Lady will do equally well in giving us to eat from the store she keeps for herself; and the jars of wine and oil, given to those who need them, would be better than these floggings. I have an order, but who orders me to do what is right?" The Sergeant-Major was enraged, and the Boatswain, without any hesitation, said: "We have good security--flog here, hang there, many orders, and to die of hunger!" On this there arose cries and complaints, and the wife of the prisoner was praying for justice from God for the injury that they were going to inflict on her husband. The Chief Pilot went to represent to the Governess that it seemed to be an unjust thing that in return for so many hardships that the man had suffered, having lost four children and expended his property, he should be left without anything, and to die without honour. The Governess answered that he had disobeyed her orders, and that it was proper he should suffer for it. The Chief Pilot replied, saying that "they also broke the orders of God with punishment in the life hereafter, and those of Holy Mother Church with punishment of excommunication, and those of the King with the punishment of a traitor, which is loss of life, honour, and property, who hastily make the sword run with blood." The Governess said she had given the order to frighten the sailors. The Chief Pilot begged that she would not do so at such cost, and that he would look after them. With this the prisoner was set at liberty, and the solicitude of the Sergeant-Major ceased. CHAPTER XXXIII. How the ship sailed from this bay, and of what happened until she arrived at the entrance of that of Manilla. The ship left this bay of Cobos, which is in 12° 10' N. latitude, on Tuesday, the 29th of January, and in going out we committed two bodies to the deep. By five in the afternoon we were well clear of the entrance, and left the island of San Bernardino, which is in the middle of the mouth, far astern. At night, near an island called Capul, we encountered a strong cross sea, caused by currents which are here very powerful, so that the ship was turned right round, and there was cause for thankfulness that she was not driven on shore. Next day several natives came out in barangais from a port on the island of Luzon called Nivalon. They brought quantities of fowls, pigs, wine and fruit; but the soldiers now had scarcely anything to barter with, and were able to buy little. We kept the island in sight all day, and in the night we were among many others, passing through places of which experienced pilots said afterwards that they could not understand how it was that we had not been lost among the numerous reefs which we never saw. The Lord was served in protecting us. On Thursday, the first of February, the Governess, at a place called Galvan, sent her two brothers, with seven other men, in the boat, to seek for food. This business came to such a point that the Captain, Don Diego, ordered an arquebus to be fired at one of the sailors who went up the mizen mast. The Chief Pilot said to the Governess that to no one was it more important than to her that the expedition should end in peace. This was a foolish affair, and so it was left. The boat did not come back, although we waited for her all day. They went to Manilla, which was 15 leagues distant, by a certain strait in the island, to report our approach. On the next night, before dawn, the ship was so embayed among islands that no way out was visible, without a boat and without food, for the provisions taken in at the last port were consumed. We saw many natives in canoes; but they all fled from us, although we made signs to them. The reason was that, as this was not the time when ships arrive from New Spain, they thought the ship was English. For they remembered the ship of Thomas Cavendish, and the warning of the Governor to act thus. There was no want of anxiety about our condition, and much more that we could not see how to extricate the ship. We proceeded as well as we could, for it was nearly calm, and at last we saw a channel, so narrow that a stone might almost be thrown across it. The wind freshened and we made for it, coming out between the islands of Luzon and Caza, near a point which is called Azufre, in the wide sea of a great bay called Bombon. Where there is hunger there is discontent. The soldiers stood menacingly round the hatchway, because the Governess would not give the order for their rations to be served out. The Chief Pilot, seeing this, asked the accountant to request the Governess to be so kind as to order food to be served out to the people. If she did not like to give it, the Chief Pilot would sign an obligation to pay her at Manilla what the cost of the provisions would be from that time; or, if that would not do, to give it her in specie. If she refused, it might be that the store-room would be broken into. For it was not just that, there being provision on board the ship, the crew should die for want of it. The Governess sent for him and said: "Sir Captain, have you spent 40,000 dols. as I have on this expedition, or have these people undertaken it at their own charge? The Adelantado is ill paid for the great things he expected." The Chief Pilot replied to this: "My Lady, I spent my property, and each one spent what they had; many gave up their lives, and all expended all they knew. As for the Adelantado, I was a better servant to him than he was friend to me; but these passed memories do not oblige me to look favourably on present faults which give much trouble, as may well be known. These men have the same necessity to eat on one day as they have on another, and as we all have; and until we bring them to Manilla we are bound to give them to eat and drink. That which belonged to the Adelantado, and that which belongs to your Ladyship, must be used for the necessities of the voyage; and upon me falls the duty of guarding it, disposing of it faithfully, measuring the quantity, according to the time that this ship may spend with reference to the small amount of sail she is able to carry." The Governess having been convinced, said that a calf might be killed that she had on board. While this business was being arranged, two boats came in sight, each rowed by forty natives, twenty on each side. A signal was made to the one which came in front. She turned, but did not care to wait. They ran into each other, and made fast to a line which was thrown to them. They were asked whence they came and whither they went. They replied that they were from Manilla, which was 20 leagues distant, speaking in the Castilian language, and that they were on their way to Zebu, the first settlement that was formed by the Spaniards in those parts, an island 100 leagues from Manilla. I asked for a native as a guide, because the ship had to pass some reefs called "Tuley" during the night. They gave one a wage of 3 dols. for his trouble. The Chief Pilot bought from them two large baskets of rice for two pair of shoes, which was divided among the people. The Governess wanted to buy two more, but she could not agree about the price; so, having given us the guide, they let go the line and proceeded on their way. A careful watch was kept during the night, and next morning we came in sight of the opening to the bay, which we kept nearing by coasting along the land of the island of Fortun. The wind was contrary for entering on the west side, for there was a breeze from the north-east. CHAPTER XXXIV. Of what took place with the sailors on the arrival; how four Spaniards came on board; and other things that happened until the ship was anchored at Cavite. There is an island called Marivelez, at the entrance of the bay of Manilla, where there is usually a Spanish look-out man, with native rowers and light boats, to go out and reconnoitre any ships that are coming in, so as to give early intelligence to the Governor. There is also a small rock called El Frayle, bearing north from Marivelez. These two islands form three channels, and to enter the one between Marivelez and El Frayle I began to alter course. As the only sails we had were the two courses, and the crew weary and disinclined to work, while not unwilling to injure the ship so as to revenge themselves, we made little or no way, and indeed began to lose ground. We went on like this for three days, all tired and annoyed to find that we did not sight the island, and were thus deprived of the pleasure of reaching and resting at Manilla. All was sorrow, and waiting for one tide after another, counting the hours for its flood, that we might get inside; but as no order was kept, that hour did not come. The sailors said to the Chief Pilot that he should run that ship on shore, for that they had worked enough, and done more than they were bound to do. The thing that ought to be was to see the land on both sides, and the smoke of Manilla. When they gave any help, they did so very slowly, as if it was done as a favour. There was now neither food to eat nor water to drink. There was only a foul wind, and the affliction expressed in consequence. The Governess said that she had only got two sacks of flour and a little wine, and that she wanted it all to say masses for the soul of the Adelantado. The Chief Pilot showed much feeling against the sailors who wanted to run the ship on shore, and told them to look and see that all that coast was steep to, and with a heavy sea. "See you not," he said, "that we have no boat, and that the ship is full of sick without food. If you would give notice at Manilla, there is nothing to take you over the sea, and by land it would take several days. It is not possible to sustain the people for one more day. Let it not be said that you only want those to be saved who have health and know how to swim. Reflect that we have brought the ship from such remote parts, by a route never before navigated. The little that remains cannot appear much to those who have suffered so much with such great courage. And how would you suffer where they look out for us, at losing the reward your labours deserve? Reflect well that if the ship arrived well furnished, full of healthy men, well fed and paid, in that case there would be small thanks." They answered that "they were only sailors, and that when the ship was anchored they would get no credit, but only the Chief Pilot who commanded them." To this he replied that the greatest reward for which he hoped was to anchor the ship in a safe harbour, where all could enjoy the good things they so much desired. There were many very painful scenes such as this, when that merciful Lord, who is always looking down upon us and brings succour and relief in times of greatest necessity, like a father to his children though prodigal, was served that we should come in sight of a boat, which rapidly approached the ship with sail and oars. When it came near four Spaniards could be seen in it, who seemed like 4,000 angels, and eight natives were rowing them. This was the look-out man, who, as has been said, is always stationed at Marivelez, named Alonzo de Albarran, with the chief butler of the Governor and two soldiers. They came by the Governor's order, to condole with the Governess on her misfortunes, and to bring a letter, which she presently showed to the Chief Pilot, and which contained many and most honourable greetings. The coming of the ship had become known from the brothers of the Governess, who had come by land. The satisfaction of all on board was such, and so warmly shown, at the sight of the four Spaniards, that it cannot be described. The sailors gave their hands, and helped them into the ship, where they were received only with embraces, for there was nothing else to give them. And they, looking carefully from one to another, and seeing them so sick, covered with boils, poverty-stricken, with tattered clothes, and surrounded by so much misery, could only exclaim: "Thanks be to God! Thanks be to God!" The look-out man went down between decks to see the hospital and the sick women, who, when they beheld him, cried out: "What do you bring us to eat? Oh, give us food, for we are mad with hunger and thirst." With the hope of refreshment some were consoled, and the look-out man came on deck again, much horrified at what he had seen. Then, seeing two pigs on board the ship, he said: "Why do they not kill those pigs?" They told him that they belonged to the Governess, and he prayed hard to her to allow them to be killed, having said: "What the Devil! Is this a time for courtesy with pigs?" The Governess then ordered them to be killed, and a soldier, who took careful note of such things, exclaimed: "O, cruel avarice! which even with a gentle and pious woman turns her heart into a stone, even in a business so necessary, cheap, and clear!" God was served that all the good wine appeared too. The ship came to Marivelez on the next tack, whence the Governess sent a soldier with the reply to the letter she received from the Governor, which was sent by the returning boat. Soon afterwards another boat was seen, in which was the Chief Magistrate of that part of the coast, with the brothers of Doña Isabel. They brought much fresh bread, wine and fruit, presented by the Governor. When it was being distributed there was seen, in respectable persons, some things which were far from well ordered. For in such necessitous times as were those, ordinary obligations are disregarded. All got a share, some more than others, which they consumed during that afternoon. One boy died from exhaustion, due to previous privations. The long night passed with hope of day, when a large barge arrived laden with fowls, calves, pigs, bread, wine, and vegetables brought by Diego Diaz Marmolego, the land-owner of that part, by order of the Governor. They were also sent on board, and plentifully distributed among all, with much liberality. The ship was nearing the port, though obliged to make several tacks. Presently, Pinao, Assistant Master of a royal ship, came in a skiff full of sailors, all dressed in coloured silks, to help the few weak men in the ship. The Captain of the port was on the beach, with the banner flying, and all the soldiers drawn up with their arms. At the point of letting go the anchor, all the artillery saluted, as well as the arquebusiers round the standard. The ship replied as well as she could, riding by one anchor secured to the slight cable, so celebrated during the voyage. This was on the 11th of February, 1596, in the long desired and long sought for port of Cavite, two leagues S.W. of the city of Manilla, capital of the Philippines, in latitude 14° 30' N. Fifty persons had died since the ship left Santa Cruz. As soon as the ship was anchored, some men came on board, moved by charity, with bread and meat, which now became plentiful. Presently the sailors and other persons from the city came to see the ship, as a sight both on account of her great need as that she came from Peru, as it was said, to fetch the Queen of Sheba from the Isles of Solomon. All came on board, and, having seen how little there was, they wondered that she should ever have arrived in safety, and they praised God that she should have been spared, to Whom be the honour and the glory, and to Whom the success should be attributed and the thanks given, for His are the great mercies shown during the voyage. It is to be noted that if the people who died had not died, those who survived would not have arrived with more than twenty jars of water and two sacks of flour. Thus concluded, as they say, this unhappy voyage with safety. CHAPTER XXXV. What happened until the people went to Manilla. This joyful day passed, and the night came, in which there were not wanting some new, but not unusual, annoyances with the Magistrate of the coast, to whom Doña Isabel had made complaints in private. He showed himself to be a judge who sided with the first comer without hearing the other side; for if he would have heard, he would have known how much that lady owed to him who brought her where she was, and how little, from any point of view, he owed her. But it is very unusual for poor men to work without pay or thanks, and for others to do evil to him to whom good is due. He took one sailor, and to another he gave sharp words and threatened, saying that it was an old custom for the people of Peru to be mettlesome, and that if they came in that spirit they must not think that they were there in their island, where they could do as they pleased; that those who failed to pay would be punished, or would have to pay double, or with their lives. He made other remarks, and was answered that all who came had been and were good vassals of the King; and as for the rest, they were as good as others. These altercations ended at last, but the long desired night was passed with less content than had been anticipated. For the satisfactions of this life come tardily, and endure little longer than a sigh. Next morning the Master of the Camp came to the ship by order of the Governor, with an alderman sent by the Municipality, and a clergyman by the officials of the Church, all to receive the Governess, and to arrange for the sick to go to Manilla. The Governess was taken to the royal residence at the port, and again there was a salute when she disembarked. Having partaken of refreshments, she was received in a boat, and conducted to the city. She entered at night, was received with an illumination, and well lodged. The sick were carried out of the ship in men's arms, and taken to the hospital. The widows were received in the houses of the principal residents, and afterwards they were all married to their satisfaction. The convalescents and the rest of the soldiers were lodged by rich inhabitants. The married were put in houses where they were received, lodged, and tended, with much love and pleasure, by respected citizens of Manilla. In a few days ten died, and four entered monastic orders. The frigate was never more seen. There was a report that she had been found with all her sails set, and the crew dead and decomposed, run upon a certain part of the coast. The galeot reached port at an island called Mindanao, in 10°, having been lost among all those islands. The people on board were reduced to such necessity that they landed on a small islet called Camaniguin, to kill and eat a dog they had seen on shore. Some natives, who met them by chance, guided them to a port where there were some fathers of the Company of Jesus. The fathers took them to a Governor in that district, who sent five of them prisoners to Manilla, because their Captain quarrelled with them, saying they wanted to mutiny. They were sent with a letter to Dr Antonio de Morga, Lieutenant-General of that Government, which he showed to the Chief Pilot. It was as follows:-- "Here came into port a galeot with a Captain who was as impertinent as the things he said. He was asked whence he came, and he replied that he belonged to the expedition of the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña, which was undertaken to make a voyage from Peru to the Solomon Islands, consisting of four vessels. This galeot put in here, and, as she carried a royal flag, I received her as was proper. If the others were here, this would be better known. Against the soldiers there is no process. They said that, because the Captain wished it, he parted company from the ship with his galeot." CHAPTER XXXVI. Which contains a discourse by the Chief Pilot, explaining why they did not find the Solomon Islands. [67] The reason why the Solomon Islands, of which the Chief Pilot, Hernan Gallego, who discovered them, makes mention in his narrative, and of which the Adelantado, Alvaro de Mendaña, went in search, are not the Islands of the Marquesas de Mendoza, nor those of Santa Cruz which we discovered in this voyage: and why we pressed so far in advance of the position where he said they were in conformity with his instructions, may, as it seems to me, be conveniently explained here, to satisfy the doubts which may be raised respecting the cause of our not reaching them. I find three reasons which might form impediments to our reaching the Solomon Islands in the positions where we were. The first is the belief that they had less longitude than was really the case, for they would not seem so far to the people who had to go for their settlement. The second is some motive of private interest, leading to a concealment of the true latitude, giving to it somewhat less or more. The third is ignorance, or the want of the instruments to calculate certain distances, or an error in judgment while navigating: what appears to be one thing being another; or a mistake in writing. As for the first, if it was so that we were not given the true longitude of the Solomon Islands, I say that we really did not reach them, and that they are further to the west than the islands we discovered. The reason is that, if what the Adelantado told me was true, by whose order I prepared the navigating charts, and if what appears in his instructions and in the narrative of Hernan Gallego is true, the Solomon Islands are in latitude 7° to 12° S., 1,450 leagues from Lima. There cannot be an error, as we always continued to navigate without reaching the position, and could not have passed them when they were 400 leagues further to the west. It must, therefore, be believed that they were not behind but in front of us. As to the second reason, if it was interest, as many people said, that induced Hernan Gallego, when the Adelantado asked him for the route to these islands, not to give him the true position as regards latitude, this may explain it. For when he was at Court to report to his Majesty he had not negotiated for himself; and as the Adelantado, when he undertook the discovery, did not understand the art of navigation, he could be deceived. On the other hand, his observations could not be kept so secret when they were taken by four pilots, who must have known as well as the people who were with them; nor did Hernan Gallego then know that he would have a disagreement with the Adelantado. Nor do I believe that a man of such high character would do such a thing. Moreover, if in this there was deceit, I say that if the islands were in 7° at the least, or in 12° at the most, and we seek them between 7° and 12°, they might well remain behind us, on one of the two sides. As for the third reason, if it was ignorance there is nothing more to be said. It is very certain that navigating so much as they navigated from east to west, they were on a course on which altitude is not altered, nor is longitude fixed except by such estimation as each one may make. In this there may be very great error, as well in him who makes the estimate as in the ship which, in such a case, may have been understood to have gone over less ground than she is supposed to have made good. In proof of the greater distance between Peru and the Solomon Islands, I may mention that Hernan Gallego says in his narrative--and the Adelantado also told me the same--that being among the Isles of St. Bartholome, [68] in 8° 40' N., in the position of the Barbudos, they saw a vessel flying from them under a head sail. They sent the boat on shore; all the natives fled to one of their villages, which our people entered, and brought thence to the ships a chisel made of a nail, from which they understood that Spaniards had been or were there. What they suspected, respecting this circumstance, was that when the Adelantado, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, discovered the Philippine Islands, a pilot named Lope Martin, returned to New Spain without orders, to bring the news to the Viceroy, Luis de Velasco, who had sent that expedition of discovery, by whom he was very well received and dispatched with succour. He, or one of the people who went with him, also took a letter which a certain friend of the Adelantado Legazpi wrote from Mexico, in which it was said that as soon as it was received Lope Martin should be hanged for having taken the leave which was not given to him. This letter, I know not by what order, got into the hands of Lope Martin. Besides this, between him and the others there were encounters and some deaths, including that of the Captain. Arrived at the Barbudos, Lope Martin went on shore with some of his friends. Meanwhile the Boatswain, with the men of his party, conspired and made sail, leaving them on the island. As the Adelantado, Alvaro de Mendaña, arrived at the islands a little time after this event, it was suspected that those who had been left there thought that Mendaña came in search with the object of punishing them; and for that reason they fled in that vessel which they had probably built, and went to New Guinea. I say that if this is true, as the islands of the Barbudos are in 8°, 9°, or 10°, more or less, and 2,000 leagues or more from Peru, and as Hernan Gallego, coming from the Solomon Islands, which he says are 1,450 leagues from Lima, to seek the coast of New Spain, navigating from N.E. to N., for so bear the islands from that coast, he could not fall in with the Barbudos, being from the Solomon Islands at least N.E., having come from a much greater longitude than they really thought, or did not wish to say. Moreover, inhabited islands are no small indication that New Guinea is near. Hernan Gallego says, in these formal words, that "in 2° or 3° to the S.W. we found very clear signs of land, but never saw any land whatever. Finally, we concluded that we had land to the west of us, and that it was New Guinea; not in a higher latitude than 4° S., for it was discovered by Iñigo Ortiz de Retes, and by no one else. Bernardo de la Torre neither discovered nor saw it, nor is there such a place as the Cape of the Cross." [69] I say, touching such signs as the palms seen in the sea, which Hernan Gallego mentions, that I also saw many, which might make me believe that New Guinea was near, being in the same latitude, and for other reasons that I will give further on. Also, in a northerly direction, I came upon the Barbudos in 6°, an island peopled by good natives. Moreover, I came from the island of Santa Cruz, 1,850 leagues from Lima, and afterwards navigated another 40 leagues more to the west, making 440 further than Hernan Gallego, according to his own account. And as I navigated to the Philippines, which is more to the west, I was more in the way of seeing the signs of the island I found than was Hernan Gallego. For he confesses that he went 1,450 leagues from Lima, and took his way to New Spain, which is N. to N.E. This proves that he could not have seen those signs, nor the islands he sighted, without having gone over much more longitude than he stated. Hernan Gallego says further, in his report to the Licentiate Castro, who was at that time President of the Audience in the city of the Kings, who despatched the expedition:--"Being in 7° S., 30 leagues from the island of Jesus, [70] which was the first we discovered as we saw the archipelago of islands, it was never intended to prosecute discoveries further, but that we should return to Peru, as is public and notorious. If we had gone on another cock would have crowed, for we should have discovered another land, different from this, and very near where we were. The goodness of the land I do not wish to dilate upon, because your Lordship will hear that from others." I quote this to show that Hernan Gallego was certain that he was near New Guinea as he says. He could not have come to this conclusion if he had not known that it was 2,000 and more leagues from Lima; for in his position he could not have been deceived, because it was discovered at a very short distance, as the Maluco Isles are from it. Miguel Rojo de Brito, a native of Lisbon, went from Maluco to New Guinea, and said that they were close to each other, as may be seen in a chapter of his narrative which will be attached to this discourse. Although I do not know the original intention of that expedition, I suspect that they went in search of New Guinea, because it is explained that Iñigo Ortiz de Retes was its discoverer, and not Bernardo de la Torres. So that it may be looked upon as certain that it was from a report of one of these, or both, that they were deriving the information respecting the object they sought. For Gallego says that the Cape of the Cross has no existence, and that New Guinea is in not more than 4° S., implying that one said it was in 4°, which seemed most likely to be correct, and the other in more. He went in search, but did not find it; coming by chance on the island of Jesus in 6° 45', and presently came to the reefs of Candelaria, and the Island of Santa Isabel, and always discovering by a higher latitude and decreasing longitude. The reason for not sighting New Guinea was the same as prevented us from reaching the Solomon Islands, namely, the island of Santa Cruz. My conclusion is that New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Islands of Santa Cruz are all near each other, for a reason I shall give presently. Hernan Gallego says, further, that the Adelantado asked his opinion respecting the return from those islands to Peru, across 1,700 leagues of sea; that the port on this island of Cristobal was three leagues by land from the most eastern point; that with a fresh breeze from S.E. they navigated 20 leagues N.E. 1/4 E., and 15 leagues N.E. 1/4 N., and N.E. 25, and 18 N.N.E., and when there the latitude was 7°, and 30 leagues from the island of Jesus to E. He says that this island of Jesus was the first they discovered in 6° 45' S., and that its distance from the city of Lima was 450 leagues. If this is as he says, that from this island of Jesus to the port whence he had come the course runs N.-S., it follows that the same number of leagues intervening between the island of Jesus and Lima, also intervene between San Cristobal and Lima, both being almost on the same meridian. It is clearly to be seen that there is carelessness here, or that there was an error in his calculation, and there no doubt was one throughout in trying to determine the true longitude. For in so short a distance as there is from one point to the other, there cannot have been a mistake of 250 leagues. Whence I infer that, in such a long route as that from Lima to the Solomon Islands, the error would be much greater, the course being east and west. If his narrative is considered, other obscure and contradictory points will be found. In one place he says that the natives told him that those islands to the S.E. were extensive, and that he saw them. Presently he says that a sailor climbed up a palm tree, and could not see them. He says that at the Island of Guadalcanal he could not see the end, and that the coast ran westward. Further on, he says that it would take six months to go round it; and that the land he did not see was reported to be very good, but that he certainly did not see it. He reports that it was better to take a northern route in returning to Peru, because it was difficult to find favourable winds further south. Few pilots would give this reason, because the usual winds outside the tropics, in the same latitude, are much the same on the north as on the south side. And how much easier was it, being (as he says) certain that there was no land to the S.E., to go to 11° S., where he would have found the route to 30° or 40° on that side, than to run down 11° and go up 30° or more on the other side, and yet be further from Peru. It may seem strange that the Adelantado did not meet with the islands that we have now discovered on his first voyage. I reply that, when he began the voyage from Peru, he made a large curve W.S.W. to 18°, and another to W.N.W. to 6°, more or less, and followed that parallel, as I have been told by one who was on board. This was the reason that he did not come upon the islands in question, which are in a higher latitude, leaving them to the south and passing to the north of them. There is further proof that the islands of Santa Cruz are near the Solomon Islands. The natives are the same colour, they dye their hair in the same way, called their chief "Jauriqui," have the same arms, pigs and fowls, and many other things in common. It may really be concluded that all the people of Santa Cruz and the Solomon Islands came from the archipelago of the Philippines. The Santa Cruz people dye their teeth red and black, and use the buyo, as in the Philippines. In the Island of Luzon there are black men, who are said to be the aborigines of the land. They are called Pogotes, and are retired on the island of Maragondon and other islands. For the Moors and other Indians occupy their lands, drive them away, and force those that remain into corners of the land where they now are. It may well be that, by reason of the invaders, the persecuted people have gone away to seek other settlements, until they came to New Guinea as the nearest place, and thence to the Solomon Islands and Santa Cruz. The half-breeds, and differences of colour among them, proceed from intercourse between them. In conclusion, I may say that the Adelantado told me, as well as certain pilots of that time, that Hernan Gallego, navigating on the coast of Mexico, made the land one day, and that afterwards he sailed over 700 leagues to reach the same place again. These, added to the 1,450 leagues which, he says, intervene between the Solomon Islands and Lima, make more than the 2,000 leagues which I say intervene between Lima and New Guinea, from which point the distance really ought to be drawn. This being so, my suspicion is confirmed; and there may be seen, as he says, the signs of the land of New Guinea, when he met with the Barbudos, and he did not see the land when he said he did. For if he had gone over the 1,450 leagues, as he said, it would take much more than four months of navigation. There are a little over 700 leagues from there to the coast of New Spain, navigating by the best-known route, which is that by the north. So that there cannot have been so great a mistake, if it was not from having intended to go by that point, and have taken the said 700 leagues more to the west. This appears to explain what has been said until the contrary is shown. CHAPTER XXXVII. Of various things that happened to the Chief Pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. We were some time in the city of Manilla, which is the capital of the government of the Philippine Islands. It is built on a clear point running out into the sea, and by the mouth of a river. It has a good fortress, and other houses well worthy of special note, on which a long chapter might be written. But I must be excused, referring the reader to a special book on the city, the Philippine Islands, and the history of their conquest, which was written by Dr Antonio de Morga. [71] While I was in the city there arrived the new Governor, Don Francisco Tello, who had been Treasurer of the Board of Trade at Seville. There were great festivals for his reception, got up both by the Spaniards and natives. It was a special sight to behold three elephants which were brought into the square, of which the largest, named Don Fernando, had been sent as a present from the King of Cambodia to the late Governor when he asked for help. On each one there was an Indian driver, dexterous in the method of governing the elephant, both by words and by the use of an iron hooked instrument. Placed in front with his goad, the driver made him run, march, go down on his knees, raise himself, and other things well worth seeing. This hook serves the same use as a bridle for a horse. They were performing in front of the Governor, who was sitting at a window, to whom they put their knees on the ground three times, the feet stretched out behind, as they are unable to double up. The performances of the elephants were numerous, and, as a conclusion, they took Don Fernando apart, and his Indians placed him facing the beams on which had been fastened the castle of fire on the night before. Saying a word, and touching his forehead with the goad, the elephant gave a blow, and took the beam on his two tusks with great ease; and so he upset the whole: a thing worth seeing. A few days afterwards (according to what was said), when this elephant was drinking at the river, there came to him a great and well-fed crocodile, which had taken many natives in that river. He seized the elephant by the trunk, and when the elephant felt it, he raised up the crocodile just as easily as a fishing rod raises a light fish, and let him fall on the ground without more ado. A crocodile, such as this one, weighs as much as a fat bullock. They say also that this elephant had a boil on his gum, of which the native driver cured him, but the pain made him throw about his trunk so as to hurt his driver. When the elephant was to be healed, the driver said to him: "I am very angry, Don Fernando, for in return for the good I did you, you tried to kill me. What do you think the King, my Lord and yours, who sent you here, and gave me for your companion to look after you, if he knew of it, would say. See how you can no longer eat, and are getting thin, and you will soon die without any fault of mine. Open your mouth, if you please, and presently I will cure you like a friend, forgetting the harm you did me." The elephant, having taken two turns with his trunk round a shelf that was there, opened his mouth, and was operated upon without moving, his groans showing what pain he endured. And so he was cured. Of another elephant they told me that, to avenge himself on a native who had charge of him, he crushed him when he passed through a doorway, and killed him. The man's wife said to the elephant: "Don Pedro, you have killed my husband. Who is now going to maintain me?" On which the elephant went to the market place, and took a basket of rice which it gave to her, and when it saw that she had eaten it all, it fetched another, and then another. Things are said of these animals which seem incredible, and the wonderful thing is that they understand everything, in whatever language it is spoken, as I have myself seen. An elephant was surrounded by Spanish soldiers, and one told him, without making any sign, to take a plantain out of his pocket and eat it. The elephant promptly put his trunk into the pocket, and when he found that no plantain was there, he took up a little earth in his trunk, and threw it in the face of the soldier who had deceived him. When the festivities were over, our Governess married a young cavalier named Don Fernando de Castro, a cousin of the Governor Marinas, who, as was just, took possession of the property of his wife as his own, and he was able to secure much in the city. With this help the ship was victualled and furnished with all that was necessary. On the day of St. Lawrence, we made sail to undertake the voyage to New Spain. But, having started so late, we had to go through incredible hardships and troubles. At last we arrived in the port of Acapulco on the 11th of December of the year 1597, where the ship was visited, and all received free leave to land. There I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, took leave of the Governess, and of my other companions, and embarked on board a passenger ship for Peru. NARRATIVE OF THE VOYAGE OF THE ADELANTADO ALVARO DE MENDAÑA DE NEIRA FOR THE Discovery of the Islands of Solomon. [72] WRITTEN BY THE CHIEF PILOT, PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS, FOR DR. ANTONIO DE MORGA, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF THE PHILIPPINES. SECOND VOYAGE OF THE ADELANTADO ALVARO DE MENDAÑA, BY HIS CHIEF PILOT, PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS. On Friday, the 9th of April, of the year 1595, the Commander-in-Chief, Alvaro de Mendaña, set sail with his fleet to go and subject and people the western islands of the South Sea, from the port of the Callao of Lima, which is in 12 1/2° S. latitude; passing by the valleys of Santa, Truxillo and Saña, and collecting men and provisions, he went to Paita, where he took in water, and made a list of four hundred persons, more or less, with his four vessels, two large and two small. He left this port (which is 5° higher than the said port), steering W.S.W., making for the islands of his discovery: he took as Master of the Camp Pedro Merino Manrique, and as Admiral his brother-in-law, Lope de la Vega, and as Chief Pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros; and he sailed on this course to the altitude of 9 1/2°, from which point he sailed W. and to the point S.W. to 14°, where he changed his course to W. and the point N.W.; and having reached, by this course, fully 10° of latitude, on Friday, 21st of July, we sighted an island, to which the General gave the name of Magdalena, and from a port in it there came forth about seventy canoes, in each of which came three men, in some more in others less. Others came swimming, and others on logs: they were more than four hundred natives, white, and of very agreeable appearance, tall and strong, large limbed, and so well made that they had greatly the advantage over us; with handsome teeth, eyes and mouth, hands and feet, and most beautiful flowing hair, and many of them very fair. Amongst them were most beautiful youths; they were entirely naked, without covering on any part, and all had their bodies, legs, and arms, and hands, and some of them their faces, marked after the manner of the Bisayas here: and indeed, for savage people, naked and of so little reason, at sight of them there was much cause to praise God who created them. Let this not be taken for exaggeration, for so it is. These people called us to go to their port, and we called to them from our flag-ship, and they went on board of her, a matter of forty of them; and we appeared to be men of less than the usual stature by the side of them; and amongst them there came one who was understood to be a palm taller than the tallest man of our fleet, although we had in the fleet men of more than regulation height. The General gave there to some of them shirts and other things, which they received with much pleasure, and danced after their fashion, and called to the others. The General was put out of temper at the liberties they took, because they were great thieves; and he ordered a cannon to be fired to frighten them; when they heard it they took to swimming, and all seized their arms, and sounding a conch, they threw a few stones, and threatened with their lances, for they had no other arms. From the ship they fired at them with arquebuses, and killed five or six, and they remained there. As our fleet sailed on we discovered three other islands. This island may be 6 leagues round; we passed by it on the S. side; this is high, precipitous towards the sea, with rocky ravines, in which the natives dwell. There seemed to be many inhabitants in it, for we saw them on the rocks and beach; so we went on making for the other three islands. The first, to which was given the name of San Pedro, will be 10 leagues from Magdalena, and runs with it northward and to the point N.W.: it will have 3 leagues circuit. It is an island beautiful to look at, with much wood and fair fields: we did not know whether it was inhabited, for we did not come close to it. To the S.E. of it, about 5 leagues off, is another, which the General named Dominica; it is very fair to look at, and seemed thickly inhabited: it may have about 15 leagues circumference; and to the S. of this, and a matter of little more than a league off, is another island, which may be 8 leagues round, which received the name of Santa Christina; and our fleet passed through the channel between this and the other island. For all that we saw of these islands is clear sailing; and on the W. side of Sta. Christina a good port was found, in which the fleet anchored. These natives did not come before me like the others, but some very beautiful women were seen. I did not see them, but persons who had an opinion in the matter affirmed to me that there were as beautiful women as in Lima, but white, and not so tall; and in Lima there are some very pretty. What was seen in the way of victuals in that port was pigs and hens, sweet canes, very good plantains, cocos, a fruit which grows on high trees; each is as large as a large fir cone; it is very good to eat; much of it was eaten--green, roasted and boiled, and when ripened it is indeed so sweet and good a fruit to my way of thinking, that I know no other which has the advantage of it; there is hardly anything in it to throw away, unless a little husk. There was another fruit, like chestnuts in savour, but much larger than six chestnuts together: a good deal of that was eaten, roast and boiled; and some nuts with a very hard shell, which were very oily, and many of them were eaten; some suspect that they brought on looseness. We also saw pumpkins of Castille sown in the ground. There is a pretty waterfall close to the beach of very good water; it comes out of a rock, at the height of two men; its volume may be of the thickness of four or five fingers; and then, close to it, a stream of water, and the vessels supplied themselves from it. The natives went off to the mountains and rocks, in which they fortified themselves, and tried to do mischief by rolling stones and hurling them; but they never wounded any one, for the Master of the Camp stopped their advance by placing outposts. The natives of this island, on seeing a negro of ours, made signs towards the S., to say that in that direction there were men like him, and that they went there to fight, and that the others had arrows, and that these went in large canoes, which they possess. As there was no interpreter, nor much curiosity to learn more, the matter remained thus; but in my opinion, this is not possible for natives so isolated, unless there is a chain (of islands), because their boats and customs in other matters do not show that these people had come there from any great distance. This port is in 9 1/2° S. latitude. The Commander-in-Chief ordered three crosses to be set up in it, and on Saturday, 5th of August, to weigh anchor and set sail, making for the W., to the S.W., or N.W., a matter of 400 leagues. Sunday, the 20th of August, we saw four low islands, with sandy beaches, full of very many palms and woods, and on the S.E. side, towards the N., a great sand-bank. All four may have a circuit of 12 leagues. We did not know whether they were inhabited, because we did not go close to them. This year all seemed timid: I say this with rage. They are in 10 3/4° latitude, and were named after St. Bernard, having been discovered on his day. Henceforward we began to meet with S.E. winds, which appear to predominate here. With these we continued sailing to the above-mentioned points, never rising above 11 or going below 10 leagues, until Tuesday, 29th of August, when we discovered a round islet, which might be a league round, all surrounded by reefs. We tried to land on it, and could not find where to do so, in order to get wood and water for the Admiral's ship, of which it had run very short; it was given the name of Solitary Island; it is in 10 2/3°, and will be 1,535 leagues from Lima. From this place we went on navigating, with the above-mentioned orders, and a variety of opinions were given: some saying that we did not know where we were going, and other things which did not fail to cause grief. It was God's pleasure, that on the eve of Our Lady in September, at midnight, we saw an island, which might have a circuit of from 90 to 100 leagues, and it lies about E.S.E. and W.N.W., and will be 1,800 leagues from Lima. The whole of it was very full of woods, reaching to the highest ridges, and where it was not cleared for the natives to sow, in all the rest not a span of earth was to be seen. The ships came to anchor in the northern part of the island in 10° latitude. To the N. of this port, about 7 leagues off, is a volcano, with a very well-shaped hill, from the top of which and from other parts issued much fire. The volcano is lofty, and may have a circumference of 3 leagues; it is precipitous on the side of the sea, and all bare, and without any part where a landing can be effected; it rumbles within frequently and loudly like thunder. To the N.E. of this volcano there are some small islets, which are inhabited, and a great quantity of shoals; there is a distance of 7 or 8 leagues to these islets, and the shoals run to the N.W.; and the person who went to see said that they were numerous. Around the great island there were some small islands: all of them, and the great one (when it was circumnavigated), were found to be inhabited; and within sight of this great island, to the S.E. of it, there was seen another island of no great size: this must be the link with others. After putting into port in the great island of Santa Cruz, for this was the name given it, the Commander-in-Chief ordered Captain Don Lorenzo, brother of his wife, to go with the frigate to seek the Admiral's ship, which disappeared on the night in which we saw the island, respecting which I make no favourable conjecture; it was sought for this and two other times, and was not found, but only the shoals which I have mentioned. What was seen in the way of victuals in this port consisted of pigs, hens, plaintains, sweet canes, one, two, or three kinds of roots like sweet potatoes, which they eat roast and boiled, and make biscuit with it, buyos, two kinds of good almonds, and two kinds of pine nuts, wood-pigeons, doves, ducks, grey and white herons, swallows, pot-herbs, pumpkins of Castille, the fruit which I mentioned in the first islands, and chestnuts and nuts. There is a very strongly-scented sweet basil, and red flowers, which at this port they keep in the gardens, and two other species of another sort, also red. There is another fruit on high trees, like pippins for their good smell and savour. There is a great quantity of ginger, which grows there without its being cultivated, and much yerba chiquilite, with which they make indigo. There are agave trees, and a great deal of sagia, and many cocoa nuts. Marble was seen, and pearl shells, and large snail shells, like those which are brought here from China. There is a very copious spring, and five or six other rivers, though not very large. The settlement was established close to this spring. The natives attempted to defend themselves; and as the arquebus tells at a distance, seeing the evil effects, they did not defend themselves much, but, on the contrary, gave some of what they possessed. In this matter of going for provisions there were a few things happened, which were not very good treatment of the natives, for they killed the native who was our best friend, and the lord of that island; his name was Malope; and two or three others, who were also friendly. Of the whole island no more was seen than a matter of 3 leagues around the camp. The people of this island are black: they have small canoes made of one tree, in which they go about their villages, and other very large canoes with which they go out to sea. On Sunday, the 8th of October, the Commander-in-Chief ordered the Master of the Camp to be killed by stabbing, and they killed Tomas de Ampuero in the same manner, and they cut off the head of the Ensign, Juan de Buitrago, and he wished to put to death two other friends of the Master of the Camp; but he left them alone, because we entreated him to do so. The cause of this was public, because they wished to go away from the country, and abandon it, and there must have been other reasons, but I am unacquainted with them. What I saw was much dissoluteness and shamelessness, and more than enough improper conduct. On the 18th of October the Commander-in-Chief died: on the 17th there had been a total eclipse of the moon. On the 2nd of November his brother-in-law, Don Lorenzo, who had succeeded as Captain-General, died; and, seven or eight days before, the priest, Antonio de Serpa; and on the 8th November the Vicar, Juan de Espinosa. There was great sickness amongst our people, and as there was little care for want of an apothecary and doctor, many of them died; and they begged the lady Governor, Doña Ysabel Barreto, to take them out of the country. One and all agreed to embark; and, trusting ourselves to the mercy of God, we left this port on Saturday the 18th of the said month, in a westerly direction to the S.W. point, making for the island of St. Christopher; or, more exactly, in search of it, to see if it or the Admiral's ship could be fallen in with, for so the lady Governor commanded. We sailed two days and saw nothing; and at the request of all the people, who cried out that we were taking them to destruction, she ordered me to shape the course from this town to Manilla, from a port in 10 1/2°, from which I came steering to N.W. to avoid meeting islands on the way, for we were ill-prepared to go amongst them: with the crews so sick that there died whilst we were sailing some fifty persons, and there in the island forty persons, a little more or less. We made our course, short of provisions, navigating 5° S. and as many in N. latitude. We met many impediments and calms, and in fully 6° N. latitude saw an island, which seemed to have a circumference of 25 leagues, thickly wooded, and inhabited by very many people, like those of the Ladrones, for we saw them in canoes which came out to us. From the S.E. to the N. and then to S.W. it is surrounded by large reefs. On its western side, about 4 leagues off, there are some low islets; we found no place to anchor, though we tried, for the galeot and frigate which sailed with our ship had disappeared some days back. From this place we came by the said course to latitude 13 3/4°, and in two days that we sailed W. in this latitude we sighted Serpana and Guan in the Ladrones, and we passed between the two and did not anchor, from not having ropes to lower and recover the boat. This day was the 3rd of January of 1596, and on the 14th of the said month we saw the cape of Espiritu Santo, and on the 15th anchored in the bay of Cobos. We arrived there in such a state that only the goodness of God could bring us thither, for human strength and resources were not enough to reach to a tenth of the way. There we arrived so dismantled, and the men so thin and worn out, that it was the most pitiable sight that could be seen, with only nine or ten pitchers of water. In this bay of Cobos the ship and crew were set to rights as much as was possible, and on Tuesday, the 2nd of February, we left that port and bay, and on the 10th of the same month we anchored in this port of Cabite. Besides the desire which I have to serve your Honour, that which moves me to leave this brief narrative with your Honour is, that an account may remain (if perchance God should dispose of my life, or anything else should arise, or I or she that I take with me should be missing), and that it may give light, which may be a business of great service to God and to the King our sovereign. May your Honour be pleased to accept the goodwill to serve you which I retain; and if God make me return to this port there will be an opportunity to set it forth better; and at the same time will your Honour forgive my being so short, for time is in fault for being so with me. I beg you to keep it secret, for man does not know what time brings; for looking at it rightly, it is fit that the first islands should remain concealed until His Majesty be informed, and order whatever may be most for his service: for as they are placed, taking a middle position between Peru, New Spain, and this country, the English, on knowing it, might settle in them, and do much mischief in this sea. And consider me as the faithful servant of your Honour, whom may God preserve many years, with much satisfaction and increase of dignity, etc. Your servant, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. To the Dr. Antonio de Morga, Lieutenant-General of His Majesty in the Philippines. NARRATIVE OF THE VOYAGE OF Pedro Fernandez de Quiros IN 1606, FOR THE Discovery of the Austrial Regions. VOYAGE OF PEDRO FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS. CHAPTER I. Of various things that happened to the Chief Pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros; until he arrived at the court of the King of Spain. Having sailed along the whole coast of New Spain, I arrived at the port of Payta on the 3rd of May, 1598. Thence I wrote a letter to the Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, and travelled by land to Lima, where I arrived on the 5th of June, and was very well received by the said Viceroy. He desired to be specially informed respecting all the particulars of our voyage and discoveries, and I gave him the best account in my power. I also offered that, if he would give me a vessel of 70 tons and 40 sailors, I would return to discover those lands and many others which I suspect to exist, and even felt certain that I should find in those seas. But in the end he came to the conclusion that he could not give me the necessary means without first consulting and receiving orders from His Majesty. He thought it would be the best plan that I should proceed in person to the court of Spain, as the business was so serious and important, and as no one could undertake it so well as myself, who possessed such complete information. On his part, the Viceroy would help me by giving me letters of introduction to the King and to his councillors. Having received them, I embarked on board the Capitana at the port of Callao, on the 17th of April, 1598, under General Don Beltran de Castro y de la Cueva, arriving at Panama after a voyage of twenty-two days. Thence I went by land to Puerto Bello, where I embarked in a frigate, and in seven days arrived at Cartagena. I found this place in great confusion, because a fleet of twenty large ships had appeared before it, under the command of the English Earl of Morlant (Cumberland), who had previously taken the city of Puerto Rico. But most of this fear disappeared on the arrival of Don Luis Fajardo, knight of the order of Calatrava, and General of the fleet for guarding the Indies and the route to them. From Cartagena I wrote to the Viceroy of Peru, in case I should die on the voyage, giving him a more detailed account of the enterprise I wished to undertake, and of what would be necessary when it should be taken in hand. Don Luis de Fajardo, having returned from Puerto Bello with the silver, I embarked on board his galleon, and we left Cartagena on the 1st of November, 1598. After twenty-seven days we anchored at Havanna, whence we sailed on the 16th of January in the following year, convoying thirty ships. Having made a good start, we encountered such a gale in 29° N. that we were in great danger of being lost. Many ships disappeared, and others, including ourselves, were obliged to return to Cartagena on Tuesday the 3rd of March. Thence I wrote to His Majesty and to the Viceroy of Peru; but we had to winter at that port all that year until, having sent the news to His Majesty and two galleons having come for the silver, the two Generals embarked fifteen millions on board twenty vessels. They made sail on the 4th of January and, after encountering several tempests, they sighted Cape St. Vincent, where they captured two English ships. On the 25th of February, 1600, with salutes of artillery, and amidst the music of instruments, we anchored at San Lucar. There I embarked for Seville, where I entered the city so well fitted for giving an account of myself, as may be understood from the labours I had passed through, and the hardships I had suffered. Finding myself free from them, and considering that the year was the holy one, during which the great jubilee is celebrated at Rome, I determined to go to Rome, and pass the summer in a visit to the holy city. With this object I sold the little I possessed, bought the dress of a pilgrim, and only with the help of a pilgrim's staff I went on foot to Cartagena of the east, encountering several adventures. When the galleys of Italy arrived, I embarked in one of them, which coasted along by Valencia and Barcelona. On the 5th of August we crossed the bay of Narbonne; and soon afterwards landed at the port of Baya, which is in the territory of Genoa. Thence, dressed as a pilgrim, and accompanied by two others and a friar, we passed through all the finest cities of Italy, where there was much to see and to notice. Finally, having reached the great city of Rome, I had the good fortune to be well received and listened to by the Lord Duke of Sesa, [73] who at that time held the office of Ambassador from Spain at that court. To him I gave an account of the lands that had been discovered, and of my desire to return to them; and submitted that it would be right for His Holiness to favour the enterprise. I addressed myself chiefly to the importance of saving an infinity of souls, such as exist in that new world. It seemed good to His Excellency, and he called together a meeting in his house of the best pilots and mathematicians to be found in Rome. Having made a detailed examination of my papers and charts in his presence, they came to the conclusion that all I had said was probable, and worthy to be put into execution. The Lord Duke then arranged for me an interview with His Holiness Clement VIII, which took place on the 28th of August, I having first dined at the table of the poor. His Holiness heard me very attentively, saw all the papers I showed him, and approved of my zeal and veracity. He encouraged me to persevere in my laudable intentions, and conceded many graces and indulgences for the time when I should begin the voyage. He gave me letters to the Majesty of the King our Lord, to whom also the Lord Duke of Sesa wrote letters of recommendation; and he also gave me letters to other princes and councillors of the court of Spain, with the means of proceeding thither. Having gained the holy jubilee, and beheld many things which were worthy of note, including the canonization of the glorious St. Raymond, I was still detained in Rome much longer than I expected, for the completion of the letters and indulgences already mentioned, and that His Holiness might show me favour by giving me some rosaries that had been blessed, and a piece of the wood of the Cross. About this there was great difficulty. At length, these and others having been overcome, the day arrived for my departure from Rome, which was the afternoon of Holy Wednesday of the year 1602. Having visited the holy dwelling of Our Lady of Loreto and passed through the cities of Arimino, [74] Forli, Ferrara, and Lodi, in which I found much to see and take note of, and where I met with various and notable adventures, I entered the city of Milan, which contains so many grand and admirable buildings, that to treat of them briefly would be to do them injustice. I passed by Pavia and Tortona, and went thence to sleep at the town of San Estevan, the first place in the territory of Genoa. Then I entered Genoa at so fortunate a time that on the second day I was able to embark on board one of the six galleys of Prince Doria, who was sent with his nephew to congratulate His Majesty on the birth of a princess. We arrived at Barcelona, where I went to Montserrat, and, passing through other cities of Spain, I entered Madrid on the octave of Corpus Christi of the same year, 1602. The court not being there, having moved to Valladolid, I went to the famous convent of the Escurial, where I had notice that His Majesty then was, with whom I might speak, and kiss his royal hands, and give him my memorial respecting my pretensions, on Monday, the 17th of June of the said year. CHAPTER II. Of what happened to the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros at the court of Spain; negotiating for leave from His Majesty to discover and settle the southern parts; how, and in what form, the business was negotiated; and his voyage to Peru. Having spoken to His Majesty, and placed my first memorial in his hands, in which I declared my plan and its importance, he heard me with his accustomed clemency and benignity, and replied that he would order the matter to be seen to. Presently I went to speak with Don Juan Idiaquez, with the Father Confessor, with Don Pedro Franqueza, and with other Members of the Council of State, and important persons about the court, who might be able to help in despatching my business. To these I gave the letters I brought from the Viceroy of Peru and the Ambassador at Rome; and I showed to them the letters of His Holiness, and the other papers and charts relating to my discovery. Some received me well, holding the affair to be serious and worthy of support. Others thought little of it or of me, thinking that I promised more than I could perform, and that for the performance of so great a deed, a person of more parts and valour was needed. Some answered me that sufficient lands had been discovered for His Majesty, and that what signified was to people and settle them, rather than go in search of those I said were new, which were so distant that they would be difficult and costly to maintain, after they had been conquered and settled. There were not wanting those who threw doubts on the utility of such conquests. So that I was forced to be more importunate to His Majesty, submitting new memorials every day, representing the arguments in favour of the enterprise, and endeavouring to satisfy those who opposed me. During this time I had much trouble at court, and I made a long discourse on the life passed by those who had business to prosecute there. I had different replies, some sharp, and others gentle, like those from Don Pedro Franqueza and others of the Council of State. At last, on the last day of Easter, in the year 1603, I was sent for by Don Pedro Franqueza, who told me that my business was despatched; and he took me to the Chief Secretary, named Matienzo, and said that, as he valued his regard, he was not to delay me on any point. So on Saturday, the 5th of April, they delivered to me some orders of His Majesty which contained my despatch, and which had been passed by the Council of State. Their tenor is as follows:-- Copy of the Order of His Majesty touching the Principal Despatch. To Don Luis de Velasco or the Count of Monterey, my relation, my Viceroy and Captain General in my kingdoms and provinces of Peru, or such other person as may be governing in my name, at the time of the delivery of this order. There has come here from Rome the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese; and the Duke of Sesa and of Baena, of my Council of State and my Ambassador at that Court, wrote to me that in the holy year he had news from Friar Diego de Soria, Prior at Manilla of the Order of San Domingo, that there would be found at that court the said Captain Quiros, who was a great pilot with much experience of the South Sea and of the great gulf between the coasts of New Spain and Peru and Japan and the Philippine Islands, having been Chief Pilot of the second discovery made by the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña. The said Father represented that it would be much for the service of God and for mine to introduce him, that he might again return to discover these unknown parts and islands. So the Duke sent for him to his house to ask him concerning curious things relating to his art; and entertained him there for near seventeen months, during which time he opened his mind, and showed many papers he possessed, and drew up others which he communicated to Father Clavio and other mathematicians and distinguished geographers. All were persuaded, by the proofs and reasonings he submitted to them, that there could not fail to be either a continental land or a number of islands from the Strait of Magellan to New Guinea and Java and the other islands of that great archipelago. And they concluded that, enjoying the best part of the torrid and temperate zones, where it has been seen, as well in the ancient provinces of the world as in the new discoveries, that much and very good and rich land exists which has a temperate and therefore a habitable climate. They are, therefore, of opinion that it is very desirable to lose no time in discovering that southern region, unknown until now, which will be a great service to God. Besides the interest and advantages that this discovery promises, it will be easier to explore the southern region than it was to find the Western Indies. When the said Captain returned from that long navigation, including detentions in various parts, lasting for two years, he offered to Don Luis de Velasco, my Viceroy of Peru and your predecessor, to return in the same ship in which he had come, to that discovery, if it should prove necessary, as far as New Guinea and the Moluccas, and to return to Peru by way of the Philippines, with a full account of all he had discovered. But though it seemed well to the Viceroy he did not act, but gave the Captain letters to me and to His Holiness, who has heard and spoken with him. His Holiness was pleased with his proposals, insomuch that he has conceded many spiritual gifts for those parts (if I order the voyage to be undertaken), for the reasonings of the said Captain satisfied him. The Duke has given me a good account of his parts, good judgment, experience in his profession; and has assured me that he is a worker, quiet, disinterested, of decent life, zealous for the service of God and for my service. As regards the theory (according to what the mathematicians at Rome affirm) they say that there are few pilots who know as much as he does; that he is expert in making globes, and charts for navigating; that he well understands the use of instruments necessary for navigation, and that he showed them two of his own invention, one by which to know, in navigating, the difference made by the needle between the N.E. and N.W. points, and the other for taking an altitude with more ease and accuracy. Both were commended by the Fathers Clavio and Villalpando of the Company of Jesus, and by the Doctors Toribio Perez and Masa, who have lectured publicly in mathematics at Salamanca, as well as by distinguished geographers. Captain Quiros had made an offer to the Duke that, I being served by it, he would go from Spain by the Strait of Magellan and return by the Eastern Indies, having gone round the world, using, by sea and land, the instruments he had made, and that he would make quite clear the true differences made by the needle in variation: a matter which up to the present time is very obscure, and respecting which there are many different opinions. The discovery of the truth will be of great advantage to navigation, in giving a knowledge of the true latitude and longitude of places, ports, and capes discovered, or which may be discovered in various voyages. In conformity with what has been reported, the said Captain Quiros has related to me all that he has told to others respecting the navigations and discoveries; proving his statements by writings and maps of the islands he discovered, when he served as Chief Pilot under the said Adelantado, Alvaro de Mendaña, describing the diversity of people shown by their different colours, yet appearing to be docile, and the fertility of the islands which promised wealth. He prayed that, taking into consideration his zeal, and that his ends and objects being the service of God and my service, and the conversion of these people to our holy faith, and the good that might accrue from the discoveries (without reference to his interests), and besides all this the way in which the navigation of these wide seas would be facilitated through the great practice and experience he has of them, I would be served by ordering that a ship, not very large, should be provided with crew, provisions, munitions, and other things necessary for the said navigation and enterprise; and that matters should be arranged in a manner that would enable him to accomplish what he wishes to undertake. Having considered his proposal, with the attention that so serious a matter requires, for the increase of the faith and the benefit of the souls of those remote people, and placing the service of God before all things, as is reasonable, after consulting my Council of State, I have resolved:-- That the said Captain Quiros shall presently depart to make this discovery, in the first fleet for Peru; and I ordain and command that on his arrival you are to give him two very good ships with which he will be satisfied, to fit them out and provide them with the number of people necessary, well victualled, and supplied with munitions and arms requisite for so long a voyage. The ships are also to be supplied with things for bartering with natives, if they should reach places where this can be done, in conformity with the general orders which you and your predecessors have for similar discoveries, and with all that seems most conducive to my service. The cost of the preparations, of the people who will be embarked, of the provisions, munitions, clothing, and other things necessary for the voyage, is to be defrayed from my royal revenues, and from those which are most readily available. You are to give orders that some bare-foot friars, of the Order of St. Francis, exemplary and of good life, are taken; and you are to see that the people who are embarked in the said ships are good and useful, ordering them to obey and respect the said Captain during the voyage out and home, as their leader and superior, whom I name for that position from this time, obeying him in all things. Take notice that it is my will that the said Captain Quiros is presently to make this voyage and discovery without delay; and so I charge and order you very positively to comply promptly with my orders, without interposing doubts or difficulties, notwithstanding that this order does not come through my Council of the Indies. The business being peculiar, I have arranged and I shall be served by its coming through the Council of State, and in this I must receive precise service from you. By the first ship you are to report the arrival of the said Captain Quiros in those my kingdoms, and how you have furnished him with the said two ships, and provided him with all that is necessary. For I shall look out, with much anxiety, for the news of compliance with my orders. And to such of my officials or accountants as have the duty of keeping the accounts respecting what is contained in my royal letter, I order and command that they receive and pass the expenditure which you sanction out of my royal revenues, with your orders or letters of payment without seeking any other authority; for I approve it, from this time as well and properly spent and paid, and this shall be their authority. In Valladolid, 31st of March, 1603. Copies of two other Royal Orders. To Don Luis de Velasco, or the Count of Monterey, my cousin, my Viceroy and Captain-General in my kingdoms and provinces of Peru, or whomsoever shall be governing the said kingdoms in my name at the time that this Order is presented. Although in another separate letter I have caused to be written to you very specially the reasons which have moved me to resolve to send the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese by nation, who will deliver this, to proceed with two ships well supplied with men, victuals, munitions, and artillery, to discover the southern islands and lands as far as New Guinea and Java Major, in this I desire to repeat those orders, as I do very particularly, that, without hindrance by difficulties or other causes, you are to further my service by sending the said Captain Quiros, with as much despatch as possible, with the said two ships, so that my orders may be complied with quickly; and I trust to you that you will do your part in providing the two ships, in obedience to my commands. For besides that it is furthering my service, I take a particular inclination and pleasure in the discovery that is to be undertaken, for the increase, which is to be hoped from it, of our holy faith among those remote people, for the glory of God and the public benefit, which is the object I have before me. You are to advise me, by the first opportunity, of what steps you have taken, for I shall await the news with the desire for it that you should understand. From Valladolid, the 31st of March, 1603. The King. To whomsoever my Viceroys, Governors, Lieutenant-Governors, Captains-General, Adelantados, and Admirals of my armies and fleets by land and sea in the eastern and western Indies, the Philippine and other islands, and coast of Africa, and to all my Ministers of Justice and War, of whatsoever title, quality, nation or condition they may be, to whom this my royal order may be presented. Forasmuch as I have ordered the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, a Portuguese by nation, to proceed to the city of Lima in Peru, and with two ships, well supplied with men, victuals, and munitions of war, to proceed thence to discover New Guinea, Java Major, and other southern lands and islands, returning by that part of the world to these my kingdoms of Spain, to deliver and account to me of what he had seen and discovered, and of the observations he will have made by land and sea during his navigation, in conformity with the orders he has received. I hereby order and command you, that in whatever part of the said my kingdoms and states the said Captain, or the officers and sailors who go with him, may arrive with the said two ships or any one of them, or with any other vessel, you shall receive, protect, and succour the said Captain and his people in my ports and lands, and provide them with whatever is necessary to complete the said voyage without delay; and you are to assist them to obtain whatever they may require, and he may ask for, as he is my servant and Captain, going expressly to carry out my orders; and you are not to interpose any impediments or difficulties, but rather you are to extend to him favour and help, if you desire or seek my approval. For this proceeds from my will, and is very conformable to my royal service. At Valladolid, March 31st, 1603. These orders were accompanied by many letters, which were given to me at court by some great lords, for the Viceroy of Peru. Having communicated the letters of His Holiness to the Royal Council of the Indies, the Count of Lemos, who was President of that Council, and the other members of it, desired that I should explain to them my objects and intentions, and they ordered that I should bring them a map. I went to give this account in a garden of the court, where the other members assembled to hear me. Having listened to what I told them, they were satisfied, and rather envious that my despatch should have been arranged by the Council of State. But I was not yet contented, on seeing that, in the orders that had been prepared, a special clause had not been inserted that, in the event of my failure or death, I might nominate another person to carry on and complete the discovery. So I represented that an order should be given to me, with this provision; and, after some trouble, I succeeded. The additional order is as follows:-- The King. To Don Luis de Velasco or the Count of Monterey, my cousin, my Viceroy and Captain-General in my kingdoms and provinces of Peru, or whomsoever may be governing in my name at the time that this order is presented. The Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros who, by my order, proceeds to make discoveries in the unknown parts of the south and others (as is contained in more detail in the despatches which I have ordered to be sent to you), has besought me, in order to make more sure of the success of the enterprise that, if he should fail through sickness, accident, or death, that as great a success as is expected from the said discovery for the service of God and of our Holy Faith may not be lost, I shall be served by ordering that, in the said event, you shall nominate a person equally able and sufficient for the duty, in order that with the said despatches and papers and writings that he may have left, concerning what he had seen and what he hoped to discover, such a person may continue the said discovery. And as what he asks is a testimony of his zeal in the service of God, in my service, and in that of Christianity, I order and specially charge you that if our Lord should be served by the failure of the said Captain Quiros, or if he should not be able to go on the said voyage, with the papers and memorial that he will leave to explain and throw light on his intentions, you shall nominate the most suitable person you can find to take his place and carry out this great undertaking. And to him who may be selected you are to give all the assistance and help he needs, in the form indicated in the previous orders; and this is my will, and is conformable to my service. At Aranjuez, May 9th, 1603. With this I set out on the road to Seville, and found the fleet for New Spain ready to sail. I at once applied to the House of Commerce for my despatch; and, though there were some difficulties to overcome, in the night of the eve of St. John I went on board a brigantine, and proceeded down the river of Seville. But when I reached the bay of Cadiz I found that the fleet had already sailed, consisting of thirty ships, and in the fleet was the Marquis of Montes Claros, going out as Viceroy of New Spain. I had to do what I could, and in great haste. So I took a passage in a frigate, commanded by Captain Diego Ramirez, going to Tierra-firme under convoy of the fleet. After a good voyage we sighted the island of Marigalanta on the 1st of August; and on the next day, which was that of a Franciscan festival called "Porciuncula," we came into the port of Guadaloupe, when the Viceroy and Vice-queen landed to hear Mass. At dinner-time the persons of most consequence went on board again; but a great many remained on shore, wandering about or washing clothes. They were suddenly attacked by the natives of that island, who fell upon them with great shouting and flights of arrows. It seemed certain that they would be captured, killed, or wounded, and, in consequence, upwards of sixty persons were drowned, seven of whom were Dominican friars. This caused great sorrow and perturbation throughout the fleet, and was a prognostication of what was afterwards to happen. For that night there rose a wind from the S.S.W., which was nearly abeam; and as the ships were near the shore and close to each other, they were all in great danger, especially the Capitana, for another ship, named the Pandorga, came into collision with her, and both were in danger of being lost. It was necessary for the Viceroy and the Vice-queen, almost naked, to pass to another ship. They left behind much property that was coming with them; and the ships were ordered to be burnt, that they might not fall into the hands of enemies. The other ships put to sea as well as they were able, and proceeded on their voyage, and our frigate on hers, making for the island called Curaçoa. The frigate's voyage was so unlucky that, on the vespers of St. Lawrence, she struck and went to pieces on some rocks, which we afterwards learned were those off the island called "Aves." We found ourselves in great trouble, but by the mercy of God most of the people were saved, being taken in the boat to those rocks. With the same boat what was possible of the ship's gear was got on land, with which we set to work, until the diligent Captain ordered the boat to be sawn in two, and a small vessel to be built of the materials, which was launched in the end of August. He said that he was determined to send her with all the passengers, and me as their leader, to the port of Guayra, of the city of Caraccas, to bring back provisions for those who remained, with some vessel in which the whole party could escape from that dangerous prison into which God had put them. I do not know whether it was worse for those who remained behind, or for those who went in the vessel. But by the favour of God, having passed through great hardships, I arrived at Caraccas, and gave an account of what had happened to the Governor, who supplied me with what was necessary, and I returned with the refreshments to my unhappy companions who, with penitence and prayers, besought God for my return. They had been on an allowance of only two ounces of bread for ten days. Having brought the relief and almost made another frigate, I said to the Captain that it was only fair that I should continue my voyage. So I took my leave, and embarked, with certain persons returning to Caraccas, where I remained for eight months, waiting for a passage. I noted and wrote in much detail the things I observed concerning that island. [75] By great good luck I found there three children of a brother of mine, of whom I had not heard for many years. It appeared that he had married there and died, leaving a widow and these three children. It seemed to me right that I should take them out of such a bad country, and bring them with me. I got leave from the grandfather, for the widow was also dead, and I took the two boys, [76] leaving the little girl with her grandfather. At last the time for my long desired departure arrived, and I embarked for Cartagena in a frigate. There I presented to the Governor the order of His Majesty, in which all his officers are instructed to help me; but he made little account either of the order or of assisting me. As soon as I could I again embarked for Puerto Bello, and arrived at Panama so poor that for the space of eight days I had not one rial. I arrived, owing for the hire of the mules and many other things. So I determined to apply to the Audience of that city to present me with 200 dols. from the treasury, or I should have to seek it at a loss from merchants, to be repaid at Lima. But the judges made as little of me as of the royal orders which I presented, saying that that was no place for advances from the public funds. So I had to retire to my poor lodging, where I was sued by the muleteer and other creditors. In the middle of these troubles, on Monday, the 30th of August, the most Holy Sacrament went forth from its house to the hospital, which was built of old wood. Ascending to the upper story, as the weight of the people was great, a large part of the building gave way, and we fell, sixty of us, with the beds and patients, a height of more than twenty feet. There were many accidents. A priest was killed on the spot, and there were broken limbs. I escaped with what I got, which was a severe blow on the left side, a wound on the right ankle, and a hand cut open by a nail. My cure cost me four bleedings and two months and a-half in bed, without possessing a single maravedi during the whole time, and in a very expensive place. Only by a miracle I found anyone to take pity on me in my necessity. When barely convalescent, I was able to embark in a ship bound for Peru, without a bit of bread or a jar of water. God favoured me with such a good voyage that in twenty days we anchored at Payta, and I sent a letter by the chasqui to the Count of Monterey, who had arrived as Viceroy of that kingdom from New Spain. Embarking again, God was served that in eighteen days I should arrive at the port of Callao, where I disembarked on the 6th of March, 1605, with debts for the passage and food, and with no money. I hired horses from one I had known before, and entered Lima by night. I went round without being able to find any hostelry, until God led me to a potter who, for that night and for three other nights, hospitably received me with goodwill among his pots; so that I am able to say with good reason that I arrived at Lima weighted down with so many old labours to make a beginning with new ones, in the way that will be seen by what follows. CHAPTER III. Of what more happened in the city of the Kings and in its port of Callao, to the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, until his despatch took effect, and he embarked for the new discovery. After I had arrived at the city of the Kings, three days passed without being able to obtain admission to or audience with the Viceroy, to explain to him my plans, and inform him respecting the orders of His Majesty. I spoke with him for the first time on Friday, the 11th of March, and, having seen the royal order, he appointed an audience on the 25th of the same month, which he gave me. He had ordered to be present two judges, two religious persons of the Company of Jesus, the General of Callao, Don Lope de Ulloa, the Captain of the Guard, and a secretary. The Viceroy ordered me to read certain papers referring to the business, and to explain everything. He had a general chart spread out on a buffet, with which he satisfied himself when I answered the questions they asked me. Although, in the course of the discussion, the Viceroy said that it appeared more convenient to him to make the voyage from Manilla, where the expedition could be fitted out at less cost than would be incurred in the purchase of two ships at Lima, I answered that the royal order expressly commanded that the expedition should start from Lima and not from the Philippines, and that the contrary winds would be against all successful navigation. I added that there was a want of sailors and soldiers at Manilla. There were those at the audience to whom my remarks seemed to be just. Don Juan de Villela, one of the judges, was strongly in favour of the expedition; also the Father Francisco Coello, who had been "Alcalde" of the Court of Justice and Assessor to the late Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco. They were present when I gave an account of my navigation and my plans on the first occasion; so that they were witnesses brought by God to prove the truths of which I treated. The Viceroy showed himself to be satisfied with my arguments, and of the importance and grandeur of the proposed discovery. Yet, owing to his bad health and many occupations, and to the difficulties which always arise in business of this kind that has to pass through many hands, the despatch could not be proceeded with as quickly as was necessary, and as I desired. If the day of St. Francis should pass, the best time of the year would be lost for making sail and shaping a S.W. course. So that I was forced to continue my memorials to the Viceroy, and to set forth all the details I deemed necessary to arm, equip, and provision the ships for so long a voyage. I found more opposers than helpers. Don Fernando de Castro, husband of my former Governess, Doña Isabel Barreto, who, with all her household, had come to live in Peru, opposed my undertaking as trenching on the Solomon Islands, which he inherited through his wife, who was the widow of their discoverer, the Adelantado Alvaro de Mendaña. But the good cavalier was convinced by my pious reasoning, and he said that, as he understood it, he would condemn the soul who pretended to disturb me. The Doctor Arias Ugarte, a Judge of the Royal Audience, learning in what poverty and discomfort I lived, invited me to his house and table: an offer such as a brother might make, or one friend to another. Seeing that my wish differed from his, he wanted to make me accept a great dish full of dollars, almost by force. I gave him thanks, and said that it did not seem right for one serving His Majesty in a great undertaking to be sustained by alms. At length, after many memorials and much worry, I induced the Viceroy to nominate commissaries whose duty it was to see that the most necessary things were provided for my despatch. Those matters relating to the sea were under the superintendence of the Admiral, Juan Colmanero de Andrada, who was not well disposed towards me. This was the reason that I had to return to the Viceroy with complaints and importunities, in which he honoured and favoured me. One day he said to me that, by virtue of the royal order I had shown him, he wished to name a person to go in my company, who was to take my place and office in the event of my death. I answered that I did not wish to take with me any one who would know that he was to succeed me, for that was an arrangement fraught with obvious danger. In the order His Majesty allowed that I myself made the proposal, with the object that if I should die before I reached Lima, or before I left the port, the enterprise should continue in being. But at present I was strong and well; so I begged him to suspend this business until it was seen what God ordained; and that he would leave it in my charge; so that when it appeared necessary I could select such a person as time had shown to merit the charge of so serious an enterprise. In this position the matter rested, and my despatch proceeded, though with slow steps. As the time for starting approached, it was represented that the pay should be in advance, and the persons who raised the question claimed that it should be given on board the ships, or with good securities. I succeeded in satisfying them, saying that, as His Majesty had entrusted to me and to them a business of such importance, it was not just to proceed in all things with such limitation. Having settled this, I took steps for my people to receive the jubilee which had been conceded by His Holiness, and that a special festival should be held for them in the convent of St. Francis of the port of Callao, where were the six friars who were to go in our ships. The standards and banners were to be blessed, and we were to come forth with all our people in procession, in the clothes of sackcloth which almost all had made for the occasion. But the envy which is so powerful put a stop to this laudable intention, and there were not wanting those who opposed the blessing and raising of the standard, as if the undertaking was not for the service of His Majesty. However, all the people confessed and took the sacrament. The standards and banners were embarked, rolled up on their staves; and I, with other persons of the fleet, went to seek for the six friars. These, accompanied by many others of their Order, and by their guardian and commissary, came forth from their convent, and were lovingly embraced by many people, for always at such partings many tears are shed. We all went on board together, with the Admiral and other royal officers. When the inspection was made, there was not a single man missing who had received pay, and not counting those, there were twenty-two. One day before, I had been to Lima to take leave of the Viceroy, having with me the two captains of the other two ships. I asked him to pardon me for having been so pressing, for it had been necessary to make a finish of my despatch. The Viceroy answered that, on the contrary, he was much pleased, and he embraced me, and afterwards the other two captains: saying that, owing to his serious indisposition, he was unable to go to the port to see us start, as he desired, but that he would write a letter to all the people of the expedition, which was to be read publicly before making sail, as was done. Its tenor was as follows:-- Letter of the Viceroy, Count of Monterey. Illness will not allow me to honour and favour with my presence your departure from the port, and the commencement of your navigation. As I am unable to say to you what is desirable in words, I have decided to do so by a letter. I feel very sure that, in general, you have understood the lofty aims for the service of God our Lord which has moved his royal Majesty to undertake this discovery with great cost to his treasury; and what mighty interests may result from the enterprise to the church of God, by the saving of many souls, and to the crown of Spain by the increase of its dominions. So I trust that you will keep the one and the other object present to your minds, being the principal reasons which also moved us to the undertaking. I desire to charge you to maintain peace and obedience from subordinates to their officers, and from all to the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who has been ordered by His Majesty to make this voyage. And I charge you to keep in memory that he represents in his person the Viceroy himself, as if I myself was on board, and as if I gave the orders that he will give; showing that, in the discipline and obedience that you must exercise on all occasions, you signally display your loyalty as good vassals to His Majesty. He who falls away from this shall be severely judged by the councillors of His Majesty, or the royal ministers where the matter is reported, and especially by me in cases that come before me. May God guide you and send you forth to do His will. Given on December 20th, 1605. As soon as the letter was read, the ships being ready, the various banners were displayed from the mastheads and tops, and the royal standard was hoisted, the yards were raised, and the anchors got up in the name of the most holy Trinity. The sails were set, and the men on their knees prayed for a good voyage to our Lady of Loreto, saying that this fleet is dedicated to her name, and sails trusting in her favour and protection. All the artillery, muskets, and arquebuses were fired off. The ships passed near the other royal ships, which were saluting with their pieces, with many people on their decks and galleries, and many more in the town, on balconies and roofs, and on the beach, watching attentively as we left the port. It was the day of St. Thomas the Apostle, Wednesday, at three in the afternoon, the 21st of December, 1605, the sun being in the last degree of Sagittarius. In this manner the three ships departed. The Capitana was named San Pedro y San Pablo. She was bought from Sebastian de Goite y Figueroa, and was well adapted for such service. The other vessel, as Almiranta, was rather small, and was also purchased for His Majesty in the port of Callao. The third was a launch, or zabra, of small size, which had lately arrived from the Galapagos Islands, to rescue the people who had been wrecked there. She was very strong and a good sailer. In all three were embarked nearly three hundred men, sailors and soldiers, with some small pieces of artillery, arquebuses and muskets, provisions of all kinds for one year, iron implements, fruits and animals of Peru for those who should form a settlement, and the said six friars of the Order of St. Francis, also four brothers of Juan de Dios to cure the sick. As Chief Pilot there came one against my will, whom they made me receive, as he had taken the Count of Monterey from New Spain. He did me much injury. [77] The second Pilot was called the Captain Pedro Bernal Cermeño, to whom I delivered the charge and command of the launch. CHAPTER IV. How the Captain, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, having left the port of Callao with his fleet, navigated from the coast of Peru, and his instructions to the pilots, sailors and soldiers that they might know how to govern themselves. Commencing to leave the port of Callao, the prows of the three ships were pointed in the direction of their destination. The sun went down. The Almiranta asked for her name. She was given the name of San Pedro, patron of the same ship, and of the cause. They sailed with the wind S.S.E., so prevalent on that coast, thence to E.S.E., and as we went on the wind passed from point to point until it was due east, where it remained for many days, blowing gently. It seems that the lofty cordillera of Peru, running north and south, impedes the wind from blowing east until a good offing is gained, when it is the ordinary wind. The Captain, during the three first days, made entries in his journal, but presently his health failed him. For he took such a headache from Lima that he could suffer neither sun nor shade, and could expose it neither bare nor covered. On this malady there came a spasm which caused him much suffering, and, as was afterwards supposed, he was cured by this reversed attack, though none of these changes sufficed to finish him. For whom God wishes will live. The three eves and days of Christmas, Circumcision, and Epiphany, were celebrated with great festivity; and at the Conversion of St. Paul, the Captain, not having been able to do so before, issued the following instructions to the people of his ship, and to those of the other two ships of his fleet, judging them to be very necessary. Instructions. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, Captain and Chief of the three vessels of the fleet, of which he has command, to discover the unknown southern regions for His Majesty. As it is agreeable to the service of God our Lord, and to that of the King of Spain, Philip, third of that name, whose is this fleet, and whose vassal I am, and in whose name I go on this service; and as it is conducive to good government that the Captains should have rules to keep respecting the voyage that has to be made, and other work that has to be done, if by chance, owing to a tempest or other legitimate cause, they should part company from me, they should be given instructions and notices that they may follow and carry out the orders with regard to the charge with which they are entrusted. I, therefore, give to Luis Vaez de Torres, Admiral of the ship called San Pedro, the orders as follows:-- I specially charge the said Admiral that he is to maintain Christian, political, and military discipline among the men of his ship. Further, I charge him to see that they do not curse nor blaspheme, nor say or do other things evil against God our Lord, nor against the most holy Mother, nor against angels, saints, or things divine or sacred; and if perchance (which may God not permit) there are some so wicked as to dare to utter such blasphemies, he is to punish them severely and rigorously as their crimes deserve. Further, I charge him not to consent to any playings with dice or cards, either for small or great stakes; and if by chance there should be any playing cards found in his ship, or dice (except for playing at backgammon), he is to throw them overboard as a thing very prejudicial to the objects of the voyage; and if the games at tables cause disputes and trouble, they are also to be thrown overboard, so as to avoid all occasion for mischief. He is to take great care that every day, in the afternoon, all the people go on their knees before an altar where there are images of Christ and of the Virgin Mary, and that the Litany of Our Lady of Loreto is recited, praying for her favour and for her intercession, that God our Lord may guide us and show us the lands and people we seek, and help us in all that undertaking on which we are employed, and grant us that success which will be to His honour and glory and for the good of so many of His creatures. Further, I charge him that he forbids and by all means prevents any one from taking God's name in vain, the person so offending forfeiting his ration for that day, and if he has already had it, for the next day; and the same punishment is to be inflicted on such persons as may give him to eat, even if they are his own mess-mates. If the blasphemer repents his fault, he may be pardoned the first time, but for the second, third, or other times he may be put in irons, or fined for the benefit of souls in purgatory; and this may not be remitted. And that this may be known to all, a copy of this chapter is to be nailed to the ship's main mast. Further, he is to be very vigilant in preventing free or disrespectful words being spoken of the royal person or his service: and those who so offend are to be punished promptly and with rigour, always justifying what is inflicted for this or other offences. Further, he is to take care and use much diligence in treating kindly and lovingly all the people under his charge, and to honour and maintain each one of his officers in the posts they occupy, and to cause them to be respected and to respect each other. In short, he is to acquire those methods and habits which are necessary to keep his people contented and firm in their love, truthfulness, fidelity, and loyalty, remembering how worthy of esteem that Captain is who, without the use of knife or other rigour, governs his people in peace. Further, he is to look after the Master of the Ship with vigilance, who is to see that the provisions do not turn bad and are not wasted; and that those respecting which there is a suspicion that they may turn bad are used first. The ration to be served out each day to each person on board, whether receiving wages or not, is 1 1/2 lbs. of biscuit, 1 lb. of meat, 2 oz. of bacon, 1 oz. of pulses, half a gallon of water for drinking, and sufficient for cooking. On fish days the ration is to be one fish or (if it is large) part of one, 6 oz. of pulses, a measure of oil, another of vinegar; biscuit and water as on meat days. If there is no fish, 4 oz. of cheese is to be substituted. As regards extras, what appears most convenient is to be done, always seeing that there is no pretext for complaints, and considering that there is much time and a long voyage before us. He is to be very diligent, both by day and night, in following the Capitana ship, which will shape a W.S.W. course until the latitude of 30° is reached; and when that is reached and no land has been seen, the course will be altered to N.W. until the latitude of 10° 15'; and if no land has yet been found, a course will be followed on that parallel to the west, in search of the island of Santa Cruz. There a port will be sought in the bay of Graciosa, in 10° of latitude, and 1,850 leagues from the city of the Kings, to the south of a great and lofty volcano, standing alone in the sea, about 8 leagues from the said bay. The Captain who arrives first in this port, which is at the head of the bay, between a spring of water and a moderate-sized river, with bottom from 40 to 35 fathoms, is to anchor there, and wait there three months for the other two ships. When together, a resolution will be taken as to what further shall be done, in compliance with His Majesty's orders. If by chance the other ships do not arrive, the Captain, before he departs, is to raise a cross, and at the foot of it, or of the nearest tree, he is to make a sign on the trunk, to be understood by him who next arrives, and to bury a jar with the mouth closed with tar, and containing a narrative of all that has happened and of his intentions. Then he will steer S.W. as far as 20°, thence N.W. to 4°, and on that parallel he is to steer west in search of New Guinea. After coasting all along that land, he is to proceed to the city of Manilla, in the island of Luzon of the Philippines, in 14° N., thence by the eastern Indies to Spain, to give an account to His Majesty of all that has been discovered. Further, he is to be diligent in taking the sun daily, and at night the star Crucero, or at least whenever the weather admits of it, that he may know his latitude and plot it on his chart, making allowances for lee-way, caused by winds or currents, and for the variation of the needle; and for greater accuracy, he shall take care to correct it by the sun, or by a known star when on the meridian. He is also to be careful to note the number of leagues made by the ship each day, the winds and the changes, the showers, currents, flights of birds, shoals of fishes, and signs of land, with its appearance when sighted. Also, he is to note the islands, whether inhabited or uninhabited, and place them on the chart in their latitude, longitude, and form. If it is continental land, he is to do the same as regards ports, capes, anchorages, and all other features; writing descriptions of the positions of each feature, of the rivers and places where wood and water can be obtained, as well as the rocks and reefs that are met with. If the bottom is sand, it is to be denoted by dots of ink, if of rocks by small crosses. Besides these details, the colour, shape, features, and dress of the inhabitants are to be noted, their food, arms, boats, behaviour, and government and religion; so that a full and detailed account can be given to the King our Lord in his Council of State, from whence the orders for the voyage were issued. Every day he will come up to this Capitana, as is the custom, to give his respects and wish for a good voyage; and to ask for the word, which will be answered and given in the customary way. He is to take care that, at sunrise and sunset, and oftener if it seems desirable, two men go to the masthead to look out over all parts of the horizon; and at night the sentries are to be doubled, one being on the bowsprit. The rounds and over-rounds are to be gone by him in person, and when he is not able, he is to delegate the duty to others in whom he has confidence. In this he is to be punctual, and rigorous in punishing those he finds not keeping a good look-out, or sleeping. In taking in sail, when the weather is threatening, there must be no negligence. When the Capitana puts out a flag from the main topmast, it is a signal to the pilots for the ships to close. The ships shall then come near the Capitana to receive orders. If the Capitana should alter course during the night, a gun will be fired, if it is desired to give notice that land is sighted, or that there are rocks, two guns will be fired. The other two ships will do the same, and all three will repeat, to show that the signal is understood. If by day it is necessary to communicate, a flag is to be shown on the main rigging, so that it may be seen by the other two ships, and presently they will close, to learn what is wanted. If it is night, two lights are to be shown, besides the stern lantern, as a signal that help is needed, which presently will be given. Great precautions are to be taken against fire. There is to be no lighted candle nor other fire between decks, except within a lantern in charge of a man to watch it. And this duty is not to be given to any person unless he can be trusted. Much care is to be taken that there is no waste in cord, powder, or balls; and attention is to be given to all the royal stores that there may be no fraud whatever in their expenditure. If there is both wind and sea, and both suddenly cease, being night time, heave to and sound, and keep a good look-out, as the cause may be the interposition of land close to. If there are puffs and flaws of wind besides the wind that fills the sails, or the ship raises her head and stern as if she was being pushed, it being night time, take soundings, for she may be very near the land or rocks, where the sea breaks and sends back the surf. If, the sky being clear, the sun, moon, and stars come out and are higher than the horizon, it is a certain sign of land; at night heave to and sound, at daytime look out for it. If on the route there should be thick mists ahead which do not move away, or a fixed line, or a damp fog, heave to and sound, keeping a good look-out, for there is probably land near. If certain flashes with little lights are seen ahead, accompanied by thunder, or there are puffs of wind, it being night time, heave to and sound, as they may be signs of small rocks or islets. If the lightning is forked and the thunder loud, also heave to and sound, keeping a good look-out. If in spite of the wind that is blowing there come dry gusts from another quarter, or with rain or hail, it is a sign of land being near; it being night time, heave to, waiting for daylight to seek for it. If the sea appears greasy, with leaves of trees, grass, herbs, wood, branches, palm nuts, and other things which the waves carry from the shores, and rivers send down when in flood, it is a sign of land being near in the direction of the present course of the wind, or the currents have brought them. In that case the circumstances will indicate what it is best to do, but land will be left behind towards the quarter whence the wind comes. If there are currents it is better when they are strong, or there are shoals of small fishes which seem to swarm over the sea, or patches of camarones, sea snakes, seals, turtles, much bad water, or some land birds, take care, for the ship will be very near the land. If flocks of many sea birds are met with, such as boobies and petrels, note should be taken of the direction in which they fly, and whence they come in the morning; noticing whether they assemble early and return late, for then they are far from the land; but if they assemble late and return early, the land is near. If they are not seen to assemble, and are heard to make a noise at night, and are still to be seen at dawn, then either land is very near or the birds have slept on the sea. It is to be noted that these birds almost always frequent islets or rocks, because they are nearer their fishing grounds. For this reason there should be vigilance to avoid shoals. If the birds that may be met with are piqueros, ducks, widgeons, gulls, estopegados, terns, sparrowhawks, flamingos or siloricos, it is a sign that the land is very near; but if there are only boobies so much care is not necessary, because these birds are found far from land, and the same may be said of boatswain birds, which fly where they please. Moreover, if all the birds, or part of them, fly together, it is a sign of proximity to land; and it should be noted whether some of these birds fly as if wounded, seeking land on one or the other side. If patches of brown water are seen on the sea, it is a sign that there are rocks near the surface; if the patches are white, it is a sign of a sandy bottom, with little depth; a black patch is a sign of ooze and mud; and a green patch points to a bottom covered with weeds. In short, if the sea is of any other colour than the ordinary one of the ocean where there is great depth, namely, dark blue, it is necessary to exercise care, and much more if at night the sea should be heard to make sounds greater than is usual. All the above signs cause an obligation to be very careful and to get soundings; but there are two things which require more especial vigilance, and which have the most importance for the security of the voyage. It is then the principal thing to bear in mind that while all these signs point to land or to rocks; that while the birds have wings and can sleep when they like on the sea; while the fish are in their element; while the winds, the thunder and lightning, and the clouds fly through the air, it is only in God that we must put our confidence, for it is He alone who knows, and who can guide and save the people and the ship. After anchoring in any port, a careful look-out should be kept both by day and night, for the natives are great swimmers and divers, and might wedge up the rudder, cut the hawsers, or set fire to the ship. For this reason it is well, in places where there is cause for suspicion, to have a guard in the boat at night over the buoys, or at least to visit them many times. Take care not to allow so many natives on board the ship as would be able to overpower the crew; and even when they are few, great evil may come to them as well as to us, from ignorance of our arms; whence may arise a commencement of war, and a faithful peace may never then be made. In effecting a landing, it should always be by day, and never at night. The landing-place should be level and clear of woods, or at least as well situated in these respects as possible: sending dogs in front to discover ambushes, with arms ready, marching together and in order, and entering passes with caution. It should be kept in mind that the natives usually get behind rocks or trees, or stretch themselves flat on the ground even in level places, concealed only by the grass. Take notice that, if it is possible, chiefs or other natives who appear to be of consequence, should be kept in the ship as hostages, but well treated and given presents of things that they seem to like most. The same course should be followed on shore, when the natives seek intercourse and conversation with us. The barter should be conducted by one of us, who should always give the natives to understand that the things are of great value, as they really are for them; and this because they do not value their own things much, and ours but little. Learn from the natives whether there are other islands or extensive lands near, if they are inhabited, of what colour are the natives, whether they eat human flesh, if they are friendly or carry on war. Enquire whether they have gold in dust, or in small lumps, or in ornaments; silver worked or to be worked; metals, all kinds of pearls, spices and salt, and if they eat those commodities. If they have names for them, write the names down. Ask in what parts these things are to be found, and what those lands are called. Show pleasure at what they give, and manage to let them know by signs what they ask. Do not think little of the natives, for they are pilferers and runners, and when they come for that, they know well how to do it; at least, they try, whence follow evils from one side to another, which is what ought to be avoided. Do not follow the guidance of the natives except with great caution. Never trust or believe in them on any occasion whether they show much or little sign of friendship, because their custom is to watch on the roads and to make pits covered with earth and grass. They are capable of leading those they pretend to guide direct to their traps or ambushes, or with evil intent to get them away from their boats or the beach, and to lead them inland into the woods, and there do what evil they can to them. They always carry their canes open at both ends, containing a lighted cord, that it may not be extinguished when it rains. Never allow our people to mix with the natives, nor leave them to join company, owing to the danger that, on a given signal, three or four may fall upon and carry off one of ours to meet the fate which they may want to inflict on him. On occasions when it is desirable to have an interview with the natives, it should always be in a cleared space, with a good distance between the two parties, and the Chief, or one named by him, standing in the space, so as to concert with him what they desire or ask for. It is always necessary to see that the back is safe without ceasing to watch or even turning the face, but always the whole body. And, when obliged, let it be back to back, with the shields in front, so as to make all more strong and secure. If it should be necessary to embark in retreat, either in presence or absence of the enemy, half the arquebusiers and shield-bearers should face the natives, that the other half may embark safely; and those embarked are quickly to turn, making the same guard as the one made by those on shore until all are embarked. For, if all embark in a troop, there is danger from arrows, stones, darts, and lances, which are the arms of the natives. The natives never give up anything they have about them, or anything in their houses, though it be gold, silver, pearls, or any other thing of value, nor do they understand our covetousness. But before we gave them our things we were very liberal, sowing with them and teaching them to sow maize, beans, onions, cotton, and all the most profitable seeds and vegetables. Whenever there is an opportunity, such seeds should be sown even on desert islands. If the place is suitable, rabbits, goats, and swine should be landed, for it is an advantage to enrich those desert lands, remembering the possible needs of future navigators. Take care not to feed on the things which the natives present to be eaten, because they know how to play tricks. For which reason do not fill your hands, nor quit your arms, nor take your eyes off the natives. Under all circumstances these precautions should be well attended to. One or two of our people should always be on the watch, especially in the direction where there is most cause for suspicion. Care should be taken to look out for poison put into the water or food. Vegetables and fruits should not be eaten unless known before, or unless they have been seen to be used as food by birds and monkeys. In ports where natives come to give assistance, never ill-use them nor detain them, unless it is to let them return with clothes or presents, nor break the peace or the word that has been given to them, nor cut down their fruit trees, nor injure their crops, nor destroy their houses or canoes; for all such acts cost them very dear, owing to the difficulty of repairing damages from want of proper tools. For this cause they seek for vengeance, and withdraw food supplies. In short, all is lost that was intended to be obtained from them. If it seems necessary, they can be made to understand the harm we can do them with our arquebuses, swords, and other arms, but not to do it, refraining at the last. For two reasons the natives may give false information respecting the land, people, and products, the latter being what we enquire for most and come to seek. The first that we may go, the second that we may be deceived, in revenge for some wrong that has been done them. When it is decided to follow up any of their notices by sea or land, the same natives that have given the information should be made to accompany the party, to secure this point. The shouts and noises of the natives in their assemblies, and the blowing and beating of their war instruments, need cause no alarm to us, nor should the natives be despised. In forced attacks, arquebus fire should be in the air, with or without ball; and by taking other steps suited to the occasion, they will be made to fly or desist. A very important notice is that, when seeking for wood, water, or provisions, a boat should be sent with well-armed men to over-awe the natives, even in places where it does not seem likely that there will be a rupture with them. If they begin to offer opposition, and the necessity is not very great, it will be as well to return to the ship, and await a better opportunity. If the necessity is great, send a large number of guards to protect the foraging party. Finally, avoid the danger of offending the natives, or being offended by them. The position should be as fathers to children, but they must be watched as if they were known enemies. Our part is always to be in the right, with open and honest intentions; then God will help us, as He helps all those whose objects are good. It is well known to all those persons who are engaged on this discovery how His Holiness Clement VIII, at my humble petition, has conceded that if our Lord should be served by removing us from this world to another, at the hour of death, if unable to confess or to take the sacrament, being contrite, we name the most holy name of Jesus, either with our mouths or in our hearts, he gives us plenary indulgence and remission of all our sins. I hold the brief for this grace in my possession. If any person should fall sick, he should presently confess and make his will. If he should die, it is ordered that the master, with a clerk, should make an inventory of his goods, and take charge of them, in order to carry out the wishes of the deceased. If he dies intestate, the same care is to be taken in making an inventory, and in taking care of the goods. All these things are to be complied with, without exceeding them, unless time is very pressing. In that case, if it appears necessary, counsel should be taken with the Master and Pilot, officers, and other important persons, and with the opinions of all of them, signed with their names, what is agreed upon may be done, all being for the service of God and of His Majesty. Given on board the ship San Pedro y San Pablo, by the leader of the said discovery, in this Gulf of Loreto, navigating on a W.S.W. course, in the latitude of 19°, on January 8th, 1606. CHAPTER V. Recounts the navigation that was made, and the signs that were noted, until the first uninhabited island came in sight. The fleet continued to steer W.S.W. in accordance with the instructions, from the time that the ships made sail from Callao until they reached the latitude of 16°, where they met with a heavy and confused swell from the S.W. On the 10th of January the first birds were seen, and on the 11th the first showers of rain, with the wind E. and E.S.E. On the 12th the wind was south. On the 13th a number of gulls were seen. On the 15th the wind was N. and N.W. On the 16th we saw great flocks of birds. On the 17th we were in latitude 24°, with the wind S.W. and W., blowing with some force and with a high sea. At this change the Captain presently showed a flag from the maintop mast to take opinions, the weather not allowing of any other way. The pilots of the ships said, by shouting, that, being outside the tropics, all winds might be met with, and by reaching higher latitudes, the north wind would be met with, blowing with greater force. On the 18th the wind went all round the compass, but was generally in the north. On the 21st we had the wind from S. and S.W. On the 22nd we were in latitude 26°, with a squall and showers from the S.E., and with a great swell from the south. This brought out the timidity of some, saying: "Whither are they taking us, in this great gulf, in the winter season?" Some said they should get the boat into the sea. We were obliged, by the force of winds and sea, to stand on a W.N.W. course until we reached 25°. On the 24th, at night, we saw the first lightning, which was not very bright. On the 25th we saw the first weeds; and on the 26th we saw birds of several kinds flying together. On this day, at 11 o'clock, we discovered the first island in latitude 25°, and reckoned it to be 800 leagues from Lima. It has a circumference of 5 leagues, many trees, and a beach of sand. Near the land the depth was 80 fathoms. I gave it the name of "Luna-puesta." [78] It was now late, so I determined to stand off and on during the night, waiting for the next day to go to the island; but at dawn we were too leeward, and for this cause and others we left it. CHAPTER VI. Relates how the Almiranta disappeared and joined company again, and how they sighted the second uninhabited island. We were steering to the west in some doubt, when we saw some whales and many gulls. At dawn of this day the Almiranta was not in sight. The Captain ordered the mast-head men to look carefully round the horizon, and at 9 the ship was seen coming to us under all sail. This caused us great pleasure, as her absence had given anxiety, for to part company! now one sees what that means. Having arrived, the Captain received a letter in which the Admiral said that, during the previous night, the stern light of the Capitana went out; and that, as he was unwell, he had not seen what happened, and had not been able to carry out the orders exactly. Still steering on the same course, on the 29th of January, at dawn, we sighted another island near, and presently stood towards it. The launch to the S.W. found a port in a small bay, where she anchored in 27 fathoms, and almost on shore. The ships did the same. The people in the launch told them by shouting that she was dragging her anchor; so the ships stood out, and the launch got up her anchor and made sail. Three men were sent from the Almiranta in a dingey to land. Fearing to remain they came back quickly, bringing certain fruits known to some on board, which were too unripe to eat. They said that the landing was very bad for a dingey, and would be much worse for larger boats. This island was supposed to be 870 leagues from Lima. It is 10 leagues round. It is massive, moderately high, open, having groves and plains. It is steep, too, and its beaches are rocky. It is only inhabited by birds. Its latitude is 24° 45'. It was named "San Juan Bautista;" [79] and as it had no port where we could get wood and water, we continued our voyage to the W.N.W. This day the Admiral came on board to see the Captain about certain matters; who, to put an end to discord, made the Admiral embrace the Chief Pilot and make friends, for there was very little friendship between them before. On the following day, which was the penultimate of January, a great number of birds were seen, and on the last day of that month there were such squalls that it was necessary to strike the topmasts. CHAPTER VII. Recounts how they came in sight of the third island that was discovered, and a great storm. Following the W.N.W. course, on the 3rd of February, the Captain put out a flag on the topmast for the ships to close and the pilots to report in what latitude they were, how many leagues from Lima, the observations the ships had taken respecting lee-way, winds, and the variation of the needle, also the bearing of the islands of Las Marquesas de Mendoza. The ships closed, and the pilots said that, owing to the clouds, they had not been able to take the sun for three days; that they thought Las Marquesas de Mendoza bore N.N.E.; and that after they had got the sun's meridian altitude they could make a more formal report. While this was going on land was sighted to the west, which, being concealed by clouds, was near; and as it was late, all sails were set. Night came on, and, having gone a short distance, a dark and thick cloud rose in the north-east in three parts, which soon became one, and made its way towards the ships with such speed and fury that all began to seek for remedies against the evils that menaced them. The ships, trembling, received the force of the storm, and went over on their sides. The sea rose, and all were horrified. The lightning in the air seemed to rend the heavens and blind the sight. Three thunderbolts were heard to fall; the thunder was awful, the pouring rain terrible, and the squalls of wind so violent that it seemed as if the least damage would be the fall of the masts. The launch being close to, her Pilot shouted in a hoarse voice: "The Capitana ahoy! Alter course--ahoy! Luff up!" All was confusion, hurry, and noise. The night was fearful, decision doubtful, and great the anxiety to know whether the position of the ships was safe. Our Father Commissary, with a cross in his hands, passed the whole night conjuring the sea and winds. St. Elmo appeared, as the sailors say, which they saluted with great devotion three times. In short, it was a dark, confused, ugly, and long night which we passed, confiding, after God, in the soundness of our ships and the stoutness of our sailors. When the long-wished-for daylight came, we saw that our land was an island surrounded by a reef. Neither port nor bottom could be found, though sought for with care, as we were in want of water, and for fuel we only had brushwood. Seeing that the island was so useless, we left it for what it was; and, considering the night it had given us, it would have been dear even if it had been a very good land instead of a very bad one. This island was calculated to be 1,030 leagues from Lima, 36 leagues round, in latitude 20° 30'. It was named St. Elmo. CHAPTER VIII. Four other desert islands are sighted, and what else happened. Steering W.N.W., on the following day, we sighted an island about 6 leagues off, and presently another, and then two more, and at none of the four was there bottom or port. There are reefs and shoals almost continuous. The distance from one to the other was four or five leagues, and from the City of the Kings 1,050. Their latitude is 20°, and they were named Las cuarto coronadas. [80] The Captain, considering that on all these seven newly-discovered islands neither a port nor water could be found, and finding that there were fewer water-jars than he ordered to be embarked, he made some discourses with respect to the time and the present state of affairs, and deemed it necessary to reduce, as he did reduce, the allowance of water. Twelve or fifteen jars of water that were consumed each day he reduced to three or four jars. He was present when it was served out, saw the hatchway closed, and kept the keys. Presently he ordered a brick oven to be built over one of the hearths, in order to make sweet water from sea water, with a copper instrument he had with him, by means of distillation. They got two or three jars full every day, very good and wholesome. On the least productive day there was a jar and a-half, and altogether fifty jars. This invention, with certain improvements, promises, with little expenditure of fuel, to turn out in fifteen hours eight, nine, and ten jars of fresh water, and more if it is necessary. [81] This was Ash Wednesday. Our Father Commissary gave ashes to every person on board the ship. The course was W.N.W., and at a distance of 75 leagues from the four isles astern we sighted another small island to the N.E., but could not approach owing to being to windward. We judged its latitude to be 18° 30'. It received the name of San Miguel. Owing to threatening weather and darkness, we were hove to this night with all the ships. CHAPTER IX. The first inhabited island is sighted; what happened there with the natives. Next day, which was the 10th of February, having a look-out man at each mast-head, constantly watching all parts of the horizon, the Almiranta fired a piece, and land ahead was reported in all three ships. As all the other islands were desert, it was expected that this one would be the same, so the report was received with very moderate rejoicing. We presently steered towards it, and soon a high and thick smoke was seen to rise between two palms. Those in the launch presently shouted: "People, people on the beach!" The news was as joyful as incredible to many, from having been so long desired, fearing lest it should prove a mistake, until, coming nearer, we clearly saw men, and the sight was hailed as if they had been angels. [82] Of this glory the Captain got a large share, for until now he had been saying: "God shows us in this sea millions and millions of natives." The people were restless from sheer satisfaction, so that they had not attended to the sails. The launch anchored near the slope of the beach, and the two ships presently stood out to sea, as there was no port for them. They got the boats out to search, but could not find one, sounding until they came opposite to the place where the natives stood in a row, with clubs and lances in their hands. Our people who saw them thought it was war, but looked at them and spoke by signs. They said our men should land, also by signs. The place was dangerous, and little satisfaction could be got from the natives; so our people in the boats determined to return to the ships to avoid any collision. The waves did their office, and the natives, when they saw the high ones, told the boats to keep away, owing to the danger they ran. As it appeared to our people that these demonstrations were all made out of kindness, two undressed and jumped into the water. As soon as they landed the natives, putting down their lances, all together at one time bowed their heads and arms, and saluted three times. Apparently, the welcome and smiles were to receive our men, and when one was knocked over by a wave, they picked him up, embraced him, and kissed him on his cheeks, which is a way of showing friendship used also in France. When the people in the boats saw the loyalty with which the natives received complete strangers, not knowing their intentions, two others went on shore. One of them was very white, and the natives, when they saw him, came and felt his back, breast, and arms, showing much astonishment, and they did the same with the other three. All four gave them what they had, which the natives received with signs of love. The one who appeared to be chief over the others gave to one of our people a palm branch as a sign of friendship, and also did more. He crossed his arms, making very friendly signs to our people that they should come to the village, to which they pointed with their fingers, to give them to eat. With this they took their leave, and our men embarked, to the sorrow of the natives. Eight of them followed the boats, and to see them the men laid on their oars and invited them to get in, but they were afraid. The launch and the boats returned to where the ships were at sunset. Presently, the Chief Pilot asked the Captain what was to be done, who replied that they would beat to windward that night, and on the following day return to the same point, or to another, and search again for a port or anchorage, or for water, which was much needed. The Chief Pilot went aloft, and said from the mast-head that he saw a bay to leeward, much better than the bay of Cadiz. All night we stood off and on, rather joyful at the thought of finding this port, and at dawn we found ourselves 3 leagues to leeward of the place where the natives had been seen; and looking out a first and a second time, there was no sign of that bay, but only a narrow and long reef almost covered by the water. There was one place where there were some palm trees, for which reason the Captain sent both the boats, well manned and armed with jars, to seek for water. They found the beach very difficult, most of it rocks, on which the waves broke with great fury. But undaunted by this, our people jumped into the water up to their waists, loaded with arquebuses, spades, and crowbars, and the last, whose name was Belmonte, [83] had such difficulty that, if Ensign Rozo [84] had not helped him with his spear, which enabled him to get out, there would have been an end of his career. Marching in good order, they entered a palm grove, where they found, at the foot of a tree, a number of brown stones, and one in the form of an altar, covered with branches. It was supposed that this was a burial-place, or a place where the Devil spoke to and deceived these miserable natives, without there being any one to obstruct him. Our people, to sanctify the place, set up a cross, [85] and gave God thanks on their knees for being the first to hoist His royal standard in an unknown place inhabited by heathens. In sorrow for their evil condition, they spoke thus: "How long, O pious Lord, is the darkness in which they live to last for these people?" They said this with all due reverence; and, leaving the cross, they began to dig for water, which they did not find, but were able to quench their actual thirst with cocoa-nuts. When they went down to embark they saw a shape, which appeared to be that of a man, coming towards them at a short distance. They went to see what it was, and found that it was an old woman, who appeared to be a hundred years of age: a tall and large woman, with fine and long black hairs and only four or five grey ones, her colour brown, face and body wrinkled, teeth few and decayed, and with other faults caused by a long life. She came along, waving with soft palm leaves. She carried some cuttle-fish dried in the sun, in a basket, and a knife made from a mother-of-pearl shell, also a skein of thread. A little speckled dog accompanied her, which ran away. With this good capture the boat returned to the Captain, to show her to him, who was highly delighted at seeing a human creature. He seated her on a box, and gave her meat and soup from a pot, which she ate without scruple; but she could not manage the hard biscuit. She showed that she knew well how to drink wine. A mirror was put into her hand, and she looked at the back, then at the front, and when she saw her face she was much pleased. All noticed her good manners, and concluded that, when young, she was not bad-looking. She looked at all the men with attention, but she displayed the greatest pleasure in looking at the boys. She looked at the goats as if she had seen them before. There was a gold ring with an emerald on one of her fingers. She was asked for it, but replied by signs that she could not give it without cutting off her finger, and she seemed sorry for this. She was offered one of brass, which she did not care for. Having given her things to dress herself with and take away, we saw four canoes coming from the village under sail, out of a lake which the island has in its centre, and they anchored near the palm grove. The Captain presently ordered the old woman to be landed, in order to reassure the natives. They no sooner recognised her than they came to see her, and looked at her as if she had been long absent. They came to our people with the confidence of friends. There were seventy-two natives, and by signs they said that they were going, as they presently did go, to see the cross. As well as they could our people tried to make them understand its value, and that they should place themselves before it on their knees. Finally, they did all that they were told. When it was asked which of them was the chief, they pointed out a robust, tall, and well-proportioned native, with a good well-complexioned face, who appeared to be fifty years of age. He wore on his head a tuft of black feathers, and towards the front some skeins of golden hairs whose ends reached half way down his back. According to their custom, it should be the hair of his wife. He also wore round his neck a large plate of mother-of-pearl. He had a serious manner, and all the others paid him great respect. He was asked whether he would like to go on board the ship, and, having given us to understand that he would, he was taken to the boats with some followers. One of the boats having been swamped, they helped to raise her. The chief got into one boat, and several natives into another, but when they had gone a short distance they jumped overboard, apparently from fear, and began to swim. The chief wanting to do the same, we detained him. He tried to do so by main strength, which was great, and to take a knife from a soldier, but failed. He made other attempts, but nothing availed him. The boat arrived alongside, and four men took hold of him and tried to make him go up; but it was labour in vain, for he would not stir. The chief was stretched out at his whole length, fencing with his nervous arms, and in this way he strove to get clear and escape by swimming. Seeing he could not do this, he put one foot against the ship's side and sent the boat some distance. When we saw how much trouble he was giving, he was fastened to a whip, to hoist him into the ship; and when he found himself secured he got into such a fury that it shocked our eyes. The Captain went down into the boat, and the first thing he did was to take in his hand the palm branch the other had given him, and to remove the cord which had caused the chief such anger. He showed that he felt this release very much, both by his face and his hands; but not for this did he consider himself in safety. With melancholy looks he gazed at those who were in the boat, then at the ships, the sails and masts, and at the land, pointing with his finger that he wanted to return there. The Captain was sorry to find him so discontented. He dressed him in a pair of breeches and shirt of yellow silk, put a hat upon his head, a tin medal round his neck, gave him a case of knives, embraced him, and ordered the boat to go on shore. This quieted him. A sergeant and some men had remained on shore, collecting cocoa-nuts. Three, who were together, saw the natives collected in order with their lances, and appearing to be determined to force them into their canoes, as their chief had been forced to go to the ship. Eight of our people got together, and pointed out to the natives that they had remained as sureties, and that their chief was now coming on shore in the boat. With this, and owing to two of us showing off by fencing with their swords, the natives remained peaceable until their chief landed, when they were astonished at his being clothed. He gave them to understand what had happened, and they ran to receive him. One of these was a well-made youth, and very handsome. He was supposed to be the chief's son, for he was the only one he embraced, and the two together showed an expression of sentiment at which the others helped. These and other strange doings having been finished, in the order of drilled soldiers, all carrying the chief in their midst, they marched slowly to their canoes, and some of our men, who were looking on and noting all this, went with them. The natives, who were now contented, gave them water to drink, and some fish they had brought to eat. The chief, who had left his garland of plumes and tresses on shore, gave it into the hands of the sergeant, to be given to the Captain who had released and clothed him. This was the final act of a man who knew and was grateful, though himself unknown, causing confusion to some of the company who received much greater benefits, and gave a bad return. The natives then departed, and our people, to give them joy, fired their arquebuses into the air, and returned on board. To this island the name of the "Conversion of St. Paul" was given. It is in latitude 18°, distant from Lima 1,180 leagues. [86] Its circumference is 40 leagues, and in the centre there is a large shallow lake. The people are corpulent, and of very good shape and colour. Their hair is fine and loose, and they have their parts covered. Their arms are thick and heavy lances of palm-wood, about 30 palmos long, and clubs of the same wood. The anchorage, where the launch found bottom, is on the east side near the palm grove above referred to, near which is the village on the shores of the lake. As soon as the people had come on board, it seemed desirable to the Captain that the ships should lie-to that night, in order to go next day to where the natives were. The Chief Pilot said that as it was well to windward, and not to waste the water, it would be better to stand on, as we did, with the wind E. to N.E. Next day another island was sighted to the N.E., and named "Decena." [87] We could not go either to it or to other islands that were sighted later. The first was named "Sagitaria," [88] the second "Fugitiva." [89] Afterwards, in latitude 14°, the pilots were asked for their positions, who gave them, some much more, others much less. CHAPTER X. Relates how the Captain received reports that there was a plot to seize the ship, and of the discourses he made and precautions he took in consequence. The Captain already had seen that the Chief Pilot altered the course, and it was intimated he wanted to mutiny with the crew, and that if there was two days' delay there would be no remedy. One man there was who said that, with this object, it was determined to stab the Captain and throw the body overboard. This and other things were told to the Captain, which he did not believe, except some things that came to him through base rumours, and that which he himself saw, that appeared bad. He considered that a mutiny can only begin between two or three, and that to corrupt the rest there must be sounding of people, friendships, and much intercourse, and that such things must be seen. It was observed that the Chief Pilot showed little zeal in seeking for what was needed; that he wasted the water and provisions among his particular friends, and others whose friendship he obtained in that way, and who might well be innocent; that he showed favour to all. The noise they made together in the ship, the quarrels with the officers, the consultations continually held by day and night, were suspicious. One day the Captain said to the whole crew that the Royal Majesty despatched those ships at great expense, to see whether there was in this unknown part of the earth the land which was supposed to exist. With this object all might be quite sure that they would have to search for it, ploughing all the ocean with long turns until it was found, even if it cost all their lives. To the Chief Pilot he said that he should know his duties, saying much respecting them. But this did not lead him into better courses, and he sent to say that he wanted leave to go on board the Almiranta with the Father Commissary. To this the Captain answered that he might go presently; but he did not go, nor did he refer to the matter again. There was not wanting one who said that these invitations were misunderstood by the Captain, and added that discoveries always cost the finders dear, and that the Captain could not put down the discontents nor satisfy the others. For all this, patience and vigilance were two very necessary things. The Captain, seeing the low latitude they had reached without having found the mother of those islands we had left behind, hearing the Chief Pilot shout to the Captain of the launch that winter was near, and other things that it was not well for the men to hear; that others said that if the course had been S.S.W. the coast of the land of which we were in search followed the same course; that now we should never reach it, but should be engulfed by contrary winds, where it would be impossible to live, and that in the end all would perish; that these sayings were witnesses of the little love some had for the service, and of the great love they had for themselves; and that they were far from having the valorous minds which ought to animate the searchers for unknown lands, to uphold the original motives and perform heroic deeds, or at least make them merit a good name--owing to these shortcomings and many others, he said in public that they should know how to value and enjoy having been chosen to the lot of searching for and discovering the fourth part of the globe which is yet unknown, and not show themselves ready to turn back and be tired without occasion. And mark! what services are there without requiring that men should be ready to suffer all the blows that may come? I ordered that the course should be N.W. as far as latitude 10° 40', so as to reach the east of the Island of San Bernardo, which in the other voyage I helped to discover, although we did not then arrive at it. CHAPTER XI. Relates how we came in sight of the Island of San Bernardo, and what happened there. We continued to navigate on the same course until the 19th of February. On that day we altered course to west, and on the 21st the Pilot of the Almiranta, Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, said that on that very day we should see--as we did see--the island we sought. We lay to under little sail for the night. Next day we proceeded towards the island, the launch next ahead, and anchored close to the land, and thence the crew shouted to the other ships, which were coming up to anchor, that there was no port for them. The Captain then lowered the two boats, and sent an officer with the boat's crews to search for water, for the scarcity of it forced them to be on an allowance of a cuartillo a day. They went on shore, searched for water, but could find none, and returned on board. This island of San Bernardo is uninhabited, divided into four or five hummocks, and all the rest submerged. Its circumference appeared to be 10 leagues. It is in latitude 10° 40'. The anchorage is on the north side, and only available for small vessels. Its distance from the city of the Kings was calculated to be 1,400 leagues. An old canoe, lying on her side, was found on the island. There was a great number of fish inshore, and, owing to the water being very shallow, they were killed with swords and poles. There were great numbers of lobster and craw-fish, and other kinds of marine animals. They found a great quantity of cocoa-nuts in a heap at the foot of the palm trees, many large, and of different sizes. There were a great quantity of sea birds of several kinds, and so importunate that they seemed to want to attack the men. We took plenty of all these things. It seemed to the Captain that on an island where there are so many trees there could not fail to be water. He wished to wait during that night, so that on the following day they might return and make a more thorough search for water, and at least they could get more fish. The Chief Pilot said that the people were tired, and made other excuses and said things, making them all legitimate daughters of our necessities. The Captain, finding himself very ill and overwhelmed by cares of many kinds, and that there were some who, like moths, were eating against the enterprise, and causing much discontent, and that they kept in memory the great abundance of the court, the cold snows, the fresh fruit, and other memories which cooled their wills and changed them in other ways, and that up to the present time we had not found an island with a port, nor water, and that it was not right to risk the little we had in a business that was so important, the weather being doubtful and the point in the direction of which we should find land uncertain: for these and other reasons, which I leave out, it was decided that the best course would be to seek the island of Santa Cruz, which was known to possess a port and water, and other things necessary for the provisioning of a ship, intending to begin to make discoveries from there, as if we were starting from Lima. In prosecution of this decision we steered west. That night there was a great disturbance on board the Capitana. At the noise the Captain came out, and found some tackling each other, others going to arm themselves, and the Chief Pilot with a drawn sword, with which he had wounded a man. It was taken out of his hands, without understanding who was the culprit or who was the author of the disturbance. That which the Captain felt he kept to himself, confessing that he was so weak that he was unable to say in a loud voice a third word. CHAPTER XII. How they sighted the second inhabited island, and what happened there. With the wind in the east, they continued on a western course until the 1st of March. That night, the launch being ahead, she fired off a small piece, and a man shouted, "Land ahead!" Presently we saw it, and a fire burning, at the sight of which there was great content. When it became broad daylight we saw an island, and steered towards it. When we came near, two canoes came out to reconnoitre, but the people in them, though we called, would not wait. The launch anchored very near the land, and presently a fleet of ten small canoes, rowing fast and as if racing, came out towards the Capitana. Having arrived, we saw on board them some tall men, well made and handsome, and of a good colour. They all came singing to the sound of their paddles, one of them leading, to whom the rest replied; and by signs they told us to call to the Almiranta, that by rounding a certain point he would follow the way outside; showing that it gave them sorrow to see that, and that they remained joyful now that they saw her return. They also gave us to understand, pointing with their fingers, that we should go to their port. What their object was they knew. Many stood upright, and with arms and hands, legs and feet, and with their paddles, they made sounds with great dexterity, dances, and gestures. Their chief theme was music, and to show themselves joyful and merry before our ships. But in spite of our importunities, they never would come on board, nor eat of anything we gave them, which they received on the points of their lances and showed to all the others; and what fell into the sea they dexterously recovered, by diving for it. Five natives came in a canoe, the middle one vigorously bailing the water out of the vessel. His red hair came down to the waist. He was white as regards colour, beautifully shaped, the face aquiline and handsome, rather freckled and rosy, the eyes black and gracious, the forehead and eyebrows good, the nose, mouth, and lips well proportioned, with the teeth well ordered and white. In fine, he was sweet in his laughter and smiles, and his whole appearance was cheerful. Being rich in so many parts and graces, he would be judged to be very beautiful for a girl; but he was actually a youth of about thirteen years. This was he who at first sight stole away the hearts of all on board the ship; he was most looked at and called to, and he to whom all offered their gifts, and to whom the Captain, with great persuasion, desired to present a dress of silk, which he accepted, and put on with much grace. It was pain to the Captain that the youth could not be kept, to take as a proof of the greatness of God in those parts. Many natives came to the launch, and, having fastened a cord to the bowsprit, they tried to drag her on to the beach. Others, diving into the water, fastened ropes to the cable and dragged for the anchor. Others took up positions to conceal their tricks. The Captain of the launch, seeing their diligence and how quickly they went to work, fired off arquebuses to frighten them. But they, ignorant of the effects, showed no fear at all, even seizing hold of naked swords with their hands, until some were hurt, when there was a disturbance and talk among themselves, and they rowed away in their canoes at a great rate. At this time a very audacious old man came in one of their canoes to the Capitana, with a very long and thick lance of palm wood, well balanced; and he had on a sort of cloak or hood made of a leaf dyed crimson, and a hat they had given him from the launch. He was a tall, robust man, and very supple, and showed himself to be arrogant. Wounded in feet and legs, they trembled violently. He made fierce faces with his eyes and mouth. In a very loud voice he seemed to order us to surrender. With his lance, brandishing it menacingly, he made as many thrusts as he could. With the intention of making him quiet, two muskets were fired off. The others cried out and threw up their arms, but he made light of it. With great pride he showed more signs of his anger; and, finding he could do nothing, he quickly passed both ships and went to where the launch was, following all the other canoes. At this time both the ships anchored, there being a land breeze, and all the natives went on shore, and showed themselves ready for war. In a short time the wind was abeam, and though light, it swung the ships so as to bring them too near the shore, and they were in great danger. The Captain ordered the cables to be slipped and sail to be made in great haste, sending the boats to recover the anchors and cables. The natives, it seemed, either for love or sorrow, on seeing how quickly we departed without carrying out our good or evil intentions, not understanding the reasons any more than we understood theirs, many of them came swimming and taking hold of the oars of one of the boats, trying with all their force to take them from those who were rowing. Such was the courage and audacity of the old man with the cloak that, only with a stick, he attacked an Ensign standing on the forecastle, who received the blow on his shield. He did not like to return it, because it was the Captain's order that no harm was to be done to the natives either in person or property. But I suspect, according to what happened afterwards, that there was less care about this order than appeared. The launch and boats collected where the ships had been. The Captain sent for the Admiral, and told him that he had determined to send an armed party on shore next day with the boats, and the launch as an escort. The party, by good management, was to bring on board at least four boys, one of them being the youth who has already been described, and the others to be like him. It is to be noted that, the ships and crews being placed in such manifest danger in so small an island, this method or some other is necessary to get the wood and water of which we are in want, and which should be sought for to the S. and S.W. These instructions were repeated several times, and a strong desire was expressed that the Admiral himself should be the leader of the party. We stood off and on during the night, very desirous that it should come to an end, and when the day dawned the Admiral started with the landing party. At the first place the landing was opposed by the natives, and he was obliged to go further on. Here all the men jumped into the sea, the waves dashing against them and rolling them over, and they reached the shore after much buffeting and in great danger. One boat was capsized, leaving the four rowers underneath. Another wave righted her again, and the men were saved. They were not sailors, so that the loss caused by them was serious, in jars and other things for getting water and fuel, and in a certain number of arquebuses. On the beach there were a great number of natives, ranged in order and armed; and all with one voice gave a pabori, which I understand to be a kind of intoned shout or war cry, and they closed with a noise very brief but terrible. They came against us, and it was necessary to attack them with vigour owing to their being so close; and the arquebuses, which are a terror to those who do not know them but see their effects, terrified them, and they fled, carrying, as they had brought, the king or chief in a litter on their shoulders, holding palm leaves to shade him. Two or three were left behind, and set fire to the dry grass at intervals. We understood that this was either a signal of peace, or an imitation of the fire from our muskets. The fugitives all fled to a village under a grove of palm trees, near a lake which the island has in the middle. Most of them went in canoes to the other side. The Admiral formed his corps de garde, and a boy came to them, as they said, so beautiful and with such golden hair, that to see him was the same as to see a painted angel. With crossed hands he offered them his person, either as a prisoner or to do what they liked with him. The Admiral, seeing him so humble and so handsome, embraced him and dressed him in breeches and shirt of silk, which the Captain had given out of the store for barter, supplied with this object by His Majesty. The boy, to show his pleasure, climbed up some very tall palm trees with agility, and threw down cocoa-nuts for us, asking if we wanted more. Many other natives, seeing that he was well treated, came down and arrived where our people were. The Admiral, without moving, called that, the better to secure them, the capture would be much easier when they were close together. But Satan, who does not sleep at such important junctures, contrived that an ill-conditioned recruit should enter one of their houses. The owner opposed his entrance. Another of our men came up; but the native used his club so well that he would have killed one if others had not come, for he was lying senseless on the ground, while his companion ran away. The native faced our people, and an ensign named Gallardo, who came up first, fired a shot at him. When he felt that he was wounded and saw the blood, he rushed upon Gallardo with great courage, who, to stop him, ran him through with his sword. He fell dead on the ground who, as a valiant defender of his house, did not deserve such a fate. Owing to this death, and to others which followed, the Admiral lost the opportunity he had desired and planned. And now, to follow the plan and what depended upon it, he set forward to wrestle with fortune. When the natives saw what had happened, they fled like the rest, and so our people remained with all their trouble in vain; for so great a misfortune suffices and exceeds what is wanted. One of our men said of the dead that it was of little importance that we should have sent them to the Devil to-day, as they would have to go to-morrow--a sentiment very far from all reason, and especially when they had the Faith of Christ at the doors of their souls. The soldiers, divided into squadrons, marched into the interior. On the path taken by Gallardo and some friends a noise was heard, and the branches were seen to move. They all got ready their arms, and Gallardo cocked his piece and pointed it, moving to see what it was. Coming near, there rose up some children in haste and fear--two boys and three girls, all pretty creatures, the oldest about ten years--and with them a lady, graceful and sprightly, with neck, bosom, and waist well formed, hair very red, long and loose. She was extremely beautiful and pleasant to look upon, in colour very white; and, being so pretty, it was a great surprise to our people, more than to her; for, with quick steps and smiling face, she came forward to receive Gallardo, who gave her his new cloak, which he carried doubled under his left arm; and presently, with great love, both arms extended, she embraced him, and gave, according to their custom, the kiss of peace on the cheek. The finding of this nest did not fail to be useful to our people, as they told me afterwards, for the lady did not prove to be prudish in going with them; so that--and I say this--they left behind them a rich capture, which I shall always feel to be the great loss of six souls. Passing onwards, they saw behind some bushes an old man concealed, who could scarcely open his eyes. Gallardo, seeing that he was so afflicted, gave him a hand, and was surprised that he could grasp with such strength, and that there should be such vigour in one who seemed so weak. Having seen what he could of the island, the Admiral went back to the boats with his party, where he found the surf as furious as when he landed. To such an extreme did they come on the sight of it, that many wanted to remain on the island, where the sea urchins on the beach hurt their feet. They embarked with difficulty and danger, and returned to the ships. The Admiral excused himself from having an interview with the Captain, whose regret need not be mentioned, owing to his annoyance at the mismanagement. In the houses of the natives a great quantity of soft and very fine mats were found, and others larger and coarser; also tresses of very golden hair, and delicate and finely woven bands, some black, others red and grey; fine cords, strong and soft, which seemed of better flax than ours, and many mother-o'-pearl shells, one as large as an ordinary plate. Of these and other smaller shells they make, as was seen and collected here, knives, saws, chisels, punches, gouges, gimlets, and fish-hooks. Needles to sew their clothes and sails are made of the bones of some animal, also the adzes with which they dress timber. They found many dried oysters strung together, and in some for eating there were small pearls. Certain white hairs were seen, which appeared to be those of an animal. This island is very flat, and about 6 leagues long. In one part, which is nearly submerged, is the water which the natives drink, which seems to me to be only rain-water detained in the sand on its passage to the sea. In this same part there are some collections of huts. The land is divided among many owners, and is planted with certain roots, which must form their bread. All the rest is a large and thick palm grove, which is the chief sustenance of the natives. Of the wood and leaves they build and roof their houses, which are of four vertientes, [90] curiously and cleanly worked, each with a roof, open behind, and all the floors covered and lined with mats, also made of palms; and of the more tender shoots they weave fine cloths, with which the men cover their loins, and the women their whole bodies. Of these palms the natives also make their canoes, and some very large vessels, twenty yards in length and two wide, more or less, in which they navigate for great distances. They hold about fifty persons. Their build is strange, there being two concave boats about a fathom apart, with many battens and cords firmly securing them together. Of these palms they make masts, and all their rigging, sails, rudders, oars, paddles, utensils for baling, their lances and clubs. On these palms grow the cocoa-nuts, which serve them for food and drink, grease for their wounds, and cups to hold their water. It may almost be said that these trees sustain the good people who are here, and will remain in the wilderness until God takes pity on them. This island was calculated to be 1,600 leagues from Lima, in latitude 10° 20'. The port where the vessels were anchored is on the north side, very near the land, and in front of the village. It appeared well to the Captain that it should receive the name of "Peregrina." [91] CHAPTER XIII. What happened after leaving this island. In latitude 10° 20' we continued our course to the westward, making for the Island of Santa Cruz, having met with fine weather, some mists, and some changes of wind from W. to N.W. until the 21st of March. This day being the equinox, the needles were observed at sunrise and sunset, and it was found that the variation was N. by E. 1/2 E. In the night of the following day, being Holy Thursday, processions were made in all three vessels, with much burning of wax and discipline. All night the altars were standing, and men on their knees put up continual prayer. On the same night there was a great and total eclipse of the sun. It seemed to begin at eight o'clock at night, and lasted two hours and a-half. Now that so many days had passed without reaching the Island of Santa Cruz, where there was the hope of anchoring in the Bay of Graciosa, and of quenching the terrible thirst they felt in the water-springs, and because the execution of this desire was so long delayed, the Captain, it was said, should make amends. Some of them said that he merited exemplary punishment for having, solely for his own profit and advantage, taken them all to die in these great gulfs of the ocean; that the supposed land was a dream; and that he had deceived the Pope and the King with his stories. According to what afterwards became known, worse things were said of him than if he had been a Turk. The Captain replied to all this that it was not a new thing to him, for in other voyages he had sailed with men who were easily wearied. What such men wanted was good health, plenty to eat and drink, little work, many complaints, much grumbling together, and as little love as possible for the voyage, with much fear of the weather. It was not to be desired that vile mothers should bring forth such harmful and ugly monsters. Often it is found that officers do what they like rather than what they are ordered to do. Some sell the stores in their charge, others give them away to secure silence or to make friends, in fear of enemies; and for many other objects all deceive more or less. As the interested persons are witnesses of these truths, they keep the secret well. So many are culpable in these or other ways, that they force him who governs to make a faithful man of a thief, for in any other way there would be internecine war. CHAPTER XIV. The assembly of Pilots; what happened at it, and the arrest of the Chief Pilot. On the 25th of March, being Easter eve, the Chief Pilot said in public that he found the distance from Callao to be 2,220 leagues, and that he said so for what might happen in consequence. For this reason, and because there was uneasiness and difference of opinion respecting the voyage among some, the Captain ordered a flag to be hoisted on the maintopmast, the signal for counsel; in order that the people, who were little satisfied with what they heard the Chief Pilot say, might be appeased and quieted. The two other vessels closed, and the Admiral, Luis Vaez Torres, Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, and from the launch the Captain of her, Pedro Bernal Cermeño, all three being pilots, came in their boats to the Capitana. Being together, with the Chief Pilot and his assistant, Gaspar Gonzalez, the former, without any apparent cause, went up into the deck-house in a great state of agitation, a thing which appeared to everyone very strange and very bad. The Captain called him down, and, when he had come, the meeting was thus addressed:-- "This meeting is convoked in order that each one may state in public the number of leagues he believes we are from the port of Callao, also the reason why we have not yet come to the island of Santa Cruz, having navigated in order to reach it, and on the same parallel. Take notice that it is large and not low, and that near it there is a volcano so high that it may be seen at a distance of 40 leagues; also that the distance of Santa Cruz from Lima is 1,850 leagues." When the Captain had said this, the Pilots showed their charts and notes. As they were only by dead reckoning, there were great differences, especially in the reckoning of the Chief Pilot, which was 2,300 more or less, and in that of Captain Bernal. The Admiral said that he made it 2,000 leagues, and that there may be currents which detained the ships, or that he may have over-rated his distances, or that Santa Cruz may be further from Lima than is shown in the charts; and other explanations which at present they could not make out. If we sailed on the same parallel to the year's end without seeing the sought-for island, it would be understood that we had not passed by it. The Pilot, Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, was of the same opinion; his position and that of his assistant not being so far in advance as the others. The Chief Pilot wishing, for reasons he gave, to make it believed that his position was the right one, asked the Captain to look to the north, where he would see very large and swollen waves, a certain sign that we were much further to the east than was supposed. The Chief Pilot also said that we had been sailing for ninety-four days. The Captain replied that in the former voyage the island of Santa Cruz was sighted after sixty-nine days, and though it was true that we had now been sailing for a long time, there were many nights when the swell was against the ship's progress, and that on many others they had been under very small sail; that there had been detentions of days at the various islands in seeking for ports, and that during nearly all the month of May, in which we were, there had been calms or light winds, while there had not been wanting in other periods of the voyage calm weather or changes of wind, or other causes for waste of time, which reduced the real number of days' runs to sixty-four, and that for sixty-nine there wanted five still, to equalise the two voyages. He himself had taken the sun in the island of Santa Cruz, and he was certain that the latitude was 10° 20', and that we neither were behind nor in advance. Presently the Chief Pilot showed on his chart the track he had drawn upon it from Callao to 26°, which the ships reached, the course being nearly W.S.W. It seemed that this was his chief mistake, for he multiplied degrees on the W.S.W. course, which is the direction in which he had to navigate, and he laid down the route by the course, which is the same as by it and by the latitude; when it should have been, for more accuracy, by the estimated leagues and the known latitude. He did not calculate for errors in determining distances in a route from east to west, and their two quarters, caused by the variation of the needle, more or less leeway, winds and sails and other things to be considered, and necessary calculations so as to be able to mark on the chart the position nearest the truth. This was not the navigation that the Chief Pilot had been accustomed to make. His experience was from Acapulco or Panama to Callao, along the coast, and when out of sight of land, it is a short distance off, and even if it is great, the land is extensive and well known that he had to seek, which, if not seen on one day, will be on the next; and if he does not make a landfall where he intended, he can do so where the coast is known, and find the port he seeks. Having made a calculation of all that has been said, and laid down what was afterwards found when we came to the port of Acapulco, it was established that there was an error of 600 leagues, as can be proved when necessary. The Captain gave these and other reasons to all, and some to the Chief Pilot, who became agitated, and again went up into his deck-house. Thence he declared that he came to serve the King, and not for pay, and that he had worked hard in fitting out the ships and at other duties. To all this the Captain replied that all present were aware that, without knowing him, nor owing him anything, nor wanting him, but only to do him good he had been taken, but the Captain had seen that, by his inefficiency, it became impossible that he could be any use. Finally, the Chief Pilot showed himself to be ungrateful. The Captain said to him that it was enough to know that it was incredible how much he had said, and that it was not to be hoped from his mind that his work would be well to the point. In fine, in the ship it was said that there was one who did not wish that lands should be discovered, nor that anything should be found; and the Captain, seeing the state of affairs, and the obligation to all, said to the Admiral that he was to take away the Chief Pilot as a prisoner. Presently it was reported to the Captain that the ship was in a state of mutiny, owing to what he had said in public. "Is there one that objects, it being for the royal service, that I turn the Chief Pilot out of the ship?" One who spoke in his favour was ordered to hold his tongue, being told that the day before he had said just the contrary. With the departure of the Chief Pilot all his friends were much distressed; but the ship was without those licences and disturbances which had been going on until now. The Captain said to Pedro Bernal Cermeño that he wished him to remain and assume the office of Chief Pilot, and he went to fetch his clothes from the launch. But his people showed themselves so discontented at his going that, his exhortations not sufficing, he was forced to threaten them. Thus he apparently quieted them, and there remained as Chief Pilot Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza, an honest man and good pilot. The Captain caused a block to be placed at the yard-arm, and from that time forward he lived with a caution necessary among such villains. He said: "For what evil deeds that I have done do I go sold in this ship, where are some to whom I have done such good deeds, and desire to do more? The great mistake was not to have thought of bringing irons, fetters, and chains from Lima, intending to oblige by faithful treatment and to bring out the good." While the Captain was still in Madrid, he went to see a Friar, Andrés de San Vincente, a Dominican; and he said that, navigating with the Chief Pilot of Ternate to Malacca, the ship he was in was lost; on account of which, and the fault that the passenger caused, and the exigency in which they placed him, he said: "Oh, Captain Quiros, this is your fault, because you did not chastise me for the occasion I gave you, your piety not allowing you." There were not wanting in the ship those who were tired of her, and they asked the Captain to let them play a little, and that the winnings should be given for the souls in purgatory. But the Captain said to them many times that they would not risk to go on with such new and good work if there was playing and swearing. As for the alms offered from the results of betting, he would not want to take a soul out of purgatory, and set it on the road to Heaven, if it left his and the souls of others in hell; and it would be much better to give, without playing, that which would be given by playing. For passing the time there are very good books, and one who would teach to read, write, and count to those who do not know how; also a master-at-arms, black swords, [92] practised soldiers to teach recruits, and one who would teach them the art of fortification and artillery, the spheres and navigation; and that these pursuits were better than to play for money. CHAPTER XV. Relates how they came in sight of the third inhabited island, and what happened there. Still with a westerly course we proceeded, with much anxiety arising from the confusion in determining the distance of our ships from the port of Lima, and still more owing to the allowance being so short that neither our thirst was quenched nor our hunger satisfied. At last God sent us a good shower of rain, and plenty of water was collected. The people derived much consolation from this provision of Heaven, and at seeing soon after many snakes, fish found in shallow water, turtles, wild fruit, cocoa-nuts, trunks of trees, land birds, currants, and other signs of the approach of land. We therefore navigated at night under small sail, keeping a good look-out, the lanterns lighted, with the launch ahead, having orders to signal with lights if there were rocks or land. So we continued until the 7th of April. On that day, at three in the afternoon, a man at the mast-head of the Capitana cried out: "I see land to the N.W., high and black." The voice sounded well to all; the sails were trimmed, and the bows turned to the land. We lay-to that night, and in the morning we found ourselves on a bank, where the least depth was 12 fathoms. There was a great excitement over this, which lasted during the two hours that it took to cross over the shoal, always sounding, and with the anchors ready and look-out men at the mast-heads to report what they saw. We arrived near the island, and saw some smoke rising on the north side, which doubled our delight and gave us hopes of getting water, which chiefly engaged our thoughts. Night closed in, and next day the Captain ordered the Admiral, with the launch and a boat, to go and reconnoitre the island, while the ships, at the position where they were, found a port, where they anchored with incredible joy. The Admiral returned in the afternoon, very well satisfied with the appearance of the land, and it was settled that the next day we should seek a better port, fuel, and water. It was scarcely dawn when the Admiral left the ships with an armed party in the launch and boats, and at a distance of 2 leagues found a village on a small reef. The natives, in great haste, took their women and children inland, and all that they could carry away, while 150 of them took their arms. One came forward shouting--it was not understood for what purpose,--a musket was fired off merely to astonish them, and when they heard it they all dived into the water except the first native. This man came near us, and by signs told us not to fire, and that he would make his people put down their bows and arrows; so this was done on both sides. He came to the boats, and gave his hand to the Admiral in token of friendship, giving him to understand, by pointing to his head, that he was the lord of the land, and that he was called Tumai, and by another name--Jalique. Presently another native came and looked at us with astonishment, and we looked at him with no less care: owing to his colour being so white, and so brown as regards beard and hair, that our people called him "the Fleming." His name was Olan. The Admiral asked Tumai to order the natives not to shoot their arrows, and to go away from there, that his men might land. At one word from Tumai they all went away to the island, and he alone remained. Then our people landed peacefully, before anything else forming a corps de garde in one of the houses, placing sentinels in appropriate places, and the rest lodged in the village. By signs Tumai showed the Admiral his houses, and asked him not to set them or the others on fire. He further said that he would assist and give what his island contained. The Admiral showed him great friendship; and, the better to impress him with it, he dressed him in shot silk, [93] which he seemed to value highly. Presently a boat was sent to report to the Captain all that had taken place, and that there was a very good watering-place near the village. The ships should shift their berths to a port much nearer, and the launch anchored still nearer the village, between the land and a rock. When the ships were anchored, all the friars landed and went to the village; and at the request of the Captain they performed the First Mass of Our Lady of Loreto, with a commemoration of St. Peter. The natives, while they were saying Mass, were present, very attentive on their knees, beating their breasts, and doing everything they saw the Christians do. It is certainly a great pity, when one comes to think of it, with what facility all the people of those parts would receive the Faith if there was any one to teach them; and yet what a great perdition there is of such a vast number of souls as are condemned here! God will be best served if the time is made to come very quickly that will bring the blessing of blessings, of which these people are so ignorant, of others so desired. Next day, at the request of Tumai, the Admiral sent him to the ship with a soldier, that he might tell the Captain that the Chief had come to see him, and who he was. The Captain received him with a cheerful countenance, and embraced him, and Tumai gave him the kiss of peace on his cheek. They were seated in the gallery, and the table was got ready that he might eat. But he declined to eat anything, though he was pressed to do so. The Commissary was present; and that Tumai might understand that he was a person to be respected, the Captain kissed his hand, and told Tumai that he should do the same, which he did. The Captain asked Tumai whether he had seen ships or people like us. He gave it to be understood that he had not, but that he had received reports about them. He was asked about the volcano that had been seen in the former voyage, and he said, by signs with fire, that it was five days' voyage to the west, and that in his language it was called "Mami," and that there the Island of Santa Cruz was near and in sight, the native name of which was "Indeni." The Captain also told him of the death inflicted upon the Chief Malope during the other voyage, and of the head which the Adelantado Mendaña sent as payment, as may be read in the account of the voyage. [94] It was understood that this was the reason why he and all his people showed themselves to be so alarmed when they saw arquebuses, and explained their knowledge of ships and people like us. The Captain further asked Tumai whether he knew of other lands far or near, inhabited or uninhabited. For this he pointed to his island, then to the sea, then to various points of the horizon; and having explained by these signs, he began counting on his fingers as many as sixty islands, and a very large land, which he called "Manicolo." The Captain wrote down the names, having the compass before him, for noting the bearing of each island from the one where they were, called "Taumaco," to S.W., S.S.W., and N.W. To explain which were small islands, Tumai made small circles, and for larger ones larger circles; while for the large land he opened both his arms and hands without making them meet. To explain which were the distant islands, and which were nearer, he pointed to the sun, then rested his head on his hand, shut his eyes, and with his fingers counted the number of nights one had to sleep on the voyage. In a similar way he explained which people were white, black, or mulattos; which were mixed, which friendly, which hostile. He gave it to be understood that in one island they ate human flesh, by biting his arm, and indicated that he did not like such people. In this way and in others it appeared that what he said was understood. He repeated it many times until he was tired, and, pointing towards the S.W., W., and other parts, he gave it to be well understood how many more lands there were. He then showed a desire to return to his house, and the Captain, the more to please him, gave him things brought for barter, and he departed after embraces and other tokens of love. Next day the Captain went to the village where our people were, and in order to corroborate what Tumai had said, he assembled the natives on the beach. Holding a paper in his hand, with the compass before him, he began asking them all once and many times respecting the lands to which Tumai had given names, and all agreed. They gave tidings of other inhabited islands, and also of that great land. Other persons, on that day and at other times, put the same questions to the natives, and always with the same result, so that it appeared that these people were truthful. They were much astonished at seeing one reading a paper, and, taking it in their hands, they looked at it in front and behind. One day the natives were seen eating certain pieces of meat, and they were asked cautiously what it was. That they might be understood, they showed a piece of raw hide with the hair on, and one put his hands on his head, intending it to be understood, with other very intelligible signs, that in those great lands there were cows and buffalo; and when they were shown pearls on the button of a rosary, they said they had them. They liked much to see us place our guard. They showed themselves well contented at the way they were treated. All they gave was eaten without scruple, and all they were given was taken with good will. They established great friendship with each of our people that they took a fancy to, exchanging names, calling them comrades, and treating them as if their acquaintance had been of long standing. It came to such a point that some of our people went alone to their villages without causing any offence, or any of our things being missed, such as our clothes left in the streams where they were being washed, or pots and copper kettles. An agreement was made with Tumai about wood and water for the ships, all which he sent with great good will--as much as we needed--by natives in canoes. Some concealed themselves, others went on board and asked for bells, which they esteemed very much, and other things that were given them, with which they returned contented. Tumai was lord of this and other islands. His age was fifty; a man with a good body and face, handsome eyes, well-formed nose, colour rather brown, beard and hair turning grey. He was grave and sedate, prudent and wise in what he did, and what he promised he performed. Once he wanted to go to a village, to see two women he had there. He asked leave, and left one of his sons as a hostage. CHAPTER XVI. Gives an account of this island, of the people, their food and canoes, and of our departure from it. The native name for this island is Taumaco. It received the name of Nuestra Señora del Socorro in memory of the succour found there. [95] It is in latitude 10° 20'. Its circumference is 10 leagues, more or less. It is moderately high and well wooded. For this reason, and its shape, the view of it is pleasant. It runs east and west. Along its beaches there are many palm groves, villages with few houses, and a quantity of canoes. It is distant from Lima 1,650 [96] leagues. On the east side there are three pointed rocks, which are only bare when the wind is E. or N.E., and between them and the island is the port where we anchored first. It has 25 fathoms of depth. The second anchorage is on the south side of the island, west of a rock which is under water, depth 18 fathoms, with bottom of rough coral, which chafes cables, so that ours were buoyed. It is without shelter; and for this reason, and the high seas that rise, we lay at single anchor, and in some anxiety and danger. The village of Tumai is on the south side, a little apart from the island, and surrounded by water, so we called it Venice. They cannot embark in or land from their canoes, except when it is high water. It has in front, at a distance of an arquebus-shot, a small valley with fruit trees, crops, and a small stream of very clear and wholesome water, whence was got that which was taken on board. The houses are large and clean, framed with wood, the roof of sweet canes covered with palm leaves, with two or three low doors, and the floors covered with reeds. The beds are of matting, with stools somewhat curved to put the heads on. There are larger houses, and in them certain canoes with large and well-carved trunks, with decks of plank, and very strongly fastened with beams and poles. These go down on one side until they reach the water, [97] acting as a counterpoise to prop up, enabling them to carry more sail. The joinings of the vessel are cemented together with a certain gum which is found here, that burns like a candle when set on fire, and oils well. The inside has a small cabin or retreat, in which all the provisions are kept when at sea. The bows were ornamented with pearl shells, and close by were the paddles, rigging, ropes, and large mat sails. Each canoe will hold thirty or forty persons. There was also an open space with certain poles, some of them dyed red, for which the natives have great respect, cloths, matting, and cocoa-nuts being collected there. It was understood to be a burying-place of some of their chief people, or a place where the Devil speaks to them. The island yields roots and fruits, such as yams, cocoa-nuts, plantains, sweet canes, and some very large almonds, whose pips are formed of leaves. They are sweet and very pleasant to eat. The nutmegs are only used by the natives as a paste to dye their arrows. Other fruits were seen and eaten, and a small pig. They do not eat the hens. They killed ten or a dozen cocks, but they hid the hens. A small dog was seen. We found a ball of artimonia, and it was ascertained that they make them to fight with, fastened to the ends of sticks, serving as maces. The natives are tall as a rule, straight, vigorous, well-favoured, of a clear mulatto colour more or less, others very close upon being black. There may be some who have come from other islands by way of contract, or as prisoners. Some of them work. They cover their parts with cloths they weave at small looms. They use the buyo, food also used in the Philippines, which is said to preserve the teeth and strengthen the stomach. Their arms are bows and arrows. They seem to be a people fond of fighting with natives of other islands; two of them were wounded and bruised from this. They told our people that they would go to help and to avenge the others who had been hit with arrows. One gave us to understand that he was a surgeon. Two leagues to the west there is another island, inhabited, and apparently about the same size as Taumaco. It is called Temelflua. To the N.E. of it, at a short distance, are two small islands, rather rocky. The ships being ready, the Admiral received orders to embark, taking some natives with the objects already stated. The Admiral sent Tumai in advance, the Captain having sent for him to take leave. Tumai and two others were in a canoe talking with the Captain, who gave them a sash and other things, when the boats arrived with our people and four natives, who had been seized, so that Tumai might not see them. But they saw Tumai, and cried out to him to help them. Tumai, seeing that there was no remedy, was deaf to their cries, and for his own safety he shoved off from the ship. The Captain fired a piece as a signal for the launch to weigh. The two companions of Tumai then jumped into the water, and swam on shore. Tumai remained without showing any fear. This man was valorous, and his kindness was worthy to be celebrated and to eternize his name, and his sorrow mourned for. Our people embarked with two natives in each ship, the anchors were weighed, and sail was made at sunset on Tuesday, the 18th of April, running great danger of striking on a rock. CHAPTER XVII. Another inhabited island is sighted, and it is related how three natives escaped from the ships, and other things that happened. The ships were pursuing their course, when a certain person from the Almiranta shouted to the Captain that they should go in search of the Island of Santa Cruz. The Captain answered that the ships had to put their heads, as they were now put, to the S.E., with the intention of following that and other courses, for they now had sufficient wood and water to enable them to find what they were seeking. God had given us a N.W. wind, one as well suited for that intention as it sounds. We stood on under little sail, for it was night, and the sea unknown, when towards dawn one of the natives sprang into the sea. He was a youth, but tall and vigorous, of good countenance and gentle bearing, whom the Captain prized highly for the ship. The sailors called as if he could understand them: "Come back to the ship; do not drown yourself. See how the Devil deceives him! Why should you lose so much good as surrounds you here?" But as his intention was different, not caring for words so little understood, he went on swimming to the island, which appeared to be about 3 leagues off. We went on our way, and in the afternoon of the third day we saw an island [98] at a distance. We hove to for the night, and made sail towards it at daybreak. When we were near the land, the other native, also quite young and not less gay and well disposed, before he could be prevented, jumped overboard, and there remained, as if he was a buoy. At the place where he was, not caring for cries and menaces, with great effrontery, as if he was standing in the water, he took off a shirt he had on, and with incredible speed began swimming to the island, which he would soon reach, being near and to leeward. The Admiral was advised of the flight of the natives, that he might keep a closer watch over the two he had on board. Only with the object of finding out whether the island was inhabited, we coasted along it. Presently, on an extensive beach, we saw natives running to join others who were looking at us. The Admiral got into the dingey to see what sort of people they were. The natives made signs, with great demonstrations of love, for us to come on shore. Seeing we would not for all their pressing, they gave a mantle of fine palm leaves and notice of other lands, and bade farewell with great signs of regret. We left them in that solitude, gazing at our ships, until we lost sight of them. Our people were much pleased at the sight of the island, and still more to see such fine-looking people: but suddenly one of the two natives on board the Almiranta, a tall, robust, and strong man, jumped into the sea, and soon was a long way off. They lowered the dingey, but the Captain fired a piece off as a signal that they were not to go after the fugitive, the boat being small and easily capsized. The resolute swimmer went on towards the island with vigorous strokes, being 2 leagues off and to windward. CHAPTER XVIII. Relates how, by reason of a strong wind from the N.W., the sea ran across the track of the ships, and how they sighted a high island. With great regret at the loss of the three best natives, though the one that remained was more free (being the same the Captain pointed out with his finger when they were seized), we proceeded on a S.E. course, with a fresh N.W. breeze, until the following day. The wind increased in force with thick weather, with flights of birds, and the night approaching, so we struck the topmasts and hove to until the 24th of April. On that day the sun was taken, and it was found that we were in 14°, the ship having drifted 20 leagues. In the afternoon, the weather having cleared up, the Captain ordered sail to be made, and when he was asked what the course was to be, he answered: "Put the ships' heads where they like, for God will guide them as may be right;" and as it was S.W., he said it might continue so. So on that course, with little sail, we steered during the night. Before sunrise on the following day, a sailor of the Capitana named Francisco Rodriguez went to the mast-head, and cried in a cheerful voice: "Very high land ahead!" We all wanted to see it, and all looked at it together with great contentment. Much greater was their satisfaction when they came close, and saw smoke, and natives calling to the launch to come nearer. This island was calculated to be 1,700 leagues from Lima. It is 7 or 8 leagues in circumference, forms a round hill, abrupt near the sea, the highest and best-formed I have seen. Its shape is that of a sugar-loaf with the crown cut off. It is cut like a saddle, whence a good stream of water falls into the sea. We saw crops growing, plantains, palms, and other trees. The inhabitants appeared to be of a good colour, and well made. The people were on the N.W. side, where, at a short distance from the shore, there is a bare rock. The latitude of this land is 14°, and it was named San Marcos, [99] because it was discovered on that Saint's day. CHAPTER XIX. Tells how a great land was sighted, and other islands. From this Island of San Marcos we went on a S.W. course, with men at the mast-head; and at 10 in the forenoon, at a distance of 12 leagues to the S.E., a land of many mountains and plains was sighted, the end of which could not be seen throughout the day. The Captain gave it the name of "Margaritana." About 20 leagues to the west, an island was seen that looked so beautiful that it was determined to go to it. About a third of the way we saw another island, 3 leagues off. It is flat, with a hill that looks like a rock in the distance. Two canoes under sail came from it, from which we knew that it was inhabited. On account of its thick woods and pleasant appearance, the name of "Verjel" was given to it. There was little wind, and, on account of the necessary caution in navigating among unknown islands, we hove to during the night. The other day, being the 27th, we saw to the N. of where we were a large island running N.E. and S.W., and the peaks of its numerous mountains gave the Captain a strong desire to go and see it; but he gave it up, owing to other things that occurred. Its latitude is 13°, and it was named "Las Lagrimas da San Pedro." To the N.W. another island was seen, with a circumference of 60 leagues. It has two high and sloping hills, one at each end. The rest is flat and of very pleasant appearance, alike from its shape and its numerous trees. Its latitude is less than 14°. It was named "Portales de Belen." CHAPTER XX. Gives an account of what passed with some natives at an island. Next day we arrived near the island which I said was to the westward of that of San Marcos, and in all directions we saw columns of smoke rising, and at night many fires. In the centre it is rather high, and thence its slopes extend in all directions towards the sea, so that its form is a massive round, with only the part towards the south a little broken with ravines. It is a land of many palm trees, plantains, verdure, abundant water, and thickly inhabited. The circumference is about 50 leagues, though some gave it 100 leagues, and must support about 200,000 inhabitants. Its latitude is 14° 30'. Owing to its great beauty, it was given the name of "Virgen Maria." [100] Four canoes with unarmed natives came to the Almiranta, and made signs to offer to take him into port. Seeing that our people did not wish it, they made presents of cocoa-nuts and other fruits. Having received a good return, they went back to their island. As the disposition of the natives seemed to be good, the Captain sent a party in the launch and one boat, to examine the coast and find a port. The party was under the command of Pedro Lopez de Sojo. They found to the S. and S.E. clean bottom at 20 fathoms or less, where the ships might well anchor if the weather to be expected was known. They saw a great number of people on the island, who came out to see and call to us. They followed the boat without passing certain boundaries, and by this we supposed that there were partitions of property between people not on good terms. Among them there were two colours. While they were looking at each other and talking by signs, a man rushed down from some rocks behind. He was well made, of a clear mulatto colour, the hairs of his beard and head brown and crisp, and rather long. He was robust and vigorous. With a jump he got into the boat, and, according to the signs he made, he appeared to ask: "Where do you come from? What do you want? What do you seek?" Assuming that these were the questions, one of our people said "We come from the east, we are Christians, we seek you, and we want you to be ours." He showed himself to be so bold, that our people understood that he wanted to make us believe that to him we were a small affair. He presently was undeceived, for he was seized and brought to the ship, where he came on board so fearlessly that we had to confess he was no coward. The Captain embraced him, and asked about other land by signs, of which he appeared to give extensive information. He pointed to several places on the horizon, counted on his fingers several times, and ended by saying, "Martin Cortal." [101] It was very pleasant to hear him, to see how lively he was, how vigorous, how agreeable among our people; having a bright look for all, including those who importuned him with a desire for information. The night having come on, the launch arrived, and the Pilot of her told the Captain that they were bringing a native prisoner, secured by a hatchway chain. But he broke it; and, taking part of it and the padlock with him on one foot, he jumped overboard. The Captain heard this with great regret, fearing that the man had been drowned. To make sure of the other, he ordered him to be given his supper and to be put in the stocks, but on a bed where he could sleep. He also ordered that the ships should go in search of the one that had escaped. Going in search at ten at night, the look-out man heard a voice from the water, and made out the place where the native, being tired out, was struggling with death. To the cries of the swimmer came answer from the prisoner, in such doleful tones that it caused grief to all to see the one and hear the other. The swimmer was got on board, to the joy of himself and us, and to our surprise that he could have sustained such a weight on his foot for four hours. The padlock and chain were at once taken off, and he was given his supper, with wine to drink, and then put in the stocks, that he might not try it on again. There both remained all night, talking sadly and in confusion. At dawn, the Captain, pretending that he quarreled with all for putting them in the stocks, let them out. He then ordered the barber to shave off their beards and hair, except one tuft on the side of their heads. He also ordered their finger-nails and toe-nails to be cut with scissors, the uses of which they admired. He caused them to be dressed in silk of divers colours, gave them hats with plumes, tinsel, and other ornaments, knives, and a mirror, into which they looked with caution. This done, the Captain had them put into the boat, and told Sojo to take them on shore, coasting along to the end of the island, to see what there was beyond. The natives came, and, the fear being passed, they sang their happy and unhoped-for fate. Arrived at the beach, they were told to jump out, which they could hardly believe. Finally, they jumped overboard, where there were many natives; among them a woman with a child in her arms, who received the two with great joy. It appeared that she was the wife of the first native, and that he was a chief, for all respected and obeyed his orders. They seemed to be contented, and gave each other many embraces, with gentle murmurings. The Chief, pointing with his finger, seemed to be saying we were a good people. Many came to where the boat was, and they showed such confidence that, when one of our men asked the mother for her baby, she gave it. Seeing that it was passed from one to another, to be seen and embraced, the natives were well pleased. In fine, a good understanding was established. The swimmer ran away, and presently came back with a pig on his shoulders, which he offered to us. The Chief gave us another, and a bunch of curious plantains, their shape being like that of moderate-sized egg-plants [102] without points, the pulp orange colour, sweet and tender. The other natives emulously presented cocoa-nuts, sweet canes, and other fruits, and water in joints of cane four palmos long and one thick. Pointing to the ships, they seemed to say that they should anchor here, that they might give them all they had in the island. Our people took their leave and went on to the point, where they saw the coast of the island trending north, and the other island of Belen at a distance of 4 leagues to the N.W. Satisfied with their view, they returned to the ship. The boatswain's mate of the Almiranta was wounded in one cheek by an arrow: certain natives, being envious of the friendship of the others, or being enraged because, when they called to our people they did not care to stop and speak with them, shot off arrows, and had an answer from muskets. This wound healed quickly, by which we knew that the arrows were not poisoned. More mischief would have been done if the swimmer had not come running, shouting, and making signs for the boat to keep away--a great proof of gratitude. CHAPTER XXI. Relates how they came in sight of two great and lofty lands; how they went in search of one of them, and discovered a bay, and a port in it. This day one Melchor de los Reyes was looking out at the mast-head, when, at three in the afternoon, he saw at a distance of 12 leagues to the S.W. and S., more or less, an extensive land. For this, and because the eye could not turn to a point that was not all land, the day was the most joyful and the most celebrated day of the whole voyage. We went on towards the land, and next day found ourselves near a coast running to the west. The name of Cardona [103] was given to this land in memory of the Duke of Sesa, who had taken so deep an interest in the voyage, as well at Rome as at the Court of Spain, and because the Captain felt very grateful. When we set out for the said land there was seen, far away to the S.E., a massive and very lofty chain of mountains, covered with thick masses of white clouds in the middle and on the heights, while the bases were clear. It seemed from aloft that the coasts of these two lands approached to form one. The Captain gave the name of "La Clementina" to this range of mountains. It seemed to be in about 17°. [104] Having come to the land, an opening was seen in it, and, as it appeared to be a port, the Captain sent an officer in a boat, with soldiers and rowers, to examine it. In the afternoon he returned, reporting that the opening formed a narrow island 6 leagues long, running N. and S., rather high, inhabited, and well wooded; and where it is sheltered to the E. and N.E., there was bottom at 30 fathoms, and a strong current. The Captain gave it the name of "San Raimundo." Coasting along this island to the W., there came out on the beach many tawny men, very tall, with bows in their hands, calling loudly to our people. As we would not approach, they threw a great bundle of capons' feathers into the sea, intending with this, and by sending out boys, to induce us to come within shot. Then they shot off their arrows, which we returned with muskets. Further on they saw many natives of fine make and good colour, and away to S. and S.E. three and four ranges of very high mountains, which seemed to join on to the other ranges that had been seen to the S.E. With such good news that the land was inhabited, we sailed onwards on a westward course; and at a distance of 6 leagues, on the 1st of May, we entered a great bay, where we passed the night. Next day, the Captain sent the Admiral away in a boat to look for a port. Two canoes came out to the ships, with men in them, having their bows ready. They stopped for an interval and rowed for another. They spoke loudly, and looked at us and at the shore, showing themselves to be troubled. Those in the launch fired off a piece to astonish them, which it did, for they took to flight, rowing as hard as they could. The Admiral returned in the afternoon very well satisfied, and those who accompanied him were equally pleased, and could not hold back the joyful news that they had found a good port; for this is what we had hitherto failed to find, though we had sought for one with anxious wishes to succeed. Without a port, the discovery would be of little importance. Next day, being the 3rd of May, the three vessels anchored in the port with great joy, giving many thanks to God. CHAPTER XXII. Relates the first sight of the natives of this bay, and an encounter there was with them. Next day natives were seen passing along the beach. The Captain, with the boats, went to look at them, with the desire to take some of them and send them back clothed and kindly treated, so that in this and other ways friendship might be established. He did all he could to induce them to get into the boats. They did the same to get us to land. As we would not, they flung certain fruits into the water, which were collected by us, and we went back to the ships. The day after, the Captain ordered the Admiral to go on shore with a party of soldiers, and try by all possible means to catch some natives, so as to establish peace and friendship, based on the good work we intended to do for them. The party ran the boat high up on the beach, and quickly formed in a squadron, for the natives were coming, and it was not known with what object. Being near, they made signs and spoke, but were not understood. Our people called to them in return. Then the natives drew a line on the ground, and seemed to say that we were not to pass beyond it. I understand that there was no one who could make himself intelligible; and it is a great evil, on such occasions, when there is a want of zeal or of management. Natives were seen in the woods, and to frighten them some muskets were fired into the air. A soldier who had lost patience, or who had forgotten his orders, fired low and killed a native. The others, with loud cries, fled. A Moor who was the drummer, cut off the head and one foot of the dead, and hung the body on the branch of a tree, without being seen to do it by those on the beach. It then happened that three native chiefs came to where our people were, who, instead of showing them kindness and bringing them on board, showed them their comrade without a head and running blood, pretending that this cruelty was a means of making peace. The chiefs, showing great sorrow, went back to where their people were, and shortly afterwards sounded their instruments with great force and noise, which was heard among the trees. Then from many directions they began shooting arrows and darts, and throwing stones, while our people fired on them, turning on one side or the other. The Captain saw all this from the ship where he was, with great regret to find peace turned into war. It appeared to him best to land more men in the direction taken by a number of natives, who were trying to surround our people. The supporting party got into such conflict with the enemy that the Captain was obliged to fire two pieces. The balls, tearing branches off the trees, passed over the natives; but with this, and the resistance made by our soldiers, the enemy retired. At the same time, the natives who were on the beach moved forward, brandishing their clubs, and with arrows fitted to their bows and darts poised to throw, menacing with loud shouts. Then a tall old native advanced, making a sound on a shell with great force. He seemed to be the same chief who had spoken to our soldiers, and I believe he said that they would defend their country against those who came to it, killing their inhabitants. Eight of our musketeers were in ambush, and one of them unfortunately, as he afterwards stated, killed this chief; and presently the rest desisted. Three or four raised their dead on their shoulders with great celerity, and went inland, leaving the neighbouring villages deserted. Such was the end of the peace that the Captain hoped for and sought for, as the means of discovering the grandeur of the land, and all that was contained in it; and such was the intention that the Captain had, but which was but a sound. CHAPTER XXIII. Relates the causes which led the Captain to create a ministry of war, and the names of the officers. The Lord having been served that the Captain should find anchorage for his ships in so long sought-for, so good, and so necessary a port, seeing the excellence of the land which surrounded it, the necessity there was to take possession in the name of His Majesty, feeling the contest in his mind that his desires should be fulfilled, that there should be full security for celebrating the divine offices, and that for this and the rest that had been done here there was manifest risk, for the natives with their arms, from the woods and the beaches, continually attacked, so that we could not seek for wood, water, or provisions, or fell timber for the ship's use to make certain bulk-heads for storing and arranging the cargo; seeing, also, how much it imported that the roads should be guarded by escorts, and that there should be ambuscades to alarm the enemy and secure our safety; knowing further that for the royal authority, the better establishment of the work, the discipline of the people, the union of all their wills, and for other hidden reasons, and for them altogether, it was very necessary and obligatory to create a ministry of war and marine, so that by land and sea there might be established such order that what was desired might be the better secured; and that it may not be a cost of His Majesty, and be the means of giving satisfaction, and of making a foundation, and they themselves having petitioned for it, he named-- To act as Admiral Pedro Bernal Cermeño. Master of the Camp Luis Vaez de Torres. Royal Ensign Lucas de Quiros. Captain and Sergeant-Major Pedro Lopez de Sojo. His Ensign Pedro de Castro. His Sergeant Francisco Martin Toscano. His Aide-de-Camp Francisco Davila. Captain of the crew of the "Almiranta" Alonso Alvarez de Castro. His Ensign Manuel Rodriguez Africano. His Sergeant Domingo Andres. Captain of the Launch Pedro Garcia da Lumbreras. His Ensign Francisco Gallardo. His Sergeant Antonio Gonzalez. Captain of the Artillery Andres Perez Coronado. Constables of the three Vessels Francisco Ponce. Lazaro de Olivera. Antonio Balalan. Chief Pilot Gaspar Gonzalez de Leza. Assistant Pilot Francisco Fernandez. These elections having been made, presently the Camp Master asked the Captain to leave him to sleep on shore with the people. The Captain never wished to consent, because they should not sleep on the ground, and because he did not wish for further licence with the natives, and to avoid danger, and for other reasons which they could understand. The Master of the Camp, with the Sergeant-Major, officers, and sailors, who were serving as soldiers, made such good progress on shore that by Friday, the eve of Pentecost, they finished all that had been arranged, without injury to any of our people. On the same afternoon the Captain assembled the people of all the vessels, and addressed them in the following manner:-- "His Majesty, the King, our Lord, was served by sending me, at the cost of his royal treasury, without giving me instructions or orders, nor other memoir whatever, of what I was to do in these parts, nor did he restrict my will as to what I was not to do; therefore, in the name of the royal grandeur, I undertake what is best for His Majesty's better service, and greater honour. In fine, all is left to my charge; and this mercy was so great, that it has made me his perpetual vassal and slave, and put upon me new obligations and cares to find how I can better serve and please His Majesty so long as my life lasts. For this I am of a mind, and determined to make a beginning of my honourable thought, some time planned and desired to be put into execution; for the good work that it promises for God and for the King, for the strengthening of your resolves, for giving firmness and hope, which are the qualities needed to achieve great and famous deeds, the more when the honour and the reward are to be seen and palpable: which are two things so sought after and loved in this present life, and the want of which causes what happens to be evil. "The present subject to be announced to you, gentlemen, is that of an Order, the title of which is to be the 'Knights of the Holy Ghost,' with the constitutions and precepts to be kept and professed, guided by such lofty and Christian ends as will be seen in them when the Lord is served, as I shall be able to show. All is done in confidence that His Holiness and His Majesty, each of those two Lords as regards what concerns them, will be served in payment of my continual labours and good desires, by confirming this Order, with advantageous privileges, as long as the world endures: as well for the good that it secures as for the merits of vassals so honourable and so loyal, as is shown by the numerous services they perform, and will continue to perform, in these parts. "For all I have said and can say on this subject, I seek from all the consent of their free wills, in the names of the Most Holy Trinity, in the name of the Roman Pontiff, in the name of His Catholic Majesty the King, Don Philip, third of that name, King of Spain, and my Lord; and I, the Captain Don Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, give to each one of your mercies this cross, of a blue colour, which presently you are to place on your breasts, being the insignia by which the Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost are to be known; and for the persons in whose charge, if I should fail, is to be placed the discovery, pacification, and possession of all these parts that we are discovering and may discover in the time to come. "I pray heartily that the Knights may know and esteem the value of this cross, gained with a determination to win much higher honours; and they must bear in mind that, though it has not cost much money, labour, sickness, nor time, that which it remains in their power to pay in this very high enterprise is very great, for it is now known that the enterprise holds a world for its heaven and its earth. "Pray to God, gentlemen, that it may serve Him to show me greater lands and other things; for greater are my desires that the King our Lord may deign to grant to all still greater favours. Here I, in his royal name, offer to raise you to higher offices and dignities. I charge you all to be, as it were, members of one body; and I announce to you that from this day forward your obligations will be greater, and the rewards or punishments greater which are merited for good or for bad deeds." All this was listened to with much pleasure and accepted with satisfaction. The Captain asked them all to confess on Saturday, that on Sunday, the day of Pentecost, they might earn the Holy Jubilee which His Holiness had conceded to this expedition, and five other days in each year. Presently the Father Commissary persuaded all, and with his three priests he offered to confess, and all confessed. CHAPTER XXIV. Describes the celebration of the feast of the eve and the day of Pentecost, and the taking possession in the names of the Catholic Church, and of His Majesty. On that night all three vessels displayed many lights, and they sent off many rockets and fire-wheels. All the artillery was fired off; and when the natives heard the noise and the echoes resounding over hills and valleys, they raised great shouts. We sounded drums, rang the bells, had music and dancing, and had other forms of rejoicing, in which the men showed great pleasure. The Captain said to all: "Gentlemen, this is the eve of my long-desired day, for which there should be no empty hand nor person for whom the appointed good things are not welcome, and as much more as the part he takes may deserve." It was not quite dawn when the Camp Master and ministers, taking with them an armed party in the two boats, went on shore. They landed near the launch with four small pieces to be used in a fort. Presently, with joyous diligence a booth made of branches was set up on the beach, surrounded by stakes, to serve as a fort in case of necessity. Within, the monks arranged a clean and well-ordered altar under a canopy. This was the first church, and was named by the Captain "Our Lady of Loreto." Everything having been arranged as well as the time would allow, it was reported to the Captain, and presently he left the ship with the rest of the people. All the three companies were drawn up in good order on the beach. The officers and soldiers looked so active and honourable, with the crosses on their breasts, that I believe, if His Majesty could see them, with such sharpened resolves to finish what they had commenced, and to begin much greater things, that he would estimate their value at what it was worth, and increase his bounties. The Royal Ensign came forth with the standard in his hands. The banners, which were fluttering and brightening the whole scene, received their tribute from discharges of muskets and arquebuses. Presently the Captain came out and went down on his knees, saying: "To God alone be the honour and the glory." Then, putting his hand on the ground, he kissed it, and said: "O Land! sought for so long, intended to be found by many, and so desired by me!" Then the Admiral came out with a cross made of the orange wood of the country, which the Captain had caused to be made. Our Father Commissary, with his five monks, all bare-footed, kneeling on the beach, received it in their arms, saying with great tenderness: "I adore thee, O Holy Cross, for the Author of our life, made flesh, died on thee for me, so great a sinner, and for the whole human race." Raising it and singing the "Lignum," with the people in procession, we arrived at the door of the church; and there, on a pedestal which had been placed for the purpose, the Captain planted our cross, and ordered that the people should come round, and that the secretary should read, as in a loud voice he did read, the following documents:-- Raising of the Cross. Be witnesses the heavens and the earth, and the sea with all its inhabitants, and those who are present, that I, the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in these parts which up to the present time have been unknown, raise and plant in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the eternal Father, and of the Holy Virgin Mary, true God and man, this sign of the Holy Cross, on which His most holy body was crucified, and where He gave His life as a ransom for the whole human race. In the same place, and at the same time, the six following possessions were read, which our people heard with joy and gladness, the eyes of many filling with tears. Possession in the name of the most Holy Trinity. In these parts of the South, until now unknown, where I am, and have come with authority from the Supreme Roman Pontiff, Clement VIII., and by order of the King, Don Philip III., King of Spain, despatched by his Council of State, I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in the name of the most Holy Trinity, take possession of all the islands and lands that I have newly discovered, and desire to discover, as far as the South Pole. Possession in the name of the Catholic Church. I take possession of all these, the said lands, in the name of Jesus Christ, saviour of all men, how unknown soever they may be, and in the name of His mother the most Holy Virgin Mother of Loreto, and in the name of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of all the holy apostles and disciples, and in the name of the universal Vicar of Christ, the Roman Pontiff, and in the name of the whole Catholic Church, and of all those pious, just, and holy things that have a right in such possession; which I do with joy and to the end that to all the natives, in all the said lands, the holy and sacred evangel may be preached zealously and openly. Possession in the name of St. Francis and his Order. I take possession of all the said lands in the name of my father, St. Francis, and of all his religion and professors of it, and being present, in the name of the Father Commissary, Friar Martin de Monilla, Friar Mateo de Vascones, Friar Antonio Quintero, and Friar Juan de Marlo, all four priests; and in the names of Fray Juan de Santa Maria and Fray Francisco Lopez, both lay brethren, come here, all six, at my request by order of His Holiness and of His Majesty, and of their Commissary General and Provincial of the province of the Twelve Apostles of Peru; from whose order I desire that all the workers sent to tend this vineyard may come, and the labourers who have to show His holy word and doctrine, and to gather in the fruits. Possession in the name of John of God and his Order. I take possession of all the said lands in the name of John of God, and of all the professed brothers of his Order, and, being present, in the name of Lazaro de Santa Maria, who came here in compliance with a brief of His Holiness, given to me for that end, that the same Brotherhood might found, administer, and maintain by their professed charity all the hospitals there may be in those parts, so necessary that the natives may learn all our methods, and hold us in the love and veneration which the sight of our curing the native sick, and giving them other benefits, deserve. Possession in the name of the Order of the Holy Ghost. I take possession of all these lands, by the right that His Holiness and His Majesty granted, to make just divisions of the lands and of the people on them; for all the Knights that are in these parts of the Order of the Holy Ghost as discoverers, settlers, defenders, and preservers, and no other, obliged without pay to serve in all the royal and public employments, with every human and divine office as regards the natives as their defenders, and with profession of all the rest that is in their constitution. Possession in the name of His Majesty. Finally, I take possession of this bay, named the Bay of St. Philip and St. James, and of its port named Santa Cruz, and of the site on which is to be founded the city of New Jerusalem, in latitude 15° 10', and of all the lands which I sighted and am going to sight, and of all this region of the south as far as the Pole, which from this time shall be called Australia del Espiritu Santo, with all its dependencies and belongings; and this for ever, and so long as right exists, in the name of the King, Don Philip, third of that name King of Spain, and of the eastern and western Indies, my King and natural Lord, whose is the cost and expense of this fleet, and from whose will and power came its mission, with the government, spiritual and temporal, of these lands and people, in whose royal name are displayed there his three banners, and I hereby hoist his royal standard. The reading being finished, all cried with loud voices: "Long live the King of Spain, Don Philip III., our Lord!" Then we entered the church to give due thanks to God. They said three Masses, and the fourth, which was sung, was by our Father Commissary. All the people took the sacrament very fervently. This done, the three Ensigns, who now held the banners in their hands, inclined them to the ground in front of the altar, the Royal Ensign holding the royal standard. The Commissary blessed them with great solemnity; and, at a certain signal that was given to the ships, whose mast-head banners displayed the royal arms, and at the sides the two columns and the plus ultra, with the streamers fluttering, fired off all their guns with full charges; the soldiers discharged muskets and arquebuses, and the gunners sent off rockets and fire-wheels. In the middle of all this noise, all shouted with almost infinite joy, and many times: "Long live the Faith of Christ!" And with this the celebration of the festival came to an end. CHAPTER XXV. What passed between the Captain and the late Chief Pilot, and certain persons who spoke for and against; and how freedom was given to two slaves. Presently the former Chief Pilot prayed the Captain, with exaggerated supplication, to pardon him. The Captain enquired of him for what he asked pardon: for if he referred to things that affected him, he might be certain that, without having to ask for pardon, he would be pardoned; but if the pardon was asked for things connected with the royal service, he must tell him what was well known, that his treatment was reasonable and just. The Chief Pilot replied to this by swearing, with great demonstrations of innocence, that he had neither offended the King nor the Captain in anything, nor had desired to give offence. According to him, I am the person who ought to ask for pardon. Then a certain monk took the Captain aside, and said that the Chief Pilot was very obliged and grateful, and that from this time forward he would work marvels in all things; and that he was already doing so, as the monk could witness. The Captain answered that he left that to God, who knew the most secret intentions and could not be deceived; and that for himself, he looked to have treated the Chief Pilot in quite a different manner, having entrusted to him business which included good things and likewise his honour; and that although it was very early, his recent acts having shown that neither his word nor his offers were to be trusted, the fact of his having done so much good to anyone made it unprofitable that he should remain under punishment. Other persons had given evidence to the Captain against the Chief Pilot, and to all he answered that before God he could justify his acts in giving information, pardoning, or giving hope. When such means were of no avail, he held the rod in his hands, giving such blows as the culprit deserved; and that he had kept the Chief Pilot a prisoner, considering that to be a punishment which would be sufficient. Freedom given to two slaves. The Captain asked an officer named Alonso Alvarez de Castro, and Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, Pilot of the Almiranta, that they would give--as they did give with very good will, by reason of pious motives and of the honour of the festival of that day--freedom to a slave which each of them possessed, for which purpose they drew up letters. This being done, we went to dine under the shade of great tufted trees near a clear running stream, the corps de garde being alert and the sentries posted. CHAPTER XXVI. The election of a municipality and of magistrates, names of the persons elected, and what else happened until the crews embarked. Having had his siesta, the Captain assembled the Master of the Camp, Admiral, Royal Ensign, Sergeant-Major, and Captains, and said to them that, possession having been taken of that land, and the city having received the name of the New Jerusalem, with their concurrence, he would elect a municipality and such officers as is usual in a city that was the capital of a province. As they expressed their concurrence, it was agreed among all that the elections should be made in the manner following:-- Magistrates Don Diego Barrantes y Maldonado. Luis de Belmonte Bermudez. The Licentiate Alonzo Sanchez de Aranda. The Captain Manuel Noble. Francisco de Medina. Francisco de Mendoza y Sarmiento. Francisco de Zandategui. Antonio Francisco Camiña. Juan Ortiz. Alonso Perez de Medina. Juan Gallardo de Los Reyes. Pedro Carrasco. Gil Gonzalez. Secretary to the Municipality Santiago de Iriarte. Justices of the Peace Don Alonzo de Sotomayor. Captain Rodrigo Mejia de la Chica. Chief Constable Captain Gaspar de Gaza. Royal Officers: Accountant Don Juan de Iturbe. Treasurer Don Juan de la Peña. Factor Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña. Registrar of Mines Don Antonio de Chaves. Store-keeper General Don Diego de Prado y Tovar. [105] Overseer Don Juan de Espinosa y Zayas. [105] As soon as the elections were completed, all the officials took the oath, placing the right hand on a breviary, which the Father Commissary held; swearing that they would be loyal to His Majesty, in whose name the different offices had been given to them; and with this the proceedings terminated. Afterwards, the municipal officers formed in order, and accompanied by the rest of the people, went to the church. Within was the Father Commissary, who, pointing to the upraised cross, said, "Here, gentlemen, you have the Holy Cross, the semblance of that which, by the mercy of God, secured all our remedy and all our good;" but such were the tears he shed that he could not proceed. The Captain embarked, taking with him the same cross, the standard and banners; and, on arriving on board, he ordered that block on the yard-arm to be taken down, where it had been placed to punish crimes. For the Captain could not believe that persons with such an honourable destiny would do things the punishment of which would be the rope. The Captain ordered the Master of the Camp to take an armed party, and penetrate further into the interior than he had done before. They saw more and better farms and villages than before, and at one village they found the natives much occupied with their dances. When they saw us they began a flight to the mountains, leaving strewn about as they fled, bows, arrows, and darts. Our people found two roast pigs, and all their other food, which they ate at their ease. They carried off twelve live pigs, eight hens and chickens, and they saw a tree which astonished them, for its trunk could not have been encircled by fifteen or twenty men; so they returned to the ships. CHAPTER XXVII. Relates how they sowed some land; the entry into a valley; capture of three boys, and what happened with the natives. The Captain, on the last day of Easter, taking with him such an escort as seemed necessary, went to an adjacent farm of the natives and sowed a quantity of maize, cotton, onions, melons, pumpkins, beans, pulse, and other seeds of our country; and returned to the ships laden with many roots and fish caught on the beach. Next day the Captain sent the Master of the Camp, with thirty soldiers, to reconnoitre a certain height, where they found a large and pleasant valley, with villages. When the inhabitants saw us coming, many assembled together in arms. We caught there three boys, the oldest being about seven years of age, and twenty pigs. With these we began a retreat, and the natives, with vigour and bravery, attacked our vanguard, centre, and rearguard, shooting many arrows. The chiefs came out to the encounter, and by their charges forced us to lose the ground we were gaining. Arrived at a certain pass, our people found the rocks occupied by many natives, who were animated by the desire to do as much harm as possible. Here was the hardest fight, their arrows and stones hurled down from the heights, causing great danger to our men. When the Captain heard the noise of the muskets and the shouting, he ordered three guns to be fired off, to frighten the natives and encourage our people; and the better to effect this at the port, those in the ships and on the beach were sent to support the retreating party in great haste. The forces having united, they came to the ships, saving the spoils, and all well. There was a certain person, who said in a loud voice: "Thirty pigs would be better eating than three boys." The Captain heard this, and said, with much feeling, that he would rather have one of those children than the whole world besides. He made a speech on the subject, concluding with the following words: "I give the blame to my sins, and to those alone. And how much better would it be for the person who spoke such nonsense if he had given praises to God, who, in a way so strange and unthought-of, saved these three souls--a thing which we must believe to have been predestined?" For this speech there was some ill-feeling on the part of the man who had spoken, and more from his friends. The natives, on the following day, having other ambuscades, came to attack our watering party, who armed themselves in great haste. The natives shot off their arrows, and our people fired their muskets. The natives then fled, shouting as they went, leaving marks of the harm done them by the balls. It seems that the natives, in their rage that they could not revenge themselves on us, came to destroy the church. The Captain hurriedly sent off an armed party in the two boats to prevent them. When the natives saw this, they slowly retreated. Their object appeared to have been to draw our men away, to lead them to where many other natives were concealed; for we afterwards saw them go away, crossing the river of Salvador. CHAPTER XXVIII. How the launch went to examine the mouth of the great river, and what else happened with reference to excursions inland. The Master of the Camp was sent to examine the mouth of the river, which is in the middle of the bay, with the launch, a boat, and a party of men. He tried the depth of the river mouth, and found that there was no bottom, with the length of an oar and his own arm. He went further up in the boat, and the view of the river gave much pleasure to those who were with him, as well for its size and the clearness of the water, as for its gentle current and the beauty of the trees on its banks. The launch passed further up, and our people landed on the bank and went inland. They found a small village of four streets, and an open space at the most elevated part. All round there were many farms, surrounded by palings. Two spies were posted, who warned the natives, and they all fled. Our people found in their houses several kinds of fish, roasted and wrapped in plantain leaves, and a quantity of raw mussel-shells in baskets, as well as fruits and flowers hung on poles. Near there was a burial-place. They also found a flute, and certain small things worked out of pieces of marble and jasper. As they heard drums and shells, and a great murmuring noise, understanding that it came from a large number of people, they retreated, followed by the natives, who did not dare to attack them. Finally, they got to the launch in peace, and returned to the ships. On many other occasions our people went to fish and to seek for things very necessary for the requirements of the ships, returning well content with the excellence of the land. Encounters with the natives were not wanting, and I believe they killed some natives, although they denied it to me. CHAPTER XXIX. Describes the festival of Corpus Christi, and the procession they made. All the carpentering work was finished by the 20th of May. On that day the Captain gave orders to the Master of the Camp to go on shore with a hundred soldiers, and to collect things to adorn our church of Loreto, and to make streets round it, so that on the next day, which was that of Corpus Christi, we might there celebrate its festival with all the force we could muster. In the night, the eve of the festival was celebrated on board. Before daybreak our people went on shore, and formed an escort for our six monks, who got everything ready that was required. When all was ready, the Captain was informed, who presently got into the boat, leaving two men on board each ship, and taking all the rest with him. On reaching the shore, they all jumped out and went to the church. Its door was to the north, bravely decorated with things of the country, the roof and part of the body of the church being covered with green branches; and there was a very curious altar under a canopy, with a service of silver. For an altar-piece there was a painted Christ crucified, on a great cloth, with four candles at the sides, and incense-sticks burning. Having said his prayers, the Captain went out to see the place. At the commencement there were three high triumphal arches, enlaced with palms, shoots, and flowers, while the ground was also strewn with flowers. The streets were formed with many trees, those within forming a cloister; and here were planted divers branches and herbs to look like a garden. At two angles, under two other arches, were placed two altars with their canopies, and the images of St. Peter and St. Paul; while its author, the Brother of the Order of John of God, on his knees at one side, was saying his prayers. The day was clear and serene, and as the sun rose over the crowns of the trees, its rays entering through the branches, the difference in the fruits of each plant was shown in great profusion. Here, too, could be heard the persistence with which the birds sang and chaunted; the leaves and branches were seen to move gently, and the whole place was agreeable, fresh, shady, with a gentle air moving, and the sea smooth. Presently returning to the church, two Masses were said. A third was said by the Father Commissary, and the procession was then ordered in the following manner:--A soldier went first, carrying in his hands the heavy cross of orange wood. Next came a lay brother, with another gilt cross from the sacristy, with the bag raised on a lance, and on each side two acolytes, with candlesticks and red cassocks, and all those in surplices. Then followed the three companies in order, each one bearing its banner in the centre, with its drums sounding a march. There was a very picturesque sword-dance by eleven sailor lads, dressed in red and green silk, with bells on their feet. They danced with much dexterity and grace to the sound of a guitar, which was played by a respected old sailor. This was followed by another dance by eight boys, all dressed like Indians in shirts and breeches of silk, coloured brown, blue, and grey, with garlands on their heads, and white palms in their hands. Bands of bells were round their ankles, and they danced with very quiet countenances, at the same time singing their canticles to the sound of tambourines and flutes played by two musicians. Then followed the royal standard, accompanied by the Master of the Camp, the Sergeant-Major, and the Captains. Then six Magistrates, each with a lighted torch in his hand. Then came the Father Commissary, whose pall of yellow silk, six yards long, was borne by three royal officers and three Magistrates. He carried in his hand a coffer of crimson velvet, with gilded nails, which contained the most blessed sacrament. Another lay brother incensed it. All the four priests marched joyfully, singing the hymn "Pangelingua." The Captain carried the royal standard as far as the door, where he delivered it to the Ensign, whose place was behind the pall, with the two Justices of the Peace and the Chief Constable. When the Lord now came forth from the door, all the bells rang, and the people, who were looking on attentively, fell on their knees; the Ensigns lowered the banners three times, the drummers beat the drums for battle; the soldiers, who had the cords ready, fired off the muskets and arquebuses; the constables fired off the guns which were on shore for defending the port; and in the ships the artillery-men fired off the bombards and pieces, and those placed in the launch and boats for the occasion. Once more, and once again, they were discharged. When the smoke cleared away, there were seen amongst the green branches so many plumes of feathers and sashes, so many pikes, halberds, javelins, bright sword-blades, spears, lances, and on the breasts so many crosses, and so much gold, and so many colours and silken dresses, that many eyes could not contain what sprung from the heart, and they shed tears of joy. With this the procession returned, the church being guarded by four corps de garde. The dancers kept dancing to keep up the festival, and remained within; and the Captain at the door said to them: "All the dresses you wear you can keep as your own, for they are from the royal treasury. I would that they were of the best and richest brocade." As a finish a fourth Mass was said, that it might be heard by the sentries who were posted to keep a look-out for any approach of the natives, though they were far off on the beach and on the hills. This done, the Captain ordered the bells to be rung in honour of those, in Lima, who had said that they would come to that land when they could have a passage. The native who was taken from Taumaco, and was afterwards named Pedro, went about dressed in silk with a cross on his breast, and bow and arrows, so astonished and pleased at all he saw, and at his cross, that he looked about and showed it, putting his hand on it, and named it many times. It is a thing worthy of note that the cross elevated the mind, even of a barbarian who did not know its significance. Having given the souls such sweet and delicious food, friends and comrades divided themselves off to the places dedicated to hearths and pots, where, with tables spread under the shade of tall and spreading trees, they gave themselves up to feeding their bodies. During the subsequent siesta there were dances, music, and pleasant conversation; and he who said this was fortunate that day, as well as those who saw it all, for it was the first festival celebrated in honour of the most high Lord in these strange and unknown lands. As our force was small, and the natives numerous, it was considered by some to be an act of great audacity. I say that it was a great hit, and that it was done in full faith. There was one who said that this octave of Don Alonso de Ercilla seemed to foretell it, which one sincerely devoted to the expedition, by slight alterations, adapted to the present occasion as follows:-- Araucana. [106] Behold where are hidden the lands, Scarce discerned by mortal ken, Those are regions still unknown, Never pressed by Christian men. This will ever be their fate, Want of knowledge keeps them there, Wrapt within a fleecy cloud, Until God shall lay them bare. Version of the friend of Quiros. [107] Behold how we have found these lands, Now clearly seen by mortal ken, Those are regions now made known, Pressed by feet of Christian men. Unknown no longer is their fate, Now full knowledge points them there, No longer hid in fleecy clouds, God His secrets now lays bare. The Captain sent some of the people on board again, and marched inland with the rest to the sound of drums. He saw what he had sown already sprouting, the farms, houses, fruit orchards; and having walked for a league, he returned as it was getting late. When he came on board, he said that as these natives were at war with us, and there was not a chance on our side, we would leave the port next day to visit the lands to windward. The Admiral asked, in his name and those of the crew, that another day might be allowed for the people to catch fish. It happened that they fished in a certain place whence they brought to the ship a quantity of pargos, which are considered poisonous, like those in Havana and other ports. As many as ate them were attacked by nausea, vomiting, and feverish symptoms. [108] This unexpected and sudden evil caused much grief to all, and there were not wanting opinions, nor the conclusion of one who said, that to get much it will cost something, and that the sweet is mixed with the bitter. CHAPTER XXX. Gives some account of this bay, and of all that is contained in it, and in its port. This bay, to which the Captain gave the name of St. Philip and St. James, because it was discovered on their day, is 1,700 leagues from Lima, from Acapulco 1,300, from Manilla in the Philippines 1,100 leagues. Its entrance is to the N.W. in 15° S., and the port is in 15° 10' S. The bay has a circuit of 20 leagues, at the entrance 4 leagues across. The variation of the compass is 7° N.E. The land which forms the bay runs directly N. on the E. side, with sloping heights and peopled valleys well covered with trees. This side ends at the mouth of the bay with a height rising to a peak, and the coast runs E. and then S.E., but we could not see how it ends. The other land to the W. runs nearly N.W., and to the point is 11 leagues in length, consisting of a range of hills of moderate height, which the sun bathes when it rises, and where there are patches without trees, covered with dried-up grass. Here are ravines and streams, some falling from the heights to the skirts of the hills, where many palm groves and villages were seen. From the point on this side the coast turns to the W. The front of the bay, which is to the S., is 3 leagues long, and forms a beach. In the middle there is a river which was judged to be the size of the Guadalquivir at Seville. At its mouth the depth is 2 and more fathoms; so that boats and even frigates could enter. It received the name of the "Jordan." On its right is seen the Southern Cross in the heavens, which makes the spot noteworthy. To the eastward, at the corner of this bay, there is another moderate-sized river called "Salvador," into which the boats entered at their pleasure to get water. The waters of both rivers are sweet, pleasant, and fresh. The one is distant from the other a league and a half, consisting of a beach of black gravel, with small heavy stones, excellent for ballast for a ship. Between the said two rivers is the port. The bottom is clean, consisting of black sand, and here a great number of ships would have room up to 40 1/2 brazas. It is not known whether there are worms. As the beach is not bare nor driven up, and the herbs are green near the water, it was assumed that it was not beaten by the seas; and as the trees are straight and their branches unbroken, it was judged that there are no great storms. The port was named "Vera Cruz," because we anchored there on that day. In the whole bay we did not see a bank, rock, or reef; but it is so deep that there is no anchorage except at the above port. It is better to approach near the river Salvador, and there is another moderate port which is distant 2 leagues from this on the N. to S. coast. All the said beach is bordered by a dense mass of great trees, with paths leading from them to the shore. It seemed to serve as a wall, the better to carry on defensive or offensive operations against other natives coming to make war. All the rest is a level plain, with hills on either side. These on the W. side run southward, becoming more elevated and more massive as their distance increases. As for the plain, we have not seen where it ends. The earth is black, rich, and in large particles. It is cleared of wild trees to make room for fruit trees, crops, and gardens surrounded by railings. There are many houses scattered about; and wherever a view could be obtained, many fires and columns of smoke were discerned, witnesses of a large population. The natives generally seen here are corpulent, not quite black nor mulatto. Their hair is frizzled. They have good eyes. They cover their parts with certain cloths they weave. They are clean, fond of festivities and dancing to the sound of flute and drums made of a hollow piece of wood. They use shells also for musical instruments, and in their dances make great shouting at the advances, balances, and retreats. They were not known to use the herb. [109] Their arms are heavy wooden clubs, and bows of the same, arrows of reed with wooden points, hardened in the fire, darts with pieces of bone enclosed. Their interments are covered. We saw some enclosed with their oratories and figures, to which they make offerings. It is, to all appearance, a people courageous and sociable, but without care for the ills of their neighbours; for they saw some fighting with us without coming to help them. The houses are of wood, covered with palm leaves, with two sloping sides to the roof, and with a certain kind of outhouse, where they keep their food. All their things are kept very clean. They also have flower-pots with small trees of an unknown kind. The leaves are very soft, and of a yellow-reddish colour. The bread they use is mainly of roots, whose young shoots climb on poles, which are put near them for that purpose. The rind is grey, the pulp murrey colour, yellow, or reddish; some much larger than others. There are some a yard and a-half in thickness, also two kinds: one almost round, and the size of two fists, more or less. Their taste resembles the potatoes of Peru. The inside of the other root is white, its form and size that of a cob of maize when stripped. All three kinds have a pulp without fibres, loose, soft, and pleasant to the taste. These roots are bread made without trouble, there being nothing to do but to take them out of the earth, and eat them, roast or boiled. They are very good cooked in pots. Our people ate a great deal; and, being of a pleasant taste and satisfying, they left off the ship's biscuit for them. These roots last so long without getting bad, that on reaching Acapulco those that were left were quite good. Their meat consists of a great quantity of tame pigs, some reddish, others black, white, or speckled. We saw tusks 1 1/4 palmos in length, and a porker was killed weighing 200 lbs. The natives roast them on hearths, wrapped up in plantain leaves. It is a clean way, which gives the meat a good colour, and none of the substance is lost. There are many fowls like those of Europe. They use capons. There are many wild pigeons, doves, ducks, and birds like partridges, with very fine plumage. One was found in a lasso, with which the natives catch them. There are many swallows; we saw a macaw and flocks of paroquets; and we heard, when on board at early dawn, a sweet harmony from thousands of different birds, apparently buntings, blackbirds, nightingales, and others. The mornings and afternoons were enjoyable from the pleasant odours emitted from trees and many kinds of flowers, together with the sweet basil. A bee was also seen, and harvest flies were heard buzzing. The fish are skate, sole, pollack, red mullet, shad, eels, pargos, sardines, and others; for which natives fish with a three-pronged dart, with thread of a fibrous plant, with nets in a bow shape, and at night with a light. Our people fished with hooks and with nets, for the most part. In swampy parts of the beach shrimps and mussels were seen. Their fruits are large, and they have many cocoa-nuts, so that they were not understood to put much store by them. But from these palms they make wine, vinegar, honey, and whey to give to the sick. They eat the small palms raw and cooked. The cocoa-nuts, when green, serve as cardos [110] and for cream. Ripe, they are nourishment as food and drink by land and sea. When old, they yield oil for lighting, and a curative balsam. The shells are good for cups and bottles. The fibres furnish tow for caulking a ship; and to make cables, ropes, and ordinary string, the best for an arquebus. Of the leaves they make sails for their canoes, and fine mats, with which they cover their houses, built with trunks of the trees, which are straight and high. From the wood they get planks, also lances and other weapons, and many things for ordinary use, all very durable. From the grease they get the galagala, used instead of tar. In fine, it is a tree without necessity for cultivation, and bearing all the year round. There are three kinds of plantains: one, the best I have seen, pleasant to smell, tender and sweet. There are many "obos," which is a fruit nearly the size and taste of a peach, on whose leaves may be reared silk-worms, as is done in other parts. There is a great abundance of a fruit which grows on tall trees, with large serrated leaves. They are the size of ordinary melons, their shape nearly round, the skin delicate, the surface crossed into four parts, the pulp between yellow and white, with seven or eight pips. When ripe it is very sweet; when green, it is eaten boiled or roasted. It is much eaten, and is found wholesome. The natives use it as ordinary food. There are two kinds of almonds: one with as much kernel as four nuts lengthways, the other in the shape of a triangle. Its kernel is larger than three large ones of ours and of an excellent taste. There is a kind of nut, hard outside, and the inside in one piece without division, almost like a chestnut: the taste nearly the same as the nuts of Europe. Oranges grow without being planted. With some the rind is very thick, with others delicate. The natives do not eat them. Some of our people said there were lemons. There are many, and very large, sweet canes: red and green, very long, with jointed parts. Sugar might be made from them. Many and large trees, bearing a kind of nut, grew on the forest-covered slopes near the port. They brought these nuts on board as green as they were on the branches. Their leaves are not all green on one side, and on the other they turn to yellowish grey. Their length is a jeme, [111] more or less, and in the widest part three fingers. The nut contains two skins, between which grows what they call mace like a small net. Its colour is orange. The nut is rather large, and there are those who say that this is the best kind. The natives make no use of it, and our people used to eat it green, and put it into the pots, and used the mace for saffron. On the beach a fruit was found like a pineapple. Pedro was asked if it was eaten, and he replied that only the bark was eaten of the tree which yielded that fruit. There were other fruits, like figs, filberts, and albaricoques, which were eaten. Others were seen, but it was not known what fruits they were, nor what others grew in that land. To give a complete account of them and of other things, it is necessary to be a year in the country, and to travel over much ground. As regards vegetables, I only knew of amaranth, purslane, and calabashes. The natives make from a black clay some very well-worked pots, large and small, as well as pans and porringers in the shape of small boats. It was supposed that they made some beverage, because in the pots and in cavities were found certain sour fruits. It appeared to us that we saw there quarries of good marble; [112] I say good, because several things were seen that were made of it and of jasper. There were also seen ebony and large mother-o'-pearl shells; also some moderate-sized looms. In one house a heap of heavy black stones was seen, which afterwards proved to be metal from whence silver could be extracted, as will be seen further on. Two of our people said they had seen the footprints of a large animal. The climate appeared to be very healthy, both from the vigour and size of the natives, as because none of our men became ill all the time we were there, nor felt any discomfort, nor tired from work. They had not to keep from drinking while fasting, nor at unusual times, nor when sweating, nor from being wet with salt water or fresh, nor from eating whatever grew in the country, nor from being out in the evening under the moon, nor the sun, which was not very burning at noon, and at midnight we were glad of a blanket. The land is shown to be healthy, from the natives living in houses on terraces, and having so much wood, and because so many old people were seen. We heard few claps of thunder, and had little rain. As the rivers flowed with clear water, it was understood that the rains were over. It is to be noted that we had not seen cactus nor sandy wastes, nor were the trees thorny, while many of the wild trees yielded good fruit. It is also to be noted that we did not see snow on the mountains, nor were there any mosquitos or ants in the land, which are very harmful, both in houses and fields. There were no poisonous lizards either in the woods or the cultivated ground, nor alligators in the rivers. Fish and flesh keep good for salting during two or more days. The land is so pleasant, so covered with trees; there are so many kinds of birds, that, owing to this and other good signs, the climate may be considered to be clement, and that it preserves its natural order. Of what happens in the mountains we cannot speak until we have been there. As no very large canoes were seen, with so large a population, and such fine trees, but only some small ones, and the mountain ranges being so high to W. and E., and to the S., and the river Jordan being so large, with great trees torn up and brought down at its mouth, we came to the conclusion that the land must be extensive, and yielding abundantly; and that consequently the people were indolent, and have no need to seek other lands. I am able to say, with good reason, that a land more delightful, healthy and fertile; a site better supplied with quarries, timber, clay for tiles, bricks for founding a great city on the sea, with a port and a good river on a plain, with level lands near the hills, ridges, and ravines; nor better adapted to raise plants and all that Europe and the Indies produce, could not be found. No port could be found more agreeable, nor better supplied with all necessaries, without any drawbacks; nor with such advantages for dockyards in which to build ships, nor forests more abundant in suitable timber good for futtock timbers, houses, compass timbers, beams, planks, masts and yards. Nor is there any other land that could sustain so many strangers so pleasantly, if what has been written is well considered. Nor does any other land have what this land has close by, at hand, and in sight of its port; for quite near there are seven islands, with coasts extending for 200 leagues, apparently with the same advantages, and which have so many, and such good signs, that they may be sought for and found without shoals or other obstacles; while nearly half-way there are other known islands, with inhabitants and ports where anchorages may be found. I have never seen, anywhere where I have been, nor have heard of such advantages. I take the port of Acapulco as an example, being well known as such a principal city of Mexico. I say that if it is good as an anchorage, it is very bad owing to the frequency of fogs, and the want of a river and of ballast; also, from being unhealthy most of the year, and intolerable from the heat and the mosquitos, and other molesting insects for the rest; also for its inconvenient site near stony and dry hills, and because provisions have to come from a distance, and soon turn bad; and finally, because it is dear, and ships have a bad time from the S.E. If we look from the Strait of Magellan along its two coasts, on one side to Cape Mendocino, on the other to Newfoundland, being 7,000 or 8,000 leagues of coast, it will be found that, out of the ports that I have visited, that of San Juan de Ulloa does not merit the name of a port, nor its town to be inhabited by people; that Panama and Puerto Bello have little and bad accommodation; and that Payta, Callao, Havanna, Carthagena (the two latter being famous), La Guayra and Santa Martha, and many others, including those of Chile and Brazil, according to what I have been told, are wanting in many necessary things. Not one will be found which has all the advantages possessed by the port and land of which I treat. Being in 15°, more good things may be expected than from places in 20°, 30°, and 40°, if things turn out as they promise. I also say that if there is nothing better than what I have seen, it is sufficient for a principal place that may be settled. If we look round the coast of Spain, so good a port will not be found; while its soil only produces thorns, ilexes, and broom, or at best arbutus and myrtles, and other poor fruits; and he who grows them for profit has nothing for his pains. April and May failing, the fruits fail. [113] CHAPTER XXXI. Gives an account of the departure from this port, and of the return to it; also of what happened, at that time, with the natives by reason of the three boys. As it was arranged that the ships should leave the port, understanding that the sickness was not very bad, they made sail on the following day, the 28th of May. In the afternoon the sick were so helpless that the Captain ordered the Pilots to keep the ships within the mouth of the bay until the condition of the people was seen next day. They were all in such a state that the Captain gave orders for the ships to return to port, where, the wind being fair, they were easily anchored. Then steps were taken to confess and take care of the sick, and they all got well in a short time. On the day after we anchored a number of natives were seen on the beach, playing on their shells. To find out what it was about, the Captain ordered the Master of the Camp to go with a party of men in the two boats to learn what they wanted. When our people were near them, they vainly shot off their arrows to the sound of their instruments. From the boats four musket-shots were fired in the air, and they returned to the ships. Soon afterwards the Captain ordered them to return to the shore, taking the three boys, that the natives might see them, and be assured that no harm had been done to them, the fear of which was supposed to be the cause of all this disturbance. When they arrived, the boys called to their fathers, who, though they heard them, did not know their sons by the voices or by sight, because they were dressed in silk. The boats came nearer, that they might get a better view; and, when the boys were known, two natives waded into the water up to their breasts, showing by this, and by their joy during all the time the sweet discourse lasted, that they were the fathers of the boys. The natives were given to understand that the muskets were fired because they fired the arrows. To this they answered that it was not them, but others of a different tribe; and that, as they were friends, they should be given the three boys. They said they would bring fowls, pigs, and fruit, and present them. They were told, by pointing to the sun, that they were to return at noon. They went away, and the boats went back to the ships. At the time arranged the natives sounded two shells, and the boats went back with the three boys, whose fathers, when they saw and spoke to them, did not show less joy than at the first interview. They gave us a pig, and asked for the boys. They said they would bring many on the next day, which accordingly they did, sounding the shells. The boats again went to the shore, taking a he- and a she-goat, to leave there to breed; also taking the boys as a decoy to induce the natives to come, so as to take them to the ships, and let them return. They found two pigs on the beach; and, when they were delivered up, our people gave the goats in exchange, which the natives looked at cautiously, with much talking among themselves. The fathers begged for their sons; and, because we would not comply, they said they would bring more pigs, and that we were to come back for them when they gave the signal. In the afternoon the same signal was made, and the boats returned to the shore. But they only saw the goats tied up, and two natives near them, who said that they would go to seek for others, as they did not want the goats. Thinking that this looked bad, a careful observation was made, and many natives were seen among the trees with bows and arrows. Understanding that this was a plan for seizing some of our men, or for some other bad object, the muskets were fired off, and the natives hastily fled with loud shouts. Our men recovered the goats, and returned to the ships. Then the biggest boy, who was afterwards named Pablo, said to the Captain, not only once, but many times, with signs of great affliction, "Teatali"; which was supposed to mean that he wanted to go on shore. The Captain replied: "Silence, child! you know not what you ask. Greater good awaits you than the sight and the communion with heathen parents and friends." It is to be noted that a cross, which had been left on the banks of the river Salvador, was found raised in its place, and that the natives had put branches and flowers round it. There was not wanting one who said to the Captain that, as he had before him a land with so many rivers and ravines, he should make tests to ascertain whether they contained the metal called gold, so acceptable in the eyes of men. The Captain replied to this that he had only come to discover lands and people; and that, as God had been pleased to show him what he sought, it would be neither just nor reasonable to risk the whole for a part; that, if it could be done, understanding that this might have the colour of an excuse, he would have done it without the interference of another; and that it will be for the settlers who may come to these lands to undertake, with proper security, these and other cares. The man replied to this that the time was now full for such work; that if it was not known that there was gold and silver, there would not be the incentive to come and settle. To put an end to the argument, the Captain answered that the cause was that of God; and when the hour chosen by the Divine Majesty arrived, there would be given for this his estate, overseers, and workers, not only for gold, but for the saving of souls. CHAPTER XXXII. The causes which led the Captain to leave this port a second time; and how, in returning to it, the Capitana parted company with the other vessels; how a better view was obtained of the plains that were seen before entering the bay, and of that great and high range of mountains far away to the S.E., and how an island was discovered. The Captain, seeing that the natives of that bay continued to be hostile, owing to the bad treatment they had received, resolved to proceed to get a near view of that great and high chain of mountains, desiring by the sight of them to reanimate all his companions; because, if he should die, they would remain with the ardour to continue the work until it was finished. He considered that, failing his person, discord and danger would not be wanting, owing to the pretensions of those who wished to be chief; also that, of necessity, there should be agreement respecting the route that should be followed. There did not fail to be diverse opinions whether it should be to windward, leaving as a possibility what it was so much desired that we should see. It also seemed to many who had a look-out from the mast-head, that all those lands were joined one to the other. To the Captain it seemed that what was desired to be seen was of great importance, and that it would be well to keep that port to leeward. To give effect to this desire, he left the bay with the three vessels on Thursday, the 8th of June, in the afternoon, three days after the conjunction of the moon, there being a light wind from the E., which was the point from which the wind had blown most of the time we had been there. Outside it veered to S.E., and blew with some force. So that we were all that day working against it without being able to make any progress. For this cause the Pilots cried from one ship to another: "Where are we going?" The Captain had these and other reasons submitted to them, and resolved to return to the port, with the intention of wintering there, building a strong house, sowing the land, getting a better knowledge of the season, and building a brigantine to send, with the launch, to discover what was so much desired, it being clear to all that this was very necessary; because the place which seemed so important to the sight had as yet yielded but a bad account. All night we were beating on different tacks at the mouth of the bay. At dawn the Almiranta was 3 leagues to windward, and at three in the afternoon she and the launch were near the port. The Captain asked the reason why these vessels, which were not so good on a bowline as the Capitana, were so far ahead. He was told that they had met with more favourable winds. Presently it was said that there had been very little sail on the Capitana, and that she had made very short tacks, and that this was the reason, and it seems a good one, that she was so much behind. The force of the wind was increasing, and the night was near, owing to which the Pilot ordered that if they could not reach the port, they were to anchor wherever it was possible. The night came on very dark. The Almiranta and the launch appeared to have anchored. They saw the lanterns lighted, to give the Capitana leading marks, as she was also going to anchor. Soundings were taken, and they found 30 fathoms, not being an arquebus shot from the port. The wind came down in a gust over the land. Sails were taken in, and the ship was only under a fore course, falling off a little. The Chief Pilot, exaggerating very much the importance of being unable to find bottom, together with the darkness of the night, the strong wind, the numerous lights he saw without being able to judge with certainty which were those of the two ships, said to the Captain that he was unable to reach the port. The Captain commended his zeal and vigilance. There was one who said, and made it clearly to be understood, that more diligence might easily have been shown to anchor or to remain without leaving the bay; and that, with only the spritsail braced up, she might have run for shelter under the cape to windward. It was also said that they went to sleep. In the morning the Captain asked the Pilot what was the position of the ship. He replied that she was to leeward of the cape, and the Captain told him to make sail that she might not make leeway. The Pilot answered that the sea was too high and against them, and that the bows driving into the water would cause her timbers to open, though he would do his best. I say that this was a great misfortune, owing to the Captain being disabled by illness on this and other occasions when the Pilots wasted time, obliging him to believe what they said, to take what they gave, measured out as they pleased. Finally, during this and the two following days, attempts were made to enter the bay. The other vessels did not come out; the wind did not go down; while, owing to the force of the wind the ship, having little sail on, and her head E.N.E., lost ground to such an extent that we found ourselves 20 leagues to leeward of the port, all looking at those high mountains with sorrow at not being able to get near them. The island of "Virgen Maria" was so hidden by mist that we could never get a sight of it. We saw the other island of "Belen," [114] and passed near another, 7 leagues long. It consists of a very high hill, almost like the first. It received the name of "Pilar de Zaragoza." [115] Many growing crops, palms, and other trees, and columns of smoke were seen on it. It was about 30 leagues to the N.W. of the bay; but no soundings and no port. We diligently sought its shelter, but were obliged to give it up owing to the wind and current; and on the next day we found ourselves at sea, out of sight of land. CHAPTER XXXIII. Gives the sorrowful discourses made by the Captain and others, to mitigate the grief they felt at having lost the port, and to settle what must be done with the consent of all. Here it was represented to the Captain that if in Lima they had given him his despatch on the day of St. Francis, so ordered that he should go on with his plan, which was to steer for the thirtieth degree towards the south, for this forty days or less seemed sufficient. If by that route the sought-for land was found, it would be the best time of the year for exploring its coasts and islands. If land was not found on that parallel, there was still a month and a-half before the sun took its turn, for them to navigate towards the W., or with tacks to S.W. and N.W., to cross those seas until it was made clear that the supposed lands do not exist; and he might make many other researches, according to the position in which he found himself. In short, I say that from the day of St. Francis to the end of May there are eight months less those four days, and that to go from Lima by the usual route to Manilla two months and a-half, or at most three months, are sufficient. The other five months give plenty of time to discover and see very extensive lands and many ports, or to go in May to Manilla, which is before the S.W. winds begin, and in October or November, which is the beginning of the N. winds; and by these breezes to leave that city and go outside the two Javas to the S.S.W. in search of lands, passing the Cape of Good Hope in January, February, or March, the best months in the year for that, so as to reach Spain in July, August, or September, which is the summer. To make such a grand voyage as this twenty months are enough, or at the outside two years, and this truth will be confessed by all who know how to navigate; and also how great will be the regrets of him who knows that this time he is unable to get from such labours those fruits for others which he so truthfully expected. With his great loads of sorrow the Captain said in public that all of us should be witnesses, because if he should die, it should remain in the memory of the people that these two months and a-half of summer that he was delayed at Callao had robbed him of the power of following up so great an enterprise as was the present, while only half an hour of time took it from his hands. He considered the strong contrary winds, the very threatening weather, the fact that their present position was unknown, that the ship must need repairs, the necessity for going to a place where she could be either got into harbour or careened on a coast, and that all was ended there. He had very prominently in his mind that at the first difficulty or danger there would be a want of resolution or of management, or of the desire to apply a remedy; for which reason it might with truth be said that he was without pilots on whom he could rely, and that from some other persons there was little to be expected or hoped. Then there were his own infirmities; so that altogether the case was one of evident danger. Putting on one side the ordinances of God, His high and secret decrees, and how limited was his understanding to enable him to decide whether what happened was or was not in conformity with them, the sorrowful Captain said discretion was of little use to arrange things, nor the mind to undertake business, though it be easy, if there be any one who has the will and power to take away all his just value or great part of it. Sovereigns, he said, when they undertake great enterprises, ought to distinguish, make clear, and strengthen their orders in such a way that the persons to whom their execution is entrusted can have no room for doubt, nor to contend, nor any one who can make excuses; and not pledge men so that they find themselves in positions so confused and difficult as had the Captain. For he could not tell what advice was mature nor what was inexperienced, nor the choice he should make, nor the resolution he should take which, if followed, might lead at least to part of the remedy for the evils which were menaced in so important a matter. He arranged to go, as we were then steering to N.E. and N. as far as 10° 30' S., the latitude of the island of Santa Cruz, which being settled, the Captain made the following discourses. In the first place the S.E. wind had the same force, and if with such threatening weather he steered to the W. in search of the island of Santa Cruz, it might remain at the E., and, without the danger in which he would have to put the vessel, he would place himself still more distant from help if he did not make the landfall. Secondly, he knew, for he had already made the voyage to the Philippines, there was the beginning of those furious westerlies which last at least until the first days of October, for which cause it was impossible to go there at that season. Thirdly, to undertake the voyage to Acapulco; the distance was very long, and it would be necessary to cross the equator without knowing which time would be the best; while there was very little water left and no meat: for the Chief Pilot had buried the casks among the ballast where the bilge-water sucked in, and for that reason it had all turned bad. He felt that he had many sick, and no medical man, nor the necessary comforts to nourish them. He knew that in the ship he had some few friends and all the rest enemies; and those he had to help him and take part of his duties were those who were soonest tired, and were least able to manage things, or to treat of more than the security of their own persons, while they disliked work. He did not certainly know what had happened to the other two vessels; so that he reflected that only the ship in which he was, was available to bring the news of the discoveries and how much they imported, and that the same news should be given by those who remained. He made other very sorrowful discourses, and the following, which were more consolatory. The first was that many exploring ships and fleets, full of men and riches, have been lost in known seas, without, in many cases, having secured their objects, either in whole or part. The second, that he had completed the discovery of such good peoples and lands without knowing where they ended, with such a large bay and good port within it, and had taken possession in the name of His Majesty, without the loss of a single man; and that all this was a beginning, with very great foundations, for the settling and completing the discovery of all that those lands contain; and that so arduous an undertaking could not be finished in one voyage, nor in three, even with very efficient help, and with men who would work with the same love for the cause as the Captain felt. The third, that as God had been served to guide them to those parts, and to give them time for all that had been done, it was very just that he should be consoled and in conformity with the will of the Lord of times and seasons. He could understand that if another voyage should be desired, that also it could be made, although it should be more in the winter, and though men should contradict or favour, and other thousands of opponents should bar the way. It would be well to agree to what had happened, for causes which, at present, are not comprehended. The fourth is that, in the other two vessels, there remained the instructions that had been given, and it was understood that, if they were safe, they would do all in their power to discover more lands, and bring from them such news as might be hoped from God, and the Admiral, and his Pilot, Juan Bernardo de Fuentidueña, a person from whom great things might be hoped; and also from the Captain of the ship, Gaspar de Gaya, and from three very respectable monks; in fine, from all the people connected with that ship, as likely to be useful. Finally, he said that the present time ought to be cared for to ensure the time to come, and that he who rules must entrust to some man all or part of the business, present or absent, great or small; and if those who are so trusted deceive those who put confidence in them, where can there be a remedy except in heaven. The Captain saw that it was indispensable to decide at once what ought to be done; and, therefore, he called a meeting of all the officers and other persons in the ship, telling them that they must carefully consider all the reasons he would put before them, the present state of affairs, and what should be done. There were some who, through the mouth of one as ignorant as themselves, said that they should go to the Philippines. To this, others replied that as they had money they wanted to go and get employment in the porcelain and silks of China, where the work should pay them, or at least the Royal Treasury. In the end all were of opinion that they should make for the port of Acapulco, and they signed their names to this resolution on the 18th of June. The Captain at once ordered the Pilots to shape a course N.E. by N., if the weather would allow it, and if in the southern part where we were any islands should be found, we were to anchor there to build a launch and come to a new resolution, in order that God and His Majesty might be better served. In case no such island could be found, we were to continue on the same course until the ship was in 13° 30' N. latitude, the parallel of the island of Guan in the Ladrones, on the route of ships going from Acapulco to the Philippines. There, with reference to the feelings of the crew, the weather, the condition of the ship, and the provisions, another final agreement was to be made, and a resolution taken with reference to the route to be adopted for reaching a friendly port. CHAPTER XXXIV. Relates how a quantity of water was collected from two great showers of rain; how the ship crossed the equator; how an island was discovered; how the last agreement was made at a meeting; and of the courses and latitudes as far as a certain point. With the wind S.E., which had now broken its fury, they continued to navigate until the eve of St. John the Baptist. On that day God was served by giving us a great shower of rain. With twenty-eight sheets stretched all over the ship, we collected, from this and another rainfall, three hundred jars of water: a relief for our necessities, and a great consolation for all the people. With a few changes of wind and some calms, heading to the N., we reached the line on the 2nd of July. That night the needle was marked, and it was found that the variation was to the N.E. by E., a notable thing, for in the bay it was 7° almost on the same meridian, and the distance so short. With the wind S. and S.W. we continued to navigate until the 8th of July. On that day we saw an island, about 6 leagues in circumference. As until now we had not met with any island or rock whatever to impede our road, we gave it the name of "Buen Viaje." Its latitude is 3° 30' N. It was decided not to approach it nearer, as it was not convenient, and for fear of rocks. In this part, in a higher latitude, we had some rain, especially one shower, which filled all the jars that were empty, and it was drunk without doing the least harm, nor did it ever get bad. In short, after God, the rain showers saved our lives. On the 23rd of July the Captain ordered the Pilots to state the latitude they were in, and the distance in leagues from the Philippines and from the coast of New Spain, according to their calculations; also, they were to declare definitely in which direction the ship's head was to be turned. They gave 3° 10' N. as the latitude, 780 leagues east of Manilla, and 780 leagues S.W. of the coast of New Spain, adding that the ship could not go to Manilla owing to contrary winds [116] at that time; and it was, therefore, their opinion that the course should be steered for the coast of New Spain and the port of Acapulco. It appeared to the Captain that the best service he could do to His Majesty at present was to save the ship, save time, save the expenses caused if they went to Manilla, and the cost of the ship with all hands during a whole year; and being so far to windward of the meridian of Japan, there was no wind that could impede their reaching a higher latitude or to reach the coast. He also considered that the ship was well supplied with water and biscuit, and all the crew healthy, and that there were two natives of those parts on board to give information; that if he should die at sea there would be others to navigate the ship, so that His Majesty would be informed of all that had been discovered and promised, and that he was bound to choose the least of two evils; he ordered the Pilots to shape a course for New Spain and the port of Acapulco, and to give an account of the route they followed, and the latitude each day. He said to them that he who suffered most and should be most useful, would be most worthy of reward. Considering the state of affairs owing to the delayed despatch at the Court of Spain and in Callao, I say that, for its grandeur and importance, and the facility with which the Captain is able to demonstrate all his thoughts and wishes by his works, so many times made known, it has been the greatest of the injuries done to a man who has bought it by such continual labour and misery, and other very high costs, wandering and finding in so long a journey very great difficulties. For all these, and a thousand other reasons, the Captain did not know whether to throw the blame on ignorance or malice, and ended by attributing it to his many great sins. He, therefore, confessed that he was not worthy to see the end of a work in which those who lived righteously would be well employed, having all the qualifications that so sacred an enterprise requires. CHAPTER XXXV. Relates how a great shoal of albacore fish accompanied the ship for many days; the fishing of them; and the rest that happened until they sighted the land of New Spain. With the winds between E. and N.N.E. we navigated until the 26th of July, when we were in 18° N. On this day we had the sun at the zenith, and crossed the tropic of Cancer on the 1st of August. Up to this position we had seen gulls and other birds almost every day. On the 5th we had the wind aft and ran before it, with an E. course, for nearly three days, then more northerly as far as 25° N. This day, which was that of St. Lawrence, they collected from a shower of rain fifty jars full of water. Certain albacore and bonito, in a large shoal, had hitherto followed the ship, and every day the men fished with nets, fizgigs, and harpoons, catching ten, twenty, thirty, even fifty, some of them weighing 3, 4, and 5 arrobas. We ate them fresh, and salted them down, filling many jars. About 2,500 arrobas [117] of fish supplied the place of meat, and lasted until we reached the port of Acapulco, with some over. The voyage was prolonged owing to scarcity of wind and calms, and it was necessary to go as far N. as 38°; and we kept working to the E. with wind S.S.E., not always steady. On the 1st of September, at three o'clock in the afternoon, there was a great trembling of the sea and of the ship--a notable thing, and new to me. Then, with wind S. and S.W., we navigated until the 26th of September. On that day, at three o'clock in the morning, there was a great eclipse of the moon, which lasted three hours. The variation of the needle was here very slight. The pilots were making for land, and all the people were tired of the long voyage, with the allowance of water reduced to a quartilla, and other hardships, caused by so many months at sea. They were most anxious to see land, or signs of it, when a great weed was seen on the sea, called "porra." In that season the wind is S.E., and the course E.N.E. The wind changed to N.E., and it has been necessary to go further N.; but the Captain, knowing by that weed, and many others of the same kind, that the land was near, ordered an E.S.E. course to be steered. So they proceeded, meeting with signs that consoled them: such as the sight of seals, leaves of trees, and birds of the sea-shore sitting on a tree-trunk. Much care was exercised with regard to the look-outs. At night there were two men on the bowsprit, and in the daytime one at each masthead. At last, on September 23rd, early in the morning, one Silvestre Marselles reported with great joy: "I see land ahead. It is high, bare, and dry." Many went aloft to see, and confirmed the news. The Pilots took the sun at noon, and found the latitude 34° N. Presently, the Captain told four men to look out carefully, to see if it was islands. All said it was mainland, but they were wrong: for on the first night, with a very clear sky, we found ourselves between two islands, the sight of which disgusted everybody, and caused the Captain much sorrow. For, during that day and night much care was required, and even more from not knowing who to trust, each day bringing its trials. As a remedy, he stationed an overseer on the poop, but very soon he went with all the rest, who had their own methods. In fine, it was God's pleasure that the channel should be clear. We sailed out of it; and, coasting along the main-land, we passed the island of "Cerros," with the loss of some days from calms and light winds. Will of the Captain. "I desire much that in these regions which it has been the will of God to show me, and in all those still hidden but, no doubt, as well peopled as those I saw, there be designed and fabricated some nests without brambles, nor other kinds of thorns, refuges and pleasant abiding-places of pelicans, who first tear their flesh, open their bosoms, and clearly show entrails and heart; and, not content with that, they should give to these people dishes cooked in many ways in the braziers of enlightened charity being the pots and pans of piety and pity, and the table-service of all equity; and that for drink there should be the sweat of their brows, if they prefer not giving the blood of their veins; all this with pure and clear love, always without ever a step backwards. "I should not wish, in no way whatever, that among these new and tender people there should come to settle and to live, or to enter into grand palaces for their nests, any falcons, or sakers, or other birds of prey, which, circling and dissimulating, spring suddenly on their prey and grasp them with their cruel talons, and with their fierce and sharp beaks tear them into two thousand pieces, without ever being gorged, or picking the bones when there is no flesh left on them. To give a relish to dishes of such impious wickedness, there is offered certain salts; and they give for fruit certain honeyed excuses void of all the law of reason and unworthy of all good memory, but very worthy of due punishment. An example of this is in the Indies with their islands. Ask all the natives respecting all that affects life, liberty, honour, and estate (I leave the spiritual out of account), what there is to say as compared with their state in those former times, and they will say how things go now: and how they hope they will go, though not by a post which goes in haste. "But I answer for them, and say in this wise, that the force, injuries, injustices, and great evils that have been done, and are done, are incredible, the methods infernal, the number not to be counted: and that never have I seen their masters, nor others who enjoy great part of the toil of the people, to lament the evil things they have done and do, that they alone may take their ease in all comfort. If perchance I have heard one grumble, cry, or quarrel, it is for me a pretence, and nothing more. For they have not pardoned, nor pardon, nor intend to pardon, for the least thing they want, much less excuse any payment of money. It is money, I say, that they want, and more money, though it be torn from men's entrails. This I have seen, and how much the loss comes in, so much the more money they want; and they do not return that which they have taken by force, but rather seek anew and with increased eagerness, dyed in unknown, dark, and strange colours. I say they require from them always more, and never less, though it should be in the deprivation of the glory and eternity of their hell and that of their victims. "They see this with eyes of the body and soul, those gentlemen who have to be the judges in so pious a cause as is represented here; for with theirs I discharge my conscience, announcing in all I have written and shown with much facility that, if it is desired to mitigate such diabolical avarice, it will be shown that there is plenty for all; and that in this and other gentle and reasonable means there will not be so many fishermen, huntsmen, owners, with such correspondence as I have seen and well noted. They will do works so honourable and beautiful as will make all others of the same kind look ugly. And more also: for God and His Majesty will be served in all those regions, and the natives will be made to prosper, as is just and right, under heavy penalties, to be attempted and seen to in the great and the small affairs; and this will be my reward." The reasons the Captain gave for Punishing Certain Men, and those he gave for not doing so. There were in the ship some persons who always desired all the good things of the voyage, which they obtained at the cost of much care and vigilance, but who were annoyed to have been seen, and to be seen by others, to have little will for the work, and to make a bad return for the affectionate treatment and the benefits they had received from the Captain. Others spoke to him many times, wishing to incite him to punish them, or to give them permission to stab such people. To this the Captain replied that he had duties to all, and that it was for him, for just causes, to dissimulate and to suffer. And he did suffer; and those who were his friends suffered with him, and they would bear witness that during the expedition he was determined never to take life or reputation; and if he had done so, he would have been discontented and unquiet for all the rest of his life. For the rest, who could seek to have dead men present with him, or dishonoured men? They said that these men did not recognise good works, nor do they merit untiring courtesies; nor could it be suffered that these men should go about with the full intention, as soon as they put their feet on shore, to speak evil of his person and services, and to ruin the cause he loved so well, without regard for what is true or reasonable and just, and merely with the object of avenging themselves. The Captain said to this that it would be great cowardice to fear for the truth on account of lies; and that, if he should take account of ten or twelve worthless men, it would be here that it should be shown. He well knew, he said, the bad recompense of men, and that he never hoped for good report, so that he was not deceived; nor did he wish to waste a single moment on such nonsense, having need for time for more important matters. They said that God punishes those who deserve it. The Captain answered that God pardons, has long suffering and waits, and that when He determines to punish, He cannot deceive nor be deceived. He himself had understood the naturally evil dispositions of some, and the unstable and changeable characters of others. He feared from many the vengeance desired by their passions, which being blind, can deceive as much as he can be deceived by his enemies. To pardon ingrates and enemies without having cause to do so--to do them good by force, if they wish to know--was a very great vengeance; and greater courage was shown by having power and not using it, and still greater to defend them, being enemies, and to overcome them when he addressed his discourses to them. He had come out of this first attempt without blood having been on his knife, although he had bought this result very dear, and it would cost him more hereafter. He considered himself well employed in securing that this expedition should have fame equal to that of other passed expeditions; and that over the bones of so many martyrs there should rise such a good work, with good repute in the world, which was that for which he took most heed. They said that piety was very good, and also that it was reasonable to punish the bad. The Captain replied to this that the Emperor Theodosius said, on a certain occasion, that he would like to have the power to give life to all who are dead. Charles V suffered, and pardoned very many; deemed it right to give punishment measured out by his will; and the same was done by George Castriot and many valorous and prudent Captains--mirrors in which he was looking night and day, with the desire to imitate them. Piety is worthy of praise, and is the more celebrated when it is most observed. If to pardon the faults of men, as he was, hoping for their amendment, was not caused by natural piety, it would have been less so to treat, so much at his cost, a work altogether pious. For his part, piety was so applauded and practised in the greater; but this did not appear a reason to deny it in lesser, nor that suffering should come to an end for all. Being about to die, and at a time when he was seeking a port in which to bring the voyage to an end, all the ill-will that had appeared and the concealed spite might also end; and the more to humiliate them, though they might be rebels, he would protect them; saying that he had experienced this time, for the undeceiving of others, that there were men with hearts so hard that kindness would not soften them, and that they would give evil for good. When it should be so, he would say what he wished and do what he could; that his voice had been as little heard as the little justice done him, and the low opinion of him. It is certain that the vulgar will have to judge this business with very different feelings from what he intended; and that when he should give sentence it was more desirable that it should be pious than cruel--rather reputable than severe. He said, finally, that justice was an excellent virtue, and very necessary in the world; but yet let it be exercised by others who have the habit, rather than by him among those who use little reason, the witnesses being enemies, to investigate the truth without more or less help. A Notable Event. There was a sailor in our company, of Aragonese nationality: a well-disposed and soldierly youth, so well endowed with parts and graces, that for them his person deserved and was highly esteemed by all on board. Being in 24° N., and two leagues from the shore, this lad was called and searched for in all parts of the ship and in the parts aloft, without an answer and without being found, being wanted to take the helm in the morning watch. It was reported to the Captain, who ordered the ship to be put about and further search to be made. All parts of the sea were examined, his name was cried out, signals were made with fire, all the rest of the night and part of the following day being devoted to the search, without getting a sight of him, nor any mark to guide us. In this confusion and in great sorrow we continued on our course. The Captain was anxious to clear up the mystery, and made enquiries. He found that, on certain days, the lad had filled two pitchers with seeds, beads, bells, twine, nets, knives, and a hatchet; that he had closed their mouths with wax of Nicaragua, that he had put wine and a small box of conserves into a moderate-sized jar, and had taken his sword. On that same morning he had been very attentive, listening to the life of St. Anthony the hermit being read to him, and praising it much. He turned down the page and kept the book. All the afternoon he was at the masthead looking out, and taking bearings of the land with a compass he possessed. On the night that he disappeared it was noticed that he was very watchful. It was conjectured that with a board, and some battens and cord he had in his berth, he had made a raft, and that he went away on it, taking with him all the things that have been mentioned, for none of them were to be found. It was also said that he had a strong wish to remain with the natives of the discovered land, and that he had asked one man to stay with him; but as our departure had been sudden, he had no opportunity of carrying out his intention. He had, therefore, determined to leave us here, to teach the heathens or to live in solitude. His chest was opened, and there was found his clothes, his money, and a memorandum of all that did not belong to him and had been given to him to take care of, desiring that it should be returned to the owners. This was the act of a man whom we held to be rational and a good Christian, and when I think of his strange resolution it causes me sorrow, much more that he should have launched himself on such a raft, with great risk that he would never put his feet on land. Even if he did, he might not find the requisites to sustain him. If he tried to go inland, or to the banks of some river, or along the shore, who was to carry the two pitchers for him, with the things he had with him, and the other necessaries to maintain life? If eventually he met with natives, they might be those who would receive him and treat him well, or they might be those who eat human flesh. Then, to think of the solitude, of his nakedness, and of the inclemency of the weather. If he finds that the land does not suit him, from not offering the means of carrying out his intention, or from having repented of what he had done, how far he will be from any remedy, and how near to danger and evil! There are other things well worthy of consideration; above all, his being cut off from the divine offices and the sacraments. As I know not his motives, I will not venture to be his judge in this matter; only desiring that the Lord may have been served by guiding his destiny in such a way that he may have been saved, and many others with him. A Great Storm. We continued on our course, the men ready with their arms, and look-out men at the mast-heads, because we were approaching a cape called San Lucas, where the Englishman, Thomas Cavendish, robbed the ship Santa Ana. We soon passed it and in peace, and on Wednesday the 11th of October, the sky was serene, the sea smooth, without conjunction or opposition of the moon. But, in the mouth of the Gulf of California, towards dawn, a wind sprung up from the N.E., with very thick weather. At nine o'clock the wind shifted to N., and increased so that we were obliged to batten down the hatchways, and run before it only under the foresail, which was soon blown to ribbons, and the ship broached to, breaking the rudder pintels. The rudder being thus left free, gave such violent blows on either side that the least harm to be feared was that it would be smashed into splinters and leave the ship ungovernable. Presently the sailors, understanding what that signified, helped each other and rigged tackles, with which the rudder came under control. In bending another foresail the man who was at the yard-arm was twice covered with water, and was under water for long spaces of time. Presently we tried to make sail and run before it; but the wind increased to such an extent that the violent seas threw up spray which seemed like showers of rain, and the drops made the eyes smart. The waves filled the boat with water, and it was quickly washed into the sea. It was scarcely gone when three seas broke over the ship, with such force that they left her with the waist half full of water. With this weight and the violence of the wind the ship could not rise to it. Seeing this, the Moorish drummer said: "Here we have nothing more to hope for." Presently he tossed himself into the sea, and such was his luck that another wave brought him on board again. That he might not commit such an act of folly again, he was taken into custody. The scuppers, where the water flows out of a ship, were small and few. With water up to their waists, the men succeeded with bars and levers in tearing away some of the planks, so as to allow the water to escape. Here was seen those who helped without intelligence, and others who ought to have helped but did not. Some were to be seen at the pumps, others trying to lighten the ship, and many hoarse with crying: "Cut away the main mast; it is that which is taking us to the bottom." Some said Yes, others said No; but, in an instant, with knives and hatchets, they were cutting away the weather rigging. The Captain called to the Pilots to look out. They remained deaf. He sent to tell them all to wait another hour. Many, seeing that the remedy was delayed and the knife was only threatened, the diligence they used was for what was important for their souls. Some confessed, others sought pardon and pardoned, embraced and took leave of each other. Some groaned and others wept, and many went into corners awaiting death. The Captain, in great haste, ordered the two natives to be brought to the bed where he was lying, and the Franciscan Father to ask them whether they wished to be Christians. Both replied in the affirmative very fervently, and, when they had recited the creed, he baptized them, calling them Pedro and Pablo. The Captain was their godfather, and embraced them with his eyes full of tears. Seeing that they were frightened, he consoled them, saying: "To God be the thanks that I owe and ought to give, oh eternal Father! for such signal mercies. For you have been served that I should go through such labours, without meriting this small fruit: small as compared with my desires, but really great, for they are two souls newly baptized and brought into the bosom of our Catholic Church." Pedro and Pablo were very devout and constant in prayers, with their hands joined, and when the ship appeared to be sinking they cried: "Jesus! Mary!" making the sign of the cross towards the sea. It was enough to see and hear them, to melt the hardest hearts. The ship ran on, and hope arose. There was one who said: "Fear nothing; for such a work is done that God will add what is needed to save the ship and crew." It was three in the afternoon. The wind and sea did not work nor seem to fight with our poor ship, which was so much over on one side, when a great sea arose, followed by two frightful claps of thunder, and by such a fierce gust of wind that there seemed to be nothing left for the ship but to turn over on her keel. Then the semblances of the dead were seen, the most courageous ordering they knew not what, and the Pilots dumb. Sighs, vows, promises, and colloquies with God could be heard, and one who said: "O Lord! for what have I served in all that has been done and seen if this ship is to go the bottom?" and he passed on with great demonstrations of faith. In short, all were crying out, seeking help from God, who was served that the fury of the wind passed from N.E. to W., and it began to go down. The ship, raising her neck and shaking her sides, quickly righted, and before night we made sail and shaped an E.S.E. course, making for Cape Corrientes. Death of the Father Commissary. Now we proceeded under all sail with the wind astern and the people happy, recounting the events of the recent battle with the elements that it was well to note; some to arouse laughter, others with amazement at having been witnesses of such a violent storm, the rigour of which would have been greater and the damage worse if it had continued through the night. Some praised the ship, its handiness and strength; others the courage and nerve, and the prompt diligence, and all the most high Lord for His mercies. Others there were who said that the tempest and its furies were necessary to humiliate the proud, to make the ungrateful grateful, and that might come to an end all the enmities caused from want of love. For with such love can be suffered, with manly fortitude, what had passed and a little more. Such events more quickly give than offer; how much more where there was not one who had a bad taste except this, which it was more difficult to suffer, one to another for so long a time, in one ship always seeing the same faces. I say no wonder, if fathers tire of their sons, brothers and friends quarrel, and a husband sometimes comes to abhor his dear wife. Our Father Commissary, who had been ill for some time (I think from want of proper nourishment, and owing to his great age), was attacked with paroxysms and agonies in the middle of the following night, and God was served in taking his life. Having worn his habit for forty years, and being nearly eighty years old; also having died in a just cause, having gained the jubilee conceded to the expedition, we may well hope that he enjoys the presence of God. For the rest of the night his body was lighted with four wax candles. When the day came, the Father, his companion, with the crew of the ship, prayed to God for his soul, and with much feeling he was buried in the sea in sight of the islands called "Las Tres Marias." [118] The native named Pablo was very attentive, looking on at what was taking place. As he saw that the body, owing to the weight attached to its feet, went down, while, at the time of his baptism, they told him that when Christians die they go to heaven, he asked how it was that the Father, being a Christian, went to the bottom of the sea. As best we could, he was given to understand that only the soul went to heaven. As he knew little about that, he remained doubtful; and all were full of admiration at seeing a boy of eight years old ask such a question, who, only the other day, was a brutish gentile. CHAPTER XXXVI. What else happened until the ship anchored in the port of Navidad. We were in sight of land, and sailed along the coast, making the short hours long, for the longing we felt to see the ship anchored in the port of Zalagua for which we were making. Being almost there, it fell calm. We struggled against it, but could never enter. It was very unlucky, for the want of one hour's wind robbed us of the great satisfaction of reaching port after all the want of rest during our past labours. There was much discourse touching the necessity in which we were placed, and meanwhile there was such a strong current that, in a short time it nearly made us lose the 4 leagues there are between the port of Zalagua and that of Navidad. Although it was a bad coast, it was agreed to send two men on shore to seek for people and help. But, as one of the barrels, on which they were, was carried away by the current, the Captain ordered the men to come on board again lest they should be drowned. If the ship passed the port of Navidad, for which both wind and current were favourable, there was no other known port near where we could be refreshed. Seeing the disgust and disquiet of the crew that the ship rolled, and that there were only forty jars of water left on board, for all this, and so as to run no further risks, it was resolved to make for the port of Navidad. The Captain explained to the Chief Pilot the causes which moved him to do so, the chief of which was the desire to send the news to Mexico, that the Viceroy might send it to His Majesty, touching all that happened, being that for which he had most care, finding himself so near to death. The Pilot showed himself to be lukewarm about it; in consequence of which the Captain issued an order to go at once to that port, on pain of grave penalties, because so it was ordered. So the night closed in. The most expert of the sailors was stationed on the bowsprit to give notice of the steering when she entered. Helped much by the light wind, and much more by the current, we proceeded, though slowly, and entered near a great rock, with a reef to leeward. The night being dark, there was temerity in entering. Some anxiety was caused at seeing the ship near the rocks, and some men stripped ready to swim. There were these alarms, but good government in the ship, which went further in. Then it fell a dead calm, and we anchored in an insecure place, so as not to be carried out by the tide. Soon a fresh S.E. breeze sprang up. The anchor was raised in a great hurry, sail was made, and we were able to anchor further in. At last, having passed the night in these brief voyages, the day came, and we entered the port, anchoring in 12 fathoms in front of a beach exposed to several winds. The ship was, therefore, secured with four cables on the 21st of October, 1606. CHAPTER XXXVII. Relates what happened in this port of Navidad until we left it. The ship was anchored; but, as we had no boat, we made a raft of two barrels and a yard. The Captain ordered four men, with the necessary provision of biscuits and arquebuses, to go on shore and look for some settlements, of which he had notice. The raft was taken on shore by the force of the waves. Three sailors who were on it found a new boat in a certain place, and two jars in a straw hut. They also found a river, from which they filled the jars. From this supply, and the twenty-seven jars that remained full on board, the crew were allowed to drink freely and quench their great thirst. They then waited hopefully for a good report from their four companions. A day and night passed, and on the next morning the four sailors came back, who had been wandering all night among dense and thick trees, along rivers and swamps, without having found a sign of any settlement. The crew were very sad at this news; but presently two courageous sailors came forward--one from Ayamonte, the other from Galicia--and said to the Captain that, if he would give them leave, they would go on shore and search for villages or people where God might guide them. That day they finished building a small boat on board. Some tents and booths were set up on shore. The Captain landed with the standard and banner, and with half the men armed; and he ordered that three pieces should be fired from the ship at sunrise, and sunset, and at noon: for by chance the report might be heard by cowherds or other people. Soon they began to try to catch birds, rabbits, and to fish; thinking that, when provisions failed, they could in this way supply present necessities. Things being in this state, one afternoon two mounted men were seen to ride on to the beach in great haste, and dismount. Our people received them with incredible joy, and gave them many cordial embraces. One was an Indian farmer, a sharp fellow; the other one, Jeronimo Jurado de San Lucar de Barrameda, who said that when he heard the report of the guns he concluded that there must be a ship in need, for which cause he had come; and there he was to do what he could that they might be relieved. The Captain, seeing his good will, embraced him a second time, and contented both by giving them things from the ship. He asked Don Jeronimo to return with the Sergeant-Major, who would go to Mexico with the letter for the Viceroy, and with two other persons, who would take money to buy provisions. Next day they sent fowls, eggs, chickens, a calf and an ox, which sufficed, and more. The two good sailors arrived the same day, with natives, horses, and succour of all kinds. It seemed to the crew that, coming second, their work was not so much esteemed. But the Captain embraced them, and said how much he valued their honourable resolves, and how pleased he was, as all ought to be, with the trouble they had taken. The news of our being in the port, and of the good treatment we extended to all who came to it, soon spread. Many natives, who were concealed in the woods, by reason of those aggregations of one village with others, came to bring us fruits, maize, and other things, for which double their value was paid. In order that they might continue to help, the Captain gave them biscuits, salt, wine, and other things, and dressed three or four in silk. The Chief Admiral of Colima, Don Juan de Ribera, at the request of the Captain, and on payment, sent a quantity of biscuits and fowls. So, in the twenty-seven days that we were there, we were gaining new strength, and recovering from a certain disease in the gums, which on these coasts usually attacks those who come from Manilla. Satan did not neglect to sow bad and mischievous seeds in this port, such as he had sown up to this time; and, what was worse, he found soil disposed to receive, to blossom, and to yield fruit, which was all he wanted. As soon as our Father saw natives, he wanted that they should find him horses, to go to Mexico. The Captain knew this, and asked him many times to consider the little space of time that was needed for reaching Acapulco, and that nothing would be more noteworthy than to complete the voyage. To this the priest replied, that he knew what suited him best; that he did not want in that short space to die and be thrown into the sea, like the Father Commissary, but to go direct to his cell, and there live and die surrounded by his brethren. The Captain answered that it would certainly look very bad to leave the ship without a priest to attend to such spiritual needs as might arise. After the loss of the other priest, his companion, he was our curate; that he should not leave us without any one, but use charity, for which God would give him as much life as He gave health. To this he replied: "Let what may appear, appear: for I owe more to myself, and charity must begin at home." Other replies there were, which need not be repeated; and, with regard to what has been told, and what silence has been kept about it, the Captain said: "My Father, at the end of so long a voyage, let us be blind to our passions--we who have another voyage to make." On this, the Father threw himself at the feet of the Captain; and, without the Captain being able to stop him, owing to his weakness, he kissed both his groins. The Captain stretched himself out, as the Father had done, and kissed the soles of both his feet, saying: "I do not intend to be behind in this." There were certain people who, for themselves and others, wished to be left on shore. The Captain said to this, that for the service they had done until now they might as well be on shore. Another there was who asked the Captain to certify that he had not received royal pay, he himself having given it. He also wanted the title of Admiral while another did the duty. Many others each wanted to be the person to take the letters to the Viceroy, each alleging his own great merits. Owing to this, and for many other reasons which need not be specified, there were many disputes and complaints; from which it may be judged, as well as from all that has gone before, how much the discoveries cost, made by the wills of men who thought little of discovering new lands. There had come on the voyage, serving the Fathers, an Indian youth aged about twenty years, named Francisco, a native of Peru. He wore the habit of a lay brother, his life being one of self-denial. He was a humble, frugal, and grateful man, very peaceful, and so zealous for the good of the souls in the new discoveries that he wished to be left behind with them. He had a great love and respect for God, and in everything, however hard it might be, he conformed to His will. To all he showed a good disposition and pleasant countenance, did good for evil, never complained, or sought recompence nor treated of it. His example aroused envy in the mind of a soldier who was annoyed at hearing his virtues praised. So I say that there is no escape from the tongues of men, and whether high or low he has to receive their blows. The feast of All Saints was approaching, which was one of the jubilee days of the voyage. For this all our people confessed, and an altar was prepared under a tent, having obtained hosts from a village called Utlan, and invited all the people in the farms to come. They came, Spaniards, Indians, and others, to hear the Mass said by our Father. Pedro and Pablo were on their knees, each one with a lighted torch, throwing light all the time that the sacrifice and the communion lasted. A few days afterwards this monk departed by land, while we got ready to go by sea. Being very desirous of flying from this beach, and from the annoyance of such a quantity of mosquitos, sand-flies, and jiggers, which swarm in this port day and night, without the possibility of any defence from them, we made sail on the 16th of November. CHAPTER XXXVIII. The remainder of the voyage, and how the ship anchored in the port of Acapulco. We navigated with little wind to the purpose, and with land and sea breezes. For some time there was a current against us, and we were obliged to go in shore until we grounded on the beach of Citala. We touched bottom twice; but at last we came near the port, and a boat under sail and oars came out to know what ship we were. The Captain sent a messenger in the dingey, and ordered the boat to keep off until we anchored in the port of Acapulco, on the 23rd of November, 1606. We had only one death--that of the Father Commissary--and all were in good health. Thanks be to God for these and all His other mercies shown to us during the voyage! It is to be noted that when from the bay the S.E. wind rushed upon us, it was not settled to come to New Spain, for which reason we did not come, as we might have done, to E.N.E. To cross the line 400 leagues further east than we crossed it, would have made a shorter passage. If the N.W. wind we had when we went from Taumaco to the bay is constant, it would be much shorter. The following day was the Feast of St. Catherine the Martyr. The Captain left the ship with all his crew, following the royal standard, accompanied by many of the townspeople, and proceeded from the beach to the church. They brought Pedro and Pablo, both dressed in new clothes, to the font. Having said Mass, the Vicar gave them the oil and chrism, what they had not received before, because the ship was rolling so much when they were baptized. They returned to the ship in the same order. A few days after our arrival, a ship came from the Philippines with the news that Don Pedro de Acuña, the Governor of them, had taken the island of Ternate with little loss. This was very joyful news, and was celebrated here by ringing of bells and rejoicing of the people. In Mexico they made high festival, worthy of so desirable a victory. I say this, and hope there will be greater festivities for the discovery of so many islands it pleased God to show me. All is under one master, and it will be very just that they should be known to the world for the greater glory of God and honour of our Spain. Another ship also arrived, on board of which sixty-nine persons died at sea, of a great sickness that broke out during the voyage. I was told that, during the voyage, a fowl was bought for 2,400 reals and another for 3,200, yet the owners did not wish to sell. Account of the solemnity with which the cross of orange wood was landed and received, that had been raised in the bay of St. Philip and St. James. Fray Juan de Mendoza, Guardian of the Convent of Barefoot Franciscans in this port, with much endearment, asked the Captain for the cross of orange wood, being envious of the veneration with which it had been received by the two monks of his order on the day that it was set up in the bay of St. Philip and St. James. He said he wanted to receive it on the beach, and carry it in procession to his convent. Over this there was a very honourable and holy discussion, for the Vicar of the town wanted to receive it with the same reverence, to put it into the parish church. The question was argued by both sides; and, finally, owing to certain prayers, the Vicar gave up his claim, and the Captain gave it to the Guardian, to remain in his power. On the day of the Conception of the Mother of God, the Captain, with the greatest solemnity possible, took the cross from the ship to the sea shore, and delivered it to the said Father Guardians, with six other monks. They received it on their knees with much devotion, then forming in procession. On each side of the cross were Pedro and Pablo, with lighted torches. Behind were all the people of the town, carrying banner and box. So we marched to the convent. At the door of the church there was a Father in vestments. The Captain, who arrived first, was acting as mace-bearer until he came to where the Guardian was, who on his knees delivered the cross to him. The Captain gave it to the Father, who took it into the church and fastened it to the high altar, with ringing of bells at both churches, sound of trumpets, and discharge of guns and of arquebuses and muskets by the soldiers. All the people showed their joy; and not less did the Captain, although he had desired to go to Rome and put this cross in the hands of the Pontiff, and tell him that it was the first that had been raised in those new lands in the name of the Catholic Church. He wished to bring the natives as first-fruits, and to ask for all those and other great favours and concessions. It happened that events robbed him of this triumph: but he gave many thanks to God, through whose goodness he hopes to return the cross to the place whence it came. CHAPTER XXXIX. What happened to the Captain in Mexico, and in his voyage, until he arrived at the Court of Spain. No sooner had the crew disembarked, than there were persons who, to gratify their evil passions, wrote to the Marquis of Montes Claros, Viceroy of Mexico, and sowed many letters all over the land, trying to misrepresent and discredit the expedition. I did my best to satisfy people through others, proclaiming my truthfulness and zeal. I sent one letter to the Viceroy, asking for orders respecting the disposal of the ship. They were that I was to deliver her to the royal officers at Acapulco, as she belonged to His Majesty. I did this, and left Acapulco on the first day of the year 1607, entering the city of Mexico on St. Anthony's Day. On that of St. Sebastian the Viceroy received me kindly, and by his order I made a report and narrative of all that had happened. Hearing that Don Luis de Velasco, who had been Viceroy of Peru at the time when I first proposed this voyage, was living near Mexico, I went to see him, and gave him an account of all that had happened. He gave me encouragement and showed me much kindness. Pedro, who was in Mexico, was now very conversant in our language. He made certain very important statements in answer to questions asked of him, respecting his country and the surrounding regions; making known its extent, its food resources and riches, and how there were silver, gold, and pearls in abundance; and describing the idols they worship, their rites and ceremonies, and how they ordinarily converse with the Devil. Showing him some of our things, he gave the names for them in his language. But in a short time he died, and so did the other native, Pablo, who was a boy with a very beautiful countenance and disposition. I again spoke with the Viceroy respecting my departure and my necessities. He gave me no remedy for them, but treated me with kindness, and said that he was about to go to Peru, where he had been appointed Viceroy, and that if I should return during his time he would issue good orders which all would obey, and that he felt an interest in my enterprise, which he understood to be a great affair. With this he took leave of me, and the day of my departure arrived without my possessing a single dollar to set me on the road. But God helped me through the kindness of one Captain Gaspar Mendez de Vera and one Leonardo de Oria, in San Juan de Ulloa, who received me on board his ship. We arrived safely at Cadiz, where I landed. I sold my bed to reach San Lucar, where I pawned something else, which enabled me to go on to Seville. There I sold all I had left to sustain me, and with 500 reals given to me by Don Francisco Duarte, and other help from my companion, named Rodrigo Mejia, I arrived at Madrid on the 9th of October, 1607. CHAPTER XL. What happened to the Captain during this his last visit to the Court, until he negotiated the issue of an order for his despatch. During the first eleven days after my arrival at the Court, I could not obtain the convenience for writing my memorials, nor succeed in getting an interview with the Count of Lemos, who was President of the Council of the Indies. At last he saw me, read much of this narrative, and said: "What right have we to these regions?" I replied: "The same right as we had to possess ourselves of the others." I had several other interviews with him, and he ordered me to kiss the hand of His Majesty, and that I should see the Duke of Lerma, which I did. I presented many and very difficult memorials, giving my reasons, and declaring my enterprise and its advantages, and soliciting and urging my despatch. I had these memorials printed when I had the means; and when I had not, they were copied, presented and distributed among the members of the Councils of State, of War, and of the Indies, and the Ministers. Most of them received the memorials well, and seemed to value them; but not for this did my despatch progress any faster. On the contrary, on the 6th of March, 1608, His Majesty, through the Duke of Lerma, sent a long memorial to the Council of the Indies, by which my affairs were treated carelessly and harshly, because on the first occasion they had been managed by the Council of State. In effect, they told me that I should receive their reply from Don Francisco de Tejada, who was a member of the said Council of the Indies. He told me that I should return to Peru, to the city of the Kings; and that there the Viceroy would give orders as to what was to be done. I answered that it would not be well to send me on so long a voyage, on so serious a business, without knowing what would be done. So I went on sending my memorials, and I had hopes for better success: because, at that time, the Council received a letter, which Juan de Esquirel, Master of the Camp at Ternate, wrote to the Audience of the city of Manilla, in which he said that there had arrived in that port a vessel, whose Captain was one Luis Velez de Torres, said to be one of the three under the command of the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, with which he left Peru to discover the unknown parts to the south. "He says he parted company 1,500 leagues from here, and had coasted along for 800 leagues of a land. He arrived in want, and I supplied him with what I could. He goes to Manilla, and will send a more particular account to your Highness." Afterwards, I saw the narrative of the voyage of Luis Vaez, in possession of the Constable of Castille, which gave me great pleasure, and incited me to send in more memorials, praying for my despatch, and for the things that must be conceded with a view to it. But my ill-luck was so great, that I could never get anything settled. All appeared to point to my detention, and at times I was depreciated by the Ministers, and especially by those of the Council of the Indies; for I always found more recognition from those of the Council of State. Seeing this, I procured another audience of His Majesty, and obtained what I wanted, on Epiphany, in the year 1609, after dinner, being favoured in this, as in other things, by the Marquis of Velada. I showed my papers, maps and sea-charts: explained which were the lands I proposed to seek, and their grandeur; and related the events of the voyages I had already made. Having seen all my demonstrations with interest, he rose; and, asking for my despatch, the Marquis answered that all would be well. So, on the 7th of February, a decree was issued really treating of this business, and granting me some money in aid. After several consultations, and an order for me to frame an estimate of the expenses of the expedition, another decree came out, passing the business on to the Council of the Indies; where I had to begin all over again, and at the end of many months an order was given to me, according to the following tenor: Royal Order. The King.--To the Marquis of Montes Claros, my cousin, my Viceroy, Governor, and Captain-General of the provinces of Peru; or to the person or persons in whose charge the government may be. The Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, who, as you have been informed, is the person who has undertaken the discovery of the unknown land in the south, has represented to me how that, I having ordered the necessary despatch through my Council of State, for him to make the said discoveries, and that the Viceroys, your predecessors, were to supply him with all that was necessary for the voyage, he sailed with this object from the port of Callao on the 21st of December, of the year 1605, with two ships and a launch, having on board crews and the rest that was needed, and steered W.S.W. until he reached the latitude of 26° S., by which course, and by others, he discovered twenty islands--twelve inhabited by various tribes--and three-parts of a land which he conceived to be all one, and suspected to be continental, and a great bay with a good port within it; whence he sailed with the three vessels, with the object of exploring a great and high chain of mountains to the S.W.; and in returning to the said port the Almiranta and the launch anchored. But the Capitana, in which he was, could not, and was driven out; for which cause, and for many others which obliged him, he arrived at the Port of Acupulco, whence he came to Spain to give me an account of the success of the voyage, in the year 1607. He stated that the land he had discovered was pleasant, temperate, and yielding many different kinds of fruits; the people domestic and disposed to receive our Holy Faith; and that what was left to be seen and discovered is much more beyond comparison. With great perseverance he has prayed and supplicated me to consider the importance of this discovery and settlement, and the great service it will be to our Lord that this land should be settled and the Faith planted in it, bringing to the bosom of the Church and to a knowledge of the truth such an infinite number of souls as there are in that new world, where he has taken possession in a good port, and celebrated Mass; as well as the usefulness and aggrandizement that will result to my crown, and to all my kingdoms. His object and intention is no more than to perform this service to our Lord, and to follow that cause which he had served for so many years, suffering shipwrecks and hardships; it is now ordered that he be provided with all things necessary again to make that voyage and form a settlement; for which it is necessary that he should have a thousand men of this kingdom, of which twelve to be monks of the Order of St. Francis, or Capuchins, who must be learned, with the necessary powers, and provided with requisites and ornaments; also six Brothers of St. John of God, medical man, surgeon, barbers, and medicines; and that in these provinces he be given ships, artillery, muskets, arquebuses, and other weapons and stores that may be necessary; also a quantity of things for bartering with natives, a good store of iron in sheets, and tools to cultivate the land and work mines. [119] By reason of my great desire that the said discovery and settlement should take effect, for the good of the souls of those natives, I have ordered the said Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros to return to Peru by the first opportunity; and I charge and order you that as soon as he arrives you are to make arrangements for his despatch, and provide all he requires for the voyage, by account of my royal treasury, so that it may be done with all speed, not offering any obstacle, but giving all the supplies necessary, and orders that he may be obeyed by all who go with him and under his command; and let all else be done that is convenient and usual in making other similar voyages, discoveries, and settlements. I order the officers of my royal revenues to comply in conformity with this decree; and for this compliance this is my command. [120] I again charge you to despatch the Captain Quiros well and speedily; and you advise me that you have done so, for I shall be pleased to know it, honouring, favouring, and treating him well: for in this you will serve me. I, the King. By command of the King our Lord.--Gabriel de Hoa. Witnessed by those of the Council. Copy of a letter which the Secretary, Gabriel de Hoa, sent to the Viceroy with the Royal Order. Captain Quiros returns to the kingdom with the enclosed despatch, in pursuance of his discovery:--"I have assisted here in this cause with much trouble and inconvenience, and with great zeal, for the service of our Lord and of His Majesty. Your Excellency animates, enforces, and helps this enterprise in furtherance of the orders of His Majesty, whose will is that Captain Quiros shall have quick despatch and good treatment, which your Excellency will know how to extend to one whose labours and voyages merit recognition, and who again offers himself for other greater labours. May our Lord guard your Excellency as I desire.--Madrid, December 19th, 1609." CHAPTER XLI. Of what the Captain did after he had received this Order, and how he was given another. I was not satisfied with this Order, because it was confused, and did not give me the power that was necessary to order myself what was necessary for my despatch; and because in effect it left it open for the Viceroy to order from what port in Peru I should sail as he might choose. Remembering how badly the orders and decrees of His Majesty are complied with in distant provinces, even when they are very imperative, I began again to send in more memorials representing these inconveniences, and declaring that 500,000 ducats were required for my undertaking, and for what I had to spend and distribute; and I sent in a detailed account of how I had spent what was given me for the last expedition. Don Francisco de Tejada told me that there were not wanting those who considered that the despatch they had given me was well enough. I replied that it must have been measured out according to my small merits, not according to the grandeur and necessities of the work. So I went on sending in more and more memorials to His Majesty, his Councils and Councillors, until in the month of May I was sent for by the Secretary, Antonio de Aroztegui, who told me that things had been arranged as I wished, as regards the terms of the Order and the expenses. I answered that the expenses of a cabin boy were enough for me personally if the despatch was good; that I did not put a price on my services. With this object I began new memorials to the Council of State, and when I thought that I was about to secure my desires, the business was again turned over to the Council of the Indies. In this Council, as the feeling was cold towards me and my cause, they turned and twisted much that His Majesty had ordered. On the 1st of November, 1610, they gave me an Order of the following tenor:-- Revised Royal Order. The King. To the Marquis of Montes Claros, my cousin, my Viceroy and Captain General of the provinces of Peru, or to the person or persons in whose charge their government may be. [121] Dated at San Lorenzo, the 1st of November, 1610. I the King. By order of the King our Lord, Pedro de Ledesma. CHAPTER XLII. Of what the Captain did after having received the above Order. Seeing the weakness of the new Royal Order, and that there was wanting in it many things for which I had stipulated and which I held to be important for my enterprise, I again renewed my representations to the Council of State that they might be conceded to me, and sent in several memorials with this object, and others to represent the harm done to the enterprise by the delay; that now the English and Dutch would hear of it, and that if we did not occupy first, they might get those lands and seas into their power. The result was that I was detained longer, with an Order that a certain quantity of money was to be allowed to me each month for my sustenance, and 300 ducats to pay my debts, which was insufficient. Other help was given me by the good secretary, Antonio de Aroztegui. I also submitted a memorial in which I proposed the way that, in my opinion, the discovery, settlement, and government of those nations should be conducted; avoiding the evils which, by adopting other ways, had accompanied former discoveries. All this was heard and received well, but unluckily my despatch was delayed, and at the end of many years [122] the Secretary, Juan de Eiriza, read to me and gave me a letter to this effect: "Resolved by His Majesty in the business of Captain Quiros, that in an affair of such magnitude it is necessary to proceed circumspectly, and to be sure of the consequences of each step. His Majesty will rejoice that half should be given for the discovery desired by Quiros. For this he is to return to Peru, and follow the instructions given to him by the Viceroy, with the assurance that they will be such as if he alone had the conduct of the discovery." To this decree I answered what appeared convenient, referring to my honour and that of the cause; and declaring that I could not go except with sufficient papers and securities very clearly and positively drawn up. But the more time slipped away the more my claims went back, owing to those who were against me, and the little confidence they had in myself and in my promises. As the Council of State would not decide anything without first referring it to the Council of the Indies, my prospects became worse. Don Luis de Velasco, who had come as President of that Council, instead of helping me, owing to having been the person who first received my project in Peru, and to having received such full notice of it, was the least favourable. Finally, Don Francisco de Borja, Prince of Esquilache, having been appointed Viceroy of Peru, both Councils concurred in giving me an order to go out with him, assuring me that he had an urgent order from His Majesty to despatch me as soon as I should arrive at Callao, and to arrange for everything that was necessary for my voyage. On this subject there was a meeting in the house of the President of the Council of the Indies, at which the new Viceroy was present. He assured me that what I wanted would certainly be done: that he was able to promise; and that if there was any wrong in the business of my despatch, it was not to be charged to him for the value of the whole world, because he was jealous of his reputation. With this, and seeing that in so many years I could not negotiate anything else, and that my life and patience were worn out, I determined to put into his hands my life and work. He said: "Trust me, and see what I shall do." Afterwards I spoke with him several times, and made him thoroughly acquainted with my affairs, and with what was necessary for them. I had been anxious to send to Rome to ask for certain grants from His Holiness. I petitioned, and the Prince gave me the following certificate: Don Francisco de Borja, Prince of Esquilache, Count of Mayalda, Gentleman of the Chamber of the King our Lord, and his Viceroy and Captain-General of his kingdoms of Peru: I certify that His Majesty has ordered me to take in my company the Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, that I may despatch him from the Port of Callao to the settlement of the southern region; and that this will be when I may judge it to be convenient, and the state of affairs in Peru makes it proper to carry it out.--Given in Madrid on the 21st of October, 1614. NOTES [1] Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones Austriales hecho por el General Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, publicada por Don Justo Zaragoza (3 vols. Madrid, 1876.) [2] One in the early part of the second voyage of Mendaña, where he compares the importance and influence of small things to stars of unequal sizes (see p. 5); and other passages, though written in prose are really in verse, in the Spanish. Such is the passage describing the reappearance of the Almiranta after being out of sight (p. 192); the description of a visit made by natives to the Spanish ships (p. 210); and, again, when the Almiranta stood out to sea (p. 212). The description of Quiros on a bed of sickness at the mercy of his Pilots is really in verse in the Spanish (p. 280); and the reasons given by Quiros for not punishing mutineers may be those of the leader of the expedition, but the words are certainly those of his poetical Secretary. [3] See p. 262. [4] See pp. 200 and 418. [5] See pp. 254 and 383. [6] I have given an account of Suarez de Figueroa and of his works in a footnote to my translation of the Spanish account of the capture of Sir Richard Hawkins, also taken from the Hechos del Marques de Cañete. [7] Quiros was devoted to the Franciscans, and had several in his fleet. Torquemada was Provincial of the Order in Mexico. At a later date, two historians of the Order of St. Francis in Peru gave accounts of the voyage, quoting from Torquemada, and without any other original sources of information. One was Fray Antonio Daza, who wrote Cronica General de la Orden de San Francisco. The other is a folio with double columns: Cronica de la religiosissima provincia de la Orden de San Francisco de la regular observancia compuesta por el R.P. Fray Diego de Cordova, Salinas (1651). This work is very rare. There is no copy in the British Museum. There was one in the Library at Lima. Cordova gives a brief account of the voyage of Quiros, copying from Torquemada. Neither of these Franciscan historians, writing in Peru many years afterwards, are of any authority on the voyage of Quiros beyond what they derive from Torquemada. Daza, however, gives the Act of Possession at Espiritu Santo, which is not quoted in full by Torquemada (see p. 444). Antonio de Ulloa, in his Resumen, quotes from Cordova respecting an island discovered in 28° S. by Quiros, but the quotation is not correct. It is referred to by Mr. Major in his Early Voyages to Australia, p. lxxii. Mr. Major had never seen the work of Cordova. [8] See Antonio (Nic.), Bibliotheca Hispana vetus et nova, sive Hispanicorum scriptorum. [9] Diego de Prado y Tobar (see p. 513). [10] These particulars are gathered from the information given and recorded, when Quiros and his family sailed for Peru in 1615. "Informaciones presentados por el Capitan Pedro Fernandez de Quiros para paser a las Indias con su mujer y hijos, en la casa de contratacion de Sevilla, 24 Marzo, 1615" (Archivo de Indias), referred to by Zaragoza, vol. iii, p. 79 (n). Marriage and ages of wife and children are given. [11] Don Luis de Velasco, Viceroy of Peru from 1596 to 1604, was the son of a distinguished father of the same names, of the family of the Constables of Castille. The father was the second Viceroy of Mexico. He sent an expedition to Florida, and another to the Philippines under Miguel Lopez de Legaspé. The elder Don Luis died at Mexico, where his son was born in 1555. The younger Don Luis de Velasco was Governor of Cempoala, and proceeding to Spain, was appointed by Philip II Ambassador at Florence. In 1590 he became Viceroy of Mexico, and in 1595 Viceroy of Peru. In January, 1604, he returned to Mexico, and lived there privately for three years. He was appointed Viceroy of Mexico a second time in 1607, and was created Marquis of Salinas. In 1611 he became President of the Council of the Indies, serving in that post until his death in 1616. [12] Arca de Noe, por El Capitan de navio Cesario Fernandez Duro (Madrid, 1881), p. 560. Lucas de Quiros drew a map of the western side of South America, from Cartagena to Magellan's Strait, under the auspices of the Prince of Esquilache, Viceroy of Peru. Lucas is called on it "Cosmógrafo del Peru." The map is drawn on parchment. See also J. de la Espada, Relacion Geografica, p. cxl. [13] Don Gaspar de Zuñiga y Azevedo, Count of Monterey, had been Viceroy of Mexico from 1595 to 1603, and was transferred to Peru to succeed Don Luis de Velasco. He arrived at Lima in very bad health. [14] He had been Pilot of the ship which brought the Count of Monterey from Acapulco to Callao. [15] Juan de Iturbe says 40°, for which there is no other authority. But Arias, in his Memorial (see p. 528), says that Quiros was advised by Torres and his other companions to go as far as 40° S. Quiros and Torres give 30° as the limit. It was the proposal of Quiros himself, not in any instructions given to him. There were no such instructions. [16] Royal Geographical Society's Journal, Aug. 1902, vol. xx, p. 207. [17] La Encarnacion, p. 487 (Luna-puesta, p. 192; Anegada, p. 329), is one of the coral islands of the Dangerous or Low Archipelago, probably Ducie Island. San Juan Bautista, pp. 193, 487 (Sin Puerto, p. 330; San Valerio, p. 456), is Henderson Island. Santelmo, pp. 195, 487, Marutea, or Lord Hood Island. Las Cuatro Coronadas, pp. 195, 487 (Las Virgenes, p. 456), Actæon group. San Miguel, pp. 196,487, Aburaa Island. La Conversion de San Pablo, pp. 204, 487, Anaa or Chain Island. La Decena, pp. 204, 487 (Santa Polonia, p. 456), is Niau or Greig Island. La Sagittaria, pp. 204, 487, Mahatea or Aurora Island. La Fugitiva, pp. 205, 487, Matahiva or Lazareff Island. San Bernardo, pp. 207, 425, 457 (Island of Fish, p. 342). Peregrino, pp. 217, 487 (Gente Hermosa, p. 431; Matanza, p. 459), "Genta hermosa" on modern charts. [18] This latitude is only given in the Memorial of Arias. See p. 525. [19] See p. 469. There was also a general map of the discoveries of Torres, which is lost. [20] See his extraordinary Will at p. 291. [21] Zaragoza, vol. ii, p. 191 (23 pages). [22] See p. 477. [23] See p. 487. [24] See p. 504. [25] Zaragoza, vol. ii, p. 242. [26] Ibid., vol. iii, p. 268. [27] These letters were published by Zaragoza (vol. ii, p. 187), and also in the Boletin de la Sociedad Geografica de Madrid for 1878 (tom. iv, p. 62). Lord Stanley of Alderley gave a translation of one of them in his Philippine Islands, p. 412 (Hakluyt Soc., 1868). [28] See p. 469. [29] Tom. iv, Jan. 1878. The maps were reproduced, without colour, in Collingridge's Discovery of Australia (1895). [30] In the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid (J. 2). [31] Papeles tocantes à la Iglesia Española (British Museum, 4745, f. 11). [32] See pp. 526 to 528 and footnotes. [33] Zaragoza, vol. ii, p. 259. [34] Dr. Don Bernardo de Sandoval y Roxas, a grandson of the second Count of Lerma, was then Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal and Inquisitor-General. He died in 1618. [35] Don Juan Fernandez de Velasco, Duke of Frias, Marquis of Berlangas, and Count of Haro, was hereditary Constable of Castille. He died at Madrid in 1613. [36] Don Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, Duke of Infantado and Marquis of Santillana. He died in 1624. [37] Don Pedro Fernandez de Castro, seventh Count of Lemos, was Ambassador at Rome in 1600, President of the Council of the Indies, and afterwards Viceroy of Naples. He married his cousin, a daughter of the Duke of Lerma. He was the patron of Cervantes. His son was Viceroy of Peru 1667-72. [38] He was a grandson of Francisco de Borja, Duke of Gandia, and the third General of the Jesuits who was canonized. He was Prince of Esquilache by right of his wife, and his age was thirty-two when he went out as Viceroy of Peru in 1615. He reached Lima in December. [39] Luis de Belmonte Bermudez then went to Mexico, and he appears to have returned to Seville in 1616. There he wrote El Cisma de Jordan. In 1618 he settled at Madrid. Then appeared his Aurora de Cristo and Hispalica. In the Comedias Escojidas (4to, Madrid, 1682-1704) there are eleven plays of Belmonte, including the Renegade of Valladolid, and God the Best Guardian. Ticknor mentions them as a singular mixture of what is sacred and what is profane (Ticknor's Spanish Literature, vol. ii, p. 300). [40] Historia del descubrimiento de las Regiones Austriales. [41] An office corresponding to the President or Governor of a province. Præfectus. "Adelante," in front; more advanced than others. [42] Here Suarez de Figueroa inserts the following speech, made by the Marquis of Cañete to Mendaña. On one of the many occasions when Alvaro de Mendaña (then fitting out) had interviews with the Viceroy to communicate some particulars and to kiss his hand for the many kindnesses and favours he had received from him, his Excellency said: "My Lord the Adelantado, I may well wish you God speed on commencing this business with as vigorous a set of men as can be found in the world. Prodigious are the deeds of the Spaniards at various times and in various places, and especially when led by valorous generals who know how to overcome difficulties; who have met dangers with prudence; who under adverse circumstances have maintained a cheerful countenance and kept up the spirits of their followers with encouraging words and promises; who rewarded them; who cherished them; who succoured them; and who, ruling by kindness, took advantage of every opportunity with wisdom. There are so many glorious leaders of our nation who have acted thus, that might be named, that I undoubtedly should tire my tongue in enumerating them and my memory in bringing them to mind. On the other side their valiant followers have always been, on these occasions, loyal and obedient, and full of courtesy and virtue both in word and deed. If in the present age these generalities suffer from some exceptions, it is not the fault of the men. Various times bring forth misfortunes. A few years soon pass in the harvest of valour, and few good things are known of the leaders. This is especially the case in maritime expeditions where the inconveniences and difficulties are innumerable, while the remedies that can be applied to them are few and of little efficacy. Certain ancient mariners make a notable clamour, in whose eyes our ancestors were so excellent that they hold them in great veneration. But they all made furrows in the eastern sea; very little was done by them on the western side, which scarcely puts limits to the imagination. On that side some navigators have been eminent. In the first rank is Columbus, who, being despised by various sovereigns, made his discovery finally for the Catholic ones, Isabella and Ferdinand, and showed America, the foundation on which has been built so many and such important edifices, alike spiritual as temporal. He was succeeded by the wonderful Cortes, with his extensions of empire and his marvellous deeds. In the part where we are now was the famous Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of so many provinces. Then came Magellan, who nearly went round the world, and came to an end which was less fortunate than his spirit deserved. Next Gama sought remote regions, and opened to the nation the commerce of the east. Valiant (it need not be denied) were the audacious enterprises of Drake, Cavendish, and Hawkins, emulous of the fame of Magellan. Traversing the strait which bears Magellan's name, they came to disturb the seas which for many previous years had been secure and peaceful. But this notwithstanding, it appears to me that I now behold in you a discoverer not less distinguished and famous than those. It has been so in all countries, in times past, that important affairs have been entrusted to him who, either by reason of his genius, or the dignity of his person, or the purity of his life, or his grace and authority, had acquired the universal fame of a true umpire of peace and war, justly committing to his prudence the preservation and prosperity of the state. It is certain that all these qualifications are combined in your person. Your actions prove it, and confirm the choice made by His Majesty for so great a service to God and to him. I hold that there can be no doubt that your established government will be glorious and triumphant, and that the people in your company will remain under it; so that, almost from this time thanks may be given to you for your great industry and valour." [43] Equivalent to Colonel. He was an old soldier named Pedro Merino Manrique. The name is given by Suarez de Figueroa. [44] 12° 3' 45'' S. Callao Castle; 12° 2' 34'' S. Lima. [45] Magdalena is in 10° 25' S. and 138° 28' W. [46] Suarez de Figueroa says it was a girl. [47] Suarez de Figueroa quotes all this word for word, and here says that he is quoting from the papers of the Chief Pilot. [48] Joints of bamboos in which they carry water. [49] A palmo is 8 inches, being a quarter of a vara, which is 32.9 inches. [50] The earliest description of the bread fruit. [51] Piece of canvas laced to the foot of the mainsail and foresail. [52] This is the island of Tinakula, an active volcano rising 3,000 feet above the sea in a most perfectly shaped cone, to the north of the island of Santa Cruz. The volcano is still in full activity. It is in lat. 10° 24´ S., long. 165° 45´ W. [53] 8.346 inches. [54] Nupani, Nukapu, and several other small reef islands north of Santa Cruz. [55] In lat. 10° 40' S., long. 165° 45' 30'' W. [56] Not a Spanish word. [57] Felipe Corzo. He was an enemy of Quiros. [58] Outpost guard, whence sentries were selected. A picket. Usually consisting of twenty or thirty men. [59] Caracha is a cutaneous disease in Peruvian parlance; caaranta, a person who has no eyebrows, also a Peruvianism. [60] Tauriqui of Mendaña's first voyage. [61] Namely, the Devil. [62] A quarter of an azumbre, which is about half a gallon. [63] No such word in Spanish, nor is it a Peruvianism. [64] The brothers Ulloa, in their Noticias Secretas, spoke very highly of the "guatchapeli" wood of Guayaquil (p. 58) for ship-building, especially extolling its durability. [65] The "honest man" is evidently the Chief Pilot himself. [66] Here Suarez de Figueroa introduces a fuller account of the Ladrone Islanders, especially of their customs connected with the burial of the dead, with an anecdote about an adventure between a Spanish soldier and a native of Guan. [67] The object of the voyage had been to reach the Solomon Islands, which Alvaro de Mendaña had discovered in his first voyage. The arguments of Quiros consist of a criticism of the report of Gallego, the Chief Pilot of Mendaña's first voyage. [68] Solomon Islands, vol. i, pp. 67, 68 (Hakluyt Society, 1901). [69] Solomon Islands, vol. i, p. 66. [70] Identified by Mr. Woodford as Nukufetan in the Ellice Group, in 7° 50' S.--Solomon Islands, vol. i, p. 14 (n.), 1901. [71] Edited for the Hakluyt Society by Lord Stanley of Alderley in 1868. [72] Contained in the Sucesos de las Islas Philipinas of Antonio de Morga (1609); translated by Lord Stanley of Alderley for the Hakluyt Society, 1868. [73] Don Antonio de Cardona y Cordova, sixth Duke of Sesa, was descended from the Great Captain. He was son of Don Fernando de Cordova y Requesens, second Duke of Soma, by Doña Beatriz de Figueroa. He became Duke of Sesa by renunciation of his aunt, Francesca de Cordova, and succeeded an elder brother as Duke of Soma. He was also Duke of Baena. The Duke of Sesa died at Valladolid on January 6th, 1606. [74] Rimini. [75] He forgets that Caraccas is on the main land. [76] One of these nephews was no doubt the Lucas de Quiros who was appointed Royal Ensign by his uncle on May 13th, 1606, at the bay of St. Philip and St. James. Zaragoza mentions that, in 1616, Lucas de Quiros was acquiring a certain reputation at Lima as a cosmographer (IV, Apuntes Biograficas, p. 139). He constructed a map of the western side of South America, from Carthagena to Magellan's Strait, by order of the Viceroy, Prince of Esquilache, on parchment (see Duro Arca de Noc, p. 560). [77] His name was Juan Ochoa de Bilboa. [78] Leza calls it "Anegada." In the Memorial of 1609 the name "La Encarnaçion" was given to the first island. [79] Leza calls it "San Puerto." Torres gives the name of "San Valerio." The two islands are 75 leagues apart. [80] Torres calls them "Las Virgenes." [81] This is a very early notice of the use of a method of obtaining fresh water by condensing. [82] This island is Anaa, or Chain Island, about 200 miles east of Tahiti, in the same latitude. It was named "Conversion de San Pablo" by Quiros. No name is given by Torres or in Torquemada. Burney confused "Sagittaria" a small atoll seen after leaving "Conversion de San Pablo" with that island. Whenever he mentions "Sagittaria" it should be "Conversion de San Pablo." Burney says that the "Sagittaria" of Quiros is generally believed to be Tahiti (vol. ii, p. 277 n.). It was Captain Wallis, the discoverer of Tahiti in 1767, who first thought that he had identified that beautiful island with the "Sagittaria" of Quiros: because the latitude is about the same, and because a low isthmus is described. But Tahiti has several good anchorages; the island of Quiros has none. Tahiti is very lofty; the island of Quiros is flat. Tahiti has abundant supplies of water; the island described by Quiros has none. Moreover, Quiros says that his first inhabited island has a large shallow lake in its centre. The Pilot Leza describes it as a ring of land encircling part of the sea. Sir William Wharton, who identifies the island with Anaa, or Chain Island, has pointed out that the passages describing the landing, especially the one in Torquemada, are excellent accounts of the difficulty of landing on the foreshore of a low reef island; but Tahiti, though there is a barrier reef round it, has a smooth lagoon within, with easy landing, and there are numerous openings in the reef. The description of the march across what has been supposed to be an isthmus, answers to the low land of an atoll, the water on the other side being the lagoon. The only low island near Tahiti is Tetaroa, which is 20 miles from it. But another low island was not seen by Quiros, after leaving "Conversion de San Pablo," until the second day. Starting from Tahiti, there is no such island; but, sailing from Anaa and steering W.N.W. before the trade wind, there are such low islands as are mentioned. These considerations make it quite certain that Quiros never sighted Tahiti, as Burney supposes. [83] Luis de Belmonte Bermudez, the Secretary to Quiros and probable author of the narrative. [84] It should be Sojo. [85] Dr. Bolton G. Corney found at Seville the journal of the frigate Aquila, which was sent by the Viceroy of Peru on a voyage to Tahiti, under the command of Don Tomas Gayangos in 1774. In reconnoitring the island of Anaa, on November 2nd, 1774, a well-proportioned cross was seen, set up on a sandy beach, on the skirts of a wood. The Spaniards of 1774 named the island "Todos Santos." [86] The S.E. end, 18° 30' S. (Torres); N.W. point, 17° 40' S. (Torquemada). Burney calculates the longitude 147° 7' W. [87] Niau, or Greig Island, of the chart. Torres calls it "Santa Polonia." [88] Makatea, or Aurora Island, of the chart. [89] Matahiva, or Lazareff Island, of the chart. The present editor may be excused for referring to Lazareff as the first coral island he ever saw. He was a naval cadet on board H.M.S. Collingwood when, at seven bells in the forenoon of Friday, August 8th, 1845, she sighted the island. There was a border of white sand between the blue sea and the dense cocoa-nut grove. He went to the main-topmast head for a view of the interior lagoon over the cocoa-nut trees. At that very time he was reading Burney's account of the voyage of Quiros. [90] The sloping sides of a roof. [91] Torres called it "Matanza." In Torquemada the name "Gente Hermoso" is given. The Memorial (1609) gives "Peregrino." [92] Probably wooden swords for teaching the drill. [93] "Tafetan tornasol." [94] See pp. 81 and 85. [95] Torres and Torquemada give the native name. Leza calls the island "Nuestra Señora de Loreto." In the Memorial the name is "Monterey," after the Viceroy of Peru. [96] Torres gives 1940 leagues (169° 45' E.). Latitude, 10° 10' S. [97] Outriggers. [98] Torres calls it "Chucupia." The Memorial has "Tucopia." Quiros gives the latitude 12° 15' S.; Torres, 12° 30' S. Undoubtedly, the Tucopia of modern charts, in 12° 15' S. and 169° 50' E. [99] Torres calls it a very high volcano. Torquemada gives the name of "Nuestra Señora de la Luz." The Memorial has "San Marcos." It is the Pic de l'Etoile of Bougainville. The volcano is now extinct. Latitude, 14° 25' S. "Merlav," or "Star Peak," on modern charts. [100] Torres has "Santa Maria." It is the "Gaua" of modern chart in the Banks Group. [101] Martin Lope Cortal was Pilot of Lopez de Legazpi's ship on the voyage from Mexico to the Philippines, and he afterwards made a voyage to Mexico without licence. He and some companions landed at islands called Barbudos, and the ship left them there. That this native should have used these words is extraordinary. [102] Egg-plant nightshade, Solanum melongena, L. [103] The name of the Duke of Sesa was Don Antonio de Cardona y Cordova. See pp. 163 and 168. [104] Cardona and La Clementina, looking like a range of mountains and main land, were the islands of Pentecost, Aurora, and Leper, overlapping each other. [105] Not in Leza's list. [106] "Araucana," por Don Alonso de Ercilla. Canto XXVII, octava 52. [107] The "friend" is, of course, Belmonte Bermudez, the Secretary of Quiros. [108] Captain Cook relates that his people caught two reddish fish with hook and line in Port Sandwich, Malicolo Island (one of the New Hebrides), on July 24th, 1774. The fish were about the size of a large bream. Most of the officers, and some of the petty officers, dined on them the next day. The following night, every one who had eaten of them was seized with violent pains in the head and bones, attended with a scorching heat all over the skin, and numbness in the joints. The pigs and dogs who had partaken of the fish were also taken ill, and two died. It was a week or ten days before all the officers recovered. In mentioning this, Cook refers to the similar experience of Quiros and his crew, as described by Dalrymple, vol. i, p. 140.--Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii, p. 39. [109] He means betel. See p. 51. [110] Thistles; teazel. [111] The space between the end of the thumb and the end of the forefinger, both stretched out. [112] Coral cliffs. [113] Captain Cook visited the Island of Espiritu Santo in August, 1774, and on the 25th entered the bay of San Felipe y Santiago, discovered by Quiros. The wind being S., Cook was obliged to beat to windward. Next morning he was 7 or 8 miles from the head of the bay, which is terminated by a low beach, and behind that an extensive flat covered with trees, and bounded on each side by a ridge of mountains. The latitude was 15° 5' S. Steering to within 2 miles of the head of the bay, he sent Mr. Cooper and Mr. Gilbert to sound and reconnoitre the coast. Mr. Cooper reported that he had landed on the beach near a fine river. They found 3 fathoms close to the beach, and 55 two cables' lengths off. At the ship there was no bottom with 170 fathoms. When the boat returned, Captain Cook steered down the bay; and during the night there were many fires on the W. side. In the morning of the 27th the ship was off the N.W. point of the bay, in latitude 14° 39' 30''. The bay has 20 leagues of sea-coast--6 on the E. side, 2 at the head, and 12 on the W. side. The two points which form the entrance bear S. 53° E., and N. 53° W., from each other distant 10 leagues. An uncommonly luxuriant vegetation was everywhere to be seen. Captain Cook named the E. point of the bay "Cape Quiros," which is in 14° 56' S., and longitude 167° 13' E. He named the N.W. point "Cape Cumberland." It is in 14° 38' 45'' S., and 166° 49' 30'' E.--Cook's Second Voyage, vol. ii, p. 89. The Editor has to thank Dr. Bolton G. Corney for the following very interesting account of his visit to the bay of San Felipe y Santiago in 1876:-- "While on a voyage through the New Hebrides in the barque Prospector, of 260 tons, in August, 1876, I visited the bay of San Felipe y Santiago, now commonly known to shipmasters and other habitués of the Western Pacific as the 'Big Bay.' "The island itself is, for short, spoken of as 'Santo,' not only by local white men, but also by many of the natives of it and the neighbouring ones, many of whom have been in Fiji or Queensland, and have picked up a little Fijian or English, as the case may be. "The Prospector was chartered by the Government of Fiji to return 476 of these people to their homes, in completion of contracts made with them a few years before, after performing a term of labour on the cotton and maize or cocoa-nut plantations of that group of islands, which, in 1874, became a British Crown colony. I was in charge of these returning emigrants, both medically and as representing the Government. "We passed from Malikolo to 'Santo', and worked up under the lee of its western side to Pusei and Tasimate, landing and recruiting emigrants as we went, and bartering for yams, and taro, and pigs by way of provisions. We rounded Cape Cumberland (the extreme N.W. point of the island), and worked into the bay of San Felipe y Santiago, making one long board to the E.N.E or N.E. by E. first, and then a long leg to the S.S.W., or thereabouts, which brought us close in with the land on the W. side of the bay. The land there was high and steep, and we had deep water until quite close into the beach. We then went about and made short tacks towards the fundus of the bay, where we had to lay the barque quite close in to the shore before getting anchorage. The water was blue and clear, and I do not recollect seeing any reefs or patches. The anchorage we made for was known to our recruiting agents, who called it the 'river Jordan.' I have a recollection of hearing that we got 9 fathoms with the lead just before letting go. The water was quite smooth, protected by the land at the head of the bay from the prevailing trade-wind; and the barque lay at a few boats' lengths from the beach--about 300 yards W. from the embouchure of the river. "Our objects in calling there were (i) to land certain natives of the place whom we had on board, with their earnings; (ii) to recruit others if any suitable ones offered; and (iii) to obtain wood and fill water. "The beach, if my memory does not mislead me, was of black sand, which is not an uncommon thing in islands of volcanic origin, such as the New Hebrides: the distance from low water-mark to the edge of the timber and undergrowth which fringed it just above high-water mark, was only a few yards--perhaps 18 or 25--except near the mouth of the river, where it was more shelving, and extended out into a sandy foreshore or bank corresponding to the bar, the dry land being flat and of alluvial formation. "The river was about as large as the Thames at Isleworth, and flowed into the bay through a wide and far-reaching valley from S. to N. Its banks were low, and overgrown with reeds and scrub, and more than usually free from the customary mangrove trees and bushes. We did not explore it for far, because the friendly attitude of the natives could not be depended on to last, if they should get us into a 'corner;' but I pulled into the river in one of the recruiting boats for a short distance, and selected a place at which we filled our beakers and water-casks with water of good and fresh quality. This was perhaps less than half a mile from the mouth: the water was clear, and we could see the bottom in mid-stream; but the tide was at the last of the ebb, as we had chosen that time for the sake of getting the freshest water. "The natives brought us some dead logs to the beach, and others on bamboos to the vessel's side, much of which the sailors and officers bartered for in the belief that it was sandal wood. It was in reality, I believe, the wood known in Fijian as Sevna or Cevna, a kind of Pittosporum, which grows near the sea and has a strong sandal-wood odour. We also obtained the natives' consent to our cutting some firewood, which was mostly wild dawa (Nephilium pinnatum), and mulomulo (Hiliuscus populnea), a littoral tree often used in Fiji to cut boats' knees from. "We recruited four men to go with us to Fiji for three years. They were all adults of about 20 to 24 years, tall, black, and athletic young men, much above the average stature of New Hebrideans anywhere north of Eromango; and the other people of the locality appeared to me equally well-built, and some 5 ft. 10 in. or 5 ft. 11 in. in height. I cannot say whether they were the true inhabitants of the place, as we saw no village nor huts: they may have been mountaineers from the interior on an excursion to the coast, the mountaineers in these islands being as a rule blacker, and I think taller (with exceptions), than the coast people. "They had no canoes--at least I saw none--except two small catamarans; and the timber they took alongside the ship was floated off by means of bamboos. "It is doubtful whether mountaineers would have possession of catamarans on the coast, or trust themselves to bamboo rafts. "The west shore of this bay rises steeply from the water throughout most of its extent: but there are narrow strips of low-lying flat land between the beach and the mountain side at intervals, continuous with the small valleys, where creeks or torrents, of which there are several, have deposited silt and boulders, and rocky débris from the higher slopes. But, in so far as I remember, they are all insignificant in extent, as the mountain ridge which forms this large promontory and ends abruptly in Cape Cumberland, rises, as already mentioned, steeply from the sea, which is deep all along and around it, with only here and there even a fringing shore reef. There is no barrier reef whatever, and consequently no lagoon. "As to size of the 'Big Bay,' I should say that the distance from Cape Cumberland to the 'Jordan' is something like 30 miles. The head of the bay runs from the river mouth in an easterly direction for 3 or perhaps 4 miles, being mostly flat, low-lying alluvium, and then sweeps round towards the N.E. and N., being more elevated and undulating, and ends in Cape Quiros. This land, forming the eastern horn of the bay, does not project so far seaward as the western promontory, and is neither so high nor so steep, nor so heavily timbered as the latter, which is in fact a continuation of the backbone of the island, as far out as Cape Cumberland. The eastern horn extends northward perhaps 10 or 12 miles only. "The depth or extent of the bay itself, from its chord formed by an imaginary E. and W. line drawn through Cape Quiros, seemed to me about a dozen miles, and it is of similar width. It may, therefore, contain nearly 150 square miles in area. "The anchorage is well protected from the prevailing trade-wind, which blows from E.S.E., and is sheltered from that point round by S. to N.W. It is not exposed either from E.N.E. to E.S.E., but from N.W. to N. and N.E. it is unsafe." [114] Probably Vanua Lava. [115] Ureparopara, or islands to N.W. [116] Vendavales. [117] An arroba=25 lbs. [118] Wooded islands, off the port of San Blas, on the west coast of Mexico. [119] 6,000 quintals in the second Order. [120] In the second Order:--"In this kingdom I have ordered 6,000 ducats in aid of expenses on the way out, and 3,000 quintals of iron to be bought at Seville, and sent out." [121] Same as the former Order, except that 6,000 ducats are granted for expenses on the way out; and the quantity of sheet iron is specified and ordered to be bought at Seville. [122] Months (?). 
26658	----	images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.) CELEBRATED TRAVELS AND TRAVELLERS. THE GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. LONDON: GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. [Frontispiece: Map of the work which had to be done in the 19th Century. _Gravé par E. Morieu 23, r. de Bréa Paris._] CELEBRATED TRAVELS AND TRAVELLERS. THE GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY JULES VERNE. TRANSLATED BY N. D'ANVERS, AUTHOR OF "HEROES OF NORTH AFRICAN DISCOVERY," "HEROES OF SOUTH AFRICAN DISCOVERY," ETC. WITH 51 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY LÉON BENETT, AND 57 FAC-SIMILES FROM EARLY MSS. AND MAPS BY MATTHIS AND MORIEU. [Illustration: Ship sailing near icebergs.] London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1881. [_All rights reserved_.] TO DR. G. G. GARDINER, _I Dedicate this Translation_ WITH SINCERE AND GRATEFUL ESTEEM. N. D'ANVERS. HENDON, _Christmas, 1880_. TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. In offering the present volume to the English public, the Translator wishes to thank the Rev. Andrew Carter for the very great assistance given by him in tracing all quotations from English, German, and other authors to the original sources, and for his untiring aid in the verification of disputed spellings, &c. THE GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE 19TH CENTURY. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE FROM THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS, GIVING THE SOURCES WHENCE THEY ARE DERIVED. PART THE FIRST. PAGE Map of the work which had to be done in the 19th Century _Frontispiece_ Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Map of Egypt, Nubia, and part of Arabia _To face woodcut of Jerusalem_ Portrait of Burckhardt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 "Here is thy grave" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Merchant of Jeddah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Shores and boats of the Red Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Map of English India and part of Persia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Bridge of rope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 "They were seated according to age" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Beluchistan warriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 "A troop of bayadères came in" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Afghan costumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Persian costumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 "Two soldiers held me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 "Fifteen Ossetes accompanied me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 "He beheld the Missouri" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Warrior of Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 A kafila of slaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Member of the body-guard of the Sheikh of Bornou . . . . . . . . . 73 Reception of the Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Lancer of the army of the Sultan of Begharmi . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Map of Denham and Clapperton's journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Portrait of Clapperton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 "The caravan met a messenger" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 "Travelling at a slow pace" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 View on the banks of the Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Ashantee warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Réné Caillié . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 "He decamped with all his followers" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Caillié crossing the Tankisso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 View of part of Timbuctoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Map of Réné Caillié's journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 "Laing saw Mount Loma" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Lower Course of the Niger (after Lander) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Mount Kesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 "They were all but upset" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Square stool belonging to the King of Bornou . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Map of the Lower Course of the Djoliba, Kouara, Quoora, or Niger (after Lander) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 "It was hollowed out of a single tree-trunk" . . . . . . . . . . . 141 View of a Merawe temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 The Second Cataract of the Nile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Temple of Jupiter Ammon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 "Villages picturesquely perched" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Map of the Missouri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Circassians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 "Excelling in lassoing the wild mustangs" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Map of the Sources of the Mississippi, 1834 . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 View of the Pyramid of Xochicalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 PART THE SECOND. New Zealanders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Coast of Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Typical Ainos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 "In the twinkling of an eye the canoes were empty" . . . . . . . . 188 Interior of a house at Radak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 View of Otaheite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 One of the guard of the King of the Sandwich Islands . . . . . . . 198 "The village consisted of clean, well-built huts" . . . . . . . . . 204 A Morai at Kayakakoua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Native of Ualan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Sedentary Tchouktchis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Warriors of Ombay and Guebeh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Rawak hut on piles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 The luxuriant vegetation of the Papuan Islands . . . . . . . . . . 230 Map of Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 A performer of the dances of Montezuma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Ruins of ancient pillars at Tinian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 An Australian farm near the Blue Mountains . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Native Australians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Berkeley Sound, in the Falkland Islands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 The _Mercury_ at anchor in Berkeley Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 The waterfall of Port Praslin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 The wreck of the _Uranie_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Natives of New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Meeting with the Chief of Ualan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Natives of Pondicherry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Ancient idols near Pondicherry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Near the Bay of Manilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Women of Touron Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Entrance to Sydney Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 "Apsley's Waterfall" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Eucalyptus forest of Jervis Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 New Guinea hut on piles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 New Zealanders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Attack from the natives of Tonga Tabou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Lofty mountains clothed with dense and gloomy forests . . . . . . . 309 Natives of Vanikoro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 "I merely had the armoury opened" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Reefs off Vanikoro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Hunting sea-elephants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 Map of the Antarctic Regions, showing the routes taken by the navigators of the 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 "Here congregate flocks of penguins" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Dumont d'Urville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 "Only by getting wet up to their waists" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Anchorage off Port Famine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 "The rudder had to be protected" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 View of Adélie Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Reduced Map of D'Urville's discoveries in the Antarctic Regions . . 349 "Their straight walls rose far above our masts" . . . . . . . . . . 350 Captain John Ross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 Map of Victoria, discovered by James Ross . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 "Two small sledges were selected" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Esquimaux family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Map of the Arctic Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364 Rain as a novel phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 Discovery of Victoria Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 TABLE OF CONTENTS. FIRST PART. CHAPTER I. THE DAWN OF A CENTURY OF DISCOVERY. PAGE Slackness of discovery during the struggles of the Republic and Empire--Seetzen's voyages in Syria and Palestine--Hauran and the circumnavigation of the Dead Sea--Decapolis--Journey in Arabia-- Burckhardt in Syria--Expeditions in Nubia upon the two branches of the Nile--Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina--The English in India--Webb at the Source of the Ganges--Narrative of a journey in the Punjab-- Christie and Pottinger in Scinde--The same explorers cross Beluchistan into Persia--Elphinstone in Afghanistan--Persia according to Gardane, A. Dupré, Morier, Macdonald-Kinneir, Price, and Ouseley--Guldenstædt and Klaproth in the Caucasus--Lewis and Clarke in the Rocky Mountains--Raffles in Sumatra and Java . . . . 3 CHAPTER II. THE EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION OF AFRICA. I. Peddie and Campbell in the Soudan--Ritchie and Lyon in Fezzan-- Denham, Oudney, and Clapperton in Fezzan, and in the Tibboo country--Lake Tchad and its tributaries--Kouka and the chief villages of Bornou--Mandara--A razzia, or raid, in the Fellatah country--Defeat of the Arabs and death of Boo-Khaloum--Loggan-- Death of Toole--En route for Kano--Death of Oudney--Kano-- Sackatoo--Sultan Bello--Return to Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 II. Clapperton's second journey--Arrival at Badagry--Yariba and its capital Katunga--Boussa--Attempts to get at the truth about Mungo Park's fate--"Nyffé," Yaourie, and Zegzeg--Arrival at Kano-- Disappointments--Death of Clapperton--Return of Lander to the coast--Tuckey on the Congo--Bowditch in Ashantee--Mollien at the sources of the Senegal and Gambia--Major Grey--Caillié at Timbuctoo--Laing at the sources of the Niger--Richard and John Lander at the mouth of the Niger--Cailliaud and Letorzec in Egypt, Nubia, and the oasis of Siwâh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 CHAPTER III. THE ORIENTAL SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT AND AMERICAN DISCOVERIES. The decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions, and the study of Assyrian remains up to 1840--Ancient Iran and the Avesta--The survey of India and the study of Hindustani--The exploration and measurement of the Himalaya mountains--The Arabian Peninsula-- Syria and Palestine--Central Asia and Alexander von Humboldt--Pike at the sources of the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Red River--Major Long's two expeditions--General Cass--Schoolcraft at the sources of the Mississippi--The exploration of New Mexico--Archæological expeditions in Central America--Scientific expeditions in Brazil-- Spix and Martin--Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied--D'Orbigny and American Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 SECOND PART. CHAPTER I. VOYAGES ROUND THE WORLD, AND POLAR EXPEDITIONS. The Russian fur trade--Kruzenstern appointed to the command of an expedition--Noukha-Hiva--Nangasaki--Reconnaisance of the coast of Japan--Yezo--The Ainos--Saghalien--Return to Europe--Otto von Kotzebue--Stay at Easter Island--Penrhyn--The Radak Archipelago-- Return to Russia--Changes at Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands-- Beechey's Voyage--Easter Island--Pitcairn and the mutineers of the _Bounty_--The Paumoto Islands--Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands-- The Bonin Islands--Lütke--The Quebradas of Valparaiso--Holy week in Chili--New Archangel--The Kaloches--Ounalashka--The Caroline Archipelago--The canoes of the Caroline Islanders--Guam, a desert island--Beauty and happy situation of the Bonin Islands--The Tchouktchees: their manners and their conjurors--Return to Russia . 173 CHAPTER II. FRENCH CIRCUMNAVIGATORS. The journey of Freycinet--Rio de Janeiro and its gipsy inhabitants--The Cape and its wines--The Bay of Sharks--Stay at Timor--Ombay Island and its cannibal inhabitants--The Papuan Islands--The pile dwellings of the Alfoers--A dinner with the Governor of Guam--Description of the Marianne Islands and their inhabitants--Particulars concerning the Sandwich Islands--Port Jackson and New South Wales--Shipwreck in Berkeley Sound--The Falkland Islands--Return to France--The voyage of the _Coquille_ under the command of Duperrey--Martin-Vaz and Trinidad--The Island of St. Catherine--The independence of Brazil--Berkeley Sound and the remains of the _Uranie_--Stay at Conception--The civil war in Chili--The Araucanians--Discoveries in the Dangerous Archipelago-- Stay at Otaheite and New Ireland--The Papuans--Stay at Ualan--The Caroline Islands and their inhabitants--Scientific results of the expeditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 II. Expedition of Baron de Bougainville--Stay at Pondicherry--The "White Town" and the "Black Town"--"Right-hand" and "Left-hand"-- Malacca--Singapore and its prosperity--Stay at Manilla--Touron Bay--The monkeys and the people--The marble rocks of Faifoh-- Cochin-Chinese diplomacy--The Anambas--The Sultan of Madura--The straits of Madura and Allas--Cloates and the Triad Islands-- Tasmania--Botany Bay and New South Wales--Santiago and Valparaiso--Return _viâ_ Cape Horn--Expedition of Dumont d'Urville in the _Astrolabe_--The Peak of Teneriffe--Australia--Stay at New Zealand--Tonga-Tabu--Skirmishes--New Britain and New Guinea--First news of the fate of La Pérouse--Vanikoro and its inhabitants--Stay at Guam--Amboyna and Menado--Results of the expedition . . . . . . 274 CHAPTER III. POLAR EXPEDITIONS. Bellinghausen, yet another Russian Explorer--Discovery of the islands of Traversay, Peter I., and Alexander I.--The Whaler, Weddell--The Southern Orkneys--New Shetland--The people of Tierra del Fuego--John Biscoe and the districts of Enderby and Graham-- Charles Wilkes and the Antarctic Continent--Captain Balleny-- Dumont d'Urville's expedition in the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zelée_-- Coupvent Desbois and the Peak of Teneriffe--The Straits of Magellan--A new post-office shut in by ice--Louis Philippe's Land--Across Oceania--Adélie and Clarie Lands--New Guinea and Torres Strait--Return to France--James Clark Rosset--Victoria . . . 321 II. THE NORTH POLE. Anjou and Wrangell--The "polynia"--John Ross's first expedition-- Baffin's Bay closed--Edward Parry's discoveries on his first voyage--The survey of Hudson's Bay, and the discovery of Fury and Hecla Straits--Parry's third voyage--Fourth voyage--On the ice in sledges in the open sea--Franklin's first trip--Incredible sufferings of the explorers--Second expedition--John Ross--Four winters amongst the ice--Dease and Simpson's expedition . . . . . . 358 THE GREAT EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. [Illustration: PART I.] CHAPTER I. THE DAWN OF A CENTURY OF DISCOVERY. Slackness of discovery during the struggles of the Republic and Empire--Seetzen's voyages in Syria and Palestine--Hauran and the circumnavigation of the Dead Sea--Decapolis--Journey in Arabia-- Burckhardt in Syria--Expeditions in Nubia upon the two branches of the Nile--Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina--The English in India--Webb at the Source of the Ganges--Narrative of a journey in the Punjab--Christie and Pottinger in Scinde--The same explorers cross Beluchistan into Persia--Elphinstone in Afghanistan--Persia according to Gardane, A. Dupré, Morier, Macdonald-Kinneir, Price, and Ouseley--Guldenstædt and Klaproth in the Caucasus--Lewis and Clarke in the Rocky Mountains-- Raffles in Sumatra and Java. A sensible diminution in geographical discovery marks the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. We have already noticed the organization of the Expedition sent in search of La Pérouse by the French Republic, and also Captain Baudin's important cruise along the Australian coasts. These are the only instances in which the unrestrained passions and fratricidal struggles of the French nation allowed the government to exhibit interest in geography, a science which is especially favoured by the French. At a later period, Bonaparte consulted several savants and distinguished artists, and the materials for that grand undertaking which first gave an idea (incomplete though it was) of the ancient civilization of the land of the Pharaohs, were collected together. But when Bonaparte had completely given place to Napoleon, the egotistical monarch, sacrificing all else to his ruling passion for war, would no longer listen to explorations, voyages, or possible discoveries. They represented money and men stolen from him; and his expenditure of those materials was far too great to allow of such futile waste. This was clearly shown, when he ceded the last remnants of French colonial rule in America to the United States for a few millions. Happily other nations were not oppressed by the same iron hand. Absorbed although they might be in their struggle with France, they could still find volunteers to extend the range of geographical science, to establish archæology upon scientific bases, and to prosecute linguistic and ethnographical enterprise. The learned geographer Malte-Brun, in an article published by him in the "Nouvelles Annales des Voyages" in 1817, gives a minute account of the condition of French geographical knowledge at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and of the many desiderata of that science. He reviews the progress already made in navigation, astronomy, and languages. The India Company, far from concealing its discoveries, as jealousy had induced the Hudson Bay Company to do, founded academies, published memoirs, and encouraged travellers. War itself was utilized, for the French army gathered a store of precious material in Egypt. We shall shortly see how emulation spread among the various nations. From the commencement of the century, one country has taken the lead in great discoveries. German explorers have worked so earnestly, and have proved themselves possessed of will so strong and instinct so sure, that they have left little for their successors to do beyond verifying and completing their discoveries. The first in order of time was Ulric Jasper Seetzen, born in 1767 in East Friesland; he completed his education at Göttingen, and published some essays upon statistics and the natural sciences, for which he had a natural inclination. These publications attracted the attention of the government, and he was appointed Aulic Councillor in the province of Tever. Seetzen's ambition, like that of Burckhardt subsequently, was an expedition to Central Africa, but he wished previously to make an exploration of Palestine and Syria, to which countries attention was shortly to be directed by the "Palestine Association," founded in London in 1805. Seetzen did not wait for this period, but in 1802 set out for Constantinople, furnished with suitable introductions. Although many pilgrims and travellers had successively visited the Holy Land and Syria, the vaguest notions about these countries prevailed. Their physical geography was not determined, details were wanting, and certain regions, as for example, the Lebanon and the Dead Sea had never been explored. Comparative geography did not exist. It has taken the unwearied efforts of the English Association and the science of travellers in connexion with it to erect that study into a science. Seetzen, whose studies had been various, found himself admirably prepared to explore a country which, often visited, was still in reality new. Having travelled through Anatolia, Seetzen reached Aleppo in May, 1802. He remained there a year, devoting himself to the practical study of the Arabic tongue, making extracts from Eastern historians and geographers, verifying the astronomical position of Aleppo, prosecuting his investigations into natural history, collecting manuscripts, and translating many of those popular songs and legends which are such valuable aids to the knowledge of a nation. Seetzen left Aleppo in 1805 for Damascus. His first expedition led him across the provinces of Hauran and Jaulan, situated to the S.E. of that town. No traveller had as yet visited these two provinces, which in the days of Roman dominion had played an important part in the history of the Jews, under the names of Auranitis and Gaulonitis. Seetzen was the first to give an idea of their geography. The enterprising traveller explored the Lebanon and Baalbek. He prosecuted his discoveries south of Damascus, and entered Judea, exploring the eastern portion of Hermon, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea. This was the dwelling-place of those races well known to us in Jewish history; the Ammonites, Moabites, and Gileadites. At the time of the Roman conquest, the western portion of this country was known as Perea, and was the centre of the celebrated Decapolis or confederacy of ten cities. No modern traveller had visited these regions, a fact sufficient to induce Seetzen to begin his exploration with them. His friends at Damascus had tried to dissuade him from the journey, by picturing the difficulties and danger of a route frequented by Bedouins; but nothing could stay him. Before visiting the Decapolis region and investigating the condition of its ruins, Seetzen traversed a small district, named Ladscha, which bore a bad reputation at Damascus on account of the Bedouins who occupied it, but which was said to contain remarkable antiquities. Leaving Damascus on the 12th of December, 1805, with an Armenian guide who misled him from the first, Seetzen, having prudently provided himself with a passport from the Pasha, proceeded from village to village escorted by an armed attendant. In a narrative published in the earlier "Annales des Voyages," says the traveller,-- "That portion of Ladscha which I have seen is, like Hauran, entirely formed of basalt, often very porous, and in many districts forming vast stony deserts. The villages, which are mostly in ruins, are built on the sides of the rocks. The black colour of the basalt, the ruined houses, the churches and towers fallen into decay, with the total dearth of trees and verdure, combine to give a sombre aspect to this country, which strikes one almost with dread. In almost every village are either Grecian inscriptions, columns, or other remnants of antiquity; amongst others I copied an inscription of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Here, as in Hauran, the doors were of basalt." Seetzen had scarcely arrived at the village of Gerasa and enjoyed a brief rest, before he was surrounded by half a score of mounted men, who said they had come by order of the vice-governor of Hauran to arrest him. Their master, Omar Aga, having learned that the traveller had been seen in the country the preceding year, and imagining his passports to be forgeries, had sent them to bring him before him. Resistance was useless. Without allowing himself to be disconcerted by an incident which he regarded as a simple contretemps, Seetzen proceeded in the direction of Hauran, where after a day and a half's journey he met Omar Aga, travelling with the Mecca caravan. The travellers having received a hearty welcome, departed on the morrow, but meeting upon his way with many troops of Arabs, upon whom his demeanour imposed respect, he came to the conclusion that it had been Omar Aga's intention to have him robbed. Returning to Damascus, Seetzen had great trouble in finding a guide who would accompany him in his expedition along the eastern shore of the Jordan, and around the Dead Sea. At last, a certain Yusuf-al-Milky, a member of the Greek church, who, for some thirty years, had carried on traffic with the Arab tribes, and travelled in the provinces which Seetzen desired to visit, agreed to bear him company. The two travellers left Damascus on the 19th of January, 1806. Seetzen's entire baggage consisted of a few clothes, some indispensable books, paper for drying plants, and an assortment of drugs, necessary to sustain his assumed character as a physician. He wore the dress of a sheik of secondary rank. The districts of Rasheiya and Hasbeiya, at the foot of Mount Hermon--whose summit at the time was hidden by snow--were the first explored by Seetzen, for the reason that they were the least known in Syria. He then visited Achha, a village inhabited by the Druses, upon the opposite side of the mountain; Rasheiya, the residence of the Emir; and Hasbeiya, where he paid a visit to the Greek Bishop of Szur or Szeida, to whom he carried letters of recommendation. The object which chiefly attracted his attention in this mountainous district, was an asphalt-mine, whose produce is there used to protect the vines from insects. Leaving Hasbeiya, Seetzen proceeded to Bâniâs, the ancient Casaræa Philippi, which is now a mere collection of huts. Even if traces of its fortifications were discoverable, not the smallest remains could be found of the splendid temple erected by Herod in honour of Augustus. Ancient authorities hold that the river of Bâniâs is the source of the Jordan, but in reality that title belongs to the river Hasbany, which forms the larger branch of the Jordan. Seetzen recognized it, as he also did the Lake of Merom, or the ancient Samachonitis. Here he was deserted by his muleteers, whom nothing could induce to accompany him so far as the bridge of Jisr-Benat-Yakûb, and also by his guide Yusuf, whom he was forced to send by the open road to await his arrival at Tiberias, while he himself proceeded on foot towards the celebrated bridge, accompanied by a single Arab attendant. He, however, found no one at Jisr-Benat-Yakûb who was willing to accompany him along the eastern shore of the Jordan, until a native, believing him to be a doctor, begged him to go and see his sheik, who was suffering from ophthalmia, and who lived upon the eastern bank of the Lake of Tiberias. Seetzen gladly availed himself of this opportunity; and it was well he did so, for he was thus enabled to study the Lake of Tiberias and also the Wady Zemmâk at his leisure, not, however, without risk of being robbed and murdered by his guide. Finally he reached Tiberias, called by the Arabs Tabaria, where he found Yusuf, who had been waiting for him for several days. "The town of Tiberias," says Seetzen, "is situated upon the lake of the same name. Upon the land side it is surrounded by a good wall of cut basalt rock, but nevertheless, it scarcely deserves to be called a town. No trace of its earlier splendour remains, but the ruins of the more ancient city, which extended to the Thermæ, a league to the eastward, are recognizable. "The famous Djezar-Pasha caused a bath to be erected above the principal spring. If these baths were in Europe, they would rival all those now existing. The valley in which the lake is situated, is so sheltered, and so warm, that dates, lemon-trees, oranges, and indigo, flourish there, whilst on the high ground surrounding it, the products of more temperate climates might be grown." South-west of the lake are the remains of the ancient city of Tarichæa. There, between two mountain chains, lies the beautiful plain of El Ghor, poorly cultivated, and overrun by Arab hordes. No incident of moment marked Seetzen's journey to Decapolis, during which he was obliged to dress as a mendicant, to escape the rapacity of the native tribes. "Over my shirt" he relates, "I wore an old kambas, or dressing-gown, and above that a woman's ragged chemise; my head was covered with rags, and my feet with old sandals. I was protected from cold and wet by an old ragged 'abbaje,' which I wore across my shoulders, and a stick cut from a tree served me as a staff; my guide, who was a Greek Christian, was dressed much in the same style; and together we scoured the country for some ten days, often hindered in our journey by chilling rains, which wetted us to the skin. For my part, I travelled an entire day in the mud with bare feet, because I could not wear my sandals upon sodden ground." Draa which he reached a little farther on, presented but a mass of desert ruins; and no trace of the monuments which rendered it famous in earlier days, were visible. El-Botthin, the next district, contains hundreds of caverns, hewn in the rocks, which were occupied by the ancient inhabitants. It was much the same at Seetzen's visit. That Mkês was formerly a rich and important city, is proved by its many ruined tombs and monuments. Seetzen identified it with Gadara, one of the minor towns of the Decapolis. Some leagues beyond are the ruins of Abil or Abila. Seetzen's guide, Aoser, refused to go there, being afraid of the Arabs. The traveller was, therefore, obliged to go alone. "This town," he says, "is entirely in ruins and abandoned. Not a single building remains; but its ancient splendour is sufficiently proved by ruins. Traces of the old fortifications remain, and also many pillars and arches of marble, basalt, and granite. Beyond the walls, I found a great number of pillars; two of them were of an extraordinary size. Hence I concluded that a large temple had formerly existed there." On leaving El-Botthin, Seetzen entered the district of Edschlun, and speedily discovered the important ruins of Dscherrasch, which may be compared with those of Palmyra and Baalbek. "It is difficult to conjecture," says Seetzen, "how this town, which was formerly so celebrated, has hitherto escaped the attention of antiquarians. It is situated in an open plain, which is fertile, and watered by a river. Several tombs, with fine bas-reliefs arrested my attention before I entered it; upon one of them, I remarked a Greek inscription. The walls, which were of cut marble, are entirely crumbled away, but their length over three quarters of a league, is still discernible. No private house has been preserved, but I remarked several public buildings of fine architectural design. I found two magnificent amphitheatres constructed of solid marble, the columns, niches, &c., in good condition, a few palaces, and three temples; one of the latter having a peristyle of twelve large Corinthian pillars, of which eleven were still erect. In one of these temples I found a fallen column of the finest polished Egyptian granite. Beside these, I found one of the city gates, formed of three arches, and ornamented with pilasters, in good preservation. The finest of the remains is a street adorned throughout its length with Corinthian columns on either side, and terminating in a semicircle, which was surrounded by sixty Ionic columns, all of the choicest marble. This street was crossed by another, and at the junction of the two, large pedestals of wrought stone occupied each angle, probably in former times these bore statues. Much of the pavement was constructed of hewn stone. Altogether I counted nearly two hundred columns, still in a fair state of preservation; but the number of these is far exceeded by those which have fallen into decay, for I saw only half the extent of the town, and in all probability the other half beyond this was also rich in remarkable relics." From Seetzen's description, Dscherrasch would appear to be identical with the ancient Gerasa, a town which up to that time had been erroneously placed on the maps. The traveller crossed Gerka--the Jabok of Jewish history--which forms the northern boundary of the country of the Ammonites, and penetrated into the district of El-Belka, formerly a flourishing country, but which he found uncultivated and barren, with but one small town, Szalt, formerly known as Amathus. Afterwards Seetzen visited Amman, a town which, under the name of Philadelphia, is renowned among the decapolitan cities, and where many antiquities are to be found, Eleal, an ancient city of the Amorites, Madaba, called Madba in the time of Moses, Mount Nebo, Diban, Karrak, the country of the Moabites, and the ruins of Robba, (Rabbath) anciently the royal residence. After much fatigue, he reached the region situated at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, named Gor-es-Sophia. The heat was extreme, and great salt-plains, where no watercourses exist, had to be crossed. Upon the 6th of April, Seetzen arrived in Bethlehem, and soon afterwards at Jerusalem, having suffered greatly from thirst, but having passed through most interesting countries, hitherto unvisited by any modern traveller. [Illustration: Jerusalem.] [Illustration: Map of Egypt, Nubia, and part of Arabia.] He had also collected much valuable information respecting the nature of the waters of the Dead Sea, refuted many false notions, corrected mistakes upon the most carefully constructed maps, identified several sites of the ancient Peræa, and established the existence of numberless ruins, which bore witness to the prosperity of all this region under the sway of the Roman Empire. Upon the 25th of June, 1806, Seetzen left Jerusalem, and returned to St. Jean d'Acre by sea. In an article in the _Revùe Germanique_ for 1858, M. Vinen speaks of his expedition as a veritable journey of discovery. Seetzen, however, was unwilling to leave his discoveries incomplete. Ten months later, he again visited the Dead Sea, and added largely to his observations. From thence he proceeded to Cairo, where he remained for two years, and bought a large portion of the oriental manuscripts which now enrich the library of Gotha. He collected many facts about the interior of the country, choosing instinctively those only which could be amply substantiated. Seetzen, with his insatiable thirst for discovery, could not remain long in repose, far removed from idleness though it was. In April, 1809, he finally left the capital of Egypt, and directed his course towards Suez and the peninsula of Sinai, which he resolved to explore before proceeding to Arabia. At this time Arabia was a little-known country, frequented only by merchants trading in Mocha coffee-beans. Before Niebuhr's time no scientific expedition for the study of the geography of the country or the manners and customs of the inhabitants had been organized. This expedition owed its formation to Professor Michälis, who was anxious to obtain information which would throw light on certain passages in the Bible, and its expenses were defrayed by the generosity of King Frederick V. of Denmark. It comprised Von Hannen, the mathematician, Forskaal, the naturalist, a physician named Cramer, Braurenfeind, the painter, and Niebuhr, the engineer, a company of learned and scientific men, who thoroughly fulfilled all expectations founded upon their reputations. In the course of two years, from 1762 to 1764, they visited Egypt, Mount Sinai, Jeddah, landed at Loheia, and advancing into Arabia Felix, explored the country in accordance with the speciality of each man. But the enterprising travellers succumbed to illness and fatigue, and Niebuhr alone survived to utilize the observations made by himself and his companions. His work on the subject is an inexhaustible treasury, which may be drawn upon in our own day with advantage. Seetzen, therefore, had much to achieve to eclipse the fame of his predecessor. He omitted no means of doing so. After publicly professing the faith of Islam, he embarked at Suez for Mecca, and hoped to enter that city disguised as a pilgrim. Tor and Jeddah were the places visited by him before he travelled to the holy city of Mecca. He was much impressed by the wealth of the faithful and the peculiar characteristics of that city, which lives for and by the Mahometan cultus. "I was seized," says the traveller, "with an emotion which I have never experienced elsewhere." It is alike unnecessary to dwell upon this portion of the voyage and upon that relating to the excursion to Medina. Burckhardt's narrative gives a precise and trustworthy account of those holy places, and besides, there remain of Seetzen's works only the extracts published in "Les Annales des Voyages," and in the Correspondence of the Baron de Zach. The Journal of Seetzen's travels was published in German, and in a very incomplete manner, only in 1858. The traveller returned from Medina to Mecca, and devoted himself to a secret study of the town, with its religious ceremonies, and to taking astronomical observations, which determined the position of the capital of Islam. Seetzen returned to Jeddah on the 23rd March, 1810. He then re-embarked, with the Arab who had been his guide to Mecca, for Hodeidah, which is one of the principal ports of Yemen. Passing the mountainous district of Beith-el-Fakih, where coffee is cultivated, after a month's delay at Doran on account of illness, Seetzen entered Sana, the capital of Yemen, which he calls the most beautiful city of the East, on the 2nd of June. Upon the 22nd of July he reached Aden, and in November he was at Mecca, whence the last letters received from him are dated. Upon re-entering Yemen, he, like Niebuhr, was robbed of his collections and baggage, upon the pretext that he collected animals, in order to compose a philtre, with the intention of poisoning the springs. Seetzen, however, would not quietly submit to be robbed. He started at once for Sana, intending to lay a complaint before the Iman. This was in December, 1811. A few days later news of his sudden death arrived at Taes, and the tidings soon reached the ears of the Europeans who frequented the Arabian ports. It is little to the purpose now to inquire upon whom the responsibility of this death rests--whether upon the Iman or upon those who had plundered the traveller--but we may well regret that so thorough an explorer, already familiar with the habits and customs of the Arabs, was unable to continue his explorations, and that the greater portion of his diaries and observations have been entirely lost. "Seetzen," says M. Vivien de Saint Martin, "was the first traveller since Ludovico Barthema (1503) who visited Mecca, and before his time no European had even seen the holy city of Medina, consecrated by the tomb of the Prophet." From these remarks we gather how invaluable the trustworthy narrative of this disinterested and well-informed traveller would have been. Just as an untimely death ended Seetzen's self-imposed mission, Burckhardt set out upon a similar enterprise, and like him commenced his long and minute exploration of Arabia by preliminary travel through Syria. "It is seldom in the history of science," says M. Vivien de Saint Martin, "that we see two men of such merit succeed each other in the same career or rather continue it; for in reality Burckhardt followed up the traces Seetzen had opened out, and, seconded for a considerable time by favourable circumstances which enabled him to prosecute his explorations, he was enabled to add very considerably to the known discoveries of his predecessor." Although John Lewis Burckhardt was not English, for he was a native of Lausanne, he must none the less be classed among the travellers of Great Britain. It was owing to his relations with Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist who had accompanied Cook, and Hamilton, the secretary of the African Association, who gave him ready and valuable support, that Burckhardt was enabled to accomplish what he did. Burckhardt was a deeply learned man. He had passed through the universities of Leipzic, and Göttingen, where he attended Blumenbach's lectures, and afterwards through Cambridge, where he studied Arabic. He started for the East in 1809. To inure himself to the hardships of a traveller's life, he imposed long fasts upon himself, accustomed himself to endure thirst, and chose the pavements of London or dusty roads for a resting-place. But how trifling were these experiences in comparison with those involved in an apostolate of science! Leaving London for Syria, where he hoped to perfect his knowledge of Arabic, Burckhardt intended to proceed to Cairo and to reach Fezzan by the route formerly opened up by Hornemann. Once arrived in that country, circumstances must determine his future course. Burckhardt, having taken the name of Ibrahim-Ibn-Abdallah, intended to pass as an Indian Mussulman. In order to carry out this disguise, he had recourse to many expedients. In an obituary notice of him in the "Annales des Voyages," it is related that when unexpectedly called upon to speak the Indian language, he immediately had recourse to German. An Italian dragoman, suspecting him of being a giaour, pulled him by his beard, thereby offering him the greatest insult possible in his character of Mussulman. But Burckhardt had so thoroughly entered into the spirit of his rôle, that he responded by a vigorous blow, which sending the unfortunate dragoman spinning to a distance, turned the laugh against him, and thoroughly convinced the bystanders of the sincerity of the traveller. [Illustration: Portrait of Burckhardt. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Burckhardt remained at Aleppo from September, 1809, to February, 1812, pursuing his studies of Syrian manners and customs, and of the language of the country, with but one interruption, a six months' excursion to Damascus, Palmyra, and the Hauran, a country which had hitherto been visited by Seetzen only. It is related that, during an excursion into Gor, a district north of Aleppo, upon the shores of the Euphrates, the traveller was robbed of his baggage and stripped of his clothes by a band of robbers. When nothing remained to him but his trousers, the wife of a chief, who had not received her share of the spoil, wished to relieve him even of those indispensable garments! The _Revue Germanique_ says:--"We owe a great deal of information to these excursions, respecting a country of which we had only crude notions, gained from Seetzen's incomplete communications. Burckhardt's power of close observation detected a number of interesting facts, even in well-known districts, which had escaped the notice of other travellers. These materials were published by Colonel Martin William Leake, himself a geographer, a man of learning, and a distinguished traveller." Burckhardt had seen Palmyra and Baalbek, the slopes of Lebanon and the valley of the Orontes, Lake Huleh, and the sources of the Jordan; he had discovered many ancient sites; and his observations had led especially to the discovery of the site of the far-famed Apamoea, although both he and his publisher were mistaken in their application of the data obtained. His excursions in the Auranitis were equally rich, even though coming after Seetzen's, in those geographical and archæological details which represent the actual condition of a country, and throw a light upon the comparative geography of every age. Leaving Damascus in 1813, Burckhardt visited the Dead Sea, the valley of Akâba, and the ancient port of Azcongater, districts which in our own day are traversed by parties of English, with their _Murray_, _Cook_, or _Bædeker_ in their hands; but which then were only to be visited at the risk of life. In a lateral valley, the traveller came upon the ruins of Petra, the ancient capital of Arabia Petræa. At the end of the year Burckhardt was at Cairo. Judging it best not to join the caravan which was just starting for Fezzan, he felt a great inclination to visit Nubia, a country rich in attractions for the historian, geographer, and archæologist. Nubia, the cradle of Egyptian civilization, had only been visited, since the days of the Portuguese Alvares, by Poncet and Lenoir Duroule, both Frenchmen, at the close of the seventeenth century, at the opening of the eighteenth by Bruce, whose narrative had so often been doubted, and by Norden, who had not penetrated beyond Derr. In 1813 Burckhardt explored Nubia proper, including Mahass and Kemijour. This expedition cost him only forty-two francs, a very paltry sum in comparison with the price involved in the smallest attempt at an African journey in our own day; but we must not forget that Burckhardt was content to live upon millet-seed, and that his entire _cortége_ consisted of two dromedaries. Two Englishmen, Mr. Legh and Mr. Smelt, were travelling in the country at the same time, scattering gold and presents as they passed, and thus rendering the visits of their successors costly. Burckhardt crossed the cataracts of the Nile. "A little farther on," says the narrative, "near a place called Djebel-Lamoule, the Arab guides practise a curious extortion." This is their plan of proceeding. They halt, descend from their camels, and arrange a little heap of sand and pebbles, in imitation of a Nubian tomb. This they, call "_preparing the grave for the traveller_" and follow up the demonstration by an imperious demand for money. Burckhardt having watched his guide commence this operation, began quietly to imitate him, and then said, "Here is thy grave; as we are brothers, it is but fair that we should be buried together." The Arab could not help laughing, both graves were simultaneously destroyed, and remounting the camels, the cavalcade proceeded, better friends than before. The Arab quoted a saying from the Koran: "No human being knows in what spot of the earth he will find his grave." [Illustration: "Here is thy grave."] Burckhardt had hoped to get as far as Dingola, but was obliged to rest satisfied with collecting information about the country and the Mamelukes, who had taken refuge there after the massacre of their army by order of the viceroy of Egypt. The attention of the traveller was frequently directed to the ruins of temples and ancient cities, than which none are more curious than those of Isambul. "The temple on the banks of the Nile is approached by an avenue flanked by six colossal figures, which measure six feet and a half from the ground to the knees. They are representations of Isis and Osiris, in various attitudes. The sides and capitals of the pillars are covered with paintings or hieroglyphic carvings, in which Burckhardt thought a very ancient style was to be traced. All these are hewn out of the rock, and the faces appear to have been painted yellow, with black hair. Two hundred yards from this temple are the ruins of a still larger monument, consisting of four enormous figures, so deeply buried in the sand that it is impossible to say whether they are in a standing or sitting posture." These descriptions of antiquities, which in our own day are accurately known by drawings and photographs, have, however, little value for us; and are merely interesting as indicating the state of the ruins when Burckhardt visited them, and enabling us to judge how far the depredations of the Arabs have since changed them. Burckhardt's first excursion was limited to the borders of the Nile, a narrow space made up of little valleys, which debouched into the river. The traveller estimated the population of the country at 100,000, distributed over a surface of fertile land 450 miles in length, by a quarter of a mile in width. "The men," says the narrative, "are, as a rule, muscular, rather shorter than the Egyptians, having little beard or moustache, usually merely a pointed beard under the chin. They have a pleasant expression, are superior to the Egyptians in courage and intelligence, and naturally inquisitive. They are not thieves. They occasionally pick up a fortune by dint of hard work, but they have little enterprise. Women share the same physical advantages, are pretty as a rule, and well made; their appearance is gentle and pleasing, and they are modest in behaviour. M. Denon has underrated the Nubians, but it must not be forgotten that their physique varies in different districts. Where there is much land to cultivate, they are well developed; but in districts where arable land is a mere strip, the people diminish in vigour, and are sometimes walking skeletons." The whole country groaned under the yoke of the Kashefs, who were descendants of the commander of the Bosniacs, and paid only a small annual tribute to Egypt, which, however, was sufficient to serve as a pretext for oppressing the unfortunate fellaheen. Burckhardt cites a curious example of the insolence with which the Kashefs behaved. "Hassan Kashef," he says, was in need of barley for his horses. Accompanied by his slaves, he walked into the fields, and there met the owner of a fine plot of barley. "How badly you cultivate your land," said he. "Here you plant barley in a field where you might have reaped an excellent crop of water-melons of double the value. See, here are some melon-seeds (offering a handful to the peasant proprietor); sow your field with these; and you, slaves, tear up this bad barley and bring it to me." In March, 1814, after a short rest, Burckhardt undertook a fresh exploration, not this time of the banks of the Nile, but of the Nubian desert. Justly conceiving poverty to be his surest safe guard, he dismissed his servant, sold his camel, and contenting himself with one ass, joined a caravan of poor traders. The caravan started from Daraou, a village inhabited partly by fellahs and partly by Ababdéh Arabs. The traveller had good reason to complain of the former, not because they recognized him as a European, but because they imagined him to be a Syrian Turk, come to share the commerce in slaves of which they had the monopoly. It would be useless to enumerate the names of the bridges, hills, and valleys in this desert. We will rather summarize the traveller's report of the physical aspect of the country. Bruce, who had explored it, paints it in too gloomy colours, and exaggerates the difficulties of the route. If Burckhardt is to be credited, the country is less barren than that between Aleppo and Bagdad, or Damascus and Medina. The Nubian desert is not merely a plain of sand, where nothing interrupts the dreary monotony. It is interspersed with rocks, some not less than 300 feet in height, and shaded by thickets of acacias or date-trees. The shelter of these trees is, however, unavailing against the vertical rays of the sun, which explains an Arabic proverb, "Rely upon the favour of the great and the shade of an acacia." At Ankheyre, or Wady-Berber, the caravan reached the Nile, after passing Shigre, one of the best mountain springs. One danger only is to be feared in crossing the desert; that of finding the wells at Nedjeym dry; and, unless the traveller should lose his way, which, however, with trustworthy guides, is little likely to happen, no serious obstacle arises. It would appear, therefore, that the sufferings experienced by Bruce must have been greatly exaggerated, although the narrative of the Scotch traveller is generally trustworthy. The natives of the province of Berber appear to be identical with the Barbarins of Bruce, the Barabas mentioned by D'Anville, and the Barauras spoken of by Poncet. They are a well-made race, and different in feature from the negroes. They maintain their purity of descent by marrying only with the women of their own or of kindred tribes. Curious as is the picture Burckhardt draws of the character and manners of this tribe, it is not at all edifying. It would be difficult to convey an idea of the corruption and degradation of the Berbers. The little town of Wady-Berber, a commercial centre, the rendezvous for caravans, and a depôt for slaves, is a regular resort of banditti. Burckhardt, who had trusted to the protection of the merchants of Daraou, found that he had made a great mistake in so doing. They sought every means of plundering him, chased him out of their company, and forced him to seek refuge with the guides and donkey-drivers, who cordially welcomed him. Upon the 10th of April a fine was levied upon the caravan by the Mek of Damer, which lies a little south of the tributary Mogren (called Mareb by Bruce). This is a well-kept and cleanly Fakir village, which contrasts agreeably with the ruins and filth of Berber. The Fakirs give themselves up to the practices of sorcery, magic, and charlatanism. One of them, it is said, could even make a lamb bleat in the stomach of the man who had stolen and eaten it! These ignorant people have entire faith in such fables, and it must be reluctantly admitted that the fact contributes not a little to the peace of the town and the prosperity of the country. From Damer, Burckhardt proceeded to Shendy, where he passed a month, during which time no one suspected him to be an infidel. Shendy had grown in importance since Bruce's visit, and now consisted of about a thousand houses. Considerable trade was carried on--grass, slaves, and cattle taking the place of specie. The principal marketable commodities were gum, ivory, gold, and ostrich feathers. According to Burckhardt, the number of slaves sold yearly at Shendy amounts to 5000; 2500 of these are for Arabia, 400 for Egypt, 1000 for Dongola and the districts of the Red Sea. The traveller employed his time during his stay at Sennaar in collecting information about that kingdom. Amongst other curious things, he was told that the king having one day invited the ambassador of Mehemet Ali to a cavalry review, which he considered rather formidable, the envoy in his turn begged the king to witness part of the Turkish artillery exercises. But at the outset of the performance--at the discharge of two small mounted guns--cavalry, infantry, spectators, courtiers, and the king himself, fled in terror. Burckhardt sold his wares, and then, worn out by the persecutions of the Egyptian merchants who were his companions, he joined the caravan at Suakin, intending to traverse the unknown district between that town and Shendy. From Suakin he meant to set out for Mecca, hoping to find the Hadji useful to him in the realization of his projects. "The Hadji," he says, "form one powerful body, and every member is protected, because if one is attacked the whole number take up arms." The caravan which Burckhardt now joined consisted of 150 merchants and 300 slaves. Two hundred camels were employed to convey heavy bales of "danmour," a stuff manufactured in Sennaar, and cargoes of tobacco. The first object of interest to the travellers was the Atbara, a tributary of the Nile, whose banks, with their verdant trees, were grateful to the eye after the sandy desert. The course of the river was followed as far as the fertile district of Taka. During the journey the white skin of the pretended sheik Ibrahim (it will be remembered that this was the name assumed by Burckhardt) attracted much attention from the female population, who were little accustomed to the sight of Arabs. "One day," relates the traveller, "a girl of the country, of whom I had been buying onions, offered to give me an extra quantity if I would remove my turban, and show her my head. I demanded eight more onions, which she immediately produced. As I removed my turban, and exposed my white and close-shaven head to view, she sprang back in horror and dismay. I asked her jokingly if she would not like a husband with a similar head, to which she replied with much energy, and many expressions of disgust, that she would prefer the ugliest slave ever brought from Darfur." Just before Goz Radjeh was reached, Burckhardt's attention was attracted to a building, which he was told was either a church or temple, the same word having the two meanings. He at once proceeded in that direction, hoping to examine it, but his companions stopped him, saying, "It is surrounded by bands of robbers; you cannot go a hundred steps without danger of attack." Burckhardt was unable to decide whether it was an Egyptian temple, or a monument of the empire of Axum. At last the caravan entered the fertile district of Tak or El Gasch, a wide watered plain, whose soil is wonderfully fertile, but which for two months in the year is uninhabited. Grain is plentiful and is sold in Jeddah for twenty per cent. more than the best Egyptian millet. The inhabitants, who are called Hadendoa, are treacherous, dishonest, and bloodthirsty; and their women are almost as degraded as those of Shendy and Berber. Upon leaving Taka, the road to Suakin and the shores of the Red Sea lay over a chain of chalk hills. At Schenterab granite is found. The hills presented few difficulties, and the caravan reached Suakin in safety upon the 26th May. But Burckhardt's troubles were not yet at an end. The Emir and Aga combined to plunder him, and treated him as the lowest of slaves, until he produced the firman which he had received from Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim Pasha. This changed the face of affairs. Instead of being thrown into prison the traveller was invited to the Aga's, who offered him a present of a young slave. M. Vivien de Saint Martin writes of this expedition, "This journey of from twenty to twenty-five days, between the Nile and the Red Sea, was the first ever undertaken by a European. The observations collected, as to the settled or nomad tribes of these districts are invaluable for Europe. Burckhardt's narrative is of increasing interest, and few can compare with it for instruction and interest." Upon the 7th of July Burckhardt succeeded in embarking in a boat, and eleven days later he reached Jeddah, which serves as a harbour to Mecca. Jeddah is built upon the sea-shore, and is surrounded by a wall, which, insufficient as it would be against artillery, protects it perfectly from the attacks of the Wahabees, who have been nicknamed the "Puritans of Islamism." These people are a distinct sect, who claim to restore Mahomedanism to its primitive simplicity. "The entrance to the town, upon the side nearest the sea," says Burckhardt, "is protected by a battery which overlooks the entire fort, and is surmounted by one enormous piece of artillery capable of discharging a five-hundred pound shot, which is so renowned throughout the Arabian Gulf, that its reputation alone is enough to protect Jeddah." The greatest drawback to this city is its want of fresh water, which is brought from small wells two miles distant. Without gardens, vegetables, or date-trees, Jeddah, in spite of its population of twelve or fifteen thousand (a number which is doubled in the pilgrimage season) presents a strange appearance. The population is the reverse of autochthonous; it is composed of natives of Hadramaut and Yemen, Indians from Surat and Bombay, and Malays who come as pilgrims and settle in the town. Burckhardt introduces many anecdotes of interest into his account of the manners, mode of living, price of commodities, and number of traders in the place. [Illustration: Merchant of Jeddah. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Speaking of the singular customs of the natives of Jeddah, he says:--"It is the almost universal custom for everybody to swallow a cup full of ghee or melted butter in the morning. After this they take coffee, which they regard as a strong tonic; and they are so accustomed to this habit from their earliest years, that they feel greatly inconvenienced if they discontinue it. The higher classes are satisfied with drinking the cup of butter, but the lower classes add another half cup, which they draw up through the nostrils, imagining that they thus prevent bad air entering the body by those apertures." The traveller left Jeddah for Tayf on the 24th of August. The road winds over mountains and across valleys of romantic beauty and luxuriant verdure. Burckhardt was taken for an English spy at Tayf, and, although he was well received by the Pasha, he had no liberty, and could not carry on his observations. Tayf, it appears, is famous for the beauty of its gardens; roses and grapes are sent from it into all the districts of Hedjaz. This town had a considerable trade, and was very prosperous before it was plundered by the Wahabees. [Illustration: Shores and boats of the Red Sea.] The surveillance to which he was subjected hastened Burckhardt's departure, and upon the 7th of September he started for Mecca. Well versed in the study of the Koran, and acquainted with all the practices of Islamism, he was prepared to act the part of a pilgrim. His first care was to dress himself in accordance with the law prescribed for the faithful who enter Mecca--in the "ihram," or pieces of cloth without seam, one covering the loins, the other thrown over the neck and shoulders. The pilgrim's first duty is to proceed to the temple, without waiting even to procure a lodging. This Burckhardt did not fail to do, observing at the same time the rites and ceremonies prescribed in such cases, of which he gives many interesting particulars; we cannot, however, dwell upon them here. "Mecca," says Burckhardt, "may be called a pretty town. As a rule, the streets are wider than in most Eastern cities. The houses are lofty and built of stone; and its numerous windows, opening upon the street, give it a more cheerful and European aspect than the cities of Egypt or Syria, whose dwellings generally have few windows on the outside. Every house has a terrace built of stone, and sloping in such a way as to allow water to run down the gutters into the street. Low walls with parapets conceal these terraces; for, as everywhere else in the East, it is not thought right for a man to appear there; he would be accused of spying upon the women, who spend much of their time upon the terrace of the house, engaged in domestic work, drying corn, hanging out linen, &c." The only public place in the city is the large court of the Grand Mosque. Trees are rare; not a garden enlivens the view, and the scene depends for animation upon the well-stocked shops which abound during the pilgrimage. With the exception of four or five large houses belonging to the administration, two colleges, which have since been converted into warehouses for corn, and the mosque with the few buildings and colleges connected with it, Mecca can boast of no public buildings, and cannot compete in this respect with other cities in the East of the same size. The streets are unpaved; and as drains are unknown, water collects in puddles, and the accumulation of mud is inconceivable. For a water supply the natives trust to heaven, catching the rain in cisterns, for that obtained from the wells is so foul that it is impossible to drink it. In the centre of the town, where the valley widens a little, the mosque known as Beithóu'llah, or El Haram, is situated. This edifice owes its fame to the Kaaba which is enclosed in it, for other Eastern towns can boast of mosques equally large and more beautiful. El Haram is situated in an oblong space, surrounded on the eastern side by a quadruple colonnade, and by a triple one on the other. The columns are connected by pointed arches, upon each four stand little domes constructed of mortar and whitened outside. Some of these columns are of white marble, granite, or porphyry, but the greater part are of the common stone found among the mountains of Mecca. The Kaaba has been so often ruined and restored that no trace of a remote antiquity remains. It was in existence before this mosque was built. The traveller says, "The Kaaba is placed upon an inclined base some two feet high, and its roof being flat, it presents the appearance at a little distance of a perfect cube. The only door by which it can be entered, and which is opened two or three times a year, is on the north side, about seven feet above the ground, for which reason one cannot enter except by means of a wooden staircase. The famous 'black stone' is enshrined at the north-eastern corner of the Kaaba, near the door, and forms one of the angles of the building four or five feet above the floor of the court. It is difficult to ascertain the exact nature of this stone, as its surface has been completely worn and reduced to its present condition by the kisses and worshipping touches bestowed upon it by countless millions of pilgrims. The Kaaba is entirely covered with black silk, which envelopes its sides, leaving the roof exposed. This veil or curtain is called 'the Kesoua,' and is renewed yearly during the pilgrimage. It is brought from Cairo, where it is manufactured at the expense of the Viceroy." Up to the time of Burckhardt no such detailed account of Mecca and her sanctuary had been given to the world. For this reason we shall insert extracts from the original narrative; extracts which might indeed be multiplied, for they include circumstantial accounts of the sacred well, called Zemzem, water from which is considered as an infallible remedy for every complaint. The traveller speaks also of the "Gate of Salvation," of the Makam Ibrahim, a monument containing the stone upon which Abraham sat when he was engaged in building the Kaaba, and where the marks of his knees may still be seen, and of all the buildings enclosed within the temple precincts. Judging from Burckhardt's minute and complete description, these spots still retain their former physiognomy. The same number of pilgrims chant the same songs; the men only are no longer the same. His accounts of the feast of the pilgrimage and the holy enthusiasm of the faithful, are followed by a picture which brings before us, in the most sombre colours, the effects of this great gathering of men, attracted from every part of the world. "The termination of the pilgrimage," he says, "lends a very different aspect to the mosque. Illness and death, consequent upon the great fatigues undergone during the voyage, are accelerated by the scanty covering afforded by the Ihram, the unhealthy dwellings of Mecca, the bad food, and frequent absolute dearth of provisions. The temple is filled with corpses brought thither to receive the prayers of the Iman, or with sick persons who insist upon being carried, as their last hours approach, to the colonnade, hoping to be saved by the sight of the Kaaba, or in any case to have the consolation of expiring within the sacred precincts. One sees poor pilgrims, sinking under illness and hunger, dragging their weary bodies along the colonnade; and when they no longer have the strength to stretch out a hand to the passer-by, they place a little jar beside the mat upon which they are laid, to receive what charity may bestow upon them. As they feel the last moment approach, they cover themselves with their ragged clothes, and very often a day passes before it is ascertained that they are dead." We will conclude our extracts from Burckhardt's account of Mecca with his opinion of the inhabitants. "Although the natives of Mecca possess grand qualities, although they are pleasant, hospitable, cheerful and proud, they openly transgress the Koran by drinking, gambling, and smoking. Deceit and perjury are no longer looked upon as crimes by them; they do not ignore the scandal such vices bring upon them; but while each individually exclaims against the corruption of manners, none reform themselves." Upon the 15th of January, 1815, Burckhardt left Mecca with a caravan of pilgrims on their way to visit the tomb of the prophet. The journey to Medina, like that between Mecca and Jeddah, was accomplished at night, and afforded little opportunity for observation. In the winter night-travelling is less comfortable than travelling by day. A valley called Wady-Fatme, but generally known as El-Wadi, was crossed; it abounded in shrubs and date-trees, and was well cultivated in the eastern portion. A little beyond it lies the valley of Es-Ssafra, the market of the neighbouring tribes and celebrated for its plantations of dates. The traveller relates that "The groves of date-trees extend for nearly four miles, and belong to the natives of Ssafra as well as to the Bedouins of the neighbourhood, who employ labourers to water the ground, and come themselves to reap the harvest. The date-trees pass from one person to another in the course of trade; they are sold separately. A father often receives three date-trees as the price of the daughter he gives in marriage. They are all planted in deep sand brought from the middle of the valley, and piled up over their roots; they ought to be renewed every year, and they are generally swept away by the torrents. Each little plot is surrounded by a wall of mud or stone, and the cultivators live in hamlets or isolated cabins among the trees. The principal stream flows through a grove near the market; beside it rises a little mosque, shaded by large chestnuts. I had seen none before in the Hedjaz." Burckhardt was thirteen days in reaching Medina. But this rather long journey was not lost time to him; he collected much information about the Arabs and the Wahabees. At Medina, as at Mecca, the pilgrim's first duty is to visit the tomb and mosque of Mahomet; but the ceremonies attending the visit are much easier and shorter, and the traveller performed them in a quarter of an hour. Burckhardt's stay at Mecca had already been prejudicial to him. At Medina he was attacked by intermittent fever, which increased in violence, and was accompanied by violent sickness. This soon so reduced him, that he could no longer rise from his carpet without the assistance of his slave, "a poor fellow who by nature and habit was more fit to tend camels than to take care of his worn-out and enfeebled master." Burckhardt being detained at Medina for more than three months by a fever, due to bad climate, the detestable quality of the water, and the prevalence of infectious illnesses, was forced to relinquish his project of crossing the desert to Akabah, in order to reach Yanibo as quickly as possible, and from thence embark for Egypt. "Next to Aleppo," he says, "Medina is the best-built town I have seen in the East. It is entirely of stone, the houses being generally three stories high, with flat tops. As they are not whitewashed, and the stone is brown in colour, the streets, which are very narrow, have usually a sombre appearance. They are often only two or three paces wide. At the present time Medina looks desolate enough; the houses are falling into ruins. Their owners, who formerly derived a considerable profit from the inroad of pilgrims, find their revenues diminishing, as the Wahabees forbid visitors to the tomb of the prophet, alleging that he was but a mere mortal. The possession which places Medina on a par with Mecca is the Grand Mosque, containing the tomb of Mahomet. This is smaller than that at Mecca, but is built upon the same plan, in a large square courtyard, surrounded on all sides by covered galleries, and having a small building in the centre. The famous tomb, surrounded by an iron railing painted green, is near the eastern corner. It is of good workmanship, in imitation of filagree, and interlaced with inscriptions in copper. Four doors, of which three lead into this enclosure, are kept constantly shut. Permission to enter is freely accorded to persons of rank, and others can purchase permission of the principal eunuchs for about fifteen piasters. In the interior are hangings which surround the tomb, and are only a few feet from it." According to the historian of Medina, these hangings cover a square edifice, built of black stones, and supported upon two columns, in the interior of which are the sepulchres of Mahomet and his two eldest disciples, Abou-Bekr and Omar. He also states that these sepulchres are deep holes, and that the coffin which contains the ashes of Mahomet is covered with silver, and surmounted by a marble slab with the inscription, "In the name of God, give him thy pity." The fables which were spread throughout Europe as to the tomb of the prophet being suspended in mid air, are unknown in the Hedjaz. The mosque was robbed of a great part of its treasures by the Wahabees, but there is some ground for believing that they had been forestalled by the successive guardians of the tomb. Many other interesting details of Medina, and its inhabitants, surroundings, and the haunts of pilgrims, are to be found in Burckhardt's narrative. But we have given sufficient extracts to induce the reader who desires further information respecting the manners and customs of the Arabs, which have not changed, to refer to the book itself. Upon the 21st of April, 1815, Burckhardt joined a caravan which conducted him to Yembo, where the plague was raging. The traveller at once fell ill and became so weak that it was impossible for him to resort to a country place. To embark was equally impossible; all the vessels which were ready to start were crowded with soldiers. He was compelled to remain eighteen days in the unhealthy little town, before he could obtain a passage in a small vessel which took him to Cosseir, and thence to Egypt. Upon his return to Cairo Burckhardt heard of his father's death. The traveller's constitution had been sorely tried by illness, and he was unable to attempt the ascent of Mount Sinai until 1816. The study of natural history, the publication of his diary, and his correspondence, occupied him until 1817, at which time he expected to go with a caravan to Fezzan. Unfortunately he succumbed to a sudden attack of fever, his last words being, "Write and tell my mother that my last thought was of her." Burckhardt was an accomplished traveller; well-informed, exact to minuteness, patient, courageous, and endowed with an upright and energetic character. His writings are of great value; the narrative of his voyage in Arabia--of which he unfortunately could not explore the interior--is so complete and precise, that owing to it that country was then better known than many in Europe. In writing to his father from Cairo on the 13th of March, 1817, he says, "I have never said a word about what I have seen and met with that my conscience did not entirely justify; I did not expose myself to so much danger in order to write a romance!" The explorers who have succeeded him in the same countries unanimously testify to his exactness, and agree in praising his fidelity, knowledge, and sagacity. "Few travellers," says the _Revue Germanique_, "have enjoyed in a like degree the faculty of observation. That is a rare gift of nature, like all eminent qualities. He possessed a sort of intuition which discerned the truth, apart from his own observations, and thus information given by him from hearsay has a value that seldom attaches to statements of that nature. His mind, early ripened by reflection and study (he was but in his thirty-third year at the time of his death), invariably went straight to the point. His narrative, always sober, is filled--one may say--rather with things than words; yet his narratives possess infinite charm; one admires the man in them as much as the savant and observer." While the Biblical countries occupied the attention of Seetzen and Burckhardt, India, the birthplace of most of the European languages, was about to command the attention of students of language, literature, and religion, as well as of geography. For the present our concern is with those problems of physical geography, which the conquests and studies of the India Company were about to solve by degrees. In a preceding volume we have related how the Portuguese rule was established in India. The union of Portugal with Spain, in 1599, led to the fall of the Portuguese colonies, which came into the possession of the English and Dutch. England soon afterwards granted a monopoly of the commerce of India to a Company which was destined to play an important part in history. At this time Akbar, the great Mogul emperor, the seventh descendant of Timour Leng, had established a vast empire in Hindustan and Bengal, upon the ruins of the Rajpoot kingdoms. Owing to the personal qualities of Akbar, which had gained for him the surname of the Benefactor of Man, that empire was at the height of its glory. The same brilliant course was pursued by Shah Jehan; but Akbar's grandson, Aurung Zeb, inspired by an insatiable ambition, assassinated his brothers, imprisoned his father, and seized the reins of government. While the Mogul Empire was in the enjoyment of profound peace, a clever adventurer laid the foundations of the Mahratta Empire. The religious intolerance of Aurung Zeb, and his crafty policy, led to the insurrection of the Rajpoots, and a struggle, which by draining the resources of the empire, shook his power. The death of the great usurper was followed by the decadence of the empire. Up to this period the India Company had been unable to add to the narrow strip of territory which they possessed at the ports, but it was now to benefit by the conflict between the nabobs and rajahs of Hindustan. It was not, however, until after the taking of Madras, in 1746, by La Bourdonnais, and the struggle against Dupleix, that the influence and dominion of the English Company was materially increased. The crafty policy of Clive and Hastings, the English Governors, who successively employed force, stratagem, and bribery, to attain their ends, laid the foundation of British greatness in India, and, at the close of the last century, the Company were possessors of an immense extent of country, with no less than sixty millions of inhabitants. Their territory included Bengal, Behar, the provinces of Benares, Madras, and the Sircars. Tippoo Saib alone, the Sultan of Mysore, struggled against the English encroachments, but he was unable to hold out against the coalition formed against him by the skill of Colonel Wellesley. When rid of their formidable enemies, the Company overcame such opposition as remained by pensions; and, under the pretext of protection, imposed upon the rajahs an English garrison which was maintained at their expense. One would imagine from all this that the English rule was detested; but that is not the case. The Company, recognizing the rights of individuals, did not attempt to change the religion, laws, or customs of their subjects. Neither is it surprising that travellers, even when they ventured into districts which, properly speaking, did not belong to Great Britain, incurred but little danger. In fact, so soon as the East India Company was free from political embarrassments, it encouraged explorers throughout its vast domains. At the same time travellers were despatched to the neighbouring territories to collect observations, and we propose rapidly to review those expeditions. [Illustration: Map of English India and part of Persia. Gravé par E. Morieu.] One of the first and most curious was that of Webb to the sources of the Ganges, a river concerning which uncertain and contradictory opinions prevailed. The Government of Bengal, recognizing the great importance of the Ganges in the interests of commerce, organized an expedition, of which Messrs. Webb, Roper, and Hearsay, formed part. They were to be accompanied by Sepoys, native servants, and interpreters. The expedition reached Herdouar, a small village on the left of the river, upon the 1st of April, 1808. The situation of this village, at the entrance of the fertile plains of Hindustan, had caused it to be much frequented by pilgrims, and it was at this spot that purifications in the waters of the holy river took place during the hot season. As every pilgrimage implies the sale of relics, Herdouar was the centre of an important market, where horses, camels, antimony, asafoetida, dried fruits, shawls, arrows, muslins, cotton and woollen goods from the Punjab, Cabulistan, and Cashmere, were to be had. Slaves, too, were to be bought there from three to thirty years of age, at prices varying from 10 to 150 rupees. This fair, where such different races, languages, and costumes were to be met with, presented a curious spectacle. Upon the 12th of April the English expedition set out for Gangautri, following a road planted with white mulberries and figs, as far as Gourondar. A little farther on water-mills of simple construction were at work, upon the banks of streams shaded with willows and raspberry-trees. The soil was fertile, but the tyranny of the Government prevented the natives from making the best of it. The route soon became mountainous, but peach, apricot, nut, and other European trees abounded, and at length the expedition found themselves in the midst of a chain of mountains, which appeared to belong to the Himalaya range. The Baghirati, which is known further on as the Ganges, was met with at the end of a pass. To the left, the river is bounded by high, almost barren mountains; to the right stretches a fertile valley. At the village of Tchiavli, the poppy is largely cultivated for the preparation of opium; here, owing probably, to the bad quality of the water, all the peasants suffer from wens. At Djosvara the travellers had to cross a bridge of rope, called a "djorila." This was a strange and perilous structure. "On either side of the river," says Webb, "two strong poles are driven in, at a distance of two feet from each other, and across them is placed another piece of wood. To this is attached a dozen or more thick ropes, which are held down upon the ground by large heaps of wood. They are divided into two packets, about a foot apart; Blow hangs a ladder of rope knotted to one of these, which answers instead of a parapet. The flooring of the bridge is composed of small branches of trees, placed at intervals of two and a half, or three feet from each other. As these are generally slender, they seem as if they were on the point of breaking every moment, which naturally induces the traveller to depend upon the support of the ropes which form the parapet, and to keep them constantly under their arms. The first step taken upon so shaky a structure is sufficient to cause giddiness, for the action of walking makes it swing to either side, and the noise of the torrent over which it is suspended is not reassuring. Moreover the bridge is so narrow, that if two persons meet upon it, one must draw completely to the side to make room for the other." [Illustration: Bridge of rope.] The expedition afterwards passed through the town of Baharat, where but few of the houses have been rebuilt since the earthquake of 1803. This locality has always enjoyed a certain importance from the fact that a market is held there, and also on account of the difficulty of obtaining provisions in the towns higher up, as well as from its central position. The routes to Jemauhi, Kedar, Nath, and Sirinagur all meet there. Beyond Batheri the road became so bad that the travellers were obliged to abandon their baggage. There was a mere path-track by the edge of precipices, amid débris of stones and rocks; and the attempt to proceed was soon relinquished. Devaprayaga is situated at the junction of the Baghirati, and the Aluknanda. The first, coming from the north, hurries along with noise and impetuosity; the second, broader, deeper, and more tranquil, rises no less than forty-six feet above its ordinary level in the rainy season. The junction of these two rivers forms the Ganges, and is a sacred spot from which the Brahmins draw considerable profit, as they have arranged pools there, where for a certain price pilgrims can perform their ablutions without danger of being carried away by the current. The Aluknanda was crossed by means of a running bridge, or "Dindla," which is thus described:-- "This bridge consists of three or four large ropes fixed upon either bank, and upon these a small seat some eighteen inches square is slung by means of hoops at either end. Upon this seat the traveller takes his place, and is drawn from one side of the river to the other by a rope pulled by the man upon the opposite bank." The expedition reached Sirinagur upon the 13th of May. The curiosity of the inhabitants had been so much excited that the magistrates sent a message to the English begging them to march through the town. Sirinagur, which had been visited by Colonel Hardwick in 1796, had been almost completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1803, and had in the same year been conquered by the Gorkhalis. Here Webb was joined by the emissaries whom he had sent to Gangautri by the route which he himself had been unable to follow, and who had visited the source of the Ganges. "A large rock," he says, "on either side of which water flows, and which is very shallow, roughly resembles the body and mouth of a cow. A cavity at one end of its surface gave rise to its name of Gaoumokhi, the mouth of the cow, who, by its fancied resemblance, is popularly supposed to vomit the water of the sacred river. A little farther on, advance is impossible, a mountain as steep as a wall rises in front; the Ganges appeared to issue from the snow, which lay at its feet; the valley terminated here. No one has ever gone any farther." The expedition returned by a different route. It met with the tributaries of the Ganges, and of the Keli Ganga, or Mandacni, rivers rising in the Mountains of Kerdar. Immense flocks of goats and sheep laden with grain were met with, numbers of defiles crossed, and after passing the towns of Badrinath and Manah the expedition finally reached the cascade of Barson, in the midst of heavy snow and intense cold. "This," says Webb's narrative, "is the goal of the devotions of the pilgrims. Some of them come here to be sprinkled by the sacred spray of the cascade. At this spot the course of the Aluknanda may be traced as far as the south-western extremity of the valley, but its source is hidden under heaps of snow, which have probably been accumulating for centuries." Webb furnishes some details respecting the women of Manah. They wore necklaces, earrings, and gold and silver ornaments, which were scarcely in keeping with their coarse attire. Some of the children wore necklaces and bracelets of silver to the value of six hundred rupees. In winter, this town, which does a great trade with Thibet, is completely buried in snow, and the natives take refuge in neighbouring towns. The expedition visited the temple at Badrinath, which is far-famed for its sanctity. Neither its internal nor external structure or appearance give any idea of the immense sums which are expended upon it. It is one of the oldest and most venerated sanctuaries of India. Ablutions are performed there in reservoirs fed with very warm sulphureous water. "There are," says the narrative, "a great number of hot springs, each having their special name and virtue, and from all of them doubtless the Brahmins derive profit. For this reason, the poor pilgrim, as he gets through the requisite ablutions, finds his purse diminish with the number of his sins, and the many tolls exacted from him upon the road to paradise might induce him to consider the narrow way by no means the least expensive one. This temple possesses seven hundred villages, which have either been ceded to it by government, given as security for loans, or bought by private individuals and given as offerings." The expedition reached Djosimah on the 1st of June. There the Brahmin who acted as guide received orders from the government of Nepaul, to conduct the travellers back immediately to the territories of the Company. The government had discovered, a little late it must be admitted, that the English explorations had a political as well as a geographical significance. A month afterwards, Webb and his companions entered Delhi, having definitely settled the course of the Ganges, and ascertained the sources of the Baghirati and Aluknanda; in fact, having attained the object which the Company had had in view. In 1808, the English government decided upon sending a new mission to the Punjab, then under the dominion of Runjeet Sing. The anonymous narrative of this expedition published in the "Annales des Voyages" offers some particulars of interest, from which we will extract a few. Upon the 6th of April, 1808, an English officer, in charge of the expedition, reached Herdonai, which he represents as the rendezvous of a million individuals at the time of the yearly fair. At Boria, which is situated between the Jumna and the Sutlej, the traveller was an object of much curiosity to the women, who begged permission to come and see him. "Their looks and gestures," says the narrative, "sufficiently expressed their surprise. They approached me laughing heartily, the colour of my face amused them extremely. They addressed many questions to me, asking me whether I never wore a hat, whether I exposed my face to the sun, whether I remained continually shut up, or only walked out under shelter, and whether I slept upon the table placed in my tent, although my bed occupied one side of it; the curtains were, however, closed. They then examined it in detail, together with the lining of my tent and everything belonging to it. These women were all good-looking, with mild and regular features, their complexion was olive, and contrasted agreeably with their white and even teeth, which are a distinguishing feature of all the inhabitants of the Punjab." Mustafabad, Mulana, and Umballa were visited in succession by the British officer. The country through which he passed was inhabited by Sikhs, a race remarkable for benevolence, hospitality, and truthfulness. The author of the narrative is of opinion that they are the finest race of men in India. Puttiala, Makeonara, Fegonara, Oudamitta, which Lord Lake entered in 1805 in his pursuit of a Mahratta chief, and finally Amritsur were stages easily passed. Amritsur is better built than the generality of towns in Hindustan. It is the largest depôt of shawls and saffron as well as other articles of Deccan merchandise. The traveller says:-- "Upon the 14th, having put white shoes on my feet, I paid a visit to the Amritsur or reservoir of the elixir of immortality from whence the city derives its name. It is a reservoir of about 135 feet square, built of brick, and in the centre is a pretty temple dedicated to Gourogovind Sing. A footpath leads to it; it is decorated both within and without, and the rajah often adds to its stores by gifts of ornaments. In this sacred receptacle, the book of the laws, written by Gouron in the 'gourou moukhtis' character, is placed. This temple is called Hermendel, or the Dwelling of God. Some 600 priests are attached to its service, and comfortable dwellings are provided for them out of the voluntary contributions of the devotees who visit the temple. Although the priests are regarded with infinite respect, they are not absolutely free from vice. When they have money, they spend it as freely as they have gained it. The number of pretty women who daily repair to the temple is very great. They far excel the women of the inferior classes in Hindustan in the elegance of their manners, their fine proportions, and handsome features." Lahore was next visited by the officer. It is interesting to know what remained of that fine city at the commencement of the present century. The narrative says:-- "Its very high walls are ornamented externally with all the profusion of Eastern taste, but they are falling into ruins, as are also the mosques and houses inside the town. Time has laid its destructive hand upon this city, as upon Delhi and Agra. The ruins of Lahore are already as extensive as those of that ancient capital." Three days after his arrival the traveller was received with great politeness by Runjeet Sing, who conversed with him, principally upon military topics. The rajah was then twenty-seven years of age. His countenance would have been pleasant, had not the small-pox deprived him of one eye; his manners were simple, affable, and yet kingly. After paying visits to the tomb of Shah Jehan, to the Schalamar, and other monuments at Lahore, the officer returned to Delhi and the possessions of the Company. To his visit was due that better knowledge of the country which could not fail to tempt the ambition of the English Government. The following year (1809), an embassy, consisting of Messrs. Nicholas Hankey Smith, Henry Ellis, Robert Taylor, and Henry Pottinger, was sent to the Emirs of Scinde. The escort was commanded by Captain Charles Christie. The mission was transported to Keratchy by boat. The governor of that fort refused to allow the embassy to disembark, without instructions from the emirs. An interchange of correspondence ensued, as a result of which the envoy, Smith, drew attention to certain improprieties relating to the title and respective rank of the Governor-General and the emirs. The governor excused himself upon the ground of his ignorance of the Persian language, and said, that not wishing a cause of misunderstanding to exist, he was quite ready to kill or put out the eyes (as the envoy pleased) of the person who had written the letter. This declaration appeared sufficient to the English, who deprecated the execution of the guilty person. In their letters the emirs affected a tone of contemptuous superiority; at the same time they brought a body of 8000 men within reach, and put every possible difficulty in the way of the English efforts to procure information. After tedious negotiations, in the course of which British pride was humbled more than once, the embassy received permission to start for Hyderabad. Above Keratchy, which is the principal export harbour of Scinde, a vast plain without trees or vegetation extends along the coast. Five days are necessary to cross this, and reach Tatah, the ancient capital of Scinde, then ruined and deserted. Formerly it was brought into communication by means of canals, with the Sind, an immense river, which is, at its mouth, in reality an arm of the sea. Pottinger collected the most precise, complete, and useful details respecting the Sind, which were then known. It had been arranged beforehand that the embassy should find a plausible excuse for separating and reaching Hyderabad by two different routes, in order to obtain geographical information on the country. The city was soon reached, and the same difficult negotiations about the reception of the embassy, who refused to submit to the humiliating exactions of the emirs, had to be gone through. Pottinger thus describes the arrival at Hyderabad. "The precipice upon which the eastern façade of the fortress of Hyderabad is situated, the roofs of the houses, and even the fortifications, were thronged by a multitude of both sexes, who testified friendly feeling towards us by acclamation and applause. Upon reaching the palace, where they were to dismount, the English were met by Ouli Mahommed Khan and other eminent officers, who walked before us towards a covered platform, at the extremity of which the emirs were seated. This platform being covered with the richest Persian carpet, we took off our shoes. From the moment the envoy took the first step towards the princes, they all three rose, and remained standing until he reached the place pointed out to him--an embroidered cloth, which distinguished him from the rest of the embassy. The princes addressed to each of us polite questions respecting our health. As it was a purely ceremonial reception, everything went off well, with compliments and polite expressions. "The emirs wore a great number of precious stones, in addition to those which ornamented the hilts and scabbards of their swords and daggers, and emeralds and rubies of extraordinary size shone at their girdles. They were seated according to age, the eldest in the centre, the second to his right, the youngest on the left. A carpet of light felt covered the entire circle, and over this was a mattress of silk about an inch thick, exactly large enough to accommodate the three princes." [Illustration: "They were seated according to age."] The narrative concludes with a description of Hyderabad, a fortress which would have scarcely been able to offer any resistance to a European enemy, and with various reflections upon the nature of the embassy, which had amongst other aims the closing of the entrance of Scinde against the French. The treaty concluded, the English returned to Bombay. By this expedition the East India Company gained a better knowledge of one of the neighbouring kingdoms, and collected precious documents relating to the resources and productions of a country traversed by an immense river, the Indus of the ancients, which rises in the Himalayas, and might readily serve to transport the products of an immense territory. The end gained was perhaps rather political than geographical; but science profited, once more, by political needs. Hitherto the little knowledge that had been gained of the regions lying between Cabulistan, India, and Persia, had been as incomplete as it was defective. The Company, thoroughly satisfied with the manner in which Captain Christie and Lieutenant Pottinger had accomplished their embassy, resolved to confide to them a delicate and difficult mission. They were to rejoin General Malcolm, ambassador to Persia, by crossing Beluchistan, and in so doing to collect more accurate and precise details of that vast extent of country than had hitherto been acquired. It was useless to think of crossing Beluchistan, with its fanatic population, in European dress. Christie and Pottinger, therefore, had recourse to a Hindu merchant, who provided horses on behalf of the Governments of Madras and Bombay, and accredited them as his agents to Kelat, the capital of Beluchistan. Upon the 2nd of January, 1810, the two officers embarked at Bombay for Someany, the sole sea-port of the province of Lhossa, which they reached after a stay at Poorbunder, on the coast of Guzerat. The entire country traversed by the travellers before they arrived at Bela was a morass, interspersed with jungle. The "Djam," or governor of that town, was an intelligent man. He put numerous questions to the English, by which he showed a desire to learn, and then confided the task of conducting the travellers to Kelat, to the chief of the tribe of Bezendjos, who are Belutchis. [Illustration: Beluchistan warriors. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The climate had changed since they left Bombay, and in the mountains, Pottinger and Christie experienced cold sufficiently keen to freeze the water in the leather bottles. "Kelat," says Pottinger, "the capital of the whole of Beluchistan, whence it derives its name, Kelat, or _the city_, is situated upon a height to the west of a well-cultivated plain or valley, eight miles long and three wide. The greater portion of this is laid out in gardens. The town forms a square. It is surrounded on three sides by a mud wall about twenty feet high, flanked, at distances of 250 feet, by bastions, which, like the walls, are pierced with a large number of barbicans for musketry. I had no opportunity of visiting the interior of the palace, but it consists merely of a confused mass of mud buildings with flat roofs like terraces; the whole is defended by low walls, furnished with parapets and pierced with barbicans. There are about 2500 houses in the town, and nearly half as many in the suburbs. They are built of half-baked bricks and wood, the whole smeared over with mud. The streets, as a rule, are larger than those in towns inhabited by Asiatics. They usually have a raised footway on either side for pedestrians, in the centre an open stream, which is rendered very unpleasant by the filth and rubbish thrown into it, and by the stagnant rainwater which collects, for there is no regulation insisting upon it being cleaned. Another obstacle to the cleanliness and comfort of the town exists in the projection of the upper stories of the houses, which makes the under buildings damp and dark. The bazaar of Kelat is very large, and well stocked with every kind of merchandize. Every day it is supplied with provisions, vegetables, and all kinds of food, which are cheap." According to Pottinger's account, the population is divided into two distinct classes--the Belutchis and the Brahouis, and each of these is subdivided into a number of tribes. The first is related to the modern Persian, both in appearance and speech; the Brahoui, on the contrary, retains a great number of Hindu words. Intermarriage between the two has given rise to a third. The Belutchis, coming from the mountains of Mekram, are "Tunnites," that is to say, they consider the first four Imans as the legitimate successors of Mahomet. They are a pastoral people, and have the faults and virtues of their class. If they are hospitable, they are also indolent, and pass their time in gambling and smoking. As a rule, they content themselves with one or two wives, and are less jealous of their being seen by strangers than are other Mussulmen. They have a large number of slaves of both sexes, whom they treat humanely. They are excellent marksmen, and passionately fond of hunting. Brave under all circumstances, they take pleasure in "razzias," which they call "tchépaos." As a rule, these expeditions are undertaken by the Nherouis, the wildest and most thievish of the Belutchis. The Brahouis carry their wandering habits still farther. Few men are more active and strong; they endure the glacial cold of the mountains equally with the burning heat of the plains. They are of small stature, but as brave, as skilful in shooting, as faithful to their promises, as the Belutchis, and have not so pronounced a taste for plunder. Pottinger says, "I have seen no Asiatic people whom they resemble, for a large number have brown hair and beards." After a short stay at Kelat, the two travellers, who still passed as horse-dealers, resolved to continue their journey, but instead of following the high road to Kandahar, they crossed a dreary and barren country, ill-populated, watered by the Caisser, a river which dries up during the summer; and they reached a little town, called Noschky or Nouchky, on the frontier of Afghanistan. At this place, the Belutchis, who appeared friendly, represented to them the great difficulty of reaching Khorassan and its capital, Herat, by way of Sedjistan. They advised the travellers to try to reach Kerman by way of Kedje and Benpor, or by Serhed, a village on the western frontier of Beluchistan, and from thence to enter Nermanchir. At the same moment the idea of following two distinct routes presented itself to both Christie and Pottinger. This course was contrary to their instructions; "but," said Pottinger, "we found a ready excuse in the unquestionable advantage which would result from our procuring more extensive geographical and statistical knowledge of the country we were sent to explore than we could hope to do by travelling together." Christie set out first, by way of Douchak. We shall follow his fortunes hereafter. A few days later, while still at Noutch, Pottinger received letters from his correspondent at Kelat, telling him that the emirs of Scinde were searching for them, as they had been recognized, and that his best plan for safety was to set out immediately. Upon the 25th of March Pottinger started for Serawan, a very small town near the Afghan frontier. Upon his way thither Pottinger met with some singular altars, or tombs, the construction of which was attributed to the Ghebers, or fire-worshippers, who are known in our day as Parsees. Serawan is six miles from the Serawani mountains, in a sterile and bare district. This town owes its existence to the constant supply of water it derives from the Beli, an inestimable advantage in a country constantly exposed to drought, scarcity, and famine. Pottinger afterwards visited the Kharan, celebrated for the strength and activity of its camels, and crossed the desert which forms the southern extremity of Afghanistan. The sand of this desert is so fine that its particles are almost impalpable, and the action of the wind causes it to accumulate into heaps ten or twenty feet high, divided by deep valleys. Even in calm weather a great number of particles float in the air, giving rise to a mirage of a peculiar kind, and getting into the traveller's eyes, mouth, and nostrils, cause an excessive irritation, with an insatiable thirst. In all this territory, Pottinger personated a "pyrzadeh," or holy man, for the natives are of a very thievish disposition, and in the character of a merchant he might have been involved in unpleasant adventures. After leaving the village of Goul, in the district of Daizouk, the traveller passed through the ruined towns of Asmanabad, Hefter, and Pourah, where Pottinger was forced to admit that he was a "Feringhi," to the great scandal of the guide, who during the two months they had been together had never doubted him, and to whom he had given many proofs of sanctity. At last, worn out by fatigue, and at the end of his resources, Pottinger reached Benpor, a locality which had been visited in 1808 by Mr. Grant, a captain in the Bengal Sepoy Infantry. Encouraged by the excellent account given by that officer, Pottinger presented himself to the Serdar. But instead of affording him the necessary help for the prosecution of his journey, that functionary, discontented with the small present Pottinger offered him, found means to extort from him a pair of pistols, which would have been of great use to him. Basman is the last inhabited town of Beluchistan. At this spot there is a hot sulphureous spring, which the Belutchis consider a certain cure for cutaneous diseases. The frontiers of Persia are far from "scientific," hence a large tract of country remains not neutral, but a subject of dispute, and is the scene of sanguinary contests. The little town of Regan, in Nermanchir, is very pretty. It is a fort, or rather a fortified village, surrounded by high walls, in good repair, and furnished with bastions. Further on, in Persia proper, lies Benn, a town which was formerly of importance, as the ruins which surround it sufficiently prove. Here Pottinger was cordially received by the governor. "On approaching," says Pottinger, "he turned to one of his suite and asked where the 'Feringhi' was. I was pointed out to him. Making me a sign to follow him, his fixed look at me, which took me in from head to foot, proclaimed his astonishment at my costume, which in truth was strange enough to serve as an excuse for the impoliteness of his staring. I was wearing the long shirt of a Belutchi, and a pair of trousers which had once been white, but which in the six weeks I had worn them had become brown, and were all but in rags; in addition to this I had on a blue turban, a piece of rope served me as a girdle, and I carried in my hand a thick stick, which had assisted me greatly in my walking, and protected me from dogs." In spite of the dilapidated appearance of the tatterdemalion who thus presented himself before him, the governor received Pottinger with as much cordiality as was to be expected from a Mussulman, and provided him with a guide to Kerman. The traveller reached that town upon the 3rd of May, feeling that he had accomplished the most difficult portion of his journey, and was almost in safety. Kerman is the capital of ancient Karamania. Under the Afghan rule it was a flourishing town, and manufactured shawls which rivalled those of Cashmere. Here Pottinger witnessed one of those spectacles which, common enough to countries where human life is of little value, always fill Europeans with horror and disgust. The governor of this town was both son-in-law and nephew of the shah, and also the son of the Shah's wife. "Upon the 15th of May," says Pottinger, "the prince himself judged certain persons who were accused of killing one of their servants. It is difficult to estimate the state of restlessness and alarm which prevailed in the village during the entire day. The gates of the town were shut, that no one might pass out. The government officials did not transact any business. People were cited as witnesses, without previous notice. I saw two or three taken to the palace in a state of agitation which could scarcely have been greater had they been going to the scaffold. About three in the afternoon the prince passed sentence upon those who had been convicted. Some had their eyes put out, some the tongue split. Some had the ears, nose, and lips cut off; others were deprived of their hands, fingers, or toes. I learned that whilst these horrible punishments were inflicted, the prince remained seated at the window where I had seen him, and gave his orders without the least sign of compassion or of horror at the scene which took place before him." Leaving Kerman, Pottinger reached Cheré Bebig, which is equally distant from Yezd, Shiraz, and Kerman, and thence proceeded to Ispahan, where he had the pleasure of finding his companion Christie. At Meragha he met General Malcolm. It was now seven months since they had left Bombay. Christie had traversed 2250 miles, and Pottinger 2412. Meanwhile Christie had accomplished his perilous journey much better than he had anticipated. Leaving Noutch upon the 22nd of March, he crossed the Vachouty mountains and some uncultivated country, to the banks of the Helmend, a river which flows into Lake Hamoun. Christie in his report to the Company says:-- "The Helmend, after passing near Kandahar, flows south-west and west, and enters Sedjestan some four days march from Douchak; making a détour around the mountains, it finally forms a lake. At Peldalek, which we visited, it is about 1200 feet in width, and very deep; the water is very good. The country is cultivated by irrigation for half a mile on either side; then the desert begins, and rises in perpendicular cliffs. The banks of the river abound in tamarind-trees and provide pasturage for cattle." Sedjestan, which is watered by this river, comprises only 500 square miles. The portions of this district which are inhabited are those upon the river Helmend, whose bed deepens every year. At Elemdar Christie sent for a Hindu, to whom he had an introduction. This man advised him to dismiss his Belutchi attendants and to personate a pilgrim. A few days later he penetrated to Douchak, now known as Jellalabad. He says:-- "The ruins of the ancient city cover quite as large a space of ground as Ispahan. It was built, like all the towns of Sedjistan, of half-burned bricks, the houses being two stories high, with vaulted roofs. The modern town of Jellalabad is clean, pretty, and growing; it contains nearly 2000 houses and a fair bazaar." The road from Douchak to Herat was easy. Christie's sole difficulty was in carrying out his personation of a pilgrim. Herat lies in a valley, surrounded by high mountains and watered by a river, to which it is due that gardens and orchards abound. The town covers an area of about four square miles; it is surrounded by a wall flanked with towers, and a moat full of water. Large bazaars, containing numerous shops, and the Mechedé Djouna, or Mosque of Friday, are its chief ornaments. No town has less waste land or a denser population. Christie estimates it at 100,000. Herat is the most commercial of all Asiatic towns under the dominion of native princes. It is the depôt for all the traffic between Cabul, Candahar, Hindustan, Cashmere, and Persia, and itself produces choice merchandize, silks, saffron, horses, and asafoetida. "This plant," says Christie, "grows to a height of two or three feet, the stalk is two inches thick; it finishes off in an umbel which at maturity is yellow, and not unlike a cauliflower. It is much relished by Hindus and Belutchis. They prepare it for eating by cooking the stalks in ashes, and boiling the head like other vegetables; but it always retains its pungent smell and taste." Herat, like so many other Eastern towns, possesses beautiful public gardens, but they are only cultivated for the sake of the produce, which is sold in the bazaar. After a stay of a month at Herat, disguised as a horse-dealer, Christie, announcing that he would return after a pilgrimage to Meshid, which he contemplated, left the town. He directed his course to Yezd, across a country ravaged by the Osbeks, who had destroyed the tanks intended to receive the rain-water. Yezd is a large and populous town on the skirts of a desert of sand. It is called "Dar-oul-Ehabet" or "The Seat of Adoration." It is celebrated for the security to be enjoyed there, which contributes largely to the development of its trade with Hindustan, Khorassan, Persia, and Bagdad. Christie describes the bazaar as large and well stocked. The town contains 20,000 houses, apart from those belonging to the Ghebers, who are estimated at 4000. They are an active and laborious people, although cruelly oppressed. From Yezd to Ispahan, where he alighted at the palace of the Emir Oud-Daoulé, Christie had travelled a distance of 170 miles upon a good road. At Yezd, as we have seen, he met his companion, Pottinger. The two friends could but exchange mutual congratulations at the accomplishment of their mission, and their escape from the dangers of a fanatical country. Pottinger's narrative, as may perhaps be gathered from the sketch we have given, was very curious. More exact than most of his predecessors, he had collected and offered to the public a mass of most interesting historical facts, anecdotes, and geographical descriptions. Cabulistan had been, from the middle of the eighteenth century, the scene of a succession of ruinous civil wars. Competitors, with more or less right to the throne, had carried fire and sword everywhere, and converted that rich and fertile province into a desert, where the remains of ruined cities alone bore witness to former prosperity. About the year 1808 the throne of Cabul was occupied by Soojah-Oul-Moulk. England, uneasy at the projects formed by Napoleon with a view of attacking her possessions in India, and at the offers of alliance made by him through General Gardane to the Shah of Persia, resolved to send an embassy to the court of Cabul, hoping to gain the king over to the interests of the East India Company. Mountstuart Elphinstone was selected as envoy, and has left an interesting account of his mission. He collected much novel information concerning this region and the tribes by which it is peopled. His book acquires a new interest in our own day, and we turn with pleasure to pages devoted to the Khyberis and other mountain tribes, amid the events which are now taking place. Leaving Delhi in October, 1808, Elphinstone reached Kanun, where the desert commences, and then the Shekhawuttée, a district inhabited by Rajpoots. At the end of October the embassy arrived at Singuana, a pretty town, the rajah of which was an inveterate opium-smoker. He is described as a small man, with large eyes, much inflamed by the use of opium. His beard, which was curled up to his ears on each side, gave him a ferocious appearance. Djounjounka, whose gardens give freshness in the midst of these desert regions, is not now a dependency of the Rajah of Bekaneer, whose revenues do not exceed 1,250,000 francs. How is it possible for that prince to collect such revenues from a desert and uncultivated territory, overrun by myriads of rats, flocks of gazelles, and herds of wild asses? The path across the sand-hills was so narrow that two camels abreast could scarcely pass it. At the least deviation from the path those animals would sink in the sand as if it had been snow, so that the smallest difficulty with the head of the column delayed the entire caravan. Those in front could not advance if those in the rear were delayed; and lest they should lose sight of the guides, trumpets and drums were employed as signals to prevent separation. One could almost fancy it the march of an army. The warlike sounds, the brilliant uniforms and arms, were scarcely calculated to convey the idea of a peaceful embassy. The envoy speaks of the want of water, and the bad quality of that which was procurable was unbearable to the soldiers and servants. Although they quenched their thirst with the abundant water-melons, they could not do so without ill results to their health. Most of the natives of India who accompanied the embassy suffered from low fever and dysentery. Forty persons died during the first week's stay at Bekaneer. La Fontaine's description of the floating sticks might be aptly applied to Bekaneer. "From afar off it is something, near at hand it is nought." The external appearance of the town is pleasant, but it is a mere disorderly collection of cabins enclosed by mud walls. At that time the country was invaded by five armies, and the belligerents sent a succession of envoys to the English ambassador, hoping to obtain, if not substantial assistance, at least moral support. Elphinstone was received by the Rajah of Bekaneer. "This court," he says, "was different from all I had seen elsewhere in India. The men were whiter than the Hindus, resembled Jews in feature, and wore magnificent turbans. The rajah and his relatives wore caps of various colours, adorned with precious stones. "The rajah leant upon a steel buckler, the centre of which was raised, and the border encrusted with diamonds and rubies. Shortly after our entrance the rajah proposed that we should retire from the heat and importunity of the crowd. We took our seats on the ground, according to Indian custom, and the rajah delivered a discourse, in which he said he was the vassal of the sovereign of Delhi, and that as Delhi was in the possession of the British, he honoured the sovereignty of my government in my person. "He caused the keys of the fort to be brought to him and handed them to me, but having received no instructions regarding such an event, I refused them. After much persuasion the rajah consented to keep his keys. Shortly afterwards a troop of bayadères came in, and dancing and singing continued until we took our leave." [Illustration: "A troop of bayadères came in."] Upon leaving Bekaneer the travellers entered a desert, in the middle of which stand the cities of Monyghur and Bahawulpore, where a compact crowd awaited the embassy. The Hyphases, upon which Alexander's fleet sailed, scarcely answered to the idea such a reminiscence inspires. Upon the morrow Bahaweel-Khan, governor of one of the eastern provinces of Cabul, arrived, bringing magnificent presents for the English ambassador, whom he conducted by the river Hyphases as far as Moultan, a town famous for its silk manufactures. The governor of the town had been terror-struck at hearing of the approach of the English, and there had been a discussion as to the attitude it was to assume, and whether the latter intended to take the town by stratagem, or to demand its surrender. When these fears were allayed, a cordial welcome followed. Elphinstone's description, if somewhat exaggerated, is not the less curious. After describing how the governor saluted Mr. Strachey, the secretary to the embassy, after the Persian custom, he adds,--"They took their way together towards the tent, and the disorder increased. Some were wrestling, others on horseback mixed with the pedestrians. Mr. Strachey's horse was nearly thrown to the ground, and the secretary regained his equilibrium with difficulty. The khan and his suite mistook the road in approaching the tent, and threw themselves upon the cavalry with such impetuosity that the latter had scarcely time to face about and let them pass. The disordered troops fell back upon the tent, the servants of the khan fled, the barriers were torn up and trampled under foot; even the ropes of the tent broke, and the cloth covering very nearly fell on our heads. The tents were crowded immediately, and all was in darkness. The governor and six of his suite seated themselves, the others stood at arms. The visit was of short duration; the governor took refuge in repeating his rosary with great fervour, and in saying to me, in agitated tones, 'You are welcome! you are welcome!' Then on the pretext that the crowd inconvenienced me, he retired." The account is amusing, but are all its details accurate? That, however, is of little moment. On the 31st December the embassy passed the Indus, and entered a country cultivated with a care and method unlike anything to be seen in Hindustan. The natives of this country had never heard of the English, and took them for Moguls, Afghans, or Hindus. The strangest reports were current among these lovers of the marvellous. It was necessary to remain a month at Déra, to await the arrival of a "Mehnandar," a functionary whose duty it was to introduce ambassadors. Two persons attached to the embassy availed themselves of that opportunity to ascend the peak of Tukhte Soleiman, or the Crown of Solomon, upon which, according to the legend, the ark of Noah rested after the deluge. The departure from Déra took place upon the 7th of February, and after travelling through delightful countries, the embassy arrived at Peshawur. The king had come to meet them, for Peshawur was not the usual residence of the court. The narrative says,--"Upon the day of our arrival our dinner was furnished from the royal kitchen. The dishes were excellent. Afterwards we had the meat prepared in our own way; but the king continued to provide us with breakfast, dinner, and supper, more than sufficient for 2000 persons, 200 horses, and a large number of elephants. Our suite was large, and much of this was needed; still I had great trouble at the end of a month in persuading his majesty to allow some retrenchment of this useless profusion." As might have been expected, the negotiations preceding presentation at court were long and difficult. Finally, however, all was arranged, and the reception was as cordial as diplomatic customs permitted. The king was loaded with diamonds and precious stones; he wore a magnificent crown, and the Koh-i-noor sparkled upon one of his bracelets. This is the largest diamond in existence; a drawing of it may be seen in Tavernier's Travels.[1] [Footnote 1: The Koh-i-noor is now in the possession of the Queen of England.] Elphinstone, after describing the ceremonies, says,--"I must admit that if certain things, especially the extraordinary richness of the royal costume, excited my astonishment, there was also much that fell below my expectations. Taking it as a whole, one saw less indication of the prosperity of a powerful state than symptoms of the decay of a monarchy which had formerly been flourishing." The ambassador goes on to speak of the rapacity with which the king's suite quarrelled about the presents offered by the English, and gives other details which struck him unpleasantly. Elphinstone was more agreeably impressed with the king at his second interview. He says,--"It is difficult to believe that an Eastern monarch can possess such a good manner, and so perfectly preserve his dignity while trying to please." The plain of Peshawur, which is surrounded on all but the eastern side by high mountains, is watered by three branches of the Cabul river, which meet here, and by many smaller rivers. Hence it is singularly fertile. Plums, peaches, pears, quinces, pomegranates, dates, grow in profusion. The population, so sparsely sprinkled throughout the arid countries which the ambassador had come through, were collected here, and Lieut. Macartney counted no less than thirty-two villages. At Peshawur there are 100,000 inhabitants, living in brick houses three stories high. Various mosques, not in any way remarkable for architecture, a fine caravanserai, and the fortified castle in which the king received the embassy, are the only buildings of importance. The varieties of races, with different costumes, present a constantly changing picture, a human kaleidoscope, which appears made especially for the astonishment of a stranger. Persians, Afghans, Kyberis, Hazaurehs, Douranis, &c., with horses, dromedaries, and Bactrian camels, afford the naturalist much both to observe and to describe respecting bipeds and quadrupeds. But the charm of this town, as of every other throughout India, is to be found in its gardens, with their abundant and fragrant flowers, especially roses. [Illustration: Afghan costumes. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The king's situation at this time was far from pleasant. His brother, whom he had dethroned after a popular insurrection, had now taken arms and just seized Cabul. A longer stay was impossible for the embassy. They had to return to India by way of Attock and the valley of Hussoun Abdoul, which is celebrated for its beauty. There Elphinstone was to await the result of the struggle between the brothers, which would decide the fate of the throne of Cabul, but he had received letters of recall. Moreover, fate was against Soojah, who, after being completely worsted, had been forced to seek safety in flight. The embassy proceeded on its way, and crossed the country of the Sikhs--a rude mountain race, half-naked and semi-barbarous. "The Sikhs, who a few years later were to make themselves terribly famous," says Elphinstone, "are tall, thin men, and very strong. Their garments consist of trousers which reach only half way down the thigh. They wear cloaks of skins which hang negligently from the shoulder. Their turbans are not large, but are very high and flattened in front. No scissors ever touch either hair or beard. Their arms are bows and arrows or muskets. Men of rank have very handsome bows, and never pay a visit without being armed with them. Almost the whole Punjab belongs to Runjeet Sing, who in 1805 was only one among many chiefs in the country. At the time of our expedition, he had acquired the sovereignty of the whole country occupied by the Sikhs, and had taken the title of king." No incident of any moment marked the return of the embassy to Delhi. In addition to the narrative of events which had taken place before their eyes, its members brought back invaluable documents concerning the geography of Afghanistan and Cabulistan, the climate, animals, and vegetable and mineral productions of that vast country. Elphinstone devotes several chapters of his narrative to the origin, history, government, legislation, condition of the women, language, and commerce of these countries; facts that were largely appropriated by the best informed newspapers when the recent English expedition to Afghanistan was undertaken. His work ends with an exhaustive treatise upon the tribes who form the population of Afghanistan, and a summary of invaluable information respecting the neighbouring countries. Elphinstone's narrative is curious, interesting, and valuable for many reasons, and may be consulted in our own day with advantage. [Illustration: Persian costumes. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The zeal of the East India Company was indefatigable. One expedition had no sooner returned than another was started, with different instructions. It was highly important to be thoroughly _au fait_ of the ever-changing Asiatic policy, and to prevent coalition between the various native tribes against the conquerors of the soil. In 1812, a new idea, and a more peaceful one, gave rise to the journey of Moorcroft and Captain Hearsay to Lake Manasarowar, in the province of the Un-dés, which is a portion of Little Thibet. This time the object was to bring back a flock of Cashmere goats, whose long silk hair is used in the manufacture of the world-famed shawls. In addition, it was proposed to disprove the assertion of the Hindus that the source of the Ganges is beyond the Himalayas, in Lake Manasarowar. A difficult and perilous task! It was first of all necessary to penetrate into Nepaul, whilst the government of that country made such an attempt very difficult, and thence to enter a region from which the natives of Nepaul are excluded, and with still greater reason the English. The explorers disguised themselves as Hindu pilgrims. Their suite consisted of twenty-five persons, one of whom pledged himself to walk in strides of four feet! This was certainly a rough method of ascertaining the distance traversed! Messrs. Moorcroft and Hearsay passed through Bareilly, and followed Webb's route as far as Djosimath, which place they left on the 26th of May, 1812. They soon had to cross the last chain of the Himalayas, with increasing difficulties, owing to the rarity of the villages, which caused a scarcity of provisions and service, and the bad roads, at so great a height above the level of the sea. Nevertheless they saw Daba, where there is an important lamasery, Gortope, Maisar; and, a quarter of a mile from Tirthapuri, curious hot springs. The original narrative, which appeared in the "Annales des Voyages," speaks of this water as flowing from two openings six inches in diameter in a calcareous plain some three miles in extent, and which is raised in almost every direction from ten to twelve feet above the surrounding country. It is formed of the earthy deposits left by the water in cooling. The water rises four inches above the level of the plain. It is clear, and so warm that one cannot keep a hand in it longer than a few minutes. It is surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke. The water, flowing over a horizontal surface, hollows out basins of various shapes, which as they receive the earthy deposits contract again. When they are filled up, the flow of the water again hollows out a new reservoir, which in its turn becomes full. Flowing thus from one to the other, it finally reaches the plain below. The deposit left by the water is as white as the purest stucco close to the opening, a little further it becomes pale yellow, and further still saffron-coloured. At the other spring it is first rose-coloured, and then dark red. These different colours are to be found in the calcareous plain, and are no doubt the work of centuries. Tirthapuri, the residence of a lama, is of great antiquity, and is a favourite rendezvous for the faithful, as a wall more than 400 feet long and four wide, formed of stones upon which prayers are inscribed, sufficiently testifies. Upon the 1st of August the travellers left this place, hoping to reach Lake Manasarowar, and leaving on the right Lake Rawan-rhad, which is supposed to be the source of the largest branch of the Sutlej. Lake Manasarowar lies at the foot of immense sloping prairies, to the south of the gigantic mountains. This is the most venerated of all the sacred places of the Hindus, which is no doubt owing to its distance from Hindustan, the dangers and fatigues of the journey, and the necessity of pilgrims providing themselves with money and provisions. Hindu geographers regard this lake as the source of the Ganges, the Sutlej, and the Kali rivers. Moorcroft had no doubt as to the error of this assertion as regards the Ganges. Desiring to ascertain the truth as to the other rivers, he explored the steep banks of the lake, and found a number of streams which flowed into it, but none flowing out of it. It is possible that before the earthquake which destroyed Srinagar, the lake had an outlet, but Moorcroft found no trace of it. The lake is situated between the Himalayas and the Cailas chain, and is of irregular oblong shape, five leagues long by four wide. The end of the expedition was attained. Moorcroft and Hearsay returned towards India, passed by Kangri, and saw Rawan-rhad; but Moorcroft was too weak, and could not continue the tour; he regained Tirthapuri and Daba, and suffered a great deal in crossing the ghat which separates Hindustan from Thibet. The narrative describes the wind which comes from the snow-covered mountains of Bhutan as cold and piercing, and the ascent of the mountain as long and painful, its descent slippery and steep, making precautions necessary. "We suffered greatly," says the writer; "our goats escaped by the negligence of their drivers, and climbed up to the edge of a precipice some hundred feet in height. A mountaineer disturbing them from their perilous position, they began the descent, running down a very steep incline. The hinder ones kicked up the stones, which, falling with violence, threatened to strike the foremost. It was curious to note how cleverly they managed to run, and avoid the falling stones." Very soon the Gorkhalis, who had hitherto been content to place obstacles in the way of the travellers, approached them with intent to stop them. For some time the firmness displayed by the English kept them at bay; but at last, gaining courage from their numbers, they began an attack. "Twenty men," says Moorcroft, "threw themselves upon me. One seized me by my neck, and, pressing his knees against me, tried to strangle me by tightening my cravat; another passed a cord round my legs and pulled me from behind. I was on the point of fainting. My gun, upon which I was leaning, escaped my hold; I fell; they dragged me up by my feet until I was nearly garotted. When at last I rose, nothing could exceed the expression of fierce delight on the faces of my conquerors. Fearing that I should attempt to escape, two soldiers held me by a rope and gave me a blow from time to time, no doubt to remind me of my position. Mr. Hearsay had not supposed that he should be attacked so soon; he was rinsing out his mouth when the hubbub began, and did not hear my cries for help. Our men could not find the few arms we possessed; some escaped, I know not how; the others were seized, amongst them Mr. Hearsay. He was not bound as I was; they contented themselves with holding his arms." [Illustration: "Two soldiers held me."] The chief of this band of savages informed the two Englishmen that they had been recognized, and were arrested for having travelled in the country in the disguise of Hindu pilgrims. A fakir, whom Moorcroft had engaged as a goat-herd, succeeded in escaping, and took two letters to the English authorities. Aid was sent, and on the 1st of November the prisoners were released. Not only were excuses offered for their treatment, but what had been taken from them was returned, and the Rajah of Nepaul gave them permission to leave his dominions. All's well that ends well! To complete our sketch, we must give an account of Mr. Fraser's expedition to the Himalayas, and Hodgson's exploration to the source of the Ganges, in 1817. Captain Webb, as we have seen, had traced the course of that river past the valley of Dhoun, to Cadjani, near Reital. Leaving this spot upon the 28th of May, 1817, Captain Hodgson reached the source of the Ganges in three days, and proceeded to Gangautri. He found that the river issues from a low arch in the midst of an enormous mass of frozen snow, more than 300 feet high. The stream was already of considerable size, being no less than twenty-seven feet wide and eighteen inches deep. In all probability the Ganges first emerged into the light at this spot. Captain Hodgson wished to solve various questions; for example:--What was the length of the river under the frozen snow? Is it the product of the melting of these snows? or did it spring from the ground? But, wishing to explore further upwards than his guides advised, the traveller sank into the snow up to his neck, and had to retrace his steps with great difficulty. The spot from which the Ganges issues is situated 12,914 feet above the level of the sea, in the Himalayas. Hodgson also explored the source of the Jumna. At Djemautri the mass of snow from which the river makes its escape is no less than 180 feet wide and more than forty feet deep, between two perpendicular walls of granite. This source is situated on the south-east slope of the Himalayas. The extension of the British power in India was necessarily attended by considerable danger. The various native States, many of which could boast of a glorious past, had only yielded in obedience to the well-known political principle "divide and govern," ascribed to Machiavelli. But the day might come when they would merge their rivalries and enmities, to make common cause against the invader. This was anything but a cheering prospect for the Company, whose policy it was to maintain the system that had hitherto worked so well. Certain neighbouring States, still powerful enough to regard the growth of the British power with jealousy, might serve as harbours of refuge to the discontented, and become the centres of dangerous intrigues. Of all these neighbouring States that which demanded the strictest surveillance was Persia, not only on account of its contiguity to Russia, but because Napoleon was known to have designs in connexion with it which nothing but his European wars prevented him from putting into execution. In February, 1807, General Gardane, who had gained his promotion in the wars of the Republic, and had distinguished himself at Austerlitz, Jena, and Eylau, was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia, with instructions to ally himself with Shah Feth-Ali against England and Russia. The selection was fortunate, for the grandfather of General Gardane had held a similar post at the court of the shah. Gardane crossed Hungary, and reached Constantinople and Asia Minor; but when he entered Persia, Abbas Mirza had succeeded his father Feth-Ali. The new shah received the French ambassador with respect, loaded him with presents, and granted certain privileges to Catholics and French merchants. These were, however, the only results of the mission, which was thwarted by the English General Malcolm, whose influence was then paramount; and Gardane, disheartened by finding all his efforts frustrated, and recognizing that success was hopeless, returned to France the following year. His brother Ange de Gardane, who had acted as his secretary, published a brief narrative of the journey, containing several curious details respecting the antiquities of Persia, which have been, however, largely supplemented by works brought out by Englishmen. The French Consul, Adrien Dupré, attached to Gardane's mission, also published a work, under the title of "Voyage en Perse, fait dans les années 1807 à 1809, en traversant l'Anatolie, la Mésopotamie, depuis Constantinople jusqu'à l'extremité du golfe Persique et de là à Irwan, suivi de détails sur les moeurs, les usages et le commerce des Persans, sur la cour de Téhéran et d'une notice des tribus de la Perse." The book bears out the assertions of its title, and is a valuable contribution to the geography and ethnography of Persia. The English, who made a much longer stay in the country than the French, were better able to collect the abundant materials at hand, and to make a judicious selection from them. Two works were long held to be the chief authorities on the subject. One of these was by James Morier, who availed himself of the leisure he enjoyed as secretary to the embassy to acquaint himself with every detail of Persian manners, and on his return to England published several Oriental romances, which obtained a signal success, owing to the variety and novelty of the scenes described, and the fidelity to nature of every feature, however minute. The second of the two volumes alluded to above was the large quarto work by John Macdonald Kinneir, on the geography of Persia. This book, which made its mark, and left far behind it everything previously published on the subject, not only gives, as its title implies, very valuable information on the boundaries of the country, its mountains, rivers, and climate, but also contains interesting and trustworthy details respecting its government, constitution, army, commerce, animal, vegetable, and mineral productions, population, and revenue. After giving an exhaustive and brilliant picture of the material and moral resources of the Persian Empire, Kinneir goes on to describe its different provinces, quoting from the mass of valuable documents accumulated by himself, thus making his work the most complete and impartial yet issued. Kinneir passed the years 1808 to 1814 in travelling about Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan; and the different posts held by him during that period were such as to give him exceptional opportunities for making observations and comparing their results. In his several capacities as captain in the service of the Company, political agent to the Nawab of the Carnatic, or private traveller, his critical acumen was never at fault; and his wide knowledge of Oriental character and Oriental manners, enabled him to recognize the true significance of many an event and many a revolution which would have escaped the notice of less experienced observers. At the same time, William Price, also a captain in the East India Company's service, who had been attached as interpreter and secretary to Sir William Gore Ouseley's embassy to Persia in 1810, devoted himself to the study of the cuneiform character. Many had previously attempted to decipher it, with results as various as they were ridiculous; and, like those of his predecessors and contemporaries, Price's opinions were mere guess-work; but he succeeded in interesting a certain class of students in this obscure branch of research, and may be said to have perpetuated the theories of Niebuhr and other Orientalists. To Price we owe an account of the journey of the English embassy to the Persian court, after which he published two essays on the antiquities of Persepolis and Babylon. Mr. Ouseley, who had accompanied his brother Sir William as secretary, availed himself of his sojourn at the Court of Teheran to study Persian. His works do not, however, bear upon geography or political economy, but treat only of inscriptions, coins, manuscripts, and literature--in a word, of everything connected with the intellectual and material history of the country. To him we owe an edition of Firdusi, and many other volumes, which came out at just the right time to supplement the knowledge already acquired of the country of the Shah. Another semi-Asiatic semi-European country was also now becoming known. This was the mountainous district of the Caucasus. As early as the second half of the eighteenth century, John Anthony Guldenstædt, a Russian doctor, had visited Astrakhan, and Kisliar on the Terek, at the most remote boundary of the Russian possessions, entered Georgia, where the Czar Heraclius received him with great respect, and penetrated to Tiflis and the country of the Truchmenes, finally arriving at Imeritia. The next year, 1773, he visited the great Kabardia, the Oriental Kumania, examined the ruins of Madjary, visited Tscherkask and Asov, discovered the mouth of the Don, and was about to extend his researches to the Crimea when he was recalled to St. Petersburg. Guldenstædt's travels have not been translated into French. Their author's career was cut short by death before he had completed their revision for the press, and they were edited at St. Petersburg by Henry Julius von Klaproth, a young Prussian, who afterwards explored the same countries. Klaproth, who was born at Berlin on the 11th October, 1783, gave proof at a very early age of a special aptitude for the study of Oriental languages. At fifteen years old he taught himself Chinese; and he had scarcely finished his studies at the Universities of Halle and Dresden, when he began the publication of his "Asiatic Magazine." Invited to Russia by Count Potoki, he was at once named Professor of Oriental Languages at the Academy of St. Petersburg. Klaproth did not belong to the worthy race of book-worms who shut themselves up in their own studies. He took a wider view of the nature of true knowledge, feeling that the surest way to attain a thorough acquaintance with the languages of Asia and of Oriental manners and customs was to study them on the spot. He therefore asked permission to accompany the ambassador Golowkin, who was going to China overland; and the necessary credentials obtained, he started alone for Siberia, making acquaintance with the Samoyèdes, the Tongouses, Bashkirs, Yakontes, Kirghizes, and other of the Finnic and Tartar hordes which frequent these vast steppes, finally arriving at Yakutsk, where he was soon joined by Golowkin. After a halt at Kiakta, the embassy crossed the Chinese frontier on the 1st January, 1806. The Viceroy of Mongolia, however, insisted upon the observance by the ambassador of certain ceremonies which were considered by the latter degrading to his dignity; and neither being disposed to yield, Golowkin set out with his suite to return to St. Petersburg. Klaproth, not caring to retrace his steps, preferred to visit hordes still unknown to him, and he therefore crossed the southern districts of Siberia, and collected during a journey extending over twenty months, a large number of Chinese, Mandchoorian, Thibetan, and Mongolian books, which were of service to him in his great work "Asia Polyglotta." On his return to St. Petersburg he was invested with all the honours of the Academy; and a little later, at the suggestion of Count Potoki, he was appointed to the command of an historical, archæological, and geographical expedition to the Caucasus. Klaproth now passed a whole year in journeys, often full of peril, amongst thievish tribes, through rugged districts, and penetrated to the country traversed by Guldenstædt at the end of the previous century. Klaproth's description of Tiflis is curious as compared with that of contemporary authors. "Tiflis," he says, "so called on account of its mineral springs, is divided into three parts: Tiflis properly so called, or the ancient town; Kala, or the citadel; and the suburb of Issni. This town is built on the Kur, and the greater part of its outer walls is now in ruins. Its streets are so narrow, that 'arbas,' as the lofty carriages so characteristic of Oriental places are called, could only pass with difficulty down the widest, whilst in the others a horseman would barely find room to ride. The houses, badly built of flints and bricks cemented with mud, never last longer than about fifteen years." In Klaproth's time Tiflis boasted of two markets, but everything was extremely dear, shawls and silk scarves manufactured in the neighbouring Asiatic countries bringing higher prices than in St. Petersburg. Tiflis must not be dismissed without a few words concerning its hot springs. Klaproth tells us that the famous hot baths were formerly magnificent, but they are falling into ruins, although some few remain; the floors of which are cased in marble. The waters contain very little sulphur and are most salutary in their effects. The natives, especially the women, use them to excess, the latter remaining in them several days, and even taking their meals in the bath. The chief food of the people of Tiflis, at least in the mountainous districts, is the bhouri, a kind of hard bread with a very disagreeable taste, prepared in a way repugnant to our sybarite notions. When the dough is sufficiently kneaded a bright clear fire of dry wood is made, in earthen vessels four feet high by two wide, which are sunk in the ground. When the fire is burning fiercely, the Georgians shake into it the vermin by which their shirts and red-silk breeches are infested. Not until this ceremony has been performed do they throw the dough, which is divided into pieces of the size of two clenched fists, into the pots. The dough once in, the vessels are covered with lids, over which rags are placed, to make sure of all the heat being kept in and the bread being thoroughly baked. It is, however, always badly done, and very difficult of digestion. Having thus assisted at the preparation of the food of the poor mountaineer, let us join Klaproth at the table of a prince. A long striped cloth, about a yard and a half wide and very dirty, was spread for his party; on this was placed for each guest an oval-shaped wheaten cake, three spans long by two wide, and scarcely as thick as a finger. A number of little brass bowls, filled with mutton and boiled rice, roast fowls, and cheese cut in slices, were then brought in. As it was a fast day, smoked salmon with uncooked green vegetables was served to the prince and his subjects. Spoons, forks, and knives are unknown in Georgia; soup is eaten from the bowl, meat is taken in the hands, and torn with the fingers into pieces the size of a mouthful. To throw a tid-bit to another guest is a mark of great friendship. The repast over, grapes and dried fruits are eaten. During the meal a good red native wine, called traktir by the Tartars, and ghwino by the Georgians, is very freely circulated. It is drunk from flat silver bowls greatly resembling saucers. Klaproth's account of the different incidents of his journey is no less interesting and vivid than this description of the manners of the people. Take, for instance, what he says of his trip to the sources of the Terek, the site of which had been pretty accurately indicated by Guldenstædt, although he had not visited them. "I left the village of Utzfars-Kan on the 17th March, on a bright but cold morning. Fifteen Ossetes accompanied me. After half an hour's march, we began to climb the steep and rugged ascent leading to the junction of the Utzfars-Don with the Terek. This was succeeded by a still worse road, running for a league alongside of the river, which is scarcely ten paces wide here, although it was then swollen by the melting of the snow. This part of the river banks is inhabited. We continued to ascend, and reached the foot of the Khoki, also called Istir-Khoki, finally arriving at a spot where an accumulation of large stones in the bed of the river rendered it possible to cross over to the village of Tsiwratté-Kan, where we breakfasted. Here the small streams forming the Terek meet. I was so glad to have reached the end of my journey, that I poured a glass of Hungarian wine into the river, and made a second libation to the genius of the mountain in which the Terek rises. The Ossetes, who thought I was performing a religious ceremony, observed me gravely. On the smooth sides of an enormous block of schist I engraved in red the date of my journey, together with my name and those of my companions, after which I climbed up to the village of Ressi." [Illustration: "Fifteen Ossetes accompanied me."] After this account of his journey, from which we might multiply extracts, Klaproth sums up all the information he has collected on the tribes of the Caucasus, dwelling specially on the marked resemblances which exist between the different Georgian dialects and those of the Finns and Lapps. This was a new and useful suggestion. Speaking of the Lesghians, who occupy the eastern Caucasus, known as Daghestan, or Lezghistan, Klaproth says their name is a misnomer, just as Scythian or Tartar was used to indicate the natives of Northern Asia; adding, that they do not form one nation, as is proved by the number of dialects in use, which, however, would seem to have been derived from a common source, though time has greatly modified them. This is a contradiction in terms, implying either that the Lesghians, speaking one language, form one nation, or that forming one nation the Lesghians speak various dialects derived from the same source. According to Klaproth, Lesghian words have a considerable affinity with the other languages of the Caucasus, and with those of Western Asia, especially the dialects of the Samoyedes and Siberian Finns. West and north-west of the Lesghians dwell the Metzdjeghis, or Tchetchentses, who are probably the most ancient inhabitants of the Caucasus. This is not, however, the opinion of Pallas, who looks upon them as a separate tribe of the Alain family. The Tchetchentse language greatly resembles the Samoyede and other Siberian dialects, as well as those of the Slavs. The Tcherkesses, or Circassians, are the Sykhes of the Greeks. They formerly inhabited the eastern Caucasus and the Crimea. Their language differs much from other Caucasian idioms, although the Tcherkesses proceed, with the Wogouls and the Ostiakes--we have just seen that the Lesghian and Tchetchentse dialects resemble the Siberian--from one common stock, which at some remote date separated into several branches, of which the Huns probably formed one. The Tcherkesse dialect is one of the most difficult to pronounce, some of the consonants being produced in a manner so loud and guttural that no European has yet been able to acquire it. In the Caucasus also dwell the Abazes--who have never left the shores of the Black Sea, where they have been settled from time immemorial--and the Ossetes, or As, who belong to the Indo-Germanic stock. They call their country Ironistan, and themselves the Irons. Klaproth takes them to be Sarmatic Medes, not only on account of their name, which resembles Iran, but because of the structure of their language, which proves more satisfactorily than historical documents, and in a most conclusive manner, that they spring from the same stock as the Medes and Persians. This opinion, however, appears to us mere conjecture, as in the time of Klaproth the interpretation of cuneiform inscriptions had not been accomplished, and too little was known of the language of the Medes for any one to judge of its resemblance to the Ossete idiom. "However," continues Klaproth, "after meeting again the Sarmatic Medes of the ancients in this people, it is still more surprising also to recognize the Alains, who occupied the districts north of the Caucasus." He adds: "It follows from all we have said, that the Ossetes, who call themselves Irons, are the Medes, who assumed the name of Irans, and whom Herodotus styles the Arioi. They are, moreover, the Sarmatic Medes of the ancients, and belong to the Median colony founded in the Caucasus by the Scythians. They are the As or Alains of the middle ages. And lastly, they are the Iasses of Russian chronicles, from whom some of the Caucasus range took their name of the Iassic Mountains." This is not the place to discuss identifications belonging to the realm of criticism. We will content ourselves with adding to these remarks of Klaproth on the Ossete language, that its pronunciation resembles that of the Low-German and Slavonic dialects. The Georgians differ essentially from the neighbouring nations, alike in their language and in their physical and moral qualities. They are divided into four principal tribes--the Karthalinians, Mingrelians, and Shvans (or Swanians), inhabiting the southern range of the Caucasus, and the Lazes, a wild robber tribe. As we have seen, the facts collected by Klaproth are very curious, and throw an unexpected light on the migration of ancient races. The penetration and sagacity of the traveller were marvellous, and his memory was extraordinary. The scholar of Berlin rendered signal services to the science of philology. It is to be regretted that his qualities as a man, his principles, and his temper, were not on a level with his knowledge and acumen as a professor. We must now leave the Old World for the New, and give an account of the explorations of the young republic of the United States. So soon as the Federal Government was free from the anxieties of war, and its position was alike established and recognized, public attention was directed to the "fur country," which had in turn attracted the English, the Spanish, and the French. Nootka Sound and the neighbouring coasts, discovered by the great Cook and the talented Quadra, Vancouver, and Marchand, were American. Moreover, the Monroe doctrine, destined later to excite so much discussion, already existed in embryo in the minds of the statesmen of the day. In accordance with an Act of Congress, Captain Merryweather Lewis and Lieutenant William Clarke, were commissioned to trace the Missouri, from its junction with the Mississippi to its source, and to cross the Rocky Mountains by the easiest and shortest route, thus opening up communication between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The officers were also to trade with any Indian tribes they might meet. The expedition was composed of regular troops and volunteers, numbering altogether, including the leaders, forty-three men; one boat and two canoes completed the equipment. On the 14th May, 1804, the Americans left Wood River, which flows into the Mississippi, and embarked on the Missouri. From what Cass had said in his journal, the explorers expected to have to contend with natural dangers of a very formidable description, and also to fight their way amongst natives of gigantic stature, whose hostility to the white man was invincible. During the first days of this long canoe voyage, only to be compared to those of Orellana and Condamine on the Amazon, the Americans were fortunate enough to meet with some Sioux Indians, an old Frenchman, a Canadian _coureur des bois_, or trapper, who spoke the languages of most of the Missouri tribes, and consented to accompany the expedition as interpreter. They passed the mouths of the Osage, Kansas, Platte or Nebraska, and White River, all tributaries of the Missouri, successively, and met various parties of Osage and Sioux, or Maha Indians, who all appeared to be in a state of utter degradation. One tribe of Sioux had suffered so much from smallpox, that the male survivors, in a fit of rage and misery, had killed the women and children spared by the terrible malady, and fled from the infected neighbourhood. A little farther north dwelt the Ricaris, or Recs, at first supposed to be the cleanest, most polite, and most industrious of the tribes the expedition met with; but a few thefts soon modified that favourable judgment. It is curious that these people do not depend entirely on hunting, but cultivate corn, peas, and tobacco. This is not, however, the case with the Mandans, who are a more robust race. A custom obtains among them, also characteristic of Polynesia--they do not bury their dead, but expose them on a scaffold. Clarke's narrative gives us a few details relating to this strange tribe. The Mandans look upon the Supreme Being only as an embodiment of the power of healing. As a result they worship two gods, whom they call the Great Medicine or the Physician, and the Great Spirit. It would seem that life is so precious to them that they are impelled to worship all that can prolong it! Their origin is strange. They originally lived in a large subterranean village hollowed out under the ground on the borders of a lake. A vine, however, struck its roots so deeply in the earth as to reach their habitations, and some of them ascended to the surface by the aid of this impromptu ladder. The descriptions given by them on their return of the vast hunting-grounds, rich in game and fruit, which they had seen, led the rest of the tribe to resolve to reach so favoured a land. Half of them had gained the surface, when the vine, bending beneath the weight of a fat woman, gave way, and rendered the ascent of the rest impossible. After death the Mandans expect to return to their subterranean home, but only those who die with a clear conscience can reach it; the guilty will be flung into a lake. The explorers took up their quarters for the winter amongst the Mandans, on the 1st of November. They built huts, as comfortable as possible with the materials at their command; and in spite of the extreme cold, gave themselves up to the pleasures of hunting, which soon became a positive necessity of their existence. When the ice should break up on the Missouri, the explorers hoped to continue their voyage; but on their sending the boat down to St. Louis, laden with the skins and furs already obtained, only thirty men were found willing to carry the expedition through to the end. The travellers soon passed the mouth of the Yellowstone River, with a current nearly as strong as that of the Missouri, flowing through districts abounding in game. Cruel was their perplexity when they arrived at a fork where the Missouri divided into two rivers of nearly equal volume, for which was the main stream? Captain Lewis with a party of scouts ascended the southern branch, and soon came in sight of the Rocky Mountains, completely covered with snow. Guided to the spot by a terrific uproar, he beheld the Missouri fling itself in one broad sheet of water over a rocky precipice, beyond which it formed a broken series of rapids, extending for several miles. [Illustration: "He beheld the Missouri."] The detachment now followed this branch, which led them into the heart of the mountains, and for three or four miles dashed along between two perpendicular walls of rock, finally dividing itself into three parts, to which were given the names of Jefferson, Madison, and Galatin, after celebrated American statesmen. The last heights were soon crossed, and then the expedition descended the slopes overlooking the Pacific. The Americans had brought with them a Soshone woman, who had been protected as a girl by the Indians of the east, and not only did she serve the explorers faithfully as an interpreter, but also, through her recognition of a brother in the chief of a tribe disposed to be hostile, she from that moment secured cordial treatment for the white men. Unfortunately the country was poor, the people living entirely on wild berries, bark, and the little game they were able to obtain. The Americans, little accustomed to this frugal fare, had to eke it out by eating their horses, which had grown very thin, and buying all the dogs the natives would consent to sell. Hence they obtained the nickname of Dog-eaters. As the temperature became milder, so did the character of the natives, whilst food grew more abundant; and as they came down the Oregon, also known as the Columbia, the salmon formed a seasonable addition to the bill of fare. When the Columbia, which is dangerous for navigation, approaches the sea, it forms a vast estuary, where the waves from the offing meet the current of the river. The Americans more than once incurred considerable risk of being swallowed up, with their frail canoe, before they reached the shores of the ocean. Glad to have accomplished the aim of their expedition, the explorers wintered at the mouth of the river, and when the fine weather set in they made their way back to St. Louis, arriving there in May, 1806, after an absence of two years, four months, and ten days. They had in that time, according to their own estimate, traversed less than 1378 leagues. The impulse was now given, and reconnoitring expeditions in the interior of the new continent rapidly succeeded each other, assuming, a little later, a scientific character which gives them a position of their own in the history of discovery. A few years later, one of the greatest colonizers of whom England can boast, Sir Stamford Raffles, organizer of the expedition which took possession of the Dutch colonies, was appointed Military Governor of Java. During an administration extending over five years, Raffles brought about numerous reforms, and abolished slavery. Absorbing as was this work, however, it did not prevent him from publishing two huge quarto volumes, which are as interesting as they are curious. They contain, in addition to the history of Java, a vast number of details about the natives of the interior, until then little known, together with much circumstantial information respecting the geology and natural history of the country. It is no wonder, therefore, that in honour of the man who did so much to make Java known, the name of Rafflesia should have been given to an immense flower native to it, and of which some specimens measure over three feet in diameter, and weigh some ten pounds. [Illustration: Warrior of Java. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Raffles was also the first to penetrate to the interior of Sumatra, of which the coast only was previously known. He visited the districts occupied by the Passoumahs, sturdy tillers of the soil, the northern provinces, with Memang-Kabou, the celebrated Malayan capital, and crossed the southern half of the island, from Bencoulen to Palimbang. Sir Stamford Raffles' fame, however rests principally upon his having drawn the attention of the Indian Government to the exceptionally favourable position of Singapore, which was converted by him into an open port, and grew rapidly into a prosperous settlement. CHAPTER II. THE EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION OF AFRICA. I. Peddie and Campbell in the Soudan--Ritchie and Lyon in Fezzan--Denham, Oudney, and Clapperton in Fezzan, and in the Tibboo country--Lake Tchad and its tributaries--Kouka and the chief villages of Bornou--Mandara--A razzia, or raid, in the Fellatah country--Defeat of the Arabs and death of Boo-Khaloum--Loggan--Death of Toole--En route for Kano--Death of Oudney--Kano--Sackatoo--Sultan Bello--Return to Europe. The power of Napoleon, and with it the supremacy of France, was scarcely overthrown--the Titanic contests, to gratify the ambition of one man at the expense of the intellectual progress of humanity, were scarcely at an end, before an honourable rivalry awoke once more, and new scientific and commercial expeditions were set on foot. A new era had commenced. Foremost in the ranks of the governments which organized and encouraged exploring expeditions we find as usual that of England. It was in Central Africa, the vast riches of which had been hinted at in the accounts given of their travels by Hornemann and Burckhardt, that the attention of the English was now concentrated. As early as 1816 Major Peddie, starting from Senegal, reached Kakondy, on the River Nuñez, succumbing, however, to the fatigue of the journey and unhealthiness of the climate soon after his arrival in that town. Major Campbell succeeded him in the command of the expedition, and crossed the lofty mountains of Foota-Djalion, losing in a few days several men and part of the baggage animals. Arrived at the headquarters of the Almamy, as most of the kings of this part of Africa are called, the expedition was detained for a long time, and only obtained permission to depart on payment of a large sum. Most disastrous was the return journey, for the explorers had not only to recross the streams they had before forded with such difficulty, but they were subjected to so many insults, annoyances, and exactions, that to put an end to them Campbell was obliged to burn his merchandize, break his guns, and sink his powder. Against so much fatigue and mortification, added to the complete failure of his expedition, Major Campbell failed to bear up, and he died, with several of his officers, in the very place where Major Peddie had closed his career. The few survivors of the party reached Sierra Leone after an arduous march. A little later, Ritchie and Captain George Francis Lyon, availing themselves of the prestige which the siege of Algiers had brought to the British flag, and of the cordial relations which the English consul at Tripoli had succeeded in establishing with the principal Moorish authorities, determined to follow Hornemann's route, and penetrate to the very heart of Africa. On the 25th March, 1819, the travellers left Tripoli with Mahommed el Moukni, Bey of Fezzan, who is called sultan by his subjects. Protected by this escort, Ritchie and Lyon reached Murzuk without molestation, but there the former died on the 2nd November, worn out by the fatigue and privations of the journey across the desert. Lyon, who was ill for some time from the same causes, recovered soon enough to foil the designs of the sultan, who counting on his death, had already begun to take possession of his property, and also of Ritchie's. The captain could not penetrate beyond the southern boundaries of Fezzan, but he had time to collect a good deal of valuable information about the chief towns of that province and the language of its inhabitants. To him we likewise owe the first authentic details of the religion, customs, language, and extraordinary costumes of the Tuarick Arabs, a wild tribe inhabiting the Great Sahara desert. Captain Lyon's narrative also contains a good deal of interesting information collected by himself on Bornou, Wadai, and the Soudan, although he was unable to visit those places in person. The results obtained did not by any means satisfy the English Government, which was most eager to open up the riches of the interior to its merchants. Consequently the authorities received favourably the proposals made by Dr. Walter Oudney, a Scotchman, whose enthusiasm had been aroused by the travels of Mungo Park. This Dr. Oudney was a friend of Hugh Clapperton, a lieutenant in the Navy, three years his senior, who had distinguished himself in Canada and elsewhere, but had been thrown out of employment and reduced to half-pay by the peace of 1815. Hearing of Oudney's scheme, Clapperton at once determined to join him in it, and Oudney begged the minister to allow him the aid of that enterprising officer, whose special knowledge would be of great assistance. Lord Bathurst made no objection, and the two friends, after receiving minute instructions, embarked for Tripoli, where they ascertained that Major Denham was to take the command of their expedition. Denham was born in London on the 31st December, 1783, and began life as an articled pupil to a country lawyer. As an attorney's clerk he found his duties so irksome and so little suited to his daring spirit that his longing for adventure soon led him to enlist in a regiment bound for Spain. Until 1815 he remained with the army, but after the peace he employed his leisure in visiting France and Italy. Denham, eager to obtain distinction, had chosen the career which would best enable him to achieve it, even at the risk of his life, and he now resolved to become an explorer. With him to think was to act. He had asked the minister to commission him to go to Timbuctoo by the route Laing afterwards took when he heard of the expedition under Clapperton and Oudney; and he now begged to be allowed to join them. Without any delay Denham obtained the necessary equipment, and accompanied by a carpenter named William Hillman, he embarked for Malta, joining his future travelling companions at Tripoli on the 21st November, 1821. The English at this time enjoyed very great prestige, not only in the States of Barbary, on account of the bombardment of Algiers, but also because the British consul at Tripoli had by his clever diplomacy established friendly relations with the government to which he was accredited. This prestige extended beyond the narrow range of the northern states. The nationality of certain travellers, the protection accorded by England to the Porte, the British victories in India had all been vaguely rumoured even in the heart of Africa, and the name of Englishman, was familiar without any particular meaning being attached to it. According to the English consul, the route from Tripoli to Bornou was as safe as that from London to Edinburgh. This was, therefore, the moment to seize opportunities which might not occur again. The three travellers, after a cordial reception from the bey, who placed all his resources at their disposal, lost no time in leaving Tripoli, and with an escort provided by the Moorish governor, they reached Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, on the 8th April, 1822, without difficulty, having indeed been received with great enthusiasm in some of the places through which they passed. At Sockna, Denham tells us, the governor came out to meet them, accompanied by the principal inhabitants and hundreds of the country people, who crowded round their horses, kissing their hands with every appearance of cordiality and delight, and shouting _Inglesi_, _Inglesi_, as the visitors entered the town. This welcome was the more gratifying from the fact that the travellers were the first Europeans to penetrate into Africa without wearing a disguise. Denham adds that he feels sure their reception would have been far less cordial had they stooped to play the part of impostors by attempting to pass for Mahommedans. At Murzuk they were harassed by annoyances similar to those which had paralyzed Hornemann; in their case, however, circumstances and character were alike different, and without allowing themselves to be blinded by the compliments paid them by the sultan, the English, who were thoroughly in earnest, demanded the necessary escort for the journey to Bornou. It was impossible, they were told, to start before the following spring, on account of the difficulty of collecting a kafila or caravan, and the troops necessary for its escort across the desert. A rich merchant, however, Boo-Bucker-Boo-Khaloum by name, a great friend of the pacha, gave the explorers a hint that if he received certain presents he would smooth away all difficulties. He even offered to escort them himself to Bornou, for which province he was bound if he could obtain the necessary permission from the Pacha of Tripoli. Denham, believing Boo-Khaloum to be acting honestly, went off to Tripoli to obtain the governor's sanction, but on his arrival there he obtained only evasive answers, and finally threatened to embark for England, where he said he would report the obstacles thrown in his way by the pacha, in the carrying out of the objects of the exploring expedition. These menaces produced no effect, and Denham actually set sail, and was about to land at Marseilles when he received a satisfactory message from the bey, begging him to return, and authorizing Boo-Khaloum to accompany him and his companions. On the 30th October Denham rejoined Oudney and Clapperton at Murzuk, finding them considerably weakened by fever and the effects of the climate. Denham, convinced that change of air would restore them to health, persuaded them to start and begin the journey by easy stages. He himself set out on the 20th of November with a caravan of merchants from Mesurata, Tripoli, Sockna, and Murzuk, escorted by 210 Arab warriors chosen from the most intelligent and docile of the tribes, and commanded by Boo-Khaloum. The expedition took the route followed by Lyon and soon reached Tegerry, which is the most southerly town of Fezzan, and the last before the traveller enters the desert of Bilma. Denham made a sketch of the castle of Tegerry from the southern bank of a salt lake near the town. Tegerry is entered by a low narrow vaulted passage leading to a gate in a second rampart. The wall is pierced with apertures which render the entrance by the narrow passage very difficult. Above the second gate there is also an aperture through which darts, and fire-brands may be hurled upon the besiegers, a mode of warfare once largely indulged in by the Arabs. Inside the town there are wells of fairly good water. Denham is of opinion that Tegerry restored, well-garrisoned and provisioned, could sustain a long siege. Its situation is delightful. It is surrounded by date-trees, and the water in the neighbourhood is excellent. A chain of low hills stretches away to the east. Snipes, ducks, and wild geese frequent the salt lakes near the town. Leaving Tegerry, the travellers entered a sandy desert, across which it would not have been easy to find the way, had it not been marked out by the skeletons of men and animals strewn along it, especially about the wells. "One of the skeletons we saw to-day," says Denham, "still looked quite fresh. The beard was on the chin, the features could be recognized. 'It is my slave,' exclaimed one of the merchants of the kafila. 'I left him near here four months ago.' 'Make haste and take him to the market!' cried a facetious slave merchant, 'lest some one else should claim him.'" [Illustration: A kafila of slaves. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Here and there in the desert are oases containing towns of greater or less importance, at which the caravans halt. Kishi is one of the most frequented of these places, and there the money for the right of crossing the desert is paid. The Sultan of Kishi, the ruler of a good many of these petty principalities, and who takes the title of Commander of the Faithful, was remarkable for a complete disregard of cleanliness, a peculiarity in which, according to Denham, his court fully equalled him. This sultan paid Boo-Khaloum a visit in his tent, accompanied by half a dozen Tibboos, some of whom were positively hideous. Their teeth were of a dark yellow colour, the result of chewing tobacco, of which they are so fond that they use it as snuff as well as to chew. Their noses looked like little round bits of flesh stuck on to their faces with nostrils so wide that they could push their fingers right up them. Denham's watch, compass, and musical snuffbox astonished them not a little. He defines these people as brutes with human faces. A little further on the travellers reached the town of Kirby, situated in a wâdy near a low range of hills of which the highest are not more than 400 feet above the sea level, and between two salt lakes, produced by the excavations made for building. From the centre of these lakes rise islets consisting of masses of muriate and carbonate of soda. The salt produced by these wâdys, or depressions of the soil, form an important article of commerce with Bornou and the whole of the Soudan. It would be impossible to imagine a more wretched place than Kirby. Its houses are empty, containing not so much as a mat. How could it be otherwise with a place liable to incessant raids from the Tuaricks? The caravan now crossed the Tibboo country, inhabited by a peaceful, hospitable people to whom, as keepers of the wells and reservoirs of the desert, the leaders of caravans pay passage-money. The Tibboos are a strong, active race, and when mounted on their nimble steeds they display marvellous skill in throwing the lance, which the most vigorous of their warriors can hurl to a distance of 145 yards. Bilma is their chief city, and the residence of their sultan. On the arrival of the travellers at Bilma, the sultan, escorted by a number of men and women, came out to meet the strangers. The women were much better-looking than those in the smaller towns; some of them had indeed very pleasant faces, their white, regular teeth contrasting admirably with their shining black skins, and the three "triangular flaps of hair, streaming with oil." Coral ornaments in their noses, and large amber necklaces round their throats, gave them what Denham calls a "seductive appearance." Some of them carried fans made of grass or hair, with which to keep off the flies; others were provided with branches of trees; all, in fact, carried something in their hands, which they waved above their heads. Their costume consisted of a loose piece of Soudan cloth, fastened on the left shoulder, and leaving the right uncovered, with a smaller piece wound about the head, and falling on the shoulders or flung back. In spite of this paucity of clothing, there was not the least immodesty in their bearing. A mile from Bilma, and beyond a limpid spring, which appears to have been placed there by nature to afford a supply of water to travellers, lies a desert, which it takes no less than ten days to cross. This was probably once a huge salt lake. On the 4th February, 1823, the caravan reached Lari, a town on the northern boundary of Bornou, in lat. 14 degrees 40 minutes N. The inhabitants, astonished at the size of the "kafila," fled in terror at its approach. "Beyond, however," says Denham, "was an object full of interest to us, and the sight of it produced a sensation so gratifying and inspiring, that it would be difficult for language to convey an idea of its force or pleasure. The great Lake Tchad, glowing with the golden rays of the sun in its strength, appeared to be within a mile of the spot on which we stood." On leaving Lari, the appearance of the country changed completely. The sandy desert was succeeded by a clay soil, clothed with grass and dotted with acacias and other trees of various species, amongst which grazed herds of antelopes, whilst Guinea fowls and the turtle-doves of Barbary flew hither and thither above them. Towns took the place of villages, with huts of the shape of bells, thatched with durra straw. The travellers continued their journey southwards, rounding Lake Tchad, which they had first touched at its most northerly point. The districts bordering on this sheet of water were of a black, firm, but muddy soil. The waters rise to a considerable height in winter, and sink in proportion in the summer. The lake is of fresh water, rich in fish, and frequented by hippopotami and aquatic birds. Near its centre, on the south-east, are the islands inhabited by the Biddomahs, a race who live by pillaging the people of the mainland. The explorers had sent a messenger to Sheikh El Khanemy, to ask permission to enter his capital, and an envoy speedily arrived to invite Boo-Khaloum and his companions to Kouka. On their way thither, the travellers passed through Burwha, a fortified town which had thus far resisted the inroads of the Tuaricks, and crossed the Yeou, a large river, in some parts more than 500 feet in width, which, rising in the Soudan, flows into Lake Tchad. On the southern shores of this river rises a little town of the same name, about half the size of Burwha. The caravan soon reached the gates of Kouka, where, after a journey extending over two months and a half, they were received by a body of cavalry 4000 strong, under perfect discipline. Amongst these troops was a corps of blacks forming the body-guard of the sheikh, whose equipments resembled those of ancient chivalry. [Illustration: Member of the body-guard of the Sheikh of Bornou. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] They wore, Denham tells us, suits of chain armour covering the neck and shoulders. These were fastened above the head, and fell in two portions, one in front and one behind, so as to protect the flanks of the horse and the thighs of the rider. A sort of casque or iron coif, kept in its place by red, white or yellow turbans, tied under the chin, completed the costume. The horses' heads were also guarded by iron plates. Their saddles were small and light, and their steel stirrups held only the point of the feet, which were clad in leather shoes, ornamented with crocodile skin. The horsemen managed their steeds admirably, as, advancing at full gallop, brandishing their spears, they wheeled right and left of their guests, shouting "Barca! Barca!" (Blessing! Blessing!). Surrounded by this brilliant and fantastic escort, the English and Arabs entered the town, where a similar military display had been prepared in their honour. They were presently admitted to the presence of Sheikh El-Khanemy, who appeared to be about forty-five years old, and whose face was prepossessing, with a happy, intelligent, and benevolent expression. The English presented the letters of the pacha, and when the sheikh had read them, he asked Denham what had brought him and his companions to Bornou. "We came merely to see the country," replied Denham, "to study the character of its people, its scenery, and its productions." "You are welcome," was the reply; "it will be a pleasure to me to show you everything. I have ordered huts to be built for you in the town; you may go and see them, accompanied by one of my people, and when you are recovered from the fatigue of your long journey, I shall be happy to see you." [Illustration: Reception of the Mission. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The travellers soon afterwards obtained permission to make collections of such animals and plants as appeared to them curious, and to make notes of all their observations. They were thus enabled to collect a good deal of information about the towns near Kouka. Kouka, then the capital of Bornou, boasted of a market for the sale of slaves, sheep, oxen, cheese, rice, earth-nuts, beans, indigo, and other productions of the country. There 100,000 people might sometimes be seen haggling about the price of fish, poultry, meat--the last sold both raw and cooked--or that of brass, copper, amber and coral. Linen was so cheap in these parts, that some of the men wore shirts and trousers made of it. Beggars have a peculiar mode of exciting compassion; they station themselves at the entrance to the market, and, holding up the rags of an old pair of trousers, they whine out to the passers-by, "See! I have no pantaloons!" The novelty of this mode of proceeding, and the request for a garment, which seemed to them even more necessary than food, made our travellers laugh heartily until they became accustomed to it. Hitherto the English had had nothing to do with any one but the sheikh, who, content with wielding all real power, left the nominal sovereignty to the sultan, an eccentric monarch, who never showed himself except through the bars of a wicker cage near the gate of his garden, as if he were some rare wild beast. Curious indeed were some of the customs of this court, not the least so the fancy for obesity: no one was considered elegant unless he had attained to a bulk generally looked upon as very inconvenient. Some exquisites had stomachs so distended and prominent that they seemed literally to hang over the pommel of the saddle; and in addition to this, fashion prescribed a turban of such length and weight that its wearer had to carry his head on one side. These uncouth peculiarities rivalled those of the Turks of a masked ball, and the travellers had often hard work to preserve their gravity. To compensate, however, for the grotesque solemnity of the various receptions, a new field for observation was open, and much valuable information might now be acquired. Denham wished to proceed to the south at once, but the sheikh was unwilling to risk the lives of the travellers entrusted to him by the Bey of Tripoli. On their entry into Bornou, the responsibility of Boo-Khaloum for their safety was transferred to him. So earnest, however, were the entreaties of Denham, that El-Khanemy at last sanctioned his accompanying Boo-Khaloum in a "ghrazzie," or plundering expedition against the Kaffirs or infidels. The sheikh's army and the Arab troops passed in succession Yeddie, a large walled city twenty miles from Angoumou, Badagry, and several other towns built on an alluvial soil which has a dark clay-like appearance. They entered Mandara, at the frontier town of Delow, beyond which the sultan of the province, with five hundred horsemen, met his guests. Denham describes Mahommed Becker as a man of short stature, about fifty years old, wearing a beard, painted of a most delicate azure blue. The presentations over, the sultan at once turned to Denham, and asked who he was, whence he came, what he wanted, and lastly if he were a Mahommedan. On Boo-Khaloum's hesitating to reply, the sultan turned away his head, with the words, "So the pacha numbers infidels amongst his friends!" This incident had a very bad effect, and Denham was not again admitted to the presence of the sultan. [Illustration: Lancer of the army of the Sultan of Begharmi. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The enemies of the Pacha of Bornou and the Sultan of Mandara, were called Fellatahs. Their vast settlements extended far beyond Timbuctoo. They are a handsome set of men, with skins of a dark bronze colour, which shows them to be of a race quite distinct from the negroes. They are professors of Mahommedanism, and mix but little with the blacks. We shall presently have to speak more particularly of the Fellatahs, Foulahs, or Fans, as they are called throughout the Soudan. South of the town of Mora rises a chain of mountains, of which the loftiest peaks are not more than 2500 feet high, but which, according to the natives, extend for more than "two months' journey." The most salient point noticed by Denham in his description of the country, is a vast and apparently interminable chain of mountains, shutting in the view on every side; this, though in his opinion, inferior to the Alps, Apennines, Jura, and Sierra Morena in rugged magnificence and gigantic grandeur, are yet equal to them in picturesque effect. The lofty peaks of Valhmy, Savah, Djoggiday, Munday, &c., with clustering villages on their stony sides, rise on the east and west, while Horza, exceeding any of them in height and beauty, rises on the south with its ravines and precipices. Derkulla, one of the chief Fellatah towns, was reduced to ashes by the invaders, who lost no time in pressing on to Musfeia, a position which, naturally very strong, was further defended by palisades manned by a numerous body of archers. The English traveller had to take part in the assault. The first onslaught of the Arabs appeared to carry all before it; the noise of the fire-arms, with the reputation for bravery and cruelty enjoyed by Boo-Khaloum and his men, threw the Fellatahs into momentary confusion, and if the men of Mandara and Bornou had followed up their advantage and stormed the hill, the town would probably have fallen. The besieged, however, noticing the hesitation of their assailants, in their turn assumed the defensive, and rallying their archers discharged a shower of poisoned arrows, to which many an Arab fell a victim, and before which the forces of Bornou and Mandara gave way. Barca, the Bornou general, had three horses killed under him. Boo-Khaloum and his steed were both wounded, and Denham was in a similar plight, with the skin of his face grazed by one arrow and two others lodged in his burnoos. The retreat soon became a rout. Denham's horse fell under him, and the major had hardly regained his feet when he was surrounded by Fellatahs. Two fled on the presentation of the Englishman's pistols, a third received the charge in his shoulder. Denham thought he was safe, when his horse fell a second time, flinging his master violently against a tree. This time when the major rose he found himself with neither horse nor weapons; and the next moment he was surrounded by enemies, who stripped him and wounded him in both hands and the right side, leaving him half dead at last to fight over his clothes, which seemed to them of great value. Availing himself of this lucky quarrel, Denham slipped under a horse standing by, and disappeared in the thicket. Naked, bleeding, wild with pain, he reached the edge of a ravine with a mountain stream flowing through it. His strength was all but gone, and he was clutching at a bough of a tree overhanging the water with a view to dropping himself into it as the banks were very steep, and the branches were actually bending beneath his weight, when from beneath his hand a gigantic liffa, the most venomous kind of serpent in the country, rose from its coil in the very act of striking. Horror-struck, Denham let slip the branch, and tumbled headlong into the water, but fortunately the shock revived him, he struck out almost unconsciously, swam to the opposite bank, and climbing it, found himself safe from his pursuers. Fortunately the fugitive soon saw a group of horsemen amongst the trees, and in spite of the noise of the pursuit, he managed to shout loud enough to make them hear him. They turned out to be Barca Gana and Boo-Khaloum, with some Arabs. Mounted on a sorry steed, with no other clothing than an old blanket swarming with vermin, Denham travelled thirty-seven miles. The pain of his wounds was greatly aggravated by the heat, the thermometer being at 32 degrees. The only results of the expedition, which was to have brought in such quantities of booty and numerous slaves, were the deaths of Boo-Khaloum and thirty-six of his Arabs, the wounding of nearly all the rest, and the loss or destruction of all the horses. The eighty miles between Mora and Kouka were traversed in six days. Denham was kindly received in the latter town by the sultan, who sent him a native garment to replace his lost wardrobe. The major had hardly recovered from his wounds and fatigue, before he took part in a new expedition, sent to Munga, a province on the west of Bornou, by the sheikh, whose authority had never been fully recognized there, and whose claim for tribute had been refused by the inhabitants. [Illustration: Map of Denham and Clapperton's Journey. Gravé par E. Morieu.] Denham and Oudney left Kouka on the 22nd May, and crossed the Yeou, then nearly dried up, but an important stream in the rainy season, and visited Birnie, with the ruins of the capital of the same name, which was capable of containing two hundred thousand inhabitants. The travellers also passed through the ruins of Gambarou with its magnificent buildings, the favourite residence of the former sultan, destroyed by the Fellatahs, Kabshary, Bassecour, Bately, and many other towns or villages, whose numerous populations submitted without a struggle to the Sultan of Bornou. The rainy season was disastrous to the members of the expedition, Clapperton fell dangerously ill of fever, and Oudney, whose chest was delicate even before he left England, grew weaker every day. Denham alone kept up. On the 14th of December, when the rainy season was drawing to a close, Clapperton and Oudney started for Kano. We shall presently relate the particulars of this interesting part of their expedition. Seven days later, an ensign, named Toole, arrived at Kouka, after a journey from Tripoli, which had occupied only three months and fourteen days. In February, 1824, Denham and Toole made a trip into Luggun, on the south of Lake Tchad. All the districts near the lake and its tributary, the Shari, are marshy, and flooded during the rainy season. The unhealthiness of the climate was fatal to young Toole, who died at Angala, on the 26th of February, at the early age of twenty-two. Persevering, enterprising, bright and obliging, with plenty of pluck and prudence, Toole was a model explorer. Luggun was then very little known, its capital Kernok, contained no less than 15,000 inhabitants. The people of Luggun, especially the women--who are very industrious, and manufacture the finest linens, and fabrics of the closest texture--are handsomer and more intelligent than those of Bornou. The necessary interview with the sultan ended, after an exchange of complimentary speeches and handsome presents, in this strange proposal from his majesty to the travellers: "If you have come to buy female slaves, you need not be at the trouble to go further, as I will sell them to you as cheap as possible." Denham had great trouble in convincing the merchant prince that such traffic was not the aim of his journey, but that the love of science alone had brought him to Luggun. On the 2nd of March, Denham returned to Kouka, and on the 20th of May, he was witness to the arrival of Lieutenant Tyrwhitt, who had come to take up his residence as consul at the court of Bornou, bearing costly presents for the sultan. [Illustration: Portrait of Clapperton. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] After a final excursion in the direction of Manou, the capital of Kanem, and a visit to the Dogganah, who formerly occupied all the districts about Lake Fitri, the major joined Clapperton in his return journey to Tripoli, starting on the 16th of April, and arriving there in safety at the close of a long and arduous journey, whose geographical results, important in any case, had been greatly enhanced by the labours of Clapperton. To the adventures and discoveries of the latter we must now turn. Clapperton and Oudney started for Kano, a large Fellatah town on the west of Lake Tchad, on the 14th of December, 1823, followed the Yeou as far as Damasak, and visited the ruins of Birnie, and those of Bera, on the shores of a lake formed by the overflowing of the Yeou, Dogamou and Bekidarfi, all towns of Houssa. The people of this province, who were very numerous before the invasion of the Fellatahs, are armed with bows and arrows, and trade in tobacco, nuts, gouro, antimony, tanned hares' skins, and cotton stuffs in the piece and made into clothes. The caravan soon left the banks of the Yeou or Gambarou, and entered a wooded country, which was evidently under water in the rainy season. The travellers then entered the province of Katagoum, where the governor received them with great cordiality, assuring them that their arrival was quite an event to him, as it would be to the Sultan of the Fellatahs, who, like himself, had never before seen an Englishman. He also assured them that they would find all they required in his district, just as at Kouka. The only thing which seemed to surprise him much, was the fact that his visitors wanted neither slaves, horses, nor silver, and that the sole proof of his friendship they required was permission to collect flowers and plants, and to travel in his country. According to Clapperton's observations, Katagoum is situated in lat. 12 degrees 17 minutes 11 seconds N., and about 12 degrees E. long. Before the Fellatahs were conquered, it was on the borders of the province of Bornou. It can send into the field 4000 cavalry, and 2000 foot soldiers, armed with bows and arrows, swords and lances. Wheat, and oxen, with slaves, are its chief articles of commerce. The citadel is the strongest the English had seen, except that of Tripoli. Entered by gates which are shut at night, it is defended by two parallel walls, and three dry moats, one inside, one out, and the third between the two walls which are twenty feet high, and ten feet wide at the base. A ruined mosque is the only other object of interest in the town, which consists of mud houses, and contains some seven or eight hundred inhabitants. There the English for the first time saw cowries used as money. Hitherto native cloth had been the sole medium of exchange. South of Katagoum is the Yacoba country, called Mouchy by the Mahommedans. According to accounts received by Clapperton, the people of Yacoba, which is shut in by limestone mountains, are cannibals. The Mahommedans, however, who have an intense horror of the "Kaffirs," give no other proof of this accusation than the statement that they have seen human heads and limbs hanging against the walls of the houses. In Yacoba rises the Yeou, a river which dries up completely in the summer; but, according to the people who live on its banks, rises and falls regularly every week throughout the rainy season. On the 11th of January, the journey was resumed; but a halt had to be made at Murmur at noon of the same day, as Oudney showed signs of such extreme weakness and exhaustion, that Clapperton feared he could not last through another day. He had been gradually failing ever since they left the mountains of Obarri in Fezzan, where he had inflammation of the throat from sitting in a draught when over-heated. On the 12th of January, Oudney took a cup of coffee at daybreak, and at his request Clapperton changed camels with him. He then helped him to dress, and leaning on his servant, the doctor left the tent. He was about to attempt to mount his camel, when Clapperton saw death in his face. He supported him back to the tent, where to his intense grief, he expired at once, without a groan or any sign of suffering. Clapperton lost no time in asking the governor's permission to bury his comrade; and this being obtained, he dug a grave for him himself under an old mimosa-tree near one of the gates of the town. After the body had been washed according to the custom of the country, it was wrapped in some of the turban shawls which were to have served as presents on the further journey; the servants carried it to its last resting-place, and Clapperton read the English burial service at the grave. When the ceremony was over, he surrounded the modest resting-place with a wall of earth, to keep off beasts of prey, and had two sheep killed, which he divided amongst the poor. Thus closed the career of the young naturalist and ship's doctor, Oudney. His terrible malady, whose germs he had brought with him from England, had prevented him from rendering so much service to the expedition as the Government had expected from him, although he never spared himself, declaring that he felt better on the march, than when resting. Knowing that his weakened constitution would not admit of any sustained exertion on his part, he would never damp the ardour of his companions. After this sad event, Clapperton resumed his journey to Kano, halting successively at Digou, situated in a well-cultivated district, rich in flocks; Katoungora, beyond the province of Katagoum; Zangeia, once--judging from its extent and the ruined walls still standing--an important place, near the end of the Douchi chain of hills; Girkoua, with a finer market-place than that of Tripoli; and Souchwa, surrounded by an imposing earthwork. Kano, the Chana of Edrisi and other Arab geographers, and the great emporium of the kingdom of Houssa, was reached on the 20th January. Clapperton tells us that he had hardly entered the gates before his expectations were disappointed; after the brilliant description of the Arabs, he had expected to see a town of vast extent. The houses were a quarter of a mile from the walls, and stood here and there in little groups, separated by large pools of stagnant water. "I might have dispensed with the care I had bestowed on my dress," (he had donned his naval uniform), "for the inhabitants, absorbed in their own affairs, let me pass without remark and never so much as looked at me." Kano, the capital of the province of that name and one of the chief towns of the Soudan, is situated in N. lat. 12 degrees 0 minutes 19 seconds, and E. long. 9 degrees 20 minutes. It contains between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, of whom the greater number are slaves. The market, bounded on the east and west by vast reedy swamps, is the haunt of numerous flocks of ducks, storks, and vultures, which act as scavengers to the town. In this market, stocked with all the provisions in use in Africa, beef, mutton, goats' and sometimes even camels' flesh, are sold. Writing paper of French manufacture, scissors and knives, antimony, tin, red silk, copper bracelets, glass beads, coral, amber, steel rings, silver ornaments, turban shawls, cotton cloths, calico, Moorish habiliments, and many other articles, are exposed for sale in large quantities in the market-place of Kano. There Clapperton bought for three piastres, an English cotton umbrella from Ghadames. He also visited the slave-market, where the unfortunate human chattels are as carefully examined as volunteers for the navy are by our own inspectors. The town is very unhealthy, the swamps cutting it in two, and the holes produced by the removal of the earth for building, produce permanent malaria. It is the fashion at Kano to stain the teeth and limbs with the juice of a plant called _gourgi_, and with tobacco, which produces a bright red colour. Gouro nuts are chewed, and sometimes even swallowed when mixed with _trona_, a habit not peculiar to Houssa, for it extends to Bornou, where it is strictly forbidden to women. The people of Houssa smoke a native tobacco. On the 23rd of February, Clapperton started for Sackatoo. He crossed a picturesque well-cultivated country, whose wooded hills gave it the appearance of an English park. Herds of beautiful white or dun-coloured oxen gave animation to the scenery. The most important places passed en route by Clapperton were Gadania, a densely populated town, the inhabitants of which had been sold as slaves by the Fellatahs, Doncami, Zirmia, the capital of Gambra, Kagaria, Kouari, and the wells of Kamoun, where he met an escort sent by the sultan. Sackatoo was the most thickly populated city that the explorer had seen in Africa. Its well-built houses form regular streets, instead of clustering in groups as in the other towns of Houssa. It is surrounded by a wall between twenty and thirty feet high, pierced by twelve gates, which are closed every evening at sunset, and it boasts of two mosques, with a market and a large square opposite to the sultan's residence. The inhabitants, most of whom are Fellatahs, own many slaves; and the latter, those at least who are not in domestic service, work at some trade for their masters' profit. They are weavers, masons, blacksmiths, shoemakers, or husbandmen. To do honour to his host, and also to give him an exalted notion of the power and wealth of England, Clapperton assumed a dazzling costume when he paid his first visit to Sultan Bello. He covered his uniform with gold lace, donned white trousers and silk stockings, and completed this holiday attire by a Turkish turban and slippers. Bello received him, seated on a cushion in a thatched hut like an English cottage. The sultan, a handsome man, about forty-five years old, wore a blue cotton _tobe_ and a white cotton turban, one end of which fell over his nose and mouth in Turkish fashion. Bello accepted the traveller's presents with childish glee. The watch, telescope, and thermometer, which he naively called a "heat watch," especially delighted him; but he wondered more at his visitor than at any of his gifts. He was unwearied in his questions as to the manners, customs, and trade of England; and after receiving several replies, he expressed a wish to open commercial relations with that power. He would like an English consul and a doctor to reside in a port he called Raka, and finally he requested that certain articles of English manufacture should be sent to Funda, a very thriving sea-port of his. After a good many talks on the different religions of Europe, Bello gave back to Clapperton the books, journals, and clothes which had been taken from Denham, at the time of the unfortunate excursion in which Boo-Khaloum lost his life. On the 3rd May, Clapperton took leave of the sultan. This time there was a good deal of delay before he was admitted to an audience. Bello was alone, and gave the traveller a letter for the King of England, with many expressions of friendship towards the country of his visitor, reiterating his wish to open commercial relations with it and begging him to let him have a letter to say when the English expedition promised by Clapperton would arrive on the coast of Africa. Clapperton returned by the route by which he had come, arriving on the 8th of July at Kouka, where he rejoined Denham. He had brought with him an Arab manuscript containing a geographical and historical picture of the kingdom of Takrour, governed by Mahommed Bello of Houssa, author of the manuscript. He himself had not only collected much valuable information on the geology and botany of Bornou and Houssa, but also drawn up a vocabulary of the languages of Begharmi, Mandara, Bornou, Houssa, and Timbuctoo. The results of the expedition were therefore considerable. The Fellatahs had been heard of for the first time, and their identity with the Fans had been ascertained by Clapperton in his second journey. It had been proved that these Fellatahs had created a vast empire in the north and west of Africa, and also that beyond a doubt they did not belong to the negro race. The study of their language, and its resemblance to certain idioms not of African origin, will some day throw a light on the migration of races. Lastly, Lake Tchad had been discovered, and though not entirely examined, the greater part of its shores had been explored. It had been ascertained to have two tributaries: the Yeou, part of whose course had been traced, whilst its source had been pointed out by the natives, and the Shari, the mouth and lower portion of which had been carefully examined by Denham. With regard to the Niger, the information collected by Clapperton from the natives was still very contradictory, but the balance of evidence was in favour of its flowing into the Gulf of Benin. However, Clapperton intended, after a short rest in England, to return to Africa, and landing on the western coast make his way up the Kouara or Djoliba as the natives call the Niger; to set at rest once for all the dispute as to whether that river was or was not identical with the Nile; to connect his new discoveries with those of Denham, and lastly to cross Africa, taking a diagonal course from Tripoli to the Gulf of Benin. II. Clapperton's second journey--Arrival at Badagry--Yariba and its capital Katunga--Boussa--Attempts to get at the truth about Mungo Park's fate--"Nyffé," Yaourie, and Zegzeg--Arrival at Kano--Disappointments-- Death of Clapperton--Return of Lander to the coast--Tuckey on the Congo--Bowditch in Ashantee--Mollien at the sources of the Senegal and Gambia--Major Grey--Caillié at Timbuctoo--Laing at the sources of the Niger--Richard and John Lander at the mouth of the Niger--Cailliaud and Letorzec in Egypt, Nubia, and the oasis of Siwâh. So soon as Clapperton arrived in England, he submitted to Lord Bathurst his scheme for going to Kouka _viâ_ the Bight of Benin--in other words by the shortest way, a route not attempted by his predecessors--and ascending the Niger from its mouth to Timbuctoo. In this expedition three others were associated with Clapperton, who took the command. These three were a surgeon named Dickson, Pearce, a ship's captain, and Dr. Morrison, also in the merchant service; the last-named well up in every branch of natural history. On the 26th November, 1825, the expedition arrived in the Bight of Benin. For some reason unexplained, Dickson had asked permission to make his way to Sockatoo alone and he landed for that purpose at Whydah. A Portuguese named Songa, and Colombus, Denham's servant, accompanied him as far as Dahomey. Seventeen days after he left that town, Dickson reached Char, and a little later Yaourie, beyond which place he was never traced.[1] [Footnote 1: Dickson quarrelled with a native chief, and was murdered by his followers. See Clapperton's "Last Journey in Africa."--_Trans._] The other explorers sailed up the Bight of Benin, and were warned by an English merchant named Houtson, not to attempt the ascent of the Quorra, as the king of the districts watered by it had conceived an intense hatred of the English, on account of their interference with the slave-trade, the most remunerative branch of his commerce. It would be much better, urged Houtson, to go to Badagry, no great distance from Sackatoo, the chief of which, well-disposed as he was to travellers, would doubtless give them an escort as far as the frontiers of Yariba. Houtson had lived in the country many years, and was well acquainted with the language and habits of its people. Clapperton, therefore, thought it desirable to attach him to the expedition as far as Katunga, the capital of Yariba. The expedition disembarked at Badagry, on the 29th November, 1825, ascended an arm of the Lagos, and then, for a distance of two miles, the Gazie creek, which traverses part of Dahomey. Descending the left bank, the explorers began their march into the interior of the country, through districts consisting partly of swamps and partly of yam plantations. Everything indicated fertility. The negroes were very averse to work, and it would be impossible to relate the numerous "palavers" and negotiations which had to be gone through, and the exactions which were submitted to, before porters could be obtained. The explorers succeeded, in spite of these difficulties, in reaching Jenneh, sixty miles from the coast. Here Clapperton tells us he saw several looms at work, as many as eight or nine in one house, a regular manufactory in fact. The people of Jenneh also make earthenware, but they prefer that which they get from Europe, often putting the foreign produce to uses for which it was never intended. At Jenneh the travellers were all attacked with fever, the result of the great heat and the unhealthiness of the climate. Pearce and Morrison both died on the 27th December, the former soon after he left Jenneh with Clapperton, the latter at that town, to which he had returned to rest. At Assondo, a town of no less than 10,000 inhabitants; Daffou, containing some 5000, and other places visited by Clapperton on his way through the country, he found that an extraordinary rumour had preceded him, to the effect that he had come to restore peace to the districts distracted by war, and to do good to the lands he explored. At Tchow the caravan met a messenger with a numerous escort, sent by the King of Yariba to meet the explorers, and shortly afterwards Katunga was entered. This town is built round the base of a rugged granite mountain. It is about three miles in extent, and is both framed in and planted with bushy trees presenting a most picturesque appearance. [Illustration: "The caravan met a messenger."] Clapperton remained at Katunga from the 24th January to the 7th March, 1826. He was entertained there with great hospitality by the sultan, who, however, refused to give him permission to go to Houssa and Bornou by way of Nyffé or Toppa, urging as reasons that Nyffé was distracted by civil war, and one of the pretenders to the throne had called in the aid of the Fellatahs. It would be more prudent to go through Yaourie. Whether these excuses were true or not, Clapperton had to submit. The explorer availed himself of his detention at Katunga to make several interesting observations. This town contains no less than seven markets, in which are exposed for sale yams, cereals, bananas, figs, the seeds of gourds, hares, poultry, sheep, lambs, linen cloth, and various implements of husbandry. The houses of the king and those of his wives are situated in two large parks. The doors and the pillars of the verandahs are adorned with fairly well executed carvings, representing such scenes as a boa killing an antelope, or a pig, or a group of warriors and drummers. According to Clapperton the people of Yariba have fewer of the characteristics of the negro race than any natives of Africa with whom he was brought in contact. Their lips are not so thick and their noses are of a more aquiline shape. The men are well made, and carry themselves with an ease which cannot fail to be remarked. The women are less refined-looking than the men, the result, probably, of exposure to the sun and the fatigue they endure, compelled as they are to do all the work of the fields. Soon after leaving Katunga, Clapperton crossed the Mousa, a tributary of the Quorra and entered Kiama, one of the halting-places of the caravans trading between Houssa and Borghoo, and Gandja, on the frontiers of Ashantee. Kiama contains no less than 13,000 inhabitants, who are considered the greatest thieves in Africa. To say a man is from Borghoo is to brand him as a blackguard at once. Outside Kiama the traveller met the Houssa caravan. Some thousands of men and women, oxen, asses, and horses, marching in single file, formed an interminable line presenting a singular and grotesque appearance. A motley assemblage truly: naked girls alternating with men bending beneath their loads, or with Gandja merchants in the most outlandish and ridiculous costumes, mounted on bony steeds which stumbled at every step. Clapperton now made for Boussa on the Niger, where Mungo Park was drowned. Before reaching it he had to cross the Oli, a tributary of the Quorra, and to pass through Wow-wow, a district of Borghoo, the capital of which, also called Wow-wow, contained some 18,000 inhabitants. It was one of the cleanest and best built towns the traveller had entered since he left Badagry. The streets are wide and well kept, and the houses are round, with conical thatched roofs. Drunkenness is a prevalent vice in Wow-wow: governor, priests, laymen, men and women, indulge to excess in palm wine, in rum brought from the coast, and in "bouza." The latter beverage is a mixture made of dhurra, honey, cayenne pepper, and the root of a coarse grass eaten by cattle, with the addition of a certain quantity of water. Clapperton tells us that the people of Wow-wow are famous for their cleanliness; they are cheerful, benevolent, and hospitable. No other people whom he had met with had been so ready to give him information about their country; and, more extraordinary still, did not meet with a single beggar. The natives say they are not aborigines of Borghoo, but that they are descendants of the natives of Houssa and Nyffé. They speak a Yariba dialect, but the Wow-wow women are pretty, which those of Yariba are not. The men are muscular and well-made, but have a dissipated look. Their religion is a lax kind of Mahommedanism tinctured with paganism. Since leaving the coast Clapperton had met tribes of unconverted Fellatahs speaking the same language, and resembling in feature and complexion others who had adopted Mahommedanism. A significant fact which points to their belonging to one race. Boussa, which the traveller reached at last, is not a regular town, but consists of groups of scattered houses on an island of the Quorra, situated in lat. 10 degrees 14 minutes N., and long. 6 degrees 11 minutes E. The province of which it is the capital is the most densely populated of Borghoo. The inhabitants are all Pagans, even the sultan, although his name is Mahommed. They live upon monkeys, dogs, cats, rats, beef, and mutton. Breakfast was served to the sultan whilst he was giving audience to Clapperton, whom he invited to join him. The meal consisted of a large water-rat grilled without skinning, a dish of fine boiled rice, some dried fish stewed in palm oil, fried alligators' eggs, washed down with fresh water from the Quorra. Clapperton took some stewed fish and rice, but was much laughed at because he would eat neither the rat nor the alligators' eggs. The sultan received him very courteously, and told him that the Sultan of Yaourie had had boats ready to take him to that town for the last seven days. Clapperton replied that as the war had prevented all exit from Bornou and Yaourie, he should prefer going by way of Coulfo and Nyffé. "You are right," answered the sultan; "you did well to come and see me, and you can take which ever route you prefer." At a later audience Clapperton made inquiries about the Englishmen who had perished in the Quorra twenty years before. This subject evidently made the sultan feel very ill at ease, and he evaded the questions put to him, by saying he was too young at the time to remember what happened. Clapperton explained that he only wanted to recover their books and papers, and to visit the scene of their death; and the sultan in reply denied having anything belonging to them, adding a warning against his guest's going to the place where they died, for it was a "very bad place." "But I understood," urged Clapperton, "that part of the boat they were in could still be seen." "No, it was a false report," replied the sultan, "the boat had long since been carried down by the stream; it was somewhere amongst the rocks, he didn't know where." To a fresh demand for Park's papers and journals the sultan replied that he had none of them; they were in the hands of some learned men; but as Clapperton seemed to set such store by them, he would have them looked for. Thanking him for this promise, Clapperton begged permission to question the old men of the place, some of whom must have witnessed the catastrophe. No answer whatever was returned to this appeal, by which the sultan was evidently much embarrassed. It was useless to press him further. This was a check to Clapperton's further inquiries. On every side he was met with embarrassed silence or such replies as, "The affair happened so long ago, I can't remember it," or, "I was not witness to it." The place where the boat had been stopped and its crew drowned was pointed out to him, but even that was done cautiously. A few days later, Clapperton found out that the former Imaun, who was a Fellatah, had had Mungo Park's books and papers in his possession. Unfortunately, however, this Imaun had long since left Boussa. Finally, when at Coulfo, the explorer ascertained beyond a doubt that Mungo Park had been murdered. Before leaving Borghoo, Clapperton recorded his conviction of the baselessness of the bad reputation of the inhabitants, who had been branded everywhere as thieves and robbers. He had completely explored their country, travelled and hunted amongst them alone, and never had the slightest reason to complain. The traveller now endeavoured to reach Kano by way of Zouari and Zegzeg, first crossing the Quorra. He soon arrived at Fabra, on the Mayarrow, the residence of the queen-mother of Nyffé, and then went to visit the king, in camp at a short distance from the town. This king, Clapperton tells us, was the most insolent rogue imaginable, asking for everything he saw, and quite unabashed by any refusal. His ambition and his calling in of the Fellatahs, who would throw him over as soon as he had answered their purpose, had been the ruin of his country. Thanks indeed to him, nearly the whole of the industrial population of Nyffé had been killed, sold into slavery, or had fled the country. Clapperton was detained by illness much longer than he had intended to remain at Coulfo, a commercial town on the northern banks of the Mayarrow containing from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants. Exposed for the last twenty years to the raids of the Fellatahs, Coulfo had been burnt twice in six years. Clapperton was witness when there of the Feast of the New Moon. On that festival every one exchanged visits. The women wear their woolly hair plaited and stained with indigo. Their eyebrows are dyed the same colour. Their eyelids are painted with kohl, their lips are stained yellow, their teeth red, and their hands and feet are coloured with henna. On the day of the Feast of the Moon they don their gayest garments, with their glass beads, bracelets, copper, silver, steel, or brass. They also turn the occasion to account by drinking as much bouza as the men, joining in all their songs and dances. After passing through Katunga, Clapperton entered the province of Gouari, the people of which though conquered with the rest of Houssa by the Fellatahs, had rebelled against them on the death of Bello I., and since then maintained their independence in spite of all the efforts of their invaders. Gouari, capital of the province of the same name, is situated in lat. 10 degrees 54 minutes N., and long. 8 degrees 1 minute E. At Fatika Clapperton entered Zegzeg, subject to the Fellatahs, after which he visited Zariyah, a singular-looking town laid out with plantations of millet, woods of bushy trees, vegetable gardens, &c., alternating with marshes, lawns, and houses. The population was very numerous, exceeding even that of Kano, being estimated indeed at some forty or fifty thousand, nearly all Fellatahs. On the 19th September, after a long and weary journey, Clapperton at last entered Kano. He at once discovered that he would have been more welcome if he had come from the east, for the war with Bornou had broken off all communication with Fezzan and Tripoli. Leaving his luggage under the care of his servant Lander, Clapperton almost immediately started in quest of Sultan Bello, who they said was near Sackatoo. This was an extremely arduous journey, and on it Clapperton lost his camels and horses, and was compelled to put up with a miserable ox; to carry part of his baggage, he and his servants dividing the rest amongst them. Bello received Clapperton kindly and sent him camels and provisions, but as he was then engaged in subjugating the rebellious province of Gouber, he could not at once give the explorer the personal audience so important to the many interests entrusted by the English Government to Clapperton. Bello advanced to the attack of Counia, the capital of Gouber, at the head of an army of 60,000 soldiers, nine-tenths of whom were on foot and wore padded armour. The struggle was contemptible in the extreme, and this abortive attempt closed the war. Clapperton, whose health was completely broken up, managed to make his way from Sackatoo to Magaria, where he saw the sultan. After he had received the presents brought for him, Bello became less friendly. He presently pretended to have received a letter from Sheikh El Khanemy warning him against the traveller, whom his correspondent characterized as a spy, and urging him to defy the English, who meant, after finding out all about the country, to settle in it, raise up sedition and profit by the disturbances they should create to take possession of Houssa, as they had done of India. The most patent of all the motives of Bello in creating difficulties for Clapperton was his wish to appropriate the presents intended for the Sultan of Bornou. A pretext being necessary, he spread a rumour that the traveller was taking cannons and ammunition to Kouka. It was out of all reason Bello should allow a stranger to cross his dominions with a view to enabling his implacable enemy to make war upon him. Finally, Bello made an effort to induce Clapperton to read to him the letter of Lord Bathurst to the Sultan of Bornou. Clapperton told him he could take it if he liked, but that he would not give it to him, adding that everything was of course possible to him, as he had force on his side, but that he would bring dishonour upon himself by using it. "To open the letter myself," said Clapperton, "is more than my head is worth." He had come, he urged, bringing Bello a letter and presents from the King of England, relying upon the confidence inspired by the sultan's letter of the previous year, and he hoped his host would not forfeit that confidence by tampering with another person's letter. On this the sultan made a gesture of dismissal, and Clapperton retired. This was not, however, the last attempt of a similar kind, and things grew much worse later. A few days afterwards another messenger was sent to demand the presents reserved for El Khanemy, and on Clapperton's refusing to give them up, they were taken from him. "I told the Gadado," says Clapperton, "that they were acting like robbers towards me, in defiance of all good faith: that no people in the world would act the same, and they had far better have cut my head off than done such an act; but I suppose they would do that also when they had taken everything from me." An attempt was now made to obtain his arms and ammunition, but this he resisted sturdily. His terrified servants ran away, but soon returned to share the dangers of their master, for whom they entertained the warmest affection. At this critical moment, the entries in Clapperton's journal ceased. He had now been six months in Sackatoo, without being able to undertake any explorations or to bring to a satisfactory conclusion the mission which had brought him from the coast. Sick at heart, weary, and ill, he could take no rest, and his illness suddenly increased upon him to an alarming degree. His servant, Richard Lander, who had now joined him, tried in vain to be all things at once. On the 12th March, 1827, Clapperton was seized with dysentery. Nothing could check the progress of the malady, and he sank rapidly. It being the time of the feast of the Rhamadan, Lander could get no help, not even servants. Fever soon set in, and after twenty days of great suffering, Clapperton, feeling his end approaching, gave his last instructions to Lander, and died in that faithful servant's arms, on the 11th of April. "I put a large clean mat," says Lander, "over the whole [the corpse], and sent a messenger to Sultan Bello, to acquaint him with the mournful event, and ask his permission to bury the body after the manner of my own country, and also to know in what particular place his remains were to be interred. The messenger soon returned with the sultan's consent to the former part of my request; and about twelve o'clock at noon of the same day a person came into my hut, accompanied by four slaves, sent by Bello to dig the grave. I was desired to follow them with the corpse. Accordingly I saddled my camel, and putting the body on its back, and throwing a union jack over it, I bade them proceed. Travelling at a slow pace, we halted at Jungavie, a small village, built on a rising ground, about five miles to the south-east of Sackatoo. The body was then taken from the camel's back, and placed in a shed, whilst the slaves were digging the grave; which being quickly done, it was conveyed close to it. I then opened a prayer-book, and, amid showers of tears, read the funeral service over the remains of my valued master. Not a single person listened to this peculiarly distressing ceremony, the slaves being at some distance, quarrelling and making a most indecent noise the whole time it lasted. This being done, the union jack was then taken off, and the body was slowly lowered into the earth, and I wept bitterly as I gazed for the last time upon all that remained of my generous and intrepid master." [Illustration: "Travelling at a slow pace."] Overcome by heat, fatigue, and grief, poor Lander himself now broke down, and for more than ten days was unable to leave his hut. Bello sent several times to inquire after the unfortunate servant's health, but he was not deceived by these demonstrations of interest, for he knew they were only dictated by a wish to get possession of the traveller's baggage, which was supposed to be full of gold and silver. The sultan's astonishment may therefore be imagined when it came out that Lander had not even money enough to defray the expenses of his journey to the coast. He never found out that the servant had taken the precaution of hiding his own gold watch and those of Pearce and Clapperton about his person. Lander saw that he must at any cost get back to the coast as quickly as possible. By dint of the judicious distribution of a few presents he won over some of the sultan's advisers, who represented to their master that should Lander die he would be accused of having murdered him as well as Clapperton. Although Clapperton had advised Lander to join an Arab caravan for Fezzan, the latter, fearing that his papers and journals might be taken from him, resolved to go back to the coast. On the 3rd May Lander at last left Sackatoo en route for Kano. During the first part of this journey, he nearly died of thirst, but he suffered less in the second half, as the King of Djacoba, who had joined him, was very kind to him, and begged him to visit his country. This king told him that the Niam-Niams were his neighbours; that they had once joined him against the Sultan of Bornou, and that after the battle they had roasted and eaten the corpses of the slain. This, I believe, is the first mention, since the publication of Hornemann's Travels, of this cannibal race, who were to become the subjects of so many absurd fables. Lander entered Kano on the 25th May, and after a short stay there started for Funda, on the Niger, whose course he proposed following to Benin. This route had much to recommend it, being not only safe but new, so that Lander was enabled to supplement the discoveries of his master. Kanfoo, Carifo, Gowgie, and Gatas, were visited in turns by Lander, who says that the people of these towns belong to the Houssa race, and pay tribute to the Fellatahs. He also saw Damoy, Drammalik, and Coudonia, passed a wide river flowing towards the Quorra, and visited Kottop, a huge slave and cattle market, Coudgi and Dunrora, with a long chain of lofty mountains running in an easterly direction beyond. At Dunrora, just as Lander was superintending the loading of his beasts of burden, four horsemen, their steeds covered with foam, dashed up to the chief, and with his aid forced Lander to retrace his steps to visit the King of Zegzeg, who, they said, was very anxious to see him. This was by no means agreeable to Lander, who wanted to get to the Niger, from which he was not very far distant, and down it to the sea; he was, however, obliged to yield to force. His guides did not follow exactly the same route as he had taken on his way to Dunrora, and thus he had an opportunity of seeing the village of Eggebi, governed by one of the chief of the warriors of the sovereign of Zegzeg. He paid his respects as required, excusing the small value of the presents he had to give on the ground of his merchandise having been stolen, and soon obtained permission to leave the place. Yaourie, Womba, Coulfo, Boussa, and Wow-wow were the halting-places on Lander's return journey to Badagry, where he arrived on the 22nd November, 1827. Two months later he embarked for England. Although the commercial project, which had been the chief aim of Clapperton's journey, had fallen through, owing to the jealousy of the Arabs, who opposed it in their fear that the opening of a new route might ruin their trade, a good deal of scientific information had rewarded the efforts of the English explorer. In his "History of Maritime and Inland Discovery," Desborough Cooley thus sums up the results obtained by the travellers whose work we have just described:-- "The additions to our geographical knowledge of the interior of Africa which we owe to Captain Clapperton far exceed in extent and importance those made by any preceding traveller. The limit of Captain Lyon's journey southward across the desert was in lat. 24 degrees, while Major Denham, in his expedition to Mandara, reached lat. 9 degrees 15 minutes, thus adding 14-3/4 degrees, or 900 miles, to the extent explored by Europeans. Hornemann, it is true, had previously crossed the desert, and had proceeded as far southwards as Niffé, in lat. 10 degrees 30 minutes. But no account was ever received of his journey. Park in his first expedition reached Silla, in long. 1 degree 34 minutes west, a distance of 1100 miles from the mouth of the Gambia. Denham and Clapperton, on the other hand, from the east side of Lake Tchad, in long. 17 degrees, to Sackatoo, in long. 5 degrees 30 minutes, explored a distance of 700 miles from east to west in the heart of Africa; a line of only 400 miles remaining unknown between Silla and Sackatoo. The second journey of Captain Clapperton added ten-fold value to these discoveries; for he had the good fortune to detect the shortest and most easy road to the populous countries of the interior; and he could boast of being the first who had completed an itinerary across the continent of Africa from Tripoli to Benin." We need add but little to so skilful and sensible a summary of the work done. The information given by Arab geographers, especially by Leo Africanus, had been verified, and much had been learnt about a large portion of the Soudan. Although the course of the Niger had not yet been actually traced--that was reserved for the expeditions of which we are now to write--it had been pretty fairly guessed at. It had been finally ascertained that the Quorra, or Djoliba, or Niger--or whatever else the great river of North-West Africa might be called--and the Nile were totally different rivers, with totally different sources. In a word, a great step had been gained. In 1816 it was still an open question whether the Congo was not identical with the Niger. To ascertain the truth on this point, an expedition was sent out under Captain Tuckey, an English naval officer who had given proof of intelligence and courage. James Kingston Tuckey was made prisoner in 1805, and was not exchanged until 1814. When he heard that an expedition was to be organized for the exploration of the Zaire, he begged to be allowed to join it, and was appointed to the command. Two able officers and some scientific men were associated with him. Tuckey left England on the 19th March, 1816, with two vessels, the _Congo_ and the _Dorothea_, a transport vessel, under his orders. On the 20th June he cast anchor off Malembé, on the shores of the Congo, in lat. 4 degrees 39 minutes S. The king of that country was much annoyed when he found that the English had not come to buy slaves, and spread all manner of injurious reports against the Europeans who had come to ruin his trade. On the 18th July, Tuckey entered the vast estuary formed by the mouths of the Zaire, on board the _Congo_; but when the height of the river-banks rendered it impossible to sail farther, he embarked with some of his people in his boats. On the 10th August he decided, on account of the rapidity of the current and the huge rocks bordering the stream, to make his way partly by land and partly by water. Ten days later the boats were brought to a final stand by an impassable fall. The explorers therefore landed, and continued their journey on foot; but the difficulties increased every day, the Europeans falling ill, and the negroes refusing to carry the baggage. At last, when he was some 280 miles from the sea, Tuckey was compelled to retrace his steps. The rainy season had set in, the number of sick increased, and the commander, miserable at the lamentable result of the trip, himself succumbed to fever, and only got back to his vessel to die on the 4th October, 1816. [Illustration: View on the banks of the Congo. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] An exact survey of the mouth of the Congo, and the rectification of the coast-line, in which there had previously been a considerable error, were the only results of this unlucky expedition. In 1807, not far from the scene of Clapperton's landing a few years later, a brave but fierce people appeared on the Gold Coast. The Ashantees, coming none knew exactly whence, flung themselves upon the Fantees, and, after horrible massacres, in 1811 and 1816, established themselves in the whole of the country between the Kong mountains and the sea. [Illustration: Ashantee warrior. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] As a necessary result, this led to a disturbance in the relations between the Fantees and the English, who owned some factories and counting-houses on the coast. In 1816 the Ashantee king ravaged the Fantee territories in which the English had settled, reducing the latter to famine. The Governor of Cape Coast Castle therefore sent a petition home for aid against the fierce and savage conqueror. The bearer of the governor's despatches was Thomas Edward Bowditch, a young man who, actuated by a passion for travelling, had left the parental roof, thrown up his business, and having married against the wishes of his family, had finally accepted a humble post at Cape Coast Castle, where his uncle was second in command. The English minister at once acceded to the governor's request, and sent Bowditch back in command of an expedition; but the authorities at Cape Coast considered him too young for the post, and superseded him by a man whose long experience and thorough knowledge of the country and its people seemed to fit him for the important task to be accomplished. The result showed that this was an error. Bowditch was attached to the mission as scientific observer, his chief duty being to take the latitude and longitude of the different places visited. Frederick James and Bowditch left the English settlement on the 22nd August, 1817, and arrived at Coomassie, the Ashantee capital, without meeting with any other obstacle than the insubordination of the bearers. The negotiations with a view to the conclusion of a treaty of commerce, and the opening of a road between Coomassie and the coast, were brought to something of a successful issue by Bowditch, but James proved himself altogether wanting in either the power of making or enforcing suggestions. The wisdom of Bowditch's conduct was fully recognized, and James was recalled. It would seem that geographical science had little to expect from a diplomatic mission to a country already visited by Bosman, Loyer, Des Marchais, and many others, and on which Meredith and Dalzel had written; but Bowditch turned to account his stay of five months at Coomassie, which is but ten days' march from the Atlantic, to study the country, manners, customs, and institutions of one of the most interesting races of Africa. We will now briefly describe the pompous entry of the English mission into Coomassie. The whole population turned out on the occasion, and all the troops, whose numbers Bowditch estimated at 30,000 at least, were under arms. Before they were admitted to the presence of the king, the English witnessed a scene well calculated to impress upon them the cruelty and barbarity of the Ashantees. A man with his hands tied behind him, his cheeks pierced with wire, one ear cut off, the other hanging by a bit of skin, his shoulders bleeding from cuts and slashes, and a knife run through the skin above each shoulder-blade, was dragged, by a cord fastened to his nose, through the town to the music of bamboos. He was on his way to be sacrificed in honour of the white men! "Our observations _en passant_," says Bowditch, "had taught us to conceive a spectacle far exceeding our original expectations; but they had not prepared us for the extent and display of the scene which here burst upon us. An area of nearly a mile in circumference was crowded with magnificence and novelty. The king, his tributaries and captains, were resplendent in the distance, surrounded by attendants of every description, fronted by a mass of warriors which seemed to make our approach impervious. The sun was reflected, with a glare scarcely more supportable than the heat, from the massive gold ornaments which glistened in every direction. More than a hundred bands burst at once on our arrival, into the peculiar airs of their several chiefs; the horns flourished their defiances, with the beating of innumerable drums and metal instruments, and then yielded for a while to the soft harmonious breathings of their long flutes, with which a pleasing instrument, like a bagpipe without the drone, was happily blended. At least a hundred large umbrellas or canopies, which could shelter thirty persons, were sprung up and down by the bearers with brilliant effect, being made of scarlet, yellow, and the most showy cloths and silks, and crowned on the top with crescents, pelicans, elephants, barrels, and arms, and swords of gold. "The king's messengers, with gold breastplates, made way for us, and we commenced our round, preceded by the canes and the English flag. We stopped to take the hand of every caboceer, (which, as their household suites occupied several spaces in advance, delayed us long enough to distinguish some of the ornaments in the general blaze of splendour and ostentation). The caboceers, as did their superior captains and attendants, wore Ashantee cloths of extravagant price, from the costly foreign silks which had been unravelled to weave them, in all the varieties of colour as well as pattern; they were of an incredible size and weight, and thrown over the shoulder exactly like the Roman toga; a small silk fillet generally encircled their temples, and massy gold necklaces, intricately wrought, suspended Moorish charms, inclosed in small square cases of gold, silver, and curious embroidery. Some wore necklaces reaching to the navel, entirely of aggry beads; a band of gold and beads encircled the knee, from which several strings of the same depended; small circles of gold, like guineas, rings, and casts of animals, were strung round their ancles; their sandals were of green, red, and delicate white leather; manillas, and rude lumps of rock gold, hung from their left wrists, which were so heavily laden as to be supported on the head of one of their handsomest boys. Gold and silver pipes, and canes, dazzled the eye in every direction. Wolves' and rams' heads, as large as life, cast in gold, were suspended from their gold-handled swords, which were held around them in great numbers; the blades were shaped like round bills, and rusted in blood; the sheaths were of leopard skin, or the shell of a fish like shagreen. The large drums, supported on the head of one man, and beaten by two others, were braced around with the thigh-bones of their enemies, and ornamented with their skulls. The kettle-drums, resting on the ground, were scraped with wet fingers, and covered with leopard skin. The wrists of the drummers were hung with bells and curiously-shaped pieces of iron, which jingled loudly as they were beating. The smaller drums were suspended from the neck by scarves of red cloth; the horns (the teeth of young elephants) were ornamented at the mouth-piece with gold, and the jaw-bones of human victims. The war-caps of eagles' feathers nodded in the rear, and large fans, of the wing feathers of the ostrich, played around the dignitaries; immediately behind their chairs (which were of a black wood, almost covered by inlays of ivory and gold embossment) stood their handsomest youths, with corslets of leopard's skin, covered with gold cockle-shells, and stuck full of small knives, sheathed in gold and silver and the handles of blue agate; cartouch-boxes of elephant's hide hung below, ornamented in the same manner; a large gold-handled sword was fixed behind the left shoulder, and silk scarves and horses' tails (generally white), streamed from the arms and waist cloth; their long Danish muskets had broad rims of gold at small distances, and the stocks were ornamented with shells. Finely-grown girls stood behind the chairs of some, with silver basins. Their stools (of the most laborious carved work, and generally with two large bells attached to them) were conspicuously placed on the heads of favourites; and crowds of small boys were seated around, flourishing elephants' tails curiously mounted. The warriors sat on the ground close to these, and so thickly as not to admit of our passing without treading on their feet, to which they were perfectly indifferent; their caps were of the skin of the pangolin and leopard, the tails hanging down behind; their cartouch-belts (composed of small gourds which hold the charges, and covered with leopard's or pig's skin) were embossed with red shells, and small brass bells thickly hung to them; on their hips and shoulders was a cluster of knives; iron chains and collars dignified the most daring, who were prouder of them than of gold; their muskets had rests affixed of leopard's skin, and the locks a covering of the same; the sides of their faces were curiously painted in long white streaks, and their arms also striped, having the appearance of armour. "We were suddenly surprised by the sight of Moors, who afforded the first general diversity of dress. There were seventeen superiors, arrayed in large cloaks of white satin, richly trimmed with spangled embroidery; their shirts and trousers were of silk; and a very large turban of white muslin was studded with a border of different coloured stones; their attendants wore red caps and turbans, and long white shirts, which hung over their trousers; those of the inferiors were of dark blue cloth. They slowly raised their eyes from the ground as we passed, and with a most malignant scowl. "The prolonged flourishes of the horns, a deafening tumult of drums, and the fuller concert at the intervals, announced that we were approaching the king. We were already passing the principal officers of his household. The chamberlain, the gold horn blower, the captain of the messengers, the captain for royal executions, the captain of the market, the keeper of the royal burying-ground, and the master of the bands, sat surrounded by a retinue and splendour which bespoke the dignity and importance of their offices. The cook had a number of small services, covered with leopard's skin, held behind him, and a large quantity of massy silver plate was displayed before him--punch-bowls, waiters, coffee-pots, tankards, and a very large vessel with heavy handles and clawed feet, which seemed to have been made to hold incense. I observed a Portuguese inscription on one piece, and they seemed generally of that manufacture. The executioner, a man of immense size, wore a massy gold hatchet on his breast; and the execution stool was held before him, clotted in blood, and partly covered with a cawl of fat. The king's four linguists were encircled by a splendour inferior to none, and their peculiar insignia, gold canes, were elevated in all directions, tied in bundles like fasces. The keeper of the treasury added to his own magnificence by the ostentatious display of his service; the blow pan, boxes, scales and weights, were of solid gold. "A delay of some minutes whilst we severally approached to receive the king's hand, afforded us a thorough view of him. His deportment first excited my attention; native dignity in princes we are pleased to call barbarous was a curious spectacle; his manners were majestic, yet courteous, and he did not allow his surprise to beguile him for a moment of the composure of the monarch. He appeared to be about thirty-eight years of age, inclined to corpulence, and of a benevolent countenance." This account is followed by a description, extending over several pages, of the costume of the king, the filing past of the chiefs and troops, the dispersing of the crowd, and the ceremonies of reception, which lasted far on into the night. Reading Bowditch's extraordinary narrative, we are tempted to ask if it be not the outcome of the traveller's imagination, for we can scarcely credit what he says of the wonderful luxury of this barbarous court, the sacrifice of thousands of persons at certain seasons of the year, the curious customs of this warlike and cruel people, this mixture of barbarism and civilization hitherto unknown in Africa. We could not acquit Bowditch of great exaggeration, had not later travellers as well as contemporary explorers confirmed his statements. We can therefore only express our astonishment that such a government, founded on terror alone, could have endured so long. It is a pleasure to us Frenchmen when we can quote the name of a fellow-countryman amongst the many travellers who have risked their lives in the cause of geographical science. Without abating our critical acumen, we feel our pulse quicken when we read of the dangers and struggles of such travellers as Mollien, Caillié, De Cailliaud, and Letorzec. Gaspar Mollien was nephew to Napoleon's Minister of the Treasury. He was on board the _Medusa_, but was fortunate enough to escape when that vessel was shipwrecked, and to reach the coast of the Sahara in a boat, whence he made his way to Senegal. The dangers from which Mollien had just escaped would have destroyed the love of adventure and exploration in a less ardent spirit. They had no such effect upon him. He left St. Louis as soon as ever he obtained the assent of the Governor, Fleuriau, to his proposal to explore the sources of the great rivers of Senegambia, and especially those of the Djoliba. Mollien started from Djeddeh on the 29th January, 1818, and taking an easterly course between the 15th and 16th parallels of north latitude, crossed the kingdom of Domel, and entered the districts peopled by the Yaloofs. Unable to go by way of Woolli, he decided in favour of the Fouta Toro route, and in spite of the jealousy of the natives and their love of pillage, he reached Bondou without accident. It took him three days to traverse the desert between Bondou and the districts beyond the Gambia, after which he penetrated into Niokolo, a mountainous country, inhabited by the all but wild Peuls and Djallons. Leaving Bandeia, Mollien entered Fouta Djallon, and reached the sources of the Gambia and the Rio Grande, which are in close proximity. A few days later he came to those of the Falemé; and, in spite of the repugnance and fear of his guide, he made his way into Timbo, the capital of Fouta. The absence of the king and most of the inhabitants probably spared him from a long captivity abbreviated only by torture. Fouta is a fortified town, the king owns houses, with mud walls between three and four feet thick and fifteen high. At a short distance from Timbo, Mollien discovered the sources of the Senegal--at least what were pointed out to him as such by the blacks; but it was impossible for him to take astronomical observations. The explorer did not, however, look upon his work as done. He had ever before him the still more important discovery of the sources of the Niger; but the feeble state of his health, the setting in of the rainy season, the swelling of the rivers, the fears of his guides, who refused to accompany him into Kooranko and Soolimano, though he offered them guns, amber beads, and even his horse, compelled him to give up the idea of crossing the Kong mountains, and to return to St. Louis. Mollien had, however, opened several new lines in a part of Senegambia not before visited by any European. "It is to be regretted," says M. de la Renaudière, "that worn out with fatigue, scarcely able to drag himself along, in a state of positive destitution, Mollien was unable to cross the lofty mountains separating the basin of the Senegal from that of the Djoliba, and that he was compelled to rely upon native information respecting the most important objects of his expedition. It is on the faith of the assertions of the natives that he claims to have visited the sources of the Rio Grande, Falemé, Gambia, and Senegal. If he had been able to follow the course of those rivers to their fountainhead his discoveries would have acquired certainty, which is, unfortunately, now wanting to them. However, when we compare the accounts of other travellers with what he says of the position of the source of the Ba-Fing, or Senegal, which cannot be that of any other great stream, we are convinced of the reality of this discovery at least. It also seems certain that the two last springs are higher up than was supposed, and that the Djoliba rises in a yet loftier locality. The country rises gradually to the south and south-east in parallel terraces. These mountain chains increase in height towards the east, attaining their greatest elevation between lat. 8 degrees and 10 degrees N." Such were the results of Mollien's interesting journey in the French colony of Senegal. The same country was the starting-point of another explorer, Réné Caillié. Caillié, who was born in 1800, in the department of the Seine et Oise, had only an elementary education; but reading Robinson Crusoe had fired his youthful imagination with a zeal for adventure, and he never rested until, in spite of his scanty resources, he had obtained maps and books of travel. In 1816, when only sixteen years old, he embarked for Senegal, in the transport-ship _La Loire_. At this time the English Government was organizing an inland exploring expedition, under the command of Major Gray. To avoid the terrible almamy of Timbo, who had been so fatal to Peddie, the English made for the mouth of the Gambia by sea. Woolli and the Gaboon were crossed, and the explorers penetrated into Bondou, which Mollien was to visit a few years later, a district inhabited by a people as fanatic and fierce as those of Fouta Djallon. The extortions of the almamy were such that under pretext of there being an old debt left unpaid by the English Government, Major Gray was mulcted of nearly all his baggage, and had to send an officer to the Senegal for a fresh supply. Caillié knowing nothing of this disastrous beginning, and aware that Gray was glad to receive new recruits, left St. Louis with two negroes, and reached Goree. But there some people, who took an interest in him, persuaded him not to take service with Gray, and got him an appointment at Guadaloupe. He remained, however, but six months in that island, and then returned to Bordeaux, whence he started for the Senegal once more. Partarieu, one of Gray's officers, was just going back to his chief with the merchandise he had procured, and Caillié asked and obtained leave to accompany him, without either pay or a fixed engagement. [Illustration: Réné Caillié. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The caravan consisted of seventy persons, black and white, and thirty-two richly-laden camels. It left Gandiolle, in Cayor, on the 5th February, 1819, and before entering Jaloof a desert was crossed, where great suffering was endured from thirst. The leader, in order to carry more merchandise, had neglected to take a sufficient supply of water. At Boolibaba, a village inhabited by Foulah shepherds, the travellers were enabled to recruit, and to fill their leathern bottles for a journey across a second desert. Avoiding Fouta Toro, whose inhabitants are fanatics and thieves, Partarieu entered Bondou. He would gladly have evaded visiting Boulibané, the capital and residence of the almamy, but was compelled to do so, owing to the refusal of the people to supply grain or water to the caravan, and also in obedience to the strict orders of Major Gray, who thought the almamy would let the travellers pass after paying tribute. The terrible almamy began by extorting a great number of presents, and then refused to allow the English to visit Bakel on the Senegal. They might, he said, go through his states, those of Kaarta, to Clego, or they might take the Fouta Toro route. Both these alternatives were equally impossible, as in either case the caravan would have to travel among fanatic tribes. The explorers believed the almamy's object was to have them robbed and murdered, without incurring the personal responsibility. They resolved to force their way. Preparations were scarcely begun for a start, when the caravan was surrounded by a multitude of soldiers, who, taking possession of the wells, rendered it impossible for the travellers to carry out their intentions. At the same time the war-drum was beaten on every side. To fight was impossible; a palaver had to be held. In a word, the English had to own their powerlessness. The almamy dictated the conditions of peace, mulcted the whites of a few more presents, and ordered them to withdraw by way of Fouta Toro. Yet more--and this was a flagrant insult to British pride--the English found themselves escorted by a guard, which prevented their taking any other route. When night fell they revenged themselves by setting fire to all their merchandise in the very sight of the Foulahs, who had intended to get possession of them. The crossing of Fouta Toro among hostile natives was terribly arduous. The slightest pretext was seized for a dispute, and again and again violence seemed inevitable. Food and water were only to be obtained at exorbitant prices. At last, one night, Partarieu, to disarm the suspicion of the natives, gave out that he could not carry all his baggage at once, and having first filled his coffers and bags with stones, he decamped with all his followers for the Senegal, leaving his tents pitched and his fires alight. His path was strewn with bales, arms, and animals. Thanks to this subterfuge, and the rapidity of their march, the English reached Bakel in safety, where the French welcomed the remnant of the expedition with enthusiasm. [Illustration: "He decamped with all his followers."] Caillié, attacked by a fever which nearly proved fatal, returned to St. Louis; but not recovering his health there, he was obliged to go back to France. Not until 1824 was he able to return to Senegal, which was then governed by Baron Roger, a friend to progress, who was anxious _pari passu_, to extend our geographical knowledge with our commercial relations. Roger supplied Caillié with means to go and live amongst the Bracknas, there to study Arabic and the Mussulman religion. Life amongst the suspicious and fanatic Moorish shepherds was by no means easy. The traveller, who had great difficulty in keeping his daily journal, was obliged to resort to all manner of subterfuges to obtain permission to explore the neighbourhood of his house. He gives us some curious details of the life of the Bracknas--of their diet, which consists almost entirely of milk; of their habitations, which are nothing more than tents unfitted for the vicissitudes of the climate; of their "_guéhués_" or itinerant minstrels; their mode of producing the excessive _embonpoint_ which they consider the height of female beauty; the aspect of the country; the fertility and productions of the soil, &c. The most remarkable of all the facts collected by Caillié are those relating to the five distinct classes into which the Moorish Bracknas are divided. These are the _Hassanes_, or warriors, whose idleness, slovenliness, and pride exceed belief; the _Marabouts_, or priests; the _Zénagues_, tributary to the Hassanes; the _Laratines_; and the slaves. The _Zénagues_ are a miserable class, despised by all the others, but especially by the _Hassanes_, to whom they pay a tribute, which is of variable amount, and is never considered enough. They do all the work, both industrial and agricultural, and rear all the cattle. "In spite of my efforts," says Caillié, "I could find out nothing about the origin of this people, or ascertain how they came to be reduced to pay tribute to other Moors. When I asked them any questions about this, they said it was God's will. Can they be a remnant of a conquered tribe? and if so, how is it that no tradition on the subject is retained amongst them. I do not think they can be, for the Moors, proud as they are of their origin, never forget the names of those who have brought credit to their families; and were such the case, the Zénagues, who form the majority of the population, and are skilful warriors, would rise under the leadership of one of their chiefs, and fling off the yoke of servitude." Laratine is the name given to the offspring of a Moor and a negro slave. Although they are slaves, the Laratines are never sold, but while living in separate camps, are treated very much like the Zénagues. Those who are the sons of Hassanes are warriors, whilst the children of Marabouts are brought up to the profession of their father. The actual slaves are all negroes. Ill-treated, badly fed, and flogged on the slightest pretext, there is no suffering which they are not called upon to endure. In May, 1825, Caillié returned to St. Louis. Baron Roger was absent, and his representative was by no means friendly. The explorer had to content himself with the pay of a common soldier until the return of his protector, to whom he sent the notes he had made when amongst the Bracknas, but all his offers of service were rejected. He was promised a certain sum on his return from Timbuctoo; but how was he even to start without private resources? The intrepid Caillié was not, however, to be discouraged. As he obtained neither encouragement nor help from the colonial government, he went to Sierra Leone, where the governor, who did not wish to deprive Major Laing of the credit of being the first to arrive at Timbuctoo, rejected his proposals. In the management of an indigo factory, Caillié soon saved money to the extent of two thousand francs, a sum which appeared to him sufficient to carry him to the end of the world. He lost no time in purchasing the necessary merchandise, and joined some Mandingoes and "seracolets," or wandering African merchants. He told them, under the seal of secrecy, that he had been born in Egypt of Arab parents, taken to France at an early age, and sent to Senegal to look after the business of his master, who, satisfied with his services, had given him his freedom. He added, that his chief desire was to get back to Egypt, and resume the Mohammedan religion. On the 22nd March, 1827, Caillié left Freetown for Kakondy, a village on the Rio Nuñez, where he employed his leisure in collecting information respecting the Landamas and the Nalous, both subject to the Foulahs of Fouta Djallon, but not Mohammedans, and, as a necessary result, both much given to spirituous liquors. They dwell in the districts watered by the Rio Nuñez, side by side with the Bagos, an idolatrous race who dwell at its mouth. The Bagos are light-hearted, industrious, and skilful tillers of the soil; they make large profits out of the sale of their rice and salt. They have no king, no religion but a barbarous idolatry, and are governed by the oldest man in their village, an arrangement which answers very well. On the 19th April, 1827, Caillié with but one bearer and a guide, at last started for Timbuctoo. He speaks favourably of the Foulahs and the people of Fouta Djallon, whose rich and fertile country he crossed. The Ba-Fing, the chief affluent of the Senegal, was not more than a hundred paces across, and a foot and a half deep where he passed it; but the force of the current, and the huge granite rocks encumbering its bed, render it very difficult and dangerous to cross the river. After a halt of nineteen days in the village of Cambaya, the home of the guide who had accompanied him thus far, Caillié entered Kankan, crossing a district intersected by rivers and large streams, which were then beginning to inundate the whole land. On the 30th May the explorer crossed the Tankisso, a large river with a rocky bed belonging to the system of the Niger, and reached the latter on the 11th June, at Couronassa. [Illustration: Caillié crossing the Tankisso.] "Even here," says Caillié, "so near to its source, the Niger is 900 feet wide, with a current of two miles and a half." Before we enter Kankan with the French explorer, it will be well to sum up what he says of the Foulahs of Fouta. They are mostly tall, well-made men, with chestnut-brown complexions, curly hair, lofty foreheads, aquiline noses, features in fact very like those of Europeans. They are bigoted Mohammedans, and hate Christians. Unlike the Mandingoes, they do not travel, but love their home; they are good agriculturists and clever traders, warlike and patriotic, and they leave none but their old men and women in their villages when they go to war. The town of Kankan stands in a plain surrounded by lofty mountains. The bombax, baobab, and butter-tree, also called "cé" the "shea" of Mungo Park, are plentiful. Caillié was delayed in Kankan for twenty-eight days before he could get on to Sambatikala; and during that time he was shamefully robbed by his host, and could not obtain from the chief of the village restitution of the goods which had been stolen. "Kankan," says the traveller, "is a small town near the left bank of the Milo, a pretty river, which comes from the south, and waters the Kissi district, where it takes its rise, flowing thence in a north-westerly direction to empty itself into the Niger, two or three days' journey from Kankan. Surrounded by a thick quick-set hedge, this town, which does not contain more than 6000 inhabitants, is situated in an extensive and very fertile plain of grey sand. On every side are pretty little villages, called _Worondes_, where the slaves live. These habitations give interest to the scene, and are surrounded by very fine plantations; yams, rice, onions, pistachio nuts, &c., are exported in large quantities." Between Kankan and Wassolo the road led through well cultivated, and, at this time of year, nearly submerged districts. The inhabitants struck Caillié as being of a mild, cheerful, and inquiring disposition. They gave him a cordial welcome. Several tributaries of the Niger, including the Sarano, were passed before a halt was made at Sigala, the residence of Baranusa, the chief of Wassolo. He was of slovenly habits, like his subjects, and used tobacco both as snuff and for smoking. He was said to be very rich in gold and slaves. His subjects paid him a tribute in cattle; he had a great many wives, each of whom owned a hut of her own, their houses forming a little village, with well cultivated environs. Here Caillié for the first time saw the Rhamnus Lotus mentioned by Park. On leaving Wossolo, Caillié entered Foulou, whose inhabitants, like those of the former district, are idolaters, of slovenly habits. They speak the Mandingo tongue. At Sambatikala the traveller paid a visit to the almamy. "We entered," he says, "a place which served him as a bedroom for himself and a stable for his horse. The prince's bed was at the further end. It consisted of a little platform raised six inches from the ground, on which was stretched an ox hide, with a dirty mosquito curtain, to keep off the insects. There was no other furniture in this royal abode. Two saddles hung from stakes driven into the wall; a large straw hat, a drum only used in war-time, a few lances, a bow, a quiver, and some arrows, were the only ornaments. A lamp made of a piece of flat iron set on a stand of the same metal, stood on the ground. This lamp was fed by a kind of vegetable matter, not thick enough to be made into candles." The almamy soon informed Caillié of an opportunity for him to go to Timeh, whence a caravan was about to start for Jenneh. The traveller then entered the province of Bambarra, and quickly arrived at the pretty little village of Timeh, inhabited by Mohammedan Mandingoes, and bounded on the east by a chain of mountains about 350 fathoms high. When he entered this village, at the end of July, Caillié little dreamt of the long stay he would be compelled to make in it. He had hurt his foot, and the wound became very much inflamed by walking in wet grass. He therefore decided to let the caravan for Jenneh go on without him, and remain at Timeh until his foot should be completely healed. It would have been too great a risk for him in his state to travel through Bambarra, where the idolatrous inhabitants of the country would be pretty sure to rob him. "The Bambarras," he says, "have few slaves, go almost naked, and are always armed with bows and arrows. They are governed by a number of petty independent chiefs, who are often at war with one another. They are in fact rude and wild creatures as compared with the tribes who have embraced Mohammedanism." Caillié was detained at Timeh by the still unhealed wound in his foot, until the 10th November. At that date he proposed starting for Jenneh, but, to quote his own words, "I was now seized with violent pains in the jaws, warning me that I was attacked with scurvy, a terrible malady, all the horrors of which I was to realize. My palate was completely skinned, part of the bone came away, my teeth seemed ready to fall out of the gums, my sufferings were terrible. I feared that my brain might be affected by the agony of pain in my head. I was more than a fortnight without an instant's sleep." To make matters worse, the wound broke out afresh; and he would have been cured neither of it nor of the scurvy had it not been for the energetic treatment of an old negress, who was accustomed to doctor the scorbutic affections, so common in that country. On the 9th January, 1828, Caillié left Timeh, and reached Kimba, a little village where the caravan for Jenneh was assembled. Near to this village rises the chain erroneously called Kong, which is the general name for mountain amongst the Mandingoes. The names of the villages entered by the travellers, and the incidents of the journey through Bambarra, are of no special interest. The inhabitants are accounted great thieves by the Mandingoes, but are probably not more dishonest than their critics. The Bambarra women all wear a thin slip of wood imbedded in the lower lip, a strange fashion exactly similar to that noticed by Cook amongst the natives of the north-western coast of America. The Bambarras speak Mandingo, though they have a dialect of their own called _Kissour_, about which the traveller could obtain no trustworthy written information. Jenneh was formerly called "the golden land." The precious metal is not, however, found there, but a good deal is imported by the Boureh merchants and the Mandingoes of Kong. Jenneh, two miles and a half in circumference, is surrounded by a mud wall ten feet high. The houses, built of bricks baked in the sun, are as large as those of European peasants. They have all terraces, but no outer windows. Numbers of foreigners frequent Jenneh. The inhabitants, as many as eight or ten thousand, are very industrious and intelligent. They hire out their slaves, and also employ them in various handicrafts. The Moors, however, monopolize the more important commerce. Not a day passes that they do not despatch huge boats laden with rice, millet, cotton, honey, vegetable butter, and other native products. In spite of this great commercial movement, the prosperity of Jenneh was threatened. Sego Ahmadou, chief of the country, impelled by bigoted zeal, made fierce war upon the Bambarras of Sego, whom he wished to rally round the standard of the Prophet. This struggle did a great deal of harm to the trade of Jenneh, for it interrupted intercourse with Yamina, Sansanding, Bamakou, and Boureh, which were the chief marts for its produce. The women of Jenneh would not be true to their sex if they did not show some marks of coquetry. Those who aim at fashion pass a ring or a glass ornament through the nostrils, whilst their poorer sisters content themselves with a bit of pink silk. During Caillié's long stay at Jenneh, he was loaded with kindness and attentions by the Moors, to whom he had told the fabulous tale about his birth in Egypt, and abduction by the army of occupation. On the 23rd March, the traveller embarked on the Niger for Timbuctoo, on which the sheriff, won over by the gift of an umbrella, had obtained a passage for him. He carried with him letters of introduction to the chief persons in Timbuctoo. Caillié now passed in succession the pretty villages of Kera, Taguetia, Sankha-Guibila, Diebeh, and Isaca, near to which the river is joined by an important branch, which makes a great bend beyond Sego, catching sight also of Wandacora, Wanga, Corocoïla, and Cona, finally reaching, on the 2nd of April, the mouth of the important Lake Debo. "Land," says Caillié, "is visible on every side of this lake except on the west, where it widens out like a vast inland sea. Following its northern coast in a west-north-west direction for a distance of fifteen miles, you leave on the left a tongue of level ground, which runs several miles to the south, seeming to bar the passage of the lake, and form a kind of strait. Beyond this barrier the lake stretches away out of sight in the west. The barrier I have just described cuts Lake Debo into two parts, the upper and lower. That navigable to boats contains three islands, and is very wide; it stretches away a short distance on the east, and is supplemented by an immense number of huge marshes." One after the other, Caillié now passed the fishing village of Gabibi; Tongoon in the Diriman country, a district stretching far away on the east; Codosa, an important commercial town; Barconga, Leleb, Garfolo, Baracondieh, Tircy, Talbocoïla, Salacoïla, Cora, Coratou, where the Tuaricks exact a toll from passing boats, and finally reached Cabra, built on a height out of reach of the overflowing of the Niger, and serving as the port of Timbuctoo. On the 20th, Caillié disembarked, and started for that city, which he entered at sundown. "I, at last," cries our hero, "saw the capital of the Soudan, which had so long been the goal of my desires. As I entered that mysterious town, an object of curiosity to the civilized nations of Europe, I was filled with indescribable exultation. I never experienced anything like it, and my delight knew no bounds. But I had to moderate my transports, and it was to God alone I confided them. With what earnestness I thanked Him for the success which had crowned my enterprise and the signal protection He had accorded me in so many apparently insurmountable difficulties and perils. My first emotions having subsided, I found that the scene before me by no means came up to my expectations. I had conceived a very different idea of the grandeur and wealth of this town. At first sight it appeared nothing more than a mass of badly-built houses, whilst on every side stretched vast plains of arid, yellowish, shifting sands. The sky was of a dull red colour on the horizon; all nature seemed melancholy; profound silence prevailed, not so much as the song of a bird was heard. And yet there was something indescribably imposing in the sight of a large town rising up in the midst of the sandy desert, and the beholder cannot but admire the indomitable energy of its founders. I fancy the river formerly passed nearer the town of Timbuctoo; it is now eight miles north of it and five of Cabra." [Illustration: View of part of Timbuctoo. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Timbuctoo, which is neither so large nor so well populated as Caillié expected, is altogether wanting in animation. There are no large caravans constantly arriving in it, as at Jenneh; nor are there so many strangers there as in the latter town; whilst the market, held at three o'clock in the morning on account of the heat, appears deserted. Timbuctoo is inhabited by Kissour negroes, who seem of mild dispositions, and are employed in trade. There is no government, and strictly speaking no central authority; each town and village has its own chief. The mode of life is patriarchal. A great many Moorish merchants are settled in the town, and rapidly make fortunes there. They receive consignments of merchandise from Adrar, Tafilet, Ghât, Ghâdames, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. To Timbuctoo is brought all the salt of the mines of Toudeyni, packed on camels. It is imported in slabs, bound together by ropes, made from grass in the neighbourhood of Tandayeh. Timbuctoo is built in the form of a triangle, and measures about three miles in circumference. The houses are large but not lofty, and are built of round bricks. The streets are wide and clean. There are seven mosques, each surmounted by a square tower, from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. Counting the floating population, the capital of the Soudan does not contain more than from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants. Timbuctoo, situated in the midst of a vast plain of shifting white sand, trades in salt only, the soil being quite unsuitable to any sort of cultivation. The town is always full of people, who come to exact what they call presents, but what might with more justice be styled forced contributions. It is a public calamity when a Tuarick chief arrives. He remains in the town a couple of months, living with his numerous followers at the expense of the inhabitants, until he has wrung costly presents from them. Terror has extended the domination of these wandering tribes over all the neighbouring peoples, whom they rob and pillage without mercy. The Tuarick costume is the same as that of the Arabs, with the exception of the head-dress. Day and night they wear a cotton band which covers the eyes and comes down over the nose, so that they are obliged to raise the head in order to see. The same band goes once or twice round the head and hides the mouth, coming down below the chin, so that the tip of the nose is all that is visible. The Tuaricks are perfect riders, and mounted on first-rate horses or on fleet camels; each man is armed with a spear, a shield, and a dagger. They are the pirates of the desert, and innumerable are the caravans they have robbed, or blackmailed. [Illustration: Map of Réné Caillié's Journey.] Four days after Caillié's arrival at Timbuctoo, he heard that a caravan was about to start for Talifet; and as he knew that another would not go for three months, fearing detection, he resolved to join this one. It consisted of a large number of merchants, and 600 camels. Starting on the 4th of May, 1828, he arrived, after terrible sufferings from the heat, and a sand-storm in which he was caught, at El Arawan, a town of no private resources, but important as the emporium for the Toudeyni salt, exported at Sansanding, on the banks of the Niger, and also as the halting-place of caravans from Tafilet, Mogadore, Ghât, Drat, and Tripoli, the merchants here exchanging European wares for ivory, gold, slaves, wax, honey, and Soudan stuffs. On the 19th May, the caravan left El Arawan for Morocco, by way of the Sahara. To the traveller's usual sufferings from heat, thirst, and privations of all kinds, was now added the pain of a wound incurred in a fall from his camel. He was also taunted by the Moors, and even by their slaves, who ridiculed his habits and his awkwardness, and even sometimes threw stones at him when his back was turned towards them. "Often," says Caillié, "one of the Moors would say to me in a contemptuous tone: 'You see that slave? Well I prefer him to you, so you may guess in what esteem I hold you.' This insult would be accompanied with roars of laughter." Under these miserable circumstances Caillié passed the wells of Trarzas, in whose vicinity salt is found, also those of Amul Gamil, Amul Taf, El Ekreif, surrounded by date-trees, wood, willows, and rushes, and reached Marabouty and El Harib, districts whose inhabitants are disgustingly dirty in their habits. El Harib lies between two chains of low hills, dividing it from Morocco, to which it is tributary. Its inhabitants, divided into several nomad tribes, employ themselves chiefly in the breeding of camels. They would be rich and contented, but for the ceaseless exactions of the Berber Arabs. On the 12th July the caravan left El Harib, and eleven days later entered the province of Talifet, famous for its majestic date-trees. At Ghourland, Caillié was welcomed with some kindness by the Moors, though he was not admitted to their houses, lest the women, who are visible only to the men of their own families, should be seen by the irreverent eyes of a stranger. Caillié visited the market, which is held three times a week near a little village called Boheim, three miles from Ghourland, and was surprised at the variety of articles exposed for sale in it: vegetables, native fruits, fodder for cattle, poultry, sheep, &c. &c., all in large quantities. Water in leather bottles was carried about for sale to all who cared to drink in the exhausting heat, by men who announced their approach by ringing a small hand-bell. Moorish and Spanish coins alone passed current. The province of Tafilet contains several large villages and small towns. Ghourland, El Ekseba, Sosso, Boheim, and Ressant, which our traveller visited, contained some twelve hundred inhabitants each, all merchants and owners of property. The soil is very productive: corn, vegetables, dates, European fruits, and tobacco, are cultivated in large quantities. Among the sources of wealth in Tafilet we may name very fine sheep, whose beautifully white wool makes very pretty coverlets, oxen, first-rate horses, donkeys, and mules. As at El-Drah, a good many Jews live in the villages together with Mohammedans. They lead a miserable life, go about half naked, and are constantly struck and insulted. Whether brokers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, porters, or whatever their ostensible occupation, they all lend money to the Moors. On the 2nd August the caravan resumed its march, and after passing A-Fileh, Tanneyara, Marca, Dayara, Rahaba, El Eyarac, Tamaroc, Ain-Zeland, El Guim, Guigo, and Soporo, Caillié arrived at Fez, where he made a short stay, and then pressed on to Rabat, the ancient Saléh. Exhausted by his long march, with nothing to eat but a few dates, obliged to depend on the charity of the Mussulmans, who as often as not declined to give him anything, and finding at Fez no representative of France but an old Jew named Ismail, who acted as Consular Agent, and who, being afraid of compromising himself, would not let Caillié embark on a Portuguese brig bound for Gibraltar,--the traveller eagerly availed himself of a fortunate chance for going to Tangiers. There he was kindly received by the Vice-Consul, M. Delaporte, who wrote at once to the commandant of the French station at Cadiz, and sent him off bound for that port, disguised as a sailor, in a corvette. The landing at Toulon of the young Frenchman fresh from Timbuctoo, was a very unexpected event in the scientific world. With nothing to aid him but his own invincible courage and patience, he had brought to a satisfactory conclusion an exploit for which the French and English Geographical Societies had offered large rewards. Alone, without any resources to speak of, without the aid of government or of any scientific society, by sheer force of will, he had succeeded in throwing a flood of new light on an immense tract of Africa. Caillié was not indeed the first European who had visited Timbuctoo. In the preceding year, Major Laing had penetrated into that mysterious city, but he had paid for his expedition with his life, and we shall presently relate the touching details of his fatal trip. Caillié had returned to Europe, and brought back with him the curious journal from which our narrative is taken. It is true his profession of the Mohammedan faith had prevented him from taking astronomical observations, and from making sketches and notes freely, but only at the price of his seeming apostasy could he have passed through the region where the very name of a Christian is held in abhorrence. How many strange observations, how many fresh and exact details, did Caillié add to our knowledge of North-West Africa! It had cost Clapperton two journeys to traverse Africa from Tripoli to Benin; Caillié had crossed from Senegal to Morocco in one--but at what a price! How much fatigue, how much suffering, how many privations, had the Frenchman endured! Timbuctoo was known at last, as well as the new caravan route across the Sahara by way of the oases of Tafilet and El Harib. Was Caillié compensated for his physical and mental sufferings by the aid which the Geographical Society sent to him at once, by the prize of 10,000 francs adjudged to him, by the Cross of the Legion of Honour and the fame and glory attached to his name? We suppose he was. He says more than once in his narrative that nothing but his wish to add by his discoveries to the glory of France, his native country, could have sustained him under the trying circumstances and insults to which he was constantly subjected. All honour then to the patient traveller, the sincere patriot, the great discoverer. We have still to speak of the expedition which cost Alexander Gordon Laing his life; but before giving our necessarily brief account, for his journals were all lost, we must say a few words about his early life and an interesting excursion made by him to Timmannee, Kouran and Soolimana, when he discovered the sources of the Niger. Laing was born in Edinburgh in 1794, entered the English army at the age of sixteen, and soon distinguished himself. In 1820 he had gained the rank of Lieutenant, and was serving as aide-de-camp to Sir Charles Maccarthy, then Governor General of Western Africa. At this time war was raging between Amara, the Mandingo almamy, and Sannassi, one of his principal chiefs. Trade had never been very flourishing in Sierra Leone, and this state of things dealt it its death-blow. Maccarthy, anxious to put matters on a better footing, determined to interfere and bring about a reconciliation between the rival chiefs. He decided on sending an embassy to Kambia, on the borders of the Scarcies, and from thence to Malacoury and the Mandingo camp. The enterprising character, intelligence, and courage of Laing led to his being chosen by the governor as his envoy, and on the 7th January, 1822, he received instructions to report on the manufactures and topography of the provinces mentioned, and to ascertain the feeling of the inhabitants on the abolition of slavery. A first interview with Yareddi, leader of the Soolimana troops accompanying the almamy, proved that the negroes of the districts under notice had only the vaguest ideas on European civilization, and that they had had but little intercourse with the whites. "Every article of our dress," says Laing, "was a subject of admiration; observing me pull off my gloves, Yareddi stared, covered his widely-opened mouth with his hands, and at length exclaimed, 'Alla Akbar!' 'he has pulled the skin off his hands!' By degrees, and as he became more familiar, he alternately rubbed down Dr. Mackie's hair and mine, then indulging himself in a loud laugh, he would exclaim, 'They are not men, they are not men!' He repeatedly asked my interpreter if we had bones?" These preliminary excursions, during which Laing ascertained that many Soolimanas owned a good deal of gold and ivory, led to his asking the governor's sanction to explore the districts to the east of the colony, with a view to increasing the trade of Sierra Leone by admitting their productions. Maccarthy liked Laing's proposal and submitted it to the council. It was decided that Laing should be authorized to penetrate into Soolimana by the most convenient route for future communications. Laing left Sierra Leone on the 16th April, 1824, and rowed up the Rokelle river to Rokon, the chief town of Timmannee. His interview with the King of Rokon was extremely amusing. To do him honour Laing had a salvo of ten charges fired as he came into the court in which the reception was to be held. At the noise the king stopped, drew back, darted a furious look at his visitor, and ran away. It was with great difficulty that the cowardly monarch was induced to return. At last he came back, and seating himself with great dignity in his chair of state he questioned the major: "He wished to know," says Laing, "why he had been fired at, and was, with some difficulty, persuaded that it had been done out of honour to him. 'Why did you point your guns to the ground?' 'That you might see our intention was to show you respect.' 'But the pebbles flew in my face; why did you not point in the air?' 'Because we feared to burn the thatch on your houses.' 'Well, then, give me some rum.'" Needless to add that the interview became more cordial after the major had complied with this request! The portrait of the Timmannee monarch deserves a place in our volume for more than one reason. It is a case of _ab uno disce omnes_." "Ba-Simera," to quote Laing again, "the principal chief or king of this part of the Timmannee country, is about ninety years of age, with a mottled, shrivelled-up skin, resembling in colour that of an alligator more than that of a human being, with dim, greenish eyes, far sunk in his head, and a bleached, twisted beard, hanging down about two feet from his chin; like the king of the opposite district he wore a necklace of coral and leopard's teeth, but his mantle was brown and dirty as his skin. His swollen legs, like those of an elephant, were to be observed from under his trousers of baft, which might have been originally white, but, from the wear of several years, had assumed a greenish appearance." Like his predecessors in Africa, Laing had to go through many discussions about the right of passage through the country and bearers' wages, but thanks to his firmness he managed to escape the extortions of the negro kings. The chief halting-places on the route taken by the major were: Toma, where a white man had never before been seen; Balandeko, Roketchnick, which he ascertained to be situated in N. lat. 8 degrees 30 minutes, and W. long. 12 degrees 11 minutes; Mabimg, beyond a very broad stream flowing north of the Rokelle; and Ma-Yosso, the chief frontier town of Timmannee. In Timmannee Laing made acquaintance with a singular institution, a kind of free-masonry, known as "Purrah," the existence of which on the borders of the Rio Nuñez had been already ascertained by Caillié. "Their power" [that of the "Purrah"], says Laing, "supersedes even that of the headmen of the districts, and their deeds of secrecy and darkness are as little called in question, or inquired into, as those of the Inquisition were in Europe, in former years. I have endeavoured in vain to trace the origin, or cause of formation of this extraordinary association, and have reason to suppose, that it is now unknown to the generality of the Timmannees, and may possibly be even so to the Purrah themselves, in a country where no traditionary records are extant, either in writing or in song." So far as Laing could ascertain Timmannee is divided into three districts. The chief of each arrogates to himself the title of king. The soil is fairly productive, and rice, yams, guavas, earth-nuts, and bananas might be grown in plenty, but for the lazy, vicious, and avaricious character of the inhabitants who vie with each other in roguery. "I think," says Laing, "that a few hoes, flails, rakes, shovels, &c., would be very acceptable to them, when their respective uses were practically explained; and that they would prove more beneficial both to their interest and ours, than the guns, cocked hats, and mountebank coats, with which they are at present supplied." In spite of our traveller's philanthropic wish, things have not changed since his time. The negroes are just as fond of intoxicating drinks, and their petty kings still go about wearing on grand occasions hats the shape of an accordion, and blue coats with copper buttons, with no shirts underneath. The maternal sentiment did not seem to Laing to be very fully developed amongst the people of Timmannee, for he was twice roundly abused by women for refusing to buy their children of them. A few days later there was a great tumult raised against Laing, the white man who had inflicted a fatal blow on the prosperity of the country by checking its trade. The first town entered in Kouranko was Maboum, and it is interesting to note _en passant_ what Laing says of the activity of the inhabitants. "I entered the town about sunset, and received a first impression highly favourable to its inhabitants, who were returning from their respective labours of the day, every individual bearing about him proofs of his industrious occupation. Some had been engaged in preparing the fields for the crops, which the approaching rains were to mature; others were penning up cattle, whose sleek sides and good condition denoted the richness of their pasturages; the last clink of the blacksmith's hammer was sounding, the weaver was measuring the quantity of cloth he had woven during the day, and the gaurange, or worker in leather, was tying up his neatly-stained pouches, shoes, knife-scabbards, &c. (the work of his handicraft) in a large kotakoo or bag; while the crier at the mosque, with the melancholy call of 'Alla Akbar,' uttered at measured intervals, summoned the dévôts Moslems to their evening devotions." Had a Marilhat or a Henri Regnault transferred to canvas a scene like this, when the dazzling light of the sun is beginning to die away in green and rose tints, might he not aptly name his painting the _Retour des Champs_, a title so often given to landscapes in our misty climate. "This scene," adds Laing, "both by its nature and the sentiment which it inspired, formed an agreeable contrast with the noise, confusion, and the dissipation which pervaded a Timmannee town at the same hour; but one must not trust too much to appearances, and I regret to add, that the subsequent conduct of the Kouranko natives did not confirm the good opinion which I had formed of them." The traveller now passed through Koufoula, where he was very kindly received, crossed a pleasant undulating district shut in by the Kouranko hills and halted at Simera, where the chief ordered his "guiriot" to celebrate in song the arrival of his guest, a welcome neutralized by the fact that the house assigned to Laing let in the rain through its leaky roof and would not let out the smoke, so that, to use his own words, he was more "like a chimney-sweeper" than the white guest of the King of Simera. Laing afterwards visited the source of the Tongolelle, a tributary of the Rokelle, and then left Kooranko to enter Soolimana. Kooranko, into which our traveller did not penetrate beyond the frontier, is of vast extent and divided into a great number of small states. The inhabitants resemble the Mandingoes in language and costume, but they are neither so well looking nor so intelligent. They do not profess Mohammedanism and have implicit confidence in their "grigris." They are fairly industrious, they know how to sew and weave. Their chief object of commerce is rosewood or "cam," which they send to the coast. The products of the country are much the same as those of Timmannee. Komia, N. lat. 9 degrees 22 minutes, is the first town in Soolimana. Laing then visited Semba, a wealthy and populous city, where he was received by a band of musicians, who welcomed him with a deafening if not harmonious flourish of trumpets, and he finally reached Falaba, the capital of the country. The king received Laing with special marks of esteem. He had assembled a large body of troops whom he passed in review, making them execute various manoeuvres accompanied by the blowing of trumpets, beating of tambourines, and the playing of violins and other native instruments. This "fantasia" almost deafened the visitor. Then came a number of _guiriots_, who sang of the greatness of the king, the happy arrival of the major, with the fortunate results which were to ensue from his visit for the prosperity of the country and the development of commerce. Laing profited by the king's friendliness to ask his permission to visit the sources of the Niger, but was answered by all manner of objections on the score of the danger of the expedition. At last, however, his majesty yielded to the persuasions of his visitor, telling him that "as his heart panted after the water, he might go to it." The major had not, however, left Falaba two hours before the permission was rescinded, and he had to give up an enterprise which had justly appeared to him of great importance. A few days later he obtained leave to visit the source of the Rokelle or Sale Kongo, a river of which nothing was known before his time beyond Rokon. From the summit of a lofty rock, Laing saw Mount Loma, the highest of the chain of which it forms part. "The point," says the traveller, "from which the Niger issues, was now shown to me, and appeared to be at the same level on which I stood, viz., 1600 feet above the level of the Atlantic; the source of the Rokelle, which I had already measured, being 1470 feet. The view from this hill amply compensated for my lacerated feet.... Having ascertained correctly the situation of Konkodoogore, and that of the hill upon which I was at this time, the first by observation, and the second by account, and having taken the bearings of Loma from both, I cannot err much in laying down its position in 9 degrees 25 minutes N. and 9 degrees 45 minutes W." [Illustration: "Laing saw Mount Loma."] Laing had now spent three months in Soolimana, and had made many excursions. It is a very picturesque country, in which alternate hills, valleys, and fertile plains, bordered by woods and adorned with thickets of luxuriant trees. The soil is fertile and requires very little cultivation; the harvests are abundant and rice grows well. Oxen, sheep, goats, and a small species of poultry, with a few horses, are the chief domestic animals of the people of Soolimana. The wild beasts, of which there are a good many, are elephants, buffaloes, a kind of antelope, monkeys, and leopards. Falaba, which takes its name from the Fala-ba river, on which it is situated, is about a mile and a half long by one broad. The houses are closer together than in most African towns, and it contains some six thousand inhabitants. Its position as a fortified town is well-chosen. Built on an eminence in the centre of a plain which is under water in the rainy season, it is surrounded by a very strong wooden palisade, proof against every engine of war except artillery. Strange to say in Soolimana the occupations of men and women seem to be reversed; the latter work in the fields except at seed time and harvest, build the houses, act as masons, barbers, and surgeons, whilst the men attend to the dairy, milk the cows, sew, and wash the linen. On the 17th September, Laing started on his return journey to Sierra Leone bearing presents from the king, and escorted for several miles by a vast crowd. He finally reached the English colony in safety. Laing's trip through Timmannee, Kooranko, and Soolimana was not without importance. It opened up districts hitherto unknown to Europeans, and introduced us to the manners, occupations, and trade of the people, as well as to the products of the country. At the same time the course was traced and the source discovered of the Rokelle, whilst for the first time definite information was obtained as to the sources of the Niger, for although our traveller had not actually visited them, he had gone near enough to determine their position approximately. The results obtained by Laing on this journey, only fired his ambition for further discoveries. He, therefore, determined to make his way to Timbuctoo. On the 17th June, 1825, he embarked at Malta for Tripoli, where he joined a caravan with which Hateeta, the Tuarick chief, who had made such friends with Lyon, was also travelling as far as Ghât. After two months' halt at Ghadames, Laing again started in October and reached Insalah, which he places a good deal further west than his predecessors had done. Here he remained from November, 1825, to January 1826, and then made his way to the Wâdy Ghât, intending to go from thence at once to Timbuctoo, making a tour of Lake Jenneh or Debbie, visiting the Melli country, and tracing the Niger to its mouth. He would then have retraced his steps as far as Sackatoo, visited Lake Tchad and attempted to reach the hill. Outside Ghât the caravan with which Laing was travelling was attacked, some say by Tuaricks, others by Berber Arabs, a tribe living near the Niger. "Laing," says Caillié, who got his information at Timbuctoo, "was recognized as a Christian and horribly ill-treated. He was beaten with a stick until he was left for dead. I suppose that the other Christian whom they told me was beaten to death, was one of the major's servants. The Moors of Laing's caravan picked him up, and succeeded by dint of great care in recalling him to life. So soon as he regained consciousness he was placed on his camel, to which he had to be tied, he was too weak to be able to sit up. The robbers had left him nothing, the greater part of his baggage had been rifled." Laing arrived at Timbuctoo on the 18th August, 1826, and recovered from his wounds. His convalescence was slow, but he was fortunately spared the extortions of the natives, owing to the letters of introduction he had brought with him from Tripoli and to the sedulous care of his host, a native of that city. According to Caillié, who quotes this remarkable fact from an old native, Laing retained his European costume, and gave out that he had been sent by his master, the king of England, to visit Timbuctoo and describe the wonders it contained. "It appears," adds the French traveller, "that Laing drew the plan of the city in public, for the same Moor told me in his naive and expressive language, that he had 'written the town and everything in it.'" After a careful examination of Timbuctoo, Laing, who had good reason to fear the Tuaricks, paid a visit by night to Cabra, and looked down on the waters of the Niger. Instead of returning to Europe by way of the Great Desert, he was very anxious to go past Jenneh and Sego to the French settlements in Senegal, but at the first hint of his purpose to the Foulahs who crowded to stare at him, he was told that a Nazarene could not possibly be allowed to set foot in their country, and that if he dared attempt it they would make him repent it. Laing was, therefore, driven to go by way of El Arawan, where he hoped to join a caravan of Moorish merchants taking salt to Sansanding. But five days after he left Timbuctoo, his caravan was joined by a fanatic sheikh, named Hamed-ould-Habib, chief of the Zawat tribe, and Laing was at once arrested under pretence of his having entered their country without authorization. The major being urged to profess Mohammedanism refused, preferring death to apostasy. A discussion then took place between the sheikh and his hired assassins as to how the victim should be put to death, and finally Laing was strangled by two slaves. His body was left unburied in the desert. This was all Caillié was able to find out when he visited Timbuctoo but one year after Major Laing's death. We have supplemented his accounts by a few details gathered from the reports of the Royal Geographical Society, for the traveller's journal and the notes he took are alike lost to us. We have already told how Laing managed to fix pretty accurately the position of the sources of the Niger. We have also described the efforts made by Mungo Park and Clapperton to trace the middle portion of the course of that river. We have now to narrate the journeys made in order to examine its mouth and the lower part of its course. The earliest and most successful was that of Richard Lander, formerly Clapperton's servant. Richard Lander and his brother John proposed to the English Government, that they should be sent to explore the Niger to its mouth. Their offer was accepted, and they embarked on a government vessel for Badagry, where they arrived on the 19th March, 1830. The king of the country, Adooley, of whom Richard Lander retained a friendly remembrance, was in low spirits. His town had just been burnt, his generals and his best soldiers had perished in a battle with the people of Lagos, and he himself had had a narrow escape when his house and all his treasures were destroyed by fire. He determined to retrieve his losses, and to do so at the expense of the travellers, who could not get permission to penetrate into the interior of the country until they had been robbed of their most valuable merchandise, and compelled to sign drafts in payment for a gun-boat with a hundred men, for two puncheons of rum, twenty barrels of powder, and a large quantity of merchandise, which they knew perfectly well would never be delivered by this monarch, who was as greedy of gain as he was drunken. As a matter of course the natives followed the example of their chief, vied with him in selfishness, greed, and meanness, regarded the English as fair spoil, and fleeced them on every opportunity. At last, on the 31st March, Richard and John Lander succeeded in getting away from Badagry; and preceded by an escort sent in advance by the king, arrived at Katunga on the 13th May, having halted by the way at Wow-wow, a good-sized town, Bidjie, where Pearce and Morrison had been taken ill, Jenneh, Chow, Egga, all towns visited by Clapperton, Engua, where Pearce died, Asinara, the first walled city they saw, Bohou, formerly capital of Yariba, Jaguta, Leoguadda, and Itcho, where there is a famous market. [Illustration: Lower Course of the Niger (after Lander).] At Katunga, according to custom, the travellers halted under a tree before they were received by the king. But being tired of waiting, they presently went to the residence of Ebo, the chief eunuch, and the most influential man about the person of the sovereign. A diabolical noise of cymbals, trumpets, and drums, all played together, announced the approach of the white men, and Mansolah, the king, gave them a most hearty welcome, ordering Ebo to behead every one who should molest them. The Landers, fearful of being detained by Mansolah until the rainy season, acted on Ebo's advice, and said nothing about the Niger, but merely spoke of the death of their fellow-countryman at Boussa twenty years before, adding that the King of England had sent them to the sultan of Yaourie to recover his papers. Although Mansolah did not treat the brothers Lander quite as graciously as he had treated Clapperton, he allowed them to go eight days after their arrival. Of the many details given in the original account of the Landers' journey, of Katunga and the province of Yariba, we will only quote the following:-- "Katunga has by no means answered the expectations we had been led to form of it, either as regards its prosperity, or the number of its inhabitants. The vast plain on which it stands, although exceedingly fine, yields in verdure and fertility, and simple beauty of appearance, to the delightful country surrounding the less celebrated city of Bohoo. Its market is tolerably well supplied with provisions, which are, however, exceedingly dear; insomuch that, with the exception of disgusting insects, reptiles, and vermin, the lower classes of the people are almost unacquainted with the taste of animal food." Mansolah's carelessness and the imbecile cowardice of his subjects had enabled the Fellatahs to establish themselves in Yarriba, to entrench themselves in its fortified towns, and to obtain the recognition of their independence, until they became sufficiently strong to assume an absolute sovereignty over the whole country. From Katunga the Landers travelled to Borghoo, by way of Atoupa, Bumbum--a town much frequented by the merchants of Houssa, Borghoo, and other provinces trading with Gonja--Kishi, on the frontiers of Yarriba, and Moussa, on the river of the same name, beyond which they were met by an escort sent to join them by the Sultan of Borghoo. Sultan Yarro received them with many expressions of pleasure and kindness, showing special delight at seeing Richard Lander again. Although he was a convert to Mohammedanism, Yarro evidently put more faith in the superstitions of his forefathers than in his new creed. Fetiches and gri-gris were hung over his door, and in one of his huts there was a square stool, supported on two sides by four little wooden effigies of men. The character, manners, and costumes of the people of Borghoo differ essentially from those of the natives of Yarriba. "Perhaps no two people in the universe residing so near each other," says the narrative, "differ more widely ... than the natives of Yarriba and Borghoo. The former are perpetually engaged in trading with each other from town to town, the latter never quit their towns except in case of war, or when engaged in predatory excursions; the former are pusillanimous and cowardly, the latter are bold and courageous, full of spirit and energy, and never seem happier than when engaged in martial exercises; the former are generally mild, unassuming, humble and honest, but cold and passionless. The latter are proud and haughty, too vain to be civil, and too shrewd to be honest; yet they appear to understand somewhat of the nature of love and the social affections, are warm in their attachments, and keen in their resentments." On the 17th June our travellers at last came in sight of the city of Boussa. Great was their surprise at finding that town on the mainland, and not, as Clapperton had said, on an island in the Niger. They entered Boussa by the western gate, and were almost immediately introduced to the presence of the king and of the midiki or queen, who told them that they had both that very morning shed tears over the fate of Clapperton. The Niger or Quorra, which flows below the city, was the first object of interest visited by the brothers. "This morning," writes the traveller, "we visited the far-famed _Niger_ or _Quorra_, which flows by the city about a mile from our residence, and were greatly disappointed at the appearance of this celebrated river. Bleak, rugged rocks rose abruptly from the centre of the stream, causing strong ripples and eddies on its surface. It is said that, a few miles above Boussa, the river is divided into three branches by two small, fertile islands, and that it flows from hence in one continued stream to Funda. The Niger here, in its widest part, is not more than a stone's-throw across at present. The rock on which we sat overlooks the spot where Mr. Park and his associates met their unhappy fate." Richard Lander made his preliminary inquiries respecting the books and papers belonging to Mungo Park's expedition with great caution. But presently, reassured by the sultan's kindness, he determined to question him as to the fate of the explorer. Yarro was, however, too young at the time of the catastrophe to be able to remember what had occurred. It had taken place two reigns back; but he promised to have a search instituted for relics of the illustrious traveller. "In the afternoon," says Richard Lander, "the king came to see us, followed by a man with a book under his arm, which was said to have been picked up in the Niger after the loss of our countryman. It was enveloped in a large cotton cloth, and our hearts beat high with expectation as the man was slowly unfolding it, for, by its size, we guessed it to be Mr. Park's Journal; but our disappointment and chagrin were great when, on opening the book, we discovered it to be an old nautical publication of the last century." There was then no further hope of recovering Park's journal. On the 23rd June the Landers left Boussa, filled with gratitude to the king, who had given them valuable presents, and warned them to accept no food, lest it should be poisoned, from any but the governors of the places they should pass through. They travelled alongside of the Niger as far as Kagogie, where they embarked in a wretched native canoe, whilst their horses were sent on by land to Yaoorie. "We had proceeded only a few hundred yards," says Richard Lander, "when the river gradually widened to two miles, and continued as far as the eye could reach. It looked very much like an artificial canal, the steep banks confining the water like low walls, with vegetation beyond. In most places the water was extremely shallow, but in others it was deep enough to float a frigate. During the first two hours of the day the scenery was as interesting and picturesque as can be imagined. The banks were literally covered with hamlets and villages; fine trees, bending under the weight of their dark and impenetrable foliage, everywhere relieved the eye from the glare of the sun's rays, and, contrasted with the lively verdure of the little hills and plains, produced the most pleasing effect. All of a sudden came a total change of scene. To the banks of dark earth, clay, or sand, succeeded black, rugged rocks; and that wide mirror which reflected the skies, was divided into a thousand little channels by great sand-banks." A little further on the stream was barred by a wall of black rocks, with a single narrow opening, through which its waters rushed furiously down. At this place there is a portage, above which the Niger flows on, restored to its former breadth, repose, and grandeur. After three days' navigation, the Landers reached a village, where they found horses and men waiting for them, and whence they quickly made their way, through a continuously hilly country, to the town of Yaoorie, where they were welcomed by the sultan, a stout, dirty, slovenly man, who received them in a kind of farm-yard cleanly kept. The sultan, who was disappointed that Clapperton had not visited him, and that Richard Lander had omitted to pay his respects on his return journey, was very exacting to his present guests. He would give them none of the provisions they wanted, and did all he could to detain them as long as possible. We may add that food was very dear at Yaoorie, and that Richard Lander had no merchandise for barter except a quantity of "Whitechapel sharps, warranted not to cut in the eye," for the very good reason, he tells us, that most of them had no eyes at all, so that they were all but worthless. They were able, however, to turn to account some empty tins which had contained soups; the labels, although dirty and tarnished, were much admired by the natives, one of whom strutted proudly about for some days wearing an empty tin on his head, bearing four labels of "concentrated essence of meat." The Sultan would not permit the Englishmen to enter Nyffé or Bornou, and told them there was nothing for them but to go back to Boussa. Richard Lander at once wrote to the king of that town, asking permission to buy a canoe in which to go to Funda, as the road by land was infested by plundering Fellatahs. At last, on the 26th July, a messenger arrived from the King of Boussa to inquire into the strange conduct of the Sultan of Yaoorie, and the cause of his detention of the white men. After an imprisonment of five weeks the Landers were at last allowed to leave Yaoorie, which was now almost entirely inundated. The explorers now ascended the Niger to the confluence of the Cubbie, and then went down it again to Boussa, where the king, who was glad to see them again, received them with the utmost cordiality. They were, however, detained longer than they liked by the necessity of paying a visit to the King of Wow-wow, as well as by the difficulty of getting a boat. Moreover, there was some delay in the return of the messengers who had been sent by the King of Boussa to the different chiefs on the banks of the river, and lastly, Beken Rouah (the Dark Water) had to be consulted in order to ensure the safety of the travellers in their journey to the sea. On taking leave of the king, the brothers were at a loss to express their gratitude for his kindness and hospitality, his zeal in their cause, and the protection he was ever ready to extend during their stay of nearly two months in his capital. The natives showed great regret at losing their visitors, and knelt in the path of the brothers, praying with uplifted hands to their gods on their behalf. Now began the descent of the Niger. A halt had to be made at the island of Melalie, whose chief begged the white men to accept a very fine kid. We may be sure they were too polite to refuse it. The Landers next passed the large town of Congi, the Songa of Clapperton, and then Inguazilligie, the rendezvous of merchants travelling between Nouffe and the districts north-east of Borghoo. Below Inguazilligie they halted at Patashie, a large fertile island of great beauty, planted with palm groves and magnificent trees. As this place was not far from Wow-wow, Richard Lander sent a message to the king of that town, who, however, declined to deliver the canoe which had been purchased of him. The messenger failing in his purpose, the brothers were compelled themselves to visit the king, but as they expected, they got only evasive answers. They had now no choice, if they wished to continue their journey, but to make off with the canoes which had been lent them at Patashie. On the 4th October, after further delays, they resumed their course, and being carried down by the current, were soon out of sight of Lever, or Layaba, and its wretched inhabitants. The first town the brothers came to was Bajiebo, a large and spacious city, which for dirt, noise, and confusion, could not be surpassed. Next came Leechee, inhabited by Nouffe people, and the island of Madje, where the Niger divides into three parts. Just beyond, the travellers suddenly found themselves opposite a remarkable rock, two hundred and eighty feet high, called Mount Kesa, which rises perpendicularly from the centre of the stream. This rock is greatly venerated by the natives, who believe it to be the favourite home of a beneficent genius. [Illustration: Mount Kesa. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] At Belee, a little above Rabba, the brothers received a visit from the "King of the Dark Waters," chief of the island of Zagoshi, who appeared in a canoe of great length and unusual cleanliness, decked with scarlet cloth and gold lace. On the same day they reached the town of Zagoshi, opposite Rabba, and the second Fellatah town beyond Sackatoo. Mallam Dendo, chief of Zagoshi, was a cousin of Bello. He was a blind and very feeble old man in very bad health, who knew he had but a few years longer to reign, and his one thought was how best to secure the throne to his son. Although he had received very costly presents, Mallam Dendo was anything but satisfied, and declared that if the travellers did not make him other and more valuable gifts, he would require their guns, pistols, and powder, before he allowed them to leave Zagoshi. Richard Lander did not know what to do, when the gift of the tobé (or robe) of Mungo Park, which had been restored by the King of Boussa, threw Mallam Dendo into such ecstasies of joy that he declared himself the protector of the Europeans, promised to do all he could to help them to reach the sea, made them a present of several richly-coloured plaited mats, two bags of rice, and a bunch of bananas. These stores came just in time, for the whole stock of cloth, looking-glasses, razors, and pipes was exhausted, and the English had nothing left but a few needles and some silver bracelets as presents for the chiefs on the banks of the Niger. "Rabba," says Lander, "... seen from Zagoshi, appears to be a large, compact, clean, and well-built town, though it is unwalled, and is not otherwise fenced. It is irregularly built on the slope of a gently-rising hill, at the foot of which runs the Niger; and in point of rank, population, and wealth, it is the second city in the Fellatah dominions, Sackatoo alone being considered as its superior. It is inhabited by a mixed population of Fellatahs, Nyffeans, and emigrants and slaves from various countries, and is governed by a ruler who exercises sovereign authority over Rabba and its dependencies, and is styled sultan or king.... Rabba is famous for milk, oil, and honey. The market, when our messengers were there, appeared to be well supplied with bullocks, horses, mules, asses, sheep, goats, and abundance of poultry. Rice, and various sorts of corn, cotton cloth, indigo, saddles and bridles made of red and yellow leather, besides shoes, boots, and sandals, were offered for sale in great plenty. Although we observed about two hundred slaves for sale, none had been disposed of when we left the market in the evening.... Rabba is not very famous for the number or variety of its artificers, and yet in the manufacture of mats and sandals it is unrivalled. However, in all other handicrafts, Rabba yields to Zagoshi." The industry and love of labour displayed by the people of the latter town were an agreeable surprise in this lazy country. Its inhabitants, who are hospitable and obliging, are protected by the situation of their island against the Fellatahs. They are independent too, and recognize no authority but that of the "King of the Dark Waters," whom they obey because it is to their interest to do so. On the 16th October, the Landers at last started in a wretched canoe, for which the king had made them pay a high price, with paddles they had stolen, because no one would sell them any. This was the first time they had been able to embark on the Niger without help from the natives. They went down the river, whose width varies greatly, avoiding large towns as much as possible, for they had no means of satisfying the extortions of the chiefs. No incident of note occurred before Egga was reached, if we except a terrible storm which overtook the travellers when, unable to land in the marshes bordering the river, they had allowed their boat to drift with the current, and during which they were all but upset by the hippopotami playing about on the surface of the water. All this time the Niger flowed in an E.S.E. direction, now eight, now only two miles in width. The current was so rapid that the boat went at the rate of four or five miles an hour. [Illustration: "They were all but upset."] On the 19th October the Landers passed the mouth of the Coudonia, which Richard had crossed near Cuttup on his first expedition, and a little later they came in sight of Egga. The landing-place was soon reached by way of a bay encumbered with an immense number of large and heavy canoes full of merchandise, with the prows daubed with blood, and covered with feathers, as charms against thieves. The chief, to whom the travellers were at once conducted, was an old man with a long white beard, whose appearance would have been venerable and patriarchal had he not laughed and played in quite a childish manner. The natives assembled in hundreds to see the strange-looking visitors, and the latter had to place three men as sentinels outside their door to keep the curious at a distance. [Illustration: Square stool belonging to the King of Bornou. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Lander says that Benin and Portuguese cloths are sold at Egga by many of its inhabitants, so that it would appear that some kind of communication is kept up between the sea-coast and this place. The people are very speculative and enterprising, and numbers of them employ all their time solely in trading up and down the Niger. They live entirely in their canoes, over which they have a shed, that answers completely every purpose for which it is intended, so that, in their constant peregrinations, they have no need of any other dwelling or shelter than that which their canoes afford them.... "Their belief," says Lander, "that we possessed the power of doing anything we wished, was at first amusing enough, but their importunities went so far that they became annoying. They applied to us for charms to avert wars and other national calamities, to make them rich, to prevent the crocodiles from carrying off the people, and for the chief of the fishermen to catch a canoe-load of fish every day, each request being accompanied with some sort of present, such as country beer, goora-nuts, cocoa-nuts, lemons, yams, rice, &c., in quantity proportionate to the value of their request. "The curiosity of the people to see us is so intense, that we dare not stir out of doors, and therefore we are compelled to keep our door open all day long for the benefit of the air, and the only exercise which we can take is by walking round and round our hut like wild beasts in a cage. The people stand gazing at us with visible emotions of amazement and terror; we are regarded, in fact, in just the same light as the fiercest tigers in Europe. If we venture to approach too near the doorway, they rush backwards in a state of the greatest alarm and trepidation; but when we are at the opposite side of the hut they draw as near as their fears will permit them, in silence and caution. "Egga is a town of vast extent, and its population must be immense. Like all the towns on the banks of the Niger, it is inundated every year. We can but conclude that the natives have their own reasons for building their houses in situations which, in our eyes, are alike so inconvenient and unhealthy. Perhaps it may be because the soil of the surrounding districts consists of a black greasy mould of extraordinary fertility, supplying all the necessaries of life at the cost of very little trouble. Although the King of Egga looked more than a hundred years old, he was very gay and light-hearted. The chief people of the town met in his hut, and spent whole days in conversation. This company of greybeards, for they are all old, laugh so heartily at the sprightliness of their own wit, that it is an invariable practice, when any one passes by, to stop and listen outside, and they add to their noisy merriment so much good-will, that we hear nothing from the hut in which the aged group are revelling during the day but loud peals of laughter and shouts of applause." One day the old chief wished to show off his accomplishments of singing and dancing, expecting to astonish his visitors. "He frisked," says Lander, "beneath the burden of five-score, and shaking his hoary locks, capered over the ground to the manifest delight of the bystanders, whose plaudits, though confined, as they always are, to laughter, yet tickled the old man's fancy to that degree, that he was unable to keep up his dance any longer without the aid of a crutch. With its assistance he hobbled on a little while, but his strength failed him; he was constrained for the time to give over, and he set himself down at our side on the threshold of the hut. He would not acknowledge his weakness to us for the world, but endeavoured to pant silently, and suppress loud breathings, that we might not hear him. How ridiculous, yet how natural, is this vanity! He made other unavailing attempts to dance, and also made an attempt to sing, but nature would not second his efforts, and his weak piping voice was scarcely audible. The singers, dancers, and musicians, continued their noisy mirth, till we were weary of looking at and listening to them, and as bedtime was drawing near, we desired them to depart, to the infinite regret of the frivolous but merry old chief." Mallam-Dendo, however, tried to dissuade the English from continuing the descent of the river. Egga, he said, was the last Nouffe town, the power of the Fellatahs extended no further, and between it and the sea dwelt none but savage and barbarous races, always at war with each other. These rumours and the stories told by the natives to the Landers' people of the danger they would run of being murdered or sold as slaves so terrified the latter, that they refused to embark, declaring their intention of going back to Cape Coast Castle by the way that they came. Thanks to the firmness of the brothers this mutiny was quelled, and on the 22nd October the explorers left Egga, firing a parting salute of three musket-shots. A few miles further down, a sea-gull flew over their heads, a sure sign that they were approaching the sea, and with it, it appeared all but certain, the end of their wearisome journey. Several small and wretched villages, half under water, and a large town at the foot of a mountain, which looked ready to overwhelm it, the name of which the travellers could not learn, were passed in succession. They met a great number of canoes built like those on the Bonny and Calabar Rivers. The crews stared in astonishment at the white men whom they dared not address. The low marshy banks of the Niger were now gradually exchanged for loftier, richer, and more fertile districts. Kacunda, where the people of Egga had recommended Lander to halt, is on the western bank of the river. From a distance its appearance is singularly picturesque. The natives were at first alarmed at the appearance of the travellers. An old Mallam acting as Mohammedan priest and schoolmaster took them under his protection, and, thanks to him, the brothers received a warm welcome in the capital of the independent kingdom of Nouffé. The information collected in this town, or rather in this group of four villages, coincided with that obtained at Egga. Richard Lander therefore resolved to make the rest of the voyage by night and to load his four remaining guns and two pistols with balls and shot. To the great astonishment of the natives, who could not understand such contempt of danger, the explorers left Kacunda with three loud cheers, committing their cause to the hands of God. They passed several important towns, which they avoided. The river now wound a great deal, flowing from the south to south-east, and then to the south-west between lofty hills. On the 25th October, the English found themselves opposite the mouth of a large river. It was the Tchadda or Benuwe. At its junction with the Niger is an important town called Cutum Curaffi. After a narrow escape from being swallowed up in a whirlpool and crushed against the rocks, Lander having found a suitable spot showing signs of habitation, determined to land. That this place had been visited a little time previously, was proved by two burnt out fires with some broken calabashes, fragments of earthenware vessels, cocoa-nut shells, staves of powder-barrels, &c., which the travellers picked up with some emotion, for they proved that the natives had had dealings with Europeans. Some women ran away out of a village which three of Lander's men entered with a view to get the materials for a fire. The exhausted explorers were resting on mats when they were suddenly surrounded by a crowd of half-naked men armed with guns, bows and arrows, cutlasses, iron barbs, and spears. The coolness and presence of mind of the brothers alone averted a struggle, the issue of which could not be dubious. "As we approached," says Lander, "we made all the signs and motions we could with our arms, to deter the chief and his people from firing on us. His quiver was dangling at his side, his bow was bent, and an arrow which was pointed at our breasts already trembled on the string, when we were within a few yards of his person. This was a highly critical moment, the next might be our last. But the hand of Providence averted the blow; for just as the chief was about to pull the fatal cord, a man that was nearest him rushed forward, and stayed his arm. At that instant we stood before him, and immediately held forth our hands; all of them trembled like aspen leaves; the chief looked up full in our faces, kneeling on the ground; light seemed to flash from his dark, rolling eyes, his body was convulsed all over, as though he were enduring the utmost torture, and with a timorous yet undefinable expression of countenance, in which all the passions of our nature were strangely blended, he drooped his head, eagerly grasped our proffered hands, and burst into tears. This was a sign of friendship; harmony followed, and war and bloodshed were thought of no more. It was happy for us that our white faces and calm behaviour produced the effect it did on these people; in another minute our bodies would have been as full of arrows as a porcupine's is full of quills. 'I thought you were children of heaven fallen from the skies,' said the chief, in explanation of this sudden change." This scene took place in the famous market-town of Bocqua, of which the travellers had so often heard, whither the people come up from the coast to exchange the merchandise of the whites for slaves brought in large numbers from Funda, on the opposite bank. The information obtained at Bocqua was most satisfactory; the sea was only ten days' journey off. There was no danger in going down the river, the chief said, though the people on the banks were a bad lot. Following the advice of this chief, the travellers passed the fine town of Atta without stopping, and halted at Abbagaca, where the river divides into several branches, and whose chief showed insatiable greed. Refusing to halt at several villages, whose inhabitants begged for a sight of the white strangers, they were finally obliged to land at the village of Damuggo, where a little man wearing a waistcoat which had once formed part of a uniform, hailed them in English, crying out: "Halloa, ho! you English, come here!" He was an emissary from the King of Bonny come to buy slaves for the master. The chief of Damuggo, who had never before seen white men, received the explorers very kindly, held public rejoicings in their honour and detained them with constant fêtes until the 4th November. Although the fetich consulted by him presaged that they would meet with a thousand dangers before reaching the sea, this monarch supplied them with an extra canoe, some rowers, and a guide. [Illustration: Map of the Lower Course of the Djoliba, Kouara, Quoora, or Niger (after Lander). Gravé par E. Morieu.] The sinister predictions of the fetich were soon fulfilled. John and Richard Lander were embarked in different boats. As they passed a large town called Kirree they were stopped by war-canoes, each containing forty men wearing European clothes, minus the trousers. Each canoe carried what at first sight appeared to be the Union Jack flying from a long bamboo cane fixed in the stern, a four or six pounder was lashed to each prow, and every black sailor was provided with a musket. The two brothers were taken to Kirree, where a palaver was held upon their fate. Fortunately the Mallams or Mohammedan priests interfered in their favour, and some of their property was restored to them, but the best part had gone to the bottom of the river with John Lander's canoe. "To my great satisfaction," says Lander, "I immediately recognized the box containing our books, and one of my brother's journals; the medicine-chest was by its side, but both were filled with water. A large carpet bag, containing all our wearing apparel, was lying cut open, and deprived of its contents, with the exception of a shirt, a pair of trousers, and a waistcoat. Many valuable articles which it had contained were gone. The whole of my journal, with the exception of a note-book with remarks from Rabba to this place, was lost. Four guns, one of which had been the property of the late Mr. Park, four cutlasses, and two pistols, were gone. Nine elephants' tusks, the finest I had seen in the country, which had been given us by the kings of Wow-wow and Boussa; a quantity of ostrich feathers, some handsome leopard skins, a great variety of seeds, all our buttons, cowries, and needles, which were necessary for us to purchase provisions with, all were missing, and said to have been sunk in the river." This was like going down in port. After crossing Africa from Badagry to Boussa, escaping all the dangers of navigating the Niger, getting free from the hands of so many rapacious chiefs, to be shipwrecked six day's journey from the sea, to be made slaves of or condemned to death just on the eve of making known to Europe the results of so many sufferings endured, so many dangers escaped, so many obstacles happily surmounted! To have traced the course of the Niger from Boussa, to be on the point of determining the exact position of its mouth and then to find themselves stopped by wretched pirates was really too much, and bitter indeed were the reflections of the brothers during the interminable palaver upon their fate. Although their stolen property was partially restored to them, and the negro who had begun the attack upon them was condemned to be beheaded, the brothers were none the less regarded as prisoners, and they were marched off to Obie, king of the country, who would decide what was to be done with them. It was evident that the robbers were not natives of the country, but had only entered it with a view to pillage. They probably counted on trading in two or three such market-towns as Kirree if they did not meet with any boats but such as were too strong to be plundered. For the rest, all the tribes of this part of the Niger seemed to be at daggers drawn with each other, and the trade in provisions was carried on under arms. After two days' row the canoes came in sight of Eboe, at a spot where the stream divides into three "rivers" of great width, with marshy level banks covered with palm-trees. An hour later one of the boatmen, a native of Eboe, cried, "There is my country." Here fresh difficulties awaited the travellers. Obie, king of Eboe, a young man with a refined and intelligent countenance, received the white men with cordiality. His dress, which reminded his visitors of that of the King of Yarriba, was adorned with such a quantity of coral that he might have been called the coral king. Obie seemed to be affected by the account the English gave of the struggle in which they had lost all their merchandise, but the aid he gave them was by no means proportioned to the warmth of the sentiments which he expressed, indeed he let them all but die of hunger. "The Eboe people," says the narrative, "like most Africans, are extremely indolent, and cultivate yams, Indian corn, and plantains only. They have abundance of goats and fowls, but few sheep are to be seen, and no bullocks. The city, which has no other name than the Eboe country, is situated on an open plain; it is immensely large, contains a vast population, and is the capital of a kingdom of the same name. It has, for a series of years, been the principal slave-mart for native traders from the coast, between the Bonny and Old Calabar rivers; and for the production of its palm-oil it has obtained equal celebrity. Hundreds of men from the rivers mentioned above come up for the purpose of trade, and numbers of them are at present residing in canoes in front of the town. Most of the oil purchased by Englishmen at the Bonny and adjacent rivers is brought from thence, as are nearly all the slaves which are annually exported from those places by the French, Spaniards, and Portuguese. It has been told us by many that the Eboe people are confirmed anthropophagi; and this opinion is more prevalent among the tribes bordering on that kingdom, than with the natives of more remote districts." From what the travellers could learn, it was pretty certain that Obie would not let them go without exacting a considerable ransom. He may doubtless have been driven to this by the importunity of his favourites, but it was more likely the result of the greed of the people of Bonny and Brass, who quarrelled as to which tribe should carry off the English to their country. A son of the Chief of Bonny, King Pepper, a native named Gun, brother of King Boy, and their father King Forday, who with King Jacket govern the whole of the Brass country, were the most eager in their demands, and produced as proofs of their honourable intentions the testimonials given to them by the European captains with whom they had business relations. One of these documents, signed James Dow, captain of the brig "Susan" of Liverpool, and dated from the most important river of the Brass Country, September, 1830, ran thus:-- "Captain Dow states that he never met with a set of greater scoundrels than the natives generally, and the pilots in particular." It goes on in a similar strain heaping curses upon the natives, and charging them with having endeavoured to wreck Dow's vessel at the mouth of the river with a view to dividing his property amongst them. King Jacket was designated as an arrant rogue and a desperate thief. Boy was the only one of common honesty or trustworthiness. After an endless palaver, Obie declared that according to the laws and customs of the country he had a right to look upon the Landers and their people as his property, but that, not wishing to abuse his privileges, he would set them free in exchange for the value of twenty slaves in English merchandise. This decision, which Richard Lander tried in vain to shake, plunged the brothers into the depths of despair, a state of mind soon succeeded by an apathy and indifference so complete that they could not have made the faintest effort to recover their liberty. Add to these mental sufferings the physical weakness to which they were reduced by want of food, and we shall have some idea of their state of prostration. Without resources of any kind, robbed of their needles, cowries, and merchandise, they were reduced to the sad necessity of begging their bread. "But we might as well have addressed our petitions to the stones or trees," says Lander; "we might have spared ourselves the mortification of a refusal. We never experienced a more stinging sense of our own humbleness and imbecility than on such occasions, and never had we greater need of patience and lowliness of spirit. In most African towns and villages we have been regarded as demigods, and treated in consequence with universal kindness, civility, and veneration; but here, alas, what a contrast! we are classed with the most degraded and despicable of mankind, and are become slaves in a land of ignorance and barbarism, whose savage natives have treated us with brutality and contempt." It was Boy who finally achieved the rescue of the Landers, for he consented to pay to Obie the ransom he demanded for them and their people. Boy himself was very moderate, asking for nothing in return for his trouble and the risk he ran in taking the white men to Brass, but fifteen bars or fifteen slaves, and a barrel of rum. Although this demand was exorbitant, Lander did not hesitate to write an order on Richard Lake, captain of an English vessel at anchor in Brass river, for thirty-six bars. The king's canoe, on which the brothers embarked on the 12th November, carried sixty persons, forty of whom were rowers. It was hollowed out of a single tree-trunk, measured more than fifty feet long, carried a four-pounder in the prow, an arsenal of cutlasses and grape-shot, and was laden with merchandise of every kind. The vast tracts of cultivated land on either side of the river showed that the population was far more numerous than would have been supposed. The scenery was flat, open, and varied; and the soil, a rich black mould, produced luxuriant trees, and green shrubs of every shade. At seven p.m. on the 11th November the canoe left the chief branch of the Niger and entered the Brass river. An hour later, Richard Lander recognized with inexpressible delight tidal waves. [Illustration: "It was hollowed out of a single tree-trunk."] A little farther on Boy's canoe came up with those of Gun and Forday. The latter was a venerable-looking old man, in spite of his wretched semi-European semi-native clothing and a very strong predilection for rum, of which he consumed a great quantity, although his manners and conversation betrayed no signs of excessive drinking. That was a strange escort which accompanied the two Englishmen as far as the town of Brass. "The canoes," says Lander, "were following each other up the river in tolerable order, each of them displaying three flags. In the first was King Boy, standing erect and conspicuous, his headdress of feathers waving with the movements of his body, which had been chalked in various fantastic figures, rendered more distinct by its natural colour; his hands were resting on the barbs of two immense spears, which at intervals he darted violently into the bottom of the canoe, as if he were in the act of killing some formidable wild animal under his feet. In the bows of all the other canoes fetish priests were dancing, and performing various extraordinary antics, their persons, as well as those of the people with them, being chalked over in the same manner as that of King Boy; and, to crown the whole, Mr. Gun, the little military gentleman, was most actively employed, his canoe now darting before and now dropping behind the rest, adding not a little to the imposing effect of the whole scene by the repeated discharges of his cannon." Brass consists of two towns, one belonging to Forday, the other to King Jacket. The priests performed some curious ceremonies before disembarking, evidently having reference to the whites. Was the result of the consultation of the fetish of the town favourable or not to the visitors? The way the natives treated them would answer that question. Before he set foot on land Richard Lander, to his great delight, recognized a white man on the banks. He was the captain of a Spanish schooner at anchor in the river. The narrative goes on to say:-- "Of all the wretched, filthy, and contemptible places in this world of ours none can present to the eye of a stranger so miserable an appearance, or can offer such disgusting and loathsome sights, as this abominable Brass Town. Dogs, goats, and other animals run about the dirty streets half-starved, whose hungry looks can only be exceeded by the famishing appearance of the men, women, and children, which bespeaks the penury and wretchedness to which they are reduced; whilst the persons of many of them are covered with odious boils, and their huts are falling to the ground from neglect and decay." Another place, called Pilot Town by the Europeans, on account of the number of pilots living in it, is situated at the mouth of the river Nun, seventy miles from Brass. King Forday demanded four bars before the Landers left the town, saying it was customary for every white man who came to Brass by the river to make that payment. It was impossible to evade compliance, and Lander drew another bill on Captain Lake. At this price Richard Lander obtained permission to go down in Boy's royal canoe to the English brig stationed at the mouth of the river. His brother and his servants were not to be set free until the return of the king. On his arrival on the brig, Lander's astonishment and shame was extreme when he found that Lake refused to give him any help whatever. The instructions given to the brothers from the ministry were read, to prove that he was not an impostor; but the captain answered,-- "If you think that you have a ---- fool to deal with, you are mistaken; I'll not give a ---- flint for your bill. I would not give a ---- for it." Overwhelmed with grief at such unexpected behaviour from a fellow-countryman, Richard Lander returned to Boy's canoe, not knowing to whom to apply, and asked his escort to take him to Bonny, where there were a number of English vessels. The king refused to do this, and the explorer was obliged to try once more to move the captain, begging him to give him at least ten muskets, which might possibly satisfy Forday. "I have told you already," answered Lake, "that I will not let you have even a flint, so bother me no more." "But I have a brother and eight people at Brass Town," rejoined Lander, "and if you do not intend to pay King Boy, at least persuade him to bring them here, or else he will poison or starve my brother before I can get any assistance from a man-of-war, and sell all my people." "If you can get them on board," replied the captain, "I will take them away; but as I have told you before, you do not get a flint from me." At last Lander persuaded Boy to go back and fetch his brother and his people. The king at first declined to do so without receiving some payment on account, and it was only with difficulty that he was induced to forego this demand. When Lake found out that Lander's servants were able-bodied men, who could replace the sailors he had lost by death or who were down with fever, he relented a little. This yielding mood did not, however, last long, for he declared that if John and his people did not come in three days he would start without them. In vain did Richard prove to him beyond a doubt that if he did so the white men would be sold as slaves. The captain would not listen to him, only answering, "I can't help it; I shall wait no longer." Such inhumanity as this is fortunately very rare; and a wretch who could thus insult those not merely his equals, but so much his superiors, ought to be pilloried. At last, on the 24th November, after weathering a strong breeze which made the passage of the bar very rough and all but impossible, John Lander arrived on board. He had had to bear a good many reproaches from Boy, for whom, it must be confessed, there was some excuse; for had he not at his own cost rescued the brothers and their people from slavery, brought them down in his own canoe, and fed them, although very badly, all on the strength of their promise to pay him with as much beef and rum as he could consume? whereas he was, after all, roughly received by Lake, told that his advances would never be refunded, and treated as a thief. Certainly he had cause to complain and any one else would have made his prisoners pay dearly for the disappointment of so many hopes, and the loss of so much money. For all this, however, Boy brought John Lander safely to the brig. Captain Lake received the traveller pretty cordially, but declared his intention of making the king go back without so much as an obolus. Poor Boy was full of the most gloomy forebodings. His haughty manner was exchanged for an air of deprecating humility. An abundant meal was placed before him, but he scarcely touched it. Richard Lander, disgusted with the stinginess and bad faith of Lake, and unable to keep his promises, ransacked all his possessions; and finding, at last, five silver bracelets and a sabre of native manufacture, which he had brought from Yarriba, he offered these to Boy, who accepted them. Finally, the king screwed up courage enough to make his demand to the captain, who, in a voice of thunder which it was difficult to believe could have come from such a feeble body, declined to accede to it, enforcing his refusal with a shower of oaths and threats, such as made Boy, who saw, moreover, that the vessel was ready to sail, beat a hasty retreat, and hurry off to his canoe. Thus ended the vicissitudes of the Brothers Lander's journey. They were in some danger in crossing the bar, but that was their last. They reached Fernando Po, and then the Calabar River where they embarked on the _Carnarvon_ for Rio Janeiro, at which port Admiral Baker, then commanding the station, got them a passage on board a transport-ship. On the 9th June they disembarked at Portsmouth. Their first care, after sending an account of their journey to Lord Goderich, then Colonial Secretary, was to inform that official of the conduct of Captain Lake, conduct which was of a nature to compromise the credit of the English Government. Orders were at once given by the minister for the payment of the sums agreed upon, which were perfectly just and reasonable. Thus was completely and finally solved the geographical problem which had for so many centuries occupied the attention of the civilized world, and been the subject of so many different conjectures. The Niger, or as the natives call it, the Joliba, or Quorra, is not connected with the Nile, and does not lose itself in the desert sands or in the waters of Lake Tchad; it flows in a number of different branches into the ocean on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, at the point known as Cape Formosa. The entire glory of this discovery, foreseen though it was by scientific men, belongs to the Brothers Lander. The vast extent of country traversed by the Niger between Yaoorie and the sea was completely unknown before their journey. So soon as the discoveries made by Lander became known in England, several merchants formed themselves into a company for developing the resources of the new districts. In July, 1832, they equipped two steamers, the _Quorra_ and _Alburka_, which, under the command of Messrs. Laird, Oldfield, and Richard Lander, appended the Niger as far as Bocqua. The results of this commercial expedition were deplorable. Not only was there absolutely no trade to be carried on with the natives, but the crews of the vessels were decimated by fever. Finally, Richard Lander, who had so often gone up and down the river, was mortally wounded by the natives, on the 27th January, 1834, and died on the morning of 5th February, at Fernando Po. To complete our account of the exploration of Africa during the period under review, we have still to speak of the various surveys of the valley of the Nile, the most important of which were those by Cailliaud, Russegger, and Rüppell. Frederic Cailliaud was born at Nantes in 1787, and arrived in Egypt in 1815, having previously visited Holland, Italy, Sicily, part of Greece, and European or Asiatic Turkey, where he traded in precious stones. His knowledge of geology and mineralogy won for him a cordial reception from Mehemet Ali, who immediately on his arrival commissioned him to explore the course of the Nile and the desert. This first trip resulted in the discovery of emerald mines at Labarah, mentioned by Arab authors, which had been abandoned for centuries. In the excavations in the mountain Cailliaud found the lamps, crowbars, ropes, and tools used in working these mines by men in the employ of Ptolemy. Near the quarries the traveller discovered the ruins of a little town, which was probably inhabited by the ancient miners. To prove the reality of his valuable discovery he took back ten pounds' weight of emeralds to Mehemet Ali. Another result of this journey was the discovery by the French explorer of the old road from Coptos to Berenice for the trade of India. From September, 1819, to the end of 1832, Cailliaud, accompanied by a former midshipman named Letorzec, was occupied in exploring all the known oases east of Egypt, and in tracing the Nile to 10 degrees N. lat. On his first journey he reached Wady Halfa, and for his second trip he made that place his starting-point. A fortunate accident did much to aid his researches. This was the appointment of Ismail Pacha, son of Mehemet Ali, to the command of an expedition to Nubia. To this expedition Cailliaud attached himself. Leaving Daraou in November, 1820, Cailliaud arrived, on the 5th January in the ensuing year, at Dongola, and reached Mount Barka in the Chaguy country, where are a vast number of ruins of temples, pyramids, and other monuments. The fact of this district bearing the name of Merawe had given rise to an opinion that in it was situated the ancient capital of Ethiopia. Cailliaud was enabled to show this to be erroneous. [Illustration: View of a Merawe temple. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The French explorer, accompanying Ismail Pacha in the character of a mineralogist beyond Berber, on a quest for gold-mines, arrived at Shendy. He then went with Letorzec to determine the position of the junction of the Atbara with the Nile; and at Assour, not far from 17 degrees N. lat., he discovered the ruins of an extensive ancient town. It was Meroë. Pressing on in a southerly direction between the 15th and 16th degrees of N. lat., Cailliaud next identified the mouth of the Bahr-el-Abiad, or White Nile, visited the ruins of Saba, the mouth of the Rahad, the ancient Astosaba, Sennaar, the river Gologo, the Fazoele country, and the Toumat, a tributary of the Nile, finally reaching the Singue country between the two branches of the river. Cailliaud was the first explorer to penetrate from the north so near to the equator; Browne had turned back at 16 degrees 10 minutes, Bruce at 11 degrees. To Cailliaud and Letorzec we owe many observations on latitude and longitude, some valuable remarks on the variation of the magnetic needle, and details of the climate, temperature, and nature of the soil, together with a most interesting collection of animals and botanical specimens. Lastly, the travellers made plans of all the monuments beyond the second cataract. [Illustration: The Second Cataract of the Nile.] The two Frenchmen had preluded their discoveries by an excursion to the oasis of Siwâh. At the end of 1819 they left Fayum with a few companions, and entered the Libyan desert. In fifteen days, and after a brush with the Arabs, they reached Siwâh, having on their way taken measurements of every part of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and determined, as Browne had done, its exact geographical position. A little later a military expedition was sent to this same oasis, in which Drovetti collected new and very valuable documents supplementing those obtained by Cailliaud and Letorzec. They afterwards visited successively the oasis of Falafre, never before explored by a European, that of Dakel, and Khargh, the chief place of the Theban oasis. The documents collected on this journey were sent to France, to the care of M. Jomard, who founded on them his work called "Voyage à l'Oasis de Siouah." [Illustration: Temple of Jupiter Ammon.] A few years later Edward Rüppell devoted seven or eight years to the exploration of Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan, and Abyssinia in 1824, he ascended the White Nile for more than sixty leagues above its mouth. Lastly, in 1836 to 1838, Joseph Russegger, superintendent of the Austrian mines, visited the lower portion of the course of the Bahr-el-Abiad. This official journey was followed by the important and successful surveys afterwards made by order of Mehemet Ali in the same regions. CHAPTER III. THE ORIENTAL SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT AND AMERICAN DISCOVERIES. The decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions, and the study of Assyrian remains up to 1840--Ancient Iran and the Avesta--The survey of India and the study of Hindustani--The exploration and measurement of the Himalaya mountains--The Arabian Peninsula--Syria and Palestine--Central Asia and Alexander von Humboldt--Pike at the sources of the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Red River--Major Long's two expeditions-- General Cass--Schoolcraft at the sources of the Mississippi--The exploration of New Mexico--Archæological expeditions in Central America--Scientific expeditions in Brazil--Spix and Martin--Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied--D'Orbigny and American man. Although the discoveries which we are now to relate are not strictly speaking geographical, they nevertheless throw such a new light on several early civilizations, and have done so much to extend the domain of history and ideas, that we are compelled to dedicate a few words to them. The reading of cuneiform inscriptions, and the decipherment of hieroglyphics are events so important in their results, they reveal to us so vast a number of facts hitherto unknown, or distorted in the more or less marvellous narratives of the ancient historians Diodorus, Ctesias, and Herodotus, that it is impossible to pass over scientific discoveries of such value in silence. Thanks to them, we form an intimate acquaintance with a whole world, with an extremely advanced civilization, with manners, habits, and customs differing essentially from our own. How strange it seems to hold in our hands the accounts of the steward of some great lord or governor of a province, or to read such romances as those of _Setna_ and the _Two Brothers_, or stories such as that of the _Predestined Prince_. Those buildings of vast proportions, those superb temples, magnificent hypogæa, and sculptured obelisks, were once nothing more to us than sumptuous monuments, but now that the inscriptions upon them have been read, they relate to us the life of the kings who built them, and the circumstances of their erection. How many names of races not mentioned by Greek historians, how many towns now lost, how many of the smallest details of the religion, art, and daily life, as well as of the political and military events of the past, are revealed to us by the hieroglyphic and cuneiform inscriptions. Not only do we now see into the daily life of these ancient peoples, of whom we had formerly but a very superficial knowledge, but we get an idea even of their literature. The day is perhaps not far distant when we shall know as much of the life of the Egyptians in the eighteenth century before Christ as that of our forefathers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of our own era. Carsten Niebuhr was the first to make and bring to Europe an exact and complete copy of inscriptions at Persepolis in an unknown character. Many attempts had been made to explain them, but all had been vain, until in 1802 Grotefend, the learned Hanoverian philologist, succeeded, by an inspiration of genius, in solving the mystery in which they were enveloped. Truly these cuneiform characters were strange and difficult to decipher! Imagine a collection of nails variously arranged, and forming groups horizontally placed. What did these groups signify? Did they represent sounds and articulations, or, like the letters of our alphabet, complete words? Had they the ideographic value of Chinese written characters? What was the language hidden in them? These were the problems to be solved! It appeared probable that the inscriptions brought from Persepolis were written in the language of the ancient Persians, but Rask, Bopp, and Lassen had not yet studied the Iranian idioms and proved their affinity with Sanskrit. It would be beyond our province to give an account of the ingenious deductions, the skilful guesses, and the patient groping through which Grotefend finally achieved the recognition of an alphabetic system of writing, and succeeded in separating from certain groups of words what he believed to be the names of Darius and Xerxes, thus attaining a knowledge of several letters, by means of which he made out other words. It is enough for us to say that the key was found by him, and to others was left the task of completing and perfecting his work. More than thirty years passed by, however, before any notable progress was made in these studies. It was our learned fellow-countryman Eugène Burnouf who gave them a decided impulse. Turning to account his knowledge of Sanskrit and Zend, he found that the language of the inscriptions of Persepolis was but a Zend dialect used in Bactriana, which was still spoken in the sixth century B.C., and in which the books of Zoroaster were written. Burnouf's pamphlet bears date 1836. At the same period Lassen, a German scholar of Bonn, came to the same conclusion on the same grounds. The inscriptions already discovered were soon all deciphered; and with the exception of a few signs, on the meaning of which scholars were not quite agreed, the entire alphabet became known. But the foundations alone were laid; the building was still far from finished. The Persepolitan inscriptions appeared to be repeated in three parallel columns. Might not this be a triple version of the same inscription in the three chief languages of the Achæmenian Empire, namely, the Persian, Median, and Assyrian or Babylonian. This guess proved correct; and owing to the decipherment of one of the inscriptions, a test was obtained, and the same plan was followed as that of Champollion with regard to the Rosetta stone, on which was the tri-lingual inscription in Greek, Demotic or Enchorial, and hieroglyphic characters. In the second and third inscriptions were recognized Syro-Chaldee, which, like Hebrew, Himyaric, and Arabic, belong to the Semitic group, and a third idiom, to which the name of Medic was given, resembling the dialects of the Turks and Tartars. But it would be presumptuous of us to enlarge upon these researches. That was to be the task of the Danish scholar Westergaard, of the Frenchmen De Saulcy and Oppert, and of the Englishmen Morris and Rawlinson, not to mention others less celebrated. We shall have to return to this subject later. The knowledge of Sanskrit, and the investigation of Brahmanic literature, had inaugurated a scientific movement which has gone on ever since with increasing energy. Long before Nineveh and Babylon were known as nations, a vast country, called Iran by orientalists, which included Persia, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan, was the scene of an advanced civilization, with which is connected the name of Zoroaster, who was at once a conqueror, a law-giver, and the founder of a religion. The disciples of Zoroaster, persecuted at the time of the Mohammedan conquest, and driven from their ancient home, where their mode of worship was still preserved, took refuge, under the name of Parsees, in the north-west of India. At the end of the last century, the Frenchman Aquetil Duperron brought to Europe an exact copy of the religious books of the Parsees, written in the language of Zoroaster. He translated them, and for sixty years all the _savants_ had found in them the source of all their religious and philological notions of Iran. These books are known under the name of the Zend-Avesta, a word which comprises the name of the language, _Zend_, and the title of the book, _Avesta_. As the knowledge of Sanskrit increased, however, that branch of science required to be studied afresh by the light of the new method. In 1826 the Danish philologist Rask, and later Eugène Burnouf, with his profound knowledge of Sanskrit, and by the help of a translation in that language recently discovered in India, turned once more to the study of the Zend. In 1834 Burnouf published a masterly treatise on the Yacna, which marked an epoch. From the resemblance between the archaic Sanskrit and the Zend came the recognition of the common origin of the two languages, and the relationship, or rather, the identity, of the races who speak them. Originally the names of the deities, the traditions, the generic appellation, that of Aryan, of the two peoples, are the same, to say nothing of the similarity of their customs. But it is needless to dwell on the importance of this discovery, which has thrown an entirely new light on the infancy of the human race, of which for so many centuries nothing was known. From the close of the eighteenth century, that is to say from the time when the English first obtained a secure footing in India, the physical study of the country was vigorously carried on, outstripping of course for a time that of the ethnology and kindred subjects, which require for their prosecution a more settled country and less exciting times. It must be owned, however, that knowledge of the races of the country to be controlled is as essential to the government as it is to commercial enterprise; and in 1801 Lord Wellesley, as Governor for the Company, recognizing the importance of securing a good map of the English territories, commissioned Brigadier William Lambton, to connect, by means of a trigonometrical survey, the eastern and western banks of the Indus with the observatory of Madras. Lambton was not content with the mere accomplishment of this task. He laid down with precision one arc of the meridian from Cape Comorin to the village of Takoor-Kera, fifteen miles south-east of Ellichpoor. The amplitude of this arc exceeded twelve degrees. With the aid of competent officers, amongst whom we must mention Colonel Everest, the Government of India would have hailed the completion of the task of its engineers long before 1840, if the successive annexation of new territories had not constantly added to the extent of ground to be covered. At about the same time with this progress in our knowledge of the geography of India an impulse was given to the study of the literature of India. In 1776 an extract from the most important native codes, then for the first time translated under the title of the Code of the Gentoos[1] was published in London. Nine years later the Asiatic Society was founded in Calcutta by Sir William Jones, the first who thoroughly mastered the Sanskrit language. In "Asiatic Researches," published by this society, were collected the results of all scientific investigations relating to India. In 1789, Jones published his translation of the drama of S'akuntala, that charming specimen of Hindu literature, so full of feeling and refinement. Sanskrit grammars and dictionaries were now multiplied, and a regular rivalry was set on foot in British India, which would undoubtedly soon have spread to Europe, had not the continental blockade prevented the introduction of works published abroad. At this time an Englishman named Hamilton, a prisoner of war in Paris, studied the Oriental MSS. in the library of the French capital, and taught Frederick Schlegel the rudiments of Sanskrit, which it was no longer necessary to go to India to learn. [Footnote 1: Gentoo was the name given by old English writers to the natives of Hindustan, and is now obsolete, having been superseded by that of Hindoo.--_Trans._] Lassen was Schlegel's pupil, and together they studied the literature and antiquities of India, examining, translating, and publishing the original texts; whilst at the same time Franz Bopp devoted himself to the study of the language, making his grammars accessible to all, and coming to the conclusion which was then startling, although it is now generally accepted, of the common origin of the Indo-European languages. It was proved that the Vedas, that collection of sacred writings held in too universal veneration to be tampered with, were written in a very ancient and very pure idiom which had not been revived, and whose close resemblance with the Zend, put back the date of the composition of the books beyond the time of the separation of the Aryan family into two branches. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, dating from the Brahminical or the period succeeding that of the Vedas, were next studied, together with the Puranas. Owing to a profounder knowledge of the language and a more intimate acquaintance with the mythology of the Hindus, scholars were able to fix approximately the date of the composition of these poems, to ascertain the numberless interpolations, and to extract everything of actual historical or geographical value from those marvellous allegories. The result of these patient and minute investigations was a conviction that the Celtic, Greek, Latin, Germanic, Slave, and Persian languages had one common parent, and that parent none other than Sanskrit. If, then, their language was the same, it followed as a matter of course that the people had been also identical. The differences now existing between these various idioms are accounted for by the successive breakings up of the primitive people, approximate dates enable us to realize the greater or less affinity of those languages with the Sanskrit, and the nature of the words which they have borrowed from it, words corresponding by their nature to the different degrees of advance in civilization. Moreover a very clear and definite notion was obtained of the kind of life led by the founders of the Indo-European race, and the changes brought about in it by the progress of civilization. The Vedas give us a picture of the Aryan race before it migrated to India, and occupied the Punjab and Cabulistan. By the aid of these poems we can look on at struggles against the primitive races of Hindustan; whose resistance was all the more desperate in that the conqueror, of their caste divisions, left them only the lowest and most degraded. Thanks to the Vedas we can realize every detail of the pastoral and patriarchal life of the Aryans, a life so domestic and unruffled, that we mentally ask ourselves whether the eager strife of the modern peoples is not a poor exchange for the peaceful existence which their few wants secured to their forefathers. We cannot dwell longer on this subject, but the little that we have said will be enough to show the reader the importance to history, ethnography, and philology, of the study of Sanskrit. For further details we refer him to the special works of Orientalists and to the excellent historical manuals of Robiou, Lenormant, and Maspero. All the scientific results of whatever kind obtained up to 1820 are also skilfully and impartially summed up in Walter Hamilton's large work, "A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindustan, and the neighbouring Countries." This is a book which, by recording the various stages of scientific progress, marks with accuracy the point reached at any given epoch. After this brief review of the labours of scholars in reference to the intellectual and social life of the Hindus, we must turn to those studies whose aim was a knowledge of the physical character of the country. One of the most surprising results obtained by the travels of Webb and Moorcroft was the extraordinary height attributed by them to the Himalaya mountains. According to them their elevation exceeded that of the loftiest summits of the Andes. Colonel Colebrook had estimated the average height of the chain at 22,000 feet, and even this would appear to be less than the reality. Webb measured Yamunavatri, one of the most remarkable peaks of the chain, and estimated its height above the level of the plateau from which it rises as 20,000 feet, whilst the plateau in its turn is 5000 feet above the plain. Not satisfied, however, with what he looked upon as too perfunctory an estimate, he measured, with all possible mathematical accuracy, the Dewalagiri or White Mountain, and ascertained its height to be no less than 27,500 feet. The most remarkable feature of the Himalaya chain is the succession of these mountains, the ranges of heights rising one above the other. This gives a far more vivid impression of their loftiness than would one isolated peak rising from a plain and with its head lost among the clouds. The calculations of Webb and Colebrook, were soon verified by the mathematical observations of Colonel Crawford, who measured eight of the highest peaks of the Himalayas. According to him the loftiest of all was Chumulari, situated near the frontiers of Bhoutan and Thibet, which attains to a height of 30,000 feet above the sea-level. Results such as these, confirmed by the agreement of so many observers, who could not surely all be wrong, took the scientific world by surprise. The chief objection urged was the fact that the snow-line must in these districts be something like 30,000 feet above the sea-level. It appeared, therefore, impossible to believe the assertion of all the explorers, that the Himalayas were covered with forests of gigantic pines. Finally, however, actual personal observation upset theory. In a second journey, Webb climbed the Niti-Ghaut, the loftiest peak in the world, the height of which he fixed at 16,814 feet, and not only did he find no snow, but even the rocks rising 300 feet above it were quite free from snow in summer. Moreover, the steep sides, where breathing was difficult, were clothed with magnificent forests of tapering pines, and firs, and wide-spreading cypress and cedar-trees. "The high limits of perpetual snow on the Himalaya mountains," says Desborough Cooley, "are justly ascribed by Mr. Webb to the great elevation of the table-land or terrace from which these mountain peaks spring. As the heat of our atmosphere is derived chiefly from the radiation of the earth's surface, it follows that the temperature of any elevated point must be modified in a very important degree by the proximity and extent of the surrounding plains. These observations seem satisfactorily to refute the objections made by certain savants respecting the great height of the Himalaya mountains, which may be, therefore, safely pronounced to be the loftiest mountain chain on the surface of the globe." We must now refer briefly to an expedition in the latitudes already visited by Webb and Moorcroft. The traveller Fraser, with neither the necessary instruments nor knowledge for measuring the lofty peaks he ascended, was endowed with a great power of observation, and his account of his journey is full of interest, and here and there very amusing. He visited the source of the Jumna, and, at a height of more than 25,000 feet, he found numerous villages picturesquely perched on slopes carpetted with snow. He then made his way to Gangoutri, in spite of the opposition of his guides, who represented the road thither as extremely dangerous, declaring that it was swept by a pestilential wind which would deprive any traveller, who ventured to expose himself to it, of his senses. The explorer, however, was more than rewarded for all his dangers and fatigues by the enjoyment he derived from the grandeur and magnificence of the views he obtained. [Illustration: "Villages picturesquely perched."] "There is that," says Desborough Cooley in reference to Fraser's journey, "in the appearance of the Himalaya range, which every person who has seen them will allow to be peculiarly their own. No other mountains that I have ever seen bear any resemblance to their character; their summits shoot in the most fantastic and spiring peaks to a height that astonishes, and, when viewed from an elevated situation, almost induce the belief of an ocular deception." We must now leave the peninsula of the Ganges for that of Arabia, where we have to record the result of several interesting journeys. That of Captain Sadler of the Indian army, claims the first rank. Sent by the Governor of Bombay in 1819, on an embassy to Ibrahim Pacha, who was then at war with the Wahabees, that officer crossed the entire peninsula from Port El Katif on the Persian Gulf to Yambo on the Red Sea. Unfortunately the interesting account of this crossing of Arabia, never before accomplished by a European, has not been separately published, but is buried in a book which it is almost impossible to obtain, "The Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay." At about the same time, 1821-1826, the English Government commissioned Captains Moresby and Haines, of the naval service, to make hydrographical surveys with a view to obtaining a complete chart of the coasts of Arabia. These surveys were to be the foundation of the first trustworthy map of the Arabian peninsula. We have now only to mention the two expeditions of the French naturalists, Aucher Eloy in the country of Oman, and Emile Botta in Yemen, and to refer to the labours in reference to the idioms and antiquities of Arabia of the French consul at Djedda, Fulgence Fresnel. He was the first, in his letters on the history of the Arabs before Islamism, published in 1836, to explain the Himyarite or Homeric language and to recognize that it resembles rather the early Hebrew and Syriac dialects, than the Arabic of the present day. At the beginning of this volume we spoke of the explorations and archæological and historical researches of Seetzen and Burckhardt in Syria and Palestine. We have still to say a few words on an expedition the results of which were entirely geographical. We refer to the journey of the Bavarian naturalist Heinrich Schubert. Schubert was a devout Catholic and an enthusiastic student, and the melancholy scenery of the Holy Land with its wonderful legends, and the lovely banks of the mysterious Nile with its historic memories, had for him an extraordinary fascination. In his account of his journey we find the deep impressions of the believer combined with the scientific observations of the naturalist. In 1837, Schubert, having crossed Lower Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, entered the Holy Land. The learned Bavarian pilgrim was accompanied by two friends, Dr. Erdl and Martin Bernatz, a painter. The travellers landed at El Akabah on the Red Sea, and went with a small Arab caravan to El Khalil, the ancient Hebron. The route they followed had never before been trodden by a European. It led through a wide, flat valley terminating at the Dead Sea; a valley through which the waters of the Dead Sea were supposed at one time to have flowed towards the Red Sea. This hypothesis was shared by Burckhardt and many others who had only seen the district from a distance, and who attributed the cessation of the drainage to an upheaval of the soil. The heights, as taken by the travellers, showed this hypothesis to be altogether erroneous. In fact from the lower end of the Persian Gulf the country presents a continuous ascent for two or three days' march to the point called by the Arabs the Saddle, from thence it begins to sink and slopes down towards the Dead Sea. The Saddle is about 2100 feet above the sea-level, at least that was the estimate given a year later by Count Bertou, a Frenchman, who visited those localities at that time. On their way down to the Bituminous Lake, Schubert and his companions took some other barometrical observations, and were very much surprised to find their instrument marking ninety-one feet _below_ the Red Sea, the levels gradually decreasing in height as they advanced. At first they thought there must be some mistake, but finally, the evidence was too strong for them, and it became proved beyond a doubt that the Dead Sea could never have emptied its waters into the Red Sea for the very excellent reason that the level of the former is very much lower than that of the latter. The depression of the Dead Sea is very much more noticeable when Jericho is approached from Jerusalem. In that case the way lies through a long valley with a very rapid slope, all the more remarkable as the hilly plains of Judea, Peræ, and El Harran are very lofty, the latter rising to a height of nearly 3000 feet above the sea-level. The appearance of the country and the testimony of the instruments were in such contradiction to the prevalent belief, that Messrs. Erdl and Schubert were very unwilling to accept the results obtained, which they attributed to their barometer being out of order and to a sudden disturbance of the atmosphere. But on their way back to Jerusalem the barometer returned to the mean height it had registered before they started for Jericho. There was nothing for it then but to admit, whether they liked it or not, that the Dead Sea was at least 600 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, an estimate, as later researches showed, which fell one-half short of the truth. This, it will be admitted, was a fortunate rectification, which would have considerable influence, by calling the attention of _savants_ to a phenomenon which was soon to be verified by other explorers. At the same time, the survey of the basin of the Dead Sea was completed and rectified. In 1838, two American Missionaries, Edward Robinson and Eli Smith, gave quite a new impulse to Biblical geography. They were the forerunners of that phalanx of naturalists, historians, archæologists, and engineers, who, under the patronage or in conjunction with the English Exploration Society, were soon to explore the land of the patriarchs from end to end, making maps of it, and achieving discoveries which threw a new light on the history of the ancient peoples who, by turns, were possessors of this corner of the Mediterranean basin. But it was not only the Holy Land, so interesting on account of the many associations it has for every Christian, which was the scene of the researches of scholars and explorers; Asia Minor was also soon to yield up her treasures to the curiosity of the learned world. That country was visited by travellers in every direction. Parrot visited Armenia; Dubois de Monpereux traversed the Caucasus in 1839. In 1825 and 1826, Eichwald explored the shores of the Caspian Sea; and lastly, Alexander von Humboldt at the expense of the generous Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, supplemented his intrepid work as a discoverer in the New World by an exploration of Western Asia and the Ural Mountains. Accompanied by the mineralogist Gustave Rose, the naturalist Ehrenberg, well known for his travels in Upper Egypt and Nubia, and Baron von Helmersen, an officer of engineers, Humboldt travelled through Siberia, visited the gold and platinum mines of the Ural Mountains, and explored the Caspian steppes and the Altai chain to the frontiers of China. These learned men divided the work, Humboldt taking astronomical, magnetic, and physical observations, and examining the flora and fauna of the country, while Rose kept the journal of the expedition, which he published in German between 1837 and 1842. Although the explorers travelled very rapidly, at the rate of no less than 11,500 miles in nine months, the scientific results of their journey were considerable. In a first publication which appeared in Paris in 1838, Humboldt treated only the climatology and geology of Asia, but this fragmentary account was succeeded in 1843 by his great work called "Central Asia." "In this," says La Roquette, "he has laid down and systematized the principal scientific results of his expedition in Asia, and has recorded some ingenious speculation as to the shape of the continents and the configuration of the mountains of Tartary, giving special attention to the vast depression which stretches from the north of Europe to the centre of Asia beyond the Caspian Sea and the Ural River." We must now leave Asia and pass in review the various expeditions in the New World, which have been sent out in succession since the beginning of the present century. In 1807, when Lewis and Clarke were crossing North America from the United States to the Pacific Ocean, the Government commissioned a young officer, Lieutenant Zabulon Montgomery Pike, to examine the sources of the Mississippi. He was at the same time to endeavour to open friendly relations with any Indians he might meet. [Illustration: Map of the Missouri.] Pike was well received by the Chief of the powerful Sioux nation and presented with the pipe of peace, a talisman which secured to him the protection of the allied tribes; he ascended the Mississippi, passing the mouths of the Chippeway and St. Peter, important tributaries of that great river. But beyond the confluence of the St. Peter with the Mississippi as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, the course of the main river is impeded by an uninterrupted series of falls and rapids. A little below the 45th parallel of North latitude, Pike and his companions had to leave their canoes and continue their journey in sledges. To the severity of a bitter winter were soon added the tortures of hunger. Nothing, however, checked the intrepid explorers, who continued to follow the Mississippi, now dwindled down to a stream only 300 roods wide, and arrived in February at Leech Lake, where they were received with enthusiasm at the camp of some trappers and fur hunters from Montreal. [Illustration: Circassians. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] After visiting Red Cedar Lake, Pike returned to St. Louis. His arduous and perilous journey had extended over no less than nine months; and although he had not attained its main object, it was not without scientific results. The skill, presence of mind, and courage of Pike were recognized, and the government soon afterwards conferred on him the rank of major, and appointed him to the command of a fresh expedition. This time he was to explore the vast tract of country between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, and to discover the sources of the Arkansas and Red River. With twenty-three companions Pike ascended the Arkansas, a fine river navigable to the mountains in which it rises, that is to say for a distance of 2000 miles, except in the summer, when its bed is encumbered with sand-banks. On this long voyage, winter, from which Pike had suffered so much on his previous trip, set in with redoubled vigour. Game was so scarce that for four days the explorers were without food. The feet of several men were frostbitten, and this misfortune added to the fatigue of the others. The major, after reaching the source of the Arkansas, pursued a southerly direction and soon came to a fine stream which he took for the Red River. This was the Rio del Norte, which rises in Colorado, then a Spanish province, and flows into the Gulf of Mexico. From what has been already said of the difficulties which Humboldt encountered before he obtained permission to enter the Spanish possessions in America, we may judge with what jealous suspicion the arrival of strangers in Colorado was regarded. Pike was surrounded by a detachment of Spanish soldiers, made prisoner with all his men, and taken to Santa Fé. Their ragged garments, emaciated forms, and generally miserable appearance did not speak much in their favour, and the Spaniards at first took the Americans for savages. However, when the mistake was recognized, they were escorted across the inland provinces to Louisiana, arriving at Natchitoches on the 1st July, 1807. The unfortunate end of this expedition cooled the zeal of the government, but not that of private persons, merchants, and hunters, whose numbers were continually on the increase. Many even completely crossed the American continent from Canada to the Pacific. Amongst these travellers we must mention Daniel William Harmon, a member of the North-West Company, who visited Lakes Huron and Superior, Rainy Lake, the Lake of the Woods, Manitoba, Winnipeg, Athabasca, and the Great Bear Lake, all between N. lat. 47 degrees and 58 degrees, and reached the shores of the Pacific. The fur company established at Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia also did much towards the exploration of the Rocky Mountains. Four associates of that company, leaving Astoria in June, 1812, ascended the Columbia, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and following an east-south-east direction, reached one of the sources of the Platte, descended it to its junction with the Missouri, crossed a district never before explored, and arrived at St. Louis on the 30th May, 1813. In 1811, another expedition composed of sixty men, started from St. Louis and ascended the Missouri as far as the settlements of the Ricara Indians, whence they made their way to Astoria, arriving there at the beginning of 1812, after the loss of several men and great suffering from fatigue and want of food. These journeys resulted not only in the increase of our knowledge of the topography of the districts traversed, but they also brought about quite unexpected discoveries. In the Ohio valley between Illinois and Mexico for instance, were found ruins, fortifications, and entrenchments, with ditches and a kind of bastion, many of them covering five or six acres of ground. What people can have constructed works such as these, which denote a civilization greatly in advance of that of the Indians, is a difficult problem of which no solution has yet been found. Philologists and historians were already regretting the dying out of the Indian tribes, who, until then, had been only superficially observed, and lamenting their extinction before their languages had been studied. A knowledge of these languages and their comparison with those of the old world, might have thrown some unexpected light upon the origin of the wandering tribes.[2] [Footnote 2: The author has evidently not seen Bancroft's "Native Races of the Pacific," an exhaustive work in five volumes, published at New York and San Francisco a few years ago, and which embodies the researches of a number of gentlemen, who collected their information on the spot, and whose contributions to our knowledge of the past and present life of the Indians should certainly not be ignored.--_Trans._] Simultaneously with the discovery of the ruins the flora and geology of the country began to be studied, and in the latter science great surprises were in store for future explorers. It was so important for the American government to proceed rapidly to reconnoitre the vast territories between the United States and the Pacific, that another expedition was speedily sent out. In 1819, the military authorities commissioned Major Long to explore the districts between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, to trace the course of the Missouri and of its principal tributaries, to fix the latitude and longitude of the chief places, to study the ways of the Indian tribes, in fact to describe everything interesting either in the aspect of the country or in its animal, vegetable, and mineral productions. Leaving Pittsburgh on the 5th March, 1819, on board the steamship _Western Engineer_, the expedition arrived in May of the following year at the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, and ascended the latter river as far as St. Louis. On the 29th June, the mouth of the Missouri was reached. During the month of July, Mr. Say, who was charged with the zoological observations, made his way by land to Fort Osage, where he was joined by the steamer. Major Long turned his stay at Fort Osage to account by sending a party to examine the districts between the Kansas and the Platte, but this party was attacked, robbed, and compelled to turn back after losing all their horses. After obtaining at Cow Island a reinforcement of fifteen soldiers, the expedition reached Fort Lisa, near Council Bluff, on the 19th September. There it was decided to winter. The Americans suffered greatly from scurvy, and having no medicines to check the terrible disorder, they lost 100 men, nearly a third of the whole party. Major Long, who had meanwhile reached Washington in a canoe, brought back orders for the discontinuation of the voyage up the Missouri, and for a journey overland to the sources of the Platte, whence the Mississippi was to be reached by way of the Arkansas and Red River. On the 6th June, the explorers left Engineer's Fort, as they called their winter quarters, and ascended the Platte Valley for more than a hundred miles, its grassy plains, frequented by vast herds of bisons and deer, supplying them with plenty of provisions. Those boundless prairies, whose monotony is unbroken by a single hillock, were succeeded by a sandy desert gradually sloping up, for a distance of nearly four hundred miles, to the Rocky Mountains. This desert, broken by precipitous ravines, _cañons_, and gorges, at the bottom of which gurgles some insignificant stream, its banks clothed with stunted and meagre vegetation, produces nothing but cacti with sharp and formidable prickles. On the 6th July, the expedition reached the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Dr. James scaled one of the peaks, to which he gave his own name, and which rises to a height of 11,500 feet above the sea level. "From the summit of the peak," says the botanist, "the view towards the north, west, and south-west, is diversified with innumerable mountains all white with snow, and on some of the more distant it appears to extend down to their bases. Immediately under our feet on the west, lay the narrow valley of the Arkansas; which we could trace running towards the north-west, probably more than sixty miles. On the north side of the peak was an immense mass of snow and ice.... To the east lay the great plain, rising as it receded, until, in the distant horizon, it appeared to mingle with the sky." Here the expedition was divided into two parties, one, under the command of Major Long, to make its way to the sources of the Red River, the other, under Captain Bell, to go down the Arkansas as far as Port Smith. The two detachments separated on the 24th July. The former, misled by the statements of the Kaskaia Indians and the inaccuracy of the maps, took the Canadian for the Red River, and did not discover their mistake until they reached its junction with the Arkansas. The Kaskaias were the most miserable of savages, but intrepid horsemen, excelling in lassoing the wild mustangs which are descendants of the horses imported into Mexico by the Spanish conquerors. The second detachment was deserted by four soldiers, who carried off the journals of Say and Lieutenant Swift with a number of other valuable effects. Both parties also suffered from want of provisions in the sandy deserts, whose streams yield nothing but brackish and muddy water. The expedition brought to Washington sixty skins of wild animals, several thousands of insects, including five hundred new species, four or five hundred specimens of hitherto unknown plants, numerous views of the scenery, and the materials for a map of the districts traversed. [Illustration: "Excelling in lassoing the wild mustangs."] The command of another expedition was given in 1828 to Major Long, whose services were thoroughly appreciated. Leaving Philadelphia in April, he embarked on the Ohio, and crossed the state of the same name, and those of Indiana and Illinois. Having reached the Mississippi, he ascended that river to the mouth of the St. Peter, formerly visited by Carver, and later by Baron La Hontan. Long followed the St. Peter to its source, passing Crooked Lake and reaching Lake Winnipeg, whence he explored the river of the same name, obtained a sight of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake, and arrived at the plateau which separates the Hudson's Bay valley from that of the St. Lawrence. Lastly, he went to Lake Superior by way of Cold Water Lake and Dog River. Although all these districts had been constantly traversed by Canadian pathfinders, trappers, and hunters for many years previously, it was the first time an official expedition had visited them with a view to the laying down of a map. The explorers were struck with the beauty of the neighbourhood watered by the Winnipeg. That river, whose course is frequently broken by picturesque rapids and waterfalls, flows between two perpendicular granite walls crowned with verdure. The beauty of the scenery, succeeding as it did to the monotony of the plains and savannahs they had previously traversed, filled the explorers with admiration. The exploration of the Mississippi, which had been neglected since Pike's expedition, was resumed in 1820 by General Cass, Governor of Michigan. Leaving Detroit at the end of May with twenty men trained to the work of pathfinders, he reached the Upper Mississippi, after visiting Lakes Huron, Superior, and Sandy. His exhausted escort halted to rest whilst he continued the examination of the river in a canoe. For 150 miles the course of the Mississippi is rapid and uninterrupted, but beyond that distance begins a series of rapids extending over twelve miles to the Peckgama Falls. Above this cataract the stream, now far less rapid, winds through vast savannahs to Leech Lake. Having reached Lake Winnipeg, Cass arrived on the 21st July at a new lake, to which he gave his own name, but he did not care to push on further with his small party of men and inadequate supply of provisions and ammunition. The source of the Mississippi had been approached, but not reached. The general opinion was that the river took its rise in a small sheet of water known as Deer Lake, sixty miles from Cass Lake. Not until 1832, however, when General Cass was Secretary of State for war, was this important problem solved. The command of an expedition was then given to a traveller named Schoolcraft, who had in the previous year explored the Chippeway country, north-west of Lake Superior. His party consisted of six soldiers, an officer qualified to conduct hydrographic surveys, a surgeon, a geologist, an interpreter, and a missionary. Schoolcraft left St. Marie on the 7th June, 1832, visited the tribes living about Lake Superior, and was soon on the St. Louis river. He was then 150 miles from the Mississippi, and was told that it would take him no less than ten days to reach the great river, on account of the rapids and shallows. On the 3rd July, the expedition reached the factory of a trader named Aitkin, on the banks of the river, and there celebrated on the following day the anniversary of the independence of the United States. Two days later Schoolcraft found himself opposite the Peckgama Falls, and encamped at Oak Point. Here the river winds a great deal amongst savannahs, but guides led the party by paths which greatly shortened the distance. Lake Winnipeg was then crossed, and on the 10th July, Schoolcraft arrived at Lake Cass, the furthest point reached by his predecessors. [Illustration: Map of the sources of the Mississippi, 1836.] A party of Chippeway Indians led the explorers to their settlement on an island in the river. The friendliness of the natives led Cass to leave part of his escort with them, and, accompanied by Lieutenant Allen, the surgeon Houghton, a missionary, and several Indians, he started in a canoe. Lakes Tasodiac and Crooked were visited in turn. A little beyond the latter, the Mississippi divides into two branches or forks. The guide took Schoolcraft up the eastern, and after crossing Lakes Marquette, La Salle, and Kubbakanna, he came to the mouth of the Naiwa, the chief tributary of this branch of the Mississippi. Finally, after passing the little lake called Usawa, the expedition reached Lake Itasca, whence issues the Itascan, or western branch of the Mississippi. Lake Itasca, or Deer Lake, as the French call it, is only seven or eight miles in extent, and is surrounded by hills clothed with dark pine woods. According to Schoolcraft it is some 1500 feet above the sea level; but we must not attach too much importance to this estimate, as the leader of the expedition had no instruments. On their way back to Lake Cass, the party followed the western branch, identifying its chief tributaries. Schoolcraft then studied the ways of the Indians frequenting these districts, and made treaties with them. To sum up, the aim of the government was achieved, and the Mississippi had been explored from its mouth to its source. The expedition had collected a vast number of interesting details on the manners, customs, history, and language of the people, as well as numerous new or little known species of flora and fauna. The people of the United States were not content with these official expeditions, and numbers of trappers threw themselves into the new districts. Most of them being however absolutely illiterate, they could not turn their discoveries to scientific account. But this was not the case with James Pattie, who has published an account of his romantic adventures and perilous trips in the district between New Mexico and New California. On his way down the River Gila to its mouth, Pattie visited races then all but unknown, including the Yotans, Eiotaws, Papawans, Mokees, Umeas, Mohawas, and Nabahoes, with whom but very little intercourse had yet been held. On the banks of the Rio Eiotario he discovered ruins of ancient monuments, stone walls, moats, and potteries, and in the neighbouring mountains he found copper, lead, and silver mines. We owe a curious travelling journal also to Doctor Willard, who, during a stay of three years in Mexico, explored the Rio del Norte from its source to its mouth. Lastly, in 1831 Captain Wyeth and his brother explored Oregon, and the neighbouring districts of the Rocky Mountains. After Humboldt's journey in Mexico, one explorer succeeded another in Central America. In 1787, Bernasconi discovered the now famous ruins of Palenque. In 1822, Antonio del Rio gave a detailed description of them, illustrated with drawings by Frederick Waldeck, the future explorer of Palenque, that city of the dead. Between 1805 and 1807, three journeys were successively taken in the province of Chiapa and to Palenque by Captain William Dupaix and the draughtsman Castañeda, and the result of their researches appeared in 1830 in the form of a magnificent work, with illustrations by Augustine Aglio, executed at the expense of Lord Kingsborough. Lastly, Waldeck spent the years 1832 and 1833 at Palenque, searching the ruins, making plans, sections, and elevations of the monuments, trying to decipher the hitherto unexplained hieroglyphics with which they are covered, and collecting a vast amount of quite new information alike on the natural history of the country and the manners and customs of the inhabitants. We must also name Don Juan Galindo, a Spanish colonel, who explored Palenque, Utatlan, Copan, and other cities buried in the heart of tropical forests. [Illustration: View of the Pyramid of Xochicalco. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] After the long stay made by Humboldt in equinoctial America, the impulse his explorations would doubtless otherwise have given to geographical science was strangely checked by the struggle of the Spanish colonies with the mother country. As soon, however, as the native governments attained to at least a semblance of stability, intrepid explorers rushed to examine this world, so new in the truest sense, for the jealousy of the Spanish had hitherto kept it closed to the investigations of scientific men. Many naturalists and engineers now travelled or settled in South America. Soon indeed, that is in 1817-1820, the Austrian and Bavarian Governments sent out a scientific expedition, to the command of which they appointed Doctors Spix and Martins, who collected a great deal of information on the botany, ethnography, and geography of these hitherto little known districts--Martins publishing, at the expense of the Austrian and Bavarian governments, a most important work on the flora of the country, which may be looked upon as a model of its kind. At the same time the editors of special publications, such as Malte Brun's _Annales des Voyages_ and the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_, cordially accepted and published all the communications addressed to them, including many on Brazil and the province of Minas Geraës. About this period too a Prussian Major-General, the Prince of Wied-Neuwied, who had been at leisure since the peace of 1815, devoted himself to the study of natural science, geography, and history, undertaking moreover, in company with the naturalists Freirciss and Sellow, an exploring expedition in the interior of Brazil, having special reference to its flora and fauna. A few years later, i.e. in 1836, the French naturalist Alcide d'Orbigny, who had won celebrity at a very early age, was appointed by the governing body of the Museum to the command of an expedition to South America, the special object of which was the study of the natural history of the country. For eight consecutive years D'Orbigny wandered about Brazil, Uruguay, the Argentine Republic, Patagonia, Chili, Bolivia, and Peru. "Such a journey," says Dumour in his funeral oration on D'Orbigny, "in countries so different in their productions, climate, the character of their soil, and the manners and customs of their inhabitants, was necessarily full of ever fresh perils. D'Orbigny, endowed with a strong constitution and untiring energy, overcame obstacles which would have daunted most travellers. On his arrival in the cold regions of Patagonia, amongst savage races constantly at war with each other, he found himself compelled to take part, and to fight in the ranks of a tribe which had received him hospitably. Fortunately for the intrepid student his side was victorious, and he was left free to proceed on his journey." It took thirteen years of the hardest work to put together the results of D'Orbigny's extensive researches. His book, which embraces nearly every branch of science, leaves far behind it all that had ever before been published on South America. History, archæology, zoology, and botany all hold honoured positions in it; but the most important part of this encyclopædic work is that relating to American man. In it the author embodies all the documents he himself collected, and analyzes and criticizes those which came to him at second hand, on physiological types, and on the manners, languages, and religions of South America. A work of such value ought to immortalize the name of the French scholar, and reflect the greatest honour on the nation which gave him birth. END OF THE FIRST PART. PART II. CHAPTER I. VOYAGES ROUND THE WORLD, AND POLAR EXPEDITIONS. The Russian fur trade--Kruzenstern appointed to the command of an expedition--Noukha-Hiva--Nangasaki--Reconnaisance of the coast of Japan--Yezo--The Ainos--Saghalien--Return to Europe--Otto von Kotzebue--Stay at Easter Island--Penrhyn--The Radak Archipelago--Return to Russia--Changes at Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands--Beechey's Voyage--Easter Island--Pitcairn and the mutineers of the _Bounty_--The Paumoto Islands--Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands--The Bonin Islands--Lütke--The Quebradas of Valparaiso--Holy week in Chili--New Archangel--The Kaloches--Ounalashka--The Caroline Archipelago--The canoes of the Caroline Islanders--Guam, a desert island--Beauty and happy situation of the Bonin Islands--The Tchouktchees: their manners and their conjurors--Return to Russia. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Russians for the first time took part in voyages round the world, Until that time their explorations had been almost entirely confined to Asia, and their only mariners of note were Behring, Tchirikoff, Spangberg, Laxman, Krenitzin, and Saryscheff. The last-named took an important part in the voyage of the Englishman Billings, a voyage by the way which was far from achieving all that might have been fairly expected from the ten years it occupied and the vast sums it cost. Adam John von Kruzenstern was the first Russian to whom is due the honour of having made a voyage round the world under government auspices and with a scientific purpose. Born in 1770, Kruzenstern entered the English navy in 1793. After six years' training in the stern school which then numbered amongst its leaders the most skilful sailors of the world, he returned to his native land with a profound knowledge of his profession, and with his ideas of the part Russia might play in Eastern Asia very considerably widened. During a stay of two years at Canton, in 1798 and 1799, Kruzenstern had been witness of the extraordinary results achieved by some English fur traders, who brought their merchandise from the northwest coasts of Russian America. This trade had not come into existence until after Cook's third voyage, and the English had already realized immense sums, at the cost of the Russians, who had hitherto sent their furs to the Chinese markets overland. In 1785, however, a Russian named Chelikoff founded a fur-trading colony on Kodiak Island, at about an equal distance from Kamtchatka and the Aleutian Islands, which rapidly became a flourishing community. The Russian government now recognized the resources of districts it had hitherto considered barren, and reinforcements, provisions, and stores were sent to Kamtchatka via Siberia. Kruzenstern quickly realized how inadequate to the new state of things was help such as this, the ignorance of the pilots and the errors in the maps leading to the loss of several vessels every year, not to speak of the injury to trade involved in a two years' voyage for the transport of furs, first to Okhotsk, and thence to Kiakhta. As the best plans are always the simplest they are sure to be the last to be thought of, and Kruzenstern was the first to point out the imperative necessity of going direct by sea from the Aleutian Islands to Canton, the most frequented market. On his return to Russia, Kruzenstern tried to win over to his views Count Kuscheleff, the Minister of Marine, but the answer he received destroyed all hope. Not until the accession of Alexander I., when Admiral Mordinoff became head of the naval department, did he receive any encouragement. Acting on Count Romanoff's advice, the Russian Emperor soon commissioned Kruzenstern to carry out the plan he had himself proposed; and on the 7th August, 1802, he was appointed to the command of two vessels for the exploration of the north-west coast of America. Although the leader of the expedition was named, the officers and seamen were still to be selected, and the vessels to be manned were not to be had in either the Russian empire or at Hamburg. In London alone were Lisianskoï, afterwards second in command to Kruzenstern, and the builder Kasoumoff, able to obtain two vessels at all suitable to the service in which they were to be employed. These two vessels received the names of the _Nadiejeda_ and the _Neva_. In the meantime, the Russian government decided to avail itself of this opportunity to send M. de Besanoff to Japan as ambassador, with a numerous suite, and magnificent presents for the sovereign of the country. On the 4th August, 1803, the two vessels, completely equipped, and carrying 134 persons, left the roadstead of Cronstadt. Flying visits were paid to Copenhagen and Falmouth, with a view to replacing some of the salt provisions bought at Hamburg, and to caulk the _Nadiejeda_, the seams of which had started in a violent storm encountered in the North Sea. After a short stay at the Canary Islands, Kruzenstern hunted in vain, as La Pérouse had done before him, for the Island of Ascension, as to the existence of which opinion had been divided for some three hundred years. He then rounded Cape Frio, the position of which he was unable exactly to determine although he was most anxious to do so, the accounts of earlier travellers and the maps hitherto laid down varying from 23 degrees 6 minutes to 22 degrees 34 minutes. A reconnaissance of the coast of Brazil was succeeded by a sail through the passage between the islands of Gal and Alvaredo, unjustly characterized as dangerous by La Pérouse, and on the 21st December, 1803, St. Catherine was reached. The necessity for replacing the main and mizzen masts of the _Neva_ detained Kruzenstern for five weeks on this island, where he was most cordially received by the Portuguese authorities. On the 4th February, the two vessels were able to resume their voyage, prepared to face all the dangers of the South Sea, and to double Cape Horn, that bugbear of all navigators. As far as Staten Island the weather was uniformly fine, but beyond it the explorers had to contend with extremely violent gales, storms of hail and snow, dense fogs, huge waves, and a swell in which the vessels laboured heavily. On the 24th March, the ships lost sight of each other in a dense fog a little above the western entrance to the Straits of Magellan. They did not meet again until both reached Noukha-Hiva. Kruzenstern having given up all idea of touching at Easter Island, now made for the Marquesas, or Mendoza Archipelago, and determined the position of Fatongou and Udhugu Islands, called Washington by the American Captain Ingraham, who discovered them in 1791, a few weeks before Captain Marchand, who named them Revolution Islands. Kruzenstern also saw Hiva-Hoa, the Dominica of Mendaña, and at Noukha-Hiva met an Englishman named Roberts, and a Frenchman named Cabritt, whose knowledge of the language was of great service to him. The incidents of the stay in the Marquesas Archipelago are of little interest, they were much the same as those related in Cook's Voyages. The total, but at the same time utterly unconscious immodesty of the women, the extensive agricultural knowledge of the natives, and their greed of iron instruments, are commented upon in both narratives. Nothing is noticed in the later which is not to be found in the earlier narrative, if we except some remarks on the existence of numerous societies of which the king or his relations, priests, or celebrated warriors, are the chiefs, and the aim of which is the providing of the people with food in times of scarcity. In our opinion these societies resemble the clans of Scotland or the Indian tribes of America. Kruzenstern, however, does not agree with us, as the following quotation will show. "The members of these clubs are distinguished by different tattooed marks upon their bodies; those of the king's club, consisting of twenty-six members, have a square one on their breasts about six inches long and four wide, and to this company Roberts belonged. The companions of the Frenchman, Joseph Cabritt, were marked with a tattooed eye, &c. Roberts assured me that he never would have entered this association, had he not been driven to it by extreme hunger. There was an apparent want of consistency in this dislike, as the members of these companies are not only relieved from all care as to their subsistence, but, even by his own account, the admittance into them is a distinction that many seek to obtain. I am therefore inclined to believe that it must be attended with the loss of some part of liberty." A reconnaissance of the neighbourhood of Anna Maria led to the discovery of Port Tchitchagoff, which, though the entrance is difficult, is so shut in by land that its waters are unruffled by the most violent storm. At the time of Kruzenstern's visit to Noukha-Hiva, cannibalism was still largely practised, but the traveller had no tangible proof of the prevalence of the custom. In fact Kruzenstern was very affably received by the king of the cannibals, who appeared to exercise but little authority over his people, a race addicted to the most revolting vices, and our hero owns that but for the intelligent and disinterested testimony of the two Europeans mentioned above he should have carried away a very favourable opinion of the natives. "In their intercourse with us," he says, "they always showed the best possible disposition, and in bartering an extraordinary degree of honesty, always delivering their cocoa-nuts before they received the piece of iron that was to be paid for them. At all times they appeared ready to assist in cutting wood and filling water; and the help they afforded us in the performance of these laborious tasks was by no means trifling. Theft, the crime so common to all the islanders of this ocean, we very seldom met with among them; they always appeared cheerful and happy, and the greatest good humour was depicted in their countenances.... The two Europeans whom we found here, and who had both resided with them several years, agreed in their assertions that the natives of Nukahiva were a cruel, intractable people, and, without even the exceptions of the female sex, very much addicted to cannibalism; that the appearance of content and good-humour, with which they had so much deceived us, was not their true character; and that nothing but the fear of punishment and the hopes of reward, deterred them from giving a loose to their savage passions. These Europeans described, as eye-witnesses, the barbarous scenes that are acted, particularly in times of war--the desperate rage with which they fall upon their victims, immediately tear off their head, and sip their blood out of the skull,[1] with the most disgusting readiness, completing in this manner their horrible repast. For a long time I would not give credit to these accounts, considering them as exaggerated; but they rest upon the authority of two different persons, who had not only been witnesses for several years to these atrocities, but had also borne a share in them: of two persons who lived in a state of mortal enmity, and took particular pains by their mutual recriminations to obtain with us credit for themselves, but yet on this point never contradicted each other. The very fact of Roberts doing his enemy the justice to allow, that he never devoured his prey, but always exchanged it for hogs, gives the circumstance a great degree of probability, and these reports concur with several appearances we remarked during our stay here, skulls being brought to us every day for sale. Their weapons are invariably adorned with human hair, and human bones are used as ornaments in almost all their household furniture; they also often gave us to understand by pantomimic gestures that human flesh was regarded by them as a delicacy." [Footnote 1: "All the skulls which we purchased of them," says Kruzenstern, "had a hole perforated through one end of them for this purpose."] There are grounds for looking upon this account as exaggerated. The truth, probably, lies between the dogmatic assertions of Cook and Forster and those of the two Europeans of Kruzenstern's time, one of whom at least was not much to be relied upon, as he was a deserter. And we must remember that we ourselves did not attain to the high state of civilization we now enjoy without climbing up from the bottom of the ladder. In the stone age our manners were probably not superior to those of the natives of Oceania. We must not, therefore, blame these representatives of humanity for not having risen higher. They have never been a nation. Scattered as their homes are on the wide ocean, and divided as they are into small tribes, without agricultural or mineral resources, without connexions, and with a climate which makes them strangers to want, they could but remain stationary or cultivate none but the most rudimentary arts and industries. Yet in spite of all this, how often have their instruments, their canoes, and their nets, excited the admiration of travellers. On the 18th May, 1804, the _Nadiejeda_ and the _Neva_ left Noukha-Hiva for the Sandwich Islands, where Kruzenstern had decided to stop and lay in a store of fresh provisions, which he had been unable to do at his last anchorage, where seven pigs were all he could get. This plan fell through, however. The natives of Owhyhee, or Hawaii, brought but a very few provisions to the vessels lying off their south-west coast, and even these they would only exchange for cloth, which Kruzenstern could not give them. He therefore set sail for Kamtchatka and Japan, leaving the _Neva_ off the island of Karakakoua, where Captain Lisianskoï relied upon being able to revictual. [Illustration: New Zealanders. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] On the 11th July, the _Nadiejeda_ arrived off Petropaulovski, the capital of Kamtchatka, where the crew obtained the rest and fresh provisions they had so well earned. On the 30th August, the Russians put to sea again. Overtaken by thick fogs and violent storms, Kruzenstern now hunted in vain for some islands marked on a map found on a Spanish gallion captured by Anson, and the existence of which had been alternately accepted and rejected by different cartographers, though they appear in La Billardière's map of his voyage. The navigator now passed between the large island of Kiushiu and Tanega-Sima, by way of Van Diemen Strait, till then very inaccurately defined, rectified the position of the Liu-Kiu archipelago, which the English had placed north of the strait, and the French too far south, and sailed down, surveyed and named the coast of the province of Satsuma. "This part of Satsuma," says Kruzenstern, "is particularly beautiful: and as we sailed along at a very trifling distance from the land, we had a distinct and perfect view of the various picturesque situations that rapidly succeed each other. The whole country consists of high pointed hills, at one time appearing in the form of pyramids, at others of a globular or conical form, and seeming as it were under the protection of some neighbouring mountain, such as Peak Homer, or another lying north-by-west of it, and even a third farther inland. Liberal as nature has been in the adornment of these parts, the industry of the Japanese seems not a little to have contributed to their beauty; for nothing indeed can equal the extraordinary degree of cultivation everywhere apparent. That all the valleys upon this coast should be most carefully cultivated would not so much have surprised us, as in the countries of Europe, where agriculture is not despised, it is seldom that any piece of land is left neglected; but we here saw not only the mountains even to their summits, but the very tops of the rocks which skirted the edge of the coast, adorned with the most beautiful fields and plantations, forming a striking as well as singular contrast, by the opposition of their dark grey and blue colour to that of the most lively verdure. Another object that excited our astonishment was an alley of high trees, stretching over hill and dale along the coast, as far as the eye could reach, with arbours at certain distances, probably for the weary traveller--for whom these alleys must have been constructed,--to rest himself in, an attention which cannot well be exceeded. These alleys are not uncommon in Japan, for we saw a similar one in the vicinity of Nangasaky, and another in the island of Meac-Sima." [Illustration: Coast of Japan.] The _Nadiejeda_ had hardly anchored at the entrance to Nagasaki harbour before Kruzenstern saw several _daïmios_ climb on board, who had come to forbid him to advance further. Now, although the Russians were aware of the policy of isolation practised by the Japanese government, they had hoped that their reception would have been less forbidding, as they had on board an ambassador from the powerful neighbouring state of Russia. They had relied on enjoying comparative liberty, of which they would have availed themselves to collect information on a country hitherto so little known and about which the only people admitted to it had taken a vow of silence. They were, however, disappointed in their expectations. Instead of enjoying the same latitude as the Dutch, they were throughout their stay harassed by a perpetual surveillance, as unceasing as it was annoying. In a word, they were little better than prisoners. Although the ambassador did obtain permission to land with his escort "under arms," a favour never before accorded to any one, the sailors were not allowed to get out of their boat, or when they did land the restricted place where they were permitted to walk was surrounded by a lofty palisading, and guarded by two companies of soldiers. It was forbidden to write to Europe by way of Batavia, it was forbidden to talk to the Dutch captains, the ambassador was forbidden to leave his house--the word forbidden may be said to sum up the anything but cordial reception given to their visitors by the Japanese. Kruzenstern turned his long stay here to account by completely overhauling and repairing his vessel. He had nearly finished this operation when the approach was announced of an envoy from the Emperor, of dignity so exalted that, in the words of the interpreter, "he dared to look at the feet of his Imperial Majesty." This personage began by refusing the Czar's presents, under pretence that if they were accepted the Emperor would have to send back others with an embassy, which would be contrary to the customs of the country; and he then went on to speak of the law against the entry of any vessels into the ports of Japan, and absolutely forbade the Russians to buy anything, adding, however, at the same time, that the materials already supplied for the refitting and revictualling the vessel would be paid for out of the treasury of the Emperor of Japan. He further inquired whether the repairs of the _Nadiejeda_ would soon be finished. Kruzenstern understood what was meant as soon as his visitor began to speak, and hurried on the preparations for his own departure. Truly he had not much reason to congratulate himself on having waited from October to April for such an answer as this. So little were the chief results hoped for by his government achieved, that no Russian vessel could ever again enter a Japanese port. A short-sighted, jealous policy, resulting in the putting back for half a century the progress of Japan. On the 17th April the _Nadiejeda_ weighed anchor, and began a hydrographic survey, which had the best results. La Pérouse had been the only navigator to traverse before Kruzenstern the seas between Japan and the continent. The Russian explorer was therefore anxious to connect his work with that of his predecessor, and to fill up the gaps the latter had been compelled for want of time to leave in his charts of these parts. "To explore the north-west and south-west coasts of Japan," says Kruzenstern, "to ascertain the situation of the Straits of Sangar, the width of which in the best charts--Arrowsmith's 'South Sea Pilot' for instance, and the atlas subjoined to La Pérouse's Voyage--is laid down as more than a hundred miles, while the Japanese merely estimated it to be a Dutch mile; to examine the west coast of Yezo; to find out the island of Karafuto, which in some new charts, compiled after a Japanese one, is placed between Yezo and Sachalin, and the existence of which appeared to me very probable; to explore this new strait and take an accurate plan of the island of Sachalin, from Cape Crillon to the north-west coast, from whence, if a good harbour were to be found there, I could send out my long boat to examine the supposed passage which divides Tartary from Sachalin; and, finally, to attempt a return through a new passage between the Kuriles, north of the Canal de la Boussole; all this came into my plan, and I have had the good fortune to execute part of it." Kruzenstern was destined almost entirely to carry out this detailed plan, only the survey of the western coast of Japan and of the Strait of Sangar, with that of the channel closing the Farakaï Strait, could not be accomplished by the Russian navigator, who had, sorely against his will, to leave the completion of this important task to his successors. Kruzenstern now entered the Corea Channel, and determined the longitude of Tsusima, obtaining a difference of thirty-six minutes from the position assigned to that island by La Pérouse. This difference was subsequently confirmed by Dagelet, who can be fully relied upon. The Russian explorer noticed, as La Pérouse had done before him, that the deviation of the magnetic needle is but little noticeable in these latitudes. The position of Sangar Strait, between Yezo and Niphon, being very uncertain, Kruzenstern resolved to determine it. The mouth, situated between Cape Sangar (N. lat. 41 degrees 16 minutes 30 seconds and W. long. 219 degrees 46 minutes) and Cape Nadiejeda (N. lat. 41 degrees 25 minutes 10 seconds, W. long. 219 degrees 50 minutes 30 seconds), is only nine miles wide; whereas La Pérouse, who had relied, not upon personal observation but upon the map of the Dutchman Vries, speaks of it as ten miles across. Kruzenstern's was therefore an important rectification. Kruzenstern did not actually enter this strait. He was anxious to verify the existence of a certain island, Karafonto, Tchoka, or Chicha by name, set down as between Yezo and Saghalien in a map which appeared at St. Petersburg in 1802, and was based on one brought to Russia by the Japanese Koday. He then surveyed a small portion of the coast of Yezo, naming the chief irregularities, and cast anchor near the southernmost promontory of the island, at the entrance to the Straits of La Pérouse. Here he learnt from the Japanese that Saghalien and Karafonto were one and the same island. On the 10th May, 1805, Kruzenstern landed at Yezo, and was surprised to find the season but little advanced. The trees were not yet in leaf, the snow still lay thick here and there, and the explorer had supposed that it was only at Archangel that the temperature would be so severe at this time of year. This phenomenon was to be explained later, when more was known as to the direction taken by the polar current, which, issuing from Behring Strait, washes the shores of Kamtchatka, the Kurile Islands, and Yezo. During his short stay here and at Saghalien, Kruzenstern was able to make some observations on the Ainos, a race which probably occupied the whole of Yezo before the advent of the Japanese, from whom--at least from those who have been influenced by intercourse with China--they differ entirely. [Illustration: Typical Ainos. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] "Their figure," says Kruzenstern, "dress, appearance, and their language, prove that they are the same people, as those of Saghalien; and the captain of the _Castricum_, when he missed the Straits of La Pérouse, might imagine, as well in Aniwa as in Alkys, that he was but in one island.... The Ainos are rather below the middle stature, being at the most five feet two or four inches high, of a dark, nearly black complexion, with a thick bushy beard, black rough hair, hanging straight down; and excepting in the beard they have the appearance of the Kamtschadales, only that their countenance is much more regular. The women are sufficiently ugly; their colour, which is equally dark, their coal black hair combed over their faces, blue painted lips, and tattooed hands, added to no remarkable cleanliness in their clothing, do not give them any great pretensions to loveliness.... However, I must do them the justice to say, that they are modest in the highest degree, and in this point form the completest contrast with the women of Nukahiva and of Otaheite.... The characteristic quality of an Aino is goodness of heart, which is expressed in the strongest manner in his countenance; and so far as we were enabled to observe their actions, they fully answered this expression.... The dress of the Ainos consists chiefly of the skins of tame dogs and seals; but I have seen some in a very different attire, which resembled the _Parkis_ of the Kamtschadales, and is, properly speaking a white shirt worn over their other clothes. In Aniwa Bay they were all clad in furs; their boots were made of seal-skins, and in these likewise the women were invariably clothed." After passing through the Straits of La Pérouse, Kruzenstern cast anchor in Aniwa Bay, off the island of Saghalien. Here fish was then so plentiful, that two Japanese firms alone employed 400 Ainos to catch and dry it. It is never taken in nets, but buckets are used at ebb-tide. After having surveyed Patience Gulf, which had only been partially examined by the Dutchman Vries, and at the bottom of which flows a stream now named the Neva, Kruzenstern broke off his examination of Saghalien to determine the position of the Kurile Islands, never yet accurately laid down; and on the 5th June, 1805 he returned to Petropaulovski, where he put on shore the ambassador and his suite. In July, after crossing Nadiejeda Strait, between Matona and Rachona, two of the Kurile Islands, Kruzenstern surveyed the eastern coast of Saghalien, in the neighbourhood of Cape Patience, which presented a very picturesque appearance, with the hills clothed with grass and stunted trees and the shores with bushes. The scenery of the interior, however, was somewhat monotonous, with its unbroken line of lofty mountains. The navigator skirted along the whole of this deserted and harbourless coast to Capes Maria and Elizabeth, between which is a deep bay, with a little village of thirty-seven houses nestling at the end, the only one the Russians had seen since they left Providence Bay. It was not inhabited by Ainos, but by Tartars, of which very decided proof was obtained a few days later. Kruzenstern next entered the channel separating Saghalien from Tartary, but he was hardly six miles from the middle of the passage when his soundings gave six fathoms only. It was useless to hope to penetrate further. Orders were given to "'bout ship," whilst a boat was sent to trace the coast-line on either side, and to explore the middle of the strait until the soundings should give three fathoms only. A very strong current had to be contended with, rendering this row very difficult, and this current was rightly supposed to be due to the River Amoor, the mouth of which was not far distant. The advice given to Kruzenstern by the Governor of Kamtchatka, not to approach the coast of Chinese Tartary, lest the jealous suspicions of the Celestial Government should be aroused, prevented the explorer from further prosecuting the work of surveying; and once more passing the Kurile group, the _Nadiejeda_ returned to Petropaulovsky. The Commander availed himself of his stay in this port to make some necessary repairs in his vessel, and to confirm the statements of Captain Clerke, who had succeeded Cook in the command of his last expedition, and those of Delisle de la Croyère, the French astronomer, who had been Behring's companion in 1741. During this last sojourn at Petropaulovsky, Kruzenstern received an autograph letter from the Emperor of Russia, enclosing the order of St. Anne as a proof of his Majesty's satisfaction with the work done. On the 4th October, 1805, the _Nadiejeda_ set sail for Europe; exploring _en route_ the latitudes in which, according to the maps of the day, were situated the islands of Rica-de-Plata, Guadalupas, Malabrigos, St. Sebastian de Lobos, and San Juan. Kruzenstern next identified the Farellon Islands of Anson's map, now known as St. Alexander, St. Augustine, and Volcanos, and situated south of the Bonin-Sima group. Then crossing the Formosa Channel, he arrived at Macao on the 21st November. He was a good deal surprised not to find the _Neva_ there, as he had given instructions for it to bring a cargo of furs, the price of which he proposed expending on Chinese merchandise. He decided to wait for the arrival of the _Neva_. Macao seemed to him to be falling rapidly into decay. "Many fine buildings," he says, "are ranged in large squares, surrounded by courtyards and gardens; but most of them uninhabited, the number of Portuguese residents there having greatly decreased. The chief private houses belong to the members of the Dutch and English factories.... Twelve or fifteen thousand is said to be the number of the inhabitants of Macao, most of whom, however, are Chinese, who have so completely taken possession of the town, that it is rare to meet any European in the streets, with the exception of priests and nuns. One of the inhabitants said to me, 'We have more priests here than soldiers;' a piece of raillery that was literally true, the number of soldiers amounting only to 150, not one of whom is a European, the whole being mulattos of Macao and Goa. Even the officers are not all Europeans. With so small a garrison it is difficult to defend four large fortresses; and the natural insolence of the Chinese finds a sufficient motive in the weakness of the military, to heap insult upon insult." Just as the _Nadiejeda_ was about to weigh anchor, the _Neva_ at last appeared. It was now the 3rd November, and Kruzenstern went up the coast in the newly arrived vessel as far as Whampoa, where he sold to advantage his cargo of furs, after many prolonged discussions which his firm but conciliating attitude, together with the intervention of English merchants, brought to a successful issue. On the 9th February, the two vessels once more together weighed anchor, and resumed their voyage by way of the Sunda Isles. Beyond Christmas Island they were again separated in cloudy weather, and did not meet until the end of the trip. On the 4th May, the _Nadiejeda_ cast anchor in St. Helena Bay, sixty days' voyage from the Sunda Isles and seventy-nine from Macao. "I know of no better place," says Kruzenstern, "to get supplies after a long voyage than St. Helena. The road is perfectly safe, and at all times more convenient than Table Bay or Simon's Bay, at the Cape. The entrance, with the precaution of first getting near the land, is perfectly easy; and on quitting the island nothing more is necessary than to weigh anchor and stand out to sea. Every kind of provision may be obtained here, particularly the best kinds of garden stuffs, and in two or three days a ship may be provided with everything." On the 21st April, Kruzenstern passed between the Shetland and Orkney Islands, in order to avoid the English Channel, where he might have met some French pirates, and after a good voyage he arrived at Cronstadt on the 7th August, 1806. Without taking first rank, like the expedition of Cook or that of La Pérouse, Kruzenstern's trip was not without interest. We owe no great discovery to the Russian explorer, but he verified and rectified the work of his predecessors. This was in fact what most of the navigators of the nineteenth century had to do, the progress of science enabling them to complete what had been begun by others. Kruzenstern had taken with him in his voyage round the world the son of the well-known dramatic author Kotzebue. The young Otto Kotzebue, who was then a cadet, soon gained his promotion, and he was a naval lieutenant when, in 1815 the command was given to him of the _Rurik_, a new brig, with two guns, and a crew of no more than twenty-seven men, equipped at the expense of Count Romantzoff. His task was to explore the less-known parts of Oceania, and to cut a passage for his vessel across the Frozen Ocean. Kotzebue left the port of Cronstadt on the 15th July, 1815, put in first at Copenhagen and Plymouth, and after a very trying trip doubled Cape Horn, and entered the Pacific Ocean on the 22nd January, 1816. After a halt at Talcahuano, on the coast of Chili, he resumed his voyage; sighted the desert island of Salas of Gomez, on the 26th March, and steered towards Easter Island, where he hoped to meet with the same friendly reception as Cook and Pérouse had done before him. The Russians had, however, hardly disembarked before they were surrounded by a crowd eager to offer them fruit and roots, by whom they were so shamelessly robbed that they were compelled to use their arms in self-defence, and to re-embark as quickly as possible to avoid the shower of stones flung at them by the natives. The only observation they had time to make during this short visit, was the overthrow of the numerous huge stone statues described, measured, and drawn, by Cook and La Pérouse. On the 16th April, the Russian captain arrived at the Dog Island of Schouten, which he called Doubtful Island, to mark the difference in his estimate of its position and that attributed to it by earlier navigators. Kotzebue gives it S. lat. 44 degrees 50 minutes and W. long. 138 degrees 47 minutes. During the ensuing days were discovered the desert island of Romantzoff, so named in honour of the promoter of the expedition; Spiridoff Island, with a lagoon in the centre; the Island Oura of the Pomautou group, the Vliegen chain of islets, and the no less extended group of the Kruzenstern Islands. On the 28th April, the _Rurik_ was near the supposed site of Bauman's Islands, but not a sign of them could be seen, and it appeared probable that the group had in fact been one of those already visited. As soon as he was safely out of the dangerous Pomautou archipelago Kotzebue steered towards the group of islands sighted in 1788 by Sever, who, without touching at them, gave them the name of Penrhyn. The Russian explorer determined the position of the central group of islets as S. lat. 9 degrees 1 minute 35 seconds and W. long. 157 degrees 44 minutes 32 seconds, characterizing them as very low, like those of the Pomautou group, but inhabited for all that. At the sight of the vessel a considerable fleet of canoes put off from the shore, and the natives, palm branches in their hands, advanced with the rhythmic sound of the paddles serving as a kind of solemn and melancholy accompaniment to numerous singers. To guard against surprise, Kotzebue made all the canoes draw up on one side of the vessel, and bartering was done with a rope as the means of communication. The natives had nothing to trade with but bits of iron and fish-hooks made of mother-of-pearl. They were well made and martial-looking, but wore no clothes beyond a kind of apron. At first only noisy and very lively, the natives soon became threatening. They thieved openly, and answered remonstrances with undisguised taunts. Brandishing their spears above their heads, they seemed to be urging each other on to an attack. When Kotzebue felt that the moment had come to put an end to these hostile demonstrations, he had one gun fired. In the twinkling of an eye the canoes were empty, their terrified crews unpremeditatingly flinging themselves into the water with one accord. Presently the heads of the divers reappeared, and, a little calmed down by the warning received, the natives returned to their canoes and their bartering. Nails and pieces of iron were much sought after by these people, whom Kotzebue likens to the natives of Noukha-Hiva. They do not exactly tatoo themselves, but cover their bodies with large scars. [Illustration: "In the twinkling of an eye the canoes were empty."] A curious fashion not before noticed amongst the islanders of Oceania prevails amongst them. Most of them wear the nails very long, and those of the chief men in the canoes extended three inches beyond the end of the finger. Thirty-six boats, manned by 360 men, now surrounded the vessel, and Kotzebue, judging that with his feeble resources and the small crew of the _Rurik_ any attempt to land would be imprudent, set sail again without being able to collect any more information on these wild and warlike islanders. Continuing his voyage towards Kamtchatka, the navigator sighted on the 21st May two groups of islands connected by a chain of coral reefs. He named them Kutusoff and Suwaroff, determined their position, and made up his mind to come back and examine them again. The natives in fleet canoes approached the _Rurik_, but, in spite of the pressing invitation of the Russians, would not trust themselves on board. They gazed at the vessel in astonishment, talked to each other with a vivacity which showed their intelligence, and flung on deck the fruit of the pandanus-tree and cocoa-nuts. Their lank black hair, with flowers fastened in it here and there, the ornaments hung round their necks, their clothing of "two curiously-woven coloured mats tied to the waist" and reaching below the knee, but above all their frank and friendly countenances, distinguished the natives of the Marshall archipelago from those of Penrhyn. On the 19th June the _Rurik_ put in at New Archangel, and for twenty-eight days her crew were occupied in repairing her. On the 15th July Kotzebue set sail again, and five days later disembarked on Behring Island, the southern promontory of which he laid down in N. lat. 55 degrees 17 minutes 18 seconds and W. long. 194 degrees 6 minutes 37 seconds. The natives Kotzebue met with on this island, like those of the North American coast, wore clothes made of seal-skin and the intestines of the walrus. The lances used by them were pointed with the teeth of these amphibious animals. Their food consisted of the flesh of whales and seals, which they store in deep cellars dug in the earth. Their boats were made of leather, and they had sledges drawn by dogs. Their mode of salutation is strange enough, they first rub each other's noses and then pass their hands over their own stomachs as if rejoicing over the swallowing of some tid-bit. Lastly, when they want to be very friendly indeed, they spit in their own palms and rub their friends' faces with the spittle. The captain, still keeping his northerly course along the American coast, discovered Schichmareff Bay, Saritschiff Island, and lastly, an extensive gulf, the existence of which was not previously known. At the end of this gulf Kotzebue hoped to find a channel through which he could reach the Arctic Ocean, but he was disappointed. He gave his own name to the gulf, and that of Kruzenstern to the cape at the entrance. Driven back by bad weather, the _Rurik_ reached Ounalashka on the 6th September, halted for a few days at San Francisco, and reached the Sandwich Islands, where some important surveys were made and some very curious information collected. On leaving the Sandwich Islands, Kotzebue steered for Suwaroff and Kutusoff Islands, which he had discovered a few months before. On the 1st January, 1817, he sighted Miadi Island, to which he gave the name of New Year's Island. Four days later he discovered a chain of little low wooded islands set in a framework of reefs, through which the vessel could scarcely make its way. Just at first the natives ran away at the sight of Lieutenant Schischmaroff, but they soon came back with branches in their hands, shouting out the word _aidara_ (friend). The officer repeated this word and gave them a few nails in return, for which the Russians received the collars and flowers worn as neck-ornaments by the natives. This exchange of courtesies emboldened the rest of the islanders to appear, and throughout the stay of the Russians in this archipelago these friendly demonstrations and enthusiastic but guarded greetings were continued. One native, Rarik by name, was particularly cordial to the Russians, whom he informed that the name of his island and of the chain of islets and _attolls_[2] connected with it was Otdia. In acknowledgment of the cordial reception of the natives, Kotzebue left with them a cock and hen, and planted in a garden laid out under his orders a quantity of seeds, in the hope that they would thrive; but in this he did not make allowance for the number of rats which swarmed upon these islands and wrought havoc in his plantations. [Footnote 2: Attolls are coral islands like circular belts surrounding a smooth lagoon.--_Trans._] On the 6th February, after ascertaining from what he was told by a chief named Languediak, that these sparsely populated islands were of recent formation, Kotzebue put to sea again, having first christened the archipelago Romantzoff. The next day a group of islets, on which only three inhabitants were found, had its name of Eregup changed to that of Tchitschakoff, and then an enthusiastic reception was given to Kotzebue on the Kawen Islands by the tamon or chief. Every native here fêted the new-comers, some by their silence--like the queen forbidden by etiquette to answer the speeches made to her--some by their dances, cries, and songs, in which the name of Totabou (Kotzebue) was constantly repeated. The chief himself came to fetch Kotzebue in a canoe, and carried him on his shoulders through the breakers to the beach. In the Aur group the navigator noticed amongst a crowd of natives who climbed on to the vessel, two natives whose faces and tattooing seemed to mark them as of alien race. One of them, Kadu by name, especially pleased the commander, who gave him some bits of iron, and Kotzebue was surprised that he did not receive them with the same pleasure as his companions. This was explained the same evening. When all the natives were leaving the vessel, Kadu earnestly begged to be allowed to remain on the _Rurik_, and never again to leave it. The commander only yielded to his wishes after a great deal of persuasion. "Kadu," says Kotzebue, "had scarcely obtained permission, when he turned quickly to his comrades, who were waiting for him, declared to them his intention of remaining on board the ship, and distributed his iron among the chiefs. The astonishment in the boats was beyond description: they tried in vain to shake his resolution; he was immovable. At last his friend Edock came back, spoke long and seriously to him, and when he found that his persuasion was of no avail, he attempted to drag him by force; but Kadu now used the right of the strongest, he pushed his friend from him, and the boats sailed off. His resolution being inexplicable to me, I conceived a notion that he perhaps intended to steal during the night, and privately to leave the ship, and therefore had the night-watch doubled, and his bed made up close to mine on the deck, where I slept, on account of the heat. Kadu felt greatly honoured to sleep close to the tamon of the ship." Born at Ulle, one of the Caroline Islands, more than 300 miles from the group where he was now living, Kadu, with Edok and two other fellow-countrymen, had been overtaken, when fishing, by a violent storm. For eight months the poor fellows were at the mercy of the winds and currents on a sea now smooth, now rough. They had never throughout this time been without fish, but they had suffered the cruelest tortures from thirst. When their stock of rain-water, which they had used very sparingly, was exhausted, there was nothing left to them to do but to fling themselves into the sea and try to obtain at the bottom of the ocean some water less impregnated with salt, which they brought to the surface in cocoa-nut shells pierced with a small opening. When they reached the Aur Islands, even the sight of land and the immediate prospect of safety did not rouse them from the state of prostration into which they had sunk. The sight of the iron instruments in the canoe of the strangers led the people of Aur to decide on their massacre for the sake of their treasures; but the tamon, Tigedien by name, took them under his protection. Three years had passed since this event, and the men from the Caroline Islands, thanks to their more extended knowledge, soon acquired a certain ascendancy over their hosts. When the _Rurik_ appeared, Kadu was in the woods a long way from the coast. He was sent for at once, as he was looked upon as a great traveller, and he might perhaps be able to say what the great monster approaching the island was. Now Kadu had more than once seen European vessels, and he persuaded his friends to go and meet the strangers, and to receive them kindly. Such had been Kadu's adventures. He now remained on the _Rurik_, identified the other islands of the Archipelago, and lost no time in facilitating intercourse between the Russians and the natives. Dressed in a yellow mantle, and wearing a red cap like a convict, Kadu looked down upon his old friends, and seemed not to recognize them. When a fine old man with a flowing beard, named Tigedien, came on board, Kadu undertook to explain to him and his companions the working of the vessel and the use of everything about the ship. Like many Europeans, he made up for his ignorance by imperturbable assurance, and had an answer ready for every question. Interrogated on the subject of a little box from which a sailor took a black powder and applied it to his nostrils, Kadu glibly told some most extraordinary stories, and wound up with a practical illustration by putting the box against his own nose. He then flung it from him, sneezing violently and screaming so loud that his terrified friends fled away on every side; but when the crisis was over he managed to turn the incident to his own advantage. Kadu gave Kotzebue some general information about the group of islands then under examination, and the Russians spent a month in taking surveys, &c. All these islands, which the natives call Radack, were under the control of one tamon, a man named Lamary. A few years later Dumont d'Urville gave the name of Marshall to the group. According to Kadu, another chain of islets, attolls, and reefs was situated some little distance off on the west. Kotzebue had not time to identify them, and steering in a northerly direction he reached Ounalashka on the 24th April, where he had to repair the serious damage sustained by the _Rurik_ in two violent storms. This done, he took on board some baidares (boats cased in skins to make them water-tight), with fifteen natives of the Aleutian Islands, who were used to the navigation of the Polar seas, and resumed his exploration of Behring Strait. Kotzebue had suffered very much from pain in his chest ever since when, doubling Cape Horn, he had been knocked down by a huge wave and flung overboard, an accident which would have cost him his life had he not clung to some rope. The consequences were so serious to his health that when, on the 10th July, he landed on the island of St. Lawrence, he was obliged to give up the further prosecution of his researches. On the 1st October the _Rurik_ made a second short halt at the Sandwich Islands where seeds and animals were landed, and at the end of the month the explorers landed at Otdia in the midst of the enthusiastic acclamations of the natives. The cats brought by the visitors were welcomed with special enthusiasm, for the island was infested with immense numbers of rats, who worked havoc on the plantations. Great also was the rejoicing over the return of Kadu, with whom the Russians left an assortment of tools and weapons, which made their owner the wealthiest inhabitant of the archipelago. [Illustration: Interior of a house at Radak. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] On the 4th November the _Rurik_ left the Radak Islands, after identifying the Legiep group, and cast anchor off Guam, one of the Marianne islands, where she remained until the end of the month. A halt of some weeks at Manilla enabled the commander to collect some curious information about the Philippine Islands, to which he would have to return later. After escaping from the violent storms encountered in doubling the Cape of Good Hope, the _Rurik_ cast anchor on the 3rd August, 1818, in the Neva, opposite Count Romantzoff's palace. These three years of absence had been turned to good account by the hardy navigators. In spite of the smallness of their number and the poverty of their equipments, they had not been afraid to face the terrors of the deep, to venture amongst all but unknown archipelagoes, or to brave the rigours of the Arctic and Torrid zones. Important as were their actual discoveries, their rectification of the errors of their predecessors were of yet greater value. Two thousand five hundred species of plants, one third of which were quite new, with numerous details respecting the language, ethnography, religion, and customs of the tribes visited, formed a rich harvest attesting the zeal, skill, and knowledge of the captain as well as the intrepidity and endurance of his crew. When, therefore, the Russian government decided, in 1823, to send reinforcements to Kamtchatka to put an end to the contraband trade carried on in Russian America, the command of the expedition was given to Kotzebue. A frigate called the _Predpriatie_ was placed at his disposal, and he was left free to choose his own route both going and returning. Kotzebue had gone round the world as a midshipman with Kruzenstern, and that explorer now entrusted to him his eldest son, as did also Möller, the Minister of Marine, a proof of the great confidence both fathers placed in him. The expedition left Cronstadt on the 15th August, 1823, reached Rio Janeiro in safety, doubled Cape Horn on the 15th January, 1824, and steered for the Pomautou Archipelago, where Predpriatie Island was discovered and the islands of Araktschejews, Romantzoff, Carlshoff, and Palliser were identified. On the 14th March anchor was cast in the harbour of Matavar, Otaheite. [Illustration: View of Otaheite.] Since Cook's stay in this archipelago a complete transformation had taken place in the manners and customs of the inhabitants. In 1799 some missionaries settled in Otaheite, where they remained for ten years, unfortunately without making a single conversion, and we add with regret without even winning the esteem or respect of the natives. Compelled at the end of these ten years, in consequence of the revolutions which convulsed Otaheite, to take refuge at Eimeo and other islands of the same group, their efforts were there crowned with more success. In 1817, Pomaré, king of Otaheite, recalled the missionaries, made them a grant of land, and declared himself a convert to Christianity. His example was soon followed by a considerable number of natives. Kotzebue had heard of this change, but he was not prepared to find European customs generally adopted. At the sound of the discharge announcing the arrival of the Russians, a boat, bearing the Otaheitian flag, put off from shore, bringing a pilot to guide the _Predpriatie_ to its anchorage. The next day, which happened to be Sunday, the Russians were surprised at the religious silence which prevailed throughout the island when they landed. This silence was only broken by the sound of canticles and psalms sung by the natives in their huts. The church, a plain, clean building of rectangular form, roofed with reeds and approached by a long avenue of palms, was well filled with an attentive, orderly congregation, the men sitting on one side, the women on the other, all with prayer-books in their hands. The voices of the neophytes often joined in the chant of the missionaries, unfortunately with better will than correctness or appropriateness. If the piety of the islanders was edifying, the costumes worn by these strange converts were such as somewhat to distract the attention of the visitors. A black coat or the waistcoat of an English uniform was the only garment worn by some, whilst others contented themselves with a jacket, a shirt, or a pair of trousers. The most fortunate were wrapped in cloth mantles, and rich and poor alike dispensed with shoes and stockings. The women were no less grotesquely clad. Some wore men's shirts, white or striped as the case might be, others a mere piece of cloth; but all had European hats. The wives of the Areois[3] wore coloured robes, a piece of great extravagance, but with them the dress formed the whole costume. [Footnote 3: The Areois are a curious vagrant set of people, who have been found in these regions, who practise the singular and fatal custom of killing their children at birth, because of a traditional law binding them to do so.--_Trans._] On the Monday a most imposing ceremony took place. This was the visit to Kotzebue of the queen-mother and the royal family. These great people were preceded by a master of ceremonies, who was a sort of court fool wearing nothing but a red waistcoat, and with his legs tattooed to represent striped trousers, whilst on the lower portion of his back was described a quadrant divided into minute sections. He performed his absurd capers, contortions, and grimaces with a gravity infinitely amusing. The queen regent carried the little king Pomaré III. in her arms, and beside her walked his sister, a pretty child of ten years old. The royal infant was dressed in European style, like his subjects, and like them, he wore nothing on his feet. At the request of the ministers and great people of Otaheite, Kotzebue had a pair of boots made for him, which he was to wear on the day of his coronation. Great were the shouts of joy, the gestures of delight, and the envious exclamations over the trifles distributed amongst the ladies of the court, and fierce were the struggles for the smallest shreds of the imitation gold lace given away. What important matter could have brought so many men on to the deck of the frigate, bearing with them quantities of fruits and figs? These eager messengers were the husbands of the disappointed ladies of Otaheite who had not been present at the division of the gold lace more valuable in their eyes than rivers of diamonds in those of Europeans. At the end of ten days, Kotzebue decided to leave this strange country, where civilization and barbarism flourished side by side in a manner so fraternal, and steered for the Samoa Archipelago, notorious for the massacre of the companions of La Pérouse. How great was the difference between the Samoans and the Otaheitians! Wild and fierce, suspicious and threatening, the natives of Rose Island could scarcely be kept off the deck of the _Predpriatie_, and one of them at the sight of the bare arm of a sailor made a savage and eloquent gesture showing with what pleasure he could devour the firm and doubtless savoury flesh displayed to view. The insolence of the natives increased with the arrival of more canoes from the shore, and they had to be beaten back with boathooks before the _Predpriatie_ could get away from amongst the frail boats of the ferocious islanders. Upolu or Oyalava, Platte and Pola or Savai Islands, which with Rose Island form part of the Navigator or Samoan group, were passed almost as soon as they were sighted; and Kotzebue steered for the Radak Islands, where he had been so kindly received on his first voyage. This time, however, the natives were terrified at sight of the huge vessel, and piled up their canoes or fled into the interior, whilst on the beach a procession was formed, a number of islanders with palm branches in their hands advancing to meet the intruders and beg for peace. At this sight, Kotzebue flung himself into a boat with the surgeon Eschscholtz, and rowing rapidly towards the shore, shouted: "Totabou aïdara" (Kotzebue, friend). An immediate change was the result; the petitions the natives were going to address to the Russians were converted into shouts and enthusiastic demonstrations of delight, some rushing forwards to welcome their friend, others running over to announce his arrival to their fellow-countrymen. The commander was very pleased to find that Kadu was still living at Aur, under the protection of Lamary, whose countenance he had secured at the price of half his wealth. Of all the animals left here by Kotzebue, the cats, now become wild alone, had survived, and thus far they had not destroyed the legions of rats with which the island was overrun. The explorer remained several days with his friends, whom he entertained with dramatic representations; and on the 6th May he made for the Legiep group, the examination of which he had left uncompleted on his last voyage. After surveying it, he intended to resume his exploration of the Radak Islands, but bad weather prevented this, and he had to set sail for Kamtchatka. The crew here enjoyed the rest so fully earned, from the 7th June to the 20th July, when Kotzebue set sail for New Archangel on the American coast, where he cast anchor on the 7th August. The frigate, which was here to take the place of the _Predpriatie_, was not however ready for sea until the 1st March of the following year, and Kotzebue turned the delay to account by visiting the Sandwich Islands, where he cast anchor off Waihou in December, 1824. The harbour of Hono-kourou or Honolulu is the safest of the archipelago; a good many vessels therefore put in there even at this early date, and the island of Waihou bid fair to become the most important of the group, supplanting Hawaii or Owhyee. The appearance of the town was already semi-European, stone houses replaced the primitive native huts, regular streets with shops, café, public-houses, much patronized by the sailors of whalers and fur-traders, together with a fortress provided with cannon, were the most noteworthy signs of the rapid transformation of the manners and customs of the natives. Fifty years had now elapsed since the discovery of most of the islands of Oceania, and everywhere changes had taken place as sudden as those in the Sandwich Islands. "The fur trade," says Desborough Cooley, carried on with the north-west coast of America, "has effected a wonderful revolution in the Sandwich Islands, which from their situation offered an advantageous shelter for ships engaged in it. Among these islands the fur-traders wintered, refitted their vessels, and replenished their stock of fresh provisions; and, as summer approached, returned to complete their cargo on the coast of America. Iron tools and, above all, guns were eagerly sought for by the islanders in exchange for their provisions; and the mercenery traders, regardless of consequences, readily gratified their desires. Fire-arms and ammunition being the most profitable stock to traffic with were supplied them in abundance. Hence the Sandwich islanders soon became formidable to their visitors; they seized on several small vessels, and displayed an energy tinctured at first with barbarity, but indicating great capabilities of social improvement. At this period, one of those extraordinary characters which seldom fail to come forth when fate is charged with great events, completed the revolution, which had its origin in the impulse of Europeans. Tame-tame-hah, a chief, who had made himself conspicuous during the last and unfortunate visit of Cook to those islands, usurped the authority of king, subdued the neighbouring islands with an army of 16,000 men, and made his conquests subservient to his grand schemes of improvement. He knew the superiority of Europeans, and was proud to imitate them. Already, in 1796, when Captain Broughton visited those islands, the usurper sent to ask him whether he should salute him with great guns. He always kept Englishmen about him as ministers and advisers. In 1817, he is said to have had an army of 7000 men, armed with muskets, among whom were at least fifty Europeans. Tame-tame-hah, who began his career in blood and usurpation, lived to gain the sincere love and admiration of his subjects, who regarded him as more than human, and mourned his death with tears of warmer affection than often bedew the ashes of royalty." [Illustration: One of the guard of the King of the Sandwich Islands. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Such was the state of things when the Russian expedition put in at Waihou. The young king Rio-Rio was in England with his wife, and the government of the archipelago was in the hands of the queen-mother, Kaahou Manou. Kotzebue took advantage of the latter and of the first minister both being absent on a neighbouring island, to pay a visit to another wife of Kamea-Mea. "The apartment," says the traveller, "was furnished in the European fashion, with chairs, tables, and looking-glasses. In one corner stood an immensely large bed with silk curtains; the floor was covered with fine mats, and on these, in the middle of the room, lay Nomahanna, extended on her stomach, her head turned towards the door, and her arms supported on a silk pillow.... Nomahanna, who appeared at the utmost not more than forty years old, was exactly six feet two inches high, and rather more than two ells in circumference.... Her coal-black hair was neatly plaited, at the top of a head as round as a ball; her flat nose and thick projecting lips were certainly not very handsome, yet was her countenance on the whole prepossessing and agreeable." The "good lady" remembered having seen Kotzebue ten years before. She, therefore, received him graciously, but she could not speak of her husband without tears in her eyes, and her grief did not appear to be assumed. In order that the date of his death should be ever-present to her mind she had had the inscription 6th May, 1819, branded on her arm. A zealous Christian, like most of the population, the queen took Kotzebue to the church, a vast but simple building, not nearly so crowded as that at Otaheite. Nomahanna seemed to be very intelligent, she knew how to read and was specially enthusiastic about writing, that art which connects us with the absent. Being anxious to give the commander a proof alike of her affection and of her acquirements she sent him a letter by hand which it had taken her several weeks to concoct. The other ladies did not like to be outdone, and Kotzebue found himself overwhelmed with documents. The only means to check this epistolatory inundation was to weigh anchor, which the captain did without loss of time. Before his departure he received queen Nomahanna on board. Her Majesty appeared in her robes of ceremony, consisting of a magnificent peach-coloured silk dress embroidered with black, evidently originally made for a European, and consequently too tight and too short for its wearer. People could, therefore, see not only the feet, beside which those of Charlemagne would have looked like a Chinaman's, and which were cased in huge men's boots, but also a pair of fat, brown, naked legs resembling the balustrades of a terrace. A collar of red and yellow feathers, a garland of natural flowers, serving as a gorget, and a hat of Leghorn straw, trimmed with artificial flowers, completed this fine but absurd costume. Nomahanna went over the ship, asking questions about everything, and at last, worn out with seeing so many wonders, betook herself to the captain's cabin, where a good collation was spread for her. The queen flung herself upon a couch, but the fragile article of furniture was unable to sustain so much majesty, and gave way beneath the weight of a princess, whose _embonpoint_ had doubtless had a good deal to do with her elevation to such high rank. After this halt Kotzebue returned to New Archangel, where he remained until the 30th July, 1825. He then paid another visit to the Sandwich Islands a short time after Admiral Byron had brought back the remains of the king and queen. The archipelago was then at peace, its prosperity was continually on the increase, the influence of the missionaries was confirmed, and the education of the young monarch was in the hands of Missionary Bingham. The inhabitants were deeply touched by the honours accorded by the English to the remains of their sovereigns, and the day seemed to be not far distant when European customs would completely supersede those of the natives. Some provisions having been embarked at Waihou, the explorer made for Radak Islands, identified the Pescadores, forming the southern extremity of that chain, discovered the Eschscholtz group, a short distance off, and touched at Guam on the 15th October. On the 23rd January, 1826, he left Manilla after a stay of some months, during which constant intercourse with the natives had enabled him to add greatly to our knowledge of the geography and natural history of the Philippine islands. A new Spanish governor had arrived with a large reinforcement of troops, and had so completely crushed all agitation that the colonists had quite given up their scheme of separating themselves from Spain. On the 10th July, 1826, the _Predpriatie_ returned to Cronstadt, after a voyage extending over three years, during which she had visited the north-west coast of America, the Aleutian Islands, Kamtchatka, and the Sea of Oktoksh; surveyed minutely a great part of the Radak Islands, and obtained fresh information on the changes through which the people of Oceania were passing. Thanks to the ardour of Chamisso and Professor Eschscholtz, many specimens of natural history had been collected, and the latter published a description of more than 2000 animals, as well as some curious details on the mode of formation of the Coral islands in the South Seas. The English government had now resumed with eagerness the study of the tantalizing problem, the solution of which had been sought so long in vain. We allude to the finding of the north-west passage. When Parry by sea and Franklin by land were trying to reach Behring Strait, Captain Frederick William Beechey received instructions to penetrate as far north as possible by way of the same strait so as to meet the other explorers, who would doubtless arrive in a state of exhaustion from fatigue and privation. The _Blossom_, Captain Beechey commander, set sail from Spithead on the 19th May, 1825, and after doubling Cape Horn on the 26th December, entered the Pacific Ocean. After a short stay off the coast of Chili, Beechey visited Easter Island, where the same incidents which had marked Kotzebue's visit were repeated. The same eager reception on the part of the natives, who swam to the _Blossom_ or brought their paltry merchandise to it in canoes, and the same shower of stones and blows from clubs when the English landed, repulsed, as in the Russian explorer's time, with a rapid discharge of shot. On the 4th December, Captain Beechey sighted an island completely overgrown with vegetation. This was the spot famous for the discovery on it of the descendants of the mutineers of the _Bounty_, who landed on it after the enactment of a tragedy, which at the end of last century had excited intense public interest in England. In 1781 Lieutenant Bligh, one of the officers who had distinguished himself under Cook, was appointed to the command of the _Bounty_, and received orders to go to Otaheite, there to obtain specimens of the breadfruit-tree and other of its vegetable productions for transportation to the Antilles, then generally known amongst the English as the Western Indies. After doubling Cape Horn, Bligh cast anchor in the Bay of Matavai, where he shipped a cargo of breadfruit-trees, proceeding thence to Ramouka, one of the Tonga Isles, for more of the same valuable growth. Thus far no special incident marked the course of the voyage, which seemed likely to end happily. But the haughty character and stern, despotic manners of the commander had alienated from him the affections of nearly the whole of his crew. A plot was formed against him which was carried out before sunrise on the 28th April, off Tofona. Surprised by the mutineers whilst still in bed, Bligh was bound and gagged before he could defend himself, and dragged on deck in his night-shirt, and after a mock trial, presided over by Lieutenant Christian Fletcher, he, with eighteen men who remained faithful to him, was lowered into a boat containing a few provisions, and abandoned in the open sea. After enduring agonies of hunger and thirst, and escaping from terrible storms and from the teeth of the savage natives of Tofona, Bligh succeeded in reaching Timor Island, where he received an enthusiastic welcome. "I now desired my people to come on shore," says Bligh, "which was as much as some of them could do, being scarce able to walk; they, however, were helped to the house, and found tea with bread and butter provided for their breakfast.... Our bodies were nothing but skin and bones, our limbs were full of sores, and we were clothed in rags; in this condition, with the tears of joy and gratitude flowing down our cheeks, the people of Timor beheld us with a mixture of horror, surprise, and pity.... Thus, through the assistance of Divine Providence, we surmounted the difficulties and distresses of a most perilous voyage." Perilous, indeed, for it had lasted no less than forty-one days in latitudes but little known, in an open boat, with insufficient food, want and exposure causing infinite suffering. Yet in this voyage of more than 1500 leagues but one man was lost, a sailor who fell a victim at the beginning of the journey to the natives of Tofona. The fate of the mutineers was strange, and more than one lesson may be learnt from it. They made for Otaheite, where provisions were obtained, and those who had been least active in the mutiny were abandoned, and thence Christian set sail with eight sailors, who elected to remain with him, and some twenty-two natives, men and women from Otaheite and Toubonai. Nothing more was heard of them! As for those who remained at Otaheite, they were taken prisoners in 1791 by Captain Edwards of the _Pandora_, sent out by the English Government in search of them and the other mutineers, with orders to bring them to England. Of the ten who were brought home by the _Pandora_, only three were condemned to death. Twenty years passed by before the slightest light was thrown on the fate of Christian and those he took with him. In 1808 an American trading-vessel touched at Pitcairn, there to complete her cargo of seal-skins. The captain imagined the island to be uninhabited, but to his very great surprise a canoe presently approached his ship manned by three young men of colour, who spoke English very well. Greatly astonished, the commander questioned them, and learnt that their father had served under Bligh. The fate of the latter was now known to the whole world, and its discussion had lightened the tedious hours in the forecastles of vessels of every nationality, and the American captain, reminded by the singular incident related above of the disappearance of so many of the mutineers of the _Bounty_, landed on the island, where he met an Englishman named Smith, who had belonged to the crew of that vessel, and who made the following confession. When he left Otaheite, Christian made direct for Pitcairn, attracted to it by its lonely situation, south of the Pomautou Islands, and out of the general track of vessels. After landing the provisions of the _Bounty_ and taking away all the fittings which could be of any use, the mutineers burnt the vessel not only with a view to removing all trace of their whereabouts, but also to prevent the escape of any of their number. From the first the sight of the extensive marshes led them to believe the island to be uninhabited, and they were soon convinced of the justice of this opinion. Huts were built and land was cleared; but the English charitably assigned to the natives, whom they had carried off or who had elected to join them, the position of slaves. Two years passed by without any serious dissensions arising, but at the end of that time the natives laid a plot against the whites, of which, however, the latter were informed by an Otaheitan woman, and the two leaders paid for their abortive attempt with their lives. Two more years of peace and tranquillity ensued, and then another plot was laid, this time resulting in the massacre of Christian and five of his comrades. The murder, however, was avenged by the native women, who mourned for their English lovers and killed the surviving men of Otaheite. A little later the discovery of a plant, from which a kind of brandy could be made, caused the death of one of the four Englishmen still remaining, another was murdered by his companions, a third died a natural death, and the last one, Smith, took the name of Adams and lived on at the head of a community, consisting of ten women and nineteen children, the eldest of whom were but seven or eight years old. This man, who had reflected on his errors and repented of them, now led a new life, fulfilling the duties of father, priest, and sovereign, his combined firmness and justice acquiring for him an all-powerful influence over his motley subjects. This strange teacher of morality, who in his youth had set all laws at defiance, and to whom no obligation was sacred, now preached pity, love, and sympathy, arranged regular marriages between the children of different parents, his little community thriving lustily under the mild yet firm control of one who had but lately turned from his own evil ways. Such at the time of Beechey's arrival was the state of the colony at Pitcairn. The navigator, well received by the inhabitants, whose virtuous conduct recalled the golden age, remained amongst them eighteen days. The village consisted of clean, well-built huts, surrounded by pandanus and cocoa-palms; the fields were well cultivated, and under Adams' tuition the young people had made implements of agriculture of really extraordinary excellence. The faces of these half breeds were good-looking and pleasant in expression, and their figures were well-proportioned, showing unusual muscular development. [Illustration: "The village consisted of clean, well-built huts."] After leaving Pitcairn, Beechey visited Crescent, Gambier, Hood, Clermont, Tonnerre, Serles, Whitsunday, Queen-Charlotte, Tehaï, and the Lancer Islands, all in the Pomautou group, and an islet to which he gave the name of Byam-Martin. Here the explorer met a native named Ton-Wari, who had been shipwrecked in a storm. Having left Anaa with 500 fellow-countrymen in three canoes to render homage to Pomaré III., who had just ascended the throne, Ton-Wari had been driven out of his course by westerly winds. These were succeeded by variable breezes, and provisions were soon so completely exhausted that the survivors had to feed on the bodies of those who were the first to succumb. Finally Ton-Wari arrived at Barrow Island in the centre of the Dangerous Archipelago, where he obtained a small stock of provisions, and after a long delay, his canoe having been stove in off Byam-Martin, once more put to sea. Beechey yielded under considerable persuasion to Ton-Wari's entreaty to be received on board with his wife and children and taken to Otaheite. The next day, by one of those strange chances seldom occurring except in fiction, Beechey stopped at Heïon, where Ton-Wari met his brother, who had supposed him to be long since dead. After the first transports of delight and surprise the two natives sat down side by side, and holding each others hands related their several adventures. Beechey left Heïon on the 10th February, sighted Melville and Croker Islands, and cast anchor on the 18th off Otaheite, where he had some difficulty in obtaining provisions. The natives now demanded good Chilian dollars and European clothing, both of which were altogether wanting on the _Blossom_. After receiving a visit from the queen-mother, Beechey was invited to a _soirée_ given in his honour in the palace at Papeïti. When the English arrived, however, they found everybody sound asleep, the hostess having forgotten all about her invitation, and gone to bed earlier than usual. She received her guests none the less cordially however, and organized a little dance in spite of the remonstrances of the missionaries; only the _fête_ had to be conducted so to speak in silence, that the noise might not reach the ears of the police on duty on the beach. From this incident we can guess the amount of liberty the missionary Pritchard allowed to the most exalted personages of Otaheite. What must the discipline then have been for the common herd of the natives! On the 3rd April the young king paid a visit to Beechey, who gave him, on behalf of the Admiralty, a fine fowling-piece. Very friendly was the intercourse which ensued, and the good influence the English missionaries had obtained was strengthened by the cordiality and tact of the ship's officers. Leaving Otaheite on the 26th April, Beechey reached the Sandwich Islands, where he remained some ten days, and then set sail for Behring Strait and the Arctic Ocean. His instructions were to skirt along the North American coast as far as the state of the ice would permit. The _Blossom_ made a halt in Kotzebue Bay, a desolate, forbidding, and inhospitable spot, where the English had several interviews with the natives without obtaining any information about Franklin and his people. At last Beechey sent forward one of the ship's boats, under command of Lieutenant Elson, to seek the intrepid explorer. Elson was, however, unable to pass Point Barrow (N. lat. 71 degrees 23 minutes) and was compelled to return to the _Blossom_, which in her turn was driven back to the entrance of the strait by the ice on the 13th October, the weather being clear and the frost of extreme severity. In order to turn to account the winter season, Beechey visited San Francisco and cast anchor yet again off Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands. Thanks to the liberal and enlightened policy of the government, this archipelago was now rapidly growing in prosperity. The number of houses had increased, the town was gradually acquiring a European appearance, the harbour was frequented by numerous English and American vessels, and a national navy numbering five brigs and eight schooners had sprung into being. Agriculture was in a flourishing condition; coffee, tea, spices, were cultivated in extensive plantations, and efforts were being made to utilize the luxuriant sugar-cane forests native to the archipelago. After a stay in April at the mouth of the Canton River, the explorers surveyed the Liu-Kiu archipelago, a chain of islands connecting Japan with Formosa, and the Bonin-Sima group, districts in which no animals were seen but big green turtles. This exploration over, the _Blossom_ resumed her northerly course, but the atmospheric conditions were less favourable than before, and it was impossible this time to penetrate further than N. lat. 70 degrees 40 minutes. Beechey left provisions, clothes, and instructions on the coast in this neighbourhood in case Parry or Franklin should get as far. The explorer then cruised about until the 6th October, when he decided with the greatest regret to return to England. He touched at Monterey, San Francisco, San-Blas, and Valparaiso, doubled Cape Horn, cast anchor at Rio de Janeiro, and finally arrived off Spithead on the 21st October. [Illustration: A Morai at Kayakakoua. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] We must now give an account of the expedition of the Russian Captain Lütke, which was fruitful of most important results. The explorer's own relation of his adventures is written in a most amusing and spirited style, and from it we shall therefore quote largely. The _Seniavine_ and the _Möller_ were two transport ships built in Russia, both of which were good sea-going boats. The latter, however, was a very slow sailer, which unfortunately kept the two vessels apart for the greater part of the voyage. Lütke commanded the _Seniavine_, and Stanioukowitch the _Möller_. The two vessels set sail from Cronstadt on the 1st September, 1828, and touched at Copenhagen and Plymouth, where scientific instruments were purchased. Hardly had they left the Channel before they were separated. The _Seniavine_, whose movements we shall most particularly follow, touched at Teneriffe, where Lütke hoped to meet his consort. From the 4th to the 8th November, Teneriffe had been devastated by a terrific storm such as had not been seen since the Conquest. Three vessels had perished in the very roadstead of Santa Cruz, and two others thrown upon the coast had gone to pieces. Torrents swollen by a tremendous downpour had destroyed gardens, walls, and buildings, laid waste plantations, all but demolished one fort, swept down a number of houses in the town, and rendered several streets impassable. Three or four hundred persons had met their deaths in this convulsion of nature, and the damage done was estimated at several millions of piastres. In January the two vessels met again at Rio de Janeiro, and kept together as far as Cape Horn, where they encountered the usual storms and fogs, and were again separated. The _Seniavine_ then made for Conception. "On the 15th May," says Lütke, "we were not more than eight miles from the nearest coast, but a dense fog hid it from us. In the night this fog lifted, and at daybreak a scene of indescribable grandeur and magnificence met our eyes. The serrated chain of the Andes, with its pointed peaks, stood out against an azure blue sky lit up by the first rays of the morning sun. I will not add to the number of those who have exhausted themselves in vain efforts to transmit to others their own sensations at the first sight of such scenes. They are as indescribable as the majesty of the scene itself. The variety of the colours, the light, which as the sun rose gradually spread over the sky, and the clouds were alike of inimitable beauty. To our great regret this spectacle, like everything most sublime in nature, did not last long. As the atmosphere became flooded with light the huge masses of clouds seemed with one accord to plunge into the deep, and the sun, appearing above the horizon, removed every trace of them." Lütke's opinion of Conception does not agree with that of some of his predecessors. He had not yet forgotten the exuberant richness of the vegetation of the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, so that he found this new coast poor. As far as he could judge, during a very short stay, the inhabitants were more affable and civilized than the people of the same class in many other countries. When he reached Valparaiso, Lütke met the _Möller_ setting sail for Kamtchatka. The crews bid each other good-bye, and thenceforth the two vessels took different directions. The first excursion of the officers and naturalists of Lütke's party was to the celebrated "quebradas." "These," says the explorer, "are ravines in the mountains, crowded so to speak with the little huts containing the greater part of the people of Valparaiso. The most densely populated of these 'quebradas' is that rising at the south-west corner of the town. The granite, which is there laid bare, serves as a strong foundation for the buildings, and protects them from the destructive effects of earthquakes. Communication between the town and the different houses is carried on by means of narrow paths without supports or steps, which are carried along the slopes of the rocks, and on which the children play and run about like chamois. The few houses here belong to foreigners. Little paths lead up to them, and some have steps, which the Chilians look upon as a superfluous and altogether useless luxury. A staircase of tiled or palm-branch roofs below and above an amphitheatre of gates and gardens present a curious spectacle. At first I kept up with the naturalists, but they presently brought me to a place where I could not advance or retire a step, which decided me to return with one of my officers, and to leave them there with a hearty wish that they might bring their heads back safely to our lodgings. As for myself I expected to lose mine a thousand times before I got down again." On their return from an arduous excursion, a few leagues from Valparaiso, the marines were astonished at being arrested as they rode into the town, by a patrol, who in spite of their remonstrances compelled them to dismount. "It was Holy Thursday," says Lütke, "and from that day to Holy Saturday no one is here permitted under pain of a severe penalty either to ride, sing, dance, play on any instrument, or wear a hat. All business, work, and amusement are strictly forbidden during that time. The hill in the centre of the town with the theatre upon it is converted for the time being into a Golgotha. In the centre of a railed-in space rises a crucifix with numerous tapers and flowers about it and female figures kneeling on either side representing the witnesses of the Passion of our Lord. Pious souls come here to obtain absolution from their sins by loud prayers. I saw none but female penitents, not a single man was there amongst them. Most of them were doubtless very certain of obtaining the divine favour, for they came up playing and laughing, only assuming a contrite air when close to the object of their devotion, before which they knelt for a few minutes, resuming their pranks and laughter again directly they turned away." The intolerance and superstition met with by the visitors at every turn made the explorer reflect deeply. He regretted seeing so much force and so many resources which might have promoted the intellectual progress and material prosperity of the country wasted on perpetual revolutions. To Lütke nothing less resembled a valley of Paradise than Valparaiso and its environs: rugged mountains, broken by deep _quebradas_, a sandy plain, in the centre of which rises the town, with the lofty heights of the Andes in the background, do not, strictly speaking, form an Eden. The traces of the terrible earthquake of 1823 were not yet entirely effaced, and here and there large spaces covered with ruins were still to be seen. On the 15th April, the _Seniavine_ set sail for New Archangel, where she arrived on the 24th June, after a voyage unmarked by any special incident. The necessity for repairing the effects of the wear and tear of a voyage of ten months, and of disembarking the provisions for the company of which the _Seniavine_ was the bearer, detained Captain Lütke in the Bay of Sitka for five weeks. This part of the coast of North America presents a wild but picturesque appearance. Lofty mountains clothed to their very peaks with dense and gloomy forests form the background of the picture. At the entrance of the bay rises Mount Edgecumbe, an extinct volcano 2800 feet above the sea-level. On entering the bay the visitor finds himself in a labyrinth of islands, behind which rise the fortress, towers, and church of New Archangel, which consists of but one row of houses with gardens, a hospital, a timber-yard, and outside the palisades a large village of Kaloche Indians. At this time the population consisted of a mixture of Russians, Creoles, and Aleutians, numbering some 800 altogether, of whom three-eighths were in the service of the company. This population, however, fluctuates very much according to the season. In the summer almost every one is away at the chase, and no sooner does autumn bring the people before they are all off again fishing. New Archangel does not offer too many attractions in the way of amusements. Truth to tell, it is one of the dullest places imaginable, inexpressibly gloomy, where autumn seems to reign all through the year except for three months, when snow falls continuously. All this, however, does not of course affect the passing visitor, and for the resident there is nothing to keep up his spirits but a good stock of philosophy or a stern determination not to die of hunger. There is a good deal of remunerative trade with California, the natives, and foreign vessels. The chief furs obtained by Aleutians who hunt for the Company are those of the otter, the beaver, the fox, and the _souslic_. The natives also hunt the walrus, seal, and whale, not to speak of the herring, the cod, salmon, turbot, lote, perch, and tsouklis, a shell fish found in Queen Charlotte's Islands, used by the Company as a medium of exchange with the Americans. As for these Americans they seem to be all of one race between the 46th and 60th degrees of N. lat., such at least is the conclusion to which we are led by the study of their manners, customs, and languages. The Kaloches of Sitka claim a man of the name of Elkh as the founder of their race, favoured by the protection of the raven, first cause of all things.[4] Strange to say, this bird also plays an important part amongst the Kadiaks, who are Esquimaux. According to Lütke, the Kaloches have a tradition of a deluge and some fables which recall those of the Greek mythology. [Footnote 4: The raven was regarded by these races with superstitious dread, as having the power of healing diseases, &c.--_Trans._] Their religion is nothing more than a kind of Chamanism or belief in the power of the Chamans or magicians to ward off diseases, &c. They do not recognize a supreme God, but they believe in evil spirits, and in sorcerers who foretell the future, heal the sick, and transmit their office from father to son. They believe the soul to be immortal, and that the spirits of their chieftains do not mix with those of the common people. Slaves are slaves still after death; the far from consolatory nature of this creed is obvious. The government is patriarchal; the natives are divided into tribes, the members of which have the figures of animals as signs, after which they are also sometimes named. We meet for instance with the wolf, the raven, the bear, the eagle, &c. The slaves of the Kaloches are prisoners taken in war, and very miserable is their lot. Their masters hold the power of life and death over them. In some ceremonies, that on the death of a chief, for instance, the slaves who are no longer of use are sacrificed, or else their liberty is given to them.[5] [Footnote 5: The aim being to give up the slaves as property, it was a matter of indifference whether they were killed or set at liberty.--_Trans._] Suspicious and crafty, cruel and vindictive, the Kaloches are neither better nor worse than the neighbouring tribes. Hardened to fatigue, brave but idle, they leave all the housework to their wives, of whom they have many, polygamy being an institution amongst them. On leaving Sitka, Lütke made for Ounalashka. Ilioluk is the chief trading establishment on that island, but it only contains some twelve Russians and ten Aleutians of both sexes. This island has a good many productions which tend to make life pass pleasantly. It is rich in good pastures, and cattle-breeding is largely carried on, but it is almost entirely wanting in timber, the inhabitants being obliged to pick up the _débris_ flung up by the sea, which sometimes includes whole trunks of cypress, camphor-trees, and a kind of wood which smells like roses. At the time of Lütke's visit the people of the Fox Islands had adopted to a great extent Russian manners and costumes. They were all Christians. The Aleutians are a hardy, kind-hearted, agile race, almost living on the sea. Since 1826 several eruptions of lava have caused terrible devastation in these islands. In May, 1827, the Shishaldin volcano opened a new crater, and vomited forth flames. Lütke's instructions obliged him to explore St. Matthew's Island, which Cook had called Gore Island. The hydrographical survey was successful beyond the highest expectations, but the Russians could do nothing towards learning anything of the natural history of the island, for they were not allowed to land at all. In the meantime the winter with its usual storms and fogs was rapidly drawing on. It was of no use hoping to get to Behring Strait, and Lütke therefore made for Kamtchatka after touching at Behring Island. He remained three weeks at Petropaulovsky, which he employed in landing his cargo and preparing for his winter campaign. Lütke's instructions were now to spend the winter in the exploration of the Caroline Islands. He decided to go first to Ualan Island, which had been discovered by the French navigator Duperrey. Here a safe harbour enabled him to make some experiments with the pendulum. On his way Lütke sought in vain for Colonnas Island in N. lat. 26 degrees 9 minutes, W. long. 128 degrees. He was equally unsuccessful in his search for Dexter and St. Bartholomew Islands, though he identified the Brown coral group discovered by Butler in 1794 and arrived safely off Ualan on the 4th December. From the first the relations between the natives of this island and the Russians were extremely satisfactory. Many of the former came on board, and showed so much confidence in their visitors as to remain all night, though the vessel was still in motion. It was only with great difficulty that the _Seniavine_ entered Coquille harbour. Following the example of Duperrey, who had set up his observatory on the islet of Matanial, Lütke landed there and took his observations, whilst his people traded with the natives, who were, throughout his stay, peaceful, friendly, and civil. To check their thieving propensities, however, a chief was kept as a hostage for a couple of days, and one canoe was burnt, these new measures being completely successful. "We are glad to be able to declare in the face of the world," says Lütke, "that our stay of three weeks at Ualan cost not a drop of human blood, but that we were able to leave these friendly islanders without enlightening them further on the use of our fire-arms, which they looked upon as suitable only for the killing of birds. I don't think there is another instance of the kind in the records of any previous voyages in the South Seas." [Illustration: Native of Ualan. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] After leaving Ualan, Lütke had a vain search for the Musgrave Islands, marked on Kruzenstern's map, and soon discovered a large island, surrounded by a coral reef, which had escaped the notice of Duperrey, and is known as Puinipet, or Pornabi. Some very large and fine canoes, each manned by fourteen men, and some smaller ones, worked by two natives only, soon surrounded the vessel. Their inmates, with fierce faces and blood-shot eyes, were noisy and blustering, and did a good deal of shouting, gesticulating, and dancing before they could make up their minds to trust themselves on board the _Seniavine_. It would have been impossible to land, except by force, as the native canoes completely surrounded the vessel, and when an attempt at disembarkation was made, the savages surrounded the ship's boat, only retiring before the warlike attitude of the sailors and a volley from the guns of the _Seniavine_. Lütke had not time to examine thoroughly his discovery, to which he gave the name of the Seniavine Archipelago. The information he collected on the people of the Puinipet Islands is, therefore, not very trustworthy. According to him they do not belong to the same race as those of Ualan, but resemble rather the Papuans, the nearest of whom are those of New Ireland, seven hundred miles away. After another vain search, this time for Saint Augustine's Island, he sighted the Cora of Los Vaherites, also called Seven, or Raven Island, discovered in 1773 by the Spaniard Felipe Tompson. The navigator next saw the Mortlock Archipelago, the old Lugunor group, known to Torrés as the Lugullos, the people of which resemble those of Ualan. He landed on the principal of these islands, which he found to be one huge garden of cocoa palms and breadfruit-trees. The natives enjoy a centre degree of civilization. They weave and dye the fibres of the banana and cocoa-nut palms, as do those of Ualan and Puinipet. Their fishing-tackle does credit to their inventive faculties, especially a sort of case constructed of small sticks and split bamboo-canes, which the fish cannot get out of when once in. They also use nets of the shape of large wallets, lines, and harpoons. Their canoes, in which they spend more than half their lives, are wonderfully adapted to their requirements. The large ones, which are a very great trouble to build, and which are kept in sheds constructed specially for them, are twenty-six feet long, two and a half wide, and four deep. They are furnished with gimbals, the cross-pieces being connected by a rafter. On the other side there is a small platform, four feet square, and furnished with a roof, under which they are accustomed to keep their provisions. These pirogues have a triangular sail, which is made of matting woven from bandanus leaves, and is attached to two yards. In tacking about they drop the sail, and turn the mast towards the other end of the canoe, to which, at the same time, they have passed the fastening of the sail, so that the pirogue moves forward by its other extremity. Lütke next sighted the Namuluk group, the inhabitants of which do not differ at all from the people of Lugunor, and he proved the identity of Hogolu Island--already described by Duperrey--with Quirosa. He then visited the Namnuïto group, the first stratum of a number of islands, or of one large island which will some day exist in this part of the world. Lütke, who was in want of biscuits and other articles, which he hoped to obtain at Guam, or from vessels at anchor in that port, now set sail for the Marianne Islands, where he counted upon being able to repeat some new experiments with the pendulum, in which Freycinet had found an important anomaly of gravitation.[6] [Footnote 6: "From numerous experiments," says Freycinet, "with the pendulum, collected at our observatory at Agagna, in lat. 13 degrees 27 minutes 511 seconds 5 N. ... at the level of the sea, and with the thermometer at +20 degrees centig., we were shown that the pendulum which, in the same circumstances, would make at Paris 86,400 oscillations in 24 mean solar hours would here make 86,295 ^osc .013 in the same time."--_Trans._] Great, however, was his surprise when he arrived to find not a sign of life at Guam. No flags waved above the two ports, the silence of death reigned everywhere, and but for the presence of a schooner at anchor in the inner harbour, it might have been a desert island. There was hardly anybody about on shore, and the few people there were were half savage, from whom it was all but impossible to obtain the slightest information. Fortunately, an English deserter came and offered his services to Lütke, who sent him to the governor with a letter, which elicited a satisfactory reply. The governor was the same Medinella whose hospitality had been lauded by Kotzebue and Freycinet. There was, therefore, no difficulty in obtaining permission to set up an observatory, and to take to it the necessary provisions. The stay at Guam was, however, saddened by an accident to Lütke, who wounded himself severely in the thumb with his own gun when hunting. The repairing and refitting of the _Seniavine_, with the taking in of wood and water, delayed the explorer at Guam until the 19th March. During this time Lütke was able to verify the information collected ten years ago by Freycinet in his stay of two months in the Governor's own house. Things had not changed at all since the French traveller's visit. As it was not yet time to go north, Lütke made for the Caroline Islands, _viâ_ the Swedes Islands. The inhabitants seemed to him to be better made than their neighbours on the west, from whom, however, they differ in no other particulars. The Faraulep, Ulie, Ifuluk, and Euripeg Islands were successively examined, and on the 27th April the explorer started for the Bonin Islands, where he learnt that his exploration of that group had been anticipated by Beechey. He, therefore, took no hydrographical surveys. Two of the crew of a whaling-vessel, which had been shipwrecked on the coast, were still living at Bonin Sima. Since the rise of the great fisheries, this Archipelago has been frequented by numerous whalemen, who here find a safe port at all seasons, plenty of wood and water, turtles for six months of the year, fish, and immense quantities of anti-scorbutic plants, including the delicious savoy cabbage. "The majestic height and the vigour of the trees," says Lütke, "the productions of the tropical and temperate zones, alternating with each other, bear witness at once to the fertility of the soil and the salubrity of the climate. Most of our vegetables and pot-herbs, perhaps, indeed, all of them would certainly flourish well, as would also wheat, rice, and maize, nor could a better climate be desired for the cultivation of the vine. Domestic animals of every kind and bees would multiply rapidly. In a word, a small and industrious colony would shortly convert this little group into a fertile and flourishing settlement." On the 9th June, after a week's delay for want of wind, the _Seniavine_ entered Petropaulovsky, where it was retained taking in provisions until the 26th. A whole series of surveys were taken during this interval, of the coasts of Kamtchatka, and of the Kodiak and Tchouktchi districts, interrupted, however, by visits to Karaghinsk Island, the bay of St. Lawrence, and the gulf of Santa Cruz. During one of these visits, the captain met with a strange adventure. He had been for several days on a friendly footing with the Tchouktchis, whose knowledge of the people and customs of Russia he endeavoured to increase. "These natives," he says, "were friendly and polite, and endeavoured to pay back our jokes and tricks in our own coin. I softly patted the cheek of a sturdy Tchouktchi as a sign of kindly feeling, and suddenly received in return a box on the ear which knocked me down. Recovered from my astonishment, there I saw my Tchouktchi with a laughing face, looking like a man who has just given proof of his politeness and tact. He too had meant to give me merely a gentle tap, but it was with a hand only accustomed to deal with reindeer." The travellers were also witnesses of some proofs of the skill of a Tchouktchi conjurer, or chaman, who went behind a curtain, from which his audience soon heard a voice like the howl of a wild beast, accompanied by blows on a tambourine with a whale-bone. The curtain then rose, revealing the sorcerer balancing himself, and accompanying his own voice with blows on his drum, which he held close to his ear. Presently he flung off his jacket, leaving himself naked to the waist, took a polished stone, which he gave to Lütke to hold, took it away again, and as he passed one hand over the other the stone disappeared. Then showing a tumour on his shoulder, he pretended that the stone was in it; turned over the tumour, extracted the stone from it, and prophesied a favourable issue of the journey of the Russians. The conjuror was congratulated on his skill, and a knife was given to him as a token of gratitude. Taking this knife in his hand, he put out his tongue, and began to cut it. His mouth became full of blood, and he finally cut a piece of his tongue off, and held the piece out in his hand. Here the curtain fell, probably because the skill of the professor of legerdemain could go no further. The people inhabiting the north-east corner of Asia are known under the general name of Tchouktchis. This includes two races, one nomad, like the Samoyedes, called the Reindeer Tchouktchis; the other, living in fixed habitations, called the sedentary Tchouktchis. The mode of life, the physiognomy, and the very language of these two races differ. The idiom spoken by the sedentary Tchouktchis has great affinity with that of the Esquimaux, whom they also resemble in their mode of building their huts and leather boats, and in the instruments they use. [Illustration: Sedentary Tchouktchis.] Lütke did not see many Reindeer Tchouktchis, so that he could add nothing to the information obtained by his predecessors. He was of opinion, however, that they had been painted in unfairly gloomy colours, and that their turbulence and wildness had been grossly exaggerated. The sedentary Tchouktchis, generally called Namollos, spend the winter in sheds, and the summer in huts covered with skins. The latter usually each serve for several families. "The sons and their wives, the daughters and their husbands," says the narrative, "live together with their parents, and _vice versâ_. Each family occupies one division of the back part of the hut, curtained off from the others. The curtains are made of reindeer-skins, sewn into the shape of a bell. They are fastened to the beams of the ceiling, and reach to the ground. With the aid of the grease they burn in cold weather, two, three, and sometimes more persons so warm the air with their breath in these hermetically sealed positions that all clothing is superfluous, even with the severest frost, but only Tchouktchi lungs are fitted to respire in such an atmosphere. In the outer part of the hut cooking-utensils, pottery, baskets, seal-skin trunks, &c., are kept. Here too is the hearth, if we can so call the spot where burn a few sticks of brushwood, painfully collected in the marsh, or when they are not to be obtained, whale-bones floating in grease. Round about the hut on wooden dryers, black and disgusting looking pieces of seal's flesh are exposed to view." These people lead a miserable life. They feed upon the half-raw flesh of seals and walruses hunted by themselves, or on that of whales flung up by the waves on the beach. The dog is the only domestic animal they possess, and they treat it badly enough, although the poor creatures are very affectionate and render them great services, now towing along their canoes, now dragging their sledges over the snow. After a second stay of five weeks at Petropaulovski, the _Seniavine_ left Kamtchatka, on the 10th of November, on its way back to Europe. Before reaching Manilla, Lütke made a cruise in the northern part of the Caroline Archipelago, which he had not had time to visit during the preceding winter. He saw in succession the islands of Marileu, Falulu, Faïu, Namuniuto, Magur, Faraulep, Eap, Mogmog, and found at Manilla the sloop, the _Möller_ which was waiting his arrival. The Caroline Archipelago embraces an immense space, and the Marianne Islands, as well as the Radak group, might fitly be included in it, as containing a population perfectly identical in race. For a long time the old geographers had had for their guidance only the charts of missionaries who, lacking alike the education and the appliances necessary to estimate accurately the size, position, and relative distance of all these archipelagoes, had attached notable importance to them, and often fixed at a considerable number of degrees the extent of a group which covered only a few miles. Thus navigators accepted their guidance with wise caution. Freycinet was the first to infuse a little order into this chaos, and, thanks to his meeting with Kadu and Don Louis Torrès, he was able to identify later with earlier discoveries. Lütke did his part--and that not a small part--in the settling of an accurate and scientific chart of an archipelago which had long been the terror of navigators. The learned Russian explorer is not of the same opinion as Lesson, one of his predecessors, who connected all the inhabitants of the Caroline group with the Mongolian race, under the name of the "Mongolo-Pelagian" branch. He rather sees in them, as did Chamisso and Balbi, a branch of the Malay family, which has peopled Eastern Polynesia. Whilst Lesson compares the people of the Carolines with the Chinese and Japanese, Lütke, on the other hand, finds in their great, projecting eyes, thick lips, and _retroussé_ nose, a family likeness to the people of the Sandwich and Tonga Islands. The language does not suggest the slightest comparison with Japanese, whilst it shows a great resemblance to that of the Tonga Islands. Lütke spent the time of his sojourn at Manilla in laying in stores, and repairing the sloop, and, on the 30th of January, he left that Spanish possession for Russia, which he reached on the 6th of September, 1829, casting anchor in the roads of Cronstadt. It remains now to tell how it had fared with the sloop, the _Möller_, after the separation at Valparaiso. Arriving at Kamtchatka from Otaheite, she had left part of her cargo at Petropaulovski, and thereafter--in August, 1827--had set sail for Ounalashka, where she had remained for a month. After an examination of the west coast of America, which was cut short by unfavourable weather, and a stay at Honolulu, which extended to February, 1828, she had discovered the island Möller, noted the Necker, Gardner, and Lisiansky Islands, and marked, at a distance of six miles southwards, a very dangerous reef. The sloop had then coasted the island of Curè, the French Frigate Shoal the reef Maro, Pearl Island, and the Isle of Hermes; and, after having made search for several islands marked upon Arrowsmith's charts, had at length reached Kamtchatka. At the end of April, she had set sail for Ounalashka and taken observations of the north coast of the Alaska peninsula. In September the _Möller_ rejoined the _Seniavine_, and, from that period until their return to Russia, they were no more separated, save for brief intervals. As one may judge from the sufficiently detailed account which has just been given, this expedition did not fail to bring about results of importance to geographical science. We must add that the different branches of natural history, physics, and astronomy, owe to it equally numerous and important additions. CHAPTER II. FRENCH CIRCUMNAVIGATORS. The journey of Freycinet--Rio de Janeiro and its gipsy inhabitants--The Cape and its wines--The Bay of Sharks--Stay at Timor--Ombay Island and its cannibal inhabitants--The Papuan Islands--The pile dwellings of the Alfoers--A dinner with the Governor of Guam--Description of the Marianne Islands and their inhabitants--Particulars concerning the Sandwich Islands--Port Jackson and New South Wales--Shipwreck in Berkeley Sound--The Falkland Islands--Return to France--The voyage of the _Coquille_ under the command of Duperrey--Martin-Vaz and Trinidad-- The Island of St. Catharine--The independence of Brazil--Berkeley Sound and the remains of the _Uranie_--Stay at Conception--The civil war in Chili--The Araucanians--Discoveries in the Dangerous Archipelago--Stay at Otaheite and New Ireland--The Papuans--Stay at Ualan--The Caroline Islands and their inhabitants--Scientific results of the expeditions. The expedition under the command of Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was the result of the leisure which the Peace of 1815 brought to the French navy. The idea was started by one of its most adventurous officers, the same who had accompanied Baudin in his survey of the Australian coasts, and to him was entrusted the task of carrying it out. It was the first voyage which had not hydrography alone for its object. Its chief aim was to survey the shape of the land in the southern hemisphere, and to make observations in terrestrial magnetism, without, at the same time, omitting to give attention to all natural phenomena, and to the manners, customs, and languages of indigenous races. Purely geographical inquiries, though not altogether omitted from the programme, had the least prominent place in it. Among the medical officers of the navy, Freycinet found MM. Quoy, Gaimard, and Gaudichaud, whose attainments in natural history qualified them for being valuable coadjutors; and he also chose to accompany him several distinguished officers who had risen to high rank in the navy, the best known being Duperrey, Lamarche, Berard, and Odet-Pellion, who subsequently became, one a member of the Institute, the others superior officers or admirals. No less care was exercised by Freycinet in composing his crew chiefly of sailors who were also skilled in some trade; so that out of the 120 men who manned the corvette _Uranie_, no less than fifty could serve on occasion as carpenters, ropemakers, sailmakers, blacksmiths, or other mechanics. The _Uranie_, amply supplied with stores for two years, and provided with all sorts of apparatus of proved utility, iron cisterns for fresh water, machines for distilling salt water, preserved provisions, remedies for scurvy, &c. At last, on the 17th of September, 1817, she set sail from Toulon. On board, disguised as a sailor, was the commander's wife, who was not to be deterred from joining her husband by the dangers and hardships of so protracted a voyage. Together with all these provisions for bodily comfort, Freycinet took with him a stock of the best scientific instruments, together with minute instructions from the Institute intended to direct his researches, and to suggest the experiments best adapted to promote the progress of science. The _Uranie_ reached Rio de Janeiro on the 6th of December, having put in at Gibraltar, and made a short stay at Teneriffe, one of the Canaries, which, as Freycinet wittily observes, were not Fortunate Islands for his crew, all communication with the land being forbidden by the governors. During their stay at Rio de Janeiro the officers took a great many magnetical observations and made experiments with the pendulum, whilst the naturalists scoured the country for new specimens and curiosities, making large and important collections. The original records of the voyage contain a long narrative of the discovery and colonization of Brazil, and detailed information on the customs and manners of the people, on the temperature and the climate, as well as a minute description of the principal buildings and the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro itself. The most curious part of this account is that which touches upon the gipsies, who, at that time, were to be met with at Rio de Janeiro. "Worthy descendants of the Pariahs of India, whence these gipsies without doubt originally came," says Freycinet, "they are noted like their ancestors for every vicious practice and criminal propensity. Most of them, possessing immense wealth, make a great display in dress and in horses, especially at their weddings, which are celebrated with much expense; and they find their chief pleasure either in riotous debauchery or in sheer idleness. Knaves and liars, they cheat as much as they can in trade, and are also clever smugglers. Here, as elsewhere, these detestable people intermarry only among their own race. They speak a jargon of their own with a peculiar accent. The government most unaccountably tolerates the nuisance of their presence, and goes so far as to appropriate to their exclusive use two streets in the neighbourhood of the Campo de Santa Anna." A little further on the traveller remarks,-- "Any one who saw Rio de Janeiro only by day would come to the conclusion that the population consisted entirely of negroes. The respectable classes never go out except in the evening, unless compelled by some pressing circumstance or for the performance of religious duties; and it is in the evening that the ladies especially show themselves. During the day all remain indoors, and pass the time between their couches and their looking-glasses. The only places where a man can enjoy the society of the ladies are the theatres and the churches." During the sail from Brazil to the Cape of Good Hope nothing occurred deserving special mention. On the 7th March the _Uranie_ anchored in Table Bay. After a quarantine of three days, the travellers obtained permission to land, and were received with a hearty welcome by Governor Somerset. As soon as a place suitable for their reception had been found, the scientific instruments were brought on shore, and the usual experiments were made with the pendulum, and the variations of the magnetic needle observed. MM. Quoy and Gaimard, the naturalists, in company with several officers of the staff, made scientific excursions to Table Mountain and to the famous vineyards of Constantia. M. Gaimard observes, "The vines that we rode amongst are in the midst of alleys of oak and of pine; and the vine-stems, planted at the distance of four feet from one another, are not supported by props. Every year the vines are pruned, and the earth about them, which is of a sandy nature, is turned up. We noticed here and there plenty of peaches, apricots, apples, pears, citrons, as well as small plots cultivated as kitchen-gardens. On our return, M. Colyn insisted on our tasting the several sorts of wine which he produces,--Constantia properly so-called, both red and white, Pontac, Pierre, and Frontignac. The wine produced in other localities, which is called _Cape wine par excellence_, is manufactured from a muscatel grape of a dark straw colour, which seemed to me in flavour preferable to the grape of Provence. We have just said that there are two sorts of Constantia, the red and the white; they are both produced from muscatel grapes of different colours. People at the Cape generally prefer Frontignac to all the other wines produced from the vintages of Constantia." Exactly a month after quitting the southern extremity of Africa, the _Uranie_ cast anchor off Port Louis in the Isle of France, which, since the Treaties of 1815, has been in the hands of the English. The necessity for careening the ship, that it might be thoroughly examined, and the copper sheathing repaired, led to a much longer stay in this port than Freycinet had calculated upon; but our travellers found no cause to regret the delay, for the society of Port Louis fully sustained its old reputation for generous hospitality. The time passed quickly in excursions, receptions, dinners, balls, horse-races, and all sorts of festivities. It was, therefore, not without some regret that the French guests bade adieu to a place where they had been received with so much kindness both by their old compatriots and by those who had so lately been their bitter enemies. The stay of the _Uranie_ at the Isle of France had not, however, been sufficiently long to allow Freycinet to investigate many subjects of much interest, but this omission was remedied by the polite readiness shown by some of the leading residents in supplying him with valuable papers on the agriculture of the island, its commerce, its financial position, the industrial pursuits, and the social condition of the people, the correct appreciation of which demanded a more careful and minute examination than a mere passing traveller could possibly give to them. Since the island had come under English administration, it appeared that a number of new roads had been planned out, and a policy of reform had supplanted a benumbing system of routine fatal to all activity and progress. Bourbon was the next place touched at by the _Uranie_, where the supplies of which the travellers stood in need were to be procured from the government stores. She cast anchor off St. Denis on the 19th July, 1818, remaining in the roadstead of St. Paul until the 2nd August, when she set sail for the Bay of Sharks, on the western shores of Australia. There is little of interest to be noted in connexion with the stay at Bourbon beyond the steady increase of the population and of trade which had taken place during the century preceding the arrival of the French expedition in 1717. According to Gentil de Barbinais, there were living in the island only 900 free people, amongst whom were no more than six white families, and 1100 slaves. At the last census taken in 1817, these numbers had risen to 14,790 whites, 4342 free blacks, 49,759 slaves, making a total of 68,898 inhabitants. This large and rapid increase must be attributed partly to the salubrity of the climate, but chiefly to the freedom of trade, of which the island had for some time enjoyed the advantage. After a fortunate voyage of forty days, the _Uranie_ cast anchor at the entrance of the Bay of Sharks on the 12th September. A party was at once despatched to Dirk Hartog, in order to determine the latitude and longitude of Cape Levaillant, and to bring on board the corvette a certain metal plate which had been left there by the Dutch at a remote period, and had been seen by Freycinet in 1801. Whilst this party were away, the two alembics were set to work to distil sea-water, which was effected so successfully that as long as the vessel stayed there, no other water was drunk but that obtained by this process, and all on board were satisfied with it. On landing, the party sent to Dirk Hartog, got a view of the natives, who were armed with javelins and clubs, but had not a vestige of clothing. They, however, refused to have any close communications with the white strangers, keeping themselves at a respectful distance, and not handling any of the presents offered them without a previous careful inspection. Although the Bay of Sharks had been minutely explored at the time of the expedition under Baudin, there still remained a hydrographical gap to be filled up on the eastern side of Hamelin Bay. Accordingly Duperrey proceeded there to complete the survey of that part of the coast. At the same time Gaimard, the naturalist, not disposed to rest satisfied with the interviews which as yet he had been able to obtain with the natives of the country, whom the sound of the fire-arms had summarily dispersed, decided upon penetrating into the interior, to gain some information respecting their mode of life. His companion and himself lost their way, as also did Riche in 1792 upon Nuyt's Land, where for three days they underwent severe sufferings from thirst, not being able to find a single rivulet or spring in the country. The Expedition were well pleased when the inhospitable shores of Endracht disappeared from view. They had a pleasant passage in lovely weather, and over an unruffled sea, to the island of Timor, where on the 9th October the _Uranie_ cast anchor in the roadstead of Coupang, and the travellers met with a cordial reception from the Portuguese authorities. But they found that the prosperity which had made the colony an object of wonder and admiration to the French travellers who had visited it with Baudin, had passed away. The Rajah of Amanoubang, the district where the sandal-tree grows in such abundance, who was formerly a tributary prince, was carrying on war to gain independence. The hostilities which were proceeding were not only detrimental to the interests of the colony, but also made it very difficult for Freycinet to purchase the commodities of which he stood in need. Some of the staff set off to pay a visit to the Rajah Peters de Banacassi, whose residence was not more than three-quarters of a league from Coupang. Peters, then eighty years of age, must have been a remarkably fine man. He gave them an audience surrounded by his attendants, who treated him with profound respect, and among whom were conspicuous several warriors of gigantic stature. The dwelling that served for the royal palace was rudely constructed, yet the French travellers saw with lively surprise that articles of luxury were plentiful, and they observed also some muskets of good manufacture and great value. Notwithstanding the excessive heat of the climate, the thermometer rising in the open air to 45 degrees, and in the shade to 33 degrees, and even to 35 degrees, the commander and his officers carried on with unremitting zeal the observations and surveys which it was the object of the Expedition to make. A few fell victims to their own imprudence, for in defiance of the earnest warnings of Freycinet, some of the young officers and the seamen chose to sally forth in the middle of the day, and with the view of fortifying themselves against the injurious effects of their dangerous freak, drank and ate plentifully of cold water and sour fruits. The result was that in a short time five of the most imprudent were confined to their hammocks with dysentery. This necessitated a departure from Timor; so the _Uranie_ weighed anchor and set sail on the 23rd October. At first the corvette sailed rapidly along the north coast of Timor, for the purpose of making a survey, but when she had reached the narrowest part of the Channel of Ombay, she encountered such violent currents that--the winds being slight and contrary--it was only with great difficulty she was able to regain the course which she had lost during the calm. No less than nineteen days were wasted in this trying situation; though certain of the officers took advantage of the delay to land on the nearest point of the island of Ombay, where the coast had a very inviting appearance. They went on shore near a village called Bitouka, and advanced to meet a body of the natives, armed with shields and cuirasses made of buffalo-skin, and carrying bows, arrows, and daggers. Savages though they were, they had quite the air of warriors, and were not at all afraid of fire-arms; on the contrary, they argued that the loading of the gun caused loss of time, for while that operation was going on, they could fire off a great number of arrows. Gaimard writes, "The points of the arrows were of hard wood, or of bone, and some of iron. The arrows themselves, displayed fan-wise, were fastened on the left side of the warrior to the belt of his sword or dagger. Most of these people wore bundles of palm-leaves, slit so as to allow red or black coloured strips of the same to be passed through to hold them together, which were attached to the belt or the right thigh. The rustling sound produced with every movement of the wearers of this singular ornament, increased by knocking against the cuirass or the buckler, with the addition of the tinkling of little bells, which also formed part of the warrior's equipment, altogether made such a jumble of discordant sounds that we could not refrain from laughing. Far from taking offence, our Ombayan friends joined heartily in our merriment. M. Arago[1] greatly excited their astonishment by performing some sleight-of-hand tricks. We then took our way straight to the village of Bitouka, which was situated on a rising ground. In passing one of their cottages we happened to see about a score of human jawbones suspended from the roof, and anxious to get possession of one or two, I offered the most valuable articles I had about me in exchange. The answer was, 'palami,' they are sacred. We ascertained afterwards that these were the jawbones of their enemies, preserved as trophies of victory." [Footnote 1: Jacques Arago, brother of the illustrious astronomer.] [Illustration: Warriors of Ombay and Guebeh. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] This excursion derived greater interest from the circumstance of the island of Ombay having been up to that time rarely visited by Europeans; and the few vessels that had effected any landing brought mournful accounts of the warlike and ferocious temper of the natives, and even in some instances of their cannibal propensities. Thus in 1802 the merchant-ship _Rose_ had her small boat carried off, and the crew were detained as prisoners by the savages. Ten years later, the captain of the ship _Inacho_, who landed by himself, received several arrow wounds. Again, in 1817, an English frigate sent the cutter ashore for the purpose of getting wood, when a scrimmage took place between the crew and the natives, which ended in the former being killed and eaten. The day after, an armed sloop was despatched in quest of the missing crew; but nothing was found save some fragments of the cutter and the bloody remains of the unfortunate men. In view of these facts the French travellers must be congratulated on having escaped being entrapped by the savage cannibals, which would undoubtedly have been attempted had the _Uranie_ stayed long enough at Ombay. On the 17th of November the anchor was let go at Dili. After the customary interchange of compliments with the Portuguese governor, Freycinet made known the requirements of the expedition, and received a friendly assurance that the necessary provisions should be instantly forthcoming. The reception given to all the members of the expedition was both hearty and liberal, and when Freycinet took his leave, the governor, wishing that he should carry away some souvenir of his visit, presented him with two boys and two girls, of the ages of six and seven, natives of Failacor, a kingdom in the interior of Timor. To insure the acceptance of this present, the governor, D. José Pinto Alcofarado d'Azevado e Souza, stated that the race to which the children belonged was quite unknown in Europe. In spite of all the strong and conclusive reasons that Freycinet gave to explain why he felt compelled to decline the present, he was obliged to take charge of one of the little boys, who subsequently received the name of Joseph Antonio in baptism, but when sixteen years old died of some scrofulous disease at Paris. On a first examination it would appear that the population of Timor belonged altogether to the Asiatic race; but so far as any reliance can be placed upon somewhat extended researches, there is reason to think that in the unfrequented mountains in the centre of the island there exists a race of negroes with woolly hair, and savage manners, of the type of the indigenous races of New Guinea and New Ireland, whom one is led to consider the primitive population. This line of research, commenced at the close of the eighteenth century by an Englishman of the name of Crawford, has been in our time carried forward with striking results by the labours of the learned Doctors Broca and E. Hamy, to the latter of whom the reading public are indebted for the pleasing and instructive papers on primitive populations which have appeared in _Nature_ and in the journals of the Royal Geographical Society. After leaving Timor the _Uranie_ proceeded towards the Strait of Bourou, and in passing between the islands of Wetter and Roma got sight of the picturesque island of Gasses, clothed in the brightest and thickest verdure imaginable. The corvette was then drifted by currents almost as far as the island of Pisang, near which she fell in with three dhows, manned by natives of the island of Gueby. These people have an olive complexion, broad flat noses, and thick lips; some are strong, looking robust and athletic, others are slender and weakly in appearance; and others, again, thickset and repulsive-looking. The only clothing worn by the majority at this time was a pair of drawers fastened with a handkerchief round the waist. A landing was effected on the little island of Pisang. It was found to be of volcanic origin, and the soil, formed from the decomposition of trachytic lava, was evidently very fertile. From Pisang the corvette made her way among islands, till then scarcely known, to Rawak, where she cast anchor at noon on the 16th of December. This island, though small, is inhabited; but though our navigators were often visited by the natives of Waigiou, opportunities for studying this species of the human family have been rare. Moreover, it ought to be mentioned that through ignorance of the language of the indigenous tribes, and the difficulty of making them understand through the medium of Malayan, of which they know only a few words, even those few opportunities have not been turned to much account. As soon as a suitable position was found, the instruments were set up, and the usual physical and astronomical observations were made in conjunction with geographical researches. [Illustration: Rawak hut on piles. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The islands which Freycinet calls the islands of the Papuans are Rawak, Boni, Waigiou, and Manouran, which are situated almost immediately below the equator. The largest of these, Waigiou, is not less than seventy-two miles from one side to the other; the low shorage consists mainly of swamp and morass, while the banks, which run up steeply, are surrounded by coral reefs, and are full of small caves hollowed out by the waves. All the islets are clothed with vegetation of surprising beauty. They abound with magnificent trees, amongst which the "Barringtonia" may be recognized, with its voluminous trunk always leaning towards the sea, allowing the tips of the branches to touch the water; the "scoevola lobelia," fig-trees, mangroves, the casuarinæ, with their straight and slender stems shooting up to the height of forty feet, the rima, the takanahaka, with its trunk more than twenty feet in circumference; the cynometer, belonging to the family of leguminous plants, bright from its topmost to its lowest branches with pale red flowers and golden fruits; and besides these rarer trees, palms, nutmeg-trees, roseapple-trees, banana-trees, flourish in the low and moist ground. [Illustration: The luxuriant vegetation of the Papuan Islands.] The fauna, however, has not attained to the same exceptionally fine development as the flora. At Rawak the phalanger and the sheepdog in a wild state were the only quadrupeds met with. In Waigiou, the boar called barberossa, and a diminutive of the same race were found. But as to the feathered tribe, they were not so numerous as one might have supposed; the plants yielding grain necessary for the sustenance of birds not being able to thrive in the dense shade of the forests. Hornbills are here met with, whose wings, furnished with long feathers separated at the tips, make a very loud noise when they fly; great quantities of parrots, kingfishers, turtle-doves, piping-crows, brown hawks, crested pigeons, and possibly also birds of paradise, though the travellers did not see any specimens. The Papuans themselves are positively repulsively ugly. To quote the words of Odet-Pellion, "a flat skull, a facial angle of 75 degrees, a large mouth, eyes small and sunken, a thick nose, flat at the end and pressed down on the upper lip, a scanty beard, a peculiarity of the people of those regions already noticed, shoulders of a moderate size, a prominent belly, and slight lower limbs; these are the chief characteristics of the Papuans. Their hair both in its nature and mode of arrangement varies a good deal. Most commonly it is dressed with great pains into a matted structure not less than eight inches in height; composed of a mass of soft downy hair curling naturally; or it is frizzed up, till it positively bristles, and with the assistance of a coating of grease, is plastered round the skull in the shape of a globe. A long wooden comb of six or seven teeth is also often stuck in, not so much to aid in keeping the mass together as to give a finishing touch of ornament." These unfortunate people are afflicted with the terrible scourge of leprosy, which is so prevalent that at least a tenth part of the population are infested with the disease. The cause of this dreadful malady must be sought in the insalubrity of the climate, the miasma from the marshes, which are overflowed with sea-water every flood tide, the neighbourhood of the burial-places, which are badly kept, and perhaps also to the consumption of shell-fish which these natives devour greedily. All the houses, whether inland or on the coast, are built on piles. Many of these dwellings are erected in places extremely difficult of access. They are made by thrusting stakes into the earth, to which transverse beams are fastened with ropes made of fibre, and on these a flooring is laid of palm-leaves, trimmed and strongly intertwined one with another. These leaves, made to lap over in an artistic fashion, are also used for the roof of the house, which has only one door. Should the dwellings be built over the water, communication is carried on between them and the shore by means of a kind of bridge resting upon trestles, the movable flooring of which can be quickly taken up. Every house is also surrounded by a kind of balcony furnished with a balustrade. The travellers could not obtain any information as to the friendly disposition of these natives. Whether the whole tribe consists of large communities united under one chief or several, whether each community obeys only its own proper head, whether the population is numerous or not, are all points which could not be ascertained. The name by which they call themselves is Alfourous. They appeared to talk in several distinct dialects, which differ remarkably from Papuan or Malay. The inhabitants of this group seem to be a very industrious race. They manufacture all sorts of fishing apparatus very cleverly; they are expert in finding their way through the forests; they know how to prepare the pith of the sago-plant, and to make ovens for the cooking of the sago; they can turn pottery ware, weave mats, carpets, baskets, and can also carve idols and figures. In the harbour of Boni on the coast of Waigiou, MM. Quoy and Gaimard noticed a statue moulded in white clay, under a sort of canopy close to a tomb. It represented a man standing upright, of the natural height, with his hands raised towards heaven. The head was of wood, with the cheeks and eyes inlaid with small pieces of white shell. [Illustration: Map of Australia.] On the 6th of January, 1819, having taken in supplies at Rawak, the _Uranie_ proceeded on her voyage, and soon came in sight of the Ayou islands, mere sand-banks surrounded by breakers, of which few geographical details had been known up to that time. There was much to be done in the way of accurate survey, but unfortunately the hydrographers were sorely hindered in their work by the fever which they and some forty of the crew had contracted at Rawak. Sailing on, the Anchoret Islands came in sight on the 12th of February, and on the day following the Amirantes, but the _Uranie_ did not attempt to make for the land. Shortly after passing the Amirantes, the corvette sighted St. Bartholomew, which the inhabitants call Poulousouk. It belongs to the Caroline archipelago. A busy trade, always attended with much uproar, was soon set on foot with the indigenous people, who resisted all persuasion to come on board, conducting all their transactions, nevertheless, with admirable good faith, in no instance showing any dishonest tendencies. One after another Poulouhat, Alet, Tamatam, Allap, Tanadik, all islands belonging to this archipelago, passed before the admiring gaze of the French navigators. At length, on the 17th of March, 1819, just eighteen months from the time of quitting France, Freycinet got sight of the Marianne Islands, and cast anchor in the roads of Umata on the coast of Guam. Just as the officers of the expedition were ready to go on shore, the governor of the island, D. Medinilla y Pineda, accompanied by his lieutenant, Major D. Luis de Torrès, came on board to bid them welcome. These gentlemen showed a polite anxiety to learn what the explorers stood in need of, and engaged that all their wants should be supplied with the least possible delay. No time was lost in looking for a place suited for conversion into a temporary hospital, and one being found, the sick on board, to the number of twenty, were removed to it for treatment the very next day. A dinner to the staff of the expedition was given by the governor, and all the officers assembled in his house at the appointed hour. They found a table covered with light cakes and fruits, in the midst of which were two bowls of hot punch. Some surprise escaped the guests, in private remarks to one another, at this singular kind of banquet. Could it be a fast-day? Why did no one sit down? But as there was no interpreter to clear up these points, and as it would have been unbecoming to ask for an explanation, they kept their difficulties for solution among themselves, and paid attention to the good things before them. Soon a fresh surprise came; the table was cleared and covered with various sorts of prepared dishes--in short, a substantial and sumptuous dinner was served. The collation which had been taken at the commencement, called in the language of the country "Refresco," had been intended only to whet the appetites of the guests for what was to follow. After this, luxurious dinners became quite the rage at Guam. Two days subsequent to the governor's banquet, the officers found themselves at a dinner-party of fifty guests, where no less than forty-four separate dishes were served at each of the three courses of which the dinner consisted. Freycinet, from information he had received, relates that "this dinner cost the lives of two oxen and three fat pigs, to say nothing of poultry, game, and fish. Such a slaughter, I should think, has not been known since the marriage-feast of Gamache. No doubt our host considered that persons who had undergone so many privations during a protracted voyage ought to be compensated with an unusually profuse entertainment. The dessert showed no falling off either in abundance or in variety; it was succeeded by tea, coffee, creams, liqueurs of every description; and as the 'Refresco' had been served as usual an hour previous to dinner, it will be admitted without question that at Guam the most intrepid gourmand could find no other cause for disappointment but the limited capacity of the human stomach." However, the objects of the mission were not interfered with by all this dining and festivity. Natural history excursions, magnetical observations, the geographical survey of the island of Guam, entrusted to Duperrey, were all being pushed forward simultaneously. But in the meantime the corvette had got to moorings in the deep water off the port of St. Louis, while the chief of the Staff, as well as the sick, were housed at Agagna, the capital of the island and the seat of government. At that place, in honour of the French visitors, cock-fights took place, a kind of sport very popular in all the Spanish possessions in Oceania; dances also were given, the figures in which, it was said, contained allusions to events in the history of Mexico. The dancers, students of the Agagna college, were dressed in rich silks, imported a long time previously by the Jesuits from New Spain. Then came combats with sticks in which the Carolins took part; which again were succeeded, almost uninterruptedly by other amusements. But what Freycinet considered of most value was the mass of information concerning the customs and manners of the former inhabitants of the islands, which he obtained through Major D. Luis Torrès; who, himself born in the country, had made a constant study of this subject. Of this interesting information use will be made when the subject is presently resumed, but first some notice must be taken of an excursion to the islands Rota and Tinian, the latter of which had already become known to us through the narratives of former travellers. [Illustration: A performer of the dances of Montezuma. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] On the 22nd April a small fleet of eight proas conveyed MM. Berard, Gaudichaud, and Jacques Arago to Rota, where their arrival occasioned great surprise and alarm, explained by the fact that a report had gained currency in the island that the corvette was manned with rebels from America. Beyond Rota the proas reached Tinian, where the arid plains recalled to the travellers the desolate coasts of the land of Endracht, testifying to the considerable changes that must have taken place there since the time when Lord Anson described the place as a terrestrial Paradise. The Marianne archipelago was discovered by Magellan on the 6th March, 1521, and at first received the name of _Islas de las velas latinas_, the Isles of the lateen sails, but subsequently that of the _Ladrones_, or the Robbers. If one may trust Pigafetta, the illustrious admiral saw no islands but Tinian, Saypan, and Agoignan. Five years later they were visited by the Spaniard Loyasa, whose cordial reception was quite a contrast to that of Magellan; and in 1565 the islands were declared to be Spanish territory by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It was not, however, until 1669 that they were colonized and evangelized by Father Sanvitores. It will be understood that we should not follow Freycinet's narrative of past events in the history of this archipelago, were it not that the manuscripts and works of every kind which he was permitted to consult enabled him to treat the subject _de novo_, and throw upon it the light of real knowledge. The admiration, still lingering in the minds of the travellers, which had been aroused by the incredible fertility of the Papuan Islands and the Moluccas was no doubt calculated to weaken the impression produced by any of the Marianne Islands. The forests of Guam, though well stocked, did not present the gigantic appearance common to forest scenery in the tropics. They extended over a large part of the island, yet there were also immense spaces devoted to pasturage, where not a breadfruit-tree nor a cocoa-nut palm was to be seen. In the depths of the forests, moreover, the conquerors of the islands had created artificial glades, in order that the herds of horned cattle which they had introduced might find food and also enjoy shelter from the sun. Agoignan, an island with a very rocky coast, presented from a distance an arid and barren appearance, but is in reality thickly clothed with trees even to the summit of its highest mountains. Rota is a regular jungle, an almost impenetrable mass of brushwood, above which rise thickets of rimas, tamarind, fig, and palm trees. Tinian, too, presents anything but an agreeable appearance. The French explorers altogether missed the charming scenes described in such glowing colours by their predecessors, but the appearance of the soil, and the immense number of dead trees, led them to the conclusion that old accounts were not altogether exaggerated, especially as the southern portion of the island is now rendered quite inaccessible by its dense forests. At the time of Freycinet's visit the population of these islands was of a very mixed character, the aborigines being quite in the minority. The more highly born of the natives were formerly bigger, stronger, and better made than Europeans, but the race is degenerating, and the primitive type in its purity is now only to be met with in Rota. Capital swimmers and divers, able to walk immense distances without fatigue, every man of them had to prove his proficiency in these exercises on his marriage; but although this proficiency has been in some measure kept up, the leading characteristic of the people of the Marianne group is idleness, or perhaps to be more strictly accurate, indifference. Marriages are contracted at a very early age, the bridegroom being generally between fifteen and eighteen, the bride between twelve and fifteen. A numerous progeny is the result of these unions; instances being on record of twenty-two children born of one mother. Not only do the people of Guam suffer from many diseases, such as lung complaints, smallpox, &c., introduced by Europeans; but also from some which seem to be endemic, or in any case to have assumed a type peculiar to the place and altogether abnormal. Such are elephantiasis and leprosy, three varieties of which are met with at Guam, differing from each other alike in their symptoms and their effects. Before the conquest, the people of the Mariannes lived on the fruit of the rima or bread-tree, rice, sago, and other farinaceous plants. Their mode of cooking these articles was extremely simple, though not so much so as their style of dress, for they went about in a state of nature, unrelieved even by the traditional fig-leaf. At the present time children still wear no clothing till they are about ten years old. Alluding to this peculiar custom, Captain Pages, writing at the close of last century, says, "I found myself near a house, in front of which an Indian girl, about eleven years old, was squatted on her heels in the full blaze of the sun, without a vestige of clothing on. Her chemise lay folded on the ground in front of her. When she saw me approaching, she got up quickly and put it on again. Although still far from decently clothed, for only her shoulders were covered by it, she now considered herself properly dressed, and stood before me quite unembarrassed." Judging from the remains nearly everywhere to be met with, such as the ruins of dwellings originally supported by masonry pillars, it is plain that the population was formerly considerable. The earliest traveller who has made any reference to this subject is Lord Anson. He has given a somewhat fanciful description, which, however, the explorers in the _Uranie_ were able to corroborate, as will be seen from the following extract. "The description found in the narrative of Lord Anson's voyage is correct; but the ruins and the branches of the trees that have in some way twined themselves about the masonry pillars, wear now a very different aspect from what they did in his time. The sharp edges of the pillars have got rubbed away, and the half-globes that surmounted them have no longer their former roundness." [Illustration: Ruins of ancient pillars at Tinian. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Of the structures of more recent date only a sixth part are of stone. At Agagna may be counted several buildings possessing some interest on account of their size, if not on that of their elegance, grandeur, or the fineness of their proportions. These are the College of St. John Lateran, the church, the clergy-house, the governor's palace, and the taverns. Before the Spaniards established their sway in these islands, the natives were divided into three classes, the nobility, the inferior nobility, and the commonalty. These last, the Pariahs of the country, Freycinet remarks, though without citing his authority, were of a more diminutive stature than the other inhabitants. This difference of height is, however, scarcely a sufficient reason for pronouncing them to be of a different race from the other two classes; is it not more reasonable to conclude it to be the result of the degrading servitude to which they have been subjected? These plebeians could under no circumstances raise themselves to a higher class; and a seafaring life was forbidden to them. Each of the three castes had its own sorceresses and priestesses, or medicine-women, who each devoted her attention to the treatment of some one disorder; only no reason, however, for crediting them with any special skill in its cure. The business of canoe-building was monopolized by the nobles; who, however, allowed the inferior nobles to assist in their construction. The making of canoes was to them a work of the utmost importance, and the nobles maintained it as one of their most valuable privileges. The language spoken in the Philippine group, though it has some affinity with the Malay and Tagala dialects, has all the same a distinctive character of its own. Freycinet's narrative also contains much information on the extremely singular customs of the former population of the Mariannes, which are beyond our province, though well worthy of the attention of the philosopher and historian. The _Uranie_ had been now more than two months at anchor. It was full time to resume the work of exploration. Freycinet and his staff, therefore, devoted the few remaining days of their stay to the task of paying farewell visits and expressing their gratitude for the hearty kindness which had been so profusely shown to them. The governor, however, not only declined to admit his claim to thanks from the French travellers for the hospitable attentions heaped upon them for upwards of two months; but also refused to accept any payment for the supplies which had been furnished for the refitting of the corvette. He even went so far as to write a letter of apology for the scantiness of the provisions, the result of the drought which had desolated Guam for the previous six months, and which had prevented him from doing things as he could have wished. The final farewell took place off Agagna. "It was impossible," says Freycinet, "to take leave of the amiable man, who had loaded us with so many proofs of his friendly disposition, without being deeply affected. I was too much moved to be able to find expression for the feelings with which my heart was filled; but the tears which filled my eyes must have been to him a surer evidence than any words could have been of my gratitude and my regret." From the 5th to the 16th June the _Uranie_ occupied in an exploring cruise round the north of the Marianne Islands, in the course of which were made the observations of which the substance has been given above. The commander, wishing to make a quick passage to the Sandwich Islands, then took advantage of a breeze to gain a higher latitude, where he hoped to meet with favourable winds. But as the explorers penetrated further and further into this part of the Pacific Ocean, cold and dense fogs wrapped them round, permeating the whole vessel with damp, equally unpleasant and injurious to health. However, the crew suffered no worse inconvenience than slight colds; in fact, the change had rather a bracing effect than otherwise on men now for some time accustomed to the enervating heat of the tropics. On the 6th August the south point of Hawaï was doubled, and Freycinet made for the western side of the island, where he hoped to find a safe and convenient anchorage. A dead calm prevailing, the first and second days were spent in opening relations with the natives. The women came off in crowds immediately on the arrival of the ship, with the view of carrying on their usual trade, but the commander laid an interdict on their coming on board. The first piece of news given to the captain by one of the Areois[2] was that King Kamahamaha was dead, and that his young son Rio Rio had succeeded him. Taking advantage of a change of wind the _Uranie_ sailed on to the Bay of Karakakoa, and Freycinet was about to send an officer in advance to take soundings, when a canoe put off from the shore, having on board the governor of the island, Prince Kouakini, otherwise John Adams,[3] who promised the captain that he would find boats suitable for the taking of the necessary supplies to the corvette. This young man, about nine and twenty years of age, almost a giant in stature, but well proportioned, surprised Freycinet by the extent of his information. On being informed that the corvette was on a voyage of discovery, he inquired, "Have you doubled Cape Horn or did you come round the Cape of Good Hope?" He then asked for the latest information about Napoleon, and wished to know whether it was true that the island of St. Helena had been swallowed up with all its inhabitants! A story he had evidently heard from some facetious whalemen, but had not entirely believed. [Footnote 2: See Part II, Chapter 1, footnote 3 on the Areois.] [Footnote 3: It was the custom for the chiefs in these parts to assume new names, often for the most trifling reasons.--_Trans._] Kouakini next apprised Freycinet that though actual disturbances had not broken out on the death of Kamahamaha, yet that some of the chiefs having asserted claims to independence, the stability of the monarchy was in some danger. As a result the political situation was strained and the government was in some perplexity, a state of things which probably would soon terminate, especially if the commandant would consent to make some declaration in favour of the youthful sovereign. Freycinet landed with the prince, to pay him a return visit; and, on entering his house, was introduced to his wife, a very corpulent woman, who was lying on a European bedstead covered with matting. After this visit, the captain and his host went to visit the widows of Kamahamaha, the prince's sisters, but not being able to see them, they proceeded to the yards and workshops of the deceased king. Here were four sheds sacred to the building of large war-canoes, and others containing European boats. Farther on were seen wood for building purposes, bars of copper, quantities of fishing-nets, a forge, a cooper's workshop, and lastly, some cases belonging to the prime minister, Kraimokou, filled with all necessary appliances for navigation, such as compasses, sextants, thermometers, watches, and even a chronometer. Strangers were not allowed to inspect two other magazines in which were stored powder and other war-materials, strong liquors, iron, &c. All these places were for the present abandoned by the new sovereign, who held his court at Koaihai Bay. Freycinet, on receiving an invitation from the king, made ready to visit him there, under the guidance of a native pilot who showed himself most attentive, and was very skilful in forecasting the weather. "The monarch," writes Freycinet, "was waiting for me on the beach, dressed in the full uniform of an English captain, and surrounded by the whole of his suite. In spite of the terrible barrenness of this side of the island, the spectacle of the grotesque assemblage of men and women was not without grandeur and beauty. The king himself stood in front with his principal officers a little distance behind him; some wearing splendid mantles made of red or yellow feathers, or of scarlet cloth; others in short tippets of the same kind, but in which the two glaring colours were relieved with black; a few had helmets on their heads. This striking picture was further diversified by a number of soldiers grouped here and there, and clad in various and strange costumes." The sovereign now under notice was the same, who, with his young and charming wife, undertook at a later period a voyage to England, where they both died. Their remains were brought back to Hawaï by Captain Byron in the frigate _La Blonde_. Freycinet seized this opportunity to repeat his request for supplies of fresh provisions, and the king promised that two days should not pass before his wishes should be fully complied with. However, although the good faith of the young monarch was above suspicion, the commander soon discovered that most of the chiefs had no intention of obeying their sovereign's orders. Some little time after this, the principal officers of the staff went to pay a visit to the widows of Kamahamaha. The following amusing description of their lively reception is given by M. Quoy:--"A strange spectacle," he says, "met our view on our entrance into an apartment of narrow dimensions, where eight lumps of half naked humanity lay on the ground with their faces downwards. It was not an easy task to find space to lay ourselves down according to custom in the same manner. The attendants were constantly on the move, some carrying fans made of feathers to whisk away the flies; another a lighted pipe, which was passed from one prostrate figure to another, each taking a whiff or two, while the rest were engaged in shampooing the royal personages.... Conversation, it may readily be imagined, was not well maintained under these trying circumstances, and had it not been for some excellent watermelons which were handed to us, the tedium of the interview would have been insupportable." Freycinet next went to pay a visit to the famous John Young, who had been for so long a time the faithful friend and sagacious adviser of King Kamahamaha. Although he was then old and in bad health, he was not the less able to supply Freycinet with some valuable information about the Sandwich Islands, where he had lived for thirty years, and in the history of which he had played a prominent part. Kraimokou, the minister, during a visit which he was paying on board the _Uranie_, had caught sight of the Abbé de Quelen, the chaplain, whose costume puzzled him a good deal. As soon as he had learned that the strangely dressed person was a priest, he expressed to the commandant a desire to receive baptism. His mother, he said, had been admitted to that sacrament upon her deathbed, and she had obtained from him a promise to submit himself to the same ceremony as soon as he met with a convenient opportunity. Freycinet gave his consent, and endeavoured to make the proceeding as solemn as possible, all the more because Rio Rio requested permission to be present at it with all his suite. Every one behaved with the utmost decorum and reverence while the ceremony was taking place; but immediately on its close there was a general rush to the collation which the commandant had ordered to be prepared. It was wonderful to see how rapidly the bottles of wine and the flasks of rum and of brandy were emptied, and to witness the speedy disappearance of the viands with which the table had been covered. Fortunately the day was coming to a close, or Rio Rio and the majority of his officers and courtiers would not have been in a condition to reach the shore. In spite of this, however, it was necessary to comply with his request for two additional bottles of brandy, that he might, as he said, drink the health of the commander and success to his voyage, a request which all his attendants felt bound in politeness to make likewise. "It is not an over-statement," observes Freycinet, "to say that in the short space of two hours our distinguished guests drank and carried away what would have been sufficient to supply the wants of ten ordinary persons for three months." Several presents had been exchanged between the royal pair and the commander. Among those made by the young queen was a cloak of feathers, a kind of garment which had become exceedingly scarce in the Sandwich Islands. Freycinet was about to set sail again, when he learnt from an American captain that a merchant-vessel was lying off the island of Miow, having a large quantity of biscuit and rice on board, which there was no doubt might be purchased. This information determined Freycinet to anchor first off Raheina, among other reasons, because it was there that Kraimokou had undertaken to deliver a number of pigs, which were required for the use of the crew. But the minister displayed signal bad faith in the transaction; he tendered miserably poor pigs, and demanded an extravagantly high price; so that it was necessary to have recourse to threats before the business could be satisfactorily arranged. In this matter Kraimokou was under the misguidance of an English runaway convict from Port Jackson, and most probably had the native been left to obey the promptings of his own nature he would have acted on this occasion with the good faith and the sense of honour which were his usual characteristics. On reaching the island of Waihou, Freycinet dropped anchor off Honolulu. The hearty welcome he received from the European residents made him regret that he had not come here direct to begin with; for he was able without any delay to procure all the supplies which he had found so much difficulty in getting together at the two other islands. Boki, the governor of Waihou, received baptism from the chaplain of the _Uranie_. He was prompted apparently by no other motive than a wish to do as his brother had done, who had previously received this sacrament. He was far from having the air of intelligence common to the other natives of the various islands of the Sandwich group hitherto visited. Many observations on these natives are made in the narrative of the expedition, which are too interesting to be passed over without a brief summary here. All navigators are agreed in considering that the class of chiefs belong to a race excelling the other inhabitants, both in intelligence and in stature. It is very unusual to find one who is less than six feet in height. Obesity is very common, but chiefly among the women, who while still quite young often become enormously corpulent. The Sandwich type is strongly marked and distinct. Pretty women are numerous; but the blessing of length of days is seldom enjoyed. An old man of seventy is a rare phenomenon. This early decline and premature death must be ascribed to the persistent dissipation in which the people pass their lives. On leaving the Sandwich Islands, Freycinet found it necessary to notice carefully the curves of the magnetic equator in low latitudes.[4] Accordingly, he crowded all sail in an easterly direction. On the 7th October the _Uranie_ entered the southern hemisphere, and on the 19th of the same month the Dangerous Islands came in sight. To the eastward of the Navigators' archipelago, an island was discovered, not marked on the charts, which was named "Rose," after Madame Freycinet. This was the only actual discovery of the voyage. [Footnote 4: This refers to the line made up of the succession of points at which the magnetic needle ceases to indicate.--_Trans._] The position of the islands of Pylstaart and Howe was next rectified, and on the 13th November the lights of Port Jackson, or Sydney, were at last sighted. Freycinet had fully expected to find the town enlarged during the sixteen years that had passed since his last visit; but his astonishment was great indeed at the sight of a large and prosperous European city, set down in the midst of scenery which might almost be called wild. But as the travellers made excursions in various directions, fresh signs of the progress which the colony had made were forced on their attention. Fine roads carefully kept, bordered with the eucalyptus, styled by Pérou "the giant of the Australian forests," well constructed bridges, distances marked by milestones, proved the existence of a well organized local administration; whilst the charming cottages, the numerous herds of cattle, and the carefully cultivated fields, bore testimony to the industry and perseverance of the new colonists. Governor Macquarie, and the principal authorities of the province vied with each other in showing attention to the French travellers, who, however, persisted in declining all but a single invitation, lest the work of the mission should not receive its fair share of attention. The entertainment given by the governor took place at his country house at Paramatta, whither the officers of the expedition proceeded by water, accompanied by a military band. Several of them also visited the little town of Liverpool, built in a pleasant situation on the banks of the river George. Excursions too were made to the little villages of Richmond and Windsor, which were growing up near Hawkesbury river. At the same time a party of the staff joined in a kangaroo hunt, and crossing the Blue Mountains penetrated the Bathurst settlement. Through the friendly relations which Freycinet had established with the residents during his two visits, he was able to collect numerous interesting details respecting the Australian colony. Therefore the chapter that he devotes to New South Wales, recording the marvellous and rapid advance of this effort at colonization, excited a lively interest in France, where the development and growing prosperity of Australia were very imperfectly known. Freycinet's narrative was there quite a new revelation, well calculated to excite inquiry, and which had, moreover, the advantage of showing the exact condition of the colony so late as the year 1825. The chain of mountains at some distance from the coast, known by the name of the Australian Alps, separates New South Wales from the interior of the Australian continent. For twenty-five years this chain formed a barrier against all communication with the country beyond; but now, thanks to the energy of Governor Macquarie, the barrier has been removed. A zigzag road has been cut in the rock, thus opening the way to the colonization of wide spreading plains watered by important rivers. The loftiest summits of this chain, nearly 10,000 feet in height, are covered with snow even in the middle of summer. Whilst the elevation of the principal peaks, Mount Exmouth, Mount Cunningham, and others was being taken, it was discovered that so far from Australia possessing only one large watercourse, the Swan River, it had several, the chief being Hawkesbury River, formed by the confluence of the Nepean, the Grose, and the Brisbane; the river Murray not being yet known. At the period under notice a commencement had been made in the working of coal-mines, slate quarries, layers of solid carbonate of iron, sandstone, chalk, porphyry and jasper; but the presence of gold, the metal that was to effect so rapid a development of the young colony, had not as yet been established. The nature of the soil varies. On the sea-coast it is barren, able only to support the growth of a few stunted trees; but inland the traveller meets with fields clothed with a rich vegetation, vast pasturages in which here and there rise a few tall shrubs, and forests where giant trees entwined with an inextricable growth of underwood, defy all attempts to penetrate to their recesses. [Illustration: An Australian farm near the Blue Mountains. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] One circumstance which much surprised travellers was the apparent homogeneity of race throughout the whole of this immense continent. Take the aborigines at the Bay of Sharks, or in the land of Endracht, or by the Swan River, or at Port Jackson, and the same complexion, and the same kind of hair, the same features, the same physique, all prove indisputably that they have sprung from one common origin. Those dwelling by the rivers or on the sea coast subsist chiefly on shell or other fish, but those living in the interior trust to hunting for their food, and will eat indiscriminately the flesh of the opossum or the kangaroo, not rejecting even lizards, snakes, worms, or ants, the last named of which they manufacture into a sort of paste with the addition of their eggs and the roots of ferns. All over the continent the practice of the aborigines is to go completely naked; though they have no objection to put on any articles of European clothing that they can get possession of. It is said that in 1820 at Port Jackson there was a laughable caricature of the European style of dress to be seen in the person of an ancient negress who went about clothed in some pieces of an old woollen blanket, wearing on her head a bonnet of green silk. A few of the aborigines, however, make themselves cloaks of opossum or kangaroo skin, stitching the pieces together with the nerve-fibres of the cassowary; but this kind of garment is of rare occurrence. Though their hair is smooth, they plaster it with grease and arrange it in curls. Then inserting in the middle a tuft of grass, they raise a strange and comical superstructure, surmounted by a few cockatoo feathers; or failing these, they fasten on, with the aid of a resinous gum, a few human teeth, or some bits of bone, a dog's tail, or one or two fish bones. Although the practice of tattooing is not much in favour among the natives of New Holland, some are occasionally to be seen who have succeeded by means of sharp shells in cutting symmetrical figures upon their skins. A more general custom is that of painting on their bodies monstrous designs in red and white colours which, on their dark skins, give them an almost diabolical aspect. These savages formerly believed that after death they would take the form of children, and be transported to the clouds or to the summits of lofty trees, where, in a sort of aërial paradise, they would be regaled with plentiful repasts. But since the arrival of the Europeans their faith on this point has undergone some change, their present belief being, that metamorphosed into whites they will go to inhabit some far-off land. It is also an article of their creed that the whites themselves are no other than their own ancestors, who, having been killed in battle, have assumed the form of Europeans. [Illustration: Native Australians.] The census of 1819--one of the strictest hitherto instituted--gives the number of the colonists at 25,425; this return, it must be understood, does not take in the soldiers. The women being very much in the minority, the mother-country had made efforts to remedy the inconvenience resulting from this great disparity of the sexes, by promoting the immigration of young women, who soon married and founded families of a higher tone of morality than that of the convicts. Freycinet devotes a very long chapter in his narrative to all matters connected with political economy. The various soils and the crops suited to them; industrial pursuits; the breeding of cattle; farming economy; manufactures; foreign trade; means of communication; government;--all these subjects are treated comprehensively on the authority of documents then newly compiled, and with an ability that could scarcely have been expected from a man who had not given special attention to questions of this nature. He has, moreover, added a close inquiry into the regimen which the convicts were subjected to from the time of their arrival in the colony, the punishments they had to undergo, as also the encouragements and rewards which were readily granted to them, when earned by good behaviour. The chapter concludes with reflections full of learning and sound judgment on the probable development and future prosperity of the Australian colony. After this long and fruitful stay in New Holland, the _Uranie_ put to sea on the 25th December, 1819, and steered so as to pass to the south of New Zealand and Campbell Island, with the view of doubling Cape Horn. A few days afterwards ten fugitive convicts were discovered on board; but the corvette had left the shores of Australia too far behind to allow of their restoration. The coast of Tierra del Fuego was reached without anything worthy of special notice having occurred during a very prosperous voyage, with a prevailing west wind. On the 5th February, Cape Desolation was sighted. Having doubled Cape Horn without any difficulty, the _Uranie_ let go her anchor in the Bay of Good Success, where the shores, lined with grand forest-trees and echoing to the sound of waterfalls, presented a scene totally different from the sterile desolation generally characterizing this quarter of the globe. No long stay was, however, made there; the corvette resuming her voyage, lost no time in entering the Strait of Le Maire, notwithstanding a dense haze. Here she met with a heavy swell, a strong gale, and a mist so thick that land, sea, and sky were confounded in one general obscurity. The rain and the heavy spray raised by the storm, and the coming on of night, made it necessary to put the _Uranie_ under a close-reefed topsail and jib, under which pressure of sail she behaved splendidly. The only available course was to run before the wind, and the travellers had just begun to feel thankful for their good fortune in being driven by the storm far away from the land, when the cry was heard, "Land close ahead!" All hearts sunk with despair; shipwreck and death seemed inevitable. Freycinet alone, after a brief instant of hesitation, recovered his self-command. It was impossible that land could be ahead. He, therefore, kept on his northerly course, bearing a little east, and the correctness of his calculations was soon verified. On the next day but one the weather grew calmer; observations were taken, and as they proved the vessel to have run a great distance from the Bay of Good Success, the commander had to choose between a detention off the coast of South America, or off the Falkland Islands. The island of Conti, the Bay of Marville, and Cape Duras, were successively observed through the haze, whilst a favourable breeze speeded the corvette on her course to Berkeley Sound, fixed on as the best place for the next halt. Mutual congratulations were already being exchanged on the happy termination of the dangerous struggle, and on the fortunate escape from any serious accident during so hazardous a trip. The sailors all rejoiced, to use the words of Byron, that-- "The worst was over, and the rest seemed sure." But a severe trial was still in store for them! On entering Berkeley Sound, every man was at his post, ready to let go the anchor. The look-outs were on the watch, men were stationed in the main-shrouds to heave the lead. Then first at twenty, after at eighteen fathoms, the presence of rocks was reported. The ship was now about half a league off shore, and Freycinet thought it prudent to put her off about two points. This precaution proved fatal, for the corvette suddenly struck violently on a hidden rock. As she struck, the soundings gave fifteen fathoms to starboard, and twelve to larboard. The reef against which the corvette had run, was, therefore, not so wide as the vessel itself; in fact, it was but the pointed summit of a rock. The immediate rising of pieces of wood to the surface of the water at once gave reason for fears that the injury was serious. There was a rush to the pumps. Water was pouring into the hold. Freycinet had sent for a sail, and had it passed under the vessel in such a manner that the pressure of the water forcing it into the leak in a measure stopped it up. But it was of no avail. Although the whole ship's company, officers and sailors alike, worked at the pumps, no more could be done than just keep the water from gaining on the vessel. There was nothing for it but to run her ashore. This decision, painful as it was, had to be carried out, and it was indeed no easy task. On every side the land was girded with rocks, and only at the very bottom of the bay was there a strip of sandy beach favourable for running the ship aground. Meanwhile the wind had become contrary, night was approaching, the vessel was already half full of water. The distress of the commander can be imagined. But there was no alternative, so the vessel was stranded on Penguin Island. "This effected," to quote Freycinet, "the men were so exhausted that it was necessary to cease further work of every kind, and to allow the crew an interval of rest, all the more indispensable on account of the hardships and dangers which our present disastrous situation must entail upon all. As for myself, repose was out of the question. Tormented by a thousand harassing reflections, I could scarcely credit my own existence. The sudden transition from a position where all things seemed to smile on me, to that in which I found myself at that moment, weighed on my spirits like a horrible nightmare. It was difficult to regain the composure necessary to face fairly the painful trial. All my companions had done their duty in the frightful accident, which had all but lost us our lives, and I am glad to be able to do justice to their admirable conduct. "As soon as daylight revealed the nature of the country, a mournful gloomy look settled upon every countenance. Not a tree, not so much as a blade of grass was to be seen, not a sound was to be heard, and the silent desolation around reminded us of the Bay of Sharks." [Illustration: Berkeley Sound, in the Falkland Islands.] But there was no time to be lost in vain lamentations. Was the sea to be allowed to swallow up the journals and observations, the precious results of so much labour and so many hardships? All the papers were saved. The same good fortune did not, unfortunately, attend the collections. Several cases of specimens which were at the bottom of the hold were entirely lost; others were damaged by the sea water. The collections that sustained the chief injury were those of natural history, and the herbarium that had been put together with infinite trouble by Gaudichaud. The merino sheep, generously presented to the expedition by Mr. MacArthur, of Sydney, which it was hoped could be acclimatized in France, were brought on shore, as also were all the animals still alive. A few tents were pitched, first for the sick, happily not very numerous, and then for the officers and the crew. The provisions and ammunition taken out of the ship were carefully deposited in a place where they would be sheltered from the inclemency of the weather. The alcoholic liquors were allowed to remain on board until the time arrived for quitting the scene of the shipwreck, and during the three months of the expedition's stay here, not a single theft of rum or of brandy came to light, although no one had anything to drink but pure water. The efforts of the whole of the expedition were steadily applied to the task of trying to repair the main injuries sustained by the _Uranie_, with the exception of a few sailors told off to provide, by hunting and fishing, for the subsistence of the community. The lakes were frequented by numbers of sea-lions, geese, ducks, teal, and snipe, but it was no easy matter to procure, at one time, a sufficient quantity of these animals to serve for the food of the entire crew; at the same time, the expenditure of powder was necessarily considerable. As good luck would have it, gulls abounded in sufficient numbers to furnish a hundred and twenty men with food for four or five months, and these creatures were so stupid as to allow themselves to be knocked on the head with a stick. A few horses were also killed which had relapsed into a wild state since the departure of the colony founded by Bougainville. By the 28th February the painful conclusion was come to, that with the slender resources available, it was impracticable to repair the damage done to the _Uranie_, especially as the original injury had been aggravated by the repeated shocks occasioned by thumping on the beach. "What was to be done?" Should the explorers calmly wait until some vessel chanced to put in at Berkeley Sound? This would be to leave the sailors with nothing to do, and this enforced idleness would open the door to disorder and insubordination. Would it not be better to build a small vessel out of the wreckage of the _Uranie_? As it happened, there was a large sloop belonging to the ship; if the sides were raised, and a deck added, it might be possible to reach Monte Video, and there obtain the assistance of a vessel capable of bringing off in safety the members of the expedition and all the cargo worth preserving. This latter plan met with the approval of Freycinet, and a decision once come to, not a moment was wasted. The sailors, animated with fresh energy, rapidly pushed on the work. Now was proved the sound judgment of the commander when manning the corvette at Toulon, in selecting sailors who were also skilled in some mechanical employment. Blacksmiths, sail-makers, rope-makers, sawyers, all worked with zeal at the different tasks assigned to them. No doubts were entertained of the success of the voyage before them. Monte Video was separated from the Falkland Islands by but three hundred and fifty nautical miles, and with the winds prevailing in these latitudes at this time of year, this distance could be traversed in a few days by the _Esperance_--for so the transformed sloop was named. To provide, at the same time, against the possible contingency of the frail vessel failing to reach the Rio de la Plata, Freycinet determined to commence the construction of a schooner of a hundred tons, as soon as the sloop had taken her departure. Notwithstanding the incessant demands on the energies of all made by the arduous and varied tasks involved in reconstruction and refitting of the new vessel, the usual astronomical and physical observations, the natural history researches and the hydrographical surveys, were not neglected. No one could have imagined that the stay in Berkeley Sound was anything more than an ordinary halt for exploring purposes. At last the sloop was finished and safely launched. The instructions for Captain Duperrey, appointed to take command, were all drawn up; the crew was selected; the provisions were on board; in two days the adventurers were to sail, when on the 19th March, 1820, the cry was raised, "A sail! a sail!" A sloop under full sail was seen entering the bay. A cannon was fired several times to attract attention, and in a short time the master of the new arrival was on shore. In a few words Freycinet explained to him the misadventure which had led to the residence of the explorers upon this desolate coast. The master stated in reply that he was under the orders of the captain of an American ship, the _General Knox_, engaged in the seal-fishery at West Island, to the west of the Falklands. An officer was at once deputed to go and ascertain from the captain what succour he could render to the French travellers. The result of the interview was a demand for 135,750 francs for the conveyance of the shipwrecked strangers to Rio--an unworthy advantage to take of the necessities of the unfortunate. To such a bargain the French officer was unwilling to agree without the consent of his commander; so he begged the American captain to sail for Berkeley Sound. While these negotiations were going on, however, another ship, the _Mercury_, under command of Captain Galvin, had made its appearance in the bay. The _Mercury_ was bound from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso with cannon, but just before doubling Cape Horn she had sprung a leak, and was compelled to put in at the Falkland Islands to make the necessary repairs. It was a fortunate incident for the Frenchmen, who knew they could turn to account the competition which must result from the arrival of two ships. [Illustration: The _Mercury_ at anchor in Berkeley Sound.] Freycinet at once made an offer to Captain Galvin to repair the damage the _Mercury_ had sustained, with the materials and the labour at his command, asking in return for this service a free passage for himself and his companions to Rio de Janeiro. At the end of fifteen days the repairs of the _Mercury_ were completed. While they were going on, the negotiation with the _General Knox_ was terminated by a positive refusal on the part of Freycinet to agree to the extravagant terms proposed by the American captain. It took several days to come to a settlement with Captain Galvin, who finally made the following agreement. 1. Captain Galvin engaged to convey to Rio the wrecked persons, their papers, collections, and instruments, as well as all the cargo saved out of the _Uranie_ that could be got on board. 2. Freycinet and his people were during the passage to subsist entirely on the provisions set apart for them. 3. That the captain was to receive the sum of 97,740 francs within ten days of their arrival at Rio. By the acceptance of these truly extortionate conditions a bargain, which had cost much dispute, was finally settled. Before leaving the Falklands, however, the naturalist, Gaudichaud, planted its destitute shores with several sorts of vegetables, which he thought likely to be of service to future voyagers who might be detained there. A few particulars regarding this archipelago will not be without interest. The group, lying between 50 degrees 57 minutes, and 52 degrees 45 minutes S. latitude, and 60 degrees 4 minutes, 63 degrees 48 minutes west of the meridian of Paris, consists of several islets and two principal islands, named Conti and Maidenland. Berkeley Sound, situated in the extreme east of the Conti Island, is a wide opening, rather deep than extensive, with a shelving rocky coast. The temperature of the islands is milder than one would expect from the high latitude. Snow does not fall in any great quantity, and does not remain even on the summits of the highest hills longer than for about two months. The streams are never frozen, and the lakes and marshes are never covered with ice hard enough to bear the weight of a man, for more than twenty-four hours consecutively. From the observations of Weddell, who visited these parts between 1822 and 1824, the temperature must have risen considerably during the last forty years in consequence of a change in the direction taken by the icebergs which melt away in the mid-Atlantic. M. Quoy, the naturalist, judging from the shallowness of the sea between the Falkland Islands and South America, as well as the resemblance of their grassy plains to the pampas of Buenos Ayres, is of opinion that they once formed part of the continent. These plains are low, marshy, covered with tall grass and shrubs, and are inundated in the winter. Peat is abundant and makes excellent fuel. The character of the soil has proved an obstacle to the growth of the trees which Bougainville endeavoured to acclimatize, of which scarce a vestige remained at the time of Freycinet's visit. The plant which reaches the greatest height and grows most plentifully is a species of sword-grass, excellent food for cattle, and serving also as a place of shelter to numbers of seals and multitudes of gulls. It is this high grass which sailors have taken from a distance for bushes. The only vegetables growing on these islands of any use to man are celery, scurvy-grass, watercress, dandelion, raspberries, sorrel, and pimpernel. Both French and Spanish colonists had at different times imported into these islands oxen, horses, and pigs, which had multiplied to a singular extent in the island of Conti; but the persistent hunting of them by the crews of the whaling ships must tend to considerably reduce their numbers. The only quadruped indigenous to the Falkland Islands is the Antarctic dog, the muzzle of which strikingly resembles that of the fox. It has therefore had the name dog-fox, or wolf-fox, given to it by whalers. These animals are so fierce that they rushed into the water to attack Byron's sailors. They, however, find rabbits enough, whose reproductive powers are limitless, to satisfy them; but the seals, which the dogs attack without any fear, manage to escape from them. The _Mercury_ set sail on the 28th of April, 1821, to convey Freycinet and his crew to the port of Rio de Janeiro. But one point Captain Galvin had failed to take into his reckoning,--his ship, equipped under the flag of the Independent State of Buenos Ayres, then at war with the Portuguese, would be seized on entering the harbour of Rio, and he himself with all his crew would be made prisoners. On this he endeavoured to make Freycinet cancel the engagement between them, hoping to prevail on him to land at Monte Video. But as Freycinet would not agree to this proposal on any ground, a new contract had to be substituted for the original one. According to the latter arrangement Freycinet became proprietor of the _Mercury_ on behalf of the French navy by payment of the sum stipulated under the first contract. The ship was renamed the _Physicienne_, and reached Monte Video on the 8th of May, where the command was taken over by Freycinet. The stay at Monte Video was made use of for arming the vessel, arranging its trim, repairing the rigging, taking on board the supply of water and provisions requisite for the trip to Rio de Janeiro; before reaching which port, however, several serious defects in the ship had been discovered. The appearance of the _Physicienne_ was so distinctly mercantile that on entering the port of Rio, though the flag of a man-of-war was flying at the masthead, the customs officers were deceived and proposed to inspect her as a merchant-vessel. Extensive repairs were absolutely necessary, and the making of them compelled Freycinet to remain at Rio until the 18th of September. He was then able to take his departure direct for France; and on the 13th of November, 1820, he cast anchor in the port of Havre, after an absence of three years and two months, during which time he had sailed over 18,862 nautical miles. A few days after his return, Freycinet proceeded to Paris, suffering from a severe illness, and forwarded to the secretary of the Academy of Sciences the scientific records of the voyage, which made no less than thirty-one quarto volumes. At the same time, the naturalists attached to the expedition, MM. Quoy, Gaimard, and Gaudichaud, submitted the specimens which they had collected. Among these were four previously unknown species of mammiferous animals, forty-five of fishes, thirty of reptiles, besides rare kinds of molluscs, polypes, annelides, &c., &c. The rules of the French service required that Freycinet should be summoned before a council of war to answer for the loss of his ship. The trial terminated in a unanimous verdict of acquittal from all blame, the council expressing at the same time their hearty acknowledgment of the energy and ability displayed by the commander, approving, moreover, the skilful and careful measures he had taken to remedy the disastrous results of his shipwreck. A few days after, being received by the king, Louis XVIII., his Majesty, accompanying him to the door, said, "You entered here the captain of a frigate, you depart the captain of a ship of the line. Offer me no thanks; reply in the words used by Jean Bart to Louis XIV., 'Sire, you have done well!'" From that time Freycinet devoted himself entirely to the task of publishing the notes of his travels. The meagre account which has been given here will serve to show how extensive these notes were. But the extreme conscientiousness of the explorer prevented him from publishing anything which was not complete, and he was bent on placing his work in advance of the recognized boundaries of knowledge at that date. Even the mere classification of the vast quantity of material which he had collected during his voyage demanded a large expenditure of time. Thus it was that when surprised by death on the 18th of August, 1842, he had not put the last finishing touch to one of the most curious and novel divisions of his work, that relating to the languages of Oceania with special reference to that of the Marianne Islands. At the close of the year 1821 the Marquis de Clermont Tonnerre, then Minister of Marine, received the scheme of a new voyage from two young officers, MM. Duperrey and Dumont d'Urville. The former, second in command to Freycinet on board the _Uranie_, after having rendered valuable assistance to the expedition by his scientific researches and surveys, had within the year returned to France; the other, the colleague of Captain Garnier, had brought himself into notice during the hydrographical cruises in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, which it had fallen to Captain Garnier to complete. He had a fine taste for botany and art, and had been one of the first to draw attention to the artistic value of the Venus of Milos which had just been discovered. These two young _savants_ proposed in the plan submitted by them to make special researches into three departments of natural science--magnetism, meteorology, and the configuration of the globe. "In the geographical department," said Duperrey, "we would propose to verify or to rectify, either by direct, or by chronometrical observations, the position of a great number of points in different parts of the globe, especially among the numerous island groups of the Pacific Ocean, notorious for shipwrecks, and so remarkable for the character and the form of the shoals, sandbanks, and reefs, of which they in part consist; also to trace new routes through the Dangerous Archipelago and the Society Islands, side by side with those taken by Quiros, Wallis, Bougainville, and Cook; to carry on hydrographical surveys in continuation of those made in the voyages of D'Entrecasteaux and of Freycinet in Polynesia, New Holland, and the Molucca Islands; and particularly to visit the Caroline Islands, discovered by Magellan, about which, with the exception of the eastern side, examined in our own time by Captain Kotzebue, we have only very vague information, communicated by the missionaries, and by them learnt from stories told by savages who had lost their way and were driven in their canoes upon the Marianne Islands. The languages, character, and customs of these islanders must also receive special and careful attention." The naval doctors, Garnon and Lesson, were placed in charge of the natural history department, whilst the staff was composed of officers most remarkable for their scientific attainments, among whom may be mentioned MM. Lesage, Jacquinot, Bérard, Lottin, De Blois, and De Blosseville. The Academy of Sciences took up the plan of research submitted by the originators of this expedition with much enthusiasm, and furnished them with minute instructions, in which were set forth with care the points on which accurate scientific information was especially desirable. At the same time the instruments supplied to the explorers were the most finished and complete of their kind. The vessel chosen for the expedition was the _Coquille_, a small ship, not drawing more than from twelve to thirteen feet of water, which was lying in ordinary at Toulon. The time spent in refitting, stowing the cargo, arming the ship, prevented the expedition from starting earlier than the 11th of August, 1822. The island of Teneriffe was reached on the 28th of the same month, and there the officers hoped to be able to make a few gleanings after the rich harvest of knowledge which their predecessors had reaped; but the Council of Health in the island, having received information of an outbreak of yellow fever on the shores of the Mediterranean, imposed on the _Coquille_ a quarantine of fifteen days. It happened, however, that at that period political opinion was in a state of fervid excitement at Teneriffe, and party spirit ran so high in society that the inhabitants found it hard to come together without also coming to blows. Under these circumstances it is easy to imagine that the French officers did not indulge in violent regrets over the privations which they had to sustain. The eight days during which their stay at Teneriffe lasted were given up exclusively to the revictualling of the ship, and to magnetic and astronomical observations. Towards the end of September anchor was weighed, and on the 6th of October the work of surveying the islands of Martin-Vaz and of Trinidad was commenced. The former are nothing more than bare rocks rising out of the sea, of a most forbidding aspect. The island of Trinidad is high land, rugged and barren, with a few trees crowning the southern point. This island is none other than the famous Ascençao--now called Ascension--which for three centuries had been the object of exploring research. In 1700 it was taken possession of by the celebrated Halley in the name of the English Government, but it had to be ceded to the Portuguese, who formed a settlement there. La Pérouse found it still in existence at the same place in 1785. The settlement, which turned out expensive and useless, was abandoned a short time after the visit just referred to, and the island was left in the occupation of the dogs, pigs, and goats, whose progenitors had entered the island in company with the early colonists. When he left the island of Trinidad, Duperrey purposed to steer a direct course for the Falkland Islands; but an accidental damage, in the repair of which no time was to be lost, compelled him to alter his course for the island of St. Catherine, where only he could obtain without any delay the wood required for new yards and masts, as well as provisions, which from their abundance could there be bought very cheap. As he drew near to the island he was delighted with the grand and picturesque scene presented by its dense forests, where laurel-trees, sassafras, cedars, orange-trees, and mangroves intermingled with banana and other palms, with their feathery foliage waving gracefully in the breeze. Just four days before the corvette anchored off St. Catherine, Brazil had cast off the authority of the mother-country, and declared its independence by the proclamation of Prince Don Pedro d'Alcantara as Emperor. This led the commander to despatch a mission consisting of MM. d'Urville, de Blosseville, Gabert, and Garnot to the capital of the island, Nossa-Senhora-del-Desterro, to make inquiries about the political change, and learn how far it might modify the friendly relations of the country with France. It appeared that the administration of the province was in the hands of a Junto, but orders were at once given to allow the French travellers to cut what wood they might stand in need of, and the Governor of the Fort of Santa Cruz was requested to further the scientific inquiries of the Expedition by all the means at his command. As to provisions, however, there was considerable difficulty, for the merchants had transferred their funds to Rio, in apprehension of what the political change might result in. It is probable that this circumstance accounts for the commander of the _Coquille_ finding the course of business not run smooth in a port which had received the warm recommendations of Captains Kruzenstern and Kotzebue. The narrative of the travellers states that "the inhabitants were living in expectation of the island being shortly attacked with the view to recolonization, which they considered would be tantamount to their enslavement. The decree issued on the 1st August, 1822, calling on all Brazilians to arm themselves for the defence of their shores and proclaiming under all circumstances a war of partisans had given rise to these fears. The measures which Prince Don Pedro propounded were equally generous and vigorous, and had created a favourable opinion of his character and of his desire to promote freedom. Full of confidence in his purposes, the strong party in favour of independence were filled with enthusiasm expressing itself all the more boisterously as for so long a time their fervid aspirations had been kept under restraint. They now gave open demonstration of their joy by making the towns of Nossa-Senhora-del-Desterro, Laguna, and San Francisco one blaze of light with their illuminations, and marching through the streets singing verses in honour of Don Pedro." But the excitement which had been thus strikingly manifested in the towns was not shared by the quiet peace-loving dwellers in the rural districts, to whose breasts political passion was an entire stranger. And there cannot be a doubt that, if Portugal had been in a position to enforce her decrees by the despatch of a fleet, the province would have been easily reconquered. The _Coquille_ set sail again on the 30th October. When to the east of Rio de la Plata she was caught in one of those formidable gales, there called _pampero_, but had the good fortune to weather it without sustaining any damage. While in this part of the ocean Duperrey made some interesting observations on the current of the Plate River. Freycinet had already established the fact of its flowing at the rate of two miles and a half an hour, at a distance of a hundred leagues to the east of Monte Video. It was reserved to the commander of the _Coquille_ to ascertain that the current is sensibly felt at a much greater distance; he proved moreover that the water of the river resisted by that of the ocean is forcibly divided into two branches running in the direction of the two banks of the river at its mouth; and finally he accounts for the comparative shallowness of the sea down to the shores of the Magellan Strait by the immense residuum of earth held in suspension by the waters of the La Plata and deposited daily along the coast of South America. Before entering Berkeley Sound the _Coquille_, driven by a favourable breeze, passed immense shoals of whales and dolphins, flocks of gulls and numerous flying fish, the ordinary tenants of those tempestuous regions. The Falkland Isles were reached, and Duperrey with a few of his fellow-travellers felt a lively pleasure at revisiting the land which had been to them a place of refuge for three months after their shipwreck in the _Uranie_. They paid a visit to the spot where the camp had been pitched. The remains of the corvette were almost entirely imbedded in sand, and what was visible of it bore marks of the appropriations which had been made by the whalers who had followed them in that place. On all sides were scattered miscellaneous fragments, carronades with the knobs broken off, pieces of the rigging, tattered clothes, shreds of sails, unrecognizable rags, mingled with the bones of the animals which the castaways had killed for food. "This scene of our recent calamity," Duperrey observes, "wore an aspect of desolation which was rendered still gloomier by the barrenness of the land and the dark rainy weather prevailing at the time of our visit. Nevertheless, it had for us an inexplicable sort of attraction and left a melancholy impression on our minds, which was not effaced till long after we had left the Falkland Islands well behind us." [Illustration: The wreck of the _Uranie_.] The stay of Duperrey at the Falklands was prolonged to the 17th December. He took up his residence in the midst of the ruins of the settlement founded by Bougainville, in order to execute certain repairs which the condition of his vessel required. The crew provided themselves by fishing and hunting with an ample supply of food; everything necessary was found in abundance, except fruit and vegetables; and having laid in abundant stores, all prepared to confront the dangers of the passage round Cape Horn. At first the _Coquille_ had to struggle against strong winds from the south-west and violent currents; these were succeeded by squalls and hazy weather until the island of Mocha was reached on the 19th January, 1823. Of this island a brief mention has already been made. Duperrey places it in 38 degrees 20 minutes 30 seconds S. lat., and 76 degrees 21 minutes 55 seconds W. long., and reckons it to be about twenty-four miles in circumference. Consisting of a chain of mountains of moderate elevation, sloping down towards the sea, it was the rendezvous of the early explorers of the Pacific. It furnished the ships touching there, now a merchantman, now a pirate, with horses and with wild pigs, the flesh of which had a well-known reputation for delicacy of flavour. Here was also a good supply of pure fresh water, as well as of some European fruits, such as apples, peaches, and cherries, the growth of trees planted here by those who first took possession of the island. In 1823, however, these resources had all but disappeared, through the wasteful practices of improvident whalers. At no great distance might be seen the two round eminences which mark the mouth of the river Bio-Bio, the small island of Quebra-Ollas, and that of Quiriquina, and, these passed, the Bay of Conception opened to view, where was a solitary English whaler about to double the Cape, to which was entrusted the correspondence for home, as well as the notes of the work that had already been accomplished. On the day after the arrival of the _Coquille_, as soon as the morning sun had lit up the bay, the melancholy and desolate appearance of the place, which had taken every one by surprise on the previous evening, became still more depressing. The name of the town was Talcahuano; and the picture it presented was one of houses in ruins and silent streets. A few wretched canoes, ready to fall to pieces, were on the beach; near them loitered a few poorly clad fishermen; while in front of the tumble-down cottages and roofless huts sat women in rags employed in combing one another's hair. In contrast with this human squalor, the surrounding hills and woods, the gardens and the orchards, were clothed in the most splendid foliage; on every side flowers displayed their gorgeous colours, and fruits proclaimed their ripeness in tints of gold. Overhead a glowing sun, a sky without a cloud, completed the bitter irony of the spectacle. All this ruin, desolation, and wretchedness were the outward and visible signs of a series of revolutions. At St. Catherine the French travellers had been witnesses of the declaration of Brazilian independence; on the opposite side of the continent they were spectators of the downfall of Director O'Higgins. This official had evaded the summons of the Congress, had sacrificed the interests of the agricultural community to those of the traders and merchants, by the imposition of direct taxes and the lowering of customs duties; was openly accused, as well as his ministers, of peculation; and as the result of all this malversation the greater part of the population had risen in revolt. The movement against O'Higgins was led by a General D. Ramon Freire y Serrano, who gave formal assurances to the explorers that the political disturbance should be no impediment to the revictualling of the _Coquille_. On the 26th January two corvettes arrived at Conception. They brought a regiment under the command of a French official, Colonel Beauchef, who came to assist General Freire. The regiment, which had been organized by the exertions of Colonel Beauchef, was in point of steadiness, discipline, and knowledge of drill, one of the smartest in the Chilian army. On the 2nd February the officers of the _Coquille_ proceeded to Conception, to pay a visit to General Freire. The nearer they approached the city the more fields were lying waste, the more ruined houses were seen, the fewer people were visible, while their clothing had almost reached the vanishing-point. At the entrance of the town itself stood a mast, with the head of a notorious bandit affixed to the top, one Benavidez, a ferocious savage, more wild beast than man, whose name was long execrated in Chili for the horrible atrocities he had committed. The interior of the town was found as desolate in appearance as the approach to it. Having been set fire to by each party that had successively been victorious, Conception was nothing more than a heap of ruins, amongst which loitered a little remnant of scantily clothed inhabitants, the wretched residuum of a once flourishing population. Grass was growing in the streets, the bishop's palace and the cathedral were the only buildings still standing, and these, roofless and gutted, would not be able much longer to resist the dilapidating influence of the climate. General Freire, before placing himself in opposition to O'Higgins, had arranged a peace with the Araucanians, an indigenous tribe distinguished for their bravery, who had not only maintained their own independence but were always ready, when opportunity offered, to encroach on the Spanish territory. Some of these natives were employed as auxiliary troops in the Chilian army. Duperrey saw them, and, having obtained from General Freire and Colonel Beauchef trustworthy information, has given a not very flattering description of them, of which the substance shall be here given. The Araucanians are of an ordinary stature, in complexion copper-coloured, with small, black, vivacious eyes, a rather flat nose, and thick lips; the result of which is an expression of brutal ferocity. Divided into tribes, each one jealous of another, all animated by an unbridled lust of plunder, and ever on the move, their lives are spent in perpetual warfare. The mounted Araucanian is armed with a long lance, a long cutlass, sabre-shaped, called a "_Machete_,"[5] and the lasso, in the use of which they are extremely expert, while the horse he rides is usually swift. [Footnote 5: This is a weapon shorter than a sword and longer than a dagger.--_Trans._] "Sometimes they are known," says Duperrey, "to receive under their protection vanquished enemies and become their defenders; but the motive prompting them to this seemingly generous conduct is always one of special vindictiveness; the fact being that their real object is the total extermination of some tribe allied with the opposite party. Among themselves hatred is the ruling passion; it is the only enduring bond of fidelity. All display undoubted courage, spirit, recklessness, implacability towards their enemies, whom they massacre with a shocking insensibility. Haughty in manner and revengeful in disposition, they treat all strangers with unqualified suspicion, but they are hospitable and generous to all whom they take as friends. All their passions are easily excited, but they are inordinately sensitive with regard to their liberty and their rights, which they are ever ready to defend sword in hand. Never forgetting an injury, they know not how to forgive; nothing less than the life-blood of their enemies can quench their thirst for vengeance." Duperrey pledges himself to the truth of the picture which he has here drawn of these savage children of the Andes, who at least deserve the credit of having from the sixteenth century to the present day managed to preserve their independence against the attacks of all invaders. After the departure of General Freire, and the troops he led away with him, Duperrey took advantage of the opportunity to get his vessel provisioned as quickly as possible. The water and the biscuits were soon on board; but longer time was necessary to procure supplies of coal, which, however, was to be got without any other expense save that of paying the muleteers, who transported it to the beach from a mine scarcely beneath the level of the earth, where it was to be picked up for nothing. Although the events happening at Conception during the detention there of the _Coquille_ were far from being cheerful, the prevailing depression could not hold out against the traditional festivities of the Carnival. Dinners, receptions, and balls recommenced, and the departure of the troops made itself felt only in the paucity of cavaliers. The French officers, in acknowledgment of the hospitable welcome offered to them, gave two balls at Talcahuano, and several families came from Conception for the sole purpose of being present at them. Unfortunately, Duperrey's narrative breaks off at the date of his quitting Chili, and there is no longer any official record from which to gather the details of a voyage so interesting and successful. Far from being able to trace step by step from original documents the course of the expedition, as has been done in the case of other travellers, we are obliged in our turn to epitomize other epitomes now lying before us. It is an unpleasing task; as little agreeable to the reader as it is difficult for the writer, who, while bound to respect facts, is no longer able to enliven his narrative with personal observations, and the generally lively stories of the travellers themselves. However, some few of the letters of the navigator to the Minister of Marine have been published, from which have been extracted the following details. On the 15th February, 1823, the _Coquille_ set sail from Conception for Payta, the place where, in 1595, Alvarez de Mendana and Fernandez de Quiros took ship on the voyage of discovery that has made their names famous; but after a fortnight's sail the corvette was becalmed in the vicinity of the island of Laurenzo, and Duperrey resolved to put in at Callao to obtain fresh provisions. It need not be said that Callao is the port of Lima; so the officers could not lose the opportunity of paying a visit to the capital of Peru. They were not fortunate in the time of their visit. The ladies were away for sea-bathing at Miraflores, and the men of most distinction in the place had gone with them. The travellers were thus compelled to rest content with an inspection of the chief residences and public buildings of the city, returning to Callao on the 4th March. On the 9th of the same month the _Coquille_ anchored at Payta. The situation of this place between the terrestrial and magnetic equators was most favourable for conducting observations on the variations of the magnetic needle. The naturalists also made excursions to the desert of Pierra, where they collected specimens of petrified shells imbedded in a tertiary stratum precisely similar to that in the suburbs of Paris. As soon as all the sources of scientific interest at Payta had been exhausted the _Coquille_ resumed her voyage, setting sail for Otaheite. During the sail thither a circumstance occurred which might have materially delayed the progress of the expedition, if not have led to its total destruction. On the night of the 22nd April, the _Coquille_ being in the waters of the Dangerous Archipelago, the officer of the watch all at once heard the sound of breakers dashing over reefs. He immediately made the ship lie to, and at daybreak the peril which had been escaped became manifest. At the distance of barely a mile and a half from the corvette lay a low island, well wooded, and fringed with rocks along its entire extent. A few people lived on it, some of whom approached the vessel in a canoe, but none of them would venture on board. Duperrey had to give up all thoughts of visiting the island, which received the name of Clermont-Tonnerre. On all sides the waves broke violently on the rocks, and he could do no more than coast it from end to end at a little distance. The next and following days some small islands of no note were discovered, to which were given the names of Augier, Freycinet, and Lostanges. At length, as the sun rose on the 3rd May, the verdant shores and woody mountains of Otaheite came in sight. Duperrey, like preceding visitors, could not help noticing the thorough change which had been effected in the manners and practices of the natives. Not a canoe came alongside the _Coquille_. It was the hour of Divine worship when the corvette entered the Bay of Matavai, and the missionaries had collected the whole population of the island, to the number of seven thousand, inside the principal church of Papahoa to discuss the articles of a new code of laws. The Otaheitan orators, it seems, would not yield the palm to those of Europe. There were not a few of them gifted with the valuable talent of being able to talk for several hours without saying anything, and to make an end of the most promising undertakings with the flowers of their rhetoric. A description of one of these meetings is given by D'Urville. "M. Lejeune, the draughtsman of the expedition, went by himself to be present at the meeting held the next day, when certain political questions were submitted to the popular assembly. It lasted for several hours, during which the chiefs took it in turn to speak. The most brilliant speaker of the gathering was a chief called Tati. The chief point of discussion was the imposition of an annual poll-tax at the rate of five measures of oil per man. Then came a question as to the taxes which were to be levied, whether they should be on behalf of the king, or on behalf of the missionaries. After some time, we arrived at the conclusion that the first question had been answered in the affirmative; but that the second, the one relating to the missionaries, had been postponed by themselves from a forecast of its probable failure. About four thousand persons were present at this kind of national congress." Two months before, Otaheite had renounced the English flag, in order to adopt one of its own, but that pacific revolution in no wise diminished the confidence which the people placed in their missionaries. The latter received the French travellers in a friendly manner, and supplied them at the usual prices with the stores of which they stood in need. But what seemed especially curious in the reforms effected by the missionaries was the total change in the behaviour of the women. From being, according to the statements of Cook, Bougainville, and contemporary explorers, compliant to an unheard of degree, they had become most modest, reserved, and decently conducted; so that the whole island wore the air of a convent, a revolution as amusing as it was unnatural. From Otaheite the _Coquille_ proceeded to the adjacent island of Borabora, belonging to the same group, where European customs had been adopted to the same extent; and on the 9th June, steering a westerly course, made a survey in turn of the islands Salvage, Coa, Santa Cruz, Bougainville, and Bouka; finally coming to an anchor in the harbour of Praslin, on the coast of New Ireland, famous for its beautiful waterfall. "The friendly relations which were established with the natives there were the means of extending our knowledge of the human race by the observation of some peculiarities which had not fallen under the notice of preceding travellers." The sentence just quoted from an abridged account appearing in the "Annals of Voyages," which merely excites curiosity without satisfying it, causes us here to express our regret that the original narrative of the voyage has not been published in its entirety. [Illustration: The waterfall of Port Praslin. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The student Porel de Blossville--the same who afterwards lost his life with the _Lilloise_ in the Polar regions--undertook a journey to the village of Praslin, in spite of all the means adopted by the savages to deter him. When there he was shown a kind of temple, where several ill-shaped, grotesque idols had been set up on a platform surrounded by walls. Great pains were taken to prepare a chart of St. George's Channel, after which Duperrey paid a visit to the islands previously surveyed by Schouten to the north-east of New Guinea. Three days--the 26th, 27th, and 28th--were devoted to a survey of them. The explorer, after this, searched ineffectually for the islands Stephen and De Carteret, and after comparing his own route with that taken by D'Entrecasteaux in 1792, he came to the conclusion that this group must be identical with that of Providence, discovered long since by Dampier. On the 3rd of September the north cape of New Guinea was recognized. Three days later the _Coquille_ entered the narrow and rocky harbour of Offak on the north-west coast of Waigiou, one of the Papuan islands. The only navigator who has mentioned this harbour is Forest. Duperrey therefore felt unusual satisfaction at having explored a corner of the earth all but untrodden by the foot of the European. It was also an interesting fact for geographers that the existence of a southern bay, separated from Offak by a very narrow isthmus, was established. Two officers, MM. d'Urville and de Blossville, were employed in this work, which MM. Berard, Lottin, and de Blois de la Calande connected with that accomplished by Duperrey on the coast during the cruise of the _Uranie_. This land was found to be particularly rich in vegetable products, and D'Urville was able there to form the nucleus of a collection as valuable for the novelty as the beauty of its specimens. D'Urville and Lesson, full of curiosity to study the inhabitants, who belonged to the Papuan race, started for the shore immediately after the corvette arrived at the island in a boat manned with seven sailors. They had already walked some distance in a deluge of rain, when all at once they found themselves opposite a cottage built upon piles, and covered over with leaves of the plane-tree. Cowering amongst the bushes, at a little distance, was a young female savage, who seemed to be watching them. A few paces nearer was a heap of about a dozen cocoa-nuts freshly gathered, placed well in sight, apparently intended for the refreshment of the visitors. The Frenchmen came to understand that this was a present offered by the youthful savage of whom they had caught a glimpse, and proceeded to feast on the fruits so opportunely placed at their disposal. The native girl, soon gathering confidence from the quiet behaviour of the strangers, came forward, crying, "_Bongous!_" (good!), making signs to show that the cocoa-nuts had been presented by herself. Her delicate attention was rewarded by the gift of a necklace and earrings. When D'Urville regained the boat he found a dozen Papuans playing, eating, and seeming on the best possible terms with the boatmen. "In a short time," he says, "they had surrounded me, repeating, '_Captain, bongous_,' and offering various tokens of good will. These people are, in general, of diminutive stature, their constitution is slight and feeble; leprosy is a common disease among them; their voice is soft, their behaviour grave, polite, and even marked with a certain air of melancholy that is habitually characteristic of them." [Illustration: Natives of New Guinea. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Among the antique statues of which the Louvre is full, there is one of Polyhymnia, which is celebrated above the rest for an expression of melancholy pensiveness not usually found among the ancients. It is a singular circumstance that D'Urville should have observed among the Papuans the very expression of countenance distinguishing this antique statue. On board the corvette another company of natives were conducting themselves with a calmness and reserve, offering a marked contrast to the usual manner of the greater part of the inhabitants of the lands of Oceania. The same impression was made on the French travellers during a visit paid to the rajah of the island, as also during his return visit on board the _Coquille_. In one of the villages on this southern bay was observed a kind of temple, in which were to be seen several rudely carved statues, painted over with various colours, and ornamented with feathers and matting. It was quite impossible to obtain the slightest information on the subject of the worship which the natives paid to these idols. The _Coquille_ set sail again on the 16th September, coasting along the north side of the islands lying between Een and Yang, and after a brief stay at Cayeli reached Amboyna, where the remarkably kind reception given by M. Merkus, the governor of the Molucca Island, afforded the staff an interval of rest from the continual labours of this troublesome voyage. The 27th October saw the corvette again on its course, steering towards Timor and westward of the Turtle and Lucepara Islands. Duperrey next determined the position of the island of Vulcan; sighted the islands of Wetter, Baba, Dog, Cambing, and finally, entering the channel of Ombay, surveyed a large number of points in the chain of islands stretching from Pantee and Ombay in the direction of Java. After having made a chart of Java, and an ineffectual search for the Trial Islands in the place usually assigned to them, Duperrey steered for New Holland, but through contrary winds was not able to sail along the western coast of the island. On the 10th January he at length rounded Van Diemen's Island, and six days after that sighted the lights of Port Jackson, coming to an anchor off Sydney the following day. The governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, who had received previous intimation of the arrival of the Expedition, gave the officers a cordial welcome, forwarded with all the means at his command the revictualling of the corvette, and rendered friendly assistance in the repairs which the somewhat shattered condition of the ship rendered necessary. He also provided means to enable MM. d'Urville and Lesson to make an excursion, full of interest, beyond the Blue Mountains into the plain of Bathurst, the resources of which were as yet but imperfectly known to Europeans. Duperrey did not leave Australia until the 20th of March. On this occasion he directed his course towards New Zealand, which had been rather overlooked in former voyages. The vessel came to an anchor in the Bay of Manawa, forming the southern part of the grand Bay of Islands. Here the officers occupied their leisure in scientific and geographical observations, and in making researches in natural history. At the same time, the frequent intercourse of the explorers with the natives threw quite a new light upon their manners, their religious notions, their language, and on their attitude of hostility up to that time to the teaching of the missionaries. What these savages most appreciated in European civilization was well-finished weapons--of which at that time they possessed a great quantity--for by their help they were the better able to indulge their sanguinary instincts. The stay of the _Coquille_ at New Zealand terminated on the 17th of April, when a _détour_ was made northwards as far as Rotuma, discovered, but not visited, by Captain Wilson in 1797. The inhabitants, gentle and hospitable, took great pains to furnish the navigators with the provisions they required. But it was not long before the Frenchmen discovered that these gentle islanders, taking advantage of the confidence which they had known how to create, had carried off a number of articles that it afterwards cost much trouble to make them restore. Stringent orders were given, and all thieves caught in the act were flogged in the presence of their fellow-countrymen, who, however, as well as the culprits themselves, treated the affair only as a joke. Among these savages four Europeans were observed, who had a long time before deserted from the whale-ship _Rochester_. They were no better clothed than the natives, and were tatooed and smeared with a yellow powder after the native fashion; so that it would have been hard to recognize them but for their white skins and more intelligent looks. They were quite content with their lot, having married wives and reared families at Rotuma, where, escaping the cares, the troubles, and the difficulties of civilized life, they reckoned on ending their days in comfort. One among them asked to be allowed to remain on board the _Coquille_, a favour which Duperrey was ready to grant, but the chief of the island was unwilling, until he learned that two convicts from Port Jackson asked permission to stay on shore. Although these people, hitherto little known, offered a most interesting subject of study to the naturalists, it was necessary to depart, so the _Coquille_ proceeded to survey the Coral Isles and St. Augustin, discovered by Maurelle in 1781. Then came Drummond Island, where the inhabitants, dark complexioned, with slight limbs, and unintelligent faces, offered to exchange some triangular shells, commonly called holy water cups, for knives and fishhooks; next the islands of Sydenham and Henderville, where the inhabitants go entirely naked; after them, Woolde, Hupper, Hall, Knox, Charlotte, Mathews, which form the Gilbert Archipelago; and finally the Marshall and Mulgrave groups. On the 3rd of June Duperrey came in sight of the island of Ualan, which had been discovered in 1804 by an American, Captain Croser. As it was not marked upon any chart, the commander decided upon making an exact and particular survey of it. No sooner had the anchor touched the bottom than Duperrey, accompanied by some of his officers, made for the shore. The inhabitants turned out to be a mild and obliging race, who made their visitors presents of cocoa-nuts and the fruit of the bread-tree, conducting them through most picturesque scenery to the dwelling of their principal chief, or "Uross-ton," as he was called. Dumont d'Urville has given the following sketch of the country through which the travellers passed on their way to the residence of the chief. "We glided calmly across a magnificent basin girdled in by a well-wooded shore, the foliage a bright green. Behind us rose the lofty hill-tops, carpeted with verdure, from which shot up the light and graceful stems of the cocoa palms. Out of the sea to the front rose the little island of Leilei, covered with the pretty cottages of the islanders, and crowned with a verdant mound. If this pleasant prospect be further brightened by a magnificent day, in a delicious climate, some notion may be formed of the sensations we experienced as we proceeded in a sort of triumphal procession, surrounded by a crowd of simple, gentle, kind attendants." The number of persons accompanying the boats D'Urville estimated at about 800. On arriving before a neat and charming village, with well paved streets, they divided themselves, the men standing on one side, the women on the other, maintaining an impressive silence. Two chiefs advanced, and taking the travellers by the hand, conducted them to the dwelling of the "Uross-ton." The crowd, still silent, remained outside while the Frenchmen entered the chief's house. The "Uross-ton" shortly made his appearance, a pale and shrivelled old man, bowed down under the weight of fourscore years. The Frenchmen politely rose on his entering the room, but they were apprised by a whisper of disapproval from those standing about that this was a violation of the local etiquette. The crowd in front prostrated themselves on the ground. The chiefs themselves could not withhold that mark of respect. The old man, recovering from a momentary surprise at the boldness of the strangers, called upon his subjects to keep silence, then seated himself near the travellers. In return for the trifling presents which were made to him and his wife, he vouchsafed marks of goodwill in the shape of slight pats on the cheek, the shoulder, or the thigh. But the gratitude of these sovereigns was expressed only by the gift of seven so-called "_tots_"--probably pieces of cloth--four of which were of very fine tissue. [Illustration: Meeting with the Chief of Ualan.] After the audience was over the travellers proceeded to look round the village, where they were astonished to find two immense walls made of coral, some blocks of which were of immense size and weight. Notwithstanding a few acts of petty theft committed by the chiefs, the ten days during which the expedition remained at the island passed without disturbance; the good understanding on which the intercourse between the Frenchmen and the Ualanese was based never suffered a moment's interruption. Duperrey remarks that "it is easy to predict that this island of Ualan will one day become of considerable importance. It is situated in the midst of the Caroline group, in the course of ships sailing from New Holland to China, and presents good ports for careening vessels, ample supplies of water, and provisions of various kinds. The inhabitants are generous and peaceably disposed, and they will soon be in a position to supply a kind of food most essential to sailors, from the progeny of the sows that we left with them, a gift which excited a very lively gratitude." Subsequent events, however, have not verified the forecast made by Duperrey. Although a route from Europe to China, by the south of Van Diemen's Island, passes near the coast of Ualan, the island is of little more value now than it was fifty years ago. Steam has completely revolutionized the conditions of navigation. Sailors at the commencement of the century could not possibly foresee the radical changes which the introduction of this agent would produce. The _Coquille_ had not gone more than two days' sail from Ualan, when on the 17th, 18th, and 23rd June were discovered several new islands, which by the native inhabitants were called Pelelap, Takai, Aoura, Ougai, and Mongoul. These are the groups usually called Mac-Askyll and Duperrey, the people resembling those of Ualan, who, as well as those of the Radak Islands, give to their chiefs the title of "Tamon." On the 24th of the same month the _Coquille_ found herself in the middle of the Hogoleu group, which Kotzebue had looked for in too high a latitude, the commander recognizing their bearings by means of certain names given by the natives, which were found entered in the chart of Father Cantova. The hydrographical survey of this group, contained within a circumference of at least thirty leagues, was executed by M. Blois from the 24th to the 27th June. The islands are for the most part high, terminating in volcanic peaks; but some are of opinion, judging from the arrangement of the lagoon, that they are of madreporic formation. They are tenanted by a race of diminutive, badly-shaped people, subject moreover to repulsive complaints. If ever the converse of the phrase _mens sana in corpore sano_ can find a just application, it must be here, for these natives are low in the scale of intelligence, and inferior by many degrees to the people of Ualan. Even at that time foreign styles of dress appeared to have found their way into the islands. Some of the people were wearing conical-shaped hats, after the Chinese fashion; others had on garments of plaited straw, with a hole in the middle to allow the head to pass through, reminding one of the "Poncho" of the South American; but they held in contempt such trumpery as looking-glasses, necklaces, or bells, asking rather for axes and steel weapons, evidences of frequent intercourse with Europeans. The islands of Tamatan, Fanendik, and Ollap, called "The Martyrs" on old maps, were next surveyed; afterwards an ineffectual search was made for the islands of Namoureck and Ifelouk about the position assigned to them by Arrowsmith and Malaspina; and then, by way of continuing the exploration of the north side of New Guinea, the _Coquille_ put in at the port of Doreï, on the south-east coast of the island, where a stay was made until the 9th August. Whether estimated by the addition made to natural history, or to geography, or to astronomy, or to science in general, no more profitable a sojourn could have been made than this. The indigenous inhabitants of New Guinea belong to the purest race of Papuans. Their dwellings are huts built upon piles, the entrance to them being made by means of a piece of wood with notches cut in it to serve for steps; this is drawn up into the interior every night. The natives dwelling on the coast are always at war with those in the interior, the Harfous or Arfakis negroes. Guided by a young Papuan, D'Urville succeeded in making his way to the place where these last-mentioned dwelt. He found them gentle, hospitable, courteous creatures, not in the least like the portrait drawn of them by their enemies. After the stay at New Guinea, the _Coquille_ again sailed through the Moluccas, put in for a short time at Sourabaya, upon the coast of Java, and on the 30th October reached the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius. At length, having on the way stopped at St. Helena, where the officers paid a visit to the tomb of Napoleon, and at Ascension, where an English colony had been established since 1815, the corvette entered Marseilles on the 24th April, 1825, concluding a voyage that had occupied thirty-one months and three days, over 24,894 nautical miles, without the loss of a single life, or any cases of sickness, and without any damage being sustained by the ship. A success in every way so distinguished covered with glory the young commander of the expedition and all its officers, who had manifested such untiring energy in the prosecution of scientific inquiries, yielding a rich harvest of valuable results. Fifty-two charts and plans carefully drawn up; collections of natural specimens of all kinds, both numerous and curious; copious vocabularies, by the help of which it may be possible to throw new light on the migrations of the Oceanic peoples; interesting intelligence regarding the productions of the places visited; the condition of commerce and industrial pursuits; observations relating to the shape of the globe; magnetical, meteorological, and botanical researches; such formed the bulk of the valuable freight of knowledge brought home by the _Coquille_. The scientific world waited eagerly for the time when this store of information should be thrown open to the public. II. Expedition of Baron de Bougainville--Stay at Pondicherry--The "White Town" and the "Black Town"--"Right-hand" and "Left-hand"--Malacca-- Singapore and its prosperity--Stay at Manilla--Touron Bay--The monkeys and the people--The marble rocks of Faifoh--Cochin-Chinese diplomacy-- The Anambas--The Sultan of Madura--The straits of Madura and Allas-- Cloates and the Triad Islands--Tasmania--Botany Bay and New South Wales--Santiago and Valparaiso--Return _viâ_ Cape Horn--Expedition of Dumont d'Urville in the _Astrolabe_--The Peak of Teneriffe--Australia-- Stay at New Zealand--Tonga-Tabu--Skirmishes--New Britain and New Guinea--First news of the fate of La Pérouse--Vanikoro and its inhabitants--Stay at Guam--Amboyna and Menado--Results of the expedition. The expedition, the command of which was entrusted to Baron de Bougainville, was, strictly speaking, neither a scientific voyage nor a campaign of discovery. Its chief purpose was to unfurl the French flag in the extreme East, and to impress upon the governments of that region the intention of France to protect her nationalities and her interests, everywhere and at all times. The chief instructions given to the commander were that he was to convey to the sovereign of Cochin-China a letter from the king, together with some presents, to be placed on board the frigate _Thetis_. M. de Bougainville was also, whenever possible, without such delays as would prejudice the main object of the expedition, to take hydrographic surveys, and to collect information upon the commerce, productions, and means of exchange, of the countries visited. Two vessels were placed under the orders of M. de Bougainville. One, the _Thetis_, was an entirely new frigate, carrying forty-four cannons and three hundred sailors, no French frigate of this strength, except the _Boudeuse_, having ever before accomplished the voyage round the world; the other, the sloop _Espérance_, had twenty carronades upon the deck, and carried a hundred and twenty seamen. The first of these vessels was under the direct orders of Baron de Bougainville, and his staff consisted of picked officers, amongst whom we may mention Longueville, Lapierre, and Baudin, afterwards captain, vice-admiral, and rear-admiral. The _Espérance_ was commanded by Frigate-Captain De Nourquer du Camper, who, as second in command of the frigate _Cleopatra_, had already explored a great part of the course of the new expedition. It numbered among its officers, Turpin, afterwards vice-admiral, deputy, and aide-de-camp of Louis Philippe; Eugène Penaud, afterwards general officer, and Médéric Malavois, the future governor of Senegal. Not one notable scientific man, such as those who had been billeted in such numbers on the _Naturalist_ and other circumnavigating vessels, had embarked upon those of Baron de Bougainville, to whom it was a constant matter of regret, a regret intensified by the fact that the medical officers, with so many under their care, could not be long absent from the vessels when in port. M. de Bougainville's journal of the voyage opens with this judicious remark:-- "It was not many years ago a dangerous enterprise to make a voyage round the world, and scarce half a century has elapsed since the time when an expedition of this kind would have sufficed to reflect glory upon the man who directed it. This was 'the good old time,' the golden age of the circumnavigator, and the dangers and privations against which he had to struggle were repaid a hundredfold, when, rich in valuable discoveries, he hailed on his return the shores of his native land. But this is all over now; the _prestige_ has gone, and we make our tour of the globe nowadays as we should then have made that of France." What would Baron Yves-Hyacinth Potentien de Bougainville, the son of the vice-admiral, senator, and member of the _Institut_, say to-day to our admirable steamships of perfect form, and charts of such minute exactitude that distant voyages appear a mere joke. On the 2nd March, 1824, the _Thetis_ quitted the roads at Brest to take up at Bourbon her companion, the _Espérance_, which, having started some time before, had set sail for Rio de Janeiro. A short stay at Teneriffe, where the _Thetis_ was only able to purchase some poor wine and a very small quantity of the provisions needed; a view of the Cape Verd Islands and the Cape of Good Hope in the distance, and a hunt for the fabulous island of Saxemberg, and some rocks no less fictitious, were the only incidents of the voyage to Bourbon, where the _Espérance_ had already arrived. Bourbon was at this time so familiar a point with the navigators that there was little to be said about it, when its two open roads of St. Denis and St. Paul had been mentioned. St. Denis, the capital, situated on the north of Bourbon, and at the extremity of a sloping table-land, was, properly speaking, merely a large town, without enclosure or walls, and each house in it was surrounded by a garden. There were no public buildings or places of interest worth mentioning except the governor's palace, situated in such a position as to command a view of the whole road; the botanic garden and the "Jardin de Naturalisation," which dates from 1817. The former, which is in the centre of the town, contains some beautiful walks, unfortunately but little frequented, and it is admirably kept. The eucalyptus, the giant of the Australian forests, the _Phormium tenax_, the New Zealand hemp-plant, the casuarina (the pine of Madagascar), the baobab, with its trunk of prodigious size, the carambolas, the sapota, the vanilla, combined to beautify this garden, which was refreshed by streams of sparkling water. The second, upon the brow of a hill, formed of terraces rising one above the other, to which several brooklets give life and fertility, was specially devoted to the acclimatisation of European trees and plants. The apple, peach, apricot, cherry, and pear-trees, which have thriven well, have already supplied the colony with valuable shoots. The vine was also grown in this garden, together with the tea-plant, and several rarer species, amongst which Bougainville noted with delight the "Laurea argentea," with its bright leaves. On the 9th June the two vessels left the roads of St. Denis. After having doubled the shoals of La Fortune and Saya de Malha, and passed off the Seychelles, whilst among the atolls to the south of the Maldive Islands, which are level with the surface of the water and covered with bushy trees ending in a cluster of cocoas, they sighted the island of Ceylon and the Coromandel coast, and cast anchor before Pondicherry. [Illustration: Natives of Pondicherry.] [Illustration: Ancient idols near Pondicherry. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] This part of India is far from answering to the "enchantress" idea which the dithyrambic descriptions of writers who have celebrated its marvels have led Europeans to form. The number of public buildings and monuments at Pondicherry will scarcely bear counting, and when one has visited the more curious of the pagodas, and the "boilers," whose only recommendation is their utility, there is nothing very interesting, except the novelty of the scenes met with at every turn. The town is divided into two well-defined quarters. The one called the "white town," dull and deserted in spite of its coquettish-looking buildings, and the far more interesting "black town," with its bazaars, its jugglers, its massive pagodas, and the attractive dances of the bayadères. "The Indian population upon the coast of Coromandel," says the narrative, "is divided into two classes,--the 'right-hand' and the 'left.' This division originated under the government of a nabob against whom the people revolted; those who remained faithful to the prince being distinguished by the designation of 'right-hand,' and the rest by that of 'left-hand.' These two great tribes, which divide between them almost equally the entire population, are in a chronic state of hostility against the holders of the ranks and prerogatives obtained by the friends of the prince. The latter, however, retain the offices in the gift of the government, whilst the others are engaged in commerce. To maintain peace amongst them it was necessary to allow them to retain their ancient processions and ceremonies.... The 'right-hand' and 'left-hand' are subdivided into eighteen castes or guilds, full of pretensions and prejudices, not diminished even by the constant intercourse with Europeans which has now for centuries been maintained. Hence have arisen feelings of rivalry and contempt, which would be the source of sanguinary wars, were it not that the Hindus have a horror of bloodshed, and that their temperament renders them averse to conflict. These two facts, i.e. the gentleness of the native disposition and the constant presence of an element of discord amongst the various tribes, must ever be borne in mind if we would understand the political phenomenon of more than fifty millions of men submitting to the yoke of some five and twenty or thirty thousand foreigners." The _Thetis_ and the _Espérance_ quitted the roadstead of Pondicherry on the 30th July, crossed the Sea of Bengal, sighted the islands of Nicobar and Pulo-Penang, with its free port capable of holding 300 ships at a time. They then entered the Straits of Malacca, and remained in the Dutch port of that name from the 24th to the 26th July, to repair damages sustained by the _Espérance_, so that she might hold out as far as Manilla. The intercourse of the explorers with the Resident and the inhabitants generally were all the more pleasant that it was confirmed by banquets given on land and on board the _Thetis_ in honour of the kings of France and the Netherlands. The Dutch were expecting soon to cede this station to the English, and this cession took place shortly afterwards. It must be added, with regard to Malacca, that in point of fertility of soil, pleasantness of situation and facilities for obtaining all really necessary supplies, it was superior to its rivals. Bougainville set out again on August 26th, and was tossed about by head-winds, and troubled alike by calms and storms during the remainder of his passage through the straits. As these latitudes were more frequented than any others by Malay pirates, the commandant placed sentries on the watch and took all precautions against surprise, although his force was strong enough to be above fearing any enemy. It was no uncommon thing to see fly-boats manned by a hundred seamen, and more than one merchant-ship had recently fallen a prey to these unmolested and incorrigible corsairs. The squadron, however, saw nothing to awake any suspicions, and continued its course to Singapore. The population of this town is a curious mixture of races, and our travellers met with Europeans engaged in the chief branches of commerce; Armenian and Arabian merchants, and Chinese; some planters, others following the various trades demanded by the requirements of the population. The Malays, who seemed out of place in an advancing civilization, either led a life of servitude, or slept away their time in indolence and misery whilst the Hindus, expelled from their country for crime, practised the indescribable trades which in all great cities alone save the scum from dying of starvation. It was only in 1819 that the English procured from the Malayan sultan of Johore the right to settle in the town of Singapore; and the little village in which they established themselves then numbered but 150 inhabitants, although, thanks to Sir Stamford Raffles, a town soon rose on the site of the unpretending cabins of the natives. By a wise stroke of policy all customs-duties were abolished; and the natural advantages of the new city, with its extensive and secure port, were supplemented and perfected by the hand of man. The garrison numbered only 300 sepoys and thirty gunners; there were as yet no fortifications, and the artillery equipment consisted merely of one battery of twenty cannons, and as many bronze field-pieces. Indeed, Singapore was simply one large warehouse, to which Madras sent cotton cloth; Calcutta, opium; Sumatra, pepper; Java, arrack and spices; Manilla, sugar and arrack; all forthwith despatched to Europe, China, Siam, &c. Of public buildings there appeared to be none. There were no stores, no careening-wharves, no building-yards, no barracks, and the visitors noticed but one small church for native converts. The squadron resumed its voyage on the 2nd September, and reached the harbour of Cavité without any mishap. Meanwhile, M. du Camper, commander of the _Espérance_ who had, during a residence of some years, become acquainted with the principal inhabitants, was ordered to go to Manilla, that he might inform the Governor-General of the Philippines of the arrival of the frigates, the reasons of their visit, &c., and at the same time gauge his feelings towards them, and form some idea of the reception the French might expect. The recent intervention of France in the affairs of Spain placed them indeed in a very delicate position with the then governor, Don Juan Antonio Martinez, who had been nominated to his post by the very Cortés which had just been overthrown by their government. The fears of the commandant, however, were not confirmed, for he met with the warmest kindness and most cordial co-operation from the Spanish authorities. Cavité Bay, where the vessels cast anchor, was constantly encumbered with mud, but it was the chief port in the Philippine Islands, and there the Spaniards owned a very well supplied arsenal in which worked Indians from the surrounding districts, who though skilful and intelligent were excessively lazy. Whilst the _Thetis_ was being sheathed, and the extensive repairs necessary to the _Espérance_ were being carried out, the clerks and officers were at Manilla, seeing about the supply of provisions and cordage. The latter, which was made of "abaca," the fibre of a banana, vulgarly called "Manilla hemp," although recommended on account of its great elasticity, was not of much use on board ship. The delay at Manilla was rendered very disagreeable by earthquakes and typhoons, which are always of constant occurrence there. On October 24th there was an earthquake of such violence that the governor, troops, and a portion of the people were compelled hastily to leave the town, and the loss was estimated at 120,000_l_. Many houses were thrown down, eight people were buried in the ruins, and many others injured. Scarcely had the inhabitants begun to breathe freely again, when a frightful typhoon came to complete the panic. It lasted only part of the night of the 31st October, and the next day, when the sun rose, it might have been looked upon as a mere nightmare had not the melancholy sight of fields laid waste, and of the harbour with six ships lying on their sides, and all the others at anchor, almost entirely disabled, testified to the reality of the disaster. All around the town the country was devastated, the crops were ruined, the trees--even the largest of them--violently shaken, the village destroyed. It was a heart-rending spectacle! The _Espérance_ had its main-mast and mizen-mast lifted several feet above deck, and its barricadings were carried off; the _Thetis_, more fortunate than its companion, escaped almost uninjured in the dreadful tempest. The laziness of the workpeople, and the great number of holidays in which they indulge, early decided Bougainville to part for a time from his convoy, and on December 12th he set sail for Cochin-China. Before following the French to the little-frequented shores of that country, however, we must survey with them Manilla and its environs. The Bay of Manilla is one of the most extensive and beautiful in the world; numerous fleets might find anchorage in it; and its two channels were not yet closed to foreign vessels, and in 1798 two English frigates had been allowed to pass through them and carry off numerous vessels under the very guns of the town. The horizon is shut in by a barrier of mountains, ending on the south of the Taal, a volcano now almost extinct, but the eruptions of which have often caused frightful calamities. In the plains, framed in rice plantations, several hamlets and solitary houses give animation to the scene. Opposite to the mouth of the bay rises the town, containing 60,000 inhabitants, with its lighthouse and far-extending suburbs. It is watered by the Passig, a river issuing from Bay Lake, and its exceptionally good situation secures to it advantages which more than one capital might envy. The garrison, without including the militia, consisted at that time of 2200 soldiers; and, in addition to the military navy, always represented by some vessel at anchor, a marine service had been organized for the exclusive use of the colony, to which the name of "sutil" had been given, either on account of the small size, or the fleetness of the vessels employed. This service, all appointments in which are in the gift of the governor-general, is composed of schooners and gun-sloops, intended to protect the coasts and the trading-vessels against the pirates of Sulu. But it cannot be said that the organization, imposing as it is, has achieved any great results. Of this Bougainville gives the following curious illustration:--In 1828 the Suluans seized 3000 of the inhabitants upon the coast of Luzon, and an expedition sent against them cost 140,000 piastres, and resulted in the killing of six men! [Illustration: Near the Bay of Manilla. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Great uneasiness prevailed in the Philippines at the time of the visit of the _Thetis_ and the _Espérance_, and a political reaction which had steeped the metropolis in blood had thrown a gloom over every one. On December 20th, 1820, a massacre of the whites by the Indians; in 1824, the mutiny of a regiment, and the assassination of an ex-governor, Senor de Folgueras, had been the first horrors which had endangered the supremacy of the Spanish. The Creoles, who, with the Tagalas, were alike the richest and most industrious classes of the true native population, at this time gave just cause for uneasiness to the government, because they were known to desire the expulsion of all who were not natives of the Philippines; and when it is borne in mind that they commanded the native regiments, and held the greater part of the public offices, it is easy to see how great must have been their influence. Well might people ask whether they were not on the eve of one of those revolutions which lost to Spain her fairest colonies. Until the _Thetis_ reached Macao, she was much harassed by squalls, gales, heavy showers, and an intensity of cold, felt all the more keenly by the navigators after their experience for several months of a temperature of 75-3/4 degrees Fahrenheit. Scarcely was anchor cast in the Canton river before a great number of native vessels came to examine the frigate, offering for sale vegetables, fish, oranges, and a multitude of trifles, once so rare, now so common, but always costly. "The town of Macao," says the narrative, "shut in between bare hills, can be seen from afar; the whiteness of its buildings rendering it very conspicuous. It partly faces the coast, and the houses, which are elegantly built, line the beach, following the natural contour of the shore. The parade is also the finest part of the town, and is much frequented by foreigners; behind it, the ground rises abruptly, and the façades of the buildings, such as convents, noticeable for their size and peculiar architecture, rise, so to speak, from the second stage; the whole being crowned by the embattled walls of the forts, over which floated the white flag of Portugal. "At the northern and southern extremities of the town, facing the sea, are batteries built in three stages; and near the first, but a little further inland, rises a church with a very effective portico and fine external decorations. Numerous _sampangs_, junks, and fishing-boats anchored close in shore, give animation to the scene, the setting of which would be much brightened if the heights overlooking the town were not so totally wanting in verdure." Situated as it is in the high road, between China and the rest of the world, Macao, once one of the chief relics of Portuguese colonial prosperity, long enjoyed exceptional privileges, all of which were, however, gone by 1825, when its one industry was a contraband trade in opium. The _Thetis_ only touched at Macao to leave some missionaries, and to hoist the French flag, and Bougainville set sail again on January 8th. Nothing worthy of notice occurred on the voyage from Macao to Touron Bay. Arrived there, Bougainville learned that the French agent, M. Chaigneu, had left Hué for Saigon, with the intention of there chartering a barque for Singapore, and in the absence of the only person who could further his schemes he did not know with whom to open relations. Fearing failure as an inevitable result of this _contretemps_ he at once despatched a letter to Hué, explaining the object of his mission, and expressing a wish to go with some of his officers to Saigon. The time which necessarily elapsed before an answer was received was turned to account by the French, who minutely surveyed the bay and its surroundings, together with the famous marble rocks, the objects of the curious interest of all travellers. Touron Bay has been described by various authors, notably by Horsburgh, as one of the most beautiful and vast in the universe; but such is not the opinion of Bougainville, who thinks these statements are to be taken with a great deal of reservation. The village of Touron is situated upon the sea-coast, at the entrance of the channel of Faifoh, from the right bank of which rises a fort with glacis, bastions, and a dry moat, built by French engineers. The French being looked upon as old allies were always received with kindness and without suspicion. It had not, apparently, been so with the English, who had not been permitted to land, whilst the sailors on board the _Thetis_ were at once allowed to fish and hunt, and to go and come as they chose, every facility for obtaining fresh provisions being also accorded to them. Thanks to this latitude, the officers were able to scour the country and make interesting observations. One of them, M. de la Touanne, gives the following description of the natives:--"They are rather under than over middle height, and in this respect they closely resemble the Chinese of Macao. Their skin is of a yellowish-brown, and their heads are flat and round; their faces are without expression, their eyes are as melancholy, but their eyebrows are not so strongly marked as those of the Chinese. They have flat noses and large mouths, and their lips bulge out in a way rendered the more disagreeable as they are always black and dirty from the habit indulged in, by men and women alike, of chewing areca nut mixed with betel and lime. The women, who are almost as tall as the men, have not a more pleasant appearance; and the repulsive filthiness, common to both sexes, is enough without anything else to deprive them of all attractiveness." [Illustration: Women of Touron Bay.] What strikes one most is the wretchedness of the inhabitants as compared with the fertility of the soil, and this shocking contrast betrays alike the selfishness and carelessness of the government and the insatiable greed of the mandarins. The plains produce maize, yams, manioc, tobacco, and rice, the flourishing appearance of which testifies to the care bestowed upon them; the sea yields large quantities of delicious fish, and the forests give shelter to numerous birds, as well as tigers, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, and elephants, and troops of monkeys are to be met with everywhere, some of them four feet high, with bodies of a pearl-grey colour, black thighs, and red legs. They wear red collars and white girdles, which make them look just as if they were clothed. Their muscular strength is extraordinary, and they clear enormous distances in leaping from branch to branch. Nothing can be odder than to see some dozen of these creatures upon one tree indulging in the most fantastic grimaces and contortions. "One day," says Bougainville, "when I was at the edge of the forest, I wounded a monkey who had ventured forth for a stroll in the sunshine. He hid his face in his hands and sent forth such piteous groans that more than thirty of his tribe were about him in a moment. I lost no time in reloading my gun not knowing what I might have to expect, for some monkeys are not afraid of attacking men; but the troop only took up their wounded comrade, and once more plunged into the wood." Another excursion was made to the marble rocks of the Faifoh River, where are several curious caves, one containing an enormous pillar suspended from the roof and ending abruptly some distance from the ground; stalactites were seen, but the sound of a water-fall was heard from the further end. The French also visited the ruins of an ancient building near a grotto, containing an idol, and with a passage opening out of one corner. This passage Bougainville followed. It led him into an "immense rotunda lighted from the top, and ending in an arched vault, at least sixty feet high. Imagine the effect of a series of marble pillars of various colours, some from their greenish colour, the result of old age and damp, looking as if cast in bronze, whilst from the roof hung down creepers, now in festoons, now in bunches, looking for all the world like candelabra without the lights. Above our heads were groups of stalactites resembling great organ-pipes, altars, mutilated statues, hideous monsters carved in stone, and even a complete pagoda, which, however, occupied but a very small space in the vast enclosure. Fancy such a scene in an appropriate setting, the whole lit up with a dim and wavering light, and you can perhaps form some idea how it struck me when it first burst upon me." On the 20th of January, 1825, the _Espérance_ at last rejoined the frigate; and, two days later, two envoys arrived from the court at Hué, with orders to ask Bougainville for the letter of which he was the bearer. But, as the latter had received orders to deliver it to the Emperor in person, this request involved a long series of puerile negotiations. The formalities by which the Cochin-Chinese envoys were, so to speak, hemmed in, reminded Bougainville of the anecdote of the envoy and the governor of Java, who, rivalling each other in their gravity and diplomatic prudence, remained together for twenty-four hours without exchanging a word. The commander was not the man to endure such trial of patience as this, but he could not obtain the necessary authorization of his explorations, and the negotiations ended in an exchange of presents, securing nothing in fact but an assurance from the Emperor that he would receive with pleasure a visit of the French vessels to his ports, if their captain and officers would conform to the laws of the Empire. Since 1817 the French had been pretty well the only people who had done any satisfactory business with the people of Cochin-China, a state of things resulting from the presence of French residents at the court of Hué, on whom alone of course depended the maintenance of the exceptionally cordial relations so long established between them and the government to which they were accredited. The two ships left Touron Bay on the 17th February for the Anambas Archipelago, which had not as yet been explored; and, on the 3rd of March, they came in sight of it, and found it to bear no resemblance whatever to the islands of the same name, marked upon the English map of the China Sea. Bougainville was agreeably surprised to see a large number of islands and islets, the bays, &c., of which were sure to afford excellent anchorage during the monsoons. The explorers penetrated to the very heart of the archipelago, and made a hydrographic survey of it. Whilst the small boats were engaged upon this task, two prettily built canoes approached, from one of which a man of about fifty came on board the _Thetis_, whose breast was seamed with scars, and from whose right-hand two fingers were missing. The sight of the rows of guns and ammunition, however, so terrified him that he beat a hasty retreat to his canoe, though he had already got as far as the orlop-deck. Next day two more canoes approached, manned by fierce-looking Malays, bringing bananas, cocoa-nuts, and pineapples, which they bartered for biscuits, a handkerchief, and two small axes. Several other interviews took place with islanders, armed with the kriss, and short two-edged iron pikes, who were very evidently pirates by profession. Although the French explored but a part of the Anamba group, the information they collected was extremely interesting on account of its novelty. The first requisite of a large population is plenty of fresh water, and there is apparently very little of it in the Anambas. Moreover, the cultivable soil is not very deep, and the mountains are separated by narrow ravines, not by plains, so that agriculture is all but out of the question. Even the native trees, with the exception of the cocoa-palm, are very stunted. The population was estimated by a native at not more than 2000, but Bougainville thought even that too high a figure. The fortunate position of the Anambas--they are passed by all vessels trading with China, whichever route may be taken--long since brought them to the notice of navigators; and we must attribute to their lack of resources the neglect to which they have been abandoned. The small amount of cordiality and confidence met with by Bougainville from the inhabitants, the high price of provisions, and the destructive nature of the monsoons in the Sunda waters, determined him to cut short his survey and to make with all speed for Java, where his instructions compelled him to touch. The 8th of March was fixed for the departure of the two vessels, which sighted Victory, Barren, Saddle, and Camel Islands, passed through the Gasper Straits--the passage of which did not occupy more than two hours, although it often takes several days with an unfavourable wind--and cast anchor at Surabaya, where the explorers were met with the news of the death of Louis XVIII. and the accession of Charles X. As the cholera, which had claimed 300,000 victims in Java in 1822, was still raging, Bougainville took the precaution of keeping his crew on board under shelter from the sun, and expressly forbade any intercourse with vessels laden with fruit, the use of which is so dangerous to Europeans, especially during the rainy season then setting in. In spite of these wise orders, however, dysentery attacked the crew of the _Thetis_, and too many fell victims to it. The town of Surabaya is situated one league from the mouth of the river, and it can only be reached by towing up the stream. Its approaches are lively, and everything bears witness to the presence of an active commercial population. An expedition to the island of Celebes having exhausted the resources of the government and the magazines being empty, Bougainville had to deal direct with the Chinese merchants, who are the most bare-faced robbers on the face of the globe, and now resorted to all manner of cunning and knavery to get the better of their visitors. The stay at Surabaya, therefore, left a very disagreeable impression on all. It was quite different, however, with regard to the reception met with from the chief personages of the colony, for there was every reason to be satisfied with the conduct of all connected with the government. To go to Surabaya without paying a visit to the Sultan of Madura, whose reputation for hospitality had crossed the seas, would have been as impossible as it is to visit Paris without going to see Versailles and Trianon. After a comfortable lunch on shore, therefore, the staff of the two vessels set out in open carriages and four; but the roads were so bad and the horses so worn out that they would many a time have stuck in the mud if men stationed at the dangerous places had not energetically shoved at the wheels. At last they arrived at Bankalan, and the carriages drew up in the third court of the palace at the foot of a staircase, at the top of which the hereditary prince and the prime minister awaited the arrival of the travellers. Prince Adden Engrate belonged to the most illustrious family of the Indian Archipelago. He wore the undress uniform of a Java chief, consisting of a long flowered petticoat of Indian make, scarcely allowing the Chinese slippers to be seen, a white vest with gold buttons, and a small skirted waistcoat of brown cloth, with diamond buttons. A handkerchief was tied about his head, on which he wore a visor-cap, his ease and dignity of bearing alone saving him from looking like the grotesque figure of a carnival amazon. The palace or "kraton" consisted of a series of buildings with galleries, kept delightfully cool by awnings and curtains, whilst lustres, tasty European furniture, pretty hangings, glass and crystal ornaments decorated the vast halls and rooms. A suite of private apartments, with no opening to the court, but with a view of the gardens, is reserved for the "Ratu" (sovereign) and the harem. The reception was cordial, and the repast, served in European style, was delicious. "The conversation," says Bougainville, "was conducted in English, and many toasts were proposed, the prince drinking our healths in tea poured from a bottle, and to which he helped himself as if it had been Madeira. Being head of the church as well as of the state, he strictly obeys the precepts of the Koran, never drinking wine, and spending a great part of his time at the mosque; but he is not the less sociable, and his talk bears no trace of the austerity to be expected in that of one who leads so regular a life. This life is not, however, all spent in prayer, and the scenes witnessed by us would give a very false impression if we did not know that great latitude is allowed on this point to the followers of the prophet." In the afternoon the Frenchmen visited several coach-houses, containing very handsome carriages, some of which, built on the island, were so well-made that it was absolutely impossible to distinguish them from those which had been imported. Some archery was then witnessed, and joined in, after which, on the return to the palace, the visitors were welcomed by the sound of melancholy music, speedily interrupted, however, by the barking and fantastical dancing of the prince's fool, who showed wonderful agility and suppleness. To this dance, or rather to these postures of a bayadère, succeeded the excitement of vingt-et-un, followed by well-earned repose. Next day there were new entertainments and new exercises; beginning with wrestling-matches for grown men and for youths, and proceeding with quail-fights, and feats performed by a camel and an elephant. After lunch Bougainville and his party had a drive and some archery, and witnessed sack-races, basket-balancing, &c. In this way, they were told, the sultan passed all his time. Most striking is the respect and submission shown by all to this sovereign. No one ever stands upright before him, but all prostrate themselves before addressing him. All his subjects do but "wait at his feet," and even his own little child of four years clasps his tiny hands when he speaks to his father. While at Surabaya, Bougainville took the opportunity of visiting the volcano of Brumo, in the Tengger Mountains; and this excursion, in which he explored the island for a hundred miles, from east to west, was one of the most interesting undertaken by him. Surabaya contains some curious buildings and monuments, most of them the work of a former governor, General Daendels; such are the "Builder's Workshop," the "Hôtel de la Monnaie" (the only establishment of the kind in Java), and the hospital, which is built on a well-chosen site, and contains 400 beds. The island of Madura, opposite to Surabaya, is at least 100 miles in length, by fifteen or twenty in breadth, and does not yield produce sufficient to maintain the population, sparse as it is. The sovereignty of this island is divided between the sultans of Bankalan and Sumanap, who furnish annually six hundred recruits to the Dutch, without counting extraordinary levies. On the 20th April, symptoms of dysentery showed themselves amongst the crews. Two days later therefore the vessel set sail, and it took seven good days to get beyond the straits of Madura. They returned along the north coast of Lombok, and passed through the Allas Straits, between Lombok and Sumbawa. The first of these islands, from the foot of the mountains to the sea, presents the appearance of a green carpet, adorned with groups of trees of elegant appearance, and upon its coast there is no lack of good anchorage, whilst fresh water and wood are plentiful. On the other side, however, there are numerous peaks of barren aspect, rising from a lofty table-land, the approach to which is barred by a series of rugged and inaccessible islands, known as Lombok, the coral-beds and treacherous currents about which must be carefully avoided. Two stoppages at the villages of Baly and Peejow, with a view to taking in fresh provisions, enabled the officers to make a hydrographical chart of this part of the coast of Lombok. Upon leaving the strait, Bougainville made an unsuccessful search for Cloates Island. That he did not find it is not very wonderful, as during the last eight years many ships have passed over the spot assigned to it upon the maps. The "Triads," on the other hand, i.e. the rocks seen in 1777 by the _Freudensberg Castle_, are, in Captain King's opinion, the Montepello Islands, which correspond perfectly with the description of the Danes. Bougainville had instructions to survey the neighbourhood of the Swan River, where the French Government hoped to find a place suitable for the reception of the wretches then huddled together in their convict-prisons; but the flag of England had just been unfurled on the shores of Nuyts and Leuwin, in King George's Sound, Géographe Bay, the little Leschenault inlet, and on the Swan River, so that there was no longer any reason for a new exploration. Everything in fact had combined to prevent it; the delays to which the expedition had been subjected had indeed been so serious that instead of arriving in these latitudes in April, they did not reach them until the middle of May, there the very heart of winter. Moreover, the coast offers no shelter, for so soon as the wind begins to blow, the waves swell tremendously, and the memory of the trials which the _Géographe_ had undergone at the same season of the year was still fresh in the minds of the French. The _Thetis_ and the _Espérance_ were pursued by the bad weather as far as Hobart Town, the chief English station upon the coast of Tasmania, where the commander was very anxious to put in. He was, however, driven back by storms to Port Jackson, which is marked by a very handsome lighthouse, a granite tower seventy-six feet high, with a lantern lit by gas, visible at a distance of nine leagues. [Illustration: Entrance to Sydney Bay.] Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor, gave a cordial reception to the expedition, and at once took the necessary steps to furnish it with provisions. This was done by contract at low prices, and the greatest good faith was shown in carrying out all bargains. The sloop had to be run ashore to have its sheathing repaired, but this, with some work of less importance necessary to the _Thetis_, did not take long. The delay was also turned to account by the whole staff, who were greatly interested in the marvellous progress of this penal colony. While Bougainville was eagerly reading all the works which had as yet appeared upon New South Wales, the officers wandered about the town, and were struck dumb with amazement at the numberless public buildings erected by Governor Macquarie, such as the barracks, hospital, market, orphanages, almshouses for the aged and infirm, the prison, the fort, the churches, government-house, the fountains, the town gates, and last but not least, the government-stables, which are always at first sight taken for the palace itself. There was, however, a dark side to the picture. The main thoroughfares, though well-planned, were neither paved nor lighted, and were so unsafe at night, that several people had been seized and robbed in the very middle of George Street, the best quarter of Sydney. If the streets in the town were unsafe, those in the suburbs were still more so. Vagrant convicts overran the country in the form of bands of "bushrangers," who had become so formidable that the government had recently organized a company of fifty dragoons for the express purpose of hunting them down. All this did not, however, hinder the officers from making many interesting excursions, such as those to Paramatta, on the banks of the Nepean, a river very deeply embanked, where they visited the Regent Ville district; and to the "plains of Emu," a government agricultural-station, and a sort of model farm. They went to the theatre, where a grand performance was given in their honour. The delight sailors take in riding is proverbial, and it was on horseback that the French crossed the Emu plains. The noble animals, imported from England, had not degenerated in New South Wales; they were still full of spirit as one of the young officers found to his cost, when, as he was saying in English to Sir John Cox, acting as cicerone to the party, "I do love this riding exercise," he was suddenly thrown over his horse's head and deposited on the grass before he knew where he was. The laugh against him was all the more hearty as the skilful horseman was not injured. Beyond Sir John Cox's plantations extends the unbroken "open forest," as the English call it, which can be crossed on horseback, and consists chiefly of the eucalyptus, acacias of various kinds, and the dark-leaved casuarinas. The next day, an excursion was made up the river Nepean, a tributary of the Hawkesbury, on which trip many valuable facts of natural history were obtained, Bougainville enriching his collection with canaries, waterfowl, and a very pretty species of kingfisher and cockatoos. In the neighbouring woods was heard the unpleasant cry of the lyre-pheasant and of two other birds, which feebly imitate the tinkling of a hand-bell and the jarring noise of the saw. These are not, however, the only feathered fowl remarkable for the peculiarity of their notes; we must also mention the "whistling-bird," the "knife-grinder," the "mocking-bird," the "coachman," which mimics the crack of the whip, and the "laughing jackass," with its continual bursts of laughter, which have a strange effect upon the nerves. Sir John Cox presented the commander with two specimens of the water-mole, also called the ornithorhynchus, a curious amphibious creature, the habits of which are still little known to European naturalists, many museums not possessing a single specimen. Another excursion was made in the Blue Mountains, where the famous "King's Table-land" was visited, from which a magnificent view was obtained. The explorers gained with great difficulty the top of an eminence, and an abyss of 1600 feet at once opened beneath them; a vast green carpet stretching away to a distance of some twenty miles, whilst on the right and left were the distorted sides of the mountain, which had been rudely rent asunder by some earthquake, the irregularities corresponding exactly with each other. Close at hand foams a roaring, rushing torrent, flinging itself in a series of cascades into the valley beneath, the whole passing under the name of "Apsley's Waterfall." This trip was succeeded by a kangaroo hunt in the cow-pastures with Mr. Macarthur, one of the chief promoters of the prosperity of New South Wales. Bougainville also turned his stay at Sydney to account by laying the foundation-stone of a monument to the memory of La Pérouse. This cenotaph was erected in Botany Bay, upon the spot where the navigator had pitched his camp. [Illustration: "Apsley's Waterfall."] On September 21st the _Thetis_ and the _Espérance_ at last set sail; passing off Pitcairn Island, Easter Island, and Juan Fernandez, now a convict settlement for criminals from Chili, after having been occupied for a half-century by Spanish vine-growers. On the 23rd November the _Thetis_, which had been separated from the _Espérance_ during a heavy storm, anchored off Valparaiso, where it met Admiral de Rosamel's division. Great excitement prevailed in the roadstead, for an expedition against the island of Chiloë, which still belonged to Spain, was being organized by the chief director, General Ramon Freire y Serrano, of whom we have already spoken. Bougainville, like the Russian navigator Lütke, is of opinion that the position of Valparaiso does not justify its reputation. The streets are dirty and narrow, and so steep that walking in them is very fatiguing. The only pleasant part is the suburb of Almendral, which, with its gardens and orchards, would be still more agreeable but for the sand-storms prevalent throughout nearly the whole of the year. In 1811, Valparaiso numbered only from four to five thousand inhabitants; but in 1825 the population had already tripled itself, and the increase showed no sign of ceasing. When the _Thetis_ touched at Valparaiso, the English frigate, the _Blonde_, commanded by Lord Byron, grandson of the explorer of the same name, whose discoveries are narrated above, was also at anchor there. By a singular coincidence Byron had raised a monument to the memory of Cook in the island of Hawaii, at the very time when Bougainville, the son of the circumnavigator, met by Byron in the Straits of Magellan, was laying the foundation-stone of the monument to the memory of La Pérouse in New South Wales. Bougainville turned the delay necessary for the revictualling of his division to account by paying a visit to Santiago, the capital of Chili, thirty-three leagues inland. The environs of Chili are terribly bare, without houses or any signs of cultivation. Its steeples alone mark the approach to it, and one may fancy oneself still in the outskirts when the heart of the city is reached. There is, however, no lack of public buildings, such as the Hôtel de la Monnaie, the university, the archbishop's palace, the cathedral, the church of the Jesuits, the palace, and the theatre, the last of which is so badly lighted that it is impossible to distinguish the faces of the audience. The promenade, known as La Cañada, has now supplanted that of L'Alameda on the banks of the river Mapocha, once the evening rendezvous. The objects of interest in the town exhausted, the Frenchmen examined those in the neighbourhood, visiting the Salto de Agua, a waterfall of 1200 feet in height, the ascent to which is rather arduous, and the Cerito de Santa-Lucia, from which rises a fortress, the sole defence of the town. The season was now advancing, and no time was to be lost if the explorers wished to take advantage of the best season for doubling Cape Horn. On the 8th January, 1826, therefore, the two vessels once more put to sea, and rounded the Cape without any mishap, though landing at the Falklands was rendered impossible by fog and contrary winds. Anchor was cast on the 28th March in the roadstead of Rio Janeiro, and, as it turned out, at a time most favourable for the French to form an accurate opinion alike on the city and the court. "The emperor," says Bougainville, "was upon a journey at the time of our arrival, and his return was the occasion of fêtes and receptions which roused the population to activity, and broke for a time the monotony of ordinary life in Rio, that dullest and dreariest of towns to the foreigner. Its environs, however, are charming; nature has in them been lavish of her riches; and the vast harbour, the Atlantic, rendezvous of the commercial world, presents a most animated scene. Innumerable ships, either standing in or getting under weigh, small craft cruising about, a ceaseless roar of cannon from the forts and men-of-war, exchanging signals on the occasion of some anniversary or the celebration of some festival of the church, whilst visits were constantly being exchanged between the officers of the various foreign vessels and the diplomatic agents of foreign powers at the court of Rio." The division set sail again on the 11th April, and arrived at Brest on the 24th June, 1826, without having put into port since it left Rio Janeiro. We must remember that if Bougainville did not make any discoveries on this voyage, he had no formal instructions to do so, his mission being merely to unfurl the flag of France where it had as yet been rarely seen. None the less do we owe to this general officer some very interesting, and in some cases new information on the countries visited by him. Some of the surveys made by his expedition may be of service to navigators, and it must be owned that the hydrographical researches which alone could be undertaken in the absence of scientific men were carefully made, and resulted in the obtaining of numerous and accurate data. We can but sympathize with the commander of the _Thetis_, in his expression of regret, in the preface to his journal, that neither the Government nor the _Académie des Sciences_ had seen fit to turn his expedition to account to obtain new results supplementary of the rich harvest gleaned by his predecessors. The expedition next sent out under the command of Captain Dumont d'Urville was merely intended by the minister to supplement and consolidate the mass of scientific data collected by Captain Duperrey in his voyage from 1822 to 1824. As second in command to Duperrey, and the originator and organizer of the new exploring expedition, D'Urville had the very first claim to be appointed to its command. The portions of Oceania he proposed to visit were New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, the Loyalty Islands, New Britain, and New Guinea, all of which he considered urgently to demand the consideration alike of the geographer and the traveller. What he effected in this direction we shall ascertain by following him step by step. An interest of another character also attaches to this trip, but it will be well to quote on this point the instructions given to the navigator. "An American captain," writes the Minister of Marine, "said that he saw in the hands of the natives of an isle situated between New Caledonia and the Louisiade Archipelago a cross of St. Louis and some medals, which he imagined to be relics of the wrecked vessel of the celebrated La Pérouse, whose loss is so deeply and justly regretted. This is, of course, but a feeble reason for hoping that some of the victims of the disaster still survive; but you, sir, will give great satisfaction to his Majesty, if you are the means of restoring any one of the poor shipwrecked mariners to their native land after so many years of misery and exile." The aims of the expedition were therefore manifold, and by the greatest chance it was able to achieve them nearly all. D'Urville received his appointment in December, 1825, and was permitted himself to choose all who were to accompany him. He named as second in command Lieutenant Jacquinot, and as scientific colloborateurs Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard, who had been on board the _Uranie_, and as surgeon Primevère Lesson. The _Coquille_, the excellent qualities of which were well known to D'Urville, was the vessel selected; and the commander having named her the _Astrolabe_ in memory of La Pérouse, embarked in her a crew of twenty-four men. Anchor was weighed on the 25th April, and the mountains of Toulon with the coast of France were soon out of sight. After touching at Gibraltar, the _Astrolabe_ stopped at Teneriffe to take in fresh provisions before crossing the Atlantic, and D'Urville took advantage of this delay to ascend the peak, accompanied by Messrs. Quoy, Gaimard, and several officers, a bad road, very arduous for pedestrians, leading the first part of the way over fields of scoria, though as Laguna is approached the scenery improves. This town, of a considerable size, contains but a small, indolent, and miserable population. Between Matunza and Orotara the vegetation is magnificent, and the luxuriant foliage of the vine enhances the beauty of the view. Orotara is a small seaboard town, with a port affording but little shelter. It is well-built and laid out, and would be comfortable enough if the streets were not so steep as to make traffic all but impossible. After three-quarters of an hour's climb through well-cultivated fields, the Frenchmen reached the chestnut-tree region, beyond which begin the clouds, taking the form of a thick moist fog, very disagreeable to the traveller. Further on comes the furze region, beyond which the atmosphere again becomes clear, vegetation disappears, the ground becomes poorer and more barren. Here are met with decomposed lava, scoria, and pumice-stones in great abundance, whilst below stretches away the boundless sea of clouds. Thus far hidden by clouds or by the lofty mountains surrounding it, the peak at last stands forth distinctly, the incline becomes less steep, and those vast plains of intensely melancholy appearance, called Cañadas by the Spanish, on account of their bareness, are crossed. A halt is made for lunch at the Pine grotto before climbing the huge blocks of basalt ranged in a circle about the crater, now filled in with ashes from the peak, and forming its enceinte. The peak itself is next attached, the ascent of which is broken one-third of the way up by a sort of esplanade called the Estancia de los Ingleses. Here our travellers passed the night, not perhaps quite so comfortably as they would have done in their berths, but without suffering too much from the feeling of suffocation experienced by other explorers. The fleas, however, were very troublesome, and their unremitting attacks kept the commander awake all night. At four a.m. the ascent was resumed, and a second esplanade, called the Alta Vista, was soon reached, beyond which all trace of a path disappears, the rest of the ascent being over rough lava as far as the Chahorra Cone, with here and there, in the shade, patches of unmelted snow. The peak itself is very steep, and its ascent is rendered yet more arduous by the pumice-stone which rolls away beneath the feet. "At thirty-five minutes past six," says M. Dumont d'Urville, "we arrived at the summit of the Chahorra, which is evidently a half-extinct crater. Its sides are thin and sloping, it is from sixty to eighty feet deep, and the whole surface is strewn with fragments of obsidian, pumice-stones, and lava. Sulphureous vapour, forming a kind of crown of smoke, is emitted from it, whilst the atmosphere at the bottom is perfectly cool. At the summit of the peak the thermometer marked 11 degrees, but in my opinion it was affected by the presence of the fumerolles, for when at the bottom of the crater it fell rapidly from 19 degrees in the sun to 9 degrees 5' in the shade." The descent was accomplished without accident by another route, enabling our travellers to examine the Cueva de la Nieve, and to visit the forest of Aqua Garcia, watered by a limpid stream, and in which D'Urville made a rich collection of botanical specimens. In Major Megliorini's rooms at Santa Cruz the commander was shown, together with a number of weapons, shells, animals, fish, &c., a complete mummy of a Guanche, said to be that of a woman. The corpse was sewn up in skins, and seemed to be that of a woman five feet four high, with regular features and large hands. The sepulchral caves of the Guanches also contained earthenware, wooden vases, triangular seals of baked clay, and a great number of small discs of the same material, strung together like chaplets, which may have been used by this extinct race for the same purposes as the "quipos" of the Peruvians. On the 21st June the _Astrolabe_ once more set sail and touched at La Praya, and at the Cape Verd Islands, where D'Urville had hoped to meet Captain King, who would have been able to give him some valuable hints on the navigation of the coast of New Guinea. King, however, had left La Praya thirty-six hours previously, and the _Astrolabe_ therefore resumed her voyage the next day, i.e. on the 30th June. On the last day of July the rocks of Martin-Vaz and Trinity Island were sighted, and the latter appearing perfectly barren, a little dried-up grass and a few groups of stunted trees, dotted about amongst the rocks, being the only signs of vegetation. D'Urville had been very anxious to make some botanical researches on this desert island, but the surf was so rough that he was afraid to risk a boat in it. On the 4th August the _Astrolabe_ sailed over the spot laid down as "Saxembourg" Island, which ought to be finally erased from French as it has been from English charts; and after a succession of squalls, which tried her sorely, she arrived off St. Paul and Amsterdam Islands, finally anchoring on the 7th October in King George's Sound, on the coast of Australia. In spite of the roughness of the sea, and constant bad weather throughout his voyage of 108 days, D'Urville had carried on all his usual observations on the height of the waves, which he estimated at 80 and occasionally as much as 100 feet, off Needle Bank; the temperature of the sea at various depths, &c. Captain Jacquinot having found a capital supply of fresh water on the right bank of Princess Royal Harbour, and at a little distance a site suitable for the erection of an observatory, the tents were soon pitched by the sailors, and several officers made a complete tour of the bay, whilst others opened relations with the aborigines, one of whom was induced to go on board, though it was only with the greatest difficulty that he was persuaded to throw away his _Banksia_, a cone used to retain heat, and to keep the stomach and the front part of the body warm. He remained quietly enough on board for two days, however, eating and drinking in front of the kitchen fire. In the meantime his fellow-countrymen on land were peaceable and well-disposed, even bringing three of their children into the camp. During this halt a boat arrived manned by eight Englishmen, who asked to be taken on board as passengers, and told such a very improbable story of having been deserted by their captain, that D'Urville suspected them of being escaped convicts; a suspicion which became a conviction, when he saw the wry faces they made at his proposal to send them back to Port Jackson. The next day, however, one took a berth as sailor, and two were received as passengers; whilst the other five decided to remain on land and drag out a miserable existence amongst the natives. All this time hydrographical and astronomical observations were being made, and the hunters and naturalists were trying to obtain specimens of new varieties of fauna and flora. The delays extending to October 24th enabled the explorers to regain their strength, after their trying voyage, to make the necessary repairs, take in wood and water, draw up a map of the whole neighbourhood, and to collect numerous botanical and zoological specimens. His observations of various kinds made D'Urville wonder that the English had not yet founded a colony on King George's Sound, admirably situated as it is, not only for vessels coming direct from Europe, but for those trading between the Cape and China, or bound for the Sunda Islands, and delayed by the monsoons. The coast was explored as far as West Port, preferred by D'Urville to Port Dalrymple, the latter being a harbour always difficult and often dangerous either to enter or to leave. West Port moreover, was as yet only known from the reports of Baudin and Flinders, and it was therefore better worth exploring than a more frequented district. The observations made in King George's Sound were therefore repeated at West Port, resulting in the following conclusions:-- "It affords," says D'Urville, "an anchorage alike easy to reach and to leave, the bottom is firm, and wood is abundant and easily procurable. In a word, when a good supply of fresh water is found, and that will probably be soon, West Port will rise to a position of great importance in a channel such as Bass's Straits, when the winds often blow strongly from one quarter for several days together, the currents at the same time rendering navigation difficult." From November 19th to December 2nd the _Astrolabe_ cruised along the coast, touching only at Jervis Bay, remarkable for its magnificent eucalyptus forests. [Illustration: Eucalyptus forest of Jervis Bay.] The reception given to the French at Port Jackson, by Governor Darling and the colonial authorities, was none the less cordial for the fact that the visits made by D'Urville to various parts of New Holland had greatly amazed the English Government. During the last three years Port Jackson had increased greatly in size and improved in appearance; though the population of the whole colony only amounted to 50,000, and that in spite of the constant foundation of new English settlements. The commander took advantage of his stay in Sydney to forward his despatches to France, together with several cases of natural history specimens. This done and a fresh stock of provisions having been laid in, he resumed his voyage. [Illustration: New Guinea hut on piles. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] It would be useless to linger with Dumont d'Urville at New South Wales, to the history of which, and its condition in 1826, he devotes a whole volume of his narrative. We have already given a detailed account of it, and it will be better to leave Sydney with our traveller, on the 19th December, and follow him to Tasman Bay, through calms, head-winds, currents, and tempests, which prevented his reaching New Zealand before the 14th January, 1827. Tasman Bay, first seen by Cook on his second voyage, had never yet been explored by any expedition, and on the arrival of the _Astrolabe_ a number of canoes, containing some score of natives, most of them chiefs, approached. These natives were not afraid to climb on board, some remaining several days, whilst later arrivals drew up within reach, and a brisk trade was opened. Meanwhile several officers climbed through the thick furze clothing the hills overlooking the bay, and the following is D'Urville's verdict on the desolate scene which met their view. "Not a bird, not an insect, not even a reptile to be seen, the solemn, melancholy silence is unbroken by the voice of any living creature." From the summit of these hills the commander saw New Bay, that known as Admiralty, which communicates by a current with that in which the _Astrolabe_ was anchored; and he was anxious to explore it, as it seemed safer than that of Tasman, but the currents several times brought his vessel to the very verge of destruction; and had the _Astrolabe_ been driven upon the rocky coast, the whole crew would have perished, and not so much as a trace of the wreck would have been left. At last, however, D'Urville succeeded in clearing the passage with no further loss than that of a few bits of the ship's keel. "To celebrate," says the narrative, "the memory of the passage of the _Astrolabe_, I conferred upon this dangerous strait the name of the 'Passe des Français'" (French Pass), "but, unless in a case of great necessity, I should not advise any one else to attempt it. We could now look calmly at the beautiful basin in which we found ourselves; and which certainly deserves all the praise given to it by Cook. I would specially recommend a fine little harbour, some miles to the south of the place, where the captain cast anchor. Our navigation of the 'Passe des Français' had definitively settled the insular character of the whole of the district terminating in the 'Cape Stephens' of Cook. It is divided from the mainland of Te-Wahi-Punamub[1] by the Current Basin. The comparison of our chart with that of the strait as laid down by Cook will suffice to show how much he left to be done." [Footnote 1: Now "South Island."--_Trans._] The _Astrolabe_ soon entered Cook's Strait, and sailing outside Queen Charlotte's Bay, doubled Cape Palliser, a headland formed of some low hills. D'Urville was greatly surprised to find that a good many inaccuracies had crept into the work of the great English navigator, and in that part of the account of his voyage which relates to hydrography, he quotes instances of errors of a fourth, or even third of a degree. The commander then resolved to make a survey of the eastern side of the northern island Ika-Na-Mawi. On this island pigs were to be found, but no "_pounamon_" the green jade which the New Zealanders use in the manufacture of their most valuable tools; strange to say, however, jade is to be found on the southern island, but there are no pigs. Two natives of the island, who had expressed a wish to remain on board the corvette, became quite low-spirited as they watched the coast of the district where they lived disappear below the horizon. They then began to repent, but too late, the intrepidity which had prompted them to leave their native shores; for intrepid they justly deserve to be called, seeing that again and again they asked the French sailors if they were not to be eaten, and it took several days of kind treatment to dispel this fear from their minds. [Illustration: New Zealanders. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] D'Urville continued to sail northward up the coast until the capes, named by Cook Turn-again and Kidnappers, had been doubled, and Sterile Island with its "Ipah" came in sight. In the Bay of Tolaga, as Cook called it, the natives brought alongside the corvette pigs and potatoes, which they readily exchanged for articles of little value. On other canoes approaching, the New Zealanders who were on board the vessel urged the commander to fire upon and kill their fellow-countrymen in the boats; but as soon as the latter climbed up to the deck, the first arrivals advanced to greet them with earnest assurances of friendship. Conduct so strangely inconsistent is the outcome of the compound of hatred and jealousy mutually entertained for each other by these tribes. "They all desire to appropriate to themselves exclusively whatever advantage may be obtained from the visits of foreigners, and they are distressed at the prospect of their neighbours getting any share." Proof was soon afforded that this explanation is the right key to their behaviour. Upon the _Astrolabe_ were several New Zealanders, but among them was a certain "_Shaki_" who was recognized as a chief by his tall stature, his elaborate tattooing, and the respectful manner in which he was addressed by his fellow-islanders. Seeing a canoe manned by not more than seven or eight men approaching the corvette, this "_Shaki_" and the rest came to entreat D'Urville most earnestly to kill the new arrivals, going so far as to ask for muskets that they might themselves fire upon them. However, no sooner had the last comers arrived on board than all those who were there already overwhelmed them with courtesies, while the "_Shaki_" himself, although he had been one of the most sanguinary, completely changed his tone and made them a present of some axes he had just obtained. After the chief men of a warlike and fierce appearance, with faces tattooed all over, had been a few minutes on board, D'Urville was preparing to ask them some questions, with the aid of a vocabulary published by the missionaries, when all at once they turned away from him, leaped into their canoes and pushed out into the open sea. This sudden move was brought about by their countrymen, who, for the purpose of getting rid of them, slily hinted that their lives were in danger, as the Frenchmen had formed a plot to kill them. It was in the Bay of Tolaga, the right name of which is Houa-Houa, that D'Urville found the first opportunity of gaining some information about the "kiwi," by means of a mat decorated with the feathers of that bird, such mats being articles of luxury among these islanders. The "kiwi" is about the size of a small turkey, and, like the ostrich, has not the power of flying. It is hunted at night by the light of torches and with the assistance of dogs. It is this bird which is also known under the name of the "apteryx." What the natives told D'Urville about it was in the main accurate. The apteryx, with the tail of a fowl and a plumage of a reddish-brown, has an affinity to the ostrich; it inhabits damp and gloomy woods, and never comes out even in search of food except in the evening. The incessant hunting of the natives has considerably diminished the numbers of this curious species, and it is now very rare. D'Urville made no pause in the hydrographical survey of the northern island of New Zealand, keeping up daily communication with the natives, who brought him supplies of pigs and potatoes. According to their own statements, the tribes were perpetually at war with one another, and this was the true cause of the decrease in the population of these islands. Their constant demand was for fire-arms; failing to obtain these, they were satisfied if they could get powder in exchange for their own commodities. On the 10th February, when not far from Cape Runaway, the corvette was caught in a violent storm, which lasted for thirty-six hours, and she was more than once on the point of foundering. After this, she made her way into the Bay of Plenty, at the bottom of which rises Mount Edgecumbe; then keeping along the coast, the islands of Haute and Major were sighted; but during this exploration of the bay, the weather was so severe that the chart of it then laid down cannot be considered very trustworthy. After leaving this bay, the corvette reached the Bay of Mercury; surveyed Barrier Island, entered Shouraki or Hauraki Bay, identified the Hen and Chickens and the Poor Knights Islands, finally arriving at the Bay of Islands. The native tribes met with by D'Urville in this part of the island were busy with an expedition against those of Shouraki and Waikato Bays. For the purpose of exploring the former bay, which had been imperfectly surveyed by Cook, D'Urville sailed back to it, and discovered that that part of New Zealand is indented with a number of harbours and gulfs of great depth, each one being safer, if possible, than the other. Having been informed that by following the direction of the Wai Magoia, a place would be reached distant only a very short journey from the large port of Manukau, he despatched some of his officers by that route, and they verified the correctness of the information he had received. This discovery, observes Dumont d'Urville, may become of great value to future settlements of Shouraki Bay; and this value will be still farther increased should the new surveys prove that the port of Manukau is accessible to vessels of a certain size, for such a settlement would command two seas, one on the east and the other on the west. One of the "Rangatiras," as the chiefs of that quarter of the island are called, Rangui by name, had again and again begged the commander to give him some lead to make bullets with; a request which was always refused. Just before setting sail, D'Urville was informed that the deep-sea lead had been carried off; and he at once reproached Rangui in severe terms, telling him that such petty larcenies were unworthy of a man in a respectable position. The chief appeared to be deeply moved by the reproach, and excused himself by saying that he had no knowledge of the theft, which must have been committed by some stranger. "A short time afterwards," the narrative goes on to say, "my attention was drawn to the side of the ship by the sound of blows given with great force, and piteous cries proceeding from the canoe of Rangui. There I saw Rangui and Tawiti striking blow after blow with their paddles upon an object resembling the figure of a man covered with a cloak. It was easy to perceive that the two wily chiefs were simply beating one of the benches of the canoe. After this farce had been played for some little time, Rangui's paddle broke in his hands. The sham man was made to appear to fall down, when Rangui, addressing me, said that he had just killed the thief, and wished to know whether that would satisfy me. I assured him that it would, laughing to myself at the artifice of these savages; an artifice, for that matter, such as is often to be met with among people more advanced in civilization." D'Urville next surveyed the lovely island of Wai-hiki, and thus terminated the survey of the Astrolabe Channel and Hauraki Bay. He then resumed his voyage in a northerly direction towards the Bay of Islands, sailing as far as Cape Maria Van Diemen, the most northerly point of New Zealand, where, say the Waïdonas, "the souls of the departed gather from all parts of Ika-Na-Mawi, to take their final flight to the realms of light or to those of eternal darkness." The Bay of Islands, at the time when the _Coquille_ put in there, was alive with a pretty considerable population, with whom the visitors soon became on friendly terms. Now, however, the animation of former days had given place to the silence of desolation. The Ipah, or rather the Pah of Kahou Wera, once the abode of an energetic tribe, was deserted, war had done its customary destructive work in the place. The Songhui tribe had stolen the possessions, and dispersed the members of the tribe of Paroa. The Bay of Islands was the place chosen for their field of effort by the English missionaries, who, notwithstanding their devotion to their work had not made any progress among the natives. The unproductiveness of their labours was only too apparent. The survey of the eastern side of New Zealand, a hydrographical work of the utmost importance, terminated at this point. Since the days of Cook no exploration of anything like such a vast extent of the coast of this country had been conducted in so careful a manner, in the face of so many perils. The sciences of geography and navigation were both signally benefited by the skilful and detailed work of D'Urville, who had to give proof of exceptional qualities in the midst of sudden and terrible dangers. However, on his return to France, no notice was taken of the hardships he had undergone, or the devotion to duty he had shown; he was left without recognition, and duties were assigned to him, the performance of which could bring no distinction, for they could have been equally well discharged by any ordinary ship's captain. Leaving New Zealand on the 18th of March, 1827, D'Urville steered for Tonga Tabou, identified to begin with the islands Curtis, Macaulay, and Sunday; endeavoured, but without success, to find the island of Vasquez de Mauzelle, and arrived off Namouka on the 16th of April. Two days later he made out Eoa; but before reaching Tonga Tabou he encountered a terrible storm which all but proved fatal to the _Astrolabe_. At Tonga Tabou he found some Europeans, who had been for many years settled on the island; from them he received much help in getting to understand the character of the natives. The government was in the hands of three chiefs, called _Equis_, who had shared all authority between them since the banishment of the _Tonï Tonga_, or spiritual chief, who had enjoyed immense influence. A Wesleyan mission was in existence at Tonga; but it could be seen at a glance that the Methodist clergy had not succeeded in acquiring any influence over the natives. Such converts as had been made were held in general contempt for their apostasy. When the _Astrolabe_ had reached the anchorage, after her fortunate escape from the perils from contrary winds, currents, and rocks, which had beset her course, she was at once positively overwhelmed with the offer of an incredible quantity of stores, fruits, vegetables, fowls, and pigs, which the natives were ready to dispose of for next to nothing. For equally low prices D'Urville was able to purchase, for the museum, specimens of the arms and native productions of the savages. Amongst them were some clubs, most of them made of casuarina wood, skilfully carved, or embossed in an artistic manner with mother-of-pearl or with whalebone. The custom of amputating a joint or two of the fingers or toes, to propitiate the Deity, was still observed, in the case of a near relative being dangerously ill. From the 28th of April the natives had manifested none but the most friendly feelings; no single disturbance had occurred; but on the 9th of May, while D'Urville, with almost all his officers, went to pay a visit to one of the leading chiefs, named Palou, the reception accorded to them was marked by a most unusual reserve, altogether inconsistent with the noisy and enthusiastic demonstrations of the preceding days. The distrust evinced by the islanders aroused that of D'Urville, who, remembering how few were the men left on board the _Astrolabe_, felt considerable uneasiness. However, nothing unusual happened during his absence from the ship. But it was only the cowardice of Palou which had caused the failure of a conspiracy, aiming at nothing less than the massacre, at one blow, of the whole of the staff, after which there would have been no difficulty in prevailing over the crew, who were already more than half-disposed to adopt the easy mode of life of the islanders. Such at least was the conclusion the commander came to, and subsequent events showed that he was right. These apprehensions determined D'Urville to leave Tonga Tabou as quickly as possible, and on the 13th every preparation was made to set sail on the following day. The apprentice Dudemaine was walking about on the large island, whilst the apprentice Faraquet, with nine men, was engaged on the small island, Pangaï Modou, in getting fresh water, or studying the tide, when Tahofa, one of the chiefs, with several other islanders, then on board the _Astrolabe_, gave a signal. The canoes pushed off at once and made for the shore. On trying to discover the cause of this sudden retreat, it was observed that the sailors on the island Pangaï Modou were being forcibly dragged off by the natives. D'Urville was about to fire off a cannon, when he decided that it would be safer to send a boat to shore. This boat took off the two sailors and the apprentice Dudemaine, but was fired upon when despatched shortly afterwards to set fire to the huts, and to try to capture some natives as hostages. One native was killed and several others were wounded, whilst a corporal of the marines received such severe bayonet wounds, that he died two hours later. [Illustration: Attack from the natives of Tonga Tabou.] D'Urville's anxiety about the fate of his sailors, and of Faraquet, who was in command of them, knew no bounds. Nothing was left for him to do but to make an attack upon the sacred village of Mafanga, containing the tombs of several of the principal families. But on the following day a crowd of natives so skilfully surrounded the place with embankments and palisades, that it was impossible to hope to carry it by an attack. The corvette then drew nearer to the shore, and began to cannonade the village, without, however, doing any other damage than killing one of the natives. At length the difficulty of obtaining provisions, the rain, and the continual alarm in which the firing of the Frenchmen kept them, induced the islanders to offer terms of peace. They gave up the sailors, who had all been very well treated, made a present of pigs and bananas; and on the 24th of May the _Astrolabe_ took her final departure from the Friendly Islands. It was quite time indeed that this was done, for D'Urville's situation was untenable, and in a conversation with his boatswain he ascertained that not more than half a dozen of the sailors could be relied on; all the others were ready to go over to the side of the savages. Tonga Tabou is of madreporic formation, with a thick covering of vegetable soil, favourable to an abundant growth of shrubs and trees. The cocoa-tree, the stem of which is slenderer than elsewhere, and the banana-tree here shoot up with wonderful rapidity and vigour. The aspect of the land is flat and monotonous, so that a journey of one or two miles will give as fair an impression of the country as a complete tour of the island. The number of the population who have the true Polynesian cast of countenance may be put down at about 7000. D'Urville says "they combine the most opposite qualities. They are generous, courteous, and hospitable, yet avaricious, insolent, and always thoroughly insincere. The most profuse demonstration of kindness and friendship may at any moment be interrupted by an act of outrage or robbery, should their cupidity or their self-respect be ever so slightly roused." In intelligence the natives of Tonga are clearly far superior to those of Otaheite. The French travellers could not sufficiently admire the astonishing order in which the plantations of yams and bananas were kept, the excessive neatness of their dwellings, and the beauty of the garden-plots. They even knew something of the art of fortification, as D'Urville ascertained by an inspection of the fortified village of Hifo, defended with stout palisades, and surrounded by a trench between fifteen and twenty feet wide, and half filled with water. On the 25th of May, D'Urville began the exploration of the Viti or Fiji Archipelago. At the outset he was so fortunate as to fall in with a native of Tonga who was living on the Fiji Islands for purposes of trade, and had previously visited Otaheite, New Zealand, and Australia. This man, as well as a Guam islander, proved most useful to the commander in furnishing him with the names of more than 200 islands belonging to this group, and in acquainting him beforehand with their position, and that of the reefs in their neighbourhood. At the same time, Gressier, the hydrographer, collected all the materials requisite for preparing a chart of the Fiji Islands. At this station a sloop was put under orders to proceed to the island of Laguemba, where was an anchor which D'Urville would have been well pleased to obtain, as he had lost two of his own while at Tonga. On arrival at the island, Lottin, who was in command of the sloop, observed on the shore none but women and children; armed men, however, soon came running up, made the women leave the place, and were preparing to seize the sloop and make the sailors prisoners. Their intentions were too plain to leave room for any doubt on the subject, so Lottin at once gave orders to draw up the grapnel, and got away into the open sea before there was time for an encounter to take place. During eighteen consecutive days, in the face of bad weather and a rough sea, the _Astrolabe_ cruised through the Fiji Archipelago, surveyed the islands of Laguemba, Kandabou, Viti-Levou, Oumbenga Vatou Lele, Ounong Lebou, Malolo, and many others, giving special attention to the southern islands of the group, which up to that period had remained almost entirely unknown. The population of this group, if we accept D'Urville's account, form a kind of transition between the copper-coloured, or the Polynesian, and the black or Melanesian races. Their strength and vigour are in proportion to their tall figures, and they make no secret of their cannibal propensities. On the 11th of June the corvette set sail for the harbour of Carteret; surveyed one by one the islands of Erronan and Annatom, the Loyalty Islands, of which group D'Urville discovered the Chabrol and Halgan Islands, the little group of the Beaupie Islands, the Astrolabe reefs, all the more dangerous as they are thirty miles distant from the Beaupie Islands, and sixty from New Caledonia. The island of Huon, and the chain of reefs to the north of New Caledonia, were subsequently surveyed. From this point D'Urville reached the Louisiade Archipelago in six days, but the stormy weather there encountered determined him to abandon the course he had planned out, and not to pass through Torres Straits. He thought that an early examination of the southern coast of New Britain, and of the northern coast of New Guinea, would be the most conducive to the interests of science. Rossel Island and Cape Deliverance were next sighted; and the vessel was steered for New Ireland, with a view to obtaining fresh supplies of wood and water. Arriving there on the 5th of July in such gloomy, rainy weather, that it was with no small difficulty that the entrance of the harbour of Carteret, where D'Entrecasteaux made a stay of eight days, was made out; whilst there the travellers received several visits from the score of natives, who seem to make up the total population of the place. They were creatures possessed of scarcely any intelligence, and quite destitute of curiosity about objects that they had not seen before. Neither did their appearance lead to the slightest prepossession in their favour. They wore no vestige of clothing; their skin was black and their hair woolly; and the partition of the nostrils had a sharp bone thrust through by way of ornament. The only object that they showed any eagerness to possess was iron, but they could not be made to understand that it was only to be given in exchange for fruits or pigs. Their expression was one of sullen defiance, and they refused to guide any one whatever to their village. During the unprofitable stay of the corvette in this harbour, D'Urville had a serious attack of enteritis, from which he suffered much for several days. On the 19th July the _Astrolabe_ went to sea again and coasted the northern side of New Britain, the object of this cruise was frustrated by rainy and hazy weather. Continual squalls and heavy showers compelled the vessel to put off again as soon as it had succeeded in nearing the land. His experience on this coast D'Urville thus describes:--"One who has not had, as we have, a practical acquaintance with these seas, is unable to form any adequate conception of these incredible rains. Moreover, to obtain a just estimate of the cares and anxieties which a voyage like ours entails, there must be a liability to the call of duties similar to those which we had to discharge. It was very seldom that our horizon lay much beyond the distance of 200 yards, and our observations could not possibly be other than uncertain, when our own true position was doubtful. Altogether, the whole of our work upon New Britain, in spite of the unheard of hardships that fell to our lot and the risks which the _Astrolabe_ had to run, cannot be put in comparison for a moment, as respects accuracy, with the other surveys of the expedition." As it was impracticable to fall back upon the route by the St. George's Channel, D'Urville had to pass through Dampier's Strait, the southern entrance to which is all but entirely closed by a chain of reefs, which were grazed more than once by the _Astrolabe_. The charming prospect of the western coast of New Britain excited intense admiration both in Dampier and D'Entrecasteaux; an enthusiasm fully shared by D'Urville. A safe roadstead enclosed by land forming a semicircle, forests whose dark foliage contrasted with the golden colour of the ripening fields, the whole surmounted by the lofty peaks of Mount Gloucester, and this variety still further enhanced by the undulating outlines of Rook Island, are the chief features of the picture here presented by the coast of New Britain. [Illustration: Lofty mountains clothed with dense and gloomy forests.] On issuing from the strait the mountains of New Guinea rose grandly in the distance; and on a nearer approach they were seen to form a sort of half-circle shutting in the arm of the sea known as the Bay of Astrolabe. The Schouten Islands, the Creek of the Attack (the place where D'Urville had to withstand an onset of savages), Humboldt Bay, Geelwinck Bay, the Traitor Islands, Tobie and Mysory, the Arfak Mountains, were one after another recognized and passed, when the _Astrolabe_ at length came to an anchor in Port Dorei, in order to connect her operations with those accomplished by the _Coquille_. Friendly intercourse was at once established with the Papuans of that place, who brought on board a number of birds of paradise, but not much in the shape of provisions. These natives, are of so gentle and timid a disposition, that only with great reluctance will they risk going into the woods through fear of the Arfakis, who dwell on the mountains, and are their sworn enemies. One of the sailors engaged in getting fresh water was wounded with an arrow shot by one of these savages, whom it was impossible to punish for a dastardly outrage prompted by no motive whatever. The land here is everywhere so fertile that it requires no more than turning over and weeding, in order to yield the most abundant harvests; yet the Papuans are so lazy and understand so little of the art of agriculture, that the growth of food plants is often allowed to be choked with weeds. The inhabitants belong to several races. D'Urville divides them into three principal varieties: the Papuans, a mixed breed, belonging more or less to the Malay or Polynesian race; and the Harfous or Alfourous, who resemble the common type of Australians; New Caledonians and the ordinary black Oceanic populations. These latter would appear to be the true indigenous people of the country. On the 6th September the _Astrolabe_ again put to sea, and after an uninteresting stay at New Guinea, in the course of which scarcely any specimens of natural history were obtained, except a few mollusca, and still less exact information regarding the customs, religion, or language of its diversified population, steered for Amboyna, which was reached without any accident on the 24th September. The governor, M. Merkus, happened to be on circuit; but his absence was no obstacle to the supply of all the stores needed by the commander. The reception given by the authorities and the society of the place was of a very cordial kind, and everything was done to compensate the French explorers for the hardships undergone in their long and troublesome voyage. From Amboyna D'Urville proceeded to Hobart Town in Tasmania, a place not visited by any French vessel since the time of Baudin, arriving on the 27th December, 1827. Thirty-five years previously D'Entrecasteaux had met on the shores of this island only a few wretched savages; and ten years later Baudin found it quite deserted. The first piece of news that Dumont d'Urville learnt on entering the river Derwent, before even casting anchor at Hobart Town, was that Captain Dillon, an Englishman, had received certain information, when at Tucopia, of the shipwreck of La Pérouse at Vanikoro; and that he had brought away the hilt of a sword which he believed to have belonged to that navigator. On his arrival at Calcutta Dillon communicated his information to the governor, who without delay despatched him with instructions to rescue such of the shipwrecked crew as might still be alive, and collect whatever relics could be found of the vessels. To D'Urville this intelligence was of the highest interest, seeing that he had been specially instructed to search for whatever might be calculated to throw any light upon the fate of the unfortunate navigator, and he had while at Namouka obtained proof of the residence for a time of La Pérouse at the Friendly Islands. In the English colony itself there was some difference of opinion as to the credit which Captain Dillon's story was entitled to receive; but the report which that officer had made to the Governor-General of India, quite removed any doubt from the mind of D'Urville. Abandoning, therefore, all further plans with reference to New Zealand, he decided upon proceeding at once in the _Astrolabe_, in the track of Dillon, to Vanikoro, which he then knew only by the name of Mallicolo. [Illustration: Natives of Vanikoro. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] The following is the statement of the circumstances as made by Dillon. During a stay made by the ship _Hunter_ at the Fiji Islands, three persons, a Prussian named Martin Bushart, his wife, and a Lascar, called Achowlia, were received on board, endeavouring to escape from the horrible fate awaiting them, which had already befallen the other European deserters settled in that archipelago, that of being devoured by the savages; this unhappy trio merely begged to be put on shore at the first inhabited island which the _Hunter_ might touch at. Accordingly, they were left on one of the Charlotte Islands, Tucopia, in 12 degrees 15 minutes S. lat, and 169 degrees W. long. In the month of May, 1836, Dillon, who had been one of the crew of the ship _Hunter_, paid a visit to the island of Tucopia, with a view of ascertaining what had become of the people put on shore in 1813. There he found the Lascar and the Prussian; the former of whom sold him a silver sword-hilt. As might have been expected, Dillon was curious to know how the natives of that island had come into possession of such an article. The Prussian then related that on his arrival at Tucopia he had found many articles of iron, such as bolts, axes, knives, spoons, and other things, which he was told had come from Mallicolo, a group of islands situated about two days canoe sail to the east of Tucopia. By further interrogatories, Dillon learnt that two vessels had been thrown upon the coasts many years previously, one of which had perished entirely with all on board, whilst the crew of the second had constructed out of the wreck of their ship a little boat, in which they had put to sea, leaving some of their number at Mallicolo. The Lascar said he had seen two of these men, who had acquired a well-merited influence through services rendered to chiefs. Dillon tried in vain to persuade his informant to take him to Mallicolo, but was more successful with the Prussian, who took him within sight of the island, called Research by D'Entrecasteaux, on which, however, Dillon was unable to land on account of the dead calm and his want of provisions. On hearing his account, on his arrival at Pondicherry, the governor entrusted him with the command of a boat specially constructed for exploring purposes. This was in 1827. Dillon now touched at Tucopia, where he obtained interpreters and a pilot, and thence went to Mallicolo, where he learnt from the natives that the strangers had stayed there five months to build their vessel, and that they had been looked upon as supernatural visitors, an idea not a little confirmed by their singular behaviour. They had been seen, for instance, to talk to the moon and stars through a long stick, their noses were immense, and some of them always remained standing, holding bars of iron in their hands. Such was the impression left on the minds of the natives by the astronomical observations, cocked hats, and sentinels of the French. Dillon obtained from the natives a good many relics of the expedition, and he also saw at the bottom of the sea, on the coral reef on which the vessel had struck, some bronze cannons, a bell, and all kinds of rubbish, which he reverently collected and carried to Paris, arriving there in 1828, and receiving from the king a pension of 4000 francs as a reward for his exertions. All doubt was dispelled when the Comte de Lesseps, who had landed at Kamtchatka from La Pérouse's party, identified the cannons and the carved stern of the _Boussole_, and the armorial bearings of Colignon, the botanist, were made out on a silver candlestick. All these interesting and curious facts, however, D'Urville did not know until later; at present he had only heard Dillon's first report. By chance, or perhaps because he was afraid of being forestalled, the captain had not laid down the position of Vanikoro or the route he followed on the way from Tucopia, which island D'Urville supposed to belong to the Banks or Santa Cruz group, each as little known as the other. Before following D'Urville, however, we must pause with him for awhile at Hobart Town, which he looked upon even then as a place of remarkable importance. "Its houses," he says, "are very spacious, consisting only of one story and the ground-floor, though their cleanness and regularity give them a very pleasant appearance. Walking in the streets, which are unpaved, though some have curb stones, is very tiring; and the dust always rising in clouds is very trying to the eyes. The Government house is pleasantly situated on the shores of the bay, and will be greatly improved in a few years if the young trees planted about it thrive. Native timber is quite unsuitable for ornamental purposes." The stay at Hobart Town was turned to account to complete the stock of provisions, anchors, and other very requisite articles, and also to repair the vessel and the rigging, the latter being sorely dilapidated. On the 5th January the _Astrolabe_ once more put to sea, surveyed Norfolk Island on the 20th, Matthew Volcano six days later, Erronan on the 28th, and the little Mitre Island on the 8th February, arriving the next day off Tucopia, a small island three or four miles in circumference with one rather pointed peak covered with vegetation. The eastern side of Tucopia is apparently inaccessible from the violence of the breakers continually dashing on to its beach. The eagerness of all was now great, and was becoming unbounded when three boats, one containing a European, were seen approaching. This European turned out to be the Prussian calling himself Bushart, who had lately gone with Dillon to Mallicolo, where the latter remained a whole month, and where he really obtained the relics of the expedition as D'Urville had heard at Hobart Town. Not a single Frenchman now remained on the island; the last had died the previous year. Bushart at first consented, but declined at the last moment, to go with D'Urville or to remain on the _Astrolabe_. Vanikoro is surrounded by reefs, through which, not without danger, the _Astrolabe_ found a passage, casting anchor in the same place as Dillon had done, namely in Ocili Bay. The scene of the shipwreck was on the other side of the bay. It was not easy to get information from the natives, who were avaricious, untrustworthy, insolent, and deceitful. An old man, however, was finally induced to confess that the whites who had landed on the beach at Vanon had been received with a shower of arrows, and that a fight ensued in which a good many natives had fallen; as for the _maras_ (sailors) they had all been killed, and their skulls buried at Vanon. The rest of the bones had been used to tip the arrows of the natives. A canoe was now sent to the village of Nama, and after considerable hesitation the natives were induced by a promise of some red cloth to take the Frenchmen to the scene of the shipwreck about a mile off, near Païon and opposite Ambi, where amongst the breakers at the bottom of a sort of shelving beach anchors, cannons, and cannonballs, and many other things were made out, leaving no doubt as to the facts in the minds of the officers of the _Astrolabe_. It was evident to all that the vessel had endeavoured to get inside the reefs by a kind of pass, and that she had run aground and been unable to get off. The crew may then have saved themselves at Païon, and according to the account of some natives they built a little boat there, whilst the other vessel, which had struck on the reef further out, had been lost with all on board. Chief Moembe had heard it said that the inhabitants of Vanon had approached the vessel to pillage it, but had been driven back by the whites, losing twenty men and three chiefs. The savages in their turn had massacred all the French who landed, except two, who lived on the island for the space of three months. Another chief, Valiko by name, said that one of the boats had struck outside the reef opposite Tanema after a very windy night, and that nearly all its crew had perished before they could land. Many of the sailors of the second vessel had got to land, and built at Païon a little boat out of the pieces of the large ship wrecked. During their stay at Païon quarrels arose, and two sailors with five natives of Vanon and one from Tanema were killed. At the end of five months the Frenchmen left the island. Lastly, a third old man told how some thirty sailors belonging to the first vessel had joined the crew of the second, and that they had all left at the end of six or seven months. All these facts, which had so to speak to be extracted by force, varied in their details; the last, however, seemed most nearly to approach the truth. Amongst the objects picked up by the _Astrolabe_ were an anchor weighing about 1800 pounds, a cast-iron cannon, a bronze swivel, a copper blunderbuss, some pig lead, and several other considerably damaged articles of little interest. These relics, with those collected by Dillon, are now in the Naval Museum at the Louvre. D'Urville did not leave Vanikoro without erecting a monument to the memory of his unfortunate fellow-countrymen. This humble memorial was placed in a mangrove grove off the reef itself. It consists of a quadrangular prism, made of coral slabs six feet high, surmounted by a pyramid of Koudi wood of the same height, bearing on a little plate of lead the following inscription,-- A la Mémoire DE LA PÉROUSE, ET DE SES COMPAGNONS L'ASTROLABE 14 _Mars_, 1828. As soon as this task was accomplished, D'Urville prepared to set sail again, as it was time he did, for the damp resulting from the torrents of rain had engendered serious fevers, prostrating no less than twenty-five of the party. The commander would have to make haste if he wished to keep a crew fit to execute the arduous manoeuvres necessary to the exit of the vessel from a narrow pass strewn with rocks. The last day passed by the _Astrolabe_ at Vanikoro would have shown the truth to D'Urville had he needed any enlightening as to the true disposition of the natives. The following is his account of the last incidents of this dangerous halt. "At eight o'clock, I was a good deal surprised to see half a dozen canoes approaching from Tevaï, the more so, that two or three natives from Manevaï who were on board showed no uneasiness, although they had told me a few days before that the people of Tevaï were their mortal enemies. I expressed my surprise to the Manevaians, who merely said, with an evident air of equivocation, that they had made their peace with the Tevaians, who were only bringing some cocoa-nuts. I soon saw, however, that the new comers were carrying nothing but bows and arrows in first rate condition. Two or three of them climbed on board, and in a determined manner came up to the main watch to look down into the orlop-deck to find out how many men were disabled, whilst a malignant joy lit up their diabolical features. At this moment some of the crew told me that two or three of the Manevaï men on board had done the same thing during the last three or four days, and M. Gressien, who had been watching their movements since the morning, thought he had seen the warriors of the two tribes meet on the beach and have a long conference together. Such behaviour gave proof of the most treacherous intentions, and I felt the danger to be imminent. I at once ordered the natives to leave the vessel and return to the canoes, but they had the audacity to look at me with a proud and threatening expression, as if to defy me to put my order into execution. I merely had the armoury, generally kept jealously closed, opened, and with a severe look I pointed to it with one hand, whilst with the other I motioned the savages to the canoes. The sudden apparition of twenty shining muskets, the powers of which they understood, made them tremble, and relieved us of their ominous presence." [Illustration: "I merely had the armoury opened."] Before leaving the scene of this melancholy story, we will glean a few details from D'Urville's account of it. The Vanikoro, Mallicolo, or, as Dillon calls it, the La Pérouse group, consists of two islands, Research and Tevaï. The former is no less than thirty miles in circumference, whilst the latter is only nine miles round. Both are lofty, clothed with impenetrable forests almost to the beach, and surrounded by a barrier of reefs thirty-six miles in circumference, with here and there a narrow strait between them. The inhabitants, who are lazy, slovenly, stupid, fierce, cowardly, and avaricious, do not exceed twelve or fifteen hundred in number. It was unfortunate for La Pérouse to be shipwrecked amongst such people, when he would have received a reception so different on any other island of Polynesia. The women are naturally ugly, and the hard work they have to do, with their general mode of life, render their appearance yet more displeasing. The men are rather less ill-favoured, though they are stunted and lean, and covered with ulcers and leprosy scars. Arrows and bows are their only weapons, and, according to themselves, the former, with their very fine bone tips, soldered on with extremely tenacious gum, inflict mortal wounds. They therefore value them greatly, and the visitors had great trouble to obtain any. [Illustration: Reefs off Vanikoro.] On the 17th March the _Astrolabe_ at length issued from amongst the terrible reefs encircling Vanikoro. D'Urville had intended to survey Tamnako, Kennedy, Nitendi, and the Solomon Islands, where he hoped to meet with traces of the survivors from the shipwreck of the _Boussole_ and the _Astrolabe_. But the melancholy condition of the crew, pulled down as they were by fever, and the illness of most of the officers, with the absence of any safe anchorage in this part of Oceania, decided him to make for Guam, where he thought a little rest might possibly be obtained. This was a very grave dereliction from the instructions which ordered him to survey Torres Straits, but the fact of forty sailors being _hors de combat_ and on the sick-list, will suffice to prove how foolish it would have been to make so perilous an attempt. Not until the 26th April was Hogoley Archipelago sighted, where D'Urville bridged over the gaps left by Duperrey in his exploration, and only on the 2nd May did the coasts of Guam come in sight. Anchor was cast at Umata, where a supply of fresh water was easily found, and the climate much milder than at Agagna. On the 29th May, however, when the expedition set sail again, the men were not by any means all restored to health, which D'Urville attributed to the excesses in the way of eating indulged in by the sick, and the impossibility of getting them to keep to a suitable diet. The good Medinilla, of whom Freycinet had such reason to speak favourably, was still governor of Guam. He did not this time, it is true, show so many kind attentions to the present expedition, but that was because a terrible drought had just devastated the colony, and a rumour had got afloat that the illness the crew of the _Astrolabe_ was suffering from was contagious. Umata too was a good distance from Agagna, so that D'Urville could not visit the governor in his own home. Medinilla, however, sent the expedition fresh provisions and fruits in such quantities as to prove he had lost none of his old generosity. After leaving Guam D'Urville surveyed, under sail, the Elivi, the Uluthii of Lütke, Guapgolo and the Pelew group of the Caroline Archipelago, was driven by contrary winds past Waigiou, Aiou, Asia, and Guebek, and finally entered Bouron Straits and cast anchor off Amboine, where he was cordially received by the Dutch authorities, and obtained news from France to the effect that the Minister of Marine had taken no notice of all the work, fatigue, and perils of the expedition, for not one officer had received advancement. The receipt of this news caused considerable disappointment and discouragement, which the commander at once tried to remove. From Amboine the _Astrolabe_ steered, _viâ_ Banka Strait, for Uanado, with its well-armed and equipped fort, forming a pleasant residence. Governor Merkus obtained for D'Urville's natural history collections some fine _barberosas_, a _sapioutang_--the latter a little animal of the size of a calf, with the same kind of muzzle, paws, and turned-back horns--serpents, birds, fishes, and plants. According to D'Urville the people of the Celebes resemble in externals the Polynesians rather than the Malays. They reminded him of the natives of Otaheite, Tonga Tabou, and New Zealand, much more than of the Papuans of Darei Harbour, the Harfous of Bouron, or the Malays, with their square bony faces. Near Manado are some mines of auriferous quartz, of which the commander was able to obtain a specimen, and in the interior is the lake of Manado, said to be of immense depth, and which is the source of the torrent of the same name that dashes in the form of a magnificent waterfall over a basalt rock eighty feet high, barring its progress to the sea. D'Urville, accompanied by the governor and the naturalists of the expedition, explored this beautiful lake, shut in by volcanic mountains, with here and there a few fumerolles still issuing from them, and ascertained the depth of the water to be no more than twelve or thirteen fathoms, so that in the event of its ever drying up, its basin would form a perfectly level plain. On the 4th August anchor was weighed at Manado, where the sufferers from fever and dysentery had not got much better, and on the 29th of the same month the expedition arrived at Batavia where it only remained three days. The rest of the voyage of the _Astrolabe_ was in well-known waters. Mauritius was reached in due course, and there D'Urville met Commander Le Goarant, who had made a trip to Vanikoro in the corvette _La Bayonnaise_, and who told D'Urville that he had not attempted to enter the reef, but had only sent in some boats to reconnoitre. The natives had respected the monument to the memory of La Pérouse, and had been reluctant even to allow the sailors of the _Bayonnaise_ to nail a copper plate upon it. On the 18th November the corvette left Mauritius, and after touching at the Cape, St. Helena, and Ascension, arrived on the 25th March, 1829, at Marseilles, exactly thirty-five months after her departure from that port. To hydrographical science, if to nothing else, the results of the expedition were remarkable, and no less than forty-five new charts were produced by the indefatigable Messrs. Gressien and Paris. Nothing will better bring before us the richness of harvest of natural history specimens than the following quotation from Cuvier's report:-- "They (the species brought home by Quoy and Gaimard) amount to thousands in the catalogues, and no better proof can be given of the activity of our naturalists than the fact that the directors of the Jardin du Roi do not know where to store the results of the expedition, especially those now under notice. They have had to be stowed away on the ground-floor, almost in the cellars, and the very warehouses are now so crowded--no other word would do as well--that we have had to divide them by partitions to make more stowage." The geological collections were no less numerous; one hundred and eighty-seven species or varieties of rock attest the zeal of Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard, while M. Lesson, junior, collected fifteen or sixteen hundred plants; Captain Jacquinot made a number of astronomical observations; M. Lottin studied magnetism, and the commander, without neglecting his duties as a sailor and leader of the expedition, made experiments on submarine temperature and meteorology, and collected an immense mass of information on philology and ethnography. We cannot better conclude our account of this expedition than with the following quotation from Dumont d'Urville's memoirs, given in his biography by Didot:-- "This adventurous expedition surpassed all previous ones, alike in the number and gravity of the dangers incurred, and the extent of the results of every kind obtained. An iron will prevented me from ever yielding to any obstacle. My mind once made up to die or to succeed, I was free from any hesitation or uncertainty. Twenty times I saw the _Astrolabe_ on the eve of destruction without once losing hope of her salvation. A thousand times did I risk the very lives of my companions in order to achieve the object of my instructions, and I can assert that for two consecutive years we daily incurred more real perils than we should have done in the longest ordinary voyage. My brave and honourable officers were not blind to the dangers to which I daily exposed them, but they kept silence, and nobly fulfilled their duty." From this admirable harmony of purpose and devotion resulted a mass of discoveries and observations in every branch of human knowledge, of all of which an exact account was given by Rossel, Cuvier, Geoffrey St. Hilaire, Desfontaines, and others, all competent and disinterested judges. CHAPTER III. POLAR EXPEDITIONS. Bellinghausen, yet another Russian explorer--Discovery of the islands of Traversay, Peter I., and Alexander I.--The whaler, Weddell--The Southern Orkneys--New Shetland--The people of Tierra del Fuego--John Biscoe and the districts of Enderby and Graham--Charles Wilkes and the Antarctic Continent--Captain Balleny--Dumont d'Urville's expedition in the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zelée_--Coupvent Desbois and the Peak of Teneriffe--The Straits of Magellan--A new post-office shut in by ice-- Louis Philippe's Land--Across Oceania--Adélie and Clarie Lands--New Guinea and Torres Strait--Return to France--James Clark Rosset-- Victoria. We have already had occasion to speak of the Antarctic regions, and the explorations made there in the seventeenth, and at the end of the eighteenth century, by various navigators, nearly all Frenchmen, amongst whom we must specially note La Roche, discoverer of New Georgia, in 1675, Bouvet, Kerguelen, Marion, and Crozet. The name of Antarctic is given to all the islands scattered about the ocean which are called after navigators, as well as those of Prince Edward, the Sandwich group, New Georgia, &c. It was in these latitudes that William Smith, commander of the brig _William_, trading between Monte Video and Valparaiso, discovered, in 1818, the Southern Shetland Islands, arid and barren districts covered with snow, on which, however, collected vast herds of seals, animals of which the skins are used as furs, and which had not before been met with in the Southern Seas. The news of this discovery led to a rush of whaling-vessels to the new hunting-grounds, and between 1821 and 1822 the number of seals captured in this archipelago is estimated at 32,000, whilst the quantity of sea-elephant oil obtained during the same time may be put down at 940 tons. As males and females were indiscriminately slaughtered, however, the new fields were soon exhausted. The survey of the twelve principal islands, and of the innumerable and all but barren rocks, making up this archipelago, occupied but a short time. [Illustration: Hunting sea-elephants.] Two years later Botwell discovered the Southern Orkneys, and then Palmer and other whalemen sighted, or thought they sighted, districts to which they gave the names of Palmer and Trinity. More important discoveries were, however, to be made in these hyberborean regions, and the hypothesis of Dalrymple, Buffon, and other scholars of the eighteenth century, as to the existence of a southern continent, forming, so to speak, a counterpoise to the North Pole, was to be unexpectedly confirmed by the work of these intrepid explorers. The navy of Russia had now for some years been rapidly gaining in importance, and had played no insignificant part in scientific research. We have related the interesting voyages of most Russian circumnavigators; but we have still to speak of Bellinghausen's voyage round the world, which occupies a prominent place in the history of the exploration of the Antarctic seas. The _Vostok_, Captain Bellinghausen, and the _Mirni_, commanded by Lieutenant Lazarew, left Cronstadt on the 3rd July, 1819, _en route_ for the Antarctic Ocean. On the 15th December Southern Georgia was sighted, and seven days later an island was discovered in the south-east, to which the name of Traversay was given, and the position of which was fixed at 52 degrees 15 minutes S. lat., and 27 degrees 21 minutes W. long., reckoning from the Paris meridian. Continuing their easterly course in S. lat. 60 degrees for 400 miles as far as W. long. 187 degrees, the explorers then bore south to S. lat. 70 degrees, where their further progress was arrested by a barrier of ice. Bellinghausen, nothing daunted, tried to cut his way eastwards into the heart of the Polar Circle, but at 44 degrees E. long, he was compelled to return northwards. After a voyage of forty miles a large country hove in sight, which a whaler was to discover twelve years later when the ice had broken up. Back again in S. lat. 62 degrees, Bellinghausen once more steered eastwards without encountering any obstacles, and on the 5th March, 1820, he made for Port Jackson to repair his vessels. The whole summer was given up by the Russian navigator to a cruise about Oceania, when he discovered no less than seventeen new islands, and on the 31st October he left Port Jackson on a new expedition. The first places sighted on this trip were the Macquarie Islands; then cutting across the 60th parallel, S. lat. in E. long. 160 degrees, the explorers bore east between S. lat. 64 degrees and 68 degrees as far as W. long. 95 degrees. On the 9th January, Bellinghausen reached 70 degrees S. lat., and the next day discovered, in S. lat. 69 degrees 30 minutes, W. long. 92 degrees 20 minutes, an island, to which he gave the name of Peter I., the most southerly land hitherto visited. Then fifteen degrees further east, and in all but the same latitude, he sighted some more land which he called Alexander I.'s Land. Scarcely 200 miles distant from Graham's Land, it appeared likely to be connected with it, for the sea between the two districts was constantly discoloured, and many other facts pointed to the same conclusion. From Alexander I.'s Land the two vessels, bearing due north, and passing Graham's Land, made for New Georgia, arriving there in February. Thence they returned to Cronstadt, the port of which they entered in July 1821, exactly two years after they left it, having lost only three men out of a crew of 200. We would gladly have given further details of this interesting expedition, but we have not been able to obtain a sight of the original account published in Russian at St. Petersburg, and we have had to be content with the _résumé_ brought out in one of the journals of the Geographical Society in 1839. [Illustration: Map of the Antarctic Regions, showing the routes taken by the navigators of the 19th Century. _Engraved by E. Morieu._] At the same period a master in the Royal Navy, James Weddell by name, was appointed by an Edinburgh firm to the command of an expedition, to obtain seal-skins in the southern seas, where two years were to be spent. This expedition consisted of the brig _Jane_, 160 tons, Captain Weddell, and the cutter _Beaufort_, sixty-five tons, Matthew Brisbane commander. The two vessels left England on the 17th September, 1822, touched at Bonavista, one of the Cape Verd Islands, and cast anchor in the following December in the port of St. Helena, on the eastern coast of Patagonia, where some valuable observations were taken on the position of that town. Weddell put to sea again on the 27th December, and steering in a south-easterly direction, came in sight, on the 12th January, of an archipelago to which he gave the name of the Southern Orkneys. These islands are situated in S. lat. 60 degrees 45 minutes, and W. long. 45 degrees. According to the navigator, this little group presents an even more forbidding appearance than New Shetland. On every side rise the sharp points of rocks, bare of vegetation, round which surge the restless waves, and against which dash enormous floating icebergs, with a noise like thunder. Vessels are in perpetual danger in these latitudes, and the eleven days passed under sail by Weddell in surveying minutely the islands, islets, and rocks of this archipelago, were a time of ceaseless exertion for the crew, who were throughout in constant danger of their lives. Specimens of the principal strata of these islands were collected, and on the return home put into the hands of Professor Jameson, of Edinburgh, who identified them as belonging to primary and volcanic rocks. Weddell now made for the south, crossed the Antarctic Circle in W. long. 30 degrees, and soon came in sight of numerous ice islands. Beyond S. lat. 70 degrees, these floes decreased in number, and finally disappeared; the weather moderated, innumerable flocks of birds hovered above the ships, whilst large schools of whales played in its wake. This strange and unexpected change in the temperature surprised every one, especially as it became more marked as the South Pole was more nearly approached. Everything pointed to the existence of a continent not far off. Nothing was, however, discovered. On the 20th February the vessels were in S. lat. 74 degrees 15 minutes and W. long. 34 degrees 16 minutes 45 seconds. "I would willingly," says Weddell, "have explored the south-west quarter, but taking into consideration the lateness of the season, and that we had to pass homeward through 1000 miles of sea strewed with ice islands, with long nights, and probably attended with fogs, I could not determine otherwise than to take advantage of this favourable wind for returning." Having seen no sign of land in this direction, and a strong southerly wind blowing at the time, Weddell retraced his course as far as S. lat. 58 degrees, and steered in an easterly direction to within 100 miles of the Sandwich Islands. On the 7th February he once more doubled the southern cape, sailed by a sheet of ice fifty miles wide, and on the 20th February reached S. lat. 74 degrees 15 minutes. From the top of the masts nothing was to be seen but an open sea with a few floating ice-islands. Unexpected results had ensued from these trips in a southerly direction. Weddell had penetrated 240 miles nearer the Pole than any of his predecessors, including Cook. He gave the name of George IV. to that part of the Antarctic Ocean which he had explored. Strange and significant was the fact that the ice had decreased in quantity as the South Pole was approached, whilst fogs and storms were incessant, and the atmosphere was always heavily charged with moisture, and the temperature of surprising mildness. Another valuable observation made, was that the vibrations of the compass were as slow in these southern latitudes as Parry had noted them to be in the Arctic regions. Weddell's two vessels, separated in a storm, met again in New Georgia after a perilous voyage of 1200 miles amongst the ice. New Georgia, discovered by La Roche in 1675, and visited in 1756 by the _Lion_, was really little known until after Captain Cook's exploration of it, but his account of the number of seals and walruses frequenting it had led to being much favoured by whalers, chiefly English and American, who took the skins of their victims to China and sold them at a guinea or thirty shillings each. "The island," says Weddell, speaking of South Georgia, "is about ninety-six miles long, and its mean breadth about ten. It is so indented with bays, that in several places, where they are on opposite sides, they are so deep as to make the distance from one side to the other very small. The tops of the mountains are lofty, and perpetually covered with snow; but in the valleys, during the summer season, vegetation is rather abundant. Almost the only natural production of the soil is a strong-bladed grass, the length of which is in general about two feet; it grows in tufts on mounds three or four feet from the ground. No land quadrupeds are found here; birds and amphibious animals are the only inhabitants." Here congregate numerous flocks of penguins, which stalk about on the beach, head in air. To quote an early navigator, Sir John Nasborough, they look like children in white aprons. Numerous albatrosses are also met with here, some of them measuring seventeen feet from tip to tip of their wings. When these birds are stripped of their plumage their weight is reduced one-half. [Illustration: "Here congregate flocks of penguins."] Weddell also visited New Shetland, and ascertained that Bridgeman Island, in that group, is an active volcano. He could not land, as all the harbours were blocked up with ice, and he was obliged to make for Tierra del Fuego. During a stay of two months here, Weddell collected some valuable information on the advantages of this coast to navigators, and obtained some accurate data as to the character of the inhabitants. In the interior of Tierra del Fuego rose a few mountains, always covered with snow, the loftiest of which were not more than 3000 feet high. Weddell was unable to identify the volcano noticed by other travellers, including Basil Hall in 1822, but he picked up a good deal of lava which had probably come from it. There was, moreover, no doubt of its existence, for the explorer under notice had seen on his previous voyage signs of a volcanic eruption in the extreme redness of the sky above Tierra del Fuego. Hitherto there had been a good deal of divergence in the opinion of explorers as to the temperature of Tierra del Fuego. Weddell attributes this to the different seasons of their visits, and the variability of the winds. When he was there and the wind was in the south the thermometer was never more than two or three degrees above zero, whereas when the wind came from the north it was as hot as July in England. According to Weddell dogs and otters are the only quadrupeds of the country. The relations with the natives were cordial throughout the explorer's stay amongst them. At first they gathered about the ship without venturing to climb on to it, and the scenes enacted on the passage of the first European vessel through the states were repeated in spite of the long period which had since elapsed. Of the bread, madeira, and beef offered to them, the natives would taste nothing but the meat; and of the many objects shown to them, they liked pieces of iron and looking-glasses best, amusing themselves with making grimaces in the latter of such absurdity as to keep the crew in fits of laughter. Their general appearance, too, was very provocative of mirth. Their jet black complexions, blue feathers, and faces streaked with parallel red and white lines, like tick, made up a whole of the greatest absurdity, and many were the hearty laughs the English enjoyed at their expense. Presently disgusted at receiving nothing more than the iron hoops of casks from people possessed of such wealth, they proceeded to annex all they could lay hands on. These thefts were soon detected and put a stop to, but they gave rise to many an amusing scene, and proved the wonderful imitative powers of the natives. "A sailor had given a Fuegan," says Weddell, "a tin-pot full of coffee, which he drank, and was using all his art to steal the pot. The sailor, however, recollecting after awhile that the pot had not been returned, applied for it, but whatever words he made use of were always repeated in imitation by the Fuegan. At length he became enraged at hearing his requests reiterated, and, placing himself in a threatening attitude, in an angry tone, he said, 'You copper-coloured rascal, where is my tin-pot?' The Fuegan, assuming the same attitude, with his eyes fixed on the sailor, called out, 'You copper-coloured rascal, where is my tin-pot?' The imitation was so perfect that every one laughed, except the sailor, who proceeded to search him, and under his arm he found the article missing." The sterile mountainous districts in this rigorous climate of Tierra del Fuego furnish no animal fit for food, and without proper clothing or nourishment the people are reduced to a state of complete barbarism. Hunting yields them hardly any game, fishing is almost equally unproductive of results; they are obliged to depend upon the storms which now and then fling some huge cetacean on their shores, and upon such salvage they fall tooth and nail, not even taking the trouble to cook the flesh. In 1828 Henry Foster, commanding the _Chanticleer_, received instructions to make observations on the pendulum, with a view to determining the figure of the earth. This expedition extended over three years, and was then--i.e. in 1831--brought to an end by his violent death by drowning in the river Chagres. We allude to this trip because it resulted, on the 5th January, 1829, in the identification and exploration of the Southern Shetlands. The commander himself succeeded in landing, though with great difficulty, on one of these islands, where he collected some specimens of the syenite of which the soil is composed, and a small quantity of red snow, in every respect similar to that found by explorers in the Arctic regions. Of far greater interest, however, was the survey made in 1830 by the whaler John Biscoe. The brig _Tula_, 140 tons, and the cutter _Lively_, left London under his orders on the 14th July, 1830. These two vessels, the property of Messrs. Enderby, were fitted up for whale-fishing, and were in every respect well qualified for the long and arduous task before them, which, according to Biscoe's instructions, was to combine discovery in the Antarctic seas with whaling. After touching at the Falklands, the ships started on the 27th November on a vain search for the Aurora Islands, after which they made for the Sandwich group, doubling its most southerly cape on the 1st January, 1831. In 59 degrees S. lat. masses of ice were encountered, compelling the explorers to give up the south-western route, in which direction they had noted signs of the existence of land. It was therefore necessary to bear east, skirting along the ice as far as W. long. 9 degrees 34 minutes. It was only on the 16th January that Biscoe was able to cross the 60th parallel of S. lat. In 1775 Cook had here come to a space of open sea 250 miles in extent, yet now an insurmountable barrier of ice checked Biscoe's advance. Continuing his south-westerly course as far as 68 degrees 51 minutes and 10 degrees E. long., the explorer was struck by the discoloration of the water, the presence of several eaglets and cape-pigeons, and the fact that the wind now blew from the south-south-west, all sure tokens of a large continent being near. Ice, however, again barred his progress southwards, and he had to go on in an easterly direction approaching nearer and nearer to the Antarctic Circle. "At length, on the 27th February," says Desborough Cooley, "in S. lat. 65 degrees 57 minutes and E. long. 47 degrees 20 minutes land was distinctly seen." This land was of considerable extent, mountainous and covered with snow. Biscoe named it Enderby, and made the most strenuous efforts to reach it, but it was so completely surrounded with ice that he could not succeed. Whilst these attempts were being made a gale of wind separated the two vessels and drove them in a south-easterly direction, the land remaining in sight, and stretching away from east to west for an extent of more than 200 miles. Bad weather, and the deplorable state of the health of the crew, compelled Biscoe to make for Van Diemen's Land, where he was not rejoined by the _Lively_ until some months later. The explorers had several opportunities of observing the aurora australis, to quote from Biscoe's narrative, or rather the account of his trip drawn up from his log-book, and published in the journal of the Royal Geographical Society. "Extraordinarily vivid coruscations of aurora australis (were seen), at times rolling," says Captain Biscoe, "as it were, over our heads in the form of beautiful columns, then as suddenly changing like the fringe of a curtain, and again shooting across the hemisphere like a serpent; frequently appearing not many yards above our heads, and decidedly within our atmosphere." Leaving Van Diemen's Land on the 11th January, 1832, Biscoe and his two vessels resumed their voyage in a south-easterly direction. The constant presence of floating sea-weed, and the number of birds of a kind which never venture far from land, with the gathering of low and heavy clouds made Biscoe think he was on the eve of some discovery, but storms prevented the completion of his explorations. At last, on the 12th February, in S. lat. 64 degrees 10 minutes albatrosses, penguins, and whales were seen in large quantities; and on the 15th land was seen in the south a long distance off. The next day this land was ascertained to be a large island, to which the name of Adelaide was given, in honour of the Queen of England. On this island were a number of mountains of conical form with the base very large. In the ensuing days it was ascertained that this was no solitary island, but one of a chain of islets forming so to speak the outworks of a lofty continent. This continent, stretching away for 250 miles in an E.N.E. and W.S.W. direction, was called Graham, whilst the name of Biscoe was given to the islets in honour of their discoverer. There was no trace either of plants or animals in this country. To make quite sure of the nature of his discovery, Biscoe landed on the 21st February, on Graham's Land, and determined the position of a lofty mountain, to which he gave the name of William, in S. lat. 64 degrees 45 minutes and W. long. 66 degrees 11 minutes, reckoning from the Paris meridian. To quote from the journal of the Royal Geographical Society,--"The place was in a deep bay, in which the water was so still that could any seals have been found the vessels could have been easily loaded, as they might have been laid alongside the rocks for the purpose. The depth of the water was also considerable, no bottom being found with twenty fathoms of line almost close to the beach; and the sun was so warm that the snow was melted off all the rocks along the water-line, which made it more extraordinary that they should be so utterly deserted." From Graham's Land, Biscoe made for the Southern Shetlands, with which it seemed possible the former might be connected, and after touching at the Falkland Islands, where he lost sight of the _Lively_, he returned to England. As a reward for all he had done, and as an encouragement for the future, Biscoe received medals both from the English and French Geographical Societies. Very animated were the discussions which now took place as to the existence of a southern continent, and the possibility of penetrating beyond the barrier of ice shutting in the adjacent islands. Three powers simultaneously resolved to send out an expedition. France entrusted the command of hers to Dumont d'Urville; England chose James Ross; and the United States, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. The last named found himself at the head of a small fleet, consisting of the _Porpoise_, two sloops, the _Vincennes_ and the _Peacock_; two schooners, the _Sea-Gull_ and the _Flying-Fish_; and a transport ship, the _Relief_, which was sent on in advance to Rio with a reserve of provisions, whilst the others touched at Madeira, and the Cape Verd Islands. From the 24th November, 1838, to the 6th January, 1839, the squadron remained in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, whence it sailed to the Rio Negro, not arriving at Port Orange, Tierra del Fuego, until the 19th February, 1839. There the expedition divided, the _Peacock_ and _Flying-Fish_ making for the point were Cook crossed S. lat. 60 degrees, and the _Relief_, with the naturalists on board, penetrating into the Straits of Magellan, by one of the passages south-east of Tierra del Fuego; whilst the _Vincennes_ remained at Port Orange; and the _Sea-Gull_ and _Porpoise_ started on the 24th February for the Southern Seas. Wilkes surveyed Palmer's Land for a distance of thirty miles to the point where it turns in a S.S.E. direction, which he called Cape Hope; he then visited the Shetlands and verified the position of several of the islands in that group. After passing thirty-six days in these inhospitable regions the two vessels steered northwards. A voyage marked by few incidents worthy of record brought Wilkes to Callao, but he had lost sight of the _Sea-Gull_. The commander now visited the Paumatou group, Otaheite, the Society and Navigator's Islands, and cast anchor off Sydney on the 28th November. On the 29th December, 1839, the expedition once more put to sea, and steered for the south, with a view to reaching the most southerly latitude between E. long 160 degrees and 145 degrees (reckoning from Greenwich), bearing east by west. The vessels were at liberty to follow out separate courses, a rendezvous being fixed in case of their losing sight of each other. Up to January 22nd numerous signs of land were seen, and some officers even thought they had actually caught sight of it, but it turned out, when the various accounts were compared at the trial Wilkes had to undergo on his return, that it was merely through the accidental deviation before the 22nd January of the _Vincennes_, in a northerly direction, that the English explorers ascertained the existence of land. Not until he reached Sydney did Wilkes, hearing that D'Urville had discovered land on the 19th January, pretend to have seen it on the same day. [Illustration: Dumont d'Urville.] These facts are established in a very conclusive article published by the hydrographer Daussy in the _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_. Further on we shall see that d'Urville actually landed on the new continent, so that the honour of being the first to discover it is undoubtedly his. The _Peacock_ and _Flying-Fish_, either because they had sustained damages or because of the dangers from the roughness of the sea and floating ice, had steered in a northerly direction from the 24th January to the 5th February, The _Vincennes_ and _Porpoise_ alone continued the arduous voyage as far as E. long. 97 degrees, having land in sight for two or three miles, which they approached whenever the ice allowed them to do so. "On the 29th of January," says Wilkes, in his report to the National Institution of Washington, "we entered what I have called Piners Bay, the only place where we could have landed on the naked rocks. We were driven out of it by one of the sudden gales usual in those seas. We got soundings in thirty fathoms. The gale lasted thirty-six hours, and after many narrow escapes, I found myself some sixty miles W. to leeward of this bay. It now became probable that this land which we had discovered was of great extent, and I deemed it of more importance to follow its trend than to return to Piners Bay to land, not doubting I should have an opportunity of landing on some portion of it still more accessible; this, however, I was disappointed in, the icy barrier preventing our approach, and rendering it impossible to effect. "Great quantities of ice, covered with mud, rock, and stone, presented themselves at the edge of the barrier, in close proximity of the land; from these our specimens were obtained, and were quite as numerous as could have been gathered from the rocks themselves. The land, covered with snow, was distinctly seen in many places, and between them such appearances as to leave little or no doubt in my mind of it being a continuous line of coast, and deserving the name bestowed upon it of the _Antarctic Continent_, lying as it does under that circle. Many phenomena were observed here, and observations made, which will be found under their appropriate head in the sequel. "On reaching 97 degrees east, we found the ice trending to the northward and continuing to follow it close, we reached to within a few miles of the position where Cook was stopped by the barrier in 1773." Piners Bay, where Wilkes landed, is situated in E. long. 140 degrees (reckoning from Paris), that is to say it is identical with the place visited by D'Urville on the 21st January. On the 30th January the _Porpoise_ had come in sight of D'Urville's two vessels, and approached to within speaking distance of them, but they put on all sail and appeared anxious to avoid any communication. On his arrival at Sydney, Wilkes found the _Peacock_ in a state of repair and with that vessel he visited New Zealand, Tonga Tabou, and the Fiji Islands, where two of the junior officers of the expedition were massacred by the natives. The Friendly, Navigator, and Sandwich Islands, Admiralty Straits, Puget Sound, Vancouver's Island, the Ladrones, Manilla, Sooloo, Singapore, the Sunda Islands, St. Helena, and Rio de Janeiro, were the halting places on the return voyage, which terminated on the 9th June, 1842, at New York, the explorers having been absent three years and ten months altogether. The results to every branch of science were considerable, and the young republic of the United States was to be congratulated on a début so triumphant in the career of discovery. In spite, however, of the interest attaching to the account of this expedition, and to the special treatises by Dana, Gould, Pickering, Gray, Cassin, and Brackenbridge, we are obliged to refrain from dwelling on the work done in countries already known. The success of these publications beyond the Atlantic was, as might be expected in a country boasting of so few explorers, immense. Whilst Wilkes was engaged in his explorations, i.e. in 1839, Balleny, captain of the _Elizabeth Scott_, was adding his quota to the survey of the Antarctic regions. Starting from Campbell Island, on the south of New Zealand, he arrived on the 7th February in S. lat. 67 degrees 7 minutes, and W. long. 164 degrees 25 minutes, reckoning from the Paris meridian. Then bearing west and noting many indications of the neighbourhood of land, he discovered two days later a black band in the south-west which, at six o'clock in the evening, he ascertained beyond a doubt to be land. This land turned out to be three islands of considerable size, and Balleny gave them his own name. As may be imagined the captain tried to land, but a barrier of ice prevented his doing so. All he could manage was the determination of the position of the central isle, which he fixed at S. lat. 66 degrees 44 minutes and W. long. 162 degrees 25 minutes. On the 14th February a lofty land, covered with snow, was sighted in the W.S.W. The next day there were but ten miles between the vessel and the land. It was approached as nearly as possible, and then a boat was put off, but a beach of only three or four feet wide with vertical and inaccessible cliffs rising beyond it rendered landing impossible, and only by getting wet up to their waists were the sailors able to obtain a few specimens of the lava characteristic of this volcanic district. [Illustration: "Only by getting wet up to their waists."] Yet once more, on the 2nd March in S. lat. 65 degrees and about W. long. 120 degrees 24 minutes, land was seen from the deck of the _Elizabeth Scott_. The vessel was brought to for the night, and the next day an attempt was made to steer in a south-west direction, but it was impossible to get through the ice barrier. Naming the new discovery Sabrina, Balleny resumed his northerly route without being able further to verify his discoveries. In 1837, just as Wilkes had started on his expedition, Captain Dumont d'Urville proposed to the Minister of Marine a new scheme for a voyage round the world. The services rendered by him in 1819-21 in a hydrographic expedition, in 1822 and 1825 on the _Coquille_, under Captain Duperrey, and lastly in 1826-29 on the _Astrolabe_, had given him an amount of experience which justified him in submitting his peculiar views to the government, and to supplement so to speak the mass of information collected by himself and others in these little known latitudes. The minister at once accepted D'Urville's offer, and exerted himself to find for him enlightened and trustworthy fellow-workers. Two corvettes, the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zelée_, fitted up with everything which French experience had proved to be necessary, were placed at his disposal, and amongst his colleagues were many who were subsequently to rise to the rank of general officers, including Jacquinot, commander of the _Zelée_, Coupvent Desbois, Du Bouzet, Tardy de Montravel, and Perigot, all well-known names to those interested in the history of the French navy. The instructions given by Vice-Admiral Rosamel to D'Urville differed from those of his predecessors chiefly in his being ordered to penetrate as near as the ice would permit to the South Pole. He was also ordered to complete the great work he had begun in 1827 on the Viti Islands, to survey the Salomon archipelago, to visit the Swan river of Australia, New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, that part of the Caroline group surveyed by Lütke, Mindanao, Borneo, and Batavia, whence he was to return to France _viâ_ the Cape of Good Hope. These instructions concluded in terms proving the exalted ideas of the government. "His Majesty," said Admiral de Rosamel, "not only contemplates the progress of hydrography and natural science; but his royal solicitude for the interests of French commerce and the development of the French navy is such as to lead him greatly to extend the terms of your commission and to hope for great results from it. You will visit numerous places, the resources of which you must study with a view to the interests of our whaling-ships, collecting all information likely to be of service to them alike in facilitating their voyages and rendering those voyages as remunerative as possible. You will touch at those ports where commercial relations with us are already opened, and where the visit of a state vessel will have salutary effects, and at others hitherto closed to our produce and about which you may on your return give us some valuable details." In addition to the personal good wishes of Louis Philippe, D'Urville received many marks of the most lively interest taken in his work by the _Académie des Sciences morales_ and the Geographical Society, but not unfortunately from the _Académie des Sciences_, although he had for twenty years been working hard to increase the riches of the Museum of Natural History. "Whether from prejudice or from whatever cause," says D'Urville, "they (the members of the _Académie des Sciences_) showed very little enthusiasm for the contemplated expedition and their instructions to me were as formal as they would have been to a complete stranger." It is matter of regret that the celebrated Arago, the declared enemy of Polar researches, was one of the bitterest opponents of the new expedition. This was not, however, the case with various scholars of other nationalities, such as Humboldt and Kruzenstern, who wrote to congratulate D'Urville on his approaching voyage and on the important results to science which might be hoped for. After numerous delays, resulting from the fitting up of two vessels which were to take the Prince de Joinville to Brazil, the _Astrolabe_ and _Zelée_ at last left Toulon on the 7th September, 1837. The last day of the same month they cast anchor off Santa Cruz de Teneriffe which D'Urville chose as a halting-place in preference to one of the Cape Verd Islands, in the hope of laying in a stock of wine and also of being able to take some magnetic observations which he had been blamed for neglecting in 1826, although it was well known that he was not then in a fit state to attend to such things. In spite of the eagerness of the young officers to go and enjoy themselves on shore they had to submit to a quarantine of four days, on account of rumours of cases of plague having occurred in the lazaretto of Marseilles. Without pausing to relate the details of Messrs. Du Bouzet, Coupvent, and Dumoulin's ascent of the Peak, we will merely quote a few enthusiastic remarks of Coupvent Desbois:-- "Arrived," says that officer, "at the foot of the peak, we spent the last hour of the ascent in crossing cinders and broken stones, arriving at last at the longed-for goal, the loftiest point of this huge volcano. The smoking crater presented the appearance of a hollow sulphurous semi-circle about 1200 feet wide and 300 feet deep, covered with the débris of pumice and other stones. The thermometer, which had marked five degrees at ten a.m., got broken through being placed on the ground where there was an escape of sulphuric vapour. There are upon the sides and in the crater numerous fumerolles which send forth the native sulphur, which forms the base of the peak. The rush of the vapour is so rapid as to sound like shots from a cannon. "The heat of the ground is so great in some parts that it is impossible to stand on it for a minute at a time. Look around you and see if these three mountains piled one upon the other do not resemble a staircase built up by giants, on which to climb to heaven. Gaze upon the vast streams of lava, all issuing from one point which form the crater, and which a few centuries back you could not have trodden upon with impunity. See the Canaries in the distance, look down, ye pigmies, on the sea, with its breakers dashing against the shores of the island, of which you for the moment form the summit!... See for once, as God sees, and be rewarded for your exertions, ye travellers, whose enthusiasm for the grand scenes of nature has brought you some 12,182 feet above the level of the ocean." We must add that the explorers testified to the brilliancy of the stars, as seen from the summit of the peak, the clearness of all sounds, and also to the giddiness and headache known as mountain sickness. Whilst part of the staff were engaged in this scientific excursion, several other officers visited the town, where they noticed nothing special except a narrow walk called the Alameda, and the church of the Franciscans. The neighbourhood, however, is interesting enough on account of the curious aqueducts for supplying the town with water, and the Mercede forest which, in D'Urville's opinion, might more justly be called a coppice, for it contains nothing but shrubs and ferns. The population seemed happy, but extremely lazy; economical, but horribly dirty; and the less said about their morals the better. On the 12th October the two vessels put to sea again, intending to reach the Polar regions as soon as possible. Motives of humanity, however, determined D'Urville to change his plans and touch at Rio, the state of an apprentice with disease of the lungs becoming so rapidly worse that a stay in the Arctic regions would probably have been fatal. The vessels cast anchor in the roadstead, not the Bay of Rio, on the 13th November, but they only remained there one day, that is to say, just long enough to land young Dupare, and to lay in a stock of provisions. The southerly route was then resumed. For a long time D'Urville had wished to explore the Strait of Magellan, not with a view to further hydrographical surveys, for the careful explorations of Captain King, begun in 1826, had been finished in 1834 by Fitzroy, leaving little to be done in that direction, but to gather the rich and still unappropriated harvest of facts relating to natural history. How intensely interesting it was, too, to note how real had been the dangers encountered by early navigators, such as the sudden veering of the wind, &c. What a good thing it would be to obtain further and more detailed information about the famous Patagonians, the subject of so many fables and controversies. Yet another motive led D'Urville to anchor off Port Famine, rather than off Staten Island. His perusal of the accounts of the work of explorers who had penetrated into the Southern Seas convinced him that the end of January and the whole of February were the best times for visiting these regions, for then only are the effects of the annual thaw over, and with them the risk of over-fatigue to the crews. [Illustration: Anchorage off Port Famine.] This resolution once taken, D'Urville communicated it to Captain Jacquinot, and set sail for the strait. On the 12th December Cape Virgin was sighted, and Dumoulin, seconded by the young officers, began a grand series of hydrographical surveys. In the intricate navigation of the strait, D'Urville, we are told, showed equal courage and calmness, skill and presence of mind, completely winning over to his side many of the sailors, who, when they had seen him going along at Toulon when suffering with the gout, had exclaimed, "Oh, that old fellow won't take us far!" Now, when his constant vigilance had brought the vessels safely out of the strait, the cry was, "The ---- man is mad! He's made us scrape against rocks, reefs, and land, as if he had never taken a voyage before! And we used to think him as useless as a rotten keel!" We must now say a few words on the stay at Port Famine. Landing is easy, and there is a good spring and plenty of wood; on the rocks are found quantities of mussels, limpets, and whelks, whilst inland grows celery, and a kind of herb resembling the dandelion. Another fruitful source of wealth in this bay is fish, and whilst the vessels were at anchor, drag-nets, trammels, and lines captured enough mullet, gudgeon, and roaches to feed the whole crew. "As I was about to re-embark," says D'Urville, "a little barrel was brought to me which had been found hung on a tree on the beach, near a post on which was written _Post Office_. Having ascertained that this barrel contained papers, I took it on board and examined them. They consisted of notes of captains who had passed through the Straits of Magellan, stating the time of their visits, the incidents of their passage, with advice to those who should come after them, and letters for Europe or the United States. It seemed that an American captain, Cunningham by name, had been the originator of this open-air post-office. He had merely, in April, 1833, hung a bottle on a tree, and his fellow-countryman, Waterhouse, had supplemented it by the post with its inscription. Lastly, Captain Carrick of the schooner _Mary Ann_, from Liverpool, passed through the strait in March 1837, on his way to San Blas, California, going through it again a second time on his way back on the 29th November, 1837, that is to say, sixteen days before our own visit, and he it was who had substituted the barrel for the bottle, adding an invitation to all who should succeed him to use it as the receptacle of letters for different destinations. I mean to improve this ingenious and useful contrivance by forming an actual post-office on the highest point of the peninsula with an inscription in letters of a size so gigantic as to compel the attention of navigators who would not otherwise have touched at Port Famine. Curiosity will then probably lead them to send a canoe to examine the box, which will be fastened to the post. It seems likely that we shall ourselves reap the first fruits of this arrangement, and our families will be agreeably surprised to receive news from us from this wild and lonely district, just before our plunge into the ice of the Polar regions." At low tide the mouth of the Sedger river, which flows into Famine Bay, is encumbered with sand-banks; some 1000 feet further on the plain is transformed into a vast marsh, from which rise the trunks of immense trees, and huge bones, bleached by the action of time, which have been brought down by the heavy rainfall, swelling the course of the stream. Skirting this marsh is a fine forest, the entrance to which is protected by prickly shrubs. The commonest trees are the beech, with trunks between eighty and ninety feet high, and three or four in diameter; Winteria aromatica, a kind of bark which has long since replaced the cinnamon, and a species of Barbary. The largest beeches seen by D'Urville measured fifteen feet in diameter, and were about 150 feet high. Unfortunately, no mammiferous animals or reptiles, or fresh or salt water shell-fish are found on these coasts; and one or two different kinds of birds with a few lichens and mosses were all the naturalist was able to obtain. Several officers went up the Sedger in a yawl till they were stopped by the shallowness of the water. They were then seven and a half miles from the mouth, and they noted the width of the river where it flows into the sea to be between ninety and a hundred feet. "It would be difficult," says M. de Montravel, "to imagine a more picturesque scene than was spread out before us at every turn. Everywhere was that indescribable wildness which cannot be imitated, a confused mass of trees, broken branches, trunks covered with moss, which seemed literally to grow before our eyes." To resume, the stay at Port Famine was most successful; wood and water were easily obtained, repairs, &c., were made, horary, physical, meteorological, tidal, and hydrographical observations were taken, and, lastly, numerous objects of natural history were collected, the more interesting as the museums of France hitherto contained nothing whatever from these unknown regions beyond "a few plants collected by Commerson and preserved in the Herbarium of M. de Jussieu." On the 28th December, 1837, anchor was weighed without a single Patagonian having been seen, although the officers and crew had been so eager to make acquaintance with the natives. The difficulties attending navigation compelled the two corvettes to cast anchor a little further on, off Port Galant, the shores of which, bordered by fine trees, are cut by torrents resembling a little distance off magnificent cascades from fifty to sixty feet high. This compulsory halt was not wasted, for a large number of new plants were collected, and the port with the neighbouring bays were surveyed. The commander, however, finding the season already so far advanced, gave up his idea of going out at the westerly end of the strait, and went back the way he came, hoping thus to get an interview with the Patagonians before going to the Polar regions. St. Nicholas Bay, called by Bougainville the _Baie des Français_, where the explorers passed New Year's Day, 1838, is a much pleasanter looking spot than Port Galant. The usual hydrographical surveys were there brought to a satisfactory issue by the officers under the direction of Dumoulin. A boat was despatched to Cape Remarkable, where Bougainville said he had seen fossil shells, which, however, turned out to be nothing but little pebbles imbedded in a calcareous gangue. Interesting experiments were made with the thermometrograph, or marine thermometer, at 290 fathoms, without reaching the bottom, at less than two miles from land. Whereas the temperature was nine degrees on the surface, it was but two at the above-named depth, and as it is scarcely likely that currents convey the waters of the two oceans so far down, one is driven to the belief that this is the usual temperature of such depths. The vessels now made for Tierra del Fuego, where Dumoulin resumed his surveys. Low exposed, and strewn with rocks which serve as landmarks, there were but few dangers to be encountered here. Magdalena Island, Gente Grande Bay, Elizabeth Island, and Oazy Harbour, where the camp of a large party of Patagonians was made out with the telescope, and Peckett Harbour, where the _Astrolabe_ struck in three fathoms, were successively passed. "As we struck," says D'Urville, "there were signs of astonishment and even of excitement amongst the crew, and some grumbling was already audible, when in a firm voice I ordered silence, and without appearing at all put out by what had happened, I cried, 'This is nothing at all, and we shall have plenty more of the same kind of thing.' Later these words often recurred to the memory of our sailors. It is more difficult than one would suppose for a captain to maintain perfect calmness and impassiveness in the midst of the worst dangers, even those he has reason to imagine likely to be fatal." Peckett Harbour was alive with Patagonians, and officers and men were alike eager to land. A crowd of natives on horseback were waiting for them at the place of disembarkation. Gentle and peaceable they readily replied to the questions put to them, and looked quietly at everything shown to them, expressing no special desire for anything offered to them. They did not seem either to be at all addicted to thieving, and when on board the French vessels they made no attempt to carry anything off. Their usual height is from four and a half to five feet, but some are a good deal shorter. Their limbs are large and plump without being muscular, and their extremities are of extraordinary smallness. Their most noteworthy characteristic is the breadth of the lower part of the face as compared to the forehead, which is low and retreating. Long narrow eyes, high cheek-bones, and a flat nose, give them something of a resemblance to the Mongolian type. They are evidently extremely languid and indolent, and wanting in strength and agility. Looking at them squatting down, standing or walking, with their long hair flowing down their backs, one would take them for the women of a harem rather than savages used to enduring the inclemency of the weather and to struggle for existence. Stretched upon skins with their dogs and horses about them, their chief amusement is to catch the vermin with which they swarm. They hate walking so much that they mount horses just to go down and pick up shells on the beach a few yards off. A white man was living amongst these Patagonians; a miserable, decrepit-looking fellow, who said he came from the United States, but he spoke English very imperfectly, and the explorers took him to be a German-Swiss. Niederhauser, so he called himself, had gone to seek his fortune in the United States, and that fortune being long on the road, he had given ear to the wonderful proposals of a certain whaleman, who wanted to complete his crew. By this whaleman he was left with seven others and some provisions on a desert island off Tierra del Fuego to hunt seals and dress their skins. Four months later the schooner returned laden with skins, left the seal-hunters fresh provisions, went off again, and never came back! Whether it had been shipwrecked, or whether the captain had abandoned his sailors, it was impossible to ascertain. When the poor fellows found themselves deserted and their provisions exhausted, they embarked in their canoe and rowed up the Straits of Magellan, soon meeting with some Patagonians, with whom Niederhauser remained, whilst his companions went on. Well received by the natives, he lived their life with them, faring well when food was plentiful, drawing in his belt and living on roots when food was scarce. Weary, however, of this miserable existence, Niederhauser entreated D'Urville to take him on board, urging that another month of the life he was leading would kill him. The captain consented, and received him as a passenger. During his three months' residence amongst them, Niederhauser had learnt something of the language of the Patagonians, and with his aid D'Urville drew up a comparative vocabulary of a great many words in Patagonian, French, and German. The war costume of the Fuegans includes a helmet of tanned leather protected by steel-plates and surmounted by a crest of cock's feathers, a tunic of ox-hide dyed red with yellow stripes, and a kind of double-bladed scimitar. The chief of Peckett Harbour allowed his visitors to take his portrait in full martial costume, thereby showing his superiority to his subjects, who would not do the same for fear of witchcraft. On the 8th January anchor was finally weighed, and the second entrance to the strait was slowly navigated against the tide. The Straits of Magellan having now been crossed from end to end, and a survey made of the whole of the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego, thus bridging over an important gulf in hydrographic knowledge, no detailed map of this coast having previously been made, the vessels steered for the Polar regions, doubling Staten Island without difficulty, and on the 15th January coming in sight of the first ice, an event causing no little emotion, for now was to begin the really hard work of the voyage. Floating ice was not the only danger to be encountered in these latitudes: a dense fog, which the keenest sight could not penetrate, soon gathered about the vessels, paralyzing their movements, and though they were under a foresail only, rendering a collision with the ice-masses imminent. The temperature fell rapidly, and the thermometrograph marked only two degrees on the surface of the sea, whilst the deep water was below zero. Half-melted snow now began to fall, and everything bore witness that the Antarctic regions were indeed entered. Clarence, New South Orkney Islands, could not be identified. Every one's attention had to be concentrated on avoiding blocks of ice. At midday on the 20th January the vessels were in S. lat. 62 degrees 3 minutes and W. long. 49 degrees 56 minutes, not far from the place were Powell encountered compact ice-fields, and an immense ice-island was soon sighted, some 6000 feet in extent and 300 in height, with perpendicular sides greatly resembling land under certain conditions of the light. Numerous whales and penguins were now seen swimming about the vessels, whilst white petrels continually flew across them. On the 21st observations gave S. lat. 62 degrees 53 minutes, and D'Urville was expecting soon to reach the 65th parallel, when at three a.m. he was told that further progress was arrested by an iceberg, across which it did not seem possible to cut a passage. The vessels were at once put about and slowly steered in an easterly direction, the wind having fallen. "We were thus enabled," says D'Urville, "to gaze at our leisure upon the wonderful spectacle spread out before our eyes. Severe and grand beyond expression it not only excited the imagination but filled the heart with involuntary terror, nowhere else is man's powerlessness more forcibly brought before him.... A new world displays itself to him, but it is a motionless, gloomy, and silent world, where everything threatens the annihilation of human faculties. Should he have the misfortune to be left here alone, no help, no consolation, no spark of hope, would soothe his last moments. One is involuntarily reminded of the famous inscription on the gate of the Inferno of Dante-- "'Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch' entrate.'" D'Urville now set to work on a very strange task, which, as compared with others of a similar kind, was likely to be of considerable value. He had an exact measurement taken of the outlines of the iceberg. Had other navigators done the same we should have had some precise information as to the direction taken by icebergs, their movements, &c., in the southern Polar regions, a subject still wrapped in the greatest obscurity. On the 22nd, after doubling a point, it was ascertained that the iceberg was bearing S.S.W. by W. A lofty and broken piece of land was sighted in these latitudes. Dumoulin had begun to survey it, and D'Urville was about, as he thought, to identify it with the New South Greenland of Morrell, when its outlines became dim and it sunk beneath the horizon. On the 24th the two corvettes crossed a series of floating islets, and entered a plain where the ice was melting. The passage, however, became narrower and narrower, and they were obliged to veer round, to save themselves from being blocked in. Everything pointed to the conclusion that the edge of the ice was melting, the ice-islands fell apart with loud reports, the ice running off in little rivulets: there was undoubtedly a thaw, and Fanning had been right in saying that these latitudes should not be visited before February. D'Urville now decided to steer for the north, and try to reach the islands of New South Orkney, the map of which had not yet been accurately laid down. The commander was anxious to survey that archipelago thoroughly, and to spend several days there before resuming his southerly course, so as to be in the Antarctic regions at the same time of year as Weddell. For three days the explorer coasted along the southern shores of New South Orkney without being able to land; he then once more turned southwards, and came in sight of the ice again in S. lat. 62 degrees 20 minutes and W. long. 39 degrees 28 minutes. A few minutes before midday a kind of opening was discovered, through which the vessels were forced at all risks. This bold manoeuvre was successful, and in spite of the heavy snow, the explorers penetrated into a small basin scarcely two miles in extent and hemmed in on every side by lofty walls of ice. It was decided to make fast to the ice, and when the order to cast anchor was given a young middy on board the _Zelée_ cried naively, "Is there a port here? I shouldn't have thought there were people living on the ice." Great indeed was now the joyful enthusiasm on both vessels. Some of the young officers of the _Zelée_ had come to empty a bowl of punch with their comrades of the _Astrolabe_, and the commander could hear their shouts of delight from his bed. He himself did not, however, look upon the situation in quite the same favourable light. He felt that he had done a very imprudent thing. Shut into a _cul-de-sac_, he could only go out as he had come, and that he could not do until he had the wind right aft. At eleven o'clock D'Urville was awoke by a violent shock, accompanied by a noise of breaking, as if the vessel had struck on some rocks. He got up, and saw that the _Astrolabe_, having drifted, had struck violently against the ice, where she remained exposed to collision with the masses of ice which the current was sweeping along more rapidly than it did the vessel herself. When day dawned the adventurers found themselves surrounded by ice, but in the north a blackish blue line seemed to betray the existence of an open sea. This direction was at once taken, but a thick fog immediately and completely enveloped both ships, and when it cleared off they found themselves face to face with a compact ice barrier, beyond which stretched away as far as the eye could reach AN OPEN SEA! D'Urville now resolved to cut himself a passage, and began operations by dashing the _Astrolabe_ with all possible speed against the obstacle. The vessel penetrated two or three lengths into the ice, and then remained motionless. The crew climbed out of her on to the ice armed with pickaxes, pincers, mattocks, and saws, and merrily endeavoured to cut a passage. The fragment of ice was already nearly crossed when the wind changed, and the motion of the waves in the offing began to be felt, causing the officers to agree in urging a retreat into the shelter of the ice-walls, for there was some danger if the wind freshened of the vessel being embayed against the ice and beaten to pieces by the waves and floating _débris_. The corvettes had traversed twelve or fifteen miles for nothing, when an officer, perched in the shrouds, sighted a passage in the E.N.E. That direction was at once taken, but again it was found impossible to cut a passage, and when night came the crew had to make the ship fast to a huge block of ice. The loud cracking noises which had awoke the commander the night before now began with such violence that it really seemed impossible for the vessel to live till daylight. After an interview with the captain of the _Zelée_, however, D'Urville made for the north, but the day passed without any change being effected in the position of the vessels, and the next day during a storm of sleet the swell of the sea became so powerful as completely to raise the ice plain in which they were imprisoned. More careful watch than ever had now to be kept, to guard against the pieces of ice flung long distances by this motion, and the rudder had to be protected from them by a kind of wooden hut. [Illustration: "The rudder had to be protected."] With the exception of a few cases of ophthalmia, resulting from the continual glare of the snow, the health of the crews was satisfactory, and this was no little satisfaction to the leaders of the expedition, compelled as they were to be continually on the _qui-vive_. Not until the 9th February were the vessels, favoured by a strong breeze, able to get off, and once more enter a really open sea. The ice had been coasted for a distance of 225 leagues. The vessels had actually sustained no further damage than the loss of a few spars and a considerable portion of the copper sheathing, involving no further leakage than there had been before. The next day the sun came out, and observations could be taken, giving the latitude as 62 degrees 9 minutes S., and the longitude 39 degrees 22 minutes W. Snow continued to fall, the cold was intense, and the wind very violent for the three succeeding days. This continuance of bad weather, together with the increasing length of the nights, warned D'Urville of the necessity of giving up all idea of going further. When, therefore, he found himself in S. lat. 62 degrees and W. long. 33 degrees 11 minutes, in other words in that part of the ocean where Weddell had been able to sail freely in 1823, and the new explorer had met with nothing but impassable ice, he steered for New South Orkney. A whole month passed amongst the ice and fogs of the Antarctic Ocean had told upon the health of the crews, and nothing could be gained for science by a continuance of the cruise. On the 20th the archipelago was again sighted, and D'Urville was once more driven out of his course in a northerly direction by the ice, but he was able to put off with two boats, the crews of which collected on Weddell Island a large number of geological specimens, lichens, &c., and some twenty penguins and chionis. On the 25th February Clarence Island was seen, forming the eastern extremity of the New South Shetland Archipelago, a very steep and rugged district covered with snow except on the beach, and thence the explorers steered towards Elephant Island, resembling Clarence Island in every respect, except that it is strewn with peaks rising up black against the plains of snow and ice. The islets of Narrow, Biggs, O'Brien, and Aspland were successively identified, but covered as they are with snow they are perfectly inaccessible to man. The little volcano of Bridgeman was also seen, and the naturalists tried in vain to land upon it from two boats. "The general colour of the soil," says the narrative, "is red, like that of burnt brick with particles of grey, suggestive of the presence of pumice-stone, or of calcined cinders. Here and there on the beach are seen great blackish-looking blocks, which are probably lava. This islet has, however, only one true crater, although thick columns of smoke are emitted from it, nearly all of them issuing from the base on the western side, whilst in the north are two other fumerolles, thirty or forty feet along the water. There are none on the eastern or northern side, or at the top, which is smooth and round. The bulk appears recently to have undergone some considerable modification, as indeed it must have done, or it could not now resemble so little the description given by Powell in December, 1822." D'Urville soon resumed his southerly route, and on the 27th February sighted a considerable belt of land in the south-east on which he was prevented from landing by the fog and the continuous fall of very fine snow. He was now in the latitude of Hope Island--i.e. in S. lat. 62 degrees 57 minutes. He approached it very closely, and sighted before reaching it a low-lying land, to which he gave the name of Joinville. Then further on in the south-west he came to an extensive district which he named Louis Philippe, and between the two in a kind of channel, encumbered with ice, an island he called Rosamel. "Now," says D'Urville, "the horizon was so light that we could trace all the irregularities of Louis Philippe's Land. We could see it stretching away from Mount Bransfield in the north (62 degrees W. long.) to the S.S.W., where it faded away on the horizon. From Mount Bransfield to the south it is lofty, and of fairly uniform surface, resembling a vast, unbroken ice-field. In the south, however, it rises in the form of a fine peak (Mount Jacquinot), which is equal perhaps, indeed superior, to Bransfield; but beyond this peak it stretches away in the form of a mountain chain, ending in the south-west in a peak loftier than any of the others. For the rest, the effect of the snow and ice, together with the absence of any objects with which they can be compared, aid in exaggerating the height of all irregularities, and, as a matter of fact, the results of the measurements taken by M. Dumoulin showed all these mountains, which then appeared to us gigantic and equal to the Alps and Pyrenees at least, to be after all of very medium size. Mount Bransfield, for instance, was not more than about 2068 feet high, Mount Jacquinot 2121 feet, and Mount d'Urville, the loftiest of them all, about 3047 feet. Except for the islets grouped about the mainland, and a few peaks rising above the snow, the whole country is one long series of compact blocks of ice, and it is impossible to do more than trace the outlines of this ice-crust, those of the land itself being quite indistinguishable." On the 1st March soundings gave only eighty fathoms with a bottom of rock and gravel. The temperature is 1 degree 9 on the surface, and 0 degree 2 at the bottom of the sea. On the 2nd of March, off Louis Philippe's Land, an island was sighted which was named Astrolabe, and the day after a large bay, or rather strait, to which the name of Orleans Channel was given was surveyed between Louis Philippe's Land, and a lofty, rocky belt, which D'Urville took for the beginning of Trinity Land, hitherto very inaccurately laid down. From the 26th February then to the 5th March D'Urville remained in sight of the coast, skirting along it a little distance off, but unable entirely to regulate his course on account of the incessant fogs and rain. Everything bore witness to the setting in of a very decided thaw; the temperature rising at midday to five degrees above zero, whilst the ice was everywhere melting and running off in little streams of water, or falling with a formidable crush into the sea in the form of blocks, the wind meanwhile blowing strongly from the west. All this decided D'Urville against the further prosecution of this voyage. The sea was heavy, the rain and fog incessant. It was therefore necessary to leave this dangerous coast, and make for the north, where on the following day he surveyed the most westerly islands of the New Shetland group. D'Urville next steered for Conception, and very arduous was the voyage there, for, in spite of every precaution, the crews of both corvettes, especially that of the _Zelée_, were attacked with scurvy. It was now that D'Urville measured the heights of some of the waves, with a view to the disproving of the charge of exaggeration which had been brought against him when he had estimated those he had seen break over Needle Bank at a height of between eighty and a hundred feet. With the help of some of his officers, that there might be no doubt as to his accuracy, D'Urville measured some waves of which the vertical height was thirty-five feet, and which measured not less than 196-1/2 feet from the crest to the lowest point, making a total length of 393 feet for a single wave. These measurements were an answer to the ironical assertion of Arago, who, settling the matter in his own study, would not allow that a wave could exceed from five to six feet in height. One need not hesitate a single moment to accept, as against the eminent but impulsive physicist, the measurements of the navigators who had made observations upon the spot. On the 7th April, 1838, the expedition cast anchor in Talcahuano Bay, where the rest so sorely needed by the forty scrofulous patients of the _Zelée_ was obtained. Thence D'Urville made for Valparaiso, after which, having entirely crossed Oceania, he cast anchor on the 1st January, 1839, off Guam, arrived at Batina in October, and went thence to Hobart's Town, whence, on the 1st January, 1840, he started on a new trip in the Antarctic regions. At this time D'Urville knew nothing either of Balleny's voyage, or of the discovery of Sabrina's Land. He merely intended to go round the southern extremity of Tasmania with a view to ascertaining beneath which parallel he would meet with ice. He was under the impression that the space between 120 degrees and 160 degrees E. long. had not yet been explored, so that there was still a discovery to be made. At first navigation was beset with the greatest difficulties. The swell was very strong, the currents bore in an easterly direction, the sanitary condition of the crews was far from satisfactory, and 58 degrees S. lat. had not yet been reached when the presence of ice was ascertained. The cold soon became very intense, the wind veered round to the W.N.W., and the sea became calm, a sure indication of the neighbourhood of land or of ice. The former was the more generally received hypothesis, for the ice-islands passed were too large to have been formed in the open ocean. On the 18th January, S. lat. 64 degrees was reached, and great perpendicular blocks of ice were met with, the height of which varied from ninety to 100 feet, whilst the breadth exceeded 3000. The next day, January 19th, 1840, a new land was sighted, to which the name of Adélie was given. The sun was now burning hot, and the ice all seemed to be melting, immense streams running down from the summits of the rocks into the sea. The appearance of the land was monotonous, covered as it was with snow. It ran from west to east, and seemed to slope gradually down to the sea. On the 21st the wind allowed the vessels to approach the beach, and deep ravines were soon made out, evidently the result of the action of melted snow. [Illustration: View of Adélie Land. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] [Illustration: Reduced Map of D'Urville's discoveries in the Antarctic regions.] As the ships advanced navigation became more and more perilous, for the ice-islands were so numerous that there was hardly a large enough channel between them for any manoeuvring. "Their straight walls," says D'Urville, "rose far above our masts, glowering down upon our vessels, which appeared of absurdly small dimensions, as compared with their huge masses. The spectacle spread out before us was alike grand and terrible. One might have fancied oneself in the narrow streets of a city of giants." [Illustration: "Their straight walls rose far above our masts."] The corvettes soon entered a huge basin, formed by the coast and the ice-islands which had just been passed. The land stretched away in the south-east and north-west as far as the eye could reach. It was between three and four thousand feet high, but nowhere presented any very salient features. In the centre of the vast snow plain rose a few rocks. The two captains at once sent off boats with orders to bring back specimens which should testify to the discovery made. We quote from the account of Du Bouzet, one of the officers told off on this important survey. "It was nearly nine o'clock when to our great delight we landed on the western side of the most westerly and loftiest islet. The _Astrolabe_ boat had arrived one moment before ours, and its crew were already clambering up the steep sides of the rock, flinging down the penguins as they went, the birds showing no small surprise at being thus summarily dispossessed of the island, of which they had been hitherto the only inhabitants. I at once sent one of our sailors to unfurl a tricolour flag on these territories, which no human creature had seen or trod before ourselves. According to the old custom--to which the English have clung tenaciously--we took possession of them in the name of France, together with the neighbouring coast, which we were prevented from visiting by the ice. The only representatives of the animal kingdom were the penguins, for in spite of all our researches we did not find a single shell. The rocks were quite bare, without so much as the slightest sign of a lichen. We had to fall back on the mineral kingdom. We each took a hammer and began chipping at the rock, but, it being of granite, was so extremely hard that we could only obtain very small bits. Fortunately in climbing to the summit of the island the sailors found some big pieces of rock broken off by the frost, and these they embarked in their boats. Looking closely at them, I noticed an exact resemblance between these rocks and the little bits of gneiss which we had found in the stomach of a penguin we had killed the day before. The little islet on which we landed is part of a group of eight or ten of similar character and form; they are between five hundred and six hundred yards from the nearest coast. We also noticed on the beach several peaks and a cape quite free from snow. These islets, close as they are to each other, seem to form a continuous chain parallel with the coast, and stretching away from east to west." On the 22nd and 23rd the survey of this coast was continued; but on the second day an iceberg soldered to the coast compelled the vessels to turn back towards the north, whilst at the same time a sudden and violent snow-storm overtook and separated them. The _Zelée_ especially sustained considerable damage, but was able to rejoin her consort the next day. Throughout it all, however, sight of the land had not, so to speak, been lost, but on the 29th the wind blew so strongly and persistently from the east, that D'Urville had to abandon the survey of Adélie Land. It was on this same day that he sighted the vessels of Lieutenant Wilkes. D'Urville complains of the discourtesy of the latter, and says that his own manoeuvres intended to open communications with them had been misunderstood by the Americans. "We are no longer," he says, "in the days when navigators in the interests of commerce thought it necessary carefully to conceal their route and their discoveries, to avoid the competition of rival nations. I should, on the contrary, have been glad to point out to our emulators the result of our researches, in the hope that such information might be of use to them and increase our geographical knowledge." On the 30th January a huge wall of ice was sighted, as to the nature of which opinions were divided. Some said it was a compact and isolated mass, others--and this was D'Urville's opinion--thought these lofty mountains had a base of earth or of rocks, or that they might even be the bulwarks of a huge extent of land which they called Clarie. It is situated in 128 degrees E. long. The officers had collected sufficient information in these latitudes to determine the position of the southern magnetic pole, but the results obtained by them did not accord with those given by Duperrey, Wilkes, and Ross. On the 17th February the two corvettes once more cast anchor off Hobart's Town, and on the 25th set sail again for New Zealand, where they completed the hydrographical surveys of the _Uranie_. They then made for New Guinea, ascertained that it was not separated by a strait from the Louisiade Archipelago, surveyed Torres Strait with the greatest care, in spite of dangers from currents, coral reefs, &c.; arrived at Timor on the 20th, and returned to Toulon on the 8th November, after touching at Bourbon and St. Helena. When the news of the grand discoveries made by the United States reached England, a spirit of emulation was aroused, and the learned societies decided on sending an expedition to the regions in which Weddell and Biscoe had been the only explorers since the time of Cook. Captain James Clark Ross, who was appointed to the command of this expedition, was the nephew of the famous John Ross, explorer of Baffin's Bay. Born in 1800, James Ross was a sailor from the age of twelve. He accompanied his uncle in 1818 in his first Arctic expedition, had taken part under Parry in four expeditions to the same latitudes, and from 1829-1833 he had been his uncle's constant and faithful companion. Entrusted with the taking of scientific observations, he had discovered the north magnetic pole, and he had also made a good many excursions across the ice on foot and in sledges. He was, therefore, now one of the most experienced of British naval officers in Polar expeditions. [Illustration: Captain John Ross.] Two vessels, the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_, were entrusted to him, and his second in command was an accomplished sailor, Captain Francis Rowdon Crozier, companion of Parry in 1824; of Ross in 1835 in Baffin's Bay; and the future companion of Franklin in the _Terror_, in his search for the north-west passage. It would have been impossible to find a braver or more experienced sailor. The instructions given to James Ross by the Admiralty differed essentially from those received by Wilkes and Dumont d'Urville. For the latter the exploration of the Antarctic regions was but one incident of their voyage round the world, whereas it was the very _raison d'être_ of Ross's journey. Of the three years he would be away from Europe, the greater part was to be spent in the Antarctic regions, and he would only leave the ice to repair the damages to his vessels or recruit the health of his crew, worn out as they would probably be by fatigue and sickness. The vessels had been equally judiciously chosen, stronger than those of D'Urville, they were better fitted to resist the repeated assaults of the ice, and their seasoned crews had been chosen from sailors familiar with polar navigation. The _Erebus_ and _Terror_, under the command of Ross and Crozier, left England on the 29th September, 1839, and touched successively at Madeira, the Cape Verd Islands, St. Helena, and the Cape of Good Hope, where numerous magnetic observations were taken. On the 12th April Ross reached Kerguelen's Island, and there landed his instruments. The scientific harvest was abundant. Some fossil trees were extracted from the lava of which this island is formed, and some rich layers of coal were discovered, which have not yet been worked. The 29th was fixed for simultaneous magnetic observations in different parts of the globe, and by a singular coincidence some magnetic storms such as had already visited Europe, were on this very day observed in these latitudes. The instrument registered the same phenomena as at Toronto, Canada, proving the vast extent of these meteoric disturbances, and the incredible rapidity with which they spread. On his arrival at Hobart Town, where his old friend John Franklin was now governor, Ross heard of the discovery of Adélie and of Clarie Lands by the French, and the simultaneous survey of them by Wilkes, who had even left a sketch of his map of the coasts. Ross, however, decided to make for E. long. 170 degrees, because it was in that direction that Balleny had found an open sea extending to S. lat. 69 degrees. He duly reached first the Auckland and then the Campbell Islands, and after having, like his predecessors, tacked about a great deal in a sea strewn with ice-islands, he came beyond the sixty-third degree to the edge of the stationary ice, and on the 1st January, 1841, crossed the Antarctic Circle. The floating ice did not in any respect resemble that of the Arctic regions, as James Ross very soon discovered. It consisted of huge blocks, with regular and vertical walls, whilst the ice-fields, less compact than those of the north, move about in chaotic confusion, looking, to quote Wilkes' imaginative simile, like a heaving land, as they alternately break away from each other and reunite. To Ross the ice barrier did not present so formidable an appearance as it had done to the French and Americans. He did not at first venture upon it, however, being kept in the offing by storms. Not until the 5th January was he able to penetrate to S. lat. 66 degrees 45 minutes, and E. long. 174 degrees 16 minutes. Circumstances could not have been more favourable, for the sea and wind were both acting upon and loosening the ice, and thanks to the strength of his vessels, Ross was able to cut a passage. As he advanced further and further southward, the fog became denser and the constant snow-storms added to the already serious dangers of navigation. Encouraged, however, by the reflection in the sky of an open sea, a phenomenon which turned out to be trustworthy, he pushed on, and on the 9th January, after crossing 200 miles of ice he actually entered that open sea! On the 11th January land was sighted 100 miles ahead in S. lat. 70 degrees 47 minutes and E. long. 172 degrees 36 minutes. This, the most southern land ever yet discovered, consisted of snow-clad peaks with glaciers sloping down to the sea, the peaks rising to a height of from nine to twelve thousand feet. This estimate, judging from D'Urville's remarks on Graham's Land, may, however, possibly be an exaggerated one. Here, there, and everywhere, black rocks rose up from the snow, but the coast was so shut in with ice that landing was impossible. This curious series of huge peaks received the name of Admiralty chain, and the country itself that of Victoria. [Illustration: Map of Victoria, discovered by James Ross. _Engraved by E. Morieu._] A few little islands were made out in the south-east before the vessels left this coast, and on the 12th January the two captains, with some of their officers, disembarked on one of the volcanic islets, and took possession of it in the name of England. Not the slightest trace of vegetation was found upon it. Ross soon ascertained that the eastern side of this vast land sloped towards the south, whilst the northern stretched away to the north-west. He, therefore, skirted along the eastern beach, forcing a passage in a southerly direction beyond the magnetic pole, which he places near S. lat. 76 degrees, and then returning by the west, thus entirely circumnavigating his new discovery, which he looked upon as a very large island. The mountain chain extends all along the coast. Ross gave to the principal peaks the names of Herschell, Whewell, Wheatstone, Murchison, and Melbourne. He was unable, however, on account of the ever-increasing quantity of ice about the coast, to make out the details of its outlines. On the 23rd January the seventy-fourth degree, the most southerly latitude ever reached, was passed. The vessels were now considerably hampered by fogs, southerly gales, and violent snow-storms, but they managed to continue their cruise along the coast, and on the 27th January the English disembarked on a little volcanic island in S. lat. 76 degrees 8 minutes and E. long. 168 degrees 12 minutes, to which they gave the name of Franklin. The next day a huge mountain was seen, which rose abruptly to a height of 12,000 feet above a far-stretching land. The summit, of regular form, and completely covered with snow, was every now and then wrapped in a thick cloud of smoke, no less than 300 feet in diameter. Taking this diameter as a standard of measure, the height of the cloud, in shape like an inverted cone, would be about one-half of it. When this cloud of smoke dispersed, a bare crater was discovered, lit up by a bright red glow, visible even in broad daylight. The sides of the mountain were covered with snow up to the very crater, and it was impossible to make out any signs of a flow of lava. A volcano is always a magnificent spectacle, and the sight of this one rising up from amongst the Antarctic ice, and excelling Etna and Teneriffe in its marvellous activity, could not fail to make a vivid impression upon the minds of the explorers. The name of Erebus was given to it, and that of Terror to an extinct crater on the east of it, both titles being admirably appropriate. The two vessels continued their cruise along the northern coast of Victoria, until their further passage was barred by a huge mass of ice towering 505 feet above their masts. Behind this barrier rose another mountain chain, which sunk out of sight in the S.S.E., and to which the name of Parry was given. Ross skirted along the ice barrier in an easterly direction until the 2nd February, when he reached S. lat. 78 degrees 4 minutes, the most southerly point attained on this trip, during which he had followed the shores of the land he had discovered for more than 300 miles. He left it in E. long. 191 degrees 23 minutes. But for the strong favourable winds which now blew, it seems probable that the vessels would never have issued in safety from amongst the formidable ice masses through which they finally worked their way at the cost of incredible exertions and fatigues, and in face of incessant danger. On the 15th February yet another attempt was made in S. lat. 76 degrees to reach the magnetic pole; but further progress was barred by land in S. lat. 76 degrees 12 minutes and E. long. 164 degrees, i.e. sixty-five ordinary miles from the position assigned to it (the magnetic pole) by Ross, and the appearance of this land was forbidding and the sea so rough that the explorer gave up all idea of continuing his researches on shore. After identifying the islands discovered in 1839 by Balleny, Ross found himself on the 6th March amongst the mountains alluded to by Wilkes. "On the 4th March," says Ross's narrative, "they recrossed the Antarctic Circle, and being necessarily close by the eastern extreme of those _patches of land_ which Lieut. Wilkes has called 'the Antarctic Continent,' and having reached the latitude on the 5th, they steered directly for them; and at noon on the 6th, the ship being exactly over the centre of this mountain range, they could obtain no soundings with 600 fathoms of line; and having traversed a space of eighty miles in every direction from this spot, during beautiful clear weather, which extended their vision widely around, were obliged to confess that this position, at least, of the pseudo-antarctic continent, and the nearly 200 miles of barrier represented to extend from it, have no real existence."[1] [Footnote 1: The Editor of the _Literary Gazette_ adds the following note. "Lieutenant Wilkes may have mistaken some clouds or fog-banks, which in these regions are very likely to assume the appearance of land to inexperienced eyes, for this continent and range of lofty mountains. If so, the error is to be regretted, as it must tend to throw discredit on other portions of his discoveries, which have a more substantial foundation."--_Trans._] The expedition got back to Tasmania without having a single case of sickness on board or sustaining the slightest damage. The vessels were here refitted, and the instruments regulated before starting on a second trip, on which Sydney and Island's Bay, New Zealand, and Chatham, were the first stations touched at by Ross to make magnetic observations. On the 18th December, in S. lat. 62 degrees 40 minutes and E. long, 146 degrees, ice was encountered 300 miles further north than in the preceding year. The vessels had arrived too early, but Ross, nevertheless, endeavoured to break through this formidable barrier. After penetrating for 300 miles he was stopped by masses so compact that it was impossible to go further, and he did not cross the Antarctic Circle until the 1st January, 1842. On the 19th of the same month the two vessels encountered the most violent storm just as they were entering an open sea; the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ lost their helms, floating ice washed over them, and for twenty-six hours they were in danger of going down. The detention of the expedition amongst the ice lasted no less than forty-six days, and not until the 22nd did Ross reach the great barrier of stationary ice, which was considerably lower beyond Erebus, where it was no less than 200 feet high. When Ross came to it this year it was only 107 feet high, and it was 150 miles further east than it had been on the previous expedition. The acquisition of this piece of geographical information was the only result of this arduous campaign, extending over 136 days, and greatly excelling in dramatic interest the preceding expedition. The vessels now made for Cape Horn, and sailed up the coast as far as Rio de Janeiro, where they found everything of which they stood in need. As soon as they had laid in a stock of provisions they again put to sea and reached the Falkland Islands, whence, on the 17th December, 1842, they started on their third trip. The first ice was this time met with near Clarence Island, and on the 25th December Ross found his further progress barred by it. He then made for the New Shetland Islands, completed the survey of Louis Philippe and Joinville Lands, discovered by Dumont d'Urville, named Mts. Haddington and Parry, ascertained that Louis Philippe's Land is only a large island, and visited Bransfield Strait, separating it from Shetland. Such were the marvellous results obtained by James Ross in his three expeditions. To assign to the three explorers, whose work in the Antarctic regions we have been reviewing, his just meed of praise, we may say that D'Urville first discovered the Antarctic continent; Wilkes traced its shores for a considerable distance, for we cannot fail to recognize the resemblance between his map and that of the French navigator; and that James Ross visited the most southerly and most interesting part. But is there such a continent after all? D'Urville was not quite sure about it, and Ross did not believe in it. We must leave the decision of this great question to the later explorers who were to follow in the footsteps of the intrepid sailors whose voyages and discoveries we have related. II. THE NORTH POLE. Anjou and Wrangell--The "polynia"--John Ross's first expedition-- Baffin's Bay closed--Edward Parry's discoveries on his first voyage-- The survey of Hudson's Bay, and the discovery of Fury and Hecla Straits--Parry's third voyage--Fourth voyage--On the ice in sledges in the open sea--Franklin's first trip--Incredible sufferings of the explorers--Second expedition--John Ross--Four winters amongst the ice-- Dease and Simpson's expedition. We have more than once alluded to the great impulse given to geographical science by Peter I. One of the earliest results of this impulse was the discovery by Behring of the straits separating Asia from America, and the most important was the survey thirty years later of the Liakhov Archipelago, or New Siberia. In 1770 a merchant named Liakhov noticed a large herd of reindeer coming across the ice from the north, and he reflected that they could only have come from a country where there were pastures enough to support them. A month later he started in a sledge, and after a journey of fifty miles he discovered between the mouths of the Lena and Indighirka three large islands, the vast deposits of fossil ivory on which have since become celebrated all over the world. In 1809 Hedenstroem received instructions to make a map of this new discovery. He made several attempts to cross the frozen ocean on a sledge, but was always turned back by ice which would not bear him. He came to the conclusion that there must be an open sea beyond, and he founded this opinion on the immense quantity of warm water which flows into the Arctic Ocean from the great rivers of Asia. In March, 1821, Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral) Anjou crossed the ice to within forty-two miles of the north of the island of Kotelnoï, and in N. lat. 76 degrees 38 minutes saw a vapour which led him to believe in the existence of an open sea. In a second trip he actually saw this sea with its drifting ice, and came back convinced of the impossibility of going further in a sledge on account of the thinness of the ice. Whilst Anjou was thus employed, another naval officer, Lieutenant Wrangell, collected some important traditions about the existence of land the other side of Cape Yakan. From a Tchouktchi chief he learnt that in fine weather--though never in the winter--from the coast and some reefs at the mouth of a river mountains covered with snow could be seen far away in the north; and that in former days when the sea was frozen over reindeer used to come from there. The chief had himself once seen a herd of reindeer on their way back to the north by this route and he had followed them in a sledge for a whole day until the state of the ice compelled him to give up the experiment. His father had told him, too, that a Tchouktchi had once gone there with a few companions in a skin boat, but he did not know what they had discovered or what had become of them. He was sure that the land in the north was inhabited, because a dead whale had once been washed on to Aratane Island with spears tipped with slate in its flesh, and the Tchouktchis never used such weapons. These facts were very curious, and they increased Wrangell's desire to penetrate to the unknown northern districts; but the truth of all the rumours was not verified until our own day. Between 1820 and 1824 Wrangell made four expeditions in sledges from the mouth of the Kolyma, which he made his headquarters, first exploring the coast to Cape Tchelagskoi, and enduring thirty-five degrees of cold; and in his second trip trying how far he could go across the ice, an experiment resulting in a journey of 400 miles from the land. In the third year (1822), Wrangell started in March with a view to verifying the report of a native who said he had seen land in the offing. He now came to an icefield, on which he advanced safely for a long distance, when it began to be less compact and was soon not solid enough to bear many sledges, so two small ones were selected, on which were packed a wherry, some planks, and some tools. The explorer then ventured on some melting ice which broke under his feet. [Illustration: "Two small sledges were selected."] "At the outset," says Wrangell, "I had to make way for seven wersts across a bed of brine; further on appeared a surface furrowed with great _crevasses_, which we could only succeed in clearing by the help of our planks. I noticed in this part several small mounds of ice in such a liquefying condition that the slightest touch would suffice to break it and convert the mound into a round slough. The ice upon which we were travelling was without consistency, was but a foot in thickness, and--what was more--was riddled with holes.... I could only compare the appearance of the sea, at this stage, to an immense morass; and indeed the muddy water which issued from these thousands of crevasses, opening up in every direction, the melting snow mixed with earth and sand, those little mounds whence numerous streamlets were issuing,--all these combined to make the illusion perfect." Wrangell had advanced some 140 miles, and it was the open sea or the _polynia_--as he calls vast expanses of water--north of Siberia, the outskirts of which he had reached, the same in fact as that already sighted by Leontjew in 1764, and Hedenstroem in 1810. On his fourth voyage Wrangell and his small party of followers started from Cape Yakan, the nearest point to the Arctic regions, and, after passing Cape Tchelagskoi, made for the north; but a violent storm broke up the ice, there only three feet thick, and involved the explorers in the greatest danger. Now dragged across some large unbroken slab, now wet to the waist on a moving plank, sometimes above and sometimes under water, or moored to a block serving as a ferryboat, which the swimming dogs dragged along, they at last succeeded in crossing the shifting reverberating ice and regaining the land, owing their life to the strength and agility of their teams of dogs alone. Thus closed the last attempt made to reach the districts north of Siberia. The Arctic calotte[1] was meanwhile being attacked from the other side with equal energy and yet more perseverance. It will be remembered with what untiring enthusiasm the famous north-west passage had been sought. No sooner had the peace of 1815 necessitated the disarmament of numerous English vessels and set free their officers on half-pay, than the Admiralty, unwilling to let experienced seamen rust in idleness, sought for them some employment. It was under these circumstances that the search for the north-west passage was resumed. [Footnote 1: The word _calotte_ here used by Verne is untranslateable. It signifies, literally, a particular kind of cap, frequently a monk's cap or cowl.--_Trans._] The _Alexander_, 252 tons, and the _Isabel_, 385, under command of the experienced officers, John Ross and Lieutenant Parry, with James Ross, Back, and Belcher, who were to win honour in Arctic explorations amongst their subordinates, were sent by the Government to explore Baffin's Bay and set sail on the 18th April. After touching at the Shetland Islands, and seeking in vain for the submerged land seen by Bass in N. lat. 57 degrees 28 minutes, the explorers came on the 26th May to the first ice, and on the 2nd June surveyed the western coast of Greenland, hitherto very imperfectly laid down in maps, finding it greatly encumbered by ice. Indeed the governor of the Dutch settlement of Whale Island told them that the severity of the winter months had been steadily increasing during the eleven years of his residence in the country. Hitherto it had been supposed that the country was uninhabited beyond 75 degrees N. lat., and the travellers were therefore greatly surprised to see a whole tribe of Esquimaux arrive by way of the ice. They knew nothing of any race but their own, and stared at the English without daring to touch them, one of them even addressing to the vessels in a grave and solemn voice the inquiries, Who are you? Whence do you come? From the sun or from the moon? [Illustration: Esquimaux family. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)] Although in many respects far inferior to the Esquimaux who had become to some extent civilized by long intercourse with Europeans, the new-comers understood the use of iron, of which a few of them had even succeeded in making knives. This iron as far as the English could gather was dug out of a mountain. It was probably of meteoric origin. As public opinion in England subsequently confirmed, Ross, in spite of qualities as a naval officer of the highest order, showed extraordinary apathy and levity on this voyage, appearing not to trouble himself in the least about the geographical problems for the solution of which the expedition was organized. He passed Wolstenholme and Whale Sounds and Smith's Strait, opening out of Baffin's Bay, without examining them, the last named at so great a distance that he did not even recognize it. Still worse than that was his conduct later. Cruising down the western shores of Baffin's Bay a long deep gulf no less than fifty miles across gradually came in sight of the eager explorers, yet when on the 29th August the two vessels had sailed up it for thirty miles only Ross gave orders to tack about, on the ground that he distinctly saw at the further end a chain of lofty mountains to which he gave the name of Croker. His officers did not share his opinion; they could not see so much as the slightest sign of a hill, for the very excellent reason that the gulf they had entered was really Lancaster Sound, so named by Baffin, and connecting his bay with the western Arctic Ocean. The same sort of thing occurred again and again in the voyage along this deeply indented coast, the vessels keeping so far off shore that not a detail could be made out. Thus it came about that Cumberland Bay was passed on the 1st October without any survey of that most important feature of Davis Strait, and Ross returned to England, having literally turned his back on the glory awaiting him. When accused of apathy and neglect of duty, Ross replied with supreme indifference, "I trust, as I believe myself, that the objects of the voyage have been in every important point accomplished; that I have proved the existence of a bay, from Disco to Cumberland Strait, and set at rest for ever the question of a north-west passage in this direction." It would have been impossible to make a more complete mistake. But fortunately the failure of this expedition did not in the least discourage other explorers. Some saw in it a brilliant confirmation of the venerable Baffin's discovery, others looked upon the innumerable inlets, with their deep waters and strong currents, as something more than mere bays. They were straits, and all hope of the discovery of the north-west passage was not yet lost. [Illustration: Map of the Arctic Regions. _Engraved by E. Morieu._] These suggestions so far weighed with the English Admiralty as to lead to the equipment of two small vessels, the bomb-vessel _Hecla_ and the brigantine _Griper_, which left the Thames on the 5th May, 1819, under command of Lieutenant William Parry, whose opinion as to the existence of the north-west passage had not coincided with that of his chief. The vessels reached Lancaster Sound without meeting with any special adventures, and after a delay of seven days amongst the ice which encumbered the sea for a distance of eighty miles, they entered the supposed Bay "shut in by a mountain chain" of John Ross, to find not only that this mountain chain did not exist, but that the bay was a strait more than 310 fathoms deep, where the influence of the tide could be felt. The temperature of the water rose some ten degrees, and in the course of a single day no less than eighty full-grown whales were seen. On the 31st July the explorers landed on the shores of Possession Bay, visited by them the previous year, and found there their own footprints, a sign of the small quantity of snow and hoar frost which had fallen during the winter. All hearts beat high when with a favourable wind and all sails set the two vessels entered Lancaster Sound. "It is more easy," says Parry, "to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze continued to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. The mast-heads were crowded by the officers and men during the whole afternoon; and an unconcerned observer, if any could have been unconcerned on such an occasion, would have been amused by the eagerness with which the various reports from the crow's-nest were received; all, however, hitherto favourable to our most sanguine hopes." The two coasts extended in a parallel line as far as the eye could reach, that is to say for a distance exceeding fifty miles, and the height of the waves together with the absence of ice combined to convince the English that they had reached the open sea by way of the long sought passage, when an island framed in masses of ice checked their further progress. An arm of the sea, however, some twelve leagues wide, opened on the south, and by it the explorers hoped to find a passage less encumbered with ice. Strange to say, as they had advanced in a westerly direction through Lancaster Sound, the vibrations of the pendulum had increased, whilst now it appeared to have lost all motion, and "we now therefore witnessed for the first time the curious phenomenon of the directive power of the needle becoming so weak as to be completely overcome by the attraction of the ship; so that the needle might now be properly said to point to the north pole of the ship." The arm of the sea widened as the vessels advanced in a westerly direction, and the shores seemed to bend sensibly towards the south-west, but after making some 120 miles further progress was again barred by ice. The explorers therefore returned to Barrow's Strait, of which Lancaster Sound is but the entry, and once more entered the sea, now free from the ice, by which it had been encumbered a few days previously. In W. long. 92 degrees 1 minute 4 seconds was discovered an inlet called Wellington Channel, about eight leagues wide, entirely free from ice and apparently not bounded by any land. The existence of these numerous straits led the explorers to the conclusion that they were in the midst of a vast archipelago, an opinion daily receiving fresh confirmation. The dense fogs, however, made navigation difficult, and the number of little islands and shallows increased whilst the ice became more compact. Parry, however, was not to be deterred from pressing on towards the west, and presently his sailors found, on a large island, to which the name of Bathurst was given, the remains of some Esquimaux huts and traces of the former presence of reindeer. Magnetic observations were now taken, pointing to the conclusion that the magnetic pole had been passed on the north. Another large island, that of Melville, soon came in sight, and in spite of the fogs and ice the expedition succeeded in passing W. long. 110 degrees, thus earning the reward of 100_l_. sterling promised by the English Government. A promontory near Melville Island was named Cape Munificence, whilst a good harbour close by was called Hecla and Griper Bay. It was in Winter Harbour at the end of this bay that the vessels passed the winter. "Dismantled for the most part," says Parry, "the yards however being laid for walls and roofed in with thick wadding tilts, they were sheltered from the snow, whilst stoves and ovens were fixed inside." Hunting was useless, and resulted in nothing but the frost-biting of the limbs of some of the hunters, as Melville Island was deserted at the end of October by all animals except wolves and foxes. To get through the long winter without dying of ennui was no easy matter, but the officers hit upon the plan of setting up a theatre, the first representation in which was given on the 6th November, the day of the disappearance of the sun for three months. A special piece was given on Christmas day, in which allusion was made to the situation of the vessels, and a weekly paper was started called the _North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle_, which with Sabine, as editor, run into twenty-one numbers, all printed on the return to Europe of the expedition. In January scrofula broke out, and with such virulence as to cause considerable alarm, but the evil was soon checked by skilful treatment and the daily distribution of mustard and cress, which Parry had managed to grow in boxes round his stove. On the 7th February the sun reappeared, and although many months must elapse before it would be possible to leave Melville Island, preparations for a start were at once begun. On the 30th April the thermometer rose to zero, and the sailors taking this low temperature for summer wanted to leave off their winter clothes. The first ptarmigan appeared on the 12th May, and on the following day were seen traces of reindeer and of musk goats on their way to the north; but what caused the greatest delight and surprise to the crews was the fall of rain on the 24th May. "We had been so unaccustomed to see water naturally in a fluid state at all, and much less to see it fall from the heavens, that such an occurrence became a matter of considerable curiosity, and I believe every person on board hastened on deck to witness so interesting as well as novel a phenomenon." [Illustration: Rain as a novel phenomenon.] During the first fortnight in June, Parry, accompanied by some of his officers, made an excursion to the most northerly part of Melville Island. On his return, vegetation was everywhere to be seen, the ice was beginning to melt, and it was evident that a start could soon be made. The vessels began to move on the 1st August, but the ice had not yet broken up in the offing, and they got no further than the eastern extremity of Melville Island, of which the furthest point reached by Parry was in N. lat. 113 degrees 46 minutes 13 seconds and W. long. 113 degrees 46 minutes 43 seconds. The voyage back was unmarked by any special incident, and the expedition got back to England towards the middle of November. The results of this voyage were numerous and important. Not only had a vast extent of the Arctic regions been surveyed; but physical and magnetic observations had been taken, and many new details collected on their climate and animal and vegetable life. In fact in a single trip Parry did more than was accomplished in thirty years by all who followed in his steps. Satisfied with the important results obtained by him, the Admiralty appointed Parry to the command in 1821 of the _Hecla_ and the _Fury_, the latter built on the model of the former. On this new trip the explorer surveyed with the greatest care the shores of Hudson's Bay and the coast of the peninsula of Melville, not to be confounded with the island of the same name. The winter was passed on Winter Island on the eastern coast of this peninsula, and the same amusements were resorted to which had succeeded so well on the previous expedition, supplemented most effectively by the arrival on the 1st February of a party of Esquimaux from across the ice. Their huts, which had not been discovered by the English, were built on the beach; and numerous visits paid to them during the eighteen months passed on Winter Island gave a better notion than had ever before been obtained of the manners, customs, character, &c., of this singular people. The thorough survey of the Straits of Fury and Hecla, separating the peninsula of Melville from Cockburn Island, involved the passing of a second winter in the Arctic regions, and though the quarters were now more comfortable, time dragged heavily, for the officers and men were dreadfully disappointed at having to turn back just as they had thought to start for Behring's Strait. On the 12th August the ice broke up, and Parry wanted to send his men to Europe, and himself complete by land the exploration of the districts he had discovered, but Captain Lyon dissuaded him from a plan so desperate. The vessels therefore returned to England with all hands after an absence of twenty-seven months, having lost but five men, although two consecutive winters had been spent in the Arctic regions. Although the results of the second voyage were not equal to those of the first, some of them were beyond price. It was now known that the American coast did not extend beyond the 70 degrees N. lat., and that the Atlantic was connected with the Arctic Ocean by an immense number of straits and channels, most of them--the Fury, Hecla, and Fox, for instance--obstructed with ice brought down by the currents. Whilst the ice barrier on the south-east of Melville Peninsula appeared permanent, that at Regent's Inlet was evidently the reverse. It might, therefore, be possible to penetrate through it to the Polar basin, and it was with this end in view that the _Fury_ and _Hecla_ were once more equipped, and placed under the orders of Parry. This voyage was the least fortunate of any undertaken by this skilful seaman, not on account of any falling off in his work, but because he was the victim of unlucky accidents and unfavourable circumstances. Meeting, for instance, with an unusual quantity of ice in Baffin's Bay, he had the greatest trouble to reach Prince Regent's inlet. Had he arrived three weeks earlier he would probably have been able to land on the American coast, but as it was he was obliged to make immediate preparations for going into winter-quarters. It was no very formidable matter to this experienced officer to spend a winter under the Polar circle. He knew what precautions to take to preserve the health of his crews, to keep himself well, and what occupations and amusements would best relieve the tedium of a three months' night. Races between the officers, masquerades and theatrical entertainments, with the temperature maintained at 50 degrees Fahrenheit kept all the men healthy and happy until the thaw, which set in on the 20th July, 1825, enabled Parry to resume exploring operations. He now skirted along the eastern coast of Prince Regent's Inlet, but the floating ice gathered about the vessels and drove them on shore. The _Fury_ was so much damaged that though four pumps were constantly at work she could hardly be kept afloat, and Parry was trying to get her repaired under shelter of a huge block of ice when a tempest came on, broke in pieces the extemporary dock and flung the vessel again upon the shore, where she had to be abandoned. Her crew were received on the _Hecla_, which, after such an accident as this, was of course obliged to return to England. Parry's tempered spirit was not broken even by this last disaster. If the Arctic Ocean could not be reached from Baffin's Bay, were there not other routes still to be attempted? The vast tract of ocean between Greenland and Spitsbergen, for instance, might turn out less dangerous, freer as it of necessity would be from the huge icebergs which gather about the Arctic coasts. The earliest expeditions in these latitudes of which we have any record are those of Scoresby, who long cruised about them in search of whales. In 1806 he penetrated in E. long. 16 degrees (reckoning from Paris), beyond Spitzbergen, i.e. to N. lat. 81 degrees 30 minutes, where he saw ice stretching away in the E.N.E., whilst between that and the S.E. the sea was open for a distance of thirty miles. There was no land within 100 miles. It seems a matter of regret that the whaler did not take advantage of the favourable state of the sea to have advanced yet further north, when he might have made some important discovery, perhaps even have reached the Pole itself. Parry now resolved to do what the exigencies of his profession had rendered impossible to Scoresby, and leaving London on the _Hecla_ on the 27th March, 1827, he reached Lapland in safety, and having at Hammerfest embarked dogs, reindeer, and canoes, he proceeded on his way to Spitzbergen. Port Snweerenburg, where he wished to touch, was still shut in with ice; and against this barrier the _Hecla_ struggled until the 24th May, when Parry left her in Hinlopen Strait, and advanced northwards with Ross, Crozier, a dozen men, and provisions for seventy-two days in a couple of canoes. After leaving a depôt of provisions at Seven Islands he packed his food and boats on sledges specially constructed for the occasion, hoping to cross in them the barrier of solid ice, and to find beyond a navigable if not an entirely open sea. The ice did not, however, as Parry expected, turn out to form a homogeneous mass. There were here and there vast gaps to be forded or steep hills to be climbed, and in four days the explorers only advanced about eight miles in a northerly direction. On the 2nd July, in a dense fog, the thermometer marked 1 degree 9' above zero in the shade, and 8 degrees 3' in the sun; and as may be imagined the march across the broken surface, gaping everywhere with fissures, was terribly arduous, whilst the difficulties were aggravated by the continual glare from the snow and ice. In spite, however, of all obstacles the party pressed bravely on, and on the 20th July found they had got no further than N. lat. 82 degrees 37 minutes, i.e. only about five miles beyond the point reached three days previously. Now, as they had undoubtedly made at least about fourteen miles in the interval, it was evident that the ice on which they were was being drifted southwards by a strong current. Parry at first concealed this most discouraging fact from his men; but it soon became evident to every one that no progress was being made, but the slight difference between their own speed as they struggled over the many obstacles in their path and that of the current bearing the ice-field in the opposite direction. Moreover, the expedition now came to a place where the half-broken ice was not fit to bear the weight of the men or of the sledges. It was in fact nothing more than an immense accumulation of blocks of ice, which, tossed about by the waves, made a deafening noise as they crashed against each other; provisions too were running short, the men were discouraged, Ross was hurt, Parry was suffering from inflammation of the eyes, and the wind had veered into a contrary direction, driving the explorers southwards. There was nothing for it but to turn back. This venturesome trip, throughout which the thermometer had not sunk beneath 2 degrees 2, might have succeeded had it been undertaken a little earlier in the season, for then the explorers could have penetrated beyond 82 degrees 4 minutes. In any case they would certainly not have had to turn back on account of rain, snow, and damp, all signs of the summer thaw. When Parry got back to the _Hecla_, he found that she had been in the greatest danger. Driven before a violent gale, her chains had been broken by the ice, and she had been flung upon the beach, and run aground. When got off, she had been taken to Waygat Strait. All dangers past, however, the explorers got back safely in the rescued vessel to the Orkneys, where they landed, and whence they returned to London, arriving there on the 30th September. Whilst Parry was seeking a passage to the Pacific, by way of Baffin's or Hudson's Bay, several expeditions were organized to complete the discoveries of Mackenzie, and survey the North American coast. These expeditions were not fraught with any great danger, and the results might be of the most vital importance alike to geographical and nautical science. The command of the first was entrusted to Franklin afterwards so justly celebrated, with whom were associated Dr. Richardson, George Back, then a midshipman in the royal navy, and two common seamen. The explorers arrived on the 30th August at York Factory on the shores of Hudson's Bay, and having obtained from the fur-hunters all the information necessary to their success, they started again on the 9th September, reaching Cumberland House, 690 miles further, on the 22nd October. The season was now nearly at an end, but Franklin and Back nevertheless succeeded in penetrating to Fort Chippeway on the western side of Lake Athabasca, where they proposed making preparations for the expedition of the ensuing summer. This trip of 857 miles was accomplished in the depth of winter with the thermometer at between 40 degrees and 50 degrees below zero. Early in spring, Dr. Richardson joined the rest of the party at Fort Chippeway, and all started together on the 18th July, 1820, in the hope of reaching comfortable quarters at the mouth of the Coppermine before the bad season set in; Franklin and his people did not, however, make sufficient allowance for the difficulties of the route or for the obstacles resulting from the severity of the weather, and it took them till the 20th August to cross the waterfalls, shallows, lakes, rivers, and portages which impeded their progress. Game too was scarce. At the first appearance of ice on the ponds the Canadian guides began to complain; and when flocks of wild geese were seen flying southwards they refused to go any further. Annoyed as he was at this absence of good will in the people in his service, Franklin was compelled to give up his schemes, and when 550 miles from Fort Chippeway, in N. lat. 64 degrees 28 minutes, W. long. 118 degrees 6 minutes, he built on the banks of Winter River a wooden house, which he called Fort Enterprise. Here the explorers collected as much food as they could, manufacturing with reindeer flesh what is known throughout North America as _pemmican_. At first the number of reindeer seen was considerable; no less than 2000 were once sighted in a single day, but this was only a proof that they were migrating to more clement latitudes. The _pemmican_ prepared from eighty reindeer and the fish obtained in Winter River both run short before the expedition was able to proceed. Whole tribes of Indians, on hearing of the arrival of the whites, collected about the camp, greatly harassing the explorers by their begging, and soon exhausted the supply of blankets, tobacco, &c., which had been brought as means of barter. Disappointed at the non-arrival of reinforcements with provisions, Franklin sent Back with an escort of Canadians to Fort Chippeway on the 18th October. "I had the pleasure," says Back, writing after his return, "of meeting my friends all in good health, after an absence of nearly five months, during which I travelled 1104 miles in snow-shoes, and had no other covering at night in the woods than a blanket and deerskin, with the thermometer frequently at 40 degrees, and once at 57 degrees below zero, and sometimes passing two or three days without tasting food." Those who remained at the fort also suffered terribly from cold, the thermometer sinking three degrees lower than it had done when Parry was at Melville Island, nine degrees nearer the pole. Not only did the men suffer from the extreme severity of the cold, but the trees were frozen to the pith, and axes broke against them without making so much as a notch. Two interpreters from Hudson's Bay had accompanied Back to Fort Enterprise, one of whom had a daughter said to be the loveliest creature ever seen, and who, though only sixteen, had already been married twice. One of the English officers took her portrait, to the terrible distress of her mother, who feared that if the "great chief of England" saw the inanimate representation he would fall in love with the original. On the 14th June the Coppermine River was sufficiently free from ice to be navigable, and although their provisions were all but exhausted, the explorers embarked upon it. As it fortunately turned out, however, game was very plentiful on the green banks of the river, and enough musk oxen were killed to feed the whole party. The mouth of the Coppermine was reached on the 18th July, when the Indians, afraid of meeting their enemies, the Esquimaux, at once returned to Fort Enterprise, whilst the Canadians scarcely dared to launch their frail boats on the angry sea. Franklin at last succeeded in persuading them to run the risk; but he could not get them to go further than Cape Turn-again in N. lat. 68 degrees 30 minutes, a promontory at the opening of a deep gulf dotted with islands, to which the leader of the expedition gave the name of Coronation, in memory of the accession of George IV. Franklin had begun to ascend Hood River, when he was stopped by a cataract 250 feet high, compelling him to make his way overland across a barren, unknown district, and through snow more than two feet deep. The fatigue and suffering involved in this return journey can be more easily imagined than described; suffice it to say that the party arrived on the 11th October in a state of complete exhaustion--having eaten nothing for five days--at Fort Enterprise, which they found utterly deserted. Ill and without food, there seemed to be nothing left for Franklin to do but to die. The next day, however, he set to work to look for the Indians, and those of his party who had started before him, but the snow was so thick he had to return without accomplishing anything. For the next eighteen days life was supported by a kind of bouilli made from the bones and the skin of the game killed the previous year, and at last, on the 29th October, Dr. Richardson arrived with John Hepburn, only looking thin and worn, and scarcely able to speak above a whisper. It seemed as if they were doomed! We quote the following from Desborough Cooley:-- "Dr. Richardson had now a melancholy tale to relate. For the first two days his party had nothing whatever to eat. On the third day, Michel arrived with a hare and partridge, which afforded each a small morsel. Then another day passed without food. On the 11th, Michel offered them some flesh, which he said was part of a wolf; but they afterwards became convinced that it was the flesh of one of the unfortunate men who had left Captain Franklin's party to return to Dr. Richardson. Michel was daily growing more insolent and shy, and it was strongly suspected that he had a hidden supply of meat for his own use. On the 20th, while Hepburn was cutting wood near the tent, he heard the report of a gun, and looking towards the spot saw Michel dart into the tent. Mr. Hood was found dead; a ball had entered the back part of his head, and there could be no doubt but that Michel was the murderer. He now became more mistrustful and outrageous than before; and as his strength was superior to that of the English who survived, and he was well armed, they became satisfied that there was no safety for them but in his death. 'I determined,' says Dr. Richardson, 'as I was thoroughly convinced of the necessity of such a dreadful act, to take the whole responsibility upon myself; and, upon Michel coming up, I put an end to his life by shooting him through the head!'" Many of the Indians who had accompanied Richardson and Hepburn had died of hunger, and the two leaders were on the brink of the grave when, on the 7th November, three Indians, sent by Back, brought them help. As soon as they felt a little stronger, the two Englishmen made for the Company's settlement, where they found Back, to whom they had twice owed their lives on this one expedition. The results of this journey, in which 5500 miles had been traversed, were of the greatest importance to geographical, magnetic, and meteorological science, and the coast of America had been surveyed as far as Cape Turn-again. In spite of all the fatigue and suffering so bravely borne, the explorers were quite ready to make yet another attempt to reach the shores of the Polar Sea, and at the end of 1823 Franklin received instructions to survey the coast west of Mackenzie River, all the agents of the Company being ordered to supply his party with provisions, boats, guides, and everything else they might require. After a hearty reception at New York, Franklin went to Albany, by way of the Hudson, ascended the Niagara from Lewiston to the famous Falls, made his way thence to Fort St. George on the Ontario, crossed the lake, landed at York, the capital of Upper Canada (_sic_), passed Lakes Siamese, Huron, and Superior, where he was joined by twenty-four Canadians, and on the 29th June, 1825, came to Lake Methye, then alive with boats. Whilst Dr. Richardson was surveying the eastern coast of Great Bear Lake, and Back was superintending the preparations for the winter, Franklin reached the mouth of the Mackenzie, the navigation of which was very easy, no obstacles being met with, except in the Delta. The sea was free from ice, and black and white whales and seals were playing about at the top of the water. Franklin landed on the small island of Garry, the position of which he determined as N. lat. 69 degrees 2 minutes, W. long. 135 degrees 41 minutes, a valuable fact, proving as it did, how much confidence was to be placed in the observations of Mackenzie. The return journey was made without difficulty, and on the 5th September the explorers arrived at the fort to which Dr. Richardson had given the name of Franklin. The winter was passed in festivities, such as balls, &c., in which Canadians, English, Scotch, French, Esquimaux, and Indians of various tribes took part. On the 22nd June a fresh start was made, and on the 4th July the fort was reached where the Mackenzie divides into two branches. There the expedition separated into two parties, one going to the east and the other to the west, to explore the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Franklin and his companions had hardly left the river when he met near a large bay a numerous party of Esquimaux, who at first testified great delight at the rencontre, but soon became obstreperous, and tried to carry off the boat. Only by the exercise of wonderful patience and tact were the English able to avert bloodshed on this emergency. Franklin now surveyed and gave the name of Clarence to the river separating the English from the Russian territories, and a little further on was discovered another stream, which he called the Canning. On the 16th April, finding he had only made half of the distance between Mackenzie River and Icy Cape, though the winter was rapidly approaching, Franklin turned back and embarked on the beautiful Peel River, which he mistook for that of Mackenzie, not discovering his error till he came in sight of a chain of mountains on the east. On the 21st September he got back to the fort, after having in the course of three months traversed 2048 miles, and surveyed 372 miles of the American coast. Richardson meanwhile had advanced into much deeper water with far less floating ice, and had met with a great many Esquimaux of mild and hospitable manners. He surveyed Liverpool and Franklin Bays, and discovered opposite the mouth of the Coppermine a tract of land separated from the continent by a channel not more than twenty miles wide, to which he gave the name of Wollaston. His boats arrived at Coronation Gulf, explored on the previous trip, on the 7th August; and on the 1st September they got back to Fort Franklin, without having sustained any damage. In dwelling on Parry's voyages, we have, for the time, turned aside from those made at the same time by Ross, whose extraordinary exploration of Baffin's Bay had brought upon him the censure of the Admiralty, and who was anxious to regain his reputation for skill and courage. Though the Government had lost confidence in him, he won the esteem of a rich ship-owner, who did not hesitate to entrust to him the command of the steamship _Victory_, on which he started for Baffin's Bay on the 25th May, 1830. For four years nothing was heard of the courageous navigator, but on his return, at the end of that time, it turned out that his voyage had been as rich in discoveries as had been Parry's first trip. Ross, entering Prince Regent's Inlet, by way of Barrow and Lancaster Sounds, had revisited the spot where the _Fury_ had been abandoned four years previously; and continuing his voyage in a southerly direction, he wintered in Felix Harbour--so named after the equipper of the expedition--ascertaining whilst there that the lands he had passed formed a large peninsula attached on the south to the northern coast of America. In April, 1830, James Ross, nephew of the leader of the party, set out in a canoe to examine the shores of this peninsula, and those of King William's Land; and in November of the same year all had once more to go into winter-quarters in Sherif Harbour, it being impossible to get the vessel more than a few miles further north. The cold was intense, and it was agreed by the sailors of the _Victory_ that this was the very severest winter ever spent by them in the Arctic regions. The summer of 1831 was devoted to various surveys, which proved that there was no connexion between the two seas. All that was accomplished this season was to bring the _Victory_ as far as Discovery Harbour, a very little further north than that of Sherif. The ensuing winter was so intensely severe, that the vessel could not be extricated from her ice prison, and but for the fortunate discovery of the provisions left by the _Fury_, the English would have died of hunger. As it was, they endured daily greater and greater privations and sufferings before the summer of 1833 at last enabled them finally to leave their winter-quarters and go by land to Prince Regent's and Barrow Straits. They had just reached the shores of Baffin's Bay when a vessel appeared, which turned out to be the _Isabel_, once commanded by Ross himself, and which now received the refugees from the _Victory_. But England had not all this time been forgetful of her children, and had sent an expedition in search of them every year. In 1833 Back, Franklin's companion, was the leader, and he starting from Fort Revolution, on the shore of Slave Lake, made his way northwards, discovered Thloni-Tcho-Deseth River, and settled down in winter-quarters, with the intention of reaching the next year the Polar Sea, where he supposed Ross to be held prisoner, when he heard of his incredible return journey overland. Back, therefore, gave up the next season to the survey of the fine Fish River, discovered the previous year, and sighted the Queen Adelaide Mts., with Capes Booth and Ross. 1836 found him at the head of a new expedition, which was to attempt to connect by sea the discoveries of Ross and Franklin. It failed, and the accomplishment of the task assigned to it was reserved to Peter Williams, Dease, and Thomas Simpson, all officers in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, who, leaving Fort Chippeway on the 1st June, 1837, went down the Mackenzie, arriving on the sea-coast on the 9th July, and making their way along it to N. lat. 71 degrees 3 minutes and W. long. 156 degrees 46 minutes, i.e. to a cape they named Simpson, after the governor of their company. Thomas Simpson now made his way overland with five men to Port Barrow, already sighted in the direction of Behring Strait by one of Beechey's officers, so that the whole of the North American coast from Cape Turn-again to Behring's Strait was now complete, and there was nothing left to do but to explore the space between the former and Point Ogle, a task accomplished by the explorers in a later expedition. Leaving the Coppermine in 1838, they followed the eastern coast, arriving on the 9th August at Cape Turn-again, which was too much encumbered with ice to be rounded. Thomas Simpson therefore remained near it for the winter, discovered Victoria Land, and on the 12th August, 1839, arrived at Back River. The rest of the month he devoted to the exploration of Boothia. [Illustration: Discovery of Victoria Land.] The whole of the coast-line of North America was now accurately laid down, but at the cost of what struggles, devotion, privations, and sufferings? What, however, is human life when weighed in the balance with the progress of science? and with what disinterestedness and enthusiasm must be embued the savants, sailors, and explorers, who give up all the joys of existence to contribute to the best of their power to the progress of knowledge and to the moral and intellectual development of humanity. With the voyages last recorded the discovery of the earth was completed, and with our account of them our work, which began with the first attempts of the earliest explorers, also closes. The shape of the earth is now known, the task of explorers, is done. The land on which man lives is henceforth familiar to him, and he has now only to turn to account the vast resources of the countries to which access has recently become easy, or of which he can without difficulty possess himself. How rich in lessons of every kind is this history of twenty centuries of exploration. Let us cast a glance behind us and enumerate the main features of the progress made in this long series of years. If we take the map of the world of Hecatæus, who lived 500 years before the Christian era, what do we see? When it was published the known world did not extend beyond the basin of the Mediterranean, and the whole, with a terribly distorted outline, is represented only by a very small portion of southern Europe, the interior of Asia, and part of North Africa; whilst encircling them all is a river without beginning or end, to which is given the name of Ocean. Side by side with this map, ancient monument as it is of antique science, let us place a planisphere representing the world as known in 1840, and on this vast surface we shall find the portion known, and that but imperfectly to Hecatæus, occupying but an infinitesimal space. Taking these two typical maps as our starting-point, we shall be able to judge of the magnitude of the discoveries of modern times. Imagine for a moment all that is involved in thorough knowledge of the whole world, and you will marvel at the results achieved by the efforts of so many explorers and martyrs, you will grasp the importance of their discoveries and the intimate relations between geography and all the other sciences. This is the point of view from which can best be seen all the philosophic bearings of a work to which so many generations have devoted themselves. Doubtless the motives actuating these various explorers differ greatly. First, we have the natural curiosity of the owner anxious to know thoroughly every part of the domain belonging to him, so that he may estimate the extent of the habitable districts, and determine the boundaries of the seas, &c.; and secondly, we have the natural outcome of a trade, which, though still in its infancy, introduced even in remote Norway the products of Central Asian industry. In the time of Herodotus the aim of explorers was loftier: they wished to learn the history, manners, customs, and religion of foreign races; and later, the Crusades, which, whatever else they accomplished, certainly vulgarized oriental studies, inspired some few with a fervent desire to wrest from infidels the scene of our Lord's Passion, but the greater number with a lust of pillage and a yearning to explore the unknown. Columbus, seeking a new route to the Indies, came across America on the way, and his successors were only anxious to make rapid fortunes, differing greatly indeed from the noble Portuguese who sacrificed their private interests to the glory and colonial prosperity of their country, and were the poorer for the offices conferred on them with a view to doing them honour. In the sixteenth century religious persecution and civil war drove to the New World the Huguenots and Puritans, who, whilst laying for England the foundations of colonial prosperity, were to bring about a radical change in America. The next century was essentially one of colonization. In America the French, in India the English, and in Oceania the Dutch established counting-houses and offices, whilst missionaries endeavoured to win over to the Christian faith and modern ideas the unchangeable "Empire of the Mean." The eighteenth century, ushering in our own, rectified received errors, and surveyed minutely alike continents and archipelagoes; in a word brought to perfection the work of its predecessors. The same task has occupied modern explorers, who pride themselves on not passing over in their surveys the smallest corner of the earth, or the tiniest islet. With a similar enthusiasm are imbued the intrepid navigators who penetrate the ice-bound solitudes of the two poles, and tear away the last fragments of the veil which has so long hidden from us the extremities of the globe. All then is now known, classed, catalogued, and labelled! Will the results of so much toil be buried in some carefully laid down atlas, to be sought only by professional _savants_? No! it is reserved to our use, and to develope the resources of the globe, conquered for us by our fathers at the cost of so much danger and fatigue. Our heritage is too grand to be relinquished. We have at our command all the facilities of modern science for surveying, clearing, and working our property. No more lands lying fallow, no more impassable deserts, no more useless streams, no more unfathomable seas, no more inaccessible mountains! We suppress the obstacles nature throws in our way. The isthmuses of Panama and Suez are in our way; we cut through them! The Sahara interferes with the connexion of Algeria and Senegal; we will throw a railway across it. The Pas de Calais prevents two nations so well fitted for cordial friendship from shaking each other by the hand; we will pierce it with a railway! This is our task and that of our contemporaries. Is it less grand than that of our predecessors, that it has not yet succeeded in inspiring any great writer of fiction? To dwell upon it ourselves would be to exceed the limits we laid down for our work. We meant to write the History of the Discovery of the World, and we have written it. Our task therefore is complete. FINIS. LONDON: GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. 
42925	----	available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 42925-h.htm or 42925-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42925/42925-h/42925-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42925/42925-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/conquesttruestor00dyeerich Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). THE CONQUEST The True Story of Lewis and Clark by EVA EMERY DYE * * * * * JUST READY [Illustration: WILLIAM CLARK] [Illustration: MERIWETHER LEWIS] THE EXPEDITION of LEWIS AND CLARK Reprinted from the Edition of 1814 With an Introduction and Index By JAMES K. HOSMER, LL.D. Notwithstanding that in America few names are more familiar upon the tongue than those of Lewis and Clark, it is a singular fact that the Journals of their expedition have for a long time been practically unattainable. The lack thus existing, felt now more and more as the centenary of the great exploration draws near, this new edition has been planned to fill. The text used is that of the 1814 edition, which must hold its place as the only account approaching adequacy. Dr. Hosmer, well-known for his work in Western history, has furnished an Introduction, giving the events which led up to the great expedition and showing the vast development that has flowed from it, in a way to make plain the profound significance of the achievement. There has also been added an elaborate analytic Index, a feature which the original edition lacked. The publishers offer this work in the belief that it will fill all requirements and become the standard popular edition of this great American classic. _In two square octavo volumes, printed from new type of a large clear face, with new photogravure portraits and fac-simile maps._ In box, $5.00 net; delivered, $5.36. A. C. McCLURG & CO., CHICAGO * * * * * THE CONQUEST * * * * * BY MRS. DYE McLOUGHLIN & OLD OREGON A Chronicle FOURTH EDITION 12mo. $1.50 "A graphic page of the story of the American pioneer."--_N.Y. Mail and Express._ * * * * * [Illustration: From a Rare Painting. "Judith"] THE CONQUEST The True Story of Lewis and Clark by EVA EMERY DYE Author of "McLoughlin and Old Oregon" Chicago A. C. McClurg & Company 1902 Copyright A. C. McClurg & Co 1902 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London Published Nov. 12, 1902 University Press · John Wilson and Son · Cambridge, U. S. A. NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author hereby acknowledges obligation to the Lewis and Clark families, especially to William Hancock Clark of Washington, D.C., and John O'Fallon Clark of St. Louis, grandsons of Governor Clark, and to C. Harper Anderson of Ivy Depot, Virginia, the nephew and heir of Meriwether Lewis, for letters, documents, and family traditions; to Mrs. Meriwether Lewis Clark of Louisville and Mrs. Jefferson K. Clark of New York, widows of Governor Clark's sons, and to more than twenty nieces and nephews; to Reuben Gold Thwaites of the University of Wisconsin, for access to the valuable Draper Collection of Clark, Boone, and Tecumseh manuscripts, and for use of the original journals of Lewis and Clark which Mr. Thwaites is now editing; to George W. Martin of the Kansas Historical Society at Topeka, for access to the Clark letter-books covering William Clark's correspondence for a period of thirty years; to Colonel Reuben T. Durrett of Louisville, for access to his valuable private library; to Mr. Horace Kephart of the Mercantile Library, and Mr. Pierre Chouteau, St. Louis; to the Historical Societies of Missouri, at St. Louis and Columbia; to Mrs. Laura Howie, for Montana manuscripts at Helena; to Miss Kate C. McBeth, the greatest living authority on Nez Percé tradition; to the descendants of Dr. Saugrain, and to the families and friends of Sergeants Pryor, Gass, Floyd, Ordway, and privates Bratton, Shannon, Drouillard, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; also to the Librarian of Congress for copies of Government Documents. E. E. D. OREGON CITY, OREGON, September 1, 1902. CONTENTS BOOK I WHEN RED MEN RULED PAGE I. A CHILD IS BORN 1 II. THE CLARK HOME 7 III. EXIT DUNMORE 12 IV. THE WILDERNESS ROAD 14 V. A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER 17 VI. THE FEUDAL AGE 19 VII. KASKASKIA 24 VIII. THE SPANISH DONNA 28 IX. VINCENNES 32 X. THE CITY OF THE STRAIT 38 XI. A PRISONER OF WAR 41 XII. TWO WARS AT ONCE 43 XIII. THE KEY OF THE COUNTRY 47 XIV. BEHIND THE CURTAIN 50 XV. THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS 53 XVI. OLD CHILLICOTHE 60 XVII. "DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN" 63 XVIII. ON THE RAMPARTS 69 XIX. EXIT CORNWALLIS 72 XX. THE OLD VIRGINIA HOME 77 XXI. DOWN THE OHIO 81 XXII. MULBERRY HILL 87 XXIII. MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES 91 XXIV. ST. CLAIR 97 XXV. THE SWORD OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE 102 XXVI. THE SPANIARD 106 XXVII. THE BROTHERS 113 XXVIII. THE MAID OF FINCASTLE 119 XXIX. THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY 122 XXX. THE PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERIWETHER 131 BOOK II INTO THE WEST I. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 139 II. THE KNIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE 144 III. RECRUITING FOR OREGON 149 IV. THE FEUD IS ENDED 154 V. THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS 157 VI. SERGEANT ORDWAY WRITES A LETTER 166 VII. INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY 167 VIII. "THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!" 176 IX. THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS 185 X. THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS 192 XI. THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS 199 XII. FAREWELL TO FORT MANDAN 204 XIII. TOWARD THE SUNSET 208 XIV. THE SHINING MOUNTAINS 214 XV. A WOMAN PILOT 221 XVI. IDAHO 228 XVII. DOWN THE COLUMBIA 235 XVIII. FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA 242 XIX. A WHALE ASHORE 249 XX. A RACE FOR EMPIRE 257 XXI. "A SHIP! A SHIP!" 259 XXII. BACK TO CIVILISATION 265 XXIII. CAMP CHOPUNNISH 272 XXIV. OVER THE BITTER ROOT RANGE 277 XXV. BEWARE THE BLACKFEET 279 XXVI. DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE 283 XXVII. THE HOME STRETCH 288 XXVIII. THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. LOUIS 296 XXIX. TO WASHINGTON 303 XXX. THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION 307 BOOK III THE RED HEAD CHIEF I. THE SHADOW OF NAPOLEON 315 II. AMERICAN RULE IN ST. LOUIS 319 III. FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE 322 IV. THE BOAT HORN 327 V. A BRIDE IN ST. LOUIS 331 VI. THE FIRST FORT IN MONTANA 335 VII. A MYSTERY 337 VIII. A LONELY GRAVE IN TENNESSEE 343 IX. TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG 344 X. TECUMSEH 352 XI. CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER 360 XII. THE STORY OF A SWORD 369 XIII. PORTAGE DES SIOUX 376 XIV. "FOR OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN" 386 XV. TOO GOOD TO THE INDIANS 390 XVI. THE RED HEAD CHIEF 397 XVII. THE GREAT COUNCIL AT PRAIRIE DU CHIEN 404 XVIII. THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS 415 XIX. FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS 421 XX. BLACK HAWK 429 XXI. A GREAT LIFE ENDS 434 XXII. THE NEW WEST 438 THE CONQUEST Book I _WHEN RED MEN RULED_ I _A CHILD IS BORN_ The old brick palace at Williamsburg was in a tumult. The Governor tore off his wig and stamped it under foot in rage. "I'll teach them, the ingrates, the rebels!" Snatching at a worn bell-cord, but carefully replacing his wig, he stood with clinched fists and compressed lips, waiting. "They are going to meet in Williamsburg, eh? I'll circumvent them. These Virginia delegates! These rebellious colonists! I'll nip their little game! The land is ripe for insurrection. Negroes, Indians, rebels! There are enough rumblings now. Let me but play them off against each other, and then these colonists will know their friends. Let but the Indians rise--like naked chicks they'll fly to mother wings for shelter. I'll show them! I'll thwart their hostile plans!" Again Lord Dunmore violently rang the bell. A servant of the palace entered. "Here, sirrah! take this compass and dispatch a messenger to Daniel Boone. Bade him be gone at once to summon in the surveyors at the Falls of the Ohio. An Indian war is imminent. Tell him to lose no time." The messenger bowed himself out, and a few minutes later a horse's hoofs rang down the cobblestone path before the Governor's Mansion of His Majesty's colony of Virginia in the year of our Lord 1774. Lord Dunmore soliloquised. "Lewis is an arrant rebel, but he is powerful as old Warwick. I'll give him a journey to travel." Again he rang the bell and again a servant swept in with low obeisance. "You, sirrah, dispatch a man as fast as horse or boat can speed to Bottetourt. Tell Andrew Lewis to raise at once a thousand men and march from Lewisburg across Mt. Laurel to the mouth of the Great Kanawha. Here are his sealed orders." The messenger took the packet and went out. "An Indian war will bring them back. I, myself, will lead the right wing, the pick and flower of the army. I'll make of the best men my own scouts. To myself will I bind this Boone, this Kenton, Morgan, and that young surveyor, George Rogers Clark, before these agitators taint their loyalty. I, myself, will lead my troops to the Shawnee towns. Let Lewis rough it down the Great Kanawha." It was the sixth of June when the messenger drew rein at Boone's door in Powell's Valley. The great frontiersman sat smoking in his porch, meditating on the death of that beloved son killed on the way to Kentucky. The frightened emigrants, the first that ever tried the perilous route, had fallen back to Powell's Valley. Boone heard the message and looked at his faithful wife, Rebecca, busy within the door. She nodded assent. The messenger handed him the compass, as large as a saucer. For a moment Boone balanced it on his hand, then slipped it into his bosom. Out of a huge wooden bowl on a cross-legged table near he filled his wallet with parched corn, took his long rifle from its peg over the door, and strode forth. Other messengers were speeding at the hest of Lord Dunmore, hither and yon and over the Blue Ridge. Andrew Lewis was an old Indian fighter from Dinwiddie's day,--Dinwiddie, the blustering, scolding, letter-writing Dinwiddie, who undertook to instruct Andrew Lewis and George Washington how to fight Indians! Had not the Shawnees harried his border for years? Had he not led rangers from Fairfax's lodge to the farthest edge of Bottetourt? Side by side with Washington he fought at Long Meadows and spilled blood with the rest on Braddock's field. More than forty years before, his father, John Lewis, had led the first settlers up the Shenandoah. They had sown it to clover, red clover, red, the Indians said, from the blood of red men slain by the whites. But what were they to do when peaceful settlers, fugitives from the old world, staked their farms on vacant land only to be routed by the scalp halloo? Which was preferable, the tyranny of kings or the Indian firestake? Hunted humanity must choose. The Shawnees, too, were a hunted people. Driven from south and from north, scouted by the Cherokees, scalped by the Iroquois, night and day they looked for a place of rest and found it not. Beside the shining Shenandoah, daughter of the stars, they pitched their wigwams, only to find a new and stronger foe, the dreaded white man. Do their best, interests would conflict. Civilisation and savagery could not occupy the same territory. And now a party of emigrants were pressing into the Mingo country on the upper Ohio. Early in April the family of Logan, the noted Mingo chief, was slaughtered by the whites. It was a dastardly deed, but what arm had yet compassed the lawless frontier? All Indians immediately held accountable all whites, and burnings and massacres began in reprisal. Here was an Indian war at the hand of Lord Dunmore. Few white men had gone down the Kanawha in those days. Washington surveyed there in 1770, and two years later George Rogers Clark carried chain and compass in the same region. That meant settlers,--now, war. But Lewis, blunt, irascible, shrank not. Of old Cromwellian stock, sternly aggressive and fiercely right, he felt the land was his, and like the men of Bible times went out to smite the heathen hip and thigh. Buckling on his huge broadsword, and slipping into his tall boots and heavy spurs, he was off. At his call they gathered, defenders of the land beyond the Blue Ridge, Scotch-Irish, Protestants of Protestants, long recognised by the Cavaliers of tidewater Virginia as a mighty bulwark against the raiding red men. Charles Lewis brought in his troop from Augusta, kinsfolk of the Covenanters, fundamentally democratic, Presbyterian Irish interpreting their own Bibles, believing in schools, born leaders, dominating their communities and impressing their character on the nation yet unborn. It was August when, in hunting shirts and leggings, they marched into rendezvous at Staunton, with long knives in their leathern belts and rusty old firelocks above their shoulders. In September they camped at Lewisburg. Flour and ammunition were packed on horses. Three weeks of toil and travail through wilderness, swamp, and morass, and they were at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. But where was Dunmore? With his thousand men he was to march over the Braddock Road to meet them there on the Ohio. Rumour now said he was marching alone on the Shawnee towns. "And so expose himself!" ejaculated Lewis. But just then a runner brought word from Lord Dunmore, "Join me at the Shawnee towns." "What does it mean?" queried Lewis of his colonels, Charles Lewis of Augusta, Fleming of Bottetourt, Shelby and Field of Culpepper. "It looks like a trap. Not in vain have I grown gray in border forays. There's some mistake. It will leave the whole western portion of Virginia unprotected." Brief was the discussion. Before they could cross the Ohio, guns sounded a sharp surprise. Andrew Lewis and his men found themselves penned at Point Pleasant without a hope of retreat. Behind them lay the Ohio and the Kanawha, in front the woods, thick with Delawares, Iroquois, Wyandots, Shawnees, flinging themselves upon the entrapped army. Daylight was just quivering in the treetops when the battle of Point Pleasant began. At the first savage onset Fleming, Charles Lewis, and Field lay dead. It was surprise, ambuscade, slaughter. Grim old Andrew Lewis lit his pipe and studied the field while his riflemen and sharp-shooters braced themselves behind the white-armed sycamores. There was a crooked run through the brush unoccupied. While the surging foes were beating back and forth, Andrew Lewis sent a party through that run to fall upon the Indians from behind. A Hercules himself, he gathered up his men with a rush, cohorns roaring. From the rear there came an answering fire. Above the din, the voice of Cornstalk rose, encouraging his warriors, "Be strong! be strong!" But panic seized the Indians; they broke and fled. Andrew Lewis looked and the sun was going down. Two hundred whites lay stark around him, some dead, some yet to rise and fight on other fields. The ground was slippery with gore; barked, hacked, and red with blood, the white-armed sycamores waved their ghostly hands and sighed, where all that weary day red men and white had struggled together. And among the heaps of Indian slain, there lay the father of a little Shawnee boy, Tecumseh. Cornstalk, chief of the Shawnees, Red Hawk, pride of the Delawares, and Logan, Logan the great Mingo, were carried along in the resistless retreat of their people, down and over the lurid Ohio, crimson with blood and the tint of the setting sun. On that October day, 1774, civilisation set a milestone westward. Lewis and his backwoodsmen had quieted the Indians in one of the most hotly contested battles in all the annals of Indian warfare. "Let us go on," they said, and out of the debris of battle, Lewis and his shattered command crossed the Ohio to join Lord Dunmore at the Shawnee towns. "We have defeated them. Now let us dictate peace at their very doors," said Lewis. But Dunmore, amazed at this success of rebel arms, sent the flying word, "Go back. Retrace your steps. Go home." Lewis, astounded, stopped. "Go back now? What does the Governor mean? We must go on, to save him if nothing else. He is in the very heart of the hostile country." And he pressed on. Again the messenger brought the word, "Retreat." "Retreat?" roared Lewis, scarce believing his ears. "We've reached this goal with hardship. We've purchased a victory with blood!" There was scorn in the old man's voice. "March on!" he said. But when within three miles of the Governor's camp, Lord Dunmore himself left his command and hastened with an Indian chief to the camp of Lewis. Dunmore met him almost as an Indian envoy, it seemed to Lewis. "Why have you disobeyed my orders?" thundered the Governor, drawing his sword and reddening with rage. "I say go back. Retrace your steps. Go home. I will negotiate a peace. There need be no further movement of the southern division." His manner, his tone, that Indian!--the exhausted and overwrought borderers snatched their bloody knives and leaped toward the Governor. Andrew Lewis held them back. "This is no time for a quarrel. I will return." And amazed, enraged, silenced, Andrew Lewis began his retreat from victory. But suspicious murmurings rolled along the line. "He ordered us there to betray us." "Why is my lord safe in the enemy's country?" "Why did the Indians fall upon us while the Governor sat in the Shawnee towns?" "That sword--" Andrew Lewis seemed not to hear these ebullitions of his men, but his front was stern and awful. As one long after said, "The very earth seemed to tremble under his tread." All Virginia rang with their praises, as worn and torn and battered with battle, Lewis led his troop into the settlements. Leaving them to disperse to their homes with pledge to reassemble at a moment's notice, he set forth for Williamsburg where news might be heard of great events. On his way he stopped at Ivy Creek near Charlottesville, at the house of his kinsman, William Lewis. An infant lay in the cradle, born in that very August, while they were marching to battle. "And what have you named the young soldier?" asked the grim old borderer, as he looked upon the sleeping child. "Meriwether Lewis, Meriwether for his mother's people," answered the proud and happy father. "And will you march with the minute men?" "I shall be there," said William Lewis. II _THE CLARK HOME_ "What do you see, William?" A red-headed boy was standing at the door of a farmhouse on the road between Fredericksburg and Richmond, in the valley of the Rappahannock. "The soldiers, mother, the soldiers!" Excitedly the little four-year-old flew down under the mulberry trees to greet his tall and handsome brother, George Rogers Clark, returning from the Dunmore war. Busy, sewing ruffles on her husband's shirt and darning his long silk stockings, the mother sat, when suddenly she heard the voice of her son with his elder brother. "I tell you, Jonathan, there is a storm brewing. But I cannot take an oath of allegiance to the King that my duty to my country may require me to disregard. The Governor has been good to me, I admit that. I cannot fight him--and I will not fight my own people. Heigh-ho, for the Kentucky country." Dropping her work, Mrs. Clark, Ann Rogers, a descendant of the martyr of Smithfield, and heir through generations of "iron in the blood and granite in the backbone," looked into the approaching, luminous eyes. "I hope my son has been a credit to his country?" "A credit?" exclaimed Jonathan. "Why, mother, Lord Dunmore has offered him a commission in the British army!" "But I cannot take it," rejoined George Rogers, bending to press a kiss on the cheek of his brown-eyed little mother. "Lord Dunmore means right, but he is misunderstood. And he swears by the King." "And do we not all swear by the King?" almost wrathfully exclaimed John Clark, the father, entering the opposite door at this moment. "Who has suffered more for the King than we self-same Cavaliers, we who have given Virginia her most honourable name--'The Old Dominion'? Let the King but recognise us as Britons, entitled to the rights of Englishmen, and we will swear by him to the end." It was a long speech for John Clark, a man of few words and intensely loyal, the feudal patriarch of this family, and grandson of a Cavalier who came to Virginia after the execution of Charles I. But his soul had been stirred to the centre, by the same wrongs that had kindled Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. These were his friends, his neighbours, who had the same interests at stake, and the same high love of liberty. "If the King would have us loyal, aye, then, let him be loyal to us, his most loyal subjects. Did not Patrick Henry's father drink the King's health at the head of his regiment? Did not Thomas Jefferson's grandsires sit in the first House of Burgesses in the old church at Jamestown, more than a century before the passage of the Stamp Act? And who swore better by the King? None of us came over here from choice! We came because we loved our King and would not bide his enemies." George Rogers Clark looked approvingly at his father, and yet, he owed fealty to Lord Dunmore. Even as a stripling he had been singled out for favours. "I see the storm gathering," he said. "If I choose, it must be with my people. But I need not choose,--I will go to Kentucky." It was the selfsame thought of Daniel Boone. "But here are the children!" Nine-year-old Lucy danced to her brother, William still clung to his hand, and their bright locks intermingled. "Three red-headed Clarks," laughed the teasing Jonathan. More than a century since, the first John Clark settled on the James, a bachelor and tobacco planter. But one day Mary Byrd of Westover tangled his heart in her auburn curls. In every generation since, that red hair had re-appeared. "A strain of heroic benevolence runs through the red-headed Clarks," said an old dame who knew the family. "They win the world and give it away." But the dark-haired Clarks, they were the moneymakers. Already Jonathan, the eldest, had served as Clerk in the Spottsylvania Court at Fredericksburg, where he often met Colonel George Washington. Three younger brothers, John, Richard, and Edmund, lads from twelve to seventeen, listened not less eagerly than Ann, Elizabeth, Lucy, and Fanny, the sisters of this heroic family. But George was the adventurer. When he came home friends, neighbours, acquaintances, gathered to listen. The border wars had kindled military ardour with deeds to fire a thousand tales of romance and fireside narrative. Moreover, George was a good talker. But he seemed uncommonly depressed this night,--the choice of life lay before him. At sixteen George Rogers Clark had set out as a land surveyor, like Washington and Boone and Wayne, penetrating and mapping the western wilds. To survey meant to command. Watched by red men over the hills, dogged by savages in the brakes, scalped by demons in the wood, the frontier surveyor must be ready at any instant to drop chain and compass for the rifle and the knife. Like Wayne and Washington, Clark had drilled boy troops when he and Madison were pupils together under the old Scotch dominie, Donald Robertson, in Albemarle. While still in his teens George and a few others, resolute young men, crossed the Alleghanies, went over Braddock's route, and examined Fort Necessity where Washington had been. They floated down the Monongahela to Fort Pitt. In the angle of the rivers, overlooking the flood, mouldered the remains of old Fort Du Quesne, blown up by the French when captured by the English. The mound, the moat, the angles and bastions yet remained, but overgrown with grass, and cattle grazed where once an attempt had been made to plant mediæval institutions on the sod of North America. As if born for battles, Clark studied the ground plans. "Two log gates swung on hinges here," explained the Colonel from Fort Pitt, "one opening on the water and one on the land side with a mediæval drawbridge. Every night they hauled up the ponderous bridge, leaving only a dim dark pit down deep to the water." With comprehensive glance George Rogers Clark took in the mechanism of intrenchments, noted the convenient interior, with magazine, bake-house, and well in the middle. "So shall I build my forts." Pencil in hand the young surveyor had the whole scheme instantly sketched. The surprised Colonel took a second look. Seldom before had he met so intelligent a study of fortifications. "Are you an officer?" "I am Major of Virginia militia under Lord Dunmore." With a missionary to the Indians, Clark slid down the wild Ohio and took up a claim beyond the farthest. Here for a year he lived as did Boone, beating his corn on a hominy block and drying his venison before his solitary evening fire. Then he journeyed over into the Scioto. So, when the Dunmore war broke out, here was a scout ready at hand for the Governor. Major Clark knew every inch of the Braddock route and every trail to the Shawnee towns. When a fort was needed, it was the skilled hand and fertile brain of George Rogers Clark that planned the bastioned stockade that became the nucleus of the future city of Wheeling. Then Dunmore came by. Like a war-horse, Clark scented the battle of Point Pleasant afar off. "And I not there to participate!" he groaned. But Dunmore held him at his own side, with Morgan, Boone, and Kenton, picked scouts of the border. When back across the Ohio the Mingoes came flying, Clark wild, eager, restless, was pacing before Dunmore's camp. Beaten beyond precedent by the mighty valour of Andrew Lewis, Cornstalk and his warriors came pleading for peace. "Why did you go to war?" asked Dunmore. "Long, long ago there was a great battle between the red Indians and the white ones," said Cornstalk, "and the red Indians won. This nerved us to try again against the whites." But Logan refused to come. "Go," said Lord Dunmore, to George Rogers Clark and another, "go to the camp of the sullen chief and see what he has to say." They went. The great Mingo gave a vehement talk. They took it down in pencil and, rolled in a string of wampum, carried it back to the camp of Lord Dunmore. In the council Clark unrolled and read the message. Like the wail of an old Roman it rang in the woods of Ohio. "I appeal to any white man if ever he entered Logan's cabin and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, last Spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This drove me to revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance; for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one." One by one, half a dozen of Clark's army comrades had dropped in around the hickory flame, while the substance of Logan's tale unfolded. "And was Cresap guilty?" "No," answered George Rogers Clark, "I perceived he was angry to hear it read so before the army and I rallied him. I told him he must be a very great man since the Indians shouldered him with everything that happened." Little William had fallen asleep, sitting in the lap of his elder brother, but, fixed forever, his earliest memory was of the Dunmore war. There was a silence as they looked at the sleeping child. A little negro boy crouched on the rug and slumbered, too. His name was York. III _EXIT DUNMORE_ On the last day of that same August in which Meriwether Lewis was born and Andrew Lewis was leading the Virginia volunteers against the Shawnees, Patrick Henry and George Washington set out on horseback together for Philadelphia, threading the bridle-paths of uncut forests, and fording wide and bridgeless rivers to the Continental Congress. It had been nine years since Patrick Henry, "alone and unadvised," had thrilled the popular heart with his famous first resolutions against the Stamp Act. From the lobby of the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson, a student, looked that morning at the glowing orator and said in his heart, "He speaks as Homer wrote." It was an alarm bell, a call to resistance. "Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third"--how the staid, bewigged, beruffled old Burgesses rose in horror!--"and George the Third may profit by their example." "Most indecent language," muttered the Burgesses as they hurried out of the Capitol, pounding their canes on the flagstone floor. But the young men lifted him up, and for a hundred years an aureole has blazed around the name of Patrick Henry. The Congress at Philadelphia adjourned, and the delegates plodded their weary way homeward through winter mire. From his Indian war Lord Dunmore came back to Williamsburg to watch the awakening of Virginia. Then came that breathless day when Dunmore seized and carried off the colony's gunpowder. The Virginians promptly demanded its restoration. The minute men flew to arms. "By the living God!" cried Dunmore, "if any insult is offered to me or to those who have obeyed my orders, I will declare freedom to the slaves and lay the town in ashes." Patrick Henry called together the horsemen of Hanover and marched upon Williamsburg. The terrified Governor sent his wife and daughters on board a man-of-war and fortified the palace. And on came Patrick Henry. Word flew beyond the remotest Blue Ridge. Five thousand men leaped to arms and marched across country to join Patrick Henry. But at sunrise on the second day a panting messenger from Dunmore paid him for the gunpowder. Patrick Henry, victorious, turned about and marched home to Hanover. Again Lord Dunmore summoned the House of Burgesses. They came, grim men in hunting shirts and rifles. Then his Lordship set a trap at the door of the old Powder Magazine. Some young men opened it for arms and were shot. Before daylight Lord Dunmore evacuated the palace and fled from the wrath of the people. On shipboard he sailed up and down for weeks, laying waste the shores of the Chesapeake, burning Norfolk and cannonading the fleeing inhabitants. Andrew Lewis hastened down with his minute men. His old Scotch ire was up as he ran along the shore. He pointed his brass cannon at Dunmore's flagship, touched it off, and Lord Dunmore's best china was shattered to pieces. "Good God, that I should ever come to this!" exclaimed the unhappy Governor. He slipped his cables and sailed away in a raking fire, and with that tragic exit all the curtains of the past were torn and through the rent the future dimly glimmered. After Dunmore's flight, every individual of the nobler sort felt that the responsibility of the country depended upon him, and straightway grew to that stature. Men looked in one another's faces and said, "We ourselves are Kings." Around the great fire little William Clark heard his father and brothers discuss these events, and vividly remembered in after years the lightning flash before the storm. He had seen his own brothers go out to guard Henry from the wrath of Dunmore on his way to the second Continental Congress. And now Dunmore had fled, and as by the irony of fate, on the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Patrick Henry became the first American Governor of Virginia, with headquarters at the palace. IV _THE WILDERNESS ROAD_ Daniel Boone threw back his head and laughed silently. For a hundred miles in the barrier ridge of the Alleghanies there is but a single depression, Cumberland Gap, where the Cumberland river breaks through, with just room enough for the stream and a bridle path. Through this Gap as through a door Boone passed into the beautiful Kentucky, and there, by the dark and rushing water of Dick's River, George Rogers Clark and John Floyd were encamped. The young men leaped to their feet and strode toward the tall, gaunt woodsman, who, axe in hand, had been vigorously hewing right and left a path for the pioneers. "They are coming,--Boone's trace must be ready. Can you help?" Boone removed his coonskin cap and wiped his perspiring face with a buckskin handkerchief. His forehead was high, fine-skinned, and white. "That is our business,--to settle the country," answered the young surveyors, and through the timber, straight as the bird flies over rivers and hills, they helped Boone with the Wilderness Road. It was in April of 1775. Kentucky gleamed with the dazzling dogwood as if snows had fallen on the forests. As their axes rang in the primeval stillness, another rover stepped out of the sycamore shadows. It was Simon Kenton, a fair-haired boy of nineteen, with laughing blue eyes that fascinated every beholder. "Any more of ye?" inquired Boone, peering into the distance behind him. "None. I am alone. I come from my corn-patch on the creek. Are you going to build?" "Yes, when I reach a certain spring, and a bee-tree on the Kentucky River." "Let us see," remarked Floyd. "We may meet Indians. I nominate Major Clark generalissimo of the frontier." "And Floyd surveyor-in-chief," returned Clark. "An' thee, boy, shall be my chief guard," said Daniel Boone, laying his kindly hand on the lad's broad shoulder. "An' I--_am the people_." The Boones were Quakers, the father of Daniel was intimate with Penn; his uncle James came to America as Penn's private secretary; sometimes the old hunter dropped into their speech. But people were coming. One Richard Henderson, at a treaty in the hill towns of the Cherokees, had just paid ten thousand pounds for the privilege of settling Kentucky. Boone left before the treaty was signed and a kindly old Cherokee chieftain took him by the hand in farewell. "Brother," he said, "we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it." They were at hand. Through the Cumberland Gap, as through a rift in a Holland dyke, a rivulet of settlers came trickling down the newly cut Wilderness Road. Under the green old trees a mighty drama was unfolding, a Homeric song, the epic of a nation, as they piled up the bullet-proof cabins of Boonsboro. This rude fortification could not have withstood the smallest battery, but so long as the Indians had no cannon this wooden fort was as impregnable as the walls of a castle. In a few weeks other forts, Harrodsburg and Logansport, dotted the canebrakes, and the startled buffalo stampeded for the salt licks. In September Boone brought out his wife and daughters, the first white women that ever trod Kentucky soil. "Ugh! ugh! ugh!" A hundred Shawnees from their summer hunt in the southern hills came trailing home along the Warrior's Path, the Indian highway north and south, from Cumberland Gap to the Scioto. "Ugh! ugh! ugh!" They pause and point to the innumerable trackings of men and beasts into their beloved hunting grounds. Astonishment expands every feature. They creep along and trace the road. They see the settlements. It cannot be mistaken, the white man has invaded their sacred arcanum. Amazement gives place to wrath. Every look, every gesture bespeaks the red man's resolve. "We will defend our country to the last; we will give it up only with our lives." Forthwith a runner flies over the hills to Johnson Hall on the Mohawk. Sir William is dead, dead endeavouring to unravel the perplexities of the Dunmore war, but his son, Sir Guy, meets the complaining Shawnees. "The Cherokees sold Kentucky? That cannot be. Kentucky belongs to the King. My father bought it for him at Fort Stanwix, of the Iroquois. The Cherokees have no right to sell Kentucky. Go in and take the land." And so, around their campfires, and at the lake forts of the British, the Shawnee-Iroquois planned to recover Kentucky. V _A BARREL OF GUNPOWDER_ Scarcely was Jefferson home from signing the Declaration when back from Kentucky came little William's tall strong brother, George Rogers Clark, elected by those far-away settlers, in June of 1776, to represent them in the assembly of Virginia. Cut by a thousand briars, with ragged clothes and blistered feet, Clark looked in at the home in Caroline and hurried on to Williamsburg. "The Assembly adjourned? Then I must to the Governor. Before the Assembly meets again I may effect what I wish." Patrick Henry was lying sick at his country-home in Hanover when the young envoy from Kentucky was ushered to his bedside. Pushing his reading spectacles up into his brown wig, the Governor listened keenly as the young man strode up and down his bed-chamber. The scintillant brown eyes flashed. "Your cause is good. I will give you a letter to the Council." "Five hundredweight of gunpowder!" The Council lifted their eyebrows when Clark brought in his request. "Virginia is straining every nerve to help Washington; how can she be expected to waste gunpowder on Kentucky?" "Let us move those settlers back to Virginia at the public expense," suggested one, "and so save the sum that it would take to defend them in so remote a frontier." "Move Boone and Kenton and Logan back?" Clark laughed. Too well he knew the tenacity of that border germ. "So remote a frontier? It is your own back door. The people of Kentucky may be exterminated for the want of this gunpowder which I at such hazard have sought for their relief. Then what bulwark will you have to shield you from the savages? The British are employing every means to engage those Indians in war." Clark knew there was powder at Pittsburg. One hundred and thirty-six kegs had just been brought up by Lieutenant William Linn with infinite toil from New Orleans, the first cargo ever conveyed by white men up the Mississippi and Ohio. "We will lend you the powder as to friends in distress, but you must be answerable for it and pay for its transportation." Clark shook his head,--"I cannot be answerable, nor can I convey it through that great distance swarming with foes." "We can go no farther," responded the Council, concluding the interview. "God knows we would help you if we could, but how do we even know that Kentucky will belong to us? The assistance we have already offered is a stretch of power." "Very well," and Clark turned on his heel. "A country that is not worth defending is not worth claiming. Since Virginia will not defend her children, they must look elsewhere. Kentucky will take care of herself." His words, that manner, impressed the Council. "What will Kentucky do?" To his surprise, the next day Clark was recalled and an order was passed by the Virginia Council for five hundred pounds of gunpowder, "for the use of said inhabitants of Kentucki," to be delivered to him at Pittsburg. Hardly a month old was the Declaration of Independence when the new nation reached out to the west. "Did you get the powder?" was the first greeting of young William Clark as his brother re-entered the home in Caroline. "Yes, and I fancy I shall get something more." "What is it?" inquired the little diplomat, eager as his brother for the success of his embassy. "Recognition of Kentucky." And he did, for when he started back Major Clark bore the word that the Assembly of Virginia had made Kentucky a county. With that fell Henderson's proprietary claim and all the land was free. With buoyant heart Clark and Jones, his colleague, hastened down to Pittsburg. Seven boatmen were engaged and the precious cargo was launched on the Ohio. But Indians were lurking in every inlet. Scarce were they afloat before a canoe darted out behind, then another and another. With all the tremendous energy of life and duty in their veins, Clark and his boatmen struck away and away. For five hundred miles the chase went down the wild Ohio. At last, eluding their pursuers, almost exhausted, up Limestone Creek they ran, and on Kentucky soil, dumped out the cargo and set the boat adrift. While the Indians chased the empty canoe far down the shore, Clark hid the powder amid rocks and trees, and struck out overland for help from the settlements. At dead of night he reached Harrod's Station. Kenton was there, and with twenty-eight others they set out for the Creek and returned, each bearing a keg of gunpowder on his shoulder. VI _THE FEUDAL AGE_ What a summer for the little forts! Dressed in hunting shirt and moccasins, his rifle on his shoulder, his tomahawk in his belt, now leading his eager followers on the trail of the red marauders, now galloping at the head of his horsemen to the relief of some beleaguered station, Clark guarded Kentucky. No life was safe beyond the walls. Armed sentinels were ever on the watchtowers, armed guards were at the gates. And outside, Indians lay concealed, watching as only Indians can watch, nights and days, to cut off the incautious settler who might step beyond the barricades. By instinct the settlers came to know when a foe was near; the very dogs told it, the cattle and horses became restless, the jay in the treetop and the wren in the thorn-hollow chattered it. Even the night-owl hooted it from the boughs of the ghostly old sycamore. In this, the feudal age of North America, every man became a captain and fought his own battles. Like knights of old, each borderer, from Ticonderoga to Wheeling and Boonsboro, sharpened his knife, primed his flintlock, and started. No martial music or gaudy banner, no drum or bugle, heralded the border foray. Silent as the red man the stark hunter issued from his wooden fort and slid among the leaves. Silent as the panther he stole upon his prey. But all at once the hill homes of the Cherokees emptied themselves to scourge Kentucky. Shawnees of the Scioto, Chippewas of the Lakes, Delawares of the Muskingum hovered on her shores. March, April, May, June, July, August,--the days grew hot and stifling to the people cooped up in the close uncomfortable forts. There had been no planting, scarce even a knock at the gate to admit some forest rover, and still the savages sat before Boonsboro. Clark was walled in at Harrodsburg, Logan at Logansport. Ammunition was failing, provisions were short; now and then there was a sally, a battle, a retreat, then the dressing of wounds and the burial of the dead. Every eye was watching Clark, the leader whose genius consisted largely in producing confidence. In the height of action he brooded over these troubles; they knew he had plans; the powder exploit made them ready to rely upon him to any extent. He would meet those Indians, somewhere. Men bound with families could not leave,--Clark was free. Timid men could not act,--Clark was bold. Narrow men could not see,--Clark was prescient. More than any other he had the Napoleonic eye. Glancing away to the Lakes and Detroit, the scalp market of the west, he reasoned in the secrecy of his own heart: "These Indians are instigated by the British. Through easily influenced red men they hope to annihilate our frontier. Never shall we be safe until we can control the British posts." Unknown to any he had already sent scouts to reconnoitre those very posts. "And what have you learned?" he whispered, when on the darkest night of those tempestuous midsummer days they gave the password at the gate. "What have we learned? That the forts are negligently guarded; that the French are secretly not hostile; that preparations are on foot for an invasion of Kentucky with British, Indians, and artillery." "I will give them something to do in their own country," was Clark's inward comment. Without a word of his secret intent, Clark buckled on his sword, primed his rifle, and set out for Virginia. With regret and fear the people saw him depart, and yet with hope. Putting aside their detaining hands, "I will surely return," he said. With almost superhuman daring the leather-armoured knight from the beleaguered castle in the wood ran the gauntlet of the sleeping savages. All the Wilderness Road was lit with bonfires, and woe to the emigrant that passed that way. Cumberland Gap was closed; fleet-winged he crossed the very mountain tops, where never foot of man or beast had trod before. Scarce noting the hickories yellow with autumn and the oaks crimson with Indian summer, the young man passed through Charlottesville, his birthplace, and reached his father's house in Caroline at ten o'clock at night. In his low trundle-bed little William heard that brother's step and sprang to unclose the door. Like an apparition George Rogers Clark appeared before the family, haggard and worn with the summer's siege. All the news of his brothers gone to the war was quickly heard. "And will you join them?" "No, my field is Kentucky. To-morrow I must be at Williamsburg." The old colonial capital was aflame with hope and thanksgiving as Clark rode into Duke of Gloucester Street. Burgoyne had surrendered. Men were weeping and shouting. In the _mêlée_ he met Jefferson and proposed to him a secret expedition. In the exhilaration of the moment Jefferson grasped his hand,--"Let us to the Governor." Crowds of people were walking under the lindens of the Governor's Palace. Out of their midst came Dorothea, the wife of Patrick Henry, and did the honours of her station as gracefully as, thirty years later, Dolly Madison, her niece and namesake, did the honours of the White House. Again Patrick Henry pushed his reading spectacles up into his brown wig and scanned the envoy from Kentucky. "Well, sirrah, did you get the powder?" "We got the powder and saved Kentucky. But for it she would have been wiped out in this summer's siege. All the Indians of the Lakes are there. I have a plan." "Unfold it," said Patrick Henry. In a few words Clark set forth his scheme of conquest. "Destroy Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and you have quelled the Indians. There they are fed, clothed, armed, and urged to prey upon us. I have sent spies to reconnoitre, and have received word that assures me that their capture is feasible." The scintillating blue eyes burned with an inward light, emitting fire, as Patrick Henry leaned to inquire, "What would you do in case of a repulse?" "Cross the Mississippi and seek protection from the Spaniards," answered the ready chief. With his privy council, Mason, Wythe, and Jefferson, Patrick Henry discussed the plan, and at their instance the House of Delegates empowered George Rogers Clark "to aid any expedition against their western enemies." "Everything depends upon secrecy," said the Governor as he gave Clark his instructions and twelve hundred pounds in Continental paper currency. "But you must recruit your men west of the Blue Ridge; we can spare none from here." Kindred spirits came to Clark,--Bowman, Helm, Harrod and their friends, tall riflemen with long buckhorn-handled hunting-knives, enlisting for the west, but no one guessing their destination. Despite remonstrances twenty pioneer families on their flat-boats at Redstone-Old-Fort joined their small fleet to his. "We, too, are going to Kentucky." Jumping in as the last boat pulled out of Pittsburg, Captain William Linn handed Clark a letter. He broke the seal. "Ye gods, the very stars are for us! The French have joined America!" With strange exhilaration the little band felt themselves borne down the swift-rushing waters to the Falls of the Ohio. Before them blossomed a virgin world. Clark paused while the boats clustered round. "Do you see that high, narrow, rocky island at the head of the rapids? It is safe from the Indian. While the troops erect a stockade and blockhouse, let the families clear a field and plant their corn." Axes rang. The odour of hawthorn filled the air. Startled birds swept over the falls,--eagles, sea gulls, and mammoth cranes turning up their snowy wings glittering in the sunlight. On the mainland, deer, bear, and buffalo roamed under the sycamores serene as in Eden. "Halloo-oo!" It was the well-known call of Simon Kenton, paddling down to Corn Island with Captain John Montgomery and thirty Kentuckians. "What news of the winter?" "Boone and twenty-seven others have been captured by the Indians." "Boone? We are laying a trap for those very Indians," and then and there Major Clark announced the object of the expedition. Some cheered the wild adventure, some trembled and deserted in the night, but one hundred and eighty men embarked with no baggage beyond a rifle and a wallet of corn for each. The snows of the Alleghanies were melting. A million rivulets leaped to the blue Ohio. It was the June rise, the river was booming. Poling his little flotilla out into the main channel Clark and his borderers shot the rapids at the very moment that the sun veiled itself in an all but total eclipse at nine o'clock in the morning. It was a dramatic dash, as on and on he sped down the river, bank-full, running like a millrace. VII _KASKASKIA_ Double manned, relays of rowers toiled at the oars by night and by day. "Do you see those hunters?" At the mouth of the Tennessee, almost as if prearranged, two white men emerged from the Illinois swamps as Clark shot by. He paused and questioned the strangers. "We are just from Kaskaskia. Rocheblave is alone with neither troops nor money. The French believe you Long Knives to be the most fierce, cruel, and bloodthirsty savages that ever scalped a foe." "All the better for our success. Now pilot us." Governor Rocheblave, watching St. Louis and dreaming of conquest, was to be rudely awakened. All along the Mississippi he had posted spies and was watching the Spaniard, dreaming not of Kentucky. Out upon the open, for miles across the treeless prairies, the hostile Indians might have seen his little handful of one hundred and eighty men, but Clark of twenty-six, like the Corsican of twenty-six, "with no provisions, no munitions, no cannon, no shoes, almost without an army," was about to change the face of three nations. Twilight fell as they halted opposite Kaskaskia on the night of July 4, without a grain of corn left in their wallets. "Boys, the town must be taken to-night at all hazards." Softly they crossed the river,--the postern gate was open. "Brigands!" shouted Governor Rocheblave, leaping from his bed at midnight when Kenton tapped him on the shoulder. It was useless to struggle; he was bound and secured in the old Jesuit mansion which did duty as a fort at Kaskaskia. "Brigands!" screamed fat Madame Rocheblave in a high falsetto, tumbling out of bed in her frilled nightcap and gown. Seizing her husband's papers, plump down upon them she sat. "No gentleman would ever enter a lady's bed-chamber." "Right about, face!" laughed Kenton, marching away the Governor. "Never let it be said that American soldiers bothered a lady." In revenge Madame tore up the papers, public archives, causing much trouble in future years. "Sacred name of God!" cried the French habitants, starting from their slumbers. From their windows they saw the streets filled with men taller than any Indians. "What do they say?" "Keep in your houses on pain of instant death!" "Keep close or you will be shot!" In a moment arose a dreadful shriek of men, women, and children,--"The Long Knives! The Long Knives!" The gay little village became silent as death. Before daylight the houses of Kaskaskia were disarmed. The wild Virginians whooped and yelled. The timid people quaked and shuddered. "Grant but our lives and we will be slaves to save our families." It was the pleading of Father Gibault, interceding for his people. "Let us meet once more in the church for a last farewell. Let not our families be separated. Permit us to take food and clothing, the barest necessities for present needs." "Do you take us for savages?" inquired Clark in amaze. "Do you think Americans would strip women and children and take the bread out of their mouths? My countrymen never make war on the innocent. It was to protect our own wives and children that we have penetrated this wilderness, to subdue these British posts whence the savages are supplied with arms and ammunition to murder us. We do not war against Frenchmen. The King of France is our ally. His ships and soldiers fight for us. Go, enjoy your religion and worship when you please. Retain your property. Dismiss alarm. We are your friends come to deliver you from the British." The people trembled; then shouts arose, and wild weeping. The bells of old Kaskaskia rang a joyous peal. "Your rights shall be respected," continued Colonel Clark, "but you must take the oath of allegiance to Congress." From that hour Father Gibault became an American, and all his people followed. "Let us tell the good news to Cahokia," was their next glad cry. Sixty miles to the north lay Cahokia, opposite the old Spanish town of St. Louis. The Kaskaskians brought out their stoutest ponies, and on them Clark sent off Bowman and thirty horsemen. "The Big Knives?" Cahokia paled. "But they come as friends," explained the Kaskaskians. Without a gun the gates were opened, and the delighted Frenchmen joyfully banqueted the Kentuckians. The Indians were amazed. "The Great Chief of the Long Knives has come," the rumour flew. For five hundred miles the chiefs came to see the victorious Americans. "I will not give them presents. I will not court them. Never will I seem to fear them. Let them beg for peace." And with martial front Clark bore himself as if about to exterminate the entire Indian population. The ruse was successful; the Indians flocked to the Council of the Great Chief as if drawn by a magnet. Eagerly they leaned and listened. "Men and warriors: I am a warrior, not a counsellor." Holding up before them a green belt and another the colour of blood, "Take your choice," he cried, "Peace or War." So careless that magnificent figure stood, so indifferent to their choice, that the hearts of the red men leaped in admiration. "Peace, Peace, Peace," they cried. From all directions the Indians flocked; Clark became apprehensive of such numbers,--Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, Sacs, Foxes, Maumees. "The Big Knives are right," said the chiefs. "The Great King of the French has come to life." Without the firing of a gun or the loss of a life, the great tactician subjugated red men and white. Clark had no presents to give,--he awed the Indians. He devoted great care to the drilling of his troops, and the nations sat by to gaze at the spectacle. The Frenchmen drilled proudly with the rest. While Clark was holding his councils Kenton had gone to Vincennes. Three days and three nights he lay reconnoitring. He spoke with the people, then by special messenger sent word, "The Governor has gone to Detroit. You can take Vincennes." Clark was ready. "Do not move against Vincennes," pleaded Father Gibault, "I know my people. Let me mediate for you." Clark accepted Gibault's offer, and the patriot priest hastened away on a lean-backed pony to the Wabash. With his people gathered in the little log church he told the tale of a new dominion. There under the black rafters, kissing the crucifix to the United States, the priest absolved them from their oath of allegiance to the British king. "Amen," said Gibault solemnly, "we are new men. We are Americans." To the astonishment of the Indians the American flag flew over the ramparts of Vincennes. "What for?" they begged to know. "Your old father, the King of France, has come to life again. He is mad at you for fighting for the English. Make peace with the Long Knives, they are friends of the Great King." The alarmed Indians listened. Word went to all the tribes. From the Wabash to the Mississippi, Clark, absolute, ruled the country, a military dictator. But the terms of the three-months militia had expired. "How many of you can stay with me?" he entreated. One hundred re-enlisted; the rest were dispatched to the Falls of the Ohio under Captain William Linn. "Tell the people of Corn Island to remove to the mainland and erect a stockade fort." Thus was the beginning of Louisville. Captain John Montgomery and Levi Todd (the grandfather of the wife of Abraham Lincoln) were dispatched with reports and Governor Rocheblave as a prisoner-of-war to Virginia. On arrival of the news the Virginia Assembly immediately created the county of Illinois, and Patrick Henry appointed John Todd of Kentucky its first American Governor. VIII _THE SPANISH DONNA_ In the year that Penn camped at Philadelphia the French reared their first bark huts at Kaskaskia, in the American bottom below the Missouri mouth. Here for a hundred years around the patriarchal, mud-walled, grass-roofed cabins had gathered children and grandchildren, to the fourth and fifth generation. Around the houses were spacious piazzas, where the genial, social Frenchmen reproduced the feudal age of Europe. Gardens were cultivated in the common fields, cattle fed in the common pastures, and lovers walked in the long and narrow street. The young men went away to hunt furs; their frail bark canoes had been to the distant Platte, and up the Missouri, no one knows how far. Sixty miles north of Kaskaskia lay Cahokia, and opposite Cahokia lay St. Louis. Now and then a rumour of the struggle of the American Revolution came to St. Louis, brought by traders over the Detroit trail from Canada. But the rebellious colonies seemed very far away. In the midst of his busy days at Kaskaskia, Colonel Clark was surprised by an invitation from the Spanish Governor at St. Louis, to dine with him at the Government House. Father Gibault was well acquainted in St. Louis. He dedicated, in 1770, the first church of God west of the Mississippi, and often went there to marry and baptise the villagers. So, with Father Gibault, Colonel Clark went over to visit the Governor. "L'Americain Colonel Clark, your Excellency." The long-haired, bare-headed priest stood _chapeau_ in hand before the heavy oaken door of the Government House, at St. Louis. Then was shown the splendid hospitality innate to the Spanish race. The Governor of Upper Louisiana, Don Francisco de Leyba, was friendly even to excess. He extended his hand to Colonel Clark. "I feel myself flattered by this visit of de Señor le Colonel, and honoured, honoured. De fame of your achievement haf come to my ear and awakened in me emotions of de highest admiration. De best in my house is at your service; command me to de extent of your wishes, even to de horses in my stable, de wines in my basement. My servant shall attend you." Colonel Clark, a man of plain, blunt speech, was abashed by this profusion of compliment. His cheeks reddened. "You do me too much honour," he stammered. All his life, the truth, the plain truth, and nothing but the truth, had been Clark's code of conversation. Could it be possible that the Governor meant all these fine phrases? But every succeeding act and word seemed to indicate his sincerity. "My wife, Madam Marie,--zis ees de great Americain General who haf taken de Illinoa, who haf terrified de sauvages, and sent de Briton back to Canada. And my leetle children,--dees ees de great Commandante who ees de friend of your father. "And, my sister,--dees ees de young Americain who haf startled de world with hees deeds of valour." If ever Clark was off his guard, it was when he thus met unexpectedly the strange and startling beauty of the Donna de Leyba. Each to the other seemed suddenly clothed with light, as if they two of all the world were standing there alone. What the rest said and did, Clark never knew, although he replied rationally enough to their questions,--in fact, he carried on a long conversation with the garrulous Governor and his amiable dark-haired wife. But the Donna, the Donna-- Far beyond the appointed hour Clark lingered at her side. She laughed, she sang. She could not speak a word of English, Clark could not speak Spanish. Nevertheless they fell desperately in love. For the first and only time in his life, George Rogers Clark looked at a woman. How they made an appointment to meet again no one could say; but they did meet, and often. "The Colonel has a great deal of business in St. Louis," the soldiers complained. "Le great Americain Colonel kiss te Governor's sister," whispered the Creoles of St. Louis. How that was discovered nobody knows, unless it was that Sancho, the servant, had peeped behind the door. Clark even began to think he would like to settle in Louisiana. And the Governor favoured his project. "De finest land in de world, Señor, and we can make it worth your while. You shall have de whole district of New Madrid. Commandants, bah! we are lacking de material. His Majesty, de King of Spain, will gladly make you noble." "And I, for my part," Clark responded, "can testify to all the subjects of Spain the high regard and sincere friendship of my countrymen toward them. I hope it will soon be manifest that we can be of mutual advantage to one another." Indeed, through De Leyba, Clark even dreamed of a possible Spanish alliance for America, like that with France, and De Leyba encouraged it. Boon companion with the Governor over the wine, and with the fascinating Donna smiling upon him, Colonel Clark became not unbalanced as Mark Antony did,--although once in a ball-room he kissed the Donna before all the people. But there was a terrible strain on Clark's nerves at this time. His resources were exhausted, they had long been exhausted, in fact; like Napoleon he had "lived on the country." And yet no word came from Virginia. Continental paper was the only money in Clark's military chest. It took twenty dollars of this to buy a dollar's worth of coffee at Kaskaskia. Even then the Frenchmen hesitated. They had never known any money but piastres and peltries; they could not even read the English on the ragged scrip of the Revolution. "We do not make money," said the Creoles, "we use hard silver." But Francis Vigo, a Spanish trader of St. Louis, said, "Take the money at its full value. It is good. I will take it myself." In matters of credit and finance the word of Vigo was potential. "Ah, yes, now you can haf supplies," said the cheerful Creoles, "M'sieur Vigo will take the money, you can haf de meat an' moccasin." Colonel Vigo, a St. Louis merchant who had large dealings for the supply of the Spanish troops, had waited on Colonel Clark at Cahokia and voluntarily tendered to him such aid as he could furnish. "I offer you my means and influence to advance the cause of liberty." The offer was gratefully accepted. When the biting winds of winter swept over Kaskaskia, "Here," he said, "come to my store and supply your necessities." His advances were in goods and silver piastres, for which Clark gave scrip or a check on the agent of Virginia at New Orleans. Gabriel Cerré in early youth moved to Kaskaskia, where he became a leading merchant and fur trader. "I am bitterly opposed to _les Américains_," he said. Then he met Clark; that magician melted him into friendship, sympathy, and aid. "From the hour of my first interview I have been the sworn ally of George Rogers Clark!" exclaimed Charles Gratiot, a Swiss trader of Cahokia. "My house, my purse, my credit are at his command." Clark could not be insensible to this profusion of hospitality, which extended, not only to himself, but to his whole little army and to the cause of his country. The Frenchmen dug their potatoes, gathered the fruits of their gnarled apple-trees, and slew the buffalo and bear around for meat. Winter came on apace, and yet the new Governor had not arrived. Colonel Clark's headquarters at the house of Michel Aubrey, one of the wealthiest fur traders of Kaskaskia, became a sort of capitol. In front of it his soldiers constantly drilled with the newly enlisted Frenchmen. All men came to Clark about their business; the piazzas and gardens were seldom empty. In short, the American Colonel suddenly found himself the father and adviser of everybody in the village. IX _VINCENNES_ "I will dispossess these Americans," said Governor Hamilton at Detroit. "I will recover Vincennes. I will punish Kentucky. I will subdue all Virginia west of the mountains." And on the seventh of October, 1778, he left Detroit with eight hundred men,--regulars, volunteers, and picked Indians. The French habitants of Vincennes were smoking their pipes in their rude verandas, when afar they saw the gleam of red coats. Vincennes sank without a blow and its people bowed again to the British king. "I will quarter here for the winter," said Governor Hamilton. Then he sent an express to the Spanish Governor at St. Louis with the threat, "If any asylum be granted the rebels in your territory, the Spanish post will be attacked." In their scarlet tunics, emblem of Britain, to Chickasaw and Cherokee his runners flew. At Mackinac the Lake Indians were to "wipe out the rebels of Illinoi'." Far over to the Sioux went presents and messages, even to the distant Assiniboine. Thousands of red-handled scalping knives were placed in their hands. Emissaries watched Kaskaskia. Picked warriors lingered around the Ohio to intercept any boats that might venture down with supplies for the little Virginian army. New Year's dawned for 1779. Danger hovered over Clark at Kaskaskia. "Not for a whole year have I received a scrape of a pen," he wrote to Patrick Henry. Too small was his force to stand a siege, too far away to hope for relief. He called his Kentuckians from Cahokia, and day and night toiled at the defences of Kaskaskia. How could they withstand the onslaught of Hamilton and his artillery? But hark! There is a knocking at the gate, and Francis Vigo enters. Closeted with Clark he unfolds his errand. "I am just from Vincennes. Listen! Hamilton has sent his Indian hordes in every direction. They are guarding the Ohio, watching the settlements, stirring up the most distant tribes to sweep the country. But he has sent out so many that he is weak. At this moment there are not more than eighty soldiers left in garrison, nor more than three pieces of cannon and some swivels mounted." With inspiration born of genius and desperate courage Clark made his resolve. "If I don't take Hamilton he'll take me; and, by Heaven! I'll take Hamilton!" But it was midwinter on the bleak prairies of Illinois, where to this day the unwary traveller may be frozen stark in the icy chill. Clark's men were almost entirely without clothing, ammunition, provisions. Can genius surmount destitution? Clark turned to Vigo. "I have not a blanket, an ounce of bread, nor a pound of powder. Can you fit me out in the name of Virginia?" Francis Vigo, a Sardinian by birth but Republican at heart, answered, "I can fit you out. Here is an order for money. Down yonder is a swivel and a boatload of powder. I will bid the merchants supply whatever you need. They can look to me for payment." In two days Clark's men were fitted out and ready. Clad in skins, they stepped out like trappers. On the shore lay a new bateau. Vigo's swivel was rolled aboard, and some of the guns of Kaskaskia. "Now, Captain John Rogers," said Colonel Clark to his cousin, "with these forty-eight men and these cannon you go down the Mississippi, up the Ohio, and enter the Wabash River. Station yourself a few miles below Vincennes; suffer nothing to pass, and wait for me." On the 4th of February the little galley slid out with Rogers and his men. "Now who will go with me?" inquired Clark, turning to his comrades. "It will be a desperate service. I must call for volunteers." Stirred by the daring of the deed, one hundred and thirty young men swore to follow him to the death. All the remaining inhabitants were detailed to garrison Kaskaskia and Cahokia. The fickle weather-vanes of old Kaskaskia veered and whirled, the winds blew hot and cold, then came fair weather for the starting. It was February 5, 1779, when George Rogers Clark set out with his one hundred and thirty men to cross the Illinois. Vigo pointed out the fur-trader's trail to Vincennes and Detroit. Father Gibault blessed them as they marched away. The Creole girls put flags in the hands of their sweethearts, and begged them to stand by "le Colonel." "O Mother of God, sweet Virgin, preserve my beloved," prayed the Donna de Leyba in the Government House at St. Louis. Over all the prairies the snows were melting, the rains were falling, the rivers were flooding. Hamilton sat at Vincennes planning his murders. "Next year," he exulted, "there will be the greatest number of savages on the frontier that has ever been known. The Six Nations have received war belts from all their allies." But Clark and his men were coming in the rain. Eleven days after leaving Kaskaskia they heard the morning guns of the fort. Deep and deeper grew the creeks and sloughs as they neared the drowned lands of the Wabash. Still they waded on, through water three feet deep; sometimes they were swimming. Between the two Wabashes the water spread, a solid sheet five miles from shore to shore. The men looked out, amazed, as on a rolling sea. But Clark, ever ahead, cheering his men, grasped a handful of gunpowder, and with a whoop, the well-known peal of border war, blackened his face and dashed into the water. The men's hearts leaped to meet his daring, and with "death or victory" humming in their brains, they plunged in after. On and on they staggered, buffeting the icy water, stumbling in the wake of their undaunted leader. Seated on the shoulders of a tall Shenandoah sergeant, little Isham Floyd, the fourteen-year-old drummer boy, beat a charge. Deep and deeper grew the tide; waist deep, breast high, over their shoulders it played; and above, the leaden sky looked down upon this unparalleled feat of human endeavour. Never had the world seen such a march. Five days they passed in the water,--days of chill and whoops and songs heroic to cheer their flagging strength. The wallets were empty of corn, the men were fainting with famine, when lo! an Indian canoe of squaws hove in sight going to Vincennes. They captured the canoe, and--most welcome of all things in the world to those famished men--it contained a quarter of buffalo and corn and kettles! On a little island they built a fire; with their sharp knives prepared the meat, and soon the pots were boiling. So exhausted were they that Clark would not let them have a full meal at once, but gave cups of broth to the weaker ones. On the sixteenth day Clark cheered his men. "Beyond us lies Vincennes. Cross that plain and you shall see it." On February 22, Washington's birthday, fatigued and weary they slept in a sugar camp. "Heard the evening and morning guns of the fort. No provisions yet. Lord help us!" is the record of Bowman's journal. Still without food, the 23d saw them crossing the Horseshoe Plain,--four miles of water breast high. Frozen, starved, they struggled through, and on a little hill captured a Frenchman hunting ducks. "No one dreams of your coming at this time of year," said the duck-hunter. "There are six hundred people in Vincennes, troops, Indians, and all. This very day Hamilton completed the walls of his fort." Clark pressed his determined lips. "The situation is all that I can ask. It is death or victory." And there in the mud, half frozen, chilled to the marrow, starved, Clark penned on his knee a letter: "TO THE INHABITANTS OF POST VINCENNES: "GENTLEMEN,--Being now within two miles of your village with my army, determined to take your fort this night, and not being willing to surprise you, I take this method to request such as are true citizens to remain still in your houses. Those, if any there be, that are friends of the King, will instantly repair to the fort, join the hair-buyer general, and fight like men. If any such do not go and are found afterwards, they may depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are the friends of liberty may depend on being well treated, and I once more request them to keep out of the streets. Every one I find in arms on my arrival I shall treat as an enemy. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK." "Take this. Tell the people my quarrel is with the British. We shall be in Vincennes by the rising of the moon. Prepare dinner." The messenger flew ahead; upon the captured horses of other duck-hunters Clark mounted his officers. It was just at nightfall when they entered the lower gate. "Silence those drunken Indians," roared Hamilton at the sound of guns. But the Frenchmen themselves turned their rifles on the fort. Under the friendly light of the new moon Clark and his men threw up an intrenchment, and from behind its shelter in fifteen minutes the skilled volleys of the border rifle had silenced two of the cannon. "Surrender!" was Clark's stentorian summons at daylight. Hamilton, with the blood of many a borderer on his head,--what had he to hope? Hot and hotter rained the bullets. "Give me three days to consider." "Not an hour!" was Clark's reply. "Let me fight with you?" said The Tobacco's son, the principal chief on the Wabash. "No," answered Clark, "you sit back and watch us. Americans do not hire Indians to fight their battles." Amazed, the Indians fell back and waited. The fort fell, and with it British dominion in the northwest territory. Then the galley hove in sight and the flag waved above Vincennes. "A convoy up de _rivière_ on its way with goods, from le Detroit," whispered a Frenchman. Directly Clark dispatched his boatmen to capture the flotilla. "_Sur la feuille ron--don don don_," the _voyageurs_ were singing. Merrily rowing down the river came the British, when suddenly out from a bend swung three boats. "Surrender!" Amid the wild huzzas of Vincennes the Americans returned, bringing the captive convoy with fifty thousand dollars' worth of food, clothing, and ammunition, and forty prisoners. With a heart full of thanksgiving Clark paid and clothed his men out of that prize captured on the Wabash. "Let the British flag float a few days," he said. "I may entertain some of the hair-buying General's friends." Very soon painted red men came striding in with bloody scalps dangling at their belts. But as each one entered, red-handed from murder, Clark's Long Knives shot him down before the face of the guilty Hamilton. Fifty fell before he lowered the British flag. But from that day the red men took a second thought before accepting rewards for the scalps of white men. "Now what shall you do with me?" demanded Hamilton. "You? I shall dispatch you as a prisoner of war to Virginia." X _THE CITY OF THE STRAIT_ Clark was not an hour too soon. Indians were already on the march. "Hamilton is taken!" Wabasha, the Sioux, from the Falls of St. Anthony, heard, and stopped at Prairie du Chien. "Hamilton is taken!" Matchekewis, the gray-haired chief of the Chippewas, coming down from Sheboygan, heard the astounding word and fell back to St. Joseph's. The great Hamilton carried away by the rebels! The Indians were indeed cowed. The capture of Hamilton completed Clark's influence. The great Red-Coat sent away as a prisoner of war was an object-lesson the Indians could not speedily forget. Out of Hamilton's captured mail, Clark discovered that the French in the neighbourhood of Detroit were not well-affected toward the British, and were ready to revolt whenever favourable opportunity offered. "Very well, then, Detroit next!" But Clark had more prisoners than he knew what to do with. "Here," said he, to the captured Detroiters, "I am anxious to restore you to your families. I know you are unwilling instruments in this war, but your great King of France has allied himself with the Americans. Go home, bear the good news, bid your friends welcome the coming of their allies, the Americans. And tell Captain Lernoult I am glad to hear that he is constructing new works at Detroit. It will save us Americans some expense in building." The City of the Strait was lit with bonfires. "We have taken an oath not to fight the Virginians," said the paroled Frenchmen. The people rejoiced when they heard of Hamilton's capture; they hated his tyranny, and, certain of Clark's onward progress, prepared a welcome reception for "_les Américains_." "See," said the mistress of a lodging house to Captain Lernoult. "See what viands I haf prepared for le Colonel Clark." And the Captain answered not a word. Baptiste Drouillard handed him a printed proclamation of the French alliance. Everywhere Detroiters were drinking, "Success to the Thirteen United States!" "Success to Congress and the American arms! I hope the Virginians will soon be at Detroit!" "Now Colonel Butler and his scalping crew will meet their deserts. I know the Colonel for a coward and I'll turn hangman for him!" "Don't buy a farm now. When the Virginians come you can get one for nothing." "See how much leather I am tanning for the Virginians. When they come I shall make a great deal of money." "Town and country kept three days in feasting and diversions," wrote Clark to Jefferson, "and we are informed that the merchants and others provided many necessaries for us on our arrival." But this the Colonel did not learn until long after. Left alone in command, with only eighty men in the garrison, Lernoult could do nothing. Bitterly he wrote to his commander-in-chief, "The Canadians are rebels to a man. In building the fort they aid only on compulsion." Even at Montreal the Frenchmen kept saying, "A French fleet will certainly arrive and retake the country"; and Haldimand, Governor General, was constantly refuting these rumours. "Now let me help you," again pleaded The Tobacco's son to Clark at Vincennes. "I care not whether you side with me or not," answered the American Colonel. "If you keep the peace, very well. If not you shall suffer for your mischief." Such a chief! Awed, the Indians retired to their camps and became spectators. To divert Clark, the British officers urged these Indians to attack Vincennes. The Tobacco's son sent back reply, "If you want to fight the Bostons at St. Vincent's you must cut your way through them, as we are Big Knives, too!" Their fame spread to Superior and the distant Missouri. "In the vicinity of Chicago the rebels are purchasing horses to mount their cavalry." "The Virginians are building boats to take Michilimackinac." "They are sending belts to the Chippewas and Ottawas." "The Virginians are at Milwaukee." So the rumours flew along the Lakes, terrifying every Briton into strengthening his stronghold. And this, for the time, kept them well at home. "Had I but three hundred I could take Detroit," said Clark. Every day now came the word from the French of the city, "Come,--come to our relief." "But Vincennes must be garrisoned. My men are too few." Then a messenger arrived with letters from Thomas Jefferson, now Governor of Virginia, with "thanks from the Assembly for the heroic service you have rendered," and the promise of troops. Now for the first time were the soldiery made aware of the gratitude of their country. Tumultuous cheers rent the air. The Indians heard, and thought it was news of another victory. "Let us march this day on Detroit," begged the soldiers, few as they were. Half the population of Vincennes, and all the Indians, would have followed. "Too many are ill," Clark said to himself. "Bowman is dying, the lands are flooded, the rains are falling. An unsustained march might end in disaster. For five hundred troops, I would bind myself a slave for seven years!" To the soldiers he explained, "Montgomery is coming with men and powder. Let us rendezvous here in June and make a dash at Detroit." Leaving a garrison in the fort, in answer to imperative call, Clark set out with six boatloads of troops and prisoners for a flying trip to Kaskaskia. But every step of the way, day and night, "Detroit must be taken, Detroit must be taken," was the dream of the disturbed commander. "I cannot rest. Nothing but the fall of Detroit will bring peace to our frontiers. In case I am not disappointed, Detroit is already my own." XI _A PRISONER OF WAR_ "A prisoner of war? No, indeed, he is a felon, a murderer!" exclaimed the Virginians, as weary, wet, and hungry the late Governor of Detroit sat on his horse in the rain at the door of the governor's palace at Williamsburg, where Jefferson now resided. The mob gathered to execrate the "hair-buyer general" and escort him to jail. There were twenty-seven prisoners, altogether, brought by a band of borderers, most of the way on foot. Every step of the long journey Captain John Rogers and his men had guarded the "hair-buyer general" from the imprecations of an outraged people. It was the first news of Vincennes, as the startled cry ran,-- "Governor Hamilton, charged with having incited Indians to scalp, torture, and burn, is at the door,--Hamilton, who gave standing rewards for scalps but none for prisoners; and Dejean, Chief Justice of Detroit, the merciless keeper of its jails, a terror to captives with threats of giving them over to savages to be burnt alive; Lamothe, a captain of volunteer scalping parties; Major Hay, one of Hamilton's chief officers, and others." "Load them with heavy fetters and immure them in a dungeon," said Governor Jefferson. "Too many of our boys are rotting in British prison ships." This from Jefferson, so long the humane friend of Burgoyne's surrendered troops now quartered at Charlottesville! The British commanders blustered and protested, but Jefferson firmly replied, "I avow my purpose to repay cruelty, hangings, and close confinement. It is my duty to treat Hamilton and his officers with severity. Iron will be retaliated with iron, prison ships by prison ships, and like by like in general." Washington advised a mitigation of the extreme severity, but Jefferson's course had its effect. The British were more merciful thereafter. And with the coming of Hamilton came all the wonderful story of the capture of Vincennes. And who can tell it? Who has told it? Historians hesitate. Romancers shrink from the task. Not one has surpassed George Rogers Clark's own letters, which read like fragments of the gospel of liberty. Before the home fire at Caroline, John Rogers told the tale. A hush fell. The mother softly wept as she thought of her scattered boys, one in the west, two with Washington tracking the snows of Valley Forge, one immured in a prison ship where patriot martyrs groaned their lives away. Little William heard the tale, and his young heart swelled with emotion. John Clark listened, then spoke but one sentence. "If I had as many more sons I would give them all to my country." All the way from Kentucky Daniel Boone was sent to the Virginia legislature. He said to Jefferson: "I doubt these charges against Governor Hamilton. Last Spring I was captured by the Shawnees and dragged to Detroit. Governor Hamilton took pity on me and offered the Indians one hundred dollars for my release. They refused to take it. But he gave me a horse, and on that horse I eventually made my escape." "Did that prevent Governor Hamilton from sending an armed force of British and Indians to besiege Boonsboro?" inquired Jefferson. Boone had to admit that it did not. But for that timely escape and warning Boonsboro would have fallen. But Boone in gratitude went to the dungeon and offered what consolation he could to the imprisoned Governor. The fact is, that Daniel Boone carried ever on his breast, wrapped in a piece of buckskin, that old commission of Lord Dunmore's. It saved him from the Indians; it won Hamilton. XII _TWO WARS AT ONCE_ The sunbeams glistened on the naked skin of an Indian runner, as, hair flying in the wind, from miles away he came panting to Clark at Kaskaskia. "There is to be an attack on San Loui'. Wabasha, the Sioux, and Matchekewis--" "How do you know?" "I hear at Michilimackinac,--Winnebagoe, Sauk, Fox, Menomonie." Clark laughed and gave the messenger a drink of taffia. But the moment the painted savage slid away the Colonel prepared to inform his friends at St. Louis. "Pouf!" laughed the careless commandant, drinking his wine at the Government House. "Why need we fear? Are not our relation wit de Indian friendly? Never haf been attack on San Luis, never will be. Be seat, haf wine, tak' wine, Señor le Colonel." "Pouf!" echoed the guests at the Governor's table. "Some trader angry because he lose de peltry stole in de Spanish country. It never go beyond threat." An attack? The very idea seemed to amuse the Governor in his cups. But Father Gibault looked grave. "I, too, have heard such a rumour." "It may be only a belated report of Hamilton's scheming," replied Clark. "Now he is boxed up it may blow over. But in case the English attempt to seize the west bank of this river I pledge you all the assistance in my power." "T'anks, t'anks, my good friend, I'll not forget. In de middle of de night you get my summon." But, unknown to them, that very May, Spain declared war against Great Britain. And Great Britain coveted the Mississippi. Madame Marie and the charming Donna had been listeners. Colonel Clark handed the maiden a bouquet of wild roses as he came in, but spoke not a word. All the year had she been busy, embroidering finery for "le Colonel." Such trifles were too dainty for the soldier's life--but he wore them next his heart. While the dinner party overwhelmed the victor with congratulations and drank to his health, Clark saw only the Donna, child of the convent, an exotic, strangely out of place in this wild frontier. "I am a soldier," he whispered, "and cannot tarry. My men are at the boats, but I shall _watch_ St. Louis." Her eyes followed him, going away so soon, with Father Gibault and De Leyba down to the river. As he looked back a handkerchief fluttered from an upper window, and he threw her a kiss. "I am not clear but the Spaniards would suffer their settlements to fall with ours for the sake of having the opportunity of retaking them both," muttered Clark as he crossed the river, suspicious of De Leyba's inaction. At Kaskaskia forty recruits under Captain Robert George had arrived by way of New Orleans. Then Montgomery, with another forty, came down the Ohio. They must be fed and clothed directly. In the midst of these perplexities appeared John Todd, the new Governor. "Ah, my friend," Clark grasped his hand. "Now I see myself happily rid of a piece of trouble I take no delight in. I turn the civil government over to you. But our greatest trouble is the lack of money." "Money? Why, here are continental bills in abundance." "Worth two cents on the dollar. 'Dose British traders,' say the habitants, 'dey will not take five huntert to one. Dey will have nought but skins.' This has brought our Virginia paper into disrepute. They will not even take a coin unless it is stamped with the head of a king." "What have you done?" "Done? Purchased supplies on my own credit. Several merchants of this country have advanced considerable sums and I have given them drafts on our Virginian agent in New Orleans. They come back, protested for want of funds. Francis Vigo has already loaned me ten thousand dollars in silver piastres." "But Virginia will pay it,--she is bound to pay it. The service must not suffer." Thus reassured that his course had been right, Colonel Clark continued: "Four posts must be garrisoned to hold this country,--Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes, and the Falls of the Ohio,--not one has sufficient defence. Colonel Montgomery's force is not half what I expected. But if I am not deceived in the Kentuckians I shall yet be able to complete my designs on Detroit. I only want sufficient men to make me appear respectable in passing among the savages." The cautious French settlers were a trial to Clark. Father Gibault tried to persuade them, parting with his own tithes and horses to set an example to his parishioners to make equal sacrifices to the American cause. Altogether, Father Gibault advanced seven thousand eight hundred livres, French money, equal to fifteen hundred and sixty dollars,--his little all. Governor Todd said, "If the people will not spare willingly, you must press it." "I cannot press it," answered Clark. "We must keep the inhabitants attached to us by every means in our power. Rather will I sign notes right and left on my own responsibility to procure absolute necessities to hold Illinois, trusting to Virginia to make it right." Then after a thoughtful pause,--"I cannot think of the consequences of losing possession of the country without resolving to risk every point rather than suffer it." The bad crops of 1779 and the severity of the winter of 1780 made distress in Illinois. Nevertheless the cheerful habitants sold their harvests to Clark and received in payment his paper on New Orleans. "You encourage me to attempt Detroit," Clark wrote to Jefferson. "It has been twice in my power. When I first arrived in this country, or when I was at Vincennes, could I have secured my prisoners and had only three hundred men, I should have attempted it, and I since learn there could have been no doubt of my success. But they are now completing a new fort, too strong I fear for any force that I shall ever be able to raise in this country." Then he hurried back to Vincennes. Thirty only were there of the three hundred expected. An Indian army camped ready to march at his call. "Never depend upon Injuns," remarked Simon Kenton, reappearing after an absence of weeks. "Kenton? Well, where have you been? You look battered." "Battered I am, but better, the scars are almost gone. Captured by Shawnees, made to run the gauntlet twice, then dragged to St. Dusky to be burnt at the stake." "How did you escape?" "One of your Detroit Frenchmen, Pierre Drouillard, late interpreter for your captured Hamilton, told them the officers at Detroit wanted to question me about the Big Knife. Ha! Ha! It took a long powwow and plenty of wampum, and the promise to bring me back." "Did he intend to do it?" "Lord, no! as soon as we were out of sight he told me, 'Never will I abandon you to those inhuman wretches,' A trader's wife enabled me to escape from Detroit." "Do you think I can take Detroit?" "Take it, man? As easy as you took Vincennes. Only the day of surprise is past. A cloud of red Injuns watch the approaches. You must have troops." Troops! Troops! None came. None could come. What had happened? Taking with him one of Hamilton's light brass cannon to fortify the Falls of the Ohio, Clark discovered that at the very time of his capture, Hamilton had appointed a great council of Indians to meet at the mouth of the Tennessee. "The Cherokees have risen on the Tennessee settlements, and the regiments intended for you have turned south." The sword and belt of Hamilton had done their work. America was fighting two wars at once. XIII _THE KEY OF THE COUNTRY_ "The Falls is the Key of the Country. It shall be my depot of supplies. Here will I build a fort. A great city will one day arise on this spot." And in honour of the King who had helped America, Clark named it Louisville. Axes, hammers, and saws made music while Clark's busy brain was planning parks and squares to make his city the handsomest in America. But, ever disturbing this recreation, "Detroit" was in his soul. "Public interest requires that I reside here until provision can be made for the coming campaign." "Since Clark's feat the world is running mad for Kentucky," said the neighbours in Caroline. Through all that Autumn, emigrants were hurrying down to take advantage of the new land laws of Virginia. "A fleet of flatboats!" shouted the workmen at the Falls. Down with others from Pittsburg, when the autumn rains raised the river, came Clark's old comrade, John Floyd, and his brothers and his bride, Jane Buchanan. One of those brothers was Isham Floyd, the boy drummer of Vincennes. "I, too, shall build a fort," said John Floyd to his friends, "here on Bear Grass Creek, close to Louisville." Still emigrants were on their way, when a most terrific winter set in. Stock was frozen, wild beasts and game died. The forests lay deep with snow, and rivers were solid with ice. The cabins of Louisville were crowded, the fort was filled with emigrants. Food gave out, corn went up to one hundred and fifty dollars a bushel in depreciated continental currency. Even a cap of native fur cost five hundred dollars. The patient people shivered under their buffalo, bear, and elk-skin bedquilts, penned in the little huts, living on boiled buffalo beef and venison hams, with fried bear or a slice of turkey breast for bread, and dancing on Christmas night with pineknot torches bracketed on the walls. "Did you not say the conquerors of Vincennes waded through the drowned lands in February?" asked a fair one of her partner at the dance. "Yes, but that was an open winter. This, thank God, is cold enough to deter our enemies from attempting to recover what they have lost." "But Colonel Clark said the weather was warm?" "Warm, did you say? Who knows what Clark would have called warm weather in February? The water up to their armpits could not have been warm at that time of year." The spring waters broke; a thousand emigrants went down the Ohio to Louisville. And carcasses of bear, elk, deer, and lesser game floated out of the frozen forests. During the June rise more than three hundred flatboats arrived at the Falls loaded with wagons; for months long trains were departing from Louisville with these people bound for the interior. Floyd's fort on the Bear Grass became a rendezvous; the little harbour an anchorage for watercraft. "We must establish a claim to the Mississippi," wrote Jefferson to Clark. "Go down to the mouth of the Ohio and build a fort on Chickasaw Bluff. It will give us a claim to the river." While Clark was preparing, an express arrived from Kaskaskia,-- "We are threatened with invasion. Fly to our relief." Without money save land warrants, without clothing save skins, depending on their rifles for food, Clark's little flotilla with two hundred men set down the Ohio, on the very flood that was bringing the emigrants, to clinch the hold on Illinois. "I have now two thousand warriors on the Lakes. The Wabash Indians have promised to amuse Mr. Clark at the Falls." De Peyster, the new commandant at Detroit, was writing to General Haldimand at Quebec. Even as Clark left, a few daring savages came up and fired on the fort at Louisville. "She is strong enough now to defend herself," said Clark as he pulled away. Colonel Bird, working hard at Detroit, started his Pottawattamies. They went but a little way. "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Long Knives coming!" Pell-mell, back they fell, to be fitted out all over again. "These unsteady rogues put me out of all patience!" exclaimed the angry Colonel Bird. "They are always cooking or counciling. Indians are most happy when most frequently fitted out." "Such is the dependence on Indians without troops to lead them," sagely remarked De Peyster. "But without them we could not hold the country." "It is distressing," wrote Governor Haldimand, "to reflect that notwithstanding the vast treasure lavished upon these people, no dependence can be had on them." "Amazing sum!" he exclaimed when the bills came in. "I observe with great concern the astonishing consumption of rum at Detroit. This expense cannot be borne." However, the Pottawattamies sharpened their hatchets and, newly outfitted, set out for the rapids of the Ohio. "Bring them in alive if possible," was the parting admonition of De Peyster, warned by the obloquy of Hamilton. Vain remonstrance with four hundred and seventy-six dozen scalping knives at Bird's command! From every unwary emigrant along the Ohio, daily the Delawares and Shawnees brought their offerings of scalps to Detroit, and throwing them down at the feet of the commander said, "Father, we have done as you directed us; we have struck your enemies." The bounty was paid; the scalps were counted and flung into a cellar under the Council House. And De Peyster, really a good fellow, like André, a _bon vivant_ and lover of books and music, went on with his cards, balls, and assemblies, little feeling the iron that goes to the making of nations. "Kentuckians very bad people! Ought to be scalped as fast as taken," said the Indians. XIV _BEHIND THE CURTAIN_ "We must dislodge this American general from his new conquest," said the British officers, "or tribe after tribe will be gained over and subdued. Thus will be destroyed the only barrier which protects the great trading establishments of the Northwest and Hudson's Bay. Nothing could then prevent the Americans from gaining the source of the Mississippi, gradually extending themselves by the Red River to Lake Winnipeg, from whence the descent of Nelson's River to York Fort would in time be easy." Another strong factor in this decision was the dissatisfaction of the British traders with the new movement that was deflecting the fur trade down the Mississippi. The French families of Cahokia and Kaskaskia sent their furs down to New Orleans, greatly to the displeasure of their late English rulers, who wanted them to go to Canada, by the St. Louis trail to Detroit. "Why should it not continue over the old Detroit trail to Montreal?" they questioned. "Is our fur trade to be cut off by these beggarly rebels and Spaniards? It belongs to Canada, Canada shall have it!" So all North America was fought over for the fur trade. "I will use my utmost endeavours to send as many Indians as I can to attack the Spanish settlements, early in February," said Pat Sinclair, the British commander at Michilimackinac. "I have taken steps to engage the Sioux under their own Chief, Wabasha, a man of uncommon abilities. Wabasha is allowed to be a very extraordinary Indian and well attached to His Majesty's interest." And Wabasha, king of the buffalo plains above the Falls of St. Anthony, _was_ an extraordinary Indian. In old days he fought for Pontiac, but after De Peyster brought the Sioux, the proudest of the tribes, to espouse the English cause, every year Wabasha made a visit to his British father at Michilimackinac. On such a visit as this he came from Prairie du Chien after hearing that Hamilton was taken, and was received with songs and cannonading: "Hail to great Wabashaw! Cannonier--fire away, Hoist the fort-standard, and beat all the drums; Ottawa and Chippewa, Whoop! for great Wabashaw! He comes--beat drums--the Sioux chief comes. "Hail to great Wabashaw! Soldiers your triggers draw, Guard,--wave the colours, and give him the drum! Choctaw and Chickasaw, Whoop for great Wabashaw! Raise the port-cullis!--the King's friend is come." By such demonstrations and enormous gifts, the Indians were held to the British standard. It was Wabasha and his brothers, Red Wing and Little Crow, who in 1767 gave a deed to Jonathan Carver of all the land around St. Anthony's Falls, on which now stand the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, but no government confirmation of the deed has ever been discovered. "The reduction of St. Louis will be an easy matter, and of the rebels at Kaskaskia also," continued Sinclair. "All the traders who will secure the posts on the Spanish side of the Mississippi have my promise for the exclusive trade of the Missouri." The Northwest red men were gathering,--Menomonies, Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes,--at the portage of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, collecting all the corn and canoes in the country, to set out on the tenth of March. Again Sinclair writes, "Seven hundred and fifty men set out down the Mississippi the second of May." Another party assembled at Chicago to come by the Illinois,--Indians, British, and traders. "Captain Hesse will remain at St. Louis," continued Governor Sinclair. "Wabasha will attack Ste. Genevieve and the rebels at Kaskaskia. Two vessels leave here on the second of June to attend Matchekewis, who will return by the Illinois River with prisoners." Very well De Peyster knew Matchekewis, the puissant chief who "At foot-ball sport With arms concealed, surprised the fort," at Michilimackinac in Pontiac's war. It was Matchekewis himself who kicked the ball over the pickets, and rushing in with his band fell on the unprepared ranks of the British garrison. On the reoccupation of Mackinac, Matchekewis had been sent to Quebec and imprisoned, but, released and dismissed with honours and a buffalo barbecue, now he was leading his Chippewas for the King. All this was part of a wider scheme, devised in London, for the subjugation of the Mississippi. XV _THE ATTACK ON ST. LOUIS_ Scarce had Clark time to set his men to work on Fort Jefferson, on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi, before he received two other expresses, one from Montgomery, one from the Spanish Governor himself,--"Haste, haste to our relief." Not wishing to alarm his men, Clark picked out a strong escort,--"I shall be gone a few days. Finish the fort. Keep a constant guard." They thought he had gone to Kentucky. All through the year 1779 the Frenchmen remembered Clark's warning. At last, so great became the general apprehension, that the people themselves, directed by Madame Rigauche, the school-mistress, erected a sort of defence of logs and earth, five or six feet high, and posted a cannon in each of the three gates. "Pouf! Pouf!" laughed the Governor. But he did not interfere. But so many days elapsed, so little sign of change appeared in the accustomed order of things, that the reassured Frenchmen went on as usual digging in their fields, racing their horses, and clicking their billiard balls. Night after night they played their fiddles and danced till dawn on their footworn puncheon floors. And all the while the Lake Indians of the North were planning and counselling. All through the Spring they were gathering at rendezvous, paddling down Lake Michigan's shore into the Chicago River, and then by portage into the Illinois, where they set up the cry, "On to St. Louis!" So long had been the fear allayed, so much the rumour discredited, that when old man Quenelle came back across the river, white with excitement, the people listened to his tale as of one deranged. "What? Do you ask? What?" His teeth chattered. "Ducharme, Ducharme the absconder, meet me across te river an' say--'Te Injun comin'!' Fifteen huntert down te river of te Illinois!" Terrified was the old man. Hearers gathered round plying him with questions. The incredulous laughed at his incoherence. "What? What?" he gasped. "You laugh?" Some believed him. Dismay began to creep over the more timid ones. "What is it?" inquired the burly Governor De Leyba, bustling up. "What? That same old yarn to frighten the people? Quenelle is an old dotard. Take him to prison." Thus reassured, again the people went on with work, games, festivity. But now the people of Cahokia became excited. Early in March Colonel Gratiot sent a boatload of goods for trade to Prairie du Chien. It was captured by Indians on the Mississippi. Breathless half-breed runners reported the apparition upon the waters,--"All te waves black with canoes. A great many sauvages." "Clark," was the spoken and unspoken thought of all. "Clark, the invincible, where is he?" Some said, "He is camped with his Long Knives in the American Bottom." "No, he is building a fort at the Chickasaw Bluffs." Hurriedly the villagers prepared an express for Clark. Charles Gratiot was sent, the brainiest man in Cahokia, one who could speak English, and, moreover, a great friend of Clark. On the swiftest canoe Charles Gratiot launched amid the prayers of Cahokia. Down he swept on the Mississippi with the precious papers calling for succour. Safely he passed a thousand snags, safely reached the bluffs of Chickasaw, and saw the fort. Toiling up he gave his message. "Colonel Clark? He is gone. We think he left for Louisville." Without delay a messenger was dispatched to follow his supposed direction. Meanwhile, Clark and his soldiers, joining Montgomery by land, had hurried to Cahokia. Immediately he crossed to St. Louis. It was the feast of Corpus Christi, May 25. Service in the little log chapel was over. "Come," said the people in holiday attire, "Let us gather strawberries on the flowery mead." From their covert, peeped the Indians. "To-morrow!" they said, "to-morrow!" Out of the picnic throng, with lap full of flowers, the beautiful Donna ran to greet her lover. "So long"--she drew a sigh--"I haf watched and waited!" Love had taught her English. Never had the Donna appeared so fair, with shining eyes and black hair waving on her snowy shoulders. With tumultuous heart Colonel Clark bent and kissed her. "Vengeance I swear on any Indian that shall ever mar this lovely head!" Then crushing her hand with the grip of a giant,--"Wait a little, my dear, I must see your brother the Governor." Outside the maiden waited while Clark entered the Government House. At last Don Francisco De Leyba was come to his senses: "I fear, but I conceal from de people. I sent for Lieutenant Cartabona from de Ste. Genevieve. He haf arrived with twenty-five soldier. Will you not command of both side de river? I need you. You promised." De Leyba wore a long scarf of crape for his lately deceased wife. Clark had never seen him look so ill; he was worn out and trembling. The ruffle at his wrist shook like that of a man with palsy. Clark took the nervous hand in his own firm grasp. "Certainly, my friend, I will do everything in my power. What are your defences?" "We haf a stockade, you note it? De cannon at gates? I assure de people no danger, de rumour false; I fear dey scarce will believe now." Together they went out to review Cartabona's soldiers and the works of defence. "Le Colonel Clark! Le Colonel Clark!" the people cheered as he passed. "Now we are safe!" De Leyba had sent out a hunter to shoot ducks for the Colonel's dinner. And while the Governor and Clark were in discussion, the hunter met a spy. "Who commands at Cahokia?" inquired the stranger. "Colonel Clark; he has arrived with a great force." "Colonel Clark! Oh, no," answered the spy in amazement, "that cannot be! Clark is in Kentucky. We have just killed an express with dispatches to him there." "I don't know about that," answered the hunter, in his turn surprised. "Colonel Clark is at this moment in St. Louis, and I have been sent to kill some ducks for his dinner." The stranger disappeared. Clark was in St. Louis about two hours. "Cartabona is here. I shall be ready to answer his slightest signal. Be sure I shall answer." He turned to go. "Going? No, no, Señor Colonel, I cannot permit--" The hands of Governor De Leyba shook still more. "I expect you to dine,--haf sent a hunter for ducks." But when did George Rogers Clark ever stop to eat when there was fighting on hand? Hastily recrossing the river, he put Cahokia into immediate defence. The next day dawned clear and bright, but the people, wearied with all-night dancing, slumbered late. Grandfather Jean Marie Cardinal had not danced. He was uncommonly industrious that morning. Hastening away in the dewy dawn, he went to planting corn in his slightly plowed fields. Gradually others strolled out on the Grand Prairie. It was high noon when an Indian down by the spring caught the eye of Grandfather Jean Marie Cardinal. "He must not give the alarm," thought the savage, so on the instant he slew and scalped him where he stood. Then all was tumult. The people in the village heard the sound of firearms. Lieutenant Cartabona and his garrison fired a gunshot from the tower to warn the scattered villagers in the fields. Erelong they came stumbling into the north gate half dead with fright and exhaustion. "The Chippewas! The Chippewas!" They had crossed the river and murdered the family of François Bellhome. "_Sacre Dieu! le Sauvage! la Tour! la Tour!_" cried the frantic habitants, but the tower was occupied by Cartabona and his coward soldiers. Every man rushed to the Place des Armes, powder-horn and bullet-pouch in hand. "To arms! To arms!" was the terrified cry. "Where is the garrison? Where is the Governor?" But they came not forth. Cartabona and his men continued to garrison the tower. The Governor cowered in the Government House with doors shut and barricaded. Women and children hid in the houses, telling their beads. It was about noon when the quick ear of Clark, over in Cahokia, heard the cannonading and small arms in St. Louis. He sent an express. "Here, Murray and Jaynes, go over the river and inquire the cause." Slipping through the cottonwood trees, the express met an old negro woman on a keen run for Cahokia. She screamed, "Run, Boston, run! A great many salvages!" All together ran back, just in time to meet Colonel Clark marching out of the east gate. In the thick woods of Cahokia Creek he caught a view of the foe. "Boom!" rang his brass six-pounder,--tree-tops and Indians fell together. Amazed at this rear fire the Indians turned in confusion. One terrified look,--"It is the Long Knife! We have been deceived. We will not fight the Long Knife!" With one wild whoop they scurried to their boats. The handful of traders, deserted, raised the siege and retired. It was the period of the spring rise of the powerful and turbulent Mississippi, which, undermining its shores, dumped cottonwood trees into the river. "The whole British army is coming on rafts!" In terror seeing the supposed foe advancing, Cartabona's soldiers began firing at the white-glancing trees on the midnight waters. On, on came the ghostly flotilla. "Cease firing!" demanded De Leyba emerging from his retreat. "De cowardly, skulking old Goffner! hide heself! abandon de people!" In wrath they tore toward him, sticks and stones flying. The Governor fled, and the daft Spaniards, watching the river, spiked the cannon, preparing to fly the moment the British landed. Cahokia trembled all night long. There were noises and howls of wolves, but no Indians. Clark himself in the darkness made the rounds of his sentinels. Even through the shadows they guessed who walked at night. "Pass, grand round, keep clear of my arms and all's well," was the successive cry from post to post in the picket gardens of old Cahokia. With the first pale streak of dawn the sleepless habitants looked out. All was still. The Indians were gone, but over at St. Louis seven men were found dead, scalped by the retreating foe. Many more were being carried off prisoners, but Clark's pursuing party rescued thirty. The prisoners, dragged away to the north by their captors, suffered hardships until restored at the end of the war, in 1783. When Clark heard of the incompetence of De Leyba he was furious. On his way to the Government House, he saw the lovely Donna at her casement. Her hair was dishevelled, her eyes wet with tears. She extended her hand. Clark took one step toward her, and then pride triumphed. "Never will I become the father of a race of cowards," and turning on his heel he left St. Louis forever. In one month De Leyba was dead, some said by his own hand. He knew that Auguste Chouteau had gone to complain of him at New Orleans,--the people believed he had been bribed by Great Britain; he knew that only disgrace awaited him, and he succumbed to his many disasters and the universal obloquy in which he was held. He was buried in the little log chapel, beneath the altar, by the side of his wife, where his tomb is pointed out to this day. And the beautiful Donna De Leyba? She waited and wept but Clark came not. Then, taking with her the two little orphan nieces, Rita and Perdita, she went down to New Orleans. Here for a time she lingered among friends, and at last, giving up all hope, retired to the Ursuline convent and became a nun. Presently Auguste Chouteau returned from New Orleans with the new Governor, Don Francisco de Cruzat, who pacified fears and fortified the town with half-a-dozen circular stone turrets, twenty feet high, connected by a stout stockade of cedar posts pierced with loopholes for artillery. On the river bank a stone tower called the Half Moon, and west of it a square log tower called the Bastion, still stood within the memory of living men. "Next year a thousand Sioux will be in the field under Wabasha," wrote Sinclair to Haldimand, his chief in Canada. But the Sioux had no more desire to go back to "the high walled house of thunder," where the cannon sounded not "Hail to great Wabashaw!" Their own losses were considerable, for Clark ordered an immediate pursuit. Some of the Spaniards, grateful for the succour of the Americans, crossed the river and joined Montgomery's troops in his chase after the retreating red men. "The Americans are coming," was the scare-word at Prairie du Chien. "Better get up your furs." With Wabasha's help the traders hastily bundled three hundred packs of their best furs into canoes, and setting fire to the remaining sixty packs, burned them, together with the fort, while they hurried away to Michilimackinac. Matchekewis went by the Lakes. "Two hundred Illinois cavalry arrived at Chicago five days after the vessels left," is the record of the Haldimand papers. The watchfulness and energy of Clark alone saved Illinois; nevertheless, De Peyster felt satisfied, for he thought that diversion kept Clark from Detroit. After the terror was all over, long in the annals of the fireside, the French of St. Louis related the feats of "_l'année du coup_." "Auguste Chouteau, he led te defence, he and he brother." "No, Madame Rigauche, te school-meestress, she herself touch te cannon." "Well, at any rate, we hid in te Chouteau garden, behind te stone wall." XVI _OLD CHILLICOTHE_ With a wrench at his hot heart stifled only by wrath and determination, Clark strode from St. Louis. At Cahokia French deserters were talking to Montgomery. "A tousand British and Indians on te march to Kentucky with cannon." "When did they start?" thundered Clark. The Frenchman dodged as if shot. "Dey start same time dis. Colonel Bird to keep Clark busy in Kentucky so Sinclair get San Loui' an' brak up te fur trade." For once in his life Clark showed alarm. "I know the situation of that country. I shall attempt to get there before Bird does." Drawing Montgomery aside, he said, "And you, Colonel, chase these retreating Indians. Chase them to Michilimackinac if possible. Destroy their towns and crops, distress them, convince them that we will retaliate and thus deter them from joining the British again." Without pausing to breathe after the fatigue of the last few days, with a small escort Clark launched a boat and went flying down to Chickasaw Bluffs. Disguised as Indians, feathered and painted, he and a few others left Fort Jefferson. Clark's army the year before had carried glowing news of Illinois. Already emigration had set in. On the way now he met forty families actually starving because they could not kill buffaloes. A gun?--it was a part of Clark. He used his rifle-barrelled firelock as he used his hands, his feet, his eyes, instantly, surely, involuntarily. He showed them how to strike the buffalo in a vital part, killed fourteen, and hurried on, thirty miles a day, fording stream and swamp and tangled forest to save Kentucky. Kentucky was watching for her deliverer. Into his ear was poured the startling tale. With Simon Girty, the renegade, and six hundred Indians, down the high waters of the Miami and up the Licking, Bird came to Ruddle's station and fired his cannon. Down went the wooden palisades like a toy blockhouse before his six-pounders. "Surrender!" came the summons from Colonel Bird. "Yes, if we can be prisoners to the British and not to the Indians." Bird assented. The gates were thrown open. Indians flew like dogs upon the helpless people. "You promised security," cried Captain Ruddle. "I cannot stop them," said Bird. "I, too, am in their power." Madly the Indians sacked the station and killed the cattle. Loading the household goods upon the backs of the unfortunate owners, they drove them forth and gave their cabins to the flames. The same scenes were enacted at Martin's Station. The Indians were wild for more. But Bird would not permit further devastation. He could easily have taken every fort in Kentucky, not one could have withstood his artillery; but to his honour be it said, he led his forces out. Loaded with plunder, the wretched captives, four hundred and fifty men, women, and children, were driven away to Detroit. Whoever faltered was tomahawked. Clark immediately called on the militia of Kentucky. Hastening to Harrodsburg he found the newcomers wild over land entries. "Land!" they cried, "you can have all you can hold against the Indians." It was a grewsome joke. The Indians would not even let them survey. Like a military dictator, Clark closed the land office,--"Nor will it be opened again until after this expedition." Immediately a thousand men enlisted. Logan, Linn, Floyd, Harrod, all followed the banner of Clark. Boone and Kenton set on ahead as guides, into the land they knew so well. "Is it not dangerous to invade the Shawnee country?" inquired one. "I was not born in the woods to be scared by an owl," was Clark's sententious reply. All the provisions they had for twenty-five days was six quarts of parched corn each, except what they got in the Indian country. Canoeing down the Licking, on the first day of August they crossed the Ohio. Scarce touching shore they heard the scalp halloo. Some fell. Within fifteen minutes Clark had his axes in the forest building a blockhouse for his wounded. On that spot now stands Cincinnati. On pressed Clark in his retaliatory dash,--before the Shawnees even suspected, the Kentuckians were at Old Chillicothe. They flew to arms, but the Long Knives swooped down with such fury that Simon Girty drew off. "It is folly to fight such madmen." Chillicothe went down in flames; Piqua followed; fields, gardens, more than five hundred acres of corn were razed to the level of the sod. Piqua was Tecumseh's village; again he learned to dread and hate the white man. "That will keep them at home hunting for a while," remarked Clark, turning back to the future Cincinnati. XVII _"DETROIT MUST BE TAKEN"_ Again George Rogers Clark sped through Cumberland Gap, fair as a Tyrolean vale, to Virginia. And dashing along the same highway, down the valley of Virginia, came the minute men of the border, in green hunting shirts, hard-riders and sharp-shooters of Fincastle. "Hey and away, and what news?" The restless mountaineers of the Appalachians, almost as fierce and warlike as the Goths and Vandals of an earlier day, answered: "We have broken the back of Tarleton's army at King's Mountain, Cornwallis is facing this way, and cruisers are coming up into the Chesapeake." "Marse Gawge! Marse Gawge!" This time it was little York, the negro, who, peeping from the slave quarters of old York and Rose, detected the stride of George Rogers Clark out under the mulberry trees. The long, low, Virginia farmhouse was wrapped in slumber, an almost funeral pall hung over the darkened porch, as John Clark stepped out to grasp the hand of his son. "Three of my boys in British prisons, we looked for nothing less for you, George. William alone is left." "Girls do not count, I suppose," laughed the saucy Lucy, peeping out in her night-curls with a candle in her hand. "Over at Bowling Green the other day, when all the gallants were smiling on me, one jealous girl said, 'I do not see what there is so interesting about Lucy Clark. She is not handsome, and she has red hair.' 'Ah,' I replied, 'I can tell her. They know I have five brothers all officers in the Revolutionary army!'" "What, Edmund gone, too?" exclaimed George. "He is but a lad!" "Big enough to don the buff and blue, and shoulder a gun," answered the father. "He would go,--left school, led all his mates, and six weeks later was taken prisoner along with Jonathan and the whole army." That was the fall of Charleston, in the very May when Clark was saving St. Louis. "We are all at war," spoke up Elizabeth, the elder sister, sadly. "Even the boys drill on mimic battlefields; all the girls in Virginia are spinning and weaving clothes for the soldiers; Mrs. Washington keeps sixteen spinning-wheels busy at Mount Vernon; mother and all the ladies have given their jewels to fit out the army. Mrs. Jefferson herself led the call for contributions, and Mrs. Lewis of Albemarle collected five thousand dollars in Continental currency. Father has given up his best horses, and Jefferson impressed his own horses and waggons at Monticello to carry supplies to General Gates. All the lads in the country are moulding bullets and making gun-powder. We haven't a pewter spoon left." "An' we niggers air raisin' fodder," ventured the ten-year-old York. York had his part, along with his young master, William. Daily they rode together down the Rappahannock, carrying letters to Fielding Lewis at Fredericksburg. It was there, at Kenmore House, that they met Meriwether Lewis, visiting his uncle and aunt Betty, the sister of Washington. "And when she puts on his _chapeau_ and great coat, she looks exactly like the General," said William. "What has become of my captured Governors?" George asked of his father. "I hear that Hamilton was offered a parole on condition that he would not use his liberty in any way to speak or influence any one against the colonies. He indignantly refused to promise that, and so was returned to close captivity. But I think when Boone came up to the legislature he used some influence; at any rate Hamilton was paroled and went with Hay to England. Rocheblave broke his parole and fled to New York." The five fireplaces of the old Clark home roared a welcome that day up the great central chimney, and candles gleamed at evening from dormer window to basement when all the neighbours crowded in to hail "the Washington of the West." "Now, Rose, you and Nancy bake the seed cakes and have beat biscuit," said Mrs. Clark to the fat cook in the kitchen. "York has gone after the turkeys." "Events are in desperate straits," said George at bedtime; "I must leave at daylight." But earlier yet young William was up to gallop a mile beside his brother on the road to Richmond, whither the capital had been removed for greater safety. "Is this the young Virginian that is sending home all the western Governors?" exclaimed the people. An ovation followed him all the way. "What is your plan?" asked Governor Jefferson, after the fiery cavalier had been received with distinction by the Virginia Assembly. "My plan is to ascend the Wabash in early Spring and strike before reinforcements can reach Detroit, or escape be made over the breaking ice of the Lakes. The rivers open first." George Rogers Clark, born within three miles of Monticello, had known Jefferson all his life, and save Patrick Henry no one better grasped his plans. In fact, Jefferson had initiative and was not afraid of untried ventures. "My dear Colonel, I have already written to Washington that we could furnish the men, provisions, and every necessary except powder, had we the money, for the reduction of Detroit. But there is no money,--not even rich men have seen a shilling in a year. Washington to the north is begging aid, Gates in the south is pleading for men and arms, and not a shilling is in the treasury of Virginia." "But Detroit must be taken," said Clark with a solemn emphasis. "Through my aides I have this discovery: a combination is forming to the westward,--a confederacy of British and Indians,--to spread dismay to our frontier this coming Spring. We cannot hesitate. The fountain head of these irruptions must be cut off, the grand focus of Indian hostilities from the Mohawk to the Mississippi." Even as he spoke, Jefferson, pen in hand, was noting points in another letter to Washington. "We have determined to undertake it," wrote Jefferson, "and commit it to Clark's direction. Whether the expense of the enterprise shall be defrayed by the Continent or State we leave to be decided hereafter by Congress. In the meantime we only ask the loan of such necessaries as, being already at Fort Pitt, will save time and expense of transportation. I am, therefore, to solicit Your Excellency's order to the commandant at Fort Pitt for the articles contained in the annexed list." Clark had the list in hand. "It is our only hope; there is not a moment to be lost." On fleet horses the chain of expresses bore daily news to the camp of Washington, but before his answer could return, another express reined up at Richmond. "Benedict Arnold, the traitor, has entered the Capes of Virginia with a force of two thousand men." It was New Year's Eve and Richmond was in a tumult. On New Year's day every legislator was moving his family to a place of safety. The very winds were blowing Arnold's fleet to Richmond. Virginia had laid herself bare of soldiers; every man that could be spared had been sent south. And Arnold? With what rage George Rogers Clark saw him destroy the very stores that might have taken Detroit,--five brass field-pieces, arms in the Capitol loft and in waggons on the road, five tons of powder, tools, quartermaster's supplies. Then the very wind that had blown Arnold up the river turned and blew him back, and the only blood shed was by a handful of militia under George Rogers Clark, who killed and wounded thirty of Arnold's men. "I have an enterprise to propose," said the Governor to Clark on return. "I have confidence in your men from the western side of the mountains. I want to capture Arnold and hang him. You pick the proper characters and engage them to seize this greatest of all traitors. I will undertake, if they are successful, that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them." "I cannot, Arnold is gone, I must capture Detroit." More determined than ever, Clark and Jefferson went on planning. "Yes, you must capture Detroit and secure Lake Erie. You shall have two thousand men, and ammunition and packhorses shall be at the Falls of the Ohio, March 15, ready for the early break of the ice." Washington's consent had come, and orders for artillery. With Washington and Jefferson at his back, Clark made indefatigable efforts to raise two thousand men to rendezvous March 15. Up the Blue Ridge his agents went and over to the Holston; he wrote to western Pennsylvania; he visited Redstone-Old-Fort, and hurried down to Fort Pitt. Fort Pitt itself was in danger. The Wabash broke and ran untrammelled, but Clark was not ready. Cornwallis was destroying Gates at Camden; De Kalb fell, covered with wounds; Sumter was cut to pieces by Tarleton. The darkest night had come in a drama that has no counterpart, save in the Napoleonic wars that shook Europe in the cause of human liberty. War, war, raged from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. The land was covered with forts and blockhouses. Every hamlet had its place of refuge. Mills were fortified, and private houses. Every outlying settlement was stockaded. Every log house had its pickets and portholes. Chains of posts followed the river fords and mountain gaps from Ticonderoga to the Mohawk, from the Susquehanna to the Delaware, to the Cumberland, to the Tennessee. Anxious sentinels peered from the watchtowers of wooden castles. Guns stood on the ramparts. The people slept in barracks. Moats and drawbridges, chained gates and palisades, guarded the sacred citadels of America. "And what if England wins?" said one to Washington. "We can still retire to the Ohio and live in freedom," for, like the last recesses of the Swiss Alps, it was thought no nation could conquer the Alleghanies. In desperation and unaware of the Virginian crisis behind him, George Rogers Clark embarked four hundred men, all he could get of the promised two thousand. Only a line he sent to Jefferson, "I have relinquished all hope," but Jefferson at that hour was flying from Tarleton, Cornwallis was coming up into Virginia, and Washington with his ragged band of veteran Continentals was marching down to Yorktown. There was no time to glance beyond the mountains. All the northwest, in terror of Clark, was watching and fearing. If a blow was struck anywhere, "Clark did it." Shawnees and Delawares, Wyandots at the north, Choctaws and Chickasaws and Cherokees at the south, British and Indians everywhere, were rising against devoted Kentucky. As Clark stepped on his boats at Pittsburg word flew to remotest tribes,-- "The Long Knives are coming!" The red man trembled in his wigwam, Detroit redoubled its fortifications, and Clark's forlorn little garrisons in the prairies of the west hung on to Illinois. In those boats Clark bore provisions, ammunition, artillery, quartermaster's stores, collected as if from the very earth by his undying energy,--everything but men, men! Major William Croghan stood with him on the wharf at Pittsburg, burning, longing to go, but honour forbade,--he was out on parole from Charleston. Peeping, spying, gliding, Indians down the Ohio would have attacked but for fear of Clark's cannon. The "rear guard of the Continental army" little knew the young Virginian, the terror of his name. For him, Canada staid at home to guard Detroit when she might have wrested Yorktown. With shouts of thanksgiving Louisville greeted Clark and his four hundred; the war had come up to their very doors. Never had the Indians so hammered away at the border. Across the entire continent the late intermittent cannon shots became a constant volley. Every family had its lost ones,--"My father, my mother, my wife, my child, they slaughtered, burned, tortured,--_I will hunt the Indian till I die!_" Detroit, Niagara, Michilimackinac--the very names meant horror, for there let loose, the red bloodhounds of war, the most savage, the most awful, with glittering knives, pressed close along the Ohio. The buffalo meat for the expedition rotted while Clark struggled, anguished in spirit, a lion chained, "Stationed here to repel a few predatory savages when I would carry war to the Lakes." But troops yet behind, "almost naked for want of linen and entirely without shoes," were trying to join Clark down the wild Ohio. Joseph Brandt cut them off,--Lochry and Shannon and one hundred Pennsylvanians,--not one escaped to tell the tale. Clark never recovered, never forgot the fate of Lochry. "Had I tarried but one day I might have saved them!" In the night-time he seemed to hear those struggling captives dragged away to Detroit,--"Detroit! lost for the want of a few men!" For the first time the over-wrought hero gave way to intoxication to drown his grief,--and so had Clark then died, "Detroit" might have been found written on his heart. Despair swept over Westmoreland where Lochry's men were the flower of the frontier. Only fourteen or fifteen rifles remained in Hannastown,--the Indians swooped and destroyed it utterly. XVIII _ON THE RAMPARTS_ In all his anguish about Detroit, with the energy of desperation Clark now set to work making Louisville stronger than ever. "Boys, we must have defences absolutely impregnable; we know not at what moment cannon may be booming at our gates." A new stronghold was founded, and around it a moat eight feet deep and ten feet wide; surrounding the moat itself, was built a breastwork of log pens, filled with earth and picketed ten feet high on top of the breastwork. An acre was thus enclosed, and in that acre was a spring that bubbles still in the streets of Louisville. Within were mounted a double six-pounder captured at Vincennes, four cannon, and eight swivels, and heaped around were shells, balls, and grapeshot brought for the Detroit campaign. With bakehouse and blockhouse, bastion and barrack, no enemy ever dared attack Fort Nelson. "General Clark is too hard on the militia," the soldier boys complained, but the hammering and pounding and digging went on until Louisville was the strongest point beyond the Alleghanies. Back and back came the Indians, in battles and forays, and still in this troublous time settlers were venturing by flatboat and over the Wilderness Road into the Blue Grass country. They seemed to fancy that Clark had stilled the West, that here the cannon had ceased to rattle. Emigrants on packhorses bound for the land of cane and turkeys saw bodies of scalped white men every day. Logan and his forest rangers, like knights of old, guarded the Wilderness Road. Kenton and his scouts patrolled the Ohio, crossing and recrossing on the track of marauding savages. Boone watched the Licking; Floyd held the Bear Grass. Fort Nelson was done,--its walls were cannon-proof. Clark's gunboat lay on the water-front when a messenger passed the sentinel with a letter. In the little square room that Clark called his headquarters, the envoy waited. The young commandant read and bowed his head,--was it a moment of irresolution? "Who could have brought this letter?" "Any Indian would bring it for a pint of rum," answered a well-known voice. Pulling off a mask, Connolly stood before him. It was as if Lord Dunmore had risen from the floor,--Connolly had been Lord Dunmore's captain commandant of all the land west of the Blue Ridge. What was he saying? "As much boundary of land on the west bank of the Ohio as you may wish, and any title under that of a duke, if you will abandon Louisville. I am sent to you by Hamilton." "What!" gasped Clark. "Shall I become an Arnold and give up my country? Never! Go, sir, before my people discover your identity." Resolved to lock the secret in his own heart, Clark spoke to no one. But that same night a similar offer was made to John Floyd on the Bear Grass. He mentioned it to Clark. "We must never tell the men," they agreed; "starving and discouraged they might grasp the offer to escape the Indian tomahawk." But years after Clark told his sister Lucy, and Floyd told his wife, Jane Buchanan,--and from them the tale came down to us. As if enraged at this refusal, British and Indians rallied for a final onslaught. "The white men are taking the fair Kain-tuck-ee, the land of deer and buffalo. If you beat Clark this time you will certainly recover your hunting-grounds," said De Peyster at the council fire. In unprecedented numbers the redmen crossed the Ohio,--station after station was invested; then followed the frightful battle of Blue Licks where sixty white men fell in ten minutes. Kentucky was shrouded in mourning. Again Clark followed swift with a thousand mounted riflemen. Among the Indians dividing their spoils and their captives there sounded a sharp alarm, "The Long Knives! The Long Knives!" "A mighty army on its march!" Barely had the Shawnees time to fly when Clark's famished Kentuckians entered Old Chillicothe. Fires were yet burning, corn was on the roasting sticks, but the foe was gone. "The property destroyed was of great amount, and the quantity of provisions burned surpassed all idea we had of the Indian stores," Clark said in after years. This second destruction of their villages and cornfields chilled the heart of the Indians. Their power was broken. Never again did a great army cross the Ohio. But standing again on the ruins of Old Chillicothe, "I swear vengeance!" cried the young Tecumseh. And Clark, the Long Knife, mourned in his heart. "This might have been avoided! this might have been avoided! Never shall we have peace on this frontier until Detroit is taken!" XIX _EXIT CORNWALLIS_ "The boy cannot escape me!" Lafayette was all that lay between Cornwallis and the subjugation of Virginia. The lithe little Frenchman, only twenty-three years old, danced ever on and on before him, fatiguing the redcoats far into the heats of June. The Virginia Legislature adjourned to Charlottesville. In vain Cornwallis chased the boy and sent Tarleton on his raid over the mountains, "to capture the Governor." Like a flash he came, the handsome, daring, dashing Colonel Tarleton, whose name has been execrated for a hundred years. Virginia was swept as by a tornado. Never a noise in the night, never a wind could whistle by, but "Tarleton's troop is coming!" "Tarleton's troop!" Little John Randolph, a boy of eight, his mother then lying in childbed, was gathered up and hurried away ninety miles up the Appomattox. "Tarleton's troop!" Beside the dead body of her husband sat the mother of four-year-old Henry Clay, with her seven small children shuddering around her. Standing on a rock in the South Anna River, the great preacher had addressed his congregation in impassioned oratory for the last time, and now on a bier he lay lifeless, while the gay trooper raided the lands of his children. Even Tarleton was moved by the widow's pallor as he tossed a handful of coins on her table. She arose and swept them into the fireplace,--"Never will I touch the invaders' gold." "Tarleton's troop!" Back at Waxhaw, South Carolina, a lad by the name of Andrew Jackson bore through life the scars of wounds inflicted by Tarleton's men. At that very hour, alone on foot his mother was returning from deeds of mercy to the patriots caged in prison pens by Tarleton. But the streams were cold, the forests dark; losing her way, overworn and weary, sank and died the mother of Andrew Jackson. "Tarleton's troop!" Jack Jouett at the Cuckoo Tavern at Louisa saw white uniforms faced with green, and fluttering plumes, and shining helmets riding by. The fiery Huguenot blood rose in him. Before daylight Jack's hard-ridden steed reined up at Monticello. "Tarleton's troop, three hours behind me! Fly!" There was panic and scramble,--some of the legislators were at Monticello. There was hasty adjournment and flight to Staunton, across the Blue Ridge. Assisting his wife, the slender, graceful Mrs. Jefferson, into a carriage, the Governor sent her and the children under the care of Jupiter, the coachman, to a neighbouring farmhouse, while he gathered up his State papers. "What next, massa?" Martin, the faithful body-servant, watching his master's glance and anticipating every want, followed from room to room. "The plate, Martin," with a wave of the hand Jefferson strode out from his beloved Monticello. With Cæsar's help Martin pulled up the planks of the portico, and the last piece of silver went under the floor as a gleaming helmet hove in sight. Dropping the plank, imprisoning poor Cæsar, Martin faced the intruder. "Where is your master? Name the spot or I'll fire!" "Fire away, then," answered the slave. The trooper desisted. Tarleton and his men took food and drink, but destroyed nothing. The fame of Jefferson's kindness to Burgoyne's captured army had reached even Tarleton, for in that mansion books and music had been free to the imprisoned British officers. "An' now who be ye, an' whar are ye from?" An old woman peered from the door of a hut in a gorge of the hills, late in the afternoon. "We are members of the Virginia Legislature fleeing from Tarleton's raid." "Ride on, then, ye cowardly knaves! Here my husband and sons have just gone to Charlottesville to fight for ye, an' ye a runnin' awa' wi' all yer might. Clar out; ye get naething here." "But, my good woman, it would never do to let the British capture the Legislature." "If Patterick Hennery had been in Albemarle, the British dragoons would naever ha' passed the Rivanna." "But, my good woman, here is Patrick Henry." "Patterick Hennery? Patterick Hennery? Well, well, if Patterick Hennery is here it must be all right. Coom in, coom in to the best I have." But Daniel Boone and three or four others were captured, and carried away to Cornwallis to be released soon after on parole. "Tarleton's troop!" cried little Meriwether Lewis, seven years old. Sweeping down the Rivanna came the desperado to the home of Colonel Nicholas Lewis, away in the Continental army. "What a paradise!" exclaimed Tarleton, raising his hands. "Why, then, do you interrupt it?" inquired Mrs. Lewis, alone at home with her small children and slaves. The trooper slept that night in his horseman's cloak on the kitchen floor. At daylight Mrs. Lewis was awakened by a clatter in her henyard. Ducks, chickens, turkeys, the troopers were wringing their necks. One decrepit old drake only escaped by skurrying under the barn. Bowing low till his plume swept the horse's mane, Tarleton galloped away. The wrath of Aunt Molly! "Here, Pompey, you just catch that drake. Ride as fast as you can, and present it to Colonel Tarleton with my compliments." On flying steed, drake squawking and flouncing on his back, the darkey flew after the troopers. "Well, Pompey, did you overtake Colonel Tarleton?" was Aunt Molly's wrathful inquiry. "Yes'm." "What did he say?" "He put de drake in his wallet, and say he much obleeged!" Little Meriwether, sitting on the gate-post, laughed at his aunt's discomfiture. The roll of a drum broke the stillness of Sabbath in the Blue Ridge. "Tarleton's troop!" By the bed of her sick husband sat a Spartan mother at Staunton. Her sons were in the army at the north, but three young lads, thirteen, fifteen, and seventeen were there. Placing their father's old firelock in their hands, "Go forth, my children," she said, "repel the foot of the invader or see my face no more." But Tarleton did not force the mountain pass,--the boys went on down to join Lafayette. From farm and forest, children and grandsires hurried to Lafayette. The proud earl retired to the sea and stopped to rest at the little peninsula of Yorktown, waiting for reinforcements. Down suddenly from the north came Washington with his tattered Continentals and Rochambeau's gay Frenchmen, and the French fleet sailed into the Chesapeake. Cornwallis was bottled up at Yorktown. The boy, Lafayette, had simply put the stopper in the bottle and waited. Seventy cannon rolled in on Yorktown. George Rogers Clark, all the West, was appealing to Washington, but the great chief unmoved kept his eye on Lord Cornwallis. On the 19th of October, 1781, the aristocratic marquis, who had commenced his career as aide-de-camp to a king, surrendered to the rebels of America. "'Wallis has surrendered! surrendered! surrendered!" Meriwether Lewis and William Clark flung up their caps with other boys and shouted with the best of them, "'Wallis has surrendered!" After the surrender of Cornwallis, Washington and Lafayette and the officers of the French and American armies went to Fredericksburg to pay their respects to Mary, the mother of Washington. The entire surrounding country was watching in gala attire, and among them the old cavalier, John Clark of Caroline. On his white horse Washington passed the mulberry trees. Quick as a flash little William turned,--"Why, father, he does look like my brother George! Is that why people call our George the 'Washington of the West'?" A provisional treaty was signed at Paris, November 30, 1782, a few days after the return of George Rogers Clark from that last Chillicothe raid. Slowly, by pack-horse and flatboat, the news reached Kentucky. The last of the British army sailed away. Washington made his immortal farewell, and went back to his farm, arriving on Christmas Eve. Bonfires and rockets, speeches, thanksgiving and turkey, ended the year 1782. But with his return from the last scene at Yorktown, the father of Meriwether Lewis lay down and died, a martyr of the Revolution. XX _THE OLD VIRGINIA HOME_ Back over Boone's trace, the Wilderness Road he had travelled so many times, went General George Rogers Clark sometime in the early Spring of 1783, past the thrifty fields of Fincastle and the Shenandoah Germans, with their fat cattle and huge red barns. Every year the stout Pennsylvanians were building farther and farther up. Year by year the fields increased, and rosy girls stacked the hay in defiance of all Virginian customs across the Ridge. But the man who a thousand miles to the west held Illinois by the prowess of his arm and the terror of his name, sprang not with the buoyant step of six years before when he had gone to Virginia after the gunpowder. His thoughts were at Kaskaskia, Vincennes, Louisville, where his unsustained garrisons were suffering for food and clothing. "Peace, peace, peace!" he muttered. "'Tis but a mockery. Must Kentucky lie still and be scalped?" Still the savages raided the border, not in numbers, but in squads, persistent and elusive. Isham Floyd, the boy drummer of Vincennes, had been captured by the savages and three days tortured in the woods, and burnt at the stake. "My boy-brother in the hands of those monsters?" exclaimed the great-hearted John Floyd of the Bear Grass. A word roused the country, the savages were dispersed, but poor Isham was dead. And beside him lay his last tormentor, the son of an Indian chief, shot by the avenging rifle of John Floyd. Riding home with a heavy heart on the 12th of April, a ball struck Colonel Floyd, passed through his arm, and entered his breast. Behind the trees they caught a glimpse of the smoking rifle of Big Foot, that chief whose son was slain. Leaping from his own horse to that of his brother, Charles Floyd sustained the drooping form until they reached the Bear Grass. "Charles," whispered the dying man, "had I been riding Pompey this would not have happened. Pompey pricks his ears and almost speaks if a foe is near." At the feet of Jane Buchanan her brave young husband was laid, his black locks already damp with the dew of death. "Papa! Papa!" Little two-year-old George Rogers Clark Floyd screamed with terror. Ten days later the stricken wife, Jane Buchanan, gave birth to another son, whom they named in honour of his heroic father. With such a grief upon him, General George Rogers Clark wended his lonesome way through the Cumberland Gap to Virginia. Now in the night-time he heard young Isham cry. Not a heart in Kentucky but bewailed the fate of the drummer boy. And John Floyd, his loss was a public calamity. "John Floyd, John Floyd," murmured Clark on his lonely way, "the encourager of my earliest adventures, truest heart of the West!" Lochry's men haunted him while he slept. "Had I not written they would not have come!" His debts, dishonoured, weighed like a pall, and deep, deep, down in his heart he knew at last how much he loved that girl in the convent at New Orleans. At times an almost ungovernable yearning came over him to go down and force the gates of her voluntary prison-house. In May he was at Richmond. A new Governor sat in the chair of Jefferson and Patrick Henry. To him Clark addressed an appeal for the money that was his due. But Virginia, bankrupt, impoverished, prostrate, answered only,--"We have given you land warrants, what more can you ask?" With heavy heart Clark travelled again the road to Caroline. There was joy in the old Virginia home, and sorrow. Once more the family were reunited. First came Colonel Jonathan, with his courtly and elegant army comrade Major William Croghan, an Irish gentleman, nephew of Sir William Johnson, late Governor of New York, and of the famous George Croghan, Sir William's Indian Deputy in the West. In fact young Croghan crossed the ocean with Sir William as his private secretary, on the high road to preferment in the British army. But he looked on the struggling colonists, and mused,-- "Their cause is just! I will raise a regiment for Washington." While all his relatives fought for the King, he alone froze and starved at Valley Forge, and in that frightful winter of 1780 marched with Jonathan Clark's regiment to the relief of Charleston. And Charleston fell. "Restore your loyalty to Great Britain and I will set you free," said Major General Prevost, another one of Croghan's uncles. "I cannot," replied the young rebel. "I have linked my fate with the colonies." Nevertheless General Prevost released him and his Colonel, Jonathan Clark, on parole. Lieutenant Edmund was held a year longer. Directly to the home in Caroline, Colonel Jonathan brought his Irish Major. And there he met--Lucy. Then, with the exchange of prisoners, Edmund came, damaged it is true, but whole, and John, John from the prison ships, ruined. At sight of the emaciated face of her once handsome boy, the mother turned away and wept. Five long years in the prison ship had done its work. Five years, where every day at dawn the dead were brought out in cartloads. Stifled in crowded holds and poisoned with loathsome food, in one prison ship alone in eighteen months eleven thousand died and were buried on the Brooklyn shore. And then came the General, George Rogers, and Captain Richard, from the garrison of Kaskaskia where he had helped to hold the Illinois. In tattered regimentals and worn old shirts they came,--the army of the Revolution was disbanded without a dollar. "And I, worse than without a dollar," said General George Rogers. "My private property has been sacrificed to pay public debts." But from what old treasure stores did those girls bring garments, homespun and new and woolly and warm, prepared against this day of reunion? The soldiers were children again around their father's hearth, with mother's socks upon their feet and sister's arms around their necks. Jonathan, famous for his songs, broke forth in a favourite refrain from Robin Hood:-- "And mony ane sings o' grass, o' grass, And mony ane sings o' corn, And mony ane sings o' Robin Hood Kens little where he was born. "It wasna in the ha', the ha', Nor in the painted bower, But it was in the gude greenwood Amang the lily flower." "And you call us lily flowers?" cried Fanny, the beauty and the pet. "The lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin; and here have we been spinning for weeks and weeks to dress you boys again." "And what has William been doing?" "Learning to follow in the footsteps of my brothers," answered the lad of thirteen. "Another year and I, too, could have gone as a drummer boy." "Thank God, you'll never have to," ejaculated the General solemnly. The old house rang with merriment as it had not in years. The negroes, York and old York and Rose his wife, Jane and Julia and Cupid and Harry, and Nancy the cook, were jubilantly preparing a feast for welcome. Other guests were there,--Colonel Anderson, aide-de-camp of Lafayette, who was to wed Elizabeth, the sister next older than William; and Charles Mynn Thruston, son of the "Fighting Parson," and Dennis Fitzhugh, daft lovers of the romping Fanny. Since before the Revolution Jonathan had been engaged to Sarah Hite, the daughter of Joist Hite, first settler of the Shenandoah. Thousands of acres had her father and hundreds of indentured white servants. Joist Hite's claim overlay that of Lord Fairfax; they fought each other in the courts for fifty years. Should Hite win, Sarah would be the greatest heiress in Virginia. From the sight of happy courtship George Rogers turned and ever and anon talked with his parents, "solemn as the judgment," said Fanny. A few blissful days and the time for scattering came. Again the old broad-porticoed farmhouse was filled with farewells,--negro slaves held horses saddled. "But we shall meet in Kentucky," said old John Clark the Cavalier. George Rogers bade them good-bye, waved a last kiss back, whipped up his horse, and entered the forest. In October John died. A vast concourse gathered under the mulberry trees where the young Lieutenant lay wrapped in the flag of his country, a victim of the prison ship. Great was the indignation of friends as they laid him away. And now preparations were rapidly carried forward for removal to Kentucky. XXI _DOWN THE OHIO_ There was truce on the border. The wondering redmen heard that the great King had withdrawn across the Big Water and that the Long Knives were victors in the country. With wondering minds Shawnee and Delaware, Wyandot and Miami, discussed around their council fires the changed situation. Very great had the redcoats appeared in the eyes of the savages, with their dazzling uniforms, and long, bright, flashing swords. But how terrible were the Virginians of the Big Knives! The continental armies had been dispersed, but now from their old war-ravaged homes of the Atlantic shore they looked to the new lands beyond the Alleghanies. Congress would pay them in these lands, and so the scarred veterans of a hundred battles launched on the emigrant trail. In the Clark home there was busy preparation. Out of attic and cellar old cedar chests were brought and packed with the precious linen, fruit of many a day at the loom. Silver and pewter and mahogany bureaus, high-post bedsteads and carved mirrors, were carefully piled in the waggons as John Clark, cavalier, turned his face from tidewater Virginia. Neighbours called in to bid them farewell. Mrs. Clark made a last prayer at the grave of her son, the victim of the prison ship. "William, have you brought the mulberry cuttings?" called the motherly Lucy. "William, have you the catalpa seeds?" cried Fanny. Leaving the old home with Jonathan to be sold, the train started out,--horses, cattle, slaves, York riding proudly at the side of his young master William, old York and Rose, Nancy, Jane, Julia, Cupid and Harry and their children, a patriarchal caravan like that of Abraham facing an earlier west two thousand years before. Before and behind were other caravans. All Virginia seemed on the move, some by Rockfish Gap and Staunton, up the great valley of Virginia to the Wilderness Road, on packhorses; others in waggons, like the Clarks, following the Braddock route down to Redstone-Old-Fort on the Monongahela, where boats must be built. And here at Redstone was George Rogers Clark, come up to meet them from the Falls. In short order, under his direction, boatbuilders were busy. York and old York took a hand, and William, in a first experience that was yet to find play in the far Idaho. The teasing Fanny looked out from her piquant sun-bonnet. Lucy, more sedate, was accompanied by her betrothed, Major Croghan. "My uncle, George Croghan, has lately died in New York and left me his heir. I shall locate in Louisville," was the Major's explanation to his friend's inquiry. "And what is the news from Virginia?" "Your old friend Patrick Henry is Governor again. Jonathan visited him last week," was William's reply. "And Jonathan's wife, Sarah Hite, bids fair to secure her fortune," added Fanny. "You see, when old Lord Fairfax heard of Cornwallis's surrender he gave up. 'Put me to bed, Jo,' he said, 'it is time for me to die,' and die he did. Now his lands are in the courts." "Mrs. Jefferson, who was ill, died as a result of the excitement of the flight from Tarleton," said Lucy. "To get away from his sorrow, Mr. Jefferson has accepted the appointment of minister to France to succeed Dr. Franklin, and has taken Martha and Maria with him. They will go to school in Paris." George Rogers Clark was a silent man. He spoke no word of his recent trip to Philadelphia, in which Dr. Franklin had grasped his hand and said, "Young man, you have given an empire to the Republic." "General Washington has just returned from a horseback journey down into this country," added Major Croghan. "He has lands on the Ohio." "And have _you_ no word of yourself or of Kentucky?" General Clark handed his father a notification from the Assembly of Virginia. He read it aloud. "The conclusion of the war, and the distressed situation of the State with respect to its finances, call on us to adopt the most prudent economy. You will, therefore, consider yourself out of command." "And you are no longer in the army?" "No, nor even on a footing with the Continentals. I was simply a soldier of the Virginia militia, and, as such, have no claim even for the half pay allotted to all Continental officers." "But Virginia has ceded her western territories to Congress with the distinct stipulation that expenses incurred in subduing any British posts therein, or in acquiring any part of the territory, shall be reimbursed by the United States." "Is there any hope there? What has Congress? An empty treasury. And who is to pay the bills incurred in the Illinois conquest? Shall I, a private individual?" "That would be impossible," commented the father. "But I am not disheartened," continued George Rogers. "When the Indians are quiet, my men hope to build a city on the land granted us opposite the Falls. And here is something from Jefferson, written before he left for Europe." William stood attentive while the letter was read. "ANNAPOLIS, December 4, 1783. DEAR SIR,--I find they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the Mississippi to California. They pretend it is only to promote knowledge. I am afraid they have thought of colonising into that quarter. Some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making an attempt to search that country, but I doubt whether we have enough of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a party? Though I am afraid our prospect is not worth the question. Your friend and humble servant, THOMAS JEFFERSON." "Does he want you to lead an exploring party to the Pacific Ocean?" inquired William with intense interest. "That is the substance of it. And I should want you to accompany me." Little did either then dream that William Clark would lead that party, with another. The boats were ready. Surmounted by the Stars and Stripes of the "old thirteen" they started on their journey. Suddenly the Monongahela closed with ice and locked them at Pittsburg, where flurries of snow set the sleigh-bells ringing. Through deep drifts, under the guns of Fort Pitt, files of Philadelphia traders were buying up skins and tallow, to carry back over the mountains in their packsaddles that had come out loaded with salt and gunpowder. Squaws were exchanging peltries for the white man's tea and sugar. A great concourse of emigrants was blocked for the winter. Every cabin was crowded. After great exertions George had secured quarters quite unlike the roomy old Virginian home. "I must be gone to make peace with those Indians who have been acting with the British, and take steps toward securing titles beyond the Ohio." Accompanied by two other commissioners, General Clark set out for Fort McIntosh. It was January before the Indians gathered with Pierre Drouillard, interpreter now for the United States. "By the treaty of peace with England this land belongs to the Thirteen Fires," was the basis of argument. "You have been allies of England, and now by the law of nations the land is ours." "No! No!" fiercely cried Buckongahelas. "But we will divide with you. You are to release your white captives, and give up a part of your Ohio lands. The rest you can keep. Detroit and Michilimackinac belong to the Thirteen Fires." Then boundaries were drawn. "No! No!" cried Buckongahelas. Clark heeded not. After deliberation the chiefs signed,--Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa,--all but Buckongahelas. "I am a friend of Great Britain!" roared the Delaware King. Then to the surprise of all, suddenly striding past the other commissioners, the swarthy chief took the hand of General Clark. "I thank the Great Spirit for having this day brought together two such warriors as Buckongahelas and the Long Knife." Clark smiled and returned the compliment. "Will the gorge break?" every frontiersman was asking when George returned to Pittsburg. Piled back for seventy miles the Alleghany was a range of ice, heaped floe on floe. Where the muddy Monongahela blends with the crystal Alleghany the boats lay locked with a hundred others, awaiting the deluge. Suddenly the melting snows of the Alleghanies burst; the ice loosened, tearing and cutting the branches of trees overhanging the river; and slowly, with the ice, moved the great fleet of flatboats. Ever narrower and deeper and swifter, the Ohio leaped with tremendous rush down its confined channel. The trees on the uninhabited shores, never yet cut away, held the embankment firm, and racing down on the perilous flood came the Clarks to the Falls of the Ohio, in March of 1785. Fascinated by the rush of waves, fourteen-year-old William poled like a man. Could he dream what destruction lay in their course? "_L'année des grandes eaux_," 1785, is famous in the annals of the West as the year of great waters. The floods came down and drowned out old Ste. Genevieve and drove the inhabitants back to the higher terrace on which that village stands to-day. Above, the whole American Bottom was a swift running sea, Kaskaskia and Cahokia were submerged by the simultaneous melting of the snows, and nothing but its high bold shore of limestone rock saved St. Louis itself. Paddling around in his boat, Auguste Chouteau ate breakfast on the roofs of Ste. Genevieve. At Louisville barely could boats be pulled in to the Bear Grass. Below, waves foamed and whirled among the rocks, that to-day have been smoothed by the hand of man into a shallow channel. Guided by skilful hands, many a trader's boat that year took the chute of the Falls like an arrow; over the ledges that dammed the water back, down, down they slid out of sight into that unknown West, where William knew not that his brother had paved the way to Louisiana. "Have you found us a tract?" inquired the anxious mother. "Land, mother? I own a dukedom, my soldiers and I, one hundred and fifty thousand acres, on the Indian side of the river. We have incorporated a town there, Clarksville they call it. It will be a great city,--but Louisville is safer at present." That Spring they lived at Fort Nelson, with watchmen on the ramparts. "But we saw no Indians in coming down!" "True enough, the flood was a surprise so early in the year. Wait a little, and you will hear more of this terrifying river-route, where in low water it takes seven weeks to run from Redstone to the Bear Grass. Then the murderous clutches of the Indians have free play among the helpless emigrants. Let us be thankful for what you escaped." Almost while they were speaking a band of Indians glided out of the woods not far away, snatched a boy from a fence, and shot his father in the field. "Don't kill me, just take me prisoner," said little Tommy, looking up into the warrior's face. At that instant an elder brother's rifle felled the Indian, and the boy was saved to become the father of Abraham Lincoln. XXII _MULBERRY HILL_ On a beautiful eminence three miles south of Louisville, John Clark built his pioneer Kentucky home. Louisville itself consisted of but a few log cabins around a fortification built by George Rogers Clark. This family home, so far from the centre, was stockaded by itself, a double log house, two and a half stories high, with hall through the middle. Every night a negro stood sentinel, there were portholes in the pickets, and Indians hid in the canebrakes. Once while the young ladies were out walking an Indian shot a little negro girl and they carried her back wounded, behind the pickets at Mulberry Hill. The floor of the long dining-room was of wood, hard as a bone, and over the seven-foot mantel stag-horns and swords of the Revolution were lit by the light of the cavernous fireplace. Rigid economy and untiring industry had been the rule at the old Clark home in Caroline, and not less was it here. There were no pianos, but until midnight the hum of the wheel made music. Enchanted the young people listened to tale and song and hum of wheel, while down the great chimney top calmly smiled the pensive stars. Little thought they of bare walls, low rafters, or small windows. After the boys hauled in the logs on a hand-sled, and built up a great flame, the whole world seemed illuminated. The pewter basins shone like mirrors, and while their fingers flew in the light of the fire, stories were told of Kaskaskia, Vincennes, St. Louis. But the Donna? Clark never spoke of her. It was a hidden grief that made him ever lonely. When he saw the lovelight all around him and sometimes left the room, the mother wondered why sudden silence came upon the group. At Mulberry Hill Lucy was married to Major Croghan, who, on a farm five miles out, built Locust Grove, an English mansion of the olden style, in its day the handsomest in Louisville. And Fanny? She was the belle of Kentucky. In powdered wig and ruffles many a grave Virginian tripped with her the minuet and contra dances of the Revolution. More and more young William became enamoured of the Indian dress, and went about gaily singing the songs of Robin Hood and hacking the meat with his hunting knife. Out over the game-trails of Kentucky, like the beaten streets of Fredericksburg, the only city he ever knew, young William went with the Boones, Kenton, and his own famous brother, George Rogers Clark, in peltry cap and buckskin hunting-shirt girded with a leathern belt. Led by them, with what eagerness he shot his first buffalo, deep in the woods of Kentucky. Not much longer could bears, deer, and buffalo retreat to the cane. With the coming of the Clarks an emigration set in that was to last for a hundred years. Even amusements partook of sportive adventure. Now it was the hunter's horn summoning the neighbours to a bear chase in the adjoining hills. William surpassed the Indian himself in imitating the bark of the wolf, the hoot of the owl, the whistle of the whippoorwill. Daniel Boone came often to Mulberry Hill in leggings and moccasins, ever hunting, hunting, hunting beaver, bear and coon, wolves and wild-cats, deer and foxes, and going back to trade their skins in Maryland for frontier furniture, knives and buttons, scissors, nails, and tea. Upon his shot-pouch strap Boone fastened his moccasin awl with a buckhorn handle made out of an old clasp-knife, and carried along with him a roll of buckskin to mend his mocassins. While the grizzled hunter stitched deftly at his moccasins, William and York sat by, engaged in the same pastime, for wherever William went, York was his shadow. "Since poor Richard's uncertain fate I can never trust the boy alone," said his mother. "York, it is your business to guard your young master." And he did, to the ends of the earth. When "Uncle Daniel," rolled in a blanket, threw himself down on a bed of leaves and slept with his feet to the fire to prevent rheumatism, York and William lay down too, sleeping by turns and listening for Indians. At daylight, loosely belting their fringed hunting shirts into wallets for carrying bread, a chunk of jerked beef, or tow for the gun, with tomahawk on the right side and scalping knife on the left, each in a leathern case, again they set off under the reddening forest. Skilled in the lore of woodcraft, watchful of clouds and stars and sun, an intimate student of insect life and own brother to the wily beaver, bear, and buffalo, William Clark was becoming a scientist. Returning from the chase with the same sort of game that graced the Saxon board before the Norman conquest, he sat down to hear the talk of statesmen. For when Clark's commission was revoked, Kentucky, unprotected, called a convention to form a State. Affairs that in European lands are left to kings and their ministers, were discussed in the firelight of every cabin. Public safety demanded action. Exposed on three sides to savage inroads, with their Virginia capital hundreds of miles beyond forest, mountains, and rivers, no wonder Kentucky pleaded for statehood. In a despotic country the people sleep. Here every nerve was awake. Discussion, discussion, discussion, made every fireside a school of politics; even boys in buckskin considered the nation's welfare. Before he was seventeen William Clark was made an ensign and proudly donned the eagle and blue ribbon of the Cincinnati, a society of the soldiers of the Revolution of which Washington himself was president. Educated in the backwoods and by the cabin firelight, young William was already developing the striking bearing and bold unwavering character of his brother. "What can have become of Richard?" Every day the mother heart glanced down the long avenue of catalpas that were growing in front of Mulberry Hill. Of the whole family, the gentle affectionate Richard was an especial favourite. He was coming from Kaskaskia to see his mother, but never arrived. One day his horse and saddlebags were found on the banks of the Wabash. Was he killed by the Indians, or was he drowned? No one ever knew. Again George Rogers Clark was out making treaties with the Indians to close up the Revolution, but British emissaries had been whispering in their ears, "Make the Ohio the boundary." At last, after long delays, a few of the tribes came in to the council at the mouth of the Great Miami, some in friendship, some like the Shawnees, rudely suggestive of treachery. "The war is over," explained General Clark as chairman; "we desire to live in peace with our red brethren. If such be the will of the Shawnees, let some of their wise men speak." There was silence as they whiffed at the council pipes. Then a tall chief arose and glanced at the handful of whites and at his own three hundred along the walls of the council house. "We come here to offer you two pieces of wampum. You know what they mean. Choose." Dropping the beaded emblems upon the table the savage turned to his seat by the wall. Pale, calm as a statue, but with flashing eye, Clark tangled his slender cane into the belts and--flung them at the chiefs. "Ugh!" Every Indian was up with knife unsheathed, every white stood with hand on his sword. Into their very teeth the Long Knife had flung back the challenge, "Peace, or War." Like hounds in leash they strained, ready to leap, when the lordly Long Knife raised his arm and grinding the wampum beneath his heel thundered,-- "_Dogs, you may go!_" One moment they wavered, then broke and fled tumultuously from the council house. All night they debated in the woods near the fort. In the morning, "Let me sign," said Buckongahelas. Smiling, Clark guided the hand of the boastful Delaware, and all the rest signed with him. XXIII _MISSISSIPPI TROUBLES_ For the first time in their stormy history, the front and rear gates of the Kentucky forts lay back on their enormous wooden hinges, and all day long men and teams passed in and out with waggon loads of grain from the harvest fields. So hushed and still was the air, it seemed the old Indian days were gone for ever. At night the animals came wandering in from the woods, making their customary way to the night pens. Fields of corn waved undisturbed around the forts. But the truce was brief. Already the Cherokees were slaughtering on the Wilderness Road, and beyond the Ohio, Shawnee and Delaware, wild at the sight of the white man's cabin, rekindled the fires around the stake. Thousands of emigrants were coming over the mountains from Carolina, and down the Ohio from Pittsburg social boats lashed together rode in company, bark canoes, pirogues, flatboats, keelboats, scows, barges, bateaux and brigades of bateaux, sweeping down with resistless English, Scotch, Irish, Germans, Huguenots, armed for the battle of the races. Still the powerful fur traders of Quebec and Montreal hung on to Detroit and Mackinac, still De Peyster opposed giving up the peninsulas of Michigan. "Pen the young republic east of the Alleghanies," said France, Spain, England, when the Peace Treaty was under consideration. But Clark's conquest compelled them to grant the Illinois. Before the ink was dry on the documents, Kentucky was trading down the great river of De Soto. "The West must trade over the mountains," said the merchants of Philadelphia and Baltimore. "The West will follow its rivers," answered Kentucky. "Spain is Mistress of the Mississippi," said the Spanish King to John Jay, the American minister at Madrid. In vain flatboatmen with wheat and corn said, "We are from Kentucky." "What Kaintucke?" brayed the commandant at Natchez. "I know no Kaintucke. Spain own both side de river. I am ordered to seize all foreign vessel on de way to New Orleong." Without the Spaniard the trip was sufficiently hazardous. Indians watched the shores. Pirates infested the bayous. Head winds made the frail craft unmanageable,--snags leered up like monsters to pierce and swallow. But every new settler enlarged the fields, and out of the virgin soil the log granaries were bursting. "Carry away our grain, bring us merchandise," was the cry of expanding Kentucky. But to escape the Indian was to fall into the hands of the Spaniard, and the Spaniard was little more than a legalised pirate. Even the goods of the Frenchmen were seized with the warning, "Try it again and we'll send you to Brazil." The Frenchmen resented this infringement on their immemorial right. Since the days of the daring and courageous Bienville who founded New Orleans, no man had said them nay. A tremendous hatred of the Spaniard grew up in the hearts of the Frenchmen. In the midst of these confiscations there was distress and anarchy in the Illinois. The infant republic had not had time to stretch out there the strong arm of law. Floods and continental money had ruined the confiding Frenchmen; the garrisons were in destitution; they were writing to Clark:-- "Our credit is become so weak among the French that one dollar's worth of provisions cannot be had without prompt payment, were it to save the whole country." "And why has our British Father made no provision for us," bewailed the Indians, "who at his beck and call have made such deadly enemies of the Long Knives? Our lands have been ravaged by fire and sword, and now we are left at their mercy." "Let us drive the red rascals out," cried the infuriated settlers. "No," said Washington, who understood and pitied the red men. "Forgive the past. Dispossess them gradually by purchase as the extension of settlement demands the occupation of their lands." But five thousand impoverished Indians in the Ohio country kept thirty thousand settlers in hot water all the time. No lock on a barn door could save the horses, no precaution save the outlying emigrant from scalping or capture. Red banditti haunted the streams and forests, dragging away their screaming victims like ogres of mediæval tragedy. Clark grew sick and aged over it. "No commission, no money, no right to do anything for my suffering country!" "Your brother, the General, is very ill," said old John Clark, coming out of the sick chamber at Mulberry Hill. In days to come there were generals and generals in the Clark family, but George Rogers was always "the General." Into ten years the youthful commander had compressed the exposure of a lifetime. Mental anguish and days in the icy Wabash told now on his robust frame, and inflammatory rheumatism set in from which he never recovered. "The Americans are your enemies," emissaries from Detroit were whispering at Vincennes. "The Government has forsaken you. They take your property, they pay nothing." "We have nothing to do with the United States," said the French citizens, weary of a Congress that heeded them not. "We consider ourselves British subjects and shall obey no other power." Even Clark's old friend, The Tobacco's Son, had gone back to his British father, and as always with Indians, dug up the red tomahawk. A committee of American citizens at Vincennes sent a flying express to Clark. "This place that once trembled at your victorious arms, and these savages overawed by your superior power, is now entirely anarchical and we shudder at the daily expectation of horrid murder. We beg you will write us by the earliest opportunity. Knowing you to be a friend of the distressed we look to you for assistance." Such a call could not be ignored. Kentucky was aroused and summoned her favourite General to the head of her army. From a sick bed he arose to lead a thousand undisciplined men, and with him went his brother William. The sultry sun scorched, the waters were low, provisions did not arrive until nine days after the soldiers, and then were spoiled. Fatigued, hungry, three hundred revolted and left; nevertheless, the Indians had fled and Vincennes was recovered. Just then up the Wabash came a Spaniard with a boatload of valuable goods. Clark promptly confiscated the cargo, and out of them paid his destitute troops. "It is not alone retaliation," said Clark, "It is a warning. If Spain will not let us trade down the river, she shall not trade up." Kentucky applauded. They even talked of sending Clark against the Spaniards and of breaking away from a government that refused to aid them. "General Clark seized Spanish goods?" Virginia was alarmed and promptly repudiated the seizure. "We are not ready to fight Spain." Clark's friends were disturbed. "You will be hung." Clark laughed. "I will flee to the Indians first." "We have as much to fear from the turbulence of our backwoodsmen," said Washington, "as from the hostility of the Spaniards." But at this very time, unknown to Washington, the Spaniards were arming the savages of the south, to exterminate these reckless ambitious frontiersmen. Louisiana feared these unruly neighbours. Intriguers from New Orleans were whispering, "Break with the Atlantic States and league yourself with Spain." Then came the rumour, "Jay proposes to shut up the Mississippi for twenty-five years!" Never country was in such a tumult. "We are sold! We are vassals of Spain!" cried the men of the West. "What? Close the Mississippi for twenty-five years as a price of commercial advantage on the Atlantic coast? Twenty-five years when our grain is rotting? Twenty-five years must we be cut off when the Wilderness Road is thronged with packtrains, when the Ohio is black with flatboats? Where do they think we are going to pen our people? Where do they think we are going to ship our produce? Better put twenty thousand men in the field at once and protect our own interests." The bond was brittle; how easily might it be broken! Even Spain laughed at the weakness of a Union that could not command Kentucky to give up its river. And Kentucky looked to Clark. "We must conquer Spain or unite with her. We must have the Mississippi. Will you march with us on New Orleans?" Then, happily, Virginia spoke out for the West. "We must aid them. The free navigation of the Mississippi is the gift of nature to the United States." The very next day Madison announced in the Virginia Assembly, "I shall move the election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention." The stability of the Union seemed pivoted upon an open river to the Gulf. Veterans of the Revolution and of the Continental Congress met to frame a constitution in 1787. After weeks of deliberation with closed doors, the immortal Congress adjourned. The Constitution was second only to the Declaration of Independence. Without kings or princes a free people had erected a Continental Republic. The Constitution was adopted, and all the way into Kentucky wilds were heard the roaring of cannon and ringing of bells that proclaimed the Father of his Country the first President of the United States. "We must cement the East and the West," said Washington. But that West was drifting away--with its Mississippi. About this time young Daniel Boone said, "Father, I am going west." Just eighteen, one year older than William Clark, in the summer of 1787, he concluded to strike out for the Mississippi. "Well, Dannie boy, thee take the compass," said his father. It was the old guide, as large as a saucer, that Lord Dunmore gave Boone when he sent him out to call in the surveyors from the Falls of the Ohio thirteen years before. Mounted on his pony, with a wallet of corn and a rifle on his back, Boone rode straight on westward thirty days without meeting a single human being. Pausing on the river bank opposite St. Louis he hallooed for an hour before any one heard him. "Dat some person on de oder shore," presently said old René Kiercereaux, the chorister at the village church. A canoe was sent over and brought back Boone. As if a man had dropped from the moon, French, Spanish, and Indian traders gathered. He spoke not a word of French, but Auguste Chouteau's slave Petrie could talk English. "Son of Boone, de great hunter? Come to my house!" "Come to _my_ house!" The hospitable Creoles strove with one another for the honour of entertaining the son of Daniel Boone. For twelve years he spent his summers in St. Louis and his winters in western Missouri, hunting and trapping. "The best beaver country on earth," he wrote to his father. "You had better come out." "Eef your father, ze great Colonel Boone, will remove to Louisiana," said Señor Zenon Trudeau, the Lieutenant-Governor, "eef he will become a citizen of Spain, de King will appreciate de act and reward him handsomely." XXIV _ST. CLAIR_ "Kentucky! Kentucky! I hear nothing else," exclaimed the Fighting Parson of the Revolution, who had thrown aside his prayer-book and gown to follow the armies of Washington. "If this western exodus continues Virginia bids fair to be depopulated." Even Jack Jouett, who had ridden to warn Jefferson of Tarleton's raid, had gone to become an honoured member of Kentucky's first legislature. "Father, let me go." Charles Mynn Thruston, the son of the Fighting Parson, had long desired to follow Fanny Clark, but his father held him back. Smiling now at the ardour of his son, he said, "You may go, my boy. I am thinking of the western country myself." Preparations were immediately made, business affairs settled, and a farewell dinner brought friends to historic Mount Zion, the famous Shenandoah seat of the Fighting Parson. "A strangah desiahs to know, sah, if he can get dinnah, sah," announced black Sambo. "Certainly, certainly." Parson Thruston was the soul of hospitality. "Bring him at once to the table, Sambo." The stranger seated himself and ate in silence. "I perceive," remarked the Parson after the courses had been removed, "I perceive that you are a traveller. May I inquire whence you come?" Every ear was intent. "From Kentucky, sir," answered the stranger. "Ah, that is fortunate. I am about to leave for that country myself," exclaimed young Thruston, "and shall be glad to hear such news as you may have to communicate." The stranger smiled and pondered. "The only interesting incident that I recall before my departure from Louisville, was the marriage of the Kentucky belle, Miss Fanny Clark, to Dr. O'Fallon." As if struck by a bolt from heaven, Charles Mynn Thruston fell unconscious to the floor. Dr. O'Fallon was a young Irish gentleman of talent and learning. An intimate friend of the Governor of South Carolina, just before the Revolution he had come to visit America, but espousing the cause of the colonists, the Governor promptly clapped him into prison. "Imprisoned O'Fallon!" The people of Charleston arose, liberated him, and drove the Governor to the British fleet in the harbour. Dr. O'Fallon enlisted as a private soldier. But surgeons were needed,--he soon proved himself one of skill unexcelled in America. General Washington himself ordered him north, and made him Surgeon-General in his own army. Here he remained until the close of the war, and was thanked by Congress for his services. And now he had visited Kentucky to assist in securing the navigation of the Mississippi, and met--Fanny. With the charming Fanny as his wife, Dr. O'Fallon rode many a mile in the woods, the first great doctor of Louisville. Other emigrants were bringing other romances, and other tragedies. "Ohio! Ohio! We hear nothing but Ohio!" said the people of New England. One rainy April morning the "Mayflower," a flatboat with a second Plymouth colony, turned into the Muskingum and founded a settlement. "Marie, Marie Antoinette,--did she not use her influence in behalf of Franklin's mission to secure the acknowledgment of American independence? Let us name our settlement Marietta." So were founded the cities of the French king and queen, Louisville and Marietta. A few months later, Kentuckians went over and started Cincinnati on the site of George Rogers Clark's old block-house. Into the Ohio, people came suddenly and in swarms, "institutional Englishmen," bearing their household gods and shaping a state. "These men come wearing hats," said the Indians. Frenchmen wore handkerchiefs and never tarried. Surveyors came. Squatting around their fires, with astonishment and fear the Indians watched "the white man's devil," squinting over his compass and making marks in his books. Wherever the magical instrument turned all the best lands were bound with chains fast to the white man. The Indians foresaw their approaching destruction and hung nightly along the river shore, in the thick brush under the sycamores, stealing horses and sinking boats. With tomahawk in hand, a leader among them was young Tecumseh. "The Ohio shall be the boundary. No white man shall plant corn in Ohio!" cried the Indian. "Keep the Ohio for a fur preserve," whispered Detroit at his back. While wedding bells were ringing at Mulberry Hill, Marietta was suffering. The gardens were destroyed by Indian marauders, the game was driven off, and great was the privation within the walled town. That was the winter when Governor St. Clair came with his beautiful daughter Louisa, the fleetest rider in the chase, the swiftest skater on the ice, and, like all pioneer girls, so skilled with the rifle that she could bring down the bird on the wing, the squirrel from the tree. Creeping out over the crusty February snow, every family in the settlement had its kettle in the sugar orchard boiling down the maple sap. Corn-meal and sap boiled down together formed for many the daily food. But with all the bravado of their hearts, men and women passed sleepless vigils while the sentinel stood all night long in the lonely watchtower of the middle blockhouse. At any moment might arise the cry, "The Indians! The Indians are at the gates!" and with the long roll of the drum beating alarm every gun was ready at a porthole and every white face straining through the dark. When screaming wild geese steering their northern flight gave token of returning spring, when the partridge drummed in the wood and the turkey gobbled, when the red bird made vocal the forest and the hawthorn and dogwood flung out their perfume, then too came the Indian from his winter lair. "Ah," sighed many a mother, "I prefer the days of gloom and tempest, for then the red man hugs his winter fire." Always among the first in pursuit of marauding Indians, William Clark as a cadet had already crossed the Ohio with General Scott, "a youth of solid and promising parts and as brave as Cæsar," said Dr. O'Fallon. Joseph Brant, Thayendanegea, presented a memorial to Congress insisting upon the Ohio as the Indian boundary. His son came down to Marietta. "Ah, yes," was the whispered rumour at Marietta, "young Brant, the educated son of the famous Mohawk leader, aspires to the hand of Louisa St. Clair." But the Revolutionary General spurned his daughter's dusky suitor. The next day after New Year's, 1791, the Indians swept down on Marietta with the fiendish threat, "Before the trees put forth their leaves again no white man's cabin shall smoke beyond the Ohio." "Capture St. Clair alive," bade the irate Mohawk chieftain. "Shoot his horse under him but do not kill him." Did he hope yet to win consent to his marriage with Louisa? The next heard of St. Clair was when the last shattered remnant of his prostrate army fell back on Cincinnati, a defeat darker, more annihilating, more ominous than Braddock's. "My God," exclaimed Washington, "it's all over! St. Clair's defeated--routed; the officers are nearly all killed, the men by wholesale; the rout is complete--too shocking to think of--and a surprise into the bargain." No wonder Secretary Lear stood appalled as the great man poured forth his wrath in the house at Philadelphia. Fifteen hundred went out from Cincinnati,--five hundred came back. A thousand scalps had Thayendanegea. The news came to Mulberry Hill like a thunderbolt. Kentucky, even Pittsburg, looked for an immediate savage inundation,--for was not all that misty West full of warriors? The old fear leaped anew. Like an irresistible billow they might roll over the unprotected frontier. From his bed of sickness General Clark started up. "Ah, Detroit! Detroit! Hadst thou been taken my countrymen need not have been so slaughtered." At Marietta, up in the woods and on the side hills, glittered multitudes of fires, the camps of savages. Hunger added its pangs to fear. The beleaguered citizens sent all the money they could raise by two young men to buy salt, meat, and flour at Redstone-Old-Fort on the Monongahela. Suddenly the river closed with ice; in destitution Marietta waited. "They have run off with the money," said some. "They have been killed by Indians," said others. But again, as suddenly, the ice broke, and early in March the young men joyfully moored their precious Kentucky ark at the upper gate of the garrison at Marietta. XXV _THE SWORD OF "MAD ANTHONY" WAYNE_ "Another defeat will ruin the reputation of the government," said Washington, as he sent out "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the uproarious Quaker general, with ruffles, queue, and cocked hat, the stormer of Stony Point in the Revolution. In vain Wayne sent commissioners to treat with the Indians. Elated with recent victories, "The Ohio shall be the boundary," was the defiant answer. An Indian captured and brought to Wayne said of the British: "All their speeches to us are red, red as blood. All the wampum and feathers are painted red. Our war-pipes and hatchets are red. Even the tobacco is red for war." "My mind and heart are upon that river," said Cornplanter, an Indian chief, pointing to the Ohio. "May that water ever continue to be the boundary between the Americans and the Indians." Commissioned by Washington First Lieutenant of the Fourth Sub-Legion, on the first of September, 1792, William Clark crossed the Ohio and spent the winter at Legionville where Wayne was collecting and drilling his army. "I will have no six months men," said Wayne. "Two years will it take to organise, drill, and harden them before we think of taking the field." "We are certain to be scalped," whispered timorous ones, remembering St. Clair's slaughter. Hundreds deserted. The very word Indian inspired terror. But horse, foot, and artillery, he drilled them, the tremblers took courage, and the government, at last awakened, stood firmly behind with money and supplies. "Remember, Stony Point was stormed with unloaded muskets. See! You must know the use of the broadsword and of the bayonet, a weapon before which the savages cannot stand." At work went "Mad Anthony" teaching his men to load and fire upon the run, to leap to the charge with loud halloos, anticipating all possible conditions. "Charge in open order. Each man rely on himself, and expect a personal encounter with the enemy." The men caught his spirit. Wayne's Legion became a great military school. Now he was drilling superb Kentucky cavalry, as perfectly matched as the armies of Europe, sorrel and bay, chestnut and gray, bush-whacking and charging, leaping ravines and broken timber, outdoing the Indians themselves in their desperate riding. And with all this drill, Wayne was erecting and garrisoning forts. In the fall of 1793, Lieutenant Clark was dispatched to Vincennes. "It appears that all active and laborious commands fall on me," he wrote to his brother Jonathan, in Virginia. "Not only labour, but I like to have starved,--was frozen up in the Wabash twenty days without provisions. In this agreeable situation had once more to depend on my rifle." After several skirmishes with Indians, Lieutenant Clark returned to Fort Washington (Cincinnati) in May, to be immediately dispatched with twenty-one dragoons and sixty cavalry to escort seven hundred packhorses laden with provisions and clothing to Greenville, a log fort eighty miles north of Cincinnati. The Shawnees were watching. Upon this rich prize fell an ambuscade of sixty Indians. Eight men were killed, the train began to retreat, when Clark came dashing up from the rear, put the assailants to flight, and saved the day. For this he was thanked by General Wayne. Washington, Jefferson, the whole country impatiently watched for news of Wayne on the Ohio. Drill, drill, drill,--keeping out a cloud of scouts that no peering Indian might discover his preparations, Wayne exercised daily now with rifle, sabre, and bayonet until no grizzly frontiersman surpassed his men at the target, no fox-hunter could leap more wildly, no swordsman more surely swing the sharp steel home. At the sight young Tennesseeans and Kentuckians, Virginians of the border and Pennsylvanians of lifetime battle, were eager for the fray. About midsummer, 1794, Wayne moved out with his Legion, twenty-six hundred strong, and halted at Fort Greenville for sixteen hundred Kentucky cavalry. Brigades of choppers were opening roads here and there to deceive. "This General that never sleeps is cutting in every direction," whispered the watchful Shawnees. "He is the Black Snake." For a last time Wayne offered peace. His messengers were wantonly murdered. The issue at Fallen Timbers lasted forty minutes,--the greatest Indian battle in forty years of battle. Two thousand Indians crouching in the brush looked to see the Americans dismount and tie their horses as they did in St. Clair's battle,--but no, bending low on their horses with gleaming sabres and fixed bayonets, on like a whirlwind came thundering the American cavalry. "What was it that defeated us? It was the Big Wind, the Tornado," said the Indians. Matchekewis was there from Sheboygan with his warriors, the Black Partridge from Illinois, and Buckongahelas. The Shawnees had their fill of fighting that day; Tecumseh fell back at the wild onset, retreating inch by inch. William Clark led to the charge a column of Kentuckians and drove the enemy two miles. But why enumerate in this irresistible legion, where all were heroes on that 20th of August, 1794. Wayne's victory ended the Revolution. Ninety days after, Lord St. Helens gave up Ohio in his treaty with Jay, and England bound herself to deliver the northwestern posts that her fur traders had hung on to so vainly. Niagara, Michilimackinac, Detroit, keys to the Lakes, _entrepôts_ to all the fur trade of the Northwest, were lost to Britain for ever. It was hardest to give up Detroit,--it broke up their route and added many a weight to the weary packer's back when the fur trade had to take a more northern outlet along the Ottawa. It was ten o'clock in the morning of July 11, 1796, when the Detroiters peering through their glasses espied two vessels. "The Yankees are coming!" A thrill went through the garrison, and even through the flag that fluttered above. The last act in the war of independence was at hand. The four gates of Detroit opened to be closed no more, as the drawbridge fell over the moat and the Americans marched into the northern stronghold. It was Lernoult's old fort built so strenuously in that icy winter of 1779-80, when "Clark is coming" was the watchword of the north. Scarce a picket in the stockade had been changed since that trying time. Blockhouse, bastion, and battery could so easily have been taken, that even at this day we cannot suppress a regret that Clark had not a chance at Detroit! Barefooted Frenchmen, dark-eyed French girls, and Indians, Indians everywhere, came in to witness the transfer of Detroit. At noon, July 11, 1796, the English flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes went up where Clark would fain have hung them seventeen years before. And the old cellar of the council house! Like a tomb was its revelation, for there, mouldered with the must of years, lay two thousand scalps, long tresses of women, children's golden curls, and the wiry locks of men, thrown into that official cellar in those awful days that now were ended. The merry Frenchmen on their pipestem farms,--for every inhabitant owned his pathway down to the river,--the merry Frenchmen went on grinding their corn by their old Dutch windmills, went on pressing their cider in their gnarled old apple orchards. They could not change the situation if they would, and they would not if they could. The lazy windmills of Detroit swung round and round as if it had been ever thus. Still the Indians slid in and out and still the British traders lingered, loath to give up the fur trade of the Lakes. The next year after Wayne's victory the last buffalo in Ohio was killed, and in 1796 the first American cabins were built at Cleveland and Chillicothe. For the first time the Ohio, the great highway, was safe. Passenger boats no longer had bullet-proof cabins, no longer trailed cannon on their gunwales. In that year twenty thousand emigrants passed down the Ohio. Astonished and helpless the red men saw the tide. By 1800 there were more whites in the Mississippi valley than there were Indians in all North America. XXVI _THE SPANIARD_ Early in April of 1793 a company of French merchants sat at a dinner in New Orleans. Before them magnolias bloomed in the plaza. Out in the harbour their vessels were flying the Spanish flag. "Spain has declared war against France. A French frigate is sailing for the Gulf." Like a bomb the announcement burst in their midst. The fine and handsome face of Charles De Pauw was lit with determination. He had come over with Lafayette, and had invested a fortune in the new world. "My ships are in danger. I will haul down the Spanish colours and float the American flag. Long enough have the Frenchmen of Missouri and Illinois endured the Spanish yoke. Long enough have our cargoes been confiscated and our trade ruined by unnecessary and tyrannical restrictions." "But America will not help us." "The Kentuckians will," answered De Pauw. "Already they are begging George Rogers Clark to march on New Orleans." A huzza rang round the table. "We shall be here to help him." "Every settlement that borders the Mississippi will join with us. Spain rules to Pittsburg, dictates prices, opens and closes markets. Will Americans endure that? From New Orleans to British America, Spain stretches an invisible cordon, 'thus far and no farther.' All beyond is the private park of Don Carlos IV." "What will Congress do?" "Congress?" echoed another. "What does it matter to those people beyond the Alleghanies? They are very far away. Europe is not so remote. Our interests lie with Mississippi and the sea." "But that would dismember the Union." "Will it dismember the Union for the Louisianians to break their fetter from Spain and thereby give us a market clear of duty? The Kentuckians, equally with us, are irritated at the Spanish Government. We have a right to strike Spain." Charles De Pauw renamed his schooner the "Maria" and sailed out of the Gulf under the Stars and Stripes. On the way to New York he met the frigate returning that brought the French minister, Charles Genet, to Charleston. Acres of flatboats lay freighted on the dimpling Ohio. Corn, wheat, oats, rye,--the worn-out tobacco lands of Virginia knew nothing like it. But the Spaniard stood at the gate and locked up the river. "A King?" Americans laughed at the fancy. "A King to check or hinder us in our rights? Who shall refuse us? Are we not Americans?" "The Mississippi is ours," cried Kentucky. "By the law of nature, by the authority of numbers, by the right of necessity. If Congress will not give it to us, we must take it ourselves." And now France-- George Rogers Clark was profoundly moved by the French crusade for liberty. "We owe it to France to help her. Was not France our friend in the time of trouble?" Then he wrote to the French minister, tendering his services to France in her arduous struggle: "I would begin with St. Louis, a rich, large, and populous town, and by placing two or three frigates within the Mississippi's mouth (to guard against Spanish succours) I would engage to subdue New Orleans, and the rest of Louisiana. If farther aided I would capture Pensacola; and if Santa Fé and the rest of New Mexico were objects--I know their strength and every avenue leading to them, for conquest.--All the routes as well as the defenceless situation of those places are perfectly known to me and I possess draughts of all their defences, and estimates of the greatest force which could oppose me. If France will be hearty and secret in this business my success borders on certainty.--The route from St. Louis to Santa Fé is easy, and the places not very distant.... To save Congress from a rupture with Spain on our account, we must first expatriate ourselves and become French citizens. This is our intention." On its errand of good or ill the letter sped to the French minister to the United States, and lo! that minister was Genet, just landed at Charleston. Genet had come from Revolutionary France, at this moment fighting all Europe, so frightfully had upblazed the tiny spark of liberty borne back by the soldiers of Rochambeau. André Michaux was instructed to hasten to the Falls of the Ohio with this message to George Rogers Clark: "The French minister has filled out this blank commission from his Government making you a Marshal of France, Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the French Legion on the Mississippi." Thus had Genet answered the letter. New Orleans was watching. "The Americans are threatening us with an army assembling on the Ohio," wrote Carondelet in alarm to Spain. "Ill-disposed and fanatical citizens in this Capital," he added, "restless and turbulent men infatuated with Liberty and Equality, are increased with every vessel that comes from the ports of France." He begged Spain to send him troops from Cuba. He begged the Captain General of Cuba to send him troops from Havana. Gayoso put his fort at Vicksburg in defence and Carondelet sent up a division of galleys to New Madrid and St. Louis. But Carondelet, the Governor of Louisiana, had his hands full. Frenchmen of his own city were signing papers to strike a blow for France. He would build defences,--they opposed and complained of his measures. Merchants and others whose business suffered by the uncertainties of commerce took no responsibility as the domineering little Baron endeavoured to fortify New Orleans with palisaded wall, towers, and a moat seven feet deep and forty feet wide. "It may happen that the enemy will try to surprise the plaza on a dark night," said the Baron. All the artillery was mounted. Haughty Spanish cavaliers with swords and helmets paced the parapets of the grim pentagonal bastions. Watchmen with spears and lanterns guarded the gates below. The city was in terror of assault. At every rise of the river Carondelet looked for a filibustering army out of the north. By every ship runners were sent to Spain. News of the intended raid penetrated even the Ursuline Convent. Sister Infelice paled when she heard it, gave a little gasp, and fainted. "Clearly she fears, the gentle sister fears these northern barbarians," remarked the Mother Superior. "Take her to her chamber." And St. Louis,--not since 1780 had she been so alarmed. The Governor constructed a square redoubt flanked by bastions, dug a shallow moat, and raised a fort on the hill. Seventeen grenadiers with drawn sabres stood at the drawbridge. "Immediately on the approach of the enemy, retreat to New Madrid," was the order of this puissant Governor. George Rogers Clark, who had planned and executed the conquest of Illinois, burned now for the conquest of Louisiana. And the West looked to him; she despised and defied the Spaniard as she despised and defied the Indian. They blocked the way, they must depart. Clark's old veteran officers Christy, Logan, Montgomery, sent word they would serve under his command. The French squadron at Philadelphia was to set sail for the Gulf. Major Fulton and Michaux, Clark's right-hand men, travelled all over the West enlisting men, provisions, and money. De Pauw engaged to furnish four hundred barrels of flour and a thousand-weight of bacon, and to send brass cannon over the mountains. In December Clark's men were already cutting timber to build boats on the Bear Grass. Five thousand men were to start in the Spring, provided Congress did not oppose and Genet could raise a million dollars. In despair Carondelet wrote home, saying that if the project planned was carried into effect, he would have no other alternative but to surrender. "Having no reinforcements to hope for from Havana, I have no further hope than in the faults the enemy may commit and in accidents which may perhaps favour us." Carondelet gave up. In March he wrote again, "The commandant at Post Vincennes has offered cannon for the use of the expedition." Early in January Clark was writing to De Pauw, "Have your stores at the Falls by the 20th of February, as in all probability we shall descend the river at that time." Montgomery reported, "arms and ammunition, five hundred bushels of corn and ten thousand pounds of pork, also twenty thousand weight of buffalo beef, eleven hundred weight of bear meat, seventy-four pair venison hams, and some beef tongues." With two hundred men Montgomery lay at the mouth of the Ohio ready to cross over. Not ninety Spaniards of regular troops were there to defend St. Louis, and two hundred militia, and the Governor had only too much reason to fear that St. Louis would open her gates and join the invader. All that was lacking was money. Hundreds of Kentuckians waited the signal to take down their guns and march on New Orleans. But the ministers of Spain and of Great Britain had not been quiet. They both warned Washington. Could he hold the lawless West? It was a problem for statesmen. Jefferson wrote to Governor Shelby of Kentucky to restrain the expedition. "I have grave doubts," Governor Shelby answered, "whether there is any legal authority to restrain or to punish them. For, if it is lawful for any one citizen of the state to leave it, it is equally so for any number of them to do it. It is also lawful for them to carry any quantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition.--I shall also feel but little inclination to take an active part in punishing or retaining any of my fellow citizens for a supposed intention only, to gratify the fears of the ministers of a prince who openly withholds from us an invaluable right, and who secretly instigates against us a most savage and cruel enemy." Washington promptly issued a proclamation of neutrality and requested the recall of Genet. From the new Minister of France Clark received formal notice that the conquest of Louisiana was abandoned. But Spain had had her fright. She at once opened the river, and the mass of collected produce found its way unimpeded to the sea. In June Congress passed a law for ever forbidding such expeditions. "I have learned that the Spaniards have built a fort at Chickasaw Bluff, on this side of the river," said General Wayne, one night in September, 1795, summoning William Clark to his headquarters. "I desire you to go down to the commanding officer on the west side and inquire his intentions." Why, of all that army, had Wayne chosen the young lieutenant of the Fourth Sub-Legion for this errand? Was it because he bore the name of Clark? Very well; both knew why Spain had advanced to the Chickasaw Bluff. As Washington went forty years before to inquire of the French, "Why are you building forts on the Ohio?" so now William Clark, on board the galiot, "La Vigilante," dropped down to New Madrid and asked the Spaniard, "Why are you building forts on the Mississippi?" Down came Charles De Hault De Lassus, the Commandant himself. "I assure you we have been very far from attempting to usurp the territory of a nation with whom we desire to remain in friendship," protested the courtly Commandant with a wave of his sword and a flutter of his plume. "But the threats of the French republicans living in the United States,"--he paused for a reply. "Calm yourself," replied Lieutenant Clark. "Read here the pacific intentions of my country." None better than William Clark understood the virtues of conciliation and persuasion. "I assure you that the United States is disposed to preserve peace with all the powers of Europe, and with Spain especially." With mutual expressions of esteem and cordial parting salvos, Lieutenant Clark left his Spanish friends with a mollified feeling toward "those turbulent Americans." Nevertheless George Rogers Clark had opened the river, to be closed again at peril. Among the soldiers at Wayne's camp that winter was Lieutenant Meriwether Lewis, "just from the Whiskey Rebellion," he said. Between him and William Clark, now Captain Clark, there sprang up the most intimate friendship. "The nature of the Insurrection?" remarked Lewis in his camp talks with Clark. "Why, the Pennsylvania mountaineers about Redstone-Old-Fort refused to pay the whiskey tax, stripped, tarred, and feathered the collectors! 'The people must be taught obedience,' said General Washington, and, after all peaceable means failed, he marched fifteen thousand militia into the district. The thought that Washington was coming at the head of troops made them reconsider. They sent deputations to make terms about the time of Wayne's battle. We built log huts and forted for the winter on the Monongahela about fifteen miles above Pittsburg." "And so the Spaniards have come to terms?" queried Lewis as Clark still remained silent. "Yes, they have opened the river." "I came near being in the midst of that," continued Lewis. "Michaux came to Charlottesville. I was eighteen, just out of school and eager for adventure. Michaux was to explore the West. Mr. Jefferson had a plan for sending two people across the Rocky Mountains. I begged to go, and probably should, had not Michaux been recalled when the new French minister came in." "Rest assured," replied Clark solemnly, "no exploration of the West can ever be made while Spain holds Louisiana." XXVII _THE BROTHERS_ "My claim is as just as the book we swear by." The hero of the heroic age of the Middle West was discussing his debts for the conquest of Illinois. "I have given the United States half the territory they possess, and for them to suffer me to remain in poverty in consequence of it will not redound to their honour. I engaged in the Revolution with all the ardour that youth could possess. My zeal and ambition rose with my success, determined to save those countries which had been the seat of my toil, at the hazard of my life and fortune. "At the most gloomy period of the war when a ration could not be purchased on public credit, I risked my own credit, gave my bonds, mortgaged my lands for supplies, paid strict attention to every department, flattered the friendly and confused the hostile tribes of Indians, by my emissaries baffled my internal enemies (the most dangerous of all to public interest), and carried my point. "Thus at the end of the war I had the pleasure of seeing my country secure, but with the loss of my manual activity. Demands of very great amount were not paid, others with depreciated paper. Now suits are commenced against me, for those sums in specie. My military and other lands, earned by my services, are appropriated for the payment of these debts, and demands yet are remaining, to a considerable amount more than the remains of a shattered fortune will pay. "This is truly my situation. I see no other recourse remaining but to make application to my country for redress." Brooding over his troubles, George Rogers Clark had built himself a little cabin at the Point of Rock, overlooking the Falls of the Ohio, and gone into a self-chosen St. Helena. The waves dashed and roared below and the mist arose, as he looked out on Corn Island, scene of his earliest exploit. A library of handsome books was the principal ornament the house contained. Reading, hunting, fishing, he passed his days, while the old negro servants attended to the kitchen and the garden. "I have come," answered his brother William, "I have retired from the army, to devote myself to you. Now what can be done?" "Done? Look at these bills. Gratiot's is paid, thank God, or he would have been a ruined man. Monroe helped him through with that. And Menard's? That is shelved at Richmond for fifty years." General Clark turned the leaves of his note-book. "And Vigo? But for him I could never have surprised Vincennes. He was the best friend I had, and the best still, except you, William." A singular affection bound these two brothers. It seemed almost as if William took up the life of George Rogers where it was broken off, and carried it on to a glorious conclusion. "Virginia acknowledges Vigo's debt, certifies that it has never been paid but she has ceded those lands to the Government. Who then shall pay it but Congress? The debt was necessary and lawful in contracting for supplies for the conquest of Illinois. Could I have done with less? God knows we went with parched corn only in our wallets and depended on our rifles for the rest. Tell him to keep the draft, Virginia will pay it, or Congress, some time or other, with interest." Again, at William's persuasion, the General came home to Mulberry Hill. An expert horseman, everybody in Louisville knew Captain Clark, who, wrapped in his cloak, came spurring home night after night on his blooded bay, with York at his side, darkness nor swollen fords nor wildly beating storms stopping his journey as he came bearing news to his brother. "I have ridden for brother George in the course of this year upwards of three thousand miles," wrote the Captain to his brother Edmund, in December, 1797, "continually in the saddle, attempting to save him, and have been serviceable to him in several instances. I have but a few days returned from Vincennes attending a suit for twenty-four thousand dollars against him." These long journeys included tours to St. Louis, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, among the General's old debtors, proving that the articles for which he was sued were for his troops, powder and military stores. "The General is very ill again," said father Clark, walking up and down the entry before the chamber door. The old man's severe countenance always relaxed when he spoke of "the General." Of all his children, George Rogers was the one least expected to fall into dissipation, but now in rheumatic distress, old before his time, George Rogers sometimes drank. "Cover him, shield him, let not the world witness my brother's weakness," William would say at such times, affectionately detaining him at Mulberry Hill. Glancing into the dining-room, the white-haired cavalier noticed Fanny and her children and others sitting around the table. Preoccupied, the old man approached, and leaning over a chair delivered an impressive grace. "Now, my children, you can eat your dinner. Do not wait for me," and again he took up his walk in the entry outside the chamber door. A smile wreathed the faces of all; there was no dinner; they were simply visiting near the table. With children and grandchildren around him, the house at Mulberry Hill was always full. At Christmas or Thanksgiving, when Lucy came with her boys from Locust Grove, "Well, my children," father Clark would say, "if I thought we would live, mother and I, five years longer, I would build a new house." But the day before Christmas, 1798, the silky white hair of Ann Rogers Clark was brushed back for the last time, in the home that her taste had beautified with the groves and flowers of Mulberry Hill. More and more frequently the old cavalier retired to his rustic arbour in the garden. "I must hunt up father, he will take cold," William would say; and there on a moonlight night, on his knees in prayer, the old man would be found, among the cedars and honeysuckles of Mulberry Hill. "Why do you dislike old John Clark," some one asked of a neighbour when the venerable man lay on his death-bed. "What? I dislike old John Clark? I revere and venerate him. His piety and virtues may have been a reproach, but I reverence and honour old John Clark." By will the property was divided, and the home at Mulberry Hill went to William. "In case Jonathan comes to Kentucky he may be willing to buy the place," said William. "If he does I shall take the cash to pay off these creditors of yours." "Will you do that?" exclaimed George Rogers Clark gratefully. "I can make it good to you when these lands of mine come into value." "Never mind that, brother, never mind that. The honour of the family demands it. And those poor Frenchmen are ruined." "Indians are at the Falls!" Startled, even now the citizens of Louisville were ready to fly out with shotguns in memory of old animosities. Nothing chills the kindlier impulses like an Indian war. Children age, young men frost and wrinkle, women turn into maniacs. Every log hut had its bedridden invalid victim of successive frights and nervous prostration. Only the stout and sturdy few survived in after days to tell of those fierce times when George Rogers Clark was the hope and safety of the border. To these, the Indian was a serpent in the path, a panther to be hunted. "Hist! go slow. 'Tis the Delaware chiefs come down to visit George Rogers Clark," said Simon Kenton. In these days of peace, remembering still their old terror of the Long Knife, a deputation of chiefs had come to visit Clark. In paint and blankets, with lank locks flapping in the breeze, they strode up the catalpa avenue, sniffing the odours of Mulberry Hill. General Clark looked from the window. Buckongahelas led the train, with Pierre Drouillard, the interpreter. Drouillard had become, for a time, a resident of Kentucky. Simon Kenton, hearing that the preserver of his life had fallen into misfortune since the surrender of Detroit, sent for him, gave him a piece of his farm, and built him a cabin. George Drouillard, a son, named for George III., was becoming a famous hunter on the Mississippi. "We have come," said Buckongahelas, "to touch the Long Knife." Before Clark realised what they were doing, the Indians had snipped off the tail of his blue military coat with their hunting knives. "This talisman will make us great warriors," said Buckongahelas, carefully depositing a fragment in his bosom. Clark laughed, but from that time the Delaware King and his braves were frequent visitors to the Long Knife, who longed to live in the past, forgetting misfortune. But George Rogers Clark was not alone in financial disaster. St. Clair had expended a fortune in the cause of his country and at last, accompanied by his devoted daughter, retired to an old age of penury. Boone, too, had his troubles. Never having satisfied the requirements of law concerning his claim, he was left landless in the Kentucky he had pioneered for civilisation. Late one November day in 1798 he was seen wending his way through the streets of Cincinnati, with Rebecca and all his worldly possessions mounted on packhorses. "Where are you going?" queried an old-time acquaintance. "Too much crowded, too many people. I am going west where there is more elbow room." "Ze celebrated Colonel Boone ees come to live een Louisiana," said the Spanish officers of St. Louis. The Stars and Stripes and the yellow flag of Spain were hung out side by side, and the garrison came down out of the stone fort on the hill to parade in honour of Daniel Boone. No such attentions had ever been paid to Daniel Boone at home. He dined with the Governor at Government House and was presented with a thousand arpents of land, to be located wherever he pleased, "in the district of the Femme Osage." Beside a spring on a creek flowing into the Missouri Boone built his pioneer cabin, beyond the farthest border settlement. "Bring a hundred more American families and we will give you ten thousand arpents of land," said the Governor. Back to his old Kentucky stamping ground went Boone, and successfully piloted out a settlement of neighbours and comrades. Directly, Colonel Daniel Boone was made Commandant of the Femme Osage District. His word became law in the settlement, and here he held his court under a spreading elm that stands to-day, the Judgment Tree of Daniel Boone. XXVIII _THE MAID OF FINCASTLE_ In the autumn days as the century was closing, William Clark set out for Virginia, as his brother had done in other years. Kentucky was filled with old forts, neglected bastions, moats, and blockhouses, their origin forgotten. Already the builders had passed on westward. The Boone trace was lined now with settlements, a beaten bridle-path thronged with emigrant trains kicking up the dust. Through the frowning portals of Cumberland Gap, Captain Clark and his man York galloped into Virginia. From the southern border of Virginia to the Potomac passes the old highway, between the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge. Cantering thoughtfully along under the broad-leaved locusts and laurels, a melody like the laugh of wood-nymphs rippled from the forest. "Why don't he go?" cried a musical feminine voice. "Oh, Harriet, Harriet!" With more laughter came a rustling of green leaves. Parting the forest curtain to discover the source of this unusual commotion, Captain Clark descried two girls seated on a small pony, switching with all their slender energy. "His feet are set. He will not move, Judy." Leaping at once from his saddle, the Captain bowed low to the maidens in distress. "Can I be of any assistance?" The sudden apparition of a handsome soldier in tri-cornered hat and long silk hose quite took their breath away. "Thank you, sir knight," answered the blonde with a flush of bewitching colour. "Firefly, my pony, seems to object to carrying two, but we cannot walk across that ford. My cousin and I have on our satin slippers." The Captain laughed, and taking the horse's bridle easily led them beyond the mountain rill that dashed across their pathway. "And will you not come to my father's house?" inquired the maiden. "It is here among the trees." Clark looked,--the roof and gables of a comfortable Virginian mansion shone amid the greenery. "I fear not. I must reach Colonel Hancock's to-night." "This is Colonel Hancock's," the girls replied with a smothered laugh. At a signal, York lifted the five-barred gate and all passed in to the long green avenue. "The brother of my old friend, General George Rogers Clark!" exclaimed Colonel Hancock. "Glad to see you, glad to see you. Many a time has he stopped on this road." The Hancocks were among the founders of Virginia. With John Smith the first one came over "in search of Forrest for his building of Ships," and was "massacred by ye salvages at Thorp's House, Berkeley Hundred." General Hancock, the father of the present Colonel, equipped a regiment for his son at the breaking out of the Revolution. On Pulaski's staff, the young Colonel received the body of the illustrious Pole as he fell at the siege of Savannah. From his Sea Island plantations and the sound of war in South Carolina, General Hancock, old and in gout, set out for Virginia. But Pulaski had fallen and his son was a prisoner under Cornwallis. Attended only by his daughter Mary and a faithful slave, the General died on the way and was buried by Uncle Primus on the top of King's Mountain some weeks before the famous battle. Released on parole and finding his fortune depleted, Colonel George Hancock read Blackstone and the Virginia laws, took out a license, married, and settled at Fincastle. Here his children were born, of whom Judy was the youngest daughter. Later, by the death of that heroic sister Mary, a niece had come into the family, Harriet Kennerly. These were the girls that Captain Clark had encountered in his morning ride among the mountains of Fincastle. "Your brother, the General, and I journeyed together to Philadelphia, when he was Commissioner of Indian affairs. Is he well and enjoying the fruits of his valour?" continued the Colonel. "My brother is disabled, the result of exposure in his campaigns. He will never recover. I am now visiting Virginia in behalf of his accounts with the Assembly,--they have never been adjusted. He even thought you, his old friend, might be able to lend assistance, either in Virginia or in Congress." "I am honoured by the request. You may depend upon me." Colonel George Hancock had been a member of the Fourth Congress in Washington's administration, and with a four-horse family coach travelled to and from Philadelphia attending the sessions. Here the little Judy's earliest recollections had been of the beautiful Dolly Todd who was about to wed Mr. Madison. Jefferson was Secretary of State then, and his daughters, Maria and Martha, came often to visit Judy's older sisters, Mary and Caroline. Judy's hair was a fluff of gold then; shading to brown, it was a fluff of gold still, that Granny Molly found hard to keep within bounds. Harriet, her cousin, of dark and splendid beauty, a year or two older, was ever the inseparable companion of Judy Hancock. "Just fixing up the place again," explained Colonel Hancock. "It has suffered from my absence at Philadelphia. A tedious journey, a tedious journey from Fincastle." But to the children that journey had been a liberal education. The long bell-trains of packhorses, the rumbling Conestogas, the bateaux and barges, the great rivers and dense forests, the lofty mountains and wide farmlands, the towns and villages, Philadelphia itself, were indelibly fixed in their memory and their fancy. Several times in the course of the next few years, William Clark had occasion to visit Virginia in behalf of his brother, and each time more and more he noted the budding graces of the maids of Fincastle. XXIX _THE PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY_ The funeral bells of Washington tolled in 1800. President Washington was dead. Napoleon was first Consul of France. The old social systems of Europe were tottering. The new social system of America was building. The experiment of self-government had triumphed, and out of the storm-tossed seas still grandly rode the Constitution. Out of the birth of parties and political excitement, Thomas Jefferson came to the Presidency. The stately mansion of Monticello was ablaze with light. Candles lit up every window. Not only Monticello, but all Charlottesville was illuminated, with torches, bonfires, tar-barrels. Friends gathered with congratulations and greeting. As Washington had turned with regret from the banks of the Potomac to fill the first presidency, and as Patrick Henry, the gifted, chafed in Congressional halls, so now Jefferson with equal regret left the shades of Monticello. "No pageant shall give the lie to my democratic principles," he said, as in plain citizen clothes with a few of his friends he repaired to the Capital and took the oath of office. And by his side, with luminous eyes and powdered hair, sat Aaron Burr, the Vice-President. Jefferson, in the simplicity of his past, had penned everything for himself. Now he began to feel the need of a secretary. There were many applicants, but the President's eye turned toward the lad who nine years before had begged to go with Michaux to the West. "The appointment to the Presidency of the United States has rendered it necessary for me to have a private secretary," he wrote to Meriwether Lewis. "Your knowledge of the western country, of the army and of all its interests, has rendered it desirable that you should be engaged in that office. In point of profit it has little to offer, the salary being only five hundred dollars, but it would make you know and be known to characters of influence in the affairs of our country." Meriwether was down on the Ohio. In two weeks his reply came back from Pittsburg. "I most cordially acquiesce, and with pleasure accept the office, nor were further motives necessary to induce my compliance than that you, sir, should conceive that in the discharge of the duties, I could be serviceable to my country as well as useful to yourself." As soon as he could wind up his affairs, Captain Lewis, one of the handsomest men in the army, appeared in queue and cocked hat, silk stockings and knee buckles, at the President's house in wide and windy Washington to take up his duties as private secretary. From his earliest recollection, Meriwether Lewis had known Thomas Jefferson, as Governor in the days of Tarleton's raid, and as a private farmer and neighbour at Monticello. After Meriwether's mother married Captain Marks and moved to Georgia, Jefferson went to France, and his uncle, Colonel Nicholas Lewis, looked after the finances of the great estate at Monticello. Under the guardianship of that uncle, Meriwether attended the school of Parson Maury, the same school where Jefferson had been fitted for college. He remembered, too, that day when Jefferson came back from France and all the slaves at Monticello rushed out and drew the carriage up by hand, crowding around, kissing his hands and feet, blubbering, laughing, crying. How the slaves fell back to admire the young ladies that had left as mere children! Martha, a stately girl of seventeen, and little Maria, in her eleventh year, a dazzling vision of beauty. Ahead of everybody ran the gay and sunny Jack Eppes to escort his little sweetheart. Both daughters were married now, and with families of their own, so more than ever Jefferson depended on Meriwether Lewis. They occupied the same chamber and lived in a degree of intimacy that perhaps has subsisted between no other president and his private secretary. With his favourite Chickasaw horses, Arcturus and Wildair, the President rode two hours every day, Meriwether often with him, directing the workmen on the new Capitol, unfinished still amid stone and masonry tools. Washington himself chose the site, within an amphitheatre of hills overlooking the lordly Potomac where he camped as a youth on Braddock's expedition. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, riding ever to and from Mount Vernon, Monticello, and Montpelier, discussed the plans and set the architects to work. Now it fell to Jefferson to carry on what Washington had so well begun. Thomas Jefferson was a social man, and loved a throng about him. The vast and vacant halls of the White House would have been dreary but for the retinue of guests. Eleven servants had been brought from Monticello, and half-a-dozen from Paris,--Petit, the butler, M. Julien, the cook, a French _chef_, Noel, the kitchen boy, and Joseph Rapin, the steward. Every morning Rapin went to the Georgetown market, and Meriwether Lewis gave him his orders. "For I need you, Meriwether, not only for the public, but as well for the private concerns of the household," said the President affectionately. "And I depend on you to assist in entertaining." "At the head of the table, please," said the President, handing in Mrs. Madison. "I shall have to request you to act as mistress of the White House." In his own youth Jefferson had cherished an affection for Dolly Madison's mother, the beautiful Mary Coles, so it became not difficult to place her daughter in the seat of honour. There were old-style Virginia dinners, with the art of Paris, for ever after his foreign experience Jefferson insisted on training his own servants in the French fashion. At four they dined, and sat and talked till night, Congressmen, foreigners, and all sorts of people, with the ever-present cabinet. James Madison, Secretary of State, was a small man, easy, dignified, and fond of conversation, with pale student face like a young theologian just out of the cloister. Dolly herself powdered his hair, tied up his queue, and fastened his stock; very likely, too, prescribed his elegant knee breeches and buckles and black silk stockings, swans' down buff vest, long coat, and lace ruffles. "A very tasty old-school gentleman," said the guests of the White House. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, born and bred a scholar, was younger than either Madison or Jefferson, well read, with a slightly Genevan accent, and a prominent nose that marked him a man of affairs. But everything revolved about Jefferson, in the village of Washington and in the country at large. Next to General Washington he filled the largest space in public esteem. Slim, tall, and bony, in blue coat faced with yellow, green velveteen breeches, red plush waist-coat and elaborate shirt frill, long stockings and slippers with silver buckles,--just so had he been ever since his Parisian days, picturesquely brilliant in dress and speech, talking, talking, ever genially at the White House. Before the "Mayflower" brought the first Puritans to New England the Jeffersons had settled in Virginia. The President's mother was a Randolph of patrician blood. A hundred servants attended in Isham Randolph's, her father's house. Peter Jefferson, his father, was a democrat of democrats, a man of the people. Perhaps Thomas had felt the sting of Randolph pride that a daughter had married a homely rawboned Jefferson, but all the man in him rose up for that Jefferson from whom he was sprung. Thomas Jefferson, the son, was just such a thin homely rawboned youth as his father had been. Middle age brought him good looks, old age made him venerable, an object of adoration to a people. Always up before sunrise, he routed out Meriwether. There were messages to send, or letters to write, or orders for Rapin before the round disk of day reddened the Potomac. No woman ever brushed his gray neglected hair tied so loosely in a club behind; it was Jeffersonian to have it neglected and tumbled all over his head. Everybody went to the White House for instruction, entertainment; and Jefferson--was Jefferson. Of course he had his enemies, even there. Twice a month Colonel Burr, the Vice-President, the great anti-Virginian, dined at the White House. Attractive in person, distinguished in manner, all looked upon Colonel Burr as next in the line of Presidential succession. He came riding back and forth between Washington and his New York residence at Richmond Hill, and with him the lovely Theodosia, the intimate friend of Dolly Madison and Mrs. Gallatin. Lewis understood some of the bitter and deadly political controversies that were smothered now under the ever genial conversation of the President, for Jefferson, the great apostle of popular sovereignty, could no more conceal his principles than he could conceal his personality. Everything he discussed,--science, politics, philosophy, art, music. None there were more widely read, none more travelled than the President. But he dearly loved politics. Greater, perhaps, was Jefferson in theory than in execution. His eye would light with genius, as he propounded his views. "Science, did you say? The main object of all science is the freedom and happiness of man, and these are the sole objects of all legitimate government. Why, Washington himself hardly believed that so liberal a government as this could succeed, but he was resolved to give the experiment a trial. And now, our people are throwing aside the monarchical and taking up the republican form, with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes. I am persuaded that no Constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire." To Jefferson it had fallen to overthrow church establishment and entail and primogeniture in Virginia, innovations that were followed by all the rest of the States. "At least," pleaded an opponent, "if the eldest may no longer inherit all the lands and all the slaves of his father, let him take a double share." "No," said Jefferson, "not until he can eat a double allowance of food and do a double allowance of work. Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, I would make an opening for an aristocracy of virtue and talent." "But see to what Mr. Jefferson and his levelling system has brought us," cried even John Randolph of Roanoke, as one after another of the estates of thousands of acres slid into the hands of the people. He prohibited the importation of slaves, and, if he could have done it, would have abolished slavery itself before it became the despair of a people. "Franklin a great orator? Why, no, he never spoke in Congress more than five minutes at a time, and then he related some anecdote which applied to the subject before the House. I have heard all the celebrated orators of the National Assembly of France, but there was not one equal to Patrick Henry." And then, confidentially, sometimes he told a tale of the Declaration of Independence. "I shall never cease to be grateful to John Adams, the colossus of that debate. While the discussion was going on, fatherly old Ben Franklin, seventy years old, leaning on his cane, sat by my side, and comforted me with his jokes whenever the criticisms were unusually bitter. The Congress held its meetings near a livery stable. The members wore short breeches and thin silk stockings, and with handkerchief in hand they were diligently employed in lashing the flies from their legs. So very vexatious was the annoyance, and to so great impatience did it arouse the sufferers, that they were only too glad to sign the Declaration and fly from the scene." Two visits every year Jefferson made to his little principality of two hundred inhabitants at Monticello, a short one early in the Spring and a longer one in the latter part of Summer, when he always took his daughter Martha and family from Edge Hill with him, for it would not seem home without Martha to superintend. Here Jefferson had organised his slaves into a great industrial school, had his own carpenters, cabinet-makers, shoe-makers, tailors, weavers, had a nail forge and made nails for his own and neighbouring estates,--his black mechanics were the best in Virginia. Even the family coach was made at Monticello, and the painting and the masonry of the mansion were all executed by slaves on the place. On the Rivanna Jefferson had a mill, where his wheat was manufactured into flour and sent down to Richmond on bateaux to be sold for a good price, and cotton brought home to be made into cloth on the plantation. No wonder, when the master was gone, so extensive an industrial plant ceased to be remunerative. Jefferson was always sending home shrubbery and trees from Washington,--he knew every green thing on every spot of his farm; and Bacon, the manager, seldom failed to send the cart back laden with fruit from Monticello for the White House. While the President at Monticello was giving orders to Goliah, the gardener, to Jupiter, the hostler, to Bacon and all the head men of the shops, Lewis would gallop home to visit his mother at Locust Hill just out of Charlottesville. Before the Revolution, Meriwether's father, William Lewis, had received from George III. a patent for three thousand acres of choice Ivy Creek land in Albemarle, commanding an uninterrupted view of the Blue Ridge for one hundred and fifty miles. Here Meriwether was born, and Reuben and Jane. "If Captain John Marks courts you I advise you to marry him," said Colonel William Lewis to his wife, on his death-bed after the surrender of Cornwallis. In a few years she did marry Captain Marks, and in Georgia were born Meriwether's half brother and sister, John and Mary Marks. Another spot almost as dear to Meriwether Lewis was the plantation of his uncle Nicholas Lewis, "The Farm," adjoining Monticello. It was here he saw Hamilton borne by, a prisoner of war, on the way to Williamsburg, and here it was that Tarleton made his raid and stole the ducks from Aunt Molly's chicken yard. A strict disciplinarian, rather severe in her methods, and very industrious was Aunt Molly, "Captain Molly" they called her. "Even Colonel 'Nick,' although he can whip the British, stands in wholesome awe of Captain Molly, his superior in the home guards," said the gossiping neighbours of Charlottesville. As a boy on this place, Meriwether visited the negro cabins, followed the overseer, or darted on inquiry bent through stables, coach-house, hen-house, smoke-house, dove cote, and milk-room, the ever-attending lesser satellites of every mansion-house of old Virginia. "Bless your heart, my boy," was Aunt Molly's habitual greeting, "to be a good boy is the surest way to be a great man." A tender heart had Aunt Molly, doctress of half the countryside, who came to her for remedies and advice. Her home was ever open to charity. As friends she nursed and cared for Burgoyne's men, the Saratoga prisoners. "Bury me under the tulip tree on top of the hill overlooking the Rivanna," begged one of the sick British officers. True to her word, Aunt Molly had him laid under the tulip tree. Many generations of Lewises and Meriwethers lie now on that hill overlooking the red Rivanna, but the first grave ever made there was that of the British prisoner so kindly cared for by Meriwether Lewis's Aunt Molly. "Meriwether and Lewis are old and honoured names in Virginia. I really believe the boy will be a credit to the family," said Aunt Molly when the President's secretary reined up on Wildair at the gate. The Captain's light hair rippled into a graceful queue tied with a ribbon, and his laughing blue eyes flashed as Maria Wood ran out to greet her old playfellow. Aunt Molly was Maria's grandmother. "Very grand is my cousin Meriwether now," began the mischievous Maria. "Long past are those days when as a Virginia ranger he prided himself on rifle shirts faced with fringe, wild-cat's paws for epaulettes, and leathern belts heavy as a horse's surcingle." Lifting her hands in mock admiration Maria smiled entrancingly, "Indeed, gay as Jefferson himself is our sublime dandy, in blue coat, red velvet waistcoat, buff knee breeches, and brilliant buckles!" and Meriwether answered with a kiss. Maria Wood was, perhaps, the dearest of Meriwether's friends, although rumour said he had been engaged to Milly Maury, the daughter of the learned Parson. But how could that be when Milly married while Meriwether was away soldiering on the Ohio? At any rate, now he rode with Maria Wood, danced with her, and took her out to see his mother at Locust Hill. The whole family relied on Meriwether at Locust Hill. While only a boy he took charge of the farm, and of his own motion built a carriage and drove to Georgia after his mother and the children upon the death of Captain Marks. Back through the Cherokee-haunted woods they came, with other travellers journeying the Georgia route. One night campfires were blazing for the evening meal, when "Whoop!" came the hostile message and a discharge of arms. "Indians! Indians!" All was confusion. Paralysed mothers hugged their infants and children screamed, when a boy in the crowd threw a bucket of water on the fire extinguishing the light. In a moment all was still, as the men rushed to arms repelling the attack. That boy was Meriwether Lewis. "No brother like mine," said little Mary Marks. "Every noble trait is his,--he is a father to us children, a counsellor to our mother, and more anxious about our education than even for his own!" Charles de St. Memin, a French artist, was in Washington, engraving on copper. "May I have your portrait as a typical handsome American?" he said to the President's secretary. Meriwether laughed and gave him a sitting. The same hand that had so lately limned Paul Revere, Theodosia Burr, and the last profile of Washington himself, sketched the typical youth of 1801. Lewis sent the drawing to his mother, the head done in fired chalk and crayon, with that curious pink background so peculiar to the St. Memin pictures. XXX _THE PRESIDENT TALKS WITH MERIWETHER_ Hours by themselves Jefferson sat talking to Lewis. With face sunny, lit with enthusiasm, he spoke rapidly, even brilliantly, a dreamer, a seer, a prophet, believing in the future of America. "I have never given it up, Meriwether. Before the peace treaty was signed, after the Revolution, I was scheming for a western exploration. We discussed it at Annapolis; I even went so far as to write to George Rogers Clark on the subject. Then Congress sent me to France. "In France a frequent guest at my table was John Ledyard, of Connecticut. He had accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and now panted for some new enterprise. He had endeavoured to engage the merchants of Boston in the Northwest fur trade, but the times were too unsettled. 'Why, Mr. Jefferson,' he was wont to say, 'that northwest land belongs to us. I felt I breathed the air of home the day we touched at Nootka Sound. The very Indians are just like ours. And furs,--that coast is rich in beaver, bear, and otter. Depend upon it,' he used to say, 'untold fortunes lie untouched at the back of the United States.'" "I then proposed to him to go by land to Kamtchatka, cross in some Russian vessel to Nootka Sound, fall down into the latitude of the Missouri, and penetrate to and through that to the United States. Ledyard eagerly seized the idea. I obtained him a permit from the Empress Catherine, and he set out; went to St. Petersburg, crossed the Russian possessions to within two hundred miles of Kamtchatka. Here he was arrested by order of the Empress, who by this time had changed her mind, and forbidden his proceeding. He was put in a close carriage, and conveyed day and night, without ever stopping, till they reached Poland; where he was set down and left to himself. The fatigue of this journey broke down his constitution, and when he returned to me at Paris his bodily strength was much impaired. His mind, however, remained firm and he set out for Egypt to find the sources of the Nile, but died suddenly at Cairo. Thus failed the first attempt to explore the western part of our northern continent. "Imagine my interest, later, to learn that after reading of Captain Cook's voyages the Boston merchants had taken up Ledyard's idea and in 1787 sent two little ships, the 'Columbia Rediviva' and the 'Lady Washington' into the Pacific Ocean. "Barely was I back and seated in Washington's cabinet as Secretary of State, before those Boston merchants begged my intercession with the Court of Spain, for one Don Blas Gonzalez, Governor of Juan Fernandez. Passing near that island, one of the ships was damaged by a storm, her rudder broken, her masts disabled, and herself separated from her companion. She put into the island to refit, and at the same time to wood and water. Don Blas Gonzalez, after examining her, and finding she had nothing on board but provisions and charts, and that her distress was real, permitted her to stay a few days, to refit and take in fresh supplies of wood and water. For this act of common hospitality, he was immediately deprived of his government, unheard, by superior order, and placed under disgrace. Nor was I ever able to obtain a hearing at the Court of Spain, and the reinstatement of this benevolent Governor. "The little ships went on, however, and on May 11, 1792, Captain Robert Gray, a tar of the Revolution, discovered the great river of the west and named it for his gallant ship, the 'Columbia.' "In that very year, 1792, not yet having news of this discovery, I proposed to the American Philosophical Society that we should set on foot a subscription to engage some competent person to explore that region, by ascending the Missouri and crossing the Stony Mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific. The sum of five thousand dollars was raised for that purpose, and André Michaux, a French botanist, was engaged as scientist, but when about to start he was sent by the French minister on political business to Kentucky." Meriwether Lewis laughed. "I remember. I was then at Charlottesville on the recruiting service, and warmly solicited you to obtain for me the appointment to execute that adventure. But Mr. André Michaux offering his services, they were accepted." Both were silent for a time. Michaux had gone on his journey as far as Kentucky, become the confidential agent between Genet and George Rogers Clark for the French expedition, and been recalled by request of Washington. "Meriwether," continued the President, "I see now some chance of accomplishing that northwest expedition. The act establishing trading posts among the Indians is about to expire. My plan is to induce the Indians to abandon hunting and become agriculturists. As this may deprive our traders of a source of profit, I would direct their attention to the fur trade of the Missouri. In a few weeks I shall make a confidential communication to Congress requesting an appropriation for the exploration of the northwest. We shall undertake it as a literary and commercial pursuit." "And, sir, may I lead that exploration?" "You certainly shall," answered the President. "How much money do you think it would take?" Secretary Lewis spent the next few days in making an estimate. "Mathematical instruments, arms and accoutrements, camp equipage, medicine and packing, means for transportation, Indian presents, provisions, pay for hunters, guides, interpreters, and contingencies,-- twenty-five hundred dollars will cover it all, I think." Then followed that secret message of January 18, 1803, dictated by Jefferson, penned by Lewis, in which the President requested an appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, "for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States." Congress granted the request, and busy days of preparation followed. The cabinet were in the secret, and the ladies, particularly Mrs. Madison and Mrs. Gallatin, were most interested and sympathetic, providing everything that could possibly be needed in such a perilous journey, fearing that Lewis might never return from that distant land of savages. The President's daughters, Mrs. Randolph and Mrs. Eppes, were there, handsome, accomplished, delicate women, who rode about in silk pelisses purchasing at the shops the necessaries for "housewives," pins, needles, darning yarn, and the thousand and one little items that women always give to soldier boys. Dolly Madison, in mulberry-coloured satin, a tulle kerchief on her neck and dainty cap on her head, stitched, stitched; and in the streets, almost impassable for mud, she and Martha, the President's daughter, were often mistaken for each other as they went to and fro guided by Dolly's cousin, Edward Coles, a youth destined to win renown himself one day, as the "anti-slavery governor" of Illinois. In his green knee pants and red waistcoat, long stockings and slippers, the genial President looked in on the busy ladies at the White House, but his anxiety was on matters of far more moment than the stitchery of the cabinet ladies. Alexander Mackenzie's journal of his wonderful transcontinental journey in 1793 was just out, the book of the day. It thrilled Lewis,--he devoured it. Before starting on his tour Alexander Mackenzie went to London and studied mathematics and astronomy. "It is my own dream," exclaimed Lewis, as the President came upon him with the volumes in hand. "But the scientific features, to take observations, to be sure of my botany, to map longitude--" "That must come by study," said Jefferson. "I would have you go to Philadelphia to prosecute your studies in the sciences. I think you had better go at once to Dr. Barton,--I will write to him to-day." And again in the letter to Dr. Barton, Meriwether's hand penned the prosecution of his fortune. "I must ask the favour of you to prepare for him a note of those lines of botany, zoölogy, or of Indian history which you think most worthy of study or observation. He will be with you in Philadelphia in two or three weeks and will wait on you and receive thankfully on paper any communications you may make to him." Jefferson had ever been a father to Meriwether Lewis, had himself watched and taught him. And Lewis in his soul revered the great man's learning, as never before he regretted the wasted hours at Parson Maury's when often he left his books to go hunting on Peter's Mount. But proudly lifting his head from these meditations: "I am a born woodsman, Mr. Jefferson. You know that." "Know it!" Jefferson laughed. "Does not the fame of your youthful achievements linger yet around the woods of Monticello? I have not forgotten, Meriwether, that when you were not more than eight years old you were accustomed to go out into the forest at night alone in the depth of winter with your dogs and gun to hunt the raccoon and opossum. Nor have I forgotten when the Cherokees attacked your camp in Georgia." The young man flushed. "Your mother has often told it. It was when you were bringing them home to Albemarle. How old were you then? About eighteen? The Indians whooped and you put out the fire, the only cool head among them. A boy that could do that can as a man lead a great exploration like this. "Nor need you fret about your lack of science,--the very study of Latin you did with Parson Maury fits you to prepare for me those Indian vocabularies. I am fortunate to have one so trained. Latin gives an insight into the structure of all languages. For years, now, I have been collecting and studying the Indian tongues. Fortune now permits you to become my most valued coadjutor." And so Lewis noted in his book of memorandum, "Vocabularies of Indian languages." "You ought to have a companion, a military man like George Rogers Clark. I have always wished to bring him forward in Indian affairs; no man better understands the savage." "But Clark has a brother," quickly spoke Lewis, "a brave fellow, absolutely unflinching in the face of danger. If I could have my choice, Captain William Clark should be my companion and the sharer of my command." Two years Lewis had been Jefferson's private secretary, when, appointed to this work, he went to Philadelphia to study natural science and make astronomical observations for the geography of the route. This youth, who had inherited a fortune and every inducement to a life of ease, now spent three months in severest toil, under the instruction of able professors, learning scientific terms and calculating latitude and longitude. Early in June he was back at Washington. Already the President had secured letters of passport from the British, French, and Spanish ministers, for this expedition through foreign territory. "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practicable water-communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce." Far into the June night Jefferson discussed his instructions, and signed the historic document. "I have no doubt you will use every possible exertion to get off, as the delay of a month now may lose a year in the end." Lewis felt the pressure; he was packing his instruments, writing to military posts for men to be ready when he came down the river, and hurrying up orders at Harper's Ferry, when a strange and startling event occurred, beyond the vision of dreamers. Book II _INTO THE WEST_ Book II _INTO THE WEST_ I _THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE_ "Spain, knowing she cannot hold Louisiana, has ceded it to France!" The winds of ocean bore the message to America. "Napoleon? Is he to control us also?" Never so vast a shadow overawed the world. Afar they had read of his battles, had dreaded his name. Instantly colossal Napoleon loomed across the prairies of the West. Napoleon had fifty-four ships and fifty thousand troops, the flower of his army, sailing to re-establish slavery in Hayti. But a step and he would be at the Mississippi. He was sending Laussat, a French prefect, to take over New Orleans and wait for the army. "Shall we submit? And is this to be the end of all our fought-for liberty, that Napoleon should rule America?" The fear of France was now as great as had been the admiration. Gaily the flatboats were floating down, laden with flour and bacon, hams and tobacco, seeking egress to Cuba and Atlantic seaports, when suddenly, in October, 1802, the Spanish Intendant at New Orleans closed the Mississippi. Crowding back, for twenty thousand miles inland, were the products of the Autumn. The western country blazed; only by strenuous effort could Congress keep a backwoods army from marching on New Orleans. A powerful minority at Washington contended for instant seizure. Pittsburg, with shore lined with shipping, roared all the way to the gulf, "No grain can be sold down the river on account of those piratical Spaniards!" Appeal after appeal went up to Jefferson, "Let us sweep them into the sea!" What hope with a foreign nation at our gates? Spain might be got rid of, but France--Monroe was dispatched to France to interview Napoleon. "The French must not have New Orleans," was the lightning thought of Jefferson. "No one but ourselves must own our own front door." And Jefferson penned a letter to Livingstone, the American minister at Paris: "There is on the globe but one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market. France placing herself in that door assumes to us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Not so France. The impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, render it impossible that France and the United States can continue friends when they meet in so irritating a position. The day that France takes possession of New Orleans--from that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." As Jefferson placed that letter in the hands of Monroe he added: "In Europe nothing but Europe is seen. But this little event, of France's possessing herself of Louisiana,--this speck which now appears an invisible point on the horizon,--is the embryo of a tornado. "I must secure the port of New Orleans and the mastery of the navigation of the Mississippi. "We must have peace. The use of the Mississippi is indispensable. We must purchase New Orleans." "You are aware of the sensibility of our Western citizens," Madison was writing to Madrid. "To them the Mississippi is everything. It is the Hudson, the Delaware, the Potomac, and all the navigable rivers of the Atlantic States, formed into one." But Napoleon's soldiers were dying at San Domingo, the men with whom he would have colonised Louisiana. At that moment the flint and steel of France and England struck, and the spark meant--war. England stood ready to seize the mouth of the Mississippi. After the solemnities of Easter Sunday at St. Cloud, April 10, 1803, Napoleon summoned two of his ministers. "I _know_ the full value of Louisiana!" he began with vehement passion, walking up and down the marble parlour. "A few lines of treaty have restored it to me, and I have scarcely recovered it when I must expect to lose it. But if it escapes from me," the First Consul shook his finger menacingly, "it shall one day cost dearer to those who oblige me to strip myself of it, than to those to whom I wish to deliver it. The English have successively taken from France, Canada, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the richest portions of Asia. They _shall not have_ the Mississippi which they covet. They have twenty ships of war in the Gulf of Mexico, they sail over those seas as sovereigns. The conquest of Louisiana would be easy. I have not a moment to lose in putting it out of their reach. I know not whether they are not already there. I think of ceding it to the United States. They only ask one town of me in Louisiana but I already consider the colony as entirely lost, and it appears to me that in the hands of this growing power it will be more useful to the policy and even to the commerce of France, than if I should attempt to keep it." He turned to Barbé-Marbois, who had served as Secretary of the French Legation at Philadelphia during the whole war of the American Revolution. "We should not hesitate to make a sacrifice of that which is about slipping from us," said Barbé-Marbois. "War with England is inevitable; shall we be able to defend Louisiana? Can we restore fortifications that are in ruins? If, Citizen Consul, you, who have by one of the first acts of your government made sufficiently apparent your intention of giving this country to France, now abandon the idea of keeping it, there is no person that will not admit that you yield to necessity." Far into the night they talked, so late that the ministers slept at St. Cloud. At daybreak Napoleon summoned Barbé-Marbois. "Read me the dispatches from London." "Sire," returned the Secretary, looking over the papers, "naval and military preparations of every kind are making with extraordinary rapidity." Napoleon leaped to his feet and strode again the marble floor. "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. I _renounce_ Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I will cede, but the whole colony without reservation. I _know_ the price of what I abandon. I renounce it with regret. To attempt to retain it would be folly. I direct you to negotiate this affair with the United States. Do not even await the arrival of Mr. Monroe; have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingstone; but I require a great deal of money for this war, and I would not like to commence it with new contributions. I want fifty millions, and for less than that sum I will not treat. To-morrow you shall have your full powers." The minister waited. "Mr. Monroe is on the point of arriving," continued Napoleon. "Neither this minister, nor his colleague, is prepared for a decision which goes infinitely beyond anything they are about to ask of us. Begin by making them overtures, without any subterfuge. Acquaint me, hour by hour, of your progress." "What will you pay for all Louisiana?" bluntly asked Barbé-Marbois that day of the astonished Livingstone. "_All Louisiana!_ New Orleans is all I ask for," answered Livingstone. So long had Talleyrand trifled and deceived, the American found himself distrustful of these French diplomatists. "But I offer the province," said Barbé-Marbois. Surprised, doubtful, Livingstone listened. "I have not the necessary powers." The next day Monroe arrived. "There must be haste or the English will be at New Orleans," said Barbé-Marbois. "How much will you pay for the whole province?" "The English? Fifteen millions," answered the Americans. "Incorporate Louisiana as soon as possible into your Union," said Napoleon, "give to its inhabitants the same rights, privileges, and immunities as to other citizens of the United States. "And let them know that we separate ourselves from them with regret; let them retain for us sentiments of affection; and may their common origin, descent, language, and customs perpetuate the friendship." The papers were drawn up and signed in French and in English. "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives!" exclaimed Livingstone, as he and Barbé-Marbois and Monroe arose and shook hands across the document. "This accession of territory strengthens for ever the power of the United States," said Napoleon, coming in to look at the treaty. And as he affixed that signature, "NAPOLEON," he smiled,--"I have just given to England a maritime rival, that sooner or later will humble her pride." And on that day the Mississippi was opened, to be closed by a foreign power no more for ever. But no sooner had Napoleon parted with Louisiana than he began to repent. "Hasten," the ministers warned Jefferson, "the slightest delay may lose us the country." The word reached America. "Jefferson--bought New Orleans? bought the Mississippi? bought the entire boundless West?" Men gasped, then cheered. Tumultuous excitement swept the land. On July 3, 1803, an infant Republic hugging the Atlantic, on July 4, a world power grasping the Pacific! "A bargain!" cried the Republicans. "Unconstitutional!" answered the Federalists. "The East will become depopulated." "Fifteen millions! Fifteen millions for that wilderness! Why, that would be tons of money! Waggon loads of silver five miles long. We have not so much coin in the whole country!" II _THE KNIGHT OF THE WHITE HOUSE_ And Meriwether Lewis was ready to start. The night before the Fourth of July he wrote his mother: "The day after to-morrow I shall set out for the western country. I had calculated on the pleasure of visiting you, but circumstances have rendered it impossible. My absence will probably be equal to fifteen or eighteen months. The nature of this expedition is by no means dangerous. My route will be altogether through tribes of Indians friendly to the United States, therefore I consider the chances of life just as much in my favour as I should conceive them were I to remain at home. The charge of this expedition is honourable to myself, as it is important to my country. For its fatigues I feel myself perfectly prepared, nor do I doubt my health and strength of constitution to bear me through it. I go with the most perfect pre-conviction in my own mind of returning safe, and hope therefore that you will not suffer yourself to indulge any anxiety for my safety,--I will write again on my arrival at Pittsburg. Adieu, and believe me your affectionate son, MERIWETHER LEWIS." The Jefferson girls had returned to their homes. Dolly Madison and Mrs. Gallatin supervised the needle department, having made "housewives" enough to fit out a regiment. Joseph Rapin, the steward, helped Lewis pack his belongings, Secretary Gallatin contributed a map of Vancouver's sketch of the Columbia mouth, and Madison rendered his parting benediction. Out of the iron gate in the high rock wall in front of the White House Meriwether went,--fit emblem of the young Republic, slim and lithe, immaculate in new uniform and three-cornered _chapeau_, his sunny thick-braided queue falling over the high-collared coat,--to meet the Potomac packet for Harper's Ferry. All around were uncut forests, save the little clearing of Washington, and up the umbrageous hills stretched an endless ocean of tree-tops. The wind blew up the Potomac, fluttering the President's gray locks. "If a superior force should be arrayed against your passage, return, Meriwether," was the anxious parting word. "To your own discretion must be left the degree of danger you may risk." But Meriwether had no fears. "Should you reach the Pacific Ocean,--endeavour to learn if there be any port within your reach frequented by sea-vessels of any nation, and to send two of your trusted people back by sea, with a copy of your notes. Should you be of opinion that the return of your party by the way they went will be dangerous, then ship the whole, and return by way of Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. As you will be without money, clothes or provisions, I give you this open letter of credit authorising you to draw on the Executive of the United States or any of its officers in any part of the world. Our consuls at Batavia in Java, at the Isles of France and Bourbon, and at the Cape of Good Hope will be able to supply you necessities by drafts on us." For where in the world the Missouri led, no man then knew! "I have sometimes thought of sending a ship around to you," said Jefferson, "but the Spaniards would be certain to gobble it, and we are in trouble enough with them already over this Louisiana Purchase." Too well Lewis knew the delicacy of the situation. Spain was on fire over the treachery of Napoleon. "France has no right to alienate Louisiana!" was the cry from Madrid. But what could she do? Nothing but fume, delay, threaten,--Napoleon was master. "Under present circumstances," continued the President, "I consider futile all effort to get a ship to your succour on those shores. Spain would be only too glad to strike a blow. But there must be trade, there is trade,--all through Adams's administration the Russians were complaining of Yankee skippers on that northwest coast. "Russia has aided us, I may call the Emperor my personal friend." With pardonable pride the President thought of the bust of Alexander over his study door at Monticello. "Though Catherine did send poor Ledyard back, Alexander has proved himself true, and in case any Russian ship touches those shores you are safe, or English, or American. This letter of credit will carry you through. "And above all, express my philanthropic regard for the Indians. Humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts." And after Lewis was fairly started, the President sent on as a great secret, "I have received word from Paris that Mr. Broughton, one of the companions of Captain Vancouver, went up Columbia River one hundred miles in December, 1792. He stopped at a point he named Vancouver. Here the river Columbia is still a quarter of a mile wide. From this point Mt. Hood is seen twenty leagues distant, which is probably a dependency of the Stony Mountains. Accept my affectionate salutations." On the Fourth of July the same hand that drew up the Declaration of Independence had drawn for Meriwether Lewis a Letter of Credit, authorising him to purchase anything he needed on the credit of the United States in any part of the world. Was Jefferson thinking of those days when George Rogers Clark gave drafts on New Orleans for the conquest of Illinois? This again was another venture into a dark unwritten West. The next day Lewis "shot all his guns" at Harper's Ferry, examined extra locks, knives, tomahawks, accoutrements that had been manufactured at his special direction. The waggoner from Philadelphia came jolting by with Indian presents, astronomical apparatus, and tents on the way to Pittsburg. Pittsburg? A cloud of smoke hung even then over the embryotic city. Two thousand miles inland, it already had a flourishing ship-yard. Several large vessels lay on the stocks and builders were hammering day and night. "The 'Louisiana,' three hundred tons, is waiting for the next rise of the river," said a strapping tar. "In May a fleet of schooners went out to the Caribbees. You are too late for this summer's freshet." "Come, gentlemen, gentlemen all, Ginral Sincleer shall remem-ber-ed be, For he lost thirteen hundred me-en all In the Western Tari-to-ree." Captain Lewis took a second look at the singer,--it was George Shannon standing on the dock. "Why, Captain Lewis! Where are you going?" George was an old friend of Meriwether's, and yet but a lad of seventeen. His father, one of those "ragged Continentals" that marched on Yorktown, had emigrated to the far Ohio. Jane Shannon was a typical pioneer mother. She spun, wove, knit, made leggings of skins, and caps and moccasins, but through multitudinous duties found time to teach her children. "To prepare them for college," she said, "that is my dream. I'd live on hoe-cake for ever to give them a chance." Every one of her six boys inherited that mother's spirit, every one attained distinction. At fourteen George was sent to his mother's relatives on the Monongahela to school. Here he met Lewis, forted in that winter camp. The gallant Virginian captured the boy's fancy,--he became his model, his ideal. "And can you go?" asked Captain Lewis. "Go? I will accompany you to the end of the world, Captain Lewis," answered George Shannon. "There is no time for mails,--I know I have my parent's consent. And the pay, that will take me to college!" Shannon enlisted on the spot, and was Lewis's greatest comfort in those trying days at Pittsburg. The boat-builders were drunkards. "I spent most of my time with the workmen," wrote Lewis to the President, "but neither threats nor persuasion were sufficient to procure the completion before the 31st of August." Loading the boat the instant it was done, they set out at four o'clock in the morning, with John Collins of Maryland, and George Gibson, Hugh McNeal, John Potts, and Peter Wiser, of Pennsylvania, recruits that had been ordered from Carlisle. Peter Wiser is believed to have been a descendant of that famous Conrad Weiser who gave his life to pacifying the Indian. By this time the water was low. "On board my boat opposite Marietta, Sept. 13," Lewis writes,--"horses or oxen--I find the most efficient sailors in the present state of navigation," dragging the bateaux over shallows of drift and sandbars. And yet that same Spring, when the water was high, Marietta had sent out the schooners "Dorcas and Sally," and the "Mary Avery," one hundred and thirty tons, with cheers and firing of cannon. When Lewis passed, a three-mast brig of two hundred and fifty tons and a smaller one of ninety tons were on the point of being finished to launch the following Spring, with produce for Philadelphia. George Shannon was a handsome boy, already full grown but with the beardless pink and white of youth. His cap would not fit down over his curls, but lifted like his own hopes. Nothing would start the boats at daylight like his jolly, rollicking "Blow, ye winds of morning, Blow, blow, blow," rolling across the tints of sunrise. His cheeks glowed, his blue eyes shone to meet the wishes of his captain. Past the fairy isle of Blennerhassett with its stately mansion half-hid behind avenues of Lombardy poplar and tasteful shrubbery, Captain Lewis came on down to Fort Washington, Cincinnati, where brigs had lately taken on cargoes and sailed to the West Indies. Bones? Of course Lewis wanted to look at bones and send some to the learned President. Dr. Goforth of Cincinnati was sinking a pit at the Big Bone Lick for remains of the mammoth, and might not mammoths be stalking abroad in all that great land of the West? Mystery, mystery,--the very air was filled with mystery. III _RECRUITING FOR OREGON_ "Now that I have accepted President Jefferson's proposal to be associated with Captain Lewis in this expedition, it will oblige me to accept brother Jonathan's offer of ten thousand dollars cash for Mulberry Hill," William Clark was saying at Louisville. "That will help out brother George on his military debts, satisfy his claimants, and save him from ruin." At the time of sale the old home was occupied by General Clark and William Clark, and their sister Fanny and her children. The departure of William for the Pacific broke up and dispersed the happy family. The General went back to the Point of Rock, fifty feet above the dashing Ohio. That water was the lowest ever known now, men could walk across on the rocks. Three or four locust trees shaded the cabin, now painted white, and an orchard of peach and cherry blossomed below. Negro Ben and his wife Venus, and Carson and Cupid, lived back of the house and cultivated a few acres of grain and garden. All of Clark's old soldiers remained loyal and visited the Point of Rock, and every year an encampment of braves, Indian chiefs whom he had subdued, came for advice and to partake of his hospitality. Grand and lonely, prematurely aged at fifty-one when he should have been in his prime, General Clark sat overlooking the Falls when Captain Lewis pulled his bateaux into the Bear Grass. Captain Clark and nine young men of Kentucky were waiting for the boat,--William Bratton, a blacksmith, formerly of Virginia, and John Shields, gunsmith, the Tubal Cain of the expedition, John Coalter, who had been a ranger with Kenton, the famous Shields brothers, Reuben and James, William Warner and Joseph Whitehouse, all experts with the rifle, Charles Floyd, son of that Charles Floyd that rode with his brother from the death-stroke of Big Foot, and Nathaniel Pryor, his cousin. Twenty years had passed since that fatal April morning when John Floyd was laid a corpse at the feet of Jane Buchanan. That posthumous child, ushered so sadly into the world, John Floyd the younger, now a handsome youth, was eager to go with his cousins--but an unexpected illness held him back--to become a member of Congress and Governor of Virginia. And York, of course York. Had he not from childhood obeyed John Clark's command, "Look after your young master"? With highest elation York assisted in the preparation, furbished up his gun, and prepared to "slay dem buffaloes." "An interpreter is my problem now," said Captain Lewis, "a man familiar with Indians, trustworthy, and skilled in tongues." "I think my brother will know the man,--he has had wide experience in that line," said William; and so down to the Point of Rock the Captains betook themselves to visit George Rogers Clark. "Dignity sat still upon his countenance and the commanding look of Washington," wrote a chronicler of that day. "An interpreter?" mused General Clark. Then turning to his brother, "Do you remember Pierre Drouillard, the Frenchman that saved Kenton? He was a man of tact and influence with the Indians, and, although he wore the red coat, a man of humanity. He interpreted for me at Fort McIntosh and at the Great Miami. He comes with Buckongahelas." William Clark remembered. "That old Frenchman has a son, George, chip of the old block, brought up with the Indians and educated at a mission. He is your man,--at St. Louis, I think." "Always demand of the Indians what you want, William, that is the secret. Never let them think you fear them. Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted. Who knows what fortune may do for you?" It was the self-same saying with which twenty-four years before he had started to Vincennes. "Here are letters to some of my old friends at St. Louis and Kaskaskia," added the General. All the negroes were out to weep over York, whom they feared to see no more,--old York and Rose, Nancy and Julia, Jane, Cupid and Harry, from the scattered home at Mulberry Hill. General Jonathan Clark and Major Croghan were there, the richest men in Kentucky, and General Jonathan's daughters who stitched their samplers now at Mulberry Hill; and Lucy, from Locust Grove, the image of William, "with face almost too strong for a woman," some said. All the city knew her, a miracle of benevolence and duty, and by her side the little son, George Croghan, destined to hand on the renown of his fathers. William Clark's last word was for Fanny, a widow with children. "It is my desire that she should stay with Lucy at Locust Grove until my return," said the paternal brother, kissing her pale cheek. "And I want Johnny with me at the Point of Rock," added the lonely General, who, if he loved any one, it was little John O'Fallon, the son of his sister Fanny. "Bring on your plunder!" The Kentuckians could be recognised by their call as they helped the bateaux over the rapids and launched them below. George Rogers Clark stood on the Point of Rock, waving a last farewell, watching them down the river. While Captain Clark went on down the Ohio, and engaged a few men at Fort Massac, Captain Lewis followed the old Vincennes "trace" to Kaskaskia. In that very September, Sergeant John Ordway, in Russell Bissell's company, was writing home to New Hampshire: "Kaskaskia is a very old town of about two hundred houses and ruins of many more. We lie on the hill in sight of the town, and have built a garrison here.--If Betty Crosby will wait for my return I may perhaps join hands with her yet. We have a company of troops from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, here." Captain Lewis came up to the garrison. Out of twenty volunteers only three possessed the requisite qualifications. But Sergeant Ordway was one, Robert Frazer of Vermont, another, and Thomas P. Howard, of Massachusetts, the third. Oppressed and anxious in mind over the difficulty of finding suitable men, Captain Lewis was one morning riding along when into the high road there ran out a short, strong, compact, broad-chested and heavy-limbed man, lean, sprightly, and quick of motion, in the dress of a soldier. His lively eye instantly caught that of Captain Lewis. Perceiving that the soldier was evidently bent on seeing him, Lewis checked his horse and paused. With military salute the man began: "Me name is Patrick Gass, sorr, and I want to go with you to the Stony Mountings, but my Commander, sorr, here at the barracks, will not consint. He siz, siz he, 'You are too good a carpenter, Pat, and I need you here.'" His build, his manner, and the fact that Pat was a soldier and a carpenter, was enough. Men must be had, and here was a droll one, the predestined wit of the expedition. "I knew you, sorr, when I saw your horse ferninst the trees. I recognised a gintleman and an officer. I saw you whin I met Gineral Washington at Carlisle out with throops to suppriss the Whiskey Rebillion. I met Gineral Washington that day, and I sid, siz I, 'Gineral, I'm a pathriot mesilf and I'll niver risist me gover'm'nt, but I love ould Bourbon too well to inlist agin the whiskey byes.'" "And have you never served in the field?" roared Lewis, almost impatient. "Ah, yis; whin Adams was Prisident, I threw down me jackplane and inlisted under Gineral Alexander Hamilton, but there was no war, so thin I inlisted under Major Cass." Patrick glanced back and saw his Captain. "Hist ye! shoulder-sthraps are comin'!" Lewis laughed. "Go and get ready, Patrick; I'll settle with your Captain." And Patrick, bent on a new "inlistment" and new adventures, hied him away to pack his belongings. For days in dreams he was already navigating the Missouri, already he saw the blue Pacific. As he told the boys afterward, "And I, siz I to mesilf, 'Patrick, let us to the Pecific!' Me Captain objicted, but I found out where Captain Lewis was sthopping and sthole away and inlisted annyhow." Captain Lewis had made no mistake. Patrick Gass, cheerful, ever brave, was a typical frontiersman. His had been a life of constant roving. Starting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, when he was five years old, the family crossed the Alleghanies on packhorses. On the first horse was the mother, with the baby and all the table furniture and cooking utensils; on another were packed the provisions, the plough-irons and farming utensils; the third was rigged with a packsaddle and two large cradles of hickory withes. In the centre of these sat little Pat on one side and his sister on the other, well laced in with bed-clothes so that only their heads stuck out. Along the edges of precipices they went,--if a horse stumbled he would have thrown them hundreds of feet below. On these horses they forded mountain streams, swollen with melting snows and spring rains. Daily were hairbreadth escapes, the horses falling, or carried down with the current and the family barely snatched from drowning. The journey was made in April when the nights were cold and the mother could not sleep. There was so much to do for the children. As the tireless father kept guard under the glow of the campfire, little Patrick's unfailing good-night was, "Hist, child! the Injuns will come and take you to Detroit!" There were several of these moves in his childhood. Here and there he caught glimpses of well-housed, well-fed hirelings of the British army watching like eagles the land of the patriot army. At last they turned up at what is now Wellsburg in West Virginia. While yet a boy Gass was apprenticed to a carpenter and worked on a house for a man by the name of Buchanan, while around him played "little Jimmy," the president-to-be. "Little Jimmy was like his mother," said Gass. In December Lewis and Clark dropped down before the white-washed walls and gray stone parapets of the old French town of St. Louis. With fierce consequential air a Spanish soldier flourished his sword indicating the place to land. "We will spend the winter at Charette, the farthest point of settlement." That was the town of Daniel Boone. But the Governor, Don Carlos De Hault De Lassus, barred the way. "By the general policy of my government I am obliged to prevent strangers from passing through Spanish territory until I have received official notice of its transfer." Nothing could be done but to go into winter camp opposite the mouth of the Missouri, just outside of his jurisdiction, and discipline the men, making ready for an early spring start. Beyond the big river was foreign land. Did the Spaniard still hope to stay? IV _THE FEUD IS ENDED_ Hark! Is that the boom of distant cannon? The American troops are falling into line outside the walls of New Orleans on this 20th day of December, 1803. The tri-colour of France floats on the flagstaff; the sky shines irradiant, like the "suns of Napoleon." It is high noon; another salute shakes the city. "Ho, warder, lower the drawbridge!" With chain-pulleys rattling down goes the bridge, never to be lifted again. The fortress bell strikes its last peal under the flag of France, or Spain. With thundering tread American dragoons file under the portcullis of the Tchoupitoulas gate, followed by cannoneers and infantry in coonskin caps and leathern hunting shirts. Curiously these sons of the forest look upon the old world forts and donjons of masonry. The moat is filled with stagnant water. The ramparts of New Orleans are filled with soldiers from Havre and Madrid. The windows and balconies are filled with beautiful women weeping, weeping to see the barbarians. Laussat was looking for Napoleon's soldiers, not a sale. Pale as death he hands over the keys. Slowly the tri-coloured flag of France at the summit of the flagstaff in the plaza descends. Slowly the star-spangled banner uplifts; half-way the two linger in one another's folds. As the flags embrace, another boom, and answering guns reply from ship and fort and battery around the crescent of New Orleans. The flags are parting,--it is a thrilling moment; up, up, steadily mounts the emblem of America and bursts on the breeze. The band breaks into "Hail, Columbia," amid the roar of artillery and shouting of backwoodsmen. The map of France in the new world has become the map of the United States. "The flag! the flag!" Veterans of the French army receive the descending tri-colour, and followed by a procession of uncovered heads bear it with funereal tread to Laussat. "We have wished to give to France a last proof of the affection which we will always retain for her," with trembling lip speaks the flag-bearer. "Into your hands we deposit this symbol of the tie which has again transiently connected us with her." And Laussat with answering tears replies, "May the prosperity of Louisiana be eternal." But of all in New Orleans on this historic day, none fear, none tremble like Sister Infelice, in the cloister of the Ursulines. She seems to hear the very sabres beat on the convent wall. When a tropic hurricane sweeps up the gulf at night she falls on the cold stone floor and covers her head, as if the very lightning might reveal that form she loved so well, the great Virginia colonel. To Infelice he was ever young, ever the heroic saviour of St. Louis. That time could have changed him had never occurred to her,--he was a type of immortal youth. Infelice never speaks of these things, not even to her father confessor; it is something too deep, too sacred, a last touch of the world hid closer even than her heart. And yet she believes he is coming,--that is the cause of all this tumult and cannonading. Her hero, her warrior wants _her_, and none can stay him. And when the cession is fairly over and he comes not, the disappointment prostrates her utterly. "He cares, he cares no more! The Virginians? Did you say the Virginians had come?" From that bed of delirium the Mother Superior of the Ursuline house sent for the Mayor. "I beg to be allowed to retire with my sisterhood to some point under the protection of His Catholic Majesty of Spain." "Going!" exclaimed Monsieur le Mayor of New Orleans. "For why? You shall not be disturbed, you shall have full protection." "Do you stand for France, revolution and infidelity?" gasped the aged mother, denouncing the Mayor. The people pled, the Mayor went down on his knees. "Do not abandon our schools and our children!" But the Mother Superior was firm. Twenty-two years had the Donna De Leyba been a nun. The old official records are lost, but out of twenty-five nuns in the establishment we know the sixteen of Spain went away. All New Orleans gathered to see them depart. When the gun sounded on Whitsunday Eve, sixteen women in black came forth, heavily veiled. The convent gardens were thronged with pupils, slaves knelt by the wayside, the Mayor and populace followed until they embarked on the ship and sailed to Havana. The old Ursuline convent of New Orleans is now the archbishop's palace. Sister Infelice is gone, but near some old cloister of Cuba we know her ashes must now be reposing. Henceforth the gates were open. The wall decayed, the moat was filled, and over it to-day winds the handsomest boulevard in America. The flatboatmen came home with romantic tales of the land of the palmetto and orange, luxuries unknown in the rigorous north. The tide of emigration so long held in check burst its bounds and deluged Louisiana. Among other Americans that settled at New Orleans was the Fighting Parson. His son Charles Mynn Thruston had married Fanny. V _THE CESSION OF ST. LOUIS_ "Glass we must have, and quicksilver. Wife, let me have the mirror." The Madame threw up her hands. "The precious pier glass my dead mother brought over from France? What shall we have left?" "But Rosalie, this is an emergency for the government. The men must have thermometers, and barometers, and I have no glass." "The President will pay for the glass, Madame; he would consider it the highest use to which it could be put," said Captain Lewis. "And you shall have a better one by the next ship that sails around from France." So as usual to everything the Doctor wished, the good woman consented. None had more unbounded faith in Dr. Saugrain's gift of miracles than his own wife. The huge glass, that had reflected Parisian scenes for a generation before coming to the wilds of America, was now lifted from its gilt frame and every particle of quicksilver carefully scraped from the back. Then the pier plate was shattered and the fragments gathered, bit by bit, into the Doctor's mysterious crucible, making the country people watch and wonder. So long had Meriwether Lewis been with Jefferson, that he had imbibed the same eager desire to know, to understand. When he met with Doctor Saugrain it was like a union of kindred spirits. Saugrain, the pupil, friend, and disciple of the great Franklin, was often with the American scientist when he experimented with his kites, and drew down lightning to charge his Leyden jars. Three times Dr. Saugrain came to America, twice as guest of Dr. Franklin, before he settled down as physician to the Spanish garrison at St. Louis in 1800. With him he brought all his scientific lore, the latest of the most advanced city in the world. When all the world depended on flint and steel, Paris and Dr. Saugrain made matches. He made matches for Lewis and Clark that were struck on the Columbia a generation before Boston or London made use of the secret. Bitterly the cheerful, sprightly little Royalist in curls lamented the French Revolution. "Oh, the guillotine! the guillotine! My own uncle, Dr. Guillotine, invented that instrument to save pain, not to waste life. But when he saw his own friends led up to the knife, distressed at its abuse he died in despair!" Sufficient reason had Dr. Saugrain to be loyal to Louis XVI. For more than two hundred years his people had been librarians, book-binders, and printers for the King. Litterateurs and authors were the Saugrains for six continuous generations, and out of their scientific and historical publications came the bent of Dr. Antoine François Saugrain of St. Louis. But when the Bastile was stormed, Saugrain left France for ever. An _emigré_, a royalist, with others of the King's friends he came to the land that honoured Louis XVI. Between the Rue de l'Église and the Rue des Granges, at the extreme southwestern limit of the old village of St. Louis, stood Dr. Saugrain's modest residence of cement with a six-foot stone wall around it and extensive gardens. In his "arboretum" Dr. Saugrain was making a collection of the most attractive native trees he found around St. Louis, and some there, imported from Paris, cast their green shadows on the swans of his swimming pond, an old French fancy for his park. In this happy home with its great library, Captain Lewis became a welcome guest in that winter of 1803-4 while waiting for the cession. Under the Doctor he pursued his scientific studies, medicine, surgery, electricity, for not even Dr. Barton in Philadelphia could surpass the bright little Frenchman so strangely transplanted here in this uttermost border. The Doctor's taper fingers were always stained with acids and sulphur; busy ever with blowpipe and crucible, he fashioned tubes, filled in quicksilver, graduated cases, and handed out barometers and thermometers that amazed the frontier. "Great Medicine!" cried the Indians when he gave them a shock of electricity. How Dr. Saugrain loved to turn his battery and electrify the door-knobs when those bothersome Indians tried to enter! Or, "Here, White Hair, is a shilling. You can have it if you will take it out." The Osage chieftain plunges his arm into a crock of electrified water to dash off howling with affright. With intense interest Captain Lewis stood by while the chemist-physician dipped sulphur-tipped splints of wood into phosphorus, and lo! his little matches glowed like Lucifer's own. "You can make the sticks yourself," he said. "I will seal the phosphorus in these small tin boxes for safety." "And have you any kine-pox? You must surely carry kine-pox, for I hear those Omahas have died like cattle in a plague." "President Jefferson particularly directed me to carry some kine-pox virus," replied Captain Lewis, "but really, what he gave me seems to have lost its virtue. I wrote him so from Cincinnati, but fear it will be too late to supply the deficiency." Out of his medicine chest in the corner, the little Doctor brought the tiny vials. "Sent me from Paris. Carry it, explain it to the Indians, use it whenever you can,--it will save the life of hundreds." And other medicines, simple remedies, the good savant prescribed, making up a chest that became invaluable in after days. Other friends were Gratiot and the Chouteaus, Auguste and Pierre. It was Auguste that had planned the fortifications of St. Louis, towers and bastions, palisades, demilunes, scarps, counter-scarps, and sally ports, only finished in part when the city was handed over. Long since had Carondelet offered rewards to the traders of St. Louis to penetrate to the Pacific. Already the Chouteau boats had reached the Mandan towns, but freely they gave every information to the American Captain. "I send you herewith enclosed," wrote Lewis to the President, "some slips of the Osage plum and apple. Mr. Charles Gratiot, a gentleman of this place, has promised that he would with pleasure attend to the orders of yourself, or any of my acquaintances who may think proper to write him on the subject. I obtained the cuttings now sent you from the gardens of Mr. Peter Chouteau, who resided the greater portion of his time for many years with the Osage nation. "The Osage might with a little attention be made to form an ornamental and useful hedge. The fruit is a large oval plum, of a pale yellow colour and exquisite flavour. An opinion prevails among the Osages that the fruit is poisonous, though they acknowledge they have never tasted it." The leaders of all the French colonies on the Mississippi were gentlemen of education and talent. They saw what the cession meant, and hailed it with welcome. But the masses, peaceable, illiterate, with little property and less enterprise, contented, unambitious, saw not the future of that great valley where their fathers had camped in the days of La Salle. Frank, open, joyous, unsuspecting, wrapped in the pleasures of the passing hour, they cared little for wealth and less for government provided they were not worried with its cares. Their children, their fruits and flowers, the dance--happy always were the Creole habitants provided only they heard the fiddle string. Retaining all the suavity of his race, the roughest hunter could grace a ballroom with the carriage and manners of a gentleman. Meanwhile Captain Clark was drilling the men at camp after the fashion of Wayne. Other soldiers had been engaged at Fort Massac and elsewhere,--Silas Goodrich, Richard Windsor, Hugh Hall, Alexander Willard, and John B. Thompson, a surveyor of Vincennes. Never had St. Louis such days! Hurry, hurry and bustle in the staid and quiet town that had never before known any greater excitement than a church festival or a wedding,--never, that is, since those days of war when George Rogers Clark saved and when he threatened. But now Lewis and Clark made a deep impression on the villagers of the power and dignity of the United States Government. Out of their purchases every merchant hoped to make a fortune; the eager Frenchmen displayed their wares,--coffee, gunpowder, and blankets, tea at prices fabulous in deerskin currency and sugar two dollars a pound. But Lewis already had made up his outfit,--richly laced coats, medals and flags from Jefferson himself, knives, tomahawks, and ornaments for chiefs, barrels of beads, paints and looking-glasses, bright-coloured three-point Mackinaw blankets, a vision to dazzle a child or an Indian, who is also a child. George Drouillard was found, the skilled hunter. There was a trace of Indian in Drouillard; his French fathers and grandfathers had trapped along the streams of Ohio and Canada since before the days of Pontiac, in fact, with Cadillac they had helped to build Detroit. Every part of America was represented in that first exploring expedition,--Lewis, the kinsman of Washington, and Clark from the tidewater cavaliers of old Virginia, foremost of the fighting stock that won Kentucky and Illinois, Puritan Yankees from New England, Quaker Pennsylvanians from Carlisle, descendants of landholders in the days of Penn, French interpreters and adventurers whose barkentines had flashed along our inland lakes and streams for a hundred years, and finally, York, the negro, forerunner of his people. Cruzatte and Labiche, canoemen, were of old Kaskaskia. Pierre Cruzatte was near-sighted and one-eyed, but what of that? A trusted trader of the Chouteaus, he had camped with the Omahas, and knew their tongue and their country. Could such a prize be foregone for any defect of eyesight? Accustomed to roving with their long rifles and well-filled bullet pouches, nowhere in the world could more suitable heroes have been found for this Homeric journey. News of the sale had reached St. Louis while Captain Lewis was struggling with those builders at Pittsburg. "_Sacre! Diable!_" exclaimed the French. Some loved France, some clung to Spain, some shook their heads. "De country? We never discuss its affaires. Dat ees de business of de Commandante." The winter of 1803-4 was very severe. In November the ice began running and no one could cross until February. Then Captain Amos Stoddard, at Kaskaskia with his troops, sent a letter to Don Carlos De Hault De Lassus by a sergeant going on business to Captain Lewis. On top of the hill a double stockade of logs set vertically, the space between filled with dirt, a two-story log building with small windows and a round stone tower with a pointed cap of stone,--that was the fort where the Spanish soldiers waited. Down below, inhabitants in blue blanket capotes and blue kerchiefs on their heads, now and then in red toque or a red scarf to tie up their trousers, wandered in the three narrow lanes that were the streets of St. Louis, waiting. Before them flowed the yellow-stained, eddy-spotted Mississippi, behind waved a sea of prairie grass uninterrupted by farm or village to the Rockies. Spring blossomed. Thickets of wild plum, cherry, wild crab-apples, covered the prairie. Vanilla-scented locust blooms were shaking honey-dew on the wide verandas of the old St. Louis houses, when early in the morning of May 9, American troops crossed the river from Cahokia, and Clark's men from the camp formed in line with fife and drum, and colours flying. At their head Major Amos Stoddard of Boston and Captain Meriwether Lewis of Virginia led up to the Government House. Black Hawk was there to see his Spanish Father. He looked out. "Here comes your American Father," said the Commandant De Lassus. "I do not want _two_ Fathers!" responded Black Hawk. Dubiously shaking his head as the Americans approached, Black Hawk and his retinue flapped their blankets out of one door as Stoddard and Captain Lewis entered the other. Away to his boats Black Hawk sped, pulling for dear life up stream to his village at Rock Island. And with him went Singing Bird, the bride of Black Hawk. "Strange people have taken St. Louis," said the Hawk to his Sacs. "We shall never see our Spanish Father again." A flotilla of Frenchmen came up from Kaskaskia,--Menard, Edgar, Francis Vigo, and their friends. Villagers left their work in the fields; all St. Louis flocked to La Place d'Armes in front of the Government House to see the transfer. In splendid, showy uniforms, every officer of the Spanish garrison stood at arms, intently watching the parade winding up the limestone footway from the boats below. With its public archives and the property of a vast demesne, Don Carlos De Hault De Lassus handed over to Major Stoddard the keys of the Government House in behalf of France. A salvo of cannonry shook St. Louis. "People of Upper Louisiana," began De Lassus in a choked and broken voice, "_by order of the King_, I am now about to surrender this post and its dependencies. The flag which has protected you during nearly thirty-six years will no longer be seen. The oath you took now ceases to bind. Your faithfulness and courage in upholding it will be remembered for ever. From the bottom of my heart I wish you all prosperity." De Lassus, Stoddard, Lewis, Clark, and the soldiers filed up the yellow path, past the log church, to the fort on the hill. The Spanish flag was lowered; De Lassus wept as he took the fallen banner in his hand, but as the Lilies of France flashed in the sun the Creoles burst into tumultuous cheers. Not for forty years had they seen that flag, the emblem of their native land. Cannon roared, swords waved, and shouts were heard, but not in combat. The gates were thrown open; out came the Spanish troops with knapsacks on their backs, ready to sail away to New Orleans. The old brass cannon and munitions of war were transported down the hill, while the American soldiers in sombre uniforms filed into the dingy old fort of Spain. Major Stoddard sent for the French flag to be taken down at sunset. "No, no, let it fly! Let it fly all night!" begged the Creoles, and a guard of honour went up to watch the flickering emblem of their country's brief possession. All night long that French flag kissed the sky, all night the guard of honour watched, and the little log church of St. Louis was filled with worshippers. All the romance of Brittany and Normandy rose to memory. René Kiercereau the singer led in ballads of La Belle France, and the glories of fields where their fathers fought were rehearsed with swelling hearts. Not the real France but an ideal was in their hearts, the tradition of Louis XIV. That was the last day of France in North America. As the beloved banner sank the drums gave a long funeral roll, but when, instead, the red, white, and blue burst on the breeze, the fifes struck into lively music and the drums rained a cataract. "Three cheers for the American flag!" cried Charles Gratiot in the spirit of the Swiss republic, but there were no cheers. The Creoles were weeping. Sobs, lamentations arose, but the grief was mostly from old Frenchmen and their wives who so long had prayed that the Fleur de Lis might wave above San Loui'. Their sons and daughters, truly, as Lucien Bonaparte had warned Napoleon, "went to bed good Frenchmen, to awake and find themselves Americans." The huge iron cock in the belfry of the old log church spun round and round, as if it knew not which way the wind was blowing. In three days three flags over St. Louis! No wonder the iron cock lost its head and spun and spun like any fickle weather vane. In the same square with the Government House stood one of the Chouteau mansions. Auguste Chouteau had been there from the beginning, when as a fearless youth with Laclede he had penetrated to the site of the future San Loui' in 1764. He was a diplomat who met Indians and made alliances. He had seen the territory pass under Spain's flag, and in spite of that had made it more and more a place of Gallic refuge for his scattered countrymen. He had welcomed Saugrain, Cerré, Gratiot, in fact,--he and his brother Pierre remembered the day when there was no San Loui'. A band of Osage chiefs had come in to see their great Spanish father. With wondering eyes they watched the cession, and were handed over to Captain Lewis to deal with in behalf of the United States. A French messenger was sent ahead with a letter to the tribe. "The Americans taken San Loui'?" Manuel Lisa, the Spaniard, was disgusted,--it broke up his monopoly of the Osage trade. "We will not haf the Americans!" The Osages burnt the letter. VI _SERGEANT ORDWAY WRITES A LETTER_ The winter of 1802-3 had been uncommonly severe. Unknown to George Shannon, that winter his father hunting in the dense woods of Ohio lost his way in a snow-storm and was frozen to death. Unaware of the tragedy at home, unaware also of his own inherited facility for getting lost, the boy set out up the winding staircase of the wild Missouri. An older brother, John, nineteen years of age, became the stay of that widowed mother with her seven small children, the least a baby, Wilson Shannon, twice the future Governor of Ohio and once the Governor of Kansas. With a pad on his knee every soldier boy wrote home from the camp on River Dubois opposite the mouth of the Missouri. Down through the years Sergeant Ordway's letter has come to us. "CAMP RIVER DUBOIS, April the 8th, 1804. "HONOURED PARENTS,--I now embrace this opportunity of writeing to you once more to let you know where I am and where I am going. I am well thank God and in high Spirits. I am now on an expedition to the westward, with Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clark, who are appointed by the President of the United States to go on an Expedition through the interior parts of North America. We are to ascend the Missouri River with a boat as far as it is navigable and then to go by land to the western ocean, if nothing prevents. This party consists of twenty-five picked men of the armey and country likewise and I am so happy as to be one of them picked from the armey and I and all the party are if we live to return to receive our discharge whenever we return again to the United States if we choose it. This place is on the Mississippi River opposite to the mouth of the Missouri River and we are to start in ten days up the Missouri River, this has been our winterquarters. We expect to be gone 18 months or two years, we are to receive a great reward for this expedition when we return. I am to receive 15 dollars a month and at least 400 ackers of first rate land and if we make great discoveries as we expect the United States has promised to make us great rewards, more than we are promised, for fear of accidents I wish to inform you that [personal matters]. I have received no letters since Betseys yet but will write next winter if I have a chance. "Yours, etc., "JOHN ORDWAY, _Segt._ "TO STEPHEN ORDWAY, Dumbarton, N.H." VII _INTO THE LAND OF ANARCHY_ The boats were ready, the red pirogue and the white, from St. Louis, fresh painted, trim and slim upon the water, and the big bateau, fifty-five feet from stem to stern, with setting poles, sweeps, a square sail to catch the breeze, and twenty-two oars at the rowlocks. Down under the decks and in the cabins, had been packed the precious freightage, government arms, rifles made at Harper's Ferry under Lewis's own superintendence, tents, ammunition, bales and boxes of Indian presents, provisions, tools. Into the securest lockers went Lewis's astronomical instruments for ascertaining the geography of the country, and the surgical instruments that did good service in the hands of Clark. Nothing was forgotten, even small conveniences, candles, ink, mosquito bars. It took half a million to send Stanley to Africa. For twenty-five hundred dollars Lewis and Clark made as great a journey. To assist in carrying stores and repelling Indian attacks, Corporal Warfington and six soldiers had been engaged at St. Louis and nine French boys of Cahokia, inured to the paddle and the camp. Feather-decked and beaded they came, singing the songs of old Cahokia to start the little squadron. The Americans had knives in their belts, pistols in their holsters, knapsacks on their backs, powder horns and pouches of ammunition, ink horns and quills, ready to face the wilderness and report. Lewis encouraged every one to keep a journal. "I niver wint to school but nineteen days in me boyhood and that was whin I was a man," said Patrick Gass. But what Pat lacked in books he made up in observation and shrewd reasoning; hence it fell out that Patrick Gass's journal was the first published account of the Lewis and Clark expedition. All honour to Patrick Gass. Of such are our heroes. The cession was on Wednesday, May 9, 1804, and all the men were there but a few who guarded camp. At three o'clock the following Monday, May 14, Captain Clark announced, "All aboard!" The heavy-laden bateau and two pirogues swung out, to the voyageurs' _chanson_, thrilling like a brass band as their bright new paddles cut the water: "A frigate went a-sailing, _Mon joli coeur de rose_, Far o'er the seas away, _Joli coeur d'un rosier, Joli coeur d'un rosier_." And hill and hollow echoed, "_Mon joli coeur de rose_" "San Chawle!" cried Cruzatte the bowsman at two o'clock, Wednesday, when the first Creole village hove in sight. At a gun, the signal of traders, all St. Charles rushed to see the first Americans that had ever come up the Missouri. And straggling behind the Frenchmen came their friends, the Kickapoos of Kaskaskia, now on a hunt in the Missouri. "Meet us up the river with a good fat deer," said Captain Clark. The delighted Kickapoos scattered for the hunt. Five days the boats lay at St. Charles, waiting for Captain Lewis who was detained fixing off the Osage chiefs at St. Louis. Patrick Gass wrote in his journal, "It rained." Sergeant Floyd adds, "Verry much Rain." Captain Clark chronicles, "Rain, thunder, and lightning for several days." But never on account of a flurry of rain did the sociable French of St. Charles fail in polite attentions to their guests on the river bank. On Sunday, boats were descried toiling up from St. Louis with a dozen gentlemen, who had come to escort Captain Lewis and bid "God speed!" to the expedition. Captain Stoddard was there, and Auguste Chouteau, availing himself of every opportunity to forward the enterprise. Monsieur Labbadie had advice and Gratiot and Dr. Saugrain, little and learned, with the medicine chest. With throbbing hearts the captains stole a moment for a last home letter to be sent by the returning guests. "My route is uncertain," wrote Clark to Major Croghan at Locust Grove. "I think it more than probable that Captain Lewis or myself will return by sea." "_Bon voyage! bon voyage, mes voyageurs!_" cried all the French habitants of St. Charles, waving caps and kerchiefs to answering cheers from the crew and the guns. "_Bonsoir et bon voyage_--tak' care for you--_prenez garde pour les sauvages_." With a laugh the voyageurs struck up a boat song. The boats slid away into the west, that West where France had stretched her shadowy hand, and Spain, and England. The reign of France fell with Montcalm on the Heights of Abraham, flickering up again only in that last act when Napoleon gave us Louisiana. "The Kickapoos! The Kickapoos!" Through bush and brier above St. Charles, the bedraggled Indians came tugging down to the shore four fine fat deer. Bacon fare and hardtack were relegated to the hold. From that hour Lewis and Clark threaded the gameland of the world. "Joost wait onteel dey get ento de boofalo!" commented those wise young voyageurs, Cruzatte and Drouillard, nodding at one another as the cooks served out the savoury meat on the grass, and every man drew forth his long hunting-knife and little sack of salt. "Where is my old friend, Daniel Boone?" inquired Captain Clark, three days later at Charette, the last settlement on the Missouri border. This, but for Spanish interference, would have been their camping station the previous winter. Colonel Boone, six miles from the Missouri, was holding court beneath his Judgment Tree. The June rise of the Missouri was at hand. Days of rain and melting snows had set the mad streams whirling. The muddy Missouri, frothing, foaming, tore at its ragged banks that, yawning, heavily undermined, leaped suddenly into the water. Safety lay alone in mid-stream, where the swift current, bank-full and running like a millrace, bore down toward the Mississippi. To stem it was terrific. In spite of oars and sails and busy poling, the bateau would turn, raked ever and anon with drifts of fallen trees. And free a moment, some new danger arose. Down out of sight, water-soaked logs scraped the keel with vicious grating. And above, formidable battering-rams of snags sawed their black heads up and down defiantly, as if Nature herself had blockaded the way with a _chevaux de frise_. Poles broke, oars splintered, masts went headlong, the boat itself careened almost into the depths. It was a desperate undertaking to stem the mad Missouri in the midst of her wild June rise. But that very rise, so difficult to oppose upstream, was a sliding incline the other way. May 27, two canoes loaded with furs came plunging full tilt out of the north. "Where from? What news?" "Two months from the Omaha nation, seven hundred miles up the river," sang out the swiftly passing Frenchmen bound for St. Louis. Behind them a huge raft,-- "From the Pawnees on the Platte!" And yet behind three other rafts, piled, heaped, and laden to the water's edge,-- "From the Grand Osage!" Such alone was greeting and farewell, as the barks, unable to be checked, went spinning down the water. What a gala for the winter-bound trapper! Home again! home again! flying down the wild Missouri in the mad June rise! They stopped not to camp or to hunt, but skimming the wave, fairly flew to St. Louis. They came, those swift-gliding boats, like visions of another world, the world Lewis and Clark were about to enter. June 5, two more canoes flashed by with beaver,-- "From eighty leagues up the Kansas river!" June 8, boats with beaver and otter slid by, and rafts of furs and buffalo tallow,-- "From the Sioux nation!" Dorion, an old Frenchman on a Sioux raft, engaged to go back with Lewis and Clark to interpret for them the language of his wife's relations. A thousand miles against the current! Now and then a southwest wind would fill out the big square-cut sail and send the heavy barge ploughing steadily up. Again, contrary winds kept them on the walking boards all day long, with heads bent low over the setting-pole. Warm and warmer grew the days. Some of the men were sunstruck. The glitter of sun on the water inflamed their eyes. Some broke out with painful boils, and mosquitoes made night a torture. Now and then they struck a sand-bar, and leaping into the water the voyageurs ran along shore with the _cordelle_ on their shoulders, literally dragging the great boat into safety. "_Mon cher_ Captinne! de win' she blow lak' hurricane!" cried the voyageurs. Down came the prairie gale, almost a tornado, snapping the timber on the river-banks, and lashing the water to waves that surged up, over, and into the boats. The sky bent black above them, the fierce wind howled, and the almost exhausted men strained every nerve to hold the rocking craft. "I strong lak' moose, not 'fraid no t'ing," remarked Cruzatte, clambering back into the boat wet as a drowned kitten. Hot and tired, June 26 they tied up at the mouth of Kansas River. "Eat somet'ing, tak' leetle drink also," said the voyageurs. On the present site of Kansas City they pitched their tents, and stretched their limbs from the weariness of canoe cramp. "The most signs of game I iver saw," said Patrick Gass, wandering out with his gun to find a bear. "Imince Hurds of Deer," bears in the bottoms, beaver, turkeys, geese, and a "Grat nomber of Goslins," say the journals, but not an Indian. "Alas!" sighed the old voyageurs with friendly pity. "De Kansas were plaintee brave people, but de Sac and de Sioux, dey drive 'em up de Kansas River." Cæsar conquered Gaul, but the mercatores were there before him. Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri, but everywhere the adventurous Frenchmen had gone before them, peddlers of the prairie, out with Indian goods buying skins. But now Americans had come. The whippoorwill sang them to sleep, the wolf howled them awake. The owl inquired, "Who? Who? Who?" in the dark treetops at the mouth of the Kansas River. On, on crept the boats, past grand old groves of oak and hickory, of walnut, ash, and buckeye, that had stood undisturbed for ages. Swift fawn flitted by, and strange and splendid birds that the great Audubon should come one day to study. On, on past the River-which-Cries, the Weeping Water, the home of the elk. Tall cottonwoods arose like Corinthian columns wreathed with ivy, and festoons of wild grape dipped over and into the wave. The River-which-Cries marked the boundary of two nations, the Otoes and Omahas. Almost annually its waters were reddened with slaughter. Then came the old men and women and children from the Otoe villages on the south and from the Omahas on the north and wept and wept there, until it came to be known as Nehawka, the Weeping Water. July came and the waters were falling. With a fair wind, on the 21st they sailed past the mouth of the great river Platte. In the summer evening Lewis and Clark in their pirogue paddled up the Platte. "Here I spen' two winter wit' de Otoe," said Drouillard the hunter. "De Otoe were great nation, but de Sioux an' de 'Maha drove dem back on de Pawnee." "And the Pawnees?" "Dey built villages an' plant corn an' wage war wid de Osage." Ten days later preparations were made to meet the Otoes at Council Bluffs. On a cottonwood pole the flag was flying. A great feast was ready, when afar off, Drouillard and Cruzatte were seen approaching with their friends. "Boom," went the blunderbuss, and the council smoke arose under an awning made of the mainsail of the bateau. Every man of the expedition, forty-five in all, paraded in his best uniform. Lewis talked. Clark talked. All the six chiefs expressed satisfaction in the change of government. They begged to be remembered to their Great Father, the President, and asked for mediation between them and the Omahas. "What is the cause of your war?" "We have no horses," answered the childlike Otoes. "We borrow their horses. Then they scalp us. We fear the Pawnees also. We very hungry, come to their village when they are hunting, take a little corn!" The Captains could scarce repress a smile, nor yet a tear. Thefts, reprisals, midnight burnings and slaughter, this was the reign immemorial in this land of anarchy. In vain the tribes might plant,--never could they reap. "We poor Indian," was the universal lament. Severely solemn, Lewis and Clark hung medals on the neck of each chief, and gave him a paper with greetings from Thomas Jefferson with the seals of Lewis and Clark impressed with red wax and attached with a blue ribbon. "When you look at these, remember your Great Father. You are his children. He bids you stop war and make peace with one another." In 1860, the Otoe Indians exhibited at Nebraska City those identical papers, borne for more than half a century in all their homeless wanderings, between flat pieces of bark and tied with buckskin thongs. Then gifts were distributed and chiefs' dresses. With more handshakings and booming of cannon, the flotilla sailed away that sultry afternoon one hundred years ago. The chiefs stood still on the shore and wonderingly gazed at one another. "These are the peacemakers!" A week later Lewis and Clark entered the Omaha country and raised a flag on the grave of Blackbird. Encamping on a sandbar opposite the village, Sergeant Ordway and Cruzatte were dispatched to summon the chiefs. Here Cruzatte had traded two winters. Up from the river he found the old trails overgrown. Breaking through sunflowers, grass, and thistles high above their heads, they came upon the spot where once had stood a village. Naught remained but graves. The Omahas had been a military people, feared even by the Sioux, the Kansas, and the far-away Crows. Strange mystery clung to Blackbird. Never had one so powerful ruled the Missouri. At his word his enemy perished. Stricken by sudden illness, whoever crossed the will of Blackbird died, immediately, mysteriously. Then came the smallpox in 1800. Blackbird himself died and half his people. In frenzy the agonised Omahas burnt their village, slew their wives and children, and fled the fatal spot,--but not until they had buried Blackbird. In accord with his last wish, they took the corpse of the Omaha King to the top of the highest hill and there entombed him, sitting upright on his horse that he might watch the traders come and go. And one of those traders bore in his guilty heart the secret of Blackbird's power. He had given to him a package of arsenic. Blackbird and Big Elk's father went to St. Louis in the days of the French and made a treaty. A portrait of the chief was then painted that is said to hang now in the Louvre at Paris. A delegation of Otoes had been persuaded to come up and smoke the peace-pipe with the Omahas. But not an Omaha appeared. And the Otoes, released from overwhelming fear, Big Horse and Little Thief, Big Ox and Iron Eyes, smoked and danced on the old council ground of their enemies, whose scalps they had vowed to hang at their saddle bow. Sergeant Floyd danced with the rest that hot August night, and became overheated. He went on guard duty immediately afterward, and lay down on a sandbar to cool. In a few moments he was seized with frightful pains. Nathaniel Pryor awakened the Captains. "My cousin is very ill." All night Lewis and Clark used every endeavour to relieve the suffering soldier. At sunrise the boats set sail, bearing poor Floyd, pale and scarce breathing. There was a movement of the sick boy's lips,-- "I am going away. I want you to write me a letter." And there, on the borders of Iowa, he dispatched his last message to the old Kentucky home. When they landed for dinner Floyd died. With streaming tears Patrick Gass, the warm-hearted, made a strong coffin of oak slabs. A detail of brother soldiers bore the body to the top of the bluff and laid it there with the honours of war, the first United States soldier to be buried beyond the Mississippi, and on a cedar post they carved his name. With measured tread and slow the soldiers came down and camped on Floyd's River below, in the light of the setting sun. Years passed. Around that lovely height, Floyd's Bluff, Sioux City grew. Travellers passed that way and said, "Yonder lies Charles Floyd on the bluff." Relic hunters chipped away the cedar post. Finally, the Missouri undermined the height, and the oakwood coffin came near falling into the river, but it was rescued and buried farther back in 1857. Recently a magnificent monument was dedicated there, to commemorate his name and his mission for ever,--the first light-bearer to perish in the West. A few days later a vote was cast for a new sergeant in the place of Floyd, and Patrick Gass received the honour. Every day Floyd had written in his journal, and now it was given into the hand of Captain Clark to be forwarded, on the first opportunity, to his people. VIII _"THE SIOUX! THE SIOUX!"_ "What river is this, Dorion?" Captain Lewis had thrown open his infantry uniform to catch the cooling gust down a silver rift in the shore. "_Petite Rivière des Sioux._ Go to Des Moines country. Pass tro te Lake of te Spirit, full of islands. Lead to Dog Plain, Prairie du Chien, four days from te Omaha country. Des Sioux--" Dorion drew his forefinger across his throat and lapsed into silence. They were his people, he would not traduce them. But his listeners understood,--the Sioux were "cut-throats," this was their name among the tribes. The voyageurs trembled, "_Bon Dieu! le Sioux sauvage_, he keel de voyageur an' steal deir hair!" The Sioux, the terrible Sioux, were dog Indians, ever on the move, raiding back and forth, restless and unsleeping. Almost to Athabasca their _travoises_ kicked up the summer dust, their dog trains dragged across the plains of Manitoba. On the Saskatchewan they pitched their leather tents and chased the buffalo; around Lake Winnipeg they scalped the Chippeways. At the Falls of St. Anthony they spread their fishing nets, and at Niagara Falls the old French Jesuits found them. Now they were stealing horses. For horses, down the Mississippi they murdered the Illinois. For horses, the Mandan on the upper Missouri heard and trembled. "The Sioux! the Sioux!" The Ponca paled in his mud hut on the Niobrara, the Omaha retreated up the Platte, the Cheyenne hid in the cedar-curtained recesses of the Black Hills. More puissant than the Six Nations of the Iroquois, the Sioux Confederacy dominated from the Red River of the North to the Red River of Texas. Wilder than the Comanches they rode, more cunning in theft than the Crows, more bloodthirsty than the Blackfeet. On the red man's triple plea for war,--horses, scalps, and wives,--the Sioux were pirates of the streams and despots of the prairie. Mettlesome with the bow, fiery in battle, strong, brave, wild, kings of the hills and monarchs of the trails, they ruled the earth in splendid savagery. The buffalo was theirs, the beaver and the deer, and woe betide the rival that poached on their preserves. Did the poor Shoshone venture beyond the Rockies, he was flayed and burned alive. No lake, no stream, no river between the Mississippi and the Rockies remained unstained by their red hatchet. And what a chapter when the traders came! Unwritten yet are those days of fierce and constant battle. Even Dorion himself dreaded the daring freebooters into whose tribe he had married. His own offspring partook of the wild fierce spirit of their people. Like eaglets or young panthers, they clutched at him with claws and talons,--with difficulty the little Frenchman held them back as the lion-tamer holds the whelps. Of Dorion's possessions the Sioux took what they pleased. For the privilege of trading he smiled and gave them all, then in generosity he was heaped with skins. Dorion knew the Sioux, knew their best and worst. Somewhere in this Sioux country his faithful spouse was waiting; he was looking for her now,--a model squaw, a tireless slave who dug his roots and made his garments, brought his wood and water, and, neglected, bore his children. "Pilicans! pilicans!" It was the voice of Patrick Gass, beyond the Little Sioux. A low sand island was covered with huge, white, web-footed beauties fishing in the chocolate Missouri. When the scrimmage was over two handsome birds lay in the bateau, one, the queen of the flock, brought down by Lewis himself. She was a splendid specimen, six feet from tip to tip, pure white with a tinge of rose, and an enormous pouch full of fish under her bill. "Out with the fish. Let us measure that pouch." Lewis's enthusiasm was contagious. All hands gathered while he poured in water, five gallons. "The average capacity is but two," said Captain Clark. "We must preserve this trophy." To-day that beautiful bird, of strong maternal instincts, is the emblem of the State of Louisiana. Again Lewis put the question, "What stream, Dorion?" "Te Great Sioux! Two hundret mile to te Sioux Fall, an' beyont--almost to St. Peters." A smile relaxed old Dorion's leathern face,-- "Below te Fall, a creek from te cliffs of red rock. All Indian get te peace-pipe. No battle dere, no war." Of the famous red pipestone quarry old Dorion spoke, the beautiful variegated rock out of which resplendent Dakota cities should be built in the future. "Te rock ees soft, cut it wit te knife, then hard and shining." All tribes, even those at war, could claim asylum at the red pipestone. The Sioux came, and the Pawnee, to camp on its banks and fashion their calumets. The soft clay pipes, hardened into things of beauty, were traded from tribe to tribe, emblems and signals of peace. Captain Lewis himself had one, bought in St. Louis, brought down from that quarry by some enterprising French trader. "Buffalo! buffalo! buffalo!" A grand shout arose at sight of the surging herds. "Plaintee boofalo now," said the voyageurs. Upon the led horses along shore, Clark and Joseph Fields dashed away for a first shot. Again rejoicing cooks went hunting up the kettles, and the whole expedition paused a day for a grand hunt. "Te Yankton Sioux!" joyfully announced old Dorion, as they neared the familiar chalk bluffs of "des rivière Jaques, tat go almost to te Red Rivière of te Winnipeg." All over these streams old Dorion had trapped the beaver. With Sergeant Pryor and another, Dorion set out for the Indian camp. The Yankton Sioux saw the white men approaching and ran with robes to carry them in state to camp. "No," answered the Sergeant, "we are not the commanders. They are at the boats." Dorion led the way to his wigwam. His polite old squaw immediately spread a bearskin for them to sit on. Another woman killed a dog, cut it up, and boiled it and gave it to them to eat, a token of friendship. Forty clean and well-kept lodges were in this Yankton village, of dressed buffalo and elk skin, painted red and white and very handsome. And each lodge had a cooking apartment attached. Under the Calumet bluffs the flag was flying when the Yankton Sioux came down in state and crossed the river to the council. The Yankton Sioux were reputed to be the best of their nation, and brave as any, with their necklaces of bear's claws, paints, and feathers. They were kingly savages, dignified and solemn, with heads shaved to the eagle plume, and arrayed in robes wrought with porcupine quills. With Dorion as interpreter Captain Lewis delivered the usual speech, and presented flags, medals, and a chief's dress, a richly laced coat, cocked hat, and red feather. The ceremonious Indians withdrew to consider a suitable answer. The next morning again the chiefs assembled, solemnly seated in a row with enormous peace-pipes of red stone and stems a yard long, all pointing toward the seats intended for Lewis and Clark. But the great Indian diplomats did not hasten. "Ha!" Even the stoic Sioux could not refrain from an ejaculation of admiration as they half rose, pipe in hand, to gaze in awe and wonder as the white chiefs entered the council. No such traders ever came up the Missouri, no such splendid apparitions as the Red Head Chief and his brother, pink and white as the roses on the river Jaques. Captain Lewis habitually wore his sunny hair in a queue; to-day it was loosened into a waving cataract, and Clark, slipping off his eelskin bag, let his red locks fall, a strange and wondrous symbol. No such red and gold had ever been seen in the Indian country. With pale berries they stained their porcupine quills, with ochre painted the buffalo lodges, with vermilion rouged their faces, but none like these growing on the heads of men! Seating themselves with all due dignity, Lewis and Clark scarce lifted their eyes from the ground as the Grand Chief, Weucha, extended his decorated pipe in silence. A full hour elapsed before Weucha, slipping his robe to give full play to his arm, arose before them. "I see before me my Great Father's two sons. We very poor. We no powder, ball, knives. Our women and children at the village no clothes. I wish my brothers would give something to those poor people. "I went to the English, they gave me a medal and clothes. I went to the Spanish, they gave me a medal. Now you give me a medal and clothes. Still we are poor. I wish you would give something for our squaws." Then other chiefs spoke. "Very poor. Have pity on us. Send us traders. We want powder and ball." Deadly as were the Sioux arrows,--one twang of their bowstring could pierce a buffalo,--yet a better weapon had crossed their vision. Firearms, powder, ball, fabulous prices, these problems changed Indian history. Congratulating themselves on this favourable encounter with the dreaded Sioux, and promising everything, Lewis and Clark went forward with renewed courage. More and more buffaloes dotted the hills, and herds of antelope, strange and new to science. "I must have an antelope," said Lewis. At that moment he saw seven on a hilltop. Creeping carefully near, they scented him on the wind. The wild beauties were gone, and a similar flock of seven appeared on a neighbouring height. "Can they have spanned the ravine in this brief time?" He looked, and lo! on a third height and then a fourth they skimmed the hills like cloud shadows, or winged griffins of the fabled time, half quadruped and half bird. "A cur'ous lill animal here, Captain," said one of the hunters, handing him a limp little body. Its head was like a squirrel's. Lewis stroked the long fine hair. "What is it?" Cruzatte, the bowman, paddle in hand, leaned over, peering with his one near-sighted but intelligent eye. "Ha! ha! ha! _le petit chien!_" he laughed. "Live in te hole een te prairie. Leetle dog. Bark, yelp, yelp, yelp, like te squirrel. All over te countree, whole towns," spreading his brown hands expressively. After this lucid explanation the Captains, Lewis and Clark, set out for a prairie-dog town. A few yelps, heels in air, the town was deserted save for the tiny mounds that told where each had hidden. "Let us drown one out." Forthwith, every man came puffing up with big brass kettles full of water. "Five barrels," says Clark in his journal, "were poured into the holes but not a dog came out," and Patrick Gass adds, "Though they worked at the business until night they only caught one of them." More and more the hills were thronged with buffalo. Even York, Captain Clark's black servant, went out and killed two at one ride. On the top of a high bluff the men had found the skeleton of a huge fish, forty-five feet long and petrified. "Blow, ye winds of morning, Blow, blow, blow--" George Shannon, the boy of the expedition, had enlivened many a sunrise with his jolly, rollicking Irish songs. But Shannon was lost! On the 28th of August he had gone out to look for the strayed horses. It was now September. Captain Lewis was wild, for at his request George had joined the expedition and at his order he had gone after the horses. Hunters had sought in every direction, guns had been fired and the blunderbuss, and smokes had been kindled from point to point. "Shannon!" A great shout went up as the forlorn boy, emaciated and weary, came dragging into camp on the 11th of September. It was a short story, soon told. He found the horses and followed by mistake the trail of recent Indians, which he mistook for footprints of the party. For days he followed the trail, exhausted his bullets, and lived on wild grapes and a rabbit he killed with a stick. But he heard no guns, saw no smoke. In despair at last he came down to the river, to discover that all this time he had been travelling ahead of the boats! The fatted buffalo-calf was killed and great was the rejoicing, and at daylight next morning, Shannon's "Blow, ye winds of morning, Blow, blow, blow," rang again joyously over the Missouri. "Danger! Quick! The bank is caving!" At one o'clock in the night the guard gave the startled cry. Barely was there time to loosen the boats and push into midstream before the whole escarpment dropped like an avalanche over the recent anchorage. Thus in one instant might have been blotted out the entire expedition, to remain for all time a mystery and conjecture. On the evening of September 24 the cooks and a guard went ashore to get supper at the mouth of the river Teton, the present site of Pierre, South Dakota. Five Indians, who had followed for some time, slept with the guard on shore. Early next morning sixty Indians came down from a Sioux camp and the Captains prepared for a council. Under the flag and an awning, at twelve o'clock the company paraded under arms. Dorion had remained behind at the Yankton village, so with difficulty, by the aid of Drouillard and much sign language, a brief speech was delivered. Black Buffalo, head chief, was decorated with a medal, flag, laced coat, cocked hat, and red feather, nor were the rest forgotten with smaller gifts, medals, and tobacco. The Captains would have gone on, but, "No! No!" insisted Black Buffalo, seizing the cable of Clark's departing pirogue. Finally Clark and several of the men rowed them ashore. But no sooner had they landed than one seized the cable and held the boat fast. Another flung his arms around the mast and stood immovable. "Release me," demanded Clark, reddening at evidence of so much treachery. Black Buffalo advanced to seize Clark. The Captain drew his sword. At this motion Captain Lewis, watching from the bateau, instantly prepared for action. The Indians had drawn their arrows and were bending their great bows, when the black mouth of the blunderbuss wheeled toward them. At this Black Buffalo ordered his men to desist, and they sullenly fell away, but never was forgotten that time when the Teton Sioux attempted to carry off Captain Clark. "We wished to see the boat more," said the Indians, by way of excuse. "We wished to show it to our wives and children." To conciliate and to depart without irritation, Captain Clark offered his hand. The chiefs refused to take it. Turning, Clark stepped into the boat and shoved off. Immediately three warriors waded in after him, and he brought them on board. That night the whole expedition slept under arms, with the Indians as guests. At daylight crowds of Indian men, women, and children waited on shore in the most friendly manner. Ten well-dressed young men took Lewis and Clark up on a highly decorated robe and carried them up to the council tent. Dressed like dandies, seventy Indians sat in this roomy council hall, the tail feathers of the golden eagle scarce quivering in their topknots. Impressively in the centre on two forked sticks lay the long peace-pipe above a bed of swan's down. Outside, the redmen were roasting a barbecue. All day they sat and smoked, and ate of buffalo beef and pemmican. After sunset a huge council fire illuminated the interior of the great lodge, and the dance began. Wild Indian girls came shuffling with the reeking scalps of Omahas, from a recent raid. Outside twenty-five Omaha women prisoners and their children moaned in the chill of an icy autumn night. It was their trail that Shannon had followed for sixteen days. About midnight, fatigued by the constant strain of watchful anxiety, the Captains returned to the boats. But not yet were they safely away. "To oars! to oars! the cable's parted!" The Indians heard the call. "The Omahas! the Omahas!" rang the cry up from the Teton camp, that on every wind anticipated the whoop of retaliating Omahas in search of their stolen wives and children. Then followed pandemonium of rushing Indians and frightened calls. All night, with strained eyes, every man held his rifle ready as they lay unanchored on the water. At daylight the wily Indians held the ropes and still detained the boats. Resort to force seemed inevitable. Flinging a carat of tobacco, "Black Buffalo," said Lewis, "you say you are a great chief. Prove it by handing me that rope." Flattered, Black Buffalo gave the rope, and thankfully the boats pulled out with no more desire to cultivate the Sioux. IX _THE ROMANCE OF THE MANDANS_ "What will they find?" asked the people of the United States, discussing the journey of Lewis and Clark. "Numerous powerful and warlike nations of savages, of gigantic stature, fierce, treacherous, and cruel, and particularly hostile to white men." "The mammoth of prehistoric time feeding from the loftiest forests, shaking the earth with its tread of thunder." "They will find a mountain of solid salt glistening in the sun with streams of brine issuing from its caverns." "They will find blue-eyed Indians, white-haired, fairer than other tribes, planting gardens, making pottery, and dwelling in houses." "Oh, yes," said the Federalists, "Jefferson has invented these stories to aggrandise the merit of his purchase. They never can cross the mountains. Human enterprise and exertion will attempt them in vain." "It was folly! folly to send those men to perish miserably in the wilderness! It was a bold and wicked scheme of Jefferson. They will never return alive to this country." Had not Jefferson himself in his anxiety directed Lewis and Clark to have recourse to our consuls in Java, the Isles of France and Bourbon, and the Cape of Good Hope? Heaven alone knew whither the Missouri--Columbia might lead them! But the white Indians-- In the history of Wales there is a story that on account of wars in Wales a Welsh Prince in 1170 "prepared certain shipps, with men and munition, and sought adventures by seas, sailing west, and leaving the coast of Ireland so farre north, that he came to land unknowne, where he saw many strange things.... This Madoc arriving in the countrey, in the which he came in the year 1170, left most of his people there, and returning back for more of his nation, went thither again with ten sails," and was never again heard of. Six hundred years later Welshmen in America imagined that they could talk with some tribes, who said "they came from white people but were now Indians," and the legend was related that white people had once lived on the Atlantic coast, but had so many wars they crossed the mountains and made boats and went down the Ohio and up the Missouri, "where to this day live the fair-haired, blue-eyed Mandans." Our grandfathers believed this story, believed these whites might have been cut off at the Falls of the Ohio and some escaped. This is the excuse that Cornstalk gave to Lord Dunmore for the attack at Point Pleasant: "Long ago our fathers destroyed the whites in a great battle at the Falls of the Ohio. We thought it might be done again." As if in proof of this statement, George Rogers Clark and other first explorers at the Falls found Sand Island at low water a mass of hacked and mutilated human bones, whether of Indians or whites, no man could tell. And here now were Lewis and Clark, in the Autumn of 1804, among the fabled Mandans, and here before them was a Mr. Hugh McCracken, an Irishman, and René Jussaume, a Frenchman, independent traders, who for a dozen winters had drawn their goods on dog sleds over from the British fort on the Assiniboine to trade with the Mandans for buffalo robes and horses. Thirty dogs they owned between them, great Huskies of the Eskimo breed. Jussaume was immediately engaged as interpreter, and the first Sunday was spent in conversation with Black Cat, head chief of the Mandans. All day the hospitable blue-eyed, brown-haired Mandan women, fairer than other Indians, kept coming in with gifts of corn, boiled hominy, and garden stuffs, raised by their own rude implements. Girls of ten years old with silver-gray hair hanging down to their knees stood around and listened. Yes, they had earthen pots and gardens, even extensive fields of corn, beans, squashes, and sunflowers, and houses--mud huts. They lived in little forted towns that had been moved successively up, up, up the Missouri. "I believe what you have told us," said one of the chiefs in the great council on Monday. "We shall now have peace with the Ricaras. My people will be glad. Then our women may lie down at night without their moccasins on. They can work in the fields without looking every moment for the enemy." "We have killed the Ricaras like birds," said another, "until we are tired of killing them. Now we will send a chief and some warriors to smoke with them." Thus was the first effort for peace in the Mandan country. The high chill wind almost blew down the awning over the great council. The men paraded up from the boats, the blunderbuss was fired from the bow of the big bateau, the long reed-stemmed stone-bowled pipes were smoked in amity. "Here are suits of clothes for your chiefs," said Lewis, handing out of a wooden chest the handsome laced uniforms, cocked hats, and feathers. "To your women I present this iron corn-mill to grind their hominy." The solemn, sad-faced chiefs took the clothes and put them on. The women flew at the corn-mill. All day long they ground and ground and wondered at "the great medicine" that could make meal with so little trouble. Mortars and pestles were thrown behind the lodges, discarded. The next day Mr. McCracken set out on his return to Fort Assiniboine, one hundred and fifty miles away, with a friendly letter to the Chief Factor, Chaboillez, enclosing the passport of Lewis and Clark from the British minister at Washington. Yes, a passport,--so uncertain was that boundary--never yet defined. Where lay that line? To the sources of the Mississippi? But those sources were as hidden as the fountain of the Nile. No white man yet had seen Itasca. Since before the Revolution the Chaboillez family had traded at Michilimackinac. They were there in the days when Wabasha descended on St. Louis, and had a hand in all the border story. While Lewis was negotiating with the Indians, Captain Clark set out with Black Cat to select a point where timber was plenty to build a winter camp. "Hey, there! are ye going to run aff and leave me all to mesilf?" exclaimed Patrick Gass, head carpenter, busy selecting his tools and equipments. "Niver moind, I can outwalk the bist o' thim." Strong, compact, broad-chested, heavy-limbed, but lean, sprightly, and quick of motion, Pat was soon at the side of his Captain. "I can show ye a pint or two about cabins, I'm thinkin'." Clark smiled. He knew something about cabins himself. The day was fine and crowds of Indians came to watch proceedings as Clark's men began to cut the tall cottonwoods and roll up the cabins. Every day the Indians came in crowds to watch the wonderful building of the white men's fort, the deer-skin windows and mud-plastered chimneys. Turning loose their horses, all day long the red men lay on the grass watching the details of this curious architecture. At night, gathering an armful of cottonwood boughs stripped from the fort timber, each fed his horse and meandered thoughtfully homeward in the red sunset. One day two squaws came, a leathery old dame and a captive Indian girl from the Rocky Mountains,--the handsome young Sacajawea, the Bird-Woman. "She my slave," said Charboneau, a Frenchman in blanket capote and kerchief around his head. "I buy her from de Rock Mountain. I make her my wife." Charboneau lived with the Minnetarees, friends and neighbours of the Mandans. Shahaka, the Big White Head Chief, came, too, with his squaw packing on her back "one hundred pounds of very fine meat." Whenever Shahaka crossed the river his squaw picked up the buffalo-skin canoe and carried it off on her back. Those canoes were made exactly like a Welsh coracle. The days grew colder, the frost harder. Ice began to run in the river and the last boats in from the hunt brought thirty-two deer, eleven elk, and buffalo that were jerked and hung in the winter smoke-house. By November 20 the triangular fort was ready,--two rows of cabins of four rooms each, with lofts above where, snug and warm under the roof next to the chimneys, the men slept through the long cold winter nights on beds of grass, rolled up in their blankets and fuzzy robes of buffalo. In the frosty weather there came over the prairies from Fort Assiniboine seven Northwest traders, led by François Antoine Larocque and Charles Mackenzie, with stores of merchandise to trade among the Mandans. They immediately waited upon Lewis and Clark. "We are not traders," said the Americans, "but explorers on our way to the Pacific." Through Larocque's mind flashed the journey of Sir Alexander Mackenzie and its outcome. That might mean more than a rival trader. "He is distributing flags and medals among the Mandans," came the rumour. "In the name of the United States I forbid you from giving flags and medals to the Indians, as our Government looks upon those things as sacred emblems of the attachment of the Indians to our country," said Captain Lewis to Monsieur Larocque when next he called at Fort Mandan. "As I have neither flags nor medals, I run no risk of disobeying those orders, I assure you," answered the easy Frenchman. "You and all persons are at liberty to come into our territories to trade or for any other purpose, and will never be molested unless your behaviour is such as would subject an American citizen himself to punishment," continued Lewis. "And will the Americans not trade?" "We may and shall probably have a public store well assorted of all kinds of Indian goods. No liquors are to be sold." "A very grand plan they have schemed," muttered Larocque, as he went away, "but its being realised is more than I can tell." While talking with the Captains, Larocque had an eye on a Hudson's Bay trader who had appeared on the scene. "Beg pardon. I must be off," said Larocque, slipping out with Charboneau to outwit if possible the Hudson's Bay man and reach the Indians first. But before he got off a letter arrived from Chaboillez that altered all plans. Unknown to Lewis and Clark, though they gradually came to discover it, hot war was waging in the north. For the sake of furs, rival traders cut and carved and shot and imprisoned each other. For the sake of furs those same traders had held Detroit thirteen years beyond the Revolution. Furs came near changing the balance of power in North America. The old established Hudson's Bay Company claimed British America. The ambitious, energetic Northwesters of Montreal disputed the right. And now that Sir Alexander Mackenzie, a Canadian _bourgeois_, had become a famous explorer, knighted by the King, jealousies broke out in the Northwest company itself. Simon McTavish, lord of the Northwesters, who had done all he could to hold the Lakes for Britain, would rule or ruin. But the Northwesters swore by Mackenzie. So the two factions fought each other, and both fought the Hudson's Bay Company. "The Northwesters are no better than they ought to be," said the men of Hudson's Bay. "They sent an embassy to Congress in 1776." In fact a little change in the balance might have thrown the Northwesters over to the American side and altered the history of a continent. "The quarrelling traders of the North are almost as bad as the Indians," said Lewis,--"they demoralise and inflame the Indians." "Trade with me," said Hudson's Bay. "The Northwesters will cheat you." "Trade with me," said the Northwester. "Hudson's Bay are bad men." With troubled eyes the Indians listened, then scalped them both. Some bloody tales that North could tell, around the plains of lovely Winnipeg, out on the lone Saskatchewan, and over to Athabasca. But now the Americans,--this was a new force in the West. December 1, the Americans began to cut and carry pickets to complete the high stockade and gate across the front of Fort Mandan. December 6 it was too cold to work, and that night the river froze over in front of the fort with solid ice an inch and a half thick. At nine o'clock next morning Chief Shahaka, Big White, came puffing in with news. "De boofalo! de boofalo!" interpreted Jussaume, listening intently to the long harangue of the chief who was making all sorts of sign language and excitedly pointing up the river. "De boofalo, on de prairie, comin' eento de bottom." In short order Lewis, Clark, and fifteen men were out with the Indians mounted on horseback. Then came the din and chase of battle, a sight to fire the blood and thrill the calmest heart. Riding among the herd, each Indian chose his victim, then, drawing his arrow to the last notch of the bowstring, let it fly. Another and another whizzed from the same string until the quiver was exhausted. The wounded beast, blinded by its mane, sometimes charged the hunter. But the swift steed, trained for the contest, wheeled and was gone. The buffalo staggered for a little, then, struck in a mortal part, fell headlong, pawing up the dust and snow in frantic efforts to rise and fly. Into the midst came the Captains and their men, and every man brought down his buffalo. At twelve degrees below zero and in a northwest wind, Lewis and his men started out again the next morning to chase the herds that darkened the prairie. The air was filled with frosty flakes, the snow was deep and clinging, but all day and until after dark the exciting hunt held them to the saddle, and only when they came to the fire did the participants realise that their hands and feet were frostbitten. Cold and colder grew the days. Two suns shone in the sky, prognosticator of still deeper frost. Brilliant northern lights glowed along the Arctic, but still they chased the buffalo until the morning of December 13, when Dr. Saugrain's thermometer stood twenty degrees below zero at sunrise. In fur caps, coats, mittens, and double moccasins they brought home horseload after horseload of juicy beef to hang in the winter storehouse. And fortunately, too, for one day they awoke to find the buffalo gone. Some winters there was great suffering for food among the Mandans, but this was destined to be a year of plenty. Out of their abundance the chiefs, also, came to the fort with their dog sleds loaded with meat for their friends at the garrison. X _THE FIRST DAKOTA CHRISTMAS_ On Christmas eve the stockade was finished and the gate was shut. With forty-five men and a blunderbuss Fort Mandan stood impregnable to any force the northern savages could bring against it. But there was no hostility,--far from it. From curiosity or for trade the Indians came in throngs, until on Christmas eve Captain Lewis sent out the announcement: "Let no one visit us to-morrow. It is our great medicine day." Before daylight the wondering redmen were aroused from their buffalo couches by three volleys fired from the fort. Awe-struck they sat up and whispered: "White men making medicine." At sunrise a flag was floating above the palisade, but no Indian ventured to approach the mysterious newly closed walls of Fort Mandan. For his Christmas stocking every man received an allowance of flour, dried apples, and pepper, which together with corn, beans, squash, and unlimited buffalo meat and marrow bones made out a Christmas feast. At one o'clock the gun was fired for dinner. At two came the signal for the dance. "Play up ole fashion reel. Everybody he mus' dance," said Cruzatte, tuning his fiddle. "We'll do our possible." Cruzatte and Gibson played, Gass and Shannon led, Clark called the changes; and with crackling fires, and a stamping like horses, away up there under the Northern stars the first American Christmas was celebrated on the upper Missouri. Three wide-eyed spectators sat ranged around the walls. These were the squaws of the interpreters, Madame René Jussaume, and the two wives of Charboneau, Madame the old dame, and Sacajawea, the beautiful Indian captive stolen beyond the Rockies. The Indians, in their cheerless winter villages, found much to attract them at the fort of the white men. Soon after Christmas, William Bratton and John Shields set up their forge as blacksmiths, gunsmiths, and armourers. Day after day, with the thermometer forty degrees below zero, a constant procession of Indians came wending in on the well-beaten snow-track, with axes to grind and kettles to mend. It seemed as if all the broken old kettles that had ever drifted into the country, from Hudson's Bay or Fort William or up from St. Louis, were carried to Fort Mandan filled with corn to pay for mending. Especially the Indians wanted battle-axes, with long thin blades like the halberds of ancient warfare. Some wanted pikes and spears fixed on the pointed ends of their long dog-poles. A burnt-out old sheet-iron cooking stove became worth its weight in gold. For every scrap of it, four inches square, the Indians would give seven or eight gallons of corn, and were delighted with the exchange. These bits of square sheet iron were invaluable for scrapers for hides, and every shred of cutting that fell to the ground was eagerly bought up to fashion into arrow tips. Metal, metal, metal,--the _sine qua non_ of civilisation had come at last to the Mandans. While Bratton was busy over his forge, and Shields at the guns, some of the men were out hunting, some were cutting wood to keep the great fires roaring, and some were making charcoal for the smithy. So the days went on. New Year's, 1805, was ushered in with the blunderbuss. By way of recreation the captains permitted the men to visit the Indian villages where crowds gathered to see the white men dance, "heeling it and toeing it" to the music of the fiddles. The white men in turn were equally diverted by the grotesque figures of the Indians leaping in the buffalo dances. Captain Clark noted an old man in one of the Mandan villages and gave him a knife. "How old are you?" "More than one hundred winters," was the answer. "Give me something for the pain in my back." But a grandson rebuked the old man. "It isn't worth while. You have lived long enough. It is time for you to go to your relations who can take better care of you than we can." The old man settled back in his robes by the fire and said no more. "What accident has happened to your hand?" inquired Lewis of a chief's son. "Grief for my relatives," answered the boy. It was a Mandan custom to mutilate the body, as a mark of sorrow for the dead, until some had lost not only all their fingers, but their ears and hair. Sacred ceremonies of flagellations, knife thrusts into the flesh, piercing with thorns and barbaric crucifixions,--thirty years later George Catlin found these still among the Mandans, and ascribed them to an effort to perpetuate some Christian ceremonial of a remote ancestry. Could it have been a corrupted tradition of the crucifixion of Christ? Who can tell? The Welsh of 1170 were Catholic Christians who believed in self-inflicted penance to save the soul. Degraded, misguided, interblent with Indian superstition through generations, it might have come to this. But everywhere, at feast or council, one walked as conqueror,--Clark's negro servant, York. Of fine physical presence and remarkable stature, very black and very woolly, York was viewed as superhuman. "Where you come from?" whispered the awe-struck savages. Grinning until every ivory tooth glistened, and rolling up the whites of his eyes, he would answer, "I was running wild in the wood, and was caught and tamed by my mastah." Then assuming an air of ferocity, York would exhibit feats of strength that to the Indians seemed really terrible. "If you kill white men we make you chief," the Arikaras whispered in his ear. York withstood great temptation,--he fought more battles than Clark. "Delay! delay! delay!" was the Indian plea at every village. "Let our wives see you. Let our children see, especially the black man." From Council Bluffs to Clatsop, children followed York constantly. If he chanced to turn, with piercing shrieks they ran in terror. "Mighty warrior. Born black. Great medicine!" sagely commented the wise old men, watching him narrowly and shaking their heads at the unheard-of phenomenon. Even his jerks, contortions, and grimaces seemed a natural part of such a monstrosity. York was a perpetual exhibit, a menagerie in himself. In these holiday visits to the Mandan towns a glimpse was caught of domestic life. Wasteful profusion when the buffalo came, when the buffalo left, days of famine. Then they opened their cellar-holes of corn and vegetables, hidden away as a last resource in protracted siege when the Sioux drove off the game and shut them up in their picketed villages. So often were the horses of the Mandans stolen, that it had become a habitual custom every night to take them into the family lodge where they were fed on boughs and bark of the cottonwood. All day long in the iciest weather, the wrinkled, prematurely aged squaws were busy in the hollows, cutting the horse-feed with their dull and almost useless knives. On New Year's day Black Cat came down with a load of meat on his wife's back. A happy woman was she to receive a sharp new knife to cut her meat and cottonwood. It was easy to buy a Mandan wife. A horse, a gun, powder and ball for a year, five or six pounds of beads, a handful of awls, the trade was made, and the new spouse was set to digging laboriously with the shoulder-blade of an elk or buffalo, preparing to plant her corn. The Indian woman followed up the hunt, skinned and dressed the buffalo, and carried home the meat. Indian women built the lodges and took them down again, dragging the poles whenever there were not horses enough for a summer ramble. When not at the hunt or the council, the warrior sat cross-legged at his door, carving a bow, pointing an arrow, or smoking, waited upon by his squaw, who never ate until the braves were done, and then came in at the last with the children and the dogs. Wrinkled and old at thirty, such was the fate of the Indian girl. Sunday, January 13, Charboneau came back from a visit to the Minnetarees at Turtle Mountain with his face frozen. It was fortunate he returned with his life. Many a Frenchman was slain on that road, many an imprecation went up against the Assiniboine Sioux,--"_Les Gens des Grands Diables du Nord_," said Charboneau. Touissant Charboneau, one of the old Canadian French Charboneaus, with his brothers had tramped with Alexander Henry far to the north under sub-arctic forests, wintered on the Assiniboine, and paddled to Winnipeg. Seven years now he had lived among the Minnetarees, an independent trader like McCracken and Jussaume, and interpreter for other traders. Moreover, Charboneau was a polygamist with several wives to cook his food and carry his wood and water. But he had been kind to the captive Indian girl, and her heart clung to the easy-going Frenchman as her best friend. The worst white man was better than an Indian husband. Captured in battle as a child five years before, Sacajawea had been brought to the land of the Dakotas and sold to Charboneau. Now barely sixteen, in that February at the Mandan fort she became a mother. Most of the men were away on a great hunting trip; when they came back a lusty little red-faced pappoose was screaming beside the kitchen fire. The men had walked thirty miles that day on the ice and in snow to their knees, but utterly fatigued as they were, the sight of that little Indian baby cuddled in a deerskin robe brought back memories of home. Clark came in with frosty beard, and moccasins all worn out. "Sacajawea has a fine boy," said Lewis. No wonder the Captains watched her recovery with interest. All winter they had sought an interpreter for those far-away tongues beyond the mountains, and no one could be found but Sacajawea, the wife of Charboneau. Clark directed York to wait on her, stew her fruit, and serve her tea, to the great jealousy of Jussaume's wife, who packed up her pappooses in high dudgeon and left the fort. Sacajawea was only a slave. She, Madame Jussaume, was the daughter of a chief! Poor little Sacajawea! She was really very ill. If she died who would unlock the Gates of the Mountains? Charboneau was a cook. He set himself to preparing the daintiest soups and steaks, and soon the "Bird Woman" was herself again, packing and planning for the journey. Busy every day now were Lewis and Clark making up their reports and drawing a map of the country. Shahaka, Big White, came and helped them. Kagohami of the Minnetarees came, and with a coal on a robe made a sketch of the Missouri that Clark re-drew. But in the midst of the map-making all the Indian talk was of "war, war, war." "I am going to war against the Snakes in the Spring," said Kagohami. "No," said Lewis, "that will displease the President. He wants you to live at peace." "Suffer me to go to war against the Sioux," begged another chief. "No," answered Lewis. "These wars are the cause of all your troubles. If you do not stop it the Great Father will withdraw his protection from you. He will come over here and make you stop it." "Look on the many nations whom war has destroyed," continued Lewis. "Think of your poverty and misfortunes. If you wish to be happy, cultivate peace and friendship. Then you will have horses. Then you will grow strong." "Have you spoken thus to all the tribes?" inquired Kagohami. "We have." "And did they open their ears?" "They did." "I have horses enough," reflected Kagohami, "I will not go to war. I will advise my nation to remain at home until we see whether the Snake Indians desire peace." One night the hunters came in with the report, "A troop of whooping Sioux have captured our horses and taken our knives." It was midnight, but Lewis immediately routed up the men and set out with twenty volunteers on the track of the marauding Sioux. In vain. The boasting freebooters had escaped with the horses beyond recovery. "We are sorry we did not kill the white men," was the word sent back by an Arikara. "They are bad medicine. We shall scalp the whole camp in the Spring." XI _THE BRITISH FUR TRADERS_ The movements of Lewis and Clark were watched by the Northwest Company, who already had planned a house at the Mandans. Jefferson was not an hour too soon. "Yes," said Larocque, "I will pass the winter there and watch those Americans." In the midst of the frightful cold, twenty-two degrees below zero, on December 16, 1804, Larocque and Mackenzie came over again from Fort Assiniboine and with them came Alexander Henry. "Strangers are among us," said the Indians, "Big Knives from below. Had they been kind they would have loaded their Great Boat with goods. As it is they prefer throwing away their ammunition to sparing a shot to the poor Mandans. There are only two sensible men among them, the worker of iron and the mender of guns." "Amazing long pickets," remarked Larocque, as they came in sight of the new stockade of Fort Mandan. The triangular fort, two sides formed of houses and the front of pickets, presented a formidable appearance in the wild. "Cannon-ball proof," remarked Larocque, taking a good squint at the high round bastion in the corner between the houses, defending two sides of the fort. On the top was a sentry all night, and below a sentry walked all day within the fort. "Well guarded against surprise," remarked Alexander Henry, as he tapped at the gate with the ramrod of his gun. As the party knocked at the gates of Fort Mandan, in their winter coats of leather lined with flannel, edged with fur, and double-breasted, the lively eye of Patrick Gass peeped out. "Some more av thim Britishers to ascertain our motives fur visitin' this countery, and to gain infurmation with rispict to th' change o' gov'm't," was the shrewd guess of Pat. The hospitable Captains were more than glad to entertain visitors. They were there to cultivate international amity. In their hearts Lewis and Clark never dreamed what a commotion that friendly letter to Chaboillez had stirred up. It had gone far and awakened many. Immediately upon its receipt Chaboillez sent out a runner. "Lewis and Clark with one hundred and eighty soldiers have arrived at the Mandan village," so the story flew. "On their arrival they hoisted the American flag and informed the natives that their object was not to trade, but merely to explore the country; and that as soon as navigation shall open they design to continue their route across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. They have made the natives a few small presents and repaired their guns and axes free. They have behaved honourably toward my people, who are there to trade with the natives." Such a message as this was enough to bring Alexander Henry down to investigate. The cottonwood fires at Fort Mandan roared up the chimneys with unwonted splendour that winter night. The thermometer suddenly fell to forty-five degrees below zero; but warm and comfortable beside the blaze they talked, American and British, in this border of the nations. Charles Mackenzie had been a clerk of the Northwest Company for a year. Of the same rank as himself was Larocque, and both were popular with the redmen. In fact, Mackenzie, a Scot from the Highlands, was already married to an Indian girl, and Larocque was a Frenchman. That was enough. No nation fraternized with the redmen as the Frenchmen did. Alexander Henry, fur trader among the American Indians and one of the famous Northwesters, bore a great name in the north. There were two Alexander Henrys; the younger was a nephew of the other, and he it was that had now come to visit Lewis and Clark. He knew more of the country than, perhaps, any other man in the northwest. In fact, his uncle, the elder Henry, was at Michilimackinac in the days of Pontiac, and had penetrated to the Saskatchewan before ever there was a Northwest Company. Henry, Jr., wintered on the Red River the very year that Alexander Mackenzie crossed the continent,--1793. As a _bourgeois_ of the Northwesters, with a fleet of canoes and twenty-one men he had led the Red River brigade of 1800 up into the Winnipeg country. The scarlet belts, breeches of smoked buckskin, and blue cloth leggings of Alexander Henry's old _coureur des bois_ were known for hundreds of miles. Yes, he knew the Sioux. Their pillaging bands sometimes plundered his traders. "They are not to be trusted," he declared in positive tone. "A very sensible, intelligent man," said Lewis and Clark to themselves as the great Northwester talked of the country and the tribes. But time seemed pressing. Questions of cold or of comfort weighed not with these dauntless Northwesters when the interests of their company were at stake. They had come on horseback. To return that way was out of the question; and so sleds were fitted up with Jussaume's Eskimo dogs, the "Huskies" of the fur traders. "They seem happy to see us," remarked Mackenzie from under his muffler, as they rode away. "They treat us with civility and kindness, but Captain Lewis cannot make himself agreeable. He speaks fluently, even learnedly, but to me his inveterate prejudice against the British stains all his eloquence." "Captain Clark is more cordial," rejoined Larocque. "He seems to dislike giving offence unnecessarily. Do you recall his thoughtfulness in sending for our horses when we feared they might be stolen? He let his men guard them with his own." With the thermometer thirty-two degrees below zero, the dogsleds flew swift across the snow, bearing news not alone to Assiniboine, but to Fort William on the northern shore of Lake Superior where the Northwesters had built their trading centre. Fort William, built in 1803 and named in honour of William McGillivray, was the great distributing point, where "the lords of the lakes and the forests" came to hold their rendezvous. In front rolled Superior, the great Canadian Sea. Schooners, laden with merchandise, peltries, and provisions, plied between Fort William and Sault Ste. Marie. One of the honoured names of the Northwest Company was Philip de Rocheblave. Captured by George Rogers Clark at Kaskaskia, sent to Virginia and there let out on parole, he broke faith and fled to New York, to turn up at Montreal in the winter of 1783-4 along with McTavish, McGillivray, the Frobishers and Frasers, founders of the Northwest Fur Company. Pierre de Rocheblave had now succeeded to his uncle's honours. Would he be apt to let the United States get ahead of him? And by means of a _Clark_ at that? "I must go down to the American fort to get my compass put in order," said Larocque again, in January. "The glass is broken and the needle does not point due north." He found Captain Clark sketching charts of the country, Lewis making vocabularies; Jussaume and Charboneau, the Frenchmen, interpreting and disputing on the meaning of words. "They write down our words," whispered the suspicious Indians. "What wicked design have they on our country?" Captain Lewis spent a whole day fixing Larocque's compass. "I hardly get a skin when the Hudson's Bay trader is with me," said Larocque. "He is known by all the Indians, and understands and talks their language. I must get Charboneau." And the two went away together. "Of what use are beaver?" inquired the Indians. "Do you make gunpowder of them? Do they preserve you from sickness? Do they serve you beyond the grave?" Alexander Henry went to Fort William. "A new rival has arisen," said the Northwest traders at their hurried conference. "We must anticipate these United States explorers and traders. They may advance northward and establish a claim to ownership by prior right of discovery or occupation. We must build a chain of posts and hold the country." "But whom can we send on such a monumental enterprise?" There seemed but one man,--Simon Fraser. Simon Fraser was the son of a Scottish Tory who had been captured by the Americans at Burgoyne's surrender and had died in prison. His wife, with Simon a babe in arms, removed to Canada, to rear her son beneath the banner of her King. At sixteen, young Fraser became a clerk of the Northwest Company and a _bourgeois_. But the Frasers were great-brained people; young Simon was soon promoted; and now at the age of twenty-nine he was put in charge of the greatest enterprise since the incomparable feat of Alexander Mackenzie. "You, Simon Fraser, are to establish trading-posts in the unknown territory, and in this way take possession for Great Britain." Over at Sault Ste. Marie a young doctor by the name of John McLoughlin would gladly have accompanied his uncle Simon on that perilous undertaking. But his day was to come later. Both of their names are now linked with the Old Oregon. Young men of the two most progressive modern nations were to be pitted in this race for Empire,--Lewis and Clark, and Simon Fraser. XII _FAREWELL TO FORT MANDAN_ On the first day of March preparations began on the building of new boats. The old ones were pried out of the ice, and the whole party was busy making elk-skin ropes and pirogues, in burning coal, and in making battle-axes to trade for corn. Ducks began to pass up the river; swans and wild geese were flying north. Old Chief Le Borgne of the Minnetarees, a giant in stature, a brute at heart, had held aloof all winter in his tepee. "Foolish people! Stay at home!" he cried. But strange rumours crept within the walls of the sulky Cyclops. Overcome at last by curiosity Le Borgne came down to the fort. "Some foolish young men of my nation tell me there is a man among you who is black. Is that true?" "It is," answered Clark. "York, come here." With his one fierce eye, Le Borgne examined York closely. He wet his finger and rubbed the skin to see if the black would come off. Not until the negro uncovered his head and showed his woolly hair could the chief be persuaded that York was not a painted white man. Convinced against his will, and amazed, Le Borgne arose with a snort, his black hair flying over his brawny shoulders, and stalked out. As he passed along, the Indians shrank back. Over the hill came the wail of a demented mother. Many a fair Indian girl had left her scalp at the door of this Indian Blue-Beard because she preferred some other lover. The ice was already honeycombed. Larocque came over for a farewell. "McTavish is dead," he said. Lewis and Clark scarcely comprehended the full import of that announcement. At the foot of the mountain in Montreal the great Northwester was building a palace, fit abode for "the lord of the lakes and the forest," when the summons came in 1804. Up the rivers and lakes the word was carried into the uttermost wilds,--"McTavish is dead." Thus it came to Lewis and Clark, this last news from the outer world. The meeting at Fort William had been held without him,--McTavish was dead. He was the head and front of the Northwest Company. Under the King, Simon McTavish ruled Canada, ruled half of British America, making Hudson's Bay tremble on her northern sea. The quick wit of the American born of Irish parents belonged to Patrick Gass. While others were struggling toward an idea, Pat had already seized it. Brave, observant, of good sense, and hating the British, he kept an eye on Larocque. "Do not trust that Frinchman." Larocque had a stock of goods to trade. He lingered around Fort Mandan, and offered to go over the mountains with Lewis and Clark, but they politely declined. Already Larocque knew of the order at Fort William. His own brother-in-law, Quesnel, was to be the companion of Fraser's voyage, and was to leave, like Fraser, his name on the rivers of British Columbia. Then there was trouble with Charboneau. He became independent and impudent and demanded higher wages. Somebody was tampering with Charboneau. Suddenly flaming with new raiment, gay vests, and yards of blue and scarlet cloth, he announced: "I weel not work. I weel not stand guard. I eenterpreteur,--do as I pleese, return wheen I pleese." "We can dispense with your services," coolly answered the Captains. Charboneau stepped back, surprised. Ignoring his presence, preparations were hurried on. The boats, the troublesome, cracking, warping cottonwood boats, were hauled to the fort and pitched and calked and tinned, until at last they were ready to try the water. No one spoke to the Frenchman, no one noticed him as he lingered expectantly by. All the Indian goods were brought out and hung in the open air. Even at the busiest moments, with every man on the jump, no one asked Charboneau to help. Finding he was about to lose his position, the Frenchman came to Captain Lewis, apologised, and was restored to service. In a trice Charboneau was back at the skillets, dishing up the dinner. The occupants of Fort Mandan had been snow-bound five months when ice began running in the river. All day long now the busy Indians were catching buffalo floating by on the high water. The foolish animals, trying to cross the thin ice, broke through. Others floated away on big cakes that were certain, sooner or later, to launch them into eternity. The patient, devoted women, too, were in evidence. Slipping out of their leather smocks, they plunged naked into the icy current to secure the floating driftwood for fuel. Across the snow long lines of squaws came dragging home the drift. The hammers of Shields and Bratton rang merrily at the anvils. Boxes were made and hooped and ironed, to go down in the big bateau that was too unwieldy to carry further. In those stout boxes were horns of the mountain ram, unknown as yet to science, horns of elk and deer, rare skins, robes and Indian dresses; bow, arrows, and a shield for the President, on which Old Black Cat had spent months of patient carving; samples of the red Arikara corn; sixty-seven specimens of earths, salts, and minerals, and sixty specimens of plants, all carefully labelled; seeds, insects, the skeleton of the big fish from the hilltop, stuffed antelopes and Lewis's pelican, a live prairie dog in a wicker cage, a live prairie hen and four magpies. A new geography was there, a map of the Missouri extending out to the mystic mountains, drawn from Indian description, to be presented by Jefferson to Congress. In these boxes, too, went letters. There was one of several thousand words from Lewis to his mother. Captain Clark's first and best letter was to his brother at the Point of Rock; with it he enclosed a map and sketches of Indians. Another was to Major Croghan at Locust Grove, with seeds of several kinds of grapes for his sister Lucy. With the bateau went also the famous Mandan report of Lewis to Jefferson, and Clark's letter to his soldier friend, William Henry Harrison, then Governor of the Indian Territory at Vincennes. Other missives went to Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,--wherever a man had a mother at the hearthstone waiting to hear of her distant boy. Saddest of all was the news to Mill Creek, the home of Sergeant Floyd. Part of Clark's journal was transmitted by letter to the President and part was enclosed in a separate tin box, "to multiply the chances of saving something." The Mandan treasures, with dispatches and presents from the Indians, went down by water to the Gulf and thence by sea to Washington. "I have little doubt but they will be fired on by the Sioux," says Lewis in his letter, "but they have pledged themselves to us that they will not yield while there is one of them living." At five o'clock on Sunday afternoon, April 7, 1805, the barge left Fort Mandan for St. Louis with ten men. With it went also Brave Raven of the Arikaras, to visit his Great Father, the President. At the same moment that the barge left the fort, six small canoes and the two pirogues shot up river, carrying thirty-one men and Sacajawea with her child. "This little fleet, although not quite so respectable as those of Columbus or Captain Cook, is still viewed by us with as much pleasure as those famed adventurers ever beheld theirs," said Lewis, "and I dare say with quite as much anxiety for their safety and preservation. We are now about to penetrate a country at least two thousand miles in width, on which the foot of civilised man has never trodden. "Entertaining as I do the most confident hope of succeeding in a voyage which has formed a darling project of mine for ten years, I can but esteem this moment of our departure as among the happiest of my life." XIII _TOWARD THE SUNSET_ The Spring days were squally and chill. The air was sharp, and the water froze on the oars as the little party rowed along. Now and then a flurry of snow whitened the April green. Sometimes the sails were spread, and the boats scurried before the wind. Often, however, the sails proved too large, and over the boats lurched, wetting the baggage and powder. Most of the powder had been sealed in leaden canisters. When the powder was emptied the canister itself was melted into bullets. That was a nightly task,--the moulding of bullets. "Hio! hio!" The hunters ahead picked a camping spot, beside a spring or by a clump of trees. In short order brass kettles were swung across the gipsy poles. Twisting a bunch of buffalo grass into a nest, in a moment Dr. Saugrain's magical matches had kindled a roaring flame. Swinging axes made music where axes had never swung before. Baby Touissant rolled his big eyes and kicked and crowed in his mother's lap, while Charboneau, head cook, stuffed his trapper's sausage with strips of tenderloin and hung it in links around the blaze. Stacks of buffalo meat lay near by, where they had been piled by the industrious hunters. Odours of boiling meat issued from the kettles. Juicy brown ribs snapped and crackled over the flames. Captain Lewis, accustomed to the _cuisine_ of Jefferson at the White House, laughed. "How did you dress this sausage so quick, Charboneau? Two bobs and a flirt in the dirty Missouri?" Sometimes Lewis himself turned cook, and made a suet dumpling for every man. More frequently he was off to the hills with Clark, taking a look at the country. Nor was Sacajawea idle. With her baby on her back, she opened the nests of prairie mice, and brought home artichokes. Sometimes she brought sprouts of wild onion for the broth, or the _pomme blanche_,--the peppery Indian turnip. York, too, at his master's direction often gathered cresses and greens for the dinner. But York was becoming a hunter. As well as the best, he "slew dem buffaloes." Lewis had bought Charboneau's big family tent. Under its leather shelter slept the Captains, with Drouillard and Charboneau and his little family. Around the twilight fires the men wrote their journals,--Lewis, Clark, Pryor, Ordway, Gass, Fraser, all busy with their stub quill pens and inkhorns, recording the day's adventure. They were not scholars, any of them, but men of action, pioneers and explorers, heralds of the nation. In their strenuous boyhood they had defended the frontier. Men at sixteen, they took up a man's employment. Lewis, more favoured, prolonged his schooldays until the age of eighteen, then broke away to march with armies. At last these first civilised sounds that ever broke the silence primeval were hushed. Rolled up like cocoons in their mackinaw blankets, the men were soon snoring in rows with feet to the fires, while a solitary sergeant peered into the lonely night. The high Dakota wind roared among the cottonwoods. Mother Nature, too, kept guard, lighting her distant beacons in the blue above the soldier boys. In a land of wolves, no wolves molested, though they yelped and barked in the prairie grass. On all sides lay deserted camps of Assiniboine Sioux. Once the expedition crossed the trail of a war party only twenty-four hours old. A dog left behind came to the camp of the explorers and became the pet of Captain Lewis. "Kip so quiet lak' one leetle mouse," whispered Cruzatte, cautioning silence. No one cared to meet the Assiniboine Sioux, the "_Gens des Grands Diables_." Once the smoke of their campfires clouded the north; but the boats sped on undiscovered. "The river reminds me of the Ohio at this time of year," said Clark. "The drumming of that sharp-tailed grouse is like that of the pheasants of old Virginia," responded Lewis. "And the croaking of the frogs exactly resimbles that of frogs in th' Yaunited States," added Patrick Gass. For days they noted veins of coal burning along the river banks, kindled perhaps by Indian fires. Alkali dust began to rise, blown into clouds, and sifting into their tight double-cased watches until the wheels refused to move more than a few minutes at a time. Toward the last of April Lewis went ahead to the mouth of the Rochejaune, the Yellow Rock, or Yellowstone River, passing through herds of elk, antelope, and buffalo, so tame they would scarce move out of his way. Beautiful dun deer snorted and pawed the leaves, then half trusting, half timorous, slipped into the thicket. No one but Sacajawea had ever before been over this road. In May they reached the land where even the beaver were gentle, for they had never been hunted. No white man, so far as they knew, had ever trodden these wilds. They had not heard of the gallant Sieur Verendrye, two of whose intrepid sons reached the "Shining Mountains" on New Year's Day, 1743. Washington was a boy then; George Rogers Clark was not born. But the Snakes and the Sioux were at war, fierce battles were raging, and they were forced to turn back. The noble Verendrye spent all his fortune, and forty thousand livres besides, in trying to find the River of the West. Then Jonathan Carver of Connecticut set out about the time Boone went to Kentucky. At the Falls of St. Anthony, he, too, heard of the Shining Mountains. "The four most capital rivers of North America take their rise about the centre of this continent," said Carver. "The River Bourbon, which empties into Hudson's Bay; the Waters of St. Lawrence; the Mississippi; and the River Oregon, or the River of the West, that falls into the Pacific Ocean at the Straits of Anian." What little bird whispered "Oregon" in Carver's ear? No such word is known in any Indian tongue. Had some Spanish sailor told of a shore "like his own green Arragon"? And now Lewis and Clark are on the sunset path. Will _they_ find the Shining Mountains and the River of the West? At the first large branch beyond the Yellowstone, Captain Lewis went on shore with Drouillard the hunter. Out of a copse suddenly appeared two grizzlies. Lewis remembered well the awe and absolute terror with which the Mandans had described this king of Western beasts. Never did they go out to meet him without war-paint and all the solemn rites of battle. As with the cave bear of ancient song and saga, no weapon of theirs was adequate to meet this dreaded monster. In parties of six or eight they went, with bows and arrows, or, in recent years, the bad guns of the trader. With these things in mind, Lewis and the hunter faced the bears. Each fired, and each wounded his beast. One of the bears ran away; the other turned and pursued Captain Lewis, but a lucky third shot from Drouillard laid him low. And what a brute was he! Only a cub and yet larger than any bear of the Atlantic States, the grizzly, known now to be identical with the awful cave bear of prehistoric time. No wonder the Indian that slew him was a brave and in the line of chieftainship! No wonder the claws became a badge of honour! No man, no foe so fierce to meet as one enraged and famished grizzly. His skin was a king's robe, his tusk an emblem of unflinching valour. A wind from the east now filled the sails and blew them west! west! More and more tame grew the elk and buffalo, until the men were obliged to drive them out of their way with sticks and stones. Before them unrolled the great wild garden of Eden. Abounding everywhere were meadows,--beaver meadows and clover meadows, wild rice and rye and timothy, and buffalo grazing on a thousand hills. Prairie fowl scurried in the under-brush, beautiful white geese gazed calmly at them, ducks quacked around ponds and streams alive with trout. Wild gardens were radiant with roses and honeysuckles, morning-glories and wild hops. Whole fields of lilies perfumed the sunrise, strawberries carpeted the uplands, and tangles of blackberries and raspberries interwove a verdant wall along the buffalo trails, the highways of the wilderness. Mountain sheep sported on the cliffs, the wild cat purred in her forest lair. The yellow cougar, the mountain lion, growled and slunk away. The coyote, the Indian dog, snapped and snarled. But man, man was not there. For four months no Indian appeared through all the Great Lone Land of the Tay-a-be-shock-up, the country of the mountains. William Bratton, who had been walking along the shore, presently came running to the boats with cries of terror. "Take me on board, quick!" It was some moments before Bratton could speak. "A bear! a bear!" he gasped at last. A mile and a half back Bratton had wounded a grizzly that turned and chased him. Captain Lewis and seven men immediately started. For a mile they tracked the trail of blood to a hole where the enraged animal was frantically tearing up the earth with teeth and claws. Two shots through the skull finished the grizzly, whose fleece and skin made a load which two men could scarcely carry back to camp. "More bear-butter to fry me sassage," remarked unsentimental Charboneau. But now had begun in earnest the days of wild adventure. One evening after another grizzly battle, the men came triumphantly into camp to find disaster there. Charboneau had been steersman that night, and Cruzatte was at the bow. A sudden squall struck the foremost pirogue, Charboneau let go the tiller, the wind bellied the sail, and over they turned. "De rudder! de rudder!" shouted Cruzatte. Charboneau, the most timid waterman in the party, clinging to the gunwales, heard only his own voice in the wind, crying aloud to heaven, "_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_" "De rudder!" roared Cruzatte. "Seize de rudder instanter and do de duty, or I _shoot_ you!" Fear of Cruzatte's gun overcame fear of drowning. Charboneau, pallid and trembling, reached for the flying rope. Half a minute the boat lay on the wave, then turned up full of water. At last, holding the brace of the square sail, Charboneau pulled the boat round, while all hands fell to bailing out the water. But all the papers, medicine, and instruments were wet. Cruzatte alone was calm, and Sacajawea, who, with her baby and herself to save, still managed to catch and preserve most of the light articles that were floating overboard. Captain Lewis, watching the disaster from afar, had almost leaped into the water to save his precious papers, but was restrained by the reflection that by such rashness he might forfeit his life. Two days were lost in unpacking and drying the stores. At midnight a buffalo ran into the sleeping camp. "Hey! hey! hey!" shouted the guard, firing on the run and waving his arms. But the distracted beast, plunging close to the heads of the sleeping men, headed directly toward the leather tent. Suddenly up before his nose danced the little Indian dog, and the buffalo was turned back into the night just as the whole camp jumped to arms in expectation of an attack of the Sioux. "Fire! Fire!" was the next alarm. In the high wind of the night one of the fires had communicated itself to a dead cottonwood overhanging the camp. Fanned by the gale the flames shot up the trunk, and burning limbs and twigs flew in a shower upon the leather tent. "Fire! fire! fire!" again came the quick, sharp cry. Every man rolled out of his mackinaw. The occupants of the lodge were soon aroused. Strong hands had scarcely removed the lodge and quenched the burning leather before the tree itself fell directly over the spot where a moment before the Captains were sleeping soundly. And so that stream was named the Burnt Lodge Creek. XIV _THE SHINING MOUNTAINS_ Ascending the highest summit of the hills on the north side of the river, on Sunday, the 26th of May, Captain Lewis first caught a distant view of "the Rock mountains--the object of all our hopes, and the reward of all our ambition." "When I viewed--I felt a secret pleasure,--but when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowy barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific, and the sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some measure counterbalanced the joy." Bold and bolder grew the river shores. The current now became too rapid for oars, too deep for poles. Nothing but the tow-line could draw the boats against the swift flow of the mountain torrent. Struggling along shore with the rope on their shoulders, the men lost their moccasins in the clinging clay and went barefoot. Sometimes knee-deep, they waded, sometimes waist-deep, shoulders-deep, in the icy water, or rising on higher benches walked on flinty rocks that cut their naked feet. Leaping out of the mountains, came down a laughing sparkling river, the clearest they had yet seen. Its valley seemed a paradise of ash and willow, honeysuckles and wild roses. Standing on its bank Clark mused, "I know but one other spot so beautiful. I will name this river for my little mountain maid of Fincastle, the Judith." Could he then foresee that Judith would become his wife, or that the verdant Judith Basin would be the last retreat of the buffalo? Big horned mountain sheep were sporting on the cliffs, beaver built their dams along its shores, and up the Judith Gap the buffalo had his mountain home. The Indian, too, had left there the scattered embers of a hundred fires. Lewis picked up a moccasin. "Here, Sacajawea, does this belong to your people?" The Bird Woman shook her head. "No Shoshone." She pointed to the north where the terrible Blackfeet came swooping down to shoot and scalp. It was time to hasten on. Valley succeeded valley for miles on miles, and between valleys arose hills of sandstone, worn by suns and storms into temples of desolated magnificence; ruins of columns and towers, pedestals and capitals, parapets of statuary, sculptured alcoves and mysterious galleries. Sheer up from the river's side they lifted their heads like old Venetian palaces abandoned to the bats. June 3 the river forked. "Which is the true Missouri?" "De nort'ern branch. See it boil and roll?" said Cruzatte. "See de colour? Dat de true Meessouri. De ot'er ees but one leetle stream from de mountain." But the Captains remembered the advice of the Minnetarees. "The Ah-mateah-za becomes clear, and has a navigable current into the mountains." Parties were sent up both branches to reconnoitre. Lewis and Clark ascended the high ground in the fork and looked toward the sunset. Innumerable herds of buffalo, elk, and antelope were browsing as far as the eye could reach, until the rivers were lost in the plain. Back came the canoes undecided. Then the Captains set out. Clark took the crystal pebbly southern route. Lewis went up the turbid northern branch fifty-nine miles. "This leads too far north, almost to the Saskatchewan," he concluded, and turned back. In the summer sunshine robins sang, turtle doves, linnets, the brown thrush, the goldfinch, and the wren, filled the air with melody. "I will call it Maria's River, for my beautiful and amiable cousin, Maria Wood of Charlottesville," thought Lewis, with a memory of other Junes in old Virginia. When Lewis drew up at camp, Clark was already there, anxious for his safety. The main party, occupied in dressing skins and resting their lame and swollen feet, looked eagerly for the decision. To their surprise both Captains agreed on the southern route. "But Cruzatte," exclaimed the men, "he thinks the north stream is the true river, and Cruzatte is an experienced waterman. We may be lost in the mountains far from the Columbia." "True. Everything depends on a right decision. Captain Clark, if you will stay here and direct the deposit of whatever we can spare, I will go ahead until I know absolutely." At dawn Lewis set out with Drouillard, Gibson, Goodrich, and Joe Fields. Under Captain Clark's direction, Bratton, the blacksmith, set up his forge at the mouth of Maria's River and Shields mended all the broken guns. The rest dug a _cache_, a kettle-shaped cellar, on a dry spot safe from water. The floor was covered with dry sticks and a robe. Then in went the blacksmith's heavy tools, canisters of powder, bags of flour and baggage,--whatever could be spared. On top was thrown another robe, and then the earth packed in tight and the sod refitted so that no eye could detect the spot. The red pirogue was drawn up into the middle of a small island at the mouth of Maria's River and secured in a copse. "Boys, I am very ill," said Captain Lewis, when they camped for dinner on the first day out. Attacked with violent pains and a high fever, unable to proceed, he lay under some willow boughs. No medicine had been brought. Drouillard was much concerned. "I well remember," he said, "when a flux was epidemic at Chillicothe among de white settlers, my fader, Pierre Drouillard, administer on de sick wit' great success." "What did he use?" "A tea of de choke-cherry." "Prepare me some," said the rapidly sinking Captain. With deft fingers Drouillard stripped off the leaves of a choke-cherry bough, and cut up the twigs. Black and bitter, the tea was brought to Lewis at sunset. He drank a pint, and another pint an hour afterward. By ten o'clock the pain was gone, a gentle perspiration ensued, the fever abated, and by morning he was able to proceed. The next day, June 12, the mountains loomed as never before, rising range on range until the distant peaks commingled with the clouds. Twenty-four hours later Lewis heard the roaring of a cataract, seven miles away, and saw its spray, a column of cloud lifted by the southwest wind. Like Hiawatha he had-- "Journeyed westward, westward, Left the fleetest deer behind him, Left the antelope and bison, Passed the mountains of the Prairie, Passed the land of Crows and Foxes, Passed the dwellings of the Blackfeet, Came unto the Rocky Mountains, To the kingdom of the West-Wind." Hastening on with impatient step he came upon the stupendous waterfall, one of the glories of our continent, that hidden here in the wilderness had for ages leaped adown the rocky way. Overwhelmed with the spectacle Lewis sat down "to gaze and wonder and adore." "Oh, for the pencil of Salvator Rosa or the pen of Thompson, that I might give to the world some idea of this magnificent object, which from the commencement of time has been concealed from the view of civilised man." Joe Fields was immediately dispatched to notify Clark of the discovery of the Falls. Lewis and the other men went on up ten miles, gazing at cataract after cataract where the mighty Missouri bent and paused, and gathering its full volume leaped from rock to rock, sometimes wild and irregularly sublime, again smooth and elegant as a painter's dream. Lewis, impatient to see and know, hurried on past the rest until night overtook him alone near the head of the series of cataracts. On the high plain along the bank a thousand buffalo were feeding on the short curly grass. Lewis shot one for supper, and leaning upon his unloaded rifle watched to see it fall. A slight rustle attracted his attention. He turned. A bear was stealing upon him, not twenty steps away. There was no time for reloading, flight alone remained. Not a bush, not a tree, not a rock was near, nothing but the water. With a wild bound Lewis cleared the intervening space and leaped into the river. Turning, he presented his _espontoon_. The bear, already at the bank, was about to spring, but that defiant _espontoon_ in his face filled him with terror. He turned and ran, looking back now and then as if fearing pursuit, and disappeared. Clambering out of the water, Lewis started for camp, when, sixty paces in front of him, a strange animal crouched as if to spring. Lewis fired and a mountain lion fled. Within three hundred yards of the spot, three enraged buffalo bulls left the herd, and shaking their shaggy manes, ran pawing and bellowing, full speed upon him. Eluding the bulls, Lewis hurried to camp. Worn out, he fell asleep, only to awaken and find a huge rattlesnake coiled around the tree above his head! Such was earth primeval! The Great Falls of the Missouri was the rendezvous for all wild life in the country. Thousands of impatient buffaloes pushed each other along the steep rocky paths to the water. Hundreds went over the cataract to feed the bears and wolves below. Captain Clark soon arrived with the main body and went into camp at a sulphur spring, a favourite resort of buffaloes. "This is precisely like Bowyer's sulphur spring of Virginia,--it will be good for Sacajawea," said Lewis, bringing her a cup of the transparent water that tumbled in a cascade into the Missouri. Sacajawea was sick, very sick, delirious at times as she lay on her couch of skins. The journey had been difficult. The hungry little baby was a great burden, and Sacajawea was only sixteen, younger even than Shannon, the boy of the party. Clark directed his negro servant, York, to be her constant attendant. Charboneau was cautioned on no account to leave her. Several other semi-invalids guarded the tent to keep the buffaloes away. Every day, and twice a day, the Captains came to see her and prescribe as best they could. Now came the tedious days of portaging the boats and baggage around the Falls. A cottonwood tree, nearly two feet in diameter, was sawed into wheels. The white pirogue was hidden in a copse and its mast was taken for an axletree. Opposite the spot where the waggons were made was an island full of bears of enormous size. Their growling and stealthy movements went on day and night. All night the watchful little dog kept up incessant barking. The men, disturbed in their slumbers, lay half-awake with their arms in hand, while the guard patrolled with an eye on the island. Bolder and bolder grew the bears. One night they came to the very edge of the camp and ran off with the meat hung out for breakfast. At last the rude waggons were done. The canoes were mounted and filled with baggage. Slowly they creaked away, tugged and pushed and pulled up hills that were rocky and rough with hummocks where the buffaloes trod. Prickly-pears, like little scythes, cut and lacerated, even through double-soled moccasins. At every halt, over-wearied and worn out by night watching, the toilers dropped to the ground and fell asleep instantly. A whole month was spent in making the carriages and transporting the baggage the eighteen miles around the Falls. In another _cache_ at the sulphur spring, they buried Lewis's writing desk, specimens of plants and minerals, provisions, the grindstone brought from Harper's Ferry, books and a map of the Missouri River. The blunderbuss was hid under rocks at the foot of the Falls. Sacajawea, recovered from her illness, began to look for familiar landmarks. One day Clark took her, together with Charboneau and York, to look at the Falls. He had surveyed and measured the Black Eagle, Crooked Rainbow, and Great Falls. "Come," he said, "Charboneau, bring Sacajawea. Let us go up and look at the Black Eagle." High above the cataract the bird had built its nest in the top of a cottonwood tree. A dark cloud was rising. Under a shelving rock they took refuge in a ravine, Captain Clark still figuring at his notes. A few drops of rain fell,--in an instant a torrent, a cloud-burst, rolled down the ravine. Clark saw it coming. Snatching his gun and shot-pouch, he pushed Sacajawea and the baby up the cliff, while Charboneau above was pulling her by the hand. Up to Clark's waist the water came. Fifteen feet it rose behind him as he climbed to safety. Compass and umbrella were lost in the scramble. Charboneau had left his gun, tomahawk, and shot-pouch. Sacajawea had just snatched her baby before its cradle went into the flood. After the storm they came down into the plain, to find York in affright lest they had been swept into the river. On account of the great heat, the men at the waggons had laid aside their leather hunting shirts, when down upon their bare backs came a shower of huge hailstones. Bruised, battered, and bleeding as from a battle, they straggled into camp. Kind-hearted Lewis set to work with linens and medicine, bandaging up their wounds. The next morning Captain Clark sent two men to look for the articles lost at the Falls. They found the ravine filled with rock, but happily, half-hid in mud and sand, the precious compass was recovered. Within view of the camp that day Clark estimated not less than ten thousand buffalo. And beyond, rimmed on the far horizon, ran the white line of the mountain crest that is to-day the western boundary of Montana. The 4th of July dawned, the second since they had left the States. In the hills they heard strange booming, as of a distant cannonade. It almost seemed as if the Rocky Mountains were reverberating back the joyous guns of Baltimore and Boston. The men listened in amaze. "What can it be?" "Een de mountain," answered Cruzatte. "De vein of silver burst. De Pawnee and de Rickara hear eet een de Black Hill." "Ah, yes, the Minnetarees talked of a noise in the mountains. We thought it was superstition." Again through long silence came the great cannonade. Unconsciously Lewis and Clark trod on closed treasure houses, future mines of unwashed tons of gold and silver. Had they brought back gold then what might have been the effect upon the restless, heaving East? But, no, the land must wait and grow. Other wars must be fought with the Englishman and the Indian, armies of trappers must decimate the bears and wolves, and easier methods of transportation must aid in opening up the great Montana-land. XV _A WOMAN PILOT_ Monday, July 15, 1805, the boats were launched above the Great Falls of the Missouri. Clark followed by land along an old Indian trail, worn deep by the lodge-poles of ages. Little did he realise that nuggets lay scattered all over that land, where yet the gold hunters should dot the hills with shafts and mounds; that near here a beautiful city, named for Helen of Troy, should arise to become a golden capital. "My people! My people!" Sacajawea excitedly pointed to deserted wickiups and traces of fires. She read their story at a glance. "It was winter. They were hungry. There were no buffalo. See!" She pointed to the pines stripped of bark and the tender inner wood, the last resort of famishing Shoshones. With flags hoisted to notify the Indians that they were friends, the canoes passed within the Gates of the Mountains, where the mighty Missouri breaks through the Belt Range of western Montana. Nothing in Alleghany lands compares with this tremendous water-gap. Through the dark cavern the river ran narrow and rapid and clear. Down through tributary canyons on either side came rifts of light, odours of pine, and the roar of waterfalls. With unmoved countenance Sacajawea looked upon the weird overhanging grayish granite walls through which she had been hurried in terror by her Minnetaree captors, five years ago. "We are coming to a country where the river has three forks," said Sacajawea. Exhilaration seized the men, as they sent the boats up the heavy current that rolled well-deep below. That night they camped in a canyon that is to-day a pleasure resort for the people of Helena. Again following the Indian trail, on the 25th of July Clark arrived at the three forks of the Missouri, near the present site of Gallatin. From the forks of the far eastern rivers where Pittsburg rises, they had come to the forks of the great river of the West. For days the swift current had required the utmost exertion. The men complained of fatigue and excessive heat. "You push a tolerable good pole," said the Kentuckians, when Lewis took a hand. Captain Clark was worn out. With the thermometer at ninety, for days he had pushed ahead, determined to find the Shoshones. "Let us rest a day or two," said Captain Lewis. "Here, boys, build a bower for Captain Clark. I'll take a tramp myself in a few days to find these yellow gentlemen if possible." Camping at the three forks, every man became a leather dresser and tailor, fixing up his buckskin clothes. Leggings and moccasins had been sliced to pieces by the prickly pear. "What a spot for a trading post!" the Captains agreed. "Look," said Lewis, "see the rushes in the bottom, high as a man's breast and thick as wheat. This will be much in favour of an establishment here,--the cane is one of the best winter pastures for cows and horses." From the heights at the three forks, Lewis and Clark looked out upon valleys of perennial green. Birds of beautiful plumage and thrilling song appeared on every hand. Beaver, otter, muskrat, sported in this trapper's paradise. Buffalo-clover, sunflowers and wild rye, buffalo-peas and buffalo-beans blossomed everywhere. All the Indian trails in the country seemed to converge at this point. Here passed the deadly Blackfoot on his raids against the Shoshones, the Bannocks, and the Crows. Here stole back and forth the timid Shoshone to his annual hunt on the Yellowstone and the Snake River plains. Hither from time immemorial had the Flatheads and Nez Percés resorted for their supplies of robes and meat. Even from the far Saskatchewan came the Piegans and Gros Ventres to this favoured and disputed spot. The Blackfeet claimed the three forks of the Missouri, no tribe dwelt there permanently. The roads were deep, like trenches, worn by the trailing lodgepoles of many tribes upon this common hunting ground. The naming of the rivers,--that was an epic by itself. The gay Cabinet ladies who had fitted him out at Washington flitted through the mind of Meriwether Lewis,--Maria Jefferson, companion of his earliest recollection, Dolly Madison, whose interest never failed in his adventures, Mrs. Gallatin, the queenly dark-haired wife of the scholarly Secretary of the Treasury. With what pleasure had they gathered at the White House to fashion "housewives," full of pins and needles and skeins of thread, for these wanderers of the West. Not a man in the party but bore some souvenir of their thoughtful handiwork. Clark's earliest memory was of Jefferson, the friend of his father, of his older brothers, and then of himself. "Jimmy" Madison and George Rogers Clark had been schoolmates in the "old field school" of Donald Robertson. So then and there the Captains agreed that three great statesmen and their wives should be commemorated here by the Madison, the Jefferson, and the Gallatin forks of the Missouri. "On this very spot my people camped five years ago. Here were their tents," said Sacajawea, pointing out the embers of blackened fires. "The Minnetarees peered over the hills. We ran up this fork and hid in the thick woods." The boats were reloaded and the party began to ascend the Jefferson on July 30, to its head in the Bitter Root Mountains. At noon they camped for dinner. "And here was I captured!" cried Sacajawea. "I was made a prisoner. We were too few to fight the Minnetarees. They pursued us. Our men mounted their horses and fled to the mountains. The women and children hid. I ran. I was crossing this river. They caught me and carried me away." What a realistic glimpse of daily terror! Fighting, hunting, wandering, famishing, in the land of anarchy. Formerly the Shoshones were Indians of the plains. Now they had been driven by their enemies into almost inaccessible fastnesses. "The Beaver Head! The Beaver Head!" Sacajawea pointed to a steep, rocky cliff shaped like a beaver's head, one hundred and fifty feet above the water, an Indian landmark from time immemorial. "This is not far from the summer retreat of my countrymen. We shall meet them soon, on a river beyond the mountains running to the west." "We must meet those Indians," said Lewis, "it is our only hope for horses to cross the mountains." Lewis and Clark camped August 7, 1805, at Beaverhead Rock. There, fifty-seven years later, chased by bears, robbed by Indians, unsheltered, unshod, and almost starving, the gold hunter stumbled upon the auriferous bed of an ancient river that made Montana. Gold was discovered at Alder Gulch in 1863, ten miles south of Beaverhead Rock, and the next year mining began in the streets of the present city of Helena. The pick and the shovel in the miner's hand became the lamp and the ring in the grasp of Aladdin. The next morning after passing Beaverhead Rock, Captain Lewis and three of the men slung their knapsacks over their shoulders and set out for the mountains, determined not to return until they met some nation of Indians. Two days later, August 11, Lewis with his spyglass espied a lone horseman on the hills. The wild-eyed Shoshone, accustomed to scan the horizon, saw him also. "He is of a different nation from any we have met," remarked Lewis, watching intently through his glass. "He has a bow and a quiver of arrows, and an elegant horse without a saddle." Like a lookout on the hills, the Indian stood and waited. "He is undoubtedly a Shoshone. Much of our success depends on the friendly offices of that nation." Slowly Lewis advanced. Slowly the Indian came forward, until, within a mile of each other the Indian suddenly stopped. Captain Lewis also stopped, and drawing a three-point blanket from his knapsack held it by the corners above his head, and unfolding brought it to the ground as in the act of spreading. Three times he repeated the Indian signal of hospitality--"Come and sit on the robe with me." Still the Indian kept his position, viewing with an air of suspicion the hunters with Lewis. "_Tabba bone, tabba bone_," said Lewis, stripping up the sleeve of his shirt to show the colour of his skin,--"white man, white man," a term learned of Sacajawea. Paralysed the Indian looked, then fled like a frightened deer. No calls could bring him back. He said to his people, "I have seen men with faces pale as ashes, who are makers of thunder and lightning." "He is a dreamer!" exclaimed the incredulous Shoshones. "He makes up tales. He must show us these white men or be put to death," and trembling he started back with a body of warriors. Lewis, disappointed at the flight of the Shoshone, pressed on. Narrower and narrower grew the river. "Thank God, I have lived to bestride the Missouri!" exclaimed Hugh McNeil, planting a foot on either side of the mountain rivulet. Two miles farther up they drank from the ice-cold spring at the river's source, and stood on the summit of the Great Divide. A little creek flowed down the ridge toward the west. Stooping, they drank,--of the waters of the Columbia, and slept that night in Idaho. The next morning, following a well-worn Indian trail, Lewis came upon two women and a child. One fled, the other, an old dame encumbered by the child, sat down and bowed her head as if expecting instant death. Captain Lewis advanced, lifted her, loaded her with gifts. "_Tabba bone, tabba bone._" Stripping up his sleeve he showed to the amazed woman the first white skin she had ever seen. "Call your companion," motioned Lewis toward the fleeing woman. The old dame raised her voice. As fast as she ran away the young woman came running back, almost out of breath. She, too, was loaded with trinkets, and the cheeks of all were painted with vermilion, the Shoshone emblem of peace. Without fear now she led him toward sixty mounted warriors, who were advancing at a gallop as to battle. "_Tabba bone! tabba bone!_" explained the women, introducing the stranger and exhibiting their gifts. "_Ah hi e! Ah hi e!_"--"I am much pleased! I am much pleased!" exclaimed the warriors, leaping from their horses and embracing Lewis with great cordiality. Lewis drew forth his imposing calumet of red pipestone and lighted it. This was a sign language of all tribes. Putting off their moccasins as if to say, "May I walk the forest barefoot forever if I break this pledge of friendship," they sat down and smoked. The chief, too, brought out a pipe, of the dense transparent green stone of the Bannock Mountains, highly polished. Another led him to a lodge and presented a piece of salmon,--then Lewis no longer doubted that he was on waters flowing to the Pacific. Slowly, Clark, ill with chills and fever, had been coming forward, urging the canoes up the difficult and narrowing stream. Sacajawea, the little Bird-woman, could not wait. In her anxiety she begged to walk ahead along shore, and with her husband went dancing up the rivulet of her childhood. She flew ahead. She turned, pirouetting lightly on her beaded moccasins, waving her arms and kissing her fingers. Her long hair flew in the wind and her beaded necklace sparkled. Yes, there were the Indians, and Lewis among them, dressed like an Indian too. The white men had given everything they had to the Indians, even their cocked hats and red feathers, and taken Indian clothes in exchange, robes of the mountain sheep and goat. An Indian girl leaned to look at Sacajawea. They flew into each other's arms. They had been children together, had been captured in the same battle, had shared the same captivity. One had escaped to her own people; the other had been sold as a slave in the Land of the Dakotahs. As girls will, with arms around each other they wandered off and talked and talked of the wonderful fortune that had come to Sacajawea, the wife of a white man. A council was immediately called. The Shoshones spread white robes and hung wampum shells of pearl in the hair of the white men. "Sacajawea. Bring her hither," called Lewis. Tripping lightly into the willow lodge, Sacajawea was beginning to interpret, when lifting her eyes to the chief, she recognised her own brother, Cameahwait. She ran to his side, threw her blanket over his head, and wept upon his bosom. Sacajawea, too, was a Princess, come home now to her Mountain Kingdom. XVI _IDAHO_ "We are going through your country to the far ocean," said Captain Lewis. "We are making a trail for the traders who will bring you guns." "This delights me," answered Cameahwait, with his fierce eyes, and his lank jaws grown meagre for want of food. "We are driven into the mountains, when if we had guns we could meet our enemies in the plains." All the Shoshone talk was of war, war, war. Their great terror was the roving Indians of the Saskatchewan, who, with guns from the British traders, came down like wolves on the fold. Only flight and wonderful skill with the bow and arrow saved the Shoshones from destruction. Horses were their wealth. "Most of them would make a figure on the south side of James River," said Lewis, "in the land of fine horses. I saw several with Spanish brands upon them." Brother to the Comanche, the Shoshone rode his horse over rocks and ravines, up declivitous ways and almost impossible passes. Every warrior had one or two tied to a stake near his willow hut, night and day, ready for action. "My horse is my friend. He knows my voice. He hears me speak. He warns me of the enemy." Little children played with them, squaws fed them, braves painted them and decorated their manes and tails with eagle-plumes, insignia of the Rocky Mountain Indian. Such horses were a boon to Lewis and Clark, for they were tractable, sure-footed, inured to the saddle and the pack. A Shoshone found a tomahawk that Lewis had lost in the grass, and returned it,--now a tomahawk was worth a hundred dollars to a Shoshone. They had no knives or hatchets,--all their wood was split with a wedge of elkhorn and a mallet of stone. They started their fires by twirling two dry sticks together. Through all the valleys the Shoshones sent for their best horses, to trade for knives and tomahawks. Delighted they watched the fall of deer before the guns of white men. The age of stone had met the age of steel. How to get over the mountains was the daily consultation. Cameahwait pointed out an old man that knew the rivers. Clark engaged him for a guide: "You shall be called Toby. Be ready to-morrow morning." Proud of his new name, old Toby packed up his moccasins. The Indians drew maps: "Seven days over sheer mountains. No game, no fish, nothing but roots." Captain Clark set out to reconnoitre the Salmon River route. "A river of high rocks," said Cameahwait, "all a river of foam. No man or horse can cross. No man can walk along the shore. We never travel that way." Nevertheless Clark went on. For seventy miles, "through mountains almost inaccessible, and subsisting on berries the greater part of the route," as Clark afterward told his brother, they pushed their way, then--"troubles just begun," remarked old Toby. Checking their horses on the edge of a precipice, Clark and his companions looked down on the foaming Snake, roaring and fretting and lashing the walls of its inky canyon a hundred feet below, savage, tremendous, frightful. As Cameahwait had said, the way was utterly impracticable. "I name this great branch of the Columbia for my comrade, Captain Lewis," said Clark. Back from the Snake River, Clark found Lewis buying horses. The Shoshone women were mending the men's moccasins. The explorers were making pack-saddles of rawhide. For boards they broke up boxes and used the handles of their oars. "I have ever held this expedition in equal estimation with my own existence," said Lewis, urging on the preparations. "If Indians can pass these mountains, we can." Haunched around the fires, the forlorn Indians looked and listened and shook their unkempt heads. "Me know better route," said the friendly old Shoshone guide. "To the north, another great water to the Columbia." "No! no! no!" shouted all the Shoshones. "No trail that way." But Clark believed the faithful old Toby. Evidently the Shoshones wished to detain them all winter. Unseen by the Indians, at night a _cache_ was dug at the head of the Jefferson, for the last of the heavy luggage, leaving out only Indian gifts and absolute necessities to carry on the pack-horses. The canoes were filled with rocks and sunk to the bottom of the river. August 30, the expedition was ready. Before setting out the violins were brought and the men danced, to the great diversion of the Indians. Then, when they turned their faces to the Bitter Root, with the old guide and his four sons, the Shoshones set out east for their annual hunt on the Missouri. From May to September the Shoshones lived on salmon that came up the mountain streams. Now that the salmon were gone, necessity compelled them forth. With swift dashes down the Missouri they were wont to kill and dry what buffalo they could, and retreat to consume it in their mountain fastnesses. The whites had surprised them in their very citadel--led by Sacajawea. Along the difficult Bitter Root Mountains Lewis and Clark journeyed, meeting now and then Indian women digging yamp and pounding sunflower seeds into meal. Food grew scarce and scarcer, now and then a deer, a grouse, or a belated salmon stranded in some mountain pool. Sometimes they had but a bit of parched corn in their wallets, like the Immortals that marched to the conquest of Illinois. But those snowy peaks that from a distance seemed so vast,--that like the Alps defied approach to any but a Hannibal or a Napoleon--now, as if to meet their conquerors, bent low in many a grassy glade. In a pocket of the mountains now called Ross Hole, they came upon a camp of Flatheads, with five hundred horses, on their way to the Missouri for the Fall hunt of buffalo. Unknown to them the Flatheads had been watching from the timber and had reported: "Strangers. Two chiefs riding ahead, looking at the country. One warrior painted black. The rest leading packhorses. Keep quiet. Wait. They are coming." York's feet had become lame and he was riding with the Captains. When the white men came in view the Flatheads looked on their faces. They were shocked at the whiteness. Compassion was in every Indian heart. "These men have no blankets. They have been robbed. See how cold their cheeks are. They are chilled. Bring robes. Build fires." All the Indians ran for their beautiful white robes, and wrapped them around the shoulders of the white men. Before the blazing fires the white men's cheeks grew red. Perspiration burst from every pore. The robes slipped off, but the solicitous red men kept putting them back and stirring up the fire. Then the Captains, touched to the heart, spoke to the kind-hearted Flatheads of a great people toward the rising sun, strong and brave and rich. "Have they wigwams and much buffalo?" inquired the Flatheads. "Yes. We have been sent by the Great Father, the President, to bring these presents to his children the Flatheads." The childlike Flatheads were much impressed. Never did they forget the visit of those first white men. Traditions enough to fill a book have been handed down, and to this day they boast, "the Flathead never killed a white man." The whites listened in amaze to the low guttural clucking of the Flatheads, resembling that of a chicken or parrot. Voice there was none, only a soft crooning to their gentle chatter, interpreted by Sacajawea and the old Shoshone guide. The women crowded around Sacajawea and untied her baby from its elkskin cradle. They fed it and gave it little garments. That baby was an open sesame touching the hearts of all. Sacajawea, riding on her horse to the Columbia, found friends with every tribe. Others might pay; she, never. The Indian mother-heart opened to Sacajawea. Her very presence was an assurance of pacific intention. The women brought food, roots, and berries. To a late hour the white men continued smoking and conversing with the chiefs, when more robes were brought, and the weary ones slept with their feet to the fire. "Those hongry Injin dorgs ate up me moccasins lasht noight," complained Pat in the morning. "But they're the whoitest Injins I iver saw." More horses were brought and the lame ones exchanged, so now with forty horses and three colts the Captains and their devoted followers struggled on, "Over the warst road I iver saw," said Pat. "Faith! 'tis warse nor the Alleghanies where I rid whin a bye." One horse loaded with a desk and small trunk rolled down a steep declivity until it was stopped by a tree. The desk was broken. That night they camped at the snow line and more snow began to fall. Wet, cold, hungry, they killed a colt for supper and slept under the stars. The horses were failing. Some had to be abandoned. One rolled down a mountain into a creek at the bottom. Some strayed or lost their packs, and the worn-out men, ever on the jump, came toiling through the brush, bearing on their own backs the unwieldy pack-saddles. Up here in the Bitter Root Mountains, the last of Dr. Saugrain's thermometers was broken, which accounts for the fact that from this point on they kept no record of temperature. September 9 the expedition journeyed down the main Bitter Root valley, named Clark's River, and crossing it came to a large creek and camped a day to rest their horses. "Traveller's Rist, is it?" said Pat. "Me fa-a-ther's inn at Wellsburg was the fir-r-st 'Traveller's Rist' in all Wistern Varginny," and Traveller's Rest it remained until some later explorer renamed it the Lolo fork of the Bitter Root River. Here the boys mended their garments torn and tattered in the mountains, and the hunters went out for game. They returned with three Flatheads. "Ay! Ay!" clucked the gentle Flatheads, "the river goes to the great lake. Our relations were there and bought handkerchiefs like these of an old white man that lives by himself." Lame and weary, straight across Idaho they struggled, over seams and streaks of precious metal that they saw not, the gold of Ophir concealed in the rocky chambers of the Idaho Alps,--struggled into the Lolo trail used by the Indians for ages before any whites ever came into the country. Over the Lolo trail went the Nez Percés to battle and to hunt buffalo in the Montana country. Down over this trail once came a war party and captured Wat-ku-ese, a Nez Percé girl, and carried her away to the distant land of white men,--_so-yap-po_, "the crowned ones," she called them, because they wore hats. Still ever Wat-ku-ese dreamed of her Nez Percé home and one day escaped with her infant on her back. Along the way white traders were kind to her. On and on, footsore and weary she journeyed alone. In the Flathead country her baby died and was buried there. One day some Nez Percés came down over the Lolo trail bringing home Wat-ku-ese, weak, sick, dying. She was with her people at their camas ground, Weippe, when Lewis and Clark came down over the Lolo trail. "Let us kill them," whispered the frightened Nez Percés. Wat-ku-ese lay dying in her tent when she heard it. "White men, did you say? No, no, do not harm them. They are the crowned ones who were so good to me. Do not be afraid of them. Go near to them." Cautiously the Nez Percés approached. The explorers shook their hands. This was to the Indians a new form of greeting. Everywhere Indian women were digging the camas root, round like an onion, and little heaps lay piled here and there. They paused in their work to watch the strangers. Some screamed and ran and hid. Little girls hid their baby brothers in the brush. Others brought food. So starved and famished were the men that they ate inordinately of the sweet camas and the kouse, the biscuit root. The sudden change to a warmer climate and laxative roots resulted in sickness, when the expedition might have been easily attacked but for those words of Wat-ku-ese, who now lay dead in her tent. To this day the Nez Percés rehearse the story of Wat-ku-ese. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with the whites, broken only when Chief Joseph fled over the Lolo trail. But even Chief Joseph found he must give up the vast areas over which he was wont to roam, and come under the laws of civilised life. As fast as their weakness permitted councils were held, when the Captains told the Nez Percés of the Great Father at Washington, who had sent them to visit his children. Twisted Hair, the Nez Percé Tewat, a great medicine man, dreamer and wizard and wise one, drew on a white elkskin a chart of the rivers. Admiring redmen put their hands over their mouths in amazement. No one but Twisted Hair could do such things. He was a learned Indian, knew all the trails, even to the Falls of the Columbia. "White men," said he, "live at the Tim-tim [falls]." Thus into Idaho had penetrated the story of Ko-na-pe, the wrecked Spaniard, who with his son Soto had set out up the great river to find white people and tarried there until he died. Seven years later Astor's people met Soto, an old man dark as his Indian mother, but still the Indians called him white. Twenty years later Soto's daughter was still living on the Columbia in the days of the Hudson's Bay Company. To save time and trouble, canoes were burnt out of logs. Leaving their horses with the Nez Percés, on October 4 the explorers were glad to get into their boats with their baggage and float down the clear Kooskooske, into the yellow-green Snake, and on into the blue Columbia. At the confluence of the rivers medals were given and councils held on the present site of Lewiston. Day by day through wild, romantic scenes where white man's foot had never trod, the exultant young men were gliding to the sea. Ahead of the boats on horseback galloped We-ark-koompt, an Indian express. Word flew. The tribes were watching. At the dinner camp, October 16, five Indians came up the river on foot in great haste, took a look and started back, running as fast as they could. That night Lewis and Clark were met at the Columbia by a procession of two hundred Indians with drums, singing, "Ke-hai, ke-hai," the redmen's signal of friendship. XVII _DOWN THE COLUMBIA_ The arrival at the Columbia was followed by days of councils, with gifts and speeches and smoking. Two Nez Percé chiefs, Twisted Hair the Tewat and Tetoh, introduced the explorers from tribe to tribe, bearing on and on the good words of Wat-ku-ese: "They are crowned ones. Do not be afraid. Go near to them." All the Indian world seemed camped on the Columbia. Everywhere and everywhere were "inconceivable multitudes of salmon." They could be seen twenty feet deep in the water, they lay on the surface, and floated ashore. Hundreds of Indians were splitting and spreading them on scaffolds to dry. The inhabitants ate salmon, slept on salmon, burnt dried salmon to cook salmon. With a coal a Yakima chief drew on a robe a map of the river so valuable that Clark afterwards transferred it to paper. That map on the robe was carried home to Jefferson and hung up by him in Monticello. Every trail was marked by moccasin tracks, every village by a cluster of teepees. In the "high countrey" of the Walla Walla they caught sight of "the Mt. Hood of Vancouver," and were eager to reach it. "Tarry with us," begged Yellept, the Walla Walla chief. "When we return," replied the eager men. Then Clark climbed a cliff two hundred feet above the water and spied St. Helens. Very well Clark remembered Lord St. Helens from whom this peak was named. The very name to him was linked with those old days when "Detroit must be taken," for Lord St. Helens and John Jay drew up the treaty that evacuated Detroit. Captain Clark and a few of the men still continued in advance walking along the shore. Near the beautiful Umatilla a white crane rose over the Columbia. Clark fired. A village of Indians heard the report and marvelled at the sudden descent of the bird. As with outspread, fluttering wings it touched the ground the white men came into view. One moment of transfixed horror, and the Indians fled. Captain Clark promptly followed, opened the mat doors of their huts and entered. With bowed heads, weeping and wringing their hands, a crowd of men, women, and children awaited the blow of death. Lifting their chins, Clark smiled upon them and offered gifts. Evidently they had not met the Indian express. "All tribes know the peace-pipe," he remarked, and drawing forth his pipestone calumet lit it, as was his wont, with a sunglass. As the fire kindled from the rays through the open roof, again the people shrieked. In vain Drouillard tried to pacify them. Not one would touch the pipe lit by the sun. Clark went out and sat on a rock and smoked until the boats arrived. "Do not be afraid. Go to them," began the Nez Percé chiefs. "They are not men," hurriedly whispered the frightened Indians. "We saw them fall from heaven with great thunder. They bring fire from the sky." Not until Sacajawea landed with her baby was tranquillity restored. "No squaw travels with a war party," that must be admitted, and soon they were smoking with great unanimity. "Tim-m-m-m;--tim-m-m-m!" hummed the Indians at the Falls, at Celilo, poetically imitating the sound of falling waters. There was salmon at the Falls of the Columbia, stacks of salmon dried, pounded, packed in baskets, salmon heaped in bales, stored in huts and cached in cellars in the sand. Making a portage around the Falls, the boats slid down. "De rapide! de rapide! before we spik some prayer we come on de beeg rock!" screamed Cruzatte, the bowman. Apparently a black wall stretched across the river, but as they neared, a rift appeared where the mighty channel of the Columbia narrows to forty-five yards at the Dalles. Crowds of Indians gathered as Clark and Cruzatte stopped to examine the pass. "By good steering!" said Cruzatte. Shaping up his canoe, it darted through the hissing and curling waters like a racehorse. Close behind, the other boats shot the boiling caldron, to the great astonishment of Indian villagers watching from above. At the Warm Springs Reservation there are Indians yet who remember the old dip-net fishing days and the stories of "Billy Chinook," who then saw York, the black man. "I was a boy of twelve. When the black man turned and looked at us, we children fled behind the rocks." Here at the Dalles were wooden houses, the first that Lewis and Clark had seen since leaving the Illinois country, with roofs, doors, and gables like frontier cabins,--and still more stacks of salmon. "Ten thousand pounds," said Clark, "dried, baled, and bound for traffic down the river." The ancient Indian village of Wishram stands on that spot still, with the same strong smell of salmon. The houses are much the same, and among their treasures may be found a coin of 1801, bartered, no doubt, by Lewis and Clark for a bale of salmon. On sped the boats, through mighty mountains, past ancient burial places of the savage dead, to the wild-rushing Cascades. Past these Cascades, five miles of continuous rapids, white with sheets of foam. "We mak' portage," said Cruzatte, his bow grating on the narrow shelf of shore. On either side, rocky palisades, "green-mossed and dripping," reached the skies. Tiny waterfalls, leaping from the clouds, fell in rainbow mist a thousand feet below. "Mt. Hood stood white and vast." Below the Cascades great numbers of hair-seals slept on the rocks. Swarms of swans, geese, ducks, cranes, storks, white gulls, cormorants, plover swept screaming by. The hills were green, the soft west wind was warm with rain. "What a wild delight Of space! of room! What a sense of seas!" They had come into a new world,--the valley of the lower Columbia, the home of the Chinook wind. At Hood River alarmed Indians, dressed in skins of the mountain goat, the Oregon mazama, peered after the passing white men. At every house, and among mouldering remains of ancient tombs, lay scattered innumerable images of wood and stone or of burnt clay, household gods of the Columbian Indian. Flat and flatter grew the heads. Up in the Bitter Root, women alone wore this badge of distinction. Here, every infant lay strapped like a mummy with a padded board across its forehead. A new sort of boats now glided alongside the flotilla, great sea canoes manned with Chinook paddles. They were long and light, tapering at the ends, wide in the middle and lifting stern and prow into beaks like a Roman galley. And every canoe was laden with salmon, going down river to trade for beads and wapato. Traces of white men began to appear,--blue and scarlet blankets, brass tea-kettles, and beads. One Indian, with a round hat and a sailor-jacket, wore his hair in a queue in imitation of the "Bostons." "I trade with Mr. Haley," said one in good English, showing the bow of iron and other goods that Mr. Haley had given him. "And this is his squaw in the canoe." More and more fertile and delightful grew the country, shaded by thick groves of tall timber and watered by streams, fair as lay unpeopled Kentucky thirty years before. Scarce could Clark repress the recollection of the tales his brother brought home of that first trip to Boonsboro in 1775. Nothing surprised them more than the tropic luxuriance of vegetation. The moist Japan wind nurtured the trees to mammoths, six, eight, and ten feet through. Shrubbery like the hazel grew to be trees. The maple spread its leaves like palm fans; dogwood of magnolian beauty, wild cherry, crab-apple, interlaced with Oregon grape, blackberries, wild roses, vines of every sort and description, and ferns, ferns, ferns filled the canyons like the jungles of Orinoco. On November 4, nearly opposite the present Vancouver, they landed at a village on the left side of the river where a fleet of over fifty canoes was drawn up on shore, gathering wapato. "Wapato? Wapato?" An Indian treated them to the queen root of the Columbia, round and white, about the size of a small Irish potato. This, baked, was the bread of the Chinook Indian. "In two days," said Indians in sailor jackets and trousers, shirts, and hats, "in two days, two ships, white people in them." "Village there," said an Indian in a magnificent canoe, pointing beyond some islands at the mouth of the Willamette. He was finely dressed and wore a round hat. Yes, it might be, villages, villages everywhere, but ships--ships below! They had no time for villages now. Long into the darkness of night the boats sped on, on, past dim forests bending to the wave, past shadowy heights receding into sunset, past campfires on the hills where naked Indians walked between them and the light. At a late hour they camped. November rains were setting in, the night was noisy with wild fowl coming up the Columbia to escape the storms of ocean. Trumpeter swans blew their shrill clarions, and whistling swans, geese, and other birds in flights of hundreds swept past in noisy serenade, dropping from their wings the spray of the sea. None slept. Toward morning the rain began. In a wet morning and a rushing wind they bent to the oar, past St. Helens, past Mt. Coffin, past Cathlamet where Queen Sally in scant garments watched from a rock and told the tale in after years. "We had been watching for days," she said. "News had come by Indian post of the strangers from the east. They came in the afternoon and were met by our canoes and brought to the village." "There," Clark says in his journals, "we dined on November 26." But Lewis and Clark were tired of Indians by this time, and moreover, ships were waiting below! It was a moment of intense excitement. Even at Cathlamet they heard the surge of ocean rolling on the rocks forty miles away. Before night the fog lifted and they beheld "the ocean!--that ocean, the object of all our labours, the reward of all our anxieties. Ocean in view! O! the joy." Struggling with their unwieldy canoes the landsmen grew seasick in the rising swells of the up-river tide. For miles they could not find a place to camp, so wild and rocky were the shores. At last, exhausted, they threw their mats on the beautiful pebbly beach and slept in the rain. Everything was wet, soaked through, bedding, stores, clothing. And all the salt was spoiled. There was nothing to eat but raw dried salmon, wet with sea water, and many of the men began to be ill from exposure and improper food. "'T is the divil's own weather," said Pat, coming in from a reconnoitre with his wet hunting shirt glued fast to his skin. Pat could see the "waves loike small mountains rolling out in the ocean," but just now he, like all the rest, preferred a dry corner by a chimney fire. "Une Grande Piqnique!" exclaimed Cruzatte. "Lak' tonder de ocean roar! Blow lak' not'ing I never see, Blow lak' le diable makin' grande tour! Hear de win' on de beeg pine tree!" And all were hungry. Even Clark, who claimed to be indifferent as to what he ate, caught himself pondering on bread and buns. With the peculiar half laugh of the squaw, Sacajawea brought a morsel that she had saved for the child all the way from the Mandan towns, but now it was wet and beginning to sour. Clark took it and remarked in his journal, "This bread I ate with great satisfaction, it being the only mouthful I had tasted for several months." Chinook Indians pilfered around the camp. "If any one of your nation steals anything from us, I will have you shot," said Captain Clark,--"which they understand very well," he remarked to the camp as the troublers slunk away. A sentinel stood on constant watch. Captain Lewis and eleven of the men went around the bay and found where white people had been camped all summer, but naught remained save the cold white beach and the Indians camping there. The ships had sailed. Down there near the Chinook town, facing the ocean, Captain Lewis branded a tree with his name and the date, and a few days later Captain Clark says, "I marked my name on a large pine tree immediately on the isthmus, at Clatsop." It was two hundred years since Captain John Smith sailed up the Chickahominy in Virginia in search of the South Sea. At last, far beyond the Chickahominy, Lewis and Clark sailed up the Missouri and down the Columbia in search of the same South Sea. And here at the mouth of the Oregon they found it, stretching away to China. Balboa, Magellan, Cortez, Mackenzie,--Lewis and Clark had joined the immortals. XVIII _FORT CLATSOP BY THE SEA_ December had now arrived, and southwest storms broke upon the coast with tremendous force. Off Cape Disappointment, the surges dashed to the height of the masthead of a ship, with most terrific roaring. A winter encampment could no longer be delayed. "Deer, elk, good skin, good meat," said the Chinook Indians, in pantomime, pointing across the bay to the south. Accordingly, thither the eggshell boats were guided, across the tempestuous Columbia, to the little river Netul, now the Lewis and Clark, ten miles from the ocean. Beside a spring branch, in a thick grove of lofty firs about two hundred yards from the water, the leather tent was set up and big fires built, while all hands fell to clearing a space for the winter cabins. In four days the logs were rolled up, Boonsboro fashion, into shelters for the winter. "The foinest puncheons I iver saw," said Patrick Gass, head carpenter, as he set to splitting boards out of the surrounding firs. By Christmas seven cabins were covered and the floors laid. The chinks were filled with clay, and fir-log fires were set roaring in the capacious chimneys that filled an entire end of each cabin. On Christmas day they moved in, wet blankets and all, with rounds of firearms and Christmas salutes. The leather tent, soaked for days, fell to pieces. The heavy canisters of powder, every one of which had been under the water in many a recent capsize, were consigned in safety to the powder-house. On New Year's Eve the palisades were done, and the gates were closed at sunset. The first winter-home of civilised people on the Columbia has an abiding charm, not unlike that of Plymouth or Jamestown. Back through the mists of one hundred years we see gangs of elk, chased by hunters through cranberry bogs, "that shook for the space of half an acre." Their soundless footfalls were lost in beds of brown pine needles and cushions of moss. The firing of guns reverberated through the dim gloom like a piece of ordnance. It was from such a trip as this that the hunters returned on the 16th of December, reporting elk. All hands set to work carrying up the meat from the loaded boats, skinning and cutting and hanging it up in small pieces in the meathouse, to be smoked by a slow bark fire. But in spite of every precaution, the meat began to spoil. "We must have salt," said Captain Lewis. In a few days, five men were dispatched with five kettles to build a cairn for the manufacture of salt from seawater. Already Clark had examined the coast with this in view, and the salt-makers' camp was established near Tillamook Head, about fifteen miles southwest of the fort where the old cairn stands to this day. Here the men built "a neat, close camp, convenient to wood, salt water and the fresh waters of the Clatsop River, within a hundred paces of the ocean," and kept the kettles boiling day and night. On that trip to the coast, while the cabins were building, Captain Clark visited the Clatsops, and purchased some rude household furniture, cranberries, mats, and the skin of a panther, seven feet from tip to tip, to cover their puncheon floor. Other utensils were easily fashioned. Seated on puncheon stools, before the log-fire of the winter night, the men carved cedar cups, spoons, plates, and dreamed of homes across the continent. In just such a little log cabin as this, Shannon saw his mother in Ohio woods; Patrick Gass pictured his father, with his pipe, at Wellsburg, West Virginia; Sergeant Ordway crossed again the familiar threshold at Hebron, New Hampshire. Clark recalled Mulberry Hill, and Lewis,--his mind was fixed on Charlottesville, or the walls expanded into Monticello and the White House. "Mak' some pleasurement now," begged the Frenchmen, "w'en Bonhomme Cruzatte tune up hees fidelle for de dance." Tales were told and plans were made. Toward midnight these Sinbads of the forest fell asleep, on their beds of fir boughs, lulled by the brook, the whispering of the pines, and the falling of the winter rain. This was not like winter rain in eastern climates, but soft and warm as April. The grass grew green, Spring flowers opened in December. The moist Japan wind gives Oregon the temperature of England. "I most sincerely regret the loss of my thermometer," said Lewis. "I am confident this climate is much milder than the same latitude on the Atlantic. I never experienced so warm a winter." But about the last of January there came a snow at Clatsop, four inches thick, and icicles hung from the houses during the day. "A real touch of winter," said Lewis. "The breath is perceptible in our room by the fire." Like all Oregon snow it disappeared in a week--and then it was Spring. In the centre of the officer's cabin, a fir stump, sawed off smooth and flat for a table, was covered with maps and papers. Books were written in that winter of 1805-6, voluminous records of Oregon plants and trees, birds, beasts, and fishes. They had named rivers and measured mountains, and after wandering more than Homer's heroes, the explorers were ready now to carry a new geography to the States. And here, as everywhere, Lewis was busy with his vocabularies, learning the Chinook jargon. As never before, all the men became scientists. Even Captain Clark's black man took an interest and reported some fabulous finds. The houses were dry and comfortable, and within, they had a plentiful supply of elk and salt, "excellent, white, and fine, but not so strong as the rock salt, or that made in Kentucky." Meal time was always interesting. Very often the Captains caught themselves asking: "Charboneau, when will dinner be ready?" All day the firelight flickered on Sacajawea's hair, as she sat making moccasins, crooning a song in her soft Indian monotone. This was, perhaps, the happiest winter Sacajawea ever knew, with baby Touissant toddling around her on the puncheon floor, pulling her shawl around his chubby face, or tumbling over his own cradle. The modest Shoshone princess never dreamed how the presence of her child and herself gave a touch of domesticity to that Oregon winter. Now and then Indian women came to see Sacajawea, sitting all day without a word, watching her every motion. Sometimes Sacajawea helped Charboneau, with his spits, turning slowly before the fire, or with his elk's tongues or sausage or beaver's tails. Sometimes she made trapper's butter, boiling up the marrow of the shank bones with a sprinkle of salt. In the short days darkness came on at four o'clock, and the last of the candles were soon exhausted. Then the moulds were brought and candles were made of elk tallow, until a heap, shining and white, were ready for the winter evenings. "We have had trouble enough with those thieving Chinooks," said Captain Lewis. "Without a special permit, they are to be excluded from the fort." The Indians heard it. Did a knock resound at the gate, "No Chinook!" was the quick accompaniment. "Who, then?" demanded the sentinel, gun in hand. "Clatsop," answered Coboway's people entering with roots and cranberries. Or, "Cathlamets," answered an up-river tribe with rush bags of wapato on their backs. Roots of the edible thistle--white and crisp as a carrot, sweet as sugar, the roasted root of the fern, resembling the dough of wheat, and roots of licorice, varied the monotonous fare. These supplies were very welcome, but the purchase money, that was the problem. President Jefferson had given to Captain Lewis an unlimited letter of credit on the United States, but such a letter would not buy from these Indians even a bushel of wapato. The Cathlamets would trade for fishhooks. The Clatsops preferred beads, knives, or an old file. No wonder they valued an old file: the finest work of their beautiful canoes was often done with a chisel fashioned from an old file. Lewis and Clark had frequent occasion to admire their skill in managing these little boats, often out-riding the waves in the most tumultuous seas. Ashore, these canoe-Indians waddled and rolled like tipsy sailors. Afloat, straight and trim as horse-Indians of the prairie, each deft Chinook glided to his seat along the unrocking boats, and striking up the paddlers' "Ho-ha-ho-ha-ho-ha-" went rowing all their lives, until their arms grew long and strong, their legs shrunk short and crooked, and their heads became abnormally intelligent. Nor were these coast Indians lacking in courage,--they sometimes ventured into the sea in their wonderful canoes, and harpooned the great whale and towed him in. When it came to prices for their beautiful skins of sea-otter, almost nothing would do. Clark offered a watch, a handkerchief, an American dollar, and a bunch of red beads for a single skin. "No! No!" in stentorian tone--"_Tyee ka-mo-suck,--chief beads_,"--the most common sort of large blue glass beads, the precious money of that country. Chiefs hung them on their bosoms, squaws bound them on their ankles, pretty maidens hung them in their hair. But Lewis and Clark had only a few and must reserve them for most pressing necessity. Since that May morning when Captain Robert Gray discovered the Columbia River, fourteen years before, the Chinook Indians had learned the value of furs. Once they handed over their skins, and took without a murmur what the Boston skippers chose to give. Now, a hundred ships upon that shore had taught them craft. One of old King Comcomly's people had a robe of sea-otter, "the fur of which was the most beautiful we had ever seen." In vain Lewis offered everything he had, nothing would purchase the treasured cloak but the belt of blue beads worn by Sacajawea. On every hand among these coast tribes were blankets, sailor-clothes, guns,--old Revolutionary muskets mended for this trade,--powder and ball, the powder in little japanned tin flasks in which the traders sold it. In what Clark calls "a guggling kind of language spoken mostly through the throat," with much pantomime and some English, conversation was carried on. "Who are these traders?" asked Captain Lewis. Old Comcomly, King of the Chinooks, on the north side, and Tyee Coboway, Chief of the Clatsops, on the south bank of the Columbia, tried to remember, and counted on their fingers,-- "Haley, three masts, stays some time," "Tallamon not a trader," "Callalamet has a wooden leg," "Davidson, no trader, hunts elk," "Skelley, long time ago, only one eye." And then there were "Youens, Swipton, Mackey, Washington, Mesship, Jackson, Balch," all traders with three-masted ships whose names are not identified by any Atlantic list. The one translated Washington by Lewis and Clark may have been Ockington of the _Belle Savage_, 1801, or Tawnington, both of whom are known to have been on the coast in those years. In fact, no complete record was ever kept of the ships that swarmed around the Horn and up the Pacific, in those infant years of our republic, 1787 to 1820. While Europe clustered around the theatre of Napoleonic wars, every harbour of New England had its fur ships and whalers out, flying the Stars and Stripes around the world. "What do they say?" inquired Lewis, still pressing investigation. Proud of their acquirements, every Chinook and Clatsop in the nation could recall some word or phrase. "Musket, powder, shot, knife, file, heave the lead, damned rascal!" No wonder Lewis and Clark laughed, these mother words on the savage tongue were like voices out of the very deep, calling from the ships. "One hyas tyee ship--great chief ship--Moore, four masts, three cows on board." "Which way did he go?" The Indians pantomimed along the northwest coast. "From which," says Lewis, "I infer there must be settlements in that direction." The great desire, almost necessity, now, seemed to be to wait until some ship appeared upon the shore from which to replenish their almost exhausted stores. Whenever the boats went in and out of Meriwether Bay they passed the Memeloose Illahee, the dead country of the Clatsops. Before 1800, as near as Lewis and Clark could ascertain, several hundred of the Clatsops died suddenly of a disease that appeared to be smallpox, the same undoubtedly that cut down Black Bird and his Omahas, rolling on west and north where the Hudson's Bay traders traced it to the borders of the Arctic. In Haley's Bay one hundred canoes in one place bespoke the decimation of the Chinooks, all slumbering now in that almost priceless carved coffin, the Chinook canoe, with gifts around them and feet to the sunset, ready to drift on an unknown voyage. There was a time when Indian campfires stretched from Walla Walla to the sea, when fortifications were erected, and when Indian flint factories supplied the weapons of countless warriors. But they are gone. The first settlers found sloughs and bayous lined with burial canoes, until the dead were more than the living. No Indians knew whose bones they were, "those old, old, old people." Red children and white tumbled them out of the cedar coffins and carried away the dead men's treasures. "There was mourning along the rivers. A quietness came over the land." Stone hammers, flint chips, and arrows lie under the forests, and embers of fires two centuries old. The native tribes were disappearing before the white man came, and the destruction of property with the dead kept the survivors always impoverished. XIX _A WHALE ASHORE_ "A whale! a whale ashore!" When Chief Coboway brought word there was great excitement at Fort Clatsop. Everybody wanted to see the whale, but few could go. Captain Clark appointed twelve men to be ready at daylight. Sacajawea, in the privacy of her own room that Sunday evening, spoke to Charboneau. Now Charboneau wanted her to stay and attend to the "l'Apalois"--roasting meats on a stick,--and knowing that the child would have to be looked after, slipped over to the Captains, discussing by the fire. "Sacajawea t'ink she want to see de whale. She ought not go." "Very well," answered the Captains, scarce heeding. "She better stay at the fort. It would be a hard jaunt for a woman to go over Tillamook Head." Charboneau went back. "De Captinne say you cannot go!" This was a staggering blow to Sacajawea, but her woman's determination had become aroused and she took the rostrum, so to speak. Leaving the baby Touissant with his father, she in turn slipped over to the Captains. Sacajawea was a born linguist. "Captinne, you remember w'en we reach de rivers and you knew not which to follow? I show de country an' point de stream. Again w'en my husband could not spik, I spik for you. "Now, Captinne, I travel great way to see de Beeg Water. I climb de mountain an' help de boat on de rapide. An' now dis monstous fish haf come"--Sacajawea could scarce restrain her tears. Sacajawea was only a woman, and a brave little woman at that. Captain Lewis was moved. "Sacajawea, you are one of those who are born not to die. Of course you can go. Go and be getting ready, and," he added, "if Charboneau wants to go too, he will have to carry the baby!" They breakfasted by candle-light. Everybody was ready next morning, but Sacajawea was ahead of them all. Charboneau looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but said nothing. More than once the Captains had reminded him of his duty. The sun rose clear and cloudless on a land of springtime, and yet it was only January. Robins sang around the stockade, bluebirds whizzed by, silver in the sunlight. Two canoes proceeded down the Netul into Meriwether Bay, on the way to the Clatsop town. After a day's adventure, they camped near a herd of elk in the beautiful moonlight. At noon, next day, they reached the salt-makers. Here Jo Fields, Bratton, and Gibson had their brass kettles under a rock arch, boiling and boiling seawater into a gallon of salt a day. Hiring Twiltch, a young Indian, for guide, they climbed Tillamook Head, about thirty miles south of Cape Disappointment. Upon this promontory, Clark's Point of View, they paused before the boisterous Pacific, breaking with fury and flinging its waves above the Rock of Tillamook. On one side the blue Columbia widened into bays studded with Chinook and Clatsop villages; on the other stretched rich prairies, enlivened by beautiful streams and lakes at the foot of the hills. Behind, in serried rank, the Douglas spruce--"the tree of Turner's dreams," the king of conifers,--stood monarch of the hills. Two hundred, three hundred feet in air they towered, a hundred feet without a limb, so dense that not a ray of sun could reach the ground beneath. Sacajawea, save Pocahontas the most travelled Indian Princess in our history, spoke not a word, but looked with calm and shining eye upon the fruition of her hopes. Now she could go back to the Mandan towns and speak of things that Madame Jussaume had never seen, and of the Big Water beyond the Shining Mountains. Down the steep and ragged rocks that overhung the sea, they clambered to a Tillamook village, where lay the great whale, stranded on the shore. Nothing was left but a skeleton, for from every Indian village within travelling distance, men and women were working like bees upon the huge carcass. Then home they went, trailing over the mountains, every squaw with a load of whale blubber on her back, to be for many a month the dainty of an Indian lodge. These Indian lodges or houses were a source of great interest to Lewis and Clark. Sunk four feet into the ground and rising well above, like an out-door cellar, they were covered with ridgepoles and low sloping roofs. The sides were boarded with puncheons of cedar, laboriously split with elkhorn wedges and stone hammers. A door in the gable admitted to this half-underground home by means of a ladder. Around the inner walls, beds of mats were raised on scaffolds two or three feet high, and under the beds were deposited winter stores of dried berries, roots, nuts, and fish. In the centre of each house a fireplace, six or eight feet long, was sunk in the floor, and surrounded by a cedar fender and mats for the family to sit on. The walls, lined with mats and cedar bark, formed a very effective shelter. Did some poor stranded mariner teach the savage this semi-civilised architecture, or was it evolved by his own genius? However this may be, these houses were found from Yaquina Bay to Yakutat. In such a house as this Captain Clark visited Coboway, chief of the Clatsops, in his village on the sunny side of a hill. As soon as he entered, clean mats were spread. Coboway's wife, Tse-salks, a Tillamook Princess, brought berries and roots and fish on neat platters of rushes. Syrup of sallal berries was served in bowls of horn and meat in wooden trenchers. Naturally, Sacajawea was interested in domestic utensils, wooden bowls, spoons of horn, skewers and spits for roasting meat, and beautifully woven water-tight baskets. Every squaw habitually carried a knife, fastened to the thumb by a loop of twine, to be hid under the robe when visitors came. These knives, bought of the traders, were invaluable to the Indian mother. With it she dug roots, cut wood, meat, or fish, split rushes for her flag mats and baskets, and fashioned skins for dresses and moccasins. Ever busy they were, the most patient, devoted women in the world. Sacajawea, with her beautiful dress and a husband who sometimes carried the baby, was a new sort of mortal on this Pacific coast. While they were conversing, a flock of ducks lit on the water. Clark took his rifle and shot the head off one. The astonished Indians brought the bird and marvelled. Their own poor flintlocks, loaded with bits of gravel when shot failed, often would not go off in cold weather, but here was "very great medicine." They examined the duck, the musket, and the small bullets, a hundred to the pound. "Kloshe musquet! wake! kum-tux musquet! A very good musquet! No! do not understand this kind of musquet!" Thus early is it a historical fact that the Chinook jargon was already established on the Pacific coast. This jargon, a polyglot of traders' tongues, like the old Lingua Franca of the Mediterranean, is used by the coast Indians to this day from the Columbia River to Point Barrow on the Arctic. And for its birth we may thank the Boston traders. Chinooks, Clatsops, Tillamooks faced that stormy beach and lived on winter stores of roots, berries, fish, and dried meat. Their beautiful elastic bows of white cedar were seldom adequate to kill the great elk, so when the rush bags under the beds were empty, they watched for fish thrown up by the waves. "Sturgeon is very good," said a Clatsop in English, peering and prying along the hollows of the beach. But the great whale, Ecola, that was a godsend to the poor people. Upon it now they might live until the salmon came, flooding the country with plenty. Old Chief Coboway of the Clatsops watched those shores for sixty years. He did not tell this story to Lewis and Clark, but he told it to his children, and so it belongs here. "An old woman came crying to the Clatsop village: 'Something on the shore! Behold, it is no whale! Two spruce trees stand upright on it. Ropes are tied to those spruce trees. Behold bears came out of it!' Then all the people ran. Behold the bears had built a fire of driftwood on the shore. They were popping corn. They held copper kettles in their hands. They had lids. The bears pointed inland and asked for water. Then two people took the kettles and ran inland. They hid. Some climbed up into the thing. They went down into the ship. It was full of boxes. They found brass buttons in a string half a fathom long. They went out. They set fire. The ship burned. It burned like fat. Then the Clatsops gathered the iron, the copper, and the brass. Then were the Clatsops rich." One of these men was Ko-na-pe. He and his companion were held as slaves. Ko-na-pe was a worker in iron and could fashion knives and hatchets. From that time the Clatsops had knives. He was too great to be held as a slave, so the Clatsops gave him and his friend their liberty. They built a cabin at a place now known as New Astoria, but the Indians called it "Ko-na-pe," and it was known by that name long after the country was settled by the whites. February had now arrived. For weeks every man not a hunter stood over the kettles with his deer-skin sleeves rolled up, working away at elkskins, rubbing, dipping, and wringing. Then again they went back into the suds for another rubbing and working, and then the beautiful skin, hung up to smoke and dry, came out soft and pliable. Shields, the skilful, cut out the garments with a butcher knife, and all set to work with awls for needles and deer sinews for thread. For weeks this leather-dressing and sewing had been going on, some using the handy little "housewives" given by Dolly Madison and the ladies of the White House, until Captain Lewis records, "the men are better fitted with clothing and moccasins than they have been since starting on this voyage." Captain Lewis and Captain Clark had each a large coat finished of the skin of the "tiger cat," of which it "took seven robes to make a coat." With beads and old razors, Captain Lewis bought high-crowned Chinook hats, of white cedar-bark and bear-grass, woven European fashion by the nimble fingers of the Clatsop girls, fine as Leghorn and water-tight. Patrick Gass counted up the moccasins and found three hundred and fifty-eight pairs, besides a good stock of dressed elkskins for tents and bedding. "And I compute 131 elk and 20 deer shot in this neighbourhood during the winter," he added. But now the elk were going to the mountains, game was practically unobtainable. Now and then Drouillard snared a fine fat beaver or an otter in his traps; sometimes the Indians came over with sturgeon, fresh anchovies, or a bag of wapato, but even this supply was precarious and uncertain. February 11, Captain Clark completed a map of the country, including rivers and mountains from Fort Mandan to Clatsop, dotting in cross-cuts for the home journey, the feat of a born geographer. February 21 the saltmakers returned, with twelve gallons of salt sealed up to last to the _cache_ on the Jefferson. While Shields refitted the guns, others opened and examined the precious powder. Thirty-five canisters remained, and yet, banged as they had been over many a mountain pass, and sunk in many a stream, all but five were found intact as when they were sealed at Pittsburg. Three were bruised and cracked, one had been pierced by a nail, one had not been properly sealed, but by care the men could dry them out and save the whole. The greatest necessity now was a boat. A long, slim Chinook canoe made out of a single tree of fir or cedar was beyond price. Preliminary dickers were tried with Chinooks and Clatsops. Finally Drouillard went up to Cathlamet. Of all the trinkets that Drouillard could muster, nothing short of Captain Lewis's laced uniform coat could induce Queen Sally's people to part with a treasured canoe. And here it was. Misfortune had become a joke. "Well, now, the United States owes me a coat," laughed Lewis, as he found his last civilised garment gone to the savages. "Six blue robes, one of scarlet, five made out of the old United States' flag that had floated over many a council, a few old clothes, Clark's uniform coat and hat and a few little trinkets that might be tied in a couple of handkerchiefs," this was the reserve fund to carry them two thousand miles to St. Louis. But each stout-hearted explorer had his gun and plenty of powder--that was wealth. "Now, in case we never reach the United States," said Lewis, "what then?" "We must leave a Memorial," answered Clark. And so the Captains prepared this document: _"The object of this list is, that through the medium of some civilised person, who may see the same, it may be made known to the world, that the party consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the Government of the United States to explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate the same by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, to the discharge of the latter into the Pacific ocean, where they arrived on the 14th day of November, 1805, and departed the 23d day of March, 1806, on their return to the United States by the same route by which they had come out."_ To this document every man signed his name, and copies were given to the various chiefs. One was posted at Fort Clatsop to be given to any trader that might arrive in the river, and thus, in case of their death, some account of their exploration might be saved to the world. On the back of some of the papers Clark sketched the route. At last only one day's food remained. Necessity compelled removal. In vain their eyes were strained toward the sea. Never were Lewis and Clark destined to see a summer day on the Columbia, when sails of ships flapped listlessly against the masts, and vessels heaved reluctantly on the sluggish waters, rolling in long swells on Clatsop beach. On Sunday, March 23, 1806, the boats were loaded and all was ready. Chief Coboway came over at noon to bid them good bye. In gratitude for many favours during the past winter, Lewis and Clark presented their houses and furniture to the kind-hearted old chief. Chief Coboway made Fort Clatsop his winter home during the remainder of his life. Years passed. The stockade fell down, young trees grew up through the cabins, but the spring is there still, gushing forth its waters, cool as in the adventurous days of one hundred years ago. XX _A RACE FOR EMPIRE_ In this very December of 1805 while Lewis and Clark were struggling with the storms of ocean at the mouth of the Columbia, a thousand miles to the north of them the indefatigable and indomitable Simon Fraser was also building a fort, among the lochs and bens of New Caledonia, the British Columbia of to-day. On the very day that Lewis and Clark left Fort Mandan, Simon Fraser and his men had faced toward the Rockies. While Lewis and Clark were exploring the Missouri, Fraser and his voyageurs were pulling for dear life up the Saskatchewan and over to Athabasca. On the very day that Lewis and Clark moved into Fort Clatsop, Simon Fraser, at the Rocky Mountain Portage, had men busily gathering stones "to get a chimney built for his bedroom." The icy northern winter came down, but in January mortar was made to plaster his trading fort, the Rocky Mountain Portage at the Peace River Pass. All that Arctic winter he traded with the natives, killed deer and moose, and made pemmican for an expedition still farther to the west. All through the stormy, icy April, building his boats and pounding his pemmican, Fraser stamped and stormed and swore because the snows refused to melt--because the rivers yet were blocked with ice. The boats were at the door, the bales of goods were tied, when the ice began to break in May. The moment the river was clear all hands were roused at daybreak. Simon Fraser turned the Rocky Mountain Portage over to McGillivray, who had arrived on snow shoes, and pressed on west, discovering McLeod Lake and building Fort McLeod upon its shores. Then he portaged over to the Fraser, which he believed to be the Columbia, and going up the Stuart branch built Fort St. James on Stuart Lake. During the winter and summer, after Lewis and Clark reached home, he built Fort Fraser on Fraser Lake, and Fort George upon the Fraser River, still thinking it was the Columbia. "Now will I reach the mouth of this Columbia," said Fraser in the Spring of 1808, launching his boat, the _Perseverance_, upon the wildest water of the North. "You cannot pass," said the Indians, and they waved and whirled their arms to indicate the mad tumultuous swirling of the waters. "Whatever the obstacle," said Simon Fraser, "I shall follow this river to the end," and down he went for days and days through turbulent gulfs and whirlpools, past rocks and rapids and eddies, under frowning, overhanging precipices in the high water of May. The Indians spoke of white people. "It must be Lewis and Clark," groaned Fraser, redoubling his effort to win another empire for his king. Daily, hourly, risking their lives, at every step in the Mountains the Indians said, "You can go no further." But the sturdy Scotchmen gripped their oars and set their teeth, turning, doubling, twisting, shooting past rocky points that menaced death, portaging, lifting canoes by sheer grit and resolution up almost impassable rockways, over cliffs almost without a foothold and down into the wave again. So ran the Northwesters down the wild river to the sea, and camped near the present site of New Westminster. And lo! it was _not_ the Columbia. Back came Simon Fraser to Fort William on Lake Superior to report what he had done, and they crowned his brow with the name of his own great river, the Fraser. Travellers look down the frowning Fraser gorge to-day, and little realise why Simon Fraser made that daring journey. XXI _"A SHIP! A SHIP!"_ While Lewis and Clark were making preparations to leave Fort Clatsop, all unknown to them a ship was trying to cross the bar into the Columbia River. And what a tale had she to tell,--of hunger, misery, despair, and death at Sitka. Since 1787 the Boston ships had been trading along these shores. In that year 1792, when Captain Robert Gray discovered the Columbia River, there were already twenty-one American ships in the Pacific northwest. In May, 1799, the Boston brig _Caroline_, Captain Cleveland, was buying furs in Sitka Sound, when coasting along over from the north came the greatest of all the Russians, Alexander von Baranof, with two ships and a fleet of bidarkas. "What now will you have?" demanded the Sitka chief, as the expedition entered the basin of Sitka Sound. "A place to build a fort and establish a settlement for trade," answered Baranof. "A Boston ship is anchored below and buying many skins," answered the chief. But presents were distributed, a trade was made, and Russian axes began felling the virgin forest on the sides of Verstova. The next day Captain Cleveland visited Baranof at his fort building. "Savages!" echoed Captain Cleveland to Baranof's comment on the natives. "I should say so. I have but ten men before the mast, but on account of the fierce character of these Indians I have placed a screen of hides around the ship, that they may not see the deck nor know how few men I have. Two pieces of cannon are in position and a pair of blunderbusses on the taffrail." But the land was rich in furs. It was this that brought Baranof over from Kadiak. In three years Sitka was a strong fort, but in June, 1802, in the absence of Baranof, it was attacked one day by a thousand Indians armed with muskets bought of the Boston traders. In a few hours the fort, a new ship in the harbour, warehouses, cattle sheds, and a bathhouse were burnt to ashes. The poor dumb cattle were stuck full of lances. A terrible massacre accompanied the burning. To escape suffocation the Russians leaped from the flaming windows only to be caught on the uplifted lances of the savage Sitkas. Some escaped to the woods, when an English vessel providentially appeared and carried the few remaining survivors to Kadiak. That autumn two new ships arrived from Russia with hunters, labourers, provisions, and news of Baranof's promotion by the czar. Tears coursed down the great man's weather-beaten cheeks. "I am a nobleman; but Sitka is lost! I do not care to live; I will go and either die or restore the possessions of my august benefactor." Then back came Baranof to Sitka on his errand of vengeance, with three hundred bidarkas and six small Russian ships, to be almost wrecked in Sitka Sound. Here he was joined by the _Neva_ just out from Kronstadt, the first to carry the Russian flag around the world. Upon the hill where Sitka stands to-day, the Indians had built a fort of logs piled around with tangled brush. On this the Russians opened fire. But no reply came. With one hundred and fifty men and several guns, Baranof landed in the dense woods to take the fort by storm. Then burst the sheeted flame. Ten Russians were killed and twenty-six wounded. But for the fleet, Baranof's career would have ended on that day. But in time ships with cannon were more than a match for savages armed with Boston muskets. Far into the night a savage chant was wafted into the air--the Alaskans had surrendered. At daylight all was still. No sound came from the shore, and when the Russians visited the Indian hill, the fort was filled with slaughtered bodies of infant children, slain by their own parents who felt themselves unable to carry them and escape. The Indian fort was immediately burned to the ground and on its site arose the Russian stronghold of Sitka Castle. That new fort at Sitka was just finished and mounted with cannon the summer that Lewis and Clark came down the Columbia. Kitchen gardens were under cultivation and live stock thriving. At Sitka that same autumn the _Elizaveta_ arrived, with the Russian Imperial Inspector of Alaska on board, the Baron von Rezanof, "Chamberlain of the Russian Court and Commander of all America," he called himself. "What is this I hear of those Bostonians?" inquired the great Baron, unrolling long portraits of the Imperial family to be hung in Sitka Castle. "Those Bostonians, are they undermining our trade in furs with China?" "Ah, yes," answered Count Baranof, "the American republic is greatly in need of Chinese goods, Chinese teas and silks, which formerly had to be purchased in coin. But since these shores have been discovered with their abundance of furs, they are no longer obliged to take coin with them, but load their vessels with products of their own country." "All too numerous have become these Boston skippers on this northwest coast," continued Von Rezanof in a decisive tone. "Frequent complaints have been made to the American President that his people are selling firearms to our Indians, but all to no purpose. It is an outrage. We are justified in using force. I recommend an armed brig to patrol these waters." Food supplies were low at Sitka that winter. No ship came. The _Elizaveta_ dispatched to Kadiak for supplies returned no more. No flour, no fish, not even seal blubber for the garrisons, could be caught or purchased. They were eating crows and eagles and devil-fish. Just then, when a hundred cannon were loaded to sweep the Yankee skippers from the sea, a little Rhode Island ship came sailing into Sitka harbour. "Shall we expel these American traders from the North Pacific?" demanded Von Rezanof. "For the love of God, no!" cried Baranof. "That little ship is our saviour!" Into the starving garrison the Yankee Captain De Wolf brought bread and beef, and raised the famine siege of Sitka Castle. Baranof bought the little ship, the _Juno_, with all her cargo, for eight thousand dollars in furs and drafts on St. Petersburg. In addition Rezanof gave De Wolf a sloop, the _Ermak_, to carry his men and furs to the Hawaiian Islands. "God grant that they may not have paid dear for their rashness in trusting their lives to such a craft!" exclaimed Von Rezanof, as the gallant Yankee Captain spread sail and disappeared from Sitka harbour. The _Juno_, a staunch, copper-bottomed fast vessel of two hundred six tons, built at Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1799, was now fitted out for the Russian trade and dispatched to Kadiak. The storms that Lewis and Clark heard booming on the Oregon coast that winter, devastated Alaskan shores as well. When the breakers came thundering up the rocks and the winds shook Sitka Castle, Count Baranof in his stronghold could not sleep for thinking, "Oh, the ships!--the ships out on this stormy deep, laden with what I need so much!" The little _Juno_ returned from Kadiak with dried fish and oil, and news of disaster: "The _Elizaveta_ has been wrecked in a heavy gale. Six large bidarkas laden with furs on the way to you went down. Two hundred hunters have perished at sea. Our settlement at Yakutat has been destroyed by an Indian massacre." "My God! My God!" Baranof cried, "how can we repair all these disasters!" But ever and ever the gray sea boomed upon the shore where the wretched inmates of Sitka Castle were dying. The relief from the _Juno_ was only temporary. By February not a pound of bread a day dared they distribute to the men. Long since Rezanof had declared they must have an agricultural settlement. Now he fixed his eye on the Columbia River. Sitting there in the dreary castle he was writing to the czar, little dreaming that in a hundred years his very inmost thought would be read in America. Starvation at Sitka was imminent,--it was impossible to delay longer. Into the stormy sea Rezanof himself set the _Juno's_ sail on his way to the Columbia. While Lewis and Clark were writing out the muster roll to nail to the wall at Fort Clatsop for any passing ship, Rezanof was striving to cross the Columbia bar. None could see beyond the mists. Contrary winds blew, it rained, it hailed. Rezanof sighted the Columbia March 14, 1806, but the current drove him back. Again on the 20th he tried to enter, and on the 21st, but the stormy river, like a thing of life, beat him back and beat him back, until the Russian gave it up, and four days later ran into the harbour of San Francisco. In June he returned with wheat, oats, pease, beans, flour, tallow, and salt to the famished traders at Sitka. But notwithstanding all these troubles, in 1805-6 Baranof dispatched to St. Petersburg furs valued at more than five hundred thousand roubles. More and more the Boston traders came back to Alaskan waters. Baranof often found it easier to buy supplies from Boston than from Okhotsk. "Furnish me with Aleutian hunters and bidarkas and I will hunt on shares for you," proposed a Boston Captain. "Agreed," said Baranof, and for years fleets of bidarkas under Boston Captains hunted and trapped and traded for sea otter southward along Pacific shores. "These Boston smugglers and robbers!" muttered the Spaniards of California. "Where do they hide themselves all winter? We know they are on our shores but never a glimpse can we get of their fleet." Meanwhile the Boston traders on the coasts of California raked in the skins and furs, and sailing around by Hawaii reached Sitka in time for Spring sealing in the north. Some hints of this reached the Russian Directory at St. Petersburg, but no one dared to interfere with Baranof. Shipload after shipload of furs he sent home that sold for fabulous sums in the markets of Russia. The czar himself took shares and the Imperial navy guarded the Russias of North America. All honour to Baranof, Viking of Sitka, and builder of ships! For forty years he ruled the Northwest, the greatest man in the North Pacific. His name was known on the coast of Mexico, even to Brazil and Havana. The Boston merchants consulted him in making up their cargoes. In 1810 he went into partnership with John Jacob Astor to exchange supplies for furs. Above all disaster he rose, though ship after ship was lost. But it must be admitted the Russians were not such seamen as the gallant Boston skippers. Never again will this land see more hardy sailors than the American tars that travelled the seas at the close of our Revolution. Our little Yankee brigs were creeping down and down the coast and around the Horn, until every village had its skippers in the far Pacific. Some went for furs and some for whales, and all for bold adventure. In July, 1806, the _Lydia_, having just rescued two American sailors from the savages at Vancouver Island, came into the Columbia River for a load of spars, the beginning of a mighty commerce. Here they heard of Lewis and Clark, and ten miles up, faithful old Chief Coboway gave Captain Hill the muster roll left at Fort Clatsop. This, sent by way of China, reached the United States in 1807, to find the great explorers safe at home. With the death of Baranof in 1819 ended the vast plan of Russia to make the northern half of the Pacific its own. Baranof was small and wrinkled and bald, but his eye had life. He would have made a czar like Peter the Great. To him and him alone was due the Russia of America, that for seven million dollars was sold to us in 1870, an empire in itself. XXII _BACK TO CIVILISATION_ The canoes were loaded, and at one o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, the 23d day of March, 1806, Lewis and Clark took final leave of Fort Clatsop. Back past Cathlamet they came, where Queen Sally still watched by her totem posts; past Oak Point on Fanny's Island, named by Clark, where two Springs later a Boston ship made the first white settlement in Oregon. Slowly the little flotilla paddled up, past Coffin Rock, immemorial deposit of Indian dead, past snowy St. Helens, a landmark at sea for the ship that would enter the harbour. Flowers were everywhere, the hillsides aglow with red flowering currants that made March as gay as the roses of June. The grass was high, and the robins were singing. At sunset, March 30, they camped on a beautiful prairie, the future site of historic Vancouver. Before them the Columbia was a shimmer of silver. Behind, rose the dim, dark Oregon forest. The sharp cry of the sea-gull rang over the waters, and the dusky pelican and the splendid brown albatross were sailing back to the sea. Herds of elk and deer roamed on the uplands and in woody green islands below, where flocks of ducks, geese, and swans were digging up the lily-like wapato with their bills. With laboured breath, still bending to the oar, on the first of April they encountered a throng of Indians crowding down from above, gaunt, hollow-eyed, almost starved, greedily tarrying to pick up the bones and refuse meat thrown from the camp of the whites. "_Katah mesika chaco?_" inquired Captain Lewis. "_Halo muck-a-muck_," answered the forlorn Indians. "Dried fish all gone. No deer. No elk. No antelope to the Nez Percé country." Hundreds were coming down for food at Wapato. "_Elip salmon chaco._" "Until the salmon come!" That had been the cry of the Clatsops. The Chinooks were practising incantations to bring the longed-for salmon. The Cathlamets were spreading their nets. The Wahkiakums kept their boats afloat. Even the Multnomahs were wistfully waiting. And now here came plunging down all the upper country for wapato,--"Until the salmon come." "And pray, when will that be?" "Not until the next full moon,"--at least the second of May, and in May the Americans had hoped to cross the mountains. All the camp deliberated,--and still the Cascade Indians came flocking down into the lower valley. "We must remain here until we can collect meat enough to last us to the Nez Percé nation," said the Captains, and so, running the gauntlet of starvation, it happened that Lewis and Clark camped for ten days near the base of Mt. Hood at the river Sandy. In order to collect as much meat as possible a dozen hunters were sent out; the rest were employed in cutting and hanging the meat to dry. Two young Indians came into the camp at the Sandy. "_Kah mesika Illahee?_--Where is your country?" was asked them, in the Chinook jargon caught at Clatsop. "At the Falls of a great river that flows into the Columbia from the south." "From the south? We saw no such river." With a coal on a mat one of the Indians drew it. The Captains looked. "Ah! behind those islands!" It was where the Multnomah chieftain in his war canoe had said, "Village there!" on their downward journey to the sea. Clark gave one of the men a burning glass to conduct him to the spot, and set out with seven men in a canoe. Along the south side of the Columbia, back they paddled to the mysterious inlet hidden behind that emerald curtain. And along with them paddled canoe-loads of men, women, and children in search of food. Clark now perceived that what they had called "Imagecanoe Island" consisted of three islands, the one in the middle concealing the opening between the other two. Here great numbers of canoes were drawn up. Lifting their long, slim boats to their backs, the Indian women crossed inland to the sloughs and ponds, where, frightening up the ducks, they plunged to the breast into the icy cold water. There they stood for hours, loosening wapato with their feet. The bulbs, rising to the surface, were picked up and tossed into the boats to feed the hungry children. Clark entered an Indian house to buy wapato. "Not, not!" with sullen look they shook their heads. No gift of his could buy the precious wapato. Deliberately then the captain took out one of Dr. Saugrain's phosphorus matches and tossed it in the fire. Instantly it spit and flamed. "_Me-sah-chie! Me-sah-chie!_"--the Indians shrieked, and piled the cherished wapato at his feet. The screaming children fled behind the beds and hid behind the men. An old man began to speak with great vehemence, imploring his god for protection. The match burned out and quiet was restored. Clark paid for the wapato, smoked, and went on, behind the islands. As if lifting a veil the boat swept around the willows and the Indian waved his hand. "Multnomah!" Before them, vast and deep, a river rolled its smooth volume into the Columbia. At the same moment five snow peaks burst into view,--Rainier, Hood, St. Helens, Adams, and to the southeast another snowy cone which Clark at once saluted, "Mount Jefferson!" For the first recorded time a white man gazed on the river Willamette. This sudden vision of emerald hills, blue waters, and snowy peaks forced the involuntary exclamation, "The only spot west of the Rocky Mountains suitable for a settlement!" The very air of domestic occupation gleamed on the meadows flecked with deer and waterfall. Amid the scattered groves of oak and dogwood, bursting now into magnolian bloom, Clark half expected to see some stately mansion rise, as in the park of some old English nobleman. The ever-prevailing flowering currant lit the landscape with a hue of roses. A dozen miles or more Clark pressed on, up the great inland river, and slept one night near the site of the present Portland. He examined the soil, looked at the timber, and measured a fallen fir three hundred and eighteen feet as it lay. Watching the current rolling its uniform flow from some unknown distant source, the Captain began taking soundings. "This river appears to possess water enough for the largest ship. Nor is it rash to believe that it may water the country as far as California." For at least two-thirds of the width he could find no bottom with his five-fathom line. Along that wide deep estuary, the grainships of the world to-day ride up to the wharves of Portland. The same snow peaks are there, the same emerald hills, and the bounteous smile of Nature blushing in a thousand orchards. All along the shores were deserted solitary houses of broad boards roofed with cedar bark, with household furniture, stone mortars, pestles, canoes, mats, bladders of train oil, baskets, bowls, trenchers--all left. The fireplaces were filled with dead embers, the bunk-line tiers of beds were empty. All had just gone or were going to the fisheries. "And where?" "To Clackamas nation. _Hyas tyee Tumwater._ Great Falls. Salmon." Had Clark but passed a few miles further up, he would have found hundreds of Indians at the fishing rendezvous, Clackamas Rapids and Willamette Falls. "How many of the Clackamas nation?" "Eleven villages, to the snow peak." "And beyond?" "Forty villages, the Callapooias." With outstretched hand the Indian closed his eyes and shook his head,--evidently he had never been so far to the south. Back around Warrior's Point Clark came, whence the Multnomahs were wont to issue to battle in their huge war canoes. An old Indian trail led up into the interior, where for ages the lordly Multnomahs had held their councils. Many houses had fallen entirely to ruin. Clark inquired the cause of decay. An aged Indian pointed to a woman deeply pitted with the smallpox. "All died of that. _Ahn-cutty!_ Long time ago!" The Multnomahs lived on Wapato Island. A dozen nations gave fealty to Multnomah. All had symbolic totems, carved and painted on door and bedstead, and at every bedhead hung a war club and a Moorish scimitar of iron, thin and sharp, rude relic of Ko-na-pe's workshop. Having now dried sufficient meat to last to the Nez Percés, Lewis and Clark set out for the Dalles, that tragical valley, racked and battered, where the devils held their tourneys when the world was shaped by flood and flame. Through the sheeny brown basaltic rock, three rifts let through the river, where, in fishing time, salmon leaped in prodigious numbers, filling the Indians' baskets, tons and tons a day. But the salmon had not yet come. At this season the upper tribes came down to the Dalles to traffic robes and silk grass for sea-shells and wapato. Fish was money. After the traders came, beads, beads, became the Indian's one ambition. For beads he would sacrifice his only garment and his last morsel of food. In this annual traffic of east and west, the Dalles Indians had become traders, robbers, pirates. No canoe passed that way without toll. Dressed in deerskin, elk, bighorn, wolf, and buffalo, these savages lay now in wait for Lewis and Clark, portaging up the long narrows. Tugging, sweating, paddling, poling, pulling by cords, it was difficult work hauling canoes up the narrow way. Crowds of Indians pressed in. "Six tomahawks and a knife are gone!" "Another tomahawk gone!" "Out of the road," commanded Lewis. "Whoever steals shall be shot instantly." The crowds fell back. Every man toiled on with gun in hand. But from village to village, dishes, blankets, and whatever the Indians could get their hands on, disappeared. Soon there would be no baggage. It seemed impossible to detect a thief. "Nothing but numbers protects us," said the white men. Worse even than the pirates of the Sioux, it came almost to pitched battle. Again and again Lewis harangued the chiefs for the restoration of stolen property. Once he struck an Indian. Finally he set out to burn a village, but the missing property came to light, hidden in an Indian hut. So long did it take to make these portages that food supplies failed. In the heart of a thickly populated and savage country the expedition was bankrupt. With what gratitude, then, they met Yellept, chief of the Walla Wallas, waiting upon his hills. "Come to my village. You shall have food. You shall have horses." Gladly they accompanied him to his village at the mouth of the Walla Walla river. Immediately he called in not only his own but the neighbouring nations, urging them to hospitality. Then Chief Yellept, the most notable man in all that country, himself brought an armful of wood for their fires and a platter of roasted mullets. At once all the Walla Wallas followed with armloads of fuel; the campfires blazed and crackled. Footsore, weary, half-starved, Lewis and Clark and their men supped and then slept. Fortunately there was among the Walla Wallas a captive Shoshone boy who spoke the tongue of Sacajawea. In council the Captains explained themselves and the object of their journey. "Opposite our village a shorter route leads to the Kooskooskee," said Yellept. "A road of grass and water, with deer and antelope." Clark computed that this cut-off would save eighty miles. In vain the Captains desired to press on. "Wait," begged Yellept. "Wait." Already he had sent invitations to the Eyakimas, his friends the Black Bears, and to the Cayuses. Possibly Sacajawea had hinted something; at any rate with a cry of "Very Great Medicine," the lame, the halt, the blind pressed around the camp. The number of unfortunates, products of Indian battle, neglect, and exposure, was prodigious. Opening the medicine chest, while Lewis bought horses, Clark turned physician, distributing eye-water, splinting broken bones, dealing out pills and sulphur. One Indian with a contracted knee came limping in. "My own father, Walla Walla chief," says old Se-cho-wa, an aged Indian woman on the Umatilla to-day. "Lots of children, lots of horses. I, very little girl, follow them." With volatile liniments and rubbing the chief was relieved. In gratitude Yellept presented Clark with a beautiful white horse; Clark in turn gave all he had--his sword. Bidding the chief adieu, the Captains recorded: "We may, indeed, justly affirm, that of all the Indians whom we have met since leaving the United States the Walla Wallas were the most hospitable and sincere." Poor old Yellept! One hundred years later his medal was found in the sand at the mouth of the Walla Walla. All his sons were slain in battle or died of disease. When the last one lay stretched in the grave, the old chief stepped in upon the corpse and commanded his people to bury them in one grave together. "On account of his great sorrow," says old Se-cho-wa. And so he was buried. XXIII _CAMP CHOPUNNISH_ As Lewis and Clark with twenty-three horses set out over the camas meadows that April morning a hundred years ago, the world seemed brighter for the kindness of the Walla Wallas. At the Dalles the forest had ended. Now they were on the great Columbian plains that stretch to the Rockies, the northwest granary of to-day. The dry exhilarating air billowed the verdure like a sea. Meadow larks sang and flitted. Dove-coloured sage hens, the cock of the plains, two-thirds the size of a turkey, cackled like domestic fowl before the advancing cavalcade. Spotted black-and-white pheasants pecked in the grass like the little topknot "Dominicks" the men had known around their boyhood homes. And everywhere were horses. "More hor-r-ses between th' Gr-reat Falls av th' Columby and th' Nez Percés than I iver saw in th' same space uv countery in me loife before," said Patrick Gass. "They are not th' lar-r-gest soize but very good an' active." "Of an excellent race, lofty, elegantly formed, and durable," those Cayuse horses are described by Lewis and Clark. "Many of them appear like fine English coursers, and resemble in fleetness and bottom, as well as in form and colour, the best blooded horses of Virginia." A hundred years ago, the Cayuse of the Columbian plains was a recent importation from the bluest blooded Arabian stock of Spain. White-starred, white-footed, he was of noble pedigree. Traded or stolen from tribe to tribe, these Spanish horses found a home on the Columbia. All winter these wild horses fattened on the plain; madly their Indian owners rode them; and when they grew old, stiff, and blind, they went, so the Indians said, to Horse Heaven on the Des Chutes to die. Following the old Nez Percés trail, that became a stage road in the days of gold, and then a railroad, Lewis and Clark came to the land of the Nez Percés,--Chopunnish. Thirty-one years later the missionary Spalding planted an apple-tree where Lewis and Clark reached the Snake at the mouth of Alpowa creek, May 4, 1806. We-ark-koompt, the Indian express, came out to meet them. Over the camp of Black Eagle the American flag was flying. Chiefs vied with one another to do them honour. Tunnachemootoolt, Black Eagle, spread his leather tent and laid a parcel of wood at the door. "Make this your lodge while you remain with me." Hohastilpilp, Red Wolf, came riding over the hills with fifty people. The Captains had a fire lighted, and all night in the leather tent on the banks of the Kooskooske the chiefs smoked and pondered on the journey of the white men. Lewis and Clark drew maps and pointed out the far-away land of the President. Sacajawea and the Shoshone boy interpreted until worn out, and then fell asleep. And ever within Black Eagle's village was heard the dull "thud, thud, thud," of Nez Percé women pounding the camas and the kouse, "with noise like a nail-factory," said Lewis. All night long their outdoor ovens were baking the bread of kouse, and the kettles of camas mush, flavoured with yamp, simmered and sweetened over the dull red Indian fires. The hungry men were not disposed to criticise the cuisine of the savage, not even when they were offered the dainty flesh of dried rattlesnake! Labiche killed a bear. In amazement the redmen gathered round. "These bears are tremendous animals to the Indians,--kill all you can," said Captain Lewis. Elated, every hunter went bear-hunting. "Wonderful men that live on bears!" exclaimed the Indians. Again the council was renewed, and they talked of wars. Bloody Chief, fond of war, showed wounds received in battle with the Snakes. "It is not good," said Clark. "It is better to be at peace. Here is a white flag. When you hold it up it means peace. We have given such flags to your enemies, the Shoshones. They will not fight you now." Fifty years later, that chief, tottering to his grave, said, "I held that flag. I held it up high. We met and talked, but never fought again." "We have confided in the white men. We shall follow their advice," Black Eagle went proclaiming through the village. All the kettles of soup were boiling. From kettle to kettle Black Eagle sprinkled in the flour of kouse. "We have confided in the white men. Those who are to ratify this council, come and eat. All others stay away." The mush was done, the feast was served; a new dawn had arisen on the Nez Percés. Finding it impossible to cross the mountains, a camp was established at Kamiah Creek, on a part of the present Nez Percé reservation in Idaho county, Idaho, where for a month they studied this amiable and gentle people. Games were played and races run, Coalter outspeeding all. Frazer, who had been a fencing master in Rutland, back in Vermont, taught tricks, and the music of the fiddles delighted them. Stout, portly, good-looking men were the Nez Percés, and better dressed than most savages, in their whitened tunics and leggings of deerskin and buffalo, moccasins and robes and breastplates of otter, and bandeaus of fox-skins like a turban on the brow. The women were small, of good features and generally handsome, in neatly woven tight-fitting grass caps and long buckskin skirts whitened with clay. Upon the Missouri the eagle was domesticated. Here, too, the Nez Percé had his wicker coop of young eaglets to raise for their tail feathers. Any Rocky Mountain Indian would give a good horse for the black-and-white tail feather of a golden eagle. They fluttered from the calumet and hung in cascades from head to foot on the sacred war bonnet. A May snowstorm whitened the camas meadows and melted again. Thick black loam invited the plough, but thirty Springs should pass before Spalding established his mission and gave ploughs to the redmen. Twisted Hair saw the advent of civilisation. Red Wolf planted an orchard. Black Eagle went to see Clark at St. Louis and died there. Captain Lewis held councils, instructing, educating, enlightening the Kamiahs, so that to this day they are among the most advanced of Indian tribes. Captain Clark, with simple remedies and some knowledge of medicine, became a mighty "tomanowos" among the ailing. With basilicons of pitch and oil, wax and resins, a sovereign remedy for skin eruptions, with horse-mint teas and doses of sulphur and cream-of-tartar, with eye-water, laudanum, and liniment, he treated all sorts of ills. Fifty patients a day crowded to the tent of the Red Head. Women suffering from rheumatism, the result of toil and exposure in the damp camas fields, came dejected and hysterical. They went back shouting, "The Red Head chief has made me well." The wife of a chief had an abscess. Clark lanced it, and she slept for the first time in days. The grateful chief brought him a horse that was immediately slaughtered for supper. A father gave a horse in exchange for remedies for his little crippled daughter. With exposure to winds, alkali sand, and the smoke of chimneyless fires, few Indians survived to old age without blindness. "Eye-water! Eye-water!" They reached for it as for a gift from the gods. Clark understood such eyes, for the smoke of the pioneer cabin had made affections of the eye a curse of the frontier. But affairs were now at their lowest. Even the medicines were exhausted, and the last awl, needle, and skein of thread had gone. Off their shabby old United States uniforms the soldiers cut the last buttons to trade for bread. But instead of trinkets the sensible Nez Percés desired knives, buttons, awls for making moccasins, blankets, kettles. Shields the gunsmith ingeniously hammered links of Drouillard's trap into awls to exchange for bread. The tireless hunters scoured the country. Farther and farther had scattered the game. Even the bears had departed. Thirty-three people ate a deer and an elk, or four deer a day. There was no commissariat for this little army but its own rifles. And yet, supplies must be laid in for crossing the mountains. Every day Captain Lewis looked at the rising river and the melting snows of the Idaho Alps. "That icy barrier, which separates me from my friends and my country, from all which makes life estimable--patience--patience--" "The snow is yet deep on the mountains. You will not be able to pass them until the next full moon, or about the first of June," said the Indians. "Unwelcome intelligence to men confined to a diet of horse meat and roots!" exclaimed Captain Lewis. Finally even horse-flesh failed. Suspecting the situation, Chief Red Wolf came and said, "The horses on these hills are ours. Take what you need." He wore a tippet of human scalps, but, says Lewis, "we have, indeed, on more than one occasion, had to admire the generosity of this Indian, whose conduct presents a model of what is due to strangers in distress." Gradually the snows melted, and the high water subsided. "The doves are cooing. The salmon will come," said the Indians. Blue flowers of the blooming camas covered the prairies like a lake of silver. With sixty-five horses and all the dried horse meat they could carry, on June 16, 1806, Lewis and Clark started back over the Bitter Root Range on the Lolo trail by which they had entered. XXIV _OVER THE BITTER ROOT RANGE_ Dog-tooth violets, roses, and strawberry blossoms covered the plain of Weippe without end, but the Lolo trail was deep with snow. Deep and deeper grew the drifts, twelve and fifteen feet. The air was keen and cold with winter rigours. To go on in those grassless valleys meant certain death to all their horses, and so, for the first time, they fell back to wait yet other days for the snows to melt upon the mountains. "We must have experienced guides." Drouillard and Shannon were dispatched once more to the old camp, and lo! the salmon had come, in schools and shoals, reddening the Kooskooskee with their flickering fins. Again they faced the snowy barrier with guides who traversed the trackless region with instinctive sureness. "They never hesitate," said Lewis. "They are never embarrassed. So undeviating is their step that whenever the snow has disappeared, even for a hundred paces, we find the summer road." Up in the Bitter Root peaks, like the chamois of the Alps, the Oregon mazama, the mountain goat, frolicked amid inaccessible rocks. And there, in the snows of the mountain pass, most significant of all, were found the tracks of barefooted Indians, supposed to have been Flatheads, fleeing in distress from pursuing Blackfeet. Such was the battle of primitive man. The Indians regarded the journey of the white men into the country of their hereditary foes as a venture to certain death. "Danger!" whispered the guides, significantly rapping on their heads, drawing their knives across their throats, and pointing far ahead. Every year the Nez Percés followed the Lolo trail, stony and steep and ridgy with rocks and crossed with fallen trees, into the Buffalo Illahee, the buffalo country of the Missouri. And for this the Blackfeet fought them. The Blackfeet, too, had been from time immemorial the deadly foe of the Flatheads, their bone of contention for ever the buffalo. The Blackfeet claimed as their own all the country lying east of the main range, and looked upon the Flatheads who went there to hunt as intruders. The Flathead country was west and at the base of the main Rockies, along the Missoula and Clark's Fork and northward to the Fraser. With their sole weapon, the arrow, and their own undaunted audacity, twice a year occurred the buffalo chase, once in Summer and once in Winter. But "the ungodly Blackfeet," scourge of the mountains, lay in wait to trap and destroy the Flatheads as they would a herd of buffalo. And so it had been war, bitter war, for ages. But a new force had given to the Blackfeet at the west and the Sioux at the east supremacy over the rest of the tribes,--that was the white man's gun from the British forts on the Saskatchewan. For spoils and scalps the Blackfeet, Arabs of the North, raided from the Saskatchewan to Mexico. They besieged Fort Edmonton at the north, and left their tomahawk mark on the Digger Indian's grave at the south. The Shoshone-Snakes, too, were immemorial and implacable enemies of both the Blackfeet and the Columbia tribes. They fought to the Dalles and Walla Walla and up through the Nez Percés to Spokane. Their mad raiders threw up the dust of the Utah desert, and chased the lone Aztec to his last refuge in Arizona cliffs. The Blackfeet fought the Shoshones, the Crows, by superior cunning, fought the Blackfeet, the Assiniboines fought the Crows, and the Sioux, the lordly Sioux, fought all. It was time for the white man's hand to stay the diabolical dance of death. XXV _BEWARE THE BLACKFEET!_ On the third of July, at the mouth of Lolo creek, the expedition separated, Lewis to cross to the Falls of the Missouri and explore Marias River, Clark to come to the three forks and cross to the Yellowstone. With nine men and five Indians Captain Lewis crossed the Missoula on a raft, and following the Nez Percé trail along the River-of-the-Road -to-Buffalo, the Big Blackfoot of to-day, came out July 7, the first of white men, on the opening through the main range of the Rockies now known as the Lewis and Clark Pass. A Blackfoot road led down to the churning waters of the Great Falls. Pawing, fighting, ten thousand buffaloes were bellowing in one continuous roar that terrified the horses. The plain was black with a vast and angry army, bearing away to the southwest, flinging the dust like a simoom, through which deep-mouthed clangor rolled like thunder far away. And at their immediate feet, Drouillard noted fresh tracks of Indians dotting the soil; grizzly bears, grim guardians of the cataract, emitted hollow growls, and great gray wolves hung in packs and droves along the skirts of the buffalo herds, glancing now and then toward the little group of horsemen. In very defiance of danger, again Lewis pitched his camp beside the Falls, green and foamy as Niagara. Again buffalo meat, marrow bones, ribs, steaks, juicy and rich, sizzled around the blaze, and the hungry men ate, ate, ate. They had found the two extremes--want on one side of the mountains and abundance on the other. While Lewis tried to write in his journal, huge brown mosquitoes, savage as the bears, bit and buzzed. Lewis's dog howled with the torture, the same little Assiniboine dog that had followed all their footsteps, had guarded and hunted as well as the best, had slept by the fire at Clatsop and been stolen at the Dalles. Hurrying to their _cache_ at the Bear Islands, it was discovered that high water had flooded their skins and the precious specimens of plants were soaked and ruined. A bottle of laudanum had spoiled a chestful of medicine. But the charts of the Missouri remained uninjured, and trunks, boxes, carriage wheels, and blunderbuss were all right. "Transport the baggage around the Falls and wait for me at the mouth of Maria's River to the first of September," said Captain Lewis, setting out with Drouillard and the Fields boys. "If by that time I am not there, go on and join Captain Clark and return home. But if my life and health are spared, I shall meet you on the 5th of August." It was not without misgivings that Sergeant Gass and his comrades saw the gallant Captain depart into the hostile Blackfoot country. With only three men at his back it was a daring venture. Already the five Nez Percés, fearful of their foes, had dropped off to seek their friends the Flatheads. In vain Lewis had promised to intercede and make peace between the tribes. Their terror of the Blackfeet surpassed their confidence in white men. "Look!" On the second day out Drouillard suddenly pointed, and leaning far over on his horse, examined a trail that would have escaped an eye less keen than his. "Blackfeet!" the vicious and profligate rovers that of all it was most desirable not to meet! Hastily crossing the Teton into a thick wood, the party camped that night unmolested. On the eighth day Captain Lewis suddenly spied several Indians on a hilltop intently watching Drouillard in the valley. Thirty horses, some led, some saddled, stood like silhouettes against the sky. Kneeling they scanned the movements of the unconscious hunter below. "Escape is impossible. We must make the most of our situation. If they attempt to rob us, we will resist to the last extremity. I would rather die than lose my papers and instruments." Boldly advancing with a flag in his hand, followed by the two Fields brothers, Lewis drew quite near before the Indians perceived these other white men. Terrified, they ran about in confusion. Evidently with them a stranger meant a foe. Captain Lewis dismounted, and held out his hand. Slowly the chief Blackfoot approached, then wheeled in flight. At last, with extreme caution, the two parties met and shook hands. Lewis gave to one a flag, to another a medal, to a third a handkerchief. The tumultuous beating of the Indians' hearts could almost be heard. There proved to be but eight of them, armed with two guns, bows, arrows, and eye-daggs, a sort of war-hatchet. "I am glad to see you," said Lewis. "I have much to say. Let us camp together." The Indians assented and set up their semi-circular tent by the willows of the river. Here Drouillard, the hunter, skilled in the sign language of redmen, drew out their story. Yes, they knew white men. They traded on the Saskatchewan six days' march away. Yes, there were more of them, two large bands, on the forks of this river, a day above. What did they trade at the Saskatchewan? Skins, wolves, and beaver, for guns and ammunition. Then Lewis talked. He came from the rising sun. He had been to the great lake at the west. He had seen many nations at war and had made peace. He had stopped to make peace between the Blackfeet and the Flatheads. "We are anxious for peace with the Flatheads. But those people have lately killed a number of our relatives and we are in mourning." Yes, they would come down and trade with Lewis if he built a fort at Maria's River. Until a late hour they smoked, then slept. Lewis and Drouillard lay down and slept with the Indians, while the two Fields boys kept guard by the fire at the door of the tent. "Let go my gun." It was the voice of Drouillard in the half-light of the tent at sunrise struggling with a Blackfoot. With a start Lewis awoke and reached for his gun. It was gone. The deft thieves had all but disarmed the entire party. Chase followed. In the scuffle for his gun, Reuben Fields stabbed a Blackfoot to the heart. No sooner were the guns recovered than the horses were gone. "Leave the horses or I will shoot," shouted Lewis, chasing out of breath to a steep notch in the river bluffs. Madly the Indians were tearing away with the horses. Lewis fired and killed a Blackfoot. Bareheaded, the Captain felt a returning bullet whistle through his hair, but the Indians dropped the horses, and away went swimming across the Marias. Delay meant death. Quickly saddling their horses, Lewis and his men made for the Missouri as fast as possible, hearing at every step in imagination the pursuing "hoo-oh! whoop-ah-hooh!" that was destined to make Marias River the scene of many a bloody massacre by the vengeful Blackfeet. Expecting interception at the mouth of Marias River, the white men rode with desperation to form a junction with their friends. All day, all night they galloped, until, exhausted, they halted at two o'clock in the morning to rest their flagging horses. That forenoon, having ridden one hundred and twenty miles since the skirmish, they reached the mouth of Marias River, just in time to see Sergeant Gass, the fleet of canoes, and all, descending from above. Leaping from their horses, they took to the boats, and soon left the spot, seventy, eighty, a hundred miles a day, down the swift Missouri. XXVI _DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE_ As Lewis turned north toward Marias River, Clark with the rest of the party and fifty horses set his face along the Bitter Root Valley toward the south. Every step he trod became historic ground in the romance of settlement, wars, and gold. Into this Bitter Root Valley were to come the first white settlers of Montana, and upon them, through the Hell Gate Pass of the Rockies, above the present Missoula, were to sweep again and again the bloodthirsty Blackfeet. "It is as safe to enter the gates of hell as to enter that pass," said the old trappers and traders. More and more beautiful became the valley, pink as a rose with the delicate bloom of the bitter-root, the Mayflower of Montana. Here for ages the patient Flatheads had dug and dried their favourite root until the whole valley was a garden. As Clark's cavalcade wound through this vale, deer flitted before the riders, multitudinous mountain streams leaped across their way, herds of bighorns played around the snowbanks on the heights. Across an intervening ridge the train descended into Ross Hole, where first they met the Flatheads. There were signs of recent occupation; a fire was still burning; but the Flatheads were gone. Out of Ross Hole Sacajawea pointed the way by Clark's Pass, over the Continental Divide, to the Big Hole River where the trail disappeared or scattered. But Sacajawea knew the spot. "Here my people gather the kouse and the camas; here we take the beaver; and yonder, see, a door in the mountains." On her little pony, with her baby on her back, the placid Indian girl led the way into the labyrinthine Rockies. Clark followed, descending into the beautiful Big Hole prairie, where in 1877 a great battle was to be fought with Chief Joseph, exactly one hundred years after the 1777 troubles, when George Rogers Clark laid before Patrick Henry his plan for the capture of Illinois. Out of the Big Hole, Chief Joseph was to escape with his women, his children, and his dead, to be chased a thousand miles over the very summit of the Rockies! Standing there on the field of future battle, "Onward!" still urged Sacajawea, "the gap there leads to your canoes!" The Bird Woman knew these highlands,--they were her native hills. As Sacajawea fell back, the men turned their horses at a gallop. Almost could they count the milestones now, down Willard creek, where first paying gold was discovered in Montana, past Shoshone cove, over the future site of Bannock to the Jefferson. Scarcely taking the saddles from their steeds, the eager men ran to open the _cache_ hid from the Shoshones. To those who so long had practised self-denial it meant food, clothing, merchandise--an Indian ship in the wild. Everything was safe, goods, canoes, tobacco. In a trice the long-unused pipes were smoking with the weed of old Virginia. "Better than any Injun red-willer k'nick-er-k'nick!" said Coalter, the hunter. Leaving Sergeant Pryor with six men to bring on the horses, Captain Clark and the rest embarked in the canoes, and were soon gliding down the emerald Jefferson, along whose banks for sixty years no change should come. Impetuous mountain streams, calmed to the placid pool of the beaver dam, widened into lakes and marshes. Beaver, otter, musk-rats innumerable basked along the shore. Around the boats all night the disturbed denizens flapped the water with their tails,--angry at the invasion of their solitude. At the Three Forks, Clark's pony train remounted for the Yellowstone, prancing and curveting along the beaver-populated dells of the Gallatin. Before them arose, bewildering, peak on peak, but again the Bird Woman, Sacajawea, pointed out the Yellowstone Gap, the Bozeman Pass of to-day, on the great Shoshone highway. Many a summer had Sacajawea, child of elfin locks, ridden on the trailing travoises through this familiar gateway into the buffalo haunts of Yellowstone Park. Slowly Clark and his expectant cavalcade mounted the Pass, where for ages the buffalo and the Indian alone had trod. As they reached the summit, the glorious Yellowstone Alps burst on their view. At their feet a rivulet, born on the mountain top, leaped away, bright and clear, over its gravelly bed to the Yellowstone in the plains below. It was the brother of George Rogers Clark that stood there, one to the manner born of riding great rivers or breaking through mountain chains. But thirty years had elapsed since that elder brother and Daniel Boone had threaded the Cumberland Gap of the Alleghanies. The highways of the buffalo became the highways of the nation. "It is no more than eighteen miles," said Clark, glancing back from the high snowy gap, half piercing, half surmounting the dividing ridge between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, so nearly do their headwaters interlock. In coming up this pass, Clark's party went through the present city limits of Bozeman, the county seat of Gallatin, and over the route of future Indians, trappers, miners, road builders, and last and greatest of all, armies of permanent occupation that are marching still to the valleys of fertile Montana. Up the shining Yellowstone, over the Belt range, through the tunnel to Bozeman, the iron horse flits to-day, on, westerly one hundred miles to Helena, almost in the exact footsteps trodden by the heroic youth of one hundred years ago. Among the cottonwood groves of the Yellowstone, Clark's men quickly fashioned a pair of dugouts, lashed together with rawhide; and in these frail barks, twenty-eight feet long, the Captain and party embarked, leaving Sergeant Pryor, Shannon, Windsor, and Hall to bring on the horses. All manner of trouble Pryor had with those horses. Lame from continual travel, he made moccasins for their feet. They were buffalo runners, trained for the hunt. At sight of the Yellowstone herds away they flew, to chase in the old wild Indian fashion of their red masters. No sooner had Pryor rounded them up and brought them back than they disappeared utterly,--stolen by the Crows. Not one of the entire fifty horses was ever recovered. Here was a serious predicament. Down the impetuous Yellowstone Clark's boats had already gone. Alone in the heart of the buffalo country these four men were left, thousands of miles from the haunts of civilised man. "We must join Captain Clark at all hazards. We must improvise boats," said Shannon. Sergeant Pryor recalled the Welsh coracles of the Mandans. "Can we make one?" Long slim saplings were bent to form a hoop for the rim, another hoop held by cross-sticks served for the bottom. Over this rude basket green buffalo hides were tightly drawn, and in these frail craft they took to the water, close in the wake of their unconscious Captain. And meanwhile Clark was gliding down the Yellowstone. On either bank buffaloes dotted the landscape, under the shade of trees and standing in the water like cattle, or browsing on a thousand hills. Gangs of stately elk, light troops of sprightly antelopes, fleet and graceful as the gazelle of Oriental song, deer of slim elastic beauty, and even bighorns that could be shot from the boat. Sometimes were heard the booming subterranean geysers hidden in the hollows of the mountains, but none in the party yet conceived of the wonders of Yellowstone Park that Coalter came back to discover that same Autumn. One day Clark landed to examine a remarkable rock. Its sides were carved with Indian figures, and a cairn was heaped upon the summit. Stirred by he knew not what impulse, Clark named it Pompey's Pillar, and carved his name upon the yielding sandstone, where his bold lettering is visible yet to-day. More and more distant each day grew the Rockies, etched fainter each night on the dim horizon of the west. More and more numerous grew the buffaloes, delaying the boats with their countless herds stampeding across the Yellowstone. For an hour one day the boats waited, the wide river blackened by their backs, and before night two other herds, as numerous as the first, came beating across the yellow-brown tide. But more than buffaloes held sway on the magic Yellowstone. Wrapped in their worn-out blankets the men could not sleep for the scourge of mosquitoes; they could not sight their rifles for the clouds of moving, whizzing, buzzing, biting insects. Even the buffalo were stifled by them in their nostrils. Nine hundred miles now had they come down the Yellowstone, to its junction with the Missouri half a mile east of the Montana border, but no sign yet had they found of Lewis. Clark wrote on the sand, "W. C. A few miles further down on the right hand side." August 8, Sergeant Pryor and his companions appeared in their little skin tubs. Four days later, there was a shout and waving of caps,--the boats of Captain Lewis came in sight at noon. But a moment later every cheek blanched with alarm. "Where is Captain Lewis?" demanded Clark, running forward. There in the bottom of a canoe, Lewis lay as one dead, pale but smiling. He had been shot. With the gentleness of a brother Clark lifted him up, and they carried him to camp. "A mistake,--an accident,--'tis nothing," he whispered. And then the story leaked out. Cruzatte, one-eyed, near-sighted, mistaking Lewis in his dress of brown leather for an elk, had shot him through the thigh. With the assistance of Patrick Gass, Lewis had dressed the wound himself. On account of great pain and high fever he slept that night in the boat. And now the party were happily reunited. XXVII _THE HOME STRETCH_ In the distance there was a gleam of coloured blankets where the beehive huts of the Mandan village lay. A firing of guns and the blunderbuss brought Black Cat to the boats. "Come and eat." And with the dignity of an old Roman, the chief extended his hand. "Come and eat," was the watchword of every chieftain on the Missouri. Even the Sioux said, "Come and eat!" Hospitable as Arabs, they spread the buffalo robe and brought the pipe. While the officers talked with the master of the lodge, the silent painstaking squaws put the kettles on the fire, and slaughtered the fatted dog for the honoured guests. "How many chiefs will accompany us to Washington?" That was the first inquiry of the business-pushing white men. Through Jussaume the Indians answered. "I would go," said the Black Cat, "but de Sioux--" "De Sioux will certainly kill us," said Le Borgne of the Minnetarees. "Dey are waiting now to intercept you on de river. Dey will cut you off." "We stay at home. We listen to your counsel," piped up Little Cherry. "But dey haf stolen our horses. Dey haf scalp our people." "We must fight to protect ourselves," added the Black Cat. "We live in peace wit' all nation--'cept de Sioux!" In vain Captain Clark endeavoured to quiet their apprehensions. "We shall not suffer the Sioux to injure one of our red children." "I pledge my government that a company of armed men shall guard you on your return," added Lewis. At this point Jussaume reported that Shahaka, or Big White, in his wish to see the President, had overcome his fears. He would go to Washington. Six feet tall, of magnificent presence, with hair white and coarse as a horse's mane, Shahaka, of all the chiefs, was the one to carry to the States the tradition of a white admixture in the Mandan blood. "The handsomest Injun I iver saw," said Patrick Gass. Arrangements for departure were now made as rapidly as possible. Presents of corn, beans, and squashes, more than all the boats could carry, were piled around the white men's camp. The blacksmith's tools were intrusted to Charboneau for the use of the Mandans. The blunderbuss, given to the Minnetarees, was rolled away to their village with great exultation. "Now let the Sioux come!" It was a challenge and a refuge. The iron corn mill was nowhere to be seen. For scarcely had Lewis and Clark turned their backs for the upper Missouri before it had been broken into bits to barb the Indian arrows. Sacajawea looked wistfully. She, too, would like to visit the white man's country. "We will take you and your wife down if you choose to go," said Captain Clark to Charboneau. "I haf no acquaintance, no prospect to mak' a leeving dere," answered the interpreter. "I mus' leeve as I haf done." "I will take your son and have him educated as a white child should be," continued the Captain. Charboneau and Sacajawea looked at one another and at their beautiful boy now nineteen months old, prattling in their midst. "We would be weeling eef de child were weaned," slowly spake Charboneau. "Een wan year, he be ole enough to leaf he moder. I den tak' eem to you eef you be so friendly to raise eem as you t'ink proper." "Bring him to me in one year. I will take the child," said Captain Clark. Captain Lewis paid Charboneau five hundred dollars, loaded Sacajawea with what gifts he could, and left them in the Mandan country. All was now ready for the descent to St. Louis. The boats, lashed together in pairs, were at the shore. Big White was surrounded by his friends, seated in a circle, solemnly smoking. The women wept aloud; the little children trembled and hid behind their mothers. More courageous than any, Shahaka immediately sent his wife and son with their baggage on board. The interpreter, Jussaume, with his wife and two children, accompanied them. Yes, Madame Jussaume was going to Washington! Sacajawea, modest princess of the Shoshones, heroine of the great expedition, stood with her babe in arms and smiled upon them from the shore. So had she stood in the Rocky Mountains pointing out the gates. So had she followed the great rivers, navigating the continent. Sacajawea's hair was neatly braided, her nose was fine and straight, and her skin pure copper like the statue in some old Florentine gallery. Madonna of her race, she had led the way to a new time. To the hands of this girl, not yet eighteen, had been intrusted the key that unlocked the road to Asia. Some day upon the Bozeman Pass, Sacajawea's statue will stand beside that of Clark. Some day, where the rivers part, her laurels will vie with those of Lewis. Across North America a Shoshone Indian Princess touched hands with Jefferson, opening her country. All the chiefs had gathered to see the boats start. "Stay but one moment," they said. Clark stepped back. Black Cat handed him a pipe, as if for benediction. The solemn smoke-wreaths soon rolled upward. "Tell our Great Fader de young men will remain at home and not mak' war on any people, except in self-defence." "Tell de Rickara to come and visit. We mean no harm." "Tak' good care dis chief. He will bring word from de Great Fader." It was a promise and a prayer. Strong chiefs turned away with misgiving and trepidation as they saw Shahaka depart with the white men. Dropping below their old winter quarters at Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark saw but a row of pickets left. The houses lay in ashes, destroyed by an accidental fire. All were there for the homeward pull but Coalter. He had gone back with Hancock and Dickson, two adventurers from Boone's settlement, to discover the Yellowstone Park. On the fourth day out three Frenchmen were met approaching the Mandan nation with the message,-- "Seven hundert Sioux haf pass de Rickara to mak' war on de Mandan an' Minnetaree." Fortunately, Shahaka did not understand, and no one told him. The Arikara village greeted the passing boats. Lewis, still lame, requested Clark to go up to the village. Like children confessing their misdeeds the Arikaras began: "We cannot keep the peace! Our young men follow the Sioux!" The wild Cheyennes, with their dogs and horses and handsome leathern lodges, were here on a trading visit, to exchange with the Arikaras meat and robes for corn and beans. They were a noble race, of straight limbs and Roman noses, unaccustomed to the whites, shy and cautious. "We war against none but the Sioux, with whom we have battled for ever," they said. Everywhere there was weeping and mourning. "My son, my son, he has been slain by the Sioux!" Between the lands of the warring nations surged seas of buffalo, where to-day are the waving bonanza wheat fields of North Dakota. From an eminence Clark looked over the prairies. "More buffalo than ever I have seen before at one time,"--and he had seen many. "If it be not impossible to calculate the moving multitude that darkens the plains, twenty thousand would be no exaggerated estimate." They were now well into the country of the great Sioux Indian Confederacy. Arms and ammunition were inspected. The sharp air thrilled and filled them with new vigour. No wonder the Sioux were never still. The ozone of the Arctic was in their veins, the sweeping winds drove them, the balsamic prairie was their bed, the sky their canopy. They never shut themselves up in stuffy mud huts, as did the Mandans; they lived in tents. Unrestrained, unregenerate, there was in them the fire of the Six Nations, of King Philip and of Pontiac. Tall, handsome, finely formed, agile, revengeful, intelligent, capable,--they loved their country and they hated strangers. So did the Greeks. An effeminate nation would have fallen before them as did the Roman before the Goth, but in the Anglo-Saxon they met their master. "Whoop-ah-ho-o-oh!" As anticipated, Black Buffalo and his pirate band were on the hills. Whether that fierce cry meant defiance or greeting no man could tell. "Whoop-ah-ho-o-oh!" The whole band rushed down to the shore, and even out into the water, shouting invitations to land, and waving from the sand-banks. But too fresh in memory was the attempt to carry off Captain Clark. Jubilant, hopeful, and full of the fire of battle as the white men were, yet no one wished to test the prowess of the Sioux. Unwilling to venture an interview, the boats continued on their way. Black Buffalo shook his war bonnet defiantly, and returning to the hill smote the earth three times with the butt of his rifle, the registration of a mighty oath against the whites. Leaving behind them a wild brandishing of bows, arrows, and tomahawks, and an atmosphere filled with taunts, insults, and imprecations, the boats passed out of sight. Wafted on the wind followed that direful "Whoop-ah-ho-o-oh!" ending with the piercing shrill Indian yell that for sixty years froze the earliest life blood of Minnesota and Dakota. Here in the land of the Teton Sioux was to be planted the future Fort Rice, where exactly sixty years after Lewis and Clark, there crossed the Missouri one of the most powerful, costly, and best equipped expeditions ever sent out against hostile Indians,--four thousand cavalry, eight hundred mounted infantry, twelve pieces of artillery, three hundred government teams, three hundred beef steers, and fifteen steamboats to carry supplies,--to be joined here on the Fourth of July, 1864, by an emigrant train of one hundred and sixty teams and two hundred and fifty people,--the van guard of Montana settlement. The Sioux were defeated in the Bad Lands, and the emigrants were carried safely through to Helena, where they and their descendants live to-day. Already sweeping up the Missouri, Lewis and Clark met advancing empire. Near Vermilion River, James Aird was camping with a license to trade among the Sioux. "What is the news from St. Louis?" There on the borders of a future great State, Lewis and Clark first heard that Burr and Hamilton had fought a duel and Hamilton was killed; that three hundred American troops were cantoned at Bellefontaine, a new log fort on the Missouri; that Spain had taken a United States frigate on the Mediterranean; that two British ships of war had fired on an American ship in the port of New York, killing the Captain's brother. Great was the indignation in the United States against Jefferson and the impressment of American seamen. "The money spent for Louisiana would have been much better used in building fighting ships." "The President had much better be protecting our rights than cutting up animals and stuffing the skins of dead raccoons." "Where is our national honour? Gone, abandoned on the Mississippi." And these _coureurs_ on the Mississippi heard that the conflict foreseen by Napoleon, when he gave us Louisiana, was raging now in all its fury, interdicting the commerce of the world. To their excited ears the river rushed and rocked, the earth rumbled, with the roar of cannon. To themselves Lewis and Clark seemed a very small part of the forces that make and unmake nations,--and yet that expedition meant more to the world than the field of Waterloo! The next noon, on ascending the hill of Floyd's Bluff they found the Indians had opened the grave of their comrade. Reverently it was filled again. Home from the buffalo hunt in the plains of the Nebraska, the Omahas were firing guns to signal their return to gather in their harvest of corn, beans, and pumpkins. Keel boats, barges, and bateaux came glistening into view,--Auguste Chouteau with merchandise to trade with the Yanktons, another Chouteau to the Platte, a trader with two men to the Pawnee Loupes, and Joseph La Croix with seven men bound for the Omahas. Through the lessening distance Clark recognised on one of the barges his old comrade, Robert McClellan, the wonderful scout of Wayne's army, who had ridden on many an errand of death. Since Wayne's victory McClellan had been a ranger still, but now the Indians were quieting down,--all except Tecumseh. "The country has long since given you up," he told the Captain. "We have word from Jefferson to seek for news of Lewis and Clark. The general opinion in the United States is that you are lost in the unfathomable depths of the continent. But President Jefferson has hopes. The last heard of you was at the Mandan villages." With a laugh they listened to their own obituaries. On the same barge with McClellan was Gravelines with orders from Jefferson to instruct the Arikaras in agriculture, and Dorion to help make way through the Sioux. "Brave Raven, the Arikara chief, died in Washington," said Gravelines. "I am on my way to them with a speech from the President and the presents which have been made to the chief." How home now tugged at their heart strings! Eager to be on the way, they bade farewell to McClellan. Down, down they shot along, wind, current, and paddle in their favour, past shores where the freebooting Kansas Indians robbed the traders, past increasing forests of walnut, elm, oak, hickory. The men were now reduced to a biscuit apiece. Wild turkeys gobbled on shore, but the party paused not a moment to hunt. On the twentieth a mighty shout went up. They heard the clank of cow bells, and saw tame cattle feeding on the hills of Charette, the home of Daniel Boone. With cheers and firing of guns they landed at the village. "We are indeet astonished," exclaimed the joyful habitants, grasping their hands. "You haf been given up for det long tam since." The men were scattered among the families for the night, honoured guests of Charette. "Plaintee tam we wish ourself back on ole San Loui'," said Cruzatte to his admiring countrymen. To their surprise Lewis and Clark found new settlements all the way down from Charette. September 21, firing a tremendous salute from the old stone tower behind the huts, all St. Charles paid tribute to the Homeric heroes who had wandered farther than Ulysses and slain more monsters than Hercules. Just above the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers loomed the fresh mud chimneys of the new log Fort Bellefontaine, Colonel Thomas Hunt in command, and Dr. Saugrain, surgeon, appointed by Jefferson. The Colonel's pretty little daughter, Abby Hunt, looked up in admiration at Lewis and Clark, and followed all day these "Indian white men" from the north. Forty years after she told the story of that arrival. "They wore dresses of deerskin, fringed and worked with porcupine quills, something between a military undress frock coat and an Indian shirt, with leggings and moccasins, three-cornered cocked hats and long beards." Standing between the centuries in that log fort on the Missouri, pretty little Abby Hunt herself was destined to become historic, as the wife of Colonel Snelling and the mother of the first white child born in Minnesota. After an early breakfast with Colonel Hunt, the expedition set out for the last stretch homeward. They rounded out of the Missouri into the Mississippi, and pulled up to St. Louis at noon, Tuesday, September 23, 1806, after an absence of nearly two years and a half. XXVIII _THE OLD STONE FORTS OF ST. LOUIS_ It was noon when Lewis and Clark sighted the old stone forts of the Spanish time. Never had that frontier site appeared so noble, rising on a vast terrace from the rock-bound river. As the white walls burst on their view, with simultaneous movement every man levelled his rifle. The Captains smiled and gave the signal,--the roar of thirty rifles awoke the echoes from the rocks. Running down the stony path to the river came the whole of St. Louis,--eager, meagre, little Frenchmen, tanned and sallow and quick of gait, smaller than the Americans, but graceful and gay, with a heartfelt welcome; black-eyed French women in camasaks and kerchiefs, dropping their trowels in their neat little gardens where they had been delving among the hollyhocks; gay little French children in red petticoats; and here and there a Kentuckian, lank and lean, eager,--all tripping and skipping down to the water's edge. Elbowing his way among them came Monsieur Auguste Chouteau, the most noted man in St. Louis. Pierre, his brother, courtly, well-dressed, eminently social, came also; and even Madame, their mother, did not disdain to come down to welcome her friends, _Les Américains_. It was like the return of a fur brigade, with shouts of laughter and genuine rejoicing. "_Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!_ eet ees Leewes an' Clark whom ve haf mournt as det in dose Rock Mountain. What good word mought dey bring from te fur countree." With characteristic abandon the emotional little Frenchmen flung their arms around the stately forms of Lewis and Clark, and more than one pretty girl that day printed a kiss on their bearded lips. "Major Christy,--well, I declare!" An old Wayne's army comrade grasped Captain Clark by the hand. What memories that grasp aroused! William Christy, one of his brother officers, ready not more than a dozen years ago to aid in capturing this same San Luis de Ilinoa! "I have moved to this town. I have a tavern. Send your baggage right up!" And forthwith a creaking charette came lumbering down the rocky way. "Take a room at my house." Pierre Chouteau grasped the hands of both Captains at once. And to Chouteau's they went. "But first we must send word of our safe arrival to the President," said Lewis, feeling unconsciously for certain papers that had slept next his heart for many a day. "Te post haf departed from San Loui'," remarked a bystander. "Departed? It must be delayed. Here, Drouillard, hurry with this note to Mr. Hay at Cahokia and bid him hold the mail until to-morrow noon." Drouillard, with his old friend Pascal Cerré, the son of Gabriel, set off at once across the Mississippi. The wharf was lined with flatboats loaded with salt for 'Kasky and furs for New Orleans. Once a month a one-horse mail arrived at Cahokia. Formerly St. Louis went over there for mail,--St. Louis was only a village near Cahokia then; but already _Les Américains_ were turning things upside down. "We haf a post office now. San Loui' haf grown." Every one said that. To eyes that had seen nothing more stately than Fort Mandan or Clatsop, St. Louis had taken on metropolitan airs. In the old fort where lately lounged the Spanish governor, peering anxiously across the dividing waters, and whence had lately marched the Spanish garrison, American courts of justice were in session. Out of the old Spanish martello tower on the hill, a few Indian prisoners looked down on the animated street below. With the post office and the court house had come the American school, and already vivacious French children were claiming as their own, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. Just opposite the Chouteau mansion was the old Spanish Government House, the house where George Rogers Clark had met and loved the dazzling Donna. Aaron Burr had lately been there, feted by the people, plotting treason with Wilkinson in the Government House itself; and now his disorganised followers, young men of birth and education from Atlantic cities, stranded in St. Louis, were to become the pioneer schoolmasters of Upper Louisiana. New houses were rising on every hand. In the good old French days, goods at fabulous prices were kept in boxes. Did Madame or Mademoiselle wish anything, it must be unpacked as from a trunk. Once a year goods arrived. Sugar, gunpowder, blankets, spices, knives, hatchets, and kitchen-ware, pell-mell, all together, were coming out now onto shelves erected by the thrifty Americans. Already new stores stood side by side with the old French mansions. "Alas! te good old quiet times are gone," sighed the French habitants, wiping a tear with the blue bandana. And while they looked askance at the tall Americans, elephantine horses, and Conestoga waggons, that kept crossing the river, the prices of the little two-acre farms of the Frenchmen went up, until in a few years the old French settlers were the nabobs of the land. Already two ferry lines were transporting a never-ending line through this new gateway to the wider West. Land-mad settlers were flocking into "Jefferson's Purchase," grubbing out hazel roots, splitting rails, making fences, building barns and bridges. Men whose sole wealth consisted in an auger, a handsaw, and a gun, were pushing into the prairies and the forests. Long-bearded, dressed in buckskin, with a knife at his belt and a rifle at his back, the forest-ranging backwoodsman was over-running Louisiana. "Why do you live so isolated?" the stranger would ask. "I never wish to hear the bark of a neighbour's dog. When you hear the sound of a neighbour's gun it is time to move away." Thus, solitary and apart, the American frontiersman took up Missouri. Strolling along the Rue Royale, followed by admiring crowds, Lewis and Clark found themselves already at the Pierre Chouteau mansion, rising like an old-world chateau amid the lesser St. Louis. Up the stone steps, within the demi-fortress, there were glimpses of fur warehouses, stables, slaves' quarters, occupying a block,--practically a fort within the city. Other guests were there before them,--Charles Gratiot, who had visited the Clarks in Virginia, and John P. Cabanné, who was to wed Gratiot's daughter, Julia. On one of those flatboats crowding the wharf that morning came happy Pierre Menard, the most illustrious citizen of Kaskaskia, with his bride of a day, Angelique Saucier. Pierre Menard's nephew, Michel Menard, was shortly to leave for Texas, to become an Indian trader and founder of the city of Galveston. At the board, too, sat Pierre Chouteau, the younger, just returned from a trip up the Mississippi with Julien Dubuque, where he had helped to start Dubuque and open the lead mines. Out of the wild summer grape the old inhabitants of St. Louis had long fabricated their choicest Burgundy. But of late the Chouteaus had begun to import their wine from France, along with ebony chairs, claw-footed tables, and other luxuries, the first in this Mississippi wild. For never had the fur-trade been so prosperous. There was laughter and clinking of glasses, and questions of lands beyond the Yellowstone. Out of that hour arose schemes for a trapper's conquest along the trail on which ten future States were strung. "The mouth of the Yellowstone commands the rich fur-trade of the Rocky mountains," said Captain Clark. Captain Lewis dwelt on the Three Forks as a strategic point for a fort. No one there listened with more breathless intent than the dark-haired boy, the young Chouteau, who was destined to become the greatest financier of the West, a king of the fur trade, first rival and then partner of John Jacob Astor. No wonder the home-coming of Lewis and Clark was the signal for enterprises such as this country had never yet seen. They had penetrated a realm whose monarch was the grizzly bear, whose queen was the beaver, whose armies were Indian tribes and the buffalo. Gallic love of gaiety and amusement found in this return ample opportunity for the indulgence of hospitable dancing and feasting. Every door was open. Every house, from Chouteau's down, had its guest out of the gallant thirty-one. Hero-worship was at its height. Hero-worship is characteristic of youthful, progressive peoples. Whole nations strive to emulate ideals. The moment that ceases, ossification begins. Here the ideals were Lewis and Clark. They had been west; their men had been west. They, who had traced the Missouri to its cradle in the mountains, who had smoked the calumet with remotest tribes, who had carried the flag to the distant Pacific, became the lions of St. Louis. Such spontaneous welcome made a delightful impression upon the hearts of the young Captains, and they felt a strong inclination to make the city their permanent home. The galleries of the little inns of St. Louis were filled with Frenchmen, smoking and telling stories all day long. Nothing hurried, nothing worried them; the rise of the river, the return of a brigade, alone broke the long summer day of content. But here was something new. Even York, addicted to romance, told Munchausen tales of thrilling incidents that never failed of an appreciative audience. Trappers, flat-boatmen, frontiersmen, and Frenchmen loved to spin long yarns at the Green Tree Inn, but York could outdo them all. He had been to the ocean, had seen the great whale and sturgeon that put all inland fish stories far into the shade. Petrie, Auguste Chouteau's old negro, who came with him as a boy and grew old and thought he owned Auguste Chouteau,--Petrie, who always said, "Me and the Colonel," met in York for the first time one greater than himself. Immediately upon their return Lewis and Clark had repaired to the barber and tailor, and soon bore little resemblance to the tawny frontiersmen in fringed hunting-shirts and beards that had so lately issued from the wilderness. In the upper story of the Chouteau mansion, the Captains regarded with awe the high four-poster with its cushiony, billowy feather-bed. "This is too luxurious! York, bring my robe and bear-skin." Lewis and Clark could not sleep in beds that night. They heard the watch call and saw the glimmer of campfires in their dreams. The grandeur of the mountains was upon them, cold and white and crowned with stars, the vastness of the prairie and the dashing of ocean, the roar of waterfalls, the hum of insects, and the bellowing of buffalo. They knew now the Missouri like the face of a friend; they had stemmed its muddy mouth, had evaded its shifting sandbanks, had watched its impetuous falls that should one day whirl a thousand wheels. Up windings green as paradise they had drunk of its crystal sources in the mountains. They had seen it when the mountains cast their shadows around the campfires, and in the blaze of noon when the quick tempest beat it into ink. They had seen it white in Mandan winter, the icy trail of brave and buffalo; and they had seen it crimson, when far-off peaks were tipped with amethystine gold. In the vast and populous solitude of nature they had followed the same Missouri spreading away into the beaver-meadows of the Madison, the Jefferson, and the Gallatin, and had written their journals on hillsides where the windflower and the larkspur grew wild on Montana hills. An instinct, a relic, an inheritance of long ago was upon them, when their ancestors roved the earth untrammelled by cities and civilisation, when the rock was man's pillow and the cave his home, when the arrow in his strong hand brought the fruits of the chase, when garments of skin clad his limbs, and God spoke to the white savage under the old Phoenician stars. In their dreams they felt the rain and wind beat on their leather tent. Sacajawea's baby cried, Spring nodded with the rosy clarkia, screamed with Clark's crow, and tapped with Lewis's woodpecker. "Rat-tat-tat!" Was that the woodpecker? No, some one was knocking at the door of their bed chamber. And no one else than Pierre Chouteau himself. "Drouillard is back from Cahokia ready to carry your post. The rider waits." This was the world again. It was morning. Throwing off robes and bear-skins, and rising from the hardwood floor where they had voluntarily camped that night, both Captains looked at the tables strewn with letters, where until past midnight they had sat the night before. There lay Clark's letter to his brother, George Rogers, and there, also, was the first rough draft of Lewis's letter to the President, in a hand as fine and even as copperplate, but interlined, and blotted with erasures. In the soft, warm St. Louis morning, with Mississippi breezes rustling the curtain, after a hurried breakfast both set to work to complete the letters. For a time nothing was heard but the scratching of quill pens, as each made clean copies of their letters for transmission to the far-off centuries. But no centuries troubled then; to-day,--_to-day_, was uppermost. York stuck in his head, hat in hand. "Massah Clahk, Drewyer say he hab jus' time, sah." "Well, sir, tell Drouillard the whole United States mail service can wait on us to-day. We are writing to the President." Before ten o'clock Drouillard was off to Cahokia with messages that gave to the nation at large its first intimation that the Pacific expedition was a consummated fact. XXIX _TO WASHINGTON_ There were hurried days at St. Louis, a village that knew not haste before. The skins were sunned and stored in the rooms of Cadet Chouteau. Boxes of specimens were packed for the Government. Captain Lewis opened his trunk and found his papers all wet. The hermetically sealed tin cases that held the precious journals alone had saved these from destruction. The Captains had their hands full. The restless men must be paid and discharged. Nine of the adventurers within a week after the return to St. Louis sold their prospective land claims for a pittance. Seven of these claims were bought by their fellow soldiers; Sergeant John Ordway took several of the men and settled on the site of the present city of New Madrid. Robert Frazer received two hundred and fifty dollars for his claim, and prepared to publish his travels,--a volume that never saw the light. In addition to land grants, the men received double pay amounting altogether to eleven thousand dollars. A grand dinner, given by St. Louis, a ball and farewell, and the Captains were on the way with their Mandan chief, Big White, and his Indians, and Gass, Shannon, Ordway, Pryor, and Bratton. "The route by which I propose travelling to Washington is by way of Cahokia, Vincennes, Louisville, the Crab Orchard, Fincastle, Staunton, and Charlottesville," Captain Lewis had written in that letter to Jefferson. "Any letters directed to me at Louisville will most probably meet me at that place." With well-filled saddle-bags, the returning heroes crossed to Cahokia and set out across Illinois in the Indian summer of 1806. Governor Harrison was at Vincennes, and Vigo, and a hundred others to welcome. "Hurrah for old Kentucky!" cried Clark, as he caught sight of its limestone shores. On many a smiling hilltop, the log cabin had expanded into a baronial country seat, with waxed floors and pianos. Already the stables were full of horses, the halls were full of music. Clark, Lewis, and Big White climbed the cliff to the Point of Rock. Who but chiefs should visit there? With newspapers around him, sat George Rogers Clark, following the career of Napoleon. That calm and splendid eye kindled at sight of his brother. His locks had grown longer, his eye a deeper black under the shaggy brows, but the Revolutionary hero shone in every lineament as he took the hands of the two explorers. With the dashing waters at their feet, upon the lonely Point of Rock, above the Falls of the Ohio, William Clark stopped first to greet his brother from the great expedition. Painters may find a theme here, and future romancers a page in drama. Without delay, taking his rusty three-cornered _chapeau_ from its peg, and donning his faded uniform, the conqueror of Illinois accompanied the explorers to Locust Grove, ablaze that night with welcome. Lucy, Fanny, Edmund were there; and Jonathan from Mulberry Hill; Major Croghan, the courtly host of old; and the lad, George Croghan, now in his fifteenth year. All too quickly fled the hours; the hickory flamed and the brass andirons shone not brighter than the happy faces. Spread around for exhibition were Mandan robes, fleeces of the mountain goat, Clatsop hats, buffalo horns, and Indian baskets, Captain Clark's "tiger-cat coat," Indian curios, and skins of grizzly bears,--each article suggestive of adventure surpassing Marco Polo or the Arabian nights. Another huge box, filled with bones for the President, had been left with George Rogers Clark at the Point of Rock. Louisville received the explorers with bonfires and cannonry. A grand ball was given in their honour, in which the Indians, especially, shone in medals and plumage. The next day there was a sad visit to Mill Creek, where lamenting parents received the last token and listened to the final word concerning their beloved son, Sergeant Charles Floyd. A cold wind and a light fall of snow warned them no time must be lost in crossing the Kentucky mountains; but encumbered with the Indian retinue they made slow progress along that atrocious road, on which the followers of Boone had "sometimes paused to pray and sometimes stopped to swear." A few days beyond Cumberland Gap, Clark's heart beat a tattoo; they had come to Fincastle! Among its overhanging vines and trees, the Hancock mansion was in holiday attire,--Harriet Kennerly had just been married to Dr. Radford of Fincastle. Colonel Hancock had been proud to entertain George Rogers Clark, still more was he now delighted with the visit of the famous explorers. "La!" exclaimed Black Granny at the announcement of Captain Clark. "Miss Judy?" Black Granny had nursed Miss Judy from the cradle. Sedately Miss Judy came down the long staircase,--not the child that Clark remembered, but a woman, petite, serious. The chestnut brown curls with a glint of gold were caught with a high back comb, and a sweeping gown had replaced the short petticoats that lately tripped over the foothills of the Blue Ridge. "My pretty cousin going to marry that ugly man?" exclaimed Harriet, when she heard of the early engagement. There was nothing effeminate about Clark, nor artificial. His features were rugged almost to plainness; his head was high from the ear to the top, a large brain chamber. "Absolutely beautiful," said Judy to herself, associating those bronzed features with endless winds that blew on far-off mountains. Behind the respectable old Hancock silver, Judy's mother turned the tea and talked. Turning up his laced sleeves to carve the mutton, Colonel Hancock asked a thousand questions regarding that wonderful journey. "We passed the winter on the Pacific, then crossed the mountains, and my division came down the Yellowstone," Clark was saying. "By the way, Judy, I have named a river for you,--the Judith." A peal of laughter rang through the dining-room. "Judith! Judith, did you say? Why, Captain Clark, my name is Julia." Clark was confounded. He almost feared Judy was making fun of him. "Is it, really, now? I always supposed Judy stood for Judith." Again rang out the infectious peal, in which Clark himself joined; but to this day rolls the river Judith in Montana, named for Clark's mountain maid of Fincastle. "That I should live to see you back from the Pacific!" was Aunt Molly's greeting at "The Farm," at Charlottesville. "I reckoned the cannibal savages would eat you. We looked for nothing less than the fate of Captain Cook." But Maria, whose eyes had haunted Lewis in many a long Montana day, seemed strangely shy and silent. In fact, she had another lover, perhaps a dearer one. Uncle Nicholas was sick. He was growing old, but still directed the negroes of a plantation that extended from Charlottesville to the Fluvanna. It was sunset when Captain Lewis reached the home at Locust Hill, and was folded to his mother's bosom. With daily prayer had Lucy Meriwether followed her boy across the Rocky Mountains. Meriwether's little pet sister, Mary Marks, had blossomed into a bewitching rose. "Here is a letter from the President." Captain Lewis read his first message from Jefferson in more than two years and a half. Turning to Big White, the chief, who at every step had gazed with amazement at the white man's country,-- "The President says 'Tell my friend of Mandan that I have already opened my arms to receive him." "Ugh! Ugh!" commented Big White, with visions of barbaric splendour in his untutored brain. That afternoon the entire party rode over to Monticello to show the chief the President's Indian hall, where all their gifts and tokens had been arranged for display. The next day, by Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria, the party set out for the national capital. Every step of the way was a triumphal progress. XXX _THE PLAUDITS OF A NATION_ It was well into January before both Captains reached Washington. Workmen were still building at the Capitol, rearing a home for Congress. Tools of carpentry and masonry covered the windy lawn where Jefferson rode daily, superintending as on his own Virginia plantation. Never had Captain Lewis seen his old friend, the President, so moved as when black Ben, the valet, with stentorian call announced, "Captains Mehwether Lewis and William Clahk!" In silk stockings and pumps they stood in the Blue Room. At sight of that well-known figure in blue coat faced with yellow, red plush waistcoat, and green velveteen breeches, Meriwether Lewis bounded as a boy toward his old friend. The gray-haired president visibly trembled as he strained the two sons of his country to his heart. Tears gushed from his eyes, "The suspense has been awful." Then pausing, with difficulty he controlled his emotion. "But the hopes, the dreams, the ambitions of twenty years are now vindicated, and you are safe, boys, you are safe. I felt that if you were lost the country would hold me responsible." If others had asked questions about the route, Jefferson now overwhelmed them with an avalanche, put with the keenness of a scholar and the penetration of a scientist. For with the possible exception of Franklin, Thomas Jefferson was the most learned man of his time. Into the President's hands Lewis placed the precious journals, obtained at such a cost in toil and travel. Each pocket volume, morocco-bound, had as soon as filled been cemented in a separate tin case to prevent injury by wetting. But now Lewis had slipped the cases off and displayed them neat and fresh as on the day of writing. On rocking boats, on saddle pommels, and after dark by the flickering campfire, had the writing been done. T's were not always crossed, nor i's dotted, as hurriedly each event was jotted down to be read and criticised after a hundred years. Written under such circumstances, and in such haste, it is not remarkable that words are misspelled and some omitted. A considerable collection of later letters gives ample evidence that both the Captains were graceful correspondents. And the vocabularies, the precious vocabularies gathered from Council Bluffs to Clatsop, were taken by Jefferson and carefully laid away for future study. Big White and his Indians were entertained by Jefferson and the cabinet. Dolly Madison, Mrs. Gallatin, and other ladies of the White House, manifested the liveliest interest as the tall Shahaka, six feet and ten inches, stood up before them in his best necklace of bear's claws, admiring the pretty squaws that talked to them. "And was your father a chief, and your father's father?" Mrs. Madison inquired of Shahaka. She was always interested in families and lineage. "And what makes your hair so white?" But Shahaka had never heard of Prince Madoc. Never had the village-capital been so gay. Dinners and balls followed in rapid succession, eulogies and poems were recited in honour of the explorers. There was even talk of changing the name of the Columbia to Lewis River. In those days everybody went to the Capitol to hear the debates. The report of Lewis and Clark created a lively sensation. Complaints of the Louisiana Purchase ceased. From the Mississippi to the sea, the United States had virtually taken possession of the continent. Members of Congress looked at one another with dilated eyes. With lifted brow and prophetic vision the young republic pierced the future. The Mississippi, once her utmost border, was now but an inland river. Beyond it, the Great West hove in sight, with peaks of snow and the blue South Sea. The problem of the ages had been solved; Lewis and Clark had found the road to Asia. The news fell upon Europe and America as not less than a revelation. Congress immediately gave sixteen hundred acres of land each to the Captains, and double pay in gold and three hundred and twenty acres to each of their men, to be laid out on the west side of the Mississippi. On the third day of March, 1807, Captain Lewis was appointed Governor of Louisiana; and on March 12, Captain Clark was made Brigadier General, and Indian Agent for Louisiana. Tall, slender, but twenty-nine, Henry Clay was in the Senate, advocating roads,--roads and canals to the West. He was planning, pleading, persuading for a canal around the Falls of the Ohio, he was appealing for the improvement of the Wilderness Road through which Boone had broken a bridle trace. His prolific imagination grasped the Chesapeake and Ohio canal and an interior connection with the Lakes. Henry Clay--"Harry Clay" as Kentucky fondly called him--had a faculty for remembering names, faces, places. As yesterday, he recalled William Clark at Lexington. And Clark remembered Clay, standing in an ox-waggon, with flashing eyes, hair wildly waving, and features aglow, addressing an entranced throng. The same look flashed over him now as he stepped toward the heroes of the Pacific. "Congratulations, Governor." "Congratulations, General." The young men smiled at their new titles. Another was there, not to be forgotten, strong featured, cordial, cheerful, of manly beauty and large dark eyes, endeavouring to interest Congress in his inventions,--Robert Fulton of the steamboat. Wherever they went, a certain halo seemed to hang around these men of adventure. They were soldiers and hunters, and more. Through heat and cold, and mount and plain, four thousand miles by canoe, on foot and horseback, through forests of gigantic pines and along the banks of unknown rivers, among unheard-of tribes who had never seen a white man, they had carried the message of the President and brought back a report on the new land that is authority to this day. "What did you find?" Eager inquirers crowded on every side to hear the traveller's tale. At Louisville, men drove in from distant plantations; at Fincastle their steps were thronged along the village walks; in Washington they were never alone. "What did we find? Gigantic sycamores for canoes, the maple for sugar, the wild cherry and walnut for joiner's work, red and white elm for cartwrights, the osage orange for hedges impenetrable, white and black oak for ship and carpenter work, pine for countless uses, and durable cedar. "What did we find? All sorts of plants and herbs for foods, dyes, and medicines, and pasturage unending. Boone's settlers on the Missouri frontier have farms of wheat, maize, potatoes, and little cotton fields, two acres sufficient for a family. Hemp is indigenous to the soil. Even in the Mandan land, the Indians, with implements that barely scratch the earth, have immense gardens of corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. "What did we find? Oceans of beaver and seas of buffalo, clay fit for bricks and white clay for pottery, salt springs, saltpetre, and plaster, pipestone, and quarries of marble red and white, mines of iron, lead and coal, horses to be bought for a song, cedar, and fir trees six and eight feet in diameter, enormous salmon that block the streams." No wonder the land was excited at the report of Lewis and Clark. All at once the unknown mysterious West stood revealed as the home of natural resources. Their travels became the Robinson Crusoe of many a boy who lived to see for himself the marvels of that trans-Mississippi. * * * * * Sergeant Gass received his pay in gold and went home to Wellsburg, West Virginia, to find his old father smoking still beside the fire. With the help of a Scotch schoolmaster Patrick published his book the next year, immortalising the name of the gallant Irish Sergeant. Then he "inlisted" again, and fought the Creeks, and in 1812 lost an eye at Lundy's Lane. Presently he married the daughter of a Judge, and lived to become a great student in his old age, and an authority on Indians and early times. John Ordway went home to New Hampshire and married, and returned to live on his farm near New Madrid. William Bratton tarried for a time in Kentucky, served in the War of 1812 under Harrison, and was at Tippecanoe and the Thames. He married and lived at Terre Haute, Indiana, and is buried at Waynetown. George Gibson settled at St. Louis, and lived and died there. Nathaniel Pryor and William Werner became Indian agents under William Clark; Pryor died in 1831 among the Osages. George Drouillard went into the fur trade and was killed by the Blackfeet at the Three Forks of the Missouri. John Coalter, after adventures that will be related, settled at the town of Daniel Boone, married a squaw and died there. John Potts was killed by the Blackfeet on the river Jefferson. Sacajawea and Charboneau lived for many years among the Mandans, and their descendants are found in Dakota to this day. Of the voyageurs who went as far as the Mandan town, Lajaunnesse accompanied Fremont across the mountains; and two others, Francis Rivet and Philip Degie, were the earliest settlers of Oregon, where they lived to a great old age, proud of the fact that they had "belonged to Lewis and Clark." Book III _THE RED HEAD CHIEF_ Book III _THE RED HEAD CHIEF_ I _THE SHADOW OF NAPOLEON_ "Thank God for the safety of our country!" ejaculated Jefferson, in one of his long talks with Lewis regarding the upheaval across the sea. In 1802 Napoleon had been declared Consul for life; May 18, 1804, four days after Lewis and Clark started, he had been saluted Emperor of France. Then came Jena. When Lewis and Clark reached the Mandan towns, Napoleon was entering Berlin with the Prussian monarchy at his feet. While they camped at Clatsop in those December days of 1805, and while Baranof prayed for ships in his lonely Sitkan outpost, across seas "the sun of Austerlitz" had risen. Against Russian and Austrian, Napoleon had closed a war with a clap of thunder. Every breeze bore news that overawed the world. "Napoleon has taken Italy." "Napoleon has conquered Austria." "Napoleon has defeated Russia." "Napoleon has ruined Prussia." "Napoleon has taken Spain." While Lewis and Clark were at Washington came the battles of Eylau and Dantzic. In December Napoleon annexed Portugal, and the Court of Lisbon fled to Brazil, to escape his arms and to rear anew the House of Braganza. How much more remained to conquer? How soon might the theatre of action come over the sea? Still there was England. For a time the Napoleonic wars had thrown the carrying trade of the ocean into American hands. American farmers could not reach the coast fast enough with their fleets of grain, the food for armies. Cotton went up to a fabulous price. Enterprise fired the young republic. Ships were building two thousand miles inland to carry her products to the ocean. She grew, she throve, and an ever-increasing inland fleet carried to and fro the red life of a growing nation. On the other hand, the torch of liberty, lit in America and burning there still with calm and splendid lustre, carried by French soldiers to France had kindled a continent, sweeping like a firebrand through a conflagration of abuses. All tradition was overturning. America alone was quiet, the refuge of the world. Every ship that touched our shores brought fugitives fleeing from battle-scarred fields where Europe groaned in sobs and blood. Napoleon was now master of almost the entire coast of Europe. Did he cast regretful eyes this way? America feared it. Nothing but fear of England ever made Napoleon give us Louisiana. In May, 1806, England blockaded the French coast. Napoleon retaliated by the Berlin Decrees, shutting up all England, interdicting the commerce of the world. And so, when Lewis and Clark returned, the giants were locked in struggle, like Titans of old, tearing up kingdoms, palatinates, and whole empires to hurl at each other. And we had Louisiana. When Captain Lewis went to Washington he was the bearer of a mass of papers on land claims sent by Auguste Chouteau. "I have had some disturbing news from Louisiana," said Jefferson. "In the first place, Monsieur Auguste Chouteau writes requesting self-government, and that Louisiana remain for ever undivided. Now the day may come when we shall desire to cut Louisiana up into sovereign states,--not now, I grant, but in time, in time. "Then the French people of New Orleans protest against American rule. Such is the dissatisfaction, it is said, that the people of Louisiana are only waiting for Bonaparte's victory in his war with the allies to return to their allegiance with France. "St. Louis asks for a Governor 'who must reside in the territory,' hence I propose to put you there." So it came about that Meriwether Lewis wrote back in February, "I shall probably come on to St. Louis for the purpose of residing among you." There was trouble with Spain. In July, 1806, everybody thought there would be a war with her. But Napoleon was Spain's protector. It would never do to declare war against Napoleon. Napoleon!--the very word meant subjugation. "Why are we safe from Bonaparte?" exclaimed Jefferson. "Only because he has not the British fleet at his command." Even while Congress was at its busiest, devising a government for New Orleans, not at all was Jefferson sure of the loyalty of the French of Louisiana. "If they are not making overtures to Napoleon, they are implicated in the treason of Aaron Burr." All Washington was aflame over Aaron Burr. Only two years before Captain Lewis had left him in the seat of honour at Washington. The greatest lawyers in the country now were prosecuting his trial at Richmond, Randolph of Roanoke foreman of the jury and John Marshall presiding. Borne with the throng, Lewis went over to Richmond. Washington Irving was there, Winfield Scott, and Andrew Jackson, "stamping up and down, damning Jefferson and extolling Burr." Burr's friends, outcrying against Jefferson, caught sight of Meriwether Lewis; his popularity in a degree counteracted their vituperation. William Wirt of Maryland came down after making his great speech, to present a gold watch to his friend Meriwether Lewis. With saddened heart Captain Lewis left Richmond. The beautiful Theodosia had come to stay with her father at the penitentiary. Lewis always liked Aaron Burr. What was he trying to do? The Mississippi was ours and Louisiana. But even the Ursuline nuns welcomed Burr to New Orleans, and the Creoles quite lost their heads over his winning address. All seemed to confirm the suspicions of Jefferson, who nightly tossed on his couch of worry. It was necessary for Captain, now Governor, Lewis, to go to Philadelphia, to place his zoölogical and botanical collections in the hands of Dr. Barton. Scarce had the now famous explorer reached the city before he was beset by artists. Charles Willson Peale, who had painted the portraits of the most prominent officers of the Revolution, who had followed Washington and painted him as a Virginia colonel, as commander-in-chief, and as president, who had sat with him at Valley Forge and limned his features, cocked hat and all, on a piece of bed-ticking,--Peale now wanted to paint Lewis and Clark. Of course such a flattering invitation was not to be resisted, and so, while Peale's assistants were mounting Lewis's antelopes, the first known to naturalists, and preparing for Jefferson the head and horns of a Rocky Mountain ram, Governor Lewis was sitting daily for his portrait. This detained him in Philadelphia, when suddenly, on the 27th of June, the great upheaval of Europe cast breakers on our shores that made the country rock. It seemed as if in spite of herself the United States would be drawn into the Napoleonic wars. England needed sailors, she must have sailors, she claimed and demanded them from American ships on the high seas. "You _shall not search_ my ship," said the Captain of the American frigate _Chesapeake_ off the Virginian capes. Instantly and unexpectedly, the British frigate _Leopard_ rounded to and poured broadsides into the unprepared _Chesapeake_. "Never," said Jefferson, "has this country been in such a state of excitement since Lexington." "Fired on our ship!" The land was aflame. By such white heat are nations welded. It was a bold thing for England to disavow. But no apologies could now conceal the fact, that not Napoleon, but England, was destined to be our foe, England, who claimed the commerce of the world. Meriwether Lewis came home to hear Virginia ringing for war; not yet had she forgotten Yorktown. The mountains of Albemarle were clothed in all the brilliancy of summer beauty when Lewis kissed his mother good-bye, and set out to assume the governorship of Louisiana. II _AMERICAN RULE IN ST. LOUIS_ Immediately after his appointment in charge of Indian affairs, Clark left Washington, with Pryor and Shannon, Big White and Jussaume and their Indian families. The Ohio, swollen to the highest notch, bore them racing into the Mississippi. "Manuel Lisa haf gone up de Meessouri," was the news at St. Louis. All winter Manuel Lisa had been flying around St. Louis with Pierre Menard and George Drouillard, preparing for an early ascent into the fur country. So also had been the Chouteaus, intending to escort Big White back to the Mandans. At any time an Indian trader was a great man in St. Louis. He could command fabulous prices for his skill, and still more now could Drouillard, fresh from the unexploited land beyond the Mandans. All his money Drouillard put into the business, and with the earliest opening of 1807, Lisa, Menard and Drouillard set out for the upper Missouri with an outfit of sixteen thousand dollars. "Wait for the Mandan chief," said Frederick Bates, the new Territorial Secretary. Manuel Lisa was not a man to wait. "While others consider whether they will start, I am on my way," he answered. Dark, secret, unfathomable, restless, enterprising, a very Spaniard for pride, distrusted and trusted, a judge of men, Manuel Lisa had in him the spirit of De Soto and Coronado. For twenty years Lisa had traded with Indians. Of late the Spanish government had given him exclusive rights on the Osage, a privilege once held by the Chouteaus, but alas for Lisa! a right now tumbled by the cession. For the United States gave no exclusive privileges. He reached the ear of Drouillard; they went away together. No one better than Lisa saw the meaning of that great exploration. Coincidently with the arrival of Clark and Big White out of the Ohio, came down a deputation of Yankton Sioux with old Dorion from the Missouri. With that encampment of Indians, around, behind, before the Government House, began the reign of the Red Head chief over the nations of the West that was to last for thirty years. St. Louis became the Red Head's town, and the Red Head's signature came to be known to the utmost border of Louisiana. "We want arms and traders," said the Yankton Sioux. Both were granted, and laden with presents, before the close of May they were dispatched again to their own country. And with them went Big White in charge of Ensign Pryor, Sergeant George Shannon, and Pierre Chouteau, with thirty-two men for the Mandan trade. Even the Kansas knew that Big White had gone down the river, and were waiting to see him go by. "The whites are as the grasses of the prairie," said Big White. In July the new Governor, Meriwether Lewis, arrived and assumed the Government. With difficulty the officers had endeavoured to harmonise the old and the new. All was in feud, faction, disorder. St. Louis was a foreign village before the cession. Nor was this changed in a day. "Deed not de great Napoleon guarantee our leebertee?" said the French. "We want self-government." But Lewis and Clark, these two had met the French ideal of chivalry in facing the Shining Mountains and the Ocean. Pretty girls sat in the verandas to see them pass. Fur magnates set out their choicest viands. The conquest of St. Louis was largely social. With less tact and less winning personalities we might have had discord. Whatever Lewis wanted, Clark seconded as a sort of Lieutenant Governor. It seemed as if the two might go on forever as they had done in the great expedition. Ever busy, carving districts that became future States, laying out roads, dispensing justice and treating with Indians, all went well until the 16th of October, when a wave of sensation swept over St. Louis. "Big White, the Mandan chief, is back. The American flag at the bow of his boat has been fired on and he is compelled to fall back on St. Louis." All summer the vengeful Arikaras had been watching. "They killed our chief, the Brave Raven." The Teton Sioux plotted. "They will give the Mandans arms and make our enemies stronger than we are." So in great bands, Sioux and Arikaras had camped along the river to intercept the returning brave. "These are the machinations of the British," said Americans in St. Louis. "This is a trick of Manuel Lisa," said the fur traders. "His boats passed in safety, why not ours?" In fact, there had been a battle. Not with impunity should trade be carried into the land of anarchy. Three men were killed and several wounded, including Shannon and René Jussaume. And they in turn had killed Black Buffalo, the Teton chief that led the onslaught. All the way down the Missouri George Shannon had writhed with his wounded knee. Blood poisoning set in. They left him at Bellefontaine. "Dees leg must come off," said Dr. Saugrain, the army surgeon. He sent for Dr. Farrar, a young American physician who had lately located in St. Louis. Together, without anesthetics, they performed the first operation in thigh amputation ever known in that region. "Woonderful! woonderful!" exclaimed the Creoles. "Dees Dogtors can cut une man all up." Great already was the reputation of Dr. Saugrain; to young Farrar it gave a prestige that made him the Father of St. Louis surgery. Shannon lay at the point of death for eighteen months, but youth rallied, and he regained sufficient strength to journey to Lexington, where he took up the study of law. He lived to become an eminent jurist and judge, and the honoured progenitor of many distinguished bearers of his name. III _FAREWELL TO FINCASTLE_ General Clark had had a busy summer, travelling up and down the river, assisting the Governor at St. Louis in reducing his tumultuous domain to order, treating with Indians, conferring with Governor Harrison in his brick palace at Old Vincennes, consulting with his brothers, General Jonathan and General George Rogers Clark at the Point of Rock. Now, in mid-autumn, he was again on his way to Fincastle. Never through the tropic summer had Julia been absent from his thoughts. A little house in St. Louis had been selected that should shelter his bride; and now, as fast as hoof and horse could speed him, he was hastening back to fix the day for his wedding. October shed glory on the burnished forests. Here and there along the way shone primitive farmhouses, the homes of people. The explorer's heart beat high. He had come to that time in his life when he, too, should have a home. Those old Virginia farmhouses, steep of roof and sloping at the eaves, four rooms below and two in the attic, with great chimneys smoking at either end, seemed to speak of other fond and happy hearts. The valley of Virginia extends from the Potomac to the Carolina line. The Blue Ridge bounds it on one side, the Kittatinnys on the other, and in the trough-like valley between flows the historic Shenandoah. From the north, by Winchester, scene of many a border fray and destined for action more heroic yet, Clark sped on his way to Fincastle. Some changes had taken place since that eventful morning when Governor Spotswood looked over the Blue Ridge. A dozen miles from Winchester stood Lord Fairfax's Greenway Court, overshadowed by ancient locusts, slowly mouldering to its fall. Here George Washington came in his boyhood, surveying for the gaunt, raw-boned, near-sighted old nobleman who led him hard chases at the fox hunt. From the head spring of the Rappahannock to the head spring of the Potomac, twenty-one counties of old Virginia once belonged to the Fairfax manor, now broken and subdivided into a thousand homes. Hither had come tides of Quakers, and Scotch-Presbyterians, penetrating farther and farther its green recesses, cutting up the fruitful acres into colonial plantations. "The Shenandoah, it is the very centre of the United States," said the emigrants. The valley was said to be greener than any other, its waters were more transparent, its soil more fruitful. At any rate German-Pennsylvanians pushed up here, rearing barns as big as fortresses, flanked round with haystacks and granaries. Now and then Clark met them, in loose leather galligaskins and pointed hats, sunning in wide porches, smoking pipes three feet long, while their stout little children tumbled among the white clover. Here and there negroes were whistling with notes as clear as a fife, and huge Conestoga waggons loaded with produce rumbled along to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond. Every year thousands of waggons went to market, camping at night and making the morning ring with Robin Hood songs and jingling bells. Yonder lived Patrick Henry in his last years, at picturesque Red Hill on the Staunton. Here in his old age he might have been seen under the trees in his lawn, buried in revery, or on the floor, with grandchildren clambering over him or dancing to his violin. But Clark was not thinking of Patrick Henry, or Fairfax,--in fact he scarcely remembered their existence, so intent was his thought on his maid of the mountains, Julia Hancock. The leaves were falling from elm and maple, strewing the path with gold and crimson. The pines grew taller in the twilight, until he could scarcely see the bypaths chipped and blazed by settlers' tomahawks. Sunset was gilding the Peaks of Otter as Clark drew rein at the little tavern near Fincastle. "I was rented to the King of England by my Prince of Hesse Cassel," the Hessian proprietor was saying. "I was rented out to cut the throats of people who had never done me any harm. Four pence three farthings a day I got, and one penny farthing went to His Royal Highness, the Prince. I fought you, then I fell in love with you, and when the war was over I stayed in America." Clark listened. It was a voice out of the Revolution. After a hurried luncheon the tireless traveller was again in his saddle; and late that night in the moonlight he opened the gate at Colonel Hancock's. York had followed silently through all the journey,--York, no longer a slave, for in consideration of his services on the expedition the General had given him his freedom. But as a voluntary body-guard he would not be parted from his master. "For sho'! who cud tek cah o' Mars Clahk so well as old Yawk?" "What if love-lorn swains from a dozen plantations have tried to woo and win my pretty cousin! The bronzed face of Lochinvar is bleaching," said the teasing Harriet when she heard that the wedding date was really set. "One day, who knows, his skin may be white as yours." Sudden as a flood in the Roanoke came Julia's tears. Relenting, the lively, light-hearted Harriet covered her cousin's curls with kisses. "The carriage and horses are at your service. Hunt, fish, lounge as you please," said Colonel Hancock, "for I must be at the courthouse to try an important case." With thousands of acres and hundreds of negroes, it was the dream of Colonel Hancock to one day drop these official cares and retire altogether into the privacy of his plantation. Already, forty miles away, at the very head spring of the Roanoke river, he was building a country seat to be called "Fotheringay," after Fotheringay Castle. Back and forth in the gorgeous October weather rode Clark and Julia, watching the workmen at Fotheringay. Now and then the carriage stopped at an orchard. Passers were always at liberty to help themselves to the fruit. Peaches so abundant that they fed the hogs with them, apples rosy and mellow, grapes for the vintage, were in the first flush of abundance. What a contrast to that autumn in the Bitter Root Mountains! Then late in November to Fincastle came Governor Lewis and his brother Reuben, on their way to the west. He, too, had been to Washington on business concerning St. Louis. "The great success of York among the Mandans has decided Reuben to take Tom along," laughed Lewis, as Reuben's black driver dismounted from the carriage--the same family chariot in which Meriwether had brought his mother from Georgia, now on the way to become the state coach of Louisiana. Black Tom beamed, expansively happy, on York who had been "tuh th' Injun country" where black men were "Great Medicine." "Ha, Your Excellency," laughed the teasing Harriet, "the beauty of Fincastle dines with us to-night,--Miss Letitia Breckenridge." "Wait and the Governor will court you," some one whispered to the charming Letitia. "I have contemplated accompanying my father to Richmond for some time," replied Letitia. "If I stay now it will look like a challenge, therefore I determine to go." Governor Lewis underwent not a little chafing when two days after his arrival the lovely Letitia was gone,--to become the wife of the Secretary of War in John Quincy Adams's cabinet. "Miss Breckenridge is a very sweet-looking girl," wrote Reuben to his sister, "and I should like to have her for a sister. General Clark's intended is a charming woman. When I tell you that she is much like my sweetheart you will believe I think so." "What are you doing?" Clark asked of Julia, as she sat industriously stitching beside the hickory fire in the great parlour at Fincastle. "Working a little screen to keep the fire from burning my face," answered the maiden, rosy as the glow itself. Much more beautiful than the little Sacajawea, stitching moccasins beside the fire at Clatsop, she seemed to Clark; and yet the feminine intuition was the same, to sew, to stitch, to be an artist with the needle. "The mistletoe hung in Fincastle hall, The holly branch shone on the old oak wall, And the planter's retainers were blithe and gay, A-keeping their Christmas holiday." There was sleighing at Fincastle when the wedding day came, just after New Year's, 1808. The guests came in sleighs from as far away as Greenway Court, for all the country-side knew and loved Judy Hancock. Weeping, soft-hearted Black Granny tied again the sunny curls and looped the satin ribbons of her beloved "Miss Judy." The slaves vied with one another, strewing the snow with winter greens that no foot might touch the chill. The wainscoted and panelled walls glowed with greenery. Holly hung over the carved oaken chimneys, and around the fowling pieces and antlers of the chase that betokened the hunting habits of Colonel Hancock. Silver tankards marked with the family arms sparkled on the damask table cloth, and silver candlesticks and snuffers and silver plate. Myrtleberry wax candles gave out an incense that mingled with the odour of hickory snapping in the fireplace. "Exactly as her mother looked," whispered the grandmother when Judy came down,--grandmother, a brisk little white-capped old lady in quilted satin, who remembered very well the mother of Washington. The stars hung blazing on the rim of the Blue Ridge and the snow glistened, when out of the great house came the sound of music and dancing. There were wedding gifts after the old Virginia fashion, and when all had been inspected Clark handed his bride a small jewel case marked with her name. The cover flew open, revealing a set of topaz and pearls, "A gift from the President." Out into the snow went these wedding guests of a hundred years ago, to scatter and be forgotten. IV _THE BOAT HORN_ All the romance of the old boating time was in Clark's wedding trip down the Ohio. It was on a May morning when, stepping on board a flatboat at Louisville, he contrasted the daintiness of Julia with that of any other travelling companion he had ever known. The river, foaming over its rocky bed, the boatmen blowing their long conical bugles from shore to shore, the keelboats, flat-bottoms, and arks loaded with emigrants all intent on "picking guineas from gooseberry bushes," spoke of youth, life, action. Again the boatman blew his bugle, echoes of other trumpets answered, "Farewell, farewell, fare--we-ll." Soon they were into the full sweep of the pellucid Ohio, mirroring skies and shores dressed in the livery of Robin Hood. Frowning precipices and green islets arose, and projecting headlands indenting the Ohio with promontories like a chain of shining lakes. Hills clothed in ancient timber, hoary whitened sycamores draped in green clusters of mistletoe, and magnificent groves of the dark green sugar tree reflected from the water below. Shut in to the water's edge, a woody wilderness still, the river glided between its umbrageous shores. Now and then the crowing of cocks announced a clearing where the axe of the settler had made headway, or some old Indian mound blossomed with a peach orchard. Flocks of screaming paroquets alighted in the treetops, humming birds whizzed into the honeysuckle vines and flashed away with dewdrops on their jewelled throats. On the water with them, now near, now far, were other boats,--ferry flats and Alleghany skiffs, pirogues hollowed from prodigious sycamores, dug-outs and canoes, stately barges with masts and sails and lifted decks like schooners, keel boats, slim and trim for low waters, Kentucky arks, broadhorns, roomy and comfortable, filled up with chairs, beds, stoves, tables, bound for the Sangamon, Cape Girardeau, Arkansas. Floating caravans of men, women, children, servants, cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, and fowl were travelling down the great river. Some boats fitted up for stores dropped off at the settlements, blowing the bugle, calling the inhabitants down to trade. Here a tinner with his tinshop, with tools and iron, a floating factory, there a blacksmith shop with bellows and anvil, dry-goods boats with shelves for cutlery and cottons, produce boats with Kentucky flour and hemp, Ohio apples, cider, maple sugar, nuts, cheese, and fruit, and farther down, Tennessee cotton, Illinois corn, and cattle, Missouri lead and furs, all bound for New Orleans, a panorama of endless interest to Julia. Here white-winged schooners were laden entirely with turkeys, tobacco, hogs, horses, potatoes, or lumber. Nature pouring forth perennial produce from a hundred tributary streams. A bateau could descend from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans in three weeks; three months of toil could barely bring it back. How could boats be made to go against the current? Everywhere and everywhere inventive minds were puzzling over motors, paddles--duck-foot, goose-foot, and elliptical,--wings and sails, side-wheels, stern-wheels, and screws,--and steam was in the air. As the sun went down in lengthening shadows a purple haze suffused the waters. Adown La Belle Rivière, "the loveliest stream that ever glistened to the moon," arose the evening cadence of the boatmen,-- "Some row up, but we row down, All the way to Shawnee Town, Pull away! Pull away! Pull away to Shawnee Town." The crescent moon shone brightly on crag and stream and floating forest, the air was mild and moist, the boat glided as in a dream, and the mocking bird enchanted the listening silence. To Clark no Spring had ever seemed so beautiful. Sitting on deck with Julia he could not forget that turbulent time when as a boy he first plunged down these waters. Symbolic of his whole life it seemed, until now the storm and stress of youth had calmed into the placid current of to-day. The past,--the rough toil-hardened past of William Clark,--fell away, and as under a lifted silken curtain he floated into repose. The rough old life of camps and forts was gone forever. And to Julia, everything was new and strange,--La Belle Rivière itself whispered of Louisiana. Like an Alpine horn the bugle echoed the dreamlife of the waters. The fiddles scraping, boatmen dancing, the smooth stream rolling calmly through the forest, the girls who gathered on shore to see the pageant pass, the river itself, momentarily lost to view, then leaping again in Hogarth's line of beauty,--all murmured perpetual music. Then slumber fell upon the dancers, but still Clark and Julia sat watching. From clouds of owls arose voices of the night, cries of wolves reverberated on shore, the plaintive whippoorwill in the foliage lamented to the moon, meteors rose from the horizon to sweep majestically aloft and burst in a showering spray of gems below. The very heavens were unfamiliar. Awed, impressed, by the mysteries around them, they slept. Before sun-up the mocking-bird called from the highest treetop and continued singing until after breakfast, imitating the jay, the cardinal, and the lapwing, then sailing away into a strain of his own wild music. At the mouth of the Wabash arks were turning in to old Vincennes. Below, broader grew the Ohio, unbroken forests still and twinkling stars. Here and there arose the graceful catalpa in full flower, and groves of cottonwoods so tall that at a distance one could fancy some planter's mansion hidden in their depths. Amid these Eden scenes appeared here and there the deserted cabin of some murdered woodman whose secret only the Shawnee knew. Wild deer, crossing the Ohio, heard the bugle call, and throwing their long branching antlers on their shoulders sank out of sight, swimming under the water until the shore opened into the sheltering forest. At times the heavens were darkened with the flights of pigeons; there was a song of the thrush and the echoing bellow of the big horned owl. Wild turkeys crossed their path and wild geese screamed on their journey to the lakes. One day the boats stopped, and before her Julia beheld the Mississippi sweeping with irresistible pomp and wrath, tearing at the shores, bearing upon its tawny bosom the huge drift of mount and meadow, whole herds of drowned buffalo, trunks of forest trees and caved-in banks of silt, leaping, sweeping seaward in the sun. Without a pause the bridegroom river reached forth his brawny arm, and gathered in the starry-eyed Ohio. Over his Herculean shoulders waved her silver tresses, deep into his bosom passed her gentle transparency as the twain made one swept to the honeymoon. All night Clark's bateau lay in a bend while York and the men kept off the drift that seemed to set toward them in their little cove as toward a magnet. On the 26th of May Governor Lewis received a letter from Clark asking for help up the river. Without delay the Governor engaged a barge to take their things to Bellefontaine and another barge to accommodate the General, his family and baggage. Dispatching a courier over the Bellefontaine road, Governor Lewis sent to Colonel Hunt a message, asking him to send Ensign Pryor to meet the party. With what delight Clark and his bride saw the barges with Ensign Pryor in charge, coming down from St. Louis. Then came the struggle up the turbulent river. Clark was used to such things, but never before had he looked on them with a bride at his side. With sails and oars and cordelles all at once, skilled hands paddled and poled and stemmed the torrent, up, up to the rock of the new levee. Thus the great explorer brought home his bride to St. Louis in that never-to-be-forgotten May-time one hundred years ago. V _A BRIDE IN ST. LOUIS_ "An _Américaine_ bride, General Clark haf brought! She haf beeutiful eyes! She haf golden hair!" The Creole ladies were in a flutter. "_Merci!_ She haf a carriage!" they cried, peeping from their lattices. Governor Lewis himself had met the party at the shore, and now in the first state coach St. Louis had ever seen, was driving along the Rue de l'Église to Auguste Chouteau's. "_Merci!_ She haf maids enough!" whispered the gazers, as Rachel, Rhody, Chloe, Sarah, brought up the rear with their mistress's belongings. Then followed York, looking neither to the right nor the left. He knew St. Louis was watching, and he delighted in the stir. The fame of the beauty of General Clark's American bride spread like wild-fire. For months wherever she rode or walked admiring crowds followed, eager to catch a glimpse of her face. Thickly swathed in veils, Julia concealed her features from the public gaze, but that only increased the interest. "She shall haf a party, une grande réception," said Pierre Chouteau, and the demi-fortress was opened to a greater banquet than even at the return of Lewis and Clark. Social St. Louis abandoned itself to gaiety. Dancing slippers were at a premium, and all the gay silks that ever came up from New Orleans were refurbished with lace and jewels. "They are beautiful women," said Julia that night. "I thought you told me there were only Indians here." Clark laughed. "Wait until you walk in the streets." And sure enough, with the arrival of the beautiful Julia came also certain Sacs and Iowas who had been scalping settlers within their borders. With bolted handcuffs and leg shackles they were shut up in the old Spanish martello tower. From the Chouteau house Julia could see their cell windows covered with iron gratings and the guard pacing to and fro. At the trial in the old Spanish garrison house on the hill the streets swarmed with red warriors. "How far away St. Louis is from civilisation," remarked Julia. "We seem in the very heart of the Indian country." "The Governor has organised the militia, and our good friend Auguste Chouteau is their colonel," answered her husband, reassuringly. "Why these fortifications, these bastions and stone towers?" inquired Julia, as they walked along the Rue. "They were built a long time ago for defences against the Indians. In fact my brother defended St. Louis once against an Indian raid." "Tell me the story," cried Julia. And walking along the narrow streets under the honey-scented locusts, Clark told Julia of the fight and fright of 1780. "And was that when the Spanish lady was here?" "Yes." "And what became of her finally?" "She fled with the nuns to Cuba at the cession of New Orleans." Trilliums red and white, anemones holding up their shell-pink cups, and in damp spots adder's tongues and delicate Dutchman's breeches, were thick around them as they walked down by the old Chouteau Pond. Primeval forests surrounded it, white-armed sycamores and thickets of crab-apple. "This is the mill that makes bread for St. Louis. Everybody comes down to Chouteau's mill for flour. It is so small I am not surprised that they call St. Louis 'Pain Court'--'short of bread.' To-morrow the washerwomen will be at the pond, boiling clothes in iron pots and drying them on the hazel bushes." As they came back in the flush of evening all St. Louis had moved out of doors. The wide galleries were filled with settees and tables and chairs, and the neighbourly Creoles were visiting one another, and greeting the passers-by. Sometimes the walk led over the hill to the Grand Prairie west of town. The greensward waved in the breezes like a wheatfield in May. Cabanné's wind-mill could be seen in the distance across the prairie near the timber with its great wings fifty and sixty feet long flying in the air like things of life. Cabanné the Swiss had married Gratiot's daughter. St. Louis weddings generally took place at Easter, so other brides and grooms were walking there in those May days a hundred years ago. Night and morning, as in Acadia, the rural population still went to and from the fields with their cattle and carts and old-style wheel ploughs. In November Clark and his bride moved into the René Kiersereau cottage on the Rue Royale. The old French House of René Kiersereau dated back to the beginning of St. Louis. Built of heavy timbers and plastered with rubble and mortar, it bade fair still to withstand the wear and tear of generations. With a long low porch in front and rear, and a fence of cedar pickets like a miniature stockade, it differed in no respect from the other modest cottages of St. Louis. Back of the house rushed the river; before it, locusts and lightning bugs flitted in the summer garden. Beside the Kiersereau house Clark had his Indian office in the small stone store of Alexis Marie. Into this little house almost daily came Meriwether Lewis, and every moment that could be spared from pressing duties was engrossed in work on the journals of the expedition. Sometimes Julia brought her harp and sang. But into this home quiet were coming constant echoes of the Indian world. "Settlers are encroaching on the Osage lands. We shall have trouble," said Governor Lewis. Under an escort of a troop of cavalry Clark rode out into the Indian country to make a treaty with the Osages. The Shawnees and Delawares had been invited to settle near St. Louis to act as a shield against the barbarous Osages. The Shawnees and Delawares were opening little farms and gardens near Cape Girardeau, building houses and trying to become civilised. But settlers had gone on around them into the Osage wilderness. "I will establish a fort to regulate these difficulties," said the General, and on his return Fort Osage was built. "Settlers are encroaching on our lands," came the cry from Sacs, Foxes, and Iowas. Governor Lewis himself held a council with the discontented tribes and established Fort Madison, the first United States post up the Mississippi. But there were still Big White and his people not yet returned to the Mandan country, and this was the most perplexing problem of all. VI _THE FIRST FORT IN MONTANA_ Manuel Lisa had enemies and ambition. These always go together. Scarcely had Clark and his bride settled at St. Louis before down from the north came Manuel Lisa's boats, piled, heaped, and laden to the gunwale edge with furs out of the Yellowstone. His triumphant guns saluted Charette, St. Charles, St. Louis. He had run the gauntlet of Sioux, Arikara, and Assiniboine. He had penetrated the Yellowstone and established Fort Lisa at the mouth of the Bighorn in the very heart of the Crow-land,--the first building in what is now Montana. "Dey say you cause de attack on Big White," buzzed a Frenchman in his ear. Angry at such an imputation, the Spaniard hastened to Governor Lewis. "I disclaim all responsibility for that disaster. The Arikaras fired across my bow. I stopped. But I had my men-at-arms, my swivels ready. I understood presents. I smoked the pipe of peace, with a musket in my hand. Of course I passed. Even the Mandans fired on me, and the Assiniboines. Should that dismay a trader?" Manuel Lisa, the successful, was now monarch of the fur trade. Even his enemies capitulated. "If he is stern in discipline, the service demands it. He has gone farther, dared more, accomplished more, and brought home more, than any other. What a future for St. Louis! We must unite our forces." And so the city on the border reached out toward her destiny. Pierre and Auguste Chouteau, William Clark and Reuben Lewis, locked fortunes with the daring, indomitable Manuel Lisa. Pierre Menard, Andrew Henry, and others, a dozen altogether, put in forty thousand dollars, incorporating the Missouri Fur Company. Into the very heart of the Rocky Mountains it was resolved to push, into those primeval beaver meadows whither Lewis and Clark had led the way. "Abandon the timid methods of former trade,--plunge at once deep into the wilderness," said Lisa; "ascend the Missouri to its utmost navigable waters, and by establishing posts monopolise the trade of the entire region." Already had Lisa dreamed of the Santa Fé,--now he looked toward the Pacific. And now, too, was the time to send Big White back to the Mandans. Under the convoy of two hundred and fifty people,--enlisted soldiers and _engagés_, American hunters, Creoles, and Canadian voyageurs,--the fur flotilla set sail with tons of traps and merchandise. As the flotilla pulled out, a tall gaunt frontiersman with two white men and an Indian came pulling into St. Louis. Clark turned a second time,--"Why, Daniel Boone!" "First rate! first rate!" Furrowed as a sage and tanned as a hunter, with a firm hand-grasp, the old man stepped ashore. Two summers now had Daniel Boone and his two sons brought down to St. Louis a cargo of salt, manufactured by themselves at Boone's Lick, a discovery of the old pioneer. "Any settlers comin'? We air prepared to tote 'em up." Ever a welcome guest to the home of General Clark, Daniel Boone strode along to the cottage on the Rue. At sight of Julia he closed his eyes, dazzled. "'Pears to me she looks like Rebecca." Never, since that day when young Boone went hunting deer in the Yadkin forest and found Rebecca Bryan, a ruddy, flax-haired girl, had he ceased to be her lover. And though years had passed and Rebecca had faded, to him she was ever the gold-haired girl of the Yadkin. Poor Rebecca! Hers had been a hard life in camp and cabin, with pigs and chickens in the front yard and rain dripping through the roof. "Daniel!" she sometimes said, severely. "Wa-al, now Rebecca, thee knows I didn't have time to mend that air leak in the ruff last summer; I war gone too long at the beaver. But thee shall have a new house." And again the faithful Rebecca stuffed a rag in the ceiling with her mop-handle and meekly went on baking hoe-cake before the blazing forelog. Daniel had long promised a new house, but now, at last, he was really going to build. For this he was studying St. Louis. A day looking at houses and disposing of his salt and beaver-skins, and back he went, with a boatload of emigrants and a cargo of school-books. Mere trappers came and went,--Boone brought settlers. Pathfinder, judge, statesman, physician to the border, he now carried equipments for the first school up the Missouri. VII _A MYSTERY_ Furs were piled everywhere, the furs that had been wont to go to Europe,--otter, beaver, deer, and bear and buffalo. American ships, that had sped like eagles on every sea, were threatened now by England if they sailed to France, by France if they sailed to England. "If our ships, our sailors, our goods are to be seized, it is better to keep them at home," said Jefferson. "War itself would be better than that," pled Gallatin. The whole world was taking sides in the cataclysm over the sea. Napoleon recognised no neutrals. England recognised none. Denmark tried it, and the British fleet burned Copenhagen. Ominously the conflagration glimmered,--such might be the fate of any American seaport. "If we must fight let us go with France," said some. "Napoleon will guarantee us the cession of Canada and Nova Scotia." But Jefferson, carrying all before him, on Tuesday, December 22, 1807, signed an embargo act, shutting up our ships in our own harbours. In six months commercial life-blood ceased to flow. Ships rotted at the wharfs. Grass grew in the streets of Baltimore and Boston. St. Louis traders tried to go over to Canada, but were stopped at Detroit--"by that evil embargo." St. Louis withered. "De Meeseppi ees closed. Tees worse dan de Spaniard!" This unpopularity of Jefferson cast Governor Lewis into deepest gloom. The benevolent President's system of peaceable coercion was bringing the country to the verge of rebellion. England cared not nor France, and America was stifling with wheat, corn, and cattle, without a market. Fur, fur,--the currency and standard of value in St. Louis was valueless. Taxes even could no longer be paid in shaved deerskins. Peltry bonds, once worth their weight in gold, had dropped to nothing. Moths and mildew crept into the Chouteau warehouses. A few weeks more and the fruits of Lisa's adventure would perish. Into the Clark home there had come an infant boy, "named Meriwether Lewis," said the General, when the Governor came to look at the child. Every day now he came to the cradle, for, weary with cares, the quiet domestic atmosphere rested him. He moved his books and clothes, and the modest little home on the Rue became the home of the Governor. Beside the fire Julia stitched, stitched at dainty garments while the General and the Governor worked on their journals. Now and then their eyes strayed toward the sleeping infant. "This child is fairer than Sacajawea's at Clatsop," remarked Lewis. "But it cries the same, and is liable to the same ills." "And did you name a river for Sacajawea, too?" laughed Julia. "Certainly, certainly, but the Governor's favourite river was named Maria," slyly interposed Clark. A quick flush passed over the Governor's cheek. He had lately purchased a three-and-a-half arpent piece of land north of St. Louis for a home for his mother,--or was it for Maria? However, in June Clark took Julia and the baby with him on a trip to Louisville, and the same month Maria was married to somebody else. But on the Ohio the joyous activity had ceased. No longer the boatman's horn rang over cliff and scar. Jefferson's embargo had stagnated the waters. When General Clark returned to St. Louis in July he found his friend still more embarrassed and depressed. "My bills are protested," said the Governor. "Here is one for eighteen dollars rejected by the Secretary of the Treasury. This has given me infinite concern, as the fate of others drawn for similar purposes cannot be in doubt. Their rejection cannot fail to impress the public mind unfavourably with respect to me." "And what are these bills for?" inquired Clark. "Expenses incurred in governing the territory," answered Lewis. General Clark did not have to look back many years to recall the wreck of his brother on this same snag of protested bills, and exactly as with George Rogers Clark the proud and sensitive heart of Meriwether Lewis was cut to the core. "More painful than the rejection, is the displeasure which must arise in the mind of the executive from my having drawn for public moneys without authority. A third and not less embarrassing circumstance is that my private funds are entirely incompetent to meet these bills if protested." With the generosity of his nature Clark gave Lewis one hundred dollars, and Lewis arranged as soon as possible to go to Washington with his vouchers to see the President. With the courage of upright convictions, Governor Lewis contended with the difficulties of his office, and in due course received the rest of his protested bills. If he raged at heart he said little. If he spent sleepless nights tossing, and communing with himself, he spoke no word to those around him. Though the dagger pierced he made no sign. Borrowing money of his friends as George Rogers Clark had done, he met his bills as best he might. But his haggard face and evident illness alarmed his friends. "You had better take a trip to the east," they urged. "You have malarial fever." He decided to act on this suggestion, and with the journals of the western expedition and his vouchers the Governor bade his friends farewell and dropped down the river, intending to take a coasting vessel to New Orleans and pass around to Washington by sea. But at the Chickasaw Bluffs, now Memphis, Lewis was ill. Moreover, rumours of war were in the air. "These precious manuscripts that I have carried now for so many miles, must not be lost," thought Lewis, "nor the vouchers of my public accounts on which my honour rests. I will go by land through the Chickasaw country." The United States agent with the Chickasaw Indians, Major Neely, arriving there two days later, found Lewis still detained by illness. "I must accompany and watch over him," he said, when he found that the Governor was resolved to press on at all hazards. "He is very ill." One hundred years ago the Natchez trace was a new military road that had been cut through the wilderness of Tennessee to the Spanish country. Over this road the pony express galloped day and night and pioneer caravans paused at nightfall at lonely wayside inns. Brigands infested the forest, hard on the trail of the trader returning from New Orleans with a pouch of Spanish silver in his saddlebags. Over that road Aaron Burr had travelled on his visit to Andrew Jackson at Nashville, and on it Tecumseh was even now journeying to the tribes of the south. "Two of the horses have strayed," was the servant's report at the end of one day's journey. But even that could not delay the Governor. "I will wait for you at the house of the first white inhabitant on the road," said Lewis, as Neely turned back for the lost roadsters. It was evening when the Governor arrived at Grinder's stand, the last cabin on the borders of the Chickasaw country. "May I stay for the night?" he inquired of the woman at the door. "Come you alone?" she asked. "My servants are behind. Bring me some wine." Alighting and bringing in his saddle, the Governor touched the wine and turned away. Pulling off his loose white blue-striped travelling gown, he waited for his servants. The woman scanned her guest,--of elegant manners and courtly bearing, he was evidently a gentleman. But a troubled look on his face, an impatient walk to and fro, denoted something wrong. She listened,--he was talking to himself. His sudden wheels and turns and strides startled her. "Where is my powder? I am sure there was some powder in my canister," he said to the servants at the door. After a mouthful of supper, he suddenly started up, speaking in a violent manner, flushed and excited. Then, lighting his pipe, he sat down by the cabin door. "Madame, this is a very pleasant evening." Mrs. Grinder noted the kindly tone, the handsome, haggard face, the air of abstraction. Quietly he smoked for a time, then again he flushed, arose excitedly, and stepped into the yard. There he began pacing angrily to and fro. But again he sat down to his pipe, and again seemed composed. He cast his eyes toward the west, that West, the scene of his toils and triumphs. "What a sweet evening it is!" He had seen that same sun silvering the northern rivers, gilding the peaks of the Rockies, and sinking into the Pacific. It all came over him now, like a soothing dream, calming the fevered soul and stilling its tumult. The woman was preparing the usual feather-bed for her guest. "I beg you, Madame, do not trouble yourself. Pernia, bring my bearskins and buffalo robe." The skins and robe were spread on the floor and the woman went away to her kitchen. The house was a double log cabin with a covered way between. Such houses abound still in the Cumberland Mountains. "I am afraid of that man," said the woman in the kitchen, putting her children in their beds. "Something is wrong. I cannot sleep." The servants slept in the barn. Neely had not come. Night came down with its mysterious veil upon the frontier cabin. But still that heavy pace was heard in the other cabin. Now and then a voice spoke rapidly and incoherently. "He must be a lawyer," said the woman in the kitchen. Suddenly she heard the report of a pistol, and something dropped heavily to the floor. There was a voice,--"O Lord!" Excited, peering into the night, the trembling woman listened. Another pistol, and then a voice at her door,--"Oh, madame, give me some water and heal my wounds!" Peering into the moonlight between the open unplastered logs, she saw her guest stagger and fall. Presently he crawled back into the room. Then again he came to the kitchen door, but did not speak. An empty pail stood there with a gourd,--he was searching for water. Cowering, terrified, there in the kitchen with her children the woman waited for the light. At the first break of day she sent two of the children to the barn to arouse the servants. And there, on his bearskins on the cabin floor, they found the shattered frame of Meriwether Lewis, a bullet in his side, a shot under his chin, and a ghastly wound in his forehead. "Take my rifle and kill me!" he begged. "I will give you all the money in my trunk. I am no coward, but I am so strong,--so hard to die! Do not be afraid of me, Pernia, I will not hurt you." And as the sun rose over the Tennessee trees, Meriwether Lewis was dead, on the 11th of October, 1809. VIII _A LONELY GRAVE IN TENNESSEE_ A hero of his country was dead, the Governor of its largest Territory,--dead, on his way to Washington, where fresh honours awaited him,--dead, far from friends and kindred in a wild and boundless forest. Did he commit suicide in a moment of aberration, or was he foully murdered by an unknown hand on that 11th of October, 1809? President Jefferson, who had observed signs of melancholy in him in early life, favoured the idea of suicide, but in the immediate neighbourhood the theory of murder took instant shape. Where was Joshua Grinder? Where were those servants? Where was Neely himself? "I never for a moment entertained the thought of suicide," said his mother, when she heard the news. "His last letter was full of hope. I was to live with him in St. Louis." Of all men in the world why should Meriwether Lewis commit suicide? The question has been argued for a hundred years and is to-day no nearer solution than ever. "Old Grinder killed him and got his money," said the neighbours. "He saw he was well dressed and evidently a person of distinction and wealth." Grinder was arrested and tried but no proof could be secured. "Alarmed by his groans the robbers hid his pouch of gold coins in the earth, with the intention of securing it later," said others. "They never ventured to return,--it lies there, buried, to this day." And the superstitions of the neighbourhood have invested the spot with the weird fascination of Captain Kidd's treasure, or the buried box of gold on Neacarney. "He was killed by his French servant," said the Lewis family. Later, when Pernia visited Charlottesville and sent word to Locust Hill, Meriwether's mother refused to see him. John Marks, half-brother of Meriwether Lewis, went immediately to the scene of tragedy, but nothing more could be done or learned. Proceeding to St. Louis, the estate was settled. When at last the trunks arrived at Washington they were found to contain the journals, papers on the protested bills, and the well-known spy-glass used by Lewis on the expedition. But there were no valuables or money. Years after, Meriwether's sister and her husband unexpectedly met Pernia on the streets of Mobile, and Mary recognised in his possession the William Wirt watch and the gun of her brother. On demand they were promptly surrendered. In the lonely heart of Lewis county, Tennessee, stands to-day a crumbling gray stone monument with a broken shaft of limestone erected by the State on the spot where, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, Meriwether Lewis met his death. In solitude and desolation, moss overlies his tomb, but his name lives on, brightening with the years. IX _TRADE FOLLOWS THE FLAG_ "_Bon jour_, Ms'ieu, you want to know where dat Captinne?" The polite Creole lifted his cap. "'Pears now, maybe I heerd he wuz Guv'ner," said the keen-eyed trapper thoughtfully. "Guff'ner Lewees ees det,--kilt heeself. Generale Clark leeves on de Rue Royale, next de Injun office." In unkempt beard, hair shaggy as a horse's mane, and clothing all of leather, the stranger climbed the rocky path, using the stock of his gun for a staff. It did not take long to find the Indian office. With a dozen lounging braves outside and a council within, sat William Clark, the Red Head Chief. General Clark noted the shadow in the door that bright May morning. Not in vain had these men faced the West together. "Bless me, it's Coalter! Where have you been? How did you come?" From the mountains, three thousand miles in thirty days, in a small canoe, Coalter had come flying down the melting head-snows of the Rockies. He was haggard with hunger and loss of sleep. Leading his old companion to the cottage, Clark soon had him surrounded with the comforts of a civilised meal. Refreshed, gradually the trapper unfolded his tale. When John Coalter left Lewis and Clark at the Mandan towns and went back with Hancock and Dickson, in that Summer of 1806, they, the first of white men, entered the Yellowstone Park of to-day. In the Spring, separating from his companions, Coalter set out for St. Louis in a solitary canoe. At the mouth of the Platte he met Manuel Lisa and Drouillard coming up. And with them, John Potts, another of the Lewis and Clark soldiers. On the spot Coalter re-enlisted and returned a third time to the wilderness. Such a man was invaluable to that first venture in the north. After Lisa had stockaded his fort at the mouth of the Bighorn, he sent Coalter to bring the Indians. Alone he set out with gun and knapsack, travelled five hundred miles, and brought in his friends the Crows. That laid the foundation of Lisa's fortune. When Lisa came down with his furs in the Spring, Coalter and Potts with traps on their backs set out for the beaver-meadows of the Three Forks, the Madison, the Jefferson, and the Gallatin. "We knew those Blackfoot sarpints would spare no chance to skelp us," said Coalter, "so we sot our traps by night an' tuk 'em afore daylight. Goin' up a creek six miles from the Jefferson, examinin' our traps one mornin', on a suddent we heerd a great noise. But the banks wuz high an' we cudn't see. "'Blackfeet, Potts. Let's retreat,' sez I. "'Blackfut nuthin'. Ye must be a coward. Thet's buffaloes,' sez Potts. An' we kep' on. "In a few minutes five or six hunderd Injuns appeared on both sides uv the creek, beckonin' us ashore. I saw 't warnt no use an' turned the canoe head in. "Ez we touched, an Injun seized Potts' rifle. I jumped an' grabbed an' handed it back to Potts in the canoe. He tuk it an' pushed off. "An' Injun let fly an arrer. Jest ez I heard it whizz, Potts cried, 'Coalter, I'm wounded.' "'Don't try to get off, Potts, come ashore,' I urged. But no, he levelled his rifle and shot a Blackfoot dead on the spot. Instanter they riddled Potts,--dead, he floated down stream. "Then they seized and stripped me. I seed 'em consultin'. "'Set 'im up fer a target,' said some. I knew ther lingo, lernt it 'mongst the Crows, raound Lisa's fort, at the Bighorn. But the chief asked me, 'Can ye run fast?' "'No, very bad runner,' I answered." Clark smiled. Well he remembered Coalter as the winner in many a racing bout. "The chief led me aout on the prairie, 'Save yerself ef ye can.' "Et thet instant I heerd, 'Whoop-ahahahahah-hooh!' like ten thousand divils, an' I _flew_. "It wuz six miles to the Jefferson; the graound wuz stuck like a pinquishen with prickly-pear an' sand burrs, cuttin' my bare feet, but I wuz half acrosst before I ventured to look over the shoulder. The sarpints ware pantin' an' fallin' behind an' scatterin'. But one with a spear not more'n a hunderd yeards behind was gainin'. "I made another bound,--blood gushed from my nostrils. Nearer, nearer I heerd his breath and steps, expectin' every minute to feel thet spear in my back. "Agin I looked. Not twenty yeards behind he ran. On a suddint I stopped, turned, and spread my arms. The Blackfoot, astonished at the blood all over my front, perhaps, tried to stop but stumbled an' fell and broke his spear. I ran back, snatched the point, and pinned him to the earth. "The rest set up a hidjus yell. While they stopped beside ther fallen comrade, almost faintin' I ran inter the cottonwoods on the borders uv the shore an' plunged ento the river. "Diving under a raft of drift-timber agin the upper point of a little island, I held my head up in a little opening amongst the trunks of trees covered with limbs and brushwood. "Screechin', yellin' like so many divils, they come onto the island. Thro' the chinks I seed 'em huntin', huntin', huntin', all day long. I only feared they might set the raft on fire. "But at night they gave it up; the voices grew faint and fer away; I swam cautiously daown an' acrost, an' landin' travelled all night. "But I wuz naked. The broilin' sun scorched my skin, my feet were filled with prickly-pears, an' I wuz hungry. Game, game plenty on the hills, but I hed no gun. It was seven days to Lisa's fort on the Bighorn. "I remembered the Injun turnip that Sacajawea found in there, an' lived on it an' sheep sorrel until I reached Lisa's fort, blistered from head to heel." As in a vision the General saw it all. Judy's eyes were filled with tears. Through the Gallatin, the Indian Valley of Flowers, where Bozeman stands to-day, the lonely trapper had toiled in the July sun and over the Bozeman Pass, whither Clark's cavalcade had ridden two summers before. Six years now had Coalter been gone from civilisation, but he had discovered the Yellowstone Park. No one in St. Louis would believe his stories of hot water spouting in fountains, "Coalter's Hell," but William Clark traced his route on the map that he sent for publication. John Coalter now received his delayed reward for the expedition,--double pay and three hundred acres of land,--and went up to find Boone at Charette. "What! Pierre Menard!" Another boat had come out of the north. General Clark grasped the horny hand of the fur trader. "What luck?" "Bad, bad," gloomily answered the trader with a shake of his flowing mane. "Drouillard is dead, and the rest are likely soon to be." "What do you mean?" "Blackfeet!" Clark guessed all, even before he heard the full details behind locked doors of the Missouri Fur Company at the warehouse of Pierre Chouteau. "As you knew," began Menard, "we spent last winter at Fort Lisa on the Bighorn. When Lisa started down here in March we packed our traps on horses, crossed to the Three Forks, and built a double stockade of logs at the confluence of the rivers. Every night the men came in with beaver, beaver, beaver. We confidently expected to bring down not less than three hundred packs this fall but that hope is shattered. On the 12th of April our men were ambuscaded by Blackfeet. Five were killed. All their furs, traps, horses, guns, and equipments are without doubt by this time at Fort Edmonton on the Saskatchewan." "But you expected to visit the Snakes and Flatheads," suggested one to rouse the despondent trader from his revery. "I did. And the object was to obtain a Blackfoot prisoner if possible in order to open communication with his tribe. They are the most unapproachable Indians we have known. They refuse all overtures. "Just outside the fort Drouillard was killed. A high wind was blowing at the time, so he was not heard, but the scene of the conflict indicated a desperate defence. "Despair seized our hunters. They refused to go out. Indeed, it was impossible to go except in numbers, so Henry and I concluded it was best to report. I set out by night, and here I am, with these men and thirty packs of beaver. God pity poor Henry at the Three Forks!" Thus at one blow were shattered the high hopes of the Missouri Fur Company. All thought of Andrew Henry, tall, slender, blue-eyed, dark-haired, a man that spoke seldom, but of great deeds. Would he survive a winter among the Blackfeet? But there was another cause of disquiet to the Missouri Fur Company. "Have you heard of John Jacob Astor?" "What?" "He has gone with Wilson Price Hunt to Montreal to engage men for an expedition to the Columbia." "What, Hunt who kept an Indian shop here on the Rue?" They all knew him. He had come to St. Louis in 1804 and become an adept in outfitting. Two or three times Astor had offered to buy stock in the Missouri Fur Company but had been refused. Jefferson himself had recommended him to Lewis. Now he was carrying trade into the fur country over their heads. Already he had a great trade on the lakes, and to the headwaters of the Mississippi. He had profited by the surrender of Detroit and Mackinaw. Another stride took him to the Falls of St. Anthony; and now, along the trail of Lewis and Clark he planned to be first on the Pacific. With ships by sea and caravans by land, he could at last accomplish the wished-for trade to China. "But I, too, planned the Pacific trade," said Manuel Lisa, coming down in the Autumn. There was some jealousy that a New York man should be first to follow the trail to the sea. The winter was one of anxiety, for Astor's men had arrived in St. Louis and had gone up the Missouri to camp until Spring. Anxiety, too, for Andrew Henry, out there alone in the Blackfoot country. Could they have been gifted with sufficient sight, the partners in St. Louis might even then have seen the brave Andrew Henry fighting for his life on that little tongue of land between the Madison and the Jefferson. No trapping could be done. It was dangerous to go any distance from the fort except in large parties. Fearing the entire destruction of his little band, Henry moved across the mountains into the Oregon country, and wintered on what is now Henry's Fork of the river Snake, the first American stronghold on the Columbia. "We must exterminate Hunt's party," said Manuel Lisa. "No," said Pierre Chouteau. "Next year he will send again and again, and in time will exterminate us. Your duty will be to protect his men on the water, and may God Almighty have mercy on them in the mountains, for they will never reach their destination." From his new home at Charette John Coalter saw Astor's people going by, bound for the Columbia. To his surprise they inquired for him. "General Clark told us you were the best informed man in the country." Coalter told them of the hostility of the Blackfeet and the story of his escape. He longed to return with them to the mountains, but he had just married a squaw and he decided to stay. Moreover, a twinge in his limbs warned him that that plunge in the Jefferson had given him rheumatism for life. Daniel Boone, standing on the bank at Charette when Hunt went by, came down and examined their outfit. "Jist returned from my traps on the Creek," he said, pointing to sixty beaver skins. Tame beavers and otters, caught on an island opposite Charette Creek, were playing around his cabin. And his neighbours had elk and deer and buffalo, broken to the yoke. Several seasons had Boone with his old friend Calloway trapped on the Kansas; now he longed for the mountains. "Another year and I, too, will go to the Yellowstone," said Daniel Boone. "Andrew Henry must be rescued. His situation is desperate. He may be dead," said General Clark, President of the Missouri Fur Company at St. Louis. Three weeks behind Hunt, Lisa set out in a swift barge propelled by twenty oars, with a swivel on the bow and two blunderbusses in the cabin. Lisa had been a sea-captain,--he rigged his boat with a good mast, mainsail and topsail, and led his men with a ringing boat-song. Then followed a keelboat race of a thousand miles up the Missouri. June 2 Lisa caught up with Hunt near the present Bismarck, and met Andrew Henry coming down with forty packs of beaver. To avoid the hostile Blackfeet, Hunt bought horses and crossed through the Yellowstone-Crow country to the abandoned fort of Henry on the Snake, and on to the Columbia. Aboard that barge with Lisa went Sacajawea. True to her word, she had brought the little Touissant down to St. Louis, where Clark placed him with the Catholic sisters to be trained for an interpreter. Sacajawea was dressed as a white woman; she had quickly adopted their manners and language; but, in the words of a chronicler who saw her there, "she had become sickly, and longed to revisit her native country. Her husband also had become wearied of civilised life." So back they went to the Minnetarees, bearing pipes from Clark to the chiefs. Five hundred dollars a year Charboneau now received as Indian agent for the United States. For more than thirty years he held his post, and to this day his name may be traced in the land of Dakota. We can see Sacajawea now, startled and expectant, her heart beating like a trip-hammer under her bodice, looking at Julia! No dreams of her mountains had ever shown such sunny hair, such fluffs of curls, like moonrise on the water. And that diaphanous cloud,--was it a dress? No Shoshone girl ever saw such buckskin, finer than blossom of the bitter-root. "I am come," said Sacajawea. A whole year she had tarried among the whites, quickly accommodating herself to their ways. But in the level St. Louis she dreamed of her northland, and now she was going home! X _TECUMSEH_ "It is madness to contend against the whites," said Black Hoof, chief of the Shawnees. "The more we fight the more they come." He had led raids against Boonsboro, watched the Ohio, and sold scalps at Detroit. Three times his town was burnt behind him, twice by Clark and once by Wayne. Then he gave up, signed the treaty at Greenville, and for ever after kept the peace. Now he was living with a band of Shawnees at Cape Girardeau, and made frequent visits to his old friend, Daniel Boone. Indian Phillips was with those who besieged Boonsboro. Phillips was a white man stolen as a child who had always lived with the Shawnees. To him Daniel Boone was the closest of friends. They hunted together and slept together. Boone took Phillips' bearskins and sold them with his own in St. Louis. "If I should die while I am out with you, Phillips, you must mark my grave and tell the folks so they can carry me home." Long after those Indians in the West had welcomed Boone's sons, an old squaw said, "I was an adopted sister during his captivity with the Ohio Indians." Sometimes Boone went over to Cape Girardeau, and sat with his friends talking over old times. "Do you remember, Dan," Phillips would say, "when we had you prisoner at Detroit? You remember the British traders gave you a horse and saddle and Black Fish adopted you, and you and he made an agreement you would lead him to Boonsboro and make them surrender and bury the tomahawk, and live like brothers and sisters?" "Yes, I remember," said Boone, smiling at the recollection of those arts of subterfuge. "Do you remember one warm day when Black Fish said, 'Dan, the corn is in good roasting ears. I would like to have your horse and mine in good condition before we start to Boonsboro. We need a trough to feed them in. I will show you a big log that you can dig out.' Black Fish led you to a big walnut log. You worked a while and then lay down. Black Fish came and said, 'Well, Dan, you haven't done much.' "'No,' you answered, 'you and your squaw call me your son, but you don't love me much. When I am at home I don't work this way,--I have negroes to work for me.' "'Well,' said Black Fish, 'come to camp and stay with your brothers.'" Quietly the two old men chuckled together. Boone always called Black Fish, father, and when he went hunting brought the choicest bit to the chief. But now Boone's visits to Girardeau were made with a purpose. "What is Tecumseh doing?" "Tecumseh? He says no tribe can sell our lands. He refuses to move out of Ohio." Old Black Hoof had pulled away from Tecumseh. The Shooting Star refused to attend Wayne's treaty at Greenville. In 1805 he styled himself a chief, and organised the young blood of the Shawnees into a personal band. About this time Tecumseh met Rebecca Galloway, whose father, James Galloway, had moved over from Kentucky to settle near Old Chillicothe. At the Galloway hearth Tecumseh was ever a welcome guest. "Teach me to read the white man's book," said Tecumseh to the fair Rebecca. With wonderful speed the young chief picked up the English alphabet. Hungry for knowledge, he read and read and Rebecca read to him. Thereafter in his wonderful war and peace orations, Tecumseh used the language of his beloved Rebecca. For, human-like, the young chief lost his heart to the white girl. Days went by, dangerous days, while Rebecca was correcting Tecumseh's speech, enlarging his English vocabulary, and reading to him from the Bible. "Promise me, Tecumseh, never, never will you permit the massacre of helpless women and children after capture." Tecumseh promised. "And be kind to the poor surrendered prisoner." "I will be kind," said Tecumseh. But time was fleeting,--game was disappearing,--Tecumseh was an Indian. His lands were slipping from under his feet. It was useless to speak to the fair Rebecca. Terrified at the fire she had kindled, she saw him no more. Enraged, wrathful, he returned to his band. Tecumseh never loved any Indian woman. A wife or two he tried, then bade them "Begone!" When Lewis and Clark returned from the West, Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, were already planning a vast confederation to wipe out the whites. Jefferson heard of these things. "He is visionary," said the President, and let him go on unmolested. "The Seventeen Fires are cheating us!" exclaimed Tecumseh. "The Delawares, Miamis, and Pottawattamies have sold their lands! The Great Spirit gave the land to all the Indians. No tribe can sell without the consent of all. The whites have driven us from the sea-coast,--they will shortly push us into the Lakes." The Governor-General of Canada encouraged him. Then came rumours of Indian activity. Like the Hermit of old, Tecumseh went out to rouse the redmen in a crusade against the whites. Still Jefferson paid no heed. About the time that Clark and his bride came down the Ohio, the distracted Indians were swarming on Tippecanoe Creek, a hundred miles from Fort Dearborn, the future Chicago. All Summer, whisperings came into St. Louis, "Tecumseh is persuading the Sacs, Foxes, and Osages to war." "I will meet the Sacs and Foxes," said Lewis. Clark went out and quieted the Osages. Boone's son and Auguste Chouteau went with him. "The Great Spirit bids you destroy Vincennes and sweep the Ohio to the mouth," was the Prophet's reported advice to the Chippewas. "Give up our land and buy no more, and I will ally with the United States," said Tecumseh to General Harrison at Vincennes, in August of 1809. "It cannot be," said Harrison. "Then I will make war and ally with England," retorted the defiant chieftain. The frontier had much to fear from an Indian war. More and more vagrant red men hovered around St. Louis,--Sacs, Foxes, Osages, who had seen Tecumseh. The Illinois country opposite swarmed with them, making raids on the farmers, killing stock, stealing horses. Massacres and depredations began. "'Tis time to fortify," said Daniel Boone to his sons and neighbours. In a little while nine forts had been erected in St. Charles county alone, and every cabin was stockaded. The five stockades at Boone's Lick met frequent assaults. Black Hawk was there, the trusted lieutenant of Tecumseh. The whole frontier became alarmed. Then Manuel Lisa came down the river. "The British are sending wampum to the Sioux. All the Missouri nations are urged to join the confederacy." In fact, the Prophet with his mystery fire was visiting all the northwest tribes, even the Blackfeet. Ten thousand Indians promised to follow him back. Dressed in white buckskin, with eagle feathers in his hair, Tecumseh, on a spirited black pony, came to Gomo and Black Partridge on Peoria Lake in the summer of 1810. "I cannot join you," said Black Partridge, the Pottawattamie, holding up a silver medal. "This token was given to me at Greenville by the great chief [Wayne]. On it you see the face of our father at Washington. As long as this hangs on my neck I can never raise my tomahawk against the whites." Gomo refused. "Long ago the Big Knife [George Rogers Clark] came to Kaskaskia and sent for the chiefs of this river. We went. He desired us to remain still in our own villages, saying that the Americans were able, of themselves, to fight the British." "Will anything short of the complete conquest of the Canadas enable us to prevent their influence on our Indians?" asked Governor Edwards of Illinois. Edwards and Clark planned together for the protection of the frontier. In July, 1811, Tecumseh went to Vincennes and held a last stormy interview with Harrison without avail. Immediately he turned south to the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles. They watched him with kindling eyes. "Brothers, you do not mean to fight!" thundered Tecumseh to the hesitating Creeks. "You do not believe the Great Spirit has sent me. You shall know. From here I go straight to Detroit. When I arrive there I shall stamp on the ground, and shake down every house in this village." As Tecumseh strode into the forest the terrified Creeks watched. They counted the days. Then came the awful quaking and shaking of the New Madrid earthquake. "Tecumseh has reached Detroit! Tecumseh has reached Detroit!" cried the frantic Creeks, as their wigwams tumbled about them. Tecumseh was coming leisurely up among the tribes of Missouri, haranguing Black Hoof at Cape Girardeau, Osages, and Kickapoos, and Iowas at Des Moines. But Tippecanoe had been fought and lost. "There is to be an attack," said George Rogers Clark Floyd, tapping at the door of Harrison's tent at three o'clock in the morning of November 7, 1811. Harrison sprang to his horse and with him George Croghan and John O'Fallon. It was a battle for possession. Every Indian trained by Tecumseh knew his country depended upon it. Every white knew he must win or the log cabin must go. In the darkness and rain the combatants locked in the death struggle of savagery against civilisation. Tecumseh reached the Wabash to find the wreck of Tippecanoe. "Wretch!" he cried to his brother, "you have ruined all!" Seizing the Prophet by the hair, Tecumseh shook him and beat him and cuffed him and almost killed him, then dashed away to Canada and offered his tomahawk to Great Britain. "The danger is not over," said Clark after Harrison's battle. To save as many Indians as possible from the machinations of Tecumseh, immediately after Tippecanoe Clark summoned the neighbouring tribes to a council at St. Louis. Over the winter snows the runners sped, calling them in for a trip to Washington. It was May of 1812 when Clark got together his chiefs of the Great and Little Osages, Sacs, Foxes, Shawnees, and Delawares. "Ahaha! Great Medicine!" whispered the Indians, when General Clark discovered their wily plans. Nothing could be hid from the Red Head Chief. Feared and beloved, none other could better have handled the inflammable tribes at that moment. Old chiefs among them remembered his brother of the Long Knives, and looked upon this Clark as his natural successor. And the General took care not to dispel this fancy, but on every occasion strengthened and deepened it. Never before in St. Louis had Indians been watched so strenuously. Moody, taciturn, repelling familiarity, they bore the faces of men who knew secrets. Tecumseh had whispered in their ear. "Shall we listen to Tecumseh?" They were wavering. Cold, impassively stoic, they heeded no question when citizens impelled by curiosity or friendly feeling endeavoured to draw them into conversation. If pressed too closely, the straight forms lifted still more loftily, and wrapping their blankets closer about them the council chiefs strode contemptuously away. But if Clark spoke, every eye was attention. "Before we go," said Clark, "I advise you to make peace with one another and bury the hatchet." They did, and for the most part kept it for ever. It was May 5 when Clark started with his embassy of ninety chiefs to see their "Great God, the President," as they called Madison, following the old trail to Vincennes, Louisville, and Pittsburg. Along with them went a body-guard of soldiers, and also Mrs. Clark, her maids, and the two little boys, on the way to Fincastle. Mrs. Clark's especial escort was John O'Fallon, nineteen years of age, aide to Harrison at Tippecanoe, who had come to his uncle at St. Louis immediately after the battle. In their best necklaces of bears' claws the chiefs arrived at Washington. War had been declared against Great Britain. There was a consultation with the President. "We, too, have declared war," announced the redmen, as they strode with Clark from the White House. But Black Hawk of the Rock River Sacs was not there. He had followed Tecumseh. About the same time, on the eastern bank of the Detroit river Tecumseh was met by anxious Ohio chiefs who remembered Wayne. "Let us remain neutral," they pleaded. "This is the white man's war." Tecumseh shook his tomahawk above the Detroit. "My bones shall bleach on this shore before I will join in any council of neutrality." "The Great Father over the Big Water will never bury his war-club until he quiets these troublers of the earth," said General Brock to Tecumseh's redmen. Then came larger gifts than ever from "their British Father." "War is declared! Go," said Tecumseh, "cut off Fort Dearborn before they hear the news!" Two emissaries from Tecumseh came flying into the Illinois. That night the Indians started for Chicago on her lonely lake. Black Partridge mounted his pony and tried to dissuade them. He could not. Then spurring he reached Fort Dearborn first. With tears he threw down his medal before the astonished commander. "My young men have gone on the warpath. Here is your medal. I will not wear an emblem of friendship when I am compelled to act as an enemy." Before the sun went down the shores of Lake Michigan were red with the blood of men, women, and children. Like the Rhine of old France, the lakes were still the fighting border. President Madison felt grateful to Clark for the step he had taken with the Indians. "Will you command the army at Detroit?" "I can do more for my country by attending to the Indians," was the General's modest reply. The country waited to hear that Hull had taken Upper Canada. Instead the shocked nation heard, "_Hull has surrendered_!" "Hull has surrendered!" Runners flew among the Indians to the remotest border,--the Creeks heard it before their white neighbours. Little Crow and his Sioux snatched up the war hatchet. Detroit had fallen with Tecumseh and Brock at the head of the Anglo-Indian army. "We shall drive these Americans back across the Ohio," said General Brock. At this, the old and popular wish of the Lake Indians, large numbers threw aside their scruples and joined in the war that followed. In December General Clark was appointed Governor of the newly organised territory of Missouri. Meanwhile in the buff and blue stage coach, a huge box mounted on springs, Julia and her children were swinging toward Fotheringay. The air was hot and dusty, the leather curtains were rolled up to catch the slightest breeze, and the happy though weary occupants looked out on the Valley of Virginia. Forty miles a day the coach horses travelled, leaving them each evening a little nearer their destination. The small wayside inns lacked comforts, but such as they were our travellers accepted thankfully. Now and then the post-rider blew his horn and dashed by them, or in the heat of the day rode leisurely in the shade of poplars along the road, furtively reading the letters of his pack as he paced in the dust. And still over the mountains were pouring white-topped Conestoga waggons, careening down like boats at sea, laden with cargoes of colonial ware, pewter, and mahogany. The golden age of coaching times had come, and magnificent horses, dappled grays and bays in scarlet-fringed housings and jingling bells, seemed bearing away the world on wheels. To the new home Julia was coming, at Fotheringay. Before the coach stopped Julia perceived through enshrining trees Black Granny standing in the wide hallway. Throwing up her apron over her woolly head to hide the tears of joy,-- "Laws a-honey! Miss Judy done come hum!" "Fotheringay!" sang out the dusty driver with an unusual flourish of whip-lash and echo-waking blast of the postillion's horn. In a trice the steps were down, and surrounded by babies and bandboxes, brass nail-studded hair trunks and portmanteaus of pigskin, "Miss Judy" was greeted by the entire sable population of Fotheringay. Light-footed as a girl she ran forward to greet her father, Colonel Hancock. The Colonel hastened to his daughter,-- "Hull has surrendered," he said. XI _CLARK GUARDS THE FRONTIER_ The Indian hunt was over; they were done making their sugar; the women were planting corn. The warriors hid in the thick foliage of the river borders, preparing for war. "Madison has declared war against England!" The news was hailed with delight. Now would end this frightful suspense. In Illinois alone, fifteen hundred savages under foreign machinations held in terror forty thousand white people,--officers and soldiers of George Rogers Clark and others who had settled on the undefended prairies. "Detroit has fallen!" "Mackinac is gone!" "The savages have massacred the garrison at Fort Dearborn!" "They are planning to attack the settlements on the Mississippi. If the Sioux join the confederacy--" cheeks paled at the possibility. The greatest body of Indians in America resided on the Mississippi. Who could say at what hour the waters would resound with their whoops? Thousands of them could reach St. Louis or Cahokia from their homes in five or six days. Immense quantities of British gifts were coming from the Lakes to the Indians at Peoria, Rock Island, Des Moines. "Yes, we shall attack when the corn is ripe," said the Indians at Fort Madison. "Unless I hear shortly of more assistance than a few rangers I shall bury my papers in the ground, send my family off, and fight as long as possible," said Edwards, the Governor of Illinois. In Missouri, surrounded by Pottawattamies, champion horsethieves of the frontier, and warlike Foxes, Iowas, and Kickapoos, the settlers ploughed their fields with sentinels on guard. Horns hung at their belts to blow as a signal of danger. In the quiet hour by the fireside, an Indian would steal into the postern gate and shoot the father at the hearth, the mother at her evening task. Presently the settlers withdrew into the forts, unable to raise crops. With corn in the cabin loft, the bear hunt in the fall, the turkey hunt at Christmas, and venison hams kept over from last year, still there was plenty. Daniel Boone, the patriarch of about forty families, ever on the lookout with his long thin eagle face, ruled by advice and example. The once light flaxen hair was gray, but even yet Boone's step was springy as the Indian's, as gun in hand he watched around the forts. Maine, Montana, each has known it all, the same running fights of Kentucky and Oregon. Woe to the little children playing outside the forted village,--woe to the lad driving home the cows,--woe to the maid at milking time. The alarm was swelled by Quas-qua-ma, a chief of the Sacs, a very pacific Indian and friend of the whites, who came by night to bring warning and consult Clark. In his search Quas-qua-ma tip-toed from porch to porch. Frightened habitants peered through the shutters. "What ees wanted?" "The Red Head Chief." But Clark had not arrived. "We must take this matter into our own hands," said the people. "British and Indians came once from Mackinac. They may again." "Mackinac? They are at Fort Madison now, murdering our regulars and rangers. How long since they burned our boats and cargoes at Fort Bellevue? Any day they may drop down on St. Louis." "We must fortify." "The old bastions may be made available for service." "The old Spanish garrison tower must be refitted for the women and children." Such were the universal conclusions. Men went up the river to the islands to bring down logs. Another party set to work to dig a wide, deep ditch for a regular stockade. When Clark arrived to begin his duties as Territorial Governor he found St. Louis bordering on a state of panic. There was the cloud-shadow of the north. Below, one thousand Indians, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Catawbas on a branch of the Arkansas within three days' journey of Saint Genevieve were crossing the river at Chickasaw Bluffs. Tecumseh's belts of wampum were flying everywhere. In their best necklaces of bears' claws Clark's ninety chiefs came home, laden with tokens of esteem. Civilised military dress had succeeded the blanket; the wild fierce air was gone. "We have declared war against Kinchotch [King George]," said the proud chiefs, taking boat to keep their tribes quiet along the west. A sense of security returned to St. Louis. Would they not act as a barrier to tribes more remote? The plan for local fortification was abandoned, but a cordon of family blockhouses was built from Bellefontaine to Kaskaskia, a line seventy-five miles in length, along which the rangers rode daily, watching the red marauders of Illinois. The Mississippi was picketed with gunboats. "Whoever holds Prairie du Chien holds the Upper Mississippi," said Governor Clark. "I will go there and break up that rendezvous of British and Indians." Who better than Clark knew the border and the Indian? He could ply the oar, or level the rifle, or sleep at night on gravel stones. "It requires time and a little smoking with Indians if you wish to have peace with them." As soon as possible a gunboat, the _Governor Clark_, and several smaller boats, manned with one hundred and fifty volunteers and sixty regular troops, went up into the hostile country. Fierce Sacs glared from Rock Island, Foxes paused in their lead digging at Dubuque's mines,--lead for British cannon. Although on Missouri territory, Prairie du Chien was still occupied by Indians and traders to the exclusion of Americans. Six hundred, seven hundred miles above St. Louis, a little red bird whispered up the Mississippi, "Long Knives coming!" The traders retired. "Whoever enjoys the trade of the Indians will have control of their affections and power," said Clark. "Too long have we left this point unfortified." A great impression had been made on the savages by the liberality of the British traders. Their brilliant red coats--"Eenah! eenah! eenamah!" exclaimed the Sioux. But now the Long Knives! Wabasha, son of Wabasha of the Revolution, remembered the Long Knives. When Clark arrived at Prairie du Chien Wabasha refused to fight him. Red Wing came down to the council. Upon his bosom Rising Moose proudly exhibited a medal given him by Captain Pike in 1805. The Indians nicknamed him "Tammaha, the Pike." Twenty-five leagues above Tammaha's village lived Wabasha, and twenty-five above Wabasha, the Red Wing, all great chiefs of the Sioux, all very friendly now to the Long Knife who had come up in his gunboat. Since time immemorial Wabasha had been a friend of the British, twice had he, the son of Wabasha I., been to Quebec and received flags and medals. But now he remembered Captain Pike who visited their northern waters while Lewis and Clark were away at the west. Grasping the hand of Clark,-- "We have the greatest friendship for the United States," said the chiefs,--all except Little Crow. He was leading a war party to the Lakes. Leaving troops to erect a fort and maintain a garrison at the old French Prairie du Chien, Governor Clark returned to his necessary duties at St. Louis. Behind on the river remained the gunboat to guard the builders. "A fort at the Prairie?" cried the British traders at Mackinac. "That cuts off our Dakota trade." And forthwith an expedition was raised to capture the garrison. Barely was the rude fortification completed before a force of British and Chippewas were marching upon it. "I will not fight the Big Knives any more," said Red Wing. "Why?" asked the traders. "The lion and the eagle fight. Then the lion will go home and leave us to the eagle." Red Wing was famed for foretelling events at Prairie du Chien. In June Manuel Lisa came down the Missouri. "De Arrapahoe, Arikara, Gros Ventre, and Crow are at war wit' de American. De British Nort'west traders embroil our people wit' de sauvages to cut dem off!" "We must extend the posts of St. Louis to the British border," cautioned Clark to Lisa. "And if necessary arm the Yanktons and Omahas against the Sacs and Iowas. I herewith commission you, Lisa, my especial sub-agent among the nations of the Missouri to keep them at peace." Very well Clark knew whom he was trusting. Now that war had crippled the Missouri Fur Company, Lisa alone represented them in the field. Familiar with the fashions of Indians, the size and colour of the favourite blanket, the shape and length of tomahawks, no trader was more a favourite than Manuel Lisa. Besides, he still maintained the company's posts,--Council Bluffs with the Omahas, six hundred miles up the Missouri, and another at the Sioux, six hundred miles further still, with two hundred hunters in his employ. Here was a force not to be despised. Ten months in the year Lisa was buried in the wilderness, hid in the forest and the prairie, far from his wife in St. Louis. Wily, winning, and strategic, no trader knew Indians better. "And," continued the Governor, "I offer you five hundred dollars for sub-agent's salary." "A poor five hundred tollar!" laughed Lisa. "Eet will not buy te tobacco which I give annually to dose who call me Fader. But Lisa will go. His interests and dose of de Government are one." Then after a moment's frowning reflection,--"I haf suffered enough," almost wailed Lisa, "I haf suffered enough in person and in property under a different government, to know how to appreciate de one under w'ich I now live." Even while they were consulting, "Here is your friend, de Rising Moose!" announced old Antoine Le Claire. "Rising Moose?" Governor Clark started to his feet as one of the Prairie du Chien chiefs came striding through the door. "The fort is taken, but I will not fight the Long Knife. Tammaha is an American." All the way down on the gunboat riddled with bullets, Tammaha had come with the fleeing soldiers to offer his tomahawk to Governor Clark. The guns were not yet in when the enemy swept down on the fort at Prairie du Chien. "Prairie du Chien lost? It shall be recovered. Wait until Spring." And the British, too, said, "Wait until Spring and we will take St. Louis." But they feared the gunboats. Governor Clark accepted Tammaha's service, commissioning him a chief of the Red Wing band of Sioux. "Wait and go up with Lisa. Tell your people the Long Knife counsels them to remain quiet." When Lisa set out for the north as agent of both the fur business and that of the Government, he carried with him mementoes and friendly reminders to all the principal chiefs of the northern tribes. Big Elk of the Omahas, Black Cat and Big White of the Mandans, Le Borgne of the Minnetarees, even the chiefs of the dreaded Teton Sioux were not forgotten. The Red Head had been there, had visited their country. He was the son of their Great Father,--they would listen to the Red Head Chief. At this particular juncture of our national history, Clark the Red Head and Manuel Lisa the trader formed a fortunate combination for the interests of the United States. Their words to the northern chiefs were weighty. Their gifts were continued pledges of sacred friendship. While the eyes of the nation were rivetted on the conflict in the East and on the ocean, Clark held the trans-Mississippi with even a stronger grip than his illustrious brother had held the trans-Alleghany thirty years before. Along with Lisa up the Missouri to the Dakotas went Tammaha, the Rising Moose, and crossed to Prairie du Chien. "Where do you come from and what business have you here?" cried the British commander, rudely jerking Tammaha's bundle from his back and examining it for letters. "I come from St. Louis," answered the Moose. "I promised the Long Knife I would come to Prairie du Chien and here I am." "Lock him in the guard house. He ought to be shot!" roared the officer. "I am ready for death if you choose to kill me," answered Rising Moose. At last in the depth of winter they sent him away. Determined now, the old chief set out in the snows to turn all his energy against the British. "The Old Priest," said some of the Indians, "Tammaha talks too much!" All along the Missouri, from St. Louis to the Mandans, Lisa held councils with the Indians with wonderful success. But the Mississippi tribes, nearer to Canada, were for the most part won over to Great Britain. In other directions Governor Clark sent out for reports from the tribes. The answer was appalling. As if all were at war, a cordon of foes stretched from the St. Lawrence to the Arkansas and Alabama. Even Black Partridge,--at the Fort Dearborn massacre he had snatched Mrs. Helm from the tomahawk and held her in the lake to save her life. Late that night at an Indian camp a friendly squaw-mother dressed her wounds. Black Partridge loved that girl. "Lieutenant Helm is a prisoner among the Indians," said agent Forsythe at Peoria. "Here are presents, Black Partridge. Go ransom him. Here is a written order on General Clark for one hundred dollars when you bring him to the Red Head Chief." Black Partridge rode to the Kankakee village and spread out his presents. "And you shall have one huntret tollars when you bring him to te Red Head Chief." "Not enough! Not enough!" cried the Indians. "Here, then, take my pony, my rifle, my ring," said the Partridge, unhooking the hoop of gold from his nose. The bargain was made. The man was ransomed, and mounted on ponies all started for St. Louis. Lieutenant Helm was saved. Late at night, tired and hungry, the rain falling in torrents, without pony or gun, Black Partridge arrived at his village on Peoria Lake. His village? It was gone. Black embers smouldered there. Wrapped in his blanket, Black Partridge sat on the ground to await the revelation of dawn. Wolves howled a mournful wail in his superstitious ear. Day dawned. There lay the carnage of slaughter,--his daughter, his grandchild, his neighbours, dead. The rangers had burnt his town. Breathing vengeance, "I will go on the war path," said Black Partridge, the Pottawattamie. Two hundred warriors went from the wigwams of Illinois under Black Partridge, Shequenebec sent a hundred from his stronghold at the head of Peoria Lake, Mittitass led a hundred from his village at the portage on the Rivière des Plaines. Painted black they came, inveterate since Tippecanoe. "Look out for squalls," wrote John O'Fallon from St. Louis to his mother at Louisville. "An express arrived from Fort Madison yesterday informing that the sentinels had been obliged to fire upon the Indians almost every night to keep them at their distance. Indians are discovered some nights within several feet of the pickets." Black Hawk was there. Very angry was Black Hawk at the building of Fort Madison at the foot of Des Moines rapids. While Lewis and Clark were gone in 1804, William Henry Harrison, directed by Jefferson, made a treaty with the Sacs and Foxes by which they gave up fifty millions of acres. Gratiot, Vigo, the Chouteaus, and officers of the state and army, Quasquama and four other chiefs, attached their names to that treaty in the presence of Major Stoddard. "I deny its validity!" cried Black Hawk. "I never gave up my land." Now Black Hawk was plotting and planning and attacking Fort Madison, until early in September a panting express arrived at St. Louis. "Fort Madison is burned, Your Excellency." "How did it happen?" inquired the Governor. "Besieged until the garrison was reduced to potatoes alone, we decided to evacuate. Digging a tunnel from the southeast blockhouse to the river, boats were made ready. Slipping out at night, crowding through the tunnel on hands and knees, our last man set fire to Fort Madison. Like tinder the stockade blazed, kissing the heavens. Indians leaped and yelled with tomahawks, expecting our exit. At their backs, under cover of darkness, we escaped down the Mississippi." XII _THE STORY OF A SWORD_ "Show me what kind of country we have to march through," said the British General to Tecumseh, after Detroit had fallen. Taking a roll of elm-bark Tecumseh drew his scalping knife and etched upon it the rivers, hills, and woods he knew so well. And the march began,--to be checked at Fort Stephenson by a boy of twenty-one. It was the dream and hope of the British Fur Companies to extend their territory as far within the American border as possible. The whole War of 1812 was a traders' war. Commerce, commerce, for which the world is battling still, was the motive power on land and sea. At the Lakes now, the British fur traders waved their flags again above the ramparts of Detroit. "We must hold this post,--its loss too seriously deranges our plans." Smouldering, the old Revolutionary fires had burst anew. Did George III. still hope to conquer America? "Hull surrendered?" America groaned at the stain, the stigma, the national disgrace! In a day regiments leaped to fill the breach. "Detroit must be re-taken!" Along the Lakes battle succeeded battle in swift succession. At Louisville two mothers, Lucy and Fanny, were anxious for their boys. Both George Croghan and John O'Fallon had been with Harrison at Tippecanoe. Both had been promoted. Then came the call for swords. "Get me a sword in Philadelphia," wrote O'Fallon to his mother. "Send me a sword to Cincinnati," begged Croghan. Sitting under the trees at Locust Grove the sisters were discussing the fall of Detroit. Fanny had John O'Fallon's letter announcing the burning of Fort Madison. Lucy was devouring the last impatient scrawl from her fiery, ambitious son, George Croghan, now caged in an obscure fort on Sandusky River near Lake Erie. "The General little knows me," wrote Croghan. "To assist his cause, to promote in any way his welfare, I would bravely sacrifice my best and fondest hopes. I am resolved on quitting the army as soon as I am relieved of the command of this post." Scarcely had the two mothers finished reading when a shout rang through the streets of Louisville. "Hurrah for Croghan! Croghan! Croghan!" "Why, what is the matter?" Pale with anxiety Lucy ran to the gate. The whole street was filled with people coming that way. In a few hurried words she heard the story from several lips at once. "Why, you see, Madam, General Harrison was afraid Tecumseh would make a flank attack on Fort Stephenson, in charge of George Croghan, and so ordered him to abandon and burn it. But no,--he sent the General word, 'We are determined to hold this place, and by heaven we will!' "That night George hastily cut a ditch and raised a stockade. Then along came Proctor and Tecumseh with a thousand British and Indians, and summoned him to surrender. "The boy had only one hundred and sixty inexperienced men and a single six-pounder, but he sent back answer: 'The fort will be defended to the last extremity. No force, however great, can induce us to surrender. We are resolved to hold this post or bury ourselves in its ruins.'" Tears ran down Lucy's cheeks as she listened,--she caught at the gate to keep from falling. Before her arose the picture of that son with red hair flying, and fine thin face like a blooded warhorse,--she knew that look. "Again Proctor sent his flag demanding surrender to avoid a terrible massacre. "'When this fort is taken there will be none to massacre,' answered the boy, 'for it will not be given up while a man is left to resist!' "The enemy advanced, and when close at hand, Croghan unmasked his solitary cannon and swept them down. Again Proctor advanced, and again the rifle of every man and the masked cannon met them. Falling back, Proctor and Tecumseh retreated, abandoning a boatload of military stores on the bank." "Hurrah for Croghan! Croghan! Croghan!" again rang down the streets of Louisville. The bells rang out a peal as the Stars and Stripes ran up the flag-staff. "The little game cock, he shall have my sword," said George Rogers Clark, living again his own great days. And with that sword there was a story. When Tippecanoe was won and the world was ringing with "Harrison!" men recalled another hero who "with no provisions, no munitions, no cannon, no shoes, almost without an army," had held these same redmen at bay. "And does he yet live?" "He lives, an exile and a hermit on a Point of Rock on the Indiana shore above the Falls of the Ohio." "Has he no recognition?" Men whispered the story of the sword. When John Rogers went back from victorious Vincennes with Hamilton a prisoner-of-war, the grateful Virginian Assembly voted George Rogers Clark a sword. "And you, Captain Rogers, may present it." The sword was ready, time passed, difficulties multiplied. Clark presented his bill to the Virginia Legislature. To his amazement and mortification the House of Delegates refused to allow his claim. Clark went home, sold his bounty lands, and ruined himself to pay for the bread and meat of his army. And then it was rumoured, "To-day a sword will be presented to George Rogers Clark." All the countryside gathered, pioneers and veterans, with the civic and military display of that rude age to see their hero honoured. The commissioner for Virginia appeared, and in formal and complimentary address delivered the sword. The General received it; then drawing the long blade from its scabbard, plunged it into the earth and broke it off at the hilt. Turning to the commissioner, he said, "Captain Rogers, return to your State and tell her for me first to be just before she is generous." For years those old veterans had related to their children and grandchildren the story of that tragic day when Clark, the hero, broke the sword Virginia gave him. But a new time had come and new appreciation. While the smoke of Tippecanoe was rolling away a member of the Virginia Legislature related anew the story of that earlier Vincennes and of the sword that Clark, "with haughty sense of wounded pride and feeling had broken and cast away." With unanimous voice Virginia voted a new sword and the half-pay of a colonel for the remainder of his life. The commissioners found the old hero partially paralysed. Lucy had gone to him at the Point of Rock. "Brother, you are failing, you need care, I will look after you," and tenderly she bore him to her home at Locust Grove, where now, all day long, in his invalid chair, George Rogers Clark studied the long reach of the blue Ohio or followed Napoleon and the boys of 1812. Nothing had touched him like this deed of his nephew,--"Yes, yes, he shall have my sword!" The next morning after the battle General Harrison wrote to the Secretary of War: "I am sorry I cannot submit to you Major Croghan's official report. He was to have sent it to me this morning, but I have just heard that he was so much exhausted by thirty-six hours of constant exertion as to be unable to make it. It will not be among the least of General Proctor's mortifications to find that he has been baffled by a youth who has just passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle, General George Rogers Clark." The cannon, "Old Betsy," stands yet in Fort Stephenson at Fremont, Ohio, where every passing year they celebrate the victory of that second day of August, 1813,--the first check to the British advance in the War of 1812. A few days later, Perry's victory on Lake Erie opened the road to Canada and Detroit was re-taken. "Britannia, Columbia, both had set their heels upon Detroit, and young Columbia threw Britannia back across the Lakes," says the chronicler. Then followed the battle of the Thames and the death of Tecumseh. A Canadian historian says, "But for Tecumseh, it is probable we should not now have a Canada." What if he had won Rebecca? Would Canada now be a peaceful sister of the States? Tecumseh fought with the fur traders,--their interests were his,--to keep the land a wild, a game preserve for wild beasts and wilder men. Civilisation had no part or place in Tecumseh's plan. With the medal of George III. upon his breast, Tecumseh fell, on Canadian soil, battle-axe in hand, hero and patriot of his race, the last of the great Shawnees. Tecumseh's belt and shot pouch were sent to Jefferson and hung on the walls of Monticello. Tecumseh's son passed with his people beyond the Mississippi. From his invalid chair at Locust Grove George Rogers Clark was writing to his brother: "Your embarkation from St. Louis on your late hazardous expedition [to Prairie du Chien] was a considerable source of anxiety to your friends and relatives. They were pleased to hear of your safe return.... "As to Napoleon ... the news of his having abdicated the throne--" "Napoleon abdicated?" Governor Clark scarce finished the letter. Having crushed him, what armies might not England hurl hitherward! New danger menaced America. "Napoleon abdicated!" New Orleans wept. Then followed the word, "England is sailing into the Gulf,--Sir Edward Pakenham, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, with a part of Wellington's victorious army, fifty ships, a thousand guns and twenty thousand men!" Never had Great Britain lost sight of the Mississippi. This was a part of the fleet that burned Washington and had driven Dolly Madison and the President into ignominious flight. Terrified, New Orleans, the beautiful Creole maiden, beset in her orange bower, flung out her arms appealing to the West! And that West answered, "Never, while the Mississippi rolls to the Gulf, will we leave you unprotected." And out of that West came Andrew Jackson and tall Tennesseeans, Kentuckians, Mississippians, in coonskin caps and leathern hunting shirts, to seal for ever our right to Louisiana. The hottest part of the battle was fought at Chalmette, above the grave of the Fighting Parson. Immortal Eighth of January, 1815! Discontented Creoles of 1806 proved loyal Americans, vindicating their right to honour. Napoleon laughed when he heard it at Elba,--"I told them I had given England a rival that one day would humble her pride." Even the Ursuline nuns greeted their deliverers with joy, and the dim old cloistered halls were thrown open for a hospital. "I expect at this moment," said Lord Castlereagh in Europe, "that most of the large seaport towns of America are laid in ashes, that we are in possession of New Orleans, and have command of all the rivers of the Mississippi Valley and the Lakes." But he counted without our ships at sea. The War of 1812 was fought upon the ocean, "the golden age of naval fighting." Bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh, under the "Gridiron Flag," tars of the American Revolution, sailor boys who under impressment had fought at Trafalgar, led in a splendid spectacular drama, the like of which England or the world had never seen. She had trained up her own child. A thousand sail had Britain--America a dozen sloops and frigates altogether,--but the little tubs had learned from their mother. "The territory between the Lakes and the Ohio shall be for ever set apart as an Indian territory," said England at the opening of the peace negotiations. "The United States shall remove her armed vessels from the lakes and give England the right of navigating the Mississippi." Clay, Gallatin, Adams packed up their grips preparatory to starting home, when England bethought herself and came to better terms. The next year America passed a law excluding foreigners from our trade, and the British fur traders reluctantly crossed the border. But they held Oregon by "Joint Occupation." "All posts captured by either power shall be restored," said the treaty. "There shall be joint occupancy of the Oregon Country for ten years." "A great mistake! a great mistake!" cried out Thomas Hart Benton, a young lawyer who had settled in St. Louis. "In ten years that little nest egg of 'Joint Occupation' will hatch out a lively fighting chicken." Benton was a Western man to the core,--he felt a responsibility for all that sunset country. And why should he not? Missouri and Oregon touched borders on the summit of the Rockies. Were they not next-door neighbours, hobnobbing over the fence as it were? Every day at Governor Clark's at St. Louis, he and Benton discussed that Oregon "Joint Occupancy" clause. "As if two nations ever peacefully occupied the same territory! I tell you it is a physical impossibility," exclaimed Benton, jamming down his wine-glass with a crash. The War of 1812,--how Astor hated it! "But for that war," he used to say, "I should have been the richest man that ever lived." As it was, the British fur companies came in and gained a foothold from which they were not ousted until American ox-teams crossed the plains and American frontiersmen took the country. A million a year England trapped from Oregon waters. XIII _PORTAGE DES SIOUX_ "Come and make treaties of friendship." As his brother had done at the close of the Revolution, so now William Clark sent to the tribes to make peace after the War of 1812. "No person ought to be lazy to be de bearer of such good news," said old Antoine Le Claire, the interpreter. Up the rivers and toward the Lakes, runners carried the word of the Red Head Chief, "Come, come to St. Louis!" To the clay huts of the sable Pawnees of the Platte, to the reed wigwams of the giant Osages, to the painted lodges of the Omahas, and to the bark tents of the Chippewas, went "peace talks" and gifts and invitations. "De Iowas are haughty an' insolent!" St. Vrain, first back, laid their answer on the table. "De Kickapoo are glad of de peace, but de Sauk an' Winnebago insist on war! De Sauk haf murdered deir messenger!" That was Black Hawk. With a war party from Prairie du Chien he was met by the news of peace. "Peace?" Black Hawk wept when he heard it. He had been at the battle of the Thames. "De messenger to de Sioux are held at Rock River!" One by one came runners into the Council Hall, and, cap in hand, stood waiting. Outside, their horses pawed on the Rue, their boats were tied at the river. "Some one must pass Rock River, to the Sioux, Chippewas, and Menomonees," said Clark. Not an interpreter stirred. "We dare not go into dose hostile countrie," said Antoine Le Claire, spokesman for the rest. "What? With an armed boat?" The silence was painful as the Governor looked over the council room. "I will go." Every eye was turned toward the speaker, James Kennerly, the Governor's private secretary, the cousin of Julia and brother of Harriet of Fincastle. The same spirit was there that led a whole generation of his people to perish in the Revolution. His father had been dragged from the field of Cowpens wrapped in the flag he had rescued. At the risk of his life, when no one else would venture, the faithful secretary went up the Mississippi to bring in the absent tribes. Black-eyed Elise, the daughter of Dr. Saugrain, wept all night to think of it. Governor Clark himself had introduced Elise to his secretary. How she counted the days! "The Chippewas would have murdered me but for the timely arrival of the Sioux," said Kennerly, on his safe return with the band of Rising Moose. "The Red Coats are gone!" said Rising Moose. "I rush in. I put out the fire. I save the fort." Without waiting for troops from St. Louis, forty-eight hours after the news of peace the British had evacuated Prairie du Chien. A day or two later they returned, took the cannon, and set fire to the fort with the American flag flying. Into the burning fort went Rising Moose, secured the flag and an American medal, and brought them down to St. Louis. While interpreters were speeding by horse and boat over half a hundred trails, Manuel Lisa, sleepless warden of the plains, arrived with forty-three chiefs and head men of the Missouri Sioux. Wild Indians who never before had tasted bread, brought down in barges camped on the margin of the Mississippi, the great council chiefs of their tribes, moody, unjoyous, from the Stony Mountains. For weeks other deputations followed, to the number of two thousand, to make treaties and settle troubles arising out of the War of 1812. Whether even yet a council could be held was a query in Governor Clark's mind. Across the neighbouring Mississippi, Sacs, Foxes, Iowas were raiding still, capturing horses and attacking people. That was Black Hawk. The eyes of the Missouri Sioux flashed. "Let us go and fight those Sacs and Iowas. They shall trouble us no more." With difficulty were they held to the council. There was a steady and unalterable gloom of countenance, a melancholy, sullen musing among the gathered tribes, as they camped on the council ground at Portage des Sioux on the neck of land between the two rivers at St. Charles. Over this neck crossed Sioux war parties in times past, avoiding a long detour, bringing home their scalps. Resplendent with oriental colour were the bluffs and the prairies. Chiefs and warriors had brought their squaws and children,--Sioux from the Lakes and the high points of the Mississippi in canoes of white birch, light and bounding as cork upon the water; Sioux of the Missouri in clumsy pirogues; Mandans in skin coracles, barges, dug-outs, and cinnamon-brown fleets of last year's bark. The panorama of forest and prairie was there,--Sioux of the Leaf, Sioux of the Broad Leaf, and Sioux Who Shoot in the Pine Tops, in hoods of feathers, Chinese featured Sioux, of smooth skins and Roman noses, the ideal Indian stalking to and fro with forehead banded in green and scarlet and eagle plumes. For Wabasha, Little Crow, and Red Wing had come, great sachems of the Sioux nation. The British officers at Drummond's Island in Lake Huron had sent for Little Crow and Wabasha. "I would thank you in the name of George III. for your services in the war." "My father," said Wabasha, "what is this I see on the floor before me? A few knives and blankets! Is this all you promised at the beginning of the war? Where are those promises you made? You told us you would never let fall the hatchet until the Americans were driven beyond the mountains. Will these presents pay for the men we lost? I have always been able to make a living and can do so still." "After we have fought for you," cried Little Crow, "endured many hardships, lost some of our people, and awakened the vengeance of our powerful neighbours, you make a peace and leave us to obtain such terms as we can! You no longer need us and offer these goods for having deserted us. We will not take them." Kicking the presents contemptuously with his foot, Little Crow turned away. "Arise, let us go down to the Red Head Parshasha!" In handsome bark canoes propelled by sails alone, the Sioux came down to St. Louis. Walking among their elliptical tents, lounging on panther skins at their wigwam doors, waited the redmen, watching, lynx-eyed, losing nothing of the scene before them. Beaded buckskin glittered in the sun, tiny bells tinkled from elbow to ankle, and sashes outrivalled Louisiana sunsets. Half-naked Osages with helmet-crests and eagle-quills, full-dressed in breech-clouts and leggings fringed with scalp-locks, the tallest men in North America, from their warm south hills, mingled with Pottawattamies of the Illinois, makers of fire, Shawnees with vermilion around their eyes, Sacs, of the red badge, and Foxes, adroitest of thieves, all drumming on their tambourines. Winnebagoes, fish eaters, had left their nets on the northern lakes, Omahas their gardens on the Platte, and Ojibway arrow makers sat chipping, chipping as the curious crowds walked by. For all the neighbouring country had gathered to view the Indian camp of 1815. Oblivious, contemptuous perhaps, of staring crowds, the industrious women skinned and roasted dogs on sticks, the warriors gambled with one another, staking their tents, skins, rifles, dogs, and squaws. Here and there sachems were mending rifles, princesses carrying water, children playing ball. About the first of July, Governor Clark of Missouri, Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois, and Auguste Chouteau of St. Louis, opened the council,--one of the greatest ever held in the Mississippi Valley. Auguste Chouteau, prime vizier of all the old Spanish commandants, now naturally slipped into the same office with Clark, and Governor Edwards of Illinois, who as a father had guarded the frontier against the wiles of Tecumseh, and had risked his entire fortune to arm the militia,--all in queues, high collared coats, and ruffled shirts, faced each other and the chiefs. In front of their neatly arranged tents sat the tawny warriors in imposing array, with dignified attention to the interpretation of each sentence. "The long and bloody war is over. The British have gone back over the Big Water," said Governor Clark, "and now we have sent for you, my brothers, to conclude a treaty of peace." "Heigh!" cried all the Indians in deep-toned resonance that rolled like a Greek chorus to the bluffs beyond. The sky smiled down as on the old Areopagus, the leaves of the forest rustled, the river swept laughing by. "Every injury or act of hostility by one or either of us against the other, shall be mutually forgiven and forgot." "Heigh! heigh! heig-h!" "There shall be perpetual peace and friendship between us." "Heigh!" "You will acknowledge yourselves under the protection of the United States, and of no other nation, power, or sovereign whatsoever." "Heigh!" A Teton Sioux who had come down with Lisa struggled to his feet, approached, shook hands with the commissioners, then retreated and fixed his keen eye on the Governor. His voice rang clear over the assembled thousands,-- "We have come down expressly to notify you, our father, that we will assist in chastising those nations hostile to our government." The two factions faced each other. Scowls of lightning hate flashed over the council. But the wisdom and tact of Clark were equal to regiments. "The fighting has ended," he said. "The peace has come." "Heigh!" shouted all the Indians. "Heig-h!" Partisan was there, the Teton chief, who with Black Buffalo had made an attempt to capture Clark on the way to the Pacific. And now Partisan was bristling to fight for Clark. Wabasha arose, like a figure out of one of Catlin's pictures, in a chief's costume, with bullock horns and eagle feathers. There was a stir. With a profile like the great Condé, followed by his pipe bearers with much ceremony, the hereditary chief from the Falls of St. Anthony walked up to Governor Clark. "I shake hands," he said. Every neck was craned. When before had Wabasha stood? In their northern councils he spoke sitting. "I am called upon to stand only in the presence of my Great Father at Washington or Governor Clark at St. Louis. But I am not a warrior," said Wabasha. "My people can prosper only at peace with one another and the whites. Against my advice some of my young men went into the war." The fiery eyes of Little Crow flashed, the aquiline curve of his nose lifted, like the beak of an eagle. He had come down from his bark-covered cabin near St. Paul. "I am a _war chief_!" said Little Crow. "But I am willing to conclude a peace." "I alone was an American," said Rising Moose, "when all my people fought with the British." All the rest of his life Tammaha, Rising Moose, wore a tall silk hat and carried Governor Clark's commission in his bosom. Big Elk, the Omaha, successor of Blackbird, spoke with action energetic and graceful. "Last Winter when you sent your word by Captain Manuel Lisa, in the night one of the whites wanted my young men to rise. He told them if they wanted good presents, to cross to the British. This man was Baptiste Dorion. When I was at the Pawnees I wanted to bring some of them down, but the whites who live among them told them not to go, that no good came from the Americans, that good only came from the British. I have told Captain Manuel to keep those men away from us. Take care of the Sioux. Take care. They will fly from under your wing." Sacs who had been hostile engaged in the debate. Noble looking chiefs, with blanket thrown around the body in graceful folds, the right arm, muscular and brawny, bare to the shoulder, spoke as Cato might have spoken to the Roman Senate. "My father, it is the request of my people to keep the British traders among us." As he went on eloquently enumerating their advantages in pleading tone and voice and glance and gesture,--hah! the wild rhetoric of the savage! how it thrilled the assembled concourse of Indians and Americans! Clark shook his head. "It cannot be. We can administer law, order, and justice ourselves. Come to us for goods,--the British traders belong beyond the border." The Indians gave a grunt of anger. "It has been promised already," cried another chief. "The Americans have double tongues!" "Heigh!" ran among the Indians. Many a one touched his tongue and held up two fingers, "You lie!" With stern and awful look Clark immediately dismissed the council. The astonished chiefs covered their mouths with their hands as they saw the commissioners turn their backs to go out. That afternoon a detachment of United States artillery arrived and camped in full view of the Indians. They had been ordered to the Sac country. Colonel Dodge's regiment of dragoons, each company of a solid colour, blacks and bays, whites, sorrels, grays and creams, went through the manoeuvres of battle, charge and repulse, in splendid precision. It was enough. The Sac chiefs, cowed, requested the renewal of the council. "My father," observed the offending chief of the day before, "you misunderstood me. I only meant to say we have always understood from our fathers that the Americans used two languages, the French and the English!" Clark smiled and the council proceeded. But by night, July 11, the Sacs, Foxes, and Kickapoos secretly left the council. At the same time came reports of great commotion at Prairie du Chien where the northern tribes were divided by the British traders. Head bent, linked arm in arm with Paul Louise, his little interpreter, the giant Osage chief, White Hair, gave strict attention. White Hair had been in St. Clair's defeat, and in seeking to scalp a victim had grasped--his wig! This he ever after wore upon his own head, a crown of white hair. He said, "I felt a fire within me,--it drove me to the fight of St. Clair. His army scattered. I returned to my own people. But the fire still burned, and I went over the mountains toward the western sea." Every morning the Osages set up their matutinal wail, dolefully lamenting, weeping as if their hearts would break. "What is the matter?" inquired Governor Clark, riding out in concern. "We are mourning for our ancestors," answered the chief, shedding copious tears and sobbing anew, for ages the custom of his people. "They are dead long ago,--let them rest!" said the Governor. Brightening up, White Hair slipped on his wig and followed him to the council. Houseless now and impoverished Black Partridge and his people clung to Colonel George Davenport as to a father. Poor helpless Pottawattamies! "Come with me," said Davenport, "I will take you to St. Louis." So down in a flotilla of canoes had come Davenport with thirteen chiefs, all wreathed in turkey feathers, emblems of the Pottawattamies. No more they narrated their heroic exploits in fighting with Tecumseh. Grave, morose, brooding over his wrongs, Black Partridge was seventy now, his long coarse unkempt hair in matted clusters on his shoulders, but figure still erect and firm. "I would be a friend to the whites," he said. "I was compelled to go with my tribe." The silver medallion of George Washington was gone from his breast. Many and sad had been the vicissitudes since that day, when, in a flood of tears, he had thrown it down at the feet of the commander at Fort Dearborn. Tall, slim, with a high forehead, large nose and piercing black eyes, with hoops of gold in his ears, Black Partridge was a typical savage,--asking for civilisation. But it rolled over him. Here and there a missionary tarried to talk, but commerce, commerce, the great civiliser, arose like a flood, drowning the redmen. "The settlements are crowding our border," Black Partridge spoke for his people on their fairy lake, Peoria. "And whom shall we call Father, the British at Malden or the Americans at St. Louis? Who shall relieve our distresses?" "Put it in your mind," said Auguste Chouteau, the shrewd old French founder of St. Louis, "put it in your mind, that when de British made peace with us, dey left you in de middle of de prairie without a shade against sun or rain. Left you in de middle of de prairie, a sight to pity. We Americans have a large umbrella; keeps off de sun and rain. You come under our umbrella." And they did. The Indian has a fine sense of justice. The situation was evident. Abandoned by the British who had led him into the war, he stood ready at last to return to the friends on whom he was most dependent. One by one the chiefs came forward and put their mark to the treaty of peace and friendship. Clark brought the peace pipes,--every neck was craned to scan them. Sioux pipes sometimes cost as much as forty horses,--finely wrought pipes of variegated red and white from the Minnesota quarries, Shoshone pipes of green, and pipes of purple from Queen Charlottes, were sold for skins and slaves,--but these, Clark's pipes of silver bowls and decorated stems, these were worth a hundred horses! Puffing its fragrant aroma, the fierce wild eye of the savage softened. Twenty thousand dollars' worth of goods was distributed in presents, flags, blankets, and rifles, ornaments and clothing. "Ah, ha! Great Medicine!" whispered the Indians as the beautiful gifts came one by one into their hands. "We need traders," said Red Wing, sliding his hand along the soft nap of the blankets. "That made us go into the war. Without traders we have to clothe ourselves in grass and eat the earth." "You shall have traders," answered Clark. "I shall not let you travel five or six hundred miles to a British post." Every September thereafter he sent them up a few presents to begin their fall hunting, and counselled his agents to listen to their complaints and render them justice. "We must depend on policy rather than arms," said the Governor. "For they are our children, the wards of the nation." The Indians were dined in St. Louis and entertained with music and dancing. By their dignity, moderation, and untiring forbearance, the Commissioners of Portage des Sioux exemplified the paternal benevolence of the Government. At the end of the council Lisa started back with his chiefs, on a three months' voyage to their northern home, and on the last day of September Clark dismissed the rest. Thus making history, the summer had stolen away. All next summer and the next were spent in making treaties, until at last there was peace along the border. "Did you sign?" finally asked some one of Black Hawk of the British band. "I touched the goose quill," answered the haughty chief. So ended the War of 1812. XIV _"FOR OUR CHILDREN, OUR CHILDREN!"_ As soon as the Indian scare was silenced, all the world seemed rushing to Missouri. Ferries ran by day and night. Patriarchal planters of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia passed ever west in long, unending caravans of flocks, servants, herds, into the new land of the Louisianas. New Englanders and Pennsylvanians, six, eight, and ten horses to a waggon, and cattle with their hundred bells, tinkled through the streets of St. Louis. "Where are you going, now?" inquired the citizens. "To Boone's Lick, to be sure." "Go no further," said Clark, ever enthusiastic about St. Louis. "Buy here. This will be the city." "But ah!" exclaimed the emigrant. "If land is so good here what must Boone's Lick be!" Perennial childhood of the human heart, ever looking for Canaan just beyond! The Frenchmen shrugged their shoulders at the strange energy of these progressive "Bostonnais." It annoyed them to have their land titles looked into. "A process! a lawsuit!" they clasped their hands in despair. But ever the people of St. Louis put up their lands to a better figure, and watched out of their little square lattices for the coming of _les Américains_. All the talk was of land, land, land! The very wealth of ancient estates lay unclaimed for the first heir to enter, the gift of God. In waggons, on foot and horseback, with packhorses, handcarts, and wheelbarrows, with blankets on their backs and children by the hand, the oppressed of the old world fled across the new. "Why do you go into the wilderness?" "For my children, my children," answered the pioneer. More and more came people in a mighty flood, peasants, artisans, sons of the old crusaders, children of feudal knights of chivalry and romance, descendants of the hardy Norsemen who captured Europe five hundred years before, scions of Europe's most titled names, thronging to our West. Frosts and crop failures in the Atlantic States and a financial panic uprooted old Revolutionary centres. "A better country, a better country!" was the watchword of the mobile nation. "Let's go over to the Territory," said the soldiers of 1812. "Let us go to Arkansas, where corn can be had for sixpence a bushel and pork for a penny a pound. Two days' work in Texas is equal to the labour of a week in the North." And on they pressed into No Man's Land, a land of undeveloped orchards, maple syrup and honey, fields of cotton and wool and corn. Conestoga waggons crowded on the Alleghanies, teams fell down precipices and perished, but the tide pushed madly on. Colonies of hundreds were pouring into Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois. New towns were named for their founders, new counties, lakes, rivers, streams, and hills,--the settlers wrote their names upon the geography of the nation. In the midst of the war Daniel Boone had come down to Clark at St. Louis. "I have spoken to Henry Clay about your claim," said the Governor. "He says Congress will do something for you." "Now Rebecca, thee shall hev a house!" That house, the joint product of Nathan, the Colonel, and his slaves, was a work of years. Not far from the old cabin by the spring it stood, convenient to the Judgment Tree. For Boone still held his court beneath the spreading elm. The stones were quarried and chiselled, two feet thick, and laid so solidly that to-day the walls of the old Boone mansion are as good as new. The plaster was mixed and buried in the ground over winter to ripen. Roomy and comfortable, two stories and an attic it was built, with double verandas and chimneys at either end, the finest mansion on the border. But in March Rebecca died. Boone buried her where he could watch the mound. The house was finished. The Colonel bought a coffin and put it under the bed to be ready. Sometimes he tried his coffin, to see how it would seem when he slept beside Rebecca. In December came the land, a thousand arpents in his Spanish grant. "If I only cud hev told Rebecca," sobbed Daniel, kneeling at her grave. "She war a good woman, and the faithful companion of all my wanderings." In the Spring Boone sold his land, and set out for Kentucky. "Daniel Boone has come! Daniel Boone has come!" Old hunters, Revolutionary heroes, came for miles to see their leader who had opened Kentucky. There was a reception at Maysville. Parties were given in his honour wherever he went. Once more he embraced his old friend, Simon Kenton. "How much do I owe ye?" he said to one and another. Whatever amount they named, that he paid, and departed. One day the dusty old hunter re-entered his son's house on the Femme Osage with fifty cents in his pocket. "Now I am ready and willing to die. I have paid all my debts and nobody can say, 'Boone was a dishonest man.'" Then came the climax of his life. "Nate, I am goin' to the Yellowstone." While Clark was holding his peace treaties, Daniel Boone, eighty-two years old, with a dozen others set out in boats for the Upper Missouri. Autumn came. Somewhere in the present Montana, they threw up a winter camp and were besieged by Indians. A heavy snow-storm drove the Indians off. In early Spring, coming down the Missouri on the return, again they were attacked by Indians and landed in a thicket of the opposite shore. Under cover of a storm in the night Boone ordered them into the boat, and silently in the pelting rain they escaped. Boone himself brought the furs to St. Louis, and went back with a bag full of money and a boat full of emigrants. Farther and farther into his district emigrants began setting up their four-post sassafras bedsteads and scouring their pewter platters. Women walked thirty miles to hear the first piano that came into the Boone settlement. In the last year of the war Boone's favourite grandson was killed at Charette. "The history of the settlement of the western country is my history," said the old Colonel in his grief. "Two darling sons, a grandson, and a brother have I lost by savage hands, besides valuable horses and abundance of cattle. Many sleepless nights have I spent, separated from the society of men, an instrument ordained of God to settle the wilderness." "You must paint Daniel Boone," said Governor Clark to Chester Harding, a young American artist fresh from Paris in the summer of 1819. The Governor was Harding's first sitter. He invited the Indians into his studio. "Ugh! ugh! ugh!" grunted the Osage chiefs, putting their noses close and rubbing their fingers across the Governor's portrait. In June Harding set out up the Missouri to paint Boone. In an old blockhouse of the War of 1812, he found him lying on a bunk, roasting a strip of venison wound around his ramrod, turning it before the fire. "What? Paint my pictur'?" "Yes, on canvas. Make a portrait, you know." The old man consented. With amazement the frontiersman saw the picture grow,--still more amazed, his grandchildren watched the likeness of "granddad" growing on the canvas. Ruddy and fair, with silvered locks, always humming a tune, he sat in his buckskin hunting-shirt trimmed with otter's fur, and the knife in his belt he had carried on his first expedition to Kentucky. Every day now, in his leisure hours, the old pioneer was busily scraping with a piece of glass. "Making a powder-horn," he said. "Goin' to hunt on the Fork in the Fall." A hundred miles up the Kansas he had often set his traps, but Boone's legs were getting shaky, his eyes were growing dim. Every day now he tried his coffin,--it was shining and polished and fair, of the wood he loved best, the cherry. People came for miles to look at Boone's coffin. XV _TOO GOOD TO THE INDIANS_ Manuel Lisa had out-distanced all his competitors in the fur trade. But the voice of envy whispered, "Manuel must cheat the Government, and Manuel must cheat the Indians, otherwise Manuel could not bring down every summer so many boats loaded with rich furs." "Good!" exclaimed Lisa to Governor Clark, when the fleets were tying up at St. Louis in 1817. "My accounts with the Government will show whether I receive anything out of which to cheat it." "I have not blamed you, Manuel," explained the Governor. "On the contrary I have conveyed to the Government my high appreciation of your very great services in quieting the Indians of the Missouri. It is not necessary to worry yourself with the talk of babblers who do not understand." "Cheat the Indians!" The Spaniard stamped the floor. "The respect and friendship which they have for me, the security of my possessions in the heart of their country, respond to this charge, and declare with voices louder than the tongues of men that it cannot be true. "'But Manuel gets so much rich fur.'" Lisa ground out the words with scorn. "Well, I will explain how I get it. First I put into my operations great activity,--I go a great distance, while some are considering whether they will start to-day or to-morrow. I impose upon myself great privations,--ten months in a year I am buried in the forest, at a vast distance from my own house. I appear as the benefactor, and not as the pillager, of the Indians. I carried among them the seed of the large pumpkin, from which I have seen in their possession the fruit weighing one hundred and sixty pounds. Also the large bean, the potato, the turnip, and these vegetables now make a great part of their subsistence. This year I have promised to carry the plough. Besides, my blacksmiths work incessantly for them, charging nothing. I lend them traps, only demanding preference in their trade. My establishments are the refuge of the weak and of the old men no longer able to follow their lodges; and by these means I have acquired the confidence and friendship of these nations, and the consequent choice of their trade. These things I have done, and I propose to do more." In short, Manuel Lisa laid down his commission as sub-agent to embark yet more deeply in the fur trade. "What is that noise at the river?" Ten thousand shrieking eagles and puffs of smoke arose from the yellow-brown Mississippi below. The entire population of St. Louis was flocking to the river brink to greet the _General Pike_, the first steamboat that ever came up to St. Louis. People rushed to the landing but the Indians drew back in terror lest the monster should climb the bank and pursue them inland. Pell-mell into Clark's Council House they tumbled imploring protection. Never had St. Louis appeared so beautiful as when Julia and the children came into their new home in 1819. Clark, the Governor, had built a mansion, one of the finest in St. Louis. Wide verandas gave a view of the river, gardens of fruit and flowers bloomed. But Julia was ill. "Take her back to the Virginia mountains," said Dr. Farrar, the family physician. "St. Louis heats are too much for her." In dress suit, silk hat, and sword cane, Farrar was a notable figure in old St. Louis, riding night and day as far out as Boone's Lick, establishing a reputation that remains proverbial yet. He had married Anne Thruston, the daughter of Fanny. "Let her try a trip on the new steamboat," said the Doctor. So after her picture was painted by Chester Harding in that Spring of 1819, Clark and Julia and the little boys, Meriwether Lewis, William Preston, and George Rogers Hancock, set out for New Orleans in the "new-fangled steamboat." It was a long and dangerous trip; the river was encumbered with snags; every night they tied up to a tree. "Travel by night? Couldn't think of it! We'd be aground before morning!" said the Captain. Around by sea the Governor and his wife sailed by ship to Washington. "I will join you at the Sweet Springs," said President Monroe to the Governor and his wife in Washington. "The Sweet Springs cure all my ills," said Dolly Madison at Montpelier. "She will recover at the Sweet Springs," said Jefferson at Monticello. But at the Sweet Springs Julia grew so ill they had to carry her on a bed to Fotheringay. "Miss Judy done come home sick!" The servants wept. Something of a physician himself, Clark began the use of fumes of tar through a tube, and to the surprise of all "Miss Judy" rallied again. "As soon as I can leave her in safety I shall return to St. Louis," wrote the Governor to friends at the Missouri capital. "If I should die," said Julia sweetly one day, "and you ever think of marrying again, consider my cousin Harriet." "Ah, but you will be well, my darling, when Spring comes." And she was better in the Spring, thinking of the new house at St. Louis. Julia was a very neat and careful housekeeper. Everything was kept under lock and key, she directed the servants herself, and was the light of a houseful of company. For the Governor's house was the centre of hospitality,--never a noted man came that way, but, "I must pay my respects to the Governor." Savants from over the sea came to look at his Indian museum. General Clark had made the greatest collection in the world, and had become an authority on Indian archæology. Governor Clark, too, was worried about affairs in St. Louis. Missouri was just coming in as a State, and a new executive must be elected under the Constitution. "Go," said Julia, "I shall be recovered soon now." Indeed, deceptive roses were blooming in her cheeks. With many regrets and promises of a speedy return, Clark hastened back to his official duties. He found Missouri in the midst of a heated campaign, coming in as a State and electing a Governor. For seven years he had held the territorial office with honour. But a new candidate was before the people. "Governor Clark is too good to the Indians!" That was the chief argument of the opposing faction. "He looks after their interests to the disadvantage of the whites." "To the disadvantage of the whites? How can that be?" inquired his friends. "Did he not in the late war deal severely with the hostile tribes? And what do you say of the Osage lands? When hostilities began President Madison ordered the settlers out of the Boone's Lick country as invaders of Indian lands. What did the Governor do? He remonstrated, he delayed the execution of those orders until they were rescinded, and the settlers were allowed to remain." "How could he do that?" "How? Why, he simply told the Indians those lands were included in the Osage treaty of 1808. He made that treaty, and he knew. No Indian objected. They trusted Clark; his explanation was sufficient. And his maps proved it." "Too good to the Indians! Too good to the Indians!" What Governor before ever lost his head on such a charge? At that moment, flying down the Ohio, came a swift messenger,--"Mrs. Clark is dead at Fotheringay." With the shock upon him, General Clark sent a card to the papers, notifying his fellow citizens of his loss, and of his necessary absence until the election was over. And with mingled dignity and sorrow he went back to Fotheringay to bury the beloved dead. Granny Molly, "Black Granny," who had laced "Miss Judy's" shoes and tied up her curls with a ribbon in the old Philadelphia days, never left her beloved mistress. A few days before "Miss Judy" went away, little Meriwether Lewis, then eleven years of age, came to her bedside with his curly hair dishevelled and his broad shirt collar tumbled. "Aunt Molly," said the mother, "watch my boy and keep him neat. He is so beautiful, Granny!" After her body was placed on two of the parlour chairs, Granny Molly noticed a little dust on the waxed floor. "Miss Judy would be 'stressed if she could see it." Away she ran, brought a mop, and had it all right by the time the coffin came. Down on her knees scrubbing, scrubbing for the last time the floor for "Miss Judy," tears trickled down the ebony cheeks. "Po', po' Miss Judy. You's done gwine wid de angels." They laid her in the family tomb, overlooking the green valley of the Roanoke. Two weeks after her death, Colonel Hancock himself also succumbed. To a double funeral the Governor came back. High on the hillside they laid them, in a mausoleum excavated out of the solid rock. "De Cunnel, he done watch us out ob dat iron window up dah," said the darkies. "He sits up dah in a stone chair so he can look down de valley and see his slaves at deir work." To this day the superstitious darkies will not pass his tomb. On his way to Washington, Governor Clark stopped again at Monticello. "Ah, the joyous activity of my grandfather!" exclaimed Thomas Jefferson Randolph. "He mounts his horse early in the morning, canters down the mountain and across country to the site of the university. All day long he assists at the work. He has planned it, engaged workmen, selected timber, bought bricks. He has sent to Italy for carvers of stone." Out of those students flocking to consult Jefferson had grown the University of Virginia. Books and professors were brought from England, and the institution opened in 1825. Martha Jefferson's husband, Thomas Mann Randolph, was Governor of Virginia now, but the sage of Monticello paid little attention. All his talk was of schools,--schools and colleges for Virginia. "Slavery in Missouri?" Clark broached the discussion that was raging at the West. Instantly the sage of Monticello was attentive. "This momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. It is the knell of the Union. Since Bunker Hill we have never had so ominous a question." He who had said, "Pensacola and Florida will come in good time," and, "I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could be made to our system of States," had corresponded with the Spanish minister concerning a canal through the isthmus, and sent Lewis and Clark to open up a road to Asia,--Jefferson, more than any other, had the vision of to-day. Governor Clark went on to Washington. Ramsay Crooks and Russell Farnham of the Astor expedition were quartered at the same hotel with Floyd of Virginia and Benton of Missouri. Beside their whale-oil lamps they talked of Oregon. Benton was writing for Oregon,--he made a noise in all the papers. John Floyd framed a bill, the first for Oregon occupancy. Missouri was just coming in as a State. The moment Benton, her first Senator, was seated, he flew to Floyd's support. "We must occupy the Columbia," said Benton. "Mere adventurers may enter upon it as Æneas entered upon the Tiber, and as our forefathers came upon the Potomac, the Delaware, and the Hudson, and renew the phenomenon of individuals laying the foundation of future empire. Upon the people of eastern Asia the establishment of a civilised power upon the opposite coast of America cannot fail to produce great and wonderful results. Science, liberal principles, government, and the true religion, may cast their lights across the intervening sea. The valley of the Columbia may become the granary of China and Japan, and an outlet for their imprisoned and exuberant population." Staid Senators smiled and called Benton a dreamer, but he and Floyd were the prophets of to-day. For thirty years after Astor had been driven out, England and her fur companies enriched themselves in Oregon waters. For thirty years Benton stood in his place and fought to save us Oregon. From the bedside of the dying Jefferson, and from the lips of the living Clark, he took up the great enterprise of an overland highway to India. When Governor Clark came sorrowing back to St. Louis with the little boys, Missouri was a State and a new Governor sat in the chair, but though governors came and governors went, the officer that had held the position through all the territorial days was always called "Governor" Clark. As United States superintendent of Indian affairs for the West, Governor Clark now became practically autocrat of the redmen for life. "If you ever think of marrying again, consider my cousin Harriet." More than a year Governor Clark "considered," and then the most noted citizen of St. Louis married the handsome widow Radford. "From Philadelphia she haf a wedding trousseau," said the vivacious Creole girls, drinking tea in their wide verandas. "She haf de majesty look, like one queen." From the home of her brother, James Kennerly, the fun-loving Harriet of other years went to become the grave and dignified hostess in the home of the ex-governor. XVI _THE RED HEAD CHIEF_ "Hasten, Ruskosky, rebraid my queue. Kings and half kings are in there as plenty as blackberries in the woods, and I must see what is the matter." Hurriedly the Polish valet, who dressed Clark in his later years, knelt to button the knees of his small clothes and fasten on a big silk bow in place of a buckle. Directly the tall figure wrapped in a cloak entered the council chamber connected with his study. The walls of the council chamber were covered with portraits of distinguished chiefs, and with Indian arms and dresses, the handsomest the West afforded. Nothing pleased the redmen better than to be honoured by the acceptance of some treasure for this museum. Against this wall the Indians sat, and the little gray-haired interpreter, Antony Le Claire, lit the tomahawk pipe. As the fumes rolled upward the Red Head Chief took his seat at the table before him. The Indians lifted their heads. Justice would now be done. It was a sultry day and the council doors were open. But sultrier still was the debate within. "Our Father," said the Great and Little Osages, "we have come to meet our enemies, the Delawares and Shawnees and Kickapoos and Peorias, in your Council Hall. We ourselves can effect a peace." And so the Red Head listened. "Make your peace." Six days they argued, Paul Louise interpreter. Hot and hotter grew the debate, and mutual recriminations. "White Hair's warriors shot at one of my young men." "But you, Delawares, robbed our relations," cried the Osage chiefs. "You stole our otter-skins," retorted the Delawares. "And you hunted on our lands." "Last Summer when we were absent, you bad-hearted Osages destroyed our fields of corn and cut up our gardens," cried the angry Shawnees, who always sided with the Delawares. "You speak with double tongues--" Clark stepped in and hushed the controversy. "Who gave you leave to hunt on Osage lands?" "White Hair and his principal braves," answered the Delawares. "When did they shoot at your man?" "At the Big Bend of the Arkansas." "Who owned the peltries the Osages took?" "All of us." "Very well then, restitution must be made." Soothing as a summer breeze was his gentle voice, "My children, I cannot have you injured. The Delawares are my children, and the Osages, the Shawnees, the Kickapoos, and the Peorias. I cannot permit any one to injure my children. Whoever does that is no longer child of mine. You must bury the sharp hatchet underground." He calmed the heated tribes and effected peace. Like little children they gave each other strings of beads, pipes, and tobacco, and departed reconciled. "Bring all your difficulties to me or to Paul Louise and we will judge for you," said the Red Head Chief, as one by one they filed in plumed array down the steps of the Council House. Scarce had the reconciled tribes departed before officers of the law brought in seven chiefs, hostages of the Iowas,--"Accused by the Sacs, Your Honour, of killing cattle; accused by the whites of killing settlers." "My father." The mournful appealing tone of the Indian speaker always affected Clark. He was singularly fitted to be their judge and friend. "My son." There was an air of sympathy and paternal kindness as the Red Head Chief listened. His heart was stirred by their wrongs, and his face would redden with indignation as he listened to the pitiful tales of his children. With bodies uncovered to the waist, with blanket on the left arm and the right arm and breast bare, a chief stepped forth to be examined concerning a border fray with the backwoodsmen. Drawing himself to his full height, and extending his arm toward Clark, the Iowa began: "Red Head, if I had done that of which my white brother accuses me, I would not stand here now. The words of my red head father have passed through both my ears and I have remembered them. I am accused. I am not guilty. "I thought I would come down to see my red head father to hold a talk with him. "I come across the line. I see the cattle of my white brother dead. I see the Sauk kill them in great numbers. I said there would be trouble. I thought to go to my village. I find I have no provisions. I say, 'Let us go down to our white brother and trade for a little.' I do not turn on my track to my village." Then turning to the Sacs and pointing,-- "The Sauk who tells lies of me goes to my white brother and says, 'The Ioway has killed your cattle.' "When the lie has talked thus to my white brother, he comes up to my village. We hear our white brother coming. We are glad and leave our cabins to tell him he is welcome. While I shake hands with my white brother, my white brother shoots my best chief through the head,--shoots three my young men, a squaw, and her children. "My young men hear, they rush out, they fire,--four of my white brothers fall. My people fly to the woods, and die of cold and hunger." Dropping his head and his arm, in tragic attitude he stands, the picture of despair. The lip of the savage quivers. He lifts his eyes,-- "While I shake hands my white brother shoots my chief, my son, my only son." Only by consummate tact can Clark handle these distressing conflicts of the border. Who is right and who is wrong? The settlers hate the Indians, the Indians dread and fear the settlers. "Governor Clark," said the Shawnees and Delawares, "since three or four years we are crowded by the whites who steal our horses. We moved. You recommended us to raise stock and cultivate our ground. That advice we have followed, but again white men have come." The Cherokees complained, "White people settle without our consent. They destroy our game and produce discord and confusion." Clark could see the heaving of their naked breasts and their lithe bodies, the tigers of their kind, shaken by irrepressible emotion. And again in the Autumn,-- "What is it?" inquired the stranger as pennons came glittering down the Missouri. "Oh, nothing, only another lot of Indians coming down to see their red-headed daddy," was the irreverent response, as the solemn, calm-featured braves glided into view, gazing as only savages can gaze at the wonders of civilisation. "What! going to war?" cried Clark, in a tone of thunder, as they made known their errand at the Council House. "Your Great Father, the President, forbids it. He counsels his children to live in peace. If you insist on listening to bad men I shall come out there and make you desist." The stormy excitement subsided. They shrank from his reproofs, and felt and feared his power. "Go home. Take these gifts to my children, and tell them they were sent by the Red Head Chief." Viewed with admiration, the presents were carefully wrapped in skins to be laid away and treasured on many a weary march and through many a sad vicissitude. A few days in St. Louis, then away go the willowy copper-skin paddlers to dissuade their braves from incurring the awful displeasure of the Red Head Chief. The West of that day was sown with his medals that disappeared only with the tribes. In time they came to know Clark's signature, and preserved it as a sacred talisman. Could the influence of one man have availed against armies of westward pressing trappers, traders, and pioneers, the tribes would have been civilised. "Shall we accept the missionaries? Shall we hearken to their teaching?" "Yes," he said to the Osages. "Yes," to the Pawnees, to the Shawnees, and "Yes," to a delegation that came from the far-off Nez Percés beyond the Rocky Mountains. In days of friction and excitement Clark did more than regiments to preserve peace on the frontier. He was a buffer, a perpetual break-water between the conflicting races. As United States superintendent of Indian affairs the Red Head Chief grew venerable. The stately old officer lived in style in St. Louis, and as in the colonial time Sir William Johnson ruled from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, so now Clark's word was Indian law from the Mississippi to the Pacific. His voice was raised in continual advantage to the Indian. While civilisation was pushing west and west, and crowding them out of their old domains, he was softening as much as possible the rigour of their contact with whites. "Our position with regard to the Indians has entirely changed," he used to say. "Before Wayne's campaigns in 1794 and events of 1818, the tribes nearest our settlements were a formidable and terrible enemy. Since then their power has been broken, their warlike spirit subdued, and themselves sunk into objects of pity and commiseration. While strong and hostile, it has been our obvious duty to weaken them; now that they are weak and harmless, and most of their lands fallen into our hands, justice and humanity require us to cherish and befriend them. To teach them to live in houses, to raise grain and stock, to plant orchards, to set up landmarks, to divide their possessions, to establish laws for their government, to get the rudiments of common learning, such as reading, writing, and ciphering, are the first steps toward improving their condition." This was the policy of Jefferson, reaffirmed by Clark. It was the key to all Clark's endeavours. At Washington City he discussed the question with President Monroe. "But to take these steps with effect the Indians should be removed west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri." "Let them move singly or in families as they please," said Clark. "Place agents where the Indians cross the Mississippi, to supply them with provisions and ammunition. A constant tide is now going on from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. They cross at St. Louis and St. Genevieve, and my accounts show the aid which is given them. Many leading chiefs are zealous in this work, and are labouring hard to collect their dispersed and broken tribes at their new and permanent homes." "And the land?" inquired the President. "It is well watered with numerous streams and some large rivers, abounds with grass, contains prairies, land for farms, and affords a temporary supply of game. "It is in vain for us to talk about learning and religion; these Indians want food. The Sioux, the Osages, are powerful tribes,--they are near our border, and my official station enables me to know the exact truth. They are distressed by famine; many die for want of food; the living child is buried with the dead mother because no one can spare it food through its helpless infancy. "Grain, stock, fences are the first things. Property alone can keep up the pride of the Indian and make him ashamed of drunkenness, lying, and stealing. "The period of danger with an Indian is when he ceases to be a hunter and before he gets the means of living from flocks and agriculture. In the transit from a hunter to a farmer, he degenerates from a proud and independent savage to a beggar, drunkard, thief. To counteract the danger, property in horses, hogs, and cattle is indispensable. They should be assisted in making fences and planting orchards, and be instructed in raising cotton and making cloth. Small mills should be erected to save the women the labour of pounding corn, and mechanics should be employed to teach the young Indians how to make ploughs, carts, wheels, hoes, and axes." Benton and other great men argued in the Senate. "In contact with the white race the Indians degenerate. They are a dangerous neighbour within our borders. They prevent the expansion of the white race, and the States will not be satisfied until all their soil is open to settlement." And so, to remove the Indians to a home of their own became the great work of Clark's life. "A home where the whites shall never come!" the Indians were delighted. "We will look at these lands." "I recommend that the government send special agents to collect the scattered bands and families and pay their expenses to the lands assigned them," said Clark, estimating the cost at one hundred thousand dollars. But not all of the tribes would listen. In November, 1826, Clark drove from St. Louis in his carriage to the Choctaw nation in Alabama, to persuade them to move west of the Mississippi. "After many years spent in reflection," said the Commissioners, "your Great Father, the President, has determined upon a plan for your happiness. The United States has a large unsettled country on the west side of the great river Mississippi into which they do not intend their white settlements shall enter. This is the country in which our Great Father intends to settle his red children. "Many of the tribes are now preparing to remove and are making application for land. The Cherokees and Muscogees have procured lands, and your people can have five times as much land in that fine country as they are now living on in this." Never before in the conquest of nations had the weaker race been offered such advantageous terms. Two days passed while the Indians considered and argued among themselves. "What shall we give to you?" asked the Commissioners. "These lands and titles to them, provisions and clothing, a cow and corn and farming implements to each family, and blacksmiths and ploughmakers and annuities." "Friends and brothers of the Choctaw nation," said Clark in the council, "I have spent half the period of an accustomed life among you. Thirty-six years ago I passed through your country and saw your distressed condition. Now I see part of your nation much improved in prosperity and civilisation. This affords me much happiness. But I am informed that a very large majority of the Choctaw nation are seeking food among the swamps by picking cotton for white planters. "Cannot provision be made to better their condition? "Let me recommend that the poorer and less enlightened be moved without delay to their lands west of the Mississippi. There will I take pleasure in advancing their interests. In my declining years it would be a great consolation to me to see them prosper in agriculture. "Come to my country where I can have it in my power to act as your father and your friend. You shall be protected and peaceful and happy." The Choctaws were touched, but they answered,-- "We cannot part with our country. It is the land of our birth,--the hills and streams of our youth." XVII _THE GREAT COUNCIL AT PRAIRIE DU CHIEN_ St. Louis was a cold place in those prairie years; a great deal of snow fell, and sleighbells rang beside the Great River. No Indians came during the cold weather, but with the springing grass and blossoming trees, each year the Indians camped around the twin lakes at Maracasta, Clark's farm west of St. Louis. There were wigwams all over Maracasta. James Kennerly, Clark's Indian deputy, busy ever with the ruddy aborigines, dealing out annuities, arranging for treaties and instructing the tribes, kept open house for the chiefs at _Côte Plaquemine_, the Persimmon Hill. Clark's boys shot bows and arrows with the little Indians, Kennerly's little girls made them presents of "kinnikinick," dried leaves of the sumac and red osier dogwood, to smoke in their long pipes. Every delegation came down laden with gifts for the Red Head,--costly furs, buffalo robes, bows, arrows, pipes, moccasins. Tragedies of the plains came daily to the ears of General Clark, far, far beyond the reach of government in the wild battle-ground of the West. In 1822 the Sioux and Cheyennes combined against the Crows and fell upon their villages. In the slaughter of that day five thousand defenceless men, women, and children were butchered on the prairie. All their lodges and herds of horses and hundreds of captive girls were carried away. As a people the Crows never recovered. Drunk with victory the triumphant Sioux rolled back on the Chippewas, Sacs, Foxes, and Iowas. "If continued, these wars will embroil all the tribes of the West," said Clark. "We must do something more to promote peace. They must become civilised." President Monroe was working up a new Indian policy, with Clark as a chief adviser. "Go, Paul Louise, take this talk to my Osages. I am coming up to their country. Tell them to meet me on the first of June." In his canoe, with his squaw and his babies, the wizened little Frenchman set out. He could not read, he could not write, he could only make his mark, but the Indians loved and trusted Paul Louise. "And you, Baronet Vasquez, take this to the Kansas nation." Vasquez belonged to the old Spanish _régime_. As a youth he had gone out with the Spanish garrison at the cession of St. Louis, to return a fur trader. Then came Lafayette from the memories of Monticello. Escorted by a troop of horse, he had ascended that historic mountain. The alert lithe figure of the little Marquis leaped from the carriage; at the same moment the door opened, revealing the tall, bent, wasted figure of Jefferson in the pillared portico. The music ceased, and every head uncovered. Slowly the aged Jefferson descended the steps, slowly the little Marquis approached his friend, then crying, with outstretched arms, "Ah, Jefferson!" "Ah, Lafayette!" each fell upon the other's bosom. The gentlemen of the cavalcade turned away with tears, and the two were left to solitude and recollection. Long and often had Jefferson and Lafayette laboured together in anxious and critical periods of the past. It was in chasing "the boy" Lafayette that the British came to Charlottesville. When Jefferson was minister in Paris, the young and popular nobleman assisted the unaccustomed American at the Court of France. Together they had seen the opening of the French Revolution. What memories came back as they sat in the parlour at Monticello, discussing the momentous events of two continents in which they had been actors! "What would I have done with the Queen?" asked the aged Jefferson. "I should have shut her up in a convent, putting harm out of her power. I have ever believed if there had been no Queen there would have been no French Revolution." Lafayette went to Montpelier to see Madison, and then to Yorktown, over the same road which he himself had opened in 1781 in the retreat before Cornwallis. One long ovation followed his route. Even old ladies who had seen him in their youth pressed forward with the plea, "Let me see the young Marquis again!" forgetful of the flight of years. Echoes of his triumphal tour had reached the border. St. Louis, a city and a State not dreamed of in Revolutionary days, begged the honour of entertaining Lafayette. Far down the river they saw the smoke of his steamer, coming up from New Orleans. "Welcome!" the hills echoed. "_Vive_ Lafayette!" The Marquis lifted his eyes,--white stone houses gay with gardens and clusters of verdure arose before him in a town of five thousand inhabitants. Below stood the massive stone forts of the Spanish time, and on the brow of the bluff frowned the old round tower, the last fading relic of feudalism in North America. Every eye was fixed upon the honoured guest. A few were there who could recall the pride of Lafayette in his American troops, with their helmets and flowing crests and the sabres he himself had brought from France. The banquet, the toasts, the ball, all these have passed into tradition. The Marquis visited Clark's cabinet of Indian curios. "I present you this historic cloak of an Indian chief," said the General, offering a robe like a Russian great coat. In turn, Lafayette presented his mess chest, carried through the Revolution, and placed on the Governor's finger a ring of his hair. Later Clark sent him the live cub of a grizzly bear, that grew to be a wonder in the Jardin des Plantes of Paris. "And your great brother, George Rogers Clark?" inquired the Marquis. "He died seven years ago at Louisville," answered the Governor. "In securing the liberties of this country I esteem him second only to Washington," said Lafayette. "Those thieving Osages have taken six more of my horses," complained Chouteau the next morning at the office of Governor Clark. "And four blankets and three axes of me," added Baptiste Dardenne. "Worse yet, they have stolen my great-coat and razor case," said Manuel Roderique. Two thousand dollars' worth of claims were paid in that summer of 1825. "We must get them out of the way," persisted the exasperated whites. "Acts and acts of Congress regulating trade and intercourse with the tribes are of no avail. They must be removed, and as far as possible. They are banditti, robbers!" said Benton. In spite of all proclamations clothes disappeared from the line, silk stockings and bed-quilts and ladies' hats mysteriously went into the wigwams of the vagrants. "This state of affairs is intolerable!" exclaimed Benton. "Governor Clark, if you will conclude a treaty removing those tribes to the West I will stake my honour on putting a ratification through Congress. I'll present the case!" Again the great senator ground out the words between his teeth, "_I'll present the case_. It will be a kindness to both parties. The poor Indians have lost all,--we must reimburse them, we must take care of them, they must have a home,--but far away, _far away_!" shaking his fingers and closing his eyes with the significant shrug so well known to the friends of Colonel Benton. "Not so bad as eet once was," urged the kind-hearted Creoles. "Not so bad by far. In de old Spanish days dey once left St. Genevieve wit'out a horse to turn a mill. Dey came in to de village in de night and carried away everyt'ing dey could find. Nobody ever pursue dem. But _les Américains_, dey chase dem. But den," commented the tolerant Creoles, "de Osage do not _kill_, like de Kickapoo and de Cherokee. Dey take de goods, steal de furs, beat with ramrods, drive him off,--but dey don't _kill_!" So in May, after the departure of Lafayette, Governor Clark steamed up the Missouri, met the Kansas and Osage Indians, and made treaties for the cession of all their lands within the present boundary of Missouri. "You shall have lands, hogs, fowls, cattle, carts, and farming tools to settle farther west." This was wealth to the poor Osages, whose hunting fields had become exhausted. "Go to the earth and till it, it will give you bread and meat and clothes and comfort and happiness. You may talk about your poverty always, and it will never make you better off. You must be industrious," said Clark. "And your old friend, Boone, shall be your farmer." For almost forty years now they had known Daniel M. Boone, the son of the great pioneer,--since, indeed, those days when as a boy of eighteen he trapped on the Kansas. Two springs later the removal was made, and Boone, as "farmer for the Kansas Indians," took up his residence in the Kaw Valley where his chimney stacks may yet be seen near the present Lecompton. The next year was born Napoleon Boone, the first white child in Kansas. All this time the northern clans were gathering at Prairie du Chien, a work of months. June 30 Governor Clark's barge started north from St. Louis, laden with presents, provisions, interpreters. "We are afraid to come," said the Omahas. "We are afraid to cross the hostile territory." William Preston Clark, in looks and dress the blonde double of the poet Byron, said, "Let me bring them, father." So young Clark, intimate with Indians, went after the Omahas and brought them safely in. But Big Elk left his medal with his son, "I never expect to reach home alive," he said. "We cross the country of the Sacs!" The Yanktons refused. "Shall we be butchered by the Sacs?" But later they came to St. Louis, smoked with the Sacs and shook hands. Even the Sioux feared the Sacs, the warriors of the central valley. Mahaska, head chief of the Iowas, with his braves went up with Clark, and Rant-che-wai-me, the Flying Pigeon. Rant-che-wai-me had been to Washington. A year ago, when her husband left her alone at the wigwam on the Des Moines, she set out for St. Louis. The steamer was at the shore, the chief was about to embark, when he felt a blow upon his back. Shaking his plumes in wrath, Mahaska turned,--to behold the Flying Pigeon, with uplifted tomahawk in her hand. "Am I your wife?" she cried. "You are my wife," answered the surprised chief. "Are you my husband?" "I am your husband." "Then will I, too, go with you to shake the Great Father by the hand." Mahaska smiled,--"You are my pretty wife, Flying Pigeon; you shall go to Washington." Clark, too, smiled,--"Yes, she can go." The pretty Rant-che-wai-me was feted at the White House, and had her picture painted by a great artist as a typical Iowa Princess. And now she was going to Prairie du Chien. Not for ten years had Clark visited his northern territory. Few changes had come on the Mississippi. Twice a year Colonel George Davenport brought a hundred thousand dollars' worth of goods to his trading post at Rock Island. Beyond, Julien Dubuque lay in perpetual state on his hills, wrapped only in a winding sheet in his tomb, exposed to the view of every traveller that cared to climb the grassy height to gaze through the grated windows of his lonely mausoleum. "The Great Chief, the Red Head is coming," whispered all the Indians, as Clark's barges hove in sight. Prairie du Chien was alive with excitement. Governor Cass of Michigan was already there. Not only the village, but the entire banks of the river for miles above and below were covered with high-pointed buffalo tents. Horses browsed upon the bluffs in Arabian abandon. Below, tall and warlike, Chippewas and Winnebagoes from Superior and the valley of St. Croix jostled Menomonees, Pottawattamies, and Ottawas from Lake Michigan and Green Bay. "Whoop-oh-hoo-oh!" Major Taliferro from the Falls of St. Anthony made the grand entry with his Sioux and Chippewas, four hundred strong, drums beating, flags flying. Taliferro was very popular with the Sioux,--even the squaws said he was "_Weechashtah Washtay_,"--a handsome man. Over from Sault Ste. Marie the learned agent Schoolcraft had brought one hundred and fifty Chippewas, brothers of Hiawatha. Keokuk, the Watchful Fox, with his Sacs and Iowas, was the last to arrive. Leagued against the Sioux, they had camped on an island below to paint and dress, and came up the Mississippi attired in full war costume singing their battle-song. It was a thrilling sight when they came upon the scene with spears, battle-lances, and crested locks like Roman helmets, casting bitter glances at their ancient foe, the Sioux. Nearly nude, with feather war-flags flying, and beating tambourines, the Sacs landed in compact ranks, breathing defiance. From his earliest youth Keokuk had fought the Sioux. "Bold, martial, flushed with success, Keokuk landed, majestic and frowning," said Schoolcraft, "and as another Coriolanus spoke in the council and shook his war lance at the Sioux." At the signal of a gun, every day at ten o'clock, the chiefs assembled. "Children," said Governor Clark to the assembled savages, "your Great Father has not sent us here to ask anything from you--we want nothing--not the smallest piece of your land. We have come a great way to meet for your own good. Your Great Father the President has been informed that war is carried on among his red children,--the Sacs, Foxes, and Chippewas on one side and the Sioux on the other,--and that the wars of some of you began before any of you were born." "Heigh! heigh!" broke forth the silent smokers. "Heigh! heigh!" exclaimed the warriors. "Heigh! heigh!" echoed the vast and impatient concourse around the council. "Your father thinks there is no cause for continuation of war between you. There is land enough for you to live and hunt on and animals enough. Why, instead of peaceably following the game and providing for your families, do you send out war parties to destroy each other? The Great Spirit made you all of one colour and placed you upon the land. You ought to live in peace as brothers of one great family. Your Great Father has heard of your war songs and war parties,--they do not please him. He desires that his red children should bury the tomahawk." "Heigh! heigh!" "Children! look around you. See the result of wars between nations who were once powerful and are now reduced to a few wandering families. You have examples enough before you. "Children, your wars have resulted from your having no definite boundaries. You do not know what belongs to you, and your people follow the game into lands claimed by other tribes." "Heigh! heigh!" "Children, you have all assembled under your Father's flag. You are under his protection. Blood must not be spilt here. Whoever injures one of you injures us, and we will punish him as we would punish one of our own people." "Heigh! heigh! heigh!" cried all the Indians. "Children," said General Cass, "your Great Father does not want your land. He wants to establish boundaries and peace among you. Your Great Father has strong limbs and a piercing eye, and an arm that extends from the sea to Red River. "Children, you are hungry. We will adjourn for two hours." "Heigh! heigh! heigh-h!" rolled the chorus across the Prairie. As to an army, rations were distributed, beef, bread, corn, salt, sugar, tobacco. Each ate, ate, ate,--till not a scrap was left to feed a humming-bird. Revered of his people, Wabasha and his pipe-bearers were the observed of all. "I never yet was present at so great a council as this," said Wabasha. Three thousand were at Prairie du Chien. The Sioux? Far from the northwest they said their fathers came,--the Tartar cheek was theirs. Wabasha and his chiefs alone had the Caucasian countenance. Three mighty brothers ruled the Sioux in the days of Pontiac,--Wabasha, Red Wing, and Little Crow. Their sons, Wabasha, Red Wing, and Little Crow ruled still. "Boundaries?" they knew not the meaning of the word. Restless, anxious, sharp-featured Little Crow fixed his piercing hazel eye upon the Red Head,-- "_Taku-wakan!_--that is incomprehensible!" "Heigh! What does this mean?" exclaimed the Chippewas. "We are all one people," sagely observed Mahaska, the Iowa. "My father, I claim no lands in particular." "I never yet heard that any one had any exclusive right to the soil," said Chambler, the Ottawa. "I have a tract of country. It is where I was born and now live," said Red Bird, the Winnebago. "But the Foxes claim it and the Sacs, the Menomonees, and Omahas. We use it in common." Red Bird was a handsome Indian, dressed Yankton fashion in white unsoiled deerskin and scarlet, and glove-fitting moccasins,--the dandy of his tribe. The debate grew animated. "Our tract is so small," cried the Menomonees, "that we cannot turn around without touching our neighbours." Then every Indian began to describe his boundaries, crossing and recrossing each other. "These are the causes of all your troubles," said Clark. "It is better for each of you to give up some disputed claim than to be fighting for ever about it." That night the parties two by two discussed their lines, the first step towards civilisation. They drew maps on the ground,--"my hunting ground," and "mine," and "mine." After days of study the boundary rivers were acknowledged, the belt of wampum was passed, and the pipe of peace. Wabasha, acknowledged by every chief to be first of the Seven Fires of the Sioux, was treated by all with marked distinction and deference. And yet Wabasha, dignified and of superior understanding, when asked, "Wabasha? What arrangement did you make with the Foxes about boundaries?" replied, "I never made any arrangement about the line. The only arrangement I made was about peace!" "When I heard the voice of my Great Father," said Mongazid, the Loon's Foot, from Fond du Lac, "when I heard the voice of my Father coming up the Mississippi, calling to this treaty, it seemed as a murmuring wind. I got up from my mat where I sat musing, and hastened to obey. My pathway has been clear and bright. Truly it is a pleasant sky above our heads this day. There is not a cloud to darken it. I hear nothing but pleasant words. The raven is not waiting for his prey. I hear no eagle cry, 'Come, let us go,--the feast is ready,--the Indian has killed his brother.'" Shingaba Wassin of Sault Ste. Marie, head chief of the Chippewas, had fought with Britain in the War of 1812 and lost a brother at the battle of the Thames. He and a hundred other chiefs with their pipe bearers signed the treaty. Everybody signed. And all sang, even the girls, the Witcheannas of the Sioux. "We have buried our bad thoughts in the ashes of the pipe," said Little Crow. "I always had good counsel from Governor Clark," observed Red Wing. "You put this medal on my neck in 1812," said Decorah, the Winnebago, "and when I returned I gave good advice to the young men of our village." After a fierce controversy and the rankling of a hundred wrongs, the warring tribes laid down their lances and buried the tomahawk. Sacs and Sioux shook hands; the dividing lines were fixed; all the chiefs signed, and the tribes were at peace for the first time in a thousand years. "Pray God it may last," said Clark, as his boat went away homeward along with the Sacs down the Mississippi. The great Council at Prairie du Chien was over. XVIII _THE LORDS OF THE RIVERS_ For thirty years after the cession, St. Louis was a great military centre. Sixty thousand dollars a year went into the village from Bellefontaine, and still more after the opening of Jefferson Barracks in 1826. Nor can it be denied that the expenditure of large sums of money in Indian annuities through the office of Governor Clark did much for the prosperity of the frontier city. And ever the centre of hospitality was the home of Governor Clark. Both the Governor and his wife enjoyed life, took things leisurely, both had the magnetic faculty of winning people, and they set a splendid table. "I like to see my house full," said the Governor. There were no modern hotels in those days, and his house became a stopping place for all noted visitors to St. Louis. Their old-fashioned coach, with the footman up behind in a tall silk hat, met at the levee many a distinguished stranger,--travellers, generals, dukes, and lords from Europe who came with letters to the Indian autocrat of the West. All had to get a pass from Clark, and all agents and sub-agents were under and answerable to him. But unspoiled in the midst of it passed the plain, unaristocratic Red Head Chief and friend of the oppressed. For years he corresponded with Lafayette, and yet Clark was not a scholar. He was a man of affairs, of which this country has abounded in rich examples. Prince Paul of Wurtemberg came, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and Maximilian, Prince of Wied, all seeking passports for the Indian country, all coming back with curios for their palaces and castles. Very politely Mrs. Clark listened to their broken English and patiently conversed with them when the Governor was away. One of the first pianos came to the Clark parlours, and on special occasions the Indian council room was cleared and decorated for grand balls. Many a young "milletoer," as the Creoles called them, dashed up from Jefferson Barracks to win a bride among the girls of St. Louis. For the preservation of peace and the facilitation of Indian removals, Fort Des Moines was built among the Iowas, Fort Atkinson near the present Omaha, Fort Snelling at the Falls of St. Anthony, and Fort Leavenworth on the borders of Kansas. Half the area of the United States lay out there, with no law, no courts, but those of battle. As quietly as possible, step by step, the savage land was taken into custody. And the pretty girls of St. Louis did their share to reconcile the "milletoers" to life at the frontier posts. "Ho for Santa Fé!" One May morning in 1824 a caravan of waggons passed through the streets of St. Louis. Penned in the far-off Mexican mountains a little colony of white people were shut from the world. Twice before a few adventurous pack-trains had penetrated their mountain solitudes, as Phoenicians of old went over to Egypt, India, Arabia. "_Los Americanos! Los Americanos!_" shouted the eager mountain dwellers, rushing out to embrace the traders and welcome them to their lonely settlement. Silks, cottons, velvets, hardware, were bought up in a trice, and the fortunate traders returned to St. Louis with horseload after horseload of gold and silver bullion. "Those people want us. But the Spanish authorities are angry and tax us as they used to tax the traders at New Orleans. The people beg us to disregard their tyrannous rulers,--they must have goods." In 1817 young Auguste Chouteau tried it, and was cast into prison and his goods confiscated. "What wish you?" demanded the Spanish Governor, in answer to repeated solicitations from the captive. "_Mi libertad Gobernador._" Wrathfully they locked him closer than ever in the old donjon of Santa Fé. "My neighbour's son imprisoned there without cause!" exclaimed Governor Clark. All the old Spanish animosity roiled in his veins. He appealed to Congress. There was a rattling among the dry bones, and Chouteau and his friends were released. And now, on the 15th of May, 1824, eighty men set out in the first waggon train, with twenty thousand dollars' worth of merchandise for the isolated Mexican capital. In September the caravan returned with their capital increased a hundred-fold in sacks of gold and silver and ten thousand dollars' worth of furs. The Santa Fé trade was established never to be shaken, though Indian battles, like conflicts with Arab sheiks of the desert, grew wilder than any Crusader's tale. Young men of the Mississippi dreamed of that "farther west" of Santa Fé and Los Angeles. "We must have a safe road," said the traders. "We may wander off into the desert and perish." In the same year Senator Benton secured an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for staking the plains to Santa Fé. "We must have protection," said the traders to Governor Clark at the Council House. At Council Grove, a buffalo haunt in a thickly wooded bottom at the headwaters of the Neosho in the present Kansas, Clark's agents met the Osage Indians and secured permission for the caravans to pass through their country. But the dreaded Pawnees and Comanches were as yet unapproachable. In spite of the inhumanity of Spaniards, in spite of murderous Pawnees, in spite of desert dust and red-brown grass and cacti, year by year the caravans grew, the people became more friendly and solicitous of each other's trade, until one day New Mexico was ready to step over into the ranks of the States. And one day Kit Carson, whose mother was a Boone, only sixteen and small of his age, ran away from a hard task-master to join the Santa Fé caravan and grow up on the plains. Daniel Boone was dead, at eighty-six, just as Missouri came in as a State. Jesse, the youngest of the Boone boys to come out from Kentucky, was in the Constitutional Convention that adjourned in his honour, and Jesse's son, Albert Gallatin Boone, in 1825, joined as private secretary that wonderful Ashley expedition that keel-boated up the Platte, crossed from its head-waters over to Green River, kept on west, discovered the Great South Pass of the Rockies, the overland route of future emigration, and set up its tents on the borders of Utah Lake. Overwhelmed with debt Ashley set out,--he came back a millionaire with the greatest collection of furs ever known up to that time. Everything was Ashley then, "Ashley boats" and "Ashley beaver,"--he was the greatest man in St. Louis, and was sent to Congress. Sixty years ago the Lords of the Rivers ruled St. Louis. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company went out and camped on the site of a dozen future capitals. From the Green River Valley under the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, from the Tetons of Colorado, the Uintahs of Utah, and the Bitter Roots of Idaho, from the shining Absarokas and the Bighorn Alps, they came home with mink and otter, beaver, bear, and buffalo. The American Fur Company came to St. Louis, and the Chouteaus, at first the rivals, became the partners of John Jacob Astor. Born in the atmosphere of furs, for forty years Pierre Chouteau the younger had no rival in the Valley except Clark. The two stood side by side, one representing commerce, the other the Government. Pierre Chouteau, the largest fur trader west of the Alleghanies, sent his boats to Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Yellowstone, the Osage, the Kansas, and the Platte, employing a thousand men and paying skilled pilots five thousand dollars for a single expedition. With Chouteau's convoys came down Clark's chiefs, going back in the same vessels. To their untutored minds the trader's capital and the Red Head Town were synonymous. If there was a necessary conflict between the policy of the government and that of the fur trade, no one could have softened it more than the Red Head diplomat. With infinite tact and unfailing good sense, he harmonised, reconciled, and pushed for the best interest of the Indian. "Give up the chase and settle into agricultural life," said Clark's agents to the Indians. "Go to the chase," said the trader. Clark sent up hoes to supersede the shoulder-blade of the buffalo. The trader sent up fusils and ammunition. The two combined in the evolution of the savage. The squaw took the hoe, the brave the gun. Winter expresses came down to St. Louis from the far-off Powder and the Wind River Mountains. "Send us merchandise." With the first breaking ice of Spring the boats were launched, the caravans ready. Deck-piled, swan-like upon the water the Missouri steamboat started. Pierre Chouteau was there to see her off, Governor Clark was there to bid farewell to his chiefs. _Engagés_ of the Company, fiercely picturesque, with leg knives in their garters, jumped to store away the cargo. Up as far as St. Charles Clark and the Chouteaus sometimes went with the ladies of their families to escort the up-bound steamer, and with a last departing, "_Bon voyage! bon voyage, mes voyageurs!_" disembarked to return to St. Louis. On, on steamed the messenger of commerce and civilisation, touching later at Fort Pierre Chouteau in the centre of the great Sioux country, the capital of South Dakota to-day, at Fort Union at the Yellowstone, where McKenzie lived in state like the Hudson's Bay magnates at the north, at Fort Benton at the foot of the Great Falls of the Missouri. Traders from St. Louis laid the foundations of Kansas City and Topeka, built the first forts at Council Bluffs and Omaha, pre-empted the future sites of Yankton and Bismarck. "A boat! a boat!" For a hundred miles Indian runners brought word. Barely had the steamer touched the wharf before the solitude became populous with colour and with sound. Night and day went on the loading and unloading of furs and merchandise. A touch of the hand, a farewell,--before the June rise falls, back a hundred miles a day she snorts to St. Louis with tens of thousands of buffalo robes, buffalo tongues, and buffalo hides, and carefully wrapped bales of the choicest furs. The cargoes opened, weighed, recounted, repacked, down the river the smokestacks go in endless procession on the way to New York. Overland on horseback rode Pierre Chouteau to Philadelphia or New York, to arrange shipments to France and England, and to confer with John Jacob Astor. Back up from New Orleans came boatloads of furniture to beautify the homes of St. Louis, bales on bales of copper and sheet-iron kettles, axes and beaver traps, finger rings, beads, blankets, bracelets, steel wire and ribbons, the indispensables of the frontier fur trade. Sometimes fierce battles were fought up the river, and troops were dispatched,--for commerce, the civiliser, stops not. The sight of troops paraded in uniforms, the glare of skyrockets at night, the explosion of shells and the colours of bunting and banners, the blare of brass bands and the thunder of artillery, won many a bloodless victory along the prairies of the West. But blood flowed, fast and faster, when trapping gave way to Days of Gold and the pressure of advancing settlement. The trapper saw no gold. Otter, beaver, mink, and fox filled his horizon. Into every lonely glen where the beaver built his house, the trapper came. A million dollars a year was the annual St. Louis trade. Rival fur companies kept bubbling a tempest in a teapot. They fought each other, fought the Hudson's Bay Company. West and west passed the fighting border,--St. Lawrence, Detroit, Mackinaw, Mandan, Montana, Oregon. Astor, driven out by the War of 1812, had been superseded on the Columbia by Dr. John McLoughlin, a Hudson's Bay magnate who combined in himself the functions of a Chouteau and a Clark. But the story of McLoughlin is a story by itself. XIX _FOUR INDIAN AMBASSADORS_ As the years went by Clark's plant of the Indian Department extended. In his back row were found the office and Council House, rooms for visiting Indians, an armory for repairs of Indian guns and blacksmiths' shops for Indian work, extending from Main Street to the river. Daily he sat in his office reading reports from his agents of Indian occurrences. Four muskrats or two raccoon skins the Indians paid for a quart of whiskey. "Whiskey!" Clark stamped his foot. "A drunken Indian is more to be dreaded than a tiger in the jungle! An Indian cannot be found among a thousand who would not, after a first drink, sell his horse, his gun, or his last blanket for another drink, or even commit a murder to gratify his passion for spirits. There should be total prohibition." And the Government made that the law. "I hear that you have sent liquor into the Indian country," he said to the officers of the American Fur Company. "Can you refute the charge?" And the great Company, with Chouteau and Astor at its head, hastened to explain and extenuate. There was trouble with Indian agents who insisted on leaving their posts and coming to St. Louis, troubles with Indians who wanted to see the President, enough of them to have kept the President for ever busy with Indian affairs. The Sacs and the Sioux were fighting again. "Why not let us fight?" said Black Hawk. "White men fight,--they are fighting now." Twice in the month of May, 1830, Sacs and Foxes came down to tell of their war with the Sioux. "We might sell our Illinois lands and move west," hinted the Sacs and Foxes. Instantly Clark approved and wrote to Washington. "I shall have to go up there and quiet those tribes," said Clark. In July, 1830, again he set out for Prairie du Chien. Indian runners went ahead announcing, "The Red Head Chief! the Red Head Chief!" Seventy-eight Sacs and Foxes crowded into his boats and went up. This time in earnest, Clark began buying lands, giving thousands of dollars in annuities, provisions, clothing, lands, stock, agricultural implements. Many of these Indians came on with him down to St. Louis to get their presents and pay. There came a wailing from the Indians of Illinois. "The game is gone. Naked and hungry, we need help." "Poor, misguided, and unreflecting savages!" exclaimed the Governor. "The selfish policy of the traders would keep them in the hunter's state. The Government would have them settled and self-supporting." Funds ran out, but Clark on his own credit again and again went ahead with his work of humanity, moving families, tribes, nations. Assistance in provisions and stock was constantly called for. The great western migration of tribes from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, was sweeping on, the movement of a race. The Peorias were crossing, the Weas, Piankeshaws, and others forgotten to-day. "Those miserable bands of Illinois rovers, those wretched nations in want of clothes and blankets!" Clark wrote to Washington, begging the Department for help. Their annuities, a thousand dollars a year for twelve years, had expired. "Exchange your lands for those in the West," he urged the Indians. To the Government he recommended an additional annuity to be used in breaking up, fencing, and preparing those lands for cultivation. Horses were stolen from the settlers by tens and twenties and fifties, and cattle killed. The farmers were exasperated. "Banditti, robbers, thieves, they must get out! The Indians hunt on our lands, and kill our tame stock. They are a great annoyance." For two years Governor Edwards had been asking for help. "The General Government has been applied to long enough to have freed us from so serious a grievance. If it declines acting with effect, it will soon learn that these Indians _will_ be removed, and that very promptly." Clark himself was personally using every exertion to prevail on the Indians to move as the best means of preserving tranquillity, and did all he could without actual coercion. The Indians continued to promise to go, but they still remained. "More time," said the Indians. "Another year." The combustible train was laid,--only a spark was needed, only a move of hostility, to fire the country. Will Black Hawk apply that spark? "We cannot go," said the Pottawattamies. "The sale of our lands was made by a few young men without our consent." Five hundred Indians determined to hold all the northern part of Illinois for ever. Sacs, Foxes, Pottawattamies, sent daily letters and complaints. "Our Father! our Father! our Father!"--it was a plea and a prayer, and trouble, trouble, trouble. Black Partridge's letters make one weep. "Some of my people will be dead before Spring." Meanwhile agents were ahead surveying lands in that magic West. The Indians were becoming as interested in migration as the whites had been; the same causes were pushing them on. Clark was busily making contracts for saw-mills and corn-mills on the Platte and Kansas, arranging for means of transportation, for provisions for use on the way and after they settled, for oxen and carts and stock,--when one day four strange Indians, worn and bewildered, arrived at St. Louis, out of that West. Some kind hand guided them to the Indian office. That tunic, that bandeau of fox skins,--Clark recalled it as the tribal dress of a nation beyond the Rocky Mountains. With an expression of exquisite joy, old Tunnachemootoolt, for it was he, the Black Eagle, recognised the Red Head of a quarter of a century before. Clark could scarcely believe that those Indians had travelled on foot nearly two thousand miles to see him at St. Louis. As but yesterday came back the memory of Camp Chopunnish among the Nez Percés of Oregon. Over Tunnachemootoolt's camp the American flag was flying when they arrived from the Walla Walla. It did not take long to discover their story. Some winters before an American trapper (in Oregon tradition reputed to have been Jedediah Smith), watched the Nez Percés dance around the sun-pole on the present site of Walla Walla. "It is not good," said the trapper, "such worship is not acceptable to the Great Spirit. You should get the white man's Book of Heaven." Voyageurs and Iroquois trappers from the Jesuit schools of Canada said the same. Then Ellice, a chief's son, came back from the Red River country whither the Hudson's Bay Company had sent him to be educated. From several sources at once they learned that the white men had a Book that taught of God. "If this be true it is certainly high time that we had the Book." The chiefs called a national council. "If our mode of worship is wrong we must lay it aside. We must know about this. It cannot be put off." "If we could only find the trail of Lewis and Clark they would tell us the truth." "Yes, Lewis and Clark always pointed upward. They must have been trying to tell us." So, benighted, bewildered, the Nez Percés talked around their council fires. Over in the buffalo country Black Eagle's band met the white traders. "They come from the land of Lewis and Clark," said the Eagle. "Let us follow them." And so, four chiefs were deputed for that wonderful journey, two old men who had known Lewis and Clark,--Black Eagle and the Man-of-the-Morning, whose mother was a Flathead,--and two young men,--Rabbit-Skin-Leggings of the White Bird band on Salmon River, Black Eagle's brother's son, and No-Horns-On-His-Head, a young brave of twenty, who was a doubter of the old beliefs. "They went out by the Lolo trail into the buffalo country of Montana," say their descendants still living in Idaho. One day they reached St. Louis and inquired for the Red Head Chief. Very well Governor Clark remembered his Nez Percé-Flathead friends. His silver locks were shaken by roars of laughter at their reminders of his youth, the bear hunts, the sale of buttons for camas and for kouse. The hospitality of those chiefs who said, "The horses on these hills are ours, take what you need," should now be rewarded. With gratitude and with the winsomeness for which he was noted, he invited them into his own house and to his own table. Mrs. Clark devoted herself to their entertainment. Black Eagle insisted on an early council. "We have heard of the Book. We have come for the Book." "What you have heard is true," answered Clark, puzzled and sensible of his responsibility. Then in simple language, that they might understand, he related the Bible stories of the Creation, of the commandments, of the advent of Christ and his crucifixion. "Yes," answered Clark to their interrogatories, "a teacher shall be sent with the Book." Just as change of diet and climate had prostrated Lewis and Clark with sickness among the Nez Percés twenty-five years before, so now the Nez Percés fell sick in St. Louis. The Summer was hotter than any they had known in their cool northland. Dr. Farrar was called. Mrs. Clark herself brought them water and medicine as they lay burning with fever in the Council House. They were very grateful for her attentions,--"the beautiful squaw of the Red Head Chief." But neither medicine nor nursing could save the aged Black Eagle. "The most mournful procession I ever saw," said a young woman of that day, "was when those three Indians followed their dead companion to the grave." His name is recorded at the St. Louis cathedral as "Keepeelele, buried October 31, 1831," a "ne Percé de la tribu des Choponeek, nation appellée Tête Plate." "Keepeelele," the Nez Percés of to-day say "was the old man, the Black Eagle." Sometimes they called him the "Speaking Eagle," as the orator on occasions. Still the other Indians remained ill. "I have been sent by my nation to examine lands for removal to the West," said William Walker, chief of the Wyandots. William Walker was the son of a white man, stolen as a child from Kentucky and brought up by the Indians. His mother was also the descendant of a stolen white girl. Young William, educated at the Upper Sandusky mission, became a chief. The semi-Christian Wyandots desired to follow their friends to the West. Sitting there in the office, transacting business, Governor Clark spoke of the Flathead Nez Percés. "I have never seen a Flathead, but have often heard of them," answered William Walker. Curiosity prompted him to step into the next room. Small in size, delicately formed, and of exact symmetry except the flattened head, they lay there parched with fever. "Their diet at home consists chiefly of vegetables and fish," said the Governor. "As a nation they have the fewest vices of any tribe on the continent of America." November 10, ten days after the burial of Black Eagle, Colonel Audrain of St. Charles, a member of the Legislature, died also at Governor Clark's house. His body was conveyed to St. Charles in the first hearse ever seen there. On December 25, Christmas Day, 1831, Mrs. Clark herself died after a brief illness. There was sickness all over St. Louis. Was it a beginning of that strange new malady that by the next Spring had grown into a devouring plague,--the dreaded Asiatic cholera? At the bedside of his dead wife, Governor Clark sat, holding her waxen hand, with their little six-year-old son, Jefferson, in his lap. "My child, you have no mother now," said the father with streaming tears. After the funeral, nothing was recorded in Clark's letter-books for some days, and when he began again, the handwriting was that of an aged man. None mourned this sad event more than the tender-hearted Nez Percés, who remained until Spring. When the new steamer _Yellowstone_ of the American Fur Company, set out for its first great trip up the Missouri, Governor Clark made arrangements to send the chiefs home to their country. A day later, the other old Indian, The-Man-of-the-Morning, died and was buried near St. Charles. Among other passengers on that steamer were Pierre Chouteau the younger and George Catlin, the Indian artist, who was setting out to visit the Mandans. "You will find the Mandans a strange people and half white," said Governor Clark to his friend the artist, as he gave him his passport into the Indian country. On the way up the river Catlin noticed the two young Nez Percés, and painted their pictures. As if pursued by a strange fatality, at the mouth of the Yellowstone No-Horns-On-His-Head died,--Rabbit-Skin-Leggings alone was left to carry the word from St. Louis. Earlier than ever that year the Nez Percés had crossed the snowy trails of the Bitter Root to the buffalo country in the Yellowstone and Judith Basin. "For are not our messengers coming?" And there, camped with their horses and their lodges, watching, Rabbit-Skin-Leggings met them and shouted afar off,--"A man shall be sent with the Book." Back over the hills and the mountains the message flew,--"A man shall be sent with the Book." Every year after that the Nez Percés went over to the east, looking for the man with the Book. Nearly a year elapsed before William Walker got back from his explorations and wrote a public letter giving an account of the Nez Percés in their search for the Book. His account of meeting them in General Clark's office, and of the object of their errand, created a tremendous sensation. Religious committees called upon General Clark, letters were written, and to one and all he said, "That was the sole object of their journey,--to obtain the white man's Book of Heaven." The call rang like a trumpet summons through the churches. The next year, 1834, the Methodists sent Jason Lee and three others to Oregon. Two years later followed Whitman and Spalding and their brides, the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. "A famine threatens the Upper Missouri," was the news brought back by that steamer _Yellowstone_ in 1832. "The buffaloes have disappeared!" The herds, chased so relentlessly on the Missouri, were struggling through the Bitter Root Mountains, to appear in vast throngs on the plains of Idaho. Even Europe read and commented on that wonderful first journey of a steamer up the Missouri, as later the world hailed the ascent of the Nile and the Yukon. It was a great journey. Amazed Indians everywhere had watched the monster, puffing and snorting, with steam and whistles, and a continued roar of cannon for half an hour at every fur fort and every Indian village. "The thunder canoe!" Redmen fell on the ground and cried to the Great Spirit. Some shot their dogs and horses as sacrifices. At last, even the Blackfeet were reached. The British tried to woo them back to the Saskatchewan at Fort Edmonton, but eventually they tumbled over one another to trade with the Fire Boat that annually climbed the Missouri staircase. XX _BLACK HAWK_ The Roman faces of Black Hawk and Keokuk were often seen in St. Louis, where the chiefs came to consult Clark in regard to their country. "Keokuk signed away my lands," said Black Hawk. He had never been satisfied with that earliest treaty made while Lewis and Clark were absent beyond the mountains. For thirty years Black Hawk had paid friendly visits to Chouteau and sold him furs. More often he was at Malden consulting his "British Father." Schooled by Tecumseh, the disloyal Black Hawk was wholly British. Fort Armstrong had been built at Rock Island for the protection of the border. Those whitewashed walls and that tower perched on a high cliff over the Mississippi reminded the traveller up the Father of Waters seventy years ago of some romantic castle on the Rhine. And it was erected for the same reason that were the castles of the Rhine. Not safe were the traders who went up and down the great river, not safe were the emigrants seeking entrance to Rock River,--for Black Hawk watched the land. The white settlements had already come up to the edge of Black Hawk's field. "No power is vested in me to stop the progress of settlements on ceded lands, and I have no means of inducing the Indians to move but persuasion, which has little weight with those chiefs who have always been under British influence," said Clark in 1829. Again and again Clark wrote to the Secretary of War on this subject. The policy of moving the tribes westward stirred the wrath of Black Hawk. "The Sacs never sold their country!" But the leader of the "British band" had lost his voice in the council. "Who is Black Hawk?" asked General Gaines at Rock Island. "Is he a chief? By what right does he speak?" "My father, you ask who is Black Hawk. I will tell you who I am. I am a Sac. My father was a Sac. I am a warrior. So was my father. Ask those young men who have followed me to battle and they will tell you who Black Hawk is. Provoke our people to war and you will learn who Black Hawk is." Haughtily gathering up his robes, the chief and his followers stalked over to Canada for advice. In his absence Keokuk made the final cession to the United States and prepared to move beyond the Mississippi. Back like a whirlwind came the Hawk,-- "Sold the Sac village, sold your country!" "Keokuk," he whispered fiercely in his ear, "give mines, give everything, but keep our cornfields and our dead." "Cross the Mississippi," begged Keokuk. "I will stay by the graves of my fathers," reiterated the stubborn and romantic Black Hawk. The Indians left the silver rivers of Illinois, their sugar groves, and bee trees with regret. No wonder the chief's heart clung to his native village, among dim old woods of oak and walnut, and orchards of plum and crab. For generations there had they tilled their Indian gardens. From his watchtower on Rock River the old chief scanned the country. Early in the Spring of 1832 he discovered a scattering train of whites moving into the beloved retreat. "Quick, let us plant once more our cornfields." In a body Black Hawk and his British band with their women and children came pulling up Rock River in their canoes. The whites were terrified. "Black Hawk has invaded Illinois," was the word sent by Governor Reynolds to Clark at St. Louis. Troops moved out from Jefferson Barracks. "Go," said Governor Clark to Felix St. Vrain, his Sac interpreter. "Warn Black Hawk to withdraw across the Mississippi." St. Vrain sped away,--to be shot delivering his message. Then followed the war, the flight and chase and battle of Bad Axe, and the capture of Black Hawk. Wabasha's Sioux fell upon the last fleeing remnant, so that few of Black Hawk's band were left to tell the tale. "Farewell, my nation!" the old chief cried. "Black Hawk tried to save you and avenge your wrongs. He drank the blood of some of the whites. He has been taken prisoner and his plans are stopped. He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting and he will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk." In chains Black Hawk and his prophet, Wabokeskiek, were brought by Jefferson Davis to St. Louis. As his steamboat passed Rock Island, his old home, Black Hawk wept like a child. "It was our garden," he said, "such as the white people have near their villages. I spent many happy days on this island. A good spirit dwelt in a cave of rocks where your fort now stands. The noise of the guns has driven him away." It hurt Clark to see his old friend dragging a ball and chain at Jefferson Barracks. He seldom went there. But the little Kennerly children carried him presents and kinnikinick for his pipe. There were guests at the house of Clark,--Maximilian, Prince of Wied, and his artist,--when early in April of 1833 a deputation of Sacs and Foxes headed by Keokuk came down in long double canoes to intercede for Black Hawk, and with them, haggard and worn from long wanderings, came Singing Bird, the wife of Black Hawk. With scientific interest Maximilian looked at them, dressed in red, white, and green blankets, with shaven heads except a tuft behind, long and straight and black with a braided deer's tail at the end. They were typical savages with prominent noses and eagle plumes, wampum shells like tassels in their ears, and lances of sword-blades fastened to poles in their hands. "This is a great Chief from over the Big Water, come to see you," said Clark introducing the Prince. "Hah!" said the Indians, giving the Prince the right hand of friendship and scanning him steadily. Bodmer, the artist, brought out his palette. Keokuk in green blanket, with a medal on his heart and a long calumet ornamented with eagle feathers in his hand, was ready to pose. "Hah!" laughed the Indians as stroke by stroke they saw their chief stand forth on canvas, even to the brass necklace and bracelets on throat and wrists. "Great Medicine!" "I have chartered the _Warrior_ to go down to Jefferson Barracks," said Clark. Striking their hands to their mouths, the Indians gave the war whoop, and stepped on board the "big fire canoe." Intent, each animated, fiery, dark-brown eye watched the engine hissing and roaring down to the Barracks. "If you will keep a watchful eye on Black Hawk I will intercede for him," said Clark. "I will watch him," promised Keokuk. Clark left them for a moment, and then led in a little old man of seventy years, with gray hair, light yellow face, and a curved Roman nose. It was an affecting sight when Keokuk stepped forward to embrace Black Hawk. Keokuk, subtle, dignified, in splendid array of deer-skin and bear-claws, grasped the hand of his fallen rival. Poor dethroned old Black Hawk! In a plain suit of buckskin and a string of wampum in his ears, he stood alone, fanning himself with the tail of a black hawk. Keokuk tried to get him released. Often had he visited Clark on that errand, but no,--Black Hawk was summoned to Washington and went. Antoine Le Claire, son of old Antoine, was his interpreter. Released, presently, he made a triumphal tour home, applauded by thousands along the route, even as Lafayette had been a few years before. Not so the Roman conquerors treated their captives! But Black Hawk came home to Keokuk to die. The defeat of Black Hawk opened Iowa to settlement, and a day later prairie schooners overran the Black Hawk Purchase. On the staff of General Atkinson when he marched out of Jefferson Barracks for the Black Hawk War, was Meriwether Lewis Clark, now a graduate of West Point, and his cousin Robert Anderson, grandson of Clark's sister Eliza. In the hurry and the heat of the march one day, Lieutenant Clark, riding from the rear back to the General, became enclosed by the troops of cavalry and had to ride slowly. By his side on a small horse he noticed a long-legged, dark-skinned soldier, with black hair hanging in clusters around his neck, a volunteer private. Admiringly the private gazed at Clark's fine new uniform and splendidly accoutred horse, a noble animal provided by his father at St. Louis. Young Clark spoke to the soldier of awkward and unprepossessing appearance, whose witticisms and gift for stories kept his comrades in a state of merriment. He proved very inquisitive. "The son of Governor Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, did you say?" "Yes." "And related to all those great people?" "Yes," with a laugh. They chatted until the ranks began to thin. "I must ride on," but feeling an interest in the lank, long-haired soldier, Lieutenant Clark turned again,-- "Where are you from and to what troop do you belong?" "I am an Illinois volunteer." "Well, now, tell me your name, and I will bid you good bye." "My name is Abraham Lincoln, and I have not a relation in the world." The next time they met, Meriwether Lewis Clark was marching through the streets of Washington City with other prisoners in Lee's surrendered army. And the President on the White House steps was Abraham Lincoln. The cousin of Meriwether Lewis Clark, Robert Anderson, hero of Fort Sumter, stood by Lincoln's side, with tears in his eyes. Weeks before, when the land was ringing with his valour, the President had congratulated him and asked, "Do you remember me?" "No, I never met you before." "Yes," answered the President, "you are the officer that swore me in as a volunteer private in the Black Hawk War." The next day the assassin's bullet laid low the martyred Lincoln; none mourned him more than Meriwether Lewis Clark, for in that President he had known a friend. XXI _A GREAT LIFE ENDS_ "Ruskosky, man, you tie my queue so tight I cannot shut my eyes!" With both hands up to his head Governor Clark rallied his Polish attendant, who of all things was particular about his friend's appearance. For Ruskosky never considered himself a servant, nor did Clark. Ruskosky was an old soldier of Pulaski, a great swordsman, a gentleman, of courtly address and well educated, the constant companion of Governor Clark after the death of York. "Come, let us walk, Ruskosky." A narrow black ribbon was tied to the queue, the long black cloth cloak was brushed and the high broad-brim hat adjusted, the sword cane with buckhorn handle and rapier blade was grasped, and out they started. Children stared at the ancient queue and small clothes. The oldest American in St. Louis, Governor Clark had come to be regarded as a "gentleman of the old school." A sort of halo hung around his adventures. Beloved, honoured, trusted, revered, his prominent nose and firm-set lips, his thin complexion in which the colour came and went, seemed somehow to belong to the Revolution. He was locally regarded as a great literary man, for had not the journals of his expedition been given to the world? And now, too, delvers in historic lore began to realise what George Rogers Clark had done. Eighteen different authors desired to write his life, among them Madison, Chief Justice Marshall, and Washington Irving. But the facts could not be found. Irving sent his nephew to inquire of Governor Clark at St. Louis. But the papers were scattered, to be collected only by the industry of historical students later. "Governor Clark is a fine soldier-like looking man, tall and thin," Irving's nephew reported to his uncle. "His hair is white, but he seems to be as hardy and vigorous as ever, and speaks of his exposures and hardships with a zest that shows that the spirit of the old explorer is not quenched." Children danced on an old carriage in the orchard. "Uncle Clark, when did you first have this carriage? When was it new?" The chivalrous and romantic friendship of his youth came back to the Governor, and his eyes filled with tears. "Children, that carriage belonged to Meriwether Lewis. In the settlement of his estate, I bought it. Many a time have we ridden in it together. That is the carriage that met Judy Hancock when she landed at St. Louis, the first American bride, a quarter of a century ago. Many a vicissitude has it encountered since, in journeyings through woods and prairies. It is old now, but it has a history." In his later years Governor Clark travelled, made a tour of the Lakes, and visited New York, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland, Sandusky, and Detroit. "Hull?" said Clark at Detroit. "He was not a coward, but afraid for the people's sake of the cruelty of the Indians." One day Governor Clark came ashore from a steamer on the Ohio and stood at the mouth of the Hockhocking where Dunmore had his camp in 1774. The battle of Point Pleasant? that was ancient history. Most of the residents in that region had never heard of it, and looked upon the old gentleman in a queue as a relic of the mound-builders. With wide-eyed wonder they listened again to the story of that day when civilisation set its first milestone beyond the Alleghanies. When the thundering cannon in 1837 announced the return of a fur convoy from the Yellowstone, Governor Clark expected a messenger. "They haf put the sand over him," explained a Frenchman. "Yes, he is dead and buried." "And my Mandan?" "There are no more Mandans." Clark looked at the trader in surprise. "Small-pox." The cheek of the Red Head paled. Small-pox! In 1800 it swept from Omaha to Clatsop leaving a trail of bones. Thirty years later ten thousand Pawnees, Otoes, and Missouris perished. And now, despite all precautions, it had broken out on the upper Missouri. In six weeks the wigwams of the Mandans were desolate. Out of sixteen hundred souls but thirty-one remained. Arikara, Minnetaree, Ponca, Assiniboine, sank before the contagion. The Sioux survived only because they lived not in fixed villages and were roaming uncontaminated. Blackfeet along the Marias left their lodges standing with the dead in them, and never returned. The Crows abandoned their stricken ones, and fled to the mountains. Across the border beseeching Indians carried the havoc to Hudson's Bay, to Athabasca, and the Yukon. Over half a continent terrified tribes burnt their towns, slaughtered their families, pierced their own hearts or flung themselves from precipices. Redmen yet unstricken poured into St. Louis imploring the white man's magic. Clark engaged physicians. Day after day vaccinating, vaccinating, they sat in their offices, saving the life of hundreds. He sent out agents with vaccine to visit the tribes, but the superstitious savages gathered up their baggage and scattered,---- "White men have come with small-pox in a bottle." With this last great shock, the decimation of the tribes, upon him, Clark visibly declined. "My children," he said to his sons, "I want to sleep in sight and sound of the Mississippi." When the summons came, September 1, 1838, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, Meriwether Lewis Clark and his wife were with him, the deputy, James Kennerly and his wife, Elise, and old Ruskosky, inconsolable. With great pomp and solemnity his funeral was celebrated, as had been that of his brother at Louisville twenty years before. Both were buried as soldiers, with minute guns and honours of war. In sight of the Ohio, George Rogers Clark sleeps, and below the grave of William Clark sweeps the Mississippi, roaring, swirling, bearing the life-blood of the land they were the first to explore. The Sacs, with Keokuk at their head, marched in the long funeral train of their Red Head Father and wept genuine tears of desolation. No more, dressed in their best, did the Indians sing and dance through the streets of St. Louis, receiving gifts from door to door. The friend of the redmen was dead. St. Louis ceased to be the Mecca of their pilgrimages; no more their gala costumes enlivened the market; they disappeared. For more than forty years William Clark had been identified with St. Louis,--had become a part of its history and of the West. October 3, 1838, a few days after Clark, Black Hawk, too, breathed his last in his lodge, and was buried like the Sac chieftains of old, sitting upright, in the uniform given him by President Jackson, with his hand resting on the cane presented by Henry Clay. He, too, said, "I like to look upon the Mississippi. I have looked upon it from a child. I love that beautiful river. My home has always been upon its banks." And there they buried him. Every day at sunset travellers along that road heard the weird heart-broken wail of Singing Bird, the widow of Black Hawk. XXII _THE NEW WEST_ Four years after the death of Governor Clark began the rush to Oregon. Dr. Lewis F. Linn, Senator from Missouri, and grandson of William Linn, the trusted lieutenant of George Rogers Clark, introduced a bill in Congress offering six hundred and forty acres of land to every family that would emigrate to Oregon. The Linns came to Missouri with Daniel Boone, and with the Boones they looked ever west! west! "Six hundred and forty acres of land! A solid square mile of God's earth, clear down to the centre!" men exclaimed in amaze. While Ohio was still new, and the Mississippi Valley billowed her carpets of untrodden bloom, an eagle's flight beyond, civilisation leaped to Oregon. From ferries where Kansas City and Omaha now stand they started, crossing the Platte by fords, by waggon-beds lashed together, and on rafts, darkening the stream for days. Before their buffalo hunters, innumerable herds made the earth tremble where Kansas-Nebraska cities are to-day. In 1843 Marcus Whitman piloted the first waggon train through to the Columbia. "A thousand people? Starving did you say? Lord! Lord! They must have help to-night," exclaimed Dr. McLoughlin, the old white-haired Hudson's Bay trader at Fort Vancouver. "Man the boats! People are starving at the Dalles!" and the noble-hearted representative of a rival government sent out his provision-laden bateaux to rescue the perishing Americans, who in spite of storms and tempests were gliding down the great Columbia as sixty years before their fathers floated down the Indian-haunted Ohio. And Indians were here, with tomahawks ready. "Let us kill these Bostons!" McLoughlin heard the word, and shook the speaker as a terrier shakes a rat. "Dogs, you shall be punished!" In his anxiety lest harm should come to the approaching Americans, all night long, his white hair wet in the rain, Dr. McLoughlin stood watching the boats coming down the Columbia, and building great bonfires where Lewis and Clark had camped in 1806. Women and little children and new-born babes slept in the British fur-trader's fort. Anglo-Saxon greeted Anglo-Saxon in the conquest of the world, to march henceforward hand in hand for ever. Among the emigrants on the plains in 1846, was Alphonso Boone, the son of Jesse, the son of Daniel. Several grown-up Boone boys were there, and the beautiful Chloe and her younger sisters. Chloe Boone rode a thorough-bred mare, a descendant of the choicest Boone stock, from the old Kentucky blue-grass region. Mounted upon her high-stepping mare, Chloe and her sisters and other young people of the train rode on ahead of the slow-going line of waggons and oxen. Gay was the laughter, and merry the songs, that rang out on the bright morning air. Francis Parkman, the great historian, then a young man just out of college, was on the plains that year, collecting material for his books. Now and then they met parties of soldiers going to the Mexican War, and many a boy in blue turned to catch a glimpse of the sweet girl faces in Chloe's train. Happily they rode in the Spring on the plains; more slowly when the heats of Summer came and the sides of the Rocky Mountains grew steep and rough; and slower still in the parched lands beyond, when the woodwork of the waggons began to shrink, and the worn-out animals to faint and fall. "So long a journey!" said Chloe. Six months it took. Clothes wore out, babes were born, and people died. They came into Oregon by the southern route, guided by Daniel Boone's old compass, the one given him by Dunmore to bring in the surveyors from the Falls of the Ohio seventy-two years before. The Fall rains had set in. The Umpqua River was swollen,--eighteen times from bank to bank Chloe forded, in getting down Umpqua canyon. "We shall have to leave the waggons and heavy baggage with a guard," said Colonel Boone, "and hurry on to the settlements." They reached the Willamette Valley, pitched their tents where Corvallis now stands, and that Winter, in a little log cabin, Chloe Boone taught the first school ever conducted by a woman outside of the missions in Oregon. Leaving the girls, Colonel Boone went back after the waggons. Alas! the guard was killed, the camp was looted, and Daniel Boone's old compass was gone for ever. Its work was done. Alphonso Boone built a mansion near the present capital city of Salem and here Chloe married the Governor, George L. Curry, and for years beside the old Boone fireside the Governor's wife extended the hospitalities of the rising State. Albert Gallatin Boone camped on the site of Denver twenty years before Denver was, and negotiated the sale of Colorado from the Indians to the United States. John C. Boone, son of Nathan Boone, explored a new cut-off and became a pioneer of California. James Madison Boone drove stakes in Texas. What years had passed since the expedition of Lewis and Clark! It seemed like a bygone event, but one who had shared its fortunes still lived on and on,--our old friend, Patrick Gass. In the War of 1812, above the roaring Falls of Niagara, Sergeant Gass spiked the enemy's cannon at the battle of Lundy's Lane. Years went on. A plain unpretentious citizen, Patrick worked at his trade in Wellsburg and raised his family. In 1856 Patrick Gass headed a delegation of gray-haired veterans of the War of 1812 to Washington, and was everywhere lionised as the last of the men of Lewis and Clark. On July 4, 1861, the land was aflame over the firing on Fort Sumter. All Wellsburg with her newly enlisted regiments for the war was gathered at Apple Pie Ridge to celebrate the day. "Where is Patrick Gass?" A grand carriage was sent for him, and on the shoulders of the boys in blue he was brought in triumph to the platform. "Speech! speech!" And the speech of his life Patrick Gass made that day, for his country and the Union. The simple, honest old hero brought tears to every eye, with a glimpse of the splendid drama of Lewis and Clark. Again they saw those early soldier-boys bearing the flag across the Rockies, suffering starvation and danger and almost death, to carry their country to the sea. "But me byes, it's not a picnic ye're goin' to,--oh, far from it! No! no! 'T will be hard fur ye when ye come marchin' back lavin' yer comrades lyin' far from home and friends, but there is One to look to, who has made and kept our country." It seemed the applause would never cease, with cheering and firing of cannon. "Stay! stay!" cried the people. "Sit up on the table and let us have our banquet around you with the big flag floating over your head." In an instant Pat was down. "Far enough is far enough!" he cried, "and be the divil, will yez try to make sport of mesilf?" Excitedly the modest old soldier slipped away. The war ended. A railroad crossed the plains. Oregon and California were States. Alaska was bought. Still Pat lived on, until 1870, when he fell asleep, at the age of ninety-nine, the last of the heroic band of Lewis and Clark. William Walker, who gave to the world the story of the Nez Percés, led his Wyandots into Kansas, and, with the first white settlers, organising a Provisional Government after the plan of Oregon, became himself the first Governor of Kansas-Nebraska. Oh, Little Crow! Little Crow! what crimes were committed in thy name! In the midst of the war, 1862, Little Crow the third arose against the white settlers of Minnesota in one of the most frightful massacres recorded in history. Then came Sibley's expedition sweeping on west, opening the Dakotas and Montana. The Indian? He fought and was vanquished. How we are beginning to love our Indians, now that we fear them no longer! No wild man ever so captured the imagination of the world. With inherent nobility, courage to the border of destruction, patriotism to the death, absolutely refusing to be enslaved, he stands out the most perfect picture of primeval man. We might have tamed him but we had not time. The movement was too swift, the pressure behind made the white men drivers as the Indians had driven before. Civilisation demands repose, safety. And until repose and safety came we could do no effective work for the Indian. We of to-day have lived the longest lives, for we have seen a continent transformed. We have forgotten that a hundred years ago Briton and Spaniard and Frenchman were hammering at our gates; forgotten that the Indian beleaguered our wooden castles; forgotten that wolves drummed with their paws on our cabin doors, snapping their teeth like steel traps, while the mother hushed the wheel within and children crouched beneath the floor. O mothers of a mighty past, thy sons are with us yet, fighting new battles, planning new conquests, for law, order, and justice. Where rolls the Columbia and where the snow-peaks of Hood, Adams, Jefferson, Rainier, and St. Helens look down, a metropolis has arisen in the very Multnomah where Clark took his last soundings. Northward, Seattle sits on her Puget sea, southward San Francisco smiles from her golden gate, Spanish no more. Over the route where Lewis and Clark toiled slowly a hundred years ago, lo! in three days the traveller sits beside the sunset. Five transcontinental lines bear the rushing armies westward, ever westward into the sea. Bewildered a moment they pause, then turn--to the Conquest of the Poles and the Tropics. The frontiersman? He is building Nome City under the Arctic: he is hewing the forests of the Philippines. * * * * * Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. 
8107	----	** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with And the following substitutions have been made: - I + reversed 'C' (for the number 500) = D - CI + reversed 'C' (for 1000) = M This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER. AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. VI MADEIRA AND THE CANARIES; ANCIENT ASIA, AFRICA, ETC. [Title Page to volume 2 of the original edition.] THE SECOND VOLVME OF THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQVES, AND DISCOUERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION, MADE BY SEA OR OUER-LAND, TO THE SOUTH & SOUTH-EAST PARTS OF THE WORLD. AT ANY TIME WITHIN THE COMPASSE OF THESE 1600. YERES: DIUIDED INTO TWO SEUERALL PARTS: WHEREOF THE FIRST CONTAINETH THE PERSONALL TRAUELS, &c. OF THE ENGLISH, THROUGH AND WITHIN THE STREIGHT OF GIBRALTAR, TO Alger, Tunis, and Tripolis in Barbary, to Alexandria and Cairo in Aegypt, to the Isles of Sicilia, Zante, Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus, and Chio, to the Citie of Constantinople, to diuers parts of Asia Minor, to Syria and Armenia, to Ierusalem, and other Places in Iudea; AS ALSO TO: Arabia, downe the Riuer of Euphrates, to Babylon and Balsara, and so through the Persian Gulph to Ormuts, Chaul, Goa, and to many Islands adioyning vpon the South Parts of Asia; AND LIKEWISE FROM Goa to Cambaia, and to all the Dominions of Zelabdim Echebar The Great Mogor, to the Mighty Riuer of Ganges, to Bengala, Aracan, Bacola, and Chonderi, to Pegu, to Iamahai in the Kingdome of Siam, and almost to the very Frontiers of China. THE SECOND COMPREHENDETH THE VOYAGES, TRAFFICKS, &c. OF THE ENGLISH NATION, MADE WITHOUT THE STREIGHT OF GIBRALTAR, TO THE ISLANDS OF THE ACORES, OF PORTO SANTO, MADERA, AND THE CANARIES, TO THE KINGDOMES OF BARBARY, TO THE ISLES OF CAPO VERDE, To the Riuers of Senega, Gambra, Madrabumba, and Sierra Leona, to the Coast of Guinea and Benin, to the Isles of S. Thome and Santa Helena, to the Parts about the Cape of Buona Esperanza, to Quitangone, neere Mozambique, to the Isles of Comoro and Zanzibar, To the Citie of Goa, Beyond Cape Comori, to the Isles of Nicubar, Gomes Polo, and Pulo Pinaom, to the maine Land of Malacca, and to the Kingdome of Iunsalaon. BY RICHARD HAKLVYT PREACHER, AND SOMETIME STUDENT OF CHRIST CHVRCH IN OXFORD. IMPRINTED AT LONDON BY GEORGE BISHOP, RALPH NEWBERY, AND ROBERT BARKER. ANNO 1599. DEDICATION TO THE FIRST EDITION. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR ROBERT CECIL KNIGHT, PRINCIPALL SECRETARIE TO HER MAIESTIE, MASTER OF THE COURT OF WARDES AND LIUERIES, AND ONE OF HER MAIESTIES MOST HONOURABLE PRIUIE COUNSELL. Right Honorable, hauing newly finished a Treatise of the long Voyages of our Nation made into the Leuant within the Streight of Gibraltar, and from thence ouer-land to the South and Southeast parts of the world, all circumstances considered, I found none to whom I thought it fitter to bee presented then to your selfe: wherein hauing begun at the highest Antiquities of this realme vnder the gouerment of the Romans; next vnder the Saxons; and thirdly since the conquest vnder the Normans, I haue continued the histories vnto these our dayes. The time of the Romans affoordeth small matter. But after that they were called hence by forren inuasions of their Empire, and the Saxons by degrees became lords in this Iland, and shortly after receiued the Christian faith, they did not onely trauell to Rome, but passed farther vnto Ierusalem, and therewith not contented, Sigelmus bishop of Shireburne in Dorsetshire caried the almes of king Alfred euen to the Sepulcher of S. Thomas in India, (which place at this day is called Maliapor) and brought from thence most fragrant spices, and rich iewels into England: Which iewels, as William of Malmesburie in two sundry treatises writeth, were remaining in the aforsayd Cathedrall Church to be seene euen in his time. And this most memorable voyage into India is not onely mentioned by the aforesayd Malmesburie, but also by Florentius Wigorniensis, a graue and woorthy Author which liued before him, and by many others since, and euen by M. Foxe in his first volume of his acts and Monuments in the life of king Alfred. To omit diuers other of the Saxon nation, the trauels of Alured bishop of Worcester through Hungarie to Constantinople, and so by Asia the lesse into Phoenicia and Syria, and the like course of Ingulphus, not long afterward Abbot of Croiland, set downe particularly by himselfe, are things in mine opinion right worthy of memorie. After the comming in of the Normans, in the yeere 1096, in the reigne of William Rufus, and so downward for the space of aboue 300 yeeres, such was the ardent desire of our nation to visite the Holy land, and to expell the Saracens and Mahumetans, that not only great numbers of Erles, Bishops, Barons, and Knights, but euen Kings, Princes, and Peeres of the blood Roiall, with incredible deuotion, courage and alacritie intruded themselues into this glorious expedition. A sufficient proofe hereof are the voiages of prince Edgar the nephew of Edmund Ironside, of Robert Curtois brother of William Rufus, the great beneuolence of king Henry the 2. and his vowe to haue gone in person to the succour of Ierusalem, the personall going into Palestina of his sonne king Richard the first, with the chiualrie, wealth, and shipping of this realme; the large contribution of king Iohn, and the trauels of Oliuer Fitz-Roy his sonne, as is supposed, with Ranulph Glanuile Erle of Chester to the siege of Damiata in Egypt: the prosperous voyage of Richard Erle of Cornwall, elected afterward king of the Romans, and brother to Henry the 3, the famous expedition of Prince Edward, the first king of the Norman race of that name; the iourney of Henry Erle of Derbie, duke of Hereford, and afterward King of this realme, by the name of Henry the 4 against the citie of Tunis in Africa, and his preparation of ships and gallies to go himselfe into the Holy land, if he had not on the sudden bene preuented by death; the trauel of Iohn of Holland brother by the mothers side to king Richard the 2 into those parts. All these, either Kings, Kings sonnes, or Kings brothers, exposed themselues with inuincible courages to the manifest hazard of their persons, liues, and liuings, leauing their ease, their countries, wiues and children; induced with a Zelous deuotion and ardent desire to protect and dilate the Christian faith. These memorable enterprises in part concealed, in part scattered, and for the most part vnlooked after, I haue brought together in the best Method and breuitie that I could deuise. Whereunto I haue annexed the losse of Rhodes, which although it were originally written in French, yet maketh it as honourable and often mention of the English nation, as of any other Christians that serued in that most violent siege. After which ensueth the princely promise of the bountiful aide of king Henry the 8 to Ferdinando newly elected king of Hungarie, against Solyman the mortall enemie of Christendome. These and the like Heroicall intents and attempts of our Princes, our Nobilitie, our Clergie, and our Chiualry, I haue in the first place exposed and set foorth to the view of this age, with the same intention that the old Romans set vp in wax in their palaces the Statuas or images of their worthy ancestors; whereof Salust in his treatise of the warre of Iugurtha, writeth in this maner: Sæpe audiui ego Quintum maximum, Publium Scipionem, præterea ciuitatis nostræ præclaros viros solitos ita dicere, cum maiorum imagines intuerentur, vehementissimè animum sibi ad virtutem accendi. Scilicet non ceram illam, neque figuram, tantam vim in sese habere, sed memoria rerum gestarum flammam eam egregijs viris in pectore crescere, neque prius sedari, quàm virtus eorum famam et gloriam adæquauerit. I haue often heard (quoth he) how Quintus maximus, Publius Scipio, and many other worthy men of our citie were woont to say, when they beheld the images and portraitures of their ancestors, that they were most vehemently inflamed vnto vertue. Not that the sayd wax or portraiture had any such force at all in it selfe, but that by the remembring of their woorthy actes, that flame was kindled in their noble breasts, and could neuer be quenched, vntill such time as their owne valure had equalled the fame and glory of their progenitors. So, though not in wax, yet in record of writing haue I presented to the noble courages of this English Monarchie, the like images of their famous predecessors, with hope of like effect in their posteritie. And here by the way if any man shall think, that an vniuersall peace with our Christian neighbours will cut off the emploiment of the couragious increasing youth of this realme, he is much deceiued. For there are other most conuenient emploiments for all the superfluitie of euery profession in this realme. For, not to meddle with the state of Ireland, nor that of Guiana, there is vnder our noses the great and ample countrey of Virginia; the In-land whereof is found of late to bee so sweete, and holesome a climate, so rich and abundant in siluer mines, so apt and capable of all commodities, which Italy, Spaine, and France can affoord, that the Spaniards themselues in their owne writings printed in Madrid 1586, and within few moneths afterward reprinted by me in Paris, [Footnote: This no doubt refers to the "History of the West Indies," which appears further on in this edition.] and in a secret mappe of those partes made in Mexico the yeere before; for the king of Spaine, (which originall with many others is in the custodie of the excellent Mathematician M. Thomas Hariot) as also in their intercepted letters come vnto my hand, bearing date 1595, they acknowledge the In-land to be a better and richer countrey then Mexico and Nueua Spania itselfe. And on the other side their chiefest writers, as Peter Martyr ab Angleria, and Francis Lopez de Gomara, the most learned Venetian Iohn Baptista Ramusius, and the French Geographers, as namely, Popiliniere and the rest, acknowledge with one consent, that all that mightie tract of land from 67., degrees Northward to the latitude almost of Florida was first discouered out of England, by the commaundement of king Henry the seuenth, and the South part thereof before any other Christian people of late hath bene planted with diuers English colonies by the royal consent of her sacred Maiestie vnder the broad seale of England, whereof one as yet remaineth, for ought we know, aliue in the countrey. Which action, if vpon a good and godly peace obtained, it shal please the Almighty to stirre vp her Maiesties heart to continue with her fauourable countenance (as vpon the ceasing of the warres of Granada, hee stirred vp the spirite of Isabella Queene of Castile, to aduance the enterprise of Columbus) with transporting of one or two thousand of her people, and such others as vpon mine owne knowledge will most willingly at their owne charges become Aduenturers in good numbers with their bodies and goods; she shall by Gods assistance, in short space, worke many great and vnlooked for effects, increase her dominions, enrich her cofers, and reduce many Pagans to the faith of Christ. The neglecting hitherto of which last point our aduersaries daily in many of their bookes full bitterly lay vnto the charge of the professors of the Gospell. No sooner should we set footing in that pleasant and good land, and erect one or two conuenient Fortes in the Continent, or in some Iland neere the maine, but euery step we tread would yeeld vs new occasion of action, which I wish the Gentrie of our nation rather to regard, then to follow those soft vnprofitable pleasures wherein they now too much consume their time and patrimonie, and hereafter will doe much more, when as our neighbour warres being appeased, they are like to haue lesse emploiment then nowe they haue, vnlesse they bee occupied in this or some other the like expedition. And to this ende and purpose giue me leaue (I beseech you) to impart this occurrent to your honourable and prouident consideration: that in the yere one thousand fiue hundred eighty and seuen, when I had caused the foure voyages of Ribault, Laudonniere, and Gourges to Florida, at mine owne charges to bee printed in Paris, which by the malice of some too much affectioned to the Spanish faction, had bene aboue twentie yeeres suppressed, as soone as that booke came to the view of that reuerend and prudent Counseller Monsieur Harlac the lord chiefe Iustice of France, and certaine other of the wisest Iudges, in great choler they asked, who had done such intolerable wrong to their whole kingdome, as to haue concealed that woorthie worke so long? Protesting further, that if their Kings and the Estate had throughly followed that action, France had bene freed of their long ciuill warres, and the variable humours of all sortes of people might haue had very ample and manifold occasions of good and honest emploiment abroad in that large and fruitfull Continent of the West Indies. The application of which sentence vnto our selues I here omit, hastening vnto the summarie recapitulation of other matters contained in this worke. It may please your Honour therefore to vnderstand, that the second part of this first Treatise containeth our auncient trade and traffique with English shipping to the Ilands of Sicilie, Candie, and Sio, which, by good warrant herein alleaged, I find to haue bene begun in the yeere 1511. and to haue continued vntill the yeere 1552. and somewhat longer. But shortly after (as it seemeth) it was intermitted, or rather giuen ouer (as is noted in master Gaspar Campions discreet letters to Master Michael Lock and Master William Winter inserted in this booke) first by occasion of the Turkes expelling of the foure and twentie Mauneses or gouernours of the Genouois out of the Ile of Sio, and by taking of the sayd Iland wholie into his owne hand in Aprill, 1566. sending thither Piali Basha with fourescore gallies for that purpose; and afterward by his growing ouer mightie and troublesome in those Seas, by the cruell inuasion of Nicosia and Famagusta, and the whole Ile of Cyprus by his lieutenant Generall Mustapha Basha. Which lamentable Tragedie I haue here againe reuiued, that the posteritie may neuer forget what trust may bee giuen to the oath of a Mahometan, when hee hath aduauntage and is in his choler. Lastly, I haue here put downe at large the happie renuing and much increasing of our interrupted trade in all the Leuant, accomplished by the great charges and speciall Industrie of the worshipfull and worthy Citizens, Sir Edward Osborne Knight, M. Richard Staper, and M. William Hareborne, together with the league for traffike onely betweene her Maiestie and the Grand Signior, with the great priuileges, immunities, and fauours obteyned of his imperiall Highnesse in that behalfe, the admissions and residencies of our Ambassadours in his stately Porch, and the great good and Christian offices which her Sacred Maiestie by her extraordinary fauour in that Court hath done for the king and kingdome of Poland, and other Christian Princes: the traffike of our Nation in all the chiefe Hauens of Africa and Egypt: the searching and haunting the very bottome of the Mediterran Sea to the ports of Tripoli and Alexandretta, of the Archipelagus, by the Turkes now called The white sea, euen to the walles of Constantinople: the voyages ouer land, and by riuer through Aleppo, Birrha, Babylon and Balsara, and downe the Persian gulfe to Ormuz, and thence by the Ocean sea to Goa, and againe ouer-land to Bisnagar, Cambaia, Orixa, Bengala, Aracan, Pegu, Malacca, Siam, the Iangomes, Quicheu, and euen to the Frontiers of the Empire of China: the former performed diuerse times by sundry of our nation, and the last great voyage by M. Ralph Fitch, who with M. Iohn Newbery and two other consorts departed from London with her Maiesties letters written effectually in their fauour to the kings of Cambaia and China in the yere 1583, who in the yeere 1591. like another Paulus Venetus returned home to the place of his departure, with ample relation of his wonderfull trauailes, which he presented in writing to my Lord your father of honourable memorie. Now here if any man shall take exception against this our new trade with Turkes and misbeleeuers, he shall shew himselfe a man of small experience in old and new Histories, or wilfully lead with partialitie, or some worse humour. [Marginal note: 1. King. cap. 5., 2. Chron. cap. 2.] For who knoweth not, that king Solomon of old, entred into league vpon necessitie with Hiram the king of Tyrus, a gentile? Or who is ignorant that the French, the Genouois, Florentines, Raguseans, Venetians, and Polonians are at this day in league with the Grand Signior, and haue beene these many yeeres, and haue vsed trade and traffike in his dominions? Who can deny that the Emperor of Christendome hath had league with the Turke, and payd him a long while a pension for a part of Hungarie? And who doth not acknowledge, that either hath traueiled the remote parts of the world, or read the Histories of this latter age, that the Spaniards and Portugales in Barbarie, in the Indies, and elsewhere, haue ordinarie confederacie and traffike with the Moores, and many kindes of Gentiles and Pagans, and that which is more, doe pay them pensions, and vse them in their seruice and warres? Why then should that be blamed in vs, which is vsuall and common to the most part of other Christian nations? Therefore let our neighbours, which haue found most fault with this new league and traffike, thanke themselues and their owne foolish pride, whereby we were vrged to seeke further to prouide vent for our naturall commodities. And herein the old Greeke prouerbe was most truely verified, That euill counsaille prooueth worst to the author and deuiser of the same. Hauing thus farre intreated of the chiefe contents of the first part of this second Volume, it remayneth that I briefly acquaint your Honor with the chiefe contents of the second part. It may therefore please you to vnderstand, that herein I haue likewise preserued, disposed, and set in order such Voyages, Nauigations, Traffikes, and Discoueries, as our Nation, and especially the worthy inhabitants of this citie of London, haue painefully performed to the South and Southeast parts of the world, without the Streight of Gibraltar, vpon the coasts of Africa, about the Cape of Buona Sperança, to and beyonde the East India. To come more neere vnto particulars, I haue here set downe the very originals and infancie of our trades to the Canarian Ilands, to the kingdomes of Barbarie, to the mightie riuers of Senega and Gambia, to those of Madrabumba, and Sierra Leona, and the Isles of Cape Verde, with twelue sundry voyages to the sultry kingdomes of Guinea and Benin, to the Ile of San Thomé, with a late and true report of the weake estate of the Portugales in Angola, as also the whole course of the Portugale Caracks from Lisbon to the barre of Goa in India, with the disposition and qualitie of the climate neere and vnder the Equinoctiall line, the sundry infallible markes and tokens of approaching vnto, and doubling of The Cape of good Hope, the great variation of the compasse for three or foure pointes towards the East between the Meridian of S. Michael one of the Islands of the Azores, and the aforesaid Cape, with the returne of the needle againe due North at the Cape Das Agulias, and that place being passed outward bound, the swaruing backe againe thereof towards the West, proportionally as it did before, the two wayes, the one within and the other without the Isle of S. Laurence, the dangers of priuie rockes and quicksands, the running seas, and the perils thereof, with the certaine and vndoubted signes of land. All these and other particularities are plainly and truely here deliuered by one Thomas Steuens a learned Englishman, who in the yeere 1579 going as a passenger in the Portugale Fleete from Lisbon into India, wrote the same from Goa to his father in England: Whereunto I haue added the memorable voyage of M. Iames Lancaster, who doth not onely recount and confirme most of the things aboue mentioned, but also doth acquaint vs with the state of the voyage beyond Cape Comori, and the Isle of Ceilon, with the Isles of Nicubar and Gomes Polo lying within two leagues of the rich Island Sumatra, and those of Pulo Pinaom, with the maine land of Iunçalaon and the streight of Malacca. I haue likewise added a late intercepted letter of a Portugall reuealing the secret and most gainefull trade of Pegu, which is also confirmed by Cesar Fredericke a Venetian, and M. Ralph Fitch now liuing here in London. And because our chiefe desire is to find out ample vent of our wollen cloth, the naturall commoditie of this our Realme, the fittest places, which in al my readings and obseruations I find for that purpose, are the manifold Islands of Iapan, and the Northern parts of China, and the regions of the Tartars next adioyning (whereof I read, that the countrey in winter is Assi fria como Flandes, that is to say, as cold as Flanders, and that the riuers be strongly ouer frozen) and therefore I haue here inserted two speciall Treatises of the sayd Countries, the last discourse I hold to be the most exact of those parts that is yet come to light, which was printed in Lantine in Macao a citie of China, in China paper, in the yeere a thousand fiue hundred and ninetie, and was intercepted in the great Carack called Madre de Dios two yeeres after, inclosed in a case of sweete Cedar wood, and lapped vp almost an hundred fold in fine Calicut cloth, as though it had bene some incomparable iewel. But leauing abruptly this discourse, I thinke it not impertinent, before I make an end, to deliuer some of the reasons, that moued me to present this part of my trauailes vnto your Honour. The reuerend antiquitie in the dedication of their workes made choyse of such patrons, as eyther with their reputation and credits were able to countenance the same, or by their wisedome and vnderstanding were able to censure and approue them, or with their abilitie were likely to stand them or theirs in steade in the ordinarie necessities and accidents of their life. Touching the first, your descent from a father, that was accounted Pater patriæ, your owne place and credite in execution of her Maiesties inward counsailes and publike seruices, added to your well discharging your forren imployment (when the greatest cause in Christendome was handled) haue not onely drawen mens eyes vpon you, but also forcibly haue moued many, and my selfe among the rest to haue our labours protected by your authoritie. For the second point, when it pleased your Honour in sommer was two yeeres to haue some conference with me, and to demaund mine opinion touching the state of the Country of Guiana, and whether it were fit to be planted by the English: I then (to my no small ioy) did admire the exact knowledge which you had gotten of those matters of Indian Nauigations: and how carefull you were, not to be ouertaken with any partiall affection to the Action, appeared also, by the sound arguments which you made pro and contra, of the likelihood and reason of good or ill successe of the same, before the State and common wealth (wherein you haue an extraordinarie voyce) should be farther engaged. In consideration whereof I thinke myselfe thrise happie to haue these my trauailes censured by your Honours so well approued iudgement, Touching the third and last motiue I cannot but acknowledge my selfe much indebted for your fauourable letters heretofore written in my behalfe in mine, honest causes. Whereunto I may adde, that when this worke was to passe vnto the presse, your Honour did not onely intreate a worthy knight, a person of speciall experience, as in many others so in marine causes, to ouersee and peruse the same, but also vpon his good report with your most fauourable letters did warrant, and with extraordinarie commendation did approue and allow my labours, and desire to publish the same. Wherefore to conclude, seeing they take their life and light from the most cheerefull and benigne aspect of your fauour, I thinke it my bounden dutie in all humilitie and with much bashfulnesse to recommend my selfe and them vnto your right Honorable and fauourable protection, and your Honour to the merciful tuition of the most High. From London this 24. of October. 1599. Your Honours most humble to be commanded, Richard Hakluyt preacher. Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoueries OF THE ENGLISH NATION, MADE TO THE ILANDS OF MADERA AND OF THE CANARIES. The voyage of Macham an English man, wherein he first of any man discouered the Iland of Madera, recorded verbatim in the Portugall history, written by Antonio Galuano. [Sidenote: Madera first discouered by one Macham an Englishman.] In the yeere 1344, King Peter the fourth of that name reigning in Aragon, the Chronicles of his age write that about this time the Iland of Madera, standing in 32 degrees, was discouered by an English man, which was named Macham, who sailing out of England into Spaine, with a woman that he had stollen, arriued by tempest in that Iland, and did cast anker in that hauen or bay, which now is called Machico after the name of Macham. And because his louer was sea sicke, he went on land with some of his company, and the shippe with a good winde made saile away, and the woman died for thought. [Sidenote: Macham made there a chapel, naming it Iesus chapell.] Macham, which loued her dearely built a chapell, or hermitage, to bury her in, calling it by the name of Iesus, and caused his name and hers to be written or grauen vpon the stone of her tombe, and the occasion of their arriuall there. And afterward he ordeined a boat made of one tree (for there be trees of a great compasse about) and went to sea in it, with those men that he had, and were left behinde with him, and came vpon the coast of Afrike, without saile or oare. And the Moores which saw it tooke it to be a maruellous thing, and presented him vnto the king of that countrey for a woonder, and that king also sent him and his companions for a miracle vnto the king of Castile. In the yeere 1395. King Henry the third of that name reigning in Castile, the information which Macham gaue of this Iland, and also the ship of his company, mooued many of France and Castile to go and discouer it, and also the great Canaria, &c. In the yeere 1417, King Iohn the second reigning in Castile, and his mother Lady Katherine being Regent, one Monsieur Ruben of Bracamont, which was Admirall of France, demanding the conquest of the Ilands of the Canaries, with the title of King, for a kinsman of his named Monsieur Iohn Betancourt, after that the Queene hath giuen him them, and holpen him, he departed from Siuil with a good army. And they affirme also, that the principall cause which moued him to this, was to discouer the Iland of Madera, which Macham had found, &c. ibidem pag. 2. of Anthonio Galuano. [Footnote: The romantic story of Machin or Macham has been recently confirmed by authentic documents discovered in Lisbon. The lady eloped with him from near Bristol. The name of Madeira is derived from its thick woods, the word being the same as the Latin Materies.] * * * * * A briefe note concerning an ancient trade of the English Marchants to the Canarie-ilands, gathered out of an olde ligier booke of M. Nicolas Thorne the elder a worshipfull marchant of the city of Bristoll. [Sidenote: The English had an ordinary trade to the Canaries 1526.] It appeareth euidently out of a certaine note or letter of remembrance, in the custody of me Richard Hakluyt, written by M. Nicolas Thorne the elder a principall marchant of Bristoll, to his friend and factour Thomas Midnall and his owne seruant William Ballard at that time resident at S. Lucar in Andaluzia; that in the yeere of our Lord 1526 (and by all circumstances and probabilities long before) certaine English marchants, and among the rest himselfe with one Thomas Spacheford exercised vsuall and ordinary trade of marchandise vnto the Canarie Ilands. For by the sayd letter notice was giuen to Thomas Midnall and William Ballard aforesayd, that a certaine ship called The Christopher of Cadiz bound for the West Indies had taken in certaine fardels of cloth both course and fine, broad and narrow of diuers sorts and colours, some arouas [Transcriber's note: sic.] of packthreed, sixe cerons or bagges of sope with other goods of M. Nicolas Thorne, to be deliuered at Santa Cruz the chiefe towne in Tenerifa one of the seuen Canary-ilands. All which commodities the sayd Thomas and William were authorised by the owner in the letter before mentioned to barter and sell away at Santa Cruz. And in lieu of such mony as should arise of the sale of those goods they were appointed to returne backe into England good store of Orchell (which is a certaine kinde of mosse growing vpon high rocks, in those dayes much vsed to die withall) some quantity of sugar, and certaine hundreds, of kid skinnes. For the procuring of which and of other commodities at the best and first hand the sayd Thomas and William were to make their abode at Santa Cruz, and to remaine there as factours for the abouesayd M. Nicolas Thorne. And here also I thought good to signifie, that in the sayd letters mention is made of one Thomas Tison an English man, who before the foresayd yere 1526 had found the way to the West Indies, and was there resident, vnto whom the sayd M. Nicolas Thorne sent certaine armour and other commodities specified in the letter aforesayd. * * * * * A description of the fortunate Ilands, otherwise called the Ilands of Canaria, with their strange fruits and commodities: composed by Thomas Nicols English man, who remained there the space of seuen yeeres together. Mine intent is particularly to speake of the Canaria Ilands, which are seuen in number, wherein I dwelt the space of seuen yeres and more, because I finde such variety in sundry writers, and especially great vntruths, in a booke called The New found world Antarctike, set out by a French man called Andrew Thenet, the which his booke he dedicated to the Cardinall of Sens, keeper of the great seale of France. It appeareth by the sayd booke that he had read the works of sundry Phylosophers, Astronomers, and Cosmographers, whose opinions he gathered together. But touching his owne trauell, which he affirmeth, I refer to the iudgement of the expert in our dayes, and therefore for mine owne part I write of these Canaria Ilands, as time hath taught me in many yeres. The Iland of Canaria. The Iland of Canaria is almost equal in length and bredth, containing 12 leagues in length, touching the which as principall and the residue, the Spanyards holde opinion, that they discouered the same in their nauigation toward America, but the Portugals say, that their nation first found the sayd Ilands in their nauigation toward Aethiopia and the East Indies. [Sidenote: English men at the first conquest of the Canaries.] But truth it is that the Spanyards first conquered these Ilands, with diuers English gentlemen in their company, whose posterity this present day inioyeth them. Some write that this Iland was named Canaria by meane of the number of dogs which there were found: as for example, Andrew Theuet sayth, that one Iuba carried two dogs from thence: but that opinion could I neuer learne by any of the naturall people of the countrey, although I haue talked with many in my time and with many of their children. For trueth it is, that there were dogs, but such as are in all the Northwest lands, and some part of the West India, which serued the people in stead of sheepe for victual. But of some of the conquerors of those Ilands I haue heard say that the reason why they were called the Canaria Islands is, because there grow generally in them all fouresquare canes in great multitude together, which being touched will cast out a liquor as white as milke, which liquor is ranke poison, and at the first entry into these Ilands some of the discouerers were therewith poisoned: for many yeeres after that conquest the inhabitants began to plant both wine and sugar, so that Canaria was not so called by sugar canes. The people which first inhabited this land were called Canaries by the conquerors, they were clothed in goat skinnes made like vnto a loose cassocke, they dwelt in caues in the rocks, [Footnote: Many thousand persons, including a colony of free negroes, still reside in cave dwellings in the hill side.] in great amity and brotherly loue. They spake all one language: their chiefe feeding was gelt dogges, goates, and goates milke, their bread was made of barley meale and goates milke, called Gofia, which they vse at this day, and thereof I haue eaten diuers times, for it is accounted exceeding holesome. Touching the originall of these people some holde opinion, that the Romans which dwelt in Africa exiled them thither, as well men as women, their tongues being cut out of their heads, for blasphemy against the Romane gods. But howsoeuer it were, their language was speciall, and not mixed with Romane speech or Arabian. This Iland is now the principallest of all the rest, not in fertility, but by reason it is the seat of iustice and gouernment of all the residue. This Iland hath a speciall Gouernour for the Iland onely, yet notwithstanding there are three Iudges called Auditours, who are superiour Iudges, and all in one ioyntly proceed as the Lord Chanceller of any realme. To this city from all the other Ilands come all such by appeale, as haue sustained any wrong, and these good Iudges do remedy the same. [Sidenote: Ciuitas Palmarum.] The city is called Ciuitas Palmarum, it hath a beautifull Cathedrall church, with all dignities thereunto pertaining. For the publike weale of the Iland there are sundry Aldermen of great authority, who haue a councell house by themselues. The city is not onely beautifull, but the citizens curious and gallant in apparell. And after any raine or foule weather a man may goe cleane in Veluet slippers, because the ground is sandy, the aire very temperate, without extreame heat or colde. They reape wheat in February, and againe in May, which is excellent good, and maketh bread as white as snow. This Iland hath in it other three townes, the one called Telde, the second Galder, and the third Guia. It hath also twelue sugar houses called Ingenios, in which they make great quantity of good sugar. [Sidenote: The planting and growth of sugar canes.] The maner of the growth of sugar is in this sort, a good ground giueth foorth fruit nine times in 18 yere: that is to say, the first is called Planta which is layd along in a furrow, so that the water of a sluce may come ouer euery roote being couered with earth: this root bringeth foorth sundry canes, and so consequently all the rest. It groweth two yeeres before the yeelding of profit, and not sixe moneths, as Andrew Theuet the French man writeth. [Sidenote: The making of sugar.] Then are they cut euen with the ground, and the tops and leaues called Coholia cut off, and the canes bound into bundels like faggots, and so are caried to the sugar house called Ingenio, where they are ground in a mill, and the iuyce thereof conueyed by a conduct to a great vessell made for the purpose, where it is boiled till it waxe thicke, and then is it put into a fornace of earthen pots of the molde of a sugar loafe, and then is it carried to another house, called a purging house where it is placed to purge the blacknesse with a certaine clay that is layd thereon. Of the remainder in the cauldron is made a second sort called Escumas, and of the purging liquor that droppeth from the white sugar is made a third sort, and the remainder is called Panela or Netas, the refuse of all the purging is called Remiel or Malasses: and thereof is made another sort called Refinado. When this first fruit is in this sort gathered, called Planta, then the Cane field where it grew is burned ouer with sugar straw to the stumps of the first canes, and being husbanded, watred and trimmed, at the end of other two yeeres it yeeldeth the second fruit called Zoca. The third fruit is called Tertia Zoca, the fourth Quarta Zoca, and so orderly the rest, til age causeth the olde Canes to be planted againe. [Sidenote: Wine.] This Iland hath singular good wine, especially in the towne of Telde, and sundry sorts of good fruits, as Batatas, Mellons, Peares, Apples, Oranges, Limons, Pomgranats, Figs Peaches of diuers sorts, and many other fruits; [Sidenote: Plantano.] but especially the Plantano which groweth neere brooke sides, it is a tree that hath no timber in it, but groweth directly vpward with the body, hauing maruelous thicke leaues, and euery leafe at the toppe of two yards long and almost halfe a yard broad. The tree neuer yeeldeth fruit but once, and then is cut downe; in whose place springeth another, and so still continueth. The fruit groweth on a branch, and euery tree yeeldeth two or three of those branches, which beare some more and some lesse, as some forty and some thirty, the fruit is like a Cucumber, and when it is ripe it is blacke, and in eating more delicate then any conserue. This Iland is sufficiently prouided of Oxen, Kine, Camels, Goats, Sheepe, Capons, Hens, Ducks, and Pidgeons, and great Partridges. Wood is the thing that most wanteth: and because I haue particularly to intreat of the other sixe Ilands, I leaue further inlarging of Canaria, which standeth in 27 degrees distant from the Equator. The Ile of Tenerif. The Iland of Tenerif standeth in 27 degrees and a halfe from the equator, and is distant from Canaria 12 leagues Northward. This Iland containeth 17 leagues in length, and the land lieth high in forme of a ridge of sowen lande in some part of England, and in the midst of the sayd place standeth a round hill called Pico Deteithe, situated in this sort. The top of this pike conteineth of heigth directly vpward 15 leagues and more, which is 45 English miles, out of the which often times proceedeth fire and brimstone, and it may be about halfe a mile in compasse: the sayd top is in forme or likenesse of a caldron. [Footnote: The Peak of Teneriffe is 12,182 feet high.] But within two miles of the top is nothing but ashes and pumish stones: yet beneath that two miles is the colde region couered all the yere with snow, and somewhat lower are mighty huge trees growing called Vinatico, which are exceeding heauy and will not rot in any water although they lie a thousand yeeres therein. Also there is a wood called Barbusano, of like vertue, with many Sauine trees and Pine trees. And beneath these sorts of trees are woods of Bay trees of ten and 12 miles long, which is a pleasant thing to trauell thorow, among the which are great numbers of small birds, which sing exceeding sweet, but especially one sort that are very litle, and of colour in all respects like a Swallow, sauing that he hath a little blacke spot on his breast as broad as a peny. He singeth more sweetly than all the rest, but if he be taken and imprisoned in a cage, he liueth but a small while. [Sidenote: Lime.] This Iland bringeth foorth all sorts of fruits, as Canaria doth: and also all the other Ilands in generall bring foorth shrubs or bushes, out of the which issueth a iuice as white as milke, which after a while that it hath come out waxeth thicke, and is exceeding good birdlime, the bush is called Taybayba. This Iland also bringeth foorth another tree called Drago, which groweth on high among rocks, and by incision at the foot of the tree issueth out a liquor like blood, which is a common drug among Apothecaries. Of the wood of this tree are made targets greatly esteemed, because if any sword or dagger hit thereon, they sticke so fast that it is hard plucking them out. This is the most fruitfull Iland of all the rest for corne, and in that respect is a mother or nurse to all the others in time of need. [Sidenote: Orchel good for dying.] There groweth also a certaine mosse vpon the high rocks called Orchel, which is bought for Diars to die withall. There are 12 sugar houses called Ingenios, which make great quantity of sugar. There is also one league of ground which standeth between two townes, the one called Larotaua, and the other Rialeio, and it is thought that the like plot of ground is not in all the world. The reason is, that this one league of ground produceth sweet water out of the cliffes or rocky mountaines, come of all sortes, fruites of all sortes, and excellent good silke, flaxe, waxe, and hony, and very good wines in abundance, with great store of sugar and fire wood. Out of this Iland is laden great quantities of wines for the West India, and other countreys. The best groweth on a hill side called the Ramble. There is in that Iland a faire citie, standing three leagues from the sea, nere vnto a lake called Laguna, wherein are two faire parish churches, there dwelleth the gouernour who ruleth all that Iland, with iustice. There are also aldermen for the publike weale, who buy their offices of the king: the most of the whole inhabitants of this city are gentlemen, merchants, and husband men. [Sidenote: Santa Cruz.] There are foure other townes called Santa Cruz, Larotaua, Rialeio, and Garachico. In this Iland before the conquest dwelt seuen kings, who with all their people dwelt in caues, and were clothed in goat skinnes, as the Canaria people were, and vsed such like order of diet as they had. Their order of buriall was, that when any died, he was carried naked to a great caue, where he was propped vp against the wall standing on his feet. But if he were of any authority among them, then had he a staffe in his hand, and a vessell of milke standing by him. I haue seene caues of 300 of these corpses together, the flesh being dried vp, the body remained as light as parchment. These people were called Guanches, naturally they spake another language cleane contrary to the Canarians, and so consequently euery Iland spake a seuerall language. Note (gentle reader) that the Iland of Canaria, the Ile of Tenerif, and the Ile of Palma appertaine to the king of Spaine, vnto whom they pay fifty thousand duckats yeerely for custome and other profits. All these Ilands ioyntly are one bishopricke, which pay to the bishop twelue thousand duckats yeerely. And thus I conclude of the Ile of Tenerif, which standeth in 27 degrees and a halfe, as I haue before declared. Gomera. The Iland of Gomera standeth Westward from Tenerif in distance sixe leagues: this is but a small Iland conteining eight leagues in length. It is an Earledome, and the Lord thereof is called the earle of Gomera. But in case of any controuersie the vassals may appeale to the kings superior Iudges which reside in Canaria. This Iland hath one proper towne called Gomera, which hath an excellent good port or harbour for ships, where often times the Indian fleet takes refreshing for their voyage. There is also sufficient graine and fruit for the maintenance of themselues. There is one Ingenio or Sugar-house, with great plenty of wine and other sorts of fruits, as Canaria and Tenerif hath. This Iland yeeldeth no other commodity but onely orchell; it standeth in 27 degrees distant from the Equator toward the pole Arcticke. The Ile of Palma. The Ile of Palma standeth twelue leagues distant from the Ile of Gomera Northwestward. This Iland is fruitfull of wine and sugar: it hath a proper city called the city of Palma, where is great contraction for vines, which are laden for the West India and other places. This city hath one faire church, and a gouernour, and aldermen to maintaine and execute iustice. It hath also another prety towne, called S. Andrewes. It hath also foure Ingenios which make excellent sugar, two of the which are called Zauzes, and the other two, Tassacort. This Iland yeeldeth but little bread-corne; but rather is thereof prouided from Tenerif and other places. Their best wines grow in a soile called the Brenia, where yeerely is gathered twelue thousand buts of wine like vnto Malmsies. This Iland standeth round, and containeth in circuit neere fiue and twenty leagues. It hath plenty of all sorts of fruits, as Canaria and Tenerif haue, it standeth in twenty seuen degrees and a halfe. The Iland of Yron, called Hierro. This Iland standeth ten leagues distant from the Iland of Palma Westward: it is but a little Iland, which containeth sixe leagues in circuit, and hath but small extension. It appertaineth to the earle of Gomera. The chiefest commodity of this Iland is goats flesh and orchell. [Sidenote: The onely vineyard in Hierro planted by Ioh. Hill of Taunton.] There is no wine in all that Iland, but onely one vineyard that an English man of Taunton in the West countrey planted among rocks, his name was Iohn Hill. This Iland hath no kind of fresh water, but onely in the middle of the Iland groweth a great tree with leaues like an Oliue tree which hath a great cisterne at the foot of the sayd tree. This tree continually is couered with clouds, and by meanes thereof the leaues of the said tree continually drop water, very sweet, into the sayd cisterne, which commeth to the sayd tree from the clouds by attraction. And this water sufficeth the Iland for all necessities, as well for the cattell, as for the inhabitants. [Footnote: In connection with this fable, it is interesting to see what is said by Le Maire, who visited these Islands in 1682. "As I had been told of a wonderful tree in Ferro, whose long and narrow leaves were always green, and furnished all the inhabitants with water, I wished to find out if it were true. I asked if, as I had heard, such a heavy dew fell on this tree that it dropped clear water into stone basins placed expressly to receive it. There was enough of it for the islanders and their cattle, Nature repairing by this miracle the defect of not providing pure water for this isle. The inhabitants confirmed my belief that this was a pure fable. There were some, however, who said that there might have been such a tree, but it could never have furnished the quantity attributed to it." [See VOYAGE TO THE CANARIES, etc, page 21, reprinted In _Bibliotheca Curiosa_.]] It standeth in 27 degrees. The Iland of Lanzarota The Iland of Lanzarota standeth eighteene leagues distant from grand Canaria Southeastward. The onely commodity of this Iland is goats flesh and orchell. It is an earldome, and doth, appertaine to Don Augustine de Herrerra, with title of earle of Fortauentura and Lanzarota. But the vassals of these earledomes may in any cause of wrong appeale to the Kings Iudges, which reside in Canaria, as I haue sayd before: because although the king hath reserued to himselfe but onely the three fruitful Ilands, called Canaria, Teneriff and Palma, yet he also reserued the rod of Iustice to himselfe, because otherwise the vassals might be euil intreated of their Lords. From this Iland do weekly resort to Canaria, Tenerif, and Palma, boats laden with dried goats flesh, called Tussmetta, which serueth in stead of bacon, and is very good meat. This Iland standeth in 26 degrees, and is in length twelue leagues. The Ile of Forteuentura. The Ile of Forteuentura standeth fifty leagues from the promontory of Cabo de Guer, in the firme land of Africa, and foure and twenty leagues distant from Canaria Eastward. This Iland doth appertaine to the lord of Lanzarota. It is reasonable fruitfull of wheat and barley, and also of kine, goats, and orchel: this Ile is fifteene leagues long and ten leagues broad. On the North side it hath a little Iland about one league distant from the maine Iland, betweene both of the which it is nauigable for any ships, and is called Graciosa. Both Forteuentura and Lanzarota haue very little wine of the growth of those Ilands. It standeth in 27 degrees. Thus much haue I written of these seuen Ilands by experience, because I was a dweller there, as I haue sayd before, the space of seuen yeeres in the affaires of master Thomas Locke, master Anthonie Hickman, and master Edward Caselin, who in those dayes were worthy merchants, and of great credite in the citie of London. A description of the Iland of Madera. The Iland of Madera standeth in 32 degrees distant from the equinoctinall line, and seuentie leagues from the Ile of Tenerif Northeastward and Southwest from Hercules pillars. This Iland was first discouered by one Macham an Englishman, and was after conquered and inhabited by the Portugall nation. It was first called the Iland of Madera, by reason of the great wildernesse of sundry sortes of trees that there did growe, and yet doe, as Cedars, Cypres, Vinatico, Barbuzano, Pine trees, and diuers others, and therefore the sayd Iland continueth still with the same name. Howbeit they hold opinion, that betweene the sayd Iland, and the Ile of Palma is an Iland not yet discouered, which is the true Iland Madera called saint Brandon. This Iland yeeldeth a great summe of money to the king of Portugall yeerely: it hath one faire citie called Fouchall, which hath one faire port or harbour for shippes, and a strong bulwarke, and a faire Cathedrall church, with a bishop and other dignities thereunto appertaining. There is also iustice and gouernment according to the Portugall vse. But causes of appellation are remitted to the citie of Lisbone in Portugall to the kings superior iudges there. This Iland hath another towne called Machico, which hath likewise a good road for ships, which towne and road were so called after the name of Macham the Englishman, who first discouered the same. There are also sixteene sugar houses called Ingenios, which make excellent good sugar. There is besides the goodly timber before declared, great store of diuers sortes of fruites, as Peares, Apples, Plummes, wild Dates, Peaches of diuers sortes, Mellons, Batatas, Orenges, Lemmons, Pomgranates, Citrons, Figges, and all maner of garden herbes. There are many Dragon trees, such as grow in the Canarie Ilands, but chiefly this land produceth great quantitie of singular good wines which are laden for many places. On the North side of this land three leagues distant from the maine Iland standeth another litle Iland called Porto santo: the people thereof liueth by husbandrie, for the Iland of Madera yeeldeth but litle corne, but rather is thereof prouided out of France and from the Iland of Tenerif. On the East side of the Ile of Madera sixe leagues distant standeth another litle Iland called the Desert, which produceth onely Orchell, and nourisheth a great number of Goates, for the prouision of the maine Iland, which may be thirtie leagues in circuit: and the land is of great heighth where the foresayd trees growe. It is woonder to see the conueyance of the water to the Ingenios by Mines through the mountaines. In the mid way betweene Tenerif and the Iland of Madera standeth a litle solitarie Iland called the Saluages, which may bee about one league in compasse, which hath neither tree nor fruit, but is onely food for Goates. THE FARDLE OF FACIONS CONTAINING THE AUNCIENTE MANERS, CUSTOMES, AND LAWES, OF THE PEOPLES ENHABITING THE TWO PARTES OF THE EARTH, CALLED AFFRICKE AND ASIE. Printed at London: BY IHON KINGSTONE, AND HENRY SUTTON. 1555. [_This work was not included in the 1598-1600 edition of Hakluyt's Voyages. It, however, formed part of the supplement issued in 1812._] TO THE RIGHTE HONOURABLE THE ERLE OF ARUNDEL, KNIGHT OF THE ORDRE, AND LORDE STEWARDE OF THE QUIENES MAIESTIES MOST HONOURABLE HOUSEHOLDE Aftre what time the barrein traueiles of longe seruice, had driuen me to thinke libertie the best rewarde of my simple life, right honorable Erle and that I had determined to leaue wrastlyng with fortune, and to giue my self wholie to liue vpon my studie, and the labours of my hand: I thought it moste fitting with the dutie that I owe to God and manne, to bestowe my time (if I could) as well to the profite of other, as of myself. Not coueting to make of my floudde, a nother mannes ebbe (the Cancre of all commune wealthes) but rather to sette other a flote, where I my self strake on ground. Tourning me therefore, to the searche of wisedome and vertue, for whose sake either we tosse, or oughte to tosse so many papers and tongues: although I founde aboute my self, verie litle of that Threasure, yet remembred I that a fewe yeres paste, at the instaunce of a good Citezein, (who might at those daies, by aucthoritie commaunde me) I had begonne to translate, a litle booke named in the Latine, Omnium gentium mores, gathered longe sence by one Iohannes Boemus, a manne as it appereth, of good iudgemente and diligence. But so corrupted in the Printing, that after I had wrasteled a space, with sondrie Printes, I rather determined to lose my labour of the quartre tanslacion, then to be shamed with the haulf. And throwing it a side, entended no further to wearie my self therwithall, at the leaste vntill I mighte finde a booke of a bettre impression. In searching whereof at this my retourne to my studie, although I found not at the full that, that I sought for: yet vndrestanding among the booke sellers (as one talke bringes in another) that men of good learning and eloquence, bothe in the Frenche and Italien tonge, had not thought skorne to bestowe their time aboute the translacion therof, and that the Emperours Maiestie that now is, vouched saulfe to receiue the presentacion therof, at the Frenche translatours hande, as well appereth in his booke: it kindled me againe, vpon regard of mine owne profite, and other mennes moe, to bring that to some good pointe, that earst I had begonne. For (thought I) seing the booke hath in it, much pleasant varietie of thinges, and yet more profite in the pitthe: if it faile to bee otherwise rewarded, yet shal it thankefully of the good be regarded. Wherefore setting vpon it a fresshe, where the booke is deuided acording to thaunciente diuision of the earth into thre partes, Affrique, Asie, and Europe: hauing brought to an ende the two firste partes, I found no persons in mine opinion so fitte as your honour, to present theim vnto. For seing the whole processe ronneth vpon gouernaunce and Lawes, for thadministracion of commune wealthes, in peace and in warre, of aunciente times tofore our greate graundfathers daies: to whom mighte I bettre presente it, then to a Lorde of verie nobilitie and wisedome, that hath bene highe Mareshalle in the field abrode, deputie of the locke and keie of this realme, and a counsailour at home, of thre worthie princes. Exercised so many waies in the waues of a fickle Commune wealthe: troubled sometime, but neuer disapoincted of honourable successe. To your good Lordeshippe then I yelde and committe, the firste fruictes of my libertie, the firste croppe of my labours, this first daie of the Newe yere: beseching the same in as good parte to receiue it, as I humblie offre it, and at your pleasure to vnfolde the Fardle, and considre the stuffe. Whiche euer the farder in, shall sieme I truste the more pleasaunte and fruictefulle. And to conclude, if I shall vndrestande, that your honour delighteth in this, it shal be a cause sufficiente, to make me go in hande with Europe, that yet remaineth vntouched. Almightie God giue vnto your Lordeshippe prosperous fortune, in sounde honour and healthe. Your Lordshippes moste humblie at commaundemente, WILLIAM WATREMAN. The Preface of the Authour. I haue sought out at times, as laisure hath serued me, Good reader, the maners and facions the Lawes, Customes and Rites, of all suche peoples, as semed notable, and worthy to be put in remembrance, together with the situation and description of their habitations: which the father of Stories Herodotus the Greke, Diodorus, the Siciliane, Berosus Strabo, Solinus, Trogus Pompeius, Ptolomeus, Plinius, Cornelius the still, Dionysius the Africane, Pomponius Mela, Cæsar, Iosephus, and certein of the later writers, as Vincentius, and Aeneas Siluius (which aftreward made Pope, had to name Pius the seconde) Anthonie Sabellicus, Ihon Nauclerus, Ambrose Calepine, Nicholas Perotte, in his cornu copiæ, and many other famous writers eche one for their parte, as it were skatered, and by piece meale, set furthe to posteritie. Those I saie haue I sought out, gathered together, and acordyng to the ordre of the storie and tyme, digested into this litle packe. Not for the hongre of gaine, or the ticklyng desire of the peoples vaine brute, and vnskilfulle commendacion: but partly moued with the oportunitie of my laisure, and the wondrefull profits and pleasure, that I conceiued in this kinde of studie my self, and partly that other also delightyng in stories, might with litle labour, finde easely when thei would, the somme of thynges compiled in one Booke, that thei ware wonte with tediousnes to sieke in many. And I haue shocked theim vp together, as well those of aunciente tyme, as of later yeres, the lewde, as well as the vertuous indifferentlie, that vsing them as present examples, and paternes of life, thou maiest with all thine endeuour folowe the vertuous and godlie, and with asmuche warenes eschewe the vicious and vngodly. Yea, that thou maiest further, my (reader) learne to discerne, how men haue in these daies amended the rude simplicitie of the first worlde, from Adam to the floud and many yeres after, when men liued skateryng on the earthe, without knowlege of Money, or what coigne ment, or Merchauntes trade: no maner of exchaunge, but one good tourne for another. When no man claimed aught for his seueralle, but lande and water ware as commune to al, as Ayer and Skie. When thei gaped not for honour, ne hunted after richesse, but eche man contented with a litle, passed his daies in the wilde fielde, vnder the open heauen, the couerte of some shadowie Tree, or slendre houelle, with suche companion or companions as siemed them good, their diere babes and children aboute them. Sounde without carcke and in rest full quietnesse, eatyng the fruictes of the fielde, and the milke of the cattle, and drinking the waters of the christalline springes. First clad with the softe barcke of trees, or the faire broade leaues, and in processe with rawe felle and hide full vnworkemanly patched together. Not then enuironed with walles, ne pente vp with rampers, and diches of deapthe, but walking at free scope emong the wanderyng beastes of the fielde, and where the night came vpon theim, there takyng their lodgyng without feare of murtherer or thief. Mery at the fulle, as without knowledge of the euilles that aftre ensued as the worlde waxed elder, through diuers desires, and contrarie endeuours of menne. Who in processe for the insufficience of the fruictes of the earthe, (whiche she tho gaue vntilled) and for default of other thynges, ganne falle at disquiete and debate emong themselues, and to auoied the inuasion of beastes, and menne of straunge borders, (whom by themselues thei could not repelle) gathered into companies, with commune aide to withstande suche encursions and violence of wrong. And so ioyning in confederacie, planted themselues together in a plotte, assigned their boundes, framed vp cotages, one by anothers chieque, diked in themselues, chose officers and gouernours and deuised lawes, that thei also emong theimselues might liue in quiete. So beginning a rough paterne of tounes and of Cities, that aftre ware laboured to more curious finesse. And now ware thei not contented, with the commodities of the fieldes and cattle alone, but by diuers inuencions of handecraftes and sciences, and by sondrie labours of this life, thei sought how to winne. Now gan thei tattempte the sease with many deuices, to transplante their progenie and ofspring into places, vnenhabited, and to enioye the commodities of eche others countrie, by mutuall traffique. Now came the Oxe to the yoke, the Horse to the draught, the Metalle to the stampe, the Apparel to handsomenes, the Speache to more finesse, the Behauiour of menne to a more calmenesse, the Fare more deintie, the Buildyng more gorgeous, thenhabitours ouer all became milder and wittier, shaking of (euen of their owne accorde) the bruteshe outrages and stearne dealinges, that shamefully mought be spoken of. Nowe refrained thei from sleayng one of a nother, from eatyng of ech others flesh, from rape and open defiling of mother, sister, and daughter indifferently, and fro many like abominacions to nature and honestie. Thei now marieng reason, with strength: and pollicie, with might: where the earthe was before forgrowen with bushes and wooddes, stuffed with many noisome beastes, drouned with meares, and with marshe, vnfitte to be enhabited, waast and vnhandsome in euery condition: by wittie diligence, and labour, ridde it from encombraunce, planed the roughes, digged vp trees by the rootes, dried away the superfluous waters, brought all into leauelle, banished barreinesse, and vncouered the face of the earth, that it might fully be sene, conuerted the champeine to tillage, the plaines to pasture, the valley to meadow, the hilles thei shadowed with wooddes and with Vines, Then thruste thei in cultre and share, and with wide woundes of the earthe, wan wine and corne plenteously of the grounde, that afore scarcely gaue them Akornes and Crabbes. Then enhabited thei more thicke, and spred themselues ouer all, and buylte euery where. Of Tounes, thei made cities, and of villages, Tounes, Castles vpon the rockes, and in the valleis made thei the temples of the goddes. The golden graueled springes, thei encurbed with Marblo, and with trees right pleasauntlie shadowed them aboute. From them they deriued into cities and Tounes, the pure freshe waters, a great distaunce of, by conduicte of pipes and troughes, and suche other conueyance. Where nature had hidden the waters, out of sighte, thei sancke welles of greate deapth, to supplie their lackes. Riuers, and maigne floudes, whiche afore with vnbrideled violence, oftymes ouerflowed the neighboured aboute, to the destruction of their cattle, their houses, and themselues: thei restrained with bancques, and kept them in a course. And to the ende thei might not onely be vadable, but passed also with drie foote, thei deuised meanes with piles of Timbre, and arches of stone, maulgre the rage of their violent streames, to grounde bridges vpon them. Yea, the rockes of the sea whiche for the daungier of the accesse, thoughte themselues exempte from the dinte of their hande, when thei perceiued by experience, thei ware noyous to sailers, with vnspeakeable labour did thei ouerthrowe and breake into gobettes. Hewed out hauens on euery strond, enlarged crieques, opened rodes, and digged out herborowes, where their shippes mighte ride saulfe fro the storme. Finally thei so laboured, beautified, and perfeighted the earthe, that at this daie compared with the former naturalle forgrowen wastenesse, it might well sieme not to be that, but rather the Paradise of pleasure, out of the whiche, the first paternes of mankinde (Adam and Eue) for the transgression of Goddes precept, ware driuen. Men also inuented and founde many wittie sciences, and artes, many wondrefull workes whiche when by practice of lettres, thei had committed to bookes, and laied vp for posteritie, their successours so woundered at their wisedomes, and so reuerenced their loue and endeuours (whiche thei spied to be meant toward them, and the wealth of those that shuld folow of them) that thei thought them not blessed enough, with the estate of men mortalle, but so aduaunced their fame, and wondered at their worthinesse, that thei wan theim the honour and name of Goddes immortall. Tho gan the Prince of the worlde, when men so gan to delight in thadournyng of the worlde, to sowe vpon the good siede, the pestilente Dernell, that as thei multiplied in nombre, so iniquitie might encrease, to disturbe and confounde this blessed state. First, therefore when he had with all kinde of wickedness belimed the world, he put into their heades, a curious searche of the highest knowledge, and suche as depended vpon destenie of thynges. And so practised his pageauntes, by obscure and doubtfully attempted Responcions, and voices of spirites, that after he had fettred the worlde in the trauers of his toies, and launced into their hartes a blinde supersticion, and feare: he trained it whole to a wicked worship of many goddes and Goddesses, that when he ones had wiped cleane out of mynde the knowledge and honour of one God euerlastyng, he might practise vpon manne, some notable mischief. Then sette he vp pilgrimages to deuilles, foreshewers of thynges, that gaue aduerisemente and answere to demaundes in sondrie wise. In the Isle of Delphos one, in Euboea another, at Nasamone a thirde, and emong the Dodonians, the famous okes, whose bowes by the blastes of the winde resounded to the eare, a maner of aduertisemente of deuellishe delusion. To the whiche Idolles and Images of deuelles he stirred vp men to do the honour (Helas) due onely to God. As to Saturne in Italie, to Iupiter in Candie, to Iuno in Samos, to Bacchus in India, and at Thebes: to Isis, and Osiris in Egypte: in old Troie to Vesta: aboute Tritona in Aphrique, to Pallas, in Germanie and Fraunce to Mercurie, vnder the name of Theuthe: to Minerua at Athenes and Himetto, to Apollo in Delphos, Rhodes, Chio, Patara, Troade and Tymbra. To Diane in Delos and in Scythia, to Venus in Paphos, Ciprus, Gnydon, and Cithera. To Mars in Thracia, to Priapus in Lampsacho of Hellespontus, to Vulcane in Lypara and Lennos, and in diuers other places to sondrie other, whose remembraunce was then moste freshe in the memorie of their people, for the benefaictes and merueilous inuencions bestowed emong them. Afterward, also when Iesus Christe the verie sonne of the almightie father, shewyng hymself in the fleshe of our mortalitie, was conuersaunte in the worlde, pointyng to the same, as with his fingre, the waie to immortalitie, and endelesse blessednesse, and bothe with woorde and example, exhorted and allured them to vprightnes of life, to the glorie of his father, sendyng his disciples and scolers into the vniuersall worlde, to condemne Superstition and all errour of wickednes, with the moste healthsome woorde: to plante true Religion, and geue newe preceptes, and directions of the life, and had now set the matier in suche forwardnesse and poincte, that the Gospell beyng generally of all nacions receiued, there lacked but continuaunce to perfeicte felicitie: The deuell eftesones retournyng to his naturall malice, desirous to repossesse that, that constrainedly he forsooke, betrappyng again the curious conceipte of man, some he reuersed into their former abuses and errours, and some with newe Heresies he so corrupted, snarled, and blynded, that it had bene muche bettre for them, neuer almoste to haue knowen the waie of truthe, then after their entraunce, so rashely and maliciously to haue forsaken it. At this daie in Asia the lesse, the Armenianes, Arabians, Persians, Sirians, Assirians and Meades: in Aphrique, the Egipcians, Numidians, Libiens, and Moores. In Europe, the whole countrie of Grecia, Misia, Thracia, and all Turquie throwyng awaie Christe, are become the folowers and worshippers of Mahomet and his erronious doctrine. The people of Scithia, whom we now cal Tartares (a greate people and wide spread) parte of them worshippe the Idolle of their Emperour Kamme, parte the Sonne, the Moone, and other Starres, and part according to the Apostles doctrine, one onely God. The people of Inde, and Ethiope, vnder the gouernaunce of Presbiter Ihon perseauer in Christiane godlinesse, howbeit after a sort, muche different from ours. The sincere and true faithe of Christ, wherewith in time it pleased God to illumine the worlde, remaineth in Germanie, Italy, Fraunce, Spaine, Englande, Scotland, Ireland, Denmarke, Liuon, Pruse, Pole, Hungarie, and the Isles of Rhodes, Sicilie, Corsica, Sardinia, with a fewe other. This bytter enemie of mankinde hauyng thus with his subtilties, inueiled our mindes, and disseuered the christian vnion, by diuersitie of maners and facions of belief, hath brought to passe thorough this damnable wyckednes of Sacrifices, and Rites, that whilest euery people (vndoubtedly with religious entent) endeuour theim selues to the worshippe of God, and echeone taketh vpon him to be the true and best worshipper of him, and whilest echone thinke theim selues to treade the streight pathe of euerlastyng blessednes, and contendeth with eigre mode and bitter dispute, that all other erre and be ledde farre a wrie: and whilest euery man strugglethe and striueth to spread and enlarge his owne secte, and to ouerthrowe others, thei doe so hate and enuie, so persecute and annoy echone an other, that at this daie a man cannot safely trauaill from one countrie to another: yea, thei that would aduenture saufely or vnsaufely, be almost euery where holden out. Wherof me thinkes I see it is like to come to passe, that whilest one people scant knoweth the name of another, (and yet almost neighbours) all that shall this daie be written or reported of theim, shalbe compted and refused as lyes. And yeat this maner of knowledge and experience, is of it self so pleasant, so profitable and so praise worthy, that sundrie (as it is well knowen) for the onely loue and desire thereof, leauing their natiue countrie, their father, their mother, their wiues and their children, yea, throwyng at their heles their sauftie and welfare, haue with greate troubles, vexations, and turmoilynges taken vpon theim for experience sake, to cutte through the wallowying seas, and many thousande miles, to estraunge theimselues fro their home, yea, and those men not in this age alone, but euen from the firste hatchyng of the worlde haue been reputed and founde of moste wisedome, authoritie, and good facion, sonest chosen with all mennes consent, bothe in peace and warre, to administre the commune wealth as maisters and counsaillours, Iudges and Capitaines. Suche ware thancient sages of Grece and of Italy, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Antisthenes, Aristippus, Zeno, and Pythagoras, who through their wisedomes and estimacion for trauailes wan them greate nombres of folowers, and brought furthe in ordre the sectes named Socratici, Academici, Peripateci, Cynici, Cyrenaici, Stoici, and Pythagorici, echone chosyng name to glorie in his maister. Suche ware the prudente lawemakers of famous memorie, Minois and Rhadamanthus emong the Cretenses, Orpheus emong the Thraciens, Draco and Solon emong the Athenienses, Licurgus emong the Lacedemonians, Moses emong the Iewes, and Zamolxis emong the Scythians, and many other in other stedes whiche dreamed not their knowledge in the benchehole at home, but learned of the men in the worlde moste wise, the Chaldeies, the Brachmanni, the Gymnosophites and the priestes of Egipte, with whom thei had for a space bene conuersant. Like glorie, by like trauaill happened to the worthies of the worlde, as to Iupiter of Crete (reported fiue times to haue surueied the whole worlde) and to his twoo sonnes Dionisius (otherwise called Bacchus) and Hercules the mightie. Likewise to Theseus and Iason, and the rest of that voiage. To the vnlucky sailer Vlisses, and to the banished Eneas, to Cyrus, Xerxes, and Alexander the Greate, to Hanniballe and Mithridate, kyng of Pontus, reported able to speake fiftie sondrie languages, to Antiochus, the greate and innumerable Princes of Roome, bothe of the Scipioes, Marii, and Lentuli. To Pompeius the greate, to Iulius Cesar, Octauian, and Augustus, to the Constantines, Charles, Conrades, Henrickes, and Frederickes. Whiche all by their exploictes vpon straunge nacions, haue gotten their immortall and euerlastyng renoume. Wherefore, seyng there is in the knowledge of peoples, and of their maners and facions, so greate pleasure and profite, and euery man cannot, yea, fewe men will, go traueile the countries themselues: me thinkes gentill reader, thou oughtest with muche thanke to receyue at my hande these bookes of the maners and facions of peoples most notable and famous, togyther with the places whiche thei enhabite: And with no lesse cherefulnes to embrase theim, then if beyng ledde on my hande from countrey to countrey, I should poynct the at eye, how euery people liueth, and where they haue dwelte, and at this daye doe. Let it not moue the, let it not withdrawe the, if any cankered reprehendour of other mens doynges shall saie vnto the: It is a thyng hath bene written of, many yeares agone, and that by a thousand sondry menne, and yet he but borowyng their woordes, bryngeth it foorthe for a mayden booke, and naimeth it his owne. For if thou well considre my trade, thou shalt fynd, that I haue not only brought thee other mennes olde store, but opened thee also the treasury of myne owne witte and bokes, not euery where to be found, and like a liberall feaster haue set before thee much of myne owne, and many thynges newe. Farewell and thankefully take that, that with labour is brought thee. The Fardle of Facions, conteining the aunciente maners, customes and lawes, of the peoples enhabiting the two partes of the earth, called Affricke and Asie. Affrike. ¶ The first Chapiter. ¶ The true opinion of the deuine, concernyng the beginnyng of man. When God had in V. daies made perfecte the heauens and the earth, and the furniture of bothe: whiche the Latines for the goodlinesse and beautie thereof, call Mundus, and we (I knowe not for what reason) haue named the worlde: the sixth daie, to the entent there mighte be one to enioye, and be Lorde ooer all, he made the moste notable creature Man. One that of all earthly creatures alone, is endowed with a mynde, and spirit from aboue. And he gaue him to name, Adam; accordyng to the colour of the molde he was made of. Then drawing out of his side the woman, whilest he slept, to thende he should not be alone, knitte her vnto hym, as an vnseparable compaignion, and therwith placed them in the moste pleasaunt plot of the earth, fostered to flourishe with the moisture of floudes on euery parte. The place for the fresshe grienesse and merie shewe, the Greques name Paradisos. There lyued they a whyle a moste blessed life without bleamishe of wo, the earth of the own accorde bringing forth all thing. But when they ones had transgressed the precepte, they ware banysshed that enhabitaunce of pleasure and driuen to shift the world. And fro thenceforth the graciousnes of the earth was also abated, and the francke fertilitie therof so withdrawen, that labour and swette, now wan [Footnote: _Wan_ and won were used indifferently. Thus in Drayton's _Polyolbion_, xi., p. 864 we find--"These with the Saxons went, and fortunately _wan_, Whose Captain Hengist first a Kingdom here began." And in the same page: "As mighty Hengist here, by force of arms had done, So Ella coming in, soon from the Romans won The counties neighb'ring Kent."] lesse a great deale, then ydle lokyng on before tyme had done. Shortly crepte in sickenes, and diseases, and the broyling heate and the nipping cold began to assaile their bodyes. Their first sonne was Cayin, and the seconde Abell, and then many other. And as the world grewe into yeares, and the earth began to waxe thicke peopled, loke as the nombre did encreace, so vices grew on, and their lyuing decaied euer into woors. For giltelesse dealyng, wrong came in place, for deuoutnesse, contempte of the Goddes, and so farre outraged their wickednes, that God skarcely fyndyng one iuste Noha on the earth (whom he saued, with his housholde, to repayre the losse of mankind and replenysshe the worlde) sente a floude vniuersall, which couering all vnder water, killed all fleshe that bare lyfe vppon earth, excepte a fewe beastes, birdes, and wormes that ware preserued in the misticall arke. In the ende of fiue Monethes aftre the floude began, the Arque touched on the mounteines of Armenia. And within foure Monethes aftre, Noas and all his beyng restored to the earth, with Goddes furtheraunce in shorte space repeopled the worlde. And to thende the same myghte euery wheare again be enhabited, he dispersed his yssue and kyndredes into sondrie coastes. After Berosus opynion he sent Cham otherwyse, named Cameses and Chamesenuus with his ofspring, into Egipte. Into Lybia and Cirene, Triton. And into the whole residewe of Affrike the ancient Iapetus called Attalus Priscus, Ganges he sent into Easte Asia with certeine of the sonnes of Comerus Gallus. And into Arabia the fertile, one Sabus, sirnamed Thurifer. Ouer Arabia the Waste he made Arabus gouernour, and Petreius ouer Petrea. He gaue vnto Canaan, all that lyeth from Damasco to the outemost bordre of Palestine. In Europe he made Tuisco king of Sarmatia, from the floude of Tanais vnto the Rhene. And there were ioyned vnto him all the sonnes of Istrus, and Mesa, with their brethren, fro the mounteyne of Adula to Mesemberia pontica. Archadius and Emathius gouerned the Tirianes, Comerus Gallus, had Italie and Fraunce, Samothes, Briteigne and Normandie, and Inbal, Spayne. That spiedie and vnripe puttyng forthe of the children from their progenitours, before they had throughly learned and enured them selues with their facions and maners, was the cause of all the diuersitie that after ensued. For Cham, by the reason of his naughty demeanour towarde his father, beyng constrayned to departe with his wyfe and hys chyldren, planted him selfe in that parte of Arabia, that after was called by his name. And lefte no trade of religion to his posteritie, because he none had learned of his father. Whereof it came to passe, that when in processe of tyme they ware encreased to to many for that londe: beyng sent out as it ware, swarme aftre swarme into other habitations and skatered at length into sondrie partes of the worlde (for this banysshed progeny grewe aboue measure) some fel into errours wherout thei could neuer vnsnarle [Footnote: _To snarle_, to entangle; hence, _to unsnarle_--to disentangle. "And from her head ofte rente her snarled heare." _Spencer_, _Faerie Queene_, iii., xii., 17. "You snarle yourself into so many and heynouse absurdities, as you shall never be able to wynde yourself oute."--_Cranmer's Answer to Bp. Gardiner_, p. 168. "Supposed to be formed from _snare_." [Nares].] themselues. The tongue gan to altre and the knowledge of the true God and all godlie worsshippe vanished out of mind. Inso muche that some liued so wildely (as aftre thou shalt here) that it ware harde to discerne a difference betwixte them and the beastes of the felde. Thei that flieted into Egipt, wonderyng at the beautie and course of the Sonne, and the Moone, as though there had been in them a power diuine, began to worship them as Goddes: callyng the lesse, Isis and the bigger Osiris. To Iupiter also thei Sacrificed, and did honour as to the principall of life. To Vulcan for fire, to Pallas, as Lady of the skie, to Ceres as gouerneresse of the arth, and to sondry other for other sondry considerations. Neyther staied that darkenesse of iniquitie in Egipte alone, but where so euer the progeny of Cham stepte in from the begynnyng, there fell true godlines, all oute of minde and abondage to the deuell entred his place. And there neuer was countrie, mother of moe swarmes of people, then that part of Arabia, that he, and his, chase to be theirs. So greate a mischief did the vntymely banishemente of one manne, bring to the whole. Contrarily the progenie of Iapheth, and Sem, brought vp to full yeres vndre their elders, and rightly enstructed: contentyng them selues with a litle circuite, straied not so wide as this brother had doen. Whereby it chaunced that the zeale of the truthe, (I meane of good liuyng and true worshippe of one onely God) remained as hidden in one onely people, vntill the tyme of Messias. ¶ The seconde Chapitre. ¶ The false opinion of the Philosophre concernyng the begynnyng of man. But the aunciente Philosophers, whiche without knowledge of God, and his truthe, many yeres ago, wrate vpon the natures of thinges, and thistories of times had another opinion of the originall of man. For certain of them, belieued the worlde euer to haue been, and that euer it should be, and man together with it to haue had no beginnyng. Certaine did holde that it had a beginnyng, and an ende it should haue, and a time to haue been, when man was not. For saie thei, the begynner of thynges visible, wrapped vp bothe heauen and earth at one instant, togither in one paterne, and so a distinction growing on betwixte these meynte bodies, the worlde to haue begon in suche ordre as we see. The aire by nature to be continually mouyng, and the moste firie parte of thesame, for the lightenesse thereof, moste highe to haue climbed. So that sonne and Moone, and the planetes all, participatyng of the nature of that lighter substaunce: moue so muche the faster, in how muche thei are of the more subtile parte. But that whiche was mixed with waterie moisture, to haue rested in the place, for the heauinesse thereof, and of the watery partes, the sea to haue comen: and the matier more compacte to haue passed into a clamminesse firste, and so into earth. This earth then brought by the heate of the sonne into a more fastenesse. And after by the same power puffed and swollen in the vppermoste parte, there gathered manye humours in sondry places, which drawing to ripenesse enclosed them selues in slymes and in filmes, as in the maresses of Egipt, and other stondynge waters we often se happen. And seynge the heate of thaier sokynly warmeth the cold ground and heate meint [Footnote: Mingled.--A word of Chaucer's time. "And in one vessel both together meint." _Fletcher's Purple Island_, iv., st. 21.] with moisture is apt to engendre: it came to passe by the gentle moisture of the night aire, and the comforting heate of the daie sonne, that those humours so riped, drawyng vp to the rinde of thearth, as though their tyme of childbirthe ware come, brake out of their filmes, and deliuered vpon the earth all maner of liuing thinges. Emong whiche those that had in them moste heate, became foules into the aire: those that ware of nature more earthie, became wormes and beastes of sondrie kindes: and where water surmounted, thei drewe to the elemente of their kinde, and had to name fishes. But afterwarde the earth beyng more parched by the heate of the Sonne, and the drouthe of the windes, ceased to bring furthe any mo greate beastes: and those that ware already brought furthe, (saie thei) mainteined, and encreased by mutualle engendrure, the varietie, and nombre. And they are of opinion that in the same wise, men ware engendred in the beginning. And as nature putte them forth emong other beastes, so liued they at the first an vnknowen lyfe wyldely emong them, vpon the fruictes, and the herbes of the fieldes. But the beastes aftre a while waxing noysome vnto them, they ware forced in commune for eche others sauftie to drawe into companies to resiste their anoyaunce, one helping another, and to sieke places to make their abiding in. And where at the firste their speache was confuse, by litle and litle they sayed it drewe to a distinctenesse, and perfeigthe difference: in sorte that they ware able to gyue name to all thinges. But for that they ware diuersely sparckled in diuers partes of the worlde, they holde also that their speache was as diuers and different. And herof to haue aftreward risen the diuersitie of lettres. And as they firste assembled into bandes, so euery bande to haue broughte forthe his nation. But these men at the firste voide of all helpe and experience of liuyng, ware bittrely pinched with hongre and colde, before thei could learne to reserue the superfluous plenty of the Somer, to supply the lacke of Winters barreinesse, whose bitter blastes, and hongrie pinynges, consumed many of them. Whiche thing when by experience dere bought, thei had learned: thei soughte bothe for Caues to defende them fro colde, and began to hourde fruictes. Then happe found out fire, and reason gaue rule of profite, and disprofite, and necessitie toke in hand to sette witte to schoole. Who gatheryng knowledge, and perceiuyng hymself to haue a helpe of his sences, more skilful then he thought, set hande a woorke, and practised connyng, to supplie all defaultes, whiche tongue and lettres did enlarge and distribute abrode. Thei that had this opinion of the originall of manne, and ascribed not the same to the prouidence of God, affirmed the Etopiens to haue bene the firste of all menne. For thei coniectured that the ground of that countrie lyng nierest the heates of the Sonne must needes first of all other waxe warme. And the earth at that tyme beyng but clammie and softe, through the attemperaunce of that moysture and heate, man there first to haue bene fourmed, and there to haue gladlier enhabited (as natiue and naturall vnto him) then in any other place, when all places ware as yet straunge, and vnknowen, whiche aftre men soughte. Beginnyng therfore at them, after I haue shewed how the worlde is deuided into thre partes (as also this treatise of myne) and haue spoken a litle of Aphrique, I wyll shewe the situacion of Aethiope, and the maners of that people, and so forthe of al other regions and peoples, with suche diligence as we can. ¶ The thirde Chapitre. ¶ The deuision and limites of the Earthe. Those that haue bene before our daies, (as Orosius writeth) are of opinion, that the circuite of the earth, bordered about with the Occean Sea: disroundyng hym self, shooteth out thre corner wise, and is also deuided into thre seuerall partes, Afrike, Asie, and Europe. Afrike is parted from Asie with the floude of Nilus, whiche comyng fro the Southe, ronneth through Ethiope into Egipte, where gently sheadyng hymself ouer his bancques, he leaueth in the countrie a marueilous fertilitie, and passeth into the middle earth sea, with seuen armes. From Europe it is separate with the middle earth sea, whiche beginnyng fro the Occean aforesaied: at the Islande of Gades, and the pileurs of Hercules, passeth not tenne miles ouer. But further entryng in, semeth to haue shooued of the maigne lande on bothe sides, and so to haue won a more largenesse. Asie is deuided from Europe, with Tanais the floude, whiche comyng fro the North, ronneth into the marshe of Meotis almoste midwaie, and there sincking himself, leaueth the marshe and Pontus Euxinus, for the rest of the bounde. And to retourne to Afrike again, the same hauyng Nilus as I saied on the Easte, and on all other partes, bounded with the sea, is shorter then Europe, but broader towarde the Occean, where it riseth into mounteigne. And shoryng towarde the Weste, by litle and litle waxeth more streighte, and cometh at thende to a narowe poincte. Asmuche as is enhabited therof, is a plentuous soile, but the great parte of it lieth waste, voide of enhabitauntes, either to whote [Footnote: Too hot.] for menne to abide, or full of noisome and venemous vermine, and beastes, or elles so whelmed in sande and grauell, that there is nothing but mere barreinesse. The sea that lieth on the Northe parte, is called Libicum, that on the Southe Aethiopicum, and the other on the West Atlanticum. At the first the whole was possest by fower sondrie peoples. Of the whiche, twaine (as Herodotus writeth) ware founde there, tyme out of minde, and the other twaine ware alienes and incommes. The two of continuance, ware the Poeni, and Ethiopes, whiche dwelte, the one at the Northe of the lande, the other at the South. The Alienes, the Phoenices, the Grekes, the old Ethiopians, and the Aegipcienes, if it be true that thei report of themselues. At the beginnyng thei were sterne, and vnruly, and bruteshely liued, with herbes and with fleshe of wilde beastes, without lawe or rule, or facion of life, roilyng and rowmyng vpon heade, heather and thether without place of abode, where night came vpon them, there laiyng their bodies to reste. Afterwarde (as thei saie) Hercules passyng the seas out of Spaine, into Libie (a countrie on the Northe shore of Afrike) and bringyng an ouerplus of people thence with hym, somewhat bettre facioned and manered then thei, trained them to muche more humanitie. And of the troughes [Footnote: Ships.] thei came ouer in, made themselues cotages, and began to plante in plompes [Footnote: Clumps, bodies.] one by another. But of these thinges we shall speake here aftre more at large. Afrike is not euery place a like enhabited. For toward the Southe it lieth for the moste part waste, and vnpeopled, for the broilyng heate of that quatre. But the part that lieth ouer against Europe, is verie well enhabited. The frutefulnesse of the soile is excedyng, and to muche merueillous: as in some places bringyng the siede with a hundred folde encrease. It is straunge to beleue, that is saied of the goodnesse of the soile of the Moores. The stocke of their vines to be more then two menne can fadome, and their clousters of Grapes to be a cubite long. The coronettes of their Pasnepes, and Gardein Thistles (whiche we calle Hortichokes) as also of their Fenelle, to be twelue Cubites compasse. Their haue Cannes like vnto those of India, whiche may contein in the compasse of the knot, or iointe, the measure of ij. bushelles. Ther be sene also Sparagi, of no lesse notable bigguenesse. Toward the mounte Atlas trees bee founde of a wondrefull heigth, smothe, and without knaggue or knotte, vp to the hard toppe, hauyng leaues like the Cypres, but of all other the moste noble Citrus, wherof the Romaines made great deintie. Affrike hath also many sondrie beastes, and Dragones that lye in awaite for the beastes, and when thei se time, so bewrappe and wreathe them aboute, that takyng fro theim the vse of their ioynctes, thei wearie them and kille theim. There are Elephantes, Lyons, Bugles, Pardales, Roes, and Apes, in some places beyonde nombre. There are also Chamelopardales and Rhizes, like vnto Bulles. Herodote writeth, that there be founde Asses with hornes, Hienas Porpentines, wilde Rambes, a beast engendered of the Hiene and the Woulfe named Thoas, Pantheres, Storckes, Oistruthes, and many kindes of serpentes, as Cerastes, and Aspides, against whom nature hath matched the Ichneumon (a verie little beast) as a mortall enemie. ¶ The. iiij. Chapitre. ¶ Of Ethiope, and the auncient maners of that nation. Two countreies there ware of that name Ouerlanders, and Netherlanders. The one pertaynyng to Aphrique, the other to Asie. The one whiche at this daie is called Inde, hath on the east the redde sea, and the sea named Barbaricum, on the northe it toucheth vpon Egypte, and vpon that Libie that standeth on the vtter border of Afrike toward the sea. On the west it is bounded with the other Libie that standeth more into the mayne londe. The residue that runneth toward the south, ioyneth vpon the netherland Ethiope, whiche lyeth more southerly, and is muche greater. It is thought that these Ethiopes toke name of Ethiopus Vulcanes sonne, that (as Plinie saieth) was gouernour there. Or els of the Greke wordes aythoo and ops, whereof the former signifieth to broyle, or to bourne vp with heate, and the other, in the eye or sight. Whiche sheweth in effecte, that the countreie lyeng in the eye of the Sonne, it must nedes be of heate almost importable. As in diede it lyeth in the full course of the sonne, and is in continuall heate. Toward the weast it is hilly, in the middes grauell and sande, and on the easte waste and deserte. There be in it dyuers peoples of sondry phisonomy and shape, monstruous and of hugly shewe. They are thought (as I saied) to haue bene the fyrst of all men, and those whiche of all other maye truelyest be called an homeborne people. Neuer vnder the bondage of any: but euer a free nacion. The first wae of worshippyng God (say thei) was deuised and taught emonge theim: with the maners and ceremonies there to appertinent. They had two kyndes of letters, one, whiche ware knowen onely to their priestes for matters of Religion, whiche they called misticall, and another for the vse of the people hidden from none. Yeat ware not their Letters facioned to ioyne together in sillables like ours, but Ziphres, and shapes of men and of beastes, of heades, and of armes, and artificers tooles, which signified in sondrie wise echone accordyng to his propertie. As by the picture of an hauke swiftenes and spiede, by the shape of a crocodile [Transcriber's note: 'crocoiled' in original] displeasure or misfortune, by the figure of an eye, good watche or regarde, and so forthe of other. Emong their priestes, loke whome they sawe startle aboute as haulfe wood, [Footnote: Mad, from the Saxon _wod_. See "Two Gentlemen of Verona," ii., 3, and "Mids. N. Dr.," ii., 3.] him did iudge of all othermooste holy, and making him their king, they fall downe and worship him, as thoughe there ware in him a Godhead, or as thoughe at the least he ware by goddes prouidence giuen them. This king for al that, must be gouerned by the lawe, and is bounde to all thinges after thorde of the contry. He his selfe maye neither punishe or guerdon any manne. But loke vpon whome he wyl haue execution done, he sendeth the minister appoincted for the purpose, to the person with a token of deathe: whiche when he hath shewed, the officier retourneth, and the persone what soeuer he be, incontinent fordoeth him self. So greatly ware they giuen to thee honour of their kynges, suche a feruencie had they towarde them, that if it fortuned the king through any mishap, to be maymed or hurte in any parte of his bodye, as many as ware towarde him, namely of householde, voluntarily woulde giue them selues the lyke hurt, thincking it an vnfitting [Transcriber's note: original 'unsitting'] thing the kynge to lacke an eye or the vse of a legge, and his frindes neither to halt, ne yet to lacke parte of their sight. Thei say it is the manier also, that when the king dieth, his friendes should wilfully dispatche theim selues and die with hym, for this compte they glorious and a testimony of very friendship. The moste part of them, for that they lye so vnder the Sonne, go naked: couering their priuities with shiepes tayles. But a feawe of them are clad with the rawe felles [Footnote: Skin. "To feed on bones, when flesh and fell is gone." _Gasc. Steel Glass_ (Chalm. Poet.), ii., 556, etc.] of beastes. Some make them brieches of the heares of their heades vp to the waeste. They are comonly brieders and grasiers in commune together. Their shepe be of very small body, and of a harde and roughe coate. Their dogges also are neuer a whitte bigger, but thei are fierce and hardie. They haue good store of gromel and barly, wherof they vse to make drincke. All other graine and fruictes thei lacke, excepte it be dates whiche also are verye skante. Some of them lyue with herbes and the tender rootes of cannes or Riedes. Other eate flesshe, milke, and chese. Meroe, was in time past the heade citie of the kyngdome, whiche stondeth in an Isle of the same name facioned like a shielde, stretching it self thre thousand furlong alongest by Nilus. Aboute that Islande do the cattle masters dwelle, and are muche giuen to hunting, and those that be occupied with tilthe of the grounde haue also mines of gold. Herodotus writeth that thethiopians named Macrobij, do more estieme latten then thei do golde whiche thei put to nothyng that thei compt of any price. In so muche that the Ambassadours of Cambises, when thei came thether, found the prisoners in the gaole fettred and tied with Chaines of golde. Some of theim sowe a kinde of graine called Sesamus, and other the delicate Lothom. Thei haue greate plenty of Hebenum, a woode muche like Guaiacum, and of Siliquastrum. Thei hunte Elephantes and kyll them to eate. There be Lions, Rhinocerotes, Basiliskes, Pardales, and Dragones, whiche I said enwrappe thelephauntes, and sucke them to death, for their bloude. There be found the precious stones called the Iacinthe, and the Prasne. There is also cinamome gathered. Thei occupie bowes of woode seasoned in the fire, of foure cubites long. Women be trayned also to the warres, and haue for the moste parte a ring of latton hanging throughe their lippe. Certeine of theim worshippe the Sonne at his vprijste, and curse him moste bitterly at his doune gate. Diuers of them throwe their dead into Riuers, other cofer them vp in earthen cofres, some enclose them in glasse, and kepe them in their houses a yeare, and in the meane season worship them deuoutly, and offre vnto them the first of all their encreace. In the naming of a newe king, they giue their voice chiefly to him that is moste goodly of stature, moste conning in brieding of cattle, and of strength and substance passing the reast. The lawe hath bene, that the priestes of Memphis shoulde haue the aucthoritie to sende the Kinge the token of deathe, and to set vp another in the place of the deade, whom they thoughte good. They haue an opinion that ther are two Goddes, one immortall, by whome all thinges haue their beginning and continuance vnder his gouernement, and another mortall, and he is vncerteine. Their king, and him that best deserueth of the city next vnto him, they honour as Goddes. This was the state of Ethiope from the beginning, and many yeares sence. But at this daye as myne Authour Sabellicus saieth that he learned of those that are enhabitantes in that countrey: The King of Ethiope (whom we commonly calle Pretoianes or Presbiter Ihon) is a man of suche power, that he is reported to haue vndre him thre skore and two other kinges. If the heade Bysshoppess of the Realme desire to do, or to haue aughte done, al is referred vnto him. Of him be giuen al benefices, and spiritual promocions, which prerogatiue the Pope hath giuen, to the maiestie of kinges. Yet is he him selfe no priest, he hath any maner of ordres. There is of Archebisshoppes (that is to say of superiour and head bisshoppes) a great nombre, whiche haue euery one vndre them at the least twenty other. The Princes, Dukes, Earles, and head Bishoppes, and suche other of like dignitie, when they come abrode, haue a crosse, and a basine of golde filled ful of earthe caried before them: that thone [Footnote: The one.] maye put them in remembraunce that earth into earth must again be resolued, and the other renewe the memory of Christes suffering. Their priestes to haue yssue, mary one wyfe, but she ones beyng dead, it is vnlawfull to mary another. The temples and churches ther, are muche larger, much richer, and more gorgeous then ours, for the moste part voulted from the floore to the toppe. They haue many ordres of deuout men, moche like to our ordres of Religious: as the ordre of S. Anthony, Dominique, Calaguritani, Augustines, and Machareanes, whiche are bound to no colour but weare some suche one as Tharchebysshoppe shall allowe. Next vnto the supreame and souereigne GOD, and Mary the virgin his mother, they haue moste in honour Thomas sirnamed Didimus. This King, of all other the worthiest, whome they call Gias (a name giuen him of his mightiness and power) is of the bloud of Dauid, continued from one generation to another (as they are perswaded) by so many yeres of succession. And he is not as the moste of the Ethiopians are, blacke, but white. Gamma the chiefe citie, and as we terme it the chambre of the king, stondeth not by building of masonrie, and carpentrie as ours, but strieted with tentes and pauilions placed in good ordre, of veluet and saten, embrauded with silkes and purples of many diuers sortes. By an auncient ordre of the realme, the king liueth euer in presence and sighte of his people, and neuer soiourneth within the walles aboue two daies. Either for that they iudge it an vncomely thing, and a token of delicate slouthfulnes, or elles for that some law doth forbid it. His army in the warres is ten hundred thousande men, fiue hundred Elephantes, and horses, and Cameles, a wonderfull nomber, and this is but a meane preparacion. Ther are througheout the whole nacion certeine houses and stockes, that are pencionaries at armes, whose issue is as it ware branded with the marcke of the crosse, the skinne beyng pretely slitte. Thei vse in the warres, Bowe, Pique, Habregeon, and helmette. Their highest dignitie is priesthode, the next, thordre of the Sages, whiche thei cal Balsamates, and Tamquates. They attribute moche also to the giltelesse and vprighte dealing man, whiche vertue they estieme as the firste staier to climbe to the dignitie of the sages. The nobilitie hath the thirde place of dignitie, and the pencionaries aforesaid, the fourthe. When the iudges haue giuen sentence of life, or of deathe, the sentence is brought to the headborough of the Citie (whom we call the Mayour) and they Licomegia: he supplieth the place of the King. Lawes written thei occupy none, but iudge accordyng to reason and conscience. If any man be conuict of adulterie he forfeicteth the fourtieth parte of his goodes, but thadulteresse is punished at home, accordyng to the discretion of the partie offended. The men giue dowrie to those whom thei mary withal, but not to those that thei purchase besides. Their womens attire is of Golde, (whereof that country hathe plentie) of pearle, and of Sarsenette. Bothe men and women are apparelled in long garmentes downe to the foote, slieued, and close rounde aboute of al maner of colours, sauing only blacke for that in that contry is proper for morning. They bewaile their dead xl. daies space. In bancquettes of honour, in the place of our fruicte (which the latine calleth the seconde boorde) they serue in rawe flesshe very finely minced and spiced, whervpon the gestes fiede very licouricely. [Footnote: Gluttonously, daintily. (N. Wiley's Dictionary, 1737).] They haue no maner of wollen webbe, but are eyther cladde in sarsenettes, or in linnen. One maner of speache serueth not througheout the whole contry, but sondry and diuerse, aswel in phrase as in naming of thinges. Thei haue twise in the yere haruest, and twise in the yere somer. These Ethiopians or Indianes excepted, al the reste of the people of Libia Westward, are worshippers of Mahomet, and liue aftre the same sorte in maner, that the Barbariens do in Egipte at this present, and are called Maures, or Moores, as I thincke of their outleapes and wilde rowming. For that people was no lesse noysome to Lybie in those cursed tymes (when so greate mutacion of thinges happened, when peoples ware so chaunged, suche alteration of seruice, and religion broughte in, and so many newe names giuen vnto contries) then the Sarasens ware. ¶ The v. Chapiter ¶ Of Aegipte, and the auncient maners of that people. Aegipte is a Countrie lying in Affrike, or as some hold opinion, borderyng thervpon, so named of Aegiptus, Danaus brother, where afore it was called Aeria. This Aegipte (as Plinie recordeth in his fiueth boke) toucheth on the East, vppon the redde Sea, and the land of Palestine; On the West fronteth vpon Cirene, and the residue of Afrike. On the South it stretcheth to Aethiope: And on the Northe is ended with the sea, to whom it giueth name. The notable Cities of that Countrie, were in tyme past, Thebes, Abydos, Alexandrie, Babilon, and Memphis, at this daie called Damiate, alias Chairas or Alkair, and the seate of the Soldan, a citie of notable largenesse. In Aegipt as Plato affirmeth, it was neuer sene rain. But Nilus suppliyng that defaulte, yerely about saincte Barnabies tide, with his ouerflowynges maketh the soile fertile. It is nombred of the moste parte of writers, emong the Islandes: For that Nilus so parteth hymself aboute it, that he facioneth it triangle wise. The Aegiptians firste of all other, deuised the names of the twelue Goddes, builte vp Altares, and Images, erected Chappelles and Temples, and graued in stone the similitude of many sondrie beastes. All whiche their doynges, dooe manifestly make, that thei came of the Aethiopes, who (as Diodore the Sicilian saieth) ware the firste inuentours of all these. Their women in old tyme, had all the trade of occupiyng, and brokage [Footnote: To _broke_ i.e. to deal, or transact business particularly of an amorous character. (See Fansh. Lusiad, ix., 44; and Daniel, Queen's Arcadia, iii., 3.)] abrode, and reuelled at the Tauerne, and kepte lustie chiere: And the men satte at home spinnyng, and woorkyng of Lace, and suche other thynges as women are wonte. The men bare their burdeins on the heade, the women on the shulder. In the easemente of vrine, the men rowked [Footnote: To bend.] doune, the women stoode vprighte. The easemente of ordure thei vsed at home, but commonly feasted abrode in the stretes. No woman tooke ordres, either of God or Goddesse. Their maner of ordres, is not to make seuerally for euery Goddesse and God, a seuerall priest, but al at a shuffe, in generall for all. Emong the whiche, one is an heade, whose sonne enheriteth his roume by succession. The men children, euen of a custome of that people, did with good wil kepe their fathers and mothers, but the women children (yf they refused it) ware compelled. The moste part of men in solempne burialles, shaue their heades, and let theyr beardes growe, but Thegiptians shaued their beardes and let their heades grow. They wrought their doughe with their fiete, and their claye with their handes. As the Grecians do beleue, this people, and their ofspring, are they that vsed circumcision. Thei ordre their writyng from their right hande towarde their left, contrary to vs. It was the maner emong them, that the menne should weare two garmentes at ones, the women but one. As the Aethiopes had, so learned they of them, two maner of lettres; the one seuerall to the priestes thother vsed in commune. Their priestes, euery thirde daye shaued their bodies, that there might be none occasion of filthinesse when they shold ministre or sacrifie. Thei did were garmentes of linnen, euer cleane wasshed, and white: and shoes of a certeine kinde of russhes, named Papyrus, whiche aftre became stuffe, to geue name to our paper. They neither sette beane their selues, ne eate them where soeuer they grewe: ne the priest may not loke vpon a beane, for that it is iudged an vncleane puls. They are wasshed euery daye in colde water thrise, and euery nighte twise. The heades of their sacrifices (for that they vsed to curse them with many terrible woordes) did they not eate, but either the priestes solde them to such strangiers as had trade emonge them, or if there ware no suche ready in time, they threwe them in to Nilus. All the Egiptians offer in sacrifice, neither cowe, ne cowe calfe, because they are hallowed to Isis their goddesse, but bulles and bulle calues, or oxen, and stieres. For their meate they vse, moche a kynde of pancake, made of rye meale. For lacke of grapes they vse wyne made of Barly. They liue also with fisshe, either dried in the Sonne and so eaten rawe, or elles kept in pikle. They fiede also vpon birdes, and foules, firste salted, and then eaten rawe. Quaile, and mallard, are not but for the richer sorte. At all solempne suppers, when a number is gathered, and the tables withdrawen, some one of the company carieth aboute in an open case, the image of death, caruen out of woode, or drawen with the pencille as niere to the vine as is possible, of a cubite, or two cubites long at the moste. Who shewyng it aboute to euery of the gestes, saieth, loke here: drinke and be mery, for aftre thy death, suche shall thou be. The yonger yf they miete their auncient, or bettre vpon the way, giue them lace, going somewhat aside: or yf the aunciente fortune to come in place where they are sitting, they arise out of their seate, wherein they agre with the Lacedemoniens. When they miete in the waye, they do reuerence to eche other, bowing their bodies, and letting fall their handes on their knees. They weare long garments of lynnen, hemmed about the skirtes beneth, which the call Casiliras: ouer the which they throwe on another white garment also. Wollen apparelle thei neither weare to the churche, ne bewry any man in. Nowe for asmoche as they afore time that euer excelled in anye kinde of learning, or durste take vppon them, to prescribe lawe, and rule of life vnto to other, as Orpheus, Homeire, Museus, Melampode, Dedalus, Licurgus, Solon, Plato, Pithagoras, Samolxis, Eudoxus, Democritus, Inopides, and Moses the Hebrue, with manye other, whose names the Egiptians glorie to be cronicled with theim: trauelled first to the Egiptians, to learne emongest them bothe wisedome, and politique ordre (wherein at those daies they passed all other) me thinketh it pleasaunte and necessarie also, to stande somewhat vpon their maners, ceremonies and Lawes, that it may be knowen what they, and sondry more haue borowed of them, and translated vnto other. For (as Philip Beroalde writeth in his commentary vpon Apuleius booke, entituled the Golden Asse) the moste parte of the deuices that we vse in our Christian religion, ware borowed out of the maner of Thegiptians. As surpluis and rochet, and suche linnen garmentes: shauen crownes, tourninges at the altare, our masse solempnities, our organes, our knielinges, crouchinges, praiers, and other of that kinde. The kinges of Egipte (saieth Diodore the Sicilian in his seconde booke) liued not at rouers [Footnote: From the expression _to shoot at rovers_, i.e., at a mark, but with an elevation, not point blank.] as other kinges doe, as thoughe me lusteth ware lawe, but bothe in their monie collections, and daily fare and apparell, folowed the bridle of the lawe. They had neither slaue that was homeborne, ne slaue that was forein bought, appointed to attende or awaite vpon them. But the sonnes of those that ware priestes of honour, bothe aboue thage of twenty yeres, and also singulerly learned. That the king hauing these attendant for the body both by daie and by night, restrained by the reuerence of the company about hym might commit nothing that was vicious, or dishonourable. For men of power are seldome euil, where they lacke ministres for their vnlawfull lustes. There ware appoincted houres, both of the daie and the night, in the whiche the kinge mighte lawfully doe, what the Lawe did permit. In the morning, assone as he was ready, it behoued him to peruse al lettres, supplicacions, and billes: that knowing what was to be done, he might giue aunswer in tyme: that all thinges might rightlie, and ordrely be done. These being dispatched, when he had washed his bodie emong the Pieres of the Realme, he put on some robe of estate, and Sacrificed to the goddes. The maner was, that the Primate, or head of the spiritualty (the beastes appoincted for the sacrifices being brought harde to the altare, and the Kyng standing by) should with a loude voyce, in the hearing of the people, wysshe to the king (that bare him selfe iustely towarde his subiectes) prosperous healthe, and good fortune in all. And should further particulerly recite the vertues of the king, his deuoutnes and reuerence towarde God, and clemency towarde men. Commende him as chaste, iuste, and vpright: of noble and great coinage, sothfaste, liberal, and one that well brideled al his desires. Punisshing thoffendour vnder his desertes, and rewarding the well doer aboue his merites. Making a processe of these, and such other like: in the ende with the rehersalle of the contrary vices, he cursed the wicked and euil. Then absoluing the King of his offences, he laied all the faulte vpon the ministres, and attendauntes, that should at any time moue the king to any thing vnright, or vnlawfull. These thinges beinge done, he preached vnto the King the blessednes of the life, led accordyng to the pleasure of the goddes, and exhorted him thervnto: as also to frame his maners and doinges vnto vertue, and not to giue eare to that, that leude men should counsaile him, but to followe those thynges that led vnto honour and vertue. In thende, whan the King had sacrificed a bulle, the priest declared certain preceptes and examples of excellente, and moste worthy men: written in their holy scripture. To thende that the Kynge admonisshed by the example of theim, might ordre his gouernaunce iustlye, and godly, and not geue hym selfe to couetous cloinyng, [Footnote: Probably from the old French, _encloyer_, to glut, or surfeit.] and hourdyng of tresure. He neither satte to iudge, ne toke his vocacion, ne walked abrode, ne washed at home, ne laye with his Quiene, ne finally did any maner of thing, but vpon the prescripte of the lawe. Their fare was but simple, nothing but veale, and goose, and their wine by measure appoincted. So that thone should nether ouerlade the bealy, ne the other the heade. To conclude, their whole life so bounde vpon temperaunce, that it might be thoughte raither to haue bene prescribed them by a discrete Phisicen to preserue helthe, then by a politique Lawyer. It siemeth wondrefull that the Egiptians mighte not rule their owne priuate life, but by the Lawes. But it semeth more wonderfull that their King had no liberty of him selfe, either to sitte in iudgement, to make collections of money, or topunishe any man, vpon wilfulnes, stoute stomacke, angre, displeasure, or anye vniuste cause: But to be holden vnder lawe as a commune subiecte, and yet not to be agreued therwith, but to thincke them selues moste blessed in obeyeng and folowyng the lawe, and other in folowing their lustes most vnhappy, as being led by them into many daungiers, and damages. For suche oftentimes, euen when they know them selues to do euill, either ouercome with malice, and hatred, or some other mischiefe of the minde, are not able to witholde theim selues from the euille. But they which by wisedome and discretion, gouerne their liues, offende in fewe thinges. The kinges vsing suche an equitie, and vprightnes towarde their subdites, are so tendred againe of them, that not onely the priestes, but all the Egiptians in generall, haue more care for the health and the welfare of the King, then for their wiues, their children, or any other princes. He that to his death continueth in this goodnesse, him being dead, do they in general lamente. They teare their clothes, they shut vp the churche dores, they haunte no place of wonte commune concourse, they omytte all solempne holy daies: and girding them selues vnder the pappes with brode Ribbond of Sarsenet, two or thre hundred on a company, men and women together, renewe euery daye twise, thre skore and xii. daies together, the buriall bewailing, casting dirte on their heades, and singing in rithme the vertue of the Kinge. They absteine from al flesshe of beastes, all meates that touche fire, all wine and all preparation of seruice at the table. They bathe not, thei smel of no swietes, they go to no beddes, they pleasure not in women: but as folkes that had buried their beste beloued childe, all that continuance of time they lamente. During these seuenty and two daies (hauyng prepared all thinges necessarie for the funerall pompe): the laste daye of all, the bodie beyng enbaulmed and cofred, is sette before the entrie of the Toombe. Thereaftre the custome, one redeth an abridgemente of all the thinges done by the king in his life. And if there be any man disposed to accuse the deade, libertie is giuen him. The priestes are present, and euer giue praise to his well doings, as they be recited. There stondeth also rounde about the Toombe a multitude of the communes, which with their voices allowe asmuche as is trew, and crie out vpon that, that is false, with vehement gainsaienges. Wherby it hath happened, that sondry kynges by the repugnynges of the people haue lien vntoombed: and haue lacked the honoure of bewrialle, that the good are wonte to haue. That feare, hath driuen the kynges of Aegipte, to liue iustly, and vprightly, lesse the people aftre their deathes, might shewe them suche dishonour, and beare them perpetuall hatred. This was the maner specially, of the aunciente kynges there. The whole realme of Egipte was diuided into Shieres: and to euery Shiere was appoincted a Presidente, whiche had the gouernaunce of the whole Shiere. The reuenewes of the realme ware diuided into iii. partes: whereof the companie of the priestes had the first parte, which ware in greate estimacion emong them, both for the administration of Goddes Seruice, and also for the good learnyng, wherin thei brought vp many. And this porcion was giuen theim, partely for the administracion of the Sacrifices, and partely for the vse and commoditie of their priuate life. For thei neither thincke it mete, that any parte of the honour of the Goddes should bee omitted, or that thei, whiche are Ministres of the commune counsaill and profecte, should be destitute of necessary commodities of the life. For these menne are alwaie in matters of weighte, called vpon by the nobles, for their wisedome and counsaille: And to shewe (as thei can by their connyng in the Planettes, and Starres, and by the maner of their Sacrifices) the happe of thinges to come. Thei also declare vnto them, the stories of men of olde tyme, regested in their holy Scripture, to the ende that accordyng to them the kynges maie learne what shall profighte, or disprofighte. For the maner is not emong them, as it is emong the Grecians, that one manne, or one woman, shoulde attende vpon the sacrifices and Ceremonies alone: but thei are many at ones aboute the honour of their Goddes, and teache the same ordre to their children. This sorte of menne is priuileged, and exempte from all maner of charges, and hath next vnto the kyng, the second place of dignitie and honour. The second portion cometh to the king to maintein his owne state, and the charges of the warres: and to shewe liberalitie to men of prowesse according to their worthinesse. So that the Communes are neither burdoned with taxes nor tributes. The thirde parte do the pencionaries of the warres receiue, and suche other as vpon occasions are moustered to the warres: that vpon the regard of the stipende, thei maie haue the better good wille and courage, to hasarde their bodies in battaile. Their communaltie is deuided into thre sortes of people. Husbande men, Brieders of cattle, and men of occupacion. The Husband-men buyeng for a litle money a piece of grounde of the Priestes, the king, or the warriour: al the daies of their life, euen from their childhode, continually applie that care. Whereby it cometh to passe, that bothe for the skoolyng that thei haue therin at their fathers handes, and the continuall practisyng fro their youthe, that thei passe all other in Husbandrie. The Brieders, aftre like maner, learnyng the trade of their fathers, occupie their whole life therabout. We see also that al maner of Sciences haue bene much bettred, yea, brought to the toppe of perfection, emong the Egiptians. For the craftes men there, not medlyng with any commune matiers that mighte hindre theim, emploie them selues onely to suche sciences as the lawe doeth permit them, or their father hath taught them. So that thei neither disdaine to be taughte, nor the hatred of eche other, ne any thing elles withdraweth them from their crafte. Their Iudgementes and Sentences of lawe, are not there at giuen aduenture, but vpon reason: for thei surely thought that all thinges well done, muste niedes be profitable to mannes life. To punishe the offendours, and to helpe the oppressed, thoughte thei the best waie to auoide mischiefes. But to buye of the punishmente for money or fauour, that thought thei to be the very confusion of the commune welfare. Wherefore thei chase out of the chief cities (as Heliopole, Memphis, and Thebes) the worthiest men, to be as Lordes chief Iustice, or Presidentes of Iudgementes, so that their Iustice benche did sieme to giue place, neither to the Areopagites of the Athenienses, ne yet to the Senate of the Lacedemonians that many a daie after theim ware instituted. Aftre what tyme these chief Iustices ware assembled (thirtie in nombre) thei chase out one that was Chauncellour of the whole: and when he failed, the citie appoincted another in his place. All these had their liuynges of the kyng: but the Chauncellour more honorably then the rest. He bare alwaie about his necke a tablette, hangyng on a chaine of golde, and sette full of sundrie precious stones, whiche thei called Veritie and Truthe. The courte beyng set and begunne, and the tablet of Truthe by the Chauncellour laied furthe, and theight bookes of their lawes (for so many had thei) brought furth into the middes emong them: it was the maner for the plaintife to putte into writyng the whole circumstance of his case, and the maner of the wrong doone vnto him, or how muche he estemed himself to be endamaged thereby. And a time was giuen to the defendant to write answere again to euery poinct, and either to deny that he did it, or elles to alledge that he rightfully did it, or elles to abate the estimate of the damage or wrong. Then had thei another daie appointed, to saie finally for them selues. At the whiche daie when the parties on bothe sides ware herd, and the iudges had conferred their opinions, the Chauncellour of the Iudges gaue sentence by pointyng with the tablet of Veritie, toward the parte that semed to be true. This was the maner of their iudgementes. And forasmuche as we are fallen into mencion of their iudgementes, it shall not be vnfyttyng with myne enterprise, to write also the aunciente Lawes of the Egiptians, that it maie be knowen how muche they passe, bothe in ordre of thynges, and profite. Fyrst to be periured was headyng: for they thought it a double offence. One in regarde of conscience not kept toward God, and an other in gyuynge occasion to destroy credite among men, whiche is the chiefest bonde of their felowship. If any wayfarying man shuld espy a man sette vppon with thieues, or otherwyse to be wronged, and dyd not to his power succour and ayde hym, he was gyltie of death. If he ware not able to succour and to reskewe hym, then was he bounde to vtter the thieues, and to prosecute the matter to enditement. And he that so dyd not, was punyshed with a certayne nombre of stripes, and was kept thre days without meate. He that shuld accuse any man wrongfully, if he fortuned afterward to be broughte into iudgement, he suffered the punishement ordeyned for false accusers. All the Egyptians ware compelled to brynge euery man their names to the chiefe Iustices, and the facultie or science wherby they liued. In the which behalfe if any man lyed, or lyued with vnlaufull meanes, he felle into penalitie of death. If any man willyngly had slaine any man free or bond, the lawes condemned hym to die, not regardynge the state of the man, but the malicious pourpose of the diede. Wherby they made men afrayd to doe mischief, and death beynge executed for the death of a bondman, the free myght goe in more sauftie. For the fathers that slewe their chyldren, there was no punyshement of death appoynted, but an iniunction that they shoulde stande thre daies and thre nyghtes togither at the graue of the deade, accompanied with a common warde of the people to see the thyng done. Neyther dyd it sieme them iuste, that he that gaue life to the childe, should lose his life for the childes death, but rather be put to continual sorowe, and to be pyned with the repentance of the diede, that other myght ther by the withdrawen from the like wyckednes. But for the chyld that kylled either father or mother, they deuised this kynd of synguler torment. They thruste hym through with riedes sharpned for the nones, in euery ioynt all ouer his body, and caused hym quicke to be throwen vpon a heape of Thornes, and so to bee burned. Iudgyng that there could not be a greater wickednes emong men, then to take awaie the life, from one that had giuen life vnto hym. If any woman with child ware condempned to dye, thei abode the tyme of her deliueraunce nowithstandyng: for that thei iudged it farre from all equitie, that the gilteles should dye together with the giltie. Or that ii. should be punished, where but one had offended. Who so had in battaille or warre, withdrawen hymself from his bande, forsaken his place in the arraie, or not obeied his capitaigne: was not condempned to dye, but suffred for his punishemente a notable reproche, of all punishementes the woorste, and more greuous then death. Who so had disclosed any secret to the ennemie, the Lawe commaunded his tongue to be cutte out of his heade. And who so clipped the coigne or countrefacted it, or chaunged the stampe or diminisshed the weighte: or in lettres and writinges, shoulde adde any thing, by entrelinyng, or otherwise: or should guelde out any thyng, or bryng a forged euidence, Obligacion or Bille, bothe his handes ware cutte of. That suche parte of the bodie as had offended, mighte for euer beare the punishemente therof: and the residue takyng warnyng by his ensample, might shonne the like. There ware also sharpe punishementes constitute, in offences concernyng women. For he that had defloured a free woman, had his membres cutte of, because in one offence, he had committed thre no small wickednesses. That is to saie, wrong, made the woman an whore, and broughte in a doubte the laufulnes of her issue. But thei that ware taken in adulterie, bothe partes byeng agreed, the man was whipped with a thousand stripes by tale: and the woman had her nose cut of, wherwith beside the shame she had, the whole beautie of her face was disgraced, and disfigured. The Lawes that apperteigned to the trade and occupieng of men, one with another: ware made (as thei saie) by one Bocchorides. It is commaunded in them, that if money haue bene lent any manne without writyng, vppon credite of his woorde: if the borrower deny it, he should be put to his othe, to the whiche the creditour muste stande. For thei so muche estiemed an othe, that thei thoughte no man so wicked, as wilfully to abuse it. And again, because he that was noted to sweare very often, lost vtterly his credite, and name: many menne affirme, that for the regard of their honesties, it happened very seldome, that any man came to his othe. Their Lawe maker also, iudging that vertue was the engendrer of credite, thought it good by good ordres to accustome men to good liuyng and honestie, vpon feare to sieme vnworthie of all reputacion. He thought it also to be against conscience, that he that without an othe had borowed, should not nowe for his own, be beleued with an othe. The forfect for non paiment of the lone, mought not bee aboue the double of the somme that was borowed. And paiement was made onely of the goodes of the borower, the body was not arrestable. For the Lawemaker thought it conueniente, that onely the gooddes should bee subdite to the debte, and the bodies (whose seruice was required bothe in peace and in warre) subiecte to the citie. It was not thoughte to bee Iustice, that the manne of warre, whiche hasardeth his bodie for the sauftie of his countrie, should for an enterest of lone, bee throwen into prisone. The whiche lawe, Solon siemeth to haue translated to the Athenienses, vndre the name of the lawe Sisarea, decreyng that the body of no citezein, should for any maner of enterest be emprisoned. [Footnote: It may interest readers to see how much the knowledge of Africa had extended in 150 years. Cluverius, in his "Introductio in Geographiam." 1659, says:-- _Summa Africa descriptio_. Asiæ exiguo Isthmo annectitur maxima Orbis terrarum peninsula Africa, tria millia et triginta circiter mill German. ambitu complectens. Isthmi intercapedo est mill. xxv. Pleraque Africæ inculta, et aut arenis sterilibus obducta, aut ob sitim coeli terrarumque deserta sunt, aut infestantur multo ac malefico genere animalium; in universum vasta est magis quam frequens. Quædam tamen partes eximie fertiles. Græcis Libya dicitur, à Libya Epaphi filii Iovis filia: Africam autem ab Afro Libys Herculis filio dictam volunt. Maria eam cingunt, qua Sol oritur Rubrum, qua medius dies Æthiopicum, qua occidit Sol Atlanticum; ab Septemtrionibus Internum, Africum seu Libycum dictum, qua eam alluit. Longitudo summa computatur ab Herculis freto ad promontorium Bonæ Spei mill. DCC. Latitudo inter duo promontoria, Hesperium, vulgo _C. Verde_, et Aromata, quod est juxta fauces Arabici sinus, vulgo nunc _Coarda fui_, mill. DL. Terra ipsa, nisi qua interno mari accedit, obscure veteribus nota. Vltra autem Nili fontes ac montes Lunæ prorsus incognita. Regiones atque gentes in quas divisa fuit quondam, sunt, Ægyptus, Cyrenaïca, Africa Minor, seu proprie dicta, Troglodytæ, Garamantes, Numidia, Mauritania, Gaetulia, Libya interior, Arabia Troglodytica et Æthiopia. CAP. II. _Ægyptus_. Prima Africæ Asiæque proxima est Ægyptus, quam veteres Geographi in Asiæ regionibus computarunt. At posteriores, Arabico sinu, vt ante dictum, inter Asiam Africamque termino constituto, Africæ eam contribuerunt. Nomen traxit ab Ægypto Danai fratre; ante Aëria dicta. Terminatur à Septemtrione suo mari, id est, Ægyptio, ab Ortu Arabia Petræa et dicto sinu; a Meridie Æthiopia, ab Occasu Cyrenaïca. Longa est a Pelusíaco Nilí ostio ad Catabathmum opidum milliar. CL. Lata à Nili ostiis, ad opidum Metacompsum Nilo adpositum, nunc _Conzo_, mill. c. Divisa fuit generatim in Superiorem, quæ in Meridiem vergit, et Inferiorem, quæ mari interno alluitur. Superiorem rursus Nilus dividebat in Libycam, qua Occidentem, et Arabicam, qua Orientem spectat. Hinc populi Arabægyptii, illinc Libyægyptii, dicti. Inferioris pars est Marcotis, sive Marmarica, vltima versus Occidentem Cyrenaïcæ contermina. Speciatim vero universa Ægyptus in complures præfecturas descripta erat, quas Græco vocabulo Nomos vocarunt. _De urbibus Ægypti_. Ægyptus super ceteram antiquitatis gloriam, viginti millia urbium sibi Amase regnante habitata quondam prætulit; postea quoque sub Romano imperio multis, etiamsi ignobilibus, frequens. Clarissima omnium fuit Alexandria, caput Ægypti totiusque Africæ, post deletam Carthaginem prima; ab Alexandro Magno condita; postea in tantam aucta multitudinem atque frequentiam, uti uni tantum Romæ cederet. Secunda ab hac Diospolis, sive Thebae cognomine Ægyptiæ; quas centum portas habuisse ferunt; sive, at alii ajunt, centum aulas, totidem olim Principum domos; solitasque singulas, ubi negotium exegerat, ducenos armatos milites effundere. Deinde Memphis, regia quondam: juxta quam pyramides, regum sepulchra. Turres sunt fastigiatæ, ultra celsitudinem omnnem, quæ fieri manu possit; itaque mensuram umbrarum egressæ, nullas habent umbras, regum pecuniæ otiosa ac stulta ostentatio. Reliquæ urbes sunt, Syene, Sais, Bubastis, Elephantis, Tentyris, Arsinoe et Abydus, Memnonis olim regia; postea Osiris fano inclyta: et Arabiæ contermina, claritatis magnæ Heliopolis, id est, Solis urbs. In Marmarica vicus fuit Apis, nobilis religione Ægypti locus. Fuit et Labyrinthus nullo addito ligno exædificatus, domos mille et regias duodecim perpetuo parietis ambitu amplexus, marmore exstructus et tectus, unum in se descensum habens, intus pene innumerabiles vias, multis ambagibus huc et illuc remeantibus. CAP. III. _De incolis Ægypti ac Nilo flumine; item de Libya exteriore_. Ipsi Ægyptii, hominum vetustissimos se prædicantes, cum Scythis de gentis antiquitate olim contenderunt. Antiquissimos esse post Syros, vel ipsa sacra Scriptura attestatur. Disciplinarum complurium inventores rerumque divinarum ac siderum peritissimi dicti sunt, quare ad eos Dædalus, Melampus, Pythagoras, Homerus et alii complures eruditionis causa profecti. Sub regibus esse jam inde ab initio rerum consueverunt, modo suis, modo Æthiopibus; dein Persis ac Macedonibus; moxque iterum suis, donec Romani, Augusto debellante, in provinciam redegerunt Ægyptum. Post hoc Saraceni eam occuparunt: quibus successit Sultanorum inclytum nomen, ex Circassis Tartarorum gente ortum. Postremi Turcæ ann. M DXVI invaserunt, qui etiam nunc tenent. _Nilus_. Sed de Nilo hoc loco pauca quædam retulisse haud abs re fuerit. Terra ipsa Ægyptus expers imbrium mire tamen fertilis, et hominum aliorumque perfoecunda generatrix. Nilus id efficit, amnium in internum mare permeantium maximus. Hic in Africæ desertis, montibus Lunæ ortus, haud statim Nilus est, et primum ingentem lacum Nilidem, qui nunc _Zaire_ et _Zembre_ dicitur, CXX. milliar. German. permeans, cum diu simplex sævusque receptis dextera magnis aquis descendit, Astapus cognominatus, quod Æthiopum lingua significat aquam è tenebris profluentem, circa Meroen, Insularum, quas innumeras lateque patentes spargit, clarissimam, lævo alveo Astabores dictus est, hoc est, ramus aquæ venientis è tenebris; dextero veto Astusapes, quod latentis significationem adjicit, nec ante, quam ubi rursum coit, Nilua dictus est. Inde partim asper, partimnavigia patiens; mox præcipiti cursu progressus, inter occursantes scopulos non fluere immenso fragore creditur, sed ruere. Postea lenis, et fractis aquis domitaque violentia, et spatio fessus, tandem ad [Greek: Delta] opidum per omnem Ægyptum vagus et dispersus, septem ingentibus ostiis in mare Ægytium se evomit. Bis in anno, certis diebus auctu magno per totam spatiatus Ægyptum, foecundus innatat terris. Causas hujus incrementi varias prodidere; sed maxime probabiles duas: Etefiarum eo tempore ex adverso flantium repercussum, ultro in ora acto mari: aut imbres Æthiopiæ æstivos, iisdem Etesiis nubila illò ferentibus ex reliquo orbe. Idem amnis unus omnium nullas expirat auras. _Libya exterior_. Cæterum à tergo Ægypti versus Meridiem, juxta sinistram Nili ripam, Libya est exterior ad Æthiopiam extensa: nunc est _Elfocat_ desertum et _Gaoga_. CAP. IV. _Cyrenaïca, Africa Minor, Libyæ deserta, Troglodytæ et Garmantes_. Ægypto annexa est Cyrenaïca regio, Ammonis oraculo maxime clara, nuunc Barchanæ provinciæ dimidia pars Orientalis, eadem Pentapolitana dicta, à quinque insignium urbium numero, quæ Berænice, Arsinoe, Ptolemais, Apollonia, et ipsa Cyrene, unde regioni nomen. Græci hanc condiderunt, ex Thera insula. Ægæi maris profecti. Ipsi Cyrenenses privata sorte inter Ægyptios ac Poenos diu egerunt; dein cum Carthaginiensibus de agrorum finibus magnum ac diuturnum bellum gesserunt. Mox Carthagine deleta, et ipsi cum reliqua Africa Romano Imperio cesserunt. Posthinc solum eorum Sultanis, tandem Turcis. _Africa Minor_. Sequitur Africa Minor sive proprie dicta. Terminatur à Septemtrione Africo pelago, ab Ortu sinu magnæ Syrtis, à Meridie montium perpetuis jugis; quibus à Libyæ desertis et Gætulis discernitur; ab Occasu Tusca amne. Continet hodie Tunetanum regnum. Fluvii in ea clari Cinyphus, Triton, Tritonidem paludem trahens: Catada, ad Carthaginem se devolvens, et Bagradas omnium maximas ad Vticam, ac Tuscaterminus Africæ Minoris. Populorum varia nomina. Clarissimi Nasamones, extra Africam propriam etiam Cyrenaïcæ et Marmaricæ contermini; quos antea Mesammones Græci adpellaverunt, ab argumento loci, medios inter arenas sitos, et ab his sublati Psylli, quorum corpori ingenitum fuit virus exitiale serpentibus, ut cujus odore vel fugarent vel sopirent eas: et supra Carthaginem Libyphoenices, iidem et Poeni à Phoenice Tyro profecti, Duce Eliza sive Didone, quæ Carthaginem condidit. Vrbium celeberrimæ Lepris magna, quæ et Neapolis, Abrotonum, Taphræ, Capsa, Thysdrus, Thapsus, Leptis parva, Rhuspina, Adrumetum, Clupea, Turres, Vthina et Carthago, Romæ æmula, terrarum cupida, opulentissima quondam totius Africæ, antequam Romani tribus bellis devictam deleverunt. Vtica Catonis, qui inde Vticensis, morte nobilis. _Libya deserta, Troglodytæ et Garamantes_. Ab Africæ minoris tergo versus Austrum Libyæ deserta fuerunt; ultraque Troglodytæ, nunc _Berdoa_ desertum. Hos tegit ab Austro Ater mons, et trans eum Garamantes populi clari, nunc _Borno_ regnum. Caput gentis fuit Garama, quam hodieque eodem nomine exstare tradunt. Debris inclyta affuso fonte, cujus aquæ ex coelesti quidem vertigine mutant qualitatem, at controversa siderum disciplina; quidpe qui friget calore, calet frigore; à medio scilicet die ad noctem mediam aquis ferventibus, totidemque horis ad medium diem rigentíbus. Cæterum et Troglodytas et Garmantas olim Romanorum arma superaverunt. CAP. V. _Numidia et Mauritania_. _Numidia_. A Tusca amne usque ad Ampsagam fluvium litori Africo praetenditur Numidia, Masinissæ Regis nomine maxime clara, nunc Tremisenum regnum eodem porrigitur situ. Gens ipsa Numidae, ante Nomades à Græcis adpellati, à permutandis pabulis, mapalia sua plaustris circumferentes, ut nunc Tattarorum fert mos. Fluviorum celeberrimus est Rubricatus. Vrbes quam plurimæ, nobilesque; sed Cirtha eminens; Sittianorum, postquam Romani tenuere, colonia dicta: quondam Iubæ et Syphacis domus, cum foret opulentissima. Dein sequuntur Cullu, Ruscicade, Bulla regia, Tacatua, Hippo regius, Sicca, Tabrachæ: Hanc quoque regionem debellatam in provinciæ formam redegerunt Romani. _Mauritania_. Vltima ad Occasum est Mauritania; in qua praecipua gens Maurorum, unde nomen regioni. Hos Graeci Maurusios dixerunt. Terminantur à Meridie Atlante minori, quo submoventur à Gaetulis: qui et ipsi postea oppressis et exstinctis Maurusiis Mauritaniae majorem partem occuparunt: ab Occasu est Oceanus Atlanticus, à Septemtrione fretum Herculis et mare internum; Ab Ortu primo Mulucham habuit flumen, quod Mauros à Numidis discernebat; at quum ea Numidiae pars, quae est inter Ampsagam et Mulucham, Mauritaniae adjiceretur, finis huic constitutus est Ampsaga. Continet hodie tria regna: Darense, Fezense et Maurocitanum. Dividebatur autem olim Malva flumine in Caesariensem quae Numidiam contingit, et Tingitanam quae Oceano perfunditur. Regna fuere ad C. Caesarem usque Imperatorem, qui in duas divisit provincias. _Cæsariensis_. Caesariensis provincia, quam nunc totam _Dara_ regnum obsidet, antea Bocchi regnum adpellata fuit. Partem tamen inter Malvam et Mulucham Massaesylornm gens tenuit. Caput provinciae Iulia Caesarea, aliquando ignobilis, cum Iol esset; postea quia Iubae regia, illustris facta. Reliqua opida sunt Cartenna, Saldae, Opidum novum, Rusazus, Ruscurium, Rusconia, Tipasa, Tubusuptus et Tucca, impositum mari ac flumini Ampsagae. _Tingitana_. Tingitana provincia, quam nunc duo regna _Fez_ et _Morocco_ occupant, ab urbe Tingi, quae nunc vulgo _Tanger_, cognomen accepit, ante Bogudiana dicta à Rege Bogud. Opida in ea, Tingi modo dictum, caput provinciae, ab Anteeo conditum; Iulia Constantia, Zilis, Volubilia et Lixus, vel fabulosissime ab antiquis narrata. Ibi quidpe regia Antaei, certamenque cum Hercule, et Hesperidum horti. CAP. VI. _Gætuli, Atlas mons, Libya interior et Æthiopia_. _Gætuli_. A tergo Mauritaniarum Africaeque Minoris Gaetulorum gens, et ipsa quoque Romanorum armis debellata, longe lateque incoluit, quidpe quae hodie occupat quicquid terrarum à _Lempta_ opido ad Oceanum usque, spatio mill. Germanicorum CCCL protenditur. Hoc spatio nunc est _Biledulgerit_ provinciae major pars, ubi _Targa_ regnum, et quatuor deserta, _Lempta, Zuenziga, Zanhaga, Hair_. _Atlas Mons_. Gaetulos à Meridie claudit mons Atlas, totius Africae vel fabulosissimus. E mediis hunc arenis in coelum usque attolli prodiderunt celebrati auctores, asperum, squalentem, qua vergat ad litora Oceani, cui cognomen imposuit: eundem opacum nemorosumque, et scatebris fontium riguum; qua spectat Africam, fructibus omnium generum sponte ita subnascentibus, ut nunqnam satietas voluptatibus desit. Incolarum neminem interdiu cerni: silere omnia haud alio quam solitudinum horrore. Eundemque noctibus micare crebris ignibus, Ægipanum Satyrorumque lascivia impleri, tibiarum ac fistulae cantu tympanorumque et cymbalorum sonitu strepere. _Libya interior_. Vltra Atlantem Libya est interior ad Nigrum usque flumen, vastarum solitudinum, nunc desertum _Sarra_ dicta. _Æthiopia et Troglodytica_. Iam vero quicquid ultra Nigrum flumen est et Ægyptum, versus utrumque mare Atlanticum Rubrumque, Æthiopes tenuerunt, gens omnium Africae terrae amplissima, extra Africam à vetustissimis Geographorum posita. Ab Æthiope Vulcani filio cognominati; vel, ut alii, ab nigro vultus corporisque colore; [Greek: aithops] quidpe significat nigrum. Divisa fuit Æthiopia in varia Æthiopum genera; quorum Ptolemaeus innumera tradit nomina. At clarissimi omnium fuere Nigritae; à Nigro flumine dicti; et Nubiorum gens magna, unde hodieque vastissima regio dicitur _Nubia_. Ea autem Æthiopiae pars quae Nilo utrimque adjacet, Æthiopia dicitur sub Ægypto; atque in ea ad Nili paludes seu lacus Cinnamomifera regio. At totum sinus Arabici laevum larus Arabes tenuere Troglodytae, unde regio ipsa Troglodytica. CAP. VII. _De incolis universæ Africæ novaque ejus descriptione; ac primum de Ægypto_ Qvinam mortales Ægyptum antiquitus incoluerint, ante dictum set. Reliqua Africae versus Occasum mari adjacentia tenuerunt populi commemorati. Advenae autem primi fuere Phoenicum coloni aliique ex Asia atque Ægypto profecti. Postea paruit Romanis; mox Græcis Imperatoribus totum hoc terrarum spatium. Deinde Vandalis, Saracenis, Arabibus. Nunc partem tenet Turca, partem Serifus, quem vocant; partem reges alii, partem denique Hispaniarum Rex. At Æthiopes à suo solo neque recesserunt, neque in id alios colonos receperunt; id longinquitas effecit regionis immensaeque intercedentium desertorum vastitates. Sed enarrata Africae antiquitate, res postulat, uti novam etiam ejus descriptionem subjiciamus. Dividitur nunc universa in septem potissimum partes sive regiones, quarum nomina sunt haec: Ægyptus, _Barbaria, Biledulgerid, Sarra_ desertum, Nigritæ, Æthiopia Interior, sive Superior, quod Abissinorum imperium, et Æthiopia Exterior sive Inferior. _Ægyptus_. Ægypti (quam Turca obtinet) caput nunc est Cairum, vulgo _Alcair_, Chaldaeis Alchabyr, urbs magnitudine stupenda, Emporium celeberrimum, Circassiorum Ægypti Sultanoram quondam regia. Prope est _Materea_ hortus balsami fructibus consitus, quod uni terrae Iudaeae quondam concessum, hodie nisi in hoc loco, nusquam colitur. Vltra Nilum pyramides visuntur stupendae altitudinis, ut ante memoravimus. Secunda claritate à Cairo est Alexandria, splendida quondam atque opulentissima civitas, nunc crebris bellis destructa atque concisa, celeberrimum Christianis mercatoribus praebet emporium. Nobile exinde est cum arce opidum _Raschitt_, quod Europaei _Rosettam_ vocant. _Damiata_, olim Pelusium, Ptolemaei Geographi incunabulis insigne est. CAP. VIII. _Barbaria_. Ægypto continuatur nobilissima totius Africae regio Barbaria; in sex partes divisa, quarum una est provincia Barcana, quinque reliquae sunt regna, Tunetanum, Tremisenum, Fessanum, Maurocanum et Darense. _Barcana regio_. Inter Ægyptum et Tunetanum regnum litori praetenditor Barcana regio, à Barce antiqua urbe cognominata, soli asperitate pariter ac siccitate sterilis. _Regnum Tunetanum_. Tunetanum regnum veterem Africam minorem ferme totam occupat. Caput est Tunetum, sive Tunisa, vulgo _Tunisi_; insignis, vetus ac satis ampla urbs, quae ex Carthaginis ruinis crevit; emporium Venetis et Genuensibus aliisque mercatoribus celebre. Secunda est Tripolis nova, quae Tripolis Barbariae dicitur, ad differentiam Tripolis Syriae: emporium est Europæis mercatoribus celeberrimum. _Bona_ etiam, quae olim Hippo, D. Augustina Episcopatu nota, nunc emporium haud postremum. Intus vero est Constantina Romanarum antiquitatum reliquiis conspicua. _Regnum Tremisenum_. Caput regni est _Tremisen_, amplissima quondam, bellis gravissimis postea tenuata. In litore est _Algier_, emporium satis nobile, at piratica infame, Christianis mancipiis refertissimum; urbs ipsa moenibus, arcibus ac tormentis bellicis adeo munita, ut inexpugnabilis credatur. _Regnum Fessanum_. Ad ipsum fretum Herculis Hispaniae objacet Fessanum regnum, cujus caput _Fez_, urbs totius Barbariae princeps, ingens, opulenta, frequens, splendida ac magnificis superbisque aedificiis miranda. _Tanger, Sebta, Arxilla_, amplae ad fretum urbes, Hispanicae sunt ditionis. _Regnum Maurocanum_. Caput est Maurocum, vulgo _Maroc_, amplissima ac celeberrima olim, inter maximas universi orbis memorata: at postea ab Arabibus divexata, nunc maligne colitur. Secunda est _Taradante_. _Darense Regnum_. Intus Maurocano, Fessano ac Tremiseno regnis confine est regnum Darense amplissimum, olim Caesariensis Mauritania dictum. Caput est _Dara_, unde regioni nomen, tenuibus, ut totum regnum, atque egenis incolis habitata. _Melilla_ ad mare internum conspicua urbs Hispano paret. CAP. IX. _Biledulgerit, Sarra desertum, Nigritæ, Abissini_. A Tergo dictarum regionum est _Biledulgerit_ regio, longissimo tractu ab Ægypti confinibus ad Oceanum Atlanticum porrecta. Nomen ei à dactyloram proventu inditum. Deserta in ea sunt, _Lempta, Hair, Zuenziga, Zanhaga_ à singulis opidis cognominibus, adpellata. Regna _Targa, Bardoa_ et _Gaoga_, itidem ab opidis dicta. _Sarra desertum_. Continuatur huic regioni versus Meridiem _Sarra_, cujus longitudo à regno _Gaoga_ ad regnum _Gualata_ extenditur. _Nigritæ_. Inde Nigritarum ampla est regio, ad utramque Nigri amnis ripam: longitudo ejus porrigitur à Nilo et Meroe insula, usque ad Nigri ostia et Oceanum. Regna in ea sunt haec, ab urbibus denominata: _Gualata, Hoden, Genocha, Senega, Tombuti, Melli, Bitonin, Gurnea, Temian, Dauma, Cano, Cassena, Benin, Zanfara, Guangara, Borno, Nubia, Biafra, Medra_. _Æthiopia Interior quæ est Abissinorum_. Interiori Æthiopiae imperat Abissinorum Rex, qui Presbyter sive Pretiosus Ioannes, vulgo _Prete Gianni_, vocatur; magno, recepto tamen errore; cum is quondam in Asiae, ut relatum est, regno _Tenduc_ regnaverit. Abasenos populos recenset Stephanus in Arabia; unde verisimile est, eos in Africam trajecto sinu Arabico commigrasse. Aut sane in ipsa Africa fuerunt ad sinistrum Arabici sinus latus, ubi Arabiam Troglodyticam supra memoravimus. Haec quidpe nunc sub Abissinorum imperio est. Alii tamen ab Arabico vocabulo _Elhabaschi_ (sic enim Mauri Principem Abissinorum adpellant) vulgo factum opinantur Abassi, ac deinde Abasseni; quod denique commutatione vocalium in Abissinorum nomen evasit. Clauditur regnum ab Ortu Arabico sinu et regionibus _Ajana_ ac _Zangebara_; à Meridie _Monomotapa_; ab Occasu _Congo_ et _Medar_ regnis; à Septemtrione _Nubia_ et Ægypto. Longum est ab Ægypto ad _Monomotapa_ usque mill. DLXXX. Latum inter fauces Arabici sinus et Nigrum fluvium mill. CCCCL. Dividitur in compluria regna sive provincias: quarum nomina sunt, _Dasila, Barnagasso, Dangali, Dobas, Trigemahon, Ambiancantiva, Vangue, Bagamidri, Beleguanze, Angote, Balli, Fatigar, Olabi, Baru, Gemen, Fungi, Tirut, Esabela, Malemba_. Vrbes in universo imperio paucae sunt: vicis plurimum habitatur, domibus ex creta et stramine constructis. Rex ipse (qui albo esse colore fertur) sub tentoriis degit, quorum sex millia eum sequuntur. _Amara_ arx est munitissima, in monte _Amara_ condita; in qua regis filii sub validissimo præsidio educantur, donec patre defuncto heres producatur. CAP. X. _Æthiopia Exterior sive Inferior; item Insulæ Africæ adjacentes._ Reliquum Africæ Æthiopia perhibetur exterior sive inferior; ab Oriente, Meridie et Occidente Oceano perfusa; à Septemtrione quasi duobus brachiis Abissinorum imperium hinc inde complectitur. Regiones, in quas dividitur, sunt _Congi, Monomotapa, Zangibar_, et _Ajan_. Pleraque maritimorum à Portugalensibus tenentur firmissimis munimentis ac praesidiis. _Congi Regnum._ _Congi_ regnum (quod alliis _Manicongo_) Oceano Æthiopico perfusum, nomen habet à capite suo urbe _Congi_. Incolae sunt Christiani. Terra ipsa fluminum aquis maxime rigua. Dividitur in provincias sex; quas illi _Mani_, id est, Praefecturas, vocant. Sunt autem _Bamba, Songo, Sundi, Pango, Batta_ et _Pemba_. Regia est, civitas S. Salvatoris, quae ante _Banza_. _Monomotapa Regnum._ _Monomotapa_ vocabulum significat Imperatorem; unde ipsi terrae, cui hic imperat, nomen inditum. Solum est fertile atque amoenum; amnes aurum, silvae elephantos magna copia producunt: Clauditur regnum ab Ortu, Meridie et Occasu Oceano; à Septemtrione regno _Congi_, Abissinorum imperio et regione _Zangibar_. Longitudo ejus est inter duo maria Rubrum Æthiopicumque juxta Lunae montes milliar. German, CCCC. Latitudo inter Nili fontes et promontorium Bonæ Spei mill. CCC. Caput regni ac sedes regum est _Monomotapa_, ad flumen S. Spiritus. Hinc versus Septemtrionem mill. circiter L. distat nobile aedificium, amplum atque antiquum, quadra forma ex ingentibus saxis constructum. _Zangibar et Ajan_. Monomotapae, qua Rubro mari perfunditur, continuatur _Zangibar_ regio; cujus partes, _Cafares_ populi, Monomotapae proximi, et regna _Mozambike, Kiloa, Mombaza_ ac _Melinde_, ab urbibus singulis denominata; quarum _Mozambike_ in insula condita, celeberrimum est Europaeis mercatoribus emporium. Sequitur versus Septemtrionem juxta litus maris Rubri _Ajan_ regio, cujus partes duo regna _Del_ et _Adea Magaduzzo_. _Insulæ ad Africam_. Insularum ad Africam terram maxima est in Rubro mari Menuthias Cerne Plinio dicta; nunc vulgo insula Divi Laurentii, et incolis _Madagascar_ id est, Lunae insula, felici aromatum proventu dives, longitudine mill. German, CCL, lat. LXXX occupans. At in Atlantico Oceano contra Hesperium promontorium, quod nunc est _Cabo Verde_, Hesperides sunt insulae duae; ultraque Gorgades, Gorgonum quondam domus: nunc in universam _Islas de C. Verde_ Hispanis dicuntur, hoc est insulae promontorii Viridis. Contra Mauritanium sunt Fortunatae, VII numero, quarum una Canaria vocitata, à multitudine canum ingentis magnitudinis, ut auctor est Plinius. Vnde universae Fortunatae, nunc Canariae dicuntur, Hispaniarum Regi subjectae. Vltra versus Septemtrionem est Cerne, nunc _Madera_ dicta. Atque haec est totius Africae brevis descriptio.] Thegiptians also for thieues, had this lawe alone, and no people els. The lawe commaunded that as many as would steale, should entre their names with the chief Prieste: and what so euer was stollen, incontinente to cary the same vnto hym. Likewise, he that was robbed was bounde to entre with the saied Chiefe Priest, the daie, time and houre, when he was robbed. By this meanes the thefte being easely founde out, he that was robbed, loste the fourths parte and receiued the residue, the whiche fourthe was giuen to the thiefe. For the Lawe maker (seeing it was impossible vtterly to be withoute thieues) thought it moche bettre by this meanes that men bare the losse of a piece then to be spoiled of the whole. The ordre of Mariage emong the Egiptians is not vniforme, for the priest might marry but one onely wife. All other haue as many as they wille, acordyng to their substaunce. Ther is no child emong them, though it be borne of a bought woman slaue, that is compted illegitimate. For they onely compte the father to be the authour of his kynde, and the mother onely but to geue place and nourishement to the childe. When their children be borne they bring them vp with so lytle coste, as a man would skantly belieue. They fiede them with the rootes of mererushes, and other rootes, rosted in the embries, and with marshe Caubois, and colewortes which partly they seathe, and partly they roste, and parte giue them rawe. They go for the moste parte withoute hosen or shoes, all naked, the contry is so temperate. All the coste that the Parentes bestowe on their children til they be of age to shift for themselues, surmounteth not the somme of a noble. [Footnote: Equal to six shillings and eight pence.] The priestes bring vp the children, both in the doctrine of their holye scriptures, and also in the other kindes of learning necessary for the commune life, and chiefly in Geometry and Arithmetique. As for the roughe exercises of wrasteling, ronning, daunsing, playeng at weapons, throwyng the barre or suche like, they train not their youth in, supposyng that the daily exercise of suche, shoulde be to roughe, and daungerous for them, and that they should be an empeiryng of strength. Musique they doe not onely compte vnprofitable, but also hurteful: as making mens courages altogether womanlyke. When they are sicke, they heale themselues, eyther with fasting or vomiting: and that either euery eche other daye, or euery third daye, or fourthe. For they are of opinion that all diseases growe of superfluite of meate, and that kinde of cure therfore to be beste, that riddeth the grounde of the griefe. Men goyng to the warres, or traueillyng the countrie, are healed of free cost. For the Phisicens and Chirurgiens, haue a stipende allowed them of ordenary at the charge of the communes. In curing, they are bounde to folowe the preceptes of the auncient and allowed writers, regestred in their holy scripture. Yf a man folowing the prescripte of the scriptures can not so heale the sicke, he is not blamed for that: But yf he fortune to heale him by any other meanes then is in the scripture appoincted, he dieth for it. For the lawe giuer thoughte that it was harde to finde a bettre waye of curyng, then that the which of suche antiquitie was by longe practise founde oute and allowed, and deliuered vnto them by suche a continuaunce. The Egiptians do worship aboue measure certeine beastes, not onely whilest they be onliue, [Footnote: I have never met with this form of the word.] but also when they are dead. As the Catte, the Icneumon the dogge, the hauke, the woulfe, the Cocodrille, and many other like. They are not onely not ashamed to professe the worship of these openly, but setting them selues out in the honouring of them to the vttermoste: they compte it asmuch praise and glory to them selues, as yf they bestowed the like on the Goddes. And they go about on procession with the propre Images of them, from citie, to citie, and from place, to place; holding them vp and shewing them a farre of vnto other, which fall on their knees, and euery one worship them. When any one of them dieth, they couer it with Sarcenet, and houling, and crieng, and beating of their breastes they all to bestrawe the carckesse with salte. And after they haue embalmed it with the licour of the Cedre and other fragraunt oyntmentes, and oyles, to preserue it the longer: thei bewrye it in holy sepulture. If a man haue slayne any of these beastes willingly: he is codempned to death. But yf he haue slaine an catte or a snyte, [Footnote: A snipe, from the Saxon snyta. "Greene-plover, snyte, / Partridge, larke, cocke, and phessant." _Heyw. Engl. Trav_., Act i., Scene ii.] willingly or vnwillingly: the people ronneth vpon him vppon heapes, and withoute all ordre of Iustice or lawe, in moste miserable wise torment him to death. Vpon feare of the which daungier who soeuer espieth one of those lyeng dead: standing a farre, he howleth and crieth professing that he is not giltie of the death. These beastes with great attendaunce and chardge are kept vp aboute the cloistres of the Temple, by men of no meane reputation: whiche fiede them with floure and otemeale, and diuers deinties, sopped and stieped in milke. And they set euery daie before them goose, bothe sodden and rosted. And before those that delight al in raw meate they sette birdes and rawe foules. Finally as I said they kiepe them all with great diligence and coste. They lament their death asmoche as the death of their owne children, and bury them more sumptuously then their substance doth stretch. In so moche that Ptolomeus Lagus reigning in Egipt, when there chaunced a cowe to die in Memphis for very age: he that had taken charge of the kepyng of her, bestowed vpon the buriall of her (beside a greate some of mony that was giuen him for the keping) fiftie talentes of siluer, that he borowed of Ptolome. Peraduenture these thynges will seme vnto some men to wondreful: but he wil wondre asmoche yf he considre what communely is done emonge euery of the Egiptians in the funeralle of their deade. When any man is departed his lyfe, all his niere friendes and kindesfolke, throwing dirte vpon their heades, go wieping and wailing rounde about the citie vntle the Corps be buried. And in the meane season they neyther bathe, ne drincke wine, or eate any meate, but that that is most base and vile, ne weare any apparell that is gorgeous or faire. They haue thre sortes of Sepulchres, Sumptuous, meane, and basse. In the firste sorte they bestowe a talente of siluer. Aboute the seconde, twenty Markes, and aboute the thirde litle or nothing. There be certaine Pheretrers, [Footnote: Query, _ferretrers_, carriers.] whose facultie it is to sette forthe burialles, whiche learne it of their fathers and teache it their children. These when a funeral happeneth, make vnto him that is doer for the deade, an estimate of the exequies in writing, whiche the doer may at his pleasure enlarge or make lesse. When thei are ones fallen at appoyncte, the bodye is deliuered to the Pheretrer to bee enterred accordyng to the rate that they agreed vpon. Then the bodie beyng laied foorthe, commeth the Phereters chiefe cutter, and he appoincteth his vndrecutter a place on the side haulfe of the paunche, wher to make incision, and how large. Then he with a sharpe stone (whiche of the country fro whence it commeth, they call Ethiopicus) openeth the left side as farre as the lawe permitteth. And streight with all spiede ronneth his way from the company standing by, which curse him and reuile him and throwe many stones aftre him. For they thincke there yet remaineth a certeine hatred due vnto him that woundeth the body of their frinde. Those that are the seasoners and embalmers of the body (whome they calle poulderers) they haue in greate honour and estimacion, for that they haue familiarite with the priestes, and entre the temples together with them. The bodye nowe commen to their handes, one emong all (the reste standing by) vnlaceth the entrailes, and draweth them out at the foresaid incision, all sauing the kidneis, and the harte. These entrailes are taken by another at his hande, and wasshed in wine of the country Phenicea, wherin are enfused many soote [Footnote: Sweet. "They dauncen deftly, and singen soote, / In their merriment." _Spenser's Hobbinol's Dittie_, _Sheph. Kal._, Apr. iii.] odours and drugges. Then enoincte they the whole bodye ouer, firste with Cedre and then with other oynctementes, xxx. daies and aboue. Then do thei ceare it ouer with Mirrhe and Cinamome and suche other thinges as wil not onely preserue it to continuaunce, but also make it soote smelling. The Corps thus being trimmed, is deliuered to the kindesfolke of the deade, euery parte of it kepte so whole (not an heare of his browes or eye liddes being hurte) that it raither lieth like one being in sliepe then like a dead corpse. Before the body be enterred, the kindesfolke of the deade signifie to the iudges, and the friendes of this passed, the day of the burial. Whiche (according to the maner then vsed) thei terme the deades passaige ouer the mere. The maner wherof is this. The iudges, aboue xl. in nomber, sittinge on the farther side of the mere, on a compassed benche wheling haulfe rounds and the people standing about them: The bodie is put into a litle boate made for the nones, and drawen ouer to the iudges by a chorde. The body then standing before the iudges in the sight of the people, before it be cofred, if ther be any manne that haue aught to saye against the dead, he is permitted by the lawe. Yf any be proued to haue liued euyll, the iudges geue sentence that the bodye shall not be buried. And who so is founde vniustelye to haue accused, suffreth greate punyshemente therfore. When no manne wyll accuse, or he that accused is knowen to haue slaunderously done it, the kinsfolke endyng their mournyng: tourne them selues now to the prayse of the dead, nothing aftre the maner of the Grecians, for that the Egiptians thinke themselues all to be gentlemen alike. But beginnyng at his childehode, in the whiche thei reherse his bringing vp, nourtering and scholyng, thei passe to his mannes age, their commending his godlines, his iustice, his temperaunce, and the residewe of his vertues. And calling vpon the vndre earthe, goddes, they beseche them to place him emonge the godlye and good. To the which wordes all the whole multitude crieth Amen: showtyng oute, and magnifieng the glorye of the deade, as thoughe they shoulde be with the vnder earth goddes, among the blessed for euer. This done euery man burieth his dead, some in Sepulchres made for the purpose, and other that haue no suche preparacion, in their strongest wall at home in their house, setting vp the cofre ther tabernacle wyse. But they that for some offence, or debte of enterest, or suche like, are denied their bewriall, are sette vp at home without any cofre, vntle their successours growyng to abilite canne dischardge their debtes and offences, and honourably bewrie them. There is a maner emong them, sometyme to borowe money vpon their parentes corpses, deliueryng the bodies to the creditours in pledge. And who so redemeth theim not, ronneth into vtter infamie, and is at his death, denied his bewriall. A manne (not altogether causeles) mighte merueile, that thei could not be contente to constitute lawes for the framyng of the maners of those that are onliue, but also put ordre for the exequies, and Hearses of the deade. But the cause why thei bent them selues so much hervnto, was for that thei thought ther was no better waie possible, to driue men to honestie of life. The Grekes, which haue set furthe so many thynges in fained tales, and fables of Poetes (farre aboue credite) concernyng the rewarde of the good, and punishment of the euill: could not with all their deuices, drawe men to vertue, and withdrawe them from vices. But rather contrariwise, haue with them that be leudely disposed: broughte all together in contempte and derision. But emong the Egiptians, the punishemente due vnto the wicked and lewed, and the praise of the godlie and good, not heard by tales of a tubbe, [Footnote: Swift took the title of his well-known book from this old expression. It appears in Bale's "Comedye Concerning Three Laws," compiled in 1538: "Ye say they follow your law, / And vary not a shaw, / Which is a tale of a tub."] but sene daiely at the eye: putteth both partes in remembraunce what behoueth in this life, and what fame and opinion thei shall leaue of them selues, to their posteritie. And hervppon it riseth, that euery man gladly emong them, ensueth good ordre of life. And to make an ende of Thegiptians, me siemeth those Lawes are of very righte to be compted the beste, whiche regarde not so muche to make the people riche, as to aduance them to honestie and wisedome, where riches of necessitie must folowe. ¶ The vj. Chapitre. ¶ Of the Poeni, and thother peoples of Aphrique. Of the Penois there are many and sondrie nacions. Adrimachidæ lieng toward Egipte, are like of maners to Thegiptians, but their apparell is like to the other Penois. Their wiues haue vpon eche legge, a houpe of Latton [Transcriber's note: "Lat houpe ofton" in original]. Thei delight in long heare, and looke what lyce it fortuneth any of them to take aboute them: thei bite theim, and throwe them awaie, the whiche propretie, thei onely of all the Poeni haue. As also to present their maidens that are vpon mariage, to the kyng, whiche choosyng emong them the maiden that liketh hym beste, sieketh in her lappe, that aftre can neuer bee founde. The Nasamones (a greate and a terrible nacion, spoilers of suche Shippes as fortune to be throwen vpon the Sandes in the streightes) towarde Sommer, leauyng their cattle vpon the Sea coaste, goe doune into the plaine countrie to gather Dates, whiche are there very faire, and in greate plentie. Thei gather the boughes with the fruicte, not yet perfectely ripe, and laie them a Sonnyng to ripe. Afterward thei stiepe theim in Milke, and make soupinges and potages of theim. It is the maner emong theim, for euery man to haue many wiues: and the felowship of their wiues, that other vse in secrete: thei vse in open sights, in maner aftre the facion that the Massagetes vse. It is also the maner of the Nasamones, when any man marieth his first wife, to sende her about to euery one of the ghestes, to offer hym her body. And asmany as receiue her into armes, and shewe her the curtesie she comes for, must giue her some gifte, whiche she hath borne with her, home to her house. Their maner of takyng an othe, and foreshewyng of thinges to come, is thus. Thei sweare by the menne that ware (by reporte) the best and moste iuste men emong them, layeng their handes on their Graues, or Tumbes. But for the fore knowledge of thynges, thei come to the Graues of their kyndreade, and there when thei haue praied their stinte, laye them doune vpon them to slepe: and loke what thei dreame, that, doe thei folowe. Where in confirmyng of our promise, we vse to strike handes (as we calle it) thei vse to drincke one to another: or elles if thei lacke liquour, to take duste fro the earth, and one to licke part of that to another. The Garamantes shonne the felowship and the sighte of all other peoples, and neither vse any kinde of weapon, or armour, ne yet dare defende them selues against other that vsed them. They dwell somwhat aboue the Nasamones, more vp londe. Aboute the sea coaste towarde the weste, ther bordereth vpon them the Maces: whiche shaue their heades in the crowne, and clyppe them rounde by the sides. The Gnidanes (nexte neighbours to the Maces) when they giue battaylle to the ostruthes, their brieding vnder the grounde, are armed with rawe felles of beastes. Their women ware prety wealtes of leather, euery one a greate manye whiche (as it is sayde) they begge of suche menne as haue lien with them. So that the moe she hath, the more she is estemed, as a deinty derling beloued of many. The Machlies dwelling aboute the mershe of Tritonides, vse to shaue their fore parte of their heade, and the Anses their hindre parte. The maydens of the Anses, at the yerely feastes of Minerua, in the honoure of the goddesse their country woman: deuiding them selues into two companies, vse to giue battaile, one parte to another with staues, and with stones: sayeng that thei obserue the maner of their country in the honour of her that we calle Minerua. And the maiden that departeth the battayle without wounde, thei holde her for no maide. But before ther battayle be fought, they determine that what mayden so euer beareth her selfe mooste valeaunte in the fielde, all the other maydens with commune consente shall garnishe her, and arme her, both with the armour of Grecia, and the helmet of Corinthe. And shal sette her in a chariot, and carye her rounde about the mershe. The same menne vsen their women as indifferently commune, as kyen to the bulle. The children remaine with the women vntil they be of some strengthe. Ones in a quartre the men do assemble wholy together, and then looke with whome the childe fantasieth mooste to abide, him do they compte for his father. There is a people named Atlantes, of the mounte Athlas, by the whiche they dwell. These giue no names one to another as other peoples do, but echeman is namelesse. When the sonne passeth ouer their heades, they curse him, and reuyle him with all woordes of mischiefe: for that he is so broiling hote, that he destroieth bothe them and ther countrye. They eate of no kinde of beaste, neither dreame in their sliepe. The Aphres (whice are all brieders of catteile) liue with flesshe and milke, and yet absteine they fro cowes milke, and all cowe fleshe, according to the maner of the Egiptians, and therefore kepe they none vp. The women of Cyrene thincke it not lawfull to strike a cowe, for Isis sake that is honoured in Egipt, to whome also they appoincte fasting, and feastefull daies, and obserue them solempnly. But the women of Barcea absteine bothe from cowe fleshe and sowe flesh. When their children are iiii. yeare olde they vse to cauterise them on the coron [Footnote: Query, frontal.] vaine (and some on the temple also) with a medecine for that purpose, made of woolle as it is plucked fro the shiepe: because thie should not at any time be troubled with rheumes or poses, [Footnote: A local name for a cold in the head. (See N. Bailey's Dict., vol. i.)] and by that meanes they say they liue in very good health. Thei sacrifie after this maner. When in the name of their firste frutes they haue cutte of the eare of the beaste, they throwe it ouer the house. That done, they wring the necke on the one side. Of all the goddes they offre sacrifice to no more but Sonne and Mone. All the Aphres burye their deade as the Grecians doe, sauing the Nasamones, which bury them as thoughe they ware sitting: wayting well when any man lieth in drawing on, to set him on his taile, leaste he should giue vp the ghoste lieng vpright. Their houses are made of wickers, and withes, wrought aboute trees, moch like vnto those that we calle frankencence trees, and in suche sorte that they may tourne them rounde euery waye. The Maries, shaue the lefte side of their heade, and lette the heare growe on the right. They die their bodie in redde, and vaunte that they come of the Troianes. The women of the Zabiques (which are the next neighbours to the Maries) driue the cartes in the warres, in the which the men fight. Ther are a people called Zigantes, wher beside the great plentye of hony that they gather fro the Bies, they haue also certeine men that are makers of honye. They all die them selues with red, and eate apes fleshe, wherof thei that dwel in the mounteines haue great plentye. These al being of the part called Libye, liue for the moste parte a wilde lyfe abrode in the fieldes like beastes, making no household prouision of meate, ne wearing any maner of appareil but gotes felles. The gentlemen, and men of honour emong them, haue neither cities nor townes, but Turrettes builte vpon the waters side, in the which they laye vp the ouerplus of that that they occupy. They sweare their people euery yere to obeye their Prince, and that they that obey in diede, shoulde loue together as felowes and companions: but that the disobediente shoulde be pursued like felons and traitours. Their armour and weapon, are bothe acording to the nature of the country and contrimen: for wher thei of themselues are very quicke, and deliure [Footnote: Nimble. "All of them being tall, quicke, and deliver persons." _Hollinshed_, vol. ii., ccc. 5.] of bodye, and the country champaigne, and playne, they neither vse swearde, dagger, ne harneis, but onely cary thre Iauelines in their hande, and a nombre of piked and chosen stones, in a case of stiffe leather hanging aboute them. With these they vse bothe to fight and to skirmishe. In his coming towarde the ennemy, he throweth his stone, fetching his ronne, and maketh lightlye a narowe mysse, thoughe it be a good waye of: suche continuall practise they haue of it. They kiepe neither lawe ne faithe. The Troglodites (whiche are also named of the Grecians pastours, for their fieding and brieding of catteille) a people of Ethiope, do lyue in companies, and haue their heade ouer them, whome they call Tiraunte. But not meaninge in him so much tirany in diede, as some time some of our gouernours vnder a fayrer name do execute. None of them hathe any seuerall wife, and therfore no seueral children, but bothe those in commune, the tiraunte excepted: Who hathe but one wyfe onely. To the which yf any manne do but approach or drawe nighe: he is condempned in a certeine nombre of cattaile to be paied to the Tiraunte. From the beginning of Iuly vntle about middle August (at the which time thei haue great plenty of raine) thei nourishe them selues with milke, and bloude, sodden a litle together. The pasture vplond being, dried away with the heate of the Sonne: They sieke downe to the marshe, and lowe groundes, for the whiche onely they be often at debate. When their catteil waxeth olde or sicke, they kyll them, and eate them, and altogether liue vpon such. They do not giue the childe the name of the father, but name him aftre a bull, a rambe or an eawe. And those call thei father (the beastes I meane of the masle kinde) and thother of the femel kynde, they call mother, because their daily fode is giuen by them. The people called Idiote, vse for their drincke the iuyce of a whinne named Paliurus. But the men of worshyp and gentlemen vse the iuce of a certeine floure they haue emonge them, whiche maketh drincke moche like the worste of the Renishe muste. And because thei cary great droues of catteile with them, they chaunge their soile often. Their bodies are all naked, sauing their priuities, whiche they hide with felles of beastes. All the Troglodites are circumcised aftre the maner of the Egiptians, sauing only the Claudians: whiche they so terme of claudicacion or limping. They onely, dwellinge from their childe hode within the country of the Hesternes, are not touched with rasour or knife. The Troglodites that are called Magaueres, carye for theyr armour and weapon, a rounde buckler of a rawe oxe hide, and a clubbe shodde with yron. Other haue bowes, and Iauelines. As for graues or places of buriall, they passe not. For they binde the heade, and the fiete of the dead together with witthes of Paliurus, and then setting it vp vpon some hilly place, haue a good sporte to all to bethwacke it with stones, vntle they lie heaped ouer the corps. Then laye they a goates horne on the toppe and departe, biddinge sorrowe go plaie him. They warre one with another, not as the Griekes vpon rancour and Ambicion, but onely for foode sake. In their skirmishes, firste they go to it with stones, as afore ye haue hearde, vntle it fortune some nombre to be hurte. Then occupieng the bowe (wherin they are very sure handed) thei kille one another vpon hepes. Those battayles are attoned by the women of mooste auncient age. For when they be ones comen into the middle emong them (as they maye do withoute harme, for that is compted abhominacion in any wise to hurte one of them) the battaille sodenly ceaseth. They that are nowe so fiebled with age, that they can no longer followe the heard: winding the tayle of an oxe aboute their throte choke vp and die. But he that differreth to rydde him selfe in this sorte: It is laweful for another (aftre a warninge) to doe it. And it is there compted a friendly benefaicte. Men also diseased of feures, oranye other incurable malady, they doe in lyke maner dispatche: iudginge it of all griefes the woorste, for that manne to liue, that canne nowe nothinge doe, why he shoulde desyre to lyue. Herodote writeth, that the Troglodites myne them selues caues in the grounde, wherin to dwell. Men not troubled with anye desire of riches, but raither giuing them selues to wilfull pouertie. They glory in nothing but in one litle stone, wherin appere thre skore sondry colours: which we therfore calle Exaconthalitus. They eate sondry kindes of venemous vermyne. And speake any distincte worde they cannot, but sieme rather to busse or thurre betwene thetiethe, then to speake. There is another people dwelling in that Ethiope that lyeth aboue Egipte, called Ryzophagi, whiche bestowe muche time in digging vp of the rootes of Riedes growing niere aboute them, and in wasshing and clensing of the same, whiche afterward they bruse betwixt stones till thei become clammie, and so makes wiete cakes of them, muche facioned like a brick a hande broade. Those bake thei by the Sonne, and so eate them. And this kinde of meate onely, serueth them all they life tyme plentifully and enough, and neuer waxeth fulsome vnto theim. Thei neuer haue warre one with another, but with Lions, whiche comyng out of the deserte there, partly for shadowe, and partly for to praie vpon smaller beastes, doe oftymes wourie diuers of the Æthiopes, comyng out of the Fennes. In so muche that that nation had long sences bene vttrely destroyed by the Lions, excepte nature of purpose, had shewed them her aide. For toward the dogge daies, there come into that coaste, infinite swarmes of Gnattes, without any drifte of winde to enforce them. The men then flieng to the fennes, are not harmed by them. But thei driue the Lions with their stingyng and terrible buszyng, cleane out of that quartre. Next vpon these, bordre the Ilophagi and Spermatophagi, the one liuynge by suche fruicte as falleth from the trees, in Sommer, and the residew of the yere by suche herbes as thei picke vp in the shadowed groundes. The other, the Ilophagi, siekynge to the plaines with their wiues and their children, climbe trees, and gather, eate, and cary home: the tendre croppes and buddes of the boughes. And thei haue by continualle practise, suche a nimblenes in climbyng, that (a wondrefull thynge to be spoken) thei wille leape from boughe to boughe, and tree to tree like Cattes or Squirelles, and by reason of their slendrenes and lightenes, wille mounte vp on braunches and twigges, without daunger or hurte. For thoughe their fiete slippe, yet hange thei feste by the handes: and if thei bothe faile theim, yet falle thei so light, that thei be harmelesse. These folkes go naked, and hold their wiues and children in commune. Emong them selues they fighte for their places without weapon: but against foreiners with staues. And wheare thei ouercome, there chalenge thei Lordeshippe. Thei communely dye for hongre, when their sight faileth them: whiche was their onely instrumente to finde their foode. The residewe of the countrie there aboute, do those Æthiopians holde, which are named Cynecy, not very many in nombre, but muche differing in life from the rest. For their Countrie beyng wooddie, and wilde, fulle of thicquettes, and skante of watre, thei are forced by night, for feare of wilde beastes, to slepe in trees: and toward the mornyng, all weaponed together, to drawe doune to the waters, wher thei shroude them selues into couert, and so abide close till the heate of the daie. At the whiche tyme the Bugles, Pardales, and other greate beastes, what for the heate, and what for thriste, flocke toguether to the watres. Assone as thei haue druncken, and haue well laden their beallies with watre, the Ethiopes startynge out vpon them with stakes, sharpened and hardened in the fire, and with stones, and with arrowes, and suche like weapon, at this aduauntage, slea them vpon heapes, and deuide the carkesses by compaignies to be eaten. And sometyme it happeneth that thei theim selues are slaine by some beast of force, howbeit very seldome. For thei euer by their pollicies and traines, doe more damage to the beastes, then the beastes can doe vnto them. If at any time thei lacke the bodies of the beastes, then take thei the rawe hides of suche as thei lateliest before had slaine, and clensyng them cleane fro the heare, thei sokynglie laie them to a softe fire; and when thei be throughly hette, deuide them emong the compaignie, whiche very griedely fille themselues of them. They exercise their children whilest thei be boies, to throw the darte at a sette marke, and he that hitteth not the marke receiueth no meate. By the whiche maner of trainyng, hongre so worketh in the boies that thei become excellente darters. The Acridophagie (a people borderyng vpon the deaserte) are somewhat lower of stature then the residewe, leane, and exceding blacke. In the Spring time, the Weste, and Southwest winde, bringeth vnto them out of the Deaserte, an houge nombre of Locustes, whiche are of verie greate bodie, and of wynge very filthily coloured. The Ethiopians well accustomed with their maner of flighte and trade, gather together into a long slade betwixte two hilles, a great deale of rubbeshe and mullocke, from places nighe hande, apte for fingry, and the grasse and all wiedes there aboute. And laieng it ready in heapes aforehande, a long the slade, when thei see the Locustes come with the winde like cloudes in the aire, thei set al on fire, and so swelte theim in the passing ouer, that thei bee skante full out of the slade, but thei fall to the grounde in suche plentie, that thei be to all the Acridophagi, a sufficient victuallyng. For thei poudre them with salte (wherof the countrie hath plentie) and so continually from yere to yere, liue by none other foode. For thei neither haue any kinde of catteille, ne fisshe can haue, beyng so farre fro the sea. And this maner of meate siemeth to theim, verie pleasaunte and fine. Of bodie thei are very lighte, swifte of foote, and shorte liued as not passyng xl. yeres, he that liueth longest. Their ende is not more incredible, then it is miserable. For when their drawe into age, their briedeth a kinde of winghed lice in their bodies, of diuers colours, and very horrible, and filthie to beholde: whiche firste eate out their bealies, and then their brest, and so the whole body in a litle space. He that hath this disease, first as thoughe he had on hym some tickelyng ytche, all to beskratcheth his bodie with suche pleasure, as is also mingled with some smart, And within a litle while aftre, when the lyce beginne to craule, and the bodie beginneth to mattre, enraged with the bittrenes and grief of the disease, he teareth and mangleth his whole bodie with his nailes, putting furth in the mean while many a greuous grone. Then gussheth there out of hym, suche aboundaunce of lice, that a manne would thinke they had bene barelled in his body: and that the barel now broken, the swarme plomped out. And by this meanes, whether throughe the enfectious aire, or the corrupcion of their fieding, thei make a miserable ende. Vpon the Southe border of Affrike, dwell there menne called of the Grekes Cynnamie, and of their neighbours Sauluages: Bearded, and that with aboundaunce of heare. Thei kiepe for the saufegarde of their liues, greate compaignies of wilde Mastiues: for that from midde Iune, till midde Winter, there entreth into their countrie, an innumerable sorte of Kine of Inde. Whether thei flie thether to saue them selues from other beastes, or come to sieke pasture, or by some instincte of nature vnknowen to manne, it is vncertaine. Against these, when the menne of their owne force, are not able to resist: thei defende themselues by the helpe of their dogges, and take many of them. Whereof thei eate parte whilest thei are freshe, and parte reserue thei in pouldre, for their aftre niede. Thei eate also many other kindes of beastes, whiche thei hunt with their dogges. The laste of all the Affriens Southewarde, are the Ichthiophagi. A people borderyng vpon the Troglodities, in the Goulfe called Sinus Arabicus: whiche vnder the shape of man, liue the life of beastes. Thei goe naked all their life time, and make compte of their wiues and their children in commune. Thei knowe none other kindes of pleasure or displeasure, but like vnto beastes, suche as thei fiele: neither haue thei any respecte to vertue, or vice, or any discernyng betwixte goode or badde. Thei haue litle Cabanes not farre from the Sea, vpon the clieues sides: where nature hath made greate carfes, diepe into the grounde, and hollowe Guttres, and Criekes into the maigne lande, bowting and compayng in and out, to and fro, many sondrie waies. Whose entringes thenhabitauntes vse to stoppe vp with great heapes of calion and stones, whereby the criekes serue them now in the steade of nettes. For when the sea floweth (which happeneth there twise in the daye, aboute the houres of thre, and of nyne) the water swelleth so highe, that it ouerfloweth into the maigne shore, and filleth those crieques with the sea. And the fisshe folowing the tide, and dispersinge them selues abrode in the maigne londe to seeke their foode: at the ebbe when the water withdraweth, retiring together with it alway to the dieper places, and at laste remaining in these gutters and crieques, they are stopped in with the stone heapes, and at the lowe water lye drie. Then come the enhabitauntes with wyfe and children, take them, and laye them oute vpon the rocques against the midday sonne, wher, with the broiling heate of the same, they be within a while skorched and parched. Then do they remoue them, and with a litle beating separate the fysshe fro the bones. Then put they the fisshe into the hollowes of the rocques, and beat it to pomois, minglinge therewith the side of the whynne Paliurus. And so facion it into lumpes muche like a bricke, but somewhat longer. And when they haue taken them againe a litle by the sonne, they sitte them downe together, and eate by the bealy. Of this haue thei alway in store, accordinge to the plenty that Neptune gyueth them. But when by the reason of tempest the sea ouerfloweth these places aboue his naturall course, and tarieth longer then his wonte, so that they can not haue this benefight of fisshing, and their store is all spent: they gather a kynde of great shelle fysshe, whose shelles they grate open with stones, and eate the fisshe rawe, in taste muche like to an oyster. If it fortune this ouerflowing by the reason of the winde, to continue longe, and their shellefysshe to fayle them: then haue they recours to the fysshebones (which they do of purpose reserue together in heapes) and when thei haue gnabeled of the softest and gristely partes with their tiethe, of those that are newest and beste, they beate the harder with stones into pieces, and eate them. Thei eate as I haue said in the wilde field together abrode, reioicing with a semblaunte of merinesse, and a maner of singyng full vntuned. That done they falle vppon their women, euen as they come to hande withoute any choyse: vtterly voide of care, by reason they are alwaye sure of meate in good plentye. Thus foure daies euer continual, busied with this bealy bownsing chiere, the v. daie thei flocke together to go drincke, al on a droue, not vnlike to a heard of kiene to the waters, shouting as they go with an Yrishe whobub. And when they haue dronke till their bealies stonde a strutte, so that they are skant able to retourne: euerye bodie layes him downe dronckardelike to reste his water bolne bealy, and that daye eateth nothing. The next daye agayne they fall to their fyshing: And so passe they their lyfe continually. Thei seldome falle into any diseases, for that they are alway of so vniforme diete. Neuerthelesse they are shorter lyued then we are. Theyr nature not corrupted by any perswasion taken of other, compteth the satisfieng of hongre, the greatest pleasure in the world. As for other extraordenary pleasures, they seke them not. This is the maner of liuing propre vnto them that lye within the bosome of the sayde Arabique sea. But the maner of them that dwell without the bosome, is moche more merueilous. For thei neuer drinke ne neuer are moued with any passion of the mynde. These beynge as it ware by fortune throwen oute into the desertes, farre from the partes miete to be enhabited, giue them selues altogether to fyshing, which they eate haulfe rawe. Not for to auoyde thirste (for they desire no moyste thynges) but rather of a nature sauluage and wilde, contented with such victualle as commeth to hande. They compte it a principall blessednes to be withoute those thinges what so euer they be, that bringe sorowe or griefe to their hauers. Thei are reported to be of such patience, that though a manne strike them with a naked sweard, thei will not shonne him, or flye from him. Beate them, or do theim wronge, and they onely wil looke vppon you, neither shewinge token of wrathe, nor countenaunce of pitie. Thei haue no maner of speache emong them: But onely shewe by signes of the hande, and nodding with the heade, what they lacke, and what they would haue. These people with a whole consent, are mayntayners of peace towarde all men, straunger and other. The whiche maner althoughe it be wondrefull, they haue kept time oute of mynde. Whether throughe longe continuance of custome, or driuen by necessitie, or elles of nature: I cannot saye. They dwell not as the other Icthiophagi doe, all in one maner of cabanes, but sondry in diuers. Some haue their dennes, and their cabanes in them opening to the North: to the ende they might by that meanes be the bettre shadowed fro the sonne, and haue the colder ayre. For those that are open toward the Southe, by the reason of the greate heate of the sonne, caste forthe such a breathe, fornais like, that a manne can not come niere them. They that open towarde the Northe, builde them preaty Cabanes of the ribbes of whales (whiche in those seas they plentuously find) compassing them aboute by the sides, accordynge to their naturall bendinge, and fasteninge them together at bothe endes with some maner of tyenge. Those do they couer with the woose and the wiedes of the sea tempered together. And in these they shroude them selues fro the sonne: nature by necessitie diuising a way how to helpe and defende her selfe. Thus haue ye hearde the lyfe of the Icthiophagi, and now remaineth there for Aphrique onely the Amazones to be spoken of, which menne saye in the olde tyme dwelte in Libye. A kinde of warlike women, of greate force, and hardinesse, nothing lyke in lyfe vnto our women. The maner amonge them was to appointe to their maidens a certein space of yeres to be trayned, and exercysed in the feictes of warre. Those beynge expired, they ware ioyned to menne for yssues sake. The women bare all the rule of the commune wealthe. The women ware princes, lordes, and officiers, capiteines, and chiefteines of the warres. The menne had noughte to doe, but the drudgery at home, and as the women woulde appoincte them. The children assone as thei ware borne, were deliuered to the men to nouryshe vp with milke, and suche other thinges as their tendrenes required. If it ware a boye, they eyther brake the right arme assone as it was borne, that it mighte neuer be fytte for the warres, or slue it, or sente it oute of the country. If a wenche, they streighte ceared the pappes, that thei might not growe to hindre them in the warres. Therefore the Grecians called theim Amazones, as ye woulde saie, pappelesse. The opinion is, that thei dwelt in the Ilonde named Hespera, which lieth in the marsshe, named (of a riuer that runneth into it) Tritonis, ioyning vpon Ethiope, and the mounte Atlas, the greatest of all that lande. This Ilonde is very large and greate, hauyng plentie of diuers sortes of fruictes, whereby the enhabitauntes liue. Thei haue many flockes of shiepe, and goates, and other small catteile, whose milke and flesshe they eate. They haue no maner of graine, ne knowe what to doe therwith. OF ASIE. THE SECONDE PARTE. ¶ The first Chapitre. ¶ Of Asie and the peoples moste famous therin. Asie, the seconde part of the thre wherin to we haue said that the whole erth is diuided: tooke name as some hold opinion, of the doughter of Oceanus, and Tethis, named Asia, the wife of Iaphetus, and the mother of Prometheus. Or as other affirme, of Asius, the sonne of Maneye the Lidian. And it stretcheth it self from the South, bowtyng [Footnote: Bending] by the Easte into the Northe: hauyng on the West parte the two flouddes, Nilus and Tanais, and the whole Sea Euxinum, and parte of the middle earth sea. Vpon the other thre quarters, it is lysted in with the Occean, whiche where he cometh by Easte Asie, is called Eous (as ye would saie toward the dawnyng) by the South, Indicus (of the countrie named India) and aftre the name of the stoure Scithiane, vpon the northe Scythicus. The greate mounteine Taurus ronnyng East and West, and in a maner equally partyng the lande in twaine: leaueth one parte on the Northe side, called by the Grekes the outer Asie: and another on the South, named the inner Asie. This mounteine in many places is founde thre hundred lxxv. miles broade: and of length equalle with the whole countrie. About a fiue hundred thre skore and thre miles. From the coast of the Rhodes, vnto the farthest part of Inde, and Scythia Eastwarde. And it is deuided into many sondrie partes, in sondrie wise named, whereof some are larger, some lesse. This Asie is of suche a sise, as aucthorus holde opinion, that Affrike and Europe ioyned together: are scante able to matche it in greatnes. It is of a temperate heate and a fertile soile, and therefore full of all kindes of beaste, foule, and worme, and it hath in it many countries and Seignouries. On the other side of the redde Sea, ouer against Egipte in Affrike: lieth the tripartite region, named Arabia, whose partes are, Petrea: boundyng West and Northe vpon Siria: and right at fronte before hym Eastwarde, Deserta: and Arabia Felix by Southe. Certein writers also adioyne to Arabia: Pancheia, and Sabea. It is iudged to haue the name of Arabus, the sonne of Apollo and Babilone. The Arabiens beyng a greate people, and dwellyng very wide and brode: are in their liuyng very diuers, and as sondrie in religion. Thei vse to go with long heare vnrounded and forked cappes, somewhat mitre like, all aftre one sorte, and their beardes partie shauen. Thei vse not as we doe, to learne faculties and sciences one of another by apprenticehode, but looke what trade the father occupied, the same doeth the sonne generally applie himself to, and continue in. The mooste aunciente and eldest father that can be founde in the whole Countrie, is made their Lorde and Kyng. Looke what possessions any one kindrede hath, the same be commune to all those of that bloude: Yea one wife serueth theim all. Wherefore he that cometh firste into the house, laieth doune his falchion before the dore, as a token that the place is occupied. The seniour of the stocke enioieth her alnight Thus be thei all brethren and sistren one to another, throughout the whole people. Thei absteine fro the embrasinges neither of sister ne mother, but all degrees are in that poinct as indifferent to than, as to beastes of the fieldes. Yet is adulterie death emong them. And this is adulterie there: to abandon the bodie to one of another kindred. And who so is by suche an ouerthwarte begotten: is iudged a bastard, and otherwise not. Thei bancquet not lightly together, vndre the nombre of thirtie persones. Alwaie foresene that, two of the same nombre at the leaste, be Musicens. Waiters haue thei none, but one kinsman to minister to another, and one to helpe another. Their tounes and cities are wallesse, for thei liue quietly and in peace one with another. Thei haue no kinde of oyle, but that whiche is made of Sesama, but for all other thynges, thei are most blessed with plentie. They haue Shiepe greater than Kien, and verie white of woulle. Horses haue thei none, ne none desire, for that their Chamelles in al niedes serue them as well. Thei haue siluer and golde plentie, and diuerse kindes of spices, whiche other countries haue not. Laton, Brasse, Iron, Purple, Safron, the precious rote costus, and all coruen woorkes, are brought into theim by other. Thei bewrie their kyng in a donghille, for other thei wille skante take so muche laboure. There is no people that better kiepeth their promise and couenaunt, then thei doe, and thus thei behight it. When thei wille make any solempne promise, couenaunte, or league, the two parties commyng together, bryng with them a thirde, who standyng in the middes betwixte theim bothe, draweth bloude of eche of them, in the palme of the hande, along vndre the rote of the fingres, with a sharpe stone: and then pluckyng from eche of their garmentes a little iaggue, [A small piece.] he ennoyncteth with that bloude seuen other stones, lyeng ready betwixte theim, for that purpose. And whilest he so doeth, he calleth vpon the name of Dionisius and Vrania, whom thei accompte emong the nombre of goddes, reuengers of faithelesse faithes. This done, he that was the sequestrer of the couenaunte become thsuretie for the parties. And this maner of contracte, he that standeth moste at libertie, thinketh miete to be kepte. Thei haue no firynge but broken endes and chippes of Myrrhe, whose smoke is so vnwholsome, that excepte thei withstode the malice therof with the perfume of Styrax, it would briede in them vncurable diseases. The Cinamome whiche groweth emong theim, none gather but the priestes. And not thei neither, before thei haue sacrificed vnto the goddes. And yet further thei obserue, that the gatheryng neither beginne before the Sonne risyng, ne continue aftre the goyng doune. He that is lorde and gouernour emong them, when the whole gather is brought together, deuideth out vnto euery man his heape with a Iauelines ende, whiche thei haue ordinarily consecrate for that purpose. And emongest other, the Sonne also hath a heape deuided out for hym, whiche (if the deuision be iuste) he kindeleth immediatly with his owne beames, and brenneth into asshes. Some of the Arabiens that are pinched with penurie, without all regard of body, life, or helth, doe eate Snakes, and Addres, and suche like vermine, and therefore are called of the Grekes Ophyophagi. The Arabiens named Nomades, occupie much Chamelles, bothe in warre and burden, and all maner cariage, farre and nighe. The floude that ronneth alonge their bordes, hathe in it as it ware limall of golde in great plentie. Whiche they neuertheles for lacke of knowledge do neuer fine into masse. Another people of Arabia named Deboe, are for the great parte shepemasters, and brieders. Parte of them notwithstanding, occupie husbandrie, and tilthe. These haue suche plentie of gold, that oftetimes emong the cloddes in the fieldes thei finde litle peables of golde as bigge as akecornes, whiche thei vse to set finely with stones, and weare for owches aboute their necke and armes, with a very good grace. They sell their golde vnto their borderers for the thirde parte of Laton, or for the halfe parte of siluer. Partly for that they nothing estieme it, and specially for the desire of the thinges that foreiners haue. Nexte vnto them lie the Sabeis, whose riches chiefely consisteth in encence, Myrrhe and Cinamome, howbeit some holde opinion also that Baulme groweth in some places of their borders. Thei haue also many date trees very redolente of smelle, and the roote called Calamus. There is in that contry a kinde of serpentes lurking in the rootes of trees, of haulfe a foote lengthe, whose bitinge is for the moste parte death. The plenty of swiete odours, and sauours in those quarters, doeth verely stuffe the smelling. And to avoyde that incommoditie, they oftentimes vse the fume of astincking gomme, and gotes heare chopped together. Ther is no man that hath to do to giue sentence vpon any case but the king. The mooste parte of the Sabeis apply husbandrie. The residewe gatheringe of spices and drugges. They sayle into Ethiope for trade of marchaundise, in barkes couered with leather. The refuse of their cinamome and Cassian they occupy for firing. Their chiefe citie is called Saba, and stondeth vpon a hyll. Their kynges succed by discente of bloude, not any one of the kindred certeine, but suche as the people haue in moste honour, be he good or be he badde. The king neuer dare be sene oute of his Palace, for that there goeth an olde prophecie emong them of a king that shoulde be stoned to deathe of the people. And euery one feareth it shoulde lighte on him selfe. They that are about the king of the Sabeis: haue plate bothe of siluer and golde of all sortest curiously wrought and entallied. Tables, fourmes, trestles of siluer, and all furniture of household sumptuous aboue measure. They haue also Galeries buylte vppon great pillours, whose coronettes are of golde and of siluer. Cielinges voultinges, dores and gates couered with siluer and golde, and set with precious stones: garnisshinges of yuorye, and other rare thinges whiche emong men are of price. And in this bounteous magnificence haue thei continued many yeres. For why the gredy compasse how to atteyne honoure with the vniuste rapine of other mennes goodes, that hath tombled downe headeling so many commune wealthes, neuer had place emong them. In richesse equal vnto them, are the Garrei, whose implementes of household are all of golde and siluer, and of those and yuorie together, are their portalles, their cielinges, and rophes, made. The Nabatheens of all other Arabiens are the beste husbandes, and thriftiest sparers. Their caste is wittye in winning of substaunce, but greater in kepinge it. He that appaireth the substaunce that was lefte him, is by a commune lawe punished: and contrariwise that encreaseth it, muche praysed and honoured. The Arabiens vse in their warres swerde, bowe, launce, slinge, and battle ax. The rable of helhoundes (whom we calle Sarasines) that pestilent murreine of mankinde, came of this people. And as it is to be thoughte, at this daye the great parte of Arabia is degenerate into that name. But thei that dwell towarde Egipte, kepe yet their olde name, and lyue by butin, [Footnote: Booty, from the French "Butin."] like prickers of the bordre, wherin, the swiftenes of their camelles doeth them good seruice. ¶ The seconde Chapitre. ¶ Of Panchaia, and the maners of the Panqueis. Panchaia (a countrie of Arabia) is iudged of Diodore the Sicilian to be an islonde of xxv. miles brode. It hath in it thre noble cities Dalida, Hyracida, and Oceanida. The whole contrie (excepte a litle vaine of sandie grauelle) is fertile and plenteous: chiefely of wine and encence. Whiche groweth ther in suche aboundaunces that it sufficeth the whole worlde for the francke fume offeringe. There groweth also good store of Myrrhe, and diuers other redolente thinges, whiche the Panqueis gather, and selle to the merchauntes of Arabia. At whose hande other buienge them againe, transports them into Egipte, and Sirie. And fro thence they are spred abrode to all other peoples. The Panqueis in their warres vse wagons aftre the maner of menne in olde time. Their commune wealth is deuided into thre sundry degrees. The firste place haue the priestes, to whome are ioyned the artificers. The seconde the houseband men. And the thirde the menne of warre: with whom the catteile maisters or brieders be coupled. The priestes are the heades, and chiefe of all the residewe, and haue aucthoritie aswell in sentence of lawe, as to put ordre in al ciuile affaires: the sentence of deaths onely excepted. The housebandemen, tille the grounde, and attende vpon the fruictes, and bring all into the commune store. And thei that shalbe founde moste diligente in that laboure and occupation: are chosen by the priestes (but not aboue the nombre of ten at one time) to be iudges ouer the distribution of the fruictes. Vpon consideracion that other by their aduancement might be stirred to like diligence. The catteile maisters, yf ther be any thing either apperteining to the sacrifices, or commune affaires, touching nombre, or weight, do it with all diligence, No man amonge the Panchais hath any thinge that he can call proprely his owne: his house, and his gardein excepted. For bothe the customes, and reuenewes, and all other profectes, are deliuered in to the priestes handes. Who acordinge as they finde necessarie and expediente, iustely distribute them. But they themselues are graunted double share. Their garmentes by the reason of the finesse of the wolle of their shiepe, especially aboue other, are verye softe and gentle clothe. Bothe menne and women vse ther, to sette oute them selues with Iuelles of golde, as cheines, braselettes, eareringes, tablettes, owches, ringes, Annuletes, buttons, broches, and shoes embraudered, and spangled with golde, of diuers colours. The menne of warre serue onely for the defence of their countrey. The priestes aboue all other, giue them selues vnto pleasaunte life, fine, nette and sumptuous. Their garmentes are rochettes of fine linnen, and sometime of the deintiest wollen. Vpon their heades thei weare mitres embraudred, and garnisshed with golde. They vse a kinde of voided shoes (whiche aftrewarde the Grieques toke vp, and called sandalium) very finely made, and of sondry colours. And as the women weare, so do they, all maner of Iuelles sauing earinges. Their chiefe occupation is to attende vpon goddes seruice, settinge forthe the worthie diedes of the goddes, with himpnes, [Footnote: Hymns.] and many kindes of commendacion. Yf thei be founde withoute the halowed grounde, it is lawfull for any manne to slea them. They saye that they came of the bloude of Iupiter Manasses, at suche time as he came firste into Panchaia, hauinge the whole worlde vndre his dominion. This countrie is full of golde, siluer, latton, tinne, and yron, of the whiche it is not laweful to cary any one out of the realme. The giftes both of siluer and golde, whiche in greate nombre of longe time, have bene offred to their goddes, are kepte in the temple: whose dores are by excellent workemanship garnished with golde, siluer and yuorie. The couche of their God is vi. cubites longe, and foure cubites brode, all of golde, gorgeous of worcke, and goodly to beholde. And by that, is there sette a table of like sorte in euery poincte: for sise, stuffe, and gorgeousnes. They haue but one temple, all of white stone, builte vpon pilours, grauen, and embossed, thre hundred and xxxviii. taylours yardes square, that is to saye, euen of lengthe and bredthe, euery waye so muche. And somewhat acordinge to the syse of the temple, it is sette full of highe ymages very precious: coruen and grauen. Rounde about the temple haue the priestes their habitacion. And all the grounde aboute them xxv. myle compasse: is halowed to their goddes. The yerely rente of that grounde is bestowed vpon sacrifice. ¶ The iii. Chapitre. ¶ Of Assiria and Babilonia, and the maners of those peoples. As saieth sainct Augustine, the countrie called Assiria, was so named of Assur, the sonne of Sem. And at this daie, to the ende that time might be founde an appairer, of al thinges, with the losse of a sillabe is becomen Siria: Hauyng for his bounde, on the East, the countrie called Inde, and part of Media. On the West the floude Tygris, on the Southe Susiana, and on the Northe the maigne mounteigne Caucasus. It is a deintie to haue in Assiria a showre of raine: and therefore are thei constreined for the due moistyng of their lande, to tolle in the riuers by pollicie of trenching and damming: wherwith thei so plentifie their grounde, that thei communely receiue two hundred busshelles for a busshell, and in some speciall veine, three hundred for one. Their blades of their Wheate and Barlie are fowre fingers brode. Their Sesamum, and Milium (Somer cornes) are in groweth like vnto trees. All the whiche thinges Herodotus the historien, thoughe he knoweth them (as he writeth) to be vndoubtedly true, yet would he that men toke aduisemente in the reportyng of theim: for that thei mighte sieme vnto suche as neuer sawe the like, incredible. Thei haue a tree called Palma, that beareth a kinde of small Dates. This fruicte thei fiede muche vppon, and out of the bodie of the tree, thei draw at one time of the yere a liquor or sappe, wherof thei make bothe wine and hony. In their fresh waters thei vse boates facioned round like a buckler, which the Armenians that dwelle aboue them, do make of salowe wikers wrought one within an other, and couered with rawe leather. The appareile of the Assyrians is a shirte downe to the foote, and ouer that a short garment of wollen, and last of al a faire white pleicted cassaque doun to the foote agayne. Their shoes are not fastened on with lachettes, but lyke a poumpe close about the foote. Which also the Thebans dydde vse, and but they twayne, no moe. They suffre theyr heares to growe and couer them with prety forked cappes somwhat mytrelyke. And when they goe abroade, they besprinkle them selues with fragraunt oyles, to be swete at the smelle. They haue euery man a rynge with a signet, and also a sceptre finely wrought: vppon whose toppe thei vse to sticke either an apple, or a rose, or a lillye, or some lyke thynge. For it is a dishonour to beare it bare. Emongest all the lawes of that people I note this chiefly as worthie memorie. When their maidens came to be mariageable, thei ware from yere to yere, brought foorthe into the Marquette, for suche as would buye them to be their wiues. And because there ware some so hard fauoured, that menne would not onely be loth to giue money for them, but some menne also for a litle money to take theim: the fairest ware first solde, and with the prices of theim brought into the commune Treasourie, ware the fowler bestowed. Herodote writeth that he heard by reaporte, that the Heneti (a people on the bordre of Italie towarde Illiria) ware wonte to vse this maner. Whervpon Sabellicus takyng an occasion, writeth in this maner. Whether there ware suche a maner vsed emong that people (saieth he) or not, I haue litle more certaintie to laie for my self then Herodote had. But thus muche am I able to saie: that in Venice (a citie of famous worthines, and whose power is well knowen at this date, to be greate, bothe by Sea and by lande) suche maner as I shall saie, was sometyme vsed. There was in the Citie of Venice, a place dedicate, as ye would saie to our Ladie of Pietie. Before whose doores it happened a child or twaine, begotten by a skape (whiche either for shame or necessitie could finde no mother, or for the nombre of parteners, no one propre father) to bee laide. And when by the good Citezeins suche tendrenes had been shewed to two or thre, as the mothers loked for, and manhode (to saie the truthe) doth require: the dore of pitie became so fruictfull a mother, that she had not now one or twoo in a yere, but three or fower in a quarter. Whiche thyng when the gouernours of the citie perceiued, thei toke ordre by commune consente, that from thens foorthe suche women children onely, as should fortune so to bee offred to Pietie, should bee nourisshed at the commune charge of the citie, and none other. And for those accordyngly, thei ordained a place wher thei ware brought vp, hardly kepte in, and diuersely enstructed accordyng to their giftes of witte and capacitie, vntill thei ware mariage able. At the whiche tyme, she that had beautie and good qualities bothe, found those a sufficient dowrie to purchase her choyse of husbandes. And she that hadde but beautie alone, thoughe her qualities ware not so excellente, yet for her honestie that beside forth was singuler in theim all, founde that beautie and honestie could not be vnmaried. These therefore ware not permitted to euery mannes choise, but graunted to suche as ware thoughte menne worthie of suche women. If there ware any that lacked the grace of beautie, yet if she ware wittie, and endewed with qualities (together with her honestie) a small dowrie purchased her a husband in good time. But if there ware any in whom there happened neither commendacion of beautie nor wit, but onely bare honestie: for her bestowyng was there a meane found, by waie of deuocion, as we terme it when we signifie a respecte of holines in the diede. Menne vnmarried beyng in daungier vpon Sea or on Lande, or beyng sore distressed with sickenes, makyng a vowe for the recouerie of healthe, where vnto thei holde them selues bounden in conscience (if it fortuned theim at that tyme to be deliuered) for satisfaction of their vowe in that case not vprightly perfourmed, vsed to take for their wiues, suche of the simplest as other had left. So that in processe they alwaie founde husbandes, and the commune wealthe a diminishyng of charge. Another Lawe of the Babilonians there was, more worthie of memorie a greate deale, for that it imported more weight. And that was this. Thei had from their beginnyng no Phisicens emong theim, but it was enacted by the consente of the Realme, that who so was diseased of any malady, should comon with other that had bene healed of the like afore. And acordyng to their counsaile, practise vpon himself. But he that vsed or attempted any other waie, to be punished for it. Other write that the sicke ware brought out into the Marquet place, where suche as had bene deliuered of the like grief afore: ware bounde by the lawe, to go fro persone to persone, and shewe theim by what meanes thei had bene remedied. Thei bewrie their dead in Honie, and obserue the same maner of mournyng that the Egiptians do. If any man haue medled with his wife in the nighte, neither of theim bothe toucheth any thyng the next mornyng, before thei be washed: There was in Babilon a Temple dedicate to Venus, and it hath bene the maner in tyme paste, that when their came any straunger to visite this Temple, all the women of Babilon should come vnto him or them, with greate solempnitie and fresshely appareiled, euery one hauing a garlande on her heade, with some seueralle knowledge of distinction one from another, and offre their seruice to the straungier. And looke whom he liked, he must laie doune in her lappe, suche somme of money as pleased him. That done thei bothe withdrew themselues fro the temple a greate distaunce, and laie together. That money was consecrate to Venus. There were certein kindredes emong theim, that liued with none other thyng but fisshe dried against the Sonne, and brused in a Mortare, and so laied vp till niede ware. And then did thei mingle it, and kneade it with water into a maner of paaste, and so baked it, and eate it. There ware thre sortes of menne that bare rule and office emong them. The king, the nobles with the Seniours, and those that had serued in the warres and ware now exempte. Thei had also menne skilfull in the secretes of nature, whiche thei calle Magi, and Chaldei, suche as ware the priestes of Egipte, institute to attende vpon the seruice of their Goddes. These men all their life daies, liued in the loue of wisedome, and were connyng in the cours of the Sterres. And sometyme by foretokenyng of birdes flight and somtyme by power of holy verses and nombres tourned awaie the euilles fro menne, and benefited them with thinges that ware good. Thei could expounde Dreames, and declare the significacions of vncouth wondres. So that men ware certein of suche successe, as thei had foreshewed. Thei wente not into straunge scholes to learne their knowledge, as the Grecians doe, but learned the science of these thynges at their fathers handes, as heirtage from one generation to another, euen from their childhode at home in their houses. Whereby it came to passe that beyng sokingly learned, it was bothe the more groundedly learned, and also without tediousnes. Thei had one vniforme and constaunt waie of teaching, and one constantnes of doctrine, not waueryng and almoste contrary to it self, as the doctrine of the Greekes: where eche Philosopher almoste had his waie, and iudgemente, of the principles and causes of thynges. But these menne agre al in one, that the worlde is eternall and euerlastyng, with out begynnyng and without ende. And that the ordre of the whole, was disposed by the prouidence of the highest. The bodies aboue to haue their course, not at all aduentures and without rule, but by an inuiolable lawe of God, acordyng to his ordenaunce and will moste certein. Thei haue learned by long markyng and notyng of thynges tyme out of mynde, one aftre another: how by the course of the Starres, to prognostique, that is to foreshewe vnto men, many thynges to come. Thei holde that of all other Sterres, the planetes are strongest of Influence, namely Saturnus. To the sonne thei attribute brightnes and vertue of life. Mars, Iupiter, Mercurie, and Venus, thei obserue moste,(for that thei haue a course propre by themselues) as interpretours of the mindes of the goddes to foresignifie thinges vnto men. Which opinion is so grounded in them, that they haue called all those foure planetes, by the one name of Mercurius, as ye woulde saye commune currours or messengers. Thei also do warne menne of many thinges, bothe hurtefull and availeable: by the marking, and knowledge of winde and weather, of raine and droughte, of blasing sterres, of the eclipses of the Sonne and Mone, of earthquakes, and manye suche like. Furthermore thei ymagine in the firmament other sterres, subiecte in influence vnto these former, wherof some are in the haulfe heauen continually in our sighte, and some in the other haulfe continually oute of our sight And as the Egiptiens haue feigned them selues xii. goddes, so likewyse haue thei. To euerie of the whiche they referre one moneth, and one signe of the Zodiaque. Thei haue prophecied vnto kinges, many aduentures. As vnto Alexandre victory, when he made his exploicte towarde Darius. Likewise to Hirchanour and Seleucus, and other the successours of Alexandre, prophecied thei many thinges: As also to the Romaines, which had most sure successe. Thei make compte also of xxiiij. other starres: without, and beside the waie of the zodiaque, xii. towarde the Northe, and the residewe towarde the Southe. Of the whiche, so many as appiere in sight, they iudge to apperteigne to the quicke, and the other to the dead. These troublesome mases haue thei broughte into the worlde more then enoughe, beside the accompte that thei make of their obseruacions and deuinacions from their beginninge to Alexandras time: nombringe them thre thousande and fourty yeres (a shamefull lie) excepte thei will entreprete their yeres by the Mone, as the Egiptians doe, comptinge euery monethe for a yere. ¶ The iiii. Chapiter. ¶ Of Iewry, and of the life, maners, and Lawes of the Iewes. Palestina, whiche also is named Iudea, beinge a seueralle prouince of Siria; lieth betwixte Arabia Petrea, and the countrie Coelosiria. So bordering vpon the Egiptian sea on the West, and vpon the floude Iordon on the Easte, that the one with his waues wassheth his clieues, and the other sometime with his streame ouerfloweth his banckes. The Bible, and Iosephus by ensample therof called this londe Cananea: a countrie renowned for manifolde substaunce. Fertile of soyle, well watered with riuers, and springes, and rich with precious balme. Lienge in the nauelle of the world, that it neither might be broyled with heate, ne frosen with colde. By the reason of the which mildenes of aier, it was iudged by the Israelites or Hebrues, (and rightlye so iudged) to be the country that God promised vnto Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, flowinge in aboundaunce of milke and honie. Vpon the hope of enioyinge of this londe, folowed they Moses oute of Egipte fortye yeres wandering in Campe. And before thei ware broughte into Cananea by Iosua, his substitute, ouercame with strong hande, one and thirty kinges. This is the people that onely of all other may chalenge the honour of auncientie. This is the people alone the mighte haue glorified in the wisedome, and vnmedled puritie of Language, as beinge of all other the firste. This is the people that was mother of lettres, and sciences. Amonge these remained the knowledge of the onely and euerliuinge God, and the certeintie of the religion that was pleasaunte in his eies. Among these was the knowledge, and foreknowledge of al, sauinge that Helas, they knewe not the visitour of their wealthe and the ende of their wo, Iesus the sauioure of all that woulde knowe him, and sieke life in his deathe. But him whome thei knew not, when by reason thei should: him shal thei yet ones knowe in time when the father woulde. The Israelites, the Hebrues or the Iewes (for all in effecte soundeth one people) liue aftre the rule of the lawes, whiche Moses their worthy duke, and deuine chiefteine, declared vnto theim. Withoute the whiche also or anye other written, thei liued holily, hundred of yeares before: atteininge to the truthes hidden from other, by a singuler gifte aboue other. That Philosophre of Philosophers, and deuine of deuines, Moses the marueilous, waienge in his insight, that no multitude assembled, coulde be gouerned to continuaunce without ordres of equitie and lawes: when with rewardes to the good, and reuenge vpon the euill, he had sufficiently exhorted, and trained his people to the desire of vertue, and the hate of the contrarie: at the last beside the two tables receiued in the mounte Sinah, added ordres of discipline, and ciuile gouernaunce, full of all goodlines and equitie. Whiche Iosephus, the Iewe, (a manne of greate knowledge, and eloquence, aswel in the Hebrewe, his natural tongue, as in the Grieke, amonge whome he liued in notable fame not a fewe yeres) hath gathered, and framed into one seuerall treatise. Out of the which, because I rather fansie, if I maye with like commoditie, to folowe the founteines of the first Authours, then the brokes [Footnote: _Broke_, literally, broken meat. It here means "disconnected passages."] of abredgers, which often bring with them much puddle: I haue here translated, and annexed to the ende of this booke, those ordres of the Iewes commune welthe, sendyng the for the reste to the Bible. And yet notwithstanding, loke what I founde in this Abredger, neither mencioned in the bible, nor in that treatise, the same thus ordrely foloweth. The heathen writers, and the Christianes, do muche diffre concerninge the Iewes, and Moyses their chiefteine. For Cornelius the stylle [Footnote: Cornelius Tacitus. The reference, however, is wrong. The passage quoted does not appear in the Annals: it is from Book v., § 5. of the History.] in his firste booke of his yerely exploictes, called in Latine Annales, dothe not ascribe their departure oute of Egipte to the power and commaundement of God: but vnto necessitie, and constrainte, with these wordes: A great skuruines, and an yche saieth he, beinge risen throughe oute Egipte, Bocchoris, the king sekynge remedye in the Temple of Iupiter Hammon, was willed by responcion to clense his kingdome: And to sende awaye that kinde of people whom the goddes hated (he meaneth the Iewes) into some other contrey. The whiche when he had done, and they (as the poompe of al skuruines, not knowing wher to become) laye cowring vndre hedges, and busshes, in places desert, and many of them dropped away, for sorowe and disease: Moyses (whiche also was one of the outecastes, saieth be) counselled them not to sitte ther, awayting aftre the helpe of God or of man, whiche thei ware not like to haue: but to folowe him as their capteine, and lodesman, and committe them selues vnto his gouernaunce. And that hervnto thei all agreinge, at wilde aduentures, withoute knowing what thei did, tooke their iorney. In the which thei ware sore troubled, and harde bestadde, [Footnote: Beset. "What then behoveth so bestad to done." Gascoigne's Works, 1587.] for lacke of water. In this distresse, when thei ware now ready to lye them downe, and die for thirst, Moyses espienge a great heard of wilde Chamelles comming fro their fiedinge, and going into woddie place ther beside, folowed them. And iudginge the place not to be without watre, for that he sawe it fresshe and grene, digged and founde plenty of watre. Wherwith when thei had releued themselues, thei passed on. vi. daies iourney: and so exployted that the seuenth daye thei where thei builte their Citie, and their temple. Moyses had beaten out all the enhabitauntes of the contry, then to the entent he might satle the peoples hartes towarde him for euer: deuised them newe ordres, and ceremonies cleane contrary to all other nacions. For (saieth Cornelius) Looke what so euer is holy amonge vs, the same is amonge them the contrary. And what so euer to vs is vnlawfulle, that same is compted lawefull amonge theim. The ymage of the beaste that shewed them the waye to the waters, and the ende of their wanderinge: did they set vp in their chambres, and offre vnto it a rambe, in the despight of Iupiter Hammon, whom we worship in the fourme of a Rambe. And because the Egiptians worshippe their goddesse Apis in the fourme of a cowe, therforethei vse to slea also in sacrifice a cowe. Swines flesshe thei eate none, for that thei holde opinion that this kynde of beaste, of it selfe beinge disposed to be skoruie, mighte be occasion againe to enfecte them of newe. The seuenth daye thei make holy day. That, is to say spende awaie in ydlenes and rest: for that on the seuenth daye, they founde reste of theyr wandering, and misery. And when they had caughte a sauour in this holye daye loytering: it came to passein processe of tyme, that thei made a longe holydaye also of the whole seuenth yere: But other holde opinion that thei do obserue suche maner of holyedaies, in the honour of Saturne the god of fasting and famine: with whose whippe thei are lothe againe to be punisshed. Their breade is vnleauened. These ceremonies and deuises, by what meanes so euer thei ware brought in amonge them, thei do stiffely defende. As thei are naturally giuen, to be stiffe in beliefe, and depe in loue with their owne althoughe towarde alother thei be most hatefull enemies. So that theineither will eate ne drincke with them: no nor lye in the chambre that a straunger of a nother nacion lyeth in. A people altogether giuen vnto leachery, and yet absteining from the enbrasinges of the straunger. Emong them selues thei iudge nothinge vnlawfull. Thei deuised to rounde of the foreskinne of their yarde (whiche we call circumcision) because thei would haue a notable knowledge betwene them, and other nacions. And the firste lesson thei teache vnto their children, is to despise the goddes. The soules of those that die in tormentes, or in warre, thei iudge to be immortall. A continuall feare haue thei, and a regard of heauen and helle. And where the Egiptians honour many similitudes and Images of beastes, and other creatures, whiche thei make themselues: the Iewes onely doe honour with their spirite and minde, and conceiue in their vndrestandyng, but one onely Godheade. Iudging all other that worshippe the Images of creatures, or of manne: to bee vngodlie and wicked. These and many other thinges doth Cornelius write, and Trogus also in his xxxvi. booke. There ware amonge the Iewes thre seueralle sectes, differyng in life from the reast of the people. The Phariseis, the Sadduceis, and the Esseis. The Phariseis vsed a certeine rough solempnesse of appareille, and a very skante fare: determinyng the Tradicions of Moyses, by certein ordenaunces and decrees, whiche they themselues sette vp. Thei caried vpon their foreheades, and on their lefte armes pretie billettes of Paper, facioned for the place, wherein ware written the tenne preceptes of the two Tables. And this did thei for that the Lorde saieth: And these shall thou haue (meanyng the commaundements) as a remembraunce hanging before thine eyes, and alwaie ready at thine hande. These were called their Philacteries, of these two woordes Phylexi and Thorat, wherof the former signifieth to Kiepe, and the other, the Lawe. These menne also hauyng vppon their skirtes muche broder gardes then other, stacke them full of Thornes, whiche beatyng and prickyng them on the hieles as thei wente, might putte them in remembraunce of the commaundementes of God. Thei attributed all thynges vnto God, and destenie, which they call Emarmeni. Neuertheles thei graunted, that it laie muche in the free choise of manne: either to doe, or not to doe the thinges that are iust and godlie, but yet destenie to helpe in al cases. Whiche destenie thei thought to depende of the influence of the bodies aboue. Looke what their superiors and Elders had saied, or answered to any demaunde, thei neuer would contrarie it. Thei belieued that GOD should come to Iudge the worlde, and that all soules ware euerlastyng. And as for the soules of the good, thei helde opinion, that thei passed from one bodie to another, vntill the daie of the generall resurrection. But the soules of the wicked, to be plonged into euerlasting prison and dongeon. The name of Pharisei was giuen vnto them for that thei ware disguised fro the commune maner of other, as ye would saie, Sequestred. The Sadduceis denied that there was any destenie, but that God was the beholder of all, and that it laie in the choise of manne, to do well or euill. And as for ioye or sorowe that the soule should suffre aftre this life, thei denied. Neither belieued thei any resurrection: because thei thoughte the soule died with the bodie. Thei would not belieue that there ware any spirites, good or bad. Neither would thei receiue more of the Bible, then the fiue bookes of Moses. Thei ware sterne men, and vncompaignable: not so muche as ones kepyng felowshippe one with another. For the whiche sternesse, thei named theim selues Sadduceis, that is to saie iuste menne. The Esseis ware in all pointes verie like vnto our cloisterers, abhorryng mariage and the companie of women. Not for that thei condempned Mariage, or the procreation of issue, but for that thei iudged a manne ought to be ware of the intemperauncie of women. And that no woman kept herself true to her husbande. Oh shameful opinion, and muche better to be reported by the dead, then to be credited of the quicke, bee it neuer so true. Thei possessed all thinges in commune. As for checkes or reuilings, was to them muske and honie, and slouenly vndaftinesse, a great comelinesse. So that thei ware alwaie in a white surcote, all was well. Thei had no certein abiding in any one citie: but Celles ouer all, where so euer thei became. Before the risyng of the Sonne, they spake nothyng that touched any worldly affair: but praied the Sonne to rise. After whose vprijste thei laboured vntill eleuen of the clocke. And then, washyng firste their whole bodie in water: thei satte doune together to meate, in solempne silence euery manne. Swearing they compted forswearyng. Thei admitted no manne to their secte, vndre a yere of probation. And aftre what time thei had receiued him: yet had thei two yeres more to proue his maners and condicions. Suche as thei tooke with a faulte, thei draue fro their compaignie. Enioyned by the waie of penaunce, to go a grasing like a beast, vntill his dieng daie. When tenne ware sette in a companie together, no one of them spake without the consente of the other nyne. Thei woulde not spitte within the precincte of the compaignie emong theim, ne yeat on their righte side. They kept the Sabboth with suche a precisenesse, that thei would not that daie, ease nature of the belie burden. And when vpon other daies, nature forced theim to that easemente, thei caried with theim a litle spade of woode, wherewith in place most secreate, thei vsed to digge a litle pit, to laie their bealie in. And in the time of doyng, thei also vsed a very greate circumspection, that their clothes laie close to the grounde rounde aboute theim, for offending (saied thei) of the Maiestie of God. Vpon whiche respecte, thei also couered and bewried it, assone as thei had done that nature required. Thei ware of verie long life, by the reason of the vnifourme diete that thei vsed, alwaie aftre one rate of fare: whiche was onely the fruicte of their countrie Balme. Thei occupied no money. If any manne suffered for wel doyng, or as wrongfully condempned, that thoughte thei the beste kinde of death. Thei helde opinion that all soules ware made in the beginnyng, and put in to bodies from tyme to tyme, as bodies did niede them. And for the good soules beyng ridde of their bodies againe, thei saied there was a place appointed beyond the Weast Occean, where thei take repose. But for the euill, thei appoincted places toward the East, as, more stormie colde and vnpleasante. Ther ware amonge them that prophecied thinges. Some of them gaue themselues to wedlocke: least if they shoulde be of the oppinion that men oughte to absteine vttrely from women, mankinde shoulde fade, and in processe be extincte, yeat vsed thei the compaignie of their wiues nothing at riote. The lande of Siria (whereof we haue named Iewrie a parte) is at this daie enhabited of the Grekes, called Griphones, of the Iacobites, Nestorians, Sarracenes, and of two Christian nations, the Sirians and Marouines. The Sirians vse the saie Masse, aftre the maner of the Grekes: and for a space ware subiecte to the churche of Rome. The Marouines agree in opinion with the Iacobites. Their lettres and tongue are al one with the Arabique. These Christianes dwelle at the Mounte Libanus. The Sarracenes, whiche dwelle aboute Ierusalem (a people valeaunt in warre) delight muche in housbondrie and tilthe. But contrary wise, thei that enhabite Siria, in that poincte are nothing worth. The Marouines are fewe in nombre, but of all other thei are the hardieste. ¶ The v. Chapitre. ¶ Of Media, and the maners of the Medes. Media (a countrie of Asia) as Solinus writeth, toke the name of one Medus, the sonne of Medea and Egeus, kyng of Athenes. Of whom the people ware also called Medes. But Iosephus affirmeth that it was so named of Medius the sonne of Iapheth. This countrie, as it is sene in Ptolomie, hath on the Northe, the sea named Hircanum, on the West Armenia, and Assiria, on the Southe Persie, and on theast Hircania and Parthia. Sauing that betwixte Parthia and it, there ronneth a mounteigne, that separateth their frontiers. The feactes that thei mooste exercise, are shooting and ridyng. Wherein thei be righte experte, and almoste (for those quartres) without matche or felowe. It hathe bene there a longe continued and aunciente custome, to honour their kynges like goddes. The rounde cappe, whiche thei cal Tiara: and their long slieued garmentes, passed from them to the Persians, together with the Empire. It was a peculier maner vsed of the Kynges of the Medes, to haue many wiues. Which thyng was aftrewarde also taken by of the communes: so that at lengthe it was thought vnmiete to haue feawer wiues then seuen. It was also a goodlie thyng for a woman to haue many husbandes: and to be without fiue at ones, was compted a miserable state. The Medes entre leagues and couenauntes, both aftre the maner of the Grekes, and also with drawing bloud vpon some parte of the arme aboute the shouldre, one of another, whiche thei vse to licke eche of others body. All that parte of the countrey that lieth towarde the Northe, is barrein and vnfruictefulle. Wherefore thei vse to make store of their fruicte, and to drie them, and so to worke them into a masse, or lumpe for their foode. Of rosted Almondes thei make their breade: and their wine of the rootes of certein herbes. Thei eate great plentie of the fleshe of wilde beastes. ¶ The. vi. Chapitre. ¶ Of Parthia, and the maner of the Parthians. A Certeine nombre of Outlawes and Banisshed menne, called Parthie, gaue name to this Countrie: Aftre suche time as by train, and stealth thei had gotten it. On the Southe it hath Carmania, on the North Hircanum, on the Weast The Meades, and on the Easte the country of Arabia. The countrie is hilly, and full of woddes, and of a barreine soyle. And a people which in the time of the Assiriens, and Medes, were scante known and litle estiemed. In so moche that when that highe gouernaunce of the whole (whiche the Grekes call the Monarchie) was yelde into the handes of the Persians: thei ware made a butin, as a nombre of raskalles without name. Laste of all thei ware slaues to the Macedonies. But afterward in processe of time, suche was the valeauntenes of this people and suche successe had thei: that thei became lordes, not ouer their neighbours onely rounde about theim, but also helde the Romaines (the conquerours of the worlde) suche tacke, that in sondrie warres they gaue them great ouerthrowes, and notablye endamaged their power. Pliny reherseth xiiii. kingdomes of the Parthians. Trogus calleth them Emperors of the East part of the worlde, Asthoughe they, and the Romaines holding the Weste, had deuided the whole betwixte them. Aftre the decay of the Monarchie of the Macedonians, this people was ruled by kinges. Whome generally by the name of the first king, thei termed Arsaces. Nexte vnto the kinges maiestie, the communaltie bare the swaye. Oute of whome they chase bothe their Capteignes for the warres, and their gouernours for the peace time. Their language is a speache mixte of the Scithians and Medes. Their appareil at the firste, was aftre their facion vnlike to all other. But when thei grewe vnto power, louse and large, and so thinne: that a man mighte see thoroughe it, aftre the facion of the Medes. Their maner of weapon, and armour, was the same that the Scithians vsed. But their armies ware altogether almoste of slaues and bondemen, contrary to the maner of other peoples. And for that no manne hath aucthoritie amonge them to giue fredome vnto anye of this bonde ofspring: The nombre of them by continuance, came vnto a greate multitude. These do thei bringe vp, and make of as deerly, as thei do of their owne children: teachinge them to ride, to shote, to throwe the darte, and suche like feates, with great diligence and handsomenes. Eche communer ther, acording to his substaunce, findeth a greate nombre of these to serve the kinge on horsebacke, in all warres. So that at what time Anthonie the Romaine made warre vpon the Parthians, wher thei mette him with fyftie thousande horsemen: there ware of the whole nombre but eyghte hundred fre borne. They are not skylfull to fighte it oute at hande stripes, ne yeat in the maner of besieging or assaulting: but all together aftre the maner of skirmisshe as they spie their aduantage. Thei vse no trompet for their warninges or onsettes but a dromme: neither are thei able to endure long in their fighte. For yf they ware so good in continuaunce, as thei be violente at a brunte: ther ware no multitude able to susteine their force. For the moste parte thei breake of, when the skirmishe is euen at the whottest. And within a while aftre thei feigne a flight, wher with thei beginne againe a newe onsette. So when thou thinckest thy selfe mooste sure of the honour of the fielde, then arte thou at the poinct of the hardest hazarde. Their horsmen vse armour of mayle entrelaced with fethers: bothe for their owne defence, and the defence also of their horses. In times passed thei occupied no golde ne siluer, but only in their armour. Vpon regarde of chaunge in their luste, thei mary echeone many wiues, and yet punishe thei none offence so greuously as adultery. For the auoyding whereof thei doe not onely forbidde their women by generall restrainte from all feastes, and banckettinges of men: but also from the sighte of them. Some neuerthelesse do wrighte, amonge the whiche Strabo is one, that thei vse to giue their wiues sometime to their friendes, as in the waye of mariage, that thei maye so haue issue. Thei eate none other fleshe but suche as thei kylle at the chace. Thei be euer on horsebacke, whether thei go to the fielde or the banket, to bye, to selle, to commune of aughte with their friende, or to do any thing that is to be done. Yea thei dispatche al commune and priuate affaires, sittinge on horsebacke. And this is to be vnderstonden of the fre borne: for the slaues are alwaies on foote. Their buriall for all menne (sauinge the kinge) is the dogges bealy, and the kytes. But when thei or suche like haue eaten of, the fleshe, then couer thei the bare bones with earth. Thei haue great regarde vnto their goddes, and the worship due vnto them. Thei are men of a proude nature, busie medlers, and sedicious, craftie, deceiptfull, malaparte, and vnshamefaced: for thei holde opinion that it becometh the man as well to be Sterne, as the woman to be milde. Thei be euer in some stirre, either with their neighbours, or elles amonge themselues. Men of fewe wordes, and readier to doe, then to saye. And therefore whether it go with them or against them, thei lappe it vp in scilence. Thei obey not their superiours for any reuerence, but for feare. Altogether giuen to lechery, and yet skante in fiedinge. No farther trewe of worde or promesse, then semeth them expediente for their owne behoue. ¶ The. vii. Chapiter. ¶ Of Persia, and the maners and ordinaunces of the Persians. Persia (a countrie of the Easte) was so called of Persius the Sonne of Iupiter and Danæ. Of whome the chiefe citie of the kingdome also, was named Persepolis, whiche in Englishe soundeth Perseboroughe (or as we corruptly terme it) Perseburie, and the whole nation Persiens. This countrie as Ptolemie writeth in his fiueth booke, hath on the Northe, Media: on the West, Susiana: on the Easte, the two Carmaniæs: and on the Southe, an inshot of the Sea, called the Bosome of Parthia. The famous cities thereof, were Axiama Persepolis and Diospolis. By the name of Iupiter thei vnderstode the whole heauen. Thei chiefely honour the Sonne, whom the calle Mitra. Thei worship also the Mone, the planet Venus, the fyre, the earthe, the water, and the windes. Thei neither haue aultare nor temple, nor ymage, but celebrate their deuine seruice vndre the open heauen vpon some highe place for that purpose appoincted. In doinge sacrifice thei haue no farther respecte, but to take awaye the life from the beaste. As hauing opinion, that forasmuche as the goddes be spirites, thei delighte in nothinge but the spiritual parte, the soule. Before thei slea it, thei set it aparte by them, with a corone upon the heade, and heape vppon it many bittre banninges and curses. Some of the nacion notwithstandinge, when thei haue slaine the beaste: vse to lay parte of the offalle in the fire. When thei sacrifie vnto the fire, they timbre vp drie stickes together, cleane without pille or barcke. And after what time they haue powred on neates tallowe, and oyle, thei kindle it. Not blowing with blaste of blowesse or mouthe: but makinge winde as it ware with a ventile, or trenchour, or suche like thinge. For yf any manne either blow into it, or caste in any deade thing, or any durte, or puddle, it is deathe to the doer. The Persians beare suche reuerence to their floudes, that thei neither wasshe, pysse, nor throwe deade carcase into them. No not so moche as spitte into them: But very reuerentlye honour their water after this maner. Comminge to lake, mere, floude, ponde, or springe: thei trenche out a litle diche, and ther cot thei the throte of the sacryfice. Being well ware, that no droppe of blode sprinckle into the water by. As thoughe all water ware polluted and vnhalowed ouer all: yf that should happen. That done their Magi (that is to say men skylful in the secretes of nature) layeng the flesh vppon a heape of Myrtus, or Laurelle, and tymbryng smalle wandes about, sette fyre thereon and brenne yt. And pronouncyng certein curses, they myngle oyle, mylke, and hony together, and sprinkle into the fyre. But these cursinges make they not against the fyre ne water. But against the earthe, a greate whyle toguether: holding in their hande a boundle of smalle myrte wandes. Their kinges reigne by succession of one kindred or stocke. To whom who so obeyeth not, hath his heade and armes striken of: and so wythout buriall is throwen out for karreine. Policritus sheweth that euery king of the Persians, buyldeth his howse vpon a greate hille: and ther hourdeth vp all the threasure, tribute, and taxe that he receyueth of the people: to be a recorde aftre his deathe how good a husbonde he hath bene for the commune wealthe. Suche of the subiectes as dwelle vpon the sea coast, are taxed to paie money. But those that inhabite toward the mydde londe: suche commodities as the quarter beareth or hath wher they dwelle. As apothecary druggues, woolle, coulours, and suche like and cateille accordingly. He is not permitted any one cause, to putte any man to death. Neither is it lawfull for any other of the Persians to execute any thyng against any of his house or stock, that maie sieme in any wyse cruelle. Euery one of them marie many wiues: and holde many concubines also beside, for the encrease of issue. The king Proclaimeth rewarde vnto him, that within one yere begetteth most children. Fiue yere aftre thei are begotten, thei come not in the fathers sight, by a certein ordenaunce vsed emong theim: but are broughte vp continually emong the women: To the ende that if the childe fortune to dye in the time of his infancie, their fathers grief maie be the lesse. Thei vse not to marie but in one tyme of the yere: toward midde Marche. The bridegrome eateth to his supper, an apple of that countrey, or a litle of the maribone of a Chamel: and so without any farther banquetting goeth to bedde. From fiue yeres olde, to twentie and fowre, thei learne to ride, to throwe the Darte, to shoote, and chiefly to haue a tongue voide of all vntruthe. For their nourituryng and trainyng in good maners, thei haue appoincted theim Masters of greate sobrenes and vertue, that teache them dieties, and pretie songes, conteinyng either the praises of their Goddes, or of some worthy Princes. Whiche sometime thei sing, and sometyme recite without note: that so they mighte learne to confourme their liues vnto theirs, whose praises thei sieme themselues to allowe. To this lesson assemble thei alwaie together, at the calle of a Trompette. And as thei growe into yeres, an accompt is required of them how well thei haue borne awaie the lessons of their childhode. Thei vse to ronne the race, and to course, bothe on horsebacke and on foote: at the leadyng of some noble mannes sonne, chosen for the nones. The field for the race, is at least thre mile and thre quarters longe. And to the ende that heate or colde should the lesse trouble them, they vse to wade ouer brookes, and swimme ouer riuers, and so to rowme and to hunte the fieldes, and to eate and drinke in their armour, and wette clothes. The fruyctes that eate are akecornes, wild Peares, and the fruicte of the Terebinthine tree. But their daiely foode aftre their ronnyng, and other exercises of the bodie: is hard Bisquette, or a like crustie breade, Hortechocques, Gromelle sede, a litle roste flesshe or soden, whether thei lust: and faire water their drincke. Their maner of Huntyng, is with the bowe, or the Darte on horse backe. Thei are good also in the slynge. In theforenoone thei plante and graffe, digge vp settes, stubbe vp rootes, make their owne armour, or fisshe and foule, with the Angle or nette. Their children are decked with garnishynges of golde. And their chief iuelle is the precious stone Piropus, whiche thei haue in suche price, that it maie come vppon no deade corps. And that honour giue thei also to the fire, for the reuerence thei beare there vnto. From twentie, till fiuetie: thei folowe the warres. As for byeng and sellyng, or any kinde of Lawe prattle, thei vse not. Thei cary in their warres, a kind of shieldes facioned like a losenge, a quiure with shaftes, and a curtilace. On their heades a copintanke, embatled aboute like a turrette, and a brestplate emboussed, of skaled woorke. The princes and menne of honour did weare a treble Anaxirides, facioned muche like a coate armour, and a long coate doune to the knees, with hangyng slieues acordyng. The outside colours, but the lining white. In Somer thei weare purple, and in Wintre Medleis. The abillementes of their heades, are muche like the frontlettes that their Magj doe weare. The commune people are double coated doune to the midde Leggue, and haue about their heade a great rolle of Sendalle. Their beddes and their drinking vessell, are garnished with gold. When they haue matier of moste importaunce to common of, thei debate and conclude in the middes of their cuppes: thinkyng it muche surer that is so determined, then aftre any other sobrer sorte. Acqueintaunce mieting of equall degre, griete one another with a kisse. But the inferiour mietyng with his bettre, enclineth his bodie foreward with lowe reuerence. Thei bewrie their corpses in the grounde, cearyng them all ouer with waxe. Their Magicens thei leaue vnbewried, for the foules to disspetche. The children there, by an ordenaunce no where elles vsed: doe carnally knowe their mothers. Thus have ye heard what the maners of the Persians ware sometyme. Herodotus reherseth certeine other, their facions not vtterly vnworthe the tellynge. That thei compted it vilanie to laughe, or to spitte before the kyng. Thei thought it fondenes in the Grekes, worthie to be laughed at, to imagine goddes to be sprong vp of menne. What so euer was dishoneste to be done, that thoughte thei not honeste to be spoken. To be in debte was muche dishonour, but of all thinges moste vile for to lie. Thei vse not to bewrie their deade bodies, vntill thei haue bene torne with dogges, or with fowles. And the parentes brought to niedinesses vse there to make cheuisaunce of their doughters bodies, which emong no nation elles was euer allowed. Howbeit some holde opinion, that it was also the propretie of the Babilonians. The Persians at this daie, beynge subdued of the Saracenes, and bewitched with Mahometes brainsicke wickednesse, are cleane out of memorie. A people in those daies, whiche through their greate hardinesse and force, ware of long tyme Lordes of the Easte parte of the worlde. But now tombled cleane from their aunciente renowne, and bewried in dishonour. ¶ The. viij. Chapitre. ¶ Of Ynde, and the vncouthe trades and maners of life of the people therein. Ynde, a Countrie also of the Easte, and the closyng vp of Asia toward that quartre: is saied to be of suche a maigne syse, that it maie be compared with the thirde parte of the whole earth. Pomponius writeth, that alonge the shore, it is fowrtie daies sailyng the nighte also comprised therein. It tooke the name of the floude called Indus, whiche closeth vp the lande on the Weste side. Beginnyng at the Southe sea, it stretcheth to the Sonnerisynge: And Northward to the mount Caucasus. There are in it many greate peoples: and Tounes and Cities so thicke, that some haue reported them in nombre fiue thousande. And to saie truthe, it ought not to sieme greatly straunge vnto folkes, though the countrie be reported to haue suche a nombre of Tounes, or to be so populous: consideryng that of all other, the Yndiens alone, neuer discharged theim selues of any ouerplus of issue, as other haue done: but alwaie kepte their owne offspryng at home in their owne countrie. Their principall floudes are Ganges, Indus, and Hypanis. But Ganges farre passeth in greatnes the other twaine. This lande by the benefite of the battling breathe of the gentle Weast winde, reapeth corne twise in the yere. And other Wintre hath it none, but the bittre blastes of Theasterly windes called Etesiæ. Thei lacke wine, and yet some men reporte, that in the quartre called Musica, there groweth a good wine grape. In the Southe parte thereof, groweth Nardus, Cinnamome, Peper and Calamus aromaticus: as doeth in Arabia and Aethiope. The woode Ebenum (which some suppose to be our Guayacum) groweth there, and not elles where. Likewise of the Popiniaye and the Vnicorne. As for precious stones, Beralle, Prasnes, Diamantes, firie Carbuncles and Pearles of all sortes, be founde there in greate plentie. They haue twoo Sommers, softe pimpelyng windes, a milde aier, a rancke soile, and abundaunce of watre. Diuerse of them therefore liue an hundred and thirtie yeres. Namely emong the Musicanes. And emong the Serites, yet somewhat longer. All the Yndians generally, weare long heare: died either aftre a bright asshe coulour, or elles an Orenge tawnie. Their chief ieuelles, are of Pearle and precious stones. Their appareille is verie diuers: and in fewe, one like another. Some go in Mantles of Wollen, some of Linnen some naked, some onely brieched to couuer the priuities, and some wrapped aboute with pilles, and lithe barckes of trees. Thei are all by nature blacke of hewe: euen so died in their mothers wombe acordyng to the disposicion of the fathers nature, whose siede also is blacke: as like wise in the Aethiopians. Talle men and strongly made. Thei are very spare fieders, namely when thei are in Campe. Neither delighte thei in muche preasse. Thei are as I saied, greate deckers and trimmers of them selues, haters of theft. Thei liue by lawe, but not written. They haue no knowledge of lettres, but administer altogether without booke. And for which they are voide of guile, and of very sobre diete: all thing prospereth well with them. Thei drinke no wine, but when thei Sacrifie to their goddes. But their drincke is a bruage that thei make sometyme of Rize, sometime of Barlie. Their meate for the mooste parte is soupynges made also of Rize. In their lawes, bargaines, and couenauntes, their simplicitie and true meanyng well appeareth: for that thei neuer are muche contencious aboute them. Thei haue no Lawes concernyng pledges or thynges committed to another mannes kiepyng. No witnessynges, no handwritynges, no sealynges, ne suche like tokens of trecherie and vntrust: but without all these, thei trust and be trusted, thei belieue and are belieued, yea, thei oftentymes leaue their houses wide open without keper. Whiche truely are all great signes of a iuste and vprighte dealyng emong them. But this peraduenture can not seatle well with euery mannes fantasie: that thei should liue eche manne aparte by himself, and euery body to dine and to suppe when he lust, and not all at an howre determined. For in dede for the felowshippe and ciuilitie, the contrary is more allowable. Thei commende and occupie muche as a commune exercise, to rubbe their bodies: specially with skrapers made for the nones. Aftre whiche, thei smothe them selues again with Ebenum, whereof I spake afore. In their Toumbes, and Bewrialles, very plaine and nothyng costlie: But in trimming and arraieng of their bodies, to, to, gaude glorious. For there aboute thei neither spare gold, ne precious stone ne any kinde of silke that thei haue. Thei delighte muche in garmentes of white Sarcenet. And for that thei sette muche by beautie, thei cary aboute with theim phanelles to defende them from the sonne, and leaue nothyng vndone, that maketh for the bettre grace of their faces. Thei sette asmuche by truthe alone, as by all other vertues together. Age hath there no prerogatiue, except thei winne it with their wisedome, and knowledge. Thei haue many wiues, whiche thei vse to buye of their parentes for a yoke of Oxen. Some to serve them as their vndrelynges, and some for pleasure, and issue. Whiche maie neuerthelesse vse buttoke banquetyng abrode (for any lawe or custome there is to restreine theim) excepte their housebandes by fine force, can compelle them to kepe close. No one emong the Yndians either sacrifieth coroned, ne offreth odours, ne liquours. Thei wounde not their Sacrifice in no maner of wise: but smore [Footnote: To smother, from the Dutch _smooren_] hym by stopping the breath. Least thei should offre any mangled thing vnto God, but that that ware in euery parte whole. He that is conuicte of false witnessyng, hath his fingres cutte of by the toppe ioynctes. He that hath taken a limme from any manne, suffreth not onely the like losse, but loseth also his hande. But if any man haue taken from an artificer, his hande, or his eye, it lyeth hym vpon his heade. The kyng hath a garde of bought women: who take chardge of his bodie, and haue the trimmyng and orderyng thereof, the residue of the armie, remainyng without the gates. If the Kyng fortune to be droncken, it is not onely lawfull for any one of these women to slea hym: but she shall also as in the waie of rewarde, be coupled in mariage to the nexte king. Whiche (as is saied) is one of his sonnes, that afore enioied the Croune. It is not lawfull for the king to slepe by daie time: and yet in the night tyme to auoide trecherie, he is forced euery houre to chaunge his chambre. When he is not in campe, he ofte tymes cometh abroade: bothe to giue sentence, and to heare matters dependyng in question. And if it be time of daie to trimme his bodie: he bothe heareth the pleaes, and is rubbed in the meane season with the skrapers afore mencioned, by thre of his women. He cometh furthe also to Sacrifices, and to hunting: Where he is accompaignied with a rable of women, in as good ordre as ours ware wonte to be vpon Hocke Mondaie. [Footnote: Hock-Monday fell eight days after Easter, Hock-tide was a festival instituted in memory of King Hardicanute's death in 1042. Hock-Tuesday money was a duty paid to the landlord in ancient times.] His waie is ranged with ropes, and his garde of menne abideth without. But if it fortune any to steale in, to the women (whiche is contrary to their ordre and duetie) he loseth his heade for it. There go afore hym Tabours and Belles. When he hunteth in places fensed aboute, two or thre armed women stande preste, [Footnote: Preste--_ready_.] for his aide, and defence. But when he hunteth in open place, he is caried vppon an Eliphante: and euen so sittyng on his backe shooteth, or throweth the darte at his game. Some of his women ride vppon Horses, some vpon Elephantes. As likewise in the warres, where thei fight with all kinde of weapons skilfully. Suche menne also as haue gathered thinges into writynges, recorde: that the Yndians worshippe as their goddes the father of raine Iupiter: Ganges their floude, and the familiar spirites of their countrie. And when their kyng washeth his heade, thei make solempne feast, and sende his highnes greate giftes, eche man enuyenge other, who maye shewe hym self most riche, and magnificent. The commune wealth of the Yndians, was sometyme deuided into seuen states or degrees. The Sages (whiche other calle Philosophers) ware of the first ordre, or state: the whiche although thei ware, in nombre feawer then any of the rest: yet ware thei in honour and dignitie aboute the kyng, farre aboue all other. These menne (priuiledged from all busines) neither be troubled with office, ne be at any mannes commaundemente: But receiue of the communes suche thinges as serue for the Sacrifices of their goddes, and are requisite for bewrialles. As though thei ware bothe well acqueinted, and beloued in heauen, and knewe muche of the trade in helle. For this cause haue thei bothe giftes and honour largely giuen them. And in very diede thei do muche good among the people. For in the beginning of the yere, assemblyng together, thei foreshewe of raine, of drouthe, of winde and of sickenesse: and of suche like thynges as maie to profeight be foreknowen. For as well the kynge as the people, ones vndrestandyng their foresawes, and knowyng the certeintie of their iudgemintes by former experience: shone the euilles, and are preste to attende vpon that, that is good. But if any of their said Sages shall fortune to erre in his foresighte: other punishmente hath he none, then for euer after to holde his peace. The seconde ordre is of housebande menne, whiche beyng more in nombre then any of the other states, and exempte fro the warres, and all other labour: bestowe their tyme onely in housebandrie. No enemie spoileth them, none troubleth them: but refraineth fro doing them any hurte or hinderaunce, vpon respect of the profighte that redoundeth to the whole, throughe their trauailles. So that thei, hauyng libertie without all feare to followe their business, are instrumentes and meanes of a blessed plenteousnesse. Thei with their wiues and children, dwell alwaie in the countrie, withoute resortyng to the tounes or citie. Thei paie rente to the Kyng (for all the whole Countrie is subiecte to their kyng) neither is it lawfull for any of the communes to occupie and possesse any grounde, without paieynge rente. And the housebande men beside this rente, yelde vnto the Kynges maiestie, a fiueth of their fruictes yerely. The thirde ordre standeth all by brieders and fieders, of all sortes, whiche like wise neither enhabite toune ne village: but with tentes, in the wilde fieldes. And these with huntyng and foulyng in sondrie wise, so kiepe vndre the beastes and hurtefull foules: that whear other wise the housebande menne should in siede tyme, and towarde harueste, be muche acloyed [Footnote: This word, meaning overburthened, is frequently met with in Chaucer.] and hyndered by the fowles, and theim selues alwaie by the beastes, the countrie is quiete from al suche annoyance. In the fowrthe ordre are Artificers, and handicraftesmen. Whiche are deuided, some into Smithes, some into Armourers, some for one purpose, some for another, as is expediente. These doe not onely liue rente free, but also haue a certaine of graine allowed them at the kinges allowaunce. In the fiueth ordre are the menne of warre, a greate nombre daiely exercised in armes, bothe on Horsebacke, on Elephantes, and on foote. And all their Elephantes, and horses miete for their warres, are found of the kinges allowaunce. The sixteth ordre is of Surueiours or Maisters of reporte, whiche haue the ouer sighte of all thynges that are done in the realme, and the charge to bryng reaporte vnto the kyng. In the seuenth place, are thei that be Presidentes, and heades of the commune counsailles, very fewe in nombre, but worthy men for their nobilitie and wisedome. Oute of these are chosen counsailours for the kynges Courtes, and officers to administre the commune wealth, and to determine controuersies: yea, capitaines for the warres, and Princes of the realme. The whole state of Ynde beyng deuided into these ordres or degrees: it is also ordeined, that a man shall not marie out of the ordre, wherin his callyng lieth, ne chaunge his trade. For neither maie the souldiour occupie housebandrie thoughe he woulde: ne the artificers entremedle with the doctrine of the Sages. There are also amonge the Yndians, persons of honour appointed to be as it ware Tutours of straungiers, to see that no wronge be done them, to put ordre for their kepyng, and Phisicke, if any falle sicke. As also (if it fortune any of them to die) for the bewrieng of theim, and to deliuer their goodes, and money to their nexte friendes. All causes are brought afore the iudges, who heare the parties, and punysshe the offenders diligently. Ther is no slauery amonge them. Yea, thei haue a certaine ordinaunce, that none shalbe slaue or bonde amonge them, but all fre, and of equalle aucthoritie and honour. For thei holde opinion that who so accustometh his selfe neither to be Lorde ouer other, ne to wronge any bodie: that man hath prepared him selfe sauftie and ease what so euer shall happen hym by any aduenture. And a fonde thing ware it to make the lawes indifferente for all, and not to make the states of the men indifferente. But because ther are in Inde manye sondrie contries, diuerse bothe in people and tongue (as in so large a thing muste nedes happen) ye shall vnderstond that thei do not all alike vse suche trade as I haue described, but in some places somewhat worse. Of those that lie towarde the Easte, some occupie brieding, and some do not. Other dwellinge in the mershe and fennes vpon the riuers side: occupie fisshing, and liue by the same all rawe. And thebettre to worcke their feate, thei make them selues boates, of suche canes as growe ther, of a wonderfull biggenes, So, that so muche of the cane as is betwixte ioyncte, and ioyncte, is a iuste proportion of timbre for one of their boates. These of all the other Indians, are appareilled in matte, made of a certayne softe kinde of mere rushes. Which when they haue gathered out of the floude, and sliced out in maner of lace: they brayde together muche like oure figge fraile, or suche like kinde of mattinge, and make them selues ierkins therof. Those that be yet by Easte of them, are brieders of cataille: and liue altogether with rawe fleshe, and haue to name Padians. Whose conditions are sayde to be suche. As often as it fortuneth any of their citezeins to besicke, yf it be a manne: his nierest friendes, and those that are moste aboute him, kylle him by and by, leaste (saye thei) his fleshe shoulde waxe worse. Yea, thoughe he woulde dissemble the matier, and denie him self to be sicke, it boteth not. For withoute pardon, they kille him, and make a feaste with him. If it be a woman, looke how the menne did by the manne, so do the women by a woman. Likewise do thei with bothe sortes, when thei waxe croked for age, or become impotente: where broughte, what by the one meanes and the other, none of them die for age. Ther is another sorte of the Indians that kille no liuinge thing, ne plante, nor sowe, nor builde house: but liue with herbes, and a certeine sede whiche groweth there of the owne accorde, muche like vnto gromelle, whiche thei gather with the cuppe or shelle that it groweth in, and so seeth it, and eate it. If any of these falle sicke, he wandereth forthe into some deserte place, and ther laieth him downe: no manne taking hede either to his lieng or to his dienge. All these Yndians that I nowe haue spoken of, in quenching of natures heate, vse their women as secretly as beastes do their females. These Yndians haue a kinde of sages, that the Griekes calle Gimnosophistæ, whiche as the worde Sophista soundeth now, might merily be interpreted briechelesse bablers. But as Sophista did signifie then, naked Sages: or to giue one Grieke worde for a nother, naked Philosophres. These (as Petrarche writeth) haunte the outemoste borders, and shadowie partes of that countrie, wandering naked accordinge to their name, vp and downe, heather and theather studienge, and searching the natures of thinges, the course of the heauens, and the secretes of knowledge. Thei continue sometime al the whole daye from the sonne rising, till his downe goinge: beholdinge the same with stedfaste eye, neuer tourning away the heade (althoughe it be ther moste feruently hote) searching and spienge aftre certaine secretes in the body thereof. At another time thei passe the daye likewyse, standing one while on one legge, another while on another in the broilinge sande of that contrie. Froste nor snowe, nor firie heate greued not them. Amonge these, is ther a people called Brachmanes, whiche (as Didimus their king wrate vnto Alexandre when he went aboute to subdue them) liue a pure and simple life, led with no likerous lustes of other mennes vanities. This people longeth for no more then nature requyreth naturallye. Thei are content with suche foode as commeth to hande, desiryng no suche as other menne tourne the worlde almoste vpside downe to haue, leauing no element vnransaked to gette a gowbin [Footnote: A large mouthful. From the old French, _Gobeau_.] for their glotenous gorge: but suche as the earth vnploughed, or vndoluen, yeldeth of her self. And because thei acqueinte not their table with surfet, in dede thei know not so many kindes of sickenesses, ne so many names of diseases as we doe: but thei bettre knowe what sounde healthe meaneth, and staied continuaunce of the same then euer we are like. Thei haue no neide to craue one anothers helpe and reliefe, wher no manne maketh clayme by (thine) and by (myne) but euery manne taketh what he lusteth and lusteth no more then he niedeth. Enuie cannot dwelle ther, ne none of her impes, wher all be equalle, and none aboue other, and all alike poore, maketh all alike riche. Thei haue no officers of Iustice among them, because thei do nothing that ought to be punisshed. Ther can no lawe appiere, because none offence appeareth. The whole people hath one onely lawe, to do nothinge against lawe that nature prescribeth. To cherishe labour, to barre out ydlenes, and banis all [Transcriber's note: 'colle' in original] couetyse. That lechery licke not away the vigour of their spirites, and strength: nor lacke throwe menne in desperate doompes. That euery manne hath enoughe, wher no manne couettes more. That neuer content, is of all other the moste cruell restles plague. For whome she catcheth, she throweth a foote beneth beggery, whilest thei canne finde none ende of their scrattinge, but the more thei haue, the fellier gnaweth their longing. Thei warme by the Sonne, the deawe is their moisture, the riuer is their drinke, the faire grounde their bedde. Care breaketh not their sleape, Compassing of vanities wearieth not their minde. Pride hath no stroke ouer them, among whom ther is no diuersite. Neither is their any kinde of bonde knowen amonge them: but the bondage of the body to the minde whiche they onely allowe to be iuste. For the building of their houses, they sende not ouer sea for stone, thei burne no Calion to make lime to tempre their mortre, thei bake no brickes, nor digge no sande. But either make them caues in the earthe, or take suche as they finde ready made in the sides of mounteines and hilles. Ther dwel thei without feare of rage or ruine, of weather or of winde. He thincketh him self saeflier fenced from showres with his caue, then with a fewe tiles: and yet hath by it a double commoditie. A house while he liueth, and a graue ready made when he dyeth. Ther is no glittering apparell, no rattelinge in sylkes, no sylkes, no rusteling in veluettes, but a litle brieche of brawded russhes, or rather a couering of honeste shamefacednesse. The women are not sette oute to allure, ne pinched in to please, ne garnisshed to gase at. No heare died, no lockes outelaied, no face painted, no skinne sliicked, no countrefeicte countenaunce, nor mynsing of passe. No poticary practise, no ynckhorne termes, nor pithlesse pratling. Finally no colours of hipocrisie, no meanes to set out more beautie then nature hathe giuen them. They ioyne not in engendrure for likerous luste, but for the loue of yssewe and succession. Thei kepe no warres, but mainteine peace: not with force, but with peaceable behauour and maners. The father and the mother folowe not the child to the bewrialle. Thei builde no toumbes for the deade: more like vnto chirches then graues. They bewry not vp their asshes in pottes dasshed full of pearle and precious stone. For why they estieme in these, neither the honour of the quicke, ne the pleasure of the deade: but raither the trouble and paine of bothe. Pestilence or other diseases (as I haue sayd) the Abrahmanes are not annoyed with, for they enfecte not the ayer with any filthe doinges. But nature alwaye with them, keapeth accorde with the season: and euery elemente his tourne with oute stoppe or barre. Their Phisicque is abstinence, which is able not only to cure the maladie already crepte in: but also to holde oute suche as otherwise mighte entre. Thei couette no sightes, nor shewes of misrule: no disguisinges nor entreludes. But when thei be disposed to haue the pleasure of the stage, thei entre into the regestre of their stories, and what thei finde theremoste fit to belaughed at, that do thei lamente and bewaile. They delight not as many do, to heare olde wiues tales, and fantasies of Robin Hoode: but in studious consideracion of the wondreful workemanship of the worlde, and the disposinge of thinges in suche ordre of course and degree. Thei crosse no sease for merchaundise, ne learne no colours of Rethoricque. Thei haue one kinde of plaine eloquence commune to them all: tongue, and harte agreinge in truthe. Thei haue neither moote halles, ne vniuersities, whose disagreable doctrine more leaning to apisshe arte, then natural reason and experience, neuer bringeth anye staye, or certeinte of thinges. One part of this people iudgeth mannes perfeteste blessednes to stande in honestie. And a nother in pleasure. Not in the tickelinges of the taile, or pamperinges of the bealy, more bittre then pleasaunte as thou maye vse them: but to lacke nothing that perfecte nature desireth, ne nothing to do that perfecte nature misliketh. Thei thincke it no honour to God, to slea for him an innocente beaste; yea thei say he accepteth not the sacrifice of men polluted with bloode, but rather loueth a worship voide of all bloodsheade. That is to saye, the humble entreatie of woorde, because that proprety only (to be entreated with woordes) is commune to God and to manne. With this therefore saye they he is pleased, because we somewhat resemble him self therin. And this was the life of the vnchristened Brahmanes, wher with we Christianes are so farre out of loue, that we are afraid leaste any man should beleue it to be true. The Yndians called Catheis, haue eche man many wiues. And assone as any one husbands fortuneth to die, his whole number of wiues assemble before the chiefest iudges of the citie, and there eche for her self, sheweth and alledgeth her welle deseruinges towarde her housebande: how derely she loued him, howe muche she tendered and honoured him. And she that is by them iudged to haue borne her self beste in that behaulfe, and to haue bene dierest to her husbonde: she in the beste maner and moste gorgeous that she can deuise, triumphing and reioysinge, getteth her vp vpon the funeralle pyle wher her housebandes corps lieth ready to be brente, and ther kissinge and embrasinge the deade body, is burned together with her housebande. So gladde is she to haue the victorie, in the contencion of wiuely chastitie, and honeste behauiour toward her husbande. And the other that lyue, thincke them selues dishonoured: and escape not without spotte of reproche as longe as they liue. Their children in their infancie, are not nourished vp at the libertie and will of the parentes: but certeine there are appointed to viewe the children: whiche yf thei spie vntowardnes in the infante, deformitie, or lacke of lymmes, commande it to be slayne. Thei ioyne not mariages for nobilitie of birthe, or aboundaunce of substaunce, but for beaultie, and rather vpon regarde of frute, then of luste. Certaine also among the Yndians haue this custome, that yf thei be of suche pouertie that thei be not able to marye oute their doughters: euen in the floure of her age thei bringe her, or them, furthe into the marcate with trompet and dromme, or suche other their noyses of warre: And their, after the multitudeis comen together, the maiden first vncouereth her self wholie vp to the harde shoulders, on the backe haulfe, to be sene starke naked, and aftre that likewise on the bealy. Yf the multitude finde no faulte, but allowe her as worthye to please for her bodye, then marieth she to some one ther, whome she beste liketh. Megasthenes writeth that vpon diuerse mounteines in Ynde, are people with dogges heades, and longe clawes, cladde in hydes of beastes, speakinge with no voyce like vnto manne, but barking onlye, muche like vnto dogges, with mouthes roughe like a grater. Thei that dwelle aboute the heade of Ganges, haue no nede of anye kinde of meate: for they liue by the sauour of their frutes. And yf thei fortune to iorney, so that they thincke to fayle of the sauour when thei would haue it, they cary with theim to smell to, at times as thei fainte. But if it fortune those to smelle any horrible stincke, it is as present deathe vnto theim, as poyson to vs. It is recorded in writyng, that certaine of those were in Alexandres campe. We rede also that there are in Inde men with one eye and no mo. And certein so notably eared that thei hange downe to their hieles with suche a largenesse that they may lye in either of them as vpon a pallet: and soharde, that thei may rende vp trees with them. Some others also hauing but one legge, but vpon the same such a foote, that when the sonne is hote, and he lacketh shadowe, lyenge downe vpon his backe, and holdinge vp his fote, he largely shadoweth his whole bodie. It is redde that in Clesia certein women haue but ones childe in all their life time: and the children as sone as thei are borne, immediatly to become horeheded. Againe, that there is another nacion, much longer lived than we are, whiche in their youth are horeheared: and in their age, their heare waxeth blacke. They affirme also that there is another sorte of women that conceiue at fyue yeres olde, and liue not aboue the age of viii. yeres. There are also that lacke neckes, and haue their eyes in their shoulders. Ther are also beside these, certeine saluages with dogges heades, and shacke heared on their bodies, that make a very terrible charringe with their mouthes. But in these and suche like tales of the Indians, and their countrie: for that a manne had nede of a redie beliefe that should take theim for truthes, one had not niede to bee to large: considerynge specially that menne nowe a daies, will skante beleue the reporte of other mens writinges, in the thinges that almost lye vndre their noses. Ther is a place betwixt Gedrosia and the floude Yndus which is called Cathainus of the Cathaiens that enhabyte it. This people ware an ofspring of the Scithians, muche altered from their naturall condicions, and wonted maners, if that that Aritone the Arminiane writeth of them in his storie, be true. Thei passe (saieth he) all other men in quicke smelling. And thei saye of them selues, that though all other menne haue two instrumentes of sight, yet do none se with both two in dede, but thei: all other men in comparison either to haue no sight, or elles as it ware but with one eye. Their wittinesse is greate, but their boastinge greater. The whole nacion of them is perswaded, that thei muche passe all other men in knowledge, and the subtilties of sciences. Thei are all of colour shining, white, small eyed, beardelesse by nature. Their lettres are aftre the facion of the Romaine, all in squares. Thei are diuersely ledde with fonde supersticions, some aftre one sorte, and some aftre another. But thei are all voyde of the true knowledge which is in Iesus Christe. Some worship the sonne, some the mone. Other, ymages of yoten metalle, manie of them an oxe. And thus to sondry suche other monsters, hath this people in sondry wyse diuided it selfe in supersticion. Thei haue no maner of written lawes, nor knowe not what we meane when we speake of faithfulnesse or trustiness. And wher (as I said afore) thei haue in all handi worckes a passing subtiltie of witte, yet in the knowledge of heauenly thinges, thei are altogether to learne: that is to saie, the are vtterly ignoraunt. A cowardly people and very feareful of death. Yet exercise thei a maner of warre, but that thei handle rather by witte, and pollicie, then by strength and hardinesse. In their fighte thei use a kinde of shaftes, and certaine other weapons of flight, vnknowen to other countries. Their money is a piece of square paper, with their Kynges Image vpon it. And because it cannot be durable: ordre is taken, that when it is soiled or dusked muche, with passyng from man to man, thei shall bring it to the coignyng house, and make exchaunge for newe. All their vtensiles and necessaries of house, are of golde, siluer, and other metalles. Oile is so deintie emong theim, that the kyng onely vseth it, as it ware for a precious ointement Thus haue we treated of the Yndians, and now to their borderers, the Scithians. ¶ The ix. Chapitre. ¶ Of Scithia and their sterne maners Scithia (a countrie lieng by North) is said of Herodotus, to take the name of Scitha Hercules sonne. Or as Berosus Iudgeth, of an other Scitha, borne of our greate granndame Araxe, Noahes wife, that dwelt first in that countrie. This people in the beginnyng pente within narowe boundes, so in processe by litle and litle, through their valeauntnes and force enlarged their limites: that thei became lordes of many countries aboute, and grewe into a great gouernaunce and renoume. Thei nestled first vpon the floude Araxis so fewe in nombre and so base: that no manne thought theim worthie the troublyng or talkyng of. But gettyng vnto them a certain king, hardie, of great courage, and notable, experience in the warres: thei enlarged their land so, that thei made it stretche on the one parte (whiche is altogether Hille, and Mounteigne) vnto Caucasus, and ouer at the plain vnto the Occean, and vnto the greate marshe of Meotis, and Tanais the floude. From whence the countrie of Scithia now stretcheth all along toward the East. And because the mounteigne Imaus, ronnyng along as the countrie coasteth, deuides it in the middes into two haulues: the one haulfe is called Scithia within Imaus, and the other without (as ye would saie) on this side the Mounte, and beyonde. There neuer medled any power with theim, that was able to conquers theim: or muche to endamage them. Thei forced Darius, the Kyng of the Persians, with greate dishonour to flie their countrie. Thei slue Cirus with all his armie. Thei made an ende of Alexandre with al his power. The Romaines sente theim threates thei would warre with theim, but they proued in fine but wordes. Thei are a people not tameable with any toile, bittre warriours, and of great strength of bodie. At the first very rawe, and with out any ordinarie trade of life: neither knowyng what tillage meant, ne yet hauyng any houses or cotages to dwell in. But wandryng vp and doune the wilde fieldes and driuyng their catteile afore theim, their wiues and their children ridyng in wagons by them. Thei obserued iustice, without constraint of lawe. Thei compted none offence more heinous, then thefte. As folke that had nothyng vndre locke nor keye, barre, nor bolte: but altogether in the open fielde. Thei nether occupied golde ne siluer. Their chief foode was milke and Hony. Against colde and other stormes, thei wrapped their bodies in felles, and hides of beastes, and Mice skinnes. Thei knewe not what Wollen meante, ne any facion of garmente. This maner of life was in many of the Scithians, but not in all. A greate nombre of theim, as thei muche differed in distaunce of place from other, so differed thei also from other in maners: and vsed a certeine trade of liuyng emong them selues, wherof we aftreward will entreats, when we haue saied somewhat more of their facions in generall. Many of the Scithians delight in manslaughter. And the firste man that he taketh, in fight, his bloud drincketh he: and offreth vnto his Kynge the heades of all those that he ther sleaeth. For when he hath so done, he is admitted to be partaker of the butine what so euer it be, whereof he should be otherwise partles. He cutteth of the heade aftre this sorte. Firste, with his knife he maketh in it a gashe rounde aboute like a circle, vndre the eares: then taketh he it by the heare of the croune, and striketh it of. That done, he fleaeth it, and taweth the skinne betwixte his handes, vntill it become very souple and soft and kiepeth it for a hande kercher. This wille he hange vpon the reine of his horse, and glorieth not a litle in it. And he that hath moste of suche handkerchers, is compted the valeauntest manne. There are many also that sowe together these skinnes of menne, as other doe the skinnes of beastes, and weare theim for their clothyng. Some of them flea the right hand of their enemies beyng slaine, so that the nailes also remain vpon the fingres, and make couers of theim for their quiuers. Many of them flea the whole bodie, and stretche out the skinne vpon certaine stickes fitted for the nones, and so sprede them vpon their Horse. Of the Skulles of the heades thus slaine, thei make measures to drincke in: coueryng them on the outside with rawe Neates leather, and gilding them on the inside, if he be of habilitie. And when any gheste of estimacion commeth vnto theim, thei offre them to drincke in asmany as they haue, and declare for a greate braggue of their valeauntnesse, that so many they haue slaine with their owne hande. Ones euery yere, all the chief heades of the Scitians, kepe a solempne drinckyng. At the whiche the maner is, out of one of these Skulles, as out of a wassailing boule, to giue all those the wine that haue slaine an enemie. But he that hath done no such notable acte, tasteth not therof, but sitteth aparte in a corner with out honour: which is iudged among them a greate reproche. But thei that haue achieued many slaughters, thei drancke of two Goblettes together, which thei haue for that purpose. The goddes whom thei worshippe, and doe Sacrifice vnto, are these: Firste and chiefly vnto Vesta, then to Iupiter, and the goddesse of the grounde: for that thei take her to be Iupiters wife. Nexte vnto Apollo and Venus, Mars and Hercules. Yet erecte thei no Chapelle, Altare, nor Image to any of these: but onely to Mars: to whom thei offre of euery hundred prisoners that thei take, one for a sacrifice. To the other thei offre bothe horses and other beastes, but specially horses. Swine thei so little estieme, that thei neither offre them to any of their goddes ne vouchesauf to kiepe theim in their Countrie. Looke whom the kyng punissheth with death, his children he also commaundeth to be slain, as many as be males, but the women are pardoned. With whom the Scithians couenaunt or make League: after this manor thei doe it. They fille an earthen panne with wine, and of the parties that shall strike the League or couenaunte, thei drawe a quantitie of bloude, whiche thei mingle therwith. Then diepe thei into the panne their Curtilasse, then shaftes, their axe, and their darte. That done, thei wishe vnto them selues many terrible curses and mischiefes, if thei holde not the league or couenaunte. And then drincke thei the wine. And not thei onely that strike the couenantes, but also those that are moste honourable in their compaignie. The bewriall of their kynges is aftre this maner; where the Kyng dieth, those that are of his bloude, rounde his heare, cutte of one of his eares, slice his armes rounde aboute, all to begasshe his foreheade and his nose, and shoote him through the lifte hande, in thre or fowre places. Then laie thei the corps in a Carte, and cary it to the Gerrites, where the Sepulchres of all their Kynges are. And thei dwell vpon the floude Boristhenes, about the place wher it becometh first saileable. This people when thei haue receiued it, trenche out a square plotte in the ground very wide and large. And then rippe the bealy of the corps, and bowelle it cleane: clensyng it and drieng it from all filthe, and fille it vp with Siler Montanum, Frankencense, Smallache siede, and Anise siede, beaten together in a Mortre. And when thei haue sowed it vp againe close, thei ceare the whole bodie, and conueighe the same in a Carte, to the nexte people vndre the gouernaunce of the Scithians, whiche with honour receiue it, and conueigh it vnto the nexte of their dominion: and so from one to another, vntle it haue passed rounde aboute, to as many peoples as are of their dominion, and be comen againe to the place of bewriall emong the Gerrites, whether it is accompanied with a certain of all the peoples, to whom it hath comen, as thei gathered encreace from place to place. Thei, aftre what tyme thei haue laied the corps, cophine and all, vpon a bedde of state, amid the square afore mentioned: sticke doune their iauelines and speares aboute him, and with stickes laied ouer from one to another, frame as it ware a Cielyng, whiche thei couer with a funeralle palle. Then in the reste of the voide space, that yet remaines in the Cophine made for the nones: thei berwrie one of his dierest lemmans, a waityng manne, a Cooke, a Horsekeper, a Lacquie, a Butler, and a Horse. Whiche thei al first strangle, and thruste in, together with a portion of all sortes of plate, and of euery suche thyng as appertained to his housholde, or body. And when the yere comes about, then do thei thus. Thei take of those that ware nerest about the Kyng (now there are none aboute the king, but thei be Scithians free borne, and suche as his self doth commaunde: for he maie be serued with no bought slaue) of those take thei fiuetie and as many of his best horses. And when thei haue strangeled bothe the men and the horses, they bowell the Horses, stuffe their bealies againe with Chaffe, and sowe theim vp close, and sette the menne vppon their backes. Then make thei a voulte ouer round about the bordre of the greate square, and so dispose these Horse menne enuiron the same, that thei sieme a farre of, a troupe of liuyng horsemen gardyng the kyng. The communes haue also a maner of bewrialle aftre a like sorte. When one of theim dieth, his nexte neighbour and kindsfolke laie hym in a Carte, and cary hym aboute to euery of his frindes: whiche at the receipte of hym make a feaste, as well to the kindsmen, as to all the residewe that accompaignie the corps. And when thei haue thus caried hym aboute by the space of fowretene daies, he is bewried. All the braine of his heade beyng first piked out, and the skulle rinsed with water cleane. Aboute the bodie thei sette vp three sparres of woodde slopyng, and restyng one vpon another at the toppes. Rounde about these sparres, thei straine cappyng woollen, packyng theim as close as thei can. And within betwixt the sparres, as it ware in the middest ouer the deade, thei set a traie or shallowe trough, where in to thei caste a kinde of stones, that glistereth by fire light. The menne emong the Scithians do not vse to washe them selues. But the women vse to powre water vpon their own bodies, and to rubbe themselues against some roughe stone: and then with a piece of a Cipresse, Ceadre, or Encence tree, to grate their whole bodie, vntill it be some what bollen or swollen. And then enoint thei bothe that and their face, with certeine medicines for the nones: whereby thei become the nexte daie of a very good smell, and (when the medicine is washed awaie) slicke and smothe. Their commune othe, and the othe of charge in matiers of controuersie, or iudgemente, is by the kynges clothe of estate: by the whiche if a man shalbe tried to haue forsworne hymself (as their enchauntours haue a maner to trie with salowe roddes whether thei haue or not) by and by without respighte, he loseth his heade, and all his goodes, whiche tourne to the vse of them that haue proued him periured. The Massagetes, a people of Scithia in Asie, beyond the sea called Caspium mare in appareille and liuyng, muche like to the Scithians, and therefore of some so called: vse to fighte bothe on horsebacke and on fote, with suche actiuitie and force, that thei are almoste inuincible in bothe. Their weapons are bowe and arrowes, Launces and Armynge swordes. Their beltes aboute their waste, the ornament of their heades, and their pollerone, are garnished with golde. Their Horses are barbed on the brest, with barbes of gold. Their reines, bridles, and trappour are all of golde. The heades of their Launces are of Brasse, and their Quiuers armed with Brasse. As for Siluer and Iron thei occupie none. Eche manne marieth one wife, and yet are the wiues of them all, commune one to another, whiche thyng is not vsed emong any of the other Scythians. When so euer any man lusteth for the compaignie of his woman, he hangeth vp his quiuer vpon the carte wherein his wife is caryed by him, and there openly without shame coupleth. When any one of this people waxeth very aged, his friendes, acquaintance, and kindesfolke assembled together, make a bealy Sacrifice of hym: sleayng as many shiepe besides, as will serue for the fulnesse of the nombre. And when thei haue dressed theim, eate parte and parte like, the one with the other. And this kinde of departynge is compted emong theim, of all other moste blessed. If any fortune to pine awaie of sickenesse, hym eate thei not: but put in a hole, and throwe earthe vpon him. Sory for the losse, that he came not to the feaste. Thei neither sowe nor mowe, but liue by flesshe of suche beastes as thei haue, and suche fisshe as Araxe the floude doeth plenteously minister vnto them: and with drinckynge of Milke, wherof thei make no spare. Thei knowe no goddes but the Sonne: In whose honour thei offre vp Horses in Sacrifice, as beyng in swiftenesse moste like vnto the Sonne. The Seretines are a debonaire people, and suche louers of quietnesse, that they shonne to entremedle with any other people. Merchauntes passe their outmost floude toward them, but thei maie come no nigher. Along the banques there, thei sette oute suche thynges, as thei are disposed to selle. Not the Merchauntes, but the indwellers of the Countrie. For thei selle to other, and buie of none. And thei sette them in ordre as thei iudge them in price. The buyer cometh, and as he iudgeth theim by his eye to be worthe, without further trade or feloweshippe betwixte theim, so laieth he doune. And if thei receiue it, he departeth with the ware. Emong them is there neither whore nor thiefe, nor adulteresse broughte to iudgemente. Neither was it euer hearde, that there was a manne slaine emong theim. For the feare of their Lawes woorketh more strongly with theim, then the influences of the Starres. Thei dwelle as it ware in the beginnyng or entryng of the worlde. And for that thei liue aftre a chast sort: thei are neither skourged with Blastynges, ne Haile, ne Pestilence, ne suche other euilles. No manne toucheth a woman there, aftre she hath conceiued, ne yet in the time of her flowres. Thei eate none vncleane beastes, ne knowe what Sacrifisyng meaneth. Euery man there is his owne Iudge, acordyng to Iustice. Therefore are thei not chastised with suche corrections as happen vnto other for synne, but bothe continue long in life, and die without grief. The Tauroschithians (so called for that thei dwell aboute the mounteigne Taurus) offre as many as fortune to make Shipwracke vpon their shore: to the virgine, whose name ye shall aftre heare. And if it fortune any Greke or Grekes, to be driuen thether, him doe thei sacrifice after this maner. Aftre what tyme thei haue made prayer after their maner, thei strike of his heade with an hatchet. And (as some saie) tumble doune the carkesse into the Sea, (for this Virgine hath a Chapelle vpon the toppe of a high clieue, hangyng ouer the Sea, where this feate is doone) and naile vp the heade vpon a Gibet. In this poincte of nailyng vp the heade, all the writers agre, but in tomblyng doune the body, not so, for some affirme, that the body is bewried. The Virgine Deuille, to whom thei Sacrifice: is saith to be Iphigenia Agamemnons doughter. Their enemies as many as thei take, thus thei handle. Euery manne cutteth of his prisoners head, and carieth it home: and fasteneth it vpon the ende of a long pole, and setteth it vp: some vpon their house toppe some vpon their chimneis as high as thei can. And no merueile though thei set them so that thei might well see rounde about theim: for thei saie: they are the wardens and kepers of al their whole house. They liue by spoile, and by warre. The Agathirsians are menne verie neate and fine, and greate wearers of golde in their appareill. Thei occupie their women in commune, so that thei seme all of one kindred, and one householde: neuer striuyng nor grudgyng one with another, muche like in body vnto the Thracians. The Neuriens vse the maners of the Sithians. This people the somer before that Darius set furthe, ware constrained for the greate multitude of Serpentes that ware bredde in their quartres, to chaunge their dwellyng place. Thei verily doe belieue, and wille sweare it: that euery yere ones for a certaine daies, thei become Woulues, and retourne againe into their former shape and state. The Antropophagites (so called for that thei liue by mannes fleshe) of all menne, are the worste condicioned, without lawe, or officer, appareilled like the Scithiens: but in language like vnto no bodye but them selues. The Melanchleni do all weare blacke, as their name dothe signifie. And of these also are eaters of mannes fleshe: so manye as folowe the trade of the Scithians. The Budines are a great nacion, and a populous, graye eyed, and redde headed al. Their heade citie is Gelone, wherof thei are also called Gelonites. Thei kepe euery thirde yere a reuelle in the honour of Bacchus: whereat thei make reuelle in dede, yea, reuell route. Thei ware sometime Griekes, whiche put of fro their countrie, seatled them selues there. And by processe, losing the proprietie of their owne tongue, became in language haulfe Grekes, and haulfe Scithians. Yet are the Gelonites bothe in language and liuinge, different from the Budines. For the Budines being natiue of the place, are brieders of Catteile: The Gelonites, occupienge tilthe: liue by corne, and haue their frute yardes. Neyther lyke in colour ne countenaunce to the other. All their quartres are verye full, and thicke of trees. It hathe also many meres and greate. In and aboute the whiche thei take Ottres, and Beauers, and many other beastes: of whose skinnes they make them pilches, and Ierkins. The Lirceis liue by woodmanshippe, and huntinge, and aftre this maner. Their countrie beinge also very thicke of trees, thei vse to climbe suche as siemeth them beste: and there awaite their game. At the foote of euery mannes tree lieth a dogge, and a horse well taughte to couche flatte on the bealy, as lowe as can bee. When the beast cometh within daungier, he shoteth. And yf he hitte, he streighte commeth downe, taketh his horse backe, and foloweth with his hounde. The Argippians dwell vndre the foote of the highe mountaines. Men whiche fro their birthe are balde; bothe the males and the females. Their noses tourne vp like a shoinge horne, and their chinnes be great out of measure. The sounde of their voice vnlike to all other: ther apparell aftre the sorte of the Scithians. Thei haue small regarde to brieding: by the reason wherof thei haue smalle store of cattaile. Thei lie vndre trees, whiche in the wintre thei couer ouer with a white kinde of felte, and in the somer take the same awaye, and lie vndre the open tree. Ther is no manne that will harme them for that thei are compted holy halowed: neither haue thei anye kinde of armour, or weapon of warre. These men haue the arbitrement of their neighbours controuersies rounde aboute. And as thei determine so are thei ended. Who so flieth vnto them, is saufe as in sanctuary. The Issedonnes haue this propertie. When so euer any mannes father ther, dieth: all his kinsfolke bringe euery man one beast or other to the house of the sonne that kepeth the funeral. Which when they haue killed and minsed: they minse also the body of the deade. And bothe the flesshes beinge mingled together, thei fall to the banket. Then take thei the dead mannes heade, and pike the braine cleane, and all other moistures and ragges, and when thei haue guilte it, thei vse it for a representacion of the partie departed. Solempnisinge euery yere furthe, the memoriall, with newe ceremonies, and mo. This dothe the sonne for the father, and the father for the sonne, as the Grekes kepe their birthe daies. These are also sayde to be verye iuste dealers, and their wiues to be as valeaunt and hardie as the husbandes. Suche haue the maners of the Scithians bene. But afterwarde being subdued by the Tartares, and wearing by processe into their maners and ordinaunces: thei nowe liue all aftre one sorte, and vndre one name. ¶ The x. Chapiter. ¶ Of Tartarie, and the maners and power of the Tartarians. Tartaria, otherwyse called Mongal: As Vincentius wryteth, is in that parte of the earthe where the Easte and the Northe ioyne together. It had vpon the Easte, the londe of the Katheorines and Solangores, on the South, the Saracenes: on the Weste the Naymaniens, and on the Northe is enclosed with the occean. It hath the name of the floude Tartar that ronneth by it. A country very hilly, and full of mountaines. And where it is champein, myngled with sande and grauelle. Barreine, except it be in places where it is moysted with floodes, which are very fewe. And therfore it is muche waaste, and thinly enhabited. Ther is not in it one Citie, ne one village beside Cracuris. And wood in the moste parte of the country so skante, that the enhabitauntes are faine to make their fyre, and dresse their meate with the drie donge of neate and horses. The ayer intemperate and wonderfulle. Thondre, and lightening in somer so terrible, that sondry do presently die for very feare. Nowe is it broiling hote, and by and by bittre colde, and plenty of snowe. Suche stronge windes sometime, that it staieth horse and man, and bloweth of the rider: teareth vp trees by the rootes, and doeth muche harme. In wintre it neuer raineth ther, and in Somer very often. But so slendrely, that the earthe is skante wette with al. And yet is ther great store of Cattaile: as Camelles, neate, &c. And horses and mares, in suche plentie, as I beleue no parte of the earth hath againe. It was first enhabited of foure peoples. Of the Ieccha Mongalles that is to saye, the greate Mongalles. The Sumongalles, that is to say the watre Mongalles, whiche called them selues Tartares, of the floude Tartar whose neighbours thei are. The thirde people ware called Merchates, and the fourthe Metrites. There was no difference betwixte them eyther in body or language, but al aftre one sorte and facion. Their behauour was in the beginning very brute, and farre oute of ordre, without lawe or discipline, or any good facion. Thei liued amonge the Scithians, and kept herdes of cattalle in very base state and condition: and ware tributaries to all their neighbours. But within a while aftre, thei deuided them selues as it ware into wardes, to euery of the which was appointed a capitaine: in whose deuises and consentes consisted thordre of the whole. Yet ware thei tributaries to the Naimannes (their next neighbours) vntyll Canguista by a certaine prophecie was chosen their kynge. He assone as he had receiued the gouernaunce, abolished all worshippe of deuilles, and commaunded by commune decree that all the whole nacion should honour the highe God euerlasting: by whose prouidence he would seme to haue receiued the kingdome. It was further decreed that as manye as ware of age to beare armour, should be preste, and ready with the king at a certeyne daye. The multitude that serued for their warres, was thus distributed. Their capitaines ouer ten (which by a terme borowed of the Frenche, we calle Diseners) are at the commaundemente of the Centurians. And the Centuriane obeied the Millenarie, that had charge of a thousande. And he againe was subiecte to the grande Coronelle that had charge ouer ten thousande: aboue the whiche nombre thei mounted no degree of captaines. This done, to proue the obedience of his subiectes, he commaunded seuen sonnes of the Princes or Dukes whiche before had gouerned the people: to be slaine by the handes of their owne fathers, and mothers. Whiche thinge althoughe it ware muche againste their hartes, and an horrible diede, yet did thei it. Partely vppon the feare of the residew of the people: and partly vpon conscience of their obedience. For why, the people thoughte when thei sawe him begyn aftre this sorte: thei had had a god amongest them. So that in disobeyinge of his commaundemente, thei thoughte thei should not haue disobeied a king but God him selfe. Canguista takinge stomake with this power, firste subdued those Scithians that bordred vpon him, and made them tributaries. And where other afore had bene tributaries also vnto them: now receiued he in that one peoples righte, tribute of many. Then settinge vpon those that ware further off, he had suche prosperous successe that from Scithia to the sonne risinge, and fro thence to the middle earthe sea, and beyonde: he broughte all together vndre his subiection. So that he moughte nowe worthely wryte him selfe highe Gouernour, and Emperour of the Easte. The Tartares are very deformed, litle of bodie for the moste parte, hauyng great stiepe eyes: and yet so heary on the eye liddes, that there sheweth but litle in open sight. Platter faced and beardlesse, sauyng vpon the vpper lippe, and a litle about the poincte of the chinne thei haue a feawe heares as it were pricked in with Bodkins. Thei be communely all slendre in the waste. Thei shaue the hindre haulfe of the heade, rounde aboute by the croune, from one eare to another: compassyng towarde the nape of the necke after suche a facion, that the polle behind sheweth muche like the face of a bearded manne. On the other parte, thei suffre their heare to growe at lengthe like our women: whiche thei deuide into two tresses, or braudes, and bryng aboute to fasten behinde their eares. And this maner of shauyng, do thei vse also that dwelle among theim, of what nacion so euer thei be. Thei theim selues are very light and nimble: good on Horse, but naughte on foote. All from the moste to the leaste, as well the women as the menne: doe ride either vpon Geldynges, or Kien, where so euer thei become. For stoned Horses thei occupie none, ne yet Gelding that is a striker, and lighte of his heles. Their bridelles are trimmed with muche gold, siluer, and precious stones. And it is compted a ioly thyng among theim: to haue a great sort of siluer sounded belles, gynglyng aboute their horse neckes. Their speache is very chourlishe and loude. Their singyng is like the bawlynge of Woulues. When thei drinke, thei shake the heade: and drincke thei do very often euen vnto dronckennesse, wherein thei glorie muche. Their dwellyng is neither in tounes ne Bouroughes. But in the fieldes abrode, aftre the maner of thauncient Scithians in tentes. And the ratherso, for that thei are all moste generally catteill mastres. In the wintre time thei are wont to drawe to the plaines, and in the Somer season, to the mounteignes and hillie places for the better pasture. Thei make theim Tentes, or elles rounde cotages of wickres, or of Felte vndersette with smothe poles. In the middes thei make a round windowe that giueth them lighte, and letteth out the smoke. In the middes of the Tent, is their fire, aboute the whiche their wife and their children doe sitte. The menne delight muche in dartyng, shootyng, and wrastelyng. Thei are merueilous good hunters, to the whiche thei go armed at all pieces. And assone as thei espie the beaste, thei come costing together rounde aboute and enclose her. And when euery manne hath throwen his darte, or shotte his arrowe: whilest the beast is troubled and amased with the stripes, thei steppe in to her and slea her. Thei neither vse breade ne bakyng: table clothe ne napkin. Thei belieue that there is one GOD that made all thynges, bodily and ghostly, sene or vnsene, and hym thei honour: but not with any maner of Sacrifice or ceremonie. Thei make theim selues litle pupettes of silke or of felte, or of thrumme, like unto menne: whiche thei sette vp vpon eche side of their Tentes, and do them muche reuerence, beseching them to take hede to their catteille. To these thei offre the first milke of all their milche catteill, of what kinde so euer thei be. And before thei begin either to eate or drinke aught, thei sette a porcion thereof before theim. Looke what beaste thei kille to be eaten, thei reserue the harte all nighte in some couered cuppe, and the nexte mornynge seath it and eate it. Thei worshippe also and Sacrifice to the Sonne, Moone, and elementes fowre. To Cham also their Lorde and Kyng, thei do very deuoute honour and Sacrifice: supposyng him to be the sonne of God, and to haue no piere in the whole worlde: neither can they abide to heare any other manne name hym. This people so despiseth al other men, and thincke theim selues so farre to surmount them in wisedome and goodnes: that thei abhorre to speake to theim, or to compaignie with theim. Thei calle the Pope and all Christen menne, Doggues and Idolatres: because thei honour stones and blocques. And thei theim selues (beyng giuen to deuelishe supersticions) are markers of dreames, and haue dreame readers emong theim: as well to enterpreate their sweuens, [Footnote: From the Saxon, meaning a dream. See Bailey's _Dict._, London, 1737.] as to aske knoweledge of Idolles. In whom thei are perswaded that God speaketh: and therefore acordyng to their answeres, frame them selues to do. Thei marke many seasons, and specially haue regarde to the chaunges of the Moone. Yet make thei for no season, ne chaunge, any singular holidaie or obseruance: but ilike for them all indifferently. Thei are of so gredie a coueitousenesse, and desire, that if any of them se aughte, that he coueiteth to haue, and cannot obtein with the good wille of the owner: if it apperteigne to no Tartarre, he will haue it by force. And thei thincke (through a certein ordenaunce that their Kyng made) thei offende not therein. For suche a commaundemente had thei of Canguista, and Cham, their firste Kynges: That if it fortune any Tartarre, or Tartarres seruaunt, to finde in his waie, horse, man, or woman, without the kinges lettres or his saulfconduite: he should take it, him, her, or them as his owne for euer. To suche as lacke money thei lende, but for shamefull gaines: that is to saie, two shillynges of the pounde for euery Monethe. And if it fortune ye to faile to make paiemente at the dale: ye shall also be forced to paie the enterest, acording to the rate of the Vsurie. That is to saie, of euery tenth penie, one. Thei do so polle and oppresse their tributaries, with subsidies, taxes and tallages, as neuer did people but thei, that euer manne redde of. It is beyonde belief to saie. Thei euer coueite, and as Lordes of all, do rape, and rende from other, and neuer recompence aught. No, the begger that liueth on almose, getteth not an aguelette of hym. Yet haue thei this one praise worthie propretie, that if he fortune to finde them at meate: thei neither shutte the doore against hym, ne thruste him out, if he be disposed to eate, but charitably bidde them, and parte with them suche as thei haue. But thei fiede the vnclenliest in the worlde, as I haue saied, without tableclothe, napkinne, or towell to couer the borde, or to wipe at meate, or aftre. For thei neither washe hande, face, ne body, ne any garmente that thei weare. Thei nether eate bread, nor make bread, nor sallottes nor potage, nor any kinde of Pultz. But no maner of flesshe cometh to them amisse. Dogges, Cattes, Horses and rattes. Yea, sometime to shewe their crueltie, and to satisfie their vengeaunce, the bodies of suche their enemies, as thei haue taken, thei vse to roste by a greate fire: and when thei bee asembled a good nombre together, thei teare theim of the spittes like Wolues, with their tiethe, and deuoure them. And aftreward drincke vp the bloude, whiche thei reserue afore hande for the nones. Otherwise thei vse to drincke Milke. Thei haue no wine of the countrie it self, but suche as is brought into them thei drincke very gredilie. Thei vse to Lowse one anothers heade, and euer as thei take a Lowce to eate her, saieng: thus wille I doe to our enemies. It is compted a greate offence emong them to suffre drincke, or a piece of meate to be loste. Thei neuer therfore giue the bone to the Dogge, till they haue eaten out the marrowe. Thei neuer eate beaste (suche vile niggardes thei are) as long as the same is sounde and in good likyng: but when it fortuneth to be hurte, sicke, or febled by age, then bewrie they it in their bealies. Thei are greate sparers, and contente with smalle chaunge, and litle foode. Thei drincke in the mornyng, a goblet full of Milke or twaine, whiche serueth theim sometyme for their whole daies foode. The menne and the women moste communely are appareilled ylike. The men weare vpon their heades shallowe copin tackes, comming but behinde with a taile of a handefull and a haulfe long, and as muche in breadth: whiche thei fasten vnder their chinnes, for falling or blowing of, with a couple of strynges of ribbande lace, as we doe our nighte cappes. Their married women wear on their heades, fine wickre Basquettes of a foote and a haulf long: rounde, and flatte on the toppe like a barrelle. Whiche are either garnished with chaungeable silkes, or the gaiest parte of the Pecockes feathers, and sette with golde and stones of sondrie sortes. Asfor the residue of their bodie, thei wear acording to their abilitie, bothe men and women, Skarlet or Veluet, or other silkes. Thei weare coates of a straunge facion, open on the left side, whiche thei put on acordingly, and fasten with fowre or five Buttons. Their Somer wiedes are all communely blacke: and those that thei weare in Winter and foule weather, white: and neuer lower then the knee. Wearing furres (wherein thei muche delight) thei weare not the furre inwarde, as we communely doe: but contrariwise the heare outwarde, that thei maie enioie the pleasure of the shewe. It is harde to discerne by the appareile the maide, fro the wife, or the woman fro the manne: so like araied do the menne and the women go. Thei weare brieches, the one and the other. When they shal go to the skirmishe, or to battaille, some couer their armes (whiche at all other tymes are naked) with plates of iron, buckeled together alonge, in many pieces, that thei may the easelier sturre their armes. Some doe thesame with many foldes of Leather: wherwith thei also arme their head. Thei cannot handle a target: nor but fewe of theim a launce or a long sweard. Thei haue curtilasses of iii. quarters longe: not double edged but backed. Thei fighte all with a quarter blowe, and neither right downe, ne foyning. Thei be very redy on horsebacke, and very skilful archers. He is counted moste valeaunte, that best obserueth the commaundement and the obedience dewe to his capitaine. Thei haue no wages for their souldie, yet are they prest and ready in all affaires, and all commaundementes. In battayle, and otherwise wher oughte is to be done, very politike and experte. The princes and capitaines entre not the battle, but standyng aloofe, crye vnto their men, and harten them on: lookinge diligently aboute on euery side what is nedefull to be done. Sometime to make the armye sieme the greater, and the more terrible to the ennemy: thei set vpon horsebacke their wiues and their children, yea and men made of cloutes. It is no vilany amonge them to flye: if any thinge maye eyther be saued or wonne by it. When thei will shoote, thei vnarme their righte arme, and then let thei flye with suche violence, that it pearceth all kinde of armour. Thei giue the onset flockinge in plumpes, and likewise in plompes they flie. And in the flighte thei so shoote backe warde behinde them, that thei slea many of their ennemies pursuinge the chase. And when thei perceiue their ennemies dispersed by pursuinge the chase, or not to fighte any thing wholie together: soudeinly retourninge, the beginne a newe onset with a hayle of shotte, neither sparing horse ne man. So that oftetimes thei ouercome when thei are thoughte to be vanquisshed. When thei come to enuade any quartre or countrie, thei deuide their armie, and sette vpon it on euery parte: so that the inhabitours can neither haue laisure to assemble and resiste, ne waye to escape. Thus are thei alway sure of the victory, whiche thei knytte vp with moste proude crueltie. Neither sparinge manne woman ne childe, olde ne younge sauing the artificer onely, whom thei reserue for their own vses. And this slaughter make thei aftre this maner. When they haue all taken them, thei distribute them to their Centurians: who committe them againe to the slaues: to euery one fewer or more acordinge to the multitude. And when the slaues haue all slayne them as bouchers kylle hogges: then for a terrour to al other ther about: of euery thousande of the dead thei take one, and hange him vp by the hieles vpon a stake, amydde these deade bodies: and so ordre his heade as though it appiered by his facion or maner of hanginge, that he yet bothe harkened the complainte of his felowes, and lessened them againe. Many of the Tartarres when the bodies lie freshe bliedinge on the grounde, laye them downe alonge, and sucke of the bloud a full gloute. Thei kepe faithe to no manne, howe depely so euer thei binde them selues thervnto. Thei deale yet wourse with those that thei ouer come with force. The maidens and younge women thei deflowre, and defile as thei come to hande, neither do thei iudge it any dishonestie. The beautifuller sorte thei lead away with them: and in extreame misery, constraine them to be their slaues all their lyfe longe. Of all other thei are moste vnbrideled in leachery. For althoughe they marye as many wiues as they luste, and are able to kepe: no degre prohibited, but mother, doughter, and sister: yet are thei as rancke bouguers with mankinde, and with beastes, as the Saracenes are, and no punishmente for it amonge them. The woman that thei marie, thei neuer take as wife, ne receiue any dowrie with her, vntill she haue borne a childe. So that if she be barren he maye caste her vp, and mary another. This is a notable meruaile, that though amonge theim manye women haue but one manne: yet thei neuer lightely falle out, ne brawle one with another for him. And yet are the menne parcialle in theyr loue: shewing muche more fauour to one then another, and goynge fro the bedde of the one, streighte to the bedde of an other. The women haue their seuerall tentes and householdes: And yet liue verye chastely, and true to their housebandes. For bothe the manne and the women taken in adultery, suffre death by the lawe. Those that are not occupied for the warres, driue the catteile a fielde, and there kepe them. Thei hunte, and exercise themselues in wrastlinge, other thing doe thei not. The care of prouision for meate and drincke, appareille and householde, they betake to the women. This people hath many superstitious toyes. It is a heinous matter with them, to touche the fier, or take fleshe out of a potte with a knife. Thei hewe or choppe no maner of thing by the fire, leasse by any maner of meanes, thei might fortune to hurte the thing which alway they haue in reuerence, and iudge to be the clenser, and purifier of al thinges. To laye them downe to reste vppon the whippe that thei stirre theyr horse with (for spurres thei vse none) or to touche their shaftes therewith, in no wise thei wylle not. Thei neither kille younge birdes, ne take them in the neste or other waies. Thei beate not the horse with the bridle. Thei breake not one bone with another. Thei are ware, not to spill any spone meate, or drincke, specially milke. No manne pisseth within the compasse of their soiourning place. And if any one of self willed stubbornesse should do it, he ware sure withoute all mercy to die for it. But if necessitie constraine them to do it (as it often happeneth) then the tente of hym that did it, with all that is in it, muste be clensed and purified after this maner. They make two fires, thre strides one from another. And by eche fire thei pitche downe a Iaueline. Vpon them is tied a lyne stretching fro the one to the other, and couered ouer with buckerame. Betwene these ii. Iauelins, as throughe a gate, muste all thinges passe that are to be purified. Two women (to whome this office belongeth) stande, on either side one, sprinckelinge on watre, and mumblinge certaine verses. No straungier, of what dignitie so euer he be, or of howe greate importance so euer the cause of his comming be: is admitted to the kinges sighte before he be purified. He that treadeth vppon the thressholde of the tente wherein their kinge, or anye of his chiefteines lyeth, dieth for it in the place. If any manne bite a gobet, greater than he is able to swallowe, so that he be constrained to put it out of his mouth againe: thei by and by make a hole vndre the tent, and ther drawe him out, and cruelly slea him. Many other thinges ther are which thei compte for faultes beyonde all forgiuenesse. But to slea a man, to enuade a nother mannes country, contrary to all righte and reason, to bereue them of their goodes and possessions, to breake the preceptes of God, thei estieme as nothinge. Thei haue a beliefe that aftre this life thei shal liue for euer in another worlde (but what maner of worlde thei cannot telle) and ther receiue rewarde for their well doinges. When any of them falleth sicke, and lieth at the pointe of deathe, thei sticke vp a Iaueline with a piece of blacke clothe at the dore of the tente wher he lieth, that none come in as they passe by. For no manne when he seeth this, dare entre thether vncalled. Aftre what time the sicke is dead, his whole house gather together, and priuely conueighe the corps into some place withoute the tente, chosen for the purpose. Ther cut they out a trenche, broade and diepe enoughe to sette vp another lytle tent in: so that the toppe of the tent maye be well within the grounde. In that thei prepare a table with a banket: at the whiche thei sette the deade bodye in his beste appareille. And so together, as it ware with one hande, couer all with earth againe. Thei bewry with him also some beaste of bourden, and a horse ready sadled and appointed to ride. The gentlemen by their life time, appointe out a slaue (whome thei marke with their brande) to be specially bewried with him when he dieth. And this do thei vpon perswasion of a life in a nother worlde, wher thei woulde be loth to lacke these necessaries. Then doe the deades friendes take another horse, and slea him. And when they haue eaten the fleshe, thei stuffe the hide full of haye, and sowe it againe together and sette it vp ouer the graue vpon foure poles, in remembraunce of the deade. The bones do the two ordenarie women burne, for the clensinge and purifienge of the soule. But the gentlemen, and thei of higher degree, handle the hide aftre another maner. Thei cut it out into very fine thonges, to asmuche lengthe as thei can, and measure oute asmuche grounde about the Sepulchre as the thonge wille stretche vnto. For so muche ground thincke thei shall the deade haue in another worlde. At the thirtieth daye thei ende their mourning. Certaine of the Tartarres, professing the name of Christe, yet farre from his righteousnes: when their parentes waxe aged, to haste their death, crame them with gobins of fatte. When thei die thei burne them to pouldre, whiche thei reserue as a precious Iewelle, to strawe vppon their meate euery daie. But to declare with what solempnitie and ioifulnes thei sette vp their newe Kynge, aftre the death of tholde: because it ware to longe a thyng, bothe for the reader and writer to set out at length, I will shewe you in brief theffecte. Abrode in the fieldes, in a faire plaine ordenary for the purpose: all the Dukes, Erles, Barons, Lordes, and the reste of the nobilitie, together with the people of the whole kyngdome, do assemble. Then take thei hym, to whom the croune is due, either by succession, or by election. And when thei haue set hym vp in a throne of Golde: thei all fall doune on their knees, and together with one voice crie out a loude, aftre this maner. We require the, yea, we will and commaunde the, to take the rule and gouernaunce of vs. He answereth, if ye will haue me doe so, then must ye of necessitie be redy to do whatsoeuer I commaunde ye. To come when I calle ye, to go whether so euer I sende ye, to slea whom so euer I commaunde ye, without staieng or stackering. And to put the whole kingdome and rule in my handes, when thei haue aunswered, we are content: Saieth he againe, from hencefurthe then the speache of my mouth, shalbe my swearde. To this the people yealde with greate shoutes, and reioisynges. In the meane while the princes and the nobles, taking the king out of his throne, spread abrode on the grounde a piece of felte: vpon the whiche, thei cause hym in simple sorte to sitte doune, and thus saie to hym. Looke vp, and remembre GOD aboue the. And now looke doune also, and behold this felt vndre the. If thou gouerne welle, thou shalte haue all euen as thou wouldest wisshe it. But if contrary wise, thou shalt so be broughte doune againe, and so nighe be bereued of all: that thou shalte not haue so muche, as this poore felte left the, whervpon thou sittest. This ones saied, thei sette in to hym, of all his wiues the dierest derlyng. And liftyng vp the felte alofte, haile hym by the name of Emperour, and her by the name of Empresse. Then, come there presentes streight from al countries, and peoples of his dominion: and all the Threasoures that the kyng, his predecessour lefte, are brought him. Of the whiche he giueth giftes to al the princes and high estates: commaundyng the reste to be kepte for himself, and so dissolueth the Parlament as it ware. In his hande and power is then altogether, no manne can: or though he can, he dare not saie this is myne, or this is his. No man maie dwelle in any part of the lande, but in that wherevnto he is appoincted. The Emperour hymself appoincteth the Dukes: the Dukes, the Millenaries: the Millenaries, the Centurianes: and they the Disniers: and the Disniers the residewe. The seale that he vseth hath this superscription. GOD in heauen, and Chutchuth Cham in earth, the force of God, and Emperour of all menne. He hath fiue armies of greate multitude and force: and fiue chiefteines, by whom he subdueth all that stande against hym. He hymself neuer speaketh to any foreine ambassadours, nor admitteth them to his presence, as is aboue saied: excepte bothe thei and their giftes (without the whiche specially thei maie not come) bee purified by the ordenarie women. The Kyng aunswereth by another mannes mouthe. And the persone by whome he aunswereth, be he neuer so honourable, for the tyme that he becommeth the kynges mouthe, kneleth on his knees and giueth so diligent care, that he swarueth not from the Kyng in one woorde. For it is not lawefull for any manne, to chaunge the kynges woordes: ne for any man in any wise, to replie against suche sentence as he giueth. He neuer drincketh in open presence, but some body first sing to hym, or plaie vpon some instrumente of Musicque. The gentlemen and menne of honour when thei ride, haue a phannell borne afore them, on a Iauelines ende, to kiepe awaie the Sonne. And as it is saied, the women likewise. These ware the maners and facions of the Tartarres, for a two hundred yeres paste. The Georgians, whom the Tartarres aboute the same tyme did subdue: ware Christians, aftre the fourme of the Greke Churche. Thei ware neighbours to the Persians. Their dominions stretched out a great length, from Palestine in Iewrie to the mounteignes called Caspij. Thei had eightene Bishopries: and one Catholicque: that is to saie, one generall bishoppe, whiche was to them, as our Metropolitane to vs. At the firste thei ware subiecte to the Patriarche of Antioche. Menne of greate courage and hardinesse. Thei all shaued their crounes: the Laietie square, the Clercques rounde. Their women (certeine of theim) had the ordre of Knighthode, and ware trained to the warres. The Georgianes when thei ware sette, ordered, and raunged in the fielde, and ware at poinct to ioyne the batteill: vsed to drincke of a gourdfull of strong wine, aboute the bigguenes of a mannes fiste. And to sette vpon their ennemies: muche amended in courage. Their Clercques, whiche we calle the Spiritualtie, mighte vse bothe Simonie and vsurie at their wille. There was continuall hatred betwixte Tharmenians and them. For the Armenians ware also Christians, before the Tartarres had subdued the Georgianes and them. But thei differed in many thinges, from the belief and facions of the true Churche. Thei knewe no Christemas daie, no vigilles, nor the fowre quartre festes, whiche we call Embryng dales. Thei fasted not on Easter euen, because (saie thei), that Christ rose that daie aboute euen tide. Vpon euerie Saturdaie, betwixte Easter and Whitsontide, thei did eate flesshe. Thei ware greate fasters, and beganne their Lente thre wekes afore vs: and so streightly fasted it, that vpon the Wednesdaie and Fridaie, thei neither eate any kinde of fisshe, ne aughte wherin was wine, or oile. Belieuing that he that drancke wine on those twoo daies: synned more then if he had bene at the stewes with a whore. On the Monedaie thei absteined from all maner of meate. On Tewsdaie and Thursdaie, thei did eate but one meale. Wedensdaie and Fridaie, nothyng at al. Saturdaie and Sondaie, thei eate flesshe and made lustie chiere. Throughe their whole Lente, no manne said Masse but on Saturdaies and Sondaies. Nor yet on the Fridaies throughout the whole yere: for thei thought then, that thei brake their fast. Thei admitted to the houseale, aswell children of two monethes olde, as all other indifferently. When thei went to Masse, thei vsed to put no watre in the wine. Thei absteined from Hares flesshe, Beaws flesshe, Crowes, and suche other as the Grekes did, and Iewes do. Their Chalices ware of Glasse, and of Tree. Some said Masse without either albe or vestement, or any maner suche ornament. Some onely with thornamentes of Deacon or Subdeacon. Thei ware all busie vsurers, and Simonites: bothe spirituall and Temporall, as the Georgianes ware. Their priestes studied Sothesaieng and Nigromancie. Their Spiritualtie vsed Iunckettyng oftener then the Laietie. Thei maried, but aftre the death of the wife, it was not lawefull for the housebande to marie againe, nor for the wife, aftre the death of the housebande. If the wife ware a whore, the Bisshoppe gaue hym leaue to put her awaie, and marie another. As for the fire of Purgatorie thei knewe nothing of it. Thei denied also verie stifly, that there ware two natures in Christe. The Georgianes saied that thei swarued from the truthe of Christes Religion, in thirtie poinctes or articles. ¶ The xi. Chapitre. ¶ Of Turcquie, and of the maners, Lawes, and Ordenaunces of the Turcques. The lande, whiche now is called Turcquie: hath on Theaste Armenia the more, and ronneth endelong to the Sea of the Cilicians: hauyng on the Northe, the Sea named Euxinus. There are in it many countries conteined. As Lichaonia, whose heade citie is Iconium. Cappadocia with her heade citie, named Cesarea. Isauria, whiche hath for the chief citie Seleucia. Licia, whiche now is called Briquia. Ionia: now called Quisquoun, in the whiche standeth Ephesus. Paphlagonia, and in it Germanopolis. And Leuech: that hath for the heade Citie Trapezus. All this countrie that now is called Turcquie, is not enhabited by one seuerall nacion, but there be in it Turcques, Grekes, Armenians, Saracenes, Iacobites, Nestorians, Iewes and Christians. Whiche liue for the moste parte, acording to the Tradicions and Ordenaunces, that Mahomet the counterfeict Prophete, gaue vnto the Saracenes (a people of Arabie) the yere of our Lorde and Sauiour Iesus Christe. vi. hundred and. xxix. A manne whome I can not telle whether I maye calle an Arabiane or a Persian. For ther be aucthorities of writers on either behaulfe. His father was an idolastre aftre the maner of the heathen. His mother an Ismalite leaning to the lawe of the Iewes. And whilest in his childehode, his mother taught him aftre one sorte, and his father aftre another: thei printed in hym suche a doubtfull belief, that when he came to age he cleaued to neither. But as a manne of subtyle and guilefull witte, aftre what time he had bene longe conuersaunte amongest menne of the Christian religion: he draue a drifte, deuised out of both lawes (the olde and the newe) how he mighte notably enfecte the worlde. He said the Iewes did wickedly to denie Christe to be borne of the virgine Mary, seinge the prophetes (men of great holinesse, and enspired with the holy ghost) had foreshewed the same, and warned men of many yeres passed to looke for him. Contrariwyse he said to the Christians thei ware very fonde to beleue that Iesus, so dierly beloued of God, and borne of a virgine, would suffre those vilanies and tormentes of the Iewes. Martinus Segonius Nouomontanus, in his booke of the Sepulchre of Christe our king, writeth that the Turkes, and Saracenes by an auncient opinion receiued from Machomet: do laughe Christian menne to skorne, that seke thether with so greate reuerence. Sayeng that Christ the prophet of all prophetes endewed with the spirite of God, and voyde of all earthly corruption: had there no sepulchre in very diede, for that he being a spirituall body conceiued by the breathe of the holy ghost coulde not suffre, but should come againe to be iudge of the Gentiles: This saieth Segonius, and many other thinges sounding to like effecte: whiche the Mahometeines are wonte to throwe out against the Christians, bothe foolisshely and wickedly. When this counterfeicte prophet had saused his secte with these wicked opinions: he gaue them his lawe, and sorte of religion. Against the whiche lesse any man of righte iudgemente should aftrewarde write or dispute (as against a pestilent and filthie perswasion) he wrote a lawe in his Alcorane that it shoulde be deathe to as many as should reason or dispute vppon it. Wherby he euidentlie declared, that ther was nothing godly or goodly therin. For why shoulde he elles haue so raked it vp in the ashes, and forbidden it to be examined: so that the people coulde neuer come to knowledge what maner of thinge it is that thei beleue in. In the giuing of his lawe, he vsed muche the counselle and helpe of the moncke Sergius: of the wicked secte of the Nestorianes. And to the ende it might please the more vniuersally: he patched it vp together with peces of all maner of sectes. He thoughte it good to sette out Christe with the beste, affirminge that he was a manne excelling in all holinesse and vertue. Yea he extolled him to a more heigth then was appliable to the nature of man, calling him the woorde, the spirite, the soule of GOD, borne out of a virgines wombe, whome he also with many wondrefull praises magnified. He confirmed with his consente, the miracles, and story of the gospel, as farre as it varieth not from his Alcorane. The Godspelles said he ware corrupte by the disciples of the Apostles. And ther fore it behoued his Alcorane to be made, for to correcte and amende them. Thus fauning into fauour with the Christians, he would haue bene christened of Sergius. Then to procure, and moue other also to fauour his procedinges: he denied with the Sabellians the Trinitie. With the Manicheis he made two goddes. With Eunomius, he denied that the father and the sonne ware equal. With Macedonius he said that the holy ghoste was a creature, or substaunce created. With the Nicholaites He allowed the hauinge of many wiues at ones. He allowed also the olde testament. Althoughe sayd he, it were in certain places faultie. And these fondenesses did he beswiete with a wondrefull lure of the thinges that menne in this lyfe mooste desire. Lettinge louse to as many as helde of him, the bridle of al lechery and luste. And for that cause doth this contagious euil sprede it self so wide into innumerable contries. So that if a man at this day compare the nombre of them that are by him seduced, with the other that remaine in the doctrine of faithe: he shal easeli perceiue the great oddes, ware it but herin. That wher Europe alone, (and not al that by a great deale) standeth in the belief of Christe: almoste all Asie, and Aphrique, yea and a greate pece of Europe standeth in the Turkisshe belief of Mahomete. The Saracenes that firste receiued the brainesicke wickednesse of this countrefeicte prophete, dwelte in that parte of Arabia, that is called Petrea: wher it entrecommuneth with Iewry on the one side, and with Egipt on the other. So named of Serracum, a place nere vnto the Nabatheis, or rather as thei woulde haue it them selues, of Sara, Abrahams wife. Wherupon thei yet sticke faste in this opinion, that thei onely of al men are the lawfull heires of Goddes beheste. Thei gaue themselues to tilthe, to cattle, and to the warres. But the greater parte to the warres. And therefore at what time they ware hired of Heraclius in the warres againste the Persians: when he had gotten the victory, and thei perceiued them selues to be defrauded by him: kindled with the angre of the villanye thei had done vnto them, by the counsell and persuasion of Mahomet (who tooke vppon him to be their captaine) thei forsoke Heraclius. And going into Siria, enuaded Damasco. Wher when thei had encreased them selues bothe in nombre, and purueiaunce necessary for them, thei entred into Egipte. And subdued firste that: then Persis, then Antioche, and then Ierusalem. Thus their power and fame daily so encreaced, and grewe: that men muche feared, that any thing afterwarde shoulde be able to resiste them. In the meane season, the Turkes: a ferce and a cruell people, of the nacion of the Scithiens, driuen out by their neighbours fro the mountaines called Caspij, came downe by the passage of the mounte Caucasus, firste into Asia the lesse, then into Armenia, Media, and Persis. And by stronge hande wanne all as they came. Against these the Saracenes went forth as to defende the bordres of their gouernaunce. But forasmuche as this newecome power was to harde for them, the Saracenes within a while felle into such despaire of their state: that vppon condicion that the other would receiue Mahometes belief: thei ware content thei shold reigne felowlike together with them, in Persis. Wherto when thei had agreed, it was harde to saye whether of the peoples had receiued the greater dammage. The Saracenes, in yelding to them the haulf right of their kingdome: or the other, whiche for coueteousnes thereof yelded them selues to so rancke, and wicked a poyson of all vertue and godlynes. One bonde of belief then so coupled and ioyned them: that for a space it made to them no matier whether ye called them all by one name, Saracenes, or Turkes. But nowe as ye se, the name of the Turkes hath gotten the bettre hande, and the other is out of remembraunce. This people vseth moe kindes of horsemen then one. Thei haue Thimarceni, that is to saye Pencioners, aboute a foure skore thousande. These haue giuen vnto them by the kinge, houses, villages, and Castles euery one as he deserueth, in the steade of his wages or pencion. And thei attende vppon the Sensacho, or capitaine of that quarter, wher their possessions lye. At this daye the Turkes are deuided into two armies: the one for Asie, and the other for Europe. And either hath a chiefteine, at whose leading thei are. These chiefteines in their tongue be called Bassay. Ther are also another sorte muche lyke to our aduenturers, that serue withoute wages, called Aconizie. And these euer are spoiling afore when the campe is yet behynde. The fiueth parte of their butine is due vnto the king. And these are aboute a fourty thousande. Their thirde sorte of horsemen is deuided into Charippos Spahiglauos, and Soluphtaros. The beste, and worthiest of these, are the Charippie: of an honourable ordre of knighthode, as it ware for the kinges body. And those be euer about him, to the nombre of eyghte hundred, all Scythians and Persians, and elles of none other kinde of menne. These, when niede is, being in the sighte of the kinge: fight notably, and do wondrefull feates on horsebacke. Spahy, and Soluphtary be those whiche haue bene at the kinges bringing vp from their childehode, to serue his filthy abhominacion. And when thei are come to mannes state, thei marye at the kynges pleasure: And be enriched both with dowery of their wife, and a stipende. These for the moste parte serue for embassadours, deputies, lieutenauntes and suche other dignities, and are nexte vnto the kinge on bothe sides of him, when he goeth any whether as a garde. Thei are in nombre a thousande and thre hundred. Among the footemen are three sortes, Ianizarie, these be chosen all the Empire ouer, of xii. yeres of age, or there aboute, by certein that haue Commission for the purpose: And are for a space enstructed in the feactes of warre, in commune schooles. And then aftrewarde are thei chosen into souldie, and haue giuen them a shorter garmente, and a white cappe, with a tarfe tourned vpwarde. Their weapon is a Targette, a Curtilase, and a Bowe. Their office is to fortifie the campe, and to assaulte cities. Thei are in nombre aboue twentie thousande. The seconde sorte are called Asappi, and are all footemen of light harnesse, weaponed with swearde, target, and a kinde of long Iauelines, wherewith thei slea the horses of their enemies, in the skirmishe and battaile. These, to be knowen fro the Ianizaries, weare redde cappes. These are appoincted in nombre, accordyng as the case shall require. But thei are euer at the leaste fouretie thousande. When the warres are finished, for the whiche thei ware hired: these are no longer in wages. Tharmie roialle hath about two hundred thousande armed menne, beside a greate rable of footemen aduenturers, that take no wages, and suche other as be called out of Garrisons. And amonge these, Pioners and Cookes, Carpenters, Armourers, and suche other as thei must niedes haue to make the waye, wher the place is combresome: to dresse victualles, to amende harnesse, to make bredges ouer floudes, to trenche aboute their ennemies, to plante battries, make Ladders, and suche other thinges necessarie for the siege. Ther foloweth the armie also, sondrye sortes of money Masters: some for lone, some for exchaunge, some to buy thinges. And sondrie sortes of occupiers, such as be thought nedeful in such cases. But there is nothing in all that nacion more to be marueiled at, then their spiedinesse in doeyng of thinges: their constantnes in perilles, and their obedience and precise obseruinge of all commaundementes. For the least fault, of goeth the heade. Thei passe ouer raginge floudes, mounteignes and rockes: roughes and plaines, thicke and thinne, if thei be commaunded. Not hauing respecte to their lyfe, but to their rulers. No men maie awaie with more watche, no men with more hongre. Among them is no mutinyng, no vproures, no sturres. In theyr fyght thei vse no cries, not shoutes, but a certeine fiercenes of brayeng. Thei kepe suche precise scilence in the night, through out their campe: that thei wil rather suffre such as they haue taken prisoners, to run their waie, then to make any sturre. Of all the peoples at this daie, thei onely doe warre, acording to the ordre of armies. So that no manne niedeth to meruayle how it cometh that no people this two hundred yeare and aboue, haue had like successe vnto them. Yea, it may truely be sayd, that excepte it be by some plague or murreyn, or discorde among them selues, they can not be subdued. The apparail that the souldiours do vse, is most comely and honeste. In their sadles and bridles, there is neither curiositie, ne yet superfluitie. No man emong them weareth his Armour, but when niede is to fight. They carry their harnesse behynde theim, at their backes. They vse neither banner, standerde, ne flaggue: but certein Iauelins that haue streamynge out fro the toppe, diuers coloured thriedes, by the whiche euery hande knoweth his capiteine. Thei vse a dromme and a fiphe, to assemble their Bandes, and to sturre them to the batteile. When the batteile is done, all the armie is presented to the Regestour (whiche is some one of the nobles) bothe that it maye bee knowen who is slain, and what nombre: and that newe may be entred in their places. In all assemblies and mietinges, feaste, or other: thei praie for their souldiours, and menne of warre. But specially aboue all other, for those that haue suffred death for the commune quarelle of their countrie: calling them happie, fortunate, and blessed, that thei yelded not vp their liues at home, amidde the lamentacions and bewailynges, of their wiues and children, but loste them, abrode, amonge the shoutes of their enemies, and the ratling of the Harneis, and Launces. The victories of their forefathers and eldres, thei put into Balade, and sing theim with greate honour and praises: for that thei thinke the courages of the souldiours and menne of warre be muche quickened, and kindled thereby. Their dwelling houses are communely of timbre and claie, very fewe of stone: for of them are the noble mennes houses their temples, and Batthes. And yet are there amonge the communes, men able of them self alone, to set furthe an whole armie, furnisshed at all poinctes. But because thei are naturally giuen to sparing and to abhorre all sumptuousenesse, embrasing a lowe and simple state: thei wel beare this voluntarie pouertie, and rude homelinesse. For this cause also, doe thei not set by any kinde of Painters Imagerie. As for the other imagerie of coruen grauen, or molten worke, thei do so hate and abhorre: that they call vs Christians for delighting so muche in them, verie Idolatours and Image worshippers. And do not onely so calle vs, but wil earnestly argue, that we are so in dede. Thei vse no Seales to their Lettres, of what sorte so euer thei be, the kynges or other. But they credite the matier, assone as thei haue red the superscription, or heard the name of the sender. Thei occupie no belles, nor suffre not the Christianes that dwelle among them to do. Thei game not for money, or any valewe elles. And if it fortune that any manne be founde to do, in many sundrie wise thei reuile him, and baite him with shames and reproche. No man among them, of what degree or dignitie so euer he be: requireth forme chaire, stoole, or other kinde of seate to sitte vpon. But foldinge bothe him selfe and his clothes, aftre a mooste comely sorte: rucketh downe vpon the grounde, not muche vnlike to the sitting of our gentlewomen ofte times here in Englande. The table wherupon thei eate, is for the mooste parte of a Bullockes hide, or a Hartes skinne. Not dressed, but in the heare, facioned rounde, beyng a fowre or fiue spanne ouer, and so set rounde about on the bordre, or verge, with ringlettes of iron: that putting a couple of stringes throughe the ringes, it maye be drawen together, and shutte and opened like a purse. House, or Churche, or any other place wher they entende to sitte, no man entreth with his shoes on. For it is compted a very dishonest and vnmanerly facion, to sitte shoed. Wherfore they vse a maner of slippe shooes, that may lightly be putte of and on. The place where thei sitte, either at home, or at Churche, is in some place matted, and in some place ouerspred with course woollen Carpette. And some places also, either for the lowenes, moistenes, or vncleanelinesse therof are plancked with boorde. The garmentes aswell of the menne, as the women, are large and longe, and open afore: that thei may the more honestlie and couertly hide all, when nature craveth to be eased. And in doeyng those niedes, thei take greate hiede, that their face be not into the Southe, as it is when thei praye. As also that thei discouer no priuie parte, that any myghte fortune to see. The menne make water sitting, aswell as the women. For if a man amonges them, ware sene to make water standing: he should be iudged of all, a foole, or an hertique. From wine (as from a prouoker of al sinne and vnclennesse) thei absteine by their lawe. And yet eate they the Grapes, and drincke muste. Thei also forbeare to eate any thinge, that commeth of the Hogge: or any thinge elles that dieth of sickenesse, or by aduenture vnslain. But any other thinges, being mannes meate, thei refuse not to eate. Thei worshippe the Fridaie, laieng all labour and businesse aparte, with as greate solempnitie and deuocion, as we doe the Sondaie, or as the Iewes doe the Sabboth daie. In euery citie there is one principall or head Churche. In the whiche vppon the Fridaie at aftre Noone, thei all assemble together. And aftre solempne praiers, heare a sermone. Thei acknowledge one God, to whome thei make no like, nor equalle: and Mahomet to be his trustie and welbeloued, Prophete. All the Saracenes are bound to praie fiue times on the daie, with their faces toward the South. And before thei so do, to the ende thei maie be cleane from all filthe of bodie: to wasshe them selues toppe and taile, heade, eares, eyes, nose, mouthe, armes, handes, bealy, colions, legges and fiete. Specially, if he haue bene late at the soile with a woman or stouped on his taile to vnburden his bealie. Except he haue some lette of iournie, or sickenesse. But if he lacke watre to doe this withall (as that sieldome or neuer can happen, for that thei haue in all cities, bathes, ordenarie for the purpose) thei supplie the defaulte with the moulde of fresshe cleane earthe, wherewith thei rubbe ouer their whole bodies. Who is so polluted in any maner wise: suffreth no man before this clensing, to speake with hym, or to see him, if it be possible. Euery yere for the space of fiue wiekes continually together, thei faste al daie as presicely as is possible, bothe from meate, drincke and women. But aftre the sonne is ones doune, till the next daie he riseth, thei neither spare eatyng ne drinckyng, ne pressyng of pappes. In thende of their lente, and againe the sixtieth daie aftre: Thei kiepe their passeouer or Easter, in remembraunce of the Rambe shewed vnto Abraham, to be Sacrificed in the steade of his sonne, and of a certaine nighte in the whiche thei doe beleue that the Alcorane was giuen them from heauen. Euery yere ones, the Saracenes also are bound of duetie to visite the house of God, in the citie of Mecha: bothe to acknowledge their homage, and to yelde vnto Mohomete his yerely honour at his Sepulchre there. The Saracenes compelle no man to forsake his opinion or belief: ne yet labour so to perswade any countrie to do. Although their Alcorane commaunde theim to treade doune and destroie all menne of the contrary beliue yea them and their prophetes. But through this sufferaunce, ther are to be founde enhabiting in Turkie, peoples of all opinions, and beleue: euery man vsinge suche kinde of worshippe to his God, as to his religion apperteineth. Their priestes do not muche diffre from the commune people, nor yet their churches from their dwelling houses. Yf thei knowe the Alcorane, and the praiours and ceremonies or their lawe, it suffiseth. Thei are neither giuen to contemplacion ne yet schole study. For why thei are not occupied with any churche seruice or cure of soules. Sacramentes haue thei none, nor reliques, nor halowinges of foutes, Aulters, and other necessaries. But prouidinge for their wiues, their children, and householdes, thei occupie their time in husbondrie, marchaundise, huntinge, or some other meane to get the penie, and mainteyne their liuing, euen as the temporall men doe. Ther is nothing forbidden them, nothing is for them vnlawfull. Thei be neither burdoned with tillage, ne bondage. Thei be muche honoured of al men, for that thei are skilfull in the ceremonies of the lawe, teache them to other, and be the gouernours of the churches. They haue many schooles and large, In the which great nombres are taught the lawes there giuen by kinges, for the ciuile gouernance and defence of the Realme. Of the whiche some are afterwarde sette fourth to be men of the churche, and some to be temporalle officers. Their spiritualtie is deuided into many and sondry sortes of religions. Of the whiche some liue in the wooddes and wyldernes shonnyng all companye. Some kiepe open hospitalitie in cities, and yet liue by almose them selues. These if they lacke meate to refreshe the niedy straunger and pelligrine, yet at the least waie they giue him herbour and lodgyng. Other, roumyng the cities vp and downe and caryeng alway in bottles faire watre and fresshe, if any man be disposed to drinke, vnasked they willingly proffre it him, and refuse not to take, if he for their gentlenesse offre aught vnto them agayn. Otherwise they craue nothyng, but in al their woordes, gesture, behauour, and diedes: shewe theim selues aungelles raither then menne. And euery one of these hath one knowledge or other, of difference from the reaste. The Saracenes or Turkes are very precise executours of Iustice. Who so committeth bloudshed: hath in like sorte his owne shedde againe. Taken in adultery, both parties are streight without mercy stoned to deathe. Thei haue also a punisshement for fornication, whiche is to the manne taken with the diede, foure score ierkes or lasshes with a skourge. A thief for the first and the seconde time, escapeth with so many stripes. But at the thirde time, hathe his hande cut of, and at the fourthe his foote. He that endamageth any manne: as the losse or hinderaunce shalbe valewed, so muste he of force recompence. In claiming of goodes, or possessions, the claimer muste proue by witnesse that the thing claimed is his: and the denier shalbe tried by his othe. Witnesses they admitte none, but persones of knowen honestie, and suche as mighte be belieued withoute an othe. Thei haue also certeine spiefaultes ordinarilye appoincted (muche like to our Sompnours) that spie in euery shiere for suche as be necligent, and let slippe suche oraisons and seruice as thei be bounde to. Those if thei fortune to finde them: do thei punishe aftre this maner. Thei hange a borde about their neckes, with a great many of foxe tailes, and togginge them vp and downe the stretes: all ouer the citie, thei neuer lette them go vntyll they haue compounded by the purse. And in this also nothing vnlike to our Sompnours. It is lawfull for no manne, beinge come to mannes state, to liue vnmaried. It is compted amonge them as lawfull to haue iiii. wiues, as it is amonge vs to haue one. Marie what soeuer is aboue this nombre (as thei may if thei liste, and be able to kepe them, no degree excepted, but mother and sister, marie a hundred) thei are not iudged so lawfulle. The children that thei haue bothe by the one, and the other haue equalle porcion in the fathers enheritaunce. Sauing that ii. women children are compted in porcion but for one man childe. Thei haue not ii. of their wiues together in one house, ne yet in one citie. For the busines, and disquietinges that might happen therby, but euery wife in a seuerall towne. The housebandes haue libertye to put them away thrise, and thrise to take them againe. But yet when he hath ones putte her awaie, if any manne haue taken her, and she lust to abide with hym, she maie. Their women are moste honestlie appareiled. And vpon their heades doe vse a certeine attire, not muche vnlike the veluet bonette of olde Englande: wherof the one lappe so hangeth vppon whiche side semeth her good: that when she is disposed to go out of the doores, or to come amongest menne within the house, she maie hide therwith by and by her whole face, sauyng her eyes. The Saracenes woman, neuer dare shewe her self wher there is a company of menne. To go to the marchate to occupy byeng or sellyng in any wise: is not syttyng for their women. In the head church they haue a place farre a part fro the men: so close that no manne canne looke into them. Into the which notwithstandyng it is not laufull for euery mans wyfe to entre: but for the nobilitie onely. Ne yet for them neyther, but on Friday, at the onely houre of noone praier: whiche as I haue aforesayd, is kept amonge them high and holy. To see a man and a woman talke together ther, in the open strete or abrode: is so straunge, and so vnwonte a thing, that in a whole yere it skante happeneth ones. For a man to sitte with his wyfe in open sighte, or to ride with any woman behinde him: amongest them ware a wondre. Maried couples neuer dally together in the sighte of other, nor chide or falle out. But the menne beare alwaies towarde the women a manly discrete sobrenes, and the women, towarde them a demure womanlie reuerence. Greate menne, that cannot alwaie haue their wiues in their owne eye, appoincte redgelinges, or guelte menne to awaite vppon them. Whiche waite them in diede so narrowlye, that it ware impossible for any man beside the housebande to speake with the wyfe vnsene: or the wyfe by any stealthe to false her trouth and honestie. Finally the Saracenes do so full and whole beleue their Mahomete and his lawes: that thei doubte no whitte, but the kepers of them shall haue euerlasting blessednesse. That is to saye, after their opinion, a paradise of pleasure, a gardein plotte of delighte, full of swiete rindles of Christalline watre. In whose botomes the grauelle, popleth like glisteryng golde. The ayre alwaie so attempre and pure, that nothyng can be more swiete, more pleasaunte, nor healthsome. The grounde couered and garnisshed with natures Tapesserie, neither lacking any colour that pleasaunte is to the eye, or sauour that maie delight the nose. Birdes syngyng with suche armonie, as neuer mortalle eare heard. Briefly flowyng in all pleasure that any harte can aftre thincke. Disshes for the mouthe, of all deinties. All maner of Silkes, Veluettes, Purples, Skarlettes, and other precious apparelle. Godly younge damoselles, with graie rowlyng eyes, and skinne as white as Whales bone, softe as the Silke, and breathed like the Rose, and all at their becke. Vesselles of siluer and golde. Angelles for their Butlers that shall bryng theim Milke in Goblettes of golde, and redde wine in siluer. But contrariewise, thei threaten vnto the breakers of them, helle, and euerlastyng destruccion. This thei also beleue, that be a manne wrapped in neuer so many synnes, yet if at his death, he beleue vpon God, and Machomete, he shalbe saued. ¶ The xii. Chapitre. ¶ Of the Christians, of their firste commyng vp, their Ceremonies, and ordenaunces. Christe Iesu, the eternalle and verie sonne of thalmightie father, the seconde persone in the holie inseparable, equalle, and euerlastyng Trinitie: Of a sette purpose, and spiritualle secrete, not reuealed from the beginning of tyme, and aboue mannes capacitie: was by the meane of the holy ghost, conceiued and borne manne. In Iewrie, of a Virgine, of the stocke of Dauid, a thousande fiue hundred, and twentie yeres gone [Footnote: It appereth by this place that this was written xxxv. yeres gone.]. To sette vs miserable, and vnhappie menne on foote againe, whiche ware in Adam and Eue, by the sinne of disobedience ouerthrowen. And to bryng vs againe, vnto our heauenlie natiue countrie, from the whiche we haue by so many ages, for that presumpcion bene banished. Finally, to repaire and supplie in heauen againe ones, the ruine and fal of those spirites, whiche a space afore our creacion, ware thurste doune fro thence. For the whiche purpose, we chiefly ware made. This Iesus, from thirtie yeres of age, vntill thirtie and fowre (in the whiche, throughe the maliciousnes of the Iewes, he suffred on the galowe tree) traueillyng all Iewrie ouer: first moued and exhorted the Iewes, and then other peoples, from the olde Lawe of Moses, and their wicked Image worshippe, to his newe ordenaunce and trade. And as many as would folowe, and doe aftre hym, he called theim his scholers or disciples. Out of the whiche, he gaue vnto xij. that he had specially chosen, Commission aftre his death (when he had appered to them on liue again, as he had forwarned them that he would) to go as Legates, or Embassatours into the whole world, and to preache vnto all creatures, what so euer thei had sene or learned of him. Simon Petre (to whom longe afore he had surrendred the gouernaunce and chiefteinshippe of his Church, as in reuercion aftre him) when aftre the comyng of the holy ghoste some wente into one coste, and some into another, euery manne his waie, as thei ware allotted and commaunded: came first vnto Antioche. And there setting vp the first and chief chaire of the Churche, kepte a counsaille with the other Apostles, whiche often tymes came to hym. In this Counsaille among other thinges it was decreed, that asmany as should receiue, and cleaue vnto the doctrine, and righte perswasion of Christes godlines: should fro thence furthe be called Christianes. This Seate of superioritie, beyng afterwarde translated to Rome: bothe he and his Successours, tooke it for their chief charge and businesse, to put the rude and rawe secte of their Christe, and the folowers of the same, in some good ordre and trade of gouernaunce. Bothe aftre the manor of Moses Lawe (whiche Christe came not to breake, but to consummate and finishe) and the state of the Romain gouernaunce, the Greke, and Egipcian: and also by paterne of the Ceremonies, obseruances, lawes, and ordenaunces Ecclesiasticalle and Temporalle, of many other peoples: But specially aftre the doctrine, of Christe Iesu, and the woorkyng of the holy ghoste, to bring them in to frame and facion. When thei ware entred in the mattier: As thei sawe that men not emong the Hebrues alone, but emong other peoples also, ware diuided into Ecclesiasticalle and Temporalle Spiritualtie and Laietie: and eche of them in mooste goodly wise, into their dignities and degrees (The Romain Emperour then being gouernour of the whole worlde alone) to haue Consulles, Fathers or Senatours: at whose becke all thinges ware deuised and doone: And in the residewe of the earthe to bee many Kynges, many Dukes, Erles, Presidentes, and Deputies of countries, and their Lieutenauntes: Maresshalles of the fielde, and highe Conestables for the communes, Pretours or Prouostes, Standerdbearers roialle, Centurianes, and Disners, Seriauntes, Conestables, Collectours, Serueiours, Porters, Scribes, Listers, and many other persones without office, bothe menne and women. And in the Temples of their Goddes, a Sacrificer roialle, whiche is to saie in effecte, a highe Prieste of the dignitie of a kyng. Archeflamines, Flamines of honour, and other Flamines inferiour and laste in degree their Priestes. And by like ordre emong the Hebrues: an highe Bisshoppe, and interiour Priestes, Leuites, Nazareis, candle quenchers, commaunders of Spirites, Churche Wardeines, and Syngers, whiche wee calle Chantours aftre the Frenche. And among the Grekes: Capiteines, or heades ouer a thousands, ouer an hundred, ouer fiuetie, ouer tenne, and ouer fiue. And that there ware yet beside these, bothe emong the Hebrues, and the Romaines, many couentes, or compaignies of menne and women religious. As Sadduceis, Esseis, and Phariseis emong the Hebrues: Salios, Diales, and Vestalles, emong the Romaines: The moste holy Apostles did all consente, that Petre, and thei that should folowe him in the seate of Rome, should for euermore be called Papa. As who would saie, father of fathers, the vniuersalle, Apostollicalle, moste holy, and moste highe bisshoppe. And that he should at Rome be Presidente ouer the vniuersalle Churche, as the Emperour there, was ruler of the vniuersall worlde. And to matche the Consulles (which ware euer twaine) thei appoincted fowre head Fathers, in the Greke named Patriarches, one at Constantinople, another at Antioche, a thirde at Alexandrie, and the fowrthe at Hierusalem. In the place of the Senatours, thei took the Cardinalles. To matche their kynges, whiche had three Dukes at commaundemente, thei deuised Primates: To whom ware subiecte thre Archebishoppes. So that the Archebishoppe or Metropolitane, standeth in the place of a Duke. For as the Duke had certein Erles or Barones at his commaundemente: so haue the Archbisshoppes, other inferiour Bisshopes at theirs, which also by reason muste countreuaile an Erle. The Bisshoppes coadiutor or Suffragane, came into the Presidentes place. Thordenarie into the Deputies, then did the Officialle matche with the Mareshalle. And with the high conestable for the communes, the Bisshoppes Chauncelour. And for the Pretour or Prouoste, thei sette vp an Archedeacon. In stede of the Centuriane, was a Deane appoincted. And for the Disnere, the Persone or Vicare. For the Aduocates, crepte in the Parisshe Prieste, Soule Prieste, Chaunterie Prieste, Morowe Masse Prieste, and suche other. The Deacon standeth for the Surueiour. The Subdeacon for the Serieaunte. For the two Conestables, came in the two Commaunders of Spirites, called Exorcistæ in the Greke. The Collectours office, was matched with the Churche wardeines. The Porter became the Sexteine. The Chauntour, scribe, and Lister, kiepe stille their name. The Acholite, whiche we calle Benet and Cholet, occupieth the roume of Candlebearer. All these by one commune name, thei called Clerj, of the Greke woorde Cleros, that is to saie, a Lotte. For that thei ware firste from among the people, so alloted vnto God. Thereof cometh our terme Clerque, and his cosine Clergie. Neuerthelesse, this name Clergie, was not so commune vnto all: but that it siemed moste proprely to reste in the seuen degrees, that the Pope of Rome vsed for his Ministres, when he saied Masse in persone him self. That is to saie, the Bishoppe, the Priest, the Deacon, and subdeacon, the Acholite, and the Chauntour. Vnto euery of these gaue thei in the churche their seueralle dignities officies, and appareile. To the Bishoppe was giuen aucthoritie, to ordeine and make other Clerckes. To enueile virgines, and to hallow them. [Sidenote: That is to saie, to make Nunnes.] To consecrate their likes, and their superiours also. To laie handes vpon them. To confirme and Bisshoppe children. To hallowe Churches. To put Priestes from their Priesthode: and to degrade theim, when thei deserue it. To kiepe Conuocacions and Sinodes. To make holy oile: to hallowe the ornamentes and vess [Transcriber's note: gap in text about 3-4 words long. vess(els)...?] And to do also other thinges, that the inferiour Priestes doe. To enstructe those that be newly come to the faithe. To Christiane, to make the Sacramente of the Altare, and to giue it to other. To absolue the repentaunte of their sinnes, and to fettre the stubberne more streighte. To shewe furthe the Gospelle. To enioyne all Priestes to shaue their heades in the croune, like a circle of iiij. fingres brode, after the maner of the Nazareis. To kepe their heare shorte, to weare no bearde. And to liue chaste for euer. Their liuyng onely to rise of the firste fruictes, tenthes, and offringes: and vttrely to be voide of all temporalle and Laiemennes cares and businesse. To be honestlie appareiled, and accordyngly to vse their passe and conuersacion. Onely to serue God and the churche. Diligently, to plye the reading of holy scripture, that they themselues mighte perfectly knowe all thinges perteining to Christian religion, wherin thei are bound to enstructe other. The companies or couentes of religious, aswel men as women: are Benedictines, Preachers, Franciscanes, Augustines, Barnardines, Anthonines, Iohannites, Cisternois, and innumerable other. Whiche al haue their habite, and maner of liuing by them selfe: acordinge to the rule that echeone priuately prescribed to them selues. And liued for the moste parte a solitary life, professing chastitie, pouretie, and perpetualle obedience. And for their solitarines the Greke called them Monarchi. Some of these haue for the heades Abbotes, some Priours: whiche are either subiecte to the Pope onely, or to the bishoppes. Al these vsed coules, much aftre one facion, but in colour diuers, and abstained fro fleshe. The bisshoppes when thei say masse, haue xv. holy garmentes, aftre the maner of Moyses lawe, for the perfection of them. His boatewes, his Amice, an Albe, a Girdle, a Stole, a Maniple, a Tunicle of violette in graine fringed, his gloues, ringe, and chesible or vestimente, a Sudari, a cope, a mitre and a crosse staffe. [Marginal Note: The Latine calleth it a shiepe hooke.] And a chaire at the Aultares ende, wherein he sitteth. Of the whiche, vi. are commune to euery inferiour prieste: the Amice, the Albe, the girdle, the stole, the Maniple, and the vestiment. But ouer, and aboue all these the Pope, by the gifte of Constantine the greate, hath libertie to weare al the ornamentes Imperialle. That is to saye a kirtle of skarlet, a robe of Purple, a sceptre, and a close corone. With the whiche aftre he hath rauisshed him selfe in the vestrie, vppon solempne feastes, when he entendeth to do masse: he commeth forth to the aultare, hauing on the right side a prieste, on the lefte side a Deacon, a Subdeacon going before him with a booke faste shutte, two candle bearers, and an encensour with the censoure in his hande smoking. When he is comen to the griessinges, the stayers, or foote of the aultare: putting of his mitre, he maketh open confession [Marginal note: That is, he saieth confiteor.] of his sinnes together with his company. That done he goeth vp to the aultare, openeth the booke, lieng vpon the lefte corner of the same, kysseth it, and so procedeth in the Solempnisacion of the Masse. The subdeacon readeth the epistle, and the Deacon the godspelle. Priestes of al degrees, are charged to prayse God seuen times a daie, and to praye with ordenarie oraisons. Towarde the eueninge, euensonge: and compline more late. Matines in the morninge, and incontinente prime, and howres, in ordre of tyme, as thei stande in ordre [Footnote: Hora prima, tertia, sexta, nona.] of name. And this humbly before the aultare, if he maye conueniently, with his face towarde the Easte. The pater nostre and the Crede, said thei, onely at the beginning of their seruice, as the commune people do nowe a daies also. Saincte Ierome, at the vrgent request of Pope Damasus, parted out the Psalmes acording to the daies of the wieke. And appoincted for euery houre a porcion of propre psalmes. For the nighte houres on the holy daye, ix. and on the working daye, xii. For laudes in the morning, v. for euensonge as many, and for eche other houre but thre. He also ordeined the Epistles, Godspelles, and other seruice, vsed to be red out of the olde or newe testament, in maner altogether, sauing the note. The Anthemes (which Ambrose, Bysshoppe of Millayne wrate, and endited) Damasus put ordre that the quiere should sing side aftre side, and added to euery psalmes ende. Gloria patri, &c. The lessons and Himpnes that go before eche one of the howres did the counceiles of Thoulouse and Agathone aucthorise. The orisons, the grailes, the tractes, the Alleluya, thoffertorie, the Communions in the Masse, the Anthemes, Versicles, repitions, and other thinges, either songe or redde by nyghte or by daye, to the beautifieng, and praysing of God: did Gregory, Gelasius, Ambrose, and many other holy fathers, deuise, and put furthe, not at one time but at sondry. The Masse (so terme thei the sacrifice) was firste vsed to be done in suche simple sorte, as yet is accustomed, vppon good Friday, and Easter euen, with certeine lessons before it. But then Pope Celestinus put to the office of the Masse. Thelesphorus, Gloria in excelsis: But Hilarius of Pictauia made the Et in terra. Simachus ordeined it to be songue. The Salutacions, which by the terme of Dominus vobiscum, be made seuen tymes in a Masse, ware taken out of the booke of Ruthe, by Clemente and Anaclete, and put in, in their places. Gelasius made vp all the reste to the Offertory, in the same ordre thei be vsed. Excepte the Sequences and the Crede: wherof Nicolas put in the firste, and Damasus the nexte: acordinge to the Sinode of Constantinople. The bidding of the beades, with the collacion that was wonte to be made in the pulpite on Sondaies, and halydaies: raither grewe to a custome by the example of Nehemias, and Esdras, then was by any aucthorised. In this collation at the firste comming vp therof, when so many as ware presente at the Masse did receiue the communion, acording as was ordeyned by a decree: thei that ware at any discorde ware exhorted to concorde, and agremente. And that thei should receiue the sacrament of the aulter cleane from the filthe of sinne, vppon the whiche consideracion at this daye it endeth with confiteor, or an open confession. There ware thei wonte to teache the instrumentes of the olde lawe, and the newe. The ten commaundementes. The xii. articles of our beleue. The seuen sacramentes, holy folkes liues, and Martirdomes, holy dayes, doctrines, and disciplines: vertues, and vices, and what soeuer are necessary beside forthe, for a Christiane to knowe. Gregory linked on the offertorie. Leo the prefaces. Gelasius the greate Canon, and the lesse. The Sanctus blessed Sixtus. And Gregory the Pater noster out of the Gospelle of sainte Mathewe. Martialle the scholer of blessed Peter, deuised that Bysshoppes should gyue their benediction at the Agnus. And as for other inferiour priestes, Innocentius commaunded them to giue the paxe, that is to saye peace. Sergius tacked on the Agnus, and Gregory the poste communion. The closing vp of all with Ite missa est, Benedicamus, Deos gratias: was Leoes inuencion. The xii. articles of our beleue, whiche the blessed Apostles would euery manne not onely to confesse with mouthe, but to beleue also in harte, are these. Firste, that ther is one God in Trinitie, the father almighty maker of heauen and earthe. The seconde, Iesus Christe, his onely sonne our Lorde. The thirde, the same beinge conceiued of the holye ghoste, to haue bene borne of the Virgine Marie. The fourthe, to haue suffred vndre Ponce Pilate, to haue bene crucified, deade, bewried, and to haue descended in to helle. The fiueth, to haue risen agayne the thirde daye fro the deade. The sixteth, to haue ascended vp into the heauens, and to sitte on the right hande of God the father almighty. The seuenth, that he shall come fro thence like a triumpher, to iudge the quicke and the deade. The eight, that ther is an holy ghoste. The nineth, that there is an holy churche vniuersalle, the communion of the godly and good. The tenthe, forgiuenesse of sinnes. Thee eleuenth, the rising againe of the flesshe. The twelueth, aftre our departing, life in another worlde euerlasting. The tenne commaundementes, which God wrate with his owne finger, and gaue vnto the Israelites by Moses, whiche thapostles willed vs also to kiepe. The firste, thou shalte haue none other Goddes but me. The seconde, thou shalte not make any grauen Image, or likenesse of any thing that is in heauen aboue, in the earthe benethe, or in the water vnder the earthe, thou shalt not bowe doune to them, nor worshippe them. The third, thou shalt not take the name of thy lorde God in vaine. The fowrthe, remembre that thou kiepe holie thy Sabboth daie. The fiueth, honour thy father and mother. The sixteth, thou shalte doe no murdre. The seuenth, thou shalte not commit adulterie. The eight, thou shalte not steale. The nineth, thou shalt beare no false witnesse against thy neighbour. The tenthe, thou shalte not desyre thy neighbours home, his wife, his seruaunte, his maide, his Oxe, nor his Asse, nor any thing that is thy neighbours. The seuen Sacramentes of the churche, which are contained in the fiue laste Articles of our beleue, and commaunded vs by the holie fathers to be beleued. The firste, diepyng into the water, called Baptisyng, aftre the Greke. This, by canonicalle decree, in time paste was not wonte to be giuen (excepte greate necessitie soner required it) but to those that had bene scholers a space afore, to learne the thinges appertinent to Christendome. Yea, and that aftre thei had bene exceadingly welle enstructed in the faithe: and proufe taken of their profityng, by seuen examinations, which ware made vpon seuen seueralle daies in the Lente, and so ware thei Baptissed vpon Easter euen, and Whitesondaie euen. Vpon whiche daies, thei ware accustomed to hallowe the christening watre, in euery Paroche. But because this specially of all other, is chiefly necessarie vnto euerlasting saluation: leasse any bodie should die without it, thei decreed that assone as the childe was borne, godfathers should be sought for it, as it ware for witnesses or sureties whiche should bryng the childe vnto the Churche doore, and there to stande without. And then the Priest should enquire, before the childe be dieped in the Fonte, whether it haue renounced Sathan and all his pompe and pride. If it beleue certeinely and wholie, all the Articles of the Christiane faithe. And the Godfathers answering, yea: for it, the Prieste breathyng thrise vpon his face, exorciseth it, and catechiseth it. Aftre that, doeth he seuen thinges to the childe in ordre. Firste, he putteth into the mouth hallowed salt. Secondely, he mingleth earthe and his spattle toguether, and smereth the eyes, eares, and nosethrilles of the childe. Thirdly, giuyng it suche name as it shall euer aftre bee called by: he marketh it on the breaste and backe with holie oile, aftre the facion of a crosse. Fourthly, he diepeth it thrise in the Watre, or besprinkleth it with watre thrise, in maner of a crosse, in the name of the holie Trinitie, the father, the sonne, and holie ghoste. In the whiche, name also, all thother Sacramentes are ministred. Fiuethly, weting his thumbe in the holie ointement, he maketh therewith a Crosse on the childes foreheade. Sixthly, he putteth a white garment vppon it. Seuenthly, he taketh it in the hande a Candle brennyng. The Iewes before thei be Christened (by the determinacion of the counsaile holden at Agathone), are cathechised, that is to saie, are scholers at the enstruction of our beleue nine monethes. And are bound to fast fourtie daies: to dispossesse them selues of all that euer thei haue, and to make free their bonde men. And looke whiche of their children thei haue Circumcised, acording to Moses lawe: hym are thei bounde to banishe their companie. No merueile therefore if thei come so vnwillingly to christendome. Bishopping, whiche the Latines calle Confirmacion, a confirming, a ratifieng, establishyng, auethorisyng, or allowyng of that went before: is the second Sacramente. And is giuen of the Bishoppe onely, before the Aultare in the Churche, to suche as are of growen yeres, and fastyng (if it maie be) aftre this maner. As many as shalbe Confirmed, come all together with euery one a godfather. And the Bishoppe aftre he hath saied one orasion ouer them all, wetyng his thumbe in the holie oile, maketh a crosse vpon eche of their foreheades: In the name of the father, sonne, and holie ghoste. And giueth hym a blowe on the lefte chieke, for a remembraunce of the Sacrament, that he come not for it againe. The godfathers, to the ende the enoilyng should not droppe awaie, or by negligence bee wiped awaie, clappe on a faire filette on the foreheade, whiche ther iudge to be unlawfully taken awaie, before the seuenth daie. The holie fathers estemed this Sacrament so highly, that if the name giuen to the childe at his Christendome, siemed not good: the Bishoppe at the giuyng hereof mighte chaunge it. The thirde Sacramente is holie Ordres whiche in the firste Churche, was giuen likewise of the Bishoppe, onely in the monethe of Decembre. But now at sixe seueralle tymes of the yere: that is to saie, the fowre Saturdaies in the embre wekes (whiche ware purposely ordeined therefore) vpon the Saturdaie, whiche the Churche menne calle Sitientes, because the office of the Masse for that daie appoineted, beginneth with that woorde, and vpon Easter euen. This Sacrament was giuen onely to menne: and but to those neither, whose demeanour and life, disposition of bodie, and qualitie of minde, ware sufficiently tried and knowen. Aftre the opinion of some, there were seuen ordres, or degrees, wherby the holy fathers would vs to beleue that there ware seuen speciall influences, as it ware printed in the soule of the receiuer, wherby eche one for eche ordre, was to be compted an hallowed manne. Aftre the mindes of other there ware nine. That is to saie, Musicens (whiche encludeth singing and plaieng) Doore kiepers, Reders Exorcistes, Acholites, Subdeacon, Deacon, Prieste and Bishop. And for all this, it is compted but one Sacramente, by the reason that all these tende to one ende, that is to saie, to consecrate the Lordes bodie. To euery one of these did the Counsaile of Toledo in Spaine, appoinete their seueralle liueries, and offices in the Churche. The Dorekepers had the office of our Common Sexteine, to open the churche dores, to take hede to the churche, and to shutte the dores. And had therfore a keie giuen vnto theim, when thei ware admitted to this ordre. The Reader, in signe and token of libertie to reade the Bible, and holie stories, had a greate booke giuen, him. The Exorcistes, serued to commaunde euille sprites oute of menne, and in token therof, had a lesse booke giuen them. The Acholite, had the bearyng and the orderyng of the Tapers, Candelstickes, and Cruettes at the Altare: and therfore had a Candelsticke, a Taper, and two emptie Cruorettes deliuered hym. The Subdeacon, mighte take the offring, and handle the Chalice, and the Patine, carie theim to the Altare, and fro the Altare, and giue the Deacon Wine and water, out of the Cruettes. And therfore the Bishoppe deliuereth hym an emptie Chalice with a Patine, and the Archdeacon one Cruet full of wine, and another full of watre, and a Towelle. To the Deacons, is the preachyng of Goddes Gospelle to the people committed, and to helpe the priest in al holy ministracion. He hath the Gospelle booke deliuered hym, and a towell hanged vppon his one shouldre, like a yoke. The Prieste hath power to consecrate the Lordes bodie, to praie for sinners, and to reconcile them againe to God by Penaunce enioined them. He hath deliuered hym a Chalice with Wine, the Patine, with a singyng cake, a stole vpon bothe shouldres, and a Chesible. What Ornamentes the Bisshoppe hath giuen vnto hym, ye haue heard afore. He maie not be made Bisshoppe, but on the Sondaie about the iii. houre aftre Prime, betwene thoffice of the Masse and the Gospelle: at the whiche tyme twoo Bisshoppes, and a Metropolitane, laie their handes vpon his heade and a booke. The Bisshoppes in the firste Churche, did litle or nothyng diffre from other Priestes, and ware ruled by the commune Counsailes of the Churche, before that dissencion and deuision entred emong the people, causing theim in sondrie sortes, to cleaue vnto sondrie names, euery sorte as thei fortuned to be conuerted and Christened of a sondrie persone. As whom Paule Baptised, thei would be called Paulines. Whom Appollo, Appollonians, Whome Cephas, Cephites, and so of other. To auoide therefore these breaches of concorde, and for an vniformitie, the holy fathers ware driuen to decree and stablish that asmany as should aftreward be baptised, should be called Christianes of Christe. And that ouer euery Countie or Shiere, there should be sette one Prieste or moe, acordyng to the greatnesse of the same, suche as ware best tried. Whiche should haue to name, Ouersears in Englishe: in Greke, Episcopj. Whom we cal Bishopes, by chaungyng of P. into B. and leauing out the E. for shortnes, acordyng to the nature of our tongue. These mighte not then gouerne their Clergie, and other their Diocesans, at their owne pleasure, as thei did before: but acording to the decrees of the Churche of Rome, and the holie Counsailes of the fathers assembled. Then began thei firste (by the suffraunce and helpe of deuoute princes) to deuide all Christendome into Dioceses, and the Diocesse into Conuocacions or Chaptres, and those againe into Paroches, and to set that goodly ordre, that yet continueth, aswell emong the clergie as the laietie. That the parishe should obeie their lawfull Persone, the Persone the Deane: the Deane the Bishoppe: the Bishoppe, the Archebishoppe. The Archebishoppe, the Primate or Patriarche: the Primate or Patriarche, the Legate: the Legate, the Pope: the Pope the generalle Counsaille: the generalle Counsaile, God alone. For the fourthe Sacramente it is holden, that euery prieste rightly priested, acordyng to the keies of the Churche, hauing an entente to consecrate, and obseruynge the fourme of the woordes: hathe power, of wheaten breade to make the very bodie of Christe, and of wine to make his very bloude. Christe our Lorde hym selfe, the daye before he suffred, kepte it solemnly with his disciples, and consecrated, and ordeined it continually to be celebrated, and eaten in the remembraunce of him selfe. And about this mattier a man had nede of a great faythe. Firste to beleue the breade to be chaunged into the body, and the wine into the bloude of Christe. Againe thoughe this be done euery daye that yet Christ for all that should growe neuer a whitte the bigger for the making, nor the lesse for the eatinge. Thirdely that the Sacrament being deuyded into many partes, Christ should yet remaine whole in euery cromme. Fourthly that thoughe the wicked eate it, yet should not it be defiled. Fiuethly, that it bringeth to as many euyll as receiue it, death; and to the good euerlasting life. Sixthly that it tourneth not into the nature of the eater to his nourisshemente as other meate dothe: but turneth the eater contrariwise into the nature of it selfe. And yet being eaten, that it is rapte into heauen, vnhurte or vntouched. Seuenthly that in so smalle a syse of breade and wine, the infinite, and incomprehensible Christe, God and manne shoulde be comprehended. Then, that one, and the self same bodye of Christe, at one very instaunte, shoulde be in many places, and of many menne receiued at ones, and in sondrye parcelles. Ninethly that thoughe the bread it selfe be chaunged into the very flesshe of Christe, and the wine into his bloude, that yet to all the sences thei remaine breade and wine, and neither flesshe ne bloud. Further that all these commodities conteined in these verses folowing should happen vnto those that worthely eate it. It putteth in mynde and kindleth, encreaseth hope, and strengtheneth. Mainteineth; clenseth, restoreth, giues life, and vniteth. Stablissheth beliefe, abates the foode of sinne, and all vnclennes quencheth. Finally, to be very profitable for the saluacion aswell of those liuyng as deade, for whom it is specially offred by the priest in the Masse. And therefore to haue to name Eucharistia communio. In the beginning of the Christianne faithe (and yet amonge certeine schismatiques as thei saye) one whole lofe was consecrated, of suche bigguenesse, as when the Priest had broken it in a platter into smalle pieces, it, mighte suffise the whole multitude that ware at the masse to participate of. For in time paste the Christianes came euery day to communicate by a speciall commaundemente, and ordenaunce. Aftrewarde but ones in a wieke and that on the Sonday. But whan it began to be skant well kepte vppon the Sonday neither: then was it commaunded that euery manne should receiue it thrise in the yere, or ones at the leaste, at euery Easter. And that euery Christian manne, when he stode in any daungier of death, beyng whole of minde, should receiue it as a waifaring viande, to staye him by the waye: with as good preparation of bodye and soule, as he possibly mighte. Matrimonie (whiche is the lawefulle coupling of the manne and the woman) broughte in by the lawe of nature, the lawe of God, the lawe of all peoples, and the lawe ciuille, is the fiueth Sacrament. The holy fathers woulde haue but one mariage at ones, and that not in secrete but with open solemnitie eyther in the churche, or in the churche porche, and so that the priest be called to the matier. Who shold firste examine the man, and then the womanne, whether thei bothe consent to be maried together. Yf thei be agreed (whiche is chiefely in this case requisite) he taking them bothe by the right handes: coupleth them together in the name of the holy and vnseperable trinitie, the father, the sonne, and the holy ghoste. And commaundeth, and exhorteth them that thei alwaye remembring this their coupling of their owne free wille and consent: as longe as they liue, neuer forsake one another but loue and honour one another, be debonaire and buxome one to another, giuing them selues to procreacion, and not to lecherous luste. And that thei honestly and diligently bringe vp, suche children as God sendeth them of theyr bodies. Aftre that he affiaunceth them both with one ringe. And sprinckling holy water vpon them, reacheth them a stole, and leadeth them into the churche, where (yf thei ware not blessed afore) he blesseth them knieling before the altare. The woman hath on a redde fillet or frontelette, and ouer that a white veile, withoute the whiche it is not lawfulle for her fro that daye forwarde, to go oute of doores abrode, or to sitte by any manne. Twelue thinges ther be, whiche the holy fathers woulde haue to barre persons from contracting of matrimonie, and to disseuer them againe, yf thei be contracted. Errour of person, that is to saye, mistaking one for another. A betrowthing vpon a condicion, Consanguinitie or kindred, An open crime, Diuersitie of secte, Force, or constrainte, Holy ordres, a Bonde or former contracte, Commune or open honestie, Affinitie, and Disshabilitie of engendrure. The sixteth Sacramente is penaunce or repentaunce, giuen of Christe as it ware for a wracke boorde, wherby men are preserued fro drowninge. Eche Christian oughte vndoubtedly to beleue that this consisteth in foure poinctes. To saie, in Repentaunce of our sinnes, Canonicaile confession, Absolucion, and Satisfaction, or amendes. Firste let him sorowe, not with a lighte forthinckinge, but with a moste earneste and bittre repentaunce in the botome of his conscience: for the puritie and innocencie that he had gotten eyther by baptisme or the benefite of former repentaunce, and nowe hathe eftsones loste, and forgone throughe sinne. And let him hope with this repentaunce, to be reconciled to the fauour of God againe. And let him humbly, and truly with his owne mouthe, confesse to a wise prieste, in the steade of God: all those offences wherwith he knoweth him selfe to haue loste his innocencie and clennesse, and to haue prouoked the wrathe of GOD againste him selfe. And let him assuredly beleue that the same prieste, hath power giuen him of Christe (as beinge his vienre, or deputie on earthe) to absolue him of all his sinnes. Finally, for satisfaction or amendes making for the faulte: lette him not with grudginge, but chierfully, and gladly doe, what so euer he shalbe commaunded. Beleuing with vndoubted faith, that he is absolued, and quyte of all, assone as the priest in dewe forme of wordes, hath pronounced the absolucion. The seuenth, and the laste Sacrament is the laste enoynting, by an oyle that is made to this vse, by the bishope in euery diocesse, by an yerely custome vpon Maundy Thursdaie, like as the chrismatory oyle is. And this by the precepte of sainte Iames the Apostle, and by the ordinaunce of Felix, the fourthe Pope after Sainte Peter: was giuen only to them that laie in dyeng, being of full age, and requyring it. Thei vse to enoynte with a prescripte fourme of wordes; and with often inuocacion of sainetes: those partes of the bodie, wher our fiue wittes or senses: the hearing, seyng, smelling, tasting and touching, beare moste stroke, and with whiche man is iudged chiefely to sinne. That is, the eares, the eyes, the nosthrilles, the mouthe, the handes, and the fete. Whereby the holy fathers would vs to beleue, that there was not onely purchased cleane forgiuenesse of all smaller offences, or venialle sinnes: but also either presente recouerie, or a riper and gentler deathe. All the feastes and holydaies, throughout the yere, which the churche hath commaunded to be obserued and kept: beginne at the Aduente, or approache of Christe our Lorde. Whiche Peter the Apostle instituted to be obserued in Decembre, with fasting and praier, thre wiekes and a haulfe before Christemas, when we close vp the last. viii. daies of that moneth, with greate ioye and feaste. Thei deuided the yere into two and fiuetie wekes, and xii. seueral monthes. The monethes commonly into xxx. daies. The firste daye of Ianuary the churche recordeth how Christe was circumcised acordinge to Moyses lawe. The iii. daye aftre, howe he was worshipped of the thre Sages, with thre sondry presentes: and howe beinge baptissed of Iohn in Iordaine the floude, he laide the foundacion of the newe Lawe. The seconde of Februarie, how his mother vnspotted, obeyeng the maner of her country: brought hym into the temple, and suffred her self to be purified or clensed, whiche we calle churching of childe. In memorie wherof the churche vseth that daye, solempne procession, and halowing of candles, The fiue and twentieth of Marche, how the aungel brought woorde to the virgin Marie, that Christ shoulde be borne of her, being conceyued in her wombe; by the ouershadowing of the holy ghoste. At the whiche time they willed vs to faste the fourtie daies that he fasted him selfe, being with vs vppon earth, and to renewe the remembraunce of his passion, and deathe, which he willingly susteined to deliuer vs fro the yoke and bondage of the deuell. The laste day of that faste, which oftentimes falleth in Aprille, to celebrate the highest featte in althe yere: in remembraunce howe he ouer came deathe, descended into helle, vanquisshed the deuell, and retourned againe on liue, and appeared in glorious wyse vnto his scholers, or disciples. In Maye, how all those his scholers loking vpon him, he by his owne vertue and mighte, stied vp into the heauens. At the whiche time, by thordenaunce of saincte Mamerte, bishoppe of Vienne: there be made ganginges with the lesse Letanies from one Churche to another, all Christendome ouer. In Iune, and somtime in Maie, how the holy ghoste, promised to the disciples, giuen from aboue, appered to them like glowing tongues: and gaue them to vndrestande, and to speake the tonges of al nacions. Theight daie folowing, Trinitie Sondaie. The fiueth daie aftre that, how Christe in his laste supper, for a continualle remembraunce of himself, instituted the moste holsome Sacramente of his bodie and bloud, vndre the fourme of breade and wine leauyng it to be sene and eaten of his. The fiuetenth of Iuly, how the blessed Apostles, acordyng as thei ware commaunded, the twelueth yere aftre the Ascension of their Master into heauen: wente their waies into the vniuersalle worlde, to Preache vnto all people. The departyng of Christes mother out of this life, the fiuetenth daie of Auguste. And her Natiuitie, theight of Septembre. And thone and twentie of Nouembre, how she from, thre yeres of age (at the whiche tyme she was presented to the temple) vntill she was mariage able, remained there seruing God stil a peace. And theight of Decembre, how she was of her parentes begotten, that longe afore had bene barreine. The second daie of Iulie, how Elisabethe passyng the Mounteines, visited her kindeswoman. There ware also certeine holie daies appoincted to the xii. Apostles. To certeine Martyres, Confessours, and Virgines As the fowre and twentieth of Februarie to saincte Matthie. To saincte Marke the Euangeliste, the xxv. of Aprille. Vpon the whiche daie, Gregorie ordeined the greate Letanies to be songe. The firste of Maie is hallowed for Philippe and Iames the more. The xxix. of Iune, for Petre and Paule: and the xxiiii. of the same, for the Natiuitie of S. Ihon Baptiste. The xxv. of Iuly, for Iames the lesse. For Bartholomewe the fowre and twentie of August. For Mathewe, the one and twentie of Septembre. And the eight and twentie of Octobre, for Simon and Iude. The last of Nouembre, for S. Andrewe. The one and twentie of Decembre, for saincte Thomas. And the vii. and twentie of thesame moneth for Ihon the Euangeliste. The daie before, for Stephin the firste Martire. And the daie aftre for the Innocentes. The tenth of August for sainct Laurence. And the thre and twentie of Aprille, for saincte George. Of all the Confessours, there are no moe that haue holidaies appoincted, but S. Martine and saincte Nicholas. The firste, on the eleuenth of Nouembre: and the other the sixteth of Decembre. Katherine the virgine, the fiue and twentie of Nouembre, and Marie Magdalene the twentie and two of Iuly. There is also vndre the name of saincte Michael alone, the xxix. of Septembre: a holy daie for all blessed Angelles. And one other in commune for all the sainctes, and chosen of GOD, the firste of Nouembre. Thei would also that euery seuenthe daie, should be hallowed of the Christianes, by the name of Sondaie, as the Iewes doe their Sabboth: restyng from all worldly woorke, and beyng onely occupied with praising of GOD, and the deuine Seruice in the Churched. To learne by the Priestes preachyng, the Gospelle and the commaundementes of our faith. And by what meanes so euer we thinke in our conscience we haue prouoked the wrathe of God against us all the wieke afore: that, this daie to amende, to sette cliere, and aske pardone for. In time past euery Thursdaie also was kepte as the Sondaie. But because we might sieme therein, somewhat to gratifie the Heathen (whiche that daie kepte solempne holie daie, to Iupiter their Idolle) it was laied doune againe. More ouer the clerkes and the people, vsed bothe Thursdaie and Sondaie before Masse, to go rounde aboute the Churche a Procession, and the Prieste, to sprinckle the people with holy watre. Agapitus instituted the one and the other. The Thursdaie, in remembraunce of Christes Ascencion, and the Sondaie, of his glorious Resurrection: which we celebrate fro Sondaie to Sondaie continually, ones euery eight daies. The night afore euery ordenary holidaie or feastefull daie: the whole clergie, and the people, ware bounde to kiepe Vigile in euery churche. That is to saie, to wake all nighte, in deuine seruice and praier. But vpon consideracion of many slaunderous crimes and offences, that ware by diuers naughtie and malicious persones committed, by the oportunitie of the darke: this maner was taken awaie, and ordeined that the daie before the feaste, should be fasted, whiche yet kiepeth stille the name of Vigile. The fathers decreed that the churche in the whole yere should renue the memorie of fiue thynges. Fro the Sondaie called Septuagesima (because there are seuentie daies, betwiene that and the octaues of Easter) thei would vs to renue the memorie of Christes Fasting, Passion, Death and Bewrialle. The miserable falle also of our first parentes, and those extreme errours of mankinde, by the whiche thei ware ledde awaie fro the knowledge and worshippe of one verie GOD: to the wicked supersticion and honour of Idolles and deuelles. And further, the greuous and intollerable bondage that the people of Israeli suffred vndre the Pharao of Egipte. Vpon whiche consideracion, the bookes of Genesis and Exodus be redde in the seruice of the churche. Whiche sheweth then in all her demeanour, and appareilyng, heauinesse and sorowe. From the octaues of Easter, to the octaues of Whitsontide, Christes Resurrection, and Ascencion, with the commyng of the holy Ghoste. And together with that, the redempcion, reconclliacion, and atonement of mankinde with God the father, throughe Iesus Christe: and the restoryng againe of the children of Israeli, to the lande of beheste. Wherein was prefigured our reconciliacion and redempcion aforesaid. For that cause is all the seruice out of the newe Testament, and al thinges done with ioie and gladnes. From the octaues of Whitsontide, till Aduente, xx. wiekes space, and more, thei would haue to bee celebrated the conuersation of Christ here in the worlde, with his miracles and woorkes of wondre. And ouer and beside that, the longe pilgrimage, that mankinde, by longe reuolucion maketh, from one generacion to another, from the tyme of our redempcion, saluacion, and sauing, vntill the laste daie of time. Wherefore duryng this while, vpon consideracion of the diverse happe and hasarde, wherwith the Churche is tossed, like a Shippe in the troubled Seas, she neither greatly reioiceth, ne sorroweth, but redeth grcate chaunge of bookes, oute of the olde and newe Testamente: to the ende she maie walke the warelier, and the bettre wijnde her self out of the stormes, that are ready to assaile her. From Aduente to Christemas, to remembre the tyme from Moses, to the commyng of Messias. In the whiche mankinde certefied of saluacion, bothe by the lawe and the Prophetes, awaited with moste earneste desires for his comming, and the kingdome that he shold haue. Wherefore thei ordeined that the Prophecies should be redde, and fasting exercised. That the churche the bettre enstructed, and abled by these, mighte the worthelier receiue the Birthe daie of Christ her Lorde (whiche euer falleth the fowerth wieke aftre) and from thens holde on with feaste, and continuall gladnesse vntill Septuagessima. Reioisyng that he was now come: whiche should bee the sauluiour of the worlde. Their oratories Temples, or places of praier (whiche we calls Churches) might not be built without the good will of the Bisshoppe of the Diocese. And when the Timbre was redy to be framed, and the foundacion digged: it behoued; them to send for the Bishoppe, to hallowe the firste corner stone of the foundacion, and to make the signe of the crosse thervpon, and to laie it, and directe, it iuste Easte and Weste. And then might the Masons sette vpon the reste, but not afore. This Churche did thei vse to builde, aftre the facion of a crosse, and not vnlike the shape of a manne. The Chauncelle (in the whiche is conteined the highe Altare and the Quiere) directe full into the East, representeth the heade. And therefore ought to be made somwhat rounde, and muche shorter then the body of the churche. And yet vpon respecte that the heade is the place for the eyes, it ought to be of more lighte, and to bee separate with a particion, in the steade of a necke, from the body of the Churche. This particion the Latine calleth Cancelli; and out of that cometh our terme, Chauncelle. On eche side of this chauncelle peraduenture (for so fitteth it beste) should stand a Turret, as it ware for two eares. And in these the Belles to be hanged, to calle the people to Seruice, by daie and by night. Vndre one of these Turretes, is there commonly a voulte, whose doore openeth into the quiere. And in this are laid vp, the hallowed vesselles and ornamentes, and other vtensiles of the church. We calle it a vestrie. The other parte oughte so to be fitted, that hauing as it ware on eche side an arme, the reste maye resemble the bodye with the fete stretched in breadthe, and in lengthe. On eche side of the bodye the pillers to stonde. Vpon whose coronettes or heades the vaulte or rophe of the churche maye reste. And to the foote beneth, aulters to be ioyned. Those aulters to be ordrely alway couered with two aulter clothes, and garnisshed with the crosse of Christe, or some little cofre of reliques. At eche ende a canlesticke: and a booke towarde the myddes. The walles to be parieted without, and within, and diuersly paincted. That thei also should haue in euery parisshe a faire sounde stone, made holowe and fitte to holde water: in the whiche the water consecrate for baptisme, may be kept for the christening of children. Vpon the right hande of the highe aulter, that ther should be an almorie, either cutte into the walle, or framed vpon it: in the whiche thei woulde haue the Sacrament of the Lordes bodye, the holy oyle for the sicke, and the Chrismatorie, alwaie to be locked. Furthermore thei woulde that ther should be a pulpite in the middes of the churche, wherein the prieste maye stonde vpon Sondaies and holidayes, to teache the people those thinges that it behoueth them to knowe. The chauncelle to serue onely for the priestes, and clerkes. The rest of the temporalle multitude to be in the body of the church. Separate notwithstonding, the men on the ryghte side, and the women, on the lefte. And eche of them to be sobre and honest in apparelle and behauour. Whatsoeuer is contrary to good facion or Christiane religion, with greate dilligence to shonne it. It was the maner in the first churche, both among men and women, to lette their heare growe, to shewe out their naked skinne, and very litle or nothing to diffre in apparelle. Sainct Peter put first ordre, that women should couer their heades, and menne rounde their heare, and either of them to go in seueralle and sondrye apparelle. Moreouer that to euery churche, shold be laid out a churchyarde, of the grounde adioyning, in the whiche all Christen mennes bodies mighte indifferently bebewried. The same to be consecrate, or halowed by the bishoppe, and to enioye all the priuilegies that the churche may enioye. The funeralle for the deade, thei kepe not in euery place ylike. Some mourne and kiepe dirige and Masse seuen daies continualle together, some ix. some xxx. or fourtye some, fiuetie, and a hundred, and other a whole yere, wrapped vp in blacke. The counseile of Toledo ordeined that the corps beinge firste wasshed, and then wrapped vp in a shiete, shoulde be caried forthe with singing by menne of his owne condicion or sorte, clerkes by clerkes, and laye menne of laye menne. And aftre what time the priest hath sensed the corps, throwen holy water vppon it, and said certeine prayers, to laye it into the graue with the face vpwarde, and the heade into the Weaste. Then to throwe in the earth again, and in token that ther is a Christian ther bewried, to sette vp a crosse of wodde, garnisshed with yvie, cipres, or laurelle. These be the ordres and facions of the Christiane religion. FINIS. Imprinted at London by John Kyngston and Henri Sutton. The xxii daye of December Anno Domini MDLV. THE CONQUEST OF THE GRAND CANARIES, MADE THIS LAST SUMMER BY THREESCORE AND THIRTEENE SAILE OF SHIPPES, SENT FORTH AT THE COMMAND AND DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL OF THE VNITED PROUINCES, TO THE COAST OF SPAINE AND THE CANARIE-ISLES: WITH THE TAKING OF A TOWNE IN THE ILE OF GOMERA AND THE SUCCESSE OF PART OF THE SAIDE FLEETE IN THEIR RETURNED HOMEWARD. WHICH SET SAILE FOR SPAINE THE 25 OF MAIE, AND RETURNED HOME THE 10 OF SEPTEMB. 1599. At London: PRINTED BY P.S. FOR W. ASPLEY, DWELLING IN PAULES CHURCHYARD AT THE SIGNE OF THE TYGERS HEAD. 1599. NOTE The following very curious and interesting pamphlet was not included in the edition of 1598-1600. It was, however, inserted in the fifth volume of the small edition, 4to., of 1812, and is here transposed to that part of the Voyages relating to the Canaries, etc. Originally printed for "W. Apsley, dwelling in. Paules Church-Yard, at the signe of the Tygers Head" in 1599, it is of the utmost rarity, and for that reason I have thought it right to give the original title-page.--_E. G._ A TRUE REPORT OF A VOYAGE MADE THIS LAST SUMMER, BY A FLEETE OF 73. SHIPPES, SENT FORTH AT THE COMMANDE AND DIRECTION OF THE STATES GENERALL OF THE VNITED PROUINCES, TO THE COAST OF SPAINE AND THE CANARIE-ISLES. Tuesday the 25. daie of Maie the wind being Northe and Northe-east, we in the fleete of Roterdam, being 20. saile of ships, the sunne beeing Southe-west and by West, came before Flushing, and ankered neere vnto Cleiburch; our generall at his comming found the fleetes of North-Holland, and Zealand ready. Wednesday, the 26. daie wee remained there at anchor. Thursday the 27. daie of Maie, we tooke into our ships (by the Generals commandement) two gentlemen and foure souldiours. Friday the 28. of May 1599, the wind being northerly, we waied our anchors, and sailed from the Weelings with 73. ships, hauing faire weather, setting our course West, Southwest. Wee had 3. Admirals in this fleete, whereof the chiefe Admirall was the ship of William Derickson Cloper, wherein was embarked the honourable gentleman Peter Van Doest being generall of the fleete. This ship was called the Orange, carying in her top a flag of Orange colour, vnder whose squadron was certaine Zelanders, with some South and North Hollanders; Ian Geerbranston caried the white flag vnder whom the Zelanders and ships of the Maze were appointed. And Cornelius Gheleinson of Vlyshing wore in his maine top the blew flag, vnder whom were appointed certaine ships of the Maze with some North Hollanders. Thus were wee deuided into sondry squadrons, but to what ende it was so done, it is to me, and many others vnknowne. Saturday the 29. of Maie, hauing sight of Callis, the ships lay to the lee ward, and staied for the rereward. The Lord generall shot off a peece, and afterward hung out the princes flag, in signe that the captains shold come aboord him, presently al the captains entred into their boates, and rowed aboord the General, at which time were two pinnaces sent out of the fleet, whereof one was the Generals Pinnace, but vnto what place they sailed, wee were altogether ignorant. And when the boates rowed from the Generall, some of them went aboord the victualers, and tooke out of them certaine fire-workes. The sunne Southwest, the Generall discharged an other peece of ordinance, and put out the Princes flag, wherevpon presently the captaines went aboord him, and when our captaine returned, he had in his hande a letter closed vp, which hee brought from the Generall, and wee imagined that euery captaine had receiued the like, and then wee sailed altogether toward the higth of Blacknesse, where wee anchored, (which caused vs greatly to wonder, seeing we had so faire a wind,) but we perceiued afterwards, that this was done, to the ende we should there abide the coming of the great new ship of Amsterdam: for the soldiours which were appointed for her, were all with vs in a ship of our company. Sunday, the 30. of Maie, where lying at anchor al that night, the next morning we set saile altogether hauing the winde at North East, wee set our course West Northwest, the weather being faire. The same morning our captain read vnto vs those very articles which before had bin read vnto vs in the prince Mauritz his Court, and afterwards we altogether, and with one accord were sworne to the keeping of them: At noone we were neere vnto Beuersier hauing a fine gale out of the East Northeast, the euening was calme, the foremost shippes slacked their sailes, attending the comming in of the hindermost. Wednesday the ninth of Iune by the breake of daie we were hard vnder the coast of Spaine neere to Viuero, the winde being westerly, we sailed North West and by North, and North Northwest, the sunne Southwest and by West, we were ouer against the cape Ortegael, we sailed North West and by North, to fetch the wind: we were in 44. degrees 20. minuts, at twilight, we had the foresaid Cape of vs about 5. miles South West and by West. Thursday the 10. of Iune, the winde being at East South East, wee directed our course towardes the shore, and might certainly discerne that it was the coast of Ortegall, we bore in West Southwest directly with the land, and ordered all thinges as if we presently should haue had battell, and about noone wee had sight of the Groyne, namely the tower which standeth neere the Groine. Friday, the 11. of Iune, at the breake of day the winde being at North East and by East, sixe of our ships sailed forwarde South Southwest, meaning to enter the Groine, and there to learne how al things stood. The sunne being Southeast, Cape Prior was East from vs, wee bare South, presently after we spied two boates comming out of Veroli to learn what ships we were, the rather because that the day before they had seen our fleete at sea: we sailed by the wind, and lay in the wind to stay for their comming. The one doubting vs woulde not come neere vs, the other boat also durst not approch neere vs; wee called to one of the Spaniardes, saying wee came from Hamborch laden with cordage and other goods, desiring and praying him to let vs haue a Pilot to bring vs into the Groine, wherewith the boate came aboord vs, so that by our great haste, and policie we got one Spaniard, the other which remained in the boate would not come into our ship, but presently thrust off their boate, making all possible speede to get from vs. Hauing nowe gotten this Spaniarde, hee was presently deliuered into the handes of the Generall, who confessed that there were about 4000. souldiours come into the towne, with certaine horsemen, 36. waggons with money, and 300. pipes of wine, to furnish the Spanish fleet, that he lay the night past in the Groine, and was the Kings seruant. [Sidenote: The whole fleet cometh before the Groine.] The sun South South-West, we came with fleet our whole fleete before the Groine, where wee found the great newe ship of Amsterdam vnder the Towne. At 12. 13. and 10. fadome we cast anchor, so that wee might behold much people both on the shoare and vpon the wals of the town: from the castle and town both, they shot mightely with their great ordinance into our fleet, so that there were aboue 200. cannon shot discharged, wherewith some of our ships were hit, but not one man lost, and little hurt done otherwise. There lay an other castle East ward from the towne, which shot also most terribly, but altogether vncertainly, for we know not that they touched any one ship more then Moy Lambert, which was greatly, to bee wondered at, seeing our fleete lay so thicke together, and so neere vnder the castle. There laie hard vnder the castle 12. great Gallions, with some French ships, which also nowe and then shot among our fleete, but they lay so neere the walles that wee could do them no harme at all. The Lord Generall worthy of al praise, wisely be thinking himselfe, caused all his captaines and counsell to come aboorde him, that they might together conferre vpon this busines, and what meanes might best bee found, to inuade the towne and the enemy, but they concluded not to meddle with the land there: seeing the enemy was there, strong vpon his guard, and that 5. weekes past both from Amsterdam, and by a French man, they had knowledge of our comming; by reason of the calme, wee were constrained to towe out our ships with the boates in dispite of al their shot, thus we parted from the Groyne without profit, or effecting of any thing, leauing the Papists of Groyne as wee founde them, from thence (the winde being at South Southwest) wee bent our course towarde Cape Saint Vincent, meaning to goe to Saint Lucars, hoping to fal vpon them at vnawares, and ere they looked for vs. Saturday the 12. of Iune, hauing got a fine gale we ran along the coast of Galicia, at noone wee were before the Iland of Cesarian, and set our course towards Cape Finister. Sunday the 13. of Iune, the lorde Generall gaue sharpe commandement by his letters, forbidding al men aboorde the ships to vse any play, with tables, cards, or dice, either for money, or for pastime, or vpon credit. Munday the 14. of Iune, the wind blew so harde out of the North, that wee could not beare our topsailes with our forecourse which sailed South, the sunne was southward we had Port a Porte of vs, being in 41. degrees and 20 minuts. Tuesday the 15. of Iune, as soone as day appeared, we had sight of Cape Roxent, and then we sailed making small way, staying for the comming together of the fleete: the wind as before we sailed South Southwest, and were in 36 degrees. Wednesday the 16. of Iune, towardes the euening we had sight of two strange ships eastward of our fleete, certain of our ships made towards them and tooke them, the one was an English man of war; the other was a Spanish barke with three missens: at his comming before the Generall, he said, he had already sent 2. prises into Englande, and woulde now with this prise returne home: for his victuals were almost spent. Thursday the 17. of Iune, it was very still and calme weather. Friday the 18. of Iune, the wind being at North Northeast, we sailed South Southwest. The Lord Generall caused all the Captaines with the Pilots to come aboord him: demanding of them which of them was best acquainted in the Isles of Canaria: and further, by what meanes, they might conquer and force the said Ilands, and land their people. And about noone the captaines were chosen and appointed which shoulde commande on lande. The Generall gaue out newe ensignes, to the number of 9. or 10. according to the number of the ships. The Lord Generall appointed to each new captaine, an Ancient bearer, a Lieutenant, and other officers, with 130. souldiers and mariners, and instructions how euery one of them should gouerne himself on the land. Saturday the 19. of Iune, the Generall commanded that the captaines should deliuer out victuals but twice a day, to wit, 6. and 6. to a messe: for 6. men, 5. cans of beere of Roterdams measure euery day, 5. pounde of breade and no more; a cheese of 6. l. euery weeke, one pound of butter weekely, likewise pease, beanes, or Otemeale twise a day, according to the order. Captaine Harman, and captaine Pije, had each of them commission to commande on the land as captaines ouer two companies of saylers, each company containing 130. men. Harman Thunesson was appointed Ancient to captaine Henricke Pije, and de Blomme Ancient to captaine Hendricke Hertman. The ancients were deliuered the same day. The 20. 21. 22. daies, wee sailed South Southwest, the wind being northerly. Wednesday the 23. of Iune, the wind was North Northeast. The Generall commaunded all the captaines both for the sea and land to come aboord him, where it was ordained and determined how the battell should be ordered, after they were landed. According to the latitude, we found our selues to be 36. miles from great Canaria. Thursday the 24. of Iune, we ranne our foresaid course. The sun being West Northwest, we sawe the land East and by South off vs: wee sailed East and by South, and with great labour and diligence bore all that might with the land. Friday The 25. of Iune, we continued our course to the land for our assured knowledge thereof, and perceiued it to be Lancerot; we saw also a small land (which lay between both) called Allegrania, and also the Iland Forteuentura, which is 24. miles great, afterward we sailed Southwest along the Coast of Forteuentura, which is a lande that hath very high hils. [Sidenote: The whole Netherlandish fleet commeth before the Island and town of Grand Canaria.] The sun Southwest, we were past the Iland Forteuentura, and were sailed out of sight thereof, running as yet Southwest: about ii. a clocke in the afternoone wee had sight of the Iland of great Canaria, for a while wee kept our way, but when the Generall was assured that it was the grand Canaria, wee all tooke in our sailes, and lay to the lee ward, and so remained vntill it was past midnight, then wee set saile againe and made to the lande, our course westwarde. Saturday the 26. of Iune, in the morning the whole fleet sailed West directly to the land the winde North and by East, and made all thinges ready to land; being now neere the shore, the whole fleete let fall their anchors harde by the great castle, which lieth North Northwest from the town, from whence they began to shoot mightily against the ships. The lord Generall and the vize Admirall with the other ships that had the greatest ordenance, anchored close vnder the castle, and for a certain time they plied each other with their great shot; the Generals main mast, and his missen mast were shot thorow, and his vize Admirall, namely the great new ship of Amsterdam was shot thorow 6. or 7. times; so that some of the souldiours and maryners also were slaine before they entered their long boates to rowe to the shore: But the ships for their parts, had so well bestowed their shot on the castle, that they of the castle began to faint, wherby they discharged not so thicke and often as before. Our men rowed to the land in the long boates, euery one full of souldiours, and the ships which could not discharge their ordenance against the castle, bent them against the shore, (for the enemy had three brasse peeces lying vpon the strand) and many people were there gathered together where our souldiours shoulde land. Nowe as soone as the Generall with the most parte of the long boates were come together, they all at one instant rowed toward the shore, maintaining for a while the fight on both sides with their shot. But the General perceiuing that the enemie woulde not abandon the place, with a valiant courage made to the shore, and altogether leaping into the water vp to the middle, maintained the fight with the enemy. Notwithstanding the enemy no lesse couragious, would not yet leaue the strond, so that some of our souldiours and mariners lost their liues before the enemy would retire: for the place was discommodious, and hard to lande, but most of the enemy were slaine, to the number of 30. or 36. and the Gouernor his right leg was shot off, sitting on his horse. The lord General Peter von der Doest leaping first on land, was thrust in his leg with a pike, and had in his body 4. wounds more, and was in great danger to haue lost his life but that one of the souldiours slewe the Spaniarde which meant to haue don it; but his wounds were of small moment, and his ancient bearer was slain with a shot, the Lieutenant Generall was shot in his throte, captaine Kruye in the heade, 4. soldiours were slain, and 15. hurt in the generals pinnace before they could come to land: But when our people now with one courage all together rushed vpon the enemie, (leauing their ordenance behinde them,) they forsooke the strond, and ran together into the town, carying with them their Gouernour, whose leg was shot off, and he was a knight of the order of the crosse, and leauing behind them 36. deade carcases on the strond, were presently by our people ransacked, and our dead people buried. Our men now hauing won the strond, put themselues presently in battell ray; the empty boates returned to the ships, but after our people had taken the strond, the castle did neuer shoot shot. [Sidenote: Twenty foure companies strong of Netherlanders.] After the boates were returned aboord, presently they rowed againe to the shore full of soldiours; our people being all landed, they which for the first time had commandement, set vs in 7. troupes, or battalions, being xxiiii. companies strong, of soldiours and Mariners, with twentie foure Auncientes. At which time we marched a little forward twenty one a brest, and standing altogether in battell; [Sidenote: The first castle taken.] suddainly three mariners came running to the Generall, (which had bin at the castle) telling him that the Spaniards desired to deliuer him the castle, so their liues and goods might be saued: the generall with some of the captaines and souldiours went first thither, and presently the castle was deliuered into his possession, hoping on his pitty and mercy, and leauing behind them all the great ordenance, namely 9. peeces of brasse, and 6. Iron peeces, and also al their weapons. In the castle were about 80. Spaniards, some cannoniers, some soldiors, and some people of the countrey, for the defence thereof: beside powder, shot and match accordingly, for the artillery, and also thirty small peeces or caliuers. Also wee founde 58. prisoners, the rest were slaine with shot in the fury, and some were run away. The prisoners (which our people had taken in the road with two Barkes, and a ship sunke with our ordenance, as they lay all 3. hard before the castle) were sent altogether aboorde the ships except 3. of the principals which the lord General reserued by him, to the end he might the better knowe the state of all things. Presently 80. soldiours were sent into the castle, who tooke down the kings flag, and set vp the princes colours. At the same instant two Negros were brought to the General, which were fetched out of the mountains, they said that they had lien there a sleepe, and knew nothing of any matter. But now when it began to wax dark, we marched altogether a great way towards the town, 4. companies of soldiors approached hard vnder the towne, and other 4. companies had the rereward: those of the Maze, with the Amsterdammers remained a pretty way from the town, vnder the hils; and the Zealanders, with the North Hollanders lay neere the waters side, so wee remained al that night in order of battell. Sunday the 27. of Iune, after we had now stood al night in battel order, early in the morning we marched with al our 7. troupes: hard vnder the town of Canarie, where we remained a while in that order: but because they of the castle (which lieth to the towne) shot so mightily among vs; 2. of the troupes retired vnder a hill, where we were a little freede from the castle: for while our people stood imbattailed before the town, the castle did vs great hurt, for sometimes they shot fiue or sixe men with one shot, ere we could entrench our selues before the castle: but after they perceiued that our people had made a small trench against the shot of the castle, they placed on the hill fiue or sixe small peeces of brasse called falconets (which shoote about a pounde of pouder) and sometimes they shot boules of wood, wherewith in the beginning they slew manie of our people: so aduantagiouslie had they placed their ordenaunce to shoot among vs. Ten or twelue of our Souldiours ranne vp the hill, whereof the enemy tooke one, and presently cut him in foure peeces. Our people seeing that they so tyranouslie dealte with them, about the euening tooke a Spaniarde prisoner, and vsed him after the same maner. The lorde, Generall perceiuing that many men were slaine with the ordenance, caused fiue peeces of brasse to bee brought from the castle which we had taken the daie before, and towarde the euening we beganne to make a battery, and the same euening brought into it three peeces, whereof two were placed presentlie to play vppon the Castle and the hill; but that euening were but fiue or sixe shotte made. While that our men made the batterie, and planted or placed the ordenaunce, the enemy placed his ordenance in counter-battery: and before our battery could be finished, and the ordenance placed, many of our men were shot, among whom Peter vanden Eynde commissioner, had his leg shot off, whereof he died within three daies after. After that it was dark, al they which lay there before the towne were againe set in order of battel, 15. on a ranke, and so remained all that night. The 28. of Iune, early in the morning euery man retired to his quarter, and then were two peeces more brought to the battery, which also were presently placed on the Rampire, and so wee began to shoot against the castle with 4. peeces, and with the fifth we plaied vpon the small ordenance which lay vpon the hils. The enemie in the castle laid many sackes of wooll, and placed many tonnes or barrels filled with stones vpon the castle walles supposing thereby to make some little defence from our ordenance; but when an Iron bullet chanced to hit the barrels so filled with stones, it did them mightie hurt, for the stones would scatter maruailouslie abroad, whereby many of them that were in the castle were slaine. Our men hauing now with their shot almost abated the force of the castle, 4. companies marched vp the hils, intending to beate the enemy from thence, which lay there with the ordenance. But the enemy perceiuing himselfe to bee assaulted on all partes, (for most of the ordenance of the castle were dismounted and made vnprofitable, the gate of the towne set one fire by the Generals commandement) about noone they forsooke both the castle, hill, and town, and with all their wiues, children, money and Iewels, and all other things that they coulde carry with them, fled into the mountaines. Which when our men perceiued, they put themselues in order of battle xv. in a ranke. [Sidenote: The second castle and town of Grand Canaria taken.] The lord Generall seeing the Spaniards shamefullie to flie, caused 2. ladders belonging to the enemies, to be brought out of a church which stood without the towne, whereof the one was too shorte, notwithstanding himselfe with one of the ladders climed vp the walles, one man at once followed, and by this meanes entered the towne ouer the wals. About noone some of our men ran into the castle without any reencounter: the enemy had vndermined the gate, but as we approched the wall, it tooke fire, but not one of our people was therewith hurt. They had also skattered powder in sundrie places, but our men themselues did fire the same: and as soone as our people were entred the castle, the kinges colours were taken downe, and the prince of Oranges set vp, and we found fiue peeces of brasse therein. When wee were all entered into the towne, we put our selues againe into order of battell 15. in a ranke in a low ground within the towne: and the souldiours which entered the towne by the hils side, brought to the Generall a man of Flushing, which they had taken out of prison: as soone as the Generall sawe him, he went presently with him to the prison, accompanied with some of our captaines, where they found 36. prisoners, which presently were discharged. And further they declared, that the Spaniards had taken with them 2. prisoners into the mountaines, which were condemned to be burnt, the one was an English man, the other a Dutchman, which had lien in the holy house. Thus with the helpe of God about noone, wee won the great Iland of Canaria, and the town of Allegona, battered with their owne artillery, and skaled with their owne ladders. Towards the euening wee were quartered in the housen, those wherein the Generall was, were by writing freed, that no man might take out any goods, in the rest euery one might go, and take what pillage he could find: but the Spaniards had caried all the best things with them into the mountaines, and in the euening all our people entered the town. Euery captaine with his company were seuerallie lodged, but yet we appointed watch on the hils, as well as in the towne, for the enemy shewed himselfe often vpon the hils, whereby we were forced to keep very good watch. The 29. of Iune, this morning some of the mariners climed vp the hils, but the enemy (to whom the passage were better known, then to our people) suddainly set vpon them, and killed 20. of them. Towards the euening some 300. of our Soldiours marched towardes a small castle which lay halfe an houres iourney from the towne: but the enemy seeing our people to approch, forsooke the place and fled into the mountaines, our men being ascended, they founde in the castle three brasse peeces: and after they had appointed a Corporall with certaine soldiours to keepe the watch, the rest returned to the citty. The same night the Spaniards tooke one of our soldiors appointed for a forlorne Sentinel, whom they presently put to the sword. The last of Iune, as soone as day appeared, wee began to cary the pillage aboorde belonging to the General, and captaines, as wines and other goods. About noone 3. cheefe men of the Spaniards came to our people, which kept watch on the hils with a flag of truce in their handes, which were straight brought before the Generall, and within a while after, there were 2. more brought vnto him; but after they had bin a while with him they departed again towards the mountaines: and in the euening came other 7. Spaniardes to our watch with a flag of truce, desired to speake with the Generall: but they were sente backe againe into the Mountaynes. The first day of Iuly, 1599. in the morning (our people being on the hils) 2. friers with three other Spaniards came vnto vs, desiring to be brought to the Generall, which our men accomplished: but the General denied to talke with them, wherefore they were presently sent backe againe from whence they came, for we were then labouring to send the goods a shipboord. Also at that instant was a sermon in the great church of great Canaria, made by the preacher of Ysilmond with great deuotion, and giuing thanks vnto God for our great victory, desiring him that it would please him daily to increase the same, to the honour of his name: at which Sermon the Lorde Generall was present with foure hundred persons. The second of Iuly 1599. wee were forbidden by sounde of the drum that no man should go beyond the forelorne sentenell placed on the Mountaines: and to sende backe againe into the hilles all such Spaniardes which came with a flag of truce, to speake with the Generall, and to put all such to the sworde as came with weapons. One of our Pinnaces tooke a fisherman fishing vnder the Ilande Forteauentura, wherin were 7. Spaniardes, which were brought before the General, and prently committed to prison. The 3. of Iuly in the morning we began to sende aboord our ships all the bels, ordenance and munition which the enemies had left behinde them, at which time 2000. soldiors were appointed to march to the hils, to seeke the enemy, which lay hid there with their wiues, children and goods, as they were fled out of the towne: and as soone as they approched each other, they began the fight on both sides with great courage, but the enemy was forced to flie, beeing better acquainted with the passages of the mountains then our people were. Our men returned with the losse of some 70. persons: among whom captain Iacques Dierickson with his boatson were slaine: the rest came into the towne againe into their appointed quarters. The 4. of Iuly, in the morning we began to burn the towne, and with pouder blewe vp the castle which lay by the towne, and we burned likewise all the cloisters and churches which were without the towne, lying neere the water side. The town burning, our people were set in battell, and in that order marched out of the towne, vntill they came to Gratiosa, the castle, which we first tooke, lying about halfe an houres iourney from the towne, where the long boates receiued our men, and caried them againe aboorde. Presently after wee were departed out of the towne, the enemy entered, endeuoring by all meanes possible to quench the fire. And while we were shipping our people, the enemy shewed him selfe sometimes 5. or 6. in a company, but they durst not approch vs. The rereward of our men being shipped, we put fire to the castle which we tooke first, and blew it vp: This done, captaine Quit imbarked himselfe also with his soldiours and pillage, which he had taken in the rode, for his ship wherein he was before was ready to sincke. The 5. of Iuly, lying in the roade, in the morning the Generall discharged two peeces of ordenance, and afterward put out 2. flags of the princes colours, thereby giuing to vnderstand, that all land captaines, and sea captaines also with one of their Pilots should resort to him, whereupon presentlie they all rowed aboorde the Generall; the Pilots which were best acquainted with the coast, were demanded by the Generall which were the weakest Ilands, and where they might most commodiouslie land: Towards the euening captaine Quyt his ship was fired, and suffered to driue towarde the strond. At which time a newe captaine was appointed to captaine Iaques Dirriksons ship aforesaide, who was slaine in the mountaines, namely captaine Kloyers Lieutenant. And the Generals Clarke of the band was appointed Lieuetenant to captain Kloyer. The 6. of Iuly, by reason of the contrary winds, and other inconueniences which happened at this present, and also because such ships, which before were sent to sea, and could not returne by reason of the contrary windes; we remained in the road, vnder the castle of Graciosa. About noone 4. Spaniards came out of the towne with a flag of truce to the strond, directly ouer against our ships, whereof 2. were brought aboorde the Generall in one of our long boates, (the other two with their flag of truce were left behinde on the stronde) which remained with the Generall vntil the euening, and then were set on shore, and so the 4. Spaniardes returned to the towne. The 7. day riding in the roade, in the morning 4. Spaniards with a flag of peace, came to the shore from the towne, directly ouer against our ships: the fleet seeing them, sent a long boate to the shore, and brought the said 4. Spaniards aboord the General, these men brought with them the ransome of certaine Spaniards, which had deliuered vp the castle of Graciosa at the Generals pleasure, which were set to ransome, euery one according to his habilitie and office: and thus all the Spaniardes which were ransomed, together with the 4. Spaniardes which brought the ransoms, were set on shore with a long boat, and departed to the towne. The 8. day of Iuly, two howers after sun rising, the Generall with all the ships set saile, carying with him all the Spaniardes that were not ransomed, sailing along the coast of great Canaria; in which time Ian Cornelesson Zwartekeys departed this worlde, whose leg was shot off at the taking of the Iland of great Canaria. Hauing nowe sailed from the hight of the said Iland, which lay southerly from vs, we had sight of captaine Hertmans ship, and of 3. others which rode there at anchor: who, so soone as they perceiued our fleete, waied their anchors, and sailed along the coast with vs, which were the ships that the Generall had sent to sea. Sailing thus together vntill the sun was in the West, the wind began to rise more and more, so that we coulde not keep our direct course, but were forced to put to the Southwest of the great Iland of Canaria, where we anchored: wee had sight of the Iland Teneriffe, and of an other of the Ilands of Canaria, wherein is the hie mountaine called the Pyck. This hil was from vs 14. miles, but by the great hight thereof it seemed to bee within foure or fiue miles off vs, but in the daie time when the sun shined wee could not see it. The 9. of Iuly, lying thus at anchor, in the morning most of the long boates went a shore to fetch fresh water, such as they could there find and caried with them the deade corps of Ian Cornelesson aforesaid, the Constables son of the Admiralty of Roterdam, called Zwertkeys, which was there honorably buried on the high and drie land. This done, we set on fire the woode which lay on the shore piled and heaped in the woods, but in this place we found not any Spaniards. The tenth of Iuly, the boates being all returned to their ships with their people, euery one wayed their anchors and hoised their sailes, the winde at Northwest; but being vnder saile together, the wind slacked and by reason of the great calme the ships lay a drift for want of wind. The 11. of Iuly, in the morning it blewe a stout gale in our topsailes out of the Northeast, but as we approched the Iland of Teneriffa, the winde altered often; sixe or seuen of our shippes, and the rest which were next vnto the shore, had sometimes a gale in their topsailes, and sometimes againe without wind: so that we lay a drift, and could keepe no reckoning either of the wind or course, and were forced to alter our course more than 12. times a day. A declaration of the taking of Gomera one of the Ilands in Canaria, and how we afterwardes left it. The 12. day of Iuly sailing thus with great variety of wind, vnder the great Iland Teneriffa, the day appearing, we had the wind more certain, filling our topsailes with a full gale from the Northwest: And when it was faire day light we saw our fleet scattered far one from another, by meanes of the foresaid mutable windes. Some ships lay driuing by reason of the calme, and other some had a little gale, but the most part of our fleet were West of vs, towards whom with all speed, we with the rest of the ships made. Being al come together, wee endeuored to reach the Ilande Gomera, wherein is a little towne: towardes the euening many of our ships were neere the Iland, but the most part were to the lee ward; so that before it grew toward the euening none of vs could come neere the towne. Notwithstanding in the twilight and shutting vp of the euening: Ian Garbrantson Admirall of the white flag, his vize Admirall, and a Pinnace following, were come neere the town. Thus the Admirall sayling so neere to the Iland, they of Gomera discharged 2. pieces at him, but touched him not. The saide Admirall seeing this, passed on a little farther with the other ships which were neere him, and then tooke in their sailes, and cast their anchors. The other ships which were behinde, laboured all they might to come also vnder the Iland to them. The 13. of Iuly, the Admirall of the white flag lying thus at anchor neere to Gomera, the greatest part of the fleete were yet in the morning betweene the Iland of Teneriffa and Gomera, so that parte of the ships were beyonde the towne, and must sometimes cast about to conducte the others in, which were in the lee of vs. When wee had nowe for the most part passed the hight of the Iland, the Generall gaue a signe to all captaines to come aboorde him, being vnder saile, directing his course to the Iland of Gomera, and the other ships did their endeuour to follow him and anchored about the necke of the valley, lying North North East off the towne. The ships being all come to anchor, the captaines entered presently into the long boates, and aboorde the Generall to know his minde: and after they had beene a while in the Generals ship, they returned to their ships, and 4. companies of souldiours were chosen out, and landed in the valley. Which done, al the ships waied their anchors, and sailed directly toward the towne, and then came to anchor againe. After that all our ships lay thus together in the road neere the valley, before the town: we discharged certaine peeces against the town, but they made no shewe at all of resistaunce, for they had buried foure brasse peeces as soone as they had sight of vs, which lay on the strond neere vnto a small castle; the other sixe companies were also set on land in the long boates, without any resistance: for the Spaniardes with their wiues, children, and all their goods whiche they coulde carry with them were fled into the mountains. [Sidenote: The towne of Gomera abandoned by the Spaniards.] The first 4. companies that were landed, as they marched along the hils side towards the towne, perceiuing that the enemy fled with all his goods towards the hils, sent out a certaine number of soldiours to intercept them, and to take from them the goods which they caried away. And to accomplish this enterprise, our souldiours descended the hill into the valley, meaning suddainly to set vpon the Spaniardes; but the enemie perceiuing their intent, hid themselues in caues which were neere vnto them, vntill our souldiours were in the valley. The Spaniardes perceiuing that they were strong enough to encounter with our people, suddainly leapt out of their dens, and beset our souldiours on both sides. [Sidenote: Eighty Netherlanders and diuers Spaniards slaine.] Our people seeing themselues thus compassed with their enemies, behaued themselues most valiantly, so that many of the Spaniards lost their liues, and 80. of ours were slaine in this valley: among whom were 2. Lieutenants (the one was Meerbecks sonne, and the other was Lieutenant to captaine Bynon) which had receiued aboue 50. wounds in their bodies, so pittifullie were they massacred, thus were these worthie champions intercepted. The rest of those 4. companies, which were not present at this fury of the Spaniardes, towardes the euening, descended the hills, and marched into the towne. Presently after this, watch was appointed in al places of the towne, and some of the soldiours began to dig the ground, to seeke for such goods as the Spaniardes had buried, but at that instant they founde nothing, except only certain pipes of wine. About the sunne setting was brought in a Spanish prisoner, which was de deliuered to the Prouest marshal, by the Generals commandement, to the end he might bring them to all such places in the Ilande, whereas the Spaniardes had hidden their goods: But because nothing could then be effected by reason that the euening approched, and it began, to bee too dark, the Spaniard was committed to a keeper vntil the next morning for the purpose aforesaide. But the night being far spent, and the keeper taking small regard to his charge, the Spaniard secretlie stole awaie and ran to the mountaines. The 14. of Iuly, in the morning the long boates rowed againe to the shore, and caried aboorde such goods as the enemy had left behind them, which for the most, part were wines, for they had caried clean awaie all other things into the mountains, and had left almost nothing in the towne, but only the wines which they had buried in the earth: In the afternoone our people found 3. bels, which they had buried in the fields, where corne had growne. The 15. of Iuly in the morning our people running vp to the hils 10. or 12. in a company to hunt and seeke for pillage were suddainly inuironed by the enemy, and 6. or 8. of them slaine; the rest saued themselues by flight. About noone there was a generall muster taken of all the soldiours, to see how many wee had lost: and such ships as were appointed to returne home, began to deliuer out the victuals. The same day were two copper peeces founde: whereof the one was 16. foot and halfe long, and the other about 14. foot. The 16. day in the morning the Lord Generall gaue notice to all captaines to resort to him aboord his ship, because some of the captaines had not sent victuals vnto the soldiors that were on land, whereby they suffered hunger, and sundry of the soldiours had complained to the General thereof: At afternoone, the enemy came to the hill which lieth ouer the towne, crying and calling vnto our men to come and fetch againe their muskets, and towards the euening many marriners with their weapons landed, and at that instant also all things were ordered to march very early the next morning vp the hils to fetch againe our muskets, caliuers, and other weapons, which the Spaniards before had in mockery, and gibing wise willed vs to fetch from them. But now when all things were ordered for this seruice: the same night arose a strong gale of winde, encreasing more and more, that in the ende it grewe to a mightie tempest, that notwithstanding our fleet did ride vnder the Iland Gomera in the road before the towne, some were forced to way their anchors and to put to sea, to preuent the mischiefe like to happen to the ships, by reason they lay so neere one another. And when those shipps were a little way in the Sea, they cast their anchors, and there remained. By this occasion the generals aforesaid enterprise was kept backe: we iudging it as a warning, that the Generall should spare and preserue his people from the bloud-thirsty Spaniards, which had their holes and dens in the hils, and perhaps might haue taken away many of our liues. And heere by the way; by the name of the Iland Canaria, the Spaniards may rightly bee called Canarians or Canes, for Canaria is by interpretation, dogs kinde, for they ran as swift as dogs, and were as tyrannicall and bloud thirsty as the rauening Wolfe, or any other wild beast, which they sufficiently manifested, for as soon as they could lay handes on any of our people (like vnto mad curs, agreeing with their name Canarians) they would presently woary them. The 17. this hurtfull night ended, and the tempest ouer passed, and alaid, the couragious soldiors were all in redines, desirous to execute this peece of seruice, exspecting and desiring nothing more, then to march vp the hils, and to incounter their idolotrous enemies. But vpon good consideration, this enterprise was staied, and some 300. soldiours sent into the same valley, where 3. daies before our people had beene suddainly compassed, intrapped, and slaine by the Spaniards. Our soldiours being come to the valley aforesaid found no resistance, neither could once see a Spaniard; but found a smal peece of brasse about a fadome long, and two barrels of gunpowder; and when our souldiours perceiued that there was no good to bee done (forbearing to mount the hils, because they had no commission so to do) with such thinges as they had they returned to the towne. The euening now approaching, the Generall commanded to carry aboord the ships, such goods as they had there found, and digged out of the ground, which was accordingly done and accomplished, among which things were three brasse peeces, some bels and other goods. Sunday the 18. of Iuly, we remained at anchor in the road of the Iland Gomera. Munday the 19. of Iuly, remaining yet in the Iland Gomera, and seeing that the Spaniardes continued in their secret holes, and dens of the mountaines, wee set fire on the towne, and as neere as we could burnt down all places, as Cloisters churches, hermitages and houses, remaining yet in the towne vntill it was noone. After that all this was accomplished: we the vnited soldiours forsooke the towne, and presently the Lord General, with al his company, went aboord the ships. Thus we left the Iland Gomera burning, which was neuer before done by any nation. The Spaniardes seeing that the soldiours were departed out of the Iland, with all speed possible, in great heapes came running out of their secret caues and holes, to quench the fire, like as they of Allegona in the Iland of great Canaria before had done. Wednesday the 20. of Iuly, we lay stil in the road before Gomera, in this time 2. of our soldiours were put into captain Cloiers ship, and in lew of them, we receiued out of his ship 2. others, which were hurt, with two Spaniards. The summary or briefe declaration of the Admirals departing towardes the West Indies. Aftre that the Generall had left the Ilands, he giueth order to the fleete, taketh his leaue of all the Captaines and officers in most honorable sort: he aduanceth the voyage to the West Indies with his Nauy: the rest of the ships returne into the low Countries, euery one from whence he came. After that the Iland of great Canaria was by the vnited soldiours taken, and won by force of armes, and the Iland Gomera conquered, for sundry reasons they were forsaken, after they had caried to their ships such things as they found, fired the townes, churches, cloisters, and houses, and rased their Castles. The Lord Generall commanded all Captaines and officers of the fleete to resorte vnto him aboord his ship. The same principals being come accordingly, he welcommed them and shewed them al friendship he could, thanking them for their good and faithfull endeuours which they had shewed in this seruice, which he performed with a singular oration, praying Almighty God that he woulde vouchsafe to be his only loadsman and merciful defender, in all his enterprises, to the honor of his name, and happy successe of the vnited Netherlandish prouinces. After this, the lorde Generall againe in most friendly sort, and kind speeches, perswaded and desired all the saide captaines and officers, (alleadging many reasons and examples) to perseuer in their good beginning of true and faithfull seruice for God, and for their good Lords and principall magistrates, the honorable gentlemen and states of the vnited Netherland; and to the good liking of their valiant and high borne gentleman, and gouernour General prince Mauritz, their principal lorde and commander, &c. with these and such like matters the daie was spent. Wednesday the 21. of Iuly, the wind was northerly: The lord Generall commanded all the captaines and officers to resort vnto him: and in most curteous maner againe the second time, tooke leaue of them all, ordaining and appointing in his place as Admirall Generall ouer all those shippes which were to returne home, the valiant captaine Ian Gerbrantson, desiring and straightly charging them at there present, to shew all obedience and duty vnto him, as to his owne person, and that they should make his minde knowne to all others which had not beene there present. After these speeches, and leaue taken, [Marginal note: The Netherlandish fleet diuide themselues into two companies, whereof the one returneth homewardes, and the other proceedeth for the West Indians.] the Admirall Ian Gerbrantson put out the princes colours in the maine top: and the honorable gentleman Peter von der Doest presentlie caused the princes flag also to be spread; and as soone as the sunne was Southwest, all the ships at one instant waied their anchors, and hoised their sailes, taking leaue nowe the third time one of another, in most braue and triumphant sort, and in this maner departed the one from the other. The lord General with his fleet, set this course South Southwest, with 36. ships, and the Admirall Ian Gerbrantson ran East by the wind, with 35. ships with intent to returne home. [Sidenote: Two Spanish prizes taken.] Wednesday the 18. of August, sixteene ships of our fleet which were sent to returne home, being in company together in the latitude of 36. degrees and 10. minutes, the wind Southwest sailing Northeast, before it was noone, we perceiued 2. strange ships vnder saile comming out of the Northwest, towards whom we made, and at afternoone we ouertooke them, and made them our prises: they were both Spaniardes, the one was a small Barke, and came from Cape de Blanco in 21. degrees, loaden for Woluis in the Condate where they dwelled. In the same ships was a marchant of Cyuill with 47. men, each of their ships hauing two cast peeces, and euery man his musket, but they made no shewe of defence, or offending. There was also found laden in the same ships, sixty thousand drie hides or skins, esteemed to bee worth 6000. duckets as they reported, there were also found two bags with mony, in the one was 11. hundred single rials, and in the other 10. hundred and forty single rials, with two Buts of traine oile, and two barrels of gum Arabique. Thursday the 19. day, we the abouesaid 16. ships were together, beside the two Spanish ships, 4 ships of war of North Holland, 4 ships of Warres of Zeland and one ship of war of the Maze: the captain wherof was Antony Leonardson, al the rest were victualers. The wind West Northwest, we sailed Northeast, and by North in 36. degrees and 45. minutes. The captaines had beene all aboord the Admirall in councell aduising what were best to bee done in this matter of the Spaniards prises. Saturday, Sunday, the 21. and 22. of August, our said fleet of 18. ships kept yet together, we found our selues to bee in 39. degrees, 6. minuts. The sun South and by West, the winde blew vp at West Northwest, wee sailed North Northeast, and North and by East, Lysborne was East of vs. Munday the sixt of September, the winde westerly, we ran East, at noone wee sounded, the depth was 50. fadome water, we found small white shels with needles therein, in the hight of 49. degrees 20. minuts, the sun Southwest, wee had sight of Vshant, we ran Northeast and by North. Tuesday the 7. of September, the sun East South East, wee saw England, a mighty blustering gale of winde from the South Southwest, wee sailed North Northeast. The sunne Southwest, came to land at Gawstert. Afterwarde wee turned and sailed East Southeast: In the euening it blewe so much winde, that wee were forced to strike our maine top mast, and we ranne the whole night with two courses by the wind. Wednesday the 8. of September, the foule weather continued, the sunne East and by South, we had sight of the Ile of Wight North Northwest of vs, and ranne the whole day, East Northeast with the foresaile by the wind: as the evening approached we saw Beuersier, in the night and second quarter we passed by Douer. Thursday the 9. of September, as soone as the daie began to appeare it was calme weather, and darke, the sun Southeast, we lay still before Newport all the ebbe, The wind easterly, in the after noone the wind came Northwest, we set saile againe, running al night by the wind with our foresaile. Friday the 10. of September 1599, by the break of day wee were before the Maze, the sun Southwest, we arriued by the helpe of God's mercy and grace before the Brill. Since then, there is arriued at Texell another ship of war, whereof one Cater of Amsterdam was captain, the wich was seuered from the fleet in this voiage by tempest, and thought to be lost. The said captaine met with some prises, and in company of two English shippes tooke a Caruell of Aduiso, verie richly laden comming out of India, and hauing more men then the English, shared halfe of the goods with them, and so came home this present month of Octob. FINIS. * * * * * The Worldes Hydrographical Discription. WHEREIN IS PROUED NOT ONELY BY AUTHORITIE OF WRITERS, BUT ALSO BY LATE EXPERIENCE OF TRAUELLERS, AND REASONS OF SUBSTANTIALL PROBABILITIE, THAT THE WORLDE IN ALL HIS ZONES, CLYMATS AND PLACES, IS HABITABLE AND INHABITED AND THE SEAS LIKEWISE VNIUERSALLY NAUIGABLE WITHOUT ANY NATURALL ANOYANCE TO HINDER THE SAME WHEREBY APPEARES THAT FROM ENGLAND THERE IS A SHORT AND SPEEDIE PASSAGE INTO THE SOUTH SEAS, TO CHINA, MALUCCA, PHILIPPINA, AND INDIA, BY NORTHERLY NAUIGATION TO THE RENOWNE, HONOR AND BENIFIT OF HER MAIESTIES STATE, AND COMMUNALTY. PUBLISHED BY J. DAUIS OF SANDRUDG BY DARTMOUTH IN THE COUNTIE OF DEUON. GENTLEMAN. ANNO 1595. MAY 27. IMPRINTED AT LONDON BY THOMAS DAWSON DWELLING AT THE THREE CRANES IN THE VINETREE. AND ARE THERE TO BE SOLD. 1595. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORDES OF HER MAIESTIES MOST HONORABLE PRIUIE COUNSAYLE. My most honorable good Lords for as much as it hath pleased God, not only to bestow vpon your Lordships, the excellent gifts of natures benefite, but hath also beautified the same with such speciall ornamentes of perfection: As that thereby the mindes and attentiue industrie of all, haue no small regard vnto your honorable proceedings. And so much the rather, because to the great content of all her maiesties most louing subiectes; it hath pleased her highnes in her stately regard of gouernment, to make choise of your honours as speciall members in the regall disposition of the mightinesse of her imperiall command: Emboldeneth me among the rest to humble myself at your honorable feete, in presenting vnto the fauour of your excellent iudgementes this short treatise of the Worldes Hydrographicall bands. And knowing that not onely your renowned places, but also the singularitie of your education, by the prudent care of your noble progenitors hath and still doth induce and drawe you to fauour and imbrace whatsoeuer beareth but a seeming of the commonweales good: Much more then that which in substantiall truth shal be most beneficiall to the same. I am therefore the more encouraged not to slacke this my enterprise, because that through your honorable assistance when in the ballance of your wisedomes this discouery shall haue indifferent consideration, I knowe it will be ordered by you to bee a matter of no small moment to the good of our countrie. For thereby wee shall not onely haue a copious and rich vent for al our naturall and artificiall comodities of England, in short time by safe passage, and without offence of any, but also shall by the first imployment retourne into our countrey by spedie passage, all Indian commodities in the ripenes of their perfection, whereby her Maiesties dominions should bee the storehouse of Europe, the nurse of the world and the glory of nations, in yielding all forrayne naturall benefites by an easie rate: In communicating vnto all whatsoeuer God hath vnto any one assigned: And by the increase of all nations through the mightinesse of trade. Then should the merchant, tradesman, and poore artificer, haue imployment equall to their power and expedition, whereby what notable benefites would growe to her Maiestie, the state, and communaltie, I refer to your perfect iudgementes. And for that I am desirous to auoyde the contradiction of vulgar conceipts, I haue thought it my best course, before I make profe of the certaintie of this discouerie, to lay downe whatsoeuer may against the same be obiected, and in the ouerthrowe of those conceipted hinderances the safenes of the passage shall most manifestly appeare, which when your wisdomes, shall with your patience peruse, I doe in no sort distruct your fauorable acceptance and honorable assistance of the same. And although for diuers considerations I doe not in this treatis discouer my full knowledge for the place and altitude of this passage, yet whensoeuer it shall so please your honours to commaund I will in few wordes make the full certainty thereof knowne vnto your honours being alwaies redie with my person and poore habilitie to prosecute this action as your honours shall direct, beseeching God so to support you with all happines of this life, fauour of her Maiestie, loue of her highnes subiectes, and increase of honour as may be to your best content. I most humbly take my leaue from Sandrudg by Dartmouth this 27. of May 1595. Your Honors in all dutifull seruice to command I. D. THE WORLDS HYDROGRAPHICALL OBIECTIONS AGAINST AL NORTHERLY DISCOUERIES. All [Footnote: Hakluyt has published an extract from this treatise in his Collection of Voyages; but the original work is so very rare and occupies so small a space that it has been deemed eligible to reprint it entire. EDIT.] impediments in nature, and circumstances of former practises duly considered. The Northerly passage to China seme very improbable. For first it is a matter very doubtfull whether there bee any such passage or no, sith it hath beene so often attempted and neuer performed, as by historical relation appeareth, whereby wee may fully perswade our selues that America and Asia, or some other continent are so conioyned togeather as that it is impossible for any such passage to be, the certaintie whereof is substantially proued vnto vs by the experience of Sebastian Gabota an expert Pylot, and a man reported of especiall iudgement, who being that wayes imployed returned without successe. Iasper Corteriallis a man of no meane practise did likewise put the same in execution, with diuers others, all which in the best parte haue concluded ignorance. If not a full consent of such matter. And therfore sith practise hath reproued the same, there is no reason why men should dote vpon so great an incertayntie, but if a passage may bee prooued and that the contenentes are disioyned whereof there is small hope, yet the impedimentes of the clymate (wherein the same is supposed to lie) are such, and so offensiue as that all hope is thereby likewise vtterly secluded, for with the frozen zone no reasonable creature will deny, but that the extremitie of colde is of such forceable action, (being the lest in the fulnes of his owne nature without mitigation,) as that it is impossible for any mortall creature to indure the same, by the vertue of whose working power, those Northerly Seas are wholly congealed, making but one mas or contenent of yse, which is the more credible because the ordenary experience of our fishermen geueth vs sufficient notice thereof, by reason of the great quantitie of yse which they find to be brought vpon the cost of newefound land from those Northerne regions. By the aboundance whereof they are so noysomly pestred, as that in many weekes they haue not beene able to recouer the shore, yea and many times recouer it not vntill the season of fishing bee ouer passed. This then being so in the Septentrionall latitude of 46, 47 and 48 degrees, which by natures benifit are latitudes of better temperature than ours of England, what hope should there remayne for a nauegable passing to be by the norwest, in the altitude of 60, 70 or 80 degres, as it may bee more Northerly, when in these temperate partes of the world the shod of that frozen sea breadeth such noysome pester: as the pore fishermen doe continually sustain. And therefore it seemeth to be more then ignorance that men should attempt Nauigation in desperate clymates and through seas congeled that neuer dissolue, where the stiffnes of the colde maketh the ayre palpably grosse without certainty that the landes are disioyned. All which impediments if they were not, yet in that part of the world, Nauigation cannot be performed as ordenarily as it vsed, for no ordenarie sea chart can describe those regions either in the partes Geographicall or Hydrographicall, where the Meridians doe so spedily gather themselues togeather, the parallels beeing a verye small proportion to a great circle, where quicke and vncertayne variation of the Compasse may greatly hinder or vtterly ouerthrow the attempt. So that for lack of Curious lyned globes to the right vse of Nauigation; with many other instruments either vnknowne or out of vse, and yet of necessitie for that voyage, it should with great difficultie be attayned. All which the premises considered I refer the conclusion of these obiections and certainty of this passage to the generall opinion of my louing countrymen, whose dangerous attemptes in those desperate uncertainties I wish to be altered, and better imployed in matters of great probabilitie. To prove a passage by the Norwest, without any land impedimentes to hinder the same, by aucthoritie of writters, and experience of trauellers, contrary to the former obiections. Homer an ancient writer affirmeth that, the world being diuided into Asia, Africa, and Europe is an Iland, which is likewise so reported by Strabo in his erst book of Cosmographie, Pomponius Mela in his third booke, Higinius, Solinus, with others. Whereby it is manifest that America was then vndiscovered and to them vnknowne, otherwise they would haue made relation of it as of the rest. Neither could they in reason haue reported Asia, Africa and Europa to bee an Iland vnles they had knowne the same to be conioyned and in all his partes to be inuironed with the seas. And further America being very neere of equall quantitie with all the rest could not be reported as a parte either of Africa, Asia, or Europa in the ordenarie lymites of discretion. And therefore of necessitie it must be concluded that Asia, Africa and Europa the first reueiled world being knowne to bee an Iland, America must likewise be in the same nature because in no parte it conioyneth with the first. By experience of Trauellers to proue this passage. And that wee neede not to range after forrayne and ancient authorities, wherat curious wittes may take many exceptions, let vs consider the late discoueryes performed, within the space of two ages not yet passed, whereby it shall so manifestly appeare that Asia, Africa, and Europa are knit togeather, making one continent, and are wholy inuironed with the seas, as that no reasonable creature shall haue occasion thereof to doubt. And first beginning at the north of Europe, from the north cape in 71 degrees, whereby our merchantes passe in their trade to S. Nicholas in Rouscia descending towardes the South, the Nauigation is without impediment to the cape of Bona Esperanca, ordenarilie traded and daily practised. And therefore not to be gaynesayd: which two capes are distant more then 2000 leagues by the neerest tract, in all which distaunces America is not founde to bee any thing neere the coastes either of Europe or Afric, for from England the chefest of the partes of Europa to Newfoundland being parte of America it is 600. leagues the neerest distance that any part thereof beareth vnto Europa. And from cape Verde in Gynny being parte of Africa, vnto cape Saint Augustine in Brasill beeing parte of America, it wanteth but little of 500 leagues the neerest distance betweene Africa and America. Likewise from the sayd North Cape to Noua Zemla by the course of East and West neerest, there is passable sayling, and the North partes of Tartaria are well knowne to be banded with the Scithian Seas to the promontory Tabin so that truely it is apparant that America is farre remooued and by a great sea diuided from any parte of Africa or Europa. And for the Southerne partes of the firste reueiled worlde it is most manifest that from the cape of Bona Esperanca towardes the east, the costes of Safalla, Mosombique, Melinde, Arabia, and Persia, whose gulfes lye open to the mayne occian: And all the coastes of East India to the capes of Callacut and Malacca, are banded with a mightie sea vpon the South whose lymmates are yet vndiscouered. And from the cape of Malacca towardes the North so high as the Ile of Iapan, and from thence the cost of China being part of Asia continueth still North to the promontory Tabin, where the Scithian sea and this Indian sea haue recourse togeather, no part of America being neere the same by many 100 leages to hinder this passage. For from the Callafornia beeing parte of America, to the yles of Philippina bordering vpon the coastes of China being parte of Asia is 2100 leages and therefore America is farther separated from Asia, then from any the sea coastes either of Europe or Africa. Whereby it is most manifest that Asia, Africa and Europa are conioyned in an Iland. And therefore of necessity followeth that America is contained vnder one or many ylands, for from the septentrionall lat. of 75 deg. vnto the straights of Magilan it is knowne to be nauigable and hath our west occian to lymet the borders thereof, and through the straightes of Magillane no man doubteth but there is Nauigable passage, from which straightes, vpon all the Westerne borders of America, the costs of Chili, Chuli, Rocha, Baldiuia, Peru to the ystmos of Dariena and so the whole West shores of Noua Hispania are banded out by a long and mightie sea, not hauing any shore neere vnto it by one thousand leagues towardes the West, howe then may it be possible that Asia and America should make one contenent: To proue the premisses by the attemptes of our owne Countreymen, besides others. But lest it should be obiected that the premises are conceites, the acting aucthors not nominated, I will vse some boldnes to recyte our owne countreymen by whose paynefull trauells these truthes are made manifest vnto vs. Hoping and intreting that it may not bee offensiue, though in this sorte I make relation of their actions. And firste to begin with the North partes of Europe, it is not vnknowne to all our countrymen that from the famous citie of London Syr Huge Willobie, knight, gaue the first attempt for the North estren discoueries, which were afterward most notably accomplished by master Borrowes, a Pylot of excellent iudgemente and fortunate in his actions, so farre as Golgoua Vaygats and Noua Zemla, with trade thereby procured to S. Nicholas in Rouscia. Then succeded master Ginkinson who by his land trauell discouered the Scithian sea to lymit the North coastes of Tartaria, so farre as the riuer Ob. So that by our countrymen the North partes of Europe are at full made knowne vnto vs: and prooued to ioyne with no other continent to hinder this passage. The common and ordenary trade of the Spanyard and Portingall from Lysbome to the coasts of Guyny, Bynny, Mina, Angola, Manicongo, and the cost of Ethiopia to the cape of Bona Esperanca, and all the cost of Est India and Illes of Molucca, (by which wonderfull and copious trade, they are so mightily inriched, as that now they challeng a monarchy vnto themselues vpon the whole face of the earth) that their trade I say, prooueth that America is farre separated from any parte of Africa or the South of Asia. And the same Spaniard trading in the Citye of Canton within the kingdome of China, hauing layd his storehouse of aboundance in Manellia a Citye by him erected in Luzon one of the Illes of Philippa bordring vpon the cost of China, doth by his common and ordenarie passages to Iapan and other the borders of the coast, knowe that the Est continent of Asia lieth due North and South so high as the promontory Tabin, wher the Scithian sea and his maine occian of China are conioyned. But with what care they labour to conceale that matter of Hydrographie for the better preseruation of their fortunate estate, I refer to the excellent iudgement of statesmen, that painefully labour in the glorious administration of a well gouerned Common weale, so that by them Africa and Asia are proued in no parte to ioyne with America, thereby to hinder this passage. By late experience to prone that America is an Iland, and may be sayled round about contrary to the former obiection. Asia, Africa and Europa being prooued to be conioyned and an Iland, it now resteth to bee knowne by what authoritie America is proued to be likewise an Iland, so that thereby all land impedimentes are remoued, which might brede the dread or vncertaynty of this passage. The first Englishman that gaue any attempt vpon the coastes of West India being parte of America was syr Iohn Hawkins knight: who there and in that attempt as in many others sithins, did and hath prooued himselfe to be a man of excellent capacity, great gouernment, and perfect resolution. For before he attempted the same it was a matter doubtfull and reported the extremest lymit of danger to sayle vpon those coastes. So that it was generally in dread among vs, such is the slownes of our nation, for the most part of vs rather ioy at home like Epicures to sit and carpe at other mens hassardes, our selues not daring to giue any attempt. (I meane such as are at leisure to seeke the good of their countrie not being any wayes imployed as paynefull members of a common weale,) then either to further or giue due commendations to the deseruers, howe then may Syr Iohn Hawkins bee esteemed, who being a man of good account in his Country, of wealth and great imployment, did notwithstanding for the good of his Countrey, to procure trade, giue that notable and resolute attempt. Whose steps many hundreds following sithins haue made themselues men of good esteeme, and fit for the seruice of her sacrid maiestie. And by that his attempt of America (wherof West India is a parte) is well prooued to be many hundred leagues distant from any part of Afric or Europe. Then succeeded Syr Francis Drake in his famous and euer renowned voyage about the world, who departing from Plimouth directed his course for the straightes of Magillane, which place was also reported to be most dangerous by reason of the continuall violent and vnresistable current that was reported to haue continuall passage into the straightes, so that once entring therein there was no more hope remayning of returne, besides the perill of shelues, straightness of the passage and vncertayne wyndinges of the same, all which bread dread in the highest degree, the distance and dangers considered. So that before his revealing of the same the matter was in question, whether there were such a passage or no, or whether Magillane did passe the same, if there was such a man so named, but Syr Frauncis Drake, considering the great benefit that might arise by his voyage through that passage, and the notable discoueries, that might be thereby performed, regarded not these dastardly affections of the idle multitude, but considering with iudgement that in nature there cold be no such perpetuitie of violence where the occian is in no sorte straighted, proceeded with discreet prouision and so departing from England arriued vnto the same, and with good sucesse (through Gods most fauorable mercy passed through) wherein his resolution hath deserued euerlasting commendations. For the place in viewe is dangerous and verye vnpleasing, and in the execution to passe Nothing may seeme more doubtful, for 14 leagues west within the cape of Saint Maria lyeth the first straight, where it floweth and ebbeth with violent swiftnes, the straight not half a mile broad, the first fall into which straight is verye dangerous and doubtfull. This straight lasteth in his narrownes, 3 leages, then falling into another sea 8 leages broad and 8 leages through there lyeth the second straight due west. South West from the firste, which course being vnknowne it is no small perill in finding this second straightes, and that agayne is not a myle broad and continueth the bredth 3 or 4 leages Southwest, with violent swiftnes of flowing and reflowing, and there agayne he falleth into another Sea, through which due, South South West, lyeth the cape Froward, and his straight (so rightly named in the true nature of his peruersnes, for be the wind neuer so fauorable, at that cape it will be directly agaynst you with violent and daungerous flaughes) where there are three places probable to continue the passage. But the true straight lyeth from this cape West Nor West, where the land is very high all couered with snowe, and full of dangerous counter-windes, that beate with violence from those huge mountaines, from which cape the straight is neuer broder then 2 leages and in many places not halfe a mile, without hope of ancorage, the channell beeing shore deepe more then tow hundreth fadomes, and so continueth to the South sea forty leages only to bee releued in little dangerous coues, with many turnings and chang of courses; how perilous then was this passage to Syr Frauncis Drake, to whom at that time no parte thereof was knowne. And being without reliefe of ancorage was inforced to follow his course in the hell darke nights, and in all the fury of tempestious stormes. I am the bolder to make this particuler relation in the praise of his perfect constancy and magnanemitye of spirite, because I haue thrise passed the same straights and haue felt the most bitter and mercyles fury thereof. But now knowing the place as I doe (for I haue described euery creke therein) I know it to be a voiage of as great certaynty, pleasure and ease, as any whatsoeuer that beareth but 1/4 the distaunce from England that these straightes doe. And this straight is founde to be 1200 leages from any parte of Africa so that truely it is manifest that these two landes are by no small distance seperated. And after that Syr Frauncis was entred into the South Seas he coasted all the Westerne shores of America vntill he came into the Septentrionall latitude of forty eight degrees being on the backe syde of Newfound land. And from thence shaping his course towardes Asia found by his trauells that the Ills of Molucca are distant from America more then two hundreth leages, howe then can Asia and Africa be conioyned and made one continent to hinder the passage, the men yet liuing that can reproue the same, but this conceipt is the bastard of ignorance borne through the fornication of the malitious multitude that onely desire to hinder when themselues can doe no good. Now their onely resteth the North parts of America, vpon which coast my selfe haue had most experience of any in our age: for thrise I was that waye imployed for the discouery of this notable passage, by the honourable care and some charge of Syr Francis Walsingham knight, principall secretary to her Maiestie, with whom diuers noble men and worshipfull marchants of London ioyned in purse and willingnesse for the furtherance of that attempt, but when his honour dyed the voyage was friendlesse, and mens mindes alienated from aduenturing therein. [Sidenote: The 1 voyage.] In my first voyage not experienced of the nature of those climates, and hauing no direction either by Chart, Globe, or other certaine relation in what altitude that passage was to be searched, I shaped a Northerly course and so sought the same toward the South, and in that my Northerly course I fell vpon the shore which in ancient time was called Groenland, fiue hundred leagues distant from the Durseys Westnorthwest Northerly, the land being very high and full of mightie mountaines all couered with snow, no viewe of wood, grass or earth to be seene, and the shore two leagues off into the sea so full of yce that no shipping could by any meanes come neere the same. The lothsome view of the shore, and irksome noyse of the yce was such, as that it bred strange conceites among vs, so that we supposed the place to be wast and voyd of any sensible or vegitable creatures, whereupon I called the same Desolation: so coasting this shore towards the South in the latitude of sixtie degrees, I found it to trend towards the West, I still followed the leading therof in the same height, and after fifty or sixtie leagues it fayled and lay directly North, which I still followed, and in thirtie leagues sayling vpon the West side of this coast by me named Desolation, we were past al the yce and found many greene and pleasant Isles bordering vpon the shore, but the mountaines of the maine were still couered with great quantities of snow, I brought my ship among those Isles and there mored to refresh ourselues in our weary trauell, in the latitude of sixtie foure degrees or there about. The people of the countrey hauing espyed our shippes came downe vnto vs in their Canoas, and holding vp their right hand to the Sunne and crying Yliaout, would strike their breasts: we doing the like the people came aboard our shippes, men of good stature, vnbearded, small eyed and of tractable conditions, by whome as signes would permit, we vnderstood that towards the North and West there was a great sea, and vsing the people with kindenes in giuing them nayles and kniues which of all things they most desired, we departed, and finding the sea free from yce supposing our selues to be past al daunger we shaped our course Westnorthwest thinking thereby to passe for China, but in the latitude of sixtie sixe degrees we fell with another shore, and there found another passage of twenty leagues broad directly West into the same, which we supposed to be our hoped straight, we entered into the same thirty or fortie leagues, finding it neither to wyden nor streighten, then considering that the yeere was spent (for this was in the fine of August) not knowing the length of the straight and dangers thereof, we tooke it our best course to returne with notice of our good successe for this small time of search. And so returning in a sharpe fret of Westerly windes the 29. of September we arriued at Dartmouth. And acquainting master Secretary with the rest of the honourable and worshipfull aduenturers of all our proceedings, I was appointed againe the second yere to search the bottome of this straight, because by all likelihood it was the place and passage by vs laboured for. [Sidenote: The 2 voyage.] In this second attempt the marchants of Exeter, and other places of the West became aduenturers in the action, so that being sufficiently furnished for sixe moneths, and hauing direction to search these straights, vntill we found the same to fall into another sea vpon the West side of this part of America, we should againe returne: for then it was not to be doubted, but shipping with trade might safely be conueied to China and the parts of Asia. We departed from Dartmouth, and arriuing vnto the South part of the coast of Desolation coasted the same vpon his West shore to the latitude of sixetie sixe degrees, and there ancored among the Isles bordering vpon the same, where we refreshed our selues, the people of this place came likewise vnto vs, by whom I vnderstood through their signes that towards the North the sea was large. At this place the chiefe ship whereupon I trusted, called the Mermayd of Dartmouth, found many occasions of discontentment, and being vnwilling to proceed, shee there forsook me. Then considering how I had giuen my faith and most constant promise to my worshipfull good friend master William Sanderson, who of all men was the greatest aduenturer in that action, and tooke such care for the performance thereof that he hath to my knowledge at one time disbursed as much money as any fiue others whatsoeuer out of his owne purse, when some of the companie haue bene slacke in giuing in their aduenture: And also knowing that I should loose the fauour of M. Secretary Walsingham, if I should shrink from his direction; in one small barke of 30 Tunnes, whereof M. Sanderson was owner, alone without farther comfort or company I proceeded on my voyage, and arriuing at these straights followed the same 80 leagues, vntill I came among many Islands, where the water did ebbe and flow sixe fadome vpright, and where there had bene great trade of people to make traine. [Sidenote: The North parts of America all Islands.] But by such things as there we found, wee knew that they were not Christians of Europe that had vsed that trade: in fine by searching with our boat, we found small hope to passe any farther that way, and therefore retourning agayne recouered the sea and coasted the shore towards the South, and in so doing (for it was too late to search towards the North) we found another great inlet neere 40 leagues broad, where the water entered in with violent swiftnesse, this we also thought might be a passage: for no doubt the North partes of America are all Islands by ought that I could perceiue therein: but because I was alone in a small barque of thirtie tunnes, and the yeere spent, I entred not into the same, for it was now the seuenth of September, but coasting the shore towardes the South wee saw an incredible number of birds: hauing diuers fishermen aboord our barke they all concluded that there was a great skull of fish, we being vnprouided of fishing furniture with a long spike nayle made a hooke, and fastening the same to one of our sounding lines, before the bait was changed we tooke more than fortie great Cods, the fish swimming so abundantly thicke about our barke as is incredible to bee reported, of which with a small portion of salt that we had, we presented some thirtie couple, or thereaboutes, and so returned for England. And hauing reported to M. Secretarie Walsingham the whole successe of this attempt, he commanded me to present vnto the most honourable Lord high Treasurour of England, some part of that fish: which when his Lordship saw, and heard at large the relation of this second attempt, I receiued fauourable countenance from his honour, aduising me to prosecute the action, of which his lordship conceiued a very good opinion. The next yere, although diuers of the aduenturers fell from the Action, as all the Westerne marchants, and most of those in London: yet some of the aduenturers both honorable and worshipfull continued their willing fauour and charge, so that by this meanes the next yere two shippes were appointed for the fishing and one pinnesse for the discouerie. [Sidenote: The 3 voyage.] Departing from Dartmouth, through Gods mercifull fauour, I arrived at the place of fishing, and there according to my direction I left the two ships to follow that busines, taking their faithful promise not to depart vntill my returne vnto them, which should be in the fine of August, and so in the barke I proceeded for the discouerie: but after my departure, in sixteene dayes the two shippes had finished their voyage, but so presently departed for England, without regard of their promise: my selfe not distrusting any such hard measure proceeded for the discouerie, and followed my course in the free and open sea betweene North and Northwest to the latitude of 67 degrees, and there I might see America West from me, and Desolation, East: then when I saw the land of both sides I began to distrust it would prooue but a gulfe: notwithstanding desirous to know the full certainty I proceeded, and in 68 degrees the passage enlarged, so that I could not see the Westerne shore: thus I continued to the latitude of 73 degrees, in a great sea, free from yce, coasting the Westerne shore of Desolation: the people came continually rowing out vnto me in their Canoas, twenty, forty, and one hundred at a time, and would giue me fishes dryed, Salmon, Salmon peale, Cod, Caplin, Lumpe, Stonebase and such like, besides diuers kinds of birds, as Partrige, Fesant, Guls, Sea birds and other kindes of flesh: I still laboured by signes to know from them what they knew of any sea toward the North, they still made signes of a great sea as we vnderstood them, then I departed from that coast, thinking to discouer the North parts of America: and after I had sailed towards the West 40 leagues, I fel vpon a great banke of yce: the winde being North and blew much, I was constrained to coast the same toward the South, not seeing any shore West from me, neither was there any yce towards the North, but a great sea, free, large very salt and blew, and of an vnsearcheable depth: So coasting towards the South I came to the place where I left the ships to fish, but found them not. Then being forsaken and left in this distresse referring my self to the mercifull prouidence of God, I shaped my course for England, and vnhoped for of any, God alone releeuing me, I arriued at Dartmouth. By this last discouery it seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment toward the North: but by reason of the Spanish fleet and vnfortunate time of M. Secretaries death, the voyage was omitted and neuer sithens attempted. The cause why I vse this particular relation of all my proceedings for this discouery, is to stay this obiection, why hath not Dauis discovered this passage being thrise that wayes imployed? How far I proceeded and in what form this discouery lieth, doth appeare vpon the Globe which M. Sanderson to his very great charge hath published, for the which he deserueth great fauor and commendations. Made by master Emery Mullineux a man well qualited of a good iudgment and very experte in many excellente practises, in myselfe being the onely meane with master Sanderson to imploy master Mulineux therein, whereby he is now growne to a most exquisite perfection. Anthony de Mendoza viceroy of Mexico, sent certayne of his captaynes by land and also a nauy of ships by sea to search out the Norwest passage, who affirmed by his letters dated from Mexico in anno 1541 vnto the Emperour being then in Flaunders, that towardes the Norwest hee had founde the Kingdome of Cette, Citta, Alls, Ceuera, seuen cities and howe beyond the sayd Kingdome farther towardes the Norwest, Francisco Vasques of Coronado hauing passed great desarts came to the sea side, where he found certayne shippes which sayled by that sea with merchandize, and had in their banners vpon the prows of their shippes, certayne fowles made of golde and siluer, named Alcatrazzi, and that the mariners signified vnto him by signes that they were thirtie dayes comming to the hauen, whereby he vnderstoode that those could be of no other country but of Asia, the next knowne continent towardes the West. And farther the sayd Anthony affirmed that by men wel practised hee vnderstoode that 950. leages of that country was discouered vpon the same Sea, now if the cost in that distance of leages should lye to the West, it would then adioyne with the Northe partes of Asia, and then it would be a far shorter voyage then thirtie dayes sayling, but that it is nothing neere Asia by former authoritie is sufficiently expressed, then if it should lie towardes the North, it would extend itself almost vnto the pole, a voiage ouer tedious to be perfourmed by land trauell. Therefore of necessity this distance of 950 leages must lie betweene the North and East, which by Anthony de Especio in his late trauells vpon the North of America is sufficiently discouered, then this beeing so, the distance is very small betweene the East parte of this discouered Sea and the passage wherein I haue so painefully laboured, what doth then hinder vs of England vnto whom of all nations this discouery would be most beneficiall to be incredulous slow of vnderstanding, and negligent in the highest degree, for the search of this passage which is most apparently prooued and of wonderfull benefit to the vniversal state of our countrey. Why should we be thus blinded seeing our enemies to possess the fruites of our blessednes and yet will not perceiue the same. But I hope the eternall maiestie of God the sole disposer of all thinges will also make this to appeare in his good time. Cornelius Nepos recyteth that when Quintus Metellus Cæsar was proconsull for the Romanes in Fraunce, the King of Sueuia gaue him certayne Indians, which sayling out of India for merchandize were by tempest driuen vpon the coastes of Germany, a matter very strange that Indians in the fury of stormes should ariue vpon that coast, it resteth now carefully to consider by what winde they were so driuen, if they had beene of any parte of Africa how could they escape the ylls of Cape Verd, or the ylles of Canaria, the coastes of Spayne, Fraunce, Ireland or England to arriue as they, but it was neuer knowne that any the natyues of Afric or Ethiopia haue vsed shippings. Therefore they could not bee of that parte of the worlde, for in that distance sayling they would haue been starued if no other shore had giuen them relefe. And that they were not of America is verye manifest, for vpon all the Est parte of that continent, beeing now thereby discouered, it hath not at any time beene perceiued that those people were euer accustomed to any order of shipping, which appeareth by the arriual of Colon vpon those coastes, for they had his shipping in such wonderfull admiration that they supposed him and his companie to haue descended from heauen, so rare and strange a thing was shipping in their eyes. Therefore those Indians could not bee of America safely to bee driuen vpon the coastes of Germany, the distance and impedimentes well considered. Then comming neither from Afric nor America, they must of necessitie come from Asia by the Noreast or Norwest passages. But it should seme that they came not by the Noreast to double the promontory Tabin, to bee forced through the Scithian Sea, and to haue good passage through the narrow straight of Noua Zemla and neuer to recouer any shore is a matter of great impossibilitie. Therefore it must heedes be concluded that they came by the North partes of America through that discouered sea of 950 leages, and that they were of those people which Francisco Vasques of Coronado discouered, all which premises considered there remaineth no more doubting but that the landes are disioyned and that there is a Nauigable passage by the Norwest, of God for vs alone ordained to our infinite happines and for the euer being glory of her maiestie, for then her stately seate of London should be the storehouse of Europe: the nurse of the world: and the renowne of Nations, in yielding all forraine naturall benifits, by an easie rate, in short time returned vnto vs, and in the fulnes of their natural perfection: by natural participation through the world of all naturall and artificiall benefites, for want whereof at this present the most part liue distressed: and by the excellent comoditie of her seate, the mightines of her trade, with force of shipping thereby arising, and most aboundant accesse and intercourse from all the Kingdomes of the worlde, then should the ydle hand bee scorned and plenty by industry in all this land should be proclamed. And therefore the passage prooued and the benefites to all most apparant, let vs no longer neglect our happines, but like Christians with grilling and voluntary spirits labour without fainting for this so excellent a benefit. To prooue by experience that the sea fryseth not. Hauing sufficiensly prooued that there is a passage without a land impediments to hinder the same, contrary to the first obiection, it nowe resteth that the other supposed impediments bee likewise answered. And firste as touching the frost and fresing of the seas, it is supposed that the frozen zone is not habitable, and seas innauigable by reason of the vehemencie of cold, by the diuine creator allotted to that part of the world, and we are drawn into that absurdity of this opinion by a coniectural reason of the sunnes far distance and long absence vnder the horizon of the greatest parte of that zone, whereby the working power of colde perfourmeth the fulnesse of his nature, not hauing any contrary disposition to hinder the same and when the Sunne by his presence should comfort that parte of the world, his beames are so far remoued from perpendicularitie by reason of his continuall neerenes to the horizon, as that the effectes thereof answere not the violence of the winters cold. And therefore those seas remayne for euer vndissolued. Which if it be so, that the nature of cold can congeale the seas, it is very likely that his first working power, beginneth vpon the vpper face of the waters, and so descending worketh his effect, which if it were, howe then commeth it to passe that shippes sayle by the North cape, to Saint Nicholas fiue degrees or more within the frozen zone, and finde the seas from pester of yse, the farther from the shore the clearer from yse. And myselfe likewise howe coulde I haue sayled to the septentrionall latitude of seuentie fiue degrees, being nine degrees within the frozen zone, betweene two lands where the sea was straightened not fortie leages broade in some places, and thereby restrained from the violent motion and set of the maine occian and yet founde the same Nauigable and free from yse not onely in the midst of the chanell, but also close aborde the estern shore by me name Desolation, and therefore what neede the repetition of authorities from writers, or wrested philosophical reasons, when playne experience maketh the matter so manifest, and yet I deny not but that I haue seene in some part of those seas, tow sortes of yse, in very great quantity, as a kind of yse by seamen name ylands of yse, being very high aboue the water, fortie and fiftie fadomes by estimation and higher, and euery of those haue beene seuen times as much vnder the water, which I haue proued by taking a peece of yse and haue put the same in a vessell of salt water, and still haue found the seuenth part thereof to bee aboue the water, into what forme soeuer I haue reduced the same, and this kind of yse is nothing but snow, which falleth in those great peeces, from the high mountains bordering close vpon the shore depe seas. (For all the sea coastes of Desolation are mountains of equall height with the pike of Tenerif with verye great vallies betweene them) which I haue seene incredible to bee reported, that vpon the toppe of some of these ylls of yse, there haue beene stones of more then one hundreth tonnes wayght, which in his fall, that snowe hath torne from the clyffe, and in falling maketh such an horible noyse as if there were one hundreth canons shot of at one instant, and this kind of yse is verye white, and freshe, and with shore winds is many times beaten far of into the seas, perhaps twentie leages and that is the farthest distance that they haue euer bin seene from the shore. The other kind is called flake yse, blue, very hard and thinne not aboue three fadomes thick at the farthest, and this kinde of yse bordreth close vpon the shore. And as the nature of heate with apt vessels diuideth the pure spirit from his grosse partes by the coning practice of distillation: so doth the colde in these regions deuide and congeale the fresh water from the salt, nere such shores where by the aboundance of freshe rivers, the saltnes of the sea is mittigated, and not else where, for all yse in general beeing dissolued is very fresh water, so that by the experience of all that haue euer trauelled towardes the North it is well knowne that the sea neuer fryseth, but wee know that the sea dissolueth this yse with great speede, for in twentie foure houres I haue seen an ylande of yse turne vp and downe, as the common phrase is, because it hath melted so fast vnder water that the heauier parte hathe beene vpwarde, which hath beene the cause of his so turning, for the heuiest part of all things swiming is by nature downwards, and therefore sith the sea is by his heate of power to dissolue yse, it is greatly against reason that the same should be frozen, so that the congealation of the seas can bee no hinderance to the execution of this passage, contrary to the former obiection, by late experience reprooued, yet if experience wanted in ordenary reason men should not suppose nature to bee monstrous, for if all such yse and snowe as congealeth and descendeth in the winter did not by natures benefit dissolue in the sommer, but that the cold were more actual then the heate, that difference of inequalitie bee it neuer so little would by time bread natures ouerthrowe, for if the one thousand parte of the yse which in winter is congealed, did the next sommer remayne vndissolued, that continual difference sithins the worldes creation, would not onely haue conuerted all those North Seas into yse, but would also by continuall accesse of snow haue extended himselfe aboue all the ayers regions by which reason all such exalations as should be drawn from the earth and seas within the temperate zones and by windes driuen into these stiffe regions, that moysture was no more to bee hoped for that by dissolution it should haue any returne, so that by time the world should be left waterlesse. And therefore how ridiculous this imagination of the seas frysing is, I refer to the worlds generall opinion. That the ayre in colde regions is tollerable. And now for a full answer of all obiections, if the ayre bee proued tollerable then this most excellent and commodious passage is without al contradiction to be perfourmed. And that the ayre is tollerable as well in the winter as in the Sommer is thus proued. The inhabitantes of Moscouia, Lapland, Swethland, Norway and Tartaria omit not to trauel for their commodity: in the deepest of winter, passing by sleades ouer the yse and congealed snowe being made very slipperie and compact like yse by reason of much wearing and trading, hauing the vse of a kind of stag by them called Reen to drawe those their sleades. Groynland (by me lately named Desolation) is likewise inhabited by a people of good stature and tractable conditions, it also mayntayneth diuers kinde of foules and beastes which I haue their seene, but know not their names, and these must trauell for their food in winter, and therefore the ayre is not intolerable in the extremest nature of coldnes: and for the quality thereof in Sommer by my owne experience I knowe that vpon the shore it is as hot there as it is at the ylls of cape de Verde in which place there is such aboundance of moskeetes, (a kind of gnat that is in India very offensiue and in great quantitie) as that we were stong with them like lepers, not beeing able to haue quiet being vpon the shore. And vnder the clyfe in the pooles vnto which the streames aryse not, I haue found salt in great plenty as whyte as the salt of Mayo congeled from the salt water which the spryng tyds bring into those poles, which could not be but by the benefit of a noble heat, of which salt I brought with me and gaue to master Secretory Walsingham and to master Sanderson, as a rare thing to be found in those parts and farther the same was of an extraordenary saltnes. And therefore it is an idle dreame that the ayre should there be insufferable, for ourselues haue with the water of those seas made salt, because we desired to know whether the benefit of the sunne were the cause of this cogulation, what better confirmation then can there be then this. Island is likewise inhabited and yeldeth haukes in great store, as falcons, Ierfalcons, lanardes and sparrow haukes, rauens, crowes, beares, hares and foxes, with horses and other kinde of cattell, vpon which coast in August and September the yse is vtterly dissolued, all which the premises are certainly verified by such as trade thither from Lubec, Hambro, Amsterdam and England yerely, then why should wee dread this fayned distemperature: from cold regions come our most costly furres as sables beeing esteemed for a principall ornament and the beastes that yeld us those furres are chiefly hunted in the winter, how grieuous then shall we thinke the winter to be, or howe insufferable the ayre, where this little tender beast liueth so well, and where the hunters may search the dennes and hauntes of such beastes through the woods and snow. Vpsaliensis affirmeth that he hath felt the Sommer nights in Gotland scarcely tollerable for heate, whereas in Rome he hath felt them cold. The Mountaynes of Norway and Swethland are fruitefull of mettalls in which siluer and copper are concoct and molten in veines, which may scarcely bee done with fornaces, by which reason also the vapors and hot exhalations pearcing the earth and the waters and through both those natures breathing forth into the ayre, tempereth the quantitie thereof making it tollerable, as wyttnes the huge bignes of whales in those seas, with the strength of body and long life of such beastes as liue on the land, which thing could not bee except all thinges were there comodiously nourished, by the benefit of the heauen and the ayre, for nothing that in time of increase is hindred by any iniury or that is euill seed all the time it liueth can prosper well. Also it is a thing vndoubtedly knowne by experience that vpon the coastes of newfounde land, (as such as the yse remayneth vndissolued vpon those shores,) the wind being esterly, comming from the seas, causeth very sharpe colde, and yet the same is sufferable, but comming from the shore, yt presently yeldeth heat aboundantly according to the true nature of the scituation of the place, whereby it plainly appeareth that the very breth of the yse is rather the cause of this cold, then the distempreture of the ayre. Wherefore if in winter where is aboundance of yse and snowe the ayre is so sufferable, as that traueling and hunting may be exercised how much rather may wee iudge the seas to be Nauigable, and that in the deepest of winter, where there is neither yse nor snow that may yeld any such damps or cold breathings to the anoiance of such as shall take these interprises in hand. And therefore the Summer in no sort to be feared, but some curious witt may obiect that the naturall anoyance of cold is preuented by reason of the trauell of the body with other artificiall prouisions to defend the fury thereof, as also the whot vapors which the earth may yeld, whereof experience vrgeth confession, but vpon the seas it cannot be sith it is a cold body subiect to yeld great dampes and cold brethinges most offensiue to nature. To the which I answere in the vniuersall knowledge of all creatures that God the most glorious incomprehensible and euer being sole creatour of all thinges visible, invisible, rationall, irrationall, momentory and eternall in his diuine prouidence hath made nothing vncommunicable, but hath giuen such order vnto all things, whereby euery thing may be tollerable to the next, the extremities of ellements consent with their next the ayre is grosse about the earth and water, but thinn and hot about the fyer, by this prouidence in nature the sea is very salt, and salt (sayth Plinie) yeldeth the fatnes of oyle, but oyle by a certayne natiue heate is of propertie agreeable to fire, then being all of such qualitie by reason of the saltnes thereof moueth and stirreth vp generatiue heate, &c. Whereby the sea hath a working force in the dissolution of yse for things of so great contrariety as heate and cold haue togeather no affinitye in coniunction, but the one must of necessitye auoyde, the seas not being able by the bandes of nature to step backe, doth therefore cause the coldnesse of the ayre (by reason of his naturall heate) to giue place, whereby extremities being auoyded, the ayre must of necessitie remayne temperate, for in nature the ayre is hote and moyst, the colde then being but accidentall is the soner auoided, and natures wrongs with ease redressed. That vnder the Pole is the place of greatest dignitie. Reason teacheth vs and experience confirmeth the same, that the Sun is the onely sufficient cause of heat through the whole world and therefore in such places where the Sunne hath longest continuance, the ayre there receueth the greatest impression of heat, as also in his absence it is in like sort afflicted with colde. And as the heate in all clymates is indurable, by the eternall ordinance of the creator, so likewise the cold is sufferable by his euerlasting decree, for otherwise nature should bee monstrous and his creation wast, as it hath beene ydly affirmed by the most Cosmographicall writers, distinguishing the sphere into fiue Zones haue concluded three of them to be wast, as vaynely created, the burning zone betweene the two tropikes, and the two frozen Zones, but experience hauing reprooued the grosenes of that errour it shall be needlesse to say further therein. For although in the burning Zone the sun beames are at such right angles as that by the actuall reuerberation thereof the lower region of the ayre is greatly by that reflexion warmed, yet his equall absence breadeth such mitigation as that there we find the ayre tollerable, and the countries pleasant and fruitfull, being populos and well inhabited: so likewise vnder the pole being the center of the supposed frozen Zone, during the time that the Sunne is in the South signes, which is from the thirteenth of September vnto the 10 of March, it is there more cold then in any place of the world, because the Sunne in all that time doth neuer appeare aboue the Horyzon, but during the time that the Sunne is in the North signes which is from the tenth of March vnto the thirteenth of September he is in continuall view to all such as posses that place, by which his continuall presence, he worketh that notable effect, as that therby all the force of frysing is wholy redressed and vtterly taken away, working then and there more actuall then in any other part of the world. In which place there continuall day from the Sunne rising to the sunne setting is equall with twenty sixe weekes and fiue dayes, after our rate: and their night is equall with twenty fiue weekes and three dayes such as we haue, so that our whole yeere is with them but one night and one day, a wonderfull difference from al the rest of the world, and therefore no doubt but those people haue a wonderfull excellencie and an exceeding prorogatiue aboue all nations of the earth and this which is more to be noted. In all other places of the world the absence and presence of the Sun is in equall proportion of time, hauing as much night as day, but vnder the Pole their artificiall day (that is the continuall presence of the Sunne before he sett) is nine of our naturall dayes or two hundreth 16 houres longer then is their night, whereby it appeareth that they haue the life, light and comfort of nature in a higher measure then all the nations of the earth. How blessed then may we thinke this nation to be: for they are in perpetuall light, and neuer know what darknesse meaneth, by the benefit of twylight and full moones, as the learned in Astronomie doe very well knowe, which people if they haue the notice of their eternitie by the comfortable light of the Gospel, then are they blessed and of all nations most blessed. Why then doe we neglect the search of this excellent discouery, agaynst which there can be nothing sayd to hinder the same. Why doe we refuse to see the dignity of Gods Creation, sith it hath pleased his diuine Maiestie to place vs the nerest neighbor therevnto. I know there is no true Englishman that can in conscience refuse to be a contributer to procure this so great a happines to his country, whereby not onely the Prince and mightie men of the land shall be highly renowned, but also the Merchant, tradesman and artificer mightily inriched. And now as touching the last obiection that the want of skill in Nauigation with curious instrumentes, should be the hinderance or ouerthrow of this action. I holde that to bee so friuolous as not worth the answering, for it is wel knowne that we haue globes in the most excellent perfection of arte, and haue the vse of them in as exquisite sort, as master Robert Hues in his book of the globes vse, lately published hath at large made knowne, and for Horizontall paradox and great circle sayling I am myself a witnesse in the behalfe of many, that we are not ignorant of them, as lately I haue made knowne in a briefe treatis of Nauigation naming it the Seamans Secreats. And therfore this as the rest breadeth no hinderance to this most commodious discouery. What benefits would growe vnto Englande by this passage being discouered, The benefits which may growe by this discouery, are copious and of two sorts, a benifit spirituall and a benifit corporall. Both which sith by the awes of God and nature we are bound to regard, yet principally we are admonished first to seeke the Kingdome of God and the righteousnes thereof and all thinges shall be giuen vnto vs. And therfore in seeking the Kingdome of God we are not onely tied to the depe search of Gods sacred word and to liue within the perfect lymits of Christianity, but also by al meanes we are bound to multiply, and increase the flocke of the faithfull. Which by this discouery wil be most aboundantly perfourmed to the preseruation of many thousands which now most miserably are couered vnder the lothsome vayle of ignorance, neither can we in any sort doubt of their recouery by this passage discouered, Gods prouidence therein being considered who most mercifully sayth by the mouth of his prophet Esaias 66 I will come to gather all people and tongues, then shall they come and see my glory, of them that shall be saued. I will send some to the Gentils in the sea and the yls far of that haue not heard speak of me, and haue not sene my glory, shall preach my peace among the Gentiles. And in this 65 Chapter he farther sayth, They seeke me that hitherto haue not asked for me, they find me that hitherto haue not sought me. And againe chapter 49 I wil make waies vpon al my mountains and my footpathes shall be exalted, and behold these shall come from farre, some from the North and West, some from the land of Symis which is in the South. Then sith it is so appointed that there shal be one shepheard and one flocke, what hindreth vs of England, (being by Gods mercy for the same purpose at this present most aptly prepared,) not to attempt that which God himselfe hath appointed to be performed, there is no doubt but that wee of England are this saued people by the eternal and infallible presence of the Lord predestinated to be sent vnto these Gentiles in the sea, to those ylls and femous Kingdoms ther to preach the peace of the Lorde, for are not we onely set vpon Mount Sion to giue light to all the rest of the world, haue not we the true handmayd of the Lord to rule vs, vnto whom the eternall maiestie of God hath reueled his truth and supreme power of excellencye, by whom then shall the truth be preached, but by them vnto whom the truth shall be reueled, it is onely we therefore that must be these shining messengers of the Lord and none but we for as the prophet sayth, O how beautifull are the feet of the messenger that bringeth the message from the mountain, that proclameth peace, that bringeth the good tidings and preacheth health and sayth to Sion thy God is King, so that hereby the spirituall benefit arising by this discouery is most apparant, for which if there were no other cause wee are all bound to labour with purse and minde for the discouery of this notable passage. And nowe as touching the corporall and worldly benefits which will thereby arise, our owne late experience leadeth vs to the full knowledge thereof, as by the communitie of trade groweth the mightines of riches, so by the kinde and guide of such tradinges may grow the multiplication of such benifits, with assurance how the same may in the best sort be continued. In the consideration whereof it is first to bee regarded with what commodities our owne country aboundeth either naturall or artificiall, what quantity may be spared, and wher the same may with the easiest rate be gained, and how in his best nature vnto vs returned, all which by this passage shall be vnto vs most plentifully effected, and not onely that, but this also which is most to be regarded that in our thus trading wee shall by no meanes inrich the next adioyning states vnto vs, for riches bread dread, and pouertie increaseth feare, but here I cease fering to offend, yet it is a question whether it were better by an easy rate to vent our commodities far of or by a more plentifull gayne to passe them to our neerer neighbours, and those therby more inriched then ourselues, the premises considered wee finde our country to abound with woll, and wollen cloth, with lead, tin, copper and yron, matters of great moment, wee also knowe our soyle to be fertill, and would if trad did so permit haue equal imploiment with any of our neighbours, in linnen cloth, fustians, seys, grograms or any other forraine artificiall commodities, besides the excellent labours of the artsman, either in metallyne mechanicall faculties, or other artificiall ornaments, whereof India is well knowne to receiue all that Europe can afford, rating our commodities in the highest esteeme of valewe, which by this passage is speedily perfourmed, and then none of these should lie dead vpon our handes as now they doe, neither should we bee then ignorant as now we are in many excellent practices into which by trade wee shoulde bee drawne. And by the same passage in this ample vent, we should also at the first hand receiue all Indian commodities both naturall and artificial in a far greter measure by an easier rate and in better condition, then nowe they are by many exchaunges brought vnto vs, then would all nations of Europe repayre vnto England not only for these forraine merchandizes by reason of their plenty, perfection and easy rates, but also to passe away that which God in nature hath bestowed vpon them and their countrie, wherby her maiestie and her highnes successors for euer, should be monarks of the earth and commaunders of the Seas, through the aboundance of trade her coustomes would be mightily augmented, her state highly inriched, and her force of shipping greatly aduanced, as that thereby shee should be to all nations moste dredful, and we her subiects through imploiment should imbrace aboundance and be clothed with plenty. The glory whereof would be a deadly horrer to her aduersaries, increase friendly loue with al and procure her maiestie stately and perpetuall peace, for it is no small aduantage that ariseth to a state by the mightines of trade: being by necessity linked to no other nation, the same also beeing in commodities of the highest esteeme, as gold, siluer, stones of price, iuels, pearls, spice, drugs, silkes raw and wrought, veluetts, cloth of gold, besides many other commodities with vs of rare and high esteeme, whereof as yet our countrie is by nature depriued, al which India doth yeld at reasonable rates in great aboundance receiuing ours in the highest esteeme, so that hereby plenty retourning by trade abroade, and no smale quantity prouided by industry at home, all want then banished in the aboundance of her maiesties royalty, so through dred in glory, peace and loue, her maiesty should be the commaunding light of the world, and we her subiects the stars of wonder to al nations of the earth. Al which the premises considered it is impossible that any true English hart should be staied from willing contribution to the performance of this so excellent a discouery, the Lords and subiectes spirituall for the sole publication of Gods glorious gospell. And the Lords and subiectes temporal for the renowne of their prince and glory of their nation should be thervnto most vehemently effected. Which when it shall so please God in the mightines of his mercy, I beseech him to effect. Amen. END OF VOL. VI. 
9815	----	** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. Additional notes on corrections, etc. are signed 'KTH' ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. VIII. ASIA. PART I. Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoueries OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN ASIA. The life and trauailes of Pelagius borne in Wales. Pelagius Cambrius ex ea Britanniæ parte oriundus, famati illius Collegij Bannochorensis a Cestria non procul, præpositus, erat, in quo Christianorum philosophorum duo millia ac centum, ad plebis in Christo commoditatem militabant, manuum suarum laboribus, iuxta Pauli doctrinam victitantes. Post quam plures exhibitos, pro Christiana Repub. labores, vir eruditione insignis, et tum Græcè, tum Latinè peritus, vt Tertullianus alter, quorundam Clericorum lacessitus iniurijs, grauatim tulit, ac tandem a fide defecit. Peragratis igitur deinceps Gallijs, in Aegyptum, et Syriam aliásque orientis Regiones demum peruenit. Vbi ex earum partium Monacho præsul ordinatus, sui nominis hæresim fabricabat: asserens hominem sine peccato nasci, ac solo voluntatis imperio sine gratia saluari posse, vt ita nefarius baptismum ac fidem tolleret. Cum his et consimilibus impostricis doctrinæ fæcibus in patriam suam reuersus, omnem illam Regionem, Iuliano et Cælestino Pseudoepiscopis fautoribus, conspurcabat. Verum ante lapsum suum studia tractabat honestissima, vt post Gennadium, Bedam, et Honorium alij ferunt authores, composuítque multos libros ad Christianam vtilitatem. At postquam est Hereticus publicatus, multo plures edidit hæresi succurrentes, et ex diametro cum vera pietate pugnantes, vnde erat a suis Britannis in exilium pulsus, vt in Epistola ad Martinum 5. Valdenus habet. Claruit anno post Christum incarnatum, 390. sub Maximo Britannorum Rege. The same in English. Pelagius, borne in that part of Britaine which is called Wales, was head or gouernour of the famous Colledge of Bangor, not farre from Chester, wherein liued a Societie of 2100. Diuines, or Students of Christian philosophie, applying themselues to the profite of the Christian people, and liuing by the labours of their owne hands, according to Pauls doctrine. He was a man excellently learned, and skilfull both in the Greeke and Latine tongues, and as it were another Tertullian; after his long and great trauailes for the good of the Christian common wealth, seeing himselfe abused, and iniuriously dealt withall by some of the Clergie of that time, he tooke the matter so grieuously, that at the last he relapsed from the faith. Whereupon he left Wales, and went into France, and hauing gone through France, [Footnote: He is said to have resided long at Rome, only leaving on the capture of that city by the Gottis.] hee went therehence into Egypt, Syria, and other Countries of the East, and being made Priest by a certaine Monke of those partes, he there hatched his heresie, which according to his name was called the heresie of the Pelagians: which was, that manne was borne without sinne, and might be saued by the power of his owne will without grace, that so the miserable man might take away faith and baptisme. With this and the like dregges of false doctrine, he returned againe into Wales, and there by the meanes of the two false Prelates Iulian and Celestine, who fauoured his heresie, hee infected the whole Countrey with it. But before his fall and Apostasie from the faith, he exercised himselfe in the best studies, as Gennadius, Beda, Honorius, and other authors doe report of him, and wrote many bookes seruing not a litle to Christian vtilitie: but being once fallen into his heresie, hee wrote many more erroneous bookes, then he did before honest, and sincere: whereupon, at the last his owne Countreymen banished him, as Walden testifieth in his Epistle to Pope Martine the fift. He flourished in the yere after the Incarnation, 390. Maximus being then King of Britaine. * * * * * A testimonie of the sending of Sighelmus Bishop of Shirburne, by King Alphred, vnto Saint Thomas of India in the yeare of our Lord 883, recorded by William of Malmesburie, in his second booke and fourth Chapter de gestis regum Anglorum. Eleemosynis intentus priuilegia ecclesiarum, sicut pater statuerat, roborauit; et trans mare Romam, et ad sanctum Thomam in Indiam multa munera misit. Legatus in hoc missus Sighelmus Shirburnensis Episcopus cum magna prosperitate, quod quiuis hoc seculo miretur, Indiam penetrauit; inde rediens exoticos splendores gemmarum, et liquores aromatum, quorum illa humus ferax est, reportauit. The same in English. King Alphred being addicted to giving of almes, confirmed the priuileges of Churches as his father had determined; and sent also many giftes beyond the seas vnto Rome, and vnto S. Thomas of India. His messenger in this businesse was Sighelmus bishop of Schirburne; [Footnote: Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, where an abbey was founded in 700.] who with great prosperitie (which is a matter to be wondered at in this our age) trauailed thorough India, and returning home brought with him many strange and precious vnions and costly spyces, such as that countrey plentifully yeeldeth. * * * * * A second testimony of the foresaid Sighelmus his voyage vnto Saint Thomas of India &c. out of William of Malmesburie his second booke de gestis pontificum Anglorum, cap. de episcopis Schireburnensibus, Salisburiensibus, Wiltunensibus. Sighelmus trans mare, causa eleemosynarum regis, et etiam ad Sanctam Thomam in Indiam missus mira prosperitate, quod quiuis in hoc seculo miretur, Indiam penetrauit; indequè rediens exotici generis gemmas, quarum illa humus ferax est, reportauit. Nonnullæ illarum adhuc in ecclesiæ monumentis visuntur. The same in English. Sighelmus being for the performance of the kings almes sent beyond the seas, and trauailing vnto S. Thomas of India, very prosperously (which a man would woonder at in this age) passed through the sayde countrey of India, and returning home brought with him diuers strange and precious stones, such as that climate affourdeth. Many of which stones are as yet extant in the monuments of the Church. * * * * * The trauailes of Andrew Whiteman aliás Leucander, Centur. 11. [Footnote: This is misprinted "Centur. 2" in the original edition, but as Ramsey Abbey (in Huntingdonshire) was only founded by Ailwin the Saxon, A.D. 969-74, the 11th Century is probably meant, as further on Whiteman is said to have flourished in 1020. Ramsey is so called from _Ram's Ey_, an island in the fens.] Andræas Leucander aliás Whiteman (iuxta Lelandum) Monachus, & Abbas Ramesiensis Coenobij tertius fuit. Hic bonis artibus studio quodam incredibili noctes atque dies inuigilabat, et operæ præcium ingens inde retulit. Accessit præterea et ardens quoddam desiderium, ea proprijs et apertis oculis videndi loca in quibus Seruator Christus redemptionis nostræ mysteria omnia consummauit, quorum prius sola nomina ex scripturarum lectione nouerat: vnde et sacram Hierosolymorum vrbem miraculorum, prædicationis, ac passionis eius testem inuisit, atque domum rediens factus est Abbas. Claruisse fertur anno nati Seruatoris, 1020 sub Canuto Dano. The same in English. Andrew Leucander otherwise called Whiteman (as Leland reporteth) was by profession a Monke, and the third Abbat of the Abbey of Ramsie: he was exceedingly giuen to the studie of good artes, taking paines therein day and night, and profited greatly thereby. And amonst all other things, he had an incredible desire to see those places with his eyes, wherein Christ our Sauiour performed and wrought all the mysteries of our redemption, the names of which places he onely knew before by the reading of the Scriptures. Whereupon he began his iourney, and went to Ierusalem a witnesse of the miracles, preaching, and passion of Christ, and being againe returned into his countrey, he was made the aforesayd Abbat. He flourished in the yeere of Christ 1020. under Canutus the Dane. * * * * * The voyages of Swanus one of the sonnes of Earl Godwin vnto Ierusalem, Anno Dom. 1052, recorded by William of Malmsburie lib. 2. de gestis regum Anglorum, Capite 13. Swanus peruersi ingenij et infidi in regem, multoties a patre et fratre Haroldo desciuit: et pirata factus, prædis maritimis virtutes maiorum polluit. Postremò pro conscientia Brunonis cognati interempti, et (vt quidam dicunt) fratris Ierosolimam abijt: indeque rediens, a Saracenis circumuentus, et ad mortem cæsus est. The same in English. Swanus being of a peruerse disposition, and faithlesse to the king, often times disagreed with his father and his brother Harold: and afterwards proouing a pirate, he stained the vertues of his ancestours with his robberies vpon the seas. Last of all, being guilty vnto himselfe of the murther of his kinseman Bruno, and (as some do report) of his owne brother, he trauailed vnto Ierusalem: and in his returne home, being taken by the Saracens, was beaten, and wounded vnto death. * * * * * A voyage of three Ambassadours, who in the time of K. Edward the Confessor, and about the yere of our Lord 1056, were sent vnto Constantinople, and from thence vnto Ephesus, together with the occasion of their sending, &c. recorded by William of Malmesburie, lib. 2. de gestis regum Anglorum, capite 13. Die sancti paschatis ad mensam apud Westmonasterium assederat, diademate fastigatus, et optimatum turma circumuallatus. Cumque alij longam quadragesimæ inediam recentibus cibis compensantes, acriter comederent, ille a terrenis reuocato animo, diuinum quiddam speculatus, mentes conuiuantium permouit ampliorem perfusus in risum: nulloque causam lætitiæ perquirere præsumente, tunc quidem ita tacitum donec edendi satietas obsonijs finem imposuit. Sed remotis mensis, cum in triclinio regalibus exueretur, tres optimates eum prosequuti, quorum vnus erat comes Haroldus, secundus abbas, tertius episcopus, familiaritatis ausu interrogant quid riserat: mirum omnibus nec immeritò videri, quarè in tanta serenitate diei et negòtij, tacentibus cæteris, scurrilem cachinnum ejecerit. Stupenda (inquit) vidi, nec ideo sine causa risi. Tum illi, vt moris est humani ingenij, sciscitari et quærere causam ardentiùs, vt supplicibus dignantèr rem impertiatur. Ille multùm cunctatus tandem instantibus mira respondit: septem dormientes in monte Cælio requiescere iam ducentis annis in dextro iacentes latere: sed tunc in hora ipsa risus sui, latus inuertisse sinistrum: futurum vt septuaginta quatuor annis ita iaceant: dirum nimirum miseris mortalibus omen. Nam omnia ventura in his septuaginta quatuor annis, quæ dominus circa finem mundi prædixit discipulis suis: gentem contra gentem surrecturam, et regnum aduersus regnum, terræmotus per loca, pestilentiam et famem, terrores de coelo et signa magna, regnorum mutationes, gentilium in Christianos bella, item Christicolarum in paganos victorias. Talia mirantibus inculcans passionem septem dormientium, et habitudines corporum singulorum, quas nulla docet litera, ita promptè disseruit: ac si cum eis quotidiano victitaret contubernio. His auditis, comes militem, episcopus clericum, abbas monachum, ad veritatem verborum exsculpendam, Manicheti Constantinopolitano imperatori misere, adiectis regis sui literis et muneribus. Eos ille benignè secum habitos episcopo Ephesi destinauit, epistola pariter, quam sacram vocant, comitante: vt ostenderentur legatis regis Angliæ septem dormientium marturiales exuuiæ. Factúmque est vt vaticinium regis Edwardì Græcis omnibus comprobatum, qui se a patribus accepisse iurarent, super dextrum illos latus quiescere: sed post introitum Anglorum in speluncam, veritatem peregrinæ prophetiæ contubernalibus suis prædicarunt. Nec moram festinatio malorum fecit, quin Agareni, et Arabes, et Turci, alienæ scilicèt a Christo gentes, Syriam, et Lyciam, et minorem Asiam omnino, et maioris multas vrbes, inter quas et Ephesum, ipsam etiam Hierosolymam depopulati, super Christianos inuaderent. The same in English. Vpon Easter day king Edward the Confessor being crowned with his kingly diademe, and accompanied with diuers of his nobles, sate at dinner in his pallace at Westminster. And when others, after their long abstinence in the Lent, refreshed themselves with dainty meats, and fed thereupon very earnestly, he lifting vp his mind from earthly matters and meditating on heauenly visions (to the great admiration of those which were present) brake forth into an exceeding laughter: and no man presuming to enquire the cause of his mirth, they all kept silence til dinner was ended. But after dinner as he was in his bedchamber putting off his solemne roabes, three of his Nobles to wit earle Harold, an Abbot, and a Bishop, being more familiar with him then the residue followed him in and bouldly asked him what was the occasion of his laughter: for it seemed very strange vnto them all, what should moue him at so solemne a time and assembly, while others kept silence, to laugh so excessively. I saw (quoth he) admirable things, and therefore laughed I not without occasion. Then they (as it is the common guise of all men) demaunded and enquired the cause more earnestly, humbly beseeching faith that hee would vouchsafe to impart that secret vnto them. Whereupon musing a long while vnto himself, at length he told them wonderfull things: namely that seuen Sleepers had rested in mount Cælius two hundred yeeres, lying upon their right sides but in the very houre of his laughter, that they turned themselues on their left sides; and that they should continue so lying for the space of 74. yeeres after; being a dismal signe of future calamitie vnto mankinde. For all things should come to passe within these 74. yeeres, which, as our Sauiour Christ foretold vnto his disciples, were to be fulfilled about the ende of the world: namely that nation should rise against nation, and kingdome against kingdome, and that there should bee in many places earthquakes, pestilence, and famine, terrible apparitions in the heauens, and great signes, together with alterations of kingdomes, warres of infidels against the Christians, and victories of the Christians against the infidels. And as they wondered at these relations, he declared vnto them the passion of the seuen Sleepers, with the proportion and shape of cache of their bodies (which things, no man liuing had as then committed vnto writing) and that so plainely and distinctly, as if he had conuersed a long time in their company. Hereupon the earle sent a knight, the bishop a clearke, the Abbot a monke vnto Maniches the Emperour of Constantinople, with the letters and gifts of their King. Who giuing them friendly entertainment, sent them ouer vnto the bishop of Ephesus; and wrote his letters vnto him giuing him charge, that the English Ambassadours might be admitted to see the true, and material habiliments of the seuen Sleepers. And it came to passe that King Edwards vision was approued by all the Greeks, who protested they were aduertised by their fathers, that the foresaid seuen Sleepers had alwayes before that time rested vpon their right sides; but after the Englishmen were entered into the caue, those Sleepers confirmed the trueth of the outlandish prophesie, vnto their countreymen. Neither were the calamities foretold, any long time delayed: for the Aragens, Arabians, Turkes and other vnbeleeuing nations inuading the Christians, harried and spoiled Syria, Lycia, the lesser Asia, and many cities of Asia the greater, and amongst the rest Ephesus, yea, and Ierusalem also. * * * * * The voyage of Alured bishop of Worcester vnto Ierusalem, an. 1058. Recorded by Roger Houeden in parte priore Annalium, fol. 255. linea 15. [Sidenote: A.D. 1058] Aluredus Wigorniensis Episcopus ecclesiam, quam in ciuitate, Glauorna à fundamentis constraxerat, in honore principis Apostolorum Petri honorificè dedicauit: et posteà regis licentia Wolstanum Wigorniensem Monachum à se ordinatum Abbatum constituit ibidem. Dein præsulatu dimisso Wiltoniensis ecclesiæ, qui sibi ad regendum commissus fuerat, et Hermanno, cujus suprà mentionem fecimus, reddito, mare transijt, et per Hungarian profectus est Hierosolymam, &c. The same in English. In the yere of our Lord 1058. Alured bishop of Worcester, very solemnly dedicated a Church (which himselfe had founded and built in the citie of Gloucester) vnto the honour of S. Peter the chiefe Apostle:[Footnote: This is Gloucester Cathedral, the crypt, the chapels surrounding the choir, and the lower part of the nave being the portions built by Alured that are still extant.] and afterward by the kings permission ordained Wolstan a Monke of Worcester of his owne choice, to be Abbate in the same place. And then having left his Bishopricke which was committed vnto him ouer the Church of Wilton, and having resigned the same vnto Hermannus aboue mentioned, passed ouer the seas, and trauailed through Hungarie vnto Ierusalem, &c. * * * * * The voyage of Ingulphus Abbat of Croiland vnto Ierusalem, performed (according to Florentius Wigorniensis) in the yeere of our Lord, 1064, and described by the said Ingulphus himselfe about the conclusion of his briefe Historie. [Sidenote: A.D. 1064] Ego Ingulphus humilis minister Sancti Guthlaci Monasterijque sui Croilandensis, natus in Anglia, et a parentibus Anglicis, quippè vrbis pulcherrimæ Londoniarum, pro literis addiscendis in teneriore setate constitutus, primum Westmonasterio, postmodum Oxoniensi studio traditus eram. Cúmque in Aristotele arripiendo supra multo coætaneos meos profecissem, etiam Rhetoricam Tullij primam et secundam talo tenus induebam. Factus ergo adolescentior, fastidiens parentum meorum exiguitatem, paternos lares relinquere, et palatia regum aut principum affectans, mollibus vestiri, pomposisque lacinijs amiciri indies ardentius appetebam. [Sidenote: A.D. 1051] Et eccè, inclytus nunc rex noster Angliæ, tunc adhunc comes Normanniæ Wilhelmus ad colloquium tunc regis Angliæ Edwardi cognati sui, cum grandi ministrantium comitatu Londonias aduentabat, Quibus citius insertus, ingerens me vbíque ad omnia emergentia negotia peragenda, cum prosperè plurima perfecissem, in breui agnitus Ilustrissimo comiti et astrictissimè adamatus, cum ipso Normanniam enauigabam. Factus ibidem scriba eius, pro libito totam comitis curiam, ad nonnullorum inuidiam regebam; quosque volui humiliabam, et quos volui exaltabam. Cumque iuuenili calore impulsus in tam celso statu supra meos natales consistere tæderem, quin semper ad altiora conscendere, instabili animo, ac nimium prurienti affectu, ad erubescentiam ambitiosus auidissimè desiderarem: [Sidenote: A.D. 1064. According to Florentius Wegorniensis.] nuntiatur per vniuersam Normanniam plurimos archiepiscopos imperij cum nonnullis alijs terræ principibus velle pro merito animarum suanim more peregrinoram cum debita deuotione Hierosolymam proficisci. De familia ergo comitis domini nostri plurimi tam milites quàm clerici, quorum primus et præcipuus ego eram, cum licentia, et domini nostri comitis beneuolentia, in dictum iter nos omnes accinximus: et Alemanniam petentes, equites triginta numero et ampliùs domino Maguntino coniuncti sumus. Parati namque omnes ad viam, et cum dominis episcopis connumerati septem milia, pertranseuntes prosperè multa terrarum spatia, tandem Constantinopolim peruenimus. Vbi Alexium Imperatorem eius adorantes Agiosophiam vidimus, et infinita sanctuaria osculati sumus. Diuertentes inde per Lyciam in manus Arabicorum latrorium incidimus; euis ceratique de infinitis pecunijs, cum mortibus multorum, et maxima vitæ nostræ periculo vix euadentes, tandem desideratissimam ciuitatem Hierosolymam læto introitu tenebamus. Ab ipso tunc patriarcha Sophronio nomine, viro veneranda canitie honestissimo ac sanctissimo, grandi cymbalorum tonitru, et luminarium immenso fulgore suscepti, ad diuinissimam ecclesiam sanctissimi sepulchri, tam Syrorum, quàm Latinornm solenni processione deducti sumus. Ibi quot preces inorauimus, quot lachrymas infleuimus, quot suspiria inspirauimus, solus eius inhabitator nouit D. noster Iesus Christus. Ab ipso itaque gloriosissimo sepulchro Christi ad alia sanctuaria ciuitatis inuisenda circumducti, infinitam summam sanctarum ecclesiarum, et oratorioram, quæ Achim Soldanus dudum destruxerat, oculis lachrymosis vidimus. Et omnibus ruinis sanctissimæ ciuitatis, tam extra, quàm intra; numerosis lachrymis intimo affectu compassi, ad quorundam restaurationem datis non paucis pecunijs, exire in patriam et sacratissimo Iordane intingi, vniuersáque Chrtsti vestigia osculari, desiderantissima deuotione suspirabamus. Sed Arabum latrunculi qui omnem viam obseruabant, longiùs a ciuitate euagari, sua rabiosa multitudine innumera non sinebant. Vere igitur accidente, stolus nauium Ianuensium in porta Ioppensi applicuit. In quibus, cum sua mercimonia Christiani mercatores per ciuitates maritimas commutassent, et sancta loca similitèr adorassent, ascendentes omnes maria nos commisimus. Et iactati fluctibus et procellis innumeris tandem Brundusium, et prospero itinere per Apulium Romam petentes, sanctorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli limina, et copiosissima sanctorum martyrum monumenta per omnes stationes osculati sumus. Indè archiepiscopi, cæterique principes imperij Alemanniam per dextram repetentes, nos versus Franciam ad sinistram declinantes cum inenarribilibus et gratijs et osculis ab inuicem discessimus. Et tandem de triginta equitibus, qui de Normannia pingues exiuimus, vix viginti pauperes peregrini, et omnes pedites, macie multa attenuati, reuersi sumus. The same in English. I Ingulphus [Footnote: This Abbot, or pretended Abbot of Croyland (whose name is attached to a work once highly valued, professing to be a history of the Abbey of Croyland from 626 to 1089, but which, is now believed to be a monkish fabrication of a much later age), is said by himself to have been, on his return from the Holy Land, appointed prior of the Abbey of Fontenelle, in Normandy, and on William becoming King of England, Abbot of Croyland. He was believed to have died in 1109.] an humble seruant of reuerend Guthlac and of his monastery of Croiland, borne in England, and of English parents, at the beautifull citie of London, was in my youth for the attaining of good letters, placed first at Westminster, and afterward sent to the Vniuersitie of Oxford. And hauing excelled diuers of mine equals in learning of Aristotle, I inured my selfe somewhat vnto the first and second Rhethorique of Tullie. And as I grew in age, disdayning my parents meane estate, and forsaking mine owne natiue soyle, I affected the Courts of kings and princes, and was desirous to be clad in silke, and to weare braue and costly attire. [Sidenote: A.D. 1051] And loe, at the same time William our souereigne king now, but then Erle of Normandie, with a great troup of followers and attendants came vnto London, to conferre with king Edward the Confessour his kinsman. Into whose company intruding my selfe, and proffering my seruice for the performance of any speedy or weightie affayres, in short time, after I had done many things with good successe, I was knowen and most entirely beloued by the victorious Erle himselfe, and with him I sayled into Normandie. And there being made his secretarie, I gouerned the Erles Court (albeit with the enuie of some) as my selfe pleased, yea whom I would I abased, and preferred whom I thought good. When as therefore, being carried with a youthful heat and lustie humour, I began to be wearie euen of this place, wherein I was aduanced so high aboue my parentage, and with an inconstant minde, and affection too too ambitious, most vehemently aspired at all occasions to climbe higher: there went a report throughout all Normandie, that diuers Archbishops of the Empire, and secular princes were desirous for their soules health, and for deuotion sake, to goe on pilgrimage to Ierusalem. Wherefore out of the family of our lorde the Earle, sundry of vs, both gentlemen and clerkes (principall of whom was myselfe) with the licence and good will of our sayd lord the earle, sped vs on that voiage, and trauailing thirtie horses of vs into high Germanie, we ioyned our selues vnto the Archbishop of Mentz. And being with the companies of the Bishop seuen thousand persons sufficiently prouided for such an expedition, we passed prosperously through many prouinces, and at length attained vnto Constantinople. Where doing reuerence vnto the Emperor Alexius, we sawe the Church of Sancta Sophia, and kissed diuers sacred reliques. Departing thence through Lycia, we fell into the hands of the Arabian theeues: and after we had beene robbed of infinite summes of money, and had lost many of our people, hardly escaping with extreame danger of our liues, at length we ioyfully entered into the most wished citie of Ierusalem. Where we wer receiued by the most reuerend, aged, and holy patriarke Sophronius, with great melodie of cymbals and with torch-light, and were accompanied vnto the most diuine Church of our Sauiour his sepulchre with a solemne procession aswell of Syrians as of Latines. Here, how many prayers we vttered, what abundance of teares we shed, what deepe sighs we breathed foorth, our Lord Iesus Christ onely knoweth. Wherefore being conducted from the most glorious sepulchre of Christ to visite other sacred monuments of the citie, we saw with weeping eyes a great number of holy Churches and oratories, which Achim the Souldan of Egypt had lately destroyed. And so hauing bewailed with sadde teares, and most sorowful and bleeding affections, all the ruines of that most holy city both within and without, and hauing bestowed money for the reedifying of some, we desired with most ardent deuotion to go forth into the countrey, to wash our selues in the most sacred riuer of Iordan, and to kisse all the steppes of Christ. Howbeit the theeuish Arabians lurking vpon euery way, would not suffer vs to trauell farre from the city, by reason of their huge and furious multitudes. Wherefore about the spring there arriued at the port of Ioppa a fleet of ships from Genoa. In which fleet (when the Christian merchants had exchanged all their wares at the coast townes, and had likewise visited the holy places) wee all of vs embarked committing ourselues to the seas: and being tossed with many stormes and tempests, at length wee arriued at Brundusium: and so with a prosperous iourney trauelling thorow Apulia towards Rome, we there visited the habitations of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and did reuerence vnto diuers monuments of holy martyrs in all places thorowout the city. From thence the archbishops and other princes of the empire trauelling towards the right hand for Alemain, and we declining towards the left hand for France, departed asunder, taking our leaues with vnspeakable thankes and courtesies. And so at length, of thirty horsemen which went out of Normandie fat, lusty, and frolique, we returned hither skarse twenty poore pilgrims of vs, being all footmen, and consumed with leannesse to the bare bones. * * * * * Diuers of the honourable family of the Beauchamps, with Robert Curtoys sonne of William the Conqueror, made a voyage to Ierusalem 1096. Hol. pag. 22. vol. 2. Pope Vrbane calling a councell at Clermont in Auuergne, exhorted the Christian princes so earnestly to make a iourney in the Holy land, for the recouery thereof out of the Saracens hands, that the saide great and generall iourney was concluded vpon to be taken in hand, wherein many noble men of Christendome went vnder the leading of Godfrey of Bouillon and others, as in the Chronicles of France, of Germanie, and of the Holy land doeth more plainely appeare. There went also among other diuers noble men foorth of this Realme of England, specially that worthily bare the surname of Beauchampe. * * * * * The voyage of Gutuere an English Lady maried to Balduine brother of Godfreide duke of Bouillon, toward Ierusalem about 1097. And the 11. yeere of William Rufus King of England. The Christian armie of Godfrie of Bouillon passing the citie of Iconium, alias Agogna in the countrey of Licaonia, and from thence by the city of Heraclia, came at length vnto the citie of Marasia, where they encamped, and soiourned there three whole dayes, because of the wife of Balduine brother germane of the duke of Loraigne. Which Lady, being long time vexed with a grieuous maladie, was in extremitie, where at length paying the debt due to nature, she changed this transitorie life, for life eternall; Who, in her life time, was a very worthy and vertuous Lady, borne in England, and descended of most noble parentage named Gutuere; Which, according to her degree, was there most honourably enterred, to the great griefe of all the whole armie. As reporteth William Archbishop of Tyre, lib. 3. cap. 17. hist. belli sacri. The same author in the 10. booke and first chapter of the same historie concerning the same English Lady, writeth further as followeth, Baldwine hauing folowed the warres for a time, gaue his minde to marriage, so that being in England he fell in loue with a very honourable and noble Lady named Gutuere, whom he married and caried with him in that first happy expedition, wherin he accompanied his brethren, the Lords, duke Godfrey and Eustace, persons very commendable in all vertues and of immortall memorie. But he had hard fortune in his iourney, because his foresaid wife, being wearied with a long sicknes finished her life with a happie end neere the citie of Marasia, before the Christian armie came vnto Antioch, where she was honourably buried, as we haue declared before. * * * * * Chronicon Hierosolymitanum in lib. 3. cap. 27. maketh also mention of this English Lady which he calleth Godwera in this maner. Hac in regione Maresch vxor Baldewini nobilissima, quam de regno Angliæ eduxit, diutina corporis molestia aggrauata, et duci Godefrido commendata, vitam exhalauit, sepulta Catholicis obsequijs; cuius nomen erat Godwera. The same in English. In this prouince of Maresch the most noble wife of Baldwine, which he caried with him out of England being visited with dayly sicknesses and infirmities of body, and commended to the custody of duke Godfrey, departed out of this life, and was buried after the Christian maner. Her name was Godwera. * * * * * The voyage of Edgar the sonne of Edward which was the sonne of Edmund surnamed Ironside, brother vnto K. Edward the confessor, (being accompanied with valiant Robert the sonne of Godwin) vnto Ierusalem, in the yeere of our Lord 1102. Recorded by William of Malmesburie, lib. 3. histo. fol. 58. [Sidenote: A.D. 1102.] Subsequenti tempore cum Roberto filio Godwini milite audacissimo Edgaras Hierosolymam pertendit Illud fuit tempus quo Turci Baldwinum regem apud Ramas obsederunt: qui cum obsidionis iniuriam ferre nequiret, per medias hostium acies effugit, solius Roberti opera liberatus præeuntis, et euaginato gladio dextra leuaque Turcos cædentis. Sed cum successu ipso truculentior, alacritate nimia procurreret, ensis manu excidit. Ad quem recolligendum cum se inclinasset, omnium incursu oppressus, vinculis palmas dedit. Inde Babyloniam (vt aiunt) ductus, cum Christum abnegare nollet, in medio foro ad signum positus, et sagittis terebratus, martyrium consecrauit. Edgarus amisso milite regressus, multaque beneficia ab Imperatoribus Græcorum, et Alemannorum adeptus (quippè qui etiam eum retinere pro generis amplitudine tentassent) omnia pronatalis soli desiderio spreuit. Quosdam enim profectò fallit amor patriæ vt nihil eis videatur iucundum, nisi consuetum hauserint coelum. Vndè Edgarus fatua cupidine illusus Angliam redijt, vbi (vt superius dixi) diuerso fortunæ ludicro rotatus, nunc remotus et tacitus, canos suos in agro consumit. The same in English. Afterward Edgar being sonne vnto the nephewe of Edward the confessour, traueiled with Robert the sonne of Godwin a most valiant knight, vnto Ierusalem. And it was at the same time when the Turkes besieged king Baldwin at Rama: who not being able to endure the straight siege, was by the helpe of Robert especially, going before him, and with his drawen sword making a lane, and slaying the Turkes on his right hande and on his left, deliuered out of that danger, and escaped through the midst of his enemies campe. But vpon his happie successe being more eager and fierce, as he went forward somewhat too hastily, his sworde fell out of his hand. Which as he stouped to take vp, being oppressed with the whole multitude, hee was there taken and bound. From whence (as some say) being carried vnto Babylon or Alcair in Egypt, when he would not renounce Christ, he was tyed vnto a stake in the midst of the market place, and being shot through with arrowes, died a martyr. Edgar hauing lost his knight returned, and being honoured with many rewards both by the Greekish and by the Germaine Emperour (who both of them would right gladly haue entertained him stil for his great nobilitie) contemned all things in respect of his natiue soile. For in very deede some are so inueagled with the loue of their countrey, that nothing can seeme pleasant vnto them, vnlesse they breath in the same aire where they were bred. Wherefore Edgar being misledde with a fond affection, returned into England; and afterward being subiect vnto diuers changes of fortune (as we haue aboue signified) he spendeth [Marginal note: When the author was writing of this history.] now his extreeme old age in an obscure and priuate place of the countrey. * * * * * Mention made of one Godericus, a valiant Englishman, who was with his ships in the voyage vnto the Holy land in the second yeere of Baldwine King of Ierusalem, in the third yere of Henry the first of England. [Chronicon Hierosolymitanum lib. 9. cap. 9.] Verùm de hinc septem diebus euolutis rex ab Assur exiens, nauem quæ dicitur Buza ascendit, et cum eo Godericus pirata de regno Angliæ, ac vexillo hastæ præfixo et elato in aëre ad radios solis vsque, Iaphet cum paucis nauigauit, vt hoc eius signo ciues Christiani recognito, fiduciam vitæ regis haberent, et non facile hostium mínis pauefacti, turpiter diffugium facerent, aut vrbem reddere cogerentur. Sciebat enim eos multum de vita et salute eius desperare, Saraceni autem viso eius signo, et recognito, ea parte quæ vrbem nauigio cingebat illi in galeis viginti et Carinis tredecim, quas vulgo appelant Cazh, occurrerunt, volentes Buzam regis coronare. Sed Dei auxilio vndis maris illis ex aduerso tumescentibus ac reluctantibus, Buza autem regis facili, et agili cursu inter procellas labente, ac volitante, in portu Ioppæ delusis hostibus subitò affuit, sex ex Saracenis in arcu suo in nauicula percussis, ac vulneratis. Intrans itaque ciuitatem dum incolumis omnium pateret oculis, reuixit spiritus cunctorum gementium ei de eius niorte hactenus dolentium, eo quòd caput et rex Christianorum et princeps Hierusalem adhuc viuus et incolumis receptus sit. The same in English. But seuen dayes afterward, the King comming out of the towne of Assur entred into a shippe called a Busse, and one Godericke a pirate of the kingdome of England with him, and fastening his banner on the toppe of a speare, and holding it vp aloft in the aire against the beames of the Sunne, sailed vnto Iaphet with a small company; That the Christian Citizens there seeing this his banner, might conceiue hope that the King was yet liuing, and being not easily terrified with the threates of the enemies might shamefully runne away; or be constrained to yeeld vp the citie. For hee knew that they were very much out of hope of his life and safetie. The Saracens seeing and knowing this his banner, that part of them which enuironed the Citie by water made towards him with twentie Gallies and thirteene shippes, which they commonly cal Cazh, seeking to inclose the kings shippe. But, by Gods helpe the billowes of the Sea swelling and raging against them, and the Kings shippe gliding and passing through the waues with an easie and nimble course arriued suddenly in the hauen of Ioppa, the enemies frustrated of their purpose; and sixe of the Saracens were hurt and wounded by shot out of the Kings shippe. So that the King entering into the Citie, and nowe appearing in safetie in all their sightes, the spirits of all them that mourned for him, and vntil then lamented as though hee had bene dead, reuiued, because that the head and King of the Christians, and prince of Ierusalem was yet aliue, and come againe vnto them in perfect health. * * * * * Mention made of One Hardine of England one of the chiefest personages, and a leader among other of two hundred saile of ships of Christians that landed at Ioppa in the yeere of our Lord God 1102. [Chronicon Hierosolymitanum libro 9. cap. 11.] Interea dum hæc obsidio ageretur 200. naues Christianorum nauigio Ioppen appulsæ sunt, vt adorarent in Hierusalem. Horum Bernardus Witrazh de terra Galatiæ, Hardinus de Anglia, Otho de Roges, Hadewerck, vnus de præpotentibus Westfalorum, primi et ductores fuisse referuntur, etc. Erat autem tertia feria Iulij mensis, quando hæ Christianorum copiæ, Deo protegente, huc nauigio angustiatis et obsessis ad opem collatæ sunt. Sarracenorum autem turmæ, videntes quia Christianorum virtus audactur facie ad faciem vicini sibi hospitio proximè iungebatur, media nocte orbi incumbente, amotis tentorijs amplius milliari subtractæ consederunt, dum luce exorta consilium inirent, vtrum Ascalonem redirent, aut ciues Iaphet crebris assultibus vexarent. The same in English. Whle the Sarazens continued their siege against Ioppa, two hundred saile of Christian ships arriued at Ioppa, that they might performe their deuotions at Hierusalem. The chiefe men and leaders of these Christians are reported to haue bene: Bernard Witrazh of the land of Galatia, Hardine of England, Otho of Roges, Haderwerck one of the chiefe noblemen of Westphalia, &c. This Christian power through Gods speciall prouision, arrived here for the succour and reliefe of the distressed and besieged Christians in Ioppa, the third day of Iuly, 1102. and in the second yeere of Baldwine king of Ierusalem. Whereupon the multitude of the Sarazens, seeing that the Christian power ioyned themselves boldly, close by them even face to face in a lodging hard by them, the very next night at midnight, remooued their tents, and pitched them more then a mile off, that they might the next morning bee aduised whether they should returne to Ascalon, or by often assaults vexe the citizens of Iaphet. [Chronicon Hierosolymitanum, eodem libro 9. cap. l2.] continueth this historie of these two hundreth saile of ships, and sheweth how by their prowesse chiefly, the multitude of the Sarazens were in short space vanquished and ouerthrowen: The words are these; Ab ipso verò die tertiæ feriæ dum sic in superbia et elatione suæ multitudinis immobiles Saraceni persisterent, et multis armorum terroribus Christianum populum vexarent, sexta feria appropinquante. Rex Baldwinus in tubis et cornibus a Iaphet egrediens, in manu robusta equitum et peditum virtutem illorum crudeli bello est aggressus, magnis hinc et hinc clamoribus intonantes. Christiani quoque qui nauigio appulsi sunt horribili pariter clamore cum Rege Baldwino, et graui strepitu vociferantes, Babylonios vehementi pugna sunt aggressi, sæuissimis atque mortiferis plagis eos affligentes, donec bello fatigati, et contrà ['vntrà' in source text--KTH] vim non sustinentes fugam versus Ascalonea inierunt. Alij verò ab insecutoribus eripi existimantes, et mari se credentes, intolerabili procellarum fluctuatione absorpti sunt. Et sic ciuitas Ioppe cum habitatoribus suis liberata est; Ceciderunt hac die tria millia Saracenorum Christianorum verò pauci perijsse inuenti sunt. The same in English. Yet notwithstanding, after the said third day of Iuly, the Sarazens persisted high minded and insolent, by reason of their great multitude, and much annoied the Christian people with their many forceable and terrible weapons; whereupon, on the sixt day of Iuly early in the morning king Baldwine issued out of Iaphet, his trumpets and cornets yeelding a great and lowd sound, and with a very strong armie as well of horsemen as footemen, who on euery side making great shoutes and outcries, with fierce and sharpe battell set on the maine power of their enemies. The Christians also who arriued in the nauie, rearing great clamours and noyses, with loud voices and shoutings in horrible wise together, with king Baldwine assaulted likewise with strong battell the Babylonians, and afflicted them with most sore and deadly wounds, vntill the Sarazens being wearied with fighting, nor able longer to endure and hold out against the valure of the Christians, fled towards Ascalon. And other of them hoping to escape from them that pursued them, lept into the sea, and were swalowed vp in the waues thereof. And so the citie of Ioppa with the inhabitants thereof were freed of their enemies. There were slaine this day three thousand Sarazens, and but a few of the Christians perished. * * * * * A Fleete of Englishmen, Danes, and Flemings, arriued at Ioppa in the Holy land, the seuenth yeere of Baldwine the second king of Hierusalem. Written in the beginning of the tenth booke of the Chronicle of Hierusalem, in the 8. yeere of Henry the first of England. Chap: 1. At the same time also in the seuenth yeere of the raigne of Baldwine the Catholike king of Hierusalem, a very great warrelike Fleete of the Catholike nation of England, to the number of about seuen thousand, hauing with them more men of warre of the kingdom of Denmarke, of Flanders and of Antwerpe, arriued with ships which they call Busses, at the hauen of the citie of Iaphet, determining there to make their abode, vntill they hauing obtained the kings licence and safeconduct, might safely worship at Hierusalem. Of which nauie the chiefest and best spoken repairing to the king, spake to him in this maner. Christ preserue the Kings life, and prosper his kingdome from day to day; Wee, being men and souldiours of Christian profession, haue, through the helpe of God, sayled hither through mightie and large seas, from the farre countreys of England, Flanders, and Denmarke, to worship at Ierusalem, and to visit the sepulchre of our Lord. And therefore we are assembled to intreat your clemency touching the matter, that by your fauour and safe conduct we may peaceably goe vp to Ierusalem, and worship there, and so returne. Chap. 2. The king fauourably hearing their whole petition, granted vnto them a strong band of men to conduct them, which brought them safely from all assaults and ambushes of the Gentiles by the knowen wayes vnto Ierusalem and all other places of deuotion. After that these pilgrims, and new Christian strangers were brought thither, they offering vnto our Lord their vowes in the temple of the holy sepulchre, returned with great ioy, and without all let vnto Ioppa; where finding the king, they vowed they would assist him in all things, which should seeme good vnto him: who, greatly commending the men, and commanding them to be well entertained with hospitality, answered that he could not on the sudden answere to this point, vntill that after he had called his nobles together, he had consulted with my lord the Patriarch what was most meet and conuenient to be done, and not to trouble in vaine so willing an army. And therefore after a few dayes, calling vnto him my lord the Patriarch, Hugh of Tabaria, Gunfride the keeper and lieutenant of the tower of Dauid, and the other chiefest men of warre, he determined to haue a meeting in the city of Rames, to consult with them what was best to be done. Chap. 3. Who, being assembled at the day appointed, and proposing their diuers opinions and iudgements, at length it seemed best vnto the whole company to besiege the city Sagitta, which is also called Sidon, if peradventure, through God's helpe, and by the strength of this new army, by land and sea it might be ouercome. Whereupon all they which were there present and required that this city should be besieged, because it was one of those cities of the Gentiles which continually rebelled, were commended, and admonished of the king euery one to go home, and to furnish themselues with things necessary, and armour for this expedition. Euery one of them departed home; likewise Hugh of Tabaria departed, being a chiefe man of warre against the inuasions of the enemies, which could neuer be wearied day nor night in the countie of the Pagans, in pursuing them with warre and warlike stratagemes all the dayes of his life. Immediatly after this consultation the king sent ambassadours to all the multitude of the English men, requiring them not to remoue their campe nor fleet from the city of Iaphet, but quietly to attend the kings further commandement. The same embassadours also declared vnto the whole army, that the king and all his nobility had determined to besiege and assault the city Sagitta by sea and by land, and that their helpe and forces would there be needfull; and that for this purpose, the king and the patriarch were comming downe vnto the city of Acres and that they were in building of engins, and warlike instruments, to inuade the walles and inhabitants thereof: and that in the meane season they were to remaine at Iaphet, vntill the kings further commandement were knowen. Whereupon they all agreed that it should be so done according to the king's commandement; and answered that they would attend his directions in the Hauen of Iaphet, and would in all points be obedient vnto him vnto the death. Chap.4. The king came downe to Acres with the patriarch, and all his family, building, and making there by the space of fortie dayes engins, and many kindes of warlike instruments: and appointing all things to be made perfectly ready, which seemed to be most conuenient for the assaulting of the city. Assoone as this purpose and intent of the king was come vnto the eares of the inhabitants of Sagitta, and that an inuincible power of men of warre was arriued at Iaphet to helpe the king, they were greatly astonied, fearing that by this meanes, they should be consumed and subdued by the king by dint of sword, as other cities, to wit, Cæsaria, Assur, Acres, Cayphas, and Tabaria were vanquished and subdued. And therefore laying their heads together, they promised to the king by secret mediatours, a mighty masse of money of a coyne called Byzantines: and that further they would yeerely pay a great tribute, vpon condition that ceasing to besiege and inuade their city, he would spare their liues. Whereupon these businesses were handled from day to day betweene the king and the citizens, and they sollicited the king for the ransomming both of their city and of their liues, proffering him from time to time more greater gifts. And the king for his part, being carefull and perplexed for the payment of the wages which he ought vnto his souldiers, harkened wholy vnto this offer of money. Howbeit because he feared the Christians, least they should lay it to his charge as a fault, he durst not as yet meddle with the same. Chap. 5. In the meane space Hugh of Tabaria being sent for, accompanied with the troopes of two hundred horsemen and foure hundred footmen, inuaded the countrey of the Grosse Carle called Suet, very rich in gold and siluer most abundant in cattle frontering vpon the countrie of the Damascenes, where hee tooke a pray of inestimable riches and cattle, which might haue suffised him for the besiege of Sagitta, whereof he ment to impart liberally to the king, and his companie. This pray being gathered out of sundry places thereabout, and being led away as farre as the citie of Belinas, which they call Cæsaria Philippi, the Turkes which dwelt at Damascus, together with the Saracens inhabitants of the countrie perceiuing this, flocking on all partes together by troopes, pursued Hughes companie to rescue the pray, and passed foorth as farre as the mountaines, ouer which Hughes footemen did driue the pray. There beganne a great skirmish of both partes, the one side made resistance to keepe the pray, the other indeuoured with all their might to recouer it, vntill at length the Turkes and Saracens preuailing, the pray was rescued and brought back againe: which Hugh and his troopes of horsemen, suddenly vnderstanding, which were on the side of the mountaines, incontinently rid backe vpon the spurre, among the straight and craggie rockes, skirmishing with the enemies, and succouring their footemen, but as it chanced they fought vnfortunately. For Hugh, being vnarmed, and immediatly rushing into the middest of all dangers, and after his woonted manner inuading and wounding the infidels, being behinde with an arrowe shot through the backe which pierced thorough his liuer and brest, he gaue vp the ghost in the handes of his owne people. Hereupon the troupes of the Gentiles being returned with the recouered pray, and being deuided through the secret and hard passages of the craggie hilles, the souldiers brought the dead bodie of Hugh, which they had put in a litter, into the citie of Nazareth, which is by the mount Thaber, where with great mourning and lamentation, so worthie a prince, and valiant champion was honourably and Catholikely interred. The brother of the said Hugh named Gerrard, the same time lay sicke of a grieuous disease. Which hearing of the death of his brother, his sicknesse of his body increasing more vehemently through griefe, he also deceased within eight dayes after, and was buried by his brother, after Christian maner. Chap. 6. After the lamentable burials of these so famous Princes, the King, taking occasion of the death of these principall men of his armie, agreed, making none priuie thereto, to receiue the money which was offered him for his differing off the siege of the citie of Sagitta, yet dissembling to make peace, with the Saracens, but that he ment to go through with the worke, that he had begunne. Whereupon sending a message vnto Iaphet, hee aduised the English souldiers to come downe to Acres with their fleete, and to conferre and consult with him touching the besieging and assaulting of the citie of Sagitta, which rising immediatly vpon the kings commaundement, and foorthwith hoysing vp the sayles of their shippes aloft with pendants and stremers of purple, and diuerse other glorious colours, with their flagges of scarlet colour and silke, came thither, and casting their ancres, rode hard by the citie. The king the next day calling vnto him such as were priuie and acquainted with his dealings, opened his griefe vnto the chiefe Captaines of the English men and Danes, touching the slaughter of Hugh, and the death of his brother, and what great confidence he reposed in them concerning these warres: and that nowe therefore they being departed and dead, he must of necessity differre the besieging of Sagitta, and for this time dismisse the armie assembled. This resolution of the king being spred among the people, the armie was dissolued, and the Englishmen, Danes and Flemings, with sailes and oares going aboard their fleete, saluted ['saulted' in source text--KTH] the king, and returned home vnto their natiue countries. * * * * * The trauailes of one Athelard an Englishman, recorded by master Bale Centur. 12. Athelardus Bathoniensis Coenobij monachus, naturalium rerum mysteria, et causas omnes, diligentiâ tam vndecunque exquisitâ perscrutatus est, vt cum aliquibus veteris seculi philosophis non indignè conferri possit. Hic olim spectatæ indolis Adolescens, vt virente adhuc ætate iuuenile ingenium foecundaret, atque ad res magnas pararet relicta dulci patria longinquas petijt regiones. Cum verò Ægyptum et Arabiam peragrans, plura inuenisset, quæ eius desiderabat animus, cum magno laborum, ac literarum lucro in Angliam tum demùm reuertebatur. Claruit anno virginei partus, 1130. Henrico primo regnante. The same in English. Athelard a Monke of the Abbie of Bathe was so diligent a searcher of the secrets, and causes of naturall things, that he deserueth worthely to be compared with some of the auncient Philosophers. This man although young, yet being of a good wit, and being desirous to increase and enrich the same with the best things, and to prepare himselfe as it were for greater matters, left his Countrey for a time, and trauailed into forreine Regions. He went through Egypt, and Arabia, and found out many things which he desired to his owne priuate contentment, and the profite of good letters generally, and so being satisfied, returned againe into his Countrey: he flourished in the yeere 1130. Henry the first being then king of England. * * * * * The life and trauailes of one William of Tyre, an Englishman. Centur. 12. [Sidenote: Hic etiam Guilielmus Tyrensis claruit sub Henrico primo.] Guilielmus, Ecclesiæ Dominici sepulchri Hierosolymæ Regularium Canonicorum prior, natione Anglicus vir vita et moribus commendabilis, Anno Dom. 1128. postquam Tyrorum Ciuitas fidei Christianæ restituta est a Guimundo Hierosolymorum patriarcha, eidem vrbi primus Archiepiscopus præficiebatur. Est autem Tyrus ciuitas antiquissima, Phoeniciæ vniuersæ Metropolis, quæ inter Syriæ protuincias, et bonorum omnium penè commoditate, et incolarum frequentia primum semper obtinuit locum: post conscripta quædam opuscula, et Epistolas, ad Dominum migrauit, An. Christi 1130. quum duobus tantum sedisset annis, et in Tyrensi Ecclesia sepelitur. The same in English. William the Prior of the Canons Regular in the Church of Ierusalem, called the Lords Sepulchre, was an Englishman borne, and of a vertuous and good behauiour. After that the Citie of Tyre was restored againe to the Christian faith, Guimunde the Patriarke of Ierusalem made him the first Archbishop of Tyre, in the yeere 1128. Which Tyre is a very ancient Citie, the Metropolis of all Phoenicia, and hath bene accompted the chiefest Prouince of Syria, both for fruitful commodities and multitude of inhabitants. This William hauing in his life written many Bookes and Epistles, died at last in the yeere 1130. hauing bene Archbishop the space of two yeeres, and was buried in the Church of Tyre. * * * * * The trauailes of Robertus Ketenensis. Robertus Ketenensis natione et cognomine Anglus, degustatis primum per Anglorum gymnasia humanarum artium elementis literarijs, vltramarinas statim visitare prouincias in animo constituit: Peragratis ergò Gallijs, Italia, Dalmatia, et Græcia, tum demum peruenit in Asiam, vbi non paruo labore, ac vitæ suæ periculo inter Saracenos truculentissimum hominum genus, Arabicam linguam ad amussim didicit In Hispaniam postea nauigio traductus, circa fluuium Hiberum Astrologicæ artis studio, cum Hermanno quodam Dalmata, magni sui itineris comite se totum dedit. [Sidenote: Claruit sub Stephano.] Clarutt anno seruatoris nostri, 1143 Stephano regnante, et Pampilonæ sepelitur. The same in English. This Robert Ketenensis was called an Englishman by surname, as he was by birth: who after some time spent in the foundations of humanitie, and in the elements of good Artes in the Vniuersities of England, determined to trauaile to the partes beyond sea: and so trauailed through France, Italie, Dalmatia, and Greece, and came at last into Asia, where he liued in great danger of his life among the cruell Saracens, but yet learned perfectly the Arabian tongue. Afterwardes he returned by sea into Spaine, and there about the riuer Iberus, gaue him selfe wholy to the studie of Astrologie, with one Hermannus a Dalmatian, who had accompanied him in his long voyage. He flourished in the yeere 1143. Steuen being then king of England, and was buried at Pampilona. * * * * * A voyage of certaine English men vnder the conduct of Lewes king of France vnto the Holy land. [Sidenote: 1147. Tempore regis Stephani.] Tantæ expeditionis explicito apparatu vterque princeps iter arripuit, et exercitu separtito. Imperator enim Conradus præcedebat itinere aliquot dierum, cum Italorum, Germanorum, aliarúmque gentium amplissimis copijs. Rex vero Lodouicus sequebatur Francorum, Flandrensium, Normannorum, Britonum, Anglorum, Burgundionum, Prouincialium, Aquitanorum, equestri simul et pedestri agmine comitatus. Gulielmus Neobrigensis, fol. 371. The same in English. Both the princes prouision being made for so great an expedition, they seuering their armies, entered on their iourney. For the Emperour Conradus went before, certaine dayes iourney, with very great power of Italians, Germans, and other countreys. And king Lewes followed after accompanied with a band of horsemen and footmen of French men, Fiemmings, Normans, Britons, Englishmen, Burgundions, men of Prouence, and Gascoins. * * * * * The voyage of Iohn Lacy to Ieirusalem. [Sidenote: 1173.] Anno Domini 1172 fundata fuit abbatia de Stanlaw per dominum; Iohannem Lacy Constabularium Cestriæ et dominum de Halton, qui obijt in Terra sancta anno sequenti: qui fuit vicessimus annus regni regis Henrici secundi. The same in English. In the yere of our Lord 1172 was founded the abbey of Stanlaw by the lord Iohn Lacy Constable of Chester, and lord of Halton, who deceased in the Holy land the yere following: which was in the twentieth yere of king Henry the second. * * * * * The voyage of William Mandeuile to Ierusalem. [Sidenote: 1177.] William Mandeuile earle of Essex, with diuers English lords and knights, went to the Holy land in the 24 yere of Henry the second. Holinshed pag. 101. * * * * * A great supply of money to the Holy land by Henry the 2. The same yeere King Henry the second being at Waltham, assigned an aide to the maintenance of the Christian souldiers in the Holy lande, That is to wit, two and fortie thousand marks of siluer, and fiue hundred marks of golde. Matth. Paris and Holins. pag. 105. * * * * * A letter written from Manuel the Emperour of Constantinople, vnto Henrie the second King of England, Anno Dom. 1177. wherein mention is made that certaine of King Henries Noble men and subjects were present with the sayd Emperour in a battell of his against the Soldan of Iconium. Recorded by Roger Houeden, in Annalium parte posteriore, in regno Hen. 2. fol. 316, et 317. Eodem anno Manuel Constantinopolitanus imperator, habito prælio campestri cum Soltano Iconij et illo devicto, in hac forma scripsit Domino regi Angliæ. Manuel in Christo deo Porphyrogenitus, diuinitus coronatus, sublimis, potens, excelsus, semper Augustus, et moderator Romanorum, Comnenus, Henrico nobilissimo regi Angliæ, charissimo amico suo, salutem et omne bonum. Cum imperium nostrum necessarium reputet notificare tibi, vt dilecto amico suo, de omnibus quæ sibi obueniunt; ideò et de his quæ nunc acciderunt ei, opportunum iudicauit declarare tuæ voluntati. Igitur a principio coronationis nostræ imperium nostrum aduersus dei inimicos Persas nostrum odium in corde nutriuit, dum cerneret illos in Christianos gloriari, eleuatique in nomen dei, et Christianorum dominari regionibus. Quo circa et alio quidem tempore indifferentèr inuasit eos, et prout deus ei concessit, sic et fecit. Et quæ ab ipso frequenter patrata sunt ad contritionem ipsorum et perditionem, imperium nostrum credit nobilitatem tuam non latere. Quoniam autem et nunc maximum exercitum contra eos ducere proposuit, et bellum contra omnem Persidem mouere, quia res cogebat. Et non vt voluit multum aliquem apparatum fecit, sicut ei visum est. Veruntamen prout tempus dabat et rerum status, potentèr eos inuasit. Collegit ergo circa se imperium nostrum potentias suas: sed quia carpenta ducebat armorum, et machinarum, et aliorum instrumentorum conferentium ciuitatem expugnationibus, pondera portantia: idcircò nequaquam cum festinatione iter suum agere poterat. Ampliùs autem dum adhuc propriam regionem peragraret, antequam barbarorum aliquis aduersus nos militaret in bellis aduersarius, ægritudo difficillima fluxus ventris invasit nos, qui diffusus per agmina imperij nostri pertransibat, depopulando et interimendo multos, omni pugnatore grauior. Et hoc malum inualescens maximè nos contriuit. Ex quo verò fines Turcorum inuasimus, bella quidem primum frequentia concrepabant, et agmina Turcorum cum exercitibus imperij nostri vndique dimicabant. Sed Dei gratia ex toto à nostris in fugam vertebantur barbari. Post verò vbi ei qui illic adjacet angustiæ loci, quæ à Persis nominatur Cibrilcimam, propinquauimus, tot Persarum turmæ peditum et equitum, quorum pleræque ab interioribus partibus Persidis occurrerant in adiutorium contribulium suorum, exercitui nostro superuenerunt, quot penè nostrorum excederent numerum. Exercitu itaque imperii nostri propter viæ omnino angustiam et difficultatem, vsque ad decem milliaria extenso; et cum neque qui præibant possent postremos defendere, neque versa vice rursus postremi possent præeuntes inuare, non mediocritèr ab inuicem hos distare accidit. Sanè primæ cohortes permultùm ab acie imperij nostri diuidebantur, postremarum oblitæ, illas non præstolantes. Quoniam igitur Turcorum agmina ex iam factis prælijs cognouerant, non conforre sibi à fronte nobis repugnare, loci angustiam bonum subuentorem cum inuenissent, posteriora statuerunt inuadere agmina, quod et fecerunt. Arctissimo igitur vbique loco existente, instabant barbari vndique, à dextris et a sinistris, et aliundè dimicantes, et tela super nos quasi imbres descendentia interimebant viros et equos complures. Ad hæc itaque imperium nostrum vbi malum superabundabat, reputans secum oportunum iudicabat retrò expectare, atque illos qui illic erant adiuuare, expectando vtiquè contra infinita illa Persarum agmina bellum sustinuit. Quanta quidem, dum ab his circundaretur, patrauerit, non opus est ad tempus sermonibus pertexere, ab illis autem qui interfuerunt, forsitan discet de his tua nobilitas. Inter hæc autem existente imperio nostro, et omne belli grauamen in tantum sustinente, postremæ cohortes vniuersæ Gnecorum et Latinorum, et reliquorum omnium generum conglobatæ, quæ iaciebantur ab inimicis tela non sustinentes, impactione vtuntur, et ita violentèr ferebantur, dùm ad adiacentem ibi collem quasi ad propugnaculum festinarent: sed precedentes impellunt nolentes. Multo autem eleuato paluere, ac perturbante oculos, et neminem permittente videre quæ circa pedes erant, in præcipitium quod aderat profundissimæ vallis alius super alium homines et equi sic incontinentè portati corruerunt, quòd alij alios conculcantes ab inuicem interemerunt non ex gregarijs tantum, sed ex clarissimis et intimis nostris consanguineis. Quis enim inhibere poterat tantæ multitudinis importabilem impulsum? At verò imperium nostrum tot et tantis confertum barbáris saucians, sauciatúmque, adeò vt non modicam in eos moueret perturbationem, obstupentes perseuerant iam ipsius, et non remittebatur, benè iuuante deo, campum obtinuit. Neque locum illum scandere aduersarios permisit, in quo dimicauit cum barbaris. Nec quidem equum suum illorum timore incitauit, celerius aliquando ponere vestigia. Sed congregando omnia agmina sua, et de morte eripiendo ea, collocauit circa se: et sic primes attigit, et ordinatim proficiscens ad exercitus suos accessit. Ex tunc igitur videns Soltanus, quòd post tanta quæ acciderant exercitibus nostris, imperium nostrum, sicut oportunum erat, rem huiusmodi dispensauit, vt ipsum rursùm inuaderet: mittens supplicauit imperio nostro, et deprecatorijs vsus est sermonibus, et requisiuit pacem illius, promittens omnem imperij nostri adimplere voluntatem, et seruitium suum contra omnem hominem dare, et omnes qui in regno suo tenebantur captiuos absoluere, et esse ex toto voluntatis nostræ. Ibidem ergo per duos dies integros, in omni potestate morati sumtis, et cognito quòd nihil poterat fieri contra ciuitatem Iconij, perditis testudinibus et machins bellicis, eo quòd boues cecidissent a telis in modo pluuiæ iactis, qui eas trahebant: Simul autem eo quòd et vniuersa animalia nostra irruente in illa difficillima ægritudine laborabant, suscepit Soltani depræcationem et foedera et iuramenta peracta sub vexillis nostris, et pacem suam ei dedit. Inde ingressum imperium nostrum in regionem suam regreditur, tribulationem habens non mediocrem super his quos perdidit corisanguineis, maximas tamen Deo gratias agens, qui per suam bonitaiem et nunc Ipsum honorauit: Gratum autem habuimus, quòd quosdam nobilitatis tuæ principes accidit interesse nobiscum, qui narrabunt de omnibus quæ acciderant, tuæ voluntati seriem. Cæterum autem, licèt contristati simus propter illos qui ceciderunt: oportunum tamen duximus, de omnibus quæ; acciderant, declarare tibi, vt dilecto amico nostro, et vt permultùm coniuncto imperio nostro, per puerorum nostrorum intimam consanguinitatem. Vale. Data mense Nouembris, indictione tertia. The same in English. In the yeere 1177, Manuel the emperour of Constantinople hauing fought a field with the Soldan of Iconium, and vanquished him, wrote vnto Henry the second king of England in maner following. Manuel Comnenus in Christ the euerliuing God a faithful emperour, descended of the linage of Porphyrie, crowned by Gods grace, high, puissant, mighty, alwayes most souereign, and gouernour of the Romans; vnto Henry the most famous king of England, his most deare friend, greeting and all good successe. Whereas our imperiall highnesse thinketh it expedient to aduertise you our welbeloued friend of all our affaires: We thought it not amisse to signifie vnto your, royal Maiestie certaine exploits at this present atchieued by vs. From the beginning therefore of our inauguration our imperiall highnes hath mainteined most deadly feod and hostility against Gods enemies the Persians, seeing them so to triumph ouer Christians, to exalt themselues against the Name of God, and to vsurpe ouer Christian kingdomes. For which cause our imperial highnesse hath in some sort encountered them heretofore, and did as it pleased God to giue vs grace. And we suppose that your Maiestie is not ignorant, what our imperiall highnesse hath often performed for their ruine and subversion. For euen now, being vrged thereunto, we haue determined to leade a mighty army against them, and to wage warre against all Persia. And albeit our forces be not so great as we could wish they were, yet haue we according to the time, and the present state of things strongly inuaded them. Wherefore our Maiestie imperiall hath gathered our armies together: but because we had in our armie sundry carts laden with armour, engines and other instruments for the assault of cities, to an exceeding weight we could not make any great speed in our iourney. Moreouer while our imperiall highnesse was yet marching in our owne dominions, before any barbarous enemy had fought against vs: our people were visited with the most grieuous disease of the fluxe, which being dispersed in our troups destroyed and slew great numbers, more then the sword of the enemy would haue done, which mischiefe so preuailing, did woonderfully abate our forces. But after we had inuaded the Turkish frontiers, we had at the first very often and hot skirmishes, and the Turks came swarming to fight against our imperiall troups. Howbeit by Gods assistance those miscreants were altogether scattered and put to flight by our souldiers. But as we approched vnto that strait passage which is called by the Persians Cibrilcimam, so many bands of Persian footemen and horsemen (most whereof came from the innermost parts of Persia, to succour their Allies) encountred our army, as were almost superiour vnto vs in number. Wherefore the army of our Imperiall highnesse, by reason of the straightnesse and difficultie of the way, being stretched ten miles in length; and the first not being able to helpe the last, nor yet contrarywise the last to rescue the first, it came to passe that they were very farre distant asunder. And in very deed the foremost troupes were much separated from the guard of our imperiall person, who forgetting their fellowes behind, would not stay any whit for them. Because therefore the Turkish bands knew full well by their former conflicts that it was bootlesse for them to assaile the forefront of our battell, and perceiuing the narownesse of the place to be a great aduantage, they determined to set vpon our rereward, and did so. Wherefore our passage being very straight, and the infidels assayling vs upon the right hand and vpon the left, and on all sides, and discharging their weapons as thicke as hailestones against vs, slew diuers of our men and horses. Hereupon, the slaughter of our people still encreasing, our maiestie imperiall deemed it requisite to stay behind, and to succour our bands in the rereward, and so expecting them we sustained the fierce encounter of many thousand Persians. What exploits our Imperiall person atchieued in the same skirmish, I hold it needlesse at this time to recount: your maiestie may perhaps vnderstand more of this matter by them which were there present Howbeit our Imperiall highnesse being in the middest of this conflict, and enduring the fight with so great danger, all our hindermost troups, both Greekes, Latines, and other nations, retiring themselues close together, and not being able to suffer the violence of their enemies weapons, pressed on so hard, and were caried with such maine force, that hastening to ascend the next hill for their better safegard, they vrged on them which went before, whether they would or no. Wherevpon, much dust being raised, which stopped our eyes and vtterly depriued vs of sight, and our men and horses pressing so sore one vpon the necke of another, plunged themselues on the sudden into such a steepe and dangerous valley, that treading one vpon another, they quelled to death not onely a multitude of the common souldiours, but diuers most honourable personages, and some of our neere kinsmen. For who could restraine the irresistable throng of so huge a multitude? Howbeit our Imperiall highnesse being enuironed with such swarmes of Infidels, and giuing and receiuing wounds (insomuch that the miscreants were greatly dismaied at our constancie) we gaue not ouer, but by Gods assistance wonne the field. Neither did we permit the enemie to ascend vnto that place, from whence we skirmished with him. Neither yet spurred wee on our horse any faster for all their assaults. But marshalling air our troupes together, and deliuering them out of danger, we disposed them about our Imperial person; and so we ouertooke the foremost, and marched in good order with our whole army. Nowe the Soldan perceiuing that notwithstanding the great damages which we had sustained, our Imperial hignes prouided to giue him a fresh encounter, humbly submitting himselfe vnto vs, and vsing submissive speaches, made suite to haue peace at our hands, and promised to fulfill the pleasure of our maiestie Imperiall, to doe vs seruice against all commers, to release all our subiects which were captiues in his realme, and to rest wholy at our commaund. [Sidenote: The citie of Iconium intended to haue bene besieged.] Here therefore we remained two dayes with great authoritie; and considering that wee could attempt nought against the citie of Iconium, hauing lost all our warrelike engines, both for defence and for batterie, for that the oxen which drew them were slaine with the enemies weapons, falling as thicke as hailestones: and also for because all our beasts in a maner were most grieuously diseased; our maiestie Imperial accepted of the Soldans petition, league, and oath being made and taken vnder our ensignes, and granted our peace vnto him. Then returned we into our owne dominions, being greatly grieued for the losse of our deere kinsmen, and yeelding vnto God most humble thanks, who of his goodnesse had euen now giuen vs the victory. [Sidenote: Certaine noblemen of the king of England were with the Emperor in his battell against the Soldan of Iconium.] We are right glad likewise that some of your maiesties princes and nobles accompanied vs in this action, who are able to report vnto you all things which haue happened. And albeit we were exceedingly grieued for the losse of our people; yet thought it we expedient to signifie vnto you the successe of our affaires, as vnto our welbeloued friend, and one who is very neerely allied vnto our highnesse Imperial, by reason of the consanguitie of our children Farewell. Giuen in the moneth of Nouember, and vpon the tenth Indiction. * * * * * The life and trauailes of Baldwinus Deuonius, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury. Baldwinus Deuonius, tenui loco Excestrire natus, vir ore facundus, exactus Philosophus, et de omne studiorum genus per illos dies aptissimus inueniebatur. Scholarum rector primùm erat, tum postea Archidiaconus, eruditione ac sapientia in omni negotio celebris: fuit præterea Cisterciensis Monachus, et Abbas Fordensis Coenobij, magnus suorum testimatione, ar vniuiersæ eorum societati quasi Antesignanus: fuit deinde Wigorniensis præsul, fuit et mortuo demùm Richardo Cantuariorum Archiepiscopus, ac totius Angliæ Primas. Cui muneri Baldwinus sollicitè inuigilans, egregium se pastorem exhibuit, dominicum semen, quantum patiebatur eius temporis, iniquitas, vbique locorum spargens. Richardus Anglorum rex, acceptis tunc regni insignijs, summo studio classem, ac omnia ad Hierosolymitanum bellum gerendum necessaria parauit. Secutus est illico regem in Syriam, et Palestinam vsque Baldwinus, vt esset in tam Sancto (vt ipse putabat) itinere laborum, dolorum, ac periculorum particeps. Præfuit Cantuariensi Ecclesiæ ferè 6 annis, et Richardum regem in Syriam secutus, anno Salutis nostræ 1190. Tyri vitam finiuit, vbi et sepultus est. The same in English. Baldwine a Deuonshire man borne in Exceter of mean parentage, was a very eloquent man, an exact Philosopher, and in those dayes very excellent in all kind of studies. He was first of all a Schoolemaster: afterwards he became an Archdeacon, very famous for his learning and wisedom in all his doings. He was also a Cistercian Monke and Abbot of Foord Monasterie, and the chiefe of all those that were of his order: he grew after this to be bishop of Worcester, and at last after the death of Archb. Richard he was promoted and made Archbishop of Canterbury, and Primate of all England. In the discharge of which place he being very vigilant, shewed, himself a worthy Pastor, sowing the seed of Gods word in euery place as farre foorth as the iniquitie of that time permitted. In his time king Richard with all indeauour prepared a Fleet and all things necessary for waging of warre against the Infidels at lerasalem, taking with him the standerd and ensignes of the kingdome. This Baldwme eftsoones folowed the king into Syria and Palestina, as one desirous to be partaker of his trauailes, paines, and perils in so holy a voyage. Hee was Archbishop of Canterburie almost sixe yeres: but hauing followed the king into Syria, in the yeere 1190. he died at Tyre, where he was also buried. * * * * * An annotation concerning the trauailes of the sayd Baldwirie, taken out of Giraldus Cambrensis, in his Itinerarium Cambrise, lib, a. Cap. 14. Fol 229. Inter primos Thomæ Becketi successor hic secundus, audita saluatoris et salutiferæ Crucis iniuria nostris (proh dolor) diebus per Saladinum irrogata, cruce signatus, in eiusdem obsequijs, tarn remotis finibus quàm propinquis, prædicationis officiunm viriliter assumpsit. Et postmodùm iter accipiens, nauigióque fungens apud Marsiliam, transcurso tandem pelagi profundo, in portu Tyrensi incolumis applicuit: et inde ad exercitum nostrum obsidentem pariter et obsessum Aconem transiuit: vbi multos ex nostris inueniens, et ferè cunctos principum defectu, in summa desolatlone iam positos, et desperatione, alios quidem longa expectatione fatigatos, alios fame et inopia grauiter afflictos, quosdam verò aëris, inclementia distemperatos, diem foelicitèr in terra sacra clausurus extremum, singulos pro posse vinculo charitatis amplectens, sumptibus et impensis, verbis, et vitæ mentis confirmauit. The same in English. This Baldwine being the second successor vnto Thomas Becket, after he had heard the wrong which was done to our Sauiour, and the signe of the Crosse by Saladin the Sultan of Egypt, taking vpon him the Lords Character, he couragiously perfourmed his office of preaching in the obedience thereof, as well in farre distant Countreis as at home. And afterwards taking his iourney and imbarking himselfe at Marseils, hauing at length passed the Leuant sea, he arriued safely in the Hauen of Tyrus, and from thence went ouer to Achon vnto our armie, besieging the Towne, and yet (as it were) besieged it selfe: where finding many of our Countreymen, and almost all men remaining in wonderfull pensiuenesse and despaire, through the withdrawing of the Princes, some of them tyred with long expectation, others grieuously afflicted with hunger and pouertie, and others distempered with the heate of the weather, being ready happily to ende his dayes in the Holy land, embracing euery one according to his abilitie in the bond of loue, he ayded them at his costes and charges, and strengthened them with his wordes and good examples of life. * * * * * A note drawen out of a very ancient booke remaining in the hands of the right worshipfull M. Thomas Tilney Esquire, touching Sir Frederike Tilney his ancestor, knighted at Acon in the Holy land for his valour, by K. Richard the first, as foloweth. Pertinuit iste liber prius Frederico Tilney de Boston, in comitatu Lincolniæ militi facto apud Acon in terra Iudeæ anno Regis Richardi primi tertio. Vir erat iste magnæ staturæ et potens in corpore: qui cum partibus suis dormit apud Tirrington iuxta villam sui nominis Tilney in Mershland. Cuius altitudo in salua custodia permanet ibidem vsque in hunc diem. Et post eius obitum sexdecem militibus eius nominis Tilney hæreditas illa successiuè obuenit, quorum vnus post alium semper habitabat apud Boston prædictum; dum fratris senioris hæreditas hæredi generali deuoluta est, quæ nupta est Iohanni duci Norfolciæ. Eorum miles vltimus fuit Philippus Tilney nuper de Shelleigh in Comitatu Suffolciæ, pater et genitor Thomæ Tilney de Hadleigh in Comitatu prædicto Armigeri, cut modò attinet iste liber. Anno ætatis suæ 64, Anno Domini 1556. The same in English. This booke pertained in times past vnto Sir Frederick Tilney of Boston in the Countie of Lincolne, who was knighted at Acon in the land of Iurie, in the third yeere of the reigne of king Richard the first. This knight was of a tall stature, and strong of body, who resteth interred with his forefathers at Tirrington, neere vnto a towne in Marshland called by his owne name Tilney. The iust height of this knight is there kept in safe custody vntill this very day. Also, after this mans decease, the inheritance of his landes fell successively vnto sixteene sundry knights called all by the name of Tilney, who dwelt alwayes, one after another, at the towne of Boston aforesayd, vntill such time as the possessions of the elder brother fell vnto an heire general, which was maried vnto Iohn duke of Northfolke. The last knight of that name was sir Philip Tilney late of Shelleigh in the Countie of Suffolke, predecessor and father vnto Thomas Tilney of Hadleigh in the Countie aforesayd Esquire, vnto whom the said booke of late appertained. In the yeere of his age 64 and in the yeere of our Lord, 1556. * * * * * The trauailes of one Richard surnaræd Canonicus. Richardus Canonicus ad Trinitatis fanum Londini Regularis, ab ipsa pueritia, bonarum artium literas impense amauit, excoluit, ac didicit. Qui ex continuo labore atque exercitatione longa, talis tandem euasit orator, et Poeta, quales ea ætas rarissimos nutriebat. Ob id Richardo Anglorum tunc Regi charus, longam cum eo peregrinationem in Palæstinam ac Syriam, dum expugnaret Turcas, suscepit. Vnde in Angliam tum demum reuersus, omnia quæ presens vidit in vrbibus, agris, ac militum castris, fideli narratione, tam carmine, quam prosa descripsit. Neque interim omisit eiusdem Regis mores, et formam, per omnia corporis lineamenta designare, addiditque præclaro suo open hoc aptissimum pro titulo nomen, scilicet, Itinerarium Regis Richardi. Claruit anno redemptionis nostne 1200 sub Ioanne Anglorimi Rege. The same in English. Richard surnamed Canonicus an obseruant Frier of Trinitie Church in London, was in great loue with the studies of good Artes, and tooke paines in them and learned them. And at last by his continuall endeauour and long exercise therein, he grewe to bee such an Oratour and Poet, as fewe were in that age liuing, by reason whereof hee grew in fauour with Richard then King of England, and vndertooke that long voyage with him into Palestina and Syria against the Turkes. From whence being returned againe into England, hee faithfully described both in Verse and Prose all such things, as hee had seene in the Cities, fieldes and tentes of the souldiours, where hee was present, and omitted not to note the behauiour, forme, and proportion of body in the foresayd king, giving to his notable worke this most apt name for the title, The Iournall of King Richard. He flourished in the yeere of our Redemption 1200. vnder Iohn king of England. * * * * * The large contribution to the succour of the Holy land, made by king Iohn king of England, in the third yeere of his reigne 1201. Matth. Paris and Holinsh. pag. 164. At the same time also the Kings of France and England gaue large money towards the maintenance of the army which at this present went foorth vnder the leading of the earle of Flanders and other, to warre against the enemies of the Christian faith at the instance of pope Innocent. There was furthermore granted vnto them the fortieth part of all the reuenues belonging vnto ecclesiastical persons, towards the ayd of the Christians then being in the Holy and: and all such aswel of the nobility, as other of the weaker sort, which had taken vpon them the crosse, and secretly layed it downe were compelled eftsoones to receiue it now againe. * * * * * The trauailes of Hubert Walter bishop of Sarisburie. Hubertus Walterus Sarisburiensis Episcopus, vir probus, ingenioque ac pietate clarus, inter præcipuos vnus eorum erat, qui post Richardum regem expugnandorum Saracenorum gratia in Syriam proficiscebantur. Cum ex Palæstina rediens, audiret in Sicilia, quod idem Richardus in inimicorum manus incidisset, omisso itinere incoepto, ad eum cursim diuertebat: Quem et ille statim in Angliam misit, vt illic regij Senatus authoritate, indicto pro eius redemptione tributo pecuniam colligeret quod et industrius fecit ac regem liberauit. Inde Cantuariorum Archiepiscopus factus, post eius mortem Ioanni illius fratri ac successori paria fidelitatis officia præstitit. Longa enim oratione toti Anglorum nationi persuasit, quod vir prouidus, præstans, fortis, genere nobilissimus, et imperio dignissimus esset: quo salutatus a populo fuit, atque in regem coronatus. Composuit quædam opuscula, et ex immenso animi dolore demum obijsse fertur, Anno salutis humanæ 1205. cum sedisset annos 11. Menses octo, et dies sex. Quum vidisset ex intestinis odijs, omnia in transmarinis regionibus pessùm ire, regnante Ioanne. The same in English. Hubert Walter bishop of Sarisburie, a vertuous man, and famous for his good wit and piety, was one of the chiefest of them that followed king Richard into Syria going against the Saracens. As he returned from Palæstina and came in his iourney into Sicilia, he there heard of the ill fortune of the king being fallen into his enemies handes, and thereupon leauing his iourney homewards, he went presently and in all haste to the place where the king was captiued, whom the king immediatly vpon his comming sent into England, that by the authority of the councell, a tribute might be collected for his redemption: which this Hubert performed with great diligence, and deliuered the king. After this he was made Archbishop of Canterburie, and after the death of King Richard he shewed the like dueties of fidelitie and trust to his brother Iohn that succeeded him. For by a long oration he perswaded the whole nation of the English men, that he was a very circumspect man, vertuous, valiant, borne of noble parentage, and most woorthy of the crowne. Whereupon he was so receiued of all the people and crowned king. He wrote certaine books, and died at the last with very great griefe of minde, in the yeere 1205, hauing beene archbishop the space of 11 yeres 8 moneths and sixe dayes, by reason of the ciuil discords abroad, whereby all things went topsie turuy, and in the reigne of king Iohn. * * * * * The trauailes of Robert Curson. Robertus Curson ex nobili quodam Anglorum ortus genere, disciplinis tum prophanis, tum sacris studiosus incubuit, idque (quantum ex coniecturis colligo) in celebratissima Oxonij Academia. Præstantissimis illic institutoribus vsus, ex summa circa ingenuas artes industria, et assiduo literarum labore, famam sibi inter suos celeberrimam comparauit. Ampliora deinde meditatus Parisiorum Lutetiam, atque Romam ipsam petijt, illic Theologus Doctor, hic verò Cardinalis effectus. Vnde vterque Matthæus Parisius, ac Westmonasterius, hoc de ipso testimonium adferunt: hic libro 2. ille 8. suorum Chronicorum. Anno Domini 1218 (inquiunt) in captione Damiatæ Ægypti vrbis, sub Ioanne Brenno Hierosolymorum rege, fuit cum Pelagio Albanensi Magister Robertus de Curson, Anglus, Clericus celeberrimus, genere nobilis, ac Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalis, etc. Bostonus Buriensis in sua Catalogo Cursonum aliquos libros composuisse narrat. Claruit anno superius numerato per prædictos testes in Anglia regnante Henrico tertio Ioannis regis filio: fuitque hic diebus Honorij tertij Romani pontificis in Angliam, Bostono teste, legatus. The same in English. Robert Curson descended of a noble family of England, vsed great diligence aswell in prophane as in diuine studies in the famous Vniuersitie of Oxford (as I coniecture.) He had there the best scholemasters that were to be gotten, and was most industrious, in the arts and continual exercises of learning: by meanes whereof he grew to be of great renowne where he liued. Afterward thinking of greater matters he went to Paris, and thence to Rome it selfe, and at Paris he proceeded doctor of Diuinity, at Rome he was made cardinall: whereupon both Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster produce this testimony of him, the one in his second booke, the other in his eight booke of Chronicles. In the yere of our Lord (say they) 1218, at the taking of Damiata a city of Egypt vnder Iohn Brenne king of Ierusalem, M. Robert Curson an English man, a most famous clearke of noble parentage, and cardinall of the church of Rome, was there with Pelagius Albanensis, &c. Boston of Burie in Suffolke in his catalogue reporteth, that he wrote diuers books. He flourished in the yeere aforesayd by the witnesses aforesayd. Henry the third sonne of king Iohn being then king of England: and by the further testimony of Boston, this Curson was legate into England in the dayes of Honorius the third, bishop of Rome. * * * * * The voyage of Ranulph earle of Chester, of Saer Quincy earle of Winchester, William de Albanie earle of Arundel, with diuers other noble men to the Holy land, in the second yere of King Henry the third. Matth. Paris. Holensh. pag. 202. In the yeere 1218, Ranulph earle of Chester was sent into the Holy land by king Henry the third with a goodly company of souldiers and men of warre, to ayde the Christians there against the Infidels, which at the same time had besieged the city of Damiata in Egypt. In which enterprise the valiancy of the same earle after his comming thither was to his great praise most apparent There went with him in that iourney Saer de Quincy earle of Winchester, William de Albanie earle of Arundel, besides diuers barons, as the lord Robert fitz Walter, Iohn constable of Chester, William de Harecourt, and Oliuer fitz Roy sonne to the king of England, and diuers others. * * * * * The voyage of Henry Bohun and Saer Quincy to the Holy land. This yere, being the sixt yere of Henry the third, deceased Henry de Bohun earle of Hereford, and Saer de Quincy earle of Winchester, in their journey which they made to the Holy land. Matth. Paris. Holensh. pag. 202. col. 2. * * * * * The trauailes of Ranulph Glanuile earle of Chester. Ranulphus Glanuile Cestriæ Comes, vir nobilissimi generis, et vtroque iure eruditus, in albo illustrium virorum à me meritò ponendus venit. Ita probè omnes adolescentiæ suæ annos legibus tum humanis tum diuinis consecrauit, vt non prius in hominem pet ætatem euaserit, quàm nomen decúsque ab insigni eruditione sibi comparauerit. Cum profecti essent Francorum Heroes Ptolemaidem, inito cum Ioanne Brenno Hierosolymorum rege concilio, Damiatam Ægypti vrbem obsidendam constituebant, anno salutis humanæ 1218. Misit illùc Henricus rex, ab Honorio 3 Rom. Pontifice rogatus, cum magna armatorum manu Ranulphum, ad rem Christianum iuuandam. Cuius virtus, Polydoro teste, in eo bello miris omnium laudibus celebrata fuit. Quo confecto negotio, Ranulphus in patriam reuersus, scripsit, De legibus Angliæ librum vnum. Fertur præterea, et alia quædam scripsisse, sed tempus edax rerum, ea nobis abstulit. Claruit anno à Seruatoris nostri natiuitate 1230 confectus senio, dum Henricus tertius sub Antichristi tyrannide in Anglia regnaret. The same in English. Ranulph Granuile earle of Chester, a man of a very noble house, and learned in both the Lawes, deserues of deutie to be here placed by me in the catalogue of woorthy and notable men. He applied so well all the yeeres of his youth to the study of humane and diuine Lawes, that he came not so soone to the age of a man, as he had purchased to himselfe by reason of his singular learning, renowme and honour. When the noble men of France went to Ptolomais, vpon the counsell of Iohn Brenne king of Ierusalem, they resolued to besiege Damiata a city of Egypt, in the yeere 1218. And then Henry the king vpon the motion of Honorius the third, bishop of Rome, sent thither this earle Ranulph with a great power of armed souldiers, to further the enterprise of the Christians: whose valure in that warre (by the testimonie of Polidor Virgil) was marueilously commended of all men. After the end of which businesse, he being returned into his countrey, wrote a booke of the lawes of England. It is also reported that he wrote other books, but time the destroyer of many memorials, hath taken them from vs. He flourished in the yeere after the natiuity of Christ 1230, being very aged, and in the reigne of K. Henry the third. * * * * * The voyage of Petrus de Rupibus bishop, of Winchester, to Ierusalem in the yere of grace 1231, and the 15 of Henry the third. Anno gratis 1231, mense verò Iulio, Petrus Wintoniensis episcopus, completo in terra sancta iam fere per quinquennium magnifice peregrinationis voto, reuersus est in Angliam, Kalendis Augusti; et Wintoniam veniens, susceptus est cum processione solenni in sua ecclesia cathedrali. The same in English. In the yere of grace 1231, and in the moneth of Iuly, Peter bishop of Winchester hauing spent almost fiue whole yeres in fulfilling his vow of pilgrimage in the Holy land with great pompe, returned into England, about the Kalends of August, and coming unto Winchester was received with solemne procession into his cathedrall church. * * * * * The honourable and prosperous voyage of Richard earle of Cornewall, brother to king Henry the third, accompanied with William Longespee earle of Sarisburie, and many other noble men into Syria. In the 24 yere of king Henry the third, Richard earle of Cornwall the kings brother, with a navy of ships sailed into Syria, where in the warres against the Saracens he greatly advanced the part of the Christians. There went over with him the earle of Sarisburie, William Longspee, and William Basset, John Beauchampe, Geoffrey de Lucie, John Neuel, Geoffrey Beauchampe, Peter de Brense, and William Furniuall. Simon Montfort earle of Leicester went ouer also the same time; but whereas the earle of Cornwall tooke the sea at Marseils, the earle of Leicester passed thorow Italy, and tooke shipping at Brindize in Apulia: and with him went these persons of name, Thomas de Furniual with his brother Gerard de Furniuall, Hugh Wake, Almerike de S. Aumond, Wiscard Ledet, Punchard de Dewin, and William de Dewin that were brethren, Gerald Pesmes, Fouke de Baugie, and Peter de Chauntenay. Shortly after also Iohn earle of Albemarle, William Fortis, and Peter de Mallow a Poictouin, men for their valiancy greatly renowmed, went thither, leading with them a great number of Christian souldiors, Matth. Paris. Matth. West Holensh. pag. 225. col. 2. * * * * * The voyage of William Longespee [Marginal note:--Or, Longsword.] Earle of Sarisburie into Asia, in the yeere 1248, and in the 32 yeere of the reigne of Henry the third, king of England. Lewis the French king being recovered of his sicknesse which he fell into, in the yeere 1234, vowed thereupon for a free will sacrifice to God, that he (if the Councell of his realme would suffer him) would in his owne person visit the Holy land: which matter was opened and debated in the Parliament of France held in the yeere 1247. Where at length it was concluded, that the king according to his vow should take his journey into Asia, and the time thereof was also prefixed, which should be after the feast of S. John Baptist the next yeere ensuing. At which time William Longespee a worthie warrior, with the bishop of Worcester and certaine other great men in the Realme of England (mooved with the example of the Frenchmen) prepared themselves likewise to the same journey. It fell out in this enterprise, that about the beginning of October, the French king assaulted and tooke Damiata, being the principall fort or hold of the Saracens in all Egypt, Anno 1249, and having fortified the Citie with an able garrison left with the Duke of Burgundies he remooved his tents from thence to goe Eastward. In whose armie followed William Longespee, accompanied with a piked number of English warriors retaining unto him. But such was the disdaine of the Frenchmen against this William Longespee and the Englishmen that they could not abide them, but flouted them after an opprobrious maner with English tailes, insomuch that the French king himselfe had much adoe to keepe peace betweene them. The originall cause of this grudge betweene them began thus. [Sidenote: A fort won by the Englishmen] There was not farre from Alexandria in Egypt a strong fort or castle replenished with great Ladies and rich treasure of the Saracens: which hold it chanced the sayd William Longespee with his company of English soldiers to get, more by politique dexteritie then by open force of armes, wherewith, he and his retinue were greatly enriched. When the Frenchmen had knowledge hereof (they not being made priuie hereto) began to conceive an heart burning against the English souldiers, and could not speake well of them after that. [Sidenote: A rich bootie also gotten by the Englishmen.] It hapned againe not long after that the sayd William had intelligence of a company of rich merchants among the Saracens going to a certaine Faire about the parts of Alexandria, having their camels, asses and mules, richly loden with silkes, precious jewels, spices, gold and silver, with cart loades of other wares, beside victuall and other furniture, whereof the souldiers then stood in great need: he having secret knowledge hereof, gathered all the power of Englishmen unto him that he could, and so by night falling vpon the merchants, some he slew with their guides and conducters, some he tooke, some hee put to flight: the carts with the driuers, and with the oxen, camels, asses and mules, with the whole cariage and victuals he tooke and brought with him, losing in all the skirmish but one souldier and eight of his seruitors: of whom notwithstanding some he brought home wounded to be cured. [Sidenote: The iniurie of the Frenchmen to our English.] This being knowen in the Campe, foorth came the Frenchmen which all this while loytered in their pauilions, and meeting this cariage by the way, tooke all the foresayd praie whole to themselues, rating the said William and the Englishmen for aduenturing and issuing out of the Campe without leaue or knowledge of their Generall, contrary to the discipline of warre. William said againe he had done nothing but he would answere to it, whose purpose was to haue the spoyle deuided to the behoofe of the whole armie. [Sidenote: Will. Longspee iustly forsaketh the French king.] When this would not serue, hee being sore grieued in his minde so cowardly to be spoyled of that which he so aduenturously had trauailed for, went to the King to complaine: But when no reason nor complaint would serue by reason of the proude Earle of Artoys the Kings brother, which vpon spight and disdaine stood agaynst him, he bidding the King forewell sayd hee would serue him no longer: and so William de Longespee with the rest of his company breaking from the French hoste went to Achon. Vpon whose departure the earle of Artoys sayd, Now is the army of French men well rid of these tailed people, which words spoken in great despight were ill taken of many good men that heard them. But not long after, when the keeper of Cayro & Babylonia, bearing a good mind to the Christian religion, and being offended also with the Souldan, promised to deliuer the same to the French king, instructing him what course was best for him to take to accomplish it, the king hereupon in all haste sent for William Longespee, promising him a full redress of all his iniuries before receiued: who at the kings request came to him againe, and so ioyned with the French power. After this, it happened that the French king passing with his armie towardes Cayro aforesayd, came to the great riuer Nilus, on the further part whereof the Soldan had pitched himselfe to withstand his comming ouer: there was at this time a Saracen lately conuerted to Christ, seruing the earle Robert the French kings brother, who told him of the absence of the Soldan from his tents, and of a shallow foord in the riuer where they might easily passe ouer. Whereupon the sayd earle Robert and the Master of the Temple with a great power, esteemed to the third part of the army issued ouer the riuer, after whom followed W. Longspee with his band of English souldiers. These being ioyned together on the other side of the water, encountred the same day with the Saracens remaining in the tents and put them to the worst. Which victory being gotten, the French earle surprised with pride and triumph, as though hee had conquered the whole earth, would needs forward, diuiding himselfe from the maine hoste, thinking to winne the spurres alone. To whom certain sage men of the Temple, giuing him contrary counsell, aduised him not to do so, but rather to returne and take their whole company with them, and so should they be more sure against all deceits and dangers, which might be layed priuily for them. The maner of that people (they sayd) they better knew, and had more experience thereof then he: alledging moreouer their wearied bodies, their tired horses, their famished souldiers, and the insufficiency also of their number, which was not able to withstand the multitude of the enemies, especially at this present brunt, in which the aduersaries did well see the whole state of their dominion now to consist either in winning all or losing all. Which when the proud earle did heare, being inflated with no lesse arrogancy then ignorance, with opprobrious taunts reuiled them, calling them cowardly dastards, and betrayers of the whole countrey, obiecting vnto them the common report of many, which sayd, that the land of the holy crosse might soone be woon to Christendome, were it not for rebellious Templaries, with the Hospitalaries, and their followers. To these contumelious rebukes, when the master of the Temple answered againe for him and his fellowes, bidding him display his ensigne when he would, and where he durst, they were as ready to follow him, as he to goe before them. Then began William de Longespe the worthy knight to speake, desiring the earle to giue eare to those men of experience, who had better knowledge of those countreyes and people then he had, commending also their counsell to be discreet and wholesome, and so turning to the master of the Temple, began with gentle wordes to mittigate him likewise. The knight had not halfe ended his talke, when the Earle taking his wordes out of his mouth, began to fume and sweare, crying out of those cowardly Englishmen with tailes: What a pure armie (sayd he) should we haue here, if these tailes and tailed people were purged from it, with other like words of villany, and much disdaine: [Sidenote: The worthy answere of William Longspe to Earle Robert.] whereunto the English knight answering againe, well, Earle Robert (said he) wheresoeuer you dare set your foote, my step shall go as farre as yours, and (as I beleeue) we goe this day where you shall not dare to come neere the taile of my horse, as in deede in the euent it prooued true: for Earle Robert would needes set forward, weening to get all the glory to himselfe before the comming of the hoste, and first inuaded a litle village or castle, which was not farre off, called Mansor. The countrey Boores and Pagans in the villages, seeing the Christians comming, ranne out with such a maine cry and shout, that it came to the Soldans hearing, who was neerer then our men did thinke. In the meane time, the Christians inuading and entring into the munition [Footnote: Fortification.] incircumspectly, were pelted and pashed [Footnote: "That can be cut with any iron, or pashed with mighty stones." CHAPMAN _Iliad_, xiii., 297.] with stones by them which stood aboue, whereby a great number of our men were lost, and the armie sore maymed, and almost in despaire. Then immediatly vpon the same, commeth the Soldan with all his maine power, which seeing the Christian armie to be deuided, and the brother separated from the brother, had that which he long wished for, and so inclosing them round about, that none should escape, had with them a cruell fight. Then the earle beganne to repent him of his heady rashnes, but it was too late, who then seeing William the English knight doughtily fighting in the chiefe brunt of the enemies, cried vnto him most cowardly to flie, seeing God (saith he) doth fight against vs: To whom the Knight answering againe, God forbid (sayth he) that my fathers sonne should runne away from the face of a Saracene. [Sidenote: The cowardly flight of Earle Robert.] The Earle then turning his horse, fled away, thinking to auoid by the swiftnes of his horse, and so taking the riuer Thafnis, oppressed with harnesse, was there sunken and drowned. Thus the Earle being gone, the Frenchmen began to dispaire and scatter. [Sidenote: The valiant ende of William Longespe.] Then William de Longespe bearing all the force of the enemies, stoode against them as long as he could, wounding and slaying many a Saracen, till at length his horse being killed, and his legges maymed, he could no longer stande, who yet notwithstanding as he was downe, mangled their feete and legges, and did the Saracens much sorrow, till at last after many blowes and wounds, being stoned of the Saracens, he yeelded his life. And after the death of him, the Saracens setting vpon the residue of the armie, whom they had compassed on euery side, deuoured and destroyed them all, insomuch that scarce one man remained aliue, sauing two Templaries, one Hospitaler, and one poore rascall souldier, which brought tidings hereof to the King. And thus by the imprudent and foolish hardines of that French Earle, the Frenchmen were discomfited, and that valiant English Knight ouermatched, to the griefe of all Christian people, the glory of the Saracens, and the vtter destruction and ruine of the whole French armie, as afterwards it appeared. * * * * * The Voyage of Prince Edward the sonne of king Henry the third into Asia, in the yeere 1270. About the yeere of our Lord, 1267. Octobonus the Popes Legate being in England, prince Edward the sonne of king Henry, and other Noble men of England tooke vpon them the crosse vpon S. Iohn Baptists day, by the sayd Legates hands at Northampton, to the reliefe of the Holy land, and the subuersion of the enemies of the crosse of Christ. For which purpose, and for the better furnishing of the prince towards the iourney, there was granted him a subsidie throughout all the realme, and in the moneth of May, in the yeere of our Lord 1270. he began to set forward. At Michælmas following he with his company came to Eguemortes, which is from Marsilia eight leagues Westward, and there taking ship againe (hauing a mery and prosperous wind) within ten dayes arriued at Tunez, where he was with great ioy welcommed, and entertained of the Christian princes that there were to this purpose assembled, as of Philip the French King, whose father Lodouicus died a litle before, of Carolus the king of Sicilia, and the two kings of Nauarre and Arragon, and as this lord Edward came thither for his father the king of England, thither came also Henry the sonne of the king of Almaine for his father, who at his returne from the voyage was slaine in a chappell at Viterbium. When prince Edward demanded of these kings and princes what was to be done, they answered him againe and sayd, the prince of this citie and the prouince adioyning to the same hath bene accustomed to pay tribute vnto the king of Sicily euery yere: and now for that the same hath bene for the space of seuen yeeres vnpaied and more, therefore we thought good to make invasion vpon him. But the king knowing the same tribute to be but iustly demaunded, hath now according to our owne desire satisfied for the time past, and also paid his tribute before hand. Then sayd he, My Lords, what is this to the purpose? are we not here all assembled, and haue taken vpon vs the Lords Character to fight against the infidels and enemies of Christ? What meane you then to conclude a peace with them? God forbid we should do so, for now the land is plaine and hard, so that we may approch to the holy city of Ierusalem. Then said they, now haue we made a league with them, neither is it lawful for vs to breake the same. But let vs returne againe to Sicilia, and when the winter is past we may well take shipping to Acra. But this counsel nothing at all liked him, neither did he shew himselfe wel pleased therewith: but after hee had made them a princely banket, he went into his closet or priuy chamber from amongst them, neither would be partaker of any of that wicked money which they had taken. They notwithstanding continuing their purpose, at the next mery wind tooke shipping, and for want of ships left 200. of their men a shore, crying out, and pitiously lamenting for the peril and hazard of death that they were in: wherewith prince Edward being somewhat mooued to compassion: came backe againe to the land, and receiued and stowed them in his owne ships, being the last that went aboord. Within seuen dayes after, they arriued in the kingdom of Sicilia, ouer agaynst the Citie Trapes, [Footnote: Trapani, N.E. of Marsala.] casting their ankers a league from thence within the sea, for that their shippes were of great burden, and throughly fraught: and from the hauen of the city they sent out barges and boates to receiue and bring such of the Nobilitie to land as would, but their horses for the most part, and all their armour they kept still within boord. At length towards the euening the sea began to be rough, and increased to a great tempest and a mightie: insomuch that their ships were beaten one against anothers sides, and drowned. There was of them at that tempest lying at anker more then 120. with all their armour and munition, with innumerable soules besides, and that wicked money also which they had taken before, likewise perished, and was lost. But the tempest hurt not so much as one ship of prince Edwards, who had in number 13. nor yet had one man lost thereby, for that (as it may be presupposed) he consented not to the wicked counsell of the rest. When in the morning the princes and kings came to the sea side, and saw all their ships drowned, and saw their men and horses in great number cast vpon the land drowned, they had full heauie hearts, as well they might, for of all their ships and mariners, which were in number 1500. besides the common souldiers, there was no more saued then the manners of one onely ship, and they in this wise. There was in that ship a good and wise Matrone, a Countesse or an Erles wife, who perceiuing the tempest to grow, and fearing her selfe, called to her the M. of the ship, and asked him whether in attempting to the shoare it were not possible to saue themselues: he answered, that to saue the ship it was impossible: howbeit the men that were therein by Gods helpe he doubted not. Then sayd the countesse, for the ship force no whit, saue the soules therein, and haue to thee double the value of the shippe: who immediatly hoising the sailes with all force, ran the shippe aground so neere the shore as was possible, so that with the vehemency of the weather and force he came withall, he brast the ship and saued all that was within the same, as he had shewed, and sayd before. Then the kings and princes (altering their purpose after this so great a shipwracke) returned home againe euery one vnto their owne lands: onely Edward, the sonne of the king of England, remained behinde with his men and ships, which the Lord had saued and preserued. [Sidenote: The arriual of Prince Edward at Acra.] Then prince Edward renouating his purpose, tooke shipping againe, and within fifteene daies after Easter arriued he at Acra, and went a land, taking with him a thousand of the best souldiers and most expert, and taried there a whole moneth, refreshing both his men and horses, and that in this space he might learne and know the secrets of the land. [Sidenote: Nazareth taken by the prince.] After this he tooke with him sixe or seuen thousand souldiers, and marched forward twenty miles from Acra, and tooke Nazareth, and those that he found there he slew, and afterward returned againe to Acra. But their enemies following after them, thinking to haue set vpon them at some streit or other advantage, were espied by the prince, and returning againe vpon them gaue a charge, and slew many of them, and the rest they put to flight. [Sidenote: A victorie against the Saracens wherein 1000 of them are slaine.] After this, about Midsummer, when the prince had vnderstanding that the Saracens began to gather at Cakow which was forty miles from Acra, he marching thither, set vpon them very earely in the morning, and slew of them more then a thousand, the rest he put to flight, and tooke rich spoiles, marching forward till they came to a castle named Castrum peregrinorum, situate vpon the sea coast, and taried there that night, and the next day they returned againe toward Acra. In the meane season the king of Ierusalem sent vnto the noble men of Cyprus, desiring them to come with speed to ayd the Christians, but they would not come, saying they would keepe their owne land, and go no further. [Sidenote: The Princes of Cyprus acknowledge obedience to the kings of England.] Then prince Edward sent vnto them, desiring that at his request they would come and ioyne in ayd with him: who immediatly thereupon came vnto him with great preparation and furniture for the warres, saying, that at his commandement they were bound to do no lesse, for that his predecessors were sometimes the gouernors of that their land, and that they ought alwayes to shew their fidelity to the kings of England. Then the Christians being herewith animated, made a third voyage or road, and came as farre as the fort called Vincula sancti Petri, and to S. Georgius, and when they had slain certaine there, not finding any to make resistance against them, they retired againe from whence they came: when thus the fame of prince Edward grew amongst his enemies, and that they began to stand in doubt of him, they deuised among themselues how by some pollicy they might circumuent him, and betray him. Whereupon the prince and admirall of Ioppa sent vnto him, faining himselfe vnder great deceit willing to become a Christian, and that he would draw with him a great number besides, so that they might be honorably entertained and vsed of the Christians. This talke pleased the prince well, and perswaded him to finish the thing he had so well begun by writing againe, who also by the same messenger sent and wrote backe vnto him diuers times about the same matter, whereby no mistrust should spring. This messenger (sayth mine author) was one ex caute nutritis, one of the stony hearted, that neither feared God nor dreaded death. The fift time when this messenger came, and was of the princes seruants searched according to the maner and custome what weapon and armour he had about him, as also his purse, that not so much as a knife could be seene about him, he was had vp into the princes chamber, and after his reuerence done, he pulled out certaine letters, which he deliuered the prince from his lord, as he had done others before. This was about eight dayes after Whitsuntide, vpon a Tuesday, somewhat before night, at which time the prince was layed vpon his bed bare headed, in his ierkin for the great heat and intemperature of the weather. When the prince had read the letters, it appeared by them, that vpon the Saturday next following, his lord would be there ready to accomplish all that he had written and promised. The report of these newes by the prince to the standers by, liked them well, who drew somewhat backe to consult thereof amongst themselues. [Sidenote: Prince Edward traiterously wounded.] In the meane time, the messenger kneeling, and making his obeisance to the prince (questioning further with him) put his hand to his belt, as though he would haue pulled out some secret letters, and suddenly he pulled out an enuenomed knife, thinking to haue stroken the prince in the belly therewith as he lay: but the prince lifting vp his hand to defend the blow, was striken a great wound into the arme, and being about to fetch another stroke at him, the prince againe with his foot tooke him such a blow, that he feld him to the ground: with that the prince gate him by the hand, and with such violence wrasted the knife from him, that he hurt himselfe therewith on the forehead, and immediately thrust the same into belly of the messenger and striker, and slew him. The princes seruants being in the next chamber not farre off, hearing the busling, came with great haste running in, and finding the messenger lying dead in the floore, one of them tooke vp a stoole, and beat out his brains: whereat the prince was wroth for that he stroke a dead man, and one that was killed before. But the rumour of this accident, as it was strange, so it went soone thorowout all the Court, and from thence among the common people, for which they were very heauy, and greatly discouraged. To him came also the Captaine of the Temple, and brought him a costly and precious drinke against poison, least the venime of the knife should penetrate the liuely blood, and in blaming wise sayd vnto him: did I not tell your Grace before of the deceit and subtilty of this people? Notwithstanding, said he, let your Grace take a good heart, you shall not die of this wound, my life for yours. But straight way the Surgions and Physicians were sent for, and the prince was dressed, and within few dayes after, the wound began to putrifie, and the flesh to looke dead and blacke: wherupon they that were about the prince began to mutter among themselues, and were very sad and heauy. Which thing, he himself perceiuing, said vnto them: why mutter you thus among your selues? what see you in me, can I not be healed? tell me the trueth, be ye not afrayd. Whereupon one sayd vnto him, and it like your Grace you may be healed, we mistrust not, but yet it will be very painfull for you to suffer. May suffering (sayd he againe) restore health? yea sayth the other, on paine of losing my head. Then sayd the prince, I commit my selfe vnto you, doe with me what you thinke good. Then sayd one of the Physicians, is there any of your Nobles in whom your Grace reposeth special trust? to whom the prince answered Yea, naming certeine of the Noble men that stood about him. Then sayd the Physician to the two, whom the prince first named, the Lord Edmund, [Marginal note: The lord Edmond was the prince his brother.] and the lord Iohn Voisie, And doe you also faithfully loue your Lord and prince? Who answered both, Yea vndoubtedly. Then sayth he, take you away this gentlewoman and lady (meaning his wife) and let her not see her lord and husband, till such time as I will you thereunto. Whereupon they tooke her from the princes presence, crying out, and wringing her hands. Then sayd they vnto her, Be you contented good Lady and Madame, it is better that one woman should weepe a little while, then that all the realme of England should weepe a great season. Then on the morrow they cut out all the dead and inuenimed flesh out of the princes arme, and threw it from them, and sayd vnto him: how cheereth your Grace, we promise you within these fifteene dayes you shall shew your selfe abroad (if God permit) vpon your horsebacke, whole and well as euer you were. And according to the promise he made the prince, it came to passe, to the no little comfort and admiration of all his subiects. When the great Souldan heard hereof, and that the prince was yet aliue, he could scarsely beleeue the same, and sending vnto him three of his Nobles and Princes, excused himselfe by them, calling his God to witnesse that the same was done neither by him nor his consent. Which princes and messengers standing aloofe off from the kings sonne, worshipping him, fell flat vpon the ground: you (sayd the prince) do reuerence me, but yet you loue me not. But they vnderstood him not, because he spake in English vnto them, speaking by an Interpreter: neuerthelesse he honourably entertained them, and sent them away in peace. Thus when prince Edward had beene eighteene moneths in Acra, he tooke shipping about the Assumption of our Lady, as we call it, returning homeward, and after seuen weekes he arriued in Sicilia at Trapes, and from thence trauailed thorow the middes of Apulia, till he came to Rome, where he was of the Pope honorably entertained. From thence he came into France, whose fame and noble prowesse was there much bruted among the common people, and enuied of the Nobility, especially of the Earle of Chalons, who thought to haue intrapped him and his company, as may appeare in the story: but Prince Edward continued foorth his iourney to Paris, and was there of the French king honourably entertained: and after certaine dayes he went thence into Gascoine, where he taried till that he heard of the death of the king his father, at which time he came home, and was crowned king of England, in the yere of our Lord 1274. * * * * * The trauaile of Robert Turneham. Robertus Turneham Franciscanus, Theologiæ professor insignis, Lynnæ celebri Irenorum ad ripas Isidis emporio, collegio suorum fratrum magnificè præfuit. Edwardus Princeps, cognomento Longus, Henrici tertij filius, bellicam expeditionem contra Saracenos Assyriam incolentes, anno Dom. 1268. parabat. Ad quam profectionem quæsitus quoque Orator vehemens, qui plebis in causa religionis animos excitaret, Turnehamus principi visus vel dignissimus est, qui munus hoc obiret. Sic tanquam signifer constitutus Assyrios vna cum Anglico exercitu petijt, ac suum non sine laude præstitit officiuin. Claruit anno salutiferi partus, 1280. varia componens, sub eodem Edwardo eius nominis primo post Conquestum. The same in English. Robert Turneham Franciscan, a notable professor of Diuinitie, was with great dignitie Prior of the Colledge of his Order in the famous Mart Towne of Lynne, situate vpon the riuer of Isis in Norfolke. Prince Edward surnamed the Long, the sonne of Henrie the third, prepared his warlike voyage against the Saracens dwelling in Syria, in the yeere of our Lord, 1268. For the which expedition some earnest preacher was sought to stirre vp the peoples minds in the cause of religion. And this Turneham seemed to the Prince most worthy to performe that office: so that he being appointed as it were a standard bearer, went into Syria with the English army, and performed his duety with good commendation. He flourished in the yeere of Christ 1280, setting forth diuers workes vnder the same King Edward the first of that name after the Conquest. * * * * * The life of Syr Iohn Mandeuill Knight, written by Master Bale. Ioannes Mandeuil, vir equestris ordinis, ex fano Albini oriundus, ita à teneris vt aiunt, vnguiculis literarum studijs assueuerat, vt in illis bonam foelicitatis suæ partem poneret. Nam generis sui stemmata illustria, nulli vsui futura ducebat, nisi illa clariora doctis artibus redderet. Quare cum animum Euangelica lectione ritè instituisset, transtulit sua studia ad rem Medicam, artem imprimis liberali ingenio dignam. Sed inter alia, ingens quædam cupido videndi Africam, et Asiam, vastioris orbis partes, eius animum inuaserat. Comparato igitur amplo viatico, peregrè profectus est, anno à Christo nato, 1332. et domum tanquam alter Vlysses, post 34. annos rediens, à paucissimis quidem cognitus fuit. Interim Scythiam, Armeniam, Maiorem et Minorem, Aegyptum, vtramque Lybiam, Arabiam, Syriam, Mediam, Mesopotamiam, Persiam, Chaldæam, Græciam, Illyrium, Tartariam, et alia spaciosi orbis regna, laborioso itinere visitauit. Denique linguarum cognitione præditus, ne tot ac tantarum rerum varietates, et miracula quæ oculatus testis viderat, memoriæque mandauerat, obliuione premerentur, in tribus linguis, Anglica, Gallica, et Latina, graphicè scripsit Itinerarium 33. annorum. Reuersus in Angliam, ac visis sui seculi malis, vir pius dicebat, nostris temporibus iam verius quàm olim dici potest, virtus cessat, Ecclesia calcatur, Clerus errat, dæmon regnat, simonia dominatur, etc. Leodij tandem obijt, anno Domini 1372. die 17. Nouembris, apud Guilielmitas sepultus. The same in English. Iohn Mandeuil Knight, borne in the towne of S. Albons, was so well giuen to the studie of learning from his childhood, that he seemed to plant a good part of his felicitie in the same: for he supposed that the honour of his birth would nothing auaile him, except he could render the same more honourable by his knowledge in good letters. Hauing therefore well grounded himselfe in religion by reading the Scriptures, he applied his studies to the arte of Physicke, a profession worthy a noble wit: but amongst other things, he was rauished with a mightie desire to see the greater partes of the world, as Asia, and Africa. Hauing therefore prouided all things necessarie for his iourney he departed from his countrey in the yeere of Christ, 1332, and as another Vlysses returned home, after the space of 34. yeeres, and was then knowen to a very fewe. In the time of his trauaile he was in Scythia, the greater and lesse Armenia, Egypt, both Lybias, Arabia, Syria, Media, Mesopotamia, Persia, Chaldæa, Greece, Illyrium, Tartarie, and diuers other kingdomes of the world: and hauing gotten by this meanes the knowledge of the languages, least so many and great varieties, and things miraculous, whereof himselfe had bene an eie witnes, should perish in obliuion, he committed his whole trauell of 33. yeeres to writing in three diuers tongues, English, French and Latine. Being arriued againe in England, and hauing seene the wickednes of that age, he gaue out this speach. In our time (sayd he) it may be spoken more truely then of olde, that vertue is gone, the Church is vnder foote, the Clergie is in errour, the deuill raigneth, and Simonie beareth the sway, &c. He died at Leege, in the yeere 1311. the 17. day of Nouember, being there buried in the Abbie of the Order of the Guilielmites. * * * * * The Tombe and Epitaph of Sir Iohn Mandeuil, in the citie of Leege, spoken of by Ortelius, in his booke called Itinerarium Belgiæ, in this sort. [Sidenote: Fol. 15, 16.] Magna et populosa Leodij suburbia, ad collium radices, in quorum iugis multa sunt, et pulcherrima monasteria, inter quæ magnificum illud, ac nobile D. Laurentio dicatum, ab Raginardo Episcopo. Est in hac quoque regione, vel suburbijs Leodij, Guilielmitarum Coenobium, in quo Epitaphium hoc Ioannis à Mandeuille, excepimus. [Sidenote: Epitaphìum.] Hic iacet vir nobilis, D. Ioannes de Mandeuille, aliter dictus ad Barbam, Miles, Dominus de Campdi, natus de Anglia, Medicinæ professor, deuotissimus, orator, et bonorum largissimus pauperibus erogator, qui toto quasi orbe lustrato, Leodij diem vitæ suæ clausit extremum. Anno Dom. 1371. Mensis Nouembris, Die 17. Hæc in lapide: in quo cælata viri armati imago, Leonem calcantis, barba bifurcata, ad caput manus benedicens, et vernacula hæc verba: Vos qui paseis sor mi, pour l'amour deix proïes por mi. Clipeus erat vacuus, in quo olim fuisse dicebant laminam æream, et eius in ea itidem cælata insignia, Leonem videlicet argenteum, cui ad pectus lunula rubea in campo cæruleo, quem Limbus ambiret denticulatus ex auro. Eius nobis ostendebant, et cultros, ephipiáque, et calcaria quibus vsum fuisse asserebant, in peragrando toto ferè terrarum orbe, vt clariùs testatur eius Itinerarium, quod typis etiam excusum passim habetur. * * * * * Tabvla Præsentis Libri Ioannes Mandevil, singvla per ordinem capitula, et in eorum quolibet quid agitur, notificat euidenter. Capvt. 1 Commendatio breuis terræ Hierosolymltanæ. 2 Iter ab Anglia tam per terras quàm per aquas, vsque in Constantinopolim. 3 De vrbe Constantinopoli, et reliquijs ibidem contentis. 4 Via tam per terras quàm per aquas, à Constantinopoli vsque Acharon, vel Acon. 5 Via à Francia et Flandria, per solas terras vsque in Hierusalem. 6 Via de Cypro vel de Hierusalem, vsque in Babyloniam Egypti. 7 De Pallatio Soldani, et nominibus præteritorum Soldanorum. 8 De Campo Balsami in Egypto. 9 De Nilo fluuio, et Egypti territorio. 10 De conductu Soldani. 11 De Monasterio Sinay. 12 Iter per desertum Sinay, vsque in Iudeam. 13 De ciuitate Bethleem, et semita, vsque in Ierusalem. 14 De Ecclesia gloriosi sepulchri Domini in vrbe Ierusalem. 15 De tribus alijs Ecclesiis, et specialiter de Templo Domini. 16 De pluribus locis sacris extra vrbem. 17 De sacris locis extra muros ciuitatis. 18 De alijs locis notabilibus. 19 De Nazareth et Samaria. 20 De Territorio Galileæ et Samariæ. 21 De secta detestabili Sarracenorum. 22 De vita Mahometi. 23 De colloquio Authoris cum Soldano. 24 Persuasio ad non credentes terrarum diuersitates per orbem terræ. 25 De Armenia, et Persia. 26 De Ethiopia et diamantibus, ac de infima et media India. 27 De foresto piperis. 28 De Ecclesia beati Thomæ Apostoli. 29 De quibusdam meridionalibus insulis, et farina et melle. 30 De Regno Cynocephalorum, et alijs Insulis. 31 De multis alijs insulis Meridionalibus. 32 De bona regione Mangi. 33 De Pygmeis, et itinere vsque prouinciam Cathay. 34 De pallacio Imperatoris magni Chan. 35 De quatuor solemnitatibus, quas magnus Chan celebrat in Anno. 36 De præstigijs in festo, et de comitatu Imperatoris. 37 Qua de causa dicitur magnus Chan. 38 De territorio Cathay, et moribus Tartarorum. 39 De sepultura Imperatoris magni Chan, et de creatione successoris. 40 De multis regionibus Imperio Tartariæ subiectis. 41 De magnificentia Imperatoris Indiæ. 42 De frequentia Palatij, et comitatu Imperatoris præsbiteri Ioannis. 43 De quisbusdam miris per Regiones Imperij Indiæ. 44 De loco et dispositione Vallis infaustæ. 45 De quibusdam alijs admirandis, per Indorum insulas. 46 De periculis et tormentis in valle infausta. 47 De Bragmannorum insulis, et aliorum. 48 Aliquíd de loco Paradisi terrestris per auditum. 49 In reuertendo de Regnis Cassam, et Riboth, de Diuite Epulone, vel consimili. 50 De compositione huius tractatus in Ciuitate Leodiensi. Liber Præsens, Cvivs Avthor est Ioannes Mandevil militaris ordinis, agit de diuersis patrijs, Regionibus, Prouincijs, et insulis, Turcia, Armenia maiore et minore, Ægypto, Lybia bassa et alta, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Chaldæa, Tartaria, India, et de infinitis insulis, Ciuitatibus, villis, castris, et locis, quæ gentes, legum, morum, ac rituum inhabitant diuersorum. DEDICATIO LIBRI. Principi excellentissimo, præ cunctis mortalibus præcipuè venerando, Domino Edwardo eius nominis tertio, diuina prouidentia Francorum et Anglorum Regi Serenissimo, Hiberniæ Domino, Aquitainiæ Duci, mari ac eius insulis occidentalibus dominanti, Christianorum encomio et ornatui, vniuersorumque arma gerentium Tutori, ac Probitatis et strenuitatis exemplo, principi quoque inuicto, mirabilis Alexandri Sequaci, ac vniuerso orbi tremendo, cum reuerentia non qua decet, cum ad talem, et tantam reuerentiam minùs sufficientes extiterint, sed qua paruitas, et possibilitas mittentis ac offerentis se extendunt, contenta tradantur. Pars prima, continens Capita 23. CAPVT. 1. Commendatio breuis terræ Hierosolimitanæ. Cum terra Hierosolimitana, terra promissionis filiorum Dei, dignior cunctis mundi terris sit habenda multis ex causis, et præcipuè illâ, quod Deus conditor coeli et mundi, ipsam tanti dignatus fuit æstimare, vt in eo proprinm filium saluatorem mundi, Christum exhibuerit generi humano per incarnationem ex intemerata Virgine, et per eius conuersationem humillimam in eadem, ac per dolorosam mortis suæ consummationem ibidem, átque indè per eius admirandam resurrectionem, ac ascensionem in coelum, et postremò quia creditur illic in fine seculi reuersurus, et omnia iudicaturus: certum est, quòd ab omnibus qui Christiano nomine à Christo dicuntur, sit tanquam à suis proprijs hæredibus diligenda, et pro cuiúsque potestate ac modulo honoranda. [Sidenote: Loquitur secundum tempora in quibus vixit.] A principibus quidem, et potentibus vt ipsam conentur de infidelium manibus recuperare, qui eam iam pridem à nobis, nostris exigentibus meritis, abstulerunt, et per annos heu plurimos possederunt: a mediocribus antem et valentibus, vt per peregrinationem deuotam loca tam pia, et vestigia Christi ac discipolorum tam Sancta, principaliter in remissionem visitent delictorum. Ab impotentibus verò, et impeditis, quatenus supradictos vel hortentur, vel in aliquo modo iuuent, seu certè fideles fondant orationes. Verum quia iam nostris temporibus verius quàm olim dici potest, Virtus, Ecclesia, Clerus, dæmon, symonia, Cessat, calcatur, errat, regnat, dominatur, ecce iusto Dei iudicio, credita est terra tam inclyta, et sacrosancta impiorum manibus Saracenorum, quod non est absque dolore pijs mentibus audiendum, et recolendum. EGO Ioannes Mandeuill militaris ordinis saltem gerens nomen, natus et educatus in terra Angliæ, in villa sancti Albani, ducebar in Adolescentia mea tali inspiratione, vt quamuis non per potentiam, nec per vires proprias possem præfatam terram suis hæredibus recuperare, irem tamen per aliquod temporis spacium peregrinari ibidem, et salutarem aliquantulum de propinquo. [Sidenote: Ioannis Mandiuilli peregrinatio, per tres et triginta annos continuata.] Vnde in anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1322. imposui me nauigationi Marsiliensis maris et vsque in hoc temporis, Anni 1355. scilicet, per 33. annos in transmarinis partibus mansi, peregrinatus sum, ambulaui, et circuiui multas, ac diuersas patrias, regiones, prouincias, et insulas, Turciam, Armeniam maiorem, et minorem, Ægyptum, Lybiam bassam et altam, Syriam, Arabiam, Persiam, Chaldeam, Æthiopiæ partem magnam, Tartariam, Amazoniam, Indiam minorem, et mediam, ac partem magnam de maiori, et in istis, et circum istas regiones, multas insulas, Ciuitates, vrbes, castra, villas, et loca, vbi habitant variæ gentes, aspectuum, morum, legum, ac rituum, diuersorum: Attamen quia summo desiderio in terra promissionis eram, ipsam diligentius per loca vestigiorum filij Dei perlustrare curaui, et diutius in illa steti. Quapropter et in hac prima parte huius operis iter tam peregrinandi, quam nauigandi, à partibus Angliæ ad ipsam describo, et loca notabiliter sancta, quæ intra eandem sunt breuiter commemoro et diligenter, quatenus peregrinis tam in itinere quam in prouentione valeat hæc descriptio in aliquo deseruire. The English Version. [Footnote: This English version (for the variations from the Latin are so great that it cannot be called a _translation_) was published in 1725 from a MS. of the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, in the Cottonian Library, marked Titus. C. xvi. Instead of being divided into 50 chapters like the Latin, it contains only 33, but I have thought it best to make it correspond as nearly with the Latin as possible, merely indicating where the various chapters begin in the English version. From the last paragraph of the introductory chapter, it would seem that the English version was written by Mandeville himself.--E. G.] [Sidenote: The Prologue] For als moche as the Lond bezonde the See, that is to seye, the Holy Lond, that men callen the Lond of Promyssioun, or of Beheste, passynge alle othere Londes, is the most worthi Lond, most excellent, and Lady and Sovereyn of alle othere Londes, and is blessed and halewed of the precyous Body and Blood of oure Lord Jesu Crist; in the whiche Lond it lykede him to take Flesche and Blood of the Virgyne Marie, to envyrone that holy Lond with his blessede Feet; and there he wolde of his blessednesse enoumbre him in the seyd blessed and gloriouse Virgine Marie, and become Man, and worche many Myracles, and preche and teche the Feythe and the Lawe of Cristene Men unto his Children; and there it lykede him to suffre many Reprevinges and Scornes for us; and he that was Kyng of Hevene, of Eyr, of Erthe, of See and of alle thinges that ben conteyned in hem, wolde alle only ben cleped Kyng of that Lond, whan he seyde, "_Rex sum Judeorum_," that is to seyne, "I am Kyng of Jewes;" and that Lond he chees before alle other. Londes, as the beste and most worthi Lond, and the most vertouse lond of alle the world: For it is the herte and the myddes of all the world; wytnessynge the philosophere, that seythe thus; "_Vertus rerum in medio consistit:_" That is to seye, "The vertue of thinges is in the myddes;" and in that Lond he wolde lede his lyf, and suffre passioun and dethe of Jewes, for us; for to bye and to delyvere us from peynes of helle, and from dethe withouten ende; the whiche was ordeyned for us, for the synne of oure formere fader Adam, and for oure owne synnes also: for as for himself, he hadde non evylle deserved: For he thoughte nevere evylle ne dyd evylle: And he that was kyng of glorie and of joye myghten best in that place suffre dethe; because he ches in that lond, rathere than in ony othere, there to suffre his passioun and his dethe: For he that wil pupplische ony thing to make it openly knowen, he wil make it to ben cryed and pronounced, in the myddel place of a town; so that the thing that is proclamed and pronounced, may evenly strecche to alle parties: Righte so, he that was formyour of alle the world, wolde suffre for us at Jerusalem; that is the myddes of the world; to that ende and entent, that his passioun and his dethe, that was pupplischt there, myghte ben knowen evenly to alle the parties of the world. See now how dere he boughte man, that he made after his owne ymage, and how dere he azen boghte us, for the grete love that he hadde to us; and we nevere deserved it to him. For more precyous catelle ne gretter ransoum, ne myghte he put for us, than his blessede body, his precyous blood, and his holy lyf, that he thralled for us; and alle he offred for us, that nevere did synne. A dere God, what love hadde he to his subjettes, whan he that nevere trespaced, wolde for trespassours suffre dethe! Righte wel oughte us for to love and worschipe, to drede and serven suche a Lord; and to worschipe and preyse suche an holy lond, that broughte forthe suche fruyt, thorghe the whiche every man is saved, but it be his owne defaute. Wel may that lond be called delytable and a fructuous lond, that was bebledd [Footnote: Coloured with blood] and moysted with the precyouse blode of oure Lord Jesu Crist; the whiche is the same lond, that oure lord behighten us in heritage. And in that lond he wolde dye, as seised, for to leve it to us his children. Wherfore every gode Cristene man, that is of powere, and hathe whereof, scholde peynen him with all his strengthe for to conquere oure righte heritage, and chacen out alle the mysbeleevynge men. For wee ben clept cristene men, aftre Crist our Fadre. And zif wee ben righte children of Crist, we oughte for to chalenge the heritage, that oure Fadre lafte us, and do it out of hethene mennes hondes. But nowe pryde, covetyse and envye han so enflawmed the hertes of lordes of the world, that thei are more besy for to disherite here neyghbores, more than for to chalenge or to conquere here righte heritage before seyd. And the comoun peple, that wolde putte here bodyes and here catelle, for to conquere oure heritage, thei may not don it withouten the lordes. For a semblee of peple withouten a cheventeyn, [Footnote: Chieftain.] or a chief lord, is as a flock of scheep withouten a schepperde; the whiche departeth and desparpleth, [Footnote: Disperseth.] and wyten never whidre to go. But wolde God, that the temporel lordes and all worldly lordes weren at gode accord, and with the comen peple woulden taken this holy viage over the see. Thanne I trowe wel, that within a lytyl tyme, our righte heritage before seyd scholde be reconsyled and put in the hondes of the right heires of Jesu Crist. And for als moche as it is longe tyme passed, that there was no generalle passage ne vyage over the see; and many men desiren for to here speke of the holy lond, and han thereof great solace and comfort; I John Maundevylle, Knyght, alle be it I be not worthi, that was born in Englond, in the town of Scynt Albones, passed the see in the zeer of our Lord Jesu Crist MCCCXXII, in the day of Seynt Michelle; and hidre [Footnote: There.] to have ben longe tyme over the see, and have seyn and gon thorghe manye dyverse londes, and many provynces and Kingdomes and iles, and have passed thorghe Tartarye, Percye, Ermonye [Footnote: Armenia.] the litylle and the grete; thorghe Lybye, Caldee, and a gret partie of Ethiope; thorghe Amazoyne, Inde the lasse and the more, a gret partie; and thorghe out many othere iles, that ben abouten Inde; where dwellen many dyverse folkes, and of dyverse manneres and lawes, and of dyverse schappes of men. Of which londes and iles, I schall speake more pleynly hereaftre. And I schall devise zou sum partie of thinges that there ben, whan time schalle ben, aftre it may best come to my mynde; and specially for hem, that wylle and are in purpos for to visite the holy citee of Jerusalem, and the holy places that are thereaboute. And I schalle telle the weye, that thei schulle holden thidre. For I have often tymes passed and ryden the way, with gode companye of many lordes: God be thonked. And zee schulle undirstonde, that I have put this boke out of Latyn into Frensche, and translated it azen out of Frensche into Englyssche, that every man of my nacioun may undirstonde it. But lordes and knyghtes and othere noble and worthi men, that conne Latyn but litylle, and han ben bezonde the see, knowen and undirstonden, zif I erre in devisynge, for forzetynge, [Footnote: Forgetting.] or elles; that thei mowe redresse it and amende it. For thinges passed out of longe tyme from a mannes mynde or from his syght, turnen sone into forzetynge: Because that mynde of man ne may not ben comprehended ne witheholden, for the freeltee of mankynde. To teche zou the Weye out of Englond to Constantinoble. [Sidenote: Cap I.] In the name of God Glorious and Allemyghty. He that wil passe over the see, to go to the city of Jerusalem, he may go by many wayes, bothe on see and londe, aftre the contree that hee cometh fro; manye of hem comen to on ende. But troweth not that I wil telle zou alle the townes and cytees and castelles, that men schulle go by; for than scholde I make to longe a tale; but alle only summe contrees and most princypalle stedes, that men schulle gone thorgh, to gon the righte way. CAPVT. 2. Iter ab Anglia tam per terras quam per aquas vsque in Constantinopolim. Qui de Hybernia, Anglia, Scotia, Noruegia, aut Gallia, iter arripit ad partes Hierosolymitanas potest saltem vsque ad Imperialem Greciæ Ciuitatem Constantinopolim eligere sibi modum proficiscendi, siue per terras, siue per aquas. Et si peregrinando eligit transigere viam, tendat per Coloniam Agrippinam, et sic per Almaniam in Hungariam ad Montlusant Ciuitatem, sedem Regni Hungariæ. [Sidenote: Regis Hungariæ olim potentia.] Et est Rex Hungariæ multum potens istis temporibus. Nam tenet et Sclauoniam, et magnam partem Regni Comannorum, et Hungariam, et partem Regni Russiæ. Oportet vt peregrinus in finibus Hungariæ transeat magnum Danubij flumen, et vadat in Belgradum; Hoc flumen oritur inter Montana Almaniæ, et currens versus Orientem, recipit in se 40. flumina antequam finiatur in mare. De Belgrade intratur terra Bulgariæ, et transitur per Pontem petrinum fluuij Marroy, et per terram Pyncenars, et tunc intratur Græcia, in Ciuitates, Sternes, Asmopape, et Andrinopolis, et sic in Constantinopolim, vbi communiter est sedes Imperatoris Greciæ. Qui autem viam eligit per aquas versus Constantinopolim nauigare, accipiat sibi portum, prout voluerit, propinquum siue remotum, Marsiliæ, Pisi, Ianuæ, Venetijs, Romæ, Neapoli, vel alibi: sicque transeat Tusciam, Campaniam, Italiam, Corsicam, Sardiniam, vsque in Siciliam, quæ diuiditur ab Italia per brachiam maris non magnum. [Sidenote: Mons ætna.] In Sicilia est mons Ætna iugiter ardens, qui ibidem apellatur Mons Gibelle, et præter illum habentur ibi loca Golthan vbi sunt septem leucæ quasi semper ignem spirantes: secundum diuersitatem colorum harum flammarum estimant. [Sidenote: Aeolides insulæ.] Incolæ annum fertilem fore, vel sterilem, siccum vel humidum, calidum, vel frigidum: hæc loca vocant caminos Infernales, et à finibus Italiæ vsque ad ista loca sunt 25. miliaria. [Sidenote: Temperes Siciliæ Insulæ.] Sunt autem in Sicilia aliqua Pomeria in quibus inueniuntur frondes, flores, et fructus per totum annum, etiam, in profunda hyeme. Regnum Siciliæ est bona, et grandis insula habens in circuitu ferè leucas 300. [Sidenote: Leuca Lombardica. Quid sit dieta.] Et ne quis eret, vel de facili reprehendat quoties scribo leucam, intelligendum est de leuca Lombardica, quæ aliquantò maior est Geometrica; et quoties pono numerum, sub intelligatur fere, vel circiter, siue citra, et dietam intendo ponere, de 10. Lombardicis leucis: Geometrica autem leuca describitur, vt notum est, per hos versus. Quinque pedes passum faciunt, passus quoque centum Viginti quínque stadium, si millia des que Octo facis stadia, duplicatum dat tibi leuca. [Sidenote: Portus Greciæ.] Postquam itáque peregrinus se credidit Deo et mari, si prospera sibi fuerit nauigatio, non ascendet in terram, donec intret aliquem portum Greciæ, scilicet, Myrroyt, Valonæ, Durase, siue alium prout Diuinæ placuerit uoluntati, et exhinc ibit Constantinopolim praædictam, quaæ olim Bysantium, vel Vesaton dicebatur. Hic autem notandum est, quòd a portu Venetie, vsque ad Constantinopolim directè per mare octingentæ leucæ et 80. communiter computantur ibi contentæ. The English Version. First, zif a man come from the west syde of the world, as Engelond, Irelond, Wales, Skotlond or Norwaye; he may, zif that he wole, go thorge Almayne, and thorge the kyngdom of Hungarye, that marchethe to the lond of Polayne, and to the lond of Pannonye, and so to Slesie. And the Kyng of Hungarye is a gret lord and a myghty, and holdeth grete lordschippes and meche lond in his hond. For he holdeth the kyngdom of Hungarie, Solavonye and of Comanye a gret part, and of Bulgarie, that men clepen the lond of Bougiers, and of the Reme of Roussye a gret partie, whereof he hathe made a Duchee, that lasteth unto the lond of Nyflan, and marchethe to Pruysse. And men gon thorghe the lond of this lord, thorghe a cytee that is clept Cypron, and by the castelle of Neaseburghe, and be the evylle town, that sytt toward the ende of Hungarye. And there passe men the ryvere of Danubee. This ryvere of Danubee is a fulle gret ryvere; and it gothe into Almayne, undre the hilles of Lombardye: and it receiveth into him 40 othere ryveres; and it rennethe thorghe Hungarie and thorghe Greece and thorghe Traachie, and it entreth into the see, toward the est, so rudely and so scharply, that the watre of the see is fressche and holdethe his swetnesse 20 myle within the see. And aftre gon men to Belgrave, and entren into the lond of Bourgres; [Footnote: Bulgaria.] and there passe men a brigge of ston, that is upon the ryver of Marrok. [Footnote: The river Maros.] And men passen thorghe the lond of Pyncemartz, and comen to Greece to the cytee of Nye, and to the cytee of Fynepape, and aftre to the cytee of Dandrenoble, [Footnote: Adrianople.] and aftre to Constantynoble, that was wont to be clept Bezanzon. CAPVT. 3. De vrbe Constantinopoli, et reltquijs ibidem contentis. Constantinopolis pulchra est Ciuitas, et nobilis, triangularis in forma, firmitérque murata, cuius duæ partes includuntur mari Hellesponto, quòd plurimi modò appellant brachium sanctì Georgij, et aliqui Buke, Troia vetus. Versus locum vbi hoc brachium exit de mari est late terræ planities, in quâ antiquitus stetit Troia Ciuitas de qua apud Poetas mira leguntur sed nunc valdè modica apparent vestigia Ciuitatis. In Constantinopoli habentur multa mirabilia, ac insuper multæ sanctorum venerandæ relliquæi, ac super omnia, preciosissimi Crux Christi, seu maior pars illius, et tunica inconsutilis, cum spongia et arandine, et vno clauorum, et dimidia parte coronæ spineæ, cuius altera medietas seruatur in Capetla Regis Franciæ, Parisijs. Nam et ego indignus ditigenter pluribus vicibus respexi partem vtrámque: dabatur quóque mihi de illa Parisijs vnica spina, quam vsque nunc preciose conseruo, et est ipsa spina non lignea sed uelut de iuncis marinis rigîda, et pungitiua. [Sidenote: Eclesia sanctæ Sophiæ] Ecclesia Constantinopolitana in honorem sanctæ Sophiæ, id est, ineffabilis Dei sapientiæ dedicato dicitur, et nobilissima vniuersarum mundi Ecclesiarum, tam in schemate artificiosi operis, quàm in seruatis ibi sacrosanctis Relliquijs: [Sidenote: Regina Helena Britanna] nam et continet corpus sancte Annæ matris nostræ Dominæ translatum illuc per Reginam Helenam ab Hierosolymis: et corpus S. Lucæ Euangelistæ translatum de Bethania Iudeæ; Et Corpus beati Ioannis Chrysostomi ipsius Ciuitatis Episcopi, cum multis atlijs reliquijs preciosis; quoniam est ibi vas grande cum huiusmodi reliquijs velut marmoreum de Petra Enhydros; quod iugiter de seipso desudans aquam semel, in anno inuenitur suo sudore repletum. [Sidenote: Imago Iustiniani.] Ante hanc Ecclesiam, super columnam marmoream habetur de ære aurato opere fuscrio, magna imago Iustiniani quondam Imperatoris super equum sedentis, fuit autem primitus in manu imaginis fabricata sphæra rotunda, quæ iam diu è manu sua sibi cecidit, in signum quòd Imperator muliarum terraram dominium perdidit. Námque solebat esse Dominus, Romanorum Græcorum, Asiæ, Syriæ, Iudeæ, Ægypti, Arabiæ, et Persiæ, at nunc solum retinet Greciam, cum aliquibus terris Greciæ adiacentibus, sicut Calistrum, Cholchos, Ortigo, Tylbriam, Minos, Flexon, Melos, Carpates, Lemnon, Thraciam, et Macedoniam totam: Súntque sub eo Caypoplij, et alti Pyntenardi, ac maxima pars Commannorum. Porrò imago tenet manum eleuatam et extentam in orientem, velut in signum cominationis ad Orientales infideles. De prædicta terra Thraciæ fuit Philosophus Aristoteles oriundus in Ciuitate Stageres, et est ibi in loco tumba eius velut altare, vbi et singulis annis certo die celebratur à populo festum illius, ac si fuisset sanctus. Temporibus ergò magnorum consiliorum conueniunt illuc sapientes terræ, reputantes sibi per inspirationem immitti consilium optimum de agendis. Item ad diuisionem Thraciæ et Macedoniæ sunt duo mirabiliter alti montes, vnus Olympus, alter Athos, cuius vltimi vmbra oríente sole apparet ad 76. miliaria, vsque in insulam Lemnon. In horum cacumine montium ventus non currit, nec aer mouetur, quod frequentèr probatum est per ingenium Astronomorum, qui quandóque ascendentes scripserunt, literas in puluere, quas sequenti anno inuenerunt quasi recentèr scriptas, et quia est ibi purus aer sine mixtione elementi aquæ necesse est vt ascendentes habeant secum spongias aquæ plenas pro adhelitus respiratione: In prædicta autem sanctæ sophiæ Ecclesia, (sicut ibidem dicitur,) voluit olim quidam Imperator corpus cuiusdam sui defuncti sepelire cognati: cuius cum foderetur sepulchrum, ventum est ad mausoleum antiquum in quo super incineratum corpus iacebat discus auri puri, et erat sculptum in eo literis Græcis, Hebraicis, et Latinis sic. Iesus Christus nascetur de Virgine, et ego credo in eum. Et erat simul inscripta data defuncti secundum modum illius temporis quæ continebat duo millia annorum ante incarnationem ipsius Christi de Maria Virgine. Seruatur quóque hodierno tempore eadem patina in Thesaurario eiusdem Ecclesiæ, et dicitur illud corpus fuisse Hermetis sapientis. Omnes quidem, terrarum, regionum et insularum homines, qui isti Greco obediunt Imperatori sunt Christiani, et baptizati, tamen variant singuli in aliquo articulo fidem suam a nostra vera fide Catholica, et diuersificant in multis suos ritus à ritibus Romanæ Ecclesiæ, quia iamdiu omiserunt obedire Pontifici Romano, dicentes, quoniam beatus Petrus Apostolus habuit sedem in Antiochia, quamuis passus fuit in Roma: [Sidenote: Patriarchæ Antiocheni authoritas.] Idcirco patriarcha Antiochenus habet in illis Orientalibus partibus similem potestatem, quàm Pontifex Romanus in istis Occidentalibus. Imperator etiam Constantinopolitanus creat eorum patriarcham, et instituit pro sua voluntate Archiepiscopos, et Episcopos, et confert dignitates, et beneficia, similiter inuenta occasione destituit, deponit, et priuat. The English Version. And there dwellethe comounly the Emperour of Greece. And there is the most fayr chirche and the most noble of alle the world: and it is of Seynt Sophie. And before that chirche is the ymage of Justynyan the Emperour, covered with gold, and he sytt upon an hors y crowned. And he was wont to holden a round appelle of gold in his hond: but it is fallen out thereof. And men seyn there, that it is a tokene, that the Emperour hathe y lost a gret partie of his londes, and of his lordschipes: for he was wont to be Emperour of Romayne and of Grece, of alle Asye the lesse, and of the lond of Surrye, of the lond of Judee, in the whiche is Jerusalem, and of the lond of Egypt, of Percye, of Arabye. But he hathe lost alle, but Grece; and that lond he holt alle only. And men wolden many tymes put the appulle into the ymages hond azen, but it wil not holde it. This appulle betokenethe the lordschipe, that he hadde over alle the worlde, that is round. And the tother hond he lifteth up azenst the est, in tokene to manace the mysdoeres. This ymage stont upon a pylere of marble at Constantynoble. Of the Crosse and the Croune of oure Lord Jesu Crist. [Sidenote: Cap. II.] At Costantynoble is the cros of our Lord Jesu Crist, and his cote withouten semes, that is clept _tunica inconsutilis_, and the spounge, and the reed, of the whiche the Jewes zaven oure Lord eyselle [Footnote: Vinegar] and galle, in the cros. And there is on of the nayles, that Crist was naylled with on the cros. And some men trowen, that half the cros, that Crist was don on, be in Cipres, in an abbey of monkes, that men callen the Hille of the Holy Cros; but it is not so: for that cros, that is in Cypre, is the cros, in the whiche Dysmas the gode theef was honged onne. But alle men knowen not that; and that is evylle y don. For profyte of the offrynge, thei seye, that it is the cros of oure Lord Jesu Crist. And zee schulle undrestonde, that the cros of oure Lord was made of 4 manere of trees, as it is conteyned in this vers, In cruce fit palma, cedrus, cypressus, oliva. For that pece, that went upright fro the erthe to the heved, [Footnote: Head.] was of cypresse; and the pece, that wente overthwart, to the whiche his honds wern nayled, was of palme; and the stock, that stode within the erthe, in the whiche was made the morteys, was of cedre; and the table aboven his heved, that was a fote and an half long, on the whiche the title was writen, in Ebreu, Grece and Latyn, that was of olyve. And the Jewes maden the cros of theise 4 manere of trees: for thei trowed that oure Lord Jesu Crist scholde han honged on the cros, als longe as the cros myghten laste. And therfore made thei the foot of the cros of cedre. For cedre may not, in erthe ne in watre, rote. And therfore thei wolde, that it scholde have lasted longe. For thei trowed, that the body of Crist scholde have stonken; therfore thei made that pece, that went from the erthe upward, of cypres: for it is welle smellynge; so that the smelle of his body scholde not greve men, that wenten forby. And the overhwart pece was of palme: for in the Olde Testament, it was ordyned, that whan on overcomen, he scholde be crowned with palme: and for thei trowed, that thei hadden the victorye of Crist Jesus, therfore made thei the overthwart pece of palme. [Footnote: The reference is to the Olympic Games.] And the table of the tytle, thei maden of olyve; for olyve betokenethe pes. And the storye of Noe wytnessethe, whan that the culver [Footnote: Dove. Anglo-Saxon, _Cuifra_.] broughte the braunche of olyve, that betokened pes made betwene God and man. And so trowed the Jewes for to have pes, when Crist was ded: for thei seyd, that he made discord and strif amonges hem. And zee schulle undirstonde, that oure Lord was y naylled on the cros lyggynge; and therfore he suffred the more peyne. And the Cristene men, that dwellen bezond the see, in Grece, seyn that the tree of the cros, that we callen cypresse, was of that tree, that Adam ete the appulle of: and that fynde thei writen. And thei seyn also, that here Scripture seythe, that Adam was seek, [Footnote: Sick] and seyed to his sone Sethe, that he scholde go to the Aungelle, that kepte paradys, that he wolde senden hym oyle of mercy, for to anoynte with his membres, that be myghte have hele. And Sethe wente. But the aungelle wolde not late him come in; but seyd to him, that he myghte not have of the oyle of mercy. But he toke him three greynes of the same tree, that his fadre eet the appelle offe; and bad him, als sone as his fadre was ded, that he scholde putte theise three greynes undre his tonge, and grave him so: and he dide. And of theise three greynes sprang a tree, as the aungelle seyde, that it scholde, and bere a fruyt, thorghe the whiche fruyt Adam scholde be saved. And whan Sethe cam azen, he fonde his fadre nere ded. And whan he was ded he did with the greynes, as the aungelle bad him; of the whiche sprongen three trees, of the whiche the cros was made, that bare gode froyt and blessed, oure Lord Jesu Crist; thorghe whom, Adam and alle that comen of him, scholde be saved and delyvered from drede of dethe withouten ende, but it be here own defaute. This holy cros had the Jewes hydde in the erthe, undre a roche of the Mownt of Calvarie; and it lay there 200 zeer and more, into the tyme that Seynt Elyne, that was modre to Constantyn the Emperour of Rome. And sche was doughtre of Kyng Cool born in Colchestre, that was Kyng of Engelond, that was clept thanne, Brytayne the more; the whiche the Emperour Constance wedded to his wyf, for here bewtee, and gat upon hire Constantyn, that was aftre Emperour of Rome. And zee schulle undirstonde, that the cros of oure Lord was eyght cubytes long, and the overthwart piece was of lengthe thre cubytes and an half. And a partie of the crowne of oure Lord, wherwith he was crowned, and on of the nayles, and the spere heed, and many other relikes ben in France, in the kinges chapelle. And the crowne lythe in a vesselle of cristalle richely dyghte. For a kyng of Fraunce boughte theise relikes somtyme of the Jewes; to whom the Emperour had leyde hem to wedde, for a gret summe of sylvre. And zif alle it be so, that men seyn, that this croune is of thornes, zee schulle undirstonde, that it was of jonkes of the see, that is to sey, rushes of the see, that prykken als scharpely as thornes. For I have seen and beholden many tymes that of Parys and that of Costantynoble: for thei were bothe on, made of russches of the see. But men han departed hem in two parties: of the whiche, o part is at Parys, and the other part is at Costantynoble. And I have on of tho precyouse thornes, that semethe licke a white thorn; and that was zoven to me for gret specyaltee. For there are many of hem broken and fallen into the vesselle, that the croune lythe in: for thei breken for dryenesse, whan men meven hem, to schewen hem to grete lords, that comen thidre. And zee schalle undirstonde, that oure Lord Jesu, in that nyghte that he was taken, he was y lad in to a gardyn; and there he was first examyned righte scharply; and there the Jewes scorned him, and maden him a crowne of the braunches of albespyne, that is white thorn, that grew in that same gardyn, and setten it on his heved, so faste and so sore, that the blood ran down be many places of his visage, and of his necke, and of his schuldres. And therfore hathe white thorn many vertues: for he that berethe a braunche on him thereoffe, no thondre ne no maner of tempest may dere him; ne in the hows, that it is inne, may non evylle gost entre ne come unto the place that it is inne. And in that same gardyn, Seynt Petre denyed our Lord thryes. Aftreward was oure Lord lad forthe before the bisschoppes and the maystres of the lawe, in to another gardyn of Anne; and there also he was examyned, repreved, and scorned, and crouned eft with a whyte thorn, that men clepethe barbarynes, that grew in that gardyn, and that hathe also manye vertues. And aftreward he was lad in to a gardyn of Cayphas, and there he was crouned with eglentier. And aftre he was lad in to the chambre of Pylate, and there he was examynd and crouned. And the Jewes setten him in a chayere and cladde him in a mantelle; and there made thei the croune of jonkes of the see; and there thei kneled to him, and skornede him, seyenge, _Ave, Rex Judeorum_, that is to seye, _Heyl, Kyng of Jewes_. And of this croune, half is at Parys, and the other half at Costantynoble. And this croune had Crist on his heved, whan he was don upon the cros: and therfore oughte men to worschipe it and holde it more worthi than ony of the othere. And the spere schaft hathe the Emperour of Almayne: but the heved is at Parys. And natheles the Emperour of Costantynoble seythe that he hathe the spere heed: and I have often tyme seen it; but it is grettere than that at Parys. Of the Cytee of Costantynoble, and of the Feithe of Grekis. [Sidenote: Cap. III.] At Costantynoble lyethe Seynte Anne oure Ladyes modre, whom Seynte Elyne dede brynge fro Jerusalem. And there lyethe also the body of Iohn Crisostome, that was Erchebisschopp of Costantynoble. And there lythe also Seynt Luke the Evaungelist: for his bones werein broughte from Bethanye, where he was beryed. And many other relikes ben there. And there is the vesselle of ston, as it were of marbelle, that men clepen enydros, that evermore droppeth watre, and fillethe himself everiche zeer, til that it go over above, withouten that that men take fro withinne. Costantynoble is a fulle fayr cytee, and a gode and a wel walled, and it is three cornered. And there is an arm of the see Hellespont: and sum men callen it the mouthe of Costantynoble; and sum men callen it the brace of Seynt George: and that arm closethe the two partes of the cytee. And upward to the see, upon the watre, was wont to be the grete cytee of Troye, in a fulle fayr playn: but that cytee was destroyed by hem of Grece, and lytylle apperethe there of, be cause it so longe sithe it was destroyed. Abouten Grece there ben many iles, as Calistre,[Footnote: Calliste, one of the Cyclades.] Calcas, [Footnote: Colchos.] Critige, [Footnote: Cerigo.] Tesbria, [Footnote: Resorio.] Mynea, [Footnote: Mynia is a town in the Island of Amorgos.] Flaxon, [Footnote: Flexos.] Melo, [Footnote: Milo.] Carpate, [Footnote: Carpathos, probably.] and Lempne. [Footnote: Lemnos.] And in this ile is the Mount Athos, [Footnote: Athos is on the main land, on a promontory S.E. of Solonica.] that passeth the cloudes. And there ben many dyvers langages and many contreys, that ben obedyent to the Emperour; that is to seyn Turcople, Pyneynard, Cornange, and manye othere, at Trachye, [Footnote: Thrace.] and Macedoigne, of the whiche Alisandre was kyng. In this contree was Aristotle born, in a cytee that men clepen Stragera, a lytil fro the cytee of Trachaye. And at Stragera lythe Aristotle; and there is an awtier upon his toumbe: and there maken men grete festes of hym every zeer, as thoughe he were a seynt. And at his awtier, thei holden here grete conseilles and here assembleez: and thei hopen, that thorghe inspiracioun of God and of him, thei schulle have the better conseille. In this contree ben righte hyghe hilles, toward the ende of Macedonye. And there is a gret hille, that men clepen Olympus, [Footnote: The altitude is 9753 feet.] that departeth Macedonye and Trachye: and it is so highe, that it passeth the cloudes. And there is another hille, that is clept Athos, [Footnote: It is only 6678 feet. This is the old Greek verse: [Greek: Athoos kaluptei pleura lemnias boos.]] that is so highe, that the schadewe of hym rechethe to Lempne, that is an ile; and it is 76 myle betwene. And aboven at the cop of the hille is the eir so cleer, that men may fynde no wynd there. And therefore may no best lyve there; and so is the eyr drye. And men seye in theise contrees, that philosophres som tyme wenten upon theise hilles, and helden to here nose a spounge moysted with watre, for to have eyr; for the eyr above was so drye. And aboven, in the dust and in the powder of the hilles, thei wroot lettres and figures with hire fingres: and at the zeres end thei comen azen, and founden the same lettres and figures, the whiche thei hadde writen the zeer before, withouten ony defaute. And therfore it semethe wel, that theise hilles passen the clowdes and joynen to the pure eyr. At Constantynoble is the palays of the Emperour, righte fair and wel dyghte: and therein is a fair place for justynges, or for other pleyes and desportes. And it is made with stages and hath degrees aboute, that every man may wel se, and non greve other. And undre theise stages ben stables wel y vowted [Footnote: Vaulted.] for the Emperours hors; and alle the pileres ben of Marbelle. And with in the chirche of Seynt Sophie, an emperour somtyme wolde have biryed the body of his fadre, whan he was ded; and as thei maden the grave, thei founden a body in the erthe, and upon the body lay a fyn plate of gold; and there on was writen, in Ebreu, Grece and Latyn, lettres that seyden thus, _Jesu Cristus nascetur de Virgine Maria, et ego credo in eum_: That is to seyne, _Jesu Crist schalle be born of the Virgyne Marie, and I trowe in hym_. And the date whan it was leyd in the erthe, was 2000 zeer before oure Lord was born. And zet is the plate of gold in the thresorye of the chirche. And men seyn, that it was Hermogene the wise man. And zif alle it so be, that men of Grece ben Cristene, zit they varien from our feithe. For thei seyn, that the Holy Gost may not come of the Sone; but alle only of the Fadir. And thei are not obedyent to the Chirche of Rome, ne to the Pope. And thei seyn, that here patriark hathe as meche power over the see as the Pope hathe on this syde the see. And therefore Pope Johne the 22'd sende letters to hem, how Christene feithe scholde ben alle on; and that thei scholde ben obedyent to the Pope, that is Goddis vacrie [Footnote: Vicar.] on erthe; to whom God zaf his pleyn power, for to bynde and to assoille: and therfore thei scholde ben obedyent to him. And thei senten azen dyverse answeres; and amonges other, thei seyden thus: _Potentiam tuam summam, circa tuos subjectos firmiter credimus. Superbiam tuam summam tolerare non possumus. Avaritiam tuam summam satiare non intendimus. Dominus tecum: quia Dominus nobiscum est_. That is to seye: _We trowe wel, that thi power is gret upon thi subgettes. We mai not suffre thi high pryde. We ben not in purpos to fulfille thi gret covetyse. Lord be with thi: for oure Lord is with us. Fare welle_. And other answere myghte he not have of hem. And also thei make here sacrement of the awteer of therf [Footnote: Unleavened. _Anglo-Saxon_, þeorf ('peorf' in source text--KTH)] bred: for oure Lord made it of suche bred, whan he made his mawndee. [Footnote: Last Supper.] And on the Scherethors [Footnote: Shrove Thursday.] day make thei here therf bred, in tokene of the mawndee, and dryen it at the sonne, and kepen it alle the zeer, and zeven it to seke men, in stede of Goddis body. And thei make but on unxioun, whan thei christene children. And thei annoynte not the seke men. And thei saye, that there nys no purgatorie, and the soules schulle not have nouther joye ne peyne, tille the day of doom. And thei seye, that fornicatioun is no synne dedly, but a thing that is kyndely: and the men and women scholde not wedde but ones; and whoso weddethe oftere than ones, here children ben bastardis and geten in synne. And here prestis also ben wedded. And thei saye also, that usure is no dedly synne. And they sellen benefices of Holy Chirche: and so don men in others places: God amende it, whan his wille is. And that is gret sclaundre. [Footnote: Scandal.] For now is symonye kyng crouned in Holy Chirche: God amende it for his mercy. And thei seyn, that in Lentone, men schulle nor faste, ne synge masse; but on the Satreday and on the Sonday. And thei faste not on the Satreday, no tyme of the zeer, but it be Cristemasse even on Estre even. And thei suffre not the Latines to syngen at here awteres: and zif thei done, be ony aventure, anon thei wasschen the awteer with holy watre. And thei seyn, that there scholde be but o masse seyd at on awtier, upon o day. And thei seye also, that oure Lord ne eet nevere mete: but he made tokene etyng. And also thei seye, that wee synne dedly, in schavynge oure berdes. For the berd is tokene of a man, and zifte of oure Lord. And thei seye, that wee synne dedly, in etynge of bestes, that weren forboden in the Old Testament, and of the olde lawe; as swyn, hares, and othere bestes, that chewen not here code. And thei seyn, that wee synnen, when wee eten flessche on the dayes before Assche Wednesday, and of that wee eten flessche the Wednesday, and egges and chese upon the Frydayes. And thei accursen alle tho, that absteynen hem to eten flessche the Satreday. Also the Emperour of Costantynoble makethe the patriarke, the erchebysschoppes and bisschoppes; and zevethe dygnytees and the benefices of chirches, and deprivethe hem that ben worthy, whan he fyndethe ony cause. And so is the lord bothe temperelle and spirituelle, in his contree, And zif zee wil wite [Footnote: Know.] of here A, B, C, what lettres thei ben, here zee may seen hem, with the names, that thei clepen hem there amonges them. Alpha, Betha, Gamma, Deltha, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, My,Ny, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, Omega. [Greek letters removed for pain-text edition--KTH] And alle be it that theise thinges touchen not to o way, nevertheles thei touchen to that, that I have hight zou, to schewe zou a partie of custumes and maneres, and dyversitees of contrees. And for this is the first contree that is discordant in feythe and in beleeve, and variethe from our feythe, on this half the see, therefore I have sett it here, that zee may knowe the dyversitee that is betwene our feythe and theires. For many men han gret lykynge to here speke of straunge thinges of dyverse contreyes. CAPVT. 4. Via tam per terras quam per aquas à Constantinopoli vsque Acharon. [Marginal note: Vel Achon.] A Constantinopoli qui voluerit ire pedes, transibit statim nauigio Brachium Sancti Georgij quod satis est strictum, ibíque ad Ruphinal quod est forte castrum, inde ad Puluereal, et hinc ad castrum Synopulum. Ex tunc intrat Cappadociam, terram latam sed plenam altis montibus, deinde Turciam ad portum Theueron, et ad Ciuitatem ita dictam, nunc munitam firmis turribus, ac muris, per quam transit fluuius Reglay. Postea transitur sub Alpibus Noyremont, et per valles de Mallenbrinis in districto Rupium, ac per villam Doronarum, et alias villas adiacentes fluuijs Reglay, et Granconiæ, sícque peruenitur ad Antiochiam minorem super Reglay, quæ vocatur nobilior Ciuitas Syriæ: Notandum autem quòd Regnum olim dictum Syria, modò communiter vocatur Suria. [Sidenote: Antiochia.] Ista verò Antiochia, est magna, pulchra, ac firma, licet quandóque maior, pulchrior, ac firmior fuerit. Tunc autem transitur per Ciuitates Laonsam, Gibellam, Tortusiam, Toruplam, et Berythum super mare vbi sanctus Georgius fertur occidisse Draconem. Hinc pergitur in Ciuitatem nunc dictam Acon, quondam Ptolomaidem, antiquitùs Acharon, quæ tempore quo eam vltimò Christiani tenebant circa annum incarntionis Domini 1280. erat Ciuitas valdè fortis, sed modò apparent eius magnæ ruinæ. Porrò a Constantinopoli poterit peregrinus faciliùs versus Hierosolymorum partes per mare nauigare quam per terras peregrinare prædictas, si deus illi propitius fuerit, et mare fidem conseruauerit. [Sidenote: Sio.] Qui ergò a Constantinopoli iter transire nauigando disponit, tendat ad Ciuitatem [Marginal Note: Vel Smyrnam.] Myrnam vbi nunc ossa Sancti Nicholai venerantur, et sic procedendo per multa maritima loca veniet ad Insulam Sio vbi crescit gummi mastix lucidum: Inde ad Insulam Pathmos Sancti Ioannis Euangelistæ, et ad Ephesum vbi idem noscitur sepultus: hanc totam minorem Asiam tenent nunc pessimi Turci, et eam appellant minorem Turciam. Post Ephesum nauigatur per plures Insulas vsque Pataram Ciuitatem, vndè oriundus fuit beatus Nicholaus, ac per Myrrheam vbi stetit Ephesus, vbi nascuntur fortia vina valdè, deinde ad Insulam Cretæ, hinc Coos postea Lango, vndè Hypocrates Medicus dicitur natus: [Sidenote: Rhodus Insula.] tuncque ad grandem Insulam Rhodum; et sciendum quod a Constantinopoli vsque Rhodum, per mare dicuntur ducentæ octuaginta leucæ. Hanc insulam totam tenent, et gubernant Christiani Hospitalarij nunc temporis, quæ quondam Colosse dicebatur: nam et multi Saracenorum adhuc eam sic appellant, vnde et Epistola, quam beatus Paulus ad habitatores huius Insulæ scripsit, intitulabatur ad Colossenses. Ab hoc loco nauigando in Cyprum, aspicitur absorptio Ciuitatis Sathaliæ, quæ sicut olim Sodoma dicitur perijsse, propter vnicum crimen contra naturam a quodam Iuuene petulante commissum. [Sidenote: Cyprus Insula.] Sciendum quod a Rhodo ad Cyprum feruntur plenè quingentæ quinquaginta leucæ: Cyprus magna, et pulchra est Insula habens Archiepiscopatum, cum quinque Episcopatibus suffraganeis: Illuc Famagosta, est vnus de principalibus portibus mundi, in quo ferè omnium mercatores conueniunt nationum, tam Christianorum, quam multorum Paganorom, et similiter apud portum Limechon. Est ibi et Abbatia ordinis sancti Benedicti, in monte sanctæ Crucis, vbi dicitur saluati latronis seruari crux, qui in eadem cruce audiuit à Christo, Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso. [Sidenote: Fortis Cyprí vina.] Corpus etiam sancti Hylarionis seruatur ibi, in castro Damers quod Rex Cypri facit diligentissimè custodiri: Vltrà modum fortia vina nascuntur in Cypro, quæ primo rubra, post annum albescunt, et quo vetustiora, eo albiora ac magis odorifera, ac fortia efficiuntur. Vlteriùs paucissimæ villæ, aut Ciuitates sunt Christianorum, sed ferè omnia Saraceni possident infideles: et proh dolor, ab Anno 1200. incarnationis Domini aut circa, pacificè tenuerunt. [Sidenote: Ioppa, vel Iaffe.] Qui autem a Cypro prospere legit spacia maris, poterit in duobus naturalibus diebus peruenire in portum Ioppæ, qui Iaffe nunc nuncupatur, et proximus est a Ireusalem, distans 16, tantum leucas, hoc est dieta cum dimidia. [Sidenote: Portus Tyri, alias Sur.] Et sciendum quod circa medium, inter Cyprum, et Iaffe est portus Tyri quondam munitissimæ Ciuitatis, hanc dum vltimo Saraceni à Christianis ceperunt turpissimè destruxerunt, custodientes iam curiosè portum, timore Christianorum. Iste portus non vocatur modo Tyrus, sed Sur. Nam et ab illa parte est ibi introitus terræ Suriæ. Ante istam Ciuitatem Tyrum habetur quidam lapis, super quem dominus noster Iesus Christus sedendo suis discipulis vel populis prædicauit. Vnde, et Christiani olim super hunc locum construxerunt Ecclesiam in nomine Saluatoris. Peregrinus vero qui ab hoc loco vult peregrinari, morosè sciat, quod ad octo leucas à Tyro in orientem est Sarepta Sydoniorum, vbi olim Elias Propheta filium viduæ suscitauit a morte. Itemque sciat, quod à Tyro in vnica dieta pergere potest in Achon, siue Acharon supra scripta. [Sidenote: Achon, olim Acharon. Mons Carmeli.] Circa Acon versùs mare, ad 120. stadia, quorum 16. leucam constituunt, est mons Carmeli, vbi morabatur præfatus Elias, et super alium montem Villa Saffra vbi sanctus Iacobus, et Ioannes germani Apostoli nascebantur, et in quorum natiuitatis loco pulchra habetur Ecclesia. [Sidenote: Fossa Beleon.] Item propè Acon ad ripam dictam Beleon, est fossa multum vtilis, et mirabilis quæ dicitur fossa Mennon, hæc est rotunda circumferentia, cuius diameter continet prope 100. cubitos, plena alba et resplendente arena, et mundi ex qua conficitur mundum et perlucidum vitrum. Pro hac arena venitur per aquas, et per terras, et exportatur manibus et vehiculis propè et procul, et quantumcúnque de die exhauritur, repleta manè altero reperitur: Et est in fossa ventus grandis et iugis, qui mirabiliter arenam commouere videtur. Si quis autem vitrum de hac arena factum in fossa reponeret, conuerteretur iterum in arenam, et qui imponeret frustum metalli, verteretur in vitrum: nonnulli reputant hanc fossam esse spiraculum maris arenosi, de quo mari aliquid locuturus sum in sequentibus. Ab Acon via versus Jerusalem bifurcatur: nam qui tenet vnum latus potest ire secus Iordanem fluuium, in Ciuitatem Damascum, qui verò aliud, ibit in tribus aut quatuor dietis Gazam, de qua olim fortis Samson asportauit nocte fores portarum: deinde in Cæsaream Philippi, et Ascalonem, et Ioppam portum supradictum, Hincque in Rama, et Castellum Emaus, et sic in Ierusalem vrbem sacrosanctam. CAPVT. 5. Via à Francia aut Flandria per solas terras vsque Ierusalem. Itineribus, quæ per terras, et per mare a nostris partibus ducunt in terram promissionis descriptis, restat breuiter dicendum de alia via, per quam omnino mare transeundum non est, videlicet per Almaniam, per Bohemiam, per Prussiam, et hinc per terram Paganorum regni Lituaniæ, et sic per longam, et pessimam terram primæ Tartariæ vsque in Indiam: Dico autem Tartariæ primæ, quoniam de hac exijt primus Imperator totius Tartariæ, qui semper vocatur Grand Can, quo vix maiorem mundus habet terrenum Dominum, excepto Imperatore superioris Indiæ, de quibus in secunda et tertia huius tractatus partibus, aliquanto est diffusius narrandum. Cuncti principes huius primæ Tartariæ, quorum summus semper vocatur Bachu, et moratur in Ciuitate Horda, [Marginal note: Horda est multitudo riuens in agris.] reddunt Imperatore Grand Can, magna tributa. [Sidenote: Mores Tartarorum.] Est autem hæc prima Tartaria terra misera et sabulosa, et infructuosa: hoc enim scio, quòd per aliquod tempus steti in ea, et perambulaui Insulas, regiones, et terras circumiacentes, scilicet, Russiæ, Inflau, Craco, Latton, Restau, et alias nonnullas: crescunt námque in ista Tartaria modica blada, pauca vina, et fructuum, ac frugum parua copia, exceptis herbis pro pastu Bestiarum, quarum ibi est abundantia: nam carnibus illarum vescuntur pro omnibus cibarijs, ius earum sorbentes, et pro potu bibentes lac de omni genere bestiarum. Quin etiam pauperiores manducant canes, lupos, catos, ratos, talpas, ac mures, ac huiusmodi bestiolas omnes: sed nec aliquis Princeps aut prælatus comedit vltra semel in die, et hoc parcè, vel parcissimè: et sunt homines valdè immundi, quia non nisi benè diuites vtuntur mappis, linteaminibus, aut lineis indumentis: sed nec habent copiam lignorum, vnde et fimum boum, ac omnium bestiarum desiccatum ad solem accipiunt pro ignis materia, vbi se calefaciunt, et coquendo coquunt. Aestiuo tempore, cadunt ibi frequenter tempestates, tonitruorum, fulminum, et grandinum, quibus domus, arbores, bestiæ, et homines, comburuntur, euelluntur, et occiduntur. Nam et quandoque subrepentè oritur ibi calor immoderatus, et improuiso frigus immoderatum. Deníque cum terra illa, se multum inclinet ad polum Septentrionalem, fortius ibi gelare solet, et frequentius, ac diutius quàm ad partes nostras, vnde et quasi omnes habent ibi stupas, in quibus manducant, et operantur. [Sidenote: Hyeme præcipue iter faciunt per terram.] Nec valet à nostris partibus ingredi ad illam nisi tempore gelicidij, quod ad introitum eius sunt tres dictæ, de via molli, aquatica, et profunda, in qua dum viator putaret se stare securum, profunderetur in lutum ad tibias, ad genua, ad femora vel ad renes: hoc ergo sciendum quòd paucissimi tendunt per hanc viam in terram promissionis: Nam iter est graue, distortum, longum, et periculosum sicut audistis, imò periculosius quàm scribo. CAPVT. 6. Via de Cypro vel Ierusalem vsque in Babyloniam Ægypti. Descripto sicut potui triplicitèr itinere in terram sanctam, restat videre de duabus alijs vijs, quæ incidentèr solent contingere peregrinis: Multi námque illorum ex speciali deuotione desiderant visitare ossa beatissimæ Virginis Catharinæ in monte Sinay: [Sidenote: Babylonia Aegypti.] Cum igitur ipsis sit necessarius Soldani Babyloniæ conductus eo quod Imperator sit, et dominus omnium illarum terrarum, quidam postquam perueniunt in Cyprum tendunt primò in Babyloniam Ægypti, pro impetrando conductu securo, átque indè pergentes in Sinay vadunt in Ierusalem. Quidam verò postquam perfecerunt peregrinationem Hierosolymitanam, pergunt per terras ad Soldanum pro conductu, et tum in Sinay, propter quòd vtramque viam breuiter describo. [Sidenote: Damiata portus Aegypti.] De Cypro in Ægyptum itur per mare relinquendo Hierosolymorum terram ad manum sinistram, et accipitur primus portus Ægypti, dictus Damiata: ibi quondam fuit Ciuitas valdè munita, sed quod Christiani illam, primi et altera vice ceperunt, Sarraceni vltimò destruxerunt, et aliam remotius à mari eiusdem nominis Ciuitatem ædificauerunt: [Sidenote: Alexandria.] Hinc venitur in portum Alexandriæ Ægypti, quæ est Ciuitas magna, pulchra, et fortis valde, sed ábsque aquis potabilibus. Adducit tamen sibi per longos ductus aquam Nili fluminis in cisternis ad potandum. Alexandria nobilis, 30. stadia habet longitudinis decémque in latum. In ea restant adhuc plures Ecclesiæ à tempore Christianorum, sed Sarraceni non sustinentes picturas Sanctorum omnes parietes albauerunt. De Alexandria per terras venitur in Babyloniam Ægypti, quæ etiam fundata iacet supra prædictum Nilum fluuium: Dicitur autem hæc Babylonia minor ad differentiam magnæ Babyloniæ, siue Babel, vbi Deus linguas confudit olim, quæ tendendo inter Orientem et Septentrionem distat ab ista dietas circiter 40. nec est sub potestate Soldani, sed Imperatoris Persarum, qui illam tenet in homagio ab Imperatore Cathay, dicto, Grand Can. [Sidenote: Cayr ciuitas.] Hæc autem Babylonia Ægypti est Ciuitas grandis et fortis, tamen valdè prope eam est alia maior dicta Cayr, in qua vt sæpiùs residet Soldanus, quanquam Babylonia nomen per seculum diffusius est cognitum: Altera autem via peregrinorum de Hierosolymis pro conducta tendentium ad Soldanum talis esse potest. [Sidenote: Abilech desertum.] Primò tendant de Ierusalem in suprà dictam Gazam Palestinorum, inde ad Castellum Dayre, átque ex tunc exitur de terra Syriæ, et intratur à superiori parte in desertum longum arenosum, et sterile, propè ad septem dietas, quod lingua eorum vocatur Abilech; tamen per illud inueniantur plura hospitia, vbi haberi possunt ad victum nccessaria. Et qui in eundo rectum iter tenet, veniet in Ciuitatem dictam, Balbes, quæ est ad finem Regni Halapiæ: Sícque expleto Deserto, intratur terra Ægypti, quam ipsi Canopat vocant, et aliqui Mersur, átque ex tunc in Babyloniam, et Cayr, præfatam: In ista verò Babylonia habetur pulchra Ecclesia Mariæ virginis, in loco vbi morabatur cum filio suo, et Ioseph tempore suæ fugæ, et creditur ibi contineri corpus Virginis Barbaræ. CAPVT. 7. De Pallatio Soldani, ac numero, et nominibus præteritorum Soldanorum. Cayr ciuitas Imperialis et Regalis est valdè munita, et grandis, decorata sede propria Sarracenorum Regní, vbi dominus eorum Soldanus communiter residere solet, in suo Calahelick, id est, castro forti, et lato, ac in euecta rupe statuto. Siquidem Soldanus eorum lingua sonat nomen similis maiestatis, quo nos in Latino dicimus Cæsarem, aut Imperatorem. Pro custodia huius Castri sunt ibidem omni tempore morantes sex millia personarum, et pro, seruiendo, dum ibi residet, ipsi Soldano, qui omnes de Curia eadem accipiunt necessaria, et donatiua. Iste Imperator Soldanus, est Rex, Dominúsque quinque Regnoram magnorum: Canopat, hoc est, Ægypti: totius Iudeæ, sicut olim Dauid, et Salomon; Halapiæ, in terra Machsyriæ, cuius ciuitas Damascus olim erat principalis; Arabiæ, quod est regnum valdè protensum, et cum his possidet dominatus omnium Caliphorum: ad quod sciendum, quòd quaundóque fuerunt tres Caliphorum dominatus: Ex quibus primus Caliphus qui dicebatur Chaldæorum, et Arabum, cuius erat sedes in Ciuitate Baldac. Alter Barbarorum et Affricorum, cuius erat sedes in Maroco super Mare Hispaniæ. Tertius Aegypti: [Sidenote: Caliphus quid sit.] Est autem Caliphus inter eos, velut inter nos Imperator, et Papa simul, scilicet, Dominus temporalium et spiritualium. [Sidenote: Series Soldanorum Aegypti.] Exactis igitur Caliphis circa annum incarnationis Christi 1150, primus Soldanorum fuit nominatus Saracon: secundus filius eius, Saladin, qui anno 1190. cum Turcis totam ferè terram promissionis abstulit à Christianis. Et sub quo Richardus Rex Angliæ cum alijs principibus Christianis custodiebat passum Rupium, ne ille sicut proposuerat transire, profecisset vltra. Tertius Melachsala, à quo sanctus Ludouicus rex Franciæ captiuabatur in bello. Quartus Turquenna, qui Regem prædictum redemi dimisit pro pecunia. Quintus Meleth. Sextus Melethemes. Septimus Melec dayr, sub quo Edwardus Rex Angliæ intrauit cum nostris Syriam, damnificans plurimum Sarracenos. [Sidenote: Edwardus princeps Angliæ, Regis Hen. 3. filius.] Octauus Melec salle. Nonus Elphi, qui Anno Incarnationis Domini 1289. destruxit in illis partibus enormiter Christianos, et penitus omnes inde fugauit, atque recepit Tripolim Ciuitatem. Decimus Melethasseras: hic cepit Anno Domini 1291. in octaua paschæ Accharon, fugatis vel occisis ex ea omnibus Christianis. Exinde amissis succedentium nominibus, sextus decimus dicebatur vel dicitur Melec Mandibron: sub isto steti ego per aliquod tempus stipendiarius in guerris suis contra Bedones, qui ei tunc temporis rebellabant. Horum etiam mores, et continentiam populorum, in sequentibus declarabo: sicut veraciter fateri possum, ipse ad filiam cuiusdam sui Principis me obtulit vxorare, et magnis dotari possessionibus, dummodò Christianitati resignassem: Eúmque dimisi Soldanum, quando de partibus illis recessi. [Sidenote: Potentia Soldani Aegypti.] Soldanus præter homines ad sua castra seruanda deputatos, potest educere quoties velit in exercitum de hominibus de ipsius stipendijs viuentibus et ad eius iugitèr mandata paratis, 20. millia armatorum, ex sola Ægypto: Et ex Syria, et Turcia, et alijs terris, 50. millia exceptis ruralibus, et Ciuitatem comitatibus, qui sunt velut innumerabiles. Miles quidem stipendiarius recipit de Curia pro anni Tempore 121. aureos, et sub tali stipendio seruit cum tribus equis et vno Camelo. Quadringenti vel Quingenti horum militum ordinati sunt sub vno rectore, que vocatur Admirabilis: Et ille solus recipit de curia tantum, sicut omnes sibi subditi: Notandum quod nunquam extraneus Nuncius ire permittitur ad Soldanum nisi auratis indutus vestibus, vel panno Tartarico aut camoleoto ad modum nobilium Sarracenorum: [Sidenote: Reuerentia exhibita Soldano.] et oportet vt vbicunque primum nuncius Soldanum aspiciat, siue ad fenestras, siue alibi, vt cadat ad genua, vel protinus osculetur terram, quia talem reuerentiam facere, signum est quòd ille desiderat ei loqui. Quamdiu autem tales loquuntur sibi, aut literas ostendunt, circumstant Apparitores extensis brachijs leuatos tenentes mucrones, gladios, gezas, et mackas ad feriendum, et occidendum, si quid dictum vel nunciatum fuerit, quod Imperatori displiceat, quam citò ille signauerit trucidari. Veruntamen sciendum est quòd nullius hominis personaliter ab ipso quidquam petentis consueuit repellere preces rationabiles, et contra eorum leges aut mores non venientes. Porrò ego in Curia manens, vidi circa Soldanum vnum venerabilem, et expertum medicum, de nostris partibus oriundum: [Marginal note: Cuius nomen erat M. Ioannes ad Barbam.] solet namque circa se retinere diuersarum medicos nationum, et quos nominandæ audierit esse famæ: Nos tamen rarò inuicem conuenimus ad colloquium, eò quòd meum seruitium cum suo modicum congruebat: longo autem posteà tempore, et ab illo loco remotè, videlicet in Leodij ciuitate, composui hortatu et adiutorio eiusdem venerabilis viri hunc tractatum, sicut in fine operis totius enarrabo. Itémque in Cayr ciuitate ducuntur ad forum communitur tam viri quàm mulieres aliarum legum, et nationum venales, et ad modum bestiaram venduntur pro pecunia ad seruiendum in suis artificijs. [Sidenote: Mos oua furnis fouendi.] Habetur quoque ibi domus plena furnis paruis, in quibus per custodes domus tam hyeme quàm æstate fouentur oua gallinarum, anatum, aucarum, et columbarum, vsque ad procreationem suorum pullorum, et hijs intendunt, pro certo pretio accipiendo à mulierculis illic oua ferentibus. CAPVT. 8. De Campo Balsami in Egypto. [Sidenote: Balsamum.] Extra hanc ciuitatem Cayr, est Campus seu ager Balsami: circa quod sciendum, quòd optimum totius mundi Balsamum in magno crescit Indiæ deserto, vbi Alexander Magnus dicitur quondam locutus fuisse arboribus Solis et Lunæ, de quo in sequentibus aliquid est scribendum. Illo itaque Indiæ Balsamo duntaxat excepto, non est liquor in vniuerso orbe, qui huic creditur comparari. Has arbores seu arbusta Balsami fecit quondam quidam de Caliphis Aegypti de loco Engaddi inter mare mortuum, et Ierico, vbi Domino volente excreuerat, eradicari, et in argo prædicto plantari: est tamen hoc mirandum, quod vbicuncque alibi siue prope, siue remote plantantur, quamuis fortè virent, et exurgant, non tamen fructificant. Et è contrario apparet hoc miraculosum, quod in hoc agro Cayr non se permittant coli per Sarracenos, sed solummodò per Christianos, vel aliter non fructificarent: Et dicunt ipsi Sarraceni hoc sæpius se tentasse: sunt autem arbusta trium vel quatuor pedem altitudinis, velut vsque ad renes hominis, et lignum eorum aspiciendum, sicut vitis syluestris. Folia non marcescunt, quin prius marcescant fructus, cernitur ad formam Cubebæ, et gummi eorum est Balsamum. Ipsi appellant arbores Enochkalse, fructum Abebifau, et liquorum gribalse. Extrahitur verò gummi de arbusculis per hunc modem: De lapide acuto, vel de osse fracto dant scissuras per cortices in ligno, et ex vulneribus Balsamum lachrymatur, quod in vasculis suscipiunt, cauentes quout possunt, ne quid de illo labatur in terram: Nam se de ferro, vel alio metallo fieret incissura, liquor Balsami corrumperetur à sua virtute. [Sidenote: Virtutes veri Balsami.] Veri Balsami virtutes sunt magnæ quidem, et innumerosæ: nam vix aliquis mortalium scire potuit omnes, quamuis inter Physicos quinquaginta scribantur. Rarò vtique Sarraceni vendunt Christianis purum et verum Balsamum, quin priùs commisceant, et falsificant sicut ego ipse frequenter vidi. Nam aliqui tertiam, seu quartam partem immiscent terrebynthinæ. [Sidenote: Sophisticationes Balsami.] Alii ramusculos arbustarum, et fructus eorum coquunt in oleo, quod vendunt pro Balsamo: et quidam (quod pessimam est) nil Balsami habentes, distillant oleum, per clauos gariophillos, et spicum nardum, et similes odoriferas species, hoc pro Balsamo exponentes, atque aliis pluribus modis deludunt ementes. [Sidenote: Probatio veri Balsami.] Sed et Mercatores inuicem nonnunquam sophisticant altera vice: probatio autem veri Balsaml potest haberi pluribus modis, quorum aliquos hic describo. Est enim Citrini coloris, valdè clarum, et purum, et fortissimum in odoris fragrantia: si ergò apparet alterius quàm Citrini coloris sciatur non simplicis, sed cuiuscunque commixtæ substantiæ, vel ita spissum, vt non possit fluere, scitote sophisticatum. Item si posueris modicum veri Balsami in manus palma, non poteris sustinere eam linialiter in feruore splendentis Solis ad spacium recitandæ Dominicæ orationis. Item si in clara flamma ignis vel candeliæ cereæ miseris punctum cultelli cum gutta puri Balsami, ipsa gutta de facilè comburetur. Item si in scutella munda cum puro lacte caprino posueris modicum veri Balsami, statim, miscebit se, et vnietur cum lacte, ìta vt Balsamum non cognoscetur. Item è contrà, si posueris verum Balsamum cum aqua Lympida, nunquam miscebit se aquæ, etiamsi aquam moueris vehementer, imò Balsamum semper tendit ad fundum vasis, nam est in sui quanitate valdè ponderosam, et iuxta quod minùs ponderosum inueneris, ampliùs falsificatum noueris. CAPVT. 9. De Nile fluuio, et Aegypti territorio. Nilus suprà dictus fluuius Aegypti appellatus est alio nomine Gyon, cuius origo est à Paradiso terrestri. Hic venit currens per deserta Indiæ Maioris, hincque per meatus subterraneos transit plures terras: exiens sub Monte Aloth, inter Indiam et Aethiopiam, et Mauritaniam intra deserta Aegypti, irrigans totam longitudinem Aegypti vsque ad Alexandriam, ibíque se perdit in mare. [Sidenote: Inundatio Nilo.] Sole intrante signum Cancri omni anno hoc est, ad quindenam ante Festum Natiuitatis Ioannis Baptistæ incipit paulatim fluuius crescere, et inundare, quousque sol intret Virginem, quod est circa Festum Laurentij, atque ex tunc decrescere, et minui, donec Sole veniente in Lybram intra suos alueos se conseruet: Dúmque per inundationem nimis effluit, damnificat terræ culturas, et fit Charistia in Aegypto. [Sidenote: Raro in Aegyptio pluuia.] Et similiter dum parum exundat, ingruit esuries, quoniam in Aegypto rarissimè pluit, aut apparent nubes, quoniam si quandoque pluerit in æstate, terra muribus adimpleur. [Sidenote: Nubia.] Terra Aegypti continet in longitudine dietas quindecim, in latitudine ferè tres, et habet triginta dietas deserti: à finibus Aegypti vsque Nubiam, duodecim sunt dietæ. Hi Nubij sunt Christiani, sed nigri, velut Aethiopes, vel Mauri. [Sidenote: Phoenix visa a Mandeuillo.] Phoenix auis, de qua dicitur, quod semper vnica sit in mundo, viuens per annos quingentos, quæ et seipsam comburit, ac de cineribus eius, siue per naturam, siue per miraculum alia creatur, hæc interdum apparet in Aegypto, et sicut mihi monstrabatur, vidi duabus vicibus. Modicum est maior Aquila, cristam in capite maiorem pauonis, collum habens croceum, dorsum Indicum, alas purpureas, caudam duobus coloribus, per transuersum croceo et rubeo regulatam, qui singuli colores sunt ad splendorem Solis delectabiliter videntibus resplendentes. In Aegypto multæ habentur arbores sexcies aut septies in anno fructificantes, ibique frequenter inueniuntur in terra Smaragdi, et circa oram Nili alij lapides pretiosi. [Sidenote: Mecha.] A Babylonia Aegypti, vsque ad ciuitatem Meccam, (quam Pagani ibidem appellant Iacrib, et est in magnis desertis Arabiæ) sunt triginta duæ dietæ. In ea veneratur detestandum cadauer Machon siue Machometi honorabiliter et reuerenter in Templo eius, quod ibi vocatur Musket, de cuius vita aliquid infrà narrabo. Per prædicta itaque apparet, quod Imperator Sarracenorum Soldanus Babyloniæ, valdè potens est Dominus. CAPVT. 10. De couductu Soldani, et via vsque in Sinay. Priùs dictum est de reuerentia Soldani, quandò ad ipsum intratur exhibenda. Sciendum ergò, cum ab eo petitur securus conductus, nemini denegare consueuit, sed datur petentibus communiter sigillum eius, in appenditione absque literis: hoc sigillum, pro vexillo in virga aut hasta dum peregrini ferunt, omnes Sarraceni videntes illud flexis genibus in terram se reuerenter inclinant, et portantibus omnem exhibent humanitatem. Verumtamen satis maior fit reuerentia literis Soldani sigillatis, quod et Admirabiles, et quicunque alij Domini, quando eis monstrantur, antequam recipiant, se multùm inclinant: Deinde ambabus manibus eas capientes ponunt super propria capita, posteà osculantur, et tandem legunt inclinati cum magna veneratione, quibus semel aut bis perlectis, offerunt se promptos ad explendum quicquid ibi iubetur, ac insuper exhibent deferenti, quicquid possint commodi, vel honoris: sed talem conductum per literas Soldani vix quisquam peregrinorum accipit, qui non in Curia illius stetit, vel notitiam apud illum habuerit. [Sidenote: Literæ Soldani in gratiam Mandeuilli concessæ.] Ego autem habui in recessu meo, in quibus etiam continebatur ad omnes sibi subiectos speciale mandatum, vt me permitterent intrare, et respicere singula loca, pro meæ placito voluntatis, et mihi exponerent quorumcunque locorum mysteria distinctè et absque vllo velamine veritatis, ac me cum omni sodalitate mea benignè reciperent, et in cunctis rationalibus audirent, requisiti autem si necesse foret de ciuitate conducerent in ciuitatem. Habito itaque peregrinis conductu, ad Montem Sinay potest à Cayr vnam duarum incipere semitarum, vsque vallem Helim, vbi adhuc sunt duodecim fontes aquarum. Nam vna viarum est, vt pertranseat passagium maris rubri, non longè ab eodem loco, vbi olim populus Israel Duce Mose, Deo iubente, siccis pedibus transiit idem mare. [Sidenote: Ratio, cur Rubrum mare sic appellatur.] Quod quidem, licèt aqua sit satis clara, dicitur ibi Rubrum propter lapillos, et arenas subrufi coloris: et continet ibi nunc temporis passus maris in latitudine ferè sex leucas. Transmissoque mari, ibit super hanc longè ab oris eiusdem per dietas quatuor, atque ex tunc relinquens mare, tendit per deserta sex aut septem dierum, vsque in vallem præfatam. Alia est autem via, vt de Babylonia intret Dyrcen deserta, tendens ad quendam fontem, quem dicitur Moses [Marginal note: Vel Maus.] fecisse: et hinc ad riuulum Marach, qui quondam, Mose imponente lignum, ab amaritudine dulcescebat, et sic tandem in premissam vallem perueniant. Et restat via grandis dietæ ad Montem Sinay ab hac valle. Nam à Babylonia vsque in Sinay, æstimatur esse via duodecim dictarum, quamuis nonnulli citius perueniunt. Hoc verè sciendum, neminem peregrinorum per hæc deserta sine ductore posse tendere, cui notæ sunt viæ, sed nec equi valent transire, præcipuè quòd non inuenirent in desertis quid bibere. [Sidenote: Abstinentia Camelorum ab aquis.] Aliquo tamen modo transitur per Camelos, eò quòd se continere possunt de potu duobus aut tribus diebus: Et oportet vt itinerantes ferant secum per viam necessaria ad victum proprium, et Camelorum, nisi quòd interdum fortè Cameli aliquid sibi abrodere possunt circa cortices arbustorum, et folia ramusculorum. CAPUT. 11. De Monasterio Sinay, et reliquijs beatæ Catherinæ. Mons Sinay appellatur ibi desertum Syn: quasi in radice montis istius habetur Coenobium Monachorum pergrande, cuius clausura in circuitu est firmata muris altis, et portis ferreis, pro metu bestiarum deserti. Hi Monachi sunt Arabes, et Græci, et in magno conuentu multum Deo deuoti: viuunt in magna abstinentia, vtentes simplicibus cibariis, de lotis et dactylis, et huiusmodi, nec vinum potantes, festis acceptis. Illic in Ecclesia Beatæ Virginis et matris Catherinæ semper lampades plurimæ sunt ardentes, nam habetur ibi plena copia olei oliuarum. A posteriori parte magni altaris monstratur locus, vbi Moysi apparuit Dominus in rubo ardente, ipsum rubum adhuc seruans, quem dum monachi intrant, semper se discalceant gratia illias verbi, quo Deus iussit Moysi ibidem, Solue calciamentum de pedibus tuis, locus enim in quo stas, terra sancta est: hunc locum appellant Bezeleel, id est, vmbra Dei. Et propè altare tribus gradibus in altitudine, habetur capsa, seu Tumba Alabastri, sanctissima continens ossa Virginis. Christiani qui ibidem morantur, cum magna reuerentia aduenientibus peregrinis, à Monachorum prælato, seu ab alio in hoc instituto, excipiuntur. Is quodam instrumento argenteo consueuit ossa defricare, siue linire, vt ex iis exeat modicum olei, velut parumper sudoris, quod tamen non apparet in colore sui tanquam olei seu Balsami, sed aliquantulum pluris magnitudinis. Et ex isto traditur interdum aliquid petentibus peregrinis, sed parùm, quia nec multùm exudat. Ostendere solent et caput ipsius Catherinæ cum inuolumento sanguinolento, et multas prætereà sanctas, et venerabiles reliquias, quæ omnia intuitus sum diligentur et sæpè, oculis indignis. Habent quoque in ista Ecclesia propriam Lampadem quilibet Monachorum, quæ imminente illius discessu lumen per diuinum miraculum variat vel extinguit. [Sidenote: Monarchorum sophismata.] Ego etiam curiosius super vno dubio quod priùs audieram, plures interrogationes feci ab aliquibus Monachorum, vtrum scilicet prælato eorum decedente semper successor per diuinum signum eligetetur: et vix tandem ab eis recepi responsum, quòd per vnum istorum miraculorum habetur successor, videlicit in missa sepulturæ defuncti omnibus Monachorum lampadibus extinctis, illius sola Dei nutu reaccenditur, quem fieri vult prælatum, vel de coelo inuenitur missus breuiculus super altare, inscriptum habens nomen prælati futuri. Intra hanc Ecclesiam nunquam musca, vel aranea, aut huiusmodi immundi vermiculi nascuntur, quod similiter per diuinum accidit miraculum: nam antè replebatur Ecclesia talibus immunditiis, et totus conuentus recederet ad construendum Ecclesiam in alio loco. Et ecce Dei genetrix virgo beata eis visibiliter obuiauit, iubens reuerti, et dicens nunquam Ecclesiam similibus infestari. In cuius obuiationis loco in ascensu procliuo huius montis per multos gradus construxerunt Ecclesiam, ædificium excellens, in honorem eiusdem virginis. Et alibuantò altius, per eiusdem montis ascensum est vetus Capella, quam vocant Eliæ Prophetæ, et locum specialiter appellant Horeb. A cuius latere in montis appendentia colitur vinea, quam nominant Iosuæ scophis, de qua quidam putare volunt, quod Sanctus Ioannes Euangelista eam primò plantauit. In superiori verò montis vertice, est Capella, quam dicunt Moysis, et illic rupis seruans adhuc corporis eius formam impressam dum se abscondit, viritus dominum respicere in facie. Locus quoque ibi ostenditur, in quo Deus tradidit ei decem mandata, siue legem proprio digito scriptam, et sub rupe cauerna in qua mansit ieiunus diebus 40. Ab hoc monte qui vocatur Mosi, restat via producta ad quartam Leucæ, vsque in montem qui dicitur Sanctæ Catherinæ per vallem speciosam, ac multùm frigidam. Circa eius medium habetur Ecclesia, nomine 40. Martyrum constructa, vbi interdum veniunt Monachi cantare missam: Hic mons est satis altior Monte Moysis, in cuius vertice Angeli Dei piè creduntur attulisse, et sepeliisse corpus sanctissimæ Martyris Catherinæ cum inuolumento capitis suprà dicto. Attamen in ipso certo sepulturæ loco, licèt quandoque stetit Capella, modò non est habitaculum, sed modicus aceruus petrarum. Notandum, quòd vterque horum montium potest vocari mons Sinay, eo quod totus circumiacens locus deserti Sin appellatur. Sur desertum inter mare Rubrum, et solitudinem Sinay. Desertum Sur idem Scriptura quod et Cades. Visitatis igitur à peregrinis his sacrosanctis memorijs, et valefacto Monachis, recommendant se eorum orationibus, et meritis: tuncque solet aliquid victualium offerri peregrinis, pro inchoanda via deserti Syriæ versus Ierusalem. Et sicut dixi de priori deserto, sic nec istud securè est peragrandum absque Drogemijs; id est, semitarum ductoribus, propter vastitudinem deserti. CAPVT. 12. Iter a deserto Sinay vsque ad Iudeam. Per istud latum et longum desertum, moratur vel potius vagata maxima multitudo malorum, et incompositorum hominum, qui non manent in domibus, sed sub pellium tabernaculis, quemadmodum et olim filij Israel in eodem deserto ambulauerunt, quoniam aquæ non manent ibi diu in locis certis: et ideò mutant tabernacula sequentes aquas: non colunt terras, rarò manducant panem, sed tantùm carnes bestiarum deserti quas venantur, coquentes super petras calefactas ad Solem: fortes sunt et feroces, et velut desperati de vita propria non curantes, qui licèt non habeant arma præter lanceam, et tarchiam, et caput grandi albo linteolo inuolutum, tamen non verentur exercere guerras, et inire proelia contra Dominum suum Soldanum: nam et ego stipendiarius in expeditione Soldani contra eos sæpius fui. Isti sunt quidem Arabes, sed notiori nomine appellantur Bedoyns et Acopars, et quamuis plurima mala agunt per desertum, rarò tamen nocent peregrinis beatæ Virginis Catharinæ. [Sidenote: Ioannes Mandeuil militans contra Arabes. Beersheba.] Itaque peregrinus qui debitum tenuit iter, veniat à finibus deserti in primam ciuitatem Iudeæ, quæ dicitur Berseba: est vicus grandis Hebron inde miliario vergens ad Austrum: Hieronymus. Notandum, Theros Mons Dei in regione Maglaw iuxta Montem. Notandum similiter, Arabiam in deserto esse, cui iungitur Mons et desertum Sarracenorum, quod vocatur Phaaran. Mihi autem videtur, quod dupliei nomine, nupe Mons Sinay, nunc Oreb vocatur. Hieronymus. Phaaran nunc oppidum trans Oreb, iam iunctum Sarracenis, qui in solitudine vagi pererrant. Hos interfecerunt filij Israel, cùm de Monte Sinay castra mouissent. Est ergo, vt dixi, trans Jordanem contra Australem plagam, et distat ab Helyn, contra Orientem, itinere dierum trium. In deserto autem Phaaran, Scriptura commemorat habitasse Ismaelem, vade et Ismaelitæ, qui nunc Sarraceni. Legimus quoque Chederlaomer percussisse eos qui erant in deserto Phaaran quod nunc dicitur Ascalon, et circa eam Regio Palestinorum. Hieronymus. Hæc Bersheba erat bona et spectabilis, vltimo tempore Christianorum, et adhuc ibi restant nonnullæ Ecclesiæ. [Sidenote: Ciuitas Hebron.] Hinc ad Leucas duas venitur in ciuitatem Hebron, et Hebron ab Helyn distat ad Meridianam plagani millibus circiter 39. de qua legitur, quòd primis temporibus fuerit habitatio maximorum Gigantium, Regúmque, posteà Dauidis. In hac est illa spelunca duplex, quæ seruat ossa sanctorum Patriarcharum, Abrahæ, Isaac, et Jacob, Saræ, et Rebeccæ, consistitque ad radicem montis, et habetur super istam cum propugnaculis ad modum castri constructa pulchra Ecclesia. Sarraceni appellant istam speluncam Kariackaba, custodienies locum diligenter ac reuerenter propter honorem Patriarcharum, et non permittentes quenquam Christianorum aut Iudæorum ingredi, nisi ostenderit super hæc specialem gratiam à Soldano. Nam ipsi communiter reputant tam Christianos quàm Iudaeos pro canibus, et quando despectiuè eos volunt appellare, dicunt Kylp, id est, canis. [Sidenote: Vallis Mambræ Quercus arida.] Ab Hebron incipit vallis Mambræ, quæ protenditur ferè vsque Ierusalem: haud remotè ad Hebron est mons Mambre, et in ipso monte arbor quercus aridæ quæ pro antiquitate sui, speciale sibi nomen meruit in mundo vniuerso, vt vocetur arbor sicca: Sarraceni autem eam dicunt Dirp: hæc creditur stetisse ante tempora Abrahæ, tamen quidam volunt putare à mundi initio, virens donec passionis Christi tempore siccaretur. Hoc autem certum est haberi eam ob omnibus nationibus in venerationem. [Sidenote: Gambil species Aromatis] In quodam loco præfatæ vallis est planicies, vbi per plures fossas effodiunt homines Gambil, quod comeditur loco specierum aromaticarum, et per villas defertur venale, sed et hoc audiui, quòd nulla ibi fossa ita valet exhauriri, si dimittatur per annum, quin inueniatur de prædicta Gambil impleta. Ad duas leucas de Hebron, monstratur sepultura Loth filii fratris Abraham. Item de ciuitate Hebron per quinque leucas amoeni itineris, hoc est in medio die, venitur in Bethleem Iudeæ. [Sidenote: Kiriath Arbe.] Notandum, Arbe, id est, quatuor, primum dicum de eo quod ibi tres Patriarchæ Abraham, Isac, et Iacob sepulti sunt, et Adam magnus, vt in Iudæorum libro scriptum est, licet eum quidam conditum in loco Caluariæ suspicentur. Corruptè in nostris codicibus Arboth scribitur, alibi erat arbor cùm in Hebræis legatur Arbe, hæc est autem eadem Hebron olim Metropolis Philistinorum, ab vno filiorum Caleb sortita vocabulum. The English Version. Of the Weye fro Costantynoble to Jerusalem. Of Seynt John the Evaungelist; and of Ypocras Daughter, transformed from a Woman to a Dragoun. [Sidenote: Cap. IV] Now returne I azen, for to teche zou the way from Costantynoble to Jerusalem. He that wol thorghe Turkye, he gothe toward the cytee of Nyke, and passethe thorghe the gate of Chienetout, and alle weyes men seen before hem the hille of Chienetout, that is righte highe: and it is a myle, and an half from Nyke. And whoso will go be watre, be the brace of Seynt George, and by the see, where Seynt Nycholas lyethe, and toward many other places: first men gothe to an ile, that is clept Sylo. [Footnote: Chios] In that ile growethe mastyck on smale trees: and out of hem comethe gomme, as it were of plombtrees or of cherietrees. And aftre gon men thorghe the ile of Pathmos, and there wrot Seynt John the Evaungelist the Apocalips. And zee schulle undrestonde, that Seynt Johne was of age 32 zeer, whan oure Lord suffred his passioun; and aftre his passioun, he lyvede 67 zeer, and in the 100th zeer of his age he dyede. From Pathmos men gone unto Ephesim, a fair citee and nyghe to the see. And there dyede Seynte Johne and was buryed behynde the highe awtiere, in a toumbe. And there is a fair chirche. For Cristene men weren wont to holden that place alweyes. And in the tombe of Seynt John is noughte but manna, that is clept aungeles mete. For his body was translated into paradys. And Turkes holden now alle that place, and the citee and the chirche. And alle Asie the lesse is y cleped Turkye. And zee schulle undrestonde, that Seynt Johne leet [Footnote: Let.] make his grave there in his lyf, and leyd himself there inne alle quyk. And therefore somme men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but that he restethe there till the day of doom. And forsothe there is a great marveyle: for men may see there the erthe of the tombe apertly many tymes steren and meven, [Footnote: Stir and move.] as there wern quykke thinges undre. And from Ephesim men gon throghe many iles in the see, unto the cytee of Paterane, [Footnote: Patera.] where Seynt Nicholas was born, and so to Martha, [Footnote: Myra.] where he was chosen to ben bisschoppe; and there growethe right gode wyn and strong; and that men callen wyn of Martha. And from thens gone men to the ile of Crete, that the Emperour zaf somtyme to Janeweys. [Footnote: The Genoese.] And thanne passen men thorghe the isles of Colos and of Lango; [Footnote: Cos.] of the whiche iles Ypocras [Footnote: Hippocrates.] was lord offe. And some men seyn, that in the ile of Lango is zit the doughtre of Ypocras, in forme and lykeness of a gret dragoun, that is a hundred fadme of lengthe, as men seyn: for I have not seen hire. And thei of the isles callen hire, lady of the lond. And sche lyethe in an olde castelle, in a cave, and schewethe twyes or thryes in the zeer. And sche dothe none harm to no man, but zif men don hire harm. And sche was thus chaunged and transformed, from a fair damysele, into lyknesse of a dragoun, be a goddesse, that was clept Deane. [Footnote: Diana.] And men seyn, that sche schalle so endure in that forme of a dragoun, unto the tyme that a knyghte come, that is so hardy, that dar come to hire and kiss hire on the mouthe: and then schall sche turne azen to hire own kynde, and ben a woman azen: but aftre that sche schalle not liven longe. And it is not long siththen, that a knyghte of the Rodes, that was hardy and doughty in armes, seyde that he wole kyssen hire. And whan he was upon his coursere, and wente to the castelle, and entred into the cave, the dragoun lifte up hire hed azenst him. And whan the knyghte saw hire in that forme so hidous and so horrible, he fleyghe awey. And the dragoun bare the knyghte upon a roche, mawgre his hede; and from that roche, sche caste him in to the see: and so was lost bothe hors and man. And also a zonge man, that wiste not of the dragoun, wente out of a schipp, and wente thorghe the ile, til that he come to the castelle, and cam in to the cave; and wente so longe, til that he fond a chambre, and there he saughe a damysele, that kembed hire hede, and lokede in a myrour: and sche hadde meche tresoure abouten hire: and he trowed, that sche hadde ben a comoun woman, that dwelled there to resceyve men to folye. And he abode, tille the damysele saughe the schadewe of him in the myrour. And sche turned hire toward him, and asked hym, what he wolde. And he seyde, he wolde ben hire limman or paramour. And sche asked him, zif that he were a knyghte. And he seyde, nay. And then sche seyde, that he myghte not ben hire lemman: but sche bad him gon azen unto his fellowes, and make him knyghte, and come azen upon the morwe, and sche scholde come out of the cave before him; and thanne come and kysse hire on the mowthe, and have no drede; for I schalle do the no maner harm, alle be it that thou see me in lyknesse of a dragoun. For thoughe thou see me hidouse and horrible to loken onne, I do the to wytene, [Footnote: Know.] that it is made be enchauntement. For withouten doubte, I am non other than thou seest now, a woman; and therfore drede the noughte. And zif thou kysse me, thou schalt have alle this tresoure, and be my lord, and lord also of alle that ile. And he departed fro hire and wente to his felowes to schippe, and leet make him knyghte, and cam azen upon the morwe, for to kysse this damysele. And whan he saughe hire comen out of the cave, in forme of a dragoun, so hidouse and so horrible, he hadde so grete drede, that he fleyghe azen to the schippe; and sche folewed him. And whan sche saughe, that he turned not azen, sche began to crye, as a thing that hadde meche sorwe: and thanne sche turned azen, in to hire cave; and anon the knyghte dyede. And siththen hidrewards, myghte no knyghte se hire, but that he dyede anon. But whan a knyghte comethe, that is so hardy to kisse hire, he schalle not dye; but he schalle turne the damysele in to hire righte forme and kyndely schapp, and he schal be lord of alle the contreyes and iles aboveseyd. And from thens men comen to the Ile of Rodes, the whiche ile Hospitaleres holden and governen; and that token thei sumtyme from the Emperour: and it was wont to be clept Collos; and so callen it the Turks zit. And Seynt Poul, in his Epistles, writeth to hem of that Ile, _ad Colossenses_. [Footnote: The truth is the Epistle was written to the Church of Collosæ in Phrygia Major.] This ile is nyghe 800 myle from Costantynoble. And from this ile of Rodes, men gon to Cipre, where bethe many vynes, that first bene rede, and aftre o zeer, thei becomen white: and theise wynes that ben most white, ben most clere and best of smelle. And men passen be that way, be a place that was wont to ben a gret cytee and a gret lond: and the cytee was clept Cathaillye: the which cytee and lond was lost thorghe folye of a zonge man. For he had a fayr damysele, that he loved wel, to his paramour; and sche dyed sodeynly, and was don in a tombe of marble: and for the grete lust, that he had to hire, he wente in the nyghte unto hire tombe and opened it, and went in and lay be hire, and wente his way. And whan it came to the ende of nine monethes, there com a voys to him, and seyde, Go to the tombe of that woman, and open it and beholde what thou hast begotten on hîre: and if thou lette to go, thou schalt have a gret harm. And he zede [Footnote: Went.] and opened the tombe; and there fleyghe out an eddere righte hidous to see; the whiche als swythe fleighe aboute the cytee and the contree; and sone after the cytee sank downe. And there ben manye perilouse passages. Fro Rodes to Cypre ben 500 myle and more. But men may gon to Cypre, and come not at Rodes. Cypre is righte a gode ile and a fayr and a gret, and it hathe 4 princypalle cytees within him. And there is an erchebysshoppe at Nichosie, and 4 othere byschoppes in that lond. And at Famagost is on of the princypalle havenes of the see, that is in the world: and there arryven Cristene men and Sarazynes and men of alle naciouns. In Cipre is the hille of the Holy Cros; and there is an abbeye of monkis blake; and there is the cros of Dismas the gode theef, as I have seyd before. And summe men trowen, that there is half the crosse of oure Lord: but it is not so: and thei don evylle, that make men to beleeve so. In Cipre lythe Seynt Zenomyne: of whom men of that contree maken gret solempnytee. And in the Castelle of Amours lythe the body of Seynt Hyllarie: and men kepen it right worschipfully. And besyde Famagost was Seynt Barnabee the apostle born. In Cipre men hunten with papyonns, that ben lyche lepardes: and thei taken wylde bestes righte welle, and thei ben somdelle [Footnote: Somewhat.] more than lyouns; and thei taken more scharpely the bestes and more delyverly [Footnote: Deliberately.] than don houndes. In Cipre is the manere of lordis and alle othere men, alle to eten on the erthe. For thei make dyches in the erthe alle aboute in the halle, depe to the knee, and thei do pave hem: and whan thei wil ete, thei gon there in and sytten there. And the skylle is, for thei may ben the more fressche: for that lond is meche more hottere than it is here. And at grete festes and for straungeres, thei setten formes and tables, as men don in this contree: but thei had lever sytten in the erthe. From Cypre, men gon to the lond of Jerusalem be the see: and in a day and in a nyghte, he that hathe gode wynd may come to the haven of Thire [Footnote: Tyre.], that now is clept Surrye. There was somtyme a gret cytee and a gode, of Crystene men: but Sarazins han destroyed it a gret partye; and thei kepe that havene right welle, for drede of Cristene men. Men myghte go more right to that havene, and come not in Cypre: but thei gon gladly to Cypre, to reste hem on the lond, or elles to bye thingis, that thei have nede to here lyvynge. On the see syde, men may fynde many rubyes. And there is the welle, of the whiche Holy Writt spekethe offe, and seythe, _Fons ortorum, et puteus aquarum viventium_: that is to seye, _The welle of gardyns, and the dyche of lyvynge watres._ In this cytee of Thire, seyde the woman to oure Lord, _Beatus venter qui te portavit, et ubera quæ succisti_: that is to seye, _Blessed be the body that she baar, and the pappes that thou sowkedest._ And there oure Lord forzaf the woman of Chananee hire synnes. And before Tyre was wont to be the ston, on the whiche oure Lord sat and prechede: and on that ston was founded the Chirche of Seynt Savyour. And 8 myle from Tyre, toward the est, upon the see, is the cytee of Sarphen, in Sarept [Footnote: Zarephath.] of Sydonyeus. And there was wont for to dwelle Helye the prophete; and there reysed he Jonas the wydwes sone from dethe to lyf. And 5 myle fro Sarphen is the cytee of Sydon: of the whiche cytee, Dydo was lady, that was Eneas wyf aftre the destruccioun of Troye; and that founded the cytee of Cartage in Affrick, and now is cleped Dydon Sayete. And in the cytee of Tyre regned Agenore the fadre of Dydo. And 16 myles from Sydon is Beruthe. [Footnote: Beyrout.] And from Beruthe to Sardenare is 3 journeys. And from Sardenar is 5 myle to Damask. And whoso wil go longe tyme on the see, and come nerrer to Jerusalem, he schal go fro Cipre, be see, to the port Jaff. [Footnote: Jaffa.] For that is the nexte havene to Jerusalem. For fro that havene is not but o day journeye and an half to Jerusalem. And the town is called Jaff; for on of the sones of Noe, that highte Japhet, founded it; and now it is clept Joppe. And zee schulle undrestonde, that it is on of the oldest townes of the world: for it was founded, before Noes flode. And zitt there schewethe in the roche ther, as the irene cheynes were festned, that Andromade, a gret geaunt was bounden with, and put in presoun before Noes flode: of the whiche geaunt is a rib of his syde, that is 40 fote longe. [Footnote: Our author here takes Andromeda for the monster that would have devoured her.] And whoso wil arryve at the firste port of Thire or Surre, that I have spoken of before, may go be londe, zif he wil, to Jerusalem. And men gothe fro Surre unto the citee of Dacoun [Footnote: St. Jean d'Acre.] in a day. And it was clept somtyme Tholomayde. And it was somtyme a cytee of Cristenemen, fulle fair; but it is now destroyed: and it stont upon the see. And fro Venyse to Akoun, be see, is 2080 myles of Lombardye. And fro Calabre or fro Cecyle to Akoun, be see, is 1300 myles of Lombardye. And the ile of Crete is right in the myd weye. And besyde the cytee of Akoun, toward the see, 120 furlonges on the right syde, toward the southe, is the hylle of Carmelyn, where Helyas the prophete dwellede: and there was first the ordre of Freres Carmes founded. This hille is not right gret, ne fulle highe. And at the fote of this hille was somtyme a gode cytee of Cristene men, that men cleped Cayphas: For Cayphas first founded it: but it is now alle wasted. And on the lift syde of the hille Carmelyn is a town, that men clepen Saffre: and that is sett on another hille. There Seynt James and Seynt Johne were born: and in the worschipe of hem, there is a fair chirche. And fro Tholomayde, that men clepen now Akoun, unto a gret hille, that is clept Scalle of Thires, is 100 furlonges. And besyde the cytee of Akoun renneth a lytille ryvere, that is clept Belon. And there nyghe is the fosse of Mennon, that is alle round: and it is 100 cubytes of largenesse, and it is alle fulle of gravelle, schynynge brighte, of the whiche men maken fair verres [Footnote: Glass.] and clere. And men comen fro fer, by watre in schippes, and be londe with cartes, for to fetten of that gravelle. And thoughe there be nevere so moche taken awey there of, on the day, at Morwe it is as fulle azen as evere it was. And that is a gret mervaille. And there is evermore gret wynd in that fosse, that sterethe everemore the gravelle, and makethe it trouble. And zif ony man do thereinne ony maner metalle, it turnethe anon to glasse. And the glasse, that is made of that grevelle, zif it be don azen in to the gravelle, it turnethe anon in to gravelle as it was first. And therefore somme men seyn, that it was a sweloghe [Footnote: Whirlpool.] of the gravely see. Also for Akoun aboveseyd gon men forthe 4 journees to the citee of Palestyn, that was of the Philistyenes, that now is clept Gaza, that is a gay cytee and a riche; and it is righte fayr, and fulle of folke, and it is a lytillle fro the see. And from this cytee broughte Sampson the stronge the zates upon an highe lond, whan he was taken in that cytee: and there he slowghe in a paleys the king and hymself, and gret nombre of the beste of the Philistienes, the whiche had put out his eyen, and schaven his hed, and enprisound him, be tresoun of Dalida his paramour. And therefore he made falle upon hem a gret halle, whan thei were at mete. And from thens gon men to the cytee of Cesaire, and so to the Castelle of pylgrymes, and so to Ascolonge, and than to Jaffe, and so to Jerusalem. Of manye Names of Soudans, and of the Tour of Babiloyn. [Sidenote: Cap. V.] And whoso wille go be londe thorghe the lond of Babyloyne, where the Sowdan dwellethe comonly, he moste gete grace of him and leve, to go more sikerly [Footnote: Surely.] thorghe tho londes and contrees. And for to go to the mount of Synay, before that men gon Jerusalem, thei schalle go fro Gaza to the castelle of Daire. And after that, men comen out of Surrye, and entren in to wyldernesse, and there the weye is sondy. And that wyldernesse and desert lastethe 8 journeyes. But alleweyes men fynden gode innes, and alle that hem nedethe of vytaylle; And men clepen that wyldernesse Achelleke. And whan a man comethe out of that desert, he entrethe in to Egypt, that men clepen Egypt Canopac: and aftre other langage, men clepen it Morsyn. And there first men fynden a gode toun, that is clept Belethe; and it is at the ende of the kyngdom of Halappee. And from thens men gon to Babyloyne and to Cayre. At Babyloyne there is a faire chirche of oure lady, where sche dwelled 7 zeer, whan sche fleyghe out of the lond of Judee, for drede of Kyng Heroude. And there lythe the body of Seynt Barbre the Virgine and Martyr. And there duelled Josephe whan he was sold of his bretheren. And there made Nabugodonozor the kyng putte three children in to the forneys of fuyr; for thei weren in the righte trouthe of beleeve: the whiche children men cleped, Ananya, Azaria, Mizælle; as the Psalm of Benedicite seythe. But Nabugodbnozor cleped hem other wise, Sydrak, Misak, and Abdenago: that is to seye, God glorious, God victorious, and God over alle thinges and remes. [Footnote: Realms.] And that was for the myracle, that he soughe Goddes sone go with the children thorghe the fuyr, as he seyde. There duellethe the Soudan in his Calahelyke, (for there is comounly his see) in a fayr castelle strong and gret and wel sett upon a roche. In that castelle duellen alle wey, to kepe it and to serve the Sowdan, mo than 6000 persones, that taken alle here necessaries of the Sowdanes court. I oughte right wel to knowen it; for I duelled with him as Soudyour in his werres a gret while, azen the Bedoynes. And he wolde have maryed me fulle highely, to a gret princes daughtre, zif I wolde han forsaken my lawe and my beleve. But I thanke God, I had no wille to don it, for no thing, that he behighten [Footnote: Promised.] me. And zee schulle undrestonde, that the Soudan is lord of 5 kyngdomes, that he hathe conquered and apropred to him be strengthe: and theise ben the names, the kyngdom of Canapak, that is Egypt; and the kyngdom of Jerusalem, where that David and Salomon were kynges; and the kyngdom of Surrye, of the whiche the cytee of Damasc was chief; and the kyngdom of Alappe, [Footnote: Aleppo.] in the lond of Mathe, and the kyngdom of Arabye, that was to on of the 3 kynges, that made offrying to oure Lord, whan he was born. And many othere londes he holdethe in his hond. And there with alle he holdethe calyffes, that is a fulle gret thing in here langage: and it is als meche to seye as kyng. And there were wont to ben 5 Soudans: but now there is no mo but he of Egypt. And the firste Soudan was Zarocon, that was of Mede, (as was fadre to Sahaladyn) that toke the Califfe of Egypt and sloughe him, and was made Soudan be strengthe. Aftre that was Soudan Sahaladyn, in whoos tyme the Kyng of Englonde, Richarde the firste, with manye othere, kepten the passage, that Sahaladyn ne myghte not passen. Aftre Sahaladyn, regned his sone Boradyn; aftre him his nephewe. Aftre that the Comaynz, that weren in servage in Egypt, felten hem self, that thei weren of gret power, thei chesen hem a Soudain amonges hem: the whiche made him to ben cleped Melethesalan. And in his tyme entred in to the contree, of the kynges of France, Seynt Lowyz, and foughte with him: and the Soudan toke him and enprisound him. And this was slayn of his owne servauntes. And aftre thei chosen an other to be Soudan, that thei cleped Tympieman. And he let delyveren Seynt Lowys out of presoun, for certeyn ransoum. And aftre on theise Comaynz regned, that highte Cachas, and sloughe Tympieman, for to be Soudan: and made him ben cleped Melechemes. And aftre, another that hadde to name Bendochdare, that sloughe Melechemes, for to be Soudan; and cleped himself Melechdare. In his tyme entred the gode Kyng Edward of Englond in Syrye, and dide gret harm to the Sarrazines. And aftre was this Soudan empoysound at Damasce; and his sone thoghte to regne aftre him be heritage, and made him to ben clept Meleschsache. But another, that had to name Elphy, chaced him out of the contree, and made him Soudan. This man toke the cytee of Tripolee and destroyede manye of the Cristene men, the zeer of grace 1289; but he was anon slayn. Aftre that was the sone of Elphy chosen to ben Soldan, and cleped him Mellethasseraff: and he toke the citee of Akoun, and chaced out the Christene men: and this was also empoysond. And than was his brother y made Soudan, and was cleped Melechnasser. And aftre, on that was clept Guytoga, toke him and put him in prisoun, in the Castelle of Mountryvalle; and made him Soudan be strengthe, and cleped him Melechcadelle: and he was of Tartaryne. But the Comaynz chaced him out of the contree, and diden hym meche sorwe; and maden on of hem self Soudan, that hadde to name Lachyn. And he made him to ben clept Melechmanser: the whiche on a day pleyed at the chesse, and his swerd lay besyde him; and so befelle, that on wratthed [Footnote: Provoked.] him, and with his owne propre swerd he was slayn. And aftre that, thei weren at gret discord, for to make a Soudan. And finally thei accordeden to Melechnasser, that Guytoga had put in prisoun at Mountrivalle. And this regnede longe and governed wisely; so that his eldest sone was chosen aftre him, Melechemader; the whiche his brother leet sle prevyly, for to have the lordschipe, and made him to ben clept Melechmadabron. And he was Soudan, whan I departed fro the contrees. And wyte zee wel, that the Soudan may lede out of Egipt mo than 20000 men of armes. And out of Surrye, and out of Turkye, and out of other contrees, that he holt, he may arrere [Footnote: Raise.--Anglo-Saxon, _Aræran_.] mo than 50000. And alle tho ben at his wages: and thei ben alle weys at him, withouten the folke of his contree, that is withouten nombre. And everyche of hem hath be zere the mountance of 6 score floreynes. But it behovethe, that every of hem holde 3 hors and a cameylle. And be the cytees and be the townes ben amyralles, that han the governance of the peple. On hath to governe 4, and another hath to governe 5, another mo, and another wel mo. And als moche takethe the amyralle be him allone, as alle the other souldyours han undre hym. And therfore whan the Soudan wille avance ony worthi knyghte, he makethe him a amyralle. And whan it is ony derthe, the knyghtes ben right pore, and thanne thei sellen both here hors and here harneys. And the Soudan hath 4 wyfes, on Cristene and 3 Sarazines: of the whiche, on dwellethe at Jerusalem, and another at Damasce, and another at Ascalon. And whan hem lyst, thei remewen to other cytees. And whan the Soudan wille, he may go visite hem. And he hathe as many paramours, as hym lykethe. For he makethe to come before him, the fairest and the nobleste of birthe and the gentylleste damyseles of his contree, and he maketh hem to ben kept and served fulle honourabely, and whan he wole have on to lye withe him, he makethe hem alle to come before him; and he beholdethe in alle, whiche of hem is most to his plesance, and to hire anon he sendethe or castethe a ryng fro his fyngre: And thanne anon sche schalle ben bathed and richely atyred, and anoynted with delicat thinges of swete smelle, and than lad to the Soudanes chambre. And thus he dothe, als often as him list, when he wil have ony of hem. And before the Soudan comethe no strangier, but zif he be clothed in clothe of gold or of Tartarye or of Camaka, in the Sarazines guyse, and as the Sarazines usen. And it behovethe, that anon at the firste sight, that men see the Soudan, be it in wyndowe, or in what place elles, that men knele to him and kysse the erthe: for that is the manere to do reverence to the Soudanne, of hem that speken with him. And whan that messangeres of straunge contrees comen before him, the Meynee of the Soudan, whan the straungeres speken to hym, thei ben aboute the Souldan with swerdes drawen and gysarmez and axes, here armes lift up in highe with the wepenes, for to smyte upon hem, zif thei seye ony woord, that is displeasance to the Soudan. And also, no straungere comethe before him, but that he makethe him sum promys and graunt, of that the straungere asketh resonabely, beso it be not azenst his Lawe. And so don othere prynces bezonden. For thei seyn, that no man schalle come before no prynce, but that he be bettre, and schalle be more gladdere in departynge from his presence, thannie he was at the comynge before hym. And undirstonde zee, that that Babyloyne that I have spoken offe, where that the Soudan duellethe, is not that gret Babyloyne, where the dyversitee of langages was first made for vengeance, by the myracle of God, when the grete tour of Babel was begonnen to ben made; of the whiche the walles weren 64 furlonges of heighte; that is in the grete desertes of Arabye, upon the weye as men gon toward the kyngdom of Caldee. But it is fulle long, sithe that ony man durste neyhe to the tour; for it is alle deserte and fulle of dragouns and grete serpentes, and fulle of dyverse venymouse bestes alle abouten. That tour, with the cytee, was of 25 myle in cyrcuyt of the walles; as thei of the contree seyn, and as men may demen [Footnote: Judge.] by estymation, aftre that men tellen of the contree. And though it be clept the tour of Babiloyne, zit natheles there were ordeyned with inne many mansiouns and many gret duellynge places, in lengthe and brede: and that tour conteyned gret contree in circuyt: for the tour allone conteyned 10 myle sqware. That tour founded Kyng Nembrothe, that was kyng of that contree: and he was firste kyng of the world. And he leet make an ymage in the lyknesse of his fadre, and constreyned alle his subgettes for to worschipe it. And anon begonnen othere lordes to do the same. And so begonnen the ydoles and symulacres first. The town and the cytee weren fulle wel sett in a fair contree and a playn; that men clepen the contree of Samar: of the whiche the walles of the cytee werein 200 cubytes in heighte, and 50 cubytes in breadthe. And the ryvere of Euphrate ran thorghe out the cytee and aboute the tour also. But Cirus the Kyng of Perse toke from hem the ryvere, and destroyede all the cytee and the tour also. For he departed that ryvere in 360 smale ryveres: because that he had sworn, that he scholde putte the ryvere in suche poynt, that a woman myghte wel passe there, withouten castynge of of hire clothes; for als moche as he hadde lost many worthi men, that trowden to passen that ryvere by swymmynge. And from Babyloyne, where the Soudan dwellethe, to go right betwene the oryent and the Septemtryon, toward the grete Babyloyne, is 40 journeys to passen be desart. But it is not the grete Babiloyne, in the lond and in the powere of the seyd Soudan; but it is in the power and the lordschipe of Persye. But he holdethe it of the grete Cham, that is the gretteste Emperour and the most sovereyn lord of alle the partes bezonde: and he is lord of the iles of Cathay and of many othere iles, and of a gret partie of Inde. And his lond marchethe unto Prestre Johnes lond; and he holt so moche lond, that he knowethe not the ende. And he is more myghty and grettre lord withoute comparisoun, than is the Soudan. Of his ryalle estate and of his myghte, I schalle speke more plenerly when I schalle speke of the lond and of the contree of Ynde. Also the cytee of Methone [Footnote: Mecca.] where Machomet lythe, is of the grete desertes of Arabye. And there lithe the body of hym fulle honourabely in here temple, that the Sarazines clepen Muskethe. And it is fro Babyloyne the lesse, where the Soudan duellethe, onto Methon aboveseyd, in to a 32 journeyes. And wytethe wel, that the rewme of Arabye is a fulle gret contree: but there in is over moche dysert. And no man may dwelle there in that desert, for defaute of watre. For that lond is alle gravelly and fulle of sond. And it is drye and nothing fructuous; because that it hathe no moysture: and therefore is there so meche desart. And ziff it hadde ryveres and welles, and the lond also were, as it is in other parties, it scholde ben als fulle of peple and als fulle enhabyted with folk, as in other places. For there is fulle gret multitude of peple, where as the lond is enhabyted. Arabye durethe fro the endes of the reme of Caldee, unto the laste ende of Affryk, and marchethe to the lond of Ydumee, toward the ende of Botron. And in Caldee, the chief cytee is Baldak. [Footnote: Bagdad.] And of Affryk, the chief cytee is Cartage, that Dydo, that was Eneas wyf, founded. The whiche Eneas was of the cytee of Troye, and aftre was Kyng of Itaylle. Mesopotamye strecchethe also unto the Desertes of Arabye; and it is a gret contree. In this contree is the cytee of Araym, where Abrahames fadree duelled, and from whens Abraham departed, be commandement of the aungelle. And of that cytee was Effraym, that was a gret clerk and a gret doctour. And Theophylus was of that cytee also, that oure ladye savede from oure enemye. And Mesopotame durethe fro the ryvere of Eufrates, unto the ryvere of Tygris. For it is betwene tho 2 ryveres. And bezonde the ryvere of Tygre, is Caldee, that is a fulle gret kyngdom. In that Rewyme, at Baldac aboveseyd, was wont to duelle the Calyffeez, that was wont to ben bothe as Emperour and Pope of the Arabyenez; so that he was lord spirituelle and temporelle. And he was successour to Machomete, and of his generatioun; That cytee of Baldak was wont to ben cleped Sutis: [Footnote: Susa.] and Nabugodonozor founded it. And there duelled the holy prophete Daniel; and there he saughe vissiones of Hevene; and there he made the expositioun of dremes. And in old tyme, there were ['wene' in source text--KTH] wont to be 3 Calyffez; and thei dwelleden in the cytee of Baldak aboveseyd. And at Cayre besides Babyloyne duelled the Calyffee of Egypt. And at Marrok, upon the west see, duelte the Calyffee of Barbaryenes and of Affrycanes. And now is there non of the Calyffeez, ne noughte han ben, sithe the tyme of Sowdan Sahaladyn. For from that tyme hidre, the Sowdan clepethe him self Calyffee. And so han the Calyffeez y lost here name. Also wytethe wel, that Babylone the lesse, where the Soudan duellethe, and at the cytee of Cayr, that is nyghe besyde it, ben grete huge cytees manye and fayr; and that on sytt nyghe that other. Babyloyne sytt upon the ryvere of Gyson, somtyme clept Nyle, that comethe out of Paradys terrestre. That ryvere of Nyle, alle the zeer, whan the sonne entrethe in to the signe of Cancer, it begynnethe to wexe; and it wexethe alle weys, als longe as the sonne is in Cancro, and in the signe of Lyoune. And it wexethe in suche manere, that it is somtyme so gret, that it is 20 cubytes or more of depnesse; and thanne it doth gret harm to the godes, that ben upon the lond. For thanne may no man travaylle to ere [Footnote: Plough.] the londes, for the grete moystness: and therefore is there dere tyme in that contree. And also whan it waxethe lytylle, it is dere tyme in that contree: for defaute of moysture. And whan the sonne is in the signe of Virgo, thanne begynnethe the ryvere for to wane and to decrece lytyl and lytylle; so that whan the sonne is entred into the signe of Libra, thanne thei entren betwene theise ryveres. This ryvere comethe rennynge from Paradys terrestre, betwene the desertes of Ynde; and aftre it smytt unto londe, and rennethe longe tyme many grete contrees undre erthe: and aftre it gothe out undre an highe hille, that men clepen Alothe, that is betwene Ynde and Ethiope, the distance of five moneths journeyes fro the entree of Ethiope. And aftre it envyronnethe alle Ethiope and Morekane, and gothe alle along fro the Lond of Egipte; unto the cytee of Alisandre, to the ende of Egipte; and there it fallethe into the See. Aboute this ryvere, ben manye briddes and foules, as sikonyes, that thei clepen ibes. Egypt is a long contree; but it is streyt, that is to seye narow; for thei may not enlargen it toward the desert, for defaute of watre. And the contree is sett along upon the ryvere of Nyle; be als moche as that ryvere may serve be flodes or otherwise, that whanne it flowethe, it may spreden abrood thorghe the contree: so is the contree large of lengthe. For there it reyneth not but litylle in that contree: and for that cause, they have no watre, but zif it be of that flood of that ryvere. And for als moche as it ne reynethe not in that contree, but the eyr is alwey pure and cleer, therfore in that contree ben the gode astronomyeres; for thei fynde there no cloudes, to letten hem. Also the cytee of Cayre is righte gret, and more huge than that of Babyloyne the lesse: and it sytt aboven toward the desert of Syrye, a lytille above the ryvere aboveseyd. In Egipt there ben 2 parties; the Heghte, that is toward Ethiope; and the Lowenesse, that is towardes Arabye. In Egypt is the lond of Ramasses and the lond of Gessen. Egipt is a strong contree: for it hathe manye schrewede havenes, because of the grete Roches, that ben stronge and daungerouse to passe by. And at Egipt, toward the est, is the rede see, that durethe unto the cytee of Coston: and toward the west, is the contree of Lybye, that is a fulle drye lond, and litylle of fruyt: for it is over moche plentee of hete. And that lond is clept Fusthe. And toward the partie Meridionalle is Ethiope. And toward the Northe is the desart, that durethe unto Syrye: and so is the contree strong on alle sydes. And it is wel a 15 journeyes of lengthe, and more than two so moche of desert: and it is but two journeyes in largenesse. And between Egipt and Nubye, it hathe wel a 12 journees of desert. And men of Nubye ben Cristene: but thei ben blake as the Mowres, for grete hete of the sonne. In Egipt there ben 5 provynces; that on highte Sahythe, that other highte Demeseer, another Resithe, that is an ile in Nyle, another Alisandre, and another the lond of Damiete. That cytee was wont to be righte strong; but it was twyes wonnen of the Cristene men: and therfore after that the Sarazines beten down the walles. And with the walles and the tour thereof, the Sarazenes maden another cytee more fer from the see, and clepeden it the newe Damyete. So that now no man duellethe at the rathere toun of Damyete. And that cytee of Damyete is on of the havenes of Egypt: and at Alisandre is that other, that is a fulle strong cytee. But there is no watre to drynke, but zif it come be condyt from Nyle, that entrethe in to here cisternes. And who so stopped that watre from hem, thei myghte not endure there. In Egypt there ben but fewe forcelettes or castelles, be cause that the contree is so strong of him self. At the desertes of Egyptes was a worthi man, that was an holy heremyte; and there mette with hym a monstre, (that is to seyne, a monstre is a thing difformed azen kynde both of man or of best or of ony thing elles: and that is cleped a monstre). And this monstre, that mette with this holy heremyte, was as it hadde ben a man, that hadde 2 hornes trenchant on his forehede; and he hadde a body lyk a man, unto the nabele; and benethe he hadde the body lyche a goot. And the heremyte asked him, what he was. And the monstre answerde him, and seyde, he was a dedly creature, suche as God hadde formed, and duelled in tho desertes in purchasynge his Sustynance; and besoughte the heremyte, that he wolde preye God for him, the whiche that cam from Hevene for to saven alle mankynde, and was born of a Mayden, and suffred passioun and dethe, (as we well knowen) be whom we lyven and ben. And zit is the hede with the 2 hornes of that monstre at Alisandre for a Marveyle. In Egypt is the cytee of Elyople, [Footnote: Heliopolis.] that is to seyne, the cytee of the sonne. In that cytee there is a temple made round, aftre the schappe of the temple of Jerusalem. The prestes of that temple han alle here wrytinges, undre the date of the foul that is clept Fenix: and there is non but on in alle the world. And he comethe to brenne him self upon the awtere of the temple, at the ende of 5 hundred zeer: for so longe he lyvethe. And at the 500 zeers ende, the prestes arrayen here awtere honestly, and putten there upon spices and sulphur vif [Footnote: Live.] and other thinges, that wolen brenne lightly. And than the brid fenix comethe, and brennethe him self to ashes. And the first day next aftre, men fynden in the ashes a worm; and the secunde day next aftre, men fynden a brid quyk and perfyt; and the thridde day next aftre, he fleethe his wey. And so there is no mo briddes of that kynde in alle the world, but it allone. And treuly that is a gret myracle of God. And men may well lykne that bryd unto God; be cause that there nys no God but on; and also, that our Lord aroos fro dethe to lyve, the thridde day. This bryd men seen often tyme, fleen in tho contrees: and he is not mecheles more than an Egle. And he hathe a crest of fedres upon his hed more gret than the poocock hathe; and his nekke is zalowe, aftre colour of an orielle, [Footnote: Golden. From Latin, _Aurea_. Cf. Oriel College, Golden Hall.] that is a ston well schynynge; and his bek is coloured blew, as ynde; [Footnote: Indigo.] and his wenges ben of purple colour, and the Taylle is zelow and red, castynge his taylle azens in travers. And he is a fulle fair brid to loken upon, azenst the sonne: for he schynethe fully gloriously and nobely. Also in Egypt ben gardyns, than han trees and herbes, the whiche beren frutes 7 tymes in the zeer. And in that lond men fynden many fayre emeraudes and y nowe. And therefore thei ben there grettere cheep. Also whan it reynethe ones in the somer, in the lond of Egipt, thanne is alle the contree fulle of grete myrs. Also at Cayre, that I spak of before, sellen men comounly bothe men and wommen of other lawe, as we don here bestes in the markat. And there is a comoun hows in that cytee, that is alle fulle of smale furneys; and thidre bryngen wommen of the toun here eyren [Footnote: Eggs.] of hennes, of gees and of dokes, for to ben put in to tho furneyses. And thei that kepen that hows covern hem with hete of hors dong, with outen henne, goos or doke or ony other foul; and at the ende of 3 wekes or of a monethe, they comen azen and taken here chickenes and norissche hem and bryngen hem forthe: so that alle the contree is fulle of hem. And so men don there bothe wyntre and somer. Also in that contree, and in othere also, men fynden longe apples to selle, in hire cesoun: and men clepen hem apples of paradys; and thei ben righte swete and of gode savour. [Footnote: Melons.] And thoghe zee kutte hem in never so many gobettes or parties, overthwart or end longes, evermore zee schulle fynden in the myddes the figure of the Holy Cros of oure Lord Jesu. But thei will roten within 8 days: and for that cause men may not carye of the apples to no fer contrees. And thei han grete leves, of a fote and an half of lengthe: and thei ben covenably large. And men fynden there also the appulle tree of Adam, that han a byte at on of the sydes. And there ben also fyge trees, that baren no leves, but fyges upon the smale braunches; and men clepen hem figes of Pharoon. Also besyde Cayre, withouten that cytee, is the feld where bawme growethe: and it cometh out on smale trees, that ben non hyere than a mannes breek girdle: and thei semen as wode that is of the wylde vyne. And in that feld ben 7 welles, that oure Lord Jesu Crist made with on of his feet, whan he wente to pleyen with other children. That feld is not so well closed, but that men may entren at here owne list. But in that cesonne, that the bawme is growynge, men put there to gode kepynge, that no man dar ben hardy to entre. This bawme growethe in no place, but only there. And thoughe that men bryngen of the plauntes, for to planten in other contrees, thei growen wel and fayre, but thei bryngen forthe no fructuous thing: and the leves of bawme ne fallen noughte. And men kutten the braunches with a scharp flynston or with a scherp bon, [Footnote: Flintstone and bone.] whan men will go to kutte hem: For who so kutte hem with iren, it wolde destroye his vertue and his nature. And the Sarazines clepen the wode Enonch balse; and the fruyt, the whiche is as Quybybes, thei clepen Abebissam; and the lycour, that droppethe fro the braunches, thei clepen Guybalse. And men maken alle weys that bawme to ben tyled [Footnote: Tilled.] of the Cristenemen, or elles it wolde not fructifye; as the Sarazines seyn hem self: for it hathe ben often tyme preved. Men seyn also, that the bawme growethe in Ynde the more, in that desert where the trees of the sonne and of the mone spak to Alisaundre. But I have not seen it. For I have not ben so fer aboven upward: because that there ben to many perilouse passages. And wyte zee wel, that a man oughte to take gode kepe for to bye bawme, but zif he cone knowe it righte wel: for he may righte lyghtely be discoyved. For men sellen a gome, that men clepen turbentyne, in stede of bawme; and thei putten there to a littille bawme for to zeven gode odour. And some putten wax in oyle of the wode of the fruyt of bawme, and seyn that it is bawme: and sume destyllen clowes of gylofre and of spykenard of Spayne and of othere spices, that ben well smellynge; and the lykour that gothe out there of, thei clepe it bawme: and thei wenen, that thei han bawme; and thei have non. For the Sarazines counterfeten it be sotyltee of craft, for to disceyven the Cristene men, as I have sene fulle many a tyme. And after hem, the marchauntis and the apotecaries countrefeten it eftsones, and that it is lasse worthe, and a gret del worse. But zif it lyke zou, I schalle schewe, how zee schulle knowe and preve, to the ende that zee schulle not ben disceyved. First zee schulle wel knowe, that the naturelle bawme is fulle cleer, and of cytrine colour, and stronge smellynge; and zif it be thykke, or reed or blak, it is sophisticate, that is to seyne, contrefeted and made lyke it, for disceyt. And undrestondethe, that zif zee wil putte a litylle bawme in the pawme of zoure hond, azen the sonne, zif it be fyn and gode, zee ne schulle not suffre zoure hand azenst the hete of the sonne. Also takethe a lytille bawme, with the poynt of a knif, and touche it to the fuyr, and zif it brenne, it is a gode signe. Aftre take also a drope of bawme, and put it in to a dissche or in a cuppe with mylk of a goat; and zif it be naturelle bawme, anon it wole take and beclippe the mylk. Or put a drope of bawme in clere watre, in a cuppe of sylver or in a clere bacyn, and stere it wel with the clere watre; and zif that the bawme be fyn and of his owne kynde, the watre schalle nevre trouble: and zif the bawme be sophisticate, that is to seyne countrefeted, the watre schalle become anon trouble: And also zif the bawme be fyn, it schalle falle to the botome of the vesselle, as thoughe it were Quyksylver: For the fyn bawme is more hevy twyes, than is the bawme that is sophisticate and countrefeted. Now I have spoken of Bawme: and now also I schalle speke of an other thing, that is bezonde Babyloyne, above the flode of Nyle, toward the desert, betwene Affrik and Egypt: that is to seyn, of the gerneres [Footnote: Granaries.] of Joseph, that he leet make, for to kepe the greynes for the perile of the dere zeres. And thei ben made of ston, fulle wel made of massones craft: of the whiche two ben merveylouse grete and hye; and the tothere ne ben not so grete. And every gerner hathe a zate, for to entre with inne, a lytille hyghe fro the erthe. For the lond is wasted and fallen, sithe the gerneres were made. And with inne thei ben alle fulle of serpentes. And aboven the gerneres with outen ben many scriptures of dyverse langages. And sum men seyn, that thei ben sepultures of grete lordes, that weren somtyme; but that is not trewe: for alle the comoun rymour and speche is of alle the peple there, bothe and nere, that thei ben the garneres of Joseph. And so fynden thei in here scriptures and in here cronycles. On that other partie, zif thei were sepultures, thei scholden not ben voyd with inne. For zee may well knowe, that tombes and sepultures ne ben not made of suche gretnesse, ne of such highnesse. Wherfore it is not to believe, that thei ben tombes or sepultures. In Egypt also there ben dyyerse langages and dyverse lettres, and of other manere condicioun, than there ben in other parties. As I schalle devyse zou, suche as thei ben, and the names how thei clepen hem; to suche entent, that zee mowe knowe the difference of hem and of othere. Athoimis, Bunchi, Chinok, Durain, Eni, Fin, Gomor, Heket, Janny, Karacta, Luzanim, Miche, Naryn, Oldache, Piloh, Quyn, Yron, Sichen, Thola, Urmron, Yph and Yarm, Thoit. Now will I retourne azen, or I procede ony ferthere, for to declare zou the othere weyes, that drawen toward Babiloyne, where the Soudan him self duellethe, that is at the entree of Egypt; for als moche as mony folk gon thidre first, and aftre that to the Mount Synay, and aftre retournen to Jerusalem, as I have seyd zou here beforn. For thei fulfillen first the more long pilgrymage, and aftre retournen azen be the nexte weyes; because that the more nye weye is the more worthi, and that is Jerusalem. For no other pylgrymage is not lyk, in comparsoun to it. But for to fulle fylle here pilgrymages more esily and more sykerly, men gon first the longer weye. But whoso wil go to Babyloyne be another weye, more schort from the contrees of the west, that I have reherced before; or from other contrees next fro hem; than men gon by Fraunce, be Burgoyne and be Lombardye. It nedethe not to telle zou the names of the cytees, ne of the townes that ben in that Weye: for the weye is comoun, and it is knowen of many naciouns. And there ben many havenes, that men taken the see. Sume men taken the see at Gene, some at Venyce, and passen by the see Adryatyk, that is clept the Goulf of Venyse; that departethe [Footnote: Separates.] Ytaylle and Greece on that syde. And some gon to Naples, some to Rome, and from Rome to Brandys, [Footnote: Brindisi.] and there thei taken the see: and in many othere places, where that havenes ben. And men gon be Tussye, be Champayne, be Calabre, be Appuille, and be the hilles of Ytaylle, Chorisqe, be Sardyne, and be Cycile, that is a gret ile and a gode. In that ile of Cycile there ys a maner of a gardyn, in the whiche ben many dyverse frutes. And the gardyn is alweys grene and florisshing, alle the cesouns of the zeer, als wel in wyntre es in somer. That yle holt in compas aboute 350 Frensche myles. And betwene Cycele and Itaylle there is not but a lytille arm of the see, that men clepen the farde of Mescyne. And Cycile is betwene the See Adryatyk and the See of Lombardye. And fro Cycyle in to Calabre is but 8 myles of Lombardye. And in Cycile there is a manere of serpentes, be the whiche men asseyen and preven, where here children ben bastardis or none, or of lawefulle mariage. For zif thei ben born in righte mariage, the serpentes gon aboute hem, and don hem non harm: and zif thei ben born in Avowtrie, the serpentes byten hem and envenyme hem. And thus manye wedded men preve, zif the children ben here owne. Also in that ile is the Mount Ethna, that men clepen Mount Gybelle; and the Vulcanes that ben evermore brennynge. And ther ben 7 places that brennen and that casten out dyverse flawmes and dyverse colour. And be the chaungynge of tho flawmes, men of that contree knowen, whanne it schalle be derthe or gode tyme, or cold or hoot, or moyst or drye, or in alle othere maneres, how the tyme schalle be governed. And from Itaille unto the Vulcanes nys bat 25 Myle. And men seyn, that the Vulcanes ben weyes of Helle. Also whoso gothe be Pyse, zif that men list to go that weye, there is an arm of the see, where that men gon to othere havenes in tho marches. And that men passen be the Ile of Greaf, that is at Gene: and aftre arryvethe men in Grece at the havene of the cytee of Myrok, or at the havene of Valone, or at the cytee of Duras: and there is a duk at Duras, or at othere havenes in tho marces: and so men gon to Costantynoble. And aftre gon men be watre to the Ile of Crete, and to the Ile of Rodes, ond so to Cypre, and so to Athens, and fro thens to Costantynoble. To holde the more righte weye be see, it is wel a 1880 myle of Lombardye. And aftre fro Cipre men gon be see, and leven Jerusalem and alle the contree on the left hond, onto Egypt, and arryven at the cytee of Damyete, that was wont to be fulle strong, and it sytt at the entree of Egypt. And fro Damyete gon men to the cytee of Alizandre, that sytt also upon the see. In that cytee was seynte Kateryne beheded. And there was seynt Mark the Evangelist martyred and buryed. But the Emperour Leoun made his bones to ben broughte to Venyse. And zit there is at Alizandre a faire chirche, alle white withouten peynture: and so ben alle the othere chirches, that weren of the Cristene men, alle white with inne. For the Panemes and the Sarrazynes madem hem white, for to fordon [Footnote: To destroy.-- Anglo-Saxon, _for-don_.] the ymages of seyntes, that weren peynted on the walles. That cytee of Alizandre is wel 30 furlonges in lengthe: but it is but 10 on largenesse. And it is a full noble cytee and a fayr. At that cytee entrethe the ryvere of Nyle in to the see; as I to zou have seyd before. In that ryvere men fynden many precyouse stones, and meche also of lignum aloes: and it is a manere of wode, that comethe out of Paradys terrestre, the whiche is good for manye dyverse medicynes: and it is righte dereworthe. And fro Alizandre men gon to Babyloyne, where the Soudan dwellethe; that sytt also upon the ryvere of Nyle. And this wey is most schort, for to go streyghte unto Babiloyne. Now schall I seye zou also the weye, that gothe fro Babiloyne to the Mount of Synay, where Seynte Kateryne lythe. He moste passe be the desertes of Arabye; be the whiche descries Moyses ladde the peple of Israel: and thanne passe men be the welle, that Moyses made with his hond in the desertes, whan the people grucched, [Footnote: Grumbled.] for thei fownden no thing to drynke. And than passe men be the welle of Marache, of the whiche the watre was first byttre: but the children of Israel putten there inne a tree; and anon the watre was swete and gode for to drynke. And thanne gon men be desart unto the Vale of Elyn; in the whiche vale be 12 welles: and there ben 72 trees of palme, that beren the dates, the whiche Moyses fond with the children of Israel. And fro that valeye is but a gode journeye to the Mount of Synay. And whoso wil go be another weye fro Babiloyne, than men gothe be the Rede See, that is an arm of the see occean. And there passed Moyses, with the children of Israel, overthwart the see, alle drye, whan Pharao the Kyng of Egypt chaced hem. And that see is wel a 6 myle of largenesse in bredthe. And in that see was Pharao drowned and alle his hoost, that he ladde. That see is not more reed than another see; but in some place thereof is the gravelle reede: and therfore men clepen it the Rede See. That see reunethe to the endes of Arabye and of Palestyne. That see lastethe more than 4 journeyes. And then gon men be desert unto the Vale of Elyn: and fro thens to the Mount of Synay. And zee may wel undirstonde, that be this desert, no man may go on hors back, be cause that there nys nouther mete for hors ne watre to drynke. And for that cause men passen that desert with camelle. For the camaylle fynt alle wey mete in trees and on busshes, that he fedethe him with. And he may well faste fro drynk 2 dayes or 3: and that may non hors don. And wyte wel, that from Babiloyne to the Mount Synay is wel a 12 gode journeyes: and some men maken hem more: and some men hasten hem and peynen hem; and therefore thei maken hem lesse. And alle weys fynden men latyneres [Footnote: Men who speak Latin.] to go with hem in the contrees, and ferthere bezonde, in to tyme that men conne [Footnote: Know.] the langage. And it behovethe men to here vitaille with hem, that schalle duren hem in tho desertes, and other necessaries for to lyve by. And the Mount of Synay is clept the Desert of Syne, that is for to seyne the bussche brennynge: because there Moyses sawghe oure Lord God many tymes, in forme of fuyr brennynge upon that hille; and also in a bussche brennynge; and spak to him. And that was at the foot of the hille. There is an abbeye of monks, wel bylded and wel closed with zates of iren, for drede of the wylde bestes. And the monkes ben Arrabyenes, or men of Greece: and there is a grot covent; and alle thei ben as heremytes; and thei drynken no wyn, but zif it be on principalle festes: and thei ben fulle devoute men, and lyven porely and sympely, with joutes [Footnote: The original note reads 'Gourds', but joutes are actually herbs--KTH.] and with dates: and thei don gret absteynence and penaunce. There is the Chirche of Seynt Kateryne, in the whiche ben manye lampes brennynge. For thei han of oyle of olyves y now, bothe for to brenne in here lampes, and to ete also: and that plentee have thei be the myracle of God. For the ravenes and the crowes and the choughes, and other foules of the contree assemblen hem there every zeer ones, and fleen thider as in pilgrymage: and eyeryche of hem bringethe a braunche of the bayes or of olyve, in here bekes, in stede of offryng, and leven hem there; of the whiche the monkes maken gret plentee of oyle; and this is a gret marvaylle. And sithe that foules, that han no kyndely wytt ne resoun, gon thidre to seche that gloriouse virgyne; wel more oughten men than to seche hire and to worschipen hire. Also behynde the awtier of that chirche is the place where Moyses saughe oure Lord God in a brennynge bussche. And whanne the monkes entren in to that place, thei don of bothe hosen and schoon or botes alweys; be cause that oure Lord seyde to Moyses, _Do of thin hosen and thi schon: for the place that thou stondest on is lond holy and blessed._ And the monkes clepen that place Bezeleel, that is to seyne, the schadew of God. And besyde the highe awtiere, 3 degrees of heighte, is the fertre [Footnote: Bier.] of alabastre, where the bones of Seynte Kateryne lyzn. And the prelate of the monkes schewethe the relykes to the pilgrymes. And with an instrument of sylver, he frothethe the bones; [Footnote: Rubbeth.] and thanne ther gothe out a lytylle oyle, as thoughe it were a maner swetynge, that is nouther lyche to oyle ne to bawme; but it is fulle swete of smelle: And of that thei zeven a litylle to the pilgrymes; for there gothe out but litylle quantitee of the likour. And aftre that thei schewen the heed of Seynte Kateryne, and the clothe that sche was wrapped inne, that is zit alle blody. And in that same clothe so y wrapped, the aungeles beren hire body to the Mount Synay, and there thei buryed hire with it. And thanne thei schewen the bussche, that brenned and wasted nought, in the whiche oure Lord spak to Moyses, and othere relikes y nowe. Also whan the prelate of the abbeye is ded, I have undirstonden, be informacioun, that his lampe quenchethe. And whan thei chesen another prelate, zif he be a gode man and worthi to be prelate, his lampe schal lighte, with the grace of God, withouten touchinge of ony man. For everyche of hem hathe a lampe be him self. And be here lampes thei knowen wel whan ony of hem schalle dye. For whan ony schalle dye, the lyghte begynnethe to chaunge and to wexe dym. And zif he be chosen to ben prelate, and is not worthi, his lampe quenchethe anon. And other men han told me, that he that syngethe the masse for the prelate that is ded, he schalle fynde upon the awtier the name writen of him that schalle be prelate chosen. And so upon a day I asked of the monkes, bothe on and other, how this befelle. But thei wolde not telle me no thing, in to the tyme that I seyde, that thei scholde not hyde the grace, that God did hem; but that thei scholde publissche it, to make the peple to have the more devocioun; and that thei diden synne, to hide Goddis myracle, as me seemed. For the myracles, that God hathe don, and zit dothe every day, ben the wytnesse of his myghte and of his merveylles; as Dayid sethe in the Psaultere; _Mirabilia testimonia tua, Domine_: that is to seyn, _Lord, thi merveyles ben thi wytnesse_. And thanne thei tolde me, bothe on and other, how it befelle fulle many a tyme: but more I myghte not have of hem. In that abbeye ne entrethe not no flye ne todes ne ewtes, ne suche foule venymouse bestes, ne lyzs ne flees, be the myracle of God and of oure lady. For there were wont to ben many suche manere of filthes, that the monkes werein in wille to leve the place and the Abbeye, and weren gon fro thens, upon the mountayne aboven, for to eschewe that place. And oure lady cam to hem, and bad hem tournen azen: and fro this forewardes nevere entred suche filthe in that place amonges hem, ne nevere schalle entre here aftre. Also before the zate is the welle, where Moyses smot the ston, of the whiche the watre cam out plenteously. Fro that abbeye men gon up the mountayne of Moyses, be many degrees: and there men fynden first a Chirche of oure Lady, where that sche mette the monkes, whan thei fledden awey for the vermyn aboveseyd. And more highe upon that mountayne is the chapelle of Helye the prophete. And that place thei clepen Oreb, where of Holy Writt spekethe. _Et ambulavit in fortisudine cibi illius usque ad Montem Oreb_: that is to seyne, _And he wente in strength of that mete, unto the hille of God, Oreb_. And there nyghe is the vyne that Seynt John the Evaungeliste planted, that men elepen reisins, _staphis_. And a lytille aboven is the Chapelle of Moyses, and the roche where Moyses fleghe to, for drede, when he saughe oure Lord face to face. And in that roche is prented the forme of his body; for he smot so strongly and so harde him self in that roche, that alle his body was dolven with inne, thorghe the myracle of God. And there besyde is the place where oure Lorde toke to Moyses the 10 commandementes of the lawe. And there is the cave undre the roche, where Moyses duelte, whan he fasted 40 dayes and 40 nyghtes. And from that mountayne men passen a gret valeye, for to gon to another mountayne, where Seynt Kateryne was buryed of the aungeles of oure Lord. And in that valey is a chirche of 40 martyres; and there singen the monkes of the abbeye often tyme. And that valey is right cold. And aftre men gon up the mountayne of Seynt Kateryne, that is more highe then the mount of Moyses. And there, where Seynt Kateryne was buryed, is nouther chirche ne chapelle, ne other duellynge place: but there is an heep of stones aboute the place, where the body of hire was put of the aungeles. There was wont to ben a chapelle: but it was casten downe, and zit lyggen the stones there. And alle be it that the collect of Seynte Kateryne seye, that it is the place where oure Lord betaughten the Ten Comandementes to Moyses, and there where the blessed virgyne Seynte Kateryne was buryed; that is to undrestonde, in o contree, or in o place berynge o name. For bothe that on and that othre is clept the Mount of Synay. But there is a grete weye from that on to that othre, and a gret deep valeye betwene hem. Of the desert bet wen e the chirche of Seynte Kateryne and Jerusalem. Of the drie Tre; and how roses cam first in the world. [Sidenote: Cap. VI.] Now aftre that men had visited tho holy places, thanne will thei turnen toward Jerusalem. And than wil thei take leve of the monkes, and recommenden hem to here preyeres. And than thei zeven the pilgrimes of here vitaylle, for to passe with the desertes, toward Surrye. And tho desertes duren wel it 13 journeyes. In that desert duellyn manye of Arrabyenes, that men clepen Bedoynes and Ascopardes. And thei ben folke fulle of alle evylle condiciouns. And thei have none houses, but tentes; that thei maken of skynnes of bestes, as of camaylles and of othere bestes, that thei eten; and there benethe thei couchen hem and duellen, in place, where thei may fynden watre, as on the Rede See or elles where For in that desert is fulle gret defaute of watre: and often time it fallethe, that where men fynden watre at o tyme in a place, it faylethe another tyme. And for that skylle, thei make none habitaciouns there. Theise folk, that I speke of, thei tylen not the lond, ne thei laboure noughte; for thei eten no bred, but zif it be ony that dwellen nyghe a gode toun, that gon thidre and eten bred som tyme. And thei rosten here flesche and here fische upon the hote stones azenst the sonne. And thei ben stronge men and wel fyghtynge. And there is so meche multytude of that folk, that thei ben withouten nombre. And thei ne recchen of no thing, ne don not, but chacen afere bestes, to eten hem. And thei recchen no thing of here lif: and therefore thei dowten not the Sowdan, ne non othre prince; but thei dar wel werre with hem, zif thei don ony thing that is grevance to hem. And thei han often tyme werre with the Soudan; and namely, that tyme that I was with him. And thei beren but o scheld and o spere, with outen other armes. And thei wrappen here hedes and here necke with a gret quantytee of white lynnen clothe. And thei ben righte felonouse and foule, and of cursed kynde. And whan men passen this desert, in comynge toward Jerusalem, thei comen to Bersabee, that was wont to ben a fulle fair town and a delytable of Cristene men: and zit there ben summe of here chirches. In that town dwelled Abraham the patriark, a long tyme. In that toun of Bersabee, founded Bersabee the wife of Sire Urye, the knyghte; on the whiche Kyng David gatt Salomon the wyse, that was king aftre David, upon the 12 kynredes of Jerusalem, and regned 40 zeer. And fro thens gon men to the cytee of Ebron, that is the montance [Footnote: Amount.] of a gode myle. And it was clept somtyme the Vale of Mambree, and sumtyme it was clept the Vale of Teres, because that Adam wepte there, an 100 zeer, for the dethe of Abelle his sone, that Cayn slowghe. Ebron was wont to ben the princypalle cytee of Philistyenes; and there duelleden somtyme the geauntz. And that cytee was also Sacerdotalle, that is to seyne, seyntuarie, of the tribe of Juda: and it was so fre, that men resceyved there alle manere of fugityfes of other places, for here evyl dedis. In Ebron, Josue, Calephe, and here companye comen first to aspyen, how thei myghte wynnen the lond of Beheste. In Ebron regned first Kyng David, 7 zeer and an half: and in Jerusalem he regnede 33 zeer and an half. And in Ebron ben alle the sepultures of the patriarkes, Adam, Abraham, Ysaac, and of Jacob; and of here wyfes, Eve, Sarre, and Rebekke, and of Lya: the whiche sepultures the Sarazines kepen fulle curyously, and han the place in gret reverence, for the holy fadres, the patriarkes, that lyzen there. And thei suffre no Cristene man entre in to that place, but zif it be of specyalle grace of the Soudan. For thei holden Cristen men and Jewes as dogges. And thei seyn, that thei scholde not entre in to so holy place. And men clepen that place, where thei lyzn, double spelunke, or double cave or double dyche; for als meche as that on lyethe above that other. And the Sarazines clepen that place in here langage Karicarba; that is to seyn, the place of patriarkes. And the Jewes clepen that place Arbothe. And in that same place was Abrahames hous: and there he satt and he saughe 3 persones, and worschipte but on; as Holy Writt seyethe, _Tres vidit et unum adoravit_: that is to seyne, _He soughe 3, and worschiped on_: and of tho same resceyved Abraham the aungeles in to his hous. And righte faste by that place is a cave in the roche, where Adam and Eve duelleden, whan thei weren putt out of Paradyse; and there goten thei here children. And in thai same place, was Adam formed and made; aftre that that sum men seyn. For men werein wont for to clepe that place, the feld of Damasce; because that it was in the lordschipe of Damask. And fro thens was he translated in to paradys of delytes, as thei seyn: and aftre that he was dryven out of Paradys, he was there left. And the same day that he was putt in Paradys, the same day he was putt autt: for anon he synned. There begynnethe the Vale of Ebron, that durethe nyghe to Jerusalem. There the Aungelle commaunded Adam, that he scholde duelle with his wyf Eve: of the whiche he gatt Sethe; of whiche tribe, that is to seyn, kynrede, Jesu Crist was born. In that valeye is a feld, where men drawen out of the erthe a thing, that men clepen cambylle: and thei ete it in stede of spice, and thei bere it to selle. And men may not make the hole ne the cave, where it is taken out of the erthe, so depe ne so wyde, but that it is, at the zeres ende, fulle azen up to the sydes, thorgh the grace of God. And 2 myle from Ebron is the grave of Lothe, that was Abrahames brother. And a lytille fro Ebron is the Mount of Mambre, of the whiche the yaleye takethe his name. And there is a tree of oke, that the Sarazines clepen dirpe, that is of Abrahames tyme, the whiche men clepen the drye tree. And thei seye, that it hathe ben there sithe the beginnynge of the world; and was sumtyme grene, and bare leves, unto the tyme that oure Lord dyede on the cros; and thanne it dryede; and so dyden alle trees, that weren thanne in the World. And summe seyn, be here prophecyes, that a Lord, a prynce of the west syde of the world shalle wynnen the lond of promyssioun, that is the Holy Lond, withe helpe of Cristene men; and he schalle do synge a masse undir that drye tree, and than the tree schalle wexen grene and bere bothe fruyt and leves. And thorghe that myracle manye Sarazines and Jewes schulle be turned to Cristene feythe. And therfore thei don gret worschipe thereto, and kepen it fulle besyly; And alle be it so, that it be drye, natheles zit he berethe gret vertue: for certeynly he that hathe a litille there of upon him, it helethe him of the fallynge evylle: and his hors schalle not ben a foundred: and manye othere vertues it hathe: where fore men holden it fulle precyous. From Ebron, men gon to Bethelem, in half a day: for it is but 5 myle; and it is fulle fayre weye, be pleynes and wodes fulle deletable. CAPVT. 13. De ciuitate Bethleem, et semita vsque in Ierusalem. Bethleem Ciuitas longa sed parua, firmata est vndique fossatis fortibus: cuius modò habitatores quasi omnos sunt Christiani. In illa ad orientem honesta, et placida habetur Ecclesia: (nescio an aliquam eiusdem quantitatis viderim placentiorem,) extrinsecus habens turres saltaturas, pinnacula, et propugnacula nobili artificio fabricata, et intrinsecus 44. de marmore decoro columnas. Ad principalis autem turris dextram in descensu 16. graduum, est diuersorij locus, vbi ex intacta et benedicta Virgine nascebatur Christus homo Deus. Hic locus est multùm artificiosè operatus marmore, et generosè depictus auro et argento, variòque colore, cui propè ad tres passus est præsepe in quo reclinabatur natus Dominus, ibíque videtur puteus quidam, in quo aliqui putare volunt cecidisse stellam ductricem trium Magorum, post eius peractum officium. Est etiam ante præsepe Domini, tumba beati Interpretis Hieronymi, et extra Ecclesiam monstratur cathedra, in qua residere solebat. Sub clausura huius ecclesiæ ad dextram, per 18. gradus apparet fossa, quæ dicitur ossium innocentium causa Christi ab Herode impio occisorum. Hinc ad quingentos, vel cítra pedes habetur alia Ecclesia nomine Sancti Nicholai, in quo scilicet loco, post recessum Magorum beata Virgo tempus sui puerperij obseruauit. [Sidenote: Taxat simplicitatem vulgi.] Ibíque monstrantur rubra saxa albis respersa maculis, quòd simpliciores narrant saxis euenisse de abundantia lactis virginis ab vberibus eiecti. In via Bethleem ab Helya miliario contra meridianam plagam iuxta viam quæ ducit Ebron, Christiani de Bethleem colunt circa ciuitatem multam copiam vinearum, ad potum sub ipsorum. [Sidenote: Saraceni non bibunt vinum in manifesto.] Nam Sarraceni non colunt vineas, nec vina vendunt neque in manifesto bibunt, eò quòd liber legis Mahomet, facit super hoc prohibitionem, et interpretatur maledictionem. [Sidenote: Sanctæ Charitatis.] De Bethleem in Austrum duabus leucis habetur claustrum Sanctæ Charitatis, ibidem suo tempore Abbatissæ. A Bethleem tendendo Ierusalem inuenitur ad dimidiam leucam Ecclesia, in cuius loco Angelus dixit pastoribus, Annuncio vobis gaudium magnum, quod natus est nobis Saluatur qui est Christus Dominus. Est et tumba Rachel Patriarchæ, vbi etiam coaceruata iacent 12. saxa magna, quæ quidam autumant illic tumulasse Iacob, eò quòd Beniamin duodecimus sibi filius nascebatur ibidem. Sícque venitur in Sanctam Ciuitatem Ierusalem. [Sidenote: Bethel] Notandum, Bethel vicus est 12. ab Helya ad dextram euntibus Neapoli, quæ primùm Luza vocabatur. Sed ex eo tempore quo ibat ad Ieroboam, filium Nebat, vituli aurei fabricati sunt, et à decem tribubus adorata, vocata est Bethauen, id est, Domus Idoli, quæ antè vocabatur Domus Dei. Ieronymus. Sed et Ecclesia ædificata est vbi dormiuit Iacob, pergens Mesopotamiam, vbi et ipsi loco Bethel, id est, domus Dei nomen imposuit. CAPVT. 14. De Ecclesia gloriosi Sepulchri Domini in vrbe Ierusalem. Ierusalem cum tota terra prommissionis, est quasi vna de quinque prouincijs vel pluribus, quibus Regnum Syriæ distinguitur. Iungitur autem Iudeæ ad Orientem Regno Arabiæ, ad meridiem Aegypto, ad Occidentem mari mago, et ad Aquilonem Rego Syriæ. Iudeæ terra per diuersa tempora à diuersis possessa fuit nationibus, Cananæorum, Iudæorum, Assyriorum, Persarum, Medorum, Macedonum, Græcorum, Romanorum, Christianorum, Sarracenorum, Barbarorum, Turcorum, and Tartarurum. Cuius rei causa meritò potest æstimari, quod non sustinuit Deus magnos peccatores longo tempore permanere in terra sibi tam placita, et tam sancta. [Sidenote: Templum Sepulchri.] Itaque perigrinus veniens in Ierusalem primo expleat suam peregrinationem, ad reuerendum et sacrosanctum Domini nostri Iesu Christi sepulchrum: cuius Ecclesia est in vltima ciuitatis extremitate, ad partem aquilonarem, cum proprio sui ambitus muro ipsi ciuitati adiuncto. Ipsa verò Ecclesia est pulchra et rotundæ formæ cooperta desuper cum tegulis plumbeis, habens in Occidente turrim altam et firmam, in pauimenti Ecclesiæ medio ad figuram dimidij compassi habetur nobili opere Latonico ædificatum paruum Tabernaculum quasi 15. pedum tam longitudinis quàm latitudinis, et altitudinis miro artificio intus extràque compositum, ac multùm diligenter diuersis coloribus ornatum. Hoc itaque in Tabernaculo seu Capella, ad latus dextrum, continetur incomparabilis thesaurus gloriosissimi sepulchri, habentis octo pedes longitudinis, et quinque latitudinis. Et quoniam in toto habitaculo nulla est apertura præter paruum ostium, illustratur accedentibus peregrinis pluribus lampadibus, (quarum ad minus vna coram sepulchro iugiter ardere solet) ingressus. [Sidenote: Melech Mandybron Soldanus.] Sciendum, quòd ante breue tempus solebat sepulchrum esse ingressis peregrinis accessibile, ad tangendum et osculandum, sed quia multi vel effringebant, vel conabantur sibi effringere aliquid de petra sepulchri, iste Soldanus Melech Mahdybron fecit illud confabricari, vt nec osculari valeat, nec adiri, sed tantummodo intueri, Et ob illam causam in sinistro pariete in altitudine quinque pedum immurari effracturam petræ sepulchri ad quantitatem capitis humani, quod tanquam pro sepulchro ibi ab omnibus veneratur, tangitur, et osculatur. Dicitur ibi quoque communiter præfatam lampadem coram sepulchro singulis annis in die Sanctæ Parascheues, hora nona extingui, et in media nocte Paschæ sine humano studio reaccendi. [Sidenote: Mandeuillus de hoc dubitat.] Quod (si ita est) euidens diuini beneficii miraculum est. Et quamis id plurimi Christiani simpliciter in magno pietatis merito credant, plerísque tamen est in suspicione. Fortè talia Sarraceni custodes sepulchre fingentes diuulgauerunt, pro augendo emolumenta tributi, quod inde resultaret, seu oblationum quæ dantur. Singulis autem annis in die coenæ Domini in Parascheue, et in vigilia Paschæ, tribus his diebus manet Tabernaculum hoc apertum continuè, et patet omnibus Christianis gentibus accessus, aliàs verò non per annum sine redditione tributi. Intra Ecclesiam, propè parietem dextrum, est Caluariæ locus, vbi crucifixus pependit Christus Dominus. [Sidenote: Tumba Godefridi de Bollion.] Per gradus ascenditur in hunc locum, et est rupis velut albi coloris, cum aliqua rubedine per loca commixta, habens scissuram, quam dicunt Golgotha, in qua maior pars preciosi sanguinis Christi dicitur influxisse: vbi et habetur altare constructum, ante quod consistunt tumbæ Godefridi de Bullion, et aliorum Regum Christianorum, qui circa annum incarnationis Domini, 1100. debellauerunt et obtinuerunt sanctam vrbem cum tota patria ex manibus Sarracenorum, et per hoc conquisierunt sibi magnum nomen, vsque in finem sæculi duraturum. [Sidenote: Psal. 74. 12.] Propè ipsius crucifixionís locum continetur literis. Græcis hoc scriptum: [Greek: ho theos basileus hæmon pro aionos eirgasato sotærian en mesoi tæs gæs]. hoc est dicere, Deus Rex noster ante secula operatus est salutem in medio terræ. Item directè in loco, vbi crux sancta stetit cum Christo rupi infixa, habetur hoc exaratum in saxo rupis: [Greek: ho horais esi basis tæs piseos ton kosmon], hoc est, quod vides fundamentum est fidei mundi. [Sidenote: Iterum taxit ignorantiam vulge. Regina Helena Anglia.] Haud remotè ab hoc Caluariæ monte, habetur et aliud altare, vbi iacet columna flagellationis Domini, cui stant de propinque et ali coælumnæ quatuor de Marmore aquam iugiter resundantes, et (secundum opinionem simplicium) passionem innocentem Christie deflentes. Est sub isto altari crypta, 42. granduum profunda, vbi sancta Helena Regina reperit tres cruces, videlicet Christi, et latronum cum eo crucifixorum, ac etiam clauos crucis Domini in cryptæ pariete. In medio autem chori huius Ecciesiæ, est locus pauimenti stratus mirè et pulchrè, ad integram compassi figuram vbi depositum corpus Christi de cruce Ioseph ab Aramathia cum suis adiutoribus lauit et condiuit aromatibus. Item infra Ecclesiam à septentrionali parte ostenditur locus, vbi Christus Magdalenæ apparuit post suam resurrectionem, quando eum credidit hortulanum. [Sidenote: Indorum Capella sive subditorum præsbiteri Ioannis.] A dextro autem latere ad ingressum Ecclesiæ, habentur gradus 18. sub quibus est Capella Indorum, vbi soli peregrini de India per sacerdotes suos cantant iuxta ritum suum Missas, celebràntque diuina. Missam faciunt quidem breuissimam, conficientes in principio verbis debitis sacramentum corporis et sanguinis Christi de pane et vino, ac posteà paucis orationibus additis, totum oratione Dominica concludunt officium. Hoc autem verum est, quod cum maxima attentione, reuerentia, humilitate et deuotione se gerunt et continent diuinis. [Sidenote: An Ierusalem sit in medio mundi.] Porrò illud, quod quidam peruulgauerunt, aut opinati sunt, Iudæam aut Ierusalem, vel Ecclesiam istam consistere in medio totius mundi, propter prædictam scripturam, (in medio terræ) hoc intelligi non potest localiter ad mensuram corporis terræ: Nam si ad terræ latitudinem, quam æstimant inter duos polos, respiciamus, certum est Iudæam non esse in medio, quod tunc esset sub circulo æquatoris, et esset ibi semper æquinoctium, et vtrumque polorum staret iis in horizonte. Quod vtique non est ita, quod existentibus in Iudæa eleuatur multùm polus arcticus. Rursus si ad terræ longitudinem spectemus, quæ æstimari potest à Paradiso terrestri, scilicet à digniori et latiori terræ loco, versus eius Nadir, scilicet versus locum sibi in Sphæra terræ oppositum, tunc Iudæa esset ad Antipodes paradisi, quod apparet ita non esse, quod tunc esset viatori de Iudæa ad Paradisum tendentis æqua itineris mensura, siue tenderet versus Orientem, siue versus Occidentem. Sed hoc non est verisimile nec verum, sicut probatum constat per experientiam multorum. Mihi autem videtur, quod præfata Prophetæ scriptura, potest exponi, in medio terræ, id est, circa medium nostri habitabilis, videlicet vt Iudæa sit circa medium inter Paradisum et Antipodes Paradisi, distans tantum ab ipso Paradiso in oriente 96. gradibus, prout ego ipse per viam orientalem tentaui; quanquam de hoc non videtur de facili plena certitudo haberi; eo quòd in longitudine coeli nullæ stellæ manent immobiles, sicut in latitudine manent poli sempèr fixi. Vel potest ita exponi, quòd Dauid qui erat Rex Iudæa, dixit in medio terræ, hoc est, in principali ciuitate terræ suæ Ierusalem, quæ erat ciuitas regalis, siue sacerdotalis terræ Iudeæ: vel fortè spiritus sanctus, qui loquebatur per os prophetæ in hoc verbo vult intelligi non corporeum aut locale, sed totum spirituale, de quo intuitu nihil ad præsens est scribendum, CAPVT. 15. De tribus alijs Ecclesijs, et specialiter de templo Domini. Vltrà duo stadia ab Ecclesia ad Meridiem sancti sepulchri habetur magnum hospitale sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani, qui caput et fundamentum esse dignoscitur ordinis hospitaliorum modò tententium Rhodum insulam: in quo recipi possunt omnes Christiani perigrini cuiuscunque sint conditionis, seu status, vel dignitatis. Nam Sarraceni pro leui cura anxij rumoris, prohibent ne apud quenquam suorum Christianus pernoctet. Ad sustentationem ædificij huius hospitalis, habentur in eo 124. columnæ marmoreæ, et in parietibus distincti 54. pilarij. Satis propè hunc locum in orientem, est Ecclesia quæ dicitur, de Domina nostra magna: et indè non remotè alia, quæ dicitur nostræ Dominæ latinorum, ædificata super locum, vbi Maria Magdalene, et Maria Cleophæ cum alijs pluribus, dum Christus cruci affigebatur, flebant et dolores lamentabiles exercebant. Item ab Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri in orientem ad stadium cum dimidio habetur ædificium mirabile, ac pulchrum valdè, quod templum Domini nominatur, quod constructum est in forma rotunda, cuius circumferentiæ diameter habet 64 cubitos, et altitudo eius 126, et intrinsecus pro sustentatione ædificij, multi pilarij. In medio autem templi est locus altior 14. gradibus, qui et ipse columnis vndíque est stipatus: et secundum quatuor mundi plagas habet templum quatuor introitus per portas Cypressinas artificiosè compositas, nobiliterque sculptas, et excisas. Et ante portam aquilonarem intra templum fontem aquæ mundæ, qui quamuis olim exundabat, tamen nunc minimè fluit. In toto circuitu ædificij extrinsecus est valdè pro atrio latum spacium loci, stratum per totum pauimentum marmoribus. Hoc templum non ducitur stare in eodem loco vbi templum Dei stetit in tempore Christi, quo post resurrectionem a Romanis destructo, istud longo post tempore Adrianus Imperator extruxit, sed non ad formam templi prioris: prædictum tamen excelsum in medio templi locum vocant Iudæi sanctum sanctorum. Sciatis itàque quòd Sarraceni magnam exhibent huic templo reuerentiam, et honorem sæpius illud discalceati intrantes, et positis genibus deuotè Deum omnipotentem exorantes, nulla enim ibidem habetur imago, sed multæ lampades relucentes. [Sidenote: Literæ Soldani traditæ Mandiuillo.] Neminem Christianorum seu Iudæorum ingredi sinun, templum, reputantes eos indignos ad hoc, et nimium immundos, vndè nisi virtute literarum quas habui a Soldano, nec ego fuissem ingressus. Ingrediens autem cum meis sodalibus deposuimus calciamenta, recogitantes cum multa cordis deuotione, nos magis id facere debere, quàm incredulos Sarrcenos. Et verè meritò est iste locus in magna reuerentia habendus: dum enim Rex Salomon primum in illo templo per Dei iussionem, et Dauidis patris sui commissionem ædificasset, exorauit præsente cuncto populo Israel, vt quicúnque illic Deum pro iusta causa rogaret audiretur; et Dominus monstrauit exauditionis signum per nebulam de coelo emissam, proùt narrat historia veritatis 3. Regum libro. Porrò in eo loco vbi statuerat idem Rex ante templum altare holocausti, videlicet extra portam templi occidentalem, habetur et nunc altare, sed non ad instar, nec ad vsum primi: Nam Saraceni, quasi nihil curantes, traxerunt in eo lineos tanquam in astrolabio figentes in linearum centro batellum, ad cuius vmbram per lineas discernuntur diei horae. Etiam in hac atrij parte apparent adhuc vestigia portæ speciosæ, vbi Petrus Apostolus, cum Euangelista Ioanne dixit contracto, In nomine Christi Iesu Nazareni surge, et statim consolidabantur illi plantæ. CAPVT. 16. De pluribus locis sacris iuxta vrbem. [Sidenote: Templarij à templo Salomonis dicti.] Viaturo ad dextram satis de propinquo habetur et alia Ecclesia, quæ nunc appellatur schola Salomonis: rursusque ad Meridiem est et aliud templum siue Ecclesia, quæ vocatur Templum Salomonis, quòd olim fuit caput, et fundamentum totius ordinis Templariorum. [Sidenote: Regina Helena Angla.] A claustro huius templi extrinsecus in Aquilonem habetur decora Ecclesia beatæ Annæ, in cuius loco creditur virgo Maria in eiusdem matris suæ vtero fuisse genita, et concepta, parentunque illius, scilicet, Ioachim et Annæ, tumba saxea monstratur in descensu Ecclesiæ, per 22. gradus, vbi et adhuc patris eius ossa putantur quiescere, sublato inde per reginam Helenam korpore sanctæ Annæ, et recondito (vt prædictum est) in Ecclesia Constantinopoli sanctæ Sophiæ. [Sidenote: Probatica piscina.] Est et intra hanc Ecclesiam probatica piscina, vbi quondam post motionem Angeli, omnes accedentes primi, a quocúnque languore sanabantur infirmi, quæ tamen nunc temporis ita neglecta iacet, et deformata, vt videtur immunda cistrina. Habetur et ante Ecclesiam arbor grandis, et antiqua, de qua nonnulli fabulantur, quod ad beatæ Mariæ natiuitatem principium accepit, et ortum. [Sidenote: Mons Sion.] Mons Sion est excelsior locus in vrbe ad cuius radicem, est castrum spectabile constructum per aliquem Soldanorum. In montis autem cacumine videntur multæ sepulturæ regum Indeæ, videlicet Dauid, Salomonis, et quorundam de successoribus suis. Ad introitum montis habetur capella, et in illa lapis monumenti quem Ioseph de Arimathea obuoluit ad ostium sepulchri est valde magnus, et est ibidem aliqua pars columnæ flagellationis, ac pars mensæ super quam Dominus vltimò cænauit cum Apostolis, et instituit noui Testamenti sacramentum sui venerandi corporis, et sanguinis. Sub hac capella ad aliquos gradus monstratur locus eiusdem cænationis, videlicèt cærnaculí magni, et in eo vas, aquarum, in quo Christus lauabat pedes Apostolorum: iuxta quod vas a Gamaliele, et alijs viris timoratis primus sepultus fuit protomartyr Stephanus. In eo quoque loco intrauit post resurrectionem suam Dominus ianuis clausis ad discipulos dicens pax vobis, et agens alia, quæ plenius Euangelica pandit Historia, ac tandem in die Pentecostes ijsdem spiritum sanctum in linguis igneis misit ibidem. Ab hoc monte Sion versus ciuitatem habetur Ecclesia dedicata sancto saluatori, in quo nunc dicuntur seruari ossa S. Stephani supradicti, et sinistrum brachium S. Ioannis Chrisostomi, cuius corpus vt dictum est requiescit Constantinopoli. Item ab hoc monte versus Austrum ab opposito plateæ, est pulchra Ecclesia nostræ Dominæ, in cuius loco diu morabatur post ascensionem filij sui, quamius pro parte eiusdem temporis in valle Iosaphat manserit: nam in ista defungebatur, et in illo ab Apostolis honorificè sepulta fuit. [Sidenote: Natatoria Siloe.] Itemque ab hoc monte in vico eundi versus vallem Iosaphat inuenitur fons aquæ dictus Natatoria Siloe, vbi cæcus natus à Christo missus lauabat oculos, et regressus est videns. Et dicunt quidam ibidem sepultrum Isaiam Prophetam. Porro mons olim dictus Moria de quo loquitur Scriptura sacra est rupis haud longè a supradicto templo Domini in ipsius meredie, in cuius rupis loco excelso velut emenenti sed edito Dominus noster Iesus Christus frequentèr instruebat suos discipulos, et populos, magnáque miracula exhibebat, atque deprehensae mulieri in adulterio omnia peccata dimittebat. [Sidenote: Iohan. 8.] Ab opposito autem prædicti fontis natatorij habetur imago lapidea, rudi et vetusto opere sculpta, deformitérque detrita, quae manus Absalon nuncupatur, cuius ratio lib. 2. Regum monstratur. Vbi de propè vidi Arborem Sambucum, ad quam vel citrà cuius locum (vt dicitur) Iudas traditor per se suspensus crepuit medius, et diffusa sunt viscera eius. Præterea à monte Sion versus Meridiem vltrà vallem ad iactum lapidis est locus Aceldema, in quo emptus ager 30. denarijs proditionis est, Et in quo sunt plures sepulturæ peregrinorom, et vestigia cellularum, de quondam illic commorantibus Heremitis. CAPVT. 17. De sacris locis extra muros Ciuitatis. [Sidenote: Vallis Iosaphat.] Extra muros ciuitatis Ierusalem ad plagam orientalem, est vallis Iosaphat contigua, ac si esset fossata muris ipsius ciuitatis, et Ecclesia vbi sanctus Stephanus lapidabatur, et obdormiuit in Domino. Hinc non longè est porta ciuitatis, quæ dicitur aurea, quæ nunc sempèr obfirmata seruatur. Per hanc intrauit Christus sedens asino, et adhuc ostenditur rupis seruare vestigia animalis in tribus aut pluribus sui locis. [Sidenote: Mons Oliuarum. Torrens Cedron.] Statim vltrà vallem Iosaphat aspicitur mons Oliueti, sic dictus à pluribus, quia ibi sunt oliuarum Arbores. In planicie huius vallis decurrit riuulus dictus torrens Cedron, secus quem habetur pulchra, et honorificata Ecclesia sacrosanctæ sepulturæ beatæ, et gloriosæ matris Christi: descenditur autem in Ecclesiam per gradus 44. quòd extrinsecus est vallis inculta per fluxum fortassè torrentis, seu per alios euentus proptèr Antiquitatem temporis. Ibique monstratur sepulchrum eius vacuum. Habentur iuxta sepulchrum duo altaria, sub vno est fons Aquæ quæ putatur exire de vno Paradisi flumine. Satis propè ab hac Ecclesia ad rupem Gethsemane habetur capella, vbi scilicet Iudæis traditus fuit Christus à Iuda. In ipsa quóque rupe ostendebatur mihi figura impressæ manus ad digitorum extensionem, quo artificiosius humanano studio sculpi non posset, quam referunt Christum sua venerabili manu inclinando ad rupem efficisse dum Iudæi impuras manus ad capiendum iniecerunt in eum. Hic ad iactum lapidis in meridie orauit ['oraiit' in source text--KTH] ad suum patrem, et pro vehementi orationis intentione sanguineum exudauit sudorem: atque ibi non remotè videtur tumba regis Iudeæ Iosaphat, á quo et vallis sibi nomen assumpsit: et credimus in hanc vallem Christum venturum ad nouissimum, et generalissimum iudicium, vbi (Iohele propheta testante) disceptabit de omni actione mortalium. [Sidenote: S. Iacobi sepultura.] Ad tractum sagittæ de hac tumba, est Ecclesia vbi sanctus Iacobus maior Apostolus primo post martyrium fuit sepultus, cuius modo sacrata ossa venerantur Compostellæ in Galizia. Vltra vallem in supremo montes Oliueti apice discipulus cernentibus, Dominus noster Iesus Christus eleuatis manibus ascendit in coelum, et super eundem locum digna habetur Ecclesia, in qua eiusdem Ascensione tale seruatur in rupe pauimenti indicium, quod sinistri pedis Christi videtur vltimum vestigium. Hinc satis propè habetur et capella medio montis, vbi Christus sedens prædicauit octo beatitudines, vbi et creditur docuisse discipulos orationem Dominicam, scilicet, Pater noster, &c. Ab eo quoque loco non distat multum Ecclesia beatæ Maaiæ Aegyptiacæ, in qua et eius tumba videtur: et haud procul inde est vicus Bethphage, vbi Christus misit ante passionis suæ tempus duos de discipulis pro asina et pullo eius. In cliuo vero huius montis Oliueti versus ciuitatem, monstratur locus, de quo videns Dominus Ierusalem, fleuit super illam, dicens, quod si cognouisses et tu, &c. [Sidenote: Bethania.] Atque vltrà montem in discensu eius in orientem est villa siue castellum Bethaniæ, distans quasi ad leucam ab vrbe vbi in domo cuiusdam Symonis inuitatu Christus condonauit omnia peccata Mariæ Magdalenæ. Et in ipso castello, quod erat sororis Marthæ, et Mariæ rescuscitauit fratrem earum Lazarum quatriduanum mortuum. [Sidenote: Ierico.] De Bethania in Ierico sunt 5. leucæ, quæ quondam fuit ciuitas speciosa sed iam est villa modica: ibi Diues Zacchæus ascendit in arborem Sycomorum, vt videret transeuntem Dominum, et restituens fraudata quadraplum, obtinuit peccatorum remissionem omnium. Item de Bethania ad flumen Iordanis est iter ferè octo leucarum, per montes, ac valles deuios, et desertos. [Sidenote: Christiani Georgici.] Porrò de Bethania in orientem ad 6 leucas venitur in montem magnum, vbi Christus expleto 40. dierum, ac noctium ieiunio temptatus est à diabolo, fuítque in eodem loco quandoque Ecclesia, sed modo habetur ibi quasi coenobium quorundam Christianorum, qui Georgici vocantur. Sciendum enim est, quod vbique intra terram Saracenorum, et similiter multorum Paganorum inueniuntur Christiani dispersi, habitantes sub tributo, qui licet sint baptizati omnes, et beatissimam Trinitatem credentes, diuersificantur tamen nominibus, moribus, ritibus, fide, et opinionibus: ita vt semper vel in multis vel in aliquibus dissentiant à Romanæ Ecclesiæ consuetudinibus. [Sidenote: Iacobitæ. Syrij. Georgica. Cordelarij. Indi. Nubij. Nestorini. Arriani.] Aliqui námque eorum dicuntur Christiani Iacobitæ: hij errant circa peccatorum remissionem, dicentes, non debere confiteri homini sed soli Deo. Alij Syrij, Isti in fermentato pane conficiunt Sacramentum altaris ritu Græcorum. Alij Indi, Nubij, Nestorini, et Arriani. Præfatus autem mons magnus, vocatur hortus Abrahæ, ex eo quod Abraham patriarcha ibi dicitur commoratus, et currit propè montem riuulus, in cuius aqua vel fonte Deus sal per Helizeum prophetam mitti iussit, vt sanaretur sterilitas, id est, amaritudo aquæ. Nec distat hic mons à Ierico vltra grandem leucam. CAPVT. 18. De notabilibus alijs locis, et mari mortuo. Rursum de ciuitate sanctæ Ierusalem versus Occidentem itinere leucæ, habetur pulchra satis Ecclesia, in loco vbi dicitur creuisse arbor crucis salutiferæ. Arbor excelsa, digno stipite sacra Christi membra tangere. [Sidenote: Nota.] Tenetur istud quidem pro certa veritate: nam et hoc satis testatur constructio tantæ, et talis Ecclesiæ, quamuis multa aliena, et incerta scripta de crucis arbore ferantur per orbem. Hinc ad duas leucas est et alia Ecclesia, vbi obuiauerunt sibi Maria virgo, et Elizabeth eius cognata, et ad saluationem Mariæ Christi baiulæ exultauit Iohannes in vtero Elisabeth grauidæ. [Sidenote: Emaus Castellum.] De isto quoque ad leucam est Emaus castellum, distans in spacio stadiorum 60. ab Ierusalem, vbi discipuli in coena die resurrectionis Domini cognouerant eum in fractione panis. [Sidenote: Cosdrus Imperator.] Porrò ab Ierusalem ad alium exitum, ad duo stadia videtur spelunca grandis de qua dicitur quod tempore Cosdri Imperatoris Persarum, fuerunt circa Ierusalem 12. mille martyrum occissi, quorum, omnium corpora leo habitans in spelunca congregauit ibidem voluntate diuina, tanquam pro singulorum sepultura obsequiosa. [Sidenote: Mons Exultationis.] Item ab vrbi ad leucas duas habetur in monte tumba sepulturæ sancti Samuelis prophetæ, qui mons nunc vocatur exultationis vel læticiæ, eò quod peregrinis ab illa parte intrantibus reddit primum sanctæ ciuitatis aspectum. Ab oppido autem Ierico in 30. stadiorum spacio venitur ad Iordauis fluuij locum, vbi beatus Iohannes Baptista Christum sacri baptismatis merebatur tingere lymphis. Et in cuius reuerendi mysterij venerationem habetur ad dimidiam leucam à fluuio ædificium honestæ Ecclesiæ consecratum in nomine eiusdem venerabilis baptistæ ministri. Ab hac Ecclesia de propè vidi domum de qua patiebar mihi narrari, quòd in eodem loco olim fuerit Ieremiæ sancti habitatio prophetæ. [Sidenote: Iordanis descriptio.] Notandum est. Iordanis fluuius quamuis grandis non sit, bonorum tamen piscium copiam nutrit, ortum accipiens sub monte Libanon ex duobus fontibus, scilicet Ior, et Dan, quæ nomina simul mixta nomen Iordanis efficiunt. Decurrit autem per quendam locum dictum Maron, ac secus stagnum quod diciter Mare Tyberiadis, ac subter montes Gylboe per amoenissima loca, atque in subterraneis meatibus per longum spacium se occultans tandem exit in planitie, quæ dicitur Meldam, id est, forum, quod certis temporibus ibi Nundinæ exercentur, et ad extremum se iactat in mare mortuum. [Sidenote: Mare mortuum.] Hoc stagnum quod vocatur mare mortuum habet longitudinis 600. ferè stadia, et latitudinis 150. et appropinquat aliqua pars huius maris ad quatuor leucas propè Ierico, videlicet ad latus camporum Engadi, ex quibus (vt supra dictum est) eradicatæ fuerunt abores Balsami, quæ modò sunt in agro Cayr Ægypti. [Sidenote: Nota.] Istud mare dicitur mortuum. [Sidenote: Cur mare mortuum dicatur.] Primo quidem quòd non viuidè currit, sed est quasi lacus. Secundò quod amara est eius aqua, et foetidum reddit odorem. Tertio quòd propter eius amaritudinem terra adiacens littori nil viride profert. Quartò (prout dicitur) si cadat in ea bestia, vel aliud quid viuens, vix poterit plenè mori siue submergi in octo diebus, nec nutrit in se pisces aut quid simile. Littora quoque sua variant quam sæpè colorem, et sine vlla agitatione ventorum eijcit in quibusdam locis se aqua, extra proprios terminos. Per huiusmodi aquam dicitur Deus pro indicibili vitio Pentapolim submersisse, Sodomam, Gomorram, Adamam, Seboim, et Segor. Quidam vocant hoc mare lacum Asphaltidis, alij fluuium Dæmonum, aut flumen Putre. Quod autem olim propheta interpretans dixit, montes Gilboe, nec ros nec pluuia veniat super vos, magis spiritualitèr quàm literalitèr videtur intelligendum. [Sidenote: Nota.] Nam ibi crescunt altissimi cedri, et arbores poma ferentes, ad capitis quantitatem humani, ex quibus valdè saporosus fit potus. Mare istud mortuum determinat fines terræ promissionis, et Arabiæ. Ideoque vltra ipsum mare condidit quondam, vnus successorum Godfridi de Bollion forte et spectabile castrum, ponens illic copiosam Christianorum militiam ad terram promissionis custodiendum. Nunc verò, temporis, est Soldani, et appellatur Caruth, id est mons Regalis. Sub hoc monte est villa dicta Sobal: habitat in illis partibus magna Christianorum multitudo. CAPVT. 19. De Nazareth, et Samaria. Nazareth in prouincia Galileæ in qua nutritus, et de qua cognominatus est Dominus vniuersorum, distans ab Hierosolymis ad tres circiter dietas, erat quondam ciuitas, quæ nunc est dispersa, et rara domorum, quod vix villæ sibi competit nomen: et in loco Annunciationis, vbi Angelus ad Mariam dixit, Aue gratia plena, Dominus tecum, habebatur olim bona Ecclesia, pro qua paruum Saraceni restituerunt habitaculum, in colligendas peregrinorum offerendas. A Nazareth redeundo per terrain Galileæ, transitur per Ramathaym Sophim, vbi nascebatur fidelis Samuel propheta Domini, et per Sylo, vbi locus orationis erat antequam in Ierusalem: et per Sichem magnæ vbertatis vallem, itur in prouinciam Samariæ, vbi habetur et bona ciuitas nunc dicta Neapolts, distans, à sancta vrbe spacio solius dietæ, ac per fontem Iacob, super quem Iesus fatigatus ab itinere colloquebatur Samaritonæ, vbi et apparet ruina destructæ Ecciesiæ quondam illic habitæ. Et est ibi villa adhuc vocata Sychem, et in eo est mausoleum Ioseph patriarchæ filij Iacob: ad cuius ossa visitanda sub deuotione non minus peregrini Iudæi adueniunt, quàm Christiani. [Sidenote: Samaria nunc Sebaste.] Hinc satis propè est mons Garizin cum vetusto templo orationis Samaritanorum: ex tunc intratur Samaria quæ modò appellatur Sebaste, et est illius principalis ciuitas pronunciæ. In qua fuit primum terræ mandatum corpus beati Ioannis Baptistæ inter sacra corpora Helizæi, et Abdiæ Prophetarum, vt quorum assimilibatur virtutibus in vita, corporibus iungeretur in sepultura. Hæc quoque distat ab Hierosolymis: fortassis a dietas. [Sidenote: Nota.] Habetur et alius puteus aut fons intra illa montana, quem plerique similiter fontem Iacob appellant, cuius aqua secundum quatuor anni tempora variatur à suo colore, vt sit quandòque clara, quandòque turbida, nunc viridis, et nunc rubra. [Sidenote: Ogerus Dux Danus.] Certum est autem tempore Apostolorum cum Samaria recepisset verbum Dei, illos fuisse conuersos, et baptizatos, in nomine Domini Iesu, et tamen postea per quendam Caliphorum peruersos, Ogerus dux Danorum per Templariorum virtutem rursum subiugauit Christianitati: sicque post plures euentus, et variationes, illi qui nunc sunt Samaritæ, finxerunt sibi hæresim propriam, et ritum ab omnibus nationibus singularem. [Sidenote: Tegumenti capitis differentia.] Fatentur autem se credere in Deum, qui cuncta creauit: recipiuntque pentateucum scripturæ, cum Psalterio Dauidis, acerrimè contendentes, se solos dilectissimos Dei filios qui etiam pro nobili differentia inuoluunt capita linteo rubeo, Saraceni autem albo, Indi croceo, et Christiani ibi manentes Indico, hoc est, æreo, seu hiacynthino. Porrò à Nazareth quatuor leucis, est ciuitas olim dicta Naym, in 2. milario Thahor montis contra Meridiem iuxta Endor. Ieronimus. Ante cuius portam resuscitauit Christus defunctum filium vnicum matris suæ, præsentibus duabus turmis hominum copiosorum. Hinc quoque ad leucas duas, est ciuitas Israel, vbi olim morabatur pessima regina Iezabel, quam Dei iudicio equorum vngulis conculcatam, canes ferè vsque ad caluariam comederunt. CAPVT. 20. De territorio Gallileæ, et Samariæ, et de villa Sardenay. Item à Nazareth ad leucæ dimidum, monstrantur in rupe vestigia pedum, quæ dicuntur esse Domini nostri Iesu Christi vbi de manibus Iudæorum, ipsum de alta rupe præcipitare volentium desiluit in istam. De quo saltu quidam intelligunt illud scriptum Euangelicum, Iesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat. Ad quatuor autem leucas de Nazareth, est Cana Galileæ, vbi Christus ad vrbanas matris preces, mutauit vndam in vinum optimum. [Sidenote: Mons Thabor.] Ad distantiam quatuor leucarum à Nazareth, venitur in Thabor, montem spectabilem, vbi transfigurabatur Christus, coram quibusdam suis Apostolis, apparentibus ibidem, Mose, et Helia, prophetis, vocéque dilapsa à magnifica Patris gloria, et videbatur Petro bonum ibi esse: quondam in hoc monte habebatur ciuitas, cum pluribus Ecclesijs; quarum nunc sola restant vestigia, excepto quod ille locus transfigurationis est inhabitatus, qui est Schola Dei nominatus. [Sidenote: Obserueretur.] Notandum. Thabor est in medio Galileæ, campus mira iucunditate sublimis, distans à Diotesaria 3. milliaribus contra Orientem. Item de Nazareth in tres leucas est villa, seu castrum Zaffara, de quo recolo me supradixisse capite 4. Et inde venitur in Mare Galileæ, quod quamuis dicatur mare, est lacus aquæ dulcis longus. [Sidenote: Mare Tyberiadis.] Vltra centum 60. forsitan stadia est lacus, bonorum piscium ferax et vber, qui etiam in alio loco sui vocatur mare Tyberiadis, et in alia mare Genezareth, varians sibi nomen, secundum ciuitas, et terras, propinquas. Circa hoc mare Christus frequentèr, et libentèr ambulasse videtur: hic vocauit ad sui discipulatum, Petrum, et Andream, Iacobum, et Ioannem: hic super vndam siccis ambulabat vestigijs, et præcipitem Petrum filium tentantem, verbo increpationis releuat ne mergatur, hic denique rediuiuus à morte repleuit discipulorum rete magnis piscibus 153. Item in ciuitate Tiberiade, quæ est propè hoc mare habetur in veneratione mensa illius coenæ, quam in Emaus castello Christus cænauit, cum ab oculis commensalium euanuit. Hic de propè monstratur mons ille fertilis, mons ille pinguis, in quo de paucis panibus, et de paucioribus piscibus iussu Christi fuerunt saturati, quinque millia hominum. Ad initium autem prædicti maris iuxta villam Capernaum habetur fortius castrum totius terræ promissionis, in quo dicitur nata fuisse sancta Anna mater virginis Mariæ. [Sidenote: Damascus.] Prædictis itaque Christi vestigijs, et terræ sanctæ locis à peregrino cum deuotione cordis et reuerentia debita visitatis, si desiderat reuerti, posit illud facere per Damascum; quæ est ciuitas longa, nobilis, et grandis, ac plena omnium rerum mercimonijs, cum tamen distat à portu maris tribus plenè dietis, per quod spacium itineris, cuncta traijciuntur à suis equis, Dromedarijs, et Camelis: et putatur à plerisque narrantibus fundata in loco vbi Cain protoplaustorum filius Abel fratrem suum occidit. A Damasco de propinquo est mons Seyr, ciuitas grandis firmata duplicibus muris ac populosa nimis, in qua sunt multi in arte Physica famosi professi. Item à Damasco haud remotè distat castrum satis munitum, et firmum, quod Derces est nominatum. Habent autem in illis, et vlterioribus partibus hunc vsum: si quando castrum ab hostibus fuerit sic obsessum, quòd Dominus eius non possit emittere nuncium amico suo remotè moranti, recipit columbam olim in castro, vel domo amici natam, vel educatam, quam hic sibi per certam prouisionem allatam detinuit incaueatam, et scriptas quas vult literas alligans collo columbæ, dimittit liberam volare, quæ protinus festinat ad focum propriæ natiuitatis. Sicque videtur cognosci in illo castro quid agatur in isto. [Sidenote: Villa Sardenay.] Cæterum peregrinus à Damasco reuertendo, in quinque leucis venit Sardenay, quæ est villa in alta rupe, cum multis Ecclesijs religiosorum Monachorum, et sanctarum monialium fidei Christianæ. In quarum vna coram maiori altari in tabula lignea erat olim imago beatissimæ virginis Mariæ non sculpta sed depicta in plano spacio. Ex hoc reditur per valles Bokar fertiles et pro pascendis pecorum gregibus exuberantes: et intratur in montana vbi copiositas est fontium qui effluunt impetu de Libano. Ibique decurrit fluuius Sabbatayr, sic dictus quod diebus Sabbatis euidentèr rapidius transit, quàm alijs sex diebus. Peruenitur hinc ad satis altum montem, propè Tripolim ciuitatem, in qua ad præsens plures Christiani Catholicæ fidei habitant iugo infidelium nimis oppressi. [Sidenote: Sur, vel Tyrus.] Ex hoc loco sibi deliberet peregrinus, quem sibi maris portum accipiat ad repatriandum, videlicet Beruth, an Sur vel Tyrum. Postremò sciendum, quod terra promissionis in totali longitudine sui à Dan qui est sub Libano vsque ad Berseba in Austrum continet circiter centum, et 80. leucas Lombardicas, et ab Hierico in totali latitudine circiter 60. Notandum, Dan est viculus in quarto à Pennea de Miliario euntibus, contra Septentrionem: vsque hodiè sic vocatur terminus Iudeæ, contra Septentrionem est etiam et fons Ior, de quo et Iordanis fluuius erumpens alterum sortitus nomen Ior. Termini Iudeæ terræ à Bersabe incipiunt vsque ad Dan, qui vsque Peneaden terminatur, Ieronimus. CAPVT. 21. De secta detestabili Saracenorum et eorum fide. [Sidenote: Diligentia Mandevillu.] Iam restat vt de secta Saracenorum aliquid scribam vel compendiosè, secundum quòd cum ijs frequentèr, colloquendo audiui, et liber Mahometi, quem Alcaron, vel Mesahaf, vel Harmè vocant, ijs præcipit, sicut illum sæpè inspexi, et studiosè perlegi. [Sidenote: Fides Saracenorum.] Credunt itaque Saraceni in Deum creatorem coeli et terræ, qui fecit omnia in ijs contenta, et sine quo nihil est factum. Et expectant diem nouissimum iudicij, in quo mali cum corpore et anima descensuri sunt in infernum perpetuò cruciandi, et boni equidem cum anima et corpore intraturi Paradisum foelicitatis æternæ. Et hæc quidem fides poenè inest omnium mortalium nationibus, lingua et ratione vtentibus. Verumtamen de qualitate Paradisi est magna diuersitas inter credentes. Nam et Saraceni et Pagani, et omnes sectæ præter Iudæos et baptizatos Christianos sentiunt bonorum Paradisum fore terrestrem illum de quo fuit expulsus Adam propter inobedientiam protoplaustus: qui (vt putant) fluit, vel tunct fluet pluribus riuis lactis et mellis, et vbi in domibus et mansionibus nobiliter iuxta meritum vniuscuiusque ædificatur auro, et argento et gemmis, perfruentur omnibus corporalibus delicijs, in oblectatione animæ æternaliter sine fine. Ille ergò qui fide sanctæ Trinitatis carent, et Christum qui est vera lux ignorant, in tenebris ambulant. Iudæi vero et omnes baptizati rectè sentiunt Paradisum coelestem et spiritualem, vbi quilibet secundum meritum Diuinitati vnietur, per cognitionem, et amorem. Attamen Iudæi quod contra Scripturas suas sanctæ Trinitati contradicunt, et Christo obloquuntur, qui est vera via, nesciunt quo vadunt. De baptizatis autem, qui firmiter fidem Catholicam in humilitate cordis sub Ecclesiæ præceptis seruauerunt, hi soli filij sunt lucis, et in via veniendi ad coelestem Paradisum quem Christus verbo prædicauit, et ad quem corpore et anima, videntibus discipulis, de facto conscendit. Credunt etiam Saraceni, omnia esse vera, quæ Deus ore prophetarum est locutus, sed in diuersitate, quia nesciunt specificari, imo specificanti contradicerent defacili, vel negarent. Inter omnes prophetas ponunt quatuor excellentiores, quorum supremum et excellentissimum fatentur Iesum Mariæ Virginis filium, quem et asserunt, sermonem, vel loquelam, vel spiritum Dei, et pronunciatorem sententiarum Dei, in iudicio generali futuro, et missum à Deo ad Christianos docendos. Secundo loco Abrahamum dicunt fuisse verum Dei cultorem, et amicum. Tertium dant Mosi locum tanquam prolocutori Dei Misso specialiter, ad instruendos Iudæos. Quartum volant esse Mahomet, sanctum, et verum Dei nuncium ad seipsos missum, cum lege diuina in dicto libro plene contenta. Tenent itaque indubitate, quod beata Maria Iesum peperit, et concepit virgo manens intacta, ac libentèr loqui audiunt de incarnatione in ipsa facta per annunciationem Gabrielis Archangeli. Nam et Alcharon eorum dicit, ad salutationem Angeli virginem expauisse, quod tunc erat in partibus Galileæ incantator, Turquis nomine, qui per susceptam sibi formam Angeli plures virgines deflorauerat, et beatam Virginem conuenisse Angelum, an esset Turquis. Refert quoque eam peperisse sub palma Arbore, vbi habebatur præsepe bouis, et asinæ, et illic præ confusione puerperij, et verecundia ac dolore, fuisse in proximo desperatam, et infantulum in consolationem matris dixisse, mater ne timeas, Deus in te effudit secreta ad saluationem Mundi. Hæc et his similia multa ibi scribuntur figmenta, et isti plura inter se narrando componunt, quæ hoc loco ventilanda non sunt. Et dicit liber Iesum sanctissimum omnium Prophetarum fuisse veracem in dictis et factis, benignum, pium, iustum, et ab omni vitio penitus alienum: Sanctum quoque Ioannem Euangelistam post prædictos Prophetas fuisse alijs Sanctiorem, cuius et Euangelium fatentur esse plenum salutari, ac veraci doctrina, et ipsum Sanctum Ioannem illuminasse cæcos, leprosos mundasse, suscitasse mortuos, et in coelum volasse viuentem. Erat enim (prout dicit) plus quàm Propheta, et absque omni peccato, contradicente eodem de seipso, si dixerimus quòd peccatum non habemus, veritas in nobis non est: vnde et si quando Sarraceni tenent scriptum Euangelij Sancti Ioannis, aut illud beati Lucæ, missus est Angelus Gabriel, eleuant ambabus manibus pro reuerentia super caput et super oculos id ponentes, et osculantur quàm sæpè cum summa deuotione. Nonnulli etiam eorum in Græco, aut Latino literati consueuerunt cum deuotione cordis id lectitare. Idem liber dicit Iudæos perfidos fuisse, quod Iesu eis primùm misso a Deo, et multa miracula facienti credere noluerunt, quodque per ipsum tota gens Iudæorum fuit dignè decepta, et meritò illusa hoc modo. Iesus in hora dum Iudas eum pro signo traditionis osculabatur, posuit per Metamorphosin figuram suam, in ipsum Iudam, sícque Iudæi in ambiguo lumine nocturni temporis, pro Iesu Iudam capientes, ligantes, trahentes, deridentes, in fine crucifixerunt, putantes se omnia facere Iesu, qui protinus capto et ligato Iuda, viuus ascendit in cæelum, descensurus iterum viuus ad iudicium in die finali. Et addit, Iudæos falsissimè vsque hodie nos Christianos suo mendacio decipere, quo dícunt se Iesu crucifixisse quem non tetegerunt. Hinc errorem tenent Sarraceni obstinati: et quoddam argumentum inire conantur. Nam si Deus (aiunt) permisisset Iesum, innocentem, et iustum ita miserabiliter occidi, censuram suæ summæ iustitiæ minuisset. [Sidenote: Conuersio Saracenorum non desperanda.] Sed cùm ipsi, vt supradictum est, in tenebris ambulant, idcircò ignorantes Dei iustitiam, statuere volunt iustitiam, imo iniustitiam quam fabricant in corde suo, quia nos de cruce Christi scriptum nouimus, benedictum est lignum per quod fit iustitia. Isti tamen quod in aliquibus appropinquant veræ fidei, multi quandoque eorum inuenti sunt conuersi, et plures adhuc de facili conuerterentur, si haberunt prædicatores, sincerè eis verbum tractantes, quippe cùm iam fateantur legum Mahometi quandoque defecturam, sicut nunc perijt lex Iudæorum, et legem Christianorum vsque in finem seculi permansuram. CAPVT 22. De vita, et nomine Mahometi. Promisi in superioribus aliquid narrare de vita Mahometi legislatoris Sarracenorum, prout vidi in scriptis, vel audiui in partibus illis. Itaque Macho, siue Machon, vtrum in secunda syllaba scribatur N, litera, vel non idem refert: et si tertia syllaba addatur, et dicatur Machomet, vel etiam quarta, Machometus, nihil differt, quòd semper idem nomen representat. Ipsi tamen illum sæpiùs nominant Machon. Putatur autem istum Mahomet habuisse generationis ortum de Ismael Abrahæ filio naturali de concubina Agar, vnde et vsque hodie quidam Sarracenorum dicuntur Ismaelitæ, alij Agarení: sed et quidam Moabitæ, et Ammonitæ, à duobus Loth filijs Moab et Amon, genitis per incestum de proprijs filiabus. [Sidenote: Tempus Natiuitatis Mahometi.] Hic verò Machon, circa annum incarnationis Domini sexcentissimum natus, in Arabia pauper erat gratis pascens camelos, et interdum sequens Mercatores in Aegyptum fordellos illorum proprio collo deferens pro mercede. Et quoniam tunc temporis tota Aegyptus erat Christianæ fidei, didicit aliquid de fide nostra, quod diuertere solebat ad cellulam Heremitæ commorantis in deserto. [Sidenote: Fabulæ Saracenorum.] Et quodammodo fabulantur Sarraceni, quod illo quandoque ingrediente cellulam, cellulæ ostium mutatum in ianuam valdè patentem, velut ante palatium, et gloriantur hoc primum miraculum. Qui ex tunc conquerendo sibi pecunias, et discendo seculi actus diues est effectus, et prudens ab omnibus reputatus, in tantum, vt postmodum in terræ gubernatorem Corrozæn, (quæ est vna prouinciarum regni Arabiæ) assumeretur, ac de inde defuncto principe Codige per coniugium illius relictæ in eiusdem prouinciæ principem eleuaretur. Erat autem satis formosus, et valens, et vltra modum in verbis et factis maturus, et principalis, et satis diligebatur à suis, magis tamen metuebatur, et erat epilepticus, nemine tamen sciente. Sed tandem ab vxore comperto contristabatur, se tali morbido nuptam, qui versutus fefellit, et consolabatur moestam figmento mendacij excogitati, dicens sanctum Dei Archangelum Gabrielem ad colloquendum et inspirandum sibi, quædam arcana et diuina interdum venire, et pro virtute aut claritate veniente se subito cadere et iacere ad intendendum inspirationem. [Sidenote: Incrementum authoritatis Mahometi.] Post hoc autem, mortuo etiam Rege Arabiæ, tanta egit per simulationem sanctitatis, per donorum effusionem, et copiam promissionum, quod electus est et assumptus, in totias Arabiæ Regem. [Sidenote: Tempus promulgationis Alcharani.] Confirmato igitur Mahometo in regnationis suæ maiestate suprema, transactis à conceptione Domini nostri Iesu Christi annis solaribus 612. in die Iouis feria quinta Hebdomadæ promulgauit præfatum detestandæ legis suæ librum, plenum perfidiæ et erroris, et à subditis tempore vitæ suæ seruari coegit, qui et vsque hodie in tanto æuo, et tot populis non sine iusto Dei iudicio colitur et seruatur, quamuis miserabile, et miserandum videtur, quod tot animæ in illo perduntur. Erat quoque tempore regni eius et alius Heremita in deserto Arabiæ, quem etiam quasi pro deuotione frequentare solebat, ducens secum aliquos de principibus et famlia. Super quo plures eorum attediati tractabant occidere Heremitan. [Sidenote: Occasio vina, interdicendi Sarracenis.] Accedit tandem vna noctium, vt rex Heremitam et seipsum inebriaret, et inter loquendum ambo consopiti dormirent. Et ecce habita occasione comites gladio de latere Regis clam extracto Heremitam interfecerunt, iterum clam condentes cruentum gladium in vagina: ac ille euigilans virum videns occisum, magno furore succensus imposuit familiæ factum, volens omnes per iustitiam condemnari ad mortem. Cumque coram iudicibus et sapientibus ageretur, hi omnes pari concordia, simili voce, et vno ore testabantur tam diuisim quam coniunctim, Regem in ebrietate sua hominem occidisse, quamuis fortassis esset facti oblitus. Et in plenariam rei probationem, dixerunt ipsum reposuisse mucronem in loculo nudum intersum, sed calido cruore madentem. Quo ita inuento, ac tantis rex obrutus testificationibus nimiùm erubuit, plenè obmutuit, et confusus recessit. Et ob hoc omnibus diebus suis vina bibere renunciauit: et in lege sua à cunctis bibi vetuit, ac vniuersis bibentibus, colentibus, et vendentibus maledixit. Cuius maledictio couertatur in caput eius, et in verticem ipsius iniquitas eius descendat, cum de vino scriptum constet, quòd Deum et homines lætificet. [Sidenote: Potus Sarracenorum.] Igitur de eo Sarraceni in sua superstitione deuoti vinum non bibunt, quanquam plures eorum quòd timent in publico non verentur in secreto. Est autem communis potus eorum dulcis, delectabilis, et nutritiuus de Casaniel confectus, de qua et Saccarum fieri solet. [Sidenote: Alias Mecca.] Mahometus iste post mortem suam pessimam (mors enim peccatorum pessima) conditus fuit honorificè in capsa, ditissimo auro, et argento, et saxis perornata in vna ciuitate regni sui Arabiæ, vbi et pro sancto, et vero Dei nuncio incepit deuotè coli à suis per annos ducentos sexaginta, atque ex tunc circa annum Domini nongentissimum cum veneratione multa cadauer eius translatum est, in digniorem ciuitatem dictam Merchuel Iachrib, vbi iam longe lateque pro maximo sanctorum, à cordibus à diabolica fraude deceptis colitur, requiritur et adoratur. [Sidenote: Oregus a Templarijs proditus.] In ipsius translatione ipsa ciuitas restaurabatur, et firmabatur multò honorificentiùs, et fortiùs destructione sua, quæ per Carolum magnum Regem Franciæ antea fuit plenè annihilata, dum Ogerus dux Danorum præfatus in ea tenebatur captiuus, quem Templarij ad filios Brehir Regis Sarracenorum cum traditione vendiderant, eò quòd ipse Ogerus dictum Brehir in proelio occiderat, iuxta Lugdunum Franciæ ciuitatem. Et si quando nationis alterius quis ad legem conuertitur Sarracenorum, dum a flamine eorum recipiendus est, dicit et facit eum Dei nuncium, et repetit sic: Lællech ella alla Mahomet zoyzel alla heth: quod valet tantum: Non est Deus nisi vnus, et Mahomet fuit eius nuncius. CAPVT. 23. De colloquio Authoris cum Soldano. Finaliter Sarraceni ponunt Iudæos malos, eò quod legem Dei violauerunt sibi missam, et commissam per Mosem. Et à simili probant Christianos malos, quod non seruant legem Euangelij Christi, quam seruandam susceperint. [Sidenote: Error eorum qui putant vnumquemque in sua religione posse beari.] Inest enim ijs falsa persuasio ita vt putent vnumquemque in ea qua natus est secta posse beari, si susceptam seruauerit illibatè: ideoque probant ab opposito se esse bonos, quia, sicut dicunt, obseruant scripta legis præcepta et ceremonias sancti libri sui à Deo sibi transmissi per beatum nuncium suum Mahomet. Vnde et ego non tacebo quid mihi contigit. Dominus Soldanus quodam die in castro, expulsis omnibus de camera sua, me solùm retinuit secum tanquam pro secreto habendo colloquio. [Sidenote: Colloquium Soldani cum Mandeuillo.] Consuetum enim est ijs eijcere omnes tempore secretorum: qui diligenter à me interrogauit qualis esset gubernatio vitæ in terra nostra, breuiter respondebam, bona, per Dei gratiam, qui recepto hoc verbo dixit ita non esse. [Sidenote: Reprehensio Sacerdotum.] Sacerdotes (inquit) vestri, qui seipsos exhibere deberent alijs in exemplum, in malis iacent actibus, parùm curant de Templi seruitio: habitu et studijs se conformant mundo: se inebriant vino, continentiam infringentes, cum fraude negotiantes, ac praua principibus consilia ingerentes. [Sidenote: Reprehensio vulgi iustissima.] Communis quoque populus, dum festus diebus intendere deberent deuotioni in templo, currit in hortis, in spectaculis, in tabernis vsque ad crapulam, et ebrietatem, et pinguia manducans et bibens, ac in bestiarum morem, luxuriam prauam exercens. [Sidenote: Vestimentorum varietas reprehensa.] In vsura, dolo, rapina, furto, detractione, mendacio et periurio viuunt plures eorum euidenter, ac si qui talia non agant, vt fatui reputantur, et pro nimia cordis superbia nesciunt ad libitum excogitare, qualiter se velint habere, mutando sibi indumenta, nunc longa, nunc curta nimis, quandoque ampla, quandoque stricta vltra modum, vt in his singulis appareant derisi potiùs quam vestiti: pileos quoque, calceos, caligas, corrigias sibi fabricante exquisitas, cùm etiam è contra deberent secundùm Christi sui doctrinam simplices, Deo deuoti, humiles, veraces, inuicem diligentes, inuicem concordantes, et inluriam de facili remittentes. Scimus etiam eos propter peccata sua perdidisse hanc terram optimam quam tenemus, nec timemus eam amittere, quamdiu se taliter gubernant. Attamen non dubitamus, quin in futurum per meliorem vitæ conuersatíonem merebuntur de nostris eam manibus recuperare. Ad hoc ego vltra confusus et stupefactus, nequiui inuenire responsum; verebar enim obloqui veritati, quamuis ab Infidelis ore prolatæ, et vultu præ rubore demisso percunctatus sum, Domine, salua reuerentia, qualiter potestis ita plenè hoc noscere? De hominibus (ait) meis interdum mitto ad modum Mercatorum per terras, et regiones Christianorum, cum Balsamo, gemmis, sericis, ac aromatibus, ac per illos singula exploro, tam de statu Imperatoris, ac Pontificum, Principum, ac Sacerdotum, quàm Prælatorum, nec non æquora, prouincias, ac distinctiones earum. Igitur peracta collocutione nostra satis producta, egressos principes in cameram reuocauit, ex quibus quatuor de maioribus iuxta nos aduocans, fecit eos expressè ac debitè, per singulas diuisiones in lingua Gallicana destinguere per partes, et singuarum nomina partium, omnem regionem terræ Angliæ, ac alias Christianorum terras multas, acsi inter nostros fuissent nati, vel multo tempore conuersati. Nam et ipsum Soldanum audiui cum ijs bene et directè loquentem idioma Francorum. Itaque in omnibus his mente consternatus obmutui, cogitans, et dolens de peccatis singulis, rem taliter se habere. Nunc piè igitur (rogo) consideremus, et corde attendamus, quantæ sit confusionis, et qualis opprobrij, dum Christiani nominis inimici nobis nostra exprobrant crimina. [Sidenote: Insignis Mandeuilli peroratio.] Et student quilibet in melius emendare, quatenus (Deo propitio) possit in breui tempore, hæc, de qua loquimur, terra Deo delecta, hæc sacrosancta terra, hæc filijs Dei promissa, nobis Dei adoptiuis restitui: vel certè, quod magis exorandum est, ipsi Sarraceni ad fidem Catholicam, et Christianam obedientiam, Ecclesiæ filijs aggregari, vt simul omnes per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum consubstantialem Dei filium perueniamus ad coelestem Paradisum. Explicit prima pars huius operis. The English Version. Betheleem is a litylle cytee, long and narwe and well walled, and in eche syde enclosed with gode dyches; and it was wont to ben cleped Effrata; as Holy Writt seythe, _Ecce audivimus cum in Effrata_; that is to seye, _Lo, we herde him in Effrata_. And toward the est ende of the cytee, is a fulle fair chirche and a gracyouse; and it hathe many toures, pynacles and corneres, fulle stronge and curiously made: and with in that chirche ben 44 pyleres of marble, grete and faire. And betwene the cytee and the chirche in the felde floridus; that is to seyne, the feld florisched: for als moche as a fayre mayden was blamed with wrong, and sclaundred, that sche hadde don fornycacioun; for whiche cause sche was demed to the dethe, and to be brent in that place, to the whiche sche was ladd. And as the fyre began to brenne about hire, sche made hire preyeres to oure Lord, that als wissely as sche was not gylty of that synne, that he wold helpe hire, and make it to be knowen to alle men, of his mercyfulle grace. And whan sche hadde thus seyd, sche entred in to the fuyer: and anon was the fuyr quenched and oute: and the brondes that weren brennynge, becomen rede roseres; and the brondes that weren not kyndled, becomen white roseres, fulle of roses. And theise weren the first roseres and roses, both white and rede, that evere ony man saughe. And thus was this mayden saved be the grace of God. And therfore is that feld clept the feld of God florysscht: for it was fulle of roses. Also besyde the queer of the chirche, at the right syde, as men comen dounward 16 greces, [Footnote: Steps.] is the place where oure Lord was born, that is fulle welle dyghte of marble, and fulle richely peynted with gold, sylver, azure, and other coloures. And 3 paas besyde, is the crybbe of the ox and the asse. And besyde that, is the place where the sterre fell, that ladde the 3 kynges, Jaspar, Melchior and Balthazar: but men of Grece clepen hem thus, Galgalathe, Malgalathe and Saraphie: and the Jewes clepen in this manere, in Ebrew, Appelius, Amerrius and Damasus. Theise 3 kynges offreden to oure Lord, gold, ensence and myrre: and thei metten to gedre, thorghe myracle of God; for thei metten to gedre in a cytee in Ynde, that Men clepen Cassak, that is 53 journeyes fro Betheleem; and thei weren at Betheleem the 13 day. And that was the 4 day aftre that thei hadden seyn the sterre, whan they metten in that cytee: and thus thei weren in 9 dayes, fro that cytee at Betheleem; and that was gret myracle. Also undre the cloystre of the chirche, be 18 degrees, at the righte syde, is the charnelle of the innocentes, where here bones lyzn. And before the place where oure Lord was born, is the tombe of Seynt Jerome, that was a preest and a cardynalle, that translatede the Bible and the psaultere from Ebrew in to Latyn: and witheoute the mynstre; is the chayere that he satt in, whan he translated it. And faste besyde that chirche, a 60 fedme, [Footnote: Fathom.] is a chirche of Seynt Nicholas, where oure Lady rested hire, aftre sche was lyghted of oure Lord. And for as meche as sche had to meche mylk in hire pappes, that greved hire, sche mylked hem on the rede stones of marble; so that the traces may zit be sene in the stones alle whyte. And zee schulle undrestonde, that alle that duellen in Betheleem ben Cristene men. And there ben fayre vynes about the cytee, and gret plentee of wyn, that the Cristene men han don let make. But the Sarazines ne tylen not no vynes, ne thei drynken no wyn. For here bokes of here lawe, that Makomete betoke hem, whiche thei clepen here Alkaron, and sume clepen it Mesaphe; and in another langage it is cleped Harme; and the same boke forbedethe hem to drinke wyn. For in that boke, Machomete cursed alle tho that drynken wyn, and alle hem that sellen it. For sum men seye, that he sloughe ones an heremyte in his dronkenesse, that he loved ful wel: and therefore he cursed wyn, and hem that drynken it. But his curs be turned in to his owne hed; as Holy Wrytt seythe; _Et in verticem ipsius iniquitas ejus descendet_; that is for to seye, _Hi wykkednesse schalle turne and falle in his owne heed_. And also the Sarazines bryngen forthe no pigges, nor thei eten no swynes flessche: for thei seye, it is brother to man, and it was forboden be the olde lawe: and thei holden hem alle accursed that eten there of. Also in the lond of Palestyne and in the lond of Egypt, thei eten but lytille or non of flessche of veel or of beef; but he be so old, that he may no more travayle for elde; for it is forbode: and for because the have but fewe of hem, therfore thei norisschen hem, for to ere here londes. In this cytee of Betheleem was David the kyng born: and he hadde 60 wyfes; and the firste wyf hihte Michol: and also he hadde 300 lemmannes. An fro Betheleem unto Jerusalem nys but 2 myle. And in the weye to Jerusalem, half a myle fro Betheleem is a chirche, where the aungel seyde to the scheppardes, of the birthe of Crist. And in that weye is the tombe of Rachelle, that was Josephes modre, the patriarke; and sche dyede anon, aftre that sche was delyvered of hire sone Beniamyn; and there sche was buryed of Jacob hire husbonde: and he leet setten 12 grete stones on here, in tokene that sche had born 12 children. [Footnote: Rachel had only two children, but twelve grandchildren.] In the same weye, half myle fro Jerusalem, appered the sterre to the 3 kynges. In that weye also ben manye chirches of Cristen men, be the whiche men gon towardes the cytee of Jerusalem. Of the Pilgrimages in Jerusalem and of the Holy Places thereaboute. [Sidenote: Cap. VII.] After for to speke of Jerusalem, the holy cytee, zee schulle undirstonde, that it stont fulle faire betwene hilles: and there ben no ryveres ne welles; but watre comethe be condyte from Ebron. And zee schulle undirstonde, that Jerusalem of olde tyme, unto the tyme of Melchisedeche, was cleped Jebus; and aftre it was clept Salem, unto the tyme of Kyng David, that putte theise 2 names to gidere, and cleped it Jebusalem; and aftre that Kyng Salomon cleped it Jerosoloyme: and aftre that, men cleped it Jerusalem; and so it is cleped zit. And aboute Jerusalem is the kyngdom of Surrye: and there besyde is the lond of Palestyne: and besyde it is Ascolone: and besyde that is the lond of Maritaine. But Jerusalem is in the lond of Judee; and it is clept Jude, for that Judas Machabeus was kyng of that contree; and it marchethe estward to the kyngdom of Arabye; on the southe syde, to the lond of Egipt; and on the west syde, to the grete see; on the north syde, towarde the kyngdom of Surrye, and to the See of Cypre. In Jerusalem was wont to be a patriark, and erchebysshoppes and bisshoppes abouten in the contree. Abouten Jerusalem ben theise cytees: Ebron, at 7 myle; Jerico, at 6 myle; Bersabee, at 8 myle; Ascalon, at 17 myle; Jaff, at 16 myle; Ramatha, at 3 myle; and Betheleem, at 2 myle. And a 2 myle trom Betheleem, toward the sowthe, is the chirche of Seynt Karitot, that was abbot there; for whom thei maden meche Doel [Footnote: Mourning.] amonges the monkes, whan he scholde dye; and zit thei ben in moornynge, in the wise that thei maden here lamentacioun for him the firste tyme: and it is fulle gret pytee to beholde. This contree and lond of Jerusalem hathe ben in many dyverse naciounes hondes: and often therfore hathe the contree suffred meche tribulacioun, for the synne of the people, that duellen there. For that contree hathe ben in the hondes of alle nacyouns: that is to seyne, of Jewes, of Chananees, Assiryenes, Perses, Medoynes, Macedoynes, of Grekes, Romaynes, of Cristene men, of Sarazines, Barbaryenes, Turkes, Tartaryenes, and of manye othere dyverse nacyouns. For God wole not, that it be longe in the hondes of trytoures ne of synneres, be thei Cristene or othere. And now have the hethene men holden that lond in here hondes 40 zeere and more: but thei schulle not holde it longe, zif God wole. And zee schulle undirstond, that whan men comen to Jerusalem, here first pilgrymage is to the Chirche of the Holy Sepulcre, where oure Lord was buryed, that is with oute the cytee, on the northe syde: but it is now enclosed in, with the toun walle. And there is a fulle fayr chirche, alle rownd, and open above, and covered with leed. And on the west syde is a fair tour and an highe, for belles, strongly made. And in the myddes of the chirche is a tabernacle, as it were a lytylle hows, made with a low lytylle dore: and that tabernacle is made in manere of half a compass, righte curiousely and richely made, of gold and azure and othere riche coloures, fulle nobelyche made. And in the righte syde of that tabernacle is the sepulcre of oure Lord. And the tabernacle is 8 fote longe, and 5 fote wyde, and 11 fote in heighte. And it is not longe sithen the sepulcre was alle open, that men myghte kisse it and touche it. But for pilgrymes that comen thidre, peyned hem to breke the ston in peces or in poudre, therfore the Soudan hathe do make a walle aboute the sepulcre, that no man may towche it. But in the left syde of the walle of the tabernacle is well the heighte of a man, a gret ston to the quantytee of a mannes hed, that was of the holy sepulcre: and that ston kissen the pilgrymes, that comen thidre. In that tabernacle ben no wyndowes: but it is alle made lighte with lampes, that hangen before the sepulcre. And there is a lampe, that hongethe before the sepulcre, that brennethe lighte: and on the Gode Fryday it gothe out be him self; and lyghtith azen be him self at that oure, that oure Lorde roos fro dethe to lyve. Also within the chirche, at the righte syde, besyde the queer of the chirche, is the Mount of Calvarye, where oure Lord was don on the Cros: and it is a roche of white colour, and a lytille medled with red: and the Cros was set in a morteys, in the same roche: and on that roche dropped the woundes of our Lord, whan he was payned on the Crosse; and that is cleped Golgatha. And men gon up to that Golgotha be degrees: and in the place of that morteys was Adames hed founden, aftre Noes flode; in tokene that the synnes of Adam scholde ben boughte in that same place. And upon that roche made Abraham sacrifice to oure Lord. And there is an awtere: and before that awtere lyzn Godefray de Boleyne and Bawdewyn, and othere Cristene kynges of Jerusalem; And there nyghe, where our Lord was crucyfied, is this written in Greek, [Greek: Ho Theos Basileus hæmon pro aionon eirgasato aotærian en meso tæs gæs.] that is to seyne, in Latyn, _Deus Rex noster ante secula operatus est salutem, in medio terræ_; that is to seye, _Gode oure Kyng, before the worldes, hathe wroughte hele in myddis of the erthe_. And also on that roche, where the Cros was sett, is writen with in the roche theise, wordes; [Greek: Ho eideis esti basis tæs pisteos holæs tou kosmou touton.] that is to seyne in Latyn, _Quod vides, est fundamentum totius Fidei hujus Mundi_; that is to seyne, _That thou seest, is ground of alle the feythe of this world_. And zee schulle undirstonde, that whan oure Lord was don upon the Cros, he was 33 zere and 3 moneths of elde. And the prophecye of David seythe thus: _Quadraginta annis proximus fui generationi huic_; that is to seye, _fourty zeer was I neighebore to this kynrede_. And thus scholde it seme, that the prophecyes ne were not trewe: but thei ben bothe trewe: for in old tyme men maden a zeer of 10 moneths; of the whiche Marche was the firste, and Decembre was the laste. But Gayus, that was Emperour of Rome, putten theise 2 monethes there to, Janyver and Feverer; and ordeyned the zeer of 12 monethes; that is to seye, 365 dayes, with oute lepe zeer, aftre the propre cours of the sonne. And therfore, aftre cowntynge of 10 monethes of the zeer, de dyede in the 40 zeer; as the prophete seyde; and aftre the zeer of 12 monethes, he was of age 33 zeer and 3 monethes. Also with in the Mount Calvarie, on the right side, is an awtere, where the piler lyzthe, that oure Lord Jesu was bounden to, whan he was scourged. And there besyde ben 4 pileres of ston, that alle weys droppen watre: and sum men seyn, that thei wepen for our Lordes dethe. And nyghe that awtier is a place undre erthe, 42 degrees of depnesse, where the holy croys was founden, be the wytt of Seynte Elyne, undir a roche, where the Jewes had hidde it. And that was the verray croys assayed: for thei founden 3 crosses; on of oure Lord, and 2 of the 2 theves: and Seynte Elyne preved hem on a ded body, that aros from dethe to lyve, whan it was leyed on it that oure Lord dyed on. And there by in the walle is the place where the 4 nayles of oure Lord weren hidd: for he had 2 in his hondes, and 2 in his feet: and of on of theise, the Emperour of Costantynoble made a brydille to his hors, to bere him in bataylle: and thorghe vertue there of, he overcam his enemyes, and wan alle the lond of Asye the lesse; that is to seye, Turkye, Ermonye the lasse and the more; and from Surrye to Jerusalem, from Arabye to Persie, from Mesopotayme to the kyngdom of Halappee, from Egypt the highe and the lowe, and all the othere kyngdomes, unto the Depe of Ethiope, and into Ynde the lesse, that then was Cristene. And there were in that tyme many gode holy men and holy heremytes; of whom the book of fadres lyfes spekethe: and thei ben now in Paynemes and Sarazines honds. But whan God alle myghty wole, righte als the londes weren lost thorghe synne of Cristene men, so schulle thei ben wonnen azen be Cristen men thorghe help of God. And in myddes of that chirche is a compas, in the whiche Joseph of Aramathie leyde the body of oure Lord, whan he had taken him down of the cross: and there he wassched the woundes of oure Lord: and that compas, seye men, is the myddes of the world. And in the Chirche of the Sepulchre, on the north syde, is the place where oure Lord was put in presoun; (for he was in presoun in many places) and there is a partye of the Cheyne that he was bounden with: and there he appered first to Marie Magdaleyne, whan he was rysen; and sche wende, that he had ben a gardener. In the chirche of Seynt Sepulchre was wont to ben chanouns of the ordre of Seynt Augustyn, and hadden a priour; but the patriark was here sovereygne. And withe oute the dores of the chirche, on the right syde, as men gon upward 18 Greces, seyde oure Lord to his moder, _Mulier, ecce filius tuus_; that is to seye, _Woman, lo thi Sone_. And aftre that, he seyde to John his disciple, _Ecce mater tua_; that is to seyne, _Lo, behold thi modir_: And these wordes he seyde on the cros. And on theise Greces wente oure Lord, whan he bare the crosse on his schuldir. And undir this grees is a chapelle; and in that chapelle syngen prestes, yndyenes; that is to seye, prestes of ynde; noght aftir oure lawe, but aftir here: and alle wey thei maken here sacrement of the awtier, seyenge, _Pater noster_, and othere preyeres there with: with the which preyeres, thei seye the wordes, that the sacrement is made of. For thei ne knowe not the addiciouns, that many Popes han made; but thei synge with gode devocioun. And there nere, is the place where that oure Lord rested him, whan he was wery, for berynge of the Cros. And zee schulle undirstonde, that before the Chirche of the Sepulcre, is the cytee more feble than in ony othere partie, for the grete playn that is betwene the chirche and the cytee. And toward the est syde, with oute the walles of the cytee, is the Vale of Josaphathe, that touchethe to the walles, as thoughe it were a large dyche. And anen that Vale of Josaphathe, out of the cytee, is the Chirche of Seynt Stevene, where he was stoned to dethe. And there beside, is the gildene zate, that may not ben opened; be the whiche zate, oure Lord entrede on Palmesonday, upon an asse; and the zate opened azenst him, whan he wolde go unto the temple: and zit apperen the steppes of the asses feet, in 3 places of the degrees, that ben of fulle harde ston. And before the chirche of Seynt Sepulcre, toward the southe, a 200 paas, is the gret hospitalle of Seynt John; of the whiche the hospitleres hadde here foundacioun. And with inne the palays of the seke men of that hospitalle ben 124 pileres of ston: and in the walles of the hows, with oute the nombre aboveseyd, there ben 54 pileres, that beren up the hows. And fro that hospitalle, to go toward the est, is a fulle fayr chirche, that is clept _Nostre Dame la Graund_. And than is there another chirche right nyghe, that is clept _Nostre Dame la Latytne_. And there weren Marie Cleophee and Marie Magdaleyne, and teren here heer, whan oure Lord was peyned in the cros. Of the Temple of oure Lord. Of the Crueltee of Kyng Heroud. Of the Mount Syon. Of Probatica Piscina. And of Natatorium Siloe. [Sidenote: Cap. VIII.] And fro the chirche of the sepulcre, toward the est, at 160 paas, is _Templum Domini_. It is right a feir hows, and it is alle round, and highe, and covered with leed, and it is well paved with white marble: but the Sarazine wole not suffre no Cristene manne Jewes to come there in; for thei seyn, that none so foule synfulle men scholde not come in so holy place: but I cam in there, and in othere places, where I wolde; for I hadde lettres of the Soudan, with his grete seel; and comounly other men han but his signett. In the whiche lettres he comanded of his, specyalle grace, to all his subgettes, to lete me seen alle the places, and to enforme me pleynly alle the mysteries of every place, and to condyte me fro cytee to cytee, zif it were nede, and buxomly to resceyve me and my companye, and for to obeye to alle my requestes resonable, zif thei weren not gretly azen the royalle power, and dignytee of the Soudan or of his lawe. And to othere, that asken him grace, suche as han served him, he ne zevethe not but his signet; the whiche thei make to be born before hem, hangynge on a spere; and the folk of the contree don gret worschipe and reverence to his signett or his seel, and knelen there to, as lowly as wee don to _Corpus Domini_. And zit men don fulle grettere reverence to his lettres. For the admyralle and alle othere lordes, that thei ben schewed to, before or thei resceyve hem, thei knelen doun, and than thei take hem, and putten hem on here hedes, and aftre thei kissen hem, and than thei reden hem, knelynge with gret reverence, and than thei offren hem to do alle, that the berere askethe. And in this _Templum Domini_ weren somtyme chanouns reguleres: and thei hadden an abbot, to whom thei weren obedient. And in this temple was Charlemayn, when that the aungelle broughte him the prepuce of oure Lord Jesu Crist, of his circumcisioun: and aftre Kyng Charles leet bryngen it to Parys, in to his chapelle: and aftre that to Chartres. And zee schulle undirstonde, that this is not the temple that Salomon made: for that temple dured not, bat 1102 zeer. For Tytus, Vespasianes sone, Emperour of Rome, had leyd sege aboute Jerusalem, for to discomfyte the Jewes: for thei putten oure Lord to dethe, with outen leve of the Emperour. And whan he hadde wonnen the cytee, he brente the temple and beet it down, and alle the cytee, and toke the Jewes, and dide hem to Dethe, 1100000: and the othere he putte in presoun, and solde hem to servage, 30 for o peny: for thei seyde, thei boughte Jesu for 30 penyes: and he made of hem bettre cheep, whan he zaf 30 for o peny. And aftre that tyme, Julianas Apostate, that was Emperour, zaf leve to the Jewes to make the Temple of Jerusalem: for he hated Cristene men; and zit he was cristned, but he forsoke his law, and becam a renegate. And whan the Jewes hadden made the temple, com an erthe quakeng, and cast it doun (as God wolde) and destroyed alle that thei had made. And aftre that, Adryan, that was Emperour of Rome, and of the lynage of Troye, made Jerusalem azen, and the temple, in the same manere, as Salomon made it. And he wolde not suffre no Jewes to dwelle there, but only Cristene men. For alle thoughe is were so, that hee was not cristned, zet he lovede Cristene men, more than ony other nacioun, saf his owne. This Emperour leet enclose the Chirche of Seynt Sepulcre, and walle it, within the cytee, that before was with oute the cytee, long tyme beforn. And he wolde have chaunged the name of Jerusalem, and have cleped it Elya: but that name lasted not longe. Also zee schulle undirstonde, that the Sarazines don moche reverence to that temple; and thei seyn, that that place is right holy. And whan thei gon in, thei gon barefote, and knelen many tymes. And whanne my felowes and I seyghe that, whan we comen in, wee diden of oure shoon, and camen in barefote, and thoughten that we scholden don as moche worschipe and reverence there to, as ony of the mysbeleevynge men sholde, and as gret compunction in herte to have. This temple is 64 cubytes of wydenesse, and als manye in lengthe; and of heighte it is 120 cubites: and it is with inne, alle aboute, made with pyleres of marble: and in the myddel place of the temple ben manye highe stages, of 14 degrees of heighte, made with gode pyleres alle aboute: and this place the Jewes callen _Sancta Sanctorum_; that is to seye, _holy of halewes_. And in that place comethe no man, saf only here prelate, that makethe here sacrifice. And the folk stonden alle aboute, in diverse stages, aftre thei ben of dignytee or of worschipe; so that thei alle may see the sacrifice. And in that temple ben 4 entrees; and the zates ben of cypresse, wel made and curiousely dight. And with in the est zate, oure Lorde seyde, _Here is Jerusalem._ And in the northsyde of that temple with in the zate, there is a welle; but it rennethe noght; of the whiche Holy Writt spekethe, and seythe, _Vidi aquam egredientem de Templo_; that is to seyne, _I saughe watre come out of the Temple_. And on that other syde of the Temple there is a roche, that men clepen Moriache: but aftre it was clept Bethel; where the arke of God, with relykes of Jewes, weren wont to ben put. That arke or hucche, with the relikes, Tytus ledde with hym to Rome, whan he had scomfyted alle the Jewes. In that arke weren the 10 commandementes, and of Arones zerde, and of Moyses zerde, with the whiche he made the Rede See departen, as it had ben a walle, on the righte syde and on the left syde, whils that the peple of Israel passeden the see drye foot: and with that zerde he smoot the roche; and the watre cam out of it: and with that zerde he dide manye wondres. And there in was a vessel of gold, fulle of manna, and clothinges and ournements and the tabernacle of Aaron, and a tabernacle square of gold, with 12 precyous stones, and a boyst of jasper grene, with 4 figures, and 8 names of oure Lord, and 7 candelstykes of gold, and 12 pottes of gold, and 4 censeres of gold, and an awtier of gold, and 4 lyouns of gold, upon the whiche thei bare cherubyn of gold, l2 spannes long, and the cercle of swannes of Hevene, with a tabernacle of gold, and a table of sylver, and 2 trompes of silver, and 7 barly loves, and alle the othere relikes, that weren before the birthe of oure Lord Jesu Crist. And upon that roche, was Jacob slepynge, when he saughe the aungeles gon up and doun, by a laddre, and he seyd, _Vere locus isse sanctus est, et ego ignorabam_; that is to seyne, _Forsothe this place is holy, and I wiste it nought_. And there an aungel helde Jacob stille, and turned his name, and cleped him Israel. And in that same place, David saughe the aungelle, that smot the folk with a swerd, and put it up blody in the schethe. And in that same roche, was Seynt Symeon, whan he resceyved oure Lord into the Temple. And in this roche he sette him, whan the Jewes wolde a stoned him; and a sterre cam doun, and zaf him light. And upon that roche, prechede our Lord often tyme to the peple; and out of that seyd temple, oure Lord drof the byggeres and the selleres. And upon that roche, oure Lord sette him, whan the Jewes wolde have stoned him; and the roche cleef in two, and in that clevynge was oure Lord hidd; and there cam doun a sterre, and zaf lighte and served him with claretee; and upon that roche, satt oure lady, and lerned hire sawtere; and there our Lord forzaf the womman hire sinnes, that was founden in Avowtrie: and there was oure Lord circumcyded: and there the aungelle schewede tydynges to Zacharie of the birthe of Seynt Baptyst his sone; and there offred first Melchisedeche bred and wyn to oure Lord, in tokene of the sacrement that was to comene; and there felle David preyeng to oure Lord, and to the aungelle, that smot the peple, that he wolde have mercy on him and on the peple; and oure Lorde herde his preyere; and therefore wolde he make the temple in that place: but oure Lord forbade him, be an aungelle, for he had don tresoun, whan he leet sle Urie the worthi knyght, for to have Bersabee his wyf; and therfore all the purveyance, that he hadde ordeyned to make the temple with, he toke it Salomon his sone; and he made it. And he preyed oure Lord, that alle tho that preyeden to him, in that place, with gode herte, that he wolde heren here preyere and graunten it hem, zif thei asked it rightefullyche: and oure Lord graunted it him: and therfore Salomon cleped that temple, the Temple of Conseille and of Help of God. And with oute the zate of that temple is an awtiere, where Jewes werein wont to offren dowves and turtles. And betwene the temple and that awtiere was Zacharie slayn. And upon the pynacle of that temple was oure Lord brought, for to ben tempted of the enemye, the feend. And on the heighte of that pynacle, the Jewes setten Seynt Jame, and casted him down to the erthe, that first was Bisschopp of Jerusalem. And at the entree of that temple, toward the west, is the zate that is clept _Porta speciosa_. And nyghe besyde that temple, upon the right syde, is a chirche covered with leed, that is clept Salomones Scole. And fro that temple, towardes the southe, right nyghe, is the Temple of Salomon, that is righte fair and wel pollisscht. And in that temple duellen the knyghtes of the temple, that weren wont to be clept templeres: and that was the foundacionn of here ordre; so that there duelleden knyghtes; and in _Templo Domini_, chanouns reguleres. Fro that temple toward the est, a 120 paas, in the cornere of the cytee, is the bathe of oure Lord: and in that bathe was wont to come watre fro paradys, and zit it droppethe. And there besyde, is oure ladyes bed. And faste by, is the temple of Seynt Symeon: and with oute the cloyster of the temple, toward the northe, is a fulle faire chirche of Seynte Anne, oure ladyes modre: and there was oure lady conceyved. And before that chirche, is a gret tree, that began to growe the same nyght. And undre that chirche, in goenge doun be 22 degrees, lythe Joachym, oure ladyes fader, in a faire tombe of ston: and there besyde, lay somtyme Seynt Anne his wyf; but Seynt Helyne leet translate hire to Costantynople. And in that chirche is a welle, in manere of a cisterne, that is clept _Probatica Piscina_, that hathe 5 entrees. Into that welle, aungeles weren wont to come from Hevene, and bathen hem with inne: and, what man that first bathed him, aftre the mevynge of the watre, was made hool, of what maner sykenes that he hadde: and there oure Lord heled a man of the palasye, that laye 38 zeer: and oure Lord seyde to him, _Tolle Grabatum tuum & ambula_: that is to seye, _Take thi bed, and go_. And there besyde, was Pylates hows. And faste by, is Kyng Heroudes hows, that leet sle the innocentes. This Heroude was over moche cursed and cruelle: for first he leet sle his wif, that he lovede righte welle; and for the passynge love, that he hadde to hire, whan he saughe hire ded, he felle in a rage, and oute of his wytt, a gret while; and sithen he cam azen to his wytt: and aftre he leet sle his two sones, that he hadde of that wyf: and aftre that, he leet sle another of his wyfes, and a sone, that he hadde with hire: and aftre that, he leet sle his owne modre: and he wolde have slayn his brother also, but he dyede sodeynly. And aftre he fell into seknesse, and whan he felte, that he scholde dye, he sente aftre his sustre, and aftre alle the lordes of his lond; and whan thei were comen; he leet commande hem to prisoun, and than he seyde to his sustre, he wiste wel, that men of the contree wolde make no sorwe for his dethe; and therefore be made his sustre swere, that sche scholde lete smyte of alle the heds of the lordes, whan he were ded; and than scholde alle the lond make sorwe for his dethe, and else nought: and thus he made his testement. But his sustre fulfilled not his wille: for als sone as he was ded, sche delyvered alle the lordes out of presoun, and lete hem gon, eche lord to his owne; and tolde hem alle the purpos of hire brothers ordynance: and so was this cursed kyng never made sorwe for, as he supposed for to have ben. And zee schulle undirstonde, that in that tyme there weren 3 Heroudes, of gret name and loos for here crueltee. This Heroude, of whiche I have spoken offe, was Heroude Ascalonite: and he that leet beheden seynt John the Baptist, was Heroude Antypa: and he that leet smyte of Seynt James hed, was Heroude Agrippa; and he putte Seynt Peter in presoun. Also furthermore, in the cytee, is the Chirche of Seynt Savyour; and there is the left arm of John Crisostom, and the more partye of the hed of Seynt Stevene. And on that other syde of the strete, toward the southe, as men gon to Mount Syon, is a chirche of Seynt James, where he was beheded. And fro that chirche, a 120 paas, is the Mount Syon: and there is a faire chirche of oure Lady, where sche dwelled; and there sche dyed. And there was wont to ben an abbot of Chanouns Reguleres. And fro thens, was sche born of the apostles, onto the Vale of Josaphathe. And there is the ston, that the aungelle broughte to oure Lady, fro the Mount of Synay; and it is of that colour, that the roche is of Seynt Kateryne. And there besyde, is the zate, where thorghe oure Ladye wente, whan sche was with childe, whan sche wente to Betheleem. Also at the entree of the Mount Syon, is a chapelle; and in that chapelle is the ston gret and large, with the whiche the sepulcre was covered with, whan Josephe of Aramathie had put oure Lord thereinne: the whiche ston the 3 Maries sawen turnen upward, whan thei comen to the sepulcre, the day of his resurrexioun; and there founden an aungelle, that tolde hem of oure Lordes uprysynge from dethe to lyve. And there also is a ston, in a walle, besyde the zate, of the pyleer, that oure Lord was scourged ate: and there was Annes hows, that was Bishop of the Jewes, in that ryme. And there was oure Lord examyned in the nyght, and scourged and smytten and vylently entreted. And in that same place, Seynt Peter forsoke oure Lord thries, or the cok creew. And there is a party of the table, that he made his souper onne, whan be made his maundee, with his discyples; whan he zaf hem his flesche and his blode, in forme of bred and wyn. And undre that chapelle, 32 degrees, is the place, where oure Lord wossche his disciples feet and zit is the vesselle, where the watre was. And there besyde that same vesselle, was Seynt Stevene buryed. And there is the awtier, where oure Lady herde the aungelles synge messe. And there appered first oure Lord to his disciples, after his resurrexioun, the zates enclosed, and seyde to hem, _Pax vobis_: that is to seye, _Pees to zou_. And on that mount, appered Crist to Seynt Thomas the apostle, and bade him assaye his woundes; and there beleeved he first, and seyde, _Dominus meus et Deus meus_; that is to seye, _my Lord and my God_. In the same chirche, besyde the awteer, weren alle the aposteles on Whytsonday, whan the Holy Gost descended on hem, in lyknesse of fuyr. And there made oure Lord his pask, [Footnote: Pascal feast] with his disciples. And there slept Seynt John the Evaungeliste, upon the breeste of oure Lord Jesu Crist, and saughe slepynge many hevenly prevytees. Mount Syon is with inne the cytee; and it is a lytille hiere than the other syde of the cytee: and the cytee is strongere on that syde, than on that other syde. For at the foot of the Mount Syon, is a faire castelle and a strong, that the Soudan leet make. In the Mount Syon weren buryed Kyng David and Kyng Salomon, and many othere kynges, Jewes of Jerusalem. And there is the place, where the Jewes wolden han cast up the body of oure Lady, whan the apostles beren the body to ben buryed, in the Vale of Josaphathe. And there is the place, where Seynt Petir wepte fulle tenderly, aftre that he hadde forsaken oure Lord. And a stones cast fro that chapelle, is another chapelle, where oure Lord was jugged: for that tyme, was there Cayphases hows. From that chapelle, to go toward the est, at 140 paas, is a deep cave undre the roche, that is clept the Galylee of oure Lord; where Seynt Petre hidde him, whanne he had forsaken oure Lord. Item, betwene the Mount Syon and the Temple of Salomon, is the place, where oure Lord reysed the mayden, in hire fadres hows. Undre the Mount Syon, toward the Vale of Josaphathe, is a welle, that is clept _Natatorium Siloe_; and there was oure Lord wasshen, aftre his bapteme: and there made oure Lord the blynd man to see. And there was y buryed Ysaye the prophete. Also streghte from Natatorie Siloe, is an ymage of ston, and of olde auncyen werk, that Absalon leet make: and because there of, men clepen it the head of Absalon. And faste by, is zit the tree of eldre, that Judas henge him self upon, for despeyr that he hadde, whan he solde and betrayed oure Lord. And there besyde, was the synagoge, where the bysshoppes of Jewes and the pharyses camen to gidere, and helden here conseille. And there caste Judas the 30 pens before hem, and seyde, that he hadde synned, betrayenge oure Lord. And there nyghe was the hows of the apostles Philippe and Jacob Alphei. And on that other syde of Mount Syon, toward the southe, bezonde the Vale, a stones cast, is Acheldamache; that is to seye, the Feld of Blood; that was bought for the 30 pens, that oure Lord was sold fore. And in that feld ben many tombes of Cristene men: for there ben manye pilgrymes graven. And there ben many oratories, chapelles and heremytages, where heremytes weren wont to duelle. And toward the est, an 100 pas, is the charnelle of the hospitalle of seynt John, where men weren wont to putte the bones of dede men. Also fro Jerusalem, toward the west, is a fair chirche, where the tree of the cros grew. And 2 myle fro thens, is a faire chirche; where oure lady mette with Elizabethe, whan thei weren bothe with childe; and seynt John stered in his modres wombe, and made reverence to his Creatour, that he saughe not. And undre the awtier of that chirche, is the place where seynt John was born. And fro that chirche, is a myle to the castelle of Emaux; and there also oure Lord schewed him to 2 of his disciples, aftre His resurrexion. Also on that other syde, 200 pas fro Jerusalem, is a chirche, where was wont to be the cave of the lioun: and undre that chirche, at 30 degrees of depnesse, weren entered 12000 martires, in the tyme of Kyng Cosdroc, that the lyoun mette with alle in a nyghte, be the wille of God. Also fro Jerusalem 2 myle, is the Mount Joye, a fulle fair place and a delicyous: and there lythe Samuel the prophete in a faire tombe: and men clepen it Mount Joye; for it zevethe joye to pilgrymes hertes, be cause that there men seen first Jerusalem. Also betwene Jerusalem and the Mount of Olyvete, is the Vale of Josaphathe, undre the walles of the cytee, as I have seyd before: and in the myddes of the vale, is a lytille ryvere, that men clepen Torrens Cedron; and aboven it, over thwart, lay a tre, (that the cros was made offe) that men zeden over onne: and faste by it is a litylle pytt in the erthe, where the foot of the pileer is zit entered; and there was oure Lord first scourged: for he was scourged and vileynsly entreted in many places. Also in the myddel place of the vale of Josaphathe, is the chirche of oure lady: and it is of 43 degrees, undre the erthe, unto the sepulchre oure lady. And oure lady was of age, when sche dyed, 72 zeer. And beside the sepulchre of oure lady, is an awtier, where oure Lord forzaf seynt Petir all his synnes. And fro thens, toward the west, undre an awtere, is a welle, that comethe out of the ryvere of Paradys. And witethe wel, that that chirche is fulle lowe in the erthe; and sum is alle with inne the erthe. But I suppose wel, that it was not so founded: but for because that Jerusalem hathe often tyme ben destroyed, and the walles abated and beten doun and tombled in to the vale, and that thei han ben so filled azen, and the ground enhaunced; and for that skylle, is the chirche so lowe with in the erthe: and natheles men seyn there comounly, that the erthe hathe so ben cloven, sythe the tyme, that oure Lady was there buryed: and zit men seyn there, that it wexethe and growethe every day, with outen dowte. In that chirche were wont to ben blake monkes, that hadden hire abbot. And besyde that chirche, is a chapelle, besyde the roche, that highte Gethesamany: and there was oure Lord kyssed of Judas; and there was he taken of the Jewes; and there laft oure Lord his disciples, whan he wente to preye before his passioun, whan he preyed and seyde, _Pater, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste_; that is to seye, _Fadre, zif it may be, do lete this chalys go fro me_. And whan he cam azen to his disciples, he fond hem slepynge. And in the roche, with inne the chapelle, zit apperen the fyngres of oure Lordes hond, whan he putte hem in the roche, whan the Jewes wolden have taken him. And fro thens a stones cast, toward the southe, is anothere chapelle, where oure Lord swette droppes of blood. And there righte nyghe, is the tombe of Kyng Josaphathe; of whom the vale berethe the name. This Josaphathe was kyng of that contree, and was converted by an heremyte, that was a worthi man, and dide moche gode. And fro thens a bowe drawghte, towards the south, is the chirche, where Seynt James and Zacharie the prophete weren buryed. And above the vale, is the Mount of Olyvete: and it is cleped so, for the plentee of olyves, that growen there. That mount is more highe than the cytee of Jerusalem is: and therfore may men, upon that mount, see manye of the stretes of the cytee. And between that mount and the cytee, is not but the vale of Josaphathe, that is not fulle large. And fro that mount, steighe oure Lord Jesu Crist to Hevene, upon ascencioun day: and zit there schewethe the schapp of his left foot, in the ston. And there is a chirche, where was wont to be an abbot and chanouns reguleres. And a lytylle thens, 28 pas, is a chapelle, and there in is the ston, on the whiche oure Lord sat, whan he prechede the 8 blessynges, and seyde thus: _Beati pauperes spiritu_: and there he taughte his disciples the _Pater noster_; and wrote with his finger in a ston. And there nyghe is a chirche of Seynte Marie Egipcyane; and there sche lythe in a tombe. And fro then toward the est, a 3 bow schote, is Bethfagee; to the whiche oure Lord sente Seynt Peter and Seynt James, for to feche the asse, upon Palme Sonday, and rode upon that asse to Jerusalem. And in comynge doun fro the Mount of Olyvete, toward the est, is a castelle, that is cleped Bethanye: and there dwelte Symon leprous, and there herberwed oure Lord; and aftre, he was baptized of the Apostles, and was clept Julian, and was made bisschoppe: and this is the same Julyan, that men clepe to for gede herberghgage; for oure Lord herberwed with him, in his hows. And in that hous, oure Lord forzaf Marie Magdaleyne hire synnes; there sche whassched his feet with hire teres, and wyped hem with hire heer. And there served seynt Martha, oure Lord. There oure Lord reysed Lazar fro dethe to lyve, that was ded 4 dayes and stank, that was brother to Marie Magdaleyne and to Martha. And there duelte also Marie Cleophe. That castelle is wel a myle long fro Jerusalem. Also in comynge doun fro the Mount of Olyvete, is the place where oure Lord wepte upon Jerusalem. And there besyde is the place, where oure lady appered to seynt Thomas the Apostle, aftre hire assumptioun, and zaf him hire Gyrdylle. And right nyghe is the ston, where oure Lord often tyme sat upon, whan he prechede: and upon that same schalle he sytte, at the day of doom; righte as him self seyde. Also aftre the Mount of Olyvete, is the Mount of Galilee: there assembleden the apostles, whan Marie Magdaleyne cam, and tolde hem of Cristes uprisynge. And there, betwene the Mount Olyvete and the Mount Galilee, is a chirche, where the aungel seyde to our lady, of hire dethe. Also fro Bethanye to Jerico, was somtyme a litylle Cytee: but it is now alle destroyed; and now is there but a litylle village. That cytee tok Josue, be myracle of God and commandement of the aungel, and destroyed it and cursed it, and alle hem that bylled it azen. Of that citee was Zacheus the dwerf, that clomb up in to the Sycomour Tre, for to see oure Lord; be cause he was so litille, he myghte not seen Him for the peple. And of that cytee was Raab the comoun womman, that ascaped allone, with hem of hire lynage; and sche often tyme refressched and fed the messageres of Israel, and kepte hem from many grete periles of dethe: and therfore sche hadde gode reward; as Holy Writt seythe: _Qui accipit prophetam in nomine meo, mercedem prophetæ accipiet_; that is to seye, _He that takethe a prophete in my name, he schalle take mede of the prophete_: and so had sche; for sche prophecyed to the messageres, seyenge, _Novi quod Dominus tradet vobis Terram hanc_; that is to seye, _I wot wel, that oure Lord schal betake zou this Lond_: and so he dide. And after Salomon, Naasones sone, wedded hire; and fro that tyme was sche a worthi womman, and served God wel. Also from Betanye gon men to flom [Footnote: River,--Latin, _flumen_.] Jordan, by a mountayne, and thorghe desert; and it is nyghe a day jorneye fro Bethanye, toward the est, to a gret hille, where oure Lord fasted 40 dayes. Upon that hille, the enemy of helle bare our Lord, and tempted him, and seyde; _Dic ut lapides isti panes fiant_; that is to seye, _Sey, that theise stones be made loves_. In that place, upon the hille, was wont to ben a faire chirche; but it is alle destroyed, so that there is now but an hermytage, that a maner of Cristene men holden, that ben cleped Georgyenes: for Seynt George converted hem. Upon that hille duelte Abraham a gret while: and therfore men clepen it, Abrahames gardyn. And betwene the hille and this gardyn rennethe a lytille broke of watre, that was wont to ben byttre; but be the blessyng of Helisee the prophete, it becam swete and gode to drynke. And at the foot of this hille, toward the playn, is a grete welle, that entrethe in to flom Jordan. Fro that hille to Jerico, that I spak of before, is but a myle, in goynge toward flom Jordan. Also as men gon to Jerico, sat the blynde man, cryenge, _Jesu, fili David, miserere mei_; that is to seye, _Jesu, Davides sone, have mercy on me_: and anon he hadde his sighte. Also 2 myle fro Jerico is flom Jordan: and an half myle more nyghe, is a faire chirche of Seynt John the Baptist; where he baptised oure Lord: and there besyde, is the hous of Jeremye the prophete. Of the dede See; and of the Flom Jordan. Of the Hed of Seynt John the Baptist; and of the Usages of the Samaritanes. [Sidenote: Cap. IX.] And fro Jerico, a 3 myle, is the dede See. Aboute that See growethe moche alom and of alkatram. [Footnote: Brimstone.] Betwene Jerico and that see is the lond of Dengadde; and there was wont to growe the bawme; but men make drawe the braunches there of, and beren hem to ben graffed at Babiloyne; and zit men clepen hem vynes of Gaddy. At a cost of that see, as men gon from Arabe, is the mount of the Moabytes; where there is a cave, that men clepen Karua. Upon that hille, ladde Balak the sone of Booz, Balaam the prest, for to curse the peple of Israel. That dede See departethe the lond of Ynde and of Arabye; and that see lastethe from Soara unto Arabye. The watre of that see is fulle bytter and salt: and ziff the erthe were made moyst and weet with that watre, it wolde nevere bere fruyt. And the erthe and the lond chaungeth often his colour. And it castethe out of the watre a thing that men clepen aspalt; also gret peces, as the gretnesse of an hors, every day, and on alle sydes. And fro Jerusalem to that see, is 200 furlonges. That see is in lengthe 580 furlonges, and in brede 150 furlonges: and it is clept the dede see, for it rennethe nought. but is evere unmevable. And nouther manne, best, ne no thing that berethe lif in him, ne may not dyen in that see: and that hathe ben proved manye tymes, be men that han disserved to ben dede, that han ben cast there inne, and left there inne 3 dayes or 4, and thei ne myghte never dye ther inne: for it resceyvethe no thing with inne him, that berethe lif. And no man may drynken of the watre, for bytternesse. And zif a man caste iren there in, it wole flete aboven. And zif men caste a fedre there in, it wole synke to the botme: and theise ben thinges azenst kynde. And also the cytees there weren lost, be cause of synne. And there besyden growen trees, that beren fulle faire apples, and faire of colour to beholde; but whoso brekethe hem or cuttethe hem in two, he schalle fynde with in hem coles and cyndres; in tokene that, be wratthe of God, the cytees and the lond weren brente and sonken into helle. Sum men clepen that see, Lake Dalfetidee; summe, the Flom of Develes; and summe, the flom that is ever stynkynge. And in to that see sonken the 5 cytees, be wratthe of God; that is to seyne, Sodom, Gomorre, Aldama, Seboym and Segor, for the abhomynable synne of sodomye, that regned in hem. But Segor, be the preyer of Lothe, was saved and kept a gret while: for it was sett upon an hille; and zit schewethe therof sum party, above the watre: and men may see the walles, when it is fayr wedre and cleer. In that cytee Lothe dwelte, a lytylle while; and there was he made dronken of his doughtres, and lay with hem, and engendred of hem Moab and Amon. And the cause whi his doughtres made him dronken, and for to ly by him, was this; because thei sawghe no man aboute hem, but only here fadre: and therfore thei trowed, that God had destroyed alle the world, as he hadde don the cytees; as he hadde don before, be Noes flood. And therfore thei wolde lye with here fadre, for to have issue, and for to replenysschen the world azen with peple, to restore the world azen be hem: for thei trowed, that ther had ben no mo men in alle the world. And zif here fadre had not ben dronken, he hadde not y leye with hem. And the hille aboven Segor, men cleped it thanne Edom: and aftre men cleped it Seyr, and aftre Ydumea. Also at the righte syde of that dede See, dwellethe zit the wife of Lothe, in lyknesse of a salt ston; fur that schee loked behinde hire, whan the cytees sonken into helle. This Lothe was Araammes sone, that was brother to Abraham. And Sarra Abrahames wife, and Melcha Nachors wif, weren sustren to the seyd Lothe. And the same Sarra was of elde 90 zeer, when Ysaac hire sone was goten on hire. And Abraham hadde another sone Ysmael, that he gat upon Agar his chambrere. And when Ysaac his sone was 8 dayes olde, Abraham his fadre leet him ben circumcyded, and Ysmael with him, that was 14 zeer old: wherfore the Jewes, that comen of Ysaacces lyne, ben circumcyded the 8 day; and the Sarrazines, that comen of Ysmaeles lyne, ben circumcyded whan thei ben 14 zeer of age. And zee schulle undirstonde, that with in the dede See rennethe the Flom Jordan, and there it dyethe; for it rennethe no furthermore: and that is a place, that is a myle fro the Chirche of seynt John the Baptist, toward the West, a lytille benethe the place, where that christene men bathen hem comounly. And a myle from Flom Jordan, is the Ryvere of Jabothe, the whiche Jacob passed over, whan he cam fro Mesopotayme. This Flom Jordan is no great ryvere; but it is plenteous of gode fissche; and it cometh out of the hille of Lyban be 2 welles, that ben cleped Jor and Dan: and of tho 2 Welles hath it the name. And it passethe be a lake, that is clept Maron; and aftre it passethe by the See of Tyberye, and passethe undre the hilles of Gelboe: and there is a full faire vale, bothe on that o syde and on that other of the same ryvere. And men gon the hilles of Lyban, alle in lengthe, onto the desert of Pharan. And tho hilles departen the kyngdom of Surrye and the contree of Phenesie. And upon tho hilles growen trees of cedre, that ben fulle hye, and thei beren longe apples, and als grete as a mannes heved. And also this Flom Jordan departeth the lond of Galilee, and the lond of Ydumye and the lond of Betron: and that rennethe undre erthe a grete weye, unto a fayre playn and a gret, that is clept Meldan, in Sarmoyz; that is to seye, feyre or markett in here langage; be cause that there is often feyres in that pleyn. And there becomethe the watre gret and large. And that playn is the tombe of Job. And in that Flom Jordan above-seyd, was oure Lorde baptized of seynt John; and the voys of God the Fadre was herd seyenge. _Hic est Filius meus dilectus, &c._; that is to seye, _This is my beloved sone, in the whiche I am well plesed; herethe hym_. And the Holy Gost alyghte upon hym, in lyknesse of a colver: and so at his baptizynge, was alle the hool trynytee. And thorghe that Flom passeden the children of Israel, alle drye feet: and thei putten stones there in the myddel place, in tokene of the myracle, that the watre withdrowghe him so. Also in that Flom Jordan, Naaman of Syrie bathed him; that was fulle riche, but he was meselle: [Footnote: Leprous.] and there anon he toke his hele. Abouten the Flom Jordan ben manye chirches, where that manye cristene men dwelleden. And nyghe therto is the cytee of Hay, that Josue assayled and toke. Also beyonde the Flom Jordan, is the Vale of Mambre; and that is a fulle fair vale. Also upon the hille, that I spak of before, where oure Lord fasted 40 dayes, a 2 myle long from Galilee, is a faire hille and an highe; where the enemye, the fend, bare oure Lord, the thridde tyme, to tempte him, and schewede him alle the regiouns of the world, and seyde, _Hic omnia tibi dabo, si cadens adoraveris me_; that is to seyne, _All this schalle I zeve the, zif thou falle and worschipe me_. Also fro the dede See, to gon estward out of the marches of the Holy Lond, that is clept the Lond of Promyssioun, is a strong castelle and a fair, in an hille, that is clept Carak, en Sarmoyz; that is to seyne, Ryally. That castle let make kyng Baldwyn, (that was Kyng of France) whan he had conquered that lond; and putte it in to cristene mennes hondes, for to kepe that contree. And for that cause, was it clept the Mownt rialle. And undre it there is a town, that hight Sobachie: and there alle abowte dwellen cristene men, undre trybute. Fro thens gon men to Nazarethe, of the whiche oure Lord berethe the surname. And fro thens, there is 3 journeyes to Jerusalem: and men gon be the provynce of Galylee, be Ramatha, be Sothym and be the highe hille of Effraim; where Elchana and Anna, the modre of Samuelle the prophete, dwelleden. There was born this prophete: and aftre his dethe, he was buryed at Mount Joye, as I have seyd you before. And than gon men to Sylo; where the arke of God with the relikes weren kept longe tyme, undre Ely the prophete. There made the peple of Ebron sacrifice to oure Lord: and ther thei yolden up here avowes: and there spak God first to Samuelle, and schewed him the mutacioun of ordre of presthode, and the misterie of the sacrement. And right nyghe, on the left syde, is Gabaon and Rama and Beniamyn; of the whiche holy writt spekethe offe. And aftre men gon to Sychem, sumtyme clept Sychar; and that is in the provynce of Samaritanes; and there is a fulle fair vale and a fructuouse, and there is a fair cytee and a gode, that men clepen Neople. And from thens is a jorneye to Jerusalem. And there is the welle, where oure Lord spak to the woman of Samaritan. And there was wont to ben a chirche; but it is beten doun. Besyde that welle, Kyng Roboas let make 2 calveren of gold, and made hem to ben worschipt, and put that on at Dan, and that other at Betelle. And a myle fro Sychar, is the cytee of Deluze. And in that cytee dwelte Abraham, a certeyn tyme. Sychem is a 10 myle fro Jerusalem, and it is clept Neople; that is, for to seyne, the newe cytee. And nyghe besyde is the tombe of Josephe the sone of Jacob, that governed Egypt: for the Jewes baren his bones from Egypt, and buryed hem there. And thidre gon the Jewes oftentyme in pilgrimage, with gret devocioun. In that cytee was Dyne Jacobes doughter ravysscht; for whom hire bretheren slowen many persones, and diden many harmes to the cytee. And there besyde, is the hille of Garasoun, where the Samaritanes maken here sacrifice: in that hille wolde Abraham have sacrificed his sone Ysaac. And there besyde is the vale of Dotaym: and there is the cisterne, where Josephe was cast in of his bretheren, which thei solden; and that is a 2 myle fro Sychar. From thens gon men to Samarye, that men clepen now Sebast; and that is the chief cytee of that contree: and it sytt betwene the hille of Aygnes, as Jerusalem dothe. In that cytee was the syttinges of the 12 tribes of Israel: but the cytee is not now so gret, as it was wont to be. There was buryed seynt John the Baptist, betwene 2 prophetes, Helyseus and Abdyan: but he was beheded in the castelle of Macharyme, besyde the Dede See: and aftre he was translated of his disciples, and buryed at Samarie: and there let Julianas Apostata dyggen him up, and let brennen his bones; (for he was that time Emperour) and let wyndwe [Footnote: Blow away.] the ashes in the wynd. But the fynger, that schewed oure Lord, seyenge, _Ecce Agnus Dei_; that is to seyne, _Lo the Lamb of God_: that nolde nevere brenne, but is alle hol: that fynger leet seynte Tecle the holy virgyne be born in to the hill of Sebast; and there maken men gret feste. In that place was wont to ben a faire chirche; and many othere there weren; but thei ben alle beten doun. There was wont to ben the heed of seynt John Baptist, enclosed in the walle; but the Emperour Theodosie let drawe it out, and fond it wrapped in a litille clothe, alle blody; and so he leet it to be born to Costantynoble: and zit at Costantynoble is the hyndre partye of the heed: and the for partie of the heed, til undre the chyn, is at Rome, undre the chirche of seynt Silvestre, where ben nonnes of an hundred ordres; and it is zit alle broylly, as thoughe it were half brent: for the Emperour Julianus aboyeseyd, of his cursednesse and malice, let brennen that partie with the other bones; and zit it schewethe: and this thing hathe ben preved, both be popes and by emperours. And the Jowes benethe, that holden to the Chyn, and a partie of the assches, and the platere, that the hed was leyd in, whan it was smyten of, is at Gene: and the Geneweyes maken of it gret feste; and so don the Sarazynes also. And sum men seyn; that the heed of seynt John is at Amyas, in Picardye: and other men seyn, that it is the heed of seynt John the Bysschop. I wot nere, but God knowethe: but in what wyse than men worschipen it, the blessed seynt John holt him a payd. From this cytee of Sebast unto Jerusalem, is 12 myle. And betwene the hilles of that contree, there is a welle, that 4 sithes in the zeer chaungethe his colour; sometyme grene, sometyme reed, sometyme cleer, and sometyme trouble; and men clepen that welle Job. And the folk of that contree, that men clepen Samaritanes, weren converted and baptized by the apostles; but thei holden not wel here doctryne; and alle weys thei holden lawes by hem self, varyenge from cristene men, from Sarrazines, Jewes and Paynemes. And the Samaritanes leeven well in o Godi: and thei seyn wel, that there is but only o God, that alle formed, and alle schalle deme: and thei holden the Bible aftre the lettre: and thei usen the psawtere, as the Jewes don: and thei seyn, that thei ben the righte sones of God: and among alle other folk, thei seyn that thei ben best beloved of God; and that to hem belongethe the heritage, that God behighte to hise beloved children: and thei han also dyverse clothinge and schapp, to loken on, than other folk han; for thei wrappen here hedes in red linnene cloth, in difference from othere. And the Sarazines wrappen here hedes in white lynnene clothe. And the Cristene men, that duellen in the contree, wrappen hem in blew of Ynde; and the Jewes in zelow clothe. In that contree duellen manye of the Jewes, payenge tribute, as Cristene men don. And zif zee wil knowe the lettres, that the Jewes usen, as thei clepem hem, in manner of here _A. B. C. Alephe, Bethe, Gymel, Delethe, He, Vau, Zay, Cy, Thet, Joht, Kapho, Lampd [sic--KTH], Mem, Num, Samethe, Ey, Fhee, Sade, Cophe, Resch, Son, Tau_. Of the Province of Galilee, and where Antecrist schalle be born; Of Nazarethe. Of the Age of oure Lady. Of the Day of Doom; and of the Customes of Jacobites, Surryenes; and of the Usages of Gcorgyenes. [Sidenote: Chap. IX.] From this contree of the Samaritanes, that I have spoken of before, gon men to the playnes of Galilee. And men leven the hilles, on that o partye. And Galilee is on of the provynces of the Holy Land: and in that provynce is the cytee of Naym and Capharnaum and Chorosaym and Bethsayde. In this Bethseyde was Seynt Petre and Seynt Andrew borne. And thens, a 4 myle, is Chorosaym: and 5 myle fro Chorosaym, is the cytee of Cedar, of the psautre spekethe: _Et habitavi cum habitantibus Cedar_; that is for to seye, _And I have dwelled with the dwellynge men in Cedar_. In Chorosaym schalle Antecrist be born, as sum men seyn; and other men seyn, he schalle be born in Babyloyne: for the prophete seyth; _De Babilonia Coluber exiet, qui totum mundum devorabit_; that is to seyne, _Out of Babiloyne schal come a worm, that schal devouren alle the world_. This Antecrist schal be norysscht in Bethsayda, and he schal regne in Capharnaum: and therfore seythe Holy Writt: _Ve tibi, Chorosaym: ve tibi, Bethsayda: ve tibi, Capharnaum_; that is to seye, _Wo be to the, Chorosaym; wo to the, Bethsayda: wo to the, Capharnaum_. And alle theise townes ben in the lond of Galilee. And also, the cane of Galilee is 4 myle fro Nazarethe: of that cytee was Simon Chananeus, and his wif Canee; of the whiche the holy evaungelist spekethe off: there dide oure Lord the first myracle at the wedyng, whan he turned water in to wyn. And in the ende of Galilee, at the hilles, was the arke of God taken; and on that other syde is the Mownt Hender or Hermon. And there aboute gothe the Broke of Cison: and there besyde, Barache, that was Abymeleche sone, with Delbore the prophetisse, overcam the Oost of Ydumea, whan Cysera the kyng was slayn of Gebelle, the wif of Aber; and chaced beyonde the Flom Jordan, be strengthe of sword, Zeb and Zebec and Salmana; and there he slowghe him. Also a 5 myle fro Naym, is the cytee of Jezreel, that sometyme was clept Zarym; of the which cytee Jezabel the cursed queen was lady and queen, that toke awey the vyne of Nabaothe, be hire strengthe. Faste by that cytee, is the Feld Magede, in the whiche the Kyng Joras was slayn of the Kyng of Samarie, and aftre was translated and buryed in the Mount Syon. And a myle fro Jezrael ben the Hilles of Gelboe, where Saul and Jonathas that weren so faire, dyeden: wherfore David cursed hem, as holy writt seythe; _Montes Gelboe, nec Ros nec Pluvia, &c._; that is to seye, _Zee hilles of Gelboe, nouther Dew ne Reyne com upon you_. And a myle fro the hilles of Gelboe, toward the est, is the cytee of Cyrople, that was clept before Bethsayn. And upon the walles of that cytee was the hed of Saul honged. After gon men be the hille, besyde the pleynes of Galylee, unto Nazarethe, where was wont to ben a gret cytee and fair: but now there is not, but a lytille village, and houses a brood here and there. And it is not walled; and it sytt in a litille valeye, and there ben hilles alle aboute. There was our lady born: but sche was goten at Jerusalem. And be cause that oure lady was born at Nazarethe, therefore bare our Lord his surname of that town. There toke Josephe our lady to wyf, when sche was 14 zeere of age: and there Gabrielle grette our lady, seyenge, _Ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum_; that is to seyne, _Heyl fulle of Grace, oure Lord is with the_. And this Salutacioun was don in a place of a gret awteer of a faire chirche, that was wont to be somtyme: but it is now alle downe; and men han made a litylle resceyt, besyde a pylere of that chirche, for to resceyve the offrynges of Pilgrymes. And the Sarrazines kepen that place fulle derely, for the profyte that thei han there offe: and thei ben fulle wykked Sarrazines and cruelle, and more dispytous than in ony other place, and han destroyed alle the chirches. There nyghe is Gabrielles Welle, where oure Lord was wont to bathe Him, whan He was yong: and fro that welle bare he watre often tyme to his modre: and in that well sche wossche often tyme the clowtes of hire sone Jesu Crist. And fro Jerusalem unto thidre, is 3 journeyes. At Nazarathe was our Lord norisscht. Nazarethe is als meche to seye, as flour of the gardyn: and be gode skylle may it ben clept flour; for there was norisscht the flour of lyf, that was Crist Jesu. And 2 myle fro Nazarethe, it the cytee of Sephor, be the weye, that gothe from Nazerethe to Acon. And an half myle fro Nazarethe, is the lepe of oure Lorde: for the Jewes ladden him upon an highe roche, for to make him lepe doun, and have slayn him: but Jesu passed amonges hem, and lepte upon another roche; and zit ben the steppes of his feet sene in the roche, where he allyghte. And therfore seyn sum men, whan thei dreden hem of thefes, on ony weye, or of enemyes; _Jesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibet_; that is to seyne, _Jesus forsothe passynge be the myddes of hem, he wente_: in tokene and mynde, that oure Lord passed thorghe out the Jewes crueltee, and scaped safly fro hem: so surely mowe men passen the perile of thefes. And than sey men 2 vers of the psautre, 3 sithes: _Irruat super eos formido et pavor in magnitudine Brachii tui, Domine, Fiant inmobiles, quasi Lapis, donec pertranseat populus tuus, Domine; donec pertranseat populus tuus iste, quem possedisti_. And thanne may men passe with outen perile. And zee schulle undirstonde, that oure lady hadde child, whan sche was 15 zeere old: and sche was conversant with hire sone 33 zeer and 3 monethes; And aftre the passioun of oure Lord, sche lyvede 24 zeer. Also fro Nazarethe, men gon to the Mount Thabor; and that is a 4 myle: and it is a fulle faire hille, and well highe, where was wont to ben a toun and many chirches; but thei ben alle destroyed; but zit there is a place, that men clepen the scole of God, where he was wont to teche his disciples, and tolde hem the prevytees of hevene. And at the foot of that hille, Melchisedeche, that was Kyng of Salem, in the turnynge of that hille, mette Abraham in comynge azen from the bataylle, whan he had slayn Abymeleche: and this Melchisedeche was bothe kyng and prest of Salem, that now is cleped Jerusalem. In that hille Thabor, oure Lord transfigured him before seynt Petre, seynt John and seynt Jame; and there they sawghe gostly Moyses and Elye the prophetes besyde hem: and therefore seyde seynt Petre, _Domine, bonum est nos hic esse; faciamus tria Tabernacula_; that is to seye, _Lorde, it is gode for us to ben here; make we here 3 dwellying places_. And there herd thei a voys of the fadir, that seye, _Hic est filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi bene complacui_. And oure Lord defended hem, that thei scholde not telle that avisioun, til that he were rysen from dethe to lyf. In that hille and in that same place, at the day of doom, 4 aungeles, with 4 trompes, schulle blowen and reysen alle men, that hadden suffred dethe, sithe that the world was formed, from dethe to lyve; and schnlle comen in body and soule in juggement; before the face of oure Lord, in the Vale of Josaphate. And the doom schalle ben on Estre Day, suche tyme as oure Lord aroos: and the dom schalle begynne, suche houre as oure Lord descended, to helle and dispoyled it; for at such houre schal he dispoyle the world, and lede his chosene to blisse; and the othere schalle be condempne to perpetuelle peynes: and thanne schalle every man have aftir his dissert, outher gode or evylle; but zif the mercy of God passe his rightewisnesse. Also a myle from Mount Thabor, is the Mount Heremaon; and there was the cytee of Naym. Before the zate of that cytee, reysed oure Lord the wydewes sone, that had no mo children. Also 3 myle fro Nazarethe, is the Castelle Saffra; of the whiche, the sones of Zebedee and the sones of Alphee weren. Also a 7 myle fro Nazarethe is the Mount Kayn; andl andre that is a welle, and besyde that welle, Lameche Noees fadre sloughe Kaym with an arwe. For this Kaym wente thorghe breres and bosshes, as a wylde best; and he had lyved fro the tyme of Adam his fadir, unto the tynme of Noe; and so he lyvode nyghe to 2000 zeer. And this Lameche was alle blynd for elde. Fro Saffra, men gothe to the see of Galylee and to the cytee of Tyberye, that sytt upon the same see. And alle be it, that men clepen it a see, zit is it nouther see ne arm of the see: for it is but a stank of fresche watir, that is in lengthe 100 furlonges; and of brede 40 furlonges; and hathe with in him gret plentee of fissche, and rennethe in to Flom Jordan. The cytee it not fulle gret, but it hathe gode bathes with in him. And there; as the Flom Jordan partethe fro the see of Galilee, is a gret brigge, where men passen from the lond of promyssioun, to the lond of Baazan and the lond of Gerrasentz, that ben about the Flom Jordan, and the begynnynge of the see of Tyberie. And fro thens may men go to Damask, in 3 dayes, be the kyngdom of Traconye; the whiche kyngdom lastethe fro mount Heremon to the see of Galilee, or to the see of Tyberie, or to the see of Jenazarethe; and alle is o see, and this the stank that I have told zou; but it chaungethe thus the name, for the names of the cytees that sytten besyde hem. Upon that see, went oure Lord drye feet; and there he toke up seynt Peter, when he began to drenche with in the see, and seyde to him, _Modice Fidei, quare dubitasti_? And aftre his resurrexioun, oure Lord appered on that see, to his disciples, and bad hem fyssche, and filled alle the nett fulle of gret fisshes. In that see rowed oure Lord often tyme; and there he called to him, seynt Peter, seynt Andrew, seynt James and seynt John, the sones of Zebedee. In that cytee of Tyberie, is the table, upon the whiche oure Lord eete upon, with his disciples, aftre his resurrexioun; and thei knewen him in brekynge of bred, as the gospelle seythe; _Et cognoverunt cum in fractione Panis_. And nyghe that cytee of Tyberie, is the hille, where oure Lord fedde 5 thousand persones, with 5 barly loves and 2 fisshes. In that cytee, a man cast an brennynge dart in wratthe aftir oure Lord, and the hed smot in to the eerthe, and wax grene, and it growed to a gret tree; and zit it growethe, and the bark there of is alle lyk coles. Also in the hed of that See of Galilee, toward the Septemtryon, is a strong castelle and an highe, that highte Saphor: and fast besyde it, is Capharnaum: with in the lond of Promyssioun, is not so strong a castelle: and there is a gode toun benethe, that is clept also Saphor. In that castel, seynt Anne our ladyes modre was born. And there benethe was Centurioes hous. That contree is clept the Galilee of Folk, that weren taken to tribute of Sabulon, and of Neptalym. And in azen comynge fro that castelle, a 30 myle, is the cytee of Dan, that somtyme was clept Belynas, or Cesaire Philippon, that sytt at the foot of the Mount of Lyban, where the Flom Jordan begynnethe. There begynnethe the lond of Promyssioun, and durethe unto Bersabee, in lengthe, in goynge toward the northe in to the southe; and it conteynethe well a 180 myles: and of brede, that is to seye, fro Jericho unto Jaffe, and that conteynethe a 40 myle of Lombardye, or of our contree, that ben also lytylle myles. Theise ben not myles of Gascoyne, ne of the provynce of Almayne, where ben gret myles. And wite zee welle, that the lond of Promyssioun is in Sirye. For the reme of Sirye durethe fro the desertes of Arabye, unto Cecyle, and that is Ermonye the grete, that is to seyne, fro the southe to the northe: and fro the est to the west, it durethe fro the grete desertes of Arabye onto the West See. But in the reme of Syrie, is the kyngdom of Judee, and many other provynces, as Palestyne, Galilee, litylle Cilicye, and many othere. In that contree and other contrees bezonde, thei han a custom, whan thei schulle usen werre, and whan men holden sege abbouten cytee or castelle, and thei with innen dur not senden out messagers with lettres, from lord to lord, for to aske sokour, thei maken here letters and bynden hem to the nekke of a colver, and leten the colver flee; and the colveren ben so taughte, that threi fleen with tho lettres to the verry place, that men wolde sende hem to. For the colveres ben norysscht in tho places, where thei ben sent to; and thei senden hem thus, for to beren here lettres. And the colveres retournen azen, where as thei ben norisscht; and so thei doe comounly. MANDEVILLE'S VOYAGES PART II. Secunda pars. CAPVT. 24. Persuasio ad non credentes terrarum diuersitates per orben terræ. Mirabilis Deus mirabilia propter semetipsum creauit, vt scilicet ab intellectualibus creaturis suis intelligeretur, et per hoc diligeretur, atque in hoc ipse creator, et creatura se mutuo fruerentur. Mirabilis est ergo Deus maximè in illo, quòd ipse solus sufficit sibi: et mirabilis in altis Dominus, hoc est, in coelo et in coelestibus: sed et mirabilis in terris, et in terrestribus: tamen si verum indicauerimus, nihil est mirabile, quod mirum videri non debet, si ille qui omnipotens est, fecit quæcunque voluit in coelo et in terra. Sed ecce dum nobis contingit videre rem quam priùs non vidimus, miràtur noster animus, non quòd simpliciter mirum est, sed quod nobis id mirum et nouum. Deus vnus, simplex quidem est, vt creaturæ coelestes quò Deo magis de propinquo sunt eò simpliciores existunt. Terrestres autem quòd in situ remotiori sint, idcircò magis diuersæ, magis contrariæ inter se sunt. [Sidenote: Reprehensio incredulorum qui nihil credunt, nisi quod domi viderint.] Ergo quicunque sapiens est non stupet animo, dum in terrenis respicit res varias, et diuersas, vel dum diuersa contingunt, seu inueníuntur in partibus terræ diuersis: sed qui intellectum super sensum non eleuant, et magis credunt oculo suo corporeo, quàm spirituali, et qui nunquam à natiuitatis suæ loco recesserunt, isti vix volunt credere, seu possunt alijs vera narrantibus de mundi diuersitatibus. Attamen tales, si vellent, de facili videre possint suum errorem. Quia quicunque natus in vna ciuitate, vel patria, si tantummodo moueat se ad proximam ciuitatem, inueniet ibi procul dubio aliquam differentiam, vel diuersitatem in idiomate linguæ, vel in modo loquendi, in moribus hominum, in occupationibus, in legibus, in consuetudinibus, vel etiam in agrorom fructibus, in arborum frugibus, seu in his quæ gignuntur in terra, in aere, et in aquis. Si ergo aliqualiter inueniri possit differentia in proximo, quanto maior sit distantia, tanto maior differentia æstimandi est in remoto, vel in remotiori, seu remotissimo loco. Vnde ego, quia in præcedente parte tractatus narrare coepi aliqua, quæ in his, et in peregrinatione mea vsque in terram promissionis sanctam vidi, de quibus etiam potest, et poterit constare multis, qui in partibus nostris eadem peregrinatione me præcesserunt, et secuti sunt, procedam in describendo aliqua illorum, quæ vidi et percepi in deambulatione mea, qua peragraui multas alias terras, et perlegi multas vndas, vsque in multorum hoc tempus annorum, et propter insipientes, et discredentes non tacebo. Sed nec propter credentes nec sapientes satis mouebor; tamen vt diuersa Dei opera qui respicere non possunt oculo, saltem legant, vel audiant ex hoc scripto. Pauca vtique vidí horum quæ sunt, sed pauca horum quæ vidi, narrabo. CAPVT. 25. De Armenia, Persia, et Amazonia. De regionibus quæ Iudeæ contiguantur, scilicet Arabia, Aegypto et Syria, statui modicum vltra narrare, relinquens hunc locum narrandi alijs peregrinis. Et festinans ad terras remotiores, Armeniam minorem, non per singulas ciuitates, sed celeriter transiens, vidi à remotis amplum cástrum vocatum Dei espoyer de quo mihi sustinui dici, quod sit vastum, et à nemine, habitatum, nisi à fantastica quadam Domina, seruante in medio maioris aulæ super perticam, volucrem rapacem, quæ dicitur Latinè accipiter, vel huiusmodi: quam auem, si aliquis hominum ingrediens se custodire peruigil absque vlla somnolentia per septem continuos dies et noctes posset, ipsa Domina in fine facti apparens concederet illi quantamcunque faceret petitionem terræ, commodi, vel honoris, sed si obdormiret, periret. Huic tamen dicto parùm curaui accommodare aurem, nisi quod communiter dicebatur, in bene transacto tempore prædicta fuisse tentata per duas personas, vnum Regem, et alterum Pastorem. Et Regi quidem quod indebitam fecit petitionem, vile successit negotium, pastori peroptimè successit negotium. In Armenia maiori, est magna et bona ciuitas Artyron ad dietam prope fluuium Euphratem. Et sunt ibi duo montes euecti valdè, vnus Sabissatele, alter Ararath, quorum vltimus habet per anfractius, et periodos per ascensum viæ, ferè 7. leucas, et quasi omni tempore est plenus niue. In illo loco fertur quicuisse Arca diluuii, cuius vnicus asser monstratur, in Ecclesia Monachorum ad montis pedem habitantium; attamem nullus hominum pro frigore nimio attentare præsumit ascensum. Est autem et ibi ciuitas Landania, de qua nonnulli dicunt quòd Noe illam fundauerat, et ciuitas magna Hany, in qua tempore Christianorum mille habebantur Ecclesiæ. In illa Armenia sub Imperio Persiæ est famosa ciuitas Tauris, vbi de mercimonijs ponderalibus fit inestimabilis mercatura. Hinc ad decem diates ad Orientem habeatur ciuitas Zadona, in ea Imperator Persarum moratur, et est in eodem imperio ciuitas valdè magna Cassach, quæ recto itinere dicitur store ab Hierosolymis 55. dietis. Geth ciuitas imperialis, et melior totius Persiæ in hac terra noscitur esse, cum tamen Carnaa sit satis maior. Circa fines Persiæ in terra Sennaar, est illa quæ olim dicebatur Babylonia, nec apparet ibi aliquid, quàm ruinæ grandis et vetustæ cuitatis, quæ ab hominibus est deserta, sed à Draconibus inhabitata, et alijs animalibus, et volucribus venenosis. Hanc terram tenet Imperator Persarum, vt suprà dixi. Etiam intra fines Persiæ, est terra, vbi sanctus Iob patiens morabatur, quæ modo dicitur terra Sues, in cuius montanis inuenitur Manna, quod venditur in Apothecis. Hunc terræ Sues contiguatur Chaldæa, quæ non est magna, quamuis nobilis regio habeatur. Et ab ista intratur Amazonia. Amazonia est modica insula, quam absquæ viris sofæ regunt et inhabitant mulieres: cuius rei prima causa hæc fuit. Olim cum insula communiter a viris, et mulieribus habitabatur, Rex eius dictus Colopius cum omnibus nobilibus suis in bello contra Regnum Scithiæ occisus fuit. Audientes igitur nobilium vxores ipsius insulæ se viduatas, super his, in doloroso furore animi ad plures congressiones occiderunt et fugauerunt omnes aliarum mulierum maritos, ne scilicet sua ingennitas subiaceret voluntati, et potestati plebis. Et tandem post reformatam inter se pacem mulieres inito consilio statuerum se solas absque viris dominari in terra, atque ex tunc sumi sibi regimen per certam electionis formam quæ robusta, agilis, sapiens, iuuenis, ac valens apparet in armis. Sciendum tamen est, extra hanc insulam flumen esse, et alias modicas insulas, quarum vna dicitur Carmagite, de quibus licitum est ijs accessire viros, et amasios bis in anno, ita vt nulla moram trahat septem dierum naturalium sub poena indubitata occisionis. Infantem masculum nutrire licet quoadusque per se comedat et gradiatur, tunc transmittendus est in domum paternam. Generosæ natæ puellæ aufertur ignito cultro vber sinistrum pro scuto gerendo, degeneri dextrum, ad sagittandum de arcu Turco. Regina cum consíliaribus et officialibus suis regit sapienter et benè terràm, et seruat omnes sibi sub districta obedientia, per leges, et poenas, et amendas conscriptas. Et cum circumiacentium insularum Reges contra se ad inuicem proeliari solent, tunc Regina Amazoniæ cum suis Nobilibus ab vna parte pro magno stipendio vocari solet in adiutorium, vbi et inuentæ sunt sapientes in consilijs, probæ in armis, acres in conflictibus, et in omnibus Curiæ actibus bene valentes. CAPVT. 26. De Aethiopia, et Diamantibus, et de infima India. Aethiopia consistit à terra Chaldeorum in Austrum, quæ distinguitur in Orientalem Aethiopiam, et ['and' in source text--KTH] Meridionalem, quarum prima in illis partibus vocatur Cush, propter hominum nigredinem, altera Mauritania. [Sidenote: Mauritania. Regnum Saba.] Et est ibi Regnum Saba, de quo legitur, quod Regi Salomoni Regis Arabum, et Saba, dona et tributa adduxerunt. Eòque Regina Saba venit à finibus, hoc est, à longinquis terræ partibus audire sapientiam Salomonis. Omnes in Aethiopia aquæ in fluuijs et riparijs, et fontibus sapiunt Sal, propter nimium calorem. [Sidenote: Plinius.] Est ibi vnus aquæ fons ita de nocte calidus, vt nemo in eo sustineat manum, et ita de die frigidus, vt bibi vix possit. Generaliter isti de Mauritania Aethiopes comedunt parum, de facili inebriantur, fluxum ventris patiuntur nec diu viuunt. [Sidenote: India triplex.] De Aethiopia intratur in Indiam, mediam, nam triplex est videlicet infima, quæ in quibusdam suis partibus est nimis frigida ad inhabitandum: Media quæ satis temperata est, et superior, quæ nimis calida. In India infima propter continuum et graue frigus generatur christallum de aqua per gelu, sicut quidam asserunt. Sed certum est ibi haberi rupes christalli, et in illis gigni optimos Diamantes, quos lingua illius vocant Hamefht. [Sic. 'Hamese' in English version below--KTH.] Est autem diamas paruus præciosus lapis, magnæ virtutis, sicut pleniùs describitur in lapidariis. Quidam inueniuntur in magnitudine pisi, vel etiam piso minores: alii ad quantitatem fabæ, sed nullus maior auellana, vel nuce. Et dicitur de eo in partibus illis quod si hic qui portat sit continens, et sobrius reddit illum magnanimum et audacem, et iuuat in causis iustis certantem, conseruat substantias corporales, aufert praua somnia, depellit prauorum spirituum illusiones, sortilegia, et incantationes, ac valet contra lunaticam passionem, vt dæmonis obsessionem, et venenosum quod illi appropinquauerit exsudat, et exhumescit. Optimi Diamantes de India assimulantur in colore multum christallo, sed sunt aliquantulum magis citrini, et pro sui duritie poliri non possunt. Inueniuntur autem ibi nonnulli subnigri ad colorem violæ: Alii nascuntur in Arabia nigri, et tenuiores prædictis, alii in Macedonia, et quidam in Cypro, sed in mineriis auri, dum prima massa in minutias confringitur, interdum reperíuntur. Sciendum enim est, sæpè plures simul crescere, nec non generant, et concipiunt inuicem de rore coeli, quemadmodum et Margaritæ: quod ego pluries tentans, accepi de rupe cespitem cum diamante masculo, et femella, plantans in pratello, et frequentans, focillans madefeci de rore Maii. Et ecce in breui, paruulus ex iis gignebatur, nascebatur, et adolescebat ad debitam quantitatem: fiunt verò omnes per naturam cum pluribus angulis vt trium vel quatuor, aut quinque laterum, et nonnulli cum lateribus senis. E contra omnes margaritæ nascuntur in forma sphærica, seu rotunda. Et notandum quòd mercatores, pro diamantibus frequenter aliud vendunt: Nam solet commixtio fieri de christallo Crochee, de Saphiro, de Lonpes Citrino, de lapide Yri, et de paruis petris ex murium nidis. Probatio veri diamantis haberi potest his modis. Primò si ita inuenitur tener, vt se poliri dimittat non est verus. Item si de eo non potest scindi vitrum cristallum, non est verus. Item accipe paruum quantitatis lapidem Adamantem, qui solet sibi attrahere acum et ferrum, et pone verum diamantem, super adamantem, túncque si ministraueris adamanti acum, videbis adamantem operari nihil, vero diamante præsente, dum tamen adamas non sit diamante maior. Item si cultellum laminæ tenuis, habentem in manubrio inclusum vel alligatum verum diamantem in mensa vel assere erexeris, protinus vt ipsi venenum appropinquabit, stabit tremulans atque sudans. Et notandum, quòd per luxuriosum, seu gulosum qui ferret diamantem amitteret virtutem ad tempus. Terra Indiæ appellatur ab Indo ibi currente fluuio, cuius anguillæ inueniuntur quandoque vltra 20. pedes in longitudine. In media India transitur per multas insulas vsque ad mare Oceanum, in insulam Ormuz, vbi Mercatores Venetiæ sæpè tendunt, sed viri, qui assueti non sunt tantum sustinere calorem, ne exeant perpendicula de corporibus propè ad genua, ibi se contra hoc debitè inuoluunt, et ligant, nec audent ibi transire nauibus ferrum continentibus, ne teneantur de rupibus adamantum. Hic in aliquibus Aethiopiæ partibus habitant publicè, inhonestorum vtriusque sexus hominum consuetudinem inhonestam gerentes, et in æstu meridiano refrigerandi causa exeunt circa ciuitatem ad riparias iacere, et discurrere nudis prorsus corporibus omni pudore reiecto, ex quo procul dubio inhonesta vitia sequuntur. Est et non longè ab ista insula regio seu insula Caua vel Chaua, quæ à primo statu multùm est minorata per mare. Hi sunt infidelissimi Paganorum. Nam quidam adorant Solem, alij Lunam, ignem, aquam, et terram, arborem, vel serpentem, vel cui de mane primò obuiant. Ibi magni mures, quos nos dicimus rattas, sunt in quantitate paruorum canum. Et quoniam per cattos capi non possunt, capiuntur per canes maiores. Corpora mortuoram non sepeliuntur ibi, nec cadauera quælibet bestiarum operiuntur, quòd ad aeris æstum carnes in breui tempore consumuntur, nam et tota insula consistit sub zona torrida. Inde transiri potest per mare in Indiam superiorem, sine maiorem, videlicet Imperium Presbyteri Ioannis ad portum ciuitatis Zarke, quæ est elegans et bona satis. In ea habitant plurimi Catholicæ fidei Christiani: et habentur plurimæ Abbatiæ religiosorum, quas olim Dux Danorum Ogerus constituit, vnde et vsque nunc dicuntur Ecclesiæ Dani, atque ex hoc nauigari potest in terram Lombe. CAPVT. 27. De foresto Piperis, et fonte iuuentutis. Regio seu insula dicta Lombe, spatiosa quidem est, continens forestum dictum aliàs Tombar, longum per dietas 18. In orbe vniuerso non noscimus crescere piper, præterquàm in hoc foresto. In quo et habetur duæ, ciuitates, vna Flandrina, (et illa ciuitas inhabitata est à Iudæis, et Christianis, inter quos sæpè magna seditio oritur) altera Singlant: quas quondam Danus fertur fundasse Ogerus, vocans vnam Flandrinam, nomine auiæ suæ ex parte patris sui, alteram Florentam nomine auiæ ex parte matris suæ, quæ mutato nomine nunc vocatur Singlant. Sciendum est autem, piper ibi crescere in hunc modum: sicut nos plantamus vites aut quercus arbores robustas, vt vitis cum fructibus se spargat, vt supportetur per ramos, sic coluntur arbusta piperis ad arbores foresti, et sparguntur per ramos, et dependent fructus vt botri. Et venit in eodem arbusto triplex piper in anno. Primum est quod vocatur longum piper, et venit priusquam nascuntur folia in arbustis, quemadmodum nos in arbore videmus corylo in hyeme ante folia præcedere quasdam caudulas longas, quo circa initium vindemiato, nascuntur cum foliis botri piperis viridis ad similitudinem paruarum vuarum. Quod quidem circa tempus Iulii in eadem viriditate vindemiatum in æstu feruido siccatur ad Solem, vt accipiat nigredinem, et rugarum contractionem. Posteà exurgit piper album in granis minoribus, et in abundantia satis minori, quo tanquam preciosiori vtuntur in partibus illis et rarò vendunt ad partes istas. Primum piper appellatur Sorbotyn, secundum Fulful, tertium verò Bauos. Sunt autem per nemus istud fera animalia, et venenosa, sicut parui serpentes, colubri, et huiusmodi, de quibus nescio quis famam diffundit per nostras partes, quod vindemiatores piperis tales vermes fugant per ignem: sed non est ita, imò vngunt brachia manus, tibias, et pedes cum quodam succo herbæ dictæ Limonse, à quo cito diffugit omne venenum. In huius foresti capite sub monte Polembo, est ciuitas dicta Bolemba, et sub eodem monte fons qui dicitur Iuuentutis. Aqua huius fontis reddit odorem et saporem quasi de omni genere aromatum, nam singulis penè horis immutat odorem, et saporem. Et quisquis per aliquos dies potat ieiuno stomacho sanatur in breui tempore, à quacunque interiori infirmitate, languore duntaxat mortis excepto: et sanè illorum qui propè sunt, et frequenter bibunt apparet per totum vitæ tempus mira iuuentus. Ego autem ter vel quater bibi, quamobrem et vsque hodiè arbitror potius me corporaliter valere. Putatur enim fons ille immediatè per poros subterraneos eliquari de fonte paradisi terrestris, ita quòd nulla via decurrentium super terram fluentium vitietur. In ista etiam regione, et in insulis circumquaque crescit gingiber valdè bonum, vnde et mercatores sæpè ibi tendunt de Venetia pro emendo pipere et gingibere. Gentes verò huius insulæ peruersæ et stollidissimæ sunt superstitionis adorantes bouem tanquam animal beatissimum, propter eius simplicitatem mansuetudinem, patientiam, et vtilitatem. Multitudo cuiuslibet ciuitatis vel uillæ vnum specialem nutrit bouem, quem postquam laborauit in aratro per sex annos immolant manducantes pariter cum maxima solemnitate. Et quicunque inde minimam minutiam comedit, reputat se sanctificatum totum. Porro apud Regem tenetur bos singularis, cuius custos diligentissimè vrinam in uase aureo accipit simpliciter, et de fimo in vase consimili: et quotidie venit summus eorum prælatus quem dicunt Archiprotoplaustum, offert personaliter in prædictis preciosis vasis, Domino Regi de bouis vrina et fimo, atque in vrina, quam appellant Gaul, tingens manus, defricit, et perungit Regis pectus et frontem, deinde similiter de fimo in multa cordis attentione, ad finem vt possint assequi quatuor virtutes bouis præfati. Post regem cum reuerentia accedunt, et vnguntur Barones, principes, et post ipsos cæteri ordinati quicúnque attingere possint, putantes se sanctificari per rem penitus non valentem, imo nimis foetidam, et inhostem. Præterea populi isti colunt Idola facta ad medium in forma humana, et ad medium in forma bouis. In quibus permissione Dei per eorum perfidiam maligni spiritus habitant dantes de interrogatis responsa. Et hijs Idolis offerunt infinita donari aquandoque, et sacrificant interdum proprios infantes, ipsorum sanguine Idola respergentes. Dum hic maritus moritur, vxor comburitur cum marito, nisi de illo habeat sobolem cum quo viuere solet, et vilet. Quæ sibi eligit cum prole superuiuere, non habebitur de cætero fide digna. Attamen in simili causa, si vir non vult cremari cum vxore mortua, non minuit ei honorem. Et forte vinum nascitur ibi: quod mulieres bibunt, et non viri, vt sic mulieribus crescant barbæ, sed mulieribus raduntur, et viris minime. CAPVT. 28. De Ecclesia et corpore Saneti Thomæ Apostoli. Hinc Meridiem pluribus exactis Insulis per viam decem dietarum venitur in Regnum Mabron. Illic in ciuitate Calamiæ, seruatur in magno templo corpus beatissimi Thomæ Apostoli Domini nostri Iesu Christi in capsa honorificata. In quo loco et martirizatus fuit, licet dicunt quidam, quod in Edissa ciuitate. Iste populus non est multum tempus transactum, quin fuit totus in fidei religione, sed nunc est ad pessimos Gentilium ritus peruersus, nec attendit, nec veneratur relliquias sancti corporis Apostoli ibidem contentas, quamuis ijs euidens, ac vtile, et mirificum præstare solebat beneficium, quod infra narrabo. Per certas historias habetur Ducem Danorum Ogerum conquisiuisse has terras, et in exaltatione sanctarum Apostoli relliquiarum fecisse fieri præfatam spectactilem Ecclesiam, ac intra, eum reponi in nobilissimo loculo gemmis auro, argentoque decenter ornato Sanctum corpus, ac deinde post annorum tempus trecentorum Assyrios abstulisse feretrum cum ipso corpore sancto in Edissam ciuitatem Mesopotamiæ, in qua et fuit martyrizatus secundum quosdam, rursumque post sexaginta et tres annos recuperatum corpus in suam fuisse Ecclesiam restitutum, videlicet in Calamia, atque in eiusdem recuperationis signum certum dimiserunt isti, et dimittunt extra feretri loculum dependere brachium dextrum, cum manu quæ tetigisse creditur pia resurgentis vulnera Christi. Eadem quoque manus solet vsque hodie suæ veræ poenitentiæ tale manifestere miraculum vt dum partes quælibet litigantes velint vtræque suas causas iuramento confirmare, conscriptis hinc inde causis ponantur ambæ cartulæ in Apostili manu. Quæ cuntis [Footnote: Interea dum exirent, Monachi suos dolos potuerunt exercere.] exeuntibus Ecclesiam protinus sub vnius horæ tempore reiecta longius falsitate, veritatem sibi reseruat: sed nunc sicut dicere coepi isti populi huic beneficio Dei ingrati, et diabolica illusione excæcati mirabiliter paganizant. Nam et in hac ipsa beati Thomæ Ecclesia statuerunt multa miræ magnitudinis simulachra, ex quibus vnum quod maius est multo alijs apparet sedens homo in alto solio adoperto aureis sericis, et lapidibus præciosis, habensque ad collum suspensa pro ornatu multa cinctoria præciose gemmis, et auro contexta. Ad hoc autem Idolum adorandum confluunt peregrini à remotis partibus, et propinquis, in satis maiori copia, et valdè feruentiori deuotione quàm Christiani, ad sanctum Iacobum in Galizia quia multi eorum per totum peregrinationis iter, non audent erigere palpebras oculorum, ne forte propter hoc deuotio intermittatur. Alij de propè venientes superaddunt labori itinerandi, vt ad tertium vel ad quartum passum semper cadant in genibus. Nonnulli quoque demoniaca inspiratione semetipsos per viam peregrinationis lanceolis, et cultellis nunc minoribus, nunc maioribus sauciant vulneribus per singula corporis loca, et dum ante Idolum perueniunt, excisum frustum de carne propria proijciunt ad Idolum pro offerenda, ac plagis durioribus se castigant, et quandoque spontaneè penitus se occidunt: in solemnitatibus verò, sicut in dedicatione, et sicut in thronizatione simulachrorum, fit conuentis populi, quasi totius Regni. Et ducitur cum processione maius Idolum per circuitum ciuitatis, in curru preciosissimo, modis omnibus perornato, et præcedunt in numero magno puellæ cantantes binæ, et binæ ordinatissimè, succeditque pluralitas Musicorum cum instrumentis varijs simphonizantes, quos continuè subsequitur currus, cuius lateribus coniungit se peregrinorum exercitus, qui et venerunt de remotis. Ibique cernitur miserabilis actus vltra modum. Nam aliqui victi vltrà modum diabolica deuotione proijciunt se sub rotis currus præcedentis, vt frangantur sibi crura, brachia, latera, dorsa, nec non et colla in reuerentiam Dei sui (vt dicunt) a quo remunerationem sperant, venire ad Paradisum terrestrem. Et post processionem postquam statuerunt Idolum in templo suo loco, multiplicatur coram simulachris numerus sæpè plangentium, et occidentium vltrà quam credi sit facile. Ita quod quandoque in illa vnica solemnitate inueniuntur ducenta corpora, vel plura occisorum. Et adstantes propinqui amici talium diaboli martyrum, eum magna musicorum melodia decantantes in sua lingua offerunt. Idolis corpora ac demum accenso rogo omnia corpora comburunt in honorem Idolurum, assumentes sibi singuli aliquid de ossibus aut cineribus pro reliquiis, quas putant sibi valituras contra quælibet infortunia, et tempestates. Et habetur ante templum aquæ lacus, velut seruatorium piscium, in quo proijcit populus largissimè suas oblationes, argentum, aurum, gemmas, cyphos, et similia, quibus ministri certis temporibus exhibentes prouident Ecclesiæ, ac simulachro, ac sibi ipsis abundantèr. Quoddam fabulosum scriptum exiuit per partes nostras, quod in prædicta processione circumferatur cumpheretro corpus beati Thomæ, qui et in fine processionis populu compopulo communicaret proprijs manibus de Eucharistæ sacramento, sed non est ita, et nunquam fuit. CAPVT. 29. De Iaua, et quibusdam aiijs meridionalibus Insulis, et de farina, melle et piscibus Ogeri Ducis Danorum. Inde vlterius procedendo in Austrum per multas et mirabiles terras quinquaginta duarum diætarum spacio, habetur magna Insula Lamori. Illic omnes nudi incedunt, et ferè omnia sunt singulis communia, nec vtuntur priuatis clauibus siue seris, imo et omnes mulieres sunt communes omnibus et singulis viris, dummodo violentia non inferatur: Sed et peior est ijs consuetudo, quòd libentèr comedunt teneras carnes humanas: vnde et negotiatores adferunt eis crassos infantes venales: quod si non satis pingues afferuntur, eos saginant sicut nos vitulum, siue porcum. Hic apparet in bona altitudine polus Antarcticus, et incipit modò apparere in alta Lybia, ita quod in alta Æthiopia eleuatur octodecim gradibus, prout ipse prohaui Astrolabio. Ad meridiem terræ Lamori est Insula bona, Sumebor, cuius gentes reputant se nobiliores alijs, signantes se in facie certo cauterio. Isti semper guerras geerunt contra præfatus gentes nudas de Lamory. Ad modicam inde destantiam habetur Insula Rotonigo abundans in bonis pluribus: sed et in Austrum sequuntur aliæ plures regiones et Insulæ, de quibes prolixum narrare fuisset. Et est valde grandis regio Iaua, habens in circuitu ambitum leucarum duarum millium. Huius rex est valdè potens, et imperans septem insularum vicinarum regibus. Terra ista est populosa valdè, et crescunt in ea species, et abundantia gingiberis, canella, gariofoli, nuces muscata, et mastix cum aromatibus multis. Sed et quod ibi nascatur vinum, non habent: aurum et argentum est ibi in copia immensa, quòd patet in regis Iauæ palatio, cuius palatij nobilitas non est facilè scribenda. Cuncti gradus ascendentes ad palatij aulas, et aularum cameras, et ad thalamos Camerarum sunt solidi de argento vel auro, sed et omnis stratura pauimentorum in alijs habetur ad similitudinem scacarij, vnam quadratam argenti, alteram auri, laminis valdè crassis, et in ipsis pauimentis, sunt exsculpta gesta, et historiæ diuersæ. In principali verò aula, est plenariè expressa Dani Ducis Ogeri historia, à natiuitate ipsius, quousque in Franciam fantasticè dicatur reuersus, cum tempore Caroli magni regis Franciæ, ipse Ogerus armata manu conquisiuit Christianitati ferè omnes partes transmarinas à Ierosolymis vsque ad arbores solis et Lunæ, ac propè paradisum terrestrem. Pro hac Regione Iaua, (quæ tangit fines Imperij Tartariæ) sibi subiuganda, Imperator Grand Can multoties pugnauit, sed nunquam valuit expugnare. Hinc per mare venitur ad regnum Thalamassæ, [Footnote: Vel Tholomassi.] quòd et Panchon [Footnote: Vel Paten.] dicitur, in quo habetur magnus numerus bonarum ciuitatum. Intra hanc Insulam, quatuor sunt genera arborum, de quarum vna accipitur farina ad panem, de secunda mel, de tertia vinum, et de quarta pessimum venenum. Extrabitur autem farina de suis arboribus isto modo. Certo tempore anni percutitur stipes arboris vndique propè terram cum securi, et cortex in locis pluribus vulneratur, de quibus recipitur liquor spissus, qui desiccatus ad solis æstum et contritus reddit farinam albam, ac si de frumento esset confectus, attamen hic panis non est triticei saporis, sed alterius valdè boni. Simili modo de suis arboribus mel elicitur, et vinum liquitur: excepto quod illa non sicut gramina prima desiccantur. Fertur quoque ibidem, extractionem huius farinæ, mellis, et vini, per Angelum primitus fuisse ostensam prædicto Danorum Duci, illic fame cum suo exercitu laboranti. Contra venenum quod de quarto arboris genere stíllat, solum est intoxicato remedium, vt de proprio fimo per puram aquam distemperato bibat. Et est in hac Insula quoddam mare mortuum, velut lacus foetidus, cuius in plerísque locis fundus, humano ingenio non valet attingi: miræ magnitudinis arundines crescunt super hunc lacum, in altitudine cedrorum aut abietum pedum ducentorum, ita vt viginti socij mecum nequiuimus vnius caput iacentis arundinis subleuare de terra. Minores etiam arundines nascuntur ad fluuii ripam, habentes in terra radices longitudinis trecentorum cubitorum aut plurium, Ad quarum nodos radicum, inueniuntur gemmæ preciosæ, de quibus expertum est, siquis vnam habuerit in pugno suo, ferrum corpori suo non nocebit: vnde si quis ibi pugnans, petat aduersarium, ac inimicum hac gemma munitum aggreditur eum cum fustibus non ferratis. De hac intratur in Insulam Calanoch, [Marginal note: Vel Alcnak.] magnam et refertam bonorum omnium. Rex eius potens est multum, et licitum est ei, quandocunque, et quibuslibet in regno vti mulieribus, de quibus interdum magnum numerum tenet puerorum. Mille quadringentos habere solet ad præliandum elephantes, quos sibi nutriunt villani per regnum. Elephantes vocant verkes. In littore maris miraculosè veniunt ibi semel in anno, per tres continuos dies, quasi de omni genere piscium marinorum, in maxima abundantia: et præbent se omnibus liberè capiendos ad manum. Nam et ego ipse cepi quamplures. Vnde notandum, quod eodem tempore anni quo super dicta extrahitur farina, mel, et vinum, conueniunt in hoc isti pisces: qua ambo mirabilia fecit vno tempore Deus olim producere suo Ogero, quæ et in memoria illius, vsque nunc, singulis annis innouantur. Et sunt in hoc territorio testudines terribilis quantitatis, fitque de maioribus Regi ac nobilibus delicatus ac preciosus cibus: mentior, si non quasdam ibidem viderim testudinum conchas, in quarum vna se tres homines occultarent, suntque omnes multum albi coloris. Si hic vir vxoratus moritur, sepelitur et vxor vna cum eo, quatenus, sicut ibi credunt, habeant eam statim sociam in seculo altero. The English version. And zee schulte undirstonde, that amonges the Sarazines, o part and other, duellen many Cristene men, of many maneres and dyverse names; and alle ben baptized, and han dyverse lawes and dyverse customes: but alle beleven in God the Fadir and the Sone and the Holy Gost: but alle weys fayle thei, in somme articles of oure feythe. Some of theise ben clept Jacobytes: for seynt Jame converted hem, and seynt John baptized hem. They seyn, that a man schal maken his confessioun only to God, and not to a man: for only to Him, scholde man zelden him gylty of alle, that he hathe mys don. Ne God ordeyned not, ne never devysed, ne the prophete nouther, that a man scholde schryven him to another, (as thei seyn) but only to God: as Moyses writethe in the Bible, and as David seythe in the Psawtre boke; _Confitebor tibi, Domine, in toto Corde meo_: and, _Delictum meum tibi cognitum feci_: and, _Deus meus es tu, et confitebor tibi_; and, _Quoniam cogitatio hominis confitebitur tibi_; &c. Fot thei knowen alle the bible, and the psautere: and therfore allegge thei so the lettre: but thei alleggen not the aucthoritees thus in Latyn, but in here langage, fulle appertely; and seyn wel, that David and othere prophetes seyn it. Natheles seynt Austyn and seynt Gregory seyn thus: Augustinus; _Qui scelera sua cogitat, et conversus fuerit, veniam sibi credat_. Gregorious; _Dominus potius mentem quam verba respicit_. And seynt Hillary seythe; _Longorum temporum crimina, in ictu Oculi pereunt, si Cordis nata fuerit compunctio_. And for suche auctoritees, thei seyn, that only to God schalle a man knouleche his defautes, zeldynge him self gylty, and cryenge him mercy, and behotynge to him to amende him self. And therfore whan thei wil schryven hem, thei taken fyre, and sette it besyde hem, and casten therin poudre of frank encens; and in the smoke therof, thei schryven hem to God, and cryen him mercy. But sothe it is, that this confessioun was first and kyndely: but seynt Petre the apostle, and thei that camen aftre him, han ordeynd to make here confessioun to man; and be gode resoun: for thei perceyveden wel, that no syknesse was curable, by gode medycyne to leye therto, but zif men knewen the nature of the maladye. And also no man may zeven covenable medicyne, but zif he knowe the qualitee of the dede. For o synne may be grettere in o man than in another, and in o place and in o tyme than in another: and therfore it behovethe him, that he knowe the kynde of the dede, and thereupon to zeven him penance. There ben othere, that ben clept Surienes; and thei holden the beleeve amonges us, and of hem of Grece. And thei usen alle berdes, as men of Grece don: and thei make the sacrament of therf bred: and in here langage, thei usen lettres of Sarrazines; but aftre the misterie of Holy chirche, thei usen lettres of Grece; and thei maken here confessioun, right as the Jacobytes don. There ben othere, that men clepen Georgyenes, that seynt George converted; and him thei worschipen, more than ony other seynt; and to him thei cryen for help: and thei camen out of the reme of George. Theise folk usen crounes schaven. The clerkes han rounde crounes, and the lewed men han crownes alle square: and thei holden Cristene lawe, as don thei of Grece; of whom I have spoken of before. Othere there ben, that men clepen Cristene men of Gyrdynge: for thei ben alle gyrt aboven. And ther ben othere, that men clepen Nestoryenes; and summe Arryenes, sume Nubyenes, sume of Grees, same of Ynde, and sume of Prestre Johnes Lond. And alle theise han manye articles of oure feythe, and to othere thei ben varyaunt. And of here variance, were to longe to telle; and go I wil leve, as for the tyme, with outen more spekynge of hem. Of the Cytee of Damasce. Of 3 Weyes to Jerusalem; on be Londe and be See; another more be Londe than be See; and the thridde Weye to Jerusalem, alle be Londe. [Sidenote: Chap. XI] Now aftre that I have told zou sum partye of folk, in the contrees before, now wille I turnen azen to my weye, for to turnen azen to this half. Thanne whoso wil go fro the lond of Galilee, of that that I have spoke, for to come azen on this half, men comen azen be Damasce, that is a fulle fayre cytee, and fulle noble, and fulle of alle merchandises, and a 3 journeyes long fro the see, and a 5 journeyes fro Jerusalem. But upon camaylles, mules, hors, dromedaries and other bestes, men caryen here merciandise thidre: and thidre comethe marchauntes with merchandise be see, from Yndee, Persee, Caldee, Ermonye, and of manye othere kyngdomes. This cytee founded Helizeus Damascus, that was Zoman and Despenser of Abraham, before that Ysaac was born: for he thoughte for to have ben Abrahames heir: and he named the toun aftre his surname Damasce. And in that place, where Damasc was founded, Kaym sloughe Abel his brother. And besyde Damasc is the Mount Seyr. In that cytee of Damasce, ther is gret plentee of welles: and with in the cytee and with oute, ben many fayre gardynes, and of dyverse frutes. Non other citee is not lyche in comparisoun to it of faire gardynes, and of faire desportes. The cytee is gret and fulle of peple, and wel walled with double walles. And there ben manye phisicyens. And seint Poul him self was there a physicyen, for to kepen mennes bodies in hele, before he was converted: and aftre that, he was phisicien of soules. And seynt Luke the Evaungelist was Disciple of seynt Poul, for to lerne phisik; and many othere. For seynt Poul held thanne scole of phisik. And neere besyde Damasce, was he converted: and aftre his conversionn, he duelte in that cytee 3 dayes, with outen sight, and with outen mete or drinke. And in tho 3 dayes he was ravisscht to hevene, and there he saughe many prevytees of oure Lord. And faste besyde Damasce, is the Castelle of Arkes, that is bothe fair and strong. From Damasce, men comen azen, be oure Lady of Sardenak, that is a 5 myle on this half Damasce; and it is sytt upon a roche, and it is a fulle faire place, and it semethe a castelle; for there was wont to ben a castelle; but it is now a fulle faire chirche. And there with inne, ben monkes and nonnes Cristene. And there is a vowt, undre the chirche, where that Cristene men duellen also: and thei han many gode vynes. And in the chirche, behynde the high awtere, in the walle, is a table of black wode, on the whiche somtyme was depeynted an ymage of oure Lady, that turnethe into flesche; but now the ymage schewethe but litille: but evermore thorewe the grace of God that table droppeth as hyt were of olyve. And there is a vessel of marbre, undre the table, to resseyve the oyle, thare of thay yeven unto pylgrymes: for it heleth of many sykenesses. And he that kepeth it clanly a yere, aftre that yere, hyt turneth yn to flesche and bloode. By twyne the cytee of Darke and the cytee of Raphane, ys a ryvere, that men clepen Sabatorye. For on the Saturday, hyt renneth faste; and alle the wooke elles, hyt stondeth stylle, and renneth nouzt or lytel. And there ys a nother ryvere, that upon the nyzt freseth wondur faste; and uppon the day, ys noon frost sene. And so gon men by a cytee, that men clepen Beruche. And thare men gon un to the see, that schal goon un to Cypre. And thay aryve at Porte de Sure or of Tyrye; and than un to Cypre. Or elles men mowen gon from the Porte of Tyrye ryzt welle, and com not yn to Cypre; and aryve at som haven of Grece; and thanne comen men un to theis countrees, by weyes, that I have spoken of by fore. Now have I tolde you of wayes, by the whyche men gon ferrest and longest; as by Babyloyne and Mounte Synay and other places many, thorewe the whyche londes, men turne azen to the lande of promyssyoun. Now wul y telle the ryzt way to Jerusalem. For som men wyl nouzt passe hyt, som for thay have nouzt despence of hem, for they have noon companye, and other many causes reasonables. And thare fore I telle you schorttely, how a man may goon with lytel costage and schortte tyme. A man that cometh from the londes of the weste, he goth thorewe Fraunce, Borgoyne and Lumbardye, and to Venys and to Geen, or to som other havene of the marches, and taketh a schyppe thare, and gon by see to the Isle of Gryffle; and so aryveth hem yn Grece or in Port Myroche or Valon or Duras, or at som other havene, and gon to londe, for to reste hem; and gon ayen to the see, and aryves in Cypre; and cometh nouzt yn the Ile of Roodes; and aryves at Famegoste, that ys the chefe havene of Cypre, or elles at Lamatoun. And thenne ynto the schyp ayen, and by syde the havene of Tyre, and come nouzt to lande; and so passeth he by alle the havens of that coast, until he come to Jaffe, that ys the neyest haven unto Jerusalem: for it is seven and twenty myle. And from Jaffe men goon to the cytee of Rames: and that ys but lytel thenne, and hyt is a fayre cytee. And by syde Rames, ys a fayre churche of oure Lady, whare oure Lord schewede hym to oure Lady, in thys lykenesse, that he tokeneth the Trynyte. And thare fast by, ys a churche of Seynt George, whare that hys heed was smyten of. And thanne un to the Castel Emaus; and thanne unto Mounte Joye: and from thenne, pylgrymes mowen fyrste se un to Jerusalem. And thanne un to Mount Modeyn: and thanne unto Jerusalem. And at the Mount Modeyn lythe the prophete Machabee. And overe Ramatha, ys the town of Douke; where of Amos the goude prophete was. A nother way. For alse moche as many men ne may not suffre the savour of the see, but hadden lever to gon by londe, they that hyt be more payne; a man schal soo goon un to on of the havenes of Lumbardye, als Venys or an other; and he schal passe yn to Grece, thorwe Port Moroche, or an other; and so he schal gon un to Constantynople. And he schal so passe the wature, that ys cleped the Brace of Seynt George, that ys an arm of the see. And from thens he schal cum un to Pulveralle; and sythen un to the Castelle of Cynople. And from thens schal he gon unto Capadose, that ys a grete countree, whare that ben many grete hylles. And he schal gon thorewe Turkye, and unto the cytee of Nyke, the whyche they wonne from the Emperoure of Constantynople. And hyt is a fayre cytee, and wounder wel walled: and thare ys a ryvere, that men clepen the laye: and thare men goon by the Alpes of Aryoprynant, and by the Valez of Mallebrynez, and eke the Vale of Ernax; and so un to Anthyoche the lesse, that sytteth on the Ryehay. And there aboute ben many goude hylles and fayre, and many fayre woodes, and eke wylde beestes. And he that wylle goon by an other way, he mote goon by the playnes of Romayne, costynge the Romayne see. Uppon that cost, ys a woundur fayre castelle, that men clepen Florathe. And whanne that a man ys oute of that ylke hylles, men passen thenne thorewe a cytee, that ys called Maryoche and Arteyse, whare that ys a grete brygge upon a ryvere of Ferne, that men clepen Fassar: and hyt ys a grete ryvere, berynge schyppes. And by syde the cytee of Damas, ys a ryvere that cometh from the mounteyne of Lybane, that men hyt callen Albane. Atte passynge of this ryvere, seynt Eustache loste hys two sones, whanne that he hadde lost hys wyffe. And yt gooth thorewe the playne of Arthadoe; and so un to the Reed See. And so men moten goon un to the cytee of phenne, and so un to the cytee of Ferne. And Antyoche ys a ful fayre cytee and wel walled. For hyt ys two myle longe and eche pylere of the brygge thare ys a goud toure. And thys ys the beest cytee of the kyngdom of Surrye. And from Antyoche, men moten so forth goon un to the cytee of Lacuthe; and thanne un to Geble; and thanne un tyl Tourtous: and thare by ys the lande of Cambre, whare that ys a stronge castelle, that men clepen Maubeke. And from Tourtouse men goon up to Thryple, uppon the see. And uppon the see, men goon unto Deres; and thare ben two weyes un to Jerusalem: Uppon the lyfte way, men goon fyrst un to Damas, by Flome Jordane: uppon the ryzt syde, men goon thorewe the lande of Flagam, and so un to the cytee of Cayphas: of the whiche Cayphas was Lord: and som clepeth hyt the castelle Pellerynez: And from thens ys foure dayes journeyes un to Jerusalem and they goon thorewe Cesarye Phylyppum and Jaffe and Ramys and Emaux, and so unto Jerusalem. Now have I told yow som of the wayes, by the land, and eke by water, how that men mowen goon unto Jerusalem: they that hyt be so, that there been many other wayes, that men goon by, aftur countrees, that thay comen fram, nevere the lasse they turne alle un tylle an ende. Yet is thare a way, alle by lande, un to Jerusalem, and pass noon see; that ys from Fraunce or Flaundres; but that way ys fulle lange and perylous, of grete travayle; and thare fore fewe goon that ylke way. And who so gooth that, he mote goon thorewe Almayn and Pruys; and so un to Tartarye. This Tartarye ys holden of the great Chan, of whom y schal speke more afterwarde. For thydur lasteth hys Lordschup. And the Lordes of Tartarye yeldeth unto the grete Chan trybute. Thys ys a ful ille lande, and a sondye, and wel lytel fruyt beryng. For thare groweth lytel goude of corne or wyn, ne benes ne pese: but beestes ben thare y nowe, and that ful grete plente. And thare ete thay nought but flesche with outen brede; and thay soupe the brothe there of: and also thay drynke the mylk. And alle manere of wylde beestes they eten, houndes, cattes, ratouns, and alle othere wylde bestes. And thei have no wode, or elle lytylle. And therfore thei warmen and sethen here mete with hors dong and cow dong, and of other bestes dryed azenst the sonne. And princes and othere eten not, but ones in the day; and that but lytille. And thei ben righte foule folk and of evyl kynde. And in somer, be alle the contrees, fallen many tempestes and many hydouse thondres and leytes, and slen meche peple and bestes also, fulle often tyme. And sodeynly is there passynge hete, and sodeynly also passynge cold. And it is the foulest contree, and the most cursed, and the porest, that men knowen. And here prince, that governethe that contree, that thei clepen Batho, duellethe at the cytee of Orda. And treuly no gode man scholde not duellen in that contre. For the lond and the contree is not worthi houndes to dwelle inne. It were a gode contree to sowen inne thristelle and breres and broom and thornes; and for no other thing is it not good. Natheless there is gode londe in sum place; but it is pure litille, as men seyn. I have not ben in that contree, ne be tho weyes: but I have ben at other londes, that marchen to tho contrees; and in the lond of Russye, and in the lond of Nyflan, and in the reme of Crako, and of Letto, and in the reme of Daresten, and in manye other places, that marchen to the costes: but I wente never be that weye to Jerusalem; wherfore I may not wel telle zou the manere. But zif this matiere plese to ony worthi man, that hathe gon be that weye, he may telle it, zif him lyke; to that entent, that tho that wole go by that weye, and maken here viage be tho costes, mowen knowen what weye is there. For no man may passe be that weye godely, but in time of wyntir, for the perilous watres, and wykkede mareyes that ben in tho contrees; that no man may passe, but zif it be strong frost, and snowe aboven. For zif the snow ne were, men myght not gon upon the yse, ne hors ne carre nouther. And it is wel a 3 journeys of suche weye, to passe from Prusse to the lond of Sarazin habitable. And it behovethe to the Cristene men, that schulle werre azen hem every zeer, to bere here vitaylles with hem: for thei schulle fynde there no good. And than most thei let carye here vitaylle upon the yse, with carres that have no wheeles, that thei clepen scleyes. And als longe as here vitaylles lasten, thei may abide there, but no longer. For there schulle they fynde no wight that will selle hem ony vitaille or ony thing. And whan the spyes seen ony Cristene men comen upon hem, thei rennen to the townes, and cryen with a lowd voys, Kerra, Kerra, Kerra; and than anon thei armen hem and assemblen hem to gydere. And zee schulle undirstonde, that it fresethe more strongly in tho contrees than on this half; and therefore hathe every man stewes in his hous, and in tho stewes thei eten and don here occupatiouns, alle that they may. For that is at the northe parties, that men clepen the septentrionelle, where it is alle only cold. For the sonne is but lytille or non toward tho contreyes: and therefore in the Septentryon, that is verry northe, is the lond so cold, that no man may duelle there: and in the contrarye, toward the southe, it is so hoot, that no man ne may duelle there: because that the sonne, whan he is upon the southe, castethe his bemes alle streghte upon that partye. Of the Customes of Sarasines, and of hire Lawe; and how the Soudan arresond me, Auctour of this Book. And of the begynnynge of Machomete. [Sidenote: Cap. XII.] Now because that I have spoken of Sarazines and of here contree, now zif zee wil knowe a party of here lawe and of here beleve, I schalle telle zou, aftre that here book, that is clept Alkaron, tellethe. And sum men clepen that book Meshaf: and sum men clepen it Harme, aftre the dyverse langages of the contree. The whiche book Machamete toke hem. In the whiche boke, among other thinges, is written, as I have often tyme seen and radd, that the gode shulle gon to paradys, and the evele to helle: and that beleven alle Sarazines. And zif a man aske hem, what paradys thei menen; thei seyn, to paradys, that is a place of delytes, where men schulle fynde alle maner of frutes, in alle cesouns, and ryveres rennynge of mylk and hony, and of wyn, and of swete watre; and that thei schulle have faire houses and noble, every man aftre his dissert, made of precyous stones, and of gold, and of sylver; and that every man schalle have 80 wyfes, alle maydenes; and he schalle have ado every day with hem, and zit he schalle fynden hem alle weys maydenes. Also thei beleeven and speken gladly of the Virgine Marie and of the Incarnacioun. And thei seyn, that Marye was taughte of the angel; and that Gabrielle seyde to hire, that sche was forchosen from the begynnynge of the world; and that he schewed to hire the incarnacioun of Jesu Crist; and that sche conceyved and bare child, mayden: and that wytnessethe here boke. And they seyn also, that Jesu Crist spak als sone as he was born; and that he was an holy prophete and a trewe, in woord and dede, and meke and pytous and rightefulle and with outen ony vyce. And thei seyn also, that whan the angel schewed the Incarnacioun of Crist unto Marie, sche was zong, and had gret drede. For there was thanne an enchantour in the contree, that deled with wycche craft, that men clepten Taknia, that he his enchauntementes cowde make him in lyknesse of an angel, and wente often tymes and lay with maydenes: and therfore Marie dredde, lest it hadde ben Taknia, that cam for to desceyve the maydenes. And therfore sche conjured the angel, that he scholde telle hire, zif it were he or no. And the angel answerde and seyde, that sche scholde have no drede of him: for he was verry messager of Jesu Crist. Also here book seythe, that whan that sche had childed undre a palme tree, sche had gret schame, that sche hadde a child; and sche grette, and seyde, that sche wolde that sche hadde ben ded. And anon the child spak to hire and comforted hire, and seyde, Modir, ne dismaye the noughte; for God hathe hidd in the his prevytees, for the salvacioun of the world. And in othere many places seythe here Alkaron, that Jesu Crist spak als sone as he was born. And that book seythe also, that Jesu was sent from God alle myghty, for to ben myrour and ensample and tokne to alle men. And the Alkaron seythe also of the day of doom, how God schal come to deme alle maner of folk; and the gode he schalle drawen on his syde, and putte hem into blisse; and the wykkede he schal condempne to the peynes of helle. And amonges alle prophetes, Jesu was the most excellent and the moste worthi, next God; and that he made the Gospelles, in the whiche is gode doctryne and helefulle, fulle of charitee and sothefastnesse, and trewe prechinge to hem that beleeven in God; and that he was a verry prophete, and more than a prophete; and lyved withouten synne, and zaf syghte to the blynde, and helede the lepres, and reysed dede men, and steyghe to hevene. And whan thei mowe holden the boke of the Gospelles of oure Lord written, and namely, _Missus est Angelus Gabriel_; that Gospel, thei seyn, tho that ben lettred, often tymes in here orisouns, and thei kissen it and worschipen it, with gret devocioun. Thei fasten an hool monethe in the zeer, and eten noughts but be nyghte, and thei kepen hem fro here wyfes alle that monethe: but the seke men be not constreyned to that fast. Also this book spekethe of Jewes; and seythe, that thei ben cursed; for thei wolde not beleven, that Jesu Crist was comen of God; and that thei lyeden falsely on Marie and on hire sone Jesu Crist, seyenge that thei hadden crucyfyed Jesu the sone of Marie: for he was nevere crucyfyed, as thei seyn; but that God made him to stye up to him with outen dethe, and with outen anoye: but he transfigured his lyknesse into Judas Scariothe, and him crucyfyden the Jewes, and wenden that it had ben Jesus: but Jesus steyge to hevenes alle quyk; and therfore thei seyn, that the Cristene men erren and han no gode knowleche of this, and that thei beleeven folyly and falsly, that Jesu Crist was crucyfyed. And they seyn zit, that and he had ben crucyfyed, that God had don azen his rightewisnesse, for to suffre Jesu Crist, that was innocent, to ben put upon the Cros, with outen gylt. And in this article thei seyn, that wee faylen, and that the gret rightewisnesse of God ne myghte not suffre so gret a wrong. And in this, faylethe here feythe. For thei knoulechen wel, that the werkes of Jesu Crist ben gode, and his wordes and his dedes and his doctryne by his Gospelles, weren trewe and his meracles also trewe; and the blessed Virgine Marie is good, and holy mayden, before and aftre the birthe of Jesu Crist; and that alle tho, that beleven perfitely in God, schul ben saved. And because that thei gon so nye oure feythe, thei ben lyghtly converted to Cristene lawe, whan men prechen hem and schewe hem distynctly the lawe of Jesu Crist, and tellen hem of the prophecyes. And also thei seyn, that thei knownen wel, be the prophecyes, that the lawe of Machomete schalle faylen, as the lawe of the Jewes dide, and that the lawe of Cristine peple schalle laste to the day of doom. And zif ony man aske hem, what is here beleeve; thei answeren thus, and in this forme, Wee beleven God formyour of hevene and of erthe and of alle othere things, that he made. And we beleven of the day of doom, and that every man schalle have his meryte, aftre he hathe disserved. And we beleve it for sothe, alle that God hathe seyd be the mouthes of his prophetes. Also Machomet commanded in his Alkaron, that every man scholde have 2 wyfes or 3 or 4; but now thei taken unto 9, and of lemmanes als manye as he may susteyne. And zif ony of here wyfes mys beren hem azenst hire husbonde, he may caste hire out of his house; and departe from him, and take another: but he schalle departe with hire his godes. Also whan men speken to hem, of the Fadre and of the Sone and of the Holy Gost, thei seyn, that thei ben 3 persones; but not o God. For here Alkaron spekethe not of the Trynyte. But thei seyn wel, that God hathe speche, and elle where he dowmb; and God hathe also a Spirit, thei knowen wel, for elle thei seyn, he were not in lyve. And whan men speken to hem of the Incarnacioun, how that be the word of the angel, God sente his wysdom in to erthe, and enumbred him in the Virgyne Marie: and be the Woord of God, schulle the dede ben reysed, at the day of doom; thei seyn, that it is sothe, and that the Woord of God hathe gret strengthe. And thei seyn, that whoso knew not the Woord of God, he scholde not knowe God. And thei seyn also, that Jesu Crist is the Woord of God; and so seythe here Alkaron, where it seythe, that the angel spak to Marie and seyde, Marie, God schalle preche the Gospel be the woord of his mowthe, and his name schalle be clept Jesu Crist. And thei seyn also, that Abraham was frend to God, and that Moyses was famileer spekere with God; and Jesu Crist was the Woord and the Spirit of God; and that Machomete was right messager of God. And thei seyh, that of theise 4, Jesu was the most worthi and the most excellent and the most gret; so that thei han many gode articles of oure feythe, alle be it that thei have no parfite lawe and feythe, as Cristene men han; and therfore ben thei lightly converted; and namely, tho that undirstonden the Scriptures and the prophecyes. For thei han Gospelles and the prophecyes and the Byble, writen in here langage. Wherfore thei conne meche of Holy Wrytt, but thei undirstonde it not, but aftre the lettre: and so don the Jewes; for thei undirstonde not the lettre gostly, but bodyly; and therfore ben thei repreved of the wise, that gostly understonden it. And therfore seythe seynt Poul; _Litera occidit; Spiritus vivificat_. Also the Sarazines seyn, that the Jewes ben cursed: for thei han defouled the lawe, that God sente hem be Moyses. And the Cristene ben cursed also, as thei seyn: for their kepen not the commandementes and the preceptes of the Gospelle, that Jesu Crist taughte hem. And therfore I schalle telle zou, what the Soudan tolde me uppn a day, in his chambre. He leet voyden out of his chambre alle manner of men, lordes aad othere: for he wolde speke with me in conseille. And there he asked me, how the Cristene men governed hem in oure contree. And I seyde him, righte wel: thonked be God. And he seyde me, treulyche, nay: for zee Cristene men ne recthen righte noghte how untrewly to serve God. Ze scholde zeven ensample to the lewed peple, for to do wel; and zee zeven hem ensample to don evylle. For the comownes, upon festyfulle dayes, whan thei scholden gon to chirche to serve God, than gon thei to tavernes, and ben there in glotony, alle the day and alle nyghte, and eten and drynken, as bestes that have no resoun, and wite not whan thei have y now. And also the Cristene men enforcen hem, in alle maneres that thei mowen, for to fighte, and for to desceyven that on that other. And there with alle thei ben so proude, that thei knowen not how to ben clothed; now long, now schort, now streyt, now large, now swerded, now daggered, and in alle manere gyses. Thei scholden ben symple, meke and trewe, and fulle of almes dede, as Jhesu was, in whom thei trowe: but thei ben alle the contrarie, and evere enclyned to the evylle, and to don evylle. And thei ben so coveytous, that for a lytylle sylyer, thei sellen here doughtres, here sustres and here owne wyfes, to putten hem to leccherie. And on with drawethe the wif of another; and non of hem holdethe feythe to another; but thei defoulen here lawe, that Jhesu Crist betook hem to kepe, for here salvacioun. And thus for here synnes, han thei lost alle this lond, that wee holden. For, for hire synnes there God hathe taken hem in to oure hondes, noghte only be strengthe of our self, but for here synnes. For wee knowen wel in verry sothe, that whan zee serve God, God wil hepe zou: and whan he is with zou, no man may be azenst you. And that knowe we wel, be oure prophecyes, that Cristene men schulle wynnen azen this lond out of oure hondes, whan thei serven God more devoutly. But als longe als thei ben of foule and of unclene lyvynge, (as thei ben now) wee have no drede of hem, in no kynde: for here God wil not helpen hem in no wise. And than I asked him, how he knew the state of Cristene men. And he answered me, that he knew alle the state of the comounes also, be his messangeres, that he sente to alle londes, in manere as thei weren marchauntes of precyous stones, of clothes of gold and of othere things; for to knowen the manere of every contree amonges Cristene men. And than he leet clepe in alle the lordes, that he made voyden first out of his chambre; and there he schewed me 4, that weren grete lordes in the contree, that tolden me of my contree, and of many othere Cristene contrees, als wel as thei had ben of the same contree: and thei spak Frensche righte wel; and the Sowdan also, where of I had gret marvaylle. Alas! that it is gret sclaundre to oure feythe and to oure lawe, whan folk that ben with outen lawe, schulle repreven us and undernemen us of oure synnes. And thei that scholden ben converted to Crist and to the lawe of Jhesu, be oure gode ensamples and be oure acceptable lif to God, and so converted to the lawe of Jhesu Crist, ben thorghe oure wykkednesse and evylle lyvynge, fer fro us and straungeres fro the holy and verry beleeve, schulle thus appelen us and holden us for wykkede lyveres and cursed. And treuly thei sey sothe. For the Sarazines ben gode and feythfulle. For thei kepen entierly the commaundement of the holy book Alkaron, that God sente hem be his messager Machomet; to the whiche, as thei seyne, seynt Gabrielle the aungel often tyme tolde the wille of God. And zee schulle undirstonde, that Machamote was born in Arabye, that was first a pore knave, that kept cameles, that wenten with marchantes fur marchandize; and so befelle, that he wente with the marchandes in to Egipt: and thei weren than Cristene, in tho partyes. And at the desertes of Arabye, he wente in to a chapelle, where a Eremyte duelte. And when he entred in to the chapelle, that was but a lytille and a low thing, and had but a lityl dore and a low, than the entree began to wexe so gret and so large and so highe, as thoughe it had ben of a gret mynstre, or the zate of a paleys. And this was the firste myracle, the Sarazins seyn, that Machomete dide in his zouthe. Aftre began he for to wexe wyse and riche; and he was a gret astronomer: and aftre he was governour and prince of the lond of Cozrodane; and he governed it fully wisely, in suche manere, that whan the prince was ded, he toke the lady to wyfe, that highte Gadridge. And Machomete felle often in the grete sikenesse, that men callen the fallynge evylle: wherfore the lady was fulle sorry, that evere sche toke him to husbonde. But Machomete made hire to beleeve, that alle tymes, whan he felle so, Gabriel the angel cam for to speke with him; and for the gret lighte and brightnesse of the angelle, he myghte not susteyne him fro fallynge. And therfore the Sarazines seyn, that Gabriel cam often to speke with him. This Machomete regned in Arabye, the zeer of oure Lord Jhesu Crist 610; and was of the generacioun of Ysmael, that was Abrahames sone, that he gat upon Agar his chamberere. And therfere ther ben Sarazines, that ben clept Ismaelytenes; and summe Agaryenes, of Agar: and the othere propurly ben clept, Sarrazines, of Sarra: and summe ben clept Moabytes, and summe Amonytes; fro the 2 sones of Lothe, Moab and Amon, that he begat on his doughtres, that weren aftirward grete erthely princes. And also Machomete loved wel a gode heremyte, that duelled in the desertes, a myle fro Mount Synay, in the weye that men gon fro Arabye toward Caldee, and toward Ynde, o day journey fro the See, where the marchauntes of Yenyse comen often for marchandise. And so often wente Machomete to this heremyte, that alle his men weren wrothe: for he wolde gladly here this heremyte preche, and make his men wake alle nyghte: and therfore his men thoughten to putte the heremyte to dethe: and so it befelle upon a nyght, that Machomete was dronken of gode wyn, and he felle on slepe; and his men toke Machometes swerd out of his schethe, whils he slepte, and there with thei slowghe this heremyte: and putten his swerd alle blody in his schethe azen. And at morwe, whan he fond the heremyte ded, he was fulle sory and wrothe, and wolde have don his men to dethe: but they alle with on accord seyd, that he him self had slayn him, when he was dronken, and schewed him his swerd alle blody: and he trowed, that thei hadden seyd sothe. And than he cursed the wyn, and alle tho that drynken it. And therfore Sarrazines, that be devout, drynken nevere no wyn: but sume drynken it prevyly. For zif thei dronken it openly, thei scholde ben repreved. But thei drynken gode beverage and swete and norysshynge, that is made of galamelle: and that is that men maken sugar of, that is of righte gode savour: and it is gode for the breest. Also it befallethe sumtyme, that Cristene men becomen Sarazines, outher for povertee, or for symplenesse, or else for here owne wykkednesse. And therfore the archiflamyn or the flamyn, as oure erchebisshop or bisshopp, whan he receyvethe hem, seythe thus, _La ellec, Sila. Machomete rores alla_; that is to seye, _There is no God but on, and Machomete his messager_. Of the Londes of Albanye, and of Libye. Of the Wisshinges, for Wacchinge of the Sperhauk; and of Noes Schippe. [Sidenote: Cap. XIII.] Now sithe I have told zou beforn of the Holy Lond, and of that contree abouten, and of many weyes for to go to that lond, and to the Mount Synay, and of Babyloyne the more and the lesse, and to other places, that I have spoken beforn; now is tyme, zif it lyke zou, for to telle zou of the marches and iles, and dyverse bestes, and of dyverse folk bezond theise marches. For in tho contrees bezonden, ben many dyverse contrees, and many grete kyngdomes; that ben departed be the 4 flodes, that comen from Paradys terrestre. For Mesopotayme and the Kyngdom of Caldee and Arabye, ben betwene the 2 ryveres of Tygre and of Eufrates. And the kyngdom of Mede and of Persye, ben betwene the ryveres of Nile and of Tigres. And the kyngdom of Syrie, where of I have spoken beforn, and Palestyne and Phenycie, ben betwene Eufrates and the See Medyterrane: the whiche see durethe in lengthe, fro Mayrok, upon the See of Spayne, unto the grete See; so that it lastethe bezonde Costantynople 3040 myles of Lombardye. And toward the see occyan in Ynde, is the kyngdom of Shithie, that is alle closed with hilles. And aftre undre Schithie, and fro the See of Caspie, unto the Flom Thainy, is Amazoyne, that is the lond of femynye, where that no man is, but only alle wommen. And aftre is Albanye, a fulle grete reme. And it is clept Albanye, because the folk ben whitere there, than in other marches there abouten. And in that contree ben so gret houndes and so stronge, that thei assaylen lyouns, and sleu hem. And thanne aftre is Hircanye, Bactrye, Hiberye, and many other kyngdomes. And betwene the Rede See and the see occyan, toward the southe, is the kyngdom of Ethiope, and of Lybye the hyere. The which lond of Lybye, (that is to seyne Libye the lowe) that begynnethe at the See of Spayne, fro thens where the Pyleres of Hercules ben, and durethe unto aneyntes Egipt and towards Ethiope. In that contree of Libye, is the see more highe than the lond; and it semethe that it wolde covere the erthe, and natheles zit it passethe not his markes. And men seen in that contre a mountayne, to the whiche no man comethe. In this lond of Libye, whoso turnethe toward the est, the schadewe of him self is on the right syde: and here in oure contree, the schadwe is on the left syde. In that See of Libye, is no fissche: for thei mowe not lyve ne dure, for the gret hete of the sonne; because that the watre is evermore boyllynge, for the gret hete. And many othere londes there ben, that it were to long to tellen or to nombren: but of sum parties I schal speke more pleynly here aftre. Whoso wil thanne gon toward Tarterie, toward Persie, toward Caldee, and toward Ynde, he most entre the see, at Gene or at Venyse or at sum other havene, that I have told zou before. And than passe men the see, and arryven at Trapazond, that is a gode cytee; and it was wont to ben the havene of Pountz. There is the havene of persanes and of medaynes and of the marches there bezonde. In that cytee lythe Seynt Athanasie, that was Bishopp of Alisandre, that made the Psalm _Quicunque vult_. This Athanasius was a gret Doctour of Dyvynytee: and because that he preched and spak so depely of Dyvynytee and of the Godhede, he was accused to the Pope of Rome, that he was an Heretyk. Wherfore the Pope sente aftre hym, and putte him in presoun: and whils he was in presoun, he made that Psalm, and sente it to the Pope, and seyde: that zif he were an heretyk, that was that heresie; for that, he seyde, was his beleeve. And whan the Pope saughe it, and had examyned it, that it was parfite and gode, and verryly oure feythe and oure beleeve, he made him to ben delyvered out of presoun, and commanded that Psalm to ben seyd every day at Pryme: and so he held Athanasie a gode man. But he wolde nevere go to his bisshopriche azen, because that thei accused him of heresye. Trapazond was wont to ben holden of the Emperour of Costantynople: but a gret man, that he sente for to kepe the contree azenst the Turkes, usurped the lond, and helde it to himself, and cleped him Emperour of Trapazond. And from thens, men gon thorghe litille Ermonye. And in that contree is an old castelle, that stont upon a roche, the whiche is cleped the Castelle of the Sparrehawk, that is bezonde the cytee of Layays, beside the town of Pharsipee, that belongethe to the lordschipe of Cruk; that is a riche lord and a gode Cristene man; where men fynden a sparehauk upon a perche righte fair, and righte wel made; and a fayre lady of fayrye, that kepethe it. And who that wil wake that sparhauk, 7 dayes and 7 nyghtes, and as sum men seyn, 3 dayes and 3 nyghtes, with outen companye, and with outen sleep, that faire lady schal zeven him, whan he hathe don, the first wyssche, that he wil wyssche, of erthely thinges: and that hathe been proved often-tymes. And o tyme befelle, that a kyng of Ermonye, that was a worthi knyght and doughty man and a noble prince, woke that hauk som tyme: and at the ende of 7 dayes and 7 nyghtes, the lady cam to him, and bad him wisschen: for he had wel disserved it. And he answerde, that he was gret Lord y now, and wel in pees, and hadde y nowghe of worldly ricchesse: and therfore he wolde wisshe non other thing, but the body of that faire lady, to have it at his wille. And sche answerde him, that he knew not what he asked; and seyde, that he was a fool, to desire that he myghte not have; for sche seyde, that he scholde not aske, but erthely thing: for sche was non erthely thing, but a gostly thing. And the kyng seyde, that he ne wolde asken non other thing. And the lady answerde, sythe that I may not withdrawe zou fro zoure lewed corage, I schal zeve zou with outen wysschinge, and to alle hem that schulle com of you. Sire kyng, zee schulle have werre withouten pees, and alle weys to the 9 degree, zee schulle ben in subjeccioun to zoure enemyes; and zee schulle ben nedy of alle godes. And nevere sithen, nouther the kyng of Ermoyne, ne the contree, weren never in pees, ne thei hadden never sithen plentee of godes; and thei han ben sithen alle weyes undre tribute of the Sarrazines. Also the sone of a pore man woke that hauke, and wisshed that he myghte cheve wel, and to ben happy to merchandise. And the lady graunted him. And he becaam the most riche and the most famouse marchaunt, that myghte ben on see or on erthe. And he becam so riche, that he knew not the 1000 part of that he hadde: and he was wysere, in wisschynge, than was the king. Also a knyght of the temple wooke there; and wyssched a purs evere more fulle of gold: and the lady graunted him. But sche seyde him, that he had asked the destruccioun of here ordre; for the trust and the affiance of that purs, and for the grete pryde, that they scholde haven: and so it was. And therfore loke, he kepe him wel, that schalle wake: for zif he slepe, he is lost, that nevere man schalle seen him more. This is not the righte weye for to go to the parties, that I have nempned before; but for to see the merveyle, that I have spoken of. And therfore who so wil go right weye, men gon fro Trapazond toward Ermonye the gret, unto a cytee that is clept Artyroun, that was wont to ben a gode cytee and a plentyous; but the Turkes han gretly wasted it. There aboute growethe no wyn ne fruyt, but litylle or elle non. In this lond, is the erthe more highe than in ony other; and that makethe gret cold. And there hen many gode watres, and gode welles, that comen undre erthe, fro the flom of paradys, that is clept Eufrates, that is a jorneye besyde that cytee. And that ryvere comethe towardes Ynde, undre erthe, and restorethe into the lond of Altazar. And so passe men be this Ermonie, and entren the see of Persie. Fro that cytee of Artyroun go men to an hille, that is clept Sabissocolle. And there besyde is another hille, that men clepen Ararathe: but the Jewes clepen it Taneez; where Noes schipp rested, and zit is upon that montayne: and men may seen it a ferr, in cleer wedre: and that montayne is wel a 7 myle highe. And sum men seyn, that thei han seen and touched the schipp; and put here fyngeres in the parties, where the feend went out, whan that Noe seyde _Benedicite_. But thei that seyn suche wordes, seyn here wille: for a man may not gon up the montayne, for gret plentee of snow that is alle wayes on that montayne, nouther somer ne wynter: so that no man may gon up there; ne never man dide, sithe the tyme of Noe; saf a monk, that, be the grace of God, brought on of the plankes doun: that zit is in the mynstere, at the foot of the montayne. And besyde is the cytee of Dayne, that Noe founded. And faste by is the cytee of Any, in the whiche were 1000 chirches. But upon that montayne, to gon up, this monk had gret desire; and so upon a day, he wente up: and whan he was upward the 3 part of the montayne, he was so wery, that he myghte no ferthere, and so he rested him, and felle o slepe; and whan he awook, he fonde him self lyggynge at the foot of the montayne. And than he preyede devoutly to God, that he wolde vouche saf to suffre him gon up. And an angelle cam to him, and seyde, that he scholde gon up; and so he dide. And sithe that tyme never non. Wherfore men scholde not beleeve such woordes. Fro that montayne go men to the cytee of Thauriso, that was wont to ben clept Taxis, that is a fulle fair cytee, and a gret, and on of the beste, that is in the world, for marchandise: and it is in the lond of the Emperour of Persie. And men seyn, that the Emperour takethe more gode, in that cytee, for custom of marchandise than dothe the ricchest Cristene kyng of alle his reme, that livethe. For the tolle and the custom of his marchantes is with outen estymacioun to ben nombred. Beside that cytee, is a hille of salt; and of that salt, every man takethe what he will, for to salte with, to his nede. There duellen many Cristene men, undir tribute of Sarrazines. And fro that cytee, men passen be many townes and castelles, in goynge toward Ynde, unto the cytee of Sadonye, that is a 10 journeyes fro Thauriso; and it is a fulle noble cytee and a gret. And there duellethe the Emperour of Persie, in somer: for the contree is cold y now. And there ben gode ryveres, berynge schippes. Aftre go men the weye toward Ynde, be many iorneyes, and be many contreyes, unto the cytee, that is clept Cassak, that is a fulle noble cytee, and a plentyous of cornes and wynes, and of alle other godes. This is the cytee, where the 3 kynges metten to gedre, whan thei wenten to sechen oure Lord in Bethtem, to worschipe him, and to presente him with gold, ensence, and myrre. And it is from that cytee to Bethleem 53 iourneyes. Fro that cytee, men gon to another cytee, that is clept Bethe, that is a iourneye fro the see, that men clepen the gravely see. That is the best cytee, that the Emperour of Persie hathe, in alle his lond. And thei clepen it there Chardabago; and others clepen it Vapa. And the Paynemes seyn, that no Cristene man may not longe duelle, ne enduren with the lif, in that cytee: but dyen with in schort tyme; and no man knowethe not the cause. Aftre gon men, be many cytees and townes, and grete contrees, that it were to longe to telle, unto the cytee of Cornaa, that was wont to be so gret, that the walles abouten holden 25 myle aboute. The walks schewen zit: but it is not alle enhabited. From Cornaa, go men be many londes, and many cytees and townes, unto the lond of Job: and there endethe the lond of the Emperour of Persie. Of the Lond of Job; and of his Age. Of the Aray of men of Caldee. Of the Lond where Wommen duellen with outen companye of men. Of the knouleche and vertues of the verray Dyamant. [Sidenote: Chap. XIV.] Aftre the departynge fro Cornaa, men entren in to the lond of Job, that is a fulle faire contree, and a plentyous of alle godes. And men clepen that lond the lond of Sweze. In that lond is the cytee of Theman. Job was a Payneem, and he was Are of Gosre his sone, and held that lond, as prynce of that contree and he was so riche, that he knew not the hundred part of his godes. And alle thoughe he were a Payneem, natheless he served wel God, aftre his lawe: and oure Lord toke his service to his plesance. And whan he felle in poverte, he was 78 zeer of age. And aftre, whan God had preved his pacyence, and that it was so gret, he broughte him azen to richesse, and to hiere estate than he was before. And aftre that he was kyng of Ydumye, aftre Kyng Esau. And whan he was kyng, he was clept Jobab. And in that kyngdom, he lyvede aftre 170 zere: and so he was of age, whan he dyede, 248 zeer. In that lond of Job, there nys no defaute of no thing, that is nedefulle to mannes body. There ben hilles, where men getten gret plentee of manna, in gretter habundance, than in ony other contree. This manna is clept bred of aungelles; and it is a white thing, that is fulle swete and righte delicyous, and more swete than hony or sugre; and it comethe of the dew of hevene that fallethe upon the herbes, in that contree; and it congelethe and becomethe alle white and swete: and men putten it in medicynes for rich men, to make the wombe lax, and to purge evylle blood: for it clensethe the blode, and puttethe out malencoyle. This lond of Job marchethe to the kyngdom of Caldee. This lond of Caldee is fulle gret: and the langage of that contree is more gret in sownynge, that it is in other parties bezonde the see. Men passen to go bezond, be the Tour of Babiloyne the grete: of the whiche I have told zou before, where that alle the langages weren first chaunged. And that is a 4 jorneyes fro Caldee. In that reme, ben faire men, and thei gon fulle nobely arrayed in clothes of gold, or frayed and apparayled with grete perles and precyous stones, fulle nobely: and the wommen ben righte foule and evylle arrayed; and thei gon alle bare fote, and clothed in evylle garnementes, large and wyde, but thei ben schorte to the knees; and longe sleves doun to the feet, lyche a monkes frokke; and here sleves ben hongyng aboute here schuldres: and thei ben blake women, foule and hidouse; and treuly as foule as thei ben, als evele thei ben. In that kyngdom of Caldee, in a cytee, that is cleped Hur, duelled Thare, Abrahames fadre: and there was Abraham born: and that was in that tyme, that Nunus was Kyng of Babiloyne, of Arabye and of Egypt. This Nunus made the cytee of Nynyvee, the whiche that Noe had begonne before: and be cause that Nunus performed it, he cleped it Nynyve, aftre his owne name. Ther lythe Thobye the prophete, of whom Holy Writt spekethe offe. And fro that cytee of Hur Abraham departed, be the commandement of God, fro thens, aftre the dethe of his fadre; and ladde with him Sarra his wife and Lothe his brotheres sone, because that he hadde no child. And thei wenten to duelle in the lond of Chanaan, in a place, that is clept Sychem. And this Lothe was he, that was saved, whan Sodom and Gomorre and the othere cytees weren brent and sonken doun to helle; where that the dede see is now, as I have told zou before. In that lond of Caldee, thei han here propre langages, and here propre lettres. Besyde the lond of Caldee, is the lond of Amazoyne. And in that reme is alle wommen, and no man; noght, as summe men seyn, that men mowe not lyve there, but for because that the wommen will not suffre no men amonges hem, to ben here Sovereynes. For sum tyme, ther was a kyng in that contrey; and men maryed, as in other contreyes: and so befelle, that the kyng had werre, with hem of Sithie; the whiche kyng highte Colopeus, that was slayn in bataylle, and alle the gode blood of his reme. And whan the queen and alle the othere noble ladyes sawen, that thei weren alle wydewes, and that alle the rialle blood was lost, thei armed hem, and as creatures out of wytt, thei slowen alle the men of the contrey, that weren laft. For thei wolden, that alle the wommen weren wydewes, as the queen and thei weren. And fro that tyme hiderwardes, thei nevere wolden suffren man to dwelle amonges hem, lenger than 7 dayes and 7 nyghtes; ne that no child that were male, scholde duelle amonges hem, longer than he were noryscht; and thanne sente to his fader. And whan thei wil have ony companye of man, than thei drawen hem towardes the londes marchynge next to hem: and than thei have loves, that usen hem; and thei duellen with hem an 8 dayes or 10; and thanne gon hom azen. And zif thei have ony knave child, thei kepen it a certeyn tyme, and than senden it to the fadir, whan he can gon allone, and eten be him self; or elle thei sleen it: and zif it be a femele, thei don away that on pappe, with an hote hiren; and zif it be a womman of gret lynage, thei don awey the left pappe, that thes may the better beren a scheeld: and zif it be a woman of symple blood, thei don awey the ryght pappe, for to scheeen [sic--KTH] with bowe Turkeys: for thei schote wel with bowes. In that lond thei have a Queen, that governethe alle that lond: and alle thei ben obeyssant to hire. And alweys thei maken here queen by eleccioun, that is most worthy in armes. For thei ben right gode werryoures, and wyse, noble and worthi. And thei gon often tyme in sowd, to help of other kynges in here werres, for gold and sylver, as othere sowdyoures don: and thei meyntenen hem self right vygouresly. This lond of Amazoyne is an Yle, alle envirouned with the see, saf in 2 places, where ben 2 entrees. And bezond that watir, duellen the men, that ben here paramoures, and hire loves, where thei gon to solacen hem, whan thei wole. Besyde Amazoyne, is the lond of Tarmegyte, that is a gret contree and a fulle delectable: and for the godnesse of the contree, kyng Alisandre leet first make there the cytee of Alisandre; and zit he made 12 cytees of the same name: but that cytee is now clept Celsite. And fro that other cost of caldee, to ward the southe, is Ethiope, a gret contree, that strecchethe to the ende of Egypt. Ethiope is departed in 2 princypalle parties; and that is, in the est partie and in the meridionelle partie: the whiche partie meridionelle is clept Moretane. And the folk of that contree ben blake y now, and more blake than in the tother partie; and thei ben clept Mowres. In that partie is a welle, that in the day it is so cold, that no man may drynke there offe; and in the nyght it so hoot, that no man may suffre his hond there in. And bezonde that partie, toward the southe, to passe by the see occean, is a gret lond and a gret contrey: but men may not duelle there, for the fervent brennynge of the sonne; so is it passvnge hoot in that contrey. In Ethiope alle the ryveres and alle the watres ben trouble, and thei ben somdelle salte, for the gret hete that is there. And the folk of that contree ben lyghtly dronken, and han but litille appetyt to mete: and thei han comounly the flux of the wombe: and thei lyven not longe. In Ethiope ben manye dyverse folk: and Ethiope is clept Cusis. In that contree ben folk, that han but o foot: and thei gon so fast, that it is marvaylle: and the foot is so large, that it schadewethe alle the body azen the sonne, whanne thei wole lye and reste hem. In Ethiope, whan the children ben zonge and lytille, thei ben alle zelowe: and whan that thei wexen of age, that zalownesse turnethe to ben alle blak. In Ethiope is the cytee of Saba; and the lond, of the whiche on of the 3 kynges, that presented oure Lord in Bethleem was kyng offe. Fro Ethiope men gon to Ynde, be manye dyverse contreyes. And men clepen the highe Ynde, Emlak. And Ynde is devyded in 3 princypalle parties; that is, the more, that is a fulle hoot contree; and Ynde the lesse, that is a fulle atempree contrey, that strecchethe to the lond of Mede; and the 3 part toward the Septentrion, is fulle cold; so that for pure cold and contynuelle frost, the watre becomethe cristalle. And upon tho roches of cristalle, growen the gode dyamandes, that ben of trouble colour. Zallow cristalle drawethe colour lyke oylle. And thei ben so harde, that no man may pollysche hem: and men clepen hem dyamandes in that contree, and Hamese in another contree. Othere dyamandes men fynden in Arabye, that ben not so gode; and thei ben more broun and more tendre. And other dyamandes also men fynden in the ile of Cipre, that ben zit more tendre; and hem men may wel pollische. And in the lond of Macedoyne men fynden dyamaundes also. But the beste and the most precyouse ben in Ynde. And men fynden many tymes harde dyamandes in a masse, that comethe out of Gold, whan men puren it and fynen it out of the myne; whan men breken that masse in smale peces. And sum tyme it happenethe, that men fynden summe as grete as a pese, and summe lasse; and thei ben als harde as tho of Ynde. And alle be it that men fynden gode dyamandes in Ynde, zit natheles men fynden hem more comounly upon the roches in the see, and upon hilles where the myne of gold is. And thei growen many to gedre, on lytille, another gret. And ther ben summe of the gretness of a bene, and summe als gret as an haselle note. And thei ben square and poynted of here owne kynde, bothe aboven and benethen, with outen worchinge of mannes hond. And the growen to gedre, male and femele. And thei ben norysscht with the dew of hevene. And thei engendren comounly, and bryngen forthe smale children, that multiplyen and growen alle the zeer. I have often tymes assayed, that zif a man kepe hem with a litylle of the roche, and wete hem with May dew ofte sithes, thei schulle growe everyche zeer; and the smale wole wexen grete. For righte as the fyn perle congelethe and wexethe gret of the dew of hevene, righte so dothe the verray dyamand: and righte as the perl of his owne kynde takethe roundnesse, righte so the dyamand, be vertue of God, takethe squarenesse. And men schalle bere the dyamaund on his left syde: for it is of grettere vertue thanne, than on the righte syde. For the strengthe of here growynge is toward the Northe; that is the left syde of the world; and the left parte of man is, whan he turnethe his face toward the est. And zif zou lyke to knowe the vertues of the dyamand, (as men may fynde in the lapidarye, that many men knowen noght) I schalle telle zou: as thei bezonde the see seyn and affermen, of whom alle science and alle philosophie comethe from. He that berethe the diamand upon him, it zevethe him hardynesse and manhode, and it kepethe the lemes of his body hole. It zevethe him victorye of his enemyes, in plee and in werre; zif his cause be rightefulle: and it kepethe him that berethe it, in gode wytt; and it kepethe him fro strif and riot, fro sorwes and from enchauntementes and from fantasyes and illusiouns of wykked spirites. And zif ony cursed wycche or enchauntour wolde bewycche him, that berethe the dyamand; alle that sorwe and myschance schalle turne to him self, thorghe vertu of that ston. And also no wylde best dar assaylle the man, that berethe it on him. Also the dyamand scholde ben zoven frely, with outen coveytynge and with outen byggynge: and than it is of grettere vertu. And it makethe a man more strong and more sad azenst his enemyes. And it helethe him that is lunatyk, and hem that the fend pursuethe or travaylethe. And zif venym or poysoun be broughte in presence of the dyamand, anon it begynnethe to wexe moyst and for to swete. There ben also dyamandes in Ynde, that ben cept violastres; (for here colour is liche vyolet, or more browne than violettes) that ben fulle harde and fulle precyous; but zit sum men love not hem so wel as the othere: but in sothe to me, I wolde loven hem als moche as the othere; for I have seen hem assayed. Also there is an other maner of dyamandes, that ben als white as cristalle; but thei ben a litylle more trouble: and thei ben gode and of gret vertue, and alle thei ben square and poynted of here owne kynde. And summe ben 6 squared, summe 4 squared, and summe 3, as nature schapethe hem. And therefore whan grete lordes and knyghtes gon to seche worschipe in armes, thei beren gladly the dyamaund upon hem. I schal speke a litille more of the dyamandes, alle thoughe I tarye my matere for a tyme, to the ende that thei that knowen hem not, be not disceyved be gabberes, that gon be the contree, that sellen hem. For whoso wil bye the dyamande, it is needefulle to him, that he knowe hem; be cause that men counterfeten hem often of cristalle, that is zalow; and of saphires of cytryne colour, that is zalow also; and of the saphire loupe, and of many other stones. But I telle zou, theise contrefetes ben not so harde; and also the poyntes wil breken lightly, and men may easily pollische hem. But summe werkmen, for malice, will not pollische hem, to that entent, to maken men beleve, that thei may not ben pollischt. But men may assaye hem in this manere; first schere with hem or write with hem in saphires, in cristalle or in other precious stones. Aftre that men taken the ademand, that is the schipmannes ston, that drawethe the nedle to him, and men leyn the dyamand upon the ademand, and leyn the nedle before the ademand; and zif the dyamand be gode and vertuous, the ademande drawethe not the nedle to him, while the dyamand is there present. And this is the preef, that thei bezonde the see maken. Natheles it befallethe often tyme, that the gode dyamande losethe his vertue, be synne and for incontynence of him, that berethe it: and thanne it is nedfulle to make it to recoveren his vertue azen, or elle it is of litille value. Of the customs of Yles abouten Ynde. Of the differences betwixt Ydoles and Simulacres. Of 3 maner growing of Peper upon a Tree. Of the welle, that chaungethe his odour, every hour of the day: and that is mervaylle. [Sidenote: Cap. XV.] In Ynde ben fulle manye dyverse contrees: and it is cleped Ynde, for a flom, that rennethe thorghe out the contree, that is clept Ynde. In that flomme men fynden eles of 30 fote long and more. And the folk that duellen nyghe that watre, ben of evylle colour, grene and zalow. In Ynde and abouten Ynde, ben mo than 5000 iles, gode and grete, that men duellen in, with outen tho that ben inhabitable, and with outen othere smale iles. In every ile, is gret plentee of cytees and of townes and of folk, with outen nombre. For men of Ynde han this condicioun of kynde, that thei nevere gon out of here owne contree: and therfore is ther gret multitude of peple: but thei ben not sterynge ne mevable, be cause that thei ben in the firste clymat, that is of Saturne. And Saturne is sloughe and litille mevynge: for he taryethe to make his turn be the 12 signes, 30 zeer; and the mone passethe thorghe the 12 signes in o monethe. And for because that Saturne is of so late sterynge, therfore the folk of that contree, that ben undre his clymat, han of kynde no wille for to meve ne stere to seche strange places. And in oure contree is alle the contrarie. For wee ben in the sevenethe climat, that is of the mone. And the mone is of lyghtly mevynge; and the mone is planete of weye: and for that skylle, it zevethe us wille of kynde, for to meve lyghtly, and for to go dyverse weyes, and to sechen strange thinges and other dyversitees of the world. For the mone envyrounethe the erthe more hastyly than ony othere planete. Also men gon thorghe Ynde be many dyverse contrees, to the grete see occean. And aftre men fynden there an ile, that is clept Crues: and thidre comen marchantes of Venyse and Gene and of other marches, for to byen marchandyses. But there is so grete hete in tho marches, and namely in that ile, that for the grete distresse of the hete, mennes ballokkes hangen doun to here knees, for the gret dissolucioun of the body. And men of that contree, that knowen the manere, lat bynde hem up, or elle myghte thei not lyve; and anoynt hem with oynementes made therfore, to holde hem up. In that contree and in Ethiope and in many other contrees, the folk lyggen alle naked in ryveres and watres, men and wommen to gedre, fro undurne of the day, tille it be passed the noon. And thei lyen alle in the watre, saf the visage, for the gret hete that there is. And the wommen haven no schame of the men; but lyen alle to gidre, syde to syde, tille the hete be past. There may men see many foule figure assembled, and namely nyghe the gode townes. In that ile ben schippes with outen nayles of iren or bonds, for the roches of the Ademandes: for thei ben alle fulle there aboute in that see, that it is merveyle to speken of. And zif a schipp passed be tho marches, that hadde outher iren bondes or iren nayles, anon he scholde ben perisscht. For the Ademand, of his kynde, drawethe the iren to him: and so wolde it drawe to him the schipp, because of the iren: that he scholde never departen fro it, ne never go thens. Fro that ile, men gon be see to another ile, that is clept Chana, where is gret plentee of corn and wyn: and it was wont to ben a gret ile, and a gret havene and a good; but the see hathe gretly wasted it and overcomen it The kyng of that contree was wont to ben so strong and so myghty, that he helde werre azenst King Alisandre. The folk of that contree han a dyvers lawe: for summe of hem, worschipe the sonne, summe the mone, summe the fuyr, summe trees, summe serpentes, or the first thing that thei meeten at morwen: and summe worschipen symulacres, and summe Ydoles. But betwene symulacres and ydoles, is a gret difference. For symulacres ben ymages made aftre lyknesse of men or of wommen, or of the sonne or of the mone, or of ony best, or of ony kyndely thing: and ydoles, is an ymage made of lewed wille of a man, that man may not fynden among kyndely thinges; as an ymage, that hathe 4 hedes, on of a man, another of an hors, or of an ox, or of sum other best, that no man hathe seyn aftre kyndely disposicioun. And thei that worschipen symulacres, thei worschipen hem for sum worthi man, that was sum tyme, as Hercules and many othere, that diden many marvayles in here tyme. For thei seyn wel, that thei be not goddes: for thei knowen wel, that there is a God of kynde, that made alle thinges; the which is in hevene. But thei knowen wel, that this may not do the marvayles that he made, but zif it had ben be the specyalle zifte of God: and therfore thei seyn, that he was wel with God. And for be cause that he was so wel with God, therfore the worschipe him. And so seyn thei of the sonne; be cause that he chaungethe the tyme and zevethe hete and norisschethe alle thinges upon erthe; and for it is of so gret profite, thei knowe wel, that that myghte not be, but that God lovethe it more than ony other thing. And for that skylle, God hath zoven it more gret vertue in the world: therfore it is gode resoun, as thei seyn, to don it worschipe and reverence. And so seyn thei, that maken here resounes, of othere planetes; and of the fuyr also, because it is so profitable. And of Ydoles, thei seyn also, that the ox is the moste holy best, that is in erthe, and most pacyent and more profitable than ony other. For he dothe good y now, and he dothe non evylle. And thei knowen wel, that it may not be with outen specyalle grace of God; and therfore maken thei here God, of an ox the on part, and the other halfondelle of a man: because that man is the most noble creature in erthe; and also for he hathe lordschipe aboven alle bestes: therfore make thei the halfendel of ydole of a man upwardes, and the tother half of an ox dounwardes: and of serpentes and of other bestes, and dyverse thinges, that thei worschipen, that thei meten first at morwe. And thei worschipen also specyally alle tho that thei han gode meetynge of; and whan thei speden wel in here iorneye, aftre here meetynge; and namely suche as thei han preved and assayed be experience of longe tyme. For thei seyn, that thilke gode meetynge ne may not come, but of the grace of God. And therefore thei maken ymages lyche to tho thinges, that thei han beleeve inne, for to beholden hem and worschipen hem first at morwe, or thei meeten ony contrarious thinges. And there ben also sum Cristene men, that seyn, that summe bestes han gode meetynge, that is to seye, for to meete with hem first at morwe; and summe bestes wykked metynge: and that thei han preved ofte tyme, that the hare hathe fulle evylle meetynge, and swy, and many othere bestes. And the sparhauk and other foules of raveyne, whan thei fleen aftre here praye, and take it before men of armes, it is a gode signe: and zif he fayle of takynge his praye, it is an evylle sygne. And also to suche folk, it is an evylle meetynge of ravenes. In theise thinges and in suche othere, ther ben many folk, that beleeven; because it happenethe so often tyme to falle, aftre here fantasyes. And also ther ben men y nowe, that han no beleve in hem. And sithe that Cristene men han suche beleeve, that ben enformed and taughte alle day, be holy doctryne, where inne thei schold beleeve, it is no marvaylle thanne, that the Paynemes, that han no gode doctryne, but only of here nature, beleeven more largely, for here symplenesse. And treuly I have seen of Paynemes and Sarazines, that men clepen Augurynes, that whan wee ryden in armes in dyverse contrees, upon oure enemyes, be the flyenge of foules, thei wolde telle us the prenosticaciouns of thinges that felle aftre: and so thei diden fulle often tymes, and profreden here hedes to wedde, but zif it wolde falle as thei seyden. But natheles ther fore scholde noght a man putten his beleeve in suche thinges: but always han fulle trust and beleeve in God oure Sovereyn Lord. This ile of Chana, the Sarazines han wonnen and holden. In that ile ben many lyouns, and many othere wylde bestes. And there ben rattes in that ile, als gret as houndes here: and men taken hem with grete mastyfes: for cattes may not take hem. In this ile and many othere, men berye not no dede men: for the hete is there so gret, that in a lityle tyme the flesche wil consume fro the bones. Fro thens, men gon be see toward Ynde the more, to a cytee that men clepen Sarche, that is a fair cytee and a gode; and there duellen many Cristene men of gode feythe: and ther ben manye religious men, and namely of Mendynantes. Aftre gon men be see, to the lond of Lomb. In that lond growethe the peper, in the forest that men clepen Combar; and it growethe nowhere elle in alle the world, but in that forest: and that dureth wel an 18 iourneyes in lengthe. In the forest ben 2 gode cytees; that on highte Fladrine, and that other Zinglantz. And in every of hem, duellen Cristene men, and Jewes, gret plentee. For it is a gode contree and a plenteyous: but there is over meche passynge hete. And zee schulle undirstonde, that the peper growethe, in maner as dothe a wylde vyne, that is planted faste by the trees of that wode, for to susteynen it by, as dothe the vyne. And the fruyt thereof hangethe in manere as reysynges. And the tree is so thikke charged, that it semethe that it wolde breke: and whan it is ripe, it is all grene as it were ivy beryes; and than men kytten hem, as men don the vynes, and than thei putten it upon an owven, and there it waxethe blak and crisp. And there is 3 maner of peper, all upon o tree; long peper, blak peper, and white peper. The long peper men clepen sorbotyn; and the blak peper is clept fulfulle, and the white peper is clept bano. The long peper comethe first, whanthe lef begynhethe to come; and it is lyche the chattes of Haselle, that comethe before the lef, and it hangethe lowe. And aftre comethe the blake with the lef, in manere of clustres of reysinges, alle grene: and whan men han gadred it, than comethe the white, that is somdelle lasse than the blake; and of that men bryngen but litille into this contree; for thei bezonden with holden it for hem self, be cause it is betere and more attempree in kynde, than the blake: and therfore is ther not so gret plentee as of the blake. In that contree ben manye manere of serpentes and of other vermyn, for the gret hete of the contree and of the peper. And summe men seyn, that whan thei will gadre the peper, thei maken fuyr, and brennen aboute, to make the serpentes and cokedrilles to flee. But save here grace of alle that seyn so. For zif thei brenten abouten the trees, that beren, the peper scholden ben brent, and it wolde dryen up alle the vertue, as of ony other thing: and han thei diden hemself moche harm; and thei scholde nevere quenchen the fuyr. But thus thei don; thei anoynten here hondes and here feet with a juyce made of snayles and of othere thinges, made therfore; of the whiche the serpentes and the venymous bestes haten and dreden the savour: and that makethe hem flee before hem, because of the smelle; and than thei gadren it seurly ynow. Also toward the heed of that forest, is the cytee of Polombe. And above the cytee is a grete mountayne, that also is clept Polombe: and of that mount, the cytee hathe his name. And at the foot of that mount, is a fayr welle and a gret, that hathe odour and savour of alle spices; and at every hour of the day, he chaungethe his odour and his savour diversely. And whoso drynkethe 3 tymes fasting of that watre of that welle, he is hool of of alle maner sykenesse, that he hathe. And thei that duellen there and drynken often of that welle, thei nevere han sekenesse, and thei semen alle weys zonge. I have dronken there of 3 or 4 sithes; and zit, me thinkethe, I fare the better. Sum men clepen it the Welle of Zouthe: for thei that often drynken there of, semen alle weys zongly, and lyven with outen sykenesse. And men seyn, that that welle comethe out of paradys; and therfore it is so vertuous. Be alle that contree growethe gode gyngevere: and therfore thidre gon the marchauntes for spicerye. In that lond men worschipen the ox, for his symplenesse and for his mekenesse, and for the profite that comethe of him. And thei seyn, that he is the holyest best in erthe. For hem semethe, that whoso evere be meke and paycyent, he is holy and profitable: for thanne thei seyn, he hathe alle vertues in him. Thei maken the ox to laboure 6 zeer or 7, and than thei ete him. And the kyng of the contree hathe alle wey an ox with him: and he that kepethe him, hathe every day grete fees, and kepethe every day his dong and his uryne in 2 vesselles of gold, and bryngen it before here prelate, that thei clepen archiprotopapaton; and he berethe it before the kyng, and makethe there over a gret blessynge; and than the kyng wetethe his hondes there, in that thei clepen gaul, and anyntethe his front and his brest: and aftre he frotethe him with the dong and with the uryne with gret reverence, for to ben fulfilt of vertues of the ox, and made holy be the vertue of that holy thing, that nought is worthe. And whan the kyng hathe don, thanne don the lordes; and aftre hem here mynystres and other men, zif thei may have ony remenant. In that contree thei maken ydoles, half man, half ox; and in tho ydoles, eville spirites speken and zeven answere to men, of what is asked hem. Before theise ydoles, men sleen here children many tymes, and spryngen the blood upon the ydoles; and so thei maken here sacrifise. And whan ony man dyethe in the contree, thei brennen his body in name of penance, to that entent, that he suffre no peyne in erthe, to ben eten of wormes. And zif his wif have no child, thei brenne hire with him; and seyn, that it is resoun, that sche make him companye in that other world, as sche did in this. But and sche have children with him, thei leten hire lyve with hem, to brynge hem up, zif sche wole. And zif that sche love more to lyve with here children, than for to dye with hire husbonde, men holden hire for fals and cursed; ne schee schalle never ben loved ne trusted of the peple. And zif the womman dye before the husbonde, men brennen him with hire, zif that he wole; and zif he wil not, no man constreynethe him thereto; but he may wedde another tyme with outen blame and repreef. In that contree growen manye stronge vynes: and the wommen drynken wyn, and men not: and the wommen schaven hire berdes, and the men not. Of the Domes made be seynt Thomas. Of Devocyoun and Sacrifice made to Ydoles there, in the Cytee of Calamye; and of the processioun in goynge aboute the Cytee. [Sidenote: Cap. XVI.] From that contree men passen be many marches, toward a contree, a 10 iourneyes thens, that is clept Mabaron: and it is a gret kyngdom, and it hathe many faire cytees and townes. In that kyngdom lithe the body of Seynt Thomas the apostle, in flesche and bon, in a faire tombe, in the cytee of Calamyee: for there he was martyred and buryed. But men of Assirie beeren his bodye in to mesopatayme, in to the cytee of Edisse: and aftre, he was broughte thidre azen. And the arm and the hoond, (that he putte in oure Lordes syde, whan he appered to him, aftre his resurrexioun, and seyde to him, _Noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis_) is zit lyggynge in a vesselle with outen the tombe. And be that hond thei maken alle here juggementes, in the contree, whoso hathe righte or wrong. For whan ther is ony dissentioun betwene 2 partyes, and every of hem meyntenethe his cause, and seyth, that his cause is rightfulle, and that other seythe the contrarye, thanne bothe partyes writen here causes in 2 billes, and putten hem in the hond of seynt Thomas; and anon he castethe awey the bille of the wrong cause, and holdethe stille the bille with the righte cause. And therfore men comen from fer contrees to have juggement of doutable causes: and other juggement usen thei non there. Also the chirche, where seynt Thomas lythe, is bothe gret and fair, and alle fulle of grete simulacres: and tho ben grete ymages, that thei clepen here goddes; of the whiche, the leste is als gret as 2 men. And among theise othere, there is a gret ymage, more than ony of the othere, that is alle covered with fyn gold and precyous stones and riche perles: and that ydole is the god of false Cristene, that han reneyed hire feythe. And it syttethe in a chayere of gold, fulle nobely arrayed; and he hathe aboute his necke large gyrdles, wroughte of gold and precyous stones and perles. And this chirche is fulle richely wroughte, and alle over gylt with inne. And to that ydole gon men on pylgrimage, als comounly and with als gret devocioun, as Cristene men gon to seynt James, or other holy pilgrimages. And many folk that comen fro fer londes, to seche that ydole, for the gret devocyoun that thei han, thei loken nevere upward, but evere more down to the erthe, for drede to see ony thing aboute hem, that scholde lette hem of here devocyoun. And summe ther ben, that gon on pilgrimage to this ydole, that beren knyfes in hire hondes, that ben made fulle kene and scharpe; and alle weyes, as thei gon, thei smyten hem self in here armes and in here legges and in here thyes, with many hydouse woundes; and so thei scheden here blood, for love of that ydole. And thei seyn that he is blessed and holy, that dyethe so for love of his God. And othere there ben, that leden hire children, for to sle, to make sacrifise to that ydole; and aftre thei han slayn hem, thei spryngen the blood upon the ydole. And summe ther ben, that comme fro ferr, and in goynge toward this ydole, at every thrydde pas, that thei gon fro here hows, thei knelen; and so contynuen tille thei come thidre: and whan thei comen there, thei taken ensense and other aromatyk thinges of noble smelle, and sensen the ydole, as we wolde don here Goddes precyouse body. And so comen folk to worschipe this ydole, sum fro an hundred myle, and summe fro many mo. And before the mynstre of this ydole, is a vyvere, in rmaner of a gret lake, fulle of watre: and there in pilgrymes casten gold and sylver, perles and precyous stones, with outen nombre, in stede of offrynges. And whan the mynystres of that chirche neden to maken ony reparacyoun of the chirche or of ony of the ydoles, thei taken gold and silver, perles and precyous stones out of the vyvere, to quyten the costages of suche thing as thei maken or reparen; so that no thing is fawty, but anon it schalle ben amended. And zee schulle undirstonde, that whan grete festes and solempnytees of that ydole, as the dedicacioun of the chirche, and the thronynge of the ydole bethe, alle the contree aboute meten there to gidere; and thei setten this ydole upon a chare with gret reverence, wel arrayed with clothes of gold, of riche clothes of Tartarye, of Camacca, and other precyous clothes; and thei leden him aboute the cytee with gret solempnytee. And before the chare, gon first in processioun alle the maydenes of the contree, 2 and 2 to gidere, fulle ordynatly. And aftre tho maydenes, gon the pilgrymes. And summe of hem falle doun undre the wheles of the chare, and lat the chare gon over hem; so that thei ben dede anon. And summe han here armes or here lymes alle to broken, and summe the sydes: and alle this don thei for love of hire god, in gret devocioun. And he thinkethe, that the more peyne and the more tribulacioun, that thei suffren for love of here god, the more ioye thei schulle have in another world. And schortly to seye zou; thei suffren so grete peynes and so harde martyrdomes, for love of here ydole, that a Cristene man, I trowe, durst not taken upon him the tenthe part of the peyne, for love of oure Lord Jhesu Crist. And aftre, I seye zou, before the chare, gon alle the mynstrelles of the contrey, with outen nombre, with dyverse instrumentes; and thei maken alle the melodye, that thei cone. And whan thei han gon alle aboute the cytee, thanne thei retournen azen to the mynstre, and putten the ydole azen in to his place. And thanne, for the love and in worschipe of that ydole, and for the reverence of the feste, thei slen himself, a 200 or 300 persones, with scharpe knyfes, of the whiche thei bryngen the bodyes before the ydole; and than thei seyn, that tho ben seyntes, because that thei slowen hemself of here owne gode wille, for love of here ydole. And as men here, that hadde an holy seynt of his kyn, wolde thinke, that it were to hem an highe worschipe, right so hem thinkethe there. And as men here devoutly wolde writen holy seyntes lyfes and here myracles, and sewen for here canonizaciouns, righte so don thei there, for hem that sleen hem self wilfully, for love of here ydole; and seyn, that thei ben gloriouse martyres and seyntes, and putten hem in here wrytynges and letanyes, and avaunten hem gretly on to another of here holy kynnesmen; that so becomen seyntes; and seyn, I have mo holy seyntes in my kynrede, than thou in thin. And the custome also there is this, that whan thei that han such devocioun and entent, for to sle him self, for love of his god, thei senden for alle here frendes, and han gret plentee of mynstrelle, and thei gon before the ydole ledynge him, that wil sle himself for such devocioun, betwene hem with gret reverence. And he alle naked hath a ful scharp knyf in his hond, and he cuttethe a gret pece of his flesche and castethe it in the face of his ydole, seyenge his orysounes, recommendynge him to his god: and than he smytethe himself, and makethe grete woundes and depe here and there, tille he falle doun ded. And than his frendes presenten his body to the ydole: and than thei seyn, syngynge, Holy God, behold what thi trewe servant hath don for the; he hathe forsaken his wif and his children and his ricchesse and alle the godes of the worlde and his owne lyf, for the love of the, and to make the sacrifise of his flesche and of his blode. Wherfore, Holy God, putte him among thi beste belovede seyntes in thi blisse of paradys: for he hathe well disserved it. And than thei maken a gret fuyr, and brennen the body: and thanne everyche of his frendes taken a quantyte of the assches, and kepen hem in stede of relykes, and seyn, that it is a holy thing. And thei have no drede of no perile, whils thei han tho holy assches upon hem. And thei putten his name in here letanyes, as a seynt. Of the evylle Customs used in the Yle of Lamary: and how the Erthe and the See ben of round Forme and schapp, be pref of the Sterre, that is clept Antartyk, that is fix in the Southe. [Sidenote: Chap. XVII.] Fro that contree go men be the see occean, and be many dyverse yles, and be many contrees, that were to longe for to telle of. And a 52 iorneyes fro this lond, that I have spoken of, there is another lond, that is fulle gret, that men clepen Lamary. In that lond is fulle gret hete: and the custom there is such, that men and wommen gon alle naked. And thei scornen, whan thei seen ony strange folk goynge clothed. And thei seyn, that God made Adam and Eve alle naked; and that no man scholde schame, that is of kyndely nature. And thei seyn, that thei that ben clothed ben folk of another world, or thei ben folk, that trowen not in God. And thei seyn, that thei beleeven in God, that formede the world, and that made Adam and Eve, and alle other thinges. And thei wedden there no wyfes: for all the wommen there ben commoun, and thei forsake no man. And thei seyn, thei synnen, zif thei refusen ony man: and so God commannded to Adam and Eve, and to alle that comen of him, whan he seyde, _Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete terram_. And therfore may no man in that contree seyn, this is my wyf: ne no womman may seye, this is myn husbonde. And whan thei han children, thei may zeven hem to what man thei wole, that hathe companyed with hem. And also all the lond is comoun: for alle that a man holdethe o zeer, another man hathe it another zeer. And every man takethe what part that him lykthe. And also alle the godes of the lond ben comoun, cornes and alle other thinges: for no thing there is clept in clos, ne no thing there is undur lok; and every man there takethe what he wole, with outen ony contradiccioun: and als riche is o man there, as is another. But in that contree, there is a cursed custom: for thei eten more gladly mannes flesche, than ony other flesche: and zit is that contree habundant of flesche, of fissche, of cornes, of gold and sylver, and of alle other godes. Thidre gone Marchauntes, and bryngen with hem children, to selle to hem of the contree, and thei byzen hem: and zif thei ben fatte, thei eten hem anon; and zif thei ben lene, thei feden hem, tille thei ben fatte, and thanne thei eten hem: and thei seyn, that it is the best flesche and the swettest of alle the world. In that lond, ne in many othere bezonde that, no man may see the sterre transmontane, that is clept the sterre of the see, that is unmevable, and that is toward the northe, that we clepen the lode sterre. But men seen another steere, the contrarie to him, that is toward the south, that is clept Antartyk. And right as the schip men taken here avys here, and governe hem be the lode sterre, right so don schip men bezonde the parties, be the sterre of the southe, the whiche sterre apperethe not to us. And this sterre, that is toward the north, that wee clepen the lode sterre, ne apperethe not to hem. For whiche cause, men may wel perceyve, that the lond and the see ben of rownde schapp and forme. For the partie of the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schewethe not in another contree. And men may well preven be experience and sotyle compassement of wytt, that zif a man fond passages be schippes, that wolde go to serchen the world, MEN MYGHTE GO BE SCHIPPE ALLE ABOUTE THE WORLD, and aboven and benethen. The whiche thing I prove thus, aftre that I have seyn. For I have ben toward the parties of Braban, and beholden the astrolabre, that the sterre that is clept the Transmontayne, is 53 degrees highe. And more forthere in Almayne and Bewme, it hathe 58 degrees. And more forthe toward the parties septemtrioneles, it is 62 degrees of heghte, and certeyn mynutes. For I my self have mesured it by the astrolabre. Now schulle ze knowe, that azen the Transmontayne, is the tother sterre, that is clept Antartyke; as I have seyd before. And tho 2 sterres ne meeven nevere. And be hem turnethe alle the firmament, righte as dothe a wheel, that turnethe be his axille tree; so that tho sterres beren the firmament in 2 egalle parties; so that it hathe als mochel aboven, as it hathe benethen. Aftre this, I have gon toward the parties meridionales, that is toward the southe: and I have founden, that in Lybye, men seen first the sterre Antartyk. And so fer I have gon more forthe in tho contrees, that I have founde that sterre more highe; so that toward the highe Lybye, it is 18 degrees of heghte, and certeyn minutes (of the whiche, 60 minutes maken a degree). After goynge be see and be londe, toward this contree, of that I have spoke, and to other yles and londes bezonde that contree, I have founden the sterre Antartyk of 33 degrees of heghte, and mo mynutes. And zif I hadde had companye and schippynge, for to go more bezonde, I trowe wel in certeyn, that wee scholde have seen alle the roundnesse of the firmament alle aboute. For as I have seyd zou be forn, the half of the firmament is betwene tho 2 sterres: the whiche halfondelle I have seyn. And of the tother halfondelle, I have seyn toward the north, undre Transmontane 62 degrees and 10 mynutes; and toward the partie meridionalle, I have seen undre the Antartyk 33 degrees and 16 mynutes: and thanne the halfondelle of the firmament in alle, ne holdethe not but 180 degrees. And of tho 180, I have seen 62 on that o part, and 33 on that other part, that ben 95 degrees, and nyghe the halfondelle of a degree; and so there ne faylethe but that I have seen alle the firmament, saf 84 degrees and the halfondelle of a degree; and that is not the fourthe part of the firmament. For the 4 partie of the roundnesse of the firmament holt 90 degrees: so there faylethe but 5 degrees and an half, of the fourthe partie. And also I have seen the 3 parties of alle the roundnesse of the firmament, and more zit 5 degrees and an half. Be the which I seye zou certeynly, that men may envirowne alle the erthe of alle the world, as wel undre as aboven, and turnen azen to his contree, that hadde companye and schippynge and conduyt: and alle weyes he scholde fynde men, londes, and yles, als wel as in this contree. For zee wyten welle, that thei that ben toward the Antartyk, thei ben streghte, feet azen feet of hem, that dwellen undre the transmontane; als wel as wee and thei that dwellyn undre us, ben feet azenst feet. For alle the parties of see and of lond han here appositees, habitable or trepassables, and thei of this half and bezond half. And wytethe wel, that aftre that, that I may parceyve and comprehend, the londes of Pestre John, Emperour of Ynde, ben undre us. For in goynge from Scotland or from England toward Jerusalem, men gon upward alweys. For oure lond is in the lowe partie of the erthe, toward the west: and the lond of Prestre John is the lowe partie of the erthe, toward the est: and thei han there the day, whan wee have the nyghte, and also highe to the contrarie, thei han the nyghte, whan wee han the day. For the erthe and the see ben of round form and schapp, as I have seyd beforn. And that that men gon upward to o cost, men gon dounward to another cost. Also zee have herd me seye, that Jerusalem is in the myddes of the world; and that may men preven and schewen there, be a spere, that is pighte in to the erthe, upon the hour of mydday, whan it is equenoxium, that schewethe no schadwe on no syde. And that it scholde ben in the myddes of the world, David wytnessethe it in the psautre, where he seythe, _Des operatus est salutem in medie Terre_. Thanne thei that parten fro the parties of the west, for to go toward Jerusalem, als many iorneyes as thei gon upward for to go thidre, in als many iorneyes may thei gon fro Jerusalem unto other confynyes of the superficialtie of the erthe bezonde. And whan men gon bezonde tho iourneyes, toward Ynde and to the foreyn yles, alle is envyronynge the roundnesse of this erthe and of the see, undre oure contrees on this half. And therfore hathe it befallen many tymes of o thing, that I have herd cownted, whan I was zong; how a worthi man departed somtyme from oure contrees, for to go serche the world. And so he passed Ynde, and the yles bezonde Ynde, where ben mo than 5000 yles: and so longe he wente be see and lond, and so enviround the world be many seysons, that he fond an yle, where he herde speke his owne langage, callynge an oxen in the plowghe, suche wordes as men speken to bestes in his owne contree: whereof he hadde gret mervayle: for he knewe not how it myghte be. But I seye, that he had gon so longe, be londe and be see, that he had envyround alle the erthe, that he was comen azen envirounynge, that is to seye, goynge aboute, unto his owne marches, zif he wolde have passed forthe, til he had founden his contree and his owne knouleche. Bur he turned azen from thens, from whens he was come fro; and so he loste moche peynefulle labour, as him self seyde, a gret while aftre, that he was comen hom. For it befelle aftre, that he wente in to Norweye; and there tempest of the see toke him; and he arryved in an yle; and whan he was in that yle, he knew wel, that it was the yle, where he had herd speke his owne langage before, and the callynge of the oxen at the plowghe: and that was possible thinge. But how it semethe to symplemen unlerned, that men ne mowe not go undre the erthe, and also that men scholde falle toward the hevene, from undre! But that may not be, upon lesse, than wee mowe falle toward hevene, fro the erthe, where wee ben. For fro what partie of the erthe, that men duelle, outher aboven or benethen, it semethe alweys to hem that duellen, that thei gon more righte than ony other folk. And righte as it semethe to us, that thei ben undre us, righte so it semethe hem, that wee ben undre hem. For zif a man myghte falle fro the erthe unto the firmament: be grettere resoun, the erthe and the see, that ben so grete and so hevy, scholde fallen to the firmament: but that may not be: and therfore seithe oure Lord God, _Non timeas me, qui suspendi Terram ex nichilo?_ And alle be it that it be possible thing, that men may so envyrone alle the world, natheles of a 1000 persones, on ne myghte not happen to returnen in to his contree. For, for the gretnesse of the erthe and of the see, men may go be a 1000 and a 1000 other weyes, that no man cowde redye him perfitely toward the parties that he cam fro, but zif it were be aventure and happ, or be the grace of God. For the erthe is fulle large and fulle gret, and holt in roundnesse and aboute envyroun, be aboven and be benethen 20425 myles, aftre the opynyoun of the olde wise astronomeres. And here seyenges I repreve noughte. But aftre my lytylle wytt, it semethe me, savynge here reverence, that it is more. And for to have bettere understondynge, I seye thus, Be ther ymagyned a figure, that hathe a gret compas, and aboute the poynt of the gret compas, that is clept the centre, be made another litille compas: then aftre, be the gret compas devised be lines in manye parties; and that alle the lynes meeten at the centre; so that in as many parties, as the grete compas schal be departed, in als manye schalle be departed the litille, that is aboute the centre, alle be it that the spaces ben lesse. Now thanne, be the gret compas represented for the firmament, and the litille compas represented for the erthe. Now thanne the firmament is devysed, be astronomeres, in 12 signes; and every signe is devysed in 30 degrees, that is 360 degrees, that the firmament hathe aboven. Also, be the erthe devysed in als many parties as the firmament; and lat every partye answere to a degree of the firmament: and wytethe it wel, that aftre the auctoures of astronomye, 700 fulonges of erthe answeren to a degree of the firmament; and tho ben 87 myles and 4 furlonges. Now be that here multiplyed by 360 sithes; and than thei ben 31500 myles, every of 8 furlonges, aftre myles of oure contree. So moche hathe the erthe in roundnesse, and of heght enviroun, aftre myn opynyoun and myn undirstondynge. And zee schulle undirstonde, that aftre the opynyoun of olde wise philosophres and astronomeres, oure contree ne Irelond ne Wales ne Scotlond ne Norweye ne the other yles costynge to hem, ne ben not in the superficialte cownted aboven the erthe: as it schewethe be alle the bokes of astronomye. For the superficialtee of the erthe is departed in 7 parties, for the 7 planetes: and tho parties ben clept clymates. And oure parties be not of the 7 clymates; for thei ben descendynge toward the west. And also these yles of Ynde, which beth even azenst us, beth noght reckned in the climates; for thei ben azenst us, that ben in the lowe contree. And the 7 clymates strecchen hem envyrounynge the world. Of the Palays of the Kyng of the Yle of Java. Of the Trees, that beren Mele, Hony, Wyn and Venym; and of othere Mervayilles and Customes, used in the Yles marchinge thereabouten. [Sidenote: Cap. XVIII.] Besyde that yle that I have spoken of, there is another yle, that is clept Sumobor, that is a gret yle: and the kyng thereof is righte myghty. The folk of that yle maken hem alweys to ben marked in the visage with an hote yren, bothe men and wommen, for gret noblesse, for to ben knowen from other folk. For thei holden hem self most noble and most worthi of alle the world. And thei han werre alle weys with the folk that gon alle naked. And faste besyde is another yle, that is clept Betemga, that is a gode yle and a plentyfous. And many other yles ben there about; where ther ben many of dyverse folk: of the whiche it were to longe to speke of alle. But fast besyde that yle, for to passe be see, is a gret yle a gret contree, that men clepen Java: and it is nyghe 2000 myle in circuyt. And the kyng of that contree is a fulle gret lord and a ryche and a myghty, and hathe undre him 7 other kynges of 7 other yles abouten hym. This yle is fulle wel inhabyted, and fulle wel manned. There growen alle maner of spicerie, more plentyfous liche than in ony other contree; as of gyngevere, clowegylofres, canelle, zedewalle, notemuges and maces. And wytethe wel, that the notemuge berethe the maces. For righte as the note of the haselle hathe an husk with outen, that the note is closed in, til it be ripe, and aftre fallethe out; righte so it is of the notemuge and of the maces. Manye other spices and many other godes growen in that yle. For of alle thing is there plenty, saf only of wyn: but there is gold and silver gret plentee. And the kyng of that contree hathe a paleys fulle noble and fulle marveyllous, and more riche than ony in the world. For alle the degrez to gon up into halles and chambres, ben on of gold, another of sylver. And also the pavmentes of halles and chambres ben alle square, on of gold and another of sylver: and alle the walles with inne ben covered with gold and sylver, in fyn plates: and in tho plates ben stories and batayles of knyghtes enleved. And the crounes and the cercles abouten here hedes ben made of precious stones and riche perles and grete. And the halles and the chambres of the palays ben alle covered with inne with gold and sylver: so that no man wolde trowe the richesse of that palays, but he had seen it. And witethe wel, that the kyng of that yle is so myghty, that he hathe many tymes overcomen the grete Cane of Cathay in bataylle, that is the most gret emperour that is undre the firmament, outher bezonde the see or on this half. For thei han had often tyme werre betwene hem, be cause that the grete cane wolde constreynen him to holden his lond of him: but that other at alle tymes defendethe him wel azenst him. Aftre that yle, in goynge be see, men fynden another yle, gode and gret, that men clepen Pathen, that is a gret kyngdom, fulle of faire cytees and fulle of townes. In that lond growen trees, that beren mele, wherof men maken gode bred and white, and of gode savour; and it semethe as it were of whete, but it is not allynges of suche savour. And there ben other trees, that beren hony, gode and swete: and other trees, that beren venym; azenst the whiche there is no medicyne but on; and that is to taken here propre leves, and stampe hem and tempere hem with watre, and then drynke it: and elle he schalle dye; for triacle will not avaylle, ne non other medicyne. Of this venym, the Jewes had let seche of on of here frendes, for to empoysone alle Cristiantee, as I have herd hem seye in here confessioun, before here dyenge. But thanked be alle myghty God, thei fayleden of hire purpos: but alle weys thei maken gret mortalitee of people. And other trees there ben also, that beren wyn of noble sentement. And zif zou like to here how the mele comethe out of the trees, I shalle seye zou. Men hewen the trees with an hatchet, alle aboute the fote of the tree, tille that the bark be parted in many parties; and than comethe out ther of a thikke lykour, the whiche thei resceyven in vesselles, and dryen it at the hete of the sonne; and than thei han it to a mylle to grynde; and it becomethe faire mele and white. And the hony and the wyn and the venym ben drawen out of other trees, in the same manere, and put in veselles for to kepe. In that yle is a ded see, that is a lake, that hathe no ground. And zif ony thing falle in to that lake, it schalle nevere comen up azen. In that lake growen redes, that ben cannes, that thei clepen thaby, that ben 30 fadme long. And of theise canes men maken faire houses. And ther ben other canes, that ben not so longe, that growen neer the lond, and han so longe rotes, that duren wel a 4 quartres of a furlong or more; and at the knottes of tho rotes, men fynden precious stones, that han gret vertues: and he that berethe ony of hem upon him, yren ne steel ne may not hurt him, ne drawe no blood upon him: and therfore thei that han tho stones upon hem, fighten fulle hardyly, bothe on see and lond: for men may not harmen hem on no partye. And therfore thei that knowen the manere, and schulle fighten with hem, thei schoten to hem arwes and quarrelles with outen yren or steel; and so thei hurten hem and sleen hem. And also of tho cannes, thei maken houses and schippes and other thinges; as wee han here, makynge houses and schippes of oke or of ony other trees. And deme no man, that I seye it, but for a truffulle: for I have seen of the cannes with myn owne eyzen fulle many tymes lyggynge upon the ryvere of that lake: of the whiche, 20 of oure felowes ne myghten not liften up ne beren on to the erthe. Aftre this yle, men gon be see to another yle, that is clept Calonak: and it is a fair lond and a plentifous of godes. And the kyng of that contrey hath als many wyfes as he wole; for he makethe serche alle the contree, to geten him the fairest maydens that may ben founde, and makethe hem to ben broughte before him; and he takethe on o nyght, and another another nyght, and so forthe contynuelle sewyng; so that he hath a 1000 wyfes or mo. And he liggethe never but o nyght with on of hem, and another nyght with another, but zif that on happene to ben more lusty to his plesance than another. And therfore the kyng getethe fully many children; sum tyme an 100, sum tyme an 200, and sum tyme mo. And he hathe also into a 14000 olifauntz or mo, that he makethe for to ben brought up amonges his vileynes, be alle his townes. For in cas that he had ony werre azenst any other kyng aboute him, thanne he makethe certeyn men of armes for to gon up in to the castelles of tree, made for the werre, that craftily ben sett up on the olifantes bakkes, for to fyghten azen hire enemyes: and so don other kynges there aboute. For the maner of werre is not there, as it is here or in other contrees; ne the ordinance of werre nouther. And men clepen the olifantes, warkes. And in that yle there is a gret marvayle, more to speke of than in ony other partie of the world. For alle manere of fissches, that ben there in the see abouten hem, comen ones in the zeer, eche manere of dyverse fissches, on maner of kynde aftre other; and thei casten hem self to the see banke of that yle, so gret plentee and multitude, that no man may unnethe see but fissche; and there thei abyden 3 dayes: and every man of the contree takethe of hem, als many as him lykethe: And aftre, that maner of fissche, after the thridde day, departethe and gothe into the see. And aftre hem, comen another multitude of fyssche of another kynde, and don in the same maner as the firste diden other 3 dayes. And aftre hem, another; tille alle the dyverse maner of fissches han ben there, and that men han taken of hem, that hem lykethe. And no man knowethe the cause wherfore it may ben. But thei of the contree seyn, that it is for to do reverence to here kyng, that is the most worthi kyng, that is in the world, as thei seyn; because that he fulfillethe the comandement, that God bad to Adam and Eve, whan God seyde, _Crescite et multplicamini et replete terram_. And for because that he multipliethe so the world with children, therfore God sendethe him so the fissches of dyverse kyndes, of alle that ben in the see, to taken at his wille, for him and alle his peple. And therfore alle the fissches of the see comen, to maken him homage, as the most noble and excellent kyng of the world, and that is best beloved with God, als thei seyn. I knowe not the resoun, whi it is; but God knowethe. But this, me semethe, is the moste marveylle, that evere I saughe. For this mervaylle is azenst kynde, and not with kynde, that the fissches, that han fredom to enviroun alle the costes of the see, at here owne list, comen of hire owne wille to profren hem to the dethe, with outen constreynynge of man: and therfore I am syker, that this may not ben, with outen a gret tokene. There ben also in that contree a kynde of snayles, that ben so grete, that many persones may loggen hem in here schelles, as men wolde done in a litylle hous. And other snayles there ben, that ben fulle grete, but not so huge as the other. And of theise snayles, and of gret white wormes, that han blake hedes, that ben als grete as a mannes thighe, and somme lesse, as grete wormes that men fynden there in wodes, men maken vyaunde rialle, for the kyng and for other grete lordes. And zif a man, that is maryed, dye in that contree, men buryen his wif with him all quyk. For men seyn there, that it is resoun, that sche make him companye in that other world, as sche did in this. CAPVT. 30. De Regnis Cynocephalorum, et alijs Insulis. Per mare oceanum potest hinc veniri in Insulam Kaffa: [Marginal note: Vel Caffeles.] quicunque ibi infirmari videtur ad mortem, suspenditur ad arborem, antequam moriatur, vt non ab immundis terræ vermibus, sed a coeli auibus, quas reputant Dei Angelos, comedatur. In alia insula faciunt suos infirmos ante mortem ab eductis in hoc magnis canibus strangulari, manducantes in conuiuio carnes pro optimo ferculo venationis. Interpositis quoque multis Insulis, de quibus subticeo gratia breuitatis, habetur Insula Mylke, [Marginal note: Vel Mekke.] et hij videntur omnium hominum crudelissimi; Nam quilibet particularitèr pro leui et modica stimulatione, vulnerat, sauciat, et occidit, proximum, vicinum et amicum: Et si quando dissidentes contigerit concordari, non habebitur pax rata, nisi quisque de alterius sanguine biberit bonum haustum. Hinc nauigando per multas et diuersas Insulas, qui in singulas intrare, et moram trahere voluerit, stupenda multa videbit, et poterit venire in Insulam Tracoide. [Marginal Note: Vel Traceda.] Illic sunt homines àbsque vllo ingenio penitus bestiales, serpentibus, vermibusque vescentes, nec inuicem loquentes, sed conceptus suos signis et indicijs ostendentes. Diligunt preciosos lapides tantummodo pulchritudinis gratia, non causa virtutis: et super omnes vnum diligunt lapidem habentem 60. colorum varietates, qui et Tracoides vocatur propter ipsos. Intratur hinc per Oceanum in regionem Niconoram, vel Nacumeram, habentem in circuitu spacium mille leucarum: omnes ibi geniti homines habent capita ad formam canum, vnde et in Græco Cynocephali dicuntur. Isti etiam incedunt nudis corporibus, excepto parui panniculi operimento, secretiora loca et posteriora retro tegente. Rationabiles tamen multum sunt hij, et plurimum virtuosi, ac de omni forefacto rigidam iustitiam exercentes. Sunt statura elegantes, robusti corpore, in prælijs lanceam cum tergia lata gerentes, virilitérque, et prudentèr pugnantes. Omnes pro deo adorant bouem, vnde et quilibet in fronte argenteam seu auream similitudinem bouis defert, et si quem viuum in prælio ceperint, sine vlla miseratione manducant. Rex multum est diues et potens, ac deuotus in superstitione. Nam circa collum gestat trecentas orientales margaritas, quibus quotidiè antè commestionem orationes suas colligit, quemadmodum nos colligimus, Pater noster, etc. Ac præterea portat ad collum [Marginal note: Siue carbunculum.] rubetum orientalem, nobilem, purum, pulchrum, resplendentem, et summè preciosum, ad longitudinem pedis humani, quem habet diligentèr seruare, quod dum eo caret non tenetur pro Rege. Pro isto carbunculo Grand Can Imperator, per ingenium, per insidias, per precium, et per prælium sæpè laborauit, sed nihil profecit. Post istam apparet insula Syllan, habens leucas de circuitu 80. quæ paucos habet homines propter multitudinem draconum, serpentum, crocodilorum in ea. Sunt autem crocodili speciales serpentes, coloris virgulati de croceo et nigro, cum quatuor cruribus, et tibijs et latis pedum vngulis. Aliqui horum habent longitudinem quínque tensarum, aut citrà, qui dum tendunt per arenosa relinquunt signum semitæ, acsi sit ibi tractus grandis arboris truncus. Item in hac insula habetur nons altus, et in sui vertice satis altus et distentus et magnus aquæ lacus, de quo et stulti homines fabulantur, quòd primi parentes post eiectionem suam, illam aquam primò lacrymauerunt. In huius fundo lacus nascuntur margaritæ, et habentur semper lapides preciosi. Solentque pauperes terræ, accepta à Rege licentia, semel in anno ingredi, ac piscari gemmas, qui intrantes vngunt se succo Lymonsæ, contra hirudines, colubros, et serpentes. Sed et de lacu effluit riuulus per montis descensum, in quo nonnunquam margaritæ inueniuntur, et gemmæ: dicunt etiam ibi nullum venenatum animal nocere aduenis. Ibi videntur leones albi in mira magnitudine boum nostrorum, et multæ diuersæ bestiæ, et aues, bestiolæ, et auiculæ aliarum specierum quàm in partibus istis. Nam ibi et in nonnullis alijs insulis vidi vnum mirum, de quo prius vix credidissem narranti, videlicet anates cum duobus capitibus. Et sciatis quòd tam hic quam alibi mare apparet satis altius suo littore, imo qui a remotis aspicit videt suspensum quasi ad nubes. Et de hoc admiratus fuissem, nisi quod scriptum sciui mirabiles elationes maris. CAPVT. 31. De multis alijs Insulis Meridionalibus, de quibus et Plinius, et Munsterus. Versus meridien hinc legendo per mare, inuenitur regio speciosa nomine Doudin: [Marginal note: Vel Doudeia.] cuius rex imperat seu principatur 54. regibus in circuitu insularum. Dum quis hic infirmatur tendit proximus ad Idolum sciscitans an morietur, et si respondit non, addit et dicere medicinam qua curabitur: si autem responderit moriturum, statim conuocatis amicis occiditur, et cum symphonia, et solemnitate comedunt eius carnes, ossa tantummodò sepelientes. In Insulis verò circumiacentibus, habentur incredibilitèr diuersæ gentes. Nam vna habet homines enormis magnitudinis, cum solo in medio frontis oculo, qui absque vllo condimento manducant carnes et pisces. Alia Insula habet homines aspectu deformes, nihil autem colli aut capitis ostendentes, vnde et Acephali nuncupantur: oculos autem habent ante ad scapulas, et in loco pectoris os apertum ad formam ferri, quo nostri caballi frænantur. In alia Insula sunt gentes planis faciebus absque eleuatione nasorum, et palpebratum cum paruis foraminibus oculorum, et scissura modica oris. Et in alia gentes cum superiore oris labio ita lato et amplo, vt, dum velint, totam faciem de illo tegant. Alia generat homines paruæ saturæ cum oris foramine sic paruo, vt per fistulas alimentum, et potum sumant, et quoniam carent lingua et dentibus, monstrant per naturalia signa conceptus. Et aliqui sunt homines debitæ quidem staturæ, et formæ, nisi quòd habent pedes equínos, quibus ita sunt præpetes, vt syluestres bestias capiant, quas comedunt, et manducant. In alia homines sunt toti pilosi et hispidi, vsu simiarum manibus et pedibus ambulantes, et ad arbores reptantes, qui quamuis non loquuntur, apparent rationabiles, qui regem habent, et rectores. Et in alia omnes sunt claudi, qui quamuis pedes habeant, tamen ambulant super genua multum ridiculosè, imò miserabiliter, vt de passu in passum videantur casuri in terrem. Et in quadam, sexum tam masculinum, quàm foeminieum habentes, qui dum masculino vtuntur generant, dum foeminino, impregnantur et pariunt. Atque, in compendio multa concludam, in singulis 54. insularum inueniuntur homines, forma, statura, actibus et moribus singulis ab inuicem differentes, de quibus potest fieri descriptio, quam pertranseo gratia breuitatis, et causa incredulitatis fortè quorundum audientium. In istis autem meridionalibus partibus apparebat mihi eleuatio poli Antarctici 33. graduum, cum 16. minutis. Et sciendum quod in Bohemia, similitèr in Anglia eleuatur polus Arcticus 52. gradibus vel citra: Et in partibus magis septentrionalibus, vbi sunt Scoti 62. gradibus cum quatuor minutis. Ex quo patet respiciendo ad latitudinem coeli, quæ est de polo ad polum, quod itineratio mea fuit per quartum Horizontis spheræ terræ et vltra, per quinque gradus, cum 20. minutis. Cum ergò secundum Astrologos, totus terræ circuitus sit 31500. milliarium, octo stadijs pro milliario computatis, et septinginta stadia respondeant ad vnum gradum, quod patet ad latitudinem terræ, perambulaui 66733. stadia cum vno tertio, quæ faciunt 4170. leucas Geometricas cum dimidia vel propè. CAPVT. 32. De bona Regione Man chus. [Footnote: Mangi.] Cum igitur tot et talsa in istis Insulis vidimus monstra (quæ si explicarem scribendo vix à legentibus omnia crederentur) non curauimus vlterius procedere sub polo australi, ne in maiora pericula incideremus: sed proptèr auditam et inuisam nobis famositatem potentiæ, nobilitatis, et gloriæ Imperatoris Tartarorum, vertebam faciem cum socijs nauigare magis versus Orientem. Cumque per multas diætas sustinuissemus multa pericula maris, peruenimus in Regnum Manchus, [Marginal Note: Vel Mangi.] quod est in confinibus superioris Indiæ, et iungitur ab vna parte Tartariæ. Hæc Regio Manchus, pro sui quantitate reputatur melior, delectabilior, et omnium bonorum abundantior de cunctis ibi propè Regionibus. Nam et homines bestiæ, et volucres maiores et corpulentiores sunt alijs, et præ vbertate vix inuenirentur in vna ciuitate decem mendici. Formosi sunt viri, sed feminæ formosiores. Sed viri loco barbæ, habent perpaucos pilos, rigidos, et longos ab vtraque oris parte, quemadmodum nostros videmus cattos habere. Prima quam ingrediebaumer ciuitàs est Lachori, [Marginal Note: Siue Lateryn.] distans vna dieta à mari, et mirabamur, et gauisi sumus nos inuenisse integram ciuitatem Christianæ fidei. Nam et maior pars Regni credit in Christum. Ibi habetur in leui precio copia rerum omnium, et præcipuè victualium: vnum genus est ibi serpentum in abundantia quod manducant ad omne conuiuium, et nisi pro finali ferculo ministraretur de illis serpentibus, conuiuium quàm modicum diceretur. Suntque per hoc regnum pleræque ciuitates et Ecclesiæ, et relligiones, quas instituit dux Ogerus, quia hoc est vnum de quindecim regnis quæ quæsiuit, sicut infra dicetur. Illic sunt elegantes albæ gallinæ, quæ non vestiuntur plumis vt nostraæ, sed optima lana. Canes aquatici, quos nos lutras nominamus, sunt ibi multi edomiti, quòd quoties mittuntur in flumen, exportant domino piscem. Ab hoc loco per aliquas diætas, venitur ad huius regionis maximam vrbem Cansay, hoc est dicere ciuitatem coeli, imo de vniuerso orbe terrarum putatur hæc maxima Ciuitatum; nam eius circuitus 50. leucis est mensus, nec est facile dicere, quàm, compressè a quamplurimis populis inhabitatur. Hæc sedet in lacu maris, quemadmodum, et Venetiæ: et habentur in ea plures quàm mille ducenti pontes, et in quolibet turres miræ magnitudinis, ac fortitudinis, munitæ peruigíli custodia, et pro vrbe tuenda contra Imperatorem Grand Can. Multi sunt ibi Christiani, et multæ Religiones Christianorum, sed et de ordinibus Minorum, et prædicatorum, qui tamen ibi non mendicant; est magna pluralitas ex diuersis nationibus Mercatorum. Per Regionem nascitur vinum valdè bonum, quod appellatur Bigon. Et ad leucam extra ciuitatem, Abbatia magna est, non de religione Christiana sed Pagana: et in ea forrestum, siue hortus magnus vndíque circumclusus, consitus arboribus, et arbustis, in cuius etiam medio mons, altus simul et latus, habens hortum vbi solum inhabitant bestiolæ mirabiles, sicut Simiæ, marmotæ, Lanbon, papiones, foreti et huiusmodi ad varia et multa genera, et ad numerum infinitum. Omni autem die post refectionem conuentus Abbatiæ, qui est valdè monachosus, deferuntur reliquiæ ciborum cum magno additamento, in vasis auro lucentibus ad hunc hortum: et ad sonitum campanæ argenteæ, quam Eleemosynarius manu gestat descendentes, et occurrentes de bestiolis duo millia aut plures sese componunt residere ad circulum more pauperum mendicorum, et traditur singulis per seruos aliquid de his cibarijs, ac denuò audita campana segregando recurrunt: Cumque nos tanquam redarguentes, diceremus, cur hæc non darentur egenis, responderunt, illic pauperes non habentur, quod si inuenirentur, potius tamen dari deberent bestiolis. Habet enim eorum perfidia, et Paganissimus, animas nobilium hominum post mortem ingredi corpora nobilium bestiarum, et animas ignobilium corpora bestiarum ignobilium et vilium, ad luenda videlicet crimina, donec peracta poenitentia transeant in Paradisum: ideoque nutriunt, prout dicunt, has nobiliores bestias, siue bestiolas, quòd a quibusdam nobilibus fundabatur in principio hæc Abbatia. Multa sunt alia mira in hac ciuitate, de quibus sciatis, quod non omnia vobis recitabo. CAPVT. 33. De Pygmæis, et de itinere vsque in prouinciam Cathay. Eundo per Regionem eandem à dicta ciuitate Cansay, ad sex dietas venitur ad nobilem vrbem Tylenso, [Marginal Note: Vel Chezolo.] cuius muri per circuitum tendunt ad spacium 20. leucarum: [Marginal Note: Vel Miliarium.] et sunt 60. petrini pontes, quibus nullos memini pulchriores. In ista fuit prima sedes regni Mangi, nec immeritò, cum sit munita, delectabilis, et abundans omnibus bonis, ac deinde in predicta Cansay, nunc autem tenetur in quadam alia ciuitate. Nota, quilibet ignis soluit quolibet anno vnum balis pro tributo, quod valet vnum florenum cum dimidio, sed omnes famuli de domo vna pro vno igne computantur: summa ignium tributalium, octies centum millia. Reliqui verò Christiani mercatores, in isto vico non computantur. Copia est ibi victualium. Quatuor fratres minores vnum potentem conuertebant apud quem hospitabar, et qui duxit me ad Abbatiam istam, ibi vidi scilicet quod hic narratur. Ad fines itaque regni Mangi transitur grandis fluuius de Dylay, [Marginal note: Vel de Delay.] maius flumen mundi, vbi strictius est continet septem miliaria Odericus: cuius alueus in loco districtiori continet quatuor leucas. Et ex hoc in breui temporis spacio intratur Imperium Tartarorum, sequendo fluuium vsque in terram Pygmeorum, per cuius medium transit. Hij Pygmei sunt homines statura breues ad longitudinem nostri brachij, seu trium manuum expansarum. Tam mares quam feminæ formosæ et gratiosæ, et viuunt communiter ad annos sex vel septem: si qui pertingunt ad octo, mire putantur senectutis. Ad dimidiam anni ætatem nubere possunt, in secundo anno parturiunt: rationalis sunt, et sensati iuxta ætatem pusillam, ac satis ingeniosi ad opera de serico, et de lana arboris. Frequentèr præliantur contra aues grandes patriæ, exercitibus congregatis hinc inde, et fit strages vtrimque. Hæc gens tam parua optimè operatur sericum et bombycem. Isti Pygmei venerunt mihi obuiam chorizando. Non laborant terram, prædia, seu vineas, sed morantur inter eos nostræ quantitatis homines, qui eos incolunt, sicut serui, quos et Pygmæi sæpè derident, quia sunt ipsis maiores: et quod ipse non cesso mirari dum dicti homines in illa terra generant vel pariunt, non crescit proles supra Pygmæi staturam: Insula non est protensa, sed fortè 12. ciuitatum. Quarum vna est grandis, et bene munita, et quam Grand Can facit cum fortibus armaturis curiosè seruari, contra regem Mangi. Hinc proceditur per Imperium Grand Can, ad multas ciuitates, et villas morum mirabiliter diuersorum, vsque in regnum Iamchan, quod est vnum de 12. prouincijs maximis, quibus distinguitur totum Imperium Tartarorum. Nobilior ciuitas huius Regni seu Prouinciæ dicitur Iamchan, abundans mercimonijs, et diuitijs infinitis, et multa præstans proprio Regi tributa, quoniam sicut illi de ciuitate fatentur, valet annuè regi quinquaginta milia cuman florenorum auri. Nota. In Iamchan ciuitate est conuentus fratrum minorum: in hac sunt tres Ecclesiæ Monasteriorum: reditus simul ascendit ad 12. cuman. Odericus dixit, Vnus cuman est decem millium. Summa tributi annui, quinquaginta milia millium Florenorum. In illis namque partibus magnus numerorum summas estimant per cuman, numerum 10. millium qui et in Flamingo dicitur laste. Ad quinque leucas ab hac ciuitate est alia dicta Meke, in qua fiunt de quodam albissimi genere ligni naues maxtimæ cum aulis et thalamis, ac multis ædificijs, tanquam Palatium tellure fundatum. Inde per idem regnum ad viam octo dietarum per aquam dulcem, multas per ciuitates, et bonas villas, venimus Laucherim, [Marginal note: Siue Lanterin.] (Odericus appellat Leuyim,) vrbem formosam opumque magnarum, sitam super flumen magnum Cacameran. [Marginal note: Vel Caremoron.] Hoc flumen transit per medium Cathay, cui aqua infert damnum, quando nimis inundat, sicut palus in Ferraria, Mogus in Herbipoli: et illud sequentes intrauimus principalem prouinciam Imperij Tartariæ, dictam Cathay Calay: et ista prouincia est multum distenta, ac plena ciuitatibus, et oppidis bonis, et magnis omnibusque referta mercimonijs, maximè sericosis operibus, et aromaticis speciebus. Nauigando per dictum flumen versus Orientem, et itinerando per hanc Cathay prouinciam ad multas dietas per plurimas vrbes et villas, venitur in ciuitatem Sugarmago, [Marginal note: Engarmago.] abundantiorem omnibus in mercemoniis antedictis, quando sericum est hic vilissimum: quadragintæ libræ habentur ibi pro decem florenis. Ab hac ciuitate, multis ciuitatibtus peregratis versus Orientem, veni ad ciuitatem Cambalu, quæ est antiqua in prouincia Cathay: Hanc postquam Tartari ceperunt, ad dimidium miliare fecerunt vnam ciuitatem nomine Caydo, et habet duodecim portas, et à porta in portam duo sunt grossa miliaria Lombardica, spacium inter medium istarum ciuitatum habitatoribus plenum est, et circuitus cuiuslibet istarum ambit 60. miliaria Lombardica, quæ faciunt octo Teutonica. In hac ciuitate Cambalu residet Imperator Magnus Can, Rex Regum terrestrium, et Dominus Dominorum terrestrium. Atque indè vlterius in Orientem intratur vetus vrbs Caydo, vbi communiter tenet suam sedem Imperialem Grand Can in suo palatio. Ambitus autem vrbis Caydo, est viginti ferè leucarum, duodecim habens portas à se distantes ampliùs quàm stadia 24. The English Version. From that contree, men gon be the see occean, be an yle that is clept Caffolos. Men of that contree, whan here frendes ben seke, thei hangen hem upon trees; and seyn, that it is bettre, that briddes, that ben angeles of God, eten hem, than the foule wormes of the erthe. From that yle men gon to another yle, where the folk ben of fulle cursed kynde: for thei norysschen grete dogges, and techen hem to strangle here frendes, whan thei ben syke: for thei wil noughte, that thei dyen of kyndely dethe: for thei seyn, that thei scholde suffren to gret peyne, zif thei abyden to dyen be hem self, as nature wolde: and whan thei ben thus enstrangled, thei eten here flesche, in stede of venysoun. Aftreward men gon be many yles be see, unto an yle, that men clepen Milke: and there is a fulle cursed peple: for thei delyten in ne thing more, than for to fighten and to sle men. And thei drynken gladlyest mannes blood, the whiche thei clepen dieu. And the mo men that a man may slee, the more worschipe he hathe amonges hem. And zif 2 persones ben at debate, and peraventure ben accorded be here frendes or be sumn of here alliance, it behovethe that every of hem, that schulle ben accorded, drynke of otheres blood: and elle the accord ne the alliance is noghte worthe, ne it schalle not be ne repref to him to breke the alliance and the accord, but zif every of hem drynke of otheres blood. And from that yle, men gon be see, from yle to yle, unto an yle, that is clept Tracoda; where the folk of that contree ben as bestes and unresonable, and duellen in caves, that thei maken in the erthe; for thei have no wytt to maken hem houses. And whan thei seen ony man passynge thorghe here contrees, thei hyden hem in here caves. And thei eten flesche of serpentes; and thei eten but litille, and thei speken nought; but thei hissen, as serpentes don. And thei sette no prys be no richesse, but only of a precyous ston, that is amonges hem, that is of 60 coloures. And for the name of the yle, thei clepen it Tracodon. And thei loven more that ston, than ony thing elle: and zit thei knowe not the vertue thereof: but thei coveyten it and loven it only for the beautee. Aftre that yle, men gon be the see occean, be many yles, unto an yle, that is clept Nacumera; that is a gret yle and good and fayr: and it is in kompas aboute, more than a 1000 myle. And alle the men and wommen of that yle han houndes hedes: and thei ben clept Cynocephali: and thei ben fulle resonable and of gode undirstondynge, saf that thei worschipen an ox for here god. And also everyche of hem berethe an ox of gold or of sylver in his forhed, in tokene that thei loven wel here god. And thei gon alle naked, saf a litylle clout, that thei coveren with here knees and hire membres. Thei ben grete folk and wel fyghtynge; and thei han a gret targe, that coverethe alle the body, and a spere in here hond to fighte with. And zif thei taken ony man in bataylle, anon thei eten him. The kyng of that yle is fulle riche and fulle myghty, and righte devout aftre his lawe: and he hathe abouten his nekke 360 perles oryent, gode and grete, and knotted, as Pater Nostres here of amber. And in maner as wee seyn oure Pater Noster and oure Ave Maria, cowntyng the Pater Nosters, right so this kyng seythe every day devoutly 300 preyeres to his god, or that he ete: and he berethe also aboute his nekke a rubye oryent, noble and fyn, that is a fote of lengthe, and fyve fyngres large. And whan thei chesen here kyng, thei taken him that rubye, to beren in his hond, and so thei leden him rydynge alle abouten the cytee. And fro thens fromward, thei ben alle obeyssant to him. And that rubye he schalle bere alle wey aboute his nekke: for zif he hadde not that rubye upon him, men wolde not holden him for kyng. The grete Cane of Cathay hathe gretly coveted that rubye; but he myghte never han it, for werre ne for no maner of godes. This kyng is so rightfulle and of equytee in his doomes, that men may go sykerlyche thorghe out alle his contree, and bere with him what him list, that no man schalle ben hardy to robben hem: and zif he were, the kyng wolde iustifyed anon. Fro this lond men gon to another yle, that is clept Silha: and it is welle a 800 myles aboute. In that lond is fulle mochelle waste; for it is fulle of serpentes, of dragouns and of cokadrilles; that no man dar duelle there. Theise cocodrilles ben serpentes, zalowe and rayed aboven, and han 4 feet and schorte thyes and grete nayles, as clees or talouns; and there ben somme that han 5 fadme in lengthe, and summe of 6 and of 8, and of 10: and whan thei gon be places, that ben gravelly, it semethe as thoughe men hadde drawen a gret tree thorghe the gravelly place. And there ben also many wylde bestes, and namelyche of olyfauntes. In that yle is a gret mountayne; and in mydd place of the mount, is a gret lake in a fulle faire pleyne, and there is a gret plentee of watre. And thei of the contree seyn, that Adam and Eve wepten upon that mount an 100 zeer, whan thei weren dryven out of Paradys. And that watre, thei seyn, is of here teres: for so moche watre thei wepten, that made the forseyde lake. And in the botme of that lake, men fynden many precious stones and grete perles. In that lake growen many reedes and grete cannes; and there with inne ben many cocodrilles and serpentes and grete watre leches. And the kyng of that contree, ones every zeer, zevethe leve to pore men to gon in to the lake, to gadre hem precyous stones and perles, be weye of alemesse, for the love of God, that made Adam. And alle the zeer, men fynde y nowe. And for the vermyn, that is with inne, thei anoynte here armes and here thyes and legges with an oynement, made of a thing that is clept lymons, that is a manere of fruyt, lyche smale pesen: and thanne have thei no drede of no cocodrilles, ne of non other venymous vermyn. This watre rennethe, flowynge and ebbynge, be a syde of the mountayne: and in that ryver men fynden precious stones and perles, gret plentee. And men of that yle seyn comounly, that the serpentes and the wilde bestes of that contree ne will not don non harm, ne touchen with evylle, no strange man, that entrethe into that contree, but only to men that ben born of the same contree. In that contree and othere there abouten, there ben wylde gees, that han 2 hedes: and there ben lyouns alle white, and als grete as oxen, and many other dyverse bestes, and foules also, that be not seyn amonges us. And witethe wel, that in that contree and in othere yles there abouten, the see is to highe, that it semethe as though it henge at the clowdes, and that it wolde covere alle the world: and that is gret mervaylle, that it myghte be so, saf only the wille of God, that the eyr susteynethe it. And therfore seyth David in the Psautere, _Mirabiles elationes Maris_. How men knowen be the Ydole, zif the sike schalle dye or non. Of folk of dyverse schap and merveylously disfigured: And of the Monkes, that zeven hire releef to Babewynes, Apes and Marmesettes and to other Bestes. [Sidenote: Cap. XIX.] From that yle, in goynge be see, toward the southe, is another gret yle, that is clept Dondun. In that yle ben folk of dyverse kyndes; so that the fadre etethe the sone, the sone the fadre, the husbonde the wif, and the wif the husbonde. And zif it so befall, that the fadre or modre or ony of here frendes ben seke, anon the son gothe to the prest of here law, and preyethe him to aske the ydole, zif his fadre or modre or frend schalle dye on that evylle or non. And than the prest and the sone gone to gydere before the ydole, and knelen fulle devoutly, and asken of the ydole here demande. And zif the devylle, that is with inne, answere, that he schalle lyve, thei kepen him wel: and zif he seye, that he schalle dye, then the prest gothe with the sonne, with the wif of him that is seeke, and thei putten here hondes upon his mouthe, and stoppon his brethe, and so thei sleen him. And aftre that, thei choppen alle the body in smale peces, and preyen alle his frendes to comen and eten of him, that is ded: and thei senden for alle the mynstralle of the contree, and maken a solempne feste. And whan thei han eten the flessche, thei taken the bones, and buryen hem, and syngen and maken gret melodye. And alle tho that ben of his kyn, or pretenden hem to ben his frendes, and thei come not to that feste, thei ben repreved for evere and schamed, and maken gret doel; for nevere aftre schulle thei ben holden as frendes. And thei seyn also, that men eten here flesche, for to delyveren hem out of peyne. For zif the wormes of the erthe eten hem, the soule scholde suffre gret peyne, as thei seyn; and namely, whan the flesche is tendre and megre, thanne seyn here frendes, that thei don gret synne, to leten hem have so long langure, to suffre so moche peyne, with oute resoun. And whan thei fynde the flessche fatte, than thei seyn, that it is wel don, to senden him sone to paradys; and that thei have not suffred him to longe, to endure in peyne. The kyng of this yle is a ful gret lord and a myghty; and hathe undre him 54 grete yles, that zeven tribute to him: and in everyche of theise yles, is a kyng crowned, and alle ben obeyssant to that kyng. And he hathe in tho yles many diverse folk. In one of theise yles ben folk of gret stature, as Geauntes; and thei ben hidouse for to loke upon; and thei han but on eye, and that is in the myddylle of the front; and thei eten no thing but raw flessche and raw fyssche. And in another yle, toward the southe, duellen folk of foule suture and of cursed kynde, that han no hedes: and here eyen ben in here scholdres. And in another yle ben folk, that han the face all platt, alle pleyn, with outen nese and with outen mouthe: but thei han 2 smale holes alle round, in stede of hire eyen: and hire mouthe is plait also, with outen lippes. And in another yle ben folk of foul fasceon and schapp, that han the lippe above the mouthe so gret, that whan thei slepen in the sonne, thei keveren alle the face with that lippe. And in another yle, ther ben litylle folk, as dwerghes; and thei ben to so meche as the pygmeyes, and thei han no mouthe, but in stede of hire mouthe, thei han a lytylle round hole: and whan thei schulle eten or drynken, thei taken thorghe a pipe or a penne or suche a thing, and sowken it in: for thei han no tonge; and therfore thei speke not, but thei maken a maner of hissynge, as a neddre doth, and thei maken signes on to another, as monkes don; be the whiche, every of hem undirstondethe other. And in another yle ben folk, that han gret eres and longe, that hangen doun to here knees. And in another yle ben folk, that han hors feet; and thei ben stronge and myghty and swift renneres; for thei taken wyld bestes with rennyng, and eten hem. And in another yle ben folk, that gon upon hire hondes and hire feet, as bestes: and thei ben alle skynned and fedred, and thei wolde lepen als lightly in to trees, and fro tree to tree, as it were squyrelles or apes. And in another yle ben folk that ben bothe man and womman: and thei han kynde of that on and of that other; and thei han but o pappe on the o syde, and on that other non: and thei han membres of generacioun of man and womman; and thei usen bothe, whan hem list, ones that on, and another tyme that other: and thei geten children, whan thei usen the membre of man; and thei bere children, whan thei usen the membre of womman. And in another yle ben folk, that gon alle weyes upon here knees, ful merveylously; and at every pas that thei gon, it semethe that thei wolde falle: and thei han in every foot, 8 toes. Many other dyverse folk of dyverse nature ben there in other yles abouten, of the whiche it were to longe to telle: and therfore I passe over schortly. From theise yles, in passynge be the see occean toward the est, be many iourneyes, men fynden a gret contree and a gret kyngdom, that men clepen Mancy: and that is in Ynde the more: and it is the beste lond, and on of the fairest, that may be in alle the world, and the most delectable, and the most plentifous of all godes, that is in power of man. In that lond duellen many Cristene men and Sarrazynes: for it is a gode contree and a gret. And there ben there inne mo than 2000 grete cytees and riche, with outen other grete townes. And there is more plentee of peple there, than in ony other partie of Ynde; for the bountee of the contree. In that contree is no nedy man, ne none that gothe on beggynge. And thei ben fulle faire folk: but thei ben all pale. And the men han thynne berdes and fewe heres; but thei ben longe: but unethe hathe ony man passynge 50 heres in his berd; and on heer sitt here, another there, as the berd of a lyberd or of a catt. In that lond ben many fairere wommen, than in ony other contree bezonde the see: and therfore men clepen that lond Albanye; because that the folk ben whyte. And the chief cytee of that contree is clept Latoryn; and it is a iourneye from the see: and it is moche more than Parys. In that cytee is a gret ryvere, berynge schippes, that gon to alle the costes in the see. No cytee of the world is so wel stored of schippes, as is that. And alle tho of the cytee and of the contree worschipen ydoles. In that contree ben double sithes more briddes than ben here. There ben white gees, rede aboute the nekke, and thei han a gret crest, as a cokkes comb upon hire hedes: and thei ben meche more there, than thei ben here; and men byen hem there alle quykke, right gret chepe. And there is gret plentee of neddres, of whom men maken grete festes, and eten hem at grete sollempnytees. And he that makethe there a feste, be it nevere so costifous, and he have no neddres, he hathe no thanke for his travaylle. Many gode cytees there ben in that contree, and men han gret plentee and gret chep of alle wynes and vitailles. In that contree ben manye chirches of religious men, and of here lawe: and in tho chirches been ydoles, als grete as geauntes. And to theise ydoles thei zeven to ete, at grete festyfulle dayes, in this manere. Thei bryngen before hem mete alle soden, als hoot as thei comen fro the fuyr, and thei leten the smoke gon up towardes the ydoles; and than thei seyn, that the ydoles han eten; and than the religious men eten the mete aftrewardes. In that contree been white hennes withouten fetheres: but thei beren white wolle, as scheep don here. In that contree, wommen that ben unmaryed, thei han tokenes on hire hedes, lyche coronales, to ben knowen for unmaryed. Also in that contree, ther ben bestes, taughte of men to gon in to watres, in to ryveres and in to depe stankes, for to take fysche; the whiche best is but lytille, and men clepen hem loyres. And whan men casten hem in to the watre, anon thei bringen up gret fissches, als manye as men wold. And zif men wil have mo, thei cast hem in azen, and thei bryngen up als many as men list to have. And fro that cytee, passynge many iourneyes, is another cytee, on of the grettest of the world, that men clepen Cassay; that is to seyne, the Cytee of Hevene. That cytee is well a 50 myle aboute, and it is strongliche enhabyted with peple, in so moche that in on house men maken 10 housholdes. In that cytee ben 12 princypalle zates; and before every zate, a 3 myle or a 4 myle in lengthe, is a gret toun, or a gret cytee. That cytee sytt upon a gret lake on the see; as dothe Venyse. And in that cytee ben mo than 12000 brigges: and upon every brigge, ben stronge toures and gode; in the whiche duellen the wardeynes, for to kepen the cytee fro the gret Cane. And on that o part of the cytee, rennethe a gret ryvere alle along the cytee. And there duellen Cristene men, and many marchauntes and other folk of dyverse natyouns: be cause that the lond is so gode and so plentifous. And there growethe fulle gode wyn, that men clepen Bigon, that is fulle myghty and gentylle in drynkynge. This is a cytee ryalle, where the Kyng of Mancy was wont to duelle: and there duellen many religious men, as it were of the order of freres: for thei ben mendyfauntes. From that cytee, men gon be watre, solacynge and disportynge hem, tille thei come to an abbey of monkes, that is faste bye, that ben gode religious men, after here feythe and lawe. In that abbeye is a gret gardyn and a fair, where ben many trees of dyverse manere of frutes: and in this gardyn, is a lytille hille, fulle of delectable trees. In that hille and in that gardyn, ben many dyverse bestes, as of apes, marmozettes, babewynes, and many other dyverse bestes. And every day, whan the covent of this abbeye hathe eten, the awmener let bere the releef to the gardyn, and he smytethe on the gardyn zate with a clyket of sylver, that he holdethe in his hond, and anon alle the bestes of the hille and of dyverse places of the gardyn, comen out, a 3000 or a 4000; and thei comen in gyse of pore men: and men zeven hem the releef, in faire vesselles of sylver, clene over gylt. And whan thei han eten, the monk smytethe eft sones on the gardyn zate with the clyket; and than anon alle the bestes retornen azen to here places, that thei come fro. And thei seyn, that theise bestes ben soules of worthi men, that resemblen in lyknesse of the bestes, that ben faire: and therfore thei zeve hem mete, for the love of God. And the other bestes that ben foule, they seyn, ben soules of pore men and of rude comouns. And thus thei beleeven, and no man may putte hem out of this opynyoun. Theise bestes aboveseyd, thei let taken, whan thei ben zonge, and norisschen hem so with almesse; als manye, as thei may fynde. And I asked hem, zif it had not ben better, to have zoven that releef to pore men, rathere than to the bestes. And thei answerde me and seyde, that thei hadde no pore men amonges hem, in that contree: and thoughe it had ben so, that pore men had ben among hem, zit were it gretter almesse, to zeven it to tho soules, that don there here penance. Many other marveylles ben in that cytee and in the contree there aboute, that were to long to telle zou. Fro that cytee, go men be the contree a 6 iourneyes, to another cytee, that men clepen Chilenfo: of the whiche cytee, the walles ben 20 myle aboute. In that cytee ben 60 brigges of ston, so faire, that no man may see fairere. In that cytee was the firste sege of the Kyng of Mancy: for it is a faire cytee, and plenteeyous of alle godes. Aftre passe men overthwart a gret ryvere, that men clepen Dalay: and that is the grettest ryvere of fressche water, that is in the world. For there, as it is most narow, it is more than a myle of brede. And thanne entren men azen into the lond of the grete Chane. That ryvere gothe thorghe the lond of Pigmaus: where that the folk ben of litylle stature, that ben but 3 span long: and thei ben right faire and gentylle, aftre here quantytees, bothe the men and the wommen. And thei maryen hem, whan thei ben half zere of age, and geten children. And thei lyven not, but 6 zeer or 7 at the moste. And he that lyvethe 8 zeer men holden him there righte passynge old. Theise men ben the beste worcheres of gold, sylver, cotoun, sylk, and of alle suche thinges, of ony other, that be in the world. And thei han often tymes werre with the briddes of the contree, that thei taken and eten. This litylle folk nouther labouren in londes ne in vynes. But thei han grete men amonges hem, of oure stature, that tylen the lond, and labouren amonges the vynes for hem. And of tho men of oure stature, han thei als grete skorne and wondre, as we wolde have among us of geauntes, zif thei weren amonges us. There is a gode cytee, amonges othere, where there is duellynge gret plentee of tho lytylle folk: and it is a gret cytee and a faire, and the men ben grete, that duellen amonges hem: but whan thei geten ony children, thei ben als litylle as the pygmeyes: and therfore thei ben alle, for the moste part, alle pygmeyes; for the nature of the lond is suche. The grete Cane let kepe this cytee fulle wel: for it is his. And alle be it, that the pygmeyes ben lytylle, zit thei ben fulle resonable, aftre here age, and connen bothen wytt and gode and malice, y now. Fro that cytee, gon men be the contree, be many cytees and many townes, unto a cytee, that men clepen Jamchay: and it is a noble cytee and a riche, and of gret profite to the lord: and thidre go men to sechen marchandise of alle manere of thing. That cytee is fulle moche worthe zerly to the lord of the contree. For he hathe every zere to rente of that cytee (as thei of the cytee seyn) 50000 cumantz of floreyns of gold: for thei cownten there alle be cumanz: and every cumant is 10000 floryns of gold. Now may men wel rekene, how moche that it amountethe. The kyng of that contree is fulle myghty: and zit he is undre the grete Cane. And the gret Cane hathe undre him 12 such provynces. In that contree, in the gode townes, is a gode custom. For whoso wille make a feste to ony of his frendes, there ben certeyn innes in every gode toum; and he that wil make the feste, wil seye to the hostellere, arraye for me, to morwe, a gode dyner, for so many folk; and tellethe him the nombre; and devysethe him the viaundes: and he seythe also, thus moche I wil dispende, and no more. And anon the hostellere arrayethe for him, so faire and so wel and so honestly, that ther schalle lakke no thing. And it schalle be don sunnere, and with lasse cost, than and a man made it in his owne hous. And a 5 myle fro that cytee, toward the hed of the ryvere of Dalay, is another cytee, that men clepen Menke. In that cytee is strong navye of schippes; and alle ben white as snow, of the kynde of the trees, that thei ben made offe. And thei ben fulle grete schippes, and faire, and wel ordeyned, and made with halles and chambres, and other eysementes, as thoughe it were on the lond. Fro thens go men be many townes and many cytees, thorghe the contree, unto a cytee, that men clepen Lanteryne: and it is an 8 iourneyes from the cytee aboveseyd. This cytee sitt upon a faire ryvere, gret and brood, that men clepen Caramaron. This ryvere passethe thorghe out Cathay: and it dothe often tyme harm, and that fulle gret, whan it is over gret. Of the grete Chane of Chatay. Of the Rialtee of his Palays, and how he sitt at Mete; and of the grete nombre of Officeres, that serven hym. [Sidenote: Cap. XX.] Chatay is a gret contree and a faire, noble and riche, and fulle of marchauntes. Thidre gon marchaundes alle zeres, for to sechen spices and alle manere of marchandises, more comounly than in ony other partye. And zee schulle undirstonde, that marchaundes, that comen fro Gene or fro Venyse or fro Romanye, or other partyes of Lombardye, thei gon be see and be lond 11 monethes, or 12, or more sum tyme, or thei may come to the yle of Cathay, that is the princypalle regyoun of alle partyes bezonde; and it is of the grete Cane. Fro Cathay go men toward the est, be many iourneyes: and than men fynden a gode cytee, betwene theise othere, that men clepen Sugarmago. That cytee is on of the beste stored of sylk and other marchandises, that is in the world. Aftre go men zit to another old cytee, toward the est: and it is in the provynce of Cathay. And besyde that cytee, the men of Tartarye han let make another cytee, that is clept Caydon; and it hathe 12 zates: and betwene the two zates, there is alle weyes a gret myle; so that the 2 cytees, that is to seyne, the olde and the newe, han in circuyt more than 20 myle. CAPVT. 34. De pallatio Imperatoris Grand Can. Palatium Imperatoris Grand Can, quod est in Caydo ciuitate, continet in circuitu proprij muralis vltrà duas leucas, et sunt in eo aulæ quàm plures, in forma nobiles, et in materia nobiliores. Aula autem sedis, quæ est maxime cæterarum, habet intrinsecus pro sui sustentatione 24. aereas columnas factas opere fusorio, de auro puro, et omnes parietes ab intus opertas pellibus quorundam animalium, quæ vocantur Pantheres: hæ sanguinei sunt coloris, et ita remicantes, vt Sole desuper relucente; vix oculus valeat humanus sufferre splendorem, tantæque fragantiæ, vt illi approximare non posset aer infectus, vnde et ista opertura parietum appreciatur super tegmen aurearum laminarum. Namque stultorum aliqui Paganorum huiusmodi adorant animalia propter colorum, odorumque virtutem. Proposui retrahere calamum à describenda nobilitate, gubernatione et ministrantium frequentia, atque Imperatoris magnificentia: attamen quia coepi ego, propter incredulos, et nescios, ac inerudibiles, non dimittam in toto. Quicunque enim nihil credunt, nihil sciunt, neque erudiri possunt, Scriptura testante, si non credideritis non intelligetis. Dico ergo, et verè dico, quòd in huius aulæ capite sit thronus, vel sedes Imperialis, excelsus et eminens in ascensu graduum quamplurium, in quo residere solet in plenaria maiestate, in cuius throni toto corpore nihil apparet minùs nobile, auro, margaritis, gemmis, et lapidibus preciosis. Singuli gradus sunt de singulis, ac inter se diuersis magnis lapidibus, vtpote primus de Hæmatisto, alius de Sardio, et alius de Chrysolito, et sic vsque ad supremum gradum, qui singuli ad formam cuiusque gradus sunt circumfusi, et clusorio opere firmati, auro solido, et nihilominùs per superficiem auri, distinctè seminati, firmitèrque inclusi lapilli cari, cum orientalibus Margaritis, summitas autem cum ferculo residentiæ in nobilitate excisionis, et fabrifactura operis tam diuersa est, et mira, vt paruitatem mei ingenij excedat, quamobrem et ei cedo, vlteriusque procedo. Ad Imperatoris sinistram gradu vno bassior, est sedes suæ primæ coniugis, tota de iaspidibus auro circumfusis, et in superficie aulæ distinctæ gemmulæ cum granellis eodem schemate, et similiter de iaspide. Sed adhuc submissior vno gradu est sedes coniugis secundæ, nec non et sub illa vxoris tertiæ. Nam tres proprias secum habet vxores, Odericus dicit, istas duas concubinas. Itémque resident sub tertia coniuge nobiles mulieres de Imperatoris progenie, iuxta illustriam vniuscuiusque. Et notandum, quòd per totam patriam singulæ mulieres maritatæ, vt intelligantur maritis subiectæ, et vt discernantur à solutis, gestant in capitis summitate similitudinem pedis viri, longitudinis brachij et dimidij, quadam leui materia operatam: videlicet nobiles de sericosis operibus pannorum, seu alijs raris et pulchris pannis, et preciosis lapillis, et ignobiles iuxta statum suum de materia communiori. Ad dextram verò sedentis Imperatoris vno gradu submissus residet primogenitus eius filius, et sub ipso ordinatè in consimilibus sedibus nobiles proximi de cognitione Imperiali. Item super thronum et desuper ante ipsius throni locum, tanquam pro celato seu operimento in throno residentium, et eorum ministrantium, est extensa similitudo vitis operata in palmitibus, et pampinis, de auro puro ad extensionem cubitorum quadraginta, per quadrum, atque per eam dependentes botri vuarum de gemmis, et granellis quinque colorum, quorum albi sunt de christallo et beryllo, et iriscrocei de topazio et fuluo christallo, rubei de rubetorum granis, corallo, et alibandinis, virides de Smaragdis, pyropis, et chrysolytis, nigri, de onichinis, gagetis, et gerateris. Tempore prandij in hac aula, Imperator et Imperatrices, et quisque de prædictis, habet mensam sibi solam, quarum vilior præualet thesauro grandi. In solennitatibus ponitur mensa Imperatori de exquisito electro, seu de auro examinato, distincta diamantibus, et nobis ignotis in comparabilibus gemmis, quandóque de christallo perspicuo, seu croceo, circumclusa auro cum gemmis: quandóque de Hæmatisto, quandóque de ebore candido, vel rubicundo: interdum de ligno artificiosè combinato, quod descendit per flumina de Paradiso. Idem dicit Odericus. His mensis astant Barones, et Principes pro vasallis attentè in suis officijs ministrantes, quorum nec vnus emittere verbum aliqua præsumit audacia, nisi Imperatore annuente, vel ad illum loquente, illis duntaxat exceptis, qui certis interspatijs canunt, aut recitant de principum gestis. Et notandum, quando in hoc solio Maiestatis diebus solennibus residet Imperator, subsidere ad pedes eius notarios quatuor, qui omne quod Dominus loquitur, singuli ponunt in scriptis: nam quodcunque tunc ex ore illius egreditur, necesse est esse, vel effici, nec valet item ipse verbum suum mutare, nec reuocare, nisi magno consilio conuocato. Vniuersa vtensilia quibus in solennitate ad has seruitur mensas, sunt de nobilibus petris auro reclusis, Cyphi de Smaragdis, vel Saphyris, topasijs, pyropis, siue gryophis: et priuatioribus diebus, de auro probato etiam in cameris, et cubiculis, nec reputatur ibi claritas argenti, nisi pro pilarijs, columnis, gradibus, et pauimentis. Istius autem ostia aulæ, dum in ea residet, aut deambulat Imperator, multi Barones ingressum seruant intentè, et ne limen tangatur, quod hoc haberent pro augurio, et benè verberaretur, quia Imperatore præsente, nemo nisi adductus in quacunque camera, vel habitatione intromittitur, donec interrogatus iusserit Imperator. Latitudinem huius Basilicæ æstimo ad spatium de meis pedibus centum et longitudinem vltrà quatuor centum. In cubiculo autem Regis dormitorio, constat vnus pillarius, seu columna de auro solido et carbunculus conclusus in illo longitudinis pedis vnius, totum habitaculum de nocte perfundens lumine claro. Hic prout ego notaui, non est plenè rubeus, sed subrufus, quasi coloris Hæmatistini. Porrò in vna aularum, circà medium palatii, est alius excelsus ascensus, Odericus dicit pigma, super quem dum placet, stat, vel residet Imperator, ditissimè etiam operatus, ex auro, gemmis, baccis, margaritis, et lapidibus raris, et in quatuor angulis, imagines quatuor serpentum de auro puro. Huius per tria latera dependent retia seu cortinæ de cordulis sericis, in quibus ad singulos nodos, grossa margarita habetur innexa, quibus cortinis tegitur officina: in eius concauitate tenetur tumba quadrata, in qua conueniunt conductus omnium potuum, qui bibuntur in Curia, et innumera vasorum genera, quibus potus omnibus ministratur. Prætereà, iuxta palatii ambitum, habetur grandis parci spaciamentum, diuersi generis arboribus repletum, fructus ferentibus varios, et nobis inuisos, et in parte media, aula super excelsum collem de tam mira et pulchra structura, vt eius nobilitas de facili ad præsens, non possit describi. Et vndique, par collis gyrum aquæ fossatum profundum, et latum vltrà quod pons vnicus ducit ad collem. Atque ex duobus montis lateribus, stagnum cum diuersorum copia piscium, et volucrum indomitarum, vt aucarum, anatum, cignorum, ciconiarum, ardearum, et collectorum in magna pluralitate, nec non et per parcum, multæ syluestres bestiæ, et bestiolæ quatenùs per aulæ fenestras possit Dominus pro solatio respicere volucrum aucupationes, bestiarum venationes, et piscium captiones. Et hoc proculdubio sciendum, quòd in nostris partibus rara sint oppida cum pluribus mansionibus, quàm in isto palatio continentur. Tota æstate moratur in India terra frigidissima, in hyeme in Cambalu. Odericus. Præter palatium hoc in Caydo, habet Imperator similitèr tria: vnum in ciuitate Sadus, versus Septentrionem, vbi competens est frigus, ibi moratur in æstate. Cambalu, vbi competens calor, ibi moratur hyeme. Tertium in ciuitate Iongh, in quo et in isto Caydo, vt sæpiùs seruat sedem, eò quòd in istis est aer magis temperatus, quamuis semper calidus videtur Nostratibus. The English Version. In this cytee is the Sege of the grete Cane in a fulle gret palays, and the most passynge fair in alle the world: of the whiche the walles ben in circuyt more than 2 myle: and within the walles, it is alle fulle of other palays. And in the gardyn of the grete palays, there is a gret hille, upon the whiche there is another palays; and it is the most fair and the most riche, that ony man may devyse. And all aboute the palays and the hille, ben many trees, berynge many dyverse frutes. And alle aboute that hille, ben dyches grete and depe: and besyde hem, ben grete vyneres, on that o part and on that other. And there is a fulle fair brigge to passe over the dyches. And in theise vyneres, ben so many wylde gees and gandres and wylde dokes and swannes and heirouns, that it is with outen nombre. And alle aboute theise dyches and vyneres, is the grete gardyn, fulle of wylde bestes; so that, whan the gret Cane wil have ony desport on that, to taken ony of tho wylde bestes or of the foules, he wil lete chace hem and taken hem at the wyndowes, with outen goynge out of his chambre. This palays, where his sege is, is bothe gret and passynge fair. And with in the palays, in the halle, there ben 24 pyleres of fyn gold: and alle the walles ben covered with inne, of rede skynnes of bestes, that men clepen panteres; that ben faire bestes, and well smellyng: so that for the swete odour of tho skynnes, non evylle ayr may entre in to the palays. Tho skynnes ben als rede as blode, and thei schynen so brighte azen the sonne, that unethes no man may beholden hem. And many folk worschipen tho bestes, whan thei meeten hem first at morwe, for here gret vertue and for the gode smelle that thei han: and tho skynnes thei preysen more than thoughe thei were plate of fyn gold. And in the myddes of this palays is the mountour for the grete Cane, that is alle wrought of gold and of precyous stones and grete perles: and at 4 corneres of the mountour, been 4 serpentes of gold: and alle aboute ther is y made large nettes of sylk, and gold and grete perles hangynge alle aboute the mountour. And undre the mountour, ben condytes of beverage, that thei drynken in the emperours court. And besyde the condytes, ben many vesselles of gold, be the whiche, thei that ben of houshold, drynken at the condyt. And the halle of the palays is fulle nobelyche arrayed, and fulle merveylleousely atyred on all parteys, in alle thinges, that men apparayle with ony halle. And first, at the chief of the halle, is the emperours throne, fulle highe, where he syttethe at the mete: and that is of fyn precyouse stones, bordured alle aboute with pured gold and precyous stones and grete perles. And the grees, that he gothe up to the table, ben of precyous stones, medled with gold. And at the left syde of the emperoures sege, is the sege of his firste wif, o degree lowere than the emperour: and it is of jaspere, bordured with gold and preciouse stones. And the sege of his seconde wif is also another sege, more lowere than his firste wif: and it is also of jaspere, bordured with gold, as that other is. And the sege of the thridde wif is also more lowe, be a degree, than the seconde wif. For he hathe alweys 3 wifes with him, where that evere he be. And aftre his wyfes, on the same syde, sytten the ladyes of his lynage, zit lowere, aftre that thei ben of estate. And alle tho that ben maryed, han a countrefete, made lyche a mannes foot, upon here hedes, a cubyte long, alle wrought with grete perles, fyne and oryent, and aboven, made with pecokes fedres and of other schynynge fedres; and that stont upon here hedes, like a crest, in tokene that thei ben undre mannes fote and undre subiectioun of man. And thei that ben unmaryed, han none suche. And aftre, at the right syde of the Emperour, first syttethe his eldest sone, that schalle regne aftre him: and he syttethe also o degree lowere than the emperour, in suche manere of seges, as don the emperesses. And aftre him, sytten other grete lordes of his lynage, every of hem a Degree lowere than other, as thei ben of estate. And the emperour hathe his table allone be him self, that is of gold, and of precious stones, or of cristalle, bordured with gold, and fulle of precious stones or of amatystes or of lignum aloes, that comethe out of paradys, or of ivory, bounden or bordured with gold. And everyche of his wyfes hathe also hire table be hire self. And his eldest sone, and the other lordes also, and the ladyes, and alle that sitten with the emperour, han tables allone be hem self, fulle riche. And there nys no table, but that it is worthe an huge tresour of gode. And undre the emperoures table, sitten 4 clerkes, that writen alle, that the emperour seythe, be it good, be it evylle. For alle that he seythe, moste ben holden; for he may not chaungen his word, ne revoke it. At grete solempne festes, before the emperoures table, men bryngen grete tables of gold, and there on ben pecokes of gold, and many other maner of dyverse foules, alle of gold, and richely wrought and enameled; and men maken hem dauncen and syngen, clappynge here wenges to gydere, and maken gret noyse: and where it be by craft or be nygromancye, I wot nere; but it is a gode sight to beholde, and a fair; and it is gret marvayle how it may be. But I have the lasse marvaylle, be cause that thei ben the moste sotyle men in alle sciences and in alle craftes, that ben in the world. For of sotyltee and of malice and of fercastynge, thei passen alle men undre hevene. And therfore thei seyn hem self, that thei seen with 2 eyen; and the Cristene men see but with on: be cause that thei ben more sotylle than thei. For alle other naciouns, thei seyn, ben but blynde in conynge and worchynge in comparisoun to hem. I did gret besynesse, for to have lerned that craft: but the maistre tolde me, that he had made a vow to his God, to teche it to no creature, but only to his eldeste sone. Also above the emperours table and the othere tables, and aboven a gret partie in the halle, is a vyne, made of fyn gold: and it spredethe alle aboute the halle; and it hath many clustres of grapes, somme white, somme grene, summe zalowe and somme rede and somme blake, alle of precious stones: the white ben of cristalle and of berylle and of iris; the zalowe ben of topazes; the rede ben of rubies, and of grenaz and of alabraundynes; the grene ben of emeraudes, of perydos and of crisolytes; and the blake ben of onichez and garantez. And thei ben alle so propurlyche made, that it semethe a verry vyne, berynge kyndely grapes. And before the emperoures table, stonden grete lordes, and riche barouns and othere, that serven the emperour at the mete. And no man is so hardy, to speke a word, but zif the emperour speke to him; but zif it be mynstrelles, that syngen songes, and tellen gestes or other desportes, to solace with the emperour. And alle the vesselle, that men ben served with, in the halle or in chambres, ben of precious stones; and specially at grete tables; outher of jaspre or of cristalle or of amatystez or of fyn gold. And the cuppes ben of emeraudez and of saphires or of topazes, of perydoz, and of many other precyouse stones. Vesselle of sylver is there non: for thei telle no prys there of, to make no vesselle offe: but thei maken ther of grecynges and pileres and pawmentes, to halles and chambres. And before the halle dore, stonden manye barounes, and knyghtes clene armed, to kepe that no man entre, but zif it be the wille or the commandement of the emperour, or but zif thei ben servauntes or mynstralle of the houshold: and other non is not so hardy, to neighen nye the halle dore. CAPVT. 35. De quatuor solennitatibus, quas Magnus Can celebrat in anno. Sciatis quòd ego, meíque sodales, pro fama magnificentiæ huius Imperatoris, tradidimus nos stipendiarios esse in guerris, contra Regem Mangi prænominatum. Et fuimus apud ipsum 15. mensibus, et certè inuenimus multò maiorem partem hominum, in mediam partem nobis non fuisse relatam: hominum (exceptis custodibus bestiarum et volucrum,) qui intra palatium certa gerunt ministeria est numerus decem cuman. Nota. Traxi moram in Cambalu tribus annis: fratres nostri locum habent in Curia sua specialiter, et festis diebus statutis dant benedictionem, Odericus. Et quoniam Imperator habet satis plures quàm decem mille Elephantes edomitos, et velut vltrà numerum alias bestias, (quarum quædam tenentur in caueis, stabulis mirabilibus, vel catenis) nec non et aues rapaces, et accipitres, falcones, ostrones, gryfandos gentiles, Laueroys, et Satyros, sed et auiculas loquentes, et papingos, et similes, aliásque cantantes: reputatur numerus hominum de istis curam et laborem gerentium, vltrà sex cuman, et prætereà iugiter ad Curiam equites cum plenarijs armaturis, quinque cuman, et de peditibus cum præliandi armaturis, cuman decem. Sed et omnes de natione quacunque mundi venientes, qui petunt describi pro Curia recipiuntur. Sic enim iussit Imperator. Habet et medicos Paganos viginti, et totidem Physicos, atque sine his Medicos Christianos ducentos, et totidem Physicos, quoniam iste Grand Can maiorem gerit confidentiam in Medicis Christianis, quàm in suæ propriæ nationis medicis. Hoc ergò firmiter scias, quod de Curia Regis accipiunt necessaria sua iugitèr vltrà triginta cuman hominum, præter expensas animalium et volucrum, cùm tamen in festis maioribus sint homines propè in duplo tanti. Nec valet hic dominus defectum vllum pati pecuniæ, eò quòd in terra sua non currit moneta de argento, vel auro, alióue metallo, sed tantùm de corio vel papyro: horum enim forma denariorum signo Imperatoris impressorum preciatur minoris aut maioris valoris, secundum diuersitatem impressionis, qui per visitationem, detriti vel rupti, cùm ad Regis thesaurarios deferuntur, protinùs dantur pro illis noui. Quatèr in anno celebrat Imperator festiuitates solennes. Primam de die propriæ Natiuitatis. Secundam de die suæ primæ præsentationis in eorum Templo, quod appellant Moseath, vbi et fit ijs, nescio quod genus circumcisionis. Tertiam in thronizatione sui Idoli in Templo. Quartam de die quo Idolum cepit dare responsum, seu facere diabolica mira. Plures enim in anno non tenet solennitates, nisi si quando nuptias filij aut filiæ celebrat. Itaque in istis solennitatibus est populi multitudo absque numero, omnes tamen in ordine debito, et singuli intendentes proprio ministerio, nam ad hoc ordinandum, et disponendum, electa sunt quatuor Baronum nobilium genera, ex quibus nonnulli sunt Reges, et alij Equites potentes, Duces, et Marchiones, omnes induti holosericis, quibus inserti cum certa disseminatione sunt vbique preciosi lapides, miræ virtutis, et aurifigia speciosa, vt si quis in his partibus vnum de talibus haberet mutatorijs, dici non posset pauper imò prædiues. Et habet quodlibet millenariorum in his vestibus colorem sibi proprium: primum viridem, secundum vermiculum, tertium croceum, quartum purpureum, seu indicum. Ergo in die solenni, dum de mane Maiestatis thronum conscenderit, veniunt se præsentari hoc modo Regi. Ante primum millenarium procedit copiosa symphonia dulcis chordarum, sicut de violis, cytharis, lyris, et psalterijs, non autem de tubis aut tympanis: et præcedunt Baronis per transuersum Aulæ coram residente Domino ordinatè bini, et bini sub silentio, ferentes ambabus manibus ante pectus tabulam de Iaspide, ebore, christallo, pyropo, vel Hæmatisto, et ante faciem throni inclinant se Imperatori profundè. Illísque pertranseuntibus, succedit simili modo millenarius secundus, et tertius, atque quartus, nec auditur à quoquam vnicum verbum. Hac præsentatione cum debita maturitate perfecta, resident in basso à latere throni ad proprias mensas, multi Philosophi, seu Artistæ, sicut de Astronomia, Geomantia, Pyromantia, Hydromantia, Chiromantia, Necromantia, auguriis, ac aruspiciis, et huiusmodi, tenentes coram instrumenta suæ artis, alii Astrolabium, et Sphæras de auro, alii in aureis vasis arenam, prunas ardentes, aquam, vinum, oleum, et caluarias mortuorum, loquentes et respondentes, nec non de auro horologia ad minùs duo: et ad cunctas horas secundum cursum horologiorum innuunt Philosophi seruis sibi ad hoc deputatis, vt faciant præstari auditum per aulam, quorum vnus aut duo conscendentes scallum, alta voce proclamant, audite, auscultate, et omnibus intendentibus dicit Philosophorum vnus: Quilibet nunc faciat reuerentiam Imperatori, qui est filius Dei excelsi, Dominus et superior omnium Dominorum Mundi, quia ecce hæc est hora. Et mox singuli in aula inclinato corpore et capite se inclinant maiestati manentes accliui, donec idem philosophus dicat, leuate. Atque protinùs super hoc factum, Musici suis instrumentis, suauem personant melodiam. Posteà ad aliquantam moram simili modo dicit alias philosophorum, minimus digitus in aure: et ecce hoc omnes faciunt, donec dicat, sufficit: sic in aliam horam, seu moram dicit, manus vestra super os, et posteà manus super caput. Atque in hunc modum iuxta temporis cursum imponunt facienda signa diuersa. Innuunt in eis latere magna mysteria, et quodlibet horum factorum melodia terminat Musicorum. Et sciatis me quandoque in tempore opportuno ab eis interrogasse de his signis, qui responderunt quòd inclinare caput Domino ad illius horæ momentum, foret confirmatio omnibus diebus vitæ suæ, ad obediendum ipsi et fidelitatem obseruandam imperio, nec posse corrumpi promissionibus siue donis, quódque digitum in auricula imponere, obturatio est auditus contra omnia Imperatori, et Imperio contraria. Et sic de singulis factis singula mysteria confingentes decipiunt audientes: horum itaque fraudulento ingenio, iste Grand Can festiuatus, non nisi ad talium iudicium parari permittit cibaria, aut fieri indumenta pro suo corpore. Dura autem est visum Curiæ gubernatoribus satis de prædictis auditum, faciunt proclamatores silentium imperari, et incipit fieri offerenda Imperatori hoc modo. Intrant omnes qui sunt de cognatione Imperatoris Barones adornati nobilissimè pro cuiusque decentia balteis, et indumentis, quorum primus cum resonante symphonia præmittit ad oblationem quotquot valet de dextrarijs albis, et inclinans ante thronum pertransit, atque per eundem modum singuli Baronum offerentes aliquid dignum iocale inclinant transeuntes, silentio firmè seruato. Post hos intrantes simili modo prælati et Abbates, de iurisdictionibus et religionibus Paganorum offerunt singuli pro suo statu se reuerentèr inclinantes maiestati, et maior prælatorum benedicit Regi, et suis ac Curiæ quadam suæ legis oratione. Deinde introducuntur elephantes, leones, pardi, simiæ, marmotæ, et diuersæ bestiæ, quarum ductores singuli transeuntes inclinant reuerenter, et intentè. Postremò afferuntur aquilæ, struthiones, gryphandi, accipitres, et papingi, cum diuersis auibus et auiculis, nec non serpentes ac pisces, quorum portitores inclinant profundè, quoniam dicunt omnes terrenas creaturas debere adorationem Imperatori Grand Can filio Dei excelsi: et his perfectis, Musicæ Camenæ persoluunt debita plenè. Nos igitur intendamus hoc loco quæso quomodo veraciter Pagani in tenebris ambulant: diabolica inuolutione mens eorum obtenebrata non videt quomodò, cùm Imperator sit homo mortalis nuper natus, et similiter sicut illi infirmitate circundatus, atque in breui cum ipsis moriturus, quem etiam non dubitant sub Deo, clamant eum non Deum, sed Dei filium, vbi vtique prorsus ignorant illum non esse laudandum, nec adorandum, sed eum non intendunt alium filium, filium increatum et connaturalem, qui et ipsos et eum creauit, solum superlaudabilem in secula. Et hoc alto corde considerantes, laudemus, adoremus, glorificemus, et superexaltemus totis viribus Deum, qui nos filios lucis esse voluit, et salutis, nasci, baptizari, educari, erudiri sub sinceritate fidei Christianæ, excluso schismate et errore, atque sub instituto sacrosanctæ matris Ecclesiæ, in qua sola penè ab omni circumferentia orbis terræ fides, quæ saluat, et per dilectionem operatur nunc remansit. Et oremus instantèr pro ipsis Paganis, vt agnita veritatis luce videre possint quò ambulant, vt perueniant ad Iesum Christuro coæqualem Dei filium, atque in ipso, et per ipsum laudare et adorare solum vnum verum Deum. CAPVT. 36. De ludis et præstigijs in suo festo, et de suo comitatu. Celebrato post hoc prandio satis morosè, quia nunquam est vltrà semel edendum in die, de quo et eius administratione nunc longum est scribere, adsunt gesticulatores, mira visu, suauiáque auditu pedibus, manibus, brachijs, humeris, capitibus, et toto corpore, ac ad singulos gestus, correspondentes debito vocis sono. Et semper finem horum mirabilium cantilena subsequitur musicorum. Ex hoc ioculatores præstò sunt, et Magi, qui suis incantationibus præstant præstigia multa. Imprimis faciunt videri Solem et Lunam, oriendo, descendendo consuetum diei intra Basilicam peragere cursum, cum tanta nimietate splendoris, vt vix se inuicem homines valeant recognoscere præ fulgore, dicentes et mentientes, Solem et Lunam coeli hanc mittere reuerentiam Imperatori. Hinc pari ludo comparent speciosæ puellæ ducere semitas et choreas, nobili gestu nobilissimum ferre poculum lactis equarum in aureis vasis, de quo, ponentes se in genibus, tradunt potum dominis et dominabus. Tunc portantur et milites in equis, et armis quoque pleni atque parati, qui feruentibus sonipedibus se inuicem cuspidibus ad fragorem magnum configentes lanceas comminuunt, et fragmenta per mensas, et pauimenta discurrunt. Ac deindè fantasticè venantur per aulam, cum canibus et papionibus, ad ceruos, lupos, vrsos, et apros, ad lepores, et marmotas. Quæ singula cùm ad horam pascant vana delectatione sensus corporeos, miseriam tamen inserunt piæ menti, quòd tot et tanti homines, neglecta prorsus animi salute, his diabolicis operationibus se dederunt in toto. Nam certò non ita sine dæmonum consolatione et familiaritate præmissa confingi dicerem. Nota: à Cambalu ad viginti dietas, est pulchrum nemus girans octo dietas in circuitu, in quo sunt omnia genera animalium: custodes habet circa eum. Triennio vel quadriennio visitat illud Imperator, et cum multa gente nemus circumdat, canes emittuntur et aues, cum multo clamore, et feras congregant in medio nemoris, ad planiciem sibi sitam. Tunc Imperator priùs iacit quinque sagittas, posteà alij: tunc Imperator dicit, Eya, hoc est, mina bestijs, et sicut quilibet capit sagittam suam signatam, percussam, aliis recedentibus ad sua loca. Odericus. Prætereà ante Imperatoris mensam eriguntur tabulæ latæ aureæ cum sculptis, ac si viuerent, imaginibus gallorum, pauonum ac diuersarum volucrum artificiosè, quas præstigiator facit pro libitu sine apprehensione manus ire, tripudiare, chorizare, tremere, compugnare, bibere, manducare, sed et cantare: quod quidem inter cætera mihi videbatur mirabilius et aspectu delectabilius. Nullus istud plenè intueri potuit, nisi qui erat in throno vel circa: et me oportet hoc loco fateri stultitiam propriam, quòd hac delectatione tractus, magnam adhibui apud Artistam diligentiam, verbis blandis, et quibuscunque munusculis, ac melioribus promissis, quod de tali mihi traderet artem, qui sagax simul et fallax imprimis, spem meam trahebat sponsionum funibus: sed at vltimum penitùs abscindebat, dicens se vouisse Deo immortali, ne cuiquam doceret nisi proprio filio seniori, ac per hoc me Deus ab illo malo conseruauit inuitum, et gratias nunc reddentem. Certum est illic homines esse subtiles ad quasdam humanas artes, et ingeniosos ad fraudes super omnes, quas noui mundi partes, vnde et inter se dicunt prouerbium, se solos videre duobus oculis, et Christianos vno, cæteros autem homines cæecos: sed mentitur iniquitas sibi, quoniam ipsi vident solo oculo terrena et transitoria, et nos Christiani duobus, quia cum terrenis videmus spiritualia, et mansura: percussit enim Naas, [Marginal Note: I Sam. 11. 2.] id est, humani generis hostis cum illis foedus, vt erueret omnibus oculos dextros, scilicet spirituales. Cùm itaque narrata de præmissis debeant sufficere, quando Imperator Grand Can de vno quatuor palatiorum ad aliud transire velit, vel fortè gratia visitationis aut ardui negotii per Imperium de Regno ad Regnum tendit per comitatus, quatuor exercitibus antè et retrò, et ex ambobus lateribus. Primus exercitus præcedit personam Regis per vnam de suis dietis, vt semper in hospitium de quo recessit exercitus Rex intret nocte sequenti, et est hic primus comitatus descriptus, et statutus de numero quinquaginta cuman virorum, hoc est, quingentorum millium, sempérque præuisum, et prouisum est, vt inueniant necessaria in locis, vbi habent quiescere, vel tardare siue in hospitiis, siue in tentoriis. Secundus et tertius comitatus sunt eiusdem numeri virorum cum primo, quorum vnus ad dextram tendit Imperatoris, alius ad sinistrum in distantia ab ipso ad trium vel duarum leucarum. Quartus autem qui maior est omnibus, subsequitur Imperatorem quasi ad spatium iactus balistæ. Et ad hoc sciendum est, quòd personæ horum comitatuum sunt sigillatim, et summatim omnes descriptæ, vt dum vna moritur vel recedit, protinùs alia inscribatur, et numerus non minuatur. Ipse verò Imperator tendit residens in cella seu camera ædificata super currum grandem forma, fortem robore, nobilem in structura, est cella de ligno Aloes optimi odoris, et parietes cellæ operti in quibusdam locis laminis aureis, quæ et ipsæ distinguuntur gemmis variis, et margaritis. Est autem currus quatuor rotarum duntaxat, quem trahunt quatuor Elephantes ad hoc curiosè instructi, cum quatuor hippis albis equæ doctis et ipsi cooperti ditissimis tegumentis, ac præter aurigas nobiliter indutos, qui currum cautissimè ducunt, adsunt et quatuor de maioribus palatii Dominis, indè ad vehiculum habentes iugem curam, de minatione eius, et ne vltimo exercitu appropriet infra iactum (vt dixi) sagittæ. Ipse autem interdum pro sodalitate iubet secum ascendere quam vult personam, sed minimè vltrà duos. In cellæ quoque culmine, quod aperiri valet et claudi, astant in pertica quatuor grifandi, vel ostiones. Odericus: duodecim Girfalcones, vt si fortè Imperator in ære aquilam, vulturum, ardeam, vel collectorem cerneret, citò dimitteret istorum duas aut plures ad aucupandum. Nota, per Dromedarios, et cursores, et veloces, qui de hospitio ad hospitium permutantur, scit de remotis noua. Cursor enim appropinquans cornu sonat, et tunc alius præparat, et vlteriùs currit. Odericus. Sciendumque tam primogenitum Regis, quàm singulas de tribus vxoribus ducere similem apparatum in itinerando post ipsum; scilicet cum quatuor comitatibus, antè, et retrò, et à lateribus, sed in valdè minori numero personarum pro placito, et in singulis curribus sequentibus se inuicem per vnam dietam. Præmissa omnia sic fiunt, dum Imperatori tendendum est remotè, aliàs autem minuuntur, et distinguuntur comitatus, iuxta quod decet, vt nonnunquam omnes Imperatores etiam cum filio simul tendant, cum vna comitatuum distinctione. Transeunte autem sic Imperatore per ciuitates et villas quilibet ante fores proprias præparato igne iactat poluerem aromata redolentem, stans genibus flexis ad reuerentiam illi. Et sciatis vbi propè transitum illius habentur Christianæ Abbatiæ, quas olim constituit Dux Ogerus, exeunt obuiam illi in processione cum vexillis, et sancta cruce, et aqua benedicta, et thuribulo, hymnum, Veni Creator spiritus decantantes. Nota: Ego semel cum Episcopo nostro, et alijs fratribus, uimus obuiam per duas dietas, et portaui thuribulum. Odericus. Quos ipse à remotis videns, consueuit ad se appellare, et ad crucem suum galeatum deponere, ac reuerentèr nudo capite inclinare: et prælatus dicens super cum aliquam orationem signat cruce, et aqua benedicta aspergit. Et quoniam necesse est, vt quisque extraneus ante Regem apparens, offerat ei aliquid, prælatus in disco præsentat ei fructus, et poma, vel pyra, et hoc in numero nouenario, (ratio ponitur primo capitullo proximo, quod iste numerus est plus cæteris acceptus,) de quibus Imperator vnum sibi sumens, reliqua tradit Dominis præsentibus: quo facto habent relligiosi recedere citò, ne opprimantur multitudine populi subsequentis. Præfatum Domini galeatum, est ita intextum auro, diamantibus, gemmunculis, et orientalibus margaritis, granellis, et dubletis, et prædiues in materia et artificio, vt ei non sit æquandus magni in partibus istis Regis thesaurus. Item sicut hæc fiunt transeunti Imperatori, fiunt et Imperatricibus, et filio seniori. The English Version. And zee schulle undirstonde, that my felawes and I, with oure zomen, we serveden this emperour, and weren his soudyoures, 15 monethes, azenst the Kyng of Mancy, that held werre azenst him. And the cause was, for we hadden gret lust to see his noblelesse and the estat of his court and alle his governance, to write zif it were suche, as wee herde seye, that it was. And treuly, we fond it more noble and more excellent and ricchere and more marveyllous, than ever we herde speke offe; in so moche, that we wolde never han leved it, had wee not seen it. For I trowe, that no man wolde beleve the noblesse, the ricchesse, ne the multytude of folk that ben in his court, but he had seen it. For it is not there, as it is here. For the lordes here han folk of certeyn nombre, als thei may suffise: but the grete Chane hathe every day folke at his costages and expenses, as with outen nombre. But the ordynance, ne the expenses in mete and drynk, ne the honestee ne the clennesse, is not so arrayed there, as it is here: for alle the comouns there eten withouten clothe upon here knees; and thei eten alle maner of flessche, and litylle of bred. And aftre mete, thei wypen here hondes upon here skyrtes: and thei eten not but ones a day. But the estat of lordes is fulle gret and riche and noble. And alle be it, that sum men wil not trow me; but holden it for fable, to telle hem the noblesse of his persone and of his estate and of his court and of the gret multytude of folk, that he holt, natheles I schalle seye zou, a partye of him and of his folk, aftre that I have seen, the manere and the ordynance, fulle many a tyme. And whoso that wole, may leve me, zif he wille; and who so wille not, may chuse. For I wot wel, zif ony man hathe ben in tho contrees bezonde, thoughe he have not ben in the place, where the grete Chane duellethe, he schalle here speke of him so meche merveylouse thing, that he schalle not trowe it lightly: and treuly, no more did I my self, til I saughe it. And tho that han ben in tho contrees and in the gret Canes houshold, knowen wel, that I seye sothe. And therfore I wille not spare, for hem that knowe not, ne beleve not, but that that thei seen, for to telle zou a partie of him and of his estate, that he holt, whan he gothe from contree to contree, and whan he makethe solempne festes. CAPVT. 37. Qua de causa dicitur Grand Gan. Si placet audire, dicam cur hic Imperator sit appellatus Grand Can. Audieram ego in partibus Ierosolymorum hunc esse sic dictum, à filio Noe, Cham: sed in terra Cathay accepi et aliam, et meram huius rei veritatem. Nam et scribendo hæc duo nomina habent differentiam, quòd filius Noe Cham scribitur quatuor elementis, quorum vltimum est M. et iste Can tribus tantùm, quorum vltimum est N. Post annos Christi 1100. illa prima Tartaria (de qua suprà scripsi in prima parte, capitulo quinto) fuit nimis oppressa seruitute sub Regibus circumiacentium sibi nationum. Quandò autem Deo placuit, maiores illius Tartariæ eleuauerunt de seipsis sibi Regem dictum Guis Can, cui et promiserunt subiectissimam obedientiam. Idem cùm esset prudens strenuus 12. viriles habens filios, debellauit cum ijs et populo suo, et vicit, ac subiecit cunctos in circuitu Reges, quibus terra indebitè diù subiacuerat. Quin etiam apparente sibi in visione Angelo Dei velut milite in albo equo, et candidis armis, et hortante se, vt transiret Alpes, per montem Beliam, [Marginal note: Vel Belgiam.] et per brachium maris, ad terram Cathay, et ad alias illic plurimas regiones transiuit, et coepit com filijs suis aliquas ex illis debellare, et subijcere, Deo in omnibus adiuuante patentèr. Et quoniam in equo albo ei Angelus apparuit, qui etiam antè passum prædicti maris nouem orationes Deo facere iussit, ideò successores vsque hodiè diligunt equos albos, et nouenarium numerum habent præ cæteris in gratia. Dumque Guis Can morti præ senio appropinquaret, conuocatos ante se filios hortabatur, et mouebat exemplo 12. telorum in simul colligatorum, quæ à nullo filiorum paritèr frangi potuerant, sed dissoluta vnumquodque per se facilè frangebatur, sic filij (inquit) dilectissimi, si per concordiam vos inuicèm dilexeritis, et vixeritis seniori fratri obedientes, confido in Deo iuxta promissionem mihi ab Angelo factam, quòd omnem latissimam istam terram, et optimam illius imperio subijcietis, quod et post patris discessum strenuissimè, ac fidelissimè (Deo sibi prosperante) perfecerunt. Et quia cum propriis nominibus habebant cognomen Can, primogenitus pro differentia obtinuit nomen Grand Can, id est, Magnus Can, videlicit suprà cæteros fratres, qui sibi in omnibus obediebant. Itaque iste secundus Imperator vocabatur Ochoto Can. Post quem filius eius regnauit dictus Guican. Quartus autem, qui Mango Can baptizabatur, permansitque fidelis Christianus, qui etiam misso magno exercitu cum fratre suo Hallaon in partes Arabiæ et Aegypti mandauit destrui in toto Mahometi superstitionem, et terram poni in manibus Christianorum. Et fratre procedente, accepit rumores de fratris sui Imperatoris morte inopinata, quaproptèr et redijt negotio imperfecto. Quintus Cobilacan, qui etiam fuit Christianus, et regnauit 42. annis, et ædificauit magnam ciuitatem Iong, maiorem satis vrbe Roma, in qua et continetur valdè nobile palatium Imperiale. Hinc vsque hodie omnes successores paganismo foedantur. Tempore autem meò erat nomen Imperatoris Echian Can, et primogenitus eius Cosuecan, præter quem et alios filios habuit 12. de quorum nominibus conscribendis non est curæ presentis. Prima vxorum suorum vocabatur Serochan, quæ et est filia Præsbyteri Ioannis scilicet Imperatoris Indiæ. Secunda Verouchan. Tertia Caranthcan. Istis duobus Imperatoribus non creditur inueniri maior Dominus sub firmamento Coeli. In literis quæ huius Imperatoris Tartariæ scribuntur nomine ponitur semper iste Titulus. Can filius Dei excelsi, omnium vniuersam terram colentium summus Imperator, et Dominus Dominantium omnium. Circumferentia magni sui sigilli, continet hoc scriptum. Deus in Coelo, Can super terram, eius fortitudo. Omnium hominum Imperatoris sigillum. Sciendum quoque quod quamuis populi ibi dicuntur, et sunt Pagani, tamen et rex et omnes credunt in Deum immortalem, et omnipotentem, et iurant per ipsum appellantes, Yroga, id est, Deum Naturæ. Sed nihilominus colunt et adorant idola, et simulachra aurea, et argentea, lapidea, lignea, filtria, lanea, et linea. The English Version. Wherefore he is clept the grete Chane. Of the Style of his Lettres, and of the Superscripcioun abowten his grete Sealle, and his pryvee Sealle. [Sidenote: Chap. XXI.] First I schalle seye zou, whi he was clept the gret Chane. Zee schulle undirstonde, that alle the world was destroyed by Noes flood, saf only Noe and his wif and his children. Noe had 3 sones, Sem, Cham and Japhethe. This Cham was he that saughe his fadres prevy membres naked, whan he slepte, and scorned hem and schewed hem with his finger, to his brethren, in scornynge wise: and ther fore he was cursed of God. And Japhethe turned his face away, and covered hem. Theise 3 bretheren had cesoun in alle the lond: and this Cham, for his crueltee, toke the gretter and the beste partie, toward the est, that is clept Asye: and Sem toke Affryk: and Japhethe toke Europe. And therfore is alle the erthe departed in theise 3 parties, be theise 3 bretheren. Cham was the grettest, and the most myghty: and of him camen mo generaciouns, than of the othere. And of his sone Chuse, was engendred Nembrothe the geaunt, that was the firste kyng, that ever was in the world: and he began the foundacion of the Tour of Babyloyne. And that tyme, the fendes of helle camen many tymes, and leyen with the wommen of his generacioun, and engendered on hem dyverse folk, as monstres, and folk disfigured, summe with outen hedes, summe with gret eres, summe with on eye, summe geauntes, summ with hors feet, and many other dyverse schapp, azenst kynde. And of that generacioun of Cham, ben comen the Paynemes, and dyverse folk, that ben in yles of the see, be alle Ynde. And for als moche as he was the moste myghty, and no man myghte withstonde him, he cleped himself the sone of God, and sovereyn of alle the world. And for this Cham, this emperour clepeth him Cham and sovereyn of all the world. And of the generacioun of Sem, ben comen the Sarrazines, And of the generacioun of Japhethe, is comen the peple of Israel. And thoughe that wee duellen in Europe, this is the opynyoun, that the Syryenes and the Samaritanes, han amonges hem; and that thei told me, before that I wente toward Ynde: but I fond it otherwise. Natheles the sothe is this, that Tartarynes and thei that duellen in the grete Asye, thei camen of Cham. But the emperour of Cathay clepeth him not Cham, but Can: and I schalle telle zou how. It is but litylle more but 8 score zeer, that alle Tartarye was in subiectioun and in servage to othere nacyouns abouten: for thei weren but bestyalle folk, and diden no thing but kepten bestes, and lad hem to pastures. But among hem, thei hadden 7 princypalle nacyouns, that weren soveraynes of hem alle: of the whiche, the firste nacyoun or lynage was clept Tartar; and that is the most noble and the most preysed. The seconde lynage is clept Tanghot; the thridde Eurache; the 4 Valair; the 5 Semoche; the 6 Megly; the 7 Coboghe. Now befelle it so, that of the firste lynage succeeded an old worthi man, that was not riche, that hadde to name Changuys. This man lay upon a nyght in his bed, and he sawhe in a visioun, that there cam before him a knyght armed alle in white, and he satt upon a white hors, and seyd to him, Can, slepest thou? The inmortalle God hathe sent me to the; and it is his wille, that thou go to the 7 lynages, and seye to hem, that thou schalt ben here emperour. For thou schalt conquere the londs and the contrees, that ben abouten: and thei that marchen upon zou, schulle ben undre zoure subieccioun, as zee han ben undre hires: for that is Goddes wille inmortalle. And whan he cam at morwe, Changuys roos, and wente to the 7 lynages, and tolde hem how the white knyght had seyd. And thei scorned him, and seyden, that he was a fool; and so he departed fro hem alle aschamed. And the nyght sewynge, this white knyght cam to the 7 lynages, and commaunded hem, on Goddes behalve inmortalle, that thei scholde make this Changuys here emperour; and thei scholde ben out of subieccioun; and thei scholde holden alle other regiounes aboute hem in here servage, as thei had ben to hem beforn. And on the morwe, thei chosen him to ben here emperour: and thei setten him upon a blak fertre; and aftre that, thei liften him op with gret solempnytee, and thei setten him in a chayer of gold, and diden hym alle maner of reverence; and thei cleped him, Chan, as the white knyght called him. And whan he was thus chosen, he wolde assayen, zif he myghte trust in hem or non, and whether thei wolde ben obeyssant to him or non. And thanne he made many statutes and ordinances, that thei clepen _Ysya Chan_. The first statute was, that thei scholde beleeven and obeyen in God inmortalle, that is allemyghty, that wolde casten hem out of servage; and at alle tymes clepe to him for help, in tyme of nede. The tother statute was, that alle maner of men that myghte beren armes, scholden ben nombred: and to every 10 scholde ben a maystre, and to every 100 a maystre, and to every 1000 a maystre, and to every 10000 a maystre. Aftre he commanded to the princypales of the 7 lynages, that thei scholde leven and forsaken alle that thei hadden in godes and heritage; and fro thens forthe to holden hem payd, of that that be wolde zeve hem of his grace. And thei diden so anon. Aftre he commanded to the princypales of the 7 lynages, that every of hem scholde brynge his eldest sone before him, and with here owne handes smyten of here hedes, with outen taryenge. And anon his commandement was performed. And whan the Chane saghe, that thei made non obstacle to performen his commandement, thanne he thoughte wel, that he myghte trusten in hem, and commanded hem anon to make hem redy, and to sewen his banere. And aftre this, Chane putt in subieccioun alle the londes aboute him. Aftreward it befelle upon a day, that the Cane rood with a fewe meynee, for to beholde the strengthe of the contree, that he had wonnen: and so befelle, that a gret multytude of his enemyes metten with hem; and for to zeven gode ensample of hardynesse to his peeple, he was the firste that faughte, and in the myddes of his enemyes encountred; and there he was cast from his hors, and his hors slayn. And whan his folk saughe him at the erthe, thei weren alle abasscht, and wenden he had ben ded, and flowen everych one; and hire enemyes aftre, and chaced hem: but thei wiste not, that the emperour was there. And whan thei weren comen azen fro the chace, thei wenten and soughten the wodes, zif ony of hem had ben hid in the thikke of the wodes: and manye thei founden and slowen hem anon. So it happend, that as thei wenten serchinge, toward the place that the emperour was, thei saughe an owle sittynge upon a tree aboven hym; and than thei seyden amonges hem, that there was no man, be cause that thei saughe that brid there: and to thei wenten hire wey; and thus escaped the emperour from dethe. And thanne he wente prevylly, alle be nyghte, tille he cam to his folk, that weren fulle glad of his comynge, and maden grete thankynges to God immortalle, and to that bryd, be whom here lord was saved. And therfore princypally aboven alle foules of world, thei worschipen the owle: and whan thei han ony of here fedres, thei kepen hem fulle precyously, in stede of relykes, and beren hem upon here hedes with gret reverence: and thei holden hem self blessed and saf from alle periles, while that thei han hem upon hem; and therfore thei beren here fedres upon here hedes. Aftre alle this the Cane ordeyned him, and assembled his peple, and wente upon hem that hadden assayled hym before, and destroyed hem, and put hem in subieccioun and servage. And whan he had wonnen and putt alle the londes and contrees, on this half the Mount Belyan, in subieccioun, the whyte knyght cam to him azen in his sleep, and seyde to him, Chan, the wille of God immortalle is, that thou passe the Mount Belyan; and thou schalt wynne the lond, and thou schalt putten many nacyouns in subieccioun: and for thou schalt fynde no gode passage for to go toward that contree, go to the Mount Belyan, that is upon the see, and knele there 9 tymes toward the est, in the worschipe of God immortalle; and he schal schewe the weye to passe by. And the Chane dide so. And anon the see, that touched and was fast to the mount, began to withdrawe him, and schewed fair weye of 9 fote brede large; and so he passed with his folk, and wan the lond of Cathay, that is the grettest kyngdom of the world. And for the 9 knelynges, and for the 9 fote of weye, the Chane and alle the men of Tartarye han the nombre of 9 in gret reverence. And therfore who that wole make the Chane ony present, be it of hors, be it of bryddes, or of arwes, or bowes, or of frute, or of ony other thing, alweys he most make it of the nombre of 9. And so thanne ben the presentes of grettere plesance to him, and more benygnely he wil resceyven hem, than though he were presented with an 100 or 200. For hym semethe the nombre of 9 so holy, be cause the messagre of God immortalle devised it. Also whan the Chane of Cathay hadde wonen the contree of Cathay, and put in subieccioun and undre fote many contrees abouten, he felle seek. And whan he felte wel, that he scholde dye, he seyde to his 12 sones, that everyche of hem scholde brynge him on of his arewes; and so thei diden anon. And thanne he commanded, that men scholde bynden hem to gedre, in 3 places; and than he toke hem to his eldest sone, and bad him breke hem alle to gedre. And he enforced hem with alle his myght to breken hem: but he ne myghte not. And than the Chane bad his seconde sone to breke hem; and so schortly too alle, eche aftre other: but non of hem myght breke hem. And than be bad the zongest sone dissevere everyche from other, and breken everyche be him self: and so he dide. And than seyde the Chane to his eldest sone, and to alle the othere, Wherfore myght zee not breke hem? And thei answereden, that thei myght not, be cause that thei weren bounden to gydre. And wherfore, quothe he, hathe zoure litylle zongest brother broken hem? Because, quothe thei, that thei weren departed eche from other. And thanne seyde the Chane, My sones, quoth he, treuly thus wil it faren be zou. For als longe as zee ben bounden to gedere, in 3 places, that is to seyne, in love, in trouthe and in gode accord, no man schalle ben of powere to greve zou; but and zee ben disevered fro theise 3 places, that zoure on helpe not zoure other, zee schulle be destroyed and brought to nought: and zif eche of zou love other, and helpe othere, ze schulle be lordes and sovereynes of alle othere. And whan he hadde made his ordynances, he dyed. And thanne after hym, regned Ecchecha Cane his eldest sone. And his othere bretheren wenten to wynnen hem many contrees and kyngdomes, unto the lond of Pruysse and of Rossye, and made hem to ben cleped Chane: but thei weren all obeyssant to hire eldre brother: and therfore was he clept grete Chane. Aftre Ecchecha, regned Guyo Chane: and aftre him, Mango Chan, that was a gode Cristene man, and baptized, and zaf lettres of perpetuelle pes to alle Cristene men, and sente his brother Halaon with gret multytude of folk, for to wynnen the Holy Lond, and for to put it in to Cristene mennes hondes, and for to destroye Machametes lawe, and for to take the Calyphee of Baldak, that was emperour and lord of alle the Sarazines. And whan this Calyphee was taken, men fownden him of so highe worschipe, that in alle the remenant of the world, ne myghte a man fynde a more reverent man, ne highere in worschippe. And then Halaon made him come before him, and seyde to hym: Why, quoth be, haddest thow not taken with the mo sowdyoures, and men y nowe, for a lytille quantytee of thresour, for to defende the and thi contree, that art so habundant of tresore and so high in alle worschipe? And the Calyphee answered him, For he wel trowede, that he hadde y nowe of his owne propre men. And than seyde Halaon, Thou were as a god of the Sarazines: and it is convenyent to a god, to ete no mete, that is mortalle; and therfore thou schalt not ete, but precyous stones, riche perles, and tresour, that thou lovest so moche. And then he commanded him to presoun, and alle his tresoure aboute him; and so he dyed for hungre, and threst. And than aftre this, Halaon wan alle the lond of promyssioun, and putte it in to Cristene mennes hondes. But the grete Chane his brother dyede; and that was gret sorwe and losse to alle Cristen men. Aftre Mango Chan, regned Coblya Chan, that was also a Cristene man: and he regnede 42 zere. He founded the grete cytee Izonge in Cathay, that is a gret del more than Rome. The tother gret Chane, that cam aftre him, becam a Payneme, and alle the other aftre him. The kyngdom of Cathay is the grettest reme of the world. And also the gret Chan is the most myghty emperour of the world, and the grettest lord undre the firmament; and so he clepethe him in his lettres, right thus, _Chan, filius Dei excelsi, omnium universam Terram colentium summus Imperatur, et Dominus omnium Dominantium_. And the lettre of his grete seel, writen abouten, is this, _Deus in Celo, Chan super Terram, ejus fortitudo. Omnium hominum Imperatoris Sigillum_. And the superscripcioun aboute his litylle seel is this, _Dei Fortitudo omnium hominum. Imperatoris Sigillum_. And alle be it that thei be not cristned, zit natheles the emperour and alle the Tarterynes beleeven in God immortalle. And whan thei wille manacen ony man thanne thei seyn, God knowethe wel, that I schalle do the suche a thing, and tellethe his menace. And thus have zee herd, whi he is clept the grete Chane. Of the governance of the grete Chanes Court, and whan he makethe solempne Festes. Of his Philosophres. And of his Array, whan he riddethe be the contre. [Sidenote: Cap. XXIII.] Now schalle I telle zou the governance of the court of the grete chane, whan he makethe solempne festes: and that is princypally 4 tymes in the zeer. The firste feste is of his byrthe: that other is of his presentacioun in here temple, that thei clepen here Moscache, where thei maken a manere of circumsicioun: and the tother 2 festes ben of his ydoles. The firste feste of the ydole is, whan he is first put in to hire temple and throned. The tother feste is, whan the ydole begynnethe first to speke or to worche myracles. Mo ben there not of solempne festes, but zif he marye ony of his children. Now undirstondethe, that at every of theise festes, he hathe gret multytude of peple, well ordeyned and wel arrayed, be thousandes, be hundredes and be tenthes. And every man knowethe wel, what servyse he schalle do. And every man zevethe so gode hede and so gode attendance to his servyse, that no man fyndethe no defaute. And there ben first ordeyned 4000 baronnes myghty and riche, for to gouerne and to make ordynance for the feste, and for to serve the emperour. And theise solempne festes ben made with outen, in hales and tentes made of clothes of gold and of tartaries, fulle nobely. And alle tho barouns han crounes of gold upon hire hedes, fulle noble and riche, fulle of precious stones and grete perles oryent. And thei ben alle clothed in clothes of gold or of tartaries or of camokas, so richely and so perfytly, that no man in the world can amenden it, ne better devisen it. And alle tho robes ben orfrayed alle abouten, and dubbed fulle of precious stones and of grete oryent perles, fulle richely. And thei may wel do so; for clothes of gold and of sylk ben gretter chep there a gret del, than ben clothes of wolle. And theise 4000 barouns ben devised in 4 companyes: and every thousand is clothed in clothes alle of o colour; and that so wel arrayed and so richely, that it is marveyle to beholde. The firste thousand, that is of Dukes, of Erles, of Marquyses and of Amyralles, alle clothed in clothes of gold, with tysseux of grene silk, and bordured with gold, fulle of preciouse stones, in maner as I have seyd before. The secounde thousand is alle clothed in clothes dyapred of red silk, alle wroughte with gold, and the orfrayes sett fulle of gret perl and precious stones, fulle nobely wroughte. The 3 thousand is clothed in clothes of silk, of purpre of Ynde. And the 4 thousand is in clothes of zalow. And alle hire clothes ben so nobely and so richely wroughte with gold and precious stones and riche perles, that zif a man of this contree hadde but only on of hire robes, he myghte wel seye, that he sholde nevere be pore. For the gold and the precious stones and the grete oryent perles ben of gretter value, on this half the see, than thei ben bezond the see, in tho contrees. And whan thei ben thus apparaylled, thei gon 2 and 2 togedre, fulle ordynatly before the emperour, withouten speche of ony woord, saf only enclynynge to him. And everyche of hem berethe a tablett of jaspere or of ivory or of cristalle; and the mynstralle goynge before hem, sownyng here instrumentes of dyverse melodye. And whan the firste thousand is thus passed, and hathe made his mostre, he withdrawethe him on that o syde. And than entrethe that other secunde thousand, and dothe right so, in the same manere of array and contenance, as did the firste; and aftre the thridde, and than the fourthe; and non of hem seythe not o word. And at o syde of the emperours table, sitten many philosofres, that ben preved for wise men, in many dyverse scyences; as of astronomye, nigromancye, geomancye, pyromancye, ydromancye, of augurye and of many other scyences. And everyche of hem han before hem astrolabes of gold; sum speres, summe the brayn panne of a ded man, summe vesselles of gold fulle of gravelle or sond, summe vesseles of gold fulle of coles brennynge, sume veselle of gold fulle of watre and of wyn and of oyle, and summe oriloges of gold, mad ful nobely and richely wroughte, and many other maner of instrumentes aftre hire sciences. And at certeyn houres, whan hem thinkethe time, thei seyn to certeyn officeres, that stonden before hem, ordeynd for the tyme, to fulfille hire commaudemenes, Makethe pees. And than seyn the officeres, Now pees lystenethe. And aftre that, seyth another of the philosophres, Every man do reverence, and enclyne to the emperour, that is Goddes sone and soverayn lord of alle the world; for now is tyme. And thanne every man bowethe his hed toward the erthe. And thanne commandethe the same philosophre azen, Stondethe up. And thei don so. And at another hour, seythe another philosophre, Puttethe zoure litille fynger in zoure eres. And anon thei don so. And at another hour, seythe another philosophre, Puttethe zoure honde before zoure mouthe. And anon thei don so. And at another hour, seithe another philosophre, Puttethe zoure honde upon zoure hede. And aftre that, he byddethe hem to don here hond a wey; and thei don so. And so from hour to hour, thei commanden certeyn thinges. And thei seyn, that tho thinges han dyverse significaciouns. And I asked hem prevyly, what tho thinges betokened. And on of the maistres told me, that the bowynge of the hed at that hour betokened this, that alle tho that boweden here hedes, scholden evere more aftre ben obeyssant and trewe to the emperour: and nevere for ziftes, ne for promys in no kynde, ben fals ne traytour unto him for gode ne evylle. And the puttynge of the litylle fynger in the ere, betokenethe, as thei seyn, that none of hem ne schalle not here speke no contrarious thing to the emperour, but that he schalle telle it anon to his conseille, or discovere it to sum men that wille make relacioun to the emperour; thoughe he were his fadre or brother or sone. And so forthe of alle other thtnges, that is don be the philosophres, thei tolde me the causes of many dyverse thinges. And trustethe righte wel in certyn, that no man dothe no thing to the emperour, that belongethe unto him, nouther clothinge, ne bred, ne wyn, ne bathe, ne non other thing, that longethe to hym, but at certeyn houres, that his philosopheres wille devysen. And zif there falle werre in ony syde to the emperour, anon the philosophres comen, and seyn here avys aftre her calculaciouns, and conseylen the emperour of here avys, be here sciences; so that the emperour dothe no thing with outen here conseille. And whan the philosophres han don and perfourmed here commandementes, thanne the mynstralle begynnen to don here mynstralcye, everyche in hire instrumentes, eche aftre other, with alle the melodye that thei can devyse. And whan thei han don a gode while, on of the officers of the emperour gothe up on an highe stage wroughte fulle curyously, and cryethe and seythe with lowde voys, Makethe pees. And than every man is stille. And thanne anon aftre, alle the lordes, that ben of the emperours lynage, nobely arrayed in riche clothes of gold, and ryally apparayled on white stedes, als manye as may wel sewen hem at that tyme, ben redy to maken here presentes to the emperour. And than seythe the styward of the court to the lordes be name, N. of N. and nempnethe first the most enoble and the worthieste be name, and seythe, be zee redy with suche a nombre of white hors, for to serve the emperour, zoure sovereyn lord. And to another lord, he seythe, N. of N. be zee redy with suche a nombre, to serve zoure sovereyn lord. And so another, right so. And to alle the lordes of the emperoures lynage, eche aftre other, as ben of estate. And whan thei ben alle cleped, thei entren eche aftre other, and presentenen the white hors to the emperour; and than gon hire wey. And than aftre, alle the other barouns every of hem zeven hem presentes, or juelle, or sum other thing, aftre that thei ben of estate. And than aftre hem, alle the prelates of hire lawe, and religiouse men and other; and every man zevethe him sum thing. And whan that alle men han thus presented the emperour, the greetest of dignytee of the prelates zevethe hem a blessynge, seyenge an orisoun of hire lawe. And than begynnen the mynstrelle to maken hire mynstralcye, in dyverse instrumentes, with alle the melodye that thei can devyse. And whan thei han don hire craft, than thei bryngen before the emperour, lyouns, libardes and other dyverse bestes; and egles and veutours, and other dyverse foules; and fissches, and serpentes; for to don him reverence. And than comen jogulours and enchauntoures, that don many marvaylles: for thei maken to come in the ayr, the sonne and the mone, be semynge, to every mannes sight. And aftre thei maken the day to come azen, fair and plesant with bright sonne, to every mannes sight. And than thei bryngen in daunces of the faireste damyselles of the world, and richest arrayed. And aftre thei maken to come in, other damyselles, bryngynge coupes of gold, fulle of mylk of dyverse bestes, and zeven drynke to lordes and to ladyes. And than thei make knyghtes to jousten in armes fulle lustyly; and thei rennen to gidre a gret randoum; and thei frusschen to gidere fulle fiercely; and thei breken here speres so rudely, that the tronchouns flen in sprotes and peces alle aboute the halle. And than thei make to come in huntyng, for the hert and for the boor, with houndes rennynge with open mouthe. And many other thinges thei don, be craft of hire enchauntementes; that it is marveyle for to see. And suche pleyes of desport thei make, til the takynge up of the boordes. This gret Chan hathe fulle gret peple for to serve him, as I have told zou before. For he hathe of mynstralles the nombre of 13 cumanez: but thei abyde not alle weys with hym. For alle the mynstrelle that comen before hym, of what nacyoun that thei ben of, thei ben withholden with him, as of his houshold, and entred in his bokes, as for his owne men. And aftre that, where that evere thei gon, ever more thei cleymen for mynstralle of the grete Chane: and undre that tytle, alle kynges and lordes, cherisschen hem the more with ziftes and alle thing. And therefore he hathe so gret multytude of hem. And he hathe of certeyn men, as thoughe thei were zomen, that kepen bryddes, as ostrycches, gerfacouns, sparehaukes, faukons gentyls, lanyeres, sacres, sacrettes, papyngayes wel spekynge, and briddes syngynge. And also of wylde bestes, as of olifauntz, tame and othere, babewynes, apes, marmesettes, and othere dyverse bestes; the mountance of 15 cumanez of zomen. And of Phisicyens Cristene, he hathe 200. And of leches, that ben Cristene, he hathe 210. And of leches and Phisicyens, that ben Sarrazines 20: but he trustethe more in the Cristene leches, than in the Sarrazines. And his other comoun houshold is with outen nombre: and thei alle han alle necessaries, and alle that hem nedethe, of the emperoures court. And he hathe in his court many barouns, as servytoures, that ben Cristene and converted to gode feythe, be the prechynge of religiouse Cristen men, that dwellen with him: but there ben manye mo, that wil not, that men knowen that thei ben Cristene. This emperour may dispenden als moche as he wille, with outen estymacioun. For he despendethe not, he makethe no money, but of lether emprented, or of papyre. And of that moneye, is som of gretter prys, and som of lasse prys, aftre the dyversitee of his statutes. And whan that money hathe ronne so longe, that it begynnethe to waste, than men beren it to the emperoures tresorye: and than thei taken newe money for the olde. And that money gothe thorghe out alle the contree, and thorghe out alle his provynces. For there and bezonde hem, thei make no money, nouther of gold nor of sylver. And therfore he may despende y now, and outrageously. And of gold and sylver, that men beren in his contree, he makethe cylours, pyleres and paumentes in his palays, and other dyverse thinges, what him lykethe. This emperour hathe in his chambre, in on of the pyleres of gold, a rubye and a charboncle of half a fote long, that in the nyght zevethe so gret clartee and schynynge, that it is als light as day. And he hathe many other precyous stones, and many other rubyes and charboncles: but tho ben the grettest and the moste precyous. This emperour duellethe in somer in a cytee, that is toward the northe, that is cleped Saduz: and there is cold y now. And in wyntre, he duellethe in a cytee, that is clept Camaaleche: and that is an hote contree. But the contree, where he duellethe in most comounly, is in Caydo or in Jong, that is a gode contree and a tempree, aftre that the contree is there: but to men of this contree, it were to passyng hoot. And whan this emperour wille ryde from o contree to another, he ordeynethe 4 hostes of his folk; of the whiche, the firste hoost gothe before him, a dayes iourneye. For that hoost schalle ben logged the nyght, where the emperour schalle lygge upon the morwe. And there schalle every man have alle maner of vytaylle and necessaryes, that ben nedefulle, of the emperoures costages. And in this firste hoost is the nombre of peple 50 cumaunez; what of hors, what of fote: of the whiche every cumanez amounten to 10000, as I have told zou before. And another hoost gothe in the right syde of the emperour, nygh half a journeye fro him. And another gothe on the left syde of him, in the same wise. And in every hoost, is as moche multytude of peple, as in the first hoost. And thanne aftre comethe the 4 hoost, that is moche more than ony of the othere, and that gothe behynden him, the mountance of a bowe draught. And every hoost hathe his iourneyes ordeyned in certeyn places, where thei schulle be logged at nyght; and there thei schulle have alle, that hem nedethe. And zif it befalle, that ony of the hoost dye, anon thei putten another in his place; so that the nombre schal evere more ben hool. And zee schulle undirstonde, that the emperour, in his propre persone, rydethe not as othere gret lordes don bezonde; but zif him liste to go prevyly with fewe men, for to ben unknowen. And elle he rytt in a charett with 4 wheles, upon the whiche is made a faire chambre; and it is made of a certeyn wode, that comethe out of paradys terrestre, that men clepen lignum aloes, that the flodes of paradys bryngen out at dyverse cesouns, as I have told zou here beforn. And this chambre is fulle wel smellynge, be cause of the wode, that it is made offe. And alle this chambre is covered with inne of plate of fyn gold, dubbed with precious stones and grete perles. And 4 olifauntz and 4 grete destreres alle white, and covered with riche covertoures ledynge the chariot. And 4 or 5 or 6 of the grettest lordes ryden aboute the charyot, fulle richely arrayed and fulle nobely; so that no man schalle nyghe the charyot, but only tho lordes, but zif that the emperour calle ony man to him, that him list to speke with alle. And above the chambre of this chariot, that the emperour sittethe inne, ben sett upon a perche 4 or 5 or 6 gerfacouns; to that entent, that whan the emperour seethe ony wylde foul, that he may take it at his owne list, and have the desport and the pley of the flight; first with on, and aftre with another: and so he takethe his desport passynge be the contree. And no man rydethe before him of his companye; but alle aftre him. And no man dar not come nyghe the chariot by a bowe draught, but tho lordes only, that ben about him: and alle the hoost cometh fayrely aftre him, in gret multitude. And also suche another charyot, with suche hoostes, ordeynd and arrayd, gon with the empresse, upon another syde, everyche be him self, with 4 hoostes, right as the emperour dide; but not with so gret multytude of peple. And his eldest sone gothe be another weye in another chariot, in the same manere. So that there is betwene hem so gret multitude of folk, that it is marveyle to telle it. And no man scholde trowe the nombre, but he had seen it. And sum tyme it happethe, that whan he wil not go fer; and that it lyke him to have the emperesse and his children with him; than thei gon alle to gydere; and here folk ben alle medled in fere, and devyded in 4 parties only. END OF VOL. VIII. 
9148	----	file was produced from images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. ** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. Additional notes on corrections, etc. are signed 'KTH' ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, AND Discoveries of THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, Preacher. AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. VII. ENGLAND'S NAVAL EXPLOITS AGAINST SPAIN. ENGLAND'S NAVAL EXPLOITS AGAINST SPAIN A voyage to the Azores with two pinases, the one called the Serpent, and the other the Mary Sparke of Plimouth, both of them belonging to Sir Walter Raleigh, written by John Euesham Gentleman, wherein were taken the gouernour, of the Isle of Sainct Michael, and Pedro Sarmiento gouernour of the Straits of Magalanes, in the yeere 1586. [Sidenote: The gouernour of S. Michael taken prisoner.] The 10. of June 1586. we departed from Plimouth with two Pinases, the one named the Serpent, of the burden of 35. Tunnes and the other the Mary Sparke of Plimouth of the burthen of 50. Tuns, both of them belonging to sir Walter Raleigh knight; and directing our course towards the coast of Spaine, and from thence towards the Isles of the Azores, we tooke a small barke laden with Sumacke and other commodities, wherein was the gouernour of S. Michaels Island, being a Portugal, having other Portugals and Spaniards with him. And from thence we sailed to the Island of Graciosa, to the Westward of the Island of Tercera, where we discried a saile, and bearing with her wee found her to be a Spaniard: But at the first not greatly respecting whom we tooke, so that we might haue enriched ourselves, which was the cause of this our trauaile, and for that we would not bee knowen of what nation we were, wee displayed a white silke ensigne in our maine toppe, which they seeing, made accompt that we had bene some of the king of Spaines Armadas, lying in wait for English men of war: but when we came within shot of her, we tooke downe our white flagge, and spread abroad the Crosse of S. George, which when they saw, it made them to flie as fast as they might, but all their haste was in vaine, for our shippes were swifter of saile then they, which they fearing, did presently cast their ordinance and small shot with many letters, and the draft of the Straights of Magelan into the Sea, [Sidenote: Pedro Sarmiento the governour of the Straights of Magellan taken prisoner.] and thereupon immediately we tooke her, wherein wee also tooke a gentleman of Spaine, named Pedro Sarmiento, gouernour of the Straights of Magelan, which said Pedro we brought into England with us, and presented him to our soueraigne Lady the Queene. [Sidenote: A ship laden with fish taken and released againe.] After this, lying off and about the Islands, wee descried another saile, and bearing after her, we spent the maine maste of our Admirall, but yet in the night our Viceadmirall tooke her, being laden with fish from Cape Blanke, the which shippe wee let goe againe for want of men to bring her home. The next day we descried two other sailes, the one a shippe and the other a Carauel, to whom we gaue chase, which they seeing, with all speede made in vnder the Isle of Graciosa, to a certaine Fort there for their succour, where they came to an anker, and hauing the winde of vs, we could not hurt them with our ships, but we hauing a small boate which we called a light horseman, wherein my selfe was, being a Musqueter, and foure more with Caliuers, and foure that rowed, came neere vnto the shore against the winde, which when they saw vs come towards them they carried a great part of their marchandize on land, whither also the men of both vessels went and landed, [Sidenote: One of the ships taken and sent away with 2. persons.] and as soon as we came within Musquet shot, they began to shoote at vs with great ordinance and small shot, and we likewise at them, and in the ende we boorded one wherein was no man left, so we cut her cables, hoysed her sailes, and sent her away with two of our men, [Sidenote: The Caravel is taken.] and the other 7. of vs passed more neere vnto the shoare, and boorded the Carauel, which did ride within a stones cast from the shoare, and so neere the land that the people did cast stones at vs, but yet in despight of them all we tooke her, and one onely Negro therein: and cutting her cables in the hawse, we hoysed her sailes and being becalmed vnder the land we were constrained to rowe her out with our boate, the Fort still shooting at vs, and the people on land with Musquets and caliuers, to the number of 150. or thereabout: and we answered them with the small force wee had; in the time of which our shooting, the shot of my Musquet being a crossebarre-shot happened to strike the gunner of the fort to death, euen as he was giuing leuell to one of his great pieces, and thus we parted from them without any losse or hurt on our side. [Sidenote: The prises sent home.] And now, hauing taken these fiue sailes of shippes, we did as before, turne away the shippe with the fish, without hurting them, and from one of the other shippes we tooke her maine Maste to serue our Admirals turne, and so sent her away putting into her all the Spaniards and Portugals (sauing that gentleman Pedro Sarmiento, with three other of the principal men and two Negroes) leauing them all within sight of land, with bread and water sufficient for 10. dayes if neede were. Thus setting our course for England, being off the Islands in the height of 41 degrees, or there about, one of our men being in the toppe discried a saile, then 10. saile, then 15. whereupon it was concluded to sende home those prizes we had, and so left in both our Pinasses not aboue 60. men. [Sidenote: Two Carracks, 10. Gallions, 12. small ships.] Thus wee returned againe to the Fleete we had discried, where wee found 24. saile of shippes, whereof two of them were Caracks, the one of 1200. and the other of a 1000. tunnes, and 10. Gallions, the rest were small shippes and Carauels all laden with Treasure, spices, and sugars with which 24. shippes we with two small Pinasses did fight, and kept company the space of 32. houres, continually fighting with them and they with vs, but the two Caracks kept still betwixt the Fleete and vs, that wee could not take any one of them, so wanting powder, wee were forced to giue them ouer against our willes, for that wee were all wholly bent to the gaining of some of them, but necessitie compelling vs, and that onely for want of powder, without losse of any of our men, (which was a thing to be wondered at considering the inequalitie of number) at length we gaue them ouer. [Sidenote: The 2. pinasses returne for England.] Thus we againe set our course for England, and so came to Plimouth within 6. houres after our prizes, which we sent away 40. houres before vs, where wee were receiued with triumphant ioy, not onely with great Ordinance then shot off, but with the willing hearts of all the people of the Towne, and of the Countrey thereabout; and we not sparing our Ordinance (with the powder wee had left) to requite and answere them againe. And from thence wee brought our prizes to Southampton, where sir Walter Ralegh being our owner, rewarded vs with our shares. Our prizes were laden with sugars, Elephants teeth, waxe, hides, rice, brasill, and Cuser, as by the testimonie of Iohn Euesham himselfe, Captaine Whiddon, Thomas Rainford, Beniamin Wood, William Cooper Master, William Cornish Master, Thomas Drake Corporall, Iohn Ladd gunner, William Warefield gunner, Richard Moone, Iohn Drew, Richard Cooper of Harwich, William Beares of Ratcliffe, Iohn Row of Saltash, and many others, may appeare. * * * * * A briefe relation of the notable seruice performed by Sir Francis Drake vpon the Spanish Fleete prepared in the Road of Cadiz: and of his destroying of 100. saile of barks; Passing from thence all along the coast to Cape Sacre, where also hee tooke certaine Forts: and so to the mouth of the Riuer of Lisbon, and thence crossing ouer to the Isle of Sant Michael, supprized a mighty Carack called the Sant Philip comming out of the East India, which was the first of that kinde that euer was seene in England: Performed in the yeere 1587. Her Maiestie being informed of a mightie preparation by Sea begunne in Spaine for the inuasion of England, by good aduise of her graue and prudent Counsell thought it expedient to preuent the same. Whereupon she caused a Fleete of some 30. sailes to be rigged and furnished with all things necessary. Ouer that Fleete she appointed Generall sir Francis Drake (of whose manifold former good seruices she had sufficient proofe) to whom she caused 4. ships of her Nauie royall to be deliuered, to wit, The Bonauenture wherein himselfe went as Generall; the Lion vnder the conduct of Master William Borough Controller of the Nauie; the Dread-nought vnder the command of M. Thomas Venner; and the Rainebow, captaine whereof was M. Henry Bellingham: vnto which 4 ships two of her pinasses were appointed as hand-maids. There were also added vnto this Fleet certaine tall ships of the Citie of London, of whose especiall good seruice the General made particular mention in his priuate Letters directed to her Maiestie. This Fleete set saile from the sound of Plimouth in the moneth of April towards the coast of Spaine. The 16. of the said moneth we mette in the latitude of 40. degrees with two ships of Middleborough, which came from Cadiz; by which we vnderstood that there was great store of warlike prouision at Cadiz and thereabout ready to come for Lisbon. Vpon this information our Generall with al speed possible, bending himselfe thither to cut off their said forces and prouisions, vpon the 19. of April entered with his Fleet into the Harbor of Cadiz: where at our first entring we were assailed ouer against the Towne by sixe Gallies, which notwithstanding in short time retired vnder their fortresse. There were in the Road 60. ships and diuers other small vessels vnder the fortresse: there fled about 20. French ships to Port Real, and some small Spanish vessels that might passe the sholdes. At our first comming in we sunke with our shot a ship of Raguza of a 1000. tunnes, furnished with 40. pieces of brasse and very richly laden. There came two Gallies more from S. Mary port, and two from Porto Reale, which shot freely at vs, but altogether in vaine: for they went away with the blowes well beaten for their paines. Before night we had taken 30. of the said ships, and became Masters of the Road, in despight of the Gallies, which were glad to retire them vnder the Fort: in the number of which ships there was one new ship of an extraordinary hugenesse in burthen aboue 1200. tunnes, belonging to the Marquesse of Santa Cruz being at that instant high Admirall of Spaine. Fiue of them were great ships of Biskay, whereof 4. we fired, as they were taking in the Kings prouision of victuals for the furnishing of his Fleet at Lisbon: the fift being a ship about 1000. tunnes in burthen, laden with Iron spikes, nailes, yron hoopes, horse-shooes, and other like necessaries bound for the West Indies we fired in like maner. Also we tooke a ship of 250. tunnes laden with wines for the Kings prouision, which wee caried out to the Sea with vs, and there discharged the said wines for our owne store, and afterward set her on fire. Moreouer we tooke 3. Flyboats of 300. tunnes a piece laden with biscuit, whereof one was halfe vnladen by vs in the Harborow, and there fired, and the other two we tooke in our company to the Sea. Likewise there were fired by vs ten other ships which were laden with wine, raisins, figs, oiles, wheat, and such like. To conclude, the whole number of ships and barkes (as we suppose) then burnt, suncke, and brought away with vs, amounted to 30. at the least, being (in our iudgement) about 10000. tunnes of shipping. There were in sight of vs at Porto Real about 40. ships, besides those that fled from Cadiz. We found little ease during our aboad there, by reason of their continuall shooting from the Gallies, the fortresses, and from the shoare: where continually at places conuenient they planted new ordinance to offend vs with: besides the inconuenience which wee suffered from their ships, which, when they could defend no longer, they set on fire to come among vs. Whereupon when the flood came wee were not a little troubled to defend vs from their terrible fire, which neuerthelesse was a pleasant sight for vs to beholde, because we were thereby eased of a great labour, which lay vpon vs day and night, in discharging the victuals, and other prouisions of the enemie. Thus by the assistance of the almightie, and the inuincible courage and industrie of our Generall, this strange and happy enterprize was atchieued in one day and two nights, to the great astonishment of the King of Spaine, which bread such a corrasiue in the heart of the Marques of Santa Cruz high Admiral of Spaine, that he neuer enioyed good day after, but within fewe moneths (as may iustly be supposed) died of extreame griefe and sorrow. Thus hauing performed this notable seruice, we came out of the Road of Cadiz on the Friday morning the 21. of the said moneth of April, with very small losse not worth the mentioning. After our departure ten of the Gallies that were in the Road came out, as it were in disdaine of vs, to make some pastime with their ordinance, at which time the wind skanted vpon vs, whereupon we cast about againe, and stood in with the shoare, and came to an anker within a league of the towne: where the said Gallies, for all their former bragging, at length suffred vs to ride quietly. We now haue had experience of Gally-fight: wherein I can assure you, that onely these 4. of her Maiesties ships will make no accompt of 20. Gallies, if they may be alone, and not busied to guard others. There were neuer Gallies that had better place and fitter opportunitie for their aduantage to fight with ships: but they were still forced to retire, wee riding in a narrow gut, the place yeelding no better, and driuen to maintaine the same, vntill wee had discharged and fired the shippes, which could not conueniently be done but vpon the flood, at which time they might driue cleare off vs. Thus being victualed with bread and wine at the enemies cost for diuers moneths (besides the prouisions that we brought from home) our Generall dispatched Captaine Crosse into England with his letters, giuing him further in charge to declare vnto her Maiestie all the particularities of this our first enterprize. After whose departure wee shaped our course toward Cape Sacre, and in the way thither wee tooke at seuerall times of ships, barkes, and Carauels well neere an hundred, laden with hoopes, gally-oares, pipe-staues, and other prouisions of the king of Spaine, for the furnishing of his forces intended against England, al which we burned, hauing dealt fauourably with the men and sent them on shoare. We also spoiled and consumed all the fisher-boats and nets thereabouts, to their great hinderance: and (as we suppose) to the vtter ouerthrow of the rich fishing of their Tunies for the same yere. At length we came to the aforesaid Cape Sacre, where we went on land; and the better to enioy the benefite of the place, and to ride in the harborow at our pleasure, we assailed the same castle, and three other strong holds, which we tooke some by force and some by surrender. Thence we came before the hauen of Lisbon ankering nere vnto Cascais, where the Marques, of Santa Cruz was with his Gallies, who seeing vs chase his ships a shoare, and take and cary away his barks and Carauels, was content to suffer vs there quietly to tary, and likewise to depart, and neuer charged vs with one canon-shot. And when our Generall sent him worde that hee was there ready to exchange certaine bullets with him, the marques refused his chalenge, sending him word, that he was not then ready for him, nor had any such Commission from his King. [Sidenote: The Carack called the Sanct Philip taken.] Our Generall thus refused by the Marques, and seeing no more good to be done in this place, thought it conuenient to spend no longer time vpon this coast: and therefore with consent of the chiefe of his Company he shaped his course toward the Isles of the Açores, and passing towards the Isle of Saint Michael, within 20. or 30. leagues thereof, it was his good fortune to meete with a Portugale Carak called Sant Philip, being the same shippe which in the voyage outward had carried the 3. Princes of Iapan, that were in Europe, into the Indies. This Carak without any great resistance he tooke, bestowing the people thereof in certaine vessels well furnished with victuals, and sending them courteously home into their Countrey: and this was the first Carak that euer was then comming foorth of the East Indies; which the Portugals tooke for an euil signe, because the ship bare the Kings owne name. The riches of this prize seemed so great vnto the whole Company (as in trueth it was) that they assured themselues euery man to haue a sufficient reward for his trauel: and thereupon they all resolued to returne home for England: which they happily did, and arriued in Plimouth the same Sommer with their whole Fleete and this rich booty, to their owne profite and due commendation, and to the great admiration of the whole kingdome. And here by the way it is to be noted, that the taking of this Carak wrought two extraordinary effects in England: first, that it taught others, that Caracks were no such bugs but that they might be taken (as since indeed it hath fallen out in the taking of the Madre de Dios, and fyreing and sinking of others) and secondly in acquainting the English Nation more generally with the particularities of the exceeding riches and wealth of the East Indies: whereby themselues and their neighbours of Holland haue bene incouraged, being men as skilfull in Nauigation and of no lesse courage then the Portugals to share with them in the East Indies: where their strength is nothing so great as heretofore hath bene supposed. * * * * * A true discourse written (as is thought) by Colonel Antonie Winkfield emploied in the voiage to Spaine and Portugall, 1589. sent to his particular friend, and by him published for the better satisfaction of all such as hauing bene seduced by particular report, haue entred into conceits tending to the discredite of the enterprise and Actors of the same. Although the desire of aduancing my reputation caused me to withstand the many perswasions you vsed to hold me at home, and the pursuite of honorable actions drew me (contrary to your expectation) to neglect that aduise, which in loue I know you gaue me: yet in respect of the many assurances you haue yeelded mee of your kindest friendship, I cannot suspect that you will either loue or esteeme me the lesse, at this my returne: and therefore I wil not omit any occasion which may make me appeare thankfull, or discharge any part of that duetie I owe you; which now is none other then to offer you a true discourse how these warres of Spaine and Portugall haue passed since our going out of England the 18 of Aprill, till our returne which was the first of Iuly. Wherein I wil (vnder your fauourable pardon) for your further satisfaction, as well make relation of those reasons which confirmed me in my purpose of going abroad, as of these accidents which haue happened during our aboad there; thereby hoping to perswade you that no light fansie did drawe me from the fruition of your dearest friendship, but an earnest desire by following the warres to make my selfe more woorthy of the same. Hauing therefore determinately purposed to put on this habite of a souldier, I grew doubtfull whether to employ my time in the wars of the low Countries, which are in auxiliarie maner maintained by her maiestie, or to folow the fortune of this voiage, which was an aduenture of her and many honorable personages, in reuenge of vnsupportable wrongs offered vnto the estate of our countrey by the Castilian king: in arguing whereof, I find that by how much the chalenger is reputed before the defendant, by so much is the iourney to be preferred before those defensiue wars. For had the duke of Parma his turne bene to defend, as it was his good fortune to inuade: from whence could haue proceeded that glorious honor which these late warres haue laid vpon him, or what could haue bene said more of him, then of a Respondent (though neuer so valiant) in a priuate Duell: Euen, that he hath done no more then by his honor he was tied vnto. For the gaine of one towne or any small defeat giueth more renoume to the Assailant, then the defence of a countrey, or the withstanding of twentie encounters can yeeld any man who is bound by his place to guard the same: whereof as well the particulars of our age, especially in the Spaniard, as the reports of former histories may assure us, which haue still laied the fame of all warres vpon the Inuader. And do not ours in these dayes liue obscured in Flanders, either not hauing wherewithall to manage any warre, or not putting on armes, but to defend themselues when the enemie shall procure them? Whereas in this short time of our aduenture, we haue won a towne by escalade, battered and assaulted another, ouerthrowen a mightie princes power in the field, landed our armie in 3 seueral places of his kingdom, marched 7 dayes in the heart of his country, lien three nights in the suburbs of his principall citie, beaten his forces into the gates thereof, and possessed two of his frontier forts, as shall in discourse thereof more particularly appeare: whereby I conclude, that going with an Inuader, and in such an action as euery day giueth new experience, I haue much to vaunt of, that my fortune did rather cary me thither then into the wars of Flanders. Notwithstanding the vehement perswasions you vsed with me to the contrary, the grounds whereof sithence you receiued them from others, you must giue me leaue to acquaint you with the error you were led into by them, who labouring to bring the world into an opinion that it stood more with the safetie of our estate to bend all our forces against the prince of Parma, then to folow this action by looking into the true effects of this journey, will iudicially conuince themselues of mistaking the matter. For, may the conquest of these countries against the prince of Parma be thought more easie for vs alone now, then the defence of them was 11 yeeres ago, with the men and money of the Queene of England? the power of the Monsieur of France? the assistance of the principal states of Germanie? and the nobilitie of their owne country? Could not an armie of more then 20000 horse, and almost 30000 foot, beat Don Iohn de Austria out of the countrey, who was possessed of a very few frontier townes? and shall it now be laid vpon her maiesties shoulders to remoue so mightie an enemie, who hath left vs but 3 whole parts of 17 vnconquered? It is not a iourney of a few moneths, nor an auxiliarie warre of fewe yeeres that can damnifie the king of Spaine in those places where we shall meet at euery 8 or 10 miles end with a towne, which will cost more the winning then will yeerely pay 4 or 5 thousand mens wages, where all the countrey is quartered by riuers which haue no passage vnfortified, and where most of the best souldiers of Christendom that be on our aduerse party be in pension. But our armie, which hath not cost her maiestie much aboue the third part of one yeres expenses in the Low countries, hath already spoiled a great part of the prouision he had made at the Groine of all sortes, for a new voyage into England; burnt 3 of his ships, whereof one was the second in the last yeres expedition called S. Iuan de Colorado, taken from him aboue 150 pieces of good artillerie; cut off more then 60 hulks and 20 French ships wel manned fit and readie to serue him for men of war against vs, laden for his store with corne, victuals, masts, cables, and other marchandizes; slaine and taken the principal men of war he had in Galitia; made Don Pedro Enriques de Gusman, Conde de Fuentes, Generall of his forces in Portugall, shamefully run at Peniche; laid along of his best Commanders in Lisbon; and by these few aduentures discouered how easily her maiestie may without any great aduenture in short time pull the Tirant of the world vpon his knees, as wel by the disquieting his vsurpation of Portugall as without difficultie in keeping the commoditie of his Indies from him, by sending an army so accomplished, as may not be subiect to those extremities which we haue endured: except he draw, for those defences, his forces out of the Low countries and disfurnish his garisons of Naples and Milan, which with safetie of those places he may not do. And yet by this meane he shall rather be enforced therevnto, then by any force that can be vsed there against him: wherefore I directly conclude that this proceeding is the most safe and necessary way to be held against him, and therefore more importing then the war in the Low countries. Yet hath the iourney (I know) bene much misliked by some, who either thinking too worthily of the Spaniards valure, too indifferently of his purposes against vs, or too vnworthily of them that vndertooke this iourney against him, did thinke it a thing dangerous to encounter the Spaniard at his owne home, a thing needlesse to proceed by inuasion against him, a thing of too great moment for two subjects of their qualitie to vndertake: And therefore did not so aduance the beginnings as though they hoped for any good successe therof. The chances of wars be things most vncertaine: for what people soeuer vndertake them, they are in deed as chastisements appointed by God for the one side or the other. For which purpose it hath pleased him to giue some victories to the Spaniards of late yeeres against some whom he had in purpose to ruine. But if we consider what wars they be that haue made their name so terrible, we shal find them to haue bin none other then against the barbarous Moores, the naked Indians, and the vnarmed Netherlanders, whose yeelding rather to the name then act of the Spaniards, hath put them into such a conceit of their mightines, as they haue considerately vndertaken the conquest of our monarchie, consisting of a people vnited and always held sufficiently warlike: against whom what successe their inuincible army had the last yeere, as our very children can witness, so I doubt not but this voiage hath sufficiently made knowen what they are euen vpon their owne dunghill, which, had it bene set out in such sort as it was agreed vpon by their first demaund, it might haue made our nation the most glorious people of the world. For hath not the want of 8 of the 12 pieces of artillerie, which were promised vnto the Aduenture, lost her maiestie the possession of the Groine and many other places, as hereafter shall appeare, whose defensible rampires were greater then our batterie (such as it was) cold force: and therefore were left vnattempted? It was also resolued to haue sent 600 English horses of the Low countries, whereof we had not one, notwithstanding the great charges expended in their transportation hither: and that may the army assembled at Puente de Burgos thanke God of, as well as the forces of Portugall, who foreran vs 6 daies together: Did we not want 7 of the l3 old Companies, which we should haue had from thence; foure of the 10 Dutch Companies; and 6 of their men of war for the sea, from the Hollanders: which I may iustly say we wanted, in that we might haue had so many good souldiers, so many good ships, and so many able bodies more then we had? Did there not vpon the first thinking of the iourney diuers gallant Courtiers put in their names for aduenturers to the summe of 10000 li. who seeing it went forward in good earnest, aduised themselues better, and laid the want of so much money vpon the iourney? Was there not moreouer a rounde summe of the aduenture spent in leuying, furnishing, and maintaining 3 moneths 1500 men for the seruice of Berghen, with which Companies the Mutinies of Ostend were suppressed, a seruice of no smal moment? What misery the detracting of the time of our setting out, which should haue bene the 1 of February, did lay vpon vs, too many can witnes: and what extremitie the want of that moneths victuals which we did eat, during the moneth we lay at Plimouth for a wind, might haue driuen vs vnto, no man can doubt of, that knoweth what men do liue by, had not God giuen vs in the ende a more prosperous wind and shorter passage into Galitia then hath bene often seen, where our owne force and fortune reuictualled vs largely: of which crosse windes, that held vs two dayes after our going out, the Generals being wearie, thrust to Sea in the same, wisely chusing rather to attend the change thereof there, then by being in harborough to lose any part of the better, when it should come by hauing their men on shore: in which two dayes 25 of our companies shipped in part of the fleet were scattered from vs, either not being able or willing to double Vshant. These burdens layed vpon our Generals before their going out, they haue patiently endured, and I thinke they haue thereby much enlarged their honour: for hauing done thus much with the want of our artillery, 600 horse, 3000 foot, and 20000 li. of their aduenture, and one moneths victuals of their proportion, what may be conjectured they would haue done with their ful complement? For the losse of our men at sea, since we can lay it on none but the will of God, what can be said more, then that it is his pleasure to turne all those impediments to the honor of them against whom they were intended: and he will still shew himselfe the Lord of hosts in doing great things by them, whom many haue sought to obscure: who if they had let the action fall at the height thereof in respect of those defects, which were such especially for the seruice at land, as would haue made a mighty subiect stoope vnder them, I do not see how any man could iustly haue layd any reproch vpon him who commanded the same, but rather haue lamented the iniquity of this time, wherein men whom forren countries haue for their conduct in seruice worthily esteemed of, should not only in their owne countrey not be seconded in their honorable endeuors, but mightily hindred, euen to the impairing of their owne estates, which most willingly they haue aduentured for the good of their countries: whose worth I will not value by my report, lest I should seem guiltie of flattery (which my soule abhorreth) and yet come short in the true measure of their praise. Onely for your instruction against them who had almost seduced you from the true opinion you hold of such men, you shall vnderstand that Generall Norris from his booke was trained vp in the wars of the Admiral of France, and in very yong yeeres had charge of men vnder the erle of Essex in Ireland: which with what commendations he then discharged, I leaue to the report of them who obserued those seruices. Vpon the breach betwixt Don Iohn and the States, he was made Colonel generall of all the English forces there present, or to come, which he continued 2 yeeres: he was then made Marshal of the field vnder Conte Hohenlo: and after that, General of the army in Frisland: at his comming home in the time of Monsieurs gouernment in Flanders, he was made lord President of Munster in Ireland, which he yet holdeth, from whence within one yere he was sent for, and sent Generall of the English forces which her maiestie then lent to the Low countries, which he held til the erle of Leicesters going ouer. And he was made Marshall of the field in England, the enemy being vpon our coast, and when it was expected the crowne of England should haue bene tried by battel. Al which places of commandement which neuer any Englishman successiuely attained vnto in forren wars, and the high places her maiestie had thought him woorthy of, may suffice to perswade you, that he was not altogether vnlikely to discharge that which he vndertooke. What fame general Drake hath gotten by his iourney about the world, by his aduentures to the west Indies, and the scourges he hath laid vpon the Spanish nation, I leaue to the Southerne parts to speake of, and refer you to The Booke extant in our own language treating of the same, and beseech you considering the waighty matters they haue in all the course of their liues with wonderfull reputation managed, that you wil esteeme them not wel informed of their proceedings, that thinke them insufficient to passe through that which they vndertooke, especially hauing gone thus far in the view of the world, through so many incombrances, and disappointed of those agreements which led them the rather to vndertake the seruice. But it may be you wil thinke me herein either to much opinionated of the voiage, or conceited of the Commanders, that labouring thus earnestly to aduance the opinion of them both, haue not so much as touched any part of the misorders, weaknes and wants that haue bene amongst vs, whereof they that returned did plentifully report. True it is, I haue conceiued a great opinion of the iourney, and do thinke honorably of the Commanders: for we find in greatest antiquities, that many Commanders haue bene receiued home with triumph for lesse merite, and that our owne countrey hath honored men heretofore with admiration for aduentures vnequal to this: it might therefore in those daies haue seemed superfluous to extend any mans commendations by particular remembrances, for that then all men were ready to giue enery man his due. But I hold it most necessary in these daies, sithence euery vertue findeth her direct opposite, and actions woorthy of all memory are in danger to be enuiously obscured, to denounce the prayses of the action, and actors to the ful, but yet no further then with sinceritie of trueth, and not without grieuing at the iniury of this time, wherein is enforced a necessitie of Apologies for those men and matters, which all former times were accustomed to entertaine with the greatest applause that might be. But to answere the reports which haue bene giuen out in reproach of the actors and action by such as were in the same: let no man thinke otherwise, but that they, who fearing the casuall accidents of war had any purpose of returning, did first aduise of some occasion that should moue them thereunto: and hauing found any whatsoever did thinke it sufficiently iust, in respect of the earnest desire they had to seeke out matter that might colour their coming home. Of these there were some, who hauing noted the late Flemish warres did finde that many yong men haue gone ouer and safely returned souldiers within fewe moneths, in hauing learned some wordes of Arte vsed in the warres, and thought after that good example to spend like time amongst vs: which being expired they beganne to quarrell at the great mortalitie that was amongst vs. The neglect of discipline in the Armie, for that men were suffered to be drunke with the plentie of wines. The scarsitie of Surgions. The want of carriages for the hurt and sicke: and the penurie of victuals in the Campe: Thereupon diuining that there would be no good done: And that therefore they could be content to lose their time, and aduenture to returne home againe. These men haue either conceiued well of their owne wits (who by obseruing the passages of the warre were become sufficient souldiers in these fewe weeks, and did long to be at home, where their discourses might be wondred at) or missing of their Portegues and Milrayes [Footnote: Coins current in Spain and Portugal.] which they dreamed on in Portugall, would rather returne to their former maner of life, then attend the ende of the iourney. For seeing that one hazard brought another; and that though one escaped the bullet this day it might light vpon him to morow, the next day, or any day; and that the warre was not confined to any one place, but that euery place brought foorth new enemies, they were glad to see some of the poore souldiers fal sicke, that fearing to be infected by them they might iustly desire to go home. [Sidenote: Answere to the first.] The sicknesse I confesse was great, because any is too much. But hath it bene greater then is ordinary among Englishmen at their first entrance into the warres, whithersoeuer they goe to want the fulnesse of their flesh pots? Haue not ours decayed at all times in France, with eating yong fruits and drinking newe wines? haue they not abundantly perished in the Low countreys with cold, and rawnesse of the aire, euen in their garrisons? Haue there not more died in London in sixe moneths of the plague, then double our Armie being at the strongest? And could the Spanish armie the last yeere (who had all prouisions that could be thought on for an Armie, and tooke the fittest season, in the yeere for our Climate) auoyd sicknes among their souldiers? May it then be thought that ours could escape there, where they found inordinate heat of weather, and hot wines to distemper them withall? But can it be, that we haue lost so many as the common sort perswade themselues wee haue? It hath bene prooued by strickt examinations of our musters, that we were neuer in our fulnesse before our going from Plimouth 11000. souldiers, nor aboue 2500. Marriners. It is also euident that there returned aboue 6000. of all sorts, as appeareth by the seuerall paiments made to them since our comming home. And I haue truely shewed you that of these numbers very neere 3000. forsooke the Armie at the Sea, whereof some passed into France and the rest returned home. So as we neuer being 13000. in all, and hauing brought home aboue 6000. with vs, you may see how the world hath bene seduced, in belieuing that we haue lost 16000. men by sicknes. [Sidenote: Answere to the second.] To them that haue made question of the gouernment of the warres (little knowing what appertained thereunto in that there were so many drunkards amongst vs) I answere that in their gouernment of shires and parishes, yea in their very housholdes, themselues can hardly bridle their vassals from that vice. For we see it is a thing almost impossible, at any your Faires or publique assemblies to finde any quarter thereof sober, or in your Townes any Ale-poles vnfrequented: And we obserue that though any man hauing any disordered persons in their houses, do locke vp their drincke and set Butlers vpon it, that they will yet either by indirect meanes steale themselues drunke from their Masters tables, or runne abroad to seeke it. If then at home in the eyes of your Iustices, Maiors, Preachers, and Masters, and where they pay for euery pot they take, they cannot be kept from their liquor: doe they thinke that those base disordered persons whom themselves sent vnto vs, as liuing at home without rule, who hearing of wine doe long for it as a daintie that their purses could neuer reach to in England, and having it there without mony euen in their houses where they lie and hold their guard, can be kept from being drunk; and once drunke, held in any order or tune, except we had for euery drunkard an officer to attend him? But who be they that haue runne into these disorders? Euen our newest men, our yongest men, and our idelest men, and for the most part our slouenly prest men, whom the Justices, (who haue alwayes thought vnwoorthily of any warre) haue sent out as the scumme and dregs of their countrey. And those were they, who distempering themselues with these hote wines, haue brought in that sicknesse, which hath infected honester men then themselues. But I hope, as in other places the recouerie of their diseases doeth acquaint their bodies with the aire of the countries where they be, so the remainder of these which haue either recouered, or past without sicknesse will proue most fit for Martiall seruices. [Sidenote: Answere to the third.] If we haue wanted Surgeons, may not this rather be laid vpon the captaines (who are to prouide for their seuerall Companies) then vpon the Generals, whose care hath bene more generall. And how may it be thought that euery captaine, vpon whom most of the charges of raising their Companies was laid as an aduenture, could prouide themselues of all things expedient for a war, which was alwaies wont to be maintained by the purse of the prince. But admit euery Captaine had his Surgeon: yet were the want of curing neuer the lesse: for our English Surgeons (for the most part) be vnexperienced in hurts that come by shot; because England hath not knowen wars but of late, from whose ignorance proceeded this discomfort, which I hope wil warne those that hereafter go to the wars to make preparation of such as may better preserue mens liues by their skill. [Sidenote: Answere to the fourth.] From whence the want of cariages did proceed, you may conjecture in that we marched through a countrey neither plentifull of such prouisions, nor willing to part from any thing: yet this I can assure you, that no man of worth was left either hurt or sicke in any place vnprouided for. And that the General commanded all the mules and asses that were laden with any baggage to be vnburdened and taken that vse: and the earle of Essex and he for money hired men to cary men vpon pikes. And the earle (whose true vertue and nobilitie, as it doeth in all other his actions appeare, so did it very much in this) threw down his own stuffe, I meane apparel and necessaries which he had there, from his owne cariages, and let them be left by the way, to put hurt and sicke men vpon them. Of whose honourable deseruings I shall not need here to make any particular discourse, for that many of his actions do hereafter giue me occasion to obserue the same. [Sidenote: Answere to the fift.] And the great complaint that these men make for the want of victuals may well proceed from their not knowing the wants of the war; for if to feed vpon good bieues, muttons and goats, be to want, they haue endured great scarcitie at land, wherunto they neuer wanted, two daies together, wine to mixe with their water, nor bread to eat with their meat (in some quantitie) except it were such as had vowed rather to starue then to stir out of their places for food: of whom we had too many, who if their time had serued for it, might haue seen in many campes in the most plentifull countries of the world for victuals, men daily die with want of bread and drinke in not hauing money to buy, nor the countrey yeelding any good or healthful water in any place; whereas both Spaine and Portugall do in euery place affoord the best water that may be, and much more healthful then any wine for our drinking. And although some haue most injuriously exclaimed against the smal prouisions of victuals for the sea, rather grounding the same vpon an euill that might haue fallen, then any that did light vpon vs: yet know you this, that there is no man so forgetfull, that will say they wanted before they came to the Groine, that whosoeuer made not very large prouisions for himselfe and his company at the Groine, was very improuident, where was plentiful store of wine, biefe, and fish, and no man of place prohibited to lay in the same into their ships, wherewith some did so furnish themselues, as they did not onely in the journey supplie the wants, of such as were lesse provident then they, but in their returne home made a round commoditie of the remainder thereof. And that at Cascais there came in such store of prouisions into the Fleet out of England, as no man that would haue vsed his diligence could haue wanted his due proportion thereof, as might appeare by the remainder that was returned to Plimmouth, and the plentifull sale thereof made out of the marchants ships after their comming into the Thames. But least I should seeme vnto you too studious in confuting idle opinions, or answering friuolous questions, I wil adresse me to the true report of those actions that haue passed therein: wherein I protest, I will neither hide any thing that hath hapned against vs, nor attribute more to any man or matter, then the iust occasions thereof lead me vnto: wherein it shall appeare that there hath bene nothing left vndone by the Generals which was before our going out vndertaken by them, but that there hath bene much more done then was at the first required by Don Antonio, who should haue reaped the fruit of our aduenture. [Sidenote: Our men land within a mile of the Groine the 20 of April.] After 6 daies sailing from the coast of England, and the 5 after we had the wind good being the 20 of April in the euening, we landed in a baie more then an English mile from the Groine, in our long boats and pinnasses without any impeachment: from whence we presently marched toward the towne, within one halfe mile we were encountred by the enemie who being charged by ours, retired into their gates. For that night our armie lay in the villages, houses and mils next adioining, and very neere round about the towne, into the which the Galeon named S. Iohn (which was the second of the last yeeres Fleet agaynst England) one hulke, two smaller ships and two Gallies which were found in the road, did beate vpon vs and vpon our Companies as they passed too and fro that night and the next morning. Generall Norris hauing that morning before day viewed the Towne, found the same defended on the land side (for it standeth vpon the necke of an Iland) with a wall vpon a dry ditch; whereupon he resolued to trie in two places what might bee done against it by escalade, and in the meane time aduised for the landing of some artillery to beat vpon the ships and gallies, that they might not annoy vs: which being put in execution, vpon the planting of the first piece the gallies abandoned the road, and betooke them to Feroll, not farre from thence: and the Armada being beaten with the artillery and musketers that were placed vpon the next shore, left her playing vpon vs. The rest of the day was spent in preparing the companies, and other prouisions ready for the surprise of the base towne which was effected in this sort. There were appointed to be landed 1200 men vnder the conduct of Colonell Huntley, and Captaine Fenner the Viceadmirall, on that side next fronting vs by water in long boats and pinnesses, wherein were placed many pieces ol artillery to beat vpon the tonne in their aproch: at the corner of the wall which defended the other water side, were appointed Captaine Richard Wingfield Lieutenant Colonell to Generall Norris, and Captaine Sampson Lieutenant Colonell to Generall Drake to enter at low water with 500 men if they found it passable, but if not, to betake them to the escalade, for they had also ladders with them: at the other corner of the wall which joyned to that side that was attempted by water, were appointed Colonell Vmpton, and Colonell Bret with 300 men to enter by escalade. All the companies which should enter by boat being imbarked before the low water, and hauing giuen the alarme, Captaine Wingfield and Captaine Sampson betooke them to the escalade, for they had in commandement to charge all at one instant. The boats landed without any great difficulty: yet had they some men hurt in the landing. Colonell Bret and Colonell Vmpton entred their quarter without encounter, not finding any defence made against them: for Captaine Hinder being one of them that entred by water, at his first entry, with some of his owne company whom he trusted well, betooke himselfe to that part of the wall, which be cleared before that they offered to enter, and so still scoured the wall till hee came on the backe of them who mainteined the fight against Captaine Wingfield and Captaine Sampson; who were twise beaten from their ladders, and found very good resistance, till the enemies perceiuing ours entred in two places at their backs, were driuen to abandon the same. The reason why that place was longer defended then the other, is (as Don Iuan de Luna who commanded the same affirmeth) that the enemy that day had resolued in councell how to make their defences, if they were approched: and therein concluded, that, if we attempted it by water, it was not able to be held, and therefore vpon the discouery of our boats, they of the high towne should make a signall by fire from thence, that all the lowe towne might make their retreat thither: but they (whether troubled with the sudden terror we brought vpon them, or forgetting their decree) omitted the fire, which made them guard that place til we were entred on euery side. Then the towne being entred in three seuerall places with an huge cry, the inhabitants betooke them to the high towne: which they might with lesse perill doe, for that ours being strangers here, knew not the way to cut them off. The rest that were not put to the sword in fury, fled to the rocks in the Iland, and others hid themselues in chambers and sellers, which were euery day found out in great numbers. Amongst those Don Iuan de Luna, a man of very good commandement, hauing hidden himselfe in a house, did the next morning yeeld himselfe. There was also taken that night a commissary of victuals called Iuan de Vera, who confessed that there were in the Groine at our entry 500 souldiours being in seuen companies which returned very weake (as appeareth by the small numbers of them) from the iourney of England, namely: Vnder Don Iuan de Luna. Don Diego Barran, a bastard sonne of the Marques of Santa Cruz; his company was that night in the Galeon. Don Antonio de Herera then at Madrid. Don Pedro de Manriques brother to the Earle of Paxides. Don Ieronimo de Mourray of the Order of S. Iuan, with some of the towne were in the fort. Don Gomez de Caramasal then at Madrid. Captaine Manço Caucaso de Socas. Also there came in that day of our landing from Retanzas the companies of Don Iohn de Mosalle, and Don Pedro Poure de Leon. Also he saith that there was order giuen for baking of 300000 of biscuit, some in Batansas, some in Ribadeo, and the rest there. There were then in the towne 2000 pipes of wine, and 150 in the ships. That there were lately come vnto the Marques of Seralba 300000 ducats. That there were 1000 iarres of oile. A great quantity of beanes, peaze, wheat, and fish. That there were 3000 quintals of beefe. And that not twenty dayes before, there came in three barks laden with match and harquebuzes. Some others also found fauour to be taken prisoners, but the rest falling into the hands of the common souldiers, had their throats cut, to the number of 500, as I coniecture, first and last, after we had entred the towne; and in the entry thereof there was found euery celler full of wine, whereon our men, by inordinate drinking, both grew themselues for the present senselesse of the danger of the shot of the towne, which hurt many of them being drunke, and tooke the first ground of their sicknesse; for of such was our first and chiefest mortality. There was also abundant store of victuals, salt, and all kinde of prouision for shipping and the warre: which was confessed by the sayd Commissary of victuals there, to be the beginning of a magasin of all sorts of prouision for a new voyage into England: whereby you may conjecture what the spoile thereof hath aduantaged vs, and prejudiced the king of Spaine. The next morning about eight of the clocke the enemies abandoned their ships. And hauing ouercharged the artillery of the gallion, left her on fire, which burnt in terrible sort two dayes together, the fire and ouercharging of the pieces being so great, as of fifty that were in her, there were not aboue sixteene taken out whole; the rest with ouercharge of the powder being broken, and molten with heat of the fire, were taken out in broken pieces into diuers shippes. The same day was the cloister on the South side of the towne entred by vs, which ioyned very neere to the wall of the towne, out of the chambers and other places whereof we beat into the same with our musquetiers. The next day in the afternoone there came downe some 2000 men, gathered together out of the countrey, euen to the gates of the towne, as resolutely (ledde by what spirit I know not) as though they would haue entred the same: but at the first defence made by ours that had the guard there, wherein were slaine about eighteene of theirs, they tooke them to their heeles in the same disorder they made their approch, and with greater speed then ours were able to follow: notwithstanding we followed after them more then a mile. The second day Colonell Huntley was sent into the countrey with three or foure hundred men, who brought home very great store of kine and sheepe for our reliefe. The third day in the night the Generall had in purpose to take a long munition-house builded vpon their wall, opening towards vs, which would haue giuen vs great aduantage against them; but they knowing the commodity thereof for vs, burnt it in the beginning of the euening; which put him to a new councell: for he had likewise brought some artillery to that side of the towne. During this time there happened a very great fire in the lower end of the towne; which, had it not bene by the care of the Generals heedily sene vnto, and the fury thereof preuented by pulling downe many houses which were most in danger, as next vnto them, had burnt all the prouisions we found there, to our woonderfull hinderance. The fourth day were planted vnder the gard of the cloister two demy-canons, and two coluerings against the towne, defended or gabbioned with a crosse wall, thorow the which our battery lay; the first and second fire whereof shooke all the wall downe, so as all the ordinance lay open to the enemy, by reason whereof some of the Canoniers were shot and some slaine. The Lieutenant also of the ordinance, M. Spencer, was slaine fast by Sir Edward Norris, Master thereof: whose valour being accompanied with an honourable care of defending that trust committed vnto him, neuer left that place, till he receiued direction from the Generall his brother to cease the battery, which he presently did, leauing a gard vpon the same for that day; and in the night following made so good defence for the place of the battery, as after there were very few or none annoyed therein. That day Captaine Goodwin had in commandement from the Generall, that when the assault should be giuen to the towne, he should make a proffer of an escalade on the other side, where he held his guard: but he (mistaking the signall that should haue bene giuen) attempted the same long before the assault, and was shot in the mouth. The same day the Generall hauing planted his ordinance ready to batter, caused the towne to be summoned; in which summons they of the towne shot at our Drum; immediatly after that there was one hanged ouer the wall, and a parle desired; wherein they gaue vs to vnderstand, that the man hanged was he that shot at the Drum before: wherein also they intreated to haue faire warres, with promise of the same on their parts. The rest of the parle was spent in talking of Don Iuan de Luna, and some other prisoners, and somewhat of the rendring of the towne, but not much, for they listened not greatly thereunto. Generall Norris hauing by his skilfull view of the towne (which is almost all seated vpon a rocke) found one place thereof mineable, did presently set workemen in hand withall; who after three dayes labour (and the seuenth after we were entred the base towne) had bedded their powder, but indeede not farre enough into the wall. Against which time the breach made by the canon being thought assaultable, and companies appointed as well to enter the same, as that which was expected should be blowen vp by the mine: namely, to that of the canon, Captaine Richard Wingfield, and Captaine Philpot who lead the Generals foot-companie, with whom also Captaine Yorke went, whose principall commandment was ouer the horsemen. And to that of the Myne, Captaine Iohn Sampson, and Captaine Anthonie Wingfield Lieutenant Colonell to the Master of the Ordinance, with certaine selected out of diuers Regiments. All these companies being in armes, and the assault intended to be giuen in al places at an instant, fire was put to the traine of the mine; but by reason the powder brake out backewards in a place where the caue was made too high, there could be nothing done in either place for that day. During this time Captaine Hinder was sent with some chosen out of euery company into the countrey for prouisions, whereof he brought in good store, and returned without losse. The next day Captaine Anthony Sampson was sent out with some 500 to fetch in prouisions for the army, who was encountred by them of the countrey, but he put them to flight, and returned with good spoile. The same night the miners were set to worke againe, who by the second day after had wrought very well into the foundation of the wall. Against which time the companies aforesayd being in readinesse for both places (Generall Drake on the other side, with two or three hundred men in pinnesses, making proffer to attempt a strong fort vpon an Iland before the towne, where he left more then thirty men) fire was giuen to the traine of the mine, which blew vp halfe the tower vnder which the powder was planted. The assailants hauing in charge vpon the effecting of the mine presently to giue the assault, performed it accordingly; but too soone: for hauing entred the top of the breach, the other halfe of the tower, which with the first force of the powder was onely shaken and made loose, fell vpon our men: vnder which were buried about twenty or thirty, then being vnder that part of the tower. This so amazed our men that stood in the breach, not knowing from whence that terror came, as they forsooke their Commanders, and left them among the ruines of the mine. The two Ensignes of Generall Drake and Captaine Anthony Wingfield were shot in the breach, but their colours were rescued: the Generals by Captaine Sampsons Lieutenant, and Captaine Wingfields by himselfe. Amongst them that the wall fell vpon, was Captaine Sydenham pitifully lost; who hauing three or foure great stones vpon his lower parts, was held so fast, as neither himselfe could stirre, nor any reasonable company recouer him. Notwithstanding the next day being found to be aliue, there was ten or twelue lost in attempting to relieue him. The breach made by the canon was woonderfully well assaulted by them that had the charge thereof, who brought their men to the push of the pike at the top of the breach. And being ready to enter, the loose earth (which was indeed but the rubbish of the outside of the wall) with the weight of them that were thereon slipped outwards from vnder their feet. Whereby did appeare halfe the wall vnbattered. For let no man thinke that culuerin or demy-canon can sufficiently batter a defensible rampire: and of those pieces which we had; the better of the demy-canons at the second shot brake in her carriages, so as the battery was of lesse force, being but of three pieces. In our retreat (which was from both breaches thorow a narrow lane) were many of our men hurt: and Captaine Dolphin, who serued very well that day, was hurt in the very breach. The failing of this attempt, in the opinion of all the beholders, and of such as were of best judgement, was the fall of the mine; which had doubtlesse succeeded, the rather, because the approch was vnlooked for by the enemy in that place, and therefore not so much defence made there as in the other; which made the Generall grow to a new resolution: for finding that two dayes battery had so little beaten their wall, and that he had no better preparation to batter withall: he knew in his experience, there was no good to be done that way; which I thinke he first put in proofe, to trie if by that terror he could get the vpper towne, hauing no other way to put it in hazzard so speedily, and which in my conscience had obtained the towne, had not the defendants bene in as great perill of their liues by the displeasure of their king in giuing it vp, as by the bullet or sword in defending the same. For that day before the assault, in the view of our army, they burnt a cloister within the towne, and many other houses adioyning to the castle, to make it more defensible: whereby it appeared how little opinion themselues had of holding it against vs, had not God (who would not haue vs suddenly made proud) layed that misfortune vpon vs. Hereby it may appeare, that the foure canons, and other pieces of battery promised to the iourney, and not performed, might haue made her Maiesty mistresse of the Groine: for though the mine were infortunate, yet if the other breach had bene such as the earth would haue held our men thereon, I doe not thinke but they had entred it thorowly at the first assault giuen: which had bene more then I haue heard of in our age. And being as it was, is no more then the Prince of Parma hath in winning of all his townes endured, who neuer entred any place at the first assault, nor aboue three by assault. The next day the Generall hearing by a prisoner that was brought in, that the Conde de Andrada had assembled an armie of eight thousand at Puente de Burgos, sixe miles from thence in the way to Petance, which was but the beginning of an armie: in that there was a greater leauie readie to come thither vnder the Conde de Altemira, either in purpose to relieue the Groine, or to encampe themselues neere the place of our embarking, there to hinder the same; for to that purpose had the marquesse of Seralba written to them both the first night of our landing, as the Commissarie taken then confessed, or at the least to stop our further entrance into the countrey, (for during this time, there were many incursions made of three or foure hundred at a time, who burnt, spoyled, and brought in victuals plentifully) the General, I say, hearing of this armie, had in purpose the next day following to visite them, agaynst whom hee caried but nine Regiments: in the vantgard were the Regiment of Sir Roger Williams, Sir Edward Norris, and Colonell Sidney: in the Battaile, that of the Generall, of Colonell Lane, and Colonel Medkerk: and in the Rereward, Sir Henrie Norris, Colonell Huntley, and Colonell Brets Regiments; leauing the other fiue Regiments with Generall Drake, for the guard of the Cloister and Artillerie. About ten of the clocke the next day, being the sixt of May, halfe a mile from the campe, we discouering the enemy, Sir Edward Norris, who commanded the vantgard in chiefe, appointed his Lieutenant Colonell Captaine Anthonie Wingfield to command the shot of the same, who diuided them into three troups; the one he appointed to Captaine Middleton to be conducted in a way on the left hand: another to Captaine Erington to take the way on the right hand, and the body of them (which were Musquetiers) Captaine Wingfield tooke himselfe, keeping the direct way of the march. But the way taken by Captaine Middleton met a little before with the way held by Captaine Wingfield, so as be giuing the first charge vpon the enemy, was in the instant seconded by Captaine Wingfield, who beat them from place to place (they hauing very good places of defence, and crosse walles which they might haue held long) till they betooke them to their bridge, which is ouer a creeke comming out of the Sea, builded of stone vpon arches. On the foot of the further side whereof, lay the Campe of the enemy very strongly entrenched, who with our shot beaten to the further end of the bridge, Sir Edward Norris marching in the point, of the pikes, without stay passed to the bridge, accompanied with Colonell Sidney, Captaine Hinder, Captaine Fulford, and diuers others, who found the way cleare ouer the same, but through an incredible volley of shot; for that the shot of their army flanked vpon both sides of the bridge, the further end whereof was barricaded with barrels: but they who should haue guarded the same, seeing the proud approch we made, forsooke the defence of the barricade, where Sir Edward entred, and charging the first defendant with his pike, with very earnestnesse in ouerthrusting, fell, and was grieuously hurt at the sword in the head, but was most honourably rescued by the Generall his brother, accompanied with Colonell Sidney, and some other gentlemen: Captaine Hinder also hauing his Caske shot off, had fiue wounds in the head and face at the sword: and Captaine Fulford was shot into the left arme at the same encounter: yet were they so thorowly seconded by the Generall, who thrust himselfe so neere to giue encouragement to the attempt (which was of woonderfull difficulty) as their brauest men that defended that place being ouerthrowen, their whole army fell presently into rout, of whom our men had the chase three miles in foure sundry wayes, which they betooke themselues vnto. [Sidenote: The notable ouerthrow giuen to the Spaniards at Puente de Burgos.] There was taken the Standard with the Kings armes, and borne before the Generall. How many two thousand men (for of so many consisted our vantgard) might kill in pursuit of foure sundry parties, so many you may imagine fell before vs that day. And to make the number more great, our men hauing giuen ouer the execution, and returning to their standes, found many hidden in the Vineyards and hedges, which they dispatched. Also Colonell Medkerk was sent with his regiment three miles further to a Cloister, which he burnt and spoiled, wherein he found two hundred more, and put them to the sword. There were slaine in this fight on our side onely Captaine Cooper and one priuate souldier; Captaine Barton was also hurt vpon the bridge in the eye. But had you seene the strong baricades they had made on either side of the bridge, and how strongly they lay encamped thereabouts, you would haue thought it a rare resolution of ours to giue so braue a charge vpon an army so strongly lodged. After the furie of the execution, the Generall sent the vantgard one way, and the battell another, to burne and spoile; so as you might haue seene the countrey more then three miles compasse on fire. There was found very good store of munition and victuals in the Campe, some plate and rich apparell, which the better sort left behinde, they were so hotly pursued. Our sailers also landed in an Iland next adioyning to our ships, where they burnt and spoiled all they found. Thus we returned to the Groine, bringing small comfort to the enemy within the same, who shot many times at vs as we marched out; but not once in our comming backe againe. The next day was spent in shipping our artillery landed for the battery, and of the rest taken at the Groine, which had it bene such as might haue giuen vs any assurance of a better battery, or had there bene no other purpose of our iourney but that, I thinke the Generall would haue spent some more time in the siege of the place. The last two nights, there were that vndertooke to fire the higher towne in one place, where the houses were builded vpon the wall by the water side: but they within suspecting as much, made so good defence against vs, as they preuented the same. In our departure there was fire put into euery house of the low towne, insomuch as I may iustly say, there was not one house left standing in the base towne, or the cloister. The next day being the eight of May, we embarked our army without losse of a man, which (had we not beaten the enemy at Puente de Burgos) had bene impossible to haue done; for that without doubt they would haue attempted something against vs in our imbarking: as appeared by the report of the Commissary aforesayd, who confessed, that the first night of our landing the Marques of Seralba writ to the Conde de Altemira, the Conde de Andrada, and to Terneis de Santisso, to bring all the forces against vs that they could possible raise, thinking no way so good to assure that place, as to bring an army thither, where withall they might either besiege vs in their base towne, if we should get it, or to lie betweene vs and our place of imbarking, to fight with us vpon the aduantage; for they had aboue 15000 souldiers vnder their commandements. After we had put from thence, we had the winde so contrary, as we could not vnder nine dayes recouer the Burlings: in which passage on the thirteenth day the Earle of Essex, and with him M. Walter Deuereux his brother (a Gentleman of woonderfull great hope) Sir Roger Williams Colonell generall of the footmen, Sir Philip Butler, who hath alwayes bene most inward with him, and Sir Edward Wingfield, came into the fleet. The Earle hauing put himselfe into the iourney against the opinion of the world, and as it seemed to the hazzard of his great fortune, though to the great aduancement of his reputation, (for as the honourable cariage of himselfe towards all men doth make him highly esteemed at home; so did his exceeding forwardnesse in all seruices make him to bee woondered at amongst vs) who, I say, put off in the same winde from Falmouth, that we left Plimmouth in, where he lay, because he would auoid the importunity of messengers that were dayly sent for his returne, and some other causes more secret to himselfe, not knowing (as it seemed) what place the Generals purposed to land in, had bene as farre as Cadiz in Andaluzia, and lay vp and downe about the South Cape, where he tooke some ships laden with corne, and brought them vnto the fleet. Also in his returne from thence to meet with our fleet, he fell with the Ilands of Bayon; and on that side of the riuer which Cannas standeth vpon, he, with Sir Roger Williams, and those Gentlemen that were with him went on shore, with some men out of the ship he was in, whom the enemy, that held guard vpon that coast, would not abide, but fled vp into the countrey. The 16 day we landed at Peniche in Portugall, vnder the shot of the castle, and aboue the waste in water, more then a mile from the towne, wherein many were in perill of drowning, by reason the winde was great, and the sea went high, which ouerthrew one boat, wherein fiue and twenty of Captaine Dolphins men perished. The enemy being fiue companies of Spaniards vnder the commandement of the Conde de Fuentes, sallied out of the towne against vs, and in our landing made their approch close by the water side. But the Earle of Essex with Sir Roger Williams, and his brother, hauing landed sufficient number to make two troups, left one to holde the way by the water side, and led the other ouer the Sandhils; which the enemy seeing, drew theirs likewise further into the land; not, as we coniectured, to encounter vs, but indeed to make their speedy passage away: notwithstanding, they did it in such sort, as being charged by ours which were sent out by the Colonell generall vnder Captaine Iackson, they stood the same euen to the push of the pike: in which charge and at the push, Captaine Robert Piew was slaine. The enemy being fled further then we had reason to follow them, all our companies were drawen to the towne; which being vnfortified in any place, we found vndefended by any man against vs. And therefore the Generall caused the castle to be summoned that night; which being abandoned by him that commanded it, a Portugall named Antonio de Aurid, being possessed thereof, desired but to be assured that Don Antonio was landed, whereupon he would deliuer the same; which he honestly performed. [Sidenote: Peniche taken.] There was taken out of the castle some hundred shot and pikes, which Don Emanuel furnished his Portugals withall, and twenty barrels of powder: so as possessing both the towne and the castle, we rested there one day: wherein some Friers and other poore men came vnto their new king, promising in the name of their countrey next adioyning, that within two dayes he should haue a good supply of horse and foote for his assistance. That day we remained there, the Generals company of horses were vnshipped. The Generals there fully resolued, that the armie should march ouer land to Lisbone vnder the conduct of Generall Norris; and that Generall Drake should meete him in the riuer therof with the Fleete; and there should be one Company of foote left in the garde of the Castle, and sixe in the ships: also that the sicke and hurt should remaine there with prouisions for their cures. The Generall, to trie the euent of the matter by expedition, the next day beganne to march in this sort: his owne Regiment, and the Regiment of Sir Roger Williams, Sir Henrie Norris, Colonell Lane, and Colonell Medkerk, in the vantgard: Generall Drake, Colonell Deuereux, Sir Edward Norris, and Colonell Sidneis in the battel: Sir Iames Hales, Sir Edward Wingfield, Colonell Vmptons, Colonell Huntlies, and Colonell Brets in the arrereward. By that time our army was thus marshalled, Generall Drake, although hee were to passe by Sea, yet to make knowen the honourable desire he bad of taking equall part of all fortunes with vs, stood vpon the ascent of an hill, by the which our battalions must of necessity march and with a pleasing kindnesse tooke his leaue seuerally of the Commanders of euery regiment, wishing vs all most happy successe in our iourney ouer the land, with a constant promise that he would, if the injury of the weather did not hinder him, meet vs in the riuer of Lisbon with our fleet. The want of cariages the first day was such, as they were enforced to cary their munition vpon mens backs, which was the next day remedied. In this march captaine Crispe the Prouost Marshall caused one who (contrary to the Proclamation published at our arriuall in Portugall) had broken vp an house for pillage, to be hanged, with the cause of his death vpon his brest, in the place where the act was committed: which good example prouidently giuen in the beginning of our march, caused the commandement to be more respectiuely regarded all the iourney after, by them whom feare of punishment doeth onely holde within compasse. The campe lodged that night at Lorinha: the next day we had intelligence all the way, that the enemy had made head of horse and foot against vs at Torres Vedras, which we thought they would haue held: but comming thither the second day of our march, not two houres before our vantgard came in, they left the towne and the castle to the possession of Don Antonio. There began the greatest want we had of victuals, especially of bread, vpon a commandement giuen from the Generall, that no man should spoile the countrey, or take any thing from any Portugall: which was more respectiuely obserued, then I thinke would haue bene in our owne countrey, amongst our owne friends and kindred: but the countrey (contrary to promise) wholly neglected the prouision of victuals for vs, whereby we were driuen for that time into a great scarsity. Which mooued the Colonell generall to call all the Colonels together, and with them to aduise for some better course for our people: who thought it best, first to aduertise the king what necessity we were in, before we should of our selues alter the first institution of abstinence. The Colonell generall hauing acquainted the Generall herewith, with his very good allowance thereof, went to the king: who after some expostulations vsed, tooke the more carefull order for our men, and after that our army was more plentifully relieued. The third day we lodged our army in three sundry villages, the one battalion lying in Exarama de los Caualleros, another in Exarama do Obispo, and the third in San Sebastian. Captaine Yorke who commanded the Generals horse company, in this march made triall of the valour of the horsemen of the enemy; who by one of his Corporals charged with eight horses thorow 40 of them, and himselfe thorow more than 200 with forty horses: who would abide him no longer then they could make way from him. The next day we marched to Lores, and had diuers intelligences that the enemy would tary vs there: for the Cardinall had made publique promise to them of Lisbon, that he would fight with vs in that place, which he might haue done aduantageously; for we had a bridge to passe ouer in the same place: but before our comming he dislodged, notwithstanding it appeared vnto vs that he had in purpose to encampe there; for we found the ground staked out where their trenches should haue bene made: and their horsemen with some few shot shewed themselues vpon an hill at our comming into that village; whom Sir Henry Norris (whose regiment had the point of the vantgard) thought to draw vnto some fight, and therefore marched without sound of drumme, and somewhat faster then ordinary, thereby to get neere them, before he were discouered, for he was shadowed from them by an hil that was betweene him and them: but before he could draw his companies any thing neere, they retired. General Drakes regiment that night, for the commodity of good lodging, drew themselues into a village, more than one English mile from thence, and neere the enemy: who not daring to do any thing against vs in foure dayes before, tooke that occasion, and in the next morning fell downe vpon that regiment, crying, Viua el Rey Don Antonio, which was a generall salutation thorow all the Countrey, as they came: whom our yoong shouldiers (though it were vpon their guard, and before the watch was discharged) began to entertaine kindly, but hauing got within their guard, they fell to cut their throats: but the alarme being taken inwards, the officers of the two next Companies, whose Captaines (Captaine Sydnam and Captaine Young) were lately dead at the Groine, brought downe their colours and pikes vpon them in so resolute manner, as they presently draue them to retire with losse: they killed of ours at their first entrance foarteene, and hurt sixe or seuen. The next day we lodged at Aluelana within three miles of Lisbon, where many of our souldiers drinking in two places of standing waters by the way were poisoned, and thereon presently; died. Some do think it came rather by eating hony, which they found in the houses plentifully. But whether it were by water or by hony, the poor men were poisoned. That night the Earle of Essex, and Sir Rodger Williams went out about eleuen of the clock with 1000 men to lie in ambuscade neere the town, and hauing layed the same very neere, sent some to giue the alarme vnto the enemy: which was well performed by them that had the charge thereof, but the enemy refused to issue after them, so as the Earle returned assone as it was light without doing any thing, though he had in purpose, and was ready to haue giuen an honourable charge on them. The 25 of May in the evening we came to the suburbs of Lisbon at the very entrance whereof Sir Rodger Williams calling Captaine Anthony Wingfield with him, tooke thirty shot or thereabouts, and first scowred all the streets till they came very neere the town; where they found none but old folks and beggars, crying, Viua el Rey Don Antonio, and the houses shut vp: for they had caried much of their wealth into the towne, and had fired some houses by the water side, full of corne and other prouisions of victuals, least we should be benefited thereby, but yet left behinde them great riches in many houses. The foure regiments that had the vantgard that day, which were Colonell Deuereux, Sir Edward Norris, Colonell Sidneys, and Generall Drakes (whom I name as they marched) the Colonell generall caused to hold guard in the neerest street of the Suburbs: the battell and arreward stood in armes all the night in the field neere to Alcantara. Before morning Captaine Wingfield, by direction from the Colonell generall Sir Roger Williams, held guard with Sir Edward Norris his regiment in three places very neere the town wall, and so held the same till the other regiments came in the morning. About midnight they within the towne burnt all their houses that stood upon their wall either within or without, least we possessing them, might thereby greatly haue annoyed the towne. The next morning Sir Roger Williams attempted (but not without peril) to take a church called S. Antonio, which ioyned to the wall of the towne, and would haue bene a very euill neighbor to the towne: but the enemy hauing more easie entry into it then we gained it before vs. The rest of that morning was spent in quartering the battell and arrereward in the Suburbs called Bona Vista, and in placing Musquetiers in houses, to front their shot vpon the wall, who from the same scowred the great streets very dangerously. By this time our men being thorowly weary with our six days march, and the last nights watch, were desirous of rest; whereof the enemy being aduertised, about one or two of the clocke sallied out of the towne, and made their approach in three seuerall streets vpon vs, but chiefly in Colonell Brets quarter: who (as most of the army was) being at rest, with as much speed as he could, drew his men to armes, and made head against them so thorowly, as himselfe was slaine in the place, Captaine Carsey shot thorow the thigh, of which hurt he died within foure dayes after, Captaine Carre slaine presently, and Captaine Caue hurt (but not mortally) who were all of his regiment. This resistance made aswell here, as in other quarters where Colonell Lane and Colonell Medkerk commanded, put them to a sudden foule retreat; insomuch, as the Earle of Essex had the chase of them euen to the gates of the towne, wherein they left behinde them many of their best Commanders: their troupe of horsemen also came out, but being charged by Captaine Yorke, withdrew themselues again. Many of them also left the streets, and betooke them to houses which they found open: for the Sergeant maior Captaine Wilson slew with his owne hands three or foure, and caused them that were with him to kill many others. Their losse I can assure you did triple ours, as well in quality as in quantity. During our march to this place, Generall Drake with the whole fleet was come into Cascais, and possessed the towne without any resistance: many of the inhabitants at their discouery of our nauy, fledde with their baggage into the mountaines, and left the towne for any man that would possesse it, till Generall Drake sent vnto them by a Portugall Pilot which he had on boord, to offer them all peaceable kindnesse, so farre foorth as they would accept of their King, and minister necessaries to all the army he had brought; which offer they ioyfully imbraced, and presently sent two chiefe men of their towne, to signifie their loyalty to Don Antonio, and their honest affections to our people. Whereupon the Generall landed his companies not farre from the Cloister called San Domingo, but not without perill of the shot of the castle, which being guarded by 65 Spaniards, held still against him. As our fleet were casting ancre when the camne first into that road, there was a small ship of Brasil that came from thence, which bare with them, and seemed by striking her sailes, as though she would also haue ancred: but taking her fittest occasion hoised againe, and would haue passed vp the riuer, but the Generall presently discerning her purpose, sent out a pinnesse or two after her, which forced her in such sort, as she ran herselfe upon the Rocks: all the men escaped out of her, and the lading (being many chests of sugar) was made nothing woorth, by the salt water. In his going thither also, he tooke ships of the port of Portugall, which were sent from thence, with fifteene other from Pedro Vermendes Xantes Sergeant maior of the same place, laden with men and victuals to Lisbon: the rest that escaped put into Setuuel. The next day it pleased Generall Norris to call all the Colonels together, and to aduise with them, whether it were more expedient to tary there to attend the forces of the Portugall horse and foot, whereof the King had made promise, and to march some conueuient number to Cascais to fetch our artillery and munition, which was all at our ships, sauing that which for the necessity of the seruice was brought along with vs: whereunto, some caried away with the vaine hope of Don Antonio, that most part of the towne stood for vs, held it best to make our abode there, and to send some 3000 for our artillery; promising to themselues, that the enemy being wel beaten the day before, would make no more sallies: some others (whose vnbeliefe was very strong of any hope from the Portugall) perswaded rather to march wholly away, then to be any longer carried away with the opinion of things, whereof there was so little appearance. The Generall not willing to leaue any occasion of blotte to be layed vpon him for his speedy going from thence, nor to lose any more time by attending the hopes of Don Antonio; tolde them that though the expedition of Portugall were not the onely purpose of their iourney, but an aduenture therein (which if it succeeded prosperously, might make them sufficiently rich, and woonderfull honourable) and that they had done so much already in triall thereof, as what end soeuer happened, could nothing impaire their credits: yet in regard of the Kings last promise, that he should haue that night 3000 men armed of his owne Countrey, he would not for that night dislodge. And if they came thereby to make him so strong, that he might send the like number for his munition, he would resolue to trie his fortune for the towne. But if they came not, he found it not conuenient to diuide his forces, by sending any to Cascais, and keeping a remainder behinde, sithence he saw them the day before so boldly sally vpon his whole army, and knew that they were stronger of Souldiours armed within the towne, then he was without: and that before our returne could be from Cascais, they expected more supplies from all places, of Souldiours: for the Duke of Bragança, and Don Francisco de Toledo were looked for with great reliefe. Whereupon his conclusion was, that if the 3000 promised came not that night, to march wholly away the next morning. It may be here demanded, why a matter of so great moment should be so slenderly regarded, as that the Generall should march with such an army against such an enemy, before he knew either the fulnesse of his owne strength, or certaine meanes how he should abide the place when he should come to it. Wherein I pray you remember the Decrees made in the Councell at Peniche, and confirmed by publique protestation the first day of our march, that our nauy should meet vs in the riuer of Lisbon, in the which was the store of all our prouisions, and so the meane of our tariance in that place, which came not, though we continued till we had no munition left to entertaine a very small fight. We are also to consider, that the King of Portugall (whether carried away with imagination by the aduertisements he receiued from the Portugals, or willing by any promise to bring such an army into his Countrey, thereby to put his fortune once more in triall) assured the Generall, that vpon his first landing, there would be a reuolt of his subiects: whereof there was some hope giuen at our first entry to Peniche, by the maner of the yeelding of that towne and fort, which made the Generall thinke it most conuenient speedily to march to the principall place, thereby to giue courage to the rest of the Countrey. The Friers also and the poore people that came vnto him, promised, that within two dayes the gentlemen and others of the Countrey would come plentifully in: within which two dayes came many more Priests, and some very few gentlemen on horsebacke; but not til we came to Torres Vedras: where they that noted the course of things how they passed, might somewhat discouer the weaknesse of that people. There they tooke two dayes more: and at the end thereof referred him till our comming to Lisbon, with assurance, that so soone as our army should be seene there, all the inhabitants would be for the King and fall vpon the Spaniards. After two nights tariance at Lisbon, the King, as you haue heard, promised a supply of 3000 foot, and some horse: but all his appointments being expired, euen to the last of a night, all his horse could not make a cornet of 40, nor his foot furnish two ensignes fully, although they caried three, or foure colours: and these were altogether such as thought to inrich themselues by the ruine of their neighbours: for they committed more disorders in euery place where we came by spoile, then any of our owne. The Generall, as you see, hauing done more then before his comming out of England was required by the King, and giuen credit to his many promises, euen to the breach of the last, he desisted not to perswade him to stay yet nine dayes longer: in which time he might haue engaged himselfe further, then with any honour he could come out of againe, by attempting a towne fortified, wherein were more men armed against vs, then we had to oppugne them withall, our artillery and munition being fifteene miles from vs, and our men then declining; for there was the first shew of any great sickenesse amongst them. Whereby it seemeth, that either his prelacy did much abuse him in perswading him to hopes, whereof after two or three dayes he saw no semblance: or he like a silly louer, who promiseth himselfe fauor by importuning a coy mistresse, thought by our long being before his towne, that in the end taking pity on him, they would let him in. What end the Friers had by following him with such deuotion, I know not, but sure I am, the Laity did respite their homage till they might see which way the victory would sway; fearing to shew themselues apparently vnto him, least the Spaniard should after our departure (if we preuailed not) call them to account: yet sent they vnder hand messages to him of obedience, thereby to saue their owne, if he became King; but indeed very well contented to see the Spaniards and vs try by blowes, who should carry away the crowne. For they be of so base a mould, as they can very wel subiect themselues to any gouernment, where they may liue free from blowes, and haue liberty to become rich, being loth to endure hazzard either of life or goods. For durst they haue put on any minds thorowly to reuolt, they had three woonderfull good occasions offered them during our being there. Themselues did in generall confesse, that there were not aboue 5000 Spaniards in that part of the Countrey, of which number the halfe were out of the towne till the last day of our march: during which time, how easily they might haue preuailed against the rest, any man may conceiue. But vpon our approch they tooke them all in, and combined themselues in generall to the Cardinall. The next day after our comming thither, when the sally was made vpon vs by their most resolute Spaniards, how easily might they haue kept them out, or haue giuen vs the gate which was held for their retreat, if they had had any thought thereof? And two dayes after our comming to Cascais, when 6000 Spaniards and Portugals came against vs as farre as S. Iulians by land, as you shal presently heare (all which time I thinke there were not many Spaniards left in the towne) they had a more fit occasion to shew their deuotion to the King, then any could be offered by our tarying there. And they could not doubt, that if they had shut them out, but that we would haue fought with them vpon that aduantage, hauing sought them in Galitia vpon disaduantage to beat them: and hauing taken so much paines to seeke them at their owne houses, whereof we gaue sufficient testimony in the same accident. But I thinke the feare of the Spaniard had taken so deepe impression within them, as they durst not attempt any thing against them vpon any hazzard. For, what ciuill countrey hath euer suffered themselues to be conquered so few men as they were; to be depriued of their naturall King, and to be tyrannized ouer thus long, but they? And what countrey, liuing in slauery vnder a stranger whom they naturally hate, hauing an army in the field to fight for them and their liberty, would lie still with the yoke vpon their necks, attending if any strangers would vnburthen them, without so much as rousing themselues vnder it, but they? They will promise much in speeches, for they be great talkers, whom the Generall had no reason to distrust without triall, and therefore marched on into their countrey: but they performed little in action, whereof we could haue had no proofe without this thorow triall. Wherein he hath discouered their weaknesse, and honorably performed more then could be in reason expected of him: which had he not done, would not these maligners, who seeke occasions of slander, haue reported him to be suspicious of a people, of whose infidelity he had no testimony: and to be fearefull without cause, if he had refused to giue credit to their promises without any aduenture? Let no friuolous questionist therefore further enquire why he marched so many dayes to Lisbon, and taried there so small a while. The next morning, seeing no performance of promise kept, he gaue order for our marching away; himselfe, the Earle of Essex, and Sir Roger Williams remaining with the stand that was made in the high street, till the whole army was drawen into the field, and marched out of the towne, appointing Captaine Richard wingfield, and Captaine Anthony Wingfield in the arrereward of them with the shot; thinking that the enemy (as it was most likely) would haue issued out vpon our rising; but they were otherwise aduised. When we were come into the field, euery battalion fell into that order which by course appertained vnto them, and so marched that night vnto Cascais. Had we marched thorow this Countrey as enemies, our Souldiours had beene well supplied in all their wants: but had we made enemies of the Suburbs of Lisbon, we had beene the richest army that euer went out of England: for besides the particular wealth of euery house, there were many Warehouses by the water side full of all sorts of rich marchandizes. In our march that day the gallies which had somewhat, but not much, annoyed vs at Lisbon, (for that our way lay along the riuer) attended vs till we were past S. Iulians, bestowing many shot amongst vs, but did no harme at all, sauing that they strooke off a gentlemans legend, and killed the Sergeant majors moile vnder him. The horsemen also followed vs afarre off, and cut off as many sicke men as were not able to holde in marche, nor we had cariage for. After we had bene two dayes at Cascais, we had intelligence by a Frier, that the enemy was marching strongly towards vs, and then came as farre as S. Iulian: which newes was so welcome to the Earle of Essex and the Generals, as they offered euery one of them to giue the messenger an hundred crownes if they found them in the place; for the Generall desiring nothing more then to fight with them in field roome, dispatched that night a messenger with a trumpet, by whom he writ a cartell to the Generall of their army, wherein he gaue them the lie, in that it was by them reported that we dislodged from Lisbon in disorder and feare of them (which indeed was most false) for that it was fiue of the clocke in the morning before we fell into armes, and then went in such sort, as they had no courage to follow out vpon vs. Also he challenged him therein, to meet him the next morning with his whole army, if he durst attend his comming, and there to try out the iustnesse of their quarrel by battell: by whom also the Earle of Essex (who preferring the honor of the cause, which was his countreys, before his owne safety) sent a particular cartel, offering himselfe against any of theirs, if they had any of his quality; or if they would not admit of that; sixe, eight, or tenne, or as many as they would appoint, should meet so many of theirs in the head of our battell to trie their fortunes with them; and that they should haue assurance of their returne and honourable intreaty. The Generall accordingly made all his army ready by three of the clocke in the morning and marched euen to the place where they had encamped, but they were dislodged in the night in great disorder, being taken with a sudden feare that we had bene come vpon them, as the Generall was the next day certainely informed: so as the Trumpet followed them to Lisbon, but could not get other answere to either of his letters, but threatening to be hanged, for daring to bring such a message. Howbeit the Generall had caused to be written vpon the backside of their passport, that if they did offer any violence vnto the messengers, he would hang the best prisoners he had of theirs: which made them to aduise better of the matter, and to returne them home; but without answere. After our army came to Cascais, and the castle summoned, the Castellan thereof granted, that vpon fiue or sixe shot of the canon he would deliuer the same, but not without sight thereof. The Generall thinking that his distresse within had bene such for want of men or victuals as he could not holde it many dayes, because he saw it otherwise defensible enough, determined rather to make him yeeld to that necessity then to bring the cannon, and therefore onely set a gard vpon the same, lest any supply of those things which he wanted should be brought vnto them. But he still standing vpon those conditions, the Generall about two dayes before he determined to goe to Sea, brought three or foure pieces of battery against it: vpon the first fire whereof he surrendered, and compounded to go away with his baggage and armies; he had one canon, two culuerings, one basiliske, and three or foure other field pieces, threescore and fiue Souldiours, very good store of munition and victualles enough in the Castle: insomuch as he might haue held the same longer then the Generall had in purpose to tarry there. One company of footmen was put into the guard thereof, till the artillery was taken out, and our army embarked; which without hauing that fort, we could not without great peril haue done. When we were ready to set saile (one halfe of the fort being by order from the Generall blowen vp by mine) the company was drawne away. During the time we lay in the road, our fleet began the second of Iune, and so continued sixe dayes after to fetch in some hulks to the number of threescore, of Dansik, Stetin, Rostock, Lubeck and Hamburgh, laden with Spanish goods, and as it seemed for the kings prouision, and going for Lisbon: their principall lading was Corne, Masts, Cables, Copper, and waxe: amongst which were some of great burthen woonderful well builded for sailing, which had no great lading in them, and therefore it was thought that they were brought for the kings prouision, to reinforce his decayed nauy: whereof there was the greater likelyhood, in that the owner of the greatest of them which caried two misnes, was knowen to be very inward with the Cardinall, who rather then he would be taken with his ships, committed himself vnto his small boat, wherein he recouered S. Sebastians: into the which our men, that before were in flieboats, were shipped, and the flieboats sent home with an offer of corne, to the value of their hire. But the winde being good for them for Rochel, they chuse rather to lose their corne then the winde, and so departed. The Generall also sent his horses with them, and from thence shipped them into England. The third of Iune, Colonell Deuereux and Colonell Sidney, being both very sicke, departed for England, who in the whole iourney had shewed themselues very forward to all seruices, and in their departure very vnwilling to leave vs: that day we imbarked all our army, but lay in the road vntill the eight thereof. The sixt day the Earle of Essex, vpon receit of letters from her Maiesty, by them that brought in the victuals, presently departed towards England, with whom Sir Roger Williams was very desirous to go, but found the Generalls very vnwilling he should do so, in that he bare the next place vnto them, and if they should miscarry, was to command the army. And the same day there came vnto vs two small barks that brought tidings of some other shippes come out of England with victuals, which were passed vpwards to the Cape: for meeting with whom, the second day after we set saile for that place, in purpose after our meeting with them to go with the Iles of Açores, the second day, which was the ninth, we met with them comming backe againe towards vs, whose prouision little answered our expectation. Notwithstanding we resolued to continue our course for the Ilands. About this time was the Marchant Royall, with three or foure other ships, sent to Peniche, to fetch away the companies that were left there; but Captaine Barton hauing receiued letters from the Generals that were sent ouerland, was departed before not being able by reason of the enemies speedy marching thither either to bring away the artillery, or all his men, according to the direction those letters gaue him; for he was no sooner gone than the enemy possessed both town and castle, and shot at our ships as they came into the road. At this time also was the Ambassador from the Emperor of Marocco, called Reys Hamet Bencasamp, returned, and with him M. Ciprian, a gentleman of good place and desert, was sent from Don Antonio, and Captaine Ousley from the Generals to the Emperor. The next morning the nine gallies which were sent not fiue dayes before out of Andaluzia for the strengthening of the riuer of Lisbon (which being ioyned with the other twelue that were there before, though we lay hard by them at S. Iulians, durst neuer make any attempt against vs) vpon our departure from thence returning home, and in the morning being a very dead calme, in the dawning thereof, fell in the winde of our fleet, in the vttermost part whereof they assailed one stragling barke of Plimmouth, of the which Captaine Cauerly being Captaine of the land company, with his Lieutenant, the Master and some of the Mariners abandoned the ship, and betooke them to ship-boats, whereof one, in which the Master and Captaine were, was ouerrunne with the gallies, and they drowned. There were also two hulks stragled farre from the strength of the other ships, which were so calmed, as neither they could get to vs, or we to them, though all the great shippes towed with their boats to haue releiued them, but could not be recouered; in one of which was Captaine Minshaw with his company, who fought with them to the last, yea after his ship was on fire, which whether it was fired by himselfe or by them we could not well discerne, but might easily iudge by his long and good fight, that the enemy could not but sustaine much loose: who setting also vpon one other hulke wherein was but a Lieutenant, were by the valour of the Lieutenant put off although they had first beaten her with their artillery, and attempted to boord her. And seeing also another hulke a league off, a sterne off vs, they made towards her; but finding that she made ready to fight with them, they durst not further attempt her: whereby it seemed, their losse being great in other fights, they were loth to proceed any further. From that day till the 19 of Iune, our direction from the Generall was, that if the wind were Northerly, we should plie for the Açores; but if Southerly, for the Iles of Bayon. We lay with contrary windes, about that place and the Rocke, till the Southerly winde preuailing carried vs to Bayon: part of our ships to the number of 25, in a great winde which was two dayes before, hauing lost the Admirals and the fleet, according to their direction, fell in the morning of that day with Bayon, among whom was Sir Henry Norris in the Ayde; who had in purpose (if the Admirals had not come in) with some 500 men out of them all to haue landed, and attempted the taking of Vigo. The rest of the fleet held with Generall Drake, who though he were two dayes before put vpon those Ilands, cast off againe to sea for the Açores: but remembering how vnprouided he was for iourney and seeing that he had lost company of his great ships, returned for Bayon, and came in there that night in the euening where he passed vp the riuer more than a mile aboue Vigo. [Sidenote: Vigo taken.] The next morning we landed as many as were able to fight, which were not in the whole aboue 2000 men (for in the 17 dayes we continued on boord we had cast many of our men ouerboord) with which number the Colonell generall marched to the towne of Vigo, neere the which when he approched, he sent Captaine Anthony Wingfield with a troupe of shot to enter one side of the same, who found vpon euery streets end a strong barricade, but altogether abandoned; for hauing entered the towne, he found but one man therein, but might see them making way before him to Bayon. On the other side of the towne entred Generall Drake with Captaine Richard Wingfield, whose approch on that side (I thinke) made them leaue the places they had so artificially made for defence: there were also certaine shippes sent with the Vice-admirall to lie close before the towne to beat vpon the same with their artillery. In the afternoone were sent 300 vnder the conduct of Captaine Petuin and Captaine Henry Poure, to burne another village betwixt that and Bayon, called Borsis, and as much of the country as the day would giue them leaue to do; which was a very pleasant rich valley: but they burnt it all, houses and corne, as did others on the other side of the towne, both that and the next day, so as the countrey was spoiled seuen or eight miles in length. There was found great store of wine in the towne, but not any thing els: for the other dayes warning of the shippes that came first in, gaue them a respit to cary all away. [Sidenote: Vigo burned.] The next morning by breake of the day the Colonell generall (who in the absence of the Generalls that were on boord their ships, commanded that night on shore) caused all our companies to be drawen out of the towne, and sent in two troups to put fire in euery house of the same: which done, we imbarked againe. This day there were certaine Mariners which (without any direction) put themselues on shore, on the contrary side of the riuer from vs for pillage; who were beaten by the enemy from their boats, and punished by the Generals for their offer, in going without allowance. The reasons why we attempted nothing against Bayon were before shewed to be want of artillery, and may now be alledged to be the small number of our men: who should haue gone against so strong a plade, manned with very good souldiers, as was shewed by Iuan de Vera taken at the Groine, who confessed that there were sixe hundred olde Souldiers in garrison there of Flanders, and the Tercios of Naples, lately also returned out of the iourney of England, Vnder the leading of Capitan Puebla, Christofero Vasques de Viralta a souldier of Flanders. Don Pedro Camascho, del tercio de Napoles. Don Francisco de Cespedes. Cap. Iuan de Solo, del tercio de Naples. Don Diego de Cassaua. Cap. Sauban. Also he sayth there be 18 pieces of brasse, and foure of yron, lately layed vpon the walles of the towne, besides them that were there before. The same day the Generals seeing what weake estate our army was drawn into by sicknesse, determined to man and victuall twenty of the best ships for the Ilands of Açores with Generall Drake, to see if he could meet with the Indian fleet, and Generall Norris to returne home with the rest: And for the shifting of men and victualles accordingly, purposed the next morning to fall downe to the Ilands of Bayon againe, and to remaine there that day. But Generall Drake, according to their apointment, being vnder saile neuer strooke at the Ilands, but put straight to sea; whom all the fleet followed sauing three and thirty, which being in the riuer further then he, and at the entrance out of the same, finding the winde and tide too hard against them, were inforced to cast ancre there for that night; amongst whom, by good fortune, was the Foresight, and in her Sir Edward Norris. And the night folowing, Generall Norris being driuen from the rest of the Fleet by a great storme, (for all that day was the greatest storme we had all the time we were out) came againe into the Ilands, but not without great perill, he being forced to trust to a Spanish Fisherman (who was taken two dayes before at sea) to bring him in. The next morning he called a council of as many as he found there, holding the purpose he had concluded with sir Francis Drake the day before, and directed all their courses for England, tarrying there all that day to water and helpe such with victuall, as were left in wonderfull distresse by hauing the victuals that came last, caried away the day before to sea. [Sidenote: Their returne to Plimmouth.] The next day he set saile, and the l0 day after, which was the 2 of Iuly came into Plimmouth, where he found sir Francis Drake and all the Queens ships, with many of the others but not all; for the Fleet was dispersed into other harbors, some led by a desire of returning from whence they came, and some being possessed of the hulks sought other Ports from their Generals eie, where they might make their priuate commoditie of them, as they haue done to their great aduantage. Presently vpon their arriual there, the Generals dissolued all the armie sauing 8 companies which are yet held together, giuing euery souldier fiue shillings in money, and the armies hee bare to make money of, which was more then could by any means be due vnto them: for they were not in seruice three moneths, in which time they had their victuals, which no man would value at lesse then halfe their pay, for such is the allowance in her maiesties ships to her mariners, so as there remained but 10 shillings a moneth more to be paid, for which there was not any priuate man but had apparel and furniture to his owne vse, so as euery common souldier discharged, receiued more in money, victuals, apparel and furniture, then his pay did amount vnto. Notwithstanding, there be euen in the same place where those things haue passed, that either do not or will not conceiue the souldiers estate, by comparing their pouertie and the shortness of the time together, but lay some iniuries vpon the Generals and the action. Where, and by the way, but especially here in London, I find there haue bene some false prophets gone before vs, telling strange tales. For as our countrey doeth bring foorth many gallant men, who desirous of honour doe put themselues into the actions thereof, so doeth it many more dull spirited, who though their thoughts reach not so high as others, yet doe they listen how other mens acts doe passe, and either beleeuing what any man will report vnto them, are willingly caried away into errors, or tied to some greater mans faith, become secretaries against a noted trueth. The one sort of these doe take their opinions from the high way side, or at the furthest go no further then Pauls to enquire what hath bene done in this voiage; where if they meet with any, whose capacitie before their going out could not make them liue, nor their valour maintaine their reputation, and who went onely for spoile, complaining on the hardnesse and misery thereof, they thinke they are bound to giue credite to these honest men who were parties therein, and in very charitie become of their opinions. The others to make good the faction they had entred into, if they see any of those malecontents (as euery iourney yeeldeth some) doe runne vnto them like tempting spirits to confirme them in their humour, with assurance that they foresaw before our going out what would become thereof. Be ye not therefore too credulous in beleeuing euery report: for you see there haue bene many more beholders of these things that haue passed, then actors in the same; who by their experience, not hauing the knowledge of the ordinary wants of the warre, haue thought, that to lie hard, not to haue their meat well dressed, to drinke sometimes water, to watch much, or to see men die and be slaine, was a miserable thing; and not hauing so giuen their mindes to the seruice, as they are any thing instructed thereby, doe for want of better matter discourse ordinarily of these things: whereas the iourney (if they had with that iudgement seene into it, which their places required) hath giuen them far more honorable purpose and argument of discourse. [Sidenote: A worthy question dilated.] These mens discontentments and mislikings before our comming home haue made mee labour thus much to instruct you in the certaintie of euery thing, because I would not willingly haue you miscaried in the indgements of them, wherein you shall giue me leaue somewhat to dilate vpon a question, which I onely touched in the beginning of my letter, namely, whether it bee more expedient for our estate to maintain an offensiue war against the king of Spaine in the Low countries, or as in this iourney, to offend him in his neerer territories, seeing the grounds of arguing thereof are taken from the experience which the actions of this iourney haue giuen vs. There is no good subiect that will make question, whether it be behoofeful for vs to hold friendship with these neighbours of ours or no, as well in respect of the infinite proportion of their shipping, which must stand either with vs or against vs; as of the commoditie of their harbors, especially that of Vlishing, by the fauour whereof our Nauie may continually keepe the Narrow seas, and which would harbour a greater Fleete agaynst vs, then the Spaniard shall need to annoy vs withall, who being now distressed by our common enemie, I thinke it most expedient for our safetie to defend them, and if it may be, to giue them a reentrie into that they haue of late yeeres lost vnto him. The one without doubt her maiestie may do without difficultie, and in so honorable sort as he shal neuer be able to dispossesse her or them of any the townes they now hold. But if any man thinke that the Spaniard may be expelled from thence more speedily or conueniently by keeping an armie there, then by sending one against him into his owne countrey: let him foresee of how many men and continuall supplies that armie must consist, and what intollerable expenses it requireth. And let him thinke by the example of the duke of Alua, when the prince of Orenge had his great armie agaynst him; and of Don Iuan, when the States had their mightie assembly against him; how this wise enemie, with whom we are to deale, may but by prolonging to fight with vs, leaue vs occasions enough for our armie within few moneths to mutine and breake; or by keeping him in his townes leaue vs a spoyled field: where though our prouision may bee such of our owne as we starue ['staure' in source text--KTH] not, yet is our weaknesse in any strange country such, as with sicknes and miserie we shal be dissolued. And let him not forget what a continual burthen we hereby lay vpon vs, in that to repossesse those countreys which have been lately lost, wil be a warre of longer continuance then we shall be able to endure. In the very action whereof, what should hinder the king of Spaine to bring his forces home vnto vs? For it is certaine he hath long since set downe in councell, that there is no way for him wholy to recouer those Low countries, but by bringing the warre vpon England it selfe, which hath alwayes assisted them against him: and that being determined, and whereunto he hath bene vehemently urged by the last yeeres losse he sustained vpon our coasts, and the great dishonor this iourney hath laid vpon him; no doubt if we shall giue him respite to doe it, but he will mightily advance his purpose, for he is richly able thereunto, and wonderfull desirous of reuenge. To encounter wherewith, I wish euen in true and honest zeale to my Countrey, that we were all perswaded that there is no such assured meanes for the safetie of our estate, as to busy him with a well furnished armie in Spaine, which hath so many goodly Bayes open, as we may land without impeachment as many men as shall be needfull for such an inuasion. And hauing an armie of 20000 roially furnished there, we shall not need to take much care for their payment: for shal not Lisbon be thought able to make so few men rich, when the Suburbs thereof were found so abounding in riches, as had we made enemie of them, they had largely enriched vs all? Which with what small losse it may be won, is not here to shew; but why it was not won by vs, I haue herein shewed you. Or is not the spoyle of Siuil sufficient to pay more then shall bee needful to bee sent against it, whose defence (as that of Lisbone) is onely force of men, of whom how many may for the present be raised, is not to be esteemed, because wee haue discouered what kind of men they be, euen such as will neuer abide ours in field, nor dare withstand any resolute attempt of ours agaynst them: for during the time we were in many places of their countrey, they cannot say that euer they made 20 of our men turne their faces from them. And be there not many other places of lesse difficultie to spoyle, able to satisfie our forces? But admit, that if vpon this alarme that we haue giuen him, he tendering his naturall and neerest soile before his further remooued off gouernments, do draw his forces of old souldiers out of the Low countreys for his owne defence, is not the victory then won by drawing and holding them from thence, for the which we should haue kept an armie there at a charge by many partes greater then this, and not stirred them? Admit further our armie be impeached from landing there, yet by keeping the Sea and possessing his principall roades, are we not in possibilitie to meet with his Indian merchants, and very like to preuent him of his prouisions comming out of the East countreys; without the which, neither the subiect of Lisbon is long able to liue, nor the king able to maintaine his Nauie? For though the countrey of Portugall doe some yeeres find themselues corne, yet are they neuer able to victuall the least part of that Citie. And albeit the king of Spaine be the richest prince in Christendome, yet can he neither draw cables, hewe masts, nor make pouder out of his mettals, but is to be supplied of them all from thence. Of whom (some will hold opinion) it is no reason to make prize, because they bee not our enemies: and that our disagreeance with them will impeach the trade of our marchants, and so impouerish our countrey, of whose mind I can hardly be drawen to be: For if my enemie fighting with me doe breake his sword, so as I thereby haue the aduantage against him; what shall I thinke of him that putteth a new sword into his hand to kill me withall? And may it not bee thought more fitting for vs in these times to loose our trades of Cloth, then by suffering these mischiefes, to put in hazard whether we shall haue a countrey left to make cloth in or no? And yet though neither Hamburgh, Embden, nor Stode doe receiue our cloth, the necessary vse thereof in all places is such, as they will find means to take it from vs with our sufficient commoditie. And admit (which were impossible) that we damnifie him neither at sea nor land (for vnlesse it be with a much more mightie armie then ours, he shall neuer be able to withstand vs) yet shall we by holding him at his home, free our selues from the warre at our owne wals; the benefit whereof let them consider that best can iudge, and haue obserued the difference of inuading, and being inuaded; the one giuing courage to the souldier, in that it doeth set before him commoditie and reputation; the other a fearefull terror to the countrey-man, who if by chance he play the man yet is he neuer the richer: and who knowing many holes to hide himselfe in, will trie them all before he put his life in perill by fighting: whereas the Inuader casteth vp his account before hee goeth out, and being abroad must fight to make himselfe way, as not knowing what place or strength to trust vnto. I will not say what I obserued in our countrey-men when the enemy offred to assaile vs here: but I wish that all England knew what terror we gaue to the same people that frighted vs, by visiting them at their owne houses. Were not Alexanders fortunes great against the mightie Darius, onely in that his Macedonians thirsted after the wealth of Persia, and were bound to fight it out to the last man, because the last man knew no safer way to saue himselfe then by fighting? Whereas the Persians either trusting to continue stil masters of their wealth by yeelding to the Inuader, began to practise against their owne king: or hauing more inward hopes, did hide themselues euen to the last, to see what course the Conquerour would take in his Conquest. And did not the aduise of Scipio, though mightily impugned at the first, prooue very sound and honourable to his countrey? Who seeing the Romans wonderfully amazed at the neerenesse of their enemies Forces, and the losses they daily sustained by them, gaue counsell rather by way of diuersion to cary an army into Afrike, and there to assaile, then by a defensiue warre at home to remaine subiect to the common spoiles of an assailing enemie. Which being put in execution drew the enemie from the gates of Rome, and Scipio returned home with triumph: albeit his beginnings at the first were not so fortunate against them, as ours haue bene in this smal time against the Spaniard. The good successe whereof may encourage vs to take armes resolutely against him. And I beseech God it may stirre vp all men that are particularly interested therein, to bethinke themselues how small a matter will assure them of their safetie, by holding the Spaniard at a Baie, so farre off: whereas, if we giue him leaue quietly to hatch and bring foorth his preparations, it will be with danger to vs all. He taketh not armes against vs by any pretense of title to the crowne of this realme, nor led altogether with an ambicious desire to command our countrey, but with hatred towrrds our whole Nation and religion. Her maiesties Scepter is already giuen by Bull to another, the honours of our Nobilitie are bestowed for rewards vpon his attendants, our Clergie, our Gentlemen, our Lawyers, yea all the men of what conditon soeuer are offered for spoyle vnto the common souldier. Let euery man therefore, in defence of the liberty and plentie he hath of long enjoyed, offer a voluntarie contribution of the smallest part of their store for the assurance of the rest. It were not much for euery Iustice of peace, who by his blew coat proteceth the properest and most seuiceable men at euery muster from the warres, to contribute the charge that one of these idle men doe put him to for one yeere: nor for the Lawyer, who riseth by the dissensions of his neighbours, to take but one yeeres gifts (which they call fees) out of his coffers. What would it hinder euery officer of the Exchequer, and other of her Maiesties courts, who without checks doe suddenly grow to great wealth, honestly to bring foorth the mysticall commoditie of one yeeres profits? Or the Clergie, who looke precisely for the Tenths of euery mans increase, simply to bring forth the Tenth of one yeeres gathering, and in thankfulnesse to her Maiestie (who hath continued for all our safeties a most chargeable warre both at land & sea) bestow the same for her honor & their own assurance, vpon an army which may make this bloody enemy so to know himselfe and her Maiesties power, as he shall bethinke him what it is to mooue a stirring people? Who, though they haue receiued some small checke by the sicknesse of this last iourney, yet doubt I not, but if it were knowen, that the like voyage were to bee supported by a generalitie, (that might and would beare the charge of a more ample prouision) but there would of all sortes most willingly put themselues into the same: some caried with an honourable desire to be in action, and some in loue of such would affectionately folow their fortunes; some in thirsting to reuenge the death and hurts of their brethren, kinred, and friends: and some in hope of the plentifull spoyles to be found in those countreys, hauing bene there already and returned poore, would desire to goe againe, with an expectation to make amends for the last: and all, in hatred of that cowardly proud Nation, and in contemplation of the true honour of our owne, would with courage take armes to hazard their liues agaynst them, whom euery good Englishman is in nature bound to hate as an implacable enemie to England, thirsting after our blood, and labouring to ruine our land, with hope to bring vs vnder the yoke of perpetuall slauerie. Against them is true honour to be gotten, for that we shall no sooner set foot in their land, but that euery step we tread will yeeld vs new occasion of action, which I wish the gallantrie of our Countrey rather to regard then to folow those soft vnprofitable pleasures wherein they now consume their time and patrimonie. And in two or three townes of Spaine is the wealth of all Europe gathered together, which are the Magasins of the fruits and profits of the East and West Indies, whereunto I wish our yong able men, who (against the libertie they are borne vnto) terme themselues seruing men, rather to bend their desires and affections, then to attend their double liuerie and 40 shillings by the yeere wages, and the reuersion of the old Copy-hold, for carying a dish to their masters table. But let me here reprehend my selfe and craue pardon for entring into a matter of such state and consequence, the care whereof is already laid vpon a most graue and honorable counsell, who will in their wisdoms foresee the dangers that may be threatned agaynst vs. And why do I labour to disquiet the securitie of these happy gentlemen, and the trade of those honest seruing men, by perswading them to the warres when I see the profession thereof so slenderly esteemed? For though all our hope of peace be frustrate, and our quarels determinable by the sword: though our enemie hath by his owne forces, and his pensionaries industry, confined the united Prouinces into a narow roume, and almost disunited the same: if he be now in a good way to harbor himselfe, in the principall hauens of France, from whence he may front vs at pleasure: yea though we are to hope for nothing but a bloodie warre, nor can trust to any helpe but Armes; yet how far the common sort are from reuerencing or regarding any persons of condition, was too apparant in the returne of this our iourney, wherein the base and common souldier hath bene tollerated to speake against the Captaine, and the souldier and Captaine against the Generals, and wherein mechanicall and men of base condicion doe dare to censure the doings of them, of whose acts they are not woorthy to talke. The ancient graue degree of the Prelacie is vpheld, though Martin raile neuer so much, and the Lawyer is after the old maner worshipped, whosoeuer inueigh against him. But the ancient English honour is taken from our men of war, and their profession in disgrace, though neuer so necessary. Either we commit idolatry to Neptune, and will put him alone stil to fight for vs as he did the last yeere, or we be inchanted with some diuelish opinions, that trauell nothing more then to diminish the reputation of them, vpon whose shoulders the burden of our defence against the enemie must lie when occasion shall be offred. For whensoeuer he shall set foote vpon our land, it is neither the preaching of the Clergie that can turne him out againe, nor the pleading of any Lawyers that can remoue him out of possession: no, then they will honour them whom now they thinke not on, and then must those men stand betweene them and their perils, who are now thought vnwoorthy of any estimation. May the burning of one towne (which cost the king then being six times as much as this hath done her maiestie, wherein were lost seuen times as many men as in any one seruice of this iourney, and taried not the tenth part of our time in the enemies Countrey) be by our elders so highly reputed and sounded out by the historie of the Realme: and can our voyage be so meanly esteemed, wherein we burned both townes and Countreys without the losse of fortie men in any such attempt? Did our kings in former times reward some with the greatest titles of honour for ouerthrowing a number of poore Scots, who, after one battell lost, were neuer able to reenforce themselues against him; and shall they in this time who have ouerthrowen our mightie enemie in battell, and taken his roiall Standerd in the field, besieged the marquesse of Saralba 15 dayes together, that should haue bene the Generall of the Armie against vs, brought away so much of his artillerie (as I haue before declared) be vnwoorthily esteemed of? It is possible that some in some times should receiue their reward for looking vpon an enemie, and ours in this time not receiue so much as thanks for hauing beaten an enemie at handie strokes? But is it true that no man shall bee a prophet in his Countrey: and for my owne part I will lay aside my Armes till that profession shal haue more reputation, and liue with my friends in the countrey, attending either some more fortunate time to vse them, or some other good occasion to make me forget them. But what? shall the blind opinion of this monster, a beast of many heads, (for so hath the generaltie of old bene termed) cause me to neglect the profession from whence I chalenge some reputation, or diminish my loue to my countrey, which hitherto hath nourished me? No, it was for her sake I first tooke armes, and for her sake I will handle them so long as I shall be able to vse them: not regarding how some men in private conuenticles do measure mens estimations by their owne humors; nor how euery popular person doeth giue sentence on euery mans actions by the worst accidents. But attending the gracious aspect of our dread Soueraigne, who neuer yet left vertue vnrewarded: and depending vpon the iustice of her most rare and graue aduisors, who by their heedie looking into euery mans worth, do giue encouragement to the vertuous to exceed others in vertue: and assuring you that there shall neuer any thing happen more pleasing vnto me, then that I may once againe bee a partie in some honorable journey against the Spaniard in his owne countrey, I will cease my complaint: and with them that deserue beyond me, patiently endure the vnaduised censure of our malicious reproouers. If I haue seemed in the beginning hereof troublesome vnto you, in the discouering of those impediments, and answering the slanders which by the vulgar malicious and mutinous sort are laid as blemishes vpon the iourney, and reprochse vpon the Generals (hauing indeed proceeded from other heads:) let the necessitie of conseruing the reputation of the action in generall, and the honors of our Generals in particular, bee my sufficient excuse: the one hauing by the vertue of the other made our countrey more dreaded and renowmed, then any act that euer England vndertooke before. Or if you haue thought my perswasible discourse long in the latter end; let the affectionate desire of my countreys good be therein answerable for me. And such as it is I pray you accept it, as only recommended to your selfe, and not to be deliuered to the publique view of the world, lest any man take offence thereat: which some particular men may seeme iustly to do, in that hauing deserued very well, I should not herein giue them their due considerations: whereas my purpose in this priuate discourse hath bene onely to gratifie you with a touch of those principall matters that haue passed, wherein I haue onely taken notes of those men who either commaunded euery seruice, or were of chiefest marke: if therefore you shall impart the same to one, and he to another, and so it passe through my hands, I know not what constructions would be made thereof to my preiudice; for that the Hares eares may happily be taken for hornes. Howbeit I hold it very necessary (I must confesse) that there should be some true manifestation made of these things: but be it far from me to be the author thereof, as very vnfit to deliuer my censure of any matter in publique, and most vnwilling to haue my weaknesse discouered in priuate. And so I doe leaue you to the happy successe of your accustomed good exercises, earnestly wishing that there may be some better acceptance made of the fruits of your studies, then there hath bene of our hazards in the wars. From London the 30 of August 1589. * * * * * The escape of the Primrose a tall ship of London, from before the towne of Bilbao in Biscay: which ship the Corrigidor of the same Prouince, accompanied with 97 Spaniards, offered violently to arrest, and was defeated of his purpose, and brought prisoner into England. Whereunto is added the Kings Commission for a generall imbargment or arrest of all English, Netherlandish, and Easterlings ships, written in Barcelona the 19 of May 1585. It is not vnknowen vnto the world what danger our English shippes haue lately escaped, how sharpely they haue beene intreated, and howe hardly they haue beene assaulted: so that the valiancie of those that mannaged them is worthy remembrance. And therefore in respect of the couragious attempt and valiant enterprise of the ship called the Primrose of London, which hath obteined renowne, I haue taken in hande to publish the trueth thereof, to the intent that it may be generally knowen to the rest of the English ships, that by the good example of this the rest may in time of extremitie aduenture to doe the like: to the honor of the Realme, and the perpetuall remembrance of themselues: The maner whereof was at followeth. Vppon Wednesday being the sixe and twentieth day of May 1585, the shippe called the Primrose being of one hundred and fiftie tunnes, lying without the bay of Bilbao, hauing beene there two dayes, there came a Spanish pinnesse to them, wherein was the Corrigidor and sixe others with him: these came aboord the Primrose, seeming to be Marchantes of Biscay, or such like, bringing Cherries with them, and spake very friendly to the Maister of the ship, whose name was Foster, and he in courteous wise, bad them welcome, making them the best cheere that he could with beere, beefe, and bisket, wherewith that ship was well furnished: and while they were thus in banquetting with the Maister, foure of the seuen departed in the sayd Pinnesse, and went backe againe to Bilbao: the other three stayed, and were very pleasant for the time. But Master Foster misdoubting some danger secretly gaue speech that he was doubtfull of these men what their intent was; neuerthelesse he sayd nothing, nor seemed in any outward wise to mistrust them at all. Foorthwith there came a ship-boate wherein were seuentie persons being Marchants and such like of Biscay: and besides this boate, there came also the Pinnesse which before had brought the other three, in which Pinnesse there came foure and twentie, as the Spaniards themselues since confessed. These made towards the Primrose, and being come thither, there came aboord the Corrigidor with three or foure of his men: but Master Foster seeing this great multitude desired that there might no more come aboord, but that the rest should stay in their boates, which was granted: neuerthelesse they tooke small heede of these wordes; for on a suddaine they came foorth of the boate, entring the shippe, euery Spaniarde taking him to his Rapier which they brought in the boate, with other weapons, and a drumme wherewith to triumph ouer them. Thus did the Spaniards enter the shippe, plunging in fiercely vpon them, some planting themselues vnder the decke, some entring the Cabbens, and the multitude attending their pray. Then the Corrigidor hauing an officer with him which bore a white wand in his hand, sayd to the master of the ship: Yeeld your selfe, for you are the kings prisoner: whereat the Maister sayd to his men, We are betrayed. Then some of them set daggers to his breast, and seemed in furious manner as though they would haue slaine him, meaning nothing lesse then to doe any such act, for all that they sought was to bring him and his men safe aliue to shore. Whereat the Maister was amazed, and his men greatly discomfited to see themselues readie to be conueyed euen to the slaughter: notwithstanding some of them respecting the daunger of the Maister, and seeing how with themselues there was no way but present death if they were once landed among the Spaniards, they resolued themselues eyther to defend the Maister, and generally to shunne that daunger, or else to die and be buried in the middest of the sea, rather then to suffer themselues to come into the tormentors hands: and therefore in very bold and manly sort some tooke them to their iauelings, lances, bore-speares, and shot, which they had set in readinesse before, and hauing fiue Calieuers readie charged, which was all the small shot they had, those that were vnder the hatches or the grate did shoote vp at the Spaniards that were ouer their heads, which shot so amazed the Spaniards on the suddaine, as they could hardly tell which way to escape the daunger, fearing this their small shot to be of greater number then it was: others in very manlike sort dealt about among them, shewing themselues of that courage with bore-speares and lances, that they dismayed at euery stroke two or three Spaniards. Then some of them desired the Maister to commaund his men to cease and holde their handes, but hee answered that such was the courage of the English Nation in defence of their owne liues, that they would slay them and him also: and therefore it lay not in him to doe it. Now did their blood runne about the ship in great quantitie, some of them being shot in betweene the legges, the bullets issuing foorth at their breasts, some cut in the head, some thrust into the bodie, and many of them very sore wounded, so that they came not so fast in on the one side, but now they tumbled as fast ouer boord on both sides with their weapons in their handes, some falling into the sea, and some getting into their boates, making haste towardes the Citie. And this is to be noted, that although they came very thicke thither, there returned but a small companie of them, neither is it knowen as yet how many of them were slaine or drowned, onely one English man was then slaine, whose name was Iohn Tristram, and sixe other hurt. It was great pitie to behold how the Spaniards lay swimming in the sea, and were not able to saue their liues. Foure of them taking hold of the shippe were for pities sake taken vp againe by Maister Foster and his men, not knowing what they were: all the Spaniards bosomes were stuft with paper, to defend them from the shot, and these foure hauing some wounds were dressed by the surgion of the shippe. One of them was the Corrigidor himselfe, who is gouernour of a hundred Townes and Cities in Spaine, his liuing by his office being better then sixe hundred pound yerely. This skirmish happened in the euening about sixe of the clocke, after they had laden twenty Tunne of goods and better out of the sayd ship: which goods were deliuered by two of the same ship, whose names were Iohn Burrell and Iohn Brodbanke, who being on shore were apprehended and stayed. [Sidenote: The Corrigidor of Bilbao taken and brought to London.] After this valiant enterprise of eight and twentie English men against 97 Spaniards, they saw it was in vaine for them to stay, and therefore set vp sayles, and by Gods prouidence auoyded all daunger, brought home the rest of their goods, and came thence with all expedition: and (God be thanked) arriued safely in England neere London on Wednesday being the 8 day of Iune 1585. In which their returne to England the Spaniards that they brought with them offered fiue hundred crownes to be set on shore in any place: which, seeing the Maister would not doe, they were content to be ruled by him and his companie, and craued mercie at their hands. And after Master Foster demaunded why they came in such sort to betray and destroy them, the Corrigidor answered, that it was not done onely of themselues, but by the commandement of the king himselfe; and calling for his hose which were wet, did plucke foorth the kings Commission, by which he was authorized to doe all that he did: the Copie whereof followeth, being translated out of Spanish. The Spanish kings commision for the generall imbargment or arrest of the English, &c. Licentiat de Escober, my Corigidor of my Signorie of Biskay, I haue caused a great fleete to be put in readinesse in the hauen of Lisbone, and the riuer of Siuill. There is required for the Souldiers, armour, victuals, and munition, that are to be imployed in the same great store of shipping of all series against the time of seruice, and to the end there may be choise made of the best, vpon knowledge of their burden and goodnesse; I doe therefore require of you, that presently vpon the arriuall of this carrier, and with as much dissimulation as may be (that the matter may not be knowen vntill it be put into execution) you take order for the staying and arresting (with great foresight) of all the shipping that may be found vpon the coast, and in the portes of the sayd Signorie, excepting none of Holand, Zeland, Easterland, Germanie, England, and other Prouinces that are in rebellion against mee, sauing those of France which being litle, and of small burden and weake, are thought vnfit to serue the turne. And the stay being thus made, you shall haue a speciall care that such marchandize as the sayd shippes or hulkes haue brought, whether they be all or part vnladen, may bee taken out, and that the armour, munition, tackels, sayles, and victuals may be safely bestowed, as also that it may be well foreseene, that none of the shippes or men escape away. Which things being thus executed, you shall aduertise me by an expresse messenger, of your proceeding therein: And send me a plaine and distinct declaration of the number of shippes that you shall haue so stayed in that coast and partes, whence euery one of them is, which belong to my Rebels, what burden and goods there are, and what number of men is in euery of them, and what quantitie they haue of armour, ordinance, munition, victuals, tacklings and other necessaries, to the end that vpon sight hereof, hauing made choise of such as shall be fit for the seruice, we may further direct you what ye shall do. In the meane time you shall presently see this my commandment put in execution, and if there come thither any more ships, you shall also cause them to be stayed and arrested after the same order, vsing therein such care and diligence, as may answere the trust that I repose in you, wherein you shall doe me great seruice. Dated at Barcelona the 29 of May, 1585. And thus haue you heard the trueth and manner thereof, wherein is to be noted the great courage of the maister, and the louing hearts of the seruants to saue their master from the daunger of death: yea, and the care which the master had to saue so much of the owners goods as hee might, although by the same the greatest is his owne losse in that he may neuer trauell to those parts any more without the losse of his owne life, nor yet any of his seruantes: for if hereafter they should, being knowen they are like to taste of the sharpe torments which are there accustomed in their Holy-house. And as for their terming English shippes to be in rebellion against them, it is sufficiently knowen by themselues, and their owne consciences can not denie it, but that with loue, vnitie, and concord, our shippes haue euer beene fauoruable vnto them, and as willing to pleasure their King, as his subiectes any way willing to pleasure English passengers. * * * * * The voiage of the right honorable George Erle of Cumberland to the Azores, &c. Written by the excellent Mathematician and Enginier master Edward Wright. The right honorable the Erle of Cumberland hauing at his owne charges prepared his small Fleet of foure Sailes onely, viz. The Victorie one of the Queenes ships royall; the Meg and Margaret small ships, (one of which also he was forced soone after to send home againe, finding her not able to endure the Sea) and a small Carauell, and hauing assembled together about 400 men (or fewer) of gentlemen, souldiers, and saylers, embarked himself and them, and set saile from the Sound of Plimmouth in Deuonshire, the 18 day of Iune 1589, being accompanied with these captaines and gentlemen which hereafter folow. Captaine Christopher Lister a man of great resolution, captaine Edward Carelesse, _aliàs_ Wright, who in sir Francis Drakes West Indian voyage to S. Domingo and Carthagena, was captaine of the Hope. Captaine Boswell, M. Meruin, M. Henry Long, M. Partridge, M. Norton, M. William Mounson captaine of the Meg, and his viceadmirall, now sir William Mounson, M. Pigeon captaine of the Carauell. About 3 dayes after our departure from Plimmouth we met with 3 French ships, whereof one was of Newhauen, another of S. Malos, and so finding them to be Leaguers and lawful Prises, we tooke them and sent two of them for England with all their loding, which was fish for the most part from New-found-land, sauing that there was part thereof distributed amongst our small Fleet, as we could find Stowage for the same: and in the third, all their men were sent home into France. The same day and the day folowing we met with some other ships, whom (when after some conference had with them, we perceiued plainly to bee of Roterodam and Emden, bound for Rochell) we dismissed. The 28 and 29 dayes we met diuers of our English ships, returning from the Portugall voiage which my lord relieued with victuals. The 13 day of Iuly being Sonday in the morning, we espied 11 ships without sight of the coast of Spaine, in the height of 39 degrees, whom wee presently prepared for, and prouided to meet them, hauing first set forth Captaine Mounson in the Meg, before vs, to descry whence they were. The Meg approching neere, there passed some shot betwixt them, whereby, as also by their Admiral and Vice-admirall putting foorth their flags, we perceiued that some fight was likely to follow. Having therefore fitted our selues for them, we made what hast we could towards them with regard alwayes to get the wind of them, and about 10 or 11 of the clocke, we came vp to them with the Victory. But after some few shot and some litle fight passed betwixt vs, they yeelded themselues, and the masters of them all came aboord vs, shewing their seueral Pasports from the cities of Hamburg and Lubeck, from Breme, Pomerania and Calice. They had in them certaine bags of Pepper and Synamon, which they confessed to be the goods of the Iew in Lisbon, which should haue bene carried by them into their countrey to his Factor there, and so finding it by their owne confession to be lawful Prise, the same was soone after taken and diuided amongst our whole company, the value wherof was esteemed to be about 4500 pounds, at two shillings the pound. The 17 day the foresaid ships were dismissed, but 7 of their men that were willing to go along with vs for sailers, we tooke to help vs, and so held on our course for the Azores. The 1 of August being Friday in the morning, we had sight of the Iland of S. Michael, being one of the Eastermost of the Azores toward which we sailed all that day, and at night hauing put foorth a Spanish flag in our main-top, that so they might the lesse suspect vs, we approched neere to the chiefe towne and road of that Iland, where we espied 3 ships riding at anker and some other vessels: all which we determined to take in the darke of the night, and accordingly attempted about 10 or 11 of the clocke, sending our boats well manned to cut their cables and hausers, and let them driue into the sea. Our men comming to them, found the one of those greatest ships was the Falcon of London being there vnder a Scottish Pilot who bare the name of her as his own. [Sidenote: 3 ships forcibly towed our of harbour.] But 3 other smal ships that lay neere vnder the castle there, our men let loose and towed them away vnto vs, most of the Spaniards that were in them leaping ouer-boord and swimming to shore with lowd and lamentable outcries, which they of the towne hearing were in an vprore, and answered with the like crying. The castle discharged some great shot at our boats, but shooting without marke by reason of the darknesse they did vs no hurt. The Scots likewise discharged 3 great pieces into the aire to make the Spaniards thinke they were their friends and our enemies, and shortly after the Scottish master, and some other with him, came aboord to my lord doing their dutie, and offering their seruice, &c. These 3 ships were fraught with wine and Sallet-oile from Siuil. The same day our Carauel chased a Spanish Carauel to shore at S. Michael, which caried letters thither, by which we learned that the Caraks were departed from Tercera 8 dayes before. The 7 of August we had sight of a litle ship which wee chased towards Tercera with our pinasse (the weather being calme) and towards euening we ouertooke her, there were in her 30 tunnes of good Madera wine, certaine woollen cloth, silke, taffata, &c. The 14 of August we came to the Iland of Flores, where we determined to take in some fresh water and fresh victuals, such as the Iland did affoord. So we manned our boats with some 120 men and rowed towards the shore; whereto when we approched the inhabitants that were assembled at the landing place, put foorth a flag of truce, whereupon we also did the like. When we came to them, my Lord gaue them to vnderstand by his Portugall interpreter, that he was a friend to their king Don Antonio, and came not any way to iniury them, but that he meant onely to haue some fresh water and fresh victuals of them, by way of exchange for some prouision that he had, as oile, wine, or pepper, to which they presently agreed willingly, and sent some of their company for beeues and sheepe, and we in the meane season marched Southward about a mile to Villa de Santa Cruz, from whence all the inhabitants yong and old were departed, and not any thing of value left. We demanding of them what was the cause hereof, they answered, Feare; as their vsuall maner was when any ships came neere their coast. We found that part of the Iland to be full of great rockie barren hils and mountains, litle inhabited by reason that it is molested with ships of war which might partly appeare by this towne of Santa Cruz (being one of their chiefe townes) which was all ruinous, and (as it were) but the reliques of the ancient towne which had bene burnt about two yeeres before by certaine English ships of war, as the inhabitants there reported. At euening as we were in rowing towards the Victory, an huge fish pursued vs for the space of well nigh of two miles together, distant for the most part from the boats sterne not a speares length, and sometimes so neere that the boat stroke vpon him, the tips of whose finnes about the ghils (appearing oft times aboue the water) were by estimation 4 or 5 yards asunder, and his iawes gaping a yard and a halfe wide, which put vs in feare of ouerturning the pinnasse, but God be thanked (rowing as hard as we could) we escaped. When we were about Flores a litle ship called the Drake, brought vs word that the Caraks were at Tercera, of which newes we were very glad, and sped vs thitherward with all the speed we could: and by the way we came to Fayal road the seuen and twentieth day of August after sunne set, where we espied certaine shippes ryding at anker, to whom we sent in our Skiffe with Captaine Lister and Captaine Monson in her to discouer the roaders: and least any daunger should happen to our boate, we sent in likewise the Sawsie Iack and the small Carauell; but the wind being off the shoare, the shippes were not able to fet it so nigh as the Spaniards ride, which neuerthelesse the boate did, and clapped a shippe aboord of two hundred and fiftie tunnes, which caried in her fourteene cast peeces, and continued fight alone with her for the space of one houre vntill the comming vp of other boates to the reskue of her, which were sent from the shippes, and then a fresh boording her againe one boate in the quarter, another in the hause, we entred her on the one side, and all the Spaniards lept ouerboord on the other, saue Iuan de Palma the Captaine of her and two or three more, and thus we became possessors of her. This shippe was mored to the Castle which shot at vs all this while: the onely hurt which we receiued of all this shot was this, that the master of our Carauell had the calfe of his legge shot away. This shippe was laden with Sugar, Ginger, and hides lately come from S. Iuan de Puerto Rico; after we had towed her cleare off the castle, we rowed in againe with our boats, and fetched out fiue small ships more, one laden with hides, another with Elephants teeth, graines, coco-nuts, and goates skins come from Guinie, another with woad, and two with dogge-fish, which two last we let driue into the sea making none account of them. The other foure we sent for England the 30 of August. At the taking of these Prizes were consorted with vs some other small men of warre, as Maister Iohn Dauis with his shippe, Pinnesse, and Boate, Captaine Markesburie with his ship, whose owner was Sir Walter Ralegh, the Barke of Lime, which was also consorted with vs before. [Sidenote: An eescape of 8 Englishmen from Tercera.] The last of August in the morning we came in sight of Tercera, being about some nine or ten leagues from shoare, where we espied comming toward vs, a small boat vnder saile, which seemed somewhat strange vnto vs, being so farre from lande, and no shippe in sight, to which they might belong; but comming neere, they put vs out of doubt, shewing they were English men (eight in number) that had lately bene prisoners in Tercera, and finding opportunitie to escape at that time, with that small boat committed themselues to the sea, vnder Gods prouidence, hauing no other yard for their maine saile, but two pipe staues tyed together by the endes, and no more prouision of victuals, then they could bring in their pockets and bosomes. Hauing taken them all into the Victorie, they gaue vs certaine intelligence, that the Carackes were departed from thence about a weeke before. Thus beeing without any further hope of those Caraks, we resolued to returne for Fayall, with intent to surprize the towne, but vntill the ninth of September, we had either the winde so contrary, or the weather so calme, that in all that time, we made scarce nine or ten leagues way, lingring vp and downe not farre from Pico. The tenth of September being Wednesday in the afternoone, wee came again to Fayal roade. Whereupon immediatly my Lord sent Captaine Lister, with one of Graciosa (whom Capatine Munson had before taken) and some others, towards Fayal, whom certaine of the Inhabitants met in a boat, and came with Captaine Lister to my Lord, to whom hee gaue this choice: either to suffer him quietly to enter into the platforme there without resistance, where he and his companie would remaine a space without offering any iniurie to them, that they (the Inhabitants) might come vnto him and compound for the ransome of the Towne; or else to stand to the hazard of the warre. With these words they returned to the towne: but the keepers of the platforme answered, that it was against their oath and allegeance to king Philip to giue ouer without fight. Whereupon my Lord commanded the boates of euery ship, to be presently manned, and soone after landed his men on the sandie shoare, vnder the side of an hill, about halfe a league to the Northwards from the platforme: vpon the toppe of which hill certaine horsemen and footmen shewed themselues, and other two companies also appeared, with ensignes displayed, the one before the towne vpon the shore by the sea side, which marched towards our landing place, as though they would encounter vs; the other in a valley to the Southwards of the platforme, as if they would haue come to helpe the Townesmen: during which time they in the platforme also played vpon vs with great Ordinance. [Sidenote: The taking of the towne and platforme of Fayal.] Notwithstanding my L. (hauing set his men in order) marched along the sea shore, vpon the sands, betwixt the sea and the towne towards the platforme for the space of a mile or more, and then the shore growing rockie, and permitting no further progresse without much difficultie, he entred into the towne and passed through the street without resistance, vnto the platforme; for those companies before mentioned at my Lo. approching, were soone dispersed, and suddenly vanished. Likewise they of the platforme, being all fled at my Lordes comming thither, left him and his company to scale the walles, to enter and take possession without resistance. In the meane time our shippes ceased not to batter the foresaid Towne and Platforme with great shotte, till such time as we saw the Red-Crosse of England flourishing vpon the Forefront thereof. [Sidenote: A description of the towne of Faial.] This Fayal is the principal towne in all that is land, and is situate directly ouer against the high and mighty mountaine Pico, lying towards the West Northwest from that mountaine, being deuided therefrom by a narrow Sea, which at that place is by estimation about some two or three leagues in bredth betweene the Isles of Fayal and Pico. The towne conteyned some three hundred housholds, their houses were faire and strongly builded of lime and stone, and double couered with hollow tyles much like our roofe tyles, but that they are lesse at the one end then at the other. Euery house almost had a cisteme or well in a garden on the backe side: in which gardens grew vines (with ripe clusters of grapes) making pleasant shadowes, and Tabacco nowe commonly knowen and vsed in England, wherewith their women there dye their faces reddish, to make them seeme fresh and young: Pepper Indian and common; figge-trees bearing both white and red figges: Peach trees not growing very tall: Orenges, Limons, Quinces, Potato-roots, &c. Sweete wood (Cedar I thinke) is there very common, euen for building and firing. My Lord hauing possessed himselfe of the towne and platforme, and being carefull of the preseruation of the towne, gaue commandement, that no mariner or souldier should enter into any house, to make any spoyle thereof. But especially he was carefull that the Churches and houses of religion there should be kept inuiolate, which was accordingly performed, through his appointment of guarders and keepers for those places: but the rest of the towne eyther for want of the former inhibition, or for desire of spoyle and prey, was rifled, and ransacked by the souldiers and mariners, who scarcely left any house vnsearched, out of which they tooke such things as liked them, as chestes of sweete wood, chaires, cloth, couerlets, hangings, bedding, apparell: and further ranged into the countrey, where some of them also were hurt by the inhabitants. The Friery there conteyning and maintayning thirty Franciscan Friars (among whom we could not finde any one able to speake true Latine) was builded by a Fryer of Angra in Tercera of the same order, about the yeare of our Lord one thousand fiue hundred and sixe. The tables in the hall had seates for the one side onely, and were alwayes couered, as readie at all times for dinner or supper. From Wednesday in the afternoone, at which time we entred the towne, til Saturday night, we continued there, vntill the Inhabitants had agreed and payed for the ransome of the towne, two thousand duckats, most part whereof was Church-plate. We found in the platfonne eight and fiftie yron peeces of Ordinance, whereof three and twentie (as I remember) or more were readie mounted vpon their carriages, betweene Barricadoes, vpon a platforme towardes the sea-side, all which Ordinance we tooke, and set the platforme on fire, and so departed: My Lord hauing inuited to dinner in the Victorie, on the Sunday following, so many of the Inhabitants as would willingly come (saue onely Diego Gomes the Gouernour, who came but once onely to parle about the ransome) onely foure came and were well entertained, and solemnely dismissed with sound of drumme and trumpets, and a peale of Ordinance: to whom my Lord deliuered his letter subscribed with his owne hand, importing a request ['repuest' in source text--KTH] to all other Englishmen to abstaine from any further molesting them, saue onely for fresh water, and victuals necessary for their intended voyage. During our abode here (viz. the 11 of September) two men came out of Pico which had beene prisoners there: Also at Fayal we set at libertie a prisoner translated from S. Iago who was cousin to a seruant of Don Anthonio king of Portugall in England: These prisoners we deteyned with vs. On Munday we sent our boates ashore for fresh water, which (by reason of the raine that fell the former night) came plentifully running downe the hilles, and would otherwise haue beene hard to be gotten there. On Tuesday likewise hauing not yet suffiently serued our turnes, we sent againe for fresh water, which was then not so easie to be gotten as the day before, by reason of a great winde: which in the afternoone increased also in such sort, that we thought it not safe to ride so neere the land; whereupon we weyed anker and so departed Northwest and by west, alongst the coast of Fayal Island. Some of the Inhabitants comming aboord to vs this day, tolde vs that always about that time of the yeere such windes West Southwest blew on that coast. This day, as we sayled neere Saint Georges Island, a huge fish lying still a litle vnder water, or rather euen therewith, appeared hard by a head of vs, the sea breaking vpon his backe, which was blacke coloured, in such sort as deeming at the first it had beene a rocke, and the ship stemming directly with him, we were put in a sudden feare for the time: till soone after we saw him moue out of the way. The 16 of September in the nigh it lightened much, whereupon there followed great winds and raine which continued the 17 18 19-20 and 21 of the same. The 23 of September we came againe into Faial road to weigh an anker which (for haste and feare of foule weather) wee had left there before, where we went on shore to see the towne, the people (as we thought) hauing now setled themselues there againe, but notwithstanding many of them through too much distrustfulnesse, departed and prepared to depart with their packets at the first sight of vs: vntill such time as they were assured by my Lord, that our comming was not any way to iniury them, but especially to haue fresh water, and some other things needeful for vs, contenting them for the same. So then we viewed the Towne quietly, and bought such things as we desired for our money as if we had bene in England. And they helped to fill vs in fresh water, receiuing for their paines such satisfaction as contented them. The 25 day we were forced againe to depart from thence, before we had sufficiently watered, by reason of a great tempest that suddenly arose in the night, in so much, that my Lord himselfe soone after midnight raysed our men out of itheir Cabines to wey anker, himselfe also together with them haling at the Capsten, and after chearing them vp with wine. The next day we sent our Carauel and the Sawsie-Iack to the road of Saint Michael, to see what they could espie: we following after them vpon the 27 day, plying to and fro, came within sight of S. Michael, but by contrary windes the 28 29 and 30 dayes wee were driuen to leewarde, and could not get neere the Island. The first of October wee sayled alongst Tercera, and euen against Brasill (a promontorie neere to Angra the strongest Towne in that Island) wee espied some boates comming to the Towne, and made out towardes them: but being neere to the lande they ranne to shoare and escaped vs. In the afternoone we came neere to Graciosa, whereupon my Lord foorthwith sent Captain Lister to the Ilanders, to let them vnderstand that his desire was onely to haue water and wine of them, and some fresh victuals, and not any further to trouble them. They answered they could giue no resolute answere to this demande, vntill the Gouernors of the Iland had consulted therevpon, and therefore desired him to send againe to them the next day. Vpon the second day of October eariy in the morning, we sent forth our long boat and Pinnesse, with emptie Caske, and about some fiftie or sixty men together with the Margaret, and Captaine Dauis his shippe: for we now wanted all the rest of our consortes. But when our men would haue landed, the Ilanders shot at them, and would not suffer them. And troupes of men appeared vpon land, with ensignes displayed to resist vs: So our boates rowed alongst the shoare, to finde some place where they might land, not with too much disaduantage: our shippes and they still shooting at the Ilanders: but no place could be founde where they might land without great perill of loosing many of their liues, and so were constrayned to retire without receiuing any answere, as was promised the day before. We had three men hurt in this conflict, whilest our boates were together in consulting what was best to be done: two of them were stroken with a great shot (which the Ilanders drew from place to place with Oxen) wherewith the one lost his hand, and the other his life within two or three dayes after: the third was shot into his necke with a small shot, without any great hurt. With these newes our company returned backe againe at night, whereupon preparation was made to goe to them againe the next day: but the daye was farre spent before we could come neere them with our ship: neither could we finde any good ground to anker in, where we might lye to batter the Towne, and further we could finde no landing place, without great danger to loose many men: which might turne not only to the ouerthrow of our voiage, but also put the Queenes ship in great perill for want of men to bring her home. Therefore my Lord thought it best to write to them to this efiect: That he could not a litle maruell at their inhumanitie and crueltie which they had shewed towards his men, seeing they were sent by him vnto them in peaceable manner to receiue their answere which they had promised to giue the day before: and that were it not for Don Antonio their lawful king his sake, he could not put vp so great iniury at their hands, without iust reuengement vpon them: notwithstanding for Don Antonio his sake, whose friend he was, he was yet content to send to them once againe for their answere: At night Captaine Lister returned with this answere from them. That their Gunner shot off one of their pieces, which was charged with pouder onely, and was stopped; which our men thinking it had bin shot at them, shot againe, and so beganne the fight: and that the next morning they would send my Lord a resolute answere to his demaunde, for as yet they could not knowe their Gouernours minde herein. The next morning there came vnto vs a boate from the shoare with a flagge of truce, wherein were three of the chiefe men of the Island, who agreed with my Lorde that hee should haue of them sixtie buttes of wine, and fresh victuals to refresh himselfe and his companie withall: but as for fresh water, they could not satisfie our neede therein, hauing themselues little or none, sauing such as they saued in vessels or cistrnes when it rayned, and that they had rather giue vs two tunnes of wine then one of water: but they requested that our souldiers might not come on shoare, for they themselues would bring all they had promised to the water-side, which request was graunted, we keeping one of them aboord with vs, untill their promise was performed, and the other we sent to shoare with our emptie Caske, and some of our men to helpe to fill, and bring them away with such other prouision as was promised: so the Margaret, Captaine Dauis his shippe, and another of Weymouth stayed ryding at anker before the Towne, to take in our prouision. This shippe of Weymouth came to vs the day before, and had taken a rich Prize (as it was reported) worth sixteene thousand pound, which brought vs newes that the West-Indian Fleete was not yet come, but would come very shortly. But we with the Victorie put off to sea, and vpon Saturday the fourth of October, we tooke a French shippe of Saint Malo (a citie of the vnholy league) loden with fish from Newfoundland: which had beene in so great a tempest, that she was constrayned to cut her mayne mast ouerboord for her safetie, and was now comming to Graciosa, to repaire her selfe. But so hardly it befell her, that she did not onely not repaire her former losses, but lost all that remayned vnto vs. The chiefe of our men we tooke into our ship, and sent some of our men, mariners, and souldiers into her to bring her into England. Vpon the Sunday following at night, all our promised prouision was brought vnto vs from Gratiosa: and we friendly dismissed the Ilanders with a peale of Ordinance. Vpon Munday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we plyed to and fro about those Islandes, being very rough weather. And vpon Thursday at night, being driuen some three or foure leagues from Tercera, we saw fifteene saile of the West-Indian Fleete comming into the Hauen at Angra in Tercera. But the winde was such, that for the space of foure dayes after, though wee lay as close by the winde as was possible, yet we could not come neere them. In this time we lost our late French Prize, not being able to lie so neere the winde as we, and heard no more of her till we came to England where shee safely arrriued. Vpon Munday we came very neere the Hauens month, being minded to haue runne in amongst them, and to haue fetched out some of them if it had beene possible: But in the end this enterprise was deemed too daungerous, considering the strength of the place where they rode, being haled and towed in neerer the towne, at the first sight of our approching, and lying vnder the protection of the Castle of Brasil, on the one side (hauing in it fiue and twentie peeces of Ordinance) and a fort on the other side wherein were 13 or 14 great brasse pieces. Besides, when we came neere land the winde prooued too scant for vs to attempt any such enterprise. Vpon Tuesday the fourteenth of October we sent our boate to the roade to sound the depth, to see if there were any ankoring place for vs, where we might lie without shot of the Castle and Fort, and within shot of some of those shippes, that we might either make them come out to vs, or sinke them where they lay. Our boate returned hauing found out such a place as we desired, but the winde would not suffer vs to come neere it, and againe if we could haue ankered there, it was thought likely that they would rather runne themselues a ground to saue their liues and liberties, and some of their goods, then come foorth to loose their liberties and goods to vs their enemies. So we shot at them to see if we could reach them, but it fell farre short. And thus we departed, thinking it not probable that they would come foorth so long as we watched for them before the hauens mouth, or within sight of them. For the space of fiue dayes after we put off to sea, and lay without sight of them, and sent a pinnesse to lie out of sight close by the shore, to bring vs word if they should come foorth. After a while the Pinnesse returned and told vs that those shippes in the Hauen had taken downe their sayles, and let downe their toppe mastes: so that wee supposed they would neuer come foorth, till they perceiued vs to bee quite gone. Wherefore vpon the 20 of October, hearing that there were certaine Scottish ships at Saint Michael, we sayled thither, and found there one Scottish roader, and two or three more at Villa Franca, the next road a league or two from the towne of S. Michael, to the Eastwards: of whom we had for our reliefe some small quantitie of wine (viz. some fiue or sixe buttes of them all) and some fresh water, but nothing sufficient to serue our turne. Vpon Tuesday the one and twentieth of October, we sent our long boate to shore for fresh water at a brooke a little to the Westwards from Villa Franca. But the Inhabitants espying vs came downe with two Ensignes displayed, and about some hundred and fiftie men armed, to withstand our landing. So our men hailing spent all their pouder vpon them in attempting to land, and not being able to preuaile at so great oddes, returned frustrate. From thence we departed towards Saint Maries Iland, minding to water there, and then to goe for the coast of Spaine. For we had intelligence that it was a place of no great force, and that we might water there very well: therefore vpon Friday following, my Lord sent Captaine Lister, and Captaine Amias Preston now Sir Amias Preston (who not long before came to vs out of his owne shippe, and she loosing vs in the night, hee was forced to tarry still with vs) with our long boate and Pinnesse, and some sixtie or seuentie shotte in them, with a friendly letter to the Ilanders, that they would grant vs leaue to water, and we would no further trouble them. So we departed from the Victorie for the Iland, about nine of the clocke in the afternoone, and rowed freshly vntill about 3 a clocke afternoone. At which time our men being something weary with rowing, and being within a league or two of the shore, and 4 or 5 leagues from the Victorie, they espied (to their refreshing), two shippes ryding at anker hard vnder the the towns, whereupon hauing shifted some 6 or 7 of our men into Captaine Dauis his boate, being too much pestered in our owne, and retayning with vs some 20 shot in the pinnesse, we made way towardes them with all the speede we could. By the way as we rowed we saw boates passing betwixt the roaders and the shore, and men in their shirtes swimming and wading to shoare, who as we perceiued afterwardes, were labouring to set those shippes fast on ground, and the Inhabitants as busily preparing themselues for the defence of those roaders, their Iland, and themselues. When we came neere them, Captaine Lister commaunded the Trumpets to be sounded, but prohibited any shot to be discharged at them, vntill they had direction from him: But some of the companie, either not well perceiuing or regarding what he sayd, immediately vpon the sound of the Trumpets discharged their pieces at the Islanders; which for the most part lay in trenches and fortefied places vnseene, to their owne best aduantage: who immediatly shot likewise at vs, both with small and great shot, without danger to themselues: Notwithstanding Captaine Lister earnestly hastened forward the Saylers that rowed, who beganne to shrinke at that shot, flying so fast about their eares, and himselfe first entring one of the shippes that lay a litle further from shoare then the other, we spedily followed after him into her, still plying them with our shot And hauing cut in sunder her Cables and Hausers, towed her away with our Pinnesse. In the meane time Captaine Dauis his boate ouertooke vs and entred into the other shippe, which also (as the former) was forsaken by all her men: but they were constrayned to leaue her and to come againe into their boate (whilest shot and stones from shoare flew fast amongst them) finding her to sticke so fast a grounde, that they could not stire her: which the Townesmen also perceiuing, and seeing that they were fewe in number, and vs (busied about the other ship) not comming to ayde them, were preparing to haue come and taken them. But they returned vnto vs, and so together we came away towards the Victory, towing after vs the Prize that we had now taken, which was lately come from Brasil, loden with Sugar. In this fight we had two men slaine and 16 wounded: and as for them, it is like they had little hurt, lying for the most part behind stone walles, which were builded one aboue another hard by the sea side, vpon the end of the hill whereupon the Towne stoode betwixt two vallies. Vpon the toppe of the hill lay their great Ordinance (such as they had) wherewith they shot leaden bullets, whereof one pierced through our Prizes side, and lay still in the shippe without doing any more harme. The next day we went againe for water to the same Iland, but not knowing before the inconuenience and disuaduantage of the place where we attempted to land, we returned frustrate. The same night the 25 of October we departed for S. Georges Iland for fresh water, whither we came on Munday following October 27, and hauing espied where a spout of water came running downe: the pinnesse and long boate were presently manned and sent vnder the conduct of Captaine Preston, and Captaine Munson, by whom my Lord sent a letter to the Ilanders as before, to grant vs leaue to water onely, and we would no further trouble them: notwithstanding our men comming on shoare found some of the poore Ilanders, which for feare of vs hid themselues amongst the rockes. And on Wednesday following our boats returned with fresh water, whereof they brought only sixe tunnes for the Victorie, alleaging they could get no more, thinking (as it was supposed) that my Lord hauing no more prouision of water and wine, but onely 12 tunnes, would not goe for the coast of Spaine, but straight for the coast of England, as many of our men greatly desired: notwithstanding my Lord was vnwilling so to doe, and was minded the next day to haue taken in more water: but through roughnesse of the seas and winde, and vnwillingnesse of his men it was not done. Yet his Hon. purposed not to returne with so much prouision vnspent, and his voyage (as he thought) not yet performed in such sort as mought giue some reasonable contentment or satisfaction to himselfe and others. Therefore because no more water could now conueniently be gotten, and being vncertaine when it could be gotten, and the time of our staying aboord also vncertaine, the matter being referred to the choyse of the whole companie, whither they would tarrie longer, till wee might be more sufficiently prouided of fresh water, or goe by the coast of Spaine for England, with halfe so much allowance of drinke as before, they willingly agreed that euery mease should bee allowed at one meale but halfe so much drinke as they were accustomed (except them that were sicke or wounded) and so to goe for England, taking the coast of Spaine in our way, to see if we could that way make vp our voyage. Vpon Saturday Octob. 31 we sent the Margaret (because she leaked much) directly for England, together with the Prize of Brasile which we tooke at S. Marie, and in them some of our hurt and wounded men or otherwise sicke were sent home as they desired for England: but Captaine Monson was taken out of the Megge into the Victorie. So we held on our course for the coast of Spaine with a faire winde and a large which before we seldome had. And vpon Twesday following being the 4 of Nouemb. we espied a saile right before vs, which we chased till about three a clocke in the afternoone, at which time we ouertaking her, she stroke sayle, and being demaunded who was her owner and from whence she was, they answered, a Portugall, and from Pernanbucke in Brasile. She was a ship of some 110 tuns burden, fraighted with 410 chestes of Sugar, and 50 Kintals, of Brasill-wood, euery Kintall contayning one hundred pound weight: we tooke her in latitude nine and twentie degrees, about two hundred leagues from Lisbone westwards: Captaine Preston was presently sent vnto her, who brought the principall of her men aboord the Victorie, and certaine of our men, mariners and souldiers were sent aboord her. The Portugals of this Prize told vs that they saw another ship before them that day about noone. Hauing therefore dispatched all things about the Prize aforesaid and left our long boat with Captaine Dauis, taking his lesser boat with vs, we made way after this other ship with all the sayles we could beare, holding on our course due East, and giuing order to Captaine Dauis his ship and the Prize that they should follow vs due East, and that if they had sight of vs the morning following they should follow vs still: if not they should goe for England. The next morning we espied not the sayle which we chased, and Captaine Dauis his ship and the Prize were behinde vs out of sight: but the next Thursday the sixt of Nouember (being in latitude 38 degrees 30 minutes, and about sixtie leagues from Lisbone westwards) early in the morning Captaine Preston descried a sayle some two or three leagues a head of vs, after which we presently hastened our chase, and ouertooke her about eight or nine of the clocke before noone. She came lately from Saint Michaels roade, hauing beene before at Brasill loden with Sugar and Brasile. Hauing sent our boat to them to bring some of the chiefe of their men aboord the Victorie, in the meane time whilest they were in comming to vs one out of the maine toppe espied another saile a head some three or foure leagues from vs. So immediately vpon the returne of our boate, hauing sent her backe againe with some of our men aboord the prize, we pursued speedily this new chase, with all the sayles we could packe on, and about two a clocke in the afternoone ouertooke her: she had made prouision to fight with vs, hauing hanged the sides of the shippe so thicke with hides (wherewith especially she was loden) that musket shot could not haue pearced them: but yer we had discharged two great peeces of our Ordinance at her, she stroke sayle, and approching neerer, we asking of whence they were, they answered from the West-Indies, from Mexico, and Saint Iohn de Lowe (truely called Vlhua.) This ship was of some three or foure hundred tunnes, and had in her seuen hundred hides worth tenne shillings a peece: sixe chests of Cochinell, euery chest houlding one hundred pound weight, and euery pound worth sixe and twenty shillings and eight pence, and certaine chests of Sugar and China dishes, with some plate and siluer. The Captaine of her was an Italian, and by his behauiour seemed to be a graue, wise, and ciuill man: he had put an aduenture in this shippe fiue and twentie thousand Duckats, Wee tooke him with certaine other of her chiefest men (which were Spaniards) into the Victorie: and Captaine Lister with so manie other of the chiefest of our Mariners, souldiers, and saylers as were thought sufficient, to the number of 20. or thereabouts, were sent into her. In the meane time (we staying) our other prizes which followed after, came vp to vs. And nowe wee had our hands full and with ioy shaped our course for England, for so it was thought meetest, hauing now so many Portugals, Spaniards and Frenchmen amongst vs, that if we should haue taken any more prizes afterwards, wee had not bene well able to haue manned them without endangering our selues. So about six of the clocke in the afternoone (when our other prize had ouertaken vs) wee set saile for England. But our prizes not being able to beare vs company without sparing them many of our sailes, which caused our ship to route and wallow, in such sort that it was not onely very troublesome to vs, but, as it was thought, would also haue put the maine Maste in danger of falling ouerboord: hauing acquainted them with these inconueniences, we gaue them direction to keepe their courses together, folowing vs, and so to come to Portsmouth. We tooke this last prize in the latitude of 39. degrees, and about 46. leagues to the Westwards from the Rocke. She was one of those 16. ships which we saw going into the hauen at Angra in Tercera, October 8. Some of the men that we tooke out of her tolde vs, that whilest wee were plying vp and downe before that hauen, as before was shewed, expecting the comming foorth of those shippes, three of the greatest and best of them, at the appointment of the Gouernour of Tercera were vnloden of their treasure and marchandize. And in euery of them were put three hundred Souldiers, which were appointed to haue come to lay the Victory aboord in the night, and take her: but when this should haue bene done the Victory was gone out of their sight. Now we went meerily before the winde with all the sailes we could beare, insomuch that in the space of 24. houres, we sailed neere 47. leagues, that is seuenscore English miles, betwixt Friday at noone and Saturday at noone (notwithstanding the shippe was very foule, and much growne with long being at Sea) which caused some of our company to make accompt they would see what running at Tilt there should bee at Whitehall vpon the Queenes day. Others were imagining what a Christmas they would keepe in England with their shares of the prizes we had taken. But so it befell, that we kept a colde Christmas with the Bishop and his clearks (rockes that lye to the Westwards from Sylly, and the Westerne parts of England:) For soone after the wind scanting came about to the Eastwards (the worst part of the heauens for vs, from which the winde could blow) in such sort, that we could not fetch any part of England. And hereupon also our allowance of drinke, which was scant ynough before, was yet more scanted, because of the scarcitie thereof in the shippe. So that now a man was allowed but halfe a pinte at a meale, and that many times colde water, and scarce sweete. Notwithstanding this was an happie estate in comparison of that which followed: For from halfe a pinte we came to a quarter, and that lasted not long either, so that by reason of this great scarsitie of drinke, and contrarietie of winde, we thought to put into Ireland, there to relieue our wants. But when wee came neere thither, lying at hull all night (tarrying for the daylight of the next morning, whereby we might the safelyer bring our ship into some conuenient harbour there) we were driuen so farre to lee-ward, that we could fetch no part of Ireland, so as with heauie hearts and sad cheare, wee were constreined to returne backe againe, and expect till it should please God to send vs a faire winde either for England or Ireland. In the meane time we were allowed euery man three or foure spoones full of vineger to drinke at a meale: for other drinke we had none, sauing onely at two or three meales, when we had in stead hereof as much wine, which was wringed out of Winelees that remained. With this hard fare (for by reason of our great want of drinke, wee durst eate but very litle) wee continued for the space of a fortnight or thereabouts: Sauing that now and then wee feasted for it in the meane time: And that was when there fell any haile or raine: the haile-stones wee gathered vp and did eate them more pleasantly then if they had bene the sweetest Comfits in the world; The raine drops were so carefully saued, that so neere as wee coulde, not one was lost in all our shippe. Some hanged vp sheetes tied with cordes by the foure corners, and a weight in the midst that the water might runne downe thither, and so be receiued into some vessel set or hanged vnderneth: Some that wanted sheetes, hanged vp napkins, and cloutes, and watched them till they were thorow wet, then wringing and sucking out the water. And that water which fell downe and washed away the filth and soiling of the shippe, trod vnder foote, as bad as running downe the kennell many times when it raineth, was not lost. I warrant you, but watched and attended carefully (yea sometimes with strife and contention) at euery scupper hole, and other place where it ranne downe, with dishes, pots, cannes, and Iarres, whereof some dranke hearty draughts, euen as it was, mud and all, without tarrying to clense or settle it: Others. cleansed it first but not often, for it was so thicke and went so slowly thorow, that they might ill endure to tary so long, and were loth to loose too much of such precious stuffe: some licked with their tongues (like dogges) the boards vnder feete, the sides, railes, and Masts of the shippe: others that were more ingenious, fastened girdles or ropes about the Mastes, dawbing tallow betwixt them and the Maste (that the raine might not runne downe betweene) in such sort, that those ropes or girdles hanging lower on the one side then of the other, a spout of leather was fastened to the lowest part of them, that all the raine drops that came running downe the Maste, might meete together at that place, and there be receiued. Hee that got a canne of water by these meanes was spoken of, sued to, and enuied as a rich man. Quàm pulchrum digito monstrari et dicier hic est? Some of the poore Spaniards that we had taken (who notwithstanding had the same allowance that our owne men had) would come and craue of vs, for the loue of God, but so much water as they could holde in the hollow of their hand: and they had it, notwithstanding our great extremitie, to teach them some humanitie instead of their accustomed barbaritie, both to vs and other nations heretofore. They put also bullets of lead into their mouthes to slake their thirst. Now in euery corner of the shippe were heard the lamentable cries of sicke and wounded men sounding wofully in our eares crying out and pitifully complaining for want of drinke, being ready to die, yea many dying for lacke thereof, so as by reason of this great extremite we lost many more men, then wee had done all the voyage before: hauing before this time bene so well and sufficiently prouided for, that we liued in maner as well and healthfully, and died as few as if we had bene in England, whereas now lightly euery day some were cast ouerboord. But the second day of December 1589. was a festiuall day with vs, for then it rained a good pace, and wee saued some pretie store of raine water (though we were well wet for it, and that at midnight) and filled our skins full besides: notwithstanding it were muddie and bitter with washing the shippe, but (with some sugar which we had to sweeten it withall) it went merrily downe, yet remembred we and wished for with all our hearts, many a Conduit, pumpe, spring, and streame of cleare sweete running water in England: And how miserable wee had accompted some poore soules whom we had seene driuen for thirst to drinke thereof, and how happy we would now haue thought our selues if we might haue had our fills of the same: yet should we haue fared the better with this our poore feasting, if we might haue had our meat and drinke (such and so much as it was) stand quietly before vs: but beside all the former extremities, wee were so tossed and turmoiled with such horrible stormie and tempestuous weather, that euery man had best holde fast his Canne, cup, and dish in his hands, yea and himselfe too, many times, by the ropes, railes, or sides of the ship or else he should soone finde all vnder feet. Herewith our maine saile was torne from the yarde and blowne ouerboord quite away into the sea without recouery, and our other sailes so rent and torne (from side to side some of them) that hardly any of them escaped hole. The raging waues and foming surges of the sea came rowling like mountaines one after another, and ouerraked the waste of the shippe like a mightie riuer running ouer it, whereas in faire weather it was neere 20. foote aboue the water, that nowe wee might cry out with the princely Prophet Psalme 107. vers. 26. They mount vp to heauen, and descend to the deepe, so that their soule melteth away for trouble: they reele too and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their cunning is gone. With this extremitie of foule weather the ship was so tossed and shaken, that by the craking noise it made, and by the leaking which was now much more than ordinary, wee were in great feare it would haue shaken in sunder, so that now also we had iust cause to pray a litle otherwise than the Poet, though marring the verse, yet mending the meaning. Deus maris et Coeli, quid enim nisi vota supersunt, Soluere quassatae parcito membra ratis. Notwithstanding it pleased God of his great goodnesse to deliuer vs out of this great danger. Then forthwith a new maine saile was made and fastened to the yard, and the rest repaired as time and place would suffer: which we had no sooner done, but yet againe wee were troubled with as great an extremitie as before so that againe we were like to haue lost our new maine saile, had not Master William Antony the Master of the ship himselfe (when none else would or durst) ventured with danger of drowning by creeping along vpon the maine yarde (which was let downe close to the railes) to gather it up out of the sea, and to fasten it thereto, being in the meane while oft-times ducked ouer head and eares into the sea. These stormes were so terrible, that there were some in our company which confessed they had gone to seas for the space of 20. yeeres, and had neuer seene the like, and vowed that if euer they returned safe home, they would neuer come to sea againe. The last of Nouember at night we met with an English ship, out of which (because it was too late that night) it was agreed that we should haue had the next morning two or three Tunnes of wine, which, as they said, was al the prouision of drink they had, saue only a But or two, which they must needs reserue for their owne vse: but after that, we heard of them no more, till they were set on ground vpon the coast of Ireland, where it appeared that they might haue spared vs much more then they pretended they could, so as they might wel haue relieued our great necessities, and haue had sufficient for themselues besides, to bring them into England. The first of December at night we spake with another English ship, and had some beere out of her, but not sufficient to cary vs into England, so that wee were constrained to put into Ireland, the winde so seruing. The next day we came to an anker, not far from the S. Kelmes vnder the land and winde, where we were somewhat more quiet, but (that being no safe harbour to ride in) the next morning wee went about to weigh anker, but hauing some of our men hurt at the Capsten, wee were faine to giue ouer and leaue it behinde, holding on our course to Ventrie hauen, where wee safely arriued the same day, that place being a very safe and conuenient harbor for vs, that now wee might sing as we had iust cause, They that go downe to the sea, &c. So soone as we had ankered here my Lord went foorthwith to shoare, and brought presently fresh water and fresh victuals, as Muttons, pigges, hennes, &c. to refresh his company withall. Notwithstanding himselfe had lately bene very weake, and tasted of the same extremitie that his Company did: For in the time of our former want, hauing a little fresh water left him remaining in a pot, in the night it was broken, and the water drunke and dried vp. Soone after the sicke and wounded men were carried to the next principall Towne, called Dingenacush, being about three miles distant from the foresaide hauen, where our shippe roade, to the Eastwards, that there they might be the better refreshed, and had the Chirurgians dayly to attend vpon them. Here we wel refreshed our selues whilest the Irish harpe sounded sweetely in our eares, and here we, who for the former extremities were in maner halfe dead, had our liues (as it were) restored vnto vs againe. This Dingenacush is the chiefe Towne in al that part of Ireland, it consisteth but of one maine streete, from whence some smaller doe proceede on either side. It hath had gates (as it seemeth) in times past at either ende to open and shut as a Towne of warre, and a Castle also. The houses are very strongly built with thicke stone walles, and narrow windowes like vnto Castles: for as they confessed, in time of trouble, by reason of the wilde Irish or otherwise, they vsed their houses for their defence as Castles. The castle and all the houses in the Towne, saue foure, were won, burnt, and ruinated by the Erle of Desmond. These foure houses fortified themselues against him, and withstood him and all his power perforce, so as he could not winne them. There remaineth yet a thicke stone wall that passeth ouerthwart the midst of the streete which was a part of their fortification. Notwithstanding whilest they thus defended themselues, as some of them yet aliue confessed, they were driuen to as great extremities as the Iewes, besieged by Titus the Romane Emperour, insomuch that they were constrained to eat dead mens carcases for hunger. The towne is nowe againe somewhat repaired, but in effect there remaine but the ruines of the former Towne. Commonly they haue no chimnies in their houses, excepting them of the better sort, so that the smoake was very troublsom to vs, while we continued there; Their fewell is turfes, which they haue very good, and whinnes or furres. There groweth little wood thereabouts, which maketh building chargeable there: as also want of lime (as they reported) which they are faine to fetch from farre, when they haue neede thereof. But of stones there is store ynough, so that with them they commonly make their hedges to part ech mans ground from other: and the ground seemeth to be nothing else within but rockes and stones; Yet it is very fruitfull and plentifull of grasse and graine, as may appeare by the abundance of kine and cattell there: insomuch that we had good muttons (though somewhat lesse then ours in England) for two shillings or fiue groates a piece, good pigges and hennes for 3 pence a piece. The greatest want is industrious, paineful, and husbandly inhabitants to till and trimme the ground: for the common sort, if they can prouide sufficient to serue from hand to mouth, take no further care. Of money (as it seemeth) there is very store amongst them, which perhaps was the cause that made them double and triple the prizes of many things we bought of them, more then they were before our comming thither. Good land was here to be had for foure pence the Acre yeerely rent. [Sidenote: Mines in Ireland.] There are Mines of Alome, Tinne, brasse, and yron. Stones wee sawe there as cleare as Christall, naturally squared like Diamonds. That part of the Countrey is al full of great mountaines and hills, from whence came running downe the pleasant streames of sweete fresh running water. The natural hardnesse of the Nation appeareth in this, that their small children runne vsually in the middest of Winter vp and downe the streetes bare-foote and bare-legged, with no other apparell (many times) saue onely a mantle to couer their nakednesse. The chiefe Officer of their Towne they call their Soueraigne, who hath the same office and authoritie among them that our Maiors haue with vs in England, and hath his Sergeants to attend vpon him, and beare the Mace before him as our Maiors. We were first intertained at the Soueraignes house, which was one of those 4. that withstood the Erle of Desmond in his rebellion. They haue the same forme of Common prayer word word in Latin, that we haue here in England. Vpon the Sunday the Soueraigne commeth into the Church with his Sergeant before him, and the Sheriffe and others of the Towne accompany him, and there they kneele downe euery man by himselfe priuately to make his prayers. After this they rise and go out of the Church againe to drinke, which being done, they returne againe into the Church, and then the Minister beginneth prayers. Their maner of baptizing differeth something from ours: part of the seruice belonging therto is repeated in Latin, and part in Irish. The minister taketh the child in his hands, and first dippeth it backwards, and then forwards, ouer heads and eares into the cold water in the midst of Winter, whereby also may appeare their naturall hardnesse, (as before was specified.) They had neither Bell, drum, nor trumpet, to call the Parishioners together, but they expect till their Soueraigne come, and then they that haue any deuotion follow him. They make their bread all in cakes, and, for the tenth part, the bakers bake for all the towne. We had of them some 10. or 11. Tunnes of beere for the Victory, but it proued like a present purgation to them that tooke it, so that we chose rather to drinke water then it. The 20 of December we loosed from hence, hauing well prouided ourselues of fresh, water, and other things necessary, being accompanied with sir Edw. Dennie, his Lady, and two yong sonnes. This day in the morning my Lord going ashoare to despatch away speedily some fresh water that remained for the Victory, the winde being very faire for vs, brought vs newes that their were 60. Spanish prizes taken and brought to England. For two or three dayes wee had a faire winde, but afterwards it scanted so, that (as I said before) we were faine to keepe a cold Christmas with The Bishop and his clearkes. [Sidenote: Captaine Lister drowned.] After this we met with an English ship, that brought vs ioyful newes of 91. Spanish prizes that were come to England: and sorrowfull newes withall, that the last and best prize we tooke, had suffered shipwracke at a place vpon the coast of Cornwal which the Cornish men cals Als Efferne, that is, Helcliffe, and that Captaine Lister and all the men in the ship were drowned, saue 5. or 6. the one halfe English, the other Spanish that saued themselues with swimming; but notwithstanding much of the goods were saued, and reserued for vs, by sir Francis Godolphin and the worshipful gentlemen of the Countrey there. My Lord was very sorry for Captaine Listers death, wishing that he had lost his voyage to haue saued his life. The 29. of December we met with another shippe, that tolde vs the same newes, and that sir Martin Frobisher, and Captaine Reymond had taken the Admirall and Vice-Admirall of the Fleet that we espied going to Terçera hauen. But the Admirall was sunke with much leaking, neere to the Idy Stone, a rocke that lieth ouer against Plimouth sound, and the men were saued. This ship also certified vs that Captaine Prestons ship had taken a prize loden with siluer. My Lord entred presently into this ship, and went to Falmouth, and we held on our course for Plimouth. At night we came neere to the Ram-head (the next Cape Westwards from Plimouth sound) but we were afraid to double it in the night, misdoubting the scantnesse of the winde. So we stood off to Sea halfe the night, and towards morning had the winde more large, and made too little spare thereof, that partly for this cause, and partly through mistaking of the land, wee were driuen so much to lee-wards, that we could not double that Cape: Therefore we returned backe againe, and came into Falmouth hauen, where wee strucke on ground in 17. foote water: but it was a low ebbe, and ready againe to flowe, and the ground soft, so as no hurt was done. Here with gladnesse wee set foote againe vpon the English ground (long desired) and refreshed ourselues with keeping part of Christmas vpon our natiue soile. * * * * * The valiant fight performed by 10. Merchants ships of London, against 12. Spanish gallies in the Straights of Gibraltar, the 24. of April 1590. It is not long since sundry valiant ships appertaining to the Marchants of London, were fraighted and rigged forth, some for Venice, some for Constantinople, and some to sundry other places of trafique, among whom these ensuing met within the Straights of Gibraltar, as they were taking their course homewards, having before escaped all other danger. [Sidenote: February 1590] The first whereof was the Salomon appertaining to M. Alderman Barnam of London, and M. Bond, and M. Twyd of Harwich: which went foorth the first day of February last. The second was the Margaret and Iohn belonging to M. Wats of London: The thirde was the Minion: The fourth was the Ascension. The fifth was the Centurion of Master Cordal: the sixt the Violet: the seuenth the Samuel; the eight the Crescent: the ninth the Elizabeth: and the 10. was the Richard belonging to M. Duffield. All these ships being of notable and approued seruice comming neere to the mouth of the Straights hard by the coast of Barbary, descried twelue tall Gallies brauely furnished and strongly prouided with men and munition, ready to seaze vpon these English ships: which being perceiued by the Captaines and Masters thereof, wee made speedy preparation for the defence of our selues, still waiting all the night long for the approching of the enemie. In the morning early being the Tuesday in Easter weeke, and the 24 of April 1590 according to our vsual customes, we said Seruice and made our prayers vnto Almightie God, beseeching him to saue vs from the hands of such tyrants as the Spaniards, whom we iustly imagined to be, and whom we knew and had found to be our most mortall enemies vpon the Sea. And hauing finished our prayers, and set ourselues in a readinesse, we perceiued them to come towards vs, and that they were indeede the Spanish Gallies that lay vnder the conduct of Andre Doria, who is Vice-roy for the King of Spaine in the Straights of Gibraltar, and a notable knowne enemie to all Englishmen. So when they came somewhat neerer vnto vs, they waued vs a maine for the King of Spaine, and wee waued them a maine for the Queene of England, at which time it pleased Almightie God greatly to encourage vs all in such sort, as that the neerer they came the lesse we feared their great multitudes and huge number of men, which were planted in those Gallies to the number of two or three hundred men in ech Gallie. And it was thus concluded among vs, that the foure first and tallest ships should be placed hindmost, and the weaker and smallest ships formost, and so it was performed, every man being ready to take part of such successe as it should please God to send. And the first encounter the Gallies came vpon vs very fiercely, yet God so strengthened vs, that if they had bene ten times more, we had not feared them at all. Whereupon the Salomon being a hot shippe, and hauing sundry cast pieces in her, gaue the first shotte in such a sowre sort, as that it shared away so many men as sate on the one side of a Gallie, and pierced her through in such maner, as that she was readie to sinke, which made them to assault vs the more fiercely. [Sidenote: A fight of sixe houres long.] Whereupon the rest of our shippes, especially the foure chiefest, namely, the Margaret and Iohn, the Minion, and the Ascension followed, and gaue a hot charge vpon them, and they at vs, where began a hot and fierce battaile with great valiancie the one against the other, and so continued for the space of sixe houres. [Sidenote: A faint hearted Fleming.] About the beginning of this our fight there came two Flemings to our Fleet, who seeing the force of the Gallies to be so great, the one of them presently yeelded, strooke his sailes, and was taken by the Gallies, whereas if they would haue offered themselues to haue fought in our behalfe and their owne defence, they needed not to haue bene taken so cowardly as they were to their cost. The other Fleming being also ready to performe the like piece of seruice began to vaile his sailes, and intended to haue yeelded immediatly. But the Trumpetter in that shippe plucked foorth his faulchion and stepped to the Pilote at the helme, and vowed that if he did not speedily put off to the English Fleete, and so take part with them, he would presently kill him: which the Pilote for feare of death did, and so by that meanes they were defended from present death, and from the tyrannie of those Spaniards, which doubtlesse they should haue found at their handes. Thus we continued in fight sixe houres and somewhat more, wherein God gaue vs the vpper hand, and we escaped the hands of so many enemies, who were constrained to flie into harbour and shroude themselues from vs, and with speed to seeke for their owne safetie. This was the handie worke of God, who defended vs all from danger in such sort, as that there was not one man of vs slaine. And in all this fierce assault made vpon vs by the Spanish power, wee sustained no hurt or damage at all more then this, that the shrouds and backe-stay of the Salomon, who gaue the first and last shot, and galled the enemie shrewdly all the time of the battell, were cleane stricken off. The battel being ceased, we were constrained for want of wind to stay and waft vp and downe, and then went backe againe to Tition in Barbary, which is sixe leagues off from Gibraltar, and when we came thither we found the people wonderous fauourable to vs, who being but Moores and heathen people shewed vs where to haue fresh water and al other necessaries for vs. And there we had such good intertainment, as if we had bene in any place of England. The gouernour was one that fauoured vs greatly, whom wee in respect of his great friendship presented with giftes and such commodities as we had in our custodie, which he wonderfully wel accepted of: and here we stayed foure dayes. After the battell was ceased, which was on Easter Tuesday, we stayed for want of winde before Gibraltar, vntill the next morning, where we were becalmed, and therefore looked euery houre when they would haue sent foorth some fresh supply against vs, but they were farre vnable to doe it, for all their Gallies were so sore battered, that they durst not come foorth of the harbour, by reason of our hot resistance which they so lately before had receiued. Yet were they greatly vrged thereunto by the Gouernour of the said Towne of Gibraltar. At our being at Tition in Barbary, there we heard report of the hurt that wee had done to the Gallies, for at our comming from them wee could not well discerne any thing at all by reason of the smoake which the powder had made: there we heard that we had almost spoiled those twelue Gallies by shooting them cleane through, that two of them were ready to sinke, and that wee had slaine of their men such great abundance, as that they were not able to furnish forth any more Gallies at all for that yeere. Thus after we came from Tition, we assayed to depart the Straight three seuerall times, but could not passe, yet, God be thanked, the fourth time wee came safely away, and so sailed with a pleasant winde vntil wee came vpon the coast of England, which was in the beginning of the moneth of Iuly 1590. * * * * * The valiant fight performed in the Straight of Gibraltar, by the Centurion of London, against the fiue Spanish Gallies, in the moneth of April 1591. In the moneth of Nouember 1590, there were sundry shippes appertaining to seuerall Marchants of London, which were rigged and fraught foorth with marchandize, for sundry places within the Straight of Gibraltar: who, together hauing winde and weather, which ofttime fell out very vncertaine, arriued safely in short space, at such places as they desired. Among whom was the Centurion of London, a very tall shippe of burden, yet but weakely manned, as appeareth by this discourse following. This aforesaid shippe called The Centurion safely arriued at Marseils, where after they had deliuered their goods, they stayed about the space of fiue weekes, and better, and then tooke in lading, intending to returne to England. Now when the Centurion was ready to come away from Marseils, there were sundry other shippes of smaller burden which entreated the Master thereof, (whose name is Robert Bradshaw, dwelling at Lime-house) to stay a day or two for them, vntill they were in a readinesse to depart with them, thereby perswading them, that it would be farre better for them to stay and goe together in respect of their assistance, then to depart of themselues without company, and so happily for want of aide fall into the hands of their enemies in the Spanish Gallies. Vpon which reasonable perswasion, notwithstanding that this shippe was of such sufficiencie as they might hazard her in the danger of the Sea, yet they stayed for those litle shippes; according to their request, who together did put to Sea from Marseils, and vowed in generall not to flie one from another, if they should happen to meete with any Spanish Gallies. These small shippes, accompanied with the Centurion, sayling along the coast of Spaine, were ypon Easter day in the Straight of Gibraltar suddenly becalmed, where immediatly they saw sundry Gallies make towards them, in very valiant and couragious sort: the chiefe Leaders and souldiers in those Gallies brauely apparelled in silke coates, with their siluer whistles about their neckes, and great plumes of feathers in their hattes, who with their Caliuers shot at the Centurion so fast as they might: so that by 10. of the clocke and somewhat before, they had boorded the Centurion, who before their comming had prepared for them, and intended to giue them so soure a welcome as they might. And thereupon hauing prepared their close fights, and all things in a readinesse, they called vpon God, on whom onely they trusted: and hauing made their prayers, and cheered vp one another to fight so long as life endured, they beganne to discharge their great Ordinance vpon the Gallies, but the little shippes durst not come forward, but lay aloofe, while fiue Gallies had boorded them, yea and with their grapling irons made their Gallies fast to the said shippe called the Centurion. The Gallies were grapled to the Centurion in this maner, two lay on one side and two on another, and the Admirall lay full in the stern, which galled and battered the Centurion so sore, that her maine Maste was greatly weakened, her sailes filled with many holes, and the Mizzen and sterne made almost vnseruiceable. During which time there was a sore and deadly fight on both sides, in which the Trumpet of the Centurion sounded foorth the deadly points of warre, and encouraged them to fight manfully against their aduersaries: on the contrary part, there was no warlike Musicke in the Spanish Gallies, but onely their whistles of siluer, which they sounded foorth to their owne contentment: in which fight many a Spaniard was turned into the Sea, and they in multitudes came crauling and hung vpon the side of the shippe, intending to haue entred into the same, but such was the courage of the Englishmen, that so fast as the Spaniards did come to enter, they gaue them such entertainment, that some of them were glad to tumble aliue into the Sea, being remedilesse for euer to get vp aliue. In the Centurion there were in all, of men and boyes, fourtie and eight, who together fought most valiantly, and so galled the enemie, that many a braue and lustie Spaniard lost his life in that place. The Centurion was fired seuerall times, with wilde fire and other prouision, which the Spaniards, threw in for that purpose: yet, God be thanked, by the great and diligent foresight of the Master it did no harme at all. In euery of the Gallies there were about 200. souldiers: who together with the shot, spoiled, rent, and battered the Centurion very sore, shot through her maine Maste, and slew 4. of the men in the said shippe, the one of them being the Masters mate. Ten other persons were hurt, by meanes of splinters which the Spaniards shotte: yea, in the ende when their prouision was almost spent, they were constrained to shoote at them hammers, and the chaines from their slaues, and yet God bee thanked, they receiued no more domage: but by spoyling and ouer-wearying of the Spaniards, the Englishmen constrained them to vngrapple themselues, and get them going: and sure if there had bene any other fresh shippe or succour to haue relieued and assisted the Centurion, they had slaine, suncke, or taken all those Gallies and their Souldiers. The Dolphin lay a loofe off and durst not come neere, while the other two small shippes fledde away, so that one of the Gallies went from the Centurion and set vpon the Dolphin, which shippe immediatly was set on fire with their owne powder, whereby both men and shippe perished: but whether it was with their good wills or no, that was not knowen vnto the Centurion, but sure, if it had come forward, and bene an aide vnto the Centurion, it is to bee supposed that it had not perished. Fiue houres and a halfe this fight continued, in which time both were glad to depart onely to breath themselues, but when the Spaniards were gone, they neuer durst returne to fight, yet the next day sixe other Gallies came and looked at them, but durst not at any hand meddle with them. Thus God deliuered them from the handes of their enemies, and gaue them the victorie: For which they heartily praised him, and not long after safely arriued in London. [Symbol: fist] There were present at this fight Master Iohn Hawes Marchaht, and sundry other of good accompt. * * * * * A report of the trueth of the fight about the Iles of Açores, the last of August 1591, betwixt the Reuenge one of her Maiesties shippes, and an Armada of the king of Spaine; penned by the honourable Sir Walter Ralegh knight. Because the rumours are diuersely spred, as well in England as in the Lowe countries and elsewhere, of this late encounter betweene her Maiesties ships and the Armada of Spaine; and that the Spaniards according to their vsuall maner fill the world with their vaine-glorious vaunts, making great apparance of victories, when on the contrary, themselues are most commonly and shamefully beaten and dishonoured; thereby hoping to possesse the ignorant multitude by anticipating and forerunning false reports: It is agreeable with all good reason, for manifestation of the truth, to ouercome falshood and vntrueth; that the beginning, continuance and successe of this late honourable encounter of Sir Richard Greenuil, and other her Maiesties Captaines, with the Armada of Spaine; should be truely set downe and published without partialitie or false imaginations. And it is no marueile that the Spaniard should seeke by false and slanderous pamphlets, aduisoes and Letters, to couer their owne losse, and to derogate from others their due honors, especially in this fight being performed far off: seeing they were not ashamed in the yeere 1588. when they purposed the inuasion of this land, to publish in sundry languages in print, great victories in wordes, which they pleaded to haue obteined against this Realme; and spred the same in a most false sort ouer all parts of France, Italy, and elsewhere. When shortly after it was happily manifested in very deed to al Nations, how their Nauy which they termed inuincible, consisting of 140. saile of shippes, not onely of their owne kingdome, but strengthened with the greatest Argosies, Portugal Caracks, Florentines, and huge hulks of other Countreis, were by 30. of her Majesties owne ships of war, and a few of our owne Marchants, by the wise, valiant, and aduantagious conduct of the L. Charles Howard high Admirall of England, beaten and shuffled together; euen from the Lizard in Cornwall first to Portland, where they shamefully left Don Pedro de Valdes, with his mighty ship; from Portland to Cales, where they lost Hugo de Moncado, with the Gallies of which he was Captaine, and from Cales, driuen with squibs from their anchors, were chased out of the sight of England, round about Scotland and Ireland. Where for the sympathie of their barbarous religion, hoping to finde succour and assistance, a great part of them were crusht against the rocks, and those other that landed, being very many in number, were notwithstanding broken, slaine, and taken, and so sent from village to village coupled in halters, to be shipped into England. Where her Maiestie of her Princely and inuincible disposition, disdaining to put them to death, and scorning either to retaine or entertaine them: they were all sent backe againe to their countreys, to witnes and recount the worthy achieuements of their inuincible and dreadfull Nauy: Of which the number of Souldiers, the fearefull burthen of their shippes, the commanders names of euery squadron, with all other their magasines of prouisions, were put in print, as an Army and Nauy vnresistable, and disdaining preuention. With all which so great and terrible an ostentation, they did not in all their sailing round about England, so much as sinke or take one shippe, Barke, Pinnesse, or Cockbote of ours: or euer burnt so much as one sheepecote of this land. When as on the contrarie, Sir Francis Drake, with onely 800. souldiers not long before, landed in their Indies, and forced Sant-Iago, Santo Domingo, Cartagena, and the forts of Florida. And after that, Sir Iohn Norris marched from Peniche in Portugall, with a handfull of souldiers, to the gates of Lisbone, being aboue 40 English miles. Where the Earle of Essex himselfe and other valiant Gentlemen braued the Citie of Lisbone, encamped at the very gates; from whence, after many dayes abode, finding neither promised partie, nor provision to batter; they made retrait by land, in despight of all their Garrisons, both of horse and foote. In this sort I haue a little digressed from my first purpose, onely by the necessarie comparison of theirs and our actions: the one couetous of honour without vaunt of ostentation; the other so greedy to purchase the opinion of their owne affaires, and by false rumors to resist the blasts of their owne dishonours, as they, will not onely not blush to spread all manner of vntruthes: but euen for the least aduantage, be it but for the taking of one poore aduenturer of the English, will celebrate the victory with bonefires in euery towne, alwayes spending more in faggots, then the purchass was worth they obtained. When as we neuer thought it worth the consumption of two billets, when we haue taken eight or ten of their Indian shippes at one time, and twentie of the Brasill fleete. Such is the difference betweene true valure, and ostentation: and betweene honorable actions, and friuolous vaineglorious vaunts. But now to returne to my purpose. The L. Thomas Howard with sixe of her Maiesties shippes, sixe victuallers of London, the Barke Ralegh, and two or three other Pinnases riding at anker neere vnto Flores, one of the Westerly Ilands of the Azores, the last of August in the afternoone, had intelligence by one Captaine Middleton of the approch of the Spanish Armada. Which Middteton being in a very good sailer had kept them company three dayes before, of good purpose, both to discouer their forces the more, as also to giue aduise to my L. Thomas of their approch. Hee had no sooner deliuered the newes but the fleete was in sight: many of our shippes companies were on shore in the Ilande; some providing ballast for their ships; others filling of water and refreshing themselues from the land with such things as they could either for money, or by force recouer. By reason whereof our ships being all pestered and romaging euery thing out of order, very light for want of balast, and that which was most to our disadvantage, the one halfe part of the men of euery shippe sicke, and vtterly vnseruiceable: for in the Reuenge there were ninety diseased: in the Bonauenture not so many in health as could handle her maine saile. For had not twenty men beene taken out of a Barque of sir George Careys, his being commaunded to be sunke, and those appointed to her, she had hardly euer recouered England. The rest, for the most parte, were in little better state. The names of her Maiesties shippes were these as followeth, the Defiance, which was Admiral, the Reuenge Vice-admirall, the Bonauenture commaunded by Captaine Crosse, the Lion by George Fenner, the Foresight by M. Thomas Vauasour, and the Crane by Duffild. The Foresight and the Crane being but smal ships; only the other were of the middle size; the rest, besides the Barke Ralegh, commanded by Captaine Thin, were victuallers, and of small force or none. The Spanish Fleet hauing shrouded their approch by reason of the Island; were now so soone at hand, as our shippes had scarce time to way their anchors, but some of them were driuen to let slippe their Cables and set saile. Sir Richard Grinuile was the last that wayed, to recouer the men that were vpon the Island, which otherwise had bene lost. The L. Thomas with the rest very hardly recouered the winde, which Sir Richard Grinuile not being able to doe, was perswaded by the Master and others to cut his maine sayle, and cast about, and to trust to the sayling of the ship; for the squadron of Siuil were on his weather bow. But Sir Richard vtterly refused to turne from the enemie, alleaging that hee would rather choose to die, then to dishonour himselfe, his countrey, and her Maiesties shippe, perswading his companie that hee would passe through the two squadrons, in despight of them, and enforce those of Siuil to giue him way. Which hee performed vpon divers of the formost, who, as the Mariners terme it, sprang their luffe, and fell vnder the lee of the Reuenge. But the other course had beene the better, and might right well haue bene answered in so great an impossibility of preuailing. Notwithstanding out of the greatnesse of his minde, he could not be perswaded. In the meane while as hee attended those which were nearest him, the great San Philip being in the winde of him, and comming towards him, becalmed his sailes in such sort, as the shippe could neither make way, nor feele the helme: so huge and high carged [Footnote: From the French, _carguer_ to furl.] was the Spanish ship, being of a thousand and fiue hundreth tuns. Who after layd the Reuenge aboord. When he was thus bereft of his sailes, the ships that were vnder his lee luffing vp, also layd him aboord: of which the next was the Admiral of the Biscaines, a very mighty and puissant shippe commanded by Brittandona. The sayd Philip carried three tire of ordinance on a side, and eleuen pieces in euery tire. She shot eight forth right out of her chase, besides those of her sterne ports. After the Reuenge was entangled with this Philip, foure other boorded her: two on her larbood, and two on her starboord. The fight thus beginning at three of the clock in the afternoone, continued very terrible all that euening. But the great San Philip hauing receiued the lower tire of the Reuenge, discharged with crosse bar-shot, shifted her selfe with all diligence from her sides, vtterly misliking her first entertainement. Some say that the shippe foundred, but we cannot report it for truth, vnlesse we were assured. The Spanish ships were filled with companies of souldiers, in some two hundred besides the mariners; in some fiue, in others eight hundreth. In ours there were none at all besides the mariners; but the seruants of the commanders and some few voluntary gentlemen onely. After many interchanged volies of great ordinance and small shot, the Spaniards deliberated to enter the Reuenge, and made diuers attempts, hoping to force her by the multitudes of her armed souldiers and Musketters, but were still repulsed againe and againe, and at all times beaten backe into their owne ships, or into the seas. In the beginning of the fight, the George Noble of London hauing receiued some shot thorow her by the Armadas, fell vnder the lee of the Reuenge, and asked Sir Richard what he would command him, being but one of the victuallers, and of small force: Sir Richard bid him saue himselfe, and leaue him to his fortune. After the fight had thus, without intermission, continued while the day lasted and some houres of the night, many of our men slaine and hurte, and one of the great Gallions of the Armada, and the Admirall of the Hulkes both sunke, and in many other of the Spanish shippes great slaughter was made. Some write that Sir Richard was very dangerously hurt almost in the beginning of the fight, and lay speechlesse for a time ere hee recovered. But two of the Reuenges owne company, brought home in a ship of Lime from the Ilandes, examined by some of the Lordes, and others, affirmed that hee was neuer so wounded as that hee forsooke the vpper decke, till an houre before midnight; and then being shot into the bodie with a Musket as hee was a dressing, was againe shot into the head, and withall his Chirurgion wounded to death. This agreeth also with an examination taken by sir Francis Godolphin, of foure other mariners of the same shippe being returned, which examination, the said sir Francis sent vnto master William Killegrue, of her Maiesties priuy Chamber. But to returne to the fight, the Spanish ships which attempted to bord the Reuenge, as they were wounded and beaten off, so alwayes others came in their places, she hauing neuer lesse then two mighty Gallions by her sides, and aboard her: So that ere the morning, from three of the clocke the day before, there had fifteene seuerall Armadas assayled her; and all so ill approued their entertainment, as they were by the breake of day, far more willing to harken to a composition, then hastily to make any more assaults or entries. But as the day encreased, so our men decreased: and as the light grew more and more, by so much more grewe our discomforts. For none appeared in sight but enemies, sauing one small ship called the Pilgrim, commaunded by Iacob Whiddon, who houered all night to see the successe: but in the morning bearing with the Reuenge, was hunted like a hare amongst many rauenous houndes, but escaped. All the powder of the Reuenge to the last barrell was now spent, all her pikes broken, fortie of her best men slaine, and the most part of the rest hurt. In the beginning of the fight shee had but one hundreth free from sicknes, and fourescore and ten sicke, laid in hold vpon the Ballast. A small troup to man such a ship, and a weake garrison to resist so mighty an army. By those hundred al was susteined, the voleis, boordings, and entrings of fifteen ships of warre, besides those which beat her at large. On the contrary, the Spanish were always supplied with souldiers brought from euery squadron: all maner of Armes and powder at will. Vnto ours there remained no comfort at all, no hope, no supply either of ships, men, or weapons; the Mastes all beaten ouer board, all her tackle cut asunder, her vpper worke altogether rased, and in effect euened shee was with the water, but the very foundation or bottome of a ship, nothing being left ouer head either for flight or defence. [Sidenote: The Spanish 53 saile.] Sir Richard finding himselfe in this distress, and vnable any longer to make resistance, hauing endured in this fifteene houres fight, the assault of fifteene seuerall Armadas, all by turnes aboord him, and by estimation eight hundred shotte of great Artillerie, besides many assaults and entries; and that himselfe and the shippe must needes be possessed by the enemy, who were now all cast in a ring round about him (The Reuenge not able to moue one way or the other, but as she was moued with the waues and billow of the sea) commanded the Master gunner, whom hee knew to be a most resolute man, to split and sinke the shippe; that thereby nothing might remaine of glory or victory to the Spaniards: seeing in so many houres fight, and with so great a Nauie they were not able to take her, hauing had fifteene houres time, aboue ten thousand men, and fiftie and three saile of men of warre to performe it withall: and perswaded the company, or as many as hee could induce, to yeelde themselues vnto God, and to the mercie of none else; but as they had, like valiant resolute men, repulsed so many enemies, they should not nowe shorten the honour of their Nation, by prolonging their owne liues for a few houres, or a fewe dayes. The Master gunner readily condescended and diuers others; but the Captaine and the Master were of another opinion, and besought Sir Richard to haue care of them: alleaging that the Spaniard would be as ready to entertaine a composition, as they were willing to offer the same: and that there being diuers sufficient and valiant men yet liuing, and whose wounds were not mortal, they might do their Countrey and prince acceptable seruice hereafter. And whereas Sir Richard had alleaged that the Spaniards should neuer glory to haue taken one shippe of her Maiestie, seeing they had so long and so notably defended themselues; they answered, that the shippe had sixe foote water in holde, three shot vnder water, which were so weakely stopped, as with the working of the sea, she must needs sinke, and was besides so crusht and brused, as shee could neuer be remoued out of the place. And as the matter was thus in dispute, and Sir Richard refusing to hearken to any of those reasons: the Master of the Reuenge (while the Captaine wanne vnto him the greater party) was conuoyd aboord the Generall Don Alfonso Baçan: Who (finding none ouer hastie to enter the Reuenge againe, doubting least Sir Richard would haue blowne them vp and himselfe, and perceiuing by report of the Master of the Reuenge his dangerous disposition) yeelded that all their liues should be saued, the company sent for England, and the better sort to pay such reasonable ransome as their estate would beare, and in the meane season to be free from Gally or imprisonment. To this he so much the rather condescended as wel, as I haue said, for feare of further losse and mischiefe to themselues, as also for the desire he had to recouer Sir Richard Greenuil; whom for his notable valure he seemed greatly to honour and admire. When this answere was returned, and that safetie of life was promised, the common sort being now at the ende of their perill, the most drew backe from Sir Richard and the Master gunner, being no hard matter to disswade men from death to life. The Master gunner finding himselfe and Sir Richard thus preuented and mastered by the greater number, would haue slaine himselfe with a sword, had he not bene by force with-held and locked into his Cabben. Then the Generall sent many boates aboord the Reuenge, and diuers of our men fearing Sir Richards disposition, stole away aboord the Generall and other shippes. Sir Richard thus ouermatched, was sent vnto by Alfonso Baçan to remooue out of the Reuenge, the shippe being marueilous vnsauorie, filled with blood and bodies of dead, and wounded men like a slaughter house. Sir Richard answered that hee might doe with his body what he list, for hee esteemed it not, and as he was carried out of the shippe hee swounded, and reuiuing againe desired the company to pray for him. The Generall vsed Sir Richard with all humanitie, and left nothing vnattempted that tended to his recouery, highly commending his valour and worthinesse, and greatly bewailing the danger wherein he was, being vnto them a rare spectacle, and a resolution seldome approoued, to see one shippe turne toward so many enemies, to endure the charge and boording of so many huge Armadas, and to resist and repell the assaults and entries of so many souldiers. All which and more is confirmed by a Spanish Captaine of the same Armada, and a present actor in the fight, who being seuered from the rest in a storme, was by the Lion of London a small ship taken, and is now prisoner in London. The generall commander of the Armada, was Don Alphonso Baçan, brother to the Marques of Santa Cruz. The admiral of the Biscaine squadron, was Britandona. Of the squadron of Siuil, the Marques of Arumburch. The Hulkes and Flybotes were commanded by Luis Coutinho. There were slaine and drowned in this fight, well neere one thousand of the enemies, and two speciall commanders Don Luis de sant Iohn, and Don George de Prunaria de Mallaga, as the Spanish captaine confesseth, besides diuers others of speciall account, whereof as yet report is not made. The Admirall of the Hulkes and the Ascension of Siuil were both sunke by the side of the Reuenge; one other recouered the rode of Saint Michael, and sunke also there; a fourth ranne her self with the shore to saue her men. Sir Richard died as it is sayd, the second or third day aboord the Generall, and was by them greatly bewailed. What became of his body, whether it were buried in the sea or on the land we know not: the comfort that remayneth to his friends is, that hee hath ended his life honourably in respect of the reputation wonne to his nation and countrey, and of the same to his posteritie, and that being dead, he hath not outliued his owne honour. For the rest of her Maiesties ships that entred not so farre into the fight as the Reuenge, the reasons and causes were these. There were of them but sixe in all, whereof two but small ships; the Reuenge ingaged past recouery: The Iland of Flores was on the one side, 53 saile of the Spanish, diuided into squadrons on the other, all as full filled with souldiers as they could containe: Almost the one halfe of our men sicke and not able to serue: the ships growne foule, vnroomaged, and scarcely able to beare any saile for want of ballast, hauing bene sixe moneths at the sea before. If all the rest had entred, all had bene lost: for the very hugenes of the Spanish fleete, if no other violence had beene offered, would haue crusht them betweene them into shiuers. Of which the dishonour and losse to the Queene had bene farre greater then the spoyle or harme that the enemie could any way haue receiued. Notwithstanding it is very true, that the Lord Thomas would haue entred betweene the squadrons, but the rest would not condescend; and the master of his owne ship offred to leape into the sea, rather then to conduct that her Maiesties ship and the rest to bee a pray to the enemie, where there was no hope nor possibilitie either of defence or victory. Which also in my opinion had ill sorted or answered the discretion and trust of a Generall, to commit himselfe and his charge to an assured destruction, without hope or any likelyhood of preuailing: thereby to diminish the strength of her Maiesties Nauy, and to enrich the pride and glory of the enemie. The Foresight of the Queenes commaunded by M. Thomas Vauisor performed a very great fight, and stayed two houres as neere the Reuenge as the weather would permit him, not forsaking the fight, till he was like to be encompassed by the squadrons, and with great difficultie cleared himselfe. The rest gaue diuers voleis of shot, and entred as farre as the place permitted, and their owne necessities, to keepe the weather gage of the enemie, vntill they were parted by night. A fewe dayes after the fight was ended, and the English prisoners dispersed into the Spanish and Indie ships, there arose so great a storme from the West and Northwest; that all the fleete was dispersed, as well the Indian fleete which were then come vnto them, as the rest of the Armada that attended their arriual, of which 14. saile together with the Reuenge, and in her 200. Spaniards, were cast away vpon the Isle of S. Michael. So it pleased them to honor the buriall of that renowmed ship the Reuenge, not suffering her to perish alone, for the great honour she atchieued in her life time. On the rest of the Ilandes there were cast away in this storme, 15 or 16 more of the ships of warre: and of an hundred and odde saile of the Indie fleete, expected this yeere in Spaine, what in this tempest, and what before in the bay of Mexico, and about the Bermudas, there were 70 and odde consumed and lost, with those taken by our shippes of London, besides one very rich Indian ship, which set herselfe on fire, beeing boarded by the Pilgrim, and fiue other taken by master Wats his ships of London, between the Hauana and Cape S. Antonio. The fourth of this moneth of Nouember we receiued letters from the Tercera, affirming that there are 3000 bodies of men remaining in that Iland, saued out of the perished ships: and that by the Spaniards owne confession, there are 10000 cast away in this storme, besides those that are perished betweene the Ilands and the maine. Thus it hath pleased God to fight for vs and to defend the iustice of our cause, against the ambicious and bloody pretenses of the Spaniard, who seeking to deuoure all nations, are themselues deuoured. A manifest testimony how iniust and displeasing, their attempts are in the sight of God, who hath pleased to witnes by the successe of their affaires, his mislike of their bloody and iniurious designes, purposed and practised against all Christian princes, ouer whom they seeke vnlawfull and vngodly rule and Empery. One day or two before this wracke happened to the Spanish fleete, when as some of our prisoners desired to be set on shore vpon the Ilandes, hoping to be from thence transported into England, which libertie was formerly by the Generall promised: One Morice Fitz Iohn, sonne of olde Iohn of Desmond, a notable traytour, cousin german to the late Earle of Desmond, was sent to the English from shippe to shippe, to perswade them to serue the King of Spaine. The arguments hee vsed to induce them were these. The increase of pay which he promised to be trebled: aduancement to the better sort: and the exercise of the true Catholique Religion, and safetie of their soules to all. For the first, euen the beggerly and vnnaturall behauiour of those English and Irish rebels, that serued the King in that present action, was sufficient to answere that first argument of rich pay. For so poore and beggerly they were, as for want of apparell they stripped their poore Countrey men prisoners out of their ragged garments, worne to nothing by sixe months seruice, and spared not to despoyle them euen of their bloody shirtes, from their wounded bodies, and the very shooes from their feete; A notable testimonie of their rich entertainment and great wages. The second reason was hope of aduancement if they serued well, and would continue faithfull to the King. But what man can be so blockishly ignorant euer to expect place or honour from a forraine King, hauing no other argument or perswasion then his owne disloyaltie; to be vnnatural to his owne Countrey that bred him; to his parents that begat him, and rebellious to his true Prince, to whose obedience he is bound by oath, by nature, and by Religion? No, they are onely assured to be employed in all desperate enterprises, to bee helde in scorne and disdaine euer among those whom they serue. And that euer traitour was either trusted or aduanced I could neuer yet reade, neither can I at this time remember any example. And no man coulde haue lesse becommed the place of an Orator for such a purpose, then this Morice of Desmond. For the Erle his cosen being one of the greatest subiects in that kingdom of Ireland, hauing almost whole Countreis in his possession; so many goodly Manners, castles, and lordships; the Count Palatine of Kerry, fiue hundred gentlemen of his owne name and family to follow him, besides others (all which he possessed in peace for three or foure hundred yeeres) was in lesse then three yeeres after his adhering to the Spaniards and rebellion, beaten from all his holdes, not so many as ten gentlemen of his name left liuing, himselfe taken and beheaded by a souldier of his owne nation, and his land giuen by a Parliament to her Maiestie, and possessed by the English: His other cosen Sir Iohn of Desmond taken by Master Iohn Zouch, and his body hanged ouer the gates of his natiue Citie to be deuoured by rauens: the thirde brother Sir Iames hanged, drawne, and quartered in the same place. If hee had withall vaunted of his successe of his owne house, no doubt the argument would haue mooued much, and wrought great effect: which because, hee for that present forgot, I thought it good to remember in his behalfe. For matter of Religion it would require a particular volume, if I should set downe how irreligiously they couer their greedy and ambicious pretenses, with that veile of pietie. But sure I am, that there is no kingdome or commonwealth in all Europe, but if they be reformed, they then inuade it for religion sake: if it bee, as they terme Catholique, they pretend title; as if the Kings of Castile were the naturall heires of all the world: and so betweene both, no kingdome is vnsought. Where they dare not with their owne forces to inuade, they basely entertaine the traitours and vagabonds of all Nations: seeking by those and by their runnagate Iesuits to winne parts, and haue by that meane ruined many Noble houses and others in this lande, and haue extinguished both their liues and families. What good, honour, or fortune euer man yet by them atchieued, is yet vnheard of, or vnwritten. And if our English Papists doe but looke into Portugall, against which they haue no pretense of Religion, how the Nobilitie are put to death, imprisoned, their rich men made a praye, and all sorts of people captiued; they shall finde that the obedience euen of the Turke is easie and a libertie, in respect of the slauerie and tyrannie of Spaine. What haue they done in Sicill, in Naples, Millaine, and in the Low countreis; who hath there bene spared for Religion at all: And it commeth to my remembrance of a certaine Burger of Antwerpe, whose house being entred by a company of Spanish souldiers, when they first sacked the Citie, hee besought them to spare him and his goods, being a good Catholique, and one of their owne partie and faction. The Spaniards answered, that they knew him to be of a good conscience for himselfe, but his money, plate, iewels, and goods were all hereticall, and therefore good prize. So they abused and tormented the foolish Fleming, who hoped that an Agnus Dei had bene a sufficient target against all force of that holy and charitable nation. Neither haue they at any time as they protest inuaded the kingdomes of the Indies and Peru, and elsewhere, but onely led thereunto, rather to reduce the people to Christianitie, then for either gold or Emperie. When as in one onely Island called Hispaniola, they haue wasted thirtie hundred thousand of the naturall people, besides many millions else in other places of the Indies: a poore and harmelesse people created of God, and might haue bene wonne to his knowledge, as many of them were, and almost as many as euer were perswaded thereunto. The storie whereof is at large written by a Bishop of their owne nation called Bartholomew de las Casas, and translated into English and many other languages, intituled The Spanish cruelties. Who would therefore repose trust in such a nation of ravenous strangers, and especially in those Spaniards which more greedily thirst after English blood, then after the liues of any other people of Europe, for the many ouerthrowes and dishonours they haue receiued at our hands, whose weakeness wee haue discouered to the world, and whose forces at home, abroad, in Europe, in India, by sea and land, wee haue euen with handfulles of men and shippes, ouerthrowen and dishonoured. Let not therefore any English man, of what religion soeuer, haue other opinion of the Spaniards, but that those whom hee seeketh to winne of our Nation, he esteemeth base and trayterous, vnworthy persons, or vnconstant fooles: and that he vseth his pretense of religion, for no other purpose but to bewitch vs from the obedience of our naturall Prince, thereby hoping in time to bring vs to slauery and subiection, and then none shall be vnto them so odious, and disdayned as the traitours themselues, who haue solde their Countrey to a stranger, and forsaken their faith and obedience contrarie to nature and religion; and contrarie to that humane and generall honour, not onely of Christians, but of heathen and irreligious nations, who haue alwayes sustayned what labour soeuer, and embraced euen death it selfe, for their countrey, Prince, or common wealth. To conclude, it hath euer to this day pleased God to prosper and defend her Maiestie, to breake the purposes of malicious enemies, of forsworne traytors, and of iniust practises and inuasions. She hath euer beene honoured of the worthiest kings, serued by faithfull subiects, and shall by the fauour of God, resist, repell, and confound all whatsoeuer attempts against her sacred person or kingdome. In the meane time let the Spaniard and traytour vaunt of their successe, and wee her true and obedient vassals guided by the shining light of her virtues, shall alwayes loue her, serue her, and obey her to the end of our liues. [Footnote: The most complete collection of contemporary documents relating to this interesting episode, is to be found in "_The Last Fight of the Revenge_", privately printed, Edinburgh, 1886 (GOLDSMID'S BIBLIOTHECA CURIOSA.)] * * * * * A particular note of the Indian fleet, expected to haue come into Spaine this present yeere of 1591. with the number of shippes that are perished of the same: according to the examination of certaine Spaniards lately taken and brought into England by the ships of London. The fleete of Noua Hispania, at their first gathering together and setting foorth, were two and fiftie sailes. The Admirall was of sixe hundred tunnes, and the Vice Admirall of the same burthen. Foure or fiue of the shippes were of nine hundred and 1000 tunnes a piece, some fiue hundred, and some foure hundred and the least of two hundred tuns. Of this fleet 19 were cast away, and in them 2600 men by estimation, which was done along the coast of Noua Hispania, so that of the same fleet there came to the Hauana but 33 sailes. The fleete of Terra Firma were, at their first departure from Spaine, fiftie sailes, which were bound for Nombre de Dios, where they did discharge their lading, and thence returned to Cartagena, for their healths sake, vntill the time the treasure was readie they should take in, at the said Nombre de Dios. But before this fleete departed, some were gone by one or two at a time, so that onely 23 sayles of this fieete arriued in the Hauana. At the Hauana there met 33 sailes of Noua Hispania. 23 sailes of Terra Firma. 12 sailes of San Domingo. 9 sailes of the Hunduras. The whole 77 shippes, ioyned and set sailes all together at the Hauana, the 17 of Iuly, according to our account, and kept together vntill they came into the height of thirtie fiue degrees, which was about the tenth of August, where they found the winde at Southwest chaunged suddenly to the North, so that the sea comming out of the Southwest, and the wind very violent at North, they were put all into great extremitie, and then first lost the Generall of their fleete, with 500 men in her; and within three or foure dayes after, an other storme rising, there were fiue or sixe other of the biggest shippes cast away with all their men, together with their Vice-Admirall. And in the height of 38. degrees, about the end of August, grew another great storme, in which all the fleet sauing 48. sailes were cast away: which 48. sailes kept together, vntill they came in sight of the Ilands of Coruo and Flores, about the fift or sixt of September, at which time a great storme separated them: of which number fifteene or sixteene were after seene by these Spanyards to ride at anchor vnder the Tercera; and twelue or foureteene more to beare with the Island of S. Michael; what became of them after that these Spaniards were taken cannot yet be certified; their opinion as, that very few of thee fleet are escaped, but are either drowned or taken. And it is other waies of late certified, that of this whole fleete that should haue come into Spaine this yeere, being one hundred twentie and three sayle, there are arriued as yet but fiue and twentie. This note was taken out of the examination of certaine Spaniardes, that were brought into England by sixe of the ships of London, which tooke seuen of the aboue named Indian Fleete, neere the Islands of the Açores. * * * * * A report of Master Robert Flicke directed to Master Thomas Bromley, Master Richard Staper, and Master Cordall concerning the successe of a part of the London supplies sent to my Lord Thomas Howard to the Isles of the Azores, 1591. Worshipfull, my heartie commendations vnto you premised: By my last of the twelfth of August from this place I aduertised you particularly of the accidents of our Fleete vntill then. It remayneth now to relate our endeuours in accomplishing the order receiued for the ioyning with my Lorde Thomas Howard, together with the successe wee haue had. Our departure from hence was the seuenteenth of August, the winde not seruing before. The next day following I caused a Flagge of Counsell to be put foorth, whereupon the Captaines and Masters of euery shippe came aboord, and I acquainted them with my Commission, firmed by the Right honourable the Lordes of her Maiesties Counsell, and with all the aduertisements of Sir Edward Denny, of my Lordes determination to remaine threescore leagues to the West of Fayal, spreading North and South betwixt thirtie seuen and a halfe or thirty eight and a halfe degrees. And not finding him in this heighth to repaire to the Isles of Flores and Coruo, where a Pinnesse of purpose should stay our comming vntill the last of August, with intent after that day to repaire to the coast of Spaine, about the heigth of The Rocke, some twentte or thirtie leagues off the shoare. The which being aduisedly considered of hauing regard vnto the shortnesse of time, by reason of our long abode in this place, and the vncertainety of the weather to fauour vs, it was generally holden for the best and securest way to meete with my Lorde, to beare with the heigth of The Rocke, without making any stay vpon the coast, and so directly for the Islands which was accordingly fully agreed and performed. The 28 day wee had sight of the Burlings, and the 29 being thwart of Peniche, the winde seruing vs, without any stay we directed our course West for the Islands. The 30 day we met with Captaine Royden in the Red-Rose, sometime called the Golden Dragon, separated from my Lorde of Cumberland in a storme: who certified vs of 50 sayles of the Spanish kings Armadas to be gone for the Ilands, but could not informe vs any newes of my Lord Thomas Howard, otherwise then vpon presumption to remaine about the Islandes, and so wee continued our course the winde standing with vs. The 4 of September we recouered Tercera, and ranged along all the Islands, both on the South and North sides the space of foure dayes: during which time it was not our hap to meete with any shipping, whereby either to vnderstand of my Lord, or of the Indian Fleete: hereupon we directed our course to the West from Fayal, according to the instructions of Sir Edward Denny. The 11 day in the plying to the Westwards we descried a sayle out of our maine toppe, and in the afternoone betweene two and three of the clocke hauing raysed her hull, the weather became calme, so that the ship could not fetch her. I sent off my Skiffe throughly manned, furnished with shot and swords, The Cherubin, and the Margaret and Iohn doing the like. Vpon this the sayle stood off againe, and the night approching, our boates lost her and so returned. In this our pursute after the sayle the Centurion being left a sterne, the next morning wee missed her, and spent that day in plying vp and down seeking her. And for as much as euery of the ships had receiued order, that, if by extremity of weather or any other mischance they should be seuered from our Fleete, they should meete and ioyne at Flores, we, according to the instructions of Sir Edward Denny, proceeded to the finding of my Lord Thomas Howard, being in the heigth appointed and not able to holde the same by reason of extreme tempestes which forced vs to the Isles of Flores and Coruo, which we made the 14 day in the morning, and there also ioyned againe with the Centurion, whose company before we had lost: who declared vnto vs that the 12 day, being the same day they lost vs, they met with fiue and forty sailes of the Indian Fleete. The same night, vpon these newes we came to an anker betweene Flores and Coruo, and the morow following at the breake of day, a flagge of Counsell being put out, the Captaines and Masters came abord me: where, for the desire to vnderstand some tidings of my Lord, as also the supplying of our want of water, it was thought good to send our boats furnished on shore, vnder the conduct of Captaine Brothus, and then it was also ordered after our departure thence to range along the Southsides of the Islands to the end we might either vnderstand of my Lord, or else light on the Indian fleete; and in the missing of our purpose to direct our course for Cape Sant Vincente. The boates, according to the foresayd determination, being sent on shoare, it chaunced that the Costely ryding vttermost in the roade, did weigh to bring her selfe more neere among vs for the succour of the boates sent off, and in opening the land discouered two sayles, which we in the roade could not perceiue: whereupon shee gaue vs a warning piece, which caused vs to waue off our boates backe, and before they could recouer our shippes, the discryed ships appeared vnto vs, towardes the which we made with all haste, and in a very happie hour, as it pleased God. [Sidenote: A violent storm.] In that wee had not so soone cleared the lande, and spoken with one of them, which was a Barke of Bristoll, who had also sought my Lorde in the heigths appointed and could not finde him, but a violent storme arose, in such manner, as if we had remained in the roade, we had beene in daunger of perishing: and the same extremely continued during the space of threescore houres. In which storme I was separated from our Fleete, except the Cherubin and the Costely, which kept company with mee. And so sayling among the Ilands, I viewed the roade of Fayal, and finding no Roaders there, went directly for the Isle Tercera. The nineteenth day in the morning comming vnto the same with intent to edge into the Road, a tempest arose and scanted the winde, that we could not sease it: from the which being driuen we fell among certaine of the Indian Fleete, which the sayde storme dispersed, and put them from the road: whereupon my selfe with the other two ships in companie gaue seuerall chases, and thereby lost the company each of other. [Sidenote: A Portugall Prize taken.] In following our chase aboue noone we made her to strike and yeelde, being a Portugall, laden with hides, salsa-perilla and Anile. At this very instant we espied another, and taking our Prise with vs followed her, and somewhat before night obtayned her, named the Conception, Francisco Spinola being Captaine, which was laden with hides, Cochonillio, and certaine raw silke. And for that the seas were so growen, as neither with boate nor shippe they were to bee boorded, we kept them till fit opportunitie. [Sidenote: A rich West-Indian Prize taken.] The same night a litle before day there happened another into our company, supposing vs by our two prizes to be of their Fleete, which we vntill the morning dissembled. The 20 day in the morning, the sayle being shot somewhat a head of vs, hauing a speciall care for the safe keeping of the two former, we purposed to cause our Prizes to put out more sayle thereby to keep them neere in giuing chase to the other: vnto the which the Master would not hearken nor be perswaded, but that they would follow vs: by the which his wilfulnesse by such time as we had caused the other to yeelde, and sent men aboord, the Conception, Francisco Spinola Captaine being brought a sterne, and hauing gotten the winde of vs, stood off with all her sayles bearing, so as we were forced to make a new chase of her: and had not the winde enlarged vpon vs we had lost her. In the pursute before we recouered her and brought our selues againe in company of our other Prizes, the whole day was spent, and by this meanes we lost the oportunitie of that day, the weather fitly seruing to boord the Portugall Prize, which was in great distresse, and made request to take them being readie to sinke, and, as we well perceiued, they ceased not to pumpe day and night: the which ship to all our iudgements the same night perished in the sea. The one and twentie day the Conception, whereof Francisco Spinola was Captaine, being also in a leake, and the same still increasing notwithstanding the continuall pumping, in such sort as not to be kept along aboue water, I tooke and discharged out of her two and forty chestes of Cochonillio and silkes, and so left her with 11 foote water in holde and her furniture and 4700 hides, vnto the seas. The other prize which we haue brought into the harborough is named Nostra Sennora de los remedios, whereof Francisco Aluares is Captaine, laden with 16 chests of Cochonillio, certaine fardels of raw silke, and about 4000 hides. Vpon the discharge of the goods your worships shall be particularly aduertised thereof. In the boording of the prizes the disorder of the company was such, as that they letted not presently besides the rifling of the Spaniards to breake open the chests and to purloyne such money as was in them: notwithstanding that it was ordered at convenient leasure to haue gone on boord my selfe, and therein the presence of three or foure witnesses to haue taken a iust account thereof, and the same to haue put in safe keeping, according to the effects of articles receiued in this behalfe. And whereas there were also certaine summes of money taken from the company which they had thus purloyned and embeseled, and the same with some other parcels brought aboord my ship, amounting vnto 2129 pezoes and a halfe, the company as pillage due vnto them demanded to haue the same shared, which I refused, and openly at the maine maste read the articles firmed by my Lord Treasurer and my Lord Admirall, whereby we ought to be directed, and that it was not in mee any way to dispose thereof, vntill the same were finally determined at home. Hereupon they mutinied and at last grew into such furie, as that they would haue it or els breake downe the cabbine, which they were also readie to put into practise, whereby I was forced to yeeld, least the Spaniards which we had abord being many perceiuing the same, might haue had fit opportunitie to rise against vs, which, after their brawles were appeased, they sought to haue put into execution. By the last aduise from Castile the Generall of the kings Armada which is lately come to sea hath receiued commaundement to ioyne his Fleete with those of the Indies, and for to stay altogether at Tercera vntill the 15 of October: for that 6 pataches with 7 or 8 millions of the kings treasure will come by that time, or els they stay their comming from Hauana vntill Ianuary next, or the kings further pleasure therein to be knowen. These pataches are said to be of 300 tuns the piece, and to cary 30 pieces of brasse, and also of saile reported to haue the aduantage of any shipping. There perished of the Indies Fleete sunke in the sea before there comming to Flores 11 sailes, whereof the General was one, and not one man saued. And it is by the Spaniards themselues presupposed that the stormes which we had at Flores and at Tercera haue deuoured many more of them, whereof in part we were eye witnesses. And so what by the seas and our men of warre I presume that of 75 sailes that came from Hauana, halfe of them will neuer arriue in Spaine. The 11 day of October at night we came to anker in the sound of Plimouth, and the next morning with our Prize came into Cattewater: for which God be thanked: for that a vehement storme arose, and with such fury increased, as that the Prize was forced to cut ouer her maine maste: otherwise with the violence of the storme, her ground tackle being bad, she had driuen on shore: which was the most cause that moued me to put in here; intending now here to discharge the goods without further aduenture, and haue certified thus much vnto my Lord Admirall, and therewith also desired to vnderstande the direction of the Lords of the Counsell together with yours, insomuch as my Lord Thomas Howard is not returned. How the rest of our consorts which were seperated from vs by weather haue sped, or what Prizes they haue taken, whereof there is much hope by reason of the scattering of the West Indian Fleete, as yet we are able to say nothing. And thus expecting your answere, and for all other matters referring me vnto the bearer Captaine Furtho, I end. Plymouth the 24 of October 1591. Your worships louing friend Robert Flicke. * * * * * A large testimony of Iohn Huighen van Linschoten Hollander, concerning the worthy exploits atchieued by the right honourable the Earle of Cumberland, By Sir Martine Frobisher, Sir Richard Greenuile, and diuers other English Captaines, about the Isles of the Açores, and vpon the coasts of Spaine and Portugall, in the yeeres 1589, 1590, 1591, &c. recorded in his excellent discourse of voiages to the East and West Indies, cap. 96. 97. and 99. The 22 of Iuly 1589 about Euening, being by the Ilands of Flores and Coruo, we perceiued 3 ships that made towards vs, which came from vnder the land, which put vs in great feare: for they came close by our Admirall, and shot diuers times at him, and at another ship of our companie, whereby we perceiued them to be Englishmen, for they bare an English flagge vpon their maine tops, but none of them shewed to be aboue 60 tunnes in greatnes. About Euening they followed after vs, and all night bore lanternes with candles burning in them at their sternes, although the Moone shined. The same night passing hard by the Island of Fayal, the next day being betweene the Island of S. George that lay on our right hand, and the small Island called Graciosa on our left hand, we espied the 3 English ships still following vs that tooke counsell together, whereof one sailed backwards, thinking that some other ship had come after vs without company, and for a time was out of sight, but it was not long before it came again to the other two, wherwith they tooke counsel and came all, 3 together against our ship, because we lay in the lee of al our ships, and had the Island of S. George on the one side in stead of a sconce, thinking to deale so with vs, that in the end we should be constrained to run vpon the shore, whereof we wanted not much, and in that manner with their flagges openly displayed, came lustily towardes vs, sounding their Trumpets, and sayled at the least three times about vs, beating vs with Musket and Caliuer, and some great pieces, and did vs no hurt in the body of our shippe, but spoyled all our sayles and ropes, and to conclude, wee were so plagued by them, that no man durst put foorth his head, and when wee shot off a peece, wee had at the least an houres worke to lade it againe, whereby we had so great a noise and crie in the shippe, as if we had all bene cast away, whereat the English men themselues beganne to mocke vs, and with a thousand iesting words called vnto vs. In the meane time the other shippes hoised all their sayles, and did the best they could to saile to the Island of Tercera, not looking once behinde them to helpe vs, doubting they should come too late thither, not caring for vs, but thinking themselues to haue done sufficiently so they saued their owne stakes, whereby it may easily be seene what company they keepe one with the other, and what order is among them. In the ende the English men perceiuing small aduantage against vs, (little knowing in what case and feare we were, as also because wee were not farre from Tercera) left vs, which made vs not a litle to reioyce, as thinking our selues to bee risen from death to life, although wee were not well assured, neyther yet voyde of feare till we lay in the road before Tercera, and vnder the safetie of the Portingales fort, and that we might get thither in good time wee made all the sailes we could: on the other side we were in great doubt, because we knew not what they did in the Island, nor whether they were our friends or enemies, and we doubted so much the more, because we found no men of warre nor any Caruels of aduise from Portingal, as wee made our accounts to doe, that might conuoy vs from thence, or giue vs aduise, as in that countrey ordinarily they vse to do: and because the English men had bene so victorious in those parts, it made vs suspect that it went not well with Spaine: they of the Island of Tercera were in no lesse fear then we, for seeing our fleete, they thought vs to bee Englishmen, and that wee came to ouerrun the Island, because the 3. Englishmen had bound vp their flags, and came in company with vs: for the which cause the Iland sent out two Caruels that lay there with aduise from the king, for the Indians ships that should come thither. Those Caruels came to view vs, and perceiuing what we were, made after vs, whereupon the English ships left vs, and made towardes them, because the Caruels thought them to be friends, and shunned them not, as supposing them to bee of our company, but we shot foure or fiue times and made signes vnto them that they should make towards the Island, which they presently did. The Englishmen perceiuing that, did put forwards into the sea, and so the Caruels borded vs telling vs that the men of the Island were all in armes, as hauing receiued aduise from Portugall, that Sir Frances Drake was in readinesse, and would come vnto those Islands. They likewise brought vs newes of the ouerthrow of the Spanish fleet before England, and that the English men had bene before the gates of Lisbon; wereupon the king gaue vs commandement that we should put into the Island of Tercera, and there lie vnder the safety of the Castle vntill we receiued further aduise what we should do, or whether we should saile: for that they thought it too dangerous for vs to go to Lisbon. Those newes put our fleet in great feare, and made vs looke vpon eche other not knowing what to say, as being dangerous for them to put into the road, because it lieth open to the sea: so that the Indian ships, although they had expresse commandement from the king, yet they durst not anker there, but onely vsed to come thither, and to lie to and fro, sending their boates on land to fetch such necessaries as they wanted, without ankering: but being by necessitie compelled thereunto, as also by the kings commandement, and for that we vnderstood the Erle of Cumberland not to bee farre from those Islands with certaine ships of warre, we made necessitie a vertue, and entring the road, ankered close vnder the Castle, staying for aduise and order from the king, to performe our voyage, it being then the 24. of Iuly, and S. Iames day. The day before the Erle of Cumberland with 6. or 7. ships of war, sailed by the Island of Tercera, and to their great good fortune passed out of sight, so that they dispatched themselues in all haste, and for the more securitie, tooke with them 4. hundred Spaniards of those that lay in Garrison in the Island, and with them they sayled towards Lisbon, hauing a good wind: so that within 11 daies after they arriued in the riuer of Lisbon with great gladnes and triumph: for if they had stayed but one day longer before they had entred the riuer, they had all beene taken by Captaine Drake, who with 40 ships came before Cascais at the same time that the Indian ships cast anker in the riuer of Lisbon, being garded thither by diuers Gallies. While I remained in Tercera, the Erle of Cumberland came to S. Marie, to take in fresh water, and some other victuals: but the inhabitants would not suffer him to haue it, but wounded both himselfe and diuers of his men, whereby they were forced to depart without hauing any thing there. The Erle of Cumberland while I lay in Tercera, came vnto the Isle of Graciosa, where himselfe in person, with seuen or eight in his company went on land, asking certaine beasts, hens, and other victuals, with wine and fresh water, which they willingly gaue him, and therewith he departed from thence, without doing them any hurt: for the which the inhabitants thanked him, and commended him for his courtesie, and keeping of his promise. The same time that the Erle of Cumberland was in the Island of Graciosa, he came likewise to Fayall, where at the first time that he came, they beganne to resist him, but by reason of some controuersie among them, they let him land, where he razed the Castle to the ground, and sunke all their Ordinance in the sea, taking with him certaine Carauels and ships that lay in the road, with prouision of all things that he wanted: and therewith departed againe to sea. Whereupon the king caused the principall actors therein to be punished, and sent a company of souldiers thither againe, which went out of Tercera, with all kinde of warlike munition, and great shot, making the fortresse vp againe, the better to defend the Island, trusting no more in the Portugales. The 99 Chapter. The ninth of October 1589. there arriued in Tercera fourteene ships that came from the Spanish Indies, laden with Cochinile, Hides, Golde, Siluer, Pearles, and other rich wares. They were fiftie in companie, when they departed out of the Hauen of Hauana, whereof, in their comming out of the Channell, eleuen sunke in the same Channell by foule weather, the rest by a storme were scattered and separated one from the other. The next day there came another ship of the same companie, that sailed close vnder the Island, so to get into the Roade: where she met with an English ship that had not aboue three cast peeces, and the Spaniards 12. They fought a long time together, which we being in the Island might stand and behold: wherevpon the Gouernour of Tercera sent two boates of Musketiers to helpe the shippe: but before they could come at her, the English ship had shot her vnder water, and we saw her sinke into the Sea with all her sayles vp, and not any thing seene of her aboue the water. The Englishmen with their boate saued the Captaine and about thirtie others with him, but not one penie-worth of the goods, and yet in the shippe there was at the least to the value of two hundred thousand Duckats in Golde, Siluer and Pearles, the rest of the men were drowned which might be about fiftie persons, among the which were some Fryers and women, which the Englishmen would not saue. Those that they had saued they set on land: and then they sayled away. The seuen and twentieth of the same moneth, the sayd foureteene ships hauing refreshed themselues in the Island departed from Tercera toward Siuill, and comming vpon the coast of Spaine they were taken by the English ships that lay there to watch for them, two onely excepted which escaped away, and the rest were wholly caried into England. About the same time the Erle of Cumberland with one of the Queenes ships, and fiue or sixe more, kept about those Islands and came oftentimes so close vnder the Island, and to the Road of Angra, that the people on land might easily tell all his men that he had aboord, and knewe such as walked on the Hatches: they of the Island not once shooting at them, although they might easily haue done it, for they were within Musket shot both of the towne and fort. In these places he continued for the space of two moneths, and sayled round about the Islands, and landed in Graciosa and Fayal, as in the description of those Islands I haue alreadie declared. Here he tooke diuers ships and Carauels, which he sent into England: so that those of the Island durst not once put foorth their heads. At the same time about three or foure dayes after the Erle of Cumberland had beene in the Island of Fayal, and was departed from thence, there arriued in the said Island of Fayal sixe Indian shippes, whose General was one Iuan Doriues: and there they discharged in the Iland 4 millions of golde and siluer. And hauing with all speede refreshed their ships, fearing the comming of the Englishmen they set sayle, and arriued safely in S. Lucar, not meeting with the enemie, to the great good lucke of the Spaniards and hard fortune of the Englishmen: for that within lesse then two dayes after the golde and siluer was laden againe into the Spanish ships, the Erle of Cumberland sayled againe by that Island: so that it appeared that God would not let them haue it, for if they had once had sight thereof, without doubt it had bene theirs, as the Spaniards themselues confessed. In the moneth of Nouember there arriued in Tercera two great shippes, which were the Admirall and Viceadmirall of the Fleete laden with siluer, who with stormie weather were separated from the Fleete, and had beene in great torment and distresse, and readie to sinke: for they were forced to vse all their Pumps: so that they wished a thousand times to haue met with the Englishmen to whom they would willingly haue giuen their siluer and all that euer they brought with them onely to saue their liues. And although the Erle of Cumberland lay still about those Islands, yet they met not with him, so that after much paine and labour they got into the Road before Angra, where with all speede they vnladed and discharged aboue fiue millions of siluer, all in pieces of 8 or 10 pound great: so that the whole Kay lay couered with plates and chests of siluer, full of Ryales of eight, most wonderfull to behold, (each million being ten hundred thousand duckats,) besides pearles, gold and other stones, which were not registred. The Admirall and chiefe commander of those ships and Fleete called Aluaro Flores de Quiniones was sicke of the Neapolitan disease, and was brought to land, whereof not long after he died in Siuillia. He brought with him the Kings broad seale and full authoritie to be Generall and chiefe commander vpon the Seas, and of all Fleetes or ships, and of all places and Islands, or lands wheresoeuer he came: wherevpon the Gouernour of Tercera did him great honour, and betweene them it was concluded, perceiuing the weaknesse of their ships, and the danger of the Englishmen, that they would send the shippes, emptie with souldiers to conuey them, either to Siuill or Lisbon, where they could first arriue, with aduise vnto his Maiestie of all that had passed, and that he would giue order to fetch the siluer with good and safe conuoy. Wherevpon the said Aluero Flores stayed there, vnder colour of keeping the siluer, but specially because of his disease, and for that they were affraide of the Englishmen. This Aluaro Flores had alone for his owne part aboue 50000 Duckats in pearles which he shewed vnto vs, and sought to sell them or barter them with vs for spices or bils of exchange. The said two ships set saile with 3 or 4 hundred men, as well souldiers as others that came with them out of India, and being at sea had a storme, wherewith the Admirall burst and sunke in the sea, and not one man saued. The Vice-Admirall cut downe her mast, and ranne the ship on ground hard by Setuuel, where it burst in pieces, some of the men sauing them selues by swimming, that brought the newes, but the rest were drowned. In the same moneth there came two great ships out of the Spanish Indies, and being within halfe a mile of the Road of Tercera, they met with an English ship, which, after they had fought long together, tooke them both. About 7 or 8 moneths before, there had beene an English shippe in Tercera, that vnder the name of a Frenchman came to traffike in the Island, there to lade woad, and being discouered was both ship and goods confiscated to the kings vse, and all the men kept prisoners: yet went they vp and downe the streetes to get their liuings, by labouring like slaues, being in deede as safe in that Island, as if they had beene in prison. But in the ende vpon a Sunday, all the Saylers went downe behinde the hils called Bresil: where they found a Fisher-boat, whereinto they got and rowed into the sea to the Erle of Cumberlands shippes, which to their great fortune chanced at that time to come by the Island, and ankered with his ships about halfe a mile from the Road of Angra, hard by two small Islands, which lie about a bases shot from the Island and are full of Goats, Deere and Sheepe, belonging to the inhabitants of the Island of Tercera. Those Saylers knew it well, and thereupon they rowed vnto them with their boates, and lying at anker that day, they fetched as many Goates and sheepe as they had neede of: which those of the towne and of the Island well saw and beheld, yet durst not once goe foorth: so there remained no more on land but the Master and the Marchant of the said English ship. This Master had a brother in lawe dwelling in England, who hauing newes of his brothers imprisonment in Tercera, got licence of the Queene of England to set forth a ship, therewith to see if he could recouer his losses of the Spaniards by taking some of them, and so to redeeme his brother that lay prisoner in Tercera, and he it was that tooke the two Spanish ships before the Towne, the Master of the ship aforesaid standing on the shore by me, and looking vpon them, for he was my great acquaintance. The ships being taken that were worth 300 thousand duckats, he sent al the men on land sauing onely two of the principall Gentlemen, which he kept aboord thereby to ransome his brother: and sent the Pilot of one of the Indian ships that were taken, with a letter to the Gouernor of Tercera; wherein he wrote that he should deliuer him his brother, and he would send the 2 Gentlemen on land: if not, he would saile with them into England, as indeed he did, because the Gouernour would not doe it, saying that the Gentlemen might make that suite to the king of Spaine himselfe. This Spanish Pilot we bid to supper with vs, and the Englishmen likewise, where he shewed vs all the manner of their fight, much commending the order and maner of the Englishmens fighting, as also their courteous vsing of him: but in the end the English Pilot likewise stole away in a French ship, without paying any ransome as yet. In the moneth of Ianuarie 1590 there arriued one ship alone in Tercera, that came from the Spanish Indies, and brought newes that there was a Fleete of a hundred shippes which put out from the Firme land of the Spanish Indies, and by a storme were driuen vpon the coast called Florida, where they were all cast away, she hauing onely escaped, wherein there were great riches, and many men lost, as it may well be thought: so that they made their account, that of 220 ships that for certaine were knowen to haue put out of Noua Spagna, S. Domingo, Hauana, Capo verde, Brasilia, Guinea, &c. in the yeere 1589. to saile for Spaine and Portugall, there were not aboue 14 or 15 of them arriued there in safetie, all the rest being either drowned, burst or taken. In the same moneth of Ianuarie there arriued in Tercera 15 or 16 ships that came from Siuil, which were most Flieboats of the Low countries, and some Britons that were arrested in Spaine: these came full of souldiers, and well appointed with munition, to lade the siluer that lay in Tercera, and to fetch Aluares de Flores by the kings commandement into Spaine. And because that time of the yeere there are alwayes stormes about those Ilands, therefore they durst not enter into the road of Tercera, for that as then it blew so great a storme that some of their ships that had ankred were forced to cut downe their mastes, and were in danger to be lost: and among the rest a ship of Biscaie ran against the land and was striken in pieces, but all the men saued themselues. The other ships were forced to keepe the sea and seperate themselues one from the other, where wind and weather would driue them vntill the 15 of March for that in all that time they could not haue one day of faire weather to anker in, whereby they endured much miserie, cursing both the siluer and the Iland. This storme being past, they chanced to meet with a small English ship of about 40 tunnes in bignesse, which by reason of the great wind could not beare all her sailes: so they set vpon her and tooke her, and with the English flag in their Admirals sterne, they came as proudly into the hauen as if they had conquered all the realme of England: but as the Admirall that bare the English flag vpon her sterne was entring into the road, there came by chance two English ships by the Iland that paied her so well for her paines, that they were forced to cry Misericordia, and without all doubt had taken her, if she had bene but a mile further in sea: but because she got vnder the Fortresse, which also began to shoot at the Englishmen, they were forced to leaue her, and to put further into the sea, hauing slaine fiue or sixe of the Spaniards. The Englishmen that were taken in the small shippe were put vnder hatches, and coupled in bolts, and after they had bene prisoners 3 or 4 dayes, there was a Spanish Ensigne bearer in the ship that had a brother slaine in the Fleet that came for England, who as then minding to reuenge his death, and withall to shew his manhood on the English captiues that were in the English ship, which they had taken, as is aforesayd, tooke a poiniard in his hand and went downe vnder the hatches, where finding the poore Englishmen sitting in boltes, with the same poiniard he stabbed sixe of them to the heart: which two others of them perceiuing, clasped each other about the middle, because they would not be murthered by him, and threw themselues into the sea and there were drowned. This acte was of all the Spaniards much disliked and very ill taken, so that they caried the Spaniard prisoner vnto Lisbon, where being arriued, the king of Spaine willed he should be sent into England, that the Queene of England might vse him as she thought good: which sentence his friends by intreatie got to be reuersed, notwithstanding he commanded he should without all fauour be beheaded: but vpon a good Friday the Cardinall going to masse, all the captaines and Commanders made so great intreaty for him, that in the end they got his pardon. This I thought good to note, that men might vnderstand the bloody and dishonest minds of the Spaniards when they haue men vnder their subiection. The same two English ships which folowed the Spanish Admirall till he had got the Fort of Tercera, as I sayd before, put into the sea, where they met with another Spanish ship being of the same Fleet, that had likewise bene scattred by the storme and was onely missing, for the rest lay in the road. This small ship the Englishmen tooke, and sent all the men on shore, not hurting any of them: but if they had knowen what had bene done vnto the foresayd English captiues I belieue they would soone haue reuenged themselues, as afterward many an innocent soule paied for it. This ship thus taken by the Englishmen, was the same that was taken and confiscated in the Iland of Tercera by the Englishmen that got out of the Iland in a fisher boat (as I said before) and was sold vnto the Spaniards that as then came from the Indies, wherewith they sayled to S. Lucar, where it was also arrested by the duke, and appointed to go in company to fetch the siluer in Tercera, because it was a ship that sailed well, but among the Spaniards Fleet it was the meanest of the company. By this means it was taken from the Spaniards and caried into England, and the owners had it againe when they least thought of it. The 19 of March the aforesayd ships being 19 in number, set saile, hauing laden the kings siluer, and receiued in Aluaro Flores de Quiniones, with his company and good prouision of necessaries, munition and souldiers that were fully resolued (as they made shew) to fight valiantly to the last man before they would yeeld or lose their riches: and although they set their course for S. Lucar, the wind draue them vnto Lisbon, which (as it seemed) was willing by his force to helpe them, and to bring them thither in safetie, although Aluaro de Flores, both against the wind and weather would perforce haue sailed to Saint Lucar, but being constrained by the wind and importunitie of the sailers that protested they would require their losses and damages of him, he was content to saile to Lisbon: from whence the siluer was by land caried vnto Siuil. At Cape S. Vincent there lay a Fleet of 20 English ships to watch for the Armada, so that if they had put into S. Lucar, they had fallen right into their hands, which if the wind had serued they had done. And therefore they may say that the wind hath lent them a happy voiage: for if the Englishmen had met with them, they had surely bene in great danger, and possibly but few of them had escaped, by reason of the feare wherewith they were possessed, because fortune of rather God was wholy against them: which is a sufficient cause to make the Spaniards out of heart, and to the contrary to giue the Englishmen more courage, and to make them bolder for that they are victorious, stout and valiant: and seeing all their enterprises do take so good effect, that thereby they are become lords and masters of the sea, and need care for no man, as it wel appeareth by this briefe discourse. The 7 of August 1590. a nauie of English ships was seene before Tercera, being 20 in number, and 5 of them the Queenes ships: their Generall was one Martin Frobisher, as we after had intelligence. They came purposely to watch for the Fleet of the Spanish Indies, and for the Indian ships, and the ships of the countreys in the West: which put the Ilanders in great feare, specially those of Fayal, for that the Englishmen sent a trumpet to the Gouernour to aske certaine wine, flesh, and other victuals for their money and good friendship. They of Fayal did not onely refuse to giue eare vnto them, but with a shot killed their messenger or trumpeter: which the Englishmen tooke in euil part, sending them word that they were best to looke to themselues and stand vpon their guard, for they ment to come and visite them whether they would or no. The Gouernour made them answere that he was there in the behalfe of his maiestie of Spaine, and that he would doe his best to keepe them out, as he was bound: but nothing was done, although they of Fayal were in no little feare, sending to Tercera for aide, from whence they had certaine barkes with ponder and munition for warre, with some bisket and other necessary prouision. The 30 of August we receiued very certaine newes out of Portugal, that there were 80 ships put out of the Groine laden with victuals, munition, money and souldiers, to goe for Britaine to aide the Catholiques and Leaguers of France against the king of Nauarre. At the same time two Netherland hulkes comming out of Portugall to Tercera being halfe the Seas ouer, met with 4 of the Queenes ships, their Generall being sir Iohn Hawkins, that staied them, but let them go againe without doing them any harme. The Netherlanders reported, that each of the Queenes ships had 80 pieces of Ordinance, and that captaine Drake lay with 40 ships in the English chanell watching for the armie of the Groine: and likewise that there lay at the Cape S. Vincent ten other English ships, that if any ships escaped from the Ilands, they might take them. These tidings put the Ilanders in great feare, least if they failed of the Spanish fleete and got nothing by them, that then they would fall vpon the Ilands, because they would not returne emptie home, whereupon they held streit watch, sending aduise vnto the king what newes they heard. The first of September there came to the Iland of S. Michael a Portugall ship out of the hauen of Phernambuck in Brasile, which brought newes that the Admirall of the Portugall Fleet that came from India, hauing missed the Iland of S. Helena, was of necessitie constrained to put into Phernambuck, although the king had expresly vnder a great penaltie forbidden him so to doe, because of the wormes that there doe spoile the ships. The same shippe wherein Bernardin Ribero was Admirall the yeere before 1589. sailed out of Lisbon into the Indies, with 5 ships in her company, whereof but 4 got into India, the 5 was neuer heard of, so that it was thought to be cast away: the other foure returned safe againe into Portugall, though the Admiral was much spoiled, because he met with two English ships that fought long with him, and slew many of his men, but yet he escaped from them. The 5 of the same moneth there arriued in Tercera a carauel of the Iland of Coruo, and brought with her 50 men that had bin spoiled by the Englishmen who had set them on shore in the Iland of Coruo, being taken out of a ship that came from the Spanish Indies, they brought tidings that the Englishmen had taken 4 more of the Indian ships, and a carauel with the king of Spaines letters of aduise for the ships comming out of the Portugal Indies, and that with those which they had taken, they were at the least 40 English ships together, so that not one bark escaped them, but fel into their hands, and that therefore the Portugall ships comming out of India durst not put into the Ilands, but tooke their course vnder 40 and 42 degrees, and from thence sailed to Lisbon, shunning likewise the cape S. Vincent, otherwise they could not haue had a prosperous iourney of it, for that as then the sea was ful of English ships. [Sidenote: Great hauock of Spaniards.] Whereupon the king aduised the fleete lying in Hauana in the Spanish Indies ready to come for Spaine, that they should stay there all that yeere till the next yeere, because of the great danger they might fal into by the Englishmen, which was no smal charge, and hinderance to the fleet, for that the ships that lie there do consume themselues, and in a manner eat vp one another, by reason of the great number of people, together with the scarcitie of al things, so that many ships chose rather one by one to aduenture themselues alone to get home, then to stay there: all which fell into the Englishmen hands, whereof diuers of the men were brought into Tercera, for that a whole day we could see nothing els, but spoiled men set on shore, some out of one ship, some out of another, that pitie it was to see all of them cursing the Englishmen and their owne fortunes, with those that had bene the causes to prouoke the Englishmen to fight, and complaining of the small remedie and order taken therein by the king of Spaines officers. The 19 of the same moneth there came to Tercera a Carauel of Lisbon, with one of the kings officers, to cause the goods that were saued out of the ship which came from Malacca (for the which we staied there) to be laden and sent to Lisbon. And at the same time there put out of the Groine one Don Alonso de Baçan, with 40 great ships of warre to come vnto the Ilands, there to watch for the fleet of the Spanish and Portugall Indies, and the goods of the Malacca ship being laden, they were to convoy them all together into the riuer of Lisbon: but being certaine daies at sea, alwaies hauing a contrary wind, they could not get vnto the Ilands, onely two of them that were scattred from the fleet, arriued at Tercera, and not finding the fleet, they presently returned to seeke them: in the meane time the king changed his mind, and caused the fleet to stay in India, as I said before: and therefore hee sent worde vnto Don Alonso de Bassan, that hee should returne againe to the Groine, which he presently did (without doing any thing, nor once approching neer the Ilands, sauing onely the two foresayd ships, for he well knew that the Englishmen lay by the Iland of Coruo, but he would not visit them): and so he returned to the hauen the Groine, whereby our goods that came from Malacca were yet to ship, and trussed vp againe, and forced to stay a more fortunate time with patience perforce. The 23 of October there arriued in Tercera a Carauel with aduise out of Portugall, that of 5 ships which in the yere 1590 were laden in Lisbon for the Indies, 4 of them were turned againe to Portin. After they had bene 4 moneths abroad, and that the Admirall, wherein the Viceroy called Mathias d'Albukerk sailed, had onely gotten to India, as afterward newes thereof was brought ouer-land, hauing bin at the least 11 moneths at sea and neuer saw land, and came in great misery to Malacca. In this ship there died by the way 280 men, according to a note by himselfe made, and sent to the Cardinal at Lisbon, with the names and surnames of euery man, together with a description of his voiage, and the misery they had endured, which was onely done, because he would not lose the gouernment of India: and for that cause he had sworne either to lose his life, or to arriue in India, as in, deed he did afterwards, but to the great danger, losse and hinderance of his companie, that were forced to buy it with their liues, and onely for want of prouision, as it may wel be thought: for he knew full well that if he had returned backe againe into Portugal as the other ships did, he should haue bin cassiered from his Indian regiment, because the people began already to murmure at him for his proud and lofty mind. And among other things that shewed his pride the more, behind aboue the gallery of his ship he caused Fortune to be painted, and his own picture with a staffe standing by her, as it were threatning Fortune, with this posie, Quero que vencas, that is, I wil haue thee to ouercome: which being read by the Cardinal and other gentlemen (that to honor him brought him aboord his ship) it was thought to be a point of exceeding folly: but it is no strange matter among the Portugals: for they aboue all others must of force let the foole peepe out of their sleeues, specially when they are in authority, for that I knew the said Mathias d'Albukerk in India, being a souldier and a captaine, where he was esteemed and accounted for one of the best of them, and much honoured, and beloued of all men, as behauing himselfe curteously to euery man, whereby they all desired that he might be Viceroy. But when he once had receiued his patent with full power and authoritie from the king to be Viceroy, he changed so much from his former behauiour, that by reason of his pride, they all began to feare and curse him, and that before hee departed out of Lisbon, as it is often seene in many men that are aduanced vnto state and dignitie. The 20 of Ianuarie 1591. there was newes brought out of Portugall into Tercera, that the Englishmen had taken a ship that the king had sent into the Portugall Indies, with aduise to the Viceroy for the returning againe of the 4 ships that should haue gone to India, and because the ships were come backe againe, that ship was stuffed and laded as full of goods as possible it might be, hauing likewise in ready money 500 thousand duckets in roials of 8, besides other wares. It departed from Lisbon in the moneth of Nouember 1590. and met with the Englishmen, with whom for a time it fought, but in the end it was taken and caried into England with men and all, yet when they came there, the men were set at libertie, and returned into Lisbon, where the captaine was committed prisoner; but he excused himselfe and was released, with whom I spake my selfe, and he made this report vnto me. At the same time also they tooke a ship that came from the Mine laden with gold, and 2 ships laden with pepper and spices that were to saile into Italy, the pepper onely that was in them, being worth 170 thousand duckets: all these ships were caried into England, and made good prise. In the moneth of Iuly 1591. there hapned an earthquake in the Iland of S. Michael, which continued from the 26 of Iuly, to the 12 of August, in which time no man durst stay within his house but fled into the fields, fasting and praying with great sorow, for that many of their houses fel down, and a towne called Villa Franca, was almost cleane razed to the ground, all the cloisters and houses shaken to the earth, and therein some people slaine. The land in some places rose vp, and the cliffs remooued from one place to another, and some hils were defaced and made euen with the ground. The earthquake was so strong, that the ships which lay in the road and on the sea, shaked as if the world would haue turned round: there sprang also a fountaine out of the earth, for whence for the space of 4 daies, there flowed a most cleare water, and after that it ceased. At the same time they heard such thunder and noise vnder the earth, as if all the deuils in hell had bin assembled together in that place, wherewith many died for feare. The Iland of Tercera shooke 4 times together, so that it seemed to turne about, but there hapned no misfortune vnto it. Earthquakes are common in those Ilands, for about 20 yeres past there hapned another earthquake, wherein a high hill that lieth by the same towne of Villa Franca, fell halfe downe, and couered all the towne with earth, and killed many men. The 25 of August the kings Armada comming out of Ferol arriued in Tercera being in all 30 ships, Biskaines, Portugals and Spaniards, and 10 Dutch flieboats that were arrested in Lisbon to serue the king, besides other small ships and pataxos, that came to serue as messengers from place to place, and to discouer the seas. This nauie came to stay for, and conuoy the ships that should come from the Spanish Indies, and the flieboats were appointed in their returne home, to take in the goods that were saued in the lost ship that came from Malacca, and to conuoy them to Lisbon. The 13 of September the said Armada arriued at the Iland of Coruo, where the Englishmen with about 16 ships as then lay, staying for the Spanish fleet, whereof some or the most part were come, and there the English were in good hope to haue taken them. But when they perceiued the kings army to be strong, the Admiral being the lord Thomas Howard, commanded his Fleet not to fal vpon them, nor any of them once to separate their ships from him, vnlesse he gaue commission so to do: notwithstanding the viceadmirall sir Richard Greenuil being in the ship called the Reuenge, went into the Spanish fleet, and shot among them doing them great hurt, and thinking the rest of the company would haue folowed, which they did not, but left him there, and sailed away: the cause why could not be knowen. Which the Spaniards perceiuing, with 7 or 8 ships they boorded her, but she withstood them all, fighting with them at the least 12 houres together and sunke two of them, one being a new double Flieboat of 600 tunnes, and Admiral of the Flieboats, the other a Biscain; but in the end by reason of the number that came vpon her, she was taken, but to their great losse: for they had lost in fighting and by drowning aboue 400 men, and of the English were slaine about 100, Sir Richard Greenuil himselfe being wounded in his braine, whereof afterwards he died. He was caried into the ship called S. Paul, wherein was the Admirall of the fleet Don Alonso de Baçan: there his wounds were drest by the Spanish surgeons, but Don Alonso himselfe would neither see him nor speake with him: all the rest of the Captaines and gentlemen went to visite him, and to comfort him in his hard fortune wondering at his courage and stout heart, for that he shewed not any signe of faintnes nor changing of colour; but feeling the houre of death to approch, he spake these words in Spanish, and said: Here die I Richard Greenuil with a ioyful and quiet mind, for that I haue ended my life as a true souldier ought to do, that hath fought for his countrey, Queene, religion and honor, whereby my soule most ioyfull departeth out of this body, and shal alwayes leaue behind it an euerlasting fame of a valiant and true souldier that hath done his dutie as he was bound to doe. When he had finished these or such other like words, he gaue vp the Ghost, with great and stout courage, and no man could perceiue any true signe of heauines in him. This sir Rich. Greenuil was a great and a rich gentleman in England, and had great yeerely reuenues of his owne inheritance, but he was a man very vnquiet in his mind, and greatly affected to war; insomuch as of his owne priuate motion he offred his seruice to the Queene: he had performed many valiant acts, and was greatly feared in these Ilands, and knowen of euery man, but of nature very seuere, so that his owne people hated him for his fiercenesse, and spake very hardly of him: for when they first entred into the fleet or Armada, they had their great saile in a readinesse, and might possibly enough haue sailed away, for it was one of the best ships for saile in England, and the master perceiuing that the other ships had left them, and folowed not after, commanded the great saile to be cut that they might make away: but sir Rich. Greenuil threatned both him and al the rest that were in the ship, that if any man laid hand vpon it, he would cause him to be hanged, and so by that occasion they were compelled to fight and in the end were taken. He was of so hard a complexion, that as he continued among the Spanish captains while they were at dinner or supper with him, he would carouse 3 or 4 glasses of wine, and in a brauerie take the glasses betweene his teeth and crash them in pieces and swalow them downe, so that oftentimes the blood ran out of his mouth without any harme at all vnto him: and this was told me by diuers credible persons that many times stood and beheld him. The Englishmen that were left in the ship, as the captaine of the souldiers, the master and others were dispersed into diuers of the Spanish ships that had taken them, where there had almost a new fight arisen between the Biscains and the Portugals: while each of them would haue the honour to haue first boorded her, so that there grew a great noise and quarel among them, one taking the chiefe ensigne, and the other the flag, and the captaine and euery one held his owne. The ships that had boorded her were altogether out of order, and broken, and many of their men hurt, whereby they were compelled to come into the Island of Tercera, there to repaire themselues: where being arriued, I and my chamberfelow, to heare some newes, went aboord one of the ships being a great Biscain, and one of the 12 Apostles, whose captaine was called Bartandono, that had bin General of the Biscains in the fleet that went for England. He seeing vs called vs up into the gallery, where with great curtesie he receiued vs, being as then set at dinner with the English captaine that sate by him, and had on a sute of blacke veluet, but he could not tell vs any thing, for that he could speake no other language but English and Latine, which Bartandano also could a litle speake. The English captaine got licence of the gouernour that he might come on land with his weapon by his side, and was in our lodging with the Englishman that was kept prisoner in the Iland, being of that ship whereof the sailers got away, as I said before. The gouernour of Tercera bade him to dinner, and shewed him great curtesie. The master likewise with licence of Bartandono came on land and was in our lodging, and had at the least 10 or 12 wounds, as well in his head as on his body, whereof after that being at sea betweene Lisbon and the Ilands he died. The captaine wrote a letter, wherein he declared all the maner of the fight, and left it with the English marchant that lay in our lodging, to send it to the lord Admiral of England. This English captaine comming vnto Lisbon, was there wel receiued and not any hurt done vnto him, but with good conuoy sent vnto Setuuel, and from thence sailed into England with all the rest of the Englishmen that were taken prisoners. The Spanish armie staied at the Iland of Coruo til the last of September, to assemble the rest of the fleet together, which in the ende were to the number of 140 sailes of ships partly comming from India, and partly of the army, and being altogether readie to saile to Tercera in good company, there suddenly rose so hard and cruell a storme, that those of the Ilands did affirme, that in mans memorie there was neuer any such seen or heard off before: for it seemed the sea would haue swalowed vp the Ilands, the water mounting higher then the cliffs, which are so high that it amaseth a man to behold them: but the sea reached aboue them, and liuing fishes were throwen vpon the land. This storme continued not only a day or two with one wind, but 7 or 8 dayes continually, the wind turning round about in al places of the compasse, at the lest twise or thrise during that time, and all alike, with a continuall storme and tempest most terrible to behold, euen to vs that were on shore, much more then to such as were at sea: so that onely on the coasts and cliffes of the Iland of Tercera, there were aboue 12 ships cast away, and not onely vpon the one side, but round about it in euery corner, whereby nothing els was heard but complaining, crying, lamenting and telling, here is a ship broken in pieces against the cliffes, and there another, and all the men drowned: so that for the space of 20 dayes after the storme, they did nothing els but fish for dead men that continually came driuing on the shore. [Sidenote: The wracke of the Reuenge.] Among the rest was the English ship called the Reuenge, that was cast away vpon a cliffe neere to the Iland of Tercera, where it brake in an hundred pieces and sunke to the ground, hauing in her 70 men Galegos, Biscains, and others, with some of the captiue Englishmen, whereof but one was saued that got vp vpon the cliffes aliue, and had his body and head all wounded, and he being on shore brought vs the newes desiring to be shriuen, and thereupon presently died. The Reuenge had in her diuers faire brasse pieces that were all sunke in the sea, which they of the Iland were in good hope to waigh vp againe the next Sommer after. Among these ships that were cast away about Tercera, was likewise a Flie-boat, one of those that had bin arrested in Portugall to serue the king, called the white Doue, the master of her was one Cornelius Martenson of Schiedam in Holland, and there were in her 100 souldiers, as in euery one of the rest there were. He being ouer-ruled by the captaine that he could not be master of his owne, sayling here and there at the mercy of God, as the storme droue him, in the end came within the sight of the Iland of Tercera, which the Spaniards perceiuing thought all their safety onely to consist in putting into the road, compelling the Master and the Pilot to make towards the Iland, although the master refused to doe it, saying, that they were most sure there to be cast away and vtterly spoyled: but the captaine called him drunkard and Heretique, and striking him with a staffe, commaunded him to doe as he would haue him. The Master, seeing this and being compelled to doe it, sayd: well then my Masters, seeing that it is the desire of you all to bee cast away, I can but lose one life, and therewith desperately he sayled towards the shore, and was on that side of the Iland, where there was nothing els but hard stones and rocks, as high as mountaines, most terrible to beholde, where some of the inhabitants stood with long ropes and corke bound at the ende thereof, to throw them downe, vnto the men, that they might lay holde vpon them and saue their liues: but few of them got so neere, most of them being cast away, and smitten in pieces before they could get to the wall. The ship sailing in this maner (as I sayd before) towards the Iland, and approching to the shore, the master being an olde man, and full of yeeres, called his sonne that was in the ship with him, and hauing imbraced one another, and taken their last farewell, the good olde father willed his sonne not to take care for him, but seeke to saue himselfe; for (sayd he) sonne thou art yong, and mayest haue some hope to saue thy life, but as for me it is no great matter (I am olde) what become of me, and therewith ech of these shedding many teares, as euery louing father and kinde childe may well consider, the ship fell vpon the cliffes, and brake in pieces, the father on the one side, the sonne on the other side falling into the sea, ech laying holde vpon that which came next to hand, but to no purpose; for the sea was so high and furious, that they were all drowned, and onely foureteene or fifteene saued themselues by swimming, with their legs and armes halfe broken and out of ioynt, among which was the Masters sonne, and foure other Dutch boyes: the rest of the Spaniards and Sailers, with the Captaine and Master, were drowned. Whose heart would not melt with teares to beholde so grieuous a sight, specially considering with himselfe that the greatest cause thereof was the beastliness and insolency of the Spaniards, as in this onely example may well be seene? Whereby may be considered how the other shippes sped, as we ourselues did in part beholde, and by the men that were saued did heare more at large, as also some others of our countreymen that as then were in the like danger can well witnesse. On the other Ilands the losse was no lesse then in Tercera: for on the Iland of Saint George there were two ships cast away: on the Iland of Pico two ships: on the Iland of Gratiosa three ships: and besides those there came euery where round about diuers pieces of broken ships, and other things fleeting towards the Ilands, wherewith the sea was all couered most pitifull to beholde. On the Iland of S. Michael there were foure ships cast away, and betweene Tercera and S. Michael three more were sunke, which were seene and heard to cry out; whereof not one man was saued. [Sidenote: About 100 Spanish and Portugall ships drowned.] The rest put into the sea without masts, all torne and rent: so that of the whole fleet and armada, being 140 ships in all, there were but 32 or 33 arriued in Spaine and Portugall, yea, and those few with so great misery, paine and labour, that not two of them arriued there together, but this day one, and tomorrow another, next day the third, and so one after the other to the number aforesayd. All the rest were cast away vpon the Ilands, and ouerwhelmed in the Sea, whereby may be considered what great losse and hindrance they receiued at that time: for by many mens iudgments it was esteemed to be much more then was lost by their army that came for England: and it may well be thought, and presumed, that it was no other but a iust plague purposely sent by God vpon the Spaniards, and that it might truely be sayd, the taking of the Reuenge was iustly reuenged vpon them, and not by the might or force of man, but by the power of God, as some of them openly sayd in the Ile of Tercera, that they beleeued verily God would consume them, and that he tooke part with the Lutherans and heretiks: saying further that so soone as they had throwen the dead body of the Viceadmirall Sir Richard Greenfield ouerboord, they verily thought that as he had a diuellish faith and religion, and therefore the diuels loued him, so he presently sunke into the bottome of the sea, and downe into hell, where he raised vp all the diuels to the reuenge of his death: and that they brought so great stormes and torments vpon the Spaniards, because they onely maintained the Catholike and Romish religion. Such and the like blasphemies against God, they ceased not openly to vtter, without being reprooued of any man therein, nor for their false opinions: but the most part of them rather sayd and affirmed, that of trueth it must needs be so. As one of those Indian fleets put out of Noua Spagna, there were 35 of them by storme and tempest cast away and drowned in the Sea, being 50 in all; so that but 15 escaped. Of the fleet that came from Santo Domingo there were 14 cast away, comming out of the chanell of Hauana, whereof the Admirall and Viceadmirall were two of them: and from Terra Firma in India there came two ships laden with golde and siluer, that were taken by the Englishmen: and before the Spanish army came to Coruo, the Englishmen at times had taken at the least 20 ships, that came from S. Domingo, India, Brasilia, &c. and were all sent into England. * * * * * The miraculous victory atchieved by the English Fleete, under the discreet and happy conduct of the right honourable, right prudent, and valiant lord, the L. Charles Howard, L. high Admirall of England, &c. Vpon the Spanish huge Armada sent in the yeere 1588. for the invasion of England, together with the wofull and miserable success of the said Armada afterward, upon the Coasts of Norway, of the Scottish Westerne Isles, of Ireland, Spain, France, and of England, &c. Recorded in Latine by Emanuel van Meteran, in the 15. Booke of his history of the Low Countreys. Hauing in part declared the strange and wonderfull euents of the yeere eightie eight, which hath bene so long time foretold by ancient prophesies; we will now make relation of the most notable and great enterprise of all others which were in the foresaid yeere atchieued, in order as it was done. Which exploit (although in very deed it was not performed in any part of the low Countreys) was intended for their ruine and destruction. And it was the expedition which the Spanish king, hauing a long time determined the same in his minde, and hauing consulted thereabout with the Pope, set foorth and vndertooke against England and the low Countreys. To the end that he might subdue the Realme of England, and reduce it vnto his catholique Religion, and by that meanes might be sufficiently reuenged for the disgrace, contempt and dishonour, which hee (hauing 34. yeeres before enforced them to the Popes obedience) had endured of the English nation, and for diuers other iniuries which had taken deepe impression in his thoughts. And also for that hee deemed this to bee the most readie and direct course, whereby hee might recouer his heredetarie possession of the lowe Countreys, hauing restrained the inhabitants from sayling vpon the coast of England. Which verily, vpon most weighty arguments and euident reasons, was thought would vndoubtedly haue come to passe, considering the great aboundance and store of all things necessary wherewith those men were furnished, which had the managing of that action committed vnto them. But now let vs describe the matter more particularly. [Sidenote: The preparation of the Spanish King to subdue England and the lowe Countreys.] The Spanish King hauing with small fruite and commoditie, for aboue twentie yeeres together, waged warre against the Netherlanders, after deliberation with his counsellers thereabout, thought it most conuenient to assault them once againe by Sea, which had bene attempted sundry times heretofore, but not with forces sufficient. Vnto the which expedition it stoode him nowe in hand to ioyne great puissance, as hauing the English people his professed enemies; whose Island is so situate, that it may either greatly helpe or hinder all such as saile into those parts. For which cause hee thought good first of all to inuade England, being perswaded by his Secretary Escouedo, and by diuers other well experienced Spaniards and Dutchmen, and by many English fugitiues, that the conquest of that Island was lesse difficult then the conquest of Holland and Zeland. Moreouer the Spaniards were of opinion, that it would bee farre more behouefull for their King to conquere England and the lowe Countreys all at once, then to be constrained continually to maintaine a warlike Nauie to defend his East and West Indie Fleetes, from the English Drake, and from such like valiant enemies. And for the same purpose the king Catholique had giuen commandement long before in Italie and Spaine, that a great quantitie of timber should be felled for the building of shippes; and had besides made great preparation of things and furniture requisite for such an expedition; as namely in founding of brasen Ordinance, in storing vp of corne and victuals, in trayning of men to vse warlike weapons, in leauying and mustering of souldiers: insomuch that about the beginning of the yeere 1588. he had finished such a mightie Nauie, and brought it into Lisbon hauen, as neuer the like had before that time sailed vpon the Ocean sea. A very large and particular description of this Nauie was put in print and published by the Spaniards; wherein were set downe the number, names, and burthens of the shippes, the number of Mariners and souldiers throughout the whole Fleete; likewise the quantitie of their Ordinance, of their armour, of bullets, of match, of gun-poulder, of victuals, and of all their Nauall furniture was in the saide description particularized. Vnto all these were added the names of the Gouernours, Captaines, Noblemen and gentlemen voluntaries, of whom there was so great a multitude, that scarce was there any family of accompt, or any one principall man throughout all Spaine, that had not a brother, sonne or kinseman in that Fleete: who all of them were in good hope to purchase vnto themselues in that Nauie (as they termed it) inuincible endlesse glory and renowne, and to possesse themselues of great Seigniories and riches in England, and in the lowe Countreys. But because the said description was translated and published out of Spanish into diuers other languages, we will here onely make an abridgment or briefe rehearsall thereof. [Sidenote: The number and qualitie of the ships in the Spanish Fleete, with the souldiers, Mariners, and pieces of Ordinance.] Portugal furnished and set foorth vnder the conduct of the duke of Medina Sidonia generall of the Fleete, ten Galeons, two Zabraes, 1300. Mariners, 3300. souldiers, 300. great pieces, with all requisite furniture. Biscay, vnder the conduct of Iohn Martines de Ricalde Admiral of the whole Fletee, set forth tenne Galeons, 4. Pataches, 700. mariners, 2000. souldiers, 250. great pieces, &c. Guipusco, vnder the conduct of Michael de Oquendo, tenne Galeons, 4 Pataches, 700. mariners, 2000. souldiers, 310. great pieces. Italy with the Leuant Islands, vnder Martine de Vertendona, 10. Galeons, 800. mariners, 2000. souldiers, 310. great pieces, &c. Castile, vnder Diego Flores de Valdez, 14. Galeons, two Pataches, 1700. mariners, 2400. souldiers, and 380. great pieces, &c. Andaluzia, vnder the conduct of Petro de Valdez, 10. Galeons, one Patache, 800. mariners, 2400. souldiers, 280. great pieces, &c. Item, vnder the conduct of Iohn Lopez de Medina, 23. great Flemish hulkes, with 700. mariners, 3200. souldiers, and 400. great pieces. Item, vnder Hugo de Moncada, foure Galliasses containing 1200. gally-slaues, 460. mariners, 870. souldiers, 200. great pieces, &c. Item, vnder Diego de Mandrana, foure Gallies of Portugall, with 888. gally-slaues, 360. mariners, 20 great pieces, and other requisite furniture. Item, vnder Anthonie de Mendoza, 22. Pataches and Zabraes, with 574. mariners, 488. souldiers, and 193. great pieces. Besides, the ships aforementioned there were 20 carauels rowed with oares, being appointed to performe necessary seruices vnto the greater ships: insomuch that all the ships appertayning to this Nauie amounted vnto the summe of 150. eche one being sufficiently prouided of furniture and victuals, The number of mariners in the saide Fleete were aboue 8000. of slaues 2088. of souldiers 20000. (besides noblemen and gentlemen voluntaries) of great cast pieces 2650. The foresaid ships were of an huge and incredible capacitie and receipt. For the whole Fleete was large ynough to containe the burthen of 60 thousand tunnes. [Sidenote: A description of the Galeons.] The Galeons were 64. in number, being of an huge bignesse, and very stately built, being of marueilous force also, and so high that they resembled great castles, most fit to defend themselues and to withstand any assault, but in giuing any other ships the encounter farre inferiour vnto the English and Dutch ships, which can with great dexteritie wield and turn themselues at all assayes. The vpperworke of the said Galeons was of thicknesse and strength sufficient to beare off musket-shot. The lower worke and the timbers thereof were out of measure strong, being framed of plankes and ribs foure or fiue foote in thicknesse, insomuch that no bullets could pierce them, but such as were discharged hard at hand: which afterward prooued true, for a great number of bullets were founde to sticke fast within the massie substance of those thicke plankes. Great and well pitched Cables were twined about the masts of their shippes, to strengthen them against the battery of shot. [Sidenote: A description of the Galliasses.] The Galliasses were of such bignesse, that they contained within them chambers, chapels, turrets, pulpits, and other commodities of great houses. The Galliasses were rowed with great oares, there being in eche one of them 300. slaues for the same purpose, and were able to do great seruice with the force of their Ordinance. All these together with the residue aforenamed were furnished and beautified with trumpets, streamers, banners, warlike ensignes, and other such like ornaments. [Sidenote: The great Ordinance, bullets, gunpoulder, and other furniture.] Their pieces of brasen ordinance were 1600. and of yron a 1000. The bullets thereto belonging were 120. thousand. Item of gun-poulder 5600. quintals. Of matche 1200. quintals. Of muskets and kaleiuers 7000. Of haleberts and partisans 10000. Moreouer they had great store of canons, double-canons, culuerings and field-pieces for land seruices. [Sidenote: Their prouision of victuals and other things necessary.] Likewise they were prouided of all instruments necessary on land to conueigh and transport their furniture from place to place; as namely of carts, wheeles, wagons, &C. Also they had spades, mattocks and baskets to set pioners on worke. They had in like sort great store of mules and horses, and whatsoeuer else was requisite for a land-armie. They were so well stored of biscuit, that for the space of halfe a yeere, they might allow eche person in the whole Fleete half a quintall euery moneth; whereof the whole summe amounteth vnto an hundred thousand quintals. Likewise of wine they had 147. thousand pipes, sufficient also for halfe a yeeres expedition. Of bacon 6500. quintals. Of cheese three thousand quintals. Besides fish, rise, beanes, pease, oile, vineger, &c. Moreouer they had 12000. pipes of fresh water, and all other necessary prouision, as namely candles, lanternes, lampes, sailes, hempe, ox-hides and lead to stop holes that should be made with the battery of gunshot. To be short, they brought all things expedient either for a Fleete by sea, or for an armie by land. This Nauie (as Diego Pimentelli afterward confessed) was esteemed by the King himselfe to containe 32000. persons, and to cost him euery day 30. thousand ducates. [Sidenote: A Spanish terza consisteth of 3200. souldiers.] There were in the said Nauie fiue terzaes of Spaniards, (which terzaes the Frenchmen call Regiments) vnder the commaund of fiue gouernours termed by the Spaniards, Masters of the field, and amongst the rest there were many olde and expert souldiers chosen out of the garisons of Sicilie, Naples, and Terçera. Their Captaines or Colonels were Diego Pimentelli, Don Francisco de Toledo, Don Alonço de Luçon, Don Nicolas de Isla, Don Augustin de Mexia; who had eche of them 32. companies vnder their conduct. Besides the which companies there were many bands also of Castilians and Portugals, euery one of which had their peculiar gouernours, captaines, officers, colours and weapons. It was not lawfull for any man, vnder grieuous penaltie, to cary any women or harlots in the Fleete: for which cause the women hired certaine shippes, wherein they sailed after the Nauie: some of the which being driuen by tempest arriued vpon the coast of France. The generall of this mightie Nauie, was Don Alonso Perez de Guzman duke of Medina Sidonia, Lord of S. Lucar, and knight of the golden Fleece: by reason that the Marques of santa Cruz appointed for the same dignitie, deceased before the time. Iohn Martines de Ricalde was Admirall of the Fleete. Francis Bouadilla was chiefe Marshall: who all of them had their officers fit and requisite for the guiding and managing of such a multitude. Likewise Martin Alorcon was appointed Vicar generall of the Inquisition, being accompanied with more then a hundreth Monkes, to wit, Iesuites, Capuchines, and friers mendicant. Besides whom also there were Phisitians, Chirurgians, Apothecaries, and whatsoever else perteined vnto the hospitall. Ouer and besides the forenamed gouernours and officers being men of chiefe note, there were 124. very noble and worthy Gentlemen, which went voluntarily of their owne costs and charges, to the ende they might see fashions, learne experience, and attaine vnto glory. Amongst whom was the prince of Ascoli, Alonzo de Leiua, the marques de Pennafiel, the marques de Ganes, the marques de Barlango, count de Paredes, count de Yeluas, and diuers other marqueses and earles of the honourable families of Mendoza, of Toledo, of Pachieco, of Cordoua, of Guzman, of Manricques, and a great number of others. [Sidenote: The preparation of the Duke of Parma to aide the Spaniards.] While the Spaniards were furnishing this their Nauuie, the Duke of Parma, at the direction of king Philip, made great preparation in the low Countreys, to giue ayd and assistance vnto the Spaniards; building ships for the same purpose, and sending for Pilots and shipwrights out of Italy. In Flanders hee caused certaine deepe chanels to be made, and among the rest the chanell of Yper commonly called Yper-lee, employing some thousands of workemen about that seruice: to the end that by the said chanel he might transport ships from Antwerp and Ghendt to Bruges, where hee had assembled aboue a hundreth small ships called hoyes being well stored with victuals, which hoyes hee was determined to haue brought into the sea by the way of Sluys, or else to haue conueyed them by the saide Yper-lee being now of greater depth, into any port of Flanders whatsoeuer. In the riuer of Waten he caused 70. ships with flat bottomes to be built, euery one of which should serue to cary 30. horses, hauing eche of them bridges likewise for the horses to come on boord, or to goe foorth on land. Of the same fashion he had prouided 200. other vessels at Nieuport, but not so great. And at Dunkerk hee procured 28. ships of warre, such as were there to be had, and caused a sufficient number of Mariners to be leuied at Hamburgh, Breme, Emden, and at other places. Hee put in the ballast of the said ships, great store of beames of thicke plankes, being hollow and beset with yron pikes beneath, but on eche side full of claspes and hookes, to ioyne them together. Hee had likewise at Greueling prouided 20. thousand of caske, which in a short space might be compact and ioyned together with nailes and cords, and reduced into the forme of a bridge. To be short, whatsoeuer things were requisite for the making of bridges, and for the barring and stopping vp of hauens mouthes with stakes, posts, and other meanes, he commanded to be made ready. Moreouer not farre from Neiuport hauen, he had caused a great pile of wooden fagots to be layd, and other furniture to be brought for the rearing vp of a mount. The most part of his ships conteined two ouens a piece to bake bread in, with a great number of sadles, bridles, and such other like apparell for horses. They had horses likewise, which after their landing should serue to conuey, and draw engines, field-pieces, and other warlike prouisions. Neere vnto Neiuport he had assembled an armie, ouer the which he had ordained Camillo de Monte to be Camp-master. This army consisted of 30. bands or ensignes of Italians, of tenne bands of Wallons, eight of Scots, and eight of Burgundians, all which together amount vnto 56. bands, euery band containing a hundreth persons. Neare vnto Dixmund there were mustered 80. bands of Dutch men, sixtie of Spaniards, sixe of high Germans, and seuen bands of English fugitiues, vnder the conduct of sir William Stanley an English knight. In the suburbes of Cortreight there were 4000. horsemen together with their horses in a readinesse: and at Waten 900. horses, with the troupe of the Marques Del Gwasto Captaine generall of the horsemen. Vnto this famous expedition and presupposed victorie, many potentates, princes, and honourable personages hied themselues: out of Spaine the prince of Melito called the duke of Pastrana and taken to be the sonne of one Ruygomes de Silua, but in very deed accompted among the number of king Philips base sonnes. Also the Marques of Burgraue, one of the sonnes of Archiduke Ferdinand and Philippa Welsera. Vespasian Gonsaga of the family of Mantua, being for chiualry a man of great renowne, and heretofore Vice-roy in Spaine. Item Iohn Medices base sonne vnto the duke of Florence. And Amadas of Sauoy, the duke of Sauoy his base sonne, with many others of inferiour degrees. [Sidenote: The Popes furtherance to the conquest of England, and of the low countries.] Likewise Pope Sixtus quintus for the setting forth of the foresaid expedition, as they vse to do against Turkes and infidels, published a Cruzado, with most ample indulgences which were printed in great numbers. These vaine buls the English and Dutchmen deriding, sayd that the deuill at all passages lay in ambush like a thiefe, no whit regarding such letters of safe conduct. Some there be which affirme that the Pope had bestowed the realme of England with the title of Defensor fidei, vpon the king of Spaine, giuing him charge to inuade it vpon this condition, that he should enioy the conquered realm, as a vassal and tributarie, in that regard, vnto the sea of Rome. To this purpose the said Pope proffered a million of gold, the one halfe thereof to be paied in readie money, and the other halfe when the realme of England or any famous port thereof were subdued. And for the greater furtherance of the whole businesse, he dispatched one D. Allen an English man (whom he had made Cardinall for the same ende and purpose) into the Low countries, vnto whom he committed the administration of all matters ecclesiasticall throughout England. This Allen being enraged against his owne natiue countrey, caused the Popes bull to be translated into English, meaning vpon the arriual of the Spanish fleete to haue it so published in England. By which Bull the excommunications of the two former Popes were confirmed, and the Queenes most sacred Maiestie was by them most vniustly depriued of all princely titles and dignities, her subjects being enioyned to performe obedience vnto the duke of Parma, and vnto the Popes Legate. But that all matters might be performed with greater secrecie, and that the whole expedition might seeme rather to be intended against the Low countries, then against England, and that the English people might be perswaded that all was but bare words and threatnings, and that nought would come to effect, there was a solemne meeting appointed at Borborch in Flanders for a treatie of peace betweene her matestie and the Spanish king. [Sidenote: A treatie of peace, to the end that Englad and the vnited prouinces might be secure of inuasion.] Against which treatie the vnited prouinces making open protestation, vsed all meanes possible to hinder it, alleaging that it was more requisite to consult how the enemie now pressing vpon them might be repelled from off their frontiers. Howbeit some there were in England that greatly vrged and prosecuted this league, saying, that it would be very commodious vnto the state of the realme, as well in regard of traffique and nauigation, as for the auoiding of great expenses to maintaine the warres, affirming also, that at the same time peace might easily and vpon reasonable conditions be obtained of the Spaniard. Others thought by this meanes to diuert some other way, or to keepe backe the nauy now comming vpon them, and so to escape the danger of that tempest. Howsoeuer it was, the duke of Parma by these wiles enchanted and dazeled the eyes of many English and Dutch men that were desirous of peace: whereupon it came to passe, that England and the vnited prouinces prepared in deed some defence to withstand that dreadfull expedition and huge Armada, but nothing in comparison of the great danger which was to be feared, albeit the constant report of the whole expedition had continued rife among them for a long time before. Howbeit they gaue eare vnto the relation of certaine that sayd, that this nauie was prouided to conduct and waft ouer the Indian Fleets: which seemed the more probable because the Spaniards were deemed not to be men of so small discretion as to aduenture those huge and monstrous ships vpon the shallow and dangerous chanel of England. [Sidenote: Her maiesties warlike preparation by sea.] At length when as the French king about the end of May signified vnto her Maiestie in plaine termes that she should stand vpon her guard, because he was now most certainly enformed, that there was so dangerous an inuasion imminent vpon her realme, that he feared much least all her land and sea-forces would be sufficient to withstand it, &c. then began the Queens Maiestie more carefully to gather her forces together, and to furnish her own ships of warre, and the principall ships of her subiects with souldiers, weapons, and other necessary prouision. The greatest and strongest ships of the whole nauy she sent vnto Plimmouth vnder the conduct of the right honorable Lord Charles Howard, lord high Admirall of England, &c. Vnder whom the renoumed Knight Sir Francis Drake was appointed Vice-admiral. The number of these ships was about an hundreth. The lesser ships being 30. or 40. in number, and vnder the conduct of the lord Henry Seimer were commanded to lie between Douer and Caleis. [Sidenote: Her Maiesties land-forces.] On land likewise throughout the whole realme, souldiers were mustered and trained in all places, and were committed vnto the most resolute and faithfull captaines. And whereas it was commonly giuen out that the Spaniard hauing once vnited himselfe vnto the duke of Parma, meant to inuade by the riuer of Thames, there was at Tilburie in Essex ouer-against Grauesend, a mightie army encamped, and on both sides of the riuer fortifications were erected, according to the prescription of Frederike Genebelli, an Italian enginier. Likewise there were certaine ships brought to make a bridge, though it were very late first. Vnto the sayd army came in proper person the Queens most roiall Maiestie, representing Tomyris that Scythian warlike princesse, or rather diuine Pallas her selfe. Also there were other such armies leuied in England. The principall catholique Recussants (least they should stirre vp any tumult in the time of the Spanish inuasion) were sent to remaine at certaine conuenient places, as namely in the Isle of Ely and at Wisbich. And some of them were sent vnto other places, to wit, vnto sundry bishops and noblemen, where they were kept from endangering the state of the common wealth, and of her sacred Maiestie, who of her most gracious clemencie gaue expresse commandement that they should be intreated with all humanity and friendship. [Sidenote: The preparation of the united prouinces.] The Prouinces of Holland and Zeland, &c. giuing credite vnto their intelligence out of Spain, made preparation to defend themselues: but because the Spanish ships were described vnto them to be so huge, they relied partly vpon the shallow and dangerous seas all along their costs. Wherfore they stood most in doubt of the duke of Parma his small and flat-bottomed ships. Howbeit they had all their ships of warre to the number of 90. and aboue, in a readinesse for all assayes: the greater part whereof were of a small burthen, as being more meete to saile vpon their riuers and shallow seas: and with these ships they besieged all the hauens in Flanders, beginning at the mouth of Scheld, or from the towne of Lillo, and holding on to Greueling and almost vnto Caleis, and fortified all their sea-townes with strong garrisons. Against the Spanish fleets arriual, they had provided 25. or 30. good ships, committing the gouernment of them vnto Admirall Lonck, whom they commanded to ioine himselfe vnto the lord Henry Seymer, lying betweene Douer and Cales. And when as the foresaid ships (whereof the greater part besieged the hauen of Dunkerke) were driuen by tempest into Zeland, Iustin, of Nassau the Admiral of Zeland supplied that squadron with 35. ships being of no great burthen, but excellently furnished with gunnes, mariners and souldiers in great abundance, and especially with 1200. braue Musquetiers, hauing bene accustomed vnto seafights, and being chosen out of all their companies for the same purpose: and so the said Iustin of Nassau kept such diligent ward in that Station that the duke of Parma could not issue foorth with his nauy into the sea but of any part of Flanders. [Sidenote: The Spanish fleete set saile vpon the 19. of May.] In the meaane while the Spanish Armada set saile out of the hauen of Lisbon vpon the 19. of May, An. Dom. 1588 vnder the conduct of the duke of Medina Sidonia, directing their course for the Baie of Corunna, alias the Groine in Gallicia, where they tooke in souldiers and warlike prouision, this port being in Spaine the neerest vnto England. As they were sailing along, there arose such a mightie tempest, that the whole Fleete was dispersed, so that when the duke was returned vnto his company, he could not escry aboue 80. ships in all, whereunto the residue by litle and litle ioyned themselues, except eight which had their mastes blowen ouer-boord. One of the foure gallies of Portingal escaped very hardly, retiring her selfe, into the hauen. The other three were vpon the coast of Baion in France, by the assistance and courage of one Dauid Gwin an English captiue (whom the French and Turkish slaues aided in the same enterprise) vtterly disabled and vanquished: one of the three being first ouercome, which conquered the two other, with the slaughter of their gouernours and souldiers, and among the rest of Don Diego de Mandrana with sundry others: and so these slaues arriuing in France with the three Gallies, set themselues at liberty. [Sidenote: They set saile from the Groine vpon the 11. of Iuly. The Spaniards come within kenning of England. Captain Fleming.] The nauy hauing refreshed themselues at the Groine, and receiuing daily commandement from the king to hasten their iourney, hoised vp sailes the 11. day of July, and so holding on their course, till the 19. of the same moneth, they came then vnto the mouth of the narow seas or English chanel. From whence (striking their sailes in the meane season) they dispatched certaine of their smal ships vnto the duke of Parma. At the same time the Spanish Fleete was escried by an English pinasse, captaine whereof was M. Thomas Fleming, after they had bene aduertised of the Spaniards expedition by their scoutes and espials, which hauing ranged along the coast of Spaine, were lately returned home into Plimmouth for a new supply of victuals and other necessaries, who considering the foresayd tempest, were of opinion that the nauy being of late dispersed and tossed vp and downe the maine Ocean, was by no means able to performe their intended voiage. Moreouer, the L. Charles Howard L. high admiral of England had receiued letters from the court, signifying vnto him that her Maiestie was aduertised that the Spanish Fleete would not come foorth, nor was to be any longer expected for, and therefore, that vpon her Maiesties commandement he must send backe foure of her tallest and strongest ships vnto Chatham. [Sidenote: The L. Admirals short warning upon the 19. of Iuly.] The lord high Admiral of England being thus on the sudden, namely vpon the 19. of July about foure of the clocke in the afternoone, enformed by the pinasse of captaine Fleming aforesaid, of the Spaniards approch, with all speed and diligence possible he warped his ships, and caused his mariners and souldiers (the greater part of whom was absent for the cause aforesayd) to come on boord, and that with great trouble and drfficultie, insomuch that the lord Admiral himselfe was faine to lie without in the road with sixe ships onely all that night, after the which many others came foorth of the hauen. [Sidenote: The 20. of Iuly.] The very next day being the 20. of Iuly about high noone, was the Spanish Fleete escried by the English, which with a Southwest wind came sailing along, and passed by Plimmouth: in which regard (according to the iudgement of many skilful nauigators) they greatly ouershot themselues, whereas it had bene more commodious for them to haue staied themselues there, considering that the Englishmen being as yet vnprouided, greatly relied vpon their owne forces, and knew not the estate of the Spanish nauy. Moreouer, this was the most conuenient port of all others, where they might with greater securitie haue bene aduertised of the English forces, and how the commons of the land stood affected, and might haue stirred vp some mutinie, so that hither they should haue bent all their puissance, and from hence the duke of Parma might more easily haue conueied his ships. But this they were prohibited to doe by the king and his counsell, and were expressely commanded to vnite themselues vnto the souldiers and ships of the said duke of Parma, and so to bring their purpose to effect. Which was thought to be the most easie and direct course, for that they imagined that the English and Dutch men would be vtterly daunted and dismaied thereat, and would each man of them retire vnto his owne Prouince and Porte for the defence thereof, and transporting the armie of the duke vnder the protection of their huge nauy, they might inuade England. It is reported that the chiefe commanders in the nauy, and those which were more skilfull in nauigation, to wit, Iohn Martines de Ricalde, Diego Flores de Valdez, and diuers others found fault that they were bound vnto so strict directions and instructions, because that in such a case many particular accidents ought to concurre and to be respected at one and the same instant, that is to say, the opportunitie of the wind, weather, time, tide, and ebbe, wherein they might saile from Flanders to England. Oftentimes also the darkenesse and light, the situation of places, the depths and shoulds were to be considered: all which especially depended vpon the conuenience of the windes, and were by so much the more dangerous. But it seemeth that they were enioined by their commission to ancre neere vnto, or about Caleis, whither the duke of Parma with his ships and all his warrelike prouision was to resort, and while the English and Spanish great ships were in the midst of their conflict, to passe by, and to land his souldiers vpon the Downes. The Spanish captiues reported that they were determined first to haue entred the riuer of Thames, and thereupon to haue passed with small ships vp to London, supposing that they might easily winne that rich and flourishing Citie being but meanely fortified and inhabited with Citizens not accustomed to the warres, who durst not withstand their first encounter, hoping moreouer to finde many rebels against her Maiestie and popish catholiques, or some fauourers of the Scottish queene (which was not long before most iustly beheaded) who might be instruments of sedition. Thus often aduertising the duke of Parrna of their approch, the 20. of Iuly they passed by Plimmouth, which the English ships pursuing and getting the wind of them, gaue them the chase and the encounter, and so both Fleets frankly exchanged their bullets. [Sidenote: The 21. of Iuly.] The day following which was the 21. of Iuly, the English ships approched within musquet shot of the Spanish: at what time the lorde Charles Howard most hotly and valiantly discharged his Ordinance vpon the Spanish Vice-admirall. The Spaniards then well perceiuing the nimblenesse of the English ships in discharging vpon the enimie on all sides, gathered themselues close into the forme of an halfe moone, and slackened their sailes, least they should outgoe any of their companie. And while they were proceeding on in this maner, one of their great Galliasses was so furiously battered with shot, that the whole nauy was faine to come vp rounder together for the safegard thereof: whereby it came to passe that the principall Galleon of Siuill (wherein Don Pedro de Valdez, Vasques de Silua, Alonzo de Sayas, and other noble men were embarqued) falling foule of another shippe, had her fore-mast broken, and by that meanes was not able to keepe way with the Spanish Fleete, neither would the sayde Fleete stay to succour it, but left the distressed Galeon behind. The lord Admirall of England when he saw this ship of Valdez, and thought she had bene voyd of Mariners and Souldiers, taking with him as many shippes as he could, passed by it, that he might not loose sight of the Spanish Fleet that night. For sir Francis Drake (who was notwithstanding appointed to beare out his lanterne that night) was giuing of chase vnto fiue great Hulkes which had separated themselues from the Spanish Fleete: but finding them to be Easterlings, he dismissed them. The lord Admirall all that night following the Spanish lanterne in stead of the English, found himselfe in the morning to be in the midst of his enimies Fleete, but when he perceiued it, he cleanly conueyed himselfe out of that great danger. [Sidenote: The 22. of Iuly.] The day folowing, which was the two and twentie of Iuly, Sir Francis Drake espied Valdez his shippe, whereunto hee sent foorth his pinasse, and being aduertised that Valdez himselfe was there, and 450. persons with him, he sent him word that he should yeeld himselfe. Valdez for his honors sake caused certaine conditions to be propounded vnto Drake: who answered Valdez that he was not now at laisure to make any long parle, but if he would yeeld himselfe, he should find him friendly and tractable: howbeit if he had resolued to die in fight, he should prooue Drake to be no dastard. [Sidenote: Don Pedro de Valdez with his ship and company taken.] Vpon which answere Valdez and his company vnderstanding that they were fallen into the hands of fortunate Drake, being mooued with the renoume and celebritie of his name, with one consent yeelded themselues, and found him very fauourable vnto them. Then Valdez with 40. or 50. noblemen and gentlemen pertaining vnto him, came on boord sir Francis Drakes ship. The residue of his ship were caried vnto Plimmouth, where they were detained a yere and an halfe for their ransome. Valdez comming vnto Drake and humbly kissing his hand protested vnto him, that he and they had resolued to die in battell, had they not by good fortune fallen into his power, whom they knew to be right curteous and gentle, and whom they had heard by generall report to bee most favourable vnto his vanquished foe: insomuch that he sayd it was to bee doubted whether his enimies had more cause to admire and loue him for his great, valiant, and prosperous exploites, or to dread him for his singular felicitie and wisedom, which euer attended vpon him in the warres, and by the which hee had attained vnto so great honour. With that Drake embraced him and gaue him very honourable entertainement, feeding him at his owne table, and lodging him in his cabbin. Here Valdez began to recount vnto Drake the forces of all the Spanish Fleet, and how foure mightie Gallies were separated by tempest from them, and also how they were determined first to haue put into Plimmouth hauen, not expecting to bee repelled thence by the English ships which they thought could by no meanes withstand their impregnable forces, perswading themselues that by means of their huge Fleete, they were become lords and commaunders of the maine Ocean. For which cause they marueled much how the English men in their small ships durst approch within musket shot of the Spaniards mightie wooden castles, gathering the wind of them with many other such like attempts. Immediately after, Valdez and his company, being a man of principal authoritie in the Spanish Fleete, and being descended of one and the same familie with that Valdez, which in the yeere 1574 besieged Leiden in Holland, were sent captiues into England. There were in the sayd ship 55. thousand duckates in ready money of the Spanish kings gold, which the souldiers merily shared among themselues. [Sidenote: A great Biscaine ship taken by the English.] The same day was set on fire one of their greatest shippes, being Admirall of the squadron of Guipusco, and being the shippe of Michael de Oquendo Vice-admirall of the whole Fleete, which contained great store of gunnepowder and other warrelike prouision. The vpper part onely of this shippe was burnt, and an the persons therein contained (except a very few) were consumed with fire. And thereupon it was taken by the English, and brought into England with a number of miserable burnt and skorched Spaniards. Howbeit the gunpowder (to the great admiration of all men) remained whole and vnconsumed. In the meane season the lord Admirall of England in his ship called the Arke-royall, all that night pursued the Spaniards so neere, that in the morning hee was almost left alone in the enimies Fleete, and it was foure of the clocke at afternoone before the residue of the English Fleet could ouertake him. At the same time Hugo de Moncada gouernour of the foure Galliasses, made humble sute vnto the Duke of Medina that he might be licenced to encounter the Admirall of England: which libertie the duke thought not good to permit vnto him, because hee was loth to exceed the limites of his commission and charge. [Sidenote: The 23. of Iuly.] Vpon Tuesday which was the three and twentie of Iuly, the nauie being come ouer against Portland, the wind began to turne Northerly, insomuch that the Spaniards had a fortunate and fit gale to inuade the English. But the Englishmen hauing lesser and nimbler Ships, recouered againe the vantage of the winde from the Spaniards, whereat the Spaniards seemed to bee more incensed to fight then before. But when the English Fleete had continually and without intermission from morning to night, beaten and battered them with all their shot both great and small: the Spaniardes vniting themselves, gathered their whole Fleete close together into a roundell, so that it was apparant that they ment not as yet to inuade others, but onely to defend themselues and to make hast vnto the place prescribed vnto them, which was neere vnto Dunkerk, that they might ioine forces with the Duke of Parma, who was determined to haue proceeded secretly with his small shippes vnder the shadow and protection of the great ones, and so had intended circumspectly to performe the whole expedition. This was the most furious and bloodie skirmish of all, in which the lord Admirall of England continued fighting amidst his enimies Fleete, and seeing one of his Captaines afarre off, hee spake vnto him in these wordes: Oh George what doest thou? Wilt thou nowe frustrate my hope and opinion conceiued of thee? Wilt thou forsake me nowe? With which wordes hee being enflamed, approched foorthwith, encountered the enemie, and did the part of a most valiant Captaine. His name was George Fenner, a man that had bene conuersant in many Sea-fights. [Sidenote: A great Venetian ship and other small ships taken by the English.] In this conflict there was a certaine great Venetian ship with other small ships surprised and taken by the English. The English nauie in the meane while increased, whereunto out of all Hauens of the Realme resorted ships and men: for they all with one accord came flocking thither as vnto a set field, where immortall fame and glory was to be attained, and faithfult seruice to bee performed vnto their prince and countrey. In which number there were many great and honourable personages, as namely, the Erles of Oxford, of Northumberland, of Cumberland, &c. with many Knights and Gentlemen: to wit, Sir Thomas Cecill, Sir Robert Cecill, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir William Hatton, Sir Horatio Palauacini, Sir Henry Brooke, Sir Robert Carew, Sir Charles Blunt, Master Ambrose Willoughbie, Master Henry Nowell, Master Thomas Gerard, Master Henry Dudley, Master Edward Darcie, Master Arthur Gorge, Master Thomas Woodhouse, Master William Haruie, &c. And so it came to passe that the number of the English shippes amounted vnto an hundreth: which when they were come before Douer, were increased to an hundred and thirtie, being notwithstanding of no proportionable bignesse to encounter with the Spaniards, except two or three and twentie of the Queehes greater shippes, which onely, by reason of their presence, bred an opinion in the Spaniardes mindes concerning the power of the English Fleet: the mariners and souldiers whereof were esteemed to be twelue thousand. [Sidenote: The 24 of Iuly.] The foure and twentie of Iuly when as the sea was calme, and no winde stirring, the fight was onely betweene the foure great Galleasses and the English shippes, which being rowed with Oares, had great vauntage of the sayd English shippes, which notwithstanding for all that would not bee forced to yeeld, but discharged their chaine-shot to cut assunder the Cables and Cordage of the Galliasses, with many other such Stratagemes. They were nowe constrained to send their men on land for a newe supplie of Gunne-powder, whereof they were in great skarcitie, by reason they had so frankely spent the greater part in the former conflicts. The same day, a Counsell being assembled, it was decreed that the English Fleete should be diuided into foure squadrons: the principall whereof was committed vnto the lord Admirall: the second to Sir Francis Drake: the third, to Captaine Hawkins: the fourth, to Captaine Frobisher. The Spaniards in their sailing obserued very diligent and good order, sayling three and foure, and sometimes more ships in a ranke, and folowing close vp one after another, and the stronger and greater ships protecting the lesser. [Sidenote: The 25. of Iuly.] The fiue and twenty of Iuly when the Spaniardes were come ouer-gainst the Isle of Wight, the lord Admirall of England being accompanied with his best ships, (namely the Lion, Captaine whereof was the lord Thomas Howard: The Elizabeth Ionas vnder the commandement of Sir Robert Southwel sonne in lawe vnto the lord Admirall: the Beare vnder the lord Sheffield nephew vnto the lord Admirall: the Victorie vnder Captaine Barker: and the Galeon Leicester vnder the forenamed Captaine George Fenner) with great valour and dreadfull thundering of shot, encountered the Spanish Admirall being in the very midst of all his Fleet. Which when the Spaniard perceiued, being assisted with his strongest ships, he came foorth and entered a terrible combate with the English: for they bestowed each on other the broad sides, and mutually discharged all their Ordinance, being within one hundred, or an hundred and twentie yards one of another. At length the Spaniardes hoised vp their sayles, and againe gathered themselues vp close into the forme of a roundel. In the meane while Captaine Frobisher had engaged himselfe into a most dangerous conflict. Whereupon the lord Admirall comming to succour him, found that hee had valiantly and discreetly behaued himselfe, and that hee had wisely and in good time giuen ouer the fight, because that after so great a batterie he had sustained no damage. [Sidenote: The 26. of Iuly.] For which cause the day following, being the sixe and twentie of Iuly, the lord Admirall rewarded him with the order of knighthood, together with the lord Thomas Howard, the lord Sheffield, M. Iohn Hawkins and others. The same day the lord Admirall receiued intelligence from Newhauen in France, by certaine of his Pinasses, that all things were quiet in France, and that there was no preparation of sending aide vnto the Spaniards, which was greatly feared from the Guisian faction, and from the Leaguers: but there was a false rumour spread all about, that the Spaniards had conquered England. [Sidenote: The 27. of Iuly. The Spaniards ancre before Caleis.] The seven and twentie of Iuly, the Spaniards about the sunne-setting were come ouer-against Douer, and rode at ancre within the sight of Caleis, intending to hold on for Dunkerk, expecting there to ioyne with the Duke of Parma his, forces, without which they were able to doe litle or nothing. Likewise the English Fleete following vp hard vpon them, ancred just by them within culuering-shot. And here the lord Henry Seymer vnited himselfe vnto the lord Admiral with his fleete of 30. ships which road before the mouth of Thames. As the Spanish nauie therefore lay at ancre, the Duke of Medina sent certaine messengers vnto the duke of Parma, with whom vpon that occasion many Noblemen and Gentleman went to refresh themselues on land: and amongst the rest the prince of Ascoli, being accounted the kings base sonne, and a very proper and towardly yong gentleman, to his great good, went on shore, who was by so much the more fortunate, in that hee had not opportunitie to returne on boord the same ship, out of which he was departed, because that in returning home it was cast away vpon the Irish coast, with all the persons contained therein. The duke of Parma being aduertised of the Spanish Fleetes arriual vpon the coast of England, made all the haste hee could to bee present himselfe in this expedition for the performance of his charge: vainely perswading himselfe that nowe by the meanes of Cardinall Allen, hee should be crowned king of England, and for that cause hee had resigned the government of the Lowe countries vnto Count Mansfeld the elder. [Sidenote: The 28. of Iuly.] And having made his vowes vnto S. Mary of Hall in Henault (whom he went to visite for his blind deuotions sake) he returned toward Bruges the 28. of Iuly. [Sidenote: The 29. of Iuly.] The next day trauelling to Dunkerk hee heard the thundering Ordinance of either Fleet: and the same euening being come to Dixmud, hee was giuen to vnderstand the hard successe of the Spanish Fleete. [Sidenote: The 30. of Iuly.] Vpon Tuesday which was the thirtieth of Iuly, about high noone, hee came to Dunkerk, when as all the Spanish Fleete was now passed by: neither durst any of his ships in the meane space come foorth to assist the sayd Spanish Fleete for feare of fiue and thirtie warrelike ships of Holland and Zeland, which there kept watch and warde vnder the conduct of the Admirall Iustin of Nassau. The foresayd fiue and thirtie shippes were furnished with most cunning mariners and olde expert souldiers, amongst the which were twelue hundred Musketiers, whom the States had chosen out of all their garisons, and whom they knew to haue bene heretofore experienced in sea-fights. This nauie was giuen especially in charge not to suffer any shippe to come out of the Hauen, not to permit any Zabraes, Pataches, or other small vessels of the Spanish Fleete (which were more likely to aide the Dunkerkers) to enter thereinto, for the greater ships were not to be feared by reason of the shallow sea in that place. Howbeit the prince of Parma his forces being as yet vnreadie, were not come on boord his shippes, onely the English Fugitiues being seuen hundred in number vnder the conduct of Sir William Stanley, came in fit time to haue bene embarked, because they hoped to giue the first assault against England. The residue shewed themselues vnwilling and loath to depart, because they sawe but a few mariners, who were by constraint drawne into this expedition, and also because they had very bare prouision of bread, drinke, and other necessary victuals. Moreouer, the shippes of Holland and Zeland stood continually in their sight, threatening shot and powder, and many inconueniences vnto them: for feare of which shippes the Mariners and Sea-men secretly withdrew themselues both day and night, lest that the duke of Parma his souldiers should compell them, by maine force to goe on boord, and to breake through the Hollanders Fleete, which all of them iudged to bee impossible by reason of the straightnesse of the Hauen. [Sidenote: The Spaniards vaine opinion concerning their own fleet.] But it seemeth that the Duke of Parma and the Spaniards grounded vpon a vaine and presumptuous expectation, that all the ships of England and of the Low countreys would at the first sight of the Spanish and Dunkerk Nauie haue betaken themselues to flight, yeelding them sea roome, and endeuouring only to defend themselues, their hauens, and sea coasts from inuasion. Wherefore their intent and purpose was, that the Duke of Parma in his small and flat-bottomed shippes, should as it were vnder the shadow and wings of the Spanish fleet, conuey ouer all his troupes, armour, and warlike prouision, and with their forces so vnited, should inuade England; or while the English fleet were busied in fight against the Spanish, should enter vpon any part of the coast, which he thought to be most conuenient. Which inuasion (as the captiues afterward confessed) the Duke of Parma thought first to haue attempted by the riuer of Thames; vpon the bankes whereof hauing at his first arriuall landed twenty or thirty thousand of his principall souldiers, he supposed that he might easily haue woonne the Citie of London; both because his small shippes should haue followed and assisted his land-forces, and also for that the Citie it-selfe was but meanely fortified and easie to ouercome, by reason of the Citizens delicacie and discontinuance from the warres, who with continuall and constant labour might be vanquished, if they yeelded not at the first assault. They were in good hope also to haue mette with some rebels against her Maiestie, and such as were discontented with the present state, as Papists and others. Likewise they looked for ayde from the fauorers of the Scottish Queene, who was not long before put to death; all which they thought would haue stirred vp seditions and factions. Whenas therefore the Spanish fleet rode at anker before Caleis, to the end they might consult with the Duke of Parma what was best to be done according to the Kings commandement, and the present estate of their affairs, and had now (as we will afterward declare) purposed vpon the second of August being Friday, with one power and consent to haue put their intended businesse in practise; the L. Admirall of England being admonished by her Maiesties letters from the Court, thought it most expedient either to driue the Spanish fleet from that place, or at leastwise to giue them the encounter: [Sidenote: The 28 of Iuly.] and for that cause (according to her Maiesties prescription) he tooke forthwith eight of his woorst and basest ships which came next to hand, and disburthening them of all things which seemed to be of any value, filled them with gun-powder, pitch, brimstone, and with other combustible and firy matter; and charging all their ordinance with powder, bullets, and stones, he sent the sayd ships vpon the 28 of Iuly being Sunday, about two of the clocke after midnight, with the winde and tide against the Spanish fleet: which when they had proceeded a good space, being forsaken of the Pilots, and set on fire, were, directly carried vpon the King of Spaines Nauie: which fire in the dead of the night put the Spaniards into such a perplexity and horrour (for they feared lest they were like vnto those terrible ships, which Frederick Ienebelli three yeeres before, at the siege of Antwerpe, had furnished with gun-powder, stones, and dreadfull engines, for the dissolution of the Duke of Parma his bridge, built vpon the riuer of Scheld) that cutting their cables whereon their ankers were fastened, and hoising vp their sailes, they betooke themselues very confusedly vnto the maine sea. [Sidenote: The galliasse of Hugo de Moncado cast vpon the showlds before Caleis.] In this sudden confusion, the principall and greatest of the foure galliasses falling fowle of another ship, lost her rudder: for which cause when she conld not be guided any longer, she was by the force of the tide cast into a certaine showld vpon the shore of Caleis, where she was immediately assaulted by diuers English pinasses, hoyes, and drumblers. [Sidenote: M. Amias Preston valiantly boordeth the galliasse.] And as they lay battering of her with their ordinance, and durst not boord her, the L. Admirall sent thither his long boat with an hundreth choise souldiers vnder the command of Captaine Amias Preston. Vpon whose approch their fellowes being more emboldened, did offer to boord the galliasse: against whom the gouernour thereof and Captaine of all the foure galliasses, Hugo de Moncada, stoutly opposed himselfe, fighting by so much the more valiantly, in that he hoped presently to be succoured by the Duke of Parma. In the meane season, Moncada, after he had endured the conflict a good while, being hitte on the head with a bullet, fell downe starke dead, and a great number of Spaniards also were slaine in his company. The greater part of the residue leaping ouer-boord into the sea, to saue themselues by swimming, were most of them drowned. Howbeit there escaped among others Don Anthonio de Manriques, a principall officer in the Spanish fleet (called by them their Veador generall) together with a few Spaniards besides: which Anthonio was the first man that carried certaine newes of the successe of their fleet into Spaine. This huge and monstrous galliasse, wherein were contained three hundred slaues to lug at the oares, and foure hundred souldiers, was in the space of three houres rifled in the same place; and there were found amongst diuers other commodities 50000 ducats of the Spanish kings treasure. At length when the slaues were released out of the fetters, the English men would haue set the sayd ship on fire, which Monsieur Gourdon the gouernor of Caleis, for feare of the damage which might thereupon ensue to the Towne and Hauen, would not permit them to do, but draue them from thence with his great ordinance. [Sidenote: The great fight before Greueling the 29 of Iuly.] Vpon the 29 of Iuly in the morning, the Spanish Fleet after the foresayd tumult, hauing arranged themselues againe into order, were, within sight of Greueling, most brauely and furiously encountered by the English; where they once againe got the winde of the Spaniards: who suffered themselues to be depriued of the commodity of the place in Calais rode, and of the aduantage of the winde neere vnto Dunkerk, rather then they would change their array or separate their forces now conioyned and vnited together, standing onely vpon their defence. And albeit there were many excellent and warlike ships in the English fleet, yet scarse were there 22 or 23 among them all which matched 90 of the Spanish ships in bignesse, or could conueniently assault them. Wherefore the English shippes vsing their prerogatiue of nimble stirrage, whereby they could turne and wield themselues with the winde which way they listed, came often times very neere vpon the Spaniards, and charged them so sore, that now and then they were but a pikes length asunder: and so continually giuing them one broad side after another, they discharged all their shot both great and small vpon them, spending one whole day from morning till night in that violent kinde of conflict, vntill such time as powder and bullets failed them. In regard of which want they thought it conuenient not to pursue the Spaniards any longer, because they had many great vantages of the English, namely for the extraordinary bignesse of their ships, and also for that they were so neerely conioyned, and kept in so good array, that they could by no meanes be fought withall one to one. The English thought therefore, that they had right well acquited themselues, in chasing the Spaniards first from Caleis, and then from Dunkerk, and by that meanes to haue hindered them from ioyning with the Duke of Parma his forces, and getting the winde of them, to haue driuen them from their owne coasts. The Spaniards that day sustained great losse and damage hauing many of their shippes shot thorow and thorow, and they discharged likewise great store of ordinance against the English; who indeed sustained some hinderance, but not comparable to the Spaniards losse: for they lost not any one shippe or person of account. For very diligent inquisition being made, the English men all that time wherein the Spanish Nauie sayled vpon their seas, are not found to haue wanted aboue one hundreth of their people: albeit Sir Francis Drakes shippe was pierced with shot aboue forty times, and his very cabben was twise shot thorow, and about the conclusion of the fight, the bedde of a certaine gentleman lying weary thereupon, was taken quite from vnder him with the force of a bullet. Likewise, as the Earle of Northumberland and Sir Charles Blunt were at dinner vpon a time, the bullet of a demi-culuering brake thorow the middest of their cabbin, touched their feet, and strooke downe two of the standers by, with many such accidents befalling the English shippes, which it were tedious to rehearse. Whereupon it is most apparant, that God miraculously preserued the English nation. For the L. Admirall wrote vnto her Maiestie that in all humane reason, and according to the iudgement of all men (euery circumstance being duly considered) the English men were not of any such force, whereby they might, without a miracle, dare once to approch within sight of the Spanish Fleet: insomuch that they freely ascribed all the honour of their victory vnto God, who had confounded the enemy, and had brought his counsels to none effect. [Sidenote: Three Spanish shippes suncke in the fight.] The same day the Spanish ships were so battered with English shot, that that very night and the day following, two or three of them suncke right downe: and among the rest a certaine great ship of Biscay, which Captaine Crosse assaulted, which perished euen in the time of the conflict, so that very few therein escaped drowning; who reported that the gouernours of the same shippe slew one another vpon the occasion following: one of them which would haue yeelded the shippe was suddenly slaine; the brother of the slaine party in reuenge of his death slew the murtherer, and in the meane while the ship suncke. [Sidenote: Two galeons taken and caried into Zealand.] The same night two Portugall galeons of the burthen of seuen or eight hundreth tunnes a piece, to wit the Saint Philip and the Saint Matthew, were forsaken of the Spanish Fleet, for they were so torne with shotte that the water entered into them on all sides. In the galeon of Saint Philip was Francis de Toledo, brother vnto the Count de Orgas, being Colonell ouer two and thirty bands: besides other gentlemen; who seeing their mast broken with shotte, they shaped their course, as well as they could, for the coast of Flanders: whither when they could not attaine, the principall men in the ship committing themseluds to their skiffe, arriued at the next towne, which was Ostend; and the ship it selfe being left behinde with the residue of their company, was taken by the Vlishingers. In the other galeon, called the S. Matthew, was embarked Don Diego Pimentelli another camp-master and colonell of 32 bands, being brother vnto the marques of Tamnares, with many other gentlemen and captaines. Their ship was not very great, but exceeding strong, for of a great number of bullets which had batterd her, there were scarse 20 wherewith she was pierced or hurt: her vpper worke was of force sufficient to beare off a musket shot: this shippe was shot thorow and pierced in the fight before Greueling; insomuch that the leakage of the water could not be stopped: whereupon the duke of Medina sent his great skiffe vnto the gouernour thereof, that he might saue himselfe and the principal persons that were in his ship: which he, vpon a hault courage, refused to do: wherefore the Duke charged him to saile next vnto himselfe: which the night following he could not performe, by reason of the great abundance of water which entered his ship on all sides; for the auoiding wherof, and to saue his ship from sincking, he caused 50 men continually to labor at the pumpe, though it were to small purpose. And seeing himselfe thus forsaken and separated from his admirall, he endeuored what he could to attaine vnto the coast of Flanders: where, being espied by 4 or 5 men of warre, which had their station assigned them vpon the same coast, he was admonished to yeeld himselfe vnto them. Which he refusing to do, was strongly assaulted by them altogether, and his ship being pierced with many bullets, was brought into farre worse case then before, and 40 of his souldiers were slaine. By which extremity he was enforced at length to yeeld himselfe vnto Peter Banderduess and other captaines, which brought him and his ship into Zeland; and that other ship also last before mentioned: which both of them, immediatly after the greater and better part of their goods were vnladen, suncke right downe. For the memory of this exploit, the fbresayd captaine Banderduess caused the banner of one of these shippes to be set vp in the great Church of Leiden in Holland, which is of so great a length, that being fastened to the very roofe, it reached downe to the ground. [Sidenote: A small shippe cast away about Blankenberg.] About the same time another small ship being by necessity dtiuen vpon the coast of Flanders, about Blankenberg, was cast away vpon the sands, the people therein being saued. Thus almighty God would haue the Spaniards huge ships to be presented, not onely to the view of the English, but also of the Zelanders; that at the sight of them they might acknowledge of what small ability they had beene to resist such impregnable forces, had not God endued them with courage, prouidence, and fortitude, yea, and fought for them in many places with his owne arme. The 29. of Iuly the Spanish fleet being encountered by the English (as is aforesayd) and lying close together vnder their fighting sailes, with a Southwest winde sailed past Dunkerk, the English ships still following the chase. [Sidenote: The dishonourable flight of the Spanish nauy; and the prudent aduice of the L. Admirall.] Of whom the day following when the Spaniards had got sea roome, they cut their maine sailes; whereby they sufficiently declared that they meant no longer to fight but to flie. For which cause the L. Admirall of England dispatched the L. Henrie Seymer with his squadron of small ships vnto the coast of Flanders where, with the helpe of the Dutch ships, he might stop the prince of Parma his passage, if perhaps he should attempt to issue forth with his army. And he himselfe in the meane space pursued the Spanish fleet vntil the second of August, because he thought they had set saile for Scotland. And albeit he followed them very neere, yet did he not assault them any more, for want of powder and bullets. But vpon the fourth of August, the winde arising, when as the Spaniards had spread all their sailes, betaking themselues wholly to flight, and leauing Scotland on the left hand, trended toward Norway, (whereby they sufficiently declared that their whole intent was to saue themselnes by flight, attempting for that purpose, with their battered and crazed ships, the most dangerous nauigation of the Northren seas) the English seeing that they were now proceeded vnto the latitude of 57 degrees, and being vnwilling to participate that danger whereinto the Spaniards plunged themselues, and because they wanted things necessary, and especially powder and shot, returned backe for England; leauing behinde them certaine pinasses onely, which they enioyned to follow the Spaniards aloofe, and to obserue their course. [Sidenote: The English returne home from the pursute of the Spaniards the 4 of August.] And so it came to passe that the fourth of August with great danger and industry, the English arriued at Harwich: for they had bene tossed vp and downe with a mighty tempest for the space of two or three dayes together, which it is likely did great hurt vnto the Spanish fleet, being (as I sayd before) so maimed and battered. The English now going on shore, prouided themselues foorthwith of victuals, gunnepowder, and other things expedient, that they might be ready at all assayes to entertaine the Spanish fleet, if it chanced any more to returne. But being afterward more certainely informed of the Spaniards course, they thought it best to leaue them vnto those boisterous and vncouth Northren seas, and not there to hunt after them. [Sidenote: The Spaniards consult to saile round about Scotland and Ireland, and so to returne home.] The Spaniards seeing now that they wanted foure or fiue thousand of their people and hauing diuers maimed and sicke persons, and likewise hauing lost 10 or 12 of their principall ships, they consulted among themselues, what they were best to doe, being now escaped out of the hands of the English, because their victuals failed them in like sort, that they began also to want cables, cordage, ankers, masts, sailes, and other naual furniture, and vtterly despaired of the Duke of Parma his assistance (who verily hoping and vndoubtedly expecting the returne of the Spanish Fleet, was continually occupied about his great preparation, commanding abundance of ankers to be made, and other necessary furniture for a Nauy to be prouided) they thought it good at length, so soone as the winde should serue them, to fetch a compasse about Scotland and Ireland, and so to returne for Spaine. For they well vnderstood, that commandement was giuen thorowout all Scotland, that they should not haue any succour or assistance there. Neither yet could they in Norway supply their wants. Wherefore, hauing taken certaine Scotish and other fisherboats, they brought the men on boord their ships, to the end they might be their guides and Pilots. Fearing also least their fresh water should faile them, they cast all their horses and mules ouerboord: and so touching no where vpon the coast of Scotland, but being carried with a fresh gale betweene the Orcades and Faar-Isles, they proceeded farre North, euen vnto 61 degrees of latitude, being distant from any land at the least 40. leagues. Heere the Duke of Medina generall of the Fleet commanded all his followers to shape their course for Biscay: and he himselfe with twenty or fiue and twenty of his ships which were best prouided of fresh water and other necessaries, holding on his course ouer the maine Ocean, returned safely home. The residue of his ships being about forty in number, and committed vnto his Vice-admirall, fell neerer with the coast of Ireland, intending their course for Cape Clare, because they hoped there to get fresh water, and to refresh themseiues on land. [Sidenote: The shippe-wracke of the Spaniardes vpon the Irish coast.] But after they were driuen with many contrary windes, at length, vpon the second of September, they were cast by a tempest arising from the Southwest vpon diuers parts of Ireland, where many of their ships perished. And amongst others, the shippe of Michael de Oquendo, which was one of the great Galliasses: and two great ships of Venice also, namely, la Raita and Belahzara, with other 36 or 38 ships more, which perished in sundry tempests, together with most of the persons contained in them. Likewise some of the Spanish ships were the second time carried with a strong West winde into the channell of England, whereof some were taken by the English vpon their coast, and others by the men of Rochel vpon the coast of France. Moreouer, there arriued at Neuhauen, in Normandy, being by tempest inforced so to doe, one of the foure great Galliasses, where they found the ships with the Spanish women which followed the Fleet at their setting forth. [Sidenote: Of 134 ships of the Spanish fleet, there returned home but 53.] Two ships also, were cast away vpon the coast of Norway, one of them being of a great burthen; howbeit all the persons in the sayd great ship were saued: insomuch that of 134 ships, which set saile out of Portugall, there returned home 53 onely small and great: namely of the foure galliasses but one, and but one of the foure gallies. Of the 91 great galleons and hulks there were missing 58. and 33 returned: of the pataches and zabraes 17 were missing, and 18 returned home. In briefe, there were missing 81 ships, in which number were galliasses, gallies, galeons, and other vessels, both great and small. And amongst the 53 ships remaining, those also are reckoned which returned home before they came into the English chanell. Two galeons of those which were returned, were by misfortune burnt as they rode in the hauen; and such like mishaps did many others vndergo. Of 30000 persons which went in this expedition, there perished (according to the number and proportion of the ships) the greater and better part; and many of them which came home, by reason of the toiles and inconueniences which they sustained in this voyage, died not long after their arriuall. The Duke of Medina immediatly vpon his returne was deposed from his authority, commanded to his priuate house, and forbidden to repaire vnto the Court; where he could hardly satisfie or yeeld a reason vnto his malicious enemies and backbiters. Many honourable personages and men of great renowne deceased soone after their returne; as namely Iohn Martines de Ricalde, with diuers others. A great part also of the Spanish Nobility and Gentry employed in this expedition perished either by fight, diseases, or drowning before their arriuall; and among the rest Thomas Perenot of Granduell a Dutchman, being earle of Cantebroi, and sonne vnto Cardinall Granduell his brother. Vpon the coast of Zeland Don Diego de Pimentell, brother vnto the Marques de Tamnares, and kinseman vnto the earle of Beneuentum and Calua, and Colonell ouer 32 bands with many other in the same ship was taken and detained as prisoner in Zeland. Into England (as we sayd before) Don Pedro de Valdez, a man of singular experience, and greatly honoured in his countrey, was led captiue, being accompanied with Don Vasquez de Silua, Don Alonzo de Sayas, and others. Likewise vpon the Scottish Westerne Isles of Lewis, and Ila, and about Cape Cantyre vpon the maine land, there were cast away certaine Spanish shippes, out of which were saued diuers Captaines and Gentlemen, and almost foure hundred souldiers, who for the most part, after their shipwracke, were brought vnto Edenborough in Scotland, and being miserably needy and naked, were there clothed at the liberality of the King and the Marchants, and afterward were secretly shipped for Spaine; but the Scottish fleet wherein they passed touching at Yarmouth on the coast of Norfolke, were there stayed for a time vntill the Councels pleasure was knowen; who in regard of their manifolde miseries, though they were enemies, wincked at their passage. Vpon the Irish coast many of their Noblemen and Gentlemen were drowned; and diuers slaine by the barbarous and wilde Irish. Howbeit there was brought prisoner out of Ireland, Don Alonzo de Luçon, Colonell of two and thirty bandes, commonly called a terza of Naples; together with Rodorigo de Lasso, and two others of the family of Cordoua, who were committed vnto the custodie of Sir Horatio Palauicini, that Monsieur de Teligny the sonne of Monsieur de Noüe (who being taken in fight neere Antwerpe, was detained prisoner in the Castle of Turney) might be ransomed for them by way of exchange. To conclude, there was no famous nor woorthy family in all Spaine, which in this expedition lost not a sonne, a brother, or a kinseman. [Sidenote: New coines stamped for the memory of the Spaniards ouerthrow.] For the perpetuall memorie of this matter, the Zelanders caused newe coine of Siluer and brasse to be stamped: which on the one side contained the armes of Zeland, with this inscription: GLORY TO GOD ONELY: and on the other side, the pictures of certeine great ships, with these words: THE SPANISH FLEET: and in the circumference about the ships: IT CAME, WENT, AND WAS. Anno 1588. That is to say, the Spanish fleet came, went, and was vanquished this yere; for which, glory be giuen to God onely. Likewise they coined another kinde of money; vpon the one side whereof was represented a ship fleeing and a ship sincking: on the other side foure men making prayers and giuing thanks vnto God vpon their knees; with this sentence: Man purposeth; God disposeth. 1588. Also, for the lasting memory of the same matter, they haue stamped in Holland diuers such like coines, according to the custome of the ancient Romans. [Sidenote: The people of England and of the vnited prouinces, pray, fast, and giue thanks vnto God.] While this woonderfull and puissant Nauie was sayling along the English coastes, and all men did now plainely see and heare that which before they would not be perswaded of, all people thorowout England prostrated themselues with humble prayers and supplications vnto God: but especially the outlandish Churches (who had greatest cause to feare, and against whom by name, the Spaniards had threatened most grievous torments) enioyned to their people continuall fastings and supplications, that they might turne away Gods wrath and fury now imminent vpon them for their sinnes: knowing right well, that prayer was the onely refuge against all enemies, calamities, and necessities, and that it was the onely solace and reliefe for mankinde, being visited with affliction and misery. Likewise such solemne dayes of supplication were obserued thorowout the vnited Prouinces. Also a while after the Spanish Fleet was departed, there was in England, by the commandement of her Maiestie, and in the vnited Prouinces, by the direction of the States, a solemne festiuall day publikely appointed, wherein all persons were enioyned to resort vnto the Church, and there to render thanks and praises vnto God: and the Preachers were commanded to exhort the people thereunto. The foresayd solemnity was obserued vpon the 29 of Nouember; which day was wholly spent in fasting, prayer, and giuing of thanks. Likewise, the Queenes Maiestie herselfe, imitating the ancient Romans, rode into London in triumph, in regard of her owne and her subjects glorious deliuerance. For being attended vpon very solemnely by all the principall estates and officers of her Realme, she was carried thorow her sayd City of London in a tryumphant chariot, and in robes of triumph, from her Palace vnto the Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul, out of the which the ensignes and colours of the vanquished Spaniards hung displayed. And all the Citizens of London in their Liueries stood on either side the street, by their seuerall Companies, with their ensignes and banners: and the streets were hanged on both sides with Blew cloth, which, together with the foresayd banners, yeelded a very stately and gallant prospect. Her Maiestie being entered into the Church, together with her Clergie and Nobles gaue thanks vnto God, and caused a publike Sermon to be preached before her at Pauls crosse; wherein none other argument was handled, but that praise, honour, and glory might be rendered vnto God, and that Gods name might be extolled by thanksgiuing. And with her owne princely voice she most Christianly exhorted the people to doe the same: whereupon the people with a loud acclamation wished her a most long and happy life, to the confusion of her foes. Thus the magnificent, huge, and mighty fleet of the Spaniards (which themselues termed in all places inuincible) such as sayled not vpon the Ocean see many hundreth yeeres before, in the yeere 1588 vanished into smoake; to the great confusion and discouragement of the authors thereof. In regard of which her Maiesties happy successe all her neighbours and friends congratulated with her, and many verses were penned to the honour of her Maiesty by learned men, whereof some which came to our hands we will here annexe. * * * * * AD SERENISSIMAM ELIZABETHAM ANGLI� REGINAM. THEODOR. BEZA. Strauerat innumeris Hispanus nauibus æquor, Regnis iuncturus sceptra Britanna suis. Tanti huius, rogitas, quæ motus causa? superbos Impulit Ambitio, vexit Auaritia. Quàm bene te ambitio mersit vanissima ventus? Et tumidos tumidæ vos superastis aquæ Quàm bene totius raptores orbis auaros, Hausit inexhausti iusta vorago maris! At tu, cui venti, cui totum militat æquor, Regina, ô mundi totius vna, decus, Sic regnare Deo perge, ambitione remota, Prodiga sic opibus perge iuuare pios, Vt te Angli longum, longum Anglis ipsa fruaris, Quàm dilecta bonis, tam metuenda malis. The same in English. The Spanish Fleet did flote in narrow Seas, And bend her ships against the English shore, With so great rage as nothing could appease, And with such strength as neuer seene before: And all to ioyne the kingdome of that land Vnto the kingdomes that he had in hand. Now if you aske what set this king on fire, To practise warre when he of peace did treat, It was his Pride, and neuer quencht desire, To spoile that Islands wealth, by peace made great: His Pride which farre aboue the heauens did swell And his desire as vnsuffic'd as hell. But well haue windes his proud blasts ouerblowen, And swelling waues alayd his swelling heart, Well hath the Sea with greedie gulfs vnknowen, Deuoured the deuourer to his smart: And made his ships a pray vnto the sand, That meant to pray vpon anothers land. And now, O Queene, aboue all others blest, For whom both windes and waues are prest to fight, So rule your owne, so succour friends opprest, (As farre from pride, so ready to do right) That England you, you England long enioy, No lesse your friends delight, then foes annoy. * * * * * A briefe and true report of the Honorable voyage vnto Cadiz, 1596. of the ouerthrow of the kings Fleet, and of the winning, sacking, and burning of the Citie, with all other accidents of moment, thereunto appertaining. After that the two most Noble and Renowmed Lords Generals: The L. Robert Earle of Essex, and the L. Charles Howard L. High Admirall of England, were come vnto Plymmouth (which was about the beginning of May last, 1596.) being there accompanied with diuers other Noble Peeres, as the Earle of Sussex, the L. Thomas Howard, the L. Harbert, the L. Warden Sir Walter Raleigh: the L. Marshall Sir Francis Vere: the L. Burk, Don Christopher young Prince of Portingall, young Count Lodouick of Nassaw, and the Admirall of the Hollanders, Sir Iohn Vanderfoord: besides many other most worthy Knights and Gentlemen of great woorth attending vpon this most honorable Action: It pleased them, there to make their abode for the time of that moneth, aswell for the new furnishing and reuictualing of her Maiesties Royall Nauie: as also for the expecting of some other ships, which were to come from diuers places of the Realme, and were as yet wanting: making that place as it should seeme the Rendezuous for all the whole Fleete, there to complete the full number of al such companies both for sea and land: as was in their noble and deepe wisedomes thought meete and agreed vpon. All the time of this their abode there, there was a most zealous and diligent care had for the holy seruice of God dayly and reuerently to be frequented: and also for other good and ciuill orders of militarie discipline to be obserued, to the exceeding great comfort and reioycing of all the hearts of the godly and well disposed. And for that it might the better appeare, that there was small hope of pardon to be expected of the offenders, if they did at any time neglect their duties, about due obseruation of matters of importance: Their orders, lawes, and decrees being once published: about the 8. or 9. of the same moneth, there were two offenders executed a little without the towne, in a very fayre pleasant greene, called the Ho: the one for beginning of a muteny in his company, the other for running away from his Colours. And about the same time in the Dutch Regiment, an other for murthering of one of his companions, about a quarrell betweene themselues, rising as it was supposed, vpon their drinke, was by order of Martiall law, presently tyed to the partie so murthered, and foorthwith both of them so cast into the sea. Moreouer, about the 28. of the same moneth, a certaine Lieutenant (whose name I will forbeare) was by sound of Drumme publikely in all the streetes disgraced, or rather after a sort disgraded, and cashierd for bearing any farther Office at that time, for the taking of money by way of corruption, of certaine prest souldiers in the Countrey, and for placing of others in their roomes, more vnfit for seruice, and of lesse sufficiency and abilitie. This seuere executing of iustice at the very first did breed such a deepe terror in the hearts of the whole armie, that it seemed to cut off all occasion of the like disorder for euer afterwards to be attempted. And here before their departure from Plymmouth, it pleased their Lordships to publish in print, and make knowen to all the world, especially to such as whom it concerned, and that both in the Latine, French, Dutch, English and Spanish tongue, what were the true, iust and vrgent causes, that at this time prouoked her Maiestie, to vndertake the preparing and setting forth of this so great a Nauie, annexing thereunto a full declaration, what was good will and pleasure should be done and performed of all them that ment not to incurre their owne priuate present daungers, or else were willing to auoyde her Maiesties future indignation and displeasure. Likewise now, at the same instant, their owne most prouident and godly decrees, which they had deuised for the honest cariage of euery particular person in their degrees and vocation, were made knowen to all men, and published in sundry writings, with diuers great punishments, set downe and appointed for the wilfull offenders and brekers of the same. Thus then, all things being in very good order and well appointed, the most holy name of our Omnipotent God being most religiously and deuoutly called vpon, and his blessed and sacred Communion being diuers times most reuerently and publikely celebrated: These two most noble personages, with all their honorable Associats, and most famous worthy Knights, Gentlemen, Captaines, Leaders, and very willing and expert Souldiers, and Mariners, being furnished with 150. good sayle of shippe or thereabout: In the name of the most High and euerliuing God, and with all true and faithful obedience, to her sacred Maiesty, to the infinite good and tranquillitie of our Countrey, and to the perpetuall glory, and triumphant renowne of the eternall memory of their honorable names to all posterity, the first day of Iune embarked themselues, weighed Ancre, and hoysed vp sayle, and put to sea onward their iourney from the Sownds of Plymmouth. The winde, at the first setting foorth, seemed very fauourable: but yet in the euening growing very scant, and all that night falling more and more against vs, and we hailing sayled no further then to a certaine place called Dodman Head: we were constrained the next day, to make our returne to the road of Plymmonth againe, and there in the Sownds to lie at ancre for that night. About this time, and in this very place, by good fortune there came to my handes a prayer in English, touching this present Action, and made by her Maiestie, as it was voyced: The prayer seemed to me to be most excellent, aswell for the matter as also for the manner, and therefore for certaine diuers good motiues which then presently came to my minde, and whereof hereafter in his more conuenient time and place, I will make farther mention, I presumed at that very instant to translate it into Latine. The Prayer is thus. Most Omnipotent maker and guide of all our worlds masse, that onely searchest and fadomest the bottome of all our hearts conceits, and in them seest the true originals of all our actions intended: thou that by thy foresight doest truely discerne how no malice of Reuenge, nor quittance of iniury, nor desire of bloodshed, nor greedinesse of lucre hath bred the resolution of our now set out Army, but a heedfull care, and wary watch, that no neglect of foes, nor ouer-suretie of harme might breed either daunger to vs, or glory to them: these being the grounds wherewith thou doest enspire the mind, we humbly beseech thee with bended knees, prosper the worke, and with best forewindes guide the iourney, speed the victory, and make the returne the aduancement of thy glory, the tryumph of their fame, and surety to the Realme, with the least losse of the English blood. To these deuout petitions Lord giue thou thy blessed grant. My homely translation, is thus. Svmmè præpotens Deus, immensæ huius totius nostri mundi molis fabricator et Rector, qui solus perscrutaris intimos cordis nostri sensus, et ad fundum vsque nostrarum cogitationem explorando penetras, ac in eis, quid verè, et ex ammo cogitemus, et quæ sint actionum nostrarum rationes, ac fundamenta, cognoscis: Tu, qui ea, quæ in te est, ab omni æternitate præscientia, vides, quòd nec aliqua viciscendi malitiosa cupiditas, nec iniuriarum referendarum desiderium, nec sanguinis effundendi sitis, nec alicuius lucri, quæstusue auiditas ad istam classem præparandam, et emittendam nos commouerit: sed potiùs, quòd prouida quædam cura, solérsque vigilantia huc nos impulerit: ne vel inimicorum nostrorum neglectus, vel status nostri firmitaris nimium secura cogitatio, aut illis gloriam et honorem, aut nobis damnum et periculum pariat: Cum, inquam, hæc sint nostri, quicquid attentatur, negotii fundamenta: cumque tu hunc nobis animum, mentémque inieceris, vt istud aggrederemur: curuatis genibus a te humillimè petimus, vt velis hoc nostrum incoeptum secundissimè fortunare, totum iter prosperrimis flatibus dirigere, celerem et expeditiam victoriam nobis concedere, reditúmque talem nostris militibus elargiri, qualis et nomini tuo incrementum gloriæ, et illis famæ, laudisque triumphum, et Regno nostro firmam tranquillitatem possit apportare: idque cum minimo Anglorum sanguinis dispendio. His nostris religiosis petitionibus concede, Domine, sacrosanctum et annuentem voluntatem tuam. After that we had anchored at Plymmouth that night, as I haue said, the third of Iune very early in the morning, hauing a reasonable fresh gale of winde, we set sayle, and kept our course againe, and the ninth of the same moneth comming something neere to the North cape, in a maner in the same altitude, or not much differing, which was about xliii. degrees, and something more, yet bearing so, as it was impossible to bee descried from the land: There it pleased the Lords to call a select Councell, which was alwayes done by hanging out of a flagge of the armes of England, and shooting off of a great warning peece. On this select or priuie Councell were no moe than these: The two Lords Generall, the Lord Thomas Howard, the Lorde Warden Sir Walter Raleigh, the Lord Martiall Sir Francis Vere, Sir George Cary master of the Ordinance, Sir Coniers Clifford, and Sir Anthony Ashley, Clarke of the sayde Councell. And when it pleased the Lords Generall to call a common Counsell (as often times they did vpon weightie matters best knowen to their honours) then they would cause an other kinde of flagge to be hanged put, which was the Redcrosse of S. George, and was verie easie to be discerned from the other that appertained onely to the select Counsell, and so often as this flagge of Saint George was hanged out, then came all the Masters and Captaines of all the ships, whose opinions were to be demaunded, in such matters as appertayned vnto this sayd select Counsell: It was presently concluded, that our course in sayling should foorthwith be altered, and that we should beare more into the West, for some purposes to them best knowen. At that very instant many letters of instructions were addressed and sent to euery particular Master and Captaine of the Ships: What the contentes of those letters of instructions were it was not as yet knowne vnto any, neither was it held meet to be enquired or knowen of any of vs. But vnder the titles and superscriptions of euery mans particuler letter these wordes were endorsed. Open not these letters on pain of your liues, vnles we chance to be scattered by tempest, and in that case open them, and execute the contents thereof: but if by mishap you fall into your enemies hand, then in any case cast them into the sea, sealed as they are. It should seeme that these letters did conteine in them the principall place and meaning of this entended action, which was hitherto by their deepe foresights kept so secret, as no man to my knowledge either did, or coulde so much as suspect it, more then themselues, who had the onely managing thereof. A conceite in my iudgement of greatest moment in the world, to effect any matter of importance. I meane, to entertaine those two vertues, Fidem, et Taciturnitatem: so much commended by the old writers. And if there was euer any great designement, in this our age, and memorie, discreetly, faithfully, and closely caried, I assure my selfe it was this, and though it were but in respect to that poynt onely: yet for such faithfull secrecie, it deserueth immortall praise. All this while, our ships, God be thanked, kept in a most excellent good order, being diuided into fiue squadrons: that is to say, The Earle of Essex, the Lord Admirall, the Lord Thomas Howard, the Lord Warden Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Admirall of the Hollanders. All which squadrons, albeit they did euery day separate themselues of purpose, by the distance of certaine leagues, as well to looke out for such shippes as were happily vnder sayle, as also for the better procuring of sea-roome: yet alwayes commonly eyther that day, or the next day, towarde euening, they came all together, with friendly salutations and gratulations one to an other: which they terme by the name of Hayling: a ceremonie done solemnly, and in very good order, with sound of Trumpets and noyse of cheerefull voyces: and in such sort performed as was no small encouragement one to the other, beside a true report of all such accidents, as had happened in their squadrons. Hitherto, as I sayde, our iourney was most prosperous, and all our shippes in very good plight, more then that the Mary Rose, by some mischance, either sprang or spent her fore-yarde, and two dayes after Sir Robert Crosse had in a maner the like mischance. Nowe being thus betweene the North cape, and cape S. Vincent, and yet keeping, such a course a loofe, that by no meanes, those from the shoare might be able to descrie vs: The tenth of Iune, a French Barke, and a Fleming comming from the coast of Barbarie were brought in by some of our companie: but they were both of them very honourably and well vsed by the Lords Generall: and so after a fewe dayes tarrying, were peaceably sent away, after that they had conferred with them about such matters, as was thought good in their honorable wisedomes. The twelfth of the same moneth, Sir Richard Leuison Knight, assisted with Sir Christopher Blunt, fought with three Hamburgers, and in that fight slewe two of them, and hurt eleuen, and in the end brought them all three in: and this was the very first hansell and maydenhead (as it were) of any matter of importance, or exployt worthy obseruation that was done in the way outward of this honorable voyage, and was so well perfourmed of those most worthy Gentlemen, as euery man highly commended them for their great valure, and discretion, and no lesse reioyced at this their fortunate succcsse. The next day after, Sir Richard Weston meeting with a Flemming, who refused to vale his foretoppe, with the like good courage and resolution, attempted to bring him in. The fight continued very hot betweene them, for a good space: in the end the Swan, wherein the sayd Sir Richard was, had her forebeake strooken off: and having spent before in fight the one side of her tire of Ordinance, while she prepared to cast about, and to bestow on him the other side, in the meane time the Fleming taking this opportunity, did get almost halfe a league from him: and so for that time made his escape. And yet the next day after, the sayd Flemming being in a maner got to the very mouth of the Riuer vp to Lisbone, was taken, and brought in by M. Dorrell, being Captaine of the Iohn and Francis of London. Thus by diuiding their squadrons, and spreading the whole sea ouer a mighty way, there could not so much as the least pinke passe but she was espied and brought in. The 13. 14. and 15. dayes, certaine littte stragling Carauels were taken by certaine of the Fleete, and in one of them a young beggarly Fryer vtterly vnlearned, with a great packet of letters for Lisbon: the poore wretches were maruellously well vsed by the Lords Generall, and that Carauel, and the like still as they were taken were commaunded to giue their attendance, and their Honours did vnderstand what they might of these poore men, of the estate of Spaine for that present. About this time and in this place it was, that first in all my life time I did see the flying fishes, who when they are hardly pinched and chased by the Bonitoes and other great fishes, then to auoyde the daunger, they presently mount vp, and forsake the water, and betake themselues to the benefite of their winges and make their flight, which commonly is not aboue fiue or sixe score, or there about, and then they are constrayned to fall downe into the water againe, and it is the Mariners opinion that they can fly no longer then their wings be wet. The fish it selfe is about the bignesse of a Mackrell or a great white Hearing, and much of that colour and making, with two large wings shaped of nature very cunningly, and with great delight to behold, in all the world much like to our Gentlewomens dutch Fans, that, are made either of paper, parchment, or silke, or other stuffe, which will with certaine pleights easily runne and fold themselues together. One of these flying fishes was presented to my L. Admirall by a fisher man, and newly taken in his L. returne from Cadiz, and then I [had] good leisure and opportunitie to view it. ['had' missing in source text--KTH] The 18. day early in the morning wee tooke an Irish man, and he came directly from Cadiz, hauing beene there but the day before at twelue of the clocke at high noone. This man being examined, told truely that there was now great store of shipping at Cadiz, and with them xviii. or xix. gallies in a readinesse, and that among those ships there were diuers of the kings best: and namely, that the Philip of Spaine was amongst them, but what their intent was, hee could not tell. This man was commanded also to giue his attendance. The 20. of Iune being Sunday, we came before Cadiz very early in the morning, and in all this time as yet, the whole Nauy had not lost either by sicknesse or by any other maner of wayes sixe men to my knowledge: as for the Dutch company, I am not able precisely to say what happened there, for that they were no part of our charge to be looked vnto, but were a regiment entire of themselues, and by themselues to be prouided for, either for their diet, or for the preservation of their healths by phisicke. Thus then I say, being all in good plight and strong, the 20. of Iune wee came to Cadiz, and there very earely in the morning presented our selues before the Towne, ryding about a league or something lesse, from it. The sea at that instant went maruelous high, and the winde was exceeding large. Notwithstanding, a Councell being called, our Lords Generall foorthwith attempted with all expedition to land some certaine companies of their men at the West side of the Towne, by certaine long boats, light horsemen, pynnesses, and barges made for the purpose, but could not compasse it, and in the attempting thereof; they chanced to sinke one of their Barges, with some foure score good souldiers well appointed in her, and yet by good hap and great care the men were all saued excepting viii. And therefore they were constrayned to put off their landing till an other more convenient time. That morning very timely, there, lighted a very faire doue vpon the maine yard of the L. Admirals ship, and there she sate very quietly for the space of 3. or 4. houres, being nothing dismayed all that while, euery man gazed and looked much vpon her, and spake their minds and opinions, yet all concluding by no meanes to disquiet her: I for my part, tooke it for a very good omen and boading, as in trueth (God be thanked) there fell out nothing in the end to the contrary. And as at our very first comming to Cadiz this chanced, so likewise on the very last day of our departing from the same towne, another Doue presented her selfe in the selfe same order into the same ship, and presently grew wonderfull tame and familiar to vs all, and did so still keepe vs company, euen till our arriuall here in England. We no sooner presented our selues, but presently a goodly sort of tall Spanish ships came out of the mouth of the Bay of Cadiz, the Gallies accompanying them in such good order, and so placed as all of them might well succour each other, and therewithall kept themselues very close to their towne, the castle, and the forts, for their better guard and defence, abiding there still, and expecting our farther determination. All that day passed, being very rough and boysterous, and litle or nothing could be done, more then that about the euening there passed some friendly and kinde salutations sent one from the other in warlike maner, by discharging certain great peeces, but to my knowledge no hurt done at all, or else very litle. A carefull and diligent watch was had all that night thoroughout the whole armie, and on monday morning being the 21. day, the winde and weather being become moderate and fauourable, betweene fiue and sixe of the clocke in the morning, our ships in the name of almightie God, and in defence of the honour of England, without any farther delay, with all speed, courage, and alacritie, did set vpon the Spanish ships, being then vnder sayle, and making out of the mouth of the Bay of Cadiz, vp toward Puente de Suaço on Grenada side, being in number lix. tall ships, with xix. or xx. Gallies attending vpon them, sorted in such good order, and reasonable distance as they might still annoy vs, and alwayes relieue themselues interchangeably: hauing likewise the Castle, Forts, and Towne, continually to assist them and theirs, and alwayes readie to play vpon vs and ours. In most mens opinions it seemed that the enemy had a wonderful aduantage of vs, all circumstances being well weighed, but especially the straightnesse of the place, and the naturall forme and situation of the Bay it selfe, being rightly considered. For albeit the very Bay it selfe is very large and exceeding beautifull, so that from Cadiz to Port S. Mary, is some vi. or vii. English miles ouer or there abouts, yet be there many rockes, shelues, sands and shallowes in it, so that the very chanell and place for sea roome, is not aboue 2. or 3. miles, yea and in some places not so much, for the ships of any great burthen, to make way in, but that they must either be set on ground or else constrained to run fowle one on another. All this notwithstanding, with great and inuincible courage, the Lords generall presently set vpon them, and sorting out some such conuenient ships, as to their honorable wisedomes seemed fittest for that times seruice, they were driuen to take some other course then before had beene by them entended. Wherefore vpon a graue consultation had by a select Counsell, what great dangers might ensue vpon so mightie a disaduantage as appeared in all probability, if it were not by good and sound iudgement preuented, and therewithall in their singular wisedomes foreseeing that some great stratageme might be practised by the enemy, either by fire-worke, or some other subtill politike deuise, for the hazarding of her Maiesties ships of honor in so narrow a place, thus with al expedition they concluded that the Viceadmirall, the L. Thomas Howard, that most noble L. Howard (whose exceeding great magnanimity, courage, and wisedome, ioyned with such an honorable kind of sweet courtesie, bountie, and liberalitie, as is not able by me and my weakenes to be expressed, hath wonne him all the faithfull louing hearts of as many as euer haue had any maner of dealing with him) This L. Thomas, I say, in the Non Pareille for that time, and the Reare Admirall Sir Walter Raleigh (a man of maruellous worth and regard, for many his exceeding singular great vertues, right fortitude and great resolutenes in all matters of importance) in the Warspight associated with diuers most famous worthy knights, namely, Sir Francis Vere the L. Martiall in the Rainbow, Sir George Cary M. of the Ordinance, in the Mary rose, Sir Robert Southwell in the Lyon, gentlemen for all laudable good vertues, and for perfect courage and discretion in all military actions, of as great praise and good desert as any gentlemen of their degree whosoeuer, hauing with them some of the shippes of London and some of the Dutch squadron of reasonable burthen, should leade the dance, and giue the onset, and that the two most noble Lords generall with some others of their companies, should in their conuenient time and order, second the maine battell. The fight being begunne and growen very hot, the L. Generall the Earle of Essex, (whose infinite princely vertues with triumphant fame deserue to be immortalized) being on Port S. Mary side, vpon a sudden and vnlooked for of others, thrust himselfe among the formost into the maine battell. The other most honorable L. Generall (whose singular vertues in all respects are of such an excellencie and perfection as neither can my praise in any part increase them, nor any mans enuy any whit blemish or diminish them) vnderstanding, the most noble Earle to be in fight among them, and perceiuing by the M. of his ship, the Arke Royall, that lacke of water, it was not possible, that he might put any neerer, without farther delay, called presently for his Pynnesse, and in the same Pynnesse put himselfe, and his honorable son L. William Howard that now is, aboord the Honor de la mer, and there remained in the fight till the battell was ended. The fight was very terrible, and most hideous to the beholder by the continuall discharging of those roaring thundering great peeces, on all sides, and so continued doubtful till about one or two of the clocke in the afternoone: about which time the Philip, whom in very truth, they had all most fancie vnto, began to yeeld and giue ouer, her men that remained aliue shifting for themselues as they were able, and swimming, and running a shoare with all the hast that they could possibly, and therewithall, at the very same instant themselues fired their ship, and so left her, and presently thereupon a great Argosie, with an other mighty great ship, fired themselues in the like maner. Immediately hereupon, the residue of the ships ran themselues on ground, as farre from vs as they could, and therby purchased their owne safety, or rather breathing space for the time. Of them all two faire ships only were boorded and taken by our men with most part of their furniture in them, the one called S. Matthy, a ship by estimation of some xii. hundred tunne, and the other S. Andrew, being a shippe of not much lesser burthen. The Gallies, seeing this suddaine great victorious ouerthrow, made all the hast they could toward the Bridge called Puente de Suaço, and there shrowded themselues in such sort as our shippes could not by any meanes possible come nigh them for lacke of water. The Spanish ships in all were lix. and as is sayd, all tall ships and very richly furnished and well appointed, whereof some of them were bound for the Indies, and other freighted and furnished for Lisbon, as themselues affirme; and had we not come that very time that we did, (which for my part, I do not attribute so much vnto meere chance, as to some secret deepe insight and foreknowledge of the two most worthy Lords generall, who no doubt spared for no cost or labour for true intelligence) we had certainely mist of them all. Of what great wealth and riches these ships were, that I leaue to other mens iudgement and report, but sure I am that themselues offered two millions and a halfe of ducats for the redemption of the goods and riches that were in them: which offer of theirs, albeit it was accepted of the Lords Generall, and should haue beene receiued, yet we were defeated of it, as hereafter shall be more at large declared. What maner of fight this was, and with what courage performed, and with what terror to the beholder continued, where so many thundering tearing peeces were for so long a time discharged, I leaue it to the Reader to thinke and imagine. Yet such was the great mercy and goodnes of our liuing God, that in all this cruell terrible fight, in the end, there were not either slaine or hurt by any maner of meanes (excepting one mischance that happened, wherof I will by and by make mention) many aboue the number of 100. of our men: notwithstanding diuers of our shippes were many times shot thorow and thorow: yea and some of them no lesse then two and twentie times, as I was enformed by credible report of the Captaines and Masters themselues. I knowe not of any other hurt done, sauing onely that Sir Robert Southwell, who alwayes shewed himselfe a most valiant resolute knight in all this action, making a litle too much haste with his Pinnesse to boord the Philip, had there his said Pinnesse burnt with the Philip at the same instant, and yet by good care and diligence his men were saued. One other mischance (as I said) there happened, and it was thus: One of the Flemings flieboats, who had, in all the conflict before, caried himselfe very well and valiantly, about ten of the clocke while the fight continued sharpest, chanced by great negligence and misfortune, to be fired and blowen vp by his owne powder, who could not haue any fewer in him, then one hundred fighting men by all supposall, and so in the very twinckling of an eye, both shippe and men were all cast away, excepting vii. or viii. which by very good fortune, and great care and diligence of some of the other ships were saued. Immediatly vpon this notable victory without any farther stay in all the world, the Lord generall the Earle of Essex put to shore and landed about 3000. shot, and pikemen: of the which number the one halfe was presently dispatched to the bridge Puente de Suaço, vnder the conduct of three most famous worth; knights. Sir Christopher Blunt, Sir Coniers Clifford, and Sir Thomas Gerard: with the other halfe, being about fifteene hundred, the most noble Earle of Essex himselfe, being accompanied with diuers other honorable Lords, namely the Earle of Sussex, the Lord Harbert, the Lord Burt, Count Lodouick of Nassaw, the Lord Martiall Sir Francis Vere, with many other worthy Knights, and men of great regard, who all in that dayes seruice did most valiantly behaue themselues, with all expedition possible marched on foote toward the towne of Cadiz, which was about three English miles march. That time of the day was very hot and faint and the way was all of dry deepe slyding sand in a maner, and beside that, very vneuen, and by that meanes so tiresome and painefull as might be. The enemie hauing reasonable companie both of horse and footemen, stoode in a readinesse some good distance without the towne to welcome vs, and to encounter the Lorde Generall. But the most famous Earle with his valiant Troupes, rather running in deede in good order, then marching, hastened on with such vnspeakeable courage and celeritie, as within one houres space and lesse, the horsemen were all discomfited and put to flight, their leader being strooken downe at the very first encounter, whereat the footemen being wonderfully dismayed and astonished at the vnexspected manner of the Englishmens kinde of such fierce and resolute fight retyred themselues with all the speede possible that they could, to recouer themselues into the Towne againe, which being done by them, with farre swifter legges then manly courage, our men were enforcd to skale the walles: which thing in very deede, although it was not without great danger and difficulty to be perfourmed: Yet such was the inuincible resolution, and the wonderfull dexterity of the English, that in one halfe houre or thereabout, the enemie was repulsed, and the towne wall possessed, by the noble Earle himselfe, being in all this action, either the uery first man or else in a maner ioyned with the first. The towne walles being then possessed, and the English Ensigne being there displayed vpon them, with all speede possible they proceeded on to march through the towne, making still their waie with sworde and shot as well as they could, being still fought withall at euery turne. Immediately vpon this most famous entrie, the noble Earle, (according to their resolutions, as I take it, put downe before) was seconded by the noble L. Admirall in person, who was accompanied, with the noble L. Thomas Howard, the most worthy gentleman his sonne, now L. Howard, Sir Robert Southwell, Sir Richard Leuison, and with diuers other gentlemen, his L. followers of good account: his colours being aduanced by that valiant resolute gentleman, (a man beautified with many excellent rare gifts, of good learning and vnderstanding) S. Edward Hobby Knight. And thus he likewise marching with al possible speede on foote, notwithstanding his L. many yeres, the Intolerable heate, for the time, and the ouertiring tedious deepe sands, with other many impediments: Yet in good time, ioyned himselfe with the Earle and his companies, and gaue them the strongest, and best assistance that he could. Thus then the two Lords Generall with their companies being ioyned together, and proceeding so farre as the market place, there they were hotly encountered, where and at what time, that worthy famous knight Sir Iohn Winkfield, being sore wounded before on the thigh, at the very entry of the towne, and yet for all that no whit respecting himselfe being caried away, with the care he had to encourage and direct his company, was with the shot of a musket in the head, most vnfortunately slaine. And thus before eight of the clocke that night were these two most noble Lords General, Masters of the market place, the forts, and the whole Towne and all, onely the Castle as yet holding out, and from time to time as they could, still annoying them, with seuen battering pieces. By this time night began to grow on, and a kind of peace or intermission was obtained by them of the Castle: to whome the Lords Generall had signified: that vnlesse before the next day in the morning they would absolutely render themselues, they should looke for no mercy, but should euery one be put to the sword: vpon which message they tooke deliberation that night: but in the morning before breake of day, they hanged out their flag of truce, and so without any further composition did yeeld themselues absolutely to their mercy, and deliuered vp the Castle. And yet notwithstanding all this, in the night time while they had this respite to pause, and deliberate about the peacemaking, there were diuers great and suddaine alarms giuen: which did breed some great outrages and disorder in the towne. At euery which alarme, the two Lordes Generall shewed themselues maruelous ready and forward, insomuch that at the very first alarme, skant wel furnished with any more defence then their shirts, hose, and dublets, and those too altogether in a maner vntied, they were abroad in the streets themselues, to see the vttermost of it. But for that it is not as yet very well knowen (or at the least not well knowen vnto me) either wherfore, or by whom these alarmes were attempted: I am therefore to intreat, that a bare report, that such a thing was done, may suffice. These things being done, and this surrender being made, present proclamation was published, that the fury now being past, all men should surcease from all maner of blood and cruell dealing, and that there should no kind of violence or hard vsage be offered to any, either man, woman or child, vpon paine of death: And so permitting the spoyle of so much of the towne as was by them thought meete, to the common souldiers for some certaine dayes, they were continually in counsell about other graue directions, best knowen to their honourable wisedomes. This honourable and mercifull Edict I am sure was streightly and religiously obserued of the English: But how well it was kept by the Dutch, I will nether affirme, nor yet denie. For I perceiue betweene them and the Spaniards, there is in implicable hartburning, and therefore as soone as the Dutch squadron was espied in the fight, immediatly thereupon both they of Siuil and S. Lucar and also some, of some other places, did not onely arrest all such Dutch ships, as delt with them friendly by the way of traffick and Marchandise, and so confiscated their goods, but also imprisoned the Marchants and Owners of the same, and, as the report goeth, did intreat many of them with extreame cruelty thereupon. In the meane while the very next day being the two and twenty day of Iune, all the Spanish shippes which were left on ground in the Bay of Cadiz, where the great ouerthrowe had beene but the day before, were by the Spaniards themselues there set on fire, and so from that time forward they neuer left burning of them, till euery one of them, goods and all, as farre as wee know were burnt and consumed. This their doing was much maruelled at of vs, and so much the more, for that, as I sayd before, there had bene made some offer for the redemption and sauing of the goods, and it was not to them vnknowen that this their offer was not misliked, but in all probabilitie should haue bene accepted. The common opinion was, that this was done either by the appointment of the Duke de Medina Sidonia, or els by expresse commandement from the higher powers. Not long after the same time (three dayes as I remember) the gallies that were runne on ground, did quitte themselues also out of that place, and by the bridge of the Iland called Puente de Suaço, made their way round about the same Iland, and so by putting themselues to the maine sea, escaped to a towne called Rotta, not farre off, but something vp towards the Towne of Saint Lucars, and there purchased their safety by that meanes. Thus was this notable victorie, as well by sea as by land, both begunne and in effect perfourmed, within the compasse, in a maner, of foureteene houres: A thing in trueth so strange and admirable, as in my iudgement will rather bee wondered at then beleeued of posteritie. And if euer any notable exploit in any age was comparable to Cæsars Veni, Vidi, Vici, certainely in my poore opinion it was this. Here it is to be wished (and perchance of some too it is looked for) that euery mans particular worthy acte in this dayes seruice, with the parties names also, should be put downe, that thereby both they and their good deserts might be registered to all posteritie: and for my part I would it were so, and wish I were able to doe it. But for that I confesse it is a matter that passeth my power, yea, and for that I thinke it also a thing impossible to be precisely perfourmed by any other, I am to craue pardon for that I rather leaue it out altogether, then presume to doe it maymedly: and in this point I referre the Reader onely to the Mappe that is set foorth of this iourney, where it is in some parte conueniently touched and specified. The Towne of it selfe was a very beautifull towne, and a large, as being the chiefe See of the Bishop there, and hauing a goodly Cathedrall Church in it, with a right goodly Abbey, a Nunnery, and an exceeding fine College of the Jesuites, and was by naturall situation, as also by very good fortification, very strong, and tenable enough in all mens opinions of the better judgement. Their building was all of a kind of hard stone, euen from the very foundation to the top, and euery house was in a manner a kinde of a fort or Castle, altogether flat-roofed in the toppe, after the Turkish manner, so that many men together, and that at ease, might walke thereon: hauing vpon the house top, great heapes of weighty stoanes piled vp in such good order, as they were ready to be throwen downe by euery woman most easily vpon such as passed by, and the streetes for the most part so exceeding narrow, (I thinke to auoide the intollerable great heat of the Sunne) as but two men or three at the most together, can in any reasonable sorte march thorough them, no streete being broader commonly then I suppose Watling streete in London to be. The towne is altogether without glasse, excepting the Churches, yet with faire comely windowes, and with faire grates of iron to them, and haue very large folding leaues of wainscot or the like. It hath very fewe Chimnies in it, or almost none at all: it may be some one chimney in some one or other of the lower out roomes of lest account, seruing for some necessary vses, either to wash in, or the like, or els nowe and then perchance for the dressing of a dish of meate, hauing, as it should seeme vnto me, alwayes a greater care and respect how to keepe themselues from all kind of great heat, then how to prouide for any store of great roste. It had in it by report of them that should best know it, some foure thousand and moe, of very good able fighting men, and sixe hundred horsemen at the least. No question but that they were well furnished of all things appertaining thereunto, especially so many good ships lying there, and being so well stored with all manner of munition, shot, and powder, as they were. Whether they had knowledge of our comming or no, I can say nothing to it: Themselues giue it out that they vnderstood not of it, but onely by a Carauel the Friday at euening before we came. But whether they knew it or no, thus much I dare boldly affirme, that if the English had bene possessed of that or the like Towne, and had bene but halfe so well prouided as they were, they would haue defended it for one two moneths at the least, against any power whatsoeuer in at Christendome. But surely GOD is a mighty GOD, and hath a wonderfull secret stroke in all matters, especially of weight and moment. Whether their hearts were killed at the mighty ouerthrow by sea, or whether they were amased at the inuincible courage of the English, which was more then ordinary, caring no more for either small shot or great, then in a maner for so many hailestones, or whether the remorse of a guilty conscience toward the English nation, for their dishonourable and diuelish practices, against her Sacred Maiestie, and the Realme, (a matter that easily begetteth a faint heart in a guilty minde) or what other thing there was in it I know not, but be it spoken to their perpetuall shame and infamie, there was neuer thing more resolutely perfourmed, of the couragious English, nor more shamefully lost of the bragging Spaniard. Of what wealth this towne should be, I am not able to resolue the asker: for I confesse that for mine owne part, I had not so much good lucke, as to be partaker so much as of one pennie, or penny worth. Howbeit my ill fortune maketh that towne neuer a whit the poorer. But as it should appear by the great pillage by the common souldiers, and some mariners too, and by the goodly furnitures; that were defaced by the baser people, and thereby vtterly lost and spoyled, as not woorth the carying away, and by the ouer great plenty of Wine, Oyle, Almonds, Oliues, Raisins, Spices, and other rich grocery wares, that by the intemperate disorder of some of the rasher sort were knockt out, and lay trampled vnder feete, in euery common high way, it should appeare that it was of some very mighty great wealth to the first owners, though perchance, not of any such great commoditie to the last subduers, for that I iudge that the better part was most ryotously and intemperately spent and consumed. A disorder in mine opinion very much to be lamented, and if it might be by any good meanes remedied, in my conceit, it were a most honourable deuice. The Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday following, the Lords Generall spent in counsell, about the disposing of all matters, aswell touching the towne and prisoners, as also concerning all other matters, thought meete of them in their honourable wisedomes, and in all that meane while did shew such honourable bounty and mercy, as is not able to be expressed. For not onely the liues of euery one were spared, but also there was an especial care had, that al the Religious, as wel men as women, should be well and fauourably intreated, whom freely without any maner of ransome or other molestation, they caused to be safely transported ouer to Port Saint Marie, a towne in a maner as fayre as Cadiz: but at that time, as the case did stand, certainly knowen to be of no wealth in the world, and it was some sixe or seuen miles distant ouer against Cadiz, in a maner as Paules is against Southwarke, on the other side of the Bay, in a part of Andaluzia, subiect to the territory of the Duke de Medina Sidonio. Moreouer, at the same instant they did appoint that worthy knight Sir Amias Preston, and some others in some conuenient Barkes, to transport ouer to the sayd Towne safely and in good order, a hundred or moe of the better sort of ancient gentlewomen, and marchants wiues, who were suffered to put vpon themselues, some of them two, yea, some three sutes of apparell, with some conuenient quantitie of many Iewels, Chaines, and other ornaments belonging to their estate and degree. Such was the heroicall liberality, and exceeding great clemencie of those most honourable Lords Generall, thereby, as it should seeme vnto mee, beating downe that false surmised opinion, which hath bene hitherto commonly spread abroad, and setled among the Spaniards: which is, That the English doe trouble them and their countries, more for their golde, riches and pearle &c. then for any other iust occasion. Whereas by these their honourable dealings it is manifest to all the world, that it is onely in respect of a iust reuenge for the manifolde iniuries, and most dishonourable practises that haue bene from time to time attempted by them against vs and our nation, and also in the defence of the true honour of England: which they haue sought, and daylie doe seeke, by so many sinister and reprochfull deuices, so much as in them lieth, to deface. Vpon Saturday being the 26. Sir Iohn Winkfield knight was buried, in honourable and warlike manner, so farre foorth us the circumstances of that time and place could permit. At whose funerals the Nauie discharged a great part of their Ordinance, in such order, as was thought meete and conuenient by the Lords Generals commandement. The twenty seuenth day being Sunday, in the Abbey the diuine seruice was had, and a learned Sermon was made there by one Master Hopkins, the right honourable Earle of Essex his Preacher, a man of good learning and sweete vtterance, and euen there the same day, something before the sermon was made, these worthie Gentlemen following were knighted by the Lords General. And here I am to signifie by the way that two of these were knighted three or foure dayes before, and some three or foure moe were knighted after that time, vpon certaine occasions: but yet I holde it beste (and I trust without offence) to recite their names in this place altogether. The names of such noble men and gentlemen, as were knighted at Cadiz in Iune 1596 by the two most honourable Lordes Generall. June 21. Sir Samuel Bagnol. Sir Alexander Clifford. 22. Sir Arthur Sauage. Sir Maurice Barkley. 27. The Earle of Sussex. Sir Charles Blunt The Lord Harbert. Sir George Gifford. The Lord Burk. Sir Robert Crosse. Count Ludowick. Sir Iames Escudamor. Sir William Howard. Sir Vrias Leigh. Sir George D'Eureux. Sir Iohn Leigh, alias Lee. Sir Henry Neuel. Sir Richard Weston. Sir Edmund Rich. Sir Richard Wainman. Sir Richard Leuen. Sir Iames Wootton. Sir Peter Egomort. Sir Richard Ruddal. Sir Anthonie Ashley. Sir Robert Mansfield. Sir Henry Leonard. Sir William Mounson. Sir Richard Leuison. Sir Iohn Bowles. Sir Horatio Vere. Sir Edward Bowes. Sir Arthur Throchmorton. Sir Humfrey Druel. Sir Miles Corbet Sir Amias Preston. Sir Edward Conway. Sir Robert Remington. Sir Oliuer Lambert Sir Iohn Buck. Sir Anthony Cooke. Sir Iohn Morgan. Sir Iohn Townesend. Sir Iohn Aldridg. Sir Christopher Heydon. Sir Iohn Asshindon. Sir Francis Popham. Sir Matthew Browne. Sir Philip Woodhouse. Sir Iohn Acton. Sir Thomas Gates. Sir Iohn Gylbert. Sir Gilly Mericke. Sir William Haruie. Sir Thomas Smith. Sir Iohn Gray. Sir William Pooley. Don Christ. prince of Portingall. Sir Thomas Palmer. Sir Iohn Vanderfoord, Sir Iohn Stafford. Admirall of the Hollanders. Sir Robert Louel. Sir Robert Duley. 8. August. [_In the preceding List, the last name should undoubtedly be Sir Robert Dudey._] I am not curious in placing these gentlemen, but put them downe at a venture. Only I haue obserued, as neere as I could, the iust day and time when they were created. And I trust where the place of it selfe is so worthy and equall, there the bare naming and placing of the parties, shal brede no offence, or make a disparity. The two gentlemen that were last knighted receiued their knighthood in the way of our returne from Cadiz: the one of them vpon the sea, not farre from the Bay of the Groyne, at what time our ships stood vpon their staies for a space while certaine Pinnasses were sent to descrie what shipping was at the Groine: The other at Plimmouth in the open streete, when the Lords Generall came from the Sermon. The one a man of long seruice, and good desert among the Dutch: the other of so many good parts of a worthy gentleman, as the like are seldome seene to concurre in any. I spake in the beginning of her Majesties praier, which I presumed (though vnworthy) to translate into Latine: and nowe at this very time there was some opportunity offered, for to make some vse of that translation. For nowe being in Cadiz, attending vpon my most honourable good Lord, I talked with certaine of the Religious men, such as I found learned, whereof indeed there were some, though not very many. I talked also with the Bishop of Cusco there, a graue aged comely man, and being of late chosen to that Bishopricke, he was as then to have gone to the Indies had not we then taken him prisoner, and so stayed his iourney for that time. With these men euer as occasion did serue, I did seeke nowe and then to spende some speech, and to entertaine time withall, I would breake with them of this our victorie, and of the iniuries and bad dealings of their Prince and Countrey offered to her Maiestie, whereby shee was prouoked, and in a manner drawn to this action: though otherwise of her own most excellent princely good nature, she was altogether giuen to peace, and quietnes. And alwayes in some part of our conferences, I would shew them a copie of her Maiesties praier in Latine, which I had alwayes of purpose ready about me; whereby it might the better appeare vnto them, how vnwillingly, and vpon how great and vrgent occasions her Maiesty was, as it were enforced to vndertake this action: and therewithall I did vse now and then to bestow vpon them a copy of the same in writing. They seemed in all outward shew to allow of my speeches, and to praise her Maiesties good inclination; and earnestly to wish that there might be a firme concord and peace againe. It pleased the Lords general to deale exceeding fauourably with this said Bishop of Cusco: for it was their good pleasure to giue him his free passage without any ransome, and therewithal to let him to vnderstand, that they came not to deale with Church-men, or vnarmed men, or with men of peace, weaklings and children, neither was it any part of their meaning to make such a voyage for gold, siluer, or any other their wealth and riches, &c. But that, their only comming was to meet with their dishonorable practises, and manifold iniuries, and to deale with men of warre and valour, for the defence of the true honour of England: and to let them to vnderstand, that whensoeuer they attempted any base-conceited and dishonorable practise to their soueraigne Queene, their Mistresse, that it should be reuenged to the vttermost, &c. In this meane space, while the Lords general continued at Cadiz, there came to them certain poore wretched Turks, to the number of 38, that had bin a long time gally-slaues, and either at the very time of the fight by sea, or els immediately thereupon, taking the opportunity, did then make their escape, and did swim to land: yeelding themselues to the mercy of their most honorable Lordships. It pleased them with all speed to apparel them, and to furnish them with money, and all other necessaries, and to bestow on them a barke, and a Pilot, to see them freely and safely conueied into Barbary, willing them to let the countrey vnderstand what was done, and what they had seene. Whereby I doubt not, but as her Maiesty is a most admirable Prince already, ouer all Europe, all Africk, and Asia, and throughout Christendome: so the whole worlde hereafter shall haue iust cause to admire her infinitely Princely vertues, and thereby bee prouoked to confesse, that as she hath bin mightily protected from time to time, by the powerful hand of the almighty, so vndoubtedly, that she is to be iudged and accounted of vs, to be his most sacred handmaide, and chosen vessel. And therefore, whatsoever wicked designement shalbe conspired and plotted against her Maiesty hereafter, shalbe thought to be conspired, plotted, and intended against the almighty himselfe: and for that cause, as I trust, shalbe by the infinite goodnes and mercy of that almighty, mightily frustrate and ouerthrowen. The 28. day being Munday, the L. Admirall came aboord the Arke againe, minding there to remaine for a space, as indeed he did, and vpon the aduise of his Physition, to deale something in Physicke, for that his L. found his body something out of frame. At that time it pleased his L. to write certain letters to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, for the deliuerance of English captiues, who were remaining in the gallies. For by this time, it was reported, that the said Duke was come downe in person with some power, and that he was either at Port S. Mary, or els at Rotta, or thereabout. His L. did endite the letters himselfe, but his pleasure was, they should be turned into Latine by another: and so to be sent (as indeed they were) in the latine tongue vnto the Duke. A copie of the Lord Admirals letters to the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Illustrissimo Principi Duci de Medina Sidonia. Illustrissime Princeps, ex nonnullis quibusdam Hispanis intelligimus, Excellentiam vestram iam nunc esse apud portam S. Mariæ. Et quoniam in anno Domini 1588. id nobis tunc muneris assignatum erat à sereniss. nostra Regina domina mea, vt contra vos, vestrásque copias, Ego solus pro eo tempore Generalis essem constitutus: Idcircò non opinamur vobis ignotum esse, quàm mite quoddam, et humanum bellandi genus, tum hîc iam in hoc ipso tempore, aduersus huius loci populum atque incolas vsurpauerimus: tum etiam sæpius antehac quâm humaniter, benignèque eos omnes tractauerimus, quos ex vestris iure belli captiuos acceperimus. Ex quorum numero quàm multa milia etiam gratis, nullo accepto pretio, libertate donauerimus, id putamus omnibus esse testatius, quàm vt à quoquam denegetur. Quocirca, neque vllo modo nobis in mentem venire potest, vt dubitemus, quin parem etiam in vobis humanitatem aduersus nostros captiuos simus reperturi. Cum igitur nobis compertum iam sit, habere vos in vestris galeris, ex Reginæ nostræ serenissimæ Dominæ meæ subditis vnum et quinquaginta captiuos: non equidem dubitamus, quin eos omnes sitis relaxaturi, et ad nos missuri: ea lege, ac conditione, vt totidem ex vestris hîc captíuis eiusdem loci atque ordinis, melioris etiam fortassis notæ, ac conditionis, homuncios, ad os vicissim remittamus. Id quod nos facturos data fide spondemus, quàm primùm nostros captiuos ex vestris manibus acceperimus. Hac in re si nostro desiderio ac voluntati parùm satisfactum erit, aliud profectò tunc posthac belli genus ingrediemur, aliúmque bellandi morem cogemur, etiam inuiti, et contra voluntatem prosequi. Ex Regia Anglicana classe apud Cadiz vltimo Iunij, stilo antiquo. 1596. Carolus Howard. These letters were sent by a Spaniard, and an answere was brought from the Duke with al conuenient speed, and as it should seeme by the L. Admirals next answere returned to him in writing, which immediately hereafter foloweth, the Duke de Medina Sidonia his letters were honorable, and with good regard. A Copie of my L. Admirals second letter to the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Illustrissimo Principi Duci de Medina Sidonia. Illustrissime Princeps, literas ab excellentia vestra hodiè accepimus: quæ verò nostra sit ad illas responsio, nobiles isti viri, qui vestras literas ad nos pertulerunt: pleniùs declarabunt. Hoc interim cupimus esse penitùs persuasum Excellentiæ vestræ; nos sedulò operam daturos, vt in omni honorificæ benignitatis humanitatisque genere, expectationi vestræ omni ex parte respondeamus. Quod ad Anglicos nostros captiuos attinet, quos ab Excellentia vestra huc ad nos crastino die missum iri expectamus, in ea re pollicemur Excellentiæ vestræ, quòd plenius à nobis vestræ voluntati satisfactum erit: et quòd pro illis captiuis tales nos captiuos vobis remittemus, quales tum ab ipso Dom. Mendoza, tum ab alijs illustrib. viris, qui à Dom. Porta Carero in illorum ad nos fauorem mittebantur, communi cum consensu erant ab ipsis approbati. Si verò quis alius iam captiuus est vel posthac futurus erit in nostra potestate, pro cuius redemptione nondum plenè conuentum est et stipulatum de certo pretio persoluendo: concedimus Excellentiæ vestræ, vt in hoc etiam casu vos, vestro pro arbitrio, de illis quicquid velitis, imperetis. Ex Regia classe Anglicana, apud Cadiz, 3. die Iulij stylo antique. 1596. Carolus Howard. The next day after, being the 4. of Iuly, the L. L. generall caused the towne of Cadiz to be set on fire, and rased and defaced so much as they could, the faire cathedral Church, and the religious houses only being spared, and left vnblemished. And with the town al such prouision for shipping, and other things, as were seruiceable for the K. vse, and yet were not either so conuenient for vs to be caried away, or els such as we stood no whit at all in need of, were likewise at the same instant consumed with fire. And presently therupon, their Lordships, with as conuenient, speed as they could, and the whole army in such good order and leisure, as they thought best, came aboord. The next day being the 5. of Iuly, the L. L. generall with all the armie being vnder saile and now making for England, and but as yet passing the very mouth of the Bay of Cadiz, a galley full of English prisoners, with a flag of truce, met vs from Rotta, sent by the D. of Medina Sidonia, and sent as it should seeme, one day later then his promise: but yet their flag being either not big enough, or not wel placed in the galley, or not wel discerned of our men, or by what other mischance I know not: but thus it was: by one of our smallest ships that sailed formost, assoone as the said galley came within gunshot, there was a great peece discharged vpon her, and at that instant there was one man slaine outright, and 2. other grieuously hurt. The error being espied and perceiued, our ship gaue ouer immediatly from any farther shooting. Assoone as the galley came neere vs, my L. Admirall caused a gracious salutation to be sounded with his trumpets, and willed the captains forthwith to come aboord his ship: which they did, and then he feasted them with a very fine and honorable banket, as the time and place might serve. And then by them vnderstanding of that unfortunate mischance that had hapned by the shot of the said ship, he was very sory for the same, and yet such was the merciful prouidence of almighty God, that euen in this mischance also, he did hold his holy hand ouer the English. And al the harme that was done did light onely vpon the poore Turk, and the Spaniard himselfe. When this Lorde had well banqueted them, hee presently called for his barge, and did accompany the said galley to the Lorde general the Earle of Essex, who then did ride with his ship a good distance off: and there they being in like maner most honorably receiued, and intertained, the Spanish gentlemen deliuered vp their prisoners the English captiues, of whom some had bin there 6 yere, some 8, or ten: yea, and some 22. yeere, and vpward, and some of them but lately taken in S. Francis Drakes last voiage to the Indies. The number of the prisoners deliuered were but 39, and no mo, and were brought in, and deliuered by Don Antonio de Corolla and his brother, and, by Don Pedro de Cordua, and certaine others. If you demaund why, of one and fiftie Captiues, there were no moe deliuered then was, I presuppose, (and I thinke it true to) that at that time the residue were farther off in some remote places of Spaine bestowed, and so by that meanes, not able at this time to bee in a readinesse, but yet like enough that there is some good order taken for them hereafter, to be redeemed, and sent ouer into England. If any man presume here so farre, as to enquire how it chanced, that the Lords generall rested so long at Cadiz, and went no farther, and why Port S. Mary being so faire a towne, and so neere to them, was forborne? and why Sheres aliàs Xeres? And why Rotta and the like? And why this or that was done? And why that or this left vndone? I will not answere him with our common English prouerbe, as I might, which is: That one foole may aske moe questions in one houre, then ten discrete men can wel answere in fiue dayes. But that graue auncient writer, Cornelius Tacitus, hath a wise, briefe, pithy saying, and it is this: "Nemo tentauit inquirere in columnas Herculis, sanctiúsque ac reuerentius habitum est de factis Deorum credere, quàm scire." Which saying, in my fancy, fitteth marueilous well for this purpose: and so much the rather, for that this Cadiz is that very place, (at least by the common opinion) where those said pillers of Hercules were thought to be placed: and, as some say, remaine as yet not farre off to be seene. But to let that passe, the saying beareth this discrete meaning in it, albeit in a prety kind of mystical maner vttered: That it befitteth not inferiour persons to be curious, or too inquisitiue after Princes actions, neither yet to be so sawcy and so malapert, as to seeke to diue into their secrets, but rather alwayes to haue a right reuerend conceite and opinion of them, and their doings: and thereon so resting our inward thoughts, to seek to go no further, but so to remaine ready alwaies to arme our selues with dutiful minds, and willing obedience, to perform and put in execution that which in their deepe insight and heroicall designements, they shall for our good, and the care of the common wealth determine vpon. This, and much lesse to, might suffice to satisfie any honest minded man. But yet if any will needs desire to be a little farther satisfied, albeit it neede not, yet then, this much I dare say and affirme, that vpon my knowledge, the chiefest cause why Port Saint Mary, and the rest were left vntouched, was this: For that it was most certainly knowen, that they were townes not woorth the saluting of such a royal companie, in which there was no maner of wealth in the world left, more then bare houses of stone, and standing walles, and might well haue serued rather as a stale, perchance, to haue entrapped, then as a meanes to haue enriched. And it had bin more then a suspicion of follie, for such an army as this, to haue sought to fight with the aire, and to haue laboured with great paine and charges, yea, and with some euident danger too, to haue ouerthrowen that, which could very litle or nothing haue profited, being destroyed: and yet nowe, can doe as little harme being left, as it is, vntouched. And thus much for our iourney to Cadiz: for the accidents that happened by the way, for the winning, spoiling, and burning of the saide towne, for the ouerthrowe of the Spanish Fleet there, and for al other by-matters that happened, as appendances to the same, both in the time of our abode there, as also at the very last houre of our comming from thence. As for our returne home, and our entrance into a part of Portingal by the way, with the taking, spoyling, and burning of the towne of Faraon there, and marching into the Spanish confines therabouts, &c. I minde to leaue it to some other, whose chance was to be present at the action, as myselfe was not, and shalbe of more sufficient ability to performe it. * * * * * The Most Honourable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, Knight. 1595. [Footnote: At London, printed by I. Roberts, for Richard Smith, 1595. (Written by Gervase Markham--KTH).] That time of yeare when the inamored Sunne Clad in the richest roabes of liuing fiers, Courted the Virgin signe, great Nature Nunne, Which barrains earth of al what earth desires Euen in the month that from _Augustus_ wonne, His sacred name which vnto heauen aspires, And on the last of his ten trebled days, When wearie labour new refresh assayes. Then when the earth out-brau'd the beautious Morne, Boasting his cornie Mantle stird with aire, Which like a golden Ocean did adorne, His cold drie carcasse, featurelesse, vnfaire, Holding the naked shearers scithe in scorne, Or ought that might his borrowed pride empaire, The soule of vertue seeing earth so ritch, With his deare presence gilds the sea as mitch. The sea, which then was heauie, sad, and still, Dull, vnapplyed to sportiue wantonnesse, As if her first-borne _Venus_ had beene ill, Or _Neptune_ seene the _Sonne_ his loue possesse, Or greater cares, that greatest comforts kill, Had crowned with griefe, the worlds wet wildernesse, Such was the still-foot _Thetis_ silent paine, Whose flowing teares, ebbing fell backe againe. _Thetis_, the mother of the pleasant springs, Grandam of all the Riuers in the world, To whom earths veins their moistning tribut brings, Now with a mad disturbed passion hurld, About her caue (the worlds great treasure) flings: And with wreath'd armes, and long wet hairs uncurld, Within her selfe laments a losse vnlost, And mones her wrongs, before her ioyes be crost Thus whilst churning sorrowe ceaz'd her hart, _Grinuile_ (ô melt my spyrit in that name,) As sings the Swan her funerall depart, And waues her wings the ensignes of her fame, So he, with vertue sweetning bitter smart, Which from the seas long toyling seruice came: For why, sixe Moones, and so oft times the Sunne Was past, and had one halfe the signes ore-runne, Ere he the earth, our common Mother saw; Now earlie greets black _Flores_ banefull Ile, (_Flores_, from whence afflictions selfe doth draw The true memorialls of a weeping stile;) And with _Caisters_ Querristers[1] which straw Descant, that might Death of his darts beguile, He tunes saluting notes, sweeter then long, All which are made his last liues funerall song. Skillesse in deaths great Parliament he cals His fellow mat's, and minions to his fame, Shewes them long lookt for land, and how it brauls, Repulsing backe the billowes as they came, Much he triumphes, and passed griefe for-stals With present ioy (sorrow lights pleasures flame:) And whilst his hopes of _Happy-Fortune_ sings, _Misfortune_ by, controls them with her wings. Desir'd reliefe, and euer welcome rest, The elements that forme the wearie man, Began to hold a counsaile in his brest, Painting his wants by sicknes pale and wan; With other griefes, that others force opprest, Aduising stay, (as what is but they can,) Whilst he that fate to come, and past, nere feard, Concludes to stay till strength decayd repaird. Then casts he Anchor hulling on the maine, And all his shyps poore Citizens recounts, And hundred iust were free from sicknes paine, Fourscore and ten death their redress accounts; So that of all both sicke and sound vnslaine, Vnto two hundred wanting ten amounts. A slender armie for so great a guide, But vertue is vnknowne till it be tride. Those whom their harts enabled to attempt, He puts a shoare to make supplie for neede; Those whom long sicknes taught of death contempt, He visits, and from _Ioues_ great Booke doth reede The balme which mortall poysen doth exempt; Those whom new breathing health like sucklings feed, Hie to the sands, and sporting on the same, Finde libertie, the liues best liuing flame. Looke how a troope of Winter-prisoned Dames, Pent in th' inclosure of the walled townes, Welcoms the Spring, Vsher to Somer flames, Making their Pastimes in the flowrie downes, Whose beauteous Arras[2] wrought in natures frames, Through eyes admire, the hart with wonder crownes, So the wood-walled citizens at sea, Welcome both Spring and Sommer in a day. The warring byllowes, seas artillerie, With long held siege, had bruz'd their beaten keele, Which to repaire the most, most busied be, Lab'ring to cure, what want in labours feele; All pleas'd with toyle, clothing extremitie In Hopes best robes, that hang on Fortunes wheele But men are men, in ignorance of Fate, To alter chaunce, exceedeth humaine state. For when the Sun, towred in heauens head, Downe from the siluer mountaine of the skye, Bent his bright Chariot on the glassie bed, Faire christall, guilded with his glorious eye, Fearing some usurpation in his stead, Or least his Loue should too-long daliance spy Tweene him and _Virgo_, whose attractiue face, Had newly made him leaue the _Lyons_ chase. In that same myd-daies hower came sayling in, A thought-swift-flying Pynnase, taught by winde, T' outstrip in flight Times euer flying wing; And being come where vertue was inshrinde, First vaild his plumes, and wheeling in a ring, With Goat-like dauncing, stays where _Grinuile_ shynd, The whyle his great Commaunder calls the name, Which is ador'd of all that speakes the same. The great Commaunder of this little Barke, Which like an Eglet armes the Eagles side, Was _Midleton_, the ayme of Honors marke, That more had prou'd then danger durst haue tride, Now seeing all good fortunes sun-shine darke, Thrise calls Sir _Richard_, who as oft replyde, Bidding him speake, and ring his newes aloude, Ill, not apald, nor good could make him proude. O then (quoth Midleton) thou soule of all What euer boasts in magnanimitie, Thou, whom pure Vertue her best part doth call, Better then valure, stronger then dietie, Whom men adore, and all the gods exhall Into the bookes of endlesse memorie, I bring thee tidings of a deadly fray, Begun in Heauen, to end vpon the Sea. The glorious Senate of the Skyes was set, And all the gods were royaliz'd in state, When _Happy-fortune_ and _Ill-fortune_ met, Striuing who first should enter Heauen's gate, The one made mad the others fame to let, Neither but stirr'd with rage to wonder at, Confusedly, as water floods doe passe Their common bounds, such their rude entrance was. The gods disturb'd, admire their strange aproch, Censuring their angers by their gloing eyes, _Ill-fortune_ was attended by _Reproch_, _Good-fortune, Fame_, and _Vertue_ stellesies;[3] One sweares the other doth her right incroch, Which is the elder house, none can deuise: The gods diuide, yet in the end agree The Fates shall iudge each others pedigree. _Good-Fortune_, drawes from heauen her hye descent, Making hie _Ioue_ the roote of her large tree; She showes from him how many god-heads went, _Archangells, Angells_, heauen's posteritie: From thence, she shows the glorious thrid she lent, To _Monarks, Emperours_, and _Kyngs_ in fee, Annexing as Colatteralls to her line, _Honour, Vertue, Valure_, and _Endles-time_. Naithlesse, _Ill-fortune_ will be elder borne, She saith, she springs from _Saturne, Ioues_ wronged Sier, And heauen, and earth, and hell her coate haue borne, Fresh bleeding harts, within a field of fier; All that the world admires, she makes her scorne, Who farthest seemes, is to _Ill-fortune_ nier, And that iust proofe may her great praise commend, All that _Best-chaunce_ begins, _Ill-chaunce_ doth ende. Thus they, dispute, guilding their tongues report With instances, and argumental sawes, _Ill-fortune_, bids let all the worlde resort, And show within their Chronicles and lawes, The man whose liue-line neuer did consort, With sharpe affliction, deaths first grounded cause, Then will she yeeld, else, is shee victor still. Worlds good is rare, perpetuall is their ill. Euen as the racket takes the balls rebound; So doth _Good-fortune_ catch _Ill-fortunes_ proofe, Saying, she wil her in herselfe confound, Making her darts, Agents for her behoofe; Bow but thine eies (quoth she) whence ha'ts abound, And I will show thee vnder heauens roofe Th' vnconquered man whom no mischance importunes. Crown of my kingdom, deaths man to misfortune. At this, the casments of the skye broke ope, Discouering all what's girdled in her frame, Whilst _Happy-fortune_ through her eyes large scope Like a Cosmographer comments on the same; Three parts with praise she past and future hope, Then to the fourth, the Westerne world she came, And there, with her eyes festrawe paints a storie, Stranger than strange, more glorified than glorie. See (sayd _Faire-fortune_, to her soule shapt _Foe_) How on the scourge that beates against the Ile Of _Flores_, whence they curst oblations growe, A winde-taught capring ship which ayre beguiles, (Making poore _Cephalus_ for-lorne with woe, Curse arte, which made arte framed saile such smiles) Richlie imbrodred with the Iems of warre, In thy dispight commaunds a lucky starrye. In that faire vessel liues my garlands flower. _Grinuile_, my harts immortall arterie; Of him thy deitie had neuer power, Nor hath hee had of griefe one simpathie; Successe attends him, all good hap doth shower A golden raine of perpetuitie Into his bossome, whete mine Empire stands, Murdring the Agents of thy blacke commands. Say, and say true, (for what but thou wilt say,) That euer _Grinuils_ fortunes came before thee, Of euer prostrate at thine Altars lay, Or with one wreath of Cipresse did adore thee? Proue one blacke storme in all his Sommers day, Whose threatening clouds compeld him to implore thee. Then wil I staine my milkwhite vaile with weeping, And as thine handmaide dye in sorrowes keeping. As wounds the lightning, yet preserues the skinne, So did these words split _Lucklesse-fortunes_ hart, Her smiling _Superficies_, lockt within A deepe exulcerated festring smart; Heere shee perceiu'd her first disgrace begin, And wordlesse from the heauens takes her depart. Yet as she flewe her wings in flying cri'd On _Grinuile_ shall my fame and power be tride. At her departure all the heauens were glad. Triumphing in _Ill-fortunes_ banishment, _Apollo_ set new _Anthems_ as _Ioue_ bad, Which spheare tunes made more then most excellent; No light in heauen but with new fier was clad, Making next _Ioue, Good-fortune_ president, Enrowling in the Bookes of destenie, This memorable famous victorie. Only the _Fat's_ su'd for her backe repeale, (For they _Ill-fortune_ lou'd exceeding well) Many her deedes and Tropheis they reueale, And all her liues blacke legend, weeping tell; Yet all they speake, cannot in heauen preuaile, Which seene, in spight they follow her to hell, And there inhoused with their mother _Night_, All foure deuise, how heauen and earth to spight. Hence sprang the loues of _Ioue_, the _Sonnes_ exile, The shame of _Mars_ and _Venus_ in a net; _Iunos_ forsaken bed; Saturns compile Of frantike discontentment, which beset All heauen with armes; _Diana_ hence had while To court her sleeping boy; whilst _Thetis_ let _Phoebus_ imbrace her in her _Neptunes_ stead, Who made complaints, breach of his bridall bed: Yet not content with these disparagments, Much greater mischiefes issues from their minds, _Grinuile_, thy mountaine honour it augments Within their breasts, a Meteor like the winds, Which thrall'd in earth, a reeling issue rents With violent motion; and their wills combinds To belch their hat's, vow'd murdrers of thy fame, Which to effect, thus they begin the same. Fast to _Iberia_ flies vntoward chaunce, _Iberia_, which we vulgar Christen _Spaine_, Vpon whose Sunne-burnt continent doth daunce Westerne _Ducallidon_, the greatest maine, Thither shee packs, _Error_ doth their aduance Her coale-blacke standerd in the hands of paine; And as escapt from rauishment or bale, With false teares, thus shee tunes a falser tale. Great Empire (said shee) blessed in thy birth, Beautious created for-head of this round, That with thy smiles first lent to heauen mirth, And bout thy temples all perfections woond, Lodgd in th' immagin'd corners of the earth; Thou whom our centers Monarchesse art crownd, Attend my suite, baptisd in mournefull teares, Who but ere while triumphed on the spheares. Nor for my selfe more then thine owne decay Which blindfold pleasure clouds as they arise, Be gracious, and retort the domefull daye Which thee and me to shame would sacrifice. Loe, on the great west-walling boisterous sea, Which doth imbrace thy gold-enclosing eyes, Of many sailes one man, of one poor Ile, That will my fame, and all thy faire defile. His numberlesse great infinits of fame, Haue shut against me heauens great christall dore, The clouds, which once my feets dust had to name, Hang ore my forhead, threatning euermore Death to my praise; life to my infant shame, Whilst I with sighes mediate a new restore. And in my selfe behold my pleasures past, Swimming amongst the ioyes I cannot tast. Th' ambrosian Nectar-filled banqueting, No more shall I communicate, or see, Triumphes in heauen, _Ioues_ masks, and reuelling, Are cleene exempt, both from my ioyes and me. The reason, for my loue to thee I bring, Trimming the locks with Iems of dietie, Making the gods a dread a fatall day, Worse then the Giants warre or Centaurs fray. Poore goddesse, rob'd of all eternall power, Whose broken Statues, and down razed Fan's, Neuer warm'd altars, euer forgotten hower Where any memorie of praise is tane, Witnes my fall from great _Olympus_ tower; Prostrate, implore blame for receiued bane, And dyre reuenge gainst heauens impietie, Which els in shame will make thee follow mee. Behold these robes, maps of my fortunes world, Torne, and distaind with eye-scornd beggerie; These rags deuide the Zones, wherein is hurld My liues distemprate, hote cold miserie; These teares are points, the scale these hairs vncurld, My hands the compasse, woe the emperie: And these my plaints, true and auriculer, Are to my Globe the perpendiculer. Looke how I am, such art thou like to be If armes preuent not heauens intendiment, _Grinuile_, which now surfeits with dignitie, Burd'ning the Sea with my disparagement; Chiding the wanton winds if greedelie They kisse his sailes; or els too slowlie vent, Like _Ioue_, which bad the day be and it was, So bids he Conquest warre; she brings to passe. The sole incouragement he giues his power, Is Prophet-like presaging of thy death, Courage he cries, euen in the dying hower, And with his words, recalls departing breath; O (sayes he to his Mat's) you are my glories tower, Impregnable, wall'd with vnuanquisht faith, You are the hands and agents of my trust, I but the hart reuoluing what we must. Liue Saints, til we haue ript the wombe of _Spayne_, And wounded _Error_ in the armes of hell, Crushing the triple Myter in disdaine, Which on the seauenfold mounted Witch doth dwel, Angells rewards for such dissignes remaine, And on heauens face men shall your stories tell; At this they shoute; as eager of the pray, As Ants in winter of a sunne-shine day. Thus like triumphant _Cæsar_ drawne in Rome, By winged _Valure_, and vnconquered _Chaunce_, He plowes the Sea (ô were it made his tombe) Whilst _Happy-fortune_ pypes unto his daunce. Yet may thy power alternat heauens doome, So pleaseth thee thy forward will t'aduance, And cheare the sinews of thy mighty arme, Whose out-strecht force shall quell his proud alarme. Then giue newe fuell to his honours fier, Least slight regard wealth-winning _Error_ slay, And so old _Saturns_ happie world retyer, Making _Trueths_ dungion brighter than the day; Was neuer woe could wound thy kingdom nyer, Or of thy borrowed beautie make display, Because this vow in heauens booke doth remaine, That _Errors_ death shall consumate thy raigne. Now, for my god-heads remnant liues in thee, Whose lost successe breeds mine eternall end, Take for thine ayde, afflicting _Miserie_, _Woe_, mine attendant, and _Dispayre_ my freend, All three my greatest great _Triumuerie_, Blood bath'd _Carnifici_, which will protend A murdring desolation to that will, Which me in thee, and thee in mee would kill. Here, with her fixed Comet-blazing eyes, The damned _Augurs_ of vntimely death, Shee ends her tale, whilst from her harts caue flyes A storme of winds, no gentle sighing breath, All which, like euill spirits in disguise, Enter _Iberias_ eares, and to her sayth, That all the substance of this damned storie, Was zealous true, coyned for her _Spanish_ glorie. Sworne to beleeue, for ill, in ill assies, _Spayne_ then enamour'd with the _Romane_ trull, Calls all her forces, more then Atomies, And tells _Ill-fortunes_ storie to the full; Many Parenthises shee doth deuise, And frost-relenting words doth choycely cull, Bewitching those whom oft shee had deceiued, With such like Hemlock as her selfe receiued. The first and greatest one, commaunding all, The soule of mischiefes old created mother, Was _Don Alphonso Bassan_, proud in brall, The Marques _Sancta Cruces_ onely brother; Him shee coniures by typ's emperiall, And all that falshoods seeming trueth could couer, To vndertake this hie (she termed it) act, Which craues a curse of all that reads the fact. Her selfe (shee said) and all the flowers of _Spayne_, Should vnder his, as heauens Ensigne warre: Thus from her harts foule dunghill flyes amaine Grosse vapours, metamorphosd to a starre; Her words in fumes like prodogies retaine His hart, by her tongues witchcraft bound so farre, And what shee will, that will hee vnder-take, Be it to warre with heauen for her sake. The seeming Nectar of her poysoning speech, So well shee saw surprise his licoras sence, That for to reare her ill beyonds ills reach, With selfe-like tropes, decks self-like eloquence, Making in _Britain Dona_ such a breach, That her arm'd wits, conqu'ring his best wits sence, He vowes with _Bassan_ to defende the broile, Which men of praise, and earth of fame shal spoile. To him shee giues the _Biscaynnoys_ for guard, Mechanicall Artificers for death, And those which of affliction neuer hard, She tempers with the hammer of her breath: To euery act shee giues huge lyp-reward, Lauish of oathes, as falshood of her faith; And for the ground of her pretended right, T'is hate, which enuies vertue in a Knight. These two to her fast bound in vassailage, Vnto the Marques _Arumburch_ shee flyes, Him shee prouokes, him shee finds apt to rage, Imprisoning Pitties teares in flintie eyes; To him the power of _Siuill_ for a gage Shee doth bequeath; bidding his prowesse ryse, And clense his Countries face from widowes tears, To which he posts, like lightning from the sphears. Lastly, to make vp mischiefes perfect square, To _Luis Cutino_ shee takes her flight, Him shee commaunds, he to her homage sware To guide a Nauie to this damned fight, Of Hulks and Fly-boats such as durst to dare. Shee giues him soueraine rule, and publique right, And then vniting all foure powers in one, Sends them to sea, to calme _Misfortunes_ mone. And now behold (diuine for valiancie) Like flying Castells sayle they to this strand, Fiftie three saile, strong in artillarie; Best men of warre knowne in the _Spanish_ land; Fifteene Armados, Kings of soueraigntie, Which led the lesser with a mightie hand: And these in foure battalions hither flie, With whom three dayes I sailed in companie. Then gentle _Grinuile, Thetis_ parramoure, Dearer than _Venus_, Daughter of the flood, Set sailes to wind, let not neglect deuoure Thy gracious fortunes and thine Angell goode, Cut through the maine, compell thy keele to scoure, No man his ill too timelie hath with-stoode And when _Best-chaunce_ shal haue repaird thy fortune, Time for this flight may iust reuenge importune. Here _Midelton_ did end the passing peale Which gaue the warning to a dismall end, And as his words last knell began to faile, This damned Nauie did a glimmering send, By which _Sir Richard_ might their power reueale, Which seeming conquerlesse did conquests lend; At whose appearance _Midelton_ did cry, See where they come, for fame and pitty flie. This certaine story, of too certaine ill, Did not extinguish, but gaue honour fier, Th'amazing prodigie, (bane of my quill,) Bred not astonishment, but a strong desier, By which this heauen-adopted Knights strong will, Then hiest height of Fame, flew much more hier: And from the boundlesse greatnes of his minde, Sends back this answer through his lyps refin'd. Thanks hardie _Midelton_ for thy dilate, Perswasiue presage to auoyde my death, But if thou wed my fortunes with my state, This sauing health shall suffocate my breath, To flye from them that holds my God in hate, My Mistres, Countrey, me, and my sworne fayth, Were to pull of the load from _Typhons_ back, And crush my selfe, with shame and seruille wrack. Nor if my hart degenerate should yeeld, To entertaine an amorus thought of life, And so transport mine honour to the field, Where seeming valure dies by cowards knife, Yet zeale and conscience shall new forces build, And others soules, with my soule holdeth strife; For halfe my men, and all that draw sound breath, Are gone on shore, for foode to conquer death. If I forsake them, certaine is their end, If I obtaine them, doubtfull is our fall, Vpon my flight, shame and their sacks depend, Vpon my stay, hope of good hap doth call, Equall to me, the meanest I commend; Nor will I loose, but by the losse of all: They are the sinewes of my life and fame, Dismembred bodies perish cripple-lame. This sayd, he sends a cock-boate to the shore, To summon backe his men vnto their ship, Who com'd a board, began with some vprore To way their Anchors, and with care to dip Their hie reuolues in doubt, and euermore, To paint deaths visage with a trembling lip, Till he that was all fearelesse, and feare slew, With Nectard words from them all dangers drew. When _Midelton_ saw _Grinuills_ hie reuolue, Past hope, past thought, past reach of all aspire, Once more to moue him flie he doth resolue, And to that purpose tips his tongue with fier; Fier of sweete words, that easelie might dissolue And moisten flint, though steeld in stiffe attire, Had not desier of wonder praise, and fame, Extinkt the sparks, and still keepe dead the flame. Greater, and better then inarked he, Which in the worlds huge deluge did suruiue, O let thy wings of magnanimitie, Not vainlie flatter, _Honour_ to acchiue, Gainst all conceit impossibilitie, By which thou murderst _Vertue_, keepe aliue, Nor in thy seeking of diuinitie, Kill not heauens fame by base mortalitie. O _Grinuile_ thou hast red Philosophy Nature and Arte hath made thee excellent, And what thou read'st, hath grafted this in thee, That to attempt hie dangers euident Without constraint or neede, is infamie, And honor turnes to rashhes in th'euent: And who so darrs, not caring how he darrs, Sells vertues name, to purchase foolish starrs. Deere Knight, thou art not forst to hazard fame, Heauens haue lent thee meanes to scape thine ill, If thou abide, as true as is thy name, So truly shall thy fault, thy death fulfill: And as to loue the life for vertues flame, Is the iust act of a true noble will, So to contemne it, and her helps exclude, Is baseness, rashness, and no _Fortitude_. He that compard mans bodie to an hoast, Sayd that the hands were scouts, discouering harmes, The feete were horsemen, thundring on the coast, The brest, and stomacke, footmen, huge in swarmes. But for the head, in soueraigntie did boast, It Captayne was, director of alarms, Whose rashness, if it hazarded an ill, Not hee alone but all the hoast did spill. Rash _Isadas_, the _Lacedemon_ Lord, That naked fought against the _Theban_ power, Although they crown'd his valure by accord, Yet was hee find for rashness in that hower: And those which most his carelesse praise affoard, Did most condemne what follie did deuoure; For in attempting, prowesse is not ment, But wiselie doing what we doe attempt. Then sith t'is valure to abandon fight, And base to darre, where no hope is to winne, (Renowned man, of all renowne the light) Hoyst vp thy sailes, delay attrackts thy sinne, Flie from ill-boding starres with all thy might, Vnto thy hart let praise and pittie in. This sayd, and more desirous much to crie, Sir _Richard_ stayd him, with this rich replie. Captayne, I praise thy warlike eloquence, And sober Axioms of Philosophie, But now's no time for schoole points difference, When Deaths blacke Ensigne threatens miserie; Yet for thy words sound of such consequence. Making flight praise, and fight pale obloquie, Once ere I die, Ile clense my wits from rust, And proue my flying base, my stay most iust. Whence shall I flie? from refuge of my fame, From whom? euen from my Countreis mortall foe, Whither? but to the dungeon of my shame, Why shall I flie? for feare of happie woe, What end of flight? to saue vile life by blame, Who ist that flies? _Grinuile_? Captayne no, T'is _England_ flies, faire Ile of happines, And true diuine _Elizas_ holynes. Shall then my life regard taynt that choice faire? First will I perrish in this liquid round, Neuer shall Sunne-burnt _Spanyards_ tongue endeare _Iberian_ eares with what shall me confound, The life I haue, I for my Mistris beare, Curst were that life, should it her scepter wound, And trebble cursed be that damned thought, Which in my minde hath any fayntnes wrought. Now, for Philosophie defends thy theame, Euen selfe Philosophie shall arme my stile, Rich buskin'd _Seneca_, that did declaime, And first in _Rome_ our tragicke pompe compile, Saith, _Fortitude_ is that which in extreme And certaine hazard all base feares exile: It guides, saith he, the noble minde from farre, Through frost, and fier, to conquer honors warre. Honie-tongd _Tullie_, Mermaid of our eares, Affirmes no force, can force true _Fortitude_, It with our bodies, no communion beares, The soule and spyrit, sole doth it include; It is that part of honestie which reares The hart to heauen, and euer doth obtrude Faint feare, and doubt, still taking his delight In perrills, which exceed all perrills might. _Patience, Perseuerance, Greatnes_, and _Strong Trust_, These pages are to _Fortitude_ their King, _Patience_ that suffers, and esteemeth iust, What euer woe, for vertue fortunes bring; _Perseuerance_, holds constant what we must, _Greatnes_, that still effects the greatest thing. And armed _Trust_, which neuer can dispaire, But hopes good hap; how euer fatall deare. The Roman _Sergius_, hauing lost his hand, Slew with one hand foure in a single fight, A thing all reason euer did with-stand. But that bright _Fortitude_ spred forth her light _Pompey_, by storme held from _th' Italyan_ land, And all his sailors quaking in his sight, First hoisted saile, and cry'd amidst the strife, There's neede I goe, no neede to saue my life. _Agis_ that guilt the _Lacedemon_ streete, Intending one day battaile with his foes, By counsaile was repeld, as thing vnmeete, The enemie beeing ten to one in shoes; But he reply'd, Tis needful that his feete Which many leads, should leade to many bloes: And one being good, an Armie is for ten Foes to religion, and known naughty men. To him that told _Dienecus_, his foes Couer'd the Sun with darts and armed speares, Hee made reply, Thy newes is ioy in woes, Wee'le in the shadow fight, and conquer feares. And from the _Polands_ words my humor floes, I care for naught but falling of the Spheares. Thunder affrights the Infants in the schooles, And threatnings are the conquerors of fooles. As these, my case is not so desperate, And yet, then these, my darre shall be no lesse: If this in them, for fame was wondred at, Then this in mee, shall my desiers expresse; Neuer shall _Greece_, nor _Rome_, nor Heathen state, With shining honor, _Albions_ shine depresse, Though their great circuits yeelds their acts large bounds, Yet shall they neuer darr for deeper wounds. And thus resolu'd, deere _Midelton_ depart, Seeke for thy safetie in some better soyle, Thy stay will be no succour in my smart, Thy losse will make them boast of better spoyle. And be assur'd before my last breath part, Ile make the Sunne, for pittie backe recoyle. And clothe the sea within a scarlet pale, Iudge of their death which shall my life exhale. This ship which now intombs my iealous soule, Honestlie enuious of aspiring laude, Is cald _Reuenge_, the scourge which doth controule, The recreants that _Errors_ right applaud, Shall like her selfe, by name and fame enroule My spyrits acts, by no _Misfortune_ aw'd, Within eternall Bookes of happie deeds, Vpon whose notes, immortall Vertue reeds, Say, if I perish, t'was mine honours will, My Countries loue, religion, and my Queene, And if that enuie glorie in mine ill, Say that I dyed, conqu'ring, vnconquered seene. Say fiftie three strong shyps could not fulfill, Gainst one poore mayden vessell their foule teene, But that in spight of death, or miserie, She fought, and foyled, and scapt captiuitie. Replie not _Midelton_, mine eares are clos'd, Hie in heauen's for-head are my vowes ingrau'd, I see the banefull Nauie nowt disclosed, Begon betime, Fate hath thy fortune sau'd; To me good starres were neuer yet opposed, Glorie hath crownd me when I glorie crau'd, Farwel, and say how euer be my chaunce, My death at honours wedding learnt to daunce. This sayd, away sailes Midelton with speede, Sad, heauie, dull, and most disconsolate, Shedding stout manlie teares at valures deed, Greeuing the ruine of so great estate; But _Grinuile_, whose hope euer did exceede, Making all death in daungers fortunate, Gan to prouide to quell this great vprore, Then which the like was neuer heard before. His fights set vp; and all things fit prepard, Low on the ballast did he couch his sick, Being fourscoore ten, in Deaths pale mantle snar'd,[4] Whose want to war did most their strong harts prick. The hundred, whose more sounder breaths declard, Their soules to enter Deaths gates should not stick, Hee with diuine words of immortall glorie, Makes them the wondred actors of this storie. Nothing he left vnsaid that tongue could say, To breede contempt of death, or hate of thrall, Honours reward, fame for a famous day, Wonder of eares, that men halfe gods shall call: And contrarie, a hopelesse certaine way, Into a Tyrants damned fists to fall, Where all defame, base thoughts, and infamie, Shall crowne with shame their heads eternally. In this great thunder of his valiant speech, From whence the eares-eyes honors lightning felt, The _Spanish_ Nauie came within the reach Of Cannon shot, which equallie was delt On eyther side, each other to impeach; Whose volleys made the pittying skyes to melt, Yet with their noyse, in _Grinuiles_ heart did frame, Greater desier, to conquer greater fame. And now the sunne was past his middle way, Leaning more louely to his Lemans bed, And the noones third hower had attacht the day, When fiftie three gainst one were basely led; All harts were fierd; and now the deadlie fray, Began tumultuouslie to ouer-spread. The sea with fier, the Element with smoake Which gods, and monsters from their sleep awoake. In foure great battailes marcht the _Spanish_ hoast, The first of _Siuill_, led in two great squares, Both which with courage, more then can be most, Sir _Richard_ forst to giue him way with cares; And as the Sea-men terme it in our coast, They sprang their luffe, and vnder lee declares, Their manie forces feebled by this one, Whose thoughts, saue him, are rightly due to none. And now he stands amidst the thickest throngs, Walld round with wooden Castels on the waue, Fiftie three Tygers greedie in their wrongs, Besiedge the princelie Lion in his caue: Nothing sees _Grinuile_ which to hope belongs, All things are fled that any hap could saue; Bright day is darkned by incurtaind night, And nothing visits them but Canons light. Then vp to heauen he lifts his loftie hart, And cryes, old _Salon_, I am happy made. All earthlie thoughts cleane from his spirits part, _Vertue_ and _Valure_ all his sences lade, His foes too fewe, too strong he holds his part, Now doth he wish for millions to inuade, For beeing conqueror he would conquer all, Or conquered, with immortall honour fall. Neuer fell hayle thicker then bullets flew, Neuer show'rd drops faster than showring blowes, Liu'd all the _Woorthees_, all yet neuer knew So great resolue in so great certaine woes; Had _Fame_ told _Cæsar_ what of this was true, His Senate-murdred spirite would haue rose, And with faire honors enuie wondred then, Cursing mortalitie in mightie men. Whilst thus affliction turmoyld in this brall, And _Grinuile_ still imployed his Actor death, The great _San-philip_, which all _Spayne_ did call Th' vnuanquisht ship, _Iberias_ soule and faith, Whose mountaine hugenes more was tearmed then tall, Being twice a thousand tuns as rumour saith, Came rushing in, becalming _Grinuiles_ sailes, Whose courage grew, the more his fortunes failes. Hotlie on eyther side was lightning sent, And steeled thunder bolts dinge men to hell, Vnweldie _Phillip_, backt with millions lent, Worse cracks of thunder then on _Phaeton_ fell, That with the dayes fier fiered the Element; And why? because within her ribs did dwell, More store of shot and great artillarie, Then might haue seru'd the worlds great victorie. Three tire of Cannon lodg'd on eyther side, And in each tire, eleuen stronglie lay, Eyght in her chase, that shot forth right did bide, And in her sterne, twice eight that howerlie play; Shee lesse great shot, in infinets did hide, All which were Agents for a dismall day. But poore _Reuenge_, lesse rich, and not so great, Aunswered her cuffe for cuffe, and threat for threat. Anon they graple eyther to the other, And doth the ban-dogge with the Martins skinne; And then the wombe of _Phillip_ did vncouer, Eight hundred Souldiers, which the fight beginne: These board Sir _Richard_, and with thronging smother The daye, the ayre, the time, and neuer linne, But by their entrance did instruct eight more, To doe the like, on each side foure and foure. Thus in one moment was our Knight assaild, With one huge _Argosie_, and eight great ships, But all in vaine, their powers naught prevaild, For the _Reuenge_, her Canon loud-dogs slips, Whose bruzing teeth, so much the _Phillip_ quaild, That foundring in the greedie maine, he dips His damned bodie in his watrie tombe, Wrapt with dishonour in the Oceans wombe. The other eight, fighting, were likewise foild, And driuen perforce vnto a vile retraite, None durst abide, but all with shame recoild, Whilst _Valures_ selfe, set _Grinuile_ in her seate; Onely _Don Luis Saint Iohn_, seeing spoild, His Countries honour by this strange defaite, Single encountred _Grinuile_ in the fight, Who quicklie sent his soule to endlesse night. _George de Prunaria_, a Spanish Knight, Euer held valiant in dispight of fate, Seconded _Luis_, and with mortall might, Writ on Sir _Richards_ target souldiers hate, Till _Grinuile_ wakned with his loud rung fight, Dispatcht his soules course vnto _Plutos_ gate: And after these two, sent in post all those Which came within his mercie or his blowes. By this, the sunne had spread his golden locks, Vpon the pale green carpet of the sea, And opned wide the scarlet dore which locks The easefull euening from the labouring day; Now Night began to leape from iron Rocks, And whip her rustie wagon through the way, Whilst all the _Spanish_ host stoode maz'd in sight, None darring to assayle a second fight. When _Don Alfonso_, Generall of the warre, Saw all his Nauie with one ship controld, He toare his hayre, and loudlie cryd from farre, For honour _Spanyards_, and for shame be bold; Awaken Vertue, say her slumbers marre _Iberias_ auncient valure, and infold Her wondred puissance, and her glorious deeds, In cowards habit, and ignoble weeds. Fie, that the spyrit of a single man, Should contradict innumerable wills, Fie, that infinitiues of forces can, Nor may effect what one conceit fulfills; Woe to the wombe, ceaselesse the teats I ban, That cherrisht life, which all our liues ioyes kills; Woe to our selues, our fortunes, and our minds, Agast and scarrd, with whistling of the winds. See how he triumphes in dispight of death, _Promethean_ like, laden with liuing fier, And in his glorie spits disdainfull breath, Loathing the baseness of our backe retire; Euen now me thinke in our disgrace he saith, Foes to your fames, why make you Fate a lyer, When heauen and she haue giuen into your hand, What all the world can neuer back demand? Say that the God of _Warre_; Father of Chiualrie, The _Worthies_, _Heroes_, all fam'd Conquerours, _Centaurs_, _Gyants_, victorious _Victorie_, Were all this _Grinuils_ hart-sworne paramours. Yet should we fightlesse let our shyps force flie: Well might we crush his keele with rocklike powers, And him with them ore-whelme into the maine, Courage then harts, fetch honour backe againe. Heere shame, the fretting canker of the mind, That fiers the face with fuell from the hart, Fearing his weapons weakenes, eft assigned To desperate hardines his confounding dart, And now the _Spanyards_ made through words stone blind, Desperate by shame, ashamd dispaire should part, Like damned scritchowles, chimes to dead mens hours, Make vowes to fight, till fight all liues deuours. And now the tragicke sceane of death begins, Acts of the night, deeds of the ouglie darke, When Furies brands gaue light to furious sins, And gastlie silence gaping wounds did marke; Sing sadlie then my Muse (teares pittie wins) Yet mount thy wings beyond the mornings Larke, And wanting thunder, with thy lightnings might, Split cares that heares the dole of this sad night. The fier of _Spaynes_ pride, quencht by _Grinuils_ sword, _Alfonso_ rekindles with his tong, And sets a batelesse edge, ground by his word Vpon their blunt harts feebled by the strong, Loe animated now, they all accord, To die, or ende deaths conflict held so long; And thus resolud, too greedelie assay His death, like hounds that hold the Hart at bay. Blacker then night, more terrible then hell, Louder then thunder, sharper then _Phoebus_ steele, Vnder whose wounds the ouglie _Python_ fell, Were bullets mantles, clowding the haplesse keele, The slaughtered cryes, the words the cannons tell, And those which make euen rocky Mountaines reele, And thicker then in sunne are Atomies, Flew bullets, fier, and slaughtered dead mens cries. At this remorsles Dirgie for the dead, The siluer Moone, dread Soueraigne of the Deepe, That with the floods fills vp her horned head And by her waine the wayning ebbs doth keepe: Taught by the Fat's how destenie was led, Bidds all the starres pull in their beames and weepe: For twas vnfit, chast hallowed eyes should see Honour confounded by impietie. Then to the night she giues all soueraigne power, Th'eternall mourner for the dayes diuorce, Who drowned in her owne harts killing shower, Viewes others torments with a sad remorse. This flintie Princesse, ayme cryes to the hower, On which to looke, kinde eies no force could force. And yet the sight her dull hart so offended, That from her sight a fogge dewe descended. Now on our Knight, raines yron, sword, and fiers, Iron wrapt in smoke, sword bath'd in smoking blood, Fiers, furies king, in blood and smoke aspires The consumation of all liuing good, Yet _Grinuile_, with like Agents like expires His foemen's darts, and euermore withstood Th'assaults of death, and ruins of the warre, Hoping the splendour of some luckie starre. On eyther side him, still two _Gallions_ lay, Which with continuall boardings nurst the fight, Two great _Armados_, howrelie ploy'd their way, And by assaulte, made knowne repellesse might. Those which could not come neere vnto the fray, Aloose dicharg'd their volleys gainst our Knight. And when that one shrunk back, beat with disgrace, An other instantly supply'd the place. So that their resting, restlesse him containd, And theyr supplies, deny'd him to supply: The _Hydra_ of their mightines ordaind New spoile for death, when old did wounded lie: But hee, _Herculian_-like one state retaind, One to triumph, or one for all to die. Heauen had onelie lent him but one hart, That hart one thought, that thought no feare of smart. And now the night grew neere her middle line, Youthfully lustie in her strongest age, When one of _Spaynes_ great _Gallions_ did repine, That one should many vnto death ingage, And therefore with her force, halfe held diuine, At once euaporates her mortall rage, Till powerfull _Grinuille_, yeelding power a toombe Splyt her, & sunck her in the salt waves wombe. When _Cutino_, the Hulks great Admirall, Saw that huge Vessel drencht within the surge, Enuie and shame tyered vpon his gall, And for reuenge a thousand meanes doth vrge; But _Grinuile_, perfect in destructions fall, His mischiefes with like miseries doth scourge, And renting with a shot his wooden tower, Made _Neptunes_ liquid armes his all deuouer. These two ore-whelm'd, _Siuills Ascension_ came, A famous ship, well man'd and strongly drest, _Vindicta_ from her Cannons mouthes doth flame, And more then any, our dread Knight oppresst: Much hurt shee did, many shee wounded lame, And _Valurs_ selfe, her valiant acts confest. Yet in the end, (for warre of none takes keepe) _Grinuile_ sunck her within the watry deepe. An other great _Armado_, brusd and beat, Sunck neere _S. Michaels_ road, with thought to scape, And one that by her men more choicely set, Beeing craz'd and widow'd of her comly shape, Ran gainst the shore, to pay _Ill-chaunce_ her debt, Who desolate for desolations gape: Yet these confounded, were not mist at all. For new supplies made new the aged brall. This while on _Grinuile_ ceazed no amaze. No wonder, dread, nor base astonishment, But true resolue, and valurs sacred blaze, The crowne of heauen, and starrie ornament Deck't his diuine part, and from thence did raze Affects of earth, or earth's intendiment. And in this broyle, as cheerefull was his fight, As _Ioues_, embracing _Danae_ by night. Looke how a wanton Bridegroome in the morne, Busilie labours to make glad the day, And at the noone, with wings of courage borne, Recourts his bride with dauncing and with play, Vntil the night which holds meane bliss in scorne, By action kills imaginations sway, And then, euen then, gluts and confounds his thought, With all the sweets, conceit or Nature wrought, Euen so our Knight the bridegroome vnto _Fame_, Toild in his battailes morning with vnrest, At noone triumph'd and daunst, and made his game, That vertue by no death could be deprest; But when the night of his loues longings came, Euen then his intellectuall soule confest All other ioyes imaginarie were Honour vnconquerd, heauen and earth held deare. The bellowing shotte which wakened dead mens swounds, As _Dorian_ musick, sweetned his cares, Ryuers of blood, issuing from fountaine wounds, Hee pytties, but augments not with his teares, The flaming fier which mercilesse abounds, Hee not so much as masking torches feares, The dolefull Eccho of the soules halfe dying, Quicken his courage in their banefull crying. When foule _Misfortune_ houering on a Rock, (The stonie girdle of the _Florean_ Ile,) Had seene this conflict, and the fearfull shock, Which all the _Spanish_ mischiefes did compile, And saw how conquest licklie was to mock The hope of _Spayne_, and fauster her exile, Immortall shee, came downe herselfe to fight, And doe what else no mortall creature might. And as she flew the midnights waking starre, Sad _Cassiopea_ with a heauie cheare, Pusht forth her forehead, to make known from farre, What time the dryrie dole of earth drew neare, But when shee saw _Misfortune_ arm'd in warre, With teares she blinds her eyes, and clouds the ayre, And asks the Gods, why _Fortune_ fights with man? They say, to doe, what else no creature can. O why should such immortall enuie dwell, In the enclosures of eternall mould? Let Gods with Gods, and men with men retell, Vnequall warres t'vnequall shame is sould; But for this damned deede came shee from hell, And _Ioue_ is sworne, to doe what dest'nie would, Weepe then my pen, the tell-tale of our woe, And curse the fount from whence our sorrows flow. Now, now, _Misfortune_ fronts our Knight in armes, And casts her venome through the _Spanysh_ hoast, Shee salues the dead, and all the lyuing warmes With vitall enuie, brought from _Plutos_ coast; Yet all in vaine, all works not _Grinuils_ harmes; Which seene, shee smiles, and yet with rage imbost[5] Saith to her selfe, since men are all too weake, Behold a goddesse shall thy lifes twine breake. With that shee takes a Musket in her hand, Raft from a dying Souldiour newlie slaine, And ayming where th' vnconquered Knight did stand, Dischargd it through his bodie, and in twaine Deuids the euer holie nuptiall band, Which twixt his soule, and worlds part shold remaine, Had not his hart, stronger then _Fortunes_ will, Held life perforce to scorne _Misfortunes_ ill. The bubling wound from whence his blood distild, Mourn'd to let fall the hallowed drops to ground, And like a iealous loue by riuall illd, Sucks in the sacred moisture through the wound; But he, which felt deaths fatall doome fulfilld, Grew fiercer valiant, and did all confound, Was not a _Spanyard_ durst abord him rest, After he felt his deaths wound in his brest. Hundreds on hundreds, dead on the maymed fall, Maymed on sounde, sound in them selues lye slaine, Blest was the first that to his ship could crall, For wounded, he wounds multituds againe; No sacrifice, but sacrifice of all, Could stay his swords oblations vnto paine, Nor in _Phillipie_, fell for _Cæsars_ death, Soules thicker then for _Grinuils_ wasting breath. The _Nemian_ Lyon, _Aramanthian_ Bore, The _Hircanian_ Tyger, nor the _Cholcean_ Bulls, Neuer extended rage with such vprore, Nor in their brests mad monstrous furie lulls; Now might they learne, that euer learnt before, Wrath at our Knight, which all wrath disanulls, For slauish death, his hands commaunded more, Then Lyon, Tyger, Bull, or angrie Bore. Had _Pompey_ in _Pharsalia_ held his thought, _Cæsar_ had neuer wept vpon his head, Had _Anthonie_ at _Actiome_ like him fought, _Augustus_ teares had neuer drowned him dead, Had braue _Renaldo_, _Grinuiles_ puissance bought, _Angelica_ from France had neuer fled, Nor madded _Rowland_ with inconstancie, But rather slayne him wanting victorie. Before a storme flewe neuer Doues so fast, As _Spanyards_ from the furie of his fist, The stout _Reuenge_, about whose forlorne wast, Whilome so many in their moods persist, Now all alone, none but the scourge imbrast, Her foes from handie combats cleane desist; Yet still incirkling her within their powers, From farre sent shot, as thick as winters showers. _Anger_, _and Enuie_, enemies to _Life_, Strong smouldering _Heate_ and noisom stink of _Smoke_, With over-labouring _Toyle_, _Deaths_ ouglie wife, These all accord with _Grinuiles_ wounded stroke, To end his liues date by their ciuell strife, And him vnto a blessed state inyoke, But he repelld them whilst repell he might, Till feinting power, was tane from power to fight Then downe he sat, and beat his manlie brest, Not mourning death, but want of meanes to die; Those which suruiu'd coragiouslie be blest, Making them gods for god-like victorie; Not full twice twentie soules aliue did rest, Of which the most were mangled cruellie, Yet still, whilst words could speake, or signes could show, From death he maks eternall life to grow. The Maister-gunner, which beheld his eyes Dart fier gainst death triumphant in his face, Came to sustaine him, and with courage cryes, How fares my Knight? worlds glory, martiall grace? Thine honour, former honours ouer-flyes, And vnto _Heauen_ and _Vertue_ bids the bace; Cheere then thy soule, and if deaths wounding pain it, _Abram's_ faire bosome lyes to entertaine it. Maister, he sayes, euen heers the opned dore, Through which my spirit bridgroome like must ride, (And then he bar'd his wounded brest all gore) To court the blessed virgine Lambe his bride, Whose innocence the worlds afflictions bore, Streaming diuine blood from his sliced side, And to that heauen my soule with courage flyes, Because vnconquered, conquering it dyes. But yet, replyed the Maister once againe, Great vertue of our vertues, strive with fate, Yeeld not a minute vnto death, retaine Life like thy glory, made to wonder at. This wounds recouerie well may entertaine A double triumph to thy conquering state, And make thee liue immortall Angell blest, Pleaseth thee suffer it be searcht and drest. Descend then gentle _Grinvile_ downe below, Into my Cabin for a breathing space, In thee there let thy Surgion stanch our woe, Giuing recuer to thee, our wounded case, Our breaths, from thy breaths fountaine gently flow, If it be dried, our currents loose their grace: Then both for vs, and thee, and for the best, Descend, to haue thy wound bound vp and drest. Maister, reply'd the Knight, since last the sunne Lookt from the hiest period of the sky, Giuing a signall of the dayes mid noone, Vnto this hower of midnight, valiantly, From off this vpper deck I haue not runne, But fought, and freed, and welcomd victorie, Then now to giue new couert to mine head, Were to reuiue our foes halfe conquered. Thus with contrarie arguments they warre, Diuers in their opinions and their speech, One seeking means, th' other a will to darre; Yet both one end, and one desire reach: Both to keepe honour liuing, plyant are, Hee by his fame, and he by skilfull leach, At length, the Maister winnes, and hath procurd The Knight discend, to have his woundings curd. Downe when he was, and had display'd the port Through which his life was martching vp to heauen, Albe the mortall taint all cuers retort, Yet was his Surgion not of hope bereuen, But giues him valiant speech of lifes resort, Saves, longer dayes his longer fame shall euen, And for the meanes of his recouerie, He finds both arte and possibilitie. _Misfortune_ hearing this presage of life, (For what but chimes within immortall eares) Within her selfe kindles a home-bred strife, And for those words the Surgions doomes day swears. With that, her charg'd peece (_Atropos_ keene knife,) Againe she takes, and leueld with dispairs, Sent a shrill bullet through the Surgions head, Which thence, through _Grinuils_ temples like was led. Downe fell the Surgion, hope and helpe was reft, His death gaue manumition to his soule, _Misfortune_ smyld, and euen then shee left The mournfull Ocean, mourner for this dole; Away shee flyes, for all was now bereft, Both hopes and helpe, for life to win deaths gole; Yet _Grinuile_ vnamaz'd with constant faith, Laughing dispisd the second stroke of death. What foole (saith he) ads to the Sea a drop, Lends _Etna_ sparks, or angry stormes his wind? Who burnes the root when lightning fiers the top? Who vnto hell, can worse then hell combind? Pale hungry Death, thy greedy longings stop, Hope of long life is banefull to my mind: Yet hate not life, but loath captiuitie, Where rests no trust to purchase victorie. Then vp he came with feeble pace againe, Strength from his blood, blood from his wounds descending, Saies, here I liu'd, and here wil I sustaine, The worst of Deaths worst, by my fame defending, And then he fell to warre with might and maine, Valure on death most valiantly depending, And thus continued aye coragiously, Vntil the day chast shadowes from the sky. But when the mornings dewie locks drunk vp A mistie moysture from the Oceans face, Then might he see the source of sorrowes cup, Plainly prefigured in that hatefull place; And all the miseries that mortals sup From their great Grandsire _Adams_ band, disgrace; For all that did incircle him, was his foe, And that incircled, modell of true woe. His masts were broken, and his tackle torne, His vpper worke hew'd downe into the Sea, Naught of his ship aboue the sourge was borne, But euen leueld with the Ocean lay, Onely the ships foundation (yet that worne) Remaind a trophey in that mighty fray; Nothing at all aboue the head remained, Either for couert, or that force maintained. Powder for shot, was spent and wasted cleane, Scarce seene a corne to charge a peece withall, All her pykes broken, halfe of his best men slaine, The rest sore wounded, on Deaths Agents call, On th'other side, her foe in ranks remains, Displaying multitudes, and store of all What euer might auaile for victorie, Had they not wanted harts true valiancie. When _Grinuile_ saw his desperate drierie case, Meerely dispoyled of all success-full thought, Hee calls before him all within the place, The Maister, Maister-gunner, and them taught Rules of true hardiment to purchase grace; Showes them the end their trauailes toile had bought, How sweet it is, swift _Fame_ to ouer-goe, How vile to diue in captiue ouerthrow. Gallants (he saith) since three a clock last noone, Vntill this morning, fifteene howers by course, We haue maintaind stoute warre, and still vndoone Our foes assaults, and driue them to the worse, Fifteene _Armados_ boardings haue not wonne Content or ease, but beene repeld by force, Eight hundred Cannon shot against her side, Haue not our harts in coward colours died. Not fifteene thousand men araungd in fight, And fifteene howers lent them to atchiue, With fifty three great ships of boundlesse might, Haue had or meanes or prowesse to contriue The fall of one, which mayden vertue dight, Kept in despight of _Spanish_ force aliue. Then list to mee you imps of memorie, Borne to assume to immortalitie. Sith loosing, we vnlost keepe strong our praise, And make our glories, gaynours by our ends, Let not the hope of howers (for tedious dayes Vnto our lines no longer circuite lends) Confound our wondred actions and assayes, Whereon the sweete of mortal eares depends, But as we liue by wills victorious, So let vs die victours of them and vs. Wee that haue mercilesse cut Mercies wings, And muffeld pittie in deaths mistie vale, Let vs implore no mercie; pittyings, But from our God, deere fauour to exhale Our soules to heauen, where all the Angells rings Renowne of vs, and our deepe tragick tale; Let us that cannot liue, yet liue to dye, Vnthrald by men, fit tropheys for the skye. And thus resolu'd since other meane is reft, Sweet Maister-gunner, split our keele in twaine, We cannot liue, whom hope of life hath left, Dying, our deaths more glorious liues retain, Let not our ship, of shame and foile bereft, Vnto our foe-men for a prize remaine; Sinke her, and sinking with the _Greeke_ wee'le cry, Best not to be, or beeing soone to dye. Scarce had his words tane wings from his deere tong, But the stout Maister-gunner, euer rich In heauenlie valure and repulsing wrong, Proud that his hands by action might inritch His name and nation with a worthie song, Tow'rd his hart higher then Eagles pitch, And instantlie indeuours to effect _Grinuils_ desier, by ending Deaths defect. But th' other Maister, and the other Mat's, Disented from the honour of their minds, And humbly praid the Knight to rue their stat's, Whom miserie to no such mischiefe binds; To him th' aleadge great reasons, and dilat's Their foes amazements, whom their valures blinds, And maks more eager t'entertaine a truce, Then they to offer words for warres excuse. They show him diuers gallant men of might, Whose wounds not mortall, hope gaue of recuer, For their saks sue they to diuorce this night Of desperate chaunce, calld vnto Deaths black lure, Their lengthened liues, their countries care might right, And to their Prince they might good hopes assure. Then quod the Captaine, (deare Knight) do not spill, The liues whom gods and Fat's seeke not to kill. And where thou sayst the _Spanyards_ shall not braue T' haue tane one ship due to our virgin Queene, O knowe, that they, nor all the world can saue, This wounded Barke, whose like no age hath seene, Sixe foote shee leaks in hold, three shot beneath the waue, All whose repaire so insufficient beene, That when the Sea shall angrie worke begin, She cannot chuse but sinke and dye therein. Besides, the wounds and brusings which she beares, Are such, so manie, so incurable, As to remoue her from this place of feares. No force, no wit, no meane, nor man is able; Then since that peace prostrate to vs repaires, Vnlesse our selues, our selues make miserable, _Herculeen_ Knight, for pittie, pittie lend, No fame consists in wilfull desperat end. These words with emphasis and action spent, Mou'd not Sir _Richard_, but inrag'd him more, To bow or yeeld, his heart would neare relent, He still impugns all thought of lifes restore; The Maister-gunner euer doth consent To act his wish, swearing, in beds of gore Death is most louelie, sweete and amiable, But captiu'd life for foulenes admirable. The Captayne, seeing words could take no place, Turnes backe from them vnto the liuing few, Expounds what pittie is, what victors grace; Bids them them selues, them selues in kindnes rew, Peace if they please, will kindlie them imbrace, And they may liue, from whom warres glory grew; But if they will to desperate end consent, Their guilty soules too late shall mourne repent. The sillie men, who sought but liuing ioyes, Cryes to the Captaine for an honord truce, Life they desire, yet no life that destroyes Their wonne renownes, but such as might excuse Their woes, their wounds, and al what els anoyes Beautie of laude, for other they refuse; All which the Captaine swears they shal obtaine, Because their foes, in doubtfull states remaine. O when Sir _Richard_ saw them start aside, More chaynd to life then to a glorius graue, And those whom hee so oft in dangers tryde, Now trembling seeke their hatefull liues to saue. Sorrow and rage, shame, and his honors pride, Choking his soule, madly compeld him raue, Vntil his rage with vigor did confound His heauie hart; and left him in a swound. The Maister-gunner, likewise seeing Fate Bridle his fortune, and his will to die, With his sharpe sword sought to set ope the gate, By which his soule might from his bodie flie, Had not his freends perforce preseru'd his state, And lockt him in his Cabbin safe to lie, Whilst others swarm'd where haplesse _Grinuile_ lay, By cryes recalling life, late runne away. In this too restlesse turmoile of vnrest, The poore _Reuenges_ Maister stole awaye, And to the _Spanish_ Admirall adrest The dolefull tidings of this mournfull day, (The _Spanish_ Admirall who then oprest, Houering with doubt, not daring t'end the fray,) And pleads for truce, with souldier-like submission Anexing to his words a straight condition. _Alfonso_, willing to giue end to armes, For well he knew _Grinuile_ would neuer yeild, Able his power stoode like vnnumbred swarmes, Yet daring not on stricter tearmes to build, He offers all what may alay their harmes Safetie of liues, nor any thrall to weild, Free from the Gallie, prisonment, or paine, And safe returne vnto their soyle againe To this he yeelds, as well for his own sake, Whom desperate hazard might indamage sore, As for desier the famous Knight to take, Whom in his hart he seemed to deplore, And for his valure halfe a God did make, Extolling him all other men before, Admiring with an honourable hart, His valure, wisdome, and his Souldiours Art. With peacefull newes the Maister backe returns, And rings it in the liuing remnants eares, They all reioyce, but _Grinuile_ deadly mourns, He frets, he sighs, he sorrowes and despaires, Hee cryes, this truce, their fame and blisse adiourns, He rents his locks, and all his garments teares, He vowes his hands shall rent the ship in twaine Rather then he will _Spanish_ yoke sustaine. The few reseru'd, that life esteem'd too well, Knowing his words were warrants for his deede, Vnkindly left him in that monstrous hell, And fled vnto _Alfonso_ with greate speede, To him their Chieftaines mightines they tell, And how much valure on his soule doth feede, That if preuention, not his actions dim, Twill be too late to saue the shyp or him. _Bassan_ made proude, vnconquering t'ouer-come, Swore the brave Knight nor ship he would not lose, Should all the world in a petition come: And therefore of his gallants, fortie chose To board Sir _Richard_, charging them be dombe From threatning words, from anger, and from bloes, But with all kindnes, honor, and admire To bring him thence, to further _Fames_ desire. Sooner they boarded not the crazed Barke, But they beheld where speechlesse _Grinuile_ lay, All smeard in blood, and clouded in the darke, Contagious curtaine of Deaths tragick day; They wept for pittie, and yet silent marke Whether his lungs sent liuing breath away, Which when they sawe in ayrie blasts to flie, They striu'd who first should stanch his misery. Anon came life, and lift his eye-lids vp, Whilst they with teares denounce their Generals wil, Whose honord mind sought to retort the cup Of deaths sad poyson, well instruckt to kill; Tells him what fame and grace his eyes might sup From _Bassans_ kindnes, and his Surgions skill, Both how he lou'd him, and admir'd his fame, To which he sought to lend a liuing flame. Aye mee (quoth _Grinuile_) simple men, I know My bodie to your Generall is a pray, Take it, and as you please my lyms bestow, For I respect it not, tis earth and clay: But for my minde that mightier much doth grow, To heauen it shall, despight of _Spanish_ sway. He swounded, and did neuer speake againe. This said, orecome with anguish and with paine, They took him vp, and to theyr Generall brought His mangled carkasse, but vnmaimed minde, Three dayes hee breath'd, yet neuer spake he ought, Albe his foes were humble, sad, and kinde; The fourth came downe the Lambe that all souls bot, And his pure part, from worser parts refind, Bearing his spirite vp to the loftie skyes, Leauing his body, wonder to wonders eyes. When _Bassan_ saw the Angell-spirite fled, Which lent a mortall frame immortall thought, With pittie, griefe, and admiration led, He mournfully complaind what Fat's had wrought. Woe me (he cryes) but now aliue, now dead, But now inuincible, now captiue brought: In this, vniust are Fat's, and Death declared, That mighty ones, no more than meane are spared. You powers of heauen, rayne honour on his hearse, And tune the Cherubins to sing his fame, Let Infants in the last age him rehearse, And let no more, honour be Honor's name: Let him that will obtaine immortall vearse, Conquer the stile of _Grinuile_ to the same, For till that fire shall all the world consume, Shall neuer name, with _Grinuile_ name presume. Rest then deere soule, in thine all-resting peace, And take my teares for tropheys to thy tombe, Let thy lost blood, thy vnlost fame increase, Make kingly eares thy praises second wombe: That when all tongues to all reports surcease, Yet shall thy deeds, out-liue the day of doome, For even Angels, in the heasens shall sing, _Grinuile_ vnconquered died, still conquering. _O ælinam_. Footnotes: 1: Choristers. 2: Hangings, so called from having first been made at Arras. 3: Constellations. 4: Entangled. 5: Blown by being hunted. "But being then _imbost_, the stately deer When he hath gotten ground," &c. --_Drayton's Polyolbian_, xiii, p. 917. * * * * * A true report of a worthy fight, performed in the voyage from Turkie, by fiue ships of London, against 11. Gallies, and two frigats of the King of Spaines, at Pantalarea within the Streights. Anno, 1586. Written by Philip Iones. The Marchants of London, being of the incorporation of the Turkey trade, hauing receiued intelligencies, and aduertisements, from time to time, that the King of Spaine grudging at the prosperitie of this kingdome, had not onely of late arrested al English ships, bodies, and goods in Spaine, but also maligning the quiet trafique which they vsed to and in the dominions, and prouinces, vnder the obedience of the Great Turke, had giuen order to the Captaines of his gallies in the Leuant, to hinder the passage of all English ships, and to endeuour by their best meanes, to intercept, take, and spoile them, their persons, and goods: they hereupon thought it their best course to set out their flete for Turkie, in such strength and abilitie for their defence, that the purpose of their Spanish enemie might the better be preuented, and the voyage accomplished with greater securitie to the men and shippes. For which cause, fiue tall, and stoute shippes, appertaining to London, and intending onely a Marchants voyage, were prouided and furnished with all things belonging to the Seas; the names whereof were these: 1. The Marchant Royal, a very braue and good shippe, and of great report. 2. The Tobie. 3. The Edward Bonauenture. 4. The William and Iohn. 5. The Susan. These fiue departing from the coast of England, in the moneth of Nouember 1585. kept together as one fleete, til they came as high as the Isle of Sicilie, within the Leuant. And there, according to the order and direction of the voyage, each shippe began to take leaue of the rest, and to separate himselfe, setting his course for the particular port, whereunto hee was bounde: one for Tripolie in Syria, another for Constantinople, the chiefe Citie of the Turkes Empire, situated vpon the coast of Romania, called of olde, Thracia, and the rest to those places, whereunto they were priuatly appointed. But before they diuided themselues, they altogether consulted, of and about a certaine and speciall place for their meeting againe after the lading of their goods at their seuerall portes. And in conclusion, the generall agreement was to meet at Zante, an Island neere to the maine continent of the West part of Morea, well knowen of all the Pilots, and thought to be the fittest place of their Rendeuous. Concerning which meeting, it was also couenanted on eche side, and promised, that whatsoeuer ship of these 5. should first arriue at Zante, should there stay and expect the comming of the rest of the fleete, for the space of twentie dayes. This being done, ech man made his best hast according as winde and wether woulde serue him to fiulfill his course, and to dispatch his businesse: and no neede was there to admonish or incourage any man, seeing no time was ill spent, nor opportunitie omitted on any side, in the performance of ech mans duetie, according to his place. It fell out that the Tobie which was bound for Constantinople had made such good speede, and gotten such good weather, that she first of al the rest came back to the appointed place of Zante, and not forgetting the former conclusion, did there cast ancre, attending the arriuall of the rest of the fleete, which accordingly (their busines first performed) failed not to keepe their promise. The first next after the Tobie was the Royal Marchant, which together with the William and Iohn came from Tripolie in Syria, and arriued at Zante within the compasse of the foresaide time limitted. These ships in token of the ioy on all parts concerned for their happy meeting, spared not the discharging af their Ordinance, the sounding of drums and trumpets, the spreading of Ensignes with other warlike and ioyfull behaviours, expressing by these outward signes, the inward gladnesse of their mindes, being all as ready to ioyne together in mutuall consent to resist the cruel enemie, as now in sporting maner they made myrth and pastyme among themselues. These three had not bene long in the hauen, but the Edward Bonauenture also, together with the Susan her consort, were come from Venice with their lading, the sight of whom increased the ioy of the rest, and they no lesse glad of the presence of the others, saluted them in most friendly and kinde sort, according to the maner of the Seas: and whereas some of these ships stoode at that instant in some want of victuals, they were all content to stay in the port, till the necessities of ech shippe were supplied, and nothing wanted to set out for their returne. In this port of Zante, the newes was fresh and currant, of two seuerall armies and fleetes prouided by the king of Spaine, and lying in waite to intercept them: the one consisting of 30. strong Gallies, so well appointed in all respects for the warre, that no necessary thing wanted: and this fleete houered about the Streights of Gibraltar. The other armie had in it 20. Gailies, whereof some were of Sicilie, and some of the island of Malta, vnder the charge and gouernment of Iohn Andrea Dorea, a Captaine of name seruing the king of Spaine. These two diuers and strong fleetes waited and attended in the Seas for none, but the English shippes, and no doubt made their accompt and sure reckoning that not a shippe should escape their furie. And the opinion, also of the inhabitants of the Isle of Zante was, that in respect of the number of Gallies in both these armies, hauing receiued such straight commandement from the king, our ships and men being but few, and little in comparison of them, it was a thing in humane reason impossible, that wee should passe either without spoiling, if we resisted, or without composition at the least, and acknowledgement of duetie to the Spanish king. But it was neither the report of the attendance of these armies, nor the opinions of the people, nor any thing else, that could daunt or dismay the courages of our men, who grounding themselues upon the goodnesse of their cause, and the promise of God, to bee deliuered from such as without reason sought their destruction, carried resolute mindes, notwithstanding all impediments to aduenture through the Seas, and to finish their Nauigations, maugre the beards of the Spanish souldiers. But least they should seeme too carelesse, and too secure of their estate, and by laying the whole and entire burden of their safetie vpon Gods prouidence, should foolishly presume altogether of his helpe, and neglect the meanes which was put into their handes, they failed not to enter into counsell among themselues, and to deliberate aduisedly for their best defence. And in the end with generall consent, the Marchant Royall was appointed Admirall of the fleete, and the Tobie Viceadmiral, by whose orders the rest promised to be directed, and ech shippe vowed not to breake from another, whatsoeuer extremitie should fall out, but to stand to it to the death, for the honour of their Countrey, and the frustrating of the hope of the ambitious and proud enemie. Thus in good order they left Zante and the Castle of Græcia, and committed themselues againe to the Seas, and proceeded in their course and voyage in quietnes, without sight of any enemie, till they came neere to Pantalarea, an Island so called, betwixt Sicilie, and the coast of Africke: into sight wherof they came the 13. day of Iuly 1586. And the same day in the morning about 7. of the clocke they descried 13. sailes in number, which were of the Gallies, lying in waite of purpose for them, in and about that place. As soone as the English ships had spied them, they by and by according to a common order, made themselues ready for a fight, layd out their Ordinance, scoured, charged, and primed them, displayed their ensignes, and left nothing vndone to arme themselues throughly. In the meane time, the Gallies more and more approched the ships, and in their banners there appeared the armes of the Isles of Sicilia, and Malta, being all as then in the seruice and pay of the Spaniard. Immediatly, both the Admirals of the Gallies sent from ech of them a frigate, to the Admiral of our English ships, which being come neere them, the Sicilian frigat first hailed them, and demanded of them whence they were? They answered that they were of England, the armes whereof appeared in their colours. Whereupon the saide frigat expostulated with them, and asked why they delayed to sende or come with their Captaines and pursers to Don Pedro de Leiua their Geuerall, to acknowledge their duty and obedience to him in the name of the Spanish king, Lord of those seas? Our men replied and said, that they owed no such duetie nor obedience to him, and therefore would acknowledge none, but commanded the frigat to depart with that answere, and not to stay longer a brabling, vpon her perill. With that away she went, and vp comes towards them the other frigat of Malta, and shee in like sort hailed the Admiral, and would needs know whence they were, and where they had bene. Our Englishmen in the Admirall, not disdaining an answere, tolde them that they were of England, Marchants of London, had bene at Turkie, and were now returning home: and to be requited in this case, they also demaunded of the frigat whence she and the rest of the gallies were: the messenger answered, we are of Malta, and for mine owne part my name is Cauallero. These gallies are in seruice and pay to the king of Spaine, vnder the conduct of Don Pedro de Leiua a noble man of Spaine, who hath bene commanded hither by the King with this present force and armie, of purpose to intercept you. You shall therefore (quoth he) do well to repaire to him to know his pleasure, he is a noble man of good behauiour and courtesie, and meanes you no ill. The Captaine of the English Admiral, whose name was M. Edward Wilkinson, replied and said. We purpose not at this time to make triall of Don Pedro his courtesie, whereof we are suspitious and doubtful, and not without good cause: vsing withall good words to the messenger, and willing him to come aboord him, promising securitie and good vsage, that thereby he might the better knowe the Spaniards minde: whereupon hee in deed left his frigat, and came aboord him, whom hee intertained in friendly sort, and caused a cuppe of wine to be drawne for him, which be tooke and beganne, with his cap in his hand, and with reuerend termes to drinke to the health of the Queene of England, speaking very honourably of her Maiestie, and giving good speeches of the courteous vsage and interteinement that he himselfe had receiued in London, at the time that the duke of Alenson, brother to the late French king was last in England: and after he had well drunke, hee tooke his leaue, speaking well of the sufficiencie and goodnesse of our shippes, and especially of the Marchant Royal, which he confessed to haue seene before, riding in the Thames neere London. He was no sooner come to Don Pedro de Leiua the Spanish general, but he was sent off againe, and returned to the English Admirall, saying that the pleasure of the Generall was this, that either their Captaines, Masters and Pursers should come to him with speed, or else hee would set vpon them, and either take them or sinke them. The reply was made by M. Wilkinson aforesaid, that not a man should come to him; and for the bragge and threat of Don Pedro, it was not that Spanish brauado that should make them yeeld a iot to their hinderance, but they were as ready to make resistance, as he to offer an iniurie. Whereupon Cauallero the messenger left bragging, and began to persuade them in quiet sort and with many wordes, but all his labour was to no purpose, and as his threat did nothing terrifie them, so his perswasion did nothing mooue them to doe that which hee required. At the last he intreated to haue the Marchant of the Admirall caried by him as a messenger to the Generall, so that he might be satisfied, and assured of their mindes by one of their owne company. But M. Wilkinson would agree to no such thing, although Richard Rowit the marchant himselfe seemed willing to bee imployed in that message, and laboured by reasonable perswasions to induce M. Wilkinson to graunt it, as hoping to be an occasion by his presence and discreet answeres to satisfie the Generall, and thereby to saue the effusion of Christian blood, if it should grow to a battel. And he seemed so much the more willing to be sent, by how much deeper the othes and protestations of this Cauallero were, that he would (as hee was a true knight and a souldier) deliuer him backe againe in safetie to his company. Albeit, M. Wilkinson, which by his long experience had receiued sufficient triall of Spanish inconsistencie and periurie, wished him in no case to put his life and libertie in hazard vpon a Spaniards othe. But at last, vpon much intreatie, he yeelded to let him go to the General, thinking in deed, that good speeches and answeres of reason would haue contented him, whereas otherwise refusall to do so, might peraduenture haue prouoked the more discontentment. M. Rowit therefore passing to the Spanish Generall, the rest of the Gallies hauing espied him, thought in deed that the English were rather determined to yeelde, then to fight, and therefore came flocking about the frigat, euery man crying out, Que nueuas, que nueuas, Haue these Englishmen yeelded? the frigate answered, Not so, they neither haue nor purpose to yeeld, onely they haue sent a man of their company to speake with our Generall: and being come to the Gallie wherein he was, he shewed himselfe to M. Rowit in his armour, his guard of souldiers attending vpon him in armour also, and began to speake very proudly in this sort: Thou Englishman, from whence is your fleete, why stand ye aloofe off, knowe ye not your duetie to the Catholique King, whose person I here represent? Where are your billes of lading, your letters, pasports, and the chiefe of your men? Thinke ye my attendance in these seas to be in vaine, or my person to no purpose? Let al these things be done out of hand as I command, vpon paine of my further displeasure and the spoyle of you all: These wordes of the Spanish Generall were not so outragiously pronounced as they were mildly answered by M. Rowit, who tolde him that they were al Merchantmen, vsing trafique in honest sort, and seeking to passe quietly, if they were not vrged further then reason. As for the king of Spaine, he thought (for his part) that there was amitie betwixt him and his Souereigne the Queene of England, so that neither he nor his officers should goe about to offer any such injurie to English Marchants, who as they were farre from giuing offence to any man, so they would be loath to take an abuse at the handes of any, or sit downe to their losse, where their abilitie was able to make defence. And as, touching his commandement aforesaide, for the acknowledging of duetie, in such particular sort, he told him, that were there was no duetie owing, there none should be performed, assuring him that the whole company and shippes in generall stood resolutely vpon the negatiue, and would not yeeld to any such vnreasonable demaund, joyned with such imperious and absolute maner of commanding. Why then, said he, if they wil neither come to yeeld, nor shew obedience to me in the name of any king, I wil either sinke them or bring them to harbor, and so tell them from me. With that the frigat came away with M. Rowit, and brought him aboord the English Admiral againe according to promise: who was no sooner entred in, but by and by defiance was sounded on both sides: the Spaniards hewed off the noses of the Gallies, that nothing might hinder the leuell of the shot, and the English on the other side courageously prepared themselues to the combat, euery man according to his roome, bent to performe his office with alacritie and diligence. In the meane time a Cannon was discharged from the Admirall of the gallies, which being the onset of the fight, was presently answered by the English Admirall with a Culuering; so the skirmish began, and grew hot and terrible, there was no powder nor shot spared: ech English ship matched it selfe in good order against two Spanish Gallies, besides the inequalitie of the frigats on the Spaniards side: and although our men performed their parts with singular valure according to their strength, insomuch that the enemie as amased therewith would oftentimes pause and stay, and consult what was best to be done, yet they ceased not in the midst of their businesse to make prayer to Almighty God the reuenger of al euils, and the giuer of victories, that it would please him to assist them in that good quarell of theirs, in defending themselues against so proud a tyrant, to teach their handes to warre, and their fingers to fight, that the glory of the victory might redound to his Name, and to the honor of true Religion which the insolent enemie sought so much to ouerthrowe. Contrarily, the foolish Spaniardes cried out according to their maner, not to God, but to our Lady (as they terme the virgin Mary) saying O Lady helpe, O blessed Lady giue vs the victory, and the honour thereof shalbe thine. Thus with blowes and prayers on both sides the fight continued furious and sharpe, and doubtfull a long time to which part the victorie would incline: til at the last the Admiral of the Gallies of Sicilie began to warpe from the fight, and to holde vp her side for feare of sinking, and after her went also two others in like case, whom al the sort of them inclosed, labouring by all their meanes to keep them aboue water, being ready by the force of English shot which they had receiued to perish in the seas: and what slaughter was done among the Spaniards themselues, the English were vncertaine, but by a probable coniecture apparant afar off, they supposed their losse was so great that they wanted men to continue the charging of their pieces: [Sidenote: A fight of fiue houres.] whereupon with shame and dishonor, after 5. houres spent in the battell, they withdrew themselues: and the English contented in respect of their deepe lading, rather to continue their voyage then to follow the chase, ceased from further blowes: with the losse onely of two men slaine amongst them all, and another hurt in his arme, whom M. Wilkinson with his good words and friendly promises did so comfort, that he nothing esteemed the smart of his wound in respect of the honour of the victory, and the shameful repulse of the enemy. Thus with duetiful thankes to the mercy of God for his gracious assistance in that danger, the English ships proceeded in their Nauigation, and comming as high as Alger, a port towne vpon the coast of Barbary, they fell with it, of purpose to refresh themselues after their wearinesse, and to take in such supply of fresh water and victuals, as they needed: they were no sooner entred into the port, but immediatly the king thereof sent a messenger to the ships to knowe what they were, with which messenger the chiefe master of ech shippe repaired to the king, and acquainted him not onely with the state of their ships in respect of marchandize, but with the late fight which they had passed with the Spanish Gallies, reporting euery particular circumstance in word as it fell out in action: whereof the said king shewed himselfe marueilous glad, interteining them in the best sort, and promising abundant reliefe of all their wants, making generall proclamation in the city vpon paine of death, that no man of what degree or state soeuer he were, should presume either to hinder them in their affaires, or to offer them any maner of inurie in body or goods. By vertue whereof they dispatched al things in excellent good sort, with al fauor and peaceablenesse: only such prisoners and captiues of the Spaniards as were in the Citie, seeing the good vsage which they receiued, and hearing also what seruice they had performed against the foresaide Gallies, grudged exceedingly against them, and sought as much as they could to practise some mischiefe against them: and one amongst the rest seeing an Englishman alone in a certaine lane of the Citie, came vpon him suddenly, and with his knife thrust him in the side, yet made no such great wound, but that it was easily recouered. The English company hearing of it, acquainted the king with the fact, who immediatly sent both for the party that had receiued the wound and the offender also, and caused an executioner in the presence of himselfe and the English, to chastise the slaue euen to death, which was performed to the ende that no man should presume to commit the like part, or to doe any thing in contempt of his royal commandement. The English hauing receiued this good justice at the kings hands, and al other things that they wanted, or could craue for the furnishing of their shippes; tooke their leaue of him, and of the rest of their friends, that were resident in Alger, and put out to Sea, looking to meete with the second army of the Spanish king, which waited for them about the month of the Straights of Gibraltar, which they were of necessitie to passe. But comming neere to the said Straight, it pleased God to raise at that instant a very darke and mistie fogge, so that one ship could not discerne another, if it were 40. paces off: by meanes whereof; together with the notable faire Easterne winds that then blewe most fit for their course, they passed with great speed through the Straight, and might haue passed with that good gale, had there bene 500. Gallies to withstand them, and the aire neuer so cleare for euery ship to be seene. [Sidenote: The second Spanish fleete lying in watie for the English.] But yet the Spanish Gallies had a sight of them when they, were come within 3. English miles of the towne, and made after them in all Pøssible haste, and although they saw that they were farre out of their reach, yet in a vaine fury and foolish pride, they shot off their Ordinance, and made a stirre in the Sea as if they had bene in the midst of them, which vanitie of theirs ministred to our men notable matter of pleasure and mirth, seeing men to fight with shadowes, and to take so great paines to so small purpose. But thus it pleased God to deride, and delude all the forces of that proud Spanish king, which, he had prouided of purpose to distressethe English, who notwithstanding passed through both his Armies, in the one, little hurt; and in the other nothing touched, to the glory of his immortall Name, the honour of our Prince and Countrey, and the just commendation of ech mans seruice performed in that voyage. END OF VOL. VII. INDICES TO VOLS. V., VI., & VII. INDICES. _Where the same Document is given in Latin and English, the reference is to the English Version._ _N.B._--The large print indicates that the _whole_ section refers to the subject mentioned. VOL. V. AA (Sir J. de) ABRAHAM BASSA ACON or ACRE --Taken --History ADAMS (T) ADRIANOPLE AGREEMENT, BETWEEN AMBASSADORS OF ENGLAND AND PRUSSIA, CONFIRMED BY RICHARD II --BETWEEN HENRY IV. AND CONRAD DE IUNGINGEN --BETWEEN HENRY IV. AND HANS TOWNS --BETWEEN HENRY IV. AND ULRICUS DE IUNGINGEN --BETWEEN RICHARD I. AND PRINCE OF ACRE --BETWEEN EDWARD IV. AND IOHN II. OF PORTUGAL ALBERT, King of Sweden ALBERT, Marquis of Brandenburg --Biographical sketch ALEPPO, A COMMANDMENT FOR ALEXANDRIA, A COMMANDMENT TO THE CADI OF --A COMMANDMENT TO THE BASSA OF ALI BASSA, LETTER FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH ALWEY (R.) AMSTERDAM ANDREW (S.) APPIAN, quoted ARTHUR, Duke of Brittany ASCALON AUCHER (Sir A.) AUCHER (ship) AUSTELL (Henry), HIS VOYAGE OVERLAND TO CONSTANTINOPLE --HIS SAFE CONDUCT FROM THE SULTAN AUSTEN (J.) AUSTRIA BABA (cape) BAIRAM (feast of) BAKER (M.) BAKER (P.) commits disorders in the Levant BAKER (R.) HIS FIRST VOYAGE TO GUINEA --HIS SECOND VOYAGE BALDWIN, Emperor of Constantinople BALIABADRAM, A COMMANDMENT FOR BARANGI or VARANGI BARRET (A.) BARRET (W.) BART (H.) BARTENSTEIN (castle), built BEDINGHAM (R,) BEFFART (C., of Triers) BELGRADE, taken by the Turks BELYETERE (E.) BERENGARIA (Queen) BETTS (W.) BLACK SEA BODENHAM (R.), HIS VOYAGE TO CANDIA AND CHIO BOULOGNE BOURGH (Sir John) --His death BOWYER (Sir W.) BRAMPTON (W.) BRANDEBURG BRANDON (J.) BREMEN BRENNUS BRESLAU BRILL BRISTOL BRITOMAR BRITONS, IN ITALY AND GREECE BROOKE (J.) BROWNE (J), mentioned BRUGES BRUNDUSIUM BRUNE (H.) BRUNSBURG (castle), built BRUNSWICK BUSS OF ZEALAND (ship), taken BUSSSHIP (ship), taken CABRERA or CAPRERA (island) CADIZ CALAIS CAMDEN (W.), HIS. ACCOUNT OF THE BRITONS IN ITALY AND GREECE --quoted CAMPEN CAMPION (G.), HIS DISCOURSE OF THE TRADE OF CHIO CANDIA CARUMUSALINI CASIMIR. King of Poland, wages war against Knights of Jerusalem --Defeated --Obtains Marienburg by treason --Concludes peace CASTELIN (E.) CAT (G.) CAUMBRIGGE (R.) CEPHALONIA CERIGO (island) CHAMBERLAIN (E.) CHAMPION (meaning of) CHANCELLOR (Richard) CHARLES V. (of Spain), knights Peter Read --mentioned CHARTER GRANTED BY SULTAN TO ENGLISH --GRANTED BY QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE LEVANT COMPANY --FROM PETER OF MOLDAVIA CHESTER (Sir W.) CHIO --A DISCOURSE OF ITS TRADE --VOYAGE OF BODENHAM --A COMMANDMENT FOR CHRISTMIMMEL built CLAIRVAUX (abbey of) CLEMENTS (J.), sent to Levant CLEYE COG (ship), seized COLCHESTER COLE (P.) COLEN, or COLOGNE CONRAD, Duke of Massovia CONRADUS LANDGRAVIUS CONSTANTINE THE GREAT --HIS TRAVELS CONSTANTINOPLE COOTE (J.) CORNWAILE (T.) COURTBUTTRESSOW COVENTRY, Parliament held at COWES CRACOW CRETE (island) CROSSEBAIRE (N.) CRUTZBURG (castle), built CURTIS (T.) CYPRUS --DESCRIBED --History DANTZIC DANUBE DASSELE (A. de) DAWE (J.) DELFT DIERE (J.) DOCKWRAY (Thomas) DOGGER-SHIP, taken DORDRECHT DORIA (Juanette) DORIA (Prince Pedro) DOVER DRAVER (M.) DUCKET (I.) DURHAM (S.) EGYPT, A COMMANDMENT FOR EINSLEBEN ELBE (river) ELBING ELIZABETH (Queen) --LETTERS FROM MURAD KHAN --LETTERS TO MURAD KHAN --GRANTS CHARTER TO LEVANT COMPANY --HER COMMISSION TO WILLIAM HAREBORNE TO BE AMBASSADOR IN TURKEY --LETTER TO ALI BASSA --LETTER FROM MUSTAPHA CHAUS --LETTER FROM SINAN BASSA --LETTER FROM THE SULTANA ELLERICHSHAUSEN (C. ab) ELLERICHSHAUSEN (L. ab) EMDEN ENGLISHMEN SENT TO CONSTANTINOPLE ERIGENA (John), HIS TRAVELS ESTURMY (W.), his account of his embassy to Prussia --LETTER FROM WERNERUS DE TETTINGEN EUSEBIUS, quoted EUTROPIUS, quoted EYMS (W.) FAMAGUSTA, SIEGE OF FARDEL (meaning of) FEN (H. ap) FERMENIA or THERMIA (island) FEUCHTUVANG (C. a) FEUCHTUVANG (S. a) FIELD (R.) FINISTERRE (cape) FLISPE (S.) FLORUS, quoted FORMENTERA (island) FORREST (G.) FOSTER (T.), HIS PASSPORT FROM EARL OF LEICESTER FOWLER (T.) FRIDAY (ship), taken FROISSART, HIS ACCOUNT OF KING LYON'S VISIT TO ENGLAND FUBBORNE (W.) GABARDS GAGE, (Sir E.) GAGE (G.) GALIPOLI (straits of) GALITA (island) GARRARD (Sir W.) GARRET (William) GENOA GIBRALTAR GLEIDELL (J.) GODEZERE (ship), taken by Hans Towns GODFREY, Earl of Hohenloe GODFREY (J.) GOLDESMITH (C.) GONSON (R.) GONSON (W.) GONSTON (B.) GOODWINE (J.) GOURNEY (M.), VOYAGE TO ALGIERS GRAA (T.), Ambassador of England GRAVESEND GRAY (John) GRAY (R.) GREEK FIRE GRESHAM (J.) GRINDALL, Archbishop of Canterbury GRIPESWOLD HACHENBERG (U.) Ambassador of Prussia HAGUE (the) HAKLUYT (R.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT TRADE TO THE LEVANT --LIST OF GOODS TO BE OBTAINED IN TURKEY --MEMORANDUM OF WORK TO BE DONE IN TURKEY HALBERSTADT HAMBURG HANS TOWNS --AGREEMENT WITH HENRY IV. --THEIR GRIEVANCES AGAINST ENGLAND HAREBORNE (William), obtains safe conduct --His first voyage --COMMISSION TO BE AMBASSADOR --VOYAGE IN THE SUSAN --LETTER TO MUSTAPHA CHAUS --HIS PETITION TO THE VICEROY OF MOREA --HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND HARWICH HAWKIN DERLIN (ship), plundered HAWKINS (Sir John) HAWKWOOD (J.), HIS VICTORIES IN ITALY HEILSBURG (castle), built HEITH (W.) HELDRINGEN (H. ab) HELENA, HER TRAVELS --mentioned HELENA (ship), taken HENRY (Emperor), his letter to Philip of France HENRY, Earl of Plaen HENRY IV., HIS LETTERS TO CONRAD DE IUNGINGEN --THEIR AGREEMENT --AGREEMENT WITH HANS TOWNS --LETTER TO ULRICUS DE IUNGINGEN --LETTERS FROM ULRICUS DE IUNGINGEN --AGREEMENT WITH ULRICUS DE IUNGINGEN HENRY VIII., HIS LETTER TO JOHN OF PORTUGAL HERSTON (P.) HICKMAN (A.) HOLINSHED, HIS ACCOUNT OF THE EMBASSY FROM FERDINANDO TO HENRY VIII HOLSTOCKE (W.) HOLY CROSS (ship), voyage to Candia HOOD (R.) HORUSE (R.) HOVEDEN (Roger de), bibliography HUGHSON (J.) HULL HUNT (T.) IENA INNSBRUCK IPSWICH ISAAC COMNENUS ISABEL (ship), taken IUNGINGEN (C. a), sends an embassy to Richard II. --HIS LETTERS TO RICHARD II --COMPOSITION BETWEEN HIM AND ENGLAND --RECEIVES LETTERS FROM HENRY IV --HIS LETTERS TO HENRY IV --THEIR AGREEMENT IUNGINGEN (Ulricus a) --LETTER FROM HENRY IV --LETTER TO HENRY IV --AGREEMENT WITH HENRY IV JAROSLAW JASSY or YAS JENKINSON (A.) JERUSALEM; voyage of Richard I, to JERUSALEM (Knights of), CATALOGUE OF MASTERS --Remove to Ptolemais --Join the Dutch Knights in Prussia --First war against Prussian infidels --Second war against Prussia --Prussians renounce Christianity --Third war against Prussia --Lose Acon --Return to France --Remove to Marienburg --Defeated --Battle against Wladislaus --Prussians rebel against the Knights --Apply to Casimir, King of Poland --Commanded by Emperor Frederick to return to obedience --Civil war --Casimir defeated by the Knights --Marienburg betrayed to Casimir --Peace concluded --Make a treaty with Richard II --THEIR COMPOSITION WITH ENGLAND IN 1403 --THEIR AGREEMENT WITH HENRY IV. IN 1405 JOHN (of Portugal), letter from Henry VIII JOHN BAPTIST (ship) JOHN COMNENUS JOPPA JUSTINIAN KELHAM, his Norman Dictionary quoted KERPEN (Otto, of) KINGTON (J.), his account of his embassy to Prussia KINSTUT, King of Lithuania --Escape from prison KNAPPENRODT (W. A.) KRANTZIUS (A.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF NORBERN KUCHENMEISTER (M.) KUNIGSBERG founded LAKENSWITHER (H.) LAKINGLISH (J.) LAMBERT (F.) LAMBOLT (H.) LANGSOUND LEGHORN LEICESTER, Earl of --HIS PASSPORT TO THOMAS FOSTER LEMAN (R.) LEO AFRICANUS, quoted LEOPOLD, Duke of Austria, takes Richard I. prisoner --Sells him to Emperor LESSON (O.) LETIS (J.) LEVANT, HAKLUYT'S ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT TRADE TO --THE REVIVING OF THE TRADE TO THE LEVANT COMPANY, CHARTER FROM MURAD KHAN --FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH LIBER-TRIADUM, quoted LIGATE (J.) LINCOLN (Bishop of), His letters to Conrad de Iungingen LITTLE, (William), his works LIVONIA LOCKE (M.) LOCKE (W.) LODGE (Sir T.) LONDON LUBECK LUDOLPHUS, Duke of Brunswick LUDOLPHUS, surnamed King LUTHER, born at Einsleben LYDERPOLE (T.) LYMASOL or LYMSZEN LYNN LYON, King of Armenia, HIS VOYAGE TO ENGLAND LYONS MAGDEBURG MAIN (river) MALAGA MALIM (W.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE SIEGE OF FAMAGUSTA MALLORCA (island) MALMESBURY (abbey) MALMESBURY (W. of), quoted MALTA MANUCHIO, HIS SAFE CONDUCT FROM THE SULTAN MAONE MARGARET, Queen of Denmark MARGARET (ship), taken MARIEBURG or MARIENBURG --Taken by treason MARLIN (ship) MARMORA MARPURG MARSEILLES MARTINE A GOLIN, His wonderful stratagem MARTININGO (G.) MATAPAN (cape) MATTHEW GONSON (ship), VOYAGE TO CANDIA --SECOND VOYAGE --Mentioned MAUSTROND MEIDENBURG (Bulgrave of) MERALL (Sir A. de), turns traitor MERSH (T.) MESSINA --Taken by the English MEYER (H.) MICHAEL (ship), taken MICONE (island) MIDDEEBURG MILO (island) MINION (ship) MITYLENE (island) --A COMMANDMENT TO MORAVIA MOTTE (T.) MOYLE, meaning of MUNDE (W.) MUNSTER, his history of the Dutch Knights of Jerusalem MURAD KHAN, HIS LETTERS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH --HIS LETTERS FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH --GRANTS CHARTER TO LEVANT COMPANY MUSTAPHA CHAUS, HIS LETTER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH --LETTER FROM W. HAREBORNE NARES, quoted NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE NICHOLAS (ship), taken NIESTER (river) NISSA NOIE (W.) NORBERN, BURNT BY ROBBERS FROM THE HANS TOWNS NOVIBAZAR NORWICH NUREMBERG ODOACER, King of Bohemia OLMUDTZ ORSELE (W. ab.) ORWEL OSBORNE (Sir E.), revives the trade to the Levant --mentioned OSTERNA (Boppo ab) OSTRIGE (W.) OTTO, Marquis of Brandeburg OXNEY (W.) PALANDRIE PALOS (cape) PARIS (Matthew), quoted PARSONS (R.) PASSARO (cape) PATRASSO--A COMMANDMENT TO PEIRS (T.) PERCY RELIQUES, quoted PETER, Vayvode of Moldavia --HIS CHARTER TO ENGLISH MERCHANTS PETER (ship), taken PHILIP (of France), his alliance with Richard I --Returns to France --LETTER FROM THE EMPEROR HENRY PHILIPPOPOLI PICKET (J.) PIKERON (J.) PLOKET (T.) PLUMER (J.) PLUMMER (T.) PLYMOUTH PONTE (N. de), death of PORTO DE SAN PEDRO POUND (W.) PREST (J.) PRIMROSE (ship) PRIOUR (J.) PROCOPIUS PRUSSIA, privileges of English merchants in --Esturmy and Kington sent as ambassadors PRUSSIA (knights of), see Jerusalem (kinghts of) PURSER (A.) RACKING, meaning of word RAGUSA RATCLIFFE (J.) READ (Peter), HIS EPITAPH REDEN (castle), built RESIL (castle), built REUSS (H.) REVELL (R.) RHODES --SIEGE AND TAKING OF --Blockaded --Provisioned --A brigantine sent to Candia --General muster --Letter from the Great Turk --The Turks land on the Isle of Lango --Besieged --Assisted by Gabriel Martiningo --Is taken --A COMMANDMENT TO RHONE (river) RICHARD I., HIS VOYAGE INTO ASIA --Alliance with Philip of France --Taken prisoner by Duke of Austria --EPITAPHS RICHARD II., receives ambassadors from Conrad de Zolner RICHTENBERG, (H. a) RIGWEYS (R.) ROBINES (R.) RODE (A.) ROME RONDELL (L) ROOS (William, Lord of) --His letters to Conrad de Iungingen ROSTOCK ROTTERDAM RUMNIE (J.) RUSSDORFF (P. a) RUSSE (L. van) SAFFRON WALDON ST. JOHN (knights of), go to Cyprus and Rhodes ST. VINCENT (cape) SALT SALTZA.(H. de) SAMBORUS, son of Suandepolcus SANDWICH SAUGERSHUSEN (H. de) SANTA MARIA (cape) SANTA SOPHIA (Mosque of) SAPIENTIA (island) SARDINIA SAVIOUR (ship) SCHIEDAM SCOF (E.) SCUVENDEN (B. a) SEBURGH (J.) SELAW SHERWOOD (W.) SHIPPER (ship), plundered SIBEL (W.), Ambassador of England SIGISMUND (Emperor), assists the Knights of Jerusalem SILISDEN (W.) SINAN BASSA, HIS LETTER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH SITHENCE (meaning) of SMITH (T.) SNYCOP (J.) SOPHIA or SOFIA SOUTHAMPTON SPENSER, quoted STAPER (R.), revives trade to Levant --mentioned STARKEY (J.) STETTIN STEYHARD (N.) STOCKET (N.), Ambassador of England STRABO, quoted STRALSSUND STURMY. See _Esturmy_ SUANDEPOLCUS, Duke of Pomerania SULTANA (of Turkey), LETTER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH SUSAN (ship), Her voyage to Constantinople TAMASSUS. See _Famagusta_ TANCRED, King of Sicily TARIFFA TELENSIN or FLEMCEN TENEDOS (island) TERRY (W.) TETTINGEN (W. de), LETTER TO SIR W. ESTURMY THEODORICUS, Earl of Aldenborg THESTER (T.) TIEFLEN (J. a) TILBURY TOBACCO, first introduced TOOTOO, use of reduplication TOPCLIFFE (J.) TREATY. See _Agreement_ TRENT TREVESO TRINITY (ship), seized TRINITY FITZWILLIAMS (ship) TRUCHSES (M.) TUK (L.) TUNIS, taken by Charles V TURKEY, THE TRADE WITH TUSIMER (H. a) TUTTEBURIE. (J.) TYRE URE (meaning of) VARNA VENICE VILLIERS (Philip de), Grand Master of Rhodes VIRUMNIUS, quoted VISTULA VITALIANS VITOLDUS. capt. of Tartars VLADISLAUS, fights the Knights of Jerusalem WALCHERN island WALENROD (C.) WALKER, meaning of old word WALPODE (S.), Ambassador of Prussia WALPOT (H. of) WALRODE (C. de), Ambassador of Prussia WALSINGHAM, quoted WALTERS (J.) WALTHAM WARTESLAUS, son of Suandepolcus WATERDEN (T.) WESENHAM (J.) WEST-STOWE WIGHT (J.), sent to the Levant WIGHT (R.) WILFORD (N.) WILFORD (W.) WILLIAM (The Pilgrim), his travels WILLIAMSON (J.), HIS VOVAGE TO CANDIA WINTER (W.) WISEDOME (J.) WISMER WISSENBURG (Castle), built WITTENBURG WIVETON WOOD, pilot WYMAN (H,) YARMOUTH YARMOUTH (Isle of Wight) YLGENBURG, built YORK ZANTE ZARA ZEMBRA ZEPISWICH. See _Ipswich._ ZOLNER (C. of Rotenstein), sends ambassadors to Richard II. --THEIR SPEECH ZUYUERSEE VOL. VI ABYDOS, a city of Egypt ACRIDOPHAGI, live on locusts --Their extraordinary death ADRIMACHIDE, their manners AFRICA, DESCRIBED --Its limits --Its original inhabitants --Agricultural produce --Its Fauna --Its state in 1659 AGATHIRSIANS, their manners ALEXANDER, mentioned ALEXANDRIA, a city of Egypt ALFRED, sends alms to India ALKAIR. See _Cairo_ ALKORAN. See _Koran_ ALLEGONA, a town of Grand Canary, taken and sacked ALLEGRANIA (island) ALURED, bishop of Worcester, his voyage to Constantinople and Syria AMAZONS, their manners AMERICA, an island APHRES, their mariners APSLEY (W.), Bookseller ARABIA, its limits --Manners of the inhabitants --Their marriage customs --Produce --Contracts --Spices --Serpents --Monarchs --Precious metals --Arms --First adopts Mahometanism ARAXIS (river) ARGIPPIANS, their manners ARITONE, quoted ARMENIANS, mentioned ARUNDEL (Earl of), Dedication of Fardel of Facions to ASIA, its limits --DESCRIBED --Derivation of the name ASTROLOGY in Egypt ASSYRIA, DESCRIBED --Boundaries --Produce --Boats --Dress --Marriage customs --Medicine --Burial customs --Magi or Chaldei ATLANTES, their manners AXIAMA BABYLON, a city-of Egypt BABYLONIA. See _Assyria._ BAILEY (N.) quoted BALE, quoted BALLARD (W.), in service of Nicolas Thorne BEROALD (P.), quoted BEROSUS, quoted BETANCOURT (J.), obtains the title of King of the Canaries BIBLIOTHECA CURIOSA, quoted BLACKNESS BLANCO (cape) BLOMME (de) BOCCHORIS, the Pharaoh of Moses BOCCHORIDES, a lawgiver of Egypt BOEMUS (J.), mentioned BONA ESPERANCA (cape) BORROWING on parents' corpse BRACAMONT (R. de), Admiral of France, mentioned BRILL BROKAGE (meaning of) BUDINES, their manners BURROUGHS, mentioned BYNON (Captain) CAIRO, a city of Egypt CALAIS CALIFORNIA CALLACUT (cape) CAMPION (Caspar), his letters to Lock and Winter CANARIA. See _Grand Canary._ CANARY ISLANDS, THE ANCIENT TRADE OF THE ENGLISH TO --Exports from --DESCRIBED BY THOMAS NICOLS --Ancient inhabitants --CONQUEST OF --mentioned CANARY WINE CANNIBALISM CANTON CASELIN (E.), mentioned CASPII, mentioned CATER (Captain) CAVE-DWELLINGS, in Grand Canary CECIL (Sir Robert), Dedication to CESARIAN (island) CHAIRUS. See _Cairo_ CHALDEI. See _Assyria_ CHILI CHRISTIANITY, ITS HISTORY CHRISTOPHER (The), Sails for Santa Cruz CHURCH, HISTORY AND DOCTRINES OF THE CLAUDIANS, not circumcised CLOINYNG (meaning of) CLOPER (W. D.) CLUVERIUS, his description of Africa COLUMBUS (Christopher), mentioned CONQUEST of the Grand Canaries CRANMER, his answer to Bishop Gardiner, quoted CREMATION CYNECI, their manners CYNNAMI, their manners CYRUS, mentioned DALIDAE, a city of Panchaia DAMASCUS, attacked by Mahomet DAMIETTA (siege of), mentioned DANIEL (S.), quoted DARIEN (isthmus of) DARIUS, mentioned DARTMOUTH DAVIS (J.), HIS WORLDES HYDROGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION --His preface --His first voyage --His second voyage --His third voyage --His Seamen's Secreats DAWSON (T.), printer DELIVER, meaning of word DERBY (Earl of), his journey DERRICKSON (Captain), killed DESERT, or DESERTAS DESOLATION (coast) DIODORUS SICULUS, quoted DIOSPOLIS DOEST (P. Van) DOG-HEADED MEN DOVER DRAKE (Sir Francis) DRAYTON, his Polyolbion quoted EARTH (THE DIVISIONS AND LIMITS OF THE) EDGAR (Prince), his voyage EDWARD (Prince), mentioned EGYPT, DESCRIBED --Manners of the inhabitants --Their double alphabet --Dress --Religion --Food --Memento Mori --Learning --Monarch --Funeral ceremonies --Political divisions --Finance --Astrology --Divisions into classes --Laws --Marriage customs --Education --Medicine --Sacred Animals --Curious borrowing transactions ESPECIO (E. de) ESSENES or ESSEIS, their peculiarities ETHIOPIA, DESCRIBED --ITS INHABITANTS --Government --Dress --Animals --Agricultural produce --Precious stones --Burial --Religion --Election of King --Clergy --Army --Laws --Punishment of adultery --Banquets EXACONTHALITUS, a rare stone EXETER FAMAGUSTA, invaded by Mustapha Basha FARDLE OF FACIONS, REPRINTED, Preface FELLES, meaning of FERRO. See _Hierro_ FINISTERRE (Cape) FITCH (Ralph), his voyage to China, mentioned FITZROY (Oliver), son of King John FLETCHER, his Purple Island, quoted FLORENTIUS WIGORNIENSIS, quoted FLORIDA, discovered --Voyages, of Ribault, Laudonniere, and Gourges --printed by Hakluyt FLUSHING, mentioned FORTEVENTURA, DESCRIBED, mentioned FOUCHAl. See _Fienchal_ FOXE, quoted FREDERICK. (Cæsar), mentioned FROWARD (cape) GALDER, a city of Grand Canary GALVANO, HIS ACCOUNT OF MACHAM'S DISCOVERY OF MADEIRA GAMING forbidden on the Canary Fleet GARACHICO, a town of Teneriffe GASCOYNE, his Steel Glass quoted GEERBRANSTON (J.) GEORGIANS, mentioned GHELEINSON (C.) GIMNOSOPHIST. E GLANVILLE (R.), Earl of Chester, goes to siege of Damietta GOLDEN ASS, mentioned GOMERA, DESCRIBED, THE TAKING OF GOURGES, his voyage to Florida GOWBIN, meaning of word GRACIOSA, mentioned, taken GRAND CANARY, DESCRIBED --Derivation of the name --Original inhabitants --Principal of the Canary Isles --Its produce --Its position --Visited by the Dutch fleet --taken GREENLAND, visited by Davis GRIPHONES GROIN (The) GUANCHES GUIA, a city of Grand Canary GUIDALES, their manners HAKLUYT (R.), in possession of Thorne's account of the Canaries HAREBORNE (William), mentioned HARIOT (Thomas), mentioned HARLAC, Chief Justice of France, mentioned HARMAN (Captain) HAWKINS (Sir John) HELIOPOLIS, a city of Egypt HENRY II, his vow HENRY III, of Castille, mentioned HERODOTUS, quoted HESPERA, an island HEYWOOD (T.), quoted HICKMAN (A.), mentioned HIEROGLYPHICS HIERO, DESCRIBED HIGINIUS, quoted HILL (J.), plants a vineyard in Hieros HOCK-MONDAY, The festival explained HOLLINSHED, quoted HUGHES (R.), quoted HYRACIDA, a city of Panchaia ICELAND ICHTHIOPHAGI, a race of fish eaters IDIOTES, their drink ILOPHAGI, a tree-inhabiting race IMAUS (mountain) INDIA, DESCRIBKD --Its boundaries --Rivers --Climate --Produce --Fauna --Precious stones --Its inhabitants long-lived --Dress --Manners --Burial ceremonies --Religious ceremonies --Castes --Laws --Fakirs --Brahmins --Suttee --Curious marriage custom --Fabulous stories --Money INDIES (West), A BRIEF DECLARATION OF THE ADMIRALS DEPARTING TOWARDS THE INGULPHUS, abbot of Croiland, his journey ISSEDONNES, eat the dead JACOBITES JAPAN JENKINSON, mentioned JOHN, mentioned JOHN II. of Castille, mentioned JOHN OF HOLLAND, his travels JOSEPHUS, quoted, his history of the Jews JUBA, said to have brought dogs from the Canaries JUDEA. See _Palestine_ KATHERINE, regent of Castille, mentioned KLOYER (Captain) KORAN, given by Mahomet LAGUNA (lake) LANCASTER (James), his voyage to the Straits of Malacca LANCEROT (island), See _Lauzarota_ LAUDONNIERE, his voyage to Florida LAUZAROTA, DESCRIBED LAROTAVA, a town of Teneriffe LE MAIRE, his voyage to the Canaries LEONARDSON (Captain) LICOURICELY (meaning of) LIME LIRCEI, their manners LISBON LOCKE (T.), mentioned LOPEZ (Francis), mentioned LUZOM (island) MACAO, possesses a printing press in 1590 MACES, their manners MACHAM'S DISCOVERY OF MADEIRA --Elopes with an Englishwoman --Lands in Machico bay --builds a chapel to bury her in --Makes a boat and escapes to Africa --The story confirmed by modern investigations MACHICO, a town of Madeira MACHLIES, their manners MADEIRA, DISCOVERKD BY MACHAN --Derivation of the name --DESCRIBKD --Its produce MAGELLAN (straits of) MAGI. See _Assyria_ MAHOMET, Either Arabian or Persian --giveth the Koran --Assisted by Sergius --His religion --Attacks Damascus MALACCA (cape) MALIAPOR, burying place of St. Thomas MALMESBURV (William of), quoted MAN, HIS ORIGIN --False opinions as to --Performs woman's work MANILLA MARIES, their manners MAROUINES MARTYR (Peter), mentioned MASSAGETES, their habits --Eat their old men MAURICE (Prince) MECCA MEDEA, DESCRIBED --Its boundaries --Manners of the inhabitants MEGASTHENES, quoted MEINT (meaning of) MELA (Pomponius), quoted MELANCHLENI MEMPHIS. See _Cairo_ MENDOZA (A. de) MEOTIS (lake) MERCHATES MERMAID (ship), deserts Davis MEROE, capital of Ethiopia METRETES MEXICO MIDUALL. (Thomas), factor to Nicolas Thome MOLUCCA (islands) MOLYNEUX (E.), his map MONGOLLS, a tribe of Tartary MONSTERS MOSES, mentioned MOY LAMBERT (ship) MUSTAPHA BASHA, his invasion of Nicosia and Famagusta NARES, quoted NASAMONES, their manners NEPOS (C.), quoted NESTORIANS NEURIENS, their manners NEWBERY (John), his voyage to China NICOLS (Thomas), HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE CANARY ISLES NICOSIA invaded by Mustapha Basha NILE, its overflow NOBLE, value of a NORTH CAPE NORTH EAST PASSAGE, Davis's hydrographical objection against NORTH WEST PASSAGE, proved to exist --Benefits to be derived by England from NOVA ZEMLA OB (river) OCEAN cannot freeze OCEANIDA, a city of Pauchira ONLIVE, a curious form of ALIVE OPHYOPHAGI, a race of snake eaters ORANGE (ship) ORCHELL, a kind of moss used for dyeing, exported from the Canary Isles OROSIUS, quoted ORTEGAL (Cape) OSBORNE (Sir Edward), mentioned PALESTINE, DESCRIBED --Its boundaries --Laws of its inhabitants PALASSA, DESCRIBED PANCHAIA, DESCRIBED --Manners of its inhabitants PAPYRUS, used for paper PARTHIA, DESCRIBED --Its boundaries --History --Manners of the inhabitants PAULUS VENETUS, mentioned PERSEPOLIS, Capitol of Persia PERSIA, DESCRIBED --Its boundaries --Manners of the inhabitants PERU PETER IV, king of Aragon PHARISEES, their peculiarities PHILIPPINE (islands) PICO DETEITHE. _See Peak of Teneriffe_ PIJE (Captain) PLINY, quoted PLOMPES (meaning of) PLYMOUTH POENI, DESCRIBED --Eat lice --Curious marriage custom --Manner of taking an oath --Their food POLE, the place of greatest dignity POLICRITUS, quoted POMPEIUS (Trogus), quoted POPILINIERE, mentioned POSES (meaning of word) PRESTER JOHN PRINTING, in use at Macao in 1590 PTOLEMY, quoted QUIT (Captain) shipwrecked RAMUSIUS (J. B.), mentioned RHODES (siege of) RIALEIO, a town of Teneriffe RIBAULT, his voyage to Florida RICHARD, Earl of Cornwall, mentioned RICHARD I., his voyage to Palestine ROBERT (Curthose), his voyage ROBIN HOOD, mentioned ROTTERDAM, mentioned ROVERS (meaning of) ROWKE (meaning of) ROXENT (cape) RYZOPHAGI, their manners SABA, a city of Arabia SABELLICUS, quoted SADDUCEES, their doctrines ST. AUGUSTIN, quoted ST. AUGUSTIN (cape) ST. LUCARS ST. NICHOLAS ST. VINCENT (cape) SALLUST, quoted SALVAGES (island) SANDRIDGE SANDERSON (W.) --Publishes a globe SAN LUCAR, mentioned SANTA CRUX, chief town in Teneriffe SANTA MARIA (cape) SARACENS, a tribe of Arabians --Unite with the Turks SCYTHIA, DESCRIBED --History --Manners --Skinning of Enemies --Religion --Contracts --Burial rites SEGONIUS (M.), quoted SERETENES, their habits SERGIUS (Monk), assists Mahomet SEVILLE SHAKESPEARE, quoted SIGETMUS, Bishop of Sherborne, mentioned SKULLS, used as drinking cups SNARL, the derivation SNYTE, meaning of the word SOLINUS, quoted SOOTE, meaning of word SPACHEFORD, (Thomas), traded with Canary Islands in 1526 SPENCER, His Faerie Queene, quoted --His Shepherd's Kalendar, quoted SPERMATOPHAGI, a vegetarian race SPICES STAPER, (R.), mentioned STEVENS, (Thomas), his travels STRABO, quoted SUGAR, manufacture of SUGAR CANES, planting and growth of SWIFT, mentioned TABIN (promontory) TACITUS (Cornelius), quoted TALE OF A TUB, an old proverb TANAIS (river) TARTARY, DESCRIBED --Its boundaries --Climate --Military organisation --History --Habits of inhabitants --Religion --Food --Dress --Burials --Government TAUROSCHITHIANS, their manners --Sacrifice shipwrecked mariners TAURUS (Mount) TELDE, a city of Grand Canary TENERIFFE, visited by the Christopher --DESCRIBED --Its position --mentioned TENERIFFE (Peak of) TEXELL THEBES, a city of Egypt THEUET (A.), his "new found world Antarctikc" criticized THORNE (Nicolas), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE TRADE WITH THE CANARIES THUNESSON (H.) TISON (Thomas), the West India correspondent of N. Thrne TRITONIS, a river of Africa TROGLODITES, their manners TROUGHES (meaning of) TUNIS, invaded by Henry, Earl of Derby TURKEY, DESCRIBED --Boundaries --Manners of inhabitants --Military organisation --Dwellings --Dress --Food and drink --Education --Laws --Relation of the sexes USHANT (cape) VASQUEZ (F.) VAYGATS VENUS, curious worship of VERDE (cape) VERDE (cape), islands of VIVERO, a town of Spain WALSINGHAM (Sir F.) WAN, its meaning WATREMAN (W.), HIS FARDLE OF FACIONS WHOTE (meaning of) WIGHT (Isle of) WILLOUGHBY (Sir Hugh), mentioned WOMEN trained to war --Perform man's work --How to dispose of plain women in marriage --Form a bodyguard to kings of India WOOD (meaning of) WORLDES HYDROGRGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. by J. DAVIS ZABIQUES, their manners ZWARTEKEYS, (J. C.), killed VOL. VII. ALEXANDER (The Great) ALGIERS ALLEN (I), sent to the low countries ALTEMIRA (Conde de) ALVA (Duke of) ALVELANA ANDRADA (Conde de) ANGRA ANJOU (Duke of) ANTONIO (Don, of Portugal) ANTONY (W.) ARK ROYAL (ship) ARMADA (THE GREAT) --Its officers --Description of its ships --Preparations by the Duke of Parma, furthered by the Pope --Treaty of alliance between England and the Netherlands --England's preparations --Commanders appointed --An army collected at Tilbury --Sails from Lisbon --Enters English channel --Advances up channel --Anchors before Calais --Attacked by fire ships --Battle off Gravelines --Determines to sail round Scotland --Visits Orkneys --Shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland --Disastrous return to Spain --Wrecks in the Hebrides --Commemorative coins struck --Public rejoicings ASCENSION (ship) ASHLEY (Sir A.) AYDE (ship) AZORES, A VOYAGE TO THE --Mentioned --VOYAGE OF GEORGE, EARL OF CUMBERLAND, TO THE --FIGHT ABOUT, BETWEEN THE REVENGE AND THE SPANISH FLEET --EXPERIENCE AN EARTHQUAKE BARNAM (Alderman) BARTON (Captain), wounded BASSAN (Don A.) BAYONN (islands of) BEARES (W) BELLINGHAM (H) BENCASAMP (Beys Hamet), Ambassador from Morocco BERGHEN BERMUDAS BEZA (Theo.), his verses to Queen Elizabeth BIBLIOTHECA CURIOSA BILBOA BISHOP AND CLERKS BLANCO (cape) BLANKENBERG BLUNT (Sir C.) BONAVENTURE (ship) BOND (M.) BOROUGH (William) BORSIS, burnt BOSWELL (Capt.) BOVADILLA (F) BRAGANZA (Duke of) BRASILL (promontory) BRET (Colonel) --Killed BRITANDONA (Admiral) BRODBANKE (J.), taken prisoner BROMLEY (T.) BROOKE (Sir H.) BURLINGS (The) BURRELL (J.) taken prisoner BUTLER (Sir Philip) CADIZ, EXPEDITION OF SIR F. DRAKE AGAINST THE SPANISH FLEET --mentioned --THE HONORABLE VOYAGE TO CALAIS CARELESS (Capt. F) CAREW (Sir R.) CAREY (Sir George) CARRE (Captain), killed CARSEY (Captain), mortally wounded CARTHEGENA CASCAIS CATHOLICS, sent to Ely and Wisbeach CAVE (Captain) wounded CAVERLY (Captain) CECIL (Sir Robert) CECIL (Sir Thomas) CENTURION (ship) --ITS FIGHT AGAINST 5 SPANISH GALLIES CHATHAM CHERUBIM (ship) CIPRIAN (M.) ambassador from Don Antonio CLEAR (cape) CLIFFORD (Sir C.) COMMISSION OF THE KING OF SPAIN FOR THE GENERAL ARREST OF THE ENGLISH CONCEPTION (ship) COOPER (Captain), killed COOPER (R.) COOPER (W.) CORDALL (M.) CORNISH (W.) CORUNNA CORVO (island) COSTELY (ship) CRANE (ship) CRESCENT (ship) CRISPE (Captain) CROSSE (Captain), sent to England --mentioned CUMBERLAND (George, Earl of), VOYAGES TO THE AZORES --mentioned DARCIE (E.) DARIUS, mentioned DAVIS (John) DEFIANCE (ship) DENNY (Sir Edward) DESMOND (Earl of) DESMOND (Sir James), hanged DESMOND (Sir John) DESMOND (Morice of) DEVEREUX (Walter) DOLPHIN (Captain), wounded --mentioned DOLPHIN (ship) DRAKE (Sir Francis), AN ACCOUNT OF HIS EXPEDITION TO THE BAY OF CADIZ --His travels --Second in command against Cadiz --Mentioned DRAKE (T.) DRAKE (ship) DREADNOUGHT (ship) DREW (J.) DUDLEY (H.) DUDLEY (Sir R.) DUFFIELD (M.) DUNKERK EARTHQUAKE EDDYSTONE EDWARD BONAVENTURE (ship) ELIZABETH (Queen) visits the army at Tilbury --Enters London in triumph after defeat of Armada --Congratulations to --Her prayer ELIZABETH (ship) EMDEN EMMANUEL (Don, of Portugal) ERINGTON (Captain) ESSEX (Earl of) --Joins the fleet --Forms an ambush --mentioned ESCOVEDO, Secretary to King of Spain EVESHAM (J.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE TO THE AZORES EXARAMA DE LOS CAVALLEROS EXARAMA DE OBISPO FAIR ISLE FALCON (ship) FALMOUTH FAYAL --Taken FENNER (captain) ==rebuked FIGHT, BETWEEN TEN SHIPS OF LONDON AND TEN SPANISH GALLIES IN THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR --BETWEEN THE CENTURION AND FIVE SPANISH GALLIES --Between five ships of London and eleven gallies FLEMING (captain) FLICKE (R.), HIS REPORT AS TO SUPPLIES TO LORD THOMAS HOWARD FLORES (A.) FLORES (island) FLORIDA FLUSHING FORESIGHT (ship) FOSTER, captain of the Primrose FRANCISCO (Don, de Toledo) FROBISHER (Sir Martin) FULFORD (captain) FURTHO (captain) GALEONS (description of) GALLIASSES (description of) GENEBELLI (F.), fortifies the Thames GEORGE NOBLE (ship) GIBRALTAR GODOLPHIN (Sir Francis) GOLDSMID (E.), his Bibliotheca Curiosa quoted GRACIOSA (island) GRAVELINES (battle off) GRENVILLE (Sir Richard), his fight in the Revenge --THE MOST HONORABLE TRAGEDY OF GROIN (The) GUZMAN (Don P. E. de) GWIN (D.), conquers three Spanish ships HALES (Sir J.) HAMBURG HATTON (Sir William) HAVANA HAWES (John) HAWKINS (Sir John) HELCLIFFE HERBERT (Lord) HINDER (captain) HISPANIOLA, devastated HOHENLOE (Count) HONDURAS HOPE (ship) HOPKINS, preacher to Earl of Essex HOWARD (Lord Charles) --Appointed Lord High Admiral --Mentioned --HIS LETTER TO THE DUKE OF MEDINA SIDONIA HOWARD (Lord Thomas) HUNTLEY (colonel) ILA (island) JACKSON (Captain) JOHN (Don, of Austria) JONES (Philip), REPORT OF FIGHT BETWEEN FIVE SHIPS OF LONDON AND ELEVEN GALLIES JUAN (S. de Colorado) KILLIGREW (W.) KNIGHTHOOD conferred on Englishmen at Cadiz LADD (J.) LANE (Colonel) LA ROCHELLE LAS CASAS, his account of the West Indies, quoted LEICESTER (Earl of) LEIVA (Don P. de) LEVISON (Sir R.) LEWIS (island) LINSCHOTEN (J. H. van), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE EXPLOITS OF THE ENGLISH AGAINST THE SPANIARDS LION (ship) LISBON LISTER (Capt. C) --His death LIZARD (The) LONDON --Plague of --mentioned LONG (H.) LORES LUBECK LUNA (Don Juan de) LYME MADRE DE DIOS (ship), taken MALACCA MANDRANA (D. de) MARCHANT ROYAL (ship) MARGARET (ship) MARGARET AND JOHN (ship) MARKESBURY (captain) MARY ROSE (ship) MARY SPARKE (ship), voyage to the Azores MEDINA (J. L. de) MEDINA SIDONIA (Duke of), commands the Armada --LETTER FROM LORD CHARLES HOWARD MEDKERK (colonel) MEG (ship) MENDOZA (A. de) MERVIN METERAN (E. van), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA MEXICO (bay of) MIDDLEBOROUGH MIDDLETON (captain) MINION (ship) MINSHAW (captain) MONCADO (H. de) --Wrecked MOONE (R.) MOUNSON (Sir W.) NETHERLANDS, their treaty with England against Spain NEWHAVEN NOMBRE DE DIOS NORRIS (General) NORRIS (Sir Edward) NORRIS (Sir Henry) NORTH CAPE NORTON (M.) NOVA, HISPANIA, note of fleet from NOWELL (H.) OQUENDO (M. de) --taken ORANGE (Prince of) ORCADES. See _Orkney_ ORKNEYS OSTEND, Mutiny suppressed at OUSLEY (Captain), Ambassador from General Norris PALAVICINI (Sir H.) PARMA (Duke of) --His preparations in support of the Armada PARTRIDGE (M.) PENICHE --Taken --Mentioned PERNAMBUCO PETUIN (captain) PHILPOT (captain) PICO. See _Teneriffe_ PIEW (Captain R.), killed PIGEON (M.) PILGRIM (ship) PIMENTELLI (D.), quoted PLYMOUTH PORTLAND PORT REAL PORT ST. MARY PORTSMOUTH PORTUGAL, VOYAGE TO POURE (Captain Henry) PRESTON (Sir Amyas) PRIMROSE, THE ESCAPE OF THE, FROM BILBAO PUENTE DE BURGOS RAGUZA RAINBOW (ship) RAINFORD (T.) RALEIGH (Sir Walter), sends two ships to the Azores --mentioned --HIS ACCOUNT OF THE FIGHT OF THE REVENGE RALEIGH (ship) RAM HEAD RED ROSE (ship) REVENGE (ship), HER FIGHT WITH THE SPANISH NAVY REYMOND (Capt.) RICALDE (J. M. de) RICHARD (ship) ROTTERDAM ROW (J.) ROWIT (M.) ROYDEN (Captain) ST. GEORGE (island) ST. HELENA SAINT JOHN (ship) ST. MALO ST. MARIE (island) ST. MICHAEL'S ST. VINCENT (cape) SALOMON (ship) SAMPSON (Captain A.) SAMPSON (Captain J.) SAMUEL (ship) SAN ANTONIO attacked SAN DOMINGO SAN DOMINGO (cloister of) SAN JULIANS SAN LUCAR (island) SAN PHILIP (ship), taken SAN PHILIP (ship) SAN SEBASTIAN SANTA CRUZ (Marquis of) SANT IAGO SARMIENTO (P.), Governor of Straits of Magellan SAUCY JACK (ship) SCIPIO, mentioned SERALTA (Marquis of) SERPENT (ship), voyage to the Azores SETUVAL SEYMOUR (Lord Henry) SIDNEY (Colonel) SIXTUS (Pope), furthers the Armada SPAIN, THE VOYAGE TO, BY COLONEL ANTHONY WINKFIELD SPENCER (lieutenant), killed STAPER (R.) SUSAN (ship) SUSSEX (Earl of) SYDENHAM (Capt.), killed TENERIFFE TERCERA (island) TERZA, explained --Captains of THIN (capt.) TILBURY, army collected at TITION TOBACCO, mentioned TOBY (ship) TORRES VEDRAS TRISTRAM (J.), killed TWID UMPTON (Colonel) USHANT VALDEZ (D. F. de) VALDEZ (Don P. de) --Taken VANDERFOORD (Sir J.) VAVASOUR (Thomas) VENNER (T.) VERA (J. de), taken VERDE (cape islands) VERE (Sir F.) VERTENDONA (M. de) VICTORY (ship) VIGO, taken --burnt VILLA FRANCA (St. Michael's) VIOLET (ship) WAREFIELD (W.) WATTS (M.) WESTON (Sir R.) WEYMOUTH WHIDDON (captain) WHITE DOVE (ship) WILKINSON (E.) WILLIAM AND JOHN (ship) WILLIAMS (Sir Roger) WILSON (captain) WINGFIELD (Sir Edward) WINGFIELD (Captain R.) WINKFIELD (Sir J.), buried WINKFIELD (Anthony), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL --Mentioned WOOD (B.) WRIGHT (E.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF GEORGE, EARL OF CUMBERLAND, TO THE AZORES YARMOUTH YORK (Captain) YOUNG (Captain), killed ZANTE ZOUCH (John) END OF INDEX. CONTENTS OF VOLS. V., VI., & VII. TABLE OF CONTENTS VOL. V. I. A Catalogue of the Great Masters of the Order of the Dutch Knights, commonly called the Hospitalaries of Ierusalem: and what great exploites euery of the saide Masters hath achieued, etc. II. The Oration or speech of the ambassadours sent from Conradus de Zoluer master generall of the land of Prussia, vnto Richard the Second, King of England, etc. III. An agreement made by the ambassadours of England and Prussia, confirmed by King Richard the Second IV. The letters of Conradus de Iungingen, master generall of Prussia, written vnto Richard the Second, King of England, in the yeere 1398, for the renouncing of a league and composition concluded betweene England and Prussia, in regard of manifold injuries offered vnto the Prussians V. A briefe relation of William Esturmy, and Iohn Kington concerning their ambassages into Prussia, and the Hanstownes VI. Compositions and Ordinances concluded between the messengers of Frater Conradus de Iungingen master generall of Prussia: and the Chancelor and treasurer of the realme of England 1403 VII. The letters of the chancelor and treasurer of England, vnto Frater Conradus de Iungingen, master generall of Prussia 1403 VIII. The letters of King Henry the 4. vnto Conradus de Iungingen the master general of Prussia, for mutual conuersation and intercourse of traffique to continue between the marchants of England and of Prussia, for a certeine terme of time IX. The answer of Conradus thereto X. An agreement made betweene King Henry the fourth and Conradus de Iungingen XI. An agreement made betweene King Henry the fourth and the common societie of the Marchants of the Hans XII. A letter of Henry the fourth vnto Frater Conradus de Iungingen XIII. Letter from Frater Wernerus de Tettingen to Sir William Sturmy XIV. The letters of Henry the 4. King of England vnto Vlricus de Iungingen, 1408 XV. The answer of Vlricus de Iungingen thereto XVI. The letters of King Henry the 4. to Frater Vlricus XVII. A new concord concluded between King Henry the 4. and Vlricus de Iungingen XVIII. That the Brittons were in Italie and Greece with the Cimbrians and Gaules, before the Incarnation of Christ. (Camden) XIX. The Trauaile of Helena XX. The life and trauailes of Alexander the great, Emperour and King of Britaine XXI. Certaine Englishmen sent to Constantinople by the French King to Iustinian the Emperour, about the yeere of Christ, 500. (Procopius) XXII. The life and trauailes of Iohn Erigena XXIII. Englishmen were the guard of the Emperours of Constantinople in the reign of Iohn the sonne of Alexius Comnenus XXIV. The woorthy voiage of Richard the first, K. of England into Asia, for the recouerie of Ierusalem out of the hands of the Saracens. (Iohn Foxe) XXV. Epitaphium Richardi primi regis Anglorum apud Fontem Ebraldi XXVI. Epitaphium eiusdem vbi viscera eius requiescunt XXVII. The Trauailes of Gulielmus Peregrinus XXVIII. The comming of the Emperour of Constantinople called Baldwin into England in the yere 1247 XXIX. Confirmatio treugarum inter regem Angliae Eduardum quartum, et Ioannem secundum Regem Portugalliae, 1482 XXX. The voyage of Matthew Gourney against the Moores of Algier in Barbarie and Spaine. (Camden) XXXI. The comming of Lyon King of Armenia into England in the yere 1386 XXXII. How the King of Armenia returned out of England XXXIII. The memorable victories in diuers parts of Italie of Iohn Hawkwood Englishman in the reign of Richard the second XXXIV. The comming of the Emperor of Constantinople into England, 1400 XXXV. A briefe relation of the siege and taking of the Citie of Rhodes, by Sultan Soliman the great Turke, translated out of French into English at the motion of the Reuerend Lord Thomas Dockwray, great Prior of the order of Ierusalem in England, in the yeere 1524 _Sub-section_ 1 The occasions why the great Turke came to besiege the Citie of Rhodes 2 How the great Turke caused the passages to be kept, that none should beare tidings of his hoste to Rhodes 3 How the lord great master consulted with the lordes for prouision of the towne 4 Of the prouision for vitailes and ordinance of warre 5 How a Brigantine was sent to Candie for wine, and of diuers ships that came to helpe the towne 6 How the corne was shorne downe halfe ripe and brought into the towne for feare of the Turkes hoste 7 How the great master caused generall musters to be made, and sent a vessell to the Turkes nauie, of whom he receiued a letter 8 The copie of the letter that the great Turke sent to the lord great master, and to the people of the Rhodes 9 How the Turkes came to land in the Isle of Lango, and were driuen to their ships againe by the Prior of S. Giles 10 How part of the nauie and armie of the great Turke came before the citie of Rhodes 11 The number and names of the vessels that came to besiege Rhodes 12 How the lord great Master made his petition before the image of S. Iohn and offered him the Keyes of the towne 13 How the women slaues would haue set fire to the towne 14 How the Turkes layd their artillerie about the towne, and of the maner and quantitie of their pieces and gunshot 15 How the captaine Gabriel Martiningo came to the succor of Rhodes, and all the slaues were in danger to be slaine 16 How the great Turke arriued in person before Rhodes 17 Of the marueilous mounts that the Turks made afore the towne, and how the Captaines were ordered in the trenches 18 Of the politike repaires and defences that the ingenious Captaine Gabriel Martiningo made within the towne against the breaches in the walles 19 Of the mines that the Turks made: and how they ouerthrew part of the bulwarke of England 20 How the Turks assailed the bulwarke of England, and how they were driven away 21 How Sir Iohn Brough Turcoplier of England was slaine at an assault of the English bulwarke 22 Of the terrible mine of the posterne of Auuergne 23 How the bulwarke of Spaine was lost and woone again 24 How the great Turke for anger that he could not get the towne, would have put his chiefe captaine to death, and how they made 11 mines vnder the bulwarke of England 25 How the Turks were minded to haue gone their way, and of the traitours within the towne, and of many great assaults 26 How the enemies assailed the posternes of Prouence and Italy, and how they were driven away 27 How the treason of Sir Andrew de Merall was knowen, and of the maruellous assaults that the Turks made 28 How the Turks got the plaine ground of Spaine 29 How a Geneuois came to the gate of the towne for to speake for a treaty and deliuerance of the same 30 How the great Turke sent two of his men to the towne, to haue it by intreating. And how the lord great master sent two knights to him, to know his assurance 31 How the Ambassadours of Rhodes spake with the great Turke, and what answere they had 32 How one of the Ambassadours made answere of his message, and how the Commons would not agree to yeeld the towne 33 How the lord great master sent two ambassadors for the Commons to the great Turke 34 How the Turks began the assault, and how the Commons agreed to yeeld the towne 35 An answere to such as will make question for the deliuererance of the citie of Rhodes 36 How the citie of Rhodes was yeelded to the great Turke, and of the euill behauiour of certaine Turkes 37 Lenuoy of the Translator XXXVI. An Ambassage from Don Ferdinando, brother to the Emperor Charles V. vnto King Henry the VIII., in the yeere 1527, desiring his aide against Solyman the great Turke XXXVII. The antiquitie of the trade with English ships into the Leuant XXXVIII. A letter of Henry the VIII. to John, King of Portugall XXXIX. A voyage made with the shippes called the Holy Crosse and the Mathew Gonson, to the isles of Candia and Chio, about the yeere 1534 XL. Another voyage to the isles of Candia and Chio, made by the shippe the Mathew Gonson about the yeere 1535 XLI. The Epitaph of the valiant Esquire M. Peter Read in the South ile of Saint Peters Church in Norwich XLII. A discourse of the trade of Chio, in the yeere 1569, made by Master Campion XLIII. The first voyage of Robert Baker to Guinie with the Minion and Primrose, set out in October 1562 XLIV. The second voyage to Guinie set out in the moneth of November 1563 XLV. The voyage of M. Roger Badenham with the great barke Aucher to Candia and Chio, in the yeere 1550 XLVI. Another discourse of the trade to Chio in the yeere 1569 made by Caspar Campion XLVII. The true report of the siege and taking of Famagusta, a citie in Cyprus 1571, Englished out of Italian by William Malim XLVIII. A briefe description of the iland of Cyprus _Sub-section_ 1 In Turchas precatio XLIX. The true report of all the successe of Famagusta, made by the Earle Nestor Martiningo, vnto the renowmed prince the Duke of Venice _Sub-section_ 1 The first assault 2 The second assault 3 The third assault 4 The fourth assault 5 The fift assault 6 The sixt and last assault 7 The captaines of the Christians slaine in Famagusta 8 The names of Christians made slaues 9 The Fortifiers 10 Turkish Captains at Famagusta L. The renuing and increasing of an ancient and commodious trade in the Levant LI. The letters sent from Murad Can to Elizabeth LII. The answer of her Maiestie to the aforesaid letters LIII. The Charter of the priuileges granted to the English, dated in Iune 1500 LIV. Her Maiesties letter to the Turke, 1581 LV. The letters patent graunted by Her Maiestie to Sir Edward Osborne and other Marchants of London for their trade into the dominions of the great Turke, 1581 LVI. The Queenes Commission to Master William Hareborne, to be her Maiesties ambassadour in the partes of Turkie, 1582 LVII. The Queenes letters to the great Turke, 1582 LVIII. A letter of the Queenes Maiestie to Ali Bassa, the Turkes High Admirall LIX. A briefe remembrance of things to be indeuoured at Constantinople, &c., touching our clothing and our dying, drawen by M. Richard Hakluyt of the Middle Temple, 1582 LX. Remembrance for Master S., &c. LXI. The voyage of the Susan of London to Constantinople LXII. A letter of Mustapha Chaus to the Queene LXIII. A letter of M. Harborne to Mustapha LXIV. A petition exhibited to the viceroy for reformation of sundry iniuries offered our nation in Morea LXV. A commandement to Patrasso in Morea LXVI. A commandement for Chio LXVII. A commandement for Baliabadram LXVIII. A commandement for Egypt LXIX. A commandement to the Cadie of Alexandria LXX. A commandement to the Bassa of Alexandria LXXI. A commandement to the Cadies of Metelin and Rhodes LXXII. A commandement for Aleppo LXXIII. The voyage of Master Henry Austell to Constantinople _Sub-section_ 1 The Turkes Passport for Captaine Austell LXXIV. A Passport of the Earle of Leicester for Thomas Foster to Constantinople LXXV. The returne of Master William Hareborne from Constantinople ouerland to London, 1588 LXXVI. The priuilege of Peter the prince of Moldauia graunted to the English Marchants LXXVII. The letters of Sinan Bassa to Queene Elizabeth LXXVIII. A letter written by the Empresse, wife of the Grand Signior Murad Can to the Queene, 1594 VOL. VI. I. Dedication to the First Edition (of Vol. II., 1599) II. The voyage of Macham on Englishman, wherein he the first of any man discovered...Madeira,...written by Antonio Galuano III. A briefe note concerning an ancient trade of the English marchants to the Canarie Ilands, &c. IV. A Description of...the Ilands of Canaria,...composed by Thomas Nicols, &c. V. The Fardle of Facions, conteining the aunciente Maners, Customs, and Lawes, of the Peoples enhabiting...Affricke and Asia (1555) (_a_) To the Righte Honourable the Erle of Arundel, &c. (_b_) The Preface of the Authour _The First Parte._ _Chapitre_ 1. The true opinion of the deuine, concernyng the beginnyng of man 2 The false opinion of the Philosophre concernyng the beginnyng of man 3 The deuision and limites of the Earthe 4 Of Ethiope, and the auncient maners of that nation 5 Of Aegipte, and the auncient maners of that people 6 Of the Poeni and thother peoples of Aphrique _The Seconde Parte_ _Chapitre_ 1 Of Asie and the peoples most famous therein 2 Of Panchaia, and the maners of the Panqueis 3 Of Assiria and Babilonia, and the maners of those peoples 4 Iewry, and of the life, maners, and Lawes of the Iewes 5 Of Media, and the maners of the Medes 6 Of Parthia, and the maner of the Parthians 7 Of Persia, and the maners and ordinaunces of the Persians 8 Of Ynde, and the vncouth trades and maners of life of the people therein 9 Of Scithia, and their sterne maners 10 Of Tartarie, and the maners and power of the Tartarians 11 Of Turcquie, and of the maners, lawes, and ordenaunces of the Turcques 12 Of the Christians, of their firste commyng vp, their ceremonies and ordenaunces VI. The Conquest of the Grand Canaries, &c. VII. The Summary or briefe declaration of the Admirals departing towardes the West Indies VIII. The Worldes Hydrographical Discription,...published by J. Dauis of Sandrudg by Dartmouth...anno 1595, May 27 _Sub-section_ 1 To the Righte Honorable Lordes of Her Maiesties Most Honorable Priuie Counsayle 2 The World's Hydrographical Obiections against al northerly Discoueries 3 To proue a passage by the norwest, etc. 4 By experience of Trauellers to proue this passage 5 To proue the premisses by the attemptes of our owne countrymen, besides others 6 By late experience to proue that America is an Iland, etc. 7 That the Ayre in colde regions is tollerable 8 That vnder the Pole is the place of greatest dignitie 9 What benefites would growe vnto Englande by this passage being discouered VOL. VII. I. A voyage to the Azores with the Serpent and Mary Sparke, belonging to Sir W. Raleigh, written by John Evesham II. A briefe Relation of the notable service performed by Sir Francis Drake vpon the Spanish Fleete prepared in the Road of Cadiz...in the yeere 1587 III. A True discourse written...by Colonel Antonie Winkfield emploied in the voiage to Spaine and Portugall, 1589 IV. The Escape of the Primrose from...Bilbao in Biscay V. The Spanish King's Commission for the generall arrest of the English VI. The voiage of George, Earl of Cumberland to the Azores, written by Edward Wright VII. The valiant fight performed by 10 merchants ships of London against 12 gallies in the Straights of Gibraltar the 24. of April 1590 VIII. The valiant Fight performed in the Straight of Gibraltar between the Centurion of London against five Spanish Gallies in April 1591 IX. A report of the trueth of the Fight about the Iles of Açores...betwixt the Revenge...and an Armada of the King of Spaine; penned by the honourable Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight X. A particular note of the Indian Fleet, expected to have come into Spaine this present yeere of 1591 XI. A report of master Robert Flicke...concerning the successe of a part of the London supplies sent to my Lord Thomas Howard in the Azores XII. A large Testimony of John Huighen van Linschotten concerning the worthy exploits of the Earl of Cumberland, &c. XIII. The miraculous victory achieved by the English Fleete under the Lord Charles Howard upon the Spanish Huge Armada in the yeere 1588 XIV. Ad Serenissimam Elizabetham, Angliae Reginam, Theodor. Beza XV. A briefe and true report of the Honorable voyage unto Cadiz, 1596 XVI A copie of the Lord Admirals letters to the Duke of Medina Sidonia XVII. The Most Honourable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinuile, 1595 XVIII. A True report of a worthy fight betweene five ships of London and 11 gallies, written by Philip Jones XIX. Indices: viz.:-- Volume V. Volume VI. Volume VII. XX. Contents: viz.:-- Volume V. Volume VI. Volume VII. 
7476	----	** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are moved to the nearest convenient break in the text. ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER, and Editied by Edmund Goldsmid, F.R.H.S VOL. III. NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE AND ADJACENT COUNTRIES. PART II. THE MUSCOVY COMPANY AND THE NORTH-EASTERN PASSAGE. Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries IN NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE. A briefe Treatise of the great Duke of Moscouia his genealogie, being taken out of the Moscouites manuscript Chronicles written by a Polacke. It hath almost euer bene the custome of nations, in searching out the infancie and first beginnings of their estate, to ascribe the same vnto such authors as liued among men in great honour and endued mankinde with some one or other excellent benefite. Nowe, this inbred desire of all nations to blaze and set foorth their owne petigree hath so much preuayled with the greater part, that leauing the vndoubted trueth, they haue betaken themselues vnto meere fables and fictions. Yea and the Chronicles of many nations written in diuers and sundrie ages doe testifie the same. Euen so the Grecians boasted that they were either Autocthones, that is earthbredde, or els lineally descended from the Gods. And the Romans affirme that Mars was father vnto their first founder Romulus. Right well therefore and iudicially sayth Titus Liuius: Neither meane I to auouch (quoth he) ne to disable or confute those thinges which before the building and foundation of the Citie haue beene reported, being more adorned and fraught with Poeticall fables then with incorrupt and sacred monuments of trueth: antiquitie is it to be pardoned in this behalfe, namely in ioyning together matters historicall and poeticall, to make the beginnings of cities to seeme the more honourable. For sith antiquity it selfe is accompted such a notable argument of true nobility, euen priuate men in all ages haue contended thereabout. Wherefore citizens of Rome being desirous to make demonstration of their Gentrie, vse to haue their auncestors armes painted along the walles of their houses: in which regarde they were so puffed vp, that oftentimes they would arrogantly disdaine those men, which by their owne vertue had attained vnto honour. In like sorte Poets, when the originall of their woorthies and braue champions was either vtterly vnknowen or somewhat obscure, would ofte referre it vnto their Gods themselues. So in these our dayes (to lette passe others) the Turkish Emperour with great presumption boasteth himselfe to bee descended of the Troian blood. Likewise the great duke of Moscouie, to make himselfe and his predecessours seeme the more souereigne, deriueth the beginnings of his parentage from the Romane Emperours, yea euen from Augustus Caesar. Albeit therefore no man is so fonde as to accept of this report for trueth, yet will wee briefly set downe what the Moscouites haue written in their Chronicles as touching this matter. Augustus (beleeue it who listeth) had certaine brethren or kinsfolkes which were appoynted gouenours ouer diuers prouinces. Amongst the rest one Prussus (of whome Prussia was named) had his place of gouernment assigned vnto him vpon the shore of the eastern or Balthick Sea, and vpon the famous riuer of Wixel. This mans graund children or nephewes of the fourth generation were Rurek, Sinaus, and Truuor, who likewise inhabited in the very same places. Whereas therefore, at the very same time the Russians or the Moscquites without any ciuill regiment possessed large and spacious territories towards the north, the foresayd three brethren, vpon the perswasion of one Gostomislius the chiefe citizen of Nouogrod, in the yeare since the worldes creation (acording to the computation of the Greekes) 6370, which was in the yeare of our Lord 572, were sent for, to beare rule. And so ioyning their kinsman Olechus vnto them, and diuiding these huge countreys among themselues, they laboured to reduce the barbarous and sauage people vnto a ciuill kinde of life. Sinaus and Truuor deceasing without issue, Rurek succeeded and left a sonne behinde him named Igor; who not being of sufficient yeres to beare rule, was committed vnto the protection of his kinsman Olechus. The sayde Igor begate of Olha daughter vnto a citizen of Plesco (who, after her husbande was slaine by his enemies, taking her iourney to Constantinople, was there baptized by the name of Helena) a sonne called Stoslaus, who fought many battels with the neighbour countreys. Howbeit at length Stoslaus was slayne by his foe, who making a drinking cup of his skull, engraued therupon in golden letters this sentence: Seeking after other mens he lost his owne. He left behind him three sonnes, namely Teropolchus, Olega, and Vulodimir. The which Vulodimir hauing slaine his two brethren, became sole gouernour of Russia, or (as the Moscouites call it) Rosseia, his owne selfe. This man beginning at length to loath and mislike the ethnik religion, and the multitude of false gods, applyed his minde vnto the religion of Christ, and hauing taken to wife Anna sister vnto Basilius and Constantinus Emperours of Constantinople, was together with his whole nation, in the yeare of Christ 988. baptized, and imbraced the Christian religion, with the rites and ceremonies of the Greeke Church, and his name being changed, he was called Basilius. Howbeit Zonoras reporteth that before the time of Vulodimir, Basilius Emperour of Constantinople sent a bishop vnto the Russians, by whose meanes they were conuerted vnto the Christian faith. He reporteth moreouer that they would not be perswaded vnlesse they might see a miracle: whereupon the said bishop hauing made his prayers vnto almighty God, threwe the booke of the Euangelists into the fire, which remained there vnconsumed. And that by this miracle they were moued to giue credits vnto the doctrine of Christ, and to conforme themselues thereunto. The sonnes of Vulodimir were Vuiseslaus, Isoslaus, Iaroslaus, Suatopolcus, Borissus, Glebus, Stoslaus, Vulzeuolodus, Stanislaus, Sudislaus, and Podius who died in his childhood. Amongst the residue all Russia was diuided by their father, who not being contented with their portions, but inuading each other, were most of them slaine by their mutuall contentions. Borissus and Glebus in regard of their holy conuersation were registred for Saints, whose feasts are euery yeere celebrated with great solemnitie vpon the twelfth of Nouember. At length Iaroslaus only got the Souvereigne authoritie into his owne hands, and left behind him foure sonnes, Vvlodimir, Isoslauus, Weceslauus, and Vuszeuolodus. The foresaid Vulodimir sonne of Iaroslaus kept his residence at the ancient citie of Kiow standing vpon the riuer of Boristhenes, and after diuers conflicts with his kinsmen, hauing subdued all the prouinces vnto himselfe, was called Monomachos, that is, the onely champion. This man (for I thinke it not amisse to report those things which their owne Manuscript Chronicles make mention of) waged warre against Constantine the Emperour of Constantinople, when he had wasted and ouerrun Thracia, being returned home with great and rich spoyles, and making preparation for new wars, Constantine sent Neophytus the Metropolitane of Ephesus and two Bishops, with the gouernour of Antiochia, and Eustaphius the Abbat of Ierusalem, to present rich and magnificent gifts vnto him; as namely, part of the crosse of Sauiour Christ, a crowne of gold, a drinking cup curiously made of Sardonyx stone, a cloake set all ouer with precious stones, and a golden chaine; commaunded them to salute him by the name of Czar (which name, as it may be prooued by many arguments, signifieth a king, and not an Emperour) and concluded a most inuiolable league of amity and friendship with him. The foresayd Vulodimir begate Vuszeuolodus the second. This Vuszeuolodus lefte eight sonnes behind him, Miscislaus, Isoslaus, Stoslaus, Teropolcus, Weceslaus, Romanus, Georgius, and Andrew. The sonnes of George were Roseslaus, Andrew, Basilius, and Demetrius. Demetrius begat George, in the yeere 1237. was slaine by one Bathy, a Tartarian duke, which Bathy wasted Moscouia, and subdued the same vnto himselfe. Since which time the Russians were tributary to the Tartars, and were gouerned by such dukes as they pleased to set ouer them. Howbeit the Tartars so greatly abused that authoritie, that when they sent their ambassadours vnto the prince of Moscouie, he was constrained to goe forth and meete with them, and (as Herbortus Fulstinius in his Polonian historie reporteth) to offer them a bason full of mares milke, and if they had spilt any whit thereof vpon their horses maines, to licke it off with his toung, and hauing conducted them into his princely court, to stand bareheaded before them while they sate downe, and with all reuerence to giue eare and attendance vnto them. But by what meanes they shooke off at the length this yoake of seruitude, I will forthwith declare. About the same time almost all Polonia, and the dukedome of Silesia were ouerrun by the Tartars with fire and sword. Who hauing burnt Presla the chiefe citie of Silesia, and being come before the citie of Legnitz, they fought there a most cruel and bloody field, wherin was slain Duke Henrie himselfe being sonne vnto the most holy and deuout lady Heduice, with many others, whose monuments and graues be as yet extant in sundry places, and with an infinite multitude of common souldiers, insomuch that the Tartars filled nine great sackes with the eares of them which they had slaine. The Tartars to the end they might obtaine the victorie, presented vnto the view of our souldiers the portrature of a mans head placed by arte magique vpon a banner, wherein the letter X. was painted, which being shaken and mooued vp and downe breathed foorth a most loathsome stench, and strooke such a terrour into the hearts of our men, that being as it were astonished with the snaky visage of Medusa, they were vtterly daunted and dismayed. From thence Bathy and his company with the same bloodthirstie intent marched into Hungarie, and had almost slaine king Bela the fourth, who together with his sonne escaping by flight did scarcely ridde themselues out of the enemies hand. And when the whole world almost was exceedingly terrified at the cruel inuasions of this most barbarous nation, at length Pope Innocentius the fourth sending ambassadours [Marginal note: These ambassadours were Iohan. de Plano Carpini and Frier Benedict a Polonian.] vnto Bathy obtained peace for fiue yeeres: but to forsake his heathenish superstitions and to become a Christian, he would by no meanes bee perswaded. For he was by the instigation of the Saracens infected with deuilish opinions of Mahomet, as being more agreeable vnto his barbarous rudenes, which euen vnto this day the Tartars do maintaine, like as the prophane Turkes also. This Bathy had a sonne called Tamerlan, whome the Mosoouites call Temirkutla, who likewise, as it is recorded in histories, attained vnto great renoume. For he caried about with him in a cage Baiazet the Turkish Emperour being fettered in golden chaines, and made him a laughing stocke vnto all men. Let vs now retume vnto the Russians. George being slaine, Iaroslaus his brother succeeded in his room, and left behinde him three sonnes, Theodorus, Alexander, and Andreas. Daniel the sonne of Alexander first established his royal seat in the citie of Mosco, and magnificently building the Castle which before time had been obscure, he tooke vpon him the title of the great Duke of Russia. He had fiue sonnes, namely, George, Alexander, Borissus, Ophonias, and Iohn. This Iohn succeeded his father, and because he continually caried a scrippe about with him to bestow almes, he was sirnamed Kaleta, which word signifieth a scrippe. His sonnes were, Simeon, Iohn, and Andrew. He gaue vnto his sonne Simeon the prouinces of Vvlodimiria and Moscouia: which Simeon deceasing without issue his brother Iohn succeeded, who begate a son called Demetrius. This Demetrius had seuen sonnes, namely, Daniel, Basilius, George, Andrew, Peter, Iohn, and Constantine. Basilius reigned after his fathers death. This man disinheriting his sonne whiche was called after his owne name; because he suspected his mother of adulterie, at his death surrendred his Dukedome vnto his brother George, who kept his nephewe a long time in prison. Howbeit at his death, though himselfe had two sonnes namely Andrew and Demetrius, yet being stricken perhaps with remorse of conscience, he bestowed the Dukedome vpon his nephew Basilius. Against whom his two cousins bearing a grudge waged warre, and at length hauing taken him by a wyly stratageme they put out his eyes. Notwithstanding the Boiarens (for so the Moscouites call their nobles) continued their duetifull alleageance vnto this their blinde Duke, whom for his blindnes they called Cziemnox, that is to, say, darke or darkened. He left a sonne behind him called Iuan Vasilowich who brought the Russian common wealth, being before his time but obscure, vnto great excellencie and renowme. Who that he might the better get all the superiority into his owne hands put to death so many sonnes and nephewes of the former Dukes as he could lay hold on, and began to take vpon him the title of the great Duke of Vvlodimiria, Moscouia, and Nouogardia, and to cail himself the Monarch or Czar of all Russia. He brought vnder his subiection two principall cities, namely Plesco being the only walled citie in all Moscouie, and Mouogrod [Transcriber's note: sic.], both of them being in regard of traffike most riche and flourishing cities, and hauing bin subiect vnto the Lithuanians for the space of 50. yeeres before. The treasure of Nouogrod was so exceeding, that the great Duke is reported to haue carried home from thence 300. carts laden with gold and siluer. He also was the first man that waged warre against the Polonians and the Liuonians: against Polonia he pretended a quarell alleaging that his daughter Helena (whome hee had married vnto Alexander the great Duke of Lithuania, which was afterward king of Polonia) was euil intreated, and was withdrawen from the Greekish religion vnto the ceremonies of the Church of Rome. But against the Liuonians for none other cause, but onely for an incredible desire of enlarging his dominions. Howbeit what impulsiue causes of litle or no moment happened in the mean season, we will in another place more plainely declare. Notwithstanding he was very often and in diuers battels vanquished by Plettebergius the great master of the Dutch knights: but it is not to the purpose to stand any longer vpon this discourse. He was married first vnto Marie the Duke of Tyuersky his daughter, and of her hee begate Iohn, vnto whom in his life time he surrendred his Dukedome, and married him vnto the daughter of Stephan the Palatine of Moldauia: which Iohn, after he had begotten his sonne Demetrius, deceased before his father. Afterward Iuan Vasilowich aforesaide married a wife called Sophia being daughter vnto Thomas Palælogus, which is reported to haue had her dowry out of the Popes treasury, because the Moscouite had promised to conforme himselfe vnto the Romish Church. This Sophia being a woman of a princely and aspiring minde, and often complaining that she was married vnto the Tartars vassal, at length by her instant intreatie and continual perswasions, and by a notable stratageme she cast off that slauish yoke very much vnbeseeming so mighty a prince. For whereas the Tartarian Duke had his procuratours and agents in the Moscouites court, who dwelt in their owne houses built within the very castle of Mosco, and were eye witnesses of all affaires which were there performed: Sophia said she was admonished from heauen to builde a Temple in the selfe same place where the Tartars house stoode, and to consecrate it vnto Saint Nicholas. Being therfore deliuered of a sonne she inuited the Tartarian Duke vnto the solemne baptizing of him, and beeing come, shee requested him to giue her his house, and obtained it at his hands. Which house being razed and those Tartarians espials beeing excluded, the Tartars at length were quite bereaued and vtterly dispossessed of their authoritie which they had exercised ouer the Russians for many yeres, and could neuer yet recouer it; albeit they haue giuen sundry attempts. Of his wife Sophia he begate sixe children, namely, a daughter called Helena, and fiue sonnes, that is to say, Gabriel, Demetrius, George, Simeon, and Andrew. The Dukedome of right appertayned vnto Demetrius the sonne of Iohn, which was the sonne of Vasilowich by his first marriage. Howbeit Sophia preuailed so with her husband, that neglecting his graund-childe Demetrius, hee bestowed his Dukedome vpon Gabriel his sonne. Andrew the younger had a sonne called Vvlodmir, of whom Mary was borne, which in the yeere of Christ 1573, was maried vnto Magnus the Duke of Holst. Gabriel hauing obtained the great dukedome of Russia, changed his name calling himselfe Basilius, and applied his minde to the atchieuing of high and great enterprises. For hee reduced a great part of the dukedome of Moscouie, which Vitoldus the great Duke of Lithuania helde in possession, vnder his owne iurisdiction, and wonne vpon the riuer of Boristhenes (which the Russians call Neiper) many cities and especially Smolensco, in the yeere of our Lord 1514. Hauing diuorced his first wife, hee begate of Helena daughter vnto Duke Glinskie, Iuan Vasilowich, which now this present 1580. reigneth as great Duke. He was borne in the yeere of our Lorde 1528. the 25. of August, sixe houres after the rising of the sonne. The great dukedome of Russia fell vnto the said Iuan Vasilowich in the fifth yeere of his age, hauing his vncle George for his great protector; being 25. yeeres of age, and being of a strong body and of a courageous mind he subdued the Tartars of Cazan and Astracan vpon the riuer of Volgha, carrying their Dukes and chieftaines into captiuitie. But by what wayes and meanes (after the league which by the intercession of the most sacred Roman Emperour, continued from the yeere 1503. for the space of fifty yeeres, was expired) hauing renewed warres against Liuonia, hee brought that most flourishing prouince into extreame miserie, vsing for the same purpose a new pretense, and alleadging that it belonged vnto him by right of inheritance, I tremble to recount: and it requireth a large historie, which perhaps in time and place conuenient some more learned then my selfe will take vpon them to addresse. He is exceedingly addicted vnto piety and deuotion, and doth oftentimes obserue very strict fastings and abstinence with his monks: and whereas the Russes in doing reuerence and adoration vnto God doe beate their foreheads against the ground, this Iuan Vasilowich with performing of the same ceremonie causeth his forehead to be ful of boines and swellings, and sometimes to be black and blew, and very often to bleed. He is much delighted with building of Churches and spareth no cost for that purpose. Whether therfore by nature, or (which hee pretendeth to bee the cause) by reason of his subiects malice and treacherie, he be so addicted vnto all rigour and cruelty, I dare not determine, especially sithens he hath not an illiberal or mishapen countenance, as Attila is reported, to haue had. Of his first wife which was sister vnto Mikita Romanowich, beeing nowe great steward of his houshold, he begate two sonnes, namely Iuan and Theodore. And albeit he was fiue times married, yet had he not one childe more. Whereas this Iuan Vasilowich vpon certaine friuolous reasons calleth himselfe the naturall lord of Liuonia, I thought it not amisse to adde an Epistle hereunto, which was written by a certaine honourable man concerning the same matter. S. All we which inhabite this Prouince with all seemely reuerence and submission of mind, do offer most humble thanks vnto the Emperors most sacred and peerelesse maiesty our most gracious lord, in that according to his fatherly affection which he beareth towards all Christendome, and for the good and commodity of this our distressed and afflicted countrey, which these many yeres hath bin in stead of a bulwarke against the inuasion of barbarous nations, he hath sent his ambassadors vnto the great duke of Moscouia. In regard of which his fatherly loue and great benefite vouchsafed on vs, wee are ready when occasion shall serue, to aduenture our liues and goods; praying in the meane season vnto Almightie God, who is the onely establisher and confounder of common wealths, to bring this excellent woorke, the foundation whereof is already laide vnto a prosperous conclusion. But as touching the title which the Moscouite maketh to this prouince, to say the very trueth, we greatly wondred and were astonished at the declaration thereof. For it is most apparent, not onely out of all ancient and credible histories, but euen from the experience and state of these regions, that the said title and allegations are fabulous and fained. For out of all auncient monuments, by what names soeuer they bee called (whereof there are diuers extant among vs) it cannot be proued by any mention, nor yet by any likelihoode or coniecture, that those things which the Moscouite affirmeth concerning the people which were gouernors of these regions in times past, and concerning the right and title of his ancestors vnto this prouince, are grounded vpon truth. For it is not vnknowen by what meanes this prouince, partly through the industry of marchants, and partly by the benefite of nauigation, was first discouered: neither is it vnknowen howe the inhabitants thereof beeing wholly addicted vnto heathenish superstitions and idolatrie, were by the croised [Footnote: _Croised_: wearing the cross, Crusaders,] knights (who drew other knights professing the same order in Prussia to aide and accompanie them in this their enterprise) and that with great labour and difficultie, conuerted vnto the Christian faith: when as at the same time the Liuonians had no knowledge at all of the iurisdiction, religion, maners, or language of Moscouie: who had not onely no conuersation nor dealings with the Moscouites, but were estranged also from all other nations whatsoeuer: for leading a miserable, poore, barbarous, and heathenish life, in sauage maner among wilde beastes, and in the desert and solitary woods, they were vtterly ignorant of God and destitute of ciuil magistrates. Howbeit this kind of gouernment was peculiar vnto them, namely that all of one familie and society vsed a kinde of reuerence vnto their elders more then to any other, whom also, that their authoritie might be the greater, they called by the name of kings, and (albeit one of their families consisted of a 100 persons) they obeyed them in al respects, and after their rude and barbarous maner did them loyal seruice. At the very same time the Moscouites had receiued the religion, and the Ecclesiasticall ceremonies of the Greeke and Easterne Church, which religion they published and dispersed throughout all prouinces subiect to their dominion, vsing their owne proper letters and characters for the same purpose. Of all which things the Liuonians which very barbarously inhabited a lande beeing enuironed with Russia, Lithuania, Samogitia, Prussia, and the Balthic Sea, neuer heard any report at all. It is moreouer to be noted that neuer at any time heretofore either within the earth, or in other places of Liuonia, there haue bene found any monuments at all of the antiquitie or letters of the Russes: which verily must needs haue come to passe, if the Moscouites, Russes, or any other nations which vse the foresaid particulars, had borne rule and authority ouer the Liuonians: yea there had beene left some remainder and token, either of their religion and diuine worship, or of their lawes and customes, or at the least of their maners, language, and letters. This indeed we can in no wise deny, that euen in Liuonia it selfe, there haue bin in times past and at this present are many and diuers languages spoken by the people. Howbeit no one language of them all hath any affinity either with the Moscouian tongue, or with the tongues of any other nations. But whereas the Moscouite pretendeth that there hath been visually paide a pension or tribute vnto himselfe and his predecessours out of the whole prouince, it is as incredible as the former. About the beginning of this tragicall warre, the Moscouite, to cloke his tyranny and ambition vnder some faire pretense amongst other of his demaunds, made mention also of a tribute which should be due vnto him out of the bishop of Dorpat his iurisdiction, whereof notwithstanding hee could neither bring any iust account, nor affirm any certainty: howbeit there is no man liuing to be found which either can tell of his owne remembrance, or from the relation of others, that any such tribute was euer paid vnto the Moscouite. What time therefore he referred al this negotiation vnto the master of the Liuonian order, and commanded him to get what knowledge hee could therof from the men of Dorpat, and vrged the tribute, saying if it were worth but one haire, that he would not remit it: at length it was found recorded in the ancient Chronicles of Dorpat, that beyond the memory of man, when the territory of Plesco contained nothing but woods and forrests for wilde beastes, that the peasaunts of the liberty of Dorpat called Neuhus, by the consent of the Russian borderers, enioyed Bee hiues in the said woods, and paid euery yeere in lieu thereof vnto the Russian gouernours, sixe shillings of Liuonian coine. But so soone as the Russians had felled the woods and had built townes and villages in their place, the saide pension ceased together with the trees which were cut downe. Wherefore the saide sixe shillings were neuer since that time either demanded by the Russes or paid by the Liuonians. These things which I knew concerning the causes of the Liuonian warres I thought good to signifie vnto you. Giuen the 22. of May, in the yeere of our Lord 1576. * * * * * Ordinances, instructions, and aduertisements of and for the direction of the intended voyage for Cathay, compiled, made, and deliuered by the right worshipfull M. Sebastian Cabota Esquier, gouernour of the mysterie and companie of the Marchants aduenturers for the discouerie of Regiones, Dominions, Islands and places vnknowen, the 9. day of May, in the yere of our Lord God, 1553. and in the 7. yeere of the reign of our most dread soueraigne Lord Edward the 6. by the grace of God, king of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, defender of the faith, and of the Church of England and Ireland, in earth supreame head. [Footnote: "Some of these Instructions now indeed appear rather childish, but others might still be used as rules for any well-ordered exploratory expedition."-- Nordenskiöld, _Voyage of the Vega_, vol. I, p. 58.] First the Captaine general, with the pilot maior, the masters, marchants and other officers, to be so knit and accorded in vnitie, loue, conformitie, and obedience in euery degree on all sides, that no dissention, variance, or contention may rise or spring betwixt them and the mariners of this companie, to the damage or hinderance of the voyage: for that dissention (by many experiences) hath ouerthrown many notable intended and likely enterprises and exploits. 2. Item, for as much as euery person hath giuen an othe to be true, faithfull, and loial subiects, and liege men to the kings most excellent Maiestie, his heires and successors, and for the obseruation of all lawes and statutes, made for the preseruation of his most excellent Maiestie, and his crown Imperiall of his realmes of England and Ireland, and to serue his grace, the Realme, and this present voyage truely, and not to giue vp, intermit, or leaue off the said voyage and enterprise vntill it shalbe accomplished, so farre forth as possibilitie and the life of man may serue or extend: Therfore it behoueth euery person in his degree, as well for conscience, as for dueties sake to remember his said charge, and the accomplishment thereof. 3. Item, where furthermore euery mariner or passenger in his ship hath giuen like othe to bee obedient to the Captaine generall, and to euery Captaine and master in his ship, for the obseruation of these present orders contained in this booke, and all other which hereafter shalbe made by the 12. counsailers in this present book named, or the most part of them, for the better conduction, and preseruation of the fleete, and atchieuing of the voyage, and to be prompt, ready and obedient in all acts and feates of honesty, reason, and duetie to be ministred, shewed and executed, in aduancement and preferment of the voyage and exploit: therfore it is conuenient that this present booke shall once euery weeke (by the discretion of the Captaine) be read to the said companie, to the intent that euery man may the better remember his othe, conscience, duetie and charge. 4. Item, euery person by vertue of his othe, to doe effectually and with good wil (as farre forth as him shall complie) all and euery such act and acts, deede and deeds, as shalbe to him or them from time to time commanded, committed and enioyned (during the voyage) by the Captain generall, with the assent of the Counsell and assistants, as well in and during the whole Nauigation and voyage, as also in discouering and landing, as cases and occasions shall require. 5. Item, all courses in Nauigation to be set and kept, by the aduice of the Captaine, Pilot maior, masters, and masters mates, with the assents of the counsailers and the most number of them, and in voyces vniformely agreeing in one to preuaile, and take place, so that the Captaine generall, shall in all counsailes and assemblies haue a double voyce. 6. Item, that the fleete shal keep together, and not separate themselues asunder, as much as by winde and weather may be done or permitted, and that the Captaines, Pilots and masters shall speedily come aboord the Admiral, when and as often as he shall seeme to haue iust cause to assemble them for counsaile or consultation to be had concerning the affaires of the fleete and voyage. 7. Item, that the merchants, and other skillful persons in writing, shal daily write, describe, and put in memorie the Nauigation of euery day and night, with the points, and obseruation of the lands, tides, elements, altitude of the sunne, course of the moon and starres, and the same so noted by the order of the Master and pilot of euery ship to be put in writing, the captaine generall assembling the masters together once euery weeke (if winde and weather shal serue) to conferre all the obseruations, and notes of the said ships, to the intent it may appeare wherein the notes do agree, and wherein they dissent and vpon good debatement, deliberation, and conclusion determined, to put the same into a common leger, to remain of record for the company: the like order to be kept in proportioning of the Cardes, Astrolabes, and, other instruments prepared for the voyage, at the charge of the companie. 8. Item, that all enterprises and exploits of discouering or landing to search Iles, regions, and such like, to be searched, attempted, and enterprised by good deliberation, and common assent, determined aduisedly. And that in all enterprises, notable ambassages, suites, requests, or presentment of giftes, or presents to Princes, to be done and executed by the captaine generall in person, or by such other, as he by common assent shall appoint or assigne to doe or cause to be done in the same. 9. Item, the steward and cooke of euery ship, and their associats, to giue and render to the captaine and other head officers of their shippe weekely (or oftner,) if it shall seeme requisite, a iust or plaine and perfect accompt of expenses of the victuals, as wel flesh, fish, bisket, meate, or bread, as also of beere, wine, oyle, or vinegar, and all other kinde of victualling vnder their charge, and they, and euery of them so to order and dispende the same, that no waste or vnprofitable excesse be made otherwise then reason and necessitie shall command. 10. Item, when any inferiour or meane officer of what degree or condition he shalbe, shalbe tried vntrue, remisse, negligent, or vnprofitable in or about his office in the voyage, or not to vse himselfe in his charge accordingly, then euery such officer to be punished or remoued at the discretion of the captaine and assistants, or the most part of them, and the person so remoued not to be reputed, accepted, or taken from the time of his remoue, any more for an officer, but to remaine in such condition and place, as hee shall be assigned vnto, and none of the companie, to resist such chastisement or worthie punishment, as shalbe ministred vnto him moderately, according to the fault or desert of his offence, after the lawes and common customes of the seas, in such cases heretofore vsed and obserued. 11. Item, if any Mariner or officer inferiour shalbe found by his labour not meete nor worthie the place that he is presently shipped for, such person may bee vnshipped and put on lande at any place within the kings Maiesties realme and dominion, and one other person more able and worthy to be put in his place, at the discretion of the captaine and masters, and order to be taken that the partie dismissed shalbe allowed proportionably the value of that he shall haue deserued to the time of his dismission or discharge, and he to giue order with sureties, pawn, or other assurance, to repay the ouerplus of that he shall haue receiued, which he shall not haue deserued, and such wages to be made with the partie newly placed as shalbe thought reasonable, and he to haue the furniture of all such necessaries as were prepared for the partie dismissed, according to right and conscience. 12. Item, that no blaspheming of God, or detestable swearing be vsed in any ship, nor communication of ribaldrie, filthy tales, or vngodly talke to be suffred in the company of any ship, neither dicing, carding, tabling, nor other diuelish games to be frequented, whereby ensueth not onely pouertie to the players, but also strife, variance, brauling, fighting, and oftentimes murther to the vtter destruction of the parties, and prouoking of Gods most iust wrath, and sworde of vengeance. These and all such like pestilences, and contagions of vices, and sinnes to bee eschewed, and the offenders once monished, and not reforming, to bee punished at the discretion of the captaine and master, as appertaineth. 13. Item, that morning and euening prayer, with other common seruices appointed by the kings Maiestie, and lawes of this Realme to be read and saide in euery ship daily by the minister in the Admirall, and the marchant or some other person learned in other ships, and the Bible or paraphrases to be read deuoutly and Christianly to Gods honour, and for his grace to be obtained, and had by humble and heartie praier of the Nauigants accordingly. 14. Item, that euery officer is to be charged by Inuentorie with the particulars of his charge, and to render a perfect accompt of the diffraying of the same together with modest and temperate dispending of powder, shot, and vse of all kinde of artillery, which is not to be misused, but diligently to be preserued for the necessary defence of the fleete and voyage, together with due keeping of all instruments of your Nauigation, and other requisites. 15. Item, no liquor to be spilt on the balast, nor filthiness to be left within boord: the cook room, and all other places to be kept cleane for the better health of the companie, the gromals and pages to bee brought vp according to the laudable order and vse of the Sea, as well in learning of Nauigation, as in exercising of that which to them appertaineth. 16. Item, the liueries in apparel giuen to the mariners be to be kept by the marchants, and not to be worne, but by the order of the captaine, when he shall see cause to muster or shewe them in good aray, for the aduancement and honour of the voyage, and the liueries to bee redeliuered to the keeping of the marchants, vntill it shal be thought conuenient for euery person to haue the ful vse of his garment. 17. Item, when any mariner or any other passenger shal haue neede of any necessarie furniture of apparell for his body, and conseruation of his health, the same shall bee deliuered him by the Marchant, at the assignement of the captaine and Master of that shippe, wherein such needie person shall be, at such reasonable price as the same cost, without any gaine to be exacted by the marchants, the value therof to be entred by the marchant in his booke, and the same to be discounted off the parties wages, that so shal receiue, and weare the same. 18. Item, the sicke, diseased, weake, and visited person within boord, to be tendred, relieued, comforted, and holpen in the time of his infirmitie, and euery maner of person, without respect, to beare anothers burden, and no man to refuse such labour as shall be put to him, for the most benefite, and publike wealth of the voyage, and enterprise, to be atchieued exactly. 19. Item, if any person shal fortune to die, or miscary in the voyage, such apparell, and other goods, as he shall haue at the time of his death, is to be kept by the order of the captaine and Master of the shippe, and an inuentorie to be made of it, and conserued to the vse of his wife, and children, or otherwise according to his mind, and wil, and the day of his death to be entred in the Marchants and Stewards Bookes: to the intent it may be knowen what wages he shall haue deserued, to his death, and what shall rest due to him. 20. Item, that the Marchants appointed for this present voyage, shall not make any shew or sale of any kind of marchandizes, or open their commodities to any forrein princes, or any of their subiects, without the consent, priuitie, or agreement of the Captaines, the cape Marchants and the assistants, or foure of them, whereof the captaine generall, the Pilot Maior, and cape marchant to be three, and euery of the pettie marchants to shewe his reckoning to the cape marchant, when they, or any of them shall be required: and no commutation or trucke to be made by any of the petie marchants, without the assent abouesaid: and all wares, and commodities trucked, bought or giuen to the companie, by way of marchandise, trucke, or any other respect, to be booked by the marchants, and to be wel ordred, packed, and conserued in one masse entirely, and not to be broken or altered, vntil the shippes shall returne to the right discharges, and inuentorie of al goods, wares, and merchandises so trucked, bought, or otherwise dispended, to be presented to the Gouernor, Consuls, and Assistants in London, [Marginal note: King Edward's Corporation.] in good order, to the intent the Kings Maiestie may be truly answered of that which to his grace by his grant of corporation is limited, according to our most bound dueties, and the whole companie also to haue that which by right vnto them appertaineth, and no embezelment shall be vsed, but the truth of the whole voyage to bee opened, to the common wealth and benefite of the whole companie, and mysterie, as appertaineth, without guile, fraude, or male engine. 21. Item, no particular person, to hinder or preiudicate the common stocke of the company, in sale or preferment of his own proper wares, and things, and no particular emergent or purchase to be employed to any seueral profite, vntill the common stocke of the companie shall be furnished, and no person to hinder the common benefite in such purchases or contingents, as shal fortune to any one of them, by his owne proper policie, industrie, or chance, nor no contention to rise in that behalfe, by any occasion of iewel, stone, pearles, precious mettals, or other things of the region, where it shall chance the same to rise, or to be found bought, trucked, permuted, or giuen: but euery person to be bounden in such case, and vpon such occasion, by order, and direction, as the generall captaine, and the Councell shall establish and determine, to whose order and discretion the same is left: for that of things vncertaine, no certaine rules may or can be giuen. 22. Item not to disclose to any nation the state of our religion, but to passe it ouer in silence, without any declaration of it, seeming to beare with such lawes, and rites, as the place hath, where you shall arriue. 23. Item for as much as our people, and shippes may appeare vnto them strange and wonderous, and theirs also to ours: it is to be considered, how they may be vsed, learning much of their natures and dispositions, by some one such person, as you may first either allure, or take to be brought aboord your ships, and there to learne as you may, without violence or force, and no woman to be tempted, or intreated to incontinencie, or dishonestie. 24. Item the person so taken, to be well entertained, vsed, and apparelled, to be set on land, to the intent that he or she may allure other to draw nigh to shewe the commodities: and if the person taken may be made drunke with your beere, or wine, you shal know the secrets of his heart. 25. Item our people may not passe further into a land, then that they may be able to recouer their pinnesses, or ships, and not to credit the faire words of the strange people, which be many times tried subtile, and false, nor to be drawen into perill of losse, for the desire of golde, siluer, or riches, and esteeme your owne commodities aboue al other, and in countenance shew not much to desire the forren commodities: neuertheless take them as for friendship, or by way of permutation. 26. Item euery nation and region is to be considered aduisedly, and not to prouoke them by any disdaine, laughing, contempt, or such like, but to vse them with prudent circumspection, with al gentlenes, and curtesie, and not to tary long in one place, vntill you shall haue attained the most worthy place that nay be found, in such sort, as you may returne with victuals sufficient prosperously. 27. Item the names of the people of euery Island, are to be taken in writing, with the commodities, and incommodities of the same, their natures, qualities, and dispositions, the site of the same, and what things they are most desirous of, and what commodities they wil most willingly depart with, and what mettals they haue in hils, mountaines, streames, or riuers, in, or vnder the earth. 28. Item if people shal appeare gathering of stones, gold, mettall, or other like, on the sand, your pinnesses may drawe nigh, marking what things they gather, vsing or playing vpon the drumme, or such other instruments, as may allure them to harkening, to fantasie, or desire to see, and heare your instruments and voyces, but keepe you out of danger, and shewe to them no poynt or signe of rigour and hostilitie. 29. Item if you shall be inuited into any Lords or Rulers house, to dinner, or other parliance, goe in such order of strength, that you may be stronger then they, and be warie of woods and ambushes, and that your weapons be not out of your possessions. 30. Item if you shall see them weare Lyons or Beares skinnes, hauing long bowes, and arrowes, be not afraid of that sight: for such be worne oftentimes more to feare strangers, then for any other cause. 31. Item there are people that can swimme in the sea, hauens, and riuers, naked, hauing bowes and shafts, coueting to draw nigh your ships, which if they shal finde not wel watched, or warded, they wil assault, desirous of the bodies of men, which they couet for meate: if you resist them, they diue, and so will flee, and therefore diligent watch is to be kept both day and night, in some Islands. 32. Item if occasion shal serue, that you may giue aduertisements of your proceedings in such things as may correspond to the expectation of the company, and likelihood of successe in the voyage, passing such dangers of the seas, perils of ice, intolerable coldes, and other impediments, which by sundry authors and writers, haue ministred matter of suspition in some heads, that this voyage could not succede for the extremitie of the North pole, lacke of passage, and such like, which haue caused wauering minds, and doubtful heads, not onely to withdraw themselues from the aduenture of this voyage, but also disswaded others from the same, the certaintie whereof, when you shall haue tried by experience, (most certaine Master of all worldly knowledge) then for declaration of the trueth, which you shall haue experted, you may by common assent of counsell, sende either by lande, or otherwaies, such two or one person, to bring the same by credite, as you shal think may passe in safetie: which sending is not be done, but vpon vrgent causes, in likely successe of the voyage, in finding of passage, in towardlines of beneficiall traffike, or such other like, whereby the company being aduertised of your estates and proceedings, may further prouide, foresee, and determine that which may seeme most good and beneficiall for the publike wealth of the same: either prouiding before hand such things, as shall bee requisite for the continuance of the voyage, or else otherwise to dispose as occasion shall serue: in which things your wisedomes and discretions are to be vsed, and shewed, and the contents of this capitule, by you much to be pondred, for that you be not ignorant, how many persons, as well the kings Maiestie, the Lords of his honorable Counsel, this whole companie, as also your wiues, children, kinsfolkes, allies, friends and familiars, be replenished in their hearts with ardent desire to learne and know your estates, conditions, and welfares, and in what likelihood you be in, to obtain this notable enterprise, which is hoped no lesse to succeed to you, then the Orient or Occident Indias haue to the high benefite of the Emperour, and kings of Portingal, whose subiects industries, and trauailes by sea, haue inriched them, by those lands and Islands, which were to all Cosmographers, and other writers both vnknowne, and also by apparances of reason voide of experience thought and reputed vnhabitable for extremities of heates, and colds, and yet indeed tried most rich, peopled, temperate, and so commodious, as all Europe hath not the like. 33. Item no conspiracies, parttakings, factions, false tales, vntrue reports, which be the very seedes, and fruits of contention, discord, and confusion, by euill tongues to be suffered, but the same, and all other vngodlines to be chastened charitably with brotherly loue, and alwaies obedience to be vsed and practised by al persons in their degrees, not only for duetie and conscience sake towards God, vnder whose mercifull hand nauigants aboue all other creatures naturally bee most nigh, and vicine, but also for prudent and worldly pollicie, and publike weale, considering and alwaies hauing present in your mindes that you be all one most royall kings subiects, and naturals, with daily remembrance of the great importance of the voyage, the honour, glorie, praise, and benefite that depend of, and vpon the same, toward the common wealth of this noble Realme, the aduancement of you the trauailers therein, your wiues, and children, and so to endeuour your selues as that you may satisfie the expectation of them, who at their great costs, charges, and expenses, haue so furnished you in good sort, and plentie of all necessaries, as the like was neuer in any realme seene, vsed, or knowen requisite and needful for such an exploit, which is most likely to be atchieued, and brought to good effect, if euery person in his vocation shall endeauour himselfe according to his charge, and most bounden duetie: praying the liuing God, to giue you his grace, to accomplish your charge to his glorie, whose merciful hand shal prosper your voyage, and preserue you from all dangers. In witnes whereof I Sebastian Cabota, Gouernour aforesaide, to these present ordinances, haue subscribed my name, and put my seale, the day and yeere aboue written. The names of the twelue Counsellors appointed in this voyage. 1. Sir Hugh Willoughby, Knight, Captaine generall. 2. Richard Chancelour Captaine of the Edward Bonauenture, and Pilot generall of the fleete. 3. George Burton Cape marchant. 4. Master Richard Stafford Minister. 5. Thomas Langlie Marchant. 6. Iames Dalabere Gentleman. 7. William Gefferson Master of the Bona Speranza Admirall. 8. Stephen Borrough Master of the Edward Bonauenture. 9. Cornelius Durfurth Master of the Confidentia. 10. Roger Wilson. | 11. Iohn Buckland. + Masters mates 12. Richard Ingram. | * * * * * Exemplar Epistolæ seu literarum Missiuarum, quas illustrissimus Princeps Eduardus eius nominis Sextus, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Rex, misit ad Principes Septentrionalem, ac Orientalem mundi plagam inhabitantes iuxta mare glaciale, nec non Indiam Orientalem; Anno Domini 1553 Regni sui anno septimo, et vltimo. Eduardus sextus, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Rex, etc. Omnibus Regibus et principibus ac dominis, et cunctis Iudicibus terræ, et ducibus eius, quibuscunque est excellens aliqua dignitas in ea, cunctis in locis quæ sunt sub vniuerso coelo: Pax, tranquillitas, et honor vobis, terris, et regionibus vestris quæ imperio vestro subiacent, cuique vestrum quemadmodum conuenit ei. Proptereà quòd indidit Deus Opt. Max. hominibus præ cunctis alijs viuentibus; cor et desiderium tale, vt appetat quisque cum alijs societatem inire, amare, et vicissim amari, beneficijs afficere, et mutua accipere beneficia studeat, ideò cuique pro facultate sua hoc desiderium in omnibus quidem hominibus beneficijs fouere et conseruare conuenit, in illis autem maximè, qui hoc desiderio adducti, à remotis etiam regionibus ad eos veniunt. Quo enim longius iter eius rei gratia ingressi sunt, eò ardentius in eis hoc desiderium fuisse declararunt. Insuper etiam ad hoc, nos patrum maiorúmque nostrorum exempla inuitant, qui semper humanissimè susceperunt et benignissimè tractauerunt illos, qui tum à locis propinquis, tum à remotis, eos amicè adibant, eorum se protectioni commendantes. Quod si omnibus id præstare æquum est, certè mercatoribus imprimis præstari debet, qui per vniuersum orbem discurrunt, mare circumlustrantes et aridam, vt res bonas et vtiles, quæ Dei beneficio in regione eorum inueniuntur, ad remotissimas regiones et regna adferant, atque inde vicissim referant, quòd suæ regioni vtile ibi repeterint: vt et populi ad quos eunt, non destituantur commodis quæ non profert illis terra eorum, et ipsi sint participes rerum quibus illi abundant. Nam Deus cæli et terræ, humano generi maximè consulens, noluit vt omnia in quauis regione inuenirentur, quò regio ope alterius regionis indigeret, et gens ab alia gente commodum aliquod expectaret, ac ita stabiliretur amicitia inter omnes, singulíque omnibus benefacere quærerent. Hoc itaque ineundæ ac stabiliendæ amicitiæ desiderio moti viri quidam regni nostri, iter in remotas maritimas regiones instituerunt, vt inter nostros et illos populos, viam mercibus inferendis et efferendis aperirent nòsque rogauerunt et vt id illis concederemus. Qui petitioni illorum annuentes, concessimus viro honorabili et forti, Hugoni Wilibeo, et alijs qui cum eo sunt seruis nostris fidis et charis, vt pro sua voluntate, in regiones eis priùs incognitas eant, quæsituri ea quibus nos caremus, et adducant illis ex nostris terris id quo illi carent. Atque ita illis et nobis commodum inde accedat, sítque amicitia perpetua, et foedus indissoluble inter illos et nos, dum permittent illi nos accipere de rebus, quibus superabundant in regnis suis, et nos concedemus illis ex regnis nostris res, quibus destituuntur. Rogamus itaque vos Reges et Principes, et omnes quibus aliqua est potestas in terra, vt viris istis nostris, transitum permittatis per regiones vestras. Non enim tangent quicquam ex rebus vestris inuitis vobis. Cogitate quòd homines et ipsi sunt. Et si qua re caruerint, oramus pro vestra beneficentia, eam vos illis tribuatis, accipientes vicissim ab eis quod poterunt rependere vobis. Ita vos gerite erga eos, quemadmodum cuperetis vt nos, et subditi nostri, nos gereremus erga seruos vestros, si quando transierint per regiones nostras. Atque promittimus vobis per Deum omnium quæ cælo, terra et mari continentur, pérque vitam nostram, et tranquillitatem regnorum nostrorum, nos pari benignitate seruos vestros accepturos, si ad regna nostra aliquando venerint. Atque à nobis et subditis nostris, ac si nati fuissent in regnis nostris ita benignè tractabuntur, vt rependamus vobis benignitatem, quam nostris exhibueritis. Postquam vos Reges, Principes, etc. rogauimus, vt humanitate et beneficentia omni prosequamini seruos nostros nobis charos, oramus omnipotentem Deum nostrum, vt vobis diuturnam vitam largiatur, et pacem quæ nullam habeat finem. Scriptum Londini, quæ ciuitas est primaria regni nostri, Anno 5515. à creato mundo, mense Iair, 14. die mensis, anno septimo regni nostri. The same in English. The copie of the letters missiue, which the right noble Prince Edward the sixt sent to the Kings, Princes, and other Potentates, inhabiting the Northeast partes of the worlde, toward the mighty Empire of Cathay, at such time as Sir Hugh Willoughby knight, and Richard Chancelor, with their company attempted their voyage thither in the yeere of Christ 1553. and the seuenth and last yeere of his raigne. Edward the sixt, by the grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, &c. To all Kings, Princes, Rulers, Iudges, and gouernours of the earth, and all other hauing any excellent dignitie on the same, in all places vnder the vniuersall heauen: peace, tranquillitie, and honour be vnto you, and your lands and regions, which are vnder your dominions, and to euery of you, as is conuenient. Forasmuch as the great and Almightie God hath giuen vnto mankinde, aboue all other liuing creatures, such an heart and desire, that euery man desireth to ioine friendship with other, to loue, and be loued, also to giue and receiue mutuall benefites: it is therefore the duety of all men, according to their power, to maintaine and increase this desire in euery man, with well deseruing to all men, and especially to shew this good affection to such, as beeing moued with this desire, come vnto them from farre countreis. For how much the longer voyage they haue attempted for this intent, so much the more doe they thereby declare that this desire hath bene ardent in them. Furthermore also, the examples of our fathers and predecessors doe inuite vs hereunto, forasmuch as they haue euer gently and louingly intreated such as of friendly mind came to them, aswell from Countries neare hand, as farre remote, commending themselues to their protection. And if it be right and equity, to shew such humanitie toward all men, doubtlesse the same ought chiefly to be shewed to marchants, who wandering about the world, search both the land and the sea, to carry such good and profitable things, as are found in their Countries, to remote regions and kingdomes, and againe to bring from the same, such things as they find there commodious for their owne Countries: both aswell that the people, to whom they goe, may not be destitute of such commodities as their Countries bring not foorth to them, as that also they may be partakers of such things, whereof they abound. For the God of heauen and earth greatly prouiding for mankinde, would not that all things should be found in one region, to the ende that one should haue neede of another, that by this meanes friendship might be established among all men, and euery one seeke to gratifie all. For the establishing and furtherance of which vniuersall amitie, certaine men of our Realme, mooued heereunto by the said desire, haue instituted and taken vpon them a voyage by sea into farre Countries, to the intent that betweene our people and them, a way may bee opened to bring in, and cary out marchandises, desiring vs to further their enterprise. Who assenting to their petition, haue licensed the right valiant and worthy Sir Hugh Willoughby, knight, and other our trusty and faithfull seruants, which are with him, according to their desire, to goe to countries to them heeretofore vnknowen, aswell to seeke such things as we lacke, as also to cary vnto them from our regions, such things as they lacke. So that hereby not onely commoditie may ensue both to them and vs, but also an indissoluble and perpetuall league of friendship be established betweene vs both, while they permit vs to take of their things, such whereof they haue abundance in their regions, and we againe grant them such things of ours, whereof they are destitute. We therefore desire you kings and princes, and al other, to whom there is any power on the earth, to permit vnto these our seruants free passage by your regions and dominions: for they shall not touch any thing of yours unwilling vnto you. Consider you that they also are men. If therefore they shall stand in neede of any thing, we desire you of all humanitie, and for the nobilities which is in you, to ayde and helpe them with such things as they lacke, receiuing againe of them such things as they shall be able to giue you in recompense. Shew your selues so towards them, as you would that we and our subiects should shewe ourselues towards your seruants, if at any time they shall passe by our regions. Thus doing, we promise you by the God of all things that are contained in heauen, earth, and the Sea, and by the life and tranquillitie of our kingdomes, that we will with like humanitie accept your seruants, if at any time they shall come to our kingdomes, where they shall as friendly and gently bee entertained, as if they were borne in our Dominions, that wee may hereby recompence the fauour and benignitie which you haue shewed to our men. Thus after we haue desired you Kings and princes, &c. with all humanity and fauour, to entertaine our welbeloued seruants, we will pray our Almighty God, to graunt you long life, and peace, which neuer shall haue ende. Written in London, which is the chiefe citie of our kingdome, in the yeere from the creation of the world 5515. in the month of Iair, [Marginal note: Iair, I would reade Mair, that is, in the Sarasen language, mixt of Turkish and Aegyptian, Februarie, interpreted by them the moneth to set ships to the sea.] the fourteenth day of the moneth, and seuenth yeere of our reigne. This letter was written also in Greeke, and diuers others languages. * * * * * The true copie of a note found wrltten in one of the two ships, to wit, the Speranza, which wintered in Lappia, Where sir Hugh Willoughby and all his companie died, being frozen to death. Anno 1553. The voiage intended for the discouerie of Cathay, and diuers other regions, dominions, Islands, and places vnknowen, set forth by the right worshipful, master Sebastian Cabota Esquire, and Gouernour of the mysterie and company of the Marchants Aduenturers of the citie of London: which fleete being furnished, did set forth the tenth day of May, 1553. and in the seuenth yeere of our most dread Soueraigne Lord, and King, Edward the sixt. The names of the shippes of the fleete and of their burden, together with the names of the Captaines, and Counsellors, Pilot Maior, Masters of the ships, Marchants, with other officers, and Mariners, as hereafter followeth. THE FIRST SHIP: The Bona Esperanza, Admirall of the fleete, of 120. tunnes, hauing with her a pinnesse, and a boate. Sir Hugh Willoughby, knight, Captaine generall of the fleete. William Gefferson, Master of the shippe. Roger Wilson, his Mate. William Gittons, Charles Barret, Gabriel Willoughby, Iohn Andrews, Alexander Woodfoord, Ralph Chatterton, Marchants. Mariners and officers, according to the custome, and vse of the Seas, Iohn Brooke, Master Gunner. Nicholas Anthony, Boateswaine. Iohn Web, his Mate. Christopher Banbrucke, Thomas Dauison, Robert Rosse, Thomas Simpson, quarter Masters. William White, Iames Smith, Thomas Painter, Iohn Smith, their Mates. Richard Gwinne, George Goiswine, Carpenters. Robert Gwinne, Purser. Laurence Edwards, his Mate, and Couper. Richard Morgan, Cooke. Thomas Nashe, his Mate. William Light, Iohn Brande, Cutbert Chelsie, George Blage, Thomas Walker, Thomas Allen, Edward Smith, Edward Hunt, Iohn Fawkner, Rowland Brooke. Alexander Gardiner, Richard Molton, Surgeons, which two were taken in at Harwich. Discharged at Harwich, by reason of sicknes, George Blake, [Footnote: The "George Blage" mentioned above.] Nicholas Anthony. For pickerie ducked at the yards arme, and so discharged Thomas Nash. THE SECOND SHIP: The Edward Bonauenture, of 160. tunnes, with her a pinnesse, and a boate. Richard Chancelor, Captaine, and Pilot maior of the fleete. Stephen Borowgh, Master of the ship. Iohn Buckland, his Mate. George Burton, Arthur Edwards, Marchants. Iohn Stafford, Minister. Iames Dallaber, Nicholas Newborrow, Iohn Sedgswike, Thomas Francis, Iohn Hasse, Richard Iohnson, William Kempe. Mariners and officers, according to the custome and vse of the Seas. Robert Stanton, Master Gunner. Iohn Walker, his Mate. Iames Long, Iohn Cocks, Gunners. Thomas Walter, Surgeon. Peter Palmer, Boateswaine. Richard Strowde, his Mate. Iohn Robinson, Iohn Carowe, Thomas Stone, Roger Lishbie, quarter Masters. Iohn Austen, Steward: Patricke Steuens, his Mate. Austen Iacks, Cooke. William Euery, Cowper. Griffin Wagham, Carpenter. Thomas Steltson, Thomas Townes, Iohn Robinson, Iohn White, William Laurence, Miles Butter, Iohn Browne, William Morren, William Watson, Thomas Handcocks, Edward Pacie, Thomas Browne, Arthur Pet, George Phibarie, Edward Patterson, William Beare, Iohn Potter, Nicholas Lawrence, William Burrough [Marginal note: Nowe comptroller of Her Maiesties (Queen Elizabeth) Nauie.], Roger Welford, Iohn Williams. THE THIRD SHIP: The Bona Confidentia of 90. tunnes, hauing with her a pinnesse, and a boate. Cornelias Durfoorth, Master of the shippe. Richard Ingram, his Mate. Thomas Langlie, Edward Kener, Henrie Dorset, Marchants. Mariners and officers, according to the vse and custome of the Sea. Henrie Tailer, Master Gunner. George Thurland, his Mate. William Hamane, Boateswaine. Iohn Edwards, his Mate. Thomas Kirbie, Henrie Dickenson, Iohn Haye, William Shepwash, quarter Masters. Iohn Reyne, Steward. Thomas Hante, Cooke. William Lassie, his Mate. Nicholas Knight, Carpenter. Peter Lewike, Nicholas Wiggleworth, Iohn Moore, William Chapman, Brian Chester, William Barrie, Richard Wood, Clement Gibson, Iohn Clarocke, Erasmus Bently, Iohn Duriforth. The Iurameutum, or othe, ministred to the Captaine. You shall sweare to be a faithful, true, and loyal subiect in all points, and duties, that to a subiect appertaineth, to our soueraigne Lord the kings Maiestie, his heires, and successors: and that you shall wel and truely to the vttermost of your capacitie, wit, and knowledge, serue this present voiage, committed to your charge, and not to giue vp nor sooner intermit the same, vntil you shall haue atchieued the same, so farre foorth, as you may without danger of your life, and losse of the fleete: you shall giue good, true and faithful counsell to the said societie, and to such as shal haue the charge with or vnder you, and not to disclose the secrets, or priuities of the same to any person by any maner of meane, to the preiudice, hurt, or damage of it. You shal minister iustice to all men vnder your charge, without respect of person, or any affection, that might moue you to decline from the true ministration of iustice. And further, you shal obserue, and cause to be obserued, as much as in you lieth, all and singular rules, articles, prouisions hitherto made, or heereafter to be made for the preseruation or safeconduct of the fleete and voyage, and benefit of the company. You shall not permit nor suffer the stocke or goods of the company to be wasted, imbezeled, or consumed, but shall conserue the same whole and entire, without diminishment, vntill you shall haue deliuered, or cause to be deliuered the same, to the vse of the companie. And finally you shall vse your selfe in all points, sorts, and conditions, as to a faithfull captaine, and brother of this companie shall belong and appertaine: So helpe you God, &c. The othe ministred to the Maister of the ship, &c. You shall sweare by the holy contents in that booke, that you according and to the vttermost of your knowledge and good vnderstanding in mariners science and craft, shall in your vocation doe your best to conduct the good shippe called the N. &c. whereof you nowe are Maister vnder God, both vnto and from the portes of your discouerie, and so vse your indeauour and faithfull diligence, in charging, discharging, lading againe, and roomaging of the same shippe, as may be most for the benefite and profite of this right woorshipfull fellowship: and you shall not priuately bargein, buy, sell, exchange, barter, or distribute any goods, wares, merchandise, or things whatsoeuer (necessary tackles and victuals for the shippe onely excepted) to or for your owne lucre, gaine or profit, neither to nor for the priuate lucre, gaine, or profit of any other person or persons whatsoeuer. And further, If you shall know any boatswaine, mariner, or any other person or persons whatsoeuer, to buy, sell, barter, trucke, or exchange any goods, wares, merchandises, or things for priuate account, reckoning, or behalfe, you shall doe your best to withstand and let the same: and if you cannot commodiously so doe, that then before the discharge of such goods bought for priuat account, you shall giue knowledge therof to the cape marchant of this said fellowship for the time being. And you shall not receiue nor take, nor suffer to be receiued or taken into your said ship during this voyage any maner person or persons whatsoeuer, going or returning, but onely those mariners which without fraud or guile shall be hired to be of your company, and to serue in mariners craft and science onely: so helpe you God, &c. These foresaid shippes being fully furnished with their pinnesses and boates, well appointed with al maner of artillerie, and other things necessary for their defence with al the men aforesaid, departed from Ratcliffe, and valed vnto Detford, the 10. day of May, 1553. The 11. day about two of the clocke, we departed from Detford, passing by Greenwhich, saluting the kings Maiesty then being there, shooting off our ordinance, and so valed vnto Blackwall, and there remained vntil the 17. day, and that day in the morning we went from Blackwall, and came to Woolwhich by nine of the clocke, and there remained one tide, and so the same night vnto Heyreth. The 18. day from Heyreth vnto Grauesend, and there remained vntil the twentieth day: that day being Saterday, from Grauesend vnto Tilberie hope, remayning there vntill the two and twentieth day. The 22. day from Tilbury Hope to Hollie Hauen. The 23. day from Hollie Hauen, till we came against Lee, and there remained that night, by reason that the winde was contrary to vs. The 24. day the winde being in the Southwest in the morning, we sailed along the coast ouer the Spits, vntill we came against S. Osyth, about sixe of the clocke at night, and there came to anker, and abode there all that night. The 25. day about tenne of the clocke we departed from S. Osyth, and so sailed forward vnto the Nase, and there abode that night for winde and tide. The 26. day at fiue of the clock in the morning, we weyed our anker, and sailed ouer the Nase, the winde being at the Southwest, vntill wee came to Orwell wands, and there came to an anker, and abode there vntill the 28. day. The same day being Trinitie Sunday about 7. of the clocke before noone we weyed our ankers, and sailed til we came athwart Walsursye, and there came to an anker. The 29. day from thence to Holmehead, where we stayed that day, where we consulted which way, and what courses were best to be holden for the discouerie of our voyage, and there agreed. The 30. day of May at fiue of the clocke in the morning wee set saile, and came against Yermouth about three leagues into the sea, riding there at anker all that night. The last of May into the sea sixe leagues Northeast, and there taried that night, where the winde blew very sore. The first of Iune the winde being at North contrary to vs, wee came backe againe to Orwell, and remained there vntill the 15. day tarying for the winde, for all this time the winde was contrary to our purpose. The 15 day being at Orwel in the latitude of 52 degrees, in the morning wee weyed our ankers, and went forth into the wands about two miles from the towne, and lay there that night. The 16 day at eight of the clocke we set forward, and sayled vntill we came athwart Alburrough, and there stayed that night. The 17 day about fiue of the clocke before noone we went backe unto Orfordnesse, and there remained vntill the 19 day. The 19 day at eight of the clocke in the morning we went backe to Orwel, and abode there three dayes tarying for the winde. The 23 day of Iune the wind being faire in the Southwest we hailed into the seas to Orfordnesse, and from thence into the seas ten leagues Northeast: then being past the sands, we changed our course sixe leagues Northnortheast: about midnight we changed our course againe, and went due North, continuing in the same vnto the 27 day. The 27 day about seuen of the clocke Northnorthwest 42 leagues to the ende to fall with Shotland: then the wind veared to the West, so that we could lie but North and by West, continuing in the same course 40 leagues, whereby we could not fetch Shotland: then we sayled North 16 leagues by estimation, after that North and by West, and Northnorthwest, then Southeast, with diuers other courses, trauersing and tracing the seas, by reason of sundry and manifolde contrary windes, vntill the 14 day of Iuly: and then the sunne entring into Leo, we discouered land Eastward of vs, vnto the which we sayled that night as much as we might: and after wee went on shore with our Pinnesse, and found little houses to the number of 30, where we knew that it was inhabited, but the people were fled away, as we iudged, for feare of vs. The land was all full of little Islands, and that innumerable, which were called (as we learned afterwards) Ægeland and Halgeland [Marginal note: In this land dwelt Octher, as it seemeth.][Footnote: See Vol I., p. 51 of this Edition.], which lieth from Orfordnesse North and by East, being in the latitude of 66 degrees. The distance betweene Orfordnesse and Ægeland 250 leagues. Then we sailed from thence 12 leagues Northwest, and found many other Islandes, and there came to anker the 19 day, and manned our Pinnesse, and went on shore to the Islands, and found people mowing and making of hay, which came to the shore and welcomed vs. In which place were an innumerable sort of Islands, which were called the Isles of Rost, being vnder the dominion of the king of Denmarke: which place was in latitude 66 degrees, and 30 minutes. The winde being contrary, we remayned there three dayes, and there was an innumerable sort of foules of diuers kindes, of which we tooke very many. The 22 day the winde coming fayre, we departed from Rost, sailing Northnortheast, keeping the sea vntil the 27 day, and then we drew neere vnto the land, which was still East of vs: then went forth our Pinnesse to seeke harborow, and found many good harbours, of the which we entred into one with our shippes, which was called Stanfew [Footnote: Steenfjord, on the West of Lofoden.], and the land being Islands, were called Lewfoot, or Lofoot, which were plentifully inhabited, and very gentle people, being also vnder the king of Denmarke: but we could not learne how farre it was from the maine land: and we remained there vntill the 30 day, being in latitude 68 degrees, and from the foresaid Rost about 30 leagues Northnortheast. The 30 day of Iuly about noone we weyed our ankers, and went into the Seas, and sayled along these Islands Northnortheast, keeping the land still in sight vntill the second day of August: then hailing in close aboord the land, to the entent to knowe what land it was, there came a skiffe of the island aboord of vs, of whom we asked many questions, who shewed vnto us, that the Island was called Seynam, which is the latitude of seuenty degrees, and from Stanfew thirtie leagues, being also vnder the king of Demarke, and that there was no merchandise there, but onely dryed fish; and traine oyle. Then we being purposed to goe vnto Finmarke, inquired of him, if we might haue a pilot to bring vs vnto Finmarke, and he said, that if we could beare in, we should haue a good harbour, and on the next day a pilot to bring vs vnto Finmarke, vnto the wardhouse, [Footnote: Vardoe.] which is the strongest holde in Finmarke, and most resorted to by report. But when wee would haue entred into an harbour, the land being very high on euery side, there came such flawes of winde and terrible whirlewinds, that we were not able to beare in, but by violence were constrained to take the sea agayne, our Pinnesse being vnshipt: we sailed North and by East, the wind increasing so sore that we were not able to beare any saile, but tooke them in, and lay a drift, to the end to let the storme ouer passe. And that night by violence of winde, and thickenesse of mists, we were not able to keepe together within sight, and then about midnight we lost our pinnesse, which was a discomfort vnto vs. Assoone as it was day, and the fogge ouerpast, we looked about, and at the last we descried one of our shippes to Leeward of vs: then we spred an hullocke of our foresaile, and bare roome with her, which was the Confidence, but the Edward we could not see. [Footnote: This vessel's successful voyage is related further on.] Then the flaw something abating, we and the Confidence hoysed vp our sailes the fourth day, sayling Northeast and by North, to the end to fall with the Wardhouse, as we did consult to doe before, in case we should part company. Thus running Northeast and by North, and Northeast fiftie leagues, then we sounded, and had 160 fadomes, whereby we thought to be farre from land, and perceiued that the land lay not as the Globe made mention. Wherfore we changed our course the sixt day, and sailed Southeast and by South eight and fortie leagues, thinking thereby to find the Wardhouse. The eight day much winde arising at the Westnorthwest, we not knowing how the coast lay, strook our sayles, and lay a drift, where we sounded and found 160 fadomes as afore. The ninth day, the wind vearing to the South Southeast, we sailed Northeast 25 leagues. The tenth day we sounded, and could get no ground, neither yet could see any land, wherat we wondered: then the wind comming at the Northeast, we ran Southeast about 48 leagues. The 11 day, the winde being at South, we sounded, and found 40 fadoms, and faire sand. The 12 day the winde being at South and by East, we lay with our saile East, and East and by North 30 leagues. [Sidenote: Willoughbie his land in 72 degrees.] The 14 day early in the morning we descried land, which land we bare with all, hoising out our boat to discouer what land it might be: but the boat could not come to land the water was so shoale, where was very much ice also, but there was no similitude of habitation, and this land lyeth from Seynam East and by North, 160 leagues, being in latitude 72 degrees. Then we plyed to the Northward the 15, 16 and 17 day. [Footnote: In _Purchas_, III., p. 462, Thomas Edge, a captain in the service of the Muscovy Company, endeavoured to show that this land was Spitzbergen. This being proved incorrect, others have supposed that the land Willoughby saw was Gooseland. or Novaya Zemlya. Nordenskiöld supposes it to be Kolgujev Island. This, he says, would make its latitude two degrees less than stated, but such errors are not impossible in the determination of the oldest explorers.] The 18 day, the winde comming at the Northeast, and the Confidence being troubled with bilge water, and stocked, we thought it good to seeke harbour for her redresse: then we bare roome the 18 day Southsoutheast, about 70 leagues. The 21 day we sounded, and found 10 fadome, after that we sounded againe, and found but 7 fadome, so shoalder and shoalder water, and yet could see no land, where we marueiled greatly: to auoide this danger, we bare roomer into the sea all that night Northwest and by the West. The next day we sounded, and had 20. fadoms, then shaped our course, and ran West Southwest vntill the 23. day: then we descried Low land, vnto which we bare as nigh as we could, and it appeared vnto vs vnhabitable. Then we plyed Westward along by that lande, which lyeth West Southwest, and East Northeast, and much winde blowing at the West, we haled into the sea North and by East 30. leagues. Then the winde comming about at the Northeast, we sailed West Northwest: after that, the winde bearing to the Northwest, we lay with our sailes West southwest, about 14. leagues, and then descried land, and bare in with it, being the 28 day, finding shoale water, and bare in till we came to 3. fadome, then perceiuing it to be shoale water, and also seeing drie sands, we haled out againe Northeast along that land vntill we came to the point therof. That land turning to the Westwarde, we ran along 16. leagues Northwest: then comming into a faire bay, we went on land with our boat, which place was vnhabited, but yet it appeared vnto vs that the people had bin there, by crosses, and other signes: from thence we went all along the coast Westward. The fourth day of September we lost sight of land, by reason of contrary winds, and the eight day we descried land againe. Within two dayes after we lost the sight of it: then running West and by South about 30. leagues, we gat the sight of land againe, and bare in with it vntill night: then perceiuing it to be a lee shore, we gat vs into the sea, to the end to haue sea roome. The 12. of September we hailed to shoareward againe, hauing then indifferent wind and weather: then beeing neere vnto the shoare, and the tide almost spent, we came to an anker in 30 fadoms water. The 13. day we came along the coast, which lay Northwest and by West, and Southeast and by East. The 14. day we came to an anker within two leagues of the shoare, hauing 60. fadoms. There we went a shore with our boat, and found two or three good harboroughs, the land being rocky, and high, but as for people could we see none. The 15 day we ran still along the coast vntill the 17 day: then the winde being contrary vnto vs, we thought it best to returne vnto the harbor which we had found before, and so we bare roomer with the same, howbeit we could not accomplish our desire that day. The next day being the 18 of September, we entred into the Hauen, and there came to an anker at 6 fadoms. This hauen runneth into the maine, about two leagues, and is in bredth halfe a league, wherein were very many seale fishes, and other great fishes, and vpon the maine we saw beares, great deere, foxes, with diuers strange beasts, as guloines, [Marginal note: Or, Ellons.] and such other which were to vs vnknowen, and also wonderfull. Thus remaining in this hauen the space of a weeke, seeing the yeare farre spent, and also very euill wether, as frost, snow, and haile, as though it had beene the deepe of winter, we thought best to winter there. Wherefore we sent out three men Southsouthwest, to search if they could find people who went three dayes iourney, but could figd none: after that, we sent other three Westward foure daies iourney, which also returned without finding any people. Then sent we three men Southeast three dayes three dayes iourney, who in like sorte returned without finding of people, or any similitude of habitation. _Here endeth Sir Hugh Willoughbie his note, which was written with his owne hand._ These two notes following were written vpon the outside of this Pamphlet, or Booke. 1. The proceedings of Sir Hugh Willoughby after he was separated from the Edward Bonauenture. 2. Our shippe being at an anker in the harbour called Sterfier in the Island Lofoote. [Footnote: The object of Willoughby's voyage was to discover a new route to Asia, inaccessible to the armadas of Spain and Portugal, a feat only performed in 1878-9 by Professor Nordenskiöld. It was the first maritime expedition on a large scale sent out by England. The above narrative, written by Willoughby himself, is all we know of that unfortunate navigator's proceedings after his separation from the _Edward Bonaventure_ in August 1553. The following year some Russian fishermen found, at the ship's winter station, the bodies of those who had perished, probably of scurvy, with the above journal and a will, referred to in the note on page 40. The two ships, with Willoughby's corpse, were sent to England in 1555 by George Killingworth.] The riuer or hauen wherein Sir Hugh Willoughbie with the companie of his two ships perished for cold, is called Arzina in Lapland, neere vnto Kegor. [Footnote: "With regard to the position of Arzina, it appears from a statement in Anthony Jenkinson's first voyage [_see post_] that it took seven days to go from Vardoehus to Swjatoinos, and that on the sixth he passed the mouth of the river where Sir Hugh Willoughby wintered. At a distance from Vardoehus of about six-sevenths of the way Between that town and Swjatoinos, there debouches into the Arctic Ocean, in 68 deg. 20 min. N. L. and 38 deg. 30 min. E. L. from Greenwich, a river, which in recent maps is called the Varzina. It was doubtless at the mouth of this river that the two vessels of the first North-East Passage Expedition wintered, with so unfortunate an issue for the officers and men."--NORDENSKIÖLD, _Voyage of the Vega_, Vol. I., p. 63.] But it appeared by a Will found in the ship that Sir Hugh Willoughbie and most of the company were aliue in January 1554. [Footnote: The testator was Gabriel Willoughby, and Sir Hugh was a witness.] * * * * * The booke of the great and mighty Emperor of Russia, and Duke of Muscouia, and of the dominions orders and commodities thereunto belonging: drawen by Richard Chancelour. Forasmuch as it is meete and necessary for all those that minde to take in hande the trauell into farre or strange countreys, to endeuour themselues not onely to vngerstande the orders, commodities, and fruitfulnesse thereof, but also to applie them to the setting foorth of the same, whereby it may incourage others to the like trauaile: therefore haue I nowe thought good to make a briefe rehearsall of the orders of this my trauaile in Russia and Moscouia, and other countreys thereunto adioyning; because it was my chaunce to fall with the North partes of Russia before I came towards Moscouia, I will partly declare my knowledge therein. Russia is very plentifull both of land and people, and also wealthy for such commodities as they haue. They be very great fishers for Salmons and small Coddes: they haue much oyle which wee call treine oyle, the most whereof is made by a riuer called Duina. They make it in other places, but not so much as there. They haue also a great trade in seething of salte water. To the North parte of that countrey are the places where they haue their Furres, as Sables, marterns, greese Beuers, Foxes white, blacke, and redde, Minkes, Ermines, Miniuer, and Harts. There are also a fishes teeth, which fish is called a Morsse. The takers thereof dwell in a place called Postesora, [Footnote: Query, Petschora?] which bring them vpon Hartes to Lampas to sell, and from Lampas carie them to a place called Colmogro, [Footnote: Cholmogori, near Archangel.] where the hie market is holden on Saint Nicholas day. To the West of Colmogra there is a place called Gratanowe, in our language Nouogorode, where much fine flaxe and Hempe groweth, and also much, waxe and honie. The Dutch marchants haue a Staplehouse there. There is also great store of hides, and at a place called Plesco: [Footnote: Ploska, on the Dwina.] and thereabout is great store of Flaxe, Hempe, Waxe, Honie; and that towne is from Colmogro 120 miles. There is a place called Vologda; the commodities whereof are Tallowe, Waxe, and Flaxe: but not so great plenty as is in Gratanowe. From Vologda to Colmogro there runneth a riuer called Duyna, and from thence it falleth into the sea. Colmogro serueth Gratonowe, Vologda and the Mosco with all the countrey thereabout with salte and saltfish. From Vologda to Ieraslaue is two hundreth miles: [Footnote: Rather less; about 160 miles.] which towne is very great. The commodities thereof are hides, and talowe, and come in great plenty, and some Waxe, but not so plentifull as in other places. The Mosco is from Ieraslaue two hundreth miles. The countrey betwixt them is very well replenished with small Villages, which are so well filled with people, that it is wonder to see them: the ground is well stored with corne which they carie to the citie of Mosco in such abundance that it is wonder to see it. You shall meete in a morning seuen or eight hundred sleds comming or going thither, that carie corne, and some carie fish. You shall haue some that carie corne to the Mosco, and some that fetch corne from thence, that at the least dwell a thousand miles off; and all their cariage is on sleds. Those which come so farre dwell in the North partes of the Dukes dominions, where the cold will suffer no corne to grow, it is so extreme. They bring thither fishes, furres, and beastes skinnes. In those partes they haue but small store of cattell. The Mosco it selfe is great: I take the whole towne to bee greater then London with the suburbes: but it is very rude, and standeth without all order. Their houses are all of timber very dangerous for fire. There is a faire Castle, the walles whereof are of bricke, and very high: they say they are eighteene foote thicke, but I doe not beleeue it, it doth not so seeme, notwithstanding I doe not certainely know it: for no stranger may come to viewe it. The one side is ditched, and on the other side runneth a riuer called Moscua which runneth into Tartarie and so into the sea called Mare Caspium: and on the North side there is a base towne, the which hath also a bricke wall about it, and so it ioyneth with the Castle wall. The Emperour lieth in the castle, wherein are nine fayre Churches, and therein are religious men. Also there is a Metropolitane with diuers Bishops. I will not stande in description of their buildinges nor of the strength thereof because we haue better in all points in England. They be well furnished with ordinance of all sortes. The Emperours or Dukes house neither in building nor in the outward shew, nor yet within the house is so sumptuous as I haue seene. It is very lowe built in eight square, much like the olde building of England, with small windowes, and so in other poynts. Now to declare my comming before his Maiestie; [Footnote: Ivan Vasilovitsch.] After I had remained twelue daies, the Secretary which hath the hearing of strangers did send for me, aduertising me that the Dukes pleasure was to haue me to come before his Ma. with the kings my masters letters: whereof I was right glad, and so I gaue mine attendance. And when the Duke was in his place appointed, the interpretour came for me into the vtter chamber, where sate one hundred or moe gentlemen, all in cloth of golde very sumptuous, and from thence I came into the Counsaile chamber, where sate the Duke himselfe with his nobles, which were a faire company: they sate round about the chamber on high, yet so that he himselfe sate much higher then any of his nobles in a chaire gilt, and in a long garment of beaten golde, with an emperial crowne vpon his head and a stafle of Cristall and golde in his right hand, and his other hand halfe leaning on his chaire. The Chancelour stoode vp with the Secretary before the Duke. After my dutie done and my letter deliuered, he bade me welcome, and enquired of me the health of the King my master, and I answered that he was in good health at my departure from his court, and that my trust was that he was now in the same. Vpon the which he bade me to dinner. The chancelour presented my present vnto his Grace bareheaded (for before they were all couered) and When his Grace had receiued my letter, I was required to depart: for I had charge not to speake to the Duke, but when he spake to me. So I departed vnto the Secretaries chamber, where I remayned two houres, and then I was sent for agayne vnto another palace which is called the golden palace, but I saw no cause why it should be so called; for I haue seene many fayrer then it in all poynts: and so I came into the hall, which was small and not great as is the Kings Maiesties of England, and the table was couered with a tablecloth; and the Marshall sate at the ende of the table with a little white rod in his hand, which boorde was fall of vessell of golde: and on the other side of the hall did stand a faire cupborde of plate. From thence I came into the dining chamber, where the Duke himselfe sate at his table without cloth of estate, in a gowne of siluer, with a crowne emperiall vpon his head, he sate in a chaire somewhat hie: There sate none near him by a great way. There were long tables set round about the chamber, which were full set with such as the Duke had at dinner: they were all in white. Also the places where the tables stoode were higher by two steppes than the rest of the house. In the middest of the chamber stoode a table or cupbord to set plate on; which stoode full of cuppes of golde: and amongst all the rest there stoode foure marueilous great pottes or crudences as they call them, of golde and siluer: I think they were a good yarde and a halfe hie. By the cupborde stoode two gentlemen with napkins on their shoulders, and in their handes each of them had a cuppe of gold set with pearles and precious stones, which were the Dukes owne drinking cups; when he was disposed, he drunke them off at a draught. And for his seruice at meate it came in without order, yet it was very rich seruice, for all were serued in gold, not onely he himselfe, but also all the rest of vs, and it was very massie: the cups also were of golde and very massie. The number that dined there that day was two hundred persons, and all were serued in golden vessell. The gentlemen that waited were all in cloth of gold, and they serued him with their caps on their heads. Before the seruice came in, the Duke sent to euery man a great shiuer of bread, and the bearer called the party so sent to by his name aloude, and sayd, John Basiliuich Emperour of Russia and great Duke of Moscouia doth reward thee with bread: then must all men stand vp, and doe at all times when those words are spoken. And then last of all he giueth the Marshall bread, whereof he eateth before the Dukes Grace, and so doth reuerence and departeth. Then commeth the Dukes seruice of the Swannes all in pieces, and euery one in a seuerall dish: the which the Duke sendeth as he did the bread, and the bearer sayth the same wordes as he sayd before. As I sayd before, the seruice of his meate is in no order, but commeth in dish by dish: and then after that the Duke sendeth drinke, with the like saying as before is tolde. Also before dinner hee changed his crowne, and in dinner time two crownes; so that I saw three seuerall crownes vpon his head in one day. And thus when his seruice was all come in he gaue to euery one of his gentlemen waiters meate with his owne hand, and so likewise drinke. His intent thereby is, as I haue heard, that euery man shall know perfectly his seruants. Thus when dinner is done hee calleth his nobles before him name by name, that it is wonder to heare howe he could name them, hauing so many as he hath. Thus when dinner was done I departed to my lodging, which was an hower within night. I will leaue this, and speake no more of him nor his houshold: but I will somewhat declare of his land and people, with their nature and power in the wars. This Duke is Lord and Emperour of many countries, and his power is marueilous great. For he is able to bring into the field two or three hundred thousand men: he neuer goeth into, the field himselfe with vnder two hundred thousand men: And when he goeth himselfe he furnisheth his borders all with men of warre, which are no small number. He leaueth on the borders of Liefland fortie thousand men, and vpon the borders of Letto 60 thousand men, and towarde the Nagayan Tartars sixtie thousand, which is wonder to heare of: yet doeth hee neuer take to his warres neither husbandman nor marchant. All his men are horsemen: he vseth no footmen, but such as goe with the ordinance and labourers, which are thirtie thousand. The horsemen are all archers, with such bowes as the Turkes haue, and they ride short as doe the Turkes. Their armour is a coate of plate, with a skull, on their heads. Some of their coates are couered with veluet or cloth of gold: their desire is to be sumptuous in the field, and especially the nobles and gentlemen: as I haue heard their trimming is very costly, and partly I haue seene it, or else I would scarcely haue beleeued it: but the Duke himselfe is richly attired aboue all measure: his pauilion is couered either with cloth of gold or siluer, and so set with stones that it is wonderfull to see it. I haue seene the Kings Maiesties of England and the French Kings pauilions, which are fayre, yet not like vnto his. And when they bee sent into farre or strange countreys, or that strangers come to them, they be very gorgious. Els the Duke himselfe goeth but meanly in apparell: and when he goeth betwixt one place and another hee is but reasonably apparelled ouer other times. In the while that I was in Mosco the Duke sent two Ambassadours to the King of Poleland, which had at the lest fiue hundred horses; their sumptuousnes was aboue measure, not onely in them selues, but also in their horses, as veluet, cloth of golde, and cloth of siluer set with pearles and not scant. What shall I farther say? I neuer heard of nor saw men so sumptuous: but it is no dayly guise, for when they haue not occasion, as I sayd before, all their doing is but meane. And now to the effect of their warres: They are men without al order in the field. For they runne hurling on heapes, and for the most part they neuer giue battell to their enemies: but that which they doe, they doe it all by stelth. But I beleeue they be such men for hard liuing as are not vnder the sun: for no cold wil hurt them. Yea and though they lie in the field two moneths, at such time as it shall freese more then a yard thicke, the common souldier hath neither tent nor any thing else ouer his head: the most defence they haue against the wether is a felte, which is set against the winde and weather, and when Snowe commeth hee doth cast it off, and maketh him a fire, and laieth him down thereby. Thus doe the most of all his men, except they bee gentlemen which haue other prouision of their owne. Their lying in the fielde is not so strange as is their hardnes: for euery man must carie and make prouision for himselfe and his horse for a moneth or two, which is very wonderful. For he himselfe shall liue vpon water and otemeale mingled together cold, and drinke water therto, his horse shall eat green wood, and such like baggage, and shall stand open in the cold field without couert, and yet wil he labour and serue him right wel. I pray you amongst all our boasting warriours how many should we find to endure the field with them but one moneth. I know no such region about vs that beareth that name for man and beast. Now what might be made of these men if they were trained and broken to order and knowledge of ciuill wars? If this Prince had within his countreys such men as could make them to vnderstand the things aforesaid, I do beleeue that 2 of the best or greatest princes in Christendome were not wel able to match with him, considering the greatnes of his power and the hardnes of his people and straite liuing both of people and horse, and the small charges which his warres stand him in: for he giueth no wages, except to strangers. They haue a yerely stipend and not much. As for his own countrey men euery one serueth of his owne proper costes and charges, sauing that he giueth to his Harcubisiers certaine allowance for powder and shot: or else no man in all his countrey hath one pennie wages. But if any man hath done very good seruice he giueth him a ferme or a piece of lande; for the which hee is bound at all times to be readie with so many men as the Duke shall appoynt: who considereth in his mind what that lande or ferme is well able to finde: and so many shall he bee bound to furnish at all and euery such time as warres are holden in any of the Dukes dominions. For there is no man of liuing, but hee is bound likewise, whether the Duke call for either souldier or labourer, to furnish them with all such necessaries as to them belong. Also, if any gentleman or man of liuing do die without issue male, immediately after his death the Duke entreth his land, notwithstanding he haue neuer so many daughters, and peraduenture giueth it foorthwith to another man, except a small portion that he spareth to marrie the daughters with all. Also if there be a rich man, a fermour, or man of liuing, which is stricken in age or by chance is maimed, and be not able to doe the Duke seruice, some other gentleman that is not able to liue and more able to doe seruice, will come to the Duke and complayne, saying, your Grace hath such an one, which is vnmeete to doe seruice to your Highnes, who hath great abundance of welth, and likewise your Grace hath many gentlemen which are poore and lacke liuing, and we that lacke are well able to doe good seruice, your grace might doe well to looke vpon him, and make him to helpe those that want. Immediately the Duke sendeth forth to inquire of his wealth: and if it be so proued, he shall be called before the Duke, and it shall bee sayd vnto him, friend, you haue too much liuing, and are vnseruiceable to your prince, lesse will serue you, and the rest will serue other men that are more able to serue, whereupon immediately his liuing shall be taken away from him, sauing a little to find himselfe and his wife on, and he may not once repine thereat: but for answere he will say, that he hath nothing, but it is Gods and the Dukes Graces, and cannot say, as we the common people in England say, if wee haue any thing; that is God's and our owne. Men may say, that these men are in wonderfull great awe, and obedience, that thus one must giue and grant his goods which he hath bene scraping and scratching for all his life to be at his Princes pleasure and commandement. Oh that our sturdie rebels were had in the like subiection to knowe their duety towarde their Princes. They may not say as some snudges in England say, I would find the Queene a man to serue in my place, or make his friends tarrie at home if money, haue the vpper hand. No, no, it is not so in this countrey: for hee shall make humble sute to serue the Duke. And whom he sendeth most to the warres he thinketh he is most in his fauour: and yet as I before haue sayde, hee giueth no wages. If they knewe their strength no man were able to make match with them: nor they that dwel neere them should haue any rest of them. But I thinke it is not Gods will: for I may compare them to a young horse that knoweth not his strength: whome a little childe ruleth and guideth with a bridle, for all his great strength: for if he did, neither childe nor man could rule him. Their warres are holden against the Crimme Tartarians and the Nagaians. I will stand no longer in the rehearsall of their power and warres. For it were too tedious to the reader. But I will in part declare their lawes, and punishments, and the execution of iustice. And first I will begin with the commons of the countrey, which the gentlemen haue rule on: And that is, that euery gentleman hath rule and iustice vpon his owne tenants. And if it so fall out that two gentlemens seruants and tenaunts doe disagree, the two gentlemen examine the matter, and haue the parties before them, and soe giue the sentence. And yet cannot they make the ende betwixt them of the controuersie, but either of the gentlemen must bring his seruant or tenant before the high iudge or iustice of that countrey, and there present them, and declare the matter and case. The plaintife sayth, I require the law: which is graunted: then commeth an officer and arresteth the party defendant, and vseth him contrarie to the lawes of England. For when they attach any man they beate him about the legges, vntill such time as he findeth sureties to answere the matter: And if not, his handes and necke are bound together, and he is led about the towne and beaten aboute the legges, with other extreme punishments till he come to his answere: And the Iustice demaundeth if it be for debt, and sayth: Owest thou this man any such debt? He will perhaps say nay. Then sayth the Iudge: art thou able to denie it? Let vs heare how? By othe sayth the defendant. Then he commandeth to leaue beating him till further triall be had. Their order in one point is commendable. They haue no man of Lawe to plead their causes in any court: but euery man pleadeth his owne cause, and giueth bill and answere in writing: contrarie to the order in England. The complaint is in maner of a supplication, and made to the Dukes grace, and deliuered him into his owne hand, requiring to haue iustice as in his complaint is alleadged. The Duke giueth sentence himselfe vpon all matters in the Law. Which is very commendable, that such a Prince wil take paines to see ministration of iustice. Yet nowithstanding it is wonderfully abused: and thereby the Duke is much deceiued. But if it fall out that the officers be espied in cloking the trueth, they haue most condigne punishment. And if the plaintife can nothing prooue, then the defendant must take his oth vpon the crucifixe whether he be in the right or no. Then is demanded if the plaintife be any thing able further to make proof: if hee bee not; then sometimes he will say, I am able to prooue it by my body and hands, or by my champions body, so requiring the Campe. After the other hath his othe, it is graunted aswell to the one as to the other. So when they goe to the field, they sweare vpon the Crucifixe, that they be both in the right, and that the one shall make the other to confesse the trueth before they depart foorth of the field: and so they goe both to the battell armed with such weapons as they vse in that countrey: they fight all on foote, and seldome the parties themselues do fight, except they be Gentlemen, for they stand much vpon their reputation, for they wil not fight, but with such as are come of as good an house as themselues. So that if either partie require the combate, it is granted vnto them, and no champion is to serue in their room: wherein is no deceit: but otherwise by champions there is. For although they take great othes vpon them to doe the battell truely, yet is the contrarie often seene: because the common champions haue none other liuing. And assoone as the one partie hath gotten the victorie, he demandeth the debt, and the other is carried to prison, and there is shamefully vsed till he take order. There is also another order in the lawe, that the plaintife may sweare in some causes of debt. And if the partie defendant be poore, he shalbe set vnder the Crucifixe, and the partie plaintife must sweare ouer his head, and when hee hath taken his othe, the Duke taketh the partie defendant home to his house, and vseth him as his bond-man, and putteth him to labour, or letteth him for hier to any such as neede him, vntill such time as his friends make prousion for his redemption: or else hee remaineth in bondage all the dayes of his life. Againe there are many that will sell themselues to Gentlemen or Marchants to bee their bond-men, to haue during their life meate, drinke and cloth, and at their comming to haue a piece of mony, yea and some will sell their wiues and children to be bawdes and drudges to the byer. Also they haue a Lawe for Fellons and Pickers contrary to the Lawes of England. For by their law they can hang no man for his first offence; but may keepe him long in prison, and oftentimes beate him with whips and other punishment: and there he shall remaine vntill his friends be able to bayle him. If he be a picker or a cut-purse, as there be very many, the second time he is taken, he hath a piece of his nose cut off, and is burned in the forehead, and kept in prison till hee finde sureties for his good behauiour. And, if he be taken the third time, he is hanged. And at the first time he is extremely punished and not released, except hee haue very good friends, or that some Gentleman require to haue him to the warres: And in so doing, he shall enter into great bonds for him: by which meanes the countrey is brought into good quietnesse. But they be naturally giuen to great deceit, except extreme beating did bridle them. They be naturally giuen to hard liuing aswell in fare as in lodging. I heard a Russian say, that it was a great deale merrier liuing in prison then foorth, but for the great beating. For they haue meate and drinke without any labour, and get the charitie of well disposed people: But being at libertie they get nothing. The poore is very innumerable, and liue most miserably: for I haue seene them eate the pickle of Hearring and other stinking fish: nor the fish cannot be so stinking nor rotten, but they will eate it and praise it to be more wholesome then other fish or fresh meate. In mine opinion there be no such people vnder the sunne for their hardnesse of liuing. Well, I will leaue them in this poynt, and will in part declare their Religion. They doe obserue the lawe of the Greekes with such excesse of superstition, as the like hath not bene heard of. They haue no grauen images in their Churches, but all painted, to the intent they will not breake the commandement: but to their painted images they vse such idolatrie, that the like was neuer heard of in England. They will neither worship nor honour any image that is made forth of their owne countrey. For their owne images (say they) haue pictures to declare what they be, and howe they be of God, and so be not ours: They say, Looke how the Painter or Caruer hath made them, so we doe worship them, and they worship none before they be Christened. They say we be but halfe Christians: because we obserue not part of the olde Law with the Turks. Therefore they call themselues more holy then vs. They haue none other learning but their mother tongue, nor will suffer no other in their countrey among them. All their seruice in Churches is in their mother tongue. They haue the olde and newe Testament, which are daily read among them: and yet their superstition is no lesse. For when the Priests doe reade, they haue such tricks in their reading, that no man can vnderstand them, nor no man giueth eare to them. For all the while the Priest readeth, the people sit downe and one talke with another. But when the Priest is at seruice no man sitteth, but gagle and ducke like so many Geese. And as for their prayers they haue but little skill, but vse to say _As bodi pomele_: As much to say, Lord haue mercy vpon me. For the tenth man within the land cannot say the Pater noster. And as for the Creede, no man may be so bolde as to meddle therewith but in the Church: for they say it shoulde not bee spoken of, but in the Churches. Speake to them of the Commandements, and they will say they were giuen to Moses in the law, which Christ hath now abrogated by his precious death and passion: therefore, (say they) we obserue little or none thereof. And I doe beleeue them. For if they were examined of their Lawe and Commaundements together, they shoulde agree but in fewe poynts. They haue the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kindes, and more ceremonies then wee haue. They present them in a dish in both kindes together, and carrie them rounde about the Church vpon the Priestes head, and so doe minister at all such times as any shall require. They be great offerers of Candles, and sometimes of money, which wee call in England, Soule pense, with more ceremonies then I am able to declare. They haue foure Lents in the yeere, whereof our Lent is the greatest. Looke as we doe begin on the Wednesday, so they doe on the Munday before: And the weeke before that they call The Butter weeke: And in that weeke they eate nothing but Butter and milke. Howbeit I beleeue there bee in no other countrey the like people for drunkennesse. The next Lent is called Saint Peters Lent, and beginneth alwayes the Munday next after Trinitie sunday, and endeth on Saint Peters euen. If they should breake that fast, their beliefe is, that they should not come in at heauen gates. And when any of them die, they haue a testimoniall with them in the Coffin, that when the soule commeth to heauen gates it may deliuer the same to Saint Peter, which declareth that the partie is a true and holy Russian. The third Lent beginneth fifteene dayes before the later Lady day, and endeth on our Lady Eeuen. The fourth Lent beginneth on Saint Martin's day, and endeth on Christmas Eeuen: which Lent is fasted for Saint Philip, Saint Peter, Saint Nicholas, and Saint Clement. For they foure be the principall arid greatest Saints in that Countrey. In these Lents they eate neither Butter, Egges, Milke, or Cheese; but they are very straitely kept with Fish, Cabbages, and Rootes. And out of their Lents, they obserue truely the Wednesdayes and Fridayes throughout the yeere: and on the Saturday they doe eate flesh. Furthermore they haue a great number of Religious men: which are blacke Monks, and they eate no flesh throughout the yeere, but fish, milke and Butter. By their order they should eate no fresh-fish, and in their Lents they eate nothing but Coleworts, Cabbages, salt Cowcumbers, with other rootes, as Radish and such like. Their drinke is like our peny Ale, and is called Quass. They haue seruice daily in their Churches; and vse to goe to seruice two houres before day, and that is ended by day light. At nine of the clocke they goe to Masse: that ended, to dinner: and after that to seruice againe: and then to supper. You shall vnderstand that at euery dinner and supper they haue declared the exposition of the Gospel of that day: but howe they wrest and twine the Scripture and that together by report it is wonderfull. As for whoredome and drunkennesse there be none such liuing: and for extortion, they be the most abhominable under the sunne. Nowe iudge of their holinesse. They haue twise as much land as the Duke himselfe hath: but yet he is reasonable eeuen with them, as thus: When they take bribes of any of the poore and simple, he hath it by an order. When the Abbot of any of their houses dieth, then the Duke hath all his goods moueable and vnmoueable: so that the successour buieth all at the Dukes hands: and by this meane they be the best Fermers the Duke hath. Thus with their Religion I make an ende, trusting hereafter to know it better. To the right worshipful and my singular good Vncle, Master Christopher Frothingham, giue these. Sir, Reade and correct; For great is the defect. * * * * * The Testimonie of M. Richard Eden in his decades, concerning the Booke following. And whereas (saith he) I haue before made mention howe Moscouie was in our time discouered by Richard Chanceler in his voyage toward Cathay, by the direction and information of M. Sebastian Cabota, who long before had this secret in his minde: I shall not neede here to describe that voyage, forasmuch as the same is largely and faithfully written in the Latine tongue, by that learned yong man Clement Adams, schoolemaster to the Queenes henshmen, as he receiued it at the mouth of the said Richard Chanceler. * * * * * The newe Nauigation and discouerie of the kingdome of Moscouia, by the Northeast, in the yeere 1553: Enterprised by Sir Hugh Willoughbie knight, and perfourmed by Richard Chancelor Pilot maior of the voyage: Written in Latine by Clement Adams. At what time our Marchants perceiued the commodities and wares of England to bee in small request with the countreys and people about vs, and neere vnto vs, and that those Marchandizes which strangers in the time and memorie of our auncesters did earnestly seeke and desire, were nowe neglected, and the price thereof abated, although by vs carried to their owne portes, and all forreine Marchandises in great accompt, and their prises wonderfully raised: certaine graue Citizens of London, and men of great wisedome, and carefull for the good of their Countrey, began to thinke with themselues, howe this mischiefe might bee remedied. Neither was a remedie (as it then appeared) wanting to their desires, for the auoyding of so great an inconuenience: for seeing that the wealth of the Spaniards and Portingales, by the discouerie and search of newe trades and Countreys was marueilously increased, supposing the same to be a course and meane for them also to obteine the like, they thereupon resolued vpon a newe and strange Nauigation. And whereas at the same time one Sebastian Cabota, a man in those dayes very renowmed, happened to bee in London, they began first of all to deale and consult diligently with him, and after much speech and conference together, it was at last concluded that three shippes should bee prepared and furnished out, for the search and discouerie of the Northerne part of the world, to open a way and passage to our men for trauaile to newe and vnknowen kingdomes. And whereas many things seemed necessary to bee regarded in this so hard and difficult a matter, they first make choyse of certaine graue and wise persons in maner of a Senate or companie, which should lay their heads together, and giue their iudgments, and prouide things requisite and profitable for all occasions: by this companie it was thought expedient, that a certaine summe of money should publiquely bee collected to serue for the furnishing of so many shippes. And lest any priuate man should bee too much oppressed and charged, a course was taken that euery man willing to be of the societie, should disburse the portion of twentie and fiue pounds a piece: so that in short time by this meanes the summe of sixe thousand pounds being gathered, the three shippes were bought, the most part whereof they prouided to be newly built and trimmed. But in this action, I wote not whether I may more admire the care of the Marchants, or the diligence of the Shipwrights: for the Marchants, they get very strong and well seasoned plankes for the building, the Shippewrights, they with daily trauaile, and their greatest skill doe fitte them for the dispatch of the shippes: they calke them, pitch them, and among the rest, they make one most stanch and firme, by an excellent and ingenious inuention. For they had heard that in certaine parts of the Ocean, a kinde of wormes is bredde, which many times pearceth and eateth through the strongest oake that is: and therfore that the Mariners, and the rest to bee imployed in this voyage might bee free and safe from this danger, they couer a piece of the keele of the shippe with thinne sheetes of leade: and hauing thus built the ships, and furnished them with armour and artillerie, then followed a second care no lesse troublesome and necessarie then the former, namely, the prouision of victuals, which was to be made according to the time and length of the voyage. And whereas they afore determined to haue the East part of the world sayled vnto, and yet that the sea towards the same was not open, except they kept the Northern tract, whereas yet it was doubtfull whether there were any passage yea or no, they resolued to victuall the ships for eighteene moneths, which they did for this reason. For our men being to passe that huge and colde part of the world, they wisely foreseeing it, allowe them sixe moneths victuall to saile to the place, so much more to remaine there if the extremitie of the winter hindered their returne, and so much more also for the time of their comming home. Nowe this prouision being made and caried aboord, with armour and munition of all sorts, sufficient Captaines and gouenours of so great an enterprise were as yet wanting: to which office and place, although many men, (and some voyde of experience) offered themselues, yet one Sir Hugh Willoughbie a most valiant Gentleman, and well borne, very earnestly requested to haue that care and charge committed vnto him: of whom before all others, both by reason of his goodly personage (for he was of a tall stature) as also for his singular skill in the seruices of warre, the company of the Marchants made greatest accompt: so that at the last they concluded and made choyce of him for the Generall of this voyage, and appoynted him to the Admirall with authortie and command ouer all the rest. And for the gouernement of other ships although diuers men seemed willing, and made offers of themselues thereunto, yet by a common consent one Richard Chanceler, a man of great estimation for many good partes of wit in him, was elected, in whom alone great hope for the performance of this businesse rested. This man was brought vp by one Master Henry Sidney, a noble young Gentleman and very much beloued of King Edward, who at this time comming to the place where the Marchants were gathered together, beganne a very eloquent speech or Oration, and spake to them after this maner following. My very worshipfull friends, I cannot but greatly commend your present godly and vertuous intention, in the serious enterprising (for the singular loue you beare to your Countrey) a matter, which (I hope) will prooue profitable for this nation, and honourable to this our land. Which intention of yours wee also of the Nobilitie are ready to our power to helpe and further: neither doe wee holde any thing so deare and precious vnto vs, which wee will not willingly forgoe, and lay out in so commendable a cause. But principally I reioyce in my selfe, that I haue nourished and maintained that witte, which is like by some meanes and in some measure, to profile and steede you in this worthy action. But yet I would not haue you ignorant of this one thing, that I doe now part with Chanceler, not because I make little reckoning of the man, or that his maintenance is burdenous and chargeable vnto mee, but that you might conceiue and vnderstand my good will and promptitude for the furtherance of this businesse, and that the authoritie and estimation which hee deserueth may be giuen him. You know the man by report, I by experience, you by wordes, I by deedes, you by speech and companie, but I by the daily triall of his life haue a full and perfect knowledge of him. And you are also to remember, into howe many perils for your sakes, and his countreys loue, he is nowe to runne: whereof it is requisite that wee be not vnmindefull, if it please God to send him good successe. Wee commit a little money to the chaunce and hazard of Fortune: He commits his life (a thing to a man of all things most deare) to the raging Sea, and the vncertainties of many dangers. We shall here liue and rest at home quietly with our friends, and acquaintance: but hee in the meane time labouring to keepe the ignorant and vnruly Mariners in good order and obedience, with howe many cares shall hee trouble and vexe himselfe? with how many troubles shall he breake himselfe? and howe many disquietings shall hee bee forced to sustaine? We shall keepe our owne coastes and countrey: Hee shall seeke strange and vnknowen kingdomes. He shall commit his safetie to barbarous and cruell people, and shall hazard his life amongst the monstrous and terrible beastes of the Sea. Wherefore in respect of the greatnesse of the dangers, and the excellencie of his charge, you are to fauour and loue the man thus departing from vs: and if it fall so happily out that hee returne againe, it is your part and duetie also, liberally to reward him. After that this noble yong Getleman had deliuered this or some such like speech, much more eloquently then I can possiblie report it, the companie then present beganne one to looke vpon another, one to question and conferre with another: and some (to whom the vertue and sufficiencie of the man was knowen) began secretly to reioyce with themselues, and to conceiue a speciall hope, that the man would prooue in time very rare and excellent, and that his vertues already appearing and shining to the world woulde growe to the great honour and aduancement of this kingdome. After all this, the companie growing to some silence, it seemed good to them that were of greatest grauity amongst them, to inquire, search and seeke what might be learned and knowen, concerning the Easterly part or tract of the world. For which cause two Tartarians, which were then of the kings Stable, were sent for, and an interpreter was gotten to be present, by whom they were demaunded touching their Countrey and the maners of their nation. But they were able to answere nothing to the purpose: being in deede more acquainted (as one there merily and openly said) to tosse pottes, then to learne the states and dispositions of people. But after much adoe and many things passed about this matter, they grew at last to this issue, to set downe and appoynt a time for the departure of the shippes: because diuers were of opinion, that a great part of the best time of the yeere was already spent, and if the delay grewe longer, the way would bee stopt and bard by the force of the Ice, and the colde climate: and therefore it was thought best by the opinion of them all, that by the twentieth day of May, [Marginal note: They departed from Ratcliffe, the 20. of May, 1553.] the Captaines and Mariners should take shipping, and depart from Radcliffe vpon the ebbe, if it pleased God. They hauing saluted their acquaintance, one his wife, another his children, another his kinsfolkes, and another his friends deerer then his kinsfolkes, were present and ready at the day appoynted: and hauing wayed ancre, they departed with the turning of the water, and sailing easily, came first to Greenewich. The greater shippes are towed downe with boates, and oares, and the mariners being all apparelled in Watchet or skie coloured cloth, rowed amaine, and made way with diligence. And being come neere to Greenewich, (where the Court then lay) presently vpon the newes therof, the Courtiers came running out, and the common people flockt together, standing very thicke vpon the shoare: the priuie Counsel, they lookt out at the windowes of the Court, and the rest ranne vp to the toppes of the towers: the shippes hereupon discharge their Ordinance, and shoot off their pieces after the maner of warre, and of the sea, insomuch that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith, the valleys and the waters gaue an Eccho, and the Mariners, they shouted in such sort, that the skie rang againe with the noyse thereof. One stoode in the poope of the ship, and by his gesture bids farewell to his friendes in the best maner hee could. Another walkes vpon the hatches, another climbes the shrowds, another stands vpon the maine yard, and another in the top of the shippe. To be short, it was a very triumph (after a sort) in all respects to the beholders. But (alas) the good King Edward (in respect of whom principally all this was prepared) hee onely by reason of his sickenesse was absent from this shewe, and not long after the departure of these ships, the lamentable and most sorrowfull accident of his death followed. But to proceede in the matter. The shippes going downe with the tyde came at last to Woolwich, where they stayed and cast ancre, with purpose to depart therehence againe, as soone as the turning of the water, and a better winde should draw them to set saile. After this they departed and came to Harwich, in which porte they stayed long, not without great losse and consuming of time: yet at the last with a good winde they hoysed vp saile, and committed themselues to the sea, giuing their last adieu to their natiue Countrey, which they knewe not whether they should euer returne to see againe or not. Many of them looked oftentimes back, and could not refraine from teares, considering into what hazards they were to fall, and what vncertainties of the sea they were to make triall of. Amongst the rest, Richard Chanceler the Captaine of the Edward Bonauenture, was not a little grieued with the feare of wanting victuals, part whereof was found to be corrupt and putrified at Harwich, and the hoggesheads of wine also leaked, and were not stanch: his naturall and fatherly affection also somewhat troubled him, for he left behinde him his two little sonnes, which were in the case of Orphanes if he spedde not well: the estate also of his companie mooued him to care, being in the former respects after a sort vnhappie, and were to abide with himselfe euery good or badde accident: but in the meane time while his minde was thus tormented with the multiplicitie of sorrows and cares, after many dayes sayling, they kenned land afarre off, whereunto the Pilots directed the ships: and being come to it, they land, and find it to be Rost Island, where they stayed certaine dayes, and afterwards set saile againe, and proceeding towards the North, they espied certaine other Islands, which were called the Crosse of Islands. From which places when they were a little departed, Sir Hugh Willoughby the General, a man of good foresight and prouidence in all his actions, erected and set out his flagge, by which hee called together the chiefest men of the other shippes, that by the helpe and assistance of their counsels, the order of the gouernement, and conduction of the shippes in the whole voyage might bee the better: who being come together accordingly, they conclude and agree, that if any great tempest should arise at any time, and happen to disperse and scatter them, euery shippe should indeuour his best to goe to Wardhouse, a hauen, or castell of some name in the kingdome of Norway, and that they that arriued there first in safetie should stay and expect the comming of the rest. The very same day in the afternoone, about foure of the clocke, so great a tempest suddenly arose, and the Seas were so outrageous, that the ships could not keepe their intended course, but some were perforce driuen one way, and some another way, to their great perill and hazard: The generall with his lowdest voyce cried out to Richard Chanceler, and earnestly requested him not to goe farre from him: but hee neither would nor could keepe companie with him, if he sailed still so fast: for the Admirall was of better saile then his shippe. But the said Admirall (I knowe not by what meanes) bearing all his sailes, was caried away with so great force and swiftnesse, that not long after hee was quite out of sight, and the third ship also with the same storme and like rage was dispersed and lost vs. The shippe boate of the Admirall (striking against the shippe,) was ouerwhelmed in the sight and viewe of the Mariners of the Bonauenture: and as for them that are already returned and arriued, they know nothing of the rest of the ships what was become of them. But if it be so, that any miserable mishap haue ouertaken them, If the rage and furie of the Sea haue deuoured those good men, or if as yet they liue, and wander vp and downe in strange Countreys, I must needs say they were men worthy of better fortune, and if they be liuing, let vs wish them safetie and a good returne: but if the crueltie of death hath taken holde of them, God send them a Christian graue and Sepulchre. Nowe Richard Chanceler with his shippe and company being thus left alone, and become very pensiue, heauie, and sorrowfull, by this dispersion of the Fleete, hee (according to the order before taken,) shapeth his course for Wardhouse in Norway, there to expect and abide the arriuall of the rest of the shippes. And being come thither, and hauing stayed there the space of 7 dayes, and looked in vaine for their comming, hee determined at length to proceede alone in the purposed voyage. And as hee was preparing himselfe to depart, it happened that hee fell in company and speech with certaine Scottish men: who hauing vnderstanding of his intention, and wishing well to his actions, beganne earnestly to disswade him from the further prosecution of the discouerie, by amplifying the dangers which hee was to fall into, and omitted no reason that might serue to that purpose. But hee holding nothing so ignominious and reproachfull, as inconstancie and leuitie of minde, and perswading himselfe that a man of valour coulde not commit a more dishonourable part then for feare of danger to auoyde and shunne great attempts, was nothing at all changed or discouraged with the speeches and words of the Scots, remaining stedfast and immutable in his first resolution: determining either to bring that to passe which was intended, or els to die the death. And as for them which were with Master Chanceler in his shippe, although they had great cause of discomfort by the losse of their companie (whom the foresaid tempest had separated from them,) and were not a little troubled with cogitations and pertubations of minde, in respect of their doubtfull course: yet notwithstanding, they were of such consent and agreement of minde with Master Chanceler, that they were resolute, and prepared vnder his direction and gouernment, to make proofe and triall of all aduentures, without all feare or mistrust of future dangers. Which constancie of minde in all the companie did exceedingly increase their Captaines carefulnesse: for hee being swallowed vp with like good will and loue towards them, feared lest through any errour of his, the safetie of the companie should bee indangered. To conclude, when they sawe their desire and hope of the arriuall of the rest of the shippes to be euery day more and more frustrated, they prouided to sea againe, and Master Chanceler held on his course towards that vnknowen part of the world, and sailed so farre, that hee came at last to the place where he found no night at all, but a continual light and brightnesse of the Sunne shining clearely vpon the huge and mightie Sea. [Sidenote: They arriue in the Bay of Saint Nicholas.] And hauing the benefite of this perpetuall light for certaine dayes, at the length it pleased God to bring them into a certaine great Bay, which was of one hundreth miles or thereabout ouer. Whereinto they entred, and somewhat farre within it cast ancre, and looking euery way about them, it happened that they espied a farre off a certaine fisher boate, which Master Chanceler, accompanied with a fewe of his men, went towards to common with the fishermen that were in it, and to knowe of them what Countrey it was, and what people, and of what maner of liuing they were: but they beeing amazed with the strange greatnesse of his shippe, (for in those partes before that time they had neuer seene the like) beganne presently to auoyde and to flee: but hee still following them at last ouertooke them, and being come to them, they (being in great feare, as men halfe dead) prostrated themselues before him, offering to kisse his feete: but hee (according to his great and singular courtesie,) looked pleasantly vpon them, comforting them by signes and gestures, refusing those dueties and reuerences of theirs, and taking them vp in all louing sort from the ground. And it is strange to consider howe much fauour afterwards in that place, this humanitie of his did purchase to himselfe. For they being dismissed spread by and by a report abroad of the arriuall of a strange nation, of a singular gentlenesse and courtesie: whereupon the common people came together offering to these newe-come ghests victuals freely, and not refusing to traffique with them, except they had bene bound by a certaine religious vse and custome, not to buy any forreine commodities, without the knowledge and consent of the king. By this time our men had learned that this Countrey was called Russia, or Moscouie, and that Iuan Vasiliwich (which was at that time their Kings name) ruled and gouerned farre and wide in those places. And the barbarous Russes asked likewise of our men whence they were, and what they came for: whereunto answere was made, that they were Englishmen sent into those coastes, from the most excellent King Edward the sixt, hauing from him in commandement certaine things to deliuer to their King, and seeking nothing els but his amitie and friendship, and traffique with his people, whereby they doubted not, but that great commoditie and profit would grow to the subiects of both kingdomes. The Barbarians heard these things very gladly, and promised their aide and furtherance to acquaint their king out of hand with so honest and a reasonable request. In the meane time Master Chanceler intreated victuals for his money of the gouernour of that place (who together with others came aboord him) and required hostages of them likewise for the more assurance of safetie to himselfe and his company. To whom the gouernours answered, that they knewe not in that case the will of their king, but yet were willing in such things as they might lawfully doe, to pleasure him: which was as then to affoord him the benefit of victuals. Nowe while these things were a doing, they secretly sent a messenger vnto the Emperour, to certifie him of the arriuall of a strange nation, and withall to knowe his pleasure concerning them. Which message was very welcome vnto him, insomuch that voluntarily he inuited them to come to his Court. But if by reason of the tediousnesse of so long a iourney, they thought it not best so to doe, then hee graunted libertie to his subiects to bargaine, and to traffique with them: and further promised, that if it would please then to come to him, hee himselfe would beare the whole charges of poste horses. In the meane time the gouernours of the place differred the matter from day to day, pretending diuers excuses, and saying one while that the consent of all the gouernours, and another while, that the great and waightie affaires of the kingdome compelled them to differ their answere: and this they did of purpose, so long to protract the time, vntill the messenger (sent before to the king) did returne with relation of his will and pleasure. But Master Chanceler, (seeing himselfe held in this suspense with long and vaine expectation, and thinking that of intention to delude him, they posted the matter off so often,) was very instant with them to performe their promise: Which if they would not doe, hee tolde them that hee would depart and proceede in his voyage. So that the Moscouites (although as yet they knew not the minde of their king) yet fearing the departure in deede of our men who had such wares and commodities as they greatly desired, they at last resolued to furnish our people with all things necessarie, and to conduct them by land to the presence of their king. And so Master Chanceler beganne his iourney, which was very long and most troublesome, wherein hee had the vse of certaine sleds, and all their carriages are in the same sort, the people almost not knowing any other maner of carriage, the cause whereof is the exceeding hardnesse of the ground congealed in the winter time by the force of the colde, which in those places is very extreme and horrible, whereof hereafter we will say something. But nowe they hauing passed the greater part of their iourney, mette at last with the Sleddeman (of whom I spake before) sent to the king secretly from the Iustices or gouernours, who by some ill happe had lost his way, and had gone to the Sea side, which is neere to the Countrey of the Tartars thinking there to haue found our ship. But hauing long erred and wandered out of his way, at the last in his direct returne, hee met (as hee was coming) our Captaine on the way. To whom hee by and by deliuered the Emperours letters, which were written to him with all courtesie and in the most louing maner that could be: wherein expresse commandement was giuen, that post horses should bee gotten for him and the rest of his company without any money. Which thing was of all the Russes in the rest of their iourney so willingly done, that they began to quarrell, yea, and to fight also in striuing and contending which of them should put their post horses to the sledde: so that after much adoe and great paines taken in this long and wearie iourney, (for they had trauelled very neere fifteene hundred miles) Master Chanceler came at last to Mosco the chiefe citie of the kingdome, and the seate of the king: of which citie, and of the Emperour himselfe, and of the principall cities of Moscouie, wee will speake immediately more at large in this discourse. Of Moscouie, which is also called Russia. Moscouie, which hath the name also of Russia the white, is a very large and spacious Countrey, euery way bounded with diuers nations. Towards the South and the East, it is compassed with Tartaria: the Northren side of it stretcheth to the Scytian Ocean: vpon the West part border the Lappians, a rude and sauage nation, liuing in woods, whose language is not knowen to any other people: next vnto these, more towards the South, is Swecia, then Finlandia, then Liuonia, and last of all Lituania. This Countrey of Moscouie, hath also very many and great riuers in it, and is marish ground, in many places: and as for the riuers, the greatest and most famous amongst, all the rest, is that, which the Russes in their owne tongue call Volga, but others know it by the name of Rha. Next vnto it in fame is Tanais, which they call Don, and the third Boristhenes which at this day they call Neper. Two of these, to wit, Rha, and Boristhenes yssuing both out of one fountaine, runne very farre through the land: Rha receiuing many other pleasant riuers into it, and running from the very head or spring of it towards the East, after many crooked turnings and windings, dischargeth it selfe, and all the other waters and riuers that fall into it by diuers passages into the Caspian Sea. Tanais springing from a fountaine of great name in those partes, and growing great neere to his head, spreds it selfe at length very largely, and makes a great lake: and then growing narrowe againe, doth so runne for certaine miles, vntill it fall into another lake, which they call Iuan: and therehence fetching a very crooked course, comes very neere to the riuer Volga: but disdaining as it were the company of any other riuer, doth there turne it selfe againe from Volga, and runnes toward the South, and fals at last into the Lake of Moeotis. Boristhenes, which comes from the same head that Rha doth, (as wee sayde before) carieth both it selfe, and other waters that are neere vnto it, towards the South, not refusing the mixture of other small riuers: and running by many great and large Countreys fals at last into Pontius Euxinus. Besides these riuers, are also in Muscouie certaine lakes, and pooles, the lakes breede fish by the celestiall influence: and amongst them all, the chiefest and most principall is called Bealozera, which is very famous by reason of a very strong towre built in it, wherein the kings of Muscouie reserue and repose their treasure in all times of warre and danger. Touching the Riphean mountaines, whereupon the snow lieth continually, and where hence in times past it was thought that Tanais the riuer did spring, and that the rest of the wonders of nature, which the Grecians fained and inuented of olde, were there to be seene: our men which lately came from thence, neither sawe them, not yet haue brought home any perfect relation of them, although they remained there for the space of three moneths, and had gotten in that time some intelligence of the language of Moscouie. The whole Countrey is plaine and champion, and few hils in it: and towards the North it hath very large and spacious woods, wherein is great store of Firre trees, a wood very necessarie, and fit for the building of houses: there are also wilde beastes bred in those woods, as Buffes, Beares, and blacke Wolues, and another kinde of beast vnknowen to vs, but called by them Rossomakka: and the nature of the same is very rare and wonderfull: for when it is great with yong, and ready to bring foorth, it seeketh out some narrow place betweene two stakes, and so going through them, presseth it selfe, and by that meanes is eased of her burden, which otherwise could not be done. They hunt their buffes for the most part a horsebacke, but their Beares a foot, with woodden forkes. The north parts of the Countrey are reported to be so cold, that the very ice or water which distilleth out of the moist wood which they lay upon the fire is presently congealed and frozen: the diuersitie growing suddenly to be so great, that in one and the selfe same firebrand, a man shall see both fire and ice. When the winter doth once begin there it doth still more and more increase by a perpetuitie of cold: neither doth that colde slake, vntill the force of the Sunne beames doth dissolue the cold, and make glad the earth, returning to it againe. Our mariners which we left in the ship in the meane time to keepe it, in their going vp onely from their cabbins to the hatches, had their breath oftentimes so suddenly taken away, that they eftsoones fell downe as men very neere dead, so great is the sharpenesse of that colde climate: but as for the South parts of the Countrey, they are somewhat more temperate. Of Mosco the chiefe Citie of the kingdome, and of the Emperour thereof. It remaineth that a larger discourse be made of Mosco, the principall City of that Countrey, and of the Prince also, as before we haue promised. The Empire and gouernment of the king is very large, and his wealth at this time exceeding great. And because the citie of Mosco is the chiefest of al the rest, it seemeth of it selfe to challenge the first place in this discourse. Our men say, that in bignesse it is as great as the Citie of London, with the suburbes thereof. There are many and great buildings in it, but for beautie and fairenesse, nothing comparable to ours. There are many Townes and Villages also, but built out of order, and with no hansomnesse: their streets and wayes are not paued with stone as ours are: the walles of their houses are of wood: the roofes for the most part are couered with shingle boords. There is hard by the Citie a very faire Castle, strong, and furnished with artillerie, whereunto the Citie is ioyned directly towards the North, with a bricke wall: the walles also of the Castle are built with bricke, and are in breadth or thickenesse eighteene foote. This Castle hath on the one side a drie ditch, on the other side the riuer Moscua, whereby it is made almost inexpugnable. The same Moscua trending towards the East doth admit into it the companie of the riuer Occa. In the Castle aforesaide, there are in number nine Churches, or Chappells, not altogether vnhansome, which are vsed and kept by certaine religious men, ouer whom there is after a sort, a Patriarke, or Gouernour, and with him other reuerend Fathers all which for the greater part, dwell within the Castle. As for the kings Court and Palace, it is not of the neatest, onely in forme it is foure square, and of low building, much surpassed and excelled by the beautie and elegancie of the houses of the kings of England. The windowes are very narrowly built, and some of them by glasse, some other by lettisses admit the light: and whereas the Palaces of our Princes are decked, and adorned with hangings of cloth of gold, there is none such there: they build and ioyne to all their wals benches, and that not onely in the Court of the Emperour, but in all priuate mens houses. Nowe after that they had remained about twelue dayes in the Citie there was then a Messenger sent vnto them, to bring them to the Kings house: and they being after a sort wearied with their long stay, were very ready, and willing so to doe: and being entred within the gates of the Court, there sate a very honorable companie of Courtiers, to the number of one hundred, all apparelled in cloth of golde, downe to their ankles: and there hence being conducted into the chamber of presence, our men beganne to wonder at the Maiestie of the Emperour: his seate was aloft, in a very royall throne, hauing on his head a Diademe, or Crowne of golde, apparalled with a robe all of Goldsmiths worke, and in his hand hee held a Scepter garnished, and beset with precious stones: and besides all other notes and apparances of honour, there was a Maiestie in his countenance proportionable with the excellencie of his estate: on the one side of him stood his chiefe Secretaire, on the other side, the great Commander of silence, both of them arayed also in cloth of gold: and then there sate the Counsel of one hundred and fiftie in number, all in like sort arayed, and of great State. This so honorable an assemblie, so great a Maiestie of the Emperour, and of the place might very well haue amazed our men, and haue dasht them out of countenance: but notwithstanding Master Chanceler being therewithall nothing dismaied saluted, and did his duetie to the Emperour, after the maner of England, and withall, deliuered vnto him the letters of our king, Edward the sixt. The Emperour hauing taken, and read the letters, began a litle to question with them, and to aske them of the welfare of our king: whereunto our men answered him directly, and in few words: hereupon our men presented some thing to the Emperour, by the chiefe Secretary, which at the deliuery of it, put of his hat, being before all the time couered: and so the Emperour hauing inuited them to dinner, dismissed them from his presence: and going into the chamber of him that was Master of the Requests to the Emperour, and hauing stayed there the space of two howres, at the last, the Messenger commeth, and calleth them to dinner: they goe, and being conducted into the golden Court, (for so they call it, although not very faire) they finde the Emperour sitting vpon an high and stately seate, apparelled with a robe of siluer, and with another Diademe on his head: our men being placed ouer against him, sit downe: in the middes of the roome stoode a mightie Cupboord vpon a square foote, whereupon stoode also a round boord, in manner of a Diamond, broade beneath, and towardes the toppe narrowe, and euery steppe rose vp more narrowe then another. Vpon this Cupboorde was placed the Emperours plate, which was so much, that the very Cupboord it selfe was scant able to sustaine the waight of it: the better part of all the vessels, and goblets, was made of very fine gold: and amongst the rest, there were foure pots of very large bignesse, which did adorne the rest of the plate in great measure: for they were so high, that they thought them at the least fiue foote long. There were also vpon this Cupbord certaine siluer caskes, not much differing from the quantitie of our Fyrkins, wherein was reserued the Emperours drinke: on each side of the Hall stood foure Tables, each of them layde and couered with very cleane table clothes, whereunto the company ascended by three steps or degrees: all which were filled with the assemblie present: the ghests were all apparelled with linnen without, and with rich skinnes within, and so did notably set out this royall feast The Emperour, when hee takes any bread or knife in his hand, doth first of all crosse himselfe vpon his forehead: they that are in special fauour with the Emperour sit vpon the same bench with him, but somewhat farre from him: and before the comming in of the meate, the Emperour himselfe, according to an ancient custome of the kings of Moscouy, doth first bestow a piece of bread vpon euery one of his ghests, with a loud pronunciation of his title, and honour, in this manner: The great Duke of Moscouie, and chiefe Emperour of Russia, Iohn Basiliwich (and then the officer nameth the ghest) doth giue thee bread. Whereupon al the ghests rise vp, and by and by sit downe againe. This done, the Gentleman Vsher of the Hall comes in, with a notable company of seruants, carying the dishes, and hauing done his reuerence to the Emperour, puts a yong Swanne in a golden platter vpon the table, and immediately takes it thence againe, deliuering it to the Caruer, and seuen other of his fellowes, to be cut up: which being perfourmed, the meate is then distributed to the ghests, with the like pompe, and ceremonies. In the meane time, the Gentleman Vsher receiues his bread, and tasteth to the Emperour, and afterward, hauing done his reuerence, he departeth. Touching the rest of the dishes, because they were brought in out of order, our men can report no certaintie: but this is true, that all the furniture of dishes, and drinking vessels, which were then for the vse of a hundred ghests, was all of pure golde, and the tables were so laden with vessels of gold, that there was no roome for some to stand vpon them. We may not forget, that there were 140. seruitors arayed in cloth of gold, that in the dinner time, changed thrise their habit and apparell, which seruitors are in like sort serued with bread from the Emperour, as the rest of the ghests. Last of all, dinner being ended, and candles brought in, (for by this time night was come) the Emperour calleth all his ghests and Noble Men by their names, in such sort, that it seemes miraculous, that a Prince, otherwise occupied in great matters of estate, should so well remember so many and sundry particular names. The Russes tolde our men, that the reason thereof, as also of the bestowing of bread in that maner, was to the ende that the Emperour might keepe the knowledge of his owne houshold: and withal, that such as are vnder his displeasure, might by this meanes be knowen. Of the discipline of warre among the Russes. Whensoeuer the iniuries of their neighbours doe call the King foorth to battell, hee neuer armeth a lesse number against the enemie, then 300. thousand soldiers, 100. thousand whereof hee carieth out into the field with him, and leaueth the rest in garison in some fit places, for the better safetie of his Empire. He presseth no husbandman, nor Marchant: for the Countrey is so populous, that these being left at home, the youth of the Realme is sufficient for all his wars. As many as goe out to warfare doe prouide all things of their owne cost: they fight not on foote, but altogether on horsebacke: their armour is a coate of maile, and a helmet: the coate of maile without is gilded, or els adorned with silke, although it pertaine to a common soldier: they haue a great pride in shewing their wealth: they vse bowes, and arrowes, as the Turks do: they cary lances also into the field. They ride with a short stirrop, after the maner of the Turks: They are a kinde of people most sparing in diet, and most patient in extremitie of cold, aboue all others. For when the ground is couered with snowe, and is growen terrible and hard with the frost, this Russe hangs vp his mantle, or souldiers coate, against that part from whence the winde and Snowe driues, and so making a little fire, lieth downe with his backe towards the weather: this mantle of his serues him for his bed, wall, house and all: his drinke is colde water of the riuer, mingled with oatemeale, and this is all his good cheere, and he thinketh himselfe well, and daintily fedde therewith, and so sitteth downe by his fire, and vpon the hard ground, rosteth as it were his wearie sides thus daintily stuffed: the hard ground is his feather bed, and some blocke or stone his pillow: and as for his horse, he is as it were a chamberfellow with his master, faring both alike. How iustly may this barbarous, and rude Russe condemne the daintinesse and nicenesse of our Captaines, who liuing in a soile and aire much more temperate, yet commonly vse furred boots, and clokes? But thus much of the furniture of their common souldiers. But those that are of higher degrees come into the field a little better prouided. As for the furniture of the Emperour himselfe, it is then aboue all other times, most notable. The couerings of his tent for the most part, are all of gold, adorned with stones of great price, and with the curious workemanship of plumasiers. As often as they are to skirmish with the enemie, they goe forth without any order at all: they make no wings, nor militarie diuisions of their men, as we doe, but lying for the most part, in ambush, doe suddenly set vpon the enemie. Their horses can well abstaine two whole daies from any meate. They feede vpon the barkes of trees, and the most tender branches, in all the time of warre. And this scant and miserable maner of liuing, both the horse and his Master can well endure, sometimes for the space of two moneths, lustie, and in good state of body. If any man behaue himselfe valiantly in the fielde, to the contentation of the Emperour, he bestoweth vpon him in recompense of his seruice, some farme, or so much ground as he and his may liue vpon, which notwithstanding after his death, returneth againe to the Emperour, if he die without a male issue. For although his daughters be neuer so many, yet no part of that inheritance comes to them, except peraduenture the Emperour of his goodnesse, giue some portion of the land amongst them, to bestowe them withall. As for the man, whosoeuer he be, that is in this sort rewarded by the Emperours liberalitie, hee is bound in a great summe, to maintaine so many souldiers for the warre, when need shall require, as that land, in the opinion of the Emperour, is able to maintaine. And all those, to whom any land fals by inheritance, are in no better condition: for if they die without any male issue, all their lands fall into the hands of the Emperour. And moreouer, if there be any rich man amongst them, who in his owne person is vnfit for the warres, and yet hath such wealth, that thereby many Noble men and warriours might be maintained, if any of the Courtiers present his name to the Emperour, the vnhappy man is by and by sent for, and in that instant, depriued of all his riches, which with great paines and trauell all his life time he had gotten together: except perhaps some small portion thereof be left him, to maintaine his wife, children and familie. But all this is done of all the people so willingly at the Emperours commandement, that a man would thinke, they rather make restitution of other mens goods, then giue that which is their owne to other men. Nowe the Emperour hauing taken these goods into his hands, bestoweth them among his Courtiers, according to their deserts: and the oftener that a man is sent to the warres, the more fauour he thinketh is borne to him by the Emperour, although he goe vpon his owne charge, as I said before. So great is the obedience of all men generally to their Prince. Of the Ambassadours of the Emperour of Moscouie. The Moscouite, with no lesse pompe, and magnificence, then that which we haue spoken of, sends his Ambassadors to forrein Princes, in the affaires of estate. For while our men were abiding in the Citie of Mosco, there were two Ambassadors sent to the King of Poland, accompanied with 500. notable horses, and the greater part of the men were arrayed in cloth of gold, and of silke, and the worst apparell was of garments of blewe colour, to speake nothing of the trappings of the horses, which were adorned with gold and siluer, and very curiously embrodered: they had also with them one hundred white and faire spare horses, to vse them at such times, as any wearinesse came vpon them. But now the time requireth me to speake briefly of other Cities of the Moscouites, and of the wares and commodities that the Countrey yeeldeth. Nouogorode. Next vnto Mosco, the Citie of Nouogorode is reputed the chiefest of Russia: for although it be in Maiestie inferior to it, yet in greatnesse it goeth beyond it. It is the chiefest and greatest Marte Towne of all Moscouie: and albeit the Emperour's seate is not there, but at Mosco, yet the commodiousness of the riuer, falling into the gulfe, which is called Sinus Finnicus, whereby it is well frequented by Marchants, makes it more famous then Mosco it selfe. This towne excels all the rest in the commodities of flaxe and hempe: It yeeldes also hides, honie, and waxe. The Flemings there sometimes had a house of Marchandize, but by reason that they vsed the like ill dealing there, which they did with vs, they lost their priuileges, a restitution whereof they earnestly sued for at the time that our men were there. But those Flemings hearing of the arriuall of our men in those parts, wrote their letters to the Emperour against them, accusing them for pirats and rouers, wishing him to detaine, and imprison them. Which things when they were knowen of our men, they conceiued feare, that they should neuer haue returned home. But the Emperour beleeuing rather the Kings letters, which our men brought, then the lying and false suggestions of the Flemings, vsed no ill intreatie towards them. Yeraslaue. Yeraslaue also is a Towne of some good fame, for the commodities of hides, tallow, and corne, which it yeeldes in great abundance. Cakes of waxe are there also to bee solde, although other places haue greater store: This Yeraslaue is distant from Mosco, about two hundred miles: and betwixt them are many populous villages. Their fields yeeld such store of corne, that in conuaying it towards Mosco, sometimes in a forenoone, a man shall see seuen hundred or eight hundred sleds, going and comming, laden with corne and salt fish: the people come a thousand miles to Mosco, to buy that corne, and then cary it away vpon sleds: and these are those people that dwell in the North parts, where the colde is so terrible, that no corne doth growe there, or if it spring vp it neuer comes to ripenesse. The commodities that they bring with them, are salt fish, skinnes, and hides. Vologda. Vologda being from Mosco, 550. miles yeeldes the commodities of Hempe and Flaxe also: although the greatest store of Flaxe is solde at Nouogrode. Plesco. The Towne of Plesco, is frequented of Marchants for the good store of Honie and Waxe that it yeeldeth. Colmagro. The North parts of Russia yeelde very rare and precious skinnes: and amongst the rest, those principally, which we call Sables, worne about the neckes of our Noble women and Ladies: it hath also Martins skinnes, white, blacke, and red Foxe skinnes, skinnes of Hares, and Ermyns, and others, which they call and terme barbarously, as Beuers, Minxes, and Miniuers. The sea adioyning, breedes a certaine beast, which they call the Mors, which seeketh his foode vpon the rockes, climing vp with the helpe of his teeth. The Russes vse to take them, for the great vertue that is in their teeth, whereof they make as great accompt, as we doe of the Elephants tooth. These commodities they cary vpon Deeres backes to the towne of Lampas: and from thence to Colmagro, and there in the winter time, are kept great Faires for the sale of them. This Citie of Colmagro, serues all the Countrey about it with salt, and salt fish. The Russians also of the North parts, send thither oyle, which they call traine, which they make in a riuer called Vna, [Marginal note: Or Dwina.] although it be also made elsewhere: and here they vse to boile the water of the sea, whereof they make very great store of salt. Of controuersies in Lawe, and how they are ended. Hauing hitherto spoken so much of the chiefest Cities of Russia, as the matter required: it remaineth that we speake somewhat of the lawes, that the Moscouits doe vse, as farre foorth as the same are come to our knowledge. If any controuersie arise among them, they first make their Landlords Iudges in the matter, and if they cannot end it, then they preferre it to the Magistrate. The plaintif craueth of the said Magistrate, that he may haue leaue to enter law against his aduesarie: and hauing obtained it, the officer fetcheth the defendant, and beateth him on the legges, till he bring forth a suretie for him: but if he be not of such credite, as to procure a surety, then are his hands by an officer tied to his necke, and he is beaten all the way, till he come before the Iudge. The Iudge then asketh him (as for example in the matter of debt) whether he oweth any thing to the plaintife. If he denies it, then saith the Iudge, How canst thou deny it? the defendant answereth, By an othe: thereupon the officer is commaunded to cease from beating of him, vntill the matter be further tried. They haue no Lawyers, but euery man is his owne Aduocate, and both the complaint of the accuser, and the answere of the defendant, are in maner of petition deliuered to the Emperour, intreating iustice at his hands. The Emperour himselfe heareth euery great controuersie, and vpon the hearing of it, giueth iudgement, and that with great equitie, which I take to be a thing worthy of speciall commendation, in the Maiestie of a Prince. But although he doe this with a good purpose of mind, yet the corrupt Magistrates do wonderfully peruert the same: but if the Emperour take them in any fault, he doeth punish them most seuerely. Now at the last, when ech partie hath defended his cause with his best reasons, the Iudge demandeth of the accuser, whether he hath any more to say for himselfe: he answereth, that he will trie the matter in fight by his Champion, or else intreateth, that in fight betwixt themselues the matter may be ended: which being graunted, they both fight it out: or if both of them, or either of them seeme vnfit for that kinde of triall, then they haue publike Champions to be hired, which liue by ending of quarrels. These Champions are armed with yron axes, and speares, and fight on foote, and he whose Champion is ouercome, is by and by taken, and imprisoned, and terribly handled, vntill he agree with his aduersarie. But if either of them be of any good calling, and degree, and doe challenge one another to fight, the Iudge granteth it: in which case they may not vse publike Champions. And he that is of any good birth, doth contemne the other, if he be basely borne, and wil not fight with him. If a poore man happen to grow in debt, his Creditor takes him, and maketh him pay the debt, in working either to himselfe, or to some other man, whose wages he taketh vp. And there are some among them, that vse willingly to make themselues, their wiues, and children, bondslaues vnto rich men, to haue a little money at the first into their hands, and so for euer after content themselues with meate and drinke: so little accompt doe they make of libertie. Of punishments vpon theeues. If any man be taken vpon committing of theft, he is imprisoned, and often beaten, but not hanged for the first offence, as the manner is with vs: and this they call the lawe of mercie. He that offendeth the second time hath his nose cut off, and is burnt in the forehead with a hot yron. The third time, he is hanged. There are many cutpurses among them, and if the rigour of the Prince did not cut them off they could not be auoyded. Of their religion. They maintaine the opinions of the Greeke Church: they suffer no grauen images of saints in their Churches, but their pictures painted in tables they haue in great abundance, which they do adore and offer vnto, and burne waxe candles before them, and cast holy water vpon them, without other honour. They say that our images which are set vp in Churches, and carued, haue no diuinitie in them. In their priuate houses they haue images for their household saints, and for the most part, they are put in the darkest place of the house: hee that comes into his neighbours house doth first salute his saints, although he see them not. If any foorme or stoole stand in his way, hee oftentimes beateth his browe vpon the same, and often ducking downe with his head, and body, worshippeth the chiefe Image. The habite, and attire of the Priests, and of the Lay men, doth nothing at all differ: as for marriage, it is forbidden to no man: onely this is receiued and held amongst them for a rule, and custome, that if a Priests wife doe die, he may not marry againe, nor take a second wife: and therefore they of secular Priests, as they call them, are made Monkes, to whom then chastitie for euer is commanded. Their diuine seruice is all done and said in their owne language, that euery man may vnderstand it: they receiue the Lords Supper with leauened bread, and after the consecration, they carry it about the Church in a saucer, and prohibite no man from receiuing and taking of it, that is willing so to doe. They vse both the Olde and the Newe Testament, and read both in their owne language, but so confusedly, that they themselues that doe reade, vnderstand not what themselues doe say: and while any part of either Testament is read, there is liberty giuen by custome to prattle, talke, and make a noise: but in the time of the rest of the seruice they vse very great silence and reuerence and behaue themselues very modestly, and in good sort. As touching the Lords praier, the tenth man amongst them knowes it not: and for the articles of our faith, and the ten commandements, no man, or at the least very fewe of them doe either know them or can say them: their opinion is, that such secrete and holy things as they are should not rashly and imprudently be communicated with the common people. They holde for a maxime amongst them, that the olde Lawe, and the commandements also are abolished by the death and blood of Christ: all studies and letters of humanitie they vtterly refuse: concerning the Latine, Greeke, and Hebrew tongues, they are altogether ignorant in them. Euery yeere they celebrate foure seuerall fastes, which they call according to the names of the Saints: the first beginnes with them, at the time that our Lent beginnes. The second is called amongst them the fast of S. Peter. The third is taken from the day of the Virgin Marie. And the fourth and last begins vpon S. Philips day. But as we begin our Lent vpon Wednesday, so they begin theirs vpon the Sunday. Vpon the Saturday they eate flesh: whensoeuer any of those fasting feastes doe drawe neere, looke what weeke doth immediately goe before them, the same weeke they liue altogether vpon white meates, and in their common language they call those weekes, the fast of Butter. In the time of their fasts, the neighbours euery where goe from one to another, and visite one another, and kisse one another with kisses of peace, in token of their mutuall loue and Christian concord: and then also they doe more often then at any other time goe to the holy Communion. When seuen dayes are past, from the beginning of the fast, then they doe often either goe to their Churches, or keepe themselues at home, and vse often prayer: and for that seuennight they eate nothing but hearbes: but after that seuennights fast is once past, then they returne to their old intemperancie of drinking, for they are notable tospots. As for the keeping of their fasting dayes, they doe it very streightly, neither doe they eate any thing besides hearbes, and salt fish, as long as those fasting dayes doe endure: but vpon euery Wednesday and Friday, in euery weeke thoughout the yeere, they fast. There are very many Monasteries of the order of S. Benedict, amongst them, to which many great liuings, for their maintenance, doe belong: for the Friers and the Monkes doe at the least possesse the third part of the liuings, throughout the whole Moscouite Empire. To those Monkes that are of this Order, there is amongst them a perpetuall prohibition, that they may eate no flesh: and therefore their meate is onely salt fish, milke, and butter: neither is it permitted them by the lawes, and customes of their religion, to eate any fresh fish at all: and at those foure fasting times, whereof we spake before, they eate no fish at all: onely they liue with hearbes, and cucumbers, which they doe continually for that purpose cause and take order to grow and spring, for their vse and diet. As for their drinke, it is very weake, and small. For the discharge of their office, they do euery day say seruice, and that early in the mornings before day: and they doe in such sort, and with such obseruation begin their seruice, that they will be sure to make an ende of it, before day: and about nine of the clocke in the morning they celebrate the Communion. When they haue so done, they goe to dinner, and after dinner they goe againe to seruice, and the like also after supper: and in the meane time while they are at dinner there is some exposition or interpretation of the Gospel vsed. Whensoeuer any Abbot of any monasterie dieth, the Emperour taketh all his housholde stuffe, beastes, flockes of sheepe, golde, siluer, and all that he hath: or els hee that is to succeede him in his place and dignitie doth redeeme all those things, and buyeth them of the Emperour for money. Their churches are built of timber, and the towers of their churches for the most part are centered with shingle boordes. At the doores of their churches, they vsually build some entrance or porch as we doe, and in their churchyardes they erect a certain house of woode, wherein they set vp their bels, wherein sometimes they haue but one, in some two, and in some also three. There is one vse and custome amongst them, which is strange and rare, but yet it is very ridiculous, and that is this: when any man dyeth amongst them, they take the dead body and put it in a coffine or chest, and in the hand of the corps they put a little scroule, and in the same there are these wordes written, that the same man died a Russe of Russes, hauing receiued the faith, and died in the same. This writing or letter they say they send to S. Peter, who receiuing it (as they affirme) reades it, and by and by admits him into heauen, and that his glory and place is higher and greater than the glory of the Christians of the Latine church, reputing themselues to be followers of a more sincere faith and religion than they: they hold opinion that we are but halfe Christians, and themselues onely to be the true and perfect church: these are the foolish and childish dotages of such ignorant Barbarians. Of the Moscouites that are Idolaters, dwelling neere to Tartaria. There is a certaine part of Moscouie bordering vpon the countreys of the Tartars, wherein those Moscouites that dwell are very great idolaters: they haue one famous idole amongst them, which they call the Golden old wife: and they haue a custome that whensoeuer any plague or any calamity doth afflict the country, as hunger, warre, or such like, then they goe to consult with their idol, which they do after this manner: they fall down prostrate before the idol, and pray vnto it, and put in the presence of the same, a cymbal: and about the same certaine persons stand, which are chosen amongst them by lot: vpon their cymball they place a siluer tode, and sound the cymball, and to whomsoeuer of those lotted persons that tode goeth, he is taken, and by and by slaine: and immediately, I know not by what illusions of the deuill or idole, he is againe restored to life, and then doth reueale and deliuer the causes of the present calamitie. And by this meanes knowing how to pacifie the idole, they are deliuered from the imminent danger. Of the forme of their priuate houses, and of the apparell of the people. The common houses of the countrey are euery where built of beames of Firre tree: the lower beames doe so receiue the round hollownesse of the vppermost, that by the meanes of the building thereupon, they resist, and expell all winds that blow, and where the timber is ioined together, there they stop the chinks with mosse. The forme and fashion of their houses in al places is foure square, with streit and narrow windoes, whereby with a transparent casement made or couered with skinne like to parchment, they receiue the light The roofes of their houses are made of boords couered without with ye barke of trees: within their houses they haue benches or griezes hard by their wals, which commonly they sleepe vpon, for the common people knowe not the vse of beds: they haue stoues wherein in the morning they make a fire, and the same fire doth either moderately warme, or make very hote the whole house. The apparell of the people for the most part is made of wooll, their caps are picked like vnto a rike or diamond, broad beneath, and sharpe vpward. In the maner of making whereof, there is a signe and representation of nobilitie: for the loftier or higher their caps are, the greater is their birth supposed to be, and the greater reuerence is giuen them by the common people. The conclusion to Queen Marie. These are the things most excellent Queene, which your Subiects newly returned from Russia haue brought home concerning the state of that countrey: wherfore if your maiestie shall be fauourable, and grant a continuance of the trauell, there is no doubt but that the honour and renowne of your name will be spred amongst those nations, whereunto three onely noble personages from the verie creation haue had accesse, to whom no man hath bene comparable. * * * * * The copie of the Duke of Moscouie and Emperour of Russia his letters, sent to King Edward the sixt, by the hands of Richard Chancelour. The Almighty power of God, and the incomprehensible holy Trinitie, rightfull Christian beliefe, &c. We great Duke Iuan Vasiliuich, [Marginal note: Iuan Vasiluich, that is to say, Iohn the sonne of Basilius.] by the grace of God great lord and Emperor of all Russia, great Duke of Volodemer, Mosco, and Nouograd, King of Kazan, King of Astracan, lord of Plesko, and great duke of Smolensko, of Twerria, Ioughoria, Permia, Vadska, Bulghoria, and others, lord and great duke of Nouograd in the Low countrey of Chernigo, Resan, Polotskoy, Rostoue, Yaruslaueley, Bealozera, Liefland, Oudoria, Obdoria, and Condensa, Commander of all Siberia, and of the North parts, and lord of many other countries, greeting. Before all, right great and worthy of honour Edward King of England &c. according to our most hearty and good zeale with good intent and friendly desire, and according to our holy Christian faith, and great gouernance, and being in the light of great vnderstanding, our answere by this our honourable writing vnto your kingly gouernance, at the request of your faithfull seruant Richard Chancelour, with his company, as they shall let you wisely know, is this. In the strength of the twentieth yeere of our gouernance, be it knowen that at our sea coastes arriued a shippe, with one Richard, and his companie, and sayd, that hee was desirous to come into our dominions, and according to his request, hath seene our Maiestie, and our eyes: [Marginal note: That is, come into our presence.] and hath declared vnto vs your Maiesties desire, as that we should grant vnto your subiects, to goe and come, and in our dominions, and among our subiects, to frequent free Marts, with all sortes of marchandizes, and vpon the same to haue wares for their returne. And they haue also deliuered vs your letters, which declare the same request. And hereupon we haue giuen order, that wheresoeuer your faithful seruant Hugh Willoughbie land or touch in our dominions, to be wel entertained, who as yet is not arriued, as your seruant Richard can declare. And we with Christian beliefe and faithfulnes, and according to your honourable request, and my honourable commandement will not leaue it vndone: and are furthermore willing that you send vnto vs your ships and vessels, when and as often as they may haue passage, with good assurance on our part to see them harmlesse. And if you send one of your maiesties counsel to treate with vs whereby your countrey marchants may with all kinds of wares, and where they wil make their market in our dominions, they shall haue their free Marte with all free liberties through my whole dominions with all kinde of wares to come and goe at their pleasure, without any let, damage or impediment, according to this our letter, our word and our seale which we haue commaunded to be vnder sealed. Written in our dominion, in our citie and our palace in the castle of Mosco, in the yeare 7060, the second moneth of February. [This letter was written in the Moscouian tongue, in letters much like to the Greeke letters, very faire written in paper, with a broad seale hanging at the same, sealed in paper vpon waxe. This seale was much like the broad seale of England, hauing on the one side the image of a man on horseback in compleate harnesse fighting with a dragon. Vnder this letter was another paper written in the Dutch tongue, which was the interpretation of the other written in the Moscouian letters. These letters were sent the next yere after the date of king Edwards letters, 1554.] * * * * * The letters of king Philip and Queene Marie to Iuan Vasiliuich the Emperour of Russia written the first of April 1555 and in the second voyage. Philip and Marie by the grace of God, King and Queene of England, France, Naples, Ierusalem, and Ireland, defenders of the faith, Princes of Spaine and Sicilie, Archdukes of Austrich, Dukes of Burgundie, Millaine, and Brabant, Counties of Haspurge, Flanders, and Tiroll: To the right High, right Mightie, and right excellent Prince, garnished with all gifts of nature, by Gods grace Iohn Vasiliuich Emperour of all Russia, great Duke of Volodemer, Mosco, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan, King of Astracan, Lord of Plesco, and great Duke of Smolensko, of Tueria, Ioughoria, Permia, Vadska, Bulghoria, and others, Lorde and great Duke of Nouogrod of the lowe Countrey, of Chernigo, Rezan, Polotskay, Rostoue, Yeraslaue, Bealozera, Liefland. Oudoria, Obdoria, and Condensa, Commander of all Siberia, and of the North partes, and lord of many other countreys, greeting. Whereas by the consent and license of our most deare and entirely beloued late brother, King Edward the sixt, whose soule God pardon, sundrie of our subiects marchants of the citie of London within this our realme of England did at their owne proper costs and aduenture furnish three shippes to discouer, serch and find lands, Islands, regions, and territories before this aduenture not knowen, ne commonly haunted and frequented by seas. The one of the which three shippes, named the Edward Bonauenture, (whereof our right welbeloued Richard Chancelour was then gouernour and great Captaine) chanced by the grace of God, and the good conduct of the sayd Chancelour to arriue and winter in the North part of your Empire of Russia. Forasmuch as we be credibly informed by the report of our trustie and welbeloued subiect, that your Maiestie did not onely call him and certaine of his company to your emperiall presence and speech, entertayned and banqueted them with all humanitie and gentlenes but also being thereunto requested partly by the letters of our said brother, and partly by request of the sayd Richard Chancelour haue by your letters patents vnder your seale among other things granted: That all such marchants as shall come forth of anie of our realms of England or Ireland with al maner of wares, if they wil trauel or occupie within your dominions, the same marchants with their marchandises in al your lordship may freely, and at their libertie trauaile out and in without hindrance or any maner of losse: And of your farther ample goodnesse haue promised that our ambassadours, if wee send any, shall with free good will passe to and from you without any hindrance or losse, with such message as shall come vnto you, and to returne the same to our kingdomes well answered, as by the same your letters, written in your lordly Palace and Castle of Mosco in the yeere 7063 [Footnote: Should be 7060.] the moneth of Februarie, more at large appeareth. Like as wee cannot but much commend your princely fauour and goodnesse, and in like manner thank you for the abundant grace, extended to the sayd Richard Chancelour, and others our subiects marchants: Euen so these are to pray and request you to continue the same beneuolence toward them, and other our marchants and subiects, which doe or heereafter shall resorte to your countrey: And for the more assurance and incouragement to trade and exercise the feate of marchandise with your subiects and all other marchants within your dominions, that it may please you at this our contemplation to assigne and authorise such Commissaries as you shall thinke meete to trade and conferre with our welbeloued subiects and marchants, the sayd Richard Chancelour, George Killingworth, and Richard Graie, bearers of these our letters: who are by vs authorised for that purpose: and to confirme and graunt such other liberties and priuiledges vnto the Gouernour, Consuls, Assistants, and Communaltie of the fellowship of the saide Marchants, as the said bearers in their name propone and require by you to be granted for their safe conduct, good gouernment, and order to bee erected and continued among them in your saide dominions; And this with such your clemencie and expedition, as we, vpon the next arriuall of the saide Richard Chancelour may bee enformed of your gracious disposition and answere. Which your beneuolences so to bee extended, wee bee minded to requite towards any your subiects Marchants, that shal frequent this our realme at your contemplation therefore to be made. Thus right high, right Excellent, and right mightie, Almightie God the Father, the Sonne and the holy Ghost haue you in his blessed keeping. Giuen vnder our seale at our Palace of Westminster, the first of April, in the yeere from the blessed incarnation of our Sauiour Iesus Christ, 1555. and in the first and second yeeres of our reignes. * * * * * Articles conceiued and determined for the Commission of the Merchants of this company residant in Russia, and at the Wardhouse, for the second voyage, 1555. the first of May, as followeth. First, the Gouernour, Consuls, Assistants and whole company assembled this day in open court, committeth and authorizeth Richard Gray and George Killingworth, iointly and seuerally to be Agents, Factors, and Atturneis generall and speciall, for the whole body of this company, to buy, sel, trucke, change and permute al, and every kind and kindes of wares, marchandises and goods to the said company appertaining, now laden and shipped in the good ship called the Edward Bonauenture, appointed for Russia, the same to vtter and sell to the best commoditie, profit and aduantage of the said corporation, be it for ready money, wares and merchandises, or truck, presently, or for time, as occasion and benefit of the company shal require: and all such wares as they or either of them shal buy, trucke, or prouide, or cause to be bought for the company to lade them homeward in good order and condition, as by prudent course of marchandises, shall, and ought to appertaine, which article extendeth also to Iohn Brooke for the Wardhouse, as in the 17. and 18. articles of this commission appeareth. 2. Item, it is also committed, as aboue, to the said Agents, to binde and charge the said company by debt for wares vpon credit, as good opportunitie and occasion shal serue, with power to charge and bind the said company, and their successors, for the paiments of such things as shalbe taken vp for credite, and the said Agents to be relieued ab opere satis dandi. 3. Item full authoritie and power is committed to the said first named factors, together with Richard Chancelor grand Pilot of this fleete, to repaire to the Emperors court, there to present the king and Queenes Maiesties letters, written in Greeke, Polish, and Italian, and to giue and exhibite the marchants presents at such time and place as shalbe thought most expedient, they, or one of them to demand, and humbly desire of the Emperour such further grants and priuiledges to be made to this companie, as may be beneficiall for the same, to continue in traffike with his subiects, according to such instructions as bee in this behalfe deuised and deliuered to the Agents whereunto relation is to be had, and some one of these persons to attend vpon the court for the obtaining of the same, as to their discretions shalbe thought good. 4. Item, that all the saide Agents doe well consider, ponder and weigh such articles as bee deliuered to them to know the natures, dispositions, lawes, customes, maners and behauiours of the people of the countries where they shal traffike, as well of the Nobilitie as of the Lawyers, Marchants, Mariners and common people, and to note diligently the subtilties of their bargaining, buying and selling, making as fewe debtes as possiblie may bee, and to bee circumspect, that no lawe neither of religion nor positiue bee broken or transgressed by them or any minister vnder them, ne yet by any mariner or other person of our nation, and to foresee that all tolles, customes, and such other rites be so duely paid, that no forfeiture or confiscation may ensue to our goods either outward or inward, and that al things passe with quiet, without breach of the publike peace or common tranquilitie of any of the places where they shall arriue or traffique. 5. Item, that prouision bee made in Mosco or elsewhere, in one or mo good townes, where good trade shall be found for a house or houses for the Agents, and companie to inhabite and dwell at your accustomed diets, with warehouses, sellers, and other houses of offices requisite, and that none of the inferiour ministers of what place or vocation soeuer he be, doe lie out of the house of the Agents without licence to be giuen, and that euery inferiour officer shalbe obedient to the orders, rules and gouernments of the said Agents, and in case any disobedient person shall be found among any of them, then such person to be punished for his misbehauiour, at the discretion of the said Agents, or of one of them in the absence of the other. 6. Item, if any person of the said ministers shall be of such pride or obstinacie, that after one or two honest admonitions, hee will not bee reformed nor reconciled from his faultes, then the saide Agents to displace euery such person from the place or roume to him heere committed, and some other discreete person to occupie the same, as to the saide Agents by their discretions shal seeme meete. 7. Item, if any person shall be found so arrogant, that he will not be ordered nor reformed by the said Agents or by one of them in the absence of the other, then the sayde person to bee deliuered to the Iustice of the countrey, to receiue such punishment, as the lawes of the countrey doe require. 8. Item, that the Agents and factours shall daily one houre in the morning conferre and consult together what shall bee most conuenient and beneficial for the companie, and such orders as they shall determine, to bee written by the Secretarie of the companie in a booke to bee prouided for that purpose, and no inferiour person to infringe and breake any such order or deuise, but to obserue the same exactly, vpon such reasonable paine as the Agents shall put him to by discretion. 9. Item, that the said Agents shall in the ende of euerie weeke, or oftener as occasion shall require, peruse, see, and trie, not onely the Casshers, bookes, reckonings and accounts, firming the same with their handes, but also shall receiue and take weekly the account of euery other officer, as well of the Vendes, as of the empteous, and also of the state of the houshold expenses, making thereof a perfect declaration as shall appertaine, the same accounts also to bee firmed by the saide Agents hands. 10. Item, that no inferior minister shall take vpon him to make any bargains or sale of any wares, marchandises or goods, but by the Commission and Warrantise of the sayde Agents vnder their handes, and hee not to transgresse his Commission by any way, pretense or colour. 11. Item, that euery inferiour minister, that is to vnderstand, all Clerks and yong merchants, being at the order of the saide Agents, shall ride, goe, saile and trauaile to all such place, and places, as they or hee shall be appointed vnto by the saide Agents, and effectually to follow and do all that which to him or them shall be committed, well and truely to the most benefite of the company, according to the charge to him or them committed, euen as by their othes, dueties and bondes of their masters they be bounden and charged to doe. 12. Item, that at euery moneths end, all accounts and reckonings shalbe brought into perfect order, into the Lidger or memoriall, and the decrees, orders, and rules of the Agents together with the priuileges, and copies of letters, may and shall be well and truely written by the secretarie, in such forme as shalbe appointed for it, and that copies of all their doings may be sent home with the said ship at her returne. 13. Item, that all the Agents doe diligently learne and obserue all kinde of wares, as wel naturals as forrein, that be beneficiall for this Realme, to be sold for the benefit of the company, and what kinde of our commodities and other things of these West partes bee most vendible in those Realmes with profite, giuing a perfect aduise of all such things requisite. 14. Item, if the Emperour will enter into bargain with you for the whole masse of your stock, and will haue the trade of it to vtter to his owne subiects, then debating the matter prudently among your selues, set such high prises of your commodities, as you may assure your selues to be gainers in your owne wares, and yet to buy theirs at such base prises, as you may here also make a commoditie and gaine at home, hauing in your mindes the notable charges that the companie haue diffrayed in aduancing this voyage: and the great charges that they sustaine dayly in wages, victuals and other things: all which must bee requited by the wise handling of this voyage, which being the first president shalbe a perpetual president for euer: and therefore all circumspection is to be vsed, and foreseene in this first enterprise, which God blesse and prosper vnder you, to his glorie, and the publike wealth of this Realme, whereof the Queenes Maiestie, and the Lords of the Councell haue conceiued great hope, whose expectations are not to be frustrated. 15. Item, it is to be had in minde, that you vse all wayes and meanes possible to learne howe men may passe from Russia, either by land or by sea to Cathaia, and what may be heard of our other ships, and to what knowledge you may come, by conferring with the learned or well trauailed persons, either naturall or forrein, such as haue trauailed from the North to the South. 16. Item, it is committed to the said Agents, that if they shall be certified credibly, that any of our said first ships be arriued in any place whereunto passage is to be had by water or by land, that then certaine of the company at the discretion of the Agents shall bee appointed to be sent to them, to learne their estate and condition, to visite, refresh, relieue, and furnish them with all necessaries and requisites, at the common charges of the companie, and to imbrace, accept, and intreat them as our deare and wel-beloued brethren of this our societie, to their reioycing and comfort, aduertising Syr Hugh Willoughbie and others of our carefulnes of them and their long absence, with our desire to heare of them, with all other things done in their absence for their commoditie, no lesse then if they had bene present. 17. Item, it is decreed, that when the ships shal arriue at this going foorth at the Wardhouse, that their Agents, with master Chancelor grand pilot, Iohn Brooke, merchant, deputed for the Wardhouse, with Iohn Buckland master of the Edward, Iohn Howlet master, and Iohn Robins pilot of the Philip and Marie, shall conferre and consult together, what is most profitable to be done therfore for the benefit of the company, and to consider whether they may bargaine with the captaine of the castle, and the inhabitants in that place, or alongst the coast for a large quantitie of fish, drie or wet, killed by the naturals, or to be taken by our men at a price reasonable for trucke of cloth, meale, salt, or beere, and what traine oyle, or other commodity is to be had there at this time, or any other season of the yeere, and whether there will be had or found sufficient lading for both the sayd shippes, to be bought there, and how they may conferre with the naturals for a continuance in hanting the place, if profit wil so arise to the company, and to consider whether the Edward in her returne may receiue at the Wardhouse any kind of lading homeward, and what it may amount vnto, and whether it shall be expedient for the Philip to abide at the Wardhouse the returne of the Edward out of Russia, or getting that she may returne with the first good wind to England, without abiding for the Edward, and so to conclude and accord certainely among themselues vpon their arriuall, that the certaintie may (vpon good deliberation) be so ordered and determined betweene both ships, that the one may be assured of the other, and their determinations to be put in writing duplicate to remaine with ech ship, according to such order as shall be taken betweene them. 18. Item, that Iohn Brooke our marchant for the Wardhouse take good aduise of the rest of our Agents, how to vse himselfe in al affaires, whiles the ship shalbe at the Wardhouse, he to see good order to be kept, make bargains aduisedly, not crediting the people vntill their natures, dispositions and fidelities shal be well tried, make no debts, but to take ware for ware in hand, and rather be trusted then to trust. Note diligently what be the best wares for those parts, and howe the fishe falleth on the coast, and by what meane it is to bee bought at the most aduantage, what kindes and diuersities of sortes in fishes be, and whether it will keepe better in bulke piled, or in caske. 19. Item, he to haue a diligent eye and circumspection to the beere, salt, and other liquid wares, and not to suffer any waste to be made by the companie, and he in all contracts to require aduise, counsel, and consent of the master and pilot, the marchant to be our houswife, as our special trust is in him, he to tender that no lawes nor customes of the countrey be broken by any of the company, and to render to the prince, and other officers, all that which to them doth appertaine, the company to be quiet, voide of all quarrelling, fighting, or vexation, absteine from all excesse of drinking as much as may bee, and in all to vse and behaue themselues as to quiet marchants doeth, and ought to apperteine. 20. Item, it is decreed by the companie, that the Edward shall returne home this yeere with as much wares as may be conueniently, and profitably prouided, bought, and laden in Russia, and the rest to be taken in at the Wardhouse, as by the Agents shall be accorded. But by all meanes it is to be foreseene and noted, that the Edward returne home, and not to winter in any forrein place, but to come home and bring with her all the whole aduertisements of the marchants, with such further aduise for the next yeeres prouision, as they shall giue. 21. Item, it is further decreed and ordeined, inuiolably to be obserued, that when the good ships, or either of them (by Gods grace) shall returne home to the coastes of England, that neither of them shall stay or touch in any Hauen or Port of England, other wise then wind and weather shall serue, but shall directly saile and come to the Port of the citie of London, the place of their right discharge, and that no bulke be broken, hatches opened, chest, fardell, trusse, barrel, fat, or whatsoeuer thing it shall be, be brought out of the shippe, vntill the companie shall giue order for the same, and appoint such persons of the companie as shall be thought meet for that purpose, to take viewe, and consider the shippe and her lading and shall giue order for the breaking vp of the saide bulke, or giue licence by discretion, for things to be brought to land. And that euery officer shall shewe the inuoise of his charge to him first committed, and to examine the wastes and losses, and to deliuer the remainder to the vse and benefit of the company, according to such order as shall be appointed in that behalfe. 22. Item, the company exhorteth, willeth, and requireth, not onely all the said Agents, pilots, masters, marchants, clerkes, boatswaines, stewards, skafemasters, and all other officers and ministers of this present voyage, being put in charge and trust daily to peruse, reade, and studie such instructions as be made, giuen, and deliuered to them for perfect knowledge of the people of Russia, Moscouia, Wardhouse and other places, their dispositions, maners, customes, vses, tolles, cariages, coines, weights, numbers, measures, wares, merchandises, commodities, and incommodities, the one to be accepted and imbraced, the other to be reiected and vtterly abandoned, to the intent that euery man taking charge, may be so well taught, perfited, and readily instructed in all the premisses, that by ignorance, no losse or preiudice may grow or chance to the company: assuring themselues, that for asmuch as the company hath trauelled and laboured so in these their instructions to them giuen, that euery man may bee perfect, and fully learned to eschew all losses, hurts and damages that may insue by pretence or colour of none knowledge, the company entendeth not to allow, or accept ignorance for any lawfull or iust cause of excuse, in that which shall be misordered by negligence, the burden whereof shall light vpon the negligent offending person, especially vpon such as of their owne heads, or temeritie, will take vpon him or them to doe or to attempt any thing, whereby preiudice may arise, without the commission of the Agents as aboue is mentioned, whereunto relation must be had. 23. Forasmuch as it is not possible to write and indite such prescribed orders, rules and commissions to the Agents and factours, but that occasion, time and place, and the pleasures of the princes, together with the operation or successe of fortune shall change or shift the same, although not in the whole, yet in part, therefore the said company doe commit to you their deare and intire beloued Agents and factors to doe in this behalfe for the commodity and wealth of this company, as by your directions, vpon good aduised deliberations shalbe thought good and beneficiall. Prouided alwayes, that the honour, good name, fame, credite, and estimation of the same companie be conserued and preserued: which to confirme we beseech the liuing Lord to his glory, the publike benefite of this realme, our common profits, and your praises. Finally for the seruice, and due accomplishment of all the premisses, euery Agent and minister of and for this voyage, hath not onely giuen a corporall othe vpon the Euangelists, to obserue, and cause to be obserued, this commission, and euery part, clause and sentence of the same, as much as in him lyeth, as well for his owne part as for any other person, but also haue bounde themselues and their friendes to the companie in seuerall summes of money, expressed in the actes and records of this societie, for the trueth and fidelities of them, for the better, and also manifester testification of the trueth, and of their othes, promises, and bands aforesaid, they haue to this commission subscribed particularly their seuerall hands, and the company also in confirmation of the same, haue set their seale. Yeuen the day, moneth, and yeeres first aboue mentioned. The othe ministred to the seruants of the fellowship. Ye sweare by the holy contents of that booke, that ye shal wel, faithfully and truely, and vprightly, and with all your indeuour, serue this right worshipfull company in that order, which by this fellowships Agent or Agents in the dominions of the Emperours of Russia, &c. shall bee vnto you committed, by commission, commandement, or other his direction. And that you shall bee obedient and faithfull to the same our Agent or Agents, and that well, and truely and vprightly according to the commission, charge, commandement, or other direction of the said Agent or Agents to you from time to time giuen and to be giuen, you shall prosecute and doe all that which in you lieth, for the good renowme, commoditie, benefite and profite of the said fellowship: and you shall not directly or indirectly, openly or couertly doe, exercise or vse any trade or feate of marchandises for your owne priuate account, commodity, gaine or profite, or for the account of or for any other person or persons, without consent or licence of this said fellowship, first obtained in writing. And if you shall know or vnderstand any other person or persons to vse, exercise or doe any trade, traffike or feat of marchandise, to or for his or their own account or accounts, at any time or times hereafter, that then ye shall truely and plainly disclose, open, vtter and reueale, and shew the same vnto this said fellowship, without fraude, colour, couin or delay: So helpe you God, &c. * * * * * The letter of M. George Killingworth the companies first Agent in Moscouie, touching their interteinement in their second voyage. Anno 1555. the 27. of Nouember in Mosco. Right worshipful, my duetie, considered, &c. It may please your worship to vnderstand, that at the making hereof we all be in good health, thanks be to God, saue onely William our cooke as we came from Colmogro fell into the river out of the boate, and was drowned. And the 11. day of September wee came to Vologda, and there we laide all our wares vp, and sold very little: but one marchant would haue giuen vs 12. robles for a broad cloth, and he said he would haue had them all, and 4. altines for a pound of sugar, but we did refuse it because he was the first, and the marchants were not come thither, nor would not come before Winter, trusting to haue more: But I feare it will not be much better. Yet notwithstanding we did for the best. And the house that our wares lie in costs from that day vntil Easter ten robles. And the 28. day of September we did determine with our selues that it was good for M. Gray, Arthur Edwards, Thomas Hautory, Christopher Hudson, Iohn Segewicke, Richard Ionson, and Richard Iudde, to tarie at Vologda, and M. Chancelor, Henry Lane, Edward Prise, Robert Best and I should goe to Mosco. And we did lade the Emperours suger, with part of all sorts of wares to haue had to the Mosco with vs, but the way was so deepe, that we were faine to turne back, and leaue is stil at Vologda till the frost. And we went forth with poste horse, and the charge of euery horse being stil ten in number, comes to 10 s. 7 d. halfe penie, besides the guides. And we came to the Mosco the 4. day of October, and were lodged that night in a simple house: but the next day we were sent for to the Emperour his secretarie, and he bade vs welcome with a cheerefull countenance and cheerefull wordes, and wee shewed him that we had a letter from our Queenes grace to the Emperour his grace, and then he desired to see them all, and that they might remain with him, to haue them perfect, that the true meaning might be declared to the Emperour, and so we did: and then we were appointed to a better house: and the seuenth day the secretary sent for vs againe, and then he shewed vs that we should haue a better house: for it was the Emperour his will, that we should haue all things that we did lacke, and did send vs meade of two sorts, and two hens, our house free, and euery two dayes to receiue eight hens, seven altines, and two pence in money, and meade a certaine, and a poore fellow to make cleane our house, and to doe that wherunto we would set him. And wee had giuen many rewards before, which you shal perceiue by other, and so we gaue the messengers a reward with thanks: and the ninth day we were sent to make vs readie to speak, with the Emperour on the morow. And the letters were sent vs, that wee might deliuer them our selues, and we came before him the tenth day: and before we came to his presence we went thorow a great chamber, where stood many small tunnes, pailes, bowles and pots of siluer, I meane, like washing bowles, all parsel gilt: and within that another chamber, wherein sate (I thinke) neere a hundred in cloth of gold, and then into the chamber where his grace sate, and there I thinke were more then in the other chamber also in cloth of gold, and we did our duety, and shewed his grace our Queenes graces letters, with a note of your present which was left in Vologda: and then his grace did aske how our Queenes grace did, calling her cousin, saying that hee was glad that wee were come in health into his Realme, and we went one by one vnto him, and tooke him by the hand, and then his grace did bid vs goe in health, and come to dinner againe, and we dined in his presence, and were set with our faces towards his grace, and none in the chamber sate with their backes towards him, being I thinke neere a hundred at dinner then, and all serued with golde, as platters, chargers, pottes, cuppes, and all not slender but very massy, and yet a great number of platters of golde, standing still on the cupboord, not moued: and diuers times in the dinner time his grace sent vs meat and drinke from his owne table, and when we had dined we went vp to his grace, and receiued a cuppe with drinke at his owne hand, and the same night his grace sent certaine gentlemen to us with diuers sortes of wine and mede, to whome wee gaue a rewarde. And afterwarde we were by diuers Italians counselled to take heed whom we did trust to make the copie of the priuiledges that we would desire to haue, for feare it should not be written in the Russie tongue, as we did meane. So first a Russian did write for us a breuiat to the Emperor, the tenour wherof was, that we did desire a stronger priuilege: and when the Secretary saw it, he did deliuer it to his grace, and when we came againe, his grace willed vs to write our minds, and hee would see it, and so we did. And his grace is so troubled with preparations to warres, that as yet wee haue no answere: but we haue byn required of his Secretary, and of the vnder Chancelor, to know what wares we had brought into the Realme, and what wares we doe intend to haue, that are, or may bee had in this Realme: and we shewed them, and they shewed the Emperor therof. And then they said his graces pleasure was, that his best marchants of the Mosco should be spoken to, to meet and talk with vs. And so a day was appointed, and wee mette in the Secretarie his office, and there was the vnder Chancelor, who was not past two yeeres since the Emperors marchant, and not his Chancelour: and then the conclusion of our talke was, that the Chancelour willed vs to bethinke vs, where we would desire to haue a house or houses, that wee might come to them as to our owne house, and for marchandize to be made preparation for vs, and they would know our prises of our wares and frise: and we answered, that for our prices they must see the wares before we coulde make any price thereof, for the like in goodnesse hath not bene brought into the Realme, and we did looke for an example of all sorts of our wares to come from Vologda, with the first sledway, and then they should see them, and then we would shew them the prices of them: and likewise we could not tell them what we would giue them iustly, till we did knowe as well their iust weights as their measures: for in all places where we did come, al weights and measures did vary. Then the Secretary (who had made promise vnto vs before) saide, that we should haue all the iust measures vnder seale, and he that was found faulty in the contrary, to buy or sel with any other measure then that, the law was, that he should be punished: he said moreouer, that if it so happen that any of our marchants do promise by couenant at any time to deliuer you any certain sum of wares in such a place, and of such like goodnesse, at such a day, for such a certaine price, and then because of variance, we should cause it to be written, according as the bargain is, before a iustice or the next ruler to the place: if he did not keepe couenant and promise in all points, according to his couenant, that then looke what losse or hinderance we could iustly proue that we haue therby, he should make it good if he be worth so much: and in like case we must do to them: and to that we did agree, saue onely if it were to come ouer the sea, then if any such fortune should bee (as God forbid) that the ship should mischance or be robbed, and the proofe to be made that such kind of wares were laden, the English marchants to beare no losse to the other marchant. Then the Chancelor said, me thinks you shall do best to haue your house at Colmogro, which is but 100. miles from the right discharge of the ships, and yet I trust the ships shall come neerer hereafter, because the ships may not tary long for their lading, which is 1000. miles from Vologda by water, and all our marchants shall bring all our marchandize to Colmogro to you, and so shall our marchants neither go empty nor come empty: for if they lacke lading homeward, there is salt, which is good ware here, that they may come loden againe. So we were very glad to heare that, and did agree to his saying: for we shal neuerthelesse, if we lust, haue a house at Vologda, and at the Mosco, yea, and at Nouogrode, or where we wil in Rusland: but the three and twentieth of this present we were with the Secretary, and then among other talke, we moued, that if we should tary at Colmogro with our wares, and should not come to Vologda, or further to seeke our market, but tary still at Colmogro, and then the merchants of the Mosco and others should not come and bring their wares, and so the ships should come, and not haue their lading ready, that then it were a great losse and hinderance for vs: then saide hee againe to vs, that the marchants had beene againe together with him, and had put the like doubt, that if they should come and bring their wares to Colmogro, and that they should not find wares there sufficient to serue them, that then they should be at great losse and hinderance, they leauing their other trades to fal to that: and to that we did answere, that after the time that we do appoint with them to bring their wares to Colmogro, God willing, they should neuer come thither, but at the beginning of the yere, they should find that our marchants would haue at the least for a thousand robles, although the ships were not come: so that he saide, that then wee must talke further with the marchants: so that as yet I know not, but that we shall haue neede of one house at Colmogro, and another at Vologda, and that if they bring not their wares to Colmogro, then wee shalbe sure to buy some at Vologda, and to be out of bondage. And thus may we continue three or foure yeeres, and in this space we shall know the countrey and the marchants, and which way to saue our selues best, and where to plant our houses, and where to seeke for wares: for the Mosco is not best for any kind of wares for vs to buy, saue onely waxe, which we cannot haue vnder seuen pence the Russe pound, and it lackes two ounces of our pound, neither will it be much better cheape, for I haue bidden 6. pence for a pound. And I haue bought more, fiue hundred weight of yarne, which stands mee in eight pence farthing the Russe pound one with another. And if we had receiued any store of money, and were dispatched heere of that we tarry for, as I doubt not but we shalbe shortly (you know what I meane) then as soone as we haue made sale, I doe intend to goe to Nouogrode and to Plesco, whence all the great number of the best tow flaxe, cometh, and such wares as are there I trust to buy part. And feare you not but we will do that may be done, if God send vs health, desiring you to prepare fully for one ship to be ready in the beginning of April to depart off the coast of England. Concerning all those things which we haue done in the wares, you shal receiue a perfect note by the next bearer (God willing) for he that carieth these from vs is a marchant of Terwill and he was caused to cary these by the commandement of the Emperour his secretarie, whose name is Iuan Mecallawich Weskawate, whom we take to be our very friend. And if it please you to send any letters to Dantiske to Robert Elson, or to William Watson's seruant Dunstan Walton to be conueyed to vs, it may please you to inclose ours in a letter sent from you to him, written in Polish, Dutch, Latine, or Italian: so inclosed, comming to the Mosco to his hands, he wil conuey our letters to vs wheresoeuer we be. And I haue written to Dantiske already to them for the conueyance of letters from thence. And to certifie you of the weather here, men say that these hundred yeeres was neuer so warme weather in this countrey at this time of the yeere. But as yesternight wee receiued a letter from Christopher Hudson [Footnote: Mr. John M. Read, in his "Historical Enquiry respecting Henry Hudson," printed by the Clarendon Historical Society, is of opinion that both Christopher Hudson and the Henry Hudson named in Queeu Mary's Charter as one of the founders of the Muscovy Company, were related to the discoverer of Delaware Bay. (Clarendon Hist. Soc. Reprints, Series I. p. 149.)] from a citie called Yeraslaue, who is comming hither with certaine of our wares, but the winter did decieue him, so that he was faine to tarie by the way: and he wrote that the Emperours present was deliuered to a gentleman at Vologda, and the sled did ouerthrow, and the butte of Hollocke was lost, which made vs all very sory. I pray you be not offended with these my rude letters for lacke of time: but assoone as sales be made, I will finde the meanes to conuey you a letter with speed: for the way is made so doubtful, that the right messenger is so much in doubt, that he would not haue any letters of any effect sent by any man, if he might, for he knowes not of these: and to say the truth, the way is not for him to trauell in. But I will make another shift beside, which I trust shall serue the turne till he come, if sales be made before he be readie, which is and shall be as pleaseth God: who euer preserue your worship, and send us good sales. Written in haste. By yours to commaund GEORGE KILLINGWORTH Draper. * * * * * (George Killingworth was furnished with a copy of the following notice of the coines, weights and measures vsed in Russia, written by Iohn Hasse, in the yeere, 1554:--) Forasrauch as it is most necessary for al marchants which seeks to haue traffique in any strange regions, first to acquaint themselues with the coines of those lands with which they do intend to ioyne in traffique, and how they are called from the valuation of the highest piece to the lowest, and in what sort they make their paiments, as also what their common weights and measures be: for these causes I haue thought good to write something thereof according to mine owne knowledge and experience, to the end that, the marchants of that new aduenture, may the better vnderstand how the wealth of that new frequented trade will arise. First, it is to be noted that the Emperour of Russia hath no other coines then siluer in all his land, which goeth for paiment amongst merchants, yet notwithstanding there is a coine of copper, which serueth for the reliefe of the poore in Mosco, and no where els, and that is but only for quasse, water and fruit, as nuts, apples, and such other like. The name of which money is called Pole or Poles of which Poles there goe to the least of the siluer coines, 18. But I will not stand vpon this, because it is no currant money among marchants. Of siluer coines there be three sortes of pieces: the least is a Poledenga, the second a Denga, the third, Nowgrote, which is as much to say in English as halfepenie, penie and twopence, and for other valued money then this, there is none: there are oftentimes there coines of gold, but they come out of forrein countreys, whereof there is no ordinarie valuation, but they passe according to the agreement of marchants. Their order in summing of money is this: as we say in England, halfpenie, penie, shilling, and pound, so say they Poledenga, Denga, Altine and Rubble: there goeth two Poledengas to a Denga, six Dengaes to an Altine, and 23 Altines, and two Dengaes to a Rubble. Concerning the weights of Russia they are these: There are two sortes of pounds in vse amongst them, the one great, the other small: the great pound is iust two small pounds: they call the great weight by the name of Beasemar, and the smal they call the Skalla weight: with this smal weight they weigh their siluer coines, of the which the Emperor hath commanded to put to euery small pound three Rubbles of siluer, and with the same weight they weigh all Grocerie wares, and almost al other wares which come into the land, except those which they weigh by the Pode, as hops, salt, iron, lead, tinne and batrie with diuers others, notwithstanding they vse to weigh batrie more often by the small weight then by the great. Whensoever you find the prices of your wares rated by the Pode, consider that to the great weight, and the pound to be the small. Also they divide the small pound into 48 parts, and they call the eight and fortieth part a Slotnike, by the which Slotnike the retailers sell their wares out of their shops, as Goldsmiths, Grocers, Silkesellers, and such other like as we doe vse to retaile by the ounce: and as for their great weight which they cal the Beasemar, they sel by pode or shippond. The pode doth containe of the great weight, 40 pounds, and of the small 80; there goe 10. podes to a shippond. Yet you must consider that their great weight is not full with ours: for I take not their great pound to be full 13 ounces, but aboue 12 I thinke it be. But for your iust proofe, weigh 6 Rubbles of Russia money with our pound weight, and then shal you see what it lacketh: for 6 Rubbles of Russia is by the Emperors standerd, the great pound: so that I thinke it the next way to know the iust weight, as well of the great pound as of the small. There is another weight needfull to be knowen, which is the weight of Wardhouse, for so much as they weigh all their drie fish by weight, which weight is the Baesemar, as they of Russia doe vse, notwithstanding there is another sorte in it: the names of those weights are these: the marke pound, the great pound, the weie, and the shippond. The marke pound is to be vnderstood as our pound, and their great pound is 24 of their marke pound: the weie is 3 great pound, and 8 weie is a shippound. Now concerning their measures. As they haue two sortes of weights, so they haue also two sortes of measures: wherewith they measure cloth both linnen and wollen: they cal the one an Areshine, and the other a Locut: the Areshine I take to bee as much as the Flanders ell, and their Locut halfe an English yard: with their Areshine they may mete all such sorts of clothes as come into the land, and with the Locut all such cloth both linnen and wollen, as they make themselues. And whereas we vse to giue yard and inch, or yard and handfull, they do giue nothing but bare measure. They haue also measure wherewith they doe mete their corne, which they cal a Setforth, and the halfe of that an Osmine: this Setforth I take to bee three bushels of London measure. And as for their drinke measure, they call it a Spanne, which is much like a bucket, and of that I neuer saw any true rate, but that some was greater then other some. And as for the measures of Wardhouse wherewith they mete their cloth, there is no difference between that and the measure of Danske, which is halfe an English ell. Concerning the tolles and customs of Russia, it was reported to me in Moscouia, that the Turkes and Armenians pay the tenth penie custome of all the wares they bring into the Emperors land, and aboue that they pay for all such goods as they weigh at the Emperours beame, two pence of the Rubble, which the buyer or seller must make report to the Master of the beame: they also pay a certaine horse toll, which is in diuers places of his Realme four pence of a horse. The Dutch nation are free of this: notwithstanding for certaine offences, they had lost their priuiledges which they haue recouered this Summer to their great charge. It was reported to me by a Iustice of that countrey, that they paied for it thirtie thousand Rubbles, and also that Rye, Dorpte and Reuel haue yeelded themselues vnder the gouernment of the Emperor of Russia: whether this was a bragge of the Russes or not, I know not, but thus he sayd, and in deed whiles we were there, there came a great Ambassadour out of Liefland, for the assurance of their priuiledges. To speake somewhat of the commodities of this countrey, it is to be vnderstood, that there is a certaine place foure score miles from the Sea called Colmogro: to which place there resorte all the sortes of Wares that are in the North parts, as Oyles, Salt, Stockefish, Salmon, Fethers and Furres: their Salt they make of saltwater by the sea side: their Oyles they make of Seales, whereof they haue great store which is brought out of the Bay where our shippes came in: they make it in the Spring of the yeere, and bring it to Colmogro to sell, and the marchants there carie it to Nouogrode, and so sell it to the Dutch nation. Their Stockefish and Salmon commeth from a place called Mallums, not farre from Warehouse: their Salmon and their Salt they carrie to Mosco, and their drie fish they carrie to Nouogrode, and sell it there to the Lieflanders. The Furres and Fethers which come to Colmogro, as Sables, Beauers, Minkes, Armine, Lettis, Graies, Wooluerings, and white Foxes, with Deere skinnes, they are brought thither, by the men of Penninge, Lampas, and Powstezer, which fetch them from the Sarnoedes that are counted sauage people: and the merchants that bring these Furres doe vse to trucke with the marchants of Colmogro for Cloth, Tinne, Batrie, and such other like, and the merchants of Colmogro carie them to Nouogrode, Vologda, or Mosco, and sell them there. The Fethers which come fom Penning they doe little esteeme. If our marchants do desire to know the meetest place of Russia for the standing house, in mine opinion I take it to be Vologda, which is a great towne standing in the heart of Russia, with many great and good towns about it. There is great plenty of corne, victuals, and of all such wares as are raised in Rusland, but specially, flaxe, hempe, tallow and bacon: there is also great store of waxe, but it commeth from the Mosko. The towne of Vologda is meetest for our marchants, because it lieth amongst all the best towns of Russia, and there is no towne in Russia but trades with it: also the water is a great commoditie to it. If they plant themselues in Mosco or Nouogrode their charge will be great and wonderfull, but not so in Vologda: for all things will there be had better cheape by the one half. And for their vent, I know no place so meet. It is likely that some will think the Mosko to be the meetest by the reason of the court, but by that reason I take it to be woorse: for the charge there would be so great by crauers and expenses, that the moitie of the profite would bee wholly consumed, which in the other place will be saved. And yet notwithstanding our marchants may bee there in the Winter to serue the Emperour and his court. The Emperour is a great marchant himselfe of waxe and sables, which with good foresight may bee procured to their hands: as for other commodities there are little or none in Moscovia, besides those aboue rehearsed: if there bee other, it is brought thither by the Turkes, who will be daintie to buy our clothes considering the charges of cariage ouer land. Our marchants may doe well to prouide for the Russes such wares as the Dutch nation doeth serue them of, as Flanders and Holland clothes, which I beleeue, they shal serue better and with lesse charge than they of Rye or Dorpt, or Reuel: for it is no smal aduenture to bring their clothes out of Flanders to either of these places, and their charge not litle to cary them ouer lande to Nouogrode, which is from Rye nine hundred Russian miles. This Nouogrode is a place wel furnished with flaxe, Waxe, Hides, tallow and many other things: the best flaxe in Russia is brought thither, and there, sold by the hundred bundles, which is done also at Vologda, and they that bring the flaxe to Nouogrode, dwell as neere Vologda, as Nouogrode, and when they heare of the vtterance which they may haue with our nation, they will as willingly come to them as goe to other. They haue in Russia two sortes of flaxe, the one is called great flaxe, and the other small: that which they call great flaxe is better by foure rubbles in 100. bundels than the small: It is much longer than the other, and cleaner without wood: and whereas of the small flaxe there goe 27. or 28. bundles to a shippound, there goeth not of the greater sort aboue 22. or 24. at the most. There are many other trifles in Russia, as sope, mats, &c. but I thinke there will bee no great account made of them. * * * * * A copie of the first Priuileges graunted by the Emperour of Russia to the English Marchants in the yeere 1555. Iohn Vasiliuich, by the grace of God Emperor of Russia, great duke of Nouogrode, Moscouia, &c. To all people that shall see, reade, heare or vnderstand these presents, greeting. Forasmuch as God hath planted al realmes and dominions in the whole world with sundry commodities, so as the one hath neede of the amity and commodities of the other, and by means thereof traffike is vsed from one to another, and amity therby increased: and for that as amongst men nothing is more to be desired than amity, without the which no creature being of a naturall good disposition can liue in quietnes, so that it is as troublesome to be vtterly wanting, as it is perceiued to be grieuous to the body to lacke aire, fire, or any other necessaries most requisite for the conseruation and maintenance thereof in health: considering also how needfull marchandize is, which furnisheth men of all that which is conuenient for their liuing and nouriture, for their clothing, trimming, the satisfying of their delights, and all other things conuenient and profitable for them, and that marchandize bringeth the same commodities from diuers quarters in so great abundance, as by meanes thereof, nothing is lacking in any part, and that all things be in euery place (where entercourse of marchandizes is receiued and imbraced) generally in such sort, as amity thereby is entred into, and planted to continue, and the inioyers thereof be as men liuing in a golden world: Vpon these respects and other weighty and good considerations, vs hereunto mouing, and chiefly vpon the contemplation of the gracious letters, directed from the right high, right excellent, and right mighty Queene Mary, by the grace of God Queene of England, France, &c. in the fauour of her subiects, merchants, the gouernour, consuls, assistants, and communaltie of merchants aduenturers for discouery of lands, &c. Know ye therefore, that we of our grace speciall, meere motion, and certaine knowledge, have giuen and graunted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successours, do giue and graunt as much as in vs is and lieth, vnto Sebastian Cabota Gouernour, Sir George Barnes knight, &c. Consuls: Sir Iohn Gresham, &c. Assistants, and to the communaltie of the aforenamed fellowship, and to their successours for euer, and to the successours of euerie of them, these articles, graunts, immunities, franchises, liberties and priuileges, and euery of them hereafter following, expressed and declared. Videlicet: 1. First, we for vs, our heires and successors, do by these presents giue and graunt free licence, facultie, authority and power vnto the said Gouernour, Consuls, Assistants, and communalty of the said fellowship, and to their successors for euer, that all and singular the marchants of the same company, their Agents, factours, doers of their businesse, atturneys, seruants, and ministers, and euery of them may at all times hereafter for euer more surely, freely and safely, with their shippes, merchandizes, goods and things whatsoeuer saile, come and enter into all and singular our lands, countreis, dominions, cities, townes, villages, castles, portes, iurisdictions, and destraicts by sea, land or fresh waters, and there tary, abide and soiourne, and buy, sell, barter and change all kind of merchandizes with al maner of marchants and people, of whatsoeuer nation, rite, condition, state or degrees they be, and with the same or other ships, wares, marchandizes, goods and things whatsoeuer they be, vnto other empires, kingdomes, dukedomes, parts, and to any other place or places at their pleasure and liberty by sea, land or fresh waters may depart, and exercise all kinde of merchandizes in our empire and dominions, and euery part thereof freely and quietly without any restraint, impeachment, price, exaction, prest, straight custome, toll, imposition, or subsidie to be demanded, taxed or paid, or at any time hereafter to be demanded, taxed, set, leuied or inferred vpon them or any of them, or vpon their goods, ships, wares, marchandizes, and things, of, for or vpon any part or parcell thereof, or vpon the goods, ships, wares, merchandizes, and things of any of them, so that they shall not need any other safe conduct or licence generall, ne speciall of vs, our heires or successours, neither shall be bound to aske any safe conduct or licence in any of the aforesaid places subiect vnto vs. 2. Item, we giue and graunt, to the said marchants this power and liberty, that they, ne any of them, ne their goods, wares, marchandizes or things, ne any part thereof, shal be by any meanes within our dominions, landes, countreyes, castles, townes, villages, or other place or places of our iurisdiction, at any time heereafter attached, staied, arrested ne disturbed for anie debt, duetie or other thing, for the which they be not principall debters or sureties, ne also, for any offence or trespasse committed, or that shall be committed, but onely for such as they or any of them shall actually commit, and the same offences (if any such happen,) shall bee by vs onely heard, and determined. 3. Item, we giue and graunt, that the said Marchants shal and may haue free libertie, power and authoritie to name, choose and assigne brokers, shippers, packers, weighers, measurers, wagoners, and all other meet and necessary laborers for to serue them in their feat of marchandises, and minister and giue vnto them and euery of them a corporall othe, to serue them well and truely in their offices, and finding them or any of them doing contrary to his or their othe, may punish and dismisse them, and from time to time choose, sweare, and admit other in their place or places, without contradiction, let, vexation or disturbance, either of vs, our heires or successors, or of any other our Iustices, officers, ministers or subiects whatsoeuer. 4. Item, we giue and graunt vnto the saide Marchants and their successours, that such person as is, or shalbe commended vnto vs, our heires or successours by the Gouernour, Consuls and assistants of the said fellowship residant within the citie of London within the realme of England, to be their chiefe Factor within this our empire and dominions, may and shal haue ful power and authoritie to gouerne and rule all Englishmen that haue had, or shall haue accesse, or repaire in or to this said Empire and iurisdictions, or any part thereof, and shal and may minister vnto them, and euery of them good iustice in all their causes, plaints, quarrels, and disorders between them moued, and to be moued, and assemble, deliberate, consult, conclude, define, determine, and make such actes, and ordinances, as he so commended with his Assistants shall thinke good and meete for the good order, gouernment and rule of the said Marchants, and all other Englishmen repairing to this our saide empire or dominions, or any part thereof, and to set and leuie vpon all, and euery Englishman, offender or offenders, of such their acts and ordinances made, and to be made, penalties and mulcts by fine and imprisonment. 5. Item, if it happen that any of the saide Marchants, or other Englishmen, as one or more doe rebell against such chiefe Factor or Factors, or his or their deputies, and will not dispose him or themselues to obey them and euery of them as shall appertaine if the saide Rebels or disobedients doe come, and bee founde in our our saide Empire and iurisdictions, or any part and place thereof, then wee promise and graunt, that all and euery our officers, ministers, and subiects shall effectually ayde and assist the saide chiefe Factour or Factours, and their deputies, and for their power shall really woorke, to bring such rebell or disobedient rebels, or disobedients to due obedience: and to that intent shall tende vnto the same Factour or Factours, and their deputies vpon request therefore, to be made, prisons, and instruments for punishments from time to time. 6. Item, we promise vnto the saide Marchants, and their sucessours, vpon their request to exhibite and doe vnto them good, exact and fauourable iustice, with expedition in all their causes, and that when they or any of them shall haue accesse, or come to or before any of our Iustices, for any their plaints mooued, and to bee mooued betweene any our subiects or other stranger, and them, or any of them, that then they shalbe first and forthwith heard, as soon as the party which they shal find before our Iustices shalbe depeached, which party being heard forthwith, and assoone as may be, the said English marchants shall be ridde and dispatched: And if any action shall be moued by or against any of the said Marchants being absent out of our saide empire and dominions, then such Marchants may substitute an Atturney in all and singular his causes to be followed as need shall require, and as shall seeme to him expedient. 7. Item, wee graunt and promise to the saide Marchants, and to their successours, that if the same Marchants or any of them shall bee wounded, or (which God forbid) slaine in any part or place of our Empire or dominions, then good information thereof giuen, Wee and our Iustices and other officers shall execute due correction and punishment without delay, according to the exigence of the case: so that it shall bee an example to all other not to commit the like. And if it shall chaunce the factors, seruants, or ministers of the saide Marchants or any of them to trespasse or offende, whereby they or any of them shall incurre the danger of death or punishment, the goods, wares, marchandizes, and things of their Masters shall not therefoore bee forfaited, confiscated, spoiled ne seised by any meanes by vs, our heires or successours, or by any our officers, ministers or subiects, but shall remaine to their vse, franke, free, and discharged from all punishment and losse. 8. Item, we graunt that if any of the English nation be arrested for any debt, he shal not be laid in prison, so farre as he can put in sufficient suretie and pawne: neither shall any sergeant, or officer leade them or any of them to prison, before he shall have knowen whether the chiefe Factor or factors, or their deputies shalbe sureties, or bring in pawne for such arrested: then the officers shal release the partie, and shall set him or them at libertie. 9. Moreouer, we giue, graunt and promise to the saide Marchants, that if any of their ships or other vessels shall bee spoyled, robbed, or damnified in sayling, anckoring or returning to or from our saide Empires and Dominions, or any part thereof, by any Pirats, Marchants, or other person, whatsoeuer hee or they bee, that then and in such case, wee will doe all that in vs is to cause restitution, reparation, and satisfaction to bee duely made to the said English marchants by our letters and otherwise, as shall stand with our honour, and be consonant to equitie and iustice. 10. Item, for vs, our heires and successours, wee doe promise and graunt to performe, mainteine, corroborate, autenticate and obserue all and singular the aforesaide liberties, franchises, and priuiledges, like as presently we firmely doe intend, and will corroborate, autentike and performe the same by all meane and way that we can, as much as may be to the commoditie and profite of the said English Marchants, and their successours for euer. And to the intent that all and singuler the saide giftes, graunts and promises, may bee inuiolably obserued and performed, we the said Iohn Vasiliuich by the grace of God Emperor of Russia, great Duke of Nouogrode, Mosco, &c. for vs, our heires and successors, by our Imperiall and lordly word in stead of an othe, haue and doe promise by these presents, inuiolably to mainteyne and obserue, and cause to be inuiolably obserued and mainteined all and singuler the aforesayde giftes, graunts and promises from time to time, and at all and euery time and times heereafter. And for the more corroboration hereof haue caused our Signet hereunto to be put: Dated in our Castle of Mosco the 20. day of * * * in the yeere * * *. * * * * * The Charter of the Marchants of Russia, graunted vpon the discouerie of the saide Countrey by King Philip and Queene Marie. Philip and Marie, by the grace of God King and Queene, &c. To all manner of officers, true Iurie men, ministers and subiects, and to all other people as well within this our Realme or elsewhere vnder our obeysance, iurisdiction, and rule, or otherwise vnto whome these our letters shall bee shewed, seene, or read, greeting. Whereas wee be credibly informed that our right trusttie, right faithfull, and welbeloued Counsailors, William Marques of Winchester Lord high Treasurer of this our Realme of England, Henrie Earle of Arundel Lord Steward of our housholde, Iohn Earle of Bedford Lord keeper of our priuie Seale, William Earle of Pembroke, William Lorde Howard of Effingham Lorde high Admirall of our saide Realme of England, &c. Haue at their own aduenture, costs and charges, prouided, rigged, and tackled certaine ships, pinnesses, and other meete vessels, and the same furnished with all things necessary haue aduanced and set forward, for to discouer, descrie, and finde Isles, landes, territories, Dominions, and Seigniories vnknowen, and by our subiects before this not commonly by sea frequented, which by the sufferance and grace of Almightie God, it shall chaunce them sailing Northwards, Northeastwards, and Northwestwards, or any partes thereof, in that race or course which other Christian Monarches (being with vs in league and amitie) haue not heeretofore by Seas traffiqued, haunted, or frequented, to finde and attaine by their said aduenture, as well for the glorie of God, as for the illustrating of our honour and dignitie royall, in the increase of the reuenues of our Crowne, and generall wealth of this and other our Realmes and Dominions, and of our subiects of the same: And to this intent our subiects aboue specified and named, haue most humbly beseeched vs, that our abundant grace, fauour and clemencie may be gratiously extended vnto them in this behalfe: whereupon wee inclined to the petition of the foresaide our Counsailours, subiects and marchants, and willing to animate, aduance, further and nourish them in their said godlie, honest, and good purpose, and, as we hope, profitable aduenture, and that they may the more willingly, and readily atchieue the same. Of our especiall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, haue graunted, and by these presents doe graunt, for vs, our heires and successours, vnto our said right trustie, and right faithfull, and right wel beloued Counsailours, and the other before named persons, that they by the name of marchants aduenturers of England, for the discouery of lands, territories, Iles, Dominions, and Seigniories vnknowen, and not before that late aduenture or enterprise by sea or Nauigation, commonly frequented as aforesaid, shalbe from henceforth one bodie and perpetuall fellowship and communaltie of themselues, both in deede and in name, and them, by the names of Marchants aduenturers for the discouerie of lands, territories, Iles and seigniories vnknowen, and not by the seas, and Nauigations, before their saide late aduenture or enterprise by sea or Nauigation commonly frequented, We doe imcorporate, name, and declare by these presents, and that the same fellowship or communalty from henceforth shalbe, and may haue one Gouernour of the saide fellowship, and communaltie of Marchants aduenturers. And in consideration that one Sebastian Cabota hath bin the chiefest setter forth of this iourney or voyage, therefore we make, ordeine, and constitute him the said Sebastian to be the first and present gouernour of the same fellowship and communaltie, by these presents. To haue and enioy the said office of Gouernour, to him the said Sebastian Cabota during his naturall life, without amouing or dismissing from the same roome. And furthermore, we graunt vnto the same fellowship and communaltie and their successors, that they the saide fellowship and communaltie, and their successors after the decease of the saide Sebastian Cabota, shall, and may freely and lawfully in places conuenient and honest, assemble themselues together, or so many of them as will or can assemble together, as well within our citie of London, or elsewhere, as it shall please them, in such sort and maner, as other worshipfull corporations of our saide citie haue vsed to assemble, and there yeerely name, elect and choose one Gouernour or two of themselues, and their liberties, and also as well yeerely during the natural life of the said Sebastian Cabota now Gouernour, as also at the election of such saide Gouernour or gouernours before his decease, to choose, name, and appoint eight and twentie of the most sad, discreete, and honest persons of the saide fellowship, and communaltie of Marchant aduenturers, as is aboue specified, and 4. of the most expert and skilfull persons of the same 28. to be named and called Consuls, and 24. of the residue, to be named and called Assistants to the saide Gouernour or gouernours, and Consuls for the time being, which shal remaine and stand in their authorities for one whole yeere then next following. And if it shall fortune the saide Gouernour, Consuls, and assistants, or any of them so to be elected, and chosen as is aforesaid, to die within the yeere after his or their election, that then and so often, it shall and may be lawfull to and for the said fellowship, and communalty, to elect and choose of themselues other Gouernour or gouernours, Consuls and assistants, in the place and steade of such as so shall happen to die, to serue out the same yeere. And further we do make, ordeine, and constitute George Barnes knight and Alderman of our Citie of London, William Garret Alderman of our saide Citie, Anthonie Husie, and Iohn Suthcot, to be the first and present 4. Consuls of the said fellowship and communalty by these presents, to haue and enioy the said offices of Consuls to them the said George Barnes, William Garret, Anthony Husie, and Iohn Suthcot, for terme of one whole yere next after the date of these our letters patents: And we doe likewise make, ordeine and constitute Sir Iohn Gresham knight, Sir Andrew Iudde knight, Sir Thomas White knight, Sir Iohn Yorke knight, Thomas Offley the elder, Thomas Lodge, Henry Herdson, Iohn Hopkins, William Watson, Will. Clifton, Richard Pointer, Richard Chamberlaine, William Mallorie, Thomas Pallie the elder, William Allen, Henry Becher, Geffrey Walkenden, Richard Fowles, Rowland Heyward, George Eaton, Iohn Ellot, Iohn Sparke, Blase Sanders, and Miles Mording, to be the first and present 24. Assistants to the saide Gouernour or governours, and Consuls, and to the said fellowship and communaltie by these presents, to haue and enioy the said offices of assistants to them for terme of one whole yere, next after the date of these our letters-patents. And further, we for vs, our heires and successors, as much as in vs is, wil and graunt by these presents vnto the saide Gouernour, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and company of Marchants aduenturers aforesaid, and to their successors, that the said gouernour or gouernours, 4. Consuls, and 24. assistants, that now by these patents are nominated and appointed, or that hereafter by the saide fellowship and communaltie of marchants aduenturers, or the more part of them, which shalbe then present, so from time to time to be chosen, so that there be 15. at the least wholy agreed therof, the said Gouernour or gouernours, or one of them, and 2. of the said Consuls shalbe there, and 12. of the residue of the said number of 15. shall be of the saide assistants, and in the absence of such Gouernour, that then 3. of the said Consuls, and 12. of the saide assistants at the least for the time being shal and may haue, vse and exercise ful power and authority to rule and gouerne all and singuler the Marchants of the said fellowship and communaltie, and to execute and doe full and speedie iustice to them, and euery of them, in all their causes, differences, variances, controuersies, quarrels, and complaints, within any our realmes, dominions and iurisdictions onely moued, and to be moued touching their merchandise, traffikes, and occupiers aforesaid, or the good order or rule of them or any of them. Also wee for vs, our heires and successours, so much as in vs is, doe likewise by these presents graunt, that the said Gouernour, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communaltie, and their successors shall and may haue perpetuall succession, and a common Seale which shall perpetually serue for the affaires and businesse of the saide fellowship and communaltie. And that they and their successours, shall and may bee for euer able persons, and capax in the lawe, for to purchase and possesse in fee and perpetuitie, and for term of life or liues, or for terme of yeeres or otherwise, lands, tenements, rents, reuersions, and other possessions, and hereditaments whatsoeuer they bee, by the name of the Gouernour, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communaltie of the Marchants aduenturers by Seas and Nauigations for the discouerie of landes, territories, Iles, Dominions, and Seigniories vnknowen, and before the saide last aduenture or enterprise by seas not frequented, as before is specified, and by the same names shall and may lawfully alien, graunt, let and set the same or any part thereof to any person or persons able in the lawe to take and receiue the same. So that they doe not graunt nor alien the same, or any part thereof into mortmaine, without speciall licence of vs, our heires or successours, first had and obtained. Also wee for vs, our heires and successours haue graunted, and by these presents doe graunt vnto the saide Gouernours, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communaltie of the saide Marchants and to their successours, that they and their successours, shall and may lawfully purchase vnto them and their successors for euer, landes, tenements and hereditaments whatsoeuer, of the cleare yeerely value of threescore sixe pounds, thirteen shillings and foure pence of lawful money of England and not aboue, as well of such lands, tenements and hereditaments, as be holden or shall be holden of vs, our heires or successours, as of any other person or persons, the statutes prouided against alienations into mortmaine, or any of them, or any article or clause in them or any of them contained, or any other lawe, custome, statute or prouision to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And that they by the name of the Gouernour, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communaltie of Marchants aduenturers, for the discouerie of lands, territories, Isles, dominions and Seigniories vnknowen by the Seas and Nauigations, and not before the said late aduenture or enterprise by seas frequented as aforesaid, shall and may be able in the law to implead, and be impleaded, to answere, and to be answered, to defende, and to be defended before whatsoeuer Iudge or Iustice, temporall or spirituall, or other persons whatsoeuer, in whatsoeuer court, or courts, and in all actions personall, reall, and mixt, and in euery of them, and in all plaints of nouel disseison, and also in all plaints, suites, quarels, affaires, businesses and demaunds whatsoeuer they bee, touching and concerning the saide fellowship and communaltie, and the affaires and businesse of the same onely, in as ample manner and forme, as any other corporation of this our Realme may doe. Moreouer, wee for vs, our heires and successours, haue giuen and graunted, and by these presents doe giue and graunt vnto the said Gouernour, Consuls, assistants, fellowshippe, and communaltie of Marchants aduenturers aforesaide, and to their successours, that the saide Gouernour, or Gouernours, Consuls and assistants, and their successors, in maner, forme, and number afore rehearsed, shall haue full power and authoritie from time to time hereafter, to make, ordein, establish and erect all such statutes, actes and ordinaunces, for the gouernement, good condition, and laudable rule of the saide fellowship and communaltie of Marchants aduenturers aforesaid, as to them shall bee thought good, meete, conuenient and necessarie, and also to admit vnto the saide Corporation and fellowship to be free of the same, such and as many persons, as to them shal bee thought good, meete, conuenient and necessarie. And that euery such person or persons, as shall fortune heereafter to bee admitted into the saide fellowshippe, communaltie and corporation, shal from the time of his or their admittance, be free of the same. And also wee will, and by these presents, graunt for vs, our heires and successours, vnto the saide Gouernours, Consuls, assistants, fellowship, communaltie of Marchants aduenturers aforesaid, and to their successours, that the Gouernour, or gouernors, Consuls and assistants of the same, in maner, forme, and number afore rehearsed, and their successours for the time being, shall, and may haue full power and authoritie by these presents from time to time, as to them shal seeme good, to limite, set, ordeine and make, mulcts, and penalties by fines, forfeitures, and imprisonments, or any of them vpon any offender of the saide fellowship and communaltie, for any offence touching the same fellowhip and communaltie, and also that all acts and ordinances by them or their successours to bee made, which time shall thinke not necessarie or preiudiciall to the saide fellowship or communaltie, at al times to reuoke, breake, frustrate, annihilate, repeale and dissolue at their pleasure and liberty. And further, wee will, that if any of the saide fellowship and communaltie shalbe found contrarious, rebellious, or disobedient to the saide Gouernour or gouernours, Consuls, and the said assistants for the time being, or to any statutes, acts or ordinances by them made or to be made, that then the saide Gouernour or gouernours, Consuls, and the saide assistants, in maner, forme, and number aboue specified, for the time being, shall and may by vertue of these presents, mulct, and punish euery such offender or offenders, as the quality of the offence requireth, according to their good discretions. And further, we will that none of the saide offender or offenders shall decline from the power of the saide Gouernour, or gouernours, Consuls and assistants, in maner, forme, and number abouesaide for the time being: so alwayes, that the saide actes, statutes and ordinances, doe onely touch and concerne the saide Gouernour or gouernours, Consuls, assistants, and the saide fellowship and communaltie of our before named Marchants aduenturers, or the men of the same fellowship and communaltie, and none other; And so alwayes, that such their acts, statutes and ordinances bee not against our prerogatiue, lawes, statutes, and customes of our realmes and Dominions, nor contrary to the seuerall duetie of any our subiects towards vs, our heires and successours, nor contrarie to any compacts, treaties, or leagues, by vs or any our progenitours heretofore had or made, or hereafter by vs, our heires and successours to bee made, to or with any forreine Prince or potentate, nor also to the preiudice of the corporation of the Maior, communalties and Citizens of our Citie of London, nor to the preiudice of any person or persons, bodie politique, or corporate or incorporate, iustly pretending, clayming, or hauing any liberties, franchises, priuiledges, rightes or preheminences, by vertue or pretext of anie graunt, gift, or Letters patents, by vs, or anie our Progenitours, heeretofore giuen, graunted, or made. Moreouer, we for vs, our heires, and successours, will, and by these presents, doe graunt vnto the said Gouernors, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communaltie of our Marchants aforesaid, that their said Gouernour or gouernours, Consuls and assistants, and their successors for the time being, in maner, forme and number aboue rehearsed, shal haue full power and authoritie to assigne, constitute and ordaine one officer, or diuers officers as well within our aforesaide Citie of London, as also in any other place or places of this our Realme of England, or else where within our dominions, which officer or officers, wee will to be named and called by the name of Sergeant or Serjeants to the fellowship or communalty of the said marchants, and that the said sergeant or sergeants, shall and may haue full power and authoritie by these presents, to take, leuie and gather all maner fines, forfeitures, penalties and mulcts of euery person and persons, of the saide fellowship and communaltie conuict, and that shalbe conuicted, vpon or for breaking of any statutes, acts, ordinances, to bee made by the saide Gouernour or gouernours, Consuls and assistants for the time being. And further, we will and also graunt for vs, our heires, and successours, that the saide officer or officers shall haue further power and authoritie for the default of payment, or for disobedience in this behalfe (if neede be) to set hands and arrest aswell the bodie and bodies, as the goods and chattels of such offender, and offenders, and transgressers, in euery place and places not franchised. And if it shall fortune any such offender or offenders, their goods and chattels or any part thereof, to be in any citie, borough, towne incorporate, or other place franchised or priuiledged, where the said officer or officers may not lawfully intromit or intermeddle, that then the Maior, shirifes, baylifes, and other head officers, or ministers, within euery such citie, borough, towne incorparate or place or places franchised, vpon a precept to them, or any of them, to be directed from the gouernour or gouernours, Consuls and assistants of the said fellowship, in number and forme aforesaid, vnder the common seale of the sayd fellowship and communaltie for the time being, shall and may attach and arrest the body or bodies of such offender or offenders, as also take, and seise the goods and chattels of all and euery such offender or offenders, being within any such place or places franchised, and the same body and bodies, goods and chattels of all and euery such offender and offenders, being within any such place or places franchised, and every part therof so attached and seazed, shall according to the tenor and purport of the sayd precept, returne, and deliuer vnto the sayd officer or officers of the aforesaid fellowship, and communaltie. And further, we will and grant for vs, our heires and successours by these presents, that all, and euery such Maior, shirife, baylife, or other head officers or ministers of any citie, borough, towne incorporate, or other places franchised, shall not be impeached, molested, vexed or sued in any our court or courts, for executing or putting in execution of any of the said precept or precepts. [Sidenote: K. Philip and Queene Mary hereby do disannul Pope Alexanders diuision. [Footnote: Alexander VI, the father of Lucretia and Cæsar Borgia, had divided the Indies between Spain and Portugal.]]. And furthermore, we of our ample and abundant grace, meere motion, and certaine knowledge, for vs, our heires, and successors, as much as in vs is, haue giuen and granted, and by these presents doe giue and grant vnto the sayd gouernour, Consuls, assistants, fellowship, and conimunaltie of Marchants aduenturers, and to their successors, and to the Factor and Factors, assigne and assignes of euery of them, ful and free authoritie, libertie, facultie and licence, and power to saile to all portes, regions, dominions, territories, landes, Isles, Islands, and coastes of the sea, wheresoeuer before their late aduenture or enterprise vnknowen, or by our Marchants and subiects by the seas not heretofore commonly frequented, vnder our banner, standerd, flags and ensignes, with their shippe, ships, barke, pinnesses, and all other vessels of whatsoeuer portage, bulke, quantitie, or qualitie they may be, and with any Mariners, and men as they will leade with them in such shippe or shippes, or other vessels at their owne and proper costs and expences, for to traffique, descrie, discouer and finde, whatsoeuer Isle, Islands, countreis, regions, prouinces, creekes, armes of the sea, riuers and streames, as wel of Gentiles, as of any other Emperor, king, prince, gouernor or Lord whatsoeuer he or they shalbe, and in whatsoeuer part of the world they be situated, being before the sayd late aduenture or enterprise vnknowen, and by our Marchants and subiects not commonly frequented, and to enter and land in the same, without any maner of denying, paine, penaltie or forfeiture to be had or taken by anie our lawes, customes or statutes to our vse, or to the vse of our heires or successors for the same. And we haue also granted, and by these presents, for vs, our heires and successors, doe graunt vnto the sayd Gouernours, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communalty, and to their successours, and to their Factors and assignes, and to euery of them, licence for to reare, plant, erect, and fasten our banners, standards, flags, and Ensignes, in whatsoeuer citie, towne, village, castle, Isle, or maine lande, which shall be by them newly found, without any the penalties, forfeitures, or dangers aforesayde, and that the sayd fellowship and communalty, and their successors, Factors and assignes and euery of them shall and may subdue, possesse, and occupie, all maner cities, townes, Isles, and maine lands of infidelitie, which is or shal be by them, or any of them newly founde or descried, as our vassals and subiects, and for to acquire and get the Dominion, title, and iurisdiction of the same Cities, Townes, Castles, Villages, Isles, and maine landes, which shall bee by them, or any of them newly discouered or found vnto vs, our heires and successours for euer. And furthermore, whereas by the voyage of our subiects in this last yeere [Footnote: Anno 1554.] attempted by Nauigation, towards the discouerie and disclosure of vnknowen places, Realmes, Islandes, and Dominions by the seas not frequented, it hath pleased Almighty God to cause one of the three shippes by them set foorth for the voyage, and purpose aboue mentioned, named the Edward Bonaventure, to arriue, abide, and winter within the Empire and dominions of the high and mightie Prince our cousin and brother, Lord Iohn Basiliuich Emperour of all Russia, Volodomer, great duke of Moscouie, &c. Who, of his clemencie, for our loue and zeale, did not onely admitte the Captaine, and marchants our subiects into his protection, and Princely presence, but also receiued and interteined them very graciously, and honourably, granting vnto them by his letters addressed vnto vs, franke accesse into all his Seigniories and dominions, with license freely to traffique in and out with all his Subiects in all kinde of Marchandise, with diuers other gracious priuiledges, liberties and immunities specified in his sayde letters vnder his Signet: Know yee therefore that wee of our further royall fauour and munificence, of our meere motion, certaine knowledge, and speciall grace, for vs our heires and successours, haue giuen and graunted, and by these presents doe giue and graunt vnto the same Gouernours, Consuls, assistants, fellowship, and comunalty aboue named, and to their successours, as much as in vs is, that all the mayne landes, Isles, Portes, hauens, creekes, and riuers of the said mighty Emperour of all Russia, and great Duke of Mosco, &c. [Sidenote: The largenes of the priuiledge of the Moscouite companie.] And all and singuler other lands, dominions territories, Isles, Portes, hauens, creekes, riuers, armes of the sea, of al and euery other Emperor, king, prince, ruler, and gouernour, whatsoeuer he or they before the said late aduenture or enterprise not knowen, or by our foresayd marchants and subiects by the seas not commonly frequented, nor by any part nor parcell thereof lying Northwards, Northeastwards, or Northwestwards, as is aforesayd, by sea shall not be visited, frequented nor hanted by any our subiects, other then of the sayd company and felowship, and their successours without expresse licence, agreement and consent of the Gouernour, Consuls, and Assistants of the said felowship and communaltie aboue named, or the more part of them, in manner and number aforesayd, for the time being, vpon paine of forfeiture and losse, as well of the shippe and shippes, with the appurtenances, as also of all the goods, marchandises, and things whatsoeuer they be, of those our subiects, not being of the sayd felowship and communalty, which shall attempt and presume to saile to any of those places, which bee, or hereafter shall happen to bee found, and traffiked vnto: the one hafe of the same forfeiture to be to the vse of vs, our heires and successors, and the other halfe to be to the vse of the sayd fellowship and communaltie. And if it shall fortune, anie stranger or strangers, for to attempt to hurt, hinder, or endamage the same marchants, their factors, deputies, or assignes, or any of them in sailing, going or returning at any time in the sayd aduenture, or for to saile or trade to or from any those places, landes or coastes, which by the sayd marchants, their factors, deputies and assignes haue bene, or shall bee descried, discouered and found, or frequented, aswell within the coastes and limites of gentility, as within the dominions and Seigniories of the sayd mighty Emperour and Duke, and of all and euery other Emperour, King, Prince, Ruler and gouernour whatsoeuer he or they be, before the sayd late aduenture or enterprise not knowen by any our said marchants and subiects, by the seas not commonly frequented, and lying Northwards, Northwestwards or Northeastwards as aforesaid, then wee will and grant, and by these presents doe licence, and authorise for vs, our heires and successors, the said marchants, their factors, deputies, and assignes, and euery of them to doe their best in their defence, to resist the same their enterprises and attempts. Willing therefore, and straightly commanding and charging al and singular our Officers, Maiors, Sherifes, Escheators, Constables, Bailifes, and all and singuler other our ministers and liege men, and subiects whatsoeuer, to bee aiding, fauouring, helping and assisting vnto the sayd gouernour or gouernours, Consuls, assistants, fellowship and communalty, and to their successors and deputies, factors, seruants, and assignes, and to the deputies, factors and assignes of euery of them, in executing and enioying the premisses, as well on land as in the sea, from time to time, and at all times when you or any of you shall be thereunto required. In witnesse whereof, &c. Apud Westmonasterium, 6 die Feb. Annis Regnorum nostrorum, primo et secundo. [Footnote: Anno 1555.] * * * * * Certaine instructions deliuered in the third voyage, Anno 1556. for Russia, to euery Purser and the rest of the seruants, taken for the voyage, which may serue as good and necessary directions, to all other like aduenturers. 1. First you before the ship doth begin to lade, goe aboord, and shall there take, and write one inuentorie, by the aduise of the Master, or of some other principall officer there aboord, of all the tackle, apparell, cables, ankers, ordinance, chambers, shot, powder, artillerie, and of all other necessaries whatsoever doth belong to the sayd ship: and the same iustly taken, you shall write in a booke, making the sayd Master, or such officer priuie of that which you haue so written, so that the same may not be denied, when they shall call accompt thereof: that done, you shall write a copie of the same with your owne hand, which you shall deliuer before the shippe shall depart, for the voyage to the companies booke keeper here to be kept to their behalfe, to the ende that they may be iustly answered the same, when time shall require: and this order to be seene and kept euery voyage orderly, by the Pursers of the companies owne ship, in any wise. 2. Also when the shippe beginneth to lade, you shall be ready a boord with your booke, to enter such goods as shall be brought aboord, to be laden for the company, packed, or vnpacked, taking the markes and numbers of euery packe, fardell, trusse, or packet, corouoya, chest, fatte, butte, pipe, puncheon, whole barrell, halfe barrell, firken, or other caske, maunde, or basket, or any other thing, which may, or shall be packed by any other manner of waies or deuise. And first, all such packes, or trusses, &c. as shal be brought aboord to be laden, not marked by the companies marke, you shall doe the best to let that the same be not laden, and to enquire diligently to know the owners thereof, if you can, and what commoditie the same is, that is so brought aboord to be laden: if you can not know the owners of such goods, learne what you can thereof, as well making a note in your booke, as also to send or bring word thereof to the Agent, and to some one of the foure Marchants with him adioined so speedily as you can, if it be here laden or to be laden in this riuer, being not marked with the companies marke, as is aforesaid: and when the sayd shippe hath receiued in all that the companies Agent will have laden, you shall make a iust copie of that which is laden, reciting the parcels, the markes and numbers of euery thing plainely, which you shall likewise deliuer to the sayd bookekeeper to the vse aforesayd. 3. Also when the ship is ready to depart, you shall come for your cockets and letters to the Agent, and shall shew him all such letters as you haue receiued of any person or persons priuately or openly, to be deliuered to any person or persons in Russia or elsewhere, and also to declare if you know any other that shall passe in the ship either master or mariner that hath receiued any letters to be priuily deliuered to any there, directed from any persons or persons, other then from the Agent here to the Agent there: which letters so by you receiued, you shall not carie with you, without you be licensed so to doe by the Agent here, and some of the foure merchants, as is aforesaid: and such others as doe passe, hauing receiued any priuie letters to be deliuered, you shal all that in you lieth, let the deliuerie of them at your arriuing in Russia: and also if you haue or do receiue, or shal know any other that doth or hath receiued any goods or ready money to be imployed in Russia, or to bee deliuered there to any person or persons from any person or persons, other then such as bee the companies goods, and that vnder their marke, you shall before the ship doeth depart, declare the same truely to the sayd Agent, and to some of the other merchants to him adioyned, as it is before declared. 4. Also when the shippe is ready to depart, and hath the master and the whole company aboord, you shall diligently foresee and take heede, that there passe not any priuie person, or persons, other then such as be authorized to passe in the said ship, without the licence and warrant of one of the Gouernours and of the assistants, for the same his passage, to be first shewed. And if there be any such person or persons that is to passe and will passe without shewing the same warrant, you shall let the passage of any such to the vttermost of your power: And for that there may no such priuie person passe vnder the cloke and colour of some mariner, you shall vpon the weying of your ships anker, call the master and the manners within boord by their names and that by your bookes, to the ende that you may see that you haue neither more nor lesse, but iust the number for the voyage. 5. Also you must have in remembrance, that if it shall chance the shippe to bee put into anie harbour in this coast by contrary windes or otherwise in making the voyage, to send word thereof from time to time as the case shall require, by your letters in this maner. To Master I. B. Agent for the company of the New trades in S. in London: If you doe hier any to bring your letters, write that which he must haue for the portage. And for your better knowledge and learning, you shall doe very well to keepe a dayly note of the voyage both outwards and homewards. 6. And principally see that you forget not dayly in all the voiage both morning and euening, to call the company within boord to prayer, in which doing you shall please God, and the voiage will haue the better successe thereby, and the company prosper the better. 7. Also in calme weather and at other times when you shall fortune to come to anker in the seas during the voyage, you shall for the companies profite, and for the good husbanding of the victuals aboord, call vpon the Boateswaine and other of the company to vse such hookes and other engines as they haue aboord to take fish with, that such fish so taken may bee eaten for the cause aforesayd: and if there bee no such engines aboord, then to prouide some before you goe from hence. 8. And when God shall send you in safetie into the Bay of S. Nicholas at an anker, you shall goe a shore with the first boate that shall depart from the ship, taking with you such letters as you haue to deliuer to the Agent there: and if he be not there at your comming a land, then send the companies letters to Colmogro to him by some sure mariner or otherwise, as the master and you shall thinke best, but goe not your selfe at any hand, nor yet from aboord the ship, vnlesse it be a shore to treate with the Agent for the lading of the ship that you be appointed in, which you shall applie diligently to haue done so speedily as may be. And for the discharging of the goods therein in the Bay, to be carried from thence, see that you doe looke well to the vnlading thereof, that there be none other goods sent a shore then the companies, and according to the notes entred in your booke as is aforesaid: if there be, inquire diligently for whom they bee, and what goods they be, noting who is the receiuer of the sayd goods, in such sort that the company may haue the true knowledge thereof at your comming home. 9. Also there a shore, and likewise aboord, you shall spie and search as secretly as you may, to learne and know what bargaining, buying and selling there is with the master and the mariners of the shippe and the Russes, or with the companies seruants there: and that which you shall perceiue and learne, you shall keepe a note thereof in your booke secretly to your selfe, which you shall open and disclose at your comming home to the gouernours and assistants, in such sort as the trueth of their secret trades and occupyings may be reuealed and knowen. You shall need alwayes to haue Argos eyes, to spie their secret packing and conueyance, aswell on land as aboord the shippe, of and for such furres and other commodities, as yeerely they doe vse to buy, packe and conuey hither. If you will bee vigilant and secrete in this article, you cannot misse to spie their priuie packing one with another, either on shore or aboord the shippe: worke herein wisely, and you shall deserue great thanks of the whole company. 10. Also at the lading againe of the shippe, you shall continue and abide abord, to the ende that you may note and write in your booke all such goods and marchandises as shall be brought and laden, which you shall orderly note in all sortes as heretofore, as in the second article partly it is touched: and in any wise put the Master and the company in remembrance, to looke and foresee substantially to the roomaging of the shippe, by faire meanes or threats, as you shall see and thinke will serue for the best. 11. Thus when the shippe is full laden againe, and all things aboord in good order, and that you doe fortune to goe a shore to the Agent for your letters, and dispatch away: you shall demand whether all the goods be laden that were brought thither, and to know the trueth therof, you shal repaire to the companies storehouse there at S. Nicholas, to see if there be any goods left in the sayd storehouse: if there be, you shal demand why they be not laden, and note what kinde of goods they be that be so left: and seeing any of the shippes there not fully laden, you shall put the Agent in remembrance to lady those goods so left, if any such be to be laden, as is aforesayd. And thus God sending you a faire wind, to make speede and away. 12. Finally, when God shall send you to arriue againe vpon this coast in safetie, either at Harewich, or elsewhere, goe not you aland, if you may possiblie, to the ende that when you be gone a shore, there may no goods be sent priuily ashore to be solde, or else to be solde aboord the ship in your absence, but keepe you still aboord, if you can by any meanes, for the causes aforesaid, and write the company a letter from the shippe of your good arriuall, which you may conuey to them by land by some boy or mariner of the shippe, or otherwise as you shall thinke best: and likewise when God shall send you and the shippe into the riuer here, doe not in any wise depart out of the shippe that you be in, vntil the company doe send some other aboord the shippe, in your steede and place, to keepe the shippe in your absence. * * * * * The Nauigation and discouerie toward the riuer of Ob, made by Master Steuen Burrough, Master of the Pinnesse called the Serchthrift, with diuers things worth the noting, passed in the yere 1556. We departed from Ratcliffe to Blackewall the 23 of April. Satturday being S. Markes day, we departed from Blackewall to Grays. The 27 being Munday the right worshipfull Sebastian Cabota came aboard our Pinnesse at Grauesende, accompanied with diuers Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen, who after that they had viewed our Pinnesse, and tasted of such cheere as we could make them aboord, they went on shore, giuing to our mariners right liberall rewards: and the good olde Gentleman Master Cabota [Footnote: Sebastian Cabot was then 79 years old.] gaue to the poore most liberall almes, wishing them to pray for the good fortune, and prosperous successe of the Serchthrift our Pinnesse. And then at the signe of the Christopher, hee and his friends banketted, and made me, and them that were in the company great cheere: and for very ioy that he had to see the towardnes of our intended discouery, he entred into the dance himselfe, amongst the rest of the young and lusty company: which being ended, hee and his friends departed most gently, commending vs to the gouernance of almighty God. Tuesday (28) we rode still at Grauesend, making prouision for such things as we wanted. Wednesday (29) in the morning we departed from Grauesende, the winde being at Southwest, that night we came to an anker thwart our Lady of Hollands. Thursday (30) at three of the clocke in the morning we weyed, and by eight of the clocke, we were at an anker in Orwell wannes, and then incontinent I went aboord the Edward Bonauenture, [Footnote: The ship that had successfully carried Chancellor in the expedition of 1553-4.] where the worshipfull company of marchants appointed me to be, vntill the sayd good ship arriued at Wardhouse. Then I returned againe into the pinnesse. Friday the 15 of May we were within 7 leagues of the shore, on the coast of Norway: the latitude at a South sunne, 58 degrees and a halfe, where we saw three sailes, beside our owne company: and thus we followed the shoare or land, which lieth Northnorthwest, North and by West, and Northwest and by North, as it doth appeare by the plat. Saturday (16) at an East sunne we came to S. Dunstan's Island, [Footnote: Bommeloe Island.] which Island I so named. It was off vs East two leagues and a halfe, the wind being at Southeast: the latitude this day at a South sunne 59 degrees, 42 minutes. Also the high round mountains bare East of vs, at a south sunne: and when this hill is East of you, and being bound to the Northward, the land lyeth North and halfe a point Westerly, from this sayd South sunne, vnto a North sunne twenty leagues Northwest alongst the shoare. Vpon Sunday (17) at sixe of the clocke in the morning, the farthest land that we could see that lay Northnorthwest, was East of vs three leagues, and then it trended to the Northwards, and to the Eastwards of the North, which headland I iudged to be Scoutsnesse. At seuen of the clocke we changed our course and went North, the wind being at Southsoutheast, and it waxed very thicke and mistie, and when it cleered, we went Northnortheast. At a South sunne we lost sight of the Serchthrift, because of the mist, making our way North. And when we lost sight of the shoare and pinnesse, we were within two leagues and a halfe of the shoare: the last land that we saw when this mist came vpon vs, which is to the Northwards of Scoutsnesse, lay Northnortheast, and Southsouthwest, and we made our way North vntill a west sunne fiue leagues. From that vntill Munday (18) three a clocke in the morning ten leagues Northnortheast: and then we went North and by East, because the winde came at the Westsouthwest with thicke miste: the latitude this day at a South sunne sixtie three degrees and a halfe truely taken: at this season we had sight of our Pinnesse againe. From that vntill Tuesday (19) a South sunne Northnortheast fortie foure leagues, and then Northeast From a South sunne vntill eight of the clocke, fifteene leagues Northeast. From that vntill Wednesday (20) a South sunne Northnortheast, except the first watch Northeast: then had we the latitude in sixtie seuen degrees, thirtie nine minutes. From that vnto a Northwest sunne eighteen leagues Northeast, and then we were within two leagues off the shore, and saw the high land to the Southwards of Lowfoot [Footnote: The Lofoden Islands lie between 67 deg. 30 min. N. Latitude and 12 deg. and 16 deg. E. longitude. They consist of ten large and many small islands, all rocky and mountainous. The largest Islands are: Hindoen, E. and W. Waagen, Langoen, Andoe, Rost &c.] breake out through the mist, and then we went North and by east. From the sayd Northwest sunne vntill foure of the clocke in the morning (21) North and by East ten leagues and a halfe: and then Northnortheast vntill a South sunne, the latitude being sixtie nine degrees, and a halfe. From that vntill halfe an houre past seuen of the clocke, Northnortheast eleuen leagues and a halfe, and then we went Northeast ten leagues. From that 3 leagues and a halfe Eastnortheast, and then we sawe the land through the cloudes and hazie thwart on the broadside of vs the winde being then at Southsouthwest. From that vntill Saturday (22), at eight of the clocke in the morning Eastnortheast, and to the Northwards fortie eight leagues, and then the wind came vp at North, wee being aboord the shore, and thwart of the Chappell, which I suppose is called Kedilwike [Footnote: Probably Hammerfest, the most northern town in Europe]: then we cast the shippes head to the seawards, because thee winde was verie scant: and then I caused the Pinnesse to beare in with the shore, to see whether she might find an harborough for the ships or not, and that she found and saw two roaders ride in the sound: and also they sawe houses. But notwithstanding, God be praysed, the winde enlarged vpon vs, that we had not occasion to goe into the harborough: and then the Pinnesse bare her Myssen mast ouer boord with flagge and all, and lost the flagge: with the mast there fell two men ouer boord, but God be praised, they were saued: the flagge was a token, whereby we might, understand whether there were a good harbour there or not. [Sidenote: The North Cape so named by Steuen Burrowe.] At the North sunne the North Cape (which I so named the first voyage) was thwart of vs, which is nine leagues to the Eastwards of the foresayd Chappell from the Eastermost point of it. [Footnote: This is a slight error, if by the "Chappell" is meant the present site of Hammerfest, as North Cape, which is in 71 deg. 10 min. N. latitude, and 25 deg. 46 min. E. longitude, is only distant 14-1/2 miles N.E. from that town. Von Herbertstein states that Istoma and other Russians had sailed round the North of Norway, in 1496. North Cape, or rather Nordkyn, was called then Murmunski Nos (the Norman Cape). When Hulsius, in his Collection of Travels, gives Von Herbertstein's account of Istoma's voyage, he considers Swjatoi Nos, on the Kola peninsula, to be North Cape. (Hamel, _Tradescant_, St. Petersburg, 1847, p. 40, quoted by Nordenskiöld; _Voyage of the Vega_. Vol. I., p. 218.)] Iune. The Sunday (7) we weied in Corpus Christi Bay, at a Northeast and by East sunne: the Bay is almost halfe a league deepe: the headland which is Corpus Christi point, lyeth Southeast and by East, one league from the head of the Bay, where we had a great tyde, like a race ouer the flood: the Bay is at the least two leagues ouer: so doe I imagine from the fayre foreland to Corpus Christi poynt ten leagues Southeast and by East: It floweth in this Bay, at a South and by West moone full sea. From that we went vntill seuen a clocke at after noone twentie leagues Southeast and by South: and then we tooke in all our sailes, because it was then very mistie, and also we met with much ice that ran out of the Bay, and then wee went Southsoutheast with our foresayle: at eight of the clocke, we heard a piece of ordinance, which was out of the Edward, which bade vs farewell, and then we shot off another piece, and bade her farewell: wee could not one see the other, because of the thicke miste: at a Northwest sunne it began somewhat to cleere, and then we sawe a head lande, and the shoare trended to the Southwestward, which I iudged to be about Crosse Island: it was off vs at a Northnorthwest sunne, Westsouthwest. From this Northnorthwest sunne, vntill Munday (8), we went Southeast, and this morning we came at anker among the shoales that lie off of point Looke out, at a Northeast and by East sunne, the wind being at Eastsoutheast. At this poynt Looke out, a south Moone maketh a full sea. Cape good fortune lyeth from the Isle of Crosses Southeast, and betweene them is tenne leagues: point Looke out lyeth from Cape Good fortune Eastsoutheast, and betweene them are sixe leagues. S. Edmonds point lieth from point Looke out Eastsoutheast, and halfe a point to the Southwards, and betweene them are sixe leagues. There is betweene these two points, a Bay that is halfe a league deepe, and is full of shoales and dangers. At a Southeast sunne we weyed, and turned to the windwards, the winde being at Eastsoutheast: and at a Southeast sunne, we came to an anker, being then a full sea, in fiue fadoms and a halfe water. It hieth at this place where we roade, and also at point Looke out, foure fadome water. At a Westnorthwest sunne we weyed, and driued to the windewards, vntill Tuesday (9), a Northnortheast sunne, and then being a high water, we came to an anker open of the riuer Cola, in eight fadome water. Cape S. Bernard lyeth from S. Edmondes point, Southeast and by South, and betwixt them are sixe leagues, and also betwixt them is the Riuer Cola, into which Riuer we went this euening. Wednesday (10) we roade still in the sayd riuer, the winde being at the north: we sent our skiffe aland to be dressed: the latitude of the mouth of the riuer Cola is sixtie fiue degrees, fortie and eight minutes. [Footnote: This is another error, the latitude being 68 deg. 51 min.] Thursday (11) at 6 of the clocke in the morning, there came aboord of vs one of the Russe Lodiaes, rowing with twentie oares, and there were foure and twenty men in her. The master of the boate presented me with a great loafe of bread, and sixe ringes of bread, which they call Colaches, and foure dryed pikes, and a pecke of fine otemeale, and I gaue vnto the Master of the boate, a combe, and a small glasse: and he declared vnto me, that he was bound to Pechora, and after that, I made them to drinke, the tide being somewhat broken, they gently departed. The Masters name was Pheodor. Whereas the tenth day I sent our Pinnesse on shoare to be mended, because she was leake, and weake, with the Carpenter and three men more to helpe him, the weather chanced so, that it was Sunday before they could get aboord our shippe. All that time they were without prouision of victuals, but onely a little bread, which they spent by Thursday at night, thinking to haue come aboord when they had listed, but winde and weather denied them: insomuch that they were faine to eate grasse, and such weedes as they could find then aboue grounde, but fresh water they had plentie, but the meate with some of them could scant frame by reason of their queazie stomackes. From Thursday at afternoone, vntill Sunday (14) in the morning, our barke did ride such a roadsted that it was to be marueiled, without the helpe of God, how she was able to abide it. [Illustration: Russian "LODJA." After G. de Veer.] In the bight of the Southeast shoare of the riuer Cola, there is a good roade in fiue fadome, or foure fadome and a halfe, at a lowe water: but you shall haue no land Northnortheast of you then, I proued with our pinnesse, that the depth goeth on the Southeast shoare. Thursday (18) we weyed our ankers in the riuer Cola, and went into the Sea seuen or eight leagues, where we met with the winde farre Northerly, that of force it constrained vs to goe againe backe into the sayd riuer, where came aboord of vs sundry of their Boates, which declared vnto me that they were also bound to the northwards, a fishing for Morse, and Salmon, and gaue me liberally of their white and wheaten bread. As we roade in this riuer, wee sawe dayly comming downe the riuer many of their Lodias, and they that had least, had foure and twenty men in them, and at the last they grew to thirtie saile of them: and amongst the rest, there was one of them whose name was Gabriel, who showed me very much friendshippe, and he declared vnto mee, they all were bound to Pechora, a fishing for Salmons, and Morses: insomuch that hee shewed mee by demonstrations, that with a faire winde wee had seuen or eight dayes sailing to the Riuer Pechora, so that I was glad of their company. This Gabriel, promised to giue mee warning of shoales, as hee did indeede. Sunday (21) being the one and twentieth day, Gabriel gaue me a barrell of Meade, and one of his speciall friends gaue me a barrell of beere, which was caryed vpon mens backs at least 2 miles. Munday (22) we departed from the riuer Cola, with all the rest of the said Lodias, but sailing before the wind, they were all too good for vs [Footnote: It is curious to find that the Russian Lodias (of which an engraving is annexed) were better sailors than the ships of the more civilised Englishmen]: but according to promise, this Gabriel and his friend did often strike their sayles, and taried for vs forsaking their owne company. Tuesday (23) at an Eastnortheast sunne we were thwart of Cape S. Iohn. [Footnote: Cape Krasnoj.] It is to be vnderstood, that from the Cape S. Iohn vnto the riuer or bay that goeth to Mezen, it is all sunke land, and full of shoales and dangers, you shall haue scant two fadome water, and see no land. And this present day wee came to an anker thwart of a creeke, which is 4 or 5 leagues to the Northwards of the sayd Cape, into which creeke Gabriel and his fellow rowed, but we could not get in: and before night there were aboue 20 saile that went into the sayd creeke, the wind being at the Northeast. We had indifferent good landfang. This aftenoone Gabriel came aboord with his skiffe, and then I rewarded him for the good company that he kept with vs ouer the shoales with two small iuory combes, and a steele glasse, with two or three trifles more, for which he was not vngratefull. But notwithstanding, his first company had gotten further to the Northwards. Wednesday (24) being Midsummer day, we sent our skiffe aland to sound the creeke, where they found it almost drie at a low water. And all the Lodias within were on ground. Although the harborough were euil, yet the stormie similitude of the Northerly winds tempted vs to set our sayles, and we let slip a cable and an anker, and bare with the harborough, for it was then neere a high water: and as alwaies in such iournies varieties do chance, when we came vpon the barre in the entrance of the creeke, the wind did shrink so suddenly vpon vs, that we were not able to lead it in, and before we could haue slatted the shippe before the winde, we should haue bene on ground on the lee shore, so that we were constrained to let fall an anker vnder our sailes, and rode in a very breach, thinking to haue warpt in. Gabriel came out with his skiffe, and so did sundry others also, shewing their good will to helpe vs, but all to no purpose, for they were likely to haue bene drowned for their labour, in so much that I desired Gabriel to lend me his anker, because our owne ankers were too big for our skiffe to lay out, who sent me his owne, and borrowed another also and sent it vs. Then we layd out one of those ankers, with a hawser which he had of 140 fadom long, thinking to haue warpt in, but it would not be: for as we shorted vpon the said warpe the anker came home, so that we were faine to beare the end of the warpe, that we rushed in vpon the other small anker that Gabriel sent aboord, and layd that anker to seawards: and then betweene these two ankers we trauersed the ships head to seawards, and set our foresaile and maine sayle, and when the barke had way, we cut the hawser, and so gate the sea to our friend, and tryed out al that day with our maine corse. The Thursday (25) we went roome with Cape S. Iohn, where we found indifferent good rode for a Northnortheast wind, and for a neede, for a North and by West winde. Friday (26) at afternoone we weyed, and departed from thence, the wether being meetly faire, and the winde at Eastsoutheast, and plied for the place where we left our cable and anker, and pur hawser: and as soone as we were at an anker, the foresaid Gabriel came aboord of vs, with 3 or foure more of their small boats, and brought with them of their Aquauitæ and Meade, professing vnto me very much friendship, and reioiced to see vs againe, declaring that they earnestly thought that we had bene lost. This Gabriel declared vnto me, that they had saued both the ankers and our hauser, and after we had thus communed, I caused 4 or 5 of them to goe into my cabbin, where I gaue them figs, and made them such cheere as I could. While I was thus banketing of them, there came another of their skiffes aboord with one who was a Keril, [Footnote: Karelian.] whose name afterwards I learned, and that he dwelt in Colmogro, and Gabriel dwelled in the towne of Cola, which is not far from the riuers mouth. This foresaid Keril said vnto me that one of the ankers which I borowed was his, I gaue him thanks for the lone of it, thinking it had bene sufficient. And as I continued in one accustomed maner, that if the present which they brought were worth enterteinment they had it accordingly, he brought nothing with him, and therefore I regarded him but litle. And thus we ended, and they took their leaue and went ashore. At their comming ashore, Gabriel and Keril were at vnconuenient words, and by the eares, as I vnderstand: the cause was because the one had better enterteinment then the other: but you shal vnderstand that Gabriel was not able to make his party good, because there were 17 lodias of the Kerils company who tooke his part, and but 2 of Gabriels company. The next high water Gabriel and his company departed from thence, and rowed to their former company and neighbours, which were in number 28 at the least, and all of them belonging to the riuer Cola. And as I vnderstood Keril made reckoning that the hawser which was fast in his anker should haue bene his owne, and at first would not deliuer it to our boat, insomuch that I sent him worde that I would complaine vpon him, whereupon he deliuered the hawser to my company. The next day being Saturday, (27) I sent our boat on shore to fetch fresh water and wood, and at their comming on shore this Keril welcomed our men most gently, and also banketed them: and in the meane time caused some of his men to fill our baricoes with water, and to help our men to beare wood into their boat: and then he put on his best silke coate, and his coller of pearles, and came aboord againe, and brought his present with him: and thus hauing more respect vnto his present then to his person, because I perceiued him to be vainglorious, I bade him welcome, and gaue him a dish of figs: and then he declared vnto me that his father was a gentleman, and that he was able to shew me pleasure, and not Gabriel, who was but a priests sonne. After their departure from vs we weied, and plied all the ebbe to the windewards, the winde being Northerly, and towards night it waxed very stormy, so that of force we were constrained to go roome with Cape S. Iohn againe, in which storme wee lost our skiffe at our sterne, that wee bought at Wardhouse, and there we rode vntil the fourth of Iuly. The latitude of Cape S. Iohn is 66 degrees 50 minutes. And it is to be noted, that the land of Cape S. Iohn is of height from the full sea marke, as I iudge, 10 fadomes, being cleane without any trees growing, and also without stones or rockes, and consists onely of blacke earth, which is so rotten, that if any of it fall into the sea, it will swimme as though it were a piece of wood. In which place, about three leagues from the shore you shall not haue aboue 9 fadom water, and clay ground. Iulie. Saturday (4) at a Northnorthwest sunne the wind came at Eastnortheast, and then we weied, and plied to the Northwards, and as we were two leagues shot past the Cape, we saw a house standing in a valley, which is dainty to be seene in those parts, and by and by I saw three men on the top of the hil. Then I iudged them, as it afterwards proued, that they were men which came from some other place to set traps to take vermin [Footnote: Probably mountain foxes. Remains of fox-traps are still frequently met with along the coast of the Polar Sea, where the Russians have carried on hunting.] for their furres, which trappes we did perceiue very thicke, alongst the shore as we went. Sunday (5) at an East sunne we were thwart off the creeke where the Russes lay, and there came to an anker, and perceiuing the most part of the Lodias to be gone we thought it not good to tary any longer there, but weyed and spent all the ebbe, plying to the windewards. Munday (6) at a South sunne it was high water. All alongst the coast it floweth little, onely a South moone makes a full sea: and as we were a weying we espied the Russe Lodias, which we first lost. They came out of a creeke amongst the sandy hilles, [Footnote: Kija Bay.] which hilles beginne 15 leagues Northnortheast from Cape S. Iohn. Plying this ebbe to an end, we came (7) to an anker 6 leagues Northnortheast from the place where we saw the Russes come out: and there the Russes harboured themselues within a soonke banke, but there was not water enough for vs. At a North sunne we weyed and plied to the Northwards, the land lying Northnortheast, and Southsouthwest, vntill a South sunne, and then we were in the latitude of 68 degrees and a halfe: and in this latitude ende those sandy hilles, and the land beginneth to lie North and by West, South and by East, and Northnorthwest, and to the Westwards, and there the water beginneth to waxe deepe. At a Northwest sunne we came to an anker within halfe a league of the shore, where wee had good plenty of fish, both Haddocks and Cods, riding in 10 fadom water. Wednesday (8) we weyed, and plyed neerer the headland, which is called Caninoz, [Footnote: Canin Nos, latitude 68 deg. 30 min. N.] the wind being at East and by North. Thursday (9) the wind being soant we turned to windwards the ebbe, to get about Caninoz: the latitude this day at noone was 68 degrees 40 minutes. Friday (10) we turned to the windward of the ebbe, but to no purpose: and as we rode at an anker, we saw the similitude of a storme rising at Northnorthwest, and could not tell where to get rode nor succor for that winde, and harborough we knew none: and that land which we rode vnder with that winde was a lee shore. And as I was musing what was best to be done, I saw a saile come out of a creeke vnder the foresayd Caninoz, which was my friend Gabriel, who forsooke his harborough and company, and came as neere vs as he might, and pointed vs to the Eastwards, and then we weyed and followed him, and went East and by South, the wind being at Westnorthwest, and very mistie. Saturday (11) we went Eastsoutheast and followed Gabriel, and he brought vs into an harborough called Morgiouets, which is 30 leagues from Caninoz, and we had vpon the barre going in two fadome and a fourth part: and after we were past in ouer the barre, it waxed deeper, for we had 5 fadoms, 4 and a half, and 3 fadom &c. Our barke being mored, I sent some of our men to shoare to prouide wood, where they had plenty of drift wood, but none growing: and in this place we found plenty of young foule, as Gulles, Seapies [Footnote: Probably the little Auk (_Mergulus Alle_, L.)], and others, whereof the Russes would eate none, whereof we were nothing sory, for there came the more to our part. Sunday (12) our men cut wood on shoare, and brought it aboord, and wee balasted our shippe with stones. This morning Gabriel saw a smoke on the way, who rowed vnto it with his skiffe, which smoke was two leagues from the place where we road: and at a Northwest sunne he came aboord again, and brought with him a Samoed, [Footnote: This was the first meeting between West Europeans and Samoyeds.] which was but a young man: his apparell was then strange vnto vs, and he presented me with three young wild geese, and one young barnacle [Footnote: _Anser bernicla_, L.]. Munday (13) I sent a man to the maine in Gabriels boat and he brought vs aboord 8 barricoes of fresh water: the latitude of the said Morgiouets is sixtie eight degrees and a terce. It floweth there at a Southsouthwest moone full sea, and hyeth two fadome and a halfe water. At a Westnorthwest sunne we departed from this place, (14) and went East 25 leagues, and then saw an Island by North and by West of vs eight leagues, which Island is called Dolgoieue: [Footnote: Dolgoi Island.] and from the Eastermost part of this Island, there lyeth a sand East and by South 7 leagues long. Wednesday (15) at a North and by East sunne Swetinoz [Footnote: Swjatoi Nus.] was South of vs 5 leagues. This day at aftemoone we went in ouer the dangerous barre of Pechora, and had vpon the barre but one fadome water [Footnote: The capes at the Mouth of the Petchora, Cape Ruski Savorot, and Cape Medinski Savorot are very nearly in lat. 69 deg.]. Thursday (16) we road still. Friday (17) I went on shoare and obserued the variation of the Compasse, which was three degrees and a halfe from the North to the West: the latitude this day was, sixtie nine degrees ten minutes. From two or three leagues to the Eastward of Swetinoz, vntill the entering of the riuer Pechora, it is all sandie hilles, and towards Pechora the sandie hilles are very low. It higheth on the barre of Pechora foure foote water, and it floweth there at a Southwest moone a full sea. Munday (20) at a North and by East sunne, we weyed, and came out ouer the sayd dangerous barre, where we had but fiue foote water, insomuch that wee found a foote lesse water comming out then wee did going in. I thinke the reason was, because when we went in the winde was off the sea, which caused the sands to breake on either side of vs, and we kept in the smoothest betweene the breaches, which we durst not haue done, except we had seene the Russes to haue gone in before vs: and at our comming out the winde was off the shoare, and fayre weather, and then the sands did not appeare with breaches as at our going in: we thanke God that our ship did draw so little water. When we were a seaboord the barre the wind scanted vpon vs, and was at Eastsoutheast, insomuch that we stopped the ebbes, and plyed all the floods to the windewards, and made our way Eastnortheast. Tuesday (21) at a Northwest sunne we thought that we had seen land at East, or East and by North of vs: which afterwards prooued to be a monstrous heape of ice. Within a little more than halfe an houre after we first saw this ice, we were inclosed within it before we were aware of it, which was a fearefull sight to see: for, for the space of sixe houres, it was as much as we could doe to keepe our shippe aloofe from one heape of ice, and beare roomer from another, with as much wind as we might beare a coarse. And when we had past from the danger of this ice, we lay to the Eastwards close by the wind. The next day (22) we were againe troubled with the ice. Thursday (23) being calme, we plyed to the windwards, the winde being Northerly. We had the latitude this day at noone in 70 degrees 11 minutes. We had not runne past two houres Northwest, the wind being at Northnortheast and Northeast and by North a good gale, but we met againe with another heape of ice: we wethered the head of it, and lay a time to the seawards, and made way West 6 leagues. Friday (24) at a Southeast sunne we cast about to the Eastwards, the wind being at Northnortheast: the latitude this day at noone was 70 degrees 15 minutes. On S. Iames his day (25) bolting to the windewardes, we had the latitude at noone in seuenty degrees twentie minutes. The same day at a Southwest sunne, there was a monstrous Whale aboord of us, so neere to our side that we might haue thrust a sworde or any other weapon in him, which we durst not doe for feare hee should haue ouerthrowen our shippe: and then I called my company together, and all of vs shouted, and with the crie that we made he departed from vs: there was as much aboue water of his backe as the bredth of our pinnesse, and at his falling downe, he made such a terrible noyse in the water that a man would greatly haue maruelled, except hee had knowen the cause of it: but God be thanked, we were quietly deliuered of him. [Footnote: Of the various species of Whales, the Narwhal occurs very rarely off Novaya Zemlya. It is more common at Hope Island, and Witsen states that large herds have been seen between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. The White Whale (_Delphinapterus leucas_, Pallas), on the other hand, occurs in large shoals on the coasts of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. In 1871, 2167 White Whales were taken by the Tromsoe fleet alone, an estimated value of £6500. In 1880, one vessel had 300 whales at one cast of the net, in Magdalena Bay. In former times they appear to have been caught at the mouth of the Yenisej, which river they ascend several hundred miles. Nordenskiold also saw large shoals off the Taimur peninsula. Other species occur seldom off Novaya Zemlya. It is rather amusing to find the meeting with a whale mentioned as very remarkable and dangerous. When Nearchus sailed with the fleet of Alexander the Great from the Indus to the Red Sea, a whale also caused so great a panic that it was only with difficulty that the commander could restore order among the frightened seamen, and get the rowers to row to the place where the Whale spouted water and caused a commotion in the sea like that of a whirlwind. All the men shouted, struck the water with their oars, and sounded their trumpets, so that the large, and, in the judgment of the Macedonian Heroes, terrible animal, was frightened. _(See the "Indica" of Nearchus, preserved to us by Arrian, an excellent translation of which, by J. W. McCrindle, appeared in 1879.)_ Quite otherwise was the Whale regarded on Spitsbergen some few years after Burrough's voyage. At the sight of a Whale all men were beside themselves with joy, and rushed down into the boats in order to attack and kill the valuable, animal. The fishery was carried on with such success, that the right Whale _(Balaena mysticetus L.)_, whose pursuit then gave full employment to ships by hundreds, and to men by tens of thousands, is now practically extirpated. As this Whale still occurs in no limited numbers in other parts of the Polar Sea, this state of things shows how easily an animal is driven away from a region where it is so much hunted. Captain Svend Foeyn, from 1864 to 1881, exclusively hunted another species (_Balænoptera Sibbaldii_ Gray), on the coast of Finmark; and other species still follow shoals of fish on the Norwegian coast, where they sometimes strand and are killed in considerable numbers. (Nordenskiöld's _Voyage of the Vega_, vol. I., p. 165).] And a little after we spied certaine Islands, with which we bare, and found good harbor in 15 or 18 fadome, and blacke oze: we came to an anker at a Northeast sunne, and named the Island S. Iames his Island, [Footnote: Evidently one of the Islands at the south of Novaya Zemlya.] where we found fresh water. Sunday, (26) much wind blowing we rode still. Munday (27) I went on shoare and tooke the latitude, which was 70 degrees 42 minutes: the variation of the compasse was 7 degrees and a halfe from the North to the West. Tuesday (28) we plyed to the Westwards alongst the shoare, the wind being at Northwest, and as I was about to come to anker, we saw a sayle comming about the point, whereunder we thought to haue ankered. [Sidenote: The relation of Loshak.] Then I sent a skiffe aboord of him, and at their coming aboord they tooke acquaintance of them and the chiefe man said hee had bene in our company in the riuer Cola, and also declared unto them that we were past the way which should bring vs to the Ob. This land, sayd he, is called Noua Zembla, that is to say, the New land: and then he came aboord himselfe with his skiffe, and at his comming aboord he told me the like, and sayd further, that in this Noua Zembla is the highest mountaine in the worlde, as he thought, [Footnote: The highest mountains in Novaya Zemlya hardly exceed 3500 feet.] and that Camen Boldshay, which is on the maine of Pechora, is not to be compared to this mountaine, but I saw it not: he made me also certaine demonstrations of the way to the Ob, and seemed to make haste on his owne way, being very lothe to tarie, because the yeere was farre past, and his neighbour had fet Pechora, and not he: so I gaue him a steele glasse, two pewter spoones, and a paire of veluet sheathed knives: and then he seemed somewhat the more willing to tary, and shewed me as much as he knew for our purpose: he also gaue me 17 wilde geese, and shewed me that foure of their lodias were driuen perforce from Caninoze to this Noua Zembla. This mans name was Loshak. Wednesday, (29) as we plied to the Eastwards, we espied another saile, which was one of this Loshaks company, and we bare roome, and spake with him, who in like sort tolde vs of the Ob, as the other had done. Thursday, (30) we plied to the Eastwards, the winde being at Eastnortheast. Friday, (31) the gale of winde began to increase, and came Westerly withall, so that by a Northwest sunne we were at an anker among the Islands of Vaigats, where we saw two small lodias, the one of them came aboard of vs, and presented me with a great loafe of bread: and they told me that they were all of Colmogro, except one man that dwelt at Pechora, who seemed to be the chiefest among them in killing of the Morse. There were some of their company on shoare, which did chase a white beare ouer the high clifs into the water, which beare the lodia that was aboard of vs killed in our sight. This day there was a great gale of wind at North, and we saw so much ice driuing a seaboord, that it was then no going to sea. August. Saturday (1) I went ashore, and there I saw three morses that they had killed: they held one tooth of a Morse, which was not great, at a roble, and one white beare skin at three robles and two robles: they further tolde me, that there were people called Samoeds on the great Island, and that they would not abide them nor vs, who haue no houses, but only couerings made of Deere skins, set ouer them with stakes: they are men expert in shooting, [Footnote: That the Samoyeds were archers is shewn by old drawings, one of which I reproduce from Linschoten. Now the bow has completely gone out of use, for Nordenskiöld did not see a single archer. Wretched old flint firelocks are, however, common.] and have great plenty of Deere. This night there fell a cruell storme, the wind being at West. Sunday (2) we had very much winde, with plenty of snow, and we rode with two ankers a head. [Illustration: Samoiedarum, trahis a rangiferis protractis insidentium. Nec non Idolorum ab ijsdem cultorum effigies. SAMOYED SLEIGH AND IDOLS. After an old Dutch engraving.] Munday (3) we weyed and went roome with another Island, which was fiue leagues Eastnortheast from vs, and there I met againe with Loshak, and went on shore with him, and hee brought me to a heap of the Samoeds idols, which were in number aboue 300, the worst and the most vnartificiall worke that euer I saw: the eyes and mouthes of sundrie of them were bloodie, they had the shape of men, women and children, very grosly wrought, and that which they had made for other parts, was also sprinckled with blood. Some of their idols were an old sticke with two or three notches, mode with a knife in it. [Footnote: The accompanying _fac-simile_ of a quaint old engraving of a Samoyed sleigh and idols gives an excellent idea of both.] I saw much of the footing of the sayd Samoeds, and of the sleds that they ride in. There was one of their sleds broken, and lay by the heape of idols, and there I saw a deers skinne which the foules had spoyled: and before certaine of their idols blocks were made as high as their mouthes, being all bloody, I thought that to be the table whereon they offered their sacrifice: I saw also the instruments, whereupon they had roasted flesh, and as farre as I could perceiue, they make their fire directly under the spit. Loshak being there present tolde me that these Samoeds were not so hurtful as they of Ob are, and that they haue no houses, as indeede I saw none, but onely tents made of Deers skins, which they vnderproppe with stakes and poles: their boates are made of Deers skins, and when they come on shoare they cary their boates with them upon their backes: for their cariages they haue no other beastes to serue them, but Deere onely. As for bread and corne they haue none, except the Russes bring it to them: their knowledge is very base, for they know no letter. [Footnote: This is one of the oldest accounts of the Samoyeds we possess. Giles Fletcher, who in 1588 was Queen Elizabeth's Ambassador to the Czar, writes, in his accounts of Russia, of the Samoyeds in the following way:-- "The _Samoyt_ hath his name (as the _Russe_ saith) of eating himselfe: as if in times past they lived as the _Cannibals_, eating one another. Which they make more probable, because at this time they eate all kind of raw flesh, whatsoeuer it bee, euen the very carrion that lyeth in the ditch. But as the _Samoits_ themselves will say, they were called _Samoit_, that is, _of themselves_, as though they were _Indigenæ_, or people bred upon that very soyle that never changed their seate from one place to another, as most Nations have done. They are clad in Seale-skinnes, with the hayrie side outwards downe as low as the knees, with their Breeches and Netherstocks of the same, both men and women. They are all Blacke hayred, naturally beardless. And therefore the Men are hardly discerned from the Women by their lookes: saue that the Women wear a locke of hayre down along both their eares." (_Treatise of Russia and the adjoining Regions_, written by Doctor Giles Fletcher, Lord Ambassador from the late Queen, Everglorious Elizabeth, to Theodore, then Emperor of Russia, A.D. 1588. _Purchas_, iii. p. 413.) In nearly the same way the Samoyeds are described by G. De Veer, in his account of Barents's Second Voyage in 1595. Serebrenikoff, according to Nordensköld, maintains that _Samodin_ should be written instead of _Samoyed_. For _Samoyed_ means "self eater," while _Samodin_ denotes an "individual," "one who cannot be mistaken for another," and, as the Samoyeds were never cannibals, Serebrenikoff gives a preference to the latter name, which is used by the Russians at Chabarova, and appears to be a literal translation of the name which the Samoyeds give themselves. Nordenskiöld, however, considers it probable that the old tradition of man-eaters (_androphagi_), living in the north, which onginated with Herodotus, and was afterwards universally adopted in the geographical literature of the Middle Ages, reappears in Russianised form in the name _Samoyed_. With all due respect for Nordenskiöld, I am inclined to agree with Serebrenikoff. In the account of the journey which the Italian minorite, Joannes de Piano Carpini, undertook in High Asia in 1245-47, an extraordinary account of the Samoyeds and neighbouring tribes is given. (See Vol. II. of these Collections, pp. 28 and 95).--I give a very curious engraving of Samoyeds from Schleissing.--Nordenskiöld inserts, in his _Voyage of the Vega_, the following interesting communication from Professor Ahlquist, of Helsingfors:--. "The Samoyeds are reckoned, along with the Tungoose, the Mongolian, the Turkish and the Finnish-Ugrian races, to belong to the so-called Altaic or Ural-Altaic stem. What is mainly characteristic of this stem, is that all the languages occurring within it belong to the so-called agglutinating type. For in these languages the relations of ideas are expressed exclusively by terminations or suffixes--inflections, prefixes and prepositions, as expressive of relations, being completely unknown to them. Other peculiarities characteristic of the Altaic languages are the vocal harmony occurring in many of them, the inability to have more than one consonant in the beginning of a word, and the expression of the plural by a peculiar affix, the case terminations being the same in the plural as in the singular. The affinity between the different branches of the Altaic stem is thus founded mainly on analogy or resemblance in the construction of the languages, while the different tongues in the material of language (both in the words themselves and in the expression of relations) show a very limited affinity or none at all. The circumstance that the Samoyeds for the present have as their nearest neighbours several Finnish-Ugrian races (Lapps, Syrjaeni, Ostjaks, and Voguls), and that these to a great extent carry on the same modes of life as themselves, has led some authors to assume a close affinity between the Samoyeds and the Fins and the Finnish races in general. The speech of the two neighbouring tribes, however, affords no ground for such a supposition. Even the language of the Ostjak, which is the most closely related to that of the Samoyeds, is separated heaven-wide from it and has nothing in common with it, except a small number of borrowed words (chiefly names of articles from the Polar nomad's life), which the Ostjak has taken from the language of his northern neighbour. With respect to their language, however, the Samoyeds are said to stand at a like distance from the other branches of the stem in question. To what extent craniology or modern anthropology can more accurately determine the affinity-relationship of the Samoyed to other tribes, is still a question of the future." At the present day, the Samoyeds dwell in skin tents. They dress principally in reindeer-skins, and the women's holiday-dress is particularly showy. Their boots, also of reindeer-skin, are beautifully and tastefully embroidered. In summer, the men go bare-headed: the women divide their hair into tresses, and use artificial plaits, ornamented with pearls, buttons, &c. Like the man, the woman is small, with coarse black hair, face of a yellow colour, small and sunken eyes, a flat nose, broad cheek-bones, slender legs, and small feet and hands. She competes with the man in dirt. Nordenskiöld places the Samoyeds in the lowest rank of all the Polar races. The women have perfectly equal rights with the men.] Tuesday (4) we turned for the harborough where Loshaks barke lay, whereas before we road vnder an Island. And there he came aboord of vs and said vnto me: if God sende winde and weather to serue, I will goe to the Ob with you, because the Morses were scant at these Islands of Vaigats, but if he could not get to the riuer of Ob, then he sayd hee would goe to the riuer of Naramzay, where the people were not altogether so sauage as the Samoyds of the Ob are: hee shewed me that they will shoot at all men to the vttermost of their power, that cannot speake their speech. Wednesday (5) we saw a terrible heape of ice approach neere vnto vs, and therefore wee thought good with al speed possible to depart from thence, and so I returned to the Westwards againe, to the Island where we were the 31. of Iuly. [Illustration: SAMOYED ARCHERS. After Unschoten.] [Illustration: SAMOYEDS. From Schleissing's Nou-entdecktes Sieweria, worinnen die Zobeln gefangen werden. Zittan 1693.] Thursday (6) I went a shoare, and tooke the latitude, which was 70 degrees 25 minutes: and the variation of the compasse was 8 degrees from the North to the West. Loshak and the two small Lodias of Pechora departed from this Island, while I was on shoare taking the latitude, and went to the Southwards: I maruailed why he departed so suddenly, and went ouer the shoales amongst the Islands where it was impossible for vs to follow them. But after I perceiued them to be weatherwise. Friday (7) we road still, the winde being at Northnortheast, with a cruel storme. The ice came in so abundantly about vs at both ends of the Island that, we rode vnder, that it was a fearefull sight to behold: the storme continued with snow, raine, and hayle plenty. Saturday (8) we rode still also, the storme being somewhat abated, but it was altogether misty, that we were not able to see a cables length about vs, the winde being at Northeast and by East. Sunday (9) at foure of the clocke in the morning we departed from this Island, the winde being at Southeast, and as we were cleere a sea boord the small Islandes and shoales, it came so thick with mistes that we could not see a base shotte from vs. Then we took in all our sailes to make little way. At a Southeast sunne it waxed cleere, and then we set our sayles, and lay close by the wind to the Southwards alongst the Islands of Vaigats. At a west sunne we tooke in our sayle againe because of the great mist and raine. Wee sounded at this place, and had fiue and twenty fadomes water, and soft black oze, being three leagues from the shoare, the winde being at South and by East, but still misty. Munday (10) at an East sunne we sounded, and had 40 fadomes, and oze, still misty: at noone wee sounded againe, and had 36 fadome, still misty. Tuesday (11) at an Eastnortheast sunne we let fall our anker in three and twenty fadome, the mist still continuing. Wednesday (12) at three of the clocke in the morning the mist brake vp, the wind being at Northeast and by East, and then we saw part of the Islands of Vaigats, which we bare withal, and went Eastsoutheast close by the winde: at a West sunne we were at an anker vnder the Southwest part of the said Vaigats, and then I sent our skiffe to shoare with three men in her, to see if they might speake with any of the Samoeds, but could not: all that day was rainie, but not windie. Thursday (13) the wind came Westerly, so that we were faine to seeke vs another place to ride in, because the wind came a seaboord land, and although it were misty, yet wee followed the shoare by our lead: and as we brought land in the wind of vs, we let fall our anker. At a West sunne the mist brake up, so that we might see about vs, and then we might perceiue that we were entred into a sound. This aftemoone we tooke in two or three skiffes lading of stones to ballast our shippe withall. It hyeth here four foot water, and floweth by fits, vncertaine to be iudged. Friday (14) we rode still in the sound, the wind at Southwest, with very much raine, and at the end of the raine it waxed againe mistie. Saturday (15) there was much wind at West, and much raine, and then againe mistie. Sunday (16) was very mistie and much winde. Munday (17) very mistie, the winde at Westnorthwest. Tuesday (18) was also mistie, except at noone: then the sunne brake out through the mist, so that we had the latitude in 70 degrees 10 minutes: the afternoone was misty againe, the wind being at Westnorthwest. Wednesday (19) at three of the clocke afternoone the mist brake vp, and the wind came at Eastnortheast, and then we weyed, and went South and by East, vntil seuen of the clocke, eight leagues, thinking to haue had sight of the sandie hilles that are to the Eastwards of the riuer Pechora. At a Northwest sunne we took in our maine saile, because the wind increased, and went with a foresaile Westnorthwest, the wind being at Eastnortheast: at night there grewe so terrible a storme, that we saw not the like, although we had indured many stormes since we came out of England. It was wonderfull that our barke was able to brooke such monstrous and terrible seas, without the great helpe of God, who neuer fayleth them at neede, that put their sure trust in him. Thursday (20) at a Southsouthwest sunne, thanks be to God, the storme was at the highest, and then the winde began to slake, and came Northerly withall, and then I reckoned the Westermost point of the riuer Pechora to be South of vs 15 leagues. At a Westsouthwest sunne we set our maine sayle, and lay close by the winde, the winde being at Northwest and by North, making but little way, because the billow went so high: at midnight wee cast about, and the shippe caped Northnortheast, making little way. Friday (21) at noone we had the latitude in 70 degrees 8 minutes, and we sounded, and had 29 fadomes sand, and in maner, stremy ground. At West sunne we cast about to the Westwards, and a little after the wind came vp at West. Saturday (22) was calme: the latitude this day at noone was 70 degrees and a terce, we sounded heere, and had nine and forty fadomes and oze, which oze signified that we drew towards Noua Zembla. And thus we being out of al hope to discouer any more to the Eastward this yeere, wee thought it best to returne, and that for three causes. The first, the continuall Northeast and Northerly winds, which haue more power after a man is past to the eastwards of Caninoze, then in any place that I doe know in these Northerly regions. Second, because of great and terrible abundance of ice which we saw with our eies, and we doubt greater store abideth in those parts: I aduentured already somewhat too farre in it, but I thanke God for my safe deliuerance from it. Third, because the nights waxed darke, and the winter began to draw on with his stormes: and therefore I resolued to take the first best wind that God should send, and plie towards the bay of S. Nicholas, and to see if wee might do any good there, if God would permitt it. This present Saturday we saw very much ice, and were within two or three leagues of it: it shewed vnto vs as though it had beene a firme land as farre as we might see from Northwest off vs to the Eastwards: and this afternoone the Lord sent vs a little gale of wind at South, so that we bare cleere of the Westermost part of it, thanks be to God. And then against night it waxed calme againe, and the winde was at Southwest: we made our way vntill Sunday (23) noone Northwest and by West, and then we had the latitude in 70 degrees and a halfe, the winde at Southwest: there was a billow, so that we could not discerne to take the latitude exactly, but by a reasonable gesse. Munday (24) there was a pretie gale of wind at South, so that wee went West and by South, the latitude this day at noone was 70 degrees 10 minutes: wee had little winde all day: at a Westnorthwest sunne we sounded, and had 29 fadoms blacke sandie oze, and then we were Northeast 5 leagues from the Northeast part of the Island Colgoieue. Tuesday (25) the wind all Westerly we plyed to the windwards. Wednesday (26) the wind was all Westerly, and calme: wee had the latitude this day in 70 degrees 10 minutes, we being within three leagues of the North part of the Island Colgoieue. Thursday, (27) we went roome about the Westermost part of the Island, seeking where we might finde a place to ride in for a Northwest wind, and could not find none, and then we cast about againe to the seawards, and the winde came at Westsouthwest, and this morning we had plenty of snow. Friday, (28) the winde being at Southwest and by West, we plied to the windewards. Saturday (29) the winde being at South we plyed to the Westwards, and at afternoone the mist brake vp, and then we might see the land seuen or eight leagues to the Eastwards of Caninoz: we sounded a little before and had 35 fadoms and oze. And a while after wee sounded againe, and had 19. fadome and sand: then we were within three leagues and a halfe of the shore, and towards night there came downe so much winde, that we were faine to bring our ship a trie, and laide her head to the Westwards. Sunday, (30) the winde became more calme, and when it waxed verie mystie: At noone wee cast about to the Eastwards, the winde beeing at South, and ranne eight houres on that boorde, and then we cast about and caped West southwest: we sounded and had 32 fathomes, and found oaze like clay. Munday, (31) we doubled about Caninoze, and came at an anker there, to the intent that we might kill some fish if God permit it, and there we gate a great Nuse, which Nuses were there so plentie, that they would scarcely suffer any other fish to come neere the hookes: the said Nuses caried away sundrie of our hookes and leads. A little after at a West Sunne, the winde began to blow stormie at West southwest, so that we were faine to wey and forsake our fishing ground, and went close by the winde Southwest, and Southwest and by West, making our way South southwest. September. Tuesday (1) at a West Sunne we sounded and had 20. fathoms, and broken Wilkeshels: I reckoned Caninoze to be 24 leagues Northnortheast from vs. The eleuenth day we arriued at Colmogro, and there we wintered, expecting the approch of the next Summer to proceede farther in our intended discouerie for the Ob: which (by reason of our imploiments to Wardhouse the next spring for the search of some English ships) [Footnote: The fate of the three vessels that were employed on the first English Expedition to the North-East (see p. 29) was equally unfortunate. The _Edward Bonaventure_, commanded, as we have seen, by Chancellor, sailed in 1553 from England to the White Sea, returned to England in 1554, and was on the way plundered by the Dutch (Purchas, iii., p. 250); started again with Chancellor for the Dwina in 1555, and returned the same year to England under John Buckland; accompanied Burrough in 1556 to the Kola Peninsula: went thence to the Dwina to convey to England Chancellor and a Russian Embassy, the vessel, besides, carrying £20,000 worth of goods. It was wrecked in Aberdour Bay, near Aberdeen, on the 20th (10th) November, and Chancellor, his wife, and seven Russians were drowned.--The _Bona Esperanza_, commanded by Willoughby in 1553, carried him and his crew to perish at the mouth of the Varzina. The vessel was recovered, and was to have been used in 1556 to carry to England the Embassy already mentioned. It reached a harbour near Trondhjeim, but after leaving there, was never heard of again.--The _Bona Confidenzia_ was also saved after the fatal wintering at the Varzina, and was employed in escorting the Embassy in 1556, but stranded on the Norwegian coast, every soul on board perishing. (See the account of the Russian Embassy to England, pp. 142-3.)--The vessels alluded to by Burrough are the _Edward Bonaventure_ and _Bona Confidenzia_.] was not accordingly performed. * * * * * Certaine notes vnperfectly written by Richard Iohnson seruant to Master Richard Chancelour, which was in the discouerie of Vaigatz and Noua Zembla, with Steuen Burrowe in the Serchthrift 1556. and afterwarde among the Samoedes, whose deuilish rites hee describeth. First, after we departed out of England we fell with Norway, and on that coste lieth Northbern or Northbergen, and this people are vnder the King of Denmarke: But they differ in their speech from the Danes, for they speake Norsh. And North of Northbern lie the Isles of Roste and Lofoot, and these Islands pertaine vnto Finmarke, and they keepe the laws and speake the language of the Islanders. And at the Eastermost part of that land is a castle which is called the Wardhouse, and the King of Denmarke doeth fortifie it with men of warre: and the Russes may not goe to the Westward of that castle. And East Southeast from that castle is a lande called Lappia: in which lande be two maner of people, that is to say, the Lappians and the Scrickfinnes, which Scrickfinnes are a wilde people which neither know God, nor yet good order: and these people liue in tents made of Deares skinnes: and they haue no certaine habitations, but continue in heards and companies by one hundred and two hundreds. And they are a people of small stature, and are clothed in Deares skinnes and drinke nothing but water, and eate no bread but flesh all raw. And the Lappians bee a people adioyning to them and be much like to them in al conditions: but the Emperour of Russia hath of late ouercome manie of them, and they are in subiection to him. And this people will say that they beleeue in the Russes God. And they liue in tents as the other doe. And Southeast and by South from Lappia lyeth a prouince called Corelia, and these people are called Kerilli. And South southeast from Corelia lyeth a countrey called Nouogardia. And these three nations are vnder the Emperour of Russia, and the Russes keepe the Lawe of the Greekes in their Churches, and write somewhat like as the Greekes write, and they speake their owne language, and they abhorre the Latine tongue, neither haue they to doe with the Pope of Rome, and they holde it not good to worshippe any carued Image, yet they will worshippe paynted Images on tables or boords. And in Russia their Churches, steeples, and houses are all of wood: and their shippes that they haue are sowed with withes and haue no nayles. The Kerilles, Russians or Moscouians bee much alike in all conditions. And South from the Moscouians lye the Tartarians, which bee Mahumetans, and liue in tentes and wagons, and keepe in heardes and companies: and they holde it not good to abide long in one place, for they will say, when they will curse any of their children, I woulde thou mightest tary so long in a place that thou mightest smell thine owne dung, as the Christians doe: and this is the greatest curse that they haue. And East Northeast of Russia lieth Lampas, which is a place where the Russes, Tartars, and Samoeds meete twise a yeere, and make the faire to barter wares for wares. And Northeast from Lampas lieth the countrey of the Samoeds, which be about the riuer of Pechere, and these Samoeds bee in subiection to the Emperour of Russia, and they lie in tentes made of Deere skinnes, and they vse much witchcraft, and shoot well in bowes. And Northeast from the river Pechere [Footnote: Or, Pechora.] lieth Vaygatz, and there are the wilde Samoeds which will not suffer the Russes to land out of the Sea, but they will kill them and eate them, as wee are tolde by the Russes: and they liue in heards, and haue all their carriages with deere, for they haue no horses. Beyond Vaygatz lyeth a lande called Noua Zembla, which is a great lande, but wee sawe no people, and there we had Foule inough, and there wee sawe white Foxes and white Beares And the sayde Samoeds which are about the bankes of Pechere, which are in subiection to the Emperour of Russia, when they will remoue from one place to another, then they will make sacrifices in manner following. Euerie kinred doeth sacrifice in their owne tent, and hee that is most auncient is their Priest. And first the Priest doth beginne to play vpon a thing like to a great sieue, with a skinne on the one ende like a drumme: and the sticke that he playeth with is about a spannne long, and one ende is round like a ball, couered with the skinne of an Harte. Also the Priest hath vpon his head a thing of white like a garlande, and his face is couered with a piece of a shirt of maile, with manie small ribbes, and teeth of fishes, and wilde beastes hanging on the same maile. Then he singeth as wee vse heere in Englande to hallow, whope, or showte at houndes, and the rest of the company answere him with this Owtis, Igha, Igha, Igha, and then the Priest replieth againe, with his voyces. And they answere him with the selfsame wordes so manie times, that in the ende he becommeth as it were madde, and falling downe as hee were dead, hauing nothing on him but a shirt, lying vpon his backe I might perceiue him to breathe. I asked them why hee lay so, and they answered mee, Now doeth our God tell him what wee shall doe, and whither we shall goe. And when he had lyen still a little while, they cried thus three times together, Oghao, Oghao, Oghao, and as they vse these three calles, hee riseth with his head and lieth downe againe, and then hee rose vp and sang with like voyces as hee did before: and his audience answered him, Igha, Igha, Igha. Then hee commaunded them to kill fiue Olens or great Deere, and continued singing still both hee and they as before. Then hee tooke a sworde of a cubite and a spanne long, (I did not mete it my selfe) and put it into his bellie halfeway and sometime lesse, but no wounde was to bee seene, (they continuing in their sweete song still). Then he put the sworde into the fire till it was warme, and so thrust it into the slitte of his shirte and thrust it through his bodie, as I thought, in at his nauill and out at his fundament: the poynt beeing out of his shirt behind, I layde my finger vpon it, then hee pulled out the sworde and sate downe. This beeing done, they set a kettle of water ouer the fire to heate, and when the water doeth seethe, the Priest beginneth to sing againe they answering him, for so long as the water was in heating, they sate and sang not. Then they made a thing being foure square, and in height and squarenesse of a chaire, and couered with a gown very close the forepart thereof, for the hinder part stood to the tents side. Their tents are rounde and are called Chome in their language. The water still seething on the fire, and this square seate being ready, the Priest put off his shirt, and the thing like a garland which was on his head, with those things which couered his face, and he had on yet all this while a paire of hosen of deeres skins with the haire on, which came vp to his buttocks. So he went into the square seate, and sate down like a tailour and sang with a strong voyce or hallowing. Then they tooke a small line made of deeres skinnes of four fathoms long, and with a smal knotte the Priest made it fast about his necke, and vnder his left arme, and gaue it vnto two men standing on both sides of him, which held the ends together. Then the kettle of hote water was set before him in the square seat, al this time the square seat was not couered, and then it was couered with a gown of broad cloth without lining, such as the Russes do weare. Then the 2. men which did hold the ends of the line stil standing there, began to draw, and drew til they had drawn the ends of the line stiffe and together, and then I hearde a thing fall into the kettle of water which was before him in the tent. Thereupon I asked them that sate by me what it was that fell into the water that stoode before him. And they answered me, that it was his head, his shoulder and left arme, which the line had cut off, I meane the knot which I sawe afterwarde drawen hard together. Then I rose vp and would haue looked whether it were so or not, but they laid hold on me, and said, that if they should see him with their bodily eyes, they shoulde liue no longer. And the most part of them can speake the Russe tongue to be vnderstood: and they tooke me to be a Russian. Then they beganne to hallow with these wordes. Oghaoo, Oghaoo, Oghaoo, many times together. And as they were thus singing and out calling, I sawe a thing like a finger of a man two times together thrust through the gowne from the Priest. I asked them that sate next to me what it was that I sawe, and they saide, not his finger; for he was yet dead: and that which I saw appeare through the gowne was a beast, but what beast they knew not nor would not tell. And I looked vpon the gowne, and there was no hole to bee seene; and then at the last the Priest lifted vp his head with his shoulder and arme, and all his bodie, and came forth to the fire. Thus farre of their seruice which I sawe during the space of certaine houres: but how they doe worship their Idols that I saw not: for they put vp their stuffe for to remoue from that place where they lay. And I went to him that serued the Priest, and asked him what their God saide to him when he lay as dead. Hee answered, that his owne people doeth not know: neither is it for them to know, for they must doe as he commanded. This I saw the fift day of Ianuarie in the yere of our Lord 1556, after the English account. * * * * * A discourse of the honourable receiuing into England of the first Ambassador from the Emperor of Russia, in the yeere of Christ 1556. and in the third yeere of the raigne of Queene Marie, seruing for the third voyage to Moscouie. Registred by Master Iohn Incent Protonotarie. It is here recorded by writing and autenticall testimonie, partly for memorie of things done, and partly for the veritie to be knowen to posteritie in time to come, that whereas the most high and mightie Iuan Vasiliuich Emperour of all Russia, great Duke of Volodemer, Moscouia and Nouogrode, Emperor of Cassan, and of Astrachan, Lord of Pleskie, and great Duke of Smolenskie, Tuerskie, Yowgoriskie, Permskie, Viatskie, Bolgarskie and Sibierskie, Emperour and great Duke of many others, as Nouogrode in the nether countries, Chernigoskie, Rezanskie, Polodskie, Rezewskie, Bielskie, Rostoskie, Yeraslaueskie, Bealozarskie, Oudarskie, Obdorskie, Condenskie, and manie other countries, and lord ouer all those partes, in the yeere of our Lord God, folowing the account of the Latin church, 1556. sent by the sea from the port of S. Nicholas in Russia, his right honorable ambassador sirnamed Osep Napea, [Footnote: Ossip Gregorjevitsch Nepeja.] his high officer in the towne and countrey of Vologda, to the most famous and excellent princes, Philip and Mary by the grace of God king and Queene of England, Spaine, France and Ireland, defenders of the faith, Archdukes of Austria, dukes of Burgundie, Millaine, and Brabant, counties of Haspurge, Flanders and Tyroll, his ambassador and Orator with certaine letters tenderly conceiued, together with certaine presents and gifts mentioned in the foot of this memorial, as a manifest argument and token of a mutual amity and friendship to be made and continued betweene their maiesties and subiects respectiuely, for the commoditie and benefit of both the realmes and people: which Orator was the 20. day of Iuly imbarked and shipped in, and vpon a good English ship named the Edward Bonauenture, belonging to the Gouernour, Consuls and company of English marchants. Richard Chancelor being grand Pilot, and Iohn Buckland master of the said ship. In which was laden at the aduenture of the foresaid Ambassador and marchants at seueral accounts, goods and merchandizes, viz. in waxe, trane oyle, tallow, furres, felts, yarne and such like, to the summe of 20000. li. sterling, together with 16. Russies attendant vpon the person of the said Ambassador. [Sidenote: Foure ships.] Ouer and aboue ten other Russies shipped within the said Bay of S. Nicholas, in one other good ship to the said company also belonging called the Bona Speranza, with goods of the said Orators and marchants to the value of 6000. lib. sterling, as by the inuoices and letters of lading of the said seueral ships (whereunto relation is to be had) particularly appeareth. Which good ships comming in good order into the seas, and trauersing the same in their iourney towards the coast of England, were by the contrary winds and extreme tempests of weather seuered the one from the other, that is to say, the saide Bona Speranza with two other English ships also appertaining to the saide company, the one sirnamed the Philip and Mary, the other the Confidentia, were driuen on the coast of Norway, into Drenton water, where the saide Confidentia was seene to perish on a Rocke, and the other, videlicet, the Bona Speranza, with her whole company, being to the number of foure and twentie persons seemed to winter there, whereof no certaintie at this present day is knowen. The third, videlicet, the Philip and Mary arriued in the Thames nigh London the eighteenth day of April, in the yeere of our Lord one thousand fiue hundred fiftie and seuen. [Sidenote: The Edward Bonauenture arriued in Scotland, in the Bay of Pettuslego, November 7. 1556.] The Edward Bonauenture trauersing the seas foure moneths, finally the tenth day of Nouember of the aforesaide yeere of our Lorde one thousand fiue hundred fiftie and sixe, arriued within the Scottish coast in a Bay named Pettislego, where by outragious tempests, and extreme stormes, the said ship being beaten from her ground tackles, was driuen vpon the rockes on shoare, where she brake and split in pieces in such sort, as the grand Pilot vsing all carefulnesse for the safetie of the bodie of the sayde Ambassadour and his trayne, taking the boat of the said ship, trusting to attaine the shore, and so to save and preserue the bodie, [Sidenote: Richard Chancelor drowned.] and seuen of the companie or attendants of the saide Ambassadour, the same boat by rigorous waues of the seas, was by darke night ouerwhelmed and drowned, wherein perished not only the bodie of the said grand Pilot, with seuen Russes, but also diuers of the Mariners of the sayd ship: the noble personage of the saide Ambassadour with a fewe others (by Gods preseruation and speciall fauour) onely with much difficultie saued. In which shipwracke not onely the saide shippe was broken, but also the whole masse and bodie of the goods laden in her, was by the rude and rauenous people of the Countrey thereunto adioyning, rifled, spoyled and caried away, to the manifest losse and vtter destruction of all the lading of the said ship, and together with the ship apparell, ordinance and furniture belonging to the companie, in value of one thousand pounds, of all which was not restored toward the costs and charges to the summe of fiue hundred pounds sterling. As soone as by letters addressed to the saide companie, and in London delivered the sixt of December last past, it was to them certainely knowen of the losse of their Pilote, men, goods and ship, the same merchants with all celeritie and expedition, obteined not onely the Queenes maiesties most gracious and fauourable letters to the Ladie Dowager and lordes of the Councell of Scotland for the gentle comfortment and entertainment of the saide Ambassadour, his traine and companie, with preseruation and restitution of his goods, as in such miserable cases, to Christian pitie, princely honour and meere Iustice appertaineth, but also addressed two Gentlemen of good learning, grauitie and estimation, videlicet, Master Lawrence Hussie Doctor of the Ciuill Lawe, and George Gilpin with money and other requisites into the Realme of Scotland, to comfort, ayde, assist, and relieue him and his there, and also to conduct the Ambassadour into England, sending with them by poste a Talmach or Speachman for the better furniture of the seruice of the sayde Ambassadour, trusting thereby to haue the more ample and speedie redresse of restitution: which personages vsing diligence, arriued at Edenborough (where the Queenes court was) the three and twentieth day of the saide moneth of December, who first visiting the saide Ambassadour, declaring the causes of their comming and Commission, shewing the letters addressed in his fauour, the order giuen them for his solace and furniture of all such things as hee would haue, together with their daily and readie seruice to attend vpon his person and affaires, repaired consequently vnto the Dowager Queene, deliuering the letters. Whereupon they receiued gentle answeres, with hope and comfort of speedie restitution of the goods, apparell, iewels, and letters: for the more apparance whereof, the Queene sent first certaine Commissioners with an Harold of armes to Pettislego, the place of the Shipwracke, commaunding by Proclamation and other Edictes, all such persons (no degree excepted) as had any part of such goods as were spoyled and taken out or from the ship to bring them in, and to restore the same with such further order as her grace by aduise of her Council thought expedient: by reason whereof not without great labours, paines and charges (after long time) diuers small parcels of Waxe, and other small trifling things of no value, were by the poorer sort of the Scottes brought to the Commissioners, but the Iewels, rich apparell, presents, gold, siluer, costly furres, and such like, were conueyed away, concealed and vtterly embezelled. Whereupon, the Queene at the request of the said Ambassadour, caused diuers persons to the number of 180. or moe, to be called personally before her princely presence, to answer to the said spoile, and really to exhibit and bring in all such things as were spoiled and violently taken, and caried out of the same, whereof not onely good testimonie by writing was shewed, but also the things themselues found in the hands of the Scottish subiects, who by subtile and craftie dealings, by conniuence of the commissioners, so vsed or rather abused themselues towards the same Orator & his attendants, that no effectuall restitution was made: but he fatigated with daily attendance and charges, the 14. day of February next ensuing, distrusting any reall and effectual rendring of the saide goods and marchandizes and other the premisses, vpon leaue obtained of the saide Queene, departed towards England, hauing attending vpon him the said two English Gentlemen and others (leauing neuerthelesse in Scotland three Englishmen to pursue the deliuerie of such things as were collected to haue bene sent by ship to him in England: which being in Aprill next, and not before imbarked for London, was not at this present day here arriued) came the 18. day of Februarie to Barwike within the dominion and realme of England, where he was by the Queenes maiesties letters and commandement honourably receiued, vsed and interteined by the right honourable lord Wharton, lord Warden of the East marches, with goodly conducting from place to place, as the dayly iourneys done ordinarily did lie, in such order, maner and forme, as to a personage of such estate appertaineth. He prosecuting his voyage vntil the 27. of Februarie [Footnote: 1557.] approched to the citie of London within twelue English miles, where he was receiued with fourscore merchants with chaines of gold and goodly apparell, as wel in order of men seruants in one vniforme liuerie, as also in and vpon good horses and geldings, who conducting him to a marchants house foure miles from London, receiued there a quantitie of gold, veluet and silke, with all furniture thereunto requisite, wherewith he made him a riding garment, reposing himselfe that night. The next day being Saturday and the last day of Februarie, he was by the merchants aduenturing for Russia, to the number of one hundred and fortie persons, and so many or more seruants in one liuerie, as abouesaid, conducted towards the citie of London, where by the way he had not onely the hunting of the Foxe and such like sport shewed him, but also by the Queenes maiesties commandement was receiued and embraced by the right honourable Viscount Montague, sent by her grace for his entertainment: he being accompanied with diuers lustie knights, esquiers, gentlemen and yeomen to the number of three hundred horses led him to the North partes of the Citie of London, where by foure notable merchants richly apparelled was presented to him a right faire and large gelding richly trapped, together with a footcloth of Orient crimson veluet, enriched with gold laces, all furnished in most glorious fashion, of the present, and gift of the sayde merchants: where vpon the Ambassadour at instant desire mounted, riding on the way towards Smithfield barres, the first limites of the liberties of the Citie of London. The Lord Maior accompanied with all the Aldermen in their skarlet did receiue him, and so riding through the Citie of London in the middle, betweene the Lord Maior and Viscount Montague, a great number of merchants and notable personages riding before, and a large troupe of seruants and apprentises following, was conducted through the Citie of London (with great admiration and plausibilitie of the people running plentifully on all sides, and replenishing all streets in such sort as no man without difficultie might passe) into his lodging situate in Fant church streete, where were prouided for him two chambers richly hanged and decked, ouer and aboue the gallant furniture of the whole house, together with an ample and rich cupboord of plate of all sortes, to furnish and serue him at all meales, and other seruices during his abode in London, which was, as is vnderwritten, vntil the third day of May: during which time daily diuers Aldermen and the grauest personages of the said companie did visite him, prouiding all kind of victuals for his table and his seruants, with al sorts of Officers to attend vpon him in good sort and condition, as to such an ambassadour of honour doeth and ought to appertaine. It is also to be remembred that at his first entrance into his chamber, there was presented vnto him on the Queenes Maiesties behalfe for a gift and present, and his better furniture in apparel, one rich piece of cloth of tissue, a piece of cloth of golde, another piece of cloth of golde raised with crimosin veluet, a piece of crimosin veluet in graine, a piece of purple veluet, a piece of Damaske purpled, a piece of crimosin damaske, which he most thankfully accepted. In this beautifull lodging refreshing and preparing himselfe and his traine with things requisite he abode, expecting the kings maiesties repaire out of Flanders into England, whose highnesse arriuing the one and twentie of March, the same Ambassadour the fiue and twentieth of March being the Annunciation of our Ladie (the day tweluemoneth he took his leaue from the Emperour his master) was most honourably brought to the King and Queenes maiesties court at Westminster, where accompanied first with the said Viscount and other notable personages, and the merchants, hee arriuing at Westminster bridge, was there receiued with sixe lords, conducted into a stately chamber, where by the lords, Chancellor, Treasurer, Priuie seale, Admirall, bishop of Elie, and other Counsellers, hee was visited and saluted: and consequently was brought vnto the Kings and Queenes maiesties presence, sitting vnder a stately cloth of honour, the chamber most richly decked and furnished, and most honourably presented. Where, after that hee had deliuered his letters, made his Oration, giuen two timber of Sables, and the report of the same made both in English and Spanish, in most louing maner embraced, was with much honour and high entertainement, in sight of a great confluence of people, Lordes and Ladies eftsoones remitted by water to his former lodging, to the which, within two dayes after by the assignement of the King and Queenes maiesties, repaired and conferred with him secretly two graue Counsellers, that is, the lord Bishop of Elie, and Sir William Peter Knight, chiefe Secretary to their Highnesse, who after diuers secret talkes and conferences, reported to their highnesse their proceedings, the grauitie, wisedome, and stately behauior of the sayd Ambassadour, in such sort as was much to their maiesties contentations. Finally concluding vpon such treaties and articles of amitie, as the letters of the Kings and Queenes maiesties most graciously vnder the greate seale of England to him by the sayd counsellers deliuered, doth appeare. The three and twentieth of April, being the feast of S. George, wherein was celebrated the solemnitie of the Noble order of the Garter at Westminster, the same lord ambassadour was eftsoones required to haue audience: and therefore conducted from the sayd lodging to the court by the right Noble the lords Talbot and Lumley to their maiesties presence: where, after his Oration made, and thanks both giuen and receiued, hee most honourably tooke his leaue with commendations to the Emperour. Which being done, he was with special honour led into the chappell, where before the Kings and Queens maiesties, in the sight of the whole Order of the Garter, was prepared for him a stately seate, wherein he accompanied with the Duke of Norfolke, the lords last aboue mentioned, and many other honourable personages, was present at the whole seruice, in ceremonies which were to him most acceptable: the diuine seruice ended, he eftsoones was remitted and reduced to his barge, and so repaired to his lodging, in like order and gratulation of the people vniuersally as before. The time of the yeere hasting the profection and departure of the Ambassador, the merchants hauing prepared foure goodly and well trimmed shippes laden with all kinds of merchandises apt for Russia, the same Ambassadour making prouision for such things as him pleased, the same ships in good order valed downe the Riuer of Thames, from London to Grauesend, where the same Ambassadour with his traine and furniture was imbarked towards his voyage homeward, which God prosper in all felicitie. It is also to be remembred, that during the whole abode of the sayd Ambassadour in England, the Agents of the sayde marchants did not onely prosecute and pursue the matter of restitution in Scotland, and caused such things to be laden in an English shippe hired purposely to conuey the Ambassadours goods to London, there to be deliuered to him, but also during his abode in London, did both inuite him to the Maior, and diuers worshipfull mens houses, feasting and banquetting him right friendly, shewing vnto him the most notable and commendable sights of London, as the kings palace and house, the Churches of Westminster and Powles, the Tower and Guild hall of London, and such like memorable spectacles. And also the said 29. day of April, the said merchants assembling themselues together in the house of the Drapers hal of London, exhibited and gaue vnto the said Ambassador, a notable supper garnished with musicke, Enterludes and bankets: in the which a cup of wine being drunke to him in the name and lieu of the whole companie, it was signified to him that the whole company with most liberall and friendly hearts, did frankly giue to him and his all maner of costs and charges in victuals riding from Scotland to London during his abode there, and vntill setting of saile aboord the ship, and requesting him to accept the same in good part as a testimonie and witnes of their good hearts, zeale and tendernesse towards him and his countrey. It is to be considered that of the Bona Speranza no word nor knowledge was had at this present day, nor yet of the arriual of the ships or goods from Scotland. The third day of May the Ambassadour departed from London to Grauesend, accompanied by diuers Aldermen and merchants, who in good gard set him aboord the noble shippe, the Primrose Admirall to the Fleete, where leaue was taken on both sides and parts, after many imbracements and diuers farewels not without expressing of teares. [Sidenote: The King and Queens second letters to the Emperour of Russia.] Memorandum, that the first day of May the Councillers, videlicet, the Bishop of Elye, and Sir William Peter on the behalfe of the Kings and Queens Maiesties repairing to the lorde Ambassadour did not onely deliuer vnto him their highness letters of recommendations vnder the great seale of England to the Emperour, very tenderly and friendly written, but also on their Maiesties behalf gaue and deliuered certaine notable presents to the Emperours person, and also gifts for the lord Ambassadours proper vse and behoof, as by the particulars vnder written appeareth, with such further good wordes and commendations, as the more friendly haue not bin heard, whereby it appeareth how well affected their honours be to haue and continue amitie and traffique betweene their honours and their subiects: which thing as the kings and Queenes maiesties haue shewed of their princely munificences and liberalities, so haue likewise the merchants and fellowship of the Aduenturers, for and to Russia, manifested to the world their good willes, mindes and zeales borne to this new commensed voyage, as by the discourse aboue mentioned, and other the notable actes ouer long to be recited in this present memoriall, doeth and may most clearely appeare, the like whereof is not in any president or historie to bee shewed. Forasmuch as it may bee doubted how the ship named the Edward Bonauenture suffered shipwracke, what became of the goods, howe much they were spoiled and deteined, how little restored, what charges and expenses ensued, what personages were drowned, how the rest of the ships either arriued or perished, or howe the disposition of almightie God hath wrought his pleasure in them, how the same ambassadour hath bene after the miserable case of shipwracke in Scotland vnreuerently abused, and consequently into England receiued and conducted, there intertained, vsed, honoured, and finally in good safetie towards his returne, and repaire furnished, and with much liberalitie and franke handling friendly dismissed, to the intent that the trueth of the premisses may be to the most mightie Emperour of Russia sincerely signified in eschewment of all events and misfortunes that may chance in this voyage (which God defend) to the Ambassadours person, traine, and goods, this present memoriall is written, and autentikely made, and by the sayde Ambassadour his seruants, whose names be vnderwritten, and traine in presence of the Notarie, and witnesses vndernamed, recognized, and acknowledged. Giuen the day, moneth, and yeere vnderwritten, of which instrument into euery of the sayde Shippes one testimoniall is deliuered, and the first remaineth with the sayde Companie in London. Giftes sent the King and Queenes Maiesties of England by the Emperour of Russia, by the report of the Ambassadour, and spoyled by the Scots after the Shipwracke. 1 First, sixe timber of Sables rich in colour and haire. 2 Item, twentie entire Sables exceeding beautifull with teeth, eares and clawes. 3 Item, foure living Sables with chaines and collars. 4 Item, thirtie Lusarnes large and beautifull. 5 Item, sixe large and great skinnes very rich and rare, worne onely by the Emperour for worthinesse. 6 Item, a large and faire white Ierfawcon [Footnote: Gerfalcon] for the wild Swanne, Crane, Goose, and other great Fowles, together with a drumme of siluer, the hoopes gilt, vsed for a lure to call the sayd Hawke. Giftes sent to the Emperour of Russia by the King and Queenes Maiesties of England. 1 First, two rich pieces of cloth of Tissue. 2 Item, one fine piece of Scarlet 3 Item, one fine Violet in graine. 4 Item, one fine Azur cloth. 5 Item, a notable paire of Brigandines with a Murrian couered with crimson veluet and gilt nailes. 6 Item, a male and Female Lions. Giftes giuen to the Ambassadour at his departure, ouer and aboue such as were deliuered vnto him at his first arriual. 1 First, a chaine of golde of one hundred pound. 2 Item, a large Bason and Euer, siluer and gilt. 3 item, a paire of pottle pots gilt. 4 Item, a paire of flaggons gilt. The names of all such Russies as, were attendant vpon the Ambassadour, at and before his departure out of England. Isaak Fwesscheneke. Demetre. Gorbolones. Symonde. Yeroffia. Stephen. Lowca. Andria. Foma. Memorandum, the day and yeere of our Lord aboue mentioned, in the house of the worshipfull Iohn Dimmocke Citizen and Draper of London, situate within the famous Citie of London in the Realme of England, the abouenamed honourable Osep Gregorywich Napea, Ambassadour and Orator aboue mentioned, personally constituted and present, hauing declared vnto him by the mouth of the right worshipfull master Anthony Hussie Esquire, the effect of the causes and contents, of, and in this booke, at the interpretation of Robert Best his interpreter sworne, recognized, and knowledged in presence of me the Notarie and personages vnderwritten, the contents of this booke to be true, as well for his owne person as for his seruants aboue named, which did not subscribe their names as is ahoue mentioned, but onely recognized the same. In witness whereof, I Iohn Incent, Notary Publike, at the request of the said master Anthonie Hussie, and other of the Marchants haue to these presents vnderwritten set my accustomed signe, with the Subscription of my name, the day and yeere aboue written, being present the right Worshipfull, Andrew Iudde, Knight. George Barne, " and Alderman of London. William Chester " " Rafe Greeneaway, " Iohn Mersh Esquier. Iohn Dimmock. Blase Sanders. Hubert Hussie, and Robert Best aboue mentioned. * * * * * The voyage of the foresaid M. Stephen Burrough, An. 1557. from Colmogro to Wardhouse, which was sent to seeke the Bona Esperanza, the Bona Confidentia, and the Philip and Mary, which were not heard of the yeere before. [Footnote: This voyage of Burrough's, undertaken at his own instance, to the coast of Russian Lapland, has attracted little notice: we learn from it, however, that the Dutch, even at this time, carried on an extensive trade with Russian Lapland.] May. Vpon Sunday the 23 of May, I departed with the Searchthrift from Colmogro, the latitude whereof is 64. degrees, 25. minutes, and the variation of the compasse, 5 degrees, 10. minutes from the North to the East. Wednesday (26) we came to the Island called Pozanka, which Island is within foure leagues of the barre Berozoua. It floweth here at an East and by South moone full sea. Saturday (29) in the morning we departed from Pozanka, and plied to the barre of Berozoua Gooba, whereupon wee came to anker at a lowe water, and sounded the said Barre with our two Skiffes, and found in the best upon the shoaldest of the barre 13. foote water by the rule. It higheth vpon this barre, in spring streames 3. foote water: and an East Moone maketh a full sea vpon this barre. Sunday (30) in the morning wee departed from the barre of Berozoua, and plied along by the shoalds in fiue fadome, vntill I had sight of S. Nicholas roade, and then wee cast about to the Northwards, and went with a hommocke, which is halfe a mile to Eastwards of Coya Reca, which hommocke and S. Nicholas abbey lye Southsouthwest, and Northnortheast, and betweene them are 11. leagues. Coia Reca is halfe a mile to the Eastwards of Coscaynos. Coscaynos and the middles of the Island called Mondeustoua ostroue, which is thwart of the barre of Berozoua lieth South and by East, North and by West, and betweene them are 4. leagues, or as you may say from the Seaboord part of the barre to Coscaynos are 3. leagues and a halfe. Munday (31) at a Northeast and by East sunne we were thwart of Coscaynos. Dogs nose lieth from Coscaynos Northnorthwest, and betweene them are eight leagues: and Dogs nose sheweth like a Gurnerds head, if you be inwardly on both sides of it: on the lowe point of Dogs nose there standeth a crosse alone. Iune. 1. From Dogs nose to Foxnose are three leagues, North, and by West. The 2 day of Iune I went on shoare 2. miles to the Northwards of Dogs nose, and had the latitude of that place in 65. degrees, 47. minutes. It floweth a shoare at this place, at an East moone full sea, and the ship lay thwart to wende a flood, in the off, at a Southsoutheast moone. So that it is to be vnderstoode, that when it is a full sea on the shoare, it is two points to ebbe, before it be a lowe water in the off. The variation of the Compasse at this place is 4. degrees from the North to the East. This day (3) the Northnorthwest winde put vs backe againe with Dogs nose, where a ship may ride thwart of a salt house, in 4. fadome, or 4. fadome and a halfe of water, and haue Landfange for a North and by West winde: which Salt house is halfe a mile to the Southwards of Dogs nose. Friday (4) at a Southsouthwest Sunne, wee departed from this Salt house. It is to be noted that foure miles to the Norhwards of Dogs nose there growe no trees on the banke by the water side and the bankes consist of fullers earth. Ouer the cliffes there growe some trees: so that Dogs nose is the better to be knowen because it is fullers earth, and the like I haue not seene in all that Countrey. A head of Foxe nose a league from the shoare there are 15. fadome: betwixt Foxe nose and Zolatitsa there are 6. leagues, I meane the Southerly part of Foxe nose. Sunday (6) I sounded the barre of Zolatitsa, which the Russes told me was a good harborow, but in the best of it I found but 4. foote water. Munday (7) I had the latitude in 66. degrees, and then was point Pentecost sixe leagues south of vs. Wednesday (9) I went on land at Crosse Island, and tooke the latitude, which was 66. degrees, 24. minutes. We being one league Northeast of Crosse Island, I sawe the land on the Eastside, which I iudged to be Cape good fortune, and it was then Eastsoutheast of vs 9 leagues. Cape grace is 7. leagues and a halfe Northeast from Crosse Island. There are 2. Islands 5. leagues Northnortheast from Cape grace, the Southermost of them is a little long Island almost a mile long, and the Northermost a little round island, and they are both hard aboord the shore. Cape Race is from the Southermost Island North and by West, betweene them are two leagues, and from that and halfe a league Northnorthwest, there is another poynt. Betweene which poynt and Cape Race, the Russes haue a Stanauish or harborow for their Lodias: and to the Westwards of the sayd poynt, there is a shoale bay. Three leagues and a halfe to Northwards of Cape Race, we had the latitude on the 10. day of this moneth in 67. degrees 10. minutes. Riding within half a league of the shoare in this latitude I found it to be a full sea at a North and by East moone. I had where we roade, two and twentie fadoome, and the tallow which is taken vp is full of great broken shels, and some stones withal like vnto small sand congealed together. From a South sunne that wee weyed, the winde being at North and by East, wee driued to the windwards halfe the ebbe, with the ships head to the Eastwards. [Sidenote: Frost in Iune] And then when we cast her head to the Westwards, we sounded, and had 22. fadome broken shels, and gray sand; this present day was very mistie, with frost on the shrowds as the mist fell. Friday (11) in the morning at an East sunne, the mist brake up a little, the winde being at North and by West a stiffe gale, our shrowdes and roapes ouer head being couered with frost, and likely to be a storme: I thought it good to seeke an harborow, and so plied roome with the Islands which are two leagues to the Southwards of Cape Race, and within these Islands (thankes bee to God) we found harborow for vs. It higheth at these Islands two fadome water: it floweth in the harborow at this place at a Southsoutheast moone ful sea: and a sea boord it floweth at a Southsouthwest moone a full sea. The Russes call this Island Tri Ostroue. You may come in betweene the little Island and the great Island, and keepe you in the mids of the Sound, and if you borrowe on any side, let it bee on the greatest Island, and you shall haue at a low water, foure fadome, and three fadome and a halfe, and three fadome, vntill that you be shot so farre in as the narrowest, which is between the Northermost point of the greatest Island, and the Southerne point of the maine which is right against it, and then hale to the Northwards with the crosse which standeth in the maine, and you shall haue at a lowe water 10. foote water, and faire sand. And if you be disposed to goe through the Sound to the Southwards, keepe the Northwest shoare aboorde, for on the Island side after you be shotte so far in as the crosse, it is a shoale of rockes halfe the sound ouer: which rockes do last vnto the Southerly part of the great Island, and rather to the Southwards. And if you be constrained to seeke a harbor for Northerly windes, when you come out of the sea hale in with the Southerly part of the great Island, gluing the Island a faire birth, and as you shoote towards the maine, you shall finde roade for all Northerly windes, in foure fadome, fiue, sixe, and seuen fadome, at a lowe water. Also within this great Island (if neede bee) you may haue a good place to ground a ship in: the great Island is almost a mile long and a quarter of a mile ouer. This storm of Northerly winde lasted vntill the 16. of this moneth and then the winde came Southerly, but we could not get out for ice. I went on shore at the crosse, and tooke the latitude, which is 66. degrees, 58. minutes, 30. seconds: the variation of the Compasse 3. degrees and a halfe from the North to the East. Thursday (17) being faire weather, and the winde at North we plied to the winde-wards with sailes and oares: wee stopped the flood this day three leagues to the Northwards of Cape Race, two miles from the shore, and had twentie fadome water, faire gray and blacke sand, and broken shels. And when the slake came wee wayed and made aboord to the shoare-wards, and had within two cables length of the shoare, eighteene fadomes faire gray and blacke sand: a man may finde roade there for a North winde, and so to the Westwards. Two leagues to the Southward of Corpus Christi poynt, you may haue Landfang for a North and by East-winde, and from that to the Westwards in 23. fadome almost a mile from shoare, and faire sand, and amongst the sand little yong small limpets, or such like as growe vpon muscles: and within two cables length and lesse of the shoare are eighteene fadomes, and the sounding aforesayd, but the yong limpets more plentifull. It was a full sea where we roade, almost a mile from shoare, at a South and by West moone: two leagues to the Southwards of Corpus Christi point is the vttermost land, which land and Cape Race lyeth South and halfe a point to Westwards, and North and halfe a point to the Eastwards, and between them are sixe leagues. Riding this day (19) sixe leagues to the Northwards of Cape Race, the winde at Northnorthwest, with mist and frost, at noone the sunne appeared through the mist, so that I had the latitude in 67. degrees, 29. minutes. Munday (21) we were thwart of Corpus Christi point, two leagues and a halfe from shoare, or rather more, where we sounded, and had 36. fadoms, and broken cocle shels, with brannie sand, but the broken shels very thicke. Tuesday (22) in the morning we were shotte a head of Cape gallant, which the Russes call Sotinoz. And as were shot almost halfe a league betwixt it, and Cape comfort, the wind came vp at the Northwest, and after to the Northwards, so that we were faine to beare roome to seeke a harbour, where we found good harbour for all windes, and the least 7. fadome water betweene S. Iohns Islands and the maine. After that we came to an ancre, we tooke the latitude, which was 68. degrees, 1 minute, after noone, the winde at North with plentie of snowe. At a West Sunne there came aboord us certaine Lappians in a boate, to the number of sixeteene persons, and amongst them there were two wenches, and some of them could speake the Russe tongue: I asked them where their abiding was, and they tolde mee that there was a companie or heard of them, to the number of 100. men, besides women and children, but a little from vs in the riuer Iekonga. They tolde me that they had bene to seeke meate among the rockes, saying, If wee get no meate, wee eate none. I sawe them eate rocke weedes as hungerly, as a cowe doeth grasse when shee is hungrie. I sawe them also eate foules egges rawe, and the yong birdes also that were in the egges. I obserued certaine wordes of their language, which I thought good to set downe for their vse, that hereafter shall haue occasion to continue this voyage. COWGHTIE COTEAT, what call you this. PODDYTHECKE, come hither. AUANCHYTHOCKE, get the hence. ANNA, farewell. TEYRUE, good morrowe. IOMME LEMAUFES, I thanke you. PASSEUELLIE, a friend. OLMUELKE, a man. CAPTELLA, a woman. ALKE, a sonne. NEIT, a daughter, or yong wench. OVUIE, a head. CYELME, an eye. NENNA, a nose. NEALMA, a mouth. PANNEA, teeth. NEUGHTEMA, a tongue. SEAMAN, a beard. PEALLEE, an eare. TEAPPAT, the necke. VOAPT, the haire. KEAT, a hand. SOARME, fingers. IOWLKIE, a legge. PEELKIE, the thombe, or great toe. SARKE, wollen cloth. LEIN, linnen cloth. PAYTE, a shirt. TOL, fire. KEATSE, water. MURR, wood. VANNACE, a boate. ARICA, an oare. NURR, a roape. PEYUE, a day. HYR, a night. PEVUEZEA, the Sunne. MANNA, the Moone. LASTE, starres. COSAM VOLKA, whither goe you. OTTAPP, sleepe. TALLYE, that. KEIEDDE PIEUE, a weeke. ISCKIE, a yeere. KESSE, Sommer. TALUE, Winter. IOWKSAM, colde. PAROX, warme. ABRYE, raine. YOUGHANG, yce. KEATYKYE, a stone. SELLOWPE, siluer. SOLDA, golde. TENNAE, tinne. VESKUE, copper. ROWADT, yron. NEYBX, a knife. AXSHE, a hatchet. LEABEE, bread. IEAUEGOAT, meale. PENCKA, the winde. IOWTE, A platter. KEMNIE, a kettle. KEESTES, gloues. SAPEGE, shoes. CONDE, a wilde Deare. POATSA, the labouring Deare. Their wordes of number are these as followeth. OFTE, One. NOUMPTE, Two. COLME, Three. NELLYE, Four. VITTE, Five. COWTE, Six. KEYDEEM, Seven. KAFFTS, Eight OWGHCHTE, Nine. LOCKE, Ten. OSTRETUMBELOCKE, Eleven. COWGHTNUMBELOCKE, Twelve. COLMENONBELOCKE, Thirteen. NELLYNOMBELOCKE, Fourteen. VlTTIENOMBELOCKE, Fifteen. COWTENOMBELOCKE, Sixteen. KEYDEMNOMBELOCKE Seventeen. KAFTSNOMBELOCKE, Eighteen. OWGHTNOMBELOCKE, Nineteen. COFFTEYLOCKE, Twenty. COLMELOCKE, Thirty. NELLY LOCKE. Forty. VITTELOCKE, Fifty. COWTELOCKE, Sixty. KEYDEMLOCKE, Seventy. KAFFTSELOCKE, Eighty. OUGHCHETELOKE, Ninety. TEWET, One hundred. Friday (25) in the morning we departed from Saint Iohns Island: to the Westwards thereof, a mile from the shoare, we sounded, and had 36. fadoms, and oazie sand. Iuana Creos is from Cape gallant Westnorthwest, and halfe a point to the Northwards, and betweene them is 7. leagues. The point of the Island, which is Cape comfort, lyeth from Iuana Creos, Northwest and by North, and almost the 3. part of a point to the Westwards, and betweene them are 3. leagues. The Eastermost of S. Georges Islands, or the 7. Islands, lyeth from Iuana Creos Northwest, and halfe a point to the Northwards, and betweene them are 14. leagues and a halfe. The vttermost of the 7. Islands, and Cape Comfort, lieth Northwest, and by North, Southeast, and by South. Vnder the Southermost Island you shall finde good roade for all Northerly windes from the Northwest to the Northeast. From the Southeast part of the 7. Islands, vnto the Northwest part of them, are 3. leagues and a halfe. From the Northwest part of the Islands aforesaid, vnto S. Peters Islands, are 11. leagues Northwest. (26). S. Peters Islands rise an indifferent low point, not seeming to be an Island, and as if it had a castle vpon it. S. Pauls Islands lie from S. Peters Islands Northwest and to the Westwards, and betweene them are 6. leagues. Within these Islands there is a faire sandy bay, and there may be found a good roade for Northerly windes. Cape Sower beere lyeth from S. Pauls Islands Northwest and by West, and betweene them are 5. leagues. Cape comfort, which is the Island of Kildina, lieth from Cape Sower beere, 6. leagues West Northwest, and it is altogether a bay betweene them seeming many Islands in it. From Cape Bonauenture, to Chebe Nauoloche are 10. leagues Northwest, and a litle to the Westwards. Chebe Nauoloche is a faire point, whereon standeth a certaine blacke, like an emptie butte standing a head. From Chebe Nauoloch to Kegor, is 9. leagues and a halfe Northwest, and halfe a poynt to the Westwards. Kegor riseth as you come from the Eastwards like 2. round homocks standing together, and a faire saddle betweene them. It floweth where we road this Sunday (27) to the Eastwards of Kegor, at a Southeast and by East moone, a full sea: we roade in 15. fadome water within halfe a mile of the shoare: at a Northwest Sunne the mist came downe so thicke, that we were faine to come to an ancre within lesse then a mile of the point that turneth to Doms haff, where we had 33. fadome, and the sounding like to the skurfe of a skalde head. Munday (28) at afternoone, wee came into the Sound of Wardhouse, although it were very mistie. Then I sent a man a shoare to know some newes, and to see whether they would heare any thing of our ships [Marginal note: Which were the Bona Esperanza, the Bona confidentia and the Philip and Marie. Whereof the two first were lost]. Tuesday (29) I went on shoare, and dined with the Captaines deputie, who made mee great cheere: the Captaine himselfe was not as yet come from Bergen: they looked for him euery houre, and they said that he would bring newes with him. At a Northwest and by North sunne we departed from Wardhouse, toward Colmogro. Wednesday (30) we came to Kegor, where we met with the winde at East Southeast, so that we were faine to go in to a bay to the Westwards of the point Kegor, where a man may moare 2. or 3. small ships, that shall not draw past 11. or 12. foote water, for all windes, an East Northeast winde is the worst. It is a ledge of rocks that defendeth the Northerly winds from the place where they moare. When we came into the bay we saw there a barke which was of Dronton [Marginal note: Or, Trondon], and three or foure Norway yeaghes, belonging to Northberne: so when I came a shoare, I met first with the Dutchmen, amongst whom was the Borrowmasters sonne of Dronton, who tolde me that the Philip and Mary wintered at Dronton, and departed from thence for England in March: and withall he shewed me that the Confidence was lost, and that he had bought her sailes for his ship. Then the Dutchmen caried me to their Boothe, and made me good cheere, where I sawe the Lappians chepen of the said Dutchmen, both siluer platters and dishes, spoones, gilt rings, ornaments for girdles of siluer and gilt, and certaine things made to hang about the necke, with siluer chaines belonging to them. The Dutchmen bring hither mightie strong beere, I am certain that our English double beere would not be liked of the Kerile and Llappians, as long as that would last. Here I sawe the Dutchmen also haue course cloth, both blew, greene, and redde, and sad horseflesh colour. And hither they bring also Ottars cases and foxe cases, both blacke and redde: our English foxe cases are but counterfaits vnto them. They would not let me vnderstand any of their prises, but as I otherwise vnderstood they bartered 2. load of siluer for 100 of stockfish, and 2. loade is a doller. And the Dutchmen told me, and they had made a notable good yeere this present yeere 1557. They tolde me that they should be faine to goe to Wardhouse with one lading, and lay it on land there, and so come againe and fetch another. The Borrowmasters sonne told me, that he would go to Amsterdam with his lading of stockfish, who gaue me a barrell of strong beere, and brought it in aboord our ship himseelf. After this I went among the Russes and Kerils, who offered me fish to sell, and likewise the Lappians desired me to look vpon their fish. I made them answere, that I had nowe no wares nor money to barter with them, and said that I came only to see if I might meete with our English ships. Then they desired me that I would come thither the next yeere: I said to them, If I should come the next yeere, I think here would not be fish ynough to serue the Dutch and vs also. They answered me, that if more ships did resort thither, there would more people labour to kill and make fish: and further they said, that some of them came thither a fishing 8 weekes iourney with Deere, which Deere will trauaile more speedily then horses will. As I was thus in talke with the Kerils and Lappians, the Emperour of Russia his deputie (who was there to gather the tribute of the Lappians) sent for me to come to his tent, who after familiar salutations, made me good cheere. He demanded of me why none of our ships came thither. I answered him, because we knew not the place before now, neither yet heard of any faire that was kept there. Then said he, If you will come hither, here would more people resort to kill fish, I think it good (said he) that you make a beginning. I tolde him, that by the grace of God the next yeere, one English ship should come thither. Because I sawe the seruants of the King of Denmarke there also gathering the tribute, I asked Vasilie Pheodoruich the Russie deputie, whether the Denmarks would not be a let to vs, if we should come to this Kegor. And he said no, they should not: for this land is my kings, and therefore be bolde to come hither. The Kerils and the Lappians solde no fish, vntil the said deputie had looked upon it, and giuen them leaue to sell. I asked him what wares were best for vs to bring thither, and he said, siluer, pearles, cloth, blewe, red, and greene, meale, strong beere, wine, pewter, foxe cases, and gold. The Lappians pay tribute to the Emperour of Russia, to the king of Denmarke, and to the king of Sweden. He told me that the Riuer Cola is little more then 20. leagues to the Southwards of Kegor, where we should haue great plentie of salmon, if corne were any thing cheape in Russia: for then poore men would resort thither to kill salmon. The Dutchmen tolde me that they had made a good yeere of this, but the Kerils complained of it because they could not sell all their fish, and that which they sold was as pleased the Dutchmen, and at their own price. I asked the Kerils at what price they sold their fish to the Russes, and they said good cheape: wee sell 24. fishes for 4. altines. I thinke they solde little aboue 20. pence, the 25. fishes this yeere. The Dutchmen tolde me that the best stockfish is made at Kegor. I sawe at Vasiltes tent 7. or 8. iauelins, and halfe a dozen of bowes bent, with their budgets of arrowes, and likewise swords with other weapons: Otherwise I sawe no weapons there. I was also conueyed to their lodgings, which gathered tribute for the king of Denmarke, where I sawe a pair of bilbowes: and I asked whether they were for the Lappians (if neede were,) and they said no, but onely for their owne company if they should chance to be vnruly. The Kerils and the Lappians are not to be trusted, for they will steale as well as the Russes, if they may conueniently come by any thing. Concerning my voyage, because the winde was scant to goe backe againe to Colmogro, I tarried to the Eastwards of the poynt Kegor, and sent to land, and baked two batches of bread in the ouens that the Kerils haue for their prouision. * * * * * Instructions giuen to the Masters and Mariners to be obserued in and about this Fleete, passing this yeere 1577. toward the Bay of S. Nicolas in Russia, for this present Race to be made and returne of the same by Gods grace to the port of London, the place of their right discharge, as in the Articles ensuing is deduced. First, it is accorded and agreed betweene the seuerall proprietaries and owners, masters and companies of the foure ships, surnamed the Primrose, the Iohn Euangelist, the Anne and the Trinitie, and the Lieutenant, Consuls, assistants and companie of the Marchant aduenturers, that the aboue named foure ships shall in good order and conduct, saile, passe, and trauaile together in one flote, ging, and conserue of societie, to be kept indissolubly and not to be seuered, but vnited within continuall sight, so farre foorth as (by winde and weather) by possibilitie shall or may be without any separation or departure of one from the other. 2 Item, it is agreed that the good ship named the Primerose, shalbe Admirall of this flote, and that Anthonie Ienkinson Gentleman, shalbe captaine thereof: and that all the other 3. ships shall ensue and folow her in all courses, and that no course or waying (in harborough especially) shall be made without aduice, consent and agreement of the sayd Captaine, the Master, his mate, and two other officers of the said ship, or of three of them at the least. 3 Item, that the said Anthonie is and shalbe reputed and taken for Captaine general of the said flote together with all such orders, preeminences, priuiledges and preferments as by the order of seas is due and accustomed to a Captaine during his abode and exercise of the same. 4 If is also ordeined, that if any one or moe of the said 3. ships shalbe out of sight either before or behinde the Admirall, that then the rest of the ships shall tacke or take off their sailes in such sort as they may meete and come together, in as good order as may be, to the intent to keepe the consortment exactly in all poynts. 5 It is constituted, that if any ships shalbe seuered by mist or darke weather, in such sort as the one cannot haue sight of the other, then and in such case the Admiral shall make sound and noise by drumme, trumpet, horne, gunne or otherwise or meanes, that the ships may come as nigh together, as by safetie and good order they may. 6 It is also to be obserued, that euery day once the other three shippes shall send and come aboord the Admirall, and there consult and determine of such matter and things as shall be for the assurance of their Nauigation, and most expedition of the same. 7 Item, that notes and entries be daily made of their Nauigations put in writing and memory, and that the yong Mariners and apprentices may be taught and caused to learne and obserue the same. 8 It is accorded that the said Captaine shall haue the principall rule and gouernement of the apprentices: And that not onely they, but also all the other sailers, shalbe attendant and obedient to him, as of duetie and reason appertaineth. 9 Also that no beere nor broth, or other liquor be spilt vpon the balast, or other place of the ship, whereby any anoyance, stinke, or other vnsauorinesse shall growe in the shippe to the infection or hurt of the persons in the same. 10 Item, that the Captaine by discretion shall from time to time disship any artificer or English seruingman or apprentice out of the Primrose into any other of the three ships, and in lieu of him or them, take any such apprentice as he shall thinke conuenient and most meete to serue the benefite of the companie. 11 Item, that great respect be had to the Gunners and Cookes roomes, that all danger and perill of powder and fire may be eschewed and auoyded. 12 Item, that singular care and respect be had to the ports of the ship, aswell in Nauigation as in harborow, and especially in lading and vnlading of the shippes, that nothing be lacking or surcharged: and that the bookes may oftentimes be conferred and made to agree in eschuement of such losses, as may ensue. 13 Special foresight is to be had, that at the Wardhouse no trecherie, inuasion, or ether peril of molestation be done or procured to be attempted to our ships by any kings, princes, or companies, that do mislike this new found trade by seas to Russia, or would let and hinder the same, where of no small boast hath bene made; which giueth occasion of more circumspection and diligence. 14 If the winde and weather will serue, it is thought good rather to goe by the Wardhouse then to come in and ancre there, lest any male engine, or danger may be the rather attempted against vs, our goods and ships as aboue. 15 It is thought good that Richard Iohnson, late seruant to M. Chanceler, shall be sent home in this next returne to instruct the company of the state of the Countrey, and of such questions as may be demanded of him, for our better aduertisements and resolutions, in such doubts as shall arise here: and that he shall haue the roome of the Captaine in such sort as Master Ienkinson is in this present cocket assigned vnto. And if Iohnson can not, may not, nor will not returne and occupie the said place, then any other person to be preferred thereunto, as by the discretion of our said Captaine, with consent of our Agents, shall be thought meete and apt to supply the same. 16 Prouided alway, that the ships returning be not disfurnished of one such able man, as shall occupie the Captainship in like order, as is, and hath bene in such case appoynted, as reason and good order requireth. 17 Item that all other former orders, rules, and deuises, made and prouided for the good order of our ships, wares, and goods, being not repugnant, contrary or diuerse to these articles, and the contents of the same, shall be, and stand in full force and effect to be in all respects obserued and kept of all and euery person and persons, whom the same doth or shall touch or concerne. In witnesse of the premisses faithfully to be obserued and kept, the owners and Masters of the said foure ships, together with the said Captaine, to these seuenteene articles, contained in two sheetes of paper, haue subscribed their hands. Given in London the third of May, in the yeere of our Lord God 1557. Owners, of the Primerose Andrewe Iudde, William Chester, Anthony Hickman, Edward Casteline. Owners of the Iohn Euangelist Andrew Iudde, William Chester. Owner of the Anne Iohn Dimocke. Owner of the Trinitie R. T. * * * * * A letter of the Company of the Marchants aduenturers to Russia vnto George Killingworth, Richard Gray, and Henry Lane their Agents there, to be deliuered in Colmogro or els where: sent in the Iohn Euangclist. After our heartie commendations vnto you and to either of you: your generall letter and other particular letters with two bookes of the sale and remainders of our goods, and the buying of wares there with you, we receiued about the ende of Nouember out of the Edward, with heauie newes of the losse of the sayde good shippe and goods at Petslego in Scotland, with the death of Richard Chancelor and his Boy, with certaine of the Embassadours seruants, and he himselfe with nine of his seruants escaped very hardly onely by the power of God: but all his goods and ours in maner were lost and pilfred away by the Scots, and that that is saued is not yet come to our hands, but we looke for it daily, and it will skant pay the charges for the recouering of it. No remedy but patience: and to pray to God to send vs better fortune hereafter. As touching the receiuing and entertaining of the Embssadour and his retinewe since his comming to England at the king and Queenes Maiesties hands, with the Counsell and Lords of this Realme, and the Marchants that be free in Russia with feasting and beneuolence giuen him, wee referre it to his report and others. The like we thinke haue not bene seene nor shewed here of a long time to any Ambassadour. The Philip and Marie arriued here tenne dayes past: she wintered in Norway. The Confidence is lost there. And as for the Bona Esperanza, as yet we haue no newes of her. We feare it is wrong with her. By your billes of lading receiued in your generall letters we perceiue what wares are laden in them both. Your letters haue no date nor mention where they were made, which were written by Henry Lane, and firmed by you George Killingworth, and Richard Gray: both it and the other letters and Bookes came so sore spoyled and broken with water that we cannot make our reckoning by them. You shall vnderstand we haue fraighted for the parts of Russia foure good shippes to be laden by you and your order: That is to say, The Primerose of the burthen of 240. Tunnes, Master vnder God Iohn Buckland: The Iohn Euangelist of 170. Tunnes, Master vnder God Laurence Roundal: The Anne of London of the burthen of 160. tunnes. Master vnder God Dauid Philly, and the Trinitie of London of the burthen of 140. Tunnes Master vnder God Iohn Robins, as by their Charter parties may appeare: which you may require to see for diuerse causes. You shall receiue, God willing, out of the said good ships, God sending them in safety for the vse of the Company, these kinds of wares following, all marked with the general marke of the Company as followeth. 25. fardels containing 207. sorting clothes, one fine violet in graine, and one skarlet, and 40. cottons for wrappers, beginning with number 1. and ending with number 52. The sorting clothes may cost the first peny 5. li. 9. s. the cloth, one with the other. The fine violet 18. li. 6. s. 6. d. The skarlet 17. li 13. s 6. d., the cottons at 9. li. 10. s. the packe, accompting 7. cottons for a packe, more 500. pieces of Hampshire kersies, that is 400. watchets, 43. blewes, 53. reds, 15. greenes, 5. ginger colours, and 2. yelowes which cost the first penny 4. li. 6. s. the packe, and 3. packes containing 21. cottons at 9. li. 10. s. the packe, and part of the clothes is measured by Arshines. More 9. barrels of Pewter of Thomas Hasels making, &c. Also the wares bee packed and laden as is aforesayde, as by an Inuoyce in euery Shippe more plainly may appear. So that when it shall please God to send the said good ships to you in safetie, you are to receiue our said goods, and to procure the sales to our most aduantage either by ready money, time or barter: hauing consideration that you doe make good debts, and giue such time, if you give any, as you may employ and returne the same against the next voyage; and also foreseeing that you barter to a profit, and for such wares as be here most vendible, as waxe, tallowe, traine oyle, hempe and flax. Of furres we desire no great plentie, becuase they be dead wares. And as for Felts we will in no wise you send any. And whereas you have provided tarre, and as we suppose, some hempe ready bought, our aduise is, that in no wise you send any of them hither vnwrought, because our fraight is 4. li a tunne or little lesse which is so deare as it would not beare the charges: and therefore we haue sent you 7. ropemakers, as by the copies of their covenants here inclosed shall appeare. Whom we wil you set to work with al expedition in making of cables and ropes of al sorts, from the smallest rope to xii. inches: And that such tarre and hempe as is already brought to the water side, they may there make it out, and after that you settle their worke in Vologhda or Colmogro as you shall thinke good, where their stuffe may be neerest to them: at which place and places you doe assigne them a principall overseer aswell to see the deliuerie of the stuffe vnwrought, as also to take charge of the stuffe wrought, and to foresee that neither the yarne be burnt in tarring, nor the hempe rotted in the watering: and also to furnish them so with labourers, workemen and stuffe, as hereafter when these workmen shall come away, we be not destitute of good workmen, and that these may dispatch as much as possibly they may, doing it substancially: for we esteme it a principal commoditie, and that the Counsel of England doth well allowe. Let all diligence be vsed, that at the returne of these shippes we may see samples of all ropes and cables if it be possible, and so after to continue in worke, that we may haue good store against the next yeere. [Sidenote: Danske the old chiefe place for Cables.] Therefore they haue neede to haue a place to worke in, in the winter: and at any hand let them haue helpe enough to spinne their stuffe: for seeing you haue great plentie of hempe there, and at a reasonable price, we trust we shallbe able to bring as good stuffe from thence, and better cheape then out of Danske: if it be diligently vsed; and haue a good ouerseer. Let the chiefest lading of these foure shippes be principally in wexe, flaxe, tallowe, and traine oyle. And if there be any more wares than these ships be able to take in, then leaue that which is least in valew and grossest in stouage vntill the next shipping: for wee doe purpose to ground our selues chiefly vpon these commodities, as wexe, cables and ropes, traine oyle, flaxe and some linen yarne. [Sidenote: Commodities not bearing the charges of long fraight.] As for Masts, Tarre, Hempe, Feathers, or any such other like, they would not beare the charges to haue any, considering our deere fraight. We haue sent you a Skinner to be there at our charges for meate, drinke, and lodging, to viewe and see such furres as you shall cheape or buye, not minding neuerthelesse, that you shall charge your selues with many, except those which bee most vendible, as good marterns, miniuers, otherwise called Lettis and Mynkes. Of these you may send vs plentie, finding them good and at a reasonable price. As for Sables and other rich Furres, they bee not euery mans money: therefore you may send the fewer, vsing partly the discretion of the skinner in that behalfe. Wee heare that there is great plentie of steele in Russia and Tartarie, whereof wee would you sent vs part for an example, and to write your mindes in it what store is to be had: for we heare say there is great plentie, and that the Tartars steele is better then that in Russia. And likewise we be informed that there is great plentie of Copper in the Emperours Dominions: we would he certified of it what plentie there is, and whether it be in plates or in round flat cakes, and send vs some for an example. Also we would haue you to certifie vs what kinde of wollen cloth the men of Rie and Reuel, and the Holes and Lettoes doe bring to Russia, and send the skantlings of them with part of the lists and a full aduise of the lengths and breadths, colours and prices, and whether they be strained or not: and what number of them may be vttered in a yeere, to the intent we may make prouision for them for the like sortes, and all other Flemish wares which they bring thither and be most vendible there. And to certifie vs whether our set clothes be vendible there or not: and whether they be rowed and shorne: because ofttimes they goe vndrest. Moreouer, we will you send vs of euery commoditie in that Countrey part, but no great quantitie other then such as is before declared. And likewise euery kinde of Lether, whereof wee bee informed there is great store bought yeerely by the Esterlings and Duches for hie Almaigne and Germaine. More, that you doe send vs for proofe a quantity of such earth, hearbes, or what thing soeuer it be, that the Russes do die and colour any kinde of cloth linen or wollen, Lether or any other thing withall: and also part of that which the Tartars and Turkes doe bring thither, and how it must be vsed in dying and colouring. Moreouer, that you haue a speciall foresight in the chusing of your Tallowe, and that it may be well purified and tried, or els it will in one yeere putrifie and consume. Also that you certifie vs the trueth of the waights and measures, and howe they doe answere with ours, and to send vs 3. robles in money, that we may trie the iust value of them. Also we doe send you in these ships ten young men that be bound Prentises to the Companie, whom we will you to appoynt euery of them as you shall there finde most apt and meete, some to keepe accompts, some to buy and sell by your order and Commission, and some to send abroad into the notable Cities of the Countrey for vnderstanding and knowledge. And we will you send vs aduertisement from time to time as well as of the demeanours of our Prentises which we doe send now as also of such other as bee already there with you. And if you finde any of them remisse, negligent, or otherwise misuse themselues and will not be ruled, and then you doe send him home, and the cause why. And because we doe perceiue the Countrey to be large, and that you haue three housholds, we doe appoynt Henry Lane to be one of our Agents, and to ioin with you in all your doings, and to haue like authoritie and power as you George Killingworth and Rich and Gray haue: not doubting but you three will so conferre together, as both our Prentises and others may be appoynted and diuided euery of them to his office, and to that he can best skill of: and you also so diuide your selues euery of you to an house, as by aduertisement one from another, our businesse and trafficke may take good successe. And for diuers considerations, to auoyde many troubles and businesse that might happen, wee haue appoynted that hee which shall abide at Colmogro (which we doe think to bee most meetest Henry Lane) shall haue with him there such of our young men, as can best skill in keeping of accompts after the maner of Marchants, that is, by Debitor and Creditor: And that there shall be the place, where our bookes shalbe kept: because it is nearer the sea side, where our goods shalbe discharged and our ships laden. And the said Henry Lane to be charged with all such goods as we shall discharge there out of our ships, according to our Inuoyces. Which goods are to be sent from Colmogro to Vologhda or to Mosco, or to any other place where you three or two of you do appoynt them to be sold, so that Henry Lane be one. And so from time to time immediately as any thing is sold, doe you certifie the same to Henry Lane, that he may enter it into the Bookes as appertaineth: otherwise he should be too farre behinde in his Bookes at the comming of our ships, when he should send vs the accompt of the whole yeere passed. And we will also that you George Killingworth and Richard Gray doe in the fine of April next send either of you vnto Henry Lane a whole, perfit, and iust accompt firmed with your owne hands of all the goods you haue solde and bought vntill that time, and what remaineth vnsolde: and also the accompt of all maner costs of wares, and charges of you and the yong men vnder you particularly in such sort as the said accompt may bee with him in Colmogro at the fine of May at the furthest: to the intent that hee may make all our accompts perfite against the comming of our ships: and in any wise to keepe accompt of euery voyage by it selfe, and not minde one voyage with another at no hand. And as we will haue you to keepe accompt of euery voyage by it selfe, euen so wee would haue all the whole costes and charges of euery yeere put into the voyage of that yeere. As the charges of all the last yeere must be put to the accompt of the third voyage: and the charges of this yeere present, must in the fine of April next, be put to the fourth voyage. Not doubting but your wisedome is such that you will not take it in euill part, that wee doe appoynt Henry Lane to take the accompt of the rest. For we doe it for none other cause, but to keepe a good order in our bookes, that his bookes and ours may by this meanes agree: and hee being the yonger man, may best take paines: and that you doe keepe accompt of euery kinde of wares by it selfe, to the intent wee may perceiue wherein is our most gaine. And also in the making of your returne, in any wise name in your billes of lading, letters, and accompts, what wares doe appertaine to the first, second, and third voyage: and that wee may knowe the same by the numbers or otherwise as you shall thinke good by your wisedomes, putting the charges of the said wares vnto them, as nigh as you can. And all such money as shall bee made of your goods in any place, wee referre that to your discretion, where it shall remaine vntill it bee employed, either at Vologhda, Mosco, or els where. And likewise wee will that Henry Lane doe make in a readinesse about the beginning of Iune euery yeere our whole accompt of the voyage in that yeere passed: in such sort that wee may receiue the same by our shippes: and that wee may plainely perceiue what sales are made, and what remaineth of the first, second, third, and fourth voyage, and what charges haue been layde out for the sayd voyages, and what wares bee bought, and laden, and what they cost, and for what voyage euery parcell thereof is: and to send vs a copie of the same accompt in euery shippe. And also forasmuch as at this time we haue sent you but small store of wares in comparison of that we haue hope will bee vttered in short space, and yet neuerthelesse much more then you wrote for, whereby there shall not be sufficient to make any ample returne: and vnderstandinig that there is great quantitie of goods stayed for our trade there by the Emperour, wee haue mooued the Embassador that you may haue credite for such quantitie as shall seeme good to you to prouide for our benefite. Which credite if you may by his means obtaine, or otherwise haue, we would you bought as much Wexe principally as you may get. For if there be in that countrey so great quantitie, as we be informed there is, it will be the best commoditie we may haue: for hauing that wholly in our hands, we may serue our owne countrey and others. Therefore seeing the Emperour doth minde, that such commodities as bee in his dominions shall not passe to Rie and Reuel and Poland as they haue done, but bee reserued for vs: therefore we must so lay for it, that it may not ly upon their hands that haue it to sell, always hauing consideration in the price and time as our next dispatch may correspond. Whereof you may send a certaine aduise, as well what you shall receiue of credit, and to what quantite, as also what wares are remaining in your hands: which together well considered, you may aduertise vs as well for how many hundreth tonnes we must prouide fraight against the next yeere, as also what sortes, quantities and qualities of wares we shall send you, as well to pay your credite, as also to furnish the next aduenture after. Of this we would be answered largely. For we trust by this time you are able to giue full instructions of the state of the countrey: according to the articles of your first Commissions, and what commodities doe principally abound there with their prices: and likewise what of our commodities haue most vtterance there, and what prices will be given for them there: and all other things requisite and necessary to be knowen. Also we doe vnderstand that in the Countrey of Permia or about the river of Pechora, is great quantitie of Yewe, and likewise in the Countrey of Vgory, which we be desirous to haue knowledge of because it is a special commoditie for our Realme. [Sidenote: Leonard Brian sent to search out Yewe in the North parts of Russia.] Thereon wee haue sent you a yong man, whose name is Leonard Brian, that hath some knowledge in the wood, to show you in what sorte it must be cut and clouen. So our minde is if there be any store, and that it bee found to be good, that there you doe prouide a good quantitie against the next yeere for the comming of our shippes and if there can bee found none that will serue for our purpose then you may set the sayd Leonard Brian to any other businesse that you shall finde most fittest for him, vntill the returne of our ships the next yeere. For he is hired by the yeere onely for that purpose. We doubt not but that hee shall doe you good seruice there. For hee hath good knowledge of wares of that Countrey for his bringing vp hath bene most in Danske, and hath good vnderstanding in making of Ropes and Cables. Also we doe send you two Coopers to remaine there with you at our finding hogmeat and drinke and lodging to make in a readinesse all such caske as shalbe needfull for traine oyle, tallowe, or any thing else One of them may goe with Leoonard Brian to cut and cleue such Yewe as he shall like there. And because we be not sure what timber they shall finde there to make Caske, we haue laden in these ships 140. tunnes emptie Caske, that is 94. tunnes shaken Caske and 46. tunnes whole, and ten thousand hoopes, and 480. wrethes of twigs: they may be doing with that till they can prouide other timber, which we would be glad to heare of. They haue an example with them of the bigness of the Caske they shall make. Neuerthelesse, all such Buttes and Hoggesheads as may be found to serue we will shalbe filled with Traine Oyle. Also we charge you that you suffer no goods nor marchandise of any persons being not free of the Company, and of the accompt of the Company to be laden in any wise in our ships either now or at any time hereafter: except the Emperour or Ambassadour minde to send any thing to the King and Queenes Maiesties, or to any noble man, or to the Marchants of the Companie: Nor likewise that you suffer any goods that goe in these ships to be brought on land there, except the Ambassadours goods, and the Physitions and Apothecaries, and others that he hath with him, who carie no Marchandise. And because our ships be freighted by the great, it shalbe very needful that you do appoynt certaine to see the romaging of the ships, and to giue the master or Boatswaine, or him that will take vpon him to romage, a good reward for his labour to see the goods well romaged. If it be iii d. or iiii d. the tunne, it shall not be amisse. For if it be not substantially well looked into, it may bee a great deale of money [illegible] of our wayes. Also because we reckon that from the Mosco will bee always better conueyance of letters to vs by land: our minde is that from time to time as occasion shall serue, our Agents shall write to him that shall lie at Mosco of all things that shall passe, that hee may giue vs large instructions, as well what is solde and bought as also what lading we shall take, and what quantitie and kinde of goodes we shall send. For hitherto we haue had but a slender aduise, more like a bill to serue a Chapman, then for quantitie of wares to serue a kingdom. For we must procure to vtter good quantities of wares, especially the commodities of our Realme, although we affoord a good penyworth, to the intent to make other that haue traded thither, wearie, and so to bring our selues and our commodities in estimation, and likewise to procure to haue the chiefe commodities of that countrey in our hand, as waxe and such others, that other nations may be serued by vs and at our hands. For wee doe vnderstand that the greatest quantitie of waxe that commeth to Danske, Lubeck, and Hambourgh, commeth out of Russia. Therefore if wee should buy part, and they also buy, it would raise the price there, and would bee little woorth here. And all such letters of importance and secrecie as you doe send by land for any wares or otherwise, you must write them in Cyphers, after the order of a booke sent you in the shippes: always taking good heede in placing of your letters and cyphers, that wee may vnderstand them by the same booke heere, and to send them in such sort that we may haue them here by Christmas or Candlemas, if it be possible. And because you cannot so certainly aduertise vs by letters of your doings, but some doubt may arise, whereof we would most gladly be certified: our mind is therefore that with these ships you send vs home one such yong man as is most expert in knowledge of that countrey, and can best certifie vs in such questions as may be demanded, whome we will remit vnto you again in the next ships. We thinke Arthur Edwards wilbe fittest for that purpose: neuerthelesse vse your discretion in that matter. As touching our goods that were robbed and pilfred out of our ships at Colmogro and Vologda we trust by this time they are restored againe, and the malefactors so punished that other may take example for doing the like, otherwise it will be an euil president. Moreouer, we doe perceiue that Richard Gray doeth buy mastes to send into England; they will not quit the costes, except we had a ship of purpose for them. And likewise that Steuen Burrow is returned from his discouere with the Serchthrift and wintereth at Colmogro, and is minded to set forth in the beginning of Iune next to seeke the riuer of Ob. We pray God to speede him well, and trust to haue him here in England this yeere to bring vs good newes. We doe perceiue there is a riuer found about the mouth of S. Nicholas Bay that hath thirteen foot vpon the barre at a lowe water, and is as neere Colmogro as S. Nicholas: which will be a great pleasure vnto vs. We will that Steuen Burrowe doe proceed on his voiage to discouer. [Sidenote: M. Anthonie Ienkinson his first trauaile intended for Cathay by the Caspian sea and Beghar.] Also we haue sent you one Anthonie Ienkinson Gentleman, a man well trauelled, whom we mind to vse in further travelling, according to a Commission deliuered him, subscribed by master Antonie Huse and others. Wherefore we will you deliuer him one or more of such painfull young men as he shal thinke meetest for his purpose: and likewise such money and wares as he shal think best to take with him. He must haue fourty pounds a yeere for foure yeeres, to be paid him by the halfe yeere, or as he wil demaund it of you, so let him haue it from Easter last. Also the prices of wares here at this present are, bale flaxe twenty pound the packe and better, towe flaxe twentie eight pound the hundred, traine oyle at nine pound the tunne, waxe at foure pound the hundred, tallow at sixteen shillings the hundred, cables and ropes very deare: as yet there are no shippes come out of Danske. Kept vntill the tenth day of this present. As this day came the goods, out of Scotland that were recouered out of the Edward Bonauenture: and nowe we doe preceiue that the caske that the trayne oyle came in, is verie good, and much better then ours. Therefore our minde is, that you shall lade it all in such barrels of the biggest sort as you laded in the Edward, and no long barrels nor small. And that caske that wee haue sent may serue for the Tallowe or anie other ware that is not leakage. Neuerthelesse this voyage you must take such as you can get. Also if the Emperour bee minded to deliuer you any summe of money, or good Waxe, at as reasonable a price as you may buye for readie money, wee will that you shall take it and lade it for our accomptes, and to come at our aduenture, and hee to bee payed at the return of the Shippes in Veluets, Sattens, or any other kinde of silk, or cloth of golde, cloth of tissue, or according as his Commission shall bee that hee shall sende vs in the shippes and according to such paternes as hee shall send. Wee doe not finde the Ambassadour nowe at the last so conformable to reason as wee had thought wee shoulde. Hee is very mistrustfull, and thinketh euery man will beguile him. Therefore you had neede to take heede howe you haue to doe with him or with any such, and to make your bargaines plaine, and to set them downe in writing. For they bee subtill people, and doe not alwaies speake the trueth, and thinke other men to bee like themselues. Therefore we would haue none of them to send any goods in our shippes at any time, nor none to come for passengers, vnless the Emperour doe make bargaine with you, as is aforesaid, for his owne person. Also we charge you not to suffer any of our nation to send any wares to their wiues or friends in any of our ships; but to take their money there to be paid heere by the companie and not otherwise: and to haue consideration how you doe take the roble. For although we doe rate it after sixteene shillings eight pence of our money, yet it is not worth past 12 or 13 shillings sterling. Moreouer, you had neede to sende newe accomptes, for them that came in the Edward bee marred and torne, so that we can make no reckoning by them: and likewise to write vs a perfect note of all the goodes which you receiued the last voyage out of the Edward, and heerein not to faile. Andrew Iudde. George Barne. Anthonie Huse. William Garrand. William Chester. * * * * * A Letter of Master Thomas Hawtrey to the worshipfull Master Henrie Lane Agent at Colmogro, written in Vologda the 31. of Ianuarie 1557. Worshipfull Sir, heartie commendations premised. These may bee to aduertise you, that yesterday the thirtieth, of this present came hither Robert Best, and brought with him two hundred robles, that is, one hundred for this place, and one hundred for you at Colmogro. As for hempe which is here at two robles and a halfe the bercouite, Master Gray hath written to buy no more at that price: for Iohn Sedgewicke hath bought for sixe or seuen hundred robles worth at Nouogrode for one roble and a halfe the bercouite, and better cheape: and white Nouogrode flaxe is there at three robles the bercouite. I trust hee will doe much good by his going thither. As I doe vnderstand, Richard Iohnson is gone to Nouogrode with money to him, I doubt not but Master Gray hath aduertised you of all their doings, both at the Mosco and the Nouogrod. And touching our doings heere, you shall perceiue that wee haue solde wares of this fourth voyage for one hundred and fourtie robles, besides fiftie robles of the second and third voyage since the giuing vp of my last account, and for wares of the Countrey, you shall vnderstand that I haue bought tried and vntried for 77. robles foure hundred podes of tried tallowe, beside foure hundred podes that I haue giuen out money for, whereof God graunt good receipt when the time commeth, which is in lent. And in browne flaxe and hempe I haue bought seuenteene bercouites, sixe podes and sixteene pound, which cost 28. robles, eleuen altines two pence. And as for other kindes of wares I haue bought none as yet And for mastes to bee prouided, you shall vnderstand that I wrote a letter to Totma the 28. of this present for fiftie mastes to wit, for 25. of fifteene fathoms, and 25. of foureteene fathoms, to be an arshine and a halfe at the small ende. [Sidenote: An Arshine is 3. quarters of a yard or more.] And more, I haue written for 30. great trees to be two arshines and a halfe at the small ende, and for the other that were prouided the last yeere, I trust they will be sent downe in the spring of the yeere. [Sidenote: A rope house erected by Colmogro.]And as concerning the Ropemakers, you shall vnderstand that their abiding place shall bee with you at Colmogro, as I doe thinke Master Gray has aduertised you. For, as Roger Bontigne Master of the woorkes doeth say, there is no place more meete for their purpose then with you: and there it will be made with lesser cost, considering that the pale is the one halfe of it: which is to set one pale more to that, and so for to couer it ouer, which as they say, will be but little cost. They doe pray that it may bee made sixteene foote broade, and one hundred and eightie fathoms long: and that in the midde way twentie foote from the pale towarde the water side there may be a house made to tarre in, standing alone by it selfe for danger of fire. The Tarre house that they woulde haue made, is to bee fifteene fathoms long, and ten fathoms broade, and they would that house should be made first: for I thinke they will not tarre before they come there. And farther they desire that you will prouide for as much tarre as you may, for heere wee haue small store, but when the time commeth that it shoulde be made, I will prouide as much as I can here, that it may bee sent downe when the Nasade commeth. The stuffe that they haue readie spunne is about fiue thousand waight, and they say that they trust to haue by that time they come downe yarne ynough to make 20. cables. As concerning a copie of the Alphabet in ciphers Master Gray hath written hither that Robert Austen had one, which he willed that he shoulde deliuer to you. Thus I surcease, beseeching God to preserue you in health, and to send you your hearts desire. By yours to command to his power, Thomas Hawtrey. * * * * * A letter of master Richard Gray one of the first Agents of the Moscouie companie to Master Henrie Lane at Mosco, written in Colmogro the 19. of Februarie 1558. [Sidenote: Lampas a great mart for the Samoeds in the North.] Worshipfull Sir, after heartie commendations &e. You shall vnderstand that this Lent commeth to Lampas such a number of men of diuers nations with wares, as hath not bene seene these ten yeeres. Thither came many out of Vgori: therefore I would haue bene there my selfe, and also haue receiued such money as is owning vs in wares by Kerill his brother and Osep Boscouo. For as you well know, thence they will go with their wares to the Mosco, and make vs payment with delayes, as they haue done these other yeeres past. Colobone and his partner be departed towards Lampas with seuen sleddes laden with victuals. Others also are gone to that Mart. As touching the bringing of money with you, it will bee good, for I assure you since our comming to this countrey haue not so many persons gone to the Sea, as will doe this yeere. Trusting that God will send good store of traine oyle, I will cause as much caske to bee in a readinesse as I can, if you shall think it meete to send some money before. All our old hempe is spunne and wrought in tenne cables from fifteene ynches to ten the least, and thirteene Hausers from six ynches to three ynches: and all may weigh white eight and twenty thousand pound weight and vpwarde. There is in hempe ockam fiue thousand pound two hundred weight in twelue sackes at the least: the flaxe that came downe in the Nassadaes with those seuen podes that came last is all spunne with a good part of that hempe that came last. God send more shortly, for all that is here and that is comming in the three other sleddes will bee dispatched by the fourth weeke in Lent. Within these few dayes I bought thirteen podes, seuen pound of hempe that cost two robles, twenty eight altines, foure pence, which together with that that was bought before, shall bee laide in dipping and sounding lines, for it is very good. There are spent aboue fiftie barrels of tarre alreadie: you shall vnderstand that these eight workemen will spinne and lay aboue fourescore and tenne thousand pound of hempe, so it bee dressed readie to their hands, hauing two to turne the wheeles, and two to winde vp. Therefore I haue agreed with these two boyes to serue the worshipfull companie foure yeeres a piece. One of them windeth vp and is very apt to spinne: therefore I will haue two other young men Russes to spinne, if they can finde good sureties for their trueth. I haue bene in hand with these two yong men that came put of the Trinitie, and they with me, but vnder seuen pound a year they will not serue, nor Thomas Bunting that was Roger Bunting his seruant. Therefore I would haue three Russes at the least to spinne, fiue of them will be as good as these three, and will not be so chargeable all, as one of these would be. I thinke it were good that our Nassada were somewhat strengthened in her floore on both sides with plankes of fiue or sixe ynches thicke, from the stemme to the sterne, as I haue written to Thomas Hawtrey at Vologda. Also if you shall so thinke meet, your waxe and tallowe shall be laden in two Dosnickes, for they bee meete to goe aboord the shippes: I doe intend to set vp an house at Boroseua ouer against the place whereat the shippes shall ride, your aduise therein I expect it shall not cost aboue three robles, and yet if we will, there shall be two warme roomes in it. As for other matter at this present I haue not to trouble you withall, and if it would please yow I would be glad to heare some good newes of Master Ienkinson. Thus Iesus be with you and be his guide. Postscriptum. [Sidenote: White hawks and white beares prohibited without licence.] As for these our Hawkes they bee not white, but white and mayled, but indeede be Iarfawkons. These dayes past our Olen died. So this yeere our Masters of the companie are like to haue none, nor any white beares. Neither may any passe out of the realme without a special licence from the Emperour. I intend God willing to goe to Lampas, if I doe I will take foure or fiue kerseys with me, but as for money there is small store here to carie. Yours, Richard Gray. * * * * * A letter of Thomas Alcocke to the worshipfull Richard Gray, and Henrie Lane Agents in Moscouia from Tirwill in Polonia, written in Tirwill the 26. of Aprill 1558. My duety premised vnto your worships, with commendations &c. It may please you to be aduertised, that my last I sent from Smolensco, which I trust you haue receiued with other letters to diuers of our Englishmen, wherein I certified you of my long retayning there, as also of my departure from thence, and howe that I had hired a Totar to bring mee to Danske. We came to a certaine village on Satterday the sixe and twentieth of Februarie, and there remained that night and Sunday to refresh our horses, intending to haue gone away on Munday earely. But on Saterday at night one of his neighbours departed to Tirwill, and there declared to the Captaine howe that at such a place there was a Dutch man that was come from the Mosco, and woulde ride to Danske, saying, for the one, I cannot tell what he is. The Captaine incontinent ridde to the King to shewe him thereof, so that without any delay there was sent out for mee one of the Gentlemen of the Kings house, and one of the Mesnickes of the Towne with sixe Officers to take mee. They came thither in the night about midnight, and there apprehended mee and tooke all that I had from me: they left me nothing but my clothes to put on my backe, and so brought mee to Tirwill to the Captaines house, where before I dyned, I had a payre of fetters clapped on my legges, wherewithall I sate vntill it was Munday in the Easter-weeke. On which day, after long and earnest calling to the Captaine as he ridde by the windowe, he commaunded the Marshall that mine yrons shoulde be taken off, but no worde I could heare when I should be deliuered out of captiuitie till it was Saint George his day: on which day I was had before the Marshall, who declared vnto me that the Kings Maiestie had shewed his mercie and goodnesse towardes mee: for his pleasure was that I should be deliuered out of prison to depart into England, but no way else. So after I had giuen thankes for the Kings Maiesties goodnesse shewed vnto me, I desired him that he woulde be a meane that I might haue the remaynder of such thinges as were taken from me restored vnto me againe. Hee made me answere, that I might thanke God that I escaped with my head, and that if euer there came any more of vs through the land, they should not so doe. The weeke before Easter they deliuered mee my Corobia againe with all thinges that were therein. They tooke from mee in money nine Hungers gylderns in golde, fiue shillings foure pence in Lettoes money, fourtie Altines in Russe money, whereof twentie and more were for tokens, halfe an angell and a quarter of Master Doctour Standishes, with his golde ring.[Sidenote: Doctor Standish the Emperours Phisition.] Your two pieces of money (Master Gray) that you sent to your wife and daughter, with my two pieces of Boghary money. Of all this I had eight Hungers gilderns deliuered mee the thirde weeke of mine imprisonment to paye for my charges, which stoode mee in a Doller a weeke. So that at the day of my deliuerie I had but three gyldernes left me. For the rest I made a supplication to the Captaine and had the like answere giuen mee as the Marshall gaue me. So that all the rest of the thinges before written are lost, and no recouerie to bee had, which grieueth me more for the tokens sake then doeth mine eight weeks imprisonment. They haue also my sword, my bootes, my bowe and arrowes that I bought at Smolensco, which cost me foure marks, my sled, my felt, the comhold, a booke of the Flowres of godly prayers, and my booke wherein my charges were written. Of all these I can get nothing againe, not so much as my two bookes. After I had remayned there fiue and thirtie dayes, I was had before the Captaine vp into a great chamber to bee examined for letters and of the cause of my comming through the Countrey. In the Captaines companie was one of the Lordes of Danske. They demaunded of mee where my letters were, I declared vnto them that I had none: your Officers (sayd I) tooke me when I was in my bedde, they searched mee and tooke all that I had from mee, if there be any they shall finde them among my stuffe which they haue. They asked mee then, for what cause I went home ouer lande? I declared vnto them, that the Winter beeing a warme season, and hauing intelligence that the frozen Sea was not much frozen, and supposing this Sommer it would be nauigable, I was onely sent to prouide a Shippe to be sent to passe the sayde Seas to discouer Cataia: which if God graunted wee might doe, it woulde not onely bee a commoditie to the Realme of Englande, but vnto all Christian landes, by the riches that might be brought from thence, if the histories bee true that are written thereof. Much other communication I had with them concerning the same voyage. Then he demaunded of mee what wares wee brought into Russia, and what we carried from thence. I declared the same vnto them. Then they burdened mee, that wee brought thither thousandes of ordinance, as also of harneis, swordes, with other munitions of warre, artificers, copper, with many other things; I made them answere, that wee had brought thither about one hundred shirtes of mayle, such olde thinges newe scowred as no man in Englande woulde weare. Other talke they had with mee concerning the trade of Moscouia too long to commit to writing. [Sidenote: An attempt to hinder our trade to Mosvouia by the Hans townes and Easterlings.] At my comming hither heere were Ambassadours from the townes of Danske, Lubeck, and Hamburgh, as also out of Liefland to desire this King to bee their Captaine and head their intended voyage, which was to stoppe all such shippes as shoulde goe out of England for Mocouia. Whereunto the King graunted, and immediately they departed to prepare their shippes. So that I am afraide that either these our enemies, or the great warres that we haue with France and Scotland will be an occasion that you shall haue no shippes at Colmogro this yeere. To conclude, although I haue no tokens to deliuer them, that the tokens taken from me were sent vnto, yet I will declare vnto them that I had tokens for them, with the mischance. And thus I commit you to Almightie God with the rest of the companie who keepe you in health to his holy will and pleasure. By yours to commaund THOMAS ALCOCKE. * * * * * A Letter of Master Anthonie Ienkinson vpon his returne from Boghar to the worshipful Master Henrie Lane Agent for the Moscouie compante resident in Vologda, written in the Mosco the 18. of September, 1559. Worshipfull Sir, after my heartie commendations premised with most desire to God of your welfare and prosperous successe in all your affaires. It may please you to bee aduertised that the fourth of this present I arriued with Richard Iohnson and Robert Iohnson all in health, thankes bee to God. Wee haue bene as farre as Boghar, [Footnote: Bokhara.] and had proceeded farther on our voyage toward the lande of Cathay, had it not bene for the vncessant any continuall warres, which are in all these brutall and wilde countrey, that it is at this present impossible to passe, neither went there any Carauan of people from Boghar that way these three yeere. And although our iourney hath bene so miserable, dangerous, and chargeable with losses, charges and expenses, as my penne is not able to expresse the same: yet shall wee bee able to satisfie the woorshipfull Companies mindes, as touching the discouerie of The Caspian Sea, with the trade of merchandise to bee had in such landes and countreyes as bee thereabout adiacent, and, haue brought of the wares and commodities of those Countries able to answere the principall with profite: wishing that there were vtterance for as great a quantitie of kersies and other wares as there is profile to bee had in the sales of a small quantitie, (all such euill fortunes beeing escaped as to vs haue chaunced this present voyage,) for then it woulde be a trade woorthie to bee followed. Sir, for that I trust you will be here shortly (which I much desire) I will deferre the discourse with you at large vntill your comming, as well touching my trauel, as of other things. Sir, Iohn Lucke departed from hence toward England the seuenth of this present, and intendeth to passe by the way of Sweden, by whom I sent a letter to the worshipfull Companie, and haue written that I intend to come downe vnto Colmogoro to be readie there at the next shipping to imbarke my selfe for England, declaring that my seruice shal not be needful here, for that you are a man able to serne their worships in greater affaires then they haue heere to doe, so farre as I perceiue. As touching the Companies affaires heere, I referre you to Christopher Hudsons letters, for that I am but newly arriued. Hauing heere but litle businesse to doe, I send you Richard Iohnson to helpe you there in your affaires. Thus giuing you most heartie thanks for my wench Aura Soltana, I commend you to the tuition of God, who send you health with hearts desire. [Sidenote: This was a yong Tartar girle which he gaue to the Queene afterwards.] Your assured to command, Anthonie Ienkinson. * * * * * A Letter of the Moscouie companie to their Agents in Russia, Master Henrie Lane, Christopher Hudson, and Thomas Glouer sent in their seuenth voyage to Saint Nicholas with three ships, the Swallowe, the Philip and Marie, and the Iesus the fifth of May, 1560. After our heartie commendations to you. The twelfth day of the last moneth here arriued in safety, thanks be to God, our two ships, and by them we receiued your letters and inuoices very well perceiuing what you haue laden in them. The tallowe came euill conditioned and broken, by reason it came in Corrobias, wee lose and spoyle more then the Caske will cost, and much of this tallowe is verie euill, blacke, soft and putrified. Touching the Waxe, as yet wee knowe not howe the weight will rise, by reason that some of it was lost in the barkes. The weight of the last yeeres waxe did not rise so well as the other yeeres before it did. There had neede good heede bee taken in the weighing. Also much of this Waxe had a great foote, and is not so faire waxe as in times past wee baue had. You must cause the foote to bee taken off before you doe weigh it, or else you must seeke to haue a good allowance for it. The traine Oyles which you laded this yeere came well conditioned, and the caske was good and of a good sise. But if they were made a little bigger, it were the better, for they be not hogsheads. You haue written to vs to send you caske which is not heere to be had, neither doe wee thinke it so best if it were heere, considering it must goe either shaken and bounde vp, or else emptie, which will bee pesterable, and likewise will shrinke and drie, and not be fitte to lade oyles in. Therefore our minde is, you shall cause so much caske to bee made there of the sise of hogsheads as will serue both for; your oyles and tallowe, and let them be well trimmed with pitch on the heads and seames, and stand full of water three or foure dayes before you put Oyles in them; Your Cowper may bee ouerseer to them that make them, that they be well hooped and cleere tymber without knottes, the woorst caske you may put the tallowe in. Hee that seeth the filling of the oyles had neede to looke well to it, for there was much water in this that, came nowe. Wee perceiue you haue bought and haue in a readinesse one hundred and fourtie tunnes of oyles, and that if neede bee you may haue more store. Wherefore we doe minde to send, you shipping for three hundred tunnes and vpwards, because we would haue this next Summer as great a returne as you can of the commodities of that Countrey, as also such of our wares as you haue that are not vendible, or will not be solde or bartered, because we would haue a ful knowledge and state of our accounts. The Sables which you sent this yeere be very base, among them all we could not make one principall timber: wee haue alwayes written vnto you to send them that bee good or else none. The Woluerings were indifferent, and some of the wolues, the rest verie base, the Lusernes but meane, the Lettes not so large skinnes as we hane had: the best is, they were of a new death. As for the Ermines, they cost more there with you, then we can sell them for here. Therefore buy no more of them, nor of Squirels, for wee lost the one halfe in the other. The wares that we would haue you prouide against the comming of the shippes are, Waxe, Tallowe, trayne Oyles, Flaxe, Cables and Ropes, and Furres, such as we haue written to you for in our last letters by the shippes: and from hencefoorth not to make any great prouision of any rich Furres except principall Sables and Lettes: for now there is a Proclamation made that no furres shall be worne here, but such as the like is growing here within this our Realme. Also we perceiue that there might be a great deale of tallowe more prouided in a yeere than you send. Therefore our minde is, you should enlarge somewhat more in the price, and to send vs if you can three thousand podes a yeere: for we doe most good in it. And likewise the Russes, if you would giue them a reasonable price for their wares, woulde be the willinger to buy and sell with you, and not to carie so much to Nouogrode as they doe, but woulde rather bring it to Vologda to you, both Waxe, Tallowe, Flaxe, Hempe, and all kinde of other wares fitte for our Countrey. Our minde is you should prouide for the next ships fiue hundred Losh hides, of them that be large and faire, and thickest in hand, and to be circumspect in the choosing, that you buy them that bee killed in season and well dryed and whole. If they be good we may sell them here for sixteene shillings and better the piece, wee would haue the whole skinnes that is, the necke and legges withal, for these that you sent now lacke their neckes and legges. Neuerthelesse for this time you must sende them as you may get them: if you coulde finde the meanes that the haire might bee clipped off them, they woulde not take so much roome in the shippes as they doe. We perceiue by your letters that the prices of Waxe doe rise there with you, by reason that the Poles and Lifelanders doe trade into Russia by licence: which, if there shoulde bee peace betweene them, would be an occasion that all other commodities in Russia woulde rise to a bigger price, and not be sufficient to serue them and vs too, and likewise woulde bring downe there the price of our commodities. Therefore we thinke it good you shoulde make a supplication to the Emperour in the name of The Companie to returne the trade from Rye and Reuel to vs, especially for such wares as wee doe buy: promising that wee will bee bounde to take them at a reasonable price, as wee haue bought them in times past: and likewise that wee will bring to them such wares of ours, as are thought fitte for the Countrey, and so sell them at such reasonable prices as wee haue done. If this shoulde not come to passe, wee might be out of hope of doing any good by the trade there: but that we haue a further hope of some good trade to be found out by Master Antonie Ienkinson: by reason we doe perceiue by your letters, that raw silke is as plentifull in Persia, as flaxe is in Russia: beside other commodities that may come from thence. Wee vnderstand by your letters that you be at a point with the Russe for the Waxe, Tallow, and traine oyles that he shipped the last yere for 311 robles 20 altines, which is well: although much be not gotten by it, but because they should not vnderstand our reckonings. We much maruel what you mean to buy Seale skins and tanne them. All that you haue sent in times past lie here vnsold, and will yeelde no money. If you send 100 of them tawed with the haire on, they will bee solde, or else not. In our shippe we will send you such things as you write to haue for the ropers: and wee would they should make more store of small cables and ropes, as cables of 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. inches. For these great cables be not for euery man; and the greatest cables bee not best laded: and likewise small ropes for shroudes, sholes, and other small tackeling: and that you looke better to the spinning of their yarne that it be euen and well tarred. The sables that you doe mind to send vs let them be principall and fayre, and not past foure or fine timbars. For they will not be so commonly worne here as they haue bin with noble men: and likewise of Luserns send fewe and principal good. We mind to send you in our shippes 100 tunnes of salte. And because we perceiue that balast is hardly to be had at our lading place there with you, we would you shoulde haue in a readinesse 100 tunnes of the white stones whereof you sent vs home an example two yeres past. And likewise to haue in a readinesse mastes of all sortes for our shippes: for we know not what neede wee shall haue of them. The bringer hereof is Thomas Alcock, he could not be suffered the last yeare to passe through Poland. And as we, wrote vnto you in our shippes, hee is our seruant for yeares: And for that we know him to be honest, true and painefull, our mind is he shalbe placed where he may do best seruice. He doth know the commodities and discommodities of all kinde of wares which you doe send vs. Therefore we would you should credite his sayings both in quantitie of wares and goodnes, as also wherin is most our profit. We see by your letters that your opinion is that the rope-makers should remaine there two yeres more; and that you haue prouided great plentie of hempe, which we are content withall. But as yet we haue solde none of our cables or halsers, neither is the proofe of them knowen; because the first you sent vs were made of flaxe, which are worth no money: for after they be once wet they will rotte and moulder away like mosse. And those which you sent vs now last, by misfortune there with you at the lading were wette and fretted in many places, and haue lost their colour: by meanes whereof they be not so vendible as if they had come well conditioned. Of an hard beginning we trust God will send vs a good ending. We hope in your next letters to heare good newes of the proceedings of Master Antonie Ienkinson. We perceiue by his letters that Astracan is not so good a Mart towne as the fame hath gone of it: and maruell much that round pewter should be so good, and good chepe there, and from whence it should come. And whereas you write that you wil come for England in our next shippes, we would gladly haue you to remaine there vntill the next yere following, for the better instruction of our seruants there; who have not had so long time of continuance for the language and knowledge of the people, countrey, and wares as you haue had. [Sidenote: Christopher Hodson and Thomas Glouer appointed Agents 1560.] Neuerthelesse if you will needs come away, we haue no doubt, but that you will leaue good order with our seruants there, namely with Christopher Hodson and Thomas Glouer, whom we appoint to remaine there as Agents in your roome, till further order bee taken: not doubting but that they will vse themselues so discreetely and wisely in all their doings, as shall be to the worship and benefite of this company. And as we haue a good hope in them that they will be carefull, diligent and true in all their doings: so haue we no lesse hope, in all the rest of our seruants there, that they will bee not onely obedient to them (considering what roome they be in) but also will be carefull, diligent and true euery one in his roome and place for the benefite and profite of the company: That hereafter in the absence of others they may be called and placed in the like roome there or elsewhere. And if you find any to be disobedient and stobborne, and will not be ruled; wee will you shall send him home in our shippes: who shall find such small fauour and friendship during the time that he hath to serue, as by his disobedience and euill seruice hee hath deserued. And whereas Christopher Hodson hath written to come home, as partly he hath good cause, considering the death of his father and mother: yet in regard that Sir George Barne and the Ladie his wife were his special friends in his absence, we doubt not but that he wil remain in the roome, which we haue appointed him, if you doe not tarie and remaine there, till farther order be taken: and for his seruice and paines hee shall be considered, as reason is, as friendly as if his friends were liuing. Thus we trust you will take such order the one to remaine at the Mosco, and the other at Colmogro, or elsewhere, as most neede is. Thomas Alcocke is desirous to be in the Mosco: neuerthelesse you shall find him reasonable to serue where he may doe most good. The 62 robles which you receiued of Iohn Boucher we haue payed him here, and also the 8 robles, which you receiued the yere before of Christopher Rose, and the money which you receiued more of George Burton, for the which we haue you our debtors. Thus we rest, referring that which is here omitted to the report of the bringer: and so God haue you in his keeping. Also we would that you should send vs in our shippes 200 horse-clothes more. The things before written wee would that you should let our seruants see and reade, to the intent they may perceiue our mindes. Another letter to the foresaid parties. 1560. This letter before written is the copie of one sent you by Thomas Alcock, trusting that hee was with you long since. [Sidenote: Stockholme.] The 26 day of the last moneth we receiued a letter from him, dated in Stockholme in Sweden the 14 day of Ianuary, and we perceiue by his letter that hee had talked with a Dutch man that came lately from the Mosco, who informed him that our friend Master Antony Ienkinson was returned to the Mosco in September last past, but how farre he had beene, or what he had done, he could not tell. [Sidenote: Iohn Luck taken prisoner in Lieflande.] Also he wrote that one Iohn Lucke a Ioyner was taken by the Liefelanders, and put in prison. As yet wee haue not heard from the sayd Iohn Lucke, nor know not whether he be released out of prison or not. We suppose that by him you wrote some letter which as yet is not come to our hands: so that we thinke hee is yet in prison, or otherwise dispatched out of the way. The fifteenth day of December wee receiued a letter from Christopher Hodson, dated in the Mosco the 29 of Iuly, by the way of Danske: which is in effect a copie of such another receiued from him in our shippes. [Sidenote: The Swallow.] You shal vnderstand that we haue laden in three good shippes of ours these kind of wares following: to wit, in the Swallowe of London, Master vnder God Steuen Burrow, 34 fardels N'o 136 broad short clothes, and foure fardels N'o 58 Hampshire Kersies: and 23 pipes of bastards and seckes, and 263 pieces of raisins and 4 hogsheds N'o 154 pieces of round pewter, and ten hogsheds and poncheons of prunes, and one dryfatte with Almonds. [Sidenote: The Philip and Marie.] And in the Philip and Marie, Master vnder God Thomas Wade, 25 fardels N'o 100 broad clothes, and three fardels N'o 42 Hampshire Kersies and thirtie pipes of seckes and bastards, and 100 pieces of raisins. [Sidenote: The Iesus.] And in the Iesus of London, Master vnder God Arthur Pette, 10 fardels N'o 40 broade shorte clothes, and twenty seuen pipes of bastards and seckes, as by the Inuoices herewith inclosed may appeare: Also you shall receiue such necessaries as you did write to bee sent for the rope makers: trusting that you shall haue better successe with them which you shall send vs in these ships, then with the rest which you haue sent vs yet: for we as yet haue sold none of them. And whereas we wrote vnto you in our former letter, that we would send you a hundred tunnes of salte, by reason it is so deare here we doe send you but nine tunnes and a halfe, for it cost here tenpence the bushell the first penie: namely in the Swallow 6 tunnes and a halfe, in the Philip and Marie one tunne and a halfe, and in the Iesus one tunne and a halfe: The 4 hogsheads of round pewter goe in the Swallow and in the Philip and Marie N'o 154 pieces, as is aforesaid. We send you three ships, trusting that you haue prouided according to our former writing good store of lading for them. If yee haue more wares then will lade the ships, let it be Traine oyles that you leaue behinde: the price is not here so good as it was; it is worth here 9 pound the tunne. We thinke it good you should let the smaller ship bring as much of the traine as she can cary: And that the masters of the ships do looke wel to the romaging, for they might bring away a great deale more than they doe, if they would take paine in the romaging: and bestowe the traine by it selfe, and the waxe and tallowe by it selfe: for the leakage of the traine doth fowle the other wares much. As for Allard the skinner, if you thinke good he may come home in these shippes. We haue no doubt but that you Henrie Lane, if you minde to come home now in these ships as you requested, will leaue such good order there with our seruants as shall bee for our most profite and their preferment, if they doe their dueties diligently and truely. If our friend Master Antonie Ienkinson bee returned, and meane to come away in these ships to declare his mind and opinion of his trauaile, if need require and he be so minded he may returne thither by land and be there by the fine of Ianuarie or before. But as we be vncertaine whether he be returned or not: so we know not what he hath done, nor what benefite may arise hereafter of his trauaile. Therefore in this wee remit it to his and your good discretions. Wee send you Thomas Hawtrey which is our seruant for yeeres: our minde is he should be placed, where he may doe best seruice. Also we send you Nicholas Chancelour to remaine there, who is our apprentice for yeeres: our minde is hee should be set about such businesse as he is most fit for: he hath been kept at writing schoole along: he hath his Algorisme, and hath vnderstanding of keeping of bookes of reckonings. We send you now but 100 Kersies: but against the next yeere, if occasion serue, wee will send you a greater quantitie, according as you shall aduise vs: One of the pipes of seckes that is in the Swallow, which hath 2 round compasses upon the bung, is to be presented to the Emperour: for it is special good. The nete waight of the 10 puncheons of prunes is 4300. 2 thirds 1 pound. It is written particularly vpon the head of euery puncheon: and the nete weight of the fatte of almonds is 500 li. two quarters. The raisins, prunes, and almonds you were best to dispatch away at a reasonable price, and principally the raisins, for in keeping of them will be great losse in the waight, and the fruit will decay. We thinke it good that you prouide against the next yeere for the comming of our shippes 20 or 30 bullockes killed and salted, for beefe is very deare here. Therefore you were best to saue some of this salt that we doe send you in these ships for the purpose. [Sidenote: The salt of Russia is not so good as Baye salt.] The salte of that countrey is not so good. In this you may take the opinion of the masters of the shippes. [Sidenote: Foxe skinnes white, blacke and russet vendible in England.] Foxe skins, white, blacke, and russet will be vendible here. The last yere you sent none: but there were mariners that bought many. If any of the mariners doe buy any trifling furres or other commodities, we will they shall be registred in our pursers bookes, to the intent we may know what they be. We desire to know how the Emperour tooke the letter which we sent in our ships, as an answere to the letter that came in his name and vnder his seale for the sixe thousand dallers. [Sidenote: May 5. 1560.] Thus wee rest, committing you to God, from London the fift day of May 1560. For lacke of time the gouernours haue not firmed this letter: which is the copie of the other two letters firmed by them. Yours, William Mericke. Yours, Blase Sanders. * * * * * The maner of Iustice by lots in Russia, written by Master Henrie Lane, and executed in a controuersie betweene him and one Sheray Costromitskey in Mosco. 1560. After the comming home into Russia of Ioseph Napea the first ambassadour to Queene Marie, I remaining the Agent there, sundrie Russian marchants by Iosephs procurement obtained letters from the Emperour to freight goods and passe in our ships for England: which thing vpon good consideration I answered and refused. They were then driuen to credite vs and compound in value vntill the next returne. At which time, notwithstanding good accompt in the value of 600 robles, there grewe question by their double demand. [Sidenote: Triall by combat or lot.] So in April Anno 1560. before my comming from Moscouia, they obtained trial by combat or letter to haue their summe double, or as I proffered 600 robles. For combatte I was prouided of a strong willing Englishman, Robert Best, one of the companies seruants: whome the Russes with their Champion refused. So that we had the words of our priuiledge put in effect, which were to draw lots. The day and maner of triall appointed by the Emperour at his castle in his palace and high Court of Moscouia was thus. The Emperours two Treasurers, being also Chancelours and chiefe Iudges, sate in court. They appointed officers to bring me, mine interpreter, and the other, through the great presse within the rayle or barre, and permitted me to sit downe some distance from them: the aduerse parties being without at the barre. Both parties were first perswaded with great curtesie, to wit, I to enlarge mine offer, and the Russes to mitigate their challenge. Notwithstanding that I protested my conscience to be cleere, and their gaine by accompt to bee sufficient, yet of gentlenes at the magistrates request, I made proffer of 100 robles more: which was openly commended, but of the plaintifes not accepted. Then sentence passed with our names in two equall balles of waxe made and holden vp by the Iudges, their sleeues stripped vp. Then with standing vp and wishing well to the trueth attributed to him that should be first drawen, by both consents among the multitude they called a tall gentleman, saying: Thou with such a coate or cap, come vp: where roome with speede was made. He was commanded to holde his cappe, wherein they put the balles, by the crowne vpright in sight, his arme not abasing. With like circumspection, they called at aduenture another tall gentleman, commanding him to strip vp his right sleene, and willed him with his bare arme to reach vp, and in Gods name seuerally to take out the two balles: which he did, deliuering to either Iudge one. Then with great admiration the lotte in ball first taken out was mine: which was by open sentence so pronounced before all the people, and to be the right and true parte. The chiefe plaintifes name was Sheray Costromitsky. I was willed forthwith to pay the plaintifes the summe by me appointed. Out of which for their wrong or sinne, as it was termed, they payd tenne in the hundred to the Emperor. Many dayes after, as their maner is, the people took our nation to be true and vpright dealers, and talked of this iudgement to our great credite. The former letters dated 1558, 1559, and 1560, should all followe M. Ienkinsons voyage to Boghar. * * * * * The first voyage made by Master Anthonie Ienkinson, from the Citie of London toward the land of Russia, begun the twelfth of May, in the yeere 1557. First by the grace of God, the day and yeere aboue mentioned, I departed from the sayd Citie, and the same day at Grauesend embarked my selfe in a good shippe, named the Primerose, being appointed, although vnworthy, chiefe captaine of the same, and also of the other 3 good ships, to say, the Iohn Euangelist, the Anne, and the Trinitie, hauing also the conduct of the Emperour of Russia his ambassadour named Osep Nepea Gregoriwich, who passed with his company in the sayde Primerose. And thus our foure tall shippes being well appointed, aswell for men as victuals as other necessarie furniture, the saide twelfth day of the moneth of May, we weyed our ankers, and departed from the saide Grauesend, in the after noone, and plying down the Thames, the wind being Easterly, and fayre weather, the 13 day we came a ground with the Primerose, upon a sand called the blacke taile, where we sate fast vntill the 14 day in the morning, and then God be praysed, she came off: and that day we plyed downe as ferre as our Ladie of Holland, and there came to an anker, the wind being Easterly, and there remayned vntill the 20 day: then we weyed and went out at Goldmore gate, and from thence in at Balsey slade, and so into Orwel wands, where we came to an anker: but as we came out at the sayd Goldemore gate, the Trinitie came on ground on certaine rockes, that lye to the Northward of the said gate, and was like to be bilged and lost. But by the aide of God, at the last she came off againe, being very leake: and the 21 day the Primerose remaining at an anker in the wands, the other three shippes bare into Orwel hauen where I caused the sayd Trinitie to be grounded, searched, and repaired. So we remayned in the said hauen, vntill the 28. day: and then the winde being Westerly, the three shippes that were in the hauen, weyed and came forth, and in comming forth the Iohn Euangelist came on ground vpon a sand, called the Andros, where she remained one tide, and the next full sea she came off againe without any great hurt, God be praised. The 29 day in the morning all foure ships weied in the Wands, and that tide went as farre as Orfordnesse, where we came an anker, because the wind was Northerly: And about sixe of the clocke at night, the wind vered to the Southwest and we weyed anker, and bare cleere of the nesse, and then set our course Northeast and by North vntill midnight, being then cleare of Yarmouth sands. [Sidenote: Iune.] Then we winded North and by West, and Northnorthwest, vntill the first of Iune at noone, then it waxed calme and continued so vntill the second day at noone: then the winde came at Northwest, with a tempest, and much raine, and we lay close by, and caped Northnortheast, and Northeast and by North, as the winde shifted, and so continued vntill the third day at noone: then the wind vered Westerly againe, and we went North our right course, and so continued our way vntill the fourth day, at three of the clocke in the afternoone, at which time the wind vered to the Northwest againe and blew a fresh gale, and so continued vntill the seuenth day in the morning, we lying with all our shippes close by, and caping to the Northwards: and then the wind vering more Northerly, we were forced to put roomer with the coast of England againe, and fell ouerthwart Newcastle, but went not into the hauen, and so plied vpon the coast the eighth day and the ninth. The tenth day the winde came to the Northnorthwest, and we were forced to beare roomer with Flamborow head, where we came to an anker, and there remained vntil the seuenteenth day. Then the winde came faire, and we weyed, and set our course North and by East, and so continued the same with a mery winde vntill the 21 at noone, at which time we tooke the sunne, and had the latitude in sixty degrees. Then we shifted our course, and went Northnortheast, and Northeast and by North, vntill the 25. day. [Sidenote: Heilick Islands in 66 degrees 40 minutes.] Then we discouered certaine Islands, called Heilick Islands, lying from vs Northeast, being in the latitude of sixtie sixe degrees, 40 minutes. [Sidenote: Rost Islands.] Then we went north and by West, because we would not come too nigh the land, and running that course foure houres, we discouered, and had sight of Rost Islands, ioining to the main land of Finmarke. Thus continuing our course along the coast of Norway and Finmark, the 27 day we tooke the Sunne, being as farre shot as Lofoot, and had the latitude in 69 degrees. And the same day in the afternoone appeared ouer our heads a rainebow, like a semicircle, with both ends vpwarde. [Sidenote: Malestrand a strange whirle poole.] Note that there is between the said Rost Islands and Lofoot, a whirle poole called Malestrand, [Footnote: Maelström.] which from halfe ebbe vntill halfe flood, maketh such a terrible noise, that it shaketh the ringes in the doores of the inhabitants houses of the sayd Islands tenne miles off. Also if there commeth any Whale within the current of the same, they make a pitifull crie. Moreouer, if great trees be caried into it by force of streams, and after with the ebbe be cast out againe, the ends and boughs of them haue bene so beaten, that they are like the stalkes of hempe that is bruised. Note, that all the coaste of Finmarke is high mountaines and hils, being couered all the yere with snow. And hard aboord the shoare of this coast, there is 100 or 150 fadomes of water in depth. [Sidenote: Zenam Island.] Thus proceeding and sailing forward, we fell with an Island called Zenam, being in the latitude of 70 degrees. About this Island we saw many Whales, very monstrous, about our ships, some, by estimation of 60 foot long: and being the ingendring time they roared and cried terriblie. [Sidenote: Kettelwike Island.] From thence we fell with an Island, called Kettelwicke. This coast from Rost vnto Lofoot lieth North and south, and from Lofoot to Zenam Northeast and southwest, and from Zenam to Kettelwike Eastnortheast and Westsouthwest. [Sidenote: Inger sound.] From the said Kettelwike we sailed East and by North 10 leagues, and fell with a land called Inger sound, where we fished, being becalmed, and tooke great plenty of Cods. [Sidenote: The North Cape.] Thus plying along the coast, we fell with a Cape, called the North Cape, which is the Northermost land that wee passe in our voyage to S. Nicholas, and is in the latitude of 71 degrees and ten minutes, and is from Inger sound East, and to the Northwards 15 leagues. And being at this North Cape the second day of Iuly, we had the sunne at North 4 degrees aboue the Horizon. The third day wee came to Wardhouse, hauing such mists that we could not see the land. [Sidenote: Wardhouse] This Wardhouse is a Castle standing in an Island 2 miles from the maine of Finland, subiect to the king of Denmarke, and the Easternmost land that he hath. There are two other Islands neere adioining vnto that, whereon the Castle of Wardhouse standeth. The inhabitants of those three Islands liue onely by fishing, and make much, stockefish which they dry with frost: their most feeding is fish; bread and drinke they haue none, but such as is brought them from other places. [Sidenote: Cattell fed with fish.] They haue small store of cattell, which are also fed with fish. From Wardhouse we sailed Southsoutheast ten leagues, and fell with a Cape of land called Kegor, [Footnote: Cape Njemetsky.] the Northermost part of the land of Lappia. [Sidenote: The Monastery of Pechinchow.] And betweene Wardhouse, and the said Cape is a great Bay, called Dommeshaff, [Footnote: Varanger fjord.] in the South part whereof is a Monasterie of Monkes of the Russes religion, called Pechinchow. Thus proceeding forward and sayling along the coast of the said land of Lappia, winding Southeast, the fourth day through great mists and darkenes we lost the company of the other three ships, and met not with them againe, vntill the seuenth day, when we fell with a Cape or head land called Swetinoz, [Footnote: Cape Swjatojnos.] which is the entring into the Bay of S. Nicholas. At this Cape lieth a great stone, to the which the barkes that passed thereby, were wont to make offrings of butter, meale, and other victuals, thinking that vnlesse they did so, their barkes or vessels should there perish, as it hath bene oftentimes seene: and there it is very darke and mistie. [Sidenote: Arzina reca the riuer where Hugh Willoughbie was frozen.] Note that the sixt day we passed by the place where Sir Hugh Willoughbie, with all his company perished, which is called Arzina reca, that to say, the riuer Arzina. [Footnote: Varzina.] The land of Lappia is an high land, hauing snow lying on it commonly all the yere. The people of the Countrey are halfe Gentiles: they liue in the summer time neere the sea side, and vse to take fish, of the which they make bread, and in the winter they remoue vp into the countrey into the woods, where they vse hunting, and kill Deere, Beares, Woolues, Foxes, and other beasts, with whose flesh they be nourished, [Sidenote: The Lappians couered all sauing their eies.] and with their skinnes apparelled in such strange fashion, that there is nothing seene of them bare but their eies. They haue none other habitation, but onely in tents, remouing from place to place according to the season of the yeere. They know no arte nor facultie, but onely shooting, which they exercise dayly, as well men as women, and kill such beasts as serue them for their foode. Thus proceeding along the coast from Swetinoz aforesaid, the ninth day of Iuly wee came to Cape Grace, [Footnote: Cape Krasnoj.] being in the latitude of 66 degrees and 45 minutes, and is at the entring in of the Bay of S. Nicholas. Aboord this land there is 20 or 30 fadoms water, and sundry grounds good to anker in. [Sidenote: The current at Cape Grace.] The current at this Cape runneth Southwest and Northeast. From this Cape wee proceeded along vntill we came to Crosse Island, which is seuen leagues from the sayd Cape Southwest: and from this Island, wee set ouer to the other side of the Bay, and went Southwest, and fell with an head land called Foxenose, which is from the sayd Island 25 leagues. [Sidenote: The entering of the Bay of S. Nicholas is seuen leagues broad at the least.] The entring of this Bay from Crosse Island to the neerest land on the other side is seuen leagues ouer. From Foxenose proceeding forward the twelfth day of the sayd moneth of Iuly, all our foure ships arriued in safetie at the road of Saint Nicholas in the land of Russia, where we ankered, and had sailed from London vnto the said roade seuen hundred and fifty leagues. The Russian ambassadour and his company with great ioy got to shore, and our ships here forthwith discharged themselues: and being laden againe, and hauing a faire winde, departed toward England the first of August. [Sidenote: August.] The third of the sayd moneth I with other of my company came vnto the citie of Colmogro, being an hundred verstes from the Bay of Saint Nicholas, and in the latitude of 64 degrees 25 minutes. I taried at the said Colmogro vntill the fifteenth day: and then I departed in a little boate vp the great riuer of Dwina, which runneth very swiftly, [Sidenote: Pinego River.] and the selfe same day passed by the mouth of a riuer called Pinego, leauing it on our lefte hand fifteen verstes from Colmogro. On both sides of the mouth of this riuer Pinego is high land, great rockes of Alablaster, great woods, and Pineapple trees lying along within the ground, which by report haue lien there since Noes flood. [Sidenote: The towne of Yemps.] And thus proceeding forward the nineteenth day in the morning, I came into a town called Yemps, an hundred verstes from Colmogro. All this way along they make much tarre, pitch and ashes of Aspen trees. [Sidenote: Vstiug.] From thence I came to a place called Vstiug, an ancient citie the last day of August. At this citie meete two riuers: the one called Iug, and the other Sucana, both which fall into the aforesaid riuer of Dwina. The riuer Iug hath his spring in the land of the Tartars called Cheremizzi, ioining to the countrey of Permia: and Succana hath his head from a lake not farre from the citie of Vologda. Thus departing from Vstiug, and passing by the riuer Succana, we came to a towne called Totma. About this place the water is verie shallow, and stonie, and troublesome for Barkes and boats of that countrey, which they call Nassades, and Dosneckes, to passe that way: wherein marchandise are transported from the aforesayd Colmogro to the citie of Vologhda. [Sidenote: The description of their Nassades.] These vessels called Nassades, are very long builded, broade made, and close aboue, flatte bottomed, and draw not aboue foure foote water; and will came two hundred tunnes: they haue none iron appertaining to them but all of timber, and when the winde serueth, they are made to sayle. Otherwise they haue many men, some to hale and drawe by the neckes with long small ropes made fast to the sayd boats, and some set with long poles. There are many of these barks vpon the riuer of Dwina: And the most part of them belongeth vnto the citie of Vologhda: for there dwell many marchants, and they occupie the said boates with carying of salte from the sea side vnto the sayd Vologhda. The twentieth of September I came vnto Vologhda, which is a great citie, and the riuer passeth through the midst of the same. The houses are builded with wood of Firre trees, ioyned one with another, and round without: the houses are foure square without any iron or stone worke, couered with birch barkes, and wood ouer the same: Their Churches are all of wood, two for euery parish, one to be heated for Winter, and the other for Summer. On the toppes of their houses they laye much earth, for feare of burning: for they are sore plagued with fire. This Vologhda is in 59 degrees, eleuen minutes, and is from Colmogro, 1000 verstes. All the way I neuer came in house, but lodged in the wildernesse, by the riuers side, and caried prouision for the way. [Sidenote: Good counsell for trauellers.] And he that will trauell those wayes, must carie with him an hatchet, a tinder boxe, and a kettle, to make fire and seethe meate, when he hath it: for there is small succour in those parts, vnlesse it be in townes. [Sidenote: December.] The first day of December, I departed from Vologhda in poste in a sled, as the maner is in Winter. And the way to Moscua is as followeth. From Vologda to Commelski, 27 verstes, so to Olmor 25 verstes, so to Teloytske 20 verstes, so to Vre 30 verstes, so to Voshansko 30 versus, then to Yeraslaue 30 verstes, which standeth vpon the great riuer Volga, so to Rostoue, 50 verstes, then to Rogarin 30 verstes, so to Peraslaue 10 verstes, which is a great town, standing hard by a faire lake. From thence to Dowbnay 30 verstes, so to Godoroke 30 verstes, so to Owchay 30 verstes, and last to the Mosco 25 verstes, where I arriued the sixt day of December. There are 14 postes called Yannes betweene Vologhda and Mosco, which are accompted 500 verstes asunder. The 10 day of December I was sent for to the Emperors Castle by the sayd Emperour, and deliuered my letters vnto the Secretary, who talked with me of diuers matters, by the commandement of the Emperour. And after that my letters were translated, I was answered that I was welcome, and that the Emperour would giue me that I desired. The 25 day, being the day of the natiuitie, I came into the Emperours presence, and kissed his hand, who sate aloft in a goodly chaire of estate, hauing on his heade a crowne most richly decked, and a staffe of gold in his hand, all apparelled with golde, and garnished with precious stones. There sate distant from him about two yardes his brother, and next vnto him a boy of twelue yeares of age, who was inheritor to the Emperor of Casan, conquered by this Emperor 8 yeares past. Then sate his nobilitie round about him, richly apparelled with gold and stone. And after I had done obeisance to the Emperour, he with his own mouth calling me by my name, bade me to dinner, and so I departed to my lodging till dinner time, which was at sixe of the clocke, by candle light. The Emperour dined in a fayre great hall, in the midst whereof was a pillar foure square, very artificially made, about which were diuers tables set, and at the vppermost part of the hall, sate the Emperour himselfe, and at his table sate his brother, his Vncles sonne, the Metropolitane, the young Emperour of Casan, and diuers of his noble men, all of one side. There were diuers Ambassadors, and other strangers, as well Christians as heathens, diuersly apparelled, to the number of 600 men, which dined in the sayd hall, besides 2000 Tartars, men of warre, which were newly come to render themselues to the Emperour, and were appointed to serue him in his wars against the Lieflanders, but they dined in other hals. I was set at a litle table, hauing no stranger with me, directly before the Emperors face. Being thus set and placed, the Emperour sent me diuers bowles of wine, and meade, and many dishes of meat from his own hand, which were brought me by a Duke, and my table serued all in gold and siluer, and so likewise on other tables, there were set bowles of gold, set with stone, worth by estimation 400 pounds sterling one cup, besides the plate which serued the tables. There was also a cupbord of plate, most sumptuous and rich, which was not vsed: among the which, was a piece of golde of two yardes long, wrought in the toppe with towers, and dragons heads, also diuers barrels of gold and siluer, with Castles on the bungs, richly and artificially made. The Emperour and all the hall throughout was serued with Dukes: and when dinner was ended, the Emperour called me by name, and gaue me drinke with his own hand, and so I departed to my lodging. Note, that when the Emperour drinketh, all the company stand vp, and at euery time he drinketh or tasteth of a dish of meate he blesseth himselfe. Many other things I sawe that day, not here noted. The 4 of Ianuary, which was Twelftide with them, the Emperour, with his brother and all his nobles, all most richly appareled with gold, pearles, precious stones, and costly furres, with a crowne vpon his head, of the Tartarian fashion, went to the Church in procession, with the Metropolitan, and diuers bishops and priests. That day I was before the Emperour again in Russe apparell, and the Emperour asked if that were not I, and his Chancelor answered yea. Then he bad me to dinner: then came he out of the church, and went with the procession vpon the riuer, being all frozen, and there standing bare headed, with all his Nobles, there was a hole made in the ice, and the Metropolitan hallowed the water with great solemnitie and seruice, and did cast of the sayd water vpon the Emperors sonne and the Nobility. That done, the people with great thronging filled pots of the said water to carie home to their houses, and diuers children were throwen in, and sicke people, and plucked out quickly againe, and diuers Tartars christened: all which the Emperour beheld. Also there were brought the Emperours best horses, to drink at the sayd hallowed water. All this being ended, he returned to his palace againe, and went to dinner by candle light, and sate in a woodden house, very fairely gilt. There dined in the place, about 300 strangers, and I sate alone as I did before, directly before the Emperour, and had my meat, bread and drinke sent me from the Emperour. The citie of Mosco is great, the houses for the most part of wood, and some of stone, with windowes of yron, which serue for summer time. There are many faire Churches of stone, but more of wood, which are made hot in the winter time. The Emperors lodging is in a faire and large castle, walled foure square of bricke, high, and thicke, situated vpon a hill, 2 miles about, and the riuer on the Southwest side of it, and it hath 16 gates in the walles, and as many bulwarks. [Footnote: The Kremlin Palace.] His palace is separated from the rest of the Castle, by a long wall going north and south, to the riuer side. In his palace are Churches, some of stone and some of wood, with round towers fairely gilded. In the Church doores and within the Churches are images of golde: the chiefe markets for all things, are within the sayd Castle, and for sundry things sundry markets, and euery science by it selfe. And in the winter there is a great market without the castle, vpon the riuer being frozen, and there is sold corne, earthen pots, tubs, sleds, &c. The castle is in circuit 2900 pases. The coontrey is ful of marish ground, and plaine, in woods and riuers abundant, but it bringeth forth good plenty of corne. This Emperour is of great power: for he hath conquered much, as wel of the Lieflanders, Poles, Lettoes, and Swethens, as also of the Tartars, and Gentiles, called Samoeds, hauing thereby much inlarged his dominions. He keepeth his people in great subiection: all matters passe his iudgement, be they neuer so small. The law is sharpe for all offenders. The Metropolitan dealeth in matters of religion, as himselfe listeth, whome the Emperour greatly honoreth. They vse the ceremonies, and orders of the Greeke Church. They worship many images painted on tables, and specially the image of S. Nicholas. Their Priests be maried, but their wiues being dead, they may not marie the second time, and so become Monkes, whereof there are a great number in the land. They haue foure Lents in the yeere, and the weeke before Shrofetide, they call the Butter weeke, &c. They haue many sortes of meats and drinkes, when they banket and delight in eating of grosse meates, and stinking fishe. Before they drinke they vse to blowe in the cup: their greatest friendship is in drinking: they are great talkers and lyers, without any faith or trust in their words, flatterers and dissemblers. The women be there very obedient to their husbands, and are kept straightly from going abroad, but at some seasons. At my being there, I heard of men and women that drunke away their children, and all their goods at the Emperors tauerne, and not being able to pay, hauing impauned himselfe, the Tauerner bringeth him out to the highway, and beates him vpon the legges: then they that passe by, knowing the cause, and hauing peraduenture compassion vpon him, giue the money, and so he is ransomed. In euery good towne there is a drunken Tauerne called a Cursemay, which the Emperour sometime letteth out to farme, and sometimes bestoweth for a yeare or two on some duke or gentleman, in recompense of his seruice: and for that time he is Lord of all the towne, robbing and spoiling, and doing what pleaseth him: and then he be growen rich, is taken by the Emperor, and sent to the warres againe, where he shall spend all that which he hath gotten by ill meanes: so that the Emperour in his warres is little charged, but all the burden lieth vpon the poore people. They vse sadles made of wood and sinewes, with the tree gilded with damaske worke, and the seat couered with cloth sometimes of golde, and the rest Saphian leather, well stitched. They vse little drummes at their sadle bowes, by the sound whereof their horses vse to runne more swiftly. The Russe is appareled in this manner: his vpper garment is of golde, silke, or cloth, long, downe to the foot, and buttoned with great buttons of siluer, or els laces of silke, set on with brooches, the sleeues thereof very long, which he weareth on his arme, ruffed vp. Vnder that he hath another long garment, buttoned with silke buttons, with a high coller standing vp of some colour and that garment is made straight. Then his shirt is very fine, and wrought with red silk, or some gold, with a coller of pearle. Vnder his shirt he hath linnen breeches, vpon his legs, a paire of hose without feete, and his bootes of red or yellow leather. On his head hee weareth a white Colepecke, with buttons of siluer, gold, pearle, or stone, and vnder it a black Foxe cap, turned vp very broad. When he rideth on horsebacke to the warres, or any iourney, he hath a sword of the Turkish fashion, and his bowe and arrowes of the same maner. In the towne he weareth no weapon, but onely two or three paire of kniues, hauing the hafts of the tooth of a fish, called the Morse. In the Winter time, the people trauell with sleds, in towne and countrey, the way being hard, and smooth with snow; the waters and riuers are all frozen, and one horse with a sled, will draw a man vpon it 400 miles, in three daies: but in the Summer time, the way is deepe with mire, and trauelling is very ill. The Russe, if he be a man of any abilitie, neuer goeth out of his house in the winter, but vpon his sled, and in Summer vpon his horse: and in his sled he sits vpon a carpet, or a white Beares skinne: the sled is drawen with a horse well decked, with many Foxes and Woolues tailes at his necke, and is conducted by a little boy vpon his backe: his seruants stand vpon the taile of the sled &c. * * * * * The voyage, wherein Osep Napea the Moscouite Ambassadour returned home into his countrey, with his entertainement at his arriuall, at Colmogro: and a large description of the maners of the Countrey. The twelfth of Maye, in the yeare of our Lorde 1557 there departed from Grauesend, foure good shippes well appointed for Marchants, which were presently bound into the Baye of S. Nicholas in Russia, with which shippes was transported, or caried home, one Osep Gregoriwich Napea, who was sent Messenger from the Emperour and great Duke of Moscouia. The foure ships were these, whose names follow, viz. The Primerose Admirall. The Iohn Euangelist Viceadmirall. The Anne and the Trinitie Attendants. The 13 of Iuly, the foresayd foure shippes came to an anker in the Baye of S. Nicholas, befor an Abbey, called the Abbey of S. Nicholas, whereas the sayde Messenger, Osep Gregoriwich Napea went a shoare, and as many English men as came to serue the Emperour remained with him at the Abbey for the space of sixe daies, vntill he had gotten all his things a shoare, and laden the same in the barkes, to goe vp the riuer Dwina, vnto Vologhda, which is by water 1000 verstes, and euery verste is about three quarters of an English mile. [Sidenote: Presents vsed in Russia are all for the most part of victuals.] The 20 of Iuly, we departed from S. Nicholas, and the 24 of the same, we came to Colmogro, where we remained eight daies and the sayd Messenger was there of all his acquaintance welcommed home, and had presents innumerable sent vnto him, but it was nothing but meate, and drinke. Some sent white bread, some rie bread, and some buttered bread and pancakes, beefe, mutton, bacon, egges, butter, fishes, swannes, geese, duckes, hennes, and all maner of victuals, both fish and flesh, in the best maner, that the rude people could deuise: for among them, these presents are highly esteemed. The 29 of Iuly, we departed from Colmogro, and the 14 of August we came to Vstiug, where we remained one day, and changed our barkes or boates. The 27 of August, we came to Vologhda, where we remained 4 dayes vnlading the barkes, and lading our chestes and things in small waggons, with one horse in a piece, which in their tongue are called Telegos, and with these Telegoes they caried our stuffe from Vologhda vnto the Mosco, which is 500 verstes: and we were vpon the same way 14 daies: for we went no faster then the Telegoes. [Sidenote: The citie of Boghar.] There are three great townes betweene the Mosco and Vologhda, that is to say, Yeraslaue, Rostaue, and Pereslaue. Vpon one side of Yeraslaue runneth a famous riuer which is called Volga. It runneth into the Caspian sea, and it diuideth it selfe before it come into the Mare Caspium, in 50 parts or more, and neere vnto the same sea there stands a great Citie, called Boghar, the inhabitants of which are called by the same name. The people of the said Citie doe traffique vnto the Citie of Mosco: their commodities are spices, muske, ambergreese, rubarbe, with other drugs. They bring also many furres, which they buy in Siberia coming towards the Mosco: the sayd people are of the sect of Mahomet. [Sidenote: They arrived at Mosco.] The 12 of September we came vnto the citie of Mosco, where we were brought by Napea, and two of the Emperours gentlemen vnto a large house, where euery one of vs had his chamber appointed. The 14 of September we were commanded to come vnto the Emperour, and immediately after our coming we were brought into his presence, vnto whom each of vs did his duetie accordingly, and kissed his right hand, his maiestie sitting in his chaire of estate, with his crowne on his bead, and a staffe of goldsmiths worke in his left hand well garnished with rich and costly stones: and when we had all kissed his hand and done our dueties, his maiestie did declare by his interpreter that we were all welcome vnto him, and into his countrey, and thereupon willed vs to dine with him: that day we gaue thanks vnto his maiestie, and so departed vntil the dinner was readie. When dinner time approached, we were brought againe into the Emperour's dining chamber, where we were set on one side of a table that stoode ouer against the Emperours table, to the end that he might wel behold vs al: and when we came into the foresayd chamber, we found there readie set these tables following. First at the vpper end of one table were set the Emperour his maiestie, his brother, and the Emperour of Cazan, which is prisoner. About two yardes lower sate the Emperour of Cazan his sonne, being a child of fiue yeeres of age, and beneath him sate the most part of the Emperors noble men. And at another table neere vnto the Emperours table, there was set a Monke all alone, which was in all points as well serued as the Emperour. At another table sate another kinde of people called Chirkasses, [Footnote: Kirghis.] which the Emperour entertaineth for men of warre to serue against his enemies. Of which people and of their countrey, I will hereafter make mention. All the tables aforesayde were couered onely with salt and bread, and after that we had sitten awhile, the Emperour sent vnto euery one of vs a piece of bread, which were given and deliuered vnto euery man seuerally by these words: The Emperour and great Duke giueth the bread this day, and in like manner three or foure times before dinner was ended, he sent vnto euery man drinke, which was giuen by these words, The Emperour and great Duke giueth thee to drinke. All the tables aforesayd were serued in vessels of pure and fine golde, as well basons and ewers, platters, dishes and sawcers, as also of great pots, with an innumerable sorte of small drinking pottes of diuers fashions, whereof a great number were set with stone. As for costly meates I haue many times seene better: but for change of wines, and diuers sorts of meads, it was wonderfull: for there was not left at any time so much void roome on the table, that one cuppe more might haue bin set, and as far as I could perceiue, all the rest were in the like maner serued. In the dinner time, there came in sixe singers which stood in the midst of the chamber, and their faces towards the Emperour, who sang there before dinner was ended three seuerall times, whose songs or voyces delighted our eares little or nothing. The Emperour neuer putteth morsell of meate in his mouth, but he first blesseth it himselfe, and in like maner as often as he drinketh: for after his maner he is very religious, and he esteemeth his religious men aboue his noble men. This dinner continued about the space of fiue houres, which being ended, and the tables taken vp, we came into the midst of the chamber, where we did reuerence vnto the Emperors maiestie, and then he deliuered vnto euery one of vs with his own hands a cup of mead, which when euery man had receiued and drunke a quantity thereof, we were licensed to depart, and so ended that dinner. And because the Emperour would haue vs to be mery he sent to our lodging the same Euening three barrels of meade of sundry sortes, of the quantitie in all of one hogshed. The 16 day of September the Emperour sent home vnto our lodging for euery of vs a Tartarie horse to ride from place to place as we had occasion, for that the streetes of Mosco are very fowle and mirie in the Summer. [Sidenote: M. Standish doctor of Phisicke.] The 18 of September there were giuen vnto master Standish doctor in Physick, and the rest of our men of our occupations, certaine furred gownes of branched veluet and gold, and some of red damaske, of which master Doctors gowne was furred with Sables, and the rest were furred some with white Ermine, and some with gray Squirel, and all faced and edged round about with blacke beauer. The 1 of October in the morning we were commanded to come vnto the Emperors court, and when we came thither, we were brought vnto the Emperor vnto whom we did our duties accordingly: whereupon he willed vs to dine with him that day, and so with thanks vnto his maiestie, we departed vntill dinner time, at which time we came, and found the tables couered with bread and salt as at the first: and after that we were all set vpon one side of the table, the Emperors maiestie according to his accustomed maner sent vnto euery man a piece of bread by some of the Dukes which attended on his highnesse. And whereas the 14 of September we were serued in vessels of gold, we were now serued in vessels of siluer, and yet not so abundantly as was the first of gold: they brought drinke vnto the table in siluer boles which conteined at the least sixe gallons a piece, and euerie man had a smal siluer cuppe to drinke in, and another to dip or to take his drinke out of the great boll withall: the dinner being ended, the Emperour gaue vnto euery one of vs a cup with meade, which when we had receiued, we gaue thanks and departed. Moreouer, whensoeuer the Emperors pleasure is that any stranger shall dine with him, he doth send for them in the morning, and when they come before him, he with his owne mouth biddeth them to dinner, and this order he alwaies obserueth. The 10 of October the Emperour gaue vnto M. Standish 70 rubles in money, and to the rest of our men of occupations 30 rubles apiece. The 3 of Nouember we dined againe with the Emperour, where we were serued as before. [Sidenote: Long Dinners.] The 6 of December being S. Nicholas day, we dined againe at the Emperours, for that is one of the principall feasts which the Moscouites hold: we were serued in siluer vessels and ordered in all points as before, and it was past 7 of the clocke at night before dinner was ended. The Emperours maiestie vseth euery yeare in the moneth of December, to haue all his ordinance that is in the citie of Mosco caried into the field which is without the Suburbs of the citie, and there to haue it planted and bent vpon two houses of Wood filled within with earth: against which two houses there were two faire white markes set vp, at which markes they discharge all their ordinance, to the ende the Emperour may see what his Gunners can doe. [Sidenote: Ordinance in Russia.] They haue faire ordinance of brasse of all sortes, bases, faulcons, minions, sakers, culuerings, cannons double and royall, basiliskes long and large, they haue sixe great pieces whose shot is a yard of height, which shot a man may easily discerne as they flee: they haue also a great many of morter pieces or potguns, out of which pieces they shoote wild fire. [Footnote: The cannon in use in the 16th century were all cast, and in England font metal or bronze was mostly employed. The falcon seems to have been of 2-1/2 inches bore; the minion 3-1/2 inches; the saker about the same; the culverin 5-1/2 inches--the weight of the shot not being proportionate to the bore. The falconet, minion, falcon, saker, and demi-culverin were known respectively as 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9-pounders; while the heavier pieces, or culverins, ranged from 15-pounders up to the "cannon-royall," or 63-pounders. Mortars were first introduced in the reign of Henry VIII. According to Stowe, those made for this monarch in 1543 were "at the mouth from 11 to 19 inches wide," and were employed to throw hollow shot of cast iron, filled like modern bombs with combustibles, and furnished with a fuse. Some of these 16th century guns may still be seen at the Tower of London.] [Sidenote: A yerely triumph.] The 12 of December the Emperours Maiestie and all his nobility came into the field on horsebacke, in most goodly order, hauing very fine Iennets and Turkie horses garnished with gold and siluer abundantly. The Emperors maiestie hauing on him a gowne of rich tissue, and a cap of skarlet on his head, set not only with pearles, but also with a great number of rich and costly stones: his noble men were all in gownes of cloth of gold, which did ride before him in good order by 3. and 3. and before them there went 5000 harquebusiers, which went by 5 and 5 in a rank in very good order, euery of them carying his gun vpon his left shoulder, and his match in his right hand, and in this order they marched into the field whereas the foresayd ordinance was planted. And before the Emperors maiestie came into the field, there was a certaine stage made of small poles which was a quarter of a mile long, and about threescore yardes off from the stage of poles were certaine pieces of ice of two foot thicke, and six foote high set vp, which ranke of ice was as long as the stage of poles, and as soone as the Emperors maiestie came into the field, the harquebusiers went vpon the stage of poles where they settled themselues in order. And when the Emperors maiestie was setled where he would be, and where he might see all the ordinance discharged and shot off, the harquebusiers began to shoot off at the banke of ice, as though it had bin in any skirmish or battel, who ceased not shooting vntill they had beaten all the ice flat on the ground. After the handguns, they shot off their wild fire vp into the aire, which was a goodly sight to behold. And after this, they began to discharge the smal pieces of brasse, beginning with the smallest and so orderly bigger and bigger, vntill the last and biggest. When they had shot them all off, they began to charge them againe, and so shot them al off 3 times after the first order, beginning with the smallest and ending with the greatest. And note that before they had ended their shooting, the 2 houses that they shot vnto were beaten in pieces, and yet they were strongly made of Wood and filled with earth, being at the least 30 foote thicke. This triumph being ended, the Emperour departed and rode home in the same order that he came foorth into the field. The ordinance is discharged euery yeare in the moneth of December, according to the order before mentioned. On Christmas day we were all willed to dine with the Emperors Maiestie, where for bread, meat and drinke, we were serued as at other times before: but for goodly and rich plate, we neuer saw the like or so much before. There dined that day in the Emperors presence aboue 500 strangers, and two hundred Russes, and all they were serued in vessels of gold, and that as much as could stand one by another vpon the tables. Besides this there were foure cupbords garnished with goodly plate both of gold and siluer. Among the which there were 12 barrels of siluer, conteining aboue 12 gallons a piece, and at each end of euery barrell were 6 hoopes of fine gold: this dinner continued about sixe houres. [Sidenote: The hallowing of the riuer of Mosco.] Euery yeare vpon the 12 day they vse to blesse or sanctifie the riuer Moscua, which runneth through the citie of Mosco, after this maner. First they make a square hole in the ice about 3 fadoms large euery way, which is trimmed about the sides and edges with white boords. Then about 9 of the clocke they come out of the church with procession towards the riuer in this wise. First and foremost there goe certaine young men with waxe tapers burning, and one carying a great lanterne: then follow certaine banners, then the crosse, then the images of our Lady, of S. Nicholas, and of other Saints, which images men carie vpon their shoulders: after the images follow certaine priests to the number of 100 or more: after them the Metropolitan who is led betweene two priests, and after the Metropolitan came the Emperour with his crowne vpon his head, and after his maiestie all his noble men orderly. Thus they followed the procession vnto the water, and when they came vnto the hole that was made, the priests set themselues in order round about it. And at one side of the same poole there was a scaffold of boords made, vpon which stood a faire chaire in which the Metropolitan was set, but the Emperours maiestie stood vpon the ice. After this the priests began to sing, to blesse and to sense, and did their seruice, and so by that time that they had done, the water was holy, which being sanctified, the Metropolitan tooke a litle thereof in his hands, and cast it on the Emperour, likewise vpon certaine of the Dukes, and then they returned againe to the church with the priests that sate about the water: but that pressse that there was about the water when the Emperor was gone, was wonderful to behold, for there came aboue 5000 pots to be filled of that water: for that Moscouite which hath no part of that water, thinks himselfe vnhappy. And very many went naked into the water, both men and women and children: after the presse was a litle gone, the Emperours Iennets and horses were brought to drinke of the same water, and likewise many other men brought their horses thither to drinke, and by that means they make their horses as holy as themselues. All these ceremonies being ended, we went to the Emperour to dinner, where we were serued in vessels of siluer, and in all other points as we had bene beforetime. [Sidenote: The Russes Lent.] The Russes begin their Lent alwaies 8 weekes before Easter: the first weeke they eate egs, milke, cheese and butter, and make great cheare with pancakes and such other things, one friend visiting another, and from the same Sunday vntil our Shrofesunday there are but few Russes sober, but they are drunke day by day, and it is accompted for no reproch or shame among them. The next weeke being our first weeke of Lent, or our clensing weeke, beginning our Shrofesunday, they make and keepe a great fast. It is reported, and the people do verily beleeue that the Metropolitan neither eateth nor drinketh any maner of thing for the space of seuen dayes, and they say that there are many religious men which doe the like. The Emperors Maiestie eateth but one morsel of bread, and drinketh but one draught of drinke once in the day during that weeke, and all men that are of any reputation come not out of their houses during that time, so that the streetes are almost void of company, sauing a few poore folkes which wander to and fro. The other sixe weeks they keepe as we do ours, but not one of them will eate either butter, cheese, egs or milke. On Palme Sunday they haue a very solemne procession in this maner following. First, they haue a tree of a good bignesse which is made fast vpon two sleds, as though it were growing there, and it is hanged with apples, raisins, figs and dates, and with many other fruits abundantly. In the midst of the same tree stand 5 boyes in white vestures, which sing in the tree before the procession: after this there followed certaine yong men with waxe tapers in their hands burning, and a great lanterne that al the light should not go out: after them followed two with long banners, and sixe with round plates set vpon long staues: the plates were of copper very ful of holes and thin: then followed 6 carying painted images vpon their shoulders, after the images followed certaine priests to the number of 100 or more, with goodly vestures, whereof 10 or 12 are of white damaske set and imbrodered round about with faire and orient pearles, as great as pease, and among them certaine Sapphires and other stones. After them followed the one halfe of the Emperours noble men: then cometh the Emperors maiestie and the Metropolitane, after this maner. First, there is a horse, couered with white linen cloth down to the ground, his eares being made long with the same cloth like to an asses ears. Vpon this horse the Metropolitane sitteth sidelong, like a woman: in his lappe lieth a faire booke, with a crucifix of Goldsmiths worke vpon the couer which he holdeth fast with his left hand, and in his right hand he hath a crosse of gold, with which crosse he ceaseth not to blesse the people as he rideth. There are to the number of 30 men which spread abroad their garments before the horse, and as soone as the horse is past ouer any of them, they take them vp againe and run before, and spread them againe, so that the horse doth alway go on some of them. They which spread the garments are all priests sonnes, and for their labours the Emperour giueth vnto them new garments. [Sidenote: The Emperor leadeth the Metropolitans horse in procession.] One of the Emperors noble men leadeth the horse by the head, but the Emperour himselfe going on foote leadeth the horse by the ende of the reine of his bridle with one of his hands, and in the other of his hands he had a branch of a Palme tree: after this followed the rest of the Emperors Noble men and Gentlemen, with a great number of other people. In this order they went from one church to another within the castle, about the distance of two flights shot: and so returned againe to the Emperours Church, where they made an end of their seruice. Which being done, the Emperours maiestie and certaine of his noble men went to the Metropolitane his house to dinner, where of delicate fishes and good drinks there was no lacke. The rest of this weeke vntil Easter day they kept very solemnely, continuing in their houses for the most part, and vpon Munday or Thursday the Emperour doth alwayes vse to receiue the Sacrament, and so doe most of his nobles. Vpon good Friday they continue all the day in contemplation and prayers, and they vse euery yere on good Friday to let loose a prisoner in the stead of Barrabas. The night following they go to the Church where they sleepe vntil the next morning, and at Easter they haue the resurrection, and after euery of the Lents they eat flesh the next weeke following, Friday, Saturday and all. They haue an order at Easter which they alwaies obserue, and that is this: euery yere against Easter to die or colour red with Brazell a great number of egs, of which euery man and woman giueth one vnto the priest of their Parish vpon Easter day in the morning. And moreouer the common people vse to carie in their hands one of their red egs, not onely vpon Easter day, but also three or foure dayes after, and gentlemen and gentlewomen haue egs gilded which they cary in like maner. They vse it as they say for a great loue, and in token of the resurrection, whereof they reioyce. [Sidenote: Kissing vsed in the Greek church.] For when two friends meete during the Easter holy dayes, they come and take one another by the hand: the one of them sayth, the Lord or Christ is risen, the other answereth, it is so of a truth, and then they kisse and exchange their egs both men and women, continuing in kissing 4 dayes together. The 12 of Aprill being Tuesday in the Easter weeke, Master Ienkinson and Master Graie, and certayne other of vs English men dined with the Emperor, where we were serued as we had bin before time. And after diner the Emperours maiestie gave vnto master Ienkinson and vnto M. Gray, and so orderly vnto euery one of vs a cup of Mead, according to his accustomed maner which when euery man had received and giuen thanks, M. Ienkinson stepped into the midst of the chamber before the Emperours maiestie, and gaue thankes to his highnesse for his goodnesse vnto him extended, desiring his grace to licence him to depart, and in like maner did M. Gray. His maiestie did not only licence them to depart, but also graunted vnto Master Ienkinson his letters vnder his great seale, vnto all princes through whose dominions master Ienkinson should haue occasion to passe, that he might the sooner and quietlier passe by meanes thereof. [Sidenote: With these letters M. Ienkinson tooke his voyage the same April to Boghar.] Which being granted, master Ienkinson and Gray lowly submitted themselues, thanking his maiestie. So the Emperour gaue vnto either of them a cuppe of mead to drinke, and willed them to depart at their pleasure in Gods peace. The 14. of Aprill in the morning, when M. Gray and I were ready to depart towards England, the Chancellors sent vnto vs and willed vs to come to their office in the Chancerie, where at our comming they shewed vs a great number of the Emperors iewels, and rich robes, willing vs to marke and beholde them well, to the end that at our arriuall into England, we might make report what we had seene there. [Sidenote: The Emperors wardrobe.] The chiefest was his maiesties crowne, being close vnder the top very faire wrought: in mine opinion, the workmanship of so much gold few men can amend. It was adorned and decked with rich and precious stones abundantly, among the which one was a rubie, which stood a handfull higher then the top of the crown vpon a small wier, it was as big as a good beane: the same crown was lined with a faire blacke Sable, worth by report 40. robles. Wee sawe all his maiesties robes which were very richly set with stones, they shewed vs manie other great stones of diuers kindes, but the most part of them were vneuen, in maner as they came out of the worke, for they doe more esteeme the greatnesse of stones, then the proportion of them. We saw two goodlie gownes which were as heauie as a man could easily carrie, all set with pearles ouer and ouer: the gards or borders round about them were garnished with saphires and other good stones abundantly. One of the same gownes was very rich, for the pearles were very large, round and orient: as for the rest of his gownes and garments, they were of rich tissue and cloth of gold and all furred with very blacke Sables. When we had sufficiently perused all these things, they willed master Gray at his arriuall in England, to prouide if he could, such iewels and rich clothes as he had seene there, and better if he could, declaring that the Emperour would gladly bestow his money vpon such things. So we tooke our leaue the same time, and departed towards Vologda immediatly. The maners, vsages, and ceremonies of the Russes. Of the Emperour. The Emperours name in their tongue is Iuan Vasiliuich, that is as much to say, as Iohn the sonne of Vasilie [Marginal note: Or, Basilius.] and by his princely state hee is called Otesara [Footnote: Czar.] as his predecessors haue bene before, which to interprete, is a king, that giueth not tribute to any man. And this word Otesara his maiesties interpreters haue of late dayes interpreted to be Emperour, so that now hee is called Emperour and great Duke of all Russia, &c. Before his father they were neither called Emperours nor kings but onely Ruese Velike, that is to say, great Duke. And as this Emperor which now is Iuan Vasiliuich, doeth exceede his predecessors in name, that is, from a Duke to an Emperour, euen so much by report he doeth exceede them in stoutnesse of courage and valiantnesse, and a great deale more: for he is no more afraid of his enemies which are not few, then the Hobbie of the larks. His enemies with whom he hath warres for the most part are these: Litto, Poland, Sweden, Denmarke, Lifland, the Crimmes, Nagaians, and the whole nation of the Tartarians, which are a stoute and a hardie people as any vnder the Sunne. This Emperour vseth great familiaritie, as wel vnto all his nobles and subiects, as also vnto strangers which serue him either in his warres, or in occupations: for his pleasure is that they shall dine oftentimes in the yeere in his presence, and besides that he is oftentimes abroad, either at one Church or another, and walking with his noble men abroad. And by this meanes he is not onely beloued of his nobles and commons, but also had in great dread and feare through all his dominions, so that I thinke no prince in Christendome is more feared of his owne then he is, nor yet better beloued. For if he bid any of his Dukes goe, they will runne, if he giue any euil or angrie worde to any of them, the partie will not come into his maiesties presence againe of a long time if he be not sent for, but will faine him to be very sicke, and will let the haire of his head grow very long, without either cutting or shauing, which is an euident token that hee is in the Emperors displeasure: for when they be in their prosperity, they account it a shame to weare long haire, in consideration whereof, they vse to haue their heads shauen. [Sidenote: Note.] His maiesty heareth all complaints himselfe, and with his owne mouth giueth sentence, and iudgement of all matters, and that with expedition: but religious matters he medleth not withall, but referreth them wholly vnto the Metropolitane. His maiestie retaineth and well rewardeth all strangers that come to serue him, and especially men of warre. Hee delighteth not greatly in hawking, hunting, or any other pastime, nor in hearing instruments or musicke, but setteth all his whole delight vpon two things: First, to serue God, as vndoubtedly he is very deuoute in his religion, and the second, howe to subdue and conquere his enemies. He hath abundance of gold and siluer in his owne handes or treasurie: but the most part of his subiects know not a crowne from a counter, nor gold from copper, they are so much cumbred therewithall, and he that is worth 2. 3. or 4. grotes, is a rich man. Of their religious men. The Metropolitane is next vnto God, our Lady and S. Nicholas excepted: for the Emperors maiestie iudgeth and affirmeth him to be of higher dignitie then himselfe; for that, saith he, he is Gods spiritual officer, and I the Emperour am his temporall officer, and therefore his maiestie submitteth himselfe vnto him in many things concerning religious matters, as in leading the Metropolitans horse vpon Palme Sunday, and giuing him leaue to sitte on a chaire vpon the 12. day, when the riuer Mosco was in blessing, his maiestie standing on the yce. All matters of religion are reformed by the Metropolitane, he heareth the causes and giueth sentence as himselfe listeth, and is authorized so to doe, whether it be to whip, hang or burne, his will must needs be fulfilled. They haue both monks, friers and nunnes, with a great number of great and rich monasteries: they keepe great hospitalitie, and doe relieue much poore people day by day. I haue bene in one of the monasteries called Troietes, [Footnote: There was a monastery answering this description, but its name was Trajetski.] which is walled about with bricke very strongly like a castle, and much ordinance of brasse vpon the walles of the same. They told me themselues that there are seuen hundred brethren of them which belong vnto that house. The most part of the lands, towns, and villages which are within 40. miles of it, belong vnto the same. They shewed me the church, wherein were as many images as could hang about, or vpon the wals of the Church round about, and euen the roofe of the church was painted ful of images. The chiefe image was of our Ladie, which was garnished with gold, rubies, saphirs and other rich stones abundantly. In the midst of the church stood 12. waxe tapers of two yards long, and a fathom about in bignesse, and there stands a kettle full of waxe with about 100. weight, wherein there is alwayes the wicke of a candle burning, as it were a lampe which goeth not out day nor night. They shewed me a coffin couered with cloth of gold which stoode vpon one side within their church, in which they told me lay a holy man, who neuer eate or dranke, and yet that he liueth. And they told me (supposing that I had beleeued them) that he healeth many diseases, and giueth the blind their sight, with many other miracles, but I was hard of belief because I saw him worke no miracle whilest I was there. After this they brought me into their sellers, and made me taste of diuers kinds of drinks, both wine and beere, mead and quassie, of sundry colours and kinds. Such abundance of drink as they haue in their sellers, I doe suppose few princes haue more, or so much at once. Their barrels or vessels are of an vnmeasurable bignes and sise: some of them are 3. yards long and more, and 2. yards and more broad in their heads: they conteine 6. or 7. tunnes a piece: they haue none in their sellers of their owne making that are lesse then a tunne. They haue 9. or 10. great vautes which are full of those barrels which are seldome remooued: for they haue trunks which come downe through the roofe of the vautes in sundry places, through which they powre drinke downe, hauing the caske right vnder it to receiue the same, for it should be a great trouble to bring it all downe the stayres. [Sidenote: The hospitalitie of their monasteries.] They giue bread, meat and drinke vnto all men that come to them, not onely while they are at their abbey, but also when they depart, to serue them by the way. There are a great number of such monasteries in the Realm, and the Emperors maiesty rideth oftentimes from one to another of them, and lieth at them 3. or 4. daies together. The same monkes are as great merchants as any in the land of Russia, and doe occupy buying and selling as much as any other men, and haue boats which passe too and fro in the riuers with merchandize from place to place where any of their countrey do traffike. They eate no flesh during their liues as it is reported: but vpon Sunday, Munday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday it is lawfull for them to eate egges, butter, cheese, and milke, and at all times to eate fish, and after this sort they lead their liues. They weare all blacke garments, and so doe none other in all the lande, but at that abbey onely. [Sidenote: Want of preachers cause of great ignorance and idolatry.] They haue no preachers no not one in al the land to instruct the People, so that there are many, and the most part of the poore in the countrey, who if one aske them how many gods there be, they wil say a great many, meaning that euery image which they haue is a god: for all the countrey and the Emperours maiesty himselfe wil blesse and bowe, and knocke their heads before their images, in so much that they will crie earnestly unto their images to helpe them to the things which they need. Al men are bound by their law to haue those images in their houses, and ouer euery gate in all their townes and cities are images set vp, vnto which the people bow and bend, and knocke their heads against the ground before them: as often as they come by any church or crosse they do in like maner. And when they come to any house, they blesse themselues 3. or 4. times before they will salute any man in the house. They reckon and hold it for great sinne to touch or handle any of their images within the circle of the boord where the painting is, but they keep them very daintily, and rich men deck them ouer and about with gold, siluer and stones, and hang them ouer and about with cloth of gold. The priestes are married as other men are, and weare all their garments as other men doe, except their nightcaps, which is cloth of some sad colour, being round, and reacheth vnto the eares: their crownes are shauen, but the rest of their haire they let grow as long as nature will permit, so that it hangeth beneath their eares vpon their shoulders: their beards they neuer shaue: if his wife happen to die, it is not lawfull for him to mary againe during his life. They minister the Communion with bread and wine after our order, but he breaketh the bread and putteth it into the cup vnto the wine, and commonly some are partakers with them: and they take the bread out againe with a spoon together with part of the wine, and so take it themselues, and giue it to others that receiue with them after the same maner. Their ceremonies are al as they say, according to the Greeke Church vsed at this present day, and they allow no other religion but the Greeks, and their owne: and will not permit any nation but the Greeks to be buried in their sacred burials, or churchyards. All their churches are full of images, vnto the which the people when they assemble, doe bowe and knocke their heads, as I haue before said, that some will haue knobbes vpon their foreheads with knocking, as great as egges. [Sidenote: Al their seruice is in their mother tongue.] All their seruice is in the Russe tongue, and they and the common people haue no other praiers but this, _Ghospodi Iesus Christos esine voze ponuloi nashe_. That is to say, O Lorde Iesus Christ, sonne of God haue mercy upon vs: and this is their prayer, so that the most part of the vnlearned know neither Pater noster, nor the Beliefe, nor Ten commandements, nor scarcely vnderstand the one halfe of their seruice which is read in their Churches. Of their Baptisme. When any child is borne, it is not baptised vntil the next Sunday, and if it chance that it be not baptized then, it must tary vntil the next Sunday after the birth, and it is lawfull for them to take as manie Godfathers and Godmothers as they will, the more the better. When they go to the Church, the midwife goeth foremost, carrying the childe, and the Godfathers and Godmothers follow into the midst of the Church, where there is a small table ready set, and on it an earthen pot ful of warme water, about the which the Godfathers and Godmothers, with the childe, settle themselues: then the clerke giueth vnto euery of them a smal waxe candle burning, then commeth the priest, and beginneth to say certaine words, which the Godfathers and Godmothers must answere word for word, among which one is, that the childe shal forsake the deuill, and as that name is pronounced, they must all spit at the word as often as it is repeated. Then he blesseth the water which is in the pot, and doth breathe ouer it: then he taketh al the candles which the gosseps haue, and holding them all in one hand letteth part of them drop into the water, and then giueth euery one his candle againe, and when the water is sanctified, he taketh the childe and holdeth it in a small tubbe, and one of the Godfathers taketh the pot with warme water, and powreth it all vpon the childs head. After this he hath many more ceremonies, as anoynting eares and eyes with spittle, and making certaine crosses with oyle vpon the backe, head, and brest of the childe: then taking the childe in his armes, carieth it to the images of S. Nicholas, and our Ladie, &c. and speaketh vnto the images, desiring them to take charge of the childe, that he may liue, and beleeue as a Christian man or woman ought to doe, with many other words. Then comming backe from the images, he taketh a paire of sheares and clippeth the yong and tender haires of the childes head in three or foure places, and then deliuereth the childe, whereunto euery of the Godfathers and Godmothers lay a hand: then the priest chargeth them, that the childe be brought vp in the faith and feare of God or Christ, and that it be instructed to clinege and bow to the images, end so they make an end: then one of the Godfathers must hang a crosse about the necke of the childe, which he must alwayes weare, for that Russe which hath not a crosse about his necke they esteeme as no Christian man, and thereupon they say that we are no Christians, because we do not weare crosses as they do. Of their Matrimonie. Their matrimonie is nothing solemnized, but rather in most points abominable, and as neere as I can learne, in this wise following. First, when there is loue betweene the parties, the man sendeth vnto the woman a small chest or boxe, wherein is a whip, needles, threed, silke, linnen cloth, sheares, and such necessaries as shee shall occupie when she is a wife, and perhaps sendeth therewithall raisins, figs or some such things, giuing her to vnderstand, that if she doe offend she must be beaten with the whip, and by the needles, threed, cloth, &c. that she should apply her selfe diligently to sowe, and do such things as shee could best doe, and by the raisins or fruites he meaneth if she doe well, no good thing shalbe withdrawn from her, nor be too deare for her: and she sendeth vnto him a shirt, handkerchers, and some such things of her owne making. And now to the effect. When they are agreed, and the day of marriage appointed when they shall goe towardes the Church, the bride will in no wise consent to go out of the house, but resisteth and striueth with them that would haue her out, and faineth her selfe to weepe, yet in the end, two women get her out, and lead her towards the church, her face being couered close, because of her dissimulation, that it should not be openly perceiued: for she maketh a great noise, as though she were sobbing and weeping, vntil she come at the Church, and then her face is vncouered. The man commeth after among other of his friends, and they cary with them to the church a great pot of wine or mead: then the priest coupleth them together much after our order, one promising to loue and seme the other during their liues together, &c. which being done, they begin to drinke, and first the woman drinketh to the man, and when he hath drunke he letteth the cuppe fell to the ground, hasting immediately to tread vpon it, and so doth she, and whether of them tread first vpon it must haue the victorie and be master at all times after, which commonly happeneth to the man, for he is readiest to set his foot on it, because he letteth it fall himselfe, then they goe home againe, the womans face beeing vncouered. The boyes in the streetes crie out and make a noyse in the meanetime, with very dishonest wordes. When they come home, the wife is set at the vpper end of the table, and the husband next vnto her: they fall then to drinking till they bee all drunke, they perchance haue a minstrell or two, and two naked men, which led her from the Church daunce naked a long time before all the companie. When they are wearie of drinking, the bride and the bridegrome get them to bed, for it is in the euening alwayes when any of them are married: and when they are going to bedde, the bridegrome putteth certain money both golde and siluer, if he haue it, into one of his boots, and then sitteth down in the chamber, crossing his legges, and then the bride must plucke off one of his boots, which she will, and if she happen on the boote wherein the money is, she hath not onely the money for her labor, but is also at such choyse, as she need not euer from that day forth to pul off his boots, but if she misse the boot wherin the money is, she doth not onely loose the money, but is also bound from that day forwards to pull off his boots continually. Then they continue in drinking and making good cheere three daies following, being accompanied with certaine of their friends, and during the same three daies he is called a Duke, and shee a dutches, although they be very poore persons, and this is as much as I haue learned of their matrimony: but one common rule is amongst them, if the woman be not beaten with the whip once a weeke, she will not be good, and therefore they looke for it orderly, and the women say, that if their husbands did not beate them, they should not loue them. They vse to marry there very yong, their sonnes at 16. and 18. yeeres old, and the daughters at 12. or 13. yeeres or yonger: they vse to keepe their wiues very closely, I meane those that be of any reputation, so that a man shall not see one of them but at a chance, when she goeth to church at Christmas or at Easter, or els going to visite some of her friends. The most part of the women vse to ride a stride in saddles with styropes, as men do, and some of them on sleds, which in summer is not commendable. [Sidenote: The women of Russia paint their faces.] The husband is bound to finde the wife colours to paint her withall, for they vse ordinarily to paynt themselues: it is such a common practise among them, that it is counted for no shame: they grease their faces with such colours, that a man may discerne them hanging on their faces almost a flight shoote off: I cannot so well liken them as to a millers wife, for they looke as though they were beaten about the face with a bagge of meale, but their eye browes they colour as blacke as ieat. The best propertie that the women haue, is that they can sowe well, and imbroder with silke and golde excellently. Of their buriall. When any man or woman dieth, they stretch him out, and put a new paire of shooes on his feete, because he hath a great iourney to goe: then doe they winde him in a sheet, as we doe, but they forget not to put a testimonie in his right hand, which the priest giueth him, to testifie vnto S. Nicholas that he died a Christian man or woman. And they put the coarse alwayes in a coffin of wood, although the partie be very poore: and when they goe towards the Church, the friends and kinsemen of the partie departed carrie in their hands small waxe candles, and they weepe and howle, and make much lamentation. They that be hanged or beheaded, or such like, haue no testimonie with them: how they are receiued into heauen, it is a wonder, without their passport. There are a great number of poore people among them which die daily for lacke of sustenance, which is a pitifull case to beholde: for there hath beene buried in a small time, within these two yeeres, aboue 80. persons young and old, which haue died onely for lacke of sustenance: for if they had had straw and water enough, they would make shift to liue: [Sidenote: Bread made of straw.] for a great many are forced in the winter to drie straw and stampe it, and to make bread thereof, or at the least they eate it in stead of bread. In the summer they make good shift with grasse, herbes and rootes: barks of trees are good meat with them at all times. [Sidenote: The vnmercifulnesse of the Russes toward the poor.] There is no people in the world, as I suppose, that liue so miserably as do the pouerty in those parts, and the most part of them that haue sufficient for themselues, and also to relieue others that need, are so vmnerciful that they care not how many they see die of famine or hunger in the streets. [Sidenote: Stooues or baths vsuall with the Muscovites.] It is a countrey full of diseases, diuers, and euill, and the best remedy is for anie of them, as they holde opinion, to goe often vnto the hote houses, as in a maner euery man hath one of his owne, which hee heateth commonly twise euery weeke, and all the bouseholde sweate, and wash themselues therein. The names of certaine sortes of drinkes vsed in Russia, and commonly drunke in the Emperours Court. [Sidenote: Reported by Thomas Bulley.] The first and principall meade is made of the iuice or liccour taken from a berrie called in Russia, Malieno, which is of a marueilous sweete taste, and of a carmosant colour, which berry I haue seene in Paris. The second meade is called Visnoua, because it is made of a berry so called, and is like a black gooseberrie: but it is like in colour and taste to the red wine of France. The third meade is called Amarodina or Smorodina, short, of a small berry much like to the small rezin, and groweth in great plentie in Russia. The fourth meade is called Chereunikyna, which is made of the wilde blacke cherry. The fift meade is made of hony and water, with other mixtures. There is also a delicate drinke drawn from the root of the birch tree, called in the Russe tongue Berozeuites, which drinke the noble men and others vse in Aprill, May, and Iune, which are the three moneths of the spring time: for after those moneths, the sappe of the tree dryeth, and then they cannot haue it. * * * * * The voyage of Master Anthony Ienkinson, made from the citie of Mosco in Russia, to the citie of Boghar in Bactria, in the yeere 1558: written by himselfe to the Merchants of London of the Moscouie company. The 23. day of April, in the yeere 1558. (hauing obtained the Emperor of Russia his letters, directed vnto sundry kings and princes, by whose dominions I should passe) I departed from Mosco by water, hauing with mee two of your seruants, namely, Richard Iohnson, and Robert Iohnson, and a Tartar Tolmach, with diuers parcels of wares, as by the inuentory appeareth: and the 28. day we came to a town called Collom, distant from the Mosco 20. leagues, and passing one league beyond the saide Collom, we came vnto a riuer called Occa, into the which the riuer Mosco falleth, and looseth his name: and passing downe the said riuer Occa 8. leagues, we came vnto a castle called Terreuettisko, which we left vpon our right hand, and proceeding forward, the second day of May, we came vnto another castle called Peroslaue, distant 8. leagues, leauing it also on our right hand. The third day we came vnto the place where olde Rezan was situate, beeing now most of it ruined and ouergrowen, and distant from the said Peroslaue, 6. leagues: the 4. day we passed by a castle called Terrecouia, from Rezan 12. leagues, and the 6. day we came to another castle called Cassim, vnder the gouernment of a Tartar prince named Vtzar Zegoline, sometime Emperour of the worthy citie of Cazan, and now subiect vnto the Emperour of Russia. But leauing Cassim on our left hand, the 8. day we came vnto a faire town called Morom, from Cassim 20. leagues, where we took the sonne, and found the lattitude 56 degrees: and proceeding forward the 11. day, we came vnto another faire town and castle called Nyse Nouogrode, situated at the falling of the foresaid riuer Occa into the worthie riuer of Volga, distant from the saide Moron [Transcriber's note: sic.] 25. leagues, in the latitude of 56. degrees 18. minutes. From Rezan to this Nyse Nouogrod, on both sides the said riuer of Occa, is raised the greatest store of waxe and hony in all the land of Russia. We tarried at the foresaid Nyse Nouogrode vntil the 19. day, for the comming of a captain which was sent by the Emperour to rule at Astracan, who beeing arriued, and hauing the number of 500. great boates vnder his conduct, some laden with victuals, souldiers, and munition: and other some with merchandise, departed altogether the said 19. day from the said Nyse Nouogrode, and the 22. we came vnto a castle called Vasiliagorod, distant 25. leagues, which we left vpon our right hand. This towne or castle had his name of this Emperors father, who was called Vasilius, and gorod in the Russe tongue is as much as to say as a castle, so that Vasiliagorod is to say, Vasilius castle: and it was the furthest place that the said Emperour conquered from the Tartars. But this present Emperour his sonne, called Iuan Vasiliwich, hath had great good successe in his warres, both against the Christians and also the Mahometists and Gentiles, but especially against the Tartars, inlarging his Empire euen to the Caspian sea, hauing conquered the famous riuer of Volga, with all the countries there about adiacent. Thus proceeding on our iourney the 25. day of May aforesaide, wee came to another castle called Sabowshare, which wee left on our right hand, distant from Vasiliagorod 16. leagues. The countrey heereabout is called Mordouits, and the habitants did professe the law of the Gentiles: but nowe beeing conquered by this Emperour of Russia, most of them are christened, but lie in the woods and wildernesse, without towne or habitation. [Sidenote: Cazan.] The 27. day we passed by another castle called Swyasko, distant from Shabowshare aforesaid 25. leagues: we left it on our, right hand, and the 29. came vnto an Island one league from the citie of Cazan, from which falleth downe a riuer called Cazanka reca, and entreth into the foresaide Volga. Cazan is a faire town after the Russe or Tartar fashion, with a strong castle, situated vpon a high hill, and was walled round about with timber and earth, but now the Emperour of Russia hath giuen order to plucke downe the old walles and to builde them againe of free stone. It hath bene a citie of great wealth and riches, and being in the hands of the Tartars it was a kingdome of it selfe, and did more vexe the Russes in their warres, then any other nation: but 9 yeres past, this Emperour of Russia conquered it, and tooke the king captiue, who being but young is nowe baptised, and brought vp in his court with two other princes, which were also kings of the said Cazan, and being ech of them in time of their raignes in danger of their subiects through ciuil discord, came and rendred themselues at seueral times vnto the said Emperor, so that at this present there are three princes in the court of Russia, which had bene Emperours of the said Cazan, whom the Emperour vseth with great honour. [Sidenote: The Island of marchants.] We remained at Cazan till the 13. day of Iune, and then departed from thence: and the same day passed by an Island called the Island of merchants, because it was woont be a place where all merchants, as well Russes and Cazanites, as Nagayans and Crimmes, and diuers other nations did resort to keepe mart for buying and selling, but nowe it is forsaken, and standeth without any such resort thither, or at Cazan, or at any place about it, from Mosco vnto Mare Caspium. [Sidenote: The riuer of Cama.] Thus proceeding forward the 14. day, we passed by a goodly riuer called Cama, which we left on our left hand. The riuer falleth out of the countrey of Permia into the riuer of Volga, and is from Cazan 15. leagues: and the countrey lying betwixt the said Cazan and the said riuer Cama on the left hand of Volga is called Vachen, and the inhabitants be Gentiles, and liue in the wildernesse without house or habitation: and the countrey on the other side of Volga ouer against the said riuer Cama is called the land of Cheremizes, halfe Gentiles, halfe Tartars, and all the land on the left hand of the said Volga from the said riuer vnto Astracan, and so following the North and Northeast side of the Caspian sea, [Sidenote: Nagay Tartars.] to a land of the Tartars called Turkemen, is called the countrey of Magnat or Nagay, whose inhabitants are of the law of Mahomet, and were all destroyed in the yeere 1558, at my being at Astracan, through ciuill warres among them, accompanied with famine, pestilence, and such plagues, in such sort that in the said yeere there were consumed of the people, in one sort and another, aboue one hundred thousand: the like plague was neuer seen in those parts, so that the said countrey of Nagay being a countrey of great pasture, remaineth now vn-replenished to the great contentation of the Russes, who haue had cruel warres a long time together. The Nagayans when they flurished, liued in this maner: they were diuided into diuers companies called Hords, and euery hord had a ruler, whom they obeyed as their king, and was called a Murse. [Sidenote: Hords.] Towne or house they had none, but liued in the open fields, every Murse or King hauing his Hords or people about him, with their wives, children and cattell, who hauing consumed the pasture in one place, remooued unto another; and when they remooue they haue houses like tents set vpon wagons or carts, which are drawen from place to place with camels, and therin their wiues, children, and all their riches, which is very litle, is caried about, and euery man hath at the least foure or fiue wives besides concubines. Vse of money they haue none, but doe barter their cattell for apparell and other necessaries. They delight in no arte nor science, except the warres, wherein they are expert, but for the most part they be pasturing people, and haue great store of cattell, which is all their riches. They eate much flesh, and especially the horse, and they drinke mares milk, wherewith they be oftentimes drunke: they are seditious and inclined to theft and murther. Corne they sowe not, neither do eate any bread, mocking the Christians for the same, and disabling our strengths, saying we liue by eating the top of a weede, and drinke a drinke made out of the same, allowing their great deuouring of flesh, and drinking of milke to be the increase of their strength. But now to proceed forward to my iourney. [Sidenote: The Crimme Tarters.] All the countrey vpon our right hand the riuer Volga, from ouer against the riuer Cama, vnto the towne of Astracan, is the land of Crimme, whose inhabitants be also of the lawe of Mahomet, and liue for the most part according to the fashions of the Nagayes, having continuall wars with the Emperour of Russia, and are valiant in the fielde, hauing countenance, and support from the great Turke. [Sidenote: The River of Samar.] The 16. day of Iune we passed by certaine fishermens houses called Petowse twenty leagues from the riuer Cama, where is great fishing for sturgeon, so continuing our way untill the 22. day, and passing by another great riuer called Samar, which falleth out of the aforesaide countrey, and runneth through Negay, and entreth into the saide riuer of Volga. The 28. day wee came vnto a great hill, where was in times past a castle made by the Crimmes, but now it is ruined, being the iust midway betweene the said Cazan and Astrachan, which is 200. leagues or thereabout, in the latitude of 51. degrees 47. minutes. [Sidenote: Licoris in great plentie.] Vpon all this shore groweth great abundance of Licoris, whose root runneth within the ground like a vine. Thus going forward the sixt day of Iuly we came to a place called Perouolog, so named because in times past the Tartars caried theit bortes from Volga vnto the riuer Tanais, otherwise called Don, by land, when they would robbe such as passed downe the said Volga to Astracan, and also such as passed downe by the riuer Tanais, to Asou, Caffa, or any other towne situated vpon Mare Euxinum, into which sea Tanais falleth, who hath his springs in the countrey of Rezan, out of a plaine ground. It is at this straight of Perouolog from the one riuer to the other two leagues by land, and is a dangerous place for theeues and robbers, but now it is not so euill as it hath bene, by reason of the Emperour of Russia his conquests. Departing from Perouolog, hauing the wildernesse on both sides, wee sawe a great heard of Nagayans, pasturing, as is abouesaid, by estimation aboue a thousand camels drawing of cartes with houses vpon them like tents, of a strange fashion, seeming to bee a farre off a towne: that Hord was belonging to a great Murse called Smille, the greatest prince in all Nagay, who had slaine and driuen away all the rest, not sparing his owne brethren and children, and hauing peace with this Emperour of Russia he hath what he needeth, and ruleth alone: so that now the Russes liue in peace with the Nagayans, who were wont to haue mortall warres together. The 14. day of Iuly passing by an old castle, which was Old Astracan, and leauing it vpon our right hand, we arriued at New Astracan, which this Emperour of Russia conquered sixe yeeres past, in the yeere 1552. It is from the Mosco vnto Astracan sixe hundred leagues, or thereabout. [Sidenote: Astracan.] The towne of Astracan is situated in an Island vpon a hill side, hauing a castle within the same, wailed about with earth and timber, neither faire nor strong: The towne is also walled about with earth; the buildings and houses (except it be the captaines lodging, and certaine other gentlemens) most base and simple. [Sidenote: Store of Sturgions.] The Island is most destitute and barren of wood and pasture, and the ground will beare no corne: the aire is there most infected, by reason (as I suppose) of much fish, and specially Sturgion, by which onely the inhabitants liue, hauing great scarsitie of flesh and bread. They hang vp their fish in their streets and houses to dry for their prouision, which causeth such abundance of flies to increase there, as the like was neuer seene in any land, to their great plague. And at my being at the sayd Astracan, there was a great famine and plague among the people, and specially among the Tartars called Nagayans, who the same time came thither in great numbers to render themselues to the Russes their enemies, and to seeke succour at their hands, their countrey being destroyed, as I said before: but they were but ill entertained or relieued, for there died a great number of them for hunger, which lay all the Island through in heapes dead and like to beasts vnburied, very pitifull to behold: many of them were also sold by the Russes, and the rest were banished from the Island. At that time it had bene an easie thing to haue conuerted that wicked Nation to the Christian faith, if the Russes themselues had bene good Christians: but how should they shew compassion vnto other Nations, when they are not mercifull vnto their owne? At my being there I could haue bought many goodly Tartars children, if I would haue had a thousand, of their owne fathers and mothers, to say a boy or a wench for a loafe of bread woorth sixe pence in England, but we had more need of victuals at that time then of any such merchandise. This Astracan is the furthest hold that that this Emperour of Russia has conquered of the Tartars towards the Caspian sea, which he keepeth very strong, sending thither euery yere prouision of men and victuals, and timber to build the castle. There is a certaine trade of merchandise there vsed, but as yet so small and beggerly, that it is not woorth the making mention, and yet there come merchants thither from diuers places. The chiefest commodities that the Russes bring thither are redde hides, redde sheepes skinnes, woodden vessels, bridles, and saddles, kniues, and other trifles, with corne, bacon, and other victuals. The Tartars bring thither diuers kindes of wares made of cotten wooll, with diuers kindes of wrought silkes: and they that come out of Persia, namely from Shamacki doe bring sowing silke, which is the coursest that they vse in Russeland, Crasco, diuers kinds of pide silkes for girdles, shirts of male, bowes, swords, and such like things: and some yeeres corne, and wallnuts, but all such things in such small quantitie, the merchants being so beggerly and poore that bring the same, that it is not worth the writing, neither is there any hope of trade in all those parts woorth the folowing. [Sidenote: The length of the Island of Astracan] This foresaid Island of Astracan is in length twelue leagues, and in bredth three, and lieth East and West in the latitude of fortie seuen degrees, nine minutes: we taried there vntil the sixt day of August, and hauing bought and prouided a boate in company with certaine Tartars and Persians, we laded our goods and imbarked our selves; and the same day departed I, with the said two Iohnsons hauing the whole charge of the Nauigation downe the sayd riuer Volga, being very crooked, and full of flats towards the mouth thereof. [Sidenote: They enter into the Caspian sea.] We entred into the Caspian sea the tenth day of August at the Easterly side of the sayd riuer, being twentie leagues from Astracan aforesayd, in the latitude of fortie six degrees, twentie seuen minutes. Volga hath seuentie mouthes or fals into the sea: and we hauing a large wind, kept the Northeast shore, and the eleuenth day we sailed seuen leagues Eastnortheast, and came vnto an Island hauing an high hill therein, called Accurgar, a good marke in the sea. From thence East tenne leagues, we fell with another Island called Bawhiata, much higher then the other. Within these two Islands to the Northwards, is a great Baie called the Blew sea. [Sidenote: The Blew sea.] From thence wee sailed East and by North ten leagues, and hauing a contrary wind, we came to an anker in a fadome water, and so rid vntill the fifteenth day, hauing a great storme at Southeast, being a most contrary wind, which we rid out. Then the wind came to the North, and we weyed, and set our course Southeast, and that day sailed eight leagues. [Sidenote: Baughleata being 74 leagues from Volga.] Thus proceeding forwards, the 17. day wee lost sight of land, and the same day sailed thirtie leagues, and the 18. day twentie leagues winding East, and fell with a land called Baughleata, being 74. leagues fromm the mouth of the said Volga, in the latitude of 46. degrees 54. minutes, the coast lying neerest East and by South, and West and by North. At the point of this land lieth buried a holy Prophet, as the Tartars call him, of their law, where great deuotion is vsed of all such Mahometists as doe passe that way. [Sidenote: Iaic riuer.] The nineteenth day the winde being West, and we winding Eastsoutheast, we sailed tenne leagues, and passed by a great riuer called Iaic, which hath his spring in the lande of Siberia, nigh vnto the foresaid riuer Cama, and runneth through the lande of Nagay, billing into this Mare Caspium. [Sidenote: Serachick] And vp this riuer one dayes tourney is a Towne called Serachick, subiect to the aforesaid Tartar prince called Murse Smille, which is nowe in friendship with the Emperour of Russia. Here is no trade of merchandize vsed, for that the people haue no vse of money, and are all men of warre, and pasturers of cattel, and giuen much to theft and murther. Thus being at an anker against this riuer Iaic, and all our men being on land, sauing I, who lay sore sicke, and fiue Tartars whereof one was reputed a holy man, because he came from Mecka, there came vnto vs a boate with thirtie men well armed and appointed, who boorded vs, and began to enter into our barke, and our holy Tartar called Azy, perceiuing that, asked them what they would haue, and withall made a prayer: with that these rouers staied, declaring that they were Gentlemen, banished from their countrey, and out of liuing, and came to see if there were any Russes or other Christians (which they call Caphars) in our barke: To whom this Azi most stoutly answered, that there were none, auowing the same by great othes of their lawe, (which lightly they will not breake) whom the rouers beleeued, and vpon his words departed. And so through the fidelitie of that Tartar, I with all my company and goods were saued, and our men being come on boord, and the wind faire, we departed from that place, and winding East and Southeast, that day being the 20. of August sailed 16. leagues. [Sidenote: The Countrie of Colmack] The 21. day we passed ouer a Bay of 6. leagues broad, and fell with a Cape of land, hauing two Islands at the Southeast part thereof, being a good marke in the sea: and doubling that Cape the land trended Northeast, and maketh another Bay, into which felleth the great riuer Yem, springing out of the land of Colmack. The 22. 23. and 24. dayes, we were at an anker. The 25. the winde came faire, and wee sailed that day 20. leagues, and passed by an Island of lowe land, and thereabout are many flats and sands: and to the Northward Of this Island there goeth in a great Bay, but we set off from this Island, and winded South to come into deepe water, being much troubled with shoalds and flats, and ran that course 10. leagues, then East Southeast 20. leagues, and fel with the maine land, being full of copped hils, and passing along the coast 20. leagues, the further we sailed, the higher was the land. The 27. day we crossed ouer a Bay, the South shore being the higher land, and fel with a high point of land: and being ouerthwart the Cape, there rose such a storme at the East, that we thought verily we should haue perished: this storme continued 3. dayes. [Sidenote: The port of Manguslaue.] From this Cape we passed to a port called Magnuslaue. The place where we should haue arriued at the Southernmost part of the Caspian sea, is 12. leagues within a Bay: but we being sore tormented and tossed with this foresaid storme, were driuen vnto another land on the other side the Bay, ouerthwart the sayd Manguslaue being very lowe land, and a place as well for the ill commoditie of the hauen, as of those brute field people, where neuer barke nor boate had before arriued, not liked of vs. But yet here we sent certaine of our men to land to talke with the gouernour and people, as well for our good vsage at their handes, as also for prouision of camels to carry our goods from the sayd sea side to a place called Sellyzure, being from the place of our landing fiue and twentie dayes iourney. Our messengers returned with comfortable wordes and faire promises of all things. [Sidenote: They goe on land.] Wherefore the 3. day of September 1558. we discharged our barke, and I with my companie were gently entertained of the Prince and of his people. But before our departure from thence, we found them to be very bad and brutish people, for they ceased not daily to molest vs, either by fighting, stealing or begging, raising the prise of horse and camels, and victuals, dooble that it was woont there to be, and forced vs to buy the water that we did drinke: which caused vs to hasten away, and to conclude with them as well for the hire of camels, as for the prise of such as wee bought, with other prouision, according to their owne demaund: So that for euery camels lading, being but 400. waight of ours, we agreed to giue three hides of Russia, and foure woodden dishes, and to the Prince or gouernour of the sayd people, one ninth, and two seuenths: Namely, nine seuerall things, and twise seuen seuerall things: for money they vse none. [Sidenote: The countrey of Manguslaue.] And thus being ready, the foureteenth of September we departed from that place, being a Carauan of a thousand Camels. And hauing trauailed fiue dayes iourney, we came to another Princes Dominion, and vpon the way there came vnto vs certaine Tartars on horseback, being well armed, and seruants vnto the saide Prince called Timor Soltan, gouernour of the said countrey of Manguslaue, where wee meant to haue arriued and discharged our barke, if the great storm aforesayd had not disappointed. These aforesaid Tartars stayd our Carauan in the name of their Prince, and opened our wares, and tooke such things as they thought best for their saide prince without money, but for such things as they tooke from me, which was a ninth (after much dissension) I ridde vnto the same Prince, and presented my selfe before him, requesting his fauour, and pasport to trauaile through his countrey, and not to be robbed nor spoiled of his people: which request he graunted me, and intertained me very gently, commaunding me to be well feasted with flesh and mares milke: for bread they vse none, nor other drinke except water: but money he had none to giue mee for such thinges as he tooke of mee, which might be of value in Russe money, fifteene rubbles, but he gaue me his letter, and a horse woorth seuen rubbles. And so I departed from him being glad that I was gone: for he was reported to be a very tyrant, and if I had not gone vnto him, I vnderstoode his commaundement was that I should haue beene robbed and destroyed. This Soltan liued in the fields without Castle or towne, and sate, at my being with him, in a little rounde house made of reedes couered without with felt, and within with Carpets. There was with him the great Metropolitan of that wilde Country, esteemed of the people, as the Bishop of Rome is in most parts of Europe, with diuers other of his chiefe men. The Soltan with this Metropolitan demanded of me many questions, as wel touching our kingdoms, lawes, and Religion, as also the cause of my coming into those parts, with my further pretence. To whom I answered concerning all things, as vnto me seemed best, which they tooke in good part. [Sidenote: 20 dayes trauaile in the wildernese, with scarcite of water.] So hauing leaue I departed and ouertooke our Carauan and proceeded on our iourney, and trauailed 20 dayes in the wildernes from the sea side without seeing towne or habitation, carying prouision of victuals with vs for the same time, and were driuen by necessity to eate one of my camels and a horse for our part, as other did the like: and during the said 20 daies we found no water, but such as we drew out of old deepe welles, being very brackish and salt, and yet sometimes passed two or three dayes without the same. [Sidenote: Another gulfe of the Caspian sea.] And the 5. day of October ensuing, we came gulfe of the Caspian sea againe, where we found the vnto a water very fresh and sweete: at this gulfe the customers of the king of Turkeman met vs, who tooke custome of euery 25. one, and 7. ninthes for the saide king and his brethren, which being receiued they departed, and we remained there a day after to refresh our selues. [Sidenote: Will. de Rubricis describeth this riuer of Ardok, cap. 4.] Note that in times past there did fal into this gulf the great river Oxus, which hath his springs in the mountains of Paraponisus in India, and now commeth not so far, but falleth into another riuer called Ardock, which runneth toward the North, and consumeth himself in the ground passing vnder ground aboue 500. miles, and then issueth out againe and falleth into the lake of Kithay. [Footnote: Oxus, the Jihun of the Arab, the Amu-darya of the Persians, and the Vak-shu of the Hindus, is a river of Central Asia, in Turkestan, draining the Great Pamir through two head streams--the Panja or southern, rising in Lake Victoria, 13,900 feet above the sea-level, and the Ak-su or Murghah, or northern, said to flow from Lake Barkal Yasin, 13,000 feet above the sea-level, and receiving the outflow of Lake Kara-kul above the junction. The united stream flows westwards towards Balkh, before reaching which it gradually trends to the northwest until, after a course of about 1300 miles, it reaches the south coast of the Aral Sea. In parts the stream has a breadth of 800 yards, with a depth of 20 feet, and a very rapid current; but the vast quantity of sedimentary matter which it brings down to the month, forming shifting sands and banks, renders it difficult to navigate. A great portion of the volume of the stream is absorbed in the irrigation of the Khivan Oasis. The tendency of the Oxus, like that of the great Siberian rivers, is to press continually on its right or east bank, and twice within historic times it has oscillated between the Caspian and Aral Seas. In the fourteenth century it is supposed to have entered the Caspian by the Uzboi channel, near Mikhailovsk. It was proposed at one time to attempt to reopen this bed, but the scheme has been abandoned in favour of the steppe river, Chagan. Herodotus seems to refer to the Oxus under the name of Araxes, but his description is confused, and many of his commentators suppose that the Araxes of Herodotus is the river of the same name in Armenia; while others suppose that it is either the Volga or the Jaxartes. Strabo says that the Oxus rose in the Indian mountains and flowed into the Caspian, which is also the opinion of Mela and Ptolemy. Pliny makes it rise in a lake called Oxus, and the truth of his statement is now confirmed.] [Sidenote: Sellizure, or Shayzure.] We hauing refreshed our selues at the foresaide gulfe, departed thence the 4. day of October, and the seuenth day arriued at a castle called Sellizure, where the king called Azim Can, remained with 3. other of his brethren, and the 9. day I was commaunded to come before his presence, to whom I deliuered the Emporors letters of Russia: and I also gaue him a present of a ninth, who entertained me very well, and caused me to eate in his presence as his brethren did, feasting me with flesh of a wilde horse, and mares milk without bread. [Sidenote: Letters of safteconduct] And the next day he sent for me again, and asked of me diuers questions, as wel touching the affaires of the Emperour of Russia, as of our countrey and lawes, to which I answered as I thought good: so that at my departure he gaue me his letters of safe conduct. This Castle of Sellizure is situated vpon an high hill, where the King called the Can lyeth, whose palace is built of earth very basely, and not strong: the people are but poore, and haue litle trade of merchandise among them. The South part of this Castle is lowe lande, but very fruitfull, where grow many good fruites, among which there is one called a Dynie, of a great bignesse and full of moysture, which the people do eate after meate in steade of drinke. Also there growes another fruite called a Carbuse of the bignesse of a great cucumber, yellow and sweete as sugar: also a certaine corne called Iegur, whose stalke is much like a sugar cane, and as high, and the graine like rice, which groweth at the toppe of the cane like a cluster of grapes; the water that serueth all that countrey is drawen by ditches out of the riuer Oxus, vnto the great destruction of the said riuer, for which cause it falleth not into the Caspian sea as it hath done in times past, and in short time all that land is like to be destroied, and to become a wildernes for want of water, when the riuer of Oxus shal faile. [Sidenote: Vrgence.] The 14. day of the moneth we departed from this Castle of Sellizure, and the 16. of the same we arriued at a citie called Vrgence, where we paid custome as wel for our own heads, as for our camels and horses. And hauing there soiourned one moneth, attending the time of our further trauaile, the king of that countrey called Aly Soltan, brother to the forenamed Azym Can, returned from a towne called Corasan, within the borders of Persia, which he lately had conquered from the Persians, with whom he and the rest of the kings of Tartaria haue continuall warres. Before this king also I was commanded to come, to whom I likewise presented the Emperors letters of Russia, and he intertained me wel, and demanded of me diuers questions, and at my departure gaue me his letters of safe conduct. This city or towne of Vrgence standeth in a plaine ground, with walles of the earth, by estimation 4. miles about it. The buildings within it are also of earth, but ruined and out of good order: it hath one long street that is couered aboue, which is the place of their market. It hath bene wonne and lost 4. times within 7. yeeres by ciuill warres, by meanes whereof there are but few merchants in it, and they very poore, and in all that towne I could not sell about 4. kerseis. The chiefest commodities there sold are such wares as come from Boghar, and out of Persia, but in most smal quantity not worth the writing. [Sidenote: The countrey of Turkeman.] All the land from the Caspian sea to this Citie of Vrgence is called the land of Turkeman, and is subiect to the said Azim Can, and his brethren which be fiue in number, and one of them hath the name of the chiefe king called Can, but he is little obeyed sauing in his owne Dominion, and where he dwelleth: for euery one will be King of his owne portion, and one brother seeketh alwayes to destroy another, hauing no natural loue among them, by reason that they are begotten of diuers women, and commonly they are the children of slaues, either Christians or Gentiles, which the father doeth keepe as concubines, and euery Can or Sultan hath at least 4. or 5. wiues, besides young maidens and boyes, liuing most viciously: and when there are warres betwixt these brethren, (as they are seldome without) he that is ouercome if he be not slaine, flieth to the field with such companie of men as will followe him, and there liueth in the wildemesse resorting to watering places, and so robbeth and spoileth as many Carauans of Marchants and others as they be able to ouercome, continuing in this sort his wicked life, vntil such time as he may get power and aide to inuade some of his brethren againe. From the Caspian sea vnto the Castle of Sellizure aforesaid, and all the Countreis about the said Sea, the people liue without towne or habitation in the wilde fields, remouing from one place to another in great companies with their cattel, whereof they haue great store, as camels, horses, and sheepe both tame and wilde. Their sheepe are of great stature with great buttocks, weighing 60. or 80. pound in weight. There are many wild horses which the Tartars doe many times kil with their hawkes, and that in this order. The hawkes are lured to sease vpon the beasts neckes or heads, which with chafing of themselues and sore beating of the hawkes are tired: then the hunter following his game doeth slay the horse with his arrow or sword. In all this lande there groweth no grasse, but a certaine brush or heath, whereon the cattell feeding become very fat. The Tartars neuer ride without their bow, arrowes, and sword, although it be on hawking, or at any other pleasure, and they are good archers both on horsebacke, and on foote also. These people haue not the vse of golde, siluer, or any other coyne, but when they lacke apparell or other necessaries, they barter their cattell for the same. Bread they haue none, for they neither till nor sow: they be great deuourers of flesh, which they cut in smal pieces, and eat it by handfuls most greedily, and especially the horseflesh. Their chiefest drink is mares milke sowred, as I haue said before of the Nagayans, and they wilbe drunk with the same. They haue no riuers nor places of water in this countrey, vntil you come to the foresaid gulf, distant from the place of our landing 20. dayes iourney, except it be in wels, the water whereof is saltish, and yet distant the one from the other two daies iourney and more. They eate their meate vpon the ground, sitting with their legs double vnder them, and so also when they pray. Art or science they haue none, but liue most idlely, sitting round in great companies in the fields, deuising, and talking most vainely. [Sidenote: The riuer of Ardock falleth into the lake of Kitay.] The 26. day of Nouember, we departed from the towne of Vrgence, and hauing trauailed by the riuer Oxus, 100 miles, we passed ouer another great riuer called Ardock, where we paid a certaine pety custome. This riuer Ardock is great, and very swift, falling out of the foresaid Oxus and passing about 1000. mile to the Northward, it then consumeth it selfe in the ground, and passing vnder the same about 500. mile, issueth out againe, and falleth into the lake of Kitay, as I haue before declared. [Sidenote: The castle of Kait.] The 7. of December following, we arriued at a Castle called Kait, subiect to a Soltan called Saramet Soltan, who meant to haue robbed all the Christians in the Carauan, had it not bene for feare of his brother the king of Vrgence, as we were informed by one of his chiefest counsellers, who willed vs to make him a present, which he tooke, and deliuered: besides, we paid at the said castle for custome, of euery camel one red hide of Russia, besides pety gifts to his officers. Thus proceeding in our iourney, the tenth day at night being at rest, and our watch set, there came vnto vs foure horsemen, which wee tooke as spies, from whom wee tooke their weapons and bound them, and hauing well examined them, they confessed that they had seene the tract of many horsemen, and no footing of camels, and gaue vs to vnderstand, that there were rouers and theeues abroade: for there trauaile few people that are true and peaceable in that Countrey, but in companie of Carauan, where there be many camels: and horsefeeting new without camels were to be doubted. Whereupon we consulted and determined amongst our selues, and sent a poste to the said Soltan of Kayte, who immediatly came himselfe with 300. men, and mette these foure suspected men which we sent vnto him, and examined them so streightly, and threatned them in such sort, that they confessed, there was a banished Prince with 40. men 3. daies iourney forward, who lay in wait to destroy vs, if he could, and that they themselues were of his companie. The Soltan therefore vnderstanding, that the theeues were not many, appointed vs 80. men well armed with a Captaine to goe with vs, and conduct vs in our way. And the Soltan himselfe returned backe againe, taking the foure theeues with him. These souldiers trauailed with vs two dayes, consuming much of our victuals. And the 3. day in the morning very earely they set out before our Carauan, and hauing ranged the wildernes for the space of foure houres, they mette vs, comming towards vs as fast as their horse could runne, and declared that they had founde the tract of horses not farre from vs, perceiuing well that we shoulde meete with enemies, and therefore willed vs to appoint our selues for them, and asked vs what we would giue them to conduct vs further, or else they would returne. To whom we offered as we thought good, but they refused our offer, and would haue more; and so we not agreeing they departed from vs, and went back to their Soltan, who (as wee coniectured) was priuie to the conspiracie. [Sidenote: Diuination by sorcerie] But they being gone, certaine Tartars of our companie called holy men, (because they had bene at Mecha) caused the whole Carauan to stay, and would make their prayers, and deuine how wee should prosper in our iourney and whether we should meet with any ill company or no? To which, our whole Carauan did agree. And they tooke certaine sheepe and killed them, and tooke the blade bones of the same, and first sodde them and then burnt them, and tooke of the blood of the said sheepe, and mingled it with the powder of the saide bones, and wrote certaine Characters with the saide blood, vsing many other ceremonies and wordes, and by the same deuined and found, that wee shoulde meete with enemies and theeues (to our great trouble) but should ouercome them, to which sorcerie, I and my companie gaue no credit, but we found it true: for within 3. houres after that the souldiers departed from vs, which was the 15. day of December, in the morning, we escried farre off diuers horsemen which made towards vs, and we (perceiuing them to be rouers) gathered ourselues together, being 40. of vs wel appointed, and able to fight, and we made our prayers together euery one after his lawe; professing to liue and die one with another, and so prepared our selues. When the theeues were nigh vnto vs, we perceiued them to be in number 37. men well armed, and appointed with bowes, arrowes and swords, and the captaine a prince banished from his Countrey. They willed vs to yeelde our selues, or els to be slaine, but wee defied them, wherewith they shotte at vs all at once, and wee at them very hotly, and so continued our fight from morning vntil two houres within night, diuers men, horses and camels being wounded and slaine on both partes: [Sidenote: Handguns very profitable.] and had it not bene for 4. handgunnes which I and my companie had and vsed, we had bene ouercome and destroyed: for the theeues were better armed, and were also better archers than we: But after wee had slaine diuers of their men and horses with our gunnes, they durst not approch so nigh, which caused them to come to a truce with vs vntill the next morning, which we accepted, and encamped our selues vpon a hill, and made the fashion of a Castle, walling it about with packes of wares, and laide our horses and camels within the same to saue them from the shotte of arrowes: and the theeues also incamped within an arrowe shotte of vs, but they were betwixt vs and the water, which was to our great discomfort, because neither we nor our camels had drunke in 2. dayes before. Thus keeping good watch, when halfe the night was spent, the Prince of the theeues sent a messenger halfe way vnto vs, requiring to talke with our Captaine, in their tongue, the Carauan Basha, who answered the messenger, I will not depart from my companie to goe into the halfe way to talke with thee: but if that thy Prince with all his companie will sweare by our Lawe to keepe the truce, then will I send a man to talke with thee, or els not. Which the Prince vnderstanding as well himselfe as his company, swore so loude that we might all heare. And then we sent one of our company (reputed a holy man) to talke with the same messenger. [Sidenote: Bussarmans. Caphar.] The message was pronounced aloude in this order, our Prince demaundeth of the Carauan Basha, and of all you that be Bussarmans, (that is to say circumcised) not desiring your bloods, that you deliuer into his hands as many Caphars, that is unbeleeuers (meaning vs the Christians) as are among you with their goods, and in so doing, hee will suffer you to depart with your goods in quietnesse, and on the contrary, you shall be handled with no lesse cruelty then the Caphars, if hee ouercome you, as he doubteth not. To the which our Carauan Basha answered, that he had no Christians in his company, nor other strangers, but two Turkes which were of their Law, and although hee had, hee would rather die then deliuer them, and that we were not afraide of his threatnings, and that should he know when day appeared. And so passing in talke, the theeues (contrary to their othe) caried our holy man away to their Prince, crying with a lowde voyce in token of victory, Ollo, ollo. Wherewith we were much discomforted, fearing that that holy man would betray vs: but be being cruelly handled and much examined, would not to death confesse anything which was to vs preiudliciall, neither touching vs, nor yet what men they had slaine and wounded of ours the day before. When the night was spent, in the morning we prepared our selues to battel againe: which the theeues perceiuing, required to fall to agreement and asked much of vs: And to be briefe, the most part of our companie being loth to go to battel againe, and hauing litle to loose, and safeconduct to passe, we were compelled to agree, and to giue the theeues 20 ninths (that is to say) 20 times 9 seuerall things, and a camell to cary away the same, which being receiued, the theeues departed into the wildernes to their old habitation, and we went on our way forward. [Sidenote: The river of Oxus.] And that night came to the riuer Oxus, where we refreshed our selues, hauing bene 3. dayes without water and drinke, and tarried there all the next day, making mery with our slaine horses and camels, and then departed from that place, [Sidenote: A wildernes of sande.] and for feare of meeting with the said theeues againe or such like, we left the high way which went along, the said riuer, and passed through a wildernes of sand, and traulled 4 dayes in the same before we came to water: and then came to a wel, the water being very brackish, and we then as before were in neede of water, and of other victuals, being forced to kill our horses and camels to eate. In this wildernes also we had almost fallen into the hands of theeues: for one night being at rest, there came certaine scouts, and caried away certaine of our men which lay a litle separated from the Carauan, wherewith there was a great shoute and crie, and we immedately laded our camels, and departed being about midnight and very darke, and droue sore till we came to the riuer Oxus againe, and then we feared nothing being walled with the said riuer: and whether it was for that we had gotten the water, or for that the same theeues were far from vs when the scouts discouered vs, we knowe not, but we escaped that danger. [Sidenote: Boghar a citie of Bactria.] So vpon the 23 day of December we arriued at the citie of Boghar in the lande of Bactria. This Boghar is situated in the lowest part of all the land, walled about with a high wall of earth, with diuers gates into the same: it is diuided into 3 partitions, whereof two parts are the kings, and the 3 part is for Marchants and markets, and euery science hath their dwelling and market by themselues. The Citie is very great, and the houses for the most part of earth, but there are also many houses, temples and monuments of stone sumptuously builded, and gilt, and especially bathstoues so artificially built, that the like thereof is not in the world: the maner whereof is too long to rehearse. [Sidenote: A strange worme in mens legs.] There is a little riuer running through the middest of the said Citie, but the water there of is most vnholsome, for it breedeth sometimes in men that drinke thereof, and especially in them that be not there borne, a worme of an ell long, which lyeth commonly in the legge betwixt the flesh and the skinne, and is pluckt out about the ancle with great art and cunning, the Surgeons being much practised therein, and if shee breaks in plucking out, the partie dieth, and euery day she commeth out about an inch, which is rolled vp, and so worketh till she be all out. And yet it is there forbidden to drinke any other thing then water, and mares milke, and whosoeuer is found to breake that law is whipped and beaten most cruelly through the open markets, and there are officers appointed for the same, who haue authoritie to goe into any mans house, to search if he haue either Aquauitae, wine, or brage, and finding the same, doe breake the vessels, spoile the drinke, and punish the masters of the house most cruelly, yea, and many times if they perceiue but by the breath of a man that he hath drunke, without further examination he shall not escape their hands. There is a Metropolitane in this Boghar, who causeth this to bee so streightly kept: and he is more obeyed then the king, and will depose the king, and place another at his will and pleasure, as he did by this king that raigned at our being there, and his predecessour, by the meanes of the said Metropolitan: for he betrayed him, and in the night slewe him in his chamber, who was a Prince who loued all Christians well. This Countrey of Boghar was sometime subiect to the Persians, and do now speake the Persian tongue, but yet now it is a kingdome of it selfe, and hath most cruell warres continually with the sayd Persians about their religion, although they be all Mahometists. One occasion of their wars is, for that the Persians will not cut the haire of their vpper lips, as the Bogharians and all other Tartars doe, which they accompt great sinne, and cal them Caphars, that is Vnbeleeuers, as they doe the Christians. [Sidenote: The coyne of Boghar.] The king of Boghar hath no great power or riches, his reuenues are but small, and he is most meinteined by the Citie: for he taketh the tenth penie of all things that are there solde, as well by the craftsmen as by the marchants, to the great impouerishment of the people, whom he keepeth in great subiection, and when he lacketh money, he sendeth his officers to the shops of the sayd Marchants to take their wares to pay his debts, and will haue credit of force, as the like he did to pay me certaine money that he owed me for 19 pieces of Kersey. Their money is siluer and copper, for gold there is none current: they haue but one piece of siluer, and that is worth 12. pence English, and the copper money are called Pooles, and 120 of them goeth the value of the said 12. pence, and is more common paiment then the siluer, which the king causeth to rise and fall to his most aduantage euery other moneth, and sometimes twise a moneth, not caring to oppresse his people, for that he loketh not to reigne aboue 2 or 3 yeres before he be either slaine, or driuen away, to the great destruction of the countrey and merchants. The 26 day of the moneth I was commanded to come before the said king, to whom I presented the Emperour of Russia his letters, who interteined vs most gently, and caused vs to eate in his presence, and diuers times he sent for me, and deuised with me familiarly in his secret chamber, as well of the power of the Emperour, and the great Turke as also of our countries, lawes, and religion, and caused vs to shoote in handguns before him, and did himselfe practise the vse thereof. But after all this great intertainement before my departure he shewed himselfe a very Tartar: for he went to the wars owing me money, and saw me not payd before his departure. And although indeede he gaue order for the same, yet was I verie ill satisfied, and forced to rebate part, and to take wares as payment for the rest contrary to my expectation: but of a begger better paiment I could not haue, and glad I was so to be paid and dispatched. But yet I must needs praise and commend this barbarous king who immediately after my arriual at Boghar, hauing vnderstoode our trouble with the theeues, sent 100 men well armed, and gaue them great charge not to returne before they had either slaine or taken the sayd theeues. Who according to their commission ranged the wildernes in such sort, that they met with the said company of theeues, and slew part, and part fledde, and foure they tooke and brought vnto the king, and two of them were sore wounded in our skirmish with our gunnes: And after the king had sent for me to come to see them, he caused them all 4 to be hanged at his palace gate, because they were Gentlemen, to the example of others. And of such goods as were gotten againe, I had part restored me, and this good iustice I found at his hands. There is yeerely great resort of Marchants to this Citie of Boghar, which trauaile in great Carauans from the countries thereabout adioining, as India, Persia, Balgh, Russia, with diuers others, and in times past from Cathay, when there was passage: but these Marchants are so beggerly and poore, and bring so little quantitie of wares, lying two or 3 yeeres to sell the same, that there is no hope of any good trade there to be had worthy the following. The chiefe commodities that are brought thither out of these foresayd Countreys, are these following. [Sidenote: Marchandise of India.] The Indians doe bring fine whites, which the Tartars do all roll about their heads, and al other kinds of whites, which serue for apparell made of cotton wooll and crasko, but golde, siluer, precious stones, and spices they bring none. I enquired and perceiued that all such trade passeth to the Ocean sea, and the vaines where all such things are gotten are in the subiection of the Portingals. The Indians carie them from Boghar againe wrought silkes, red hides, slaues, and horses, with such like, but of Kerseis and other cloth, they make little accompt. I offered to barter with Marchants of those Countreis, which came from the furthest parts of India, euen from the countrey of Bengala, and the riuer Ganges, to giue them Kersies for their commodities, but they would not barter for such commoditie as cloth. [Sidenote: Marchandise of Persia.] The Persians do bring thither Craska, wollen cloth, linnen cloth, diuers kindes of wrought pide silkes, Argomacks, with such like, and doe carie from thence redde hides with other Russe warres, and slaues, which are of diuers countreies, but cloth they will by none, for that they bring themselues, and is brought vnto them as I haue inquired from Allepo in Syria, and the parts of Turkie. [Sidenote: Marchandise of Russia.] The Russes doe carie vnto Boghar, redde hides, sheepe skinnes, wollen cloth of diuers sorts, woodden vessels, bridles, saddles, with such like, and doe carie away from thence diuers kindes of wares made of cotton wooll, diuers kinds of silkes, Crasca, with other things, but there is but smal vtterance. [Sidenote: Marchandise of Cathay.] From the Countreis of Cathay are brought thither in time of peace, and when the way is open, musk, rubarbe, satten, damaske, with diuers other things. At my being at Boghar, there came Carauans out of all these foresaid Countries, except from Cathay: and the cause why there came none from thence was the great warres that had dured 3 yeeres before my comming thither, and yet dured betwixt 2 great Countries and cities of Tartars, that are directly in the way betwixt the said Boghar and the said Cathay, and certaine barbarous field people, as well Gentiles as Mahometists bordering to the said Cities. [Sidenote: Taskent and Caskar.] The cities are called Taskent and Caskar, and the people that warre against Taskent are called Cassaks of the law of Mahomet: and they which warre with the sayd countrey of Caskar are called Kings, Gentiles and idolaters. These 2 barbarous nations are of great force liuing in the fields without house or towne, and haue almost subdued the foresaid cities, and so stopped vp the way, that it is impossible for any Carauan to passe vnspoiled: so that 3 yeeres before our being there, no Carauan had gone, or vsed trade betwixt the countries of Cathay and Boghar, and when the way is cleare, it is 9 moneths iourney. To speake of the said countrey of Cathay, and of such newes as I haue heard thereof, I haue thought it best to reserue it to our meeting. I hauing made my solace at Boghar in the Winter time, and hauing learned by much inquisition, the trade thereof, as also of all the other countries thereto adioyning, and the time of the yeere being come, for all Carauans to depart, and also the king being gone to the warres, and newes come that he was fled, and I aduertised by the Metropolitan himselfe, that I should depart, because the towne was like to bee besieged: I thought it good and meete, to take my iourney some way, and determined to haue gone from thence into Persia, and to haue seene the trade of that countrey, although I had enformed my selfe sufficiently thereof, as well at Astracan, as at Boghar: and perceiued well the trades not to be much vnlike the trades of Tartaria: but when I should haue taken my iourney that way, it was let by diuers occasions: the one was, the great wars that did newly begin betwixt the Sophie, and the kings of Tartaria, whereby the waies were destroyed: and there was a Carauan destroied with rouers and theeues, which came out of India and Persia, by safe conduct: and about ten daies iourney from Boghar, they were robbed, and a great part slaine. [Sidenote: He returneth the eight of March 1559.] Also the Metropolitan of Boghar, who is greater then the king, tooke the Emperors letters of Russia from me, without which I should haue bene taken slaue in euery place: also all such wares as I had receiued in barter for cloth, and as I tooke perforce of the king, and other his Nobles, in paiment of money due vnto me, were not vendible in Persia: for which causes and diuers others, I was constrained to come backe againe to Mare Caspium, the same way I went: so that the eight of March 1559, we departed out of the said Citie of Boghar, being a Carauan of 600 Camels: and if we had not departed when we did, I and my company had bene in danger to haue lost life and goods. For, ten daies after our departure, the king of Samarcand came with an armie, and besieged the said Citie of Boghar, the king being absent, and gone to the wars against another prince, his kinsman, as the like chanceth in those Countries once in two or three yeres. For it is maruell, if a King reigne there aboue three or foure yeres, to the great destruction of the Countrey, and marchants. [Sidenote: Vrgence.] The 25 of March, we came to the foresayd towne of Vrgence, and escaped the danger of 400 rouers, which lay in waite for vs backe againe, being the most of them of kindred to that company of theeues, which we met with going foorth; as we perceiued by foure spies, which were taken. [Sidenote: The king of Balke, or Balgh.] There were in my company, and committed to my charge, two ambaassadors, the one from the king of Boghar, the other from the king of Balke, and were sent vnto the Emperor of Russia. And after having taried at Vrgence, and the Castle of Sellysure, eight daies for the assembling, and making ready of our Carauan, the second of Aprill we departed from thence, hauing foure more Ambassadors in our companie, sent from the king of Vrgence, and other Soltans, his brethren, vnto the Emperor of Russia, with answere of such letters as I brought them: and the same Ambassadors were also committed vnto my charge by the sayde Kings and princes: to whome I promised most faithfully, and swore by our law, that they should be well vsed in Rusland, and suffered to depart from thence againe in safetie, according as the Emperor had written also in his letters: for they somewhat doubted, because there had none gone out of Tartaria into Russia, of long time before. The 23 of Aprill, we arriued at the Mare Caspium againe, where we found our barke which we came in, but neither anker, cable, cocke, nor saile: neuerthelesse wee brought hempe with vs, and spunne a cable our selues, with the rest of our tackling, and made vs a saile of cloth of cotton wooll, and rigged our barke as well as we could, but boate or anker we had none. In the meane time being deuising to make an anker of wood of a cart wheele, there arriued a barke, which came from Astracan, with Tartars and Russes, which had 2 ankers, with whom I agreed for the one: and thus being in a readinesse, we set saile and departed, I, and the two Iohnsons being Master and Mariners ourselues, hauing in our barke the said sixe ambassadors, and 25 Russes which had bene slaues a long time in Tartaria, nor euer had before my comming, libertie, or meanes to get home, and these slaues serued to rowe, when neede was. Thus sailing sometimes along the coast, and sometimes out of sight of lande, the 13. day of May, hauing a contrary winde, wee came to an anker, being three leagues from the shoare, and there rose a sore storme, which continued 44. houres, and our cable being of our our owne spinning, brake, and lost our anker, and being off a lee shoare, and hauing no boate to helpe vs, we hoysed our saile, and bare roomer with the said shoare, looking for present death: but as God prouided vs, we ranne into a creeke ful of oze, and so saued our selues with our barke, and liued in great discomfort for a time. For although we should haue escaped with our liues the danger of the sea, yet if our barke had perished, we knew we should haue bene either destroyed, or taken slaues by the people of that Countrey, who liue wildly in the field, like beasts, without house or habitation. Thus when the storme was seazed, we went out of the creeke againe: and hauing set the land with our Compasse, and taken certaine markes of the same, during the time of the tempest, whilest we ridde at our anker, we went directly to the place where we ridde, with our barke againe, and found our anker which we lost: whereat the Tartars much marueiled howe we did it. While we were in the creeke, we made an anker of wood of cart wheeles, which we had in our barke, which we threw away, when wee had found our yron anker againe. Within two days after, there arose another great storme, at the Northeast, and we lay a trie, being driuen far into the sea, and had much ado to keepe our barke from sinking, the billowe was so great: but at the last, hauing faire weather, we tooke the Sunne, and knowing howe the land lay from vs we fel with the Riuer Yaik, according to our desire, wherof the Tartars were very glad, fearing that wee should haue bene driuen to the coast of Persia, whose people were vnto them great enemies. [Sidenote: The English flag in the Caspian sea.] Note, that during the time of our Nauigation, wee set vp the redde crosse of S. George in our flagges, for honour of the Christians, which I suppose was neuer seene in the Caspian sea before. We passed in this voyage diuers fortunes: notwithstanding the 28. of May we arriued in safetie at Astracan, and there remained till the tenth of Iune following, as well to prepare vs small boates, to goe vp against the streame of Volga, with our goods, as also for the companie of the Ambassadours of Tartarie, committed vnto me, to bee brought to the presence of the Emperour of Russia. [Sidenote: A notable description of the Caspian Sea.] This Caspian sea (to say some thing of it) is in length about two hundred leagues, and in breadth 160, without any issue to other seas: to the East part whereof, ioyneth the great desert countrey of the Tartars, called Turkemen: to the West, the countreyes of the Chyreasses, the mountaines of Caucasus, and the Mare Euxinum, which is from the said Caspian Sea a hundred leagues. To the North is the riuer Volga, and the land of Nagay, and to the South parte ioyne the countreys of Media and Persia. This sea is fresh water in many places, and in other places as salt as our great Ocean. It hath many goodly Riuers falling into it, and it auoideth not it selfe except it be vnder ground. The notable riuers that fall into it are first the great riuer of Volga, called in the Tartar tongue Edell, which springeth out of a lake in a marrish or plaine ground, not farre from the Citie of Nouogrode in Russia, and it is from the spring to the Sea, aboue two thousande English miles. It hath diuers other goodly Riuers falling into it, as out of Siberia, Yaic, and Yem: Also out of the mountaines of Caucasus, the Riuers of Cyrus and Arash, and diuers others. As touching the trade of Shamaky in Media and Tebris, with other townes in Persia, I haue enquired, and do well vnderstand, that it is euen like to the trades of Tartaria, that is little vtterance, and small profite: and I haue bene aduertised that the chiefe trade of Persia is into Syria, and so transported into the Leuant sea. The fewe shippes vpon the Caspian Seas, the want of Mart and port Townes, the pouertie of the people, and the ice, maketh that trade naught. At Astracan there were merchants of Shamaky, with whom I offered to barter, and to giue them kersies for their wares, but they would not, saying, they had them as good cheape in their countrey, as I offred them, which was sixe rubbles for a kersie, that I asked: and while I was at Boghar, there were brought thither out of Persia, Cloth, and diuers commodities of our countries, which were sold as good cheape, as I might sell ours. The tenth day of Iune we departed from Astracan towards the Mosco, hauing an hundred gunners in our company at the Emperors charges, for the safe conduct at the Tartar Ambassadors and me. And the eight and twentieth day of Iuly folowing, wee arriued at the citie of Cazan, hauing bene vpon the way from Astracan thither, sixe weekes and more, without any refreshing of victuals: for in all that way there is no habitation. [Sidenote: His arriual at Mosco the 2. of September.] The seuenth of August folowing, wee departed from Cazan, and transported our goods by water, as farre as the citie of Morum, and then by land; so that the second of September, we arriued at the citie of Mosco, and the fourth day I came before the Emperours Maiestie, kissed his hand, and presented him a white Cowes taile of Cathay, and a drumme of Tartária, which he well accepted. Also I brought before him all the Ambassadors that were committed to my charge, with all the Russe slaues: and that day I dined in his Maiesties presence, and at dinner his Grace sent me meate by a Duke, and asked me diuers questions touching the lands and countreis where I had bene. And thus I remained at the Mosco about your affaires, vntil the 17. day of February that your wares were sent downe: and then hauing a license of the Emperors Maiestie to depart, the 21. day I came to your house at Vologhda, and there remained vntil the breaking vp of the yere: and then hauing seene all your goods laden into your boates, I departed, with the same, and arriued withall in safetie at Colmogro the 9. of May 1560. And here I cease for this time, intreating you to heare with this my large discourse, which by reason of the varietie of matter, I could make no shorter, and I beseech God to prosper all your attempts. The latitudes of certaine principall places in Russia, and other Regions. Deg. Min. Mosco in 55 10 Nouogrod the great 58 26 Nouogrod the lesse 56 33 Colmogro 64 10 Vologhda 59 11 Cazan 55 33 Oweke 51 40 Astracan 47 9 At the entrance into the Caspian sea. 46 42 Manguslaue beyond the Caspian sea. 45 04 Vrgence in Tartary 20. dayes iourney from the Caspian sea. 42 18 Boghar a citie in Tartary 20. dayes iourney from Vrgcnce. 39 10 * * * * * Certaine notes gathered by Richard Iohnson (which was at Boghar with M. Anthony Ienkinson) of the reports of Russes and other strangers, of the wayes of Russia to Cathaya, and of diuers and strange people. The first note giuen by one named Sarnichoke a Tartarian subiect to the Prince of Boghar, which are also Tartars bordering vpon Kizilbash or Persia, declaring the way from Astracan, being the furthest part of Russia, to Cathaya as foloweth. First from Astracan to Serachick by land, trauailing by leysure as Merchants vse with wares, is 10. dayes iourney. From Serachick to a towne named [Marginal note: Or Vrgema.] Vrgenshe, 15. dayes. From Vrgenshe to Boghar, 15. dayes. From Boghar to Cascar, 30. dayes. From Cascar to Cathaya, 30. dayes iourney. * * * * * By the same partie a note of another way more sure to traueile, as he reporteth. From Astracan to Turkemen by the Caspian sea, 10. dayes, with barkes. From Turkemen by lande specially with Camels, bearing the weight of 15. poodes for their common burthens, is 10. dayes to Vrgenshe. From Vrgenshe to Boghar, 15. dayes. Note. At this Citie of Boghar is the marte or meeting place betweene the Turkes and nations of those parts and the Cathayans. Also the toll there is the 40. part to be payed of Merchandizes or goods. From thence to Cascar is one moneths iourney, and from Cascar (being the frontier of the great Can, hauing many townes and fortes by the way) is also a moneths trauel for merchants by land to Cathay. Further, as he hath heard (not hauing bene in those parts himselfe) ships may saile from the dominions of Cathaia vnto India. But of other waies, or how the seas lie by any coast hee knoweth not. The instruction of another Tartarian merchant dwelling in the citie of Boghar, as he hath learned by other his countreymen which haue bene there. First from Astracan by sea to Serachick is 15 dayes: affirming also that a man may trauell the other way before written by Turkemen. From Serachick to Vrgence is 15 dayes. From Vrgence to Boghar also 15 dayes. Note. These last 30 daies iourney is without habitation of houses: therefore trauellers lodge in their own tents, carying with them to eate, their seuerall prouisions: and for drinesse there bee many wels of faire water at equall baiting places not farre distant dayly to be had. From Boghar to Taskent easie travelling with goods, is 14 dayes by land. From Taskent to Occient 7 dayes. From Occient to Cascar 20 daies. This Cascar is the head towne or citie of another prince, lying betweene Boghar and Cathaia, called Reshit can. From Cascar to Sowchick 30 daies iourney, which Sowchick is the first border of Kathay. From Sowchick to Camchick 5 dayes iourney, and from Camchick to Cathay is 2 moneths iourney, all the way being inhabited, temperate, and wel replenished with innumerable fruits, and the chiefe citie in that whole land is called Cambalu, which is yet 10 dayes iourney from Cathay. Beyond this land of Cathay, which they praise to be ciuill and vnspeakeably rich, is the countrey named in the Tartarian tongue Cara-calmack inhabited with blacke people: but in Cathay the most part thereof stretching to the sunne rising, are people white and of faire complexion. Their religion also, as the Tartars report, is christian, or after the maner of Christians, and their language peculiar, differing from the Tartarian tongue. There are no great and furious Beares in trauelling through the waies aforesaid, but wolues white and blacke. And because that woods are not of such quantitie there, as in these parts of Russia, but in maner rather scant then plentiful, as is reported, the Beares breed not that way, but some other beasts (as namely one in Russe called Barse) are in those coasts. This Barse appeareth by a skinne of one seene here to sell, to be nere so great as a big lion, spotted very faire and therefore we here take it to be a Leopard or Tiger. [Sidenote: Angrim] Note that 20 daies iourney from Cathay is a country named Angrim, where liueth the beast that beareth the best Muske, and the principal thereof is cut out of the knee of the male. [Sidenote: Mandeuille speaketh hereof.] The people are taunie, and for that the men are not bearded nor differ in complexion from women, they have certaine tokens of iron, that is to say: the men weare the sunne round like a bosse vpon their shoulders, and women on their priuie parts. Their feeding is raw flesh in the same land, and in another called Titay: [Marginal Note: or Kitay.] the Duke there is called Can. [Sidenote: Small people.] They worship the fire, and it is 34 dayes iourney from great Cathay, and in the way lyeth the beautifull people, eating with kniues of golde, and are called Comorom, and the land of small people is neerer the Mosko then Cathay. * * * * * The instructions of one of Permia, who reporteth he had bene at Cathay the way before written, and also another way neere the sea coast, as foloweth, which note was sent out of Russia from Giles Holmes. [Sidenote: Pechora but sixe days iourney by land or water from Ob.] First from the prouince of Dwina is knowen the way to Pechora, and from Pechora traueiling with Olens or harts, is sixe dayes iourney by land, and in the Sommer as much by water to the riuer of Ob. The Ob is a riuer full of flats, the mouth of it is 70. Russe miles ouer. And from thence three dayes iourney on the right hand is a place called Chorno-lese, to say in English, blacke woods, and from thence neere hand is a people called Pechey-cony, wearing their haire by his description after the Irish fashion. From Pechey-cony to Ioult Calmachey three dayes iourney, and from thence to Chorno Callachay three dayes tending to the Southeast. These two people are of the Tartarian faith, and tributaries to the great Can. * * * * * Here follow certaine countreys of the Samoeds which dwell vpon the riuer Ob, and vpon the sea coasts beyond the same, taken outof the Russe tongue word by word, and trauailed by a Russe born in Colmogro, whose name was Pheodor Towtigin, who by report, was slaine in his second voyage in one of the said countreys. Vpon the East part beyond the countrey of Vgori, the riuer Ob is the most Westernmost part thereof. Vpon the sea coast dwell Samoeds, and their countrey is called Molgomsey, whose meate is flesh of Olens, or Harts, and Fish, and doe eate one another sometimes among themselues. And if any Marchants come vnto them, then they kill one of their children for their sakes to feast them withall. And if a Marchant chance to die with them, they burie him not, but eate him, and so doe they eate them of their owne countrey likewise. [Sidenote: Travelling on dogs and harts.] They be euill of sight, and haue small noses, but they be swift and shoote very well, and they trauaile on Harts and on dogges, and their apparell is Sables and Harts skinnes. They haue no Marchandise but Sables onely. 2 Item, on the same coast or quarter beyond those people; and by the sea side also doth dwell another kinde of Samoeds in like maner, hauing another language. One moneth in the yeere they liue in the sea, and doe not come or dwell on the dry land for that moneth. 3 Item beyond these people, on the sea coast, there is another kinde of Samoeds, their meate is flesh and fish, and their merchandise are Sables, white and blacke Foxes (which the Russes call Pselts) and Harts skinnes, and Fawnes skinnes. * * * * * The relation of Chaggi Memet a Persian Marchant, to Baptista Ramusius, and other notable citizens of Venice; touching the way from Tauris the chiefe city of Persia, to Campion a citie of Cathay ouer land: in which voyage he himselfe had passed before with the Carauans. From Tauris to Soltania. 6 dayes iourney From Soltania to Casbin. 4 " " From Casbin to Veremi. 6 " " From Veremi to Eri. 15 " " From Eri to Boghara. 20 " " From Boghara to Samarchand. 5 " " From Samarchand to Cascar. 25 " " From Cascar to Acsu. 20 " " From Acsu to Cuchi. 20 " " From Cuchi to Chialis. 10 " " From Chialis to Turfon. 10 " " From Turfon to Camul. 13 " " From Camul to Succuir. 15 " " From Succuir to Gauta. 5 " " From Gauta to Campion. 6 " " Which Campion is a citie of the Empire of Cathay in the prouince of Tangut, from whence the greatest quantitie of Rubarbe commeth. * * * * * A letter of Sigismond king of Polonia, written in the 39. yeere of his reigne to Elizabeth the Queenes most excellent Maiestie of England, &c. Sigismundus Augustus by the grace of God king of Polonia, great Duke of Lituania, Russia, Prussia, Massouia, and Samogetia, &c. Lord and heire &c. to the most Noble Princesse Ladie Elizabeth by the same grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, &c. our deare sister, and kinsewoman, greeting and increase of all felicitie. Whereas your Maiestie writeth to vs that you haue receiued two of our letters, wee haue looked that you should haue answered to them both. [Sidenote: The trade to Narue forbidden by the K. of Poland.] First to the one in which we intreated more at large in forbidding the voyage to Narue, which if it had bene done, we had bene vnburdened of so often writing of one matter: and might haue answered your Maiestie much better to the purpose. Now we thus answere to your Maiestie to those matters of the which you writte to vs the 3 of October from Windsore. [Sidenote: The ancient couenants of trafficke between England and Prussia.] First, forasmuch as your Maiestie at the request of our letters hath discharged the arrest of Marchants goods, and of the names of the men of Danske our subiects, which was set vpon them by the commandement of your Maiestie: and also haue restored the olde and ancient libertie of traffique, we acknowlege great pleasure done vnto vs in the same: and also think it to bee done according to common agreement made in times past. Neither were we euer at any time of any other opinion touching your Maiestie, but that wee should obtaine right and reason at your hands. Forasmuch as we likewise shall at all times be ready to grant to your Maiestie, making any request for your subiects, so farre as shall stand with iustice, yet neither will we yeeld any thing to your Maiestie in contention of loue, beneuolence, and mutuall office, but that we iudge euery good turne of yours to be recompensed by vs to the vttermost: and that shall we prooue as occasion shall serue. [Sidenote: The olde libertie of trafficke.] Therefore we shall commaund the arrests, if any be made by our subiects (as it is vnknowen to vs) of merchants goods and English names to be discharged: and shall conserue the olde libertie of trafficke, and all other things which shall seeme to apperteine to neighbourhood betweene vs and your Maiestie: so that none of the subiects of your Maiestie hereafter presume to vse the nauigation to the Narue forbidden by vs, and full of danger not onely to our parts, but also to the open destruction of all Christians and liberall nations. [Sidenote: The meanes of increase of the power of the Muscouite.] The which as we haue written afore, so now we write againe to your Maiesty that we know and feele of a surety, the Moscouite, enemy to all liberty vnder the heauens, dayly to grow mightier by the increase of such things as he brought to the Naure, while not onely wares but also weapons heretofore vnknowen to him, and artificers and arts be brought vnto him: by meane whereof he maketh himselfe strong to vanquish all others. Which things, as long as this voyage to Narue is vsed, can not be stopped. And we perfectly know your Maiesty can not be ignorant how great the cruelty is of the said enemy, of what force he is, what tyranny he vseth on his subiects, and in what seruile sort they be under him. We seemed hitherto to vanquish him onely in this, that he was rude of arts, and ignorant of policies. If so be that this nauigation to the Naure continue, what shall be vnknowen to him? Therefore we that know best, and border vpon him, do admonish other Christian princes in time, that they do not betray their dignity, liberty and life of them and their subiects to a most barbarous and cruell enemy, as we can no lesse do by the duty of a Christian prince. For now we do foresee, except other princes take this admonition, the Moscuite puffed vp in pride with those things that he brought to the Narue, and made more perfect in warlike affaires with engines of warre and shippes, will make assault this way on Christendome, to slay or make bound all that shall withstand him: which God defend. With which our admonition diuers princes already content themselues, and abstaine from the Narue. The others that will not abstaine from the sayd voyage shalbe impeached by our nauie, and incurre the danger of losse of life, liberty, wife and children. Now therefore if the subiects of your Maiesty will forbeare this voyage to Narue, there shalbe nothing denied to them of vs. Let your Maiesty well weigh and consider the reasons and occasions of our stopping of ships going to the Narue. In which stopping, our subiects of Danske be in no fault, as we haue already written to your Maiesty, neither vse we their counsell in the same. In any other matter, if there be any fault in them against your Maiesty or your subiects, we will gladly do iustice vpon them, that your Maiesty may well vnderstand that we be careful of you and your subiects. Neither thinke we it meet to take Hamburgh, or any other place to iudge the matter: for we have our councell and iudgement seat at Rie, where your Maiesty and your subiects, or any other shal haue iustice administred vnto them, with whom we haue had ancient league and amity. And thus much we haue thought good to let your Maiesty vnderstand. Fare ye well. Dated the sixt of December the 39 of our reigne. [Footnote: A.D. 1559] Sigismundus Augustus Rex. * * * * * The Queenes Maiesties Letters to the Emperour of Russia, requesting licence, and safe conduct for M. Anthony Ienkinson to passe thorow his kingdome of Russia, into Persia, to the Great Sophie, 1561. ELIZABETHA Dei gratia, Angliae, &c. Regina, serenissimo et potentissimo principi, D. Ioanni Basiliuich, Imperatori totius Russiæ, Magno Duci, &c. Salutem, et omnium rerum prosperarum foelicissimum incrementum. Potentissime Princeps, res est nobis ad memorandum longè gratissima, illa vestræ Maiestatis erga nos et nostros amicitia. Quæ tempore foelicissimæ memoriæ Regis Edwardi sexti, fratris nostri charissimi, Dei benignitate incepta, deinceps verò vestra non solùm singulari humanitate alta atque fota, sed incredibili etiam bonitate aucta atque cumulata, nunc autem omnibus beneuolentiæ vestræ officijs sic firmata est atque constabilita, vt iam minimè dubitemus, quin ea ad laudem Dei, ad gloriam vtriusque nostrum, ad publicam nostrorum vtrobique regnorum immensam commoditatem, ad priuatam singulorum vtrinque subditorum optatam spem, certàmque foelicitatem multis sit deinceps seculis duratura. Et quanquam hæc vestra bonitas, plenissimè sese effudit in omnes nostros subditos, qui sese in ullas imperij vestri partes vnquam receperunt, (pro qua ingentes nostras, vt par est, gratias vestræ Maiestati habemus, vestrísque vicissim in omni opportunitatis loco libentissimè feremus) tamen abundantia benignitatis vestræ, in accipiendo, támque humanitèr tractando nostrum fidelem et perdilectum famulum Antonium Ienkinson, qui has perfert literas, seorsim nobis gratissima existit. Nam præterquam quòd nullis non locis vestri Imperij et magna libertate, et summa humanitate vestræ serenitatis non permissu solùm, sed iussu etiam frueretur, vestra bonitas tamen non in hac domestica benignè feciendi ratione conquieuit, sed perlibentèr et vltrò eundum nostrum hunc perdilectum famulum, varijs exteris princibus, quoquouersus ipse iter suum instituerat, literis suis, suo magno Imperiali sigillo consignatis commendauit. Quod beneficium illi vbiuis gentium, et viam sine vllo periculo, propter publicam vestram fidem, et aduentum cum magno fauore, propter vestram commendationem, optatè quidem et foeliciter communiuit Itaque quemadmodum gemina hæc vestra beneuolentia, cum illa generalis exhibita in vestro regno negotiantibus subditis nostris vniuersis, tum ista seorsim præstita huic Antonio Ienkinson, perfideli nostro famulo, nobis in mente non solùm ad gratam perpetuamque memoriam, verùm etiam ad mutuam, vel opportunam compensationem, firmissimè defixa est: ita, petimus à vestra Maiestate vt vtramque beneuolentiæ vestræ rationem et communem nostris vniuersis, et priuatam huic nostro dilecto famulo, vtrisque deinceps dignetur tueri, atque conseruare. Neque nos quidem diffidemus, quin quem fauorem vestra Maiestas anteà sua sponte Antonio Ienkinson, tum quidem priuato ostendit, eundem nunc nostra rogatu eidem Antonio in nostrum iam famulatum cooptato benignè velit denuò declarere. Et proptereà petimus à vestra Maiestate, vt dignetur iterum concedere eidem nostro famulo literas suas commeatus, publicæ fidei, ac saluiconductus, quarum tenore, authoritate, atque præsidio, sit illi, familiaribus suis, et seruis, tutum, liberumque, cum mercibus, sarcinis, equis, et bonis suis vniuersis, inuehendis euehendísque, per vestra regna, domicilia, atque prouincias, proficisci, ire, transire, redire, abire, et istic morari, quandiu placuerit, et inde recedere quandocunque illi aut suis libitum fuerit. Et sicut non dubitamus, quin vestra Maiestas hæc omnia humanitatis grata officia, pro immensa bonitate suæ naturæ benignè et largiter huic famulo nostro sit concessura ita valdè optamus, adeóque petimus, vt vestra Maiestas eodem nostrum famulum, vnà cum omnibus suis familiaribus, ac bonis, exteris alijs principibus literis suis dignetur commendare, presertim verò atque seorsim Magno Sophi, Persarum Imperatori, in cuius etiam imperia et ditiones idem noster famulus gratia potissimè experiundi peregrina, commercia, proficisci vnà cum suis constituit. Confidimus igitur hæc omnia nostra postulata pro famuli spe, pro nostra expectatione, pro vestra bonitate, pro nostrorum utrinque subditorum commoditate, fausta illi, grata nobis, acccpta etiam vestræ Maiestati, et nostris vtrobíque perquam vtilia euasura. Deus vestræ Maiestatis, &c. Datum in celeberrima nostra Ciuitate Londini, anno mundi 5523. Domini ac Dei nostri Iesu Christi 1561. regnorum verò nostrorum tertio. The same in English Elizabeth by the grace of God, Queene of England, &c. to the right excellent, and right mightie Prince, Lord Iohn Basiliwich, Emperour of all Russia, &c. greeting, and most happie increase in all prosperitie. Right mightie Prince, the amitie of your Maiestie towards vs and our subiects is very pleasant to vs to be remembred, which being begun by the goodnesse of God in the reigne of our most deare brother of happie memorie, King Edward the sixt, and afterwards, through your not onely singular humanitie, fed, and nourished, but also through your incredible goodnesse increased, and augmented, is now firmed and established, with all maner of tokens of your beneuolence, that now we doubt not, but that from hencefoorth, during many ages, the same shall endure to the praise of God, to both our glories, to the publike great commoditie of our Realmes on either part, and to the priuate desired hope; and certeine felicitie of all our subiects. And although that this your goodnesse hath bene abundantly extended to all our subiects that have at any time repaired into any part of your Empire, for the which wee giue (as reason is) your Maiestie right heartie thanks, and will againe shew the like vnto yours, right willingly, whensoeuer opportunitie shall require: yet the abundance of your benignitie both in receiuing, and also in enterteining our faithfull and beloued seruant, Anthonie Ienkinson, the bringer of these our letters, is vnto vs for him priuately very thankefull. For besides this, that in all places of your Empire, he not onely by your Maiesties sufferance, but also by your commandement, enioyed much libertie, and great friendship, your goodnesse not ceasing in this your domesticall disposition of clemencie, did right willingly, and of your owne abundant grace, commend the same our well-beloued seruant, by your letters sealed with your Imperiall seale, to sundrie forren Princes, vnto whom he was minded to iourney: which your magnificence did purchase unto him happily, according to his desire, both passage without all perill, through your notable credit, and also atchieuing of his iourney through your commendation. Therefore like as these your duplicated beneuolences, both that one generally exhibited to all our subiects frequenting that your Realme, and also this the other extended apart to this our right faithfull seruant Anthonie Ienkinson, is right assuredly fastened in our remembrance, not onely for a perpetuall and gratefull memorial, but also for a mutuall and meet compensation: so we desire of your Maiestie, to vouchsafe from hencefoorth to conserue and continue the geminate disposition of your beneuolences, both generally to all our subiects, and also priuately to this, our beloued seruant. And we doubt not, but that at our request, you will againe graciously shew vnto the same Anthony, now admitted into our seruice, the like favor as heretofore your Maiesty of your meere motion did exhibite vnto him, being then a priuate person. And therefore we desire your Maiesty eftsones to grant to the same our seruant, your letters of licence, pasport, and safe conduct, through the tenour, authority, and helpe whereof, he, his seruants, together with their merchandises, baggages, horses, and goods whatsoeuer, that shall be brought in, or carried out, by or thorow all your empire, kingdome, dominions, and provinces, may surely and freely iourney, go, passe, repasse, depart, and there tary so long as it shall please him: and from thence returne whensoeuer it shall seeme good to him or his: and as we doubt not, but that your Maiesty in the goodnesse of your nature will graciously and abundantly grant all these good offices of humanity, so we do heartily desire that your Maiesty wil likewise vouchsafe to commend the same our seruant, together with all his goods, by your letters to other forren Princes, and especially to the great Sophy, and Emperour of Persia, into whose empire and iurisdictions the same our seruant purposeth with his for to iourney, chiefly for triall of forren merchandises. We therefore doe trust that all these our demands shall tend, and haue effect, according to the hope of our seruant, and to our expectation, for your wealth, for the commodity of both our subiects, lucky to him, thankefull to vs, acceptable to your Maiesty, and very profitable to our subiects on either part. God grant vnto your Maiesty long and happy felicity in earth, and euerlasting in heauen. Dated in our famous city of London the 25 day of the moneth of April, in the yeere of the creation of the world 5523, and of our Lord God Iesus Christ 1561, and of our reigne the third. * * * * * The Queenes Maiesties Letters to the great Sophy of Persia, sent by M. Anthonie Ienkinson. 1561. ELizabetha Dei gratia, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Regina, &c. Potentissimo, et inuictissimo Principi, Magno Sophi Persarum, Medorum, Parthorum, Hircanorum, Carmanorum, Margianorum, populorum ris et vltrà Tygrim fluuium, et omnium intra Mare Caspium, et Persicum sinum nationum atque Gentium Imperatori salutem, et rerum prosperarum foelicissimum incrementum. Summi Dei benignitate factum est, vt quas gentes, non solum immensa terrarum spacia, et insuperabiles marium vastitates sed et ipsi etiam cælorum cardines longissimè disiunxerunt, ipsæ tamen literarum bono et mentis certa cogitata, et humanitatis grata officia, et intelligentiæ mutuæ multa commoda facilè inter se et opportunè possint communicare. Itaque cùm perdilectus, et fidelis noster famulus Antonius Ienkinson, qui has literas nostras perfert, cum bona venia, fauore, et gratia nostra hoc Angliæ nostræ regnum excedere, et in Persiam vsque, vestrásque alias ditiones Dei benignitate penetrare constituerit, hoc illius institutum perlaudabile quidem grato nostro fauore prosequi, et promouere studuimus: id quod eo nos libentius facimus, quoniam hoc eius propositum ex honesto studio commercij constituendi potissimum cùm vestris subditis, alijsque peregrinis hominibus, ad vestra regna confluentibus, omninò exortum sit. Propterea nobis et scribendum ad vestram Maiestatem, ab eaque petendum esse duximus, vt nostro rogatu dignetur concedere huic famulo nostro Antonio Ienkinson literas publicæ fidei et salui conductus, quarum authoritate atque præsidio, licitum, liberúmque sit illi, vnà cum suis familiaribus, seruis, sarcinis, mercibus et bonis vniuersis, per vestra regna, domicilia, ditiones, atque prouincias liberè, et sine impedimento proficisci, ire, transire, redire, abire, et istic morari, quamdiu placuerit, et inde recedere, quandocunque illi vel suis lubitum fuerit. Si hæc sancta hospitalitis iura et duleia communis humanitatis officia, inter nos, nostra regna nostrósque subditos libentèr constitui, sincerè coli, et constanter conseruari queant, speramus nos, Deum Optimum Maximum effecturum, vt ab hijs paruis initijs, grandiora rerum momenta, nobis ad magna ornamenta atque decus nostris ad summa commoda atque vsus, aliquando sint oritura: siquidem, vt non, terra, non mare, non coelum, ad nos longissimè sperandos quàm diuina ratio communis humanitatis, et mutuæ beneuolentiæ ad nos firmissimè coniungendos plus virium habuisse videatur. Deus salutem omnem, et foelicem in terris, et perpetuam in coelis, vestræ concedat Maiestati. Datum in Anglia, in celebri nostra vrbe Londino, 25 die mensis Aprilis, anno mundi 5523. Domini ac Dei nostri Iesu Christi, 1561, regnorum vero nostrorum tertio. The same in English. [Sidenote: This letter was also written in Hebrew and Italian.] Elizabeth by the grace of God, Queene of England, &c. To the right mightie, and right victorious Prince, the great Sophie, Emperour of the Persians, Medes, Parthians Hircans, Carmanians, Margians, of the people on this side, and beyond the river of Tygris, and of all men, and nations, betweene the Caspian sea, and the gulfe of Persia, greeting and most happie increase in all prosperitie. By the goodness of the Almightie God it is ordeined, that those people which not onely the huge distance of the lands, and the inuincible widenesse of the seas, but also the very quarters of the heavens do most farre separate, and set asunder, may neuerthelesse through good commendation by writing, both ease, and also communicate betweene them, not onely the conceiued thoughts, or deliberations, and gratefull offices of humanitie, but also many commodities of mutuall intelligence. Therefore whereas our faithfull, and right wellbeloued seruant Anthonie Ienkinson, bearer of these our letters, is determined with our licence, fauor, and grace, to passe out of this our Realme, and by Gods sufferance to trauell euen into Persia, and other your iurisdictions; we minde truely with our good favour to set forward, and aduance that his right laudable purpose: and that the more willingly, for that this his enterprise is only grounded upon an honest intent to establish trade of merchandise with your subiects, and with other strangers traffiking in your realmes. Wherfore we haue thought good, both to write to your Maiestie, and also to desire the same, to vouchsafe at our request, to grant to our sayd seruant, Anthonie Ienkinson, good passports and safe conducts, by meanes and authoritie wherof, it may be free and lawfull for him, together with his familiars, seruants, cariages, merchandise, and goods whatsoeuer, thorow your Realmes, Dominions, Iurisdictions, and Prouinces, freely, and without impeachment, to iourney, go, passe, repasse, and tarry so long as he shall please and from thence to retourne whensoeuer he or they shall thinke good. If these holy dueties of entertainment, and sweet offices of naturall humanitie may be willingly concluded, sincerely embraced, and firmly obserued between vs, and our Realmes, and subiects, then we do hope that the Almightie God will bring it to passe, that of these small beginnings, greater moments of things shall hereafter spring, both to our furniture and honours, and also to the great commodities, and vse of our peoples: so it will be knowen that neither the earth, the seas, nor the heauens, haue so much force to separate vs, as the godly disposition of naturall humanity, and mutual beneuolence haue to ioyne vs strongly together. God grant vnto your Maiestie long and happy felicity in earth, and perpetuall in heauen. Dated in England in our famous citie of London, the 25 day of the moneth of April, in the yere of the creation of the world 5523, and of our Lord and God Iesus: Christ, 1561, and of our reigne the third. * * * * * A remembrance giuen by vs the Gouernours, Consuls, and Assistants of the company of Merchants trading into Russia, the eight day of May 1561, to our trustie friend Anthonie Ienkinson, at his departure towards Russia, and so to Persia, in this our eight iourney. First you shall vnderstand that we haue laden in our good ship, called the Swallow, one Chest, the keyes whereof we doe heere deliuer you, and also a bill, wherein are written particularly the contents in the sayd Chest, and what euery thing did cost: and because, as you know, the sayd Chest is of charge, we desire you to haue a speciall regard vnto it, and when God shall send you vnto Mosco, our mindes and will is, that you, with the aduise of our Agents there, doe appoint some such presents for the Emperour and his sonne, either wine, cloth of golde, scarlet, or plate, as to your good discretion shall be thought meet, and when you haue deliuercd vnto him the Queenes Maiesties letters and our sayd present in the name of the Company, we thinke it good that you make your humble sute vnto his Highnesse in our name, to get his licence or safe conduct for you and all other our seruants or Agents at all times hereafter with such wares and merchandise as you at this time, or they hereafter at all other times shall thinke good to passe out of his dominions towards Tartaria, Persia, or other places, and also to retourne vnto Mosco with such wares and merchandises as you shall bring or send from any land or countrey that is not in his dominions, and if it be thought good by you and our Agents there to make composition with the emperor or his officers for some certeine custome or tole vpon such goods as we shall passe that way, to the intent we might be the better fauored, we refer it to your discretion, foreseeing that the opening of this matter be not preiudiciall vnto our former priuileges. And for the sale of our cloth of gold, plate, pearles, saphyres, and other iewels, we put our trust and confidence in you principally to sell them for ready money, time to good debtors, or in barter for good wares, so that you make our other Agents priuy how and for what price you sell any of the premisses, and also deliver such sums of money, billes or wares, as you shall receiue, vnto our said Agents: thinking good further, that if you perceiue that the plate or other iewels, or any part thereof will not be sold for profit before your departure from the Mosco, that then you cause them to be safe-packed, and set order they may be sent hither againe in our shippes the next yere; except you perceiue that there may be some profit in carrying some part of them into Persia, which we would not to be of any great value. We have also laden in the sayd Swallow and the other two ships 80 fardles, conteining 400 kersies, as by youre inuoice doth appeare, which fardles be packed, and appointed to be caried into Persia: neuerthelesse, if you chance to finde good sales for them in the Mosco, we thinke it were good to sell part of them there, and to cary the lesse quantity with you, because we be vncertaine what vent or sale you shall find in Persia or other places where you shall come. If you obtaine the Emperours licence to passe out of his dominions, and to returne, as aforesaid, and that you perceiue you may safely do the same, our minde is, that at such time as you thinke best and most conuenient for that purpose, you do apppoint so many, and such of our hired seruants or apprentices as you thinke necessary and meet for our affaires, and may best be spared, to go with you in your said voyage, whereof we would one to be such as you might make priuy of all your doings for diuers considerations and causes that may happen: which seruants and apprentises, we will and command, by this our remembrance, to be obedient vnto you as vnto vs, not onely to goe with you and to doe such things as you command them in your presence, but also to goe vnto such countreys or places as you shall appoint them vnto, either with wares or without wares and there to remaine and continue so long as you shall thinke good, and if they or any of them will refuse to do such things as you do appoint them, as aforesaid, or that any of them (be he hired seruant or apprentise) do misuse himselfe by any maner of disobedience or disorder, and will not by gentle and faire meanes be reformed, we will that you send him backe to the Mosco, with straight order that he may be sent from thence hither, aad let vs haue knowledge of his euill behauior, to the intent that if he be a hired seruant we may pay him his wages according to his seruice, and if he be an apprentise we may vse him according to his deserts. We will also that you take with you such kersies, scarlet, and other clothes, or any other such wares of ours, as you shall thinke good, and so in the name of God to take your iourney towards Persia, either by the way of Astracan and Mare Caspium, or otherwise as you shall see cause: and when God sendeth you into Persia, our minde is, that you repaire vnto the great Sophy with the Queenes Maiesties letters, if he be not too farre from the Caspian sea for you to trauell, and that you make him such a present as you shall thinke meet, and if you passe by any other kings, princes, or gouernors, before or after you come to the presence of the Sophy, likewise to make them some present, as you see cause, according to their estate and dignitie, and withall to procure letters of priuilege or safeconduct of the sayd Sophy or other princes in as large and ample maner as you can, for the sure establishing of further trade in merchandise by vs heereafter to be made, frequented and continued in those parts, not onely that we may freely sell in all places within his dominions such wares as we cary thither, but also buy and bring away any maner of wares or merchandise whatsoeuer it be, that is for our purpose and commoditie within his dominions, with free passage also for vs at all times, to passe as often as we will with our goods and merchandise into any part of India or other countreys thereunto adioyning, and in like maner to returne thorow his dominions into Russia or elswhere. And for the sale of our kersies or other wares that you shall haue with you, as our trust is that you will doe for our most profit and commoditie: euen so we referre all vnto your good discretion, as well in the sale of our sayd goods, as to make our returne in such things as you shall finde there, and thinke best for our profit. [Sidenote: The passage of Noua Zembla.] But if passage cannot be had into Persia by Astracan, or otherwise, the next Summer, which shalbe in the yere 1562, then our minde is, that you procure to sell our kersies, and other such wares as are appointed for Persia, in the Mosco, or other the Emperours dominions, if you may sell them for any reasonable price, and then to employ your selfe with such other of your seruants, as you shall thinke meet for the search of the passage by Noua Zembla, or els you to returne for England as you thinke good. Prouided alwayes, that if you do perceiue or vnderstand, that passage is like to be had into Persia the Summer folowing, which shalbe in the yeere 1563, and that you can not sell our kersies in the Emperours dominions, as aforesayd, at a reasonable price: then we will rather they may be kept till the said Summer in the yeere 1563, and then you to proceed forwards vpon your iourney towards Persia as aforesayd. If passage into Persia cannot be obteined the next yeere, neither good hope of passage in the yeere 1563, neither yet in the meane time good sale of our kersies in the Emperours dominions then we thinke good for you to see if you can practise to carry your said wares by safe conduct thorow Polonia or any other wayes vnto Constantinople, or els where you thinke beter sale may he had, then in Russia. Thus haue we giuen you to vnderstand our meanings in this intended aduenture; but forasmuch as we do consider and know that if we should prescribe vnto you any certaine way, or direct order what you should doe, we might so worke cleane contrary to our purpose and intent: therefore knowing your approved wisedome with your experience, and also your carefull and diligent minde in the atchieuing and bringing to good successe (by the helpe of almighty God) all things that you take in hand, we doe commit our whole affaires concerning the said aduenture wholly vnto your good discretion, praying God so to prosper you as may be first for his glory, secondly for the honour and commoditie of this realme and next for our profit, with the increase of your good name for euer. And yet further desiring, and also most earnestly requiring you, as you tender the state of our company, that you will haue a speciall regard vnto the order of our houses and our seruants as well at Colmogro and Vologda, as at Mosco and to see and consider if any misorder be amongst our seruants or apprentises wherby you thinke we might hereafter be put to hinderance or losse of any part of our goods or priuilege there, that you doe not onely see the same reformed, but also to certifie vs thereof by your letter at large, as our trust is in you. [Sidenote: Weight and drugs deliuered to M. Ienkinson.] And for the better knowledge to be had in the prices and goodnes of such things as we do partly suppose you shall finde in the partes of Russia, we doe heerewith deliuer you a quantitie of certeine drugges, wherby you may perceiue how to know the best, and also there are noted the prices of such wares and drugges as be heere most vendible: also we deliuer you herewith one pound and one ounce weight in brasse, to the end, that you may therby, and with the bill of prices of wares, know what things be worth here. As for the knowledge of silks, we need not to giue you any instructions thereof, other than you know. And if you vnderstand that any commoditie in Russia be profitable for vs to haue with you in Persia or other places, our minde is that our Agents shall either prouide it for you, or deliuer you money to make prouision your selfe. [Sidenote: The maine sea within thirtie days of Colmogro.] And because the Russes say that in traueiling Eastwardes from Colmogro thirty or forty dayes iourney, there is the maine sea to be found, we think that Richard Iohnson might imploy his time that way by land, and to be at Mosco time enough to goe with you into Persia: for if it be true that he may trauell to the sea that way, and that he may know how many miles it is towards the East from Colmogro, it will be a great helpe for vs to finde out the straight and passage that way, if any be there to be had. William Gerard. Thomas Lodge. William Merike. Blase Sanders. Gouernors. * * * * * A compendious and briefe declaration of the iourney of M. Anth. Ienkinson, from the famous citie of London into the land of Persia, passing in this same iourney thorow Russia, Moscouia, and Mare Caspium, alias Hircanum, sent and imployed therein by the right worshipfull Societie of the Merchants Aduenturers, for discouerie of Lands, Islands, &c. Being begun the fourteenth day of May, Anno 1561, and in the third yere of the reigne of the Queenes Maiestie that now is: this present declaration being directed and written to the foresayd Societie. First imbarking my selfe in a good shippe of yours, named the Swallow, at Grauesend, hauing a faire and good winde, our anker then weyed, and committing all to the protection of our God, hauing in our sailing diuersitie of windes, and thereby forced to direct and obserue sundry courses (not here rehearsed, because you haue bene thereof heretofore amply informed) on the fourteenth day of Iuly, the yere aforesayd I arriued the bay of S. Nicholas in Russia: and the sixe and twentieth day of the same moneth, after conference then had with your Agents there, concerning your worships affaires, I departed from thence, passing thorow the countrey of Vago, and on the eight day of August then following, I came to Vologda, which is distant from Colmogro, seuen hundred miles, where I remained foure dayes, attending the arriual of one of your boats, wherein was laden a chest of iewels with the present, by your worships appointed for the Emperors Maiesty: [Sidenote: The Queenes letters to the Emperour of Russia.] which being arriued, and the chest receiued, I therewith departed toward the city of Mosco, and came thither the twentieth day of the same moneth, where I immediately caused my comming to be signified vnto the Secretary of the Imperiall Maiesty, with the Queenes Highnesse letters address vnto the same his Maiestie, who informed the Emperour thereof. But his Highnesse hauing great affaires, and being at that present ready to be married vnto a Ladie of Chircassi, of the Mahometicall law, commanded that no stranger, Ambassadour, nor other, should come before him for a time with further streight charge, that during the space of three dayes that the same solemne feast was celebratine the gates of the citie should be shut, and that no person, stranger or natiue (certeine of his houshold reserued) should come out of their said houses during the said triumph, the cause thereof vnto this day not being knowen. The sixt of September following, the Emperour made a great feast, whereunto were called all Ambassadours and strangers being of reputation, and hauing affaires: amongst whom I was one, but being willed by the Secretary first to come, and to shew him the Queenes Maiesties letters, I refused so to doe, saying I would deliuer the same unto the Emperours owne hands: and not otherwise: which heard the Secretarie answered, that vnlesse he might first peruse the sayd letters, I should not come into the Emperors presence, so that I was not at the feast. Neuerthelesse, I was aduertised by a noble man that I was inquired for by the Emperours Maiestie, although the cause of my absence was to his Maiestie vnknowen. The next day following, I caused a supplication to be made, and presented it to his Highnesse owne hands, and thereby declared the cause of my comming, signified by the Queenes Maiesties letters, and the answere of his sayd Secretary, most humbly beseeching his Grace that he would receiue and accept the same her Highnesse letters, with such honour and friendship, as his letters sent by Osep Napea were receiued by the hands of our late Souereigne Lady Queene Mary, or els that it would please his Highnes to dismisse me, saying that I would not deliuer the said letters but vnto his owne hands, for that it is so vsed in our countrey. Thus the matter being pondered, and the effect of my supplication well digested, I was foorthwith commaunded to come with the said letters before his Maiestie, and so deliuered the same into his owne hands (with such presents as by you were appointed) according to my request, which were gratefully accepted, and the same day I dined in his Grace's presence, with great entertainment. [Sidenote: Request to passe into Persia thorow Moscovie] Shortly after, I desired to know whether I should be licenced to passe thorow his Highnesse dominions into the land of Persia, according to the Queenes Maiesties request: hereunto it was answered, that I should not passe thither, for that his Maiestie meant to send an armie of men that way into the land of Chircassi, whereby my iourney should be both dangerous and troublesome, and that if I should perish therein, it would be much to his Graces dishonour, but he doubted other matters, although they were not expressed. Thus hauing received his answere, neither to my expectation, nor yet contentation, and there remaining a good part of the yere, hauing in that time solde the most part of your kerses and other wares appointed for Persia, when the time of the yeere required to returne for England, I desired passport, and post horses for money, which was granted, [Sidenote: Osep Napea, Ambassadour from the Emperor of Russia to Queen Mary.] but hauing received my passport, ready to depart, there came unto our house there Osep Napea, who perswaded me that I should not depart that day, saying that the Emperor was not truely informed, imputing great fault to the frowardnesse of the Secretary, who was not my friend: before whom comming againe the next day, and finding the same Secretary and Osep Napea together, after many allegations and obiections of things, and perceiuing that I would depart, I was willed to remaine vntill the Emperours Maiestie were spoken with againe touching my passage: wherewith I was content, and within three dayes after sending for me, he declared that the Emperours pleasure was, that I should not onely passe thorow his dominions into Persia, but also haue his Graces letters of commendations to forren princes, with certaine his affaires committed to my charge, too long here to rehearse: [Sidenote: An Ambassador of Persia.] whereupon I appointed my selfe for the voyage, and the 15 day of March, the yeere aforesaid, I dined againe in his Maiesties presence in company of an Ambassadour of Persia and others, and receiuing a cup of drinke at his Maiesties hands, I tooke my leaue of his Highnesse, who did not only giue me letters, as aforesayd, but also committed matter of importance and charge vnto me, to be done when I should arrive in those countreys whither I intended to go, [Sidenote: Astracan.] and hauing all things in readinesse for the same voyage, I departed from the city of Mosco the 27 day of April 1561, downe by the great riuer of Volga, in company of the said Ambassadour of Persia, with whom I had great friendship and conference all the way downe the same riuer vnto Astracan, where we arriued all in health the 10 day of Iune. And as touching the situations of the cities, townes, castles and countreys, aswell of Mahometans as also of Gentils adioyning to the same, whereby I passed from Mosco vnto Astracan, I omit in this breuiat to rehearse, for that I heretofore haue declared the same most amply vnto you in my voyage to Boghar. [Sidenote: M. Ienkinsons voyage to Boghar.] Thus being arriued at Astracan, as is aforesayd, I repaired vnto the captaine there, vnto whom I was commended from the Emperours Maiesty, with great charge that he not only should ayd and succor me with all things needfull during my abode there, but also to safeconduct me with 50 gunners well appointed in two stroogs or brigantines into the Caspian sea, vntill I had passed certaine dangerous places which pirats and rouers accustome to haunt, and hauing prepared my barke for the sea, the Ambassador of Persia being before departed in a barke of his owne the 15 day of Iuly, the yeere aforesayd, I and my company tooke our voyage from the sayd Astracan, [Sidenote: He passeth the Caspian Sea.] and the next day at a West sunne, passed the mouth of the said riuer being twenty miles distant, lying next Southeast. The 18 at a Southwest Sunne, we passed by three Islands being distant nine miles from the said mouth of Volga, and Southsouthwest from thence, sailing Southsouthwest the next day, at a West and by North sun we fel with the land called Challica Ostriua, being foure round Islands together, distant from the said three Islands forty miles. [Sidenote: The countrey of Tumen.] From thence sailing the said course the next day, we had sight of a land called Tuke, in the countrey of Tumen, where pirats and rouers do vse: for feare of whom we haled off into the sea due East forty miles, and fell vpon shallowes out of the sight of land, and there were like to haue perished, escaping most hardly: [Sidenote: The Island of Chatelet.] then the 22 day we had sight of a goodly Island called Chatalet, distant from the said Challica Ostriua an hundred miles, the wind being contrary, and a stiffe gale, we were not able to seize it: but were forced to come to an anker to the leeward of the same sixe miles off in three or foure fathom water, being distant from the maine land to the Westward of vs, which was called Skafcayl or Connyk a countrey of Mahometans, about miles, and so riding at two ankers a head, hauing no other prouision, we lost one of them, the storme and sea being growen very sore, and thereby our barke was so full of leaks, that with continuall pumping we had much adoe to keepe her aboue water, although we threw much of our goods ouerboord, with losse of our boat, and our selues thereby in great danger like to haue perished either in the sea or els vpon the lee shore, where we should haue fallen into the hands of those wicked infidels, who attended our shipwracke and surely it was very vnlike that we should haue escaped both the extremities, but onely by the power and mercy of God, for the storme continued seuen dayes, to wit, vntill the thirtieth day of the same moneth: [Sidenote: The Island of Shiruansha.] and then the winde comming vp at the West with faire weather, our anker weyed, and our saile displayed, lying South, the next day haling to the shore with a West sunne, we were nie a land called by the inhabitants Shryuansha, and there we came againe to an anker, hauing the winde contrary, being distant from the said Chatalet 150 miles, and there we continued untill the third day of August, [Sidenote: Derbent.] then hauing a faire winde, winding Southsoutheast, and sailing threescore miles, the next day at a Southeast sunne we arriued at a city called Derbent in the king of Hircans dominion, where comming to land, and saluting the captaine there with a present, he made to me and my company a dinner, and there taking fresh water I departed. [Sidenote: A mighty wall.] This city of Derbent is an ancient towne hauing an olde castle therein, being situated vpon an hill called Castow, builded all of free stone much after our building, the walles very high and thicke, and was first erected by king Alexander the great, when he warred against the Persians and Medians, and then hee made a wall of a woonderfull height and thicknesse, extending from the same city to the Georgians, yea vnto the principall city thereof named Tewflish, [Marginal note: Or, Tiphlis.] which wall though it now be rased, or otherwise decayed, yet the foundation remaineth, and the wall was made to the intent that the inhabitants of that countrey then newly conquered by the said Alexander should not lightly flee, nor his enemies easily inuade. [Sidenote: Fortie one degrees] This city of Derbent being now vnder the power of the Sophy of Persia, bordereth vpon the sea, adioyning to the foresaid land of Shalfcall, in the latitude of 41 degrees. [Sidenote: Shabran.] From thence sailing Southeast and Southsoutheast about 80 miles, the sixt day of August, the yere aforesaid, we arriued at our landing place called Shabran, where my barke discharged: the goods layd on shore, and there being in my tent keeping great watch for feare of rouers, [Sidenote: Alean Murey the gouernour.] whereof there is great plenty, being field people, the gouernor of the said countrey named Alean Murey, comming vnto me, entertained me very gently, vnto whom giuing a present, he appointed for my safegard forty armed men to watch and ward me, vntill he might haue newes from the king of Shiruan. The 12 day of the same moneth newes did come from the king, with order that I should repaire vnto him with all speed: and for expedition, aswell camels to the number of fiue and forty to cary my goods, as also horses for me and my company were in readinesse, so that the goods laden, and taking my iourney from thence the said twelft day, on the 18 of the same moneth I came to a city called Shamaky, in the said countrey of Hircan, otherwise called Shiruan, and there the king hath a faire place, where my lodging being appointed, the goods were discharged: [Sidenote: King Obdolowcan.] the next day being the 19 day, I was sent for to come to the king, named Obdolowcan, who kept his court at that time in the high mountaines in tents, distant from the said Shamaki twentie miles, to auoyd the iniury of the heat: and the 20 day I came before his presence, who gently interteined me, and hauing kissed his hands, he bad me to dinner, and commanded me to sit downe not farre from him. [Sidenote: The maiestie and attire of King Obdolowcan.] This king did sit in a very rich pauillion, wrought with silke and golde, placed very pleasantly, vpon a hill side, of sixteene fathom long, and sixe fathom broad, hauing before him a goodly fountaine of faire water; whereof he and his nobility did drinke, he being a prince of a meane stature, and of a fierce countenance, richly apparrelled with long garments of silke, and cloth of gold, imbrodred with pearles and stone: vpon his head was a tolipane with a sharpe ende standing vpwards halfe a yard long, of rich cloth of golde, wrapped about with a piece of India silke of twentie yards long, wrought with golde, and on the left side of his tolipane stood a plume of fethers, set in a trunke of golde richly inameled, and set with precious stones: his earerings had pendants of golde a handfull long, with two great rubies of great value, set in the ends thereof: all the ground within his pauilion was couered with rich carpets, and vnder himselfe was spred a square carpet wrought with siluer and golde, and thereupon was layd two suitable cushions. Thus the king with his nobility sitting in his pauilion with his legs acrosse, and perceiuing that it was painfull for me so to sit, his highnesse caused a stoole to be brought in, and did will me to sit thereupon, after my fashion. Dinner time then approching, diuers clothes were spred upon the ground, and sundry dishes serued, and set in a ranke with diuers kindes of meats, to the number of 140 dishes, as I numbred them, which being taken away with the table clothes, and others spred, a banket of fruits of sundry kindes, with other banketting meates, to the number of 150 dishes, were brought in: so that two seruices occupied 290 dishes, and at the end of the sayd dinner and banket, the king said vnto me, Quoshe quelde, that is to say, Welcome: and called for a cup of water to be drawen at a fountaine, and tasting thereof, did deliuer me the rest, demanding how I did like the same, and whether there were so good in our countrey or not: vnto whom I answered in such sort, that he was therewith contented: then he proponed vnto me sundry questions, both touching religion, and also the state of our countreys, and further questioned whether the Emperor of Almaine, the Emperor of Russia, or the great Turke, were of most power, with many other things too long here to rehearse, to whom I answered as I thought most meet. [Sidenote: The Queenes letters to Sophy.] Then he demanded whether I intended to goe any further, and the cause of my comming: vnto that I answered that I was sent with letters from the Queenes most excellent Maiesty of England into the great Sophy, to intreat friendship and free passage, and for his safeconduct to be granted vnto English merchants to trade into his Segniories, with the like also to be granted to his subiects, when they should come into our countreys, to the honour and wealth of both realmes, and commodity of both their subiects, with diuers other words, which I omit to rehearse. [Sidenote: Casbin.] This sayd king much allowing this declaration sayd, that he would not onely giue me passage, but also men to safeconduct me vnto the sayd Sophy, lying from the foresayd citie of Shamaki thirty dayes iourney, vp into the land of Persia, at a castle called Casbin: so departing from the king at that time, within three dayes after, being the foure and twentieth day of August the yere aforesayd, he sent for me againe: vnto whom I repaired in the morning, [Sidenote: Multitude of concubines.] and the king not being risen out of his bed (for his maner is, that watching in the night, and then banketting with his women, being an hundred and forty in number, he sleepeth most in the day) did giue one commandement that I should ride on hawking with many Gentlemen of his Court, and that they should shew me so much game and pastime as might be: which was done, and many cranes killed. We returned from hawking about three of the clocke at the afternoone: the king then risen, and ready to dinner, I was inuited thereunto, and approaching nigh to the entring in of his tent, and being in his sight, two gentlemen incountered me with two garments of that countrey fashion, side, downe to the ground, the one of silke, and the other of silke and golde, sent vnto me from the king, and after that they caused me to put off my vpper garment, being a gowne of blacke veluet furred with Sables, they put the sayd two garments vpon my backe, and so conducted me vnto the king, before whom doing reuerence, and kissing his hand, he commanded me to sit not farre from him, and so I dined in his presence, he at the time being very mery, and demanding of me many questions, and amongst other, how I like the maner of their hawking. Dinner so ended, I required his highnesse safeconduct for to depart towards the Sophy, who dismissing me with great fauour, and appointing his Ambassadour (which returned out of Russia) and others, to safeconduct me, he gaue me at my departure a faire horse with all furniture, and custome free from thence with all my goods. So I returned to Shamaki againe, where I remained vntill the sixt of October, to prouide camels, horses, and other necessaries for my sayd intended iourney. [Sidenote: The description of Hircania.] But now before I proceed further, I purpose to write something of this countrey of Hircan, now called Shiruan, with the townes and commodities of the same. This countrey of Hircan in times past was of great renowne, hauing many cities, townes, and castles in it: and the kings thereof in time of antiquity were of great power, able to make wars with the Sophies of Persia: but now it is not onely otherwise (for that the cities, townes, and castles be decayed) but also the king is subiect to the sayd Sophie (although they haue their proper king) and be at the commandement of the sayd Sophy, who conquered them not many yeres passed, [Sidenote: Diversity in religion.] for their diuersity in religion, and caused not onely all the nobility and gentlemen of that countrey to be put to death, but also ouer and besides, rased the walles of the cities, townes, and castles of the said realme, to the intent that there should be no rebellion, [Sidenote: Barbarous cruelty.] and for their great terror, caused a turret of free stone and flints to be erected in the sayd city called Shamaki, and in a ranke of flints of the said turret, did set the heads of the sayd nobility and gentlemen, then executed. [Sidenote: The citie of Arrash or Erex.] This city is distant from the sea side, with camels seuen dayes iourney, but now the same being much decayed, and chiefly inhabited with Armenians, another city called Arrash, bordering vpon the Georgians, is the chiefest and most opulent in the trade of merchandise, and thereabouts is nourished the most abundant growth of raw silke, and thither the Turks, Syrians, and other strangers do resort and trafficke. [Sidenote: The commodities of this countrey.] There be also diuers good and necessary commodities to be prouided and had in this sayd realme: viz. galles rough and smooth, cotton wooll, allome, and raw silke of the naturall growth of that countrey: besides, nere all kinde of spices and drugges, and some other commodities, which are brought thither from out of East India, but in the lesse quantity, for that they be not assured to haue vent or vtterance of the same: but the chiefest commodities be there, raw silks of all sorts, whereof there is great plenty. [Sidenote: The strong castle of Gullistone defaced.] Not farre from the sayd city of Shamaki, there was an olde castle called Gullistone, now beaten downe by this Sophy, which was esteemed to be one of the strongest castles in the world, and was besieged by Alexander the great, long time before he could win it. And not farre from the sayd castle was a Nunry of sumptuous building, wherein was buried a kings daughter, named Ameleck Channa, who slew herselfe with a knife, for that her father would haue forced her (she professing chastity) to haue married with a king of Tartarie: vpon which occasion the maidens of that countrey do resort thither once euery yere to lament her death. Also in the sayd countrey there is an high hill called Quiquifs, vpon the toppe whereof (as it is commonly reported) did dwell a great Giant, named Arneoste, hauing vpon his head two great hornes, and eares, and eyes like a Horse, and a taile like a Cow. It is further sayd that this monster kept a passage thereby, vntill there came an holy man, termed Haucoir Hamshe, a kinseman to one of the Sophies, who mounted the sayd hill, and combating with the sayd Giant, did binde not onely him in chaines, but also his woman called Lamisache with his sonne named After: for which victory they of that countrey haue this holy man in great reputation, and the hill at this day (as it is bruited) sauoureth so ill, that no person may come nigh vnto it: but whether it be true or not, I referre it to further knowledge. [Sidenote: The towne of Yauate.] Now to returne to the discourse of the proceeding in my voyage, towards the great Sophie. The 6 of October in the yeere aforesayd, I with my company departed from Shamachi aforesaid, and hauing iourneyed threescore miles, came to a towne called Yauate, wherein the king hath a faire house with orchards and gardens well replenished with fruits of all sorts. By this towne passeth a great riuer called Cor, which springeth in the mountaines of the Georgians, and passing thorow the countrey of Hircania aforesayd, falleth into the Caspian or Hircan sea, at a place betweene two ancient townes called Shabran and Bachu, situate within the realme of Hircane, and from thence issueth further, passing thorow a fruitful countrey, inhabited with pasturing people, which dwell in the Summer season vpon mountaines, and in Winter they remooue into the valleyes without resorting to townes or any other habitation: and when they remooue, they doe iourney in carrauans or troops of people and cattell, carrying all their wiues, children and baggage vpon bullocks. [Sidenote: The city of Ardouil] Now passing this wilde people ten dayes iourney, comming into no towne or house, the sixteenth day of October we arriued at a citie called Ardouill, where we were lodged in an hospitall builded with faire stone, and erected by this Sophies father named Ismael, onely for the succour and lodging of strangers and other trauellers, wherein all men haue victuals and feeding for man and horse, for three dayes and no longer. This foresayd late prince Ismael lieth buried in a faire Meskit, with a sumptuous sepulchre in the same, which he caused to be made in his life time. This towne Ardouill is in the latitude of eight and thirtie degrees, an ancient citie in the prouince of Aderraugan, wherein the Princes of Persia are commonly buried: and there Alexander the great did keepe his Court when he inuaded the Persians. [Sidenote: The citie Tebris or Tauris] Foure dayes iourney to the Westward is the citie Tebris in olde time called Tauris, the greatest citie in Persia, but not of such trade of merchandise as it hath bene, or as others be at this time, by meane of the great inuasion of the Turke, who hath conquered from the Sophie almost to the sayd citie of Tauris, which the said Turke once sacked, and thereby caused the Sophie to forsake the same, and to keepe his court ten dayes iourney from thence, at the sayd citie of Casbin. The 21 day we departed from Ordowil aforesayd, trauelling for the most part ouer mountaines all in the night season, and resting in the day, being destitute of wood, and therefore were forced to vse for fewell the dung of horses and camels, which we bought deare of the pasturing people. [Sidenote: M. Ienkinsons arriuall at the Sophies court 2. Nouember, 1562.] Thus passing ten dayes iourney the yere aforesayd, the second day of Nouember we arriued at the foresaid citie of Casbin, where the saide Sophie keepeth his court, and were appointed to a lodging not farre from the kings pallace, and within two dayes after the Sophie commanded a prince called Shalli Murzy, sonne to Obdolowcan king of Shiruan aforesayd, to send for me to his house, who asked me in the name of the said Sophy how I did, and whether I were in health, and after did welcome me, and inuited me to dinner, whereat I had great enterteinment, and so from thence I returned to my lodging. The next day after I sent my interpreter vnto the Sophies Secretarie, declaring that I had letters directed from our most gracious Souereigne ladie the Queenes most excellent Maiestie of the Realme of England, vnto the sayd Sophy, and that the cause of my comming was expressed in the same letters, desiring that at conuenient time I might come into his Maiesties presence, who aduertising the Sophy thereof, shortly after answered me that there were great affaires in hand: which being finished, I should come before his presence, willing me in the meane time to make ready my present if I had any to deliuer. [Sidenote: The Turkes Ambassadour to the Sophie.] At this time the great Turkes Ambassadour arriued foure dayes before my comming, who was sent thither to conclude a perpetuall peace betwixt the same great Turke and the Sophie, and brought with him a present in golde, and faire horses with rich furnitures, and other gifts, esteemed to bee woorth forty thousand pound. And thereupon a peace was concluded with ioyfull feasts, triumphs and solemnities, corroborated with strong othes, by their law of Alkaron, for either to obserue the same, and to liue alwayes after as sworne brethren, ayding the one the other against all princes that should warre against them, or either of them. And upon this conclusion the Sophy caused the great Turkes sonne named Baiset Soltan, a valiant Prince (who being fled from his father vnto the Sophie, had remained in his Court the space of foure yeeres) to be put to death. In which time the said Turkes sonne had caused mortall warres betwixt the sayd princes, and much preuailed therein: the Turke demanded therefore his sonne to be sent vnto him; and the Sophy refused thereunto to consent. But now being slaine according to the Turks will, the Sophy sent him his head for a present, not a little desired, and acceptable to the vnnaturall father. Discoursing at my first arriuall with the king of Shiruan of sundry matters, and being interteined as hath bene before declared, the sayd King named Obdolocan, demaunding whether we of England had friendship with the Turks or not: I answered, that we neuer had friendship with them, and that therefore they would not suffer vs to passe thorow their countrey into the Sophy his dominions, and that there is a nation named the Venetians, not farre distant from vs, which are in great league with the sayd Turks, who trade into his dominions with our commodities, chiefly to barter the same for raw silks, which (as we vnderstand) come from thence: and that if it would please the said Sophy and other Princes of that countrey, to suffer our merchants to trade into those dominions, and to give vs pasport and safe conduct for the same, as the said Turke hath granted to the sayd Venetians, I doubted not but that it should grow to such a trade to the profit of them as neuer before had beene the like, and that they should be both furnished with our commodities, and also haue vtterance of theirs, although there neuer came Turke into their land, perswading with many other words for a trade to be had. This king vnderstanding the matter liked it marueilously, saying, that he would write vnto the Sophy concerning the same: as he did in very deed, assuring me that the Sophy would graunt my request, and that at my returne vnto him he would giue me letters of safe conduct, and priuiledges. The Turkes Ambassadour was not then come into the land, neither any peace hoped to be concluded, but great preparation was made for warre, which was like much to have furthered my purpose, but it chanced otherwise. [Sidenote: The Turkes merchaunts withstand M. Ienkinson.] For the Turks Ambassadour being arriued, and the peace concluded, the Turkish merchants there at that time present, declared to the same Ambassadour, that my comming thither (naming me by the name of Franke) would in great part destroy their trade, and that it should be good for him to perswade the Sophy not to fauour me, as his Highnesse meant to obserue the league and friendship with the great Turke his master, which request of the Turkish merchants the same Ambassadour earnestly preferred, and being afterwards dismissed with great honour, he departed out of the Realme with the Turks sonnes head as aforesayd, and other presents. [Sidenote: Shaw Thomas the Sophies name.] The 20 day of Nouember aforesayd, I was sent for to come before the said Sophy, otherwise called Shaw Thomas, and about three of the clocke at afternoone I came to the Court, and in lighting from my horse at the Court gate, before my feet touched the ground, a paire of the Sophies owne shoes termed in the Persian tongue Basmackes, such as hee himselfe weareth when he ariseth in the night to pray (as his maner is) were put vpon my feet, for without the same shoes I might not be suffred to tread vpon his holy ground, being a Christian, and called amongst them Gower, that is, vnbeleeuer, and vncleane: esteeming all to be infidels and Pagans which do not beleeue as they do, in their false filthie prophets, Mahomet and Murtezalli. At the sayd Court gate the things that I brought to present his Maiestie with, were deuided by sundry parcels to sundry seruitors of the Court, to cary before me, for none of my company or seruants might be suffered to enter into the Court with me, my interpreter onely excepted. [Sidenote: The Queenes letters deliuered.] Thus commihg before his Maiestie with such reuerence as I thought meete to be vsed, I deliuered the Queenes Maiesties letters with my present, which hee accepting, demaunded of mee of what countrey of Franks I was, and what affaires I had there to doe: Vnto whom I answered that I was of the famous Citie of London within the noble Realme of England, and that I was sent thither from the most excellent and gracious soueraigne Lady Elizabeth Queene of the saide Realme for to treate of friendship, and free passage of our Merchants and people, to repaire and traffique within his dominions, for to bring in our commodities, and to carry away theirs, to the honour of both princes, the mutuall commoditie of both Realmes, and wealth of the Subiects, with other wordes here omitted. He then demaunded me in what language the letters were written, I answered, in the Latine, Italian and Hebrew: well said he, we haue none within our Realme that vnderstand those tongues. Whereupon I answered that such a famous and worthy prince (as hee was) wanted not people of all nations within his large dominions to interprete the same. [Sidenote: The Sophies questions.] Then he questioned with me of the state of our Countreys, and of the power of the Emperour of Almaine, king Philip, and the great Turke, and which of them was of most power: whom I answered to his contentation, not dispraysing the great Turke, their late concluded friendship considered. Then he reasoned with mee much of Religion, demaunding whether I were a Gower, that is to say, an vnbeleeuer, or a Muselman, that is, of Mahomets lawe. Vnto whom I answered, that I was neither vnbeleeuer nor Mahometan, but a Christian. What is that, said he vnto the king of the Georgians sonne, who being a Christian was fled vnto the said Sophie, and he answered that a Christian was he that beleeueth in Iesus Christus, affirming him to be the Sonne of God, and the greatest Prophet. Doest thou beleeue so, said the Sophie vnto me: Yea that I do, said I: Oh thou vnbeleeuer, said he, we haue no neede to haue friendship with the vnbeleeuers, and so willed me to depart. I being glad thereof, did reuerence and went my way, being accompanied with many of his gentlemen and others, and after me followed a man with a Basinet of sand, sifting all the way that I had gone within the said pallace, euen from the said Sophies sight vnto the court gate. [Sidenote: The curtesie of Shalley Murzey.] Thus I repaired againe vnto my lodging, and the said night Shally Murzey sonne to the king of Hircan aforesaid, who fauoured me very much for that I was commended unto him from his father, willed mee not to doubt of any thing, putting mee in hope that I should haue good successe with the Sophie, and good intertainment. Thus I continued for a time, dayly resorting vnto me diuers gentlemen sent by the Sophie to conferre with me, especially touching the affaires of the Emperour of Russia, and to know by what way I intended to returne into my countrey, either by the way that I came, or by the way of Ormus, and so with the Portingals ships. [Sidenote: Warres intended against the portingals.] Vnto whom I answered, that I durst not returne by the way of Ormus, the Portingals and wee not being friendes, fully perceiuing their meaning: for I was aduertised that the saide Sophie meant to haue warres with the Portingals, and would haue charged mee that I had bene come for a spie to passe through his dominions unto the saide Portingals, thinking them and us to be all one people, and calling all by the name of Franks, but by the prouidence of God this was preuented. After this the saide Sophie conferred with his nobilitie and counsel concerning me, who perswaded that he should not enterteine me wel, neither dismisse me with letters or gifts, considering that I was a Franke, and of that nation that was an enemie to the great Turke his brother, perswading that if he did otherwise, and that the newes thereof should come to the knowledge of the Turke, it should be a meane to breake their new league and friendship lately concluded: disswading further because he had no neede, neither that it was requisite for him to haue friendship with vnbeleeuers, whose Countreys lay farre from him, and that it was best for him to send me with my letters vnto the said great Turke for a present, which he was fully determined to haue done at some meet time, meaning to send his Ambassadour vnto the said great Turke very shortly after. [Sidenote: The king of Hircans second letters in Mr Ienkinson's behalfe.] But the king of Hircanes sonne aforesaide, vnderstanding this deliberation, sent a man in post vnto his father, for to declare and impart the purpose vnto him, who as a gracious prince, considering that I had passed through his dominions, and that I had iourneyed for a good intent, did write to the Sophie al that which he vnderstood of his said determination, and that it should not stand with his Maiesties honour to doe mee any harme or displeasure, but rather to giue mee good entertainment, seeing I was come into his land of my free will, and not by constraint, and that if hee vsed me euill, there would few strangers resort into his country, which would bee greatly vnto his hinderance, with many other perswasions: which after that the saide Sophie had well and throughly pondered and digested (much esteeming the same king of Hircane, being one of the valiantest princes vnder him and his nigh kinseman) changed his determined purpose, and the twentieth of March 1562. he sent to me a rich garment of cloth of golde, and so dismissed me without any harme. [Sidenote: Conference with Indian Merchants.] During the time that I soiourned at the sayde City of Casbin, diuers merchants out of India came thither vnto mee, with whom I conferred for a trade of spices: whereunto they answered that they would bring of all sorts so much as we would haue, if they were sure of vent, whereof I did promise to assure them, so that I doubt not but that great abundance thereof may from time to time be there prouided and had. [Sidenote: Mr Ienkinsons returne.] The same twentieth day of March I returned from the saide Citie of Casbin where I remayned all the Winter, hauing sent away all my Camels before, and the thirtieth day I came to the saide Citie of Ardouil, and the fifteenth of April vnto Zauat aforesayd, where king Obdolowcan was at that present, who immediately sent for me, and demaunding of me many questions, declared that if it had not bene for him, I had bene vtterly cast away, and sent to the great Turke for a present by the Sophie, through the euill perswasion of his wicked counsell, that the Zieties and holy men were the chiefe and principal procurers and moouers thereof: but the Sophie himselfe ment mee much good at the first, and thought to haue giuen me good entertainement, and so had done, had not the peace and league fortuned to haue bene concluded betweene them and the great Turke. [Sidenote: Priviledges obtained of Obdowlocan, which are hereafter annexed.] Neuerthelesse, sayd he, the Sophie hath written vnto me to enterteine you well, and you are welcome into my Countrey, and so he intreated me very gently, in whose Court I remained seuen dayes, and obteined of him letters of safe conductes and priuiledges in your names to bee free from paying custome, which I deliuered vnto your seruants Thomas Alcocke and George Wrenne, at their departure towards Persia for your affaires: and his highnesse did giue mee two garments of silke, and so dismissed me with great fauour, sending with me his Ambassadour againe vnto the Emperour of Russia, and committed the chiefest secret of his affaires vnto me, to declare the same vnto the Emperours Maiestie at my returne: and thus departing the tenth day of April, I came to the City of Shamachi, and there remayning certeine dayes for prouision of Camels downe to the Sea side, I sent from thence before men to repaire my Barke, and to make her in a readinesse. [Sidenote: An Armenian sent to M. Ienkinson from the king of Georgia] And during my abode in Shammachi, there came vnto me an Armenian sent from the king of Georgia, who declared the lamentable estate of the same king, that being enclosed betwixt those two cruell tyrants and mightie princes, the said great Turke and the Sophie, hee had continuall warres with them, requiring for the loue of Christ and as I was a Christian, that I would send him comfort by the said Armenian, and aduise how he might send his Ambassadour to the sayd Emperour of Russia, and whether I thought that he would support him or no: and with many other wordes required me to declare his necessitie vnto the same Emperour at my returne: adding further that the said king would haue written vnto me his minde, but that hee doubted the safe passage of his messenger. Vnto whom I did likewise answere by word of mouth, not onely perswading him to send his Ambassadour to Russia, not doubting but that hee should finde him most honourable and inclined to helpe him, [Sidenote: Teneruk king of Chircassi.] but also I directed him his way how the sayde king might send by the Countrey of Chircassi, through the fauour of Teneruk king of the said country, whose daughter the said king had lately married. And thus dismissing the saide Armenian, within two dayes after I sent Edward Cleark your seruaunt vnto the Citie of Arrash, where the most store of Silkes is to be had, giuing him Commission to haue passed further into the saide Countrey of Georgia, and there to haue repaired vnto the sayde king. And after my commendations premised, and my minde declared to haue pursued for safeconduct of the same Prince for our Merchants to trade into his dominions, and that obtained to haue returned againe with speede. The same your seruaunt iourneying to the sayd Citie of Arrash, and there finding certaine Merchants Armenians, which promised to goe to the sayd City of Georgia, comming to the borders thereof, was perceiued by a Captaine there, that he was a Christian, and thereupon demaunded whither he went, and vnderstanding that he could not passe further without great suspition, answered that he came thither to buy Silkes, and shewed the king of Hircanes letters which he had with him, and so returned backe againe, and the fifteenth of April came to Shamachi: from whence I departed the sixteene of the same moneth, and the one and twentie therof comming to the Sea side, and finding my barke in a readinesse, I caused your goods to be laden, and there attended a faire winde. But before I proceede any further to speake of my returne, I intend with your fauours somewhat to treate of the countrey of Persia, of the great Sophie, and of his countrey, lawes and religion. [Sidenote: The description of Persia.] This land of Persia is great and ample, deuided into many kingdomes and prouinces, as Gillan, Corasan, Shiruan, and many others hauing diuers Cities, townes and castles in the same. Euery prouince hath his seuerall King, or Sultan, all in obedience to the great Sophie. [Sidenote: The chiefe Cities of Persia.] The names of the chiefest Cities be these: Teueris, Casbin, Keshan, Yesse, Meskit, Heirin, Ardouill, Shamachi, Arrash with many others. The countrey for the most part toward the sea side is plaine and full of pasture, but into the land, high, full of mountaines, and sharpe. To the South it bordereth vpon Arabia and the East Ocean. To the North vpon the Caspian sea and the lands of Tartaria. To the East vpon the prouinces of India, and to the West vpon the confines of Chaldea, Syria, and other the Turkes lands. All within these dominions be of the Sophies, named Shaw Thamas, sonne to Ismael Sophie. This Sophie that now raigneth is nothing valiant, although his power be great, and his people martiall: and through his pusillanimitie the Turke hath much inuaded his countreys, euen nigh vnto the Citie of Teueris, wherein hee was wont to keepe his chiefe court. And now hauing forsaken the same, is chiefly resident at Casbin aforesaide, and alwayes as the said Turke pursueth him, he not being able to withstand the Turke in the fielde, trusting rather to the mountaines for his safegard, then to his fortes and castles, hath caused the same to bee rased within his dominions, and his ordinance to be molten, to the intent that his enemies pursuing him, they should not strengthen themselues with the same. This prince is of the age of fiftie yeeres, and of a reasonable stature, hauing fiue children. His eldest sonne he keepeth captiue in prison, for that he feareth him for his valiantnesse and actiuitie: he professeth a kinde of holynesse, and saith that hee is descended of the Blood of Mahomet and Murtezalli: [Sidenote: The difference of religion.] and although these Persians bee Mahometans, as the Turkes and Tartars bee, yet honour they this false fained Murtezalli, saying that hee was the chiefest disciple that Mahomet had, cursing and chiding dayly three other disciples that Mahomet had called Ouear, Vsiran, and Abebeck, and these three did slay the saide Murtezalli, for which cause and other differences of holy men and lawes, they haue had and haue with the Turkes and Tartars mortall warres. To intreat of their religion at large, being more or lesse Mahomets lawe and Alkaron, I shall not heed at this present. These persons are comely and of good complexion, proude and of good courage, esteeming themselues to bee best of all nations, both for their religion and holinesse, which is most erroneous, and also for all other their fashions. They be martial, delighting in faire horses and good harnesse, soone angrie, craftie and hard people. Thus much have I haue thought good to treate of this nation, and nowe I returne to discourse the proceeding of the rest of my voyage. [Sidenote: The 30. of May 1563.] My barke being ready at the Caspian sea as aforesaide, hauing a faire winde, and committing our selues vnto God the 30. day of May 1563. we arriued at Astracan, hauing passed no lesse dangers vpon the Sea in our returne, then wee sustained in our going foorth, and remayning at the said Astracan, vntill the tenth day of Iune, one hundred gunners being there admitted vnto mee for my safegard vp the riuer Volga; the fifteenth of Iuly I arriued at the Citie of Cazan, where the Captaine entertained me well, and so dismissing mee, I was conducted from place to place vnto the Citie of Mosco, where I arriued the twentieth day of August 1563. in safetie, thankes bee to God, with all such goods, merchandizes, and iewels, as I had prouided as well for the Emperours stocke and accompt, as also of yours, all which goods I was commaunded to bring into the Emperours treasurie before it was opened, which I did, and deliuered those parcels of wares which were for his Maiesties accompt, videlicit, precious stones, and wrought silkes of sundry colours and sortes, much to his Highnesse contentation, and the residue belonging to you, viz. Crasko, and rawe silkes, with other merchandizes, (as by accompt appeareth) were brought vnto your house, whereof part there remained, and the rest was laden in your shippes lately returned. Shortly after my comming to the Mosco, I came before the Emperours Maiestie, and presented vnto him the apparell giuen vnto me by the Sophie, whose highnesse conferred with mee touching the princes affaires which he had committed to my charge: and my proceedings therein it pleased him so to accept, that they were much to his contentation, saying vnto mee, I haue perceiued your good seruice, for the which I doe thanke you, and will recompence you for the same, wishing that I would trauell againe in such his other affaires, wherein hee was minded to employ mee: to whom I answered, that it was to my heartie reioycing that my seruice was so acceptable vnto his highnesse, acknowledging all that I had done to bee but of duetie, humbly beseeching his grace to continue his goodnesse vnto your worships, and euen at that instant I humbly requested his Maiestie to vouchsafe to graunt vnto you a new priuiledge more ample then the first, which imntediately was graunted, and so I departed. [Sidenote: New privileges obtained hereafter following.] And afterwards having penned a briefe note howe I meant to haue the same priuiledges made, I repaired dayly to the Secretary for the perfecting of the same, and obtained it vnder his Maiesties broade seale, which at my departure from thence, I deliuered vnto the custody of Thomas Glouer your Agent there. The copy whereof, and also of the other priuiledges graunted and giuen by the king of Hircan, I haue already deliuered vnto you. Soiourning all that winter at Mosco, and in the meane time hauing bargained with the Emperours Maiestie, I sent away your seruant Edward Clarke hither ouerland with aduise, and also made preparation for sending againe into Persia in meete time of the yeere. [Sidenote: 28 Septemb. 1564.] And committing the charge thereof vnto your seruants Thomas Alcocke, George Wrenne, and Richard Cheinie, the 28. of Iune last, I departed in poste from the said Mosco, and comming to Colmogro and so downe to the Sea Side, I found your ships laden and ready to depart, where I embarked my selfe in your good ship called the Swallow, the 9. of Iuly, one thousand fiue hundred sixtie foure, and hauing passed the Seas with great and extreme dangers of losse of shippe, goods and life, the 28. of September last (God be praised) we arriued here at London in safetie. Thus knowing that the couragious and valiant souldier, which aduentureth both fame, member and life, to serue faithfully his soueraigne, esteemeth not the perils and dangers passed (the victorie once obtained) neither for his guerdon desireth any thing more, then that his seruice bee well taken of him for whom he enterprised it: So I perceiuing your fauourable beneuolence to me extended in accepting my trauels in good part to your contentations, do thinke my selfe therewith in great part recompensed: beseeching Almightie God so to prosper your aduentures, from time to time hereafter to be made for reaping the fruits of my trauels (at your great charges, and to my no small dangers) that ye may plentifully gather in and enioy the same, to the illustrating of the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, the honour and commoditie of this her highnesse Realme, and to the ample benefit and abundant enriching of you and your succession, and posteritie for euer. * * * * * A copie of the priviledges giuen by Obdolowcan King of Hircania, to the company of English merchants Aduenturers for Russia, Persia, and Mare Caspium, with all the lands and countreys adioyning to the same, obtained by M. Anthonie Ienkinson at his being there about the affaires of the said company, April 14. Anno 1563. We Obdolowcan by the mightie power of God maker of heauen and of earth, appointed and now raigning king of Shiruan and Hircan, of our meere motion and great goodnes, at the earnest sute and request of our fauoured and welbeloued Anthonie Ienkinson Ambassadour, haue giuen and graunted vnto the right worshipfull Sir William Garret, sir William Chester, sir Thomas Lodge, M. Richard Mallarie, and M. Richard Chamberlaine, with all their company of merchants Aduenturers of the Citie of London in England, free libertie, safe conduct, and licence to come or sende their factors in trade of merchandize into our countreys, and to buy and sell with our merchants and others, either for ready money or barter, and to tary and abide in our countrey, so long as they will, and to goe away when they list, without impediment, let, or hinderance, either of body or goods. And further our commaundement and pleasure is, that the said English merchants with their company, shall pay no maner of custome for wares, which they or their factors shal buy or sel within our dominions. And if at any time our customers or other officers, or any of them, doe disturbe, misuse, force or constraine the said English merchants or any of them, or their factors, to pay any maner of custome or duetie for any wares they bring in or cary out of our dominions contrary to this our commandement, and the same be knowen vnto vs, then we will that the saide customers and officers shall loose and be put out of their said offices, with our further displeasure, and the saide English merchants to haue restored all such money and wares as our customers haue taken of them for our said custome. And whensoeuer the saide English merchants or their factors shall bring any maner of wares meete for our treasurie, then our treasurer shall take the said wares into our treasurie, and shall giue vnto the said English merchants, either ready money or raw silkes, to the value of their saide wares. And wheresoeuer this our letter of priuiledges shall bee seene and read within our dominion, we straightly wil and command that it take effect, and be obeyed in al points. Dated at our place of Iauat, the day and yere aboue written, and sealed with our princely seale, and firmed by our Secretarie in the 12. yere of our raigne. * * * * * The second voiage into Persia made by Tho. Alcock, who was slaine there, and by George Wrenne, and Ric. Cheinie seruants to the worshipfull companie of Moscouie merchants in Anno 1563. written by the said Richard Cheinie. It may please your worships to vnderstand, that in the yere 1563. I was appointed by M. Antho. Ienkinson, and M. Thomas Glouer your Agent in Russia, to goe for Persia in your worships affaires, one Thomas Alcock hauing the charge of the voyage committed to him, and I one of your worships seruants being ioyned with him in your busines, hauing with vs, as they said 1500. rubbles. [Sidenote: A rubble is a marke English.] And if it shall please you I cannot tell certainly what summe of money we had then of the Emperors: for I received none, nor disbursed any of it in wares for the voyage. Also, God I take to record, I could not tell what stocke your worships had there, for the bookes were kept so priuily that a man could neuer see them. The 10. of May anno 1563, we departed from a towne called Yeraslaue vpon our voyage toward Persia. The 24. of Iuly we arriued at Astracan: and the second of August wee departed from Astracan, and the 4. of the same moneth we came to the Caspian sea, and the 11. day of the said moneth we arriued at our port in Media: and the 21. of the said August wee arriued at Shammaki, whereas the king Obdolocan lay in the fielde. We were wel entertained of heathen people, for the thirde day after our arriuall at Shammaki we were called before the king: we gaue him a present, and he entertained vs very well. At our comming to the Court wee were commaunded to come before the king, who sate in his tent vpon the ground with his legs a crosse, and all his dukes round about his tent, the ground being couered with carpets: wee were commaunded to sit downe, the King appointing euery man his place to sit. And the king commaunded the Emperour of Russelands Merchants to rise vp, and to giue vs the vpper hande. [Sidenote: Casbin.] The 20. of October Thomas Alcock departed from Shammaki towards Casbin, leauing mee at Shammaki to recouer such debts as the dukes of Shammaki ought for wares which thay tooke of him at his going to Casbin. In the time I lay there I could recouer but little. [Sidenote: Leuuacta.] And at Thomas Alcocks comming from Casbin, who arriued at a towne called Leuuacta, whereas the king Obdolocan lay, a day and a halfes iourney from the towne whereas I lay, I hearing of his arriuing there, departed from Shammaki, finding him there in safetie with all such goods as he had with him. During his abode there for seuen dayes he made suite to the king for such money as the dukes ought him. But the king was displeased for that the Emperour of Russelands merchants had slaine a Boserman at his going to Casbin. [Sidenote: A Boserman is a Renegado.] Thomas Alcocke seeing the King would shewe vs no fauour, and also hearing from Shammaki, that the Russes sent their goods to the sea side, for that they feared that the king of Persia should haue knowledge of the death of the Boserman, willed mee to depart to Shammaki with all such goods as he had brought with him from Casbin, I leauing him at the Court. [Sidenote: Thomas Alcocke slaine in the way betweene Leuuacta and Shammaki.] The thirde day after mine arriuall at Shammaki, I had newes that Thomas Alcocke was slaine comming on his way towards me. Then the king Obdolocan vnderstanding of his death, demaunded whether he had euer a brother. Some said I was, some saide I was not his brother. When this fell out, your worships had no other seruant there but mee among those heathen people. Who hauing such a summe of goods lying vnder my handes, and seeing howe the Russes sent their goods with as much hast as they might to the sea side, and hauing but foure men to sende our wares to the sea side, I vsed such diligence, that within two dayes after Thomas Alcocke was slaine, I sent in company with the Russes goods, all your worships goods with a Mariner, William August, and a Swethen, for that they might the safer arriue at the seaside, being safely layd in. All which goods afterwards arriued in Russeland in good condition, Master Glouer hauing the receipt of all things which I sent then out of those parties into Russeland. [Sidenote: Keselbash, or Ieselbash.] Concerning my selfe, I remained after I had sent the goods into Russeland sixe weekes in Shammaki, for the recouery of such debts as were owing, and at last with much trouble recouered to the summe of fiftene hundreth rubbles or there about, which M. Glouer receiued of me at my comming to Mosco, and all such goods as I brought with me out of Keselbash, as by a note of my hand that hee hath shall appeare. Also he hauing the receipt of all such goods as I sent into Russeland by these two aboue named, he then had that voyage in venter of his owne better then an hundreth rubbles, one Richard Iohnson twentie rubles, one Thomas Pette fiftie rubles, one Euan Chermisin a Tartar seuentie rubles. All these had their returne: M. Glouer allowed himselfe God knoweth howe, I then being in Persia in your worships affaires. And whereas he saith, the Emperour had but for his part a dobble, as farre as I can see, knowing what the wares cost in those partes, hee had treble. If they gaue him so much wares, all charges turned to your worships, as well of the Emperours as of their owne returnes. I haue sowen the seede, and other men haue gathered the haruest: I haue trauailed both by lande and by water full many a time with a sorrowfull heart, aswell for the safegarde of their goods as yours, how to frame all things to the best, and they haue reaped the fruites of my trauaile. But euer my prayer was to God, to deliuer mee out of those miseries which I suffered for your seruice among those heathen people. Therefore knowing my duetie which I haue done, as a true seruant ought to do, I beseech your worships (although I haue but small recompence for my seruice,) yet let me haue no wrong, and God will prosper you the better. Also, to informe your worships of your Persian voyage what I iudge: it is a voyage to bee followed. [Sidenote: Gillan in Persia.] The king of Gillan, whereas yet you haue had no traffique, liueth al by marchandise: and it is neere Casbin, and not past six weekes trauaile from Ormus, whither all the spices be brought: and here, (I meane at Gillan) a trade may be established: But your worships must send such men as are no riotous liuers, nor drunkards. For if such men goe, it wil be to your dishonour and great hinderance, as appeared by experience the yeere 1565. when as Richard Iohnson went to Persia, whose iourney had bene better stayed then set forward. For whereas before wee had the name among those heathen people to be such marchants as they thought none like in all respects, his vicious liuing there hath made vs to be compted worse then the Russes. Againe, if such men trauaile in your affaires in such a voyage, you shall neuer know what gaine is to be gotten. For how can such men imploy themselues to seeke the trade, that are inclined to such vices? or howe can God prosper them in your affaires? But when a trade is established by wise and discreet men, then wil it be for your worships to traffique there, and not before: for a voiage or market made euil at the first, is the occasion that your worships shal neuer vnderstand what gaine is to be gotten thereby hereafter. * * * * * The thirde voyage into Persia, begun in the yeere 1565. by Richard Iohnson, Alexander Kitchin, and Arthur Edwards. A letter of Arthur Edwards to M. Thomas Nicols, Secretarie to the worshipful company trading into Russia and other the North parts, concerning the preparation of their voyage into Persia. Master Nicols, my bounden duetie remembred, with desire of God for the preseruation of you and yours: you shall vnderstand that the second of March I was sent by M. Thomas Glouer (your Agent) vnto Ieraslaue, [Sidenote: Ieraslaue a towne vpon the riuer of Volga.] appointed to receiue such goods as should come from Vologhda, as also such kinde of wares as should be bought and sent from Mosco by your Agent, and M. Edward Clarke, thought meete for your voyage of Persia. And further, I was to prouide for biscuit, beere, and beefe, and other victuals, and things otherwayes needful according to aduise. [Sidenote: Richard Iohnson chiefe of the third voyage into Persia.] Thus I remained here vntil the comming of your Agent, which was the 12. of May, who taried here three dayes, to see vs set forwards on our voyage, and then he departed towards Colmogro, hauing appointed (as chiefe for your voyage of Persia) Richard Iohnson. For my part I am willing, as also haue bene and shalbe content to submit my selfe vnder him, whom the Agent shall appoint, although he were such a one as you should thinke in some respects vnmeete. Thirtie two packes of carseis are all of that kinde of cloth that we shall haue with vs. The other 18. packs that should haue gone, were sold in Mosco. What other goods are shipped for our voyage, you shall vnderstand by your Agents letters. Whereas Edward Clarke (being an honest man) was appointed Agent for Persia, as one for those parts more fit then any I do know here, God hath taken him vnto his mercie, who departed this present life the 16. of March last past. I wished for God for my part he had liued: for my desire was in his company to haue traueiled into Persia. [Sidenote: A barke of 30. tunnes made at Ieraslaue 1564. to passe the Caspian seas.] Your barke or craer made here for the riuer of Volga and the Caspian sea is very litle, of the burthen of 30. tunnes at the most. It is handsomly made after the English fashion: but I thinke it too litle for your goods and prouision of victuals. If the worshipful company would send hither a Shipwright, being skilfull to make one of the burden of 60. tunnes or more, drawing but sixe foote water at the most when it is laden, I thinke it should be profitable. For if your owne goods would not lade the same, here be Marchants that would bee glad and faine to giue great fraight to lade their goods with vs, whereby your charges would be much lessened: And so it may happen, the wages of your men hired here may be saued, and your seruants and goods in farre greater assurance: for their boates here are dangerous to saile with and to passe the Caspian sea. There be Carpenters here that will doe well ynough hauing one to instruct them. Your wares bought here, and orders taken for those that goe for your voyage of Persia are yet vnknowen vnto me: wherefore I cannot (as I would at this present) write to you thereof. Yet, (as you do know) it was the Gouernors mind I should be acquainted with greater affaires then these. Howbeit I doubt not but I shall be informed of them that are appointed, and all things shall be bought when they shall see time and haue more laisure. Thus in hast (as appeareth) I commit you and yours into the hands of almightie God; who preserue you in perfect health with increase of worship. From Ieraslaue the 15. of May 1565. By yours to command here or elsewhere during life. Arthur Edwards. * * * * * Another letter of the said M. Arthur Edwards, written the 26. of, April 1566. in Shamaki in Media, to the right worshipful Sir Thomas Lodge Knight and Alderman: and in his absence to M. Thomas Nicols, Secretarie to the right worshipfull companie trading into Russia, Persia, and other the North and East partes, touching the successe of Richard Iohnson in the third voiage into Persia. Worshipfull Sir, my bounden duetie remembred, with heartie prayer vnto God for the preseruation of you and yours in perfect health with increase of worship. It may please you that my last letter I sent you was from Astracan the 26 of Iuly 1565. [Sidenote: They departed from Astracan the 30. of Iuly 1565.] From whence Richard Iohnson, my selfe, and Alexander Kitchin, departed as the 30 of the same. And by meanes of contrary windes, it was the 23 of August before we came to our desired port named Nazauoe. There, after we had gotten your goods on land, with much labour and strength of men, as also windlesses deuised and made, we haled your barke ouer a barre of beach or peeble stones into a small Riuer, sending your ships apparell with other things to an house hired in a village thereby. And as soone as we might get camels, being the fift of September we departed thence, and came to this towne of Shamaki the 11. of the same: [Sidenote: Presents to the King Obdolowcan.] and the 17. day following, we presented vnto Abdollocan the king of this countrey, one timber of Sables, one tunne or nest of siluer cups parsill gilt, three Morses teeth, 4. Arshines of scarlet, 3. pieces of karseis, with 40. red foxes. He receiued our presents with giuing vs thanks for our good wils, demanding if M. Ienkinson were in good-health, and whether he would returne into these parts againe. He willed vs also himselfe to sit downe before him the distance of a quoits cast from his tent, where he sate with diuers of his counsaile and nobilitie, sending vs from his table such meate as was before him: [Sidenote: A house giuen our men in Shamaki by the king.] And after certaine talke had with vs, he sayd, if he might perceiue or know any maner of person to doe vs any wrong, he would punish them in example of others, whereby we should liue in quietnesse, and haue no cause to complaine, giuing vs a little house for the time, vntill a better might be prouided in such place as we should thinke most meete, neuer willing vs to rise or depart, vntill such time as we of our selues thought it conuenient. At the taking of our leaue, hee willed vs to put our whole minds and requests in writing, that he might further vnderstand our desires. [Sidenote: The death of Abdollocan the 2. of October 1565.] But while we were about to doe so, God tooke this good king our friend out of this present life the 2. of October past. The want of him hath bene the cause that as yet wee cannot receiue certaine debts. Howbeit, we doubt not but we shall recouer all such summes of money as are owing vs for this voyage. As for Thomas Alcocks debts they are past hope of recouerie, which had not bene lost if the king had liued. [Sidenote: Mursay the new king of Media.] We trust in the place of him, God will send as friendly a king towards vs, which [Transcriber's note: 'towardswvsoh :' in original.] by report (and as we be credibly informed,) shall bee his sonne named the Mursay: who since the death of his father, at our being with him, promised to shew vs more friendship then ever we found. God grant the same. Great troubles haue chanced in these parts. Of those which were of the old kings counsell or bare any rule about him in these quarters, some are in prison, some are pinched by the purse, and other sent for vnto the Shaugh. These troubles haue partly bene the let that wares were not sold as they might, to more profite. [Sidenote: The death of Alexander Kitchin the 23. of October 1565.] Your Agent Richard Iohnson bought foure horses, minding to haue sent to Casbin Alexander Kitchin, whom God tooke to his mercy the 23. of October last: and before him departed Richard Dauis one of your Mariners, whose soules I trust the Lord hath receiued to his mercy. We are now destitute of others to supply their roumes. Foure Mariners were few enough to saile your barke, whereof at this present we haue but one, whose name is William Smith, an honest yong man, and one that doeth good seruice here. For want and lacke of Mariners that should know their labours, we all were like to be cast away in a storme. For all the broad side of our barke lay in the water, and we had much adoe to recouer it, but God of his mercy deliuered vs. Mariners here may doe you good seruice all the winter otherwayes: and merchants here will be gladder to ship their goods in vs giuing good fraight. One merchant at this present is content to pay 20. rubbles for twentie camels lading fraight to Astracan. [Sidenote: The Caspian sea very shoald in diuers places.] Such barkes as must passe these seas, may not draw aboue fiue foote of water, because that in many places are very shallow waters. Wee mind hereafter to make the Russian boates more strong, and they shall serue our turnes very well. And whereas some in time past tooke great paines, trauell and care, and could not haue their desire in the getting of the Shaughs letters or priuiledge: Now, I trust (with Gods helpe) they may be obtained: which being had, will be beneficiall to the company, and great quietnes to those that shal remaine here, although heretofore things haue chanced ill, as the like in other countries hath bene. But I doubt not, this priuiledge once gotten and obtained, we shall liue in quietnesse and rest, and shall shortly grow into a great trade for silkes both raw and wrought, with all kind of spices and drugs, and other commodities here, as to M. Anthonie Ienkinson is well knowen, who (I doubt not) hath long agoe throughly aduertised the Companie thereof. [Sidenote: The murthering of Thomas Alcock.] The trueth of the slaughter of Thomas Alcock your seruant, is not certainly knowen. Some thinke it was by the meanes of a noble man, with whom your sayd seruant was earnest in demanding of your debts: vpon whose words he was so offended, that he procured his death. But other doe thinke verily, that in riding from the Court without companie, false knaues lay in waite, thinking he had much about him, and so slew him. I doubt not though this misfortune hath chanced, that things shall come well to passe, and that we shall be better beloued when we shall be more knowen. Honest merchants are glad of our being here, and seeke to grow in acquaintance with vs, being glad to further vs in that they may, and haue spoken in our fauours to the chiefest of this Countrey: one being a noble man, with whom your Agent and I are entred into friendship, who is at this time in great fauour with the Shaugh. [Sidenote: Cozamomet a noble man that fauoured our nation.] He hath here and in other places of these parts set a good stay in things since the kings death: he is well knowen to M. Ienkinson, his name is Cozamomet. Also another Duke named Ameddin-beck is our great friend. And his sister is the Shaughes wife. These two haue promised your Agent by their lawe, not onely to procure to get the Shaughes priuiledge but also that I shall haue the debts paied me of those that went from hence to Casbin, if we would send one with them. In consideration whereof, I was vpon short warning (for want of a better) appointed by your agent, M. Richard Iohnson, all excuses laied apart, presently to put my selfe in readinesse, and to depart in company with these noblemen: with charge, when God should send me to Casbin, to vse my discretion with their aduise, for the recouering of your debts and priuiledge. I shall haue with mee one interpreter and two bought seruants: one of which partly vnderstandeth this tongue, and may be put in trust whatsoeuer should become of me. [Sidenote: The value of a tumen.] I, haue receuied 6. tumens in ready money, 200. shaughs is a tumen, reckoning euery shaugh for sixe pence Russe. I haue further receiued two timbers of Sables, one to be sold, the other to bee giuen to Thomas the Shaugh: and haue order further to giue as I shall see good to those that shall further my suite, and as occasion serueth. And forasmuch as I am commanded to go, I shall willingly do my best, putting my trust in God that he will send me well to speed in this iourney. For all kind of wares bought or sold, you shal throughly be aduertised by your Agent Richard Iohnson, whose reckonings or accompts at no hands I might see or be priuie vnto. Your karseis were good and well sorted, they are and will be sold from 150. shaughs, to 160. the piece. Two hundred pieces were sold vnder, that needed not: one 100. pieces at 146. and 147. the piece but more would haue bene giuen, if circumspection had bene vsed. They were sold to those noble men aforesayd, which as yet it was not knowen that I should haue gone with them. They may stand vs much in stead, as they haue promised vs their good wils in that they may doe. [Sidenote: What a batman is.] Here is at this time bought for England 11. packes of rawe silke, 25. and 26. batmans being in euery packe: The batman being 7. pound, which may be 6. pound and a halfe of English waight, being bought here from 66. to 70. shaughes the batman. It is fine and good, litle course at this time was to be had. And where course silke might be had being at Grosin, we could not send thither: for that time was neglected at the first. When wee shall haue lidgers here to remaine in Sommer, we may buy it at the first hand of the countrey people that bring it to sell hither, and to other places. I would to God the Companie could find the meanes to haue a vent to make sales for the one halfe that we may buy here. The Companie may haue for 30. or 40. thousand pounds yeerely. [Sidenote: Varas a great mart for silke.] And as appeareth by your Agents wordes being at Varas, he and others sawe there so great abundance, that by report of diuers, you may bestow (if it were not for the Turkes) for a two hundred thousand pounds: besides silke of all colours died in graine, bound vp in pound waights, I thinke 15. of our ounces to their pound waight, and here sold for 23. shaughs, at 6. d. the shaugh, may be 11. s. 6. pence. [Sidenote: Gilan 7. dayes sailing from Astracan.] From Astracan in 7. or 8. dayes, wee may saile with our barke to a place named Gilan: the which place in time to come, (I thinke) shall serue our purpose best to goe vnto. Alom is there good cheape, being brought from thence hither to Shamaki, and sold here for two bists their batman, which may be 5. pence in our money: and so I haue bought to bee sent home 223. batmans for example. And at Gilan there is rawe silke enough for the companies stocke. [Sidenote: Gilan 4. dayes iourney from Casbin.] I beleeue, if any great store of wares be sent from you, that must be the place: and from thence a man may trauell in 4. dayes to Casbin, and there make quicke and better sales, at which place your commodities are to be sold. For there be the chiefe and best merchants, and diuers other cities round about, to wit, Teueris, Ardouil, and Caishan, being the heart of the countrey, where there is more ciuilitie and merchants are better vsed. Concerning this point I haue inquired of diuers merchants both Russes and others that haue bene in those parts and found them all agreeing in one tale, and perceiue the same to be true, and that all kind of wares come from thence into these parts. [Sidenote: From Casbin to Ormus a moneths trauel with camels.] And from Casbin to Ormus is about 30. daies trauelling with camels. I haue written the prices of wares in my letter to the gouernour both for spices and some drugs which I do know. Also you shall vnderstand here is plentie of yew for bowstaues. I caused three horse loades to be bought vs for to know the trueth: but they were cut out of season this moneth of April, the sap being in them. Three moneths I neuer left speaking to the Countrey men to bring some. Your Agent will send some home for example. This day being the 26. of Aprill I departed towards Casbin: God giue me a good houre and well to speed, with a mery heart in returning againe, as my hope is I shall. I haue written my mind to M. Glouer your Agent, what Russian wares I thinke best to be brought for this Countrey, and to send some one hither that hath the Russe tongue, for we haue need. [Sidenote: The secret doings of the Moscouie company.] And the companie shall do well hereafter in taking of seruants to be sent hither, to see that they be such as haue discretion, and be something broken in the world, and seene in the trade of merchandise, and one (if they can get some such) as can speake the Portingall tongue, may do them as good seruice, as those that shall be here two yeeres before him: for then we may buy a slaue that can speake this language and the Portingal tongue also, which shall then interprete vnto vs in all your secret doings, not making the Russes priuy: for they are sory that we doe trade into these partes for we are better beloued then they are: because they are giuen to be drunkards, they are much hated of these people. It is to be wished that none should serue your worships in these parts that be giuen to that kind of vice: And that your chiefe Agent and Factor should be able to rule and gouerne himselfe, that no dishonestie should be imputed to him and vs. By his euill vsage he paied here 24 rubbles, being in this Countrey 4. tumens for a boy, that he was charged to haue conueied away from a Tesicke one of this countrey men, who willed him to sweare that he knew not where the boy was become, and he should not pay it. If he were honest he might do your worships good seruice because of his Russian tongue. Your London reds are not to be sent hither, for they will not giue aboue 18. shaughes their arshine. [Sidenote: Orient reds of Venice die.] Here be reds of more orient colour, being Venice die. The people are giuen much to weare cloth: the common peoples pecially weare karseis, and the merchants of more wealth weare broad cloth. You shall doe well to send fiue or sixe broad clothes, some blackes, pukes, or other sad colours, that maybe affoorded at 20. shaughes the arshine, and not aboue. It is here reported that King Philip hath giuen the Turkes a great ouerthrow at Malta, and taken 70. or 80. of his chiefe captains. Thus wishing I had more time to write, I pray you to beare with this my scribled letter, and after you haue red it, that M. Nicols may haue a sight thereof, By your seruant to command, Arthur Edwards. * * * * * Commodities to be caried out of England into Persia, with their prizes there. 1 Karseis are sold there for 180. Shaughes: [Sidenote: A shaugh is 6d. English.] so that a karsey is sold there in Persia for foure pound ten shillings: for euery shaugh is sixe pence English, and euery Bist is two pence halfepeny English, and in Russe money three pence. 2 Tinne is sold in Persia for 14. and 18. shaughes the batman. The batman containing as I haue mentioned before. 3 Brasil is at 10. and 12. shaughes the batman. 4 Red cloth fine, at 25. and 30. shaughes the yard. 5 Copper at 20. and 25. shaughes the batman. Commodities to be brought out of Persia for England. 1 Raw silke at 60 shaughs the batman. 2 Pepper at 32. shaughs the batman, 3 Ginger at 18. and 20. shaughs the batman. 4 Nutmegs at 30. shaughs the batman. 5 Brimstone at 4. shaughs the great batman. The great batman is 12. li. English. 6 Allom at 2. bists and a halfe the batman and lesse. 7 Rice at halfe a bist the batman. 8 Gals at halfe a bist the batman, 9 Cloues at 40. shaughs the batman 10 Yew for bow staues, at [Transcriber's note: blank in original.] * * * * * A letter of M. Arthur Edwards, written the 8. of August 1566. from the towne of Shamaki in Media, to the right worshipfull the Gouernours, Consuls, Assistants and generalitie of the Companie of Russia, &c. Shewing his accesse vnto the Emperour of Persia, his conference with him, his obtaining of a priuiledge, with diuers other good obseruations. Right worshipfull Sirs, my bounden dutie remembered, with most humble commendations and like request to God for the preseruation of your good healths, with the rest of the companie, &c. [Sidenote: His arrival at Casbin the 25. of May.] It may please you to vnderstand, that the last letter which I sent you from hence was of the 26. of April of this present yeere by Richard Iohnson at my departure towards Casbin: to which citie I came the 25. of May folowing, not slacking any day, houre, nor moment, to procure and make friends for the speedie bringing me before the presence of the Shaugh, being the 29. day of the same moneth brought before him, with, whose maiestie I was in talke (as 1 thinke) two houres. He willed me twise to come neerer him, demanding what were my requests: and hauing heard them, he promised me his gracious letters. [Sidenote: Conference and demands of the Shaugh.] Afterwards he called me twise againe to come neerer him, and talked with me of our Queenes maiestie and Countrey, and what commodities we had, and what other commodities we desired: and then of other countries adioining to vs and their commodities, as also of king Philip, what ouerthrow he gaue the Turks at the siege of Malta. And how long we had traded into Russeland and Moscouia, and in what space we might saile out of England into Russeland, and how many weekes trauell it is from Comolgro to Astracan: and then came to discourse of Russeland, and what townes the Emperour had wonne, declaring vnto me himselfe most of our commodities. [Sidenote: All sorts of cloth to be spent, specially Westerne dozens died into scarlet.] In the end he willed that your worships should send him of all sorts of clothes, but of one especially which maidens do make (as he sayd:) He named it Karengi, I thinke it is Westerne dozens died into scarlets. Time will not permit mee to write at large the conference which I had with his maiesty. It was strange to his people (knowing our religion) to see me so long in talke with him, willing his Secretarie before mee to write what he was desirous of: to wit, of London clothes, three or foure of all sorts for example, being well shorne and drest. Violets in graine and fine reds be most worne, but other good colours will away, when they shall see them. I wore a garment of London russet, being much esteemed. You shall doe well lo send such sorts as be liuely to the sight, and some blacks for womens garments, with some Orenge colours and tawneis. Here is much broad cloth worne. [Sidenote: London clothes much talked of in Persia.] They talke much of London clothes, and they that know the wearing, are desirous of them before the cloth of the womens making, for they find it nothing durable. For when it commeth to weare on the threed, it renteth like paper. [Sidenote: Much Venice clothe worn in Persia.] Here is much Venice cloth worne, being cromplisted a yard and a halfe broad, and sold here from 24. to 30. shaughes their arshine, being longer by two inches then the Russe arshine is; I wish also that you send some good chamlets and veluets died in graine, with purple colours and fine reds: because these are most worne. Also some blacks with other colours: some cloth of gold, tissue and bocky, some veluets wrought with gold, with sattins and damaskes, most purple, and reds of all sorts. You may not forget to send some Western karseis, to wit, dozens, which be thicked well, and close shut in the weauing, being died into fine reds, and some skarlets: for I thinke there is no such cloth for their caps. [Sidenote: The second admission to the Shaughs presence, the 29. of Iune 1566. at which time he reciued the priuiledge. The Shaughs promise to increase the priuiledge.] Your worships shall vnderstand, that after my first departure from the presence of the Prince, I neglected no time in daily attendance on them, who had my priuiledge in writing, that I might haue it in readinesse at such time as I should againe bee called before the presence of the Shaugh, which was the 29. of Iune last. I was in apparell that he gaue vnto me, with other garments to mine interpreter, and one of your seruants, and then I receiued your letters or privilege, according to my desire, sealed and firmed with the Shaughs owne hand. Praysed bee God who hath wrought with me, and for me, in all my doings. The 29. of Iune is one of their chiefe festiuall daies, so that all his nobilitie was there present, with two Ambassadors in companie with his maiestie, who sayd vnto me that if my letters were not to my mind, in time to come they should be mended. Whereupon I made my reuerence, and gaue his highnesse most humble and heartie thanks, saying, that with as much speed as might bee, our Queenes Maiestie should vnderstand of his goodnesse towardes her Merchants, which I thought would write their letters of request vnto his Highnes, in such forme and order as by them should be thought meete and requisite for their good assurance in the trade of merchandizes: who replied with these wordes: when wee shall see their reasonable requests, we will shew them our farther good will, and so I departed. Since the receiuing of the Shaughs letters, I haue eaten in company of good Dukes and others, who before would not come neere me. And euery day some would come to my Shop, and eate and drinke with me out of mine owne dish. Likewise in riding from Casbin hither, on the way when I sate downe to dinner, they would come and eate with mee vnbidden, when I wished them further off: for I spared them that, which gladly I would haue eaten my selfe. I doubt not but we shall liue here from hencefoorth in quietnes: for now in all places where I come, I am friendly vsed with the best. I was asked by the Shaugh if you were able to bring him yeerly one hundred thousand pieces of kersies, and clothes. And I answered him, saying, your worships were able to furnish his countrey with two hundred thousand. Whereat his Highnesse reioyced: for the Turkes Ambassador the last yere, as diuers haue told me, did put the Shaugh in despaire, saying, that the, Turke would not permit any cloth to be brought into his countrey. [Sidenote: Aleppo a citie of great trade.] There is a citie in Syria named Aleppo, wherein coninually are many Venetians dwelling, besides other that come yeerely and there buy wools, gals, tallow, saffron, skins, cotton wooll, and other wares, and great store of spices. [Sidenote: Armenians barter with the Venetians.] Also the Armenians yeerly receeiue at the Venetians hands, karsies in barter for rawe silks, giuing sometimes 60. pieces of karsies for 70. batmans of silke of this countrey, and 40. pieces for Grosin silke. And karsies sold commonly for ready money in Aleppo, at 11. and 12. duckets the piece, (the ducket being here woorth 12. shillings) may cost the first peny 132. and 144. Shaughs a karsie. [Sidenote: The distance from Shamaky to Alappo.] By report it is one moneths trauel from this towne of Shamaky to Aleppo, and from thence to Tripolis, six dayes iourney: and from Tripolis to Venice by water, a moneth or fiue weekes sailing. As I learne, from hence to Venice may easily be trauelled in lesse then three moneths. Therefore I wish your worships to procure some trustie and assured friend there, to whom from hence letters may be sent For I can haue them here to put in suerties to deliuer my letters, and to bring answere. If I had any other here with me, I would nothing haue doubted to haue brought you the Shaughs letters that way. [Sidenote: Armenians and others desirous to barter silke and spices for karsies.] The Armenians and other are desirous to barter with vs, giuing silke for katsies, and also will seme vs of all kind of Spices, we giuing them sufficient warning to fetch it in the Indies, and will deliuer it vs in Shamaky at these prizes. Pepper this townes batman for 18. Shaughs, euery Shaugh is sixepence. Maces large for 40. Shaughs, and 45. the batman. Cloues for 40. Shaughs the batman. Nutmegs for 16. and 18. Shaughs the batman. Sinamon for 40. Shaughs the batman. I doubt not but there will be profile and good done in spices, with drugs and other like in time. From Casbin to Ormus is six weeks trauel, and from hence to Casbin is 16. dayes with camels laden: but if one trauell with a good Mule vnladen, it may be gone in seuen or eight dayes. And I thinke to Ormus and other places, may be trauelled in like order and proportion, with cattel vnladen. But here in all places as men may trauel, they must carie their owne prouision on horses, which they are to buy, and thus they, uauel but a footepasse. [Sidenote: The Shaugh desirous to bargaine for our commodities.] The Shaugh himselfe is desirous to bargaine with you who will giue money, silke, and other wares as we will, and take our wares as we may affoord them, willing me himselfe to bring such wares as we might gaine by him. The Armenians by report, and as I perceiue, bring from Aleppo yeerely, foure, fiue, and six thousand pieces of karsies, and clothes, besides those which other men bring. If your Worships might procure and find vent or sales for rawe silke, and silke died in graine, besides other silkes wrought and made here, by which, profile may be made: then you might send a great substance of wares hither. But I feare you shall be hindered by the Venetians if they may: for I know it will grieue them that you doe trade into these partes: for in short time it shall cleane alter their trade, and hinder the sales of their clothes in Aleppo and other places adioyning. You shall understand that 60. batmans of silke is a Mules lading: and as it is reported, one village of the Armenians yerely carieth 400. and 500. Mules lading of silke to Aleppo, and bringeth thence 800. or a thousand Mules laden with karsies and Venice clothes. And 18. pieces of karsies are a Mules lading. [Sidenote: 2000. pieces of karsies to be sent into Persia.] But I wish you not to send aboue 2000. pieces of karseis, although I haue bene willed to write for more. If I might haue had any vnderstanding what your Worships had written for in your letters sent this yeere, I should in this my letter haue bene better able to haue answered you. They which be now in Astracan, might haue written some thing vnto me hither, if it had pleased them, or else haue sent me such letters of mine, as I hope some of my friends haue written to me: for here are arriued eight weekes past, two boates with wares and Russes, by whom they might haue written, had it bene but 3. or 4. lines. They promised the Russes to write, but promise was not kept. I would be sory that any boat should depart out of these partes, and not write vnto them, waying how all things stand. I heare they haue bought a boat, which coast 40. rubbles, and shipped certaine wares to come hither. God send them in safetie. I do tarie their comming, or els I had thought to haue come to Astraean in those boates which departed hence lately. [Sidenote: He departed from Casbin the 15 of Iuly.] The fifteenth of Iuly last, I departed from Casbin, and came to this towne the 29. of the same. And the fourth of August I found means to arrest the falsest knaue in this countrey, to wit, the Customer for 22. tumens, and 100. shaughs, (200. shaughs is a tumen.) I haue caused him to put in suerties for his foorth comming at all times, what ende I shall haue with him, God knoweth, the debt will be recouered, but not yet, for he must pay the Shaugh 1000. rubbles. These partes as yet are in no stay for lacke of a Gouernour or head to rule, which I thinke shall bee the Mursey. Within 5. or 6. dayes we shall know, for it is time, because men are in feare to trauell for being robbed. If there were a prince placed, I should soone get in your debts, for they dare not disobey the Shaughs letters or priuiledge: wherein he hath not onely written that our debts shall be paied, but also that we shall be taken heed to, so as we need not to doubt (God willing) in time to come, to be here as wel vsed as we are in Russeland. [Sidenote: Rich. Iohnsons great negligence.] The bils of debt that Rich. Iohnson left with me, had neither the parties name nor summe of money in two of them, and in other bils but his owne name. If I had not used discretion in causing to be written in our priuiledge, that such debtes as are owing, should be paied any of vs in the absence of the other, some men would not haue paied one penie, but onely to Richard Iohnson, who hath written but his owne name onely in the bils. I receiued in Casbin of Forackan in part of 29. tumens, 300. shaughs in money: the rest he will deliuer me here in silke, and this is all that I haue receiued to this day. And as for Hawrambecks twelue tumens, I make accompt, that if I could ride to speake with him, I should be paid in money and wares. Touching Ackons money, by meanes of Duke Ameddinbeck, who first owed the debt, because they meant not to pay a penie, he did rather seeke to hinder my sute then to further mee, but I found out a present remedie: for God sent me friends that were alwayes about the Shaugh, and daily put on his apparell, who opened all my sute, and brought mee to the presence of the Shaugh before that Cozomomet sawe the Shaughs eyes. [Sidenote: Cozomomet was Arthur Edwards friend to the Shaugh.] But Cozomomet in the end was my friend: for he was sent for, and declared vnto the Shaugh what good merchants we were, vsing trueth in all our doings, and how we were in great fauour with the Emperour of Russia, and what good commodities wee might bring into his Countrey, with other talke. And daily he was sent for to the Shaugh about the affaires in those partes, for no man was able to aduise the Shaugh of the state and affaires of those Countreys so much as hee was. He owed your Worships seuen tumens and 48. shaughs, which was not all this time to be gotten at his hands: for hee was at great charges in riding to Casbin, and giuing great gifts since his comming, which he twise declared vnto mee. I feeling his griefe became Physicion to ease his pain, and forgaue him his debt abouesayd, in recompence of ten pieces of karsies, that were promised him by Richard Iohnson and me, to giue him at the comming of our goods, in consideration that he should with speed doe what lay in him, to dispatch me away: for I perceiue hee procured other that did helpe me in my sute to delay me of, till time he had his purpose. [Sidenote: Victuals and all things dear at Casbin.] I neuer was in quiet, till I had the Princes priuiledge, and had got mee out of Casbin: for victuals, and all other things are very deare there, because they are brought thither from farre off. As for all other smal debts (which may be about 7. tumens) when our Merchants are come hither, we shall seeke, to get them in as we may. I wish your Worships to send some bullion to bee coyned here, it will please the prince there, and be profitable to you. Silke is better cheape by two or three shaughs the batman, then it was the last yeere. You shall vnderstand that I haue written two letters of all my proceedings, which I sent from Casbin long since: to wit, the 24. and 29. of Iune last, by one of your seruants to Gilan, there to take ship and to goe to Astracan, and to deliuer the same vnto your Factors, which might haue bene to their quietnes and mine, long agoe. But I am right sorie to heare since my comming hither, that he hath plaied the loitering merchant in Gilan, not going in those boats that went first, but taried for the last boats. But I will teach him, to the example of other, how he shall make haste hereafter in such affaires. The karsies which you sent last, being bought of M. Quarles, were good and full lengths and well sorted. [Sidenote: The Ambassador of the prince of Gilan.] The Ambassador of Gilan was in Casbin, at my being there. I hope in God, if I remaine here, and may goe to Gilan to obtaine for your worships the like priuiledge at the kings hand there also. [Sidenote: Gilan but five dayes riding from Casbin.] For I haue something moued the matter, being put in such comfort, that I doubt not the getting thereof with small charges, which I had done at this time if I had had other here with me to put in trust: for from Casbin to Gilan is but 5. dayes riding, which Countrey may be profitable to your Worships. There is in that Prouince good store of silke, better cheape, and better in goodnesse then this countrey silke is. Also great store of Alom, being there sold this townes batman, for one bist and a halfe. I haue made reckoning, al charges borne from hence to Colmogro, and from thence fraight into England at three pounds the tunne, al charges accounted, will not stand you in aboue 18. and 20. shillings the hundreth. You haue yeerly by report two or three hundred tunnes lading. Other commodities there for England I heare not of. [Sidenote: Gals.] As for gals here to bee bought, there is no profit to be done by them. They be brought from Aleppo, and sold here not vnder 3. or 4. shaughs their batman, being six pounds English waight. [Sidenote: Graine.] Graine that you die scarlet withall is worth the batman ready mony, 200 shaughs, reckoning the shaugh for 6. pence Russe, it may be 6. rubbles their batman. Your worships may send some portion of mony, if you may buy, as I thinke you may, for 12. and 13. s. a pound the berries, so you shall gaine both in the price and waight. [Sidenote: Ormus Aleppo.] If one Englishman more had bene here with me, to whom I might haue deliueied our bils of debts and other things, whatsoeuer should haue chanced of me, I would then haue become seruant to mine Interpreter, and so haue gone to Ormus and Aleppo, which both ioyne on the borders of this countrey, being the chiefe Marte townes, whereunto from all places merchants resort. And thus would I haue spent 4. or 5. months in trauelling for further knowledge of things for to haue certified your worships of. I hope in God to vse things in such order, that yeerly you shall haue returne of your goods from hence, as you haue forth of Russeland, and in those ships. For if we may, as I doubt not with diligence, prouide to make sales in time, and with speed receiue silke at the Shaughs hand, and other mens, that it may be sent from hence to be in Astracan at the beginning of Aprill, from whence it may be sent to Colmogro in three moneths and lesse, and there to be ready with the rest of your goods by the end of Iune for your ships to receiue, that will be time inough. This I doubt, not to bring to passe within a yeere or two, when we are throughly setled in these parts, and better knowen. [Sidenote: M. Anthonie Ienkinsons offer to the Persain.] Moreouer you shall vnderstand, that at my last being in the presence of the Shaugh, it was sayd to mee that M. Anthonie Ienkinson did proffer to take all the rawe silke in those parties, delivering cloth and other commodities for the same. I assure you there is in those parts to be had three or foure thousand horses, lading, euery horse load being 50. or 60. batmans, beside silke of Grosin. Great abundance of silke at times is sent out of these parts, to wit. 4. or 5. hundred horse lodes at a time by the Turkes, who bring great store of siluer to be coined, to wit, Dollars at ten shaughs the piece. The Hungarie Ducket is at 12. shaughs. And hauing money in readines at the time of the yeere, they buy silke the better cheape, when the countrey men bring it first to be sold. If your worships may bargaine with the Venetians to take silke at your hands, or otherwise deale with them, I doe not mistrust but to haue at the Shaughs hand sixe batmans of silke for two pieces and a halfe of karsies. Your good aduise herein, and in other matters, I trust you will write with conuenient speed. [Sidenote: M. Anthonie Ienkinson commended.] Master Anthonie Ienkinson hath deserued great commendation at all your worships hands: for the good report of his well and wise doings in those parts, was oftentimes a comfort to me to heare thereof, and some good helpe to me in my proceedings. To this day I neuer heard from any of our merchants. God graunt me in health to see your worships, for I haue had a carefull trauell, with many a sorowfull day and vnquiet sleepes. Neither had I the company of one English person, to whom sometimes I might haue eased my pensiue heart, as God well knoweth, who hath deliuered me from mine enemies. Thus almightie God graunt you in health and wealth long to liue. Your humble seruant at commandement during life, Arthur Edwards. * * * * * Another letter of Arthur Edwards written in Astracan the 16. of Iune 1567. at his returne in his first voiage out of Persia, to the right worshipfull Companie trading into Russia, Persia, and other the North and Northeast partes. It may please your Worships that herein I haue written not onely certaine articles of your priuiledge, but also the Gouernours names, with the Consuls, Assistants and generalitie. [Sidenote: The Shaughs letters to the Moscouy companie.] Also such commodities as the Prince or Emperour of the Countrey hath written in one of his letters directed to your Worships to be sent him, with other notes which I thought good to be remembered, as may appeare hereafter following. Your priuiledge is written, graunted, and giuen in the names of these sixe persons following: to wit, sir William Garrard, sir William Chester, gouernours, sir Thomas Lodge, master Anthony Ienkinson, master Thomas Nicols and Arthur Edwards. 1 First, it is granted that you shall pay no maner of customes or tols, any kinde of wayes now, nor in time comming, vnto his heires after him. And that all English merchants, such as you shall appoint now and hereafter, shall and may passe and repasse into all places of his dominions and other countries adioining in the trade of merchandise, to buy and sell all maner of commodities, with all maner of persons. 2 Item, that in all places where any of our merchants shall haue their resort, or abiding, his chiefe Gouernours, Rulers and. Iustices shall take heed vnto vs, being our aide and defence against all euil persons, punishing those that shall do vs any wrong. 3 Item, that for all such debts as shall be owing by any maner of person, iustice shal be done on the partie, and we paid at the day. 4 Item, that no maner of persons whatsoever estate or degree they be of, shall be so hardie as to take any kind of wares, or any gifts, without any leaue and good will. 5 Item, if by chance medley any of our merchants or seruants, as God forbid, should kill any of his subiects, that no part of your goods shall be touched or medled withall, neither any partie but the offendour, and true iustice to bee ministred, and being any of vs, not to suffer without the Princes knowledge and aduise. 6 Item, that all such debts as are now owing, or hereafter shall be, are to be paied vnto any of vs, in the absence of the other, be the partie dead, or aliue. 7 Item, that no person returne any kind of wares backe againe, being once bought or sold. 8 Item, that when God shall send your goods to shore, presently his people shall helpe vs on land with them. These articles before written, I trust in God wil content your minds, vntil your farther letters be hitherto written vnto the Prince, who I am assured will graunt your farther reasonable requests, which his maiestie hath promised. For I moued the question, declaring vnto him that I thought your worships would write your letters of requests, to craue his farther good will, as should be thought meet for your better assurance in the trade of merchandise: you will hardly beleeue what long and gracious, talke he had with mee, which I assure you continued two houres, which was strange vnto the people and other merchant strangers. For betwixt euery question that his maiestie moued, when I had answered him, hee would talke with his Nobles and other his seruants hauing some knowledge of our Westerne parts and commodities, and then againe would demaund other questions. He caused his Secretarie to write the articles before named, in all of his foure letters giuen me (whereof two as I required, are in the Turkish tongue to be sent you.) On the, backe side of the one, hee hath written what wares his Maiestie would haue you to send him. He held me one houre within night before I departed from him. These bee the names of the wares or commodities, which on the backe side of one of his letters the Shaugh hath written to you to be sent him. First, some cloth of Gold, with cloth of Tissue, and cloth of Botky, as Veluets wrought with gold. Item, good veluets, to wit, crimosins, purples, reds, greenes and blackes. Those colours his maiestie requireth, for they are most worne. And though there be some of these wares made in his citie of Cassan, yet nothing like in goodnes, to those that you may procure for him. Small profite I thinke will be in these wares: yet for diuers considerations, as also to satisfie the Princes mind, I wish you to send some, and those that be especiall good. Item, good damasks and sattins of all sortes, with an hundred pieces of good chamlets, which are woorth here 80. shaughs the piece, at sixe pence the shaugh, and those silkes to bee of those colours aboue written, to wit, crimosins, purples, reds, greenes, blackes, with some light watchet colours. Item, three or foure complete harnesses that wil abide the shot of a handgun with 10. or 12. targets of steele, being good. Item, ten or twelue good shirts of male being very good or els none, that may abide the shot of an arrow, and two buffe ierkins. Item, ten or twelue pieces of Westerne karsies, being thicked well and close shut in the weauing, and died into scarlets and fine reds. I thinke there wil be no such cloth for noblemens caps. The prince named them karangies [Marginal note: By the word Karangies, I thinke they meane Karsies.], saying, that maidens did make them, and is desirous of them. Item, six pieces of fine Holland cloth for the Prince, with some other for Noblemen, of a lower price. Item, twentie handguns being good, some of them with fire lockes, and also six good dags, with locks to trauell withall. Item 100. brusshes for garments (none made of swines haire,) for gifts, and otherwise to be sold. Item, six stone bowes that shoot lead pellets. Item, a mill to grind corne in the field as they goe, finely deuised: for Cozomomet willed me to write for one to be sent, to giue the Prince. Item, the Prince requireth of all sortes and colours of London clothes. I wish you to send no lesse then 40. or 50. for I know they will be sold to profit, especially such cloth as may be affoorded for 20. shaughs the arshine, which is longer by two of mine inches then Russia arshine is. Let there be fine skarlets, violets in graine, fine reds, blacks, browne blewes, foure or fiue of euery sort, for the Prince and other lords: the rest of other colours liuely to the sight, as London russets, tawnies, lion colours, good liuely greenes, with other, as you shall thinke good: for the prince desireth to see of all sorts, which will be an occasion that the Venetians and Turkes shall bee in lesse estimation then they are: for they themselues do feare, and secretly say the same. And truely the Princes subiects intend to enter into trade with vs for spices and other commodities that they were woont to sell vnto the Venetians and Turkes. Thus I commit you all to God, who send you health with increase of worship. Written in Astracan the 16. of Iune, 1567. By your seruant during life to command, Arthur Edwards. * * * * * Distances of certaine places in Russia. The way from Saint Nicholas Baie to Mosco. versts To Colmogro 100 To Vstiug 500 To Totma 250 To Vologhda 250 All by the riuer of Dwina 1100 To Yenslaue 180 To Rostoue 60 To Pecaslaue 60 To Mosko 120 By land East and West 440 The way from Mosko to Smolensko. To Moram 300 To Smolensko 200 The way from Mosko to Nouogrod. To Ottuer 180 To Torzhoke 60 To Wisnouolloko 60 To Nouogrod 150 Southeast and Northwest 450 The way from Nouogrod to Narue To Teseua 50 To the Friers 60 To Yria Niagorod 40 To Narue 15 Southwest and Northeast 165 From Nouogrod to Vobsky, is 180. versts by East. The way from Vobski to Ry in Liefland. versts To Newhouse 50 To Gouen on the borders | To Wenden | To Trecado | Al is 200 To Newslot | versts. To Rie | The way from Mosco to Astracan. To Costrom To Nisnoaogrod To Cazan To Astracan in all is 2800 versts The way from Vologhda to Narue. To Belozerco 140 To Batag 80 To Witergen 40 To Ladiski 60 To Onega lake 80 To Oher 90 To Narue 180 Southwest and Northeast 770 versts To go with a small boat within the land from S. Nicholas to Wardhouse. To Newnox riuer | To Ousca Gouba | To Lobshanga | To Oust Nauelocki | To Wardhouse To Orlouanos | in To Solusca Monasterie | all 800. To Candelox | versts To Oust Colla | Northwest To Zhemaker | and Southeast To Poganna Volocki | To Chibe Nanolocke | To Kegor | The way from Colmogro to Mixemske Sloboda, where the Samoeds keep their Mart. To Vst Pinnego | To Palango | To Vescom | To Soyaua | Al is 230 versts To Coula | To Nendega | To Lampas | To Sloboda | The way to Vromo from Mazemske Sloboda, where the Losh hides are gotten. To Lampas | All is 115. versts To Pogorel | Northeast and To Zapolle | Southwest. To Vromo | The way and distances from Saint Nicholas, to the Caspian Sea. If you goe straight from Saint Nicholas, to the Caspian Sea, you must goe to Vologhda by water, as by the easiest passage, and that is accomplished, passing day and night, in foureteene dayes and foureteene nights, in boates cut out of a tree: (the boates are called Stroogs) 1100. versts it is. By horse and sleds in 8. dayes you may passe it in Winter. In Summer the way is dangerous by meanes of marishes and bogs, and not safely then to be passed. Then from Vologhda to Yeraslaue 180. versts ouer land. This Yeraslaue standeth vpon the riuer of Volga, 180. versts I say distant from Vologhda. To the Caspian sea are 2700. versts from Yeraslaue. So from S. Nicholas to the Caspian sea, are 3800. 80. versts. The iourney from S. Nicholas to Yeraslaue is accomplished in foureteene dayes by water, and two dayes by land. 16. dayes. From thence to Astracan men trauell by water in 30. dayes and 30. nights. So between S. Nicholas and the Caspian sea, are 46. dayes iourney. There passe downe Volga euery Summer, 500. boats great and smal, from all the vpper parts of the riuer, whereof some be of 500. tunne. They go for Minerall salt and for Sturgeon. The salt lieth in rocks (and is whitish red, and in fine sand) as it were 30. miles from Astracan toward the Caspian sea. They dig it themselues and pay nothing for it, but to the prince a peny a pood, viz. 40. pound waight. [Sidenote: Fishing for Sturgeon for 3 moneths.] The Sturgeon which they call Ocetera is taken fiftie miles on this side Astracan. Along the riuer the space of 20. miles, they make their booties in plaine grounds, and fish for the space of three moneths, viz. from the end of May till, the end of August, and hauing salt they vse to salt them. The riuer is there 5. or 6. miles broad, but with some Islands. The riuer below Yeraslaue, where it is most narrow, is a mile broad from side to side. The riuer runneth vpon red clay, all woods of birch and oke on the riuer sides, saue about the townes of the fishing places. Dwina from S. Nicholas to Vstiug runneth all on chalke and sand: the fish are sweete and fat The Mene a fish with a great head a foot long breedeth about Vologda, and is fat and delicate. Between Vobsko and Nouogrod, the space of an 180. miles, groweth flax: the whole soile in length is so imploied, and as much in breadth: this is vpon a flat soile. The hempe groweth about Smolensko vpon the Polish border, 300. miles in compasse: much of the soile is so imploied. [Sidenote: The Englishmen in making of cables set on worke 100 men in Russia.] Of this hempe they bring in Winter to Vologda and Colmogro, and we set in worke in making of cables aboue 100 men. The Russians do spin and hachell it, and the English tarre it in threed and lay the cable. And one cable of those is woorth two of Danzick, because the Danzickers put in old cable and rotten stuffe, which in fowle weather is found of no strength. [Sidenote: Sosnoua tree excellent for the cure of the wolfe.] Sosnoua, a tree that cureth the wolfe with the shauings of the wood, groweth in these parts, and of the barks they make ropes as big as a mans arme for their boats. The Samoeds lacking linnen make handkerchiefs and towels of the very wood of this tree. The wood of this tree is as heauie as hollie, and the shauings tough. [Sidenote: The description of Rose Island.] Rose Island in S. Nicholas Baie is full of Roses damaske and red, of violets and wild Rosemarie: This Island is neere 7. or 8. miles about, and good pasture, and hath the name of the roses. The snow here about the midst of May is cleared, hauing bin two moneths in melting, then the ground is made dry within 14. dayes after, and then the grasse is knee high within a moneth. Then after September the frost commeth in, the snow is a yard deepe vpon plaine ground. The Island hath Firre and Birch, and a faire fresh spring neere the house built there by the English. * * * * * The way discouered by water by vs Thomas Southam and Iohn Sparke, from the towne of Colmogro, by the Westerne bottome of the Baie of S. Nicholas, vnto the citie of Nouogrod in Russia, containing many particulars of the way, and distance of miles, as hereafter foloweth. Anno 1566. We departed from Colmogro about 10. of the clocke afore noone in a Lodia or Barke, which we hired to bring vs along the coast to a place called Soroka, and in the sayd barke we hired 6. mariners, and a boy to conduct vs to the place before rehearsed. The Lodia or barke was of the burden of 25. tunnes or thereabout, wherewith we valed downe the riuer of Dwina, the winde being then calme, vnto a monasterie, called S. Michael where we were, constrained to anker because of a contrary wind which there met vs. [Sidenote: A verst is but 3 quarters of an english mile.] From Colmogro to this monasterie are 50. versts or miles of Russia, at which place we taried till the 21. day in the morning, and then hauing the wind somewhat faire, we set saile and departed thence. 21 We departed, from the monasterie of S. Michael, hauing the wind somewhat faire, and arriued at Rose Island, ouer and against the monasterie of S. Nicholas, the 22. day at 2. of the clocke in the morning, which is 35. miles distant from the monasterie of S. Michael. By reason of contrary wind and tide we were constrained to tary there all that day. 23 We departed from the monasterie of S. Nicholas at 7. of the clocke in the euening, and came to an anker at the Beacons, and continued there vntil halfe an houre past 10. of the clocke, and then set from thence, the wind being South: our course was West vntil 5. of the clock in the morning, when as we came to an anker against Newnox towne, where we continued vntil the 25. day. [Sidenote: At this towne Newnox Richard Chanceller in his first voyage, with his companie ashipboard were relieved.] The sayd towne of Newnox is from the monasterie of S. Nicholas 35. miles. 25 We departed from Newnox hauen at one of the clocke in the after noone, the wind at South and Southeast, and our course Northwest and by West. The point of Tolstick which is the headland before the entrance of Newnox hauen, and the headland of Seusemski lie next Southeast and by South, Northwest and by North. We came to an anker there this day at 4. of the clock in the afternoone being from Newnox hauen 15. miles, where we continued in harbour til the 27, day of the moneth, by reason of contrary winds. 27 We departed from Seusemski in the morning at 5. of the clocke, the wind next at East and by North, and our course Northwest and by West. The said land of Seusemski and the headland going into Owna riuer lieth East and by South, west and by North, and between them is 25. miles. This day at Sunne set we came to an Island called Sogisney passing betwixt it and the maine, with the wind at South and by East, our course was West and by South, being 85. miles from Owna riuer. Being past the said Island 10. miles, the wind came contrary, whereupon we returned to the Island of Sogisney, where we remained vntil the 29. day. 29 The 29. day we departed from Sogisney aforesayd, at 5. of the clocke in the afternoone, the wind at East northeast, and our course was Southwest and by west, passing by an Island called Anger, being 30. miles from Sogisney, and keeping on our course, we came by the headland of an Island called Abdon, being from the Island of Anger 15. miles, where we found many rocks: and if the great prouidence of God had not preserued vs, wee had there perished, being fallen amongst them in the night time, and our pilot none of the perfectest, which was contrary to his profession as we found it. But whosoeuer will trauell that way must either keepe hard aboord the shore, for that there is a chanell which goeth along the coast within the rocks, or els giue the headland a birth of 6. miles at the least, and so goe a seaboord all: for there are ledges of rocks that lie fiue miles from the headland. We gaue the headland a birth of 3. miles, notwithstanding there lay two rockes two miles to sea boord of vs, so that we were inclosed with them, and sate vpon the highest of them: but it pleased God to make it calme, and giue vs the day also, or els we had miscaried. 30 We departed from the headland of the Island of Abdon, at 4. of the clocke in the morning, directing our course West, and at 10. of the clocke before noone, we arriued at a monasterie named Solofky, which is 15. miles from Abdon. At this monasterie we continued vntill the 31. day of this moneth. We had here detracted vs by the chiefe monkes of the monasterie, their letter and house seale, and a seruant of theirs to conduct vs safely through the dangerous riuer of Owiga. The people of all those parts are wild, and speake another kind of language, and are for the most part all tenants to the monasterie. The effect of the letter was, that they should be ready to helpe and assist vs in all dangerous places, and carie our boats and goods ouer land in places needfull, as in deed they did, as hereafter shall appeare. Note, that at our being at the monasterie, there was no Abbot for the place as then chosen: for 15. dayes before our arriual there, the Abbot was sent for by the Emperour, and made Metropolitane of the realme, as he now is. The number of monkes belonging to the monasterie are at the least 200. 31 Wee departed from the monasterie of Solofky, as is aforesayde, to a faire stone house of theirs, which is 5. miles from the monasterie, lying from it South and by West. [Sidenote: August] 1 We departed from the Stone house at 3. of the clocke in the morning: our course was West for 60. versts, and then passing betwixt diuers and sundry rocks, with many small Islands round about vs for the space of 20 miles, keeping most commonly the same course still, we then shaped a new course, and yet sundry times shifting, [Sidenote: The riuer Owiga.] but we alwayes kept the Southwest, and neerest of all South southwest vntill we came within two miles of the entrance of the riuer Owiga where we were to beare in, West and by North. From the riuer Owiga, to the Islands and rocks before mentioned, are 20. miles. We arriued about 4. of the clocke in the after noone within the riuer of Owiga, at a place named Soroka, at which place we forsooke our barke or Lodia, and continued there in making prouision for small boates to carie vs vp the riuer vntill the 3. day of the same. 3 We departed from Soroka at two of the clocke in the afternoone, with 3. boats and 12. men to rowe, and set the foresaid boates vp the riuer of Owiga, which we hired. [Sidenote: The fall of a riuer.] We went this day 7. miles to a place called Ostroue, where we lay all night, but in the way 4. miles from Soroka, at a place where the water falleth from the rocks, as if it came steepe downe from a mountain, we were constrained to take out our goods and wares out of the said boats, and caused them to be caried a mile ouer land, and afterwards also had our boates in like sort caried or drawen ouer land by force of men which there dwelled, being tenants to the monasterie aforesaid. And when our boats were come to the place where our wares were laid, we lanched our boats and laded our wares againe, and went to the place before named, where we continued and remained that night. We departed from Ostroue in the morning before Sunne rising, rowing and setting vp the riuer 5. miles, where we came to a place whereas we were againe constrained to take out our wares, and to carie them and our boats three miles ouer land, so that with rowing, drawing and setting, we went this day 7. miles more to a place called Sloboday, where we lay all night. 5 We departed from Sloboday in the morning at Sunne rising, and at sixe of the clocke in the aftemoone, we came to a village called Paranda, which is from Sloboday 30. miles, where wee remained all that night. 6 We departed from Paranda at 6. of the clocke in the morning, and all that day what with setting and drawing our boats, we went but 11. miles, for we twise vnladed our wares, and drew our boats ouerland, in one place a mile and an halfe, in another place as it were the eight part of a mile, and so we came to a place called Voyets, where we taried all that night. 7 We departed from Voyets at 4. of the clocke in the morning, and so came to an Ozera or lake, called after the name of the riuer, and vnto a place called Quequenich, wee rowed all this day, and came thither by one of the clock in the afternoone, which is 25. miles from Voyets, and there we remained all night to hire men and boats to carie vs forward on our iourney. Here departed backe from vs the seruant which we had at the Monasterie, being sent by the monkes to go thus far with vs. And after that he had hired the boats and taken the mens names that should conduct vs, and giuen them charge to deliuer vs with all things in safetie, at a place being a litle towne called Pouensa, then hee departed from vs without taking any reward for his paines, for so he was charged and commanded by the monkes. [Sidenote: A lake very full of Islands.] 8 We departed from Quequenich at sunne rising, and all that day rowed vpon the lake amongst many Islands. The inhabitants doe there report that there are as many Islands in their lake, as there are dayes in the yeere. In the euening we came to a village named Tellekina, which is 60. miles from Quequenich. 9 We departed from Tellekina in the morning at 5. of the clocke, and so entring into a riuer, we went that day 13. miles. In one place we caried our boates and goods ouerland 3. miles. At euening we came to a place called Oreiche na maelay, where we lay all night. 10 Wee departed thence at 5. of the clocke in the morning, and so rowing, came to a place where the riuer ended, being 20 miles distant from the place where wee lay all night, at which place wee forsooke our boates and vnladed our wares, and sent a man to the towne of Pouensa, which was seuen mile ony for horses to cary vs and our wares to the said place. The horses came, and we laded our goods, and at sixe of the clocke in the afternoone wee arriued at the towne of Pouensa, with all things in safetie. [Sidenote: The famous lake of Onega.] This towne of Pouensa standeth within one mile lake of of the famous lake or Ozera of Onega, which is 320. miles long and in some places 70. miles ouer. But where it is narrowest it is 25. miles ouer, being fed with many goodly riuers which fall into it. Hard aboord the shore within 6. miles, you shall haue 40. and 45. fathoms of depth. Here it is to bee noted that from this place of Pouensa vnto the village of Soroka downe those dangerous riuers which wee came through, at no time of the yeere can or may any man cary or transport any goods that come from Nouogrod, or the Narue, and such other places: for in the Sommer it is impossible to cary downe any wares by reason of the great fals of water that doe descend from the rockes. Likewise in the Winter by reason of the great force and fall of waters which make so terrible raises, that in those places it neuer freezeth, but all such wares as come from Nouogrod to Pouensa, are transported by land to a place called Some in the Winter, which Some standeth on the sea side, as doth Soroka. The ready way from Pouensa by land to this place of Some, with the distance of miles I will shew hereafter. 12 We departed from Pouensa at 9. of the clocke in the morning, with 2. smal boats which we hired to cary vs to a place called Toluo vpon the lake of Onega, being 50 miles from Pouensa, where we arriued the 13. day in the morning, where wee bought a boate that caried vs and all our wares from thence to the Citie of Nouogrod. 14 We departed from Toluo at 3. of the clocke in the afternoone, and at the euening arriued at a certaine Island named Salasalma, vpon the said lake 7. miles from Toluo, and by reason of contrary windes we there taried vntill the 16. day of this moneth. 16 We departed from Salasalma, at 8. of the clocke in the morning, and came to an Island the 17. day in the morning, named Vorronia, where wee continued by reason of contrary winds, vntill the 21. day of the said moneth, and it is 60. miles from Salasalma. [Sidenote: S. Clement his Monasterie.] 21 We departed from Vorronia Island two houres before day, and arriued at S. Clements Monasterie at 2. of the clocke in the after noone, being from Vorronia 48. miles. 22 We departed from S. Clements Monasterie at the breake of the day, hauing a faire wind all a long the lake: we sailed without striking of saile vntil two houres within night, and then entred into a riuer called Swire, at a Monasterie called Vosnessino Christo, fiue miles from the entrance of the riuer, where we taried al night. It is from S. Clements Monastery 160. miles: the streame of that riuer went with vs. 23 Wee departed from Vosnessino Christo before Sunne rising, and valed downe the riuer sometime sailing, and sometime rowing, so that this day wee went 90. miles and lay at night at a place called Vassian. 24 Wee departed from Vassian at the breake of the day, and came to a place called Selucax [Marginal note: Or Sermaxe.], where we lay all night, and is 10. miles from Vassian. [Sidenote: The riuer of Volhuski. The lake of Ladeskai.] 25 We departed from Selucaxe at 4 of the clocke in the morning, and entred vpon the Lake of Ladiskaie, the winde being calme al that day sauing 3. hours, and then it was with vs, so that we sailed and rowed that day 10. miles, along vpon the said lake, and entred into the riuer of Volhuski, which riuer hath his beginning 20. miles aboue Nouogrod, and runneth through the midst of the Citie, and so falleth into this lake, which is farre longer then the lake of Onega, but it is not so broad. This lake falleth into the sea that commeth from the Sound: where any vessel or boat, hauing a good pilot, may goe through the Sound into England. As soone as we were entred into the riuer, we came to a Monasterie called S. Nicholas Medued, where we lay all that night. [Sidenote: The Monasterie of Gosnopoli.] 26 Wee departed from S. Nicholas Medued, at fiue of the clocke in the morning, rowing and drawing our boates all day, and came at night to another Monasterie called Gosnopoli, which is 30 miles from S. Nicholas Medued, where we lay all that night. 27 We departed from Gosnopoli at 6. of the clocke in the morning, and at euening came to a place called Moislaue, where we lay all night, being 46. miles from the Monasterie of Gosnopoli. 28 We departed from Moislaue, and the saide day at night came to a place called Grussina, 35. miles from Moislaue where we lodged. 29 Wee departed from Grussina in the morning, and the same day at euening came to a place called Petroe Suetoe, where we lay all night, being 40 miles from Grussina. [Sidenote: The citie of Nouogrod.] 30 We departed from Petroe Suetoe in the morning, and at two of the clock in the afternoone we arriued at the Citie of Nouogrod, being twentie miles from Petroe Suetoe. Here we found William Rowlie Agent to the company, who was there stayed with all his company, and was not licenced to depart thence for the Mosco, by reason that the plague was then in the Citie of Nouogrod. Vnto him we deliuered all the wares that wee brought from Colmogro, for by the way we sold not a peny worth, the people of the countrey euery where be so miserable. The right way to bring and transport wares from Nouogrod to Rose Island into S. Nicholas bay, where our Ships yeerely lade, with the distance of miles from place to place, is as followeth: 20 Miles from Nouogrod to Petroe Suetoe. 40 Miles from thence to Grusina. 35 Miles from thence to Moislaue. 46 Miles from thence to the Monasterie Gosnopoli. 15 Miles from thence to Ladega towne. 15 Miles from thence to Selunaz ouer the lake of Ladega, albeit there be many villages all along the lake. 180 Miles from Ladega towne vp the riuer of Swire, vnto the Monasterie of Vosnessino Christo, albeit there are many villages vpon the riuer: for within euery fiue or sixe miles you shall haue villages or small townes. 160 Miles from Vosnessino Christo to S. Clements Monastery, albeit there be many villages all along the lake of Onega. 48 Miles from thence to Voronia. 67 Miles from thence to Toluo towne: and there are diuers villages al along the lake where the carriers may lie, and haue meate for man and horse. 50 Miles from thence to Pouensa, where Onega lake endeth. The way from Pouensa to Some towne is this: 30 Miles from Pouensa to Mastlelina. 10 Miles from thence to Tellekina. 30 Miles from thence to Toluich. 35 Miles from thence to Carraich. 20 Miles from thence to Varnich. 10 Miles from thence to Ostrouo. 15 Miles from thence to Lapina. 20 Miles from thence to Some it selfe. Note, that from the Citie of Nouogrod vnto the towne of Some is 936. miles, and from the towne of Some vnto the Monasterie of S. Nicholas or Rose Island, ouer and against where our Ships do ride, is iust as many miles as is Soroka village from S. Nicholas, as the Russes doe accompt it, as also we do iudge it, namely 325. miles. So that from Nouogrod to S. Nicholas road, is by our accompt 1261. miles or versts. [Sidenote: Trauel by Sleds.] Furthermore it is to be noted that all such wares as shall be bought at Nouogrod, and sent to Some towne, must be sent by sled way in the Winter: for if any ware should be sent from Nouogrod by water in the spring of the yeere after the yce is gone, then must the said wares remaine at Pouensa towne al that Summer, by reason that in the Summer there is no way to goe from Pouensa vnto Some towne. At Pouensa there are many warehouses to be hired, so that if there were as much goods as ten ships could cary away, you might haue warehouses to put it in: but if there should remaine much ware all the Summer, to be caried in the Winter to Some towne, then horses are not easily to be gotten at that place to cary it thither: [Sidenote: 2000. Sleds belonging to one towne.] so that your wares once bought at Nouogrod, you musthaue cariers there to cary it to the towne of Some by Sleds, whereof you may there haue 2000. if you will, by the report of the Russes. For from Nouogrod yerely there go many Sleds in the Winter to fetche salt from Some, with carriers and emptie Sleds there to buy it, and to bring it to Nouogrod to sell it in the market or otherwise. [Sidenote: A good caueat for seasonable trauell.] From Nouogrod vnto Some towne you may haue a pood of wares carted for eight pence or nine pence: but in any wise your wares must bee sent from Nouogrod by the sixt of Ianuary, so that the wares may bee at Some by Candlemas, or soone after: for if your wares should tary by the way vntill the 15. of February, when the Sunne is of some power, then is it dangerous: for the heate of the Sunne in the day causeth the deepe lakes of Ladega, and specially of Onega to cleaue: and if there should come then a sudden thaw, as oftentimes in that time of the yeere doeth, then doe these lakes open and breake, whereby many men are lost, and both men and horse drowned, although other riuers do remaine frozen a long time after. In the towne of Some also there are many warehouses, whereof we cannot be destitute for the reposing of our wares, as also as many barkes as you wil to transport your wares from thence to S. Nicholas road, and that for three pence a poods caryage: so that from the Citie of Nouogrod vnto S. Nicholas road you may haue wares caried for two altines. The pood commeth vnto 23. altines the tunne. [Sidenote: Nouogrod within 180 miles of the Narue.] Prouided alwayes, that you buy your wares there your selfe, and send it thence: for there is no hope that the natiues will bring their wares from Nouogrod to Some, in hope to sell vnto vs, considering the great trade that they haue at the Narue, which is within 180. miles off them. Written by Thomas Southam a seruant to the company. * * * * * An Act for the corporation of Merchants aduenturers for the discouering of new trades, made in the eight yere of Queene Elizabeth. Anno 1566. Whereas diuers very good Subiects of this Realme of England in the latter end of the reigne of the late right high and mightie prince our Soueraigne Lord king Edward the sixt, at the gracious incouragement, and right good liking of the said king, and by his Maiesties liberall example, did at their aduenture, and to their exceeding great charges, for the glory of God, the honor and increase of the reuenues of the Crowne, and the common vtilitie of the whole Realme of England, set forth three ships for the discouery by Sea, of Isles, lands, territories, dominions, and Seigniories vnknowen, and by the Subiects of the sayd late king not commonly by seas frequented: and after that Almightie God had called to his mercie the said king, who died before the finishing and sealing of his most ample and gracious letters of priuiledges promised to the said Subiects, as wel in consideration of the said enterprise, as for diuers other respects it pleased our late soueraigne Q. Mary, at the humble suites of the same subiects, to graunt by her letters Patents vnder the great Seale of England, bearing date at Westminster the 26. day of February, in the second yeere of her raigne, for the considerations mentioned in the said letters Patents, to the saide subiects being specially named in the saide letters Patents, and to their successors, that they by the name of Merchants aduenturers of England, for the discouerie of lands, territories, Isles, dominions, and Seigniores vnknowen, and not before their late aduenture or enterprise, by seas or Nauigations commonly frequented, should be from thenceforth one body, and perpetual felowship and communalitie of themselues, both in deed and in name, and that same felowship and communaltie from thenceforth should and might haue one or two gouernours, foure Consuls, and 24. assistants, of the said fellowship and comminaltie of Merchants aduenturers, and that they by the name of the Gouernour, Consuls, assistants, felowship, and comminaltie of Merchants aduenturers, for the discouery of lands, territories, Isles, dominions, and Seigniories vnknowen by the seas and Nauigations, and not before their said late aduenture or enterprise, by Seas frequented, should or might be able in the lawe to implead and to be impleaded, to answere and to be answered, to defend, and to be defended, before whatsoeuer Iudge or Iustice temporall or spiritual, or other persons whatsoeuer, in whatsoeuer court or courts, and in all actions, real, personal, and mixt, and in euery of them, and in all plaints of Nouel descision, and also in all plaints, suites, quarrels, affaires, businesse, and demaunds whatsoeuer they be, touching and concerning the said felowship and comminaltie, and the affaires and businesse of the same only in as ample maner and forme, as any other corporation of this Realme might doe, giuing also, and granting vnto them by the said letters Patents, diners authorities, powers, iurisdictions, prehemmences, franchises, liberties and priuiledges, as by the same letters Patents more at large will appeare. And among other things mentioned in the said letters Patents, whereas one of the three ships, by the said fellowship before that time set foorth for the voyage of discouery aforesaid, named the Edward Bonauenture, had arriued within the Empire and dominion of the high and mightie Prince Lord Iohn Vasiliwich, Emperour of all Russia, Vlodimersky, great duke of Musky, &c. who receiued the Captaine and Merchants of the saide shippe very graciously, granting vnto them freely to traffique with his subiects in all kinde of Merchandizes, with diuers other gracious priuiledges and liberties: therefore the said late Queene by the same letters Patents, for her, her heires and successors, did graunt that all the maine lands, Isles, ports, hauens, creeks, and riuers of the said mighty Emperour of all Russia, and great duke of Mosco, &c. and all and singular other lands, dominions, territories, Isles, ports, hauens, creeks, riuers, armes of the seas, of al and euery other Emperour, king, prince, ruler, or gouernour whatsoeuer he or they be, before the said late aduenture or enterprise not knowen, or by the aforesaid merchants and subiects of the said king and Queene, by, the seas not commonly frequented, nor any part or parcel thereof, and lying Northwards, Northeastwards, or Northwestwards, as in the said letters patents is mentioned, should not be visited, frequented nor haunted by any the subiects of the said late Queene, other then of the said company and fellowship, and their successors, without expresse licence, agreement, and consent of the Gouerner, Consuls, and Assistants of the said felowship, and communaltie or the more part of them, in maner and forme, as is expressed in the saide letters patents, vpon paine of forfeiture and losse aswell of the ship and ships, with the appurtenances, as also of the goods, merchandizes, and things whatsoeuer they be, of those the subiects of the said late Queene not being of the saide fellowship and communaltie, which should attempt or presume to saile to any of those places, which then were, or after should happen to be found and traffiqued vnto, the one halfe of the same forfeiture to be to the vse of the said late Queene, her heires and successors, and the other halfe to be to the vse of the said felowship and communaltie, as by the same letters patents more plainly will appeare. Since the making of which letters patents, the said fellowship haue, to their exceeding great costes, losses and expences, not onely by their trading into the said dominions of the saide mightie prince of Russia, &c. found out conuenient way to saile into the saide dominions: but also passing thorow the same, and ouer the Caspian sea, haue discouered very commodious trades into Armenia, Media, Hyrcania, Persia, and other dominions in Asia minor, hoping by Gods grace to discouer also the countrey of Cathaia, and other regions very conuenient to be traded into by merchants of this realme, for the great benefite and commodities of the same. [Sidenote: This is meant for Alderman Bond the elder.] And forasmuch as diuers subiects of this realme, vnderstanding the premises, and perceiuing that now after the charge and trauel aforesaid, diuers wares and merchandizes are brought by the saide fellowship into this Realme, out of the dominions already discouered, which bee within this realme of good estimation, minding for their peculiar gaine, vtterly to decay the trade of the sayde fellowship, haue contrary to the tenor of the same letters patents, in great disorder traded into the dominions of the said mightie prince of Russia, &c. to the great detriment of this common wealth: And for that the name by which the saide felowship is incorporated by the letters patents aforesaid, is long, and consisteth of very many words: [Sidenote: English Merchants for discouery of new trades.] Therfore be it enacted by the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by authoritie of the same, that the said felowship, company, society and corporation made or created by the said letters patents, shal at al time and times from henceforth be incorporated, named and called only by the name of the fellowship of English merchants, for disouery of new trades, and by the same name for euer shall and may continue a perpetuall body incorporate in deede and name, and onely by the same name from henceforth, shall implead, and be impleaded, answere and be answered, defend and be defended, sue and bee sued, in whatsoeuer courts and places, and shall and may by the same name bee inabled to purchase, haue, holde, possesse, reteine, and enioy whatsoeuer manors, landes, tenements, rents, reuersions, seruices, and hereditaments not exceeding a hundred marks yeerly, not being holden of the Queenes matestie, her heires, or successors by knights seruice in Capite, and all goods, merchandizes, chattels, and other things whatsoeuer, and shall and may by the same name make and do all things as any other corporation may do, and also shall haue and enioy all and singular the liberties, priuiledges, iurisdictions, franchises, preheminences, powers, authorities, and things, and may doe and execute all other matters and things in the sayd letters patents mentioned, or in any wise conteined. And that no part nor parcell of the maine lands, Isles, ports, hauens, roades, creekes, riuers, armes of the seas of any Emperour, king, prince, ruler or gouernor whatsoeuer he or they be, before the said first enterprise made by the merchants, of the saide corporation, not knowen by the merchants and subiects of this Realme, or by them not commonly by seas frequented, and lying from the City of London Northwards, Northwestwards, or Northeastwards, nor any part or parcel of the maine lands, dominions, isles, ports, roades, hauens, creeks, armes of the Seas, that now be subiect to the said high and mightie prince Lord Iohn Vasiliwich, his heires, or successours, or to the Emperour, chiefe gouernour or ruler of the said country of Russia for the time being, his heires or successors, nor the countries of Armenia maior or minor, Media, Hyrcania, Persia, or the Caspian sea, nor any part of them shall be sailed or traffiqued vnto, visited, frequented, or haunted by any person being or that shalbe a subiect or denizen of this realme, by themselues, their factor or factors, or any other to their vse or commoditie, by any wayes or meanes, directly or indirectly, other then by the order, agreement, consent, or ratification of the gouernour, Consuls and assistants of the saide fellowship and comminaltie, or the more part of them, and their successors for the time being: vpon paine that euery person and persons offending in this behalfe, shall forfeit and loose, Ipso facto, euery such ship and ships, with the appurtenances, and all such goods, Merchandizes, and things whatsoeuer, as by any such person or persons shalbe by any wayes or meanes, directly or indirectly, prouided, caried, conducted, brought, or exchanged, in, at, to, through or from any of the places prohibited, as is aforesiade, contrary to the true intent of this statute: the one moietie of all which forfeitures to bee to our said souereigne Lady the Queenes Maiestie, her heires and successors, and the other moietie thereof to the sayde fellowship of English Merchants for discouery of newe trades, and their successors, to be seized and taken wheresoeuer they may be found, by any person or persons, to the vse of our said Souereigne Lady, her heires and successors, and of the said fellowship of English Merchants for discouery of newe trades, and of their successors, or the same or the value thereof to bee demaunded or sued for by the Queenes highnesse, her heires and successors, or by the saide fellowship of English Merchants for the discouery of newe trades, or their successors, or their atturney or atturneis, or by any person or persons being of the same fellowship of English Merchants for discouery of newe trades, or their successors in any court of Record, or in any other Court or courtes within this Realme, or els where, by Action of debt, action of detinue, bill, plaint, information, or otherwise: in which suite no essoine, protection, wager of lawe, or iniunction shal be allowed, for, or on the behalfe of the partie or parties defendant. Prouided alwayes, that whereas diuers Subiects of this Realme being not of the fellowship aforesaid, haue heretofore made aduentures to and from some of the places prohibited by the said letters patents, that the said subiects, their heires, executors, administrators and assignees, or any of them shall not be impeached, impleaded, troubled, sued, nor molested for the same in their goods or persons in any maner of wise, either by our saide souereigne Lady, her heires or successors, or the said fellowship, or their successors. Prouided also, that it shall be lawfull for any subiect of this Realme, hauing presently any shipping, goods, wares, or ready money, remayning at or in any place, of or within the dominion of the said mighty prince of Russia, or in any other of the places prohibited to be visited or traffiqued vnto by this statute or the said letters Patent, to fetch, brings and conuey the same, or cause the same to be brought or conueyed from thence by sea or otherwise, before the feast of S. Iohn Baptist, which shalbe in the yeere of our Lord God 1568. any thing, conteined in this statute, or in the said letters Patents to the contrary notwithstanding. Prouided also, that it shall be lawfull for any of the subiects of this Realme, to saile to the port, towne, territorie, or castle of Wardhouse, or to any of the coastes, townes, hauens, creekes, riuers, Islands, and land of Norway for trade of fishing or any other trade there vsed by the subiects of this Realme, any thing in this statute to the contrary notwithstanding. And for the better maintenance of the Nauie and Mariners of this Realme, be it prouided and inacted that it shall not be lawfull to the saide fellowship and company, nor to any of them to cary and transport, or cause to be caried any commodie of this Realme to their newe trade, but only in English ships, and to be sailed for the most part with English Mariners, nor also to bring into this Realme nor into Flanders from their saide new trade, any merchandizes, or other commodities but in English ships, and sailed for the most part by the English Mariners, on paine to forfeit for euery such offence two hundred pounds, whereof the one moietie shall be to the Queenes Maiestie, her heires and successors, the other moietie to the head officers of any port towne, hauing any hauen or harborough decayed, by what name soeuer they bee incorporate, to the reparation of such harborough, that will sue for the same in any Court of Record, by action, bill, plaint or information, wherein no essoine, protection, wager of lawe for the defendant shall be admitted or allowed. Prouided also, and be it enacted, that no maner of person or persons shall from henceforth carrie or transport, or cause to be carried or transported out of this Realme of England, any maner of clothes or karsies into any of the partes where the said fellowship and societie is priuiledged to trade by this Act, before the same clothes and karsies shall be all dressed, and for the most part died within this Realme vpon paine of forfeiture for euery such cloth and karsie, otherwise caried and transported, fiue pounds: the one halfe thereof to the Queenes Maiestie, her heires and successors, the other halfe to the Master and Wardens of the Cloth-workers in the Citie of London for the time being, by what name soeuer they be incorporate that will sue for the same. Prouided also that whensoeuer the said societie of company shall willingly withdraw, and discontinue wholy by the space of three yeeres in time of peace, the discharging of their merchandizes at the road of S. Nicholas bay in Russia, and doe not discharge their said merchandizes at some other port or roade lying on that North coast of Russia, or other territofie nowe subiect to the saide mightie prince of Russia, &c. hitherto by the subiects of this realme not commonly frequented, that then during the time of any such discontinuance and withdrawing, as is aforesaid, it shalbe lawful to all the subiects of this realme to trade to the Narue onely in English bottoms, any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding. Prouided also, that euery of the Queenes Maiesties Subiects inhabiting within the Citie of Yorke, the townes of Newcastle vpon Tine, Hull and of Boston, hauing continually traded the course of merchandize by the space of ten yeeres, and which before 25. of December that shalbe in Anno D. 1567. shal contribute, ioyne, and put in stocke, to, with, and amongst the said company, such summe and summes of money, as any of the said company, which hath throughly continued and contributed to the saide newe trade, from the yeere 1552. hath done, and before the saide 25. of December 1567. shall do for the furniture of one ordinary, full and intire portion, or share, and do in all things behaue himselfe as others of the said societie be bound to doe, and hereafter shall bee bound to do by the priuiledges, ordinances and statutes of the saide company, shall from the same 25. day of December 1567. be, and be accompted free, and as one of the said societie and company, and subiect to the priuiledges, ordinances and statutes of the saide company, reasonably made and to be made, any thing in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding. * * * * * A very briefe remembrance of a voyage made by M. Anthony Ienkinson, from London in Moscouia, sent from the Queenes Maiestie to the Emperour, in the yeere 1566. The fourth day of May in the yere aforesaid, I imbarked my selfe at Grauesend in the good ship called the Harry of London, and hauing had a prosperous voyage arriued at the bay of S. Nicholas in Russia the 10. day of Iuly following, and immediately I sent in post to the Emperor to aduertise of my comming, and traueiling then thorowe the countrey, I with my company came to the Mosco where the Emperour kept his court, the 23. of August and foorthwith gaue the Secretarie to vnderstand of my arriuall, who aduertised the Emperours Maiestie of it, and the first day of September, being a solemne feast among the Russes, I came before the Emperours Maiestie, sitting in his seate of honour, and hauing kissed his hand and done the Queenes Maiesties commendations, and deliuered her graces letters and present, he bad me to dinner, which I accepted, and had much honour done vnto me both then and all the time of my abode in Russia. END OF VOL III. 
40803	----	Transcriber's note: The original publication has been replicated faithfully except as noted at the end of the text. To preserve the alignment of tables and headers, this e-text presumes a mono-spaced font on the user's device, such as Courier New. Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). This volume consists of the completion of Part II, started in Volume XIII, and the complete Part III. THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER, and Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. XIV. AMERICA. PART III. Edinburgh: E. & G. GOLDSMID. 1890. Contents (Part II Continued) Virginia richly valued, by the description of the maine land of Florida, her next neighbour: out of the foure yeeres continuall trauell and discouerie, for aboue one thousand miles east and west, of Don Ferdinando de Soto and sixe hundred able men in his companie.--(_Continued._) 5 An extract of a letter of captaine Francis Vasques de Coronado, written to a Secretary of the right noble Don Antonio de Mendoça, viceroy of Nueua Espanna. Dated in Culiacan, the 8. of March 1539. 60 A Letter written by the most honourable Lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Vice-roy of Nueua Espanna, to the Emperours Maiestie. 63 A relation of the reuerend father Frier Marco de Niça, touching his discouery of the kingdome of Ceuola or Cibola, situate about 30. degrees of latitude, to the North of Nueua Espanna. 67 El viaie qve hizo Antonio de Espeio en el anno de ochenta y tres: el qual con sus companneros descubrieron vna tierra en que hallaron quinze prouincias todas llenas de pueblos, y de casas de quatro y cinco altos, a quien pusieron por nombre el Nueuo Mexico, por parecerse en muchas cosas al viejo. Esta à la parte del norte, y se cree que por ella, y por poblado, se puede venir hasta llegar a la tierra que llaman del labrador. 84 A briefe relation of two notable voyages, the first made by frier Augustin Ruyz a Franciscan, in the yeere 1581: the second by Antonio de Espejo in the yere 1583: who together with his company discouered a land wherein they found fifteene prouinces all full of townes, conteining houses of foure and fiue stories high, which they named New Mexico; for that in many respects it resembleth the prouince of olde Mexico. This land is situate to the North of Nueua Espanna, and stretcheth from 24 to 34 degrees and better: by the which and by other inhabited lands it is thought that men may trauell euen to Terra de Labrador. Taken out of the history of China written by Frier Iuan Gonzales de Mendoça, and printed in Madrid 1586. 100 A letter of Bartholomew Cano from Mexico the 30. of May 1590. to Francis Hernandes of Siuil, concerning the speedy building of two strong Forts in S. Iohn de Vllua, and in Vera Cruz, as also touching a notable new and rich discouery of Cibola or New Mexico 400. leagues Northwest of Mexico. 115 The relation of Francis Vasquez de Coronado, Captaine general of the people which were sent in the name of the Emperours maiestie to the Countrey of Cibola newly discouered, which he sent to Don Antonio de Mendoça Viceroy of Mexico, of such things as happened in his voyage from 22. of Aprill in the yeere 1540. which departed from Culiacan forward, and of such things as hee found in the Countrey which he passed. 117 The foresayd Francis Lopez de Gomara in his generall historie of the West Indies, Chap. 215. writeth in maner following of certaine great and strange beasts neuer seene nor heard of in our knowen world of Asia, Europe, and Africa: which somewhat resembling our oxen, hauing high bunches on their backes like those on the backes of Camels, are therefore called by him Vacas corcobados, that is to say, Crooke-backed oxen, being very deformed and terrible in shewe, and fierce by nature: which notwithstanding for foode, apparell, and other necessarie vses, are most seruiceable and beneficiall to the inhabitants of those countreys. He reporteth also in the same chapter of certaine strange sheepe as bigge as horses, and of dogs which vse to carie burthens of 50. pound weight vpon their backes. 136 The voyage of Robert Tomson Marchant, into Noua Hispania in the yeere 1555. with diuers obseruations concerning the state of the Countrey: And certaine accidents touching himselfe. 138 A voyage made by M. Roger Bodenham to S. Iohn de Vllua in the bay of Mexico, in the yeere 1564. 155 A notable discourse of M. Iohn Chilton, touching the people, maners, mines, cities, riches, forces, and other memorable things of New Spaine, and other prouinces in the West Indies, seene and noted by himselfe in the time of his trauels, continued in those parts, the space of seuenteene or eighteene yeeres. 156 A relation of the commodities of Noua Hispania, and the maners of the inhabitants, written by Henry Hawkes merchant, which liued fiue yeeres in the sayd countrey, and drew the same at the request of M. Richard Hakluyt Esquire of Eton in the county of Hereford, 1572. 170 A discourse written by one Miles Philips Englishman, one of the company put on shoare Northward of Panuco, in the West Indies, by M. Iohn Hawkins 1568. conteining many special things of that countrey and of the Spanish gouernment, but specially of their cruelties vsed to our Englishmen and amongst the rest to himselfe for the space of 15 or 16 yeres together, vntil by good and happy means he was deliuered from their bloody hands, and returned into his owne Countrey. An. 1582. 187 The trauailes of Iob Hortop, which Sir Iohn Hawkins set on land within the bay of Mexico, after his departure from the Hauen of S. Iohn de Vllua in Nueua Espanna, the 8. of October 1568. 226 A relation of the Hauen of Tecuanapa, a most conuenient place for building of ships, situate vpon the South sea not farre from Nicaragua, which was sent vnto the viceroy of Mexico or to the king of Spaine: wherein are described the riuers of Ometepec, Tlacamama, and Tlacolula falling into the said Hauen, with the townes, people, and mountaines adioyning to the said riuers, and other things fit for the building and victualling of ships. 244 A briefe relation of two sundry voyages made by the worshipful M. William Haukins of Plimmouth, father to Sir Iohn Haukins knight, late Treasurer of her Majesties Nauie, in the yeere 1530 and 1532. 250 An ancient voyage of M. Robert Reniger and M. Thomas Borey to Brasil in the yeere of our Lord 1540. 251 A voyage of one Pudsey to Baya in Brasil anno 1542. 252 A letter written to M. Richard Staper by Iohn Whithal from Santos in Brasil, the 26. of Iune 1578. 252 A copie of the letters of the Aduenturers for Brasill sent to Iohn Whithall dwelling in Santos, by the Minion of London, Anno 1580. the 24. of October in London. 256 Certaine notes of the voyage to Brasil with the Minion of London aforesaid, in the yere 1580. written by Thomas Grigs Purser of the said ship. 258 A letter of Francis Suares to his brother Diego Suares dwelling in Lisbon, written from the riuer of Ienero in Brasill in Iune 1596. concerning the exceeding rich trade newly begunne betweene that place and Peru, by the way of the Riuer of Plate, with small barks of 30. and 40. tunnes. 263 The well gouerned and prosperous voyage of M. Iames Lancaster, begun with three ships and a galley-frigat from London in October 1594, and intended for Fernambuck, the porte-towne of Olinda in Brasil. In which voyage (besides the taking of nine and twenty ships and frigats) he surprized the sayd port-towne, being strongly fortified and manned; and held possession thereof thirty dayes together (notwithstanding many bolde assaults of the enemy both by land and water) and also prouidently defeated their dangerous and almost ineuitable fireworks. Heere he found the cargazon or freight of a rich East Indian carack; which together with great abundance of sugars, Brasil-wood, and cotton he brought from thence; lading therewith fifteene sailes of tall ships and barks. 266 A speciall letter written from Feliciano Cieça de Carualsho the Gouernour of Paraiua in the most Northerne part of Brasil, 1597, to Philip the second king of Spaine, answering his desire touching the conquest of Rio Grande, with the relation of the besieging of the castle of Cabodelo by the Frenchmen, and of the discouerie of a rich siluer mine and diuerse other important matters. 283 A special note concerning the currents of the sea betweene the Cape of Buena Esperança and the coast of Brasilia, giuen by a French Pilot to Sir Iohn Yorke knight, before Sebastian Cabote; which Pilot had frequented the coasts of Brasilia eighteene voyages. 290 A report of a Voyage of two Englishmen in the company of Sebastian Cabota, intended for the Malucos by the Streights of Magellan, but perfourmed onely to the riuer of Plate in April 1527. Taken out of the information of M. Robert Thorne to Doctor Ley Ambassador for King Henry the eight, to Charles the Emperour, touching the discouery of the Malucos by the North. 306 An extract out of the discourse of one Lopez Vaz a Portugal, touching the fight of M. Fenton with the Spanish ships, with a report of the proceeding of M. Iohn Drake after his departing from him to the riuer of Plate. 307 A ruttier which declareth the situation of the coast of Brasil from the Isle of Santa Catelina vnto the mouth of the riuer of Plata, and all along vp within the sayd riuer, and what armes and mouthes it hath to enter into it, as farre as it is nauigable with small barks. 310 VOL. XIV. PART III. A relation of the discouery, which in the Name of God the Fleete of the right noble Fernando Cortez Marques of the Vally, made with three ships; The one called Santa Agueda of 120. tunnes, the other the Trinitie of 35. tunnes, and the thirde S. Thomas of the burden of 20. tunnes. Of which Fleete was Captaine the right worshipfull knight Francis de Vlloa borne in the Citie of Merida. Taken out of the third volume of the voyages gathered by M. Iohn Baptista Ramusio. 317 The true and perfect description of a voyage performed and done by Francisco de Gualle a Spanish Captaine and Pilot, for the Vice-roy of New Spaine, from the hauen of Acapulco in New Spaine, to the Islands of the Luçones or Philippinas, vnto the Hauen of Manilla, and from thence to the Hauen of Macao in China, and from Macao backe againe to Acapulco, accomplished in the yeere of our Lord, 1584. 378 The relation of the nauigation and discouery which Captaine Fernando Alarchon made by the order of the right honourable Lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Viceroy of New Spaine, dated in Colima, an hauen of New Spaine. 388 An extract of a Spanish letter written from Pueblo de los Angeles in Nueua Espanna in October 1597, touching the discouerie of the rich Isles of California, being distant eight dayes sayling from the maine. 421 The course which Sir Francis Drake held from the hauen of Guatulco in the South sea on the backe side of Nueua Espanna, to the North-west of California as far as fourtie three degrees: and his returne back along the said Coast to thirtie eight degrees: where finding a faire and goodly hauen, he landed, and staying there many weekes, and discouering many excellent things in the countrey and great shewe of rich minerall matter, and being offered the dominion of the countrey by the Lord of the same, hee tooke possession thereof in the behalfe of her Maiestie, and named it Noua Albion. 421 Of the large, rich, and beautifull empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden citie of Manoa (which the spaniards call El Dorado) and the prouinces of Emeria, Aromaia, Amapaia, and other countries, with their riuers adioyning. Performed in the yeere 1595 by Sir Walter Ralegh Knight, captaine of her Maiesties Guard, Lorde Warden of the Stanneries, and Her Highnesse Lieutenant Generall of the countie of Corne-Wall. 428 NAUIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOUERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN AMERICA. (Continuation of Part II.) Virginia richly valued, by the description of the maine land of Florida, her next neighbour: out of the foure yeeres continuall trauell and discouerie, for aboue one thousand miles east and west, of Don Ferdinando de Soto and sixe hundred able men in his companie.--(_Continued._) Chap. XXV. How the Gouernour departed from Pacaha to Quigaute, and to Coligoa, and came to Cayas. The Gouernour rested in Pacaha fortie daies. In all which time the two Caciques serued him with great store of fish, mantles and skinnes, and stroue who should doe him greatest seruice. At the time of his departure, the Cacique of Pacaha gaue him two of his sisters, saying that in signe of loue that hee might remember him, he should take them for his wiues: the ones name was Macanoche, and the others Mochila; they were well proportioned, tall of bodie, and well fleshed. Macanoche was of a good countenance, and in her shape and physiognimie looked like a Ladie; the other was strongly made. The Casiqui of Casqui commanded the bridge to be repaired, and the Gouernour returned through his Country, and lodged in a field neere his towne, whither hee came with great store of fish, and two women, which hee exchanged with two Christians for shirts. He gaue vs a guide and men for carriages. The Gouernour lodged at a towne of his, and the next day at another neere a Riuer, whither he caused canoes to be brought for him to passe ouer, and with his leaue returned. The Gouernour tooke his iourney toward Quigaute. The fourth of August, he came to the towne, where the Cacique vsed to keepe his residencie: on the way he sent him a present of many mantles and skinnes, and not daring to stay for him in the towne, he absented himselfe. The towne was the greatest that was seene in Florida. The Gouernour and his people lodged in the one halfe of it; and within few daies, seeing the Indians became liars, he commanded the other halfe to be burned, because it should not bee a shelter for them, if they came to assault him by night, nor an hindrance to his horsemen for the resisting of them. There came an Indian very well accompanied with many Indians, saying, that he was the Cacique. He deliuered him ouer to the men of his guard to look vnto him. There went and came many Indians, and brought mantles and skinnes. The counterfeit Cacique, seeing so little opportunitie to execute his euill thought, as hee went one day abroad talking with the Gouernour, he shewed him such a paire of heeles, that there was no Christian that could ouertake him, and he leaped into the Riuer, which was a crossebow shot from the towne: and assoone as hee was on the other side, many Indians that were thereabout making a great crie began to shoote. [Sidenote: Coligoa neere to certaine mountaines Northwest.] The Gouernour passed presently ouer to them with horsemen and footemen, but they durst not tarrie for him. Going forward on his way, hee came to a towne where the people were fled, and a little further to a lake, where the horses could not passe, and on the otherside were many women. The footemen passed, and tooke many of them, and much spoile. The Gouernour came to the Camp: And that night was a spie of the Indians taken by them of the watch. The Gouernour asked him, whether he would bring him where the Cacique was? he said, he would. And he went presently to seeke him with twentie horsemen, and fiftie footemen: and after he had sought him a day, and an halfe, hee found him in a strong wood: And a souldiour not knowing him, gaue him a wound on the head; and he cried out, that he should not kill him, saying, that he was the Cacique: so he was taken, and an hundred and fortie of his men with him. The Gouernour came againe to Quigaute, and willed him to cause his men to come to serue the Christians: and staying some daies for their comming, and seeing they came not, he sent two Captaines, euery one his way on both sides of the Riuer with horsemen and footemen. They tooke many men and women. Now seeing the hurt which they sustained for their rebellion, they came to see what the Gouernour would command them, and passed to and fro many times, and brought presents of cloth and fish. The Cacique and his two wiues were in the lodging of the Gouernour loose, and the halbardiers of his guard did keepe them. The Gouernour asked them which way the Countrie was most inhabited? They said, that toward the South downe the Riuer, were great townes and Caciques, which commanded great Countries, and much people: And that toward the Northwest there was a Prouince neere to certaine mountaines, that was called Coligoa. The Gouernour and all the rest thought good to goe first to Coligoa: saying, that peraduenture the mountains would make some difference of soile, and that beyond them there might be some gold or siluer: As for Quigaute, Casqui, and Pacaha, they were plaine Countries, fat grounds, and full of good medowes on the Riuers, where the Indians sowed large fields of Maiz. From Tascaluca to Rio grande, or the great Riuer, is about 300. leagues: it is a very low Countrie, and hath many lakes. From Pacaha to Quigaute may bee an hundred leagues. The Gouernour left the Cacique of Quigaute in his owne towne: And an Indian, which was his guide, led him through great woods without any way seuen daies iournie through a desert, where, at euery lodging, they lodged in lakes and pooles in verie shold water; there were such store of fish, that they killed them with cudgils; and the Indians which they carried in chaines, with the mud troubled the waters, and the fish being therewith, as it were astonied, came to the top of the water, and they tooke as much as they listed. The Indians of Coligoa had no knowledge of the Christians, and when they came so neere the towne, that the Indians saw them, they fled vp a Riuer, which passed neere the towne, and some leaped into it; but the Christians went on both sides of the Riuer, and tooke them. There were many men and women taken, and the Cacique with them. And by his commandement within three daies came many Indians with a present of mantles and Deeres skinnes, and two oxe hides: And they reported, that 5. or 6. leagues from thence toward the North, there were many of these oxen, and that because the Countrie was cold, it was euill inhabited. That the best Countrie which they knew, the most plentifull, and most inhabited, was a Prouince called Cayas, lying toward the South. From Quiguate to Coligoa may be 40. leagues. This towne of Coligoa stood at the foote of an hill, on the bank of a meane Riuer, of the bignesse of Cayas, the Riuer that passeth by Estremadura. It was a fat soile and so plentifull of Maiz, that they cast out the old, to bring in the new. There was also great plentie of French beanes and pompions. The French beanes were greater, and better than those of Spaine, and likewise the pompions, and being roasted, they haue almost the taste of chesnuts. The Cacique of Coligoa gaue a guide to Cayas, and staied behind in his owne towne. Wee trauelled fiue daies, and came to the Prouince of Palisema. The house of the Cacique was found couered with Deeres skinnes of Diuers colours and works drawne in them, and with the same in manner of carpets was the ground of the house couered. The Cacique left it so, that the Gouernour might lodge in it, in token that he sought peace and his friendship. But hee durst not tarrie his comming. The Gouernour, seeing he had absented himselfe, sent a Captaine with horsemen and footemen to seeke him. Hee found much people, but by reason of the roughnesse of the Countrie, he tooke none saue a few women and children. The towne was little and scattering, and had very little Maiz. For which cause the Gouernour speedilie departed from thence. Hee came to another towne called Tatalicoya, hee carried with him the Cacique thereof, which guided him to Cayas. From Tatalicoya are foure daies iournie to Cayas. When hee came to Cayas, and saw the towne scattered; hee thought they had told him a lie, and that it was not the Prouince of Cayas, because they had informed him that it was well inhabited: He threatned the Cacique, charging him to tell him where hee was: and he and other Indians which were taken neere about that place, affirmed that this was the towne of Cayas, and the best that was in that Countrie, and that though the houses were distant the one from the other, yet the ground that was inhabited was great, and that there was great store of people, and many fields of Maiz. The towne was called Tanico: he pitched his Campe in the best part of it neere vnto a Riuer. The same day that the Gouernour came thither, he went a league farther with certaine horsemen, and without finding any people, hee found many skinnes in a pathway, which the Cacique had left there, that they might bee found, in token of peace. For so is the custome in that Countrie. Chap. XXVI. How the Gouernour discouered the Prouince of Tulla, and what happened vnto him. The Gouernour rested a moneth in the Prouince of Cayas. In which time the horses fattened and thriued more, then in other places in a longer time, with the great plentie of Maiz and the leaues thereof, which I thinke was the best that hath been seene, and they dranke of a lake of very hot water, and somewhat brackish, and they dranke so much, that it swelled in their bellies when they brought them from the watering. Vntill that time the Christians wanted salt, and there they made good store, which they carried along with them. The Indians doe carrie it to other places to exchange it for skinnes and mantles. They make it along the Riuer, which when it ebbeth, leaueth it vpon the vpper part of the sand. And because they cannot make it, without much sand mingled with it, they throw it into certaine baskets which they haue for that purpose, broad at the mouth, and narrow at the bottom, and set it in the aire vpon a barre, and throw water into it, and set a small vessell vnder it, wherein it falleth: "Being strained and set to boile vpon the fire, when the water is sodden away, the salt remaineth in the bottome of the pan." On both sides of the Riuer the Countrie was full of sowne fields, and there was store of Maiz. The Indians durst not come ouer where wee were: and when some of them shewed themselues, the souldiers that saw them called vnto them; then the Indians passed the Riuer, and came with them where the Gouernor was. He asked them for the Cacique. They said, that he remained quiet, but that he durst not shew himselfe. The Gouernour presently sent him word, that he should come vnto him, and bring him a guide and an interpretour for his iournie, if he made account of his friendship: and if he did not so, he would come himselfe to seeke him, and that it would be the worse for him. Hee waited three daies, and seeing he came not, he went to seeke him, and brought him prisoner with 150. of his men. He asked him whether hee had notice of any great Cacique, and which way the Countrie was best inhabited. Hee answered, that the best Countrie thereabout was a Prouince toward the South, a day and an halfes iournie, which was called Tulla; and that he could giue him a guide, but no interpretour, because the speech of that Countrie was different from his, and because he and his ancestors had alwaies warres with the Lords of that Prouince: therefore they had no commerce, nor vnderstood one anothers language. Immediatly the Gouernour with certaine horsemen, and 50. footemen, departed toward Tulla, to see if the Countrie were such, as hee might passe through it with all his companie: and assoone as hee arriued there, and was espied of the Indians, the Countrie gathered together, and assoone as 15. or 20. Indians could assemble themselues, they set vpon the Christians: and seeing that they did handle them shrewdly, and that the horsemen ouertooke them when they fled, they gat vp into the tops of their houses, and sought to defend themselues with their arrowes: and being beaten downe from one, they gat vp vpon another. And while our men pursued some, others set vpon them another way. Thus the skirmish lasted so long, that the horses were tired, and they could not make them runne. The Indians killed there one horse, and some were hurt. There were 15. Indians slaine there, and 40. women and boies were taken prisoners. For whatsoeuer Indian did shoot at them, if they could come by him, they put him to the sword. The Gouernour determined to returne toward Cayas, before the Indians had time to gather a head; and presently that euening, going part of the night to leaue Tulla, he lodged by the way, and the next day came to Cayas: and within three daies after he departed thence toward Tulla with all his companie: He carried the Cacique along with him, and among all his men, there was not one found that could vnderstand the speech of Tulla. He staied three daies by the way, and the day that he came thither, he found the towne abandoned: for the Indians durst not tarrie his comming. But assoone as they knew that the Gouernour was in Tulla, the first night about the morning watch, they came in two squadrons two seuerall waies, with their bowes and arrowes, and long staues like pikes. Assoone as they were descried, both horse and foot sallied out vpon them, where many of the Indians were slaine: And some Christians and horses were hurt: Some of the Indians were taken prisoners, whereof the Gouernour sent sixe to the Cacique, with their right hands and noses cut off: and sent him word, that if he came not to him to excuse and submit himselfe, that hee would come to seeke him, and that hee would doe the like to him, and as many of his as hee could find, as hee had done to those which hee had sent him: and gaue him three daies respit for to come. And this he gaue them to vnderstand by signes, as well as hee could, for there was no interpretour. At the three daies end, there came an Indian laden with Oxe hides. He came weeping with great sobs, and comming to the Gouernour cast himselfe downe at his feet: He tooke him vp, and he made a speech, but there was none that vnderstood him. The Gouernour by signes commanded him, to returne to the Cacique, and to will him, to send him an interpretor, which could vnderstand the men of Cayas. The next day came three Indians laden with oxe hides; and within three daies after came 20. Indians, and among them one that vnderstood them of Cayas: Who, after a long oration of excuses of the Cacique, and praises of the Gouernour, concluded with this, that he and the other were come thither on the Caciques behalfe, to see what his Lordship would command him to doe, for he was readie at his commandement. The Gouernour and all his companie were verie glad. For in no wise could they trauell without an interpretour. The Gouernour commanded him to be kept safe, and bad him tell the men that came with him, that they should returne to the Cacique, and signifie vnto him, that he pardoned him for that which was past, and thanked him much for his presents and interpretour, which he had sent him, and that he would bee glad to see him, and that he should come the next day to talke with him. [Sidenote: The Cacique of Tulla.] After three daies, the Cacique came, and 80. Indians with him: and himselfe and his men came weeping into the Camp, in token of obedience and repentance for the errour passed, after the manner of that Countrie: He brought a present of many oxe hides: which, because the Countrie was cold, were verie profitable, and serued for couerlets, because they were very soft, and wolled like sheepe. Not farre from thence toward the North were many oxen. [Sidenote: Gomara Histor. Gener. cap. 215.] The Christians saw them not, nor came into the Countrie where they were, because those parts were euil inhabited, and had small store of Maiz where they were bred. The Cacique of Tulla made an oration to the Gouernour, wherein he excused himselfe, and offered him his Countrie, subiects, and person. Aswell this Cacique as the others, and all those which came to the Gouernour on their behalfe, deliuered their message or speech in so good order, that no oratour could vtter the same more eloquentlie. Chap. XXVII. How the Gouernour went from Tulla to Autiamque, where he passed the winter. The Gouernour enformed himselfe of all the Countrie round about: and vnderstood, that toward the West was a scattered dwelling, and that toward the Southeast were great townes, especially in a Prouince called Autiamque, tenne daies iournie from Tulla; which might be about 80. leagues; and that it was a plentifull Countrie of Maiz. And because winter came on, and they could not trauell two or three moneths in the yeere for cold, waters, and snow: and fearing, that if they should stay so long in the scattered dwelling, they could not be susteined; and also because the Indians said, that neere to Autiamque was a great water, and according to their relation, the Gouernour thought it was some arme of the Sea: And because he now desired to send newes of himselfe to Cuba, that some supplie of men and horses might be sent vnto him: (for it was aboue three yeeres, since Donna Isabella, which was in Hauana, or any other person in Christendome had heard of him, and by this time he had lost 250. men, and 150. horses) he determined to winter in Autiamque, and the next spring, to goe to the sea coast, and make two brigantines, and send one of them to Cuba, and the other to Nueua Espanna, and that which went in safetie, might giue newes of him: Hoping with the goods which he had in Cuba, to furnish himselfe againe, and to attempt the discouery and conquest toward the West: for he had not yet come where Cabeça de Vaca had been. [Sidenote: Quipana, fiue daies iournie from Tulla.] Thus hauing sent away the two Caciques of Cayas and Tulla, he tooke his iournie toward Autiamque: Hee trauelled fiue daies ouer very rough mountaines, and came to a towne called Quipana, where no Indians could be taken for the toughnesse of the Countrie: and the towne being betweene hilles, there was an ambush laid, wherewith they tooke two Indians; which told them, that Autiamque was sixe daies iournie from thence, and that their was another Prouince toward the South, eight daies iournie off, plentiful of Maiz, and very well peopled, which was called Guahate. But because Autiamque was neerer, and the most of the Indians agreed of it, the Gouernour made his iournie that way. In three daies he came to a towne called Anoixi. He sent a Captaine before with 30. horsemen, and 50. footemen, and tooke the Indians carelesse, hee tooke many men and women prisoners. Within two daies after the Gouernour came to another towne called Catamaya, and lodged in the fields of the towne. Two Indians came with a false message from the Cacique to know his determination. Hee bad them tell their Lord, that hee should come and speake with him. The Indians returned and came no more, nor any other message from the Cacique. The next day the Christians went to the towne, which was without people: they tooke as much Maiz as they needed. That day they lodged in a wood, and the next day they came to Autiamque. [Sidenote: Autiamque sixe daies iournie from Quipana.] They found much Maiz laid vp in store, and French beanes, and walnuts, and prunes, great store of all sorts. They tooke some Indians which were gathering together the stuffe which their wiues had hidden. This was a champion Countrie, and well inhabited. The Gouernour lodged in the best part of the towne, and commanded presently to make a fense of timber round about the Campe distant from the houses, that the Indians might not hurt them without by fire. And measuring the ground by pases, hee appointed euery one his part to doe according to the number of Indians which he had: presently the timber was brought by them: and in three daies there was an inclosure made of very hie and thicke posts thrust into the ground, and many railes laid acrosse. Hard by this towne passed a Riuer, that came out of the Prouince of Cayas: and aboue and beneath it was very well peopled. Thither came Indians on the Caciques behalfe with a present of mantles and skinnes; and an halting Cacique, subiect to the Lord of Autiamque, Lord of a towne called Tietiquaquo, came many times to visit the Gouernour, and to bring him presents of such as hee had. The Cacique of Autiamque sent to know of the Gouernour, how long time hee meant to stay in this Countrie? And vnderstanding that he meant to stay aboue three daies, he neuer sent any more Indians, nor any other message, but conspired with the lame Cacique to rebell. Diuers inrodes were made, wherein there were many men and women taken, and the lame Cacique among the rest. The Gouernour respecting the seruices which he had receiued of him, reprehended and admonished him, and set him at libertie, and gaue him two Indians to carrie him in a chaire vpon their shoulders. The Cacique of Autiamque desiring to thrust the Gouernour out of his Countrie, set spies ouer him. And an Indian comming one night to the gate of the inclosure, a soldier that watched espied him, and stepping behind the gate, as he came in, he gaue him such a thrust, that he fell downe; and so he carried him to the Gouernour: and as he asked him wherefore he came, not being able to speake, hee fell downe dead. [Sidenote: Great prouidence.] The night following the Gouernour commanded a souldiour to giue the alarme, and to say that he had seene Indians, to see how ready they would be to answere the alarme. And hee did so sometimes as well there, as in other places, when he thought that his men were carelesse, and reprehended such as were slacke. And as well for this cause, as in regard of doing their dutie, when the alarme was giuen, euery one sought to be the first that should answere. They staied in Autiamque three moneths with great plentie of Maiz, French beanes, Walnuts, Prunes, and Conies: which vntill that time they knew not how to catch. And in Autiamque the Indians taught them how to take them: which was, with great springes, which lifted vp their feete from the ground: And the snare was made with a strong string, whereunto was fastened a knot of a cane, which ran close about the neck of the conie, because they should not gnaw the string. They tooke many in the fields of Maiz, especiallie when it freesed or snowed. The Christians staied there one whole moneth so inclosed with snow, that they went not out of the towne: and when they wanted firewood, the Gouernour with his horsemen going and coming many times to the wood, which was two crossebow shot from the towne, made a pathway, whereby the footemen went for wood. In this meane space, some Indians which went loose, killed many conies with their giues, and with arrowes. These conies were of two sorts, some were like those of Spaine, and the other of the same colour and fashion, and as big as great Hares, longer, and hauing greater loines. Chap. XXVIII. How the Gouernour went from Autiamque to Nilco, and from thence to Guacoya. Vpon Monday the sixt of March 1542, the Gouernour departed from Autiamque to seeke Nilco, which the Indians said was neere the Great riuer, with determination to come to the Sea, and procure some succour of men and horses: for hee had now but three hundred men of warre, and fortie horses, and some of them lame, which did nothing but helpe to make vp the number: and for want of iron they had gone aboue a yeere vnshod: and because they were vsed to it in the plaine countrie, it did them no great harme. [Sidenote: The death of Iohn Ortiz, and the great misse of him being their interpretour.] Iohn Ortiz died in Autiamque; which grieued the Gouernour very much: because that without an Interpretour hee feared to enter farre into the land, where he might be lost. From thence forward a youth that was taken in Cutifachiqui did serue for Interpretour, which had by that time learned somewhat of the Christians language. The death of Iohn Ortiz was so great a mischiefe for the discouering inward, or going out of the land, that to learne of the Indians, that which in foure words hee declared, they needed a whole day with the youth: and most commonly hee vnderstood quite contrarie that which was asked him: whereby it often happened that the way that they went one day, and sometimes two or three daies, they turned backe, and went astray through the wood here and there. The Gouernour spent ten daies in trauelling from Autiamque to a prouince called Ayays; and came to a towne that stood neere the Riuer that passeth by Cayas and Autiamque. There hee commanded a barge to be made, wherewith he passed the Riuer. [Sidenote: Great snow about the twentieth of March.] When he had passed the Riuer there fell out such weather, that foure daies he could not trauell for snow. Assoone as it gaue ouer snowing, hee went three daies iourney through a Wildernesse, and a countrie so low, and so full of lakes and euill waies, that hee trauelled one time a whole day in water, sometimes knee deepe, sometimes to the stirrup, and sometimes they swamme. He came to a towne called Tutelpinco, abandoned, and without Maiz: there passed by it a lake, that entered into the riuer, which carried a great streame and force of water. Fiue Christians passing ouer it in a periagua, which the Gouernour had sent with a Captaine, the periagua ouerset: some tooke hold on it, some on the trees that were in the lake. One Francis Sebastian, an honest man of Villa noua de Barca Rota, was drowned there. The Gouernour went a whole day along the lake seeking passage, and could finde none, nor any way that did passe to the other side. Comming againe at night to the towne hee found two peaceable Indians, which shewed him the passage, and which way hee was to goe. There they made of canes and of the timber of houses thatched with canes, rafts wherewith they passed the lake. They trauelled three daies, and came to a towne of the territorie of Nilco, called Tianto. There they tooke thirtie Indians, and among them two principall men of this towne. The Gouernour sent a Captaine with horsemen and footmen before to Nilco, because the Indians might haue no time to carrie away the provision. They passed through three or foure great townes; and in the towne where the Cacique was resident, which was two leagues from the place where the Gouernour remained, they found many Indians with their bowes and arrowes, in manner as though they would haue staied to fight, which did compasse the towne; and assoone as they saw the Christians come neere them without misdoubting them, they set the Caciques house on fire, and fled ouer a lake that passed neere the towne, through which the horses could not passe. The next day being Wednesday the 29. of March the Gouernour came to Nilco: he lodged with all his men in the Caciques towne, which stood in a plaine field, which was inhabited for the space of a quarter of a league: and within a league and halfe a league were other very great townes, wherein was great store of Maiz, of French beanes, of Walnuts, and Prunes. [Sidenote: The best Countrie of Florida.] This was the best inhabited countrie, that was seene in Florida, and had most store of Maiz, except Coca, and Apalache. There came to the campe an Indian, accompanied with others, and in the Caciques name gaue the Gouernour a mantle of Marterns skinnes, and a cordon of perles. The Gouernour gaue him a few small Margarites, which are certaine beades much esteemed in Peru, and other things, wherewith he was very well contented. He promised to returne within two daies, but neuer came againe: but on the contrarie the Indians came by night in canoes, and carried away all the Maiz they could, and made them cabins on the other side of the Riuer in the thickest of the wood, because they might flee if wee should goe to seeke them. The Gouernour seeing hee came not at the time appointed, commanded an ambush to be laid about certaine store-houses neere the lake, whither the Indians came for Maiz: where they tooke two Indians, who told the Gouernour, that hee which came to visit him, was not the Cacique, but was sent by him vnder pretence to spie whether the Christians were carelesse, and whether they determined to settle in that country or to goe forward. Presently the Gouernour sent a Captaine with footmen and horsemen ouer the riuer; and in their passage they were descried of the Indians, and therefore he could take but tenne or twelue men and women, with whom hee returned to the campe. This Riuer which passed by Nilco, was that which passed by Cayas and Autiamque, and fell into Rio grande, or the Great Riuer, which passed by Pachaha and Aquixo neere vnto the prouince of Guachoya: and the Lord thereof came vp the Riuer in canoes to make warre with him of Nilco. On his behalf there came an Indian to the Gouernour and said vnto him, That he was his seruant, and prayed him so to hold him, and that within two daies hee would come to kisse his Lordships hands: and at the time appointed he came with some of his principal Indians, which accompanied him, and with words of great offers and courtesie hee gaue the Gouernour a present of many mantles and Deeres skinnes. The Gouernour gaue him some other things in recompense, and honoured him much. Hee asked him what townes there were downe the Riuer? He answered that he knew none other but his owne: and on the other side of the Riuer a prouince of a Cacique called Quigalta. So hee tooke his leaue of the Gouernour and went to his owne towne. Within few daies the Gouernour determined to goe to Guachoya, to learne there whether the Sea were neere, or whether there were any habitation neere, where hee might relieue his companie, while the brigantines were making, which he meant to send to the land of the Christians. As he passed the Riuer of Nilco, there came in canoes Indians of Guachoya vp the streame, and when they saw him, supposing that he came to seeke them to doe them some hurt, they returned downe the Riuer, and informed the Cacique thereof: who with all his people, spoiling the towne of all that they could carrie away, passed that night ouer to the other side of Rio grande, or the Great Riuer. The [Sidenote: Foure names of Rio grande.] Gouernour sent a Captaine with fiftie men in sixe canoes downe the Riuer, and went himselfe by land with the rest: hee came to Guachoya vpon Sunday the 17. of April: he lodged in the towne of the Cacique, which was inclosed about, and seated a crossebow shot distant from the Riuer. Here the Riuer is called Tamaliseu, and in Nilco Tapatu, and in Coça Mico, and in the port or mouth Ri. Chap. XXIX. Of the message which the Gouernour sent to Quigalta, and of the answere which he returned; and of the things which happened in this time. As soone as the Gouernour come to Guachoya, hee sent Iohn Danusco with as many men as could goe in the canoes vp the Riuer. For when they came downe from Nilco, they saw on the other side the Riuer new cabins made. Iohn Danusco went and brought the canoes loden with Maiz, French beanes, Prunes, and many loaues made of the substance of prunes. That day came an Indian to the Gouernour from the Cacique of Guachoya, and said, that his Lord would come the next day. The next day they saw many canoes come vp the Riuer, and on the other side of the great Riuer, they assembled together in the space of an houre: they consulted whether they should come or not; and at length concluded to come, and crossed the Riuer. In them came the Cacique of Guachoya, and brought with him manie Indians with great store of Fish, Dogges, Deeres skinnes, and Mantles: And assoone as they landed, they went to the lodging of the Gouernour, and presented him their gifts, and the Cacique vttered these words: Mightie and excellent Lord, I beseech your Lordship to pardon mee the errour which I committed in absenting my selfe, and not tarrying in this towne to haue receiued and serued your Lordship; since, to obtaine this opportunitie of time, was, and is as much as a great victorie to me. But I feared that, which I needed not to haue feared, and so did that which was not reason to do; But as haste maketh waste, and I remoued without deliberation; so, as soone as I thought on it, I determined not to follow the opinion of the foolish, which is, to continue in their errour; but to imitate the wise and discreet, in changing my counsell, and so I came to see what your Lordship will command me to doe, that I may serue you in all things that are in my power. The Gouernour receiued him with much ioy, and gaue him thankes for his present and offer. He asked him, whether hee had any notice of the Sea. Hee answered, no, nor of any townes downe the Riuer on that side; saue that two leagues from thence was one towne of a principall Indian a subiect of his; and on the other side of the Riuer, three daies iourney from thence downe the Riuer, was the Prouince of Quigalta, which was the greatest Lord that was in that Countrie. The Gouernour thought that the Cacique lied vnto him, to rid him out of his owne townes, and sent Iohn Danusco with eight horsemen downe the Riuer, to see what habitation there was, and to informe himselfe, if there were any notice of the Sea. Hee trauelled eight daies, and at his returne hee said, that in all that time he was not able to go aboue 14. or 15. leagues, because of the great creekes that came out of the Riuer, and groues of canes, and thicke woods that were along the banks of the Riuer, and that hee had found no habitation. [Sidenote: The Gouernor falleth sick of thought.] The Gouernour fell into great dumps to see how hard it was to get to the Sea: and worse, because his men and horses euery day diminished, being without succour to sustaine themselues in the country: and with that thought he fell sick. But before he tooke his bed hee sent an Indian to the Cacique at Quigalta to tell him, that hee was the Childe of the Sunne, and that all the way that hee came all men obeyed and serued him, that he requested him to accept of his friendship, and come vnto him; for he would be very glad to see him; and in signe of loue and obedience to bring something with him of that which in his countrie was most esteemed. The Cacique answered by the same Indian: [Sidenote: A most wittie and stout answere of the Cacique of Quigalta.] That whereas he said he was the Child of the Sunne, if he would drie vp the Riuer he would beleeue him: and touching the rest, that he was wont to visit none; but rather that all those of whom he had notice did visit him, serued, obeyed and paid him tributes willingly or perforce: therefore if hee desired to see him, it were best he should come thither: that if hee came in peace, he would receiue him with speciall good will; and if in warre, in like manner hee would attend him in the towne where he was, and that for him or any other hee would not shrinke one foote backe. By that time the Indian returned with this answere, the Gouernour had betaken himselfe to bed, being euill handled with feuers, and was much agrieued, that he was not in case to passe presently the Riuer and to seeke him, to see if he could abate that pride of his, considering the Riuer went now very strongly in those parts; for it was neere halfe a league broad, and 16. fathomes deep, and very furious, and ranne with a great current; and on both sides there were many Indians, and his power was not now so great, but that hee had need to helpe himselfe rather by slights then by force. The Indians of Guachoya came euery day with fish in such numbers, that the towne was full of them. The Cacique said, that on a certaine night hee of Quigalta would come to giue battell to the Gouernour. Which the Gouernour imagined that he had deuised, to driue him out of his countrey, and commanded him to bee put in hold: and that night and all the rest, there was good watch kept. Hee asked him wherefore Quigalta came not? He said that hee came, but that he saw him prepared, and therefore durst not giue the attempt: and hee was earnest with him to send his Captaines ouer the Riuer, and that he would aide him with many men to set vpon Quigalta. The Gouernour told him that assoone as he was recouered, himselfe would seeke him out. And seeing how many Indians came daily to the towne, and what store of people was in that countrie, fearing they should al conspire together and plot some treason against him; and because the towne had some open gaps which were not made an end of inclosing, besides the gates which they went in and out by: because the Indians should not thinke he feared them, he let them all alone vnrepaired; and commanded the horsemen to be appointed to them, and to the gates: and all night the horsemen went the round; and two and two of euery squadron rode about, and visited the skouts that were without the towne in their standings by the passages, and the crossebowmen that kept the canoes in the Riuer. And because the Indians should stand in feare of him, hee determined to send a Captaine to Nilco, for those of Guachoya had told him that it was inhabited; that by vsing them cruelly, neither the one nor the other should presume to assaile him; and hee sent Nunnez de Touar with fifteene horsemen, and Iohn de Guzman Captaine of the footmen with his companie, in canoes vp the Riuer. The Cacique of Guachoya sent for many canoes and many warlike Indians to goe with the Christians: and the Captaine of the Christians, called Nunnez de Touar, went by land with his horsemen, and two leagues before he came to Nilco hee staied for Iohn de Guzman, and in that place they passed the Riuer by night: the horsemen came first, and in the morning by breake of day in sight of the towne they lighted upon a spie; which assoone as he perceiued the Christians, crying out amaine fled to the towne to giue warning. Nunnez de Touar and his companie made such speed, that before the Indians of the towne could fully come out, they were vpon them: it was champion ground that was inhabited, which was about a quarter of a league. [Sidenote: Five or sixe thousand people in Nilco.] There were about fiue or sixe thousand people in the towne: and, as many people came out of the houses, and fled from one house to another, and many Indians came flocking together from all parts, there was neuer a horseman that was not alone among many. The Captaine had commanded that they should not spare the life of any male. Their disorder was so great, that there was no Indian that shot an arrow at any Christian. The shreekes of women and children were so great, that they made the eares deafe of those that followed them. There were slaine an hundred Indians, little more or lesse: and many were wounded with great wounds, whom they suffered to escape to strike a terror in the rest that were not there. There were some so cruell and butcherlike, that they killed old and young, and all that they met, though they made no resistance: and those which presumed of themselues for their valour, and were taken for such, brake through the Indians, bearing downe many with their stirrops and brests of their horses; and some they wounded with their lances, and so let them goe: and when they saw any youth or woman they tooke them, and deliuered them to the footmen. "These mens sinnes by Gods permission lighted on their own heads: who, because they would seeme valiant, became cruell; shewing themselues extreme cowards in the sight of all men, when as most neede of valour was required, and, afterward[1] they came to a shameful death." Of the Indians of Nilco were taken prisoners, fourescore women and children, and much spoile. The Indians of Guachoya kept back before they came at the towne, and staied without, beholding the successe of the Christians with the men of Nilco. And when they saw them put to flight, and the horsemen busie in killing of them, they hastened to the houses to rob, and filled their canoes with the spoile of the goods; and returned to Guachoya before the Christians; and wondring much at the sharpe dealing which they had seene them vse toward the Indians of Nilco, they told their Cacique all that had passed with great astonishment. [1] Chap. 37. Chap. XXX. Of the death of the Adelantado Fernando de Soto: And how Aluarado was elected Gouernour in his stead. The Gouernour felt in himselfe that the houre approched, wherein hee was to leaue this present life, and called for the Kings officers, Captaines and principall persons, to whom he made a speech, saying: That now he was to goe to giue an account before the presence of God of all his life past: and since it pleased him to take him in such a time, and that the time was come that he knew his death, that he his most vnworthie seruant did yeeld him many thankes therefore; and desired all that were present and absent (whom he confessed himselfe to be much beholding vnto for their singular vertues, loue and loyaltie, which himselfe had well tried in the trauels, which they had suffered, which alwaies in his mind he did hope to satisfie and reward, when it should please God to giue him rest, with more prosperitie of his estate,) that they would pray to God for him, that for his mercie he would forgiue him his sinnes, and receiue his soule into eternall glorie: and that they would quit and free him of the charge which hee had ouer them, and ought vnto them all, and that they would pardon him for some wrongs which they might haue receiued of him: And to auoid some diuision, which vpon his death might fall out vpon the choice of his successour, he requested them to elect a principall person, and able to gouerne, of whom all should like well; and when he was elected, they should sweare before him to obey him: and that he would thanke them very much in so doing; because the griefe that he had, would somewhat be asswaged, and the paine that he felt, because he left them in so great confusion, to wit, in leauing them in a strange Countrie, where they knew not where they were. Baltasar de Gallegos answered in the name of all the rest: And first of all comforting him, he set before his eies how short the life of this world was, and with how many troubles and miseries it is accompanied, and how God shewed him a singular fauor which soonest left it: telling him many other things fit for such a time. And for the last point, that since it pleased God to take him to himselfe, although his death did justly grieue them much, yet as wel he, as al the rest, ought of necessitie to conforme themselues to the will of God. And touching the Gouernour which he commanded they should elect, he besought him, that it would please his Lordship to name him which he thought fit, and him they would obey. And presently he named Luys de Moscoso de Aluarado his Captaine generall. And presently he was sworne by all that were present and elected for Gouernour. [Sidenote: The death of Don Ferdinando de Soto the 21. of May, 1542 at Guacoya.] The next day, being the 21. of May, 1542. departed out of this life, the valorous, virtuous, and valiant Captaine, Don Fernando de Soto, Gouernour of Cuba, and Adelantado of Florida: whom fortune aduanced, as it vseth to doe others, that hee might haue the higher fal. He departed in such a place, and at such time, as in his sicknesse he had but little comfort; and the danger wherein all his people were of perishing in that Countrie, which appeared before their eies, was cause sufficient, why euery one of them had need of comfort, and why they did not visit nor accompanie him as they ought to haue done. Luys de Moscoso determined to conceale his death from the Indians, because Ferdinando de Soto had made them beleeue, That the Christians were immortall; and also because they tooke him to be hardie, wise, and valiant: and if they should know that he was dead, they would bee bold to set vpon the Christians, though they liued peaceablie by them. [Sidenote: A wittie stratagem.] In regard of their disposition, and because they were nothing constant, and beleeued all that was tolde them, the Adelantado made them beleeue, that he knew some things that passed in secret among themselues, without their knowledge, how, or in what manner he came by them: and that the figure which appeared in a glasse, which he shewed them, did tell him whatsoeuer they practised and went about: and therefore neither in word nor deed durst they attempt any thing that might bee preiudiciall vnto him. Assoone as he was dead, Luis de Moscoso commanded to put him secretly in an house, where hee remained three daies: and remoouing him from thence, commanded him to bee buried in the night at one of the gates of the towne within the wall. And as the Indians had seene him sick, and missed him, so did they suspect what might bee. And passing by the place where hee was buried, seeing the earth mooued, they looked and spake one to another. Luys de Moscoso vnderstanding of it, commanded him to be taken vp, by night, and to cast a great deale of sand into the mantles, wherein he was winded vp, wherein hee was carried in a canoe, and throwne into the middest of the Riuer. The Cacique of Guachoya inquired for him, demanding what was become of his brother and Lord, the Gouernour: Luys de Moscoso told him, that hee was gon to heauen, as many other times hee did: and because hee was to stay there certaine daies hee had left him in his place. The Cacique thought with himselfe that he was dead; and commanded two young and well proportioned Indians to be brought thither; [Sidenote: This is also the costome of the old Tartars.] and said, that the vse of that Countrie was, when any Lord died, to kill Indians to wait vpon him, and serue him by the way: and for that purpose by his commandement were those come thither: and prayed Luys de Moscoso to command them to be beheaded, that they might attend and serue his Lord and brother. Luys de Moscoso told him, that the Gouernour was not dead, but gone to heauen, and that of his owne Christian souldiers, he had taken such as he needed, to serue him, and praied him to command those Indians to be loosed and not to vse any such bad custome from thencefoorth: straightway hee commanded them to be loosed, and to get them home to their houses. And one of them would not goe; saying, that hee would not serue him, that without desert had judged him to death, but that hee would serue him as long as hee liued, which had saued his life. [Sidenote: Seven hundred hogges.] Luys de Moscoso caused all the goods of the Gouernor to be sold at an outcrie: to wit, two men slaues, and two women slaues, and three horses, and 700. hogges. For euery slaue or horse, they gaue two or three thousand ducats: which were to be paied at the first melting of gold or siluer, or at the diuision of their portion of inheritance. And they entered into bonds, though in the Countrie there was not wherewith, to pay it within a yeere after, and put in sureties for the same. Such as in Spaine had no goods to bind, gaue two hundred ducats for an hog, giuing assurance after the same maner. Those which had any goods in Spaine, bought with more feare, and bought the lesse. From that time forward, most of the companie had swine, and brought them vp, and fed vpon them; and obserued Fridaies and Saturdaies, and the euenings of feasts, which before they did not. For sometimes in two or three moneths they did eate no flesh, and whensoeuer they could come by it, they did eate it. Chap. XXXI. How the Gouernour Luys de Moscoso departed from Guachoya, and went to Chaguate; and thence to Aguacay. Some were glad of the death of Don Ferdinando de Soto, holding for certaine, that Luys de Moscoso (which was giuen to his ease) would rather desire to be among the Christians at rest, then to continue the labours of the warre in subduing and discouering of Countries; whereof they were alreadie wearie, seeing the small profit that insued thereof. The Gouernour commanded the Captaines and principall persons to meet to consult and determine what they should doe. And being informed what peopled habitation was round about, he vnderstood that to the West, the Countrie was most inhabited, and that downe the Riuer beyond Quigalta was vninhabited, and had little store of food. He desired them all, that euerie one would giue his opinion in writing, and set his hand to it: that they might resolue by generall consent, whether they should goe downe the Riuer, or enter into the maine land. [Sidenote: Their general resolution to trauell by land Westward.] All were of opinion, that it was best to go by land toward the West, because Nueua Espanna was that way: holding the voyage by sea more dangerous, and of greater hazard, because they could make no ship of any strength to abide a storme, neither had they Master, nor Pilot, Compasse, nor Chart, neither knew they how farre the sea was off, nor had any notice of it: nor whether the Riuer did make any great turning into the land, or had any great fall the rocks, where all of them might be cast away. And some which had seene the sea-chart, did find, that from the place where they were by the sea coast to Noua Espanna, might bee 400. leagues, little more or lesse; and said, that though they went somewhat about by land in seeking a peopled Countrie, if some great wildernesse which they could not passe did not hinder them, by spending that sommer in trauell, finding prouision to passe the winter in some peopled Countrie, that the next summer after they might come to some Christian land, and that it might fortune in their trauel by land to find some rich Countrie, where they might doe themselves good. The Gouernour, although he desired to get out of Florida in shorter time, seeing the inconueniences they laid before him in trauelling by sea, determined to follow that which seemed good to them all. On Monday the fifth of Iune, he departed from Guachoya. The Cacique gaue him a guide to Chaguate, and staied at home in his owne towne. They passed through a prouince called Catalte: and hauing passed a wildernesse of sixe daies iournie, the twentieth day of the moneth he came to Chaguate. The Cacique of this Prouince had visited the Gouernour Don Ferdinando de Soto at Autiamque, whither he brought him presents of skinnes, and mantles and salt. And a day before Luys de Moscoso came to his towne, we lost a Christian that was sicke; which hee suspected that the Indians had slaine. Hee sent the Cacique word, that he should command his people to seeke him vp, and send him vnto him, and that he would hold him, as he did, for his friend: and if he did not, that neither he, nor his, should escape his hands, and that hee would set his Countrie on fire. Presently the Cacique came vnto him, and brought a great present of mantles and skinnes, and the Christian that was lost, and made this speech following: Right excellent Lord, I would not deserue that conceit which you had of me, for all the treasure of the world. What inforced me to goe to visit and serue the excellent Lord Gouernour your father in Autiamque, which you should haue remembred, where I offered my selfe with all loyaltie, faith and loue, during my life to serue and obey him? What then could be the cause, I hauing receiued fauours of him, and neither you nor he hauing done me any wrong, that should mooue me to doe the thing, which I ought not? Beleeue this of mee, that neither wrong, nor any worldly interest, was able to make me to haue done it, nor shall be able to blind me. But as in this life it is a naturall course, that after one pleasure, many sorrowes doe follow: so by your indignation, fortune would moderate the ioy, which my heart conceiueth with your presence; and that I should erre, where I thought surest to haue hit the marke; in harboring this Christian which was lost, and vsing him in such manner, as he may tell himselfe, thinking that herin I did you service, with purpose to deliuer him vnto you in Chaguate, and to serue you to the vttermost of my power. If I deserue punishment for this, I will receiue it at your hands, as from my Lord, as if it were a fauour. For the loue which I did beare to the excellent Gouernour, and which I beare to you hath no limit. And like as you giue me chastisement, so will you also shew me fauour. And that which now I craue of you is this, to declare your will vnto me, and those things, wherein I may bee able to doe you the most and best seruice. The Gouernour answered him, that because he did not find him in that towne, hee was incensed against him, thinking he had absented himselfe, as others had done: But seeing he now knew his loyaltie and loue, he would alwaies hold him as a brother, and fauour him in all his affaires. The Cacique went with him to the towne where he resided, which was a daies iournie from thence. [Sidenote: Salt made of salt springs of water.] They passed through a smal town, where there was a lake, where the Indians made salt: and the Christians made some one day while they rested there, of a brackish water, which sprang neere the towne in ponds like fountaines. The Gouernour staied in Chaguate sixe daies. There he was informed of the habitation that was toward the West. They told him, that three daies iournie from thence was a Prouince called Aguacay. The day that he departed from Chaguate, a Christian, called Francisco de Guzman, the base sonne of a Gentleman of Siuill, staied behind, and went to the Indians, with an Indian woman which he kept as his concubine, for feare he should be punished for gaming debts, that he did owe. The Gouernor had trauelled two daies before he missed him; hee sent the Cacique word to seeke him vp, and to send him to Aguacay, whither he trauelled: which hee did not performe. From the Cacique of Aguacay, before they came into the Countrie, there met him on the way 15. Indians with a present of skinnes, fish and rosted venison. The Gouernour came to his towne on Wednesday, the fourth of Iulie. He found the towne without people, and lodged in it: he staied there about a day; during which, he made some roades, and tooke many men and women. There they had knowledge of the South Sea. Here there was great store of salt made of sand, which they gather in a vaine of ground like peeble stones. And it was made as they make salt in Cayas. Chap. XXXII. How the Gouernour went from Aguacay to Naguatex, and what happened vnto him. The same day that the Gouernour departed from Aguacay he lodged in a small towne subiect to the Lord of that prouince. The Campe pitched hard by a lake of salt water; and that euening they made some salt there. The day following hee lodged betweene two mountaines in a thinne groue of wood. The next day hee came to a small towne called Pato. The fourth day after his departure from Aguacay he came to the first habitation of a prouince called Amaye. There an Indian was taken, which said that from thence to Naguatex was a day and a halfes iourney: which they trauelled, finding all the way inhabited places. Hauing passed the peopled countrie of Amaye, on Saturday the 20. of Iulie they pitched their Campe at noone betweene Amaye and Naguatex along the corner of a groue of very faire trees. In the same place certaine Indians were discouered, which came to view them. The horsemen went out to them, and killed six, and tooke two; whom the Gouernour asked, wherefore they came? They said, to know what people hee had, and what order they kept; and that the Cacique of Naguatex their Lord had sent them, and that he, with other Caciques, which came to aide him, determined that day to bid him battell. While they were occupied in these questiones and answeres, there came many Indians by two waies in two squadrons: and when they saw they were descried, giuing a great crie they assaulted the Christians each squadron by it selfe: but seeing what resistance the Christians made them, they turned their backes and betooke themselues to flight, in which many of them lost their liues: and most of the horsemen following them in chase, carelesse of the Camp, other two squadrons of Indians, which lay in ambush, set vpon the Christians that were in the Campe, which also they resisted, who also had their reward as the first. After the flight of the Indians, and that the Christians were retired, they heard a great noise a crossebow shot from the place where they were. The Gouernour sent twelue horsemen to see what it was. They found sixe Christians, foure footemen and two horsemen, among many Indians; the horsemen defending the footemen with great labour. These being of them that chased the first two squadrons, had lost themselues, and comming to recouer the Campe fell among those with whom they were fighting: and so they, and those that came to succour them, slew many of the Indians, and brought one aliue to the Campe: whom the Gouernour examined, who they were that came to bid him battell. He told him, that they were the Cacique of Naguatex, and of Amaye, and another of a prouince called Hacanac, a Lord of great Countries and many subiects: and that the Cacique of Naguatex came for Captaine and chiefest of them all. The Gouernour commanded his right arme and nose to be cut off, and sent him to the Cacique of Naguatex, charging him to tell him, that the next day hee would be in his countrey to destroy him; and if hee would withstand his entrance, hee should stay for him. That night he lodged there; and the next day hee came to the habitation of Naguatex, which was very scattering: he inquired where the Caciques chiefe towne was? They told him that it was on the other side of a Riuer, that passed thereby: hee trauelled thitherward, and came vnto it: and on the other side he saw many Indians, that taried for him, making shew as though they would defend the passage. And because hee knew not whether it could bee waded, nor where the passage was; and that some Christians and horses were hurt; that they might haue time to recouer, he determined to rest certaine daies in the towne where he was. So hee pitched his campe a quarter of a league from the Riuer, because the weather was very hot, neere vnto the towne, in a thinne groue of very faire and hie trees neere a brookes side: and in that place were certaine Indians taken; whom hee examined, whether the Riuer were wadeable or no? They said, yea, at some times, and in some places. [Sidenote: August.] [Sidenote: They passe the Riuer.] Within ten daies after he sent two Captaines with fifteene horsemen a peece vpward and downe the Riuer with Indians to shew them where they should goe ouer, to see what habitation was on the other side: And the Indians withstood them both, defending the passage of the Riuer as farre as they were able, but they passed in despite of them: and on the other side of the Riuer they saw great store of victuals; and with these newes returned to the Camp. Chap. XXXIII. How the Cacique of Naguatex came to visite the Gouernour: and how the Gouernour departed from Naguatex and came to Nondacao. The Gouernour sent an Indian from Naguatex where hee lay, to command the Cacique to come to serue and obey him, and that hee would forgiue him all that was past; and if he came not, that he would seeke him, and giue him such punishment as he had deserued for that which he had done against him. Within two daies the Indian returned, and said that the Cacique would come the next day: which, the same day when he came, sent many Indians before him, among whom there were some principall men: hee sent them to see what countenance they found in the Gouernour, to resolue with himselfe whether hee should goe or not. The Indians let him vnderstand, that he was comming, and went away presently: and the Cacique came within two houres accompanied with many of his men: they came all in a ranke one before another on both sides, leauing a lane in the middest where hee came. [Sidenote: Tulla not far from Naguatex, Eastward.] They came where the Gouernour was, all of them weeping after the manner of Tulla, which was not farre from thence toward the East. The Cacique made his due obedience, and this speech following: Right high and mightie Lord, whom all the world ought to serue and obey, I was bold to appeare before your Lordship, hauing committed so heinous and abominable an act, as only for me to haue imagined, deserued to be punished; trusting in your greatnes, that although I deserue to obtaine no pardon, yet for your owne sake only you will vse clemencie toward me, considering how small I am in comparison of your Lordship; and not to think vpon my weaknesses, which, to my griefe and for my greater good, I haue knowne. And I beleeue that you and yours are immortall; and that your Lordship is Lord of the land of nature, seeing that you subdue all things, and they obey you, euen the very hearts of men. For when I beheld the slaughter and destruction of my men in the battell, which, through mine ignorance, and the counsell of a brother of mine, which died in the same, I gaue your Lordship, presently I repented me in my heart of the error, which I had committed; and desired to serue and obey you: and to this end I come, that your Lordship may chastise and command mee as your owne. The Gouernour answered him, that he forgaue him all which was past, that from thenceforth hee should do his dutie, and that he would hold him for his friend, and that he would fauour him in all things. [Sidenote: The Riuer growne vnpassable in August, at Naguatex.] Within foure daies hee departed thence, and comming to the Riuer he could not passe, because it was growne very bigge; which seemed to him a thing of admiration, being at that time that it was, and since it had not rained a moneth before. The Indians said, that it increased many times after that manner without raining in all the countrie. [Sidenote: Coniectures of a Sea to the Northward.] It was supposed, that it might be the tide that came into it. It was learned that the flood came alway from aboue, and that the Indians of all that countrie had no knowledge of the Sea. The Gouernour returned vnto the place where he had lodged before: and vnderstanding within eight daies after that the Riuer was passable, he departed. He passed ouer and found the towne without people: he lodged in the field, and sent the Cacique word to come vnto him, and to bring him a guide to goe forward. And some daies being past, seeing the Cacique came not, nor sent any bodie, hee sent two Captaines sundrie waies to burne the townes, and to take such Indians as they could finde: They burnt great store of victuals, and took many Indians. The Cacique seeing the hurt that he receiued in his countrie, sent sixe principall Indians with three men for guides which knew the language of the countrie, through which the Gouernour was to passe. Hee departed presently from Naguatex, and within three daies iourney came to a towne of foure or fiue houses, which belonged to the Cacique of that prouince, which is called Nissoone: it was euill inhabited and had little Maiz. Two daies iourney forward the guides which guided the Gouernour, if they were to goe Westward, guided him to the East; and sometimes went vp and downe through very great woods out of the way. The Gouernour commanded them to bee hanged vpon a tree: and a woman that they tooke in Nissoone guided him, and went backe againe to seeke the way. In two daies he came to another miserable towne called Lacane: an Indian was taken in that place, that said, that the countrie of Nondacao was a countrie of great habitation, and the houses scattering the one from the other, as they vse to bee in mountains, and had great store of Maiz. The Cacique came with his men weeping, like them of Naguatex: for this is their vse in token of obedience: hee made him a present of much fish, and offered to doe what he would command him. Hee tooke his leaue, and gaue him a guide to the prouince of Soacatino. Chap. XXXIV. How the Gouernour went from Nondacao to Soacatino and Guasco, and passed through a desert, from whence, for want of a guide, and an interpretour, he returned to Nilco. The Gouernour departed from Nondacao toward Soacatino, and in fiue daies iournie came to a Prouince called Aays. The Indians which inhabited it, had no notice of the Christians: but assoone as they saw that they entred into their country, they assembled themselues: and as they came together 50. or 100. they came foorth to fight: while some fought, others came and charged our men another way, and while they followed some, others followed them. The fight lasted the greatest part of the day, till they came to their towne. Some horses and men were wounded, but not to any hurt of their trauelling: for there was no wound that was dangerous. There was a great spoile made of the Indians. That day that the Gouernour departed from thence, the Indian that guided him said, that in Nondacao he had heard say, that the Indians of Soacatino had seene other Christians, whereof they all were very glad: thinking it might be true, and that they might haue entred into those parts by Nueua Espanna; and that if it were so, it was in their owne hand to goe out of Florida, if they found nothing of profit: for they feared they should lose themselues in some wildernes. This Indian led him two daies out of the way. The Gouernour commanded to torture him. He said, that the Cacique of Nondacao, his Lord, had commanded him to guide them so, because they were his enemies, and that hee was to doe as his Lord commanded him. The Gouernour commanded him to be cast to the dogs: and another guided him to Soacatino, whither hee came the day following. It was a verie poore Countrie: there was great want of Maiz in that place. Hee asked the Indians, whether they knew of any other Christians. They said, that a little from thence toward the South they heard they were. [Sidenote: 20. daies trauell toward the South.] He trauelled 20. daies through a Countrie euill inhabited, where they suffered great scarcitie and trouble. For that little Maiz which the Indians had, they had hidden and buried in the woods, where the Christians, after they were well wearied with their trauell, at the end of their iournie went to seeke by digging what they should eat. [Sidenote: Guasco: here they found some Turkie stones and mantles of cotton wooll. Chap. 35.] At last, comming to a Prouince that was called Guasco, they found Maiz, wherewith they loaded their horses, and the Indians that they had. From thence they went to another towne called Naquiscoça. The Indians said, they had no notice of any other Christians. The Gouernor commanded to torment them. They said, that they came first to another Lordship, which was called Naçacahoz, and from thence returned again to the West, from whence they came. The Gouernour came in two daies to Naçacahoz: Some women were taken there: among whom there was one, which said, that she had seene Christians, and had been taken by them, and had run away. The Gouernour sent a Captaine with 15. horsemen to the place where the women said she had seene them, to see if there were any signe of horses, or any token of their being there. After they had gone three or foure leagues the woman that guided them said, that all that she had told them was vntrue. And so they held all the rest that the Indians had said, of seeing Christians in the land of Florida. And, because the Countrie that way was poore of Maiz, and toward the West, there was no notice of any habitation, they returned to Guasco. The Indians told them there, that 10. daies iournie from thence toward the West, was a Riuer called Daycao; whither they went sometimes a hunting and killing of Deere: and that they had seene people on the other side, but knew not what habitation was there. [Sidenote: The Riuer of Daycayo: which seemeth to be the Rio del oro.] There the Christians tooke such Maiz as they found and could carrie, and, going 10. daies iournie through a wildernesse, they came to the Riuer which the Indians had told them of. Ten horsemen, which the Gouernour had sent before, passed ouer the same, and went in a way that led to the Riuer, and lighted vpon a companie of Indians that dwelt in verie little cabins: who, assoone as they saw them, tooke themselues to flight, leauing that which they had; all which was nothing but miserie and pouertie. The Countrie was so poore, that among them all there was not found halfe a peck of Maiz. The horsemen tooke two Indians, and returned with them to the Riuer, where the Gouernour staied for them. He sought to learne of them what habitation was toward the West. There was none in the Camp that could vnderstand their language. The Gouernour assembled the Captaines and principall persons, to determine with their aduice what they should doe. And the most part said, that they thought it best to returne backe to Rio grande, or the Great Riuer of Guachoya; because that in Nilco and thereabout was store of Maiz: saying, that they would make pinaces that winter, and the next sommer passe down the Riuer to seaward in them, and comming to the Sea they would goe along the coast to Nueua Espanna. For though it seemed a doubtfull thing and difficult, by that which they had already alleaged, yet it was the last remedie they had. [Sidenote: No trauelling by land without an interpretour.] For by land they could not goe for want of an Interpretour. And they held, that the countrie beyond the Riuer of Daycao, where they were, was that which Cabeça de Vaca mentioned in his relation that he passed of the Indians, which liued like the Alarbes, hauing no setled place, and fed vpon Tunas and rootes of the fields, and wilde beasts that they killed. Which if it were so, if they should enter into it and finde no victuals to passe the winter, they could not chuse but perish. For they were entred alreadie into the beginning of October: and if they staied any longer, they were not able to returne for raine and snowes, nor to sustaine themselues in so poore a countrey. The Gouernour (that desired long to see himselfe in a place where hee might sleepe his full sleep, rather then to conquer and gouerne a countrie where so many troubles presented themselues) presently returned back that same way that he came. Chap. XXXV. How they returned to Nilco, and came to Minoya, where they agreed to make ships to depart out of the land of Florida. When that which was determined was published in the Campe, there were many that were greatly grieued at it: for they held the Sea voyage as doubtfull, for the euill meanes they had, and of as great danger, as the trauelling by land: and they hoped to finde some rich countrie before they came to the land of the Christians, by that which Cabeça de Vaca had told the Emperour: and that was this; [Sidenote: Gold, siluer, and precious stones in Florida.] That after hee had found clothes made of cotton wooll, hee saw gold and siluer, and stones of great value. And they had not yet come where hee had been. For vntill that place hee alwaies trauelled by the Sea coast: and they trauelled farre within the land; and that going toward the West, of necessitie they should come where hee had been. For he said, That in a certain place he trauelled many daies, and entred into the land toward the North. [Sidenote: Turkie stones and mantles of cotton wooll found in Guasco.] And in Guasco they had alreadie found some Turkie stones, and mantles of cotton wooll: which the Indians signified by signes that they had from the West: and that holding that course they should draw neere to the land of the Christians. But though they were much discontented with it, and it grieued many to goe backward, which would rather haue aduentured their liues and haue died in the land of Florida, then to haue gone poore out of it: yet were they not a sufficient part to hinder that which was determined, because the principall men agreed with the Gouernour. And afterward there was one that said, hee would put out one of his owne eyes, to put out another of Luis de Moscoso; because it would grieue him much to see him prosper: because aswell himself as others of his friends had crossed that which he durst not haue done, seeing that within two daies hee should leaue the gouernment. [Sidenote: 150. leagues betweene the Riuer of Daycao, and Rio grande.] From Daycao, where now they were, to Rio grande, or the Great Riuer, was 150. leagues: which vnto that place they had gone Westward. And by the way as they returned backe they had much adoe to find Maiz to eate: for where they had passed, the countrey was destroyed: and some little Maiz that was left the Indians had hidden. The townes which in Naguatex they had burned (whereof it repented them) were repaired againe, and the houses full of Maiz. [Sidenote: Fine earthen vessels.] This countrie is well inhabited and plentifull. In that place are vessels made of clay, which differ very little from those of Estremoz, or Monte-mor. In Chaguate the Indians by commandement of the Cacique came peaceably, and said, that the Christian which remained there would not come. The Gouernour wrote vnto him, and sent him inke and paper that he might answere. The substance of the words of the letter was to declare vnto him his determination, which was, to goe out of the land of Florida, and to put him in remembrance that he was a Christian, that hee would not remaine in the subiection of Infidels, that he pardoned him the fault which he had done in going away to the Indians, that hee should come vnto him: and if they did stay him, that hee would aduertise him thereof by writing. The Indian went with the letters and came again without any more answere, then, on the back side, his name and his seale, that they might know he was aliue. The Gouernour sent twelue horsemen to seeke him: but he, which had his spies, so hid himselfe, that they could not find him. For want of Maiz the Gouernour could not stay any longer to seeke him. Hee departed from Chaguate, and passed the Riuer by Aays; going downe by it hee found a towne called Chilano, which as yet they had not seen. They came to Nilco, and found so little Maiz, as could not suffice till they made their ships; because the Christians, being in Guachoya in the seede time, the Indians for feare of them durst not come to sow the grounds of Nilco: and they knew not thereabout any other countrie where any Maiz was: and that was the most fruitfull soile that was thereaway, and where they had most hope to finde it. Euery one was confounded, and the most part thought it bad counsell to come backe from the Riuer of Dacayo, and not to haue followed their fortune, going that way that went ouer land. For by Sea it seemed impossible to saue themselues, vnlesse God would worke a miracle for them: for there was neither Pilot, nor Sea-chart, neither did they know where the Riuer entred into the Sea, neither had they notice of it, neither had they any thing wherewith to make sailes, nor any store of Enequem, which is a grasse whereof they make Okam, which grew there: and that which they found they saued to calke the Pinaces withall, neither had they any thing to pitch them withall: neither could they make ships of such substance, but that any storme would put them in great danger: and they feared much it would fall out with them, as it did with Pamphilo de Naruaez, which was cast away vpon that coast: And aboue all it troubled them most, that they could find no Maiz: for without it they could not bee sustained, nor could doe any thing that they had neede of. All of them were put to great confusion. Their chiefe remedy was to commit themselues to God, and to beseech him that he would direct them the way that they might saue their liues. And it pleased him of his goodnesse, that the Indians of Nilco came peaceablie, and told them, that two daies iourney from thence, neere vnto the Great Riuer, were two townes, whereof the Christians had no notice, and that the prouince was called Minoya, and was a fruitfull soile: that, whether at this present there was any Maiz or no, they knew not, because they had warre with them: but that they would be very glad with the fauour of the Christians to goe and spoyle them. The Gouernour sent a Captaine thither with horsemen and footmen, and the Indians of Nilco with him. Hee came to Minoya, and found two great townes seated in a plaine and open soile, halfe a league distant, one in sight of another, and in them hee tooke many Indians, and found great store of Maiz. Presently he lodged in one of them, and sent word to the Gouernour what hee had found: wherewith they were all exceeding glad. They departed from Nilco in the beginning of December; and all that way, and before from Chilano, they endured much trouble: for they passed through many waters, and many times it rained with a Northren winde, and was exceeding cold, so that they were in the open field with water ouer and vnderneath them: and when at the end of their daies iourney they found drie ground to rest vpon, they gaue great thanks to God. With this trouble almost all the Indians that serued them died. And after they were in Minoya, many Christians also died: and the most part were sicke of great and dangerous diseases, which had a spice of the lethargie. At this place died Andrew de Vasconcelos, and two Portugals of Eluas, which were very neere him: which were brethren, and by their surname called Sotis. The Christians lodged in one of the townes, which they liked best: which was fensed about, and distant a quarter of a league from the Great Riuer. The Maiz that was in the other towne was brought thither; and in all it was esteemed to bee 6000. hanegs or bushels. And there was the best timber to make ships, that they had seene in all the land of Florida: wherefore all of them gaue God great thankes for so singular a fauour, and hoped that that which they desired would take effect, which was, that they might safely bee conducted into the land of the Christians. Chap. XXXVI. How there were seuen Brigandines builded, and how they departed from Minoya. Assoone as they came to Minoya, the Gouernor commanded them to gather all the chaines together, which euerie one had to lead Indians in; and to gather all the yron which they had for their prouision, and al the rest that was in the Camp: and to set vp a forge to make nailes, and commanded them to cut downe timber for the brigandines. And a Portugall of Ceuta, who hauing bin a prisoner in Fez, had learned to saw timber with a long saw, which for such purposes they had carried with them, did teach others, which helped him to saw timber. And a Genowis, whom it pleased God to preserue (for without him they had neuer come out of the countrie: for there has neuer another that could make ships but hee) with foure or fiue other Biscaine carpenters, which hewed his plancks and other timbers, made the brigandines: And two calkers, the one of Genua, the other of Sardinia did calke them with the tow of an hearb like hempe, whereof before I haue made mention, which there is named Enequen. And because there was not enough of it, they calked them with the flaxe of the Countrie, and with the mantles, which they rauelled for that purpose. A cooper which they had among them fell sicke, and was at the point of death: and there was none other that had any skill in that trade: it pleased God to send him his health: And albeit he was verie weake, and could not labour; yet 15. daies before they departed, he made for euery brigandine two halfe hogs heads, which the mariners call quarterets, because foure of them hold a pipe of water. [Sidenote: Taguanate two daies iourney aboue Minoya.] The Indians which dwelt two daies iournie aboue the Riuer in a Prouince called Taguanate, and likewise those of Nilco and Guacoya, and others their neighbours seeing the brigandines in making, thinking, because their places of refuge are in the water, that they were to goe to seeke them: and because the Gouernour demanded mantles of them, as necessarie for sailes, came many times, and brought many mantles, and great store of fish. And for certaine it seemed that God was willing to fauour them in so great necessitie, moouing the minds of the Indians to bring them: for to goe to take them, they were neuer able. For in the towne where they were, assoone as winter came in, they were so inclosed and compassed with water, that they could go no farther by land, then a league, and a league and an half. [Sidenote: The great vse of horses.] And if they would go farther, they could carrie no horses, and without them they were not able to fight with the Indians, because they were many: and so many for so many (numbers being equal) on foote they had the aduantage of them by water and by land, because they were more apt and lighter, and by reason of the disposition of the Countrie, which was according to their desire for the vse of their warre. They brought also some cords, and those which wanted for cables were made of the barkes of Mulberrie trees. They made stirrops of wood, and made ankers of their stirrops. [Sidenote: The mightie increasing of the Riuer for two moneths space, to wit, all March and April.] In the moneth of March, when it had not rained a moneth before, the Riuer grew so big, that it came to Nilco, which was nine leagues off: and on the other side, the Indians said, that it reached other nine leagues into the land. In the towne where the Christians were, which was somewhat high ground, where they could best goe, the water reached to the stirrops. They made certaine rafts of timber, and laid manie boughes vpon them, wheron they set their horses, and in the houses they did the like. But seeing that nothing preuailed, they went vp to the lofts: and if they went out of the houses, it was in canoes, or on horseback in those places where the ground was hiest. So they were two moneths, and could doe nothing, during which time the Riuer decreased not. The Indians ceased not to come vnto the brigantines as they were wont, and came in canoes. At that time the Gouernour feared they would set vpon him. Hee commanded his men to take an Indian secretly of those that came to the towne, and to stay him till the rest were gone: and they tooke one. The Gouernour commanded him to bee put to torture, to make him confesse, whether the Indians did practise any treason or no. [Sidenote: The grand conspiracie of the Indians against the Christians.] Hee confessed that the Caciques of Nilco, Guachoya, and Taguanate, and others, which in al were about 20. Caciques, with a great number of people, determined to come vpon him; and that three daies before, they would send a great present of fish to colour their great treason and malice, and on the verie day they would send some Indians before with another present. [Sidenote: Note well.] And these with those which were our slaues, which were of their conspiracie also, should set the houses on fire, and first of all possesse themselues of the lances which stood at the doores of the houses; and the Caciques with all their men should bee neere the towne in ambush in the wood, and when they saw the fire kindled, should come, and make an end of the conquest. The Gouernour commanded the Indian to be kept in a chaine, and the selfesame day that he spake of there came 30. Indians with fish. [Sidenote: Thirtie Indians of the Cacique of Guachoya haue their right hands cut off.] He commanded their right hands to be cut off, and sent them so backe to the Cacique of Guachoya, whose men they were. He sent him word, that he and the rest should come when they would, for he desired nothing more, and that hee should know, that they thought not any thing which he knew not before they thought of it. Hereupon they all were put in a very great feare: And the Caciques of Nilco and Taguanate came to excuse themselues: and a few daies after came he of Guachoya, and a principall Indian and his subiect, said, he knew by certaine information, That the Caciques of Nilco and Taguanate were agreed to come and make warre vpon the Christians. Assoone as the Indians came from Nilco, the Gouernour examined them, and they confessed it was true. Hee deliuered them presently to the principall man of Guachoya, which drew them out of the towne and killed them. Another day came some from Taguanate, and confessed it likewise. [Sidenote: The right hands and noses of traitours cut off.] The Gouernour commanded their right hands and noses to be cut off, and sent them to the Cacique, wherewith they of Guachoya remained very well contented: and they came oftentimes with presents of mantles and fish, and hogs, which bred in the Countrie of some swine that were lost by the way the last yeere. Assoone as the waters were slaked, they perswaded the Gouernour to send men to Taguanate: They came and brought canoes, wherein the footemen were conueied downe the Riuer, and a Captaine with horsemen went by land; and the Indians of Guachoya, which guided him, till they came to Taguanate, assaulted the towne, and tooke many men and women, and mantles, which with those that they had alreadie were sufficient to supplie their want. [Sidenote: The Riuer increaseth but once a yeere when the snowes doe melt in March and Aprill.] The brigandines being finished in the moneth of Iune, the Indians hauing told vs, That the Riuer increased but once a yeere, when the snowes did melt, in the time wherein I mentioned it had alreadie increased, being now in sommer, and hauing not rained a long time, it pleased God, that the flood came vp to the towne to seeke the brigandines, from whence they carried them by water to the Riuer. [Sidenote: A miraculous accident.] Which, if they had gone by land, had been in danger of breaking and splitting their keeles, and to bee all vndone; because that for want of iron, the spikes were short, and the planckes and timber very weake. The Indians of Minoya, during the time that they were there, came to serue them (being driuen thereunto by necessity) that of the Maiz which they had taken from them they would bestow some crummes vpon them. And because the Countrie was fertill, and the people vsed to feed of Maiz, and the Christians had gotten all from them that they had, and the people were many, they were not able to sustaine themselues. Those which came to the towne were so weake and feeble, that they had no flesh left on their bones: and many came and died neere the towne for pure hunger and weaknesse. The Gouernour commanded vpon grieuous punishments to giue them no Maiz. Yet, when they saw that the hogges wanted it not, and that they had yeelded themselues to serue them, and considering their miserie and wretchednes, hauing pity of them, they gaue them part of the Maiz which they had. And when the time of their embarkment came, there was not sufficient to serue their own turnes. That which there was, they put into the brigandines, and into great canoes tied two and two together. They shipped 22. of the best horses, that were in the Camp, the rest they made dried flesh of; and dressed the hogges which they had in like manner. They departed from Minoya the second day of Iulie, 1543. Chap. XXXVII. As the Christians went downe the great Riuer on their voyage, the Indians of Quigalta did set vpon them, and what was the successe thereof. The day before they departed from Minoya, they determined to dismisse al the men and women of the Countrie, which they had detained as slaues to serue them, saue some hundred, little more or lesse, which the Gouernour embarked, and others whom it pleased him to permit. And because there were many men of qualitie, whom he could not deny that which he granted to others, he vsed a policy, saying, that they might serue them as long as they were in the Riuer, but when they came to the sea, they must send them away for want of water, because they had but few vessels. He told his friends in secret, that they should carrie theirs to Nueua Espanna: And all those whom hee bare no good will vnto (which were the greater number) ignorant of that which was hidden from them, which afterward time discouered, thinking it inhumanitie for so little time of seruice, in reward of the great seruice that they had done them, to carrie them with them, [Sidenote: 500. Slaues left in the Countrie.] to leaue them slaues to other men out of their owne Countries; left fiue hundred men and women: among whom were many boies and girles, which spake and vnderstood the Spanish tongue. The most of them did nothing but weepe: which mooued great compassion; seeing that all of them with good will would haue become Christians, and were left in state of perdition. [Sidenote: They sailed down Rio Grande from Minoya 17. daies before they came to the mouth thereof.] There went from Minoya 322. Spaniards in seuen brigandines, well made, saue that the plankes were thin, because the nailes were short, and were not pitched, nor had any decks to keep the water from comming in. In stead of decks they laid planks, whereon the mariners might runne to trim their sailes, and the people might refresh themselues aboue and below: The Gouernour made his Captaines, and gaue to euery one his brigandine, and took their oth and their word, that they would obey him, vntill they came to the land of the Christians. The Gouernour tooke one of the brigandines for himself, which he best liked. The same day that they departed from Minoya, they passed by Guachoya, where the Indians tarried for them in canoes by the Riuer. And on the shore, they had made a great arbour with boughes: They desired him to come on shore; but he excused himselfe, and so went along: The Indians in their canoes accompanied him; and comming where an arme of the Riuer diclined on the right hand, they said, that the Prouince of Quigalta was neere vnto that place, and importuned the Gouernour to set vpon him, and that they would aide him. And because they had said, that he dwelt three daies journie down the Riuer, the Gouernour supposed that they had plotted some treason against him, and there left them; and went downe with the greatest force of the water. The current was very strong, and with the helpe of ores, they went very swiftly. The first day they landed in a wood on the left hand of the Riuer, and at night they withdrew themselues to the brigandines. [Sidenote: The second day.] The next day they came to a towne, where they went on shore, and the people that was in it durst not tarrie. A woman that they tooke there being examined, said, that that towne belonged to a Cacique named Huasene, subiect to Quigalta, and that Quigalta tarried for them below in the Riuer with many men. Certaine horsemen went thither, and found some houses, wherein was much Maiz. Immediately more of them went thither and tarried there one day, [Sidenote: Another day.] in which they did beate out, and tooke as much Maiz as they needed. While they were there, many Indians came from the nether part of the Riuer, and on the other side right against them somewhat carelessely set themselues in order to fight. The Gouernour sent in two canoes the crossebowmen that he had, and as many more as could goe in them. They ran away, and seeing the Spaniards could not ouertake them, they returned backe, and tooke courage; and coming neerer, making an outcrie, they threatned them: and assoone as they departed thence, they went after them, some in canoes, and some by land along the Riuer; and getting before, comming to a towne that stood by the Riuers side, they ioyned al together, making a shew that they would tarrie there. Euerie brigandine towed a canoe fastened to their sternes for their particular seruice. [Sidenote: A town burned.] Presently there entred men into euerie one of them, which made the Indians to flie, and burned the town. The same day they presently landed in a great field, where the Indians durst not tarrie. [Sidenote: The third day. A fleet of an hundred faire and great canoes.] The next day there were gathered together an hundred canoes, among which were some that carried 60. and 70. men, and the principall mens canoes had their tilts, and plumes of white and red feathers for their ensignes: and they came within two crossebow shot of the brigandines, and sent three Indians in a small canoe with a fained message to view the manner of the brigandines, and what weapons they had. And comming to the side of the Gouernours brigandine, one of the Indians entred, and said: That the Cacique of Quigalta his Lord, sent him his commendations, and did let him vnderstand, that all the Indians of Guachoya had told him concerning himselfe, was false, and that they had incensed him, because they were his enemies; that he was his seruant, and should find him so. The Gouernour answered him, that he beleeued all that he said was true, and willed him to tell him, that he esteemed his friendship very much. With this answer they returned to the place where the rest in their canoes were waiting for them, and from thence all of them fell downe, and came neere the Spaniards, shouting aloud, and threatning of them. The Gouernour sent Iohn de Guzman, which had been a Captaine of footemen in Florida, with 15. armed men in canoes to make them giue way. Assoone as the Indians saw them come towards them, they diuided themselues into two parts, and stood still till the Spaniards came nie them, and when they were come neere them, they ioyned together on both sides, taking Iohn de Guzman in the middest, and then they came first with him, and with great furie borded them: And as their canoes were bigger, and many of them leaped into the water to stay them, and to lay hold on the canoes of the Spaniards, and ouerwhelme them; so presently they ouerwhelmed them. The Christians fell into the water, and with the weight of their armour sunke downe to the bottome: and some few, that by swimming or holding by the canoe could haue saued themselues, with oares and staues, which they had, they strooke them on the head and made them sinke. When they of the brigandines saw the ouerthrow, though they went about to succour them, yet through the current of the Riuer they could not goe backe. Foure Spaniards fled to the brigandine that was neerest to the canoes; and only these escaped of those that came among the Indians. [Sidenote: Eleven Spaniards drowned.] They were eleuen that died there: among whom Iohn de Guzman was one, and a sonne of Don Carlos, called Iohn de Vargas: the rest also were persons of account and men of great courage. Those that escaped by swimming, said that they saw the Indians enter the canoe of John de Guzman at the sterne of one of their canoes, and whether they carried him away dead or aliue they could not certainly tell. Chap. XXXVIII. Which declareth how they were pursued by the Indians. The Indians, seeing that they had gotten the victorie, tooke such courage, that they assaulted them in the brigandines, which they durst not doe before. [Sidenote: 25. Spaniards wounded.] They came first to that brigandine wherein Calderon went for Captaine, and was in the rereward: and at the first volie of arrowes they wounded 25. men. There were only foure armed men in this brigandine: these did stand at the brigandines side to defend it. Those that were vnarmed, seeing how they hurt them, left their oares and went vnder the deck: whereupon the brigandine began to crosse, and to goe where the current of the streame carried it. One of the armed men seeing this, without the commandement of the Captaine, made a footman to take an oare and stirre the brigandine, hee standing before him and defending him with his target. [Sidenote: The great vse of large targets.] The Indians came no neerer then a bowshot, from whence they offended and were not offended, receiuing no hurt: for in euery brigandine was but one crossebow, and those which wee had were very much out of order. So that the Christians did nothing else but stand for a butte to receiue their arrowes. Hauing left this brigandine they went to another, and fought with it halfe an houre; and so from one to another they fought with them all. [Sidenote: Strong mats a good defence against arrowes.] The Christians had mattes to lay vnder them, which were double, and so close and strong, that no arrow went thorow them. And assoone as the Indians gaue them leisure, they fensed the brigandines with them. And the Indians seeing that they could not shoote leuell, shot their arrowes at random vp into the aire, which fell into the brigandines, and hurt some of the men: and not therewith contented, they sought to get to them which were in the canoes with the horses. Those of the brigandines enuironed them to defend them, and tooke them among them. Thus seeing themselues much vexed by them, and so wearied that they could no longer endure it, they determined to trauell all the night following, thinking to get beyond the countrie of Quigalta, and that they would leaue them: but when they thought least of it, supposing they had now left them, they heard very neere them so great outcries, that they made them deafe, and so they followed vs all that night, and the next day till noone, by which time we were come into the countrie of others, whom they desired to vse vs after the same manner; and so they did. The men of Quigalta returned home; and the other in fiftie canoes fought with vs a whole day and a night: and they entred one of the brigandines, that came in the rereward by the canoe which she had at her sterne, and tooke away a woman which they found in it, and afterward hurt some of the men of the brigandines. Those which came with the horses in the canoes, being wearie with rowing night and day, lingered behind; and presently the Indians came vpon them, and they of the brigandines tarried for them. The Gouernour resolued to goe on shore and to kill the horses, because of the slow way which they made because of them. Assoone as they saw a place conuenient for it, they [Sidenote: Dried horseflesh for food.] went thither and killed the horses, and brought the flesh of them to drie it aboord. Foure or fiue of them remained on shore aliue: The Indians went vnto them, after the Spaniards were embarked. The horses were not acquainted with them, and began to neigh, and runne vp and downe, in such sort, that the Indians, for feare of them, leaped into the water: and getting into their canoes went after the brigandines, shooting cruelly at them. They followed vs that euening and the night following till the next day at tenne of the clocke, and then returned vp the Riuer. Presently from a small towne that stood vpon the Riuer came seuen canoes, and followed vs a little way downe the Riuer, shooting at vs: but seeing they were so few that they could do vs but little harme, they returned to their towne. From thence forward, vntill they came to the Sea, they had no encounter. They sailed downe the Riuer seuenteene daies, which may be two hundred and fifty leagues iourney, little more or lesse: and neere vnto the Sea the Riuer is diuided into two armes; each of them is a league and an halfe broad. Chap. XXXIX. How they came vnto the sea: and what happened vnto them in all their voiage. Halfe a league before they came to the sea, they came to anker to rest themselues there about a day: for they were very weary with rowing and out of heart. For by the space of many daies they had eaten nothing but parched and sodden Maiz; which they had by allowance euery day an headpeece ful by strike for euery three men. While they rode there at anker seuen canoes of Indians came to set vpon those, which they brought with them. The Gouernor commanded armed men to go aboord them, and to driue them farther off. They came also against them by land through a thick wood, and a moorish ground, and had staues with very sharp forked heads made of the bones of fishes, and fought verie valiantly with vs, which went out to encounter them. And the other that came in canoes with their arrowes staid for them that came against them, and at their comming both those that were on land, and those in the canoes wounded some of vs: And seeing vs come neere them, they turned their backs, and like swift horses among footemen gat away from vs; making some returnes, and reuniting themselues together, going not past a bow shot off: for in so retiring they shot, without receiuing any hurt of the Christians. For though they had some bowes, yet they could not vse them; and brake their armes with rowing to ouertake them. And the Indians easily in their compasse went with their canoes, staying and wheeling about as it had been in a skirmish, perceiuing that those that came against them could not offend them. And the more they stroue to come neere them, the more hurt they receiued. Assoone as they had driuen them farther off they returned to the brigandines. They staied two daies there: And departed from thence vnto the place, where the arme of the Riuer entreth into the sea. They sounded in the Riuer neere vnto the Sea, and found 40. fathoms water. They staid there. And the Gouernour commanded al and singular persons to speake their minds touching their voiage, whether it were best to crosse ouer to Nueua Espanna, committing themselues to the hie sea, or whether they should keepe along the coast. There were sundry opinions touching this matter; wherein Iohn Danusco, which presumed much, and tooke much vpon him in the knowledge of nauigation, and matters of the sea, although hee had but little experience, mooued the Gouernour with his talke: and his opinion was seconded by some others. And they affirmed, that it was much better to passe by the hie sea, and crosse the gulfe, which was three of foure parts the lesser trauell, because in going along the coast, they went a great way about, by reason of the compasse, which the land did make. Iohn Danusco said, that he had seene the seacard, and that from the place where they were, the coast ran East and West vnto Rio de las Palmas; and from Rio de las Palmas to Nueua Espanna from North to South: and therefore in sailing alwaies in sight of land would bee a great compassing about and spending of much time; and that they would be in great danger to be overtaken with winter before they should get to the land of the Christians: and that in 10. or 12. daies space, hauing good weather, they might bee there in crossing ouer. The most part were against this opinion, and said, that it was more safe to go along the coast, though they staied the longer: because their ships were very weake and without decks, so that a very little storme was enough to cast them away: and if they should be hindred with calmes, or contrarie weather, through the small store of vessels which they had to carrie water in, they should likewise fall into great danger: and that although the ships were such as they might venture in them, yet hauing neither Pilot nor Seacard to guide themselues, it was no good counsell to crosse the gulfe. This opinion was confirmed by the greatest part: and they agreed to go along the coast. At the time wherein they sought to depart from thence, the cable of the anker of the Gouernours brigandine brake, and the anker remained in the Riuer. And albeit, they were neere the shore, yet it was so deepe, that the Diuers diuing many times could neuer find it: which caused great sadnes in the Gouernour, and in all those that went with him in his brigandine: But with a grindstone which they had, and certaine bridles which remained to some of the Gentlemen, and men of worship which had horses, they made a weight which serued in stead of an anker. [Sidenote: They landed the 30. of May, 1539. Chap. 7. they went foorth to sea Iuly 18, 1543.] The 18. of Iuly, they went foorth to sea with faire and prosperous weather for their voiage. And seeing that they were gone two or three leagues from the shore, the Captaines of the other brigandines ouertooke them, and asked the Gouernour, wherefore he did put off from the shore: and that if hee would leaue the coast, he should say so; and he should not do it without the consent of all: and that if hee did otherwise, they would not follow him, but that euery one would doe what seemed best vnto himselfe. The Gouernour answered, that hee would doe nothing without their counsell, but that hee did beare off from the land to saile the better and safer by night; and that the next day when time serued, he would returne to the sight of land againe. They sailed with a reasonable good wind that day and the night following, and the next day till euening song, alwaies in fresh water: whereat they wondred much: for they were very farre from land. But the force of the current of the Riuer is so great, and the coast there is so shallow and gentle, that the fresh water entreth farre into the Sea. That euening on their right hand they saw certaine creekes, whither they went, and rested there that night: where Iohn Danusco with his reasons wonne them at last, that all consented and agreed to commit themselues to the maine Sea, alleaging, as he had done before, that it was a great aduantage, and that their voyage would be much shorter. They sailed two daies, and when they would haue come to sight of land they could not, for the winde blew from the shore. On the fourth day, seeing their fresh water began to faile, fearing necessitie and danger, they all complained of Iohn Danusco, and of the Gouernour that followed his counsell: and euery one of the Captaines said, that they would no more goe from the shore, though the Gouernour went whither he would. It pleased God that the winde changed though but a little: and at the end of foure daies after they had put to sea, being alreadie destitute of water, by force of rowing they got within sight of land, and with great trouble recouered it, in an open roade. That euening the winde came to the South, which on that coast is a crosse winde, and draue the brigandines against the shore, because it blew very hard, and the anchors weake, that they yeelded and began to bend. The Gouernour commanded all men to leape into the water, and going between them and the shore, and thrusting the brigandines into the Sea assoone as the waue was past, they saued them till the winde ceased. Chap. XL. How they lost one another by a storme, and afterward came together in a creeke. [Sidenote: Fresh water is commonlie found by diging in the sands on the sea side.] In the bay where they rode, after the tempest was past, they went on shore, and with mattockes, which they had, they digged certain pits, which grew full of fresh water, where they filled all the casks which they had. The next day they departed thence, and sailed two daies, and entred into a creeke like vnto a poole, fenced from the South winde, which then did blow, and was against them: and there they staied foure daies, not being able to get out: and when the Sea was calm they rowed out: they sailed that day, and toward euening the winde grew so strong that it draue them on the shore, and they were sorie that they had put foorth from the former harbour: for assoone as night approched a storme began to rise in the Sea, and the winde still waxed more and more violent with a tempest. The brigandines lost one another: two of them, which bare more into the Sea, entred into an arme of the Sea, which pearced into the land two leagues beyond the place where the other were that night. The fiue which staied behinde, being alwaies a league, and halfe a league the one from the other, met together, without any knowledge the one of the other, in a wilde roade, where the winde and the waues droue them on shore: for their anchors did strengthen and came home; and they could not rule their oares, putting seuen or eight men to every oare, which rowed to seaward: and all the rest leaped into the water, and when the waue was past that draue the brigandine on shore, they thrust it againe into Sea with all the diligence and might that they had. Others, while another waue was in comming, with bowles laued out the water that came in ouerboord. [Sidenote: A swarme of grieuous Moskitoes.] While they were in this tempest in great feare of being cast away in that place, from midnight forward they endured an intollerable torment of an infinite swarme of Moskitoes which fell upon them, which assoone as they had stung the flesh, it so infected it, as though they had bin venomous. In the morning the Sea was asswaged and the wind slaked, but not the Muskitoes: the sailes which were white seemed blacke with them in the morning. Those which rowed, vnless others kept them away, were not able to row. Hauing passed the feare & danger of the storme, beholding the deformities of their faces, and the blows which they gaue themselves to driue them away, one of them laughed at another. They met all together in the creek where the two brigandines were, which outwent their fellowes. There was found a skumme, which they call Copee, which the Sea casteth vp, and it is like pitch, wherewith in some places, where pitch is wanting, they pitch their ships: there they pitched their brigandines. They rested two daies, and then eftsoones proceeded on their voyage. They sailed two daies more, and landed in a Bay or arme of the Sea, where they staied two daies. The same day that they went from thence sixe men went vp in a canoe toward the head of it, and could not see the end of it. They put out from thence with a South winde, which was against them: but because it was little, and for the great desire they had to shorten their voyage, they put out to sea by force of oares, and for all that made very little way with great labour in two daies, and went under the lee of a small Island into an arme of the Sea, which compassed it about. While they were there, there fell out such weather, that they gave God many thankes, that they had found out such an harbour. There was great store of fish in that place, which they tooke with nets, which they had, and hookes. Heere a man cast an hooke and a line into the Sea, and tied the end of it to his arme, and a fish caught it, and drew him into the water vnto the necke: and it pleased God that he remembred himselfe of a knife that he had, and cut the line with it. There they abode fourteen daies: and at the end of them it pleased God to send them faire weather, for which with great deuotion they appointed a procession, and went in procession along the strand, beseeching God to bring them to a land, where they might serue him in better sort. Chap. XLI. How they came to the Riuer of Panuco in Nueua Espanna. In all the coast wheresoeuer they digged they found fresh water: there they filled their vessels; and the procession being ended, embarked themselues, and going alwaies in sight of the shore they sailed sixe daies. Iohn Danusco said that it would doe well to beare out to seaward: for he had seene the Seacard, and remembred that from Rio de las Palmas forward the coast did runne from North to South, and thitherto they had runne from East to West, and in his opinion, by his reckoning, Rio de las Palmas could not be farre off, from where they were. [Sidenote: At the Northside of the Gulfe of Mexico is verie low land, saue in this one place.] That same night they put to sea, and in the morning they saw Palme leaues floting, and the coast, which ranne North and South: from midday forward they saw great Mountaines, which vntill then they had not seene: for from this place to Puerto de Spiritu Santo, where they first landed in Florida, was a very plaine and low countrey: and therefore it cannot be descried, vnlesse a man come very neere it. By that which they saw, they thought that they had ouershot Rio de Palmas that night, which is 60. leagues from the Riuer of Panuco, which is in Nueua Espanna. They assembled all together, and some said it was not good to saile by night, lest they should ouershoot the Riuer of Panuco: and others said, it was not well to lose time while it was fauourable, and that it could not be so neere that they should passe it that night: and they agreed to take away halfe the sailes, and so saile all night. Two of the brigandines, which sailed that night with all their sailes, by breake of day had ouershot the Riuer of Panuco without seeing it. Of the fiue that came behind, the first that came vnto it was that wherein Calderan was Captaine. A quarter of a league before they came at it, and before they did see it, they saw the water muddie, and knew it to be fresh water: and comming right against the Riuer, they saw, where it entred into the Sea, that the water brake vpon a shold. And because there was no man there that knew it, they were in doubt whether they should goe in, or goe along, and they resolued to goe in: and before they came vnto the current, they went close to the shore, and entred into the port: and assoone as they were come in, they saw Indian men and women apparelled like Spaniards: whom they asked in what countrey they were? [Sidenote: The Riuer of Panuca: the towne 15. leagues from the mouth of the Riuer.] They answered in Spanish, that it was the Riuer of Panuco, and that the towne of the Christians was 15. leagues vp within the land. The ioy that all of them receiued vpon these newes cannot sufficiently be expressed: for it seemed vnto them, that at that instant they were borne again. And many went on shore and kissed the ground, and kneeling on their knees, with lifting vp their hands and eyes to heauen, they all ceased not to giue God thankes. Those which came after, assoone as they saw Calderon come to an anchor with his brigandine in the Riuer, presently went thither, and came into the hauen. The other two brigandines which had ouershot the place, put to sea to returne backe to seeke the rest, and could not doe it, because the wind was contrarie and the Sea growne: they were afraid of being cast away, and recouering the shore they cast anchor. While they rode there a storme arose: and seeing that they could not abide there, much lesse endure at Sea, they resolued to runne on shore; and as the brigandines were but small, so did they draw but little water; and where they were it was a sandie coast. By which occasion the force of their sailes draue them on shore, without any hurt of them that were in them. As those that were in the port of Panuco at this time were in great ioy, so these felt a double griefe in their hearts: for they knew not what was become of their fellowes, nor in what countrey they were, and feared it was a countrey of Indian enemies. They landed two leagues below the port: and when they saw themselues out of the danger of the Sea, euery one tooke of that which he had, as much as he could carrie on his backe: and they trauelled vp into the countrey, and found Indians, which told them where the fellowes were; and gaue them good entertainement: wherewith their sadnes was turned into ioy, and they thanked God most humbly for their deliuerance out of so many dangers. Chap. XLII. How they came to Panuco, and how they were receiued of the inhabitants. From the time that they put out of Rio Grande to the sea, at their departure from Florida, vntil they arriued in the Riuer of Panuco, were 52 daies. [Sidenote: They arriued in the Riuer of Panuco, 1543. Septem. 10.] They came into the Riuer of Panuco the 10. of September 1543. They went vp the Riuer with their brigandines. They trauelled foure daies; and because the wind was but little, and many times it serued them not, because of the many turnings which the Riuer maketh, and the great current, drawing them vp by towing, and that in many places: for this cause they made very little way, and with great labour; and seeing the execution of their desire to be deferred, which was to come among Christians, and to see the celebration of diuine seruice, which so long time they had not seene; they left the brigandines with the mariners, and went by land to Panuco. All of them were apparrelled in Deeres skins tanned and died blacke, to wit, cotes, hose, and shooes. When they came to Panuco, presently they went to the Church to pray and giue God thankes, that so miraculously had saued them. The townesmen which before were aduertised by the Indians, and knew of their arriual, caried some of them to their houses, and entertained them, whom they knew, and had acquaintance of, or because they were their Countrimen. The Alcalde Mayor tooke the Gouernour home to his house: and commanded al the rest, assoone as they came, to be lodged 6. & 6. and 10. & 10. according to the habilitie of euery townesman. And all of them were prouided for by their hostes of many hennes and bread of Maiz, and fruites of the Countrie, which are such as be in the Isle of Cuba, whereof, before I haue spoken. [Sidenote: The description of Panuco.] The towne of Panuco may containe aboue 70 families; the most of their houses are of lime and stone, and some made of timber, and all of them are thatched. It is a poore Countrie, and there is neither gold nor siluer in it: The inhabitants live there in great abundance of victuals and seruants. The richest haue not aboue 500. crownes rent a yeere, and that is in cotton clothes and hennes and Maiz, which the Indians there seruants doe giue them for tribute. [Sidenote: 311. Christians arriued at Panuco.] There arriued there; of those that came out of Florida, three hundred and eleuen Christians. Presently the Alcalde Mayor sent one of the townesmen in post to aduertise the Viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoça, which was resident in Mexico, that of the people that went with Don Ferdinando de Soto to discouer and conquer Florida, three hundred and eleuen men were arriued there, that seeing they were imploied in his Maiesties seruice, he would take some order to prouide for them. Whereat the Viceroy, and all the inhabitants of Mexico wondred. For they thought they were miscarried, because they had trauelled so farre within the maine land of Florida, and had no newes of them for so long a time: and it seemed a wonderfull thing vnto them, how they could saue themselues so long among Infidels, without any fort, wherein they might fortifie themselues, and without any other succour at all. Presently the Viceroy sent a warrant, wherein hee commanded, that whithersoeuer they went, they should giue them victuals, and as many Indians for their carriages as they needed: and where they would not furnish them, they might take those things that were necessarie perforce without incurring any danger of law. This warrant was so readilie obeyed, that by the way before they came to the townes, they came to receiue them with hennes, and victuals. Chap. XLIII. Of the fauour which they found at the hands of the Viceroy, and of the inhabitants of the Citie of Mexico. From Panuco to the great Citie Temistitan Mexico is 60. leagues; and other 60. from Panuco to the Port de Vera Cruz, where they take shipping for Spaine, and those that come from Spaine do land to go for Nueua Espanna. These three townes stand in a triangle: to wit, Vera Cruz, to the South, Panuco to the North, and Mexico to the West, 60. leagues assunder. The Countrie is so inhabited with Indians, that from towne to towne, those which are farthest, are but a league, and halfe a league assunder. Some of them that came from Florida, staied a moneth in Panuco to rest themselues, others fifteene daies, and euery one as long as he listed: for there was none that shewed a sower countenance to his guests, but rather gaue them any thing that they had, and seemed to be grieued when they took their leaue. Which was to be beleeued. For the victuals, which the Indians doe pay them for tribute, are more than they can spend: and in that towne is no commerce; and there dwelt but few Spaniards there, and they were glad of their companie. The Alcalde Mayor diuided all the Emperours clothes which he had (which there they pay him for his tribute) among those that would come to receiue them. Those which had shirts of maile left, were glad men: for they had a horse for one shirt of maile: Some horsed themselues: and such as could not (which were the greatest part) tooke their iournie on foote: in which they were well receiued of the Indians that were in the townes, and better serued, then they could haue been in their owne houses, though they had been well to liue. For if they asked one hen of an Indian, they brought them foure: and if they asked any of the Countrie fruit, though it were a league off, they ran presently for it. [Sidenote: This is the manner of China to carrie men chaires.] And if any Christian found himselfe euill at ease, they carried him in a chaire from one towne to another. In whatsoeuer towne they came, the Cacique, by an Indian which carried a rod of Iustice in his hand, whom they call Tapile, that is to say, a sergeant, commanded them to prouide victuals for them, and Indians to beare burdens of such things as they had, and such as were needfull to carrie them that were sicke. The Viceroy sent a Portugall 20. leagues from Mexico, with great store of sugar, raisons of the Sunne, and conserues, and other things fit for sicke folkes, for such as had neede of them: and had giuen order to cloth them all at the Emperours charges. And their approch being knowne by the citizens of Mexico, they went out of the towne to receiue them: and with great courtesie, requesting them in fauour to come to their houses, euery one carried such as hee met home with him, and clothed them euery one the best they could: so that he which had the meanest apparrell, it cost aboue 30. ducats. As many as were willing to come to the Viceroyes house he commanded to be apparelled, and such as were persons of qualitie sate at his table: and there was a table in his house for as many of the meaner sort as would come to it: and he was presently informed who euery one was, to shew him the courtesie that he deserued. Some of the Conquerors did set both gentlemen and clownes at their owne table, and many times made the seruant sit cheeke by cheeke by his master: and chiefly the officers and men of base condition did so: for those which had better education did enquire who euery one was, and made difference of persons: but all did what they could with a good will: and euery one told them whom they had in their houses, that they should not trouble themselues, nor thinke themselues the worse, to take that which they gaue them: for they had bin in the like case, and had bin relieued of others, and that this was the custome of that countrey. God reward them all: and God grant, that those which it pleased him to deliuer out of Florida, and to bring againe into Christendome, may serue him: and vnto those that died in that countrey, and vnto all that beleeue in him and confesse his holy faith, God for his mercie sake grant the kingdome of heauen. Amen. Chap. XLIV. Which declareth some diuersities and particularities of the land of Florida: and the fruites, and beasts, and fowles that are in that Countrie. [Sidenote: Port de Spiritu Santo is in 29. degrees 1/2 on the West side of Florida.] From the Port de Spiritu Santo, where they landed when they entred into Florida, to the Prouince of Ocute, which may bee 400. leagues, little more or lesse, is a verie plaine Countrie, and hath many lakes and thicke woods, and in some places they are of wild pine trees; and is a weake soile: There is in it neither Mountaine nor hill. The Countrie of Ocute is more fat and fruitfull; it hath thinner woods, and very goodly medows vpon the Riuers. From Ocute to Cutifachiqui may be 130. leagues; 80. leagues thereof are desert, and haue many groues of wild Pine trees. Through the wildernesse great Riuers doe passe. From Cutifachiqui to Xuala, may be 250. leagues: it is al an hilly Countrie. Cutifachiqui and Xuala stand both in plaine grounds, hie, and haue goodly medows on the Riuers. From thence forward to Chiaha, Coça, and Talise, is plaine ground, dry and fat, and very plentifull of Maiz. From Xuala to Tascaluça may be 250. leagues. From Tascaluça to Rio Grande, or the Great Riuer, may be 300. leagues: the Countrie is low, and full of lakes. From Rio Grande forwarde, the Countrie is hier and more champion, and best peopled of all the land of Florida. And along this Riuer from Aquixo to Pacaha, and Coligoa, are 150. leagues: the Countrie is plaine, and the woods thinne, and in some places champion, very fruitfull and pleasant. From Coligoa to Autiamque are 250. leagues of hillie Countrie. From Autiamque to Aguacay, may be 230. leagues of plaine ground. From Aguacay to the Riuer of Daycao 120. leagues, all hillie Countrie. [Sidenote: Pagina 27.] From the Port de Spiritu Santo vnto Apalache, they trauelled from East to West, and Northwest. From Cutifachiqui to Xuala from South to North. From Xuala to Coça from East to West. From Coça to Tascaluça, and to Rio Grande, as far as the Prouinces of Quizquiz and Aquixo from East to West. From Aquixo to Pacaha to the North. From Pacaha to Tulla from East to West: and from Tulla to Autiamque from North to South, to the Prouince of Guachoya and Daycao. The bread which they eate in all the land of Florida is of Maiz, which is like course millet. And this maiz is common in all the Islandes and West Indies from the Antiles forward. There are also in Florida great store of Walnuts and Plummes, Mulberries, and Grapes. They sow and gather their Maiz euery one their seuerall crop. The fruits are common to all: for they grow abroad in the open fields in great abundance, without any neede of planting or dressing. Where there be Mountaines, there be chestnuts: they are somewhat smaller then the chestnuts of Spaine. [Sidenote: Soft Walnuts Eastward from Rio Grande.] [Sidenote: Hard Walnuts Westward from Rio Grande.] From Rio Grande Westward, the Walnuts differ from those that grow more Eastward: for they are soft, and like vnto Acornes: And those which grow from Rio Grande to Puerto del Spiritu Santo for the most part are hard; and the trees and Walnuts in shew like those of Spaine. There is a fruit through all the Countrie which groweth on a plant like Ligoacan, which the Indians doe plant. The fruit is like vnto Peares Riall: it hath a verie good smell, and an excellent taste. There groweth another plant in the open field, which beareth a fruit like vnto strawberries, close to the ground, which hath a verie good taste. The Plummes are of two kindes, red and gray, of the making and bignesse of nuts, and haue three or foure stones in them. These are better than all the plummes of Spaine, & they make farre better Prunes of them. In the Grapes there is onelie want of dressing: for though they bee big, they have a great Kirnell. All other fruits are very perfect, and lesse hurtfull than those of Spaine. [Sidenote: Beasts.] There are in Florida many Beares, and Lyons, Wolues, Deere, Dogges, Cattes, Marterns, and Conies. [Sidenote: Fowles.] There be many wild Hennes as big as Turkies, Partridges small like those of Africa, Cranes, Duckes, Pigeons, Thrushes and Sparrowes. There are certaine Blacke birds bigger then Sparrowes, and lesser then Stares. There are Gosse Hawkes, Falcons, Ierfalcons, and all Fowles of prey that are in Spaine. The Indians are well proportioned. Those of the plaine Countries are taller of bodie, and better shapen, then those of the Mountaines. Those of the Inland haue greater store of Maiz, and commodities of the Countrie, then those that dwell vpon the sea coast. The Countrie along the sea coast is barren and poore: and the people more warlike. The coast runneth from Puerto del Spiritu Santo to Apalache, East and West; and from Apalache to Rio de las Palmas from East to West: from Rio de las Palmas vnto Nueua Espanna from North to South. It is a gentle coast, but it hath many sholdes, and great shelues of sand. Deo gratias. This relation of the discouerie of Florida was printed in the house of Andrew de Burgos, Printer and Gentleman of the house of my Lord Cardinall the Infante. It was finished the tenth of Februarie in the yeere one thousand, fiue hundred, fiftie and seuen, in the noble and most loyall citie of Euora. SVNDRY VOYAGES MADE FROM NUEUA GALICIA, AND NUEUA VISCAIA IN NEW SPAINE, TO THE 15. PROUINCES OF NEW MEXICO, AND TO QUIUIRA AND CIBOLA, ALL SITUATE ON THE BACKESIDE OF GUASTECAN, FLORIDA, AND VIRGINIA, AS FARRE AS 37. DEGREES OF NORTHERLY LATITUDE: WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE RIUERS, LAKES, CITIES, TOWNES, NATIONS, FERTILE SOYLE, AND TEMPERATE AYRE IN THOSE PARTES; AND MOST CERTAINE NOTICE OF MANY EXCEEDING RICH SILUER MINES, AND OTHER PRINCIPALL COMMODITIES. A discourse of the famous Cosmographer Iohn Baptista Ramusius, concerning the three voyages of Frier Marco de Niça, Francis Vasquez de Coronado, and Ferdinando Alorchon next following: taken out of his third volume of Nauigations and Voyages. The right honourable Don Antonio de Mendoça being sent by Charles the Emperour to be viceroy of Mexico and Nueua Espanna, and hauing vnderstood that Don Ferdinando Cortez had sent many ships along the coast of Nueua Espanna to discouer countries, and to find out the Isles of the Malucos, began himselfe to desire to do the like, as viceroy of Nueua Espanna; and hereupon they fell out: for Cortez said that he was general and discouerer of the South sea, and that it belonged to him to set forth those voyages. On the other side, the lord Don Antonio alledged that it belonged to him to make that discouery, as being viceroy of Nueua Espanna. So that they fell at great variance, and Cortez returned into Spaine to complaine vnto the Emperour. Don Antonio in the meane season hauing obteined knowledge of the voiage, which Andrew Dorantez (who was one of the company of Pamphilo Naruaez that escaped, as you may reade in the relation of Aluaro Nunnez, called Cabeça de Vaca) made; sent Frier Marco de Niça with a Negro of the said Dorantez to discouer that country. Which Frier Marco de Niça being returned, and hauing informed his lordship of all his discouery, he sent captain Francis Vasquez de Coronado with many Spaniards on horsebacke, and Indians on foot: likewise he sent a fleete by sea, whereof Ferdinando Alorchon was captaine, as may be seene in the relations following. An extract of a letter of captaine Francis Vasques de Coronado, written to a Secretary of the right noble Don Antonio de Mendoça, viceroy of Nueua Espanna. Dated in Culiacan, the 8. of March 1539. He saith that Frier Marcus de Niça arriued in the Prouince of Topira, where he found all the Indians fled vnto the mountaines for feare of the Christians, and that for his sake they came all downe to see him, with great ioy and gladnesse. They are men of good making and whiter then others, and their women are more beautifull then others of the neighbouring prouinces. [Sidenote: Store of golde, siluer, and precious stones in Topira.] There are no great cities there, yet are the houses built of stone, and are very good, and in them they haue great store of gold, which is as it were lost, because they know not what vse to put it to. The people weare Emeralds and other precious iewels vpon their bodies: they are valiant, hauing very strong armour made of siluer, fashioned after diuers shapes of beasts. They worship for their gods such things as they haue in their houses, as namely hearbes, and birdes, and sing songs vnto them in their language, which differeth but litle from that of Culiacan. They told the Frier that they were willing to become Christians, and the Emperors subjects, for they were without a gouernour; with condition that no man should hurt them: and that they would change their golde for such things as they wanted. Commandement was giuen, that they should bee receiued without doing them any displeasure. Neere vnto this countrey there is another Prouince heretofore discouered by our men, where the people go naked without any thing before them: they are very hardly reduced to Christianitie, and they are valiant and stoute. Their houses are couered with straw. They seeke no other riches but to feede cattel. They goe at certaine seasons to their sacrifices into a valley situate in that Prouince, which is inhabited with people, esteemed by those of the countrey as saints and priests, whom they call Chichimecas, which dwell in the woods without houses: and they eate such things as they of the countrey giue them of almes. They goe naked, and are tanned in the smoke, and tye their priuie member with a string vnto their knee, and the women likewise goe starke naked. They haue certaine temples couered with strawe, with small round windowes full of skuls of dead men; before their temple is a great round ditch, the brim whereof is compassed with the figure of a serpent made of gold and siluer, and with another mixture of vnknowen metals: and this serpent holdeth his tayle in his mouth. They of this valley from time to time cast lots, whose lucke it shal be to be sacrificed, and they make him great cheere, on whom the lotte falleth, and with great ioy they crowne him with flowers vpon a bed prepared in the sayd ditch all full of flowres and sweete hearbes, on which they lay him along, and lay great store of dry wood on both sides of him, and set on fire on eyther part, and so he dyeth. Where he continueth so quietly without being bound, as though hee did something, wherein he tooke great pleasure. And they say that hee is a Saint, and doe worshippe him for that yeere, and sing prayses, and Hymnes vnto him and afterward set vp his head with the rest in order within those windowes. Also they sacrifice their prisoners, whom they burn in another deeper ditch, and not with the foresayde ceremonies. The Spanyards which are in Xalisco write, that hauing good assistance, they hope that those people will become Christians. The Countrey is very good and fruitfull, and hath great store of good and wholesome waters. A Letter of Francis Vazquez de Coronado, Gouernour of Nueua Galicia, to the lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Viceroy of Nueua Espanna. Dated in Saint Michael of Culiacan, the 8. of March, 1539. Of the hard passage from Saint Michael of Culiacan to Topira. The description of that Prouince, and of another neere vnto the same, very rich in gold and precious stones. The number, of the people which Vazquez caried with him in his iourney thither; and how greatly Frier Marcus of Niça is honoured by the Indians of Petatlan. By the help of God I meane to set forward from this City of S. Michael of Culiacan toward Topira the 10. of April: neither can I any sooner set forward, because the powder and match which your Lordship sendeth mee, cannot be brought thither, before that time, and I thinke it be now in Compostella. Besides this, I am to passe many leagues ouer mightie high mountaines which reach vp to the skyes, and ouer a Riuer, which at this present is so bigge and swollen, that it can in no place be waded ouer. And if I depart at the time aforesayde, they say wee may wade ouer it. They tolde mee that from hence to Topira was not aboue 50 leagues; and I haue learned since that it is aboue foure score leagues. I doe not remember that I haue written to your Lordshippe the information which I haue of Topira: and though I had written thereof vnto you, yet because that since that time I haue learned something more, I thinke it meete to signifie them vnto your Lordshippe in these my letters. It may please your honour therefore to vnderstand, that they tell mee, that Topira is a very populous Prouince, lying betweene two riuers, and that there are aboue 50. inhabited townes therein. And that beyond the same there is another Countrey greater then it, the name whereof the Indians could not tell mee, wherein there is great store of victuals of Maiz, French peason, Axi or Pepper, Melons, and Gourds, and great store of Hennes of the countrey. [Sidenote: These may seeme to be the Pintados mentioned by Frier Marco de Niza in his 2. Chap.] The people weare on their bodies golde, Emeralds, and other precious stones, and are serued commonly in golde and siluer, wherewith they couer their houses: and the chiefe men weare great chaines of golde well wrought, about their necks and are apparelled with paynted garments, and haue store of wilde kine; and they say they enter not into their countrey, because themselues haue no great store of people: those Indians being many in number, and very valiant. That which here I say, I learned by two other relations of Indians dwelling neere vnto them. I meane to set forward at the time before mentioned, and I carrie with me 150 horsemen, and twelue spare horsemen, and 200. footmen, crossebowmen, and gunners. I take also with me liue hogs, sheepe and all such things as I can get for money: assure your Lordship that I meane not to returne to Mexico vntil I be able to informe your honour more perfectly, what the state of this place is: and if I find ought that we may doe good in, I will stay there, vntill I haue aduertised your Lordship, that you may command what you will haue done: and if it fall out so vnluckily, that there is nothing of importance, I will seeke to discouer 100. leagues farther, wherein (I hope in God) there will be something found in which your Lordship may imploy all these gentlemen and those which shall come hither hereafter. I thinke I cannot chuse but stay there: and the waters, the seasons, the disposition of the countrey, and other accidents wil direct mee what is best to be done. Frier Marco de Niça entred a good way into the countrey, accompanied with Stephan Dorantez, the 7. of February last past: when I departed from them, I left them with aboue 100. Indians of Petatlan, and from the time of their comming thither they greatly honoured the father, shewing him all the courtesies they could possibly. I cannot send you, nor describe vnto you his entrance among them better then I have done in all my relations which I wrote in my letters from Compostella, and I signified vnto you all things to the full from the citie of Michael: and though there is but the tenth part of those things it is a great matter. Herewithall I haue sent your Lordship a Letter, which I receiued from him: and I beleeue he may trauel many leagues farther in that sort. He saith, that if he finde any good countrey, he will write to mee thereof: I will not goe thither without informing your Lordship of my iourney. I hope in God that by one way or other wee shall discouer some good thing. A Letter written by the most honourable Lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Vice-roy of Nueua Espanna, to the Emperours Maiestie. Of certaine Noblemen which sought to discouer the end of the firme land of Nueua Espanna toward the North. The arriuall of Vazquez de Coronado with Frier Marco at S. Michael of Culiacan, with commission to the Gouernours of those parts to pacifie the Indians, and not to make them slaues any more. In the ships that went last from hence (whereof Michael de Vsnago was Admirall) I wrote vnto your Maiestie, how I sent two Franciscan Friers to discouer the ende of this firme land, which stretcheth to the North. And because their iourney fell out to greater purpose then was looked for, I will declare the whole matter from the beginning. It may please your Maiestie to call to minde how often I wrote vnto your Highnesse, that I desired to know the ende of this Prouince of Nueua Espanna, becavse it is so great a countrey, and that we haue yet no knowledge thereof. Neither had I onely this desire: for Nunno de Guzman departed out of this city of Mexico with 400 horsemen, and 14000. Indians footemen borne in these Indias, being the best men, and the best furnished, which haue beene seene in these parts: and he did so litle with them, that the most part of them were consumed in the enterprize, and could not enter nor discouer any more then already was discouered. After this the saide Nunno Guzman beeing Gouernour of Nueua Galacia, sent Captaines and Horsemen foorth diuers times, which sped no better then he had done. Likewise the Marques de valle Hernando Cortez sent a captaine with 2. ships to discouer the coast, which 2. ships and the captaine perished. After that he sent againe 2. other ships, one of which was diuided from her consort and the Master and certaine mariners slue the captaine, and vsurped ouer the ship. [Sidenote: This was the Port of Santa Cruz in the Isle of California.] After this they came to an Island, where the Master with certaine mariners going on land, the Indians of the countrey slew them and tooke their boat: and the ship with those that were in it, returned to the coast of Nueua Galacia, where it ran on ground. By the men which came home in this ship, the Marques had knowledge of the countrey which they had discouered: and then, either for the discontentment which hee had with the bishop of Saint Domingo, and with the Iudges of this royal audience in Mexico, or rather because of his so prosperous successe in all things here in Nueua Espanna, without seeking any farther intelligence of the state of that Island, he set forward on that voyage with 3. Ships, and with certaine footemen and horsemen, not throughly furnished with things necessary; which fell out so contrary to his expectation, that the most part of the people which he carryed with him, dyed of hunger. And although he had ships, and a Countrey very neere him abounding with victuals, yet could hee neuer finde meanes to conquer it, but rather it seemed, that God miraculously did hide it from him: and so he returned home without atchieuing ought else of moment. After this, hauing heere in my company Andrew Dorantez, which is one of those who were in the voyage of Pamphilo Naruaez I often was in hand with him, supposing that he was able to doe your Maiestie great seruice, to imploy him with fortie or fiftie horses, to search out the secret of those parts: and hauing prouided all things necessary for his iourney, and spent much money in that behalfe, the matter was broken off, I wot not how, and that enterprise was giuen ouer. Yet of the things which were prouided for that purpose, I had left mee a Negro, which returned from the foresayde voyage of Naruaez, with Dorantez, and certaine slaues which I had bought, and certaine Indians which I had gathered together, who were borne in those North partes, whome I sent with Frier Marco de Niça, and his companion a Franciscan Frier, because they had bene long trauelled, and exercised in those partes, and had great experience in the affaires of the Indies, and were men of good life and conscience, for whom I obtained leaue of their superiours: and so they went with Frances Vazquez de Coronado, gouernour of Nueua Galicia vnto the Citie of Saint Michael of Culiacan, which is the last Prouince subdued by the Spaniards towarde that quarter, being two hundred leagues distant from this Citie of Mexico. Assoone as the Gouernour, and the Friers were come vnto that Citie, hee sent certaine of those Indians which I had giuen him, home into their Countrey, to signifie, and declare to the people of the same, That they were to vnderstand, that your Maiestie had commaunded they should not hereafter bee made slaues, and that they should not be afrayd any more, but might returne vnto their houses, and liue peaceably in them, (for before that time they had bin greatly troubled by the euill dealings which were vsed toward them) and that your Maiestie would cause them to be chastened, which were the causes of their vexation. With these Indians about twentie dayes after returned about 400 men; which comming before the gouernour said vnto him, that they came on the behalfe of al their Countrey-men, to tell him, that they desired to see and know those men which did them so great a pleasure as to suffer them to returne to their houses, and to sow Maiz for their sustenance: for by the space of many yeres they were driuen to flee into the mountaines, hiding themselues like wild beasts, for feare lest they should be made slaues, and that they and all the rest of their people were ready to doe whatsoeuer should bee commaunded them. Whom the gouernour comforted with good wordes, and gaue them victuals, and stayed them with him three or foure dayes, wherein the Friers taught them to make the signe of the Crosse, and to learne the name of our Lorde Iesus Christ, and they with great diligence sought to learne the same. After these dayes hee sent them home againe, willing them not to be afraid, but to be quiet, giuing them apparel, beades, kniues, and other such like things, which I had giuen him for such purposes. The sayde Indians departed very well pleased, and said, that whensoeuer hee would send for them, they and many others would come to doe whatsoeuer he would command them. The entrance being thus prepared, Frier Marco and his companion, with the Negro and other slaues, and Indians which I had giuen him, went forward on their voyage 10. or 12. dayes after. And because I had likewise aduertisement of a certaine Prouince called Topira situate in the mountaines, and had appointed the gouernour Vasquez de Coronado, that he should vse meanes to learne the state thereof: he supposing this to be a matter of great moment, determined himselfe to goe and search it, hauing agreed with the said Frier, that he should returne by that part of the mountaine, to meete with him in a certaine valley called Valle de los Coraçones, beeing 120. leagues distant from Culiacan. The gouernour trauelling into this prouince (as I haue written in my former letters) found great scarcity of victuals there, and the mountaines so craggy, that he could finde no way to passe forward, and was inforced to returne home to Saint Michael: so that aswell in chusing of the entrance, as in not being able to finde the way, it seemeth unto all men, that God would shut vp the gate to all those, which by strength of humane force haue gone about to attempt this enterprise, and hath reuieled it to a poore and bare-footed Frier. And so the Frier beganne to enter into the Land, who because he found his entrance so well prepared, was very well receiued; and because he wrote the whole successe of his voyage, according to the instruction which I had giuen him to vndertake the same, I wil not write any more at large, but send your Maiestie this copy of all such things as he obserued in the same. A relation of the reuerend father Frier Marco de Niça, touching his discouery of the kingdome of Ceuola or Cibola, situate about 30. degrees of latitude, to the North of Nueua Espanna. Chap. 1. Frier Marco de Nica departeth from Saint Michael in the Prouince of Culiacan, standing in 24. degrees of Northerly latitude: and comming to the Towne of Petatlan, receiueth many courtesies of the Indians there. Departing from thence, he had information of many Islands, and of a great countrey inhabited with ciuil people; he commeth to Vacupa: where during his aboad, he heard newes of Ceuola, and of the state of the 7. Cities, and of other prouinces, and of the rich Islands of perles, which extend northward vpon the coast. I Frier Marco de Nica of the order of S. Francis, for the execution of the instruction of the right honourable lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Vice-roy and Captaine Generall for the Emperors Maiestie in New Spaine, departed from the towne of S. Michael in the prouince of Culiacan on Friday the 7. of March, in the yeere 1539. hauing for my companion Frier Honoratus, and carying with me Stephan a Negro; belonging to Andrew Dorantez, and certaine of those Indians which the sayde lord Vice-roy had made free, and bought for this purpose: whom Frances Vazquez de Coronado gouernour of Nueua Galicia deliuered me, and with many other Indians of Petatlan, and of the towne called Cuchillo, which is some 50. leagues from Petatlan, who came to the valley of Culiacan, shewing themselues to bee exceeding glad, because they were certified by the Indians which had bin set free, whom the said gouernour had sent before to aduertise them of their libertie, that none of them from thenceforth should be made slaues, and that no man should inuade them, nor vse them badly; signifying vnto them, that the Emperors Maiesty had willed and commanded that it should be so. [Sidenote: Petatlan a towne.] With the foresaid company I went on my voyage vntill I came to the towne of Petatlan, finding all the way great intertainment, and prouision of victuals, with roses, flowres, and other such things, and bowers which they made for me of chalke and boughs platted together in all places where there were no houses. In this towne of Petatlan I rested 3. dayes, because my companion Honoratus fell so sicke, that I was constrained to leaue him there behinde. Then, according to my said instruction, I followed my iourney as the holy Ghost did leade me without any merit of mine, hauing in my company the said Stephan the Negro of Dorantez, and certaine of the Indians which had bin set at liberty, and many of the people of the countrey, which gaue me great intertainment and welcome in all places where I came, and made mee bowers of trees, giuing me such victuals as they had, although they were but small: because (as they said) it had not rained there in 3 yeres, and because the Indians of this countrey sought means rather to hide themselues, then to sowe corne, for feare of the Christians of the Towne of S. Michael, which were wont to make in-roades euen to that place, and to warre vpon them, and to cary them away captiues. [Sidenote: The island of Saint Iago.] In all this way, which may be about 25 or 30. leagues from that part of Petatlan, I saw nothing worthy the noting, saue that there came to seeke me certaine Indians from the Island, where Fernando Cortez the Marques of the valley had bin, of whom I was informed, that it was an Island, and not firme land, as some suppose it to be. They came to the firme land vpon certaine rafts of wood: and from the maine to the island is but halfe a league by sea, litle more or lesse. [Sidenote: A great island, and 30. small islands, which seeme to be the new islands of California rich in pearles.] Likewise certaine Indians of another Island greater then this came to visit me, which island is farther off, of whom I was informed that there were 30. other smal islands, which were inhabited, but had smal store of victuals, sauing 2. which haue Maiz or corne of the countrey. These Indians had about their necks many great shels which were mother of Pearle. I shewed them pearles which I carryed with me for a shew, and they told me that there were in the Islands great store of them, and those very great: howbeit I saw none of them. I followed my voyage through a desert of 4. dayes iourney, hauing in my company both the Indians of the islands, and those of the mountaines which I [Sidenote: A desert foure daies iourney.] had passed, and at the end of this desert I found other Indians which maruelled to see me, because they had no knowledge of any Christians, hauing no traffike nor conuersation with those Indians which I had passed, in regard of the great desert which was between them. These Indians interteined me exceeding courteously, and gaue me great store of victuals, and sought to touch my garments, and called me Hayota, which in their language signifieth A man come from heauen. These Indians I aduertised by my interpreter, according to my instructions, in the knowledge of our Lord God in heauen, and of the Emperor. [Sidenote: This was the valley of Coraçones.] In these countries and in all places els by all wayes and meanes possible, I sought information where any Countreys were of more Cities and people of civilitie and vnderstanding, then those which I had found: and I could heare no newes of any such: howbeit they tolde mee, that foure or fiue dayes iourney within the Countrey, at the foote of the mountaines, there is a large and mightie plaine, wherein they tolde mee, that there were many great Townes, and people clad in Cotton: and when I shewed them certaine Metals which I carryed with mee, to learne what riche Metals were in the Lande, they tooke the minerall of Golde and tolde mee, that thereof were vesselles among the people of that plaine, and that they carryed certaine round greene stones hanging at their nostrilles, and at their eares, and that they haue certaine thinne plates of that Golde, wherewith they scrape off their sweat, and that the walles of their Temples are couered therewith, and that they vse it in all their household vessels. And because this Valley is distant from the Sea-coast, and my instruction was not to leaue the Coast, I determined to leaue the discouery thereof vntill my returne; at which time I might doe it more commodiously. [Sidenote: Vacupa a town 40. leagues from the Bay of California.] Thus I trauelled three dayes iourney through townes inhabited by the sayde people, of whome I was receiued as I was of those which I had passed, and came vnto a Towne of reasonable bignesse, called Vacupa, where they shewed mee great courtesies, and gaue mee great store of good victuals, because the soyle is very fruitfull, and may bee watered. This Towne is fortie leagues distant from the Sea. And because I was so farre from the Sea, it being two dayes before Passion Sunday, I determined to stay there vntill Easter, to informe my selfe of the Islandes, whereof I sayde before that I had information. And so I sent certaine Indians to the Sea by three seuerall wayes, whom I commanded to bring mee some Indians of the Sea-coast, and of some of those Islandes, that I might receiue information of them: and I sent Stephan Dorantez the Negro another way, whom I commanded to goe directly Northward fiftie or threescore leagues, to see if by that way hee might learne any newes of any notable thing which wee sought to discouer, and I agreed with him, that if hee found any knowledge of any peopled and riche Countrey which were of great importance, that hee should goe no further, but should returne in person, or should sende mee certaine Indians with that token which wee were agreed vpon, to wit, that if it were but a meane thing, hee should sende mee a white Crosse of one handfull long; and if it were any great matter, one of two handfuls long; and if it were a Countrey greater and better then Nueua Espanna, hee should send mee a great crosse. So the sayde Stephan departed from mee on Passion-sunday after dinner: and within foure dayes after the messengers of Stephan returned vnto me with a great Crosse as high as a man, and they brought me word from Stephan, that I should forthwith come away after him, for hee had found people which gaue him information of a very mighty Prouince, and that he had certaine Indians in his company, which had bene in the sayd Prouince, and that he had sent me one of the said Indians. [Sidenote: From Vacupa to Ceuola are 32. dayes iourney.] This Indian told me, that it was thirtie dayes iourney from the Towne where Stephan was, vnto the first Citie of the sayde Prouince, which is called Ceuola. Hee affirmed also, that there are seuen great Cities in this Prouince, all vnder one Lord, the houses whereof are made of Lyme and Stone, and are very great, and the least of them with one lofte aboue head, and some of two and of three loftes, and the house of the Lorde of the Prouince of foure, and that all of them ioyne one vnto the other in good order, and that in the gates of the principall houses there are many Turques-stones cunningly wrought, whereof hee sayth they haue there great plentie: also that the people of this Citie goe very well apparelled: and that beyond this there are other Prouinces, all which (hee sayth) are much greater then these seuen cities. I gaue credite to his speach, because I found him to bee a man of good vnderstanding: but I deferred my departure to follow Stephan Dorantes, both because I thought hee would stay for mee, and also to attend the returne of my messengers which I had sent vnto the Sea, who returned vnto me vpon Easter day, bringing with them certaine inhabitants of the Sea-coast, and of two of the Islands. Of whom I vnderstoode, [Sidenote: Great pearles and much gold in the Isles of California, which are 34. in number.] that the Islandes aboue mentioned were scarce of victuals, as I had learned before, and that they are inhabited by people, which weare shelles of Pearles vpon their foreheads, and they say that they haue great Pearles, and much Golde. They informed mee of foure and thirtie Islandes, lying one neere vnto another: they say that the people on the Sea-coast haue small store of victuals, as also those of the Islandes, and that they traffique one with the other vpon raftes. This coast stretcheth Northward as is to bee seene. These Indians of the Coast brought me certaine Targets made of Cow-hydes very well dressed, which were so large, that they couered them from the head to the very foote, with a hole in the toppe of the same to looke out before: they are so strong that a Crossebow (as I suppose) will not pierce them. Chap. 2. He hath new information of the seuen Cities by certain Indians called Pintados, and of three other kingdomes called Marata, Acus, and Totonteac, being Countreys very rich in Turqueses and Hides of cattel. Following his voyage through those countries, he taketh possession thereof for the Emperors Maiestie, and of the Indians is much honoured and serued with victuals. The same day came three Indians of those which I called Pintados, because I saw their faces, breasts and armes painted. These dwel farther vp into the countrey towards the East, and some of them border vpon the seuen cities, which sayd they came to see mee, because they had heard of me: and among other things, they gaue me information of the seuen cities, and of the other Prouinces, which the Indian that Stephan sent me had tolde me of, almost in the very same manner that Stephan had sent mee worde; and so I sent backe the people of the sea-coast; and two Indians of the Islandes sayde they would goe with mee seuen or eight dayes. So with these and with the three Pintados aboue mentioned, I departed from Vacupa vpon Easter Tuesday, the same way that Stephan went, from whom I receiued new messengers with a Crosse of the bignesse of the first which he sent me: which hastened mee forward, and assured me that the land which I sought for, was the greatest and best countrey in all those partes. The sayd messengers told mee particularly without fayling in any one poynt, all that which the first messenger had tolde mee, and much more, and gaue mee more plaine information thereof. So I trauelled that day being Easter Tuesday, and two dayes more, the very same way that Stephan had gone; at the end of which 3 dayes they tolde mee, that from that place a man might trauell in thirtie dayes to the citie of Ceuola, which is the first of the seuen. Neither did one onely tell me thus much, but very many; who tolde me very particularly of the greatnesse of the houses, and of the fashion of them, as the first messengers had informed me. Also they tolde me, that besides these seuen Cities, there are 3 other kingdomes which are called Marata, Acus, and Totonteac. I enquired of them wherefore they trauelled so farre from their houses: They said that they went for Turqueses and Hides of kine, and other things; and that of all these there was great abundance in this Countrey. Likewise I enquired how, and by what meanes they obteined these things: They tolde me, by their seruice, and by the sweat of their browes, and that they went vnto the first citie of the Prouince which is called Ceuola, and that they serued them in tilling their ground, and in other businesses, and that they giue them Hydes of oxen, which they haue in those places, and turqueses for their seruice, and that the people of this city weare very fine and excellent turqueses hanging at their eares and at their nostrils. They say also, that of these turqueses they make fine workes vpon the principall gates of the houses of this citie. They tolde mee, that the apparell which the inhabitants of Ceuola weare, is a gowne of cotten downe to the foote, with a button at the necke, and a long string hanging downe at the same, and that the sleeues of these gownes are as broad beneath as aboue. They say, they gyrd themselues with gyrdles of turqueses, and that ouer these coates some weare good apparel, others hides of kine very well dressed, which they take to bee the best apparel of that countrey, whereof they haue there great quantitie. Likewise the women goe apparelled, and couered downe to the foote. These Indians gaue me very good intertainment, and curiously enquired the day of my departure from Vacupa, that at my returne they might prouide me of foode and lodging. They brought certaine sicke folkes before mee, that I might heale them, and sought to touch my apparell, and gaue mee certaine Cow-hydes so well trimmed and dressed, that by them a man might coniecture that they were wrought by ciuile people, and all of them affirmed, that they came from Ceuola. The next day I followed my journey, and carrying with mee the Pintados, I came to another Village where I was well receiued by the people of the same: who likewise sought to touch my garments, and gaue mee as particular knowledge of the Lande aforesayde, as I had receiued of those which mette mee before: and also tolde mee, that from that place certaine people were gone with Stephan Dorantez, fours or fiue dies journey. And here I found a great crosse, which Stephan had left me for a signe, that the newes of the good Countrey increased, and left worde, that with all haste they should sende mee away, and that hee would stay for mee at the ende of the first Desert that he mette with. Heere I set vp two Crosses, and tooke possession according to mine instruction, because that the Countrey seemed better vnto mee then that which I had passed, and that I thought it meete to make an acte of possession as farre as that place. In this maner I trauailed fiue dayes alwayes finding inhabited places with great hospitalitie and intertainments, and many Turqueses, and Oxe-hides, and the like report concerning the countrey. Heere I vnderstood, that after two dayes iourney I should finde a desert where there is no foode; but that there were certaine gone before to build mee lodgings, and to carrie foode for mee: whereupon I hastened my way, hoping to finde Stephan at the ende thereof, because in that place hee had left worde that he would stay for mee. Before I came to the desert, I mette with a very pleasant Towne, by reason of great store of waters conueighed thither to water the same. Heere I mette with many people both men and women clothed in Cotton, and some couered with Oxe-hydes, which generally they take for better apparell then that of cotton. All the people of this Village goe in Caconados, that is to say, with Turqueses hanging at their nostrilles and eares: which Turqueses they call Cacona. Amongst others the Lord of this Village came vnto me, and two of his brethren very well apparelled in Cotton, who also were in Caconados, each of them hauing his Collar of Turqueses about his necke: and they presented vnto mee many wilde beastes, as Conies, Quailes, Maiz, nuttes of Pine trees, and all in great abundance, and offered mee many Turqueses and dressed Oxe-hydes and very fayre vessels to drinke in, and other things: whereof I would receiue no whit. [Sidenote: Store of woollen cloth and sheepe in Totonteac.] And hauing my garment of gray cloth, which in Spaine is called çaragoça, the Lord of this Village, and the other Indians touched my gowne with their handes, and tolde mee, that of such Cloth there was great store in Totonteac, and that the people of that Countrey wore the same. Whereat I laughed, and sayde that it was nothing else but such apparell of Cotton as they wore. And they replyed: We would haue thee thinke that we vnderstand, that apparell which thou wearest, and that which we weare are of diuers sortes. Vnderstand thou, that in Ceuola all the houses are full of that apparell which we weare, but in Totonteac there are certaine litle beasts, from whom they take that thing wherewith such apparell as thou wearest, is made. I prayed them to informe mee more playnely of this matter. And they tolde me that the sayde beastes were about the bignesse of the two braches or spaniels which Stephan carryed with him, and they say that there is great store of that cattell in Totonteac. Chap. 3. He entreth into a desert, and the Indians suffer him to want nothing necessary. Following his Voyage, he commeth into a fertile valley, and hath certaine knowledge giuen him (as he had before) of the state of Ceuola, and of Totonteac; and that the coast of the sea in 35. degrees trendeth much to the Westward: and also of the kingdomes of Marata and Acus. [Sidenote: A desert of foure dayes iourney.] The next day I entred into the Desert, and where I was to dine, I found bowers made, and victuals in abundance by a riuers side; and at night I found bowers and victuals in like sort, and after that maner I found for 4 dayes trauell: all which time the wildernesse continueth. [Sidenote: A very populous valley.] At the ende of these foure dayes, I entered into a valley very well inhabited with people. At the first Village there mette me many men and women with victuals, and all of them had Turqueses hanging at their nostrils and eares, and some had collars of turqueses like those which the Lord of the Village before I came to the Desert, and his two [Sidenote: Collars of turqueses two or three times double.] brethren wore: sauing that they ware them but single about their neckes, and these people weare them three or foure times double, and goe in good apparell, and skinnes or Oxen: and the women weare of the sayd Turqueses at there nostrils and ears, and very good wast-coats and other garments. Heere there was a great knowledge of Ceuola, as in Nueua Espanna of Temistitan, and in Peru of Cuzco: and they tolde vs particularly the maner of their houses, lodgings, streetes and market-places, as men that had bene oftentimes there, and as those which were furnished from thence with things necessary for the seruice of their housholde, as those also had done, which I already had passed. I tolde them it was impossible that the houses should be made in such sort as they informed mee, and they for my better vnderstanding tooke earth or ashes, and powred water thereupon, and shewed me how they layd stones vpon it, and how the buylding grew vp, as they continued laying stones thereon, vntill it mounted aloft. I asked them whether the men of that Countrey had wings to mount vp vnto those loftes: whereat they laughed, and shewed mee a Ladder in as good sort as I my selfe was able to describe it. Then they tooke a Staffe and helde it ouer their heads, and said that the lofts were so high one aboue another. Likewise heere I had information of the woollen cloth of Totonteac, where they say are houses like those of Ceuola, and better and more in number, and that it is a great Prouince, and hath no gouernour. [Sidenote: This graduation is mistaken by 6. or 7. degrees at the least.] Here I vnderstand that the coast of the sea trended much toward the West: for vnto the entrance of this first desert which I passed, the coast still stretched Northward: and because the trending of the coast is a thing of great importance, I was desirous to knowe and see it: and I saw plainely, that in 35. degrees the coast stretcheth to the West, whereat I reioyced no lesse then of the good newes within land, and so I returned backe to proceede in my iourney. Through the foresayd valley I trauailed fiue dayes iourney which is inhabited with goodly people, and so aboundeth with victuals, that it sufficeth to feede aboue three thousand horsemen: it is all well watered and like a garden: the burroughs and townes are halfe and a quarter of a league long, and in all these villages, I found very ample report of Ceuola, whereof they made such particular relation vnto me, as people which goe yeerely thither to earne their liuing. Heere I found a man borne in Ceuola, who told me that he came thither, hauing escaped from the gouernour or Lieutenant of the towne; for the Lord of these seuen Cities liueth and abideth in one of those townes called Ahacus, and in the rest he appoynteth lieu-tenants vnder him. This townesman of Ceuola is a white man of a good complexion, somewhat well in yeeres, and of farre greater capacitie then the inhabitants of this valley, or then those which I had left behind me. Hee sayde that he would goe with mee, that I might begge his pardon: and of him I learned many particulars: he tolde me that Ceuola was a great Citie, inhabited with great store of people, and hauing many Streetes and Market-places: and that in some partes of this Citie there are certaine very great houses of fiue stories high, wherein the chiefe of the Citie assemble themselues at certaine dayes of the yeere. He sayeth that the houses are of Lyme and Stone, according as others had tolde mee before, and that the gates, and small pillars of the principall houses are of Turqueses, and all the vessels wherein they are serued, and the other ornaments of their houses were of golde: and that the other sixe Cities are built like vnto this, whereof some are bigger: and that Ahacus is the chiefest of them. [Sidenote: Marata lieth toward the Southeast.] Hee sayth that toward the Southeast there is a kingdome called Marata, and that there were woont to be many, and those great Cities, which were all built of houses of Stone, with diuers lofts: and that these haue and doe wage warre with the Lord of the seuen cities, through which warre this kingdome of Marata is for the most part wasted, although it yet continueth and mainteineth warre against the other. [Sidenote: Totonteac lyeth West.] Likewise he saith, that the kingdome called Totonteac lyeth toward the West, which he saith is a very mightie Prouince, replenished with infinite store of people and riches: and that in the sayde Kingdome they weare woollen cloth like that which I weare, and other finer sorts of woollen cloth made of the fleeces of those beastes which they described before vnto me: and that they are a very ciuile people. Moreouer hee tolde me, that there is another great Prouince and kingdome called Acus; for there is Acus, and Ahacus with an aspiration, which is the principall of the seuen cities: and Acus without an aspiration is a kingdome and Prouince of it selfe. He told me also, that the apparel which they weare in Ceuola is after the same maner as they before had certified me, and that all the inhabitants of the Citie lie vpon beddes raysed a good height from the ground, with quilts and canopies ouer them, which couer the sayde Beds: and hee tolde mee that he would goe with me to Ceuola and farther also, if I would take him with me. The like relation was giuen vnto me in this towne by many others, but not so particularly. I trauelled three dayes iourney through this valley: the inhabitants whereof made mee exceeding great cheere and intertainement. In this valley I saw aboue a thousand Oxe-hides most excellently trimmed and dressed. And here also I saw farre greater store of Turqueses and chaines made thereof, then in all places which I had passed; and they say, that all commeth from the city of Ceuola, whereof they haue great knowledge, as also of the kingdome of Marata, and of the kingdomes of Acus and Totonteac. Chap. 4. Of a very great beast with one horne vpon his forehead; and of the courtesies which the Indians shewed Frier Marcus of Niça, in his Voyage. Also how cruelly Stephan Dorantez and his companions were vsed vpon their arriuall at Ceuola, by the Lorde thereof. Here they shewed me an hide halfe as bigge againe as the hide of a great oxe, and tolde me that it was the skin of a beast which had but one horne vpon his forehead, and that this horne bendeth toward his breast, and that out of the same goeth a point right forward, wherein he hath so great strength, that it will breake any thing how strong so euer it be, if he runne against it, and that there are great store of these beasts in that Countrey. The colour of the hide is of the colour of a great Goat-skin, and the haire is a finger thicke. Here I had messengers from Stephan which brought me word, that by this time he was come to the farthest part of the desert, and that he was very ioyfull, because the farther he went, the more perfect knowledge he had of the greatnesse of the countrey, and sent me word, that since his departure from me, hee neuer had found the Indians, in any lye; for euen vnto that very place he had found al in such maner as they had informed him, and hoped that he should find the like at his arriuall in the valley which he was going vnto, as he had found in the villages before passed. I set vp crosses, and vsed those acts and ceremonies, which were to be done according to my instructions. [Sidenote: Fifteene daies iourney from the end of the desert to Ceuola or Ciuola.] The inhabitants requested me to stay here three or foure daies, because that from this place there were foure dayes iourney vnto the desert, and from the first entrance in the same desert vnto the citie of Ceuola are 15 great dayes iourney more: also that they would prouide victuals for me and other necessaries for that voyage. Likewise they told me, that with Stephan the Negro were gone aboue 300 men to beare him company, and to carry victuals after him, and that in like sort many of them would go with me to serue me, because they hoped to returne home rich. I thanked them, and willed them to set things in order with speede, and so I rested there three dayes, wherein I alwayes informed my selfe of Ceuola, and of as many other things as I could learne, and called many Indians vnto me, and examined them seuerally, and all of them agreed in one tale, and told me of the great multitude of people, and of the order of the streetes, of the greatnesse of the houses, and of the strength of the gates, agreeing altogether with that which the rest before had told me. After three dayes many assembled themselues to goe with me, 30 of the principal of whom I tooke, being very well apparelled, and with chaines of turqueses, which some of them weare fiue or sixe times double, and other people to cary things necessary for them and me, and so set forward on my voyage. Thus I entred into the second desert on the 9 of May, and trauelled the first day by a very broad and beaten way, and we came to diner vnto a water, where the Indians had made prouision for me: and at night we came to another water, where I found a house which they had fully made vp for me, and another house stood made where Stephan lodged when he passed that way, and many old cottages and many signes of fire which the people had made that trauelled to Ceuola by this way. In this sort I trauelled 12 dayes iourney being alway well prouided of victuals, of wild beasts, Hares, and Partridges of the same colour and tast with those of Spaine although they are not so big, for they be somewhat lesse. Here met vs an Indian the sonne of one of the chiefe men that accompanied mee, which had gone before with Stephan, who came in a great fright, hauing his face and body all couered with sweat, and shewing exceeding sadnesse in his countenance; and he told mee that a dayes iourney before Stephan came to Ceuola he sent his great Mace made of a gourd by his messengers, as he was alwayes woont to send them before him, that hee might knowe in what sort hee came vnto them, which gourd had a string of belles vpon it, and two feathers one white and another red, in token that he demanded safe conduct, and that he came peaceably. And when they came to Ceuola before the Magistrate, which the Lord of the citie had placed there for his Lieutenant, they deliuered him the sayde great gourd, who tooke the same in his hands, and after he had spyed the belles, in a great rage and fury hee cast it to the ground, and willed the messengers to get them packing with speed, for he knew well ynough what people they were, and that they should will them in no case to enter into the citie, for if they did hee would put them all to death. The messengers returned and tolde Stephan how things had passed, who answered them, that it made no great matter, and would needes proceed on his voyage till he came to the citie of Ceuola: where he found men that would not let him enter into the towne, but shut him into a great house which stoode without the citie, and streightway tooke all things from him which hee caried to truck and barter with them, and certaine turqueses, and other things which he had receiued of the Indians by the way, and they kept him there all that night without giuing him meate or drinke, and the next day in the morning this Indian was a thirst, and went out of the house to drinke at a riuer that was neere at hand, and within a little while after he saw Stephan running away, and the people followed him, and slew certaine of the Indians which went in his company. And when this Indian saw these things, he hid himselfe on the banks of the riuer, and afterward crossed the high way of the desert. The Indians that went with me hearing these newes began incontinently to lament, and I thought these heauie and bad newes would cost mee my life, neither did I feare so much the losse of mine owne life, as that I should not bee able to returne to giue information of the greatnesse of that Countrey, where our Lord God might be glorified: but streightway I cut the cords of my budgets which I carried with me ful of merchandise for traffique, which I would not doe till then, nor giue any thing to any man, and began to diuide all that I carried with mee among the principall men, willing them not to be afraid, but to goe forward with me, and so they did. And going on our way, within a dayes iourney of Ceuola wee met two other Indians of those which went with Stephan, which were bloody and wounded in many places: and assoone as they came to vs, they which were with mee began to make great lamentation. These wounded Indians I asked for Stephan, and they aggreeing in all poynts with the first Indian sayd, that after they had put him into the foresayd great house without giuing him meat and drinke all that day and all that night, they tooke from Stephan all the things which hee carried with him. The next day when the Sunne was lance high, Stephan went out of the house, and some of the chiefe men with him, and suddenly came store of people from the citie, whom assoone as hee sawe he began to run away, and we likewise, and foorthwith they shot at vs and wounded vs, and certaine dead men fell vpon vs, and so we lay till night and durst not stirre, and we heard great rumours in the citie, and saw many men and women keeping watch and ward vpon the walles thereof, and after this we could not see Stephan any more, and wee thinke they haue shot him to death, as they haue done all the rest which went with him, so that none are escaped but we onely. Chap. 5. The situation and greatnesse of the Citie of Ceuola, and how frier Marcus tooke possession thereof and of other prouinces, calling the same The new kingdome of S. Francis, and how after his departure from thence being preserued by God in so dangerous a voyage, he arriued at Compostella in Nueua Galicia. Hauing considered the former report of the Indians, and the euill meanes which I had to prosecute my voyage as I desired, I thought it not good wilfully to lose my life as Stephan did; and so I told them, that God would punish those of Ceuola, and that the Viceroy when he should vnderstand what had happened, would send many Christians to chastise them: but they would not beleeue me, for they sayde that no man was able to withstand the power of Ceuola. And herewithall I left them, and went aside two or three stones cast, and when I returned I found an Indian of mine which I had brought from Mexico called Marcus, who wept and sayde vnto me: Father, these men haue consulted to kill vs, for they say, that through your and Stephans meanes their fathers are slaine, and that neither man nor woman of them shall remaine vnslaine. Then againe I diuided among them certaine other things which I had, to appease them, whereupon they were somewhat pacified, albeit they still shewed great griefe for the people which were slaine. I requested some of them to goe to Ceuola to see if any other Indian were escaped, with intent that they might learne some newes of Stephan; which I could not obtaine at their handes. When I saw this, I sayd vnto them, that I purposed to see the citie of Ceuola, whatsoeuer came of it. They sayde that none of them would goe with me. At the last when they sawe mee resolute, two of the chiefe of them sayde they would goe with me: with whome and with mine Indians and interpreters I followed my way, till I came within sight of Ceuola, which is situate on a plaine at the foote of a round hill, and maketh shew to bee a faire citie, and is better seated than any that I haue seene in these partes. The houses are builded in order, according as the Indians told me, all made of stone with diuers stories, and flatte roofes, as farre as I could discerne from a mountaine, whither I ascended to viewe the citie. The people are somewhat white, they weare apparell, and lie in beds, their weapons are bowes, they have Emralds and other jewels, although they esteeme none so much as turqueses, wherewith they adorn the walles of the porches of their houses, and their apparell and vessels, and they vse them in stead of money through all the Countrey. Their apparell is of cotton and of ox hides, and this is their most commendable and honourable apparell. [Sidenote: Most rich mines of gold and siluer in the prouince of the Pintados.] They vse vessels of gold and siluer, for they haue no other metall, whereof there is greater vse and more abundance then in Peru, and they buy the same for turqueses in the prouince of the Pintados, where there are sayd to be mines of great abundance. Of other kingdomes I could not obtaine so particular instruction. Diuers times I was tempted to goe thither, because I knewe I could but hazard my life, and that I had offered vnto God the first day that I began my iourney: in the ende I began to bee afraid, considering in what danger I should put my selfe, and that if I should dye, the knowledge of this countrey should be lost, which in my iudgement is the greatest and the best that hitherto hath been discouered: and when I told the chiefe men, what a goodly citie Ceuola seemed vnto mee, they answered me that it was the least of the seuen cities, and that Totonteac [Sidenote: Totonteac the greatest and most populous prouince.] is the greatest and best of them all, because it hath so many houses and people, that there is no ende of them. Hauing seene the disposition and situation of the place, I thought good to name that Countrey El Nueuo reyno de san Francisco: in which place I made a great heape of stones by the helpe of the Indians, and on the toppe thereof I set vp a small slender crosse because I wanted meanes to make a greater, and sayd that I set vp that crosse and heape in the name of the most honourable Lord Don Antonio de Mendoça Viceroy and Captaine generall of Nueua Espanna, for the Emperour our Lord, in token of possession, according to mine instruction. Which possession I sayd that I tooke in that place of all the seuen cities, and of the kingdomes of Totonteac, of Acus, and of Marata. Thus I returned with much more feare then victuals, and went vntill I found the people which I had left behind mee, with all the speede that I could make, whome I ouertooke in two dayes trauell, and went in their company till I had passed the desert, where I was not made so much of as before: for both men and women made great lamentation for the people which were slaine at Ceuola, and with feare I hastened from the people of this valley, and trauelled tenne leagues the first day, and so I went daily eight or ten leagues, without staying vntill I had passed the second desert. And though I were in feare, yet I determined to go to the great plaine, wherof I said before, that I had information, being situate at the foote of the mountaines, and in that place I vnderstoode that this plaine is inhabited for many dayes iourney toward the East, but I durst not enter into it, considering, that if hereafter wee shoulde inhabite this other Countrey of the seuen cities, and the kingdomes before mentioned, that then I might better discouer the same, without putting my selfe in hazard, and leaue it for this time, that I might giue relation of the things which I had now seene. At the entrance of this plaine I saw but seuen Townes onely of a reasonable bignesse, which were a farre off in a low valley beeing very greene and a most fruitfull soyle, out of which ranne many Riuers. I was informed that there was much golde in this valley, and that the inhabitants worke it into vessels and thinne plates, wherewith they strike and take off their sweat, and that they are people that will not suffer those of the other side of the plaine to traffique with them, and they could not tell me the cause thereof. Here I set vp two crosses, and tooke possession of the plaine and valley in like sort and order, as I did at other places before mentioned. [Sidenote: Compostella in 21. degrees of latitude.] And from thence I returned on my voyage with as much haste as I coulde make, vntill I came to the citie of Saint Michael in the prouince of Culiacan, thinking there to have found Francis Vazquez de Coronado gouernour of Nueua Galicia, and finding him not there, I proceeded on my iourney till I came to the Citie of Compostella, where I found him. I write not here many other particularities, because they are impertinent to this matter: I only report that which I haue seene, and which was told me concerning the Countreys through which I trauelled, and of those which I had information of. EL VIAIE QVE HIZO ANTONIO DE ESPEIO EN EL ANNO DE OCHENTA Y TRES: EL QUAL CON SUS COMPANNEROS DESCUBRIERON VNA TIERRA EN QUE HALLARON QUINZE PROUINCIAS TODAS LLENAS DE PUEBLOS, Y DE CASAS DE QUATRO Y CINCO ALTOS, A QUIEN PUSIERON POR NOMBRE EL NUEUO MEXICO, POR PARECERSE EN MUCHAS COSAS AL VIEJO. ESTA à LA PARTE DEL NORTE, Y SE CREE QUE POR ELLA, Y POR POBLADO, SE PUEDE VENIR HASTA LLEGAR A LA TIERRA QUE LLAMAN DEL LABRADOR. Del Nueuo Mexico, y de su descubrimiento, y lo que del se sabe. [Sidenote: _A.D. 1583._] Va dixe en el titulo del libro, que el anno de mil y quinientos y ochenta y tres, se auian descubierto quinze Prouincias, aquien los inuentores llamaron. [Sidenote: _New Mexico._] El nueuo Mexico en la tierra firme de Nueua Espanna, y prometi de dar noticia del descubrimiento, como lo hare con la mayor breuedad que sea possible, porque si vuiera de poner diffusamente todo lo que vieron y supieron, fuera menester hazer dello nueua historia. [Sidenote: _Friar Augustin Ruyz_.] La substancia dello es, que el anno de mil y quinientos y ochenta y vno, teniendo noticia vn Religioso de la Orden de sant Francisco, que se llamaua fray Augustin Ruyz, que moraua en el valle de sant Bartholome, por relation de ciertos Indios. Conchos que se comunicauan con otros sus conuezinos llamados Passaguates: que hazia la parte del Norte (caminando siempre por tierra) auia ciertas poblaciones grandes, y nunca sabidas de nuestros Espannoles, ni descubiertas, con zelo de caridad, y de saluacion de las almas, pidio licencia al Conde de Corunna Viery de la dicha Nueua Espanna, y a sus mayores, para yr a ellas, a procurar aprendar su lengua, y sabida, bautizarlos, y predicarles el santo Euangelio. [Sidenote: _His departure._] Alcançada la licencia de los sobredichos, tomando otros dos companneros de su mesma. Orden, se partio con ocho soldados, que de voluntad le quisieron acompannar, a poner en execution su Christiano y zeloso intento. Los quales a pocos dias de camino toparon con vna Prouincia, que se llamaua de los Tiguas, distante de las minas de sancta Barbora (de donde començaron la jornoda) dozientas y cinquenta leguas hazia el Norte, en la qual por cierta occasion los naturales le mataron al dicho padre vno de sus dos companeros. El qual, los soldados que yuan com el, viendo, y sintiendo el successo, y temiendo que del se podria seguir otro mayor danno, acordaron de comun consentimiento de boluerse a las minas de donde auian salido, con consideracion de que la gente que yua era muy poca para resistir a los successos que se podian offrecer en tanta distancia de la viuienda de los Espannoles, y tan lexos del necessario socorro. Los dos Religiosos que hauian quedado, no solo no vinieron en su parecer, mas antes viendo la ocasion para poner en execucion su buen desseo, y tanta mies madura para la mesa de Dios, viendo quo no podian persuadir a los soldados a passar adelante en el descubrimiento, se quedaron ellos en la dicha Prouincia con tres muchachos Indios, y vn mestizo, que auian lleuado consigo, pareciendoles que aunque quedassan solos, estauan alli seguros, por la affabilidad y amor con que los naturales della los tratauan. [Sidenote: _The mines of Barbora 160 leagues from Mexico._] Llegados los ocho soldades adonde desseauan, embiaron luego la nueua al dicho Virey delo succedido a la ciuidad Mexico, que dista de las dichas minas de santa Barbora ciento y sesenta leguas. Sintieron mucho los religiosos de sant Francisco la quedada de sus hermanos: y timiendo no los matassen viendo los solos, començaron a mouer los animos de algunos soldados, para que en compannia de otro Religioso de la mesma Orden llamado fray Bernardino Beltran, tornassen à la dicha Prouincia, a sacar de peligro a los dichos dos Religiosos, y proseguir con la empresa començada. [Sidenote: _Antonio de Espejo died in Havana in 1589._] En esta sazon estaua en las dichas minas por cierta ocasion vn vezino de la ciuadad de Mexico, llamado Antonio de Espejo, hombre rico, y de mucho animo y industria, y zeloso del seruicio de la maiestad del Rey Don Philippe nuestro sennor, natural de Cordoua. El qual como enteniesse el desseo delos dichos religiosos, y la importancia del negocio, se offrecio a la jornada y a gastar en ella parte de su hazienda, y a riesgar su vida, siendo le para ello concedida licencia de alguna persona que representasse a su maiestad, la qual procurandola los dichos religiosos, le fue dada por el Capitan Iuan de Ontiueros Alcalde mayor por su maiestad en los pueblos que llaman las quatro Cienegas, que son en la gouernacion de la Nueua Vizcaya, setenta leguas de las dichas minas de santa Barbora, assi para que el pudiesse yr; como para que iuntasse la gente y soldados que pudiesse, para que le acompannassen, y ayudassen a conseguir su Christiano intento. [Sidenote: _He sacrifices most of his wealth to assist the expedition._] El dicho Antonio de Espejo tomo el negocio con tantas veras, que en muy pocos dias iunto los soldados y bastimentos necessarios para hazer la iornada, gastando en ello buena parte de su hazienda: y partio con todos ellos del valle de sant Bartholome a los diez de Nouiembre de mil y quinientos y ochenta y dos, lleuando para lo que se offreciesse ciento y quinze cauallos, y mulas, y muchas armas, municiones, y bastimentos, y alguna gente de seruicio. [Sidenote: _Conchos._] Endereço su camino hazia el Norte, y a dos jornados topo mucha cantidad de Indios de los que llaman Conchos en Rancherias o poblaciones de casas pagicas. Los quales como lo supiessen, y tuuiessen dello relacion muy de atras, los salieron a recebir con muestras de alegria. [Sidenote: _Their food._] La comida destos, y delos de la Prouincia, que es grande, es de carne de conejos, liebres, y venados que matan, y lo ay todo en grandissima cantidad. [Sidenote: _Their customs._] Tienen mucho maiz, que es el trigo de las Indias calabaças, y melones, y en abundancia: y ay muchos rios que crian mucha cantidad de pescado muy bueno, y de diuersas suertes: andan casi todos desnudos, y las armas que vsan son arco y flecha, y viuen debaxo de gouierno, y sennorio de Caciques, como los Mexicanos, y no les hallaron Idolos, ni pudieron entender que adorassen à nadie, por lo qual facilmente consintieron en que les pusiessen los Christianos cruzes, y quedaron muy contentos con ellas, despues de auersido informados de los nuestros dela significacion dellas, que se hizo por interpretes que lleuauan, por cuyo medio supieron de otras poblaciones, para adonde los dichos Conchos los guiaron, accompannandolos mas de veinte y quatro leguas, que todas estauan pobladas de gente de su nacion, y los salian a recebir de paz, por auiso que embiauan los Caciques de vnos pueblos a otros. [Sidenote: _Passaguates._] Andadas las veinte y quatro leguas dichas, toparon otra nacion de Indios, llamados Passaguates, los quales viuian al modo que los ya dichos. [Sidenote: _Silver._] Conchos sus conuezinos, y hizieron con ellos lo proprio, guiandolos adelante otras quarto jornados, con los auisos de los Caciques, de la manera ya dicha: hallaron los nuestros en este camino muchas minas de plata, al parecer de los que lo entendian, de mucho, y muy rico metal. [Sidenote: _Tobosos._] Vna jornada destas toparon otra nacion, llamada los Tobosos, los quales en viendo el rastro de los nuestros, se huyeron a las sierras, dexando sus casas y pueblos desiertos. Supose despues que algunos annos antes auian acudido por alli ciertos soldados que yuan en busca de minas, y auian lleuado cautiuos a ciertos naturales, lo qual tenia temerosos y abispados a los demas. El Capitan dio orden como los fuessen a llamar, assegurandolos de que no los seria hecho ningun mal, y diose tan buena manea que hizo venir a muchos, aquien regalo, y dio dones, acariciandolos, y declarandoles por el interprete, que no yuan a hazer mal a nadie, con lo qual se boluieron todos a sossegar, y consintieron les pusiessen Cruzes, y declarassen el mysterio dellas, mostrando reciber dello gran contentamiento, en cuya demonstracion los fueron acompannando, como lo auian hecho sus vezinos, hasta que los metieron en tierra problada de otra nacion differente, que distantan de la suya cosa de doze leguas: vsan arco, y flecha, y andan desnudos. Prosiguese del descubrimiento del Nueuo Mexico. [Sidenote: _Iumanos._] [Sidenote: _Rio del Norte._] La nacion hasta donde los dicho Tobosos los guiaron se llanaua Iumanos, a quien porotro nombre laman los Espannoles Patarabuyes: tienen vna Prouincia grande, y de muchos pueblos con mucha gente, y las casas eran con açoteas, y de calicanto, y los pueblos traçados por buen orden: tienen todos los hombres y mugeres los rostros rayados, y los braços, y piernas: es gente corpulenta, y de mas policia, que los que hasta alli auian visto, y tenian muchos mantenimientos, y mucha caça de pie y de buelo, y gran cantitad de pescado, a causa de tener grandes rios que vienen de hazia el Norte, y alguno tan grande como Guadalquiuir, el qual entra en la propria mar del Norte. [Sidenote: _Good salt._] Tiene muchas lagunas de agur salida que se quaja cierto tiempo del anno, y se haze muy buena sal. Es gente bellicosa, y mostraronlo luego, porque la primera noche que los nuestros assentaron real, les flecharon, y mataron cinco cauallos, hiriendo muy mal otros tantos, y no dexaran ninguno a vida, sino por las guardas que los defendieron. [Sidenote: _Rio Grande. Twelve days journey._] Hecho este mal racado, despoblaron el lugar, y se subieron a vna sierra que estaua cerca, adonde fue luego por la mannana el Capitan con otros cinco soldados bien armados con vn interprete llamado Pedro, Indio de su mesma nacion, y con buenas razones los quieto y dexo de paz, haziendolos baxar a su pueblo y casas, y persuadiendolos a que diestien auiso asus vezinos de que no eran hombres que hazian mal a nadie, ni les yuan a tomar sus haziendas: que lo alcanço facilmente con su prudencia, y con darles a los Caciques algunas sartas de quentas de vidrio que llenaua para este effeto, y sombreros, y otras ninnerias: con este, y con el buen tratamiento que les hazian, se fueron muchos dellos en compannia de los nuestros algunos dias, caminando siempre por la ribera del rio grande arriba dicho, portoda la qual hauia muchos pueblos di Indios desta nacion, que duraron por espacio de doze jornadas, en todas las quales auisados los vnos Caciques de los otros salian a recebir a los nuestros sin arcos, ni flechas, y les trayan muchos mantenimientos, y otros regalos y dadiuos, en especial cueros y camuças muy bien adereçados, y que no les excedian en esto las de Flandes. [Sidenote: _Apalito_.] Es gente toda vestida y hallaron que tenian alguna lumbre de nuestra sancta Fee, porque sennalauan a Dios mirando al cielo, y le llaman en sul lengua Apalito, y le conocen por sennor, de cuya larga mano, y misericordia confiessan auer recibido la vida, y el ser natural, y los bienes temporales. Venian muchos dellos y les mugeres y ninnos, a que el Religioso, que diximos que yua con el dicho Capitan y soldados, los santiguasse, y echasse la benedicion: el qual como les preguntasse de quien auian entendido aquel conocimiento de Dios que tenian: respondieron, que de tres Christianos, y vn negro, que auian passado por alli, y detenidose algunos dias en su tierra, que segun las sennas que dieron, eran Aluar Nunnes Cabeça de Vaca, y Dorantes, y Castillo Maldonado, y vn negro, que todos ellos auian escapado de la armida con que entro Panfilo de Narbaez en la Florida, y despues de auer sido muchos dias esclauos, vinieron a dar a estos pueblos, haziendo Dios por medio dellos muchos milagros, y sanando con el tocamento solo de sus manos muchos infermos, por lo qual dexaron gran nombre en toda aquella tierra. Toda esta Prouincia quedo de paz, y muy sossegada, en cuya demonstracion fueron acompannando y siruiendo a los nuestros algunos dias por la orilla del rio que diximos arriba. A pocas dias toparon con vna gran poblacion de Indios, adonde los salieron a recebir por nueua que tuuieron de sus vezinos, y les sacaron muchas cosas muy curiosas de pluma de differentes colores, y muchas mantas de algodon barretadas de azul y blanco, como las que traen de la China, para rescatarlas, y trocarlas por otras cosas. Yuan todos, assi hombres como mugeres, y ninnos vestidos de camuças muy buenas y bien adobadas, y nancapudieron los nuestros entender que nacion era por falta de interprete que intendiesse su lengua, aunque por sennas tratauan con ellos, à los quales como les mostrassen algunas piedras de metal rico, y les preguntassen si hauiade aquello en su tierra: Respondieron por las mesmas sennas que cinco dias de comino de alli hazia el Poniente, auia de aquello en muy gran cantidad, y que ellos los guiarian para alla, y se lo mostrarian, como lo cumplieron despues, acompannandolos por espacio de veynte y dos leguas, todas pobladas de gente de su mesma nacion: a quien immediatamente se seguia por el mesmo rio arriba otra de mucha mas gente que la de la passada, de quien fueron bien recibidos, y regalados con muchos presentes especialmente de pescado que hauia infinito, [Sidenote: _Great lakes._] a causa de vnas lagunas grandes que cerca de alli hauia, que lo crian en la abundancia dicha. Estuuieron entre estos tres dias, en los quales de dia, y de noche les hizieron muchos bayles a su modo, con particular signification de algeria: no se supo como se llamaua esta nacion por falta de interprete, aunque entendieron que se extendia mucho, y que era muy grande. Entre estos hallaron vn Indio Concho de nacion, que les dixo, y sennalo, que quinze iornadas de alli hazia el Poniente hauia vna laguna muy ancha, y cerca della muy grandes pueblos, y casas de tres y quatro altos, y la gente bien vestida, y la tierra de muchos bastimentos, el qual se offrecio de lleuarlos alla, y holgaran los nuestros dello, y solo lo dexaron de poner en effecto, pro proseguir el intento con que auian començado la jornada, que era yr al Norte a dar socorra a los Religiosos arriba dichos. [Sidenote: _Rich ores._] En esta Prouincia lo que particularmente notaron fue, que hauia muy buyen temple, y muy ricas tierras, y mucha caça de pie y buelo, y muchos metales ricos, y otras cosas particulares, y de prouecho. Desta Prouincia fueron siguiendo su derrota por espacio de quinze dias, sin topar en todos ellos ninguna gente por entre grandes pinales de pinnas y pinnones, como los de Castilla: al cabo de los quales auiendo caminado a su parecer ochenta leguas, toparon vna pequenna Rancheria, o pueblo de poca gente, y en sus casas, que eran pobres, y de paja, gran cantidad de cueros de venados tan bien adereçados como los de Flandes, [Sidenote: _Salt._] y mucha sal blanca, y muy buena. Hizieronles muy buen hospedaje dos dias que alli estuuieron, despues delos quales los acompannaron como doze leguas a vnas poblaciones grandes, caminando siempre por el rio del Norte ya dicho, hasta llegar a la tierra que llaman el Nueuo Mexico. Estaua toda la ribera del dicho rio llena de grandissimas alamedas de alamos blancos y en partes tomauan quatro leguas de ancho, y ansi mesmo de muchos nogales, y parrales como los de Castilla. Auiendo caminado dos dias por estas alamedas y noguerales, toparon diez pueblos que estauan assentados en la ribera del dicho rio por ambas partes, sin otros que se mostrauan mas desuiados, en los quales les parecio auia mucha gente, y la que ellos vieron passauan en numero de diez mil animas. En esta Prouincia los regalaron mucho con recebimientos, y con lleuarlos a sus pueblos, don de les dauan mucha comida, y gallinas de la tierra, y otras cosas, y todo con gran voluntad. [Sidenote: _Houses of four stories._] Aqui hallaron casas de quatro altos, y bien edificadas, y con galanos aposentos, y en las mas dellas auia estufas para tiempo de inuierno. [Sidenote: _Clothing of the Natives._] Andauan vestidos de algodon, y de cuero de venado, y el traje, assi de los hombres, como de las mugeres, es al modo del de los Indios del reyno de Mexico: y lo que les causo mas estranneza, fue ver que todos ellos, y ellas andauan calçados conçapatos y botas de buen cuero con suelas de vaca, cosa que hazta alli nunca la auian visto. Las mugeres trayan el cabello muy peynado, y compuesto, y sin cosa sobre la cabeça. En todos estos pueblos auia Caciques que los gouernauan como entre los Indios Mexicanos, con Alguaziles para executar sus mandamientos, los quales van por el pueblo, diziendo à vozes la voluntad de los Caciques, y que la pongan por obra. [Sidenote: _Idols._] En esta Prouincia hallaron los nuestros muchos Idolos que adorauan, y en especial que tenian en cada casa vn templo para el Demonio, donde le lleuan de ordinario de comer, y otra cosa, que de la manera que entre los Christianos tenemos en los caminos cruzes: assi tienen ellos vnas como capillas, altas, donde dizen, descansa, y se recrea el Demonio, quando va de vn pueblo a otro: las quales estan muy adornadas y pintadas. En todas las sementeras, o labranças, que las tienen muy grandes, tienen a vn lado dellas vn portal con quatro pilares, donde comen los trabajadores, y passan la siesta, porque es la gente muy dada ala labor, y estan de ordinario en ella: es tierra de muchos montes y pinales. [Sidenote: _Arms._] Las armas que vsan son arcos muy fueres, y flechas con las puntas de pedernal con que passan vnta cota, y macanas, que son vnos palos de media vara de largo, y llanos todos de pedernales agudos, que bastan a partir por medio vn hombre, y ansi mesmo vnas como adargas de cuero de vaca crudio. Prosiguese del Nueuo Mexico, y de las cosas que en el se vieron. [Sidenote: _Tiguas._] Despues de auer estado en esta Prouincia quatro dias, y a poca distancia toparon con otra, que se llamaua la Prouincia de los Tiguas, en la qual auia diez y seys pueblos: en el vno de los quales, llamado por nombre Poala, hallaron que auian muerto los indios à los dichos dos padres fray Francisco Lopez, y fray Augustin a quien yuan a buscar, y juntamene a tres muchachos, y vn mestizo. Quando los deste pueblo, y sus conuezinos vieron a los nuestros, remordiendo les la propria consciencia, y temiendose que yuan a castigarlos, y tomar vengança de las muertes de los dichos padres, no los osaron esperar, antes dexando sus casas deseirtas se subieron a las sierras mas cercanas, de donde nunca los pudieron hazer baxar, anunque lo procuraron con alagos y mannas. Hallaron en los pueblos y casas muchos mantenimientos, y gran infinidad de gallinas de la tierra, y muchas suertes de metales, y algunos que parecian muy buenos. No se pudo entender claramente que tanta gente fuesse la desta Prouincia, por causa de auerse (como ya dixe) subido a la sierra. [Sidenote: _A debate._] Auiendo hallado muertos a los que buscauan, entraron en consulta sobre si se boluerian à la Nueua Vizcaya, de donde hauian salido, o passarian adelante: en lo qual vno diuersos pareceres: pero como alli entendiessen, que a la parte de Oriente de aquella Prouincia, y muy distante de alli hauian grandes pueblos y ricos, hallandose alli tan cerca, acordo el dicho Capitan Antonio de Espejo de consentimiento de Religioso ya dicho, llamado fray Bernardino Beltran, y de la mayor parte de sus soldados, y companneros, de proseguir con el descubrimiento hasta ver en que paraua, para poder der dello noticia cierta y clara a su Magestad, como testigos de vista: y assi conformes determinaron que quedandose alli el Real, fuessen el Capitan con dos companneros en demanda de su desseo, que lo pusieron por obra. Y a dos dias de camino toparon con vna Prouincia donde vieron onze pueblos, y en ellos mucha gente, que a su parecer passaua en numero de quarenta mil animas: era tierra muy fertil y bastecida, cuyos confines estan immediatamente juntas con las tierras de Cibola, donde ay muchas vacas, de cuyos cueros se visten, y de algodon: siguiendo en la manera del gouierno el orden que guarden sus conuezinos: ay sennales de muchas minas ricas, y assi hallauan metales dellas en algunas casas de los Indios, los quales tienen, y adoran Idolos: recibieronlos de paz, y dieron les de comer. Visto esto, y la disposicion de la tierra, se boluieron al real de donde auian salido, a dar noticia a sus companneros de todo lo sobredicho. [Sidenote: _Quires._] Llegados al Real (como esta dicho) tuuieron noticia de otra Prouincia, llamada los Quires, que estaua el rio del Norte arriba seys leguas de distancia, y como se partiessen para alla, y llegassen vna legua della, les salieron a recebir de paz mucha cantidad de Indios, y a rogar que se fuessen con ellos a sus pueblos, que como lo hiziessen, fueron muy bien recebidos y regalados. Vieron solamente cinco pueblos en esta Prouincia, en los quales auia muy gran cantidad de gente, y la que ellos vieron passaua de quinze mil animas, y adoran Idolos como sus vezinos. Hallaron en vno destos pueblos vna Vrraca en vna jaula, como se vsa en Castilla, y tira soles, como los que se traen de la China, pintados en ellos el sol y la luna, y muchas estrellas. Donde come tomassen la altura, se hallaron en treynta y siete grados y medio debaxo del Norte. [Sidenote: _Cunames._] Salieron desta Prouincia, y caminando por el proprio rumbo, y a catorze leguas, hallaron otra Prouincia, llamada los Cunames donde vieron otros cinco pueblos, y el principal dellos, [Sidenote: _City of Cia._] y mas grande se llamaua Cia, que era tan grande que tenia ocho placas, cuyas casas eran encaladas, y pintadas de colores, y mejores que las que hauian visto en las Prouincias atras: parecioles que la gente que vieron passauan de veynte mil animas: hizieron presente a los nuestros de muchas mantas curiosas, y de cosas de comer muy bien guisadas, y juzgaron ser la gente mas curiosa, y de mayor policia, de quantas hasta alli hauian visto, y de mejor gouierno: monstraronles ricos metales, y vnas sierras alli cerca de donde de los sacauan. Aqui tuuieron noticia de otra Prouincia, que staua hazia el Nordueste, que se determinaron de yra ella. [Sidenote: _Amejes._] Come vuiessen andado como seys leguas, toparon con la dicha Prouincia, que se llamaua de los Amejes, en la qual hauia siete pueblos muy grandes, y en ellos a su entender mas de treynta mil animas. Vno destos siete pueblos dixeron era muy grande y hermoso, que la dexaron de yr a ver, assi por estar de tras vna sierra, como por temor de algun ruyn successo, si a caso se diuidian los vnos de los otros. Es gente al modo de la Prouincia su vezina, y tan abastada como ella, y de tan buen gouierno. [Sidenote: _Acoma._] A quinze leguas desta Prouincia, caminando siempre hazia el Poniente, hallaron vn pueblo grande llamado Acoma, era de mas de seys mil animas, y estaua essentado sobre vno penna alta que tenia mas de cinquenta estados en alto, no teniendo otra entrada sino per vna escalera que estaua hecha en la propria penna, cosa que admiro mucho alos nuestros: toda el agua que en el pueblo auia era de cisternas. Vinieron los principales de paz a ver a los Espannoles, y traxeron les muchas mantas, y camucas muy bien adere cadas, y gran cantidad de bastimentos. Tienen sus sembrados dos leguas de alli, y sacan el agua para regarlos de vn rio pequenno que esta cerca, en cuya ribera vieron muy grandes rosales como los de aca de Castilla. [Sidenote: _Bellicose Natives._] Ay muchas sierras con sennales de metales, aunque no subieron a verlo, por ser los Indios dellas muchos, y muy bellicosos. Estuuieron los nuestros en este lugar tres dias, en vno de los quales los naturales les hizieron vn bayle muy solenne, saliendo a el con galannos vestidos, y con juegos muy ingeniosos, con que holgaron en se estremo. Veynte y quatro leguas de aqui, hazia el Poniente dieron con vna Prouincia, que se nombra en lengua de los naturales Zuny, [Sidenote: _Zuny or Cibola._] y la llaman los Espannoles Cibola, ay en ella gran cantidad de Indios, en la qual estuuo Francisco Vazquez Coronado, y dexo muchas Cruzes puestas y otras sennales de Christianidad que siempre se estauan en pie. Hallaron ansi mesmo tres Indios, Christianos que se auian quedado de aquella jornada, cuyos nombres eran Andres de Cuyoacan, Gaspar de Mexico, y Antonio de Guadalajara, los quales renian casi oluidada su misma lengua, y sabian muy bien la delos naturales, aunque a pocas bueltas que les hablaron se entendieron facilmente. [Sidenote: _A great lake._] De quien supieron que sesenta jornadas de alli auia vna laguna, o lago muy grande, en cuyas riberas estauan muchos pueblos grandes y buenos, [Sidenote: _Much gold._] y que los naturales tenian mucho oro, de lo qual era indicion el traer todos braceletes y orejeras dello: y que como el sobredicho Francisco Vazquez Coronado tuuiesse noticia muy cierta dello, hauia salido desta Prouincia de Cibola para yr alla, y auiendo andado doze jornadas le falto el agua, y se determino de boluer, como lo hizo, con determinacion de tornar otra vez mas de proposito a ello, que despues no lo puso an execucion, porque la muerte le atajo los passos y pensamientos. Prosiue del Nueuo Mexico. [Sidenote: _Another debate._] A la nueua de la riqueza dicha, quiso a cudir el dicho Capitan Antonio de Espejo, y aunque eran de su parecer algunos de sus companneros, la mayor parte, y el Religioso fue de contrario: diziendo, era ya tiempo de boluerse a la nueua Viscaya de donde hauian salido, a dar cuenta de lo que auian visto: que lo pusieron por obra dentro de pocos dias la mayor parte, dexando al Capitan con nueue companneros que le quisieron seguir: el qual, despues de hauerse certificado muy por entero de la riqueza arriba dicha, y de mucha abundancia de metales que en ello auia muy buenos, salio con los dichos sus companneros desta prouincia, y caminando hazia el proprio Poniente, despues de hauer andado veinte y ocho leguas, hallaron otra muy grande en la qual les parecio hauia mas de cinquenta mil animas, cuyos moradores como supiessen su llegada, les embiaron vn recado, diziendo, que si no querian que los matassen, no se acercassen mas a sus pueblos; a lo qual respondio el dicho Capitan, que ellos no les yuan a hazer mal, como lo verian, y que assi les rogauan no se pusiessen en lleuar adelante su intento, dando al mensajero algunas cosas de las que lleuaua: el qual supo tan bien obonar a los nuestros, y allanar los pechos alborotados de los Indios, que les dieron lugar de voluntad para que entrassen, que lo hizieron con ciento y cinquenta Indios amigos de la prouincia de Cibola ya dicha, y los tres Indios Mexicanos, de quien queda hecha mencion. Vna legua antes que llegassen al primer pueblo, les salieron a recibir mas de dos mil Indios cargados de bastimentos, a quien el dicho Capitan dio algunas cosas de poco precio, que a ellos les parecio ser de mucho, y las estimaron masque si fueran de oro. [Sidenote: _Zaguato or Ahuato_.] Llegando mas cerca del pueblo, que se llamaua Zaguato, salio a recebirlos gran muche numbre de Indios, y entre ellos los Caciques, haziendo tanta demostracion de plazer y regozijo, que echauan mucha farina de maiz por el suelo, para que la pisassen los cauallos: con esta fiesta entraron en el, y fueron muy bien hospedados, y regalados, que se lo pago en parte el Capitan, con dar a todos los mas principales sombreros, y quentas de vidrio, y otras muchas cosas que lleuaua para semejantes offrecimientos. Despacharon luego los dichos Caciques recados a todos los de aquella Prouincia, dandoles noticia de la venida de los huespedes, y de como eran hombres muy corteses, y no les hazian mal: lo qual fue bastante para hazer los venir a todos cargados de presentes para los nuestros, y de que los importunassen, fuessen con ellos a holgarse a sus pueblos, que lo hizieron, aunque siempre con recado de lo que podia succeder. Por lo qual el dicho Capitan vso de vna cautela, y fue dezir a los Caciques, que por quanto los cauallos eran muy brauos, y les auian dicho que los querian matar, seria necessario hazer vn fuerte de calicanto donde meter los para euitar el danno que querian hazer en los Indios. Creyeronlo los Caciques tan de veras que dento de pocas horas juntaron tanta gente que hizieron el dicho fuerte que los nuestros querion con vna presteza increyble. Demas desto, diziendo el Capitan que se queria yr, le traxeron vn presente de 40. mil. mantas de algodon pintadas y blancas, y mucha cantidad de pannos de manos con borlas en las puntas, y otras muchas cosas, y entre ellas metales ricos, y que mostrauan tener mucha plata. Halaron entre estos Indios muy gran noticia de la laguna grande arriba dicha, y conformaron con los otros en lo tocante a las riquezas, y mucha abundancia de oro. Fiado el Capitan desta gente, y de sus buenos animos, a cordo a cabo de algunos dias de dexar alli cinco de sus companneros con los demas Indios amigos, para que se boluiessen a la prouincia de Zuny con el bagaje, y de yrse el con los quatro que quedauan a la ligera en descubrimento de cierta noticia que tenia de vnas minas muy ricas. [Sidenote: _The mines discovered._] Lo qual puesto por obra se partio con las guias que lleuaua, y como vuiesse caminado hazia el proprio Poniente quarenta y cinco leguas, topo con las dichas minas, y saco con sus proprias manos riquissimos metales, y de mucha plata y las minas, que eran de vna veta muy ancha, estauan en vna sierra adonde se podia subir con facilidad, a causa de hauer para ello camino abierto. Cerca delas auia algunos pueblos de Indios serranos que les hizieron amistad, y los salieron a recebir con Cruzes en las cabeças, y otras sennales de paz. [Sidenote: _A great river._] Aqui cerca toparon dos rios razonables, a cuyas orillas hauia muchas patras de vnas muy buenas, y grandes noguerales, y mucho lino como lo de Castilla, y dixeron por sennas que detras de aquellas sierras estaua vno que tenia mas de ocho leguas de ancho, pero no se pudo entender que tan cerca, [Sidenote: _North Sea._] aunque hizieron demonstracion que corria hazia la mar del Norte, y que en las riberas del de vna y otra banda ay muchas pueblos tan grandes, que en su comparacion a quellos en que est aua eran barrios. Despues de hauer tomado toda esta relacion, se partio el dicho Capitan para la Prouincia de Zuny, adonde hauia mendado yr a los dichos companneros: y como llegasse a ella con salud, hauiendo ydo por muy buen camino, hallo con ella a sus cinco companneros, y al dicho padre Fray Bernardino con los soldados que se auian determinado de boluer, como ya diximos, que aun no se auian partido, por ciertas ocasiones: a los quales los naturales hauian hecho muy buen tratamiento, y dadoles todo lo necessario muy complida mente, haziendo despues lo mesmo con el capitan, y los que con el venian, a quien salieron a recebir con demonstracion de alegria, y dieron muchos bastimentos para la jornada que hauian de hazar, rogandoles que boluissen con breuedad, y traxessen muchos Castillas (que assi llaman a los Espannoles) y que a todos les darian de comer. Por lo qual para poderlo hazar con comodidad auian sembrado a quel anno mas trigo y semillas, que en todos los passados. En este tiempo se retificaron en su primera determinacion el dicho religioso, y los soldados arriba dichos, y accordaron de boluerse a la prouincia de donde auian salido con el designio que queda dicho, a quien se junto Gregorio Hernandez que auia sido Alferez en la jornada: [Sidenote: _They resolve to return._] los quales partidos, quedando el Capitan con solos ocho soldados, se resoluio de seguir lo començado y correr por el Rio del norte arriba, que lo puso por obra. [Sidenote: _Hubates._] Y hauiendo caminado como sesenta leguas hazia la prouincia de los Quires ya dicha, doze leguas de alli hazia la parte del Oriente, hallaron vna prouincia que se llamaua los Hubates, donde los indios los receibieron de paz, y les dieron muchos mantenimientos, y noticia de que cerca de alli hauia vnas minas muy ricas, que las hallaron, y sacaron dellas metales reluzientes y buenos, con los quales se boluieron al pueblo de donde auian salido. Iuzgaron esta prouincia por de hasta veynte y cinco mil animas, todos muy bien vestidos de mantas de algodon pintadas, y camuças muy bien adere cadas. Tienen muchos montes de pinales y cedros, y las casas de los pueblos son de quatro y cinco altos. [Sidenote: _Tamos._] [Sidenote: _They return._] Aqui tuuieron noticia que otra prouincia que estaua vna jornada de alli, que se llamaua de los Tamos, en qui hauia mas de quarenta mil animas, donde como llegasen no les quisieron dar de comer los moradores della, ni admitirlos en sus pueblos: por lo qual, y por el peligro en que estauan, y [Sidenote: _1583._] estar algunos soldados enfermos, y ser tan pocos (como hauemos dicho) se determinaron de yrse saliendo para tierra de Christianos, y lo pusieron en execucion a principio de Iulio del anno de ochenta y tres, siendo guiados por vn Indio que se fue con ellos, y los lleuo por camino differente del que a la venida hauian traydo, por vn rio abaxo, a quien llamaron de las vacas, por auer gran muche dumbre dellas en toda su ribera, por donde caminaron ciento y veynte leguas, topando las ordinariamente: de aqui salieron al rio de los Conchos por donde auian entrado, y del al Valle de Sant Bertholme de donde hauian salido para dar principio al descubrimiento: y ya quando llegaron, hallaron que el dicho fray Bernardino Beltran, y sus companneros auian llegado a saluamento al dicho pueblo muchos dias hauia, y que de alli se auian ydo a la villa de Guadiana. Hizo en este pueblo el dicho Capitan Antonio de Espejo informacion muy cierta de todo lo arriba dicho, laqual embio luego al Conde de Corunna Virey de aquel Reyno, y el a su Magestad, y a los Sennores, de su Real Consejo de las Indias, para que ordenassen lo que fuessen seruidos, que lo han ya hecho con mucho cuydado. [Sidenote: _A pious wish._] Nuestro Sennor de situa de ayudar este negocio, de modo que tantas almas rededimas con su sangre no se condenen, de cuyos buenos ingenios (en que exceden alos de Mexico y Peru, segun se antendio de los que los trataron) se puede presumir, abraçaran con facilidad la ley Euangelica, dexando la idolatria, que agora la mayor parte dellos tiene: quo lo haga Dios como puede para honor y gloria suya, y augmento de la sancto fe Catholica. A briefe relation of two notable voyages, the first made by frier Augustin Ruyz a Franciscan, in the yeere 1581: the second by Antonio de Espejo in the yere 1583: who together with his company discouered a land wherein they found fifteene prouinces all full of townes, conteining houses of foure and fiue stories high, which they named New Mexico; for that in many respects it resembleth the prouince of olde Mexico. This land is situate to the North of Nueua Espanna, and stretcheth from 24 to 34 degrees and better: by the which and by other inhabited lands it is thought that men may trauell euen to Terra de Labrador. Taken out of the history of China written by Frier Iuan Gonzales de Mendoça, and printed in Madrid 1586. I haue now declared in the title of this present discourse, that in the yeere 1583 there were discouered fifteene prouinces, which the discouerers called New Mexico, situate on the firme land of Nueua Espanna, and I promised to giue notice of the sayd discouery which I will do with as much breuity as is possible: for if I should record at large all particulars which they saw and came to the knowledge of, it would require a full history. The substance thereof is as followeth. [Sidenote: The first voyage made by Frier Augustin Ruiz to the prouince de los Tiguas.] In the yere of our Lord 1581, a certaine Franciscan frier called Augustin Ruiz which dwelt in the valley of S. Bartholomew, being informed by the report of certaine Indians called Conchos, which had dealings and conuersation with other of their neighbours called Passaguates; that toward the North, trauelling always by land, there were certaine great townes not hitherto knowen nor discouered by our Spanyards; moved with a zeale of charity and a desire to saue soules, craued licence of the Conde of Corunna as then Viceroy of Nueua Espanna, and of his superiors, to go to the sayd townes, and to indeuour to learne their language, and hauing learned the same to baptise them and to preach the holy Gospel vnto them. After he had obteined licence of the parties aforesayd, taking with him other two companions of his owne order, and eight souldiers, who of their owne good will offered to beare him company, he departed to put in execution his Christian and zealous intent. [Sidenote: The chiefe of these 8 soldiers was Francisco Sanchez Xamuzeado which made a map of these prouinces, which being intercepted is come to our hands.] Who after certeine dayes trauell came vnto a countrey called The prouince de los Tiguas distant from the mines of Santa Barbara, from whence they began their iourney, 250 leagues towards the North: in which prouince the inhabitants, vpon a certaine occasion, slew one of the sayd friers two companions. The souldiers that went with him seeing this mishap, and perceiuing the successe, and likewise fearing, that thereof might happen some greater danger, determined with a common consent to return vnto the mines from whence they departed: considering that their company was too small to resist the dangers that might happen, being so farre distant from the dwellings of the Spanyards, and from all necessary succour. But the two friers which remained aliue did not onely refuse their determination, but rather seeing fit occasion to put their good desire in execution, and so great a haruest ripe for the Lords table, because they could not persuade the souldiers to proceed any further in that discouery, remained behinde in the sayd prouince with three Indian boyes and one Mestiço whom they had carried with them; thinking that although they remained alone, yet should they be there in securitie, by reason of the great affability and loue which the people of that place shewed vnto them. The eight souldiours being returned to their wished home, immediatly sent newes of all that had passed to the Viceroy vnto the city of Mexico, which is distant from the sayd mines of Santa Barbara 160 leagues. The friers of Sant Francis were much agrieued at the staying of their brethren behinde in the countrey, and fearing least the Sauages would kill them seeing them left alone, they began to mooue the minds of certaine souldiers to make another voyage to the sayd prouince in the company of another Frier of the foresayd Order called Frier Bernardin Beltran, to deliuer the aforesayd two religious men out of danger, and to prosecute their former enterprise. [Sidenote: The second voyage.] At the same time there was at the foresayd mines vpon some occasion a citizen of Mexico called Antonio de Espejo, a rich man, and of great courage and industry, and very zealous in the seruice of king Philip his souereigne, and was borne in Cordoua. Who vnderstanding the desire of the foresayd friers, and the importance of the action, offered himselfe to go on that voyage, and also to spend part of his substance, and to aduenture his life therein; conditionally that licence might be granted him to the same purpose from some person sufficiently authorised by his Maiestie. Which licence at the sayd friers procurement was granted vnto him by the gouernour Iuan de Ontiueros the kings Alcade mayór or chiefe Iustice in the towns called Las quatro Cienegas situate within the iurisdiction of Nueua Biscaya seuenty leagues from the sayd mines of Santa Barbara; authorizing him both to take in hand the sayd voyage, and also to assemble such people and souldiers as he could, which might accompany and ayde him in the performance of this his Christian intent. The sayd Antonio de Espejo was so earnest in this matter, that in very few dayes he had gathered a company of souldiers, and made prouision of things necessary for his voyage, spending therein a good part of his substance. And he departed with his whole company from the valley of S. Bartholomew the tenth of Nouember 1582; taking with him (for whatsoeuer should happen) 115 horses and mules, with great store of weapons, munition, and victuals, and some Indians to serue him in his iourney. Directing his course toward the North, after two dayes iourney he met with great store of the foresayd Indians called Conchos, which dwell in villages or hamlets of cottages couered with straw. Who, assoone as they vnderstood of his approch, hauing newes thereof long before, came foorth to receiue him with shewes of great ioy. The food of this people and of all the rest of that prouince, which is great, are conies, hares, and deere which they kill, of all which they haue great abundance. Also they haue great store of Maiz or Indian wheat, gourds, and melons very good and plentifull: and there are many riuers full of excellent fish of diuers sorts. They goe almost naked, and the weapons that they vse are bowes and arrowes, and liue vnder the gouernment and lordship of Caçiques like those of Mexico: they found no idols among them, neither could they vnderstand that they worshipped any thing, whereupon they easily consented that the Spanyards should set vp crosses, and were very well content therewith, after they were informed by our friers of the signification thereof, which was done by the interpreters that they caried with them; by whose meanes they vnderstood of other townes, whither the said Conchos did conduct them, and bare them company aboue foure and twenty leagues, all which way was inhabited with people of their owne nation: and at all places where they came they were peaceably receiued by aduice that was sent by the Caçiques from one towne to another. Hauing passed the foure and twenty leagues aforesayd, they came vnto another nation of Indians called Passaguates, who liue after the maner of the foresayd Conchos their borderers, and did vnto them as the others had done, conducting them forward other foure dayes iourney, with aduice of the Caciques as before. [Sidenote: Very great and rich siluer mines.] The Spanyards found in this iourney many mines of siluer, which according to the iudgement of skilfull men, were very plentifull and rich in metall. A dayes iourney from thence they met with another nation called Tobosos, who so soone as they beheld the countenance of our people fledde vnto the mountaines, leauing their townes and houses desolate. Afterward wee vnderstood that certeine yeeres past there came vnto that place certaine souldiers to seeke mines, who caried away captiue certaine of the people of the countrey, which caused the rest of them to be so shey and fearefull. The captaine sent messengers to call them backe againe, assuring them that they should not sustaine any harme, and handled the matter so discreetly, that many of them returned, whom he made much of, and gaue them gifts, vsing them kindly, and declaring vnto them by the interpreter, that their comming was not to hurt any man: whereupon they were all quieted, and were content that they should set vp crosses, and declare the mystery of the same, making shew that they were highly pleased therewith. For proofe whereof they accompanied them on their voyage, as their neighbours had done, vntill they had brought them to a countrey inhabited by another nation, which was distant from theirs some 12 leagues. They vse bowes and arrowes and go naked. [Sidenote: Iumanos or Patarabueyes.] The nation vnto which the sayd Tobosos conducted them, is called Iumanos, whom the Spanyards by another name call Patarabueyes: their prouince is very great, conteining many townes and great store of people: their houses are flat roofed, and built of lime and stone, and the streets of their townes are placed in good order. All the men and women haue their faces, armes and legges raced and pounced: they are a people of great stature, and of better gouernment, then the rest which they had seene in their former iourneys: and are well prouided of victuals, and furnished with plenty of wilde beasts, fowles and fishes, [Sidenote: Rio turbioso del Norte.] by reason of mighty riuers from the North, whereof one is as great as Guadalquiuir, which falleth into the North sea or bay of Mexico. Here also are many lakes of salt water, which at a certeine time of the yere waxeth hard, and becommeth very good salt. They are a warlike people, and soone made shew thereof: for the first night that our people incamped there, with their arrowes they slew fiue horses, and wounded fiue other very sore, nor would not haue left one of them aliue, if they had not beene defended by our guard. [Sidenote: Rio del Norte.] Hauing done this mischiefe, they abandoned the towne, and withdrew themselues to a mountaine which was hard by, whither our captaine went betimes in the morning, taking with him fiue souldiers well armed, and an interpreter called Peter an Indian of their owne nation, and with good persuasions appeased them, causing them to descend to their towne and houses, and persuading them to giue aduice vnto their neighbours, that they were men that would hurt no body, neither came they thither to take away their goods: which he obtained easily by his wisedome, and by giuing vnto the Caciques certeine bracelets of glasse beads, with hats and other trifles, which he caried with him for the same purpose; so by this meanes, and by the good interteinment which they gaue them, many of them accompanied our Spanyards for certeine dayes, alwayes trauelling along the banke of the great riuer abouesayd; along the which there were many townes of the Indians of this nation, which continued for the space of twelue dayes trauel, all which time the Caciques having receiued aduice from one to another, came forth to interteine our people without their bowes and arrowes, and brought them plenty of victuals, with other presents and gifts, especially hides and chamois-skins wery well dressed, so that those of Flanders do nothing exceed them. These people are all clothed, and seemed to haue some light of our holy faith: for they made signes to God, looking vp towards heauen, and call him in their language Apalito, and acknowledge him for their Lord, from whose bountifull hand and mercy they confesse that they haue receiued their life and being, and these worldly goods. Many of them with their wiues and children came vnto the frier (which the captaine and souldiers brought with them) that hee might crosse and blesse them. [Sidenote: Pamphilo de Naruaez entred into Florida 1527.] Who demanding of them, from whom they had receiued that knowledge of God, they answered, from three Christians and one Negro which passed that way, and remained certaine dayes among them, who by the signes which they made, were Aluaro Nunnez, Cabeca de Vaca, and Dorantes, and Castillo Maldonado, and a Negro; all which escaped of the company which Pamphilo de Naruaez landed in Florida; who after they had bene many dayes captiues and slaues, escaped and came to these townes, by whom God shewed many miracles, and healed onely by the touching of their hands many sicke persons, by reason wherof they became very famous in all that countrey. [Sidenote: Rio del Norte. Another prouince.] All this prouince remained in great peace and security; in token wherof, they accompanied and serued our men certaine dayes, trauelling along by the great riuer aforesayd. Within few days after they came vnto another great prouince of Indians, from whence they came forth to receiue them, vpon the newes which they had heard of their neighbors, and brought them many curious things made of feathers of diuers colours, and many mantles of cotton straked with blew and white, like those that are brought from China, to barter and trucke them for other things. All of them both men, women and children were clad in chamois skinnes very good and wel dressed. [Sidenote: Very great quantity of siluer.] Our people could neuer vnderstand what nation they were for lacke of an interpreter: howbeit they dealt with them by signes; and hauing shewed vnto them certaine stones of rich metall, and inquired whether there were any such in their countrey: they answered by the same signes, that fiue dayes iourney Westward from thence there was great quantity therof, and that they would conduct them thither, and shew it vnto them; as afterward they performed their promise, and bare them company 22 leagues, which was all inhabited by people of the same nation. Next vnto the foresayd prouince they came vnto another further vp the great riuer aforesayd, being much more populous then the former, of whom they were well receiued, and welcomed with many presents, especially of fish, whereof they haue exceeding great store, by reason of certaine great lakes not far from thence, wherein they are bred in foresayd plenty. They stayed among these people three days; all which time both day and night they made before them many dances, according to their fashion, with signification of speciall ioy. They could not learne the name of this nation for want of an interpreter, yet they vnderstood that it extended very farre, and was very great. Among these people they found an Indian of the foresayd nation of the Conchos, who told them, and shewed them by signes, that fifteene dayes iourney from thence toward the West there was a very broad lake, and nere vnto it very great townes, and in them houses of three or foure stories high, and that the people were well apparelled, and the countrey full of victuals and prouision. This Concho offered himselfe to conduct our men thither; whereat our company reioyced, but left off the enterprise, onely to accomplish their intent for which they vndertook the voyage, which was to go Northward to giue ayd vnto the two friers aforesayd. The chiefe and principall thing that they noted in this prouince was, that it was of very good temperature, and a very rich soile, and had great store of wilde beasts, and wild fowle, and abundance of rich metals, and other excellent things, and very profitable. From this prouince they folowed their iourney for the space of fifteene dayes without meeting any people all that while, passing thorow great woods and groues of pine trees bearing such fruit as those of Castile: at the end whereof, having trauelled, to their iudgement, fourescore leagues, they came vnto a small hamlet or village of fewe people, in whose poore cottages couered with straw they found many deeres-skinnes as well dressed as those of Flanders, with great store of excellent white salt. They gave our men good entertainment for the space of two dayes while they remained there, after which they bare them company about twelue leagues, vnto certaine great townes, alwayes travelling by the riuer called Rio del Norte abouesayd, till such time as they came vnto the countrey called by them New Mexico. Here all along the shore of the sayd riuer grew mighty woods of poplar being in some places foure leagues broad, and great store of walnut trees, and vines like those of Castillia. Hauing trauelled two dayes thorow the said woods of Poplar and Walnut trees, they came to ten townes situate on both sides of the sayd riuer, besides others which they might see further out of the way, wherein they seemed to be great store of people, and those which they saw were aboue ten thousand persons. In this prouince they received them very courteously, and brought them to their townes, whereas they gaue them plenty of victuals and hennes of the countrey, with many other things, and that with great good will. Here they found houses of foure stories high, very well built, with gallant lodgings, and in most of them were Stooues for the Winter season. Their garments were of Cotton and of deere-skinnes, and the attire both of the men and women is after the maner of the Indians of the kingdome of Mexico. But the strangest thing of all was to see both men and women weare shooes and boots with good soles of neats leather, a thing which they never sawe in any other part of the Indies. The women keepe their haire well combed and dressed, wearing nothing els vpon their heads. In all these townes they had Caciques, which gouerned their people like the Caciques of Mexico, with Sergeants to execute their commandments, who goe thorow the townes proclaiming with a loud voice the pleasure of the Caciques, commanding the same to be put in execution. In this prouince our men found many idols which they worshipped, and particularly they had in euery house an Oratory for the diuell, whereinto they ordinarily cary him meat: and another thing they found, that as it is an vse among the Christians to erect crosses vpon the high wayes, so haue this people certain high chapels, in which they say the diuell vseth to take his ease, and to recreat himselfe as he trauelleth from one towne to another; which chapels are maruellously well trimmed and painted. In all their arable grounds, wherof they haue great plenty, they erect on the one side a little cottage or shed standing vpon foure studdes, vnder which the labourers do eat, and passe away the heat of the day, for they are a people much giuen to labour, and doe continually occupy themselues therein. [Sidenote: These high mountains are a cause of the coldness of the countrey.] This countrey is full of mountaines and forrests of Pine trees. The weapons that they vse are strong bowes and arrowes headed with flints, which will pierce thorow a coat of male, and macanas which are clubs of halfe a yard long, so beset with sharpe flints, that they are sufficient to cleaue a man asunder in the midst: they vse also a kinde of targets made of raw hides. Hauing remained foure dayes in this prouince, not farre off they came to another called The prouince of Tiguas conteining sixteene townes, in one wherof, called Poala, they vnderstood that the inhabitants had slaine the two fathers aforesayd, to wit, frier Francis Lopez, and frier Augustus Ruyz whom they went to seeke, together with the three Indian boyes, and the mestiço. So soone as the people of this towne and their neighbours saw our men there, their own consciences accusing them, and fearing that our men came to punish them, and to be auenged of the death of the foresaid fathers, they durst not abide their comming, but leauing their houses desolate they fled to the mountaines next adioyning, from whence they could neuer cause them to descend, although our men attempted the same by diuers deuises and entisements. They found in the townes and houses good store of victuals, with infinite number of hennes in the countrey, and many sorts of metals, wherof some seemed to be very good. They could not perfectly vnderstand what numbers of people this prouince might conteine, by reason they were fled into the mountains, as I haue said before. Hauing found those to be slaine which they went to seeke, they entred into consultation, whether they should returne to Nueua Biscaya, from whence they came, or should proceed further in their iourney; whereabout there were diuers opinions: howbeit, vnderstanding there, that toward the Orient or East parts of that prouince, [Sidenote: This draweth toward Virginia.] and very far distant from thence, there were great and rich townes: and finding themselues so far on the way, the sayd captaine Antonio de Espeio with the consent of the foresaid frier called Frier Bernardine Beltron, and the greater part of his souldiers and companions determined to proceed on the discouery, till such time as they did see to what end it would come; to the end they might giue certeine and perfect knowledge thereof to his Maiesty, as eye-witnesses of the same. And so with one accord they determined, that while the army lay still there, the captaine and two more of his company should prosecute their desire, which they did accordingly. And within two dayes iourney they came vnto another prouince, where they found eleuen townes, and much people in them; which in their iudgement were aboue forty thousand persons. The country was very fertile and plentifull, whose confines bordered vpon the territories of Cibola, where there are great store of kine, with whose hides and with cotton they apparell themselues, imitating in the forme of their gouernment their next neighbours. In this place are signes of very rich mines, some quantity of the metals whereof they found in the houses of the Indians; which Indians haue and doe worship idols. They receiued our men peaceably, and gaue them victuals. Hauing seene this much, and the disposition of the countrey, they returned to the campe, from whence they departed, to informe their companions of the things aboue mentioned. Being returned to the campe they had intelligence of another prouince called Los Quires, [Sidenote: Quires bordering vpon Rio del Norte.] which stood sixe leagues higher vp the riuer called Rio del Norte. And in their iourney thitherward, being arriued within a league of the place, there came forth very many Indians to receiue them in peace, requesting them to beare them company to their townes: which they did, and were maruellous well interteined and cherished. In this prouince they found fiue townes only. Wherein were great store of people, and those which they saw were aboue 14000 soules, who worship idols as their neighbours do. In one of these townes they found a pie in a cage after the maner of Castile, and certaine shadowes or canopies like vnto those which are brought from China, wherein were painted the Sunne, the Moone, and many Starres. Where hauing taken the height of the pole-starre, they found themselues to be in 37 degrees and 1/2 of Northerly latitude. [Sidenote: Cunames, or Punames. Cia a great city.] They departed out of this prouince, and keeping still the same Northerly course, fourteene leagues from thence they found another prouince called The Cunames, where they saw other fiue townes, the greatest whereof was called Cia, being so large, that it conteined eight market-places, the houses whereof being plaistered and painted with diuers colours, were better then any which they had seene in the prouinces before mentioned: the people which they heere saw, they esteemed to be aboue twenty thousand persons. They presented to our men many curious mantles, and victuals excellently well dressed; so that our men deemed this nation to be more curious, and of greater ciuility, and better gouernment, then any other that hitherto they had seene. They shewed them rich metals, and the mountaines also not farre off whereout they digged them. Heere our people heard of another prouince standing toward the Northwest, wherevnto they purposed to goe. [Sidenote: Ameies, or Emexes.] Hauing trauelled about sixe leagues, they came to the sayd prouince, the people whereof were called Ameies, wherin were seuen very great townes, conteining, to their iudgement, aboue thirty thousand soules. They reported that one of the seuen townes was very great and faire, which our men would not go to see, both because it stood behinde a mountaine, and also for feare of some mishappe, if in case they should be separated one from another. This people are like vnto their neighbours of the former prouince, being as well prouided of all necessaries as they, and of as good gouernment. [Sidenote: Acoma or Acoman a towne conteining aboue 6000 persons.] About fifteene leagues from this prouince, trauelling alwayes toward the West, they found a great towne called Acoma, conteining aboue sixe thousand persons, and situate vpon an high rocke which was aboue fifty paces hie, hauing no other entrance but by a ladder or paire of staires hewen into the same rocke, whereat our people maruelled not a little: all the water of this towne was kept in cisternes. The chiefe men of this towne came peaceably to visit the Spanyards, bringing them many mantles and chamois-skinnes excellently dressed, and great plenty of victuals. Their corne-fields are two leagues from thence, and they fetch water out of a small riuer nere thereunto, to water the same, on the brinks whereof they saw many great banks of Roses like those of Castile. Here are many mountaines that beare shewes of mettals, but they went not to see them, because the Indians dwelling vpon them are many in number, and very warlike. Our men remained in this place three dayes, vpon one of the which the inhabitants made before them a very solemne dance, comming foorth in the same with gallant apparell, vsing very witty sports, wherewith our men were exceedingly delighted. [Sidenote: Zuny or Sunne.] Twenty foure leagues from hence toward the West, they came to a certaine prouince called by the inhabitants themselues Zuny, and by the Spanyards Cibola, containing great numbers of Indians; [Sidenote: Vasquez de Coronado was here 1540 and 1541.] in which prouince Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had bene, and had erected many crosses and other tokens of Christianity, which remained as yet standing. Heere also they found three Indian Christians which had remained there euer since the said iourny, whose names were Andrew de Culiacan, Gaspar de Mexico, and Antonio de Guadalajara, who had almost forgotten their owne language, but could speake that countrey speech very well; howbeit after some small conference with our men, they easily vnderstood one another. [Sidenote: A mighty lake 60 daies iourney from Cibola.] By these three Indians they were informed, that threescore dayes iourney from this place there was a very mighty lake, vpon the bankes whereof stood many great and good townes, and that the inhabitants of the same had plenty of golde, an euident argument wherof was their wearing of golden bracelets and earrings: and also that after the sayd Francis Vasquez de Coronado had perfect intelligence thereof, hee departed out of this prouince of Cibola to goe thither, and that hauing proceeded twelue dayes iourney, he began to want water; and thereupon determined to returne, as he did indeed, with intention to make a second voyage thither at his better opportunity; which afterward he performed not, being preuented of his determined iourney by death. [Sidenote: Another mightie prouince Westward of Cibola 28. leagues, called Mohotze.] Vpon the newes of these riches the sayd Captaine Antony de Espeio was desirous to go thither; and though some of his companions were of his opinion, yet the greater part and the frier were of the contrary, saying that it was now high time to returne home to New Biscay from whence they came, to giue account of that which they seene: which the sayd greater part within few dayes put in execution, leauing the captaine with nine companions onely that willingly followed him: who after hee had fully certified himselfe of the riches abouesayd, and of the great quantity of excellent mettals that were about that lake, departed out of this prouince of Cibola with his companions; and travelling directly toward the West, after hee had passed 28 leagues, he found another very great prouince, which by estimation contained aboue 5000 soules: the inhabitants whereof assoone as they vnderstood of their approch, sent them word, vpon paine of death to come no neerer to their townes: whereto the captaine answered, that their comming was in no wise to hurt them, as they should well perceiue, and therefore requested them not to molest him in his intended voyage, and withall gaue to the messenger a reward of such things as they brought with them: who thereupon made so good report of our people, and so appeased the troubled minds of the Indians, that they granted them free accesse vnto their townes, and so they went thither with 15. Indians their friends of the prouince of Cibola aforesaid, and the three Mexican Indians before mentioned. When they were come within a league of the first towne, there came forth to meete them aboue 2000. Indians laden with victuals, whom the Captaine rewarded with some things of small value, which they made great accompt of, and esteemed more precious than gold. [Sidenote: Zaguato, or Ahuxto a towne.] As they approched neere vnto the towne which was named Zaguato, a great multitude of Indians came forth to meete them, and among the rest their Caçiques, with so great demonstration of ioy and gladnes, that they cast much meale of Maiz vpon the ground for the horses to tread vpon: with this triumph they entred the towne, where they were very wel lodged and much made of, which the Captaine did in part requite, giuing to the chiefest among them hats, and beads of glasse, with many such trifles, which he caried with him for the like purpose. The said Caciques presently gaue notice to the whole prouince of the arriual of these new guests, whom they reported to bee a courteous people, and such as offered them no harme: which was occasion sufficient to make them all come laden with presents vnto our people, and to intreat them to goe and make merry with them in their townes; which they yeelded vnto, though always with great foresight what might follow. [Sidenote: A witty policie to be vsed by the English in like cases.] Whereupon the Captaine vsed a certaine policie, making the Caciques beleeue, that forasmuch as his horses were very fierce (for they had told the Indians that they would kill them) therefore it was necessary to make a Fort of lime and stone to inclose them, for the auoyding of such inconueniences as otherwise might happen vnto the Indians by them. This tale was so steadfastly beleeued by the Caciques, that in fiue houres they assembled such store of people together, that with incredible celeritie they built the said Fort which our men required. Moreouer, when the Captaine saide that he would depart, they brought vnto him a present of 40000. mantles of cotton, both white and other colours, and great store of hand towels, with tassels at the corners, with diuers other things, and among the rest rich mettals, which seemed to holde much siluer. Among these Indians they learned very much concerning The great Lake aforesaide, whose report agreed wholly with relation of the former, as touching the riches and great abundance of gold about that lake. The Captaine reposing great confidence in this people and in their good disposition toward him determined after certaine dayes, to leaue there fiue of his companions with the rest of his Indian friends, that they might returne with his cariages to the prouince of Zuni, while himselfe with the foure other which remained should ride in post to discouer certaine very rich Mines, whereof he had perfect information. And putting this purpose in execution he departed with his guides, and hauing traueiled due-west 45. leagues he came vnto the said Mines, and tooke out of the same with his owne hands exceeding rich metals holding great quantitie of siluer: and the mines which were of a very broad veine were in a mountaine whereon they might easily ascend, by reason of an open way that led vp to the same. Neere vnto these mines were certaine townes of Indians dwelling upon the mountaine whereon they might easily ascend, by reason of an open way that led vp to the same. Neere vnto these mines were certaine townes of Indians dwelling vpon the mountaines, who shewed them friendship, and came forth to receiue them with crosses on their heads, and other tokens of peace. Hereabout they found two riuers of a reasonable bignesse, vpon the banks whereof grew many vines bearing excellent grapes, and great groues of walnut trees, and much flaxe like that of Castile: and they shewed our men by signes, that behinde those mountaines there was a riuer about 8. leagues broad, [Sidenote: Perhaps this Riuer may fall into the Chesepiouk bay, or into the great lake of Tadoac.] but they could not learne how neere it was: howbeit the Indians made demonstration that it ran towards the North sea, and that vpon both sides thereof stood many townes of so great bignesse, that in comparison thereof those wherein they dwelt were but small hamlets. After he had receiued all this information, the said Captaine returned toward the prouince of Zuni, whither he had sent his said companions: and being arrived there in safety, hauing trauailed vpon a very good way, he found in the same place his 5. companions, and the said father Frier Bernardin Beltran, with the souldiers which were determined to returne, as is aforesaid, but vpon certaine occasions were not as yet departed: whom the inhabitants had most friendly treated, and furnished with all things necessary in abundance as afterward likewise they vsed the Captaine, and those that came with him, comming foorth to meete them with shew of great ioy, and giuing them great store of victuals to serue them in their iourney homewards, and requesting them to returne againe with speed, and to bring many Castilians with them (for so they call the Spaniards) to whom they promised food sufficient. For the better performance wherof they sowed that yeere more graine and other fruits, then they had done at any time before. At this present the Frier and souldiers aforesaid resolued themselues in their former determination, and agreed to returne vnto the prouince from whence they came with intention before mentioned, to seeke the two Friers that were slaine, to whom also Gregorio Hermandez who had bene standard-bearer in the iourney, ioyned himselfe. Who being departed, the Captaine accompanied onely with 8. souldiers, determined to prosecute his former attempt, and to passe vp higher the saide riuer called Rio del Norte, which he did accordingly. And hauing traueiled about 60. leagues toward the prouince of the Quires aforesaid, 12 leagues from thence toward the Orient or East they found a prouince of Indians called Hubates, who receiued them peaceably, and gaue them great store of victuals, informing them also of very rich Mines which they found whereout they got glistening and good metal, and therewith returned to the towne from whence they came. This prouince contained by their estimation 25000. persons all very well apparelled in coloured mantles of cotton, and Chamois-skins very well dressed. They haue many mountaines full of Pines and Cedars, and the houses of their townes are of 4. and 5. stories high. [Sidenote: Their returne.] Here they had notice of another prouince distant about one dayes iourney from thence inhabited by certaine Indians called Tamos, and containing aboue 40000 soules: whither being come the inhabitants would neither giue them any victuals, nor admit them into their townes: for which cause, and in regard of the danger wherein they were, and because some of the souldiers were not well at ease, and for that they were so fewe (as we haue said) they determined to departe thence, and to returne toward the land of the Christians, which they put in execution in the beginning of Iuly 1583, being guided by an Indian that went with them, who led them another way then they went forth by, downe a riuer, which they called Rio de las vacas; that is to say, The riuer of oxen, in respect of the great multitudes of oxen or kine that fed vpon the bankes therof, by the which they traueiled for the space of 120. leagues, still meeting with store of the said cattell. From hence they went forward to the riuer of Conchos by which they entered, and thence to the valley of S. Bartholomew, from whence they first entered into their discouerie. Vpon their coming thither they found that the said Frier Bernardin Beltran and his company were safely arriued at the said towne many dayes before, and were gone from thence to the towne of Guadiana. In this towne the foresaid captaine Anthony de Espeio made most certaine relation of all that is aforesaid, which relation presently hee sent vnto the Conde of Corunna Vizroy of Nueua Espanna, who sent the same to his Maiestie, and the Lords of his royal counsel in the Indies, to the end they might take such order as they thought best, which they haue already performed with great care and circumspection. Almighty God vouchsafe his assistance in this busines, that such numbers of soules redeemed by his blood may not vtterly perish, of whose good capacitie, wherein they exceed those of Mexico and Peru (as we be giuen to vnderstand by those that haue delt with them) we may boldly presume that they will easily embrace the Gospel, and abandon such idolatrie as now the most of them doe liue in: which Almightie God graunt for his honour, and glory, and for the increase of the holy Catholique faith. A letter of Bartholomew Cano from Mexico the 30. of May 1590. to Francis Hernandes of Siuil, concerning the speedy building of two strong Forts in S. Iohn de Vllua, and in Vera Cruz, as also touching a notable new and rich discouery of Cibola or New Mexico 400. leagues Northwest of Mexico. It may please you Sir, to be aduertised that I haue receiued your letters, whereby I vnderstand that our ship with the treasure is safely arriued, God be praised therefore. The frigate arriued here in safetie which brought the letters of Aduise from the King to the Viceroy. She arriued in S. Iohn de Vllua the 29. of May, and departed from S. Lucar in Spaine the 6. of April. By which his Maiestie writeth vnto the Viceroy, what time the Fleete shall depart from hence, and what course they shall take, not as they had wont for to do: by reason that there are great store of men of war abroad at the sea, which mean to encounter with the Fleete. I pray God sende them well to Spaine: for here wee were troubled very sore with men of warre on this coast. His Maiestie hath sent expresse commandement vnto the Marques of Villa Manrique his cosen, Viceroy of Noua Hispania, that immediatly vpon sight of his letters he shall command to be builded in S. Iohn de Vulla, and in Vera Cruz two strong Forts for the defence of these countries, of his Maiesties charges: And that there shalbe garisons in both the Forts for the defence of the ships which ride there, and for the strength of the countrey. [Sidenote: 500. Spaniards sent to conquer the great citie of Cibola which is 400. leagues from Mexico Northwestward.] There are departed out of Mexico and other townes hereabout by the commaundement of the Viceroy 500. souldiers Spaniards, vnder the conduct of Rodrigo del Rio the gouernour of Nueua Biscaia which are gone to win a great City called Cibola, which is 400. leagues beyond Mexico to the Northwest, and standeth vp in the maine land. It is by report a very great citie, as bigge as Mexico, and a very rich countrey both of golde Mines and siluer Mines: and the King of the countrey is a mighty King, and he will not become subiect to his Maiestie. There were certaine Spaniards sent to that king from the Viceroy in an ambassage: It is thought that they are slaine, for we can here no newes of them. The other newes that I can certifie you of at this instant is, that there is a Iudge of the city of Guadalajara called don Nunno de villa Inscensia lately maried. Also the kings Atturney of Guadalajara maried his daughter of 8. yeres old with a boy of 12. yeres old. But the Viceroy saith that he hath a warrant from his Maiestie, that if any Iudge whatsoeuer dwelling in that kingdome of Guadalajara should mary any sonne in that iurisdiction, that then the said Viceroy is to depriue him of his office. And therefore he went about to depriue the Iudge and the kings Attourney of their offices. [Sidenote: A dangerous rebellion in Guadalajara a prouince of Noua Hispania.] Whereupon the people of that prouince would not thereunto consent, nor suffer them to be dismissed of their offices, nor to be arrested, nor caried prisoners to Mexico. When the viceroy had intelligence thereof, and that the Countrey did resist his commandement, and would not suffer them to be apprehended, he sent certaine Captaines with souldiers to goe and apprehend the Iudge, the kings Attourney, and as many as did take their parts. So the citizens of Guadalajara withstood the viceroies forces, and put themselues in defence; and are up in armes against the viceroy: yet they do not rebel against the king, but say: God saue king Philip, and will submit themselues to his Maiestie, but not to the viceroy. So that all the kingdome of Guadalajara is vp in armes, and are all in a mutinie against vs of Mexico. I beseech Almighty God to remedy it, and that it may be qualified in time: or else all Noua Spania will be vtterly spoiled. I write this thing, because it is publiquely knowen in all places. And thus I rest, from Mexico the 30. of May 1590. Bartholomew Cano. The relation of Francis Vasquez de Coronado, Captaine general of the people which were sent in the name of the Emperours maiestie to the Countrey of Cibola newly discouered, which he sent to Don Antonio de Mendoça Viceroy of Mexico, of such things as happened in his voyage from 22. of Aprill in the yeere 1540. which departed from Culiacan forward, and of such things as hee found in the Countrey which he passed. Chap. 1. Francis Vasquez departeth with his armie from Culiacan, and after diuers troubles in his voyage, arriueth at the valley of the people called Los Caracones, which he findeth barren of Maiz: for obtaining whereof hee sendeth to the valley called The valley of the Lord: he is informed of the greatnesse of the valley of the people called Caracones, and of the nature of those people, and of certaine Islands lying along that coast. The 22. of the moneth of Aprill last past I departed from the prouince of Culiacan with part of the army, and in such order as I mentioned vnto your Lordship, and according to the successe I assured my selfe, by all likelihood that I shall not bring all mine armie together in this enterprise: because the troubles haue bene so great and the want of victuals, that I thinke all this yeere wil not be sufficient to performe this enterprise, and if it should bee performed in so short a time, it would be to the great losse of our people. [Sidenote: This was but 200. leagues from Mexico.] For as I wrote vnto your Lordship, I was fourescore dayes in trauailing to Culiacan, in all which time I and three Gentlemen my companions which were horsemen, carried on our backs, and on our horses, a little victuall, so that from henceforward wee carried none other needefull apparell with vs, that was aboue a pound weight: and all this notwithstanding and though wee put our selues to such a small proportion of victuals which wee carried, for all the order that possibly wee could take, wee were driuen to our ships. And no maruayle, because the way is rough and long: and with the carriage of our Harquebuses downe the mountaine and hilles, and in the passage of Riuers, the greater part of our corne was spoyled. And because I send your Lordship our voyage drawen in a Mappe, I will speake no more thereof in this my letter. [Sidenote: Frier Marcus of Niza.] Thirtie leagues before wee arriued at the place which the father prouinciall tolde vs so well of in his relation, I sent Melchior Diaz before with fifteene horses, giuing him order to make but one dayes iourney of two, because hee might examine all things, against mine arriuall: who trauiled foure dayes iourney through exceeding rough Mountaines where hee found neither victuals, nor people nor information of any things, sauing that hee found two or three poore little villages, containing 20. or 30. cottages a piece, and by the inhabitants thereof hee vnderstoode that from thence forward there were nothing but exceeding rough mountaines which ran very farre, vtterly disinhabited and voyd of people. And because it was labour lost, I would not write vnto your Lordship thereof. It grieued the whole company, that a thing so highly commended, and whereof the father had made so great bragges, should be found so contrary, and it made them suspect that all the rest would fall out in like sort. Which when I perceiued I sought to encourage them the best I coulde, telling them that your Lordshippe alwayes was of opinion, that this voyage was a thing cast away, and that we should fixe our cogitation vpon those seuen Cities, and other prouinces, whereof wee had knowledge: that there should bee the ende of our enterprise: and with this resolution and purpose wee all marched cheerefully through a very badde way which was not passible but one by one, or else wee must force out with Pioners the path which wee founde, wherewith the Souldiours were not a little offended, finding all that the Frier had sayde to bee quite contrary: for among other things which the father sayde and affirmed, this was one, that the way was plaine and good, and that there was but one small hill of halfe a league in length. And yet in trueth there are mountaines which although the way were well mended could not bee passed without great danger of breaking the horses neckes: and the way was such, that of the cattel which your Lordship sent vs for the prouision of our armie wee lost a great part in the voyage through the roughnesse of the rockes. The lambes and sheepe lost their hoofes in the way: and of those which I brought from Culiacan, I left the greater part at the Riuer of Lachimi, because they could not keepe company with vs, and because they might come softly after vs, foure men on horsebacke remained with them which are nowe come vnto vs, and haue brought vs not past foure and twentie lambes, and foure sheepe, for all the rest were dead with trauailing through that rough passage, although they trauailed but two leagues a day, and rested themselues euery day. [Sidenote: The valley of the people called Caracones.] At length I arriued at the valley of the people called Caracones, the 26. day of the moneth of May: and from Culiacan vntill I came thither, I could not helpe my selfe, saue onely with a great quantitie of Maiz: for seeing the Maiz in the fieldes, were not yet ripe, I was constrained to leaue them all behind me. In this valley of the Caracones wee found more store of people then in any other part of the Countrey which wee had passed, and great store of tillage. [Sidenote: Valle del Senor.] But I vnderstood that there was store there of in another valley called The Lords valley, which I woulde not disturbe with force, but sent thither Melchior Diaz with wares of exchange to procure some, and to giue the sayde Maiz to the Indians our friendes which wee brought with vs, and to some others that had lost their cattell in the way, and were not able to carry their victuals so farre which they brought from Culiacan. It pleased God that wee gate some small quantitie of Maiz with this traffique, whereby certaine Indians were relieued and some Spanyards. And by that time that wee were come to this valley of the Caracones, some tenne or twelve of our horses were dead through wearinesse: for being ouercharged with great burdens, and hauing but little meate, they could not endure the trauaile. Likewise some of our Negros and some of our Indians dyed here: which was no small wante vnto vs for the performance of our enterprise. [Sidenote: The valley de los Caracones distant fiue dayes journey from the Westerne sea.] They tolde me that this valley of the Coracones is fiue dayes journey from the Westerne Sea. [Sidenote: Seuen or eight Isles, which are the Isles of California. A ship scene on the sea coast.] I sent for the Indians of the Sea coast to vnderstand their estate, and while I stayed for them the horses rested: and I stayed there foure dayes, in which space the Indians of the Sea coast came vnto mee: which told mee, that, two dayes sayling from their coast of the Sea, there were seuen or eight Islands right ouer against them well inhabited with people, but badly furnished with victuals, and were a rude people: And they told mee, that they had seene a Shippe passe by not farre from the shore: which I wote not what to thinke whether it were one of those that went to discouer the Countrey, or else a Ship of the Portugals. Chap. 2. They come to Chichilticale: after they had rested themselues two dayes there, they enter into a Countrey very barren of victuals, and hard to trauaile for thirtie leagues, beyond which they found a Countrey very pleasant, and a riuer called Rio del Lino, they fight with the Indians being assaulted by them, and with victorie vanquishing their citie, they relieued themselues of their pinching hunger. I Departed from the Caracones, and alwayes kept by the Sea coast as neere as I could iudge, and in very deed I still found my selfe the farther off: in such sort that when I arriued at Chichilticale I found myselfe tenne dayes iourney from the Sea: and the father prouinciall sayd that it was onely but fiue leagues distance, and that hee had seene the same. Wee all conceiued great griefe and were not a little confounded, when we saw that wee found euery thing contrary to the information which he had giuen your Lordship. The Indians of Chichilticale say, that if at any time they goe to the Sea for fish, and other things that they carry, they goe trauersing, and are tenne dayes iournie in going thither. And I am of opinion that the information which the Indians giue me should be true. The sea returneth toward the West right ouer against the Coracones the space of tenne or twelue leagues. [Sidenote: The Chichilticale is indeede but in 28. deg.] Where I found that your Lordships ships were seene, which went to discouer the hauen of Chichilticale, which father Marcus of Niça sayd to bee in fiue and thirtie degrees. God knoweth what griefe of mind I haue sustained: because I am in doubt that some mishappe is fallen vnto them: and if they follow the coast, as they sayde they would, as long as their victuals last which they carry with them, whereof I left them store in Culiacan, and if they be not fallen into some misfortune, I hope well in God that by this they haue made some good discouerie, and that in this respect their long staying out may be pardoned. [Sidenote: The 24. of Iune.] I rested myselfe two dayes in Chichilticale, and to haue done well I should haue stayed longer, in respect that here wee found our horses so tyred; but because wee wanted victuals, we had no leasure to rest any longer: I entred the confines of the desert Countrey on Saint Iohns eue, and to refresh our former trauailes, the first dayes we founde no grasse, but worser way of mountaines and badde passages, then wee had passed alreadie: and the horses being tired, were greatly molested therewith: so that in this last desert we lost more horses than we had lost before: and some of my Indians which were our friends dyed, and one Spanyard whose name was Spinosa; and two Negroes, which dyed with eating certaine herbes for lacke of victuals. From this place I sent before mee one dayes iourney the master of the fielde Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas with fifteene horses to discouer the Countrey, and prepare our way: wherein hee did like himselfe, and according to the confidence which your Lordship reposed in him. And well I wote he fayled not to do his part: for as I have informed your Lordship, it is most wicked way, at least thirtie leagues and more, because they are inaccessible mountaines. [Sidenote: A godly and fruitfull countrey found.] But after wee had passed these thirtie leagues, wee found fresh riuers, and grasse like that of Castile, and specially of that sort which we call Scaramoio, many Nutte trees and Mulberrie trees but the Nutte trees differ from those of Spayne in the leafe: and there was Flaxe, but chiefly neere the bankes of a certayne riuer which therefore we called El Rio del Lino, that is to say, the riuer of Flaxe: wee found no Indians at all for a dayes trauaile, but afterward foure Indians came out vnto vs in peaceable maner, saying that they were sent euen to that desert place to signifie vnto vs that wee were welcome, and that the next day all the people would come out to meet vs on the way with victuals: and the master of the fielde gaue them a crosse, willing them to signifie to those of their citie that they should not feare, and they should rather let the people stay in their houses, because I came onely in the name of his Majestie to defend and ayd them. And this done, Fernando Aluarado returned to aduertise mee that certaine Indians were come vnto them in peaceable maner, and that two of them stayed for my comming with the master of the fielde. Whereupon I went unto them and gave them beades and certaine short clokes, willing them to returne vnto their citie, and bid them to stay quiet in their houses and feare nothing. [Sidenote: A wise forecast.] And this done I sent the master of the field to search whether there were any bad passage which the Indians might keepe against vs, and that hee should take and defend it vntill the next day that I shoulde come thither. [Sidenote: The treason of the Indians.] So hee went, and found in the way a very bad passage, where wee might haue sustayned very great harme: wherefore there hee seated himselfe with his company that were with him: and that very night the Indians came to take that passage to defend it, and finding it taken, they assaulted our men there, and as they tell mee, they assaulted them like valiant men; although in the ende they retired and fledde away; for the master of the fielde was watchfull, and was in order with his company: the Indians in token of retreate sounded on a certaine small trumpet, and did no hurt among the Spanyards. [Sidenote: Great forecast and diligence of the Campe-master.] The very same night the master of the fielde certified mee hereof. Whereupon the next day in the best order that I could I departed in so great want of victuall, that I thought that if wee should stay one day longer without foode, wee should all perish for hunger, especially the Indians, for among vs all we had not two bushels of corne: wherefore it behooued mee to pricke forward without delay. The Indians here and there made fires, and were answered againe afarre off as orderly as wee for our liues could haue done, to giue their fellowes vnderstanding, how wee marched and where we arriued. [Sidenote: They arriue at the citie of Cibola.] Assoone as I came within sight of this citie of Grenada, I sent Don Garcias Lopez Campe-master, frier Daniel, and frier Luys, and Fernando Vermizzo somewhat before with certaine horsemen, to seeke the Indians and to aduertise them that our comming was not to hurt them, but to defend them in the name of the Emperour our Lord, according as his maiestie had giuen vs in charge: which message was deliuered to the inhabitants of that countrey by an interpreter. [Sidenote: The arrogancie of the people of Cibola.] But they like arrogant people made small account thereof; because we seemed very few in their eyes, and that they might destroy vs without any difficultie: and they strooke frier Luys with an arrow on the gowne, which by the grace of God did him no harme. [Sidenote: Commandement to vse gentlenesse to the Sauages.] In the meane space I arriued with all the rest of the horsemen, and footemen, and found in the fieldes a great sort of the Indians which beganne to shoote at vs with their arrowes: and because I would obey your will and the commaund of the Marques, I woulde not let my people charge them, forbidding my company, which intreated mee that they might set vpon them, in any wise to prouoke them, saying that that which the enemies did was nothing, and that it was not meete to set vpon so fewe people. On the other side the Indians perceiuing that we stirred not, tooke great stomacke and courage vnto them: insomuch that they came hard to our horses heeles to shoote at vs with their arrowes. Whereupon seeing that it was now time to stay no longer, and that the friers also were of the same opinion, I set vpon them without any danger: for suddenly they fled part to the citie which was neere and well fortified; and other vnto the field, which way they could shift: and some of the Indians were slaine, and more had beene if I would haue suffered them to haue bene pursued. [Sidenote: There were 800 men within the towne. Gomara, Hist. gen. cap. 213.] But considering that hereof wee might reape but small profite, because the Indians that were withoute, were fewe, and those which were retired into the citie, with them which stayed within at the first were many, where the victuals were whereof wee had so great neede, I assembled my people, and diuided them as I thought best to assault the citie, and I compassed it about: and because the famine which wee sustained suffered no delay my selfe with certaine of these gentlemen and souldiers put our selues on foote, and commaunded that the crossebowes and harquebusiers shoulde giue the assault, and shoulde beate the enemies from the walles, that they might not hurt vs, and I assaulted the walles on one side, where they told me there was a scaling ladder set vp, and that there was one gate but the crossebowmen suddenly brake the strings of their bowes, and the harquebusiers did nothing at all: for they came thither so weake and feeble, that scarcely they coulde stand on their feete: and by this meanes the people that were aloft on the wals to defend the towne were no way hindered from doing vs all the mischiefe they could: [Sidenote: They defend the wals with stones like those of Hochelaga.] so that twise they stroke mee to the ground with infinite number of great stones, which they cast downe: and if I had not beene defended with an excellent good headpiece which I ware, I thinke it had gone hardly with mee: neuerthelesse my companie tooke mee vp with two small wounds in the face, and an arrowe sticking in my foote, and many blowes with stones on my armes and legges, and thus I went out of the battell very weake. I thinke that if Don Garcias Lopez de Cardenas the second time that they strooke mee to the ground had not succoured mee with striding ouer mee like a good knight, I had beene in farre greater danger then I was. But it pleased God that the Indians yeelded themselues vnto vs, and that this citie was taken: and such store of Maiz was found there in, as our necessitie required. The Master of the fielde, and Don Pedro de Touar, and Fernando de Aluarado, and Paul de Melgosa Captaines of the footemen escaped with certaine knocks with stones: though none of them were wounded with arrowes, yet Agoniez Quarez was wounded in one arme with the shot of an arrowe, and one Torres a townesman of Panuca was shot in the face with another, and two footemen more had two small woundes with arrowes. And because my armour was gilded and glittering, they all layd load on mee, and therefore I was more wounded then the rest, not that I did more then they, or put my selfe forwarder then the rest, for all these Gentlemen and souldiers carried themselues as manfully as was looked for at their hands. I am nowe well recouered I thanke God, although somewhat bruised with stones. Likewise in the skirmish which wee had in the fieldes, two or three other souldiers were hurt, and three horses slaine, one of Don Lopez, the other of Viliega and the third of Don Alonso Manrique, and seuen or eight other horses were wounded; but both the men and horses are whole and sound. Chap. 3. Of the situation and state of the seuen cities called the kingdome of Cibola, and of the customes and qualities of those people, and of the beasts which are found there. It remaineth now to certifie your Honour of the seuen cities, and of the kingdomes and prouinces whereof the Father prouincial made report vnto your Lordship. And to bee briefe, I can assure your honour, he sayd the trueth in nothing that he reported, but all was quite contrary, sauing only the names of the cities, and great houses of stone: for although they be not wrought with Turqueses, nor with lyme, nor brickes, yet are they very excellent good houses of three or foure or fiue lofts high, wherein are good lodgings and faire chambers with lathers instead of staires, and certaine cellers vnder the ground very good and paued, which are made for winter, they are in manner like stooues: and the lathers which they have for their houses are all in a maner mooueable and portable, which are taken away and set downe when they please, and they are made of two pieces of wood with their steppes, as ours be. The seuen cities are seuen small townes, all made with these kinde of houses that I speake of: and they stand all within foure leagues together, and they are called the kingdome of Cibola, and euery one of them haue their particular name and none of them is called Cibola, but altogether they are called Cibola. And this towne which I call a citie, I haue named Granada, as well because it is somewhat like vnto it, as also in remembrance of your lordship. In this towne where I now remain, there may be some two hundred houses, all compassed with walles, and I think that with the rest of the houses which are not so walled, they may be together fiue hundred. There is another towne neere this, which is one of the seuen, and it is somewhat bigger than this, and another of the same bignesse that this is of, and the other foure are somewhat lesse: and I send them all painted vnto your lordship with the voyage. [Sidenote: A painter necessarie in a new discouery.] And the parchment wherein the picture is, was found here with other parchments. The people of this towne seeme vnto me of a reasonable stature, and wittie, yet they seeme not to bee such as they should be, of that iudgment and wit to builde these houses in such sort as they are. For the most part they goe all naked, except their priuie parts which are couered: and they haue painted mantles like those which I send vnto your Lordship. They haue no cotton wooll growing, because the countrey is colde, yet they weare mantels thereof as your honour may see by the shewe thereof: and true it is that there was found in their houses certaine yarne made of cotton wooll. [Sidenote: Store of Turqueses.] They weare their haire on their heads like those of Mexico, and they are well nurtured and condicioned: And they haue Turqueses I thinke good quantitie, which with the rest of the goods which they had, except their corne, they had conueyed away before I came thither: for I found no women there, nor no youth vnder fifteene yeeres olde, nor no olde folkes aboue sixtie, sauing two or three olde folkes, who stayed behinde to gouerne all the rest of the youth and men of warre. There were found in a certaine paper two poynts of Emralds, and certaine small stones broken which are in colour somewhat like Granates very bad, and other stones of Christall, which I gaue one of my seruants to lay vp to send them to your lordship, and hee hath lost them as hee telleth me. We found heere Guinie cockes, but fewe. The Indians tell mee in all these seuen cities, that they eate them not, but that they keepe them onely for their feathers. I beleeue them not, for they are excellent good, and greater then those of Mexico. The season which is in this countrey, and the temperature of the ayre is like that of Mexico: or sometime it is hotte, and sometime it raineth; but hitherto I neuer sawe it raine, but once there fell a little showre with winde, as they are woont to fell in Spaine. [Sidenote: Gomora hist. gen. Cap. 213. sayth that the colde is by reason of the high mountaines.] The snow and cold are woont to be great, for so say the inhabitants of the Countrey: and it is very likely so to bee, both in respect to the maner of the Countrey, and by the fashion of their houses, and their furres and other things which this people have to defend them from colde. There is no kind of fruit nor trees of fruite. The Countrey is all plaine, and is on no side mountainous: albeit there are some hillie and bad passages. There are small store of Foules: the cause whereof is the colde, and because the mountains are not neere. Heere is no great store of wood, because they haue wood for their fuell sufficient foure leagues off from a wood of small Cedars. There is most excellent grasse within a quarter of a league hence, for our horses as well to feede them in pasture, as to mow and make hay, whereof wee stoode in great neede, because our horses came hither so weak and feeble. The victuals which the people of this countrey haue, is Maiz, whereof they haue great store, and also small white Pease: and Venison, which by all likelyhood they feede vpon, (though they say no) for wee found many skinnes of Deere, of Hares, and Conies. They eate the best cakes that euer I sawe, and euery body generally eateth of them. They haue the finest order and way to grinde that we euer saw in any place. And one Indian woman of this countrey will grinde as muche as foure women of Mexico. They have most excellent salte in kernell, which they fetch from a certaine lake a dayes iourney from hence. [Sidenote: The Westerne sea within 150 leagues from Cibola.] They haue no knowledge among them of the North Sea, nor of the Westerne Sea, neither can I tell your lordship to which wee bee neerest; But in reason they should seeme to be nearest to the Westerne Sea: and at the least I thinke I am an hundred and fiftie leagues from thence: and the Northerne Sea should bee much further off. Your lordship may see how broad the land is here. Here are many sorts of beasts, as Beares, Tigers, Lions, Porkespicks, and certaine Sheep as bigge as an horse, with very great hornes and little tailes, I haue seene their hornes so bigge, that it is a wonder to behold their greatnesse. Here are also wilde goates whose heads likewise I haue seene, and the pawes of Beares, and the skins of wilde Bores. There is game of Deere, Ounces, and very great Stagges: and all men are of opinion that there are some bigger then that beast which your Lordship bestowed upon me, which once belonged to Iohn Melaz. [Sidenote: Oxe hides dressed and painted very cunningly.] They trauell eight dayes iourney vnto certaine plaines lying toward the North Sea. In this countrey there are certaine skinnes well dressed, and they dresse them and paint them where they kill their Oxen, for so they say themselues. Chap. 4. Of the state and qualities of the kingdomes of Totonteac, Marata, and Acus, quite contrary to the relation of Frier Marcus. The conference which they haue with the Indians of the citie of Granada which they had taken, which had fiftie yeres past foreseene the comming of the Christians into their countrey. The relation which they haue of other seuen cities, whereof Tucano is the principall, and how he sent to discouer them. A present of divers things had in these countreys sent vnto the Viceroy Mendoça by Vasques de Coronado. The kingdome of Totonteac so much extolled by the Father prouinciall, which sayde that there were such wonderfull things there, and such great matters, and that they made cloth there, the Indians say is an hotte lake, about which are fiue or sixe houses: and that there were certaine other, but that they are ruinated by warre. The kingdome of Marata is not to be found, neither haue the Indians any knowledge thereof. [Sidenote: Tadouac seemeth because it is a lake, and endeth in ac to haue some affinitie herewith.] The kingdome of Acus is one onely small citie, where they gather cotton which is called Acucu. And I say that this is a towne. For Acus with an aspiration nor without is no word of the countrey. And because I gesse that they would deriue Acucu of Acus, I say that it is this towne whereinto the kingdom of Acus is conuerted. Beyond this towne they say there are other small townes which are neere to a riuer which I haue seene and haue had report of by the relation of the Indians. I would to God I had better newes to write vnto your lordship: neuerthelesse I must say the trueth: And as I wrote to your lordship from Culiacan, I am now to aduertise your honour as wel of the good as of the bad. Yet this I would haue to bee assured, that if all the riches and the treasures of the world were heere, I could haue done no more in the seruice of his Maiestie and of your lordshippe, then I haue done in comming hither whither you haue sent mee, my selfe and my companions carrying our victuals vpon our shoulders and vpon our horses three hundred leagues; and many dayes going on foote trauailing ouer hills and rough mountains, with other troubles which I cease to mention, neither purpose I to depart unto the death, if it please his Maiestie and your lordship that it shall be so. Three dayes after this citie was taken, certaine Indians of these people came to offer mee peace, and brought mee certaine Turqueses and badde mantles, and I received them in his Maiesties name with all the good speaches that I could deuise, certifying them of the purpose of my comming into this countrey, which is in the name of his Maiestie, and by the commaundment of your Lordship, that they and all the rest of the people of this prouince should become Christians, and should knowe the true God for their Lorde, and receiue his Maiestie for their King and earthly Soueraigne: And herewithall they returned to their houses, and suddenly the next day they set in order all their goods and substance, their women and children, and fled to the hilles, leauing their townes as it were abandoned, wherein remained very fewe of them. [Sidenote: A citie greater than Granada.] When I sawe this, within eight or tenne dayes after being recouered of my woundes, I went to the citie, which I sayde to be greater then this where I am, and found there some fewe of them, to whom I sayde that they should not bee afrayd, and that they should call their gouernour vnto mee: Howbeit forasmuch as I can learne or gather, none of them hath any gouernour: for I sawe not there any chiefe house, whereby any preeminence of one ouer another might bee gathered. After this an olde man came, which sayd that hee was their lord, with a piece of a mantle made of many pieces, with whom I reasoned that small while that hee stayed with mee, and hee sayd that within three dayes after, hee and the rest of the chiefe of that towne would come and visite mee, and giue order what course should bee taken with them. Which they did: for they brought mee certaine mantles and some Turqueses. I aduised them to come downe from their holdes, and to returne with their wiues and children to their houses, and to become Christians, and that they would acknowledge the Emperours maiestie for their King and lorde. And euen to this present they keepe in those strong holdes their women and children, and all the goods which they haue. [Sidenote: Two tables painted by the Indians, one of beasts another of birdes and fishes.] I commaunded them that they should paint mee out a cloth of all the beastes which they knowe in their countrey: And such badde painters as they are, foorthwith they painted mee two cloths, one of their beastes, another of their birdes and fishes. [Sidenote: An old prophecie that those parts should be subdued by Christians.] They say that they will bring their children, that our religious men may instruct them, and that they desire to knowe our lawe: And they assure vs, that aboue fiftie yeeres past it was prophecied among them, that a certaine people like vs should come, and from that part that wee came from, and that they should subdue all that countrey. [Sidenote: They worship the water.] That which these Indians worship as farre as hitherto wee can learne, is the water: for they say it causeth their corne to growe, and maintaineth their life; and that they know none other reason, but that their ancesters did so. I haue sought by all meanes possible to learne of the inhabitants of these townes, whether they haue any knowledge of other people, countreys and cities: [Sidenote: Seuen cities farre from Granada.] And they tell mee of seuen cities which are farre distant from this place, which are like vnto these, though they haue not houses like vnto these but they are of earth, and small: and that among them much cotton is gathered. The chiefe of these townes whereof they haue any knowledge, they say is called Tucano: and they gaue mee no perfect knowledge of the rest. And I thinke they doe not tell me the trueth, imagining that of necessitie I must speedily depart from them, and returne home. But herein they shall soone finde themselues deceiued. I sent Don Pedro de Touar with his companie of footemen and with certaine other horsemen to see this towne: And I would not haue despatched this packet vnto your lordship, vntill I had knowen what this towne was, if I had thought that within twelue or fifteene dayes I might haue had newes from him: for hee will stay in this iourney thirtie dayes at least. And hauing examined that the knowledge hereof is of small importance, and that the colde and the waters approch: I thought it my duety to doe according as your lordship gaue me charge in your instructions, which is, that immediatly vpon mine arriuall here, I should signifie so much vnto your lordship, and so I doe, sending withall the bare relation of that which I haue seene. I haue determined to send round about the countrey from hence to haue knowledge of all things, and rather to suffer all extremitie, then to leaue this enterprise to serue his maiestie, if I may find any thing wherein I may performe it, and not to omit any diligence therein, vntill your lordship send mee order what I shall doe. Wee haue great want of pasture: [Sidenote: The Spaniards victualling in discoueries.] and your Lordship also shall vnderstand, that among all those which are here, there is not one pound of raisins, nor suger, nor oyle, nor any wine, saue only one pinte which is saued, to say Masse: for all is spent and spilt by the way. Now your lordship may prouide vs what you thinke needefull. And if your honour meane to send vs cattell, your lordship must vnderstand that they will bee a sommer in comming vnto vs: for they will not be able to come vnto vs any sooner. [Sidenote: A garment excellently imbroidered with needle worke.] I would haue sent your lordshippe with this dispatch many musters of things which are in this countrey: but the way is so long and rough, that it is hard for me to doe so: neuerthelesse I send you twelue small mantles, such as the people of the countrey are woont to weare, and a certaine garment also, which seemeth vnto me to bee well made: I kept the same, because it seemed to mee to bee excellent well wrought, because I beleeue that no man euer sawe any needle worke in these Indies, except it were since the Spaniards inhabited the same. I send your Lordshippe also two clothes painted with the beasts of this country, although as I haue sayde, the picture be very rudely done, because the painter spent but one day in drawing of the same. I haue seene other pictures on the walles of the houses of this citie with farre better proportion, and better made. I send your honour one Oxe-hide, certaine Turqueses, and two eare-rings of the same, and fifteene combes of the Indians, and certain tablets set with these Turqueses, and two small baskets made of wicker, whereof the Indians haue great store. I send your Lordship also two rolles which the women in these parts are woont to weare on their heads when they fetch water from their welles, as wee vse to doe in Spaine. And one of these Indian women with one of these rolles on her head, will carie a pitcher of water without touching the same vp a lather. I send you also a muster of the weapons wherewith these people are woont to fight, a buckler, a mace, a bowe, and certaine arrowes, among which are two with points of bones, the like whereof, as these conquerours say, haue neuer beene seene. I can say nothing vnto your lordshippe touching the apparell of their women. For the Indians keepe them so carefully from vs, that hitherto I haue not seene any of them, sauing only two olde women, and these had two long robes downe to the foote open before, and girded to them, and they are buttoned with certaine cordons of cotton. I requested the Indians to giue me one of these robes, which they ware, to send your honour the same, seeing they would not shewe mee their women. And they brought mee two mantles which are these, which I send you as it were painted: they haue two pendents like the women of Spaine, which hang somewhat ouer their shoulders. [Sidenote: The death of Stephan the Negro.] The death of the Negro is most certaine: for here are many of the things found which hee carried with him: And the Indians tell me that they killed him here, because the Indians of Chichilticale tolde them that hee was a wicked villaine, and not like vnto the Christians: because the Christians kill no women: and hee killed women: and also he touched their women, which the Indians loue more then themselues; therefore they determined to kill him: But they did it not after such sort as was reported, for they killed none of the rest of those that came with him: neither slewe they the young lad which was with him of the prouince of Petatlan, but they tooke him and kept him in safe custodie vntill nowe. And when I sought to haue him, they excused themselues two or three dayes to giue him mee, telling mee that hee was dead, and sometimes that the Indians of Acucu had carried him away. But in conclusion when I tolde them that I should bee very angry if they did not giue him mee, they gaue him vnto me. Hee is an interpreter, for though hee cannot well speake their language, yet hee vnderstandeth the same very well. [Sidenote: Gold and siluer found in Cibola.] In this place there is found some quantitie of golde and siluer, which those which are skilful in minerall matters esteeme to be very good. To this houre I could neuer learne of these people from whence they haue it: And I see they refuse to tell mee the trueth in all things imagining, as I haue sayde, that in short I would depart hence, but I hope in God they shall no longer excuse themselues. I beseech your lordship to certifie his Maiestie of the successe of his voyage. For seeing wee haue no more then that which is aforesayd, and vntil such time as it please God that wee finde that which wee desire, I meane not to write my selfe. Our Lorde God keepe and preserue your excellencie. From the Prouince of Cibola, and from this citie of Granada the third of August 1540. Francis Vasques de Coronado kisseth the hands of your Excellencie. The rest of this voyage to Acuco, Liguex, Cicuic, and Quiuira, and vnto the Westerne Ocean, is thus written in the generall historie of the West Indies by Francis Lopez de Gomera, Chap. 214. Because they would not returne to Mexico without doing something, nor with emptie hands, they agreed to passe further into the countrey, which was tolde them to bee better and better. So they came to Acuco a towne vpon an exceeding strong hill. [Sidenote: The Westerne sea discouered.] And from thence Don Garcias Lopez de Cardenas with his companie of horsemen went vnto the Sea: and Francis Vasques went to Tiguex, which standeth on the banke of a great riuer. There they had newes of Axa and Quiuira. There they sayde was a King whose name was Tartatrax, with a long beard, horie headed, and rich, which was girded with a Bracamart, which prayed vpon a payre of beades, which worshipped a Crosse of golde, and the image of a woman, the Queene of heauen. This newes did greatly reioyce and cheere vp the armie: although some thought it to bee false, and the report of the Friers. They determined to goe thither, with intention to winter in so rich a countrey as that was reported to bee. One night the Indians ranne away, and in the morning they found thirtie horses dead, which put the armie in feare. In their iourney they burnt a certaine towne: And in another towne which they assaulted, they killed certaine Spaniards, and wounded fiftie horses and the inhabitants drewe into their towne Francis de Ouando wounded or dead, to eate and sacrifice him as they thought, or peraduenture to see more perfectly, what maner of them the Spaniards were: for there was not found there any signe of sacrificing men. Our people layde siege vnto the towne, but could not take it in more then fiue and fortie dayes space. The townesmen that were besieged, dranke snowe in stead of water: and seeing themselues forlorne they made a fire, wherein they cast their mantles, feathers, Turqueses and precious things, that those strangers might not enioy them. They issued out in a squadron with their women and children in the middest, to make way by force, and to saue themselues, but fewe escaped the edge of our swordes and the horses, and a certaine riuer which was neere the towne. Seuen Spaniards were slaine in this conflict, and fourescore were wounded, and many horses: whereby a man may see of what force resolution is in necessitie. Many Indians returned to the towne with the women and children, and defended themselues, vntill our men set fire on the towne. In this countrey there are melons, and white and redde cotton, whereof they make farre larger mantels, then in other parts of the Indies. From Tigues they went in foure dayes iourney to Cicuic, which is a small towne, and foure leagues from thence they met with a new kind of oxen wild and fierce, whereof the first day they killed fourescore, which sufficed the armie with flesh. From Cicuic they went to Quiuira, which after their accompt, is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty plaines, and sandie heathes so smooth, and wearisome, and bare of wood, that they made heapes of oxe-dung for want of stones and trees, that they might not lose themselues at their returne: for three horses were lost on that plaine, and one Spaniard, which went from his companie on hunting. All that way and plaines are as full of crookebacked oxen, as the mountaine Serena in Spaine is of sheepe: but there is no people but such as keepe those cattell. They were a great succour for the hunger and want of bread which our people stoode in. One day it rayned in that plaine a great showre of haile, as bigge as Orenges, which caused many teares, weakenesse, and vowes. At length they came to Quiuira and found Tatarrax, whome they sought, an hoarie headed man, naked, and with a iewell of copper hanging at his necke, which was all his riches. The Spaniards seeing the false report of so famous riches, returned to Tiguex, without seeing either crosse or shew of Christianitie: and from thence to Mexico. [Sidenote: The Spaniards would haue inhabited the countrey.] In the ende of March of the yeere 1542. Francis Vasquez fell from his horse in Tiguex, and with the fall fell out of his wits, and became madde. Which some tooke to bee for griefe, and others thought it to be but counterfeited: for they were much offended with him, because hee peopled not the countrey. Quiuira is in fortie degrees: it is a temperate countrey, and hath very good waters, and much grasse, plummes, mulberries, nuts, melons and grapes, which ripen very well. There is no cotton: and they apparell themselues with oxe-hides and deeres skinnes. They sawe shippes on the sea coast, which bare Alcatrarzes or Pellicanes of golde and siluer in their prows, and were laden with marchandises, and they thought them to bee of Cathaya, and China, because they shewed our men by signes that they had sayled thirtie dayes. Frier Iohn de Padilla stayed behinde in Tigues, with another of his companions called Frier Francis, and returned to Quiuira, with some dozen Indians of Mechuacan, and with Andrew de Campo a Portugall, the gardiner of Francis de Solis: He tooke with him horses and mules with prouision. He tooke sheepe and hennes of Castile, and ornaments to say Masse withall. The people of Quiuira slewe the Friers, and the Portugall escaped with certaine Indians of Mechuacan. Who albeit at that time he escaped death, yet could hee not free himselfe out of captiuitie: for by and by after they caught him againe. But ten moneths after he was taken captiue, hee fled away with a couple of dogs. As hee trauiled, hee blessed the people with a crosse, whereunto they offered much, and wheresoeuer hee came, they giue him almes, lodging, and foode. [Sidenote: Andrew de Campo trauailed from Quiuira to Panuco.] He came to the countrey of the Chichimechas and arriued at Panuco. When he came to Mexico, hee ware his haire very long, and his beard tyed up in a lace, and reported strange things of the lands, riuers and mountaines that he had passed. It grieued Don Antonio de Mendoca very much that the army returned home: for he had spent aboue threescore thousand pesos of golde in the enterprise, and ought a great part thereof still. [Sidenote: The cause why the Spaniards peopled not in Cibola.] Many sought to haue dwelt there; but Francis Vasquez de Coronado, which was rich, and lately married to a faire wife, would not consent, saying, that they could not maintaine nor defend themselues in so poore a countrey, and so farre from succour. They trauailed aboue nine hundred leagues in this countrey. The foresayd Francis Lopez de Gomara in his generall historie of the West Indies, Chap. 215. writeth in maner following of certaine great and strange beasts neuer seene nor heard of in our knowen world of Asia, Europe, and Africa: which somewhat resembling our oxen, hauing high bunches on their backes like those on the backes of Camels, are therefore called by him Vacas corcobados, that is to say, Crooke-backed oxen, being very deformed and terrible in shewe, and fierce by nature: which notwithstanding for foode, apparell, and other necessarie vses, are most seruiceable and beneficiall to the inhabitants of those countreys. He reporteth also in the same chapter of certaine strange sheepe as bigge as horses, and of dogs which vse to carie burthens of 50. pound weight vpon their backes. All the way betweene Cicuic and Quiuira is a most plaine soyle, without trees and stones, and hath but fewe and small townes. [Sidenote: These are much like the people that Captain Frobisher brought into England from Meta Incognita.] The men clothe and shooe themselues with lether; and the women which are esteemed for their long lockes, couer their heads and secrets with the same. They haue no bread of any kinde of graine, as they say: which I account a very great matter. Their chiefest foode is flesh, and that oftentimes they eate raw, either of custome or for lacke of wood. They eate the fatte as they take it out of the Oxe, and drinke the blood hotte, and die not therewithall, though the ancient writers say that it killeth, as Empedocles and others affirmed, they drinke it also colde dissolued in water. They seeth not the flesh for lacke of pots, but rost it, or to say more properly, warme it at a fire of Oxe-dung: when they eate, they chawe their meate but little, and rauen vp much, and holding the flesh with their teeth, they cut it with rasors of stone, which seemeth to be great bestialitie: but such is their maner of liuing and fashion. They goe together in companies, and mooue from one place to another, as the wilde Moores of Barbarie called Alarbes doe, following the seasons and the pasture after their Oxen. [Sidenote: The description of the oxen of Quiuira.] These Oxen are of the bignesse and colour of our Bulles, but their hornes are not so great. They haue a great bunch vpon their fore shoulders, and more haire on their fore part then on their hinder part: and it is like wooll. They haue as it were an horse-manne vpon their backe bone, and much haire and very long from the knees downward. They haue great tuffes of haire hanging downe their foreheads, and it seemeth that they haue beardes, because of the great store of haire hanging downe at their chinnes and throates. The males haue very long tailes, and a great knobbe or flocke at the end: so that in some respect they resemble the Lion, and in some other the Camell. They push with their hornes, they runne, they ouertake and kill an horse when they are in their rage and anger. Finally, it is a foule and fierce beast of countenance and forme of bodie. The horses fledde from them, either because of their deformed shape, or else because they had neuer seene them. Their masters haue no other riches nor substance: of them they eat, they drink, they apparel, they shooe themselues: and of their hides they make many things, as houses, shooes, apparell and ropes: of their bones they make bodkins: of their sinewes and haire, threed: of their hornes, mawes, and bladders, vessels; of their dung, fire: and of their calues-skinnes, budgets, wherein they drawe and keepe water. To bee short, they make so many things of them as they haue neede of, or as many as suffice them in the vse of this life. There are also in this countrey other beastes as big as horses, which because they haue hornes and fine wool, they cal them sheepe, and they say that euery horne of theirs weigheth is fiftie pound weight. There are also great dogs which will fight with a bull, and will carrie fiftie pound weight in sackes when they goe on hunting, or when they remooue from place to place with their flockes and heards. DIVERS VOYAGES MADE BY ENGLISHMEN TO THE FAMOUS CITIE OF MEXICO, AND TO ALL OR MOST PART OF THE OTHER PRINCIPALL PROUINCES, CITIES, TOWNES AND PLACES THROUGHOUT THE GREAT AND LARGE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAINE, EUEN AS FARRE AS NICARAGUA AND PANAMA, AND THENCE TO PERU: TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE SPANIARDS FORME OF GOUERNMENT THERE: AND SUNDRY PLEASANT RELATIONS OF THE MANERS AND CUSTOMES OF THE NATURAL INHABITANTS, AND OF THE MANIFOLD RICH COMMODITIES AND STRANGE RARITIES FOUND IN THOSE PARTES OF THE CONTINENT: AND OTHER MATTERS MOST WORTHY THE OBSERUATION. The voyage of Robert Tomson Marchant, into Noua Hispania in the yeere 1555. with diuers obseruations concerning the state of the Countrey: And certaine accidents touching himselfe. Robert Tomson borne in the towne of Andouer in Hampshire began his trauaile out of England in An. 1553. in the moneth of March: who departing out of the citie of Bristoll in a good ship called The barke yong, in companie of other Marchants of the sayd citie, within 8. dayes after arriued at Lisbone in Portugall, where the sayd Robert Tomson remained 15. dayes, at the end of which he shipped himselfe for Spaine in the sayd shippe, and within 4. dayes arriued in the bay of Cadiz in Andalusia, which is vnder the kingdome of Spaine, and from thence went vp to the citie of Siuil by land, which is 20. leagues, and there hee repaired to one Iohn Fields house an English Marchant, who had dwelt in the said city of Siuil 18. or 20. yeres maried with wife and children: In whose house the said Tomson remained by the space of one whole yeere or thereabout, for two causes: The one to learn the Castillian tongue, the other to see the orders of the countrey, and the customes of the people. At the end of which time hauing seene the fleetes of shippes come out of the Indies to that citie, with such great quantitie, of gold and siluer, pearles, precious stones, suger, hides, ginger, and diuers other rich commodities, he did determine with himselfe to seeke meanes and opportunitie to passe ouer to see that rich countrey from whence such great quantitie of rich commodities came. And it fell out that within short time after, the said Iohn Field (where the sayd Tomson was lodged) did determine to passe ouer into the West Indies, himselfe, with his wife, children, and familie, and at the request of the sayde Tomson, he purchased a licence of the King to passe into the Indies, for himselfe, his wife and children, and among them also for the sayde Tomson to passe with them: so that presently they made preparation of victuall and other necessarie prouision for the voyage. But the shippes which were prepared to perfourme the voyage being all ready to depart, vpon certaine considerations by the kings commandment were stayed and arrested till further should bee knowen of the Kings pleasure. Whereupon the said Iohn Field, with Robert Tomson departed out of Siuil and came down to S. Lucar 15. leagues off, and seeing the stay made vpon the ships of the said fleet, and being not assured when they would depart, determined to ship themselues for the Iles of the Canaries, which are 250. leagues from S. Lucar, and there to stay till the said fleet should come thither: for that is continually their port to make stay at 6. or 8. daies, to take in fresh water, bread, flesh, and other necessaries. So that in the moneth of February in An. 1555. the sayde Robert Tomson with the said Iohn Field and his companie, shipped themselues out of the towne of S. Lucar in a caruel of the citie of Cadiz, and within 6. dayes they arriued at the port of the Grand Canaria, where at our comming the ships that rode in the said port began to cry out of all measure with loud voyces, in so much that the castle which stood fast by began to shoot at vs, and shot 6. or 7. shot at vs, and strooke downe our maine maste, before we could hoise out our boat to goe on land, to know what the cause of the shooting was, seeing that we were Spanish ships, and were comming into his countrey. So that being on lande, and complaining of the wrong and damage done vnto us; they answered, that they had thought we had bene French rouers, that had come into the said port to do some harme to the ships that were there. For that 8. dayes past there went out of the port a caruell much like vnto ours, laden with sugers and other marchandise for Spaine and on the other side of the point of the sayd Iland, met with a Frenchman of warre, who tooke the said caruell, and vnladed out of her into the said French ship both men and goods. And being demanded of the said Spaniards what other ships remained in the port whence they came, they answered that there remained diuers other ships, and one laden with sugers (as they were) and ready to depart for Spaine: vpon the which newes the Frenchmen put 30. tall men of their ship well appointed into the said caruel which they had taken, and sent her backe againe to the said port from whence she had departed the day before. And somewhat late towards the euening came into the port, not shewing past 3. or 4. men, and so came to an anker hard by the other ships that were in the said port, and being seene by the castle and by the said ships, they made no reconing of her, because they knew her, and thinking that she had found contrary windes at the sea, or had forgot something behinde them, they had returned backe againe for the same, and so made no accompt of her, but let her alone riding quietly among the other ships in the said port: So that about midnight the said caruel with the Frenchmen in her went aboord the other ship that lay hard by laden with sugers, and droue the Spaniards that were in her vnder hatches, and presently let slip her cables and ankers, and set saile and carried her cleane away, and after this sort deceiued them: And they thinking or fearing that we were the like did shoote at vs as they did. [Sidenote: English factors in the Grand Canaria.] This being past, the next day after our arriuall in the sayd port, wee did vnbarke our selues and went on lande vp to the citie or head towne of the great Canaria, where we remained 18. or 20. dayes: and there found certaine Englishmen marchants servants of one Anthony Hickman and Edward Castelin, marchants of the citie of London that lay there in traffique, of whom wee receiued great courtesie and much good cheere. After the which 20. dayes being past, in the which we had seene the countrey, the people, and the disposition thereof, wee departed from thence, and passed to the next Ile of the Canaries 18. leagues off; called Teneriffe, and being come on land, went vp to the citie called La Laguna, where we remained 7. moneths, attending the comming of the whole fleete, which in the ende came, and there hauing taken that which they had neede of, wee shipped our selues in a ship of Cadiz, being one of the saide fleete, which was belonging to an Englishman maried in the citie of Cadiz in Spaine, whose name was Iohn Sweeting, and there came in the sayd ship for captain also an Englishman maried in Cadiz, and sonne in law to the sayde Iohn Sweeting, whose name was Leonard Chilton: there came also in the said ship another Englishman which had beene a marchant of the citie of Exeter, one of 50. yeeres or thereabout, whose name was Ralph Sarre. So that we departed from the sayd Ilands in the moneth of October the foresayd yeere, 8. ships in our companie, and so directed our course towards the bay of Mexico, and by the way towardes the Iland of S. Domingo, otherwise called Hispaniola. So that within 32. dayes after we departed from the Iles of Canaries wee arriued with our ship at the port of S. Domingo, and went in ouer the barre where our ship knocked her keele at her entrie: and there our ship rid before the towne, where wee went on land, and refreshed our selues 16. dayes, where we found no bread made of wheat, but biscuit brought out of Spaine, and out of the bay of Mexico: for the countrey it selfe doeth yeelde no kinde of bread to make graine withall. But the bread they make there, is certaine cakes made of rootes called Cassaui, which is something substantiall, but it hath but an vnsauorie taste in the eating thereof. Flesh of beefe and mutton they haue great store: for there are men that haue 10000. head of cattell, of oxen, bulles and kine, which they doe keepe onely for the hides; for the quantitie of flesh is so great, that they are not able to spend the hundreth part. Hogs flesh is there good store, very sweete and sauorie, and so holesome, that they giue it to sick folkes to eat in stead of hennes and capons, although they haue good store of poultrie of that sort, as also of Guinycocks and Guinyhens. At the time of our being there, the citie of S. Domingo was not of aboue 500. housholds of Spaniards, but of the Indians dwelling in the suburbs there were more. The countrey is most part of the yere very hot, and very ful of a kind of flies or gnats with long bils, which do pricke and molest the people very much in the night when they are asleepe, in pricking their faces and hands, and other parts of their bodies that lie vncouered, and make them to swel wonderfully. [Sidenote: Many of our men died of these wormes at the taking of Puertorico.] Also there is another kind of small worme which creepeth into the soles of mens feet and especially of the black Moores and children which vse to go barefoot, and maketh their feet to grow as big as a mans head, and doth so ake that it would make one run mad. They haue no remedy for the same, but to open the flesh sometimes 3. or 4. inches and so dig them out. The countrey yeeldeth great store of suger, hides of oxen, buls and kine, ginger, Cana fistula and Salsa perilla: mines of siluer and gold there are none, but in some riuers there is found some smal quantitie of gold. The principal coine that they do trafique withal in that place, is blacke money made of copper and brasse: and this they say they do vse not for that they lacke money of gold and siluer to trade withall out of the other parts of India, but because if they should haue good money, the marchants that deale with them in trade, would cary away their gold and siluer, and let the countrey commodities lie still. And thus much for S. Domingo. So we were comming from the yles of Canaries to S. Domingo, and there staying vntil the moneth of December, which was 3. moneths. About the beginning of Ianuary we departed thence towards the bay of Mexico and new Spaine, toward which we set our course, and so sailed 24. dayes till we came within 15. leagues of S. Iohn de Vllua, which was the port of Mexico of our right discharge: And being so neere our said port, there rose a storme of Northerly windes, which came off from Terra Florida, which caused vs to cast about into the sea, againe, for feare least that night we should be cast vpon the shoore before day did breake, and so put our selues in danger of casting away: the winde and sea grew so foule and strong, that within two houres after the storme began, eight ships that were together were so dispersed, that we could not see one another. One of the ships of our company being of the burthen of 500. tun called the hulke of Carion, would not cast about to sea as we did, but went that night with the land, thinking in the morning to purchase the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, but missing the port went with the shoare and was cast away. There were drowned of that ship 75. persons, men, women and children, and 64. were saved that could swim, and had meanes to saue themselves: among those that perished in that ship, was a gentlemen who had bene present the yere before in S. Domingo, his wife and 4. daughters with the rest of his seruants and household. We with the other 7. ships cast about into the sea, the storme during 10. dayes with great might, boisterous winds, fogs and raine: our ship being old and weake was so tossed, that she opened at the sterne a fadome vnder water, and the best remedy we had was to stop it with beds and pilobiers, and for feare of sinking we threw and lightned into the sea all the goods we had or could come by: but that would not serue. Then we cut our maine mast, and threw all our Ordinance into the sea sauing one piece, which early in a morning when wee thought wee should haue sunke, we shot off, and as pleased God there was one of the ships of our company neere vnto vs, which we saw not by meanes of the great fogge, which hearing the sound of the piece, and vnderstanding some of the company to be in great extremitie, began to make toward vs, and when they came within hearing of vs, we desired them for the loue of God to helpe to saue vs, for that we were all like to perish. They willed vs to hoise our foresaile as much as we could and make towards them, for they would do their best to saue vs, and so we did. And we had no sooner hoised our foresaile, but there came a gale of winde and a piece of a sea, strooke in the foresaile, and caried saile and maste all ouerboord, so that then we thought there was no hope of life. And then we began to imbrace one another, euery man his friend, euery wife her husband, and the children their fathers and mothers, committing our soules to Almighty God, thinking neuer to escape aliue: yet it pleased God in the time of most need when all hope was past, to aide vs with his helping hand, and caused the winde a little to cease, so that within two houres after, the other ship was able to come aboord vs, and tooke into her with her boat man, woman and child, naked without hose or shoe vpon many of our feete. I do remember that the last person that came out of the ship into the boat was a woman blacke Moore, who leaping out of the ship into the boat with a yong sucking childe in her armes, lept too short and fell into the sea, and was a good while vnder the water before the boat could come to rescue her, and with the spreading of her clothes rose aboue water againe, and was caught by the coat and pulled into the boate hauing still her child vnder her arme, both of them halfe drowned, and yet her natural loue towards her child would not let her let the childe goe. And when she came aboord the boate she helde her childe so fast vnder her arm still, that two men were scant able to get it out. So we departed out of our ship and left it in the sea: it was worth foure hundreth thousand ducats, ship and goods when we left it. And within three dayes after we arriued at our port of S. Iohn de Vllua in New Spaine. I do remember that in the great and boysterous storme of this foule weather, in the night, there came vpon the toppe of our maine yarde and maine maste, a certaine little light, much like vnto the light of a little candle, which the Spaniards called the Cuerpo santo, and saide it was S. Elmo, whom they take to bee the aduocate of Sailers. At the which sight the Spaniards fell downe vpon their knees and worshipped it, praying God and S. Elmo to cease the torment, and saue them from the perill that they were in with promising him that on their comming on land, they would repaire vnto his Chappell, and their cause Masses to be saide, and other ceremonies to be done. The friers cast reliques into the sea, to cause the sea to be still, and likewise said Gospels, with other crossings and ceremonies vpon the sea to make the storme to cease: which (as they said) did much good to weaken the furie of the storme. But I could not perceiue it, nor gaue no credite to it, till it pleased God to send vs the remedie and deliuered vs from the rage of the same, His Name be praised therefore. This light continued aboord our ship about three hours, flying from maste to maste, and from top to top: and sometime it would be in two or three places at once. I informed my selfe of learned men afterward what that light should be, and they said, that it was but a congelation of the winde and vapours of the Sea congealed with the extremitie of the weather, which flying in the winde, many times doeth chance to hit on the masts and shrowds of the ships that are at sea in foule weather. And in trueth I do take it to be so: for that I haue seene the like in other ships at sea, and in sundry ships at once. By this men may see how the Papists are giuen to beleeue and worship such vaine things and toyes, as God, to whom all honour doth appertaine and in their neede and necessities do let to call vpon the liuing God, who is the giuer of all good things. [Sidenote: His arriuall at Vera Cruz.] The 16. of April in Anno 1556. we arrived at the port of S. Iohn de Vllua in new Spaine, very naked and distressed, of apparell, and all other things, by meanes of the losse of our foresaid ship and goods, and from thence we went to the new Towne called Vera Cruz, fiue leagues from the said port of S. Iohn de Vllua, marching still by the sea side, where wee found lying vpon the sands great quantitie of mightie great trees with roots and all, some of them of foure, fiue, and sixe cart load by our estimation, which, as the people told vs, were in the great stormy weather, which we endured at sea, [Sidenote: Florida 300. leagues from San Iuan de Vllua.] rooted out of the ground in Terra Florida, which is three hundredth leagues ouer by Sea, and brought thither. So we came to the saide Towne of Vera cruz, where wee remained a moneth: and there the said Iohn Field chanced to meete with an olde friend of his acquaintance in Spaine, called Gonçalo Ruiz de Cordoua, a very rich man of the saide Towne of Vera cruz: who hearing of his comming thither with his wife and family, and of his misfortune by Sea, came vnto him and receiued him and all his household into his house, and kept vs there a whole moneth, making vs very good cheere, and giuing vs good entertainment, and also gaue vs that were in all eight persons, of the said Iohn Fields house, double apparell new out of the shop of very good cloth, coates, cloakes, hose, shirts, smocks, gownes for the women, hose, shoes, and al other necessary apparel, and for our way vp to the Citie of Mexico, horses, moiles, and men, and money in our purses for the expenses by the way, which by our accompt might amount vnto the summe of 400. Crownes. And after wee were entred two dayes iourney into the Countrey, I the saide Robert Tomson fell so sicke of an ague, that the next day I was not able to sit on my horse, but was faine to be caried vpon Indians backes, from thence to Mexico. And when wee came within halfe a dayes iourney of the Citie of Mexico, the saide Iohn Field also fell sicke, and within three dayes after we arriued at the said Citie, hee died: And presently sickened one of his children, and two more of his houshold people, and within eight days died. So that within tenne dayes after we arriued at the Citie of Mexico, of eight persons that were of vs of the saide company, there remained but foure aliue, and I the said Tomson was at the point of death of the sicknes that I got vpon the way, which continued with mee the space of sixe moneths. At the end of which time it pleased Almightie God to restore me my health againe, although weake and greatly disabled. And being some thing strong, I procured to seeke meanes to liue, and to seeke a way how to profite my selfe in the Countrey, seeing it had pleased God to sende vs thither in safetie. Then by friendship of one Thomas Blake a Scottishman borne, who had dwelt and had bene married in the said Citie aboue twentie yeeres before I came to the saide Citie, I was preferred to the seruice of a gentleman a Spaniard dwelling there, a man of great wealth, and one of the first conquerours of the said Citie, whose name was Gonçalo Cerezo, with whom I dwelt twelue moneths and a halfe. At the ende of which I was maliciously accused by the Holy house for matters of Religion, and so apprehended and caried to prison, where I lay close prisoner seuen moneths, without speaking to any creature, but to the Iailer that kept the said prison, when he brought me my meat and drinke. In the meane time was brought into the saide prison one Augustin Boacio an Italian of Genoua also for matters of Religion, who was taken at Sacatecas 80. leagues to the Northwest of the Citie of Mexico: At the ende of the said seuen moneths, we were both caried to the high Church of Mexico, to doe open penance upon an high scaffold, made before the high Alter, vpon a Sunday, in presence of a very great number of people, who were at the least fiue or sixe thousand. For there were that came one hundreth mile off, to see the said Auto (as they call it) for that there were neuer none before, that had done the like in the said Countrey, nor could not tell what Lutheranes were, nor what it meant: for they neuer heard of any such thing before. We were brought into the Church, euery one with a S. Benito vpon his backe, which is halfe a yard of yellow cloth, with a hole to put in a mans head in the middest, and cast ouer a mans head: both flaps cast one before, and another behinde, and in the middest of euery flap, a S. Andrewes crosse, made of red cloth, sowed on vpon the same, and that is called S. Benito. The common people before they sawe the penitents come into the Church, were giuen to vnderstand that wee were heretiques, infidels, and people that did despise God, and his workes, and that wee had bene more like deuils than men, and thought wee had had the fauour of some monsters, or heathen people. And when they saw vs come into the Church in our players coates, the women and children beganne to cry out, and made such a noise, that it was strange to see and heare, saying, that they neuer sawe goodlier men in all their liues, and that it was not possible that there could be in vs so much euill as was reported of vs, and that we were more like Angels among men, then such persons of such euill Religion as by the Priestes and friers wee were reported to be, and that it was great pitie that wee should bee so vsed for so small an offence. So that being brought into the said high Church, and set vpon the scaffold which was made before the high Alter, in the presence of all the people, vntil high Masse was done, and the sermon made by a frier, concerning our matter, they did put vs in all the disgrace they could, to cause the people not to take so much compassion vpon vs, for that wee were heretiques, and people that were seduced of the deuill, and had forsaken the faith of the Catholique Church of Rome, with diuers other reprochfull wordes, which were too long to recite in this place. High Masse and Sermon being done, our offences, as they called them, were recited, euery man what he had said and done, and presently was the sentence pronounced against vs. That was that the said Augustine Boacio was condemned to wear his S. Benito all the dayes of his life, and put into perpetuall prison, where hee should fulfill the same, and all his goods confiscated and lost. And I the saide Tomson to weare the S. Benito for three yeeres, and then to be set at libertie. And for the accomplishing of this sentence or condemnation, we must be presently sent downe from Mexico, to Vera Cruz, and from thence to S. Iohn de Vllua, and there to be shipped for Spaine, which was 65. leagues by land, with strait commandement, that vpon paine of 1000. duckets, the Masters euery one should looke straitly vnto vs, and carry vs to Spaine, and deliver vs vnto the Inquisitors of the Holy house of Siuill, that they should put vs in the places, where we should fulfill our penances, that the Archbishop of Mexico had enioyned vnto us, by his sentence there giuen. For performance of the which, we were sent downe from Mexico, to the Sea side, which was 65. leagues, with fetters upon our feete, and there deliuered to the Masters of the ships, to be carried for Spaine, as before is said. And it was so, that the Italian, fearing that if he had presented himselfe in Spaine before the Inquisitors, that they would haue burned him, to preuent that danger when wee were comming homeward, and were arriued at the yland of Terçera, one of the ysles of the Açores, the first night that we came into the said port to an ancker, about midnight he found the meanes to get him naked out of the ship into the sea, and swam naked a shoare, and so presently got him to the further side of the yland, where hee found a little Caruel ready to depart for Portugal, in the which he came to Lisbone, and passed into France, and so into England, where hee ended his life in the Citie of London. And I for my part kept still aboord the ship, and came into Spaine, and was deliuered to the Inquisitors of the Holy house of Siuill, where they kept me in close prison, till I had fulfilled the three years of my penance. Which time being expired, I was freely put out of prison, and set at libertie: and being in the Citie of Siuil a casher of one Hugh Typton, an English marchant of great doing, by the space of one yeere, it fortuned that there came out of the Citie of Mexico, a Spaniard, called Iohn de la Barrera, that had bene long time in the Indies, and had got summes of golde and siluer, and with one onely daughter shipped himselfe for to come for Spaine, and by the way chanced to die, and giue all that hee had vnto his onely daughter, whose name was Marie de la Barrera, and being arriued at the Citie of Siuil, it was my chance to marry with her. The marriage was worth to mee 2500. pounds in barres of golde and siluer, besides iewels of great price. This I thought good to speake of, to shew the goodnes of God to all them that put their trust in him, that I being brought out of the Indies, in such great misery and infamy to the world, should be prouided at Gods hand in one moment, of more then in all my life before I could attaine vnto by my owne labour. After we departed from Mexico, our S. Benitoes were set vp in the high Church of the said Citie, with our names written in the same, according to there vse and custome, which is and will be a monument and a remembrance of vs, as long as the Romish Church doth raigne in that country. The same haue bene seene since by one Iohn Chilton, and diuers others of our nation, which were left in that countrey long since, by Sir Iohn Hawkins. And because it shalbe knowen wherefore it was that I was so punished by the Clergies hande, as before is mentioned, I will in briefe words declare the same. It is so, that being in Mexico at the table, among many principall people at dinner, they began to inquire of me being an Englishman, whether it were true, that in England they had ouerthrowen all their Churches and houses of Religion, and that all the images of the Saints of heauen that were in them were throwen downe, broken, and burned, and in some places high wayes stoned with them, and whether the English nation denied their obedience to the Pope of Rome, as they had bene certified out of Spaine by their friends. To whom I made answere, that it was so, that in deed they had in England put downe all the Religious houses of friers and monks that were in England, and the images that were in their Churches and other places were taken away, and vsed there no more: for that (as they say) the making of them, and putting of them where they were adored, was cleane contrary to the expresse commandement of Almighty God, Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image, &c. and that for that cause they thought it not lawfull that they should stand in the Church, which his the house of adoration. One that was at the declaring of these words who was my master Gonsalo Cereso, answered and said, if it were against the commandement of God to haue images in the Churches, that then he had spent a great deale of money in vaine, for that two yeres past he had made in the monastery of Santo Domingo, in the said citie of Mexico, an image of our Lady of pure siluer and golde, with pearles and precious stones, which cost him 7000. and odde pesos, and euery peso is 4.s. 8.d. of our money: which indeed was true, for that I haue seene it many times my selfe where it stands. At the table was another gentleman, who presuming to defend the cause more then any other that was there, saide, that they knew well ynough that they made but of stockes and stones, and that to them was no worship giuen, but that there was a certaine veneration due vnto them after they were set vp in the Church, and that they were set there to a good intent: the one, for that they were books for the simple people, to make them vnderstand the glory of the saints that were in heauen, and a shape of them to put vs in remembrance to cal vpon them, to be our intercessors vnto God for vs, for that we are such miserable sinners, that we are not worthy to appeare before God, and that vsing deuotion to saints in heauen, they may obtaine at Gods hands the sooner the thing that we demand of him. As for example, said he, imagin that a subiect hath offended his king vpon the earth in any kind of respect, is it for the party to go boldly to the king in person, and to demand pardon for his offences? No, saith he, the presumption were two great, and possibly he might be repulsed, and haue a great rebuke for his labour. Better it is for such a person to seek some priuate man neere the king in his Court, and make him acquainted with his matter, and let him be a mediator to his Maiesty for him, and for the matter he hath to do with him, and so might he the better come to his purpose, and obteine the thing which he doeth demand: euen so saith he, it is with God and his saints in heauen: for we are wretched sinners, and not worthy to appeare nor present our selues before the Maiesty of God to demand of him the thing that we haue need of: therefore thou hast need to be deuout, and have deuotion to the mother of God, and the saints of heauen, to be intercessors to God for thee, and so mayest thou the better obtaine of God the thing that thou dost demand. To this I answered, and said, sir, as touching the comparison you made of the intercessors to the king, how necessary they were, I would but aske you this question. Set the case that this king you speake of, if he be so merciful, as, when he knoweth that one, or any of his subiects hath offended him, he send for him to his owne towne, or to his owne house, or palace, and say unto him, come hither, I know that thou hast offended many lawes, if thou doest know thereof, and doest repent thee of the same, with ful intent to offend no more, I wil forgiue thy trespasse, and remember it no more: said I, if this be done by the kings owne person, what then hath this man need to go seeke friendship at any of the kings priuat seruants hands, but go to the principal, seeing that he is readier to forgive thee, then thou art to demand forgiuenes at his hands? Euen so is it with our gracious God, who calleth and crieth out vnto vs throughout all the world, by the mouth of his Prophets, Apostles, and by his owne mouth, saying, Come vnto me al ye that labour and are ouer laden, and I wil refresh you: besides 1000. other offers and proffers which hee doth make vnto vs in his holy Scriptures. What then haue we need of the saints helpe that are in heauen, whereas the Lord himself doth so freely offer himselfe vnto vs? At which sayings, many of the hearers were astonied, and said, that by that reason, I would giue to vnderstand, that the inuocation of Saints was to be disanulled, and by the Lawes of God not commanded. I answered, that they were not my words but the words of God himselfe: looke into the Scriptures your selfe, and you shall so finde it. The talk was perceiued to be preiudiciall to the Romish doctrine, and therefore it was commanded to be no more entreated of, and all remained vnthought vpon, had it not bene for a villanous Portugal that was in the company, who said, Basta ser Ingles para saber todo esto y mas: who the next day, without imparting any thing to any body, went to the Bishop of Mexico, and his Prouisor, and said, that in a place where he had bene the day before, was an Englishman, who had said, that there was no need of Saints in the Church, nor of any inuocation of Saints, vpon whose denomination I was apprehended for the same words here rehearsed, and none other thing, and thereupon was vsed, as before is written. [Sidenote: Sant Iuan de Vllua.] Now to speake somewhat of the description of the countrey, you shall vnderstand, that the port of S. Iohn de Vllua is a very little Island low by the water side, the broadest or longest part thereof not aboue a bow-shoote ouer, and standeth within two furlongs of the firme land. In my time there was but one house, and a little Chappel to say masse in, in all the Island: the side to the land wards is made by mans handes, with free-stone and grauel, and is 4. fadome deepe downe right, wherefore the great ships that come in there do ride so neere the shoare of the land, that you may come and goe aland vpon their beake noses. They vse to put great chaines of yron in at their halsers, and an ancker to the land ward, and all little ynough to more well their shippes for feare of the Northerly winds, which come of the coast of Florida, that sometimes haue caried ships, and houses, and all away to the shoare. The king was wont to haue 20. great mightie Negroes, who did serue for nothing else, but onely to repaire the said Island, where the foule weather doeth hurt it. The Countrey all thereabout is very plaine ground, and a mile from the sea side a great wildernes, with great quantitie of red Deere in the same, so that when the mariners of the ships are disposed, they go vp into the wildernes, and do kil of the same, and bring them aboard to eate, for their recreation. [Sidenote: The way and distance from San Iuan de Vllua to Vera Cruz, is five leagues.] From this port to the next towne, which is called Vera Cruz, are 5. leagues almost by the Sea side, till you come within one league of the place, and then you turne vp towards the land, into a wood, till you come to a litle riuer hard by the said townes side, which sometimes of the yere is dry without water. The towne of Vera Cruz in my time, had not past 300. housholds, and serued out but for the folke of the ships, to buy and bring there goods aland, and deliuer it to their owners, as also the owners and their factors to receiue there goods of the Masters of the ships. This town standeth also in a very plaine on the one side the riuer, and the other side is enuironed with much sande blowen from the sea side with the tempest of weather, many times comming vpon that coast. This town also is subiect to great sicknes, and in my time many of the Mariners and officers of the ships did die with those diseases, there accustomed, and especially those that were not vsed to the countrey, nor knew the danger thereof, but would commonly go in the Sunne in the heat of the day, and did eat fruit of the countrey with much disorder, and especially gaue themselues to womens company at their first comming: whereupon they were cast into a burning ague, of the which few escaped. [Sidenote: Venta de Rinconado.] Halfe a dayes iourney from Vera Cruz, towards Mexico, is a lodging of fiue or sixe houses, called the Rinconado, which is a place, where is a great pinacle made of lime and stone, fast by a riuer side, where the Indians were wont to doe their sacrifices vnto their gods, and it is plaine and low ground betwixt that and Vera Cruz, and also subiect to sicknes: but afterward halfe a dayes iourney that you do begin to enter into the high land, you shall find as faire, good, and sweet countrey, as any in the world, and the farther you go, the goodlier and sweeter the countrey is, till you come to Pueblo de los Angeles, which may be some 43 leagues from Vera Cruz, which was in my time a towne of 600. housholds, or thereabout, standing in a goodly soile. Betweene Vera Cruz and that you shall come through many townes of the Indians, and villages, and many goodly fields of medow grounds, Riuers of fresh waters, forrests, and great woods, very pleasant to behold. From Pueblo de los Angeles, to Mexico, is 20 leagues of very faire way and countrey, as before is declared. Mexico was a Citie in my time, of not aboue 1500. housholds of Spaniards inhabiting there, but of Indian people in the suburbs of the said city, dwelt aboue 300000. as it was thought, and many more. This City of Mexico is 65 leagues from the North sea, and 75 leagues from the South sea, so that it standeth in the midst of the maine land, betwixt the one sea and the other. It is situated in the middest of a lake of standing water, and enuironed round about with the same, sauing in many places, going out of the Citie, are many broad wayes through the said lake or water. This lake and Citie is enuironed also with great mountaines round about, which are in compasse aboue thirtie leagues, and the said Citie, and lake of standing water, doeth stand in a great plaine in the middest of it. This lake of standing water doeth proceed from the shedding of the raine, that falleth upon the saide mountaines, and so gather themselues together in this place. All the whole proportion of this Citie doeth stand in a very plaine ground, and in the middest of the said Citie is a square place of a good bow-shoote ouer from side to side: and in the middest of the said place is the high Church, very faire and well builded all through, at that time not halfe finished, and round about the said place, are many faire houses built: on the one side, are the houses where Mutezuma the great king of Mexico that was, dwelt, and now there lye alwayes the viceroyes that the king of Spaine sendeth thither euery three yeeres. And in my time there was for viceroy a gentleman of Castil, called Don Luis de Velasco. And on the other side of the saide place, ouer against the same, is the Bishops house, very faire built, and many other houses of goodly building. And hard by the same, are also other very faire houses, built by the Marques de Valle, otherwise called Hernando Cortes, who was hee that first conquered the saide Citie and Countrey, who after the said conquest which hee made with great labour and trauaile of his person, and danger of his life, and being growen great in the Countrey, the King of Spaine sent for him, saying that he had some particular matters to impart vnto him. [Sidenote: This is to be vnderstood of his second comming into Spaine.] And when he came home, he could not bee suffered to returne backe againe, as the King before had promised him. With the which, for sorrow that he tooke, he died; and this he had for the reward of his good seruice. The said Citie of Mexico hath the streetes made very broad, and right, that a man being in the high place, at the one ende of the street, may see at the least a good mile forward, and in all the one part of the streets of the North part of their Citie, there runneth a pretie lake of very cleare water, that euery man may put into his house as much as he will, without the cost of any thing, but of letting in. Also there is a great caue or ditch of water that commeth through the Citie, euen vnto the high place, where come euery morning at the break of the day twentie or thirtie Canoas, or troughes of the Indians, which bring in them all manner of prouision for the citie, which is made, and groweth in the Countrey, which is a very good commoditie for the inhabitants of that place. And as for victuals in the said Citie, of beefe, mutton, and hennes, capons, quailes, Guiny-cockes, and such like, all are very good cheape: To say, the whole quarter of an oxe, as much as a slaue can carry away from the Butchers, for fiue Tomynes, that is, fiue Royals of plate, which is iust two shillings and sixe pence, and a fat sheepe at the Butchers for three Royals, which is 18. pence and no more. Bread is as good cheape as in Spaine, and all other kinde of fruites, as apples, peares, pomegranats, and quinces, at a reasonable rate. The Citie goeth wonderfully forwards in building of Frieries and Nunneries, and Chappels, and is like in time to come, to be the most populous Citie in the world, as it may be supposed. The weather is there always very temperate, the day differeth but one houre of length all the yere long. The fields and the woods are alwayes greene. The woods full of popinjayes, and many other kinde of birdes, that make such an harmonie of singing, and crying, that any man will reioyce to heare it. In the fields are such odoriferous smels of flowers and hearbs, that it giueth great content to the senses. About the Citie of Mexico two, three, or foure leagues off, are diuers townes of Indians, some of 4000. or 6000. housholds, which doe stand in such a goodly soyle, that if Christians had the inhabitation thereof, it would be put to a further benefite. In my time were dwelling and aliue in Mexico, many ancient men that were of the conquerours at the first conquest with Hernando Cortes: for then it was about 36. yeeres agoe, that the said Countrey was conquered. About Mexico there are diuers Mines of siluer, and also in other places there about, but the principall Mines that are in all New Spaine are in Sacatecas, 80. leagues from Mexico, and the Mines of S. Martin, thirtie leagues, both to the Westward of Mexico, where is great store of gold and siluer. Also there is a place called the Misteca, fiftie leagues to the Northwest, which doth yeeled great store of very good silke, and Cochinilla. Wine and oyle there is none growing in the Countrey, but what commeth out of Spaine. Also there are many goodly fruits in that Countrey, whereof we haue none such, as Plantanos Guyaues, Lapotes, Tunas, and in the wilderness great store of blacke cheries, and other wholesome fruites. The Cochinilla is not a worme, or a flye, as some say it is, but a berrie that groweth vpon certaine bushes in the wilde field, which is gathered in time of the yeere, when it is ripe. Also the Indico that doeth come from thence to die blew, is a certaine hearbe that groweth in the wilde fieldes, and is gathered at one time of the yeere, and burnt, and of the ashes thereof, with other confections put thereunto, the said Indico is made. Balme, Salsa perilla, Cana fistula, suger, oxe hides, and many other good and seruiceable things the Countrey doeth yeeld, which are yeerely brought into Spaine, and there solde and distributed to many nations. ROBERT TOMSON. A voyage made by M. Roger Bodenham to S. Iohn de Vllua in the bay of Mexico, in the yeere 1564. [Sidenote: A new trade begun in the city of Fez by Roger Bodenham.] I Rodger Bodenham hauing a long time liued in the city of Siuil in Spaine, being there married, and by occasion thereof vsing trade and traffique to the parts of Barbary, grew at length to great losse and hinderance by that new trade begun by me in the city of Fez: whereupon being returned into Spaine, I began to call my wits about mee, and to consider with my selfe by what meanes I might recover and renew my state; and in conclusion, by the ayde of my friends, I procured a ship called The Barke Fox perteining to London, of the eight or nine score tunnes; and with the same I made a voyage to the West India, hauing obteined good fauour with the Spannish merchants, by reason of my long abode, and marriage of the countrey. My voyage was in the company of the Generall Don Pedro Melendes for Noua Hispania: who being himselfe appointed Generall for Terra Firma and Peru, made his sonne Generall for New Spaine, although Pedro Melendes himselfe was the principall man and director in both fleets. We all departed from Cadiz together the last day of May in the yere 1564: and I with my ship being vnder the conduct of the sonne of Don Pedro aforesayd, arriued with him in Noua Hispania, where immediately I tooke order for the discharge of my merchandise at the port of Vera Cruz, otherwise called Villa Rica, to be transported thence to the city of Mexico, which is sixty and odde leagues distant from the sayd port of Villa Rica. In the way are many good townes, as namely, Pueblo de los Angeles, and another called Tlaxcalan. The city of Mexico hath three great causeyes to bring men to it, compassed with a lake, so that it needeth no walles, being so defended by the water. It is a city plentifull of all necessary things, hauing many faire houses, churches, and monasteries. I hauing continued in the countrey the space of nine moneths, returned againe for Spaine with the Spanish fleet, and deliuered the merchandise and siluer which I had in the ship into the Contratation house, and there receiued my fraight, which amounted outwards and homewards to the value of 13000 ducats and more. I obserued many things in the time of my abode in Noua Hispania, aswell touching the commodities of the countrey as the maners of the people both Spaniards and Indians: but because the Spanish histories are full of these obseruations, I omit them, and referre the readers to the same: onely this I say, that the commodity of Cochinalla groweth in greatest abundance about the towne of Pueblo de los Angeles, and is not there woorth aboue forty pence the pound. A notable discourse of M. Iohn Chilton, touching the people, maners, mines, cities, riches, forces, and other memorable things of New Spaine, and other prouinces in the West Indies, seene and noted by himselfe in the time of his trauels, continued in those parts, the space of seuenteene or eighteene yeeres. In the yeere of our Lord 1561, in the moneth of Iuly, I Iohn Chilton went out of this city of London into Spaine, where I remained for the space of seuen yeres, and from thence I sailed into Noua Hispania, and so trauelled there, and by the South sea, vnto Peru, the space of seuenteene or eighteene yeeres: and after that time expired, I returned into Spaine, and so in the yere 1586 in the moneth of Iuly, I arriued at the foresayd city of London: where perusing the notes which I had taken in the time of my trauell in those yeeres, I haue set downe as followeth. In the yeere 1568, in the moneth of March, being desirous to see the world, I embarked my selfe in the bay of Cadiz in Andaluzia, in a shippe bound for the Isles of the Canaries, where she tooke in her lading, and set forth from thence for the voyage, in the moneth of Iune, the same yere. Within a moneth after, we fell with the Isle of S. Domingo, and from thence directly to Noua Hispania, and came into the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, which is a little Island standing in the sea, about two miles from the land, where the king mainteineth about 50 souldiers, and captaines, that keepe the forts, and about 150 negroes, who all the yeere long are occupied in carying of stones for building, and other vses, and to helpe to make fast the ships that come in there, with their cables. There are built two bulwarkes at ech ende of a wall, that standeth likewise in the sayde island, where the shippes vse to ride, made fast to the sayd wall with their cables, so neere, that a man may leape ashore. From this port I iourneyd by land to a towne called Vera Cruz, standing by a riuers side, where all the factours of the Spanish merchants dwell, which receiue the goods of such ships as come thither, and also lade the same with such treasure and merchandize as they returne backe into Spaine. They are in number about foure hundred, who onely remaine there during the time that the Spanish fleet dischargeth, and is loden againe, which is from the end of August to the beginning of April following. And then for the vnwholesomnesse of the place they depart thence sixteene leagues further vp within the countrey, to a towne called Xalapa, a very healthfull soile. There is neuer any woman deliuered of childe in this port of Vera Cruz: for so soone as they perceiue themselues conceiued with child, they get them into the countrey, to auoid the perill of the infected aire, although they vse euery morning to driue thorow the towne aboue two thousand head of cattell, to take away the ill vapours of the earth. From Xalapa seuen leagues I came to another place, named Perota, wherein are certaine houses builded of straw, called by the name of ventas, the inhabitants whereof are Spaniards, who accustome to harbour such trauellers as are occasioned to iourney that way vp into the land. It standeth in a great wood of Pine and Cedar trees, the soile being very colde, by reason of store of snow which lieth on the mountaines there all the yere long. There are in that place an infinite number of deere, of bignesse like vnto great mules, hauing also hornes of great length. From Perota nine leagues, I came to the Fuentes of Ozumba, which fuentes are springs of water issuing out of certeine rocks into the midst of the high wayes, where likewise are certaine ranges, and houses, for the vses before mentioned. [Sidenote: Pueblo de los Angeles eight leagues.] Eight leagues off from this place I came to the city of the Angels, so called by that name of the Spanyards, which inhabit there to the number of a thousand, besides a great number of Indians. This city standeth in very plaine fields, hauing neere adioyning to it many sumptuous cities, as namely the city of Tlaxcalla, a city of two hundred thousand Indians, tributaries to the king, although he exacteth no other tribute of them then a handfull of wheat a piece, which amounteth to thirteene thousand hanneges yeerely as hath appeared by the kings books of account. And the reason why he contenteth himselfe with this tribute, onely for them, is, because they were the occasion that he tooke the city of Mexico, with whom the Tlaxcallians had warre at the same time when the Spanyards came into the countrey. The gouernour of this city is a Spanyard, called among them the Alcade mayor, who administreth chiefest causes of iustice both vnto the Christians and Indians, referring smaller and lighter vices, as drunkennesse and such like to the iudgement and discretion of such of the Indians as are chosen euery yeere to rule amongst them, called by the name of Alcades. These Indians from fourteene yeeres olde vpwards, pay vnto the king for their yerely tribute one ounce of siluer, and an hannege of maiz, which is valued among them commonly at twelue reals of plate. The widowes among them pay halfe of this. The Indians both of this city, and of the rest, lying about Mexico, goe clothed with mantles of linnen cloth made of cotton wooll, painted thorowout with works of diuers and fine colours. [Sidenote: Tlaxcalla foure leagues northward from los Angeles.] It is distant from the city of the Angels foure leagues to the Northward, and fourteene from Mexico. There is another city a league from it, called Chetula, consisting of more then sixty thousand Indians, tributaries, and there dwell not aboue twelue Spanyards there. [Sidenote: Vulcan is a hill that continually burneth with fire.] From it, about two leagues, there is another, called Acassingo, of aboue fifty thousand Indians, and about eight or twelue Spanyards, which standeth at the foot of the Vulcan of Mexico, on the East side. There are besides these, three other great cities, the one named Tapiaca, a very famous city, Waxazingo, and Tichamachalcho: all these in times past belonged to the kingdome of Tlaxcalla: and from these cities they bring most of their Cochinilla into Spaine. [Sidenote: Pueblo de los Angeles 20. leagues from Mexico.] The distance from the city of the Angels, to the city of Mexico is twenty leagues. The city of Mexico is the city of greatest fame in all the Indies, hauing goodly and costly houses in it, builded all of lime and stone, and seuen streets in length, and seuen in breadth, with riuers running thorow euery second street, by which they bring their prouision in canoas. It is situated at the foot of certaine hilles, which conteine in compasse by estimation aboue twenty leagues, compassing the sayd city on the one side, and a lake which is fourteene leagues about on the other side. Vpon which lake there are built many notable and sumptuous cities, as the city of Tescuco, where the Spanyards built sixe frigats, at that time when they conquered Mexico, and where also Fernando Cortes made his abode fiue or six moneths in curing of the sicknesse of his people, which they had taken at their comming into the countrey. There dwell in this city about sixty thousand Indians, which pay tribute to the king. In this city the sayd Fernando built the finest church that euer was built in the Indies, the name whereof is S. Peters. [Sidenote: The voyage from Mexico to Nueua Biscaia.] After I had continued two yeeres in this city, being desirous to see further the countreys, I imployed that which I had, and tooke my voyage towards the prouinces of California, in the which was discouered a certeine countrey by a Biscaine, whose name was Diego de Guiara, and called it after the name of his countrey, New Biscay, where I solde my merchandise for exchange of siluer, for there were there certaine rich mines discouered by the aforesayd Biskaine. [Sidenote: The Siluer mines of Tamascaltepec.] Going from Mexico I directed my voyage somewhat toward the Southwest, to certaine mines, called Tamascaltepec, and so trauelled forward the space of twenty dayes thorow desert places vnhabited, till I came to the valley of S. Bartholomew, which ioyneth to the prouince of New Biscay. In all these places, the Indians for the most part go naked, and are wilde people. Their common armour is bowes and arrowes: they vse to eate vp such Christians as they come by. [Sidenote: The hauen where the ships of China and the Philippinas arriue.] From hence departing, I came to another prouince named Xalisco, and from thence to the port of Nauidad, which is 120 leagues from Mexico, in which port arriue alwayes in the moneth of April, all the ships that come out of the South sea from China, and the Philippinas, and there they lay their merchandise ashore. The most part whereof is mantles, made of Cotton wooll, Waxe, and fine platters gilded, made of earth, and much golde. The next Summer following, being in the yeere 1570 (which was the first yeere that the Popes Buls were brought into the Indies) I vndertooke another voyage towards the prouince of Sonsonate, which is in the kingdome of Guatimala, whither I caried diuers marchandize of Spaine, all by land on mules backs. The way thitherward from Mexico is to the city of the Angels, and from thence to another city of Christians 80 leagues off, called Guaxaca, in which there dwelt about 50 Spanyards, and many Indians. All the Indians of this prouince pay their tribute in mantles, of Cotton wooll, and Cochinilla, whereof there groweth abundance thorowout this countrey. Neere to this place there lieth a port in the South sea, called Aguatulco, in the which there dwell not aboue three or foure Spanyards, with certaine Negroes, which the king mainteineth there: in which place Sir Francis Drake arriued in the yeere 1579, in the moneth of April, where I lost with his being there aboue a thousand duckets, which he tooke away with much other goods of other merchants of Mexico from one Francisco Gomes Rangifa, factour there for all the Spanish merchants that then traded in the South sea: for from this Port they vse to imbarke all their goods that goe for Peru, and to the kingdome of Honduras. From Guaxaca I came to a towne named Nixapa, which standeth vpon certaine very high hilles in the prouince of Sapotecas, wherein inhabit about the number of twenty Spanyards, by the King of Spaines commandement, to keepe that country in peace: for the Indians are very rebellious: and for this purpose hee bestowed on them the townes and cities that be within that prouince. From hence I went to a city called Tecoantepec, which is the farthest towne to the Eastward in all Noua Hispania, which some time did belong to the Marques de Valle, and because it is a very fit port, standing in the South sea, the king of Spaine, vpon a rebellion made by the sayd Marques against him, tooke it from him, and doth now possesse it as his owne. Heere in the yeere 1572 I saw a piece of ordinance of brasse, called a Demy culuerin, which came out of a ship called the Iesus of Lubeck, which captaine Hawkins left in S. Iohn de Vllua, being in fight with the Spanyards in the yeere 1568; which piece they afterwards carried 100 leagues by land ouer mighty mountaines to the sayd city, to be embarked there for the Philippinas. Leauing Tecoantepec, I went still along by the South sea about 150 leagues in the desolate prouince of Soconusco, in which prouince there groweth cacao, which the Christians cary from thence into Noua Hispania, for that it will not grow in any colde countrey. The Indians of this countrey pay the king their tribute in cacao, giuing him four hundred cargas, and euery carga is 24000 almonds, which carga is worth in Mexico thirty pieces of reals of plate. They are men of great riches, and withall very proud: and in all this prouince thorowout, there dwell not twenty Christians. I trauelled thorow another prouince called Suchetepec; and thence to the prouince of Guasacapan: in both which prouinces are very few people, the biggest towne therein hauing not aboue two hundred Indians. The chiefest merchandise there, is cacao. Hence I went to the city of Guatimala, which is the chiefe city of all this kingdome: in this city doe inhabit about 80 Spanyards: and here the king hath his gouernours, and councell, to whom all the people of the kingdome repaire for iustice. This city standeth from the coast of the South sea 14 leagues within the land, and is very rich, by reason of the golde that they fetch out of the coast of Veragua. From this city to the Eastward 60 leagues lieth the prouince Sonsonate, where I solde the merchandize I caried out of Noua Hispania. The chiefest city of this prouince is called S. Saluador, which lieth 7 leagues from the coast of the South sea, and hath a port lying by the sea coast, called Acaxutla, where the ships arriue with the merchandize they bring from Noua Hispania; and from thence lade backe againe the cacao: there dwell here to the number of threescore Spanyards. [Sidenote: Nicoia a port where ye ships which goe to the Philippinas are builded.] From Sonsonate I trauelled to Nicoia, which is in the kingdome of Nicaragua, in which port the king buildeth all the shipping that trauell out of the Indies to the Malucos. [Sidenote: Puerto de Cauallos a rich place.] I went forward from thence to Costa rica, where the Indians both men and women go all naked, and the land lieth betweene Panama, and the kingdome of Guatimala: and for that the Indians there liue as warriers, I durst not passe by land, so that here in a towne called S. Saluador I bestowed that which I caried in annile (which is a kinde of thing to die blew withall) which I caried with me to the port of Cauallos, lying in the kingdome of Honduras, which port is a mighty huge gulfe, and at the comming in on the one side of it there lieth a towne of little force without ordinance or any other strength, hauing in it houses of straw: at which towne the Spanyards vse yeerely in the moneth of August to vnlade foure ships which come out of Spaine laden with rich merchandize, and receiue in heere againe their lading of a kinde of merchandise called Annile and Cochinilla (although it be not of such value as that of Noua Hispania) and siluer of the mines of Tomaangua, and golde of Nicaragua, and hides, and Salsa perilla, the best in all the Indies: all which merchandize, they returne, and depart from thence alwayes in the moneth of April following, taking their course by the Island of Iamaica, in which Island there dwell on the West side of it certeine Spanyards of no great number. [Sidenote: The description of Hauana at large.] From this place they go to the cape of S. Anthony, which is the vttermost part of the Westward of the Island of Cuba, and from thence to Hauana lying hard by, which is the chiefest port that the king of Spaine hath in all the countreys of the Indies, and of greatest importance: for all the ships, both from Peru, Honduras, Porto rico, S. Domingo, Iamaica, and all other places in his Indies, arriue there in their returne to Spaine, for that in this port they take in victuals and water, and the most part of their lading: here they meet from all the foresayd places alwayes in the beginning of May by the kings commandement: at the entrance of this port it is so narrow, that there can scarse come in two ships together, although it be aboue sixe fadome deepe in the narrowest place of it. In the North side of the comming in there standeth a tower, in which there watcheth euery day a man to descrie the sailes of ships which hee can see on the sea; and as many as he discouereth, so many banners he setteth vpon the tower, that the people of the towne (which standeth within the port about a mile from the tower) may vnderstand thereof. Vnder this tower there lieth a sandy shore, where men may easily go aland: and by the tower there runneth a hill along by the waters side, which easily with small store of ordinance subdueth the towne and port. The port within is so large that there may easily ride a thousand saile of ships without anker or cable, for no wind is able to hurt them. [Sidenote: The smol force of Hauana.] There inhabit within the towne of Hauana about three hundred Spanyards, and about threescore souldiers, which the king mainteineth there for the keeping of a certeine castle which hee hath of late erected, which hath planted in it about twelue pieces of small ordinance, and is compassed round with a small ditch, wherethorow at their pleasure they may let in the sea. About two leagues from Hauana their lieth another towne called Wanabacoa, in which there is dwelling about an hundred Indians, and from this place 60 leagues there lieth another towne named Bahama, situate on the North side of the Island. The chiefest city of this Island of Cuba (which is aboue 600 leagues in length) is also called Sant Iago de Cuba, where dwelleth a bishop and about two hundred Spanyards; which towne standeth on the South side of the Island about 100 leagues from Hauana. [Sidenote: The commodities of Cuba.] All the trade of this Island is cattell, which they kill onely for the hides that are brought thence into Spaine: for which end the Spanyards mainteine there many negroes to kil their cattell, and foster a great number of hogs, which being killed, and cut into smal pieces, they dry in the Sun, and so make it prouision for the ships which come for Spaine. Hauing remained in this Island two moneths, I tooke shipping in a frigat, and went ouer to Nombre de Dios, and from thence by land to Panama, which standeth vpon the South sea. From Nombre de Dios to Panama is 17 leagues distance: from which towne there runneth a riuer which is called the riuer of Chagre, which runneth within 5 leagues of Panama, to a place called Cruzes, thorow which riuer they cary their goods, and disimbarke them at the sayd Cruzes, and from thence they are conueyed on mules backs to Panama by land: where they againe imbarke them in certeine small shippes in the South sea for all the coast of Peru. In one of these ships I went to Potossie, and from thence by land to Cusco, and from thence to Paita. Here I remained the space of seuen moneths, and then returned into the kingdome of Guatimala, and arriued in the prouince of Nicoia, and Nicaragua. From Nicaragua I trauelled by land to a prouince called Nicamula (which lieth toward the North sea in certaine high mountaines) for that I could not passe thorow the kingdome of Guatimala at that time for waters, wherewith all the Low countreys of the prouince of Soconusco, lying by the South sea, are drowned with the raine that falleth aboue the mountaines, enduring always from April to September: which reason for that they call their Winter. From this prouince I came into another called De Vera Paz, in which the chiefest city is also called after that name, where there dwelleth a bishop and about forty Spanyards. Among the mountaines of this countrey toward the North sea, there is a prouince called La Candona, where are Indian men of war which the king can not subdue, for that they haue townes and forts in a great lake of water aboue the sayd mountaines: the most part of them goe naked, and some weare mantles of cotton wooll. [Sidenote: Chiapa 300 leagues from Mexico.] Distant from this about 80 leagues, I came into another prouince called the prouince of Chiapa, wherein the chiefest city is called Sacallan, where there dwelleth a bishop and about an hundred Spanyards. In this countrey there is great store of Cotten wooll, whereof the Indians make fine linnen cloth, which the Christians buy and carry into Noua Hispania. The people of this prouince pay their tribute to the king all in Cotton wooll and Feathers. Fourteene leagues from this city there is another called Chiapa, where are the finest gennets in all the Indies, which are carried hence to Mexico, 300 leagues from it. [Sidenote: Ecatepec an hill nine leagues high.] From this city I trauelled still thorow hilles and mountaines, till I came to the end of this prouince, to a hill called Ecatepec, which in English signifieth The hill of winde: for that they say, it is the highest hill that euer was discouered: for from the top of it may be discovered both the North and the South seas; and it is in height supposed to be nine leagues. They which trauell ouer it, lie alwayes at the foot of it ouer night, and begin their iourney about midnight, to trauell to the top of it before the Sunne rise the next day, because the winde bloweth with such force afterwards, that it is impossible for any man to goe vp: from the foot of this hill to Tecoantepec, the first towne of Noua Hispania, are about fifteene leagues. And so from hence I iourned to Mexico. By and by after I came to Mexico (which was in the yere 1572) in the company of another Spanyard, which was my companion in this iourney, we went together toward the prouince of Panuco, which lieth vpon the coast of the North sea, and within three dayes iourney we entred a city called Mestitlan, where there dwelt twelue Spanyards: the Indian inhabitants there were about thirty thousand. This city standeth vpon certaine hie mountaines, which are very thicke planted with townes very holesome and fruitfull, hauing plentifull fountaines of water running thorow them. The high wayes of these hilles are all set with fruits, and trees of diuers kindes, and most pleasant. In euery towne as we passed thorow, the Indians presented vs with victuals. Within twenty leagues of this place there is another city called Clanchinoltepec, belonging to a gentleman, where there inhabit about fourty thousand Indians; and there are among them eight or nine friers of the order of Saint Augustine, who haue there a Monastery. Within three dayes after we departed from this place, and came to a city called Guaxutla, where there is another Monastery of friers of the same Order: there dwell in this towne about twelue Spanyards. From this place forwards beginneth a prouince called Guastecan, which is all plaine grounds without any hilles. The first towne we came vnto is called Tancuylabo, in which there dwell many Indians, high of stature, hauing all their bodies painted with blew, and weare their haire long downe to their knees, tied as women vse to do with their haire-laces. When they goe out of their doores, they cary with them their bowes and arrowes, being very great archers, going for the most part naked. [Sidenote: Salt a principal merchandize.] In those countreys they take neither golde nor siluer for exchange of any thing, but only Salt, which they greatly esteeme, and vse it for a principall medicine for certaine wormes which breed in their lips and in their gummes. After nine dayes trauell from this place, we came to a towne called Tampice, which is a port towne vpon the sea, wherein there dwell, I thinke, forty Christians, of which number whilest wee abode there, the Indians killed foureteene, as they were gathering of Salt, which is all the trade that they haue in this place: it standeth vpon the entrie of the riuer of Panuco, which is a mighty great riuer; and were it not for a sand that lieth at the mouth of it, ships of fiue hundred tonne might goe vp into it aboue three score leagues. From hence we went to Panuco, foureteen leagues from Tampice, which in times past had bene a goodly city, where the king of Spaine had his gouernour: but by reason that the Indians there destroyed the Christians, it lieth in a maner waste, conteining in it not aboue tenne Christians with a priest. In this towne I fell sicke, where I lay one and forty dayes, hauing no other sustenance then fruit and water, which water I sent for aboue sixe leagues off within the countrey. Here I remained till my companion came to me, which had departed from me another way, reteining in my company onely a slaue, which I brought with me from Mexico. And the last day in Easter weeke my companion came to me, finding me in a very weake state, by reason of the vnholesomenesse of the place. Notwithstanding my weakenesse, I being set on an horse, and an Indian behinde mee to holde mee, we went forward on our voyage all that day till night. The next day in the morning we passed ouer the riuer in a canoa; and being on the other side, I went my selfe before alone: and by reason there met many wayes traled by the wilde beasts, I lost my way, and so trauelled thorow a great wood about two leagues: and at length fell into the hands of certaine wilde Indians, which were there in certaine cottages made of straw; who seeing me, came out to the number of twenty of them, with their bowes and arrowes, and spake vnto mee in their language, which I vnderstood not: and so I made signes vnto them to helpe mee from my horse; which they did by commandement of their lord, which was there with them: and lighted downe. They caried me vnder one of their cottages, and layed me vpon a mat on the ground: and perceiuing that I could not vnderstand them, they brought vnto mee a little Indian wench of Mexico, of fifteene or sixteene yeeres of age, whom they commanded to aske me in her language from whence I came, and for what intent I was come among them: for (sayth she) doest thou not know Christian, how that these people will kill and eat thee? To whom I answered, let them doe with me what they will; heere now I am. Shee replied, saying, thou mayest thank God thou art leane; for they feare thou hast the pocks: otherwise they would eate thee. So I presented to the king a little wine which I had with me in a bottle; which he esteemed aboue any treasure: for wine they will sell their wiues and children. Afterwards the wench asked me what I would haue, and whether I would eat any thing. I answered that I desired a little water to drinke, for that the countrey is very hote: and shee brought me a great Venice glasse, gilded, full of water. And maruelling at the glasse, I demanded how they came by it. She tolde me that the Casique brought it from Shallapa, a great towne distant 30 leagues from this place on the hilles, whereas dwelt certeine Christians, and certeine friers of the Order of S. Augustine, which this Casique with his people on a night slew: and burning the friers monasterie, among other things reserued this glasse: and from thence also brought me. Hauing now bene conuersant with them about three or four houres, they bid her aske me if I would goe my way. I answered her, that I desired nothing els. So the Casique caused two of his Indians to leade me forward in my way; going before me with their bowes and arrowes, naked, the space of three leagues, till they brought me into an high way: and then making a signe vnto me, they signified that in short time I should come to a towne where Christians inhabited, which was called S. Iago de los valles, standing in plaine fields, walled about with a mud wall: the number of the Christians that dwelt therein, were not aboue foure or fiue and twenty, vnto which the king of Spaine giueth Indians and townes, to keepe the countreys subiect vnto him. Here the Christians haue their mighty mules, which they cary for all the parts of the Indies, and into Peru, for that all their merchandize are carried by this meanes by land. In this towne aforesayd, I found my company which I had lost before, who made no other account of me but that I had beene slaine: and the Christians there likewise maruelled to heare that I came from those kinde of Indians aliue, which was a thing neuer seene nor heard of before: for they take a great pride in killing a Christian, and to weare any part of him where he hath any haire growing, hanging it about their necks, and so are accounted for valiant men. [Sidenote: Don Henrico Manriques viceroy of Mexico.] In this towne I remained eighteene dayes, till I recouered my health, and in the meane space there came one Don Francisco de Pago, whom the viceroy Don Henrico Manriques had sent for captaine generall, to open and discouer a certeine way from the sea side to the mines of Sacatecas, which were from this place 160 leagues, for to transport their merchandize by that way, leauing the way by Mexico, which is seuen or eight weeks trauell. So this captaine tooke me and my company, with the rest of his souldiers, to the number of forty, which he had brought with him, and fiue hundred Indians, which we tooke out of two towns in this prouince called Tanchipa, and Tamaclipa, all good archers and naked men, and went thence to the riuer de las Palmas, which is of great bignesse, parting the kingdome of Noua Hispania and Florida: and going still along by this riuer the space of three dayes, seeking passage to passe ouer; and finding none, we were at length inforced to cut timber to make a balsa or raft, which when we had made, we sate on it, the Indians swimming in the water, and thrusting it before them to the other side. Within thirty dayes after, trauelling thorow woods, hiles, and mountaines, we came to the mines of Sacatecas, which are the richest mines in all the Indies, and from thence they fetch most siluer: at which mines there dwelt aboue three hundred Christians: and there our Captaine gaue vs leaue to depart. So we came to the valley of S. Michael toward Mexico; and from thence to Pueblo nouo; and from that place to the prouince of Mechuacan, after which name the chiefest city of that place is called; where there dwelles a bishop, and aboue an hundred Spanyards in it: it aboundeth with all kind of Spanish fruits, and hath woods full of nut trees, and wild vines. Heere are many mines of copper, and great store of cattell. It lieth 60 leagues from Mexico, whither we came within foure dayes after. The Indians of this countrey are very mighty and big men. Afterwards I returned another way to the prouince of Sonsonate by Vera Cruz, and so to Rio Aluarado, and from thence to the prouince of Campeche, which lieth on the South side of the bay of Mexico; the chiefe towne of this prouince is called Merida, in which is a bishop and almost 100 Spanyards. The Indians of this prouince pay all their tribute in mantles of cotton wooll and cacao. There is no port in all this prouince for a ship of 100 tun to ride in, but onely in the riuer of Tabasco, by which riuer this city of Merida standeth. The chiefest merchandize which they lade there in small frigats, is a certeine wood called campeche, (wherewith they vse to die) as also hides and annile. By this there lieth the prouince of Iucatan, nere the Honduras by the North sea coast, where there is also another bishop, and a towne likewise named Iucatan, where there dwell a few Spanyards. They haue no force at all in all this coast to defend themselues withall, saue only that the land is low, and there is no port to receiue any shipping, vnlesse they be frigats, which cary from thence to the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, waxe, cacao, hony, and also mantles of cotton wool, whereof they make there great store, and of which kind of merchandize there is great trade thence to Mexico: of the same also they pay their tribute to the king. [Sidenote: The greatnesse of the king of Spaines tribute out of the West Indies.] The king hath tribute brought him yerely out of the Indies into Spaine betweene nine and ten millions of gold and siluer: for he receiueth of euery Indian which is subiect vnto him (excepting those which do belong to the Incommenderos, which are the children of those Spanyards, who first conquered the land, to whom the king gaue and granted the gouernment of the cities and townes subdued for three liues) twelue reals of plate, and a hannege of maiz, which is a wheat of the countrey, (fiue of them making a quarter of English measure) and of euery widow woman he hath sixe reals, and halfe a hannege of maiz. And so if any Indian haue twenty children in his house, he payeth for euery one of them, being aboue fifteene yeres old, after that rate. This Wheat being duely brought to the gouernour of euery prouince and city, is sold in Mexico by the kings gouernours there every yeere; so that the money receiued for it, is put into the kings Treasurie there, and is so yeerely caried from thence into Spaine. [Sidenote: The quinta.] Of the Spanyards which are owners of the mines of gold and siluer, he receiueth the fift part of it, which he calleth his quintas, which being taken out of the heape, there is his armes set on it; for otherwise it may not be brought out of the land into Spaine, vnder paine of death. The marke of siluer, which is eight ounces, when it commeth out of the mines, not hauing the kings seale vpon it, is woorth three and forty reals of plate, and so it is current: and when they will bring it for Spaine, they cary it to the kings Treasure house, where his seale is set vpon it; and so it is raised in value thereby to threescore and foure reals of plate: and so the king hath for his custome of euery marke of plate one and twenty reals. From the yere of 1570, which was the yeere that the Popes buls came into the Indies, as is afore mentioned, he hath receiued both of the Indians which are tributaries vnto him, and also of all others belonging to the Incommenderos, of euery one being aboue twelue yeeres of age, foure reals of euery bull. Also they cary other pardons with them into the Indies, for such as be dead, although an hundred yeres before the Spanyards came into the countrey: which pardons the friers in their preachings perswaded the poore Indians to take, telling them that with giuing foure reals of plate for a Masse, they would deliuer their soules out of purgatory. Of the Christians likewise dwelling there he hath foureteene reals for euery bull: and there be certeine buls brought thither for the Christians besides the former, which serue for pardoning all such faults wherein they haue trespassed either against the king, by keeping backe his customes, or one against another by any other injury; for euery hundred crownes whereof a mans conscience doth accuse him that he hath deceiued the king or any other, he must giue ten for a bull, and so after that rate for euery hundred which he hath any way stollen, and so is pardoned the fault. [Sidenote: The reuenue of the kings buls and pardons came yerely to three millions.] The reuenue of his buls after this maner yeeldeth vnto his treasury yeerely aboue three millions of gold, as I haue bene credibly informed, although of late both the Spanyards and Indians do refuse to take the buls; for that they perceiue he doth make a yeerely custome of it: onely ech Indian taketh one pardon for all his householde, (whereas in former time euery Indian vsed to take one for euery person in his house) and teareth the same into small pieces, and giueth to euery one of his householde a little piece, saying thus, they need now no more, seeing in that which they bought the yeere before they had aboue ten thousand yeres pardon. These pieces they sticke vp in the wall of the houses where they lie. [Sidenote: Rebellions in Noua Hispania by two great exactions.] Both the Christians and Indians are weary with these infinite taxes and customes, which of late he hath imposed vpon them, more than in the yeeres before: so as the people of both sorts did rebell twise in the time that I was among them, and would have set vp another king of themselues: for which cause the king hath commanded vpon paine of death, that they should not plant either oile or wine there, but should alwayes stand in need of them to be brought out of Spaine, although there would more grow there in foure yeeres then there groweth in Spaine in twenty, it is so fertile a countrey. [Sidenote: The reasons which mooue the kings of Spaine to forbid foren traffike in the West Indies.] And the king to keepe the countrey alwayes in subiection, and to his owne vse, hath streightly prouided by lawe, vpon paine of death, and losse of goods, that none of these countreys should traffique with any other nation, although the people themselues doe much now desire to trade with any other then with them, and would vndoubtedly doe, if they feared not the perill ensuing thereupon. About Mexico, and other places in Noua Hispania, there groweth a certaine plant called magueis, which yeeldeth wine, vineger, hony, and blacke sugar, and of the leaues of it dried they make hempe, ropes, shooes which they vse, and tiles for their houses: and at the ende of euery leafe there groweth a sharpe point like an awle, wherewith they vse to bore or pearce thorow any thing. Thus to make an end, I have heere set downe the summe of all the chiefest things that I haue obserued and noted in my seventeene yeres trauell in those parts. A relation of the commodities of Noua Hispania, and the maners of the inhabitants, written by Henry Hawkes merchant, which liued fiue yeeres in the sayd countrey, and drew the same at the request of M. Richard Hakluyt Esquire of Eton in the county of Hereford, 1572. Saint Iohn de Vilua is an Island not high aboue the water, where as now the Spanyards vpon M. Iohn Hawkins being there, are in making a strong fort. In this place all the ships that come out of Spaine with goods for these parts, do vnlade: for they haue none other port so good as this is. The comming into this place hath three chanels, and the best of all is the Northermost, which goeth by the maine land: and on euery side of the chanels there are many small rocks, as big as a small barrell: they wil make men stand in doubt of them, but there is no feare of them. There is another Island there by, called The Island of sacrifices, whereas the Spanyards did in times past vnlade their goods: and for that, they say, there are vpon it spirits or deuils, it is not frequented as it hath bene. In these places the North wind hath so great dominion, that oftentimes it destroyeth many ships and barks. This place is giuen to great sicknesse. These Islands stand in 18 degrees and a halfe, and about the same is great plenty of fish. Fiue leagues from S. Iohn de Vllua is a faire riuer: it lieth Northwest from the port, and goeth to a little towne of the Spanyards called Vera Cruz, and with small vessels or barks, which they call frigats, they cary all their merchandize which commeth out of Spaine, to the said towne: and in like maner bring all the gold, siluer, cochinilla, hides, and all other things that the shippes cary into Spaine vnto them. And the goods being in Vera Cruz, they carry them to Mexico, and to Pueblo de los Angeles, Sacatecas, and Saint Martin, and diuers other places so farre within the countrey, that some of them are 700 miles off, and some more, and some lesse, all vpon horses, mules, and in waines drawen with oxen, and in carres drawen with mules. In this towne of Vera Cruz within these twenty yeres, when women were brought to bed, the children new borne incontinently died; which is not now in these dayes, God be thanked. This towne is inclined to many kinde of diseases, by reason of the great heat, and a certeine gnat or flie which they call a mosquito, which biteth both men and women in their sleepe: and assoone as they are bitten, incontinently the flesh swelleth as though they had bene bitten with some venimous worme. And this musquito or gnat doth most follow such as are newly come into the countrey. Many there are that die of this annoyance. This towne is situated vpon the riuer aforesayd, and compassed with woods of diuers maners and sorts, and many fruits, as orenges and limons, guiaues, and diuers others, and birds in them, popinjayes both small and great, and some of them as big as a rauen, and their tailes as long as the taile of a fezant. There are also many other kinde of birds of purple colour, and small munkeys, maruellous proper. This hote or sicke countrey continueth fiue and forty miles towards the city of Mexico; and the fiue and forty miles being passed, then there is a temperate countrey, and full of tillage: but they water all their corn with riuers which they turn in upon it. And they gather their Wheat twise a yere. And if they should not water the ground where as their corne is sowen, the country is so hote it would burne all. Before you come to Mexico, there is a great towne called Tlaxcalla, which hath in it aboue 16000 households. All the inhabitants thereof are free by the kings of Spaine: for these were the occasion that Mexico was woone in so short time, and with so little losse of men. Wherefore they are all gentlemen, and pay no tribute to the king. In this towne is all the cochinilla growing. Mexico is a great city; it hath more then fifty thousand households, whereof there are not past fiue or sixe thousand houses of Spanyards: all the other are the people of the countrey, which liue vnder the Spanyards lawes. There are in this city stately buildings, and many monasteries of friers and nunnes, which the Spanyards haue made. And the building of the Indians is somewhat beautifull outwardly, and within full of small chambers, with very small windowes, which is not so comly as the building of the Spanyards. This city standeth in the midst of a great lake, and the water goeth thorow all or the most part of the streets, and there come small boats, which they call canoas, and in them they bring all things necessary, as wood, and coales, and grasse for their horses, stones and lime to build, and corne. This city is subject to many earthquakes, which oftentimes cast downe houses, and kil people. This city, is very well prouided of water to drinke, and with all maner of victuals, as fruits, flesh and fish, bread, hennes and capons, Guiny cocks and hennes and all other fowle. There are in this city euery weeke three Faires or Markets, which are frequented with many people, aswell Spanyards as the people of the countrey. There are in these Faires or Markets all maner of things that may be inuented, to sell, and in especiall, things of the countrey. The one of these Faires is vpon the Munday; which is called S. Hypolitos faire, and S. Iames his faire is vpon the Thursday, and vpon Saturday is S. Iohns faire. In this city is alwayes the kings gouernour or viceroy, and there are kept the Termes or Parliaments. And although there be other places of iustice, yet this is aboue all: so that all men may appeale vnto this place, and may not appeale from this city, but onely into Spaine before the king: and it must be for a certeine sum: and if it be vnder that summe, then there is no appellation from them. Many riuers fall into this lake which the city standeth in: but there was neuer any place found wither it goeth out. The Indians know a way to drowne the city, and within these three yeeres they would haue practised the same: but they which should haue bene the doers of it were hanged: and euer since the city hath bene well watched both day and night, for feare lest at some time they might be deceiued: for the Indians loue not the Spanyards. Round about the towne there are very many gardens and orchards of the fruits of the countrey, maruellous faire, where the people haue great recreation. The men of this city are maruellous vicious; and in like maner the women are dishonest of their bodies, more then they are in other cities or townes in this countrey. There are neere about this city of Mexico many riuers and standing waters, which haue in them a monstrous kinde of fish, which is maruellous rauening, and a great deuourer of men and cattell. He is woont to sleepe vpon the drie land many times, and if there come in the meane time any man or beast and wake or disquiet him, he speedeth well if he get from him. He is like vnto a serpent, sauing that he doth not flie, neither hath he wings. There is West out of Mexico a port towne which is on the South sea, called Puerto de Acapulco, where as there are shippes which they haue ordinarily for the nauigation of China, which they haue newly found. This port is threescore leagues from Mexico. There, is another port towne which is called Culiacan, on the South sea, which lieth West and by North out of Mexico, and is 200 leagues from the same: and there the Spanyards made two ships to goe seeke the streight or gulfe, which, as they say, is betweene the Newfoundland and Groenland; and they call it the Englishmens streight: which as yet was neuer fully found. They say, that streight lieth not farre from the maine land of China, which the Spanyards account to be maruellous rich. Toward the North from Mexico there are great store of siluer mines. There, is greater quantitie of siluer found in these mines toward the North, then there is any other parts: and as the most men of experience sayde alwayes, they finde the richer mines the more Northerly. These mines are commonly vpon great hilles and stony ground, maruellous hard to be laboured and wrought. Out of some of the mines the Indians finde a certeine kinde of earth of diuers colours, wherewith they paint themselues in times of their dances, and other pastimes which they vse. In this countrey of Noua Hispania there are also mines of golde, although the golde be commonly found in riuers, or very neere vnto riuers. And nowe in these dayes there is not so much golde found as there hath bene heretofore. There are many great riuers, and great store of fish in them, not like vnto our kindes of fish. And there are maruellous great woods, and as faire trees as may be seene, of diuers sorts, and especially firre trees, that may mast any shippe that goeth vpon the sea, oakes and pineapples, and another tree which they call Mesquiquez: it beareth a fruit like vnto a peascod, maruellous sweet, which the wilde people gather, and keepe it all the yere, and eat it in stead of bread. The Spanyards haue notice of seuen cities which old men of the Indians shew them should lie towards the Northwest from Mexico. They haue vsed and vse dayly much diligence in seeking of them, but they cannot find any one of them. They say that the witchcraft of the Indians is such, that when they come by these townes they cast a mist vpon them, so that they cannot see them. [Sidenote: Pedro Morales and Nicolas Burgignon write the like of Copalla.] They haue understanding of another city which they call Copalla: and in like maner, at my beeing in the countrey, they haue vsed much labour and diligence in the seeking of it: they haue found the lake on which it should stand, and a canoa, the head whereof was wrought with copper curiously, and could not finde nor see any man nor the towne, which to their vnderstanding should stand on the same water, or very neere the same. [Sidenote: The strange oxen of Cibola.] There is a great number of beasts or kine in the countrey of Cibola, which were neuer brought thither by the Spanyards, but breed naturally in the countrey. They are like vnto our oxen, sauing that they haue long haire like a lion, and short hornes, and they haue upon their shoulders a bunch like a camell, which is higher then the rest of their body. They are maruellous wild and swift in running. They call them the beasts or kine of Cibola. [Sidenote: Cibola abandoned.] This Cibola is a city which the Spanyards found now of late, without any people in the same, goodly buildings, faire chimneys, windowes made of stone and timber excellently wrought, faire welles with wheeles to draw their water, and a place where they had buried their dead people, with many faire stones vpon the graues. And the captaine would not suffer his souldiers to brake vp any parte of these graues, saying, he would come another time to do it. [Sidenote: A great riuer near Cibola.] They asked certeine people which they met, whither the people of this city were gone: and they made answer, they were gone downe a riuer, which was there by, very great, and there builded a city which was more for their commodity. This captaine lacking things necessary for himselfe and his men, was faine to return backe againe, without finding any treasure according to his expectation: neither found they but fewe people, although they found beaten wayes, which had beene much haunted and frequented. The captaine at his comming backe againe, had a great checke of the gouernour, because he had not gone forwards, and seene the end of that riuer. They haue in the countrey, farre from the sea side, standing waters, which are salt: and in the moneths of April and May the water of them congealeth into salt, which salt is all taken for the kings vs and profit. [Sidenote: Dogs of India described.] Their dogs are all crooked backt, as many are of the countrey breed, and cannot run fast: their faces are like the face of a pig or an hog, with sharpe noses. In certeine prouinces which are called Guatimala, and Soconusco, there is growing great store of cacao, which is a berry like vnto an almond: it is the best merchandize that is in all the Indies. The Indians make drinke of it, and in like maner meat to eat. It goeth currently for money in any market or faire, and may buy an flesh, fish, bread or cheese, or other things. There are many kinde of fruits of the countrey, which are very good, as plantans, sapotes, guianes, pinas, aluacatas, tunas, mamios, limons, grapes which the Spanyards brought into the countrey, and also wild grapes, which are of the country, and very small, quinses, peaches, figs, and but few apples, and very small, and no peares: but there are melons and calabaçs or gourds. There is much hony, both of bees and also of a kind of tree which they call magueiz. This hony of magueiz is not so sweet as the other hony, but it is better to be eaten only with bread, then the other is; and the tree serueth for many things, as the leaves make threed to sowe any kind of bags, and are good to couer and thatch houses, and for diuers other things. They haue in diuers places of the countrey many hote springs of water: as aboue all other, I haue seen one in the prouince of Mechuacan. In a plaine field without any mountaine, there is a spring which hath much water, and it is so hot, that if a whole quarter of beefe be cast into it, within an halfe houre it will be as well sodden as it will be ouer a fire in halfe a day. I haue seene halfe a sheepe cast in it, and immediately it hath bene sodden, and I haue eaten part of it. There are many hares, and some conies. There are no partridges, but abundance of quailes. They haue great store of fish in the South sea, and many oisters, and very great. The people do open the oisters, and take out the meat of them, and dry it as they do any other kinde of fish, and keepe them all the yeere: and when the times serue, they send them abroad into the country to sell, as all other fish. They haue no salmon, nor trowt, nor pele, nor crape, tench, nor pike in all the countrey. There are in the countrey mighty high mountaines, and hilles, and snow upon them: they commonly burne; and twise every day they cast out much smoke and ashes at certeine open places, which are in the tops of them. There is among the wilde people much manna. I haue gathered of the same, and haue eaten it, and it is good: for the Apothecaries send their seruants at certeine times, to gather of the same for purgations and other vses. There are in the mountaines many wilde hogs, which all men kill, and lions and tygres; which tygres do much harm to men that trauell in the wildernesse. [Sidenote: Mines discouered, not found againe.] In this countrey, not long since, there were two poore men that found a maruellous rich mine; and when these men went to make a register of the same (according to the law and custom) before the kings officers, they thought this mine not meet for such men as they were: and violently took the sayd mine for the king; and gaue no part thereof vnto the two poore men. And within certaine dayes the kings officers resorted thither to labor in the mine, and they found two great mighty hilles were come together; so they found no place to worke in. [Sidenote: The authour fiue yeeres in Nueua Espanna.] And in the time while I was among them, which was fiue yeeres, there was a poore shepheard, who keeping his sheepe, happened to finde a well of quicke-siluer; and he went in like maner to manifest the same, as the custome and maner is; the kings officers dealt in like order as they did with the two poore men that found the rich mine, taking it quite from the shepheard: but when they went to fetch home the quicke-siluer, or part thereof, they could neuer finde it againe. So these things haue bene declared vnto the king, who hath giuen commandement, that nothing being found in the fields, as mines, and such like, shall be taken away from any man. And many other things haue bene done in this countrey, which men might count for great maruels. There is a great abundance of sugar here, and they make diuers conserues, and very good, and send them to Peru, where as they sell them maruellous well, because they make none in those parts. [Sidenote: Description of the Indians person and maner.] The people of the countrey are of good stature, tawny coloured, broad faced, flat nosed, and giuen much to drinke both wine of Spaine and also a certeine kind of wine which they make with hony of Maguiez, and roots, and other things which they vse to put into the same. They call the same wine Pulco. They are soone drunke, and giuen to much beastlinesse, and void of all goodnesse. In their drunkennesse, they vse and commit Sodomy; and with their mothers and daughters they haue their pleasures and pastimes. Whereupon they are defended from the drinking of wines, vpon paines of money, aswell he that selleth the wines as the Indian that drinketh the same. And if this commandement were not, all the wine in Spaine and in France were not sufficient for the West Indies onely. [Sidenote: The people of Nueua Espanna great cowards.] They are of much simplicity, and great cowards, voide of all valour, and are great witches. They vse diuers times to take with the diuell, to whom they do certaine sacrifices and oblations: many times they haue bene taken with the same, and I haue seene them most cruelly punished for that offence. The people are giuen to learn all maner of occupations and sciences, which for the most part they learned since the coming of the Spanyards: I say all maner of arts. They are very artificiall in making of images with feathers, or the proportion or figure of any man, in all kind of maner as he is. The finenesse and excellency of this is woonderfull, that a barbarous people as they are, should giue themselues to so fine an arte as this is. They are goldsmiths, blackesmiths, and coppersmiths, carpenters, masons, shoomakers, tailors, sadlers, imbroderers, and of all other kind of sciences: and they will do worke so good cheape, that poore young men that goe out of Spaine to get their liuing, are not set on worke: which is the occasion there are many idle people in the countrey. For the Indian will liue all the weeke with lesse then one groat: which the Spanyard cannot do, nor any man els. [Sidenote: The Indians ignorance from whence they came.] They say, that they came of the linage of an olde man which came thither in a boat of wood, which they call a canoa. But they cannot tell whether it were before the flood or after, neither can they giue any reason of the flood, nor from whence they came. And when the Spanyards came first among them, they did certeine sacrifice to an image made in stone, of their owne inuention. The stone was set vpon a great hill, which they made of bricks of earth: they call it their Cowa. And certeine dayes in the yere they did sacrifice, certeine olde men, and yoong children: and onely beleeued in the Sunne and the Moone, saying, that from them they had all things that were needful for them. They haue in these parts great store of cotton wool, with which they make a maner of linen cloth, which the Indians weare, both men and women, and it serueth for shirts and smocks, and all other kind of garments, which they weare vpon their bodies: and the Spanyards vse it to all such purposes, especially such as cannot buy other. And if it were not for this kind of cloth, all maner of cloth that goeth out of Spaine, I say linnen cloth, would be solde out of all measure. [Sidenote: The wilde Indians.] The wilde people go naked, without any thing vpon them. The women weare the skinne of a deere before their priuities, and nothing els vpon all their bodies. They haue no care for any thing, but onely from day to day for that which they haue need to eat. They are big men, and likewise the women. They shoot in bowes which they make of a cherry tree, and their arrowes are of cane, with a sharpe flint stone in the end of the same; they will pierce any coat of maile: and they kill deere, and cranes, and wilde geese, ducks, and other fowle, and wormes, and snakes, and diuers other vermin, which they eat. They liue very long: for I haue seene men that haue beene an hundred yeres of age. They haue but very litle haire in their face, nor on their bodies. The Indians haue the friers in great reuerence: the occasion is, that by them and by there meanes they are free and out of bondage; which was so ordeined by Charles the emperor: which is the occasion that now there is not so much gold and siluer comming into Europe as there was while the Indians were slaues. For when they were in bondage they could not chuse but doe their taske euery day, and bring their master so much metall out of their mines: but now they must be well payed, and much intreated to haue them worke. So it hath bene, and is a great hinderance to the owners of the mines, and to the kings quinto or custome. There are many mines of copper in great quantity, whereof they spend in the countrey as much as serueth their turnes. There is some golde in it, but not so much as will pay the costs of the fining. The quantity of it is such, and the mines are so farre from the sea, that it will not be worth the fraight to cary it into Spaine. On the other side, the kings officers will giue no licence to make ordinance thereof; whereupon the mines lie vnlaboured, and of no valuation. There is much lead in the countrey; so that with it they couer churches, and other religious houses: wherefore they shall not need any of our lead, as they haue had need thereof in times past. The pompe and liberalitie of the owners of the mines is maruellous to beholde: the apparell both of them and of their wiues is more to be compared to the apparell of noble persons then otherwise. If their wiues go out of their houses, as vnto the church, or any other place, they goe out with great maiesty, and with as many men and maids as though she were the wife of some noble man. I will assure you, I haue seene a miners wife goe to the church with an hundred men, and twenty gentlewomen and maids. They keepe open house: who will, may come and eat their meat. They call men with a bell to come to dinner and supper. They are princes in keeping of their houses, and bountifull in all maner of things. [Sidenote: Things necessary to mines of siluer and golde.] A good owner of mines must haue at the least an hundred slaues to cary and to stampe his metals; he must haue many mules, and men to keepe the mines; he must haue milles to stampe his metals; he must haue many waines and oxen to bring home wood to fine the oare; he must haue much quicke-siluer, and a maruellous quantity of salt-brine for the metals; and he must be at many other charges. And as for this charge of quicke-siluer, it is a new inuention, which they finde more profitable then to fine their oare with lead. Howbeit the same is very costly: for there is neuer a hundred of quicke-siluer but costeth at the least threescore pounds sterling. And the mines fall dayly in decay, and of lesse value: and the occasion is, the few Indians that men haue to labour their mines. There is in New Spaine a maruellous increase of cattle, which daily do increase, and they are of a greater growth then ours are. You may haue a great steere that hath an hundred weight of tallow in his belly for sixteene shillings; and some one man hath 2000 head of cattel of his owne. They sell the hides vnto the merchants, who lade into Spaine as many as may be well spared. They spend many in the countrey in shoes and boots, and in the mines: and as the countrey is great, so is the increase of the cattell woonderfull. In the Island of Santo Domingo they commonly kill the beasts for their hides and tallow; and the fowles eat the carkeises: and so they do in Cuba and Porto Rico, whereas there is much sugar, and cana fistula, which dayly they send into Spaine. They have great increase of sheep in like maner, and dayly do intend to increase them. They have much wooll, and as good as the wooll of Spaine. They make cloth as much as serueth the countrey, for the common people, and send much cloth into Peru. I haue seene cloth made in the city of Mexico, which hath beene solde for tenne pezos a vare, which is almost foure pounds English, and the vare is less then our yard. They haue woad growing in the countrey, and allum, and brasill, and diuers other things to die withall, so that they make all colours. In Peru they make no cloth: but heereafter our cloth will be little set by in these parts, vnlesse it be some fine cloth. The wools are commonly foure shillings euery roue, which is fiue and twenty pounds: and in some places of the countrey that are farre from the places where as they make cloth, it is woorth nothing, and doth serue but onely to make beds for men to lie on. They make hats, as many as do serue the Countrey, very fine and good, and sell them better cheape, then they can be brought out of Spaine, and in like maner send them into Peru. Many people are set on worke both in the one and in the other: they spin their wooll as we doe, and in steed of oyle, they haue hogs grease: they twist not their threed so much as wee doe, neither worke so fine a threed. They make kersies, but they make much cloth, which is course, and sell it for lesse than 12. pence the vare. It is called Sayall. They haue much silke, and make all maner of sorts thereof, as Taffataes, Sattins, Veluets of all colours, and they are as good as the silkes of Spaine, sauing that the colours are not so perfect: but the blackes are better then the blackes that come out of Spaine. They haue many horses, and mares, and mules, which the Spaniards brought thither. They haue as good Iennets, as any are in Spaine, and better cheape then they bee in Spaine. And with their mules they cary all their goods from place to place. There is raine vsually in this Countrey, from the moneth of May, to the midst of October, euery day, which time they call their winter, by reason of the said waters. And if it were not for the waters which fall in these hot seasons, their Maiz, which is the greatest part of their sustenance, would be destroyed. This Maiz is the greatest maintenance which the Indian hath, and also all the common people of the Spaniards. And their horses and mules which labour, cannot be without the same. This graine is substantiall, and increaseth much blood. If the Miners should bee without it, they coulde not labour their mines: for all their seruants eate none other bread, but onely of this Maize, and it is made in cakes, as they make oaten cakes, in some places of England. [Sidenote: An Hanega is a bushel and an halfe.] The Indians pay tribute, being of the age of 20. yeeres, 4. shillings of money, and an hanege of Maiz, which is worth 4. shillings more vnto the king euery yeere. This is payd in all Noua Hispania, of as many as be of the age of 20. yeeres, sauing the citie of Tlascalla, which was made free because the citizens thereof were the occasion that Cortes tooke Mexico in so little a time.[2] And although at the first they were freed from painment of tribute, yet the Spaniards now begin to vsurpe vpon them, and make them to till a great field of Maiz, at their owne costes euery yeere for the King, which is as beneficial vnto him, and as great cost vnto them, as though they paid their tribute, as the others doe. [2] The Republic of Tlascala had at first opposed the Spaniards on their advance to Mexico, but being defeated, became their allies and remained true to them throughout the troublous period of the evacuation and siege of the Capital. The ships which goe out of Spaine with goods for Peru, goe to Nombre de Dios, and there discharge the said goods: and from thence they be carried ouer the necke of a land, vnto a port towne in the South sea, called Panama, which is 17. leagues distant from Nombre de Dios. And there they doe ship their goods againe and so from thence goe to Peru. They are in going thither three moneths, and they come backe againe in 20. dayes. They haue seldome foule weather, and fewe ships are lost in the South sea. [Sidenote: Salomons Islands, sought and found in the South Sea 1588.] Foure yeeres past, to wit 1568, there was a ship made out of Peru, to seeke Salomons Islands, and they came somewhat to the South of the Equinoctial, and found an Island with many blacke people, in such number that the Spaniards durst not go on land among them. And because they had bene long vpon the voyage, their people were very weake, and so went not on land, to know what commoditie was vpon it. And for want of victuals, they arriued in Noua Hispania, in a port called Puerto de Nauidad, and thence returned backe againe vnto Peru, whereas they were euil entreated, because they had not knowen more of the same Island. [Sidenote: China found by the West.] They haue in this port of Nauidad ordinarily their ships, which goe to the Islands of China,[3] which are certaine Islands which they haue found within these 7. yeres. They haue brought from thence gold, and much Cinamon, and dishes of earth, and cups of the same, so fine, that euery man that may haue a piece of them, will giue the weight of siluer for it. There was a Mariner that brought a pearle as big as a doues egge from thence, and a stone, for which the Viceroy would haue giuen 3000 duckets. Many things they bring from thence, most excellent. There are many of these ylands, and the Spaniards haue not many of them as yet: [Sidenote: This is to be understood of the time when this discourse was written, Anno 1572.] for the Portugals disturbe them much, and combate with them euery day, saying, it is part of their conquest, and to the maine land they cannot come at any hand. There are goodly people in them, and they are great Mariners, richly apparelled in cloth of gold, and siluer, and silke of all sorts, and goe apparelled after the maner of the Turkes. This report make such as come from thence. [Sidenote: China ships with one saile.] The men of the maine land haue certeine traffique with some of these ylanders, and come thither in a kind of ships, which they haue with one saile, and bring of such marchandize as they haue need of. And of these things there haue bene brought into New Spaine both cloth of gold and siluer, marueilous to be seene. So by their saying, there is not such a countrey in the whole world. The maine land is from the ylands 190. leagues: and the ylands are not farre from the Malucos Northwards. And the people of these ylands, which the Spaniards haue, say, that if they would bring their wiues and children, that then they should haue among them what they would haue. So there goe women dayly, and the king payeth all the charges of the maried men and their wiues, that go to these ylands. And there is no doubt but the trade will be marueilous rich in time to come. It was my fortune to be in company with one Diego Gutieres, who was the first Pilot that euer went to that countrey of the Phillippinas. Hee maketh report of many strange things in that Countrey, as well riches as other, and saith, if there bee any Paradise vpon earth, it is in that countrey: and addeth, that sitting vnder a tree, you shall haue such sweet smels, with such great content and pleasure, that you shall remember nothing, neither wife, nor children, nor haue any kinde of appetite to eate or drinke, the odoriferous smels wil be so sweete. This man hath good liuings in Noua Hispania, notwithstanding hee will returne thither, with his wife and children, and as for treasure there is abundance, as he maketh mention. In this countrey of Noua Hispania there are many buckes and does, but they haue not so long hornes as they haue here in England. The Spaniards kill them with hand guns, and with greyhounds, and the Indians kill them with their bowes and arrowes, and with the skins they make chamoyce, such as we in England make doublets and hose of, as good as the skins that are dressed in Flanders and likewise they make marueilous good Spanish leather of them. [Sidenote: Indian Rauens not killed, to deuoure carrion.] There is a bird which is like vnto a Rauen, but he hath some of his feathers white: there is such abundance of them, that they eate all the corrupt and dead flesh which is in the countrey. Otherwise the abundance of carren is so much, that it would make a marueilous corrupt aire in all the countrey, and be so noisome, that no man could abide it. Therefore it is commanded there shall none of them be killed. These birds are alwayes about cities and townes, where there is much flesh killed. [3] The Philippines. [Sidenote: Wrong done to the Indians punished.] The Indians are much favoured by the Iustices of the Countrey, and they call them their orphanes. And if any Spaniard should happen to doe any of them harme, or to wrong him in taking any thing from him, as many times they doe, or to strike any of them, being in any towne, whereas iustice is, they are as well punished for the same, as if they had done it one Spaniard to another. When a Spaniard is farre from Mexico, or any place of iustice, thinking to doe with the poore Indian what he list, considering he is so farre from any place of remedy, he maketh the Indian do what he commandeth him, and if he will not doe it, hee beateth and misuseth him, according to his owne appetite. The Indian holdeth his peace, vntill he finde an opportunitie, and then taketh a neighbor with him, and goeth to Mexico, although it be 20. leagues off and maketh his complaint. This his complaint is immediately heard, and although it be a knight, or a right good gentleman, he is forthwith sent for, and punished, both by his goods, and also his person is imprisoned, at the pleasure of the Iustice. [Sidenote: Iustice the cause of ciuilitie.] This is the occasion that the Indians are so tame and ciuil, as they are: and if they should not haue this fauour, the Spaniards would soone dispatch all the Indians, or the Indians would kill them. But they may call them dogs and vse other euil words, as much they will, and the Indian must needes put it vp, and goe his way. The poore Indians wil go euery day two or three leagues to a faire or market with a childe vpon their necks, with as much fruit or rootes, or some kind of ware, as cotton wooll, or cadis of all colours, as shall be not worth a pennie: and they will mainteine themselues vpon the same. For they liue with a marueillous small matter. They are in such pouertie, that if you neede to ride into the Countrey, you shall haue an Indian to goe with you all the day with your bed upon his backe, for one royall of plate: and this you shall haue from one towne to another. Here you are to vnderstand, that all men that traueile by the way, are alwayes wont to carry their beds with them. They are great theeues, and wil steale all that they may, and you shall haue no recompence at their hands. [Sidenote: The apparel of the Indians.] The garments of the women, are in this maner. The vppermost part is made almost like to a womans smocke, sauing that it is as broade aboue as beneath, and hath no sleeues, but holes on eche side one to put out their armes. It is made of linnen cloth made of cotton wooll, and filled full of flowers, of red cadis and blew, and other colours. This garment commeth downe to the knees, and then they haue cloth made after the same maner, and then they goeth rounde about their waste, and reacheth to their shooes and ouer this a white fine sheet vpon their heads, which goeth downe halfe the legge. Their haire is made vp round with an haire lace about their head. And the men haue a small paire of breaches of the same cotton wooll, and their shirts which hang ouer their breeches, and a broad girdle about their middles, and a sheete with flowers vpon their backes, and with a knot vpon one shoulder and an hat vpon their heads, and a paire of shoes. And this is all their apparell, although it be a Casique, which they vse in all the Countrey. The wals of the houses of the Indians, are but plaine, but the stones are layd so close, that you shall not well perceiue the ioynts betweene one stone and another, they are so finely cut: and by the meanes that the stones are so workmanly done, and finely ioyned together, there is some beautie in their wals. They are marueilous small and light, as Pumic stones. They make their doores very little, so that there can go in but one man at a time. Their windowes and roomes within their houses are small, and one roome they haue reserued for their friends, when they come to talke one with another, and that is alwayes faire matted, and kept marueilous cleane, and hanged full of images, and their chaires standing there to sit in. They eate their meate vpon the ground, and sleepe on the ground vpon a mat, without any bed, both the gentlemen, and other. The Indians strike their fire with one sticke in another, aswell the tame people, as the wilde. For they know not how to do it with an yron, and a stone. [Sidenote: Diuers speeches.] In Noua Hispania, euery 10. or 12. leagues they haue a contrary speach, sauing onely about Mexico: so there is a number of speeches in the Countrey. [Sidenote: Mutezuma, and his riches.] Mutezuma which was the last King of this Countrey, was one of the richest princes which haue bene seene in our time, or long before. He had all kinde of beasts which were then in the countrey, and all maner of birdes, and fishes, and all maner of wormes, which creepe vpon the earth, and all trees, and flowers, and herbes, all fashioned in siluer and golde, which was the greatest part of al his treasure, and in these things had he great ioy, as the old Indians report. And vnto this day, they say that the treasure of Mutezuma is hidden, and that the Spaniards haue it not. This King would giue none of his people freedome, nor forgiue any of them that should pay him tribute, though he were neuer so poore. For if it had bene told him that one of his tributaries was poore, and that he was not able to pay his tribute according to the custome, then he would haue him bound to bring at such times as tributes should be payd, a quill full of Lice, saying, hee would haue none free, but himselfe. He had as many wiues or concubines, as hee would haue, and such as liked him. [Sidenote: The Indians wash themselues euery day.] Alwayes whensoeuer he went out of his Court to passe the time, he was borne vpon 4 of his noble mens shoulders set vpon a table, some say, of golde, and very richly dressed with feathers of diuers and many colours and flowers. He washed all his body euery day, were it neuer so cold. And vnto this day so do all the Indians, and especially the women. The Spaniards keepe the Indians in great subjection. They may haue in their houses no sword nor dagger, nor knife with any point, nor may weare vpon them any maner of armes, neither may they ride vpon any horse nor mules, in any sadle nor bridle, neither may they drinke wine, which they take for the greatest paine of all. They haue attempted diuers times to make insurrections, but they haue bene ouerthrowen immediatly by their owne great and beastly cowardlinesse.[4] [4] This cannot be said of the aboriginal Mexicans, as nothing could have surpassed the determination and courage they showed during the great siege of Mexico. [Sidenote: Cannybals.] There remaine some among the wild people, that vnto this day eate one another. I haue seene the bones of a Spaniard that haue been as cleane burnished, as though it had been done by men that had no other occupation. And many times people are caried away by them, but they neuer come againe, whether they be men or women. They haue in the Sea ylands of red salt in great abundance, whereas they lade it from place to place about the Sea coast: and they spend very much salt with salting their hides and fish: and in their mines they occupie great quantitie. They haue much Alume, and as good as any that is in all the Leuant, so that they neede none of that commoditie. They have also of their owne growing, much Cana fistula, and much Salsa Perilla, which is marueilous good for many kind of diseases. There are in Florida many Iarrefalcons, and many other kinde of hawkes, which the gentlemen of Noua Hispania send for euery yeere. The Spaniards haue two forts there, chiefly to keepe out the Frenchmen from planting there. A discourse written by one Miles Philips Englishman, one of the company put on shoare Northward of Panuco, in the West Indies, by M. Iohn Hawkins 1568. conteining many special things of that countrey and of the Spanish gouernment, but specially of their cruelties vsed to our Englishmen and amongst the rest to himselfe for the space of 15. or 16 yeres together, vntil by good and happy means he was deliuered from their bloody hands, and returned into his owne Countrey. An. 1582.[5] [5] This account differs in some slight particulars from that given by Sir John Hawkins himself, which will be found in Volume XV. of this edition. Chap. 1. Wherein is shewed the day and time of our departure from the coast of England, with the number and names of the ships, their Captaines and Masters, and of our trafique and dealing vpon the coast of Africa. [Sidenote: This fleet consisted of 6 ships.] Vpon Munday the second of October 1567. the weather being reasonable faire, our Generall M. Iohn Hawkins, hauing commanded all his Captaines and Masters to be in a readinesse to make sail with him, hee himselfe being imbarked in the Iesus, whereof was appointed for Master Robert Barret, hoised saile, and departed from Plymouth vpon his intended voyage for the parts of Africa, and America, being accompanied with fiue other saile of ships, as namely the Mynion, wherein went for Captaine M. Iohn Hampton, and Iohn Garret Master. The William and Iohn, wherein was Captaine Thomas Bolton, and Iames Raunce Master. The Iudith, in whom was Captaine M. Francis Drake afterward knight, and the Angel, whose Master, as also the Captaine and Master of the Swallow I now remember not. And so sayling in company together vpon our voyage vntil the tenth of the same moneth, an extreeme storme then tooke vs neere vnto Cape Finister, which dured for the space of foure dayes, and so separated our ships, that wee had lost one another, and our Generall finding the Iesus to bee but in ill case, was in minde to giue over the voyage, and to returne home. Howbeit the eleuenth of the same moneth the Seas waxing calme, and the winde comming faire, he altered his purpose, and held on the former intended voyage: And so comming to the yland of Gomera being one of the ylands of the Canaries, where according to an order before appointed, we met with all our ships which were before dispersed, wee then took in fresh water and departed from thence the fourth of Nouember, and holding on our course, vpon the eightenth day of the same moneth wee came to an ancker vpon the coast of Africa, at Cape Verde in twelue fadome water; and here our Generall landed certaine of our men, to the number of 160. or thereabout, seeking to take some Negros. And they going vp into the Countrey for the space of sixe miles, were encountred with a great number of the Negros: who with their enuenomed arrowes did hurt a great number of our men, so that they were inforced to retire to the ships, in which conflict they recouered but a few Negros, and of these our men which were hurt with their enuenomed arrowes, there died to the number of seuen or eight in very strange maner, with their mouths shut, so that wee were forced to put stickes and other things into their mouths to keepe them open,[6] and so afterward passing the time vpon the coast of Guinea, until the twelfth of Ianuary, we obteined by that time the number of 150. Negros. And being ready to depart from the Sea coast, there was a Negro sent as an Ambassadour to our Generall, from a King of the Negros, which was oppressed with other Kings his bordering neighbours, desiring our Generall to grant him succour and ayde against those his enemies, which our Generall granted vnto, and went himselfe in person a lande, with the number of two hundreth of our men or thereabouts, and the said King which had requested our ayde, did ioyne his force with ours, so that thereby our Generall assaulted, and set fire vpon a Towne of the said King his enemies, in which there was at the least the number of eight or ten thousand Negros, and they perceiuing that they were not able to make any resistance sought by flight to saue themselues, in which their flight there were taken prisoners to the number of eight or nine hundreth, which our Generall ought to haue had for his share: howbeit the Negro King which requested our ayde, falsifying his word and promise, secretly in the night conueyed himselfe away with as many prisoners as he had in his custodie: but our Generall notwithstanding finding himselfe to haue nowe very neere the number of 500. Negros thought it best without longer abode to depart with them, and such marchandize as hee had from the coast of Africa, towards the West Indies,[7] and therefore commanded with all diligence to take in fresh water and fewel, and so with speed to prepare to depart. [Sidenote: The William and Iohn separated and neuer after met with the fleete.] Howbeit before we departed from thence, in a storme that wee had, wee lost one of our ships, namely the William and Iohn, of which ship and of her people, we heard no tidings during the time of our voyage. [6] They died of tetanus. [7] All three voyages made by Hawkins to the West, in 1562, 1564 and 1567 were for the purpose of trading in slaves. Chap. 2. Wherein is shewed the day and time of our departure from the coast of Africa, with the day and time of our arriuall in the West Indies, also of our trade, and trafique their, and also of the great crueltie that the Spaniards vsed towards vs, by the Vice-roy his direction, and appointment, falsifying his faith and promise giuen, and seeking to haue intrapped vs. All things being made in a readinesse, at our Generall his appointment, vpon the thirde day of Februarie 1568, wee departed from the coast of Africa, hauing the weather somewhat tempestuous, which made our passage the more hard; and sayling so for the space of 52. dayes, vpon the 27 of March 1568. we came in sight of an yland called Dominica, vpon the coast of America in the West Indies, situated in 14. degrees latitude,[8] and 322. of longitude: from thence our Generall coasted from place to place, euer making trafique with the Spaniards and Indians as hee might, which was somewhat hardly obtained, for that the King had straightly charged all his gouernours in those parts not to trade with any: yet notwithstanding, during the moneths of April and May, our Generall had reasonable trade and trafique, and courteous entertainement in sundry places, as at Margarita, Coraçao, and else where, til we came, to Cape de la vela,[9] and Rio de Hacha,[10] (a place from whence all the pearles doe come:) the gouernour there would not by any meanes permit vs to haue any trade or trafique, nor yet suffer vs to take in fresh water: by meanes whereof our Generall for the auoyding of famine and thirst about the beginning of Iune, was enforced to land two hundreth of our men, and so by maine force and strength to obtaine that which by no faire meanes hee could procure: And so recouering the Towne with the losse of two of our men, there was a secret and peaceable trade admitted, and the Spaniards came in by night, and bought of our Negroes to the number of 200. and vpwards, and of our other merchandize also. From thence we departed for Carthagena, where the Gouernour was so straight, that wee could not obteine any trafique there, and so for that our trade was neere finished, our Generall thought it best to depart from thence the rather for the auoyding of certaine dangerous stormes called the Huricanos, which accustomed to begin there about that time of the yere, and so the 24. of Iuly 1568. we departed from thence directing our course North: and leauing the yland of Cuba vpon our right hand, to the Eastward of vs, and so sayling toward Florida, vpon the 12. of August an extreeme tempest arose, which dured for the space of 8. dayes, in which our ships were most dangerously tossed and beaten hither, and thither, so that we were in continuall feare to be drowned by reason of the shallownes of the coast, and in the end we were constrained to flee for succour to the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, or Vera Cruz, situated in 19. degrees of latitude, and in 279. degrees of longitude, which is the port that serueth for the Citie of Mexico: in our seeking to recouer this port our Generall met by the way three small ships that caried passengers, which hee tooke with him, and so the sixtenth of September 1568. wee entered the saide port of S. Iohn de Vllua. The Spaniards there supposing vs to haue bene the King of Spaines Fleete, the chiefe officers of the Countrey thereabouts came presently aboord our Generall, where perceiuing themselues to haue made an vnwise aduenture, they were in great feare to haue bene taken and stayed: howbeit our Generall did vse them all very courteously. [Sidenote: Mexico 60. leagues from S. Iuan de Vllua.] In the said port there were twelue ships which by report had in them in treasure to the value of two hundreth thousand pound, all which being in our Generall his power and at his deuotion, he did freely set at libertie, as also the passengers which he had before stayed, nor taking from any of them all the value of one groat: onely hee stayed two men of credite and accompt, the one named Don Laurenzo de Alua, and the other Don Pedro de Riuera, and presently our Generall sent to the Viceroy to Mexico which was threescore leagues off, certifying him of our arriuall there by force of weather, desiring that forasmuch as our Queene his Soueraigne, was the king of Spaine his louing sister and friend, that therefore hee would, considering our necessities and wants, furnish vs with victuals for our Nauie, and quietly suffer vs to repaire and amend our ships. And furthermore that at the arriual of the Spanish Fleet which was there dayly expected and looked for, to the ende that there might no quarell arise betweene them, and our Generall and his company for the breach of amitie, he humbly requested of his excellencie, that there might in this behalfe some special order be taken. This message was sent away the 16. of September 1568. it being the very day of our arriual there. [8] Should be 18 degrees. [9] In Venezuela. [10] In Colombia. The next morning being the seuententh of the same moneth, wee descried 13. saile of great shippes: and after that our Generall vnderstood, that it was the king of Spaines Fleete then looked for, he presently sent to aduertise the Generall hereof, of our being in the sayd port, and giuing him further to vnderstand, that before he should enter there into that harbour, it was requisite that there should passe betweene the two Generals some orders and conditions to bee obserued on either part, for the better contriuing of peace betweene them and theirs, according to our Generals request made vnto the Viceroy. And at this instant our Generall was in a great perplexitie of minde, considering with himselfe that if hee shoulde keepe out that Fleete from entring into the port, a thing which hee was very well able to doe with the helpe of God, then should that Fleete be in danger of present shipwracke and losse of all their substance, which amounted vnto the value of one million and eight hundreth thousand pounds. [Sidenote: It is put downe 6. millions in Sir Iohn Hawkins his relation.] Againe he saw that if he suffered them to enter, hee was assured that they would practise by all maner of meanes to betray him and his, and on the other side the hauen was so little, that the other Fleete entring, the shippes were to ride one hard aboord of another. Also hee saw that if their Fleete should perish by his keeping of them out, as of necessitie they must if he should haue done so, then stood hee in great feare of the Queene our Soueraignes displeasure in so waightie a cause: therefore did he choose the least euill, which was to suffer them to enter vnder assurance, and so to stand vpon his guard, and to defend himselfe and his from their treasons which we were well assured they would practise, and so the messenger being returned from Don Martin de Henriques, the newe Viceroy, who came in the same Fleete, and had sufficient authoritie to command in all cases both by Sea and by lande in this prouince of Mexico or new Spaine, did certifie our Generall, that for the better maintenance of amitie betweene the king of Spaine and our Soueraigne, all our requests should bee both fauourably granted, and faithfully perfourmed: signifying further that he heard and vnderstood of the honest and friendly dealing of our Generall, toward the king of Spaines subjects in all places where he had bene, as also in the said port: so that to bee briefe our requests were articled, and set downe in writing. Viz. [Sidenote: 4. Articles concluded vpon, betwixt the English and the Spaniards; although the treacherous Spaniards kept none of them.] 1. The first was that wee might haue victuals for our money, and licence to sell as much wares, as might suffice to furnish our wants. 2. The second, that we might be suffered peaceably to repaire our ships. 3. The thirde that the yland might bee in our possession during the time of our abode there, In which yland our Generall for the better safetie of him and his had alreadie planted and placed certaine Ordinance which were eleuen pieces of brasse, therefore he required that the same might so continue, and that no Spaniard should come to lande in the saide yland, hauing or wearing any kinde of weapon. 4. The fourth and the last, that for the better and more sure performance and maintenance of peace, and of all the conditions, there might twelue gentlemen of credite bee deliuered of either part as hostages. These conditions were concluded and agreed vpon in writing by the Viceroy and signed with his hand, and sealed with his seale, and 10. hostages vpon either part were receiued. And further it was concluded that the two Generals should meet, and giue faith ech to other for the performance of the premisses. Al which being done, the same was proclaimed by the sound of a trumpet, and commandement was giuen that none of either part should violate or breake the peace vpon paine of death: thus at the ende of three dayes all was concluded, and the Fleete entred the port, the ships saluting one another as the maner of the Sea doth require: the morrow after being Friday we laboured on all sides in placing the English ships by themselues, the Captaines and inferiour persons of either part, offering, and shewing great courtesie one to another, and promising great amity vpon all sides. Howbeit as the sequel shewed, the Spaniards meant nothing lesse vpon their parts. For the Viceroy and gouernour thereabout had secretly at land assembled to the number of 1000. chosen men, and wel appointed, meaning the next Thursday being the 24. of September at dinner time to assault vs, and set vpon vs on all sides. But before I go any further, I thinke it not amisse briefly to discribe the matter of the yland as it then was, and the force and strength, that it is now of. [Sidenote: A faire castle and bulwarke builded vpon the yland of San Iuan de Vllua.] For the Spaniards since the time of our Generals being there, for the better fortifying of the same place, haue vpon the same yland built a faire Castle and bulwarke very well fortified: this port was then at our being there, a little yland of stones, not past three feet aboue water in the highest place, and not past a bow-shotte ouer any way at the most, and it standeth from the maine land, two bowshootes or more: and there is not in all this coast any other place for ships safely to arriue at: also the North windes in this coast are of great violence and force, and vnlesse the shippes bee safely moored in, with their anckers fastened in this yland, there is no remedie, but present destruction and shipwracke. All this our generall wisely foreseeing, did prouide that he would haue the said yland in his custody, or els the Spaniards might at their pleasure, haue but cut our cables, and so with the first Northwinde that blewe, we had our passport, for our ships had gone a shoore. But to returne to the matter. [Sidenote: The value of a Spanish viceroy his faith.] The time approching that their treason must be put in practise, the same Thursday morning, some appearance thereof began to shewe it selfe, as shifting of weapons from shippe to shippe, and planting, and bending their Ordinance against our men that warded vpon the lande, with great repaire of people: which apparent shewes of breach of the Viceroyes faith caused our Generall to sende one to the Viceroy, to enquire of him what was meant thereby, which presently sent and gaue order, that the Ordinance aforesayde, and other things of suspicion should bee remooued, returning answer to our Generall in the faith of a Viceroy, that hee would bee our defence and safetie from all villanous treacherie: this was vpon Thursday in the morning. Our Generall not being therewith satisfied, seeing they had secretly conueyed a great number of men aboord a great hulke or ship of theirs of sixe hundreth tunne, which shippe rode hard by the Mynion, hee sent againe to the Viceroy Robert Barret the Master of the Iesus, a man that could speake the Spanish tongue very well, and required that those men might bee vnshipt againe, which were in that great hulke. The Viceroy then perceiuing that their treason was throughly espied, stayed our Master, and sounded the Trumpet, and gaue order that his people should vpon all sides charge vpon our men, which warded on shoore, and else where, which strooke such a mase, and sudden feare among vs, that many gave place, and sought to recouer our shippes for the safetie of themselues. [Sidenote: The villanous treacherie of the Spaniards and their crueltie.] The Spaniards which secretly were hid in ambush at lande were quickly conueyed ouer to the yland in their long boates, and so comming to the yland, they slewe all our men that they could meete with, without mercy. The Minion which had somewhat before prepared her selfe to auoyd the danger, haled away and abode the first brunt of the 300 men that were in the great hulke: then they sought to fall aboord the Iesus, where was a cruel fight, and many of our men slaine: but yet our men defended themselues, and kept them out: so the Iesus also got loose, and ioyning with the Minion, the fight waxed hote vpon all sides: but they hauing woon and got our ordinance on shore, did greatly annoy vs. In this fight there were two great shippes of the Spaniards sunke, and one burnt, so that with their shippes they were not able to harme vs, but from the shore they beat vs cruelly with our owne ordinance, in such sort that the Iesus was very sore spoyled: and suddenly the Spaniards hauing fired two great ships of their owne, they came directly against vs, which bred among our men a marueilous feare. Howbeit the Minion which had made her sayles ready, shifted for her selfe, without consent of the Generall, Captaine or Master, so that very hardly our Generall could be receiued into the Minion: the most of our men that were in the Iesus shifted for themselues, and followed the Minion in the boat, and those which that small boat was not able to receiue, were most cruelly slaine by the Spaniards. Of our ships none escaped sauing the Minion and the Iudith: and all such of our men as were not in them were inforced to abide the tyrannous cruelty of the Spaniards. [Sidenote: Copstowe one of M. Hawkins men returned from Nueua Espanna.] For it is a certaine trueth, that whereas they had taken certaine of our men ashore, they tooke and hung them vp by the armes vpon high postes vntill the blood burst out of their fingers ends: of which men so vsed, there is one Copstow, and certaine others yet aliue who by the mercifull prouidence of the almighty, were long since arriued here at home in England, carying still about with them (and shall to their graues) the marks and tokens of those their inhumane and more then barbarous cruell dealings. Chap. 3. Wherein is shewed, how that after we were escaped from the Spaniards, wee were like to perish with famine at the Sea, and how our Generall, for the auoiding thereof was constrained to put halfe of his men on land, and what miseries wee after that sustained amongst the Sauage people, and how againe we fell into the hands of the Spaniards. After that the Viceroy, Don Martin Henriques had thus contrary to his faith and promise most cruelly dealt with our Generall master Hawkins, at S. Iohn de Vllua, where most of his men were by the Spaniards slaine and drowned, and all his ships sunke and burned, sauing the Minion, and the Iudith, which was a small barke of fiftie tunne, wherein was then Captaine master Francis Drake aforesayd: the same night the said barke lost vs, we being in great necessitie, and inforced to remoue with the Minion two bow-shoote from the Spanish fleete, where we ankered all that night: and the next morning wee weyed anker, and recouered an island a mile from the Spaniards, where a storme tooke vs with a North winde, in which we were greatly distressed, hauing but two cables and two ankers left: for in the conflict before we had lost three cables and two ankers. The morrow after, the storme being ceased and the weather faire, we weied, and set sayle, being many men in number, and but small store of victuals to suffice vs for any long time: by meanes whereof we were in despaire and feare that we should perish through famine, so that some were in minde to yeelde themselues to the mercy of the Spaniards, other some to the Sauages or Infidels, and wandring thus certaine daies in these vnknowen seas, hunger constrained vs to eate hides, cats and dogs, mice, rats, parrats and munkies: to be short, our hunger was so great, that wee thought it sauorie and sweete whatsoeuer wee could get to eate. And on the eight of October wee came to land againe, in the bottome of the bay of Mexico, where we hoped to haue found some inhabitants, that wee might haue had some reliefe of victuals, and a place where to repaire our ship, which was so greatly bruised, that we were scarse able with our weary armes to keepe foorth the water: being thus oppressed with famine on the one side and danger of drowning on the other, not knowing where to find reliefe, wee began to bee in wonderfull despaire, and wee were of many mindes, amongst whom there were a great many that did desire our Generall to set them on land, making their choise rather to submit themselues to the mercie of the Sauages or Infidels, then longer to hazard themselues at sea, where they very well sawe, that if they should remaine together, if they perished not by drowning, yet hunger would inforce them in the ende to eate one another: to which request our Generall did very willingly agree, considering with himselfe that it was necessary for him to lessen his number, both for the safetie of himselfe and the rest: and thereupon being resolued to set halfe his people ashore that he had then left aliue, it was a world to see how suddenly mens minds were altered: for they which a little before desired to be set on land, were now of another minde, and requested rather to stay: by meanes whereof our Generall was inforced for the more contentation of all mens minds, and to take away all occasions of offence, to take this order: First he made choice of such persons of seruice and account, as were needefull to stay, and that being done, of those which were willing to goe he appointed such as he thought might be best spared, and presently appointed that by the boate they should bee set on shore, our Generall promising vs that the next yeere he would either come himselfe, or else send to fetch vs home. Here againe it would haue caused any stony heart to haue relented to heare the pitifull mone that many did make, and howe loth they were to depart: the weather was then somewhat stormy and tempestuous, and therefore we were to passe with great danger, yet notwithstanding there was no remedy, but we that were appointed to goe away, must of necessitie doe so. [Sidenote: They were put on land 25 leagues northward of Panuco the 8 of October 1568.] Howbeit those that went in the first boat were safely set on shore, but of them which went in the second boate, of which number I my selfe was one, the seas wrought so high, that we could not attaine to the shore, and therefore we were constrained through the cruell dealing of Iohn Hamptone captaine of the Minion, and Iohn Sanders boat-swaine of the Iesus, and Thomas Pollard his mate, to leape out of the boate into the maine sea, hauing more then a mile to shore, and so to shift for ourselues, and either to sinke or swimme. And of those that so were (as it were) throwen out, and compelled to leape into the sea, there were two drowned, which were of captaine Blands men. In the euening Of the same day, it being Munday the eight of October, 1568, when we were all come to shore, we found fresh water, whereof some of our men drunke so much, that they had almost cast themselues away, for wee could scarse get life of them for the space of two or three houres after: other some were so cruelly swollen, what with the drinking in of the salt water, and what with the eating of the fruit which wee found on land hauing a stone in it much like an almond (which fruit is called Capule) that they were all in very ill case, so that we were in a maner all of vs both feeble, faint and weake. The next morning being Tewsday, the ninth of October, we thought, it best to trauell along by the sea coast, to seeke out some place of habitation: (whether they were Christians or Sauages, we were indifferent, so that we might haue wherewithall to sustaine our hungry bodies) and so departing from an hill where we had rested all night, not hauing any drie threed about vs, (for those that were not wet being not throwen into the sea, were thorowly wet with raine, for all the night it rained cruelly:) As we went from the hil, and were come into the plaine, we were greatly troubled to passe for the grasse and weedes that grewe there higher then any man. On the left hand we had the sea, and vpon the right hand great woods, so that of necessitie we must needs passe on our way Westward, through those marshes; and going thus, suddenly we were assaulted by the Indians, a warlike kind of people, which are in a maner as Canibals, although they doe not feede vpon mans flesh as Canibals doe. [Sidenote: Chichimici a warlike and cruell people.] These people are called Chichimici, and they vse to weare their haire long, euen down to their knees, they doe also colour their faces greene, yellow, red and blew, which maketh them to seeme very ougly and terrible to beholde. These people doe keepe warres against the Spaniards, of whom they haue bene oftentimes very cruelly handled: for with the Spaniards there is no mercy. [Sidenote: Our men assailed by the Chichemici.] They perceiuing vs at our first comming on land, supposed vs to haue bene their enemies, the bordering Spaniards, and hauing by their forerunners descried what number we were, and how feeble and weake without armour or weapon, they suddenly according to their accustomed maner, when they encounter with any people in warlike sorte, raised a terrible and huge crie, and so came running fiercely vpon vs, shooting off their arrowes as thicke as haile, vnto whose mercy we were constrained to yeeld, not hauing amongst vs any kind of armour, nor yet weapon, sauing one caliuer, and two old rustie swords, whereby to make any resistance, or to saue ourselues: which when they perceiued that wee sought not any other then fauour and mercie at their handes, and that we were not their enemies the Spaniards, they had compassion on vs, and came and caused vs all to sit down: and when they had a while surueyed, and taken a perfect view of vs, they came to all such as had any coloured clothes amongst vs, and those they did strip starke naked, and tooke their clothes away with them, but those that were apparelled in blacke they did not meddle withall, and so went there wayes, and left vs without doing vs any further hurt, onely in the first brunt they killed eight of our men. [Sidenote: Eight of our men slaine.] And at our departure, they perceiuing in what weake case we were, pointed vs with their hands which way we should go to come to a towne of the Spaniards, which as we afterwards perceiued, was not past ten leagues from thence, vsing these words: Tampice, Tampice Christiano, Tampice Christiano, which is as much (we thinke) as to say in English, at Tampice you shall find the Christians. The weapons that they vse are no other but bowes and arrowes, and their aime is so good, that they very seldome misse to hit any thing that they shoote at. Shortly after they had left vs stript (as aforesayd) we thought it best to diuide our selues into two companies, and so being separated, halfe of vs went vnder the leading of one Anthony Godard, who is yet a man aliue, and dwelleth at this instant in the towne of Plimmouth, whom before we chose to be captaine ouer vs all, and those which went vnder his leading, of which number I Miles Philips was one, trauailed Westward that way which the Indians with their hands had before pointed vs to go. The other halfe went vnder the leading of one Iohn Hooper, whom they did choose for their captain, and with the company that went with him, Dauid Ingram was one, and they tooke their way and trauelled Northward, and shortly after, within the space of two dayes, they were againe incountered with the sauage people, and their captaine Hooper and two more of his company were slaine: then againe they diuided themselues, and some held on their way still Northward, and other some, knowing that we were gone Westward, sought, to meet with vs againe, as in truth there was about the number of 25 or 26 of them that met with vs in the space of foure dayes againe, and then we began to reckon amongst our selues, how many wee were that were set on shore, and we found the number to be an hundred and foureteene, whereof two were drowned in the sea and eight were slaine at the first incounter, so that there remained an hundred and foure, of which 25 went Westward with vs, and 52 to the North with Hooper and Ingram: and as Ingram since hath often told me, there were not past three of their company slaine, and there were but sixe and twenty, of them that came againe to vs, so that of the company that went Northward, there is yet lacking, and not certainely heard of, the number of three and twenty men. And verely I doe thinke that there are of them yet aliue, and married in the said countrey, at Cibola, as hereafter I purpose (God willing) to discourse of more particularly, with the reason and causes that make mee so to thinke of them that were lacking, which were Dauid Ingram, Twide, Browne, and sundry others, whose names wee could not remember. And being thus met againe together, we trauelled on still Westward, sometime thorow such thicke woods, that we were inforced with cudgels to breake away the brambles and bushes from tearing our naked bodies: other sometimes we should trauell thorow the plaines, in such high grasse that we could scarse see one another, and as we passed in some places, we should haue of our men slaine, and fall downe suddenly, being strooken by the Indians, which stood behinde trees and bushes, in secret places, and so killed our men as they went by, for wee went scatteringly in seeking of fruites to relieue our selues. We were also oftentimes greatly annoyed with a kind of flie, which in the Indian tongue is called Tequani, and the Spaniards called them Muskitos. There are also in the sayd countrey a number of other kinde of flies, but none so noysome as these Tequanies bee: you shall hardly see them they be so small, for they are scarse so big as a gnat: they will sucke ones blood marueilously, and if you kill them while they are sucking, they are so venimous that the place will swell extremely, euen as one that is stoong with a Waspe or Bee: but if you let them sucke their fill, and to goe away of themselues, then they doe you no other hurt, but leaue behind them a red spot somewhat bigger then a flea-biting. At the first wee were terribly troubled with these kinde of flies, not knowing their qualities, and resistance wee could make none against them, being naked: as for cold wee feared not any, the countrey there is alwayes so warme. And as we trauelled thus for the space of tenne or twelue dayes, our captaine did oftentimes cause certaine to goe vp into the toppes of high trees, to see if they could descrie any towne or place of inhabitants, but they could not perceiue any, and vsing often the same order to climbe vp into high trees, at the length they descried a great riuer that fell from the Northwest into the maine sea, and presently after, we heard an harquebuze shot off, which did greatly incourage vs, for thereby wee knew that we were neere to some Christians, and did therefore hope shortly to finde some succour and comfort, and within the space of one houre after, as we trauelled, we heard a cocke crowe, which was also no small ioy vnto vs, and so we came to the North side of the riuer of Panuco, where the Spaniards haue certaine Salines, at which place it was that the harquebuze was shot off, which before we heard: to which place we went not directly, but missing thereof, we left it about a bowshot vpon our left hand: of this riuer wee dranke very greedily, for wee had not met with any water in sixe dayes before, and as we were here by the riuer side resting our selues, and longing to come to the place where the cocke did crowe, and where the harquebuze was shot off, we perceiued many Spaniards vpon the other side of the riuer, riding vp and downe on horsebacke, and they perceiuing vs, did suppose that we had beene of the Indians their bordering enemies, the Chichimeci: the riuer was not past halfe a bowe shoot ouer: and presently one of the Spaniards tooke an Indian boate called a Canoa, and so came ouer, being rowed by two Indians, and hauing taken the view of vs, did presently rowe ouer backe againe to the Spaniards, who without any delay made out about the number of twenty horsemen, and imbarking themselues in the Canoas, they led their horses by the reines swimming ouer after them, and being come ouer to that side of the riuer where we were, they sadled their horses, and being mounted vpon them with their lances charged, they came very fiercely running at vs. Our captaine Anthony Godard seeing them come in that order, did perswade vs to submit and yeelde our selues vnto them, for being naked, as we at this time were, and without weapon, we could not make any resistance, whose bidding we obeied, and vpon the yeelding of our selues, they perceiued vs to be Christians, and did call for more Canoas, and caried vs ouer by foure and foure in a boat, and being come on the other side, they vnderstanding by our captaine how long we had bene without meate, imparted between two and two a loafe of bread made out of that countrey wheat, which the Spaniards call Maiz, of the bignesse of our halfepenie loaues, which bread is named in the Indian tongue Clashacally. This bread was very sweete and pleasant vnto vs, for we had not eaten any in a long time before: and what is it that hunger doth not make to haue a sauory and delicate taste? And hauing thus parted the bread amongst vs, those which were men they sent afore to the towne, hauing also many Indians inhabitants of that place to garde them: they which were yong, as boyes, and some such also as were feeble, they tooke vp vpon their horses, behind them, and so caried vs to the towne where they dwelt, which was very neere distant a mile from the place where, we came ouer. This towne is well situated, and well replenished with all kindes of fruits, as Orenges, Limons, Pomegranates, Apricoks, and Peaches, and sundry others, and is inhabited with a great number of tame Indians, or Mexicans, and had in it also at that time about the number of two hundred Spaniards, men, women, and children, besides Negros. [Sidenote: The Salines of Panuco.] Of their Salines, which lie upon the West side of the riuer, more then a mile distant from thence, they make a great profit, for it is an excellent good merchandize there: the Indians doe buy much thereof, and cary it vp into the countrey, and there sell it to their owne countrey people, in doubling the price. Also much of the Salt made in this place, is transported from thence by sea to sundry other places, as to Cuba, S. Iohn de Vllua, and the other ports of Tamiago, and Tamachos, which are two barred hauens West and by South aboue threescore leagues from S. Iohn de Vllua. When we were all come to the towne, the Gouernor there shewed himselfe very seuere vnto vs, and threatened to hang vs all: and then he demanded what money wee had, which in trueth was very little, for the Indians which we first met withall, had in a maner taken all from vs, and of that which they left, the Spaniards which brought vs ouer, tooke away a good part also: howbeit, from Anthony Godard the Gouernour here had a chaine of gold, which was giuen vnto him at Carthagena, by the Gouernour there, and from others he had some small store of money: so that we accounted that amongst vs all he had the number of fiue hundred Pezos, besides the chaine of gold. And hauing thus satisfied himselfe, when he had taken all that we had, he caused vs to be put into a little house much like a hogstie, where we were almost smoothered: and before we were thus shut vp into that little coat, they gaue vs some of the countrey wheate, called Mayz, sodden, which they feede their hogs withall. But many of our men which had bene hurt by the Indians at our first comming on land, whose wounds were very sore and grieuous, desired to haue the helpe of their Surgeons to cure their wounds. The gouernour, and most of them all answered, that wee should haue none other Surgeon but the hangman, which should sufficiently heale vs of all our griefes: and thus reuiling vs, and calling vs English dogs, and Lutheran heretikes, we remained the space of three dayes in this miserable state, not knowing what should become of vs, waiting euery houre to be bereaued of our liues. Chap. 4. Wherein is shewed how we were vsed in Panuco, and in what feare of death we were there, and how we were caried to Mexico to the Viceroy, and of our imprisonment there and at Tescuco, with the courtesies and cruelties wee receiued during that time, and how in the end wee were by proclamation giuen to serue as slaues to sundry gentlemen Spaniards. Vpon the fourth day after our comming thither, and there remaining in a perplexitie, looking euery houre when we should suffer death, there came a great number of Indians and Spaniards weaponed to fetch vs out of the house, and amongst them we espied one that brought a great many of new halters, at the sight whereof we were greatly amazed, and made no other account but that we should presently haue suffered death, and so crying and calling to God for mercie and forgiuenesse of our sinnes, we prepared our selues, making vs ready to die: yet in the end, as the sequel shewed, their meaning was not so: for when wee were come out of the house, with those halters they bound our armes behind vs, and so coupling vs two and two together, they commanded vs to march on through the towne, and so along the countrey from place to place toward the citie of Mexico, which is distant from Panuco West and by South the space of ninetie leagues, hauing onely but two Spaniards, to conduct vs, they being accompanied with a great number of Indians warding on either side with bowes and arrowes, lest we should escape from them. And trauelling in this order, vpon the second day at night we came vnto a towne which the Indians call Nohele, and the Spaniards call it Santa Maria: in which towne there is a house of white friers, which did very courteously vse vs, and gaue vs hote meat, as mutton and broath, and garments also to couer our selues withal, made of white bayes: we fed very greedily of the meat, and of the Indian fruit, called Nochole, which fruit is long and small, much like in fashion to a little cucumber. Our greedy feeding caused vs to fall sicke of hote burning agues. And here at this place one Thomas Baker one of our men died of a hurt: for he had bene before shot with an arrow into the throat at the first incounter. The next morrow about ten of the clocke, we departed from thence, bound two and two together, and garded as before, and so trauailed on our way toward Mexico, till we came to a towne within forty leagues of Mexico, named Mestitlan, where is a house of blacke friers: and in this towne there are about the number of three hundred Spaniards, both men, women, and children. The friers sent vs meat from the house ready dressed, and the friers, and the men and women vsed vs very courteously, and gave vs some shirts and other such things as we lacked. Here our men were very sicke of their agues, and with eating of another fruit called in the Indian tongue, Guiaccos, which fruit did binde vs so sore, that for the space of tenne or twelue dayes we could not ease our selues. The next morning we departed from thence with our two Spaniards and Indian gard, as aforesayd. Of these two Spaniards the one was an aged man, who all the way did very courteously intreate vs, and would carefully go before to prouide for vs both meat and things, necessary to the vttermost of his power: the other was a yong man who all the way trauelled with vs, and neuer departed from vs, who was a very cruell caitiue, and he caried a iaueline in his hand, and sometimes when as our men with very feeblenesse and faintnesse were not able to goe so fast as he required them, he would take his iauelin in both his handes, and strike them with the same betweene the necke and the shoulders so violently, that he would strike them downe; then would he cry, and say, Marchad, marchad Ingleses perros, Luterianos, enemigos de Dios: which is as much to say in English, as March, march on you English dogges, Lutherans, enemies to God. And the next day we came to a towne called Pachuca, and there are two places of that name: as this towne of Pachuca, and the mines of Pachuca, which are mines of siluer, and are about sixe leagues distant from this towne of Pachuca towards the Northwest. Here at this towne the good olde man our Gouernour suffered vs to stay two dayes and two nights, hauing compassion of our sicke and weake men, full sore against the minde of the yoong man his companion. From thence we tooke our iourney, and trauelled foure or fiue dayes by little villages, and Stantias, which are farmes or dairie houses of the Spaniards, and euer as wee had neede, the good olde man would still prouide vs sufficient of meates, fruites, and water to sustaine vs. At the end of which fiue dayes wee came to a towne within fiue leagues of Mexico, which is called Quoghliclan, were wee also stayed one whole day and two nights, where was a faire house of gray friers, howbeit wee saw none of them. Here wee were told by the Spaniards in the towne, that wee had not past fifteene English miles from thence to Mexico, whereof wee were all very ioyfull and glad, hoping that when we came thither, we should either be relieued, and set free out of bonds, or els bee quickly dispatched out of our liues: for seeing our selues thus caried bound from place to place, although some vsed vs courteously, yet could wee neuer ioy, nor be merrie till wee might perceiue our selues set free from that bondage, either by death or otherwise. The next morning we departed from thence on our iourney towards Mexico, and so trauelled till wee came within two leagues of it, where there was built by the Spaniards a very faire church, called our Ladyes church, in which there is an image of our Lady of siluer and gilt, being as high, and as large as a tall woman, in which church, and before this image, there are as many lamps of siluer as there be dayes in the yeere, which vpon high dayes are all lighted. Whensoeuer any Spaniards passe by this church, although they be on horse backe, they will alight, and come into the church, and kneele before this image, and pray to our Lady to defend them from all euil; so that whether he be horseman or footman he will not passe by, but first goe into the Church, and pray as aforesayd, which if they doe not they thinke and beleeue that they shall neuer prosper: which image they call in the Spanish tongue, Nuestra sennora de Guadalupe. At this place there are certain cold baths, which arise, springing vp as though the water did seeth: the water thereof is somewhat brackish in taste, but very good for any that have any sore or wound, to wash themselues therewith, for as they say, it healeth many: and euery yeere once vpon our Lady day the people vse to repair thither to offer, and to pray in that Church before the image, and they say that our Lady of Guadalupe doeth work a number of miracles. About this Church there is not any towne of Spaniards that is inhabited, but certaine Indians doe dwell there in houses of their own countrey building. Here we were met with a great number of Spaniards on horsebacke, which came from Mexico to see vs, both gentlemen, and men of occupations, and they came as people to see a wonder: we were still called vpon to march on: and so about foure of the clocke in the afternoone of the said day we entered into the citie of Mexico, by the way or street called la calle Santa Catherina: and we stayed not in any place till we came to the house or palace of the Vice Roy, Don Martin Henriques, which standeth in the middest of the city, hard by the market place, called La plaça del Marquese. [Sidenote: Certaine Englishmen taken prisoners at the fight at Sant Iuan de Vllua.] We had not stayed any long time at this place, but there was brought vs by the Spaniards from the market place great store of meat, sufficient to haue satisfied fiue times so many as we were: some also gaue vs hats, and some gaue vs money: in which place we stayed for the space of two houres, and from thence we were conueyed by water in two large Canoas to an hospital where as certaine of our men were lodged, which were taken before the fight at S. Iohn de Vllua: wee should haue gone to our Ladies hospitall, but that there were also so many of our men taken before at that fight that there was no roome for vs. After our coming thither, many of the company that came with me from Panuco dyed within the space of fourteene dayes: soone after which time we were taken foorth from that place, and put altogether into our Ladies hospitall, in which place we were courteously vsed, and visited oftentimes by vertuous gentlemen and gentlewomen of the citie, who brought vs diuers things to comfort vs withall, as succats and marmilads, and such other things, and would also many times giue vs many things, and that very liberally. In which hospitall we remained for the space of sixe moneths, vntill we were all whole and sound of body, and then we were appointed by the Vice Roy to be caried vnto the towne of Tescuco, which is from Mexico Southwest distant eight leagues:[11] in which towne there are certaine houses of correction and punishment for ill people called Obraches, like to Bridewell here in London: into which place diuers Indians are sold for slaues, some for ten yeeres, and some for twelue. It was no small griefe vnto vs when we vnderstood that we should be caried thither, and to bee vsed as slaues, we had rather be put to death: howbeit there was no remedy, but we were caried to the prison of Tescuco, where we were not put to any labour, but were very straitly kept, and almost famished, yet by the good prouidence of our mercifull God, we happened there to meet with one Robert Sweeting, who was the sonne of an Englishman, borne of a Spanish woman; this man could speake very good English, and by his means wee were holpen very much with victuals from the Indians, as mutton, hennes, and bread. And if we had not bene so relieued, we had surely perished: and yet all the prouision that wee had gotten that way was but slender. And continuing thus straightly kept in prison there for the space of two moneths, at the length wee agreed amongst our selues to breake forth of prison, come of it what would, for we were minded rather to suffer death then longer to liue in that miserable state. And so hauing escaped out of prison, we knew not what way to flie for the safetie of ourselues, the night was darke, and it rained terribly, and not hauing any guide, we went we knew not whither, and in the morning, at the appearing of the day, we perceiued our selues to be come hard to the city of Mexico, which is 24 English miles from Tescuco. The day being come we were espied by the Spaniards, and pursued, and taken, and brought before the Vice Roy and head iustices, who threatned to hang vs for breaking of the kings prison. [Sidenote: Almost an hundred Englishmen prisoners in Mexico.] Yet in the end they sent vs into a garden belonging to the Vice Roy, and comming thither, we found there our English gentlemen which were deliuered as hostages when as our General was betrayed at S. Iohn de Vllua, as is aforesaid, and with them wee also found Robert Barret, the Master of the Iesus, in which place we remained labouring and doing such things as we were commanded, for the space of 4 moneths, hauing but two sheepe a day allowed to suffice vs all, being very neere a hundred men, and for bread we had euery man two loaues a day, of the quantity of one halfe-peny loafe. At the end of which foure moneths, they hauing remooued our gentlemen hostages, and the Master of the Iesus to a prison in the Vice Roy his own house, did cause it to be proclaimed, that what gentleman Spaniard soeuer was willing or would haue any English man to serue him, and be bound to keepe him forth comming, to appeare before the Iustices within one moneth after notice giuen, that they should repaire to the said garden, and there take their choice: which proclamation was no sooner made, but the gentlemen came and repaired to the garden amaine, so that happie was he that could soonest get one of vs. [11] It is nothing of the kind, being 16 miles East North East of Mexico, on the banks of Lake Tezcuco. Chap. 5. Wherein is shewed in what good sort, and how wealthily we liued with our masters vntil the comming of the Inquisition, when as againe our sorrows began a fresh: Of our imprisonment in the holy house, and of the seuere iudgement, and sentences giuen against vs, and with what rigour and crueltie the same were executed. The gentlemen that thus tooke vs for their seruants or slaues, did new apparell vs through out, with whom we abode, doing such service as they appointed vs vnto, which was for the most part to attend vpon them at the table, and to be as their chamberlaines, and to waite vpon them when they went abroad, which they greatly accounted of; for in that countrey no Spaniard will serue one another, but they are all of them attended and serued by Indians weekly, and by Negroes which be their slaues during their life. In this sort we remained and serued in the said citie of Mexico, and thereabouts for the space of a yeere and somewhat longer. Afterwards many of vs were by our masters appointed to go to sundry of their Mines where they had to doe, and to be as ouerseers of the Negroes and Indians that laboured there. In which mines many of vs did profite and gaine greatly: for first we were allowed three hundred Pezos a man for a yeere, which is threescore pound sterling and besides that the Indians and Negroes which wrought vnder our charge, vpon our well using and intreating of them, would at times as vpon Saturdayes when they had left worke, labour for vs, and blow as much siluer as should be worth vnto vs 3 markes or there abouts, euery marke being worth 6 Pezos, and a halfe of their money, which 19 Pezos and a halfe, is worth 4li. 10s. of our money. Sundry weeks we did gaine so much by this means besides our wages, that many of vs became very rich, and were worth three thousand, or foure thousand Pezos, for we liued and gained thus in those Mines some three or foure yeeres. As concerning those Gentlemen which were deliverd as hostages, and that were kept in prison, in the Viceroy his house, after that we were gone from out the garden to serue sundry gentlemen as aforesaid, they remained prisoners in the said house for the space of 4 moneths after their comming thither, at the end whereof the fleete being readie to depart from S. Iohn de Vllua, to goe for Spaine, the said Gentlemen were sent away into Spaine with the fleete, where as I haue heard it credibly reported, many of them died with the cruell handling of the Spaniards in the Inquisition house, as those which haue bene deliuered home after they had suffered the persecution of that house can more perfectly declare. Robert Barret also master of the Iesus, was sent away with the fleete into Spaine the next yeere following, where afterwards he suffered persecution in the Inquisition, and at the last was condemned to be burnt, and with him one more of our men whose name was Iohn Gilbert. Now after that sixe yeeres were fully expired since our first coming into the Indies, in which time we had bene imprisoned and serued in the said countreys as is before truely declared. In the yeere of our Lord one thousand fiue hundred seuenty foure, the Inquisition began to be established in the Indies, very much against the mindes of many of the Spaniards themselues: for neuer vntil this time since their first conquering and planting in the Indies, were they subiect to that bloodie and cruell Inquisition. The chiefe Inquisitor was named Don Pedro Moya de Contreres, and Iohn de Bouilla his companion, and Iohn Sanches the Fischall, and Pedro de los Rios the Secretary: they being come and setled, and placed in a very faire house neere vnto the white Friers, considering with themselues that they must make an entrance and beginning of that their most detestable Inquisition here in Mexico, to the terror of the whole countrey, thought it best to call vs that were Englishmen first in question, and so much the rather, for that they had perfect knowledge and intelligence that many of vs were become very rich, as hath bene alreadie declared, and therefore we were a very good booty and pray to the Inquisitors: so that now againe began our sorrowes a fresh, for we were sent for, and sought out in all places of the countrey, and proclamation made vpon paine of losing of goods and excommunication that no man should hide or keepe secret any Englishmen or any part of their goods. By means whereof we were all soone apprehended in all places, and all our goods seized and taken for the Inquisitors vse, and so from all parts of the countrey we were conueied and sent as prisoners to the citie of Mexico, and there committed to prison, in sundry darke dungeons, where we could not see but by candle light, and were neuer past two together in one place, so that we saw not one another, neither could one of vs tell what was become of another. Thus we remained close imprisoned for the space of a yeere and a halfe, and others for some lesse time, for they came to prison euer as they were apprehended. During which time of our imprisonment, at the first beginning we were often called before the Inquisitors alone, and there seuerely examined of our faith, and commanded to say the Pater noster, the Aue Maria, and the Creed in Latin, which God knoweth great number of vs could not say, otherwise then in the English tongue. And hauing the said Robert Sweeting who was our friend at Tescuco alwayes present with them for an interpreter, he made report for vs, that in our own countrey speech we could say them perfectly, although not word for word as they were in Latin. Then did they proceede to demand of vs vpon our othes what wee did beleeue of the Sacrament, and whether there did remaine any bread or wine after the words of consecration, yea or no, and whether we did not beleeue that the host of bread which the priest did hold vp ouer his head, and the wine that was in the chalice, was the very true and perfect body and blood of our Sauiour Christ, yea or no: To which if we answered not yea, then was there no way but death. Then they would demand of vs what we did remember of our selues, what opinions we had held, or had bin taught to hold contrary to the same whiles we were in England: to which we for the safety of our liues were constrained to say, that we neuer did beleeue, nor had bene taught otherwise then as before we had sayd. Then would they charge vs, that we did not tell them the truth, that they knew the contrary, and therefore we should cal our selues to remembrance, and make them a better answer at the next time, or els we should be rackt, and made to confesse the trueth whether we would or no. And so comming againe before them the next time, we were still demanded of our beliefe whiles we were in England, and how we had bin taught, and also what we thought or did know of such of our owne company as they did name vnto vs, so that we could neuer be free from such demands, and at other times they would promise vs, that if we would tell them trueth, then should we haue fauour and be set at libertie, although we very wel knew their fair speeches were but means to entrap vs, to the hazard and losse of our liues: howbeit God so mercifully wrought for vs by a secret means that we had, that we kept vs still to our first answer, and would stil say that we had told the trueth vnto them, and knew no more by our selues nor any other of our fellows then as we had declared, and that for our sinnes and offences in England against God and our Lady, or any of his blessed Saints, we were heartily sory for the same, and did cry God mercy, and besought the Inquisitors for Gods sake, considering what we came into those countreyes by force of weather, and against our wils, and that neuer in all our lives we had either spoken or done any thing contrary to their lawes, that therefore they would haue mercy vpon vs. [Sidenote: Our men are cruelly rackt.] Yet all this would not serue; for still from time to time we were called upon to confesse and about the space of 3 moneths before they proceeded to their seuere iudgement, we were al rackt, and some enforced to vtter that against themselves, which afterwards cost them their liues. And thus hauing gotten from our own mouthes matter sufficient for them to proceed in iudgement against vs, they caused a large scaffold to be made in the middest of the market place in Mexico right ouer against the head church, and 14 or 15 daies before the day of their iudgement with the sound of a trumpet, and the noise of their Attahalies, which are a kind of drummes, they did assemble the people in all parts of the citie: before whom it was then solemnely proclaimed that whosoeuer would vpon such a day repaire to the market place, they should heare the sentence of the holy Inquisition against the English heretikes, Lutherans, and also see the same put in execution. Which being done, and the time approching of this cruell judgement, the night before they came to the prison where we were, with certaine officers of that holy hellish house, bringing with them certaine fooles coats which they had prepared for vs, being called in their language S. Benitos, which coats were made, of yellow cotton and red crosses vpon them, both before and behind: they were so busied in putting on their coats about vs, and bringing vs out into a large yard, and placing and pointing vs in what order we should go to the scaffold or place of iudgment vpon the morrow, that they did not once suffer vs to sleepe all that night long. The next morning being come, there was giuen to every one of vs for our breakfast a cup of wine, and a slice of bread fried in honie, and so about eight of the clocke in the morning, we set foorth of the prison, euery man alone in his yellow coat, and a rope about his necke, and a great greene Waxe candle in his hand vnlighted, hauing a Spaniard appointed to goe vpon either side of euery one of vs: and so marching in this order and maner toward the scaffold in the market place, which was a bow shoot distant or thereabouts, we found a great assembly of people all the way, and such a throng, that certain of the Inquisitors officers on horseback were constrained to make way, and so comming to the scaffold, we went vp by a pairs of stayres, and found seates readie made and prepared for vs to sit downe on, euery man in order as he should be called to receiue his iudgement. We being thus set downe as we were appointed, presently the Inquisitors came vp another paire of staires, and the Viceroy and all the chiefe Iustices with them. When they were set downe and placed vnder the cloth of estate agreeing to their degrees and calling; then came vp also a great number of Friers, white, blacke and gray, about the number of 300 persons, they being set in the places for them appointed. Then was there a solemne Oyes made, and silence commanded, and then presently beganne their seuere and cruell iudgement. [Sidenote: The cruell iudgements of the Spanish Inquisitors vpon our poore countrey-men.] The first man that was called was one Roger the chiefe Armourer of the Iesus, and hee had iudgement to haue three hundred stripes on horsebacke, and after condemned to the gallies as a slaue for 10 yeeres. After him were called Iohn Gray, Iohn Brown, Iohn Moone, Iames Collier, and one Thomas Browne: these were adiudged to haue 200 stripes on horsebacke, and after to be committed to the gallies for the space of 8 yeeres. Then was called Iohn Keyes, and was adiudged to have 100 stripes on horsebacke, and condemned to serue in the gallies for the space of 6 yeeres. Then were seuerally called the number of 53 one after an other, and euery man had his seueral iudgement, some to haue 200 stripes on horseback, and some 100, and condemned for slaues to the gallies, some for 6 yeeres, some for 8 and some for 10. And then was I, Miles Philips, called, and was adiudged to serue in a monasterie for 5 yeeres, without any stripes, and to weare a fooles coat, or S. Benito, during all that time. Then were called Iohn Storie, Richard Williams, Dauid Alexander, Robert Cooke, Paul Horsewell and Thomas Hull: these sixe were condemned to serue in monasteries without stripes, some for three yeeres and some for foure, and to weare the S. Benito during all the said time. Which being done, and it now drawing toward night, George Riuelly, Peter Momfrie, and Cornelius the Irishman, were called and had their iudgement to be burnt to ashes, and so were presently sent away to the place, of execution in the market place but a little from the scaffold, where they were quickly burnt and consumed. And as for vs that had receiued our iudgement, being 68 in number, we were caried backe that night to prison againe. And the next day in the morning being good Friday, the yeere of our Lord 1575; we were all brought into a court, of the Inquisitors pallace, where we found a horse in a readinesse for euery one of our men which were condemned to haue stripes, and to be committed to the gallies, which were in number 60 and so they being inforced to mount vp on horsebacke naked from the middle vpward, were caried to be shewed as a spectacle for all the people to behold throughout the chiefe and principall streetes of the citie, and had the number of stripes to euery one of them appointed, most cruelly laid vpon their naked bodies with long whips by sundry men appointed to be the executioners thereof: and before our men there went a couple of criers which cried as they went: Behold these English dogs, Lutherans, enemies to God, and all the way as they went there were some of the Inquisitors themselues, and of the familiars of that rakehel order, that cried to the executioners, Strike, lay on those English hereticks, Lutherans, Gods enemies: and so this horrible spectacle being shewed round about the citie, they returned to the Inquisitors house with their backes all gore blood, and swollen with great bumps, and were then taken from their horses, and carried againe to prison, where they remained vntill they were sent into Spaine to the gallies, there to receiue the rest of their martirdome: and I and the 6 other with me which had iudgement, and were condemned amongst the rest to serue an apprentiship in the monastery, were taken presently and sent to certaine religious houses appointed for the purpose. Chap. 6. Wherein is shewed how we were vsed in the religious houses, and that when the time was expired, that we were adiudged to serue in them, there came newes to Mexico of M. Francis Drakes being in the South Sea, and what preparation was made to take him, and how I seeking to escape, was againe taken, and put in prison at Vera Cruz, and how againe I made mine escape from thence. I Miles Philips and William Lowe were appointed to the blacke Friers, where I was appointed to be an ouerseer of Indian workmen, who wrought there in building of a new church: amongst which Indians I learned their language of Mexican tongue very perfectly, and had great familiaritie with many of them, whom I found to be a courteous and louing kind of people, ingenious, and of great vnderstanding, and they hate and abhorre the Spaniards with all their hearts, they haue vsed such horrible cruelties against them, and do still keepe them in such subiection and seruitude, that they and the Negros also doe daily lie in waite to practise their deliuerance out of that thraldome and bondage, that the Spaniards doe keepe them in. William Lowe he was appointed to serue the Cooke in the kitchen, Richard Williams and Dauid Alexander were appointed to the Grey Friers, Iohn Story and Robert Cooke to the white Friers: Paul Horsewel the Secretary tooke to be his seruant: Thomas Hull was sent to a Monastery of priests, where afterward he died. Thus we serued out the yeeres that we were condemned for, with the vse of our fooles coates, and we must needs confesse that the Friers did vse very courteously: for euery one of vs had his chamber with bedding and diet, and all things cleane and neat: yea many of the Spaniards and Friers themselues do vtterly abhorre and mislike of that cruell Inquisition, and would as they durst bewaile our miseries, and comfort vs the best they could, although they stood in such feare of that diuelish Inquisition, that they durst not let the left hande know what the right doth. Now after that the time was expired for which we were condemned to serue in those religious houses, we were then brought againe before the chief Inquisitor, and had all our fooles coates pulled off and hanged vp in the head church, called Ecclesia Maior, and euery mans name and iudement written thereupon with this addition, An heretike Lutheran reconciled. And there are also all their coates hanged vp, which were condemned to the gallies, with their names and iudgements, and vnderneath his coat, Heretike Lutheran reconciled. And also the coats and names of the three that were burned, whereupon were written, An obstinate heretike Lutheran burnt. Then were we suffered to goe vp and downe the countrey, and to place our selues as we could, and yet not so free, but that we very well knew that there was good espiall alwayes attending vs and all our actions, so that we durst not once speake or looke awry. Dauid Alexander and Robert Cooke returned to serue the Inquisitor, who shortly after maried them both to two of his Negro women: Richard Williams maried a rich widow of Biskay with 4000 Pezos. Paul Horsewell is maried to a Mestisa, as they name those whose fathers were Spaniards, and their mothers Indians, and this woman which Paul Horsewell hath maried, is sayd to be the daughter of one that came in with Hernando Cortes the conquerour, who had with her in mariage foure thousand Pezos, and a faire house: Iohn Storie is maried to a Negro woman: William Lowe had leaue and licence to goe into Spaine where he is now maried: for mine owne part I could neuer throughly settle my selfe to marry in that countrey, although many faire offers were made vnto me of such as were of great abilitie and wealth, but I could haue no liking to liue in that place, where I must euery where see and know such horrible idolatrie committed, and durst not once for my life speake against it: and therefore I had alwayes a longing and desire to this my natiue countrey: and, to returne and serue againe in the Mines where I might haue gathered great riches and wealth, I very well saw that at one time or another I should fall againe into the danger of that diuelish Inquisition, and so be strip of all, with losse of life also, and therefore I made my choice rather to learne to weaue Grogranes and Taffaties, and so compounding with a Silke-weauer, I bound my selfe for three yeeres to serue him, and gaue him an hundred and fiftie Pezos to teach me the science, otherwise he would not haue taught mee vnder seuen yeeres prentiship, and by this meanes I liued the more quiet, and free from suspition. Howbeit I should many times be charged by familiars of that diuelish house, that I had a meaning to runne away into England, and to be an heretike Lutheran againe: To whom I would answere that they had no neede to suspect any such thing in mee, for that they knew all very well that it was impossible for me to escape by any maner of meanes: yet notwithstanding I was called before the Inquisitor, and demanded why I did not marrie: I answered that I had bound myselfe at an occupation. Well said the Inquisitor, I knowe thou meanest to runne away, and therefore I charge thee here vpon paine of burning as an heretike relapsed, that thou depart not out of this citie, nor come neere to the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, nor to any other port: To the which I answered that I would willingly obey. Yea said he, see thou doe so, and thy fellowes also, they shall haue the like charge. So I remained at my science the full time, and learned the Art, at the end wherof there came newes to Mexico that there were certaine Englishmen landed with a great power at the port of Acapulco, vpon the South sea, and that they were comming to Mexico to take the spoyle thereof, which wrought a marueilous great feare amongst them, and many of those that were rich began to shift for themselues, their wiues and children: vpon which hurlie burlie the Viceroy caused a generall muster to be made of all the Spaniards in Mexico, and there were found to be the number of 7000 and odde householders of Spaniards in the citie and suburbs, and of single men vnmaried, the number of 3000 and of Mestizoes, which are counted to be the sonnes of Spaniards, borne of Indian women, twenty thousand persons, and then was Paul Horsewel and I Miles Philips sent for before the Viceroy, and were examined if we did know an English man named Francis Drake, which was brother to Captaine Hawkins: to which we answered, that Captaine Hawkins had not any brother but one, which was a man of the age of threescore yeeres or thereabouts, and was now gouernour of Plimmouth in England. And then he demanded of vs if we knewe one Francis Drake, and we answered, no. While these things were in doing, there came newes that all the Englishmen were gone, yet were there eight hundred men made out vnder the leading of seueral Captains, whereof two hundred were sent to the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, vpon the North Sea vnder the conduct of Don Luys Suares, two hundred were sent to Guatimala in the South sea, who had for their captaine Iohn Cortes, two hundred more were sent to Guatulco, a port of the South sea, ouer whom went for captaine Don Pedro de Robles, and two hundred more were sent to Acapulco, the port where it was said that Captaine Drake had bene. And they had for Captaine doctor Robles Alcalde de Corte, with whom I Miles Philips went as interpreter, hauing licence giuen by the Inquisitors. When we were come to Acapulco, we found that Captaine Drake was departed from thence, more then a moneth before we came thither. But yet our captaine Alcalde de Corte there presently embarked himselfe in a small ship of threescore tunne or thereabout, hauing also in companie with him two other small barkes, and not past two hundred men in all, with whom I went as interpreter in his owne ship, which God knoweth was but weake and ill appointed, so that for certaine, if we had met with Captaine Drake, he might easily haue taken vs all: We being imbarked kept our course and ranne Southward towards Panama, keeping still as nigh the shore as we could, and leauing the land vpon our left hand, and hauing coasted thus for the space of eighteene or twentie dayes, and being more to the South then Guatimala, we met at last with other ships which came from Panama, of whom we were certainly informed that he was cleane gone off the coast more then a moneth before: and so we returned backe to Acapulco againe, and there landed, our Captaine being thereunto forced, because his men were very sore sea-sicke: All the while that I was at Sea with them I was a glad man, for I hoped that if we met with master Drake, we should all be taken, so that then I should haue beene freed out of that danger and miserie wherein I liued, and should returne to mine owne countrey of England againe. But missing thereof, when I sawe there was no remedie but that we must needes come on lande againe, little doeth any man know the sorow and griefe that inwardly I felt, although outwardly I was constrained to make faire weather of it. And so being landed, the next morow after, we began our iourney towardes Mexico, and past these townes of name in our way, as first the towne of Tuatepec, 50 leagues from Mexico, from thence to Washaca, 40 leagues from Mexico: from thence to Tepiaca 24 leagues from Mexico, and from thence to Pueblo de los Angeles, where is a high hill which casteth out fire three times a day, which hill is 18 leagues in maner directly West from Mexico, from thence we went to Stapelapa, 8 leagues from Mexico, and there our captaine and most of his men tooke boat, and came to Mexico againe, hauing bene forth about the space of seuen weekes or thereabouts. Our captaine made report to the Viceroy what he had done, and how farre he had trauelled, and that for certaine he was informed that Captaine Drake was not to be heard of. [Sidenote: The Spanish Viceroy prophecied, but falsely.] To which the Viceroy replied and said, Surely we shall haue him shortly come into our hands driuen a land through necessitie in some one place or other, for he being now in these seas of Sur, it is not possible for him to get out of them againe, so that if he perish not at sea, yet hunger wil force him to land. And then againe I was commanded by the Viceroy that I should not depart the citie of Mexico, but alwaies be at my masters house in a readinesse at an houres warning, when soeuer I should be called: for that notwithstanding within one moneth after certaine Spaniards going to Mecameca, 18 leagues from Mexico, to send away certaine hides and Cochinilla, that they had there at their Stantias or dairie houses, and my master hauing leaue of the Secretarie for me to go with them, I tooke my iourney with them being very well horsed and appointed, and comming thither and passing the time there at Mecameca certaine dayes till we had perfect intelligence that the fleete was readie to depart, I not being past 3 daies iourney from the port of S. John de Vllua, thought it to be the meetest time for me to make an escape, and I was the bolder, presuming vpon my Spanish tongue, which I spake as naturally as any of them all, thinking with my selfe, that when I came to S. Iohn de Vllua, I would get to be entertained as a souldiour, and so go home into Spaine in the same Fleete, and therefore secretly one euening late, the moone shining faire, I conueyed my selfe away, and riding so for the space of two nights and two dayes, sometimes in, and sometimes out, resting very little all that time, vpon the second day at night I came to the towne of Vera Cruz, distant from the port of S. Iohn de Vllua, where the ships rode, but only 5 leagues, and here purposing to rest my selfe a day or two, I was no sooner alighted, but within the space of one halfe houre after, I was by ill hap arrested, and brought before Iustices there, being taken and suspected to be a gentlemans sonne of Mexico, that was runne away from his father, who in trueth was the man they sought for: So I being arrested, and brought before the Iustices, there was a great hurly burly about the matter, euery man charging me that I was the sonne of such a man dwelling in Mexico, which I flatly denied, affirming that I knewe not the man, yet would they not beleeue me, but vrged stil vpon me that I was he that they sought for, and so I was conueied away to prison. And as I was thus going to prison, to the further increase of my griefe, it chanced that at that very instant there was a poore man in the presse that was come to towne to sell hennes, who told the Iustices that they did me wrong, and that in truth he knew very well that I was an Englishman and no Spaniard. They then demanded of him how he knew that, and threatned him that he said so, for that he was my companion, and sought to conuey me away from my father, so that he also was threatned to be laid in prison with me: he for the discharge of himselfe stood stifly in it, that I was an Englishman, and one of captaine Hawkins men, and that he had knowen me weare the S. Benito in the Blacke-friers at Mexico, for 3 or 4 whole yeres together: which when they heard, they forsooke him, and began to examine me a new, whether that speech of his were true, yea or no, which when they perceiued that I could not denie, and perceiuing that I was run from Mexico, and came thither of purpose to conuey my selfe away with the fleete, I was presently committed to prison with a sorrowfull heart, often wishing my selfe that that man which knew me had at that time bene further off: howbeit he in sinceritie had compassion of my distressed estate, thinking by his speech, and knowing of me, to haue set me free from that present danger which he sawe me in: howbeit, contrary to his expectation, I was thereby brought into my extreme danger, and to the hazard of my life, yet there was no remedy but patience perforce. And I was no sooner brought into prison, but I had a great paire of bolts clapt on my legs, and thus I remained in that prison for the space of 3 weekes where were also many other prisoners which were thither committed for sundry crimes and condemned to the gallies. During which time of imprisonment there, I found amongst those my prison-fellowes some that had knowen me before in Mexico, and truely they had compassion of me, and would spare of their victuals and any thing els that they had to doe me good: amongst whom there was one of them that told me that he vnderstood by a secret friend of his which often came to the prison to him, that I should be shortly sent backe againe to Mexico by wagon, so soone as the fleete was gone from S. Iohn de Vllua, for Spaine. This poore man my prison fellow of himselfe, and without any request made by me, caused his said friend which came often vnto him to the grate of the prison, to bring him wine and victuals, to buy for him 2 kniues which had files in their backes, which files were so wel made that they would serue and suffice any prisoner to file off his irons, and of those kniues or files he brought one to me, and told me that he had caused it to be made for me, and let me haue it at that very price it cost him, which was 2 Pezos, the value of 8.s. of our money: which knife when I had it, I was a ioyfull man, and conueied the same into the foote of my boot, vpon the inside of my left leg, and so within 3 or 4 dayes after that I had thus receiued my knife, I was suddenly called for, and brought before the head Iustice which caused those my irons with the round bolt to be stricken off and sent to a Smiths in the towne, where was a new paire of bolts made ready for me of another fashion, which had a broad iron barre comming betweene the shackles, and caused my hands to be made fast with a paire of manacles; and so was I presently laid in a wagon all alone, which was there readie to depart with sundry other wagons, to the number of 60. towardes Mexico, and they all were laden with sundry merchandise which came in the fleete out of Spaine. The wagon that I was in was foremost in all the companie, and as we trauelled I being alone in the wagon, began to trie if I could plucke my hands out of the manacles, and as God would, although it were somewhat painefull for me, yet my hands were so slender that I could pull them out, and put them in againe, and euer as we went, when the wagon made most noyse, and the men were busiest, I would be working to file off my bolts, and traueling thus for the space of 8 leagues from Vera Cruz, we came to an high hill, at the entring vp of which (as God would) one of the wheeles of the waggon wherein I was, brake, so that by that means the other wagons went afore, and the wagon man that had charge of me set an Indian Carpenter a worke to mend the wheele: and here at this place they baited at an hostrie that a Negro woman keepes: and at this place, for that the going vp of the hill is very steepe, for the space of two leagues and better, they doe alwaies accustome to take the moiles of 3 or 4 wagons, and to place them altogether for the drawing vp of one wagon, and so to come downe againe, and fetch up others in that order. [Sidenote: Miles Philips his last wonderful escape.] All which came very well to pass: for as it drew towards night when most of the Wagoners were gone to draw vp their wagons, in this sort I being alone had quickly filed off my bolts, and so espying my time in the darke of the euening before they returned downe the hill againe, I conueyed my selfe into the woods there adioyning, carrying my bolts and manacles with me, and a few biscuits, and two small cheeses. And being come into the woods, I threw my yrons into a thicke bush, and then couered them with mosse and other things, and then shifted for myself as I might all that night. And thus by the good prouidence of Almightie God, I was freed from mine yrons all sauing the collar that was about my necke, and so got my libertie the second time. Chap. 7. Wherein is shewed how I escaped to Guatimala, vpon the South sea, and from thence to the port of Cauallos, where I got passage to goe into Spaine, and of our arriuall at Hauana, and our comming to Spaine, where I was againe like to haue bene committed prisoner, and how through the great mercy of God I escaped, and came home in safetie into England in February 1582. The next morning (day light being come) I perceiued by the Sunne rising what way to take to escape their hands, for when I fleede, I tooke the way into the woods vpon the left hand: and hauing left that way that went to Mexico vpon my right hand, I thought to keepe my course as the woods and mountaines lay, still direct South as neere as I could: by meanes whereof I was sure to conuey myselfe farre ynough from that way that went to Mexico. And as I was thus going in the woods, I saw many great fires made to the North not past a league from the mountaine where I was, and trauelling thus in my bootes with mine yron collar about my necke, and my bread and cheese, the very same forenoon I mette with a company of Indians which were hunting of Deere for their sustenance: to whom I spake in the Mexican tongue, and told them how that I had of a long time bin kept in prison by the cruel Spanyards, and did desire them to helpe me to file off mine yron collar, which they willingly did: reioycing greatly with me, that I was thus escaped out of the Spanyards hands. Then I desired that I might haue one of them to guide mee out of those desert mountaines towards the South, which they also most willingly did: and so they brought mee to an Indian towne 8. leagues distant from thence, named Shalapa, where I stayed three dayes, for that I was somewhat sickely. At which towne (with the gold that I had quilted in my dublet) I bought me an horse of one of the Indians, which cost me 6. pezos and so trauelling South, within the space of 2. leagues I happened to ouertake a gray Frier, one that I had bene familiar withall in Mexico, whom then I knew to be a zealous good man, and one that did much lament the crueltie vsed against vs by the Inquisitors, and truely hee vsed me very courteously: and I having confidence in him did indeed tel him, that I was minded to aduenture to see if I could get out of the sayd countrey if I could finde shipping, and did therefore pray him of his ayde, direction, and aduise herein, which he faithfully did, not only in directing me which was my safest way to trauaile, but he also of himselfe kept me company for the space, of three dayes, and euer as we came to the Indian houses (who vsed and intertained vs well) hee gathered among them in money to the value of 20. pezos, which at my departure from him hee freely gaue vnto mee. So came I to the citie of Guatimala vpon the South sea, which is distant from Mexico about 250. leagues, where I stayed 6. dayes, for that my horse was weake. And from thence I trauailed still South and by East seuen dayes iourney, passing by certaine Indian townes, vntill I came to an Indian towne distant from Mexico, direct South 309. leagues. And here at this towne enquiring to go to the Port de Cauallos in the Northeast sea, it was answered that in trauailing thither I should not come to any towne in 10. or 12. dayes iourney: so heere I hired two Indians to be my guides, and I bought hennes, and bread to serue vs so long time, and tooke with vs things to kindle fire euery night, because of wilde beastes, and to dresse our meate: and euery night when we rested, my Indian guides would make two great fires, betweene the which we placed our selues, and my horse. And in the night time we should heare the Lions roare, with Tigres, Ounces, and other beastes, and some of them we should see in the night, which had eyes shining like fire. And trauailing thus for the space of twelue dayes, wee came at last to the port of Cauallos vpon the East sea, distant from Guatimala South and by East, two hundred leagues, and from Mexico 450. or thereabouts.[12] This is a good harborough for shippes, and is without either castle or bulwarke. I hauing dispatched away my guides, went downe to the Hauen, where I saw certaine ships loden chiefly with Canary-wines, where I spake with one of the Masters, who asked me what Countrey man I was, and I told him that I was borne in Granado, and he said, that then I was his countreyman. I required him that I might passe home with him in his ship, paying for my passage: and he said yea, so that I had a safe conduct, or letter testimonial to shew, that he might incurre no danger; for said be, it may be that you haue killed some man, or be indebted, and would therefore run away. To that I answered, that there was not any such cause. Wel, in the end we grew to a price, that for 60. pezos he would cary me into Spaine: a glad man was I at this good hap, and I quickly solde my horse, and made my prouision of hennes and bread to serue me in my passage; And thus within 2. dayes after we set saile, and neuer stayed vntill we came to Hauana, which is distant from puerto de Cauallos by sea 500. leagues: where we found the whole fleete of Spaine, which was bound home from the Indies. And heere I was hired for a souldier to serue in the Admiral ship of the same fleete, wherein the General himself went. There landed while I was here 4. ships out of Spaine, being all full of souldiers and ordinance, of which number there were 200 men landed here, and 4. great brasse pieces of ordinance, although the castle were before sufficiently prouided: 200. men more were sent to Campeche, and certaine ordinance: 200. to Florida with ordinance: and 100. lastly to S. Iohn de Vllua. As for ordinance there they haue sufficient, and of the very same which was ours, which we had in the Iesus, and those others which we had planted in the place, where the Vice-roy betrayed M. Hawkins our general, as hath bene declared. The sending of those souldiers to euery of those Ports, and the strengthening of them, was done by commandement from the king of Spaine, who wrote also by them to the general of his fleete, giuing him in charge so to doe, as also directing him what course he should keepe in his comming home into Spaine, charging him in any hand not to come nigh to the yles of Açores, but to keepe his course more to the Northward, advertising him withal, what number and power of French ships of warre, and other, Don Antonio had at that time at Terçera, and the yles aforesaid: which the general of the fleete wel considering, and what great store of riches he had to bring home with him into Spaine, did in all very duetifully observe and obey: for in trueth he had in his said fleete 37. saile of ships, and in euery of them there was as good as 30. pipes of silver one with another, besides great store of gold, Cochinilla, sugars, hides, and Cana Fistula, with other apothecary drugs. This our general, who was called Don Pedro de Guzman, did prouidently take order for, for their most strength and defence, if neede should be, to the vttermost of his power, and commanded vpon paine of death, that neither passenger nor souldier should come aboord without his sword and harquebush, with shot and powder, to the end that they might be the better able to encounter the fleete of Don Antonio, if they should hap to meete with them, or any of them: and euer as the weather was faire, the said general would himselfe go aboord from one ship to another, to see that every man had his ful prouision according to the commandement giuen. Yet to speake truly what I thinke, two good tall ships of warre would have made a foule spoil amongst them. For in all this fleete there were not any that were strong and warlike appointed, sauing only the Admiral, and Vice-admiral: And againe ouer and besides the weaknesse and the ill furnishing of the rest, they were all so deeply laden, that they had not bene able (if they had bene charged) to haue held out any long fight. Wel, thus we set saile, and had a very ill passage home, the weather was so contrary. We kept our course in maner Northeast, and brought our selues to the height of 42. degrees of latitude, to be sure not to meete with Don Antonio his fleete, and were vpon our voyage from the 4. of Iune, vntil the 10. of September, and neuer saw land till we fell with the Arenas Gosdas hard by S. Lucar.[13] And there was an order taken that none should goe on shoare vntill he had licence: as for me, I was knowen by one in the ship, who told the Master that I was an Englishman, which (as God would) it was my good hap to heare: for if I had not heard it, it had cost me my life. Notwithstanding, I would not take any knowledge of it, and seemed to be mery and pleasant, that we were all come so wel in safety. Presently after, licence came that we should go on shoare, and I pressed to be gone with the first: howbeit, the Master came vnto me, and said, Sirra, you must goe with me to Siuil by water: I knew his meaning well enough, and that he meant there to offer me vp as a sacrifice to the Holy house. For the ignorant zeal of a number of these superstitious Spaniards is such, that they thinke that they haue done God good seruice, when they haue brought a Lutheran heretike to the fire to be burnt: for so do they account of vs. Wel, I perceiuing all this, took vpon me not to suspect anything, but was still iocund and mery: howbeit, I knew it stood me vpon to shift for my selfe. And so wayting my time when the Master was in his cabbin asleepe, I conueyed my selfe secretly downe by the shrowds into the ship boate, and made no stay but cut the rope wherewithal she was moared, and so by the cable haled on shore, where I leapt on land, and let the boate goe whither it would. Thus by the helpe of God I escaped that day, and then neuer stayed at S. Lucar, but went all night by the way which I had seene other take toward Siuil: so that the next morning I came to Siuil, and sought me out a workemaster, that I might fall to my science, which was weauing of taffataes; and being intertained I set my selfe close to my worke, and durst not for my life once to stirre abroad for fear of being knowen: and being thus at my worke, within 4 dayes after I heard one of my fellows say, that he heard there was great inquiry made for an Englishman that came home in the fleete: what an heretique Lutheran (quoth I) was it, I would to God I might knowe him, surely I would present him to the Holy house. And thus I kept still within doores at my worke, and fained my selfe not well at ease, and that I would labour as I might to get me new clothes. And continuing thus for the space of 3. moneths I called for my wages, and bought me all things new, different from the apparell that I did weare at sea, and yet durst not be ouerbold to walke abroad: and after vnderstanding that there were certaine English ships at S. Lucar bound for England, I tooke a boat and went aboord one of them, and desired the Master that I might haue passage with him to goe into England, and told him secretly that I was one of those which Captaine Hawkins did set on shore in the Indies: he very courteously prayed me to haue him excused, for he durst not meddle with me, and prayed me therefore to returne from whence I came. Which when I perceiued, with a sorrowful heart, God knoweth, I tooke my leaue of him, not without watry cheekes. [Sidenote: He commeth home in an English ship from Maiorca.] And then I went to S. Mary port, which is 3. leagues from S. Lucar, where I put my selfe to be a souldier to goe in the king of Spaines Gallies, which were bound for Maiorca, and comming thither in the end of the Christmas holidayes, I found there two English ships, the one of London, and the other of the West countrey, which were ready freighted and stayed but for a faire winde. To the Master of the one, which was of the West countrey went I, and told him that I had bene 2. yeeres in Spaine to learne the language, and that I was now desirous to goe home and see my friends, for that I lacked maintenance: and so hauing agreed with him for my passage, I tooke shipping. And thus through the prouidence of Almighty God, after 16. yeeres absence, hauing sustained many and sundry great troubles and miseries, as by this discourse appeareth, I came home to this my natiue countrey of England in the yeere 1582. in the moneth of February, in the ship called the Landret, and arriued at Poole. [12] Caballos or Port Cortez is a town of Honduras, on the North Coast, 56 miles north of Santiago. [13] San Lucar de Barrameda, 18 miles north of Cadiz. The trauailes of Iob Hortop, which Sir Iohn Hawkins set on land within the bay of Mexico, after his departure from the Hauen of S. Iohn de Vllua in Nueua Espanna, the 8. of October 1568. Not vntruely nor without cause said Iob the faithfull seruant of God (whom the sacred Scriptures tell vs, to haue dwelt in the land of Hus) that man being borne of a woman, liuing a short time, is replenished with many miseries: which some know by reading of histories, many by the view of others calamities, and I by experience in my selfe, as this present Treatise insuing shall shew. It is not vnknowen vnto many, that I Iob Hortop poudermaker was borne at Bourne, a towne in Lincolnshire, from my age of twelue yeeres brought vp in Redriffe neere London, with M. Francis Lee, who was the Queenes Maiesties powdermaker, whom I serued, vntil I was prest to goe on the 3. voyage to the West Indies, with the right worshipful Sir Iohn Hawkins, who appointed me to be one of the Gunners in her Maiesties ships called the Iesus of Lubeck, who set saile from Plimmouth in the moneth of October 1567. hauing with him another ship of her Maiesties, called the Minion, and foure ships of his owne, namely the Angel, the Swallow, the Iudith, and the William and Iohn. He directed his Vice-admiral, that if foule weather did separate them, to meete at the Iland of Tenerif. After which by the space of seuen dayes and seuen nights, we had such stormes at sea, that we lost our long boats and a pinnesse, with some men: comming to the Isle of Tenerif, there our Generall heard that his Vice-admirall with the Swallow, and the William and Iohn were at the Iland called Gomera, where finding his Vice-admirall, he anchored, tooke in fresh water, and set saile for Cape Blank, where in the way wee tooke a Portugal carauel, laden with fish called Mullets: from thence we sailed to cape Verde. In our course thither we met a Frenchman of Rochel called captaine Bland, who had taken a Portugal carauel, whom our vice admiral chased and tooke. Captaine Drake, now Sir Francis Drake was made master and captaine of the Carauel, and so we kept our way till we came to cape Verde, and there we anchored, tooke our boates, and set souldiers on shore. Our Generall was the first that leapt on land, and with him Captaine Dudley: there we tooke certaine Negroes, but not without damage to our selues. For our Generall, Captaine Dudley, and 8. other of our company were hurt with poysoned arrowes: about nine dayes after, the 8. that were wounded died. [Sidenote: A remedie against poysoned arrowes.] Our general was taught by a Negro, to draw the poyson out of his wound with a cloue of garlike, whereby he was cured. From thence wee went to Sierra leona, where be monstrous fishes called Sharkes, which will deuoure men. I amongst others was sent in the Angell with two Pinnesses into the riuer called Calousa, to seeke two Carauels that were there trading with the Negros: wee tooke one of them with the Negros, and brought them away. In this riuer in the night time we had one of our pinnesses bulged by a sea-horse, so that our men swimming about the riuer were all taken into the other pinnesses, except two that tooke hold one of another, and were caried away by the sea-horse. This monster[14] hath the iust proportion of a horse, sauing that his legs be short, his teeth very great, and a span in length: hee vseth in the night to goe on land into the woods, seeking at vnawares to deuoure the Negroes in their cabbins, whom they by their vigilancie preuent, and kill him in this maner. The Negroes keepe watch, and diligently attend their comming, and when they are gone into the woods, they forthwith lay a great tree ouerthwart the way, so that at their returne, for that their legs be so short, they cannot goe ouer it: then the Negroes set vpon them with their bowes, arrowes and darts, and so destroy them. [14] Hippopotamus. From thence we entred the riuer called the Casserroes, where there were other Carauels trading with the Negroes, and them we tooke. In this Iland betwixt the riuer and the maine, trees grow with Oisters vpon them. There grow Palmito trees, which bee as high as a ships maine mast, and on their tops grow nuts, wine and oyle, which they call Palmito wine and Palmito oyle. The Plantan tree also groweth in that countrey; the tree is as bigge is a mans thigh, and as high as a firre pole, the leaues thereof be long and broad, and on the top grow the fruit which are called Plantanos: they are crooked and a cubite long, and as bigge as a mans wrist, they growe on clusters: when they be ripe they be very good and daintie to eate: Sugar is not more delicate in taste then they be. From thence with the Angel, the Iudith, and the two pinnesses, we sailed to Sierra leona, where our Generall at that time was, who with the captaines and souldiers went vp into the riuer called Taggarin, to take a towne of the Negroes, where he found three kings of that countrie with fiftie thousand Negroes besieging the same towne, which they could not take in many yeeres before when they had warred with it. Our General made a breach, entred, and valiantly tooke the towne, wherein we found fiue Portugals which yeelded themselues to his mercie, and hee saued their liues: we tooke and caried thence for traffique to the West Indies 500. Negroes. The three kings droue 7000. Negroes into the sea at low water, at the point of the land, where they were all drowned in the Oze, for that they could not take their canoas to saue themselues. Wee returned backe againe in our pinnesses to the ships, and there tooke in fresh water, and made ready sayle towards Rio grande. At our comming thither we entred with the Angel, the Iudith, and the 2. pinnesses, and found there seuen Portugal Caruels, which made great fight with vs. In the ende by Gods helpe wee wonne the victory, and droue them to the shore, from whence with the Negroes they fled, and we fetcht the caruels from the shore into the riuer. The next morning M. Francis Drake with his caruel, the Swallow, and the William and Iohn came into the riuer, with captaine Dudley and his souldiers, who landed being but a hundred souldiers, and fought with seuen thousand Negroes, burned the towne, and returned to our Generall with, the losse of one man. In that place there be many muske-cats, which breed in hollow trees: the Negroes take them in a net, and put them in a cage, and nourish them very daintily, and take the muske from them with a spoone. Now we directed our course from Guinea towards the West Indies. And by the way died Captaine Dudley. In sayling towards the Indies, the first land that we escryed, was the Iland called Dominica, where at our comming we anchored, and tooke in fresh water and wood for our prouision: which done, we sayled towards the Iland called Margarita, where our Generall in despite of the Spaniards anchored, landed, and tooke in fresh victuals. A mile off the Iland there is a rocke in the sea, wherein doe breede many fowles like vnto Barnacles: in the night we went out in our boates, and with cudgels we killed many of them, and brought them with many of their egs aboord with vs: their egges be as bigge as Turkies egges, and speckled like them. We did eate them, and found them very good meate. From thence wee sayled to Burboroata, which is in the maine land of the West Indies: there we came in, mored our ships, and taried two moneths trimming and dressing our ships, and in the meane time traded with certaine Spanyards of that countrey. There our Generall sent vs vnto a towne called Placencia, (which stood on a high hil) to haue intreated a Bishop that dwelt there for his fauour and friendship in their lawes, who hearing of our comming, for feare forsooke the town. In our way vp the hil to Placencia, wee found a monstrous venomous worme with two heads: his body was as bigge as a mans arme, and a yard long: our master Robert Barret did cut him in sunder with his sword, and it made it as blacke as if it were coloured with ynke. Heere be many Tygers, monstrous and furious beasts, which by subtiltie deuoure and destroy many men: they vse the traded wayes, and wil shew themselues twise or thrise to the trauellers, and so depart secretly, lurking till they be past, then suddenly and at vnawares they leape vpon them and deuoure them: they had so vsed two of our company, had not one of them, looked behind. Our Generall sent three ships vnto the Iland called Coraçao,[15] to make prouision for the rest, where they remayned vntill his comming. [Sidenote: Rio de la Hacha taken.] Hee sent from thence the Angel and the Iudith to Rio de Hacha,[16] where we anchored before the town. The Spaniards shot three pieces at vs from the shore, whom we requited with two of ours, and shotte through the Gouernours house: we wayed anchor, and anchored againe without shot of the towne, where wee rid fiue dayes in despite of the Spanyards, and their shot. In the meane space there came a Caruel of aduise from S. Domingo, whom with the Angel, and the Iudith wee chased and droue to the shore: we fetcht him from thence in spite of 200. Spaniards hargubush shot, and anchored againe before the towne, and rid there with them, till our Generals comming, who anchored, landed his men, and valiantly tooke the Towne, with the losse of one man, whose name was Thomas Surgeon: wee landed and planted on the shore for our safeties, our field ordinance: we droue the Spaniards vp into the country aboue two leagues whereby they were inforced to trade with our General, to whom he sold most part of his Negros. [15] Situated 75 miles from the Venezuelan coast. [16] At the mouth of the Hacha river, Magdalena State, Columbia. In this riuer we killed a monstrous Lagarto or Crocodile in this port at sunne set: seuen of vs went in the pinnesse vp into the Riuer, carying with vs a dogge, vnto whom with ropeyarn we bound a great hooke of steele, with a chaine that had a swiuel, which we put vnder the dogs belly, the point of the hooke comming ouer his back fast bound, as aforesaid: we put him ouer board, and veered out our rope by litle and litle, rowing away with our boate: the Lagarto came and presently swallowed vp the dogge, then did we rowe hard till we had choked him: he plunged and made a wonderfull stirre in the water: we leapt on shore, and haled him on land: he was 23. foote by the rule, headed like a hogge, in body like a serpent, full of scales as broad as a sawcer: his taile long and full of knots as bigge as a fawcon shotte: he hath foure legs, his feete haue long nailes like vnto a dragon: we opened him, tooke out his guts, flayed him; dried his skinne, and stuffed it with straw, meaning to haue brought it home, had not the ship bin cast away. This, monster will cary away and deuoure both men and horse. From hence we shaped our course to Santa Martha,[17] where we landed, traded and sold certaine Negroes: there two of our company killed a monstrous adder, going towards his caue with a Conie in his mouth: his body was as bigge as any mans thigh, and seuen foote long, vpon his tayle he had sixteene knottes, euery one as bigge as a great walnut, which they say, doe shew his age: his colour was greene and yellow: they opened him; and found two conies in his belly. From thence wee sayled to Cartagena,[18] where we went in, mored our Shippes, and would haue traded with them, but they durst not for feare of the King: wee brought vp the Minion against the Castle, and shotte at the Castle and Towne: then we landed in an Iland, where were many gardens: there in a caue we found certaine Botijos of wine, which wee brought away with vs, in recompence whereof, our Generall commanded, to be set on shore woollen and linnen cloth, to the value thereof. From hence by foule weather wee were forced to seeke the Port of Saint John de Vllua. In our way thwart of Campeche we met with a Spaniard, a small ship, who was bound for Santo Domingo: he had in him a Spaniard called Augustin de villa nueua, who was the man that betrayed all the Noble men in the Indies, and caused them to be beheaded, wherefore he with two Friers fled to S. Domingo: them we tooke and brought with vs into the Port of S. Iohn de Vllua. Our Generall made great account of him, and vsed him like a Noble man: howbeit in the ende he was one of them that betrayed vs. When wee had mored our ships, and landed, we mounted the Ordinance that wee found there in the Ilande, and for our safeties kept watch and warde. [Sidenote: Don Martin de Henriquez the trecherous Vice-roy.] The next daye after wee discouered the Spanish fleete, whereof Luçon a Spanyard was Generall: with him came a Spanyard called Don Martin Henriquez, whom the king of Spaine sent to be his Vice-roy of the Indies. He sent a Pinnesse with a flagge of truce vnto our Generall, to knowe of what Countrey those Shippes were that rode there in the King of Spaines Port: who sayd they were the Queene of Englands ships, which came in there for victuals for their money: wherefore if your Generall will come in here, he shall giue me victuals and all other necessaries, and I will goe out on the one side of the Port, and he shall come in on the other side. The Spanyard returned for answere, that he was a Vice-roy, and had a thousand men, and therefore he would come in. Our Generall sayd, If he be a Vice-roy, I represent my Queenes person, and I am a Vice-roy as well as he: and if he haue a thousand men, my powder and shot will take the better place. Then the Vice-roy after counsell among themselues, yeelded to our Generals demand, swearing by his King and his Crowne, by his commission and authority that he had from his King, that hee would performe it, and thereupon pledges were giuen on both parts. Our Generall bearing a godly and Christian minde, voyde of fraude and deceit, iudged the Spanyards to haue done the like, deliuered to them sixe gentlemen, not doubting to haue receiued the like from them: but the faithlesse Spanyardes, in costly apparell gaue of the basest of their company, as afterwardes it was well knowen. These things finished, proclamation was made on both sides, that on payne of death no occasion should be giuen, whereby any quarrel should grow to the breach of the league, and then they peaceably entred the port, with great triumph on both sides. [17] Capital of the State of Magdalena. [18] Lat. 10 degrees 25 North; lon. 75.34 West. Capital of Bolivar. The Spaniards presently brought a great Hulke, a ship of sixe hundred, and mored her by the side of the Minion, and they cut out ports in their other ships, planting their ordinance towards vs, in the night they filled the Hulke with men, to lay the Minion aboord, as the sequel did shew, which made our General doubtful of their dealings: wherefore, for that he could speake the Spanish tongue, he sent Robert Barret aboord the Vice-roy, to knowe his meaning in those dealings, who willed him with his company to come in to him, whom he commanded presently to be set in the bilbowes, and forthwith a Cornet (for a watchword among the false Spaniards) was sounded for the enterprising of their pretended treason against our Generall, [Sidenote: Augustine de villa nueua a most thanklesse traytour.] whom Augustine de villa noua sitting at dinner with him, should then presently haue killed with a poynado which hee had priuily in his sleeue, was espyed and preuented by one Iohn Chamberlayne, who tooke the poynado out of his sleeue. Our General hastily rose vp, and commanded him to be put prisoner in the Stewards roome, and to be kept with two men. The faithlesse Spanyards, thinking all things to their desire had bene finished, suddenly sounded a Trumpet, and therewith three hundred Spaniards entred the Minion, whereat our General with a loude and fierce voyce called vnto vs, saying, God and Saint George, vpon those traiterous villaines, and rescue the Minion, I trust in God the day shalbe ours: and with that the Mariners and souldiers leapt out of the Iesus of Lubeck into the Minion, and beat out the Spanyards, and with a shot out of her fiered the Spaniards Vice admirall, where the most part of 300. Spanyards were spoyled, and blowen ouer boord with powder. Their Admirall also was on fire halfe an houre: we cut our cables, wound off our ships, and presently fought with them: they came vpon vs on euery side, and continued the fight from ten of the clocke vntill it was night: they killed all our men that were on shore in the Iland, sauing three, which by swimming got aboord the Iesus of Lubeck. [Sidenote: One of those three was Iob Hortop the reporter hereof. Four Spanish ships sunke.] They sunke the Generals ship called the Angel, and tooke the Swallow: the Spaniards Admirall had aboue threescore shot through her: many of his men were spoyled: four other of their ships were sunke. There were in that fleete, and that came from the shore to rescue them, fifteene hundred: we slew of them fiue hundred and fourtie, as we were credibly informed by a note that came to Mexico. In this fight the Iesus of Lubeck had fiue shotte through her mayne Mast: her foremast was shotte in sunder vnder the bounds with a chayne shotte, and her hull was wonderfully pearced with shotte, therefore it was vnpossible to bring her away. They set two of their owne Shippes on fire, intending therewith to haue burnt the Iesus of Lubeck, which we preuented by cutting our cables in the halse, and winding off by our sternefast. The Minion was forced to set saile and stand off from vs, and come to an anker without shot of the Island. Our Generall couragiously cheered vp his souldiers and gunners, and called to Samuel his page for a cup of Beere, who brought it him in a siluer cup, and hee drinking to all men willed the gunners to stand by their Ordinance lustily like men. He had no sooner set the cup out of his hand, but a demy Culuerin shot stroke away the cup and a Coopers plane that stoode by the main mast, and ranne out on the other side of the ship: which nothing dismaid our Generall, for he ceased not to incourage vs, saying, feare nothing, for God, who hath preserued me from this shot, will also deliuer vs from these traitours and villaines. Then Captaine Bland meaning to haue turned out of the port, had his maine mast stroke ouer boord with a chaine shot that came from the shore, wherefore he ankered, fired his ship, tooke his pinnesse with all his men, and came aboord the Iesus of Lubek to haue runne away from him, he answered, that he was not minded to haue run away from him, but his intent was to haue turned vp, our Generall, who said vnto him, that he thought he would not and to haue laid the weathermost ship of the Spanish fleete aboord, and fired his ship in hope therewith to haue set on fire the Spanish fleete, hee said if he had done so he had done well. With this, night came on. Our Generall commanded the Minion, for safegard of her masts to be brought vnder the Iesus of Lubecks lee: he willed M. Francis Drake to come in with the Iudith, and to lay the Minion aboord, to take in men and other things needfull, and to goe out, and so he did. At night when the wind came off the shore, wee set sayle, and went out in dispite of the Spanyards and their shot, where wee ankered, with two ankers vnder the Island, the wind being Northerly, which was wonderfull dangerous, and wee feared euery houre to be driuen with the lee shore. In the end when the wind came larger, we waied anker, and set saile, seeking the riuer of Panuco for water, whereof we had very little, and victuals were so scarce, that we were driuen to eate hides, cats, rats, parrats, monkies, and dogges: wherefore our Generall was forced to diuide his company into two parts, for there was a mutinie among them for want of victuals: and some said that they had rather be on the shore to shift for themselues amongst the enemies, then to serue on ship-boord. He asked them who would go on shore, and who would tarry on ship-boord, those that would goe on shore, he willed to goe on foremast, and those that would tarrie, on baft mast: fourescore and sixteene of vs were willing to depart. Our Generall gaue vnto euery one of vs sixe yards of Roane cloth, and money to them that demanded it. [Sidenote: About an hundred Englishmen landed.] When we were landed, he came vnto vs, where friendly imbracing euery one of vs, he was greatly grieued that he was forced to leaue vs behind him, he counselled vs to serue God, and to loue one another, and thus courteously he gaue vs a sorowful farewell, and promised if God sent him safe home, he would do what he could, that so many of vs as liued should be brought into England, and so he did. Since my returne into England I haue heard that many misliked that he left vs so behind him, and brought away Negroes: but the reason is this, for them he might haue had victuals, or any other thing needfull, if by foule weather hee had bene driuen vpon the Islands, which for gold nor siluer he could not haue had. And thus our Generall departed to his ship, and we remained on land, where for our safeties, fearing the wild Indians that were about vs, we kept watch all night, and at Sunne rising wee marched on our way, three and three in a ranke, vntill that we came into a fielde vnder a groue, where the Indians came vpon vs, asking vs what people we were, and how we came there. Two of our company, namely Anthony Goddard and Iohn Cornish, for that they could speake the Spanish tongue, went to them and said wee were Englishmen, that neuer came in that countrey before, and that we had fought with the Spaniards, and for that we lacked victuals, our Generall set vs on shore: they asked vs whither we intended to goe, we said to Panuco. The Captaine of the Indians willed vs to giue vnto them some of our clothes and shirts, which we did: then he bad vs giue them all, but we would not so doe, whereupon Iohn Cornish was then slaine with an arrow, which an Indian boy that stoode by the Captaine shot at him, wherefore hee stroke the boy on the necke with his bow, that he lay for dead, and willed vs to follow him, who brought vs into a great fielde where we found fresh water: hee bad vs sit downe about the pond and drinke, and he with his company would goe in the meane space to kill fiue or sixe Deere, and bring them vs. We taryed there till three of the clocke, but they came not: there one of our company whose name was Iohn Cooke, with foure other departed from vs into a groue to seeke reliefe, where presently they were taken by the Indians, and stript as naked as euer they were borne, and so returned to vs. Then we diuided ourselues into two parts, halfe to Anthony Goddard, and the rest to Iames Collier, and thus seuerally we sought for Panuco. Anthony Goddard with his company bid vs farewell, they passed a riuer, where the Indians robbed many of them of their clothes, and so passing on their way, came to a stony hill, where they stayed. [Sidenote: 8. Englishmen slaine.] Iames Collier with his company that day passed the same riuer, and were also robbed, and one of them slaine by chance: wee came that night vnto the hill, where Anthony Goddard and his company rested, there we remained til morning, and then we marched altogether from thence, entring betweene two groues, where the Indians robbed vs of all our clothes, and left vs naked, they hurt many, and killed eight of vs. Three dayes after we came to another riuer, there the Indians shewed vs the way to Panuco, and so left vs: we passed the riuer into the wildernes, where we made wreaths of greene grasse, which we wound about our bodies, to keepe vs from the Sunne, and gnats of that Countrey. We trauelled there seuen dayes, and seuen nights, before we came to Panuco, feeding on nothing but roots, and Guiauos,[19] a fruit like figs. At our comming to the riuer of Panuco two Spanish horsemen came ouer vnto vs in a Canowe: they asked vs how long we had bene in the wildernesse, and where our generall was, for they knewe vs to be of the company that had fought with their countrimen: we told them seuen dayes and seuen nights, and for lacke of victuals our Generall set vs on shore, and he was gone away with his ships. They returned to their Gouernour, who sent them with fiue Canowes to bring vs all ouer, which done, they set vs in aray, where a hundred horsemen with their lances, came forceably vpon vs, but did not hurt vs, they carried vs prisoners to Panuco, where we remained one night. In the riuer of Panuco there is a fish like a calfe, the Spanyards call it a Mollatin, hee hath a stone in his head, which the Indians vse for the disease of the Collicke, in the night he commeth on land and eateth grasse. I haue eaten of it, and it eateth not much vnlike to bacon. From thence we were sent to Mexico, which is 90 leagues from Panuco. In our way thither, 20 leagues from the sea side, I did see white Crabs running vp and downe the sands, I haue eaten of them, and they be very good meat. There groweth a fruit which the Spanyards call Auocottes, it is proportioned like an egge, and as blacke as a cole, hauing a stone in it, and it is an excellent good fruit. [Sidenote: A manifold Magueis.] There also groweth a strange tree which they call Magueis, it serueth them to many vses, below by the root they make a hole, whereat they do take out of it twise euery day a certeine kind of licour, which they seeth in a great kettle, till the third part be consumed, and that it waxe thick, it is as sweet as any hony, and they do eat it. Within 20. daies after that they haue taken al the licour from it, it withereth, and they cut it down, and vse it as we vse our hempe here in England, which done, they conuert it to many vses: of some part they make mantles, ropes, and threed: of the ends they make needles to sow their saddles, pannels, and other furniture for their horses: of the rest they make tyles, to couer their houses, and they put it to many other purposes. [19] Guavas. And thus we came to Mexico, which is seuen or eight miles about, seated in a great fen, inuironed with 4 hils, it hath but two wayes of entrance, and it is full of creeks, in the which in their Canowes they passe from place to place, and to the Islands there within. In the Indies ordinarily three times a yeere bee wonderfull earthquakes, which put the people in great feare and danger: during the time of two yeeres that I was in Mexico, I saw them sixe times; when they come they throw downe trees, houses, and Churches. There is a citie 25. leagues from Mexico, called Tlaxcalla, which is inhabited with an hundred thousand Indians, they goe in white shirts, linnen breeches, and long mantles, and the women weare about them a garment much like vnto a flannell petticote. The kings pallace was the first place wee were brought vnto in Mexico, where without we were willed to sit downe. Much people, men, women, and children came wondring about vs, many lamented our misery, and some of their clergy asked vs if we were Christians, we said, we praised God, we were as good Christians as they: they asked how they might know that, we said by our confessions. From thence we were caried in a Canow to a Tanners house, which standeth a little from the citie: the next morning two friers and two priests came thither to vs, and willed vs to blesse our selues, and say our prayers in the Latin tongue, that they might vnderstand vs, many of our company did so, wherevpon they returned to the viceroy, and told him that we were good Christians, and that they liked vs well, and then they brought vs much reliefe, with clothes, our sicke men were sent to their Hospitals, where many were cured, and many died. From the Tanners house we were led to a gentlemans place, where vpon paine of death we were charged to abide, and not to come into the citie, thither we had all things necessary brought vs: on Sundayes and holy dayes much people came, and brought vs great reliefe. The viceroy practised to hang vs, and caused a paire of new gallowes to be set vp, to haue executed vs, whereunto the noblemen of that countrey would not consent, but prayed him to stay vntil the ship of aduise brought newes from the king of Spaine, what should be done with vs, for they said they could not find any thing by vs, whereby they might lawfully put vs to death. The viceroy then commanded vs to be sent to an Island there by, and he sent for the Bishop of Mexico, who sent foure priests to the Island, to examine and confesse vs, who said, that the viceroy would burne vs, when wee were examined and confessed according to the lawes of the countrey. They returned to the Bishop, and told him that we were very good Christians. The Bishop certified the viceroy of our examinations and confessions, and said that wee were good Christians, therefore he would not meddle with vs. Then the viceroy sent for our master R. Barret, whom he kept prisoner in his pallace, vntill the fleete was departed for Spaine. The rest of vs he sent to a towne seuen leagues from Mexico called Tescuco, to card wooll among the Indian slaves, which drudgery we disdained, and concluded to beat our masters, and so we did: wherefore they sent to the viceroy, desiring him for Gods sake and our Ladies, to send for vs, for they would not keepe vs any longer, they said that we were deuils and no men. The viceroy sent for vs, and imprisoned vs in a house in Mexico, from thence he sent Anthony Goddard, and some other of our company with him into Spaine with Luçon, the Generall that tooke vs: the rest of vs staied in Mexico two yeres after, and then were sent prisoners into Spaine, with Don Iuan de Valesco de Varre, admirall and generall of the Spanish fleet, who caried with him in his ship, to be presented to the King of Spaine, the anatomie of a giant, which was sent from China to Mexico, to the Viceroy Don Martin Henriquez, to bee sent to the king of Spaine for a great wonder. It did appere by the anatomie, that he was of a monstrous size, the skull of his head was neere as bigge as halfe a bushel, his necke-bones, shoulder plates, arme bones, and all other lineaments of his other partes, were huge and monstrous to behold, the shanke of his legge from the ankle to the knee, was as long as from any mans ankle vp to his wast, and of bignesse accordingly. [Sidenote: A description of ginger.] At this time, and in this ship, were also sent to be presented to the king of Spaine, two chestes full of earth with ginger growing in them, which were also sent from China, to be sent to the king of Spaine. The ginger runneth in the ground like to liccoras, the blades grow out of it in length and proportion like vnto the blades of wild garlicke, which they cut euery fifteene dayes, they vse to water them twise a day, as we doe our herbes here in England, they put the blades in their pottage, and vse them in their other meates, whose excellent sauour and tast is very delightfull, and procureth a good appetite.[20] [20] Ginger is the underground stem (rhizome) of _Zingiber officinal_. The rhizome throws up barren leafy reed like stems 3 or 4 feet high, and occasionally flowering stems. The flowers are arranged in a cone-shaped spike, each in the axil of a large greenish-yellow bract. The corolla is orange-yellow, divided into three long segments. One of the staminodes forms a large purple three-lobed lip. Ginger is probably a native of tropical Asia, but is now cultivated in all warm countries. The name occurs in a list of imports into Alexandria in the second century, and during the middle ages was evidently an important article of commerce. It is often mentioned in the Old English leech-books of the eleventh century; and during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was the commonest spice, next to pepper, though 1 lb. of it cost as much as a sheep, 1_s._ 7_d._ (Rogers, "History of Agriculture and Prices in England.") [Sidenote: 1570.] When we were shipped, in the Port of S. Iohn de Vllua, the Generall called our master Robert Barret and vs with him into his cabbin, and asked vs if wee would fight against Englishmen, if we met them at the sea, we said that we would not fight against our Crowne, but if we met with any other, we would do what we were able. He said if we had said otherwise, he would not haue beleeued vs, and for that we should be the better vsed, and haue allowance as other men had: and he gaue a charge to euery one of vs, according to our knowledge, Robert Barret was placed with the pilote, I was put in the gunners roome, William Cawse with the boat-swaine, Iohn Beare with the quarter-masters, Edward Rider and Geffrey Giles, with the ordinary mariners, Richard the masters boy attended on him and the pilote: shortly after we departed from the port of S. Iohn de Vllua with all the fleete of Spaine, for the port called Hauana: wee were 26. dayes sayling thither. There wee came in, ankered, tooke in fresh water, and stayed 16. dayes for the fleete of Nombre de Dios, which is the fleet that brings the treasure from Peru. The Generall of that fleet was called Diego Flores de Valdes. After his comming, when he had watred his ships, both the fleetes ioyned in one, and Don Iuan de Velasco de Varre was the first fifteen daies Generall of both the fleets, who turning through the chanell of Bahama, his pilote had like to haue cast away all the fleet vpon the Cape called Cannaueral, which was preuented by me Iohn Hortop, and our master Robert Barret: for I being in the second watch escried land, and called to Robert Barret, bidding him looke ouer boord, for I saw land vnder the lee-bow of the ship: he called to the boat-swaine, and bid him let flie the fore saile sheat, and lay the helm vpon the lee, and cast the ship about. When we were cast about, we were but in seuen fathome water: we shot off a piece, giuing aduice to the fleet to cast about, and so they did: For this we were beloued of the Generall, and all the fleet. The Generall was in a great rage, and swore by the king, that he would hang his pilote: for he said, that twise before he had almost cast away the Admirall. When it was day, he commanded a piece to be shot off to call to councill: the other Admirall in his ship came vp to him, and asked what the matter was, he said, that his pilote had cast away his ship and all the fleet, had it not bene for two of the Englishmen, and therefore he would hang him. The other Admirall with many faire words perswaded him to the contrary. [Sidenote: A sea-monster in the shape of a man.] When we came in the height of Bermuda, we discouered a monster in the sea, who shewed himselfe three times vnto vs from the middle vpwards, in which parts hee was proportioned like a man, of the complection of a Mulato, or tawny Indian. The Generall did commaund one of his clearks to put it in writing, and hee certified the King and his Nobles thereof. Presently after this, for the space of sixteene dayes we had wonderful foule weather, and then God sent vs a faire wind, vntill such time as we discouered the Iland called Faial. On S. Iames day we made rackets, wheeles, and other fireworkes, to make pastime that night, as it is the order of the Spaniards. When we came neere the land, our master R. Barret conferred with vs, to take the pinnesse one night, when we came on the Iland called Terçera, to free our selues from the danger and bondage that we were going into, whereunto we agreed: none had any pinnesse asterne then but our ship, which gaue great courage to our enterprize: we prepared a bagge of bread, and a Botijo of water, which would haue serued vs nine dayes, and prouided our selues to goe: our Master borrowed a small compasse of the Master gunner of the ship, who lent it him, but suspected his intent, and closely made the Generall priuy to it, who for a time dissembled the matter. In the ende seeing our pretense, he called R. Barret, commanding his head to bee put in the stocks, and a great payre of yron bolts on his legs, and the rest of vs, to be set in the stocks by the legs. Then he willed a peece to be shot off, and he sent the pinnesse for the other Admirall, and all the captaines, masters, and pilotes of both fleetes to come aboord of him. He commanded the maine-yard to be strooke downe, and to put 2. pullies, on euery yard-arme one; the hangman was called, and we were willed to confesse our selues, for he swore by the king that he would hang vs. When the other Admiral, and the rest were come aboord, he called them into his counsel-chamber, and told them that he would hang the master of the Englishmen, and all his company. The Admirall, whose name was Diego Flores de Valdes, asked him wherefore: he sayd, that we had determined to rise in the night with the pinnesse, and with a ball of fire-worke to set the ship on fire, and goe our wayes: therefore, sayd he, I will haue you the Captaines, Masters, and Pilotes, to set your hands vnto that, for I sweare by the king that I will hang them, Diego Flores de Valdes answered, I nor the Captaines, Masters, and Pilotes wil not set our hands to that, for hee said, if he had bin prisoner as we were, he would haue done the like himselfe. He counselled him to keepe vs fast in prison, till he came into Spaine, and then send vs to the Contratation house in Siuil, where, if we had deserued death the law would passe on vs, for hee would not haue it said that in such a fleet as that was, sixe men and a boy should take the pinnesse, and goe away, and so he returned to his ship againe. When he was gone, the Generall came to the maine mast to vs, and swore by the king, that we should not come out of the stocks til we came into Spaine: within 16. dayes after we came ouer the Bar of S. Lucar, and came vp to the Hurcados, then he put vs into a pinnesse in the stocks, and sent vs prisoners to the Contratation house in Siuil. From thence after one yere we brake prison, on S. Steuens day at night, 7. of our company escaped, Robert Barret, I Iob Hortop, Iohn Emerie, Humphrey Roberts, and Iohn Gilbert were taken, and brought backe to the contratation house, where we remained in the stocks till twelfe tide was past. Then our keeper put vp a petition to the Iudge of the contratation house, that we might be sent to the great prison house in Siuil, for that we broke prison, whereupon we were presently led thither, where we remained one moneth, and from thence to the castell of the Inquisition house in Triana, where wee continued one yere: which expired, they brought vs out in procession, euery one of vs hauing a candle in his hand, and the coate with S. Andrewes crosse on our backs: they brought vs vp on an high scaffold, that was set vp in the place of S. Francis, which is in the chiefe street of Siuill: there they set vs downe vpon benches: euery one in his degree, and against vs on another scaffold sate all the Iudges, and the Clergy on their benches: the people wondered, and gazed on vs, some pittying our cases, others said, burne those heretikes. [Sidenote: Robert Barret and Iohn Gilbert burned.] When we had sit there two houres, we had a sermon made to vs: after which one called Bresinia, secretarie to the Inquisition, went vp into the pulpit with the processe, and called Robert Barret and Iohn Gilbert, whom two familiars of the Inquisition brought from the scaffold before the Iudges, where the secretarie read the sentence, which was that they should be burnt, and so they returned to the scaffold, and were burnt. [Sidenote: Job Hortop his condemnation.] Then I Job Hortop, and Iohn Bone were called, and brought to the place, as before, where we heard our sentence, which was, that we should go to the Gallies, and there row at the oares ende ten yeeres, and then to be brought backe to the Inquisition house, to haue the coate with S. Andrewes crosse put on our backs, and from thence to goe to the euerlasting prison remedilesse, and so we were returned from the scaffold from whence we came. Thomas Marks, and Thomas Ellis were called, and had sentence to serue in the Galleys eight yeeres, and Humphrey Roberts, and Iohn Emery to serue fiue yeeres, and so were returned to the benches on the scaffold, where we sate till foure of clocke in the afternoone. Then we were led againe to the Inquisition house, from whence we were brought. The next day in the morning Bresinia the treasurer came thither to vs, and deliuered to euery one of vs his sentence in writing. I with the rest were sent to the Gallies, where we were chained foure and foure together: euery mans daily allowance was 26 ounces of course blacke bisket and water, our clothing for the whole yeere two shirts, two paire of breeches of course canuas, a red coat of course cloth, soone on, and soone off, and a gowne of haire with a friers hood: our lodging was on the bare boords, and banks of the Gallies, our heads and beards were shauen euery month, hunger, thirst, cold, and stripes we lacked none, til our seueral times expired. And after the time of 12. yeeres, for I serued two yeeres aboue my sentence, I was sent backe to the Inquisition House in Siuill, and there hauing put on the coat with S. Andrewes crosse, I was sent to the euerlasting prison remedilesse, where I wore the coat 4. yeeres, and then vpon great suit, I had it taken off for 50 duckets, which Hernando de Soria treasurer of the kings mint lent me, whom I serued for it as a drudge 7. yeres, and vntil the moneth of October last, 1590. and then I came from Siuill to S. Lucar, where I made meanes to come away in a flie-boat, that was laden with wines and salt, which were Flemings goods, the king of Spaines subiects, dwelling in Siuil, maried to Spanish women, and sworne to their king. In this moneth of October last departing from S. Lucar, at sea, off the southermost Cape, we met an English ship, called the Galeon Dudley, who took the Flemming, and me out of him, and brought me to Portsmouth, where they set me on land, the 2. day of December last past, 1590. From thence I was sent by M. Muns the lieutenant of Portsmouth, with letters to the R. honourable the Earle of Sussex, who commanded his secretary to take my name and examination, how long I had bene out of England, and with whom I went, which he did. And on Christmas euen I took my leaue of his honour, and came to Redriffe. The Computation of my imprisonment. I suffered imprisonment in Mexico two yeeres. In the Contratation house in Siuill one yeere. In the Inquisition house in Triana one yeere. I was in the Gallies twelue yeeres. In the euerlasting prison remediles, with the coat with S. Andrews crosse on my back 4. yeres. And at libertie I serued as a drudge Hemando de Soria 3. yeeres, which is the full complement of 23. yeeres. Since my departure from England, vntill this time of my returne, I was fiue times in great danger of death, besides the many perils I was in, in the Gallies. First in the Port of Saint John de Vllua, where being on shore, with many other of our company, which were all slaine sauing I, and two other that by swimming got aboord the Jesus of Lubek. Secondly, when we were robbed by the wild Indians. Thirdly, after we came to Mexico, the vice roy would haue hanged vs. Fourthly, because he could not haue his mind to hang vs, he would haue burnt vs. Fiftly, the Generall that brought vs into Spaine, would haue hanged vs at sea. Thus hauing truely set downe vnto you my trauels, misery and dangers, endured the space of 23. yeeres, I ende. A relation of the Hauen of Tecuanapa, a most conuenient place for building of ships, situate vpon the South sea not farre from Nicaragua, which was sent vnto the viceroy of Mexico or to the king of Spaine: wherein are described the riuers of Ometepec, Tlacamama, and Tlacolula falling into the said Hauen, with the townes, people, and mountaines adioyning to the said riuers, and other things fit for the building and victualling of ships. The Port and small harbour of Tecuanapa hath in the driest time of Sommer in the chanell little lesse then one fathome at low water, and at full sea one fathome and an halfe: in the time of raine, with the increasing of the land-water it hath three fathoms and more. It lyeth toward the West, and there the Bishopricks of Guaxacan and Tlarcali are separated. From hence toward the point called Punta de Intla and Dordaci there is a Bay 2. leagues distant, which though it be no special harbour, yet vpon an extremity ships may come and ride there, as in times past they haue done. This Bay on the right hand toward the North maketh a lake somewhat large towards the midst of the chanell, and in some parts deepe, but specially on the side of Cuahintla, but on either side it is but shallow. As you passe betweene the sea and certaine great and large woods of orenge trees, and trees of other nature which grow along the sea coast, which are of no great bredth, al the countrey appeareth very open: howbeit on the side of Cuahintla the mountaines haue many creeks and a small lake called Tulaningo, and the countrey cannot be trauelled, except you take the way betweene the sea and the end of this lake, which may be about two leagues of sandy way. And on the North side there is another small creeke. And going by the sands side one quarter of a league, you come to the way that leadeth vnto Quacapotla a mansion of Intla. The riuer of Ometepec being the principal riuer which commeth to this hauen hath his head in the mountaines of Xicayan de Touer about 24 leagues from this hauen from diuers brooks which come out of the mountaines of Cacatepec, and beneath a towne called Suchistlahuaca litle more then 3. leagues all the brooks ioyne together: and from that place you may passe downe to the sea with Canoas and Lighters; and you might come farther but for the fall of a furious streame or current which runeth between two great rocks, passing from Cocahulapa a mansion of Ometepec vnto Yanguitle a mansion of the said Ometepec. These inconueniences being past (which in my iudement may be about one league) the Riuer is more nauigable, so that you may sayle in the same about 12. leagues. During the space of which 12 leagues, about a league and a halfe distance from the waters side, and in many other parts of the same riuer it hath great quantitie of woods which vse to grow in hot soiles, fit for ship-timber, as Huber-trees, and Suchicuhitil, whereof they of Nicaragua make great profit. Also there be white okes and Tehegurtes in great quantitie, and many other kinds of timber: and in the mountaines there be firre-trees, okes, and cork-trees, which easily may bee caried downe the riuer, because they may be cut some 2, 3, 4, and 5. leagues from the riuer, and may be brought downe to the waters side with the seruice and helpe of those that dwell in the townes thereabout. At the head of these brooks where the riuer beginneth is the towne which is called Xicaian, belonging to the heires of Francis de Touer y de Guillen, containing about 350 Indians of rude speech and of little policie, being 24. leagues from the sea, little more or lesse. The place it selfe is hot, although the mountaines round about be cold. [Sidenote: Aionapa.] A little from this is the towne of Aioanapa possessed by the heirs of Perez Gomez, hauing in it about 300. Indians of the selfe same speach and qualitie. The countrey is more subiect to heate then cold; yet hath it neere it cold countrey and mountaines. It is distant from Xicaian de Touer 4. leagues, and from the sea 20. leagues. Sixe leagues downeward toward the South is the towne of Suchistlahuaca on the said riuer, and the inhabitants are of the same speach and qualities. The countrey is more subiect to heate then cold. It is in the charge of Gonzaluo Fernandez a citizen of Mexico, and hath about 150. Indians, and is 15. leagues distant from the sea. From this towne vnto the towne of Ometepec are 6 leagues. The place is very hot, and in the same gouernment, and is situate betweene certaine hils one league from the riuer: he and his followers haue vnder them about 700. Indians, which speake the Ayacastecan, Amusgan, and Niciecan tongues, and this place is from the sea nine leagues. From this towne vnto Ihualapa are two great leagues: it is in the gouernment of the heires of Laurence de Castro, of the foresaid temperature, and the people vse the said language, and are of the like stature: and it standeth three leagues from the riuer, and from the sea ten leagues. These are the best townes, and of the best traffique that are vpon all this coast. The Indians are rich in Cacao and victuals, and in these townes doe the Indians of Niciecan principally trade. And in the towns of Ihualapa the chiefe Aguazil of the prouince is resident for the most part of the yeere. More lowe beneath the riuer of Tlacolula, about a league or a league and an halfe from the towne of Ometepec is the towne called Pio, which was wont to be a towne of Tlacolula, and was a frontier towne against the Mexicans. There be in it about 50. Indians of the ancient inhabitants: one Grauiel de Chiauez a citizen of Mexico hath the gouernement thereof: it is 4. leagues from Ihualapa, and 6. from the sea. A little below this is the towne of Huehuatlan in the selfe same gouernement standing one league from the riuer on certaine high hils: it hath 10. Indians, and is from the sea 5. leagues. And one league from this towne stands the towne of Cuahacapotla a mansion of Antla or Intla: it hath to the number of 15. Indians; it standeth one league and a halfe from the riuer, and 4. leagues, from the mouth thereof. At the fountaines or heads of the rest of the brooks is the towne of Cacatepec being in the gouernment of Raphael de Treyo: he and his tenants haue vnder them some 700. Indians of Niciecan: it is from the sea some 22. leagues. The riuer which is called Tlacamama commeth from the mountains of Atoyaque and Amusgos, which are some 17. leagues from the sea. There it maketh a formed riuer, so big, that it is nauigable to the sea with canoas and lighters: I say from a litle below Tolistlahuaca a mansion of Xicaian. It is nauigable 8 moneths in the yeere, and the other 4. not, because that the sands of the plaines do soke and drink vp the water in such wise, that there remaineth so little, that there is no passage: howbeit in small lighters timber may bee brought downe this riuer one league from the place where it is cut, vnto the place that I haue spoken of; whereas bigger vessels may bee made; for nigh vnto that place other brooks and running waters doe ioyne and meet, which make it a maine riuer. It hath nigh vnto it in the mountaines of Atoyaque, Cacatepec, and Amusgos many woods of pine-trees, cork-trees, and okes of great bignesse: and beneath those mountaines in the warme countrey, neere vnto the riuers there is much timber of those sorts which I mentioned before to be about the riuer of Ometepec, which may easily be cut and carried downe vnto Tecuanapa in the time before specified. This riuer hath likewise townes adioyning to it; the first at the foote of the mountaines is the town of Atoiaque belonging to the king, and to the heires of Pronetto: their language is Niciecan, the countrey hot, the people politique, and it is from the sea 15. leagues. It hath about 200. Indians. One league from this towne, and 14. from the sea is the towne of Xicaian belonging likewise to the king, and to the heires of Pronetto. They are Niciecan people and very comely, and in a hot countrey. It hath by account 300. Indians. There are resident in it the Vicar and Iustice; it is from the riuer a league and a halfe. A league from this towne, and 14. from the sea is situate the mansion of Pinotespan subiect to Tututepec, which hath with the manors subject vnto it 500. Indians. Two leagues from the towne, and one from Xicayan, and 13. from Tecuanapa, and 3. from the riuer is the towne of Tlacamama: the people are very comely, and politique. It containeth some 100. Indians, and belongeth to the king. More toward the South 5. leagues from the riuer, and two from this towne, and 14. from the sea is the towne called Pinotespan del Rey: They are handsome people, but of slow speach: this towne conteineth about 100. Indians like the former. They be wealthie, because they make great quantitie of salte; for they haue a lake in which salte groweth vnder the water, (a thing repugnant to nature, that two contraries doe grow and are conserued together) whereout they take it in breaking it with stones vpon the ground vnder the water. It hath also the towne of Amusgos, which is in the gouernment of Fernando de Auila, which may be from Tecuanapa 18. leagues. They speake the Amusgan tongue. The countrey is hotte: it standeth on the highway from Nicieca: it hath 400. Indians, few more or lesse. These are all the townes of account situate neere this riuer. Neere vpon this riuer are two farmes, the one belonging to Pedro Brauo, and the other to him that maketh this relation vnto your Excellencie, which may be from the sea some 8. or 9. leagues all plaine ground. And in this territorie there is but one towne called Quesala situate vpon the riuer, and 6. leagues from the sea; which in times past hath beene a great towne, and now hath but three Indians onely, and it is from the farmes 3. leagues. The mansion house of Don Mattheo is more toward the South, standing in a mountainous and waste countrey, which aboundeth with cattell being 3. leagues from the riuer; and as farre from Tecuanapa, as from the place where all the cattel is; and the sea that way is from it but one league. A little below this mansion about 4. leagues, and 7. leagues from the sea, is a garden of Alonso Pedraza which beareth Cacao. And 2. leagues from this garden, and 6. leagues from the sea standeth the towne of Cuahintlan belonging to the king a towne of 19 housholds, but very rich, for they gather much Cacao and the best in that countrey. They speake the Tlapanecan tongue. This towne hath the sea that way within halfe a league. [Sidenote: Huatulco or Guatulco in 15. deg and 50. minutes.] And this coast from Cuahintlan to Tecuanapa, and the coast which runneth to Huatulco is a coast of much pearle, for in olde time the Indians gathered much pearle there. And 2 leagues from Cuahintlan and 4. from Tecuanapa is a garden of Cacao in the landes of Francisco Maldonado, which is called Cacahu-Atoyaque. These are the things worthy of relation from the head springs of this riuer of Tlacamama vnto the sea: and this foresaid riuer entreth into the riuer of Ometepec 5. leagues from Tecuanapa. The riuer of Tlacolula springeth within the boundes of Chilsiztlahuaca subiect to Comastlahuaca a towne of Suchistlahuaca, neere which are many mountaines. This riuer is nauigable little more then 2. leagues before it entreth into the riuer of Ometepec, where it is 5. leagues from the sea. Hard by it is the towne of Tlacolula abouenamed; and 3. leagues from it is the towne of Azoyoque an olde manour of Tlapa. The towne of Chilsiztlahuaca hath but 3. Indians; and the towne of Azoyoque hath more then 300. Indians. But because in this hauen must bee the building of ships, the prouince of Talpa and Tututepec may stand them in great stead; the prouince of Tututepec being neighbour to the riuer of Tlacamama, and the prouince of Tlapa to the riuer of Tlacolula. For they may, as I haue sayd, carrie the timber in lighters or rafts downe the riuers, and may vse the Indians in the townes thereabout to fell and draw the same out of the cold mountaines; for in the warm countreys the most is plaine ground, whereas with very fewe men and oxen it may be brought vnto the place where it should be imbarqued. There may come flat bottomes, and canoas vnto the townes thereabout, and lade themselues with victuals: For they haue already come by that riuer to the rode of Ometepec, and made there prouision at the mansion of Don Mattheo, and at the farmes, at that time when his Maiestie did people the plaines which are betweene these riuers, conteining a large and voyde countrey sufficient for the erecting of 20. manours, being a countrey well furnished with water and pasture without any danger or perill, according to the description hereunto annexed. This small harbour of Tecuanapa being seene and viewed, seemeth very commodious to build shippes in, by reason of the great abundance of mountaines full of good timber for that purpose, with the commodities of riuers, and with the seruice and victuals from the townes thereabout, which be very good for coast townes. The desire of him that made this relations, hath bene with zeale to serue your excellencie; who therewithall desireth the Lord God to giue the successe. CERTAINE VOYAGES NAVIGATIONS AND TRAFFIQUES BOTH ANCIENT AND OF LATE, TO DIUERS PLACES VPON THE COAST OF BRASIL: TOGETHER WITH A RUTTIER FOR ALL THAT COAST, AND TWO INTERCEPTED LETTERS WHICH REUEALE MANY SECRETS OF THE STATE OF THAT COUNTREY: THE REST OF OUR VOYAGES TO BRASIL WHICH HAUE BENE EITHER INTENDED OR PERFORMED TO THE RIUER OF PLATE, THE STREIGHT OF MAGELLAN, THE SOUTH SEA, OR FARTHER THAT WAY, BEING RESERUED FOR THE GENERALL HEADES NEXT INSUING.[21] [21] The Voyages of circumnavigation by the Straits of Magellan will be found in Vol. XV of this Edition. A briefe relation of two sundry voyages made by the worshipful M. William Haukins of Plimmouth, father to Sir Iohn Haukins knight, late Treasurer of her Majesties Nauie, in the yeere 1530 and 1532. Olde M. William Haukins of Plimmouth, a man for his wisedome, valure, experience, and skill in sea causes much esteemed, and beloued of K. Henry the 8, and being one of the principall Sea-captaines in the West parts of England in his time, not contented with the short voyages commonly then made onely to the knowne coasts of Europe, armed out a tall and goodly shippe of his owne of the burthen of 250 tunnes called the Paule of Plimmouth, wherewith he made three long and famous voyages vnto the coast of Brasil, a thing in those dayes very rare, especially to our Nation. In the course of which voyages he touched at the riuer of Sestos vpon the coast of Guinea, where hee traffiqued with the Negros, and tooke of them Elephants teeth, and other commodities which that place yeeldeth: and so arriuing on the coast of Brasil, he vsed there such discretion, and behaued himselfe so wisely with those sauage people, that he grew into great familiarity and friendship with them. [Sidenote: A king of Brasil brought into England.] Insomuch that in his second voyage, one of the sauage kings of the countrey of Brasil, was contented to take ship with him, and to be transported hither into England: whereunto M. Haukins agreed, leauing behinde in the Countrey as a pledge for his saftie and returne againe, one Martin Cockeram of Plimmouth. This Brasilian king being arrived, was brought vp to London and presented to K. Henry the 8, lying as then at White-hall: at the sight of whom the King and all the Nobilitie did not a litle maruaile, and not without cause: for in his cheekes were holes made according to their sauage maner, and therein smalle bones were planted, standing an inch out from the said holes, which in his owne Countrey was reputed for a great brauerie. He had also another hole in his nether lip wherein was set a precious stone about the bignes of a pease: All his apparel, behauiour, and gesture, were very strange to the beholders. Hauing remained here the space almost of a whole yeere, and the king with his sight fully satisfied, M. Hawkins according to his promise and appointment, purposed to conuey him againe into his countrey: but it fell out in the way, that by change of aire and alteration of diet, the said Sauage King died at sea, which was feared would turn to the losse of the life of Martin Cockeram his pledge. Neuerthelesse, the Sauages being fully perswaded of the honest dealing of our men with their prince, restored againe the said pledge, without any harme to him, or any man of the company: which pledge of theirs they brought home againe into England, with their ship fraighted, and furnished with the commodities of the countrey. Which Martin Cockeram, by the witnesse of Sir Iohn Hawkins, being an officer in the towne of Plimmouth, was liuing within these fewe yeeres.[22] [22] This Martin Cockeram is introduced by Kingsley in Chapter XXX of "Westward Ho!" Indeed the principal incidents of that novel are nothing but extracts from Hakluyt's Collection; in many passages, the only difference being the use of modern phraseology. An ancient voyage of M. Robert Reniger and M. Thomas Borey to Brasil in the yeere of our Lord 1540. I Haue bene certainly informed by M. Anthony Garrard an ancient and worshipfull marchant of the citie of London, that this commodious and gainefull voyage to Brasil was ordinarily and vsually frequented by M. Robert Reniger, M. Thomas Borey, and diuers other substantial and wealthy merchants of Southampton, about 60. yeeres past, that is to say in the yeere 1540. A voyage of one Pudsey to Baya in Brasil anno 1542. [Sidenote: A fort built in Brasil by the English.] Also the worshipfull M. Edward Cotton of Southampton Esquire gaue mee more particularly to vnderstand, how that one Pudsey of Southampton, a man of good skill and resolution in marine causes, made a voyage in like maner 62. yeeres agoe to Baya de todos los Santos the principall towne of all Brasil, and the seate of the Portugal vice-roy and of the bishop, and that he built a fort not farre distant from that place in the foresaid yeere 1542.[23] [23] If the voyage of Pudsey took place 62 years before Hakluyt published his third volume, the date of it must have been 1538, not 1542. A letter written to M. Richard Staper by Iohn Whithal from Santos in Brasil, the 26. of Iune 1578. Worshipfull sir, and welbeloued friend M. Staper, I haue me most heartily commended vnto you, wishing your health euen as mine owne. These few words may bee to let you vnderstand, that whereas I wrote vnto you not many dayes past by the way of Lisbon, howe that I determined to bee with you very shortly, it is in this countrey offered mee to marry, and to take my choice of three or foure: so that I am about three dayes agoe consorted with an Italian gentleman to marry with his daughter within these foure dayes. This my friend and father in law Signor Ioffo Dore is borne in the citie of Geneua in Italy:[24] his kindred is well knowen amongst the Italians in London: also hee hath but onely this childe which is his daughter, which hee hath thought better bestowed vpon mee then on any Portugal in all the countrey, and doeth giue with her in marriage to me part of an Ingenio which he hath, that doeth make euery yeere a thousand roues of sugar. This my mariage will be worth to me two thousand duckets, little more or lesse. Also Signor Ioffo Dore my father in law doeth intende to put into my handes the whole Ingenio with sixtie or seuentie slaues, and thereof to make me factor for vs both. I giue my liuing Lord thankes for placing me in such honour and plentifulnesse of all things. [24] Of course this it intended for Genoa. Also certaine dayes past I talked with the Prouedor and the Captaine, and they haue certified me, that they haue discouered certaine Mines of siluer and gold, and looke euery day for Masters to come to open the said Mines: which when they be opened will inrich this countrey very much. [Sidenote: Mines of gold and siluer newly discouered at S. Vincent.] This place is called S. Vincent, and is distant from you two thousand leagues, and in 24. degrees of latitude on the South side of the Equinoctial line, and almost vnder the Tropike of Capricorne. A countrey it is very healthful without sicknesse. Moreouer, I haue talked with the Captaine and Prouedor, and my father in law, who rule all this countrey, for to haue a ship with goods to come from London hither, which haue promised mee to giue mee licence, saying that nowe I am free denizen of this countrey. To cause a ship to come hither with such commodities as would serue this countrey, would come to great gaines, God sending in safety the profite and gaines. In such wares and commodities as you may ship hither from London is for euery one commoditie deliuered here three for one, and then after the proceed may be imployed in white sugar at foure hundred reis the roue. [Sidenote: The voyage to S. Vincent worth three for one outward only.] I meane also to haue a friend in London to send mee a ship of 60. or 70. tunnes, little more or lesse, with such commodities as I shall giue aduise for. This voyage is as good as any Peru-voyage. If you and Master Osborne will deale here, I will deale with you before any other, because of our old friendly friendship in time past. If you haue any stomacke thereto, in the name of God do you espie out a fine barke of seuentie or eightie tunnes, and send her hither with a Portugall Pilot to this port of S. Vincent in Brasil, bordering vpon the borders of Peru. Also I herewith write vnto you in what forme and maner you shall furnish this voyage both in commodities and otherwise. [Sidenote: In what maner a voyage to S. Vincent with a ship of 70. or 80. tunnes is to be made.] First you must lade in the said ship certaine Hampshire and Deuonshire karsies: for the which you must let her depart from London in October, and to touch in the Canaries, and there to make sale of the saide karsies, and with the proceed thereof to lade fifteene tunnes of wines that be perfect and good, and sixe dozen of Cordouan skinnes of these colours, to wit, orenge, tawnie, yellow, red, and very fine black. I thinke you shall not finde such colours there. Therefore you must cause them that shall goe vpon this voyage, to take saffron with them, to cause the same skinnes to bee put into the saide colours. Also I thinke you shall finde oyles there. Three hogsheads of sweete oyle for this voyage are very necessary, or a hundred and fiftie iarres of oyle. Also in London you may lade in the said ship these parcels of commodities or wares, as followeth: In primis, Foure peeces of hollands of middle sort. Item, One peece of fine holland. Foure hundred elles of osenbriges very fine. Foure dozen of sizzors of all sorts. Sixteene kintals of pitch of the Canaries. Twentie dozen of great kniues which be made in fardles, of a low price. Foure dozen of a small sort. Sixe peeces of bayes of the lowest sort. One very fine peece of bayes. Four hundred elles of Manchester-cottons, most blacke, greene, some yellow. Eight or tenne dozen of hats, the one halfe trimmed with taffata, the other plaine with the bands of Cypresse. Sixe dozen of course shirts. Three dozen of doublets of canuas. Three dozen of doublets of stiched canuas. One piece of fine Millan fustian barred. Sixe dozen of locks for doores and chests. Sixe thousand of all maner of fish hooks Four dozen reames of paper. Two dozen of glasses of diuers sorts. Two dozen of Venice glasses, the one halfe great, the other middle sort. Two dozen of mantles of frize, of the lowest price that can be. Three dozen of frize gownes. Foure hundred pound of tinne of the vse of Portugall, most smal dishes and trenchers. Foure pound of silke of all colours. Twentie pound of spices, cloues, cinamon, pepper, and saffron. Two kintals of white sope. Three pound of threed, white, black, and blew. Three pound of fine white threed. Item, halfe a dozen of Northerne karsies of diuers colours. Foure sorting clothes, blew, red, yellow, and green. Sixe Northerne dozens of diuers colours. One fine blew cloth of eight pound. One fine stamell of tenne or twelue pound. One fine sheeps coloured cloth of twelue pound. One fine blacke karsie. One fine stamell karsie. Sixe yards of blacke veluet. Three barrels of nailes for chests. Two barrels of nailes for ships and barks. Sixe kintals of Occom. Two dozen of veluet girdles without hangers. Foure yards of taffata red, blacke, and blew, with some greene. Two dozen of leather girdles. Sixe dozen of axes, hatches, and small billes to cut wood. Foure mases of gitterne strings. Foure hundred or fiue hundreds elles of some linnen cloth that is of a low price to make shirts and sheets. Foure tunne of yron. These be such sort of wares as I would you should send. If you meane to deale, or send any ship hither, haue you no doubt, but by the helpe of God I shall put all things in good order according to your contentment and profit: for my father in lawe with the Captaine and Prouedor doe rule this countrey. My father in law and I shal (God willing) make a good quantitie of sugar euery yeere, which sugar we intend to ship for London from henceforth, if we can get such a trustie and good friend as you to deale with vs in this matter. I pray you presently after the receit of this my letter to write mee answere thereof and send your letter to M. Holder to Lisbone, and he wil conuey it to me out of hand. Besides the premisses send sixe yards of skarlet, parchment lace of diuers colours. Sixe yards of crimosin veluet. Sixe yards of crimosin satten. Twelue yards of fine puke blacke. Here in this countrey in stead of Iohn Whithall they haue called me Iohn Leitoan: so that they haue vsed this name so long time, that at this present there is no remedie but it must remaine so. When you write vnto me, let the superscription be vnto Iohn Leitoan. Thus I commit you with all yours to the holy Ghost for euer. If you send this ship, I would haue you giue order that she touch in no part of the coast of Guinie nor any other coast, but to come directly hither to the port of S. Vincent, and from the Canaries let her be dispatched in my name, to wit, Iohn Leitoan. Also a dozen shirts for my wearing let be sent, if you send the ship. Item, sixe or eight pieces of sayes for mantles for women, which is the most necessary thing that can be sent. By your assured friend Iohn Whithall. A copie of the letters of the Aduenturers for Brasill sent to Iohn Whithall dwelling in Santos, by the Minion of London, Anno 1580. the 24. of October in London. Master Whithall, as vnacquainted wee commend vs vnto you, etc. vnderstanding by your friends, M. Iohn Bird, M. Robert Walkaden, and your brother Iames Whithall of certaine letters that they haue receiued of yours from Santos, which wee haue seene and read, wherein from time to time you doe require, and desire them to send a good ship to Santos, with such wares and commodities as you did write for, whereby you did not onely promise that they should haue good intertainment, but also should sell the saide commodities to make three of one outward at the least in euery thing, and that for to relade their ship backe, they should haue of the best, finest, and whitest drie sugars 32. pound of our weight for a ducket at the most. The premises considered, with the great credit that they and we doe giue to your writing and promise, haue caused vs, whose names be hereunder written, to ioyne our selues in company together, and to be at great charges purposely to send this good ship the Minion of London, not onely with such marchandizes as you wrote for, but also with as many other things as we thought might any wayes pleasure you, or profit the country. And we craue of you, that we and our factors may haue so much credite of you, as we haue in you and of your letters, which is to beleeue vs that we haue taken this voyage vpon vs, with no other minde or purpose, then to deale faithfully and truely in the trade by sea and land, so as you shall not onely haue cause to reioyce, and deserue thanks for our comming, but also you wil procure the magistrates there to be bound, as they vse in Galicia, that we may be preserued and defended from all reprisals and imbargements of princes or subiects for any causes or matters whatsoeuer, whereby wee may bee incouraged by them, giuing vs this securitie of good intertainment, to continue the trade yeerely henceforth: and for our parts we promise upon our credits and fidelities, to commit no outrage at the sea nor land, nor suffer any to be done in our company that we may let, but rather to defend and protect all other such peaceable marchants as we are, with their ships and goods. And to the ende that you and others shall know that wee meane as we say, we haue giuen order to our factors to giue you good hostages for your assurance of our good fidelities: and further we haue sent a testimoniall of our owne true meaning in writing vnder the seales of this honourable Citie of London, which we wil not discredite by our behauiours for all the treasure that you haue: and so we haue written to your magistrates of your port, and others in Spanish, the copy whereof we send you herewith enclosed in English. And if the time should fal out so contrary to our expectations, that there should not be fine white sugar sufficient to lade our ship in due time at Santos, then we pray you direct our factours where they may goe with the shippe in safetie to supply their want, and helpe them to a good sure Pilot for that purpose, and write your letters to your friends where the best sugar is made in their fauors, and helpe our factours to haue a testimoniall from Santos, that they and you traded together friendly, and so departed in good and perfect amitie, and shew them that the iust cause of our comming is to trade as marchants peaceably, and not as Pirates to commit any offence to one or other. Also we pray you, if there be any store of waxe, or salt-peeter, whereby the price there may yeeld vs as much profit as the white sugars at a ducket the roue, or any other commodity of like profite, then to procure that we may lade it without danger of lawe, be it oare of golde or siluer or whatsoeuer else. We haue sent you copper cauldrons for your Ingenios, with iron and all other necessaries for your purpose, and artificers to set the same: and as wee haue at your request bene at great charges in sending these men, so we pray you let vs haue lawful fauour in like courtesie to further all our causes. And if any of our Mariners or passengers in any respect of displeasure against their company, or in hope of preferment of mariage or otherwise would procure to tary and dwell there, and leaue his charge and office, that then you will bee a meane to the Iustice that such fugitives should be sent abord the ship as prisoners: for as you know, without our men wee cannot bring home our ship. Wee haue giuen order to our factours to vse your counsell and helpe in their affaires, and to gratifie you for the same as to your courtesie and faithfull friendship shall appertaine to your good liking: and in the meane time for a token of our good willes towards you, we haue sent you a fieldbed of walnut tree, with the canopy, valens, curtaines, and gilt knops. And if there be any commoditie else that may pleasure you or your friends, wee haue giuen order that they shall haue the refusing of it before any other, giuing for it as it is worth. And thus to conclude, promising to performe all the foresaide things on our parts in euery condition, we commit you to God, who euer preserue you with all his blessings. Your louing friends: Christopher Hodsdon.[25], Anthonie Garrard, Thomas Bramlie, Iohn Bird, William Elkin. [25] For a very curious account of the family of "Hodsdon" or "Hudson," consult the "Life of Henry Hudson" in the publications of the Clarendon Historical Society for 1883. Certaine notes of the voyage to Brasil with the Minion of London aforesaid, in the yere 1580. written by Thomas Grigs Purser of the said ship. The thirde day of Nouember in the yeere abouesaid we departed in the Minion of London from Harwich, from which time no great thing worth the knowledge or regard of others happened vntil the 22. of December the next moneth, which day for our owne learning and vse wee obserued the setting of the Sunne, which was West southwest, we then being vnder the line Equinoctiall, where we found the aire very temperate, and the winde for the most part Southeast and East southeast. The same day we also obserued the rising of the moone, being one day after the full, which rose at East northeast.---- The first land that wee fell with vpon the coast of Brasill was the yland of S. Sebastian, where we arriued the 14. day of Ianuary in the yeere 1581.[26] [26] South West of Rio de Janeiro. The 16. day Thomas Babington, and others in our pinnesse, went a shoare to Guaybea, where they met with Iohn Whithall his father and mother in lawe, who hauing receiued letters from thence to be deliuered at Santos, came abord, and then we weyed and set saile, and the 28. day wee arriued at the yland of Santa Catelina, neere the entrance of Santos. Our course from S. Sebastian was Southwest and by West, and betwixt the Southwest and by West, and West southwest. This yland of Santa Catelina seemeth at the first to be a part of the yland of Girybia. Wee ankered at nine fathome blacke osie ground. Vpon the yland there grow many Palmito-trees, but no fresh water is there to be found. The third day of February we arriued before the towne of Santos, and were there well received and intertained of the Captaine, the kings officers, and all the people. The fourth day we tooke into our ship a beefe aliue, which for the victualling of the ship, and the refreshing of our men, and to make vs the merrier at Shrouetide. The eight day we deliuered to M. Iohn Whithall a bedstead with the appurtenances, which were sent to him from our marchants of London. The 18. day the captaine of Santos came abord our ship, by whom we had knowledge of foure great French ships of warre, that had bene at the riuer of Ienero, which there tooke three Canoas, but were driuen from thence by their castles and forts, and were looked for here at Santos. Whereupon the Captaine requested vs to lend them some armour and artillery, and we lent them twentie caliuers and two barrels of powder. [Sidenote: The yle of Alcatrarzas or Pelicanes.] The 19. day our skiffe which we had sent to Alcatrarzas, and had bene away sixe dayes, came againe, and brought good store of great and good fish, and tolde vs that there was good store of fish to be taken there by the hooke, and as much wood as we would haue of the Palmito-tree. The 20. day at night Nicholas Gale, one of our company, fell ouer our shippes side, and was drowned in the port of Santos before the towne, where our ship rode at anker. The 22. day two of the Canoas which the Frenchmen tooke in the riuer of Ienero, returned to Santos, and reported that the foure French ships were past to the southwards, as they thought, for the Straights of Magellan, and so into the South sea. The 23. day the aforesaid Nicholas Gale, who fell ouerboard two days before, was found againe, and taken vp three miles from our ship, and our company went to his buriall in the Church at Santos. This day the Captaine and Iustices of Santos wished vs to tary in their road till the last of April, for they had sent a barke of Santos to Baya at the kings charges, to know whether we should haue trade there or no, and this barke could not returne before that time. About this time there arriued at Fernambuck[27] a shippe from Portugall, which brought newes that the Islands, Indies, and Portugall it selfe was molested and troubled by the Spaniards, and that the Portugales had both English and Frenchmen to Lisbone to defend them against Spaine. [27] Pernambuco. The 25. day wee sent two of our men, namely Thomas Michael and Simon Thorne to Baya in a barke that went thither from Santos. The two and twentie day of April our Master and Thomas Babington hauing some talke and conference with the Padres of Santos, they (our men being ready to go to the Riuer of Ienero) tolde them, that they were sorry for our banishment from the Church, and that the Ministrador had written from Rio de Ienero, that forasmuch as these twentie yeres or more the English nation had denied the Church of Rome and her proceedings, therefore the Ministrador commanded that none of vs should come to their Church: the Padres willed vs herein to haue patience, and to take it in good part, and promised to stand our friends in their word and writing, both to the Ministrador and to the bishop at Baya, and further requested all our English company to haue no ill opinion of them. The 28. of April we laded sugars into our ship. The 21. of May we tooke in fresh victuals from Santos. The 10. day of Iune we gratified one Iosto Thorno, dwelling in Santos, with some of our English victuals, and intertained him in good sort in our ship, and this day wee were promised to haue a Pilot at Santos to cary vs to Baya. [Sidenote: Leaks in the Minion made by wormes.] The 11. day we went to fish, to make prouision for our ship and men, and from that time til the eighteenth day wee fet water, and cut wood for our fire, and trimmed our ship of the harmes and leakes which the wormes had made in her while wee ridde at the yland of S. Sebastian, and in the meane time we departed from before the towne of Santos. Our Master sent his skiffe from the barre of Santos, thinking to haue brought Thomas Babington and William Euet with the Pilot, which wee had tarried for three dayes: and as the skiffe was going, William Euet being by the Riuers side, called to our pinnesse, and sent a letter to our Master, [Sidenote: Whose name was Stephen Hare.] which Thomas Babington had written, wherein were no newes, but that the Ministrador was arriued at Santos from the Riuer of Ienero, and would speake with our Master, but he willed that whatsoeuer Thomas Babington did write, no credit should be giuen to it. And further he wished vs presently to depart for Sant Sebastian, and there to dispatch our businesse, and then to sende backe for Babington and himselfe to Guaybea, where he (if he were well) would giue his attendance to come abord. [Sidenote: Their departure from Santos.] As we rid two leagues a sea-bord the barre of Santos, wee broke a cable in the open sea, which happened the 15. day of this moneth. We arriued at S. Sebastian the 15. day, and there shifted our balast, and had in stones, and halled our ship a ground to stop our leakes, and caried our casks a shoare to be hooped for water, which indeed might better haue bene done in Santos, before the Ministrador came thither: yet we finished all things pertaining to our ship, by the 22 of this moneth, at S. Sebastian. The first day of Iuly Thomas Babington came abord with William Euet, in our pinnesse, and the rest of our men that went for them: but there was no Pilot brought according to promise to cary vs to Baya. The things that we obserued and noted in the time of our being at Santos, were these. All such wares and marchandizes as owe no custome in Brasill, their vse is, to set a price vpon the same, how they shalbe sold: which is done by the magistrates of the towne, according to the ordinances of their King. But for all such marchandizes as do owe custome there, the marchants are to sell them according as they may, to the greatest profit and aduantage that they can. Concerning the prouince of Peru, wee learned that one part of it by land and water is but twelue dayes iourney from the towne of Santos, and from thence it may be about foure or fiue dayes iourney by water to the maine riuer of Plate.[28] From the head of the riuer of Plate, and from their chiefe townes there, they do trade and trafique by land into Peru by waggons, and horses or mules. The said riuer of Plate is so full of sands and dangers, and the fresh so fierce sometimes, that no shipping dares to deale with it, small barks to their knowledge may go vp it, and not els. The Portugales here cannot be suffered to vse their Mines of treasure in these parts, vpon paine of death, the contrary being commanded by the king and the Vice-roy, who is as their king in place of authoritie. About twentie leagues from Santos there is a certaine kinde of wilde Sauages, lying in the mountaines, which are in friendship with the Portugales, and they haue continuall warres with certaine other Sauages that dwell towards the borders of Peru, which is distant from Santos about 400. or 500. leagues. Those Sauages of Peru haue store of gold and siluer, but they knowe not the vse of it. Looke what Sauages of their enemies they take, they sell them to the Portugales for kniues, combes, axes or hatchets, and other trifles: they will sell one for a pennie-knife to a Portugal, and after two yeeres they are worth twentie or thirtie duckets to the Portugal. This people haue also continuall warres with the Spaniards: and this was tolde vs by one of those Sauages, which hath dwelt among the Portugales these seuen yeeres, with his master called Sennor Manoel Veloso. And this fellowe would willingly haue come with vs for England. [28] Paraguay is probably meant. The river of that name, which ultimately flows into the Sea as Rio de la Plata, is about 700 miles distant from Santos. [Sidenote: The yle of Alcatrarzas or Pelicanes dangerous for rocks.] There are certaine rockes that lie off betweene the yle of Alcatrarzas and S. Sebastian, about two leagues, which are to be taken heed of, which a farre off in faire weather shewe like the sailes of ships. There are other rocks that lie off S. Catelina also fiue leagues to the East and by south into the sea off the yland. At our comming vp to Santos we found foure fadom and a halfe water in the shallowest place, and the like we found within a league after we were departed from S. Catelina, litle more or lesse, but after you haue runne in the depth of foure fadome and a halfe, about a mile or lesse, then you shall haue it deeper againe more and more. Before the towne of Santos we rode in eight or tenne fadome water. A letter of Francis Suares to his brother Diego Suares dwelling in Lisbon, written from the riuer of Ienero in Brasill in Iune 1596. concerning the exceeding rich trade newly begunne betweene that place and Peru, by the way of the Riuer of Plate, with small barks of 30. and 40. tunnes. Sir, we set saile from Lisbon the fourth of April 1596. and arriued here in this riuer of Ienero the twentie seuenth of Iune next ensuing. And the same day the Visitadores did visit our ship with great ioy, thinking that those commodities which wee brought with vs, had bene for the marchants of this countrey: but it prooued to the contrary. [Sidenote: Wine solde at an excessiue rate.] The pilot brought with him in the sayd shippe two pipes of wine which were taken from him, and solde by the Iustice for foure and twenty reals euery gallon. But I solde mine for two and thirty and sixe and thirty reals the gallon. If I had brought any great store of wine, I should haue made a great gaine of it: for I should haue gotten eight reals for one. The next day in the morning we went all on shore, and gaue God thanks for our prosperous voyage, and good successe which he had sent vs. And because the gouernour of this countrey was gone from this Towne to another house of his, three leagues vp into the riuer beyond the place where we rode at anker, I desired the captaine of our shippe after dinner, that we might take the shippe boat, and goe to the place where the gouernour did lie. And so going vp the riuer, we met with a canoa which was comming downe the riuer, and going aboard our shippe; which canoa was laden with fresh victuals, and in the same was one Portugall, which met vs, and tolde vs that the gouernour of that captaine shippe had sent vs a present, which we receiued very thankefully, and sent it aboord. And we went vp the riuer, to the place where the gouernour did dwell; and comming to the place where we landed, hard by the riuers side, the gouernour came thither and receiued vs very courteously. So we remained at his house two days, talking of many matters of Portugall: then we departed from him, and came downe the riuer. Three dayes after, I hired a ware-house by my selfe, and landed my commodities. And now I am selling them as fast as I can; and sell them very well, and to great profit: for I haue sold all our hats. I would I had brought forty or fifty dozen, by reason of the great vtterance of them vp into Peru, and into the new kingdome of Granada, by the way of the riuer of Plate. [Sidenote: A rich trade from the riuer of Ienero by the riuer of Plate into Peru, etc.] For here is passage euery three or foure moneths with barks of thirty and forty tunnes a piece, which are laden with sugars, rice, taffataes, hats, and other kindes of commodities of this countrey, which are caried vp the sayd riuer of Plate in the sayd barks, and thence are conueyed vp into Peru. And these barks are but tenne or twelue days going vp the sayd riuer to Peru. And within foure and fiue moneths after, the sayd barkes come downe this riuer againe laden with reals of plate, and bring downe from those places no other commodities but treasure. [Sidenote: The shortnesse of the returne of the voyage to Peru.] It is a woonderfull thing to behold the great gaine and profit which is gotten in this riuer and in this countrey. I am ashamed to write it, fearing that I shall not be beleeued. For the imployment of one hundred ducats in spaine, being brought hither, will yeeld twelue hundred and fifteene hundred ducats profit. This trade hath beene vsed but within this yeere. [Sidenote: The rich trade was begunne in the yere 1595.] For wee can goe vp to the mines of Potosi, which are the best and the richest mines in all Peru.[29] If the merchants of Spaine and Portugall did know this trade, they would not send nor venture so much merchandise to Cartagena as they doe. For vp this riuer is a great deale the neerer way, and the easier to go to Peru. For the Peruleros or merchants of Peru, which dwell there, come downe to this harbour and riuer of Ienero, and bring with them fifteene thousand and twentie thousand ducats in reals of plate and gold, and imploy it heere in this riuer in commodities: and when heere are no commodities to be had for money in this place, then these merchants of Peru, are constrained to go to Baia and Fernambuc, and there to imploy their money. [Sidenote: The voyage of Angola in Africa.] I would I had brought good store of silks, and not these kinde of commodities which I did bring. For here is more profit to be had a great deale then in the voyage of Angola. For heere with fiue hundred ducats in fiue moneths space a man may get sixe thousand ducats. And this is no fable, but most true, and a great deale more then I can expresse. For a rapier Which doeth cost in Spaine foure and twenty and sixe and twenty reals, is sold heere for forty and fifty ducats: a bridle for a horse is solde for fifteene ducats; a lock of a doore and the key is solde for ten ducats: a pound of beniamin is solde for fifteene ducats: a yard of veluet is solde for twenty and fiue and twenty ducats: taffataes are solde for sixe and seuen ducats the vare: an ownce of muske, is solde for forty ducats: and all kinde of commodities after this rate. [Sidenote: Gaine of ten thousand ducats for the laying out of one thousand.] So one thousand ducats of Spanish commodities will gaine tenne thousand ducats. Thus I hope in God to make more profit and gaine this voyage, then in two voyages to Angola: for I haue solde most of my hats for two duckets and a halfe and for three ducats. The rest I will cary to Angola, to helpe to sell the rest of my commodities, which I cannot sell in this riuer. And I haue solde an hundred cubits of broad cloth for fiue hundred and fiue hundred and fifty and sixe hundred reys the cubit. [Sidenote: A trade of buying Negros in Angola.] If I would haue solde all my cloth for ready money tolde downe for foure hundred and fifty and fiue hundred reyes, the merchants would haue bought it all of me: but I would sell no more, because I meant to exchange it in Angola for Negros. Howbeit with ready money in hand in Angola a man shall buy better Negros, and better cheape. The captaine of our ship solde all his cloth for ready money for fore hundred and fifty reys the cubit, and thought that he had made a good market, but he hath deceiued himselfe. I solde six broad clothes for fiue hundred and fifty reys the cubit: and I was offered thirty thousand reys for a cloth. Vineger is solde for two and thirty, sixe and thirty, and forty reals a iarre, by reason there is great store of limmons and orenges in the countrey: but in Angola it is more woorth. Oliues are solde for halfe a reall a piece: wherefore I hope to sell the hogshead for twenty thousand reys. In taffataes and veluets there will be gotten two hundred and fifty and three hundred for one hundred. If I had brought great store, I could haue solde it all at this rate. I haue already gotten great store of reals of plate: for it is tolde mee that money is a good commodity in Angola. But I must imploy some in meale, which is in the grinding. All the rest of my money I will send you by billes of exchange, and some part I wil imploy in sugars: for I haue sent order to Baia for that purpose. For from this place there is no shipping that doth go that way. So these letters I do send by the way of Fernambuc, and haue directed them to my cousin: for I do determine to settle my selfe here in this countrey. There is come downe from Peru, by this riuer of Plate, a merchant called Alonso Ramires, and he hath brought downe with him ten or twelue thousand ducats in reals of plate, and is come downe to this place to build him a ship to returne into Spaine; and there is come in his company a bishop. And thus Iesus Christ send you long health. Your louing brother Francis Suares. [29] By Peru, Bolivia is here meant, Potosi can be reached from Rio de la Plata by ascending the river Paraguay to its junction with the Pilcomayo, and thence ascending that river. The well gouerned and prosperous voyage of M. Iames Lancaster, begun with three ships and a galley-frigat from London in October 1594, and intended for Fernambuck, the porte-towne of Olinda in Brasil. In which voyage (besides the taking of nine and twenty ships and frigats) he surprized the sayd port-towne, being strongly fortified and manned; and held possession thereof thirty dayes together (notwithstanding many bolde assaults of the enemy both by land and water) and also prouidently defeated their dangerous and almost ineuitable fireworks. Heere he found the cargazon or freight of a rich East Indian carack; which together with great abundance of sugars, Brasil-wood, and cotton he brought from thence; lading therewith fifteene sailes of tall ships and barks. In September 1594 the worshipfull M. Iohn Wats, alderman, M. Paul Banning, alderman, and others of worship in the city of London, victualled three good ships; to wit, The Consent, of the burden of 240 tunnes or thereabout, The Salomon, of 170 tunnes, and the Virgin, of 60 tunnes: and appointed for commanders in this voyage, M. Iames Lancaster of London, gentleman, admirall of the fleet, M. Edmund Barker of London, viceadmirall, and M. Iohn Audely of Poplar neere London rereadmirall, hauing in their sayd ships to the number of 275 men and boyes. Being fully furnished with all needfull prouision, wee departed from Blackwall in October following, keeping our owne coast, vntill we came into the West countrey, where we met with such gusts and stormes, that the Salomon spending her mast at the Range of Dartmouth, put into harbour; but by the earnest care and industry of the generall and others hauing charge, she was shortly againe prouided. Which done, hauing a pleasant gale for our purpose, we put foorth from Dartmouth the last of Nouember following. But contrary to our expectation, not fifty leagues from our owne coast, we lost the Salomon and the Virgin, by a storme of contrary winde that fell vpon vs: yet being alone, in hope to meet them about the Canaries or Cape Blank, we kept on our course to the Canaries, but could heare no tidings of our consorts, which greatly grieued vs. Thence we went, bearing for the isle of Tenerif, where in the morning early we had sight of a saile, which being becalmed vnder the shore, was towing with their boat a head, hauing one other at her sterne. For this saile we manned our boat, appointing our men wel for fight, if need should require. The Spaniards seeing our boat come, entred theirs, and leauing the ship, sought to saue themselues by flight: but our men pursued them so fast, that they boorded them, and brought them with their shippe to our Generall. This ship was laden with 80 tunnes of Canary-wine, which came not vnto vs before it was welcome. We kept and manned it, plying that day, and the next night thereabout. The very next morning we had sight of one other; to whome in like maner wee sent our boat: but their gunner made a shot at her, and strooke off a propper yoong mans arme; yet we inforced her to yeeld, and found 40 tunnes of wine in her. The Spaniards hauing their free passage, and an acquaintance for the deliuery of their wines, were all set on shore vpon Tenerif, making a quicke returne of their long voyage intended into the West Indies. Hence we departed toward Cape Blank; and before wee came thither, we met againe with the Virgin our rereadmirall, whose men tolde vs for very trueth, that the Salomon was returned for England; inforced so to doe, by spending her mast the second time. Which when our men vnderstood, they were all in a maze, not knowing what to doe, and saying among themselues that their force was but small when all our strength were together, and now we had lost the one halfe of our strength, we were not able to performe the voyage: and therefore some of them came to the captain, asking him what he would now do, seeing the Salomon was now lost, the one halfe of our strength, giuing him counsell to beare vp for the West Indies, and proue there to make his voyage, because his first plat for want of strength was cleane ouerthrown. The captaine hearing this new nouelty, as not vnacquainted with the variable pretenses of mariners, made them this answere: Sirs, I made knowen to you all at my comming out of England what I pretended, and that I meant to go to Fernambuck, and although at the present we want one of our ships, yet (God willing) I mean to go forward, not doubting but to meet her at the appointed places, which are either at Cape Blank or the islands of Cape Verde: for I am assured that M. Barker the captaine is so resolute to performe this voyage, that his mast being repaired, he will not faile to meet vs, and it were no wisdome for vs to diuert our course, till we haue sought him at those places where our appointed meeting is: for the diuerting of courses is the ouerthrow of most of our actions. And I hope you will be all contented herewith: for to go any other course then I haue determined (by Gods helpe) I will not be drawen vnto. With these reasons and many others shewed, they rested all satisfied: and at our comming to Cape Blank (God be praised) we met with the Salomon with no small ioy to vs all; and there she had taken of Spaniards and Portugals 24 saile of ships and carauels, fisher-men, and had taken out of them such necessaries as she had neede of. Of these ships our Captaine tooke foure along with him, with another that he had taken himselfe, meaning to imploy them as occasion should serue. At this place he vnderstood one of the pilots of those ships, that one of the caracks that came out of the East Indies, was cast away in the rode of Fernambuc, and that all her goods were layd vpon the Arracife which is the lower towne. Of these newes we were all glad, and reioyced much; for our hopes were very good, seeing such a booty before vs. [Sidenote: A gally-frigat carried out of England in pieces.] Of this good company and happy successe we were all ioyful, and had great hope of the blessing of God in performance of our intended voyage, and so after some parle and making frolike for ioy of our meeting one with the other (praising God for all) we plied for Maio: where coming to anker, our generall and the rest of the captaines went ashore to view the place where we might in best safety set our gally-frigat together; which frame wee brought from England of purpose to land men in the country of Brasil. Here we discharged our great prize of wine, and set her on fire: but before our coming thither, you shall vnderstand we had sight of four sailes, which was captaine Venner in his ship the Peregrine, and a proper Biskaine which he tooke at Cape Blank, the Welcome of Plymmouth and her pinnesse: all which stood with vs. But they seeing our flags, not expecting such good fellowes as we, did beare from vs all they might; which our people tooke very vnkindly, that being all friends, they would neither enquire, nor tell vs any newes of our friends, but without making any shew of kindness would so depart. [Sidenote: The gally-frigat set vp.] As before I haue said, the choice being made for the place to build the gally-frigat, ashore it was brought, where the carpenters applied their worke, still cheered vnto it by the generals good gifts bestowed among them, and kind vsage of the rest of the commanders, not without great care of the captaine for the safety of them all, by keeping good watch: yet one negligent fellow, which had no knowledge of the countrey, straying from his company, was by the Portugals taken, and very kindly vsed, and brought againe vnto vs: for which good the generall rewarded them well with gifts very acceptable, which they tooke as kindly. While wee were thus busily imployed about the foresayd galley, we descried at sea foure sailes, which we had good hope would haue prooued Indies men, or some to haue brought vs what wee looked for: but they proued captaine Venner with his fleete, as aforesayd, who, seeing vs at anker, ankered also; where spending some time, and being acquainted with our generals determination for landing, consorted with vs, and their bils, according to the maner of the sea, were made and signed on either part, we to haue three parts, and he the fourth, of all that should be taken, whereby our strength was increased, to all our comforts. Three weeks or thereabouts we stayd in this place before the gally was finished; which done, putting men into her, and fitting her with oares, hauing fourteene banks on a side, a mast and saile, the commandement of her was committed vnto M. Wats, an honest skilful mariner. From thence we put againe to sea, and went for the ile Braua, where we watered: which done, we made no long stay after, but bent our course as directly as we could for the place, making our first fall with the land to the Southward of Cape S. Augustine; from whence wee plied still to our desired port of Fernambuck, and did so much, that about midnight we came before the harbour; where some plied vp and downe, holding that the best policy, to forebeare the entring till day might giue them light, the harborow being hard, and therefore the more perillous. [Sidenote: The 29 of March.] Our ships being in safety well arriued, God was praised: and the generall in his boat went from ship to ship, willing them to made ready such men as they could spare, with muskets, pikes, billes, bowes, arrowes, and what weapons they had to follow him. Himself, with 80 men from his owne ship, imbarked himselfe in the gally, which carried in her prow a good sacar, and two murdering pieces. Our admiral spent all the night in giuing directions to euery ship to haue their men ready shipped in their boats, for he intended to enter the harborow at the breake of day, and to leaue his ships without, till he had gotten the fort and the towne: for he would not aduenture the ships in, till the harborow was gotten. Also he prouided fiue ships, which he brought from Cape Blank, and put men in them as many as could conueniently saile them, and no more, giuing them charge to enter the harborow with his boats: for at the entrance of the harborow rode three great Holland ships, which our admirall doubted would impeach his going in; and therefore he gaue order to the men of these fiue small ships, which were not aboue 60 tunnes a piece, if the Hollanders did offer any resistance, to run aboord of them, and to set their owne ships on fire, and scape in their boats, which they had for the same purpose, that by this meanes they might not impeach our entrance. But when the morning was come, we were fallen aboue halfe a mile downe to the Northward, below the harborow, which was a great inconuenience vnto vs: so that before wee could get vp againe, the ebbe was come vpon vs, and thereby we were forced to houer before the harborow till two of the clocke in the afternoone, in the sight of all the towne. In this meane time, our ships rode before the fort without the harborow, about a demy-coluering shot off: in the which time passed many shot betweene the fort and the ships, and especially betweene the admirals ship and them: but no great harme was done on either part. All this while our admirall kept the men ready houering in the gally and the boats. The Hollanders that rode in the mouth of the harborow, seeing our resolution, layd out haulsers, and wound themselues out of the way of vs. Our admirall was very ioyfull, and gaue great incouragement to all his men: for, to passe these three great Hollanders, he held it the greatest danger of all. About 12 of the clocke the gouernor of the towne sent a Portugall aboord the admirals ship, to know what he would haue, and wherefore he came. He returned him this answere: That he wanted the caracks goods, and for them he came, and them he would haue, and that he should shortly see. In this processe of time, the townes-men and inhabitants which saw so much shipping, and perceiued vs to be enemies, gathered themselues together, three or foure ensignes of men, esteemed to the number of some sixe hundred at the least. These came to the fort or platforme lying ouer against the entry of the harborow, and there attended our landing: but before our admirall set forward with his boats, he gaue expresse order to all that had charge of gouerning the boats or galley, to run them with such violence against the shore, that they should be all cast away without recouery, and not one man to stay in them, whereby our men might haue no maner of retreat to trust vnto, but onely to God and their weapons. Now was the time come of the flood, being about two of the clocke in the afternoone, when our admirall set forward, and entered the harborow with the small galley, and all the rest of the boats following him, the Hollanders that rode in the mouth of the harborow, nothing impeached him: but now the fort began to play with their ordinance vpon the galley and the boats; and one of their shot tooke away a great piece of our ensigne out of the galley. But our saile being set, it was no time for vs to make any stay, but with all the force we could we ranne the galley vpon the shore right vnder the fort, within a coits cast of it, with such violence, that we brake her backe; and she suncke presently: for there where we landed, went a breach of the sea, which presently cast her away. The boats comming after did the like. At our arriuall, those in the fort had laden all their ordinance, being seuen pieces of brasse, to discharge them vpon vs at our landing; which indeed they did: for our admirall leaping into the water, all the rest following him, off came these pieces of ordinance: but almighty God be praised, they in the fort, with feare to see vs land in their faces, had piked their ordinance so steepe downewards with their mouthes, that they shot all their shot in the sand, although, as I sayd before, it was not aboue a coits cast at the most betweene the place wee landed and the face of the fort: so that they only shot off one of our mens armes, without doing any more hurt; which was to vs a great blessing of God: for if those ordinances had bene well leuelled, a great number of vs had lost our liues at that instant. Our admirall seeing this, cried out, incouraging his men, Vpon them, vpon them; all (by Gods helpe) is ours: and they therewith ran to the fort with all violence. [Sidenote: The fort of Fernambuck taken.] Those foure ensignes of men that were set to defend our landing, seeing this resolution, began to go backe, and retire into certeine bushes that were by the same fort; and being followed, fledde thorowe a certaine oaze which was drie, being then but the beginning of the tide: and so abandoned the fort, and left it with their ordinance to vs. This day of our arriuall was their Good-Friday, when by custome they usually whippe themselves: but God sent vs now for a generall scourge to them all, whereby that labour among them might be well spared. The fort being taken with all their ordinance, the admirall waued to the ships, willing them to wey and come in; which they did with all speed, himselfe taking order in leauing certeine men in keeping the sayd fort, and placed the ordinance toward the high towne, from whence hee suspected the greatest danger; and putting his men in order, marched toward the low towne, which was about some fourteene score from the fort: in which towne lay all their merchandize and other goods. Approching to the towne, he entered the same, the people imbarking themselues in carauels and boats, with all the expedition they could. The base towne, of aboue an hundred houses, being thus taken, we found in it great store of merchandizes of all sorts: as Brasil-wood, sugars, Calico-cloth, pepper, cynamon, cloues, mase, nutmegs, with diuers other good things, to the great comfort of vs all. The admirall went vp and downe the towne, and placed at the South end of the same captaine Venner and his company, himselfe and his company in the midst of the towne, and captaine Barker and captaine Addy at the other end of the towne, giuing great charge, that no man vpon paine of great punishment and losse of his shares, should break vp or enter into any ware-house, without order and direction from the admirall. And this commandement was as well kept as euer any was kept, where so great spoile and booty was found: for it was not knowen in all the time of our being there, that any disorder was committed, or any lodge or ware-house broken open, or any spoile was made, or pillaging of any thing; which is a note much to be obserued in such an action: for common mariners and souldiers are much giuen to pillaging and spoiling, making greater account of the same then of their shares. Order being put in all things, we kept a very sure watch this first night, and the morning being come, our admirall and captaine Venner, with the rest of the captaines, went about the towne, and gaue order for the fortifying of it with all expedition: so that within two dayes it was surrounded with posts and planks, all that part of the towne next the maine land, at least nine foot high; for (God be thanked) we found provision in the towne sufficient store for it. Now it is to be vnderstood, that this towne is enuironed on the one part by the sea, and on the back-side by a riuer that runneth behinde it; so that to come to it by land, you must enter it by a small narrow passage not aboue forty paces ouer at an high water. At this passage we built a fort, and planted in it fiue pieces of ordinance, which we tooke out of the first fort we wan at our comming into the harborow. Now we hauing the towne in possession, our admirall sent for the Hollanders by his chyrurgian, which had bene brought vp in that countrey, a man knowing their conditions, and sober and discreet of his owne cariage. At his first comming aboord of them, they seemed to stand vpon their owne guard and defence, for they were three great and strong ships: but he vsed himselfe so, that they at the last willed him to come into the greatest of their ships, which was aboue 450 tunnes. Then he declared to them our intent, of comming thither, and that they should be there as sure from any shew of violence or iniury offered them, as if they were in their owne houses, and if they should thinke so good, his admirall would fraight them for England, if they would be content with fraight reasonable, and as they should agree, and it should be at their owne choise whether to go or not, he would not force them, vnlesse it were to their benefit and good liking. Although this people were somewhat stubburne at the first, as that nation is in these causes, yet being satisfied with good words and good dealing they came aland, and after conference had with the admirall, they were so satisfied, that they went thorow with a fraight: and then we ioyned with them, and they with vs, and they serued vs as truely and as faithfully as our owne people did, both at watch and ward, by sea and all other seruices. Within two dayes after our comming in, about midnight, a great number of Portugals and Indians with them, came downe vpon vs with a very great cry and noise; but God be thanked, we were ready for them: for our admirall supposing some such assault, had prouided all our muskets with haile-shot, which did so gaule both the Indians and the Portugals, that they made them presently retreat. And this is to be noted, that there was both the horse and his rider slaine both with one of these shot. Our men followed them some fiue or sixe score, but no further. We lost in this conflict but onely one man, but had diuers hurt. What was lost of their part, we could not tell, for they had before day, after our retreat, caried away all their dead. Within three or foure dayes after our comming in appeared before the harborow 3 ships and 2 pinnesses, the pinnesses being somewhat nere, discried our flags, and one of them came in, which was a French pinnesse, declaring all the rest to be French bottoms; which our admirall willed should come in: and so they did. These were Frenchmen of war, and came thither for purchase. The captaines came aland, and were welcomed; amongst whom was one captaine Iohn Noyer of Diepe, that the yere before had taken in our admirall at the iland of Mona in the West Indies, where his ship was cast away, comming out of the East Indies. To this man our admirall offered great kindnes, and performed it, and was not vngratefull for his former benefit shewed vnto him. This captaine desired of our admirall to bestow vpon him his ships lading of Fernambuc-wood, which he granted him, and also his pinnesse, and more, gaue him a carauel of about 50 tuns, and bid him lade her with wood also; which with other benefits he gratefully receiued. To the other two captaines he granted their ladings of wood, the one captaine being of Diepe, the other of Rochel. [Sidenote: Abraham Cocke going for the riuer of Plate, met withall.] The captain of Diepe confessed that he met Abraham Cocke certein moneths before, and being distressed for want of water, gaue him some, and went with him to a watering place where he had water enough, and so departed from him, saying that his men were very weake. The comming in of these ships did much strengthen vs; for our admiral appointed both these French and the Flemings to keepe watch vpon the riuer by night with their boats, euery boat hauing in her 12 men at the least, and the boats well prouided. This was for feare of fired ships or barks to come downe; which our admirall had great care vnto, and caused our ships to ride by cables and haulsers, at all aduantages to shun them, if by that meanes they should attempt to put vs out of the harborow; giuing commandement to vs that watched in the towne, that what fires soeuer we should espy or see, not one man to start from his watch or quarter, vnlesse we were by himselfe commanded to the contrary. Now this order put in all things, and hauing viewed all the goods in the towne, and thinking our selues sufficiently fortified, we began to vnlade our ships, which came as full laden in as they went foorth, but not with so good merchandize. And this order was taken about the vnlading of them, and also the lading of goods out of the towne: our men were diuided into halues, and the one halfe wrought one day, and the other halfe the other day; alwayes those that wrought not kept the watch with their furniture in their hands and about them, and none stept far off or wandred from his colours, and those that wrought had all their weapons in good order set and placed by them, so that at an instant euery one knew where to go to his furniture: and this was very carefully looked vnto. The third day after our comming in, came down from the higher towne, which might be about foure miles off vpon a hill, three or foure of the principall gentlemen of the countrey, and sayd that from the bishop, themselues, and the rest, they would haue some conference with our admirall. This newes being brought to the admirall he hung downe his head for a small season; and when he had muzed a while, he answered, I must go aboord of the Flemings vpon busines that importeth me, and therefore let them stay if they will: and so he went and sate there with the Flemings from nine of the clocke till two at the afternoone. In this space diuers messengers went to the admirall, to come away, for these gentlemen stayd. To whom he gaue this answere: Are they not gone yet? And about two of the clocke he came aland, and then they tolde him they were departed. Many of the better sort of our men maruelled, and thought much, because he would not vouchsafe to come and haue conference with such men of account as they seemed to be. But the admiral made them this answere, Sirs, I haue bene brought vp among this people, I haue liued among them as a gentleman, serued with them as a souldier, and liued among them as a merchant, so that I should haue some vnderstanding of their demeanors and nature; and I know when they cannot preuaile with the sword by force, then they deale with their deceiuable tongues; for faith and trueth they haue none, neither will vse any, vnlesse it be to their owne aduantage. And this I giue you warning, that if you giue them parle, they will betray vs; and for my part, of all nations in the world, it would grieue me most to be ouertaken by this nation and the Spaniards: and I am glad it was my fortune to pay them with one of their owne fetches, for I warrant you they vnderstand me better then you thinke they do. And with this I pray you be satisfied; I hope it is for all our goods: for what shall we gaine by parle, when (by the helpe of God) we haue gotten already that we came for, should we venture that we haue gotten with our swords, to see if they can take it from vs by words and policy? there were no wisedome in so doing. You know what it hath cost vs, and how many men lie wounded that be not yet hole of this other nights hurts: and therefore from hencefoorth I giue this commission, that if any be taken, he be sent away with this order, although he come as a friend, that if he or any other approch vs from henceforth, he shalbe hanged out of hand: and other course then this I will not take with them. Which course was followed, for within 3 or 4 dayes after it was performed by two taken in the night: and after that we were neuer troubled with spies: and although diuers slaues came running from their men to vs, by which we vnderstood much of their working and pretences, yet the admirall would enterteine few of them. In this meane time that we began to worke, the Portugals with the country people were not idle, for seeing vs so busie, about sixe nights after our comming in, they priuily in the night cast vp a trench in the sands about a sacar shot from our ships, minding there to plant ordinance, which would haue offended our ships greatly; and they would not haue bene able to haue rode there to take in their lading, which now began to go aboord of them. The admirall hearing this, about 3 of the clocke in the after noone marshalled our men, and he and all the rest of the captaines marched toward them. The Portugals and Indians perceiuing our comming, began to withdraw themselues within the trench, meaning (as it should appeare) to fight it out there: but we made no stand, neither did it behoue vs, but presently approched the trenches with our muskets and pikes, afore their trenches were thorowly finished: so that by Gods helpe we entered them. And the Portugals and Indians left the place, and left vnto vs 4 good peeces of brasse ordinance, with powder and shot and diuers other necessaries, and among the rest 5 smal carts of that countrey, which to vs were more worth then al the rest we tooke, for the lading of our goods from the towne to the water side: for without them we could not haue told what to haue done, much of our goods being so heauie, that without carts we were not able to weyld them: all these things we brought away and destroyed al those platforms that they had made, and then we had rest with them for certaine dayes, in which we went forward, deuiding our marchandize with captaine Venner according to our consort, and went daily lading them abord, euery ships company according as their turnes fell out, but only the three Dutch ships: for the goods being put into their boats their owne companies laded themselues. And this farther good chance or blessing of God we had to helpe vs, that assoone as we had taken our cartes, the next morning came in a ship with some 60 Negros, 10 Portugal women, and 40 Portugals: the women and the Negroes we turned out of the towne, but the Portugals our Admirall kept to draw the carts when they were laden, which to vs was a very great ease. For the countrey is very hote and ill for our nation to take any great trauell in. In this towne there is no fresh water to be had, and therefore we were euery 5 or 6 dayes compelled to passe ouer the riuer into the maine land to get fresh water, which after the first or second time the Portugals kept and would haue defended our watering, so that we were driuen to water of force, and at seuerall times some of our men were hurt, and onely two or three slaine, and with this danger we were forced to get our water. And as they molested vs in our watering, so they slept not in other deuises, but put in practise to burne our ships or remoue them out of the harbour. For within some 20 dayes after our comming in, they had prepared 5 Carauels and filled them with such things as would best take fire and burne: these they brought within a mile or little more of our ships, and there set them on fire, for neerer they could not well come because of our watch of boates, for, as is abouesaid, the Admirall had alwaies 6 boates that kept watch aboue halfe a mile from the ships for feare of such exploytes as these, which was the cause they could not fire them so neere the ships as they would haue done. But these fired Carauels had the tide with them, and also the little winde that blewe was in their favour; which caused them to come downe the streame the faster: which our boats perceiuing made to them with as much expedition as conueniently they could, but the tide and wind both seruing them, they approched toward the ships with great expedition. Our men in the towne began to be in some feare of them, yet no man mooued or started from his quarter more then if there had bene nothing to doe. Also the masters and such as were aboord, were somewhat amased to see 5 so great fires to be comming downe among their ships, but they prepared for to cleere them of it, as well as they could, being prouided afore hande and iudging that some such stratagems would be there vsed, the riuer being very fit therefore. But (God be thanked) who was alwaies with vs and our best defence in this voyage; by whose assistance we performed this so great an attempt with so small forces. Our companie in the boats so played the men when they saw the fires come neere our ships, that casting grapnels with yron chaines on them, as euery boat had one for that purpose, some they towed aground, and some they brought to a bitter or anker, where they rode till all their force was burned out, and so we were deliuered by Gods helpe from this fearefull danger. Within some 6 nights after this, which might be about the 26 day after our comming in and abode there, about 11 of the clocke at night, came driuing downe other 3 great raftes burning with the hugest fires that I haue seene. These were exceeding dangerous, for when our men approched them, thinking to clap their grapnels vpon them, as they had done vpon the Carauels the night before, they were preuented: for there stooke out of the rafts many poles which kept them from the body of the rafts, that they could not come to throw their grapnels into them: and yet they had this inconuenience worse then al the rest which most troubled vs. There stooke out among the poles certaine hollow trunks filled with such prouision of fire workes that they ceased not still (as the fire came downe to those trunks to set them on fire) to spout out such sparkles, that our boats hauing powder in them for our mens vse, durst not for feare of frying themselues with their owne powder come neere those sparkles of the raftes, but seeing them to driue neerer and neerer our ships, they wet certaine clothes and laid vpon their flaskes and bandelers and so ventured vpon them, and with their grapnels tooke holde of them, and so towed them on ground, where they stooke fast and were not burnt out the next day in the morning. Diuerse logs and timbers came driuing along by our ships, and burning, but with our boats we easily defended them. And thus (God be praysed) we escaped the second fires. A third firing was prepared, as a Negro gaue vs to vnderstand, but this we preuented by our departure. For this third firing were very great preparations: and we were credibly informed of certainetie, that this firing should be such as we should neuer be able to preuent, and assuredly these fires be dangerous things and not to be preuented vpon the sudden, vnlesse it be afore prepared for and foreseene. For when it commeth vpon the sudden and vnlooked for, and vnprouided for, it bringeth men into a great amazement and at their wits ende. And therefore let all men riding in riuers in their enemies countrey be sure to looke to be prouided before hand, for against fire there is no resistance without preparation. Also it is a practise in these hot countreys, where there be such expert swimmers, to cut the cables of ships: and one night it was practised to cut the Admirals cable, and yet the boate rode by the cable with two men in her to watch all the night, and the bwoy onely was cut, but not the cable: but after that night, seeing then our good watch, they neuer after attempted it. While all these things passed, our ships (God be thanked) thorow the industry of our gouernours, and diligent labour of our men, began to be wholly laden, and all the best marchandize conueyed aboord our ships, so that our Admirall went to depart that night, which was the 31 day after our entrance, or else on the next day at the farthest, and so warning was giuen to all men to make themselues readie. Our Admiral being aboord his ship the same morning, espyed in the sands right against the place where the ships rode, that there was a small banke of sand newly cast vp, vnder which he perceiued now and then some people to be: presently he tooke his boat and went to the towne and called all the Captaines together, declaring that the enemies were about some pretence right against the ships, consulting whether it were best to sally out and see what they were doing, or depart that euening according to the former determination. The Admirall was of opinion to depart that night; saying it was but folly to seeke warres since we had no neede to doe it: other affirmed, it were good to see what they did, least the winde might be contrarie and the ships not get out, and so our enemies may build vpon vs to our great disaduantage. Well, said the Admiral, the matter is not great, for there can be no danger in this sally, for where they worke it is within Falkonshot of our ships, and if any power should come against you, the ships may play vpon them with 40 pieces of ordinance at the least, so that a bird cannot passe there but she must be slaine. I am somewhat vnwilling you should go, for I haue not bene well these two dayes, and I am not strong to march vpon those heauie sands: they answered all at once, you shall not need to trouble your selfe for this seruice, for you see it is nothing and of no danger, being so neere the ships, doubt you not we will accomplish this seruice well ynough, and returne againe within this houre. The Admirall answered: the danger cannot be great, but yet you shall goe out strong for feare of the worst. And so the Admirall marshalled them 275 men French and English, which were vnder the conduct of Edmund Barker, captaine Barker of Plimmouth, Viceadmirall to captaine Venner, captaine Addy, and the three French captaines all going out together, and they were to march vpon a narrow peece of ground to the place whether they were sent vnto: in the brodest place betwixt the sea and the water on the other side, it is aboue a stones cast for it is a bank of sand lying betweene the riuer and the sea, so they needed not to feare any comming on their backs or on their sides, and before them could no man come, but he must passe by all the ships which no company of men were able to do without present death. The Admirall commanded them at their departure to go no further then the place he sent them to, and so he himselfe went aboord the ships and made readie all the ordinance for feare of the worst, not knowing what might insue, although he saw no danger might follow. Thus we marched quietly till we came to the place we were sent vnto, being right ouer against the ships: out of which place came some dozen shot, which seeing vs come, discharged and ran their wayes with such as were working within the said platforme. So that we came into it and perceiued they had begunne to lay plankes to plant ordinance vpon. Our Admiral commanded, if there were any such thing, to burne the plankes and returne in againe, which we might haue done without hurting of any mans finger: but our leaders were not content to haue performed the seruice committed them in charge, but would needes expresly and against their order march on further to fight with certaine Ensignes almost a mile off, cleane out of the reach of the ordinance of all our ships, and where lay the strength of the whole countrey. When our men began to draw neere those Ensigns of men, the Ensignes seemed to retire with great speed, which our men followed with such great hast that some outrunning other some, our order was broken, and those ensignes retyred themselues into the force of the whole countrey, so that our formost men were in the midst of their enemies yer they were aware, which were slaine yer the rest could come to succour them. The enemies incouraged by this, came also vpon the rest, which presently began to retire, and the enemies followed til they came with the reach of the ordinance of our ships, where they were beaten off and left their pursuit. In this conflict were slaine captain Barker captaine of the Salomon, captaine Cotton the Admirals Lieutenant, captaine Iohn Noyer a French captaine of Diepe, and another French captaine of Rochel, with M. Iohn Barker and other to the number of 35: for these were the formost and hottest in the pursuit of the Ensignes aforesaid, and by their forwardnes came all to perish. At our returne into the towne the Admiral came to vs much bewayling the death of so many good men as were lost, wondering what we ment to passe the expresse order that was giuen vs. With this losse our men were much danted, but our Admirall began againe to encourage them, declaring that the fortune of the warres was sometimes to win and sometimes to loose. And therewithall he wished euery man to prepare and make himselfe readie: for that night (God willing) he would depart. For all our ships were readie and laden, and he would not stay any further fortune. The euening being come, the ships began to wey and go forth of the harbour, and God be thanked of his goodnesse toward vs who sent vs a faire wind to go foorth withall, so that by 11 of the clocke in the night we were all forth in safety. The enemies perceiuing our departing, planted a peece or two of ordinance, and shot at vs in the night, but did vs no harme. We were at our comming foorth 15 sailes, that is, 3 sailes of Hollanders, the one of 450 tunnes, the other of 350 tunnes, and the third of 300 tunnes, four sailes of French and one ship which the admiral gaue the French Captain, 3 sailes of Captain Venners fleet of Plimmouth, and 4 sailes of our Admirals fleete, all these were laden with marchandizes, and that of good worth. We stayed in this harbour to passe all this businesse but onely 31 dayes, and in this time we were occupied with skirmishes and attempts of the enemie 11. times; in all which skirmishes we had the better, onely this last excepted. To God be the honour and praise of all, &c. [Sidenote: Peranjeu 40. leagues northward of Fernambuck.] The whole fleete being out in safety, the next day in the morning the Admirall gaue order to the whole fleete to saile toward Peraniew[30] a harbour lying some 40 leagues to the Northward of Fernambucke, and there to take in fresh water and to refresh themselues: and to make prouision for refreshing, our Admirall had sent thither some 6 daies before two French men in a smal pinnesse, which Frenchmen he had prouided from Diepe before his comming out of England for that purpose. For both these two spake the Indians language very perfectly: for at this port of Peraniew and an other called Potaju some 6 leagues to the Northward the Frenchmen haue had trade for brasil-wood, and haue laden from thence by the Indians meanes, who haue fet it for them some 20 leagues into the country vpon their backs, 3 or 4 ships euery yere. Thus we all sailed toward Peraniew, at which place we arriued in the night, so that we were forced to lie off and on with a stiffe gale of wind, in which we lost the most part of our fleete, and they not knowing this coast put off to the sea; and so went directly for England. [Sidenote: Peranjeu a very good harbour.] Our Admirall and some foure saile more with him put into the harborow of Peraniew, and there watered and refreshed himselfe very well, with hens, conies, hares and potatos, with other things, which the two Frenchmen had partly prouided before his comming: this is a very good harborow where ships may ride and refresh very well. But, as I am giuen to vnderstand since our comming from thence, the Portugals haue attempted the place and doe inhabite it, and haue put the French from their accustomed trade. Here hauing watered and refreshed our selues, we put to the sea, plying after the rest of our fleete which were gone before, which we neuer heard of till our arriuall in England at The downes in the moneth of Iuly, where we vnderstood the rest of our consorts to be passed vp for London, Captaine Venner and his fleete to be at Plimmouth, and the French ships to be safe arriued at Diepe, which to vs was very great comfort. At our setting sayle from The downes, according as the custome is, finding the Queenes ships there, we saluted them with certaine ordinance. The Gunner being carelesse, as they are many times of their powder, in discharging certain pieces in the gunner roome, set a barrel of powder on fire, which tooke fire in the gunner roome, blew vp the Admirals caben, slew the gunner with 2 others outright, and hurt 20 more, of which 4 or 5 died. This powder made such a smoke in the ship with the fire that burnt the gunner roome among all the fire workes, that no man at the first wist what to doe: but recalling backe their feare, they began to cast water into the gunner roome in such abundance (for the Queenes ships now and also the other ships that were in our company came presently to our helpe) that (God be praised) we put out the fire and saued all, and no great harme was done to the goods. By this may be seene that there is no sure safety of things in this world. For now we made account to be out of all danger, where behold a greater came vpon vs, then we suffered all the whole voyage. But the almightie be praysed for euer, which deliuered vs out of this and many other in this voyage. Our fire being well put out, and we taking in fresh men (God be praysed) we came to Blacke-wall in safety. [30] Probably the mouth of the River Pirangi, in the province of Ceara. A speciall letter written from Feliciano Cieça de Carualsho the Gouernour of Paraiua in the most Northerne part of Brasil, 1597, to Philip the second king of Spaine, answering his desire touching the conquest of Rio Grande, with the relation of the besieging of the castle of Cabodelo by the Frenchmen, and of the discouerie of a rich siluer mine and diuerse other important matters. [Sidenote: The king of Spaines resolution to proceed in the discouerie and conquest of Rio Grande.] I receiued your Maiesties letter bearing date the ninth of Nouember 1596. whereby I vnderstande that your Maiestie doth determine to proceede in the discouerie and conquest of Rio Grande according to the relation which was sent your Maiestie by Don Francisco de Sousa, Gouernour generall of this realme of Brasilia: together with a copie of a letter, which your Maiestie sent vnto vs, bearing date the two and twentieth of March 1596. Moreouer I receiued another letter from your Maiestie bearing date the 15 of March 1597. Both which letters were to one effect. It may please your Maiestie to vnderstand that there are diuerse Gentlemen in these countreys of as good abilitie as my selfe, which seeke to liue at home onely for their ease and pleasure, and are not wont to hazard nor venture their bodies, liues, and goods so often times in your Maiesties seruice as I haue done and commonly doe; and can keepe their goods and riches, and not spend nor wast them as I haue done, and dayly doe so wilfully: yet neuerthelesse being spent in your Maiesties seruice, I am very glad thereof. For I and they are alwayes readie at your Maiesties commandement. [Sidenote: The Captaineship of Paraiua standeth in sixe degr. 45 min. of Southerly latitude.] And as concerning your Maiesties commandement in commanding me that I should put to my helping hand in the conquest of Rio Grande: although this Captaineship of Paraiua and countrey where I doe gouerne doth want abilitie for that purpose, yet nevertheless your Maiestie shall always finde me readie to doe your Maiestie the best seruice I can: for it is very well knowen how forward I haue bene alwayes and am in this conquest, and still doe put to my helping hand, as partly your Maiestie doth vnderstand by a letter which I wrote to your Maiesty by my sonne, bearing date the 19 of March 1596 wherein your Maiestie may vnderstand what good seruice I haue alreadie done therein, and always will be readie to my power to doe the like in furthering of the said enterprise. It may please your Maiestie to vnderstand that the third of Iuly there was brought vnto me a Frenchman a prisoner, who presented himselfe vnto me. And I examining of him, he tolde me that he came running away from certaine French ships men of warre, which came vpon this coast: and he tolde me that he had serued your Maiestie in the warres of France. [Sidenote: The castle of Cabodelo besieged by the French.] Likewise he told me that he left me seuen great ships Frenchmen of warre riding at an anker in Rio Grande, and that there were 13 French ships of warre more, which had giuen battery to the castle of Cabodelo, and landed 350 soldiers all in white armour and the battery continued from Friday vntil the Munday following both by sea and land, and great store of Frenchmen were slaine, and two Captaines of the French. On our side the Captaine of the castle was slaine, and other two Portugals hurt: other harme they had none. There were but twentie Portugals in the castle, and fiue pieces of ordinance. They ment to haue kept the castle, and to haue traded with the Indian people. So seeing they could not take the castle, they hoysed sayles, and went from thence to Rio Grande: and being altogether they are in number 20 saile at an anker in Rio Grande. And some of them determine after they be new trimmed and drest, and haue taken in fresh victuals, and stayed there vntill Easter, then to depart from thence to the Honduras, and so to burne and spoyle some townes thereabout. I certified Manuel Mascarenhas of these informations by my letters, requesting him to send me with all expedition those souldiers which were in Fernambuck to ayde me, and to defende this Captaineship from the enemie. But the Friers of The Couent would not consent thereunto nor suffer them to be sent vnto me. [Sidenote: The countrey of Petiguar rebelleth against the Portugals.] So I was forced to make shift with those souldiers only which I had in my gouernment and tooke them with me, and marched to the place where the enemies were entrenched, vpon Whitsunday in the euening about three of the clock, hauing in my company a Negro of the countrey of Petiguar, which was our guide, he brought vs where the enemies campe was; and presently I did assault them and slew great score of them, burning the villages and countrey of these rebels, which did ioine with the Frenchmen, and tooke many of them prisoners. So they told me that there were ten great French ships of warre which were at an anker in Rio Grande. [Sidenote: A rich siluer mine found at Copaoba within sixe dayes iourney of Paraiua.] Likewise I was informed, that there is a Frenchman called Daurmigas, which hath discouered and found great store of siluer in a place called Copaoba.[31] The siluer hath bene tried and melted, it is very good and fine siluer, and there is great quantite. The man which told me of this hath beene in the mine, and hath seene it tried and melted. And I haue bene myselfe once in the place: it is but 6 dayes iourney from this Captaineship. [31] Perhaps Caproba. Furthermore this Frenchman told me that one Monsieur Mifa a French Captaine, and a kinsman of the gouernour and Vice-admirall of Diepe in Normandie, had one of his armes strooken off at the siege of the castle of Cabodelo; who is departed from Rio Grande, with determination to come backe hither againe the next yeere in the moneth of Ianuarie following, and to inhabite in this countrey of Paraiba, which is 20 leagues from Fernambuck, because of the great store of siluer, which they haue alreadie found here. Moreouer I am enformed that a noble man of France called The earle of Villa Dorca doth intend to come vpon this coast with a great fleete from Rochel. It were good that your Maiestie would send into France to knowe the certainetie thereof. [Sidenote: All the Canibals of Petiguar ioyne with the Frenchmen against the Portugals.] The Frenchman likewise told me that all the Canibals of Petiguar have ioyned themselues in companie with certaine Frenchmen, which were cast away in two ships vpon this coast. The one of these ships which were cast away was one Rifoles, and the other ship was this mans. And those Frenchmen which came vpon this coast did ioyne themselues with those Canibals which did rebell, and did diuide themselues into two squadrons. So I sent presently to Manuel Mascarenhas that he should send me aide and munition. But he sent me word againe, that he had none to spare, and that he did purpose with all speede to goe himselfe to Rio Grande; and that he was not able to furnish himselfe so well as he could wish, nor to bring his souldiers into the field, for lacke of shot, powder, and other munition, which he did want. Hereupon once more the 29 of Iuly I with my souldiers marched to the enemies campe, and there ioyning battell with the Indian rebels, which ioyned with the Frenchmen that were their leaders, I did set vpon them, and slew great store of them, and tooke fourteene of them prisoners. They doe report the very same newes, which the other Frenchmen did tell me as touching the ships which were in the harbour of Rio Grande; and how their pretence was to haue come and haue taken vs, and spoyled the countrey. But now being put to flight and hauing received the overthrow, they can get no victuals to victuall their shippes: which hath bene the cause that they are mightily hindred in their intent, and dare not come any more to attempt vs. And the Indians are so dismayed, that in haste they will haue no more helpe nor aide of the Frenchmen. So by these meanes of necessitie the Indians must submit themselues vnto vs, considering they are quite spoyled and ouerthrowen for a long time. Likewise they haue enformed me touching the siluer mines which are found, that it is most true. For those French shippes which were in Rio Grande haue laden great store of the oare. Wherefore I certified Manuel de Mascarenhas of the Frenchmens newes, and howe euery thing did stand wishing him to make readie foure ships and three hundred souldiers, and so to take the harbour of Rio Grande, being now cleered and voyde of the enemie: and to search out the situation of the place, and where were best to fortifie and to build some fortes for the defence of this riuer, where neede shall require. Hereunto Mascarenhas sent me word, that when he went himselfe, and found it true which hath beene reported touching the siluer mines, that then he would send both men and ships. Therefore your Maiestie must giue order, that the rest of the Gouernours shall ayde and assist me in these warres: otherwise of my selfe I am not able to doe more then I haue alreadie done in defending of this countrey against our enemies which are many. It may please your Maiestie to be aduertised, that from time to time I haue written vnto Don Francisco de Sousa Gouernor general of this realme, who is in Baia, as concerning these Frenchmen of warre: but he will not answere me to any purpose because I do write vnto him for such things as I doe want, which are shot, powder, men, and munition requisite for your Maiesties seruice and safegard of this captaineship. For here are neither shot, powder, nor any thing els to defend vs from our enemies; nor any that wil put to their helping hands for the defence of this countrey, and the service of your Maiestie. And therefore it were needful that your Maiesty should committ the charge and gouernement into the hands of Diego Sierua, with expresse charge that all the captaines and commanders vpon paine of death obey him and be readie at all times to aide and assist him in your seruice. Otherwise this countrey cannot be kept and maintained, hauing so great warres continually as we haue, and are troubled withall. For this Diego Sierua is a very good souldier, and hath good experience; and is fit to gouerne this countrey. Your Highnesse is also to send his Commission with expresse commandment to follow these wars; otherwise this countrey cannot be kept, but daily they will rebell. For here are none that will serue your Maiestie so iustly as he will do: who will haue a great care in any thing which shal concerne you Maiesties seruice touching the estate of this countrey. For the Gouernour Sousa doth spend your Maiesties treasure in building his owne ingenios or sugar milles. And those Captaines which your Maiestie intendeth to send hither must bring with them shot, powder, and all kind of weapons, furniture, and munition for the defence and safegarde of this countrey, and for the conquest of Rio Grande. For there is no kind of munition in al this countrey to be had, if occasion should serue. It were also good that your Maiestie should send order for the building of a couple of Forts or Castles at Cabadelo, for they be very needefull for the defence of the enemie, which dayly doth warre against this Captaineship. [Sidenote: The countrey of Paraiua in danger dayly to be lost.] For that man which shall gouerne this countrey, if he be no more fortunate then I haue bene hitherto, shall not misse one time or another, but he shall lose all the countrey. If Don Francisco de Sousa had sent me those two hundred and fiftie souldiers which I did send for, which were in garison in the castle of Arrecife, which doe nothing but spend your Maiesties victuals and treasure, and had not sent them to Baiha, where there was no neede, these warres of Petiguar had bene ended long agone, and had saued your Maiesty a great deale of charges which you had spent in folowing of this conquest of Rio Grande. I have chosen one Captaine Iohn de Matas Cardoso to be Gouernour of Cabodelo, who is a very sufficient man. [Sidenote: A great controuersie touching the gouernment of the Indian townes.] Furthermore, it may please your Maiestie to vnderstand, that the chiefest Friers of this Monasterie of S. Antonie haue complained on me to the lord Gouernour generall, and haue caused great strife and debate betweene him and me touching the gouernment and rule of these Indian townes. For the Friers would command and gouerne both the Indians and their townes as well in Ecclesiasticall as Temporall causes, as touching the punishment of the bodies of such as are offenders. But I haue resisted them in your Maiesties name, and haue alleaged, that none but your Maiestie must rule and gouerne them and their countrey, and that the townes appertaine to your Maiestie, and not vnto the Friers. But the Gouernour hath written a letter vnto me, signifying that he hath pronounced a sentence against me in the Friers behalfe, which is this. The King our master hath sent a decree and certaine statutes touching the good gouernment and orders to be executed and kept in those Indian townes: and that vpon sight hereof I shall presently banish all the Mamalukes and white men which dwell in any of those Indian townes with all speede, and that none of them from hence forward shall enter into the said villages, without commandement and consent of the said Friers. So this sentence was presented vnto me by the Reuerend father Custodio, Prior of Sant Anton of Brasil, with a further postcript of the gouernour importing these words: I doe likewise charge and commaund you the Gouernour of Paraiua, that presently vpon sight hereof you shall restore those villages and houses which you haue burned and destroyed in the last warres, and likewise the towne of S. Augustine, and that you shall build them againe at your owne proper cost and charges: for the Friers alleage that these townes were giuen them, by a decree sent them from Pope Pius Quintus, that the said Friers should gouerne and rule them. On the other side I haue pronounced another sentence against the said Friers in your Maiesties name, and for your Maiestie, alleaging that those townes, villages, and subiects appertaine and belong vnto your Maiestie, and that in temporall causes I am to punish those offenders, which shall rebell against your Maiestie: and as touching ecclesiasticall causes that the Vicar of this Cathedrall church shall rule, gouerne and instruct them in the Christian religion. So we both haue appealed vnto your Maiestie herein, and your Maiestie may peruse all our writings, and then determine that which shall be best and most profitable for your Maiesties seruice and enlargement of your crowne. For through these broyles the inhabitants of this Pariaua forsake their houses and dwelling places, and so do some of the Friers, because they cannot be suffered to rule and gouerne. Also the Indians haue complayned against me, because I haue burned their villages in this last rebellion. Wherefore if your Maiestie doe not send some order for this countrey and see into these cases, it will breed great dissension and rebellion among vs, and we shall be readie to cut one anothers throat before it be long. Thus I thought good, according to my humble bounden dutie, and for the seruice of your Maiestie and quietnesse of this realme, to certifie your Maiestie the truth of the whole matter; hoping in short time that your Maiestie will send some good order to qualifie these broyles: for there is great hatred and malice among vs. Iesus Christ preserve and keepe the royall person of your Maiestie with long health, as it pleaseth him. From the Captaineship of Paraiua this present 20 of August. 1597. Feliciano Cieça de Carualsho. A special note concerning the currents of the sea betweene the Cape of Buena Esperança and the coast of Brasilia, giuen by a French Pilot to Sir Iohn Yorke knight, before Sebastian Cabote; which Pilot had frequented the coasts of Brasilia eighteene voyages. Memorandum, that from Cabo de buena Esperança vnto Brasilia the Sunne hath the like dominion ouer the tides there, as the Moone hath ouer our tides here. And that whensoeuer the Sunne is in any of these signes he gouerneth the tides as followeth.[32] The Sunne being in {Taurus, Gemini, Cancer} the tide hath his course Northwest. The Sunne being in {Leo, Virgo, Libra} no current. The Sunne being in {Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorne} the tide hath his course Southeast. The Sunne being in {Aquarius, Pisces, Aries} no current. [32] It may be as well to point out that the truth as to the currents of the South Atlantic is as follows:-- From the Cape of Good Hope the current flows North along the West Coast of Africa till it reaches a point somewhat North of the Congo, when it turns to the West. North of Ascension it divides. One portion, the South Equatorial Current, flows North West into the Gulf of Mexico, while the other subdivides, and whilst part flows South West down the coast of South America, the remainder returns by the South of Tristan d'Acunha to the Cape of Good Hope. A ruttier or course to be kept for him that will sayle from Cabo Verde to the coast of Brasil, and all along the coast of Brasil vnto the riuer of Plate: and namely first from Cabo Verde to Fernambuck. The ship that goeth from Cabo Verde to Brasil, must goe Southsoutheast: and when she is within 5 or 6 degrees of the Equinoctial she must go Southeast and by South. And if she haue the ternados, that is thundrings and lightnings, then thou must go altogether South, or that way and by that boord that doth profit thee most. And take this for aduise, that hauing the general winds, and if the wind be at South or Southeast, then go Southwest, or westsouthwest. [Sidenote: Ye that will sayle to Brasil, must not come within 60 or 70 leagues of the coast of Guinea.] And if the winde be South, then goe Southwest, and by this way but little, for it is not a way for thy profit, because the more thou goest this way, the more will be thy trouble, because thou mayest not come neerer the coaste of Guinea then 60 or 70 leagues vnto the sholde called Os baixos de Santa Anna. And being this distance from the same, thou shall cast about the other way towards Brasil, and the wind will be large. Thou shalt vnderstand that the ship that keepeth this course to Fernambuck, and goeth in October or after, and chanceth to goe to windward of the Isle of Fernando de Loronha, when thou commest to 8 degrees, or 8 and 1/2, [Ed: Of Southerly latitude] then thou shalt go West and beare with the land. Thou must take this for a warning, that if going West in 8 degrees thou see land, then looke to the Northward, and thou shalt see certaine white cliffes. Then I aduise thee that thou goe well to the Southward. And this is to bee vnderstoode from October forward, for then the time is most subiect to Northeast, and Eastnortheast winds. And if thou find thy selfe in the sayd height aboue mentioned, and seest cliffes, and seest a cape to the Southward, and seest no more land to the South, then make accompt that thou art at Capiguoari: and from thence to Fernambuck thou hast sixe leagues, and hast a good port. Thou shalt take this for a warning, that if in 8 degrees and a halfe thou see land lying all flat, thou mayest goe neerer it, and be bold till thou come in tenne or twelue fadomes: And then thou shalt see a great grosse land along the sea-coast which is called Capitagua: And being East and West with this land, and, as I haue sayd, in tenne or twelue fadomes water; and the time being from October to Februarie, then thou needest not to feare any thing: but looke to the South and thou shalt see the cape of S. Augustine: and looke to the North and thou shalt see a point, and to the Southeast a point called Punta de Olinda, where Aponiquay standeth. And the land from the cape to the poynt called Punta Olinda lieth North and South. I aduise thee that if thou be East and West with the cape of Saint Augustine, thou shalt see within the land an high hill, hauing as it were a saddle vpon it like to a camel: And thou shalt see to the Southwards three hills along the sea, and then presently thou shall see the coaste to lie Northeast and Southwest. [Sidenote: The height of the cape of S. Augustine, of Olinda and Fernambuck.] Thou shalt vnderstand that from this cape of Saint Augustine, to the towne of Olinda, thou hast nine leagues to the North. And this cape standeth in eight degrees and two third parts, and Olinda standeth in eight degrees and a quarter, and Fernambuck standeth in eight degrees. And this course is to be vnderstood to be obserued and kept, if thou depart from Lisbon in October or Nouember. [Sidenote: In what height they shall seeke land that depart from Lisbon in February or March.] Take this aduise, that if thou depart in February or March from Lisbone, then thou shalt goe to beare with the land in nine degrees, because that from March forwards raigne most commonly Southeast and Southwest windes. And if by this height and course thou bring thyselfe nigh to the shore, feare not to bring thy ship into 18 or 20 fadomes, for all the coast is cleane: and there are no more dangers, but such as the sea doth breake vpon. [Sidenote: How to know the cape of S. Augustine.] And if after thy fall with the land thou haue occasion to goe to the Northward, and so going seest certaine sholdes, doubt not to come for the North, and thou shalt see the cape of Saint Augustine, which lyeth as it were sloaping to the seaward, and hath as it were a Whales head, and hath vpon it a round hill, with many hilles round about it. And if thou come along the sea coast much about the depth aboue mentioned, thou shalt see a little Island called Saint Alexio: And from this Island to the cape of Saint Augustine are foure leagues, and it standeth in eight degrees and three quarters. The course that a man must keepe to the bay called A Bahia de Todos os Santos, that is to say, The bay of all Saints, which lieth on the foresayd coast of Brasil. If thou goe for Bahia de Todos os Santos, thou must keepe the course which I haue already set downe, and shalt obserue the time from March forwards, as also from October forwards. [Sidenote: The height of Bahia de Todos os Santos in 13 degrees and one third part.] Thou shalt vnderstand that the Bahia de Todos os Santos standeth in 13 degrees and 1/3: and if thou goe in October or after October, then goe to fall with the land in 12 degrees or 12 and a halfe. And take this for a warning, that when thou seest a white land, and long bankes of white sand, which shew much like linnen cloth when it is in whiting, then thou must go along from the North to the South vntill this white land doe end: and thou needest not to feare to goe along the coast, for there are no sholds. Before thou be cleane past the white land or white sands, thou shalt haue sight of an Island that standeth along the bay, I say on the Northside of the bay, which is called Tapaon:[33] and here the land lieth West and by South. [Sidenote: The situation of the Isle of Tapaon.] When thou art so farre shot as Tapaon, thou shalt see a certaine great tree which is round, and standeth neere the sea vpon the very point of the entrance into Bahia on the Northside. [Sidenote: When a man may beare in with Bahia.] And marke well that if thou looke to the Southward, and seest no white grounds such as I wrote of before, but that they be all behind thee to the Northward; then when thou seest none to the Southward, thou mayest bee bold to beare in with Bahia. And if when thou goest into Bahia to the Northwest, and seest the sea to breake, feare nothing: for it is the breach of a certaine banke, whereon thou shalt haue alwayes 5 or 6 fadomes water: and this be sure of. Thou shalt vnderstand that if thou come for this place from March to the end of April, I would wish thee not to fall to the Southward of 13 degrees and a halfe. [Sidenote: The distance of O morro de San Paulo from Bahia.] And falling with the land, and not seeing the white sands, thou shalt striue to goe to the Northward. And seeing the land in 13 degrees and a halfe, thou shalt haue sight of an hill along the sea: And if thou be nigh the land, and cannot make it certaine what land it is: thou shalt marke if it bee a round high hill along the sea, that it is O morro de San Paulo, or, The hill of Saint Paul: and it lieth blacke and bare on the top. And from thence to Bahia is tenne leagues. [33] Itaparica. [Sidenote: Rio de Tinsare a very good riuer.] And here along this hill on the Northwest side there is a great riuer called Tinsare: and it is a very good riuer. And in the entrance of Bahia there are sixe or seuen fadomes water in the chanell. And I aduise thee that being in the height of 13 degrees and a halfe, thou come not neere the land, for it hath a bay very dangerous. And if thou goe from Bahia to Fernambuck, then I aduise thee that thou take good heede of the coast on the Northeast and Southwest, and thou shalt goe East, if the winde will suffer thee to goe East: and so goe thirtie or forty leagues off to the sea. [Sidenote: The height of the bay called A Enseada de Vazabaris.] I aduise thee that thou beare not in with the land of Fernambuck, but in the height of 9 or 10 degrees, because that in 11 degrees thou shalt fall with the bay called A Enseada de Vazabaris. Also if thou come from Portugal and fallest with the land in eleuen degrees, beare not in with it, neither come neere it, for thou mayest hurt thy selfe in so doing: but thou shalt shunne it, and goe to the Southward. For if thou lie to the North thou shalt bring thy selfe into some trouble. [Sidenote: Baia de todos Santos in 13 degrees.] This Bay of All Saints standeth in thirteene degrees. And from thence to Fernambuck thou hast a hundreth leagues: and the coast lyeth Northeast and Southwest. And from thence to Rio das Ilhas,[34] that is, the riuer of the Islands the coast runneth Northeast and Southwest, I meane taking a quarter of the North and South. [34] At the mouth of the Caxoeira River. The course for Baia das Ilhas, that is, The bay of the Islands, which lie on the sayd coast of Brasil, and the marks for the finding of them. [Sidenote: Baia das Ilhas lieth in 15 degrees lacking a quarter.] If thou goe for Baia das Ilhas thou must looke for it in fifteene degrees lacking a quarter. If thou be minded as I sayd to goe for these Isles, if it bee from March forward, thou shalt fall with the land in 15 degrees and a halfe, and though it be in 15 degrees and 2/3, it is all the better. And if thou haue sight of certaine high hilles, that seeme to reach to the skie, these hilles are called As Serras Raiemores. Then hauing sight of these hilles, thou shalt goe along the coast; and feare nothing, for there are no sholdes along to the North. And when thou seest the Islands, thou mayest make accompt they be these which thou seekest, for there are no other on al this coast, and thou shalt see a round hil along the sea. Thou shalt vnderstand that on the North side of this hill is the going in of the riuer. But if it chance that thou finde thy selfe in a time that will not suffer thee to goe in, then goe along the Islands giuing them a bredth off. And thou mayest well come to an ankor hard aboord them, for all is cleane ground. And thou shalt finde eight or nine fadomes, and from thence thou mayest goe into the riuer hard aboord the shore. And if it chance that thou goe from the North to the South all along the great Island, thou must keepe thy selfe from the land: and when thou hast brought it Eastnortheast, then thou mayest ankor two cables length from the shore: for all is cleane ground. [Sidenote: In what height a man must fall with this place in time of the Northeast winds.] If thou chance to arriue on this coast in the time of the Northeast windes, thou shalt seeke to fall with the land in foureteene degrees. And if thou see a lowe land, thou mayest make accompt it is the land called Ciemana, and then thou shalt see Mangues: And also thou shalt come along this coast to the South: and when thou seest an ende of the lowe land, then thou shalt finde an high land along the sea like the other that I haue made mention of before, that is, all sandie along the sea coast. And thou must vnderstand, that where the high land beginneth, there is a little riuer called Rio das Contas, but enter not into it: it hath for a marke to be knowen by as it were a white mouth. And from thence to the Islands thou hast nine leagues. And at the ende of this high land to the Southward of it thou shalt find a great bay within the land, and then thou shalt looke to the Westsouthwest, and shalt see another high land, which lieth as it were in the middest of the bay, and thou shalt there see certaine white houses which are the Ingenios or houses wherein they make sugar of Lucas Giraldo. From thence thou shalt see the Isles being so farre shotte as Rio de Contas. And thou shalt see within the land a round hill which is like Monte de laude, and it hath another copple[35] on the South side. [35] Summit. The course to sayle to Porto Seguro, that is to say, The safe hauen, lying on the foresayd coast of Brasil, and the markes to know the same by. [Sidenote: To auoide Os baixos dos Abrolhos.] If thou goe for Porto Seguro and goest in the time of the Southeast windes, which is from March forwards, I aduise thee that thou fall not in more degrees then sixteen and a halfe, because of the sholdes called Os baixos dos Abrolhos, which are very dangerous, and stretch very farre into the sea. And also going West from them, that thou keepe thy lead going and be often sounding. And if thou chance to see the land, and an high hill and long withall, much like to The pike, it is the hill that is called Monte Pasqual. And from thence thou must goe to the North, and when thou hast brought it Southwest of thee, then thou mayest beare with the land, but with great care to looke about thee. Marke when thou seest the land and commest to see a red cliffe, then looke to the Southward, and thou shall see a great smooth coast along the sea, and then on the North side thou shalt descrie Porto Seguro. [Sidenote: The place of comming to an ankor before Porto Seguro, which standeth in 16 deg. and one third.] And going along the coast thou shalt see the towne of Porto Seguro standing vpon the toppe of an hill; which hill is a white rocke: and on the North side of the sayd rocke there is a very hie land. I aduise thee that when thou art East and West with the sayd land, I meane with this rocke, that then thou looke to the Northward, and thou shalt see certaine rocks lying two leagues off into the sea, whereon the sea doth breake, and to the Southward of them thou mayest come to an ankor against the towne, and hast a good place to ride in thirteen fadomes in sight of the towne. [Sidenote: A dangerous riuer in 16 degrees.] And if it be thy chance to arriue in the time of the Northeast winds, and commest in the height of fifteene degrees and two third parts, and seest not certaine hilles, then thou must goe along the coast being in 16 degrees, and vnder the first hie land that thou shalt descrie, thou shalt see certaine sandie bayes along the sea coast: And if thou haue sight of a riuer in this height,[36] put not thy selfe into it, neither beare with the land, for it hath many sholdes. And off them lie certaine sunken grounds, called Os Baixos de Santo Antonio. And from hence to the Southward lyeth Porto Seguro. [36] Santa Cruz. I aduise thee that going along the coast to the Southward, and seeing such sholdes, and the sea to breake vpon them, as the other which I last spake of, thou shall runne along them a sea boord of them: and when thou art at the ende of them, then the towne will beare West of thee: and then thou mayest goe to thine ankoring place as is abouesayd, giuing these sholds a good birth. The course to the hauen named Baia do Spirito Santo, that is to say, The bay of the holy Ghost, lying on the sayde coast of Brasil, and the markes thereof. [Sidenote: Monzoins are certaine set winds with which the tides set.] Thou shall vnderstand that the ship that goeth for Spirito Santo,[37] when it hath doubled the sholdes called Os Baixos dos Abrolhos, and hath brought it selfe in 20 or 19 degrees and a halfe, then it may hall with the land in 18 or 19 degrees and a halfe, and in twentie. And the sayd shippe must goe in this height, because on this coast there are no Monçoins. [37] A bay to the North of Victoria. [Sidenote: Marks on the North side of Spirito Santo.] If thou chance to come in the height of 19 degrees 1/2 and seest lowe land to the Northwest off thee, then thou art on the North side of Spirito Santo, and thou mayest make accomp that it is the land lying ouer Criquare, and ouer the riuer called Rio dolce, that is the riuer of sweete or fresh water. If thou come along the land thou shalt find certaine high hilles: but trust not the first that thou seest only. [Sidenote: The situation of la Sierra de Mestre Aluaro.] For besides the rest thou shalt see a round hie hill which is at the capes end, which is called la Sierra de mestre Aluaro. [Sidenote: Rio dos Reyes magos.] Take heede that going for this land thou looke to the North and thou shalt see a riuer called Rio dos Reyes Magos: that is, The riuer of the three kings. And comming to the Southward thou shalt see presently the mouth of the bay to open. At the end of this hill on the South side, thou hast a point of a rocke, which is called A punta do Tubaron. And on the South side of the bay it hath two or three blacke hie hilles, and in the middest of the bay thou shalt goe in westward. I aduise thee that in going in thou take heede of a sholde which lieth in the mouth of the bay: thou must leaue it to the Southward of thee, and then plie to double a certaine Island which lieth within, and thou must leaue it to the Northward of thee: and when it beareth on the North or Northeast; thou mayest come to an ankor: for all is cleane ground. [Sidenote: A Sierra de Gusriparim in 20 degrees.] And if thou chance to come by this course, and fallest in 20 degrees, and seest many hilles, and one among the rest very high and craggie: it is called A Sierra de Guariparim, that is, the hill of Guaraparim, and seest another hill on the North side, which is called A Sierra de Pero Cam: both these lie on the South side of Spirito Santo. And from these hils thou shalt see a little hill named Guaipel. And when thou seest these hilles, thou shalt see three little Islands together, lying to the Southward: And then from these thou shalt see another rockie, bare and round Island: and to the land off this Island thou shalt see a great bay. If thou wilt thou mayest ankor here safely. And if thou wilt go in, thou shalt bring thy selfe East and West with the hill, and so thou mayest go in. And thou shalt leaue a lowe land to the North of thee, which is called A Ilha de Repouso, that is, the Isle of rest: and this Isle lieth along the coast: and thou mayest be bold to ride betwixt it and the maine, giuing it a breadth off. From these three Islands to Spirito Santo are 12 leagues: and running Northwards to come to Spirito Santo, thou shalt see another Island, and shalt go a seaboord of it, and by and by the mouth of the bay will open toward thee. And this bay standeth in 20 degrees. The course from the bay de Spirito Santo to the bay of S. Vincent, and the markes thereof. Also the course from Saint Vincent to the riuer of Plate. Sailing from Spirito Santo for Saint Vincent, thou mayest goe along the coast, keeping seuen or eight leagues off, and must goe to seeke Cabo Frio, that is, The cold cape. And as thou commest toward Cabo Frio, thou hast a very great bay called Bahia de Saluador, that is, The bay of our Sauiour. And from thence thou hast twelue leagues to Cabo Frio. And before thou commest to Cabo Frio, thou hast two small Islands. Thou mayest go safely either a sea boord of them, or else betweene them. Thou shalt vnderstand that Cabo Frio hath as it were an Island in the midst of the face or shew thereof, that doth cut off the cape.[38] Thou mayest ride safely on the West side thereof for all is cleane ground. Understand that Cabo Frio standeth in 23 degrees: and from it to Rio de Ienero are twelue leagues, And this riuer of Ienero hath in the mouth thereof 3 or 4 Islands. And if thou wilt go into this riuer de Ienero, thou mayest well goe in betweene two Islands which stand in the entrance of the riuer on the South side: neere vnto this riuer there is a great hill seeming to bee a man with long haire. And take this for aduice, that if thou be in the height of this riuer, thou shalt see certaine high hilles within the land, which be like vnto organs. And when thou seest these organs, then make accompt thou art right against the riuer: and comming neere the land thou shalt see a certaine Island very round, which lieth to the Southward, and is hie and bare in the top. Thou must know that the mouth of this riuer standeth in 23 degrees and one third part. And from this riuer to Angra, that is to say, The open hauen, thou hast 15 leagues. Goe not neere the land there, except necessitie compell thee. I aduise thee, that from this riuer that I spake of, I meane from the entrance thereof, thou must goe Westsouthwest, and Southwest, and West and by South. And thou shalt see a great Island called Isla de San Sebastiano, and to the Southward thereof another small Island very high, called the Island of Alcatrarzas, that is to say, The Island of Pellicanes: but come not neere it, for it hath dangerous shoalds. And from hence thou mayest go West, and so thou shalt fall right with the mouth of Saint Vincent, and thou shalt see an Island.[39] And if thou meane to goe into Saint Vincent thou must leaue this Island to the Westward. And vnderstand that Saint Vincent lieth in foure and twentie degrees. And when thou art in the mouth of this bay, or art neere the mouth of it, then thou shalt see many other Islands, and one among the rest to the seaward. And hauing these sights, thou hast the best markes that bee for these Islands, that I haue told thee of: and this Island lieth Northwest and Southeast with the mouth of S. Vincent. [38] Papagayos Island. [39] Saint Amaro. From San Francisco to Boca de Ouerniron are 26 leagues, and the coast lieth North and South. Also thou must marke that the riuer of San Francisco hath a great entrance, and 3 small Islands, and to seaward it hath a good road; and the main is high and craggie. From this Boca de Ouerniron to Ilha de Aruoredo thou hast no great markes be obserued: but this Boca is a very great bay, and this bay is deepe within the Island, and is a good road, and hath many islands, and standeth in 28 degrees. And to the North of this Island vnder the point there is a good road: and there is no other road hereabout but this, and it is vnder the Island. From hence thou shalt haue sight of the Isle called Santa Catharina, which is a great Island about eight or nine leagues long, and lieth North and South. And hard by euen with this Iland is Porto de Patos, which standest in 29 degrees. And from Porto de Patos to Porto de Don Roderigo are ten or eleuen leagues: and the coast lieth North and South. And from Porto de Don Roderigo to Laguna are 5 leagues. And this is a good harbour for all winds, except the Northeast wind. From the Laguna to the riuer called Rio de Martin de Sousa are 42 leagues. And the coast is something high, and lieth Northeast and by North, and Southwest and by South: and it hath an Island 2 leagues into the sea, where ships may ride well. And from the Riuer of Martin de Sousa to Rio de San Pedro are 52 leagues, and the coast lieth Northeast and Southwest. From this riuer of San Pedro there lieth a point of sand a good league off and more, and it lyeth on the Southwest side of the port. And from thence to Cabo de Santa Maria are 42 leagues: and the coast lieth Northeast and Southwest, and all is lowe land. Also on the Southeast side of Cabo de Santa Maria there lyeth an Isle two leagues off into the sea, and it hath a good harborough betwixt it and the mayne. And note that the mayne is lowe land. The cape of Santa Maria standeth in 35 degrees, and at the point thereof it hath an Island a league into the sea. Hereafter followeth a Ruttier from the sayd riuer of Plate to the Streight of Magelane. The cape of Santa Maria is in 35 degrees. From thence to the Cape de Santo Antonio, which is on the other side of the riuer, are 30 leagues Northnortheast, and Southsouthwest. And this is the broadest place of the riuer. And this cape is in 36 degrees and a halfe, and it is a blacke grosse land. And thou must marke that 25 leagues a seaboord the mouth of the riuer there lie certaine sands, which he called Baixos de los Castellanos. He that falleth with the Cape of Santa Maria must take good heede to go Southeast vntill he be in 36 degrees, and from thence Southsoutheast vntill 36 degrees and a halfe, giuing the sayd sholds de los Castellanos a breadth: and also taking heede of the flats of the cape. And when he findeth 40 or 45 fadomes, and russet sand, then he must goe Southwest and by South, vntill he be in 40 degrees: where hee shall finde great store of weeds, which come from the coast, and a man may goe 20 leagues from the shore in this sounding. [Sidenote: Cabo de Arenas Gordas.] From the Cape de Santo Antonio to the cape de Arenas Gordas are eight and forty leagues, and the coast lieth Northeast and Southwest, and by East and by West: [Sidenote: Rio de S. Anna.] and in the first eighteene leagues is the riuer called Rio de Santa Anna, which hath at the entrance certaine flats and sholds, giue them a good breadth, and come not nigh them by much, but keepe thy selfe in forty fadomes to goe surely. [Sidenote: Cape de S. André.] From the cape de Arenas Gordas to the cape of Sant André are one and thirty leagues: it lieth Northeast and by East, and Southwest by West: I meane when thou art in the middest with an equall distance from them both. And between both the capes are many bayes and riuers, but all full of sandie sholdes. [Sidenote: Baia Anegada.] From the cape of Sant Andres to the bay called Anegada, that is, The sunken bay, are 30 leagues Eastnortheast, and Westsouthwest. It standeth in 40 degrees, rather lesse then more. [Sidenote: Punta de Tierra Ilana.] From the bay called Baia Anegada to The point of the plaine land are 25 leagues Northnortheast, and Southsouthwest. [Sidenote: Baia sin fondo.] This point lyeth in 41 degrees and a halfe, And from this point to Baia sin fondo, that is to say the bottomlesse bay, are 35 leagues Eastnortheast and Westsouthwest This bay standeth in 42 degrees and a halfe, rather lesse then more. [Sidenote: Cabo redondo. Puerto de los leones.] And from Baia sin fondo to Cabo Redondo, and Puerto de los leones, are 37 leagues Northnortheast and Southsouth west, somewhat to the North and South. And if thou meane to go out from thence with a compasse about after the maner of a halfe circle or an arch, so thou mayest passe through the Baia sin fondo along the shore: for there is water enough. Note that from the riuer of Plate to this place is neuer a good harbour for great shipping. [Sidenote: Puerto de los leones in 44 degrees and better.] From this place to Puerto de los leones the coast is cleane, and a man may come nigh vnto the land: And it is a lowe land with white cliffes. This harbour is in 44 degrees. [Sidenote: Take good heede of these little rocks.] And as a man goeth thither, after he bee in 43 degrees or more, hee must haue a care to looke out for certaine small rockes which lie neere the land, and lie North of the harbour. [Sidenote: Cabo de Matas.] From this harbour to Cabo de Matas, or the cape of shrubs, are 30 leagues North and South, halfe a point to the East, and to the West: and betwixt them there is a great bay very long: And to the Northwest 18 leagues from Cabo redondo is a riuer lying East and West: [Sidenote: Rio de Camarones.] and it is called Rio de Camarones, or, The riuer of shrimps. You shall know when you fall with this riuer, by seeing many white spots vpon the water, and they are small shrimps. [Sidenote: Cabo redondo in 45 degrees and a halfe large.] From this riuer to Cabo redondo the coast lieth Northwest and by North, and Southeast and by South. This cape is in 45 degrees and a halfe large. [Sidenote: Cabo Blanco and Barancas Blancas in 47 degrees.] From this sayd cape to Cabo Blanco and Barancas Blancas that is to say, to The white cape and white cliffes are 32 leagues lying North and by East and South and by West: and they stand in 47 degrees. From this Cape the coast lyeth towards the North side Northwest about three leagues all full of white cliffes steepe vp: and the last cliffe is the biggest both in length and height, and sheweth to be the saile of a ship when it is vnder saile. These white cliffes are 6 in number, and this Cape hath in the face thereof a certaine round land that sheweth to bee an Island afarre off: and it hath certaine poynts of rockes hard by it. And two Cables length from the land is 25 fathomes water. Aboue these white cliffes the land is plaine and euen: and it hath certaine woods. There is much people in the countrey: of whom I wish thee to take good heed. From this Cape the land lyeth North and South; which is the first fall of the Cape: and in the face thereof it hath a poynt of rocks, which shewe themselues. [Sidenote: A good harbour.] And on the South side of this Cape is a good harbour and road, and there is a Bay in the middest. [Sidenote: The port of Saint Iulian.] From Cabo and Blanco to Puerto de San Iulian are 37 leagues, and the coast lyeth North and by East and South and by West. This harbour of S. Iulian hath in the entrance certaine high hilles, which afarre off seeme to be towers. On the South part of the entrance the chanell is deepest in the middest: and thou must borrow neerer the North side then to the South. Within the harbour are two Islands: thou must come to an anker hard to them. This hauen lyeth in 49. degrees. [Sidenote: Islas de Ascensaom.] And betweene Cabo Blanco and this The Islands of Ascension, and they be eight. [Sidenote: Morro de Santo Yues, in 50 degrees large.] From this said harbour to the hill of S. Yues are 35 leagues; the coast lyeth Northeast and Southwest: it is a low land and euen and hath onely one hil, and it is a plaine from one part to the another, and hath certaine cliffes to seaward, and to the Southward, and to the South side it hath certaine little copples: it standeth in 50 degrees large. From the hill of S. Yues to Rio de Cruz are 8 leagues, Northeast and Southwest: and on the Northside of the riuer it hath a very dry land, and in the toppe it is plaine and lyeth two leagues broad layd out along North and South, and the downefall on both sides hath as it were saddles. This Cape hath many poynts of rockes lying 4 leagues into the sea: and when thou hast sight of this land, it is goode for thee to keepe from it a good bredth off. And going from thence thou mayest runne in sight of the land in 25 fathoms. [Sidenote: Rio de Galegos and the marks thereof.] From Rio de Cruz to Rio de Galegos are 25 leagues, Northeast and Southwest; and it standeth in 52 degrees and 1/6 of a degree. It hath a certaine high land: and in the highest of the sayd land it is plaine, and to the Northeast it is a pike vp, and hath certaine white cliffes: and on the toppe and something downewarde it is blacke: at the foote of this high land to the Eastward thereof it hath certaine steps like a lather: and to the sea it hath a sharpe poynt that lyeth into this Cape almost halfe a league. To the Southward of this Cape where the lather is, there is a little Bay, which is the entrance of Rio de Galegos, it ebbeth and floweth here 12 fathomes. A man must haue a great care how he goeth in here for the cause abouesaid: but he must keepe himselfe out and not anker in it. From Rio de Galegos to the Streits of Magelan the coast lyeth Northnorthwest and Southsoutheast: 8 leagues vnto Cabo de la virgin Maria, which is the entrance into the Streit: and 4 leagues before a man come to this Cape there are white cliffes with certaine blacke spots in them; and they be caused with the falling downe of the water. [Sidenote: Ciudad de Nombre de Iesus called by M. Candish Port Famine because he found al the Spaniards famished, and the towne it selfe vtterly abandoned and ruined.] Here is water inough, and thou mayest come to an anker hard aboord the shore, and hast a good defence for a Southwest wind. And the Cape it selfe is the highest land of all, and is like to Cape Saint Vincent in Spaine: and it hath on the east side a ledge of rockes, and a poynt of sand, with diuers sands which shewe themselues at a lowe water: thou must take great heede heere and giue them a good breadth halfe a league or a quarter of a league off, vntill thou bring the Cape Westnorthwest, and then thou mayest stirre away Southwest. And when thou commest to the lower land and into tenne or twelue fathoms, then art thou ouer against la Purificacion. [Sidenote: Where Nombre de Iesus stood.] And halfe a league within the land the citie of Nombre de Iesus was builded, East and West with the sayd cape right against a cliffe, which commeth from the sayd Cape, and goeth within the Streits. This Cape standeth in 52 degrees iust. [Sidenote: Southwest winds raigne much here in Sommer.] And this is to be taken for a warning, that he that commeth neere this Cape, and passeth by it as I haue said with the wind at Northeast, or any other wind off the sea inclining to the Southeast, must not come to anker, but presently be sure to passe by: because in Sommer this place is much subiect to Southwest winds, which blow right in: and they put a man from his tackle, and make him to loose his voyage. [Sidenote: From March forward the winds are fauorable for the Streits.] And from March forwards there blow favourable winds from the sea to goe from this Cape to enter into the Streits, from this said Cape the Streits go in to the Northwest 14 leagues: and the chanell waxeth narrower and narrower vnto the first Streit which runneth Eastnortheast, and Westsouthwest. And comming out of the mouth thereof a man must keepe himselfe a poynt to the Northward, because there be rocks and shoalds. [Sidenote: The Indians about Cape de San Gregorio in the Streits are very trecherous.] And if you see beds of weeds, take heed of them, and keepe off from them: and after you be past this Streight you must stirre Westsouthwest 8 leagues vnto Cabo de San Gregorio, which is a high white cliffe, and is a good road for any wind from the Northwest to the Southwest. But men must beware and not trust the Indians of this Cape: for they be subtill and will betray a man. From this Cape beginneth the second Streit which is called Nuestra Sennorà de Gracia, and lyeth Eastnortheast and Westsouthwest 3 leagues. And comming out of this Streit thou shalt see 3 little Islands, lying West off this Streit: thou mayest go betweene them, for there is no danger: prouided alwayes that thou keepe well off from the bayes on both sides, lest thou bee imbayed. [Sidenote: Rincones.] And from these Islands thou must keepe forwards in the channell Westsouthwest two leagues: and then the coast lyeth North and South vnto 53 degrees and a halfe, vnto a place called Punta de Santa Anna: [Sidenote: La Ciudad del Don Philippe: which is now vtterly ruined.] and to the Northwest thereof, in a corner or nooke (which is one of the rincones or nookes) was the towne builded called La Ciudad del Don Philippe. Thou must come to an anker to the Northward thereof, after thou art past the castle and a great tree. TWO VOYAGES OF CERTAINE ENGLISHMEN TO THE RIUER OF PLATE SITUATE IN 35 DEGREES OF SOUTHERLY LATITUDE: TOGETHER WITH AN EXACT RUTTIER AND DESCRIPTION THEREOF, AND OF ALL THE MAINE BRANCHES, SO FARRE AS THEY ARE NAVIGABLE WITH SMALL BARKES. BY WHICH RIUER THE SPANIARDS OF LATE YEERES HAVE FREQUENTED AN EXCEEDING RICH TRADE TO AND FROM PERU, AND THE MINES OF POTOSSI, AS ALSO TO CHILI, AND OTHER PLACES. A report of a Voyage of two Englishmen in the company of Sebastian Cabota, intended for the Malucos by the Streights of Magellan, but perfourmed onely to the riuer of Plate in April 1527. Taken out of the information of M. Robert Thorne to Doctor Ley Ambassador for King Henry the eight, to Charles the Emperour, touching the discouery of the Malucos by the North. [Sidenote: This was the fleete wherein Cabot discouered the riuer of Plate, 1526. Two Englishmen went with Cabot in this discouery.] In a flote of three ships and a carauel that went from this citie of Siuil armed by the merchants of it, which departed in Aprill last past, I and my partner haue one thousand foure hundred duckets that wee employed in the sayd fleete, principally for that two Englishmen, friendes of mine, which are somewhat learned in Cosmographie, should goe in the same ships, to bring me certaine relation of the situation of the countrey, and to be expert in the nauigation of those seas, and there to haue informations of many other things, and aduise that I desire to know especially. Seeing in those quarters are ships and mariners of that countrey, and cardes by which they saile, though much vnlike ours: that they should procure to haue the sayd cards, and learne how they understand them, and especially to know what nauigation they haue for those Islands Northwards and Northeastward. [Sidenote: The Islands of the Malucos. The New found Ilands discouered by the English.] For if from the said Islands the sea doth extend without interposition of land to saile from the North point to the Northeast point one thousand seuen hundred or one thousand eight hundred leagues, they should come to The new found Islands that we discouered, and so we should be neerer to the said Spicerie by almost 200 leagues then the Emperour, or the king of Portugall are. An extract out of the discourse of one Lopez Vaz a Portugal, touching the fight of M. Fenton with the Spanish ships, with a report of the proceeding of M. Iohn Drake after his departing from him to the riuer of Plate. Vpon the relation of Pedro Sarmiento concerning the streits of Magellan, that they might be fortified, and for that the king heard, that there were ships in England preparing for the same streits, he commanded Diego Flores de Valdes a noble man of Spaine, to passe thither with 23 ships, and 3500 men to stoppe the passage of the Englishmen. [Sidenote: Fiue ships of this fleete cast away on the coast of Spaine.] There went in this fleete the gouernour of Chili, with 500 olde souldiers that came out of Flanders: but this was the vnhappiest fleet of ships that euer went out of Spaine: for before they came from the coast of Spaine a storme tooke them, and cast away fiue of the fleete and in them aboue 800 men, and the rest came into Cadiz. But the king sent them word that they should proceede: and so there went out on the voyage 16 of the shippes, for two more of their fleete were much spoyled by the storme which they had. In these sixeteene shippes Pedro Sarmiento was sent to bee gouernour in the straites, and had assigned vnto him 500 men to stay there with him, and hee carried with him, all kinde of Artificers to make him forts, and other necessaries, with great store of ordinance and other munition. This fleete because it was late, did winter on the coast of Brasil, in the riuer of Ienero: and from thence they went when the winter was past, and about the height of 42 degrees they had a sudden storme, so that Diego Flores beat it vp and downe 22 dayes, in which time hee lost one of the best ships he had, which had in her 360 men and 20 women, that went to inhabit the Streits: and in this ship also was most part of the munition which should haue bene left in the Streits, so in the ende the storme grew to bee so great, that the ships were not able to endure it any longer, but were put backe vnto an Island called Santa Catelina:[40] and there he found a barke wherein were some fryers going for the riuer of Plate: [Sidenote: M. Fenton took these fryers.] which friers told him of two great English ships, and a pinnesse, which had taken them, but tooke nothing from them, nor did them any harme, but onely asked them for the king of Spaines ships. Hereupon Diego Flores knowing that these English ships would goe for the Streits, determined to goe thither, although it was in the moneth of Februarie, and choosing 10 ships of the 15 that were left, hee left two ships that were not in case to goe to sea at the Iland, and into the other three ships which were old, and shaken with the storme hee put all the women, and sicke men in all the fleete, and sent them to the riuer of Ienero, and he with the other 10 returned againe for the Streits. The three ships in which the sicke men and women were, went to Brasil, and there they found within the port of S. Vincent the two ships before mentioned. [Sidenote: A fight betwixt our 2 English ships and three Spanish ships.] They woulde haue had the English men to haue gone out of the harbour, and thereupon they fell to fight, and because that these three ships were weake with the storme, and the men that they had were the worst in all the fleete, the Englishmen easily put them to the worst, and sunke one of them, and might haue sunke another, if the Englishmen would: but they minded not the destruction of any man: for that is the greatest vertue that can be in a man, that when hee may doe hurt, yet he will not doe it. [Sidenote: They victual at Spirito Santo.] So the Englishmen went from this port to Spirito Santo, where they had victuals for their merchandise, and so they went backe for England, without doing of any harme in the Countrey. [40] Santa Catherina. The cause why these English shippes vnder the conduct of M. Fenton went not to the streits, I know not: but some say that they were put backe by foule weather: other some say that it was for feare of the kings ships. [Sidenote: Iohn Drake proceedeth on to the riuer of Plate.] But the pinnesse of these two ships went from them, in which was Captaine Iohn Drake: the cause why they parted I know not, but the pinnesse came into the riuer of Plate, and within fiue leagues of Seale Island, not farre from the place where the Earle of Cumberlands shippes did take in fresh water, shee was cast away vpon a ledge of rockes: but the men were saued in their boat, which were in number 18, who went ashore on the Northside, and went a dayes iourney into the land, and met with the Sauages which are no men-eaters, but take all the Christians that they can, and make them slaues. But the Englishmen fought with them and the Sauages slew fiue of them, and tooke 13 aliue, which were with the Sauages about 15 moneths. [Sidenote: Richard Faireweather remayneth in the riuer of Plate.] But the Master of the pinnesse, whose name was Richard Faireweather being not willing to indure the misery that hee was in, and hauing knowledge that there was a towne of Christians on the other side of the riuer, he in a night called Iohn Drake, and another yong man which was with them, and tooke a very little Canoa, which had but two oares, and so passed to the other side of the riuer, which is about 19 leagues broade, and were three dayes before they could get ouer without meat: and comming to land, they hit vpon an high way that went towardes the Christians: and seeing the footing of horses, they followed it, and at last came to an house where there was corne sowed, and there they met with Indians seruants vnto the Spaniards, which gaue them meate, and clothes to couer them, for they were all naked, and one of the Indians went to the towne, and told them of the Englishmen: so the Captaine sent foure horsemen, who brought them to the towne behind them. This Captaine clothed them, and prouided lodging for them, and Iohn Drake dieted at the Captaines table, and they were all very well intreated, the Captaine purposing to send them for Spaine. [Sidenote: Iohn Drake sent to the Viceroy of Peru.] But the Viceroy of Peru hauing newes hereof, sent for them, and so Iohn Drake was sent to him, but the other two were kept there, because they were married in the countrey, so that I know no more of their affaires. Vpon this comming of the Englishmen, there were prepared 50 horsemen to goe ouer the riuer to seeke the rest of the Englishmen, and also certaine Spaniards that were among the Sauage people, but I am not certaine, whether they went forward or not. A ruttier which declareth the situation of the coast of Brasil from the Isle of Santa Catelina vnto the mouth of the riuer of Plata, and all along vp within the sayd riuer, and what armes and mouthes it hath to enter into it, as farre as it is nauigable with small barks. [Sidenote: The Isle of Santa Catelina. Rio Grande.] From the Isle of Santa Catelina, (which is in 28 degrees of Southerly latitude) vnto Rio Grande is fortie leagues. This riuer by another name is called Ygai. The Island of Santa Catelina is sixe leagues in length: It hath two small Ilands on the North side betweene the maine land and it: and on the South side it hath a shoald of rockes, which lyeth hidden very neere vnto the poynt of the Isle. You are to passe betweene the firme land and the poynt of the Isle. [Sidenote: Puerto de Biaza, or Laguna.] From Santa Catelina to the hauen of Biaça, which by another name is called la Laguna, are twelue leagues: it is a good hauen within: but you must stay the full sea to enter into it, because it hath shoaldes in the mouth, and it may be knowen by a small Island which lyeth a league into the sea which is called La Isla de Raparo, that is The Island of succour or defence, and you must ride there to search the chanell. From this harbour vnto the riuer before named there is no hauen for a ship to harbour it selfe. And Rio Grande hath many shoalds in the mouth thereof. It is a riuer that none but very small shippes can enter into. And this riuer diuideth the countrey of the people called Carios from other nations which are called Guauaes. [Sidenote: Certaine Ilands 12 leagues distant from the mouth of the riuer of Plate, which are 3 in number.] And from this riuer vnto the entrance of the mouth of the riuer of Plate it is al a plaine land, and very low: you must saile all along two or three leagues into the sea from the shore, vntill you come to certain Islands[41] which lye twelue leagues from the mouth of the riuer of Plate. [41] Castillos and Palmarones. From Rio Grande vnto these Islands are 68 leagues. And from these Islands vnto the Cape of Saint Marie the coast runneth Northeast and Southwest, somewhat inclining a poynt to the South. The Islands are three, and may be knowen as you come from the sea by two poynts, which shew like the eares of a conie: you may ride betweene them and the maine. [Sidenote: Isla de Lobos.] From Rio Grande to the Cape of Saint Marie are 80 leagues: and the Cape may be knowne by one Island which lyeth from it a league and an halfe into the sea. You may sayle betweene the maine and that Island, because there is aboue 8 or 9 fathoms water. The Cape of Saint Mary standeth in 35 degrees of Southerly latitude. The Cape of Santa Maria vpon the poynt thereof hath a little hill which standeth ouer against the Isle of Seales. [Sidenote: The way to enter into the riuer of Plate.] From this coast of Santa Maria you must coast along the land alway on the North shore, and along the same are certaine Bayes. From the Cape vnto the riuer of Solis are tenne leagues, the coast runneth East and West. There standeth an Island ouer against the mouth thereof. From this riuer of Solis vnto Los tres Mogotes which are on the maine land is three leagues. And from Los Mogotes vnto the Isles of Saint Grauiel are other 8 or 9 leagues more; all this distance runneth East and West. These are fiue small Islands: to ride here you must keepe somewhat neere the maine within an harquebuze shot halfe a league before you come at the Islands, and straightway you shall see a crosse standing on the said land, and there is an harbour for some winds. From Saint Grauiel vnto the riuer of Sant Iuan going along the same coast, I say on the North shore, are three leagues: it is very well knowen by the broken cliffe which it hath, which is a white hill. The entrance into this riuer is very dangerous; because it is shallow, and none but very small shippes can enter into the same: the entrance thereof is on the West side very neere the land, great Carackes may ride within the harbour. From this riuer vnto the Isle of Martin Garçia are three leagues: it is one Island alone, and you must sayle along the coast on the North shore: and after you be come vnto the Island, I say, ouer against the same, you shall haue three fathoms water, and on the West side it hath a little creeke where you may ride. He that desireth to crosse ouer the riuer of Plate vnto the riuer de Buenos Aëres from the Isles of Saint Grauiel, must shape his course Southwest: and the cut ouer is sixeteene leagues and vpon his arriuall on the South shore of the riuer, hee must seeke a chanell of three fathomes water, and straite he must goe along the coast vntill hee come to a broken cliffe and a poynt like vnto the firme land, which is distant from this chanell three or foure leagues: and when thou seest this broken cliffe, keepe thee a league from it. [Sidenote: The first Spanish colonie was planted in the riuer of Buenos Aëres.] Here vpon this riuer of Buenos Aëres was the first Colonie that Don Pedro de Mendoça planted. This riuer lieth very much hidden: because it is not seene, it is very shallow at a low sea, wherefore you must come in with the first of the flood. From the Isle of Martin Garçia vnto certaine small Islands which are called the Isles of Saint Lazarus is two leagues, these are shoalds: and to goe thither you must goe hard aboord the maine, for there goeth the chanell: all this is to be passed on the North shore, and with small barkes, and with good heede. From the Isle of Martin Garçia to the mouthes of the riuer are eight leagues in passing along on this side to seeke one of the mouthes of the riuer Parana, as it is hereafter described. But you had need first to harbour in a bay, which is in the very cliffe or Barranca, and you must stay for the full sea. [Sidenote: Rio Vruay.] And if you fall into the mouth of the riuer which is called Vruay,[42] you must leaue it on the right hand, I say on the North side. [Sidenote: Parana is the great riuer.] And foorthwith leauing the said mouth forward toward the West, you may enter into the first mouth although it seeme narrow; or rather you may enter into any of the mouthes: for all of them meete together in Parana, which is the maine riuer. [42] River Uruguay. [Sidenote: Rio de las Palmas.] And hee that desireth to goe from the Isle of Martin Garçia to the riuer of Palmas, which is the best of all these armes, or mouthes to speake more properly, is to shape his course to the West, and comming ouer to the other shore, and sayling along the coast Northnorthwest hee shall discouer the mouth of this riuer of Palmas: and hee must enter hard by Los Iuncales, which lye on the South side: and afterward within is very deepe sounding. All these mouthes of this riuer which are 5, are full of sholds towards the East aboue the space of two leagues. And if the course of the water were not swift there, you could not enter into them, as I haue already sayd, and you must passe all along with much heede and foresight. [Sidenote: Cape Blanco on the South side of the mouth of the riuer of Plate a very low and euen land.] And if peradventure you haue passed Cape Saint Marie and are come ouer to Cape Blanco, consider it, that it is so euen and smooth a land, that you can scarcely discerne it a league from the maine, vnlesse it be a very cleare day: and after this sort the coast lieth low vnto the riuer de Buenos Aeres. And from thence the coast lyeth somewhat high vnto the entrance of the riuer de Palmas: all the coast runneth as I sayd before. [Sidenote: Man-eaters vpon the south shore.] And all along this coast are naughty people, which eate those which they kill, and many Tygers. From the Isle of Martin Garçia vnto Saint Saluador is nine or tenne leagues. This is an Island which standeth two leagues within the first mouth: where Sebastian Cabota tooke possession. And this countrey is very well peopled by a people called Carios; and you most beware of all these people: for they are your deadly enemies. The most Southerly mouth of Parana called Rio de Palmas is sixteene leagues long, and it hath many turnings, and many palme or date-trees growing neere it, whereupon it is called The riuer of palme trees: and forthwith it entreth into the riuer Parana, as soone as these sixteene leagues are finished. All the other armes containe likewise sixteene leagues in length, sauing one small or narrow arme, which is called The riuer de los Beguaes; for this containeth fortie leagues in length. From this you must enter by the mouth of the riuer of Palmas vnto Santo Spirito, the way is fiftie leagues: you are to passe still along the cliffes. As you enter on the left hand which is on the West shore vp this riuer there are many Isles, lakes and small riuers, and many Indians which are your enemies. From Santo Spirito vnto a people which are called Los Tenbuis is fifteene leagues. This is by the narrow arme whereby they passe into the riuer Parana: it is the more because it is the longer way. From the Tenbuis by this narrow arme vpward vnto the Quiloacas, which is another nation, are twentie leagues; and all vp this riuer is great store of people. From the Quiloacas, to a place where the Spaniards now haue builded a towne, are fifteene leagues. [Sidenote: This towne perhaps may be the towne of Santa Anna, 15. leagues.] From this towne vnto the people called Los Mequaretas is twentie leagues. Here are many sholds which continue thirtie leagues. All these thirtie leagues are sunken lands: where are many Isles, flats, and nations, which are our enemies. From the Mequaretas vnto the people called Mepenes ate these thirtie leagues. And from hence begin the coasts of the firme land vnto the mouth of the riuer Paraguai; sauing that there are eight leagues more of sunken ground. From the Mepenes vnto the month of the riuer of Paraguai are thirtie leagues: it is a riuer that cannot be mistaken although it hath many armes and Islands and dangers, it hath a marke two leagues beneath the mouth on the East side, to wit, an high land, where are 7 points, which we call the 7 currents: and immediately aboue these currents there is an Island as you passe vp the riuer ouer against the poynt aforesaid standeth the mouth of Paraguai. [Sidenote: The towne of Piquiri or Picora 170 leagues vp the riuer of Parana.] This mouth is very plaine to be found in seeking whereof a man cannot be deceived. From this mouth the riuer of Parana is diuided, which is a very great riuer: and it goeth vnto the towne of Piquiri, which is an hundred and seuentie leagues: and it runneth all this space North and South, and in the way are many flats and shoalds; and great store of people, which are a bad nation, although they be diuided. [Sidenote: The citie of Assumption, or Ascension 60 leagues from the mouth of Paraguai.] From the place where these two riuers are diuided, that is to say, from the mouth of Paraguai are sixtie leagues vnto the citie of Assumption. This is a good riuer, and better to sayle then all the rest of the riuers, which are in this countrey. [Sidenote: 200 leagues from Assumption subiect to the Spaniard, to the citie of Xaraes.] And from this towne to Los Xaraes[43] are 200. leagues, very well inhabited with people of diuers nations, which serue the Spanyards. [43] North of Lake Uberaba, in latitude 17 degrees South, and longitude 52 1/2 West. Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation. VOL. XIV. PART III. THE FIRST AND SECOND DISCOUERY OF THE GULFE OF CALIFORNIA, AND OF THE SEA COAST ON THE NORTHWEST OR BACK-SIDE OF AMERICA, LYING TO THE WEST OF NEW MEXICO, CIBOLA AND QUIUIRA, TOGETHER WITH SIR FRANCIS DRAKES LANDING AND TAKING POSSESSION VPON NOUA ALBION IN THE BEHALFE OF THE CROWNE OF ENGLAND, AND THE NOTABLE VOYAGE OF FRANCIS GAULE; WHEREIN AMONGST MANY OTHER MEMORABLE MATTERS IS SET DOWNE THE HUGE BREDTH OF THE OCEAN SEA FROM CHINA AND IAPAN TO THE NORTHWEST PARTS OF AMERICA, IN THE 38. AND 40. DEGREES. A relation of the discouery, which in the Name of God the Fleete of the right noble Fernando Cortez Marques of the Vally, made with three ships; The one called Santa Agueda of 120. tunnes, the other the Trinitie of 35. tunnes, and the thirde S. Thomas of the burden of 20. tunnes. Of which Fleete was Captaine the right worshipfull knight Francis de Vlloa borne in the Citie of Merida. Taken out of the third volume of the voyages gathered by M. Iohn Baptista Ramusio. Chap. 1. Francis Vlloa a captaine of Cortez departeth with a Fleete from the port of Acapulco, and goeth to discouer vnknowen lands, he passeth by the coast of Sacatula and Motin, and by tempest runneth to the riuer of Guajaual, from whence he crosseth ouer to the hauen of Santa Cruz, along the coast whereof he discouereth 3. smal Ilands, and within two dayes and an halfe returning to the maine land he discouereth the riuer called Rio de san Pedro y san Pablo, and not far distant from thence two other riuers as big or greater then that of Guadalquiuir which runneth by Siuil, together with their head springs. [Sidenote: Acapulco in 17. degrees of latitude.] We imbarked our selues in the hauven of Acapulco on the 8. of Iuly in the yeere of our Lord 1539, calling vpon almighty God to guide vs with his holy hand vnto such places where he might be serued, and his holy faith aduanced. And we sailed from the said port by the coast of Sacatula and Motin, which is sweete and pleasant through the abundance of trees that grow thereon, and riuers which passe through those countries, for the which wee often thanked God the creatour of them. So sailing along we came to the hauen of S. Iago in the province of Colima: but before we arriued there, the maine mast of our ship called Santa Agueda was broken by a storme of winde that tooke vs, so as the ship was forced to saile without her mast vntil we arriued in the said hauen. From the port of Acapulco to this hauen of Colima wee were sayling the space of 20. dayes. Here we stayed to mende our mast and to take in certaine victuals, water, and wood, the space of 27. dayes. And wee departed from the saide hauen the 23. of August, and sayling by the Isles of Xalisco the 27. or 28. of the saide moneth wee were taken with an extreame tempest wherein wee thought we should have perished, and being tossed and weather-beaten, wee ranne as farre as the riuer of Guajalua in the Prouince of Culiacan. [Sidenote: Santa Cruz in the point of California.] In this storme wee lost the pinnessee called Sant Thomas, and because wee had lost her wee crossed ouer to the port of Santa Cruz in California: for while wee were so beaten in the former tempest, the pilot of the Barke signified vnto vs, that he perceiued she beganne to leake, and that already she had received in much water, insomuch that she beganne to founder: whereupon, to helpe her neede, and that we might meete together in a knowen hauen, if by chance the tempest should separate vs, as it did indeed, we willed him to repaire to the hauen of Santa Cruz, where we meant to repaire his harmes and our owne. Wherefore being all arriued in this place of Santa Cruz, wee stayed there fiue dayes and tooke in water, wherein we heard no newes of our Barke which we had lost: Whereupon the Captaine resolued to follow on our voyage; wherefore we set saile the 12. of September, and as we sailed wee saw along the coast of the said hauen 3. Islands, whereof the Captaine made no great accompt, thinking there coulde be no great good found in any of them. These Islands seemed not to be great; wherefore he commanded the Masters and pilotes to proceed on their voyage, and not to leese time without any profit. [Sidenote: Rio de san Pedro y san Pablo.] So sailing ouer the gulfe of California, in two dayes and an halfe we came to the riuer of S. Peter and S. Paul, finding before we entered into the same a small Island in the mouth of the Riuer, being 4. or 5. miles distant from the maine. On both sides of the Riuer wee beheld goodly and pleasant great plaines full of many green and beautiful trees, and farther within the land we beheld certaine exceeding high mountaines full of woods very pleasant to beholde. From this riuer wee sailed still along the coast the space of 15 leagues, in which course wee found two other Riuers in our iudgement as great or greater then Guadalquiuir the Riuer of Siuilia in Spaine. Al the coast by these Riuers is plaine as the other which we had passed, with many woods: likewise within the lande appeared great mountaines couered with woods very beautifull to beholde, and beneath in the plaine appeared certaine lakes of water. From these Riuers we sailed 18 leagues, and found very pleasant plaines, and certaine great lakes whose mouthes opened into the Sea: here our Capitane thought good throughly to discouer what those lakes were, and to search whether there were any good hauen for his ships to ride in, or to harbour themselues, if any tempest should arise; and so he commaunded a boat to be hoised out into the Sea, with a Master and fiue or sixe men to view them, and to sound the depth, and bottom of them: who went thither, and found the coast very sholde, and the mouthes of the lakes; whereupon they made no accompt of them, onely because the shore was so shallow, for otherwise the land was very pleasant. Here at euening we saw on the shore 10. or 12. Indians and fires. The aforesaide two Riuers are two leagues distant the one from the other little more or lesse, and are great, as I haue saide, and being in the last of them we went vp to the ship-top, and saw many lakes, and one among the rest exceeding great, and wee supposed that they had their springs out of this great lake, as other Riuers also haue from other lakes, for wee sawe the course of them seuerally each by themselues, hauing goodly woods growing all along their bankes. The currents of these Riuers might be discerned three leagues within the Sea: and at the mouthes of them were many small stakes set vp for markes: the shore here is plaine and sandie, and the countrey very pleasant. Chap. 2. Sailing along the coast from the two aforesaid great Riuers, they discouer three mouthes of lakes and a goodly Countrey, they come vnto Cabo Roxo, and take possession of those countreys for the Emperours Maiesty. A discourse of the faire hauens that are on those coastes, and of very many Islands which they saw, before they came to the Cape called Capo de las Plaias. This day wee sailed along the coast the space of 16. leagues, and in the midst of this voyage, there is a Bay very faire of 4. or 5. leagues, hauing certaine bankes or fences in it, in beholding whereof we tooke great pleasure. The night following we road in 20. fadome water. [Sidenote: The coast runneth Northward.] The next day we followed our voyage toward the North, and hauing sailed 3. or 4. leagues we saw 3. mouthes of lakes which entred into the land, where they became like standing pooles. Wee road a league distance from these mouthes in 6. fadome water, to see what they were, and sent our boat with certaine men, to see if there were any entry for our ships: for halfe a league from shore we had not past one or two fadome water. Here our men saw 7. or 8. Indians, and found sundry sorts of greene herbes somewhat differing from those of Nueua Espanna. The Countrey is plaine, but farre within the land they saw great and small hils extending themselues a great way, and being very faire and pleasant to behold. The day following we proceeded on our voyage sayling alwayes in sight of the plaine coast toward the Northwest, in 10. or 15. fadome water. And hauing sailed 6. good leagues we found a Bay on the coast within the land of about 5. leagues ouer, from whence the coast trendeth Northwest, and this day we sailed about 16 leagues. All this coast is plaine, and not so pleasant as that which we had passed: here are certaine small hilles, but not so high as those which we had found before. Thus we sailed all night Northwest, and vntil the next day at noone, at which time we fell with a headland of white sand, where by the height which we tooke that day we found our selues to be in the latitude of 27. degrees and 3/4. This cape we called Capo Roxo. All the coast is plaine and faire and cleane sand, and we saw within land some few trees not very great, with certaine mountaines and woods 3. or 4. leagues distant from the said cape: and here likewise appeared a mouth of a riuer, which (as far as we could discerne) made certaine lakes vp within the land: from the mouth whereof for the space of a league into the sea it seemed to be very sholde, because the sea did breake very much. Here we saw within the land 3. or 4. riuers. [Sidenote: The coast runneth Northward.] In this sort we sailed on our voiage to the Northward, and because we had not good weather we road that night in a great hauen lying in our way, where on the shore wee saw certaine plaines, and vp within the land certaine hilles not very high: and continuing our course toward the North about 3. leagues from this hauen, we found an Iland of about one league in circuite lying before the mouth of the said hauen. And sailing forward we found an hauen which hath two mouthes into the Sea, into which we entered by the Northermost mouth, which hath 10. or 12. fadome water, and so decreaseth till it come to 5. fadome, where we anckered in a poole which the Sea maketh, which is a strange thing to beholde, for there are so many entrances and mouths of streames and hauens, that we were all astonied at the sight thereof: and these hauens are so excellently framed by nature, as the like are not to bee seene in the world, wherein we found great store of fish. Here we anckered, and the Captaine went on shore, and tooke possession, vsing all such ceremonies as thereunto belong. [Sidenote: Fishing weares like those of Virginia.] Here also wee found certaine weares to catch fish made by the Indians, and certaine small cottages, wherein were diuers pieces of earthen pots as finely made as those in Spaine. Here by commandement of the Captaine a Crosse was erected vpon an hil, and it was set vp by Francis Preciado. In this place we saw the Countrey full of fresh and greene grasse, howbeit differing from that of New Spaine, and vp within the Countrey we saw many great and very greene mountaines. This Countrey seemed very goodly and delightsome to all of vs, in regard to the greennesse and beautie thereof, and we iudged it to be very populous within the land. From this hauen we departed and kept our way toward the Northwest with good weather, and began to finde hard by the sea-shore exceeding high mountaines spotted with white, and in them we saw many foules which had their nestes in certaine holes of those rocks, and sailed 10. leagues vntil night, all which night we were becalmed. The next day we followed our course Northwest with good weather: and from that day forward we began to see on the Westerne shore (whereon the foresaid hauen of S. Cruz standeth) certaine Islands or high lands, whereat we reioyced not a little. And so sayling forward we met with an Island about two leagues in bignesse, and on the East shore hauing still the maine land and Islands in sight, we sailed 15. leagues vntil the euening, alwayes finding hard by the sea-coast exceeding high mountaines bare of trees, the land appearing still more plainely vnto vs on the Westerne shore. [Sidenote: Some take the land of California to be nothing but Islands.] Whereupon wee began to be of diuers opinions, some thinking that this coast of Santa Cruz was a firme land, and that it ioyned with the continent of Nueua Espanna, others thought the contrary, and that they were nothing else but Islands, which were to the Westward. And in this sort we proceeded forward, hauing the land on both sides of vs, so farre, that we all began to wonder at it. This day we sailed some 15. leagues, and called this Cape Capo de las Plaias. Chap. 3. Of the Streight which they discouered on the coast of Capo de las Plaias, and of the pleasant Countrey which they found before they came to the rockes called Los diamantes. Of the wonderfull whitenesse of that Sea, and of the ebbing and flowing thereof: and of the multitude of Islands and lands, which extend themselues Northward from the hauen of Santa Cruz. The day following we sailed vntil night with so good weather, that we ran about 20. leagues. All this coast along the shore is full of little hilles without grasse or trees: and that night we anckered in 20. fadome water. [Sidenote: A Streight of 12. leagues broad, of exceeding depth.] The next day we followed our voyage beginning to saile before breake of day Northwestward, and we came into the midst of a Streight or mouth which was 12 leagues broad from one land to the other, which Streight had two Ilands in the midst thereof being 4. leagues distant the one from the other: and here we discerned the countrey to be plaine, and certaine mountaines, and it seemed that a certaine gut of water like a brooke ran through the plain. This streight (as far as we could perceiue) was very deep, for we could finde no botome: and here we saw the land stretching afarre off from the one shore to the other, and on the Westerne shore of the hauen of S. Cruz, the land was more high with very bare mountaines. [Sidenote: The Streight here runneth Northward.] The day following we passed on our way toward the North, and sailed some 15. leagues and in the midst of our way we found a circuit or bay of 6. leagues into the land with many cooues or creeks, and the next day following continuing our course we sailed some 10. leagues, and the coast in this dayes iourney was all of high mountaines naked and bare without any tree. It is very deepe hard by the shore, and that night we were constrained to stay by reason of the contrary winde. The next morning before breake of day we sailed still along the coast to the Northwest vntil euening, and ranne about some 15. leagues. All along this shore wee sawe very goodly mountaines within the land, and many plaines and downes with some few trees, and the sea-shore was all sandy. [Sidenote: Small rocks called Los Diamantes.] In the midst of this dayes course we found certaine small rockes in the sea 4 leagues distant from the maine, were the said land maketh a great point into the sea, and here we stayed the rest of the night, where we had a very great shower of raine. The day following we proceeded on our voyage, and sailed vntill night by a compasse or turning, some 8. or 9. leagues, and saw within land a few mountaines hauing no trees vpon them, but the Sunne shining alwayes very cleare, as farre as we could descry, they were very great, on the Westerne shore of the hauen of Santa Cruz. Here we stayed all night because we found very shallow water and sawe the sea very white, and in a maner like to chalke, so that we all beganne to marueile thereat. The day following wee went forward againe along the coast Northwestward, and sailed eight leagues, and saw another land which stretched Northwest, and was full of high mountaines. And still continuing this course we searched very diligently to see if there were any passage through betweene both the landes, for right forward wee saw no land. And thus sayling we alwayes found more shallow water, and the Sea thicke, blacke, and very muddie, and came at length into fiue fadome water: and seeing this, wee determined to passe ouer to the land which wee had seene on the other side, and here likewise wee found as little depth and lesse, whereupon we rode all night in fiue fadome water, and wee perceiued the Sea to runne with so great a rage into the land, that it is a thing much to be marueilled at, and with the like fury it returned backe againe with the ebbe: during which time wee found 11. fadome water, and the floode and ebbe continued from sixe to sixe houres. The day following the Captaine and Pilote went vp to the shippes top, and sawe all the lande full of sand in a great round compasse, and ioyning it selfe with the other shore and it was so low, that whereas wee were a league from the same wee could not well discern it, and it seemed that there was an inlet of the mouthes of certaine lakes, whereby the Sea went in and out. There were diuers opinions amongst vs and some thought that that current entered into those lakes, and also that some great Riuer there might be the cause thereof. And when we could perceiue no passage through, nor could discerne the countrey to be inhabited, the Captaine accompanied with certaine of vs went to take possession thereof. The same day with the ebbe of the Sea wee fell downe from the other coast from the side of Nueua Espanna, though alwayes we had in sight the firme land on the one side of vs, and the other Islands on our left hande, on the side of the port of Santa Cruz situate on the Westerne shore: for on that side there are so many Islands and lands, so farre as we could descry, that it was greatly to be wondered at: for from the said hauen of Santa Cruz, and from the coast of Culiacan we had alwayes in a maner land on both sides of vs, and that so great a countrey, that I suppose if it should so continue further inwarde, there is countrey ynough for many yeeres to conquer. This day wee had the winde contrary, and cast ancker vntil the flood increased which was in the afternoone, and then wee set saile likewise with contrary winde vntill midnigt, and then cast ancker. The next day wee departed, shaping our course along the coast Southwest, vntill midnight with little winde, and wee sawe within the land high mountaines with some openings, and wee made way some three leagues, and all the next night wee were becalmed, and the next day we continued our course but a little while, for we sailed not aboue fiue leagues, and all the night were becalmed, and sawe the land full of bare and high mountaines, and on our left hande wee descried a plaine countrey, and saw in the night certaine fires. Chap. 4. They land vpon an Island to discouer the same, and there they see many fires, which issue out of certaine mountaines, and many Seale-fishes. Here they take an Indian, and can not vnderstand his language. Running along they discouer another Island, and take possession thereof for the Emperours Maiestie, and a great hauen in the firme land, which they call Ancon de Sant Andres, or The hauen of S. Andrew. The next day following our course we saw a great hauen with an Island in the sea, within a crossebow shoote of the firme land, and in this Island and on the firme land were seene many smokes by the iudgement of all the company; wherefore the captaine thought good that wee should goe on land to know the certainty of these smokes and fires, himselfe taking ten or twelue of vs with a boate in his company: [Sidenote: Burning mountaines.] and going on shore in the Island, we found that the smokes proceeded out of certaine mountaines and breaches of burned earth, whereout ascended into the aire certaine cinders and ashes which mounted vp to the middle region of the aire, in such great quantitie, that we could not esteeme lesse then twenty lodes of wood to bee burned for the causing of euery of these smokes, whereat wee were all not a little amazed. In this Island were such abundance of Seales, as it was wonderful. Here we stayed that day, and killed a great number of these Seales, with whom we had some trouble: for they were so many, and ayded one another so well, that it was strange to behold; for it fell out, that while we were occupied in killing some of them with staues, they assembled twentie or thirty together, and lifting themselues vp assayled vs with their feete in a squadron, and ouerthrew two or three of our company on the ground: whereupon letting goe those which they had in their hands, they and the others escaped vs and went into the sea, howbeit wee killed good store of them, which were so fatte as it was wonderfull: and when we opened some of them to haue their liuers, we found certaine small blacke stones in their bodies, whereat we much marueiled. The next day wee rode at anker here for lacke of good weather to sayle withall: whereupon the Captaine determined to goe on shore with nine or ten of his company, to see whether there were any people there, or any signe of people that had bene there, and they found on the maine land seuen or eight Indians like to Chichimecas, which were gone a fishing, and had a raft of canes; who so soone as they espied vs ranne away and betooke themselues to flight, but being pursued by vs, in the end we tooke one of them, whose language was so strange that wee could by no meanes vnderstand him; his clothing was nothing at all, for he was starke naked. These people caried their water in bottels made of beasts skins, they fished with hookes of bone, and wee found good store of their fishes, whereof we tooke three or foure dozen. The Indian which we had taken seeing himselfe in our hands did nothing but weepe, but the Captaine called him, and made much of him, giuing him certaine beades, with a hat and certaine hookes of ours, and then let him goe. And it seemed that after hee was returned to his companions, he declared vnto them how we had done him no harme at all, showing them the things which wee had giuen him: whereupon they also determined to come vnto vs to our boate, but because it was now night, and that our shippes were farre from vs, we forced not to stay for them, especially because it was a bad place and a dangerous. This countrey hath on the sea coast high and bare mountaines with certaine grasse in some places like vnto our broomes, or like vnto woods of rosemary. The next day wee sayled neere to the coast on the same side, with very scarce winde, and in a manner calme, and ranne not aboue fiue leagues, and all the night following we lay becalmed, and we saw on the shore fiue or sixe fires. [Sidenote: Ancon de S. Andres, or The hauen of S. Andrew in 32 degrees.] The land is high with very high mountaines without grasse, hauing certaine caues in them: the next day also, and part of the night following we were becalmed: and the morrow after we followed our course along the sayd coast, and passed betweene a great Island full of exceeding high mountaines, and the maine land, where we saw a very great hauen in the firme land in which wee ankered to see what it was, and being come to an anker, the Captaine and some of vs went on land the same day to see if there were any people and fresh water, and wee found certaine small cottages couered with drie grasse, with certaine little staues layd ouerthwart, and we went a little way into the countrey which was very baren, by certaine small and streight pathes, and found a little pond or pit, but drie and without water; and here the Captaine tooke possession for the Marques of the valley[44] in the name of his Maiestie, and after this we returned to our ship, and that night we sawe foure or fiue fires on the land. The next day the Captaine determined, because hee had seene these fires, to goe on shore, and so with our two boates we went fifteene or twenty of vs vnto certaine crooked strands two leagues from the place where our ships rode, and where we had seene the fires, and we found two Indians of exceeding huge stature, so that they caused vs greatly to wonder; they caried their bowes and arrowes in their hands, and as soone as they saw vs leap on shore they ran away, and wee followed them vnto their dwellings and lodgings, which were certaine cottages and bowers couered with boughs, and there we found great and small steps of many people, but they had no kind of victuals but onely cuttle fishes which wee found there. The countrey toward the sea side seemed but barren, for we saw neither trees nor greene grasse there, yet were there certaine smal pathes not well beaten, and along the sea coast we saw many tracts of dogges, hares, and conies, and to certaine small Islands neere vnto the maine we saw Seale-fishes. This hauen is called Ancon de Sant Andres. [44] Hernando Cortez. Chap. 5. They discouer a mountainous Island very great, and neere vnto it certaine other Islands with a goodly greene and pleasant countrey. They haue sight of certaine Indians in Canoas of canes, whose language sounded like the Flemish tongue, with whome they could not haue any traffique. [Sidenote: A great Island.] The next day we proceeded on your voyage, sayling betweene the maine and an Island, which we suppose to be in circuit about a hundreth or eighty leagues, sayling sometimes within one, and sometimes within two leagues of the maine. The soile of this Island is of certaine mountaines not very steepe with caues in them, and as farre as wee could descrie by the coast, there appeared no signe of any plaine countrey. Here from this day forward wee began to bee afraid, considering that wee were to returne to the port of Santa Cruz; for it was supposed, that all along this mighty gulfe from the entrance in at Culiacan vntil the returning backe vnto the said hauen, was all firme land, and also because wee had the firme land alwayes on our right hand and it goeth round circle-wise vnto the sayd hauen; but many thought and hoped that we should finde some mouth or out-let, whereby we might passe through vnto the other coast. What our successe was we will declare in the relation following. [Sidenote: They returne from the bottome of the gulf of California.] The next day being Thursday wee sayled with scant winde, for it was almost calme, and passed beyond that great Island, hauing firme land alwayes on our right hand, and coasting (as I sayd) very neere vnto it. The next day likewise we sayled with little winde, it being in a manner calme, and passed neere vnto the shore by certaine round baies, and certaine points which the land made, which was pleasant to behold being somewhat greene, and there seemed to be some creeke there. This Friday at night wee sayled altogether with a fresh gale, and at breake of day wee were betweene the maine land, and an Island on our left hand which was somewhat big, as farre as we could discerne. Here was a great bay in the firme land, and before it was a point which stretched farre into the sea. The firme land seemed to bee much fresher and pleasanter then those lands which we had passed, hauing many bankes and hilles of indifferent height, and beautifull to behold. The countrey (as farre as wee could discerne) was so pleasant and delightfull, that wee all desired to goe on shore, and to search vp into it two or three dayes iourney, to see whether it were inhabited or not. Wee saw within the land of that bay two fires. The night following being Saturday we sailed, continually with a prosperous and fresh gale, and the wind was so great that we drew our bonet to our maine sayle, and sayled so till the morning. On Sunday the twelfth of October we found our selues altogether inclosed with land, on the right hand with the maine, which compassed vs before and behinde, and on the left hand with an Island of a league and a halfe; and betweene the maine and the Island in the midst of the sea there lay a small Islet, and also betweene the sayd maine and the Island there were two mouthes, through which there appeared, a passage whereby afterward we passed through. This maine was much more fresh and greene then the other which wee had passed, and had certaine plaines and points of mountaines of pleasant view, and full of greene grasse. Here all this night we saw two or three villages which were very great, and at breake of day we saw a Canoa or boate made of canes, which came from the land out of a creeke, and wee stood still vntill it came neere vnto vs in the ship, and they began to speake in their language which no man vnderstood, whose pronuntiation was like to the Flemings, and being called they returned with great haste vnto the shore, and we were very sory because our boate had not followed them. Here happened vnto vs a very strange thing, which was, that as this Indian returned to the shore in certaine of these creekes where a number of his fellow Indians were, as wee viewed that part, we sawe fiue Canoas issue foorth, which came toward vs: whereupon wee stayed to see what they would doe. In the meane while our Admirall came vp vnto vs, which was neere the shore, for he also had seene them, and so being come together we cast anker, expecting what those Canoas would doe. In the meane while our Generall commanded vs to make ready our boate, and to furnish the same with oares and men, to try if we could by any meanes take some of them, that we might come to some knowledge of them, and that wee might giue them some of our trifles, and specially of our hookes and beads to winne their friendship. The Indians with their fiue Canoas approached within one or two stones cast of vs, and then began to speake very loude vnto vs in a very strange language, alwayes standing vpon their guard to retire themselues with speede. When our Captaine saw this, and that they would not come, neere vs, but rather retired, he commanded sixe mariners to goe into the boate from the sterne of the ship, and himselfe also went with them with all possible haste toward the Indians. The Indians returned to the shore with so great celeritie, that they seemed to flie in those little Canoas of canes. Neuerthelesse our men vsed such diligence that one of the Canaos was boarded and taken; but the Indian in the Canoa seeing himselfe now taken leapt into the water, and our men followed with their boat to take him, but seeing himselfe within their reach, he ducked with his head vnder their boate, and so deceiued them, and then rose vp againe, and, with their oares and with staues they gaue him certaine blowes, to amaze him, but nothing would serue them; for as they were about to lay handes vpon him hee still diued vnder water, and with his hands and feete got neere to the shore: and as hee rose, vp aboue the water, he called to his felowes which stood on the shore to behold, crying Belen with a loud voyce, and so they pursued him, and strooke him sometimes being very neere the shore, and he alwayes went calling the rest of his fellowes to come and helpe him, whereupon within a short while after three other Canoas came foorth to succour him, being full of Indians with bowes and arrowes in their handes, crying with a loude voyce, that wee should come on shore: these Indians were of great stature and saluage, fat also and well set, and of a browne colour. Our Captaine perceiuing this, least they should wound any of our people with their arrowes, returned backe, and commanded vs immediately to set sayle, and so foorthwith wee departed. This day the wind skanted, and we returned to anker in the foresayd place, and our Admirall rode from the firme land toward the Island, and wee which were in the ship called The Trinitie lay neere vnto the maine, and before breake of day wee departed with a fresh gale. And before we disemboqued out of that chanell we saw certaine grasse very high and greene vpon the maine: whereupon a mariner, and the Pilot went vp into the top, and saw the mouth of a riuer which ranne through that greene countrey into the sea. [Sidenote: Port Belen is a very good hauen.] But because our Admirall was vnder all her sayles farre from vs, we could not tell them of this riuer, where wee would haue taken water, where of we had some neede, and because it was a very good hauen to goe on shore to take it, and therefore without watering we followed our course. On Monday we departed from this hauen which is like vnto a lake, for on all sides we were compassed with land, hauing the continent before, behinde vs, and on our right side, and the Island on our left side, and we passed foorth at those mouthes before mentioned, which shewed an out-let into the open sea. Thus wee sayled along still viewing the situation of the countrey, reioycing all of vs at the sight thereof, for it alwayes pleased vs more and more, still appearing more greene and pleasant, and the grasse which wee found neere vnto the shore was fresh and delectable, but not very high, being (to all our iudgements) not past a spanne long. Likewise the hills which we saw, which were many, and many downes made a very pleasant prospect, especially because we iudged, that there were many valleys and dales betweene them. Chap. 6. They discouer a very great bay with foure small Islands in it, whereas they take possession. As they sayle along and discouer diuers Islands they come at length to the port of Santa Cruz, where not being able to get any knowledge of those Indians, although they lay in waite for them at a place called The well of Grijalua, they departed thence. They haue a perilous and long tempest, which, ceased, after they had seene a light on their shrowdes. At our comming out of these openings we began to finde a Bay with a very great hauen, enuironed with diuers small hilles hauing vpon them greene woods and pleasant to behold. In this bay and strand were two small Islands neere vnto the shore, one of the which was like vnto a table about halfe a league in bignes, and the other was a round hill almost as big as the former. These Islands serued vs onely to content our sight, for we passed by them without staying, hauing but a slacke winde on Munday morning: all which day we followed our course with the foresayd slacke winde, and within a while after it became flat contrary, so that we were constrained to anker at the sayd point of the sayd hauen; and on Tewsday at breake of day we set sayle, but made but little away all the day, because the winde continued contrary, although but very weake. The night following wee were becalmed a little beyond the point of this hauen; but about midnight wee began to haue a fresh gale, and on Wednesday in the morning wee were seuen leagues distant from that point. This countrey shewed (as it was indeede) more plaine then the rest, with certaine small woody hilles, and within the other point which was before descried, the situation seemed to be more pleasant and delightsome then the rest which we had passed. And at the vttermost end of the point were two small Islets. The sayd Wednesday about nine of the clocke the winde blew a good gale, and we sayled by euening between seuen and eight leagues, and came ouer against a land not very high, where wee saw certaine creekes or breaches not very ragged, into euery of which a riuer seemed to fall, because the soyle was very greene, and had certaine trees growing on it farre bigger then those which we had found before. Here the Captaine with fiue or sixe men went on shore, and taking possession passed vp one of those riuers, and found the footing of many Indians vpon the sand. On the bankes of that riuer they saw many fruitful trees, as cherry-trees and little apple-trees, and other white trees: they found also in the wood three or foure beasts called Adibes, which are a kind of dogs. The same night we set sayle with the winde off the land, which blew so freshly, that it made vs to strike our foresayle; and on the sixteenth of October at nine of the clocke we came neere vnto a point of certaine high mountaines, on which day being Thursday we made little way, because the winde ceased, but it rose againe in the night, whereupon by the breake of day on Friday wee came before the sayd point being sixe or seuen leagues off. The land seemed to be very mountainous with certaine sharpe points not greatly clad with grasse, but somewhat bare. On our left hand wee saw two Islands, the one of a league and a halfe, the other not so much, and it seemed that we drew neere to the port of Santa Cruz, whereat we were sory because we were alwaies in good hope to find some out-let into the maine Ocean in some place of that land, and that the same port was the same out-let, and also that by the sayd coast we might returne to the foresayd hauen of Santa Cruz, and that we had committed a great error, because we had not certainely sought out the secret, whether that were a Streit or a riuer, which wee had left behind vs vnsearched at the bottome of this great sea or gulfe. All Friday and the night following we sayled with a scant winde, and on Saturday at breake of day we were betweene two points of land which make a bay, wherein we saw before and behinde foure or fiue great and small Islands. The lande was very mountainous, part whereof was couered with grasse, and part was voide. Within the land appeared more mountaines and hils, and in this place we were come neere vnto the hauen of Santa Cruz, which is all firme land, except it be diuided in the very nooke by some streite or great riuer which parteth it from the maine, which because we had not throughly discouered, all of vs, that were imployed in this voyage were not a little grieued. And this maine land stretcheth so farre in length, that I cannot well expresse it: for from the hauen of Acapulco, which standeth in seuenteene degrees and twentie minutes of latitude, wee had alwayes the coast of the firme land on our right hande, vntill we came to the great current of the white and red sea: [Sidenote: This current is in 32 degrees and the sea is white and red.] and here (as I haue said) we knew not the secret of this current, whether it were caused by a riuer or by a streit: [Sidenote: This returne is mentioned cap. 5.] and so supposing that the coast which wee had on our right hand was closed vp without passage, wee returned backe againe, alwayes descending Southward by our degrees, vntill wee returned vnto the sayd hauen of Santa Cruz, finding still along the coast a goodly and pleasant countrey, and still seeing fires made by the Indians, and Canoas made of Canes.[45] We determined to take in fresh water at the hauen of Santa Cruz, to runne along the outward Westerne coast, and to see what it was, if it pleased God. Here we rested our selues, and eat of the plummes and fruits called Pithaias: and wee entred into the port of Santa Cruz on Sunday the 18 of October and stayed there eight daies to take in wood and water resting our selues all that while, that our men might strengthen and refresh themselues. Our captaine determined to diuide amongst vs certaine garments of taffata, with clokes and saies, and a piece of taffata, and likewise ordained, that wee should goe on land to catch a couple of Indians, that they might talke with our interpreter, and that we might come to the knowledge of their language. Wherevpon thirteene of vs went out of our ship by night, and lay in ambush in a place which is called The well of Grijalua, where we stayed vntill noone betweene certaine secret wayes, and could neuer see or descrie any one Indian: [Sidenote: The Spaniards vse mastiues to take the Indians.] wherefore we returned to our ships, with two mastiue-dogs which we carried with vs to catch the Indians with more ease: and in our returne we found two Indians hidden in certaine thickets, which were come thither to spie what wee did: but because wee and our dogs were weary, and thought not on them, these Indians issued out of the thickets, and fled away, and wee ranne after them, and our dogges saw them not: wherefore by reason of the thicknes of the wilde thistles, and of the thornes and bryars, and because we were weary, we could neuer ouertake them: [Sidenote: Read more of these staues cap 10.] they left behinde them certaine staues so finely wrought that they were very beautiful to behold, considering how cunningly they were made with a handle and a corde to fling them. [45] This voyage up the great Gulf of California, with the discovery of the mouth of the River Colorado, is so accurate in its details, that, with a good map, every portion of the voyager's course can be followed. The nine and twentieth of October being Wednesday, we set sayle out of this hauen of Santa Cruz with little winde, and in sayling downe the chanell our shippe called the Trinitie came on ground vpon certaine sholdes: this was at noone at a low water, and with all the remedy that we could vse wee could not draw her off, whereupon wee were constrained to vnderprop her, and to stay the next tide: and when the tide began to increase wee vsed all diligence to draw her off, and could not by any meanes, whereat all the company and the Captaine were not a little grieued: for wee thought wee should haue lost her there, although wee ceased not with all our might to labour with both our boates, and with our cable and capsten. In the ende it pleased God about midnight at a full sea with the great force which wee vsed to recouer her, that we drew her off the sand, for which we gaue God most hearty thankes, and rode at anker all the rest of the night, wayting for day light for feare of falling into any further danger or mishap. When day was come, wee set forward with a fresh gale, and proceeded on our voyage, directing our prows to the maine sea, to see whether it would please God to let vs discouer the secret of this point. But whether it pleased not his great goodnesse, or whether it were for our sinnes, wee spent eight dayes from this port, before we could double the poynt,[46] by reason of contrary winds, and great raine, and lightning and darknesse euery night: also the windes grew so raging and tempestuous, that they made us all to quake, and to pray continually vnto God to ayde vs. And hereupon wee made our cables and ankers ready, and the chiefe Pilot commanded vs with all speede to cast anker, and in this sorte we passed our troubles: and whereas wee rode in no securitie, he caused vs foorthwith to weigh our ankers, and to goe whither the wind should driue vs. And in this sorte wee spent those eight dayes, turning backe by night the same way that wee had gone by day, and sometimes making good in the night that which wee had lost in the day, not without great desire of all the company to haue a winde which might set vs forward on our voyage, being afflicted with the miseries which wee indured by reason of the thunders, lightnings, and raine, wherewith we were wet from toppe to toe, by reason of the toyle which we had in weighing and casting of our ankers, as neede required. [46] Cape St. Lucas. And on one of these nights, which was very darke and tempestuous with winde and raine, because we thought we should haue perished, being very neere the shore, we prayed vnto God that he would vouchsafe to ayde and saue vs, without calling our sinnes to remembrance. And straightway wee saw vpon the shrowdes of the Trinity as it were a candle, which of itselfe shined, and gaue a light, whereat all the company greatly reioyced, in such sort that wee ceased not to giue thankes vnto God. Whereupon we assured our selues, that of his mercie hee would guide and saue vs, and would not suffer vs to perish, as indeede it fell out; for the next day wee had good weather, and all the mariners sayd, that it was the light of Saint Elmo[47] which appeared on the shrowdes, and they saluted it with their songs and prayers. These stormes tooke vs betweene the Isles of Saint Iago and Saint Philip, and the Isle called Isla de perlas lying ouer against the point of California supposed to be firme land. [47] St. Elmo's light, as it is called, is by no means an unusual phenomenon. It is merely caused by the Electricity in the air. Chap. 7. Sayling on their way they discouer a pleasant Countrey, and in their iudgement greatly inhabited, and finde the Sea-coast very deepe. They went to discouer or viewe the Isle of perles. And by a current one of their ships is separated from the other, and with great ioy after three dayes they had sight again of her, and following their voyage they discouer certaine great, greene, and pleasant plaines. We began to sayle along the coast the seuenth or eight of Nouember the land alwayes shewing very greene with grasse pleasant to behold, and certaine plaines neere the shore, and vp within the countrey many pleasant hils replenished with wood, and certaine valleys, so that wee were delighted aboue measure, and wondered at the greatnes and goodly view of the countrey: and euery night we saw fires, which shewed that the countrey is greatly inhabited. [Sidenote: From hence forward they saile on the westerne or back-side of California.] Thus we proceeded on our Voyage vntill the tenth of the sayd month of Nouember, hauing alwayes the coast of the maine Ocean on our right hand, and the farther we sailed, wee alwayes found the countrey more delightsome and pleasant, as well in beholding the greennes therof, as also in that it shewed certaine plaines and deepe valleys, through which riuers did fall downe into the land, within certaine mountaines, and hilles full of great woods which were not very high, and appeared within the countrey. Here we were 54 leagues distant from California little more or lesse, alwayes toward the Southwest, seeing in the night three or foure fires, whereby it appeareth that the countrey is inhabited, and full of people, for the greatnes of the countrey argueth no lesse: and we supposed that there must needs bee great townes inhabited within the land, although in this poynt we were of diuers opinions. The sea is so deepe on all this coast that we could scarce find ground in 54 fadomes. On the greatest part of the coast there are hilles of very white sand, and it seemeth to be a dangerous coast, because of the great and swift tides which goe there, for the sand sheweth so much for the space of ten or twelue leagues, for so the Pilots affirmed. [Sidenote: Isla de perlas.] This day being Saturday the winde increased, and wee had sight of the Isle of Perles, which on this side of the gulfe appeareth with a deepe valley all couered ouer with trees, and sheweth much fairer then on the other side, and wee entred into the Porte of Santa Cruz. From the ninth of Nouember to the fifteenth we sayled not aboue tenne leagues, because we had contrary winds, and great showres; and besides this we had another mischance which did not a little grieue vs; for wee lost company of the ship called The Trinitie, and could neuer see her for the space of three dayes, whereupon wee suspected that shee was returned home vnto New Spaine, or that she was seuered from our company: wherefore we were grieued out of measure to see our selues so left alone, and the Captaine of all others was most sad, though he ceased not to encourage vs to proceede on our voyage, saying that notwithstanding all this wee ought not to leaue off this enterprise which we had begunne, and that though we were left alone we should deserue the greater commendation and credite: whereupon wee all answered him, that wee would not haue him thinke that any of vs would euer be discouraged, but that we would follow him vntill hee should thinke it reasonable that we should not proceede any further in the enterprise, and that we were in danger of perishing, and that vntill then wee would bee at his commandement: but withall we perswaded him that after he had seene any great difficulty to proceede any further, hee should doe well to returne backe to make relation of our successe to the R. H. lord the Marques de Valle. Hereupon he made an Oration vnto vs wherein he told vs, that he could not beleeue, much lesse could imagine, wherefore the shippe called the Trinitie should returne into Newe Spaine, nor why she should willingly depart from vs, and goe vnto any other place, and that he thought by all reason, that some current had caried her out of our sight, and that through contrary weather and tempests she could not fetch vs vp, and that notwithstanding all that which we had done in the voyage, he had an instruction, that if by chance we were separated one from the other, wee were to take this course to meete again together, namely to returne backe eight or tenne leagues to seeke one another, beyond certaine head lands which lay out into the sea, and that therefore we should doe well to returne to seeke her vp. This sentence pleased vs all, and so returning to seeke her, we espied her two leagues distance from vs, comming toward us with a fresh gale of winde, whereat we greatly reioyced. Thus being come together we ankered for that day, because the weather seemed very contrary, and the Captaine chid them for their negligence in sayling, because they had in such sort lost our company; and they excused themselues, that they could doe no lesse, because a current had carried them away aboue three leagues, whereby they could neuer reach vnto vs. The next day being the sixteenth of Nouember wee set forward, but sayled very little, for the North and Northwest winds were against vs. Here we discouered certaine plaines, in my iudgement very great and greene, and right before vs we could not discerne any mountaines or woods, whereat wee marueiled to see so great a countrey. And wee met an Indian in a Canoa on the shore whereon the sea did breake, who stayed to beholde vs a great while, and oftentimes he lifted vp himselfe to view vs the better, and then returned backe along the coast: we vsed all diligence to see whether he would come out further from the shore, to giue him chase, and to try whether we could catch him, but he very cunningly viewed vs without comming neere vnto vs, and returned to the shore with his Canoa. Heere we saw in the euening but one fire, and wist not whether it were done by the cunning of the Indians, because they would not haue vs know that there were people there, or that it was so indeede. From the said 16 day of Nouember vntill the 24 of the same moneth we could not proceede on our way aboue 12 or 15 leagues: and looking into our Sea-chart, we found our selues distant from the Xaguges of the Port of Santa Cruz about 70 leagues. Now on the 24 day being Munday very early in the morning we beganne to take very good view of that Countrey, and all along the coast we saw many faire plaines with certaine furrowes made in the midst like vnto halfe plaines, the said plaine still appearing vp into the Countrey, with pleasant champions, because the grasse which grew there was very beautifull, short, and greene, and good pasture for cattell. Howbeit because we rode so farre off, we could not perfectly iudge what kind of grasse it was, but it shewed very short and greene, and without thornes. These plaines on the right hand made a bay into a valley which seemed to be a piece of a mountaine: the rest shewed to be al plaines without any thistles or weedes, but full of grasse good for cattel very green and faire as I haue saide. Chap. 8. One of their ships by tempest was separated from the other, and afterward meeting with her consort she reporteth that the land stretcheth to the West by the mouth of the great lake. The Pilots are of diuers iudgements touching the state of this coast inhabited by Chichimecas. They enter into an hauen to take in fresh water, and are suddenly assayled by two squadrons of Indians. They defend themselues valiantly, and the Captaine with some of his souldiers are grieuously wounded. The 26 of this moneth being Wednesday at night the North wind took vs, which still increased more and more so greatly that it put vs to much trouble, for it continued two dayes, in which the Sea was alwayes boisterous; and this night againe we lost the Trinity being beaten with the North winde aforesaid (and we had sight of her on Munday the 24) wherewith we were all of vs greatly agrieued, both Captaine, Souldiers and Mariners, because we saw we were left alone, and our ship called Santa Agueda wherein we were, was but badly conditioned, and this grieued vs more then the trouble which we had with the boisterousnesse of the Sea, imagining that if we should leese the Trinity, or if any mishap should fall vnto vs, we should not be able to follow our voyage according to our Captaines and our owne desire. [Sidenote: Land running towards the Northwest.] This said 24 day being Munday we saw a Countrey with high mountaines toward the Northwest, and it seemed that the land stretched on still forward, whereat we exceedingly reioyced, because we iudged that the lande grew alwayes broader and broader, and that wee should meete with some speciall good thing. Whereupon we desired that it would please God to send vs good weather for our voyage, which hitherto we found alwayes contrary, so that in 26 dayes we sayled not aboue 70 leagues, and that with much trouble, sometimes riding at anker and sometimes sayling, and seeking the remedies and benefite of the shore to auoide perils. In this Countrey which we discouered the 26 day we alwayes saw (as I haue said) along the shore, and within the land, goodly plaines without any tree, in the midst wherof was a lake or gathering together of the Sea-water, which (to our iudgment) was aboue 12 leagues in compasse, and the sea-coast reached to the mountaines before mentioned. And this day we saw our ship called the Trinitie, which rode 2 leagues distant from vs, which so soone as she saw vs, set saile, and we came together and reioyced greatly. [Sidenote: A wonderfull fishing place like Newfoundland.] They brought vs great quantity of gray fishes, and of another kinde: for at the point of those mountaines they found a fishing which was very wonderfull, for they suffered themselues to be taken by hand: and they were so great that euery one had much adoe to finde roome to lay his fish in. They found also on the said point a fountaine of fresh water which descended from those hilles, and they told vs that at the same place they had found a narrow passage, whereby the Sea entered into the said lake. They comforted vs much with the report of these things, and telling vs, that the lande trended to the West; for the chiefe Pilot thought, and the other Pilot was of the same opinion, that we shoulde finde a good Countrey. This night we set saile to goe to that point to take in fresh water which we wanted, and to see this lake, and to put some men on shore; and after midnight the winde came vpon vs so forcibly at the North that we could not stay there: whereupon wee were constrained to put further into the Sea, and returned the same way backe againe vnto the shore with much adoe, and came to an anker a great way short of the place from whence we were driuen: and there we rode vntill Thursday at noone with this bitter North winde, and on Friday about noone, when we most thought it would haue ceased, it beganne to increase againe, which grieued vs not a little seeing the weather so contrary, hoping alwayes that it would cease and that some winde would blow from the shore, whereby we might recouer the point of land to take in fresh water, and to search whether there were any people about that lake. Here we lay from the 26 of the saide moneth till the 29, driuing vp and downe the Sea, winding in by little and little vntill we had gotten vnder the shelter of those mountaines: which being obtayned wee rode the sayd 29 of the moneth halfe a league from those wooddy mountaines, which we had seene in the Sea. We stayed in this place at our ease all the Sunday, and Iuan Castilio the chiefe Pilot went that day in the bote on shore with seuen in his company, and they landed neere the Sea, and on a certaine low ground they found foure or fiue Indians Chichimecas of great stature, and went toward them, who fled away like Deere that had beene chased. After this the Pilot went a little way along the Sea-shore, and then returned to his boate, and by that time he was entered thereinto, he saw about fifteen Indians of great stature also, with their bowes and arrowes which called vnto him with a loude and strong voice, making signes with their bowes: but the Pilot made no account of their gesture, but rather returned to the shippes, and declared what had passed betweene him and the Indians. The same day the Captaine commaunded that our caske should be made readie against the next morning to take in water, for in both the shippes there were about fiue and twentie buttes emptie. The first of December, and the second day in the morning the Captaine went with both the barkes on shore with some dozen souldiers, and the greatest part of the Mariners which laboured in filling of water, leauing in the shippes as many as were needefull, and as soone as we were come on shore at the watering place the Captaine caused the buttes to be taken out, to the ende they might be filled with water, and while they returned to fetch the barrels and hogsheads of the shippe, the Captaine walked a turne or two vpon the shore for the space of one or two crossebow shoots, and afterwarde we went vp to certaine of those mountaines, to view the disposition of the countrey, and in trueth we found it in that place very bad to our iudgement, for it was very ragged, full of woods and caues, and so stonie, that we had much adoe to goe. Being come vnto the top we found certaine small hilles full of woods, and cliffes that were not so craggie, although very troublesome to climbe vp; and while we looked from these little hilles, we could not discerne any more mountaines, but rather iudged that from that place forward there were great plaines. The Captaine would not suffer us to goe any farther, because in those places we had seene certaine Indians which seemed to be spies, and warning vs thereof he commanded vs to retire vnto the shore, where we were to take in water, and to dispatch our businesse quickly, and appointed vs to make certaine pits, that our buts might more easily be filled with water. And setting our Guardes or Centinels, we beganne to fill water. In the meane while the Captaine tooke certaine souldiers, and went to the top of an high hill, from whence he descryed a great part of the Sea, and a lake which is within the land: for the Sea entereth in the space of a league, and there is a good fishing place round about: and the lake was so great, that it seemed vnto vs to be very neere 30 leagues in compasse, for we could not discerne the end thereof. Then we came downe with no lesse trouble then wee had mounted vp vnto the hill, by reason of the steepenesse of the place, and some tumbled downe with no small laughter of the rest. And being come somewhat late to our watering place (for it was then past noone) we set our selues to dinner, alwayes appointing some of our company in Centinell, vntill we were called to dinner, and when some were called two others were appointed in their roomes. [Sidenote: A sudden assalt of the Indians with stones, arrows and staues.] And about two of the clocke after dinner, the Captaine and the rest suspecting no danger of assalt of Indians, both because the place seemed not to be fit for it, as also for that we had set our Centinels at the passages; two squadrons of Indians came vpon vs very secretly and couertly, for one came by the great valley through which the water ranne which we tooke, and the other came by a part of that great hill which we had ascended to see the lake, and all of them came so couertly, that our Centinels could neither see nor heare them; and wee had not perceiued them, if a souldier by chance lifting vp his eyes had not sayde, Arme, Arme, my maisters, for many Indians come vpon vs. When we heard this the Capitane leapt vp in a great rage, because the guards were changed out of their place: and with his sword and target, being followed by a souldier, whose name was Haro, and afterward by the rest, he and the said souldier went toward a little gate of certaine stones, whither the rest of vs were to follow him: for if the Indians had gotten that place from vs, we should haue incurred great danger, and the greatest part of vs had like to haue beene slaine, and none could haue escaped but such as by chance could haue leapt into the boates, and the tide went so high, that none could be saued but such as were most excellent swimmers. But at length the Captaine bestirred himselfe very nimbly, vsing all celeritie that was possible. Therefore when he and Haro had wonne the gate, the rest of the souldiers gate vp after them, and the Captaine and Haro turned themselues to the Indians and made head against them, and the Indians assailed them with such numbers of stones, arrowes, and iauelins (which was a very strange thing) that they brake in pieces the target which the Captaine had on his arme, and besides that wounded him with an arrow in the bending of his knee, and though the wound was not great, yet was it very painefull vnto him. While they thus stood to withstand their assalt, they strooke Haro which was on the other side so forcibly with a stone, that they threw him flat vpon the ground: and by and by another stone lighted vpon him which shiuered his Target, and they hit the Captaine with another arrow, and shot him quite through one of his eares. Another arrow came and strooke a souldier called Grauiello Marques in the legge, of which he felt great paine and went halting. In the meane space Francis Preciado, and certaine other souldiers came vp and ioyned himselfe with the rest on the left hand of the Captaine, saying vnto him, Sir, withdrawe your selfe, for you be wounded, but be you not dismayed, for they are but Indians and cannot hurt vs. In this wise we beganne to rush in, among them vpon the side of a rocke alwayes gayning ground of them, which greatly encouraged our mindes, and when we beganne to inforce them to retire, we wanne a small wooddy hill, where we sheltered our selues, whereas before they shot vpon vs from aloft, for they were on the higher ground vnder couert in safetie, and then by no meanes we could offend them, but by running forcibly vpon them with our targets on our armes, and our swords in our hands. On the other side, to approach and seeke to ouertake them was a vaine thing, seeing they were as swift as wilde goates. By this time Haro was gotten vp on foot, and hauing clapt a woollen cloth vpon his head, which had bled extremely, he ioyned himselfe vnto vs, of whom we receiued no small aide. In the meane space the Indians fortified themselves on the cragge of a rocke, from whence they did not a little molest vs, and we likewise fortified our selues vpon an hillocke, whereby we descended into their Fort, and there was a small valley betweene them and vs, which was not very deepe from the vpper part. [Sidenote: The Spaniards vse mastiues in their warre against the Indians. Read more hereof cap. 12.] There we were 6 souldiers and two Negroes with the Captaine, and all of vs were of opinion that it was not good to passe that place, least the Indians being many might destroy vs all, for the rest of our souldiers which were beneath at the foote of the hill, making head against the other squadron of the Indians, kept them from hurting those which tooke in water on the strand and from breaking the buts of water, and being but few, we concluded to stay here, and so we stood still fortifying our selues as well as we could, especially considering that we had no succour on any side; for Berecillo our Mastiue-dogge which should haue aided vs was grieuously wounded with 3 arrowes, so that by no meanes we could get him from vs: this mastiue was wounded in the first assault when the Indians came upon vs, who behaued himselfe very wel, and greatly aided vs; for he set vpon them, and put 8 or 10 of them out of array, and made them run away, leauing many arrowes behind them: but at length (as I haue said) he was so wounded, that by no meanes we could get him to goe from vs to set any more vpon the Indians, and the other two mastiues did vs more harme then good: for when they went against them, they shot at them with their bowes, and we received hurt and trouble in defending them. The Captaines legge when he waxed cold was so swolne, that we lapped it vp in a wollen cloth, and he halted much of it: and while the Indians thus stood still, one part of them beganne to dance, sing and shout, and then they began all to lade them selues with stones, and to put their arrowes into their bowes, and to come downe toward vs verie resolutely to assalt vs, and with great out-cries they beganne to fling stones and to shoot their arrowes. Then Francis Preciado turned him to the Captaine and said: Sir, these Indians know or thinke, that we be affeard of them, and in truth it is a great falt to giue them this encouragement, it were better for vs resolutely to set vpon them with these dogs, and to assalt them on this hill, that they may know vs to be no dastards, for they be but Indians and dare not stande vs; and if we can get their Fort vpon the hill, God will giue vs victory in all the rest. The Captaine answered, that he liked well of the motion, and that it was best so to doe, although for any further pursuit vp the hill, he thought we were to take another course. By and by Francis Preciado getting his target on his arme, and his sword in his hand, ranne vnto the other side of the valley, which on that part was not very steepe, crying S. Iago, vpon them my masters, and after him leapt Haro, Tereça, Spinosa, and a Crossebow-man called Montanno, and after them followed the Captaine, though very lame, with a Negro and a souldier which accompanied him, incouraging and comforting them, willing them not to feare. Thus we draue them to the place where they had fortified themselues, and from whence they descended, and we tooke another hill ouer against them within a darts cast of them. And hauing breathed our selues a little, the Captaine came vnto vs, and said Go too my maisters, vpon them before they strengthen themselues on this hill, for now we see plainely that they be affeard of vs, seeing we chase them continually from their Forts: and suddenly 3 or 4 of vs went toward them well couered with targets, vnto the foot of their Fort where they were assembled, and the rest of our company followed vs: the Indians beganne to make head against vs, and to fling many stones vpon vs, and shoot many arrowes, and we with our swords in our hands rushed vpon them in such sort, that they seeing how furiously we set vpon them, abandoned the fort, and ranne downe the hill as swift as Deere, and fled vnto another hill ouer against vs, where the other squadron of the Indians stood, of whom they were rescued, and they began to talke among themselues, but in a low voyce, and ioyned together 6 and 6 and 8 and 8 in a company, and made a fire and warmed themselues, and we stood quietly beholding what they did. Chap. 9. After the skirmish the Captaine being wounded, and the rest of the souldiers seeing the Indians depart, returned vnto their ships. The next day taking in fresh water at the saide place he sent mariners to sound the mouth of the lake. Departing thence they came to the port called Baya de Sant Abad, and indured a dangerous storme at sea. And afterward comming neere the shore to take fresh water in the said hauen, they see certaine peaceable Indians. By this time it was late and the night approched, and the Indians seeing this, whithin a short while after determined to get them packing, and ech of them or the greatest part tooke firebrandes in their hands, and got them away into craggy places. When the Captaine saw this he commanded vs to returne aboord our boats, it being now darke night, thanking vs all for the good seruice we had done him. And being not able to stand vpon his legge, he leaned with his arme vpon Francis Preciado; and thus we returned to our boats, where with much adoe we got aboord, by reason of the great tide and roughnesse of the sea, so that our boats were filled with euery waue. Thus very weary, wet, and some wounded (as is aforesaid) each man returned vnto his ship, where our beds which we found, and our refreshing, and the cheere we had at supper did not greatly comfort vs in regard of our former trauels. We passed that night in this sort, and the next day being Tuesday the Captaine found himselfe greatly payned with his wounds, and chiefly with that on his leg, because it was greatly swolne with his going vpon it. We lacked 12 buts to fill with water, and the barrels in both the ships, and the Captaine would haue gone out to cause them to be filled, but we would not suffer him, and therefore we left off the businesse for that day. But he appointed that the crossebowes should be made readie, and two speciall good harquebuzes, and the next day being Wednesday very early, he commanded Iuan Castilio chiefe Pilot to goe out with both the botes and with all the souldiers and mariners that he could make, hauing the day before commanded the Trinitie to go as neere the shores as she might, and to make ready some of her ordinance, that if the Indians should shew themselues, they might affright them, and doe them as much hurt as they could. Wherefore on the Wednesday al we that were souldiers, sauing the wounded persons, went on shore with certaine mariners in the best order that we could, and tooke the first hill, where we had fortified our selues, standing all vpon our guard vntill the water was filled, and vntill we were called, during which time not one Indian shewed himselfe. Thus we went aboord when we thought good our selues, at least without any suspition of the Indians, although the tide of the Sea went so high that it put vs to great trouble, for oftentimes with great waues it beat into our boats. This was on the Wednesday the 3 of December. And to auoide losse of time the Captaine commanded Juan Castilio the chiefe Pilot to take a boat and certaine mariners as he should thinke good, and to view the mouth of the lake to see whether the entrance were deepe enough for to harbour the ships. [Sidenote: A special good hauen.] He taking the boat of the Admirall with 8 mariners, and ours of the Trinity, went and sounded the mouth, and on the shallowest place of the barre without they found 3 fadome depth, and farther in 4, and vp higher 5, alwayes increasing vnto 10 or 12 fadomes, when they were come into the two points of the said lake, which was a league broad from one point to the other, and all their sounding was exceeding good ground. Then they went ouer to the southeast point, and there they saw a great boat or raft which they indeuoured to take to carrie vnto their ships. In the meane while they espied certaine cottages, which the Pilot determined to goe and see. And being come neere they saw 3 other raftes with 3 Indians on them distant from the cottages one or two crossbowes shot, and he leapt on land with 4 or 5 mariners in his companie: and while they behelde those cottages, they saw many Indians descending downe a small hill in warlike manner with their bowes and arrowes, whereupon they determined to retire to their boats, and to returne to their ships, and they were not gone from the sea-shore scarse a stones cast, but the Indians were come vpon them to shoot at them with their arrowes, and because they were vnarmed, they would not fight with them, hauing gone on shore for no other purpose, but to sound the mouth and enterance of that lake. [Sidenote: Baya del Abad is 100 leagues from the point of California.] On Thursday the 4 of December we set saile with a fresh gale of winde, and sayled some 8 or 10 leagues, and came vnto certaine mouthes or inlets which seemed to all of vs as though they had beene Ilands, and we entered into one of them, and came into an hauen which we called Baya del Abad all inclosed and compassed with land, being one of the fairest hauens that hath beene seene: and about the same, especially on both sides the lande was greene and goodly to behold; we descryed certaine riuers on that part which seemed greene, and therefore we returned backe, going out at the mouth whereby we came in, alwayes hauing contrary wind: yet the Pilots vsed their best indeuour to make way: and we saw before vs certaine wooddy hils, and beyond them certaine plaines; this we saw from the Friday the 5 of the said moneth, vntill the Tuesday, which was the ninth. As we drew neere to these woods they seemed very pleasant, and there were goodly and large hilles and beyond them towardes the sea were certaine plaines, and through all the countrey we saw these woods. [Sidenote: Many great smokes, of which also Francis Gualle maketh mention.] From the day before, which was the Conception of our Lady, we saw many great smokes, whereat we much maruelled, being of diuerse opinions among our selues, whether those smokes were made by the inhabitants of the countrey or no. Ouer against these woods there fell euery night such a dew, that euery morning when we rose, the decke of the ship was so wet, that vntill the sunne was of a good height, we alwaies made the decke durtie with going vpon it. We rode ouer against these woods from the Tuesday morning when we set saile, vntill Thursday about midnight, when a cruell Northwest winde tooke vs, which, whither we would or no, inforced vs to way our anker: and it was so great, that the ship Santa Agueda began to returne backe, vntill her cable broke, and the ship hulled, and suddenly with a great gust the trinket and the mizen were rent asunder, the Northwest winde still growing more and more: within a short while after the maine saile was rent with a mighty flaw of winde, so that we were inforced, both souldiers, captaine, and all of vs, to doe our best indeuor to mend our sailes; and the Trinitie was driuen to do the like, for she going round vpon her anker, when she came a-head of it, her cable broke, so that there we lost two ankers, each ship one. We went backe to seeke Baya del Abad, for we were within 20 leagues of the same, and this day we came within foure leagues of it, and being not able to reach it by reason of contrary windes, we rode vnder the lee of certaine mountaines and hilles which were bare, and almost voide of grasse, neere vnto a strand full of sandie hilles. Neere vnto this road wee found a fishing place vnder a point of land, where hauing let downe our lead to see what ground was there, a fish caught it in his month, and began to draw it, and he which held the sounding-lead crying and shewing his fellowes that it was caught, that they might helpe him, as soone as he had got it aboue the water, tooke the fish, and loosed the cord of the sounding lead, and threw it againe into the sea, to see whether there were any good depth, and it was caught againe, whereupon he began to cry for helpe, and all of vs made a shout for ioy; thus drawing the fish the rope of the sounding-lead being very great was crackt, but at length we caught the fish which was very faire. Here we stayed from Friday when we arriued there, vntill the Munday, when as it seemed good to our Captaine, that we should repaire to the watering place, from whence we were some sixe leagues distant, to take in 12 buttes of water, which wee had drunke and spent, because he knew not whither we should from thencefoorth finde any water, or no; and though we should finde water, it was doubtfull whither wee should be able to take it by reason of the great tide that goeth vpon that coast. We drewe neere to that place on Munday at night, when as we sawe certaine fires of the Indians. And on Tuesday morning our Generall commaunded that the Trinitie should come as neere our ship and to the shore as it could, that if we had neede, they might helpe vs with their great ordinance: and hauing made 3 or 4 bourds to draw neere the shore, there came 4 or 5 Indians to the sea-side; who stood and beheld while we put out our boat and anker, marking also how our bwoy floated vpon the water; and when our boat returned to the ship, two of them leapt into the sea, and swamme vnto the bwoy, and beheld it a great while; then they tooke a cane of an arrow, and tyed to the sayd bwoy a very faire and shining sea-oyster of pearles, and then returned to the shore, neere to the watering place. Chap. 10. They giue vnto the Indians many trifles which stand vpon the shore to see them, and seeke to parley with them by their interpreter, which was a Chichimeco, who could not vnderstand their language. They go to take fresh water. Francis Preciado spendeth the time with them with many signes, and trucking and being afeard of their great multitude, retireth himselfe wisely with his companions, returning with safety to the ships. When the Captaine and we beheld this we iudged these Indians to be peaceable people; whereupon the Captaine tooke the boat with 4 or 5 mariners carrying with him certain beades to truck, and went to speake with them. In the meane while he commanded the Indian interpreter our Chichimeco, to be called out of the Admirall that he should parley with them. And the Captaine came vnto the boy, and laid certaine things vpon it for exchange, and made signes vnto the Sauages to come and take them; and an Indian made signes vnto our men with his hands, his armes, and head, that they vnderstood them not, but signified that they should go aside. Whereupon the Captaine departed a smal distance from that place with his boat. And they made signes againe that he should get him further; whereupon we departing a great way off, the saide Indians leapt into the water, came vnto the boy, and tooke those beades, and returned backe againe to land, and then came vnto the other three, and all of them viewing our things, they gaue a bowe and certaine arrowes to an Indian, and sent him away, running with all haste on the shore, and made signes vnto vs that they had sent word vnto their lord what things we had giuen them, and that he would come thither. Within a while after the said Indian returned, running as he did before, and beganne to make signes vnto vs, that his Lord was comming. And while we stayed here, we saw on the shore ten or twelue Indians assemble themselues, which came vnto the other Indians, and by and by we saw another company of 12 or 15 more appeare, who assembled themselues all together. And againe they began to make signes vnto vs, to come foorthwith to our boates, and shewed vs many Oysters of pearles on the top of certaine canes, making signes that they would giue them vs. When we beheld this, the Captaine commanded vs to make readie our boate, and went aboord it with the said mariners, and rowed to a certaine stone in forme of a rocke, which lay in the sea neere vnto the shore. And hither came first 2 or 3 Indians, and layd downe one of those Oysters, and a garland made of Parats feathers, or sparrowes feathers painted red; they layd downe also certaine plumes of white feathers, and others of blew colour. In the mean while we sawe continually Indians assemble to the shore by tenne and tenne, and so by little and little they came in squadrons; anyone of them assoone as hee sawe the boat beganne to leape forward and backeward with so great nimblenesse, that doubtlesse he seemed to all of vs a man of great agilitie, and we tooke no small pleasure while we beheld him fetching those gambols: but the rest of the Indians which stood at the mouth of the fresh water ranne toward him, and cryed vnto him, forbidding him to vse those gestures, because we were come thither in peaceable sort, and by this meanes he came with the rest to the watering place, where by little and little in this manner there assembled aboue a hundred of them all in order, with certaine staues with cordes to fling them, and with their bowes and arrowes, and they were all painted. In the meane while our Chichimeco interpreter borne in the Ile of California, was come vnto vs, and the Captaine againe commanded a mariner to strippe himselfe, and to swimme and laye vpon the said rocke certaine belles, and more beades, and when he had layd them there, the Indians made signes that he should goe away; and so they came thither and tooke them, and our men drew neere with their boat. The Captaine commanded the Indian our Chichimeco to speake vnto them, but they could not vnderstand him, so that we assuredly beleeue, that they vnderstand not the language of the Ile of California. This day being Tuesday vntil night the Indians stayed at this watering place, taking some of our beades, and giuing vnto vs their feathers and other things, and when it was very late they departed. The morrow following being Wednesday very early the Captaine commanded that our buttes should be made ready, that before breake of day, and before the Indians should take the hill, which stood ouer the watering place, we might be landed in good order: which was put in execution: for we went on shore with as many as could goe, sauing those that had charge to take in the water, and such as were to stay on ship-boord, which in all were about fourteene or fifteene persons, in as good order as we could deuise: for we were foure crossebowes, two harquebuziers, and eight or nine targets, and the most part of vs carried very good slings, and eueryone eighteene riuer stones, which weapon the Captaine inuented, because the Indians at the first had handled vs very shrewdly with the multitude of stones which they flang at vs: we had nothing to defende vs sauing our targets, and to seeke to winne the fortes from whence they indamaged vs; he therefore thought with these slings, that we might offend them, and we, likewise thought well of his opinion, for making tryall of them, we threw very well with them, and much farther than we thought we could haue done: for the slings being made of hempe, we flung very farre with them. Nowe being come to the watering place the sayd Wednesday by breake of day we tooke the fort of the fountaine, which were certaine cragges or rockes hanging ouer the same, betweene which there was an opening or deepe valley through which this water runneth, which is no great quantitie, but a little brooke not past a fadome broad. So standing all in order, other foure or fiue Indians came thither, who as soone as they sawe vs to be come on shore, and to haue gotten the toppe of the watering place, they retired vnto a small hill on the other side, for the valley was betweene them and vs: neither stayed they long before they beganne to assemble themselues as they had done the day before by 10 and 10, and 15 and 15, ranging themselues on this high hill, where they made signes vnto vs. And Francis Preciado craued license of the Generall to parley with these Indians, and to giue them some trifles; wherewith he was contented, charging him not to come too neere them, nor to goe into any place where they might hurt him. Whereupon Francis went vnto a plaine place, vnder the hill where the Indians stood, and to put them out of feare he layd downe his sword and target, hauing onely a dagger hanging downe at his girdle, and in a skarfe which he carried at his necke, certaine beades to exchange with them, combs, fishinghooks and comfits. And be began to goe vp the hill, and to shew them diuerse of his merchandise. The Indians as soone as he had layd those things on the ground, and gone somewhat aside, came downe from the hill and tooke them, and carried them vp, for it seemed that their Lord was among them, to whom they carried those trifles. [Sidenote: Truck and traffique with the Indians for mother of pearle, and other things.] Then they came downe againe, and layd to giue vnto him in the said place, an oyster of pearles, and two feathers like haukes feathers, making signes to Preciado that he should come and take them; which he did, and againe layde there a string of belles, and a great fishhooke, and certaine beades; and they taking the same, layd there againe another oyster of pearle, and certaine feathers: and he layd downe other beads, two fishhookes, and more comfits, and the Indians came to take them vp, and approched much neerer vnto him, then at other times, and so neere that a man might haue touched them with a pike, and then they began to talke together: and 7 or 8 more came downe, vnto whom Francis Preciado made signes, that they should come downe no lower, and they incontinently layd their bowes and arrowes on the ground, and hauing layd them downe came somewhat lower, and there with signes, together with them which came first, they began to parle with him, and required mariners breeches and apparel of him, and aboue all things a red hat pleased them highly, which the saide Francis ware on his head, and they prayed him to reach it vnto them, or to lay it in the place; and after this certaine of them made signes vnto him to knowe whether he would haue a harlot, signifying with their fingers those villanies and dishonest actions, and among the rest they set before him an Indian of great stature dyed wholly with black, with certaine shels of the mother of pearle at his necke, and on his head, and speaking by signes to Francis Preciado touching the foresaid act of fornication, thrusting their finger through a hole, they said vnto him, that if hee would haue a woman, they would bring him one; and he answered, that he liked well of it, and that therefore they should bring him one. In the meane space on the other side where the Generall stood with his company, another squadron of Indians shewed themselues, whereupon the Generall and his company made a stirre, and put themselues in battell array: whereupon Francis Preciado was inforced to come downe from them, to ioyne with the General and his company: and here the Indians which came last began to make signes that we should lay downe something to truck, and that they would giue us some of their shels of mother of pearle, which they brought vpon certaine small stickes, and herewithall they came very neere vnto vs, wherewith we were not well content. And Francis Preciado said vnto the Captaine, that if it pleased him, hee would cause all the Indians to come together and to stay vpon that high hill; and he answered, that it was best to draw them all together, for by this time our men had taken in all their water, and stayed for the boat: whereupon Francis taking a crowne of beades went toward the valley, through which the water ran toward the Indians, and made signes vnto them to call the rest, and to come all together, because he would goe to the olde place, to lay things on the ground for exchange, as at the first; and they answered that he should doe so, and that they had called the others, and that they would doe, as he would haue them, and so they did, for they caused them to come vnto them, which they did, and Francis likewise went alone towards them, in which meane space the Generall commanded his people to get into the boat. Francis comming vnto the place beganne to lay downe his merchandise of traffique, and afterwards made signes vnto them to stay there, because he would goe to the ships to bring them other things, and so he returned to the place where the Captaine was, and found them all got into the boates, sauing the Generall and three or foure others, and the Generall made as though he had giuen other trifles to Preciado to carry vnto the Indians, and when he was gone a little from him, he called him back againe, and all this while the Indians stood still, and being come vnto him, wee went faire and softly to our boates, and got vnto them at our ease, without any thronging, and thence we came aboord our ship. The Indians seeing vs thus gone aboord came downe to the strand where the brooke of water was, and called vnto vs to come foorth with our boates, and to come on shore, and to bring our beades, and that they would giue vs of their mother of pearles: but we being now set at dinner made no account of them: whereupon they beganne to shoot arrowes at the ship, and although they fell neere vs, yet they did not reach vs. In the meane season certaine mariners went out in the boat, to wey the anker, whereupon the Indians seeing them comming towards them, and bringing them nothing, they beganne in scorne to shew them their buttockes, making signes that they should kisse their bums: and these seemed to be those that came last. The Generall seeing this, commanded a musket to be once or twise shot off, and that they should take their iust ayme. They seeing these shot to be made readie, some of them rose and went to shoot their arrowes at our mariners, which were gone to weigh the ankers, then the Generall commanded the great ordinance speedily to be shot off, whereupon three or foure bullets were discharged, and we perceiued that we had slaine one of them, for we assuredly saw him lye dead vpon the shore: and I thinke some of the rest were wounded. They hearing this noyse, and seeing him dead ranne away as fast as euer they could, some along the shore, and some through the vallies, dragging the dead Indian with them, after which time none of them appeared, saue ten or twelue, which peeped vp with their heads among those rocks; whereupon another piece of ordinance was discharged aloft against the place where they were, after which time we neuer saw any more of them. Chap. 11. At the point of the Trinitie they spend three dayes in fishing, and in other pastimes: after which setting sayle they discouer pleasant countries, and mountaines voide of grasse, and an Iland afterward called Isla de los Cedros, or the Ile of Cedars, neere which they suffer sharpe colde and raine, and to saue themselues they returne thither. Immediatly we set saile to ioyne with the ship Santa Agueda, which was aboue halfe a league in the high sea from vs, and this was on the Wednesday the seuenteenth of December. Being come together because the windes were contrary, we drew neere to a headland, which wee called Punta de la Trinidad, and here wee stayed fishing, and solacing our selues two or three dayes, although we had alwayes great store of raine. Afterward we beganne to sayle very slowly, and at night we rode ouer against those mountaines where we had left our ankers, and vpon knowledge of the place we receiued great contentment seeing we had sailed some fiue and thirtie leagues from the place where we had taken in water: neither was it any maruell that wee so reioyced, because that the feare which we had of contrary windes caused vs to be so well appayd of the way which we had made. The day of the holy Natiuitie of our Lord, which was on the Thursday the fiue and twentieth of the said moneth, God of his mercy beganne to shew vs fauour in giuing vs a fresh winde almost in the poope, which carried vs beyond those mountaines, for the space of tenne or twelue leagues, finding the coast alwayes plaine: and two leagues within the land, which we coasted along, and betweene these mountaines, there was a great space of plaine ground, which we might easily discerne with our eyes, although others were of another opinion. We beganne from Christmas day to saile slowly with certaine small land-windes, and sayled from morning to night and about seuen or eight leagues, which wee esteemed no small matter, alwayes praying to God to continue this his fauour toward vs, and thanking him for his holy Natiuitie, and all the dayes of this feast the Frier sayd masse in the Admirall, and the father Frier Raimund preached vnto vs, which gaue vs no small comfort, by incouraging vs in the seruice of God. On Saturday at night being the 27. of the said moneth we ankored neere vnto a point which seemed to be plaine land all along the shore, and within the countrey were high mountaines with certaine woods, which woods and mountaines ranne ouerthwart the countrey, and continued along with certaine small hilles sharpe on the toppe, and certaine little vallies are betweene those mountaines. [Sidenote: Great appearance of gold and siluer.] And in truth, to me which with diligent eyes beheld the same both in length and in the breadth thereof, it could not chuse but be a good countrey, and to haue great matters in it, as well touching the inhabiting thereof by the Indians, as in golde and siluer; for there was great likelihood that there is store thereof. This night we saw a fire farre within the lande towards those mountaines, which made vs thinke that the countrey was throughly inhabited. The next day being Sunday and Innocents day, the 28 of the said moneth, at breake of day we set sayle, and by nine or ten of the clocke had sayled three or foure leagues, where we met with a point which stretched towarde the West, the pleasant situation whereof delighted vs much. From the eight and twentieth of December we ranne our course vntill Thursday being Newyeares day of the yeere 1540, and we ran some 40 leagues, passing by certaine inlets and bayes, and certaine high mountains couered with grasse in colour like rosemary: but toward the sea-side very bare and burned, and toward the top were certaine cragges somewhat of a red colour, and beyond these appeared certaine white mountaines, and so all the countrey shewed vnto a point which appeared beyond those burnt white and red mountaines which haue neither any grasse nor tree vpon them, whereat we maruelled not a little. This Newyeares day we sawe neere the maine two small Ilands, and reioyced greatly to see them; for we stood in great feare, that contrary windes would driue vs as farre backe in one day, as we had sayled in tenne, which if they had taken vs, we could not haue withstood them. Wee ranne from the first of Ianuary untill Munday which were fiue dayes, and the land alwayes stretched Northwest from the mountaines aforesaid. And on the Sunday we saw a farre off a-head of vs a high land somewhat seuered from the maine shore, and all of vs beganne to dispute whether it were the land which trended toward the Northwest, for that way the Pilots hoped to discouer a better countrey: and the said Munday the fift of Ianuarie we came to this high land beforesaid, and it was two Ilands the one a small one and the other a great one: we coasted these two Ilands some sixe leagues, which were greene, and had on the toppe of them many high slender trees; and the great Iland was twentie leagues in compasse. [Sidenote: Isla de los Cedros mentioned in the 13 chap.] We coasted in 6 leagues in length without seeing or discouering any other things, but we saw before vs high land which stretched eight or tenne leagues Northward, where we rode on Munday at night. From Thursday being Newyeares day vntill the next Munday we sayled about 35 leagues. [Sidenote: The land trendeth here Northwest 35 leagues.] And in this course we felt great cold, which grieued vs much, especially being assailed by two or three windie showers, which pinched vs much with colde. We rode ouer against this land two or three nights, hauing it neere vnto vs, alwayes keeping watch by equall houres, one while mariners, and another souldiers, all the night long with great vigilancie. On Tuesday being Twelfe day we came within two or three leagues of this land, which we had descryed the day before, seeming to vs very pleasant for it shewed greene with greene trees of an ordinary bignesse, and we saw many vallies, out of which certaine small mists arose, which continued in them for a long time, whereupon we gathered that they rose out of certaine riuers. The same morning, to our great comfort we saw great smokes, though we were about foure leagues distant from them, and the Captaine made no great reckoning to approach neere vnto them, nor to seeke nor serch what the matter was, and perchance because he was not then in the Santa Agueda, but was aboord the Trinitie, as his maner was to come and stay there two or three dayes, as well to passe the time, as to giue order for things that were needfull. In this countrey the winter and raine seemed to be like that of Castile. We rode al night two or three leagues distance from shore, and toward euening we saw fiue or sixe fires, whereat we all reioyced, but did not maruell thereat, because the situation of that countrey shewed to be habitable, being farre, pleasant, and all greene, and likewise because the Iland which we had left behinde vs being (as I haue said) twenty leagues in circuit, made shewe that it was well peopled. On the Wednesday we were 3 or 4 leagues at sea from the land, and began to see two fires more, and therefore we assured our selues that the countrey was very well inhabited; and the farther we sayled, we alwayes found it more ciuill. [Sidenote: Floting weeds for fifty leagues.] And for the space of fifty leagues before we came hither we alwayes found swimming on the sea certaine flotes of weedes of a ships length, and of the bredth of two ships, being, round and full of gourds, and vnder these weedes were many fishes, and on some of them were store of foules like vnto white sea-meawes. We supposed that these floting weeds did grow vpon some rocke under the water. We were now in 30 degrees of Northerly latitude. [Sidenote: Twenty leagues beyond the Ile of Cedar.] We sailed from the 7 of Ianuary vntill the 9 still with contrary windes: and on Fryday about noone there rose a North and Northeastern winde, which forced vs to returne vnder the shelter of that Iland which we left behind vs, from whence we had sayled about twentie leagues. And that Friday at night somewhat late we had sayled backe about twelue leagues of the same, and because it was night wee stayed in the sea, where we and our shippes were not a little troubled, so that all that night none of vs slept a winke, but watched euery one. The next morning betimes being Saturday we proceeded on our voyage, and gate vnder the shelter of the said Iland, riding in thirtie fadome water: and on that side where we ankored we found high and closed mountaines, with heapes of a certaine earth which was all ashes and burned, and in other places skorched and as blacke as coles, and like the rust of yron, and in other places whitish, and here and there small blacke hilles, whereat we maruelled exceedingly, considering that when we passed by, it seemed vnto vs an habitable countrey full of trees, and now we saw not a sticke growing on this side. All of vs supposed that on the other side toward the firme lande the trees grewe which we sawe, although (as I haue sayde) wee sayled foure or fiue leagues distant from the same. We stayed here vnder the shelter of these mountaines Saturday, Sunday, and Munday, alwayes hauing the Northren winde so strong, that we thinke if it had caught vs in the sea, wee should haue bene cast away. Chap. 12. They enuiron and land vpon the Iland of Cedars, to discouer the same, and to seeke water and wood. They are assailed of the Indians, and many of them wounded with stones: but at length getting the vpper hand, they goe to their cottages, and ranging farther vp into the Iland they find diuerse things which the Indians in their flight had left behind them. On Friday the 13 of Ianuary the Captaine commanded vs to hoise out our boates, and to goe on shore, which was done accordingly, and we did row along the shore for the space of a good halfe league and entered into a valley: for (as I said) all this countrey was full of high and bare hils, of such qualitie as I mentioned before: and in this and other small valleys we found some water which was brackish, and not farre from thence certaine cottages made of shrubs like vnto broome: likewise we found the footings of Indians both small and great; whereat we much maruelled that in so rough and wilde a countrey (as farre as we could discerne) there should be people. Here we stayed all day, making foure or fiue pits to take in water which we wanted, which though it were bad, and in small quantitie we refused not; and so the euening being come, we returned to our boates, and so came vnto our ships which rode a good league from the shore. The next day being Wednesday the fourteenth of the said moneth our Generall commanded vs to set saile, and we sailed about the said Iland on the same side which we coasted when we came from Nueua Espanna: for when we arriued on the coast we saw fiue or sixe fires; wherefore he desired to see and learne whether it were inhabited; and at the farthest ende of this inlet or bay where we rode there came out before vs a Canoa, wherein were foure Indians which came rowing with certaine small oares, and came very neere vs to see what we were: whereupon we tolde our Generall, that it were best to send some of vs out with our boates to take these Indians or some one of them to giue them something that they might thinke vs to be good people: but hee would not consent thereto, because he minded not to stay, hauing then a prety gale of winde, whereby he might saile about this Iland, hoping that afterward we might finde and take some others to speake with them, and giue them what we would to carry on shore; and as we sayled neere the land, we saw a great hill full of goodly trees of the bignesse of the trees and Cypresses of Castile. We found in this Iland the footing of wilde beasts and conies, and saw a peece of pine tree-wood, wherof we gathered, that there was store of them in that countrey. Thus sayling neere vnto the shore, we sawe another Canoa comming toward vs with other foure Indians, but it came not very neere vs, and as we looked forward, we sawe toward a point which was very neere before vs, three other Canoas, one at the head of the point among certaine flattes, and the other two more into the sea, that they might descry vs without comming ouer neere vs. Likewise betweene certaine hilles which were neere the point, there appeared here three and there foure of them, and afterward we saw a small troope of some twentie of them together, so that all of vs reioyced greatly to behold them. On this side the land shewed greene with pieces of plaine ground which was neere the sea, and likewise all those coasts of hils shewed greene, and were couered with many trees, although they grew not very thicke together. Here at euening we rode neere the shore hard vpon the said point, to see if we could speake with those Indians, and likewise to see if we could get fresh water, which now we wanted, and still as soone as we were come to an anker, we saw the Indians shew themselues on land neere vnto their lodgings, comming likewise to descry vs in a Canoa, by sixe and seuen at a time, whereat we maruelled, because we neuer thought that one of those Canoas would hold so many men. In this wise we stayed looking still what would be the successe, and in the place where we rode we were two small leagues distant from the shore, where we found these Indians in their Canoas: whereupon we maruelled not a little to see so great an alteration in so small a distance of countrey, as well because we still discouered pleasant land with trees (whereas on the other side of the isle there were none) as also because it was so well peopled with Indians, which had so many Canoas made of wood, as we might discerne, and not raftes or Balsas, for so they call those floats which are made all flat with canes. The next day being Thursday the fifteenth of the said moneth about breake of day foure or fiue Indians shewed themselues at the head of that point, who as soone as they had spyed vs retired behind the point, and hid themselues among the bushes vpon certaine small hilles that were there, from whence they issued forth, and couered all the greene hils and mountaines, which were along that coast; whereupon we gathered that they had their dwellings there, in regard of the commoditie of the water and the defence against ill weather and the benefite of fishing. At sun-rising we saw the Indians appeare in greater companies, going vp vnto the hilles in small troopes, and from thence they stood and beheld vs. Immediately we saw fiue or sixe Canoas come out into the sea a good distance from vs, and those which were in them stood often on their tip-toes, to view and descry vs the better. On the other side we stirred not at all for all these their gestures, but stood still riding at anker; and the Generall seemed not to be very willing to take any of them, but this day in the morning very early commanded the Masters mate to conueigh him to our other shippe called the Trinitie. Things passed in this sort, when about ten of the clocke we saw three Canoas lanch farre into the sea to fish very neere vnto vs, whereat we tooke greate pleasure. At 12 of the clocke the Generall returned from the Trinitie and commanded the boat and men to be made readie, as well souldiers as mariners, and that we should goe on shore to see if we could get any wood and water, and catch one of those Indians to vnderstande their language if it were possible: and so all the men that were readie went into the Admirals boate, and went toward the Trinitie which by this time with the other ship had a small gale of winde, wherewith they entered farther within the point, and we discouered the lodgings and houses of the Indians, and saw neere the waters side those fiue or sixe Canoas which at the first came out to view vs, drawen on shore, and ouer against this place the ships cast anker in 30 and 35 fadome water, and we were very neere the land: whereat we maruelled much to find so great depth of water so neere the shore. Being gone abord our botes, we made toward the shore ouer against a village of the Indians, who as soone as they saw vs about to come on land, left an hill whereon they stood to behold what we did, and came downe to the shore, where we were prepared to come on land: but before they came against vs they caused their women and children to fly into the mountaines with their goods, and then came directly towards vs, threatning vs with certaine great staues which they carried in their hands some 3 yardes long and thicker then a mans wrest: [Sidenote: A skirmish of the Indians fighting with stones.] but perceiuing that for all this we ceased not to come neere the sea-shore to come on land, they began to charge vs with stones and to fling cruelly at vs, and they hit 4 or 5 men, among whom they smote the Generall with two stones. In the meane while the other bote landed a little beneath, whereupon when they saw that they were forced to diuide themselves to keepe the rest of our company from comming on land, they began to be discouraged, and did not assaile the Generals boate so fiercely, who began to cause his people to goe on shore with no small trouble; for albeit he was neere the land, yet as soone as they leapt out of the boat they sunke downe, because they could find no fast footing; and thus swimming or otherwise as they could, first a souldier called Spinosa got on land, and next to him the General, and then some of the rest, and began to make head against the Indians, and they came hastily with those staues in their hands, for other kinds of weapons we saw none, sauing bowes and arrowes of pinetree. [Sidenote: The great vse of targets against arrowes or stones.] After a short combate they brake in pieces the targets of the Generall, and of Spinosa. In the meane while those of the other boat were gotten on land, but not without much difficultie, by reason of the multitude of stones which continually rained downe vpon them, and they stroke Terazzo on the head a very shrowd blow, and had it not bene for our targets, many of vs had beene wounded, and in great distresse, although our enemies were but few in number. In this maner all our company came on shore with swimming and with great difficultie, and if they had not holpen one another, some of them had bene drowned. Thus we landed, and within a while after those of the other bote were come on land, the Indians betooke themselues to flight, taking their way toward the mountaines, whether they had sent their women, children and goods: on the other side we pursued them, and one of those Indians which came to assaile the Generals boat, was slaine vpon the strand, and two or three others were wounded, and some said more. [Sidenote: The vse of mastiues in the warre against Indians.] While we pursued them in this maner our mastiue dogge Berecillo ouertooke one of them not farre from vs (who because we were so wet could not run very fast) and pulled him downe, hauing bitten him cruelly, and doubtlesse he had held him till we had come, vnlesse it had happened that another of his companions had not followed that Indian which the dogge had pulled downe, who with a staffe which he had in his hands gaue the dogge a cruell blow on the backe, and without any staying drew his fellow along like a Deere, and Berecillo was faine to leaue him for paine; neither had he scarse taken the dogge off on him but the Indian got vp, and fled so hastily towarde the mountaine, that within a short while hee ouertooke his fellowe which had saued him from the pawes of the dogge, who (as it appeared) betooke him lustily to his heeles, and thus they came vnto their fellowes which descended not downe to the shore being about some twentie, and they were in all about fiftie or sixtie. After we had breathed our selues a while, we viewed their houses where they stood, which were certaine cottages couered with shrubs like broome and rosemary, with certaine stakes pight in the ground; and the Generall willed vs to march all together without dispersing of our selues, a little way vp those mountaines, to see if there were any water and wood, because we stood in great neede of them both. And while we marched forward, we saw in certaine little vallies the goods which the women had left there behind them in their flight: for the Indians as soone as they saw vs pursue them ouertooke the women, and for feare charged them to flie away with their children leauing their stuffe in this place. We went vnto this booty, and found good store of fresh-fish, and dried fish, and certaine bags containing aboue 28 pound weight full of dried fish ground to pouder, and many seal skins, the most part dressed with a faire white graine vpon them, and others very badly dressed. There were also their instruments to fish withall, as hookes made of the prickes of certaine shrubs and trees. Here we tooke the said skins without leauing any one in the place, and then we returned to the sea, because it was now night, or at least very late, and found our botes waiting for vs. Chap. 13. A description of the Canoas of the Indians of the Ile of Cedars, and how coasting the same to find fresh water they found some, and desiring to take thereof they went on shore, and were diuersely molested with the weapons of the Indians. They christen an old Indian, and returne vnto their ships. The Canoas which they had were certaine thicke trunkes of Cedars, some of them of the thicknesse of two men, and three fadome long, being not made hollow at all, but being laid along and fastened together, they shoue them into the sea, neither were they plained to any purpose, for we found no kind of edge-toole, sauing that there were certaine sharp stones, which we found vpon certaine rockes that were very keene, wherewith we supposed that they did cut and flea those seales. And neere the shore we found certaine water, wherewith we filled certaine bottles made of the skins of those seales, contayning ech of them aboue a great paile of water. The next day our Generall commanded vs to set saile, whereupon sailing with a fresh gale about 2 leagues from the shore of this Island, trending about the same to see the end thereof, and also to approch neere the firme land, to informe our selues of the state thereof, because we had seene 5 or 6 fires we compassed the same about: for by this meanes we performed 2 or three good actions, namely, we returned to our right course, and searched whether any riuer fell out of the coast of the firme land, or whether there were any trees there, or whether any store of Indians did shew themselues or no. In this maner proceeding on our way all the Friday being the 16 of January at euening, and seeking to double the point of the Iland, so fierce and contrary a Northren winde encountered vs, that it draue vs backe that night ouer against the lodgings and habitations of the Indians, and here we stayed all Saturday, what time we lost the Trinitie againe, but on Sunday-night being the 18 we saw her againe, and beganne to proceede on our way to compasse that Iland, if it pleased God to send vs good weather. [Sidenote: Isla de los Cedros, or the Ile of Cedars in 28 deg. and a quarter.] On Sunday, Munday, and Tuesday (which was the twentieth, of the said moneth of Ianuarie) wee sailed with scarce and contrary windes, and at length came to the cape of the point of the Iland, which we called Isla de los Cedros or the Ile of Cedars, because that on the tops of the mountaines therein, there growes a wood of these Cedars being very tall, as the nature of them is to be.[48] This day the Trinitie descryed a village or towne of the Indians, and found water: for on Sunday night we had newly lost her, and had no sight of her vntill Tuesday, whenas we found her riding neere the shore, not farre from those cottages of the Indians. And as soone as we had descryed her, we made toward her, and before we could reach her, we espied three Canoas of Indians which came hard aboord the said ship called the Trinitie, so that they touched almost the side of the ship, and gaue them of their fish, and our people on the other side gaue them certaine trifles in exchange, and after they had spoken with them, the Indians went backe to the shore, and at the same instant we came vp vnto the Admirall and rode by them, and they all saluted vs, saying that the Indians were neere them, and telling what had passed betweene them, whereat the Generall and we receiued great contentment. They told vs moreouer, that they had found fresh water, whereby they increased our great ioy, because we stood in much neede thereof, for at the other place of the Indians we could get but a little. [48] The Island still bears this name. [Sidenote: These mighty deepe and high weedes are described in the end of this treatise.] While we thus rode at ankor, we saw a Canoa with 3 Indians put out into the sea from their cottages, and they went vnto a fishing place, among certaine great and high weedes, which grow in this sea among certaine rockes, the greatest part of which weedes groweth in 15 or 20 fadome depth; and with great celeritie they caught seuen or eight fishes, and returned with them vnto the Trinity, and gaue them vnto them, and they in recompense gaue the Indians certaine trifles. After this the Indians stayed at the sterne of the ship, viewing the same aboue three houres space, and taking the oares of our boat they tryed how they could rowe with them, wherat they tooke great pleasure; and we which were in the Admirall stirred not a whit all this while, to giue them the more assurance, that they should not flie away, but should see that we ment to do them no harme, and that we were good people. As soone as we were come to anker, and beheld all that had passed betweene the Indians and those of the Trinity, after the Indians were gone to the shore in their Canoas made of the bodies of trees, the Generall commanded the boat which was without to be brought vnto him: and when it was come, he, and Francis Preciado, and two others went into it, and so we went aboord the Trinity. The Indians seeing people commingout of the other ship into the Trinitie, sent two Canoas vnto the sterne of the ship, and brought vs a bottle of water and we gaue vnto them certain beads, and continued talking with them a little while; but euening approching the aire grew somewhat cold. The Indians returned on shore to their lodgings, and the General and we to our ship. The next day being Wednesday in the morning, the General commanded certaine of vs to take the bote and goe ashore, to see if we could find any brooke or well of fresh water in the houses of the Indians, because he thought it impossible for them to dwell there without any water to drinke. The father frier Raimund likewise went out in our company, because the day before seeing the Indians came to the sterne of the shippe parlying with vs, he thought he might haue spoken a little with them, with the like familiarity. In like sort many mariners and souldiers went out in the boat of the Trinity, and going altogether with their weapons toward the shore, somewhat aboue the lodgings of the Indians, very early in the morning they watched the boats, and perceiued that we would come on land, wherevpon they sent away their women and children with certaine of them, who caried their goods vp into certaine exceeding steepe mountaines and hilles, and 5 or 6 of them came toward vs, which were excellently well made, and of a good stature. Two of them had bowes and arrowes, and other two 2 bastonadoes much thicker then the wrist of a mans hand, and other two with 2 long staues like iauelins with very sharpe points, and approched very neere vs being nowe come on shore. And beginning by signes very fiercely to braue vs, they came so neere vs, that almost they strooke with one of those staues one of our souldiers called Garcia a man of good parentage, but the General commanded him to withdraw himselfe, and not to hurt any of them. In the meane season the General and frier Raimund stept foorth, the frier lapping a garment about his arme, because they had taken vp stones in their hands, fearing that they would do them some mischiefe. Then began both of them to speake vnto them by signes and words, to be quiet, signifying, that they ment them no harme, but only were come to take water; and the frier shewed them a drinking cup; but nothing would serue to make them leaue that bragging and flinging of stones; and the General continuing still in a mind not to hurt them, commanded his men gently to come neere vnto them, and that by signes they should all shew them, that they meant in no wise to hurt them, but that we were come on land onely to take water. [Sidenote: The great vse of mastiues in pursuit of the Indians.] On the other side refusing vtterly to take knowledge of these things they still insulted more and more: whereupon Francis Preciado counselled the General to giue him leaue to kill one of them, because all the rest would flee away, wherby at our ease we might take water: but he replied that he would not haue it so, but willed them to looze the two mastiues Berecillo and Achillo: wherefore the dogs were let loose, and as soone as they saw them, they vanished immediately, betaking them to their heels, and running vp those cliffes like goates. Also others which came from the mountains to succour them, betooke themselues to flight. The dogs ouertooke two of them, and bit them a little, and we running after, laid hold on them, and they seemed as fierce as wild and vntamed beasts for 3 or 4 of vs held either of them, to cherish and pacifie them, and to seeke to giue them some thing: but we auailed not, for they bit vs by the hands, and stooped downe to take vp stones for to strike vs with them. We led them a while in this maner, and came vnto their lodgings, where the Generall gaue a charge, that no man should touch any thing of theirs, commanding Francis Preciado to see that this order was observed, in not taking any thing from them, although in very deed there was little or nothing there, because the women and Indians which were fled had caried al away. Here we found an old man in a caue so extreamly aged as it was wonderful, which could neither see nor go, because he was so lame and crooked. The father frier Raimund sayd, it were good (seeing he was so aged) to make him a Christian; whereupon we christened him. The captaine gaue the Indians which we had taken two paire of eare-rings, and certaine counterfeit diamonds, and making much of them, suffered them to depart at their pleasure, and in this sort faire and softly they returned to the rest of their fellowes in the mountaine. We tooke the matter of that village which was but a small quantity, and then the Generall commanded vs to resume to our ship, because we had eaten nothing as yet, and after our repast we sayled towards a bay which lay beyond that village, where we saw a very great valley, and those of the Trinitie sayd, that they had seene there good store of water, and sufficient for vs; wherefore wee ankered neere vnto that valley. And the Generall went on shore with both the boates, and the men that went on land in the morning with the two fathers frier Raimund, and frier Antony: and passing vp that valley a crossebow shot, we found a very small brooke of water which neuertheless supplied our necessity for we filled two buts thereof that euening, leauing our vessels to take it with on shore vntill the next morning: and we reioyced not a little that we had found this water, for it was fresh, and the water which we had taken vp before was somewhat brackish, and did vs great hurt both in our bodies and in our taste. Chap. 14. They take possession of the Isle of Cedars for the Emperours Maiestie, and departing from thence they are greatly tossed with a tempest of the sea, and returne to the Island, as to a safe harbour. The next day being the two and twentieth of Ianuary very early the General commanded vs to go on shore, and that we should haue our dinner brought vs, and should take in the rest of our water, which we did, and filled 17 buts without seeing any Indian at al. The next day going out to fill 8 or 9 vessels which were not yet filled, a great winde at Northwest tooke vs, whereupon they made signes to vs from the ships, that with all haste wee should come on board againe, for the wind grew still higher, and higher, and the Masters were affraid that our cables would break, thus we were in the open sea. [Sidenote: Chap. 12.] Therefore being come aboord againe not without great trouble we returned backe ouer against the village of the Indians, where we had slaine the Indian, and because the wind grew more calme about midnight, the Pilots did not cast anker, [Sidenote: Isle de los Cedros is the greatest of the 3 Isles of S. Stephan.] but hulled vnder the shelter of this Island, which (as I haue said) is called The Isle of Cedars, and is one of the 3 Isles of. S. Stephan, the greatest and chiefest of them, where the General tooke possession. While we hulled here, about midnight, the next Friday being the 23 of the moneth, without our expectation we had a fresh gale of wind from the Southeast, which was very fauourable for our voyage, and the longer it continued, the more it increased; so that betweene that night and the next day being Saturday the 24 of the said moneth we sailed 18 great leagues. [Sidenote: Read cap. 11 about the end.] While we were thus on our way, the winde grew so contrary and so tempestuous, that to our great grief we were constrained to coast about with our ships, and returned twenty leagues backe againe, taking for our succour the second time, the point of the lodgings of the Indians, where the foresayd Indian was slaine, and here we stayed Munday, Tewsday, and Wednesday, during which time the Northwest and the North wind blew continually, whereupon we determined not to stirre from thence vntill we saw good weather, and well setled for our voyage: for in this climate these winds doe raigne so greatly, that we feared they would stay vs longer there then we would; and we were so weary of staying, that euery day seemed a moneth vnto vs. Vnder this shelter we rode Thursday, Friday, and Saturday vntill noone, which was the last of Ianuary in the yeere 1540. About noone the wind began to blow softly at Southwest, whereupon the General told the Pilots, that we should doe well to put ouer to the maine land, where with some wind off the shore we might by the grace of God saile somewhat farther. Thus we hoised our sailes, and sailed vntil euening three or foure leagues, for the wind scanted, and wee remained becalmed. [Sidenote: February.] The night being come there arose a contrary winde, and we were inforced of necessitie to retire the third time to the same shelter of the Isle of Cedars, where we stayed from the first of February vntil Shrouesunday, in the which meane time we tooke in two buts of water which we had spent. During the space of these eight dayes we sought to make sayle two or three times, but as we went out a little beyond the point of this Isle, we found the wind so boystrous and contrary, and the sea so growen, that of force we were constrained to returne vnder the succour of the Island, and often times wee were in great feare that we should not be able to get in thither againe. During this time that we could not proceed on our iourney, we imployed our selues in catching a few fishes for the Lent. From Shrouesunday being the 8 of February, on which day we set sayle, we sayled with a very scant wind, or rather a calme, vntil Shrouetewsday, on which we came within kenne of the firme land, from whence we were put backe these twenty leagues (for in these two dayes and a halfe wee sayled some 20 small leagues) and we lay in sight of the said poynt of the firme land. And on the Tewsday we were becalmed, waiting till God of his mercy would helpe vs with a prosperous wind to proceed on our voyage. On Shrouesunday at night, to make good cheere withall wee had so great winde and raine, that there was nothing in our ships which was not wet, and very colde ayre. On Ashwednesday at sun-rising we strooke saile neere a point which we fel somewhat short withall in a great bay running into this firme land: and this is the place where we saw fiue or sixe fires, and at the rising of the sunne being so neere the shore that we might well descrie and viewe it at our pleasure we saw it to bee very pleasant, for wee descried as farre as wee could discerne with our eyes, faire valleys and small hilles, with greene shrubs very pleasant to behold, although there grew no trees there. The situation shewed their length and breadth. This day was little winde, it being in a manner calme, to our no small griefe: and the father frier Raimund sayd vs a drie masse, and gaue vs ashes, preaching vnto vs according to the time and state wherein we were: with which sermon we were greatly comforted. [Sidenote: The point of Santa Cruz otherwise called Punta de Balenas.] After noonetide we had contrary wind, which still was our enemie in all our iourney, at the least from the point of the port of Santa Cruz. Here we were constrained to anker in fiue fadome of water, and after wee rode at anker wee began to viewe the countrey, and tooke delight in beholding how goodly and pleasant it was, and neere vnto the sea wee iudged that wee saw a valley of white ground. At euening so great a tempest came vpon vs of winde and raine, that it was so fearfull and dangerous a thing that a greater cannot be expressed: for it had like to haue driuen vs vpon the shore, and the chiefe Pilot, cast out another great anker into the sea yet all would not serve, for both these ankers could not stay the ship. Whereupon all of vs cryed to God for mercy, attending to see how he would dispose of vs; who of his great goodnesse, while we were in this danger, vouchsafed a little to slake the tempest, and with great speede the chief Pilot commanded the mariners to turne the capsten, and the Generall commanded and prayed all the souldiers to helpe to turne the capsten, which they were nothing slow to performe: and thus we beganne to weigh our ankers, and in weighing of one which was farre greater then the other, the sea was so boisterous that it forced the capsten in such sorte, that the men which were at it could not rule the same, and it strooke a Negro of the Generals such a blowe, that it cast him downe along vpon the decke, and did the like vnto another mariner and one of the barres strooke our fire-furnace so violently, that it cast it ouerboord into the sea. Yet for all these troubles wee weighed our ankers, and set sayle, and albeit we had great tempests at sea, yet made we no account thereof in respect of the ioy which we conceiued to see our selues freed of the perill of being cast on that shore with our ships, especially seeing it fell out at midnight, at which time no man could haue escaped, but by a meere myracle from God. Wee sayled vp and downe the sea all Thursday, and vntill Friday in the morning being the fourteeneth day of February, and the waues of the sea continually came raking ouer our deckes. At length, on Saturday morning at breake of day we could finde no remedy against the contrary windes, notwithstanding the Generall was very obstinate to haue vs keepe out at sea, although it were very tempestuous, least we should be driuen to put backe againe, but no diligence nor remedie preuailed: for the windes were so boysterous and so contrary, that they could not be worse, and the sea went still higher, and swelled more and more, and that in such sorte, that we greatly feared wee should all perish. Whereupon the Pilot thought it our best course to returne to the Isle of Cedars, whither wee had repaired three or foure times before by reason of the selfe same contrary windes, for wee tooke this Island for our father and mother, although we receiued no other benefite thereby saue this onely, namely, to repaire thither in these necessities, and to furnish our selues with water, and with some small quantitie of fish. Being therefore arriued at this Island; and riding vnder the shelter thereof, the contrary windes did alwayes blow very strongly, and here we tooke water which we drunke, and wood for our fewel, and greatly desired, that the windes would bee more fauourable for proceeding on our iourney. And though we rode under the shelter of the Isle, yet felt wee the great fury of those windes, and the rage of the sea, and our ships neuer ceased rolling. At breake of day the twentieth of February, wee found the cable of the Admirall cracked, whereupon, to our great griefe, we were constrained to set sayle, to fall downe lower the space of a league, and the Trinitie came and rode in our company. Chap. 15. They goe on land in the isle of Cedars, and take diuers wilde beastes, and refresh and solace themselues. They are strangely tossed with the Northwest winde, and seeking often to depart they are forced, for the auoiding of many mischiefes, to repaire thither againe for harbour. The two and twentieth of February being the second Sonday in Lent, the General went on shore with the greatest part of his people and the friers, neere vnto a valley which they sawe before them. And hearing masse on land, certaine souldiers and mariners, with certaine dogges which we had in our company went into the said valley, and we met with certaine deere, whereof we tooke a female, which was little, but fat, whose haire was liker the haire of a wild goat then of a deere, and we found her not to be a perfect deere, for she had foure dugs like vnto a cowe full of milke, which made vs much to marueile. And after we had flayed off her skinne, the flesh seemed more like the flesh of a goate, then of a deere. We killed likewise a gray conie, in shape like vnto those of Nueua Espanna, and another as blacke as heben-wood. In the cottages at the shelter aboue, where we brake our cable, we found many pine-nuts opened, which (in mine opinion) the Indians had gathered together to eate the kernels of them. On Munday the 23 of the said moneth we rode at anker, taking our pleasure and pastime with fishing. And the Northwest winde began to blow, which waxed so great a little before midnight, as it was wonderfull: so that although we were vnder the shelter of the Island, and greatly defended from that wind, yet for all that it was so furious, and the sea became so raging and boisterous, that it greatly shook our ships, and we were in great feare of breaking our cables, whereof (to say the trueth) we had very much neede: for hauing spent longer time in this voyage then we looked for, wee had broken two, and lost two of our best ankers. This furious winde continued vntill the next being Tewsday the 24 when as we went on shore with the friers, who sayd vs masse, recommending our selues to God, beseeching him to vouchsafe to succour and help vs with some good weather that we might proceede on our voyage, to the aduancement of his seruice. And still the winds were so high and outragious, that the deuill seemed to be loosed in the aire. Whereupon the Pilots caused all the masts to be let downe, least they should be shaken with the wind, and tooke off all the shrowds, and likewise caused the cabbens in the sterne to be taken away, that the winds might haue more free passage, for the safetie of the ships: yet for al this they ceased not to be in great trouble. On Tewsday the second of March, about midnight or somewhat after, riding vnder the Island in this distresse, there came a gust of Northwest winde, which made the cable of the Admirall to slip, and the Trinitie brake her cable, and had bene cast away, if God of his mercy had not prouided for vs, together with the diligence which the Pilots vsed, in hoising the sailes of the trinkets and mizzen, wherewith they put to sea, and rode by another anker vntill day, when the men of both the ships went with their boats to seeke the anker vntill noone, which at length they found and recouered, not without great paines and diligence which they vsed in dragging for it, for they were till noone in seeking the same, and had much adoe to recouer it. After this we set vp our shrowdes, and all things necessary to saile, for to proceede on our voyage, if it pleased God, and not to stay alwayes in that place, as lost and forlorne. Thus on the Wednesday two or three houres after dinner wee set saile, with a scarce winde at Southeast, which was fauourable for our course and very scant; and our Pilots and all the rest of vs were in no small feare, that it would not continue long. We began therefore to set forward, although we seemed to see before our eies, that at the end of the Island we should meete with contrary winde at North and Northwest. This day about euening when our ships had discouered the point of this Isle of Cedars, wee began to perceiue those contrary windes, and the sea to go so loftily, that it was terrible to behold. And the farther we went, the more the winds increased, so that they put vs to great distresse, sayling alwayes with the sheates of our mainesaile and trinket warily in our hands, and with great diligence we loosed the ties of all the sailes, to saue them the better, that the wind might not charge them too vehemently. For all this the mariners thought it best to returne backe, and that by no means we should runne farre into the sea, because we were in extreame danger. Whereupon wee followed their counsel, turning backe almost to the place from whence we departed, whereat we were al not a little grieued, because we could not prosecute our voyage, and began to want many things for the furniture of our ships. The 8 of March being Munday about noone the Generall commanded vs to set saile; for a small gale of winde blew from the West, which was the wind whereof we had most need, to follow our voyage, whereat wee were all glad for the great desire which wee had to depart out of that place. Therefore we began to set saile, and to passe toward the point of the Island, and to shape our course toward the coast of the firme land, to view the situation thereof. And as we passed the Island, and were betwixt it and the maine, the Northwest being a contrary wind began to blow, which increased so by degrees, that we were constrained to let fall the bonets of our sailes, to saue them, striking them very low. And the Trinitie seeing this bad weather returned forthwith vnto the place from whence we departed, and the Admiral cast about all night in the sea, vntill the morning; and the chiefe Pilot considering that by no means we could proceed farther without danger, if we should continue at sea any longer, resolued that we should retire our selues againe to that shelter, where we rode at anker vntill Thursday. And on Friday about noone we set saile againe with a scarce winde, and in comming forth vnto the point of the Island, we met againe with contrary winde at Northwest: whereupon running all night with the firme land, on Saturday in the morning being S. Lazarus day and the 13 of March, we came in sight thereof, in viewing of the which we all reioyced, and we souldiers would very willingly haue gone on shore. This night fel great store of raine like the raine in Castilia, and we were all well wet in the morning, and we tooke great pleasure in beholding the situation of that firme land, because it was greene, and because we had discouered a pleasant valley and plaines of good largenes, which seemed to bee enuironed with a garland of mountains. At length for feare of misfortunes, seeing the sea so high, we durst not stay here or approch neere the land, and because we had great want of cables and ankers, we were again constrained to put to sea; and being in the same, and finding the said contrary windes, the Pilots iudged that we had none other remedie, but againe to retire our selues to our wonted shelter. And thus we returned, but somewhat aboue the old place. On Sunday we rode here to the great grief of all the company, considering what troubles we indured, and could not get forward; so that this was such a corrasiue, as none could be more intollerable. This day being come to an anker wee had a mighty gale of wind at Northwest, which was our aduersary and capital enemie, and when day was shut in, it still grew greater and greater, so that the ships rouled much. And after midnight, toward break of day, the Trinitie brake her two cables, which held the two ankers which she had, and seeing her selfe thus forlorne, she turned vp and downe in the sea vntill day, and came and rode neere vs, by one anker which shee had left. This day all of vs went to seeke these lost ankers, and for all the diligence which wee vsed, wee could find but one of them. We rode at anker all day vntill night, when the Trinitie againe brake a cable, which certaine rocks had cut asunder: whereupon the General commanded that she should ride no longer at anker, but that shee should turne vp and downe, as she had done before in sight of vs, which she did al day long, and at night she came to an anker ouer against a fresh water somewhat lower, and wee went and rode hard by her. On Palmesunday we went on shore with the fathers, which read the passion vnto vs and said masse, and we went in procession with branches in our hands. And so being comforted, because we had receiued that holy Sacrament, we returned to our ships. Chap. 16. Returning to the Isle of Cedars weather-beaten, and with their ships in euil case, they conclude, that the ship called Santa Agueda or Santa Agatha should returne vnto Nueua Espanna. Of the multitude of whales which they found about the point of California: with the description of a weede, which groweth among the Islands of those seas. Here we continued vntill the Wednesday before Easter being the foure and twentieth of March, on which day wee consulted together, that because the ships were ill conditioned, and wanted necessary furniture to proceede any further, it were best for vs to returne backe to New Spaine, as also because our clothes were consumed: but the Generall seemed not willing to returne, but to proceed on his voyage: and in fine it was resolued, that seeing both the ships could not proceede forward, as well because they had lost their necessary furnitures, as also that the Santa Agatha had neede of calking, because she receiued much water, and was the worst furnished of the twaine, that shee should returne backe to aduertise the Marques of our successe in this voyage, and what hindred our proceeding, and in what case wee stoode, and howe wee were bereft of our necessary furniture. And because the Trinitie was the swifter ship, and better appointed then the other, it was concluded, that it should be prouided in the best maner that might be, and that the General should proceed on his iourney in her with such companie as he should make choise of, and that the rest should returne at their good leisure. Wherefore vpon this determination we went vnder a point of this Island, because it was a fit place to carene the ship: and in recouering the same we spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday till noone, and yet for all that wee could not wel double it, vntil Easter day about noone. Here we ankered very neere the shore and in a valley we found very excellent fresh water, whereof we made no smal account, and here stayed all the Easter holidayes, to set our selues about the furnishing vp of the Trinity: and after the worke was taken in hand by the two Masters which were very sufficient calkers (one of which was Iuan Castiliano chiefe Pilot, and the other Peruccio de Bermes) they finished the same so well in fiue dayes, as it was wonderfull; for no man could perceiue how any droppe of water could enter into any of the seames. Afterward they mended the other ship from Saturday till Munday, during which time all those were shriuen that had not confessed, and receiued the communion, and it was resolued by charge of the confessors, that all those seale-skins which they had taken from the Indians should bee restored againe; and the Generall gaue charge to Francis Preciado to restore them all, charging him on his conscience so to doe. Thus they gathered them together, and deliuered them into the hands of the fathers, to bee kept vntill they returned to the place, where they were to restore them. [Sidenote: The Santa Agueda returneth for Newspaine the 5. of April.] After this maner on Munday before noone we tooke our leaues of the Generall Francis Vlloa, and of the people that stayed with him, who at our departure shed no small number of teares, and we chose for our captaine in the Santa Agueda master Iuan Castiliano the chiefe pilot, as well of the ship, as of vs all, and set saile the same day being the fift of April, hauing our boat tied at our sterne, till we came ouer against the cottages, whence wee had taken the seale-skins. [Sidenote: The Isle of Cedars 300 leagues from Colima.] From the countrey of the Christians and the port of Colima we were now distant some three hundreth leagues, which is the first port where wee determined to touch at. And hauing sailed a league from the Trinitie the captaine Iuan Castiliano commanded vs to salute them with three pieces of great Ordinance, and she answered vs with other three, and afterward we answered one another with two shot apiece. [Sidenote: The sixt of Aprill.] We sailed on Munday and Tewsday til noone with contrary wind in sight of the Island, and at noone we had a fresh gale in the poupe, which brought vs ouer against the cottages of the Indians where we tooke away those seal-skins; and there certain souldiers and mariners with the father frier Antony de Melo leapt on shore with the boat, carying the skins with them, and flung them into the sayd cottages out of which they were taken, and so returned to their ship. [Sidenote: The 7 of April.] [Sidenote: They saile from the Isle of Cedars to the point of Santa Cruza or California in sixe daies.] This day the weather calmed, whereupon we were driuen to cast anker, fearing that we should foorthwith be distressed for want of victuals, if we should stay there any long time: but God which is the true helper prouided better for vs then we deserued or imagined; for as we rode here, after midnight the Wednesday following before ten of the cloke wee had a fauourable gale of winde from the Southeast, which put vs into the sea; whither being driuen, wee had the wind at Northwest so good and constant, that in sixe dayes it brought vs to the cape of the point of the port of Santa Cruz: for which so great blessing of God we gaue vnto him infinite thankes. And here we began to allow our selues a greater proportion of victuals then wee had done before, for wee had eaten very sparingly for feare our victuals would faile vs. [Sidenote: Punta de Balenas.] Before we came to this point of the hauen of Santa Cruz by sixe or seuen leagues we saw on shore between certaine valleys diuers great smokes. And hauing passed the point of this port, our captaine thought it good to lanch foorth into the maine Ocean: yet although we ran a swift course, aboue 500 whales came athwart of vs in 2 or 3 skulles within one houres space, which were so huge, as it was wonderfull, and some of them, came so neere vnto the ship, that they swam vnder the same from one side to another, whereupon we were in great feare, lest they should doe vs some hurt, but they could not because the ship had a prosperous and good winde, and made much way, whereby it could receiue no harme, although they touched and strooke the same. [Sidenote: Read more of these weedes cap. 13.] Among these Islands are such abundance of those weedes, that if at any time wee were inforced to sayle ouer them, they hindred the course of our ships. They growe fourteene or fifteene fadome deepe vnder the water, their tops reaching foure or fiue fadome aboue the water. They are of the colour of yellow waxe, and their stalke groweth great proportionably. This weede is much more beautifull then it is set foorth, and no maruell, for the naturall painter and creator thereof is most excellent. This relation was taken out of that which Francis Preciado brought with him. [Sidenote: Sant Iago de Buena esperanza in 19 degrees.] After this ship the Santa Agueda departed from the Generall Vlloa, and returned backe the 5 of April, she arriued in the port of Sant Iago de buena esperança the 18 of the said moneth, and after she had stayed there foure or fiue dayes, she departed for Acapulco: howbeit vntill this present seuenteenth of May in the yeere 1540, I haue heard no tidings nor newes of her. [Sidenote: Cabo del Enganno in 30 degrees and a halfe.] Moreouer after the departure of the Santa Agueda for Nueua Espanna, the General Francis Vlloa in the ship called the Trinitie proceeding on his discouery coasted the land vntill he came to a point called Cabo del Enganno standing in thirty degrees and a halfe of Northerly latitude, and then returned backe to Newspaine, because he found the winds very contrary, and his victuals failed him. The true and perfect description of a voyage performed and done by Francisco de Gualle a Spanish Captaine and Pilot, for the Vice-roy of New Spaine, from the hauen of Acapulco in New Spaine, to the Islands of the Luçones or Philippinas, vnto the Hauen of Manilla, and from thence to the Hauen of Macao in China, and from Macao backe againe to Acapulco, accomplished in the yeere of our Lord, 1584. Chap. 1. The tenth of March in the yeere of our Lorde 1582 wee set sayle out of the Hauen of Acapulco, lying in the countrey of New Spaine, directing our course towards the Islands of the Luçones, or Philippinas West Southwest, running in that maner for the space of twentie fiue leagues, till wee came vnder sixteene degrees, so that wee might shunne the calmes by sayling close by the shoare. From thence forward we held our course West for the space of 30 leagues, and being there, we ran West, and West and by South, for the space of 1800 leagues, to the Iland called Isla del Enganno, which is the furthest Iland lying in the South parts of the Ilands called De los Ladrones, that is, The Ilands of rouers, or Islas de las Velas, vnder 13. degrees and 1/2. in latitude Septentrionall, and 164. degrees in longitude Orientall, vpon the fixed Meridionall line, which lyeth right with the Iland of Terçera. From thence we helde our coarse Westward for the space of 280. leagues, till we came to the point called El capo de Espirito Santo, that, is, The point of the holy Ghost, lying in the Iland Tandaya, the first Iland of those that are called Philippinas, Luçones, or Manillas, which is a countrey with fewe hilles, with some mines of brimstone in the middle thereof. From the point aforesayde, wee sailed West for the space of eighteene leagues to the point or entrie of the chanell, which runneth in betweene that Iland and the Iland of Luçon. This point or entrie lieth scarce vnder 12. degrees. All the coast that stretcheth from the entrie of the chanel to the point of El capo del Spirito santo, is not very faire. Eight leagues from the sayde point lyeth a hauen of indifferent greatnesse, called Baya de Lobos, that is, The Bay of Woolues, hauing a small Iland at the mouth thereof: and within the chanell about halfe a league from the ende of the sayd Iland lyeth an Iland or cliffe, and when you passe by the point in the middle of the chanell, then you haue fiue and twentie fathom deepe, with browne sand: there we found so great a streame running Westward, that it made the water to cast a skum as if it had beene a sande, whereby it put us in feare, but casting out our lead, wee found fiue and twentie fathom deepe. From the aforesayd entrie of the chanell North, and North and by East about tenne leagues, lyeth the Island of Catanduanes, about a league distant from the lande of Luçon, on the furthest point Eastward, and from the same entrie of the chanell towards the West and Southwest, lyeth the Iland Capuli about sixe leagues from thence, stretching Westsouthwest, and Eastnortheast, being fiue leagues long, and foure leagues broad: and as wee past by it, it lay Northward from vs vnder twelue degrees and 3/4. and somewhat high lande. Foure leagues from the aforesayd Iland of Capuli Northwestward lie the three Ilands of the hauen of Bollon in the Iland of Luçones, stretching North and South about foure leagues, distant from the firme lande halfe a league, whereof the furthest Southward lieth vnder thirteene degrees; In this chanell it is twentie fathome deepe, with white sand, and a great streame, running Southeast: we passed through the middle of the chanell. From this chanell wee helde our coarse Southwest, and Southwest and by West, for the space of twentie leagues, vntill wee came to the West ende of the Iland of Tycao, which reacheth East and West thirteene leagues. This point or hooke lyeth vnder 12. degrees and 3/4. In the middle betweene this Iland and the Iland Capuli there lie three Ilands called the Faranias, and we ranne in the same course on the Northside of all the Ilands, at the depth of 22. fathom with white sand. From the aforesayd West point of the Iland Tycao to the point of Buryas it is East and West to sayle about the length of a league or a league and a halfe: we put into that chanell, holding our course South, and South and by West about three leagues, vntill we were out of the chanell at sixteene fathome deepe, with halfe white and reddish sande in the chanell, and at the mouth thereof, whereof the middle lyeth vnder 12. degrees and 2/3. and there the streames runne Northward. [Sidenote: The Isle of Masbate.] The Iland of Buryas stretched Northwest and Southeast, and is low lande, whereof the Northwest point is about three leagues from the coast of Luçon, but you cannot passe betweene them with any shippe, but with small foistes and barkes of the countrey. This shallow channell lieth vnder twelue degrees: and running thorow the aforesayd chanell betweene the Ilands Tycao and Buryas, as I sayd before, we sayled Southward about two leagues from the Iland of Masbate, which stretcheth East and West 8. leagues long, being in bredth 4. leagues, and lyeth vnder 12. degrees and 1/4. in the middle thereof, and is somewhat high land. From the sayd chanell betweene Tycao and Buryas, wee helde our course Westnorthwest for thirteene leagues, leauing the Iland Masbate on the Southside, and the Iland Buryas on the North side: at the ende of thirteene leagues wee came by an Iland called Banton, which is in forme like a hat, vnder twelue degrees and 2/3. when we had sayled the aforesayd thirteene leagues and eight leagues more, on the South side wee left the Iland called Rebuiam, which stretcheth Northwest, and Northwest and by North, and Southeast, and Southeast and by South, for the space of eight leagues, being high and crooked lande, whereof the North point lyeth vnder twelue degrees and 2/3. and there you finde 35 fathom deepe, with white sand. From the aforesayd Iland of Banton Southward nine leagues, there beginne and followe three Ilandes, one of them being called Bantonsilla, which is a small Iland in forme of a sugar loafe: the second Crymara, being somewhat great in length, reaching East and West about two leagues: the third Itaa, or the Ile of Goates, hauing certaine houels. By all these Ilands aforesayd you may passe with all sortes of shippes, whereof the foremost lyeth Southward vnder twelue degrees and 1/4. From the Iland of Bantonsilla, or small Banton, wee helde our course Northwest for the space of foure leagues, to the chanell betweene Ilands called de Vereies, and the Iland of Marinduque, the Vereies lying on the South side vnder twelue degrees and 3/4. (which are two small Ilands like two Frigats) and the Iland Marinduque on the North side vnder twelue degrees, and 1/4. which is a great Iland, stretching Westnorthwest, and Eastsoutheast, hauing in length 12. and in bredth 7. leagues. On the North side, with the Iland Luçon it maketh a long and small chanell, running somewhat crooked, which is altogether full of shallowes and sandes, whereby no shippes can passe through it. The furthest point Westward of the same Iland lyeth vnder thirteene degrees and 1/4. It is high lande, on the East side hauing the forme of a mine of brimstone or fierie hill, and on the West side the land runneth downewarde at the point thereof being round like a loafe of bread: in the chanell betweene it and the Vereies, there are 18. fathom deepe with small black sand. From the aforesaid chanell of Vereies and Marinduque, wee helde our course Westnorthwest twelue leagues to the lande of Mindora, to the point or hooke called Dumaryn, lying full vnder thirteene degrees: Fiue leagues forward from the sayde chanell on the South side wee left an Iland called Isla de maestro del Campo, that is, The Iland of the Colonell, lying vnder twelue degrees and 3/4. which is a small and flat Iland: In this course we had 45 fathom deep white sand. By this point or end of the Iland Marinduque beginneth the Iland of Myndoro, which hath in length East and West fiue and twentie leagues, and in bredth twelue leagues, whereof the furthest point Southward lyeth vnder thirteene degrees, and the furthest point Northward vnder thirteene degrees and 2/3. and the furthest point Westward vnder thirteene degrees. This Iland with the Iland of Luçon maketh a chanell of fiue leagues broad, and ten or twelue fathom deepe with muddie ground of diuers colours, with white sande. Fiue leagues forward from Marinduque lyeth the riuer of the towne of Anagacu, which is so shallowe, that no shippes may enter into it. From thence two leagues further lie the Ilands called Bacco, which are three Ilands lying in a triangle, two of them being distant from the land about three hundred cubits, and between them and the land you may passe with small shippes: And from the lande to the other Iland, are about two hundred cubites, where it is altogether shallowes and sandes, so that where the shippes may passe outward about 150. cubites from the lande, you leaue both the Ilands on the South side, running betweene the third Iland and the riuer called Rio del Bacco, somewhat more from the middle of the chanell towardes the Iland, which is about a league distant from the other; the chanell is tenne fathom deepe, with mud and shelles vpon the ground: the riuer of Bacco is so shallowe, that no ships may enter into it. From this Iland with the same course two leagues forward, you passe by the point called El Capo de Rescaseo, where we cast out our lead, and found that a man may passe close by the lande, and there you shall finde great strong streames: and halfe a league forward with the same course, lyeth the towne of Mindoro, which hath a good hauen for shippes of three hundred tunnes. Three leagues Northward from the same hauen lyeth the Iland called Cafaa, stretching from East to West, being hilly ground. From the sayde towne of Myndora, wee helde our course Westnorthwest eight leagues, till wee came to the poynt or hooke of the sandes called Tulen, lying vpon the Iland of Luçon, which sande or banke reacheth into the Sea halfe a league from the coast: you must keepe about an hundred cubites from it, where you finde eight fathom water, muddie and shellie ground: you runne along by those sandes North, and North and by West for the space of two leagues, till you come to the riuer called Rio de Anasebo: all the rest of the coast called De los Limbones to the month or entrie of the Bay called Manilla, (which are foure leagues) is sayled with the same course. The Limbones (which are Ilands so called) are high in forme like a paire of Organs, with good hauens for small shippes, running along by the Limbones: and two leagues beyond them on the South side, wee leaue the Ilands of Fortan, and foure Ilands more, but the three Ilands of Lubao, which are very low, lie vnder 13. degrees and 1/3. and the Limbones lie in the mouth or entrie of the Bay of Manilla vnder 14. degrees and 1/4. From thence we ranne Northwest for the space of sixe leagues to the hauen of Cabite, keeping along by the land lying on the West side, where it is shallowe, and is called Los Baixos del Rio de Cannas, The shallowes of the riuer of Reedes: all along this Bay in the same course, there is from ten to foure fathom deepe. Being by the point or hooke of Cabite, then wee kept but an hundred paces from it, running Southwest, southsouthwest, and South, vntill we discouered the whole mouth or entrie of the Bay, where we might anker at foure fathom about two hundred cubites from the lande, and then the towne of Manilla was two leagues Northward from vs.[49] [49] The Philippine Islands are an archipelago of about 1400 islands, forming a dependency of Spain, lying between 4 deg. 40 min and 20 deg. N. lat., and 116 deg. 40 min. and 126 deg. 30 min. E. lon., and having the China Sea on the west, and the Pacific Ocean on the East. They are very imperfectly known at present, but are estimated to have a total area of 114,000 square miles, and a population of about 10,000,000. The principal islands of the many hundreds of large and small forming the group are--Luzon, Mindanao, Palawan, Mindoro, Panay, Negros, Zebu, Leyte, and Samar. The Philippines were discovered by Fernando Magalhaens in 1521, in the reign of Philip II, after whom they were named; and in 1564 the Spaniards made a settlement on one of the islands, and founded Manila in 1571. They obtained the possession of this important group almost without bloodshed; and they have preserved it by the extensive diffusion of the Roman Catholic religion among the Malays, who form the greater part of the population. The Spaniards have retained the island ever since, except from 1762 to 1764, during which the English held Manila, and for the release of which the Spaniards paid a ransom of £1,000,000. Chap. 2. The course and voyage of the aforesayd Francisco Gualle out of the hauen or roade of Manilla, to the hauen of Macao in China, with all the courses and situations of the places. Sayling out of the hauen of Cabite, lying in the Bay of Manilla, wee helde our course Westwarde for the space of eighteene leagues, to the point called El Cabo de Samballes: and when wee were eight leagues in our way, wee left the two Ilands Maribillas on the South side, and sailed about a league from them: the point of Samballes aforesayde lyeth vnder foureteene degrees, and 2/3. being low land, at the end of the same coast of Luçon, on the West side. From the hooke or point aforesayde, wee ranne North, and North and by West, for the space of fiue and twentie leagues (aboue a league from the coast of Luçon) to the point called Cabo de Bullinao: all this coast and Cape is high and hilly ground, which Cape lyeth vnder sixteene degrees and 2/3. From this Cape de Bellinao we helde our course North, and North and by East, for 45. leagues to the point called El Cabo de Bojador, which is the furthest lande Northwarde from the Iland Luçon lying vnder 19. degrees. The Cape de Bullinao being past the lande maketh a great creeke or bough, and from this creeke the coast runneth North to the point of Bojador, being a land full of cliffes and rockes that reach into the Sea, and the land of the hooke or point is high and hilly ground. From the point of Bojador, wee helde our course Westnorthwest an hundred and twentie leagues, vntill we came to the Iland called A Ilha Branca, or the white Iland, lying in the beginning of the coast and Bay of the riuer Canton vnder two and twentie degrees, hauing foure and twentie fathom browne muddie ground. From the Iland Ilha Branca, wee helde the aforesayde course of Westnorthwest, for the space of sixteene leagues, to the Iland of Macao lying in the mouth of the riuer of Canton, and it maketh the riuer to haue two mouths or entries, and it is a small Iland about three leagues great. Chap. 3. The Nauigation or course of the aforesayd Francisco Gualle out of the hauen of Macao to Newe Spaine, with the situation and stretchings of the same, with other notable and memorable things concerning the same voyage. When we had prepared our selues, and had taken our leaues of our friends in Macao, we set saile vpon the foure and twentieth of Iuly, holding our course Southeast, and Southeast and by East, being in the wane of the Moone: for when the Moone increaseth, it is hard holding the course betweene the Ilands, because as then the water and streames run very strong to the Northwest; wee trauailed through many narrowe channels by night, hauing the depth of eight or ten fathom, with soft muddie ground, vntill wee were about the Iland Ilha Branca, yet we saw it not, but by the height we knew that we were past it. Being beyond it, we ranne Eastsoutheast an hundred and fiftie leagues, to get aboue the sands called Os Baixos dos Pescadores, and the beginning of the Ilands Lequeos on the East side, which Ilands are called As Ilhas fermosas,[50] that is to say, The faire Ilands. This I vnderstoode by a Chinar called Santy of Chinchon, and hee sayde that they lie vnder one and twentie degrees and 3/4. there it is thirtie fathom deepe: and although wee sawe them not, notwithstanding by the height and depth of the water we knew we were past them. [50] Formosa. Being past As Ilhas fermosas, or the faire Ilands, wee helde our course East, and East and by North, for two hundred and sixtie leagues, vntill we were past the length of the Ilands Lequeos,[51] sayling about fiftie leagues from them: the said Chinar tolde me, that those Ilands called Lequeos are very many, and that they haue many and very good hauens, and that the people and inhabitants thereof haue their faces and bodies painted like the Bysayas of the Ilands of Luçon or Philippinas and are apparelled like the Bysayas, and that there also are mines of gold: Hee sayd likewise that they did often come with small shippes and barkes laden with Bucks and Harts-hides, and with golde in graines or very small pieces, to traffique with them of the coast of China, which hee assured mee to bee most true, saying that hee had bene nine times in the small Ilands, bringing of the same wares with him to China: which I beleeued to bee true, for that afterwarde I enquired thereof in Macao, and upon the coast of China, and found that hee sayde true. The furthest or vttermost of these Ilands stretching Northwarde and Eastwarde, lie vnder nine and twentie degrees. [51] The Lu-Tchu (_Chinese_) or Liu-Khiu (_Japanese_) Islands are a chain of 52 Islands belonging to Japan, and stretching S.W. to Formosa. Being past these Ilands, then you come to the Ilands of Iapon, whereof the first lying West and South, is the Iland of Firando, where the Portugals vse to traffique: they are in length altogether an hundred and thirtie leagues, and the furthest Eastward lieth under two and thirtie degrees: we ranne still East, and East and by North, vntill we were past the sayd hundred and thirtie leagues. All this information I had of the aforesaid Chinar, as also that there I should see some mines of brimstone or fierie hilles, being seuentie leagues beyond them,[52] and thirtie leagues further I should finde four Ilands lying together, which I likewise found, as hee had tolde mee: [Sidenote: Other Ilands Eastward of Iapon.] And that being in Iapon, he sayd hee had there seene certaine men of a very small stature, with great rolle of linnen cloth about there heads, that brought golde in small pieces, and some white Cangas of cotton, (which are pieces of cotton-linnen so called by the Chinars) as also salte-fish like the Spanish Atun, or Tunney, which hee sayde came out of other Ilands Eastward from Iapon: and by the tokens and markes which hee shewed mee, I gessed whereabout those Ilands should bee, and found them not farre from whence he sayd they lay. Hee sayd likewise that all the Ilands of Iapon haue good hauens and chanels, being a Countrey full of Rice, Corne, Fish, and flesh, and that they are indifferent and reasonable people to traffique with, and that there they haue much siluer. [52] This probably refers to Fusyiama, which can be seen from Tokio, 80 miles away. Its last eruption took place in 1707. Running thus East, and East and by North about three hundred leagues from Iapon, wee found a very hollowe water, with the streame running out of the North and Northwest, with a full and very broad Sea, without any hinderance or trouble in the way that wee past: and what winde soeuer blewe, the Sea continued all in one sort, with the same hollow water and streame, vntill wee had passed seuen hundred leagues. [Sidenote: Iapon 900. leagues distant from the coast of America in 37 degrees and an halfe.] About two hundred leagues from the coast and land of newe Spaine wee beganne to lose the sayd hollow Sea, and streame: whereby I most assuredly thinke and beleeue, that there you shall finde a chanell or straight passage, betweene the firme lande of newe Spaine, and the Countreys of Asia and Tartaria. Likewise all this way from the aforesayde seuen hundred leagues, we found a great number of Whale-fishes and other fishes called by the Spaniards Atuns or Tunnies, whereof many are found on the coast of Gibraltar in Spaine, as also Albacoras and Bonitos, which are all fishes, which commonly keepe in chanels, straights, and running waters, there to disperse their seede when they breede: which maketh mee more assuredly beleeue, that thereabouts is a chanel or straight to passe through. [Sidenote: Read Francis Vlloa chap. 16.] Being by the same course vpon the coast of newe Spaine, vnder seuen and thirtie degrees and 1/2. wee passed by a very high and faire lande with many trees, wholly without snowe, and foure leagues from the lande, you finde thereabouts many drifts of rootes, leaues of trees, reeds, and other leaues like figge leaues, the like whereof wee found in great abundance in the countrey of Iapon, which they eate: and some of those that wee found, I caused to bee sodden with flesh, and being sodden, they eate like Coleworts: there likewise wee found great store of Seales: whereby it is to bee presumed and certainely to bee beleeued, that there are many riuers, bayes, and hauens along by those coastes to the hauen of Acapulco. From thence wee ranne Southeast, Southeast and by South, and Southeast and by East, as wee found the winde, to the point called El Cabo de Sant Lucas, which is the beginning of the lande of California, on the Northwest side, lying vnder two and twentie degrees, being fiue hundred leagues distant from Cape Mendoçino. [Sidenote: Hauens lately found out.] In this way of the aforesayde fiue hundred leagues along by the coast, are many Ilands: and although they bee but small, yet without doubt there are in them some good hauens, as also in the firme land, where you haue these hauens following, now lately found out, as that of the Ile of Sant Augustine, lying vnder thirtie degrees and 3/4. and the Iland called Isla de Cedros, scarce vnder eight and twenty deg. and 1/4. and the Iland lying beneath Saint Martyn, vnder three and twentie degrees and 1/2. All this coast and countrey, as I thinke, is inhabited, and sheweth to be a very good countrey: for there by night wee sawe fire, and by day smoke, which is a most sure token that they are inhabited. From the poynt or hooke of Saint Lucas, to the Southeast side of California, wee helde our course Eastsoutheast, for the space of 80. leagues, to the point called El cabo de las corrientes, that is, the Cape of the streames lying vnder 19. degrees and 2/3. And running this course, Northward about a league from vs wee sawe three Ilands called Las tres Marias, (that is to say, The three Maries) running the same course. About foure leagues from the other Ilands, there are other Ilands, reaching about two or three leagues: All this way from the mouth or gulfe of California aforesayd, for the space of the sayd fourescore leagues, there are great streames that run Westward. From the point or Cape de las Corrientes, we ranne Southeast, and sometimes Southeast and by East, for the space of an hundred and thirtie leagues to the hauen of Acapulco. In this way of an hundred and thirtie leagues, being twentie leagues on the way, we had the hauen of Natiuidad, that is, of the birth of the Virgin Mary: and other eight leagues further, the hauen of Saint Iago, or Saint Iames; and sixe leagues further, the sea Strand called La Playa de Colima, that is, the Strand of Colima. All this coast from California to the hauen of Acapulco is inhabited by people that haue peace and traffique with the Spaniards, and are of condition and qualities like the people of the other places of new Spaine. The conclusion of the Author of this last voyage. All this description and nauigation haue I my selfe seene, prooued, and well noted in my voyage made and ended in the yeere of our Lord 1584. from great China out of the hauen and riuer of Canton, as I will more at large set it downe vnto your honour, with the longitudes and latitudes thereof, as God shall permit mee time and leysure, whom I beseech to send you long and happie dayes. And the same was truly translated out of Spanish into lowe Dutch verbatim out of the Originall copy, (which was sent vnto the Viceroy of the Portugall Indies) by Iohn Huyghen Van Linschoten. The relation of the nauigation and discouery which Captaine Fernando Alarchon made by the order of the right honourable Lord Don Antonio de Mendoça, Vizeroy of New Spaine, dated in Colima, an hauen of New Spaine. Chap. 1. Fernando Alarchon after he had suffered a storme, arriued with his Fleete at the hauen of Saint Iago, and from thence at the hauen of Aguaiaual: he was in great perill in seeking to discouer a Bay, and getting out of the same he discouered a riuer on the coast with a great current, entring into the same, and coasting along he descried a great many of Indians with their weapons: with signes hee hath traffique with them, and fearing some great danger returneth to his ships. On Sunday the ninth of May in the yeere 1540. I set saile with two ships, the one called Saint Peter being Admirall, and the other Saint Catherine, and wee set forward meaning to goe to the hauen of Saint Iago of good hope: but before wee arriued there wee had a terrible storme, wherewith they which were in the ship called Saint Catherine, being more afraid then was neede, cast ouer boord nine pieces of Ordinance, two ankers and one cable, and many other things as needfull for the enterprise wherein we went, as the ship it selfe. Assoone as we were arriued at the hauen of Saint Iago I repaired my losse which I had receiued, prouided my selfe of things necessary, and tooke aboord my people which looked for my comming, and directed my course toward the hauen of Aguaiauall. And being there arriued I vnderstood that the Generall Francis Vazquez de Coronado was departed with all his people: whereupon taking the ship called Saint Gabriel which carried victuals for the armie I led her with mee to put in execution your Lordships order. Afterward I followed my course along the coast without departing from the same, to see if I could find any token, or any Indian which could giue me knowledge of him: and in sailing so neere the shore I discouered other very good hauens, for the ships whereof Captaine Francis de Vllua was General for the Marquesse de Valle neither sawe nor found them. [Sidenote: These shoalds are the bottome of mar Bermejo, or the Bay of California.] And when we were come to the flats and shoalds from whence the foresaid fleete returned, it seemed as well to me as to the rest, that we had the firme land before vs, and that those shoalds were so perilous and fearefull, that it was a thing to be considered whither with our skiffes we could enter in among them: and the Pilotes and the rest of the company would haue had vs done as Captaine Vllua did, and haue returned backe againe. But because your Lordship commanded mee, that I should bring you the secret of that gulfe, I resolued, that although I had knowen I should haue lost the shippes, I would not haue ceased for any thing to haue seene the head thereof: and therefore I commanded Nicolas Zamorano Pilote maior, and Dominico del Castello that eche of them should take a boate, and their lead in their hands, and runne in among those shoalds, to see if they could find out the chanell whereby the shippes might enter in: to whom it seemed that the ships might saile vp higher (although with great trauell and danger) and in this sort I and he began to follow our way which they had taken, and within a short while after wee found our selues fast on the sands with all our three ships, in such sort that one could not helpe another, neither could the boates succour vs, because the current was so great that it was impossible for one of vs to come vnto another: whereupon we were in such great ieopardie that the decke of the Admirall was oftentimes vnder water, and if a great surge of the sea had not come and driuen our ship right vp, and gaue her leaue as it were to breath a while, we had there bin drowned: and likewise the other two shippes found themselves in very great hazard, yet because they were lesser and drewe lesse water, their danger was not so great as ours: Nowe it pleased God vpon the returne of the flood that the shippes came on flote, and so wee went forward. And although the company would haue returned backe, yet for all this I determined to goe forwarde, and to pursue our attempted voyage: and we passed forward with much adoe, turning our stemmes now this way, now that way, to seeke to find the chanel. [Sidenote: The bottome of the Bay of California.] And it pleased God that after this sort we came to the very bottoms of the Bay: where we found a very mightie riuer, which ranne with so great fury of a streame, that we could hardly saile against it.[53] In this sort I determined as wel as I could to go vp this riuer, and with two boates, leauing the third with the ships, and twenty men, my selfe being in one of them with Roderigo Maldonado treasurer of this fleet, and Gaspar de Castilleia comptroller, and with certaine small pieces of artillerie I began to saile vp the river, and charged all my company, that none of them should stirre nor vse any signe, but he whom I appointed, although wee found Indians. [Sidenote: They goe vp the riuer of Buena guia the 26. of August.] The same day, which was Thursday the sixe and twentieth of August, following our voyage with drawing the boats with halsers we went about some 6 leagues; and the next day which was Friday by the breake of day thus following our way vpward, I saw certaine Indians which went toward certaine cottages neere vnto the water, who assoone as they saw vs, ten or twelue of them rose vp furiously, and crying with a loud voyce, other of their companions came running together to the number of 50 which with all haste carried out of their cottages such things as they had, and layd them vnder certaine shrubs and many of them came running toward that part whether wee approched, making great signes vnto vs that we should goe backe againe, vsing great threatnings against vs, one while running on this side and an other while on that side. I seeing them in such a rage, caused our boates to lanch from the shore into the middes of the riuer, that the Indians might be out of feare, and I rode at anker, and set my people in as good order as I could, charging them that no man should speake, nor make any signe nor motion, nor stirre out of his place, nor should not be offended for anything that the Indians did, nor should shewe no token of warre: and by this meanes the Indians came euery foote neere the riuers side to see vs: and I gate by little and little toward them where the riuer seemed to be deepest. In this meane space there were aboue two hundred and fiftie Indians assembled together with bowes and arrowes, and with certaine banners in warrelike sort in such maner as those of New Spayne doe vse: and perceiuing that I drewe toward the shore, they came with great cryes toward vs with bowes and arrowes put into them, and with their banners displayed. And I went vnto the stemme of my boate with the interpreter which I carried with me, whom I commanded to speake vnto them, and when he spake, they neither vnderstood him, nor he them, although because they sawe him to be after their fashion, they stayed themselues: and seeing this I drewe neerer the shore, and they with great cryes came to keepe mee from the shore of the riuer, making signes that I should not come any further, putting stakes in my way betweene the water and the land: and the more I lingered, the more people still flocked together. Which when I had considered I beganne to make them signes of peace, and taking my sword and target, I cast them downe in the boate and set my feete vpon them, giving them to vnderstand with this and other tokens that I desired not to haue warre with them, and that they should doe the like: [Sidenote: A very good course taken to appease unknowen Sauages.] Also I tooke a banner and cast it downe; and I caused my company that were with mee to sit downe likewise, and taking the wares of exchange which I carried with mee, I called them to giue them some of them: yet for all this none of them stirred to take any of them, but rather flocked together, and beganne to make a great murmuring among themselues: and suddenly one came out from among them with a staffe wherein certayne shelles were set, and entred into the water to giue them vnto mee, and I tooke them, and made signes vnto him that hee should come neere me, which when he had done, I embraced him, and gaue him in recompence certaine beades and other things, and he returning with them vnto his fellowes, began to looke vpon them, and to parley together, and within a while after many of them came toward me, to whom I made signes to lay downe their banners, and to leaue their weapons: which they did incontinently, then I made signes that they should lay them altogether, and should goe aside from them, which likewise they did: and they caused those Indians which newly came thither to leaue them, and to lay them together with the rest. After this I called them vnto me, and to all them which came I gaue some smal trifle, vsing them gently, and by this time they were so many that came thronging about mee, that I thought I could not stay any longer in safety among them, and I made signes vnto them that they should withdraw themselues, and that they should stand al vpon the side of an hill which was there betweene a plaine and the riuer, and that they should not presse to me aboue ten at a time. And immediately the most ancient among them called unto them with a loud voyce, willing them to do so: and some ten or twelue of them came where I was: whereupon seeing my selfe in some securitie, I determined to goe on land the more to put them out of feare: and for my more securitie, I made signes vnto them, to sit downe on the ground which they did: but when they saw that ten or twelue of my companions came a shore after me, they began to be angry, and I made signes vnto them that we would be friends, and that they should not feare, and herewithal they were pacified, and sate down as they did before, and I went vnto them, and imbraced them, giuing them certain trifles, commanding mine interpreter to speake vnto them, for I greatly desired to vnderstand their maner of speech, and the cry which they made at mee. And that I might knowe what maner of foode they had, I made a signe vnto them, that wee would gladly eate, and they brought mee certaine cakes of Maiz, and a loafe of Mizquiqui, and they made signes vnto mee that they desired to see an harquebuse shot off, which I caused to be discharged, and they were all wonderfully afraid, except two or three olde men among them which were not mooued at all, but rather cried out vpon the rest, because they were afrayd: and through the speach of one of these olde men, they began to rise vp from the ground, and to lay hold on their weapons: whom when I sought to appease, I would haue giuen him a silken girdle of diuers colours, and hee in a great rage bitte his nether lippe cruelly, and gaue mee a thumpe with his elbowe on the brest, and turned in a great furie to speake vnto his company. After that I saw them aduance their banners, I determined to returne my selfe gently to my boates, and with a small gale of wind I set sayle, whereby wee might breake the current which was very great, although my company were not well pleased to goe any farther. In the meane space the Indians came following vs along the shore of the riuer, making signes that I should come on land, and that they would giue mee food to eate, some of them sucking their fingers, and others entred into the water with certaine cakes of Maiz, to giue me them in my boate. [53] Rio Colorado. Chap. 2. Of the habite, armour and stature of the Indians. A relation of many others with whom he had by signes traffique, victuals and many courtesies. [Sidenote: Good forecast.] In this sort we went vp two leagues, and I arriued neere a cliffe of an hill, whereupon was an arbour made newly, where they made signes vnto me, crying that I should go thither, shewing me the same with their handes, and telling mee that there was meate to eate. But I would not goe thither, seeing the place was apt for some ambush, but followed on my voyage, within a while after issued out from thence aboue a thousand armed men with their bowes and arrowes, and after that many women and children shewed themselues, toward whom I would not goe, but because the Sunne was almost set, I rode in the middest of the riuer. These Indians came decked after sundry fashions, some came with a painting that couered their face all ouer, some had their faces halfe couered, but all besmouched with cole, and euery one as it liked him best. Others carried visards before them of the same colour which had the shape of faces. They weare on their heads a piece of a Deeres skinne two spannes broad set after the maner of a helmet, and vpon it certaine small sticks with some sortes of fethers. Their weapons were bowes and arrowes of hard wood, and two or three sorts of maces of wood hardened in the fire. This is a mightie people, well feitured, and without any grossenesse. They haue holes bored in their nostrels whereat certaine pendents hang: and others weare shelles, and their eares are full of holes, whereon they hang bones and shelles. All of them both great and small weare a girdle about their waste made of diuerse colours, and in the middle is fastened a round bunch of feathers, which hangeth downe behind like a tayle. Likewise on the brawne of their armes they weare a streit string, which they wind so often about that it becommeth as broad as ones hand. They weare certaine pieces of Deeres bones fastened to their armes, wherewith they strike off the sweate, and at the other certaine small pipes of canes. [Sidenote: Pipes and bagges of tobacco.] They carry also certaine little long bagges about an hand broade tyed to their left arme, which serue them also instead of brasers for their bowes, full of the powder of a certaine herbe, whereof they make a certaine beuerage. They haue their bodies traced with coles, their haire cut before, and behind it hangs downe to their wast. The women goe naked, and weare a great wreath of fethers behind them, and before painted and glued together, and their haire like the men. There were among these Indians three or foure men in womens apparell. Nowe the next day being Saturday very early I went forward on my way vp the riuer, setting on shore two men for eache boate to drawe them with the rope, and about breaking foorth of the Sunne, wee heard a mightie crie of Indians on both sides of the riuer with their weapons, but without any banner. I thought good to attend their comming, aswell to see what they woulde haue, as also to try whither our interpreter could vnderstand them. When they came ouer against vs they leapt into the riuer on both sides with their bowes and arrowes, and when they spake, our interpreter vnderstoode them not: whereupon I beganne to make a signe vnto them that they should lay away their weapons, as the other had done. Some did as I willed them, and some did not, and those which did, I willed to come neere me and gaue them some things which we had to trucke withall, which when the others perceiued, that they might likewise haue their part, they layd away their weapons likewise. I iudging my selfe to be in securitie leaped on shore with them, and stoode in the middest of them, who vnderstanding that I came not to fight with them, began to giue some of those shels and beades, and some brought me certaine skinnes well dressed, and others Maiz and a roll of the same naughtily grinded, so that none of them came vnto me that brought mee not something, and before they gaue it me going a little way from mee they began to cry out amayne, and made a signe with their bodies and armes, and afterward they approached to giue me that which they brought. And now that the Sunne beganne to set I put off from the shore, and rode, in the middest of the riuer. The next morning before break of day on both sides of the riuer wee heard greater cries and of more Indians, which leaped into the riuer to swimme, and they came to bring mee certaine gourdes full of Maiz, and of those wrethes which I spake of before. [Sidenote: A notable policie.] I shewed vnto them Wheate and Beanes, and other seedes, to see whether they had any of those kindes: but they shewed me that they had no knowledge of them, and wondred at all of them, and by signes I came to vnderstand that the thing which they most esteemed and reuerenced was the Sunne: and I signified vnto them that I came from the Sunne. Whereat they maruelled, and then they began to beholde me from the toppe to the toe, and shewed me more favour then they did before; and when I asked them for food, they brought me such aboundance that I was inforced twise to call for the boates to put it into them, and from that time forward of all the things which they brought me they flang vp into the ayre one part vnto the Sunne, and afterward turned towards me to giue mee the other part: and so I was alwayes better serued and esteemed of them as well in drawing of the boats vp the riuer, as also in giuing me food to eat: and they shewed me so great loue, that when I stayed they would have carried vs in their armes vnto their houses: and in no kind of thing they would breake my commandment: and for my suretie, I willed them not to carry any weapons in my sight: and they were so careful to doe so, that if any man came newly thither with them, suddenly they would goe and meete him to cause him to lay them downe farre from mee: and I shewed them that I tooke great pleasure in their so doing: [Sidenote: Swarmes of people.] and to some of the chiefe of them I gaue certaine little napkins and other trifles; for if I should haue giuen somewhat to euery one of them in particular, all the small wares in New Spayne would not haue sufficed. Sometimes it fell out (such was the great loue and good wil which they shewed me) that if any Indians came thither by chance with their weapons, and if any one being warned to leaue them behind him, if by negligence, or because he vnderstood them not at the first warning, he had not layd them away, they would runne vnto him, and take them from him by force, and would breake them in pieces in my presence. Afterward they tooke the rope so louingly, and with striuing one with another for it, that we had no need to pray them to doe it. Wherefore if we had not had this helpe, the current of the riuer being exceeding great, and our men that drew the rope being not well acquainted with that occupation, it would haue beene impossible for vs to haue gotten vp the riuer so against the streame. When I perceiued that they vnderstood mee in all things, and that I likewise vnderstoode them, I thought good to try by some way or other to make a good entrance to find some good issue to obtaine my desire: And I caused certaine crosses to be made of certaine small sticks and paper, and among others when I gaue any thing I gaue them these as things of most price and kissed them, making signes vnto them that they should honour them and make great account of them, and that they should weare them at their necks: giuing them to vnderstand that this signe was from heauen, and they tooke them and kissed them, and lifted them vp aloft, and seemed greatly to reioyce thereat when they did so, and sometime I tooke them into my boate, shewing them great good will, and sometime I gaue them of those trifles which I caried with me. And at length the matter grew to such issue, that I had not paper and stickes ynough to make crosses. In this matter that day I was very well accompanied, vntill that when night approched I sought to lanch out into the riuer, and went to ride in the middest of the streame, and they came to aske leaue of me to depart, saying that they would returne the next day with victuals to visite me, and so by litle and little they departed, so that there stayed not aboue fiftie which made fires ouer against vs, and stayed there al night calling vs, and before the day was perfectly broken, they leapt into the water and swamme vnto vs asking for the rope, and we gaue it them with a good will, thanking God for the good prouision which he gaue vs to go vp the riuer: for the Indians were so many, that if they had gone about to let our passage, although we had bene many more then wee were, they might haue done it. Chap. 3. One of the Indians vnderstanding the language of the interpreter, asketh many questions of the originall of the Spaniards, he telleth him that their Captaine is the child of the Sunne, and that he was sent of the Sunne vnto them, and they would haue receiued him for their king. They take this Indian into their boat, and of him they haue many informations of that countrey. [Sidenote: A wise deuise.] In this manner we sailed vntill Tuesday at night, going as we were wont, causing mine interpreter to speak vnto the people to see if peraduenture any of them could vnderstand him, I perceiued that one answered him, whereupon I caused the boates to be stayed, and called him, which hee vnderstoode, charging mine interpreter that hee should not speake nor answere him any thing else, but onely that which I said vnto him: and I saw as I stood still that that Indian began to speake to the people with great furie: whereupon all of them beganne to drawe together, and mine interpreter vnderstood, that he which came to the boate sayd vnto them, that he desired to knowe what nation we were, and whence wee came, and whither we came out of the water, or out of the earth, or from heauen: And at this speech an infinite number of people came together, which maruelled to see mee speake: and this Indian turned on this side and on that side to speake vnto them in another language which mine interpreter vnderstood not. Whereas he asked me what we were, I answered that we were Christians, and that we came from farre to see them: and answering to the question, who had sent me, I said, I was sent by the Sunne, pointing vnto him by signes as at the first, because they should not take mee in a lye. He beganne againe to ask mee, how the Sunne had sent me, seeing he went aloft in the skie and never stoode still, and seeing these many yeeres neither he nor their olde men had euer seene such as we were, of whome they euer had any kind of knowledge, and that Sunne till that houre had neuer sent any other. I answered him that it was true that the Sunne made his course aloft in the skie, and did neuer stand still, yet neuertheless that they might well perceiue that at his going downe and rising in the morning hee came neere vnto the earth, where his dwelling was, and that they euer sawe him come out of one place, and that hee had made mee in that land and countrey from whence hee came, like as hee had made many others which hee had sent into other parties, and that nowe hee had sent me to visitie and view the same riuer, and the people that dwelt neere the same, that I should speake vnto them, and should ioyne with them in friendshippe, and should giue them things which they had not, and that I should charge them that they should not make warre one against another. Whereunto he answered, that I should tell him the cause why the Sunne had not sent mee no sooner to pacifie the warres which had continued a long time among them, wherein many had beene slaine. I tolde him the cause hereof was, because at that time I was but a child. Then he asked the interpreter whether wee tooke him with vs perforce hauing taken him in the war, or whether he came with vs of his own accord. He answered him that he was with vs of his owne accord, and was very wel appaid of our company. He returned to enquire, why we brought none saue him onely that vnderstood vs, and wherefore we vnderstood not all other men, seeing we were the children of the Sunne: he answered, that the Sunne also had begotten him, and giuen him a language to vnderstand him, and me, and others: that the Sunne knew well that they dwelt there, but that because he had many other businesses, and because I was but yong hee sent me no sooner. And he turning vnto me sayd suddenly: Comest thou therefore hither to bee our Lord, and that wee should serue thee? I supposing that I should not please him if I should haue said yea, answered him, not to be their Lord, but rather to be their brother, and to giue them such things as I had. He asked me, whether the Sunne had begotten me as he had begotten others, and whether I was his kinsman or his sonne: I answered him that I was his sonne. He proceeded to aske me whether the rest that were with me were also the children of the Sunne, I answered him no, but that they were borne all with me in one countrey, where I was brought vp. Then he cryed out with a loud voyce and sayd, seeing thou doest vs so much good, and wilt not haue vs to make warre, and art the child of the Sunne, wee will all receiue thee for our Lord, and alwayes serue thee, therefore wee pray thee that thou wilt not depart hence nor leaue vs: and suddenly hee turned to the people, and beganne to tell them, that I was the childe of the Sunne, and that therefore they should all chuse me for their Lord. Those Indians hearing this, were astonied beyond measure, and came neerer still more and more to behold me. That Indian also asked mee other questions, which to auoyd tediousnesse I doe not recite: and in this wise we passed the day, and seeing the night approch, I began by all meanes I could deuise to get this fellow into our boat with vs: and he refusing to goe with vs, the interpreter told him that wee would put him on the other side of the riuer, and vpon this condition he entred into our boate, and there I made very much of him, and gaue him the best entertaynement I could, putting him alwayes in securitie, and when I iudged him to be out of all suspition, I thought it good to aske him somewhat of that countrey. And among the first things that I asked him this was one, whether hee had euer seene any men like vs, or had heard any report of them. [Sidenote: Newes of bearded and white men.] Hee answered mee no, sauing that hee had sometime hearde of olde men, that very farre from that Countrey there were other white men, and with beardes like vs, and that hee knewe nothing else. I asked him also whether hee knewe a place called Ceuola, and a Riuer called Totonteac, and hee answered mee no. Whereupon perceiuing that hee coulde not giue mee any knowledge of Francis Vazquez nor of his company, I determined to aske him other things of that countrey, and of their maner of life: and beganne to enquire of him, whether they helde that there was one God, creator of heauen and earth, or that they worshipped any other Idol. [Sidenote: The Sunne worshipped as God.] And hee answered mee no: but that they esteemed and reuerenced the Sunne aboue all things, because it warmed them and made their croppes to growe: and that of all things which they did eate, they cast a little vp into the ayre vnto him. I asked him next whether they had any Lorde, and hee sayde no: but that they knewe well, that there was a great Lorde, but they knewe not well which way hee dwelt. And I tolde him that hee was in heauen, and that hee was called Iesus Christ, and I went no farther in diuinitie with him. I asked him whether they had any warre, and for what occasion. Hee answered that they had warre and that very great, and vpon exceeding small occasions: for when they had no cause to make warre, they assembled together, and some of them sayd, let vs goe to make warre in such a place, and then all of them set forward with their weapons. I asked them who commanded the armie: he answered the eldest and most valiant, and that when they sayd they should proceede no farther, that suddenly they retired from the warre. I prayed him to tell me what they did with those men which they killed in battell: he answered me that they tooke out the hearts of some of them, and eat them, and others they burned; and he added, that if it had not bene for my comming, they should haue bin now at warre: and because I commanded them that they should not war, and that they should cease from armes, therefore as long as I should not command them to take armes, they would not begin to wage warre against others, and they said among themselues, that seeing I was come vnto them, they had giuen ouer their intention of making warre, and that they had a good mind to liue in peace. [Sidenote: Certaine warlike people behind a mountaine.] He complained of certaine people which dwelt behind in a mountaine which made great war vpon them, and slew many of them: I answered him, that from henceforward they should not need to feare any more, because I had commanded them to be quiet, and if they would not obey my commandement I would chasten them and kill them. He enquired of me how I could kill them seeing we were so few, and they so many in number. And because it was now late and that I saw by this time he was weary to stay any longer with me, I let him goe out of my boat, and therewith I dismissed him very well content. Chap. 4. Of Naguachato and other chiefe men of those Indians they receiue great store of victuals, they cause them to set vp a crosse in their countreys, and hee teacheth them to worship it. They haue newes of many people, of their diuers languages, and customes in matrimony, how they punish adultery, of their opinions concerning the dead, and of the sicknesses which they are subiect vnto. The next day betimes in the morning came the chiefe man among them called Naguachato, and wished me to come on land because he had great store of victuals to giue me. And because I saw my selfe in securitie I did so without doubting; and incontinently an olde man came with rols of that Maiz, and certaine litle gourds, and calling me with a loud voyce and vsing many gestures with his body and armes, came neere vnto me, and causing me to turne me vnto that people, and hee himselfe also turning vnto them sayd vnto them, Sagueyca, and all the people answered with a great voyce, Hu, and hee offred to the Sunne a little of euery thing that he had there, and likewise a little more vnto me (although afterward he gaue me all the rest) and did the like to all that were with me: and calling out mine interpreter, by meanes of him I gaue them thanks, telling them that because my boats were litle I had not brought many things to giue them in exchange, but that I would come againe another time and bring them, and that if they would go with me in my boates vnto my ships which I had beneath at the riuers mouth, I would giue them many things. They answered that they would do so, being very glad in countenance. Here by the helpe of mine interpreter I sought to instruct them what the sign of the crosse meant, and willed them to bring me a piece of timber, wherof I caused a great crosse to be made, and commanded al those that were with mee that when it was made they should worship it, and beseech the Lord to grant his grace that so great a people might come to the knowledge of his holy Catholike faith: and this done I told them by mine interpreter that I left them that signe, in token that I tooke them for my brethren, and that they should keepe it for me carefully vntill I returned, and that euery morning at the Sunne rising they should kneele before it. And they tooke it incontinently, and without suffering it to touch the ground, they carried it to set it vp in the middest of their houses, where all of them might beholde it; and I willed them alwayes to worshippe it because it would preserue them from euill. They asked me how deep they should set in the ground, and I shewed them. [Sidenote: These people are greatly inclined to learne the Christian faith.] Great store of people followed the same, and they that stayed behinde inquired of mee, how they should ioyne their handes, and how they should kneele to worship the same; and they seemed to haue great desire to learne it. [Sidenote: The Riuer in diuers places full of shelfes.] This done, I tooke that chiefe man of the Countrey, and going to our boates with him, I followed my iourney vp the Riuer, and all the company on both sides of the shoare accompanied me with great good will, and serued me in drawing of our boates, and in halling vs off the sands whereupon we often fel: for in many places we found the riuer so shoald, that we had no water for our boats. As wee thus went on our way, some of the Indians which I had left behind me, came after vs to pray mee that I would throughly instruct them, how they should ioyne their hands in the worshipping of the crosse: others shewed me whether they were well set in such and such sort, so that they would not let me be quiet. Neere vnto the other side of the riuer was greater store of people, which called vnto me very often, that I would receiue the victuals which they had brought me. And because I perceiued that one enuied the other, because I would not leaue them discontented, I did so. And here came before me another old man like vnto the former with the like ceremonyes and offrings: and I sought to learne something of him as I had done of the other. This man said likewise to the rest of the people, This is our lord. Now you see how long ago our ancesters told vs, that there were bearded and white people in the world, and we laughed them to scorne. I which am old and the rest which are here, haue neuer seene any such people as these. And if you wil not beleeue me, behold these people which be in this riuer: let vs giue them therefore meate, seeing they giue vs of their victuals: let vs willingly serue this lord, which wisheth vs so well, and forbiddeth vs to make warre, and imbraceth all of vs: and they haue mouth, handes and eyes as we haue, and speake as we doe. I gaue these likewise another crosse as I had done to the others beneath, and said vnto them the selfe same words: which they listened vnto with a better will, and vsed greater diligence to learne that which I said. [Sidenote: Another nation.] Afterward as I passed farther vp the riuer, I found another people, whom mine interpreter vnderstood not a whit: wherefore I shewed them by signes the selfe same ceremonies of worshipping the crosse, which I had taught the rest. And that principal old man which I tooke with me, told me that farthur vp the riuer I should find people which would vnderstand mine interpreter: and being now late, some of those men called me to giue me victuals, and did in all poynts as the others had done, dauncing and playing to shew me pleasure. [Sidenote: People of 23. languages dwelling along this riuer.] I desired to know what people liued on the banks of this riuer: and I vnderstood by this man that it was inhabited by 23 languages, and these were bordering vpon the riuer, besides others not farre off, and that there were besides these 23. languages, other people also which hee knewe not, aboue the riuer. I asked him whether euery people were liuing in one towne together: and he answered me, No: but that they had many houses standing scattered in the fieldes, and that euery people had their Countrey seuerall and distinguished, and that in euery habitation there were great store of people. [Sidenote: Acuco as Gomara writeth is on a strong mountaine.] He shewed me a towne which was in a mountaine, and told me that there was there great store of people of bad conditions, which made continual warre vpon them: which being without a gouernour, and dwelling in that desert place, where small store of Maiz groweth, came downe into the playne to buy it in trucke of Deeres skinnes, wherewith they were apparelled with long garments, which they did cutte with rasors, and sewed with needles made of Deeres bones: and that they had great houses of stone. I asked them whether there were any there of that Countrey; and I found one woman which ware a garment like a little Mantle, which clad her from the waste downe to the ground, of a Deeres skin well dressed. Then I asked him whether the people which dwelt on the riuers side, dwelt alwayes there, or els sometime went to dwell in some other place: he answered me, that in the summer season they aboade there, and sowed there; and after they had gathered in their croppe they went their way, and dwelt in other houses which they had at the foote of the mountaine farre from the riuer. And hee shewed me by signes that the houses were of wood compassed with earth without, and I vnderstood that they made a round house, wherein the men and women liued all together. I asked him whether their women were common or no: he tolde me no, and that hee which was married, was to haue but one wife only. I desired to know what order they kept in marying: and he tolde me, that if any man had a daughter to marry, he went where the people kept, and said, I haue a daughter to marry, is there any man here that wil haue her? And if there were any that would haue her, he answered that he would haue her: and so the mariage was made. [Sidenote: Dancing and singing at mariages of the Sauages.] And that the father of him which would have her, brought something to giue the yong woman; and from that houre forward the mariage was taken to be finished, and that they sang and danced: and that when night came, the parents tooke them, and left them together in a place where no body might see them. And I learned that brethren, and sisters, and kinsfolk married not together: and that maydes before they were married conuersed not with men, nor talked not with them, but kept at home at their houses and in their possessions, and wrought: and that if by chance any one had company with men before she were married, her husband forsooke her, and went away into other Countreyes: and that those women which fell into this fault, were accompted naughty packs. And that if after they were maried, any man were taken in adultery with another woman, they put him to death: and that no man might haue more that one wife, but very secretly. [Sidenote: They burne their dead.] They tolde mee that they burned those which dyed: and such as remayned widowes, stayed halfe a yeere, or a whole yeere before they married. I desired to know what they thought of such as were dead. Hee told me that they went to another world, but that they had neither punishment nor glory. The greatest sicknesse that this people dye of is vomiting of blood by the mouth: and they haue Physicions which cure them with charmes and blowing which they make. [Sidenote: Pipes to drinke Tabacco with.] The apparell of these people were like the former: they carried their pipes with them to perfume themselues, like as the people of New Spaine vse Tabacco. I inquired whether they had any gouernour, and found that they had none, but that every family had their seuerall gouernour. [Sidenote: Maize, gourds, Mill.] These people haue besides their Maiz certaine gourds, and another corne like vnto Mill: [Sidenote: Grindestones, earthern pots, good fish.] they haue grindstones and earthern pots, wherein they boyle those gourds, and fish of the riuer, which are very good. My interpreter could goe no farther then this place: for he said that those which we should find farther on our way, were their enemies, and therefore I sent him backe very well contented. Not long after I espied many Indians to come crying with a loude voice, and running after me. [Sidenote: This riuer ouerfloweth his banks at certaine seasons.] I stayed to know what they would haue; and they told me that they had set vp the crosse which I had giuen them, in the midst of their dwellings as I had appointed, but that I was to wit, that when the riuer did ouerflow, it was wont to reach to that place, therefore they prayed mee to giue them leaue to remove it, and to set it in another place where the riuer could not come at it, nor carry it away: which I granted them. Chap. 5. Of an Indian of that countrey they haue relation of the state of Ceuola, and of the conditions and customes of these people, and of their gouernour: and likewise of the countreys not farre distant from thence, whereof one was called Quicoma, and the other Coama: of the people of Quicoma, and of the other Indians not farre distant they receiue courtesie. Thus sayling I came where were many Indians, and another interpreter, which I caused to come with me in my boat. And because it was cold, and my people were wet, I leapt on shore, and commanded a fire to be made, and as we stood thus warming our selues, an Indian came and strooke me on the arme, pointing with his finger to a wood, out of which I saw two companies of men come with their weapons, and he told me that they came to set vpon vs: and because I meant not to fall out with any of them, I retired my company into our boats, and the Indians which were with me swam into the water, and saued themselues on the other side of the riuer. In the meane season I inquired of that Indian which I had with me, what people they were that came out of the wood: and he told me that they were their enemies, and therefore these others at their approch without saying any word leapt into the water: and did so, because they meant to turne backe againe, being without weapons, because they brought none with them, because they vnderstood my wil and pleasure, that they should cary none. I inquired the same things of this interpreter which I had done of the other of the things of that countrey, because I vnderstood that among some people one man vsed to haue many wiues, and among others but one. [Sidenote: Ceuola 40 dayes iourney from thence by the riuer.] Now I vnderstood by him, that he had bin at Ceuola, and that it was a moneths iourney from his country, and that from that place by a path that went along that riuer a man might easily trauel thither in xl. daies, and that the occasion that moued him to go thither, was only to see Ceuola, because it was a great thing, and had very hie houses of stone of 3. or 4. lofts, and windowes on ech side; that the houses were compassed about with a wall conteining the height of a man and an halfe, and that aloft and beneath they were inhabited with people, and that they vsed the same weapons, that others vsed, which we had seene, that is to say, bowes and arrowes, maces, staues and bucklers: [Sidenote: Turqueses in Ceuola.] and that they had one gouernor, and that they were apparelled with mantles, and with oxe-hides, and that their mantles had a painting about them, and that their gouernour ware a long shirt very fine girded vnto him, and ouer the same diuers mantles: and that the women ware very long garments, and that they were white, and went all couered: and that euery day many Indians wayted at the gate of their gouernour to serue him, and that they did weare many Azure or blew stones, which were digged out of a rocke of stone, and that they had but one wife, with whom they were maried, and that when their gouernors died, all the goods that they had were buried with them. And likewise all the while they eate, many of their men waite at their table to court them, and see them eate, and that they eate with napkins, and that they haue bathes. On Thursday morning at breake of day the Indians came with the like cry to the banke of the riuer, and with greater desire to serue vs, bringing me meat to eat, and making me the like good cheere, which the others had done vnto me, hauing vnderstood what I was: and I gaue them crosses, with the self same order which I did vnto the former. And going farther vp the riuer I came to a country where I found better gouernment: for the inhabitants are wholly obedient vnto one only. But returning againe to conferre with mine interpreter touching the dwellings of those of Ceuola, he tolde me, that the lord of that countrey had a dog like that which I caried with me. [Sidenote: This was the Negro that went with Frier Marco de Niza.] Afterward when I called for dinner, this interpreter saw certaine dishes caried in the first and later seruice, whereupon he told me that the lord of Ceuola had also such as those were, but that they were greene, and that none other had of them sauing their gouernour, and that they were 4, which he had gotten together with that dogge, and other things, of a blacke man which had a beard, but that he knew not from what quarter he came thither, and that the king caused him afterward to be killed, as he heard say. I asked him whether he knew of any towne that was neere vnto that place: he tolde me that aboue the riuer he knew some, and that among the rest there was a lord of a towne called Quicoma, and another of a towne called Coama: and that they had great store of people vnder them. And after he had giuen me this information, he craued leaue of me to returne vnto his companions. From hence I began againe to set saile, and within a dayes sayling I found a towne dispeopled: where assoone as I was entred, by chance there arriued there 500. Indians with their bowes and arrowes, and with them was that principal Indian called Naguachato, which I had left behind, and brought with them certaine conies and yucas: and after I had friendly interteined them all, departing from them, I gaue them license to returne to their houses. As I passed further by the desert, I came to certain cotages, out of which much people came toward me with an old man before them, crying in a language which mine interpreter wel vnderstood, and he said vnto those men: Brethren, you see here that lord; let vs giue him such as we haue, seeing he dooth vs pleasure, and hath passed through so many discourteous people, to come to visit vs. And hauing thus said, he offred to the Sunne, and then to me in like sort as the rest had done. These had certaine great bags and well made of the skins of fishes called Sea-bremes. And I vnderstood that this was a towne belonging vnto the lord of Quicoma, which people came thither onely to gather the fruit of their haruest in summer; and among them I found one which vnderstood mine interpreter very well: whereupon very easily I gaue them the like instruction of the crosse which I had giuen to others behind. These people had cotton, but they were not very carefull to vse the same: because there was none among them that knew the arte of weauing, and to make apparel thereof. They asked me how they should set vp their crosse when they were come to their dwelling which was in the mountaine, and whether it were best to make an house about it, that it might not be wet, and whether they should hang any thing vpon the armes therof. I said no; and that it sufficed to set it in a place where it might be seene of all men, vntill I returned: and lest peraduenture any men of warre should come that way, they offred mee more men to goe with me, saying that they were naughty men which I should finde aboue; but I would haue none: neuerthelesse 20. of them went with me, which when I drew neere vnto those which were their enemies, they warned mee thereof: and I found their centinels set vpon their guarde on their borders. On Saturday morning I found a great squadron of people sitting vnder an exceeding great arbour, and another part of them without: and when I saw that they rose not vp, I passed along on my voyage: when they beheld this an old man rose vp which said vnto me, Sir, why doe you not receiue victuals to eate of vs, seeing you haue taken food of others? I answered, that I tooke nothing but that which was giuen me, and that I went to none but to such as requested me. Here without any stay they brought me victuals, saying vnto me, that because I entred not into their houses, and stayed all day and all night in the riuer, and because I was the sonne of the Sunne, all men were to receiue me for their lord. I made them signes to sit down, and called that old man which mine interpreter vnderstood, and asked him whose that countrey was, and whether the lord thereof was there, he said yes: and I called him to me; and when he was come, I imbraced him, shewing him great loue: and when I saw that all of them tooke great pleasure at the friendly interteinment which I gaue him, I put a shirt vpon him, and gaue him other trifles, and willed mine interpreter to vse the like speaches to that lord which he had done to the rest; and that done, I gaue him a crosse, which he receiued with a very good wil, as the others did: and this lord went a great way with me, vntill I was called vnto from the other side of the riuer, where the former old man stood with much people: to whom I gaue another crosse, vsing the like speach to them which I had vnto the rest, to wit, how they should vse it. Then following my way, I mette with another great company of people, with whom came that very same olde man whom mine interpreter vnderstood; and when I saw their lord which he shewed vnto me, I prayed him to come with me into my boat, which he did very willingly, and so I went still vp the riuer, and the olde man came and shewed me who were the chiefe lords: and I spake vnto them alwayes with great courtesie, and all of them shewed that they reioyced much thereat, and spake very wel of my comming thither. At night I withdrew my selfe into the midst of the riuer, and asked him many things concerning that country: and I found him as willing and wel disposed to shew them me, as I was desirous to know them. [Sidenote: Ceuola a goodly thing.] I asked him of Ceuola: and he told me he had bin there, and that it was a goodly thing, and that the lord thereof was very wel obeyed: and that there were other lords thereabout, with whom he was at continual warre. I asked him whether they had siluer and gold, and he beholding certain bels, said they had metal of their colour. [Sidenote: Gold and siluer in a mountaine neere Ceuola.] I inquired whether they made it there and he answered me no, but that they brought it from a certain mountaine, where an old woman dwelt. [Sidenote: This riuer seemeth to bee Northward by the colde.] I demanded whether he had any knowledge of a riuer called Totonteac, he answered me no, but of another exceeding mighty riuer, wherein there were such huge Crocodiles, that of their hides they made bucklers, and that they worship the Sunne neither more nor lesse then those which I had passed: and when they offer vnto him the fruits of the earth, they say: Receiue hereof, for thou hast created them, and that they loued him much, because he warmed them; and that when he brake not foorth, they were acolde. Herein reasoning with him, he began somewhat to complaine, saying vnto me, I know not wherefore the Sunne vseth these termes with vs, because he giueth vs not clothes, nor people to spin nor to weaue them, nor other things which he giueth to many other, and he complayned that those of that country would not suffer them to come there, and would not giue them of their corne. I told him that I would remedie this, whereat he remayned very well satisfied. Chap. 6. They are aduertised by the Indians, wherefore the lorde of Ceuola killed the Negro, which went with Frier Marco, and of many other things: And of an old woman called Guatazaca, which liueth in a lake and eateth no food. The description of a beast, of the skinne whereof they make targets. The suspition that they conceiue of them, that they are of those Christians which were seene at Ceuola, and how they cunningly saue themselues. The next day which was Sunday before breake of day, began their cry as they were woont: and this was the cry of 2. or 3. sorts of people, which had lyen all night neere the riuers side, wayting for me: and they tooke Maiz and other corne in their mouth, and sprinkled me therewith, saying that that was the fashion which they vsed when they sacrificed vnto the Sunne: afterward they gaue me of their victuals to eat, and among other things, they gaue me many white peason. I gaue them a crosse as I had done to the rest: and in the meane season that old man tolde them great matters of my doing, and poynted me out with his finger, saying, this is the lord, the sonne of the Sunne: and they made me to combe my beard, and to set mine apparel handsomely which I ware vpon my backe. And so great was the confidence that they had in me, that all of them told me what things had passed, and did passe among them, and what good or bad mind they bare one toward another. I asked them wherefore they imparted vnto me all their secrets, and that old man answered mee: Thou art our lord, and we ought to hide nothing from our lord. After these things, following on our way, I began againe to inquire of him the state of Ceuola, and whether he knewe that those of this countrey had euer seene people like vnto vs: he answered me no, sauing one Negro which ware about his legs and armes certain things which did ring. [Sidenote: The Negro that went with Frier Marco de Niza slaine.] Your lordship is to cal to mind how this Negro which went with frier Marco was wont to weare bels, and feathers on his armes and legs, and that he caried plates of diuers colours, and that it was not much aboue a yeere agoe since he came into those parts. [Sidenote: The cause wherefore Stephan Dorantez the Negro was slaine.] I demanded vpon what occasion he was killed; and he answered me, That the lord of Ceuola inquired of him whether he had other brethren: he answered that he had an infinite number, and that they had great store of weapons with them, and that they were not very farre from thence. Which when he had heard, many of the chiefe men consulted together, and resolued to kil him, that he might not giue newes vnto these his brethren, where they dwelt, and that for this cause they slew him, and cut him into many pieces, which were diuided among all those chiefe lords, that they might know assuredly that he was dead: and also that he had a dogge like mine, which he likewise killed a great while after. I asked him whether they of Ceuola had any enemies, and he said they had. And he reckoned vnto me 14. or 15. lords which had warre with them: and that they had mantles, and bowes like those aboue mentioned: howbeit he told me that I should find going vp the riuer a people that had no warre neither with their neighbors, nor with any other. [Sidenote: Antonio d'Espejo speaketh of such a great lake.] He told me that they had 3. or 4. sorts of trees bearing most excellent fruite to eate: and that in a certaine lake dwelt an olde woman, which was much honoured and worshipped of them: and that shee remayned in a litle house which was there, and that she neuer did eate any thing: and that there they made things which did sound, and that many mantles, feathers and Maiz were giuen vnto her. I asked what her name was, and he tolde me that she was called Guatuzaca, and that thereabout were many lords which in their life and death, vsed the like orders which they of Ceuola did, which had their dwelling in the summer with painted mantles, and in the winter dwelt in houses of wood of 2. or 3. lofts hie: and that he had seene all these things, sauing the old woman. And when againe I began to aske him more questions, he would not answere me, saying that he was wearie of me: and many of those Indians comming about me, they said among themselues: Let vs marke him well, that we may knowe him when he commeth back againe. The Monday following, the riuer was beset with people like to them, and I began to request the old man to tell me what people were in that countrey, which told me he thought I would soone forget them: and here he reckoned vp vnto me a great number of lords, and people at the least 200. And discoursing with him of their armour, he said that some of them had certaine very large targets of lether, aboue two fingers thicke. [Sidenote: This might be the crooke backed oxe of Quiuira.] I asked him of what beasts skinne they made them: and he discribed vnto me a very great beast, like vnto an Oxe, but longer by a great handfull, with broad feete, the legs as bigge as the thigh of a man, and the head seuen handfuls long, the forehead of three spannes, and the eyes bigger then ones fist, and the hornes of the length of a mans leg, out of which grew sharpe poynts, an handfull long, the forfeete and hinderfeete aboue seuen handfuls bigge, with a wrethed tayle, but very great; and holding vp his armes aboue his head, he said the beast was higher then that. After this hee gaue mee information of another olde woman which dwelt toward the sea side. I spent this day in giuing crosses to those people as I had done vnto the former. This old man that was with me leapt on shore, and fell in conference with another which that day had often called him; and here both of them vsed many gestures in their speach, moouing their armes, and poynting at me. [Sidenote: The Sauages treasons to be taken heede of.] Therefore I sent mine interpreter out, willing him to drawe neere vnto them, and listen what they said; and within a while I called him, and asked him whereof they talked, and he sayd, that he which made those gestures said vnto the other, that in Ceuola there were others like vnto vs with beards, and that they said they were Christians, and that both of them sayd that we were all of one company, and that it were a good deede to kill vs, that those others might haue no knowledge of vs, lest they might come to doe them harme: and that the old man had answered him, this is the sonne of the Sunne, and our lord, he doth vs good, and wil not enter into our houses, although we request him thereunto: he will take away nothing of ours, he wil meddle with none of our women, and that to be short, he had spoken many other things in my commendation and fauour: and for all this the other stedfastly affirmed that we were all one, and that the old man said, Let vs goe vnto him, and aske him whether he be a Christian as the other be, or els the sonne of the Sonne: and the old man came vnto me, and sayd: In the countrey of Ceuola whereof you spake vnto me doe other men like vnto you dwell. [Sidenote: Certaine newes of the Spanyards at Ceuola.] Then I began to make as though I wondred, and answered him, that it was impossible; and they assured me that it was true, and that two men had seene them which came from thence, which reported that they had things which did shoote fire, and swords as we had. I asked them whether they had seene them with their owne eyes? and they answered no; but that certaine of their companions had seene them. Then hee asked mee whether I were the sonne of the Sunne, I answered him yea. They said that those Christians of Ceuola said so likewise. And I answered them that it might well be. Then they asked mee if those Christians of Ceuola came to ioyne themselues with me, whether I would ioyne with them: and I answered them, that they needed not to feare any whit at all, for if they were the sonnes of the Sunne as they said, they must needes be my brethren, and would vse towards all men the like loue and courtesie which I vsed: whereupon hereat they seemed to be somewhat satisfied. Chap. 7. It is tolde him that they are ten dayes iourney distant from Ceuola, and that there be Christians there, which make warre against the lords of that countrey. Of the Sodomie which those Indians vse with foure young men, appoynted for that seruice, which weare womens apparel. Seeing they could not send newes of their being there to them of Ceuola, they went backe againe downe the riuer to their ships. [Sidenote: Ceuola tenne dayes distant from this place. A desert of ten dayes iourney.] Then I prayed them to tel me how many dayes that kingdom of Ceuola, which they spake of, was distant from that riuer: and that man answered, that there was the space of tenne dayes iourney without habitation, and that he made none accompt of the rest of the way, because there were people to be found. Vpon this aduertisement I was desirous to certifie Captaine Francis Vazquez of my being there, and imparted my mind with my souldiers, among whom I found none that was willing to goe thither, although I offered them many rewards in your lordships name, onely one Negro slaue though with an euil wil offred himselfe vnto me to go thither: but I looked for the comming of those two Indians which they tolde me of, and herewithall we went on our way vp the riuer against the streame in such sort as we had done before. Here that olde man shewed me as a strange thing a sonne of his clad in womans apparel, exercising their office: I asked him how many there were of these among them, and he told me there were foure; and that when any of them died, there was a search made of all the women with child which were in the country, and that the first sonne which was borne of them, was appoynted to doe that duetie belonging vnto women, and that the women clad him in their apparell, saying, that seeing he was to doe that which belonged to them, he should weare their apparel: these yong men may not haue carnall copulation with any woman: but all the yong men of the countrey which are to marrie, may company with them. These men receiue no kind of reward for this incestuous act of the people of that countrey, because they haue libertie to take whatsoeuer they find in any house for their food. I saw likewise certaine women which liued dishonestly among men: and I asked the old man whether they were married, who answered me noe, but they were common women, which liued apart from the married women. I came at length after these discourses to pray them to send for those Indians, which they said had bin at Ceuola, and they told me that they were eight dayes iourney distant from that place, but that notwithstanding there was one among them which was their companion and which had spoken with them, as he met them on the way, when they went to see the kingdome of Ceuola, and that they told him that he were not best to goe any farther, for he should find there a fierce nation like vs: and of the same qualities and making, which had fought much with the people of Ceuola, because they had killed a Negro of their company saying, Wherefore haue yee killed him? what did he to you? did he take any bread from you, or do you any other wrong? and such like speech. And they said moreouer, that these people were called Christians, which dwelt in a great house, and that many of them had oxen like those of Ceuola, and other litle blacke beastes with wooll and hornes, and that some of them had beasts which they rode vpon, which ran very swiftly; and that one day before their departure, from sunne rising vntill sunne setting these Christians were all day in comming thither, and all of them lodged in that place where others had lodged, and that these two met with two Christians, which asked them whence they were, and whether they had fields sowen with corne: and they told them that they dwelt in a farre country, and that they had corne, and that then they gaue each of them a litle cap and they gaue them another to cary to their other companions, which they promised to do, and departed quickly. When I vnderstood this, I spoke againe with my company, to see if any one of them would go thither, but I found them vnwilling as at the first, and they layd against me greater inconueniences. [Sidenote: A desert.] Then I called the old man to see if he would giue me any people to goe with me, and victuals to trauel through that wildernes, but he laid before me many inconueniences and dangers, which I might incurre in that voyage, shewing me the danger that there was in passing by a lord of Cumana, which threatned to make warre vpon them, because his people had entred into the others country to take a stagge, and that I should not therefore depart thence without seeing him punished. And when I replied that in any wise I must needes goe to Ceuola, he willed me to surcease from that purpose, for they looked that that lord without a doubt would come to annoy them, and that therefore they could not leaue their countrey naked to goe with me, and that it would be better, that I would make an end of that warre betweene them, and that then I might haue their company to Ceuola. And vpon this point we grew to such variance, that we began to grow into choler, and in a rage he would haue gone out of the boat, but I stayed him, and with gentle speeches began to pacifie him, seeing that it imported mee much to haue him my friend: but for all my courtesies which I shewed him, I could not alter him from his mind, wherein he stil remained obstinate. In the meane while I sent a man away vnto my ships to giue them knowledge of the iourney that I had determined to make. After this I prayed the old man that he would fetch him backe again, because I had determined, that seeing I saw no meanes to be able to go to Ceuola, and because I would stay no longer among those people because they should not discouer me, and likewise because I meant in person to visit my ships, with determination to returne againe vp the riuer, carying with me other companions, and leaue there some which I had sicke, and telling the olde man and the rest that I would returne, and leauing them satisfied the best I could (although they alwayes said that I went away for feare) I returned downe the riuer: and that way which I had gone against the streame vp the riuer in 15 dayes and an halfe, [Sidenote: He returneth in 2 dayes and an halfe to his ships.] I made in my returne in 2 dayes and an halfe, because the streame was great and very swift. In this wise going downe the riuer, much people came to the banks, saying, Sir, wherefore doe you leaue vs? what discourtesie hath bin done vnto you? did you not say that you would remayne continually with vs, and be our Lord; And turne backe again? if any man aboue the riuer hath done you any wrong we will goe with our weapons with you and kill him; and such like words ful of loue and kindnes. Chap. 8. When they came to their shippes the Captaine named the coast La Campanna de la Cruz, and builded a Chapel vnto our Lady, and called the riuer El Rio de Buena Guia, and returned vp the same againe? when he came to Quicona and Coama the Lords of those places vsed him very courteously. Vpon mine arriuall at my ships I found all my people in health, although very heauie for my long stay, and because the current had fretted fower of their cables, and that they had lost two ankers which were recouered. After we had brought our ships together, I caused them to bring them into a good harbour, and to giue the carena to the shippe called Sanct Peter, and to mend all that were needfull. And here assembling all my company together, I opened vnto them what knowledge I had receiued of Francis Vasquez; and how it might be that in those sixeteene dayes space which I was in sayling vp the riuer he might peraduenture haue some knowledge of me, and that I was minded to returne vp the riuer once againe to try if I could finde any means to ioyne myself with him: and although some spake against my determination, I caused al my boates to bee made ready, because the ships had no need of them. [Sidenote: Mark what things the Spaniardes cary with them in newe discoueries.] I caused one of them to be filled with wares of exchange, with corne and other seedes, with hennes and cockes of Castile, and departed vp the riuer, leauing order that in that prouince called Campanna de la Cruz they should build an Oratorie or Chapell, and called it the Chappell of our Lady de la Buena Guia, and that they should call this riuer Rio de Buena because that is your Lordships Deuise: I carried with me Nicolas Zamorano Pilote mayor, to take the height of the pole. And I departed on Tuesday the fourteenth of September, and on Wednesday I came vnto the first dwellings of the first Indians, which came running to hinder my passage, supposing that we had bene other people, for we caried with vs a fifer, and a drummer, and I was clad in other apparell, then I went in before, when they saw me first of all: and when they knew me they stayed, though I could not grow vnto perfect friendship with them, whereupon I gaue some of those seedes which I brought with mee; teaching them how they should sow them, and after I had sayled 3 leagues, my first interpretour came euen to my boat to seeke me with great ioy, of whom I demanded wherefore he had left me, he tolde me that certaine companions of his had led him away. I made him good countenance and better intertainment, because he should beare me companie againe, considering howe much it did importe me to haue him with me. [Sidenote: Parrats in these parts.] He excused himselfe because he stayed there to bring mee certaine feathers of Parrats, which he gaue me. [Sidenote: Two moones to Ceuola.] I asked him what people these were, and whether they had any Lord: hee answered me yea; and named three or foure vnto me, of 24 or 25 names of people which he knew and that they had houses painted within, and that they had trafficke with those of Ceuola, and that in two moones he came into the countrey. [Sidenote: Another booke written of the particulars of that countrey.] He told me moreouer many other names of Lords, and other people, which I haue written downe in a booke of mine, which I will bring myselfe vnto your Lordship. But I thought good to deliuer this brief relation to Augustine Guerriero in this hauen of Colima, that he might send it ouerland to your Lordshippe, to whom I haue many other things to imparte. But to returne to my iourney, I arrived at Quicama, where the Indians came forth with great ioy and gladnes to receive me, aduertizing me that their Lord waited for my comming; to whom when I was come I found that he had with him fiue or sixe thousand men without weapons, from whom he went aparte with some two hundred onely, all which brought victuals with them, and so he came towards me, going before the rest with great authoritie, and before him and on each side of him were certaine which made the people stand aside, making him way to passe. Hee ware a garment close before and behind and open on both sides, fastened with buttons, wrought with white and blacke checker worke, it was very soft and well made, being of the skinnes of certaine delicate fishes called Sea breams. Assoone as he was come to the waters side his seruants tooke him vp in their armes, and brought him into my boate, where I embraced him and receiued him with great ioy, shewing vnto him much kindnesse: vpon which intertainment his people standing by and beholding the same seemed not a litle to reioyce. This Lord turning himselfe to his people willed them to consider my courtesie, and that he being of his owne accord come vnto me with a strange people, they might see how good a man I was, and with how great loue I had entertained him, and that therefore they should take me for their Lord, and that all of them should become my seruants, and doe whatsoever I would command them. There I caused him to sit downe, and to eat certaine conserues of sugar which I had brought with mee, and willed the interpreter to thanke him in my name for the fauour which he had done me in vouchsafing to come to see mee, recommending vnto him the worshipping of the crosse, and all such other things as I had recommended to the rest of the Indians; namely that they should liue in peace, and should leaue off warres, and should continue alwayes good friendes together: he answered that of long time they had continued in warres with their neighbours, but that from thence forward he would command his people that they should giue food to all strangers that passed through his kingdome, and that they should doe them no kinde of wrong, and that if any nation should come to inuade him, he said he would tell them howe I had commanded that they should liue in peace, and if they refused the same, he would defend himselfe, and promised me, that he would neuer goe to seeke warre, if others came not to invade him. Then I gaue him certaine trifles, as well of the seedes which I brought, as of the hens of Castile, wherewith he was not a litle pleased. And at my departure I caryed certaine of his people with me, to make friendship betweene them and those other people which dwelt aboue the Riuer: and here the interpreter came vnto me, to craue leaue to returne home: and I gaue him certaine gifts wherewith he departed greatly satisfied. The next day I came to Coama, and many of them knew me not, seeing me clad in other aparrel, but the old man which was there as soone as he knew me leapt into the water, saying vnto me, Sir, lo here is the man which you left with me, which came forth very ioyfull and pleasant declaring vnto me the great courtesies which that people had shewed him, saying that they had strouen together who should haue him to his house, and that it was incredible to thinke what care they had at the rising of the Sunne to hold vp their hands and kneele before the Crosse. I gaue them of my seedes and thanked them hartily for the good entertainement which they had shewed my man, and they besought me that I would leaue him with them, which I granted them vntill my return, and he stayed among them very willingly. [Sidenote: Treason of the sauages.] Thus I went forward vp the Riuer, taking that olde man in my companie, which tolde mee, that two Indians came from Cumana to enquire for the Christians, and that he had answered them that he knew none such, but that he knew one which was the sonne of the Sunne, and that they had perswaded him to ioyne with them to kill mee and my companions. I wished him to lend me two Indians, and I would send word by them, that I would come vnto them, and was desirous of their friendship, but that if they on the contrary would haue warre, I would make such a warre with them, that should displease them. And so I passed through all that people, and some came and asked me, why I had not giuen them Crosses as well as the rest, and so I gaue them some. Chap. 9. They goe on land, and see the people worship the Crosse which they had giuen them. The Captain causeth an Indian to make a draught of the countrey: hee sendeth a Crosse to the Lord of Cumana, and going down the Riuer with the streame, he arriueth at his ships. Of the error of the Pilots of Cortez as touching the situation of this Coast. The next day I went on land to see certaine cottages, and I found many women and children holding vp their hands and kneeling before a Crosse which I had giuen them. When I came thither I did the like my self; and conferring with the old man, he began to informe me of as many people and Prouinces as he knew. And when euening was come I called the old man to come and lodge with mee in my boate; hee answered that hee would not goe with mee because I would wearie him with asking him questions of so many matters: I told him that I would request him nothing else but that he would set me downe in a chart as much as he knew concerning that Riuer, and what maner of people those were which dwelt vpon the banckes thereof on both sides: which he did willingly. And then he requested me that I would describe my countrey vnto him, as he had done his vnto me. And for to content him, I caused a draught of certaine things to be made for him. The next day I entred betweene certaine very high mountaines, through which this Riuer passeth with a streight chanel, and the boats went vp against the streame very hardly for want of men to draw the same. Here certaine Indians came and told me, that in the same place there were certaine people of Cumana, and among the rest an enchanter, who enquired which way we would passe; and they telling him that we meant to passe by the Riuer, he set certaine canes on both sides thereof, through which wee passed, without receiuing any kinde of domage which they intended against vs. Thus going forward I came vnto the house of the olde man which was in my company, and here I caused a very high crosse to be set vp, whereupon I engraued certaine letters to signifie that I was come thither: and this I did, that if by chance any of the people of the generall Vasquez de Coronado should come thither, they might haue knowledge of my being there. At length seeing I could not attaine to the knowledge of that which I sought for, I determined to returne backe vnto my ships. And being ready to depart there arriued two Indians, which by meanes of the interpreters of the old man, told me that they were sent to me, and that they were of Cumana, and that their Lord could not come himselfe, because he was farre from that place, but desired me to signifie vnto him what my pleasure was. I told them, that I wished that he would alwayes imbrace peace, and that I was comming to see that countrey, but being inforced to returne backe downe the Riuer I could not now doe it, but that hereafter I would returne, and that in the meane season they should giue that Crosse vnto their Lorde, which they promised me to do, and they went directly to cary him that Crosse with certaine feathers which were on the same. [Sidenote: This Riuer ran much farther vp then he had trauelled.] Of these I sought to vnderstand what people dwelt vpward vpon the bankes of the Riuer, which gaue me knowledge of many people, and told me that the Riuer went farre more vp into the land then I had yet seene, but that they knew not the head thereof, because it was very far into the countrey, and that many other Riuers fell into the same. Hauing learned thus much the next day morning I returned downe the Riuer, and the day following I came where I had left my Spaniard, with whom I spake, and told him that all things had gone well with me, and that at this time and the former I had gone aboue 30 leagues into the countrey. The Indians of that place inquired of me what the cause was of my departure, and when I would returne: to whom I answered, that I would returne shortly. Thus sayling downe the streame, a woman leapt into the water crying vnto vs to stay for her, and shee came into our boate, and crept vnder a bench, from whence we could not make her to come out: I understood that shee did this, because her husband had taken vnto him another wife, by whom hee had children, saying that she ment not to dwell any longer with him, seeing he had taken another wife. Thus shee and another Indian came with me of their owne accord, and so I came into my ships, and making them ready we proceeded home on our voyage, coasting and oftentimes going on land, and entering a great way into the countrey, to see if I could learne any newes of Captaine Francis Vasquez and his companie; of whom I could haue no other knowledge, but such as I learned in the aforesaide Riuer. I bring with me many actes of taking possession of all that Coast. And by the situation of the Riuer, and the height which I tooke, I finde that that which the Masters and Pilots of the Marquesse tooke is false, and that they were deceiued by 2 degrees, and I haue sayled beyond them aboue 4 degrees. I sayled vp the Riuer 85 leagues, where I saw and learned all the particulars before mentioned, and many other things; whereof when it shall please God to giue me leaue to kisse your Lordships hands, I will deliuer you the full and perfect relation. I thinke my selfe to haue had very good fortune, in that I found Don Luis de Castilia, and Augustine Ghenero in the port of Colima: for the Galiot of the Adelantado came vpon mee, which was there with the rest of his fleet, and commanded me to strike sayle, which seeming a strange thing vnto me, and not vnderstanding in what state things were in Nueua Espanna, I went about to defend my selfe, and not to doe it. In the meane while came Don Luis de Castilia in a boate and conferred with mee, and I lay at anchor on the other side of the hauen where the saide fleete road, and I gaue vnto him this relation (and to auoyd striffe I determined to sayle away by night) which relation I caryed about me briefly written; for I alwayes had a purpose to send the same, as soone as I should touch vpon Nueua Espanna, to aduertise your Lordship of my proceedings. An extract of a Spanish letter written from Pueblo de los Angeles in Nueua Espanna in October 1597, touching the discouerie of the rich Isles of California, being distant eight dayes sayling from the maine. We haue seene a letter written the eight of October 1597, out of a towne called Pueblo de los Angeles situate eighteene leagues from Mexico, making mention of the Ilands of California situate two or three hundreth leagues from the maine land of Nueua Espanna, in Mar del Sur: as that thither haue bene sent before that time some people to conquer them: which with losse of some twentie men were forced backe. After that they had wel visited and found those Islands or countreys to be very rich of gold and siluer mynes, and of very fayre Orientall pearles, which were caught in good quantitie vpon one fathome and an halfe passing in beautie the pearles of the Island Margarita: the report thereof caused the Vice-roy of Mexico to send a citizen of Mexico with two hundreth men to conquer the same. Therein also was affirmed that within eight dayes they could sayle thither from the mayne. The course which Sir Francis Drake held from the hauen of Guatulco in the South sea on the backe side of Nueua Espanna, to the North-west of California as far as fourtie three degrees: and his returne back along the said Coast to thirtie eight degrees: where finding a faire and goodly hauen, he landed, and staying there many weekes, and discouering many excellent things in the countrey and great shewe of rich minerall matter, and being offered the dominion of the countrey by the Lord of the same, hee tooke possession thereof in the behalfe of her Maiestie, and named it Noua Albion. Wee kept our course from the Isle of Cano (which lyeth in eight degrees of Northerly latitude, and within two leagues of the maine of Nicaragua, where wee calked and trimmed our ship) along the Coast of Nueua Espanna, vntill we came to the Hauen and Towne of Guatulco, which (as we were informed) had but seuenteene Spaniards dwelling in it, and we found it to stand in fifteene degrees and fiftie minutes. Assoone as we were entred this Hauen we landed, and went presently to the towne, and to the Towne house, were we found a Iudge sitting in iudgement, he being associate with three other officers, vpon three Negroes that had conspired the burning of the Towne: both which Iudges, and prisoners we tooke, and brought them a shippeboord, and caused the chiefe Iudge to write his letter to the Towne, to command all the Townesmen to auoid, that we might safely water there. Which being done, and they departed, wee ransaked the Towne, and in one house we found a pot of the quantitie of a bushell full of royals of plate, which we brought to our ship. And here one Thomas Moone one of our companie, took a Spanish gentleman as he was flying out of the Towne, and searching him he found a chaine of Gold about him, and other jewels, which we tooke and so let him goe. [Sidenote: The Portugal Pilote set on land.] At this place our Generall among other Spaniards, set ashore his Portugall Pilote, which he tooke at the Island of Cape Verde, out of a ship of Saint Marie port of Portugall, and hauing set them ashoore, we departed thence. Our General at this place and time thinking himselfe both in respect of his priuate injuries receiued from the Spaniards, as also of their contempts and indignities offered to our Countrey and Prince in generall, sufficiently satisfied, and reuenged: and supposing that her Maiestie at his returne would rest contented with this seruice, purposed to continue no longer vpon the Spanish coastes, but began to consider and to consult of the best way for his Countrey. He thought it not good to returne by the Streights, for two speciall causes: the one, least the Spaniards should there waite, and attend for him in great number and strength, whose handes he being left but one ship, could not possibly escape. The other cause was the dangerous situation of the mouth of the Streits of the South side, with continuall stormes raining and blustring, as he found by experience, besides the shoals and sands vpon the coast, wherefore he thought it not a good course to aduenture that way: he resolued therefore to auoide these hazards, to goe forward to the Islands of the Malucos, and therehence to saile the course of the Portugales by the Cape of Bona Sperança. Vpon this resolution, he began to thinke of his best way for the Malucos, and finding himselfe, where hee now was, becalmed, hee sawe that of necessitie hee must bee enforced to take a Spanish course, namely to saile somewhat Northerly to get a good winde, and thus much we sayled from the 16 of Aprill after our olde stile till the third of Iune. [Sidenote: Sir Francis Drake sayled on the backe side of America, to 43 degrees of Northerly latitude. 38 degrees.] The fift day of Iune being in fortie three degrees towardes the pole Arcticke, being speedily come out of the extreame heate, wee found the ayre so colde, that our men being pinched with the same, complayned of the extremitie thereof, and the further we went, the more the colde increased vpon vs, whereupon we thought it best for that time to seeke land, and did so, finding it not mountainous, but low plaine land, and we drew backe againe without landing, til we came within thirtie eight degrees towardes the line. In which height it pleased God to send vs into a faire and good Bay, with a good winde to enter the same. In this Bay wee ankered the seuententh of Iune, and the people of the Countrey, hauing their houses close by the waters side, shewed themselues vnto vs, and sent a present to our Generall. When they came vnto vs, they greatly wondred at the things which we brought, but our Generall (according to his naturall and accustomed humanitie) curteously intreated them, and liberally bestowed on them necessarie things to couer their nakednesse, whereupon they supposed vs to be gods, and would not be perswaded to the contrary: the presentes which they sent vnto our Generall were feathers, and cals of net worke. [Sidenote: A description of the people and Countrey of Noua Albion.] Their houses are digged round about with earth, and haue from the vttermost brimmes of the circle clifts of wood set vpon them, ioyning close together at the toppe like a spire steeple, which by reason of that closenesse are very warme. Their bed is the ground with rushes strawed on it, and lying about the house, they haue the fire in the middest. The men goe naked, the women take bulrushes and kembe them after the maner of hempe, and thereof make their loose garments, which being knit about their middles, hang downe about their hippes, hauing also about their shoulders a skinne of Deere, with the haire vpon it. These women are very obedient and seruiceable to their husbands. After they were departed from vs, they came and visited vs the second time, and brought with them feathers and bags of Tabacco for presents: And when they came to the toppe of the hil (at the bottome whereof wee had pitched our tents) they stayed themselues, where one appointed for speaker, wearied himselfe with making a long oration, which done, they left their bowes vpon the hill and came downe with their presents. In the meane time the women remaining on the hill, tormented themselues lamentably, tearing their flesh from their cheekes, whereby we perceiued that they were about a sacrifice. In the meane time our Generall, with his companie, went to prayer, and to reading of the Scriptures, at which exercise they were attentiue and seemed greatly to be affected with it: but when they were come vnto vs they restored againe vnto vs those things which before we had bestowed vpon them. The newes of our being there being spread through the countrey, the people that inhabited round about came downe, and amongst them the king himself, a man of a goodly stature, and comely personage, with many other tall and warlike men: before whose comming were sent two Ambassadours to our Generall, to signifie that their king was comming, in doing of which message, their speech was continued about halfe an howre. This ended, they by signes requested our Generall to send something by their hand to their king, as a token that his comming might bee in peace: wherein our Generall hauing satisfied them, they returned with glad tidings to their king, who marched to vs with a princely Maiestie, the people crying continually after their maner, and as they drewe neere vnto vs, so did they striue to behaue themselues in their actions with comelinesse. [Sidenote: These are like chaines of Esurnoy in Canada and Hochelage.] In the fore front was a man of a goodly personage, who bare the scepter, or mace before the king, whereupon hanged two crownes, a lesse and a bigger, with three chaines of a marueilous length: the crownes were made of knit work wrought artificially with feathers of diuers colours: the chaines were made of a bony substance and few be the persons among them that are admitted to weare them: and of that number also the persons are stinted, as some ten, some twelue, &c. Next vnto him which bare the scepter, was the king himselfe, with his Guarde about his person, clad with Conie skinnes, and other skinnes: after them followed the naked common sort of people, euery one hauing his face painted, some with white, some with blacke, and other colours, and hauing in their hands one thing or other for a present, not so much as their children, but they also brought their presents. In the meane time, our Generall gathered his men together, and marched within his fenced place, making against their approching, a very warlike shewe. They being trooped together in their order, and a general salutation being made, there was presently a generall silence. When he that bare the scepter before the king, being informed by another, whome they assigned to that office, with a manly and loftie voice, proclaimed that which the other spake to him in secret, continuing halfe an houre: which ended, and a generall Amen as it were giuen, the king with the whole number of men, and women (the children excepted) came downe without any weapon, who descending to the foote of the hill, set themselues in order. In comming towards our bulwarks and tents, the scepter bearer began a song, obseruing his measures in a dance, and that with a stately countenance, whom the king with his Garde, and euery degree of persons following, did in like maner sing and dance, sauing onely the women which daunced and kept silence. The General permitted them to enter within our bulwark, where they continued their song and daunce a reasonable time. When they had satisfied themselues, they made signes to our Generall to sit downe, to whom the king, and diuers others made seueral orations, or rather supplication, that he would take their prouince and kingdom into his hand, and become their king, making signes that they would resigne vnto him their right and title of the whole land, and become his subiects. [Sidenote: The king resignes his crowne and kingdome to Sir Frances Drake. Great riches in Noua Albion.] In which to perswade vs the better, the king and the rest, with one consent and with great reuerence, ioyfully singing a song, did set the crowne vpon his head, inriched his necke with all their chaines, and offered vnto him many other things, honouring him by the name of Hioh, adding thereunto as it seemed a signe of triumph: which thing our Generall thought not meete to reiect, because hee knewe not what honour and profite it might bee to our countrey. Wherefore in the name, and to the vse of her Maiestie, he tooke the scepter, crowne and dignitie of the said Countrey in his hands, wishing that the riches and treasure thereof might so conueniently be transported to the inriching of her kingdome at home, as it aboundeth in the same. The common sort of the people leauing the king and his Guarde with our Generall, scattered themselues together with their sacrifices among our people, taking a diligent viewe of euery person; and such as pleased their fancie, (which were the yongest) they inclosing them about offred their sacrifices vnto them with lamentable weeping, scratching, and tearing the flesh from their faces with their nayles, whereof issued abundance of blood. But wee vsed signes to them of disliking this, and stayed their hands from force, and directed them vpwardes to the liuing God, whome onely they ought to worshippe. They shewed vnto vs their wounds, and craued helpe of them at our handes, whereupon wee gaue them lotions, plaisters, and ointments agreeing to the state of their griefes, beseeching God to cure their deseases. Euery thirde day they brought their sacrifices vnto vs, vntill they vnderstoode our meaning, that we had no pleasure in them: yet they could not be long absent from vs, but daily frequented our company to the houre of our departure, which departure seemed so grieuous vnto them, that their ioy was turned into sorrow. They intreated vs, that being absent wee would remember them, and by stelth prouided a sacrifice, which we misliked. Our necessarie businesse being ended, our Generall with his companie traueiled vp into the Countrey to their villages, where we found heardes of Deere by a thousand in a companie, being most large and fat of body. [Sidenote: Abundance of strange conies.] We found the whole countrey to bee a warren of a strange kinde of Conies, their bodyes in bignes as be the Barbary Conies, their heads as the heades of ours, the feet of a Want, and the taile of a Rat being of great length: vnder her chinne on either side a bagge, into the which shee gathereth her meate when she hath filled her belly abroad. The people eate their bodies, and make great account of their skinnes, for their Kings coate was made of them. Our Generall called this countrey, Noua Albion, and that for two causes: the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes, which lye towardes the sea: and the other, because it might haue some affinitie with our Countrey in name, which sometimes was so called. [Sidenote: Golde and siluer in the earth of Noua Albion.] There is no part of earth heere to be taken vp, wherein there is not some special likelihood of gold or siluer. At our departure hence our Generall set vp a monument of our being there; as also of her Maiesties right and title to the same, namely a plate nailed vpon a faire great poste, whereupon was ingrauen her Maiesties name, the day and yeere of our arriuall there, with the free giuing vp of the Prouince and people into her Maiesties hands, together with her highnesse picture and armes, in a piece of sixe pence of current English money vnder the plate, where vnder was also written the name of our Generall. It seemeth that the Spaniards hitherto had neuer bene in this part of the countrey, neither did euer discouer the land by many degrees to the Southwards of this place. THE DISCOVERIE OF THE LARGE, RICH, AND BEAUTIFULL EMPIRE OF GUIANA, WITH A RELATION OF THE GREAT AND GOLDEN CITIE OF MANOA (WHICH THE SPANIARDS CALL EL DORADO) AND THE PROUINCES OF EMERIA, AROMAIA, AMAPAIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES, WITH THEIR RIUERS ADIOYNING. PERFORMED IN THE YEERE 1595 BY SIR WALTER RALEGH KNIGHT, CAPTAINE OF HER MAIESTIES GUARD, LORDE WARDEN OF THE STANNERIES, AND HER HIGHNESSE LIEUTENANT GENERALL OF THE COUNTIE OF CORNE-WALL. To the right Honourable my singular good Lord and kinsman Charles Howard, Knight of the Garter, Baron and Counceller, and of the Admirals of England the most renowmed: and to the right Honourable Sir Robert Cecyll knight, Counceller in her Highnesse Priuie Councils. For your Honours many Honourable and friendly partes, I haue hitherto onely returned promises, and now for answere of both your adventures, I haue sent you a bundle of papers, which I haue deuided betwene your Lordship, and Sir Robert Cecyll in these two respects chiefly: First for that it is reason, that wastful factors, when they haue consumed such stockes as they had in trust, doe yeeld some colour for the same in their account; secondly for that I am assured, that whatsoeuer shall bee done, or written by me, shall neede a double protection and defence. The triall that I had of both your loues, when I was left of all, but of malice and reuenge, makes me still presume, that you wil be pleased (knowing what litle power I had to performe ought, and the great aduantage of forewarned enemies) to answer that out of knowledge, which others shal but obiect out of malice. In my more happy times as I did especially Hon. you both, so I found that your loues sought mee out in the darkest shadow of aduersitie, and the same affection which accompanied my better fortune, sored not away from me in my many miseries: al which though I can not requite yet I shal euer acknowledge: and the great debt which I haue no power to pay, I can do no more for a time but confesse to be due. It is true that as my errors were great, so they haue yeelded very grieuous effects, and if ought might haue bene deserued in former times to haue conterpoysed any part of offences, the fruit thereof (as it seemeth) was long before fallen from the tree, and the dead stocke onely remained. I did therefore euen in the winter of my life, vndertake these trauels, fitter for bodies lesse blasted with misfortunes, for men of greater abilitie, and for minds of better incouragement, that thereby, if it were possible, I might recouer but the moderation of excesse, and the least tast of the greatest plenty formerly possessed. If I had knowen other way to win, if I had imagined how greater aduentures might haue regained, if I could conceiue what farther meanes I might yet vse, but euen to appease so powerful displeasure, I would not doubt but for one yeere more to hold fast my soule in my teeth, till it were performed. Of that litle remaine I had, I haue wasted in effect all herein. I haue vndergone many constructions. I haue been accompanyed with many sorrows, with labour, hunger, heat, sicknes, and perill: It appeareth notwithstanding that I made no other brauado of going to the sea, then was ment, and that I was neuer hidden in Cornewall, or els where, as was supposed. They haue grosly belied me, that foreiudged, that I would rather become a seruant to the Spanish King, then returne, and the rest were much mistaken, who would haue perswaded, that I was too easefull and sensuall to vndertake a iourney of so great trauell. But, if what I haue done, receiue the gracious construction of a painefull pilgrimage, and purchase the least remission, I shall thinke all too litle, and that there were wanting to the rest many miseries. But if both the times past, the present, and what may be in the future, doe all by one grain of gall continue in eternall distaste; I doe not then know whether I should bewaile my selfe, either for my too much trauell and expence, or condemne my selfe for doing lesse then that, which can deserue nothing. From my selfe I haue deserued no thankes, for I am returned a begger, and withered, but that I might haue bettred my poore estate, it shall appeare by the following discourse, if I had not onely respected her Maiesties future Honour, and riches. It became not the former fortune in which I once liued, to goe iourneys of picory, it had sorted ill with the offices of Honour, which by her Maiesties grace I hold this day in England, to run from Cape to Cape, and from place to place, for the pillage of ordinaries prizes. Many yeeres since, I had knowledge by relation, of that mighty, rich and beautifull Empier of Guiana, and of that great and golden Citie, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, and the naturals Manoa, which Citie was conquered, reedified, and inlarged by a yonger sonne of Guainacapa Emperour of Peru, at such time as Francisco Piçarro and others conquered the said Empire, from his two elder brethren, Guascar, and Atabalipa, both then contending for the same, the one being fauoured by the Orejones of Cuzco, the other by the people of Caxamalca. I sent my seruant Iacob Whiddon the yere before, to get knowledge of the passages, and I had some light from Captaine Parker, sometime my seruant, and nowe attending on your Lordship, that such a place there was to the Southward of the great Bay of Charuas, or Guanipa: but I found that it was 600 miles farther off then they supposed, and many other impediments to them vnknowen and vnheard. After I had displanted Don Antonio de Berreo, who was vpon the same enterprize, leauing my ships at Trinidad at the Port called Curiapan, I wandred 400 miles into the said countrey by lande and riuer: the particulars I will leaue to the following discourse. The countrey hath more quantity of gold by manifolde, then the best partes of the Indies, or Peru: All the most of the kings of the borders are already become her Maiesties vassals: and seeme to desire nothing more then her Maiesties protection and the returne of the English nation. It hath another ground and assurance of riches and glory, then the voyages of the West Indies, an easier way to inuade the best parts thereof, then by the common course. The king of Spaine is not so impouerished, by taking three or foure Port townes in America, as wee suppose, neither are the riches of Peru, or Nueua Espanna so left by the sea side, as it can bee easily washt away with a great flood, or springtide, or left dry vpon the sandes on a lowe ebbe. The Port townes are fewe and poore in respect of the rest within the lande, and are of litle defence, and are onely rich, when the Fleets are to receiue the treasure for Spaine: and we might thinke the Spaniards very simple, hauing so many horses and slaues, if they could not vpon two dayes warning cary all the golde they haue into the land, and farre enough from the reach of our foote-men, especially the Indies being (as they are for the most part) so mountainous, so full of woodes, riuers, and marishes. In the Port townes of the Prouince of Veneçuela, as Cumana, Coro and S. Iago (whereof Coro and S. Iago were taken by Captaine Preston, and Cumana and S. Iosepho by vs) we found not the value of one riall of plate in either: but the Cities of Barquasimeta, Valencia, S. Sebastian, Cororo, S. Lucia, Laguna, Maracaiba, and Truxillo, are not so easely inuaded: neither doeth the burning of those on the coast impouerish the king of Spaine any one ducat: and if we sacke the riuer of Hacha, S. Marta, and Cartagena, which are the Portes of Nueuo reyno, and Popayan; there are besides within the land, which are indeed riche and populous the townes and Cities of Merida, Lagrita, S. Christophoro, the great Cities of Pamplon, S. Fe de Bogota, Tunxa and Mozo where the Esmeralds are found, the townes and Cities of Marequita, Velez, la Villa de Leua, Palma, Vnda, Angustura, the great citie of Timana, Tocaima, S. Aguila, Pasto, Iuago, the great Citie of Popaian it selfe, Los Remedios, and the rest. If we take the Ports and villages within the Bay of Vraba in the kingdom or riuers of Dariene, and Caribana, the Cities and townes of S. Iuan de Roydas, of Cassaris, of Antiocha, Caramanta, Cali, and Anserma haue gold enough to pay the kings part, and are not easily inuaded by the way of the Ocean: or if Nombre de Dios and Panama be taken in the Prouince of Castilla del oro, and the villages vpon the riuers of Cenu and Chagre; Peru hath besides those and besides the magnificent cities of Quito and Lima so many ylands, ports, cities, and mines, as if I should name them with the rest, it would seem incredible to the reader; of all which, because I haue written a particular treatise of the West Indies, I wil omit the repetition at this time, seeing that in the said treatise I haue anatomised the rest of the sea-townes, aswel of Nicaragua, Iucatan, Nueua Espanna, and the ylands, as those of the Inland, and by what meanes they may be best inuaded, as far as any meane iudgment can comprehend. But I hope it shal appeare that there is a way found to answer euery mans longing, a better Indies for her Maiestie then the King of Spaine hath any: which if it shal please her highnes to vndertake, I shall most willingly end the rest of my daies in folowing the same: if it be left to the spoile and sackage of common persons, if the loue and seruice of so many nations be dispised, so great riches, and so mighty an empire refused, I hope her maiesty wil yet take my humble desire and my labor therin in gracious part, which, if it had not bin in respect of her highnes future honor and riches, could haue laid hands on and ransomed many of the kings and Casiqui of the country, and haue had a reasonable proportion of gold for their redemption: but I haue chosen rather to beare the burden of pouerty, then reproch, and rather to endure a second traue and the chances therof, then to haue defaced an enterprise of so great assurance, vntil I knew whether it pleased God to put a disposition in her princely and royal heart either to folow or foreslow the same: I wil therefore leaue it to his ordinance that hath only power in all things, and do humbly pray that your honors wil excuse such errors, as without the defence of art, ouerrun in euery part of the folowing discourse, in which I haue neither studied phrase, forme or fashion, that you will be pleased to esteeme mee as your owne (though ouer dearly bought) and I shall euer remaine ready to do you all honour and seruice. W. R. ¶ To the Reader. Because there haue bin diuers opinions conceiued of the gold oare broght from Guiana, and for that an Alderman of London and an officer of her Maiesties Mint, hath giuen out that the same is of no price, I haue thought good by the addition of these lines to giue answer aswel to the said malicious slander, as to other obiections. It is true that while we abode at the yland of Trinidad, I was informed, by an Indian, that not far from the Port, where we ancored, there were found certaine mineral stones which they esteemed to be gold, and were thereunto perswaded the rather for that they had seene both English and Frenchmen gather, and imbark some quantities therof: vpon this likelyhood I sent 40. men and gaue order that each one should bring a stone of that mine to make trial of the goodnes: which being performed, I assured them at their returne that the same was Marcasite, and of no riches or value: notwithstanding diuers, trusting more to their owne sence, then to my opinion, kept of the said Marcasite, and haue tried therof since my returne in diuers places. In Guiana it selfe I neuer saw Marcasite, but al the rocks, mountains, al stones in the plaines, woods, and by the riuers side are in effect throughshining, and seem maruelous rich, which being tried to be no Marcasite, are the true signes of rich minerals, but are no other then El madre del oro (as the Spaniards terme them) which is the mother of gold, or as it is said by others the scum of gold: of diuers sorts of these many of my company brought also into England, euery one taking the fairest for the best, which is not general. For mine own part I did not countermand any mans desire, or opinion, and I could haue aforded them litle if I should haue denied them the pleasing of their owne fancies therein: but I was resolued that gold must be found either in graines separate from the stone (as it is in most of the riuers of Guiana) or els in a kind of hard stone, which we call The white spar, of which I saw diuers hils, and in sundry places, but had neither time nor men, nor instruments fit for labour. Neere vnto one of the riuers I found of the said White sparre or flint a very great ledge or banke, which I endeuoured to breake by al the meanes I could, because there appeared on the outside some smal graines of golde, but finding no meane to worke the same vpon the vpper part, seeking the sides and circuit of the said rocke, I found a clift in the same from whence with daggers, and with the head of an axe, we got out some smal quantitie therof, of which kind of white stone (wherin gold engendred) we saw diuers hils and rocks in euery part of Guiana, wherein we traueiled. Of this there haue bin made many trials, and in London it was first assaid by M. Westwood a refiner dwelling in Woodstreet, and it held after the rate of 12000. or 13000. pounds a tunne. Another sort was afterward tried by M. Bulmar and M. Dimock Assay-master, and it held after the rate of 23000 li. a tunne. There was some of it againe tried by M. Palmer comptroller of the Mint, and M. Dimock in goldsmiths hal, and it held after 26900. li. a tun. There was also at the same time, and by the same persons a trial made of the dust of the said mine which held 8. li. 6. ounces weight of gold in the 100: there was likewise at the same time a triall of an image of copper made in Guiana, which held a third part of gold, besides diuers trials made in the countrey, and by others in London. But because there came ill with the good, and belike the said Alderman was not presented with the best, it hath pleased him therefore to scandall all the rest, and to deface the enterprize as much as in him lieth. It hath also bene concluded, by diuers, that if there had bin any such oare in Guiana, and the same discouered, that I would haue brought home a greater quantitie thereof: first I was not bound to satisfie any man of the quantitie, but such only as aduentured, if any store had bin returned thereof: but it is very true that had al their mountaines bene of massie gold, it was impossible for vs to haue made any longer stay to haue wrought the same: and whosoeuer hath seene with what strength of stone the best gold oare is inuironed, hee will not thinke it easy to be had out in heapes, and especially by vs, who had neither men, instruments, nor time (as it is said before) to performe the same. There were on this discouery no lesse then 100. persons, who can all witnesse, that when we past any branch of the riuer to view the land within, and staied from our boats but 6. houres, wee were driuen to wade to the eyes, at our returne: and if we attempted the same, the day following it was impossible either to ford it, or to swim it, both by reason of the swiftnesse, and also for that the borders were so pestred with fast woods, as neither boat nor man could find place, either to land or to imbarke: for in Iune, Iuly, August and September, it is impossible to nauigate any of those riuers: for such is the fury of the current, and there are so many trees and woods ouerflowne, as if any boat but touch vpon any tree or stake, it is impossible to saue any one person therein: and yer [ed: before] we departed the land it ranne with such swiftnes, as wee draue downe most commonly against the wind, little lesse then 100. miles a day: Besides our were no other then whirries, one little barge, a small cockboat, and a bad Galiota, which we framed in hast for that purpose at Trinidad, and those little boats had 9. or 10. men a piece, with all their victuals, and armes. It is further true, that we were about 400. miles from our ships, and had bene a moneth from them, which also we left weakly manned in an open road, and had promised our returne in 15. dayes. Others haue deuised that the same oare was had from Barbary, and that we caried it with vs into Guiana: surely the singularitie of that deuice I doe not well comprehend: for mine owne part, I am not so much in loue with these long voyages, as to deuise, therby to cozen my selfe, to lie hard, to fare worse, to be subiected to perils, to diseases, to ill sauors, to be parched and withered, and withall to sustaine the care and labour of such an enterprize, except the same had more comfort, then the fetching of Marcasite in Guiana, or buying of gold oare in Barbary. But I hope the better sort will judge me by themselves, and that the way of deceit is not the way of honour or good opinion: I have herein consumed much time, and many crownes, and I had no other respect or desire then to serue her Majestie and my country thereby. If the Spanish nation had bene of like beliefe to these detracters, we should litle have feared or doubted their attempts, wherewith we now are daily threatned. But if we now consider of the actions both of Charles the 5. who had the maidenhead of Peru, and the abundant treasures of Atabalipa, together who the affaires of the Spanish king now liuing, what territories he hath purchased, what he hath added to the acts of his predecessors, how many kingdoms he hath indangered, how many armies, garisons, and nauies he hath and doth mainteine, the great losses which he hath repaired, as in 88. aboue 100 saile of great ships with their artillery, and that no yere is lesse vnfortunate but that many vessels, treasures, and people are deuoured, and yet notwithstanding he beginneth againe like a storme to threaten shipwrack to vs all: we shall find that these abilities rise not from the trades of sacks, and Siuil oringes, nor from ought els that either Spaine, Portugal, or any of his other prouinces produce: it is his Indian gold that indangereth and disturbeth all the nations of Europe, it purchaseth intelligence, creepeth into counsels, and setteth bound loyaltie at libertie, in the greatest Monarchies of Europe. If the Spanish king can keepe vs from forren enterprizes, and from the impeachment of his trades, either by offer of inuasion, or by besieging vs in Britaine, Ireland, or elsewhere, hee hath then brought the worke of our peril in great forwardnes. Those princes which abound in treasure haue great aduantages ouer the rest, if they once constraine them to a defensiue war, where they are driuen once a yere or oftener to cast lots for their own garments, and from such shal all trades and entercourse be taken away, to the general losse and impouerishment of the kingdom and common weale so reduced: besides when our men are constrained to fight, it hath not the like hope, as when they are prest and incouraged by the desire of spoile and riches. Farther, it is to be douted how those that in time of victory seeme to affect their neighbor nations, wil remaine after the first view of misfortunes, or il successe; to trust also to the doubtfulnes of a battel, is but a fearefull and vncertaine adventure, seeing therein fortune is as likely to preuaile, as vertue. It shall not be necessary to alleage all that might bee said, and therefore I will thus conclude, that whatsoeuer kingdome shall be inforced to defend it selfe, may be compared to a body dangerously diseased, which for a season may be preserued with vulgar medicines, but in a short time, and by litle and litle, the same must needs fall to the ground, and be dissolued. I have therefore laboured all my life, both according to my smal power, and perswasion, to aduance al those attempts, that might either promise return of profit to our selues, or at least be a let and impeachment to the quiet course and plentifull trades of the Spanish nation, who in my weake judgement by such a warre were as easily indangered and brought from his powerfulnes, as any prince of Europe, if it be considered from how many kingdoms and nations his reuenues are gathered, and those so weake in their owne beings, and so far seuered from mutual succour. But because such a preparation and resolution is not to be hoped for in hast, and that the time which our enemies imbrace, cannot be had againe to aduantage, I wil hope that these prouinces, and that Empire now by me discouered shal suffice to inable her Maiestie and the whole kingdome, with no lesse quantities of treasure, then the king of Spaine hath in all the Indies East and West, which he possesseth, which if the same be considered and followed, ere the Spaniards enforce the same, and if her Maiestie wil vndertake it, I wil be contented to lose her highnesse fauour and good opinion for euer, and my life withall, if the same be not found rather to exceed, then to equal, whatsoeuer is in this discourse promised or declared. I will now referre the Reader to the following discourse, with the hope that the perillous and chargeable labours and indeuors of such as thereby seeke the profit and honour of her Maiestie, and the English nation, shall by men of qualitie and vertue receiue such construction, and good acceptance, as themselves would looke to be rewarded withall in the like. W. R. ¶ The discouerie of Guiana. On Thursday the 6. of February in the yeere 1595. we departed England, and the Sunday following had sight of the North cape of Spaine, the winter for the most part continuing prosperous: we passed in sight of the Burlings, and the Rocke, and so onwards for the Canaries, and fel with Fuerte ventura the 17 of the same moneth, where we spent two or three dayes, and relieued our companies with some fresh meat. From thence we coasted by the Grand Canaria, and so to Tenerif, and stayed there for the Lions whelpe your Lordships ship, and for Captaine Amyas Preston and the rest. [Sidenote: The yle of Trinidad.] But when after 7. or 8. dayes wee found them not, we departed and directed our course for Trinidad with mine owne ship, and a small barke of Captaine Crosses onely (for we had before lost sight of a small Galego on the coast of Spaine, which came with vs from Plimmouth) we arriued at Trinidad the 22. of March, casting ancker at point Curiapan, which the Spaniards call punta de Gallo, which is situate in 8. degrees or there abouts: we abode there 4. or 5. dayes, and in all that time we came not to the speach of any Indian or Spaniard: on the coast we saw a fire, as we sailed from the point Caroa towards Curiapan, but for feare of the Spaniards none durst come to speake with vs. I my selfe coasted it in my barge close abord the shore and landed in euery Coue, the better to know the yland, while the ships kept the chanell. From Curiapan after a fewe dayes we turned vp Northeast to recouer that place which the Spaniards call Puerto de los Espannoles, and the inhabitants Conquerabia, and as before (reuictualling my barge) I left the ships and kept by the shore, the better to come to speach with some of the inhabitants, and also to vnderstand the riuers, watering places, and ports of the yland, which (as it is rudely done) my purpose is to send your Lordship after a few dayes. From Curiapan I came to a port and seat of Indians called Parico, where we found a fresh water riuer, but saw no people. From thence I rowed to another port, called by the naturals Piche, and by the Spaniards Tierra de Brea: In the way betweene both were diuers little brookes of fresh water and one salt riuer that had store of oisters vpon the branches of the trees, and were very salt and well tasted. All their oisters grow vpon those boughs and spraies, and not on the ground: the like is commonly seene in other places of the West Indies, and else where. This tree is described by Andrew Theuet in his French Antarctique, and the forme figured in the booke as a plant very strange, and by Plinie in his 12. booke of his naturall historie. But in this yland, as also in Guiana there are very many of them. At this point called Tierra de Brea or Piche there is that abundance of stone pitch, that all the ships of the world may be therewith loden from thence, and we made trial of it in trimming our shippes to be most excellent good, and melteth not with the Sunne as the pitch of Norway, and therefore for shippes trading the South parts very profitable. From thence wee went to the mountaine foote called Anniperima, and so passing the riuer Carone on which the Spanish Citie was seated, we met with our ships at Puerto de los Espannoles or Conquerabia. This yland of Trinidad hath the forme of a sheephooke, and is but narrow, the North part is very mountainous, the soile is very excellent and will beare suger, ginger, or any other commoditie that the Indies yeeld. It hath store of deere, wilde porks, fruits, fish and foule: It hath also for bread sufficient maiz, cassaui, and of those rootes and fruites which are common euery where in the West Indies. It hath diuers beastes which the Indies haue not: the Spaniards confessed that they found graines of golde in some of the riuers, but they hauing a purpose to enter Guiana (the Magazin of all rich mettals) cared not to spend time in the search thereof any further. This yland is called by the people thereof Cairi, and in it are diuers nations: those about Parico are called Iaio, those at Punta de Carao are of the Arwacas, and betweene Carao and Curiapan they are called Saluajos, betwene Carao and Punta de Galera are the Nepoios, and those about the Spanish citie terme themselues Carinepagotes: Of the rest of the nations, and of other ports and riuers I leaue to speake here, being impertinent to my purpose, and meane to describe them as they are situate in the particular plot and description of the yland, three parts whereof I coasted with my barge, that I might the better describe it. [Sidenote: The death of Captaine Whiddon.] Meeting with the ships at Puerto de los Espannoles, we found at the landing place a company of Spaniards who kept a guard at the descent, and they offering a signe of peace, I sent Captaine Whiddon to speake with them, whom afterward to my great griefe I left buried in the said yland after my returne from Guiana, being a man most honest and valiant. The Spaniards seemed to be desirous to trade with vs, and to enter into termes of peace, more for doubt of their owne strength then for ought else, and in the ende vpon pledge, some of them came abord: the same euening there stale also abord vs in a small Canoa two Indians, the one of them being a Casique or Lord of the people called Cantyman, who had the yeere before bene with Captaine Whiddon and was of his acquaintance. By this Cantyman, wee vnderstood what strength the Spaniards had, howe farre it was to their Citie, and of Don Antonio de Berreo the gouernor, who was said to be slaine in his second attempt of Guiana, but was not. While we remained at Puerto de los Espannoles some Spaniards came abord vs to buy linnen of the company, and such other things as they wanted, and also to view our ships and company, all which I entertained kindly and feasted after our maner: by meanes whereof I learned of one and another as much of the estate of Guiana as I could, or as they knew for those poore souldiers hauing bene many yeeres without wine, a few draughts made them merrie, in which mood they vaunted of Guiana and of the riches thereof, and all what they knewe of the wayes and passages, my selfe seeming to purpose nothing lesse then the enterance or discouerie thereof, but bred in them an opinion that I was bound onely for the reliefe of those English which I had planted in Virginia, whereof the bruite was come among them: which I had performed in my returne, if extremitie of weather had not forst me from the said coast. I found occasions of staying in this place for two causes: the one was to be reuenged of Berreo, who the yere before 1594. had betraied eight of Captaine Whiddons men, and tooke them while he departed from them to seeke the Edward Bonauenture, which arriued at Trinidad the day before from the East Indies: [Sidenote: 8 Englishmen betrayed by Antony Berreo.] in whose absence Berreo sent a Canoa abord the pinnesse onely with Indians and dogs inuiting the company to goe with them into the woods to kill a deare, who like wise men in the absence of their Captaine followed the Indians, but were no sooner one harquebuze shot from the shore, but Berreos souldiers lying in ambush had them al, notwithstanding that he had giuen his word to Captaine Whiddon that they should take water and wood safely: the other cause of my stay was, for that by discourse with the Spaniards I dayly learned more and more of Guiana, of the riuers and passages, and of the enterprise of Berreo, by what meanes or fault he failed, and how he meant to prosecute the same. While wee thus spent the time I was assured by another Casique of the North side of the yland, that Berreo had sent to Margarita and Cumana for souldiers, meaning to haue giuen mee a cassado at parting, if it had bene possible. For although he had giuen order through all the yland that no Indian should come abord to trade with me vpon paine of hanging and quartering, (hauing executed two of them for the same, which I afterwards founde) yet euery night there came some with most lamentable complaints of his crueltie, how he had diuided the yland and giuen to euery souldier a part, that hee made the ancient Casiques which were Lords of the countrey to be their slaues, that he kept them in chaines, and dropped their naked bodies with burning bacon, and such other torments, which I found afterwards to be true: for in the citie after I entred the same there were 5. of the lords or litle kings (which they cal Casiques in the West Indies) in one chaine almost dead of famine, and wasted with torments: these are called in their owne language Acarewana, and now of the late since English, French and Spanish are come among them, they call themselues Capitaines, because they perceiue that the chiefest of euery ship is called by that name. Those fiue Capitaines in the chaine were called Wannawanare, Carroaori, Maquarima, Tarroopanama, and Aterima. So as both to be reuenged of the former wrong as also considering that to enter Guiana by small boats, to depart 400. or 500. miles from my ships, and to leaue a garison in my backe interrested in the same enterprize, who also dayly expected supplies out of Spaine, I should haue sauored very much of the asse: [Sidenote: The Citie of S. Ioseph taken. Antony Berreo taken prisoner.] and therefore taking a time of most aduantage I set vpon the Corps du guard in the euening, and hauing put them to the sword, sent Captaine Calfield onwards with 60. souldiers, and my selfe followed with 40. more and so tooke their new City which they called S. Ioseph by breake of day: they abode not any fight after a fewe shot, and all being dismissed but onely Berreo and his companion, I brought them with me abord, and at the instance of the Indians I set their new citie of S. Ioseph on fire. The same day arriued Captaine George Gifford with your Lordships ship, and Captaine Keymis whom I lost on the coast of Spaine with the Galego, and in them diuers gentlemen and others, which to our little armie was a great comfort and supply. We then hasted away towards our purposed discouery, and first I called all the Captaines of the yland together that were enemies to the Spaniards: for there were some which Berreo had brought out of other countreys, and planted there to eate out and wast those that were naturall of the place, and by my Indian interpreter, which I caried out of England, I made them vnderstand that I was the seruant of a Queene, who was the great Casique of the North, and a virgine, and had more Casiqui vnder her then there were trees in that yland: that shee was an enemie to the Castellani in respect of their tyrannie and oppression, and that she deliuered all such nations about her, as were by them oppressed, and hauing freed all the coast of the Northren world from their seruitude, had sent mee to free them also, and withall to defend the countrey of Guiana from their inuasion and conquest. I shewed them her Maiesties picture which they so admired and honoured, as it had bene easie to haue brought them idolatrous thereof. The like and a more large discourse I made to the rest of the nations both in my passing to Guiana, and to those of the borders, so as in that part of the world her Maiestie is very famous and admirable, whom they now call Ezrabeta Cassipuna Aquerewana, which is as much as Elizabeth, the great princesse or greatest commander. This done we left Puerto de los Espannoles, and returned to Curiapan, and hauing Berreo my prisoner I gathered from him as much of Guiana as he knew. This Berreo is a gentleman wel descended, and had long serued the Spanish king in Millain, Naples, the Low countreis and elsewhere, very valiant and liberall, and a gentleman of great assurednes, and of a great heart: I vsed him according to his estate and worth in all things I could, according to the small meanes I had. [Sidenote: Sir W. Ralegh passed 400. miles toward Guiana.] I sent Captaine Whiddon the yeere before to get what knowledge he could of Guiana, and the end of my iourney at this time was to discouer and enter the same, but my intelligence was farre from trueth, for the countrey is situate aboue 600. English miles further from the Sea, then I was made beleeue it had bin, which afterward vnderstanding to be true by Berreo, I kept it from the knowledge of my company, who else would neuer haue bene brought to attempt the same: of which 600. miles I passed 400. leauing my ships so farre from mee at ancker in the Sea, which was more of desire to performe that discouery, then of reason, especially hauing such poore and weake vessels to transport our selues in; for in the bottom of an old Galego which I caused to be fashioned like a galley, and in one barge, two whirries, and a shipboat of the Lions whelpe, we caried 100. persons and their victuals for a moneth in the same, being al driuen to lie in the raine and weather, in the open aire, in the burning Sunne, and vpon the hard bords, and to dresse our meat, and to cary all maner of furniture in them, wherewith they were so pestered and unsauory, that what with victuals being most fish, with wette clothes of so many men thrust together, and the heat of the Sunne, I will vndertake there was neuer any prison in England, that could bee found more vnsauorie and lothsome, especially to my selfe, who had for many yeeres before bene dieted and cared for in a sort farre more differing. If Captaine Preston had not bene perswaded that he should haue come too late to Trinidad to haue found vs there (for the moneth was expired which I promised to tary for him there ere hee coulde recouer the coast of Spaine) but that it had pleased God hee might haue ioyned with vs, and that we had entred the countrey but some ten dayes sooner ere the Riuers were ouerflowen, wee had aduentured either to haue gone to the great Citie of Manoa, or at least taken so many of the other Cities and townes neerer at hand, as would haue made a royall returne: but it pleased not God so much to fauour mee at this time: if it shall be my lot to prosecute the same, I shall willingly spend my life therein, and if any else shalbe enabled thereunto, and conquere the same, I assure him thus much, he shall perfourme more then euer was done in Mexico by Cortez, or in Peru by Piçarro, whereof the one conquered the Empire of Mutezuma, the other of Guascar, and Atabalipa, and whatsoeuer prince shall possesse it, that Prince shall be Lord of more golde, and of a more beautifull Empire, and of more Cities and people, then either the King of Spaine, or the great Turke. But because there may arise many doubts, and how this Empire of Guiana is become so populous, and adorned with so many great Cities, townes, temples and treasures, I thought good to make it knowen, that the Emperour now reigning is descended from those magnificent princes of Peru, of whose large territories, of whose policies, conquests, edifices, and riches Pedro de Cieça, Francisco Lopez, and others haue written large discourses: for when Francisco Piçarro, Diego Almagro and others conquered the said Empire of Peru, and had put to death Atabalipa sonne to Guaynacapa, which Atabalipa had formerly caused his eldest brother Guascar to bee slaine, one of the yonger sonnes of Guaynacapa fled out of Peru, and tooke with him many thousands of those souldiers of the Empire called Oreiones, and with those and many others which followed him, he vanquished all that tract and valley of America which is situate betweene the great riuer of Amazones, and Baraquan, otherwise called Orenoque and Marannon. The Empire of Guiana is directly East from Peru towards the Sea, and lieth under the Equinoctial line, and it hath more abundance of golde then any part of Peru, and as many or more great Cities then euer Peru had when it flourished most: it is gouerned by the same lawes, and the Emperour and people obserue the same religion, and the same forme and policies in gouernment as were vsed in Peru, not differing in any part: [Sidenote: The statelines of Manoa.] and I haue bene assured by such of the Spaniards as haue seene Manoa the Imperial Citie of Guiana, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, that for the greatnesse, for the riches, and for the excellent seat, it farre exceedeth any of the world, at least of so much of the world as is knowen to the Spanish nation: it is founded vpon a lake of salt water of 200. leagues long like vnto Mare Caspium. [Sidenote: Fran. Lopez de Gomera hist. gen. cap. 120.] And if we compare it to that of Peru, and but read the report of Francisco Lopez and others, it will seeme more then credible: and because we may iudge of the one by the other, I thought good to insert part of the 120. Chapter of Lopez in his generall historie of the Indies, wherein he describeth the Court and magnificence of Guaynacapa, ancestour to the Emperor of Guiana, whose very wordes are these. Todo el seruicio de su casa, mesa, y cozina, era de oro, y de plata, y quando menos de plata, y cobre por mas rezio. Tenia en su recamara estatuas huecas de oro, que parecian gigantes, y las figuaras al propio, y tamanno de quantos animales, aues, arboles, y yeruas produze la tierra, y de quantos peces cria la mar y aguas de sus reynos. Tenia assi mesmo sogas, costales, cestas, y troxes de oro y plata, rimeros de palos de oro, que parecissen lenna raiada para quemar. En fin no auia cosa en su tierra, que no la tuuiesse do oro contrahecha: y aun dizen, que tenian los Ingas vn vergel en vna Isla cerca de la Puna, donde se yuan a holgar, quando querian mar, que tenia la ortaliza, las flores, y arboles de oro y plata, inuencion y grandeza hasta entonces nunca vista. Allende de todo esto tenia infinitissima, cantitad de plata, y oro por labrar en el Cuzco, que se perdio por la muerte de Guascar, car los Indios lo escondieron, viendo que los Espannoles se lo tomauan, y embiauan a Espanna. That is, All the vessels of his house, table and kitchin were of gold and siluer, and the meanest of siluer and copper for strength and hardnesse of metall. He had in his wardrobe hollow statues of gold which seemed giants, and the figures in proportion and bignesse of all the beasts, birds, trees and hearbes, that the earth bringeth foorth: and of all the fishes that the sea or waters of his kingdome breedeth. He had also ropes, budgets, chestes and troughs of golde and siluer, heapes of billets of gold, that seemed wood marked out to burne. Finally, there was nothing in his countrey, whereof he had not the counterfait in gold: Yea and they say, The Ingas had a garden of pleasure in an yland neere Puna, where they went to recreat themselues, when they would take the aire of the Sea, which had all kinde of garden-hearbs, flowers and trees of golde and siluer, an inuention, and magnificence till then neuer seene. Besides all this, he had an infinite quantitie of siluer and golde vnwrought in Cuzco which was lost by the death of Guascar, for the Indians hid it, seeing that the Spaniards tooke it, and sent it into Spaine. And in the 117. chapter Francisco Piçarro caused the gold and siluer of Atabalipa to be weyed after he had taken it, which Lopez setteth downe in these words following. Hallaron cinquenta y dos mil marcos de buena plata, y vn millon y trezientos veinte y seys mil, y quinientos pesos de oro, Which is: They found fiftie and two thousand markes of good siluer, and one million, and three hundred twenty and sixe thousand and fiue hundred pezos of golde.[54] [54] These quotations show the riches of _Peru_, not of _El Dorado_. This was the name given by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century to an imaginary region somewhere in the interior of South America, between the Orinoco and the Amazon, where gold and precious stones were supposed to be in such abundance as to be had for merely picking them up. This story was communicated by an Indian cacique to Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the conquerer, who sent Francisco Orellana down the Amazon River to discover this wonderful land. Orellana followed the course of the Amazon down to the sea, but he did not find El Dorado. The story, however, continued to be credited for many years afterwards. Now although these reports may seeme strange, yet if we consider the many millions which are dayly brought out of Peru into Spaine, wee may easily beleeue the same: for we finde that by the abundant treasure of that countrey the Spanish king vexeth all the princes of Europe, and is become in a few yeeres, from a poore king of Castile, the greatest monarch of this part of the world, and likely euery day to increase, if other princes forslow the good occasions offered, and suffer him to adde this empire to the rest, which by farre exceedeth all the rest: if his golde now endanger vs, hee will then be vnresistable. Such of the Spanyards as afterward endeuoured the conquest thereof (whereof there haue bene many, as shall be declared hereafter) thought that this Inga (of whom this emperour now liuing is descended) tooke his way by the riuer of Amazones, by that branch which is called Papamene: for by that way followed Orellana (by the commandement of Gonzalo Piçarro, in the yere 1542) whose name the riuer also beareth this day, which is also by others called Marannon, although Andrew Theuet doeth affirme that betweene Marannon and Amazones there are 120 leagues: but sure it is that those riuers haue one head and beginning, and the Marannon, which Theuet describeth, is but a branch of Amazones or Orellana, of which I will speake more in another place. [Sidenote: Iuan Martinez the first that euer saw Manoa.] It was attempted by Ordas; but it is now little lesse then 70 yeres since that Diego Ordas, a knight of the order of Saint Iago attempted the same: and it was in the yeere 1542 that Orellana discovered the riuer of Amazones: but the first that euer saw Manoa was Iuan Martinez master of the munition to Ordas. At a port called Morequito in Guiana there lieth at this day a great anker of Ordas his ship; and this port is some 300 miles within the land, vpon the great riuer of Orenoque. I rested at this port foure dayes: twenty dayes after I left the ships at Curiapan. The relation of this Martinez (who was the first that discouered Manoa) his successe and ende are to bee seene in the Chancery of Saint Iuan de Puerto rico, whereof Berreo had a copy, which appeared to be the greatest incouragement aswell to Berreo as to others that formerly attempted the discouery and conquest. Orellana after he failed of the discouery of Guiana by the sayd riuer of Amazones, passed into Spaine, and there obteined a patent of the king for the inuasion and conquest, but died by sea about the Islands, and his fleet seuered by tempest, the action for that time proceeded not. [Sidenote: Diego de Ordas went foorth with 600 souldiers 1531.] Diego Ordas followed the enterprise, and departed Spaine with 600 souldiers, and 30 horse, who arriuing on the coast of Guiana, was slaine in a mutiny, with the most part of such as fauoured him, as also of the rebellious part, insomuch as his ships perished, and few or none returned, neither was it certeinly knowen what became of the sayd Ordas, vntill Berreo found the anker of his ship in the riuer of Orenoque; but it was supposed, and so it is written by Lopez, that he perished on the seas, and of other writers diuersely conceiued and reported. [Sidenote: Fran. Lopez hist. gen. de las Ind. cap. 87.] And hereof it came that Martinez entred so farre within the land, and arriued at that city of Inga the emperour; for it chanced that while Ordas with his army rested at the port of Morequito (who was either the first or second that attempted Guiana) by some negligence, the whole store of powder prouided for the seruice was set on fire: and Martinez hauing the chiefe charge, was condemned by the Generall Ordas to be executed foorthwith: Martinez being much fauoured by the souldiers, had all the meanes possible procured for his life; but it could not be obteined in other sort than this: That he should be set into a canao alone without any victuall, onely with his armes, and so turned loose into the great riuer: but it pleased God that the canoa was caried downe the streame, and that certeine of the Guianians mette it the same euening; [Sidenote: The great city of Manao or El Dorado.] and hauing not at any time seene any Christian, nor any man of that colour, they caried Martinez into the land to be woondred at, and so from towne to towne, vntill he came to the great city of Manoa, the seat and residence of Inga the emperour. The emperour after he had beheld him, knew him to be a Christian (for it was not long before that his brethren Guascar and Atabalipa were vanquished by the Spanyards in Peru) and caused him to be lodged in his palace, and well interteined. Hee liued seuen moneths in Manoa, but was not suffered to wander into the countrey any where. He was also brought thither all the way blindfold, led by the Indians, vntill he came to the entrance of Manoa it selfe, and was fourteene or fifteene dayes in the passage. He auowed at his death that he entred the city at Noon, and then they vncouered his face, and that he trauelled all that day till night thorow the city, and the next day from Sun rising to Sun setting yer he came to the palace of Inga. After that Martinez had liued seuen moneths in Manoa, and began to vnderstand the language of the countrey, Inga asked him whether he desired to returne into his owne countrey, or would willingly abide with him. But Martinez not desirous to stay, obteined the fauour of Inga to depart: with whom he sent diuers Guianians to conduct him to the riuer of Orenoque, all loden with as much golde as they could cary, which he gaue to Martinez at his departure: but when he was arriued neere the riuers side, the borderers which are called Orenoqueponi robbed him and his Guianians of all the treasure (the borderers being at that time at warres, which Inga had not conquered) saue only of two great bottels of gourds, which were filled with beads of golde curiously wrought, which those Orenoqueponi thought had bene no other thing then his drinke or meat, or graine for food, with which Martinez had liberty to passe: and so in canoas hee fell downe from the riuer of Orenoque to Trinidad, and from thence to Margarita, and also to Saint Iuan de puerto rico, where remaining a long time for passage into Spaine, he died. In the time of his extreme sicknesse, and when he was without hope of life, receiuing the Sacrament at the hands of his Confessor, he deliuered these things, with the relation of his trauels, and also called for his calabaças or gourds of the golde beads which he gaue to the church and friers to be prayed for. [Sidenote: The author of the name of El Dorado.] This Martinez was he that Christened the city of Manoa by the name of El Dorado, and as Berreo informed mee, vpon this occasion: Those Guianians, and also the borderers, and all other in that tract which I haue seene are maruellous great drunkards; in which vice, I thinke no nation can compare with them: and at the times of their solemne feasts, when the emperour carowseth with his captaines, tributaries, and gouernours, the maner is thus: All those that pledge him are first stripped naked, and their bodies anointed all ouer with a kind of white balsamum (by them called curca) of which there is great plenty, and yet very deare amongst them, and it is of all other the most precious, whereof wee haue had good experience: when they are anointed all ouer, certeine seruants of the emperour, hauing prepared golde made into fine powder, blow it thorow hollow canes vpon their naked bodies, vntill they be all shining from the foot to the head: and in this sort they sit drinking by twenties and hundreds, and continue in drunkennesse sometimes sixe or seuen dayes together. [Sidenote: Sir Robert Duddeley.] The same is also confirmed by a letter written into Spaine, which was intercepted, which M. Robert Duddeley tolde me he had seene. Vpon this sight, and for the abundance of golde which he saw in the city, the images of golde in their temples, the plates, armours, and shields of gold which they vse in the warres, he called it El Dorado. After the death of Ordas and Martinez, and after Orellana, who was imployed by Gonzalo Piçarro, one Pedro de Osua a knight of Nauarre attempted Guiana, taking his way from Peru, and built his brigandines vpon a riuer called Oia, which riseth to the Southward of Quito, and is very great. This riuer falleth into Amazones, by which Osua with his companies descended, and came out of that prouince which is called Mutylonez: and it seemeth to mee that this empire is reserued for her Maiesty and the English nation, by reason of the hard successe which all these and other Spanyards found in attempting the same, whereof I will speake briefly, though impertinent in some sort to my purpose. [Sidenote: Reade Iosephus Acosta.] This Pedro de Osua had among his troups a Biscain, called Agiri, a man meanly borne, who bare no other office then a sergeant or alferez: but after certaine moneths, when the souldiers were grieued with trauels, and consumed with famine, and that no entrance could be found by the branches or body of Amazones, this Agiri raised a mutiny, of which hee made himselfe the head, and so preuailed, as he put Osua to the sword, and all his followers, taking on him the whole charge and commandement, with a purpose not onely to make himselfe emperour of Guiana, but also of Peru, and of all that side of the West Indies: he had of his party seuen hundred souldiers, and of those many promised to draw in other captaines and companies, to deliuer vp townes and forts in Peru: but neither finding by the sayd riuer any passage into Guiana, nor any possibility to returne towards Peru by the same Amazones, by reason that the descent of the riuer made so great a current, he was inforced to disemboque at the mouth of the sayd Amazones, which can not be lesse then a thousand leagues from the place where they imbarked: from thence be coasted the land till he arriued at Margarita: [Sidenote: The voyage of sir Iohn Burgh to the West Indies.] to the North of Mompatar, which is at this day called Puerto de Tyranno, for that he there slew Don Iuan de villa Andreda, gouernour of Margarita when sir Iohn Burgh landed there and attempted the Island. Agiri put to the sword all other in the Island that refused to be of his party, and tooke with him certeine Simerones, and other desperate companions. From thence he went to Cumana, and there slew the gouernour, and dealt in all as at Margarita: hee spoiled all the coast of Caracas, and the prouince of Venezuela, and of Rio de la hacha; and as I remember, it was the same yere that sir Iohn Hawkins sailed to Saint Iuan de Vllua in the Iesus of Lubeck: for himselfe tolde me that he met with such a one vpon the coast that rebelled, and had sailed downe all the riuer of Amazones. Agiri from thence landed about Sancta Marta, and sacked it also, putting to death so many as refused to be his followers, purposing to inuade Nueuo reyno de Granada, and to sacke Pamplon, Merida, Lagrita, Tunxa, and the rest of the cities of Nueuo reyno, and from thence againe to enter Peru: but in a fight in the sayd Nueuo reyno he was ouerthrowen, and finding no way to escape, he first put to the sword his owne children, foretelling them that they should not liue to be defamed or vpbraided by the Spanyards after his death, who would haue termed them the children of a traitour or tyrant; and that sithence hee could not make them princes, hee would yet deliuer them from shame and reproche. These were the ends and tragedies of Ordas, Martinez, Oreliana, Ozua, and Agiri. [Sidenote: 1532. Gomar. cap. 84 and 86.] Also soone after Ordas followed Ieronimo Ortal de Saragosa with 130 souldiers, who failing his entrance by sea, was cast with the current on the coast of Paria, and peopled about S. Miguel de Neueri. It was then attempted by Don Pedro de Silua, a Portugues of the family of Ruigomes de Silua, and by the fauour which Ruigomes had with the king, he was set out, but he also shot wide of the marke; for being departed from Spaine with his fleete, he entered by Marannon and Amazones, where by the nations of the riuer, and by the Amazones hee was vttlerly ouerthrowen, and himselfe and all his armie defeated, only seuen escaped, and of those but two returned. After him came Pedro Hernandez de Serpa, and landed at Cumana in the West Indies, taking his iourney by and towards Orenoque, which may be some 120 leagues: but ther he came to the borders of the sayd riuer, hee was set vpon by a nation of the Indians called Wikiri, and ouerthrowen in such sort, that of 300 souldiers, horsemen, many Indians, and Negros, there returned but 18. Others affirme, that he was defeated in the very entrance of Guiana, at the first ciuil towne of the empire called Macureguarai. Captaine Preston in taking S. Iago de Leon (which was by him and his companies very resolutely performed, being a great towne, and farre within the land) held a gentleman prisoner, who died in his ship, that was one of the company of Hermandez de Serpa, and saued among those that escaped, who witnessed what opinion is held among the Spanyards thereabouts of the great riches of Guiana, and El Dorado the city of Inga. Another Spanyard was brought aboord me by captaine Preston, who told me in the hearing of himselfe and diuers other gentlemen, that he met with Berreos campe-master at Caracas, when he came from the borders of Guiana, and that he saw with him forty of most pure plates of golde curiously wrought, and swords of Guiana decked and inlayed with gold, feathers garnished with golde and diuers rarities which he carried to the Spanish king. After Hernandez de Serpa, it was undertaken by the Adelantado, Don Gonzales Ximenes de Casada, who was one of the chiefest in the conquest of Nueuo reino, whose daughter and heire Don Antonio de Berreo maried. Gonzales sought the passage also by the riuer called Papamene, which riseth by Quito in Peru, and runneth Southeast 100 leagues, and then falleth into Amazones, but he also failing the entrance, returned with the losse of much labour and cost. I tooke one captaine George a Spanyard that followed Gonzales in this enterprise. Gonzales gaue his daughter to Berreo, taking his oth and honour to follow the enterprise to the last of his substance and life, who since, as he hath sworne to me, hath spent 300000 ducats in the same, and yet never could enter so far into the land as my selfe with that poore troupe or rather a handfull of men, being in all about 100 gentlemen, souldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boyes, and of all sorts: neither could any of the forepassed vndertakers, nor Berreo himselfe, discouer the countrey, till now lately by conference with an ancient king called Carapana, he got the true light thereof: for Berreo came about 1500 miles yer he vnderstood ought, or could finde any passage or entrance into any part thereof, yet he had experience of al these forenamed, and diuers others, and was perswaded of their errors and mistakings. Berreo sought it by the river Cassamar,[55] which falleth into a great riuer called Pato: Pato falleth into Meta, and Meta into Baraquan, which is also called Orenoque. [55] Casanare. He tooke his journey from Nueuo reyno de Granada where he dwelt, hauing the inheritance of Gonzales Ximenes in those parts: he was followed with 700 horse, he draue with him 1000 head of cattell, he had also many women, Indians, and slaues. How all these riuers crosse and encounter, how the countrey lieth and is bordered, the passage of Ximenes and Berreo, mine owne discouery, and the way that I entred, with all the rest of the nations and riuers, your lordship shall receiue in a large Chart or Map, which I haue not yet finished, and which I shall most humbly pray your lordship to secret, and not to suffer it to passe your owne hands: for by a draught thereof all may be preuented by other nations: for I know it is this very yeere sought by the French, although by the way that they now take, I feare it not much. [Sidenote: A new and rich trade of the French to the riuer of Amazones.] It was also tolde me yer I departed from England, that Villiers the Admirall was in preparation for the planting of Amazones, to which riuer the French haue made diuers voyages and returned much golde, and other rarities. I spake with the captaine of a French ship that came from thence, his ship riding in Falmouth the same yere that my ships came first from Virginia. There was another this yeere in Helford that also came from thence, and had bene foureteene moneths at an anker in Amazones, which were both very rich. Although, as I am perswaded, Guiana cannot be entred that way, yet no doubt the trade of gold from thence passeth by branches of riuers into the riuer of Amazones, and so it doth on euery hand far from the countrey it selfe; for those Indians of Trinidad haue plates of golde from Guiana, and those canibals of Dominica which dwell in the Islands by which our ships passe yerely to the West Indies, also the Indians of Paria, those Indians called Tucaris, Chochi, Apotomios, Cumanagotos, and all those other nations inhabiting neere about the mountaines that run from Paria thorow the prouince of Venezuela, and in Maracapana, and the canibals of Guanipa, the Indians called Assawai, Coaca, Aiai, and the rest (all which shall be described in my description as they are situate) haue plates of golde of Guiana. And vpon the riuer of Amazones, Theuet writeth that the people weare croissants of golde, for of that forme the Guianians most commonly make them: so as from Dominica to Amazones, which is aboue 250 leagues, all the chiefe Indians in all parts weare of those plates of Guiana. Vndoubtedly those that trade Amazones returne much golde, which (as is aforesayd) commeth by trade from Guiana, by some branch of a riuer that falleth from the countrey into Amazones, and either it is by the riuer which passeth by the nations called Tisnados, or by Carepuna. I made inquiry amongst the most ancient and best travelled of the Orenoqueponi, and I had knowledge of all the riuers betweene Orenoque and Amazones, and was very desirous to vnderstand the truth of those warlike women, because of some it is beleeued, of others not. And though I digresse from my purpose, yet I will set downe that which hath bene deliuered me for trueth of those women, and I spake with a casique or lord of people, that told me he had bene in the riuer, and beyond it also. [Sidenote: The seat of the Amazones.] The nations of these women are on the South side of the riuer in the prouinces of Topago, and their chiefest strengths and retracts are in the Islands situate on the South side of the entrance some 60 leagues within the mouth of the sayd riuer. The memories of the like women are very ancient aswell in Africa and in Asia: In Africa those that had Medusa for queene: others in Scithia nere the riuers of Tanais and Thermodon: we finde also that Lampedo and Marthesia were queenes of the Amazones: in many histories they are verified to haue bene, and in diuers ages and prouinces: but they which are not far from Guiana doe accompany with men but once in a yere, and for the time of one moneth, which I gather by their relation, to be in April: and that time all kings of the borders assemble, and queenes of the Amazones: and after the queenes haue chosen, the rest cast lots for their Valentines. This one moneth, they feast, dance, and drinke of their wines in abundance; and the Moone being done, they all depart to their owne prouinces. If they conceiue, and be deliuered of a sonne, they returne him to the father; if of a daughter they nourish it, and reteine it: and as many as haue daughters send vnto the begetters a present; all being desirous to increase their owne sex and kind: but that they cut off the right dug of the brest, I doe not finde to be true. It was farther tolde me, that if in these warres they tooke any prisoners that they vsed to accompany with those also at what time soeuer, but in the end for certeine they put them to death: for they are sayd to be very cruell and bloodthirsty, especially to such as offer to inuade their territories. These Amazones haue likewise great store of these plates of golde, which they recouer by exchange chiefly for a kinde of greene stones, which the Spanyards call Piedras hijadas, and we vse for spleene stones: and for the disease of the stone we also esteeme them. Of these I saw diuers in Guiana: and commonly euery king or casique hath one, which their wiues for the most part weare: and they esteeme them as great iewels. But to returne to the enterprise of Bereo, who (as I haue sayd) departed from Nueuo reyno with 700 horse, besides the prouisions aboue rehearsed, he descended by the riuer called Cassanar, which riseth in Nueuo reyno out of the mountaines by the city of Tunia, from which mountaine also springeth Pato: both which fall into the great riuer of Meta: and Meta riseth from a mountaine ioyning to Pampion in the same Nueuo reyno de Grenada. These, as also Guaiare, which issueth out of the mountaines by Timana, fall all into Baraquan, and are but of his heads: for at their comming together they lose their names: and Baraquan farther downe is also rebaptized by the name of Orenoque. On the other side of the city and hilles of Timana riseth Rio grande, which falleth in the sea by Sancta Marta. By Cassanar first, and so into Meta, Berreo passed, keeping his horsemen on the banks, where the countrey serued them for to march, and where otherwise, he was driuen to imbarke them in boats which he builded for the purpose, and so came with the current downe the riuer of Meta, and so into Baraquan. After he entred that great and mighty riuer, he began dayly to lose of his companies both men and horse: for it is in many places violently swift, and hath forcible eddies, many sands, and diuers Islands sharp pointed with rocks: but after one whole yeere, iourneying for the most part by riuer and the rest by land, he grew dayly to fewer numbers: for both by sicknesse, and by encountring with the people of those regions, thorow which he trauelled, his companies were much wasted, especially by diuers encounters with the Amapians: and in all this time hee neuer could learne of any passage into Guiana, nor any newes or fame thereof, vntill he came to a further border of the sayd Amapaia, eight dayes iourney from the riuer Caroli, which was the furthest riuer that he entred. Among those of Amapaia, Guiana was famous, but few of these people accosted Berreo, or would trade with him the first three moneths of the six, which he soiourned there. This Amapaia is also maruellous rich in golde (as both Berreo confessed and those of Guiana with whom I had most conference) and is situate vpon Orenoque also. In this countrey Berreo lost 60 of his best souldiers, and most of all his horse that remained in his former yeeres trauell: but in the end, after diuers encounters with those nations, they grew to peace; and they presented Berreo with tenne images of fine golde among diuers other plates and croissants, which, as he sware to me and diuers other gentlemen, were so curiously wrought, as he had not seene the like either in Italy, Spaine, or the Low countreys: and he was resolued, that when he came to the hands of the Spanish king, to whom he had sent them by his camp-master, they would appeare very admirable, especially being wrought by such a nation as had no yron instruments at all, nor any of those helps which our goldsmiths haue to worke withall. The particular name of the people in Amapaia which gaue him these pieces, are called Anebas, and the riuer of Orenoque at that place is aboue 12 English miles broad, which may be from his out fall into the sea 700 or 800 miles. This prouince of Amapaia is a very low and a marish ground nere the riuer; and by reason of the red water which issueth out in small branches thorow the fenny and boggy ground; there breed diuers poisonfull wormes and serpents: and the Spanyards not suspecting, nor in any sort foreknowing the danger, were infected with a grieuous kinde of fluxe by drinking thereof; and euen the very horses poisoned therewith: insomuch as at the end of the 6 moneths, that they abode their, of all there troups, there were not left aboue 120 souldiers, and neither horse nor cattell: for Berreo hoped to haue found Guiana by 1000 miles nerer then it fel out to be in the end: by meanes whereof they sustained much want and much hunger, oppressed with grieuous diseases, and all the miseries that could be imagined. I demanded of those in Guiana that had trauelled Amapaia, how they liued with that tawny or red water when they trauelled thither: and they tolde me that after the Sun was neere the middle of the skie, they vsed to fill their pots and pitchers with that water, but either before that time, or towardes the setting of the Sun it was dangerous to drinke of, and in the night strong poison. I learned also of diuers other riuers of that nature among them, which were also (while the Sun was in the Meridian) very safe to drinke, and in the morning, euening, and night woonderfull dangerous and infectiue. From this prouince Berreo hasted away assoone as the Spring and beginning of Summer appeared, and sought his entrance on the borders of Orenoque on the South side: but there ran a ledge of so high and impassable mountaines, as he was not able by any meanes to march ouer them, continuing from the East sea into which Orenoque falleth, euen to Quito in Peru: neither had he meanes to cary victuall or munition ouer those craggie, high, and fast hilles, being all woody, and those so thicke and spiny, and so full of prickles, thornes, and briers, as it is impossible to creepe thorow them: hee had also neither friendship among the people, nor any interpreter to perswade or treat with them: and more, to his disaduantage, the casiques and kings of Amapaia had giuen knowledge of his purpose to the Guianians, and that he sought to sacke and conquer the empire, for the hope of their so great abundance and quantities of golde: he passed by the mouthes of many great riuers, which fell into Orenoque both from the North and South, which I forbeare to name for tediousnesse, and because they are more pleasing in describing then reading. [Sidenote: Many great riuers falling into Orenoque.] Berreo affirmed that there fell an hundred riuers into Orenoque from the North and South, whereof the least was as big as Rio grande, that passed betweene Popayan and Nueuo reyno de Granada (Rio Grande being esteemed one of the renowmed riuers in all the West Indies, and numbred among the great riuers of the world:) but he knew not the names of any of these, but Caroli onely; neither from what nations they descended, neither to what prouinces they led: for he had no meanes to discourse with the inhabitants at any time: neither was he curious in these things, being vtterly vnlearned, and not knowing the East from the West. But of all these I got some knowledge, and of many more, partly by mine owne trauell, and the rest by conference: of some one I learned one, of others the rest, hauing with me an Indian that spake many languages, and that of Guiana naturally. I sought out all the aged men, and such as were greatest travellers, and by the one and the other I came to vnderstand the situations, the riuers, the kingdomes from the East sea to the borders of Peru, and from Orenoque Southward as farre as Amazones or Marannon, and the religions of Maria Tamball, and of all the kings of prouinces, and captaines of townes and villages, how they stood in tearmes of peace or warre, and which were friends or enemies the one with the other, without which there can be neither entrance nor conquest in those parts, nor elsewhere: for by the dissention betweene Guascar and Atabalipa, Piçarro conquered Peru, and by the hatred that the Tlaxcallians have to Mutezuma, Cortez was victorious ouer Mexico: without which both the one and the other had failed of their enterprise, and of the great honour and riches which they atteined vnto. [Sidenote: The prouince of Emeria inhabited by gentle Indians.] Now Berreo began to grow into dispaire, and looked for no other successe then his predecessor in this enterprise, vntill such time as hee arriued at the prouince of Emeria towards the East sea and mouth of the riuer, where he found a nation of people very fauourable, and the countrey full of all maner of victuall. The king of this land is called Carapana, a man very wise, subtill, and of great experience, being little lesse then an hundred yeeres olde: in his youth he was sent by his father into the Island of Trinidad, by reason of ciuill warre among themselues, and was bred at a village in that island, called Parico: at that place in his youth hee had seene many Christians, both French and Spanish, and went diuers times with the Indians of Trinidad to Margarita and Cumana in the West Indies (for both those places haue euer beene relieued with victuall from Trinidad) by reason whereof he grew of more vnderstanding, and noted the difference of the nations, comparing the strength and armes of his countrey with those of the Christians, and euer after temporized so, as whosoeuer els did amisse, or was wasted by contention, Carapana kept himselfe and his countrey in quiet and plenty: he also held peace with the Caribes or Canibals his neighbours, and had free trade with all nations, whosoeuer els had warre. Berreo soiourned and rested his weake troupe in the towne of Carapana sixe weeks, and from him learned the way and passage to Guiana, and the riches and magnificence thereof: but being then vtterly disable to proceed, he determined to try his fortune another yere, when he had renewed his prouisions, and regathered more force, which hee hoped for as well out of Spaine as from Nueuo reyno, where hee had left his sonne Don Antonio Ximenes to second him vpon the first notice giuen of his entrance, and so for the present imbarked himselfe in canoas, and by the branches of Orenoque arriued at Trinidad, hauing from Carapana sufficient pilots to conduct him. From Trinidad he coasted Paria, and so recouered Margarita: and hauing made relation to Don Iuan Sermiento the gouernour, of his proceeding and perswaded him of the riches of Guiana, he obteined from thence fifty souldiers, promising presently to returne to Carapana, and so into Guiana. But Berreo meant nothing lesse at that time: for he wanted many prouisions necessary for such an enterprise, and therefore departed from Margarita, seated himselfe in Trinidad, and from thence sent his camp-master, and his sergeant-maior backe to the borders to discouer the neerest passage into the empire, as also to treat with the borderers, and to draw them to his party and loue: without which, he knew he could neither passe safely, nor in any sort be relieued with victuall or ought els. Carapana directed his company to a king called Morequito, assuring them that no man could deliuer so much of Guiana as Morequito could, and that his dwelling was but fiue dayes journey from Macureguarai, the first ciuill towne of Guiana. [Sidenote: Vides the gouernour of Cumana competitor with Berreo in the conquest of Guiana.] Now your lordship shall vnderstand, that this Morequito, one of the greatest lords or kings of the borders of Guiana, had two or three yeeres before bene at Cumana and at Margarita, in the West Indies, with great store of plates of golde, which he caried to exchange for such other things as he wanted in his owne countrey, and was dayly feasted, and presented by the gouernours of those places, and held amongst them some two moneths, in which time one Vides gouernour of Cumana wanne him to be his conductour into Guiana, being allured by those croissants and images of golde which hee brought with him to trade, as also by the ancient fame and magnificence of El Dorado: whereupon Vides sent into Spaine for a patent to discouer and conquer Guiana, not knowing of the precedence of Berreos patent, which, as Berreo affirmeth, was signed before that of Vides: so as when Vides vnderstood of Berreo, and that he had made entrance into that territory, and forgone his desire and hope, it was verily thought that Vides practised with Morequito to hinder and disturbe Berreo in all he could, and not to suffer him to enter thorow his signorie, nor any of his companies; neither to victuall, nor guide them in any sort; for Vides gouernour of Cumana, and Berreo, were become mortall enemies, aswell for that Berreo had gotten Trinidad into his patent with Guiana, as also in that he was by Berreo preuented in the iourney of Guiana it selfe: howsoeuer it was, I know not, but Morequito for a time dissembled his disposition, suffered Spanyards, and a frier (which Berreo had sent to discouer Manoa) to trauell thorow his countrey, gaue them a guide for Macureguaray, the first towne of ciuill and apparelled people, from whence they had other guides to bring them to Manoa the great city of Inga: [Sidenote: Ten Spanyards arriue at Manoa.] and being furnished with those things which they had learned of Carapana were of most price in Guiana, went onward, and in eleuen dayes arriued at Manoa, as Berreo affirmeth for certaine: although I could not be assured thereof by the lord which now gouerneth the prouince of Morequito, for he tolde me that they got all the golde they had, in other townes on this side Manoa, there being many very great and rich, and (as he sayd) built like the townes of Christians, with many roomes. When these ten Spaniards were returned, and ready to put out of the border of Aromaia, the people of Morequito set vpon them, and slew them all but one that swam the riuer, and tooke from them to the value of forty thousand pezos of golde: and one of them onely liued to bring the newes to Berreo, that both his nine souldiers and holy father were benighted in the said prouince. I my selfe spake with the captaines of Morequito that slew them, and was at the place where it was executed. Berreo, inraged heerewithall, sent all the strength he could make into Aromaia, to be reuenged of him, his people, and countrey. But Morequito suspecting the same, fled ouer Orenoque, and thorow the territories of the Saima, and Wikiri, recouered Cumana, where he thought himself very safe, with Vides the gouernour. But Berreo sending for him in the Kings name, and his messengers finding him in the house of one Fashardo on the sudden yer he was suspected, so as he could not then be conueyed away, Vides durst not deny him, aswell to avoid the suspition of this practise, as also for that an holy father was slaine by him and his people. [Sidenote: Morequito executed.] Morequito offered Fashardo the weight of three quintals in golde, to let him escape: but the poore Guianian betrayed on all sides was delivered to the camp-master of Berreo, and was presently executed. After the death of this Morequito, the souldiers of Berreo spoiled his territorie, and tooke diuers prisoners, among others they tooke the vncle of Morequito, called Topiawari, who is now king of Aromaia (whose sonne I brought with me into England) and is a man of great vnderstanding and policy: he is aboue an hundred yeeres olde, and yet of a very able body. The Spaniards ledde him in a chaine seuenteene dayes, and made him their guide from place to place betweene his countrey and Emeria, the prouince of Carapana, aforesayd, and he was at last redeemed for an hundred plates of golde, and diuers stones called Piedras Hijadas, or Spleene-stones. [Sidenote: The towne of Carapana is the port of Guiana.] Now Berreo for executing of Morequito, and other cruelties, spoiles, and slaughters done in Armonaia, hath lost the loue of the Orenoqueponi, and all the borderers, and dare not send any of his souldiers any further into the land then to Carapana, which he called the port of Guiana: but from thence by the helpe of Carapana he had trade further into the countrey, and alwayes appointed ten Spaniards to reside in Carapanas towne, by whose fauour, and by being conducted by his people, those ten searched the countrey thereabouts, aswell for mines, as for other trades and commodities. They also haue gotten a nephew of Morequito, whom they haue Christened, and named Don Iuan, of whom they haue great hope, endeuouring by all meanes to establish him in the sayd prouince. [Sidenote: Some fewe Spaniards are now seated in Dissequebe.] Among many other trades, those Spaniards vsed canoas to passe to the riuers of Barema, Pawroma, and Dissequebe, which are on the south side of the mouth of Orenoque, and there buy women and children from the Canibals, which are of that barbarous nature, as they will for three or foure hatchets sell the sonnes and daughters of their owne brethren and sisters, and for somewhat more, euen their owne daughters. Hereof the Spaniards make great profit: for buying a maid of twelue or thirteene yeres for three or foure hatchets, they sell them againe at Margarita in the West Indies for fifty and an hundred pezos, which is so many crownes. The master of my shippe, Iohn Dowglas, tooke one of the canoas which came laden from thence with people to be solde, and the most of them escaped: yet of those he brought, there was one as well fauoured, and as well shaped as euer I saw any in England, afterward I saw many of them, which but for their tawnie colour may be compared to any of Europe. They also trade in those riuers for bread of Cassaui, of which they buy an hundred pound weight for a knife, and sell it at Margarita for ten pezos. They also recouer great store of Cotton, Brasill wood, and those beds which they call Hamcas or Brasill beds, wherein in hot countreyes all the Spaniards vse to lie commonly, and in no other, neither did we our selues while we were there. By meanes of which trades, for ransome of diuers of the Guianians, and for exchange of hatchets and kniues, Berreo recouered some store of golde plates, eagles of golde, and images of men and diuers birdes, and dispatched his campe-master for Spaine, with all that hee had gathered, therewith to leuie souldiers, and by the shew thereof to draw others to the loue of the enterprise. And hauing sent diuers images aswell of men as beasts, birds and fishes, so curiously wrought in gold, he doubted not but to perswade the king to yeeld to him some further helpe, especially for that this land had neuer beene sacked, the mines neuer wrought, and in the Indies their works were well spent, and the golde drawen out with great labour and charge. He also dispatched messengers to his sonne in Nueuo reyno to leuie all the forces he could, and to come downe the riuer Orenoque to Emeria, the prouince of Carapana, to meet him: he had also sent to Saint Iago de Leon on the coast of the Caracas, to buy horses and mules. After I had thus learned of his proceedings past and purposed, I told him that I had resolued to see Guiana, and that it was the end of my iourney, and the cause of my comming to Trinidad, as it was indeed, (and for that purpose I sent Iacob Whiddon the yeere before to get intelligence with whom Berreo himselfe had speech at that time, and remembred how inquisitiue Iacob Whiddon was of his proceedings, and of the countrey of Guiana) Berreo was stricken into a great melancholy and sadnesse, and vsed all the arguments he could to disswade me, and also assured the gentlemen of my company that it would be labour lost, and that they should suffer many miseries if they proceeded. And first he deliuered that I could not enter any of the riuers with any barke or pinnesse, or hardly with any ships boat, it was so low, sandy, and full of flats, and that his companies were dayly grounded in their canoas, which drew but twelue inches water. He further sayde, that none of the countrey would come to speake with vs, but would all flie: and if we followed them to their dwellings, they would burne their owne townes: and besides that, the way was long, the Winter at hand, and that the riuers beginning once to swell, it was impossible to stem the current, and that we could not in those small boats by any means cary victuall for halfe the time, and that (which indeed most discouraged my company) the kings and lords of all the borders of Guiana had decreed that none of them should trade with any Christians for golde, because the same would be their owne ouerthrow, and that for the loue of gold the Christians meant to conquer and dispossesse them of all together. Many and the most of these I found to be true, but yet I resoluing to make triall of all whatsoever happened, directed Captaine George Gifford my vice-admirall to take the Lions whelpe, and captaine Calfield his barke to turne to the Eastward, against the mouth of a riuer called Capuri, whose entrance I had before sent captaine Whiddon, and Iohn Dowglas the master, to discouer, who found some nine foot water or better vpon the flood, and fiue at low water, to whom I had giuen instructions that they should anker at the edge of the shoald, and vpon the best of the flood to thrust ouer, which shoald Iohn Dowglas bwoyed and beckoned for them before: but they laboured in vaine: for neither could they turne it vp altogether so farre to the East, neither did the flood continue so long, but the water fell yer they could haue passed the sands: as wee after found by a second experience; so as now wee must either give ouer our enterprise, or leauing our ships at aduenture foure hundred mile behinde vs, must run vp in our ships boats, one barge, and two wheries. But being doubtfull how to cary victuals for so long a time in such bables, or any strength of men, especially for that Berreo assured vs that his sonne must be by that time come downe with many souldiers. I sent away one King, master of the Lions whelpe, with his shipboat to trie another branch of a riuer in the bottome of the bay of Guanipa, which was called Amana, to prooue if there were water to be found for either of the small ships to enter. But when he came to the mouth of Amana, he found it as the rest, but stayed not to discouer it thorowly, because he was assured by an Indian, his guide, that the Canibals of Guanipa would assaile them with many canoas, and that they shot poisoned arrowes: so as if he hasted not backe, they should all be lost. In the mean time, fearing the woorst, I caused all the carpenters we had, to cut downe a Galego boat, which we meant to cast off, and to fit her with banks to row on, and in all things to prepare her the best they could, so as she might be brought to draw but fiue foot, for so much we had on the barre of Capuri at low water. And doubting of Kings returne, I sent Iohn Dowglas againe in my long barge, aswell to relieue him, as also to make a perfect search in the bottome of that bay: for it hath bene held for infallible, that whatsoeuer ship or boat shall fall therein, can neuer disembogue againe, by reason of the violent current which setteth into the sayde-bay, as also for that the brize and Easterly winde bloweth directly into the same. Of which opinion I haue heard Iohn Hampton of Plymmouth, one of the greatest experience of England, and diuers other besides that haue traded to Trinidad. I sent with Iohn Dowglas an old casique of Trinidad for a pilot, who tolde vs that we could not returne againe by the bay or gulfe, but that he knew a by-branch which ran within the land to the Eastward, and that he thought by it we might fall into Capuri, and so returne in foure dayes. Iohn Dowglas searched those riuers, and found foure goodly entrances, whereof the least was as bigge as the Thames at Wolwich; but in the bay thitherward it was shoald, and but sixe foote water: so as we were now without hope of any ship or barke to passe ouer, and therefore resolued to go on with the boats, and the bottome of the Galego, in which we thrust 60 men. In the Lions whelps boat and whery we caried 20. Captaine Calfield in his whery caried ten more, and in my barge other tenne, which made vp a hundred: we had no other meanes but to cary victuall for a moneth in the same, and also to lodge therein as we could, and to boile and dresse our meat. Captaine Gifford had with him master Edward Porter, captaine Eynos, and eight more in his whery, with all their victuall, weapons, and prouisions. Captaine Calfield had with him my cousin Butshead Gorges, and eight more. In the galley, of gentlemen and officers my selfe had captaine Thin, my cousin Iohn Greenuile, my nephew Iohn Gilbert, captaine Whiddon, captaine Keymis, Edward Handcocke, captaine Clarke, lieutenant Hewes, Thomas Vpton, captaine Facy, Ierome Ferrar, Anthony Welles, William Connocke, and aboue fifty more. We could not learne of Berreo any other way to enter but in branches, so farre to wind-ward, as it was impossible for vs to recouer: for wee had as much sea to crosse ouer in our wheries, as betweene Douer and Calais, and in a great billow, the winde and current being both very strong, so as we were driuen to goe in those small boats directly before the winde into the bottome of the bay of Guanipa, and from thence to enter the mouth of some one of those riuers which Iohn Dowglas had last discouered, and had with vs for pilot an Indian of Barema, a riuer to the South of Orenoque, betweene that and Amazones, whose canoas we had formerly taken as hee was going from the sayd Barema, laden with Cassaui-bread, to sell at Margarita. This Arwacan promised to bring me into the great riuer of Orenoque, but indeed of that which he entred he was vtterly ignorant, for he had not seene it in twelue yeeres before: at which time he was very yoong, and of no iudgement: [Sidenote: A wonderfull confluence of streames.] and if God had not sent vs another helpe, we might haue wandred a whole yere in that labyrinth of riuers, yer wee had found any way, either out or in, especially after wee were past ebbing and flowing which was in foure dayes, for I know all the earth doeth not yeelde the like confluence of streames and branches, the one crossing the other so many times, and all so faire and large, and so like one to another, as no man can tell which to take: and if wee went by the Sunne or Compasse, hoping thereby to goe directly one way or other, yet that way wee were also caried in a circle amongst multitudes of Islands, and euery Island so bordered with high trees, as no man coulde see any further then the bredth of the riuer, or length of the breach. But this it chanced, that entering into a riuer, (which because it had no name, wee called the riuer of the Red crosse, our selues being the first Christians that euer came therein) the two and twentieth of May, as wee were rowing vp the same, wee espied a small canoa with three Indians, which (by the swiftnesse of my barge, rowing with eight oares) I ouertooke yer they could crosse the riuer, the rest of the people on the banks shadowed vnder the thicke wood, gazed on with a doubtfull conceit what might befall those three which we had taken. But when they perceiued that we offered them no violence, neither entred their canoa with any of ours, nor tooke out of the canoa any of theirs, they then beganne to shew themselues on the banks side, and offered to traffique with vs for such things as they had. And as wee drew neere, they all stayed, and we came with our barge to the mouth of a little creeke which came from their towne into the great riuer. As we abode there a while, our Indian pilot, called Ferdinando, would needs goe ashore their village to fetch some fruits, and to drinke of their artificiall wines, and also to see the place, and know the lord of it against another time, and tooke with him a brother of his, which hee had with him in the iourney: when they came to the village of these people the lord of the Island offered to lay hands on them, purposing to haue slaine them both, yeelding for reason that this Indian of ours had brought a strange nation into their territory, to spoile and destroy them. But the pilot being quicke, and of a disposed body, slipt their fingers, and ran into the woods, and his brother being the better footman of the two, recouered the creekes mouth, where we stayed in our barge, crying out that his brother was slaine: with that we set hands on one of them that was next vs, a very olde man, and brought him into the barge, assuring him that if we had not our pilot againe, we would presently cut off his head. This olde man being resolued that he should pay the losse of the other, cried out to those in the woods to saue Ferdinando our pilot: but they followed him notwithstanding, and hunted after him vpon the foot with the Deere-dogges, and with so maine a crie, that all the woods eckoed with the shout they made: but at the last this poore chased Indian recouered the riuer side, and got vpon a tree, and as we were coasting, leaped downe and swamme to the barge halfe dead with feare. But our good happe was, that we kept the other olde Indian which we handfasted to redeeme our pilot withall: for being naturall of those riuers, we assured our selues hee knew the way better then any stranger could. And indeed, but for this chance, I thinke we had neuer found the way either to Guiana, or backe to our ships: for Ferdinando after a few dayes knew nothing at all, nor which way to turne, yea and many times the old man himselfe was in great doubt which riuer to take. Those people which dwell in these broken islands and drowned lands, are generally called Tiuitiuas: there are of them two sorts, the one called Ciawani, and the other Waraweete. [Sidenote: A description of the mighty riuer of Orenoque or Baraquan.] The great riuer of Orenoque or Baraquan hath nine branches which fall out on the North side of his owne maine mouth: on the South side it hath seuen other fallings into the sea, so it disemboqueth by sixteene armes in all, betweene Ilands and broken ground, but the Ilands are very great, many of them as bigge as the Isle of Wight, and bigger, and many lesse. From the first branch on the North to the last of the South, it is at least 100 leagues, so as the riuers mouth is 300 miles wide at his entrance into the sea, which I take to be farre bigger then that of Amazones. All those that inhabit in the mouth of this riuer vpon the seuerall North branches, are these Tiuitiuas, of which there are two chiefe lords which haue continuall warres one with the other. The Ilands which lie on the right hand, are called Pallamos, and the land on the left, Horotomaka, and the riuer by which Iohn Douglas returned within the land from Amana to Capuri, they call Macuri. [Sidenote: What maner of people the Tiuitiuas are.] These Tiuitiuas are a very goodly people and very valiant, and haue the most manly speech and most deliberate that euer I heard, of what nation soeuer. In the Summer they haue houses on the ground, as in other places: in the Winter they dwell vpon the trees, where they build very artificiall townes and villages, as it is written in the Spanish story of the West Indies, that those people do in the low lands nere the gulfe of Vraba: for betweene May and September the riuer of Orenoque riseth thirty foot vpright, and then are those ilands ouerflowen twenty foot high aboue the leuell of the ground, sauing some few raised grounds in the middle of them: and for this cause they are inforced to liue in this maner. They neuer eat of any thing that is set or sowen: and as at home they vse neither planting nor other manurance, so when they come abroad, they refuse to feed of ought, but of that which nature without labour bringeth forth. They vse the tops of Palmitos for bread, and kill deere, fish, and porks, for the rest of their sustenance. They haue also many sorts of fruits that grow in the woods, and great variety of birds and fowle. And if to speake of them were not tedious, and vulgar, surely we saw in those passages of very rare colours and formes, not elsewhere to be found, for as much as I haue either seene or read. Of these people those that dwell vpon the branches of Orenoque, called Capuri and Macureo, are for the most part carpenters of canoas, for they make the most and fairest canoas, and sel them into Guiana for golde, and into Trinidad for tobacco in the excessiue taking whereof, they exceed all nations: and not withstanding the moistnesse of the aire in which they liue, the hardnesse of their diet, and the great labours they suffer to hunt, fish and fowle for their liuing in all my life, either in the Indies or in Europe, did I neuer behold a more goodly or better fauoured people or a more manly. They were woont to make warre vpon all nations, especially on the Canibals, so as none durst without a good strength trade by those riuers: but of late they are at peace with their neighbours, all holding the Spaniards for a common enemy. When their commanders die, they vse great lamentation, and when they thinke the flesh of their bodies is petrified, and fallen from the bones, then they take vp the carcase againe, and hang it in the caciques house that died, and decke his scull with feathers of all colours, and hang all his golde plates about the bones of his armes, thighs, and legs. Those nations which are called Arwacas, which dwell on the South of Orenoque, (of which place and nation our Indian pilot was) are dispersed in many other places, and doe vse to beat the bones of their lords into powder, and their wiues and friends drinke it all in their seuerall sorts of drinks. After we departed from the port of these Ciawani, wee passed vp the riuer with the flood, and ankered the ebbe, and in this sort we went onward. The third day that we entred the riuer, our galley came on ground, and stucke so fast, as we thought that euen there our discouery had ended, and that we must haue left fourescore and ten of our men to haue inhabited like rooks vpon trees with those nations: but the next morning, after we had cast out all her ballast, with tugging and halling to and fro, we got her aflote, and went on. At foure dayes end wee fell into as goodly a riuer as euer I beheld, which was called The great Amana, which ranne more directly without windings and turnings then the other: but soone after the flood of the sea left vs; and being inforced either by maine strength to row against a violent current, or to returne as wise as we went out, we had then no shift but to perswade the companies that it was but two or three dayes worke, and therefore desired them to take paines, euery gentleman and others taking their turnes to row, and to spell one the other at the houres end. Euery day we passed by goodly branches of riuers, some falling from the West, others from the East into Amana, but those I leaue to the description in the Cart of discouery, where euery one shalbe named with his rising and descent. When three dayes more were ouergone, our companies began to despaire, the weather being extreame hote, the riuer bordered with very high trees, that kept away the aire, and the current against vs euery day stronger then other: but we euermore commanded our pilots to promise an ende the next day, and vsed it so long, as we were driuen to assure them from foure reaches of the riuer to three, and so to two, and so to the next reach: but so long we laboured, that many dayes were spent, and wee driuen to drawe our selues to harder allowance, our bread euen at the last, and no drinke at all; and our men and our selues so wearied and scorched, and doubtfull withall, whether wee should euer performe it or no, the heat increasing as we drew towards the line: for wee were now in fiue degrees. The further we went on (our victuall decreasing and the aire breeding great faintnesse) wee grew weaker and weaker, when wee had most need of strength and abilitie: for hourely the riuer ranne more violently then other against vs, and the barge, wheries, and shippes boat of captaine Gifford and captaine Calfield, had spent all their prouisions: so as we were brought into despaire and discomfort, had wee not perswaded all the company that it was but onely one dayes worke more to atteine the land where wee should be relieued of all wee wanted, and if we returned, that wee were sure to starue by the way, and that the world would also laugh vs to scorne. On the banks of these riuers were diuers sorts of fruits good to eat, flowers and trees of such variety, as were sufficient to make tenne volumes of herbals: we relieued our selues many times with the fruits of the countrey, and sometimes with fowle and fish. Wee saw birds of all colours, some carnation, some crimson, orenge-tawny, purple, watchet and of all other sorts both simple and mixt, and it was vnto vs a great good passing of the time to beholde them, besides the reliefe we found by killing some store of them with our fowling pieces: without which, hauing little or no bread, and lesse drinke, but onely the thicke and troubled water of the riuer, we had beene in a very hard case. Our olde pilot of the Ciawani (whom, as I sayd before, wee tooke to redeeme Ferdinando) tolde vs, that if we would enter a branch of a riuer on the right hand with our barge and wheries, and leaue the galley at anker the while in the great riuer, he would bring vs to a towne of the Arwacas, where we should finde store of bread, hennes, fish, and of the countrey wine; and perswaded vs that departing from the galley at noone, we might returne yer night. I was very glad to heare this speech, and presently tooke my barke, with eight musketiers, captaine Giffords whery, with myselfe and foure musketiers and Captaine Calfield with his whery, and as many; and so we entred the mouth of this riuer: and because we were perswaded that it was so nere, we tooke no victuall with vs at all. When we had rowed three houres, we maruelled we saw no signe of any dwelling, and asked the pilot where the towne was: he tolde vs a little further. After three houres more, the Sun being almost set, we began to suspect that he led vs that way to betray vs; for hee confessed that those Spaniards which fled from Trinidad, and also those that remained with Carapana in Emeria, were ioyned together in some village vpon that riuer. But when it grew towards night; and wee demanded where the place was: hee tolde vs but foure reaches more. When we had rowed foure and foure, we saw no signe; and our poore water-men, euen heart-broken, and tired, were ready to giue up the ghost: for we had now come from the galley neere forty miles. At the last we determined to hang the pilot; and if wee had well knowen the way backe againe by night, we had surely gone; but our owne necessities pleaded sufficiently for his safety: for it was as darke as pitch, and the riuer began so to narrow it selfe, and the trees to hang ouer from side to side, as wee were driuen with arming swords to cut a passage thorow those branches that couered the water. Wee were very desirous to finde this towne, hoping of a feast, because wee made but a short breakefast aboord the galley in the morning and it was now eight a clocke at night, and our stomacks began to gnawe apace: but whether it was best to returne or goe on, we beganne to doubt, suspecting treason in the pilot more and more: but the poore olde Indian euer assured vs that it was but a little further, but this one turning and that turning: and at the last about one a clocke after midnight wee saw a light; and rowing towards it, wee heard the dogges of the village. When we landed wee found few people; for the lord of that place was gone with diuers canoas aboue foure hundred miles off, vpon a iourney towardes the head of Orenoque to trade for golde, and to buy women of the Canibals, who afterward vnfortunately passed by vs as wee rode at an anker in the port of Morequito in the darke of the night, and yet came so neere vs, as his canoas grated against our barges: he left one of his company at the port of Morequito, by whom wee vnderstood that hee had brought thirty yoong women, diuers plates of golde, and had great store of fine pieces of cotton cloth, and cotton beds. In his house we had good store of bread, fish, hennes, and Indian drinke, and so rested that night, and in the morning after we had traded with such of his people as came downe, we returned towards our gally, and brought with vs some quantity of bread, fish, and hennes. [Sidenote: A most beautifull countrey.] On both sides of this riuer we passed the most beautifull countrey that euer mine eyes beheld: and whereas all that we had seene before was nothing but woods, prickles, bushes, and thornes, here we beheld plaines of twenty miles in length, the grasse short and greene, and in diuers parts groues of trees by themselues, as if they had beene by all the arte and labour in the world so made of purpose: and still as we rowed, the deere came downe feeding by the waters side, as if they had beene vsed to a keepers call. [Sidenote: The riuer of Lagartos, or Crocodiles.] Vpon this riuer there were great store of fowle, and of many sorts: we saw in it diuers sorts of strange fishes, and of maruellous bignes: but for lagartos it exceeded, for there were thousands of those vgly serpents; and the people call it for the abundance of them, The riuer of Lagartos, in their language. I had a Negro a very proper yoong fellow, who leaping out of the galley to swim in the mouth of this riuer, was in all our sights taken and deuoured with one of those lagartos. In the meane while our companies in the gally thought we had bene all lost, (for wee promised to returne before night) and sent the Lions whelps shippes boat with captaine Whiddon to follow vs vp the riuer; but the next day, after we had rowed vp and downe some fourescore miles, we returned, and went on our way, vp the great riuer; and when we were euen at the last cast for want of victuals, captaine Gifford being before the galley and the rest of the boats, seeking out some place to land vpon the banks to make fire, espied foure canoas comming downe the riuer; [Sidenote: Two canoas taken.] and with no small ioy caused his men to trie the vttermost of their strengths, and after a while two of the foure gaue ouer, and ranne themselues ashore, euery man betaking himselfe to the fastnesse of the woods, the two other lesser got away, while he landed to lay hold on these: and so turned into some by-creeke, we knew not whither. [Sidenote: Three Spanyards escaped.] Those canoas that were taken, were loaden with bread, and were bound for Margarita in the West Indies, which those Indians (called Arwacas) purposed to cary thither for exchange: but in the lesser there were three Spanyards, who hauing heard of the defeat of their gouernour in Trinidad, and that we purposed to enter Guiana, came away in those canoas: one of them was a cauallero; as the captaine of the Arwacas after tolde vs, another a souldier, and the third a refiner. END OF VOL. XIV. * * * * * Transcriber's note: Blank pages have been deleted. Footnotes have been moved below the paragraphs that reference them. Some sidenotes have been moved, separated or merged. When the author's preference can be determined, we have rendered consistent on a per-word-pair basis the hyphenation or spacing of such pairs when repeated in the same grammatical context. The publisher's inadvertent omissions of important punctuation have been corrected. A table of contents has been added. Duplicative front matter has been removed. The chapter heading format has been made more consistent. The following list indicates any additional changes. The page number represents that of the original publication and applies in this etext except for footnotes and illustrations since they may have been moved. Page Change 5 (Continuation of Part II.)[Added line.] 14 with great sprindges[springes], which lifted vp their feete 15 Great snow about the twentith[twentieth] of March. 17 neere vnto the prouince of Guachoyn[Guachoya]: 22 and that they would quit and and[Deleted 'and'.] free him 23 of their diposition[disposition], and because they were 38 aboue the Riuer in a Prouince called Taguante[Taguanate], 40 The Ruier[Riuer] increaseth but once a yeere when the snowes doe 40 Another day came some from Tanguanate[Taguanate], 41 for pure hunger and weaknesse. The Gourernour[Gouernour] 43 Guachoya had told him coucerning[concerning] himselfe, 44 canoes of the Saniards[Spaniards], and ouerwhelme them; 50 it, as though they had bin venomous. In the mornin-[morning] 51 from North to South, aud[and] thitherto they had runne 51 midday forward they saw gerat[great] Mountaines, which vntill 52 tho[the] current, they went close to the shore, 69 This was the valley of Coracones[Coraçones]. 75 had information of the woollen cloth of Tontonteac[Totonteac], 75 which were furnised[furnished] from thence with things 79 which stoode without the citie, and straightway[streightway] 85 se partio con ocho soldados, qûe[que] de voluntad le quisieron 85 pocos dias de camino toparaon[toparon] con vna Prouincia 85 quedaron ellos en la dicha Prouiucia[Prouincia] con 88 vna Prouiucia[Prouincia] grande, y de muchos pueblos con 90 cueros de venados tan bien aderçados[adereçados] como los 91 Andauan vestitos[vestidos] de algodon, 91 y que la rongan[pongan] por obra. 91 as[las] tierras de Cibola, donde ay muchas vacas, de 92 que bastan a partir pòr[por] medio vn hombre, 93 a su Megestad[Magestad], como testigos de vista: 95 con neue[nueve] companneros que 97 y que en las riberas del de vna y orta[otra] banda ay 99 que tantas almas rededimas con su saugre[sangre] no se 104 for the space of twelue dayes traul[trauel], 106 as well dresssd[dressed] as those of 108 together with the three Indian boyes, and the mestico[mestiço]. 112 demomonstration[demonstration] of ioy and gladnes 114 they got glistering[glistening] and good metal 115 concering[concerning] the speedy building of two strong Forts 115 to Francis Hernandes of Siuil, concering[concerning] the 117 last past I departed from the prouinice[prouince] 118 the place which the father prouininciall[prouinciall] tolde vs 119 whereby certaine Indians were releiued[relieued] and some 121 doubt that some mishappe is is[del is] fallen vnto 125 good houses of three or foure ou[or] fiue lofts high, 125 prouinces whereof the Father prouncial[prouincial] made report 128 they are ruminated[ruinated] by warre 128 neuer, thelesse[neverthelesse] I must say the trueth 132 which was with him of of[del 2nd of] the prouince 135 with some dozen Indians of Meehuacan[Mechuacan], 137 The horses fleddde[fledde] from them, 145 and al other necesssary[necessary] apparel 149 and euery peso is 4.s[.] 8.d. of our money 150 perceiued to be preiudicall[preiudiciall] to the Romish doctrine 152 sweeter the the[Deleted 2nd 'the'.] countrey 154 Wine and olye[oyle] there is none growing 154 as some say it is, but a berrie that growteh[groweth] 155 the Contractation[Contratation] house, and there receiued my 156 which he esteemed aboue any treasure for for[Deleted 'for'.] 159 that euer was built iu[in] the Indies, 160 out of a ship called the Iesus of Lubec[Lubeck] 162 the ships, both from Peru, Hunduras[Honduras], Porto rico, 163 a bishop and about forty Spanyardsr[Spanyards.] Among 163 hundred Spanyards. In this couutrey[countrey] 165 a great wood about two leagus[leagues] 166 the Casique brough[brought] it from Shallapa 167 from the sea side to the mines of Secatecas[Sacatecas], 171 into into[Deleted 'into'.] the countrey. 173 The Indiaus[Indians] know a way to drowne 174 they haue vsed much lobour[labour] and diligence 175 This captine[captaine] lacking things necessary 175 had a great checke of the goueruour[gouernour] 177 which was fiue yerees[yeeres], 177 The people of the countrey are of good statute[stature], 179 and bring their masster[master] so much metall 178 Sidenote The Indians ignroance[ignorance] from whence they 180 then to fine their oare wite[with] lead. 180 little set by in these pars[parts], 182 and much Cinamom[Cinamon], 188 to graunt[grant] him succour and ayde against those 188 and held on the former entended[intended] voyage: 194 the first Northwinde that blewe, we had had[Deleted 'had'.] our 204 he had bene besore[before] shot with an arrow into the throat 207 who threatend[threatned] to hang vs for breaking 209 proclamation made vpon paine of loosing[losing] of goods 211 scaffold or place of iudgmeut[iudgment] vpon the morrow 211 maket[market] place in Mexico right ouer against 213 caried to be shewed as a spectacle for all the peoble[people] 214 and they hate and obhorre[abhorre] the Spaniards 215 demaunded[demanded] why I did not marrie 221 I bought me an horse of one of the the[Deleted 'the'.] Indians, 226 foule weather did sepatate[separate] them, to meete at the 231 cansed[caused] them to be beheaded, 234 mongst[amongst] the enemies, then to sterue[serue] on ship 240 the Admirall,[.] When it was day 244 The Port and small harbour of Techuanapa[Tecuanapa] hath 245 The place is very hoat[hot], 250 wherwith [wherewith] he made three long and famous 252 [Sidenote: A for[fort] built in Brasil by the English.] 265 the laying out of one thoussand[thousand]. 267 Salomon spending her mast at the Range of Darmouth[Dartmouth], 269 where we might in best safety set our gallly[gally]-frigat 272 the gouerner[governor] of the towne sent 272 but God sent vs now for a generall scourage[scourge] to them all 285 certified Manuel Mascarenhas of these informtions[informations] 286 Sidenote All the Canbals[Canibals] of Petiguar 288 Maiestie so iustly as he will do who wil[will] 288 but he shall shall[Deleted 'shall'.] lose all the countrey. 306 disouery[discouery] of the Malucos by the North. 317 OF THE GULFE OF CALIFONIA[CALIFORNIA], AND OF THE SEA COAST 317 THE OCEAN SEA FROM CHINA AND IAPAN TO THE NOTHWEST[NORTHWEST] 325 an Island in the sea, within a crossse[crosse]-bow shoote 326 The hauhn[hauen] of S. Andrew 329 shore, for she[he] also had seene them, 330 ranne through that greene couutrey[countrey] 331 and on Tewesday[Tewsday] at breake of day 331 great hauen, euuironed[enuironed] with diuers small hilles 346 they detemined[determined] to retire to their boats 348 very faire and shinining[shining] sea-oyster of pearles 350 meane while our Chicimeco[Chichimeco] interpreter 358 when we came from Nuena[Nueua] Espanna: 365 passed beweene[betweene] the Indians and those of the Trinity 367 Indians,*[Deleted '*', no footnote.] where we had slaine the 369 with greene shrubs very plesant[pleasant] to behold 372 We began therfore[therefore] to set forward, 376 We sailed on Munday and Tewsday til noon[noone] 386 hauens along by those coastes to the hauen of Acupulco[Acapulco]. 395 being not well acqainted[acquainted] with that 404 and thefore[therefore] I sent him backe very well contented 411 Certaine newes of the Spanyaads[Spanyards] at 411 hose[those] people as I had done vnto 413 met them on the way, whem[when] they went to see 414 and that I should not there, fore[therefore] depart thence 414 without al[a] doubt would come to annoy them, 415 and how it might be that in those sixeteeene[sixteene] dayes 426 which ly[lye] towardes the sea: 427 with her hignes[highnesse] picture and armes 429 of gall continue in eternall distast ;[distaste;] 431 mountanous[mountainous], so full of woodes, riuers, and marishes 439 made them merrie, in which mood they vaunted o[of] Guiana 442 it could not be obtened[obteined] in other sort then[than] this: 443 and as many or moe[more] great Cities 445 Thuet[Theuet] describeth, is but a branch of Amazones 446 And hereof it came that Martines[Martinez] entred so 448 built his brigandines vpon a riuer colled[called] Oia 449 landed at Cumaná[Cumana] in the West Indies, 458 and toke[tooke] diuers prisoners, among others they tooke 461 of a riuer called Capuri, whose entrace[entrance] I had 469 canaos[canoas] one of them was a cauallero; as 469 night, when the Trinite[Trinitie] againe 
7769	----	** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are moved to the nearest convenient break in the text. ** End Transcriber's Notes ** The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, AND Discoveries OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER, AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. IV. NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE, AND ADJACENT COUNTRIES. PART III. THE MUSCOVY COMPANY AND THE NORTH-EASTERN PASSAGE. SECTION II. Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries in NORTH-EASTERN EUROPE. The Priuiledges graunted by the Emperour of Russia to the English merchants of that company: obteined the 22. of September, Anno 1567. by M. Anthony Ienkinson. One onely strengthener of all things, and God without beginning, which was before the world, the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, our onely God in Trinitie, and maker of all things whom we worship in all things, and in all places, the doer and fulfiller of all things, which is the perfect knowledge giuer of the true God, our Lorde Iesus Christ, with the comforter the holy Spirit, and thou which art the strengthener of our faith, keepe vs together, and giue vs health to preserue our kingdome, thou giuer of all good fruites, and helper of all Christian beleeuers. We great lord by the grace of God, and great duke Iohn Vasiliwich of all Russia, Volodimer, Mosco, Nouogrod, Cazan, Astracan, Plesco, Smolensko, Tweria, Yougorie, Fadika, Bulgar, Sybier and others, Emperour and great duke of Nouogrod of the lower land of Chernygo, Rezan, Polotski, Rostoue, Yereslaue, Bealozera, Oudoria, Obdorio, Condensa, and lord of many other lands, and of all the North parts, commander and lord of Lifland. Whereas our sister Queene Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queene of England, France and Ireland, hath written to vs her letters, that wee would graunt her merchants, William Garrard, William Chester, Rowland Heyward, Lawrence Hussie, Iohn Marsh, Anthony Ienkinson, William Rowly, and their company of England, to come in ships into this kingdome, and those merchants, William Garrard and his company haue required of vs that we would graunt and licence them to come into our countrey of Dwina, with all kind of wares at wil, to our City of Mosco, and to all our castles in our kingdomes, we for our sisters sake Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queene of England, France and Ireland, haue licenced her merchants, William Garrard and his company to passe in ships to our kingdome of Colmogro, and to the land of Dwina, and to all other our inheritances in the North parts, with all kind of wares to our city of Mosco, and to all castles and townes in our kingdome. And sir William Garrard and his company desired of vs, that we would graunt them licence to passe to our inheritance of Cazan and Astracan, and into our inheritance of Nouogrod the great, and to our inheritance of Lifland to Narue and Dorpe, and to other our castles and townes of Lifland, with all kinde of wares, and the trade to be without custome, which request we haue graunted to sir William Garrard and his company, and haue giuen them licence to passe to our inheritance of Cazan and Astracan, and Nouogrod the great, and into our inheritance of Lifland, Narue and Dorpe, and other places of our inheritance in Lifland with all kinde of wares, to buy, barter and sell at will, without custome: and what wares soeuer they bring out of England, or out of any other countrey, needfull or necessary, that they shall bring all those wares needfull or necessary to our treasury, and those wares there to be opened, and then to take out of the same such wares as shalbe needful for our treasury, and the rest being deliuered againe, to sell and barter at their pleasure, and to sell none of the fine wares before they be seene of our chancellers, except sorting clothes, and other wares not meat for our treasury: and when our chanceller will send our treasure out of our treasury with them, they shall take it with them, and so sell and barter it for wares meet for our treasury, and bring it to our treasury, and they to take no other mens wares to barter or sell with them, nor yet our people to buy or sell for them their wares: and if those English merchants do desire to passe out of our kingdome of Astracan to Boghar, Shamaky, Chaday, or into any other countreys, or els go into their owne countrey, then they to take their treasure with them, and to barter and sell it for wares necessary for our treasury, and to bring it and deliuer it to our chancellor, and when they come backe againe to our inheritance of Cazan and Astracan, or to any other of our castles and townes, that then our captaine of Cazan and Astracan, and all other our people of charge shall not holde them, but with speed let them passe without taking custome of them or their wares, and without opening or looking vpon them in any wise: and when they haue not our treasure with them, that then likewise no custome shalbe taken of them nor their wares to be seene of any man. And likewise we haue granted them to buy and sell in all our kingdomes and castles, with all kinde of wares: and we haue also licenced them, that when those English merchants do desire to buy and sell with our merchants wholly together, that they shall haue liberty so to do wholly together: and they that do desire to sell their owne wares by retaile in their owne house, that then they sell it in their own house by retaile to our people, and other strangers, as they can agree: and weights and arshnids to be kept in their house with our seale, and they themselues to barter and sell their owne wares: and no Russe merchant in Mosco, or any other place in our kingdome to sell for them any wares, nor to buy or barter any wares for them, nor couler any strangers goods. And whereas those merchants of England, sir William Garrard and his company do desire to sell their wares at Colmogro, Dwina, Vologda, Yeraslaue, Costrum, and in Nouogrod the lower, Cazan, Astracan, great Nouogrod, Plesko, Narue, Dorpe, and in other our townes and castles, they shall haue their will to sell it: and of their wares of England and Russeland no custome shalbe taken, neither they nor their wares shalbe stayed in any place: and when they depart out of Mosco, to aduertise our chancellor thereof, and not to giue any note or inuentory of any kinde of their wares they cary away: and when the English merchants, sir William Garrard and his company do come vpon the sea, and by misfortune haue their ships cast away vpon those coasts of the North parts, then we will their goods to be sought out with trueth, and to be deliuered to sir William Garrard and his company, which as then shall be found in our countrey: and if that sir William Garrards company be not in the Mosco nor in our countrey: then we will and command that those goods of theirs shall be layd vp in a place of safegard vntil such time as the said sir William Garrard or his company come to demand the same: and then at their comming we will that it shall be deliuered. And whereas heretofore we haue giuen sir William Garrard and his company in this our kingdome of Mosco the new castle by the church of S. Maxim behinde the market, they shal there stil holde their house as heretofore we haue giuen them, paying no custome for the same: and we also do licence them to keepe one Russe porter or two or els of their owne countrey, and those porters shall dwell with them, and not sell for them, nor barter, nor buy for them: And also I haue granted them to buy a house at Volodga and at Colmogro, or in any other place where they can chuse for them selues any good harbour, and there they to set vp those houses in those places at their owne charges: and in Vologda or the other houses to keepe two or three porters of their owne, or else two or three Russes, and their wares to be layed vp in those houses, and to sell their owne wares at will: and the porters without them to sell none of their wares, neither yet to buy any for them. And our officers of Colmogro and Dwina, and of other our castles and townes shall not looke ouer their wares, nor take any custome thereof: neither shall those English merchants sir William Garrard and his company be iudged by any of them. And when the English merchants shall send from our kingdome their owne people into their owne countrey by land ouer other kingdomes whatsoeuer they be, they may without ware send their owne people at their pleasure. And when any matter of law doth fall out in their trade of merchandise, then they shall be iudged by our chancellers and law shalbe done with equitie betwixt our people and them: and when they cannot be iudged by law, they then shal be tried by lots, and whose lot is first taken out, he shall haue the right. [Sidenote: Triall by lots.] And if it happen any of those merchants to haue any matter of law in any other part of our dominions for trade of merchants, then our captaines, iudges, and chiefe officers shall heare the matter, and administer iustice with equity and trueth, and where law can take no place, to be tried by lots, and his lot that is first taken out to haue the right, and for their matters of law no custome to be payed. [Sidenote: The riuer of Ob traffikable.] Furthermore, we for our sisters sake Elizabeth haue granted, that none beside sir William Garrard and his company, out of what kingdome soeuer it be, England or other, shall come in trade of merchandise nor otherwise to Colmogro, nor to the riuer Ob, nor within Wardhouse, nor to Petzora, nor Cola, nor Mezen, nor to the abbey of Petchingo, nor to the island of Shallawy, nor to any mouth of the riuer of Dwina, nor to any part of the North countrey of our coast. And if any merchant, out of what countrey soeuer it be, doe come with ship or shippes, busses, or any other kinde of vessell to any of our harbours, within all our North parts, we will that then the people and goods, ship or ships, shalbe confiscate, and forfeited to vs the Emperour and great Duke. Giuen in our kingdome and house of Mosco, the yeere from the beginning of the world 7076, in the moneth of September, and in the 34 yeere of our reigne, and in our conquest of Cazan 16, and in our conquest of Astracan 15. Perused and allowed by vs: Anthonie Ienkinson. William Rowly. Thomas Hawtry. Thomas Sowtham. Rafe Rutter, our translatour hereof of the Russe tongue. * * * * * A letter of M. Henrie Lane to M. Richard Hakluit, concerning the first ambassage to our most gracious Queene Elizabeth from the Russian Emperour anno 1567, and other notable matters incident to those places and times. Worshipfull sir, because I finde you haue the successe and proceedings of Osep Napea the first ambassadour of the Russian Emperour to the Maiesties of King Philip and Queene Marie, at what time and at his returne I was remaining in Russia, and do not finde that the perfect knowledge of the first ambassage from thence to this our Souereigne Ladie Queene Elizabeth is come to your hands, betweene whose Highnesse and the ambassadours I was interpretour, I thinke good to expresse it. In August Anno 1567 arriued at London with their retinue two especiall authorised messengers, named Stephen Twerdico, and Theodore Pogorella, with letters and presents to her Maiesty, at that time being at Otelands, where diuers of the chiefe merchants of the Russian company did associate them, and I there doing my duetie and office of interpretour, her Maiestie gaue them audience. First they rehearsed the long stile and Maiesty of their Master, with his most friendly and hearty commendations to her Highnesse, and then they testified the singuler great ioy and pleasure that he conceiued to heare of her most princely estate, dignitie and health: and lastly, they deliuered their letters and presents. The presents sent vnto her Maiesty were Sables, both in paires for tippets, and two timbars, to wit, two times fortie, with Luserns and other rich furres. [Sidenote: The vse of furres wholesome, delicate, graue and comely.] For at that time that princely ancient ornament of furres was yet in vse. And great pitie but that it might be renewed, especiall in Court, and among Magistrates, not onely for the restoring of an olde worshipfull Art and Companie, but also because they be for our climate wholesome, delicate, graue and comely: expressing dignitie, comforting age, and of longer continuance, and better with small cost to be preserued, then these new silks, shagges, and ragges, wherein a great part of the wealth of the land is hastily consumed. These ambassadours were appointed lodging and enterteinement by the Moscouie company at their house then in Seething Lane, and were sundrie times after permitted to be in presence. And in May 1568 tooke their leaue at Greenwich, where they vnderstood and had the Queenes Maiesties minde, letters and reward. [Sidenote: The trade to S. Nicholas offensiue to diuers princes and states Eastward.] At the latter part of her talke, her Highnesse considering that our trade to Saint Nicholas since the beginning had bene offensiue to diuers princes, states, and merchants Eastward vsed these speeches or the like: Who is or shall be more touched by detractours, with flying tales and vntrue reports, then Princes and Rulers, to the breach of loue and vnitie? your Master and I in things that passe by word and writing, I doubt not will keepe and performe promises. If he heare the contrary of me, let him suspend his iudgement, and not be light of credit, and so will I. These words they termed her Maiesties golden speech: and kneeling downe, kissed her hand, and departed. The letters that these two messengers brought, were deliuered to me by my Lord Treasurour, being then Secretarie, to be translated, the copies whereof I had, but now cannot finde. The copie of the Queenes Maiesties letter I send inclosed herewith vnto your worship. I also haue sent you a copy of a letter written from the king of Polonia to the Queenes Maiestie, with other letters from some of our nation and factours, declaring the displeasure for our trafficke to the Russes from Anno 1558 to the yere 1566, especially by the way of the Narue: in which yere of 1566, hauing generall procuration and commission from the Company, I was in the Low countrey at Antwerpe and Amsterdam, and sometimes in company with Polacks, Danskers, and Easterlings: and by, reason I had bene a lidger in Russia, I could the better reply and proue, that their owne nations and the Italians were most guiltie of the accusations written by the king of Poland. This king Sigismundus [Footnote: Sigismund II, the last of the Jagellon race, added Livonia to his kingdom. He reigned from 1548 to 1572. It was after his death that the King of Poland became an elective instead of an heritary sovereign.] (whose ambassadours very sumptuous I haue seene at Mosco) was reported to be too milde in suffering the Moscouites. [Sidenote: Smolensko won by the Russe.] Before our trafficke they ouerranne his great dukedome of Lituania, and tooke Smolensco, carrying the people captiues to Mosco. [Sidenote: Polotzko taken.] And in the yere 1563, as appeareth by Thomas Alcocks letter, they suffered the Russe likewise in that Duchy to take a principall city called Polotzko, with the lord and people thereof. Likewise the said Sigismundus and the king of Sweden did not looke to the protection of Liuonia, but lost all, except Rie and Reuel, and the Russe made the Narue his port to trafficke, not onely to vs, but to Lubec and others, generall. And still from those parts the Moscouites were furnished out of Dutchland by enterlopers with all arts and artificers, and had few or none by vs. The Italians also furnished them with engines of warre, and taught them warrelike stratagemes, and the arte of fortification. In the dayes of Sigismund the Russe would tant the Polacks, that they loued their ease at home with their wiues, and to drinke, and were not at commandement of their king. This Sigismund had to wife the daughter of Ferdinando, Charles the fifts brother, and he died without issue. [Sidenote: Polotzko recouered by Stephanus Batore.] Since, which time their late elected king Stephanus Batore [Footnote: Stephen Bathore, the second Elected-King, established the Cossacks as a militia. He died in 1586.] kept the Russe in better order, and recouered Polotzko againe in the yere 1579. Thus with my hearty farewell I take my leaue of your worship. Your assured friend Henrie Lane. * * * * * A Letter of the most excellent Maiestie of Queene Elizabeth, sent by Stephen Twerdico and Pheodata Pogorella, messengers of the Emperour of Russia, vnto their Master the 9th of May 1568. Imperatori Moscouitarum, &c. ELIZABETHA &c. Literas vestræ, Maiestatis superiori anno 1567, decimo die mensis Aprilis datas, vestri mercatores Stephanus Twerdico, et Pheodata Pogorella, qui has nostras perferunt, nobis tradidere. Quos vestros mercatores in omni suo apud nos et nostros obeundo negotio, ita tractari, et libenti voluntate, et expresso nostro mandato curauimus, vt non solum vestræ Maiestatis pro illis postulationi, sed eorundem etiam hominum expectationi plenè satisfactum esse confidamus. Id quod eò fecimus studiosiùs, quod plane perspectum, probéque cognitum habeamus, nostros omnes, qui bona cum gratia nostra, nostrarúmque literarum commendatione, istuc, sub vestro imperio negotiaturi veniunt, pari, cum vestræ Maiestatis fauore, tum vestrorum subditorum humanitate, vbiuis acceptos esse. Quæ nostra vtrobique, et muttuæ inter nos amicitiæ et gratæ inter nostros beneuolentiæ officia, vt crebra et perpetua existant, nos admodum postulamus. Quem animi nostri sensnm fusius hi vestri, et opportunius suo sermone coram declarabunt: Quibus non dubitamus, quin vestra Maiestas amplam fidem sit tributura. Deus &c. Grenouici nono die Maij 1567. * * * * * The ambassage of the right worshipfulll Master Thomas Randolfe, Esquire, to the Emperour of Russia, in the yeere 1568, briefly written by himselfe. [Sidenote: In this voyage went Thomas Bannister, and Geofrey Ducket, for their voyage into Persia.] The 22 day of Iune, in the yere of our Lord 1568, I went aboord the Harry, lying in the road at Harwich with my company, being to the number of fortie persons or thereabout: of which the one halfe were gentlemen, desirous to see the world. Within one dayes sailing, we were out of the sight of land, and following our course directly North, till we came to the North Cape, we sailed for the space of twelue dayes with a prosperous winde, without tempest or outrage of sea: hauing compassed the North Cape we directed our course flat Southeast, hauing vpon our right hand Norway, Wardhouse, Lapland, all out of sight till we came to Cape Gallant: and so sailing betweene two bayes, the two and thirtieth day after our departure from Harwich, we cast ancre at Saint Nicholas road. In all the time of our voyage, more then the great number of Whales ingendering together, which we might plainly beholde, and the Sperma Cetæ, which we might see swimming vpon the sea, there was no great thing to be woondered at. Sometimes we had calmes, wherein our Mariners fished, and tooke good store of diuers sorts. [Sidenote: The abbey of S. Nicholas of 20 monks.] At S. Nicholas we landed the 23 of Iuly, where there standeth an abbey of Monks (to the number of twentie) built all of wood: the apparell of the Monks is superstitious, in blacke hoods, as ours haue bene. Their Church is faire, but full of painted images, tapers, and candles. Their owne houses are low, and small roomes. They lie apart, they eat together, and are much giuen to drunkennesse, vnlearned, write they can, preach they doe neuer, ceremonious in their Church, and long in their prayers. At my first arriuall I was presented from their Prior with two great rie loaues, fish both salt and fresh of diuers sorts, both sea fish and fresh water, one sheepe aliue, blacke, with a white face, to be the more gratefull vnto me, and so with many solemne words inuiting me to see their house, they tooke their leaue. [Sidenote: The English house at S. Nicholas.] Towne or habitation at S. Nicholas there is none more then about foure houses neere the abbey, and another built by the English Company for their owne vse. This part of the countrey is most part wood, sauing here and there pasture and arable ground, many riuers and diuers Islands vnhabited, as the most part of the countrey is, for the coldnesse in Winter. S. Nicholas standeth Northeast: the eleuation of the pole 64 degrees. [Sidenote: The riuer of Dwina.] The riuer that runneth there into the sea is called Dwina, very large, but shallow. This riuer taketh his beginning about 700 miles within the countrey, and vpon the riuer standeth Colmogro, and many prety villages, well situated for pasture, arable land, wood, and water. The riuer pleasant betweene hie hils of either side inwardly. inhabited, and in a maner a wildernesse of hie firre trees, and other wood. [Sidenote: Colmogro.] At Colmgoro being 100 versts, which we account for three quarters of a mile euery verst, we taried three weeks, not being suffered to depart before the Emperour had word of our comming, who sent to meet vs a gentleman of his house, to conuey vs, and to see vs furnished of victuals, and all things needfull, vpon his owne charge. The allowance of meat and drinke was for euery day two rubbles, besides the charge of boats by water, and foure score post horses by land, with aboue 100 carts to cary my wines, and other cariage. Colmogro is a great towne builded all of wood, not walled, but scattered house from house. The people are rude in maners, and in apparell homely, sauing vpon their festiuall, and marriage dayes. The people of this town finding commodity by the English mens traffike with them are much at their commandement, giuen much to drunkenesse, and all other kind of abominable vices. [Sidenote: An English house with lands at Colmogro.] In this towne the English men haue lands of their owne, giuen them by the Emperour, and faire houses, with offices for their commodity, very many. Of other townes vntill I come to Vologda, I write not, because they are much like to this, and the inhabitants not differing from them. I was fiue whole weeks vpon the riuer of Dwina till I came to Vologda, being drawen with men against the streame, for other passage there is none. Vologda standeth vpon the riuer of Vologda, which commeth into Dwina. The towne is great and long, built all of wood, as all their townes are. In this towne the Emperour hath built a castle inuironed with a wall of stone, and bricke, the walles faire and hie, round about. Here (as in all other their townes) are many Churches; some built of bricke, the rest of wood, many Monks and Nunnes in it: a towne also of great traffike, and many rich merchants there dwelling. From hence we passed by land towards Mosco in poste, being 500 versts great, which are equall with our miles. In their townes we baited or lay, being post townes. [Sidenote: The description of the inland of Moscouie.] The countrey is very faire, plaine and pleasant, well inhabited, corne, pasture, medowes enough, riuers, and woods, faire and goodly. At Yeraslaue we passed the riuer of Volga, more than a mile ouer. This riuer taketh his beginning at Beal Ozera, and descendeth into Mare Caspium, portable thorow of very great vessels with flat bottomes, which farre passe any that our countrey vseth. To saile by this riuer into Mare Caspium the English company caused a barke to be built of 27 tunns, which there was neuer seene before: This barke built and ready rigged to the sea with her whole furniture cost not the company aboue one hundreth marks there. [Footnote: His arriual at Mosco.] To Mosco we came about the end of September, receiued by no man, not so much as our owne countreymen suffered to meet vs, which bred suspition in me of some other course intended, then we had hitheto found. [Footnote: A special house at Mosco, built for Ambassadours.] We were brought to a house built of purpose by the Emperour for Ambassadours, faire and large, after the fashion of that countrey. Two gentlemen were appointed to attend vpon me, the one to see vs furnished of victuals, and that we lacked nothing of the Emperors allowance: the other to see that we should not goe out of the house, nor suffer any man to come vnto vs, in which they left nothing vndone that belonged to their charge. But specially he that looked to our persons so straightly handled vs; that we had no small cause to doubt that some euill had bene intended vnto vs. No supplication, sute, or request could take place for our liberty, nor yet to come to his presence. Hauing passed ouer 17 weeks in this sort, the Emperour sendeth word that we should be ready against Tuesday the 20 of Februarie, at eight a clocke in the morning. [Sidenote: Two Pristaues.] The houre being come that I should go to the Court, the two gentlemen Pristaues (as they call them) came vnto me apparelled more princely then before I had euer seene them. They presse vs to depart, and mounted vpon their owne horses, and the Ambassador vpon such a one as he had borrowed, his men marching on foot, to their great griefe. The Ambassadour (being my selfe) was conueyed into an office where one of the chancellors doeth vse to sit, being there accompanied with the two foresayd gentlemen: I taried two long houres before I was sent for to the Emperor. In the end message being brought that the Emperour was set, I was conueyed by my gentlemen vp a paire of staires thorow a large roome, where sate by my estimation 300 persons, all in rich attire, taken out of the Emperors wardrobe for that day, vpon three ranks of benches, set round about the place, rather to present a maiestie, then that they were either of quality or honor. [Sidenote: His admission to the Emperors presence.] At the first entry into the chamber I with my cap gaue them the reuerence, such as I iudged, their stately sitting, graue countenances and sumptuous apparell required, and seeing that it was not answered againe of any of them I couered my head, and so passing to a chamber where the Emperor was, there receiued me at the doore from my two gentlemen or gouernors, two of the Emperors counsellors, and shewed me to the Emperor, and brought me to the middle of the chamber, where I was willed to stand still, and to say that which I had to say. I by my Interpretor opened my message as I receiued it from the Queene my Mistresse, from whom I came, at whose name the Emperor stood vp, and demanded diuers questions of her health and state: whereunto answere being made, he gaue me his hand in token of my welcome, and caused me to sit downe, and further asked me diuers questions. [Sidenote: The Queenes present.] This done, I deliuered her Maiesties present, which was a notable great Cup of siluer curiously wrought, with verses grauen in it, expressing the histories workmanly set out in the same. [Sidenote: The Emperors speech to the Ambassadour.] All being sayd and done (as appeared) to his contentment, he licenced me and my whole company to depart, who were all in his presence, and were saluted by him with a nod of his head, and sayd vnto me: I dine not this day openly for great affaires I haue, but I will send thee my dinner, and giue leaue to thee and thine to go at liberty, and augment our allowance to thee, in token of our loue and fauor to our sister the Queene of England. I with reuerence tooke my leaue, being conueyed by two other of greater calling then those that brought me to the Emperors sight, who deliuered me to the two first gentlemen, who conducted me to the office where I first was, where came vnto me one called the Long duke, with whom I conferred a while, and so returned to my lodging. Within one houre after in comes to my lodging a duke richly apparelled, accompanied with fiftie persons, ech of them carying a siluer dish with meat, and couered with siluer. The duke first deliuered twenty loaues of bread of the Emperors owne eating, hauing tasted the same, and deliuered eury dish into my hands, and tasted of euery kinde of drinke that he brought. This being donel the duke and his company sate downe with me, and tooke part of the Emperors meat, and filled themselues well of all sorts, and went not away from me vnrewarded. Within few nights after the Emperour had will to speake secretly with me, and sent for me in the night by the Long duke: the place was farre off, and the night colde; and I hauing changed my apparell into such as the Russes do weare, found great incommoditie thereby. [Sidenote: A second conference with the Emperor.] Hauing talked with him aboue three houres, towards the morning I was dismissed, and so came home to my lodging, where I remained aboue six weeks after, before I heard againe from the Emperour, who went the next day to Slouoda, the house of his solace. After the end of which sixe weeks, which was about the beginning of April, the Emperour returned from Slouoda aforesayd, and sent for me againe to make repaire vnto him. And being come, I dealt effectually with him in the behalfe of our English merchants, and found him so graciously inclined towards them, that I obtained at his hands my whole demands for large priuileges in generall, together with all the rest my particular requests. [Sidenote: Andrew Sauin Ambassadour to the Queene.] And then he commended to my conduct into England, a noble man of his, called Andrew Sauin, as his Ambassadour, for the better confirmation of his priuileges granted, and other negotiations with her Maiesty. And thus being dispatched with full contentment, the sayd Ambassadour and my selfe departed, and imbarked at S. Nicholas about the end of Iuly, and arriued safely at London in the moneth of September following. * * * * * A copie of the priuiledges granted by the right high and mightie Prince, the Emperour of Russia, &c. vnto the right worshipfull fellowship of English merchants, for the discouerie of new trades: and hither sent by Thomas Randolfe esquire, her Maiesties Ambassadour to the sayd Emperour, and by Andrew Sauin his Ambassadour in the yere of our Lord God, 1569. One God euerlasting and without and before the beginning, the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, the blessed Trinitie, our onely God, maker and preseruer of all things, replenisher of all things euery where, who by thy goodnesse doest cause all men to loue the giuer of wisedome our onely Mediatour, and leader of vs all vnto blessed knowledge by the onely Sonne his word, our Lord Iesus Christ, holy and euerlasting Spirit, and now in these our dayes teachest vs to keepe Christianitie, and sufferest vs to enioy our kingdome to the happy commodity of our land, and wealth of our people, in despight of our enemies, and to our fame with our friends. We Iohn Vasiliwich by the grace of God, great lord, Emperour, and great duke of all Russia, Volodemer, Moscouia, Nouogrod, Emperour of Cazan, Tuersky, Vgorsky, Permisky, Vadsky, Bulgaria, and many others, lord and great duke of the Low countreys of Nouogrod, Chernigosky, Resansky, Polotsky, Rastow, Veraslaue, Bealosera, Owdorsky, Condinsky, and all Siberland, great commander of all the North parts, lord of Leifland, and many other Northward, Southward, and Westward. Whereas our sister Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, hath written vnto vs her letters for her merchants, who hath made sute that we should grant our goodnesse to the merchants which are of one company, and giue them free leaue to come to traffike in our kingdome to Colmogro, and to the countrey of Dwina, and to our great citie of Moscouia, and to all the cities in our dominions, and thorow our countrey to Boghar, to Persia, Casbin, and Chardy, and to all other countreys. 1 We Iohn Vasiliwich Emperour and great duke of all Russia, (for our sister Elizabeths sake, Queene, of England) haue giuen and granted to the English merchants, the Gouernors, Cousuls, Assistants and fellowship, sir Wil. Garrard Knight, Rowland Haiward Alderman, Ioh. Thamworth Esquire, Iohn Riuers Alderman, Henry Beecher Alderman, Consuls: Sir Wil. Chester Knight, Edward Iackman Alderman, Lionel Ducket Alderman, Edward Gilbert, Laurence Huse, Francis Walsingham, Clement Throgmorton Iohn Quarles, Nicholas Wheeler, Thomas Banister, Iohn Harrison, Francis Burnham, Anthony Gamage, Iohn Somers, Richard Wilkinson, Ioh. Sparke, Richard Barne, Robert Woolman, Thomas Browne, Thomas Smith, Thomas Allen, Thomas More, William Bully, Richard Yong, Thomas Atkinson, Assistants: Iohn Mersh Esquire, Geofrey Ducket, Francis Robinson, Matthew Field, and all the rest of their company and fellowship, and to their successours and deputies, to come with ships and other vessels into our countery at Colmogorod, and Dwina, and to all the North parts now being ours, or that hereafter shall at any time be in our possession, by sea, riuer or land, euen to our great Citie of Mosco, in all the townes of our Countrey, to Cazan and Astracan, to Nouogorod the great, to Plesko and Leifland, Vriagorod, to Narue, and all other townes of Leifland. 2 And to passe through our land to Boghar, Persia, Casbin, Charday, and other Countreyes: And wheresoeuer they come there to be and abide freely, and to barter and bargaine freely all wares of sale, without custome of all people, and Marchants strangers whatsoeuer. And if so be they bring any fine wares out of Englande, or any other Countrey from Boghar, Persia, Casbin, or from any other place, and those their wares that come by the way of Narue, or any other part into our Dominion, to bring the same wares into our treasure, and our Treasurers to view the same wares, and to take into our Treasurie of the same such as shalbe needful for vs. And all such wares as we shal not need, our Chancellour to redeliuer the same: And after the view of our Chancellours, to barter it freely to whom they will, not selling any of their wares needful for vs, before our Chancellour haue seene the same. And all other grosse and heauy wares that shall be needful to our vse not being brought to Mosco, to declare and tell our Chancellour of the same wares: And to giue a note thereof by name, and how much they leaue there, not brought to Mosco; and then if we neede not the said wares, the English Marchants, their seruants and Factors, to conuey their wares the neerest way to Vstiug the great, and so to Colmogorod, or elsewhere at their pleasure, there to barter and sell the same. But those wares that shalbe needfull for our Treasurie, they shall not hide from vs in any case. And when our Chancellours shall send our aduenture, with the said Marchants or their Factors, they to take our aduentures with them, and to sell, and to barter for such wares as shalbe meete for our Treasurie, and to returne it into our Treasurie. And when we shall sende any aduenture into England then our Chancellour to giue them a yeeres warning, that their ships may be prouided thereafter, that by taking in of our wares, they leaue not their owne behind them. And to take our aduenture yeerely when they goe into Persia. Neither shall the English marchants receiue or colour any of our peoples goods, nor barter nor sell it in any wise: likewise our people not to barter for the sayd English merchants or occupy for them. 3 And when they shall come into our Empire of Casan and Astracan, and other places of our Dominions, then our Captaines of Casan and Astracan, and our authorised people, quietly to let them passe, not taking any toll or custome of their wares, nor once to make search thereof. And when we shal send no adueture with them, yet to suffer them freely to passe, not viewing their wares, nor taking any kinde of custome. And whatsoeuer English marchant will bargaine with our Marchants or Factors ware for ware to barter the same at their pleasure. And whatsoeuer their Marchant or Factors will sell their wares at their house at Mosco, which house I granted them at S. Maxims at the Mosco, they to sell the ware to our people, either strangers as they may best vtter it, keeping within their house, arshines, measures, and waights vnder seales. 4 We haue granted them the saide house at S. Maxims in the halfe free, and without standing rent, as heretofore we did grant it the said English Marchants, sir Wil. Garrard, and the Company, maintayning in the said house one housekeeper a Russe, and two Russe seruants, or some of their owne countrey men, and none other Russes besides the aforesayde. And the said housekeepers that shall liue at their house with the English marchants neither to buy nor sel any wares for them, but that the said marchants themselues or their factors, shall buy, sell, and barter their owne wares: and our Moscouie marchants not to take the said Englishmens wares to sell them in our townes, nor to buy any wares for them, neither the English marchant to colour any Russe wares at any towne. 5 And whatsoeuer English marchant will sell his wares at Colmogorod, Dwyna, Vologda, Yeraslaue, Castran, Nouogorod the lower, Casan, Astracan, Nouogrod the great, Vopsko, the Narue, Vriagorod, or at any other townes, they to sel their wares there at their pleasure: And of all wares aswell of other countreis as of Russia, no officer or other to take any custome, neither in any place to stay them in any wise, neither take any kinde of toll of them for their wares whatsoeuer. 6 And whatsoeuer marchant shall bargaine or buy any wares of English marchants: The said Russe not to returne those wares vpon the marchants hands againe, but to giue ready money for the said wares, otherwise they to craue the Iustice to giue right, and to execute the lawe vpon the same with all expedition. And when the English marchants or factors shal trauaile from Moscouie after the dispatch of their wares and businesse, then to shew themselues vnto our Chancellours, whatsoeuer wares of theirs shall goe from Mosco, they not to shew the same wares to any our officers, nor pay no custome nor toll in any place. 7 If it so happen the English marchants haue any wracke, and the shippes be brought to any port of our Dominions, we to command the said goods to be enquired and sought out, and to be giuen to the English marchants, being here abiding at that time in our Countrey, the factors, seruants, or deputies, of the Company aforesayd, to whom we haue granted this our gratious letter. And if there happen none of the English merchants, factors, seruants, or deputies to be in our Countreis at such time, then we wil all the said goods to be sought out and bestowed in some conuenient place, and when any of the Company aforewritten, bringing these our letters, shall come for their goods, we to command their goods to be restored vnto them. 8 Likewise wee haue graunted leaue to the English merchants, their Gouernours, Consuls, and assistants, namely, sir William Garrard knight, Rowland Howard, and to the Companie, to builde houses at Vologda, Colmogro, and the seaside, at Iuangorod, at Cherell, and in all other places our Dominions, as shall be needeful for their trade. And they to keepe at the said house one housekeeper, a Russe, and two or three men to keepe their wares at the said houses, making sale thereof to whom they will, they, their Factors or deputies: the said housekeeper not to buy or sell for them. 9 Also we haue giuen and graunted to the English Marchants, their house which they haue by your goodnesse at S. Maximes in the Zenopski, and other their houses in the towne of Zenopski, made for the better assurance of their goods, and all such as they shall set vp hereafter shal be of the Opressini [Marginal note: Or chosen side.], and will make them knowen to all them of Opressini. 10 And whereas by our goodnes we haue graunted them a Ropehouse at Vologda, being farre from the English Merchants house, now we haue giuen them to build a house for that vse by the said English house, and haue giuen and graunted them (of our goodnesse) ground, one hundreth and fourescore fadome long, and fiftie fadomes in breadth, according to their owne request. 11 Also we haue of our goodnesse giuen and graunted to the English Merchants, leaue to buy them a house at Wichida, and there to search our mines of yron. And where they shal happily find it, there to set vp houses for the making of the same yron: and to make the same, of our goodnesse haue graunted them woods; fiue or sixe miles compasse about the sayd houses, to the making of the sayd yron, and not to exceede these bounds, and limits: And where they shall cut the sayde wood, not to set vp any village or farme there, bringing the artificers for making of their yron, out of their owne Countrey, and to learne our people that arte, and so freely occupying the said yron in these our Dominions, transporting also of the same home into Englande, allowing for euery pound one dingo, or halfe penie. 12 And if any of the said yron shalbe needfull for our workes, then we to take of the said yron to our worke, vpon agreement of price, paying money out of our Treasurie for the same: And when the said English Merchants or Factors shal send their owne people out of our Realme into their Countrey, ouer land through any Countrey whatsoeuer, freely to send the same with our words. 13. Also we of our goodness haue graunted, that if any man misuse the said English, the Factors or seruants, or the saide English Merchants; their Factors or seruants abuse any other at Moscouie, or any other out townes whatsoeuer within our Dominions in trade of Marchandise or otherwise, then they to haue vpright iustice in all such matters of our counsaile the Opressini without all let or delay: But if our Iustice may not agree the parties, then lots to be made, and to whose lotte it shall fall, to him the right to be giuen, and that only our counsaile at Moscouie, and none of our Captaines, or authorised people, or officers in any other our townes, giue iudgement vpon the said English Merchants for any thing. 14 Also, if any stranger shall haue matter of controuersie with any English Merchant, Factor or seruant, abiding within these our Realmes, or contrariwise any English Merchant, Factor or seruant, against any other stranger, in all those causes our Counsaile of the Opressini, to giue them Iustice, and to make an agreement and end betweene the parties, without all delay: And none to deale therein, saue our Counsaile of the Opressini. 15 And if any man haue action against any English Merchant being absent, that then in his absence it shalbe lawfull for any other Englishman at his assignation to answere his cause. 16 If any Englishman happen to be wounded or beaten to death, or any Russe or stranger slaine or beaten. 17 Or any stollen goods to be found in the said English houses, then our Counsellors to cause the guiltie persons to be sought out, and to doe right and Iustice in the cause, and the partie that is guiltie, if he deserue punishment, to be corrected accordingly after his offence: That the said English Merchants, factors and seruant, sustaine thereby no hinderance or damage. 18 And whatsoeuer English Marchant, Factor, seruant, or deputie, shalbe guilty of any fault, deseruing our displeasure, then our Counsellors to cause the guiltie partie to goe vnder suerties, and their goods to be sealed and kept, vntill our pleasure be further knowen, and our Counsaile to examine their offence, and so to report it vnto vs, that we may command what shall be done therein, and none other to be arrested or haue their goods sealed, which are not guiltie of that offence, nor to stay or apprehend them in any of our Dominions for the same. 19 If any English Marchant, Factor or seruant shall offend, it shalbe lawfull for their Agent to doe iustice vpon the said partie, or to send him home into England at his pleasure. 20 If any English Marchant, Factor or seruant, haue lent or hereafter shall lende money to any of our people, or credite them with wares, and so depart into any forreigne Countrey, or die before the debt be due to be payde, then our people and Marchants to paye the sayde debt, to whom soeuer shall be appointed to the sayd roome or charge, and the saide English Marchant, factor, or seruant, to bring his bill of debt to our Counsell, to shewe them what is due, and what money is owing them for any wares: and thus to doe truly, not adding any whit to the debt, and our Counsel to command the debt to be discharged vnto the English Marchant, factor, or seruant, without delay. 21 And whatsoeuer English Marchant shall be arrested for debt, then our Counsell to command the partie vnder arrest to be deliuered to the Agent: and if he haue no suertie, to binde the Agent with him, for the better force of the bond. And if any Englishman be endebted, we will the Creditor not to cast him in prison, or to deliuer him to the Sergeant, lest the officer lose him, but to take ware in pawne of the debt. 22 Also of our goodnes, we haue granted the English Marchants to send our Commission to all our Townes, Captaines, and authorised men, to defende and garde the said Marchants from all theeues, robbers, and euill disposed persons. 23 If in comming or going to and fro our dominions, the Marchants, the factors, or seruants be spoyled on the sea, our Counsell shall send our letters, and will them to be sought out, and where they shall finde the goods, cause it to be restored againe, and the offender to be punished, according to our commandement. 24 Also of our goodnes, we haue granted the saide Merchants to take vp Brokers, Packers, Wayers, and such like labourers, as shall be needefull for them, paying for their hier as the labourers and they shall agree. 25 We likewise of our goodnes, haue licensed the English Marchants in our Townes of Mosco, Nouogorod the great, and Plesko, that the Coiners of the said Townes shall melt Dollers, and coine money for them, without custome, allowing for coales, and other necessaries, with the workemanship. 26 Also of our goodnes, we haue granted to the sayd English Merchants, to take poste horse at needfull times, leauing with our officers a note how many they take, and not else, in no case hindering or diminishing our treasurie. 27 Also for our sister Queene Elizabeths sake, we of our goodnes haue granted to the merchants within written, this our letter, and to their successors, that no Englishman, nor any other stranger, come without the Queenes leaue to Colmogorode, the riuer of Vob, Vasiagy, Pechora, Cola, Mezena, Pechingo, Zeleuetskyes Island, the riuer of Shame, nor to no other hauen of Dwina, nor to any part of the northside of Dwina, by hetherward of Wardhouse, to any hauen, with shippe, Busse, or any other vessell, nor to occupie in any kind of waies, but only the said English Companie, and their successors, to whom we of our goodnes haue granted this priuiledge. 28 Also that no English Merchant, without the Queenes leaue, shall come With any wares, to the Narue, or Vriogorod. 29 And whatsoeuer English Merchant, stranger, or other, of whatsoeuer countrey he be, shall come with any shippe; Busse, or any other vessel, to any of the said hauens, of the north side, to any part of Dwina, by North the Narue, or Vriogorod, without the Queenes leaue or knowledge, not being of the company aboue written, we to apprehende and take the same vessell from those strangers and Merchants, the one halfe to vs the Emperour, and great Duke, and the other halfe to the company of English Merchants. 30 Also of our goodnes we haue granted the said company of English merchants, that no English merchants or strangers shall passe through our dominions, to Boghar, Persia, Casbin, Charday, or other Countreys, saue onely the company of English merchants and our owne messengers. 31 Also whatsoeuer Englishman, comming out of England or any other Countrey, into our dominions, without the Queenes leaue, and knowledge, not being of the sayd company, written within those our letters, mind, and purpose, to abide in our realme, contrary to the Queenes will and pleasure, or any way abuse himselfe, the Agent shall freely send him home, to the Queene his Soueraigne: which if the Agent of himselfe be vnable to do, let him pray for ayd of the captaines and officers of our townes there being, and so send him to prison, and will the sayd captaines not to hinder the sayd Agent from sending home such euill persons into England. 32 And if any man within our countrey runne away to any other towne or place, the English merchants and factours, to haue free libertie to apprehend him, and take their goods from him againe. 33 And as for our priuilege giuen to Thomas Glouer, Ralfe Rutter, Christopher Bennet, Iohn Chappell, and their adherents, we haue commanded the same priuileges to be taken from them. 34 Also we of our goodnesse haue granted the sayd company of English merchants, their successours, seruants and deputies, that doe or shall remaine at Mosco, or elsewhere within our dominions freely to keepe their owne law: and in any wise none of ours to force them to our law or faith against their will. Moreouer, besides and with the company of English merchants, we permit all strangers, to trade to our towne of Narue, Iuanogorod, and other our townes of Liefland, as they haue done beforetime. Giuen from the beginning of the world 7077, in the moneth of Iune 20, Indiction 12, the yere of our lordship and reign 35, and of our Empire of Rusland 23. Cazan 17, Astracan 15. * * * * * Other speciall grants by his Maiesties priuate letters at the sute of M. Randolfe Ambassadour. Releasement out of prison of Fitzherbert, that was accused for writing of letters against the Emperour. Liberty giuen to Thomas Greene that was accused and troubled vpon suspition of his dealing with the Ambassadour, and licence giuen to him to trafficke as he was accustomed. Andrew Atherton and his sureties released at the Narue and his seruant at the Mosco, that were in trouble for sending the merchants letters into England. A letter granted to Thomas Southam to the Councell, for iustice against them that stole the pearles. His Maiesties fauor promised to the Artificers, and liuings to be appointed them as they can best deserue. A letter to the merchants that went into Persia, to passe freely without impeachment in his dominions, as also letters of fauour to the great Shaugh of Persia. A grant vnto the company that at what time soeuer they send to the discouery of Cataya, they shalbe licenced to repaire vnto this countrey, and haue such conducts and guides, mariners, vessels, men and victuals as they shall stand in need of. It is also promised by Knez Alfanas, and Peter Gregoriwich in the Emperours name, that if Benet Butler or any English man complaine, deface, hinder in way of traffike or otherwise go about to discredit the worshipfull company, and their doings, that therein they shall not be heard, and the doers to be punished, as in such cases they shalbe iudged to haue deserued. Certaine persons granted to be sent home into England that serued the company, and were practisers against them in that countrey. * * * * * A Commission giuen by vs Thomas Randolfe Ambassadour for the Queenes Maiestie in Russia, and Thomas Bannister, &c. vnto Iames Bassendine, Iames Woodcocke and Richard Browne, the which Bassendine, Woodcocke, and Browne we appoint ioyntly together, and aiders, the one of them to the other, in a voyage of discouery to be made (by the grace of God) by them, for searching of the sea, and border of the coast, from the riuer Pechora, to the Eastwards, as hereafter foloweth Anno 1588. The first of August. In primis, when your barke with all furniture is ready, you shall at the beginning of the yere (assoone as you possibly may) make your repaire to the Easterne part of the riuer Pechora, where is an Island called Dolgoieue, and from thence you shall passe to the Eastwards alongst by the Sea coast of Hugorie, or the maine land of Pechora, and sailing alongst by the same coast, you shall passe within seuen leagues of the Island Vaigats, which is in the straight, almost halfe way from the coast of Heugorie, vnto the cast of Noua Zembla, which Island Vaigats and Noua Zembla you shall finde noted in your plat [Footnote: map], therefore you shall not need to discouer it: but proceed on alongst the coast of Hugory, towards the riuer Obba. [Sidenote: Cara Reca. Naramsi Reca.] There is a Bay [Footnote: Gulf of Kara.] betweene the sayd Vaigats, and the riuer Obba, that doth bite to the Southwards, into the land of Hugory, in which Bay are two small riuers, the one called Cara Reca [Footnote: River Kara.], the other Naramsy [Footnote: Probably the River Juribei.], as in the paper of notes which are giuen to you herewith may appeare: in the which Bay you shall not need to spend any time for searching of it, but to direct your course to the riuer Ob (if otherwise you be not constrained to keepe alongst the shore) and when you come to the riuer Ob you shall not enter into it, but passe ouer vnto the Easterne part of the mouth of the sayd riuer. And when you are at the Easterne part of Obba Reca, you shall from thence passe to the Eastwards, alongst by the border of the sayd coast, describing the same in such perfect order as you can best do it. You shall not leaue the sayd coast or border of the land, but pass alongst by it, at least in sight of the same, vntil you haue sailed by it so farre to the Eastwards and the time of the yeere so farre spent, that you doe thinke it time for you to returne with your barke to Winter, which trauell may well be 300 or 400 leagues to the Eastwards of the Ob, if the Sea doe reach so farre as our hope is it doth: but and if you finde not the said coast and sea to trend so farre to the Eastwards, yet you shall not leaue the coast at any time, but proceed alongst by it, as it doth lie, leauing no part of it vnsearched, or seene, vnlesse it be some bay, or riuer, that you doe certeinly know by the report of the people, that you shall finde in those borders, or els some certeine tokens whereby you of your selues may iudge it to be so. For our hope is that the said border of land and sea doth in short space after you passe the Ob, incline East, and so the Southwards. And therefore we would haue no part of the land of your starreboord side, as you proceed in your discouery, to be left vndiscouered. But and if the said Border of land do not incline so to the Eastwards as we presuppose it, but that it doe proue to incline and trend to the Northwards, and so ioyne with Noua Zembla, making the sea from Vaigats to the Eastwards but a bay: yet we will that you do keepe alongst by the said coast, and so bring vs certaine report of that forme and maner of the same bay. And if it doe so proue to be a bay, and that you haue passed round about the same, and so by the trending of the land come backe vnto that part of Noua Zembla that is against Vaigats whereas you may from that see the said Island Vaigats, if the time of the yeere will permit you, you shall from thence passe alongst by the said border and coast of Noua Zembla to the Westwards, and so to search whether that part of Noua Zembla doe ioyne with the land that Sir Hugh Willoughbie discouered in anno 53, [Footnote: There is, of course, no such land.] and is in 72 degrees, and from that part of Noua Zembla 120 leagues to the Westwards, as your plat doeth shew it vnto you: and if you doe finde that land to ioyne with Noua Zembla, when you come to it, you shall proceed further along the same coast, if the time of the yere will permit it, and, that you doe think there will be sufficient time for you to returne backe with your barke to Winter either at Pechora or in Russia, at your discretion: for we refer the same to your good iudgements, trusting that you will lose no time, that may further your knowledge in this voyage. Note you, it was the 20 of August, 56 yer the Serchthrift began to returne backe from her discouerie, to Winter in Russia, and then she came from the Island Vaigats, being forcibly driuen from thence with an Easterly winde and yce, and so she came into the riuer Dwina, and arriued at Colmogro the 11 of September, 56. If the yce had not bene so much that yere as it was in the Streights, on both sides of the Island Vaigats, they in the said pinnesse would that yere haue discouered the parts that you are now sent to seek: which thing (if it had pleased God) might haue bene done then: but God hath reserued it for some other. Which discouerie, if it may be made by you, it shall not only proue profitable vnto you, but it will also purchase perpetuall fame and renowme both to you and our country. And thus not doubting of your willing desires, and forwardnesse towards the same, we pray God to blesse you with a lucky beginning, fortunate successe, and happily to end the same. Amen. Necessarie notes to be obserued, and followed in your discouerie, as hereafter followeth. When your barke with all furniture and necessaries shall be in readinesse for you to depart to the sea (if it be that you take your barke at S. Nicholas, or any part of Dwina Reca) you shall from thence, euen as timely in the spring as the yce will permit you, saile, and make all expedition that may be, vnto the mouth of the riuer Pechora (as your commission doth leade you) and as you passe by the coast all alongst (notwithstanding the plat that sheweth you the description of the said coast, from Dwina vnto Vaigats) yet you shall seeke by all the meanes that you can, to amend the same plat, vsing as many obseruations, as you possibly can do: and these notes following are to be obserued by you principally. 1 First, that you do obserue the latitude as often, and in as many places as you may possibly do it, noting diligently the place where you do so obserue the same. 2 Also that you doe diligently set with your compasse, how the land doth lie from point to point, all alongst as you goe, and to vse your iudgements how farre there may be betweene ech of them. 3 Item, that you do alwayes vse to draw the proportion and biting of the land, aswell the lying out of the points, and headlands, vnto the which you shall giue some apt names (at your discretion) as also the forme of the Bayes, and to make some marke in drawing the forme, and border of the same, where the high cliffes are, and where low land is, whether sandy hilles, or whatsoeuer: omit not to note any thing that may be sensible and apparant to you, which may serue to any purpose. 4 In passing along by any coast, that you keepe your lead going often times, and sound at the least once euery glasse, and oftener if you thinke good as occasion doth serue, and note diligently the depth with the maner of the ground, and at euery time, how farre the same sounding may be from the next shore to it: and how the next point or headland doth beare from you. And in the sea after you set off from your port, you shall orderly at the end of euery foure glasses sound, and if you finde ground, note the depth and what ground, but if you can finde no ground, you shall also note in what depth you could find no ground. 5 Also that you do diligently obserue the flowing, and ebbing in euery place, and how the tides do set, which way the flood doth come, and how much water it doth high in euery place, and what force the same tide hath to driue a ship in an houre, as neere as you can iudge it. 6 Also that you doe seeke to obserue with the instrument which I deliuer you herewith, according as I taught you at Rose Island, the true platformes, and distances, in as many places as conueniently you may, for it serueth very aptly your purpose. 7 Also that you take with you paper and ynke, and keepe a continuall iournall or remembrance day by day, of all such things as shall fall out worth the knowledge, not forgetting or omitting to write it, and note it, that it may be shewed and read at your returne. 8 These orders if you shall diligently obserue, it will be easie for you to make a plat and perfect description of your discouery, and so shall your notes be sufficient to answere that which is looked for at your hands. But withall you may not forget to note as many things as you can learne and vnderstand by the report of any people whatsoeuer they be, so that it appertaine any way to our desires. And thus the Lord God prosper your voyage, Amen. [Footnote: Though dated 1588, this journey took place in 1578. Nothing is really known of the result of the expedition; but it has been supposed that the English vessel, which was wrecked at the mouth of the Ob about 1580, and whose crew was massacred by Samoyeds (_Purchas_, iii. p. 546; _Hamel_, p. 238), was the one bearing Bassendine and his companions.] * * * * * Certaine letters in verse, written by Master George Turberuile [Footnote: Born at Whitchurch about 1530; educated at New College, Oxford; supposed to have died about 1600. "Occasional felecity of diction, a display of classical allusion, and imagery taken from the customs and amusements of the age ate not wanting; but the warmth, the energy, and the enthusiasm of poetry are sought for in vain." (_Drake_, Shakespeare and his Times, p. 456).] out of Moscouia, which went as Secretarie thither with Master Tho. Randolph, her Maiesties Ambassadour to the Emperour 1568, to certeine friends of his in London, describing the maners of the Countrey and people. To his especiall friend Master Edward Dancie. [Footnote: Probably the grandson of Sir Thomas Moore, and son of his second daughter, Elizabeth Dancy.] My Dancie deare, when I recount within my brest, My London friends, and wonted mates, and thee aboue the rest: I feele a thousand fits of deepe and deadly woe, To thinke that I from land to sea, from blisse to bale did go. I left my natiue soile, full like a retchlesse man, And vnacquainted of the coast, among the Russes ran: A people passing rude, to vices vile inclinde, Folke fit to be of Bacchus traine, so quaffing is the kinde. Drinke is their whole desire, the pot is all their pride, The sobrest head doth once a day stand needfull of a guide. If he to banket bid his friends, he will not shrinke On them at dinner to bestow a douzen kindes of drinke: Such licour as they haue, and as the countrey giues, But chiefly two, one called Kuas, whereby the Mousiket[1] liues. Small ware and waterlike, but somewhat tart in taste, The rest is Mead of honie made, wherewith their lips they baste. And if he goe vnto his neighbour as a guest, He cares for litle meate, if so his drinke be of the best. No wonder though they vse such vile and beastly trade, Sith with the hatchet and the hand, their chiefest gods be made. Their Idoles haue their hearts, on God they neuer call, Vnlesse it be (Nichola Bough)[2] that hangs against the wall. The house that hath no god, or painted Saint within, Is not to be resorted to, that roofe is full of sinne. Besides their priuate gods, in open places stand Their crosses vnto which they crooche, and blesse themselues with hand. Deuoutly downe they ducke, with forehead to the ground, Was neuer more deceit in ragges, and greasie garments found: Almost the meanest man in all the countrey rides, The woman eke, against our vse, her trotting horse bestrides. In sundry colours they both men and women goe, In buskins all, that money haue on buskins to bestoe. Each woman hanging hath a ring within her eare, Which all of ancient vse, and some of very pride doe weare. Their gate is very braue, their countenance wise and sadde. And yet they follow fleshy lustes, their trade of liuing badde. It is no shame at all accompted to defile Anothers bedde, they, make no care their follies to concile, Is not the meanest man in all the land but hee, To buy her painted colours doeth allow his wife a fee, Wherewith she deckes her selfe, and dies her tawnie skinne, She pranks and paints her smoakie face, both brow, lip, cheeke, and chinne. Yea those that honest are, if any such there bee Within the land, doe vse the like: a man may plainely see. Vpon some womens cheekes the painting how it lies, In plaister sort, for that too thicke her face the harlot dies. But such as skilfull are, and cunning Dames indeede, By dayly practise doe it well, yea sure they doe exceede. They lay their colours so, as he that is full wise, May easly be deceiu'd therein, if he doe trust his eyes. I not a little muse, what madnesse makes them paint Their faces, waying how they keepe the stooue by meere constraint. For seldome when, vnlesse on Church or marriage day A man shall see the Dames abroade, that are of best aray. The Russie meanes to reape the profit of her pride, And so he mewes her to be sure, she lye by no mans side. Thus much, friend Dancie, I did meane to write to thee, To let thee weete in Russia land, what men and women bee. Hereafter I perhaps of other things will write To thee and other of my friends, which I shall see with sight: And other stuffe besides, which true report shall tell, Meane while I end my louing lines, and bid thee now farewell. [Footnote 1: Moudjick, a servant.] [Footnote 2: St. Nicholas.] To Spencer. If I should now forget, or not remember thee, Thou Spencer might'st a foule rebuke, and shame impute to mee, For I to open shew did loue thee passing well, And thou wert he at parture, whom I loathde to bid farewell. And as I went thy friend, so I continue still, No better proofe thou canst then this desire of true good will I doe remember well when needes I should away, And that the Poste would licence vs, no longer time to stay: Thou wrongst me by the fist, and holding fast my hand, Didst craue of me to send thee newes, and how I liked the land. It is a sandie soile, no very fruitful vaine, More waste and wooddie grounds there are, then closes fit for graine. Yet graine there growing is, which they vntimely take, And cut or eare the corne be ripe, they mowe it on a stacke: And laying sheafe by sheafe, their haruest so they dry, They make the greater haste, for feare the frost the corne destroy. For in the winter time, so glarie is the ground, As neither grasse, nor other graine, in pastures may be found. In coms the cattell then, the sheepe, the colt, the cowe, Fast by his bed the Mowsike then[1] a lodging doth allowe, Whom he with fodder feeds, and holds as deere as life: And thus they weare the winter with the Mowsike and his wife. Seuen months the Winter dures, the glare it is so great, As it is May before he turne his ground to sow his wheate. The bodies eke that die vnburied lie they then, Laid vp in coffins made of firre, as well the poorest men, As those of greater state: the cause is lightly found, For that in Winter time, they cannot come to breake the ground. And wood so plenteous is, quite throughout all the land, As rich, and poore, at time of death assurd of coffins stand. Perhaps, thou musest much, how this may stand with reason, That bodies dead can vncorrupt abide so long a season. Take this for certaine trothe, as soone as heate is gone, The force of cold the body binds as hard as any stone, Without offence at all to any liuing thing: And so they lye in perfect state, till next returne of Spring. Their beasts be like to ours, as farre as I can see For shape, and shewe, but somewhat lesse of bulke, and bone they be. Of watrish taste, the flesh not firme, like English beefe, And yet it seru's them very well, and is a good releefe: Their sheep are very small, sharpe singled, handfull long; Great store of fowle on sea and land, the moorish reedes among. The greatnes of the store doeth make the prices lesse, Besides in all the land they know not how good meate to dresse. They vse neither broach nor spit, but when the stoue they heate, They put their victuals in a pan, and so they bake their meate. No pewter to be had, no dishes but of wood, No use of trenchers, cups cut out of birche are very good. They vse but wooden spoones, which hanging in a case Eache Mowsike at his girdle ties, and thinkes it no disgrace. With whitles two or three, the better man the moe, The chiefest Russies in the land, with spoone and kniues doe goe. Their houses are not huge of building, but they say, They plant them in the loftiest ground, to shift the snow away, Which in the Winter time, eache where full thicke doth lie: Which makes them haue the more desire, to set their houses hie. No stone work is in vse, their roofes of rafters bee, One linked in another fast, their wals are all of tree. Of masts both long, and large; with mosse put in betweene, To keepe the force of weather out, I neuer earst haue seene A grosse deuise so good, and on the roofe they lay The burthen barke, to rid the raine, and sudden showres away. In euery roome a stoue, to serue the Winter turne, Of wood they haue sufficient store, as much as they can burne. They haue no English glasse, of slices of a rocke. Hight Sluda they their windows make, that English glasse doth mocke. They cut it very thinne, and sow it with a thred In pretie order like to panes, to serue their present need. No other glasse, good faith doth giue a better light: And sure the rocke is nothing rich, the cost is very slight. The chiefest place is that, where hangs the god by it, The owner of the house himselfe doth neuer sit, Unlesse his better come, to whom he yealds the seat: The stranger bending to the god, the ground with brow most beat And in that very place which they most sacred deeme, The stranger lies: a token that his guest he doth esteeme. Where he is wont to haue a beares skinne for his bed, And must, in stead of pillow, clap his saddle to his head. In Russia other shift there is not to be had, For where the bedding is not good, the boalsters are but bad I mused very much, what made them so to lie, Sith in their countrey Downe is rife, and feathers out of crie: Vnlesse it be because the countrey is so hard, They feare by nicenesse of a bed their bodies would be mard, I wisht thee oft with vs, saue that I stood in feare Thou wouldst haue loathed to haue layd thy limmes vpon a beare, As I and Stafford did, that was my mate in bed: And yet (we thanke the God of heauen) we both right well haue sped. Loe thus I make an ende: none other newes to thee, But that the countrey is too colde, the people beastly bee. I write not all I know, I touch but here and there, For if I should, my penne would pinch, and eke offend I feare. Who so shall read this verse, coniecture of the rest, And thinke by reason of our trade, that I do thinke the best. But if no traffique were, then could I boldly pen The hardnesse of the soile, and eke the maners of the men. They say the Lions paw giues iudgement of the beast: And so may you deeme of the great, by reading of the least. [Footenote: _Suggested emendation_: Them.] To Parker. [Footnote: Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury. See an excellent account of him and his writings in Allibone's Dictionary.] My Parker, paper, pen, and inke were made to write, And idle heads, that little do, haue leisure to indite: Wherefore, respecting these, and thine assured loue, If I would write no newes to thee, them might'st my pen reproue. And sithence fortune thus hath shou'd my shippe on shore: And made me seeke another Realme vnseene of me before: The maners of the men I purpose to declare. And other priuate points besides, which strange and geazon are. The Russie men are round of bodies, fully fac'd, The greatest part with bellies bigge that ouerhang the waste, Flat headed for the most, with faces nothing faire, But browne, by reason of the stone, and closenesse of the aire: It is their common vse to shaue or els to sheare Their heads, for none in all the land long lolling locks doth weare, Vnlsse perhaps he haue his souereigne prince displeas'd, For then he neuer cuts his haire, vntil he be appeas'd, A certaine signe to know who in displeasure be, For euery man that viewes his head, will say, Loe this is he. And during all the time he lets his locks to grow, Dares no man for his life to him a face of friendship show. Their garments be not gay, nor handsome to the eye, A cap aloft their heads they haue, that standeth very hie, Which Colpack they do terme. They wears no ruffes at all; The best haue collers set with pearle, which they Rubasca call. Their shirts in Russie long, they worke them downe before, And on the sleeues with coloured Silks, two inches good and more. Aloft their shirts they weare a garment iacket wise Hight Onoriadka, and about his burlie waste, he tyes His portkies, which in stead of better breeches be: Of linnen cloth that garment is, no codpiece is to see. A paire of yarnen stocks to keepe the colde away, Within his boots the Russie weares, the heeles they vnderlay With clouting clamps of steele, sharpe pointed at the toes, And ouer all a Shuba furd, and thus the Russe goes. Well butned is the Shube, according to his state, Some Silke, of Siluer other some: but those of poorest rate Do weare no Shubs at all, but grosser gownes to sight, That reacheth downe beneath the calfe, and that Armacha hight: These are the Russies robes. The richest vse to ride From place to place, his seruant runnes, and followes by his side. The Cassacke beares his felt, to force away the raine: Their bridles are not very braue, their saddles are but plaine. No bits but snaffles all, of birch their saddles be, Much fashioned like the Scottish seates, broad flakes to keepe the knee From sweating of the horse, the pannels larger farre And broader be then ours, they vse short stirrups for the warre: For when the Russie is pursued by cruel foe, He rides away, and suddenly betakes him to his boe, And bends me but about in saddle as be sits, And therewithall amids his race his following foe he hits. Their bowes are very short, like Turkie bowes outright, Of sinowes made with birchen barke, in cunning maner dight. Small arrowes, cruell heads, that fell and forked bee, Which being shot from out those bowes, a cruel way will flee. They seldome vse to shoo their horse, vnlesse they ride In post vpon the frozen flouds, then cause they shall not slide, He sets a slender calke, and so he rides his way. The horses of the countrey go good fourescore versts a day, And all without the spurre, once pricke them and they skippe, But goe not forward on their way, the Russie hath his whippe To rappe him on the ribbes, for though all booted bee, Yet shall you not a paire of spurres in all the countrey see. The common game is chesse, almost the simplest will Both giue a checke and eke a mate, by practise comes their skill. Againe they dice as fast, the poorest rogues of all Will sit them downe in open field, and there to gaming fall Their dice are very small, in fashion like to those Which we doe vse, he takes them vp, and ouer thumbe he throwes Not shaking them a whit, they cast suspiciously, And yet I deeme them voyd of art that dicing most apply. At play when Siluer lacks, goes saddle, horse and all, And eche thing els worth Siluer walkes, although the price be small. Because thou louest to play friend Parker other while, I wish thee there the weary day with dicing to beguile. But thou weart better farre at home, I wist it well, And wouldest be loath among such lowts so long a time to dwell. Then iudge of vs thy friends, what kinde of life, we had, That neere the frozen pole to waste our weary dayes were glad. In such a sauage soile, weere lawes do beare no sway, But all is at the king his will, to saue or else to slay. And that sans cause, God wot, if so his minde be such. But what meane I with Kings to deale? we ought no Saints to touch. Conceiue the rest your selfe, and deeme what liues they lead, Where lust is Lawe, and Subiects liue continually in dread. And where the best estates haue none assurance good Of lands, of liues, nor nothing falles vnto the next of blood. But all of custome doeth vnto the prince redowne, And all the whole reuenue comes vnto the King his crowne. Good faith I see thee muse at what I tell thee now, But true it is, no choice, but all at princes pleasure bow. So Tarquine ruled Rome as thou remembrest well, And what his fortune was at last, I know thy selfe canst tell. Where will in Common weale doth beare the onely sway, And lust is Lawe, the prince and Realme must needs in time decay. The strangenesse of the place is such for sundry things I see, As if I woulde I cannot write ech priuate point to thee. The colde is rare, the people rude, the prince so full of pride, The Realme so stored with Monks and nunnes, and priests on euery side: The maners are so Turkie like, the men so full of guile, The women wanton, Temples stuft with idols that defile The Seats that sacred ought to be, the customes are so quaint, As if I would describe the whole, I feare my pen would faint. In summe, I say I neuer saw a prince that so did raigne, Nor people so beset with Saints, yet all but vile and vaine. Wilde Irish are as ciuill as the Russies in their kinde, Hard choice which is the best of both, ech bloody, rude and blinde. If thou bee wise, as wise thou art, and wilt be ruld by me, Liue still at home, and couet not those barbarous coasts to see. No good befalles a man that seeks, and findes no better place, No ciuill customes to be learned, where God bestowes no grace. And truely ill they do deserue to be belou'd of God, That neither loue nor stand in awe of his assured rod: Which though be long, yet plagues at last the vile and beastly sort. Of sinnill wights, that all in vice do place their chiefest sport. A dieu friend Parker, if thou list, to know the Russes well, To Sigismundus booke repaire, who all the trueth can tell: For he long earst in message went vnto that sauage King. Sent by the Pole, and true report in ech respect did bring, To him I recommend my selfe; to ease my penne of paine, And now at last do wish thee well, and bid farewell againe. * * * * * The fourth voyage into Persia, made by M. Arthur Edwards Agent, Iohn Sparke, Laurence Chapman, Christopher Faucet, and Richard Pingle, in the yeere 1568. declared in this letter written from Casbin in Persia by the foresaide Laurence Chapman to a worshipfull merchant of the companie of Russia in London. Anno Domini 1569. Aprill 28. [Sidenote: Their arriuall at Bilbil the 14. of August 1568.] Worshipfull sir, my duetie alwayes remembred, and your prosperous health, and good successe in all your affaires wished, to the glory of God, and your owne hearts desire, &c. May it please you to vnderstand that your Agent M. Arthur Edwards and we departed from Yeraslaue in Iuly 1568. and the 14. of August arriued at our port called Bilbil, with your ship the Grace of God, and the goods in her in good safetie, God bee thanked for it, finding there neither the people so ready to ayd vs for the bringing of her in, and vnlading of the goods, nor yet so obedient to the Shaughs priuilege, as the worshipfull company haue bene informed. Our goods brought vpon land, we were compelled to open and sel as they would set the price, or otherwise it would haue bene worse for vs. [Sidenote: Prince Erasbec.] Being so satisfied to their contentment, we were speedily aided with camels by the prince Erasbec Sultan his appointment, to carry our goods to Shamaki, to which place we attained the first of September, finding it so throughly furnished with maner of commodities by occasion of our late comming, and by such as came before vs, that no man would aske to buy any one piece of karsie of vs, and lying then the space of one whole moneth before your Agent Arthur Edwards would disperse vs abroade with the goods, such as came out of Russia afterwardes, had brought their goods to that and other places, and spoyled those sayles wee might haue made, being sent abroad in time conuenient, being no little hinderance to the worshipfull, as also great griefe vnto vs to see. To conclude, through our dayly calling vpon him, he bent himselfe for Casbin, taking with him the greatest summe of the goods, and two of the worshipfuls seruants, to witte, Iohn Sparke and my selfe, to helpe and procure the better sale for the same: [Sidenote: Christopher Faucet and Richard Pingle.] and leauing at Shamaki Christopher Faucet and Richard Pingle with three hundred and fiftie pieces of karsies in their handes, supposed to be solde there or in Arrash before hee should be able to make his return from Casbin, which, so farre foorth as I can vnderstand, lie for the greatest part vnsolde. And being vpon our way, at a certaine towne called Ardouil, we chanced to barter nine pieces of karsies with those merchants for fourescore and foure batemans of cynamom, selling the karsies at one hundred and fiftie shawghs the piece. And being at that present not farre from Teueris, called the principal place in this countrey for vttering of cloth or karsies, by much intreatie I perswaded your Agent to send thither to prooue what might be done, and receiuing from him foure and fiftie pieces of karsies, as also his commission for the sale of the same, I proceeded on that voyage my selfe, and one Tolmach in company with me, finding in that place great store of broad cloth and karsies brought thither, some part by the Turkes who be resident there, some by the Armenians, who fetch them at Aleppo, and some by the townesmen, who trauell vnto Venice and there buy them, so that no man offered me one penie more then a hundred and fourtie shawghs for a karsie: and hauing special commission and charge from your Agent not to stay there aboue the space of seuen dayes after my arriuall there, but to repaire to Casbin with all speed, and furthermore, hauing regard to keepe vp the price of the worshipfuls commodities, according to their desire, I found meanes to barter them away for spices, such as were there to be had, neither in goodnesse nor yet in price to my content: [Sidenote: Warre against the Portingals at Ormuz.] neuerthelesse, considering the colde sales which were there, as well for your karsies, as also the hot newes, that Ormuz way was shut up by occasion that the Indians do warre against them, which is true in deed: and againe the desire that the worshipfull hath to haue such commodities bought, I thought it necessary to buy them, the prices and weight whereof appeareth at large by my accompt sent to the worshipfull, and is, as I thinke, the whole summe of spices bought at this time. [Sidenote: The gouernour of Grozin his Merchant.] It chanced me in that place to meet with the gouernours merchant of Grozin, who was not a litle desirous to bargen with me for a hundred pieces of karsies for his master called Leuontie, and offering me so good bands for the paiment of the money or silke to the merchants contentment vpon the deliuery of them, as in any place within all this countrey is to be had: and offering me besides his owne letter in the behalfe of his master, that no custome should be demanded for the same, and the obtaining also at his masters hand as large a priuilege for the worshipful to trauel into all parts of his dominion, as the Shaugh had giuen them, and hearing good report made of him by the Armenians also, and that he was a Christian, I was much more the willing to bargen with him, and sold him a hundred pieces for a hundred and threescore shawghs a piece, to be paid to the merchant in Grozin either in money or silke to his contentment, within three dayes after the deliuerie of the karsies there, hauing a band of him made by the Metropolitanes owne hand, for the performance of the same, which is as sure as any here is to be deuised: and vpon the same I sent my Tolmach from me backe to Shamaki, with such goods as I bought at Teueris, and to the end hee might cause the worshipfuls seruants there to see this bargen accomplished. [Sidenote: The generall inconsistencie in the merchants and dealers of those parts.] At whose arriuall there, as I do perceiue, the Captaine would not accomplish his bargen to take them, but saith, hee hath no need of them; such is the constancie of all men in the countrey, with whomsoeuer you shal bargen. If the ware be bought, and they doe mislike it afterwards, they will bring it againe, and compel you to deliuer the money for it againe, regarding the Shawghs letters, which manifesteth the contrary, as a straw in the winde: by meanes whereof, the worshipfull may know whether all be true that hath bene written of this countrey people or not. I am informed by all the brokers in Teueris, that the way once open to Ormuz, from whence commeth no such store of spices as the worshipfull doeth looke for, that here will bee put a way in Teueris, some for money, and other some for barter, to the number of three hundred or foure hundred pieces of karsies, being in coulers and goodnesse to the examples here sent you, the rest of the karsies to make them vp a thousand, and broad clothes to the summe of a hundred, bee as many as will be put away yeerely in this countrey, so farre as yet I can perceiue. [Sidenote: The trade between the Venetians and the Armenians not easily to be broken.] To breake the trade betwixt the Venetians and the whole company of the Armenians it is not possible, vnlesse the worshipful will finde some meanes to receiue of them yerely to the number of 100. catters or mules lading, and deliuer them for the same one third part money, the rest cloth and karsies fitted in coulers meete for this countrey: the examples, as abouesaid, are sent vnto you. At Amadia sixe dayes iourney from Teueris, grow abundance of galles, which are brought vp yerely by the Venetians, and be solde there for two bistes the Teueris bateman, which as your Agent here saith, maketh sixe pound English weight, but I doubt it wil not so be proued. Neuerthelesse it is supposed much good will bee done by buying of them: which might at this present haue partly bene proued; it so be that some could do but halfe that which hath bene written. Touching drugges, I finde many as well at Teueris, as also in Casbin, but the goodnesse nothing like to such as be brought into England out of other places: and the price is so high that smal gaine will be had in buying of them: albeit, if I had bene furnished with money, as I might haue bene, if some would, I would haue bought some, to the ende the goodnesse of them might haue bene seene in England. At my comming to Casbin I found no maner of sales of any commoditie made, but all lying there whole, and newes giuen out (as your Agent saith) that the Shaugh would buy all such commodities as he had, and giue him silke and spices for the same: but by report the Shaugh neuer tooke cloth into his treasurie all the dayes of his life, and will not now begin: his whole trade is in raw silke, which he selleth alwayes for money to the Armenians and Turkes, and such other as vse to buy it: thus hoping of that which is not like to be had, hee hath driuen off the time, not sending to any other places: by means whereof the worshipfuls goods lie vnsold to this day to their great hinderance, which I for my part am not a litle sory to see. [Sidenote: Babylon 15 days iourney from Casbin.] Babylon is from hence fifteene dayes tourney, whereas by true report be great store of Dates, and sold for a bisse the batman, the commoditie fit for England, and the place so neere vnto vs might easily haue bene knowen, if hee, whose deeds and sayings differ much, had bene willing to the same. Casan also is but seuen dayes iourney from hence, and a place by report, where most store of spices be at all times to be had, ouer and aboue any place in this countrey: it could not be granted by him to be seen and proued at this time: if this be losse to the worshipfull, referre it to the want of one which can do that which he speaketh in words. To trauell in this countrey is not onely miserable and vncomfortable for lacke of townes and villages to harbour in when night commeth, and to refresh men with wholesome victuals in time of need, but also such scarsitie of water, that sometime in three dayes iourney together, is not to be found any drop fit for man or beast to drinke, besides the great danger we stand in for robbing by these infidels, who doe account it remission of sinnes to wash their hands in the blood of one of vs. Better it is therefore in mine opinion to continue a beggar in England during life, then to remaine a rich Merchant seuen yeeres in this Countrey, as some shall well find at their comming hither. [Sidenote: His voyage to Gilan.] By commandement of the Agent also I went to Gilan, as well to see what harbor was there for your ship, as also to vnderstand what commoditie is there best sold, and for what quantitie. I found the way from hence so dangerous and troublesome, that with my pen I am not able to note it vnto you: no man trauelleth from hence thither, but such poore people as need constraineth to buy Rice for their reliefe to liue vpon, and they lay not aboue twentie batmans vpon a catter, and it lieth no lower then the skirts of the saddle, and he escapeth very hardly that commeth there with the same. The towne of Laighon, which was the chiefest place in all that land, haue I seen, and Langro and Rosar also, which be now ouerrun by the Shaugh and his power, and be so spoiled, and the people so robbed, that not one of them is able to buy one karsie. The best commoditie there to bee bought, is raw silke, and is sold in the Summer time for 38. shaughs the Laighon batman, which is litle aboue 40. li. waight, and for ready money: also there is to bee had what store of Alom you will, and sold there for one bisse the Teueris batman. [Sidenote: The malice of the Turkish merchants.] In these partes be many Turkie merchants resident, which giue an outward shew, as though they were glad of our comming hither, but secretly they be our mortall enemies, searching by all meanes to hinder our sales, because we should the sooner giue ouer our trade thither, which in processe of time I hope will growe to better perfection. They wish vs to go to Hallape with the rest of our commodities vnsold, where they say we shall haue good intertainment in spight of the great number of Venetians which be there resident, and the custome but two in the hundred, and our karsies to be sold presently, had we neuer so many, for twelue duckets, which maketh of this money 165. shaughs: but by such as know the place, market and custome, it is reported to vs credibly to the contrary, and that such karsies as ours be, are not sold for aboue 8. duckets there: the custome thirtie in the hundred and more, that no place in the world so well furnished with good cloth and karsies, and of so braue colour as that place is, supposing it to bee craftily purposed of them, to bring vs into trouble, which God defend vs from. [Sidenote: The price of spices.] The price of spices be these, at this present enhansed by reason the way is shut to Ormus, which when God shall send open, I purpose (God willing) to see, and at my returne to aduertise the worshipfull what benefit is there to be had in all points, so neere as I can learne: Pepper 25. shaughs the Teueris batman: Cloues 50. shaughs, Long pepper 25. shaughs, Maces large 50. shaughs, Ginger 24. shaughs, ready money all, or els looke not vpon them. And the best sort of rawe silke is sold for 60. shaughs the Teueris batman. Thus for want of further matter to inlarge, I ende for this time, beseeching God to preserue you in continuall health. By your obedient seruant, Lawrence Chapman. * * * * * Notes concerning this fourth voyage into Persia, begun in the moneth of Iuly 1568. gathered by M. Richard Willes from the mouth of Master Arthur Edwards which was Agent in the same. When he came first to the Sophies presence, at his court in Casbin, bringing his interpreter with him, and standing farre off, the Sophie (sitting in a seat roiall with a great number of his noble men about him) bad him come neere, and that thrise, vntill he came so neere him that he might haue touched him with his hand. Then the first demand that he asked him was, from what countrey he came: he answered, that he came from England. Then asked hee of his noble men, who knew any such countrey? But when Edwards saw that none of them had any intelligence of that name, he named Inghilterra, as the Italians call England. [Sidenote: Londro, London.] Then one of the noble men said Londro, meaning thereby London, which name is better knowen in far countries out of Christendom, then is the name of England. When Edwards heard him name Londro, he said that that was the name of the chiefe citie of England, as was Teueris of the chiefe city of Persia. He asked him many things more, as of the realme of England, maruelling that it should be an Island of so great riches and power, as Edwards declared vnto him: of the riches and abundance of our merchandize he further vnderstood by our traffike in Moscouia and other countreis. He demanded also many thinges of the Queenes maiestie, and of the customes and lawes of the realme: saying oftentimes in his owne language, Bara colla, (that is to say) Well sayd. He asked also many things of King Philip, and of his wars against the Turke at Malta. Then he demanded of him what was the chiefe cause of his resort into his realme. And being certified that it was for the trade of merchandize he asked what kind of merchandize he could bring thither. Such (sayd hee) as the Venetian merchants do, which dwelling in our country in the city of Londro send to Venice, and from thence into Turkie by Halepo and Tripoli in Syria, from whence, as by the second and third hands, with great charges of many customs and other things thereunto pertaining, they are at the length brought into your countrey and cities of Persia. What merchandize are those? sayd the Sophie. Edwards answered, that they were great abundance of fine karsies, of broad clothes of all sorts and colours, as skariets, violets, and other of the finest cloth of all the world. [Sidenote: The Venetians traffike in England.] Also, that the Venetians brought out of England not onely such clothes ready made, but furthermore great plenty of fine wooll to mingle with their wools, of which they could not otherwise make fine cloth: affirming that there went out of England yeerly that waies, aboue two hundredth thousand karsies, and as many broad clothes, beside fine wooll and other merchandize, beside also the great abundance of like clothes, the which were caried into Spaine, Barbarie, and diuers other countries. The Sophie then asked him by what means such merchandize might be brought into Persia. Right wel sir (said he) by the way of Moscouia, with more safetie and in much shorter time then the Venetians can bring them: first from England to Venice, and from thence into Persia by the way of Turkie. And therefore if it shall please your maiestie to grant vs free passage into all your dominions, with such priuiledges as may appertaine to the safegard of our liues, goods and merchandize, we will furnish your countries with all such merchandize and other commodities, in shorter time, and better cheape then you may haue the same at the Turks hands. This talke and much more was between the Sophie and Edwards for the space of two houres: all which things liked him so well, that shortly after he granted to the sayd Arthur Edwards other priuiledges for the trade of merchandize into Persia, all written in Azure and gold letters, and deliuered vnto the lord keeper of the Sophie his great seale. The lord keeper was named Coche Califay, who sayd that when the Shaugh (that is the king or prince) did sit to seale any letters, that last priuiledge should be sealed and deliuered to Laurence Chapman. In this priuiledge is one principall article for seruants or merchants: That if the Agent do perceiue that vpon their naughtie doings, they would become Bursormen, that then the Agent wheresoeuer he shall find any such seruant or seruants, to take them and put them in prison, and no person to keepe them or maintaine them. This article was granted in respect of a custome among the Persians, being Mahumetans, whose maner is friendly to receiue and wel entertaine, both with gifts and liuing, all such Christians, as forsaking their religion, wil become of the religion of the Persians. Insomuch that before this priuiledge was granted, there was great occasion of naughty seruants to deceiue and rob their masters, that vnder the colour of professing that religion, they might liue among them in such safetie, that you might haue no lawe agaynst them, either to punish them or to recouer your goods at their hands, or elsewhere. For before the Sophie (whom they say to be a maruelous wise and gracious prince) seemed to fauour our nation, and to grant them such priuiledges, the people abused them very much, and so hated them, that they would not touch them, but reuiled them, calling them Cafars and Gawars, which is, infidels or misbeleeuers. But after they saw how greatly the prince fauoured them, they had them afterward in great reuerence, and would kisse their hands and vse them very friendly. For before they tooke it for no wrong to rob them, defraud them, beare false witnesse against them, and such merchandizes as they had bought or sold, make them take it againe, and change it as often as them listed. And if any stranger by chance had killed one of them, they would haue the life, of two for one slaine, and for the debts of any stranger would take the goods of any other of the same nation, with many other such like abuses, in maner vnknowen to the prince, before the complaints of our men made vnto him for reformation of such abuses: which were the cause that no merchant strangers of contrary religion durst come into his dominions with their commodities, which might be greatly to the profite of him and his subiects. The Articles of the second priuiledge deliuered to Laurence Chapman, which are to be annexed vnto the former priuiledge. 10 Item, that the merchants haue free libertie, as in their first priuiledge, to goe: vnto Gilan, and all other places of his dominions, now or hereafter when occasion shall be giuen. 11 Item, if by misfortune any of their ships should breake, or fall vpon any part of his dominions on the sea coast, his subiects to helpe with all speed to saue the goods and to be deliuered to any of the sayd merchants that liueth: or otherwise to be kept in safetie vntil any of them come to demaund them. 12 Item, if any of the said merchants depart this life in any citie or towne, or on the high way, his gouernours there to see their goods safely kept, and to be deliuered to any other of them that shall demand them. 13 Item, the said merchants to take such camel-men as they themselues wil, being countrey people, and that no Kissell Bash do let or hinder them. And the said owners of the camels to bee bound to answere them such goods as they shal receiue at their hands, and the camel-men to stand to the losses of their camels or horses. 14 Item more, that the sayd Cariers do demaund no more of them, then their agreement was to pay them. 15 Item more, if they be at a price with any Cariers, and haue giuen earnest, the camel-men to see they keepe their promise. 16 Item, if any of the said merchants be in feare to trauel to giue them one or more to go with them and see them in safetie with their goods, to the place they will goe vnto. 17 Item, in all places, to say, in all cities, townes or villages on the high way, his subiects to giue them honest roume, and victuals for their money. 18 Item, the sayd merchants may in any place, where they shall thinke best, build or buy any house or houses to their owne vses. And no person to molest or trouble them, and to stand in any Carauan where they will, or shal thinke good. The commodities which the merchants may haue by this trade into Persia are thought to bee great, and may in time perhaps be greater then the Portugals trade into the East Indies, forasmuch as by the way of Persia into England, the returne may be made euery yeere once: whereas the Portugals make the returne from Calecut but once in two yeers, by a long and dangerous voiage all by sea: for where as the citie and Island of Ormus, lying in the gulfe of Persia, is the most famous Mart towne of all East India, whither all the merchandises of India are brought, the same may in shorter time and more safelie be brought by land and riuers through Persia, euen vnto the Caspian sea, and from thence by the countreis of Russia or Moscouia by riuers, euen vnto the citie of Yeraslaue, and from thence by land 180. miles to Vologda, and from thence againe all by water euen vnto England. The merchandises which he had out of Persia for the returne of wares are silke of all sortes of colours, both raw and wrought. Also all maner of spices and drugs, pearles, and precious stones, likewise carpets of diuers sortes, with diuers other rich merchandises. It was told me of them that came last from Persia, that here is more silke brought into some one city of Persia, then is of cloth brought into the city of London. Also that one village of Armenia named Gilgat doeth carie yeerely fiue hundred, and sometime a thousand mules laden with silke to Halepo in Soria of Turkie, being 4. dayes iourney from Tripoli, where the Venetians haue their continuall abiding, and send from thence silks which they returne for English karsies and other clothes into all partes of Christendome. The maner how the Christians become Busormen, and forsake their religion. I haue here noted before that if any Christian wil become a Busornan, that is, one that hath forsaken his faith, and be a Mahometan of their religion, they giue him many gifts and sometimes also a liuing. The maner is, that when the deuill is entred into his heart to forsake his faith, he resorteth to the Soltan or gouenour of the towne, to whom hee maketh protestation of his diuelish purpose. The gouernour appointeth him a horse, and one to ride before him on another horse, bearing a sword in his hand, and the Busorman bearing an arrow in his hand, and rideth in the citie, cursing his father and mother: and if euer after he returne to his owne religion, he is guiltie of death, as is signified by the sword borne before him. A yong man, a seruant of one of our merchants, because he would not abide the correction of his master for his faults, was minded to forsake his faith. But (as God would) he fell suddenly sicke and died, before he gaue himself to the deuill. If he had become a Busorman, he had greatly troubled the merchants: for if he then would haue said that halfe their goods had bene his, they would haue giuen credite vnto him. For the auoiding of which inconuenience, it was granted in the priuiledges, that no Busorman, &c. as there appeareth. In Persia in diuers places oxen and kine beare the tents and houshold stuffe of the poore men of the countrey, which haue neither camels nor horses. Of the tree which beareth Bombasin cotton, or Gossampine. In Persia is great abundance of Bombasin cotton, and very fine: this groweth on a certaine litle tree or brier, not past the height of a mans waste or litle more: the tree hath a slender stalke like vnto a brier, or to a carnation gillifloure, with very many branches, bearing on euery branch a fruit or rather a cod, growing in round forme, containing in it the cotton: and when this bud or cod commeth to the bignes of a walnut, it openeth and sheweth foorth the cotton, which groweth still in bignes vntill it be like a fleece of wooll as big as a mans fist, and beginneth, to be loose, and then they gather it as it were the ripe fruite. The seeds of these trees are as big as peason, and are blacke, and somewhat flat, and not round; they sowe them in plowed ground, where they grow in the fields in great abundance in many countries in Persia, and diuers other regions. The writing of the Persians. Arthur Edwards shewed me a letter of the Sophie, written in their letters backward, subsigned with the hands both of the Sophy and his Secretarie. The Sophies subscription was onely one word (his name I suppose was Shaugh) written in golden letters vpon red paper. The whole letter was also written on the same piece of red paper, being long and narow, about the length of a foote, and not past three inches broad. The priuate signet of the Sophie was a round printed marke about the bignes of a roial, onely printed vpon the same paper without any waxe or other seale, the letters seem so mishapen and disordered, that a man would thinke it were somewhat scribled in maner at aduentures. Yet they say that almost euery letter with his pricke or circumflexe signifieth a whole word. Insomuch that in a piece of paper as big as a mans hand their writing doeth containe as much as doeth ours almost in a sheet of paper. * * * * * The fift voiage into Persia made by M. Thomas Banister, and master Geofrey Ducket, Agents for the Moscouie companie, began from England in the yeere 1568, and continuing to the yeere 1574 following. Written by P. I. from the mouth of M. Lionel Plumtree. Vpon the 3. day of Iuly 1568, they embarked themselues at Yeraslaue, being accompanied with Lionel Plumtree, and some 12. English men more, in a Barke called the Thomas Bonauenture of the burden of 70. tunnes, taking also along with them of Russes to the number of 40. for their vse and imploiments. [Sidenote: The English Barke assaulted neere Astracan by the Nagaian Tartars.] It fell out in the way, before they came to Astracan by 40. miles, that the Nagaian Tartars, being a kind of thieuish and cruel people, made an assault vpon them with 18. boates of theirs, each of them being armed, some with swords, some with speares, and some others with bowes and arrowes, and the whole number of them they discouered to be about 300. men. They for their parts, although they could haue wished a quiet voyage and iourney without blowes and violence, yet not willing to be spoiled with such Barbarians as they were, began to defend themselues against their assault, by meanes whereof a very terrible and fierce fight folowed and continued hot and sharpe for two houres, wherein our men so wel plaied their parts with their caliuers, that they forced the Tartars to flee with the losse of 120 of them, as they were afterwards enformed by a Russe prisoner, which escaped from the Nagaians, and came to them to Astracan, at which towne they arriued the 20. of August. [Sidenote: Astracan besieged by 70000 Turks and Tartars.] In this towne of Astracan they were somewhat hindered of their iourney, and staied the space of sixe weekes by reason of a great army of 70000. Turkes and Tartars which came thither vpon the instigation of the great Turke, hoping either to haue surprised it suddenly or by continuance of siege to win the same. But in the end by reason that the winter approched, as also, because they had receiued newes of a great expedition, which the Emperour of Russia was in prouiding for the defence of the said place, they were constrained to raise their siege, and to leaue the town as they found it. Vpon their departure our men had opportunitie to proceed on their voyage, and vsing the occasion, they left Astracan, and came to Bilbil towards the end of October: from whence they went to Shauaran, where (as they lodged in their tentes) they were greatly molested with strange troopes of sholcaues or foxes, which were so busie with them that they tooke their meate and victuals out of their lodgings, and deuoured to the bare bones in one night a mighty wilde Bore that was sent vnto them for a present from the gouenour of the countrey. Hauing staied here some three or foure daies in prouiding of cariages and other necessaries for their iourney, they departed thence and came to Shamaky, which is foure dayes iourney from the aforesayd Shauaran. In this towne of Shamaky their whole company spent out the Winter, and from thence in April folowing they tooke their iourney towards Ardouil a place of great account and much esteemed, by reason of the sepulchres of the Emperours of Persia, which for the most part lie there buried, and so is growen to bee a place of their superstitious deuotion. In this towne of Ardouil they soiourned the space of 5. or 6. moneths, finding some traffiques and sales, but to no purpose, the towne being more inhabited and frequented with gentlemen and noblemen then merchants. The difference of religion bred great broiles in this towne whiles they remained there: for the brother sought the destruction of the brother, and the neerest kinsmen rose vp one against another, insomuch that one of their company Lionel Plumtree hath seene in one day sometimes 14 slaine in a garboile. And he being further desirous to see their maner of fight, or rather somewhat more curious to behold, then mistrustful of their blowes, was like to haue borne a share in their bloodie tragedie, being twise wounded with their shot and arrowes, although not to the death. At this towne the Shah Thomas sent a messenger for our men to come to his presence at Casbin, to whom Thomas Banister failed not to goe, although master Ducket lay very sicke at Ardouil, and in such case that they almost despaired of his recouerie. Hee being come to the Shaugh was receiued and entertained of him with great fauour and speciall countenance, and had the most part of all his requests granted him, this onely excepted, that whereas he entreated a priuiledge or sufferance to transport and cary through his dominions certaine horses into India, the Shaugh seemed both to yeeld thereunto, and yet did not altogether denie it, but referred it to some further time. As for the point of traffique, he could not make that motion or request that was not so soone granted as it was preferred: and the Shaugh himselfe bought there of him many karsies, and made him as good paiment as any man could wish, and oftentimes would send his mony for the wares before the wares were deliuered, that he might be the surer of this honourable intended dealing. One thing somewhat strange I thought good in this place to remember, that whereas hee purposed to send a great summe of money to Mecca in Arabia, for an offering to Mahomet their prophet, hee would not send any money or coyne of his owne, but sent to the English merchants to exchange his coyne for theirs, according to the value of it, yeelding this reason for the same, that the money of the merchants was gotten by good meanes, and with good consciences, and was therefore woorthie to be made for an oblation to their holy prophet, but his owne money was rather gotten by fraud, oppression and vnhonest meanes, and therefore was not fit to serue for so holie a vse. After sixe moneths spent in Casbin the sayde Thomas Banister departed towards the great citie of Taruis, where being arriued, he found M. Ducket well recouered of his sicknesse, whom he had left ill at Ardouil. At this Citie the foresayd Master Ducket made sales of the English commodities, remaining there to that purpose the space of two yeeres and a halfe. And besides other kindes of merchandises of that countrey, he bought great stores of gals which grow in great abundance at a place within one dayes iourney of the aforesayd Taruis. After this Thomas Banister departed from Tauris, and went to Shamaky to giue order for the transporting of those commodities which were bought for England. And hauing dispatched them away, he went there hence to Arrash, a towne foure dayes iourney with camels from Shamaky for the buying of rawe silke. [Sidenote: The death of Thomas Banister and Laurence Chapman.] But there by reason of the vnwholesomnesse of the aire, and corruption of the waters in the hole time of the yeere, he with Lawrence Chapman and some other English men vnhappily died: which being knowen of M. Ducket, he immediately came from Taruis to Arrash, to take possession of the goods, for otherwise by the custome of the countrey, if there had bene no merchant or other friend of his to enter vpon that which he left, all had fallen into the Shaughs hands, which goods notwithstanding could not bee recouered from the officers, which had seized and sealed vp the same, vntill M. Ducket had bene in person with the Shaugh, and had procured his order for the deliuerie thereof. [Sidenote: Humfrey Greensell burnt at Ormus.] Lionel Plumtree, in the meane time that M. Ducket was at Casbin in sute for goods, vpon the perswasion of certaine Bogharians, made prouision for a iourney to Cathaia, with cariages and commodities, and hauing all things ready, departed secretly with a Carauan: but being gone forwards on his way sixe dayes iourny, some fifty horsemen by the procurement of Humfrey Greensell (who afterwards being at Ormus in the East Indies, was there cruelly burnt in the Inquisition by the Portingals) were sent after him in poste from Sultan Erasbec, the Shaughs lieutenant, to fetch him backe againe, not suffering him to passe on so perillous and dangerous a iourney for feare of diuers inconueinces that might follow. After this M. Ducket returned from Casbin to Shamaky againe, and immediately made preparation for a iourney to Cassan, being about foure dayes iourney from Shamaky, and caried with him foure mules laden with mony. In the way of his trauel he passed through Persepolis, sometime the roiall seate of the Emperors of Persia, but now ruined and defaced, whereof remaine to be seene at this day two gates onely that are distant one from the other the space of 12 miles, and some few pinnacles in the mountains and conueiances for fresh water. The foresaid Cassan is a towne that consisteth altogether of merchandise, and the best trade of all the land is there, being greatly frequented by the merchants of India. Here our men bought great store of al maner of wrought silkes, and some spices, and good store of Turkie stones. The towne is much to be commended for the ciuil and good gouernment that is there vsed. An idle person is not suffred to liue amongst them. The child that is but fine yeeres old is set to some labour. No ill rule, disorder or riote by gaming or otherwise, is there permitted. Playing at Dice or Cards is by the law present death. At this Cashan they remained about the space of tenne weekes, and then came down againe to Shamaky, and after some time spent in diuers places of the countrey for buying of rawe silke and other commodities, they came at last to Shauaran againe, where their ship was in harbour and then they shipt all their goods and embarked themselues also, setting sayle the eight day of May, in the yeere 1573. intending to fetch Astracan. By reason of the varietie of the windes and dangerous flats of the Caspian sea, they beat it vp and downe some 20. dayes. And the 28. day riding at anker vpon the flats, certaine Russe Cassaks, which are outlawes or banished men, hauing intelligence of their being there, and of the great wealth that they had with them, came to them with diuers boates vnder the colour of friendship, and entered their ship, but immediately they tooke their hatchets and slew diuers of the Russes that were of the ship vpon the hatches: Whereupon master Ducket, Lionell Plumtree, William Smith, the master, a man of singular valure, and Amos Riall being vnder the Spardecke did so well behaue themselues, that they skowred the hatches, and slew 14 of the Cassaks gunners, and hurt and wounded about 30 more; being of them al in number 150. at the least, armed with caliuers and other weapons fit for so villanous a purpose. [Sidenote: The English ship taken by the Cassaks.] M. Ducket notwithstanding and the rest aforesaid receiued diuers wounds from the enemie, and were so hurt, and withall so oppressed with the multitude and force of them, that they were at last constrained to make an agreement with the Cassaks by rendring the ship into their hands, hauing receiued first their othes sworne by their crucifixes, not to do any further harme to their persons. Thus the shippe being taken, and all the English grieuously hurt, the Cassaks immediately discharged the ship of them, putting them all into the ship boate with two or three Persian targets full of horse flesh and swines flesh, without further victuals or reliefe: they being in that case, made the best hast they could to get to Astracan: and being come to the towne, master Ducket made great sute to the captaine to haue men and boates set out for the rescuing and recouering of the ship if it were possible: who immediately sent out his sonne with fortie boates and fiue hundred men to pursue the Pirats, and by good hap came to the place where they rid at anker with the ship, but by reason of their foolishnes in striking vp their drums before they were come neere them, the Cassaks discouering the boats, cut their gables and put out to sea, whereupon the boats not being able to folow them, returned againe to Astracan. After which, 60 boats more were sent out to pursue them againe the second time: and that second army came to a place where they found many of these Cassaks and slew them, and found out the places where they had hid certaine parcels of their goods in the earth in the chests of the ship: all which they recouered againe for the English merchants, to the value of 5000 li. of 30 or 40 thousand pound, but all the rest the Cassaks in the ship had caried away. In the same place they found further diuers of the Cassaks which the Englishmen had slaine, buried in the earth, and wrapt some in fortie or fiftie yards of Sattin and Taffataes, and some in Turkie carpets cut and spoiled by those villanous Pirats, of whom afterwards as many as could be taken, by the Persians who entirely loued the English merchants, were put to most cruell torments in all places according to their deserts. But our men being thus spoyled of their goods, and wounded in their bodies, remained about two moneths at Astracan for their better recouerie: and hauing gotten some reasonable strength, they then prouided boates and went vp the riuer of Volga to Cazan, with such goods as they had recouered from the Cassaks. [Sidenote: Ice in the beginning of October.] From Cazan they went towards Yeraslaue, but in the way the ice intercepted them about the beginning of October, where suddenly in the night they were taken with a cruell and vehement frost, and therewithall the waters so congeled, that their boates were crushed and cut in sunder with the ice, whereby they sustained both a further danger of life and losse of goods: but as much as they could preserue with much adoe, they conueyed ouer land in sleds to Vologda, and from thence sent much of it to Saint Nicholas to be laden in the ships for England. But Master Ducket, Lionel Plumtree and Amos Riall went with some parcels to the Mosko, and there sold certaine quantities of it to the Emperour, who pitying the mightie losse that they had sustained by his owne rebellious people and subiects, bought himselfe as much as hee liked, and payed present money for the same. [Sidenote: 1574.] So that Winter being spent out in Mosko, and such wares prouided by them as serued for England, they departed to Saint Nicholas, and there embarked in the moneth of August: and hauing endured a very terrible passage in nine weekes and three dayes, with some hardnesse of victuals, contrary and furious windes, and other sea accidents, they arriued at London in the moneth of October, one thousand fiue hundred seuentie and foure, and so make an ende of an vnfortunate voyage: which if it had pleased God to prosper, that all things had come home as safely as they were carefully prouided, and painfully laboured for, it had proued the richest voiage and most profitable returne of commoditie, that had euer bene vndertaken by English merchants, who, notwithstanding all misfortunes, lost nothing of their principall aduenture, but onely the interest and gaine that might haue risen by the vse of their stocke in the meane time. * * * * * Further obseruations concerning the state of Persia, taken in the foresayd fift voyage into those partes, and written by M. Geffery Ducket, one of the Agents emploied in the same. Shamaky is the fairest towne in all Media, and the chiefest commoditie of that countrey is rawe silke, and the greatest plentie thereof is at a towne three dayes iourney from Shamaky called Arash: [Sidenote: Grosin or Georgia.] and within 3. dayes iourney of Arash is a countrey named Grosin, whose inhabitants are Christians, and are thought to be they which are otherwise called Georgians: there is also much silke to be sold. The chief towne of that countrey is called Zegham, from whence is caried yeerely into Persia, an incredible quantitie of Hasell nuts, all of one sort and goodnesse, and as good and thin shaled as are our Filberds. Of these are caried yeerely the quantitie of 4000. Camels laden. Of the name of the Sophy of Persia, and why he is called the Shaugh, and of other customes. The king of Persia (whom here, we call the great Sophy) is not there so called, but is called the Shaugh. It were there dangerous to cal him by the name of Sophy, because that Sophy in the Persian tongue, is a begger, and it were as much as to call him. The great begger. He lieth at a towne called Casbin, which is situate in a goodly fertile valley of 3. or 4. daies iourney in length. The towne is but euil builded, and for the most part all of bricke, not hardened with fire, but only dried at the sunne, as is the most part of the building of all Persia. The king hath not come out of the compasse of his owne house in 33. or 34. yeeres, whereof the cause is not knowen, but as they say, it is vpon a superstition of certaine prophesies to which they are greatly addicted: he is now about 80. yeeres of age, and very lusty. And to keepe him the more lusty, he hath 4. wiues alwayes, and about 300. concubines, and once in the yeere he hath all the faire maidens and wiues that may be found a great way about brought vnto him, whom he diligently peruseth, feeling them in all parts, taking such as he liketh, and putting away some of them which he hath kept before, and with them that he putteth away, he gratifieth some such as hath done him the best seruice. And if hee chance to take any mans wife, her husband is very glad thereof, and in recompense of her, oftentimes he giueth the husband one of his old store, whom he thankfully receiueth. [Sidenote: How strangers are used.] If any stranger being a Christian shall come before him, he must put on a new paire of shooes made in that countrey, and from the place where be entreth, there is digged as it were a causey all the way, vntil he come to the place where he shal talke with the king who standeth alwayes aboue in a gallerie, when he talketh with any strangers: and when the stranger is departed, then is the causey cast downe, and the ground made euen againe. Of the religion of the Persians. Their religion is all one with the Turkes, sauing that they differ who was the right successor of Mahumet. The Turkes say that it was one Homer and his sonne Vsman. But the Persians say that it was one Mortus Ali, which they would prooue in this maner. They say there was a counsell called to decide the matter who should be the successor: and after they had called vpon Mahumet to reueale vnto them his will and pleasure therein, there came among them a little Lizard, who declared that it was Mahumets pleasure that Mortus Ali should be his successor. [Sidenote: A goodly and well grounded religion.] This Mortus Ali was a valiant man and slew Homer the Turkes prophet. He had a sword that hee fought withall, with the which hee conquered all his enemies, and killed as many as he stroke. When Mortus Ali died, there came a holy prophet, who gaue them warning that shortly there would come a white Camell, vpon the which he charged them to lay the body and sword of Mortus Ali, and to suffer the Camel to cary it whither he would. The which being performed, the said white camell caried the sword and body of Mortus Ali taken vp into heauen, for whose return they haue long looked in Persia. And for this cause the king alwayes keepeth a horse ready sadled for him, and also of late kept for him one of his owne daughters to be his wife, but she died in the yere of our Lord, 1573. And they say furthermore, that if he come not shortly, they shalbe of our beliefe: much like the Iewes, looking for their Messias to come and reigne among them like a worldly king for euer, and deliuer them from the captiuitie which they are now in among the Christians, Turkes, and Gentiles. The Shaugh or king of Persia is nothing in strength and power comparable vnto the Turke: for although he hath a great Dominion, yet is it nothing to be compared with the Turks: neither hath he any great Ordinance or gunnes, or harquebusses. Notwithstanding his eldest sonne Ismael about 25. yeeres past, fought a great battell with the Turke, and slew of his armie about an hundred thousand men: who after his returne was by his father cast into prison, and there continueth vntil this day: for his father the Shaugh had him in suspicion that he would haue put him downe, and haue taken the regiment vnto himselfe. [Sidenote: Their opinion of Christ.] Their opinion of Christ is, that he was an holy man and a great Prophet, but not like vnto Mahumet: saying, that Mahumet was the last prophet by whom all things were finished, and was therefore the greatest. To prooue that Christ was not Gods sonne, they say that God had neuer wife, and therefore could haue no sonne or children. They go on pilgrimage from the furthest part of Persia vnto Mecha in Arabia, and by the way they visite also the sepulchre of Christ at Ierusalem, which they now call Couch Kaly. The most part of spices which commeth into Persia is brought from the Island of Ormus, situate in the gulfe of Persia called Sinus Persicus, betweene the maine land of Persia and Arabia, &c. The Portingals touch at Ormus both in their voyage to East India and homeward againe, and from thence bring all such spices as are occupied in Persia and the regions thereabout: for of pepper, they bring very small quantitie, and that at a very deare price. The Turkes oftentimes bring pepper from Mecha in Arabia, which they sell as good cheape as that which is brought from Ormus. Silkes are brought from no place, but are wrought all in their owne countrey. Ormus is within two miles of the maine land of Persia, and the Portingals fetch their fresh water there, for the which they pay tribute to the Shaugh or king of Persia. [Sidenote: Their money.] Within Persia they haue neither gold nor siluer mines, yet haue they coined money both of gold and siluer, and also other small moneys of copper. There is brought into Persia an incredible summe of Dutch dollars, which for the most part are there imploied in raw silke. [Sidenote: Their bookes and learning.] They haue few bookes and lesse learning, and are for the most part very brutish in al kind of good sciences, sauing in some kind of silke works, and in such things as pertaine to the furniture of horses, in the which they are passing good. [Sidenote: Such was the law of the Macedonians for treason.] Their lawes are as in their religion, wicked and detestable. And if any man offend the prince, he punisheth it extremely, not onely in the person that offendeth, but also in his children, and in as many as are of his kin. Theft and murther are often punished, yet none otherwise then pleaseth him that is ruler in the place where the offence is committed, and as the partie offending is able to make friends, or with money to redeeme his offence. [Sidenote: Dissention for religion.] There is oftentimes great mutinie among the people in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest: insomuch that sometimes in the towne two or three thousand people are together by the eares for the same, as I haue seene in the towne of Shamaky and Ardouil, and also in the great City of Tiueris, where I haue seene a man comming from fighting, in a brauerie bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads, carying them by the haire of the head: for although they shaue their heads most commonly twise a weeke, yet leaue they a tuft of haire vpon their heads about 2. foote long. I haue enquired why they leaue the tuft of haire vpon their heads. They answered that thereby they may easiler be carried vp into heauen when they are dead. [Sidenote: Their priests and preaching. Their Lent.] For their religion they haue certairie priests who are apparelled like vnto other men. They vse euery morning and afternoone to go vp to the tops of their churches, and tell there a great tale of Mahumet and Mortus Ali: and other preaching haue they none. Their Lent is after Christmas, not in abstinence from flesh onely, but from all meats and drinks, vntill the day be off the side, but then they eate somtimes the whole night. And although it be against their religion to drinke wine, yet at night they will take great excesses thereof and be drunken. Their Lent beginneth at the new Moone, and they do not enter into it vntill they haue seene the same: neither yet doeth their Lent end, vntill they haue seen the next new Moone, although the same (through close weather) should not be seen in long time. [Sidenote: Their saints and holy men. Pilgrimage.] They haue among them certaine holy men whom they call Setes, counted holy for that they or any of their ancestors haue been on pilgrimage at Mecha in Arabia, for whosoeuer goeth thither on pilgrimage to visite the sepulchre of Mahumet, both he and all his posteritie are euer after called Setes, and counted for holy men, and haue no lesse opinion of themselues. And if a man contrary one of these, he will say that he is a Saint, and therefore ought to be beleeued, and that hee cannot lie, although he lie neuer so shamefully. Thus a man may be too holy, and no pride is greater then spirituall pride of a mind puffed vp with his own opinion of holinesse. These Setes do vse to shaue their heads all ouer, sauing on the sides a litle aboue the temples, the which they leaue vnshauen, and vse to braid the same as women do their haire, and to weare it as long as it will grow. [Sidenote: Their praier and worshipping of God and Mahumet.] Euery morning they vse to worship God, Mahumet, and Mortus Ali, and in praying turne themselues toward the South, because Mecha lieth that way from them. When they be in trauell on the way, many of them will (as soone as the Sunne riseth) light from their horses, turning themselues to the South, and will lay their gownes before them, with their swords and beads, and so standing vpright worship to the South: and many times in their prayers kneele downe, and kisse their beads, or somwhat els that lieth before them. [Sidenote: Washing and outward clenlinesse.] The men or women doe neuer goe to make water, but they vse to take with them a pot with a spout, and after they haue made water, they flash some water vpon their priuy parts, and thus doe the women as well as the men: and this is a matter of great religion among them, and in making of water the men do cowre downe as well as the women. [Sidenote: Their swearing.] When they earnestly affirme a matter, they will sweare by God, Mahumet, or Mortus Ali, and sometimes by all at ones: as thus in their owne language, saying, Olla, Mahumet, Ali. But if he will sweare by the Shaughs head, in saying Shaugham basshe, you may then beleeue him if you will. [Sidenote: The king's magnificence.] The Shaugh keepeth a great magnificence in his court: and although sometimes in a moneth or six weekes none of his nobilitie or counsaile can see him, yet goe they daily to the court, and tary there a certaine time vntil they haue knowen his pleasure whether hee will commaund them any thing or not. [Sidenote: Pursuiuants.] Hee is watched euery night with a thousand of his men, which are called his Curshes, who are they that hee vseth to send into the Countreis about his greatest affaires. When he sendeth any of them (if it be to the greatest of any of his nobilitie) he will obey them, although the messenger should beat any of them to death. [Sidenote: The kings company with his wiues and concubines.] The Shaugh occupieth himselle alwayes two dayes in the weeke in his Bathstoue, and when he is disposed to goe thither, he taketh with him fiue or sixe of his concubines, more or lesse, and one day they consume in washing, rubbing, and bathing him, and the other day in paring his nailes, and other matters. The greatest part of his life hee spendeth amongst his wiues and concubines. Hee hath now reigned about fiftie and foure yeeres, and is therefore counted a very holy man, as they euer esteeme their kings, if they haue reigned fiftie yeeres or more: for they measure the fauour of God by a mans prosperitie, or his displeasure by a mans misfortune or aduersitie. The great Turk hath this Shaugh in great reuerence, because he hath reigned king so long time. [Sidenote: The succession of the kingdom.] I haue sayd before that hee hath foure wiues, and as many: concubines as him listeth: and if he chance to haue any children by any of his concubines, and be minded that any of those children shall inherite after him, then when one of his wiues dieth, the concubine whom hee so fauoureth, hee maketh one of his wiues, and the childe whom he so loueth best, he ordaineth to bee king after him. [Sidenote: Circumcision.] What I heard of the maner of their mariages, for offending of honest consciences and chaste ears, I may not commit to writing: their fasting I haue declared before. They vse circumcision vnto children of seuen yeeres of age, as do the Turkes. [Sidenote: Their houses, and maner of eating.] Their houses (as I haue sayd) are for the most part made of bricke, not burned but only dried in the Sunne: In their houses they haue but litle furniture of houshold stuffe, except it be their carpets and some copper worke: for all their kettles and dishes wherein they eate, are of copper. They eate on the ground, sitting on carpets crosse legged as do Tailors. There is no man so simple but he sitteth on a carpet better or worse, and the whole house or roume wherein he sitteth is wholy couered with carpets. Their houses are all with flat roofes couered with earth: and in the Sommer time they lie vpon them all night. [Sidenote: Bondmen and bondwomen.] They haue many bond seruants both men and women. Bondmen and bondwomen, is one of the best kind of merchandise that any man may bring. When they buy any maydes or yong women, they yse to fede them in all partes, as with vs men doe horses: when one hath bought a yong woman, if he like her, be will keepe her for his owne vse as long as him listeth, and then selleth her to an other, who doth the like with her. So that one woman is sometimes sold in the space of foure or fiue yeeres, twelue, or twentie times. If a man keepe a bondwoman for his owne vse, and if hee find her to be false to him, and giue her body to any other, he may kill her if he will. [Sidenote: Women bought and sold, and let to hire.] When a merchant or traueller commeth to any towne where he entendeth to tary any time, he hireth a woman, or sometimes 2. or 3. during his abode there. And when he commeth to an other towne, he doeth the like in the same also: for there they vse to put out their women to hire, as wee do here hackney horses. [Sidenote: Abundance of oile issuing out of the ground.] There is a very great riuer which runneth through the plaine of Iauat, which falleth into the Caspian sea, by a towne called Bachu, neere vnto which towne is a strange thing to behold. For there issueth out of the ground a marueilous quantitie of oile, which oile they fetch from the uttermost bounds of all Persia: it serueth all the countrey to burn in their houses. This oyle is blacke, and is called Nefte: [Footnote: These springs are still in existence.] they vse to cary it throughout all the Countrey vpon kine and asses, of which you shall oftentimes meet with foure or fiue hundred in a company. [Sidenote: Oleum Petroleum.] There is also by the said towne of Bachu another kind of oyle which is white and very precious: and is supposed to be the same that here is called Petroleum. There is also not far from Shamaky, a thing like vnto tarre, and issueth out of the ground, [Footnote: These springs are still in existence.] whereof we haue made the proofe, that in our ships it serueth well in the stead of tarre. [Sidenote: Two sorts of kine.] In Persia are kine of two sorts: the one like vnto ours in these partes: the other are marueilous euill fauoured, with great bones and very leane, and but litle haire vpon them: their milke is walowish sweete: they are like vnto them which are spoken of in the Scripture, which in the dreame of Pharao signified the seuen deare yeeres: for a leaner or more euill fauoured beast can no man see. [Sidenote: Foxes in great plenty.] In the countrey of Shiruan (sometime called Media) if you chance to lie in the fields neere vnto any village, as the twilight beginneth, you shall haue about you two or three hundred foxes, which make a marueilous wawling or howling: and if you looke not well to your victuals, it shal scape them hardly but they will haue part with you. The Caspian sea doeth neither ebbe nor flowe, except sometimes by rages of wind it swelleth vp very high: the water is very salt. Howbeit, the quantitie of water that falleth out of the great riuer of Volga maketh the water fresh at the least twentie leagues into the sea. The Caspian sea is marueilous full of fish, but no kind of monstrous fish, as farre as I could vnderstand, yet hath it sundry sortes of fishes which are not in these parts of the world. The mutton there is good, and the sheepe great, hauing very great rumpes with much fat vpon them. Rice and mutton Is their chiefe victual. * * * * * The copy of a letter sent to the Emperour of Moscouie, by Christopher Hodsdon and William Burrough, Anno 1570. MOst mightie Empefour, &c. Whereas Sir William Garrard and his felowship the company of English merchants, this last Winter sent hither to the Narue three ships laden with merchandise, which was left here, and with it Christopher Hodsdon one of the sayd felowship, and their chiefe doer in this place, who when hee came first hither, and vntil such time as hee had dispatched those ships from hence, was in hope of goods to lade twelue or thirteene sails of good ships, against this shipping, wherefore he wrote vnto the sayd Sir William Garrard and his companie to send hither this spring the sayd number of thirteene ships. And because that in their comming hither wee found the Freebooters on the sea, and supposing this yeere that they, would be very strong, he therefore gaue the said sir William and his companie aduise to furnish the sayd number of ships so strongly, as they should bee able to withstand the force of the Freebooters: whereupon they haue according to his aduice sent this yeere thirteene good ships together well furnished with men and munition, and all other necessaries for the warres, of which 13. ships William Burrough one of the said felowship is captaine generall, vnto whom there was giuen in charge, that if hee met with any the Danske Freebooters, or whatsoeuer robbers and theeues that are enimies to to your highnesse, he should doe his best to apprehend and take them. [Sidenote: Fiue ships of Freebooters taken.] It so hapned that the tenth day of this moneth the sayd William with his fleete, met with sixe ships of the Freebooters neere vnto an Island called Tuttee, which is about 50. versts from Narue vnto which Freebooters he with his fleete gaue chase, and took of them the Admirall, wherein were left but three men, the rest were fled to shore in their boats amongst the woods vpon Tuttee, on which he set fire and burned her. He also tooke foure more of those ships which are now here, and one ship escaped him: out of, which foure ships some of the men fled in their boates and so escaped, others were slaine in fight, and some of them when they saw they could not escape, cast themselues willingly into the Sea and were drowned. So that in these fiue ships were left but 83. men. The said Wil. Borough when he came hither to Narue, finding here Chistopber Hodsdon aforenamed, both the said Christopher and William together, in the name of sir William Garrard and the rest of their whole companie and felowship, did present vnto your highnesse of those Freebooters taken by our ships 82. men, which we deliuered here vnto Knez Voiuoda, the 13. of this moneth. One man of those Freebooters we haue kept by vs, whose name is Haunce Snarke a captaine. And the cause why we haue done it is this: When wee should haue deliuered him with the rest of his felowes vnto the Voiuodaes officers, there were of our Englishmen more then 50. which fell on their knees vnto vs, requesting that he might be reserued in the ship, and caried back into England: and the cause why they so earnestly intreated for him, is, that some of those our Englishmen had bene taken with Freebooters, and by his meanes had their liues saued with great fauour besides, which they found at his hands. Wherefore if it please your highnesse to permit it, we will cary him home with vs into England, wherin we request your maiesties fauour: notwithstanding what you command of him shalbe obserued. Wee haue also sent our seruant to your highnesse with such bestellings and writings as wee found in those shippes: whereby your Maiestie may see by whom, and in what order they were set out, and what they pretended, which writings wee haue commended vnto Knez Yoriue your Maiesties Voiuoda at Plesco, by our seruant. And haue requested his futherance for the safe deliuerie of them to your maiesties hands: which writings when you haue perused we desire that they may be returned vnto vs by this our seruant, as speedily as may bee: for these ships which we now haue here will be soone dispatched from hence, for that we haue not goods to lade aboue the halfe of them. And the cause is, we haue this winter (by your maiesties order) bene kept from traffiquing to the companies great losse. But hoping your maiestie will hereafter haue consideration thereof, and that we may haue free libertie to trafique in all partes of your maiesties Countries, according to the priuledge giuen vnto vs, we pray for your maiesties health, with prosperous successe to the pleasure of God. From Narue the 15 of Iuly, Anno 1570. Your Maiesties most humble and obedient, Christopher Hodsdon. William Borough. * * * * * A letter of Richard Vscombe to M. Henrie Lane, touching the burning of the Citie of Mosco by the Crimme Tartar, written in Rose Island the 5. day of August, 1571. Master Lane I haue me commended vnto you. The 27. of Iuly I arriued here with the Magdalene, and the same day and houre did the Swalow and Harry arriue here also. At our comming I found Master Proctor here, by whom we vnderstand very heauie newes. [Sidenote: the citie of Mosco burnt by the Crimme. Englishmen smothered at the burning of Mosco.] The Mosco is burnt euerie sticke by the Crimme the 24, day of May last, and an innumerable number of people: and in the English house was smothered Thomas Southam, Tofild, Wauerly, Greenes wife and children, two children of Rafe, and more to the number of 25. persons were stifeled in our Beere seller: and yet in the same seller was Rafe, his wife, Iohn Browne, and Iohn Clarke preserued, which was wonderfull. [Sidenote: M. Glouer and M. Rowley preserued.] And there went into that seller master Glouer and master Rowley also: but because the heate was so great, they came foorth againe with much perill, so that a boy at their heeles was taken with the fire, yet they escaped blindfold into another seller, and there, as Gods will was, they were preserued. The Emperour fled out of the field, and many of his people were caried away by the Crimme Tartar: to wit, all the yong people, the old they would not meddle with, but let them alone, and so with exceeding much spoile and infinite prisoners, they returned home againe. What with the Crimme on the one side, and his crueltie on the other, he hath but few people left. Commend me to mistresse Lane your wife, and to M. Locke, and to all friends. Yours to command, Richard Vscombe. * * * * * A note of the proceeding of M. Anthonie Ienkinson, Ambassadour from the Queens most excellent Maiestie, to the Emperour of Russia, from the time of his ariuall there, being the 26. of Iuly 1571, vntill his departure from thence the 23. of Iuly 1572. The said 26. day I arriued with the two good ships called the Swalow and the Harry in safetie, at the Baie of S. Nicholas in Russia aforesayd, and landed at Rose Island, from whence immediately I sent away my interpreter Daniel Siluester in post towards the Court, being then at the Mosco, whereby his maiestie might as well bee aduertised of my arriual in his Dominions, as also to knowe his highnesse pleasure for my further accesse. And remaining at the sayd Island two or three dayes, to haue conference with your Agent about your affaires, I did well perceiue by the words of the sayd Agent and others your seruants, that I was entred into great perill and danger of my life: for they reported to mee that they heard said at the Mosco, that the princes displeasure was such against me, that if euer I came into his country againe. I should loose my head, with other words of discouragement. Whereat I was not a little dismaid, not knowing whether it were best for me to proceed forwards, or to returne home againe with the ships for the safeguard of my life. But calling to mind mine innocencie and good meaning, and knowing my selfe not to haue offended his Maiestie any maner of wayes either in word or deed, or by making former promises not performed, heretofore by mine enemies falsely surmised: and being desirous to come to the triall thereof, whereby to iustifie my true dealings, and to reprooue my sayd enemies, as well here as there, who haue not ceased of late by untrue reports to impute the cause of the sayd Emperours displeasure towards you to proceed of my dealings, and promises made to him at my last being with him (although by his letters to the Queenes Maiestie, and by his owne words to me the contrary doeth appeare) I determined with my selfe rather to put my life into his hands, and by the prouidence of God to prosecute the charge committed unto me, then to returne home in vaine, discouraged with the words of such, who had rather that I had taried at home, then to be sent ouer with such credite, whereby I might sift put their euil doings, the onely cause of your losse. Wherefore, leauing the said ships the nine and twentieth day of the month, I departed from the seaside, and the first of August arriued at Colmogro, where I remaided attending the returne of my said messenger with order from his Maiestie. But all the Countrey being sore visited by the hand of God with the plague, passage in euery place was shut up, that none might passe in paine of death: My Messenger being eight hundreth miles upon his way, was stayed, and kept at a towne called Shasco, and might not bee suffered to goe any further, neither yet to returne backe againe, or sende unto me: by meanes whereof in the space of foure moneths, I could neither heare nor know what was become of him, in which time my said messenger found meanes to aduertise the Gouernour of the Citie of Vologda, as well of his stay, as of the cause of his comming thither, who sent him word that it was not possible to passe any neerer the Prince without further order from his Maiestie, who was gone to the warres against the Swethens, and that he would aduertise his highnesse so soone as he might conueniently. And so my said messenger was forced to remaine there still without answere. During which time of his stay through the great death (as aforesaid) I found meanes to send another messenger, with a guide by an vnknowen way through wildernesse a thousand miles about, thinking that way he should passe without let: but it prooued contrary, for likewise hee being passed a great part of his iourney, fell into the handes of a watch, and escaped very hardly, that hee and his guide with their horses had not bene burnt, according to the lawe prouided for such as would seeke to passe by indirect wayes, and many haue felt the smart thereof which had not wherewith to buy out the paine: neither could that messenger returne backe vnto me. And thus was I kept without answere or order from his Maiestie, and remained at the saide Colmogro, vntil the 18. of Ianuary following, neither hauing a gentleman to safegard me, nor lodging appointed me, nor allowance of victuals according to the Countrey fashion for Ambassadours, which argued his grieuous displeasure towards our nation. And the people of the Countrey perceiuing the same, vsed towards mee and my company some discourtesies: but about the 28. day aforesaid, the plague ceased, and the passages being opened, there came order from his Maiestie that I should haue poste horses, and bee suffered to depart from Colmogro to goe to a Citie called Peraslaue neere to the Court, his Maiestie being newly returned from the said warres. And I arriued at the said Peraslaue the 3. of February, where I remained vnder the charge of a gentleman, hauing then a house appointed me and allowance of victuals, but so straightly kept, that none of our nation or other might come or sende vnto me, nor I to them. And the 14. of March folowing, I was sent for to the Court, and being within three miles of the same, a poste was sent to the Gentleman which had charge of me, to returne backe againe with me to the said Peraslaue, and to remaine there vntil his Maiesties further pleasure, wherewith I was much dismayed, and marueiled what that sudden change ment, and the rather, because it was a troublesome time, and his Maiestie much disquieted through the ill success of his affaires, (as I did vnderstand.) And the twentieth of the same, I was sent for again to the Court, and the 23. I came before his Maiestie, who caused mee to kisse his hand and gaue gratious audience vnto my Oration, gratefully receiuing and accepting the Queenes Maiesties princely letters, and her present, in the presence of all this nobilitie. After I had finished my Oration, too long here to rehearse, and deliuered her highnesse letters, and present (as aforesaid) the Emperour sitting in royall estate stood up and said, How doth Queene Elizabeth my sister? is she in health? to whom I answered, God doth bless her Maiestie with health, and peace, and doeth wish the like vnto thee Lord, her louing brother. Then his Maiestie sitting downe againe, commanded all his nobilitie and others to depart, and auoyde the chamber, sauing the chiefe Secretarie, and one of the Counsell, and willing me to approach neere vnto him with my Interpretor, said vnto me these words. Anthony, the last time thou wast with vs heere, wee did commit vnto thee our trustie and secret Message, to be declared vnto the Queenes Maiesties herselfe thy Mistresse at thy comming home, and did expect thy comming vnto vs againe at the time we appointed, with a full answere of the same from her highnesse. And in the meane time there came vnto us at seuerall times three messengers, the one called Manly, the other George Middleton, and Edward Goodman, by the way of the Narue about the Merchants affaires: to whom wee sent our messengers to know whether thou Anthony, were returned home in safetie, and when thou shouldest returne vnto vs againe: but those messengers could tell vs nothing, and did miscall, and abuse with euil words, both our messenger and thee, wherewith wee were much offended. And vnderstanding that the said Goodman had letters about him we caused him to be searched, with whom were found many letters, wherein was written much against our Princely estate, and that in our Empire were many vnlawfull things done, whereat we were much grieued, and would suffer none of those rude messengers to haue accesse vnto vs: and shortly after wee were infourmed that one Thomas Randolfe was come into our Dominions by the way of Dwina, Ambassadour from the Queene, and we sent a Gentleman to meete and conduct him to our Citie of Mosco, at which time wee looked that thou shouldest haue returned vnto vs againe. And the said Thomas being arriued at our said Citie, wee sent vnto him diuers times, that hee should come and conferre with our Counsell: whereby we might vnderstand the cause of his comming, looking for answere of those our princely affaires committed vnto thee. But hee refused to come to our said Counsell: wherefore, and for that our saide Citie was visited with plague, the saide Thomas was the longer kept from our presence. Which being ceased, foorthwith wee gaue him accesse and audience, but all his talke with vs was about Merchants affaires, and nothing touching ours. Wee knowe that Merchants matters are to bee heard, for that they are the stay of our Princely treasures: But first Princes affaires are to be established, and then Merchants. After this the said Thomas Randolfe was with vs at our Citie of Vologda, and wee dealt with him about our Princely affaires, whereby amitie betwixt the Queenes Maiestie and vs might bee established for euer, and matters were agreed and concluded betwixt your Ambassadour and vs, and thereupon wee sent our Ambassadour into England with him to ende the same: but our Ambassadour returned vnto vs againe, without finishing our said affaires, contrary to our expectation, and the Agreement betwixt vs, and your said Ambassadour. This when his Maiestie had made a long discourse, I humbly beseeched his highnesse to heare me graciously, and to giue me leaue to speake without offence, and to beleeue those wordes to be true which I should speake. Which he graunted, and these were my words. Most noble and famous Prince, the message which thy highnesse did sende by me vnto the Queene her most excellent Maiestie touching thy Princely and secret affaires, immediately, and so soone as I came home, I did declare both secretly and truely vnto the Queenes Maiestie her selfe, word for word, as thou Lord diddest commaund mee. Which her highnesse did willingly heare and accept, and being mindefull thereof, and willing to answere the same, the next shipping after, her Maiestie did sende vnto thee, Lord, her highnesse Ambassadour Thomas Randolfe, whose approoued wisedome and fidetitie was vnto her Maiestie well knowen, and therefore thought meete to bee sent to so worthy a Prince, who had Commission not onely to treate with thy Maiestie of Merchants affaires, but also of those thy Princely and secret affaires committed vnto me. And the cause (most gracious Prince) that I was not sent againe, was, for that I was imployed in seruice vpon the Seas against the Queenes Maiesties enemies and was not returned home at such time as Master Thomas Randolfe departed with the Shippes, to come into thy Maiesties Countrey, otherwise I had bene sent. And whereas thy Maiestie saith, that Thomas Randolfe would not treate with thy Counsell of the matters of his Legation, hee did (Lord) therein according to his Commission: which was: First to deale with thy Maiestie thy selfe, which order is commonly vsed among all Princes, when they send their Ambassadours about matters of great waight. And whereas the saide Thomas is charged that hee agreed and concluded vpon matters at the same time, and promised the same should be perfourmed by the Queene her Maiestie: Whereupon (Lord) than diddest send thy Ambassadour with him into England, for answere thereof: It may please thy Maiestie to vnderstand, that as the saide Thomas Randolfe doeth confesse, that in deede hee had talke with thy Highnesse, and Counsell diuers times about princely affaires: euen so hee denieth that euer hee did agree, conclude, or make any promise in any condition or order, as is alleaged, otherwise then it should please the Queene her Maiestie to like of at his returne home, which hee did iustifie to thy Highnes Ambassador his face in England. Wherefore, most mighty Prince, it doth well appeare, that either thy Ambassador did vntruly enforme thy Maiestie or els thy princely minde, and the true meaning of the Queenes highnes her Ambassador, for want of a good Interpreter, was not well vnderstood: and how thankefully the Queene her Maiestie did receiue thy highnes commendations, and letters sent by thy Maiesties Ambassador, and how gratiously shee gaue him audience sundry times, vsing him with such honour in all points for thy sake, Lord, her louing brother, as the like was neuer shewed to any Ambassador in our Realme, and how honourably with full answere in all things, her Maiestie dismissed him, when hee had finished all thy princely affaires (as it seemed) to his owne contentation, it may well appeare by a true certificate lately sent with her highnes letter unto thee Lord, by her messenger Robert Beast, and her Maiestie did suppose that thy Ambassador would haue made report accordingly, and that by him thy highnes would haue bene satisfied in all things: otherwise she would haue sent her Maiesties Ambassador with him vnto thee Lord againe. [Sidenote: Andrea Sauin Ambassadour from the Emperour.] But now her highnes perceiuing that thy Maiestie is not fully satisfied in thy Princely affaires, neither by Thomas Randolfe, her highnes Ambassador, nor by thine owne Ambassador Andrea Sauin, nor yet by her Maiesties letter sent by the said Andrea: and also vnderstanding thy great griefe and displeasure towards Sir William Garrard, and his company, merchants tracking in thy Maiesties dominions, hath thought good to send mee at this present vnto thee Lord Emperor, and great duke; as wel with her highnes ful mind, touching thy princely affaires, as also to know the iust cause of thy Maiesties said displeasure towards the said company of merchants; and hath commanded me to answere to all things in their behalfe, and according to their true meanings. For her highnes doth suppose thy Maiesties indignation to proceede rather vpon the euill, and vntrue reports of thy late Ambassador in England, and of such wicked persons of our nation resident here in thy highnes dominions, rebels to her Maiestie, and their Countrey, then of any iust deserts of the said merchants, who neuer willingly deserued thy highnesse displeasure, but rather fauour in all their doings and meanings. And since the first time of their traffiking in thy Maiesties dominions, which is now nineteene yeres, the said merchants haue bene, and are alwayes ready and willing truely to serue thy highnesse of all things meete for thy Treasurie, in time of peace and of warre in despite of all thy enemies: although the Princes of the East Seas were agreed to stoppe the sound, and the way to the Narue, and haue brought, and do bring from time to time such commoditie to thee, Lord, as her Maiestie doeth not suffer to be transported foorth of her Realme to no other prince of the world. And what great losses the said sir William Garrard, with his company hath sustained of late yeeres in this trade, as well by shipwracke, as by false seruants it is manifestly knowen: and what seruice the said companies Ships did vnto thy Maiestie against thy enemies, two yeeres past in going to the Narue, when they fought with the King of Poles shippes Freebooters, and burnt the same and slew the people, and as many as were taken aliue deliuered vnto thy Capaine at the Narue, I trust thy highnesse doth not forget. Wherefore most mighty prince, the premises considered, the Queene her most excellent Maiestie thy louing sister, doeth request thy highnes to restore the said sir William Garrard with his company into thy princely fauour againe, with their priuiledges for free traffique with thy accustomed goodnes and iustice, to be ministred vnto them throughout all thy Maiesties dominions, as aforetime: and that the same may be signified by thy Princely letters, directed to thy officers in all places, and thy highnesse commaundement or restraint to the contrary notwithstanding. And further that it will please thy Maiestie, not to giue credite to false reports, and vntrue suggestions of such as are enemies, and such as neither would haue mutuall amitie to continue betwixt your Maiesties, nor yet entercourse betwixt your countries. And such rebels of our nation, as Ralfe Rutter, and others which lye lurking here in thy highnes dominions, seeking to sowe dissentions betwixt your Maiesties by false surmises, spending away their masters goods riotously, and will not come home to giue vp their accompts, aduancing them selues to be merchants, and able to serue the highnes of all things fit for thy treasure, whereas indeed they by of no credite, nor able of themselues to do thy Maiestie any seruice at all: the Queenes highnes request is, that it would please thy Maiestie to commaund that such persons may be deliuered vnto me to be caried home, least by their remayning here, and hauing practises and friendship with such as be not thy highnesse friendes, their euil doing might be a cause hereafter to withdraw thy goodnes from sir William Garrard and his company, who haue true meaning in all their doings, and are ready to serue thy highnesse at all times, vsing many other words to the aduancement of your credits, and the disgracing of your enemies, and so I ended for that time. Then sayd his Maiestie, We haue heard you, and will consider of all things further when wee haue read the Queene our sisters letters: to whom I answered, that I supposed his Maiestie should by those letters vnderstand her highnesse full minde to his contentation, and what wanted in writing I had credite to accomplish in word. Wherewith his maiestie seemed to be wel pleased, and commaunded me to sit downe. And after pawsing a while, his maiestie said these words vnto me, It is now a time which we spend in fasting, and praying, being the weeke before Easter, and for that we will shortly depart from hence, towards our borders of Nouogrod, wee can not giue you answere, nor your dispatch here, but you shall goe from hence, and tary vs vpon the way, where wee will shortly come, and then you shall knowe our pleasure, and haue your dispatch. And so I was dismissed to my lodging, and the same day I had a dinner ready drest sent me from his Maiestie, with great store of drinkes, of diuers sorts, and the next day following, being the foure and twentieth of March aforesayde, the chiefe Secretary to his Maiesty, sent vnto mee a Gentleman, to signifie vnto mee, that the Emperours Maiesties pleasure was, I should immediately depart towards a Citie, called Otwer, three hundred miles from the aforesaid Sloboda, and there to tary his highnes comming vnto a place called Staryts, threescore miles from the sayd Otwer. Then I sent my Interpretor to the chiefe Secretary, requesting him to further, and shew his fauour vnto our saide merchants in their sutes, which they should haue occasion to moue in my absence: who sent me word againe, that they should be wel assured of his friendship, and furtherance in all their sutes. And forthwith post horses were sent me, with a Gentleman to conduct me. And so departing from the said Sloboda, I arriued at the said Otwer, the 28. of March aforesaid, where I remained til the eight of May folowing. Then I was sent for to come vnto his Maiestie, to the sayd Staryts, where I arriued the tenth of the same, and the twelfth of the same I was appointed to come to the chiefe Secretary, who at our meeting said vnto me these words. Our Lord Emperor, and great Duke, hath not onely perused the Queene her highnes letters sent by you, and thereby doeth perceiue her minde, as well touching their princely affaires, as also her earnest request in the merchants behalfe, but also hath well pondered your words. And therefore his Maiesties pleasure is, that you let me vnderstand what sutes you haue to moue in the merchants behalfe, or otherwise, for that tomorrowe you shall haue accesse againe vnto his highnes, and shall haue full answere in all things, with your dispatch away. Then after long conference had with him of diuers matters I gaue him in writing certaine briefe articles of requests, which I had drawen out ready, as foloweth: 1 First the Queenes Maiestie her request is, that it would please the Emperors highnesse to let me know the iust cause of his great displeasure fallen vpon Sir William Garrard, and his company, who neuer deserued the same to their knowledge. 2 Also that it would please his highnes not to giue credite vnto false and vntrue reports, by such as seeke to sowe dissension, and breake friendship betwixt the Queenes highnesse, and his Maiestie. 3 Also that it would please his Maiestie to receiue the said sir William Garrard, with his company into his fauour againe, and to restore them to their former priuiledges and liberties, for free traffike in, and through, and out of al his Maiesties dominions, in as ample maner as aforetime, according to his princely letters of priuiledge, and accustomed goodnes. 4 Also it would please his highnes to graunt, that the said company of merchants may haue iustice of all his subiects, as well for money owing vnto them, as other their griefes and iniuries, throughout al his dominions suffred since the time of his displeasure, during which time, the merchants were forced by seuere iustice to answer to al mens demands, but theirs could not be heard. 5 Also that his Maiestie would vnderstand, that much debts are owing to the said merchants by diuers of his Nobilitie, whereof part are in durance, and some executed, and the said merchants know not howe to be paide, and answered the same, except his highnes pitie their case, and commaund some order to be taken therein. 6 Also, it would please his highnes to commaund that the saide merchants may be payde all such summe or summes of money as are owing, and due vnto them by his Maiestie, for wares, as well English as Shamaki, taken into his highnes treasury by his officers in sundry places, the long forbearing whereof hath bene, and is great hinderance to the said company of merchants. 7 Also it would please his Maiestie to vnderstand, that at this present time there are in Persia of English Merchants, Thomas Banister, and Geffrey Ducket, with their company, and goods, ready to come into his Maiesties countrey of Astracan, and would haue come the last yeere, but that the ship, with our merchants and mariners appointed to goe for them, were stayed at Astracan by his highnes Captaine there, to the great hinderance of the said merchants. Wherefore it may now please his Maiestie to direct his princely letters vnto his Captaines, and rulers, both at Astracan and Cazan, not onely to suffer our people, as well merchants as mariners, quietly and freely to passe and repasse with their shippes, barkes, or other vessels downe the riuer Volga, and ouer the Mare Caspium, to fetch the sayd English merchants, with their company and goods, out of the sayd Persia, into his Maiesties dominions, but also that it would please his highnes streightly to command, that when the sayd Thomas Banister, and Geffrey Ducket, with their charge, shal arriue at the sayd Astracan, his Maiesties Captaine there, and in all other places vpon the riuer Volga, shall so ayde and assist the sayd merchants, as they may be safely conducted out of the danger of the Crimmes, and other their enemies. 8 Also it may please his highnes to vnderstand, that lately our merchants comming from Shamaki haue bene ill vsed by his Maiesties Customers, both at Astracan and Cazan, at both which places they were forced to pay custome for their wares, although they solde no part thereof, but brought the same into his highnesse treasury at Sloboda: and the sayd Customers did not only exact, and take much more custome than was due by his Maiesties lawes, but also for want of present money, tooke wares much exceeding their exacted custome, and doe keepe the same as a pawne. It may therefore please his highnes to direct his princely letters to the said Customers, to signifie vnto them his great goodnes againe restored vnto the said English merchants, as also to command them to send the said merchants their said goods so detained, vp to the Mosco, they paying such custome for the same as shall be by his Maiestie appointed. 9 Also that it would please his highnesse to grant, that sir William Garrard with his companie may establish their trade for merchandise at Colmogro in Dwina, and that such wares as shal be brought out of our Countrey fit for his treasurie might be looked vpon, and receiued by his officers there: and that his Maiesties people traffiking with our merchants may bring downe their commodities to the saide Colmogro, by meanes whereof the saide English merchants auoyding great troubles and charges, in transporting their goods so farre, and into so many places of his dominions, may sell the same better cheape, to the benefite of his Maiesties subiects. 10 Also if it seemed good to his highnes, that the whole trade likewise from Persia, Boghar, and all other those Countreys beyond the Mare Caspium, might be established at Astracan, the ancient marte towne in times past, which would be both for the great honour and profite of his Maiesty, and subiects, as I am well able to prooue, if it will please his highnesse to appoint any of his counsell to talke with me therein. 11 Also forasmuch as it pleased his Maiestie, immediatly after the burning of the mosco, to command that the said English merchants should giue in a note into his Treasury, for their losses sustained by the said fire, which was done by William Rowly, then chiefe Agent for sir William Garrard and his company, and the particulars in the same note consumed with the said fire did amount to the summe of 10000. rubbles and aboue: It may please his highnes of his accustomed goodnes and great clemencie to consider of the same, and to giue the said company so much as shal seeme good vnto his Maiestie, towards their said losses. 12 Also it will please his highnesse to vnderstand that the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, at the earnest sute and request of Andrea Sauin his Maiesties Ambassadour, did not onely pardon and forgiue Thomas Glouer his great and grieuous offences towards her highnesse committed, onely for his Maiesties sake, but also commanded sir William Garrard with his company, to deale fauourably with the said Glouer in his accompts, to whom he was indebted greatly, and being their seruant, detained their goods in his hands a long time: whereupon the said sir William Garrard with his company counted with the said Glouer, and ended all things euen to his saide contentation, and was found to bee debter to the said company 4000. rubbles and aboue, and bound himselfe both by his solemne othe, and his hand-writing, to pay the same immediately after his returne into Russia with the said Andrea Sauin, vnto Nicholas Proctor chiefe Agent there, for the said company of merchants. But although it is now two yeeres past, since the said agreement, and that the said Nicholas hath diuers and sundry times requested the said money of the said Thomas, yet will he not pay the same debt, but maketh delay from time to time, alleadging that his Maiestie oweth him a great summe of money, without the payment whereof he cannot be able to pay the said merchants his due debt long forborne, to their great hinderance. In consideration of the premisses. It may please his highnesse to giue order that the said Glouer may be payd, and that he may discharge his debt to the said company of merchants, and the rather for that hee found such mercie and fauour in England, onely for his Maiesties sake. 13 Also forasmuch as Ralfe Rutter a rebell to the Queenes Maiestie, and an enemie to his Countrey, and to sir William Garrard and his company, hath of long time remained here, liuing of the spoyles and goods of the said merchants, which he wrongfully detained in his handes, riotously spending the same, during the time that he was their seruant, and would not come home when he was sent for, and also for that the Queenes Maiestie doth vnderstand, that the saide Ralfe, with other his adherents, doe seeke by all false meanes to sowe dissension, and breake amitie betwixt their Maiesties, and to ouerthrowe the trade of the said merchants: Her highnes request is, that the said Ralfe with his complices may be deliuered vnto me, to be caried home, and none other of her Maiesties subiects, not being of the socitie of the said sir William Garrard and his company, to be suffered to traffike within his highnes dominions, but to be deliuered to their Agent to bee sent home: for that the said merchants with great charges and losses, both by shipwracke, and riotous seruants, did first finde out this trade, and haue continued the same these 19. yeeres, to their great hinderance. 14 Also whereas diuers masters and artificers of our Nation are here in his Maiesties seruice, and do finde themselues grieued that they cannot haue licence to depart home into their natiue Countrey at their will and pleasure: the Queenes Maiesties request is according to her highnes writing in that behalfe, that not onely it will please his Maiestie to permit and suffer such artificers here resident in the seruice of his highnes to haue free libertie to depart and go home with me, if they request the same, but also all other the like which shall come hereafter to serue his Maiesty, to haue free libertie to depart likewise, without any let or stay. 15 Also it may please his Maiesty to vnderstand that during the time of my long being at Colmogro, attending his highnesse pleasure for my farther accesse, I with my company haue not onely bene ill vsed and intreated there, and likewise the merchants there, by one Besson Myssereuy his Maiesties chiefe officer, who hath dishonoured me, and smitten my people, and oweth the saide merchants much money, and will not pay them: but also the saide Besson hath spoken wordes of dishonour against the Queenes Maiestie. Wherefore it may please his highnesse to send downe with me to Colmogro, a Gentleman, as well chiefly to search foorth his euil behauiour towards her Maiestie, as towards me her highnesse Ambassador, and to punish him accordingly: and also that it would please his Maiestie to sende downe his letter of iustice by vertue whereof the said Besson may be forced to pay all such money as he oweth to the sayd merchants, without delay. 16 Also that it would please his highnesse to understand, that sir William Garrard with his company vnderstanding of the great dearth in his Maiesties dominions, by licence of the Queens Maiestie (not otherwise permitted) hath sent certaine ships laden with corne into his highnesse Countrey of Dwyna, rather for the reliefe of his Maiesties subiects then for any gaine: yet the good will of the said merchants lightly regarded, they were forbidden to sel the said corne, to their great discouragement hereafter to send any more. Wherefore it may please his highnesse, to tender the good will of the said merchants, as well in sending the saide corne, as in all other things, ready to serue his Maiestie, and to direct his letters to his officers of Dwina, to suffer the saide merchants with their company, to sell the said corne by measure great or small at their pleasure, without paying custome. These articles being deliuered to the chiefe Secretary, as aforesayde, and our talke ended for that time. I departed to my lodging, accompanied with certaine Gentlemen. The next day being the 13. of May aforesaid. I had warning earely in the morning, to prepare my selfe to be at the Court, betwixt the houres of 10. and 11. of the clocke, where I should haue accesse unto the presence of the Prince, as well to receiue answere of all things, as to bee dismissed to goe home. At which houres I was sent for to the Court, and brought into the Chamber of presence, where his Maiestie did sit apparelled most sumptuously, with a riche Crowne vpon his head, garnisned with many precious stones, his eldest sonne sitting by him and many of his Nobilitie about him: and after my duetie done, his highnesse commanded me to approach very neere vnto him, and sayde vnto me these words. Anthony: the Queen our louing sister her letters wee haue caused to be translated, and doe well vnderstand the same, and of, all things as well therein contained, as by worde of mouth by you to vs declared wee haue well considered, and doe perceiue that our secret message vnto you committed, was done truely according to our minde (although wee were aduertised to the contrary) and nowe wee are by you fully satisfied. [Sidenote: The causes of the Emperors displeasure.] And when wee did sende our Ambassadour into England, about those our great and waightie affaires to conclude the same with the Queene our sister, our Ambassadour coulde ende nothing for want of such assurance as was requisite in princely affaires, according to the maner of all Countreys, but was dismissed vnto vs againe, with letters of small effect, touching the same, and no Ambassadour sent with him from the Queene: which caused vs to thinke that our princely affaires were set aside, and little regarded, wherewith we were at that time much grieued: for the which cause, and for the euil behauiour of your merchants, resident in our dominions (who haue diuers wayes transgressed and broken our laws, liuing wilfully in all their doings) we did lay our heauie displeasure vpon them, and did take away from them their priuiledge, commaunding that the same throughout all our dominions should be voyd, and of none effect: and thereupon did write to the Queene our sister touching our griefes. And nowe her highnesse hath sent vnto vs againe, you her Ambassadour, with her louing letters and full minde, which we doe thankefully receiue, and are thereby fully satisfied. And for that our princely, and secret affaires were not finished to our contentation at our time appointed according to our expectation, we doe now leaue of all these matters, and set them aside for the time, because our minde is nowe otherwise changed, but hereafter when occasion shall mooue vs to the like, wee will then talke of those matters againe. And for that it hath pleased the Queene, our louing sister to send vnto vs at this present, and doeth desire to continue in friendship with vs for euer (which we doe gratefully accept, and willingly agree to the same) wee of our goodnesse for her highnesse sake, will not onely from hencefoorth put away, and forget all our displeasure towards the same Sir William Garrard and his company (as though they had neuer offended vs) but also will restore them to their priuiledges, and liberties, in, and throughout all our dominions, and will signifie the same by our letter, in all Townes and Cities, where the said merchants do traffique, as we will showe them fauor as aforetime, if they do not deserue the contrary. And if the Queene our sister had not sent thee Anthony vnto vs at this present, God knoweth what we should haue done to the said merchants, or whether would haue called back our indignation. Then I humbly beseeched his Maiestie, to let me know the particular offences committed by the said merchants, and the offendors names, to the intent I might make report thereof vnto the Queenes Maiestie, my mistres, accordingly, that the said offendors might receiue iust punishment for their deserts: but he said, I should not know them, because he had cleerely remitted al offences: and further, that it was not princely to forgiue, and after to accuse the parties, whereby her Maiesties displeasure might fall vpon them at home. Notwithstanding I did after vnderstand some part thereof, by other means. Then his Maiestie proceeding in talke said: As touching the articles of request, concerning the merchants affaires which you did yesterday deliuer vnto our Secretary, we haue not onely read the same our selfe, but also haue appointed our said Secretary to declare vnto you our minde, and answere to the same. And for that we are now vpon our iourney towards our borders, and will depart from hence shortly, we will dismisse you to the Queene our louing sister, your mistres, with our letters & full mind by word of mouth, touching all your requests, & will send a gentleman one of our houshold with you to safe conduct you to your ships: and of our goodnes will giue you victuals, boates, men, and post horses, so many as you shall neede. And therewith his Maiestie standing vp, and putting off his cappe, said vnto me these words, Doe our hearty commendations unto our louing sister, Queene Elizabeth, vnto whom we wish long life, with happie successe: and therewith his highnes extended his hand to me to kisse, and commanded his sunne, sitting by him, to send the like commendations, which he did, whose hand likewise I kissed. And then his Maiestie caused me to sit downe, and commaunded wine and drinkes of diuers sorts to be brought, whereof he gaue me to drinke with his owne hand, and so after I departed. Then the next day, being the 14. of May aforesaid, I was sent for to come to the chief Secretary, & one other of the counsel with him, who at our meeting said vnto me these words; We a appointed by the Emperor his maiesty, to giue you answere from his Highness, touching your requests deliuered in writing, which his Maiestie himselfe hath perused & answered as followeth. 1 To the first request it is answered, that all his Maiesties griefes and displeasure (now put away from the merchants) did grow, because the Queenes Maiestie did not accomplish and ende with his Ambassador, his secrete and waighty affaires, according to his expectation, and the promise made by Thomas Randolph, at his being here: and also of the ill behauiour of your merchants resident here in our Countrey, as his Maiestie did himselfe yesterday declare vnto you. 2 To the second, his Maiesty willeth you to vnderstand that he hath not, nor will not hereafter be moued to breake friendship with the Queenes Maiesty, without good and iust cause. 3 To the third, you are answered by the Emperors Maiestie himselfe, that his great goodnes and fauour againe vnto the merchants shall be restored, and the same to be knowen by his gratious letters of priuilege now againe granted. 4 To the fourth, his Maiesty hath commanded, that your merchants here resident shall exhibite, and put in writing vnto me his Maiesties Secretarie, all their griefes and complaints, as well for debts, as other iniuries offred them since the time of his Highnes displeasure, and they shall haue iustice truly ministred throughout all his Maiesties Dominions without delay. 5 To the fifth, his maiesty doth not know of any debts due vnto the merchants, by any of his Noblemen, as is alleaged: and whether it be true or no, he knoweth not: the trueth whereof must be tried out, and thereupon answere to be giuen: and hereafter his maiestie would not haue the merchants to trust his people with too much. 6 To the sixth, it is answered, that his maiesty hath commanded search to be made what money is owing to the marchants, for wares receiued into his treasury, as in the article: (the most of the bookes of accompt being burnt in the Musco) and such as is due, and found meete to be paid, shall be paid forthwith to the marchants, their factors or seruants, which shall come for the same. And for paiment of the rest, his maiesties further pleasure shall be signified hereafter. 7 To the 7 his Maiesties answers is, that letters shall be written forthwith to his captaines of Astracan, and Cazan, and other his officers, vpon the riuer Volga, to whom it appertaineth, not onely to suffer your people, both marchants, and mariners, to passe with their ships, or barkes, from Astracan, ouer the Mare Caspium, to fetche Thomas Banister and Geofry Ducket, with their company, and goods out of Persia, but also when they shall arriue within his Maiesties dominions, to aide and assist them, and see them safely conducted vp the riuer Volga, from danger of enemies. 8 To the eight, his maiestie hath commanded letters to be written to the customers, both of Astracan and Cazan, to make restitution to the English merchants of their goods so deteined by them for custome, and to take custome for the same, according to his maiesties letters of priuilege. 9 10 To the ninth and tenth articles, his Maiestie will consider of those matters, and hereafter will signifie his princely pleasure therein. 11 To the eleuenth, as touching an inuentorie giuen into the, treasury what goods the merchants had burnt in the Mosco, in their houses there, his Maiesties pleasure was to vnderstand the same, to the intent he might know the losses of all strangers at that present, but not to make restitution, for that it was Gods doing, and not the Emperours. 12 To the twelfth, concerning Thomas Glouer, his Maiestie was enformed by his Ambassador of the Queenes great mercy and clemencie towards the said Thomas, for his sake, which his Highnes receiued in good part, but what agreement or dealings was betwixt the said sir William Garrard and his company, and the said Glouer, or what he doth owe vnto the said merchants, his Maiestie doth not know. And as for the money which the said Thomas saith is owing vnto him by the Emperour, his Maiesties pleasure is, that so much as shall be found due, and growing vpon wares deliuered vnto the treasurie, out of the time of his Maiesties displeasure, shall be paid forthwith to the said Thomas, and the rest is forfeited vnto his Maiestie, and taken for a fine, as appertaining to Rutter and Bennet, accompted traitors vnto his Highnes, during the time of his displeasure. 13 To the thirteenth article, concerning Rutter to deliuered vnto you, to be caried home, the answere was, that as his Maiestie will not detaine any English man in his countrey, that is willing to go home, according to the Queenes request: euen so will he not force any to depart, that is willing to tary with him. Yet his Highnes, to satisfie the Queenes Maiesties request, is contented at this present to send the said Ralfe Rutter home with you, and hath commanded that a letter shall be written vnto his chiefe officer at the Mosco, to send the said Rutter away with speed, that he may be with you at Vologda, by the fine of May, without faile: and touching the rest of your request in the said article, his Maiesties pleasure shall be signified in the letters of priuilege, granted to the said merchants. 14 To the fourteenth, touching artificers, his Maiestie will accomplish all the Queenes Highnes request in that behalfe, and now at this present doth licence such and so many to depart to their natiue countrey as are willing to goe. 15 To the 15, touching Besson Messeriuey, the Emperors maiestie is much offended with him, and will send down a gentleman with you to inquire of his ill behauior, as wel for speaking of vndecent words against the Queens maiestie as you haue alleaged, as also against you, and the merchants for his outrages mentioned in the article, and the said Besson being found guilty, to be imprisoned and punished by seuere iustice accordingly, and after to put in sureties to answere the Emperors high displeasure, or els to be brought vp like a prisoner by the said gentleman to answere his offences before his Maiestie. And his highnes doth request that the Queenes highnes would doe the like vpon Middleton and Manlie her messengers sent thither two yeeres past, and of all others for their ill behauiour towards his maiestie, as may appeare by letters sent by Daniel Siluester from his highnes, least by the bad demeanor of such lewd persons, the amity and friendship betwixt their maiesties might be diminished. 16 To the 16 and last article, touching the corne brought into the Emperors dominions by the merchants, his maiestie doth greatly commend them for so wel doing, and hath commanded to giue you a letter forthwith in their behalf, directed to his officers of Duina, to suffer the said merchants to selle their corne, by measure great or small at their pleasure without custome. Thus I receiued a full answere from his Maiestie by his chiefe Secretarie and one other of his counsel, to the 16 articles afore rehearsed, by me exhibited in writing touching your affaires, with his letter also sent by me to the Queenes maiesty. Which being done, I requested that the new letters of priuilege granted by his highnes vnto you might be forthwith dispatched to the intent I might carie the same with me. Also I requested that such money due to you, which it had pleased his maiesty to command to be payd, might be deliuered to me in your behalfe. Touching the letters of priuilege, the Secretary answered me, it is not possible you can haue them with you, for they must be first written and shewed vnto the Emperor, and then three to be written of one tenour according to your request, which cannot bee done with speede, for that his maiesties pleasure is, you shall depart this night before him, who remooueth himselfe to morrow toward Nouogrod: but without faile the sayd letters shall be dispatched vpon the way, and sent after you with speede to Colmogro. And as touching the money which you require, it cannot be paid here because we haue not the bookes of accounts, for want whereof we know not what to paie: wherefore the best is that you send one of the merchants after the Emperor to Nouogrod, and let him repaire vnto me there, and without faile I will paie all such money as shall be appointed by his maiestie to be paid after the bookes seene. But forasmuch as there was none of your seruants with me at that present (although I had earnestly written vnto your Agent Nicholas Proctor by Richard Pringle one of your owne seruants, one moneth before my comming to Starites, where I had my dispatch, that he should not faile to come himselfe, or send one of your seruants to mee hither, to follow all such sutes as I should commence in your behalfs, which he neglected to doe to your great hinderance) I requested the said Secretarie that I might leaue Daniel my interpreter with him, aswell for the receipt of money, as for the speedy dispatch of the letters of priuiledge, but it would not be granted in any wise that I should leaue any of mine owne companie behind me, and thereupon I did take my leaue with full dispatch, and departed to my lodging, and foorthwith there came vnto me a gentleman who had charge as wel to conduct me and prouide boates, men, post horses and victuals all the way to the sea side, being a thousand and three hundred miles, as also to doe iustice of the sayd Bessen, as aforesaid. And he said vnto me, the Emperours pleasure is, that you shall presently depart from hence, and I am appointed to goe with you. And that night I departed from the said Starites, being the fourteenth of May aforesayd. And passing a great part of my iourney, I arriued at the citie of Vologda the last of the sayd May, where I remained fiue daies as well expecting a messenger to bring vnto me the new letters of priuiledge, as the comming of Rutter, whom the Emperours Maiestie himselfe commanded before my face should bee sent vnto me without faile, and I did see the letters written to the chiefe officers at the Mosco for the same. Neuerthe lesse the said Rutter did not come, neither could I heare of him after, nor know the sudden cause of his stay contrary to the princes owne word and meaning, as I suppose. But I could not help the matter being farre from the prince, neither could I tell how to haue redresse, because by absence I could not complaine. Notwithstanding I vsed my indeuour, and sent a messenger Iohn Norton one of your seruants from Vologda to Nouogrod, where the court then lay, expressely with letters, as well to aduertise his maiestie that the sayd Rutter was not sent vnto me according to his highnes commandement and order, as also about the dispatch of the said letters of priuiledge and receit of your money, with straight charge that he should in any wise returne vnto me againe before the departing of the ships. And the first day of Iune I departed from the said Vologda by water towards Colmogro, where I arriued the 21 of Iune aforesaid, and remained there vntil the 23 of Iuly, looking for the said Iohn Norton to haue returned vnto me in al that time, which had respite fully enough in that space both to go to the court to dispatch his busines, and to haue returned againe vnto me, but he came not, for it was otherwise determined before his going, as I did after vnderstand, and can more at large by worde of mouth declare vnto your worships the occasion thereof. Neuerthelesse, I am well assured before this time your Agent hath receiued into his hands the sayd letters of priuiledges, and shall haue dispatch with expedition in all things touching your affaires, according to his maiesties grant by me obtained, and as he hath written to the Queenes maiestie at this present, wishing that as now by my going the Emperour hath withdrawen his grieuous displeasure from you, and restored you againe into his fauour, so your Agent and others your seruants there resident may behaue, and endeuour themselues to keepe and augment the same, whose euill doings haue bene the onely occasion of his indignation now remitted. * * * * * The names of such countries as I Anthony Ienkinson haue trauelled vnto, from the second of October 1546, at which time I made my first voyage out of England, vntill the yeere of our Lord 1572, when I returned last out of Russia. First, I passed into Flanders, and trauelled through all the base countries, and from thence through Germanie, passing ouer the Alpes I trauelled into Italy, and from thence made my iourney through the Piemont into France, throughout all which realme I haue throughly iournied. I haue also trauelled through the kingdomes of Spaine and Portingal, I haue sailed through the Leuant seas euery way, and haue bene in all the chiefe Islands within the same sea, as Rhodes, Malta, Sicilia, Cyprus, Candie, and diuers others. I haue bene in many partes of Grecia, Morea, Archaia, and where the olde citie of Corinth stoode. I haue trauelled through a great part of Turkie, Syria, and diuers others countries in Asia minor. I haue passed ouer the mountaines of Libanus to Damasco, and trauelled through Samaria, Galile, Philistine or Palestine, vnto Ierusalem, and so through all the Holy land. I haue bene in diuers places of Affrica, as Algiers, Cola, Hona, Tripolis, the gollet within the gulfe of Tunis. I haue sailed farre Northward within the Mare glaciale, where we haue had continuall day, and sight of the Sunne ten weekes together, and that nauigation was in Norway, Lapland, Samogitia, and other very strange places. I haue trauelled through all the ample dominions of the Emperour of Russia and Moscouia, which extende from the North sea, and the confines of Norway, and Lapland euen to the Mare Caspium. I haue bene in diuers countries neere about the Caspian sea, Gentiles, and Mahometans, as Cazan, Cremia, Rezan, Cheremisi, Mordouiti, Vachin, Nagaia, with diuers others of strange customes and religions. I haue sailed ouer the Caspian sea, and discouered all the regions thereabout adiacent, as Chircassi, Comul, Shascal, Shiruim, with many others. I haue trauelled 40 daies iourney beyond the said sea, towards the Oriental India, and Cathaia, through diuers deserts and wildernesses, and passed through 5 kingdomes of the Tartars, and all the land of Turkeman and Zagatay, and so to the great citie of Boghar in Bactria; not without great perils and dangers sundry times. After all this, in An. 1562, I passed againe ouer the Caspian sea another way, and landed in Armenia, at a citie called Derbent, built by Alexander the great, and from thence trauelled through Media, Parthia, Hircania, into Persia to the court of the great Sophie called Shaw Tamasso, vnto whom I deliuered letters from the Queenes Maiestie, and remained in his court 8 moneths, and returning homeward, passed through diuers other countries. Finally I made two voyages more after that out of England into Russia, the one in the yeere 1566, and the other in the yeere 1571. And thus being weary and growing old, I am content to take my rest in mine owne house, chiefly comforting my selfe, in that my seruice hath been honourably accepted and rewarded of her maiestie and the rest by whom I haue bene imploied. * * * * * A letter of Iames Alday to the Worshipfull M. Michael Lock, Agent in London for the Moscouie company, touching a trade to be established in Lappia, written 1575. I haue in remembrance (worshipful Sir) the talke we had when I was with you, as touching the trade in Lappia: [Sidenote: He maruelleth the company do not conferre with him of Lappia.] And certeinly I haue something marueiled that in all this time the right wor. your societie haue not giuen order that some little conference (by you, or with some other) might haue bin had with me touching those parts, considering they know (as I thinke) that I remained there one whole yere and more, by which meanes reason would that I should haue learned something. But the cause why they haue not desired to conferre with me (as I iudge) resteth onely in one of these 4 cases, that is to say, either they thinke themselues so throughly certified of that trade, as more neede not be spoken thereof, or that they haue no lust more to deale that waies, or that they hold mee so vntrusty to them that they dare not open their minds, for feare or doubt, I should beare more affection to others then to them, and so discouer their secrets: or els they think me of so simple vnderstanding, that I am not worthy to be spoken with in these matters. To which 4 cases I answere as followeth: [Sidenote: 5 English men wintered in Lappia.] First, if they think themselues so throughly certified as more need not to be spoken: certeinly I something maruel by whom it should be: for in the winter past there lay but 5 English persons there, viz. Christopher Colt, Roger Leche, Adam Tunstal cooper, one lad, and I: for Henry Cocknedge was the whole winter at Mosco. [Sidenote: Christopher Colt a simple merchant.] And of these persons, as touching Colt, I think him (if I may without offence speake my conscience) the most simple person that was there, (as touching the vnderstanding of a marchant) although indeed he tooke vpon him very much to his owne harme and others I doubt, for he vsed himselfe not like a marchant, neither shewed diligence like a worthy seruant or factor, but lay still in a den al the whole winter, hauing wares lying vpon his hand, which he would not imploy to any vse: although sundry waies there were that he might haue put his wares in ready money with gaine, and no great aduenture, which money would haue bin more acceptable to the poore Lappes and fishermen at the spring, than any kind of wares: [Sidenote: Good trade in winter in Lappia.] but his fond head did as he that had the talent in the Gospel, and yet he had counsel to the contrary which he disdained, so that men perceiuing his captious head, left not only to counsell him, but also some, in as much as they might, kept him from knowledge of the trade that might be in that country, the winter time, which is better peraduenture then most men think of. Wherefore if Colt haue written or said any thing touching those countries, it is doubtful whether it toucheth the effect or not, considering he lay still all the winter without trial of any matter. [Sidenote: Henry Cocknedge, honest but ignorant.] And for Henry Cocknedge assuredly speaking so much as I do perfectly know, I must needs say that he is a very honest young man, and right careful of his business, and in that respect worthy to be praised. But yet he being absent in the winter other then by hearesay he could not learne, so that his instructions may be something doubtful. [Sidenote: Roger Leche expert of Lappia.] And like as of the lad nothing can be learned, so am I sure that Tunstal the Cooper hath not yet beene spoken with, so that those of parts certeine knowledge cannot as yet be learned, except by Roger Leche, of whom I confesse knowledge may be had, for indeed there is no English man liuing that hath like knowledge in those countries as he hath, nor that is able to do so much with the people as he may: he in the winter trauailed one waies and other nere 300 miles: he of a litle made somthing, and learned not only the maners, conditions and customs of the people, but also he learned of al kind of commodities in those regions how they may be bought at the most aduantage, that gaine may be made of them: So that I confesse, if he hath giuen intelligence to the right Wor. company, then haue they no neede to speake with me or any other for to learne of those countries (except it be to heare mine opinion) which in truth I wil alwaies open unto them. But the effect of the beneficial secrets of that countrey is to be inquired of him, & in mine opinion worthy to be learned, except, as in the second case, they list no more to deale that waies. [Sidenote: If the companie do not enter into the trade of Lappia, others will preuent them.] To which I answere, that if they deal not that waies, & that with speede they seeke not to preuent others that mean to deale there, although not English men, let them then not thinke long to haue any profitable trade in Russia: for the greater part of that benefit wil be wiped from them, or 5 yeere to an end, as I will shew good reason, if I be demanded the question. [Sidenote: The trade of Vedagoba.] Therefore if they will maintaine the Russia trade with aduantage, then ought they to looke to this in time, so may they keepe the Russia trade as it is, and likewise make a trade in Lappia more profitable then that, and therefore this is to bee considered, rather then to prohibite Englishmen from the trade of Vedagoba. For if they looke not to this, and that in time, they may be likened (if it might be without offence spoken) to two dogs that striue for the bone whiles the third run away with it: and yet mean I not otherwise, but in such order, as not Englishmen only, but also Hollanders, Brabanders, & others may be iustly and vtterly put from the trade in Lappia, and the company to keepe the whole trades to themselues without interruption of any, to their great benefit, which I wish from the bottome of my heart, as euer I wished wealth to mine owne person: And thereby hold me excused in the third case I write of. [Sidenote: He can say somewhat though not much.] And for the fourth as touching my iudgment, as I confesse it is not very deepe, so I thanke God I am not vtterly without vnderstanding (although I be poore) and therefore peraduenture holden out of reputation, yet God doth distribute his gifts as it pleaseth him. I haue seen wise men poore in my time, & foolish men rich, and some men haue more knowledge then they can vtter by speech, which, fault was once obiected against me by a learned man of this realme: but surely how weak soeuer my vtterance is, my meaning is faithful and true, and I wish in my heart to your laudable company al the gaine that may be, or els I pray God to confound me as a false dissembler. [Sidenote: 1183 barrels of oyle bough by others. Colt sold 27 barrels to a Hollander.] It greeueth me to see how of late they haue bin brought to great charges, beating the bush, as the old terme is, & other men taking the birds: this last yere hauing in Lappia 2 ships, as I am partly informed, they both brought not much aboue 300 barrels of traine oile, yet am I sure there was bought besides them of the Russes, Corels, & Lappes, 1183 barrels, besides 27 barrels Colt sold to Iacob the Hollander, at two barrels for one Northerne dozen. And yet there is a greater inconuenience springing, which if it take a little deeper roote it will be (I feare) too hard to be pulled up, which for loue & good will (God is my witnes) I write of, wishing as to my deare friends that they should looke to it in time, if they meane to keepe the trade of Russia or Lappia. And thus loue hath compelled me to write this aduertisement, which I wish to be accepted in as good part, as I with good will haue written it. * * * * * The request of an honest merchant to a friend of his, to be aduised and directed in the course of killing the Whale, as followeth. An. 1575. I pray you pleasure me in getting me perfect information of the matter hereunder specified. For the prouision and furniture for a shippe of 200 tunnes, to catch the Whale fish in Russia, passing from England. How many men to furnish the ship. How many fishermen skilful to catch the Whale, & how many other officers and Coopers. How many boats, and what fashion, and how many men in each boate. What wages of such skilful men and other officers, as we shall neede out of Biskay. How many harping irons, speares, cordes, axes, hatchets, kniues, and other implements for the fishing, and what sort and greatnes of them. How many kettles, the greatnesse and maner of them, and what mettall, and whether they bee set on triuets or on furnaces for boiling of the traine oyle, and others. What quantitie of caske, and what sort of caske, and what number of hoopes and twigges, and how much thereof to be staued for the traine. What quantitie of victuals, and what kinde of victuals for the men in all the ship for 4 moneths time. For the common mariners and officers to gouerne the ship, we shall not need any out of Biskaie, but onely men skilful in the catching of the Whale, and ordering of the oile, and one Cooper skilful to set vp the staued caske. Also what other matters are requisite to be knowen, and done for the said voyage to catch the Whale, not here noted nor remembred. These requests were thus answered, which may serue as directions for all such as shall intend the same voyage, or the like for the Whale. A proportion for the setting forth of a ship of 200 tunne, for the killing of the Whale. There must be 55 men who departing for Wardhouse in the moneth of April, must bee furnished with 4 kintals and a halfe of bread for euery man. 250 hogsheds to put the bread in. 150 hogsheds of Cidar. 6 kintals of oile. 8 kintals of bacon. 6 hogsheds of beefe. 100 quarters of salt. 150 pound of candles. 8 quarters of beanes and pease. Saltfish & herring, a quantitie conuenient. 4 tunnes of wines. Half a quarter of mustard seed, and a querne. A grindstone. 800 empty shaken hogsheds. 350 bundles of hoopes, and 6 quintalines. 800 paire of heds for the hogsheds. 10 Estachas called roxes for harping irons. 10 pieces of Arporieras. 3 pieces of Baibens for the Iauelines small. 2 tackles to turne the Whales. A halser of 27 fadom long to turne the Whales. 15 great Iauelines. 18 small Iauelins. 50 harping irons. 9 machicos to cut the Whale withal. 2 doozen of machetos to minch the Whale. 2 great hookes to turne the Whale. 3 paire of Can hookes. 6 hookes for staues. 3 dozen of staues for the harping irons. 6 pullies to turne the Whale with. 10 great baskets. 10 lampes of iron to carie light. 5 kettles of 150 li. the piece, and 6 ladles. 1000 of nailes for the pinnases. 560 of nailes of Carabelie for the houses, and the Wharfe. 18 axes and hatchets to cleaue wood. 12 pieces of lines, and 6 dozen of hookes. 2 beetles of Rosemarie. 4 dozen of oares for the pinnases. 6 lanternes. 500 of Tesia. Item, gunpouder & matches for harquebushes as shalbe needfull. Item, there must be carried from hence 5 pinnases, fiue men to strike with harping irons, two cutters of Whale, 5 coopers, & a purser or two. A note of certaine other necessarie things belonging to the Whalefishing, receiued of master W. Burrough. A sufficient number of pullies for tackle for the Whale. A dozen of great baskets. 4 furnaces to melt the Whale in. 6 ladles of copper. A thousand of nailes to mend the pinnases. 500 great nailes of spikes to make their house. 3 paire of bootes great and strong, for them that shall cut the Whale. 8 calue skins to make aprons or barbecans. * * * * * The deposition of M. William Burrough to certaine Interrogatories ministred vnto him concerning the Narue, Kegor, &c. to what king or prince they doe appertaine and are subiect, made the 23 of Iune, 1576. These articles seeme to haue bene ministred vpon the quarel between Alderman Bond the elder, and the Moscouie company, for his trade to the Narue without their consent. [Sidenote: The first Interrogatorie.] First, whether the villages or townes vulgarely called the Narue, Kegor, Pechingo and Cola, and the portes of the same townes, as well at the time of the grant of the letters of priuilege by the Emperour to our merchants, as also in the yeeres of our Lord, 1566, 1567, 1568, 1569, 1570, 1571, 1572, 1573, 1574, and 1575 respectiuely were (as presently they be) of the iurisdicition, and subiect to the mightie prince the Emperour of Russia: and whether the saide Emperour of Russia, by all the time aforesaide, was chiefe lord and gouernour respectiuely of the said places, and so vulgarly knowen, had, and reputed: and whether the said townes and places, and either of them be situated towards the North and Northeast or Northwest, and between the North and the East point: and be the same places whereunto by force of the said priuilege, it is forbidden to any other subiect to haue traffike, sauing to the societie aforesaid. [Sidenote: The deponents answer.] To this Interrogatorie the deponent saith, that it is true that the villages, townes and places vulgarly called the Narue, Kegor, Peshingo and Cola, and the portes thereof, at the time of the grant of the said priuilege (as he iudgeth) were reputed respectiuely to be vnder the iurisdiction, and subiect to the Emperour of Russia, and so from the time of the said grant, vnto the yeere, 1566, and that in the yeeres of our Lord, 1566, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, and 1575. respectiuely they were (as presently they be) of the iurisdiction, and subiect vnto the mighty prince the Emperour of Russia, and the same Emperour of Russia, by all the time aforesaide, was chiefe gouernour respectiuely of the said places, and so vulgarly knowen, had and reputed. And that all the said places are situated from London Northwards, between the East and the North, and within the grant of the letters patents, and priuileges of the said companie of merchants for the discouery of new trades, and the same places whereunto by force of the said letters patents, it is forbidden to any other subiect to haue traffike sauing to the societie aforesaid. Notwithstanding the Deponent saith, that he hath heard it credibly reported by diuers, that the king of Denmarke of late yeeres, or euery yeere once, hath had one of his subiects or more by him selfe, or with his guide a Lappian, that hath at the places Cola, Kegor, and diuers other places in Lappia, taken of the Lappies certain tribute or head pence, which the said Lappie haue willingly giuen to winne fauour of the saide prince, and to liue quietly by his subiects, the people of Finmarke which border vpon their countrey whereof, Wardhouse is the strongest hold, and bordereth neere vnto them. Hee hath also hearde that in the time of peace betweene the saide Emperour of Russia, and the kings of Sweden, there was yeerely for the king of Sweden one or more that came into Lappia vnto diuers places, in maner as the king of Denmarkes seruant vseth to doe, and did demaund of them some tribute or duetie which they willingly paide: but since the late warres betweene the saide Emperour and king of Sweden, hee hath not heard of any thing that hath bene paide by them to the king of Sweden: such is the simplicitie of this people the Lappies, that they would rather giue tribute to all those that border vpon their countrey, then by denying it haue their ill willes. But the trueth is, as this Deponent saith, that the saide mightie prince the Emperour of Russia is the chiefe lord and gouernour of the saide countrey of Lappia, his lawes and orders are obserued by them, hee takes toll and custome &c. of them. They are infidels, but if any of them become Christians it is after the Russe law. If there happen any controuersie betweene those people, such as cannot be ended amongst themselues, or by the Emperours deputies in that countrey, they repaire to the Mosko as their highest Court, and there haue it ended. [Sidenote: Pechingo abbey.] Betweene the place specified Kegor, and the confines of Finmarke aforesaide in Lappia, is the monasterie Pechingo, which are monkes, and vse the Russe lawe, the chiefe or head of that abbey is alwayes appointed by the cleargie in Mosko. Also in the yeere of our Lord 1557, the said Deponent was at the place Kegor, in the moneth of Iune, the 29 day being S. Peters day, at which time was a great assembly of people at a mart there, the Russes, Kerils and Lappians on the one side subiects to the said mighty prince the Emperour of Russia, and the Norwegians or Norses and people of Finmarke subiects to the King of Denmarke on the other part, they did barter and exchange fish for other commodities. The deputie for the Russe had the chief gouernment of the said Mart, and tooke toll of those people that were subiect to his master, and the captaine of Wardhouse had then the gouernment of the people subiect to his master the king of Denmark. He saith also, that betweene the abbey Pechingo, and the abbey of S. Nicholas in Russia, vpon the border of the said coast of Lappia, he hath bene vpon the shore at diuers places, where fresh riuers fall into the Sea, where are commonly taken fresh salmon, all which places he doth know for certaine, that they were farmed out to the subiects of the said Emperour, and he the said Emperour receiued yeerely the rent for them. And further he saith that it hath bene forther credibly reported vnto him, that there is not any such riuer or creek of fresh water which falleth out of the said countrey of Lappia into the sea, between the said abbey Pechingo, and the bay of S. Nicholas, but they are all and euery of them farmed out, and the Emperour receiueth the rent for them. [Sidenote: The second Interrogatorie.] Item, whether as well before, as also within the memorie of men, till the time of the graunt of the said letters patents any of the English merchants (sauing the merchants of the said societie) subiects of this realme of England, haue commonly exercised or frequented businesse or trade in the said villages or townes called the Narue, Kegor, Pechingo, and Cola, or in any of them, or in any ports or territories of the said Emperour of Russia. [Sidenote: The deponents answer.] To this Interrogatorie the Deponent answereth, that the subiects of this realme before the graunt of the said letters patent did not commonly exercise, neither frequent or trade to any of the said places called the Narue, Kegor, Pechingo or Cola, or to any of them. * * * * * Certaine reasons to disswade the vse of a trade to the Narue aforesaide, by way through Sweden. The merchandise of the Narue are gross wares, viz. flaxe, hempe, waxe, tallow and hides. The traffique at that place standeth vpon the agreement and liking of the Emperour of Russia, with the king of Sweden: for all these merchandises that are brought thither come from Plescoue, Nouogrod, and other parts of the Emperours dominions. For transporting those merchandises from Narue to Stockholm, or what other place shall be thought conuenient in Sweden, it must be in vessels of those countries, which wilbe of smal force to resist Freebooters, or any other that shall make quarrel or offer violence against them. When the goods are brought into Sweden, they must be discharged, and new laden into smaller vessels, to cary the same by riuer or lake a part of the way, and againe to be vnladen and transported by land to Newles. So as the ordinary charges for transporting of goods from Narue to Newles by way as aforesaid, besides the spoile by so often lading and vnlading, cariage by land, and the dangers of the seas, pirats, &c. will be such as when it shalbe so brought to Newles it wil be as deare to the merchants in that place as it shall be worth to be sold in London, wherefore the trade that wayes cannot be profitable to our nation. Moreouer, when the goods shall be in Newles, it may bee thought doubtfull to bring it thence quietly without disliking or forcible resistance of the king of Denmarke, forasmuch as he maketh quarrell, and alleageth damage vnto him in his tolles of the Sound by our trade to S. Nicholas, how much more will he now doe by this way, and with how much greater aduantage may he performe it? The danger that may grow in our trade to Russia, by way of S. Nicholas, through the displeasure that the Emperour may conceiue by our trade with the Sweden to Narue is also to be considered. * * * * * A remembrance of aduise giuen to the merchants, touching a voyage for Cola abouesaid. 1578. Whereas you require my counsell after what order the voyage for Cola is to be set forth, I answere that I know no better way then hath bene heretofore vsed, which is after this maner. First of all we haue hired the ship by the great, giuing so much for the wearing of the tackle and the hull of the shippe, as the ship may be in bignesse: and if shee bee about the burden of a hundred tunnes, we pay fourescore pound, and so after that rate: and thereunto we doe vicual the ship our selues, and doe ship all our men our selues, shipping no more men, nor giuing them more wages then we should doe if they went of a merchants voyage, for it hath bene a great helpe to our voiage hitherto, to haue our men to fish with one boate, & costing vs no more charges then it should do, if our men should lie and doe nothing sauing the charges of salt, & of lines, which is treble paid for againe. For this last yere past our men killed with one boat betwixt 9. or 10. thousand fish, which yeelded to vs in money with the oile that came of it, about 15. or 16. score pounds, which is a great helpe to a voyage. And besides all this, our ship did take in so much pile and other commodities as we bestowed 100. whole clothes in. But because, as I doe suppose, it is not the vse of London to take ships to fraight after that order before prescribed, neither I think that the mariners wil take such paines as our men will: Therefore my counsell is, if you thinke good, to freight some ship of Hul or Newcastle, for I am sure that you may haue them there better cheap to freight, then here at London. Besides al this, one may haue such men as will take paines for their merchants. [Sidenote: Hull the best market of England for sale of fish.] And furthermore when it shal please God that the ship shal returne to come to discharge at Hull, which will be the most for your profit for the sales of all such like commoditie as comes from that place, as for fish, oyle, and Salmon chiefly, hee that will seeke a better market for the sales then at Hull, he must seeke it out of England, for the like is not in England. This is the best way that I can deuise, and most for your profite, and if you will, I will also set you downe all the commodities that are necessarie for such a voyage, and which way also that the Hollanders may within two or three yeeres be forced to leaue off the trade of Cola which may easily be done. For if my abilitie were to my will, I would vse the matter so that they should either leaue off the trade, or els cary light ships with them home againe. * * * * * A dedicatorie Epistle vnto the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, written by Master William Burrough late Comptroller of Her Highnesse nauie, and annexed vnto his exact and notable mappe of Russia, briefly containing (amongst other matters) his great trauailes, obseruations, and experiments both by sea and land, especially in those Northeastern parts. To the most high and renowmed Princesse ELIZABETH by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, &c. My minde earnestly bent to the knowledge of nauigation and, Hydrographie from my youth (most excellent my dread Soueraigne) hath eftsoones beene moued by diligent studie to search out the chiefest points to them belonging: and not therewith sufficed hath also sought by experience in diuers discoueries and other voyages and trauailes to practise the same. I was in the first voyage for discouerie of the partes of Russia, which begun in anno 1553. (being then sixteene yeeres of age) also in the yeere 1556. in the voyage when the coastes of Samoed and Noua Zemble, with the straightes of Vaigatz were found out: and in the yeere 1557, when the coast of Lappia, and the bay of S. Nicholas were more perfectly discouered. Since which time, by my continuall practise in the voyages made yeerely to S. Nicholas in Russia, or to the Narue, and to some other countreys also by Sea: as likewise in passing from S. Nicholas to Mosco, and from Mosco to Narue, and from thence backe againe to S. Nicholas by land, in the yeeres 1574. and 1575. (being then Agent in those countries for the companie of English merchants for discoueries of new trades) setting downe alwayes with great care and diligence, true obseruations and notes of al those countreys, Islands, coasts of the sea, and other things requisite to the arts of Nauigation and Hydrographie; and with like diligence gathering exact notes and descriptions of the wayes, riuers, cities, townes, &c. as I passed by Land: I finde my selfe sufficiently furnished to giue report vnto your Maiesty, and to make description of those North parts of the world in forme and maner of euery leagues distance that I haue passed and seene in al those my trauels. The places herein described, which I haue not seene and tried my selfe, I haue set downe by the best authorities that I could finde, and therein may erre with the learned Gerardus Mercator, Abraham Ortelius, and the rest: but for the maine part which is from Rochel in France hither to London, and from hence Eastward to Narue by sea, and from thence to Mosco and to S. Nicholas by land: also from hence Northwards and Northeastwards by Sea to Saint Nicholas, and to the straight of Vaigatz (first crauing humbly your highnesse pardon) I dare boldly affirme (and that I trust without suspect of arrogancie, since truely I may say it) I haue here set it open to the view, with such exactnesse and trueth, and so placed euery thing aright in true latitude and longitude, (accompting the longitudes from the Meridian of London, which I place in 21 degrees) as till this time no man hath done the like: neither is any man able by learning onely, except he trauaileth as I haue done. For as it may be truely saide of Nauigation and Hydrographie, that no man can be cunning in the one which wanteth conuenient knowledge in the other: and as neither of them can be had without the helpes of Astronomie and Cosmographie, much lesse without these two grounds of all artes, Arithmetike and Geometrie: so none of the best learned in those sciences Mathematicall, without conuenient practise at the sea can make iust proofe of the profite in them: so necessarily dependeth art and reason vpon practise and experience. Albeit there are diuers both learned and vnlearned, litle or nothing experienced, which in talke of nauigation will enter deeply and speake much of and against errours vsed therein, when they cannot reforme them. Such also haue written thereof, pretending singular great knowledge therein, and would so be accompted of, though in very deede not worthy the name of good and sufficient pilots. To whom I thinke it shall not be amisse in defence of rules builded vpon reason, and in practise allowed, thus much to say for answere. It is so, that there are rules vsed in nauigation which are not perfectly true: among which the streight lines in sea-cardes, representing the 32. points of the compasse or windes are hot holden to be the least, but noted of such talkers for principall, to condemne the occupiers thereof for ignorant: yet hath the famous and learned Gerardus Mercator vsed them in his uniuersal mappe. But such as condemne them for false, and speake most against their vse cannot giue other that should serue for nauigation to better purpose and effect. Experience (one of the keyes of knowledge) hath taught mee to say it. Wherein with my abilitie, together with some part of my studie, I am rather moued (in this my plot) to make some triall vnto your maiestie: for that I perceiue that such attempts of newe discoueries (whereunto this noble Island is most aptly situated) are by your royall maintenance so willingly furthered: beseeching your highnesse so to accept of these my trauailes, as a pledge of my well willing to my countrey, and of my loyall seruice to your maiestie, whose healthfull happie life and reigne God continue which is Almightie. Amen. Your Maiesties most humble subiect William Burrough. * * * * * The Queenes Maiesties letters to Shaugh Thamas the great Sophi of Persia, sent by Arthur Edwards, William Turnbull, Matthew Tailbois, and Peter Gerard appointed Agents for the Moscouie companie, in their sixt voyage to Persia, begun in the yeere 1579. To the most noble and inuincible Emperour of Persia, King of Shiruan, Gilan, Grosin, Corassan, and great Gouernour of the Indies. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith &c. To the most noble and inuincible Emperour of Persia, King of Shiruan, Gilan, Grosin, Corassan, and great gouernour euen vnto the Indies, sendeth greeting. Most noble and inuincible Prince, it is now tenne yeeres since, [Footnote: 1568.] or thereabouts, wherein (after the honourable ambassade of the noble man Anthony Ienkenson our well beloued subiect, to your most noble and inuincible father performed) we laboured to bring to passe by Thomas Bannister and Gefferey Ducket merchants our subiects, that throughout all the kingdomes subiect to his empire, free power might be giuen to Will. Garrard, Thomas Ofley, William Chester, knights, Rowland Haiward, Lionel Ducket, William Allen, Thomas Bannister, Gefferey Ducket, Lawrence Chapman, Merchants, and vnto their societie, to enter into his lands and countreys at al times when they would and could, there to exercise and vse their trade of merchandise, and from thence likewise after exchange or sale made of those wares, which they should bring with them with his like good leaue and fauour, to carie from thence those things wherwith his dominions do abound and with vs be scant. Which our petition the most noble prince your father took so thankfully and in such good part, that he not onely graunted franke and commodious leaue, as was desired: but the same he would to bee unto them most free and beneficiall, and to haue continuance for many yeeres and times. The benefite of the which his wonderfull liberality, our subiects did enioy with such humanitie and freedome as there could be no greater, till the time that by reason of wars more and more increasing in those parts, by the which our subiects were to make their iourney into Persia, they were debarred and shut from that voyage and traffique. The which traffique the said societie being eftsoones desirous to renew to the weale and commoditie of both our dominions they haue now sent into Persia their factors and Agents Arthur Edwards, William Turnbull, Matthew Tailbois, Peter Gerrard merchants, with their associats, whom we beseech your inuincible maiesty to entertaine with that fauour wherewith your father did imbrace Tho. Bannister & Geffrey Ducket, and to enfranchise their whole societie with that freedome, that neither they through any their misdemeanours towards your subiects, may thereof seeme vnworthy (as we hope they will not) neither we our selues otherwise enioy them, then with the perpetuall remembrance of your good affection towards vs, and with the like fauourable inclination of our part towards you. The matter itself and tract of time shall sufficiently proue the foresaid maner of traffike vnprofitable to neither of vs. For so hath one God the chiefe gouernour of all things disposed of our affaires on earth, that ech one should need other. And as for our people and subiects of the English nation, in verie deed your maiesty shal find them made and fashioned so pliant to the perfourmance of all dueties of humanity, that it can neuer repent you to haue graunted them this franke traffic, nor shame vs to haue obteined it for them at your hands. That therefore it may please your maiesty to yeeld vnto them this at our request, most earnestly we beseech you. And we (as it wel beseemeth a prince) if euer hereafter we may, wil show our selfe not to bee vnmindful of so great a benefit. We wish your maiesty wel and prosperously to fare. Giuen at our palace of Westminster the 10. day of Iune, in the yere of our Lord 1579. and of our reigne the 21. * * * * * Aduertisements and reports of the 6. voyage into the parts of Persia and Media, for the companie of English merchants for the discouerie of new trades, in the yeeres 1579. 1580. and 1581. gathered out of sundrie letters written by Christopher Burrough, seruant to the saide companie, and sent to his vncle Master William Burrough. First it is to be vnderstood, that the ships for the voiage to S. Nicholas in Russia, in which the factors and merchandise for the Persian voiage were transported, departed from Grauesend the 19. of Iune, 1579. which arriued at S. Nicholas in Russia the 22. of Iuly, where the factors and merchants landed, and the merchandise were discharged and laden into doshnikes, that is, barkes of the countrey, to be caried from thence vp by riuer vnto Vologda. And the 25. day of the said Iulie, the doshnikes departed from Rose Island by S. Nicholas vp the riuer Dwina, Peremene, that is to say, in poste, by continual sailing, rowing, setting with poles, or drawing of men, which came to Colmogro the 27. day, and departed the 29. of Iulie vp the said riuer Dwyna, and came to Vstyoug (which is at the head of the riuer Dwina, and mouth of Sughano) the 9. of August, where they stayed but a small time, prouiding some victuals, and shifting certaine of their cassacks or barkmen, and so departed thence the same day vp the riuer Sughano, and came to Totma (which is counted somewhat more then halfe the way from Vstioug) the 15. day, where they shifted some of their cassaks, and departed thence the same day, and came to the citie Vologda the 19. of August, where they landed their goods, and staied at that place till the 30. of the same. [Sidenote: Yeraslaue.] Hauing prouided at Vologda, Telegas, or wagons, whereupon they laded their goods, they departed thence with the same by land towards Yeraslaue the said 30. of August at eight of the clocke in the morning, and came to the East side of the riuer Volga ouer against Yeraslaue, with 25. Telegas laden with the said goods the seuenth of September at fiue of the clocke afternoone. Then the three stroogs or barks prouided to transport the saide goods to Astracan (where they should meete the ship that should carie the same from thence into Persia) came ouer from Yeraslaue vnto the same side of the riuer Volga, and there tooke in the said goods. And hauing prepared the said barks ready with all necessary furniture they departed with them from Yeraslaue downe the riuer of Volga on the 14. day of September at nine of the clocke in the morning, and they arriued at Niznouogrod the 17. day at three of the clocke aftenoone, where they shewed the Emperors letters to passe free without paying any custome, and taried there about three houres to prouide necessaries, and then departing, arriued at Cazan (or neere the same towne) on the 22. of September at fiue of the clocke afternoone, where (through contrary windes, and for prouiding new cassaks in the places of some that there went from them) they remained till the 26. day, at what time they departed thence about two of the clocke after noone, and arriued at Tetushagorod, which is on the Crim side of Volga, and in latitude 55. degrees 22. minutes, the 28. day at ten in the forenoone, where they ankered, and remained about 3. houres, and departing thence came to Oueak, which is on the Crim side (on the Westerne side of Volga) the fift of October about fiue of the clocke in the morning. [Sidenote: Great store of Licoris.] This is accounted halfe the way between Cazan and Astracan: and heere there groweth great store of Licoris: the soile is very fruitfull; they found there apple trees, and cherrie trees. The latitude of Oueak is 51. degrees 30. minutes. At this place had bene a very faire stone castle called by the name Oueak, and adioining to the same was a towne called by the Russes, Sodom: this towne and part of the castle (by report of the Russes) was swalowed into the earth by the iustice of God, for the wickednesse of the people that inhabited the same. There remaineth at this day to be seen a part of the ruines of the castle, and certaine tombs, wherein as it seemeth haue bin laid noble personages: for vpon a tombe stone might be perceiued the forme of a horse and a man sitting on it with a bow in his hand, and arrowes girt to his side: there was a piece of a scutchion also vpon one of the stones, which had characters grauen on it, whereof some part had beene consumed with the weather, and the rest left vnperfect: by the forme of them that remained, we iudged them to be characters of Armenia: and other characters were grauen also vpon another tombe stone. [Sidenote: Perauolok.] Nowe they departed from Oueak the said fift of October at fiue of the clocke after noone, and came to Perauolok the 10. day about eleuen or twelue of the clocke that night, making, no abode at that place, but passed alongst by it. This worde Perauolok in the Russe tongue doeth signifie a narrow straight or necke of land betweene two waters, and it is so called by them, because from the riuer Volga, at that place, to the riuer Don or Tanais, is counted thirty versts, or as much as a man may well trauell on foote in one day. And seuen versts beneath, vpon an Island called Tsaritsna the Emperour of Russe hath fiftie gunners all the summer time to keepe watch, called by the Tartar name Carawool. Between this place and Astracan are fiue other Carawools or watches. 1 The first is named Kameni Carawool, and is distant from Perauolok 120 versts. 2 The second named Stupino Carowool, distant from the first 50 versts. 3 The third called Polooy Carowool, is 120 versts distant from the second. 4 The fourth named Keezeyur Carawool, is 50 versts distant from the third. 5 The fift named Ichkebre, is 30 versts distant from the fourth, and from Ichkebre to Astracan is 30 versts. [Sidenote: Astracan.] The 16 of October they arriued at Astracan, with their three stroogs in saftie about nine of the clock in the morning, where they found the ship prouided for the Persia voyage in good order and readinesse. [Sidenote: Peter Garrard.] The 17 day the foure principal factors of the company, Arthur Edwards, William Turnbull, Matthew Talbois, and Peter Garrard, were inuited to dine with the chiefe diake or secretary of Astracan (Vasili Pheodorouich Shelepin) who declared vnto them the troubles that were in Media and Persia: and how the Turke with helpe of the Crims had conquered, and did possesse the greatest part of Media: also he laid before them that Winter was at hand, and if they should put out with their ship to the sea, they should bee constrained to take what hazards might happen them by wintring in the parts of Media, or els where, for backe againe to that place there was no hope for them to returne: whereupon the said factors determined to stay there all Winter to learne farther of the state of those countreis. [Sidenote: Ice at Astracan for foure moneths.] The 19 of Nouember the winde being Northerly, there was a great frost, and much ice in the riuer: the next day being the 20 of Nouember the ice stood in the riuer, and so continued vntill Easter day. The 22 December departed this life Iohn Moore the gunner of the ship. [Sidenote: Anno 1580.] Thursday the 7 of Ianuary betweene 8. and 9. of the clocke at night there appeared a crosse proceeding from the moone, with two galles at the South and North end thereof. The 6. of Ianuary being Twelfe day (which they call Chreshenia) the Russes of Astracan brake a hole in the ice vpon the riuer Volga, and hallowed the water with great solemnity according to the maner of their countrey, at which time all the souldiers of the towne shot off their smal pieces vpon the ice, and likewise to gratifie the captaine of the castel being a Duke, whose name is Pheodor Michalouich Troiocouria, who stood hard by the ship, beholding them as they were on the riuer, was shot off all the ordinance of our ship being 15. pieces, viz. 2. faulcons, 2. faulconers, 4. fowlers, 4. fowlers chambers, and 3. other small pieces made for the stroogs to shoote hailestones, and afterwards the great ordinance of the castle was shot off. On the 31. of Ianuary there happened a great eclipse of the moone, which began about 12 of the clock at night, and continued before she was cleare an houre and a halfe by estimation, which ended the first of February about halfe an houre past one in the morning: she was wholly darkned by the space of halfe an houre. The 26. of February the towne of Nagay Tartars, called the Yourt, which is within 3. quarters of a mile of the castle of Astracan, by casualty was set on fire about 10. of the clock at night, and continued burning til midnight, whereby one halfe of it was burnt, and much cattell destroyed. The Nagayes that inhabite that towne, are the Emperour of Russia his vassals: It is supposed there are of them inhabiting that place of men, women, and children, the number of seuen thousand. That night the Allarum was made in the castle and towne of Astracan. The captaine thereof had all his souldiers in very good order and readinesse, being of them in number two thousand gunners and cassaks, that is to say, a thousand gunners which are accounted meere souldiers, and are not put to any other seruice then the vse of their pieces, watch, &c. as souldiers which alwaies keepe the castle, and the cassaks also vsing their pieces, do keepe the towne, and are commonly set to all kind of labours. The 7. of March 1580. the Nagayes and Crims came before Astracan to the number of one thousand foure hundred horsemen, which incamped round about, but the nearest of them were two Russe versts and a halfe off from the castle and town: some of them lay on the Crims side of Volga, and some on the Nagay side, but none of them came vpon the Island that Astracan standeth on. [Sidenote: Astracan situate vpon an Island.] It was said that two of the prince of the Crims his sonnes were amongst them. They sent a messenger on the eight day to the captain of Astracan, to signifie that they would come and visit him: who answered, he was ready to receiue them: and taking a great shot or bullet in his hand, willed the messenger to tel them that they should not want of that geare, so long as it would last. The ninth day newes was brought that the Crims determined to assault the towne or castle, and were making of fagots of reede, to bring with them for that purpose. The tenth day two Russes that were captiues, and two of the Tartars bondmen ranne away from the Nagayes, and came into Astracan. The same day word was brought to the Duke of two Nagayes which were seene at Gostine house, supposed to be spies, but were gone againe from thence before they were suspected. This Gostine house is a place a little without the towne where the Tisiks (or Persian merchants) do vsually remaine with their merchandize. The 11. day the said Nagayes, and one more with them, came againe to that house earely in the morning, where they were taken by the Russes, and brought to the captaine of the castle, and being examined, confessed that their coming was onely to seeke two of their bondmen that were runne from them: whereupon their bondmen were deliuered to them: which fauour the said captaine comonly sheweth if they be not Russies, and they were set at libertie. The 13. day they brake vp their camps, and marched to the Northwards into the countrey of Nagay. [Sidenote: The variation of the compass in Astracan was 13. deg. 40. minutes.] The 16. of April the variation of the compasse obserued in Astracan was 13. deg. 40. min. from North to West. This spring there came newes to Astracan that the queene of Persia (the king being blind) had bene with a great army against the Turks that were left to possesse Media, and had giuen them a great ouerthrow: yet notwithstanding Derbent, and the greatest part of Media were still possessed and kept by the Turks. The factors of the company consulting vpon their affayres, determined to leaue at Astracan the one halfe of their goods with Arthur Edwards, and with the other halfe the other three factors would proceed in the ship on their proposed voyage to the coast of Media, to see what might be done there: where, if they could not find safe traffike, they determined to proceed to the coast of Gilan, which is a prouince nere the Caspian sea bordering, vpon Persia: and thereupon appointed the said goods to be laden aboord the ship, and tooke into her also some merchandize of Tisiks or Persian. The 29. of April Amos Rial, and Anthony Marsh, the companies' seruants were sent from Astracan by the said factors, vp the riuer Volga to Yeraslaue, with letters of aduise to be sent for England, and had order for staying the goods in Russia that should come that yeere out of England for mainteining the trade purposed for Persia, vntill further triall were made what might be done in those parts. [Sidenote: May.] The first day of May in the morning, hauing the shippe in readinesse to depart, the factors inuited the duke Pheodor Micalouich Proicoorow, and the principall secretary Vasili Pheodorouich Shelepin, with other of the chiefes about the duke to a banket aboord the ship, where they were interteined to their good liking, and at their departure was shot off all the ordinance of the ship, and about nine of the clocke at night the same day they weyed anker, and departed, with their ship from Astracan, and being but little winde, towed her with the boat about three versts, and then ankered, hauing with them a pauos or lighter to helpe them at the flats. The second day at foure of the clocke in the morning they weyed and plyed downe the riuer Volga toward the Caspian sea. [Sidenote: Vchoog.] The seuenth of May in the morning they passed by a tree that standeth on the left hand of the riuer as they went downe, which is called Mahomet Agatch, or Mahomets tree, and about three versts further, that is to say, to the Southwards of the said tree is a place called Vchoog, that is too say, the Russe weare: (but Ochoog is the name of a weare in the Tartar tongue) where are certain cotages, and the Emperour hath lying at that place certaine gunners to gard his fishermen that keepe the weare. This Vchoog is counted from Astracan 60. versts: they proceeded downe the said riuer without staying at the Vchoog. [Sidenote: Shoald water.] The ninth and tenth dayes they met with shoald water, and were forced to lighten their ship by the pauos: the 11. day they sent backe to the Vchoog for an other pauos: This day by mischance the shippe was bilged on the grapnell of the pauos, whereby the company had sustained great losses, if the chiefest part of their goods had not bene layde into the pauos: for notwithstanding their pumping with 3. pumps, heauing out water with buckets, and all the best shifts they could make, the shippe was halfe full of water ere the leake could be found and stopt The 12. day the pauos came to them from the Vchoog, whereby they lighted the shippe of all the goods. [Sidenote: Flats.] The 13. day in the morning there came to them a small boat, sent by the captaine of Astracan, to learne whether the shippe were at sea cleare of the flats. The 15. day by great industry and trauell they got their ship cleere off the shoals and flats, wherewith they had beene troubled from the ninth day vntill then: they were forced to passe their shippe in three foot water or lesse. [Sidenote: Chetera Bougori.] The 16. day they came to the Chetera Bougori, or Island of Foure Hillocks, which are counted forty versts from Vchoog, and are the furthest land towards the sea. [Sidenote: The Caspian Sea.] The 17. day they bare off into the sea, and being about twelue versts from the Foure hillocks, riding in fiue foot and a halfe water about eleuen of the clocke in the forenoone, they tooke their goods out of the pauoses into the shippe, and filled their shippe with all things necessary. [Sidenote: 45. degrees 20. minutes. The first obseruation in the Caspian Sea.] The 18. day in the morning about seuen of the clock, the pauoses being discharged departed away towards Astracan, the winde then at Southeast, they rode still with the shippe, and obseruing the eleuation of the pole at that place, found it to be 45. degrees 20. minutes. The 19. day, the wind Southeast, they rode still. The 20. day the winde at Northwest they set saile about one of the clocke in the morning, and stered thence South by West, and Southsouthwest about 3. leagues, and then ankered in 6. foot and a halfe water, about nine of the clocke before noone, at which time it fell calme: the eleuation of the pole at that place 45. degrees 13. minuts. The 21. hauing the winde at Northwest, they set saile, and stered thence South by West, and South vntil eleuen of the clocke, and had then nine foote water: and at noone they obserued the latitude, and found it to be 44. degrees 47. minuts: then had they three fathoms and a halfe water, being cleare of the flats. It is counted from the Foure hillocks to the sea about fiftie versts. [Sidenote: Brackish water farre within the sea.] From the said noonetide vntil foure of the clocke they sayled South by East fiue leagues and a halfe: then had they fiue fathoms and a halfe and brackish water: from that till twelue at night they sayled South by East halfe a league, East tenne leagues: then had they eleuen fathome, and the water salter. From that till the 22. day three of the clocke in the morning they sayled three and fifty leagues, then had they sixtene fathome water: [Sidenote: 43. degrees 15. minuts.] from thence they sayled vntil noone South and by West seuen leagues and a halfe, the latitude then obserued 43. degrees 15. minuts, the depth then eight and twentie fathoms, and shallow ground: from that vntill eight of the clocke at night, they sayled South by East fiue leagues and a halfe, then had they three and fortie fathoms shallow ground. From thence till the 23, foure a clocke in the morning, they sayled Southsouthwest three leagues and a halfe: then could they get no ground in two and fiftie fathoms deepe. From thence vntil noone they sayled South nine leagues, then the latitude obserued was 42. degrees 20. minuts. [Sidenote: 41. degrees 32. minuts.] From that till the 24. day at noone they sayled South by West seuenteen leagues and a halfe, then the latitude obserued was 41. degrees 32 minuts. From noone till seuen of the clocke at night, they sailed Southsouthwest foure leagues, then had they perfect sight of high land or hilles, which were almost couered with snow, and the mids of them were West from the ship, being then about twelue leagues from the nearest land: they sounded but could finde no ground in two hundred fathoms. [Sidenote: 40. degrees 54. minuts.] From thence they sayled Southwest vntil midnight: about three leagues from thence till the 25. day foure of the clocke in the morning, they sayled West three leagues, being then litle winde, and neere the land, they tooke in their sayles, and lay hulling: at noone the latitude obserued, was 40. degrees 54. minuts: they sounded but could get no ground in two hundred fathoms. At four of the clocke in the afternoone, the winde Northwest, they set their sailes, and from thence till the 26. day at noone they sailed East southeast foure leagues. From thence they sailed till eight of the clocke at night Southwest three leagues, the winde then at North. From thence they sailed vntill the 27. day two of the clocke in the morning, Westsouthwest eight leagues, the winde blowing at North very much. From the sayd two til foure of the clocke they sailed South by West one league: then being day light, they saw the land plaine, which was not past three leagues from them, being very high ragged land. [Sidenote: Bilbill.] There were certaine rocks that lay farre off into the sea, about fiue leagues from the same land, (which are called Barmake Tash) they sayled betweene those rocks, and the land, and about fiue of the clocke they passed by the port Bilbill, where they should haue put in but could not: and bearing longst the shoare about two of the clocke afternoone, they came to Bildih in the countrey of Media or Sheruan, against which place they ankered in 9. foot water. Presently after they were at anker, there came aboord of them a boat, wherein were seuen or eight persons, two Turks, the rest Persians, the Turkes vassals, which bade them welcome, and seemed to be glad of their arriuall, who told the factors that the Turke had conquered all Media, or the countrey Sheruan, and how that the Turks Basha remained in Derbent with a garrison of Turkes, and that Shamaky was wholly spoyled, and had few or no inhabitants left in it. [Sidenote: Bachu port.] The factours then being desirous to come to the speech of the Basha, sent one of the Tisikes (or merchants that, went ouer with them from Astracan, passingers) and one of the companies seruants Robert Golding, with those souldiours, to the captaine of Bachu, which place standeth hard by the sea, to certifie him of their arriuall, and what commodities they had brought, and to desire friendshippe to haue quiet and safe traffike for the same. Bachu is from Bildih, the place where they road, about a dayes iourney, on foote easily to be trauelled, which may be sixe leagues, the next way ouer land; it is a walled towne, and strongly fortified. When the sayd messenger came to the captaine of Bachu, the said captaine gaue him very friendly entertainment, and after he vnderstood what they were that were come in the shippe, and what they had brought, he seemed to reioyce much thereat: who gaue the said Golding liccence to depart backe the next day, being the eight and twentieth day: and promised that he would himselfe come to the shippe the next day following: with which answere the said Golding returned and came to the ship the sayd eight and twentieth day about nine of the clocke at night. The nine and twentieth day in the morning the factours caused a tent to be set vp at shoare neare the shippe, against the comming of the sayd captaine: who came thither about three of the clock after noone, and brought about thirtie souldiers, that attended on him in shirts of male, and some of them had gauntlets of siluer, others of steele, and very faire. The factors met him at their tent, and after very friendly salutations passed betweene them, they gaue him for a present a garment of cloth of veluet, and another of scarlet, who accepted the offer gratefully. After they had talked together by their interpretors, as well of the state of the voyage and cause of their coming thither, as also learned of the sayde captaine the state of that countrey, the factours made request vnto him, that he would helpe them to the speech of the Basha, who answered that their demand was reasonable, and that he would willingly shew them therein what pleasure he could, and sayd, because the way to Derbent, where the Basha remayned, was dangerous, he would send thither and certifie him of their arriuall, and what commodities they had brought, and such commodities as they would desire to exchange or barter the same for he would procure the said Basha to prouide for them: and therefore willed the factors to consult together, and certifie him what they most desired, and what quantity they would haue prouided: so whilest the factors were consulting together thereupon the captaine talked with a Tisike merchant that came ouer in the ship with them from Astracan, which Tisike, among other matters in talke, certified the captaine, that the night before, the factors and their company were determined to haue returned backe againe to Astracan, and that they were about to wey their ankers, which indeed was true, [Sidenote: Thomas Hudson of Limehouse, maister of the English barke.] but the maister of the barke Thomas Hudson of Limehouse perswaded them that the wind was not good for them to depart, &c. When the factors came againe to talke with the captaine, they desired to goe to the Basha, and that he would safely conduct them thither: he granted their requests willingly, desiring them to goe with him to a village hard by, and there to abide with him that night, and the next day they should go to Bachu, and from thence to proceede on their iourney to Derbent. They were vnwilling to go that night with him, because their prouision for the way was not in readinesse, but requested that they might stay til the morning. [Sidenote: M. Christopher Burrough.] Thereupon the captaine sayd it was reported vnto him, that they ment the night before to haue gone away: and if it should so happen, he were in great danger of losing his head: for which cause he requested to haue some one for a pledge: wherefore M. Garrard one of the factors offered himselfe to go, who, because he could not speake the Russe tongue tooke with him Christopher Burrough, and a Russe interpretour: that night they road from the seaside, to a village about ten miles off, where at supper time the captaine had much talke with M. Garrard of our countrey, demanding where about it did lie, what countreys were neare vnto it, and with whom we had traffike, for by the Russe name of our countrey he could not coniecture who we should be: but when by the situation he perceiued we were Englishmen, he demanded if our prince were a mayden Queene: which when he was certified of, then (quoth he) your land is called Enghilterra, is it not? answere was made, it was so: whereof he was very glad, when he knew the certainety. He made very much of them, placing M. Garrard next to himselfe, and Christopher Burrough, with the Russie interpretour for the Turkie tongue hard by. There was a Gillan merchant with him at that present, of whom he seemed to make great account: him he placed next to himselfe on the other side, and his gentlemen sate round about him talking together. Their sitting is vpon the heeles, or crosse legged. Supper being brought in, he requested them to eate. After their potage (which was made of rice) was done, and likewise their boyled meat, there came in platters of rice sodden thicke, and hony mingled with all: after all which, came a sheepe roasted whole, which was brought in a tray, and set before the captaine: he called one of his seruitors, who cut it in pieces, and laying thereof vpon diuers platters, set the same before the captaine: then the captaine gaue to M. Garrard and his company one platter, and to his gentlemen another, and to them which could not well reach he cast meat from the platters which were before him. Diuers questions he had with M. Garrard and Christopher Burrough at supper time, about their diet, inquiring whether they eat fish or flesh voluntarily or by order. Their drinke in those partes is nothing but water. After supper (walking in the garden) the captaine demanded of M. Garrard, whether the vse was in England to lie in the house or in the garden, and which he had best liking of: he answered, where it pleased him, but their vse was to lie in houses: whereupon the captaine caused beds to be sent into the house for them, and caused his kinsman to attend on them in the night, if they chanced to want anything: he hinselfe with his gentlemen and souldiers lying in the garden. In the morning very early he sent horse for the rest of the company which should go to Derbent, sending by them that went tenne sheepe for the shippe. In that village there was a stoue, into which the captaine went in the morning, requesting M. Garrard to go also to the same to wash himselfe, which he did. Shortly after their comming out of the Stoue, whilest they were at breakfast, M. Turnbull, M. Tailboyes, and Thomas Hudson the M. of the shippe, came thither, and when they had all broken their fasts, they went to Bachu: but Christopher Burrough returned to the ship, for that he had hurt his leg, and could not well endure that trauell. And from Bachu they proceeded towards Derbent, as it was by the captaine promised, being accompanied on their way for their safe conduct, with a gentleman, and certaine souldiers, which had the captaine of Bachu his letters to the Basha of Derbent, very friendly written in their behalfe. [Sidenote: The receiuing of the English into Derbent.] In their iourney to Derbent they forsooke the ordinarie wayes, being very dangerous, and trauelled thorow woods till they came almost to the towne of Derbent: and then the gentleman road before with the captaines letters to the Basha, to certifie him of the English merchants comming, who receiuing the letters and vnderstanding the matter, was very glad of the newes, and sent forth to receiue them certaine souldiours gunners, who met them about two miles out of the towne, saluting them with great reuerence, and afterwardes road before them: then againe met them other souldiours, somewhat neerer the castle, which likewise hauing done their salutations road before them, and then came foorth noble men, captaines, and gentlemen, to receiue them into the castle and towne. As they entered the castle, there was a shot of twentie pieces of great ordinance, and the Basha sent M. Turnbull a very faire horse with furniture to mount on, esteemed to be worth an hundred markes, and so they were conueyed to his presence: who after he had talked with them, sent for a coate of cloth of golde, and caused it to be put on M. Turnbulles backe and then willed them all to depart, and take their ease, for that they were wearie of their iourney, and on the morrow he would talke further with them. The next day when the factors came againe to the presence of the Basha according to his appointment, they requested him that he would grant them his priuilege, whereby they might traffike safely in any part and place of his countrey, offering him, that if it pleased his Maiestie to haue any of the commodities that they had brought, and to write his mind thereof to the captaine of Bachu, it should be deliuered him accordingly. The Bashaes answer was, that he would willingly giue them his priuilege: yet for that he regarded their safetie, hauing come so farre, and knowing the state of his countrey to be troublesome, he would haue them to bring their commodity thither, and there to make sale of it, promising he would prouide such commodities as they needed, and that he would be a defence vnto them, so that, they should not be iniured by any: wherupon the factors sent Thomas Hudson backe for the ship to bring her to Derbent, and the Basha sent a gentleman with him to the captaine of Bachu, to certifie him what was determined, which message being done, the captaine of Bachu, and the Bashaes messenger, accompanied with a doozen souldiours, went from Bachu with Thomas Hudson, and came to the ship at Bildih the 11 day of Iune. [Sidenote: The latitude of Bildih 40. deg. 25. min. The variation of the compas 10. deg. 40. min.] After the captaine and his men had beene aboord and seene the ship, they all departed presently, but the gentleman, messenger from the Basha, with three other Turks, remained aboord, and continued in the ship till she came to Derbent: the latitude of Bildih by diuers obseruations is 40. degrees 25 minuts: the variation of the compasse 10. degrees 40 minuts from North to West. After the returne of Thomas Hudson backe to Bildih, they were constrayned to remaine there with the shippe through contrary windes vntill the 16. day of Iune foure of the clocke in the morning, at which time they weyed anker, set saile and departed thence towards Derbent, and arriued at anker against Derbent East and by South from the sayd castle in foure fathome and a halfe water, the 22. day of Iune at ten of the clocke in the morning: then they tooke vp their ordinance, which before they had stowed in hold for easing the shippe in her rowling. In the afternoone the Basha came downe to the waterside against the shippe, and hauing the said ordinance placed, and charged, it was all shotte off to gratifie him: and presently after his departure backe, he permitted the factors to come aboord the shippe. The 29. day their goodes were vnladen and carried to the Bashaes garden, where he made choyce of such things as he liked, taking for custome of euery fiue and twenty karsies, or whatsoeuer, one, or after the rate of foure for the hundred. The factors after his choyce made, determined to send a part of the rest of the goods to Bachu, for the speedier making sale thereof, for which cause they obteyned the Bashaes letter to the captaine of Bachu, written very fauourably in their behoofe: and thereupon was laden and sent in a small boat of that countrey in merchandize, to the value (very neere) of one thousand pound sterling: videlicet, one hundred pieces of karsies, seuen broad clothes, two barrels of cochenelio, two barrels of tinne, foure barrels of shaffe. There went with the same of the companies seruants William Wincle, Robert Golding, and Richard Relfe, with two Russies, whereof one was an interpretor, besides foure barkemen. They departed from Dertent with the saide barke the 19. of Iuly, and arriued at Bildih the 25. day: their passage and carriage of their goods to Bachu was chargeable, although their sales when they came thither were small: they had great friendship shewed them of the captaine of Bachu, as well for the Bashaes letter, as also for the factors sakes, who had dealt friendly with him, as before is declared. Robert Golding desirous to vnderstand what might be done at Shamaky, which is a dayes iourney from Bachu, went thither, from whence returning, he was set on by theeues, and was shot into the knee with an arrow, who had very hardly escaped with his life and goods, but that by good hap he killed one of the theeues horses with his caliuer, and shot a Turke thorow both cheeks with a dag. [Sidenote: Zere Island.] On the sixt day of August the factors being aduertised at Derbent that their ship was so rotten and weake, that it was doubtfull she would not cary them backe to Astracan, did thereupon agree and bargen at that place with an Armenian, whose name was Iacob, for a barke called a Busse, being of burden about 35. tunnes which came that yere from Astracan, and was at that instant riding at an island called Zere, about three or foure leagues beyond or to the Eastwardes of Bildih, which barke for their more safety, they ment to haue with them in their return to Astracan, and thereupon wrote vnto Wincoll and the rest at Bachu, that they should receiue the same Busse, and lade in her their goods at Bildih to be returned to Derbent, and to discharge their first boate, which was obserued by them accordingly. [Sidenote: The English suffer shipwracke.] When all their goods were laden aboord the sayd Busse at Bildih, and being ready to haue departed thence for Derbent, there arose a great storme with the winde out of the sea, by force whereof the cables and halsers were broken, and their vessell put a shoare, and broken to pieces against the rockes: euery of them that were in her saued their liues, and part of the goods. But there was a Carobia or cheste, wherein were dollars, and golde, which they had receiued for the commodities, of the company, which they sold at Bachu, which at the taking out of the Busse, fell by the Barkes side into the water amongst the rockes, and so was lost. The packes of cloth which they could not well take out of the Busse were also lost, other things that were more profitable they saued. The 18. of August, the Factors receiued from the Basha 500. Batmans of raw silke, parcell of the bargaine made with him, who bade them come the next day for the rest of the bargaine. The 19. day the Factors went to the Basha according to his appointment, but that day they could not speake with him, but it was deliuered them as from him, that they should looke and consider whether any thing were due vnto him or not, which grieued the Factors: and thereupon M. Turnebull answered, that their heads and all that they had were at the Bashaes pleasure: But then it was answered there was no such matter in it: but that they should cast vp their reckonings, to see how it stood betweene them. The 20. day they cast vp their reckonings. The 21. they went to haue spoken with the Basha, but were denied audience. [Sidenote: Arthur Edwards died at Astracan.] The 22. day they heard newes by a Busse that came from Astracan, that Arthur Edwards (whom the Factors left at Astracan with the moietie of the goods) was dead, who departed this life [Footnote: Left blank in Original.] of ... [Sidenote: September.] The 23. day the Factors receiued more from the Bacha 500. Batmans of silke. The 4. of September newes was brought to Derbent, that Golding comming from Shamaky was set on by theeues (Turkes) and had hurt one of them. The 5. Tobias Atkins the gunners boy died of the fluxe, who was buried the 6. day 2. miles to the Southward of the Castle of Derbent, where the Armenian Christians do vsually bury their dead. About the 20 of September newes came to Derbent, that the Busse which they had bought of Iacob the Armenian as before, was cast away at Bildih, but they receiued no certaine newes in writing from any of our people. The 26. of September was laden aboord the ship 40. bales of silke. From the 26. til the 2. of October, they tooke into the ship, bread, water, and other necessary prouision for their sea store: the said 2. day of October, the Factors were commanded vpon the suddaine to auoide their house, and get them with their prouision out of the towne: Whereupon they were constrained to remoue and carry their things to the sea side against the ship, and remained there all the night. The cause of this sudden auoyding them out of the towne (as afterwards they perceiued) was for that the Basha had receiued newes of a supplie with treasure that the Turke had sent, which was then neare at hand comming toward him. The 3. day of October all things were brought from the shoare aboord the ship: and that day the Factors went to the Basha to take their leaue of him, vnto whom they recommended those the Companies seruants, &c. which they had sent to Bachu, making accompt to leaue them behinde in the Countrey: who caused their names to be written, and promised they should want nothing, nor be iniured of any. After this leaue taken, the Factors went aboord purposing presently to haue set saile and departed towards Astracan, the winde seruing well for that purpose at South Southeast: [Sidenote: The Armenian village.] And as they were readie to set saile, there came against the ship a man, who weued: whereupon the boate was sent a shoare to him, who was an Armenian sent from William Wincoll, with his writing tables, wherein the said Wincoll had written briefly, the mishap of the losse of the Busse, and that they were comming from Bildih towardes Derbent, they, and such things as they saued with a small boate, forced to put a shoare in a place by the sea side called the Armenian village: Where upon the Factors caused the shippe to stay, hoping that with the Southerly winde that then blew, they would come from the place they were at to the ship, but if they could not come with that winde, they ment to saile with the shippe, with the next wind that would serue them, against the place where they were, and take them in, if they could: which stay and losse of those Southerly windes, was a cause of great troubles, that they afterwardes sustained through yce, &c. entering the Volga as shalbe declared. The 4. day the winde South Southeast, the shippe rode still: This day Christopher Burrow was sent to shore to Derbent to prouide some necessaries for the voyage, and with him a Tisike or two, which should goe in the shippe passengers to Astracan. [Sidenote: The Turke his treasure sent to Derbent.] And being on shoare he saw there the comming in of the Turkes treasure, being accompanied with 200. souldiers, and one hundreth pioners, besides Captaines and Gentlemen: the Basha with his captaines and souldiers very gallantly apparelled and furnished went out from Derbent about three or foure miles, to meete the said treasure, and receiued the same with great ioy and triumph. Treasure was the chiefe thing they needed, for not long before the souldiers were readie to breake into the Court against the Basha for their pay: there was a great mutinie amongst them, because hee had long differed and not payed them their due. The treasure came in seuen wagons, and with it were brought tenne pieces of brasse. In the parts of Media where they were, there was no commoditie to be bought of any value, but raw silke, neither was that to be had but at the Bashaes hands: who shortly after their comming thither taxed the Countrey for that commoditie. His dealing with our Merchants as it was not with equitie in all points according to his bargaine, so it was not extreme ill. Of the commodities they carried hee tooke the chiefest part, for which he gaue but a small price in respect of the value it was there worth, and because he had prouided such quantitie of commoditie for them, which otherwise they could not haue had, the Countrey being so troublesome, and trauaile by land so dangerous, he vsed them at his pleasure. The newes that was reported vnto them at Astracan touching the warres betweene the Turkes and Persians differed litle from the truth: for the Turkes armie with the aide of the Crims, (being in number by the information of two Spaniards that serued in those wars, about 200000) inuaded and conquered the Countrey of Media in Anno 1577. [Sidenote: Osman Basha.] When the great Turke vnderstood of the conquest, he appointed Osman Basha (the said Basha, and now Captaine of Derbent) gouernour of the whole Countrey, who settled himselfe in Shamaky the chiefe Citie of Media, and principall place of traffike, vnto whom was sent from the great Turke, in signification of the grateful acceptation of his seruice and the great conquest, a sword of great value. After the said Basha had brought the Countrey in order to his liking, and placed garrisons where he thought conuenient, the armie was dissolued and sent backe; when the Persians vnderstood that the Turkes armie was dissolued and returned, they gathered a power together, and with the Queene of their Countrey as chiefe, they entred the Countrey of Media, and ouerranne the same with fire and sword, destroying whatsoeuer they found, as well people, cattell, as whatsoeuer els, that might be commodious to the Turkes. And after they had so ouerrunne the Countrey, they came to Shamaky, where the said Basha Lieutenant generall of the great Turke was settled, and besieged it: whereupon the Basha seeing hee could not long indure to withstande them, fled thence to Derbent where he now remaineth. [Sidenote: Derbent built by Alexander the great.] Derbent is a strong Castle which was built by Alexander the great, the situation whereof is such that the Persians being without ordinance, are not able to winne it but by famine. When the Turkes were fled from Shamaky, the Persians entred the same and spoyled it, leauing therein neither liuing creature nor any commoditie, and so returned backe into Persia, and setled themselues about Teueris, where there grewe some question among them for the kingdome. Afterwards the Persians hauing intelligence of an armie from the Turke comming into Media, gathered themselues together in a great armie and encountring the said Turkes, set vpon them on the sudden, and vanquished them, putting them all to the sword. This ouerthrow of the Turkes grieued the Basha of Derbent, and made him to haue the more care for his own safetie. Moreouer, newes was brought vnto him that the Kisel Bashaes, (that is to say the nobles and Gentlemen of Persia) were minded to set vpon him, and that neere vnto Bachu there lay an army ready to besiege it. Whereupon the Basha oftentimes would ride about the Castle of Derbent viewing the same, and the springs that did come to it, and where he saw any cause of reformation it was amended. [Sidenote: The latitude of Derbent 41. deg. 52. min. The variation of the compasse.] The latitude of Derbent (by diuers obseruations exactly there made) is 41. deg 52. min. The variation of the Compasse at that place about 11. degrees from North to West. From Derbent to Bildih by land 46. leagues. From Shamaky to Bachu about 10. leagues which may be 30. miles. From Bachu to Bildih fiue or sixe leagues by land, but by water about 12. leagues. From the Castle Derbent Eastwards, there reach two stone wals to the border of the Caspian sea, which is distant one English mile. Those walls are 9. foote thicke, and 28. or 30. foote high, and the space betweene them is 160. Geometricall paces, that is 800. foot. There are yet to be perceiued of the ruine of those wals, which do now extend, into the sea about halfe a mile: also from the castle Westward into the land, they did perceiue the ruines of a stone wall to extend, which wal, as it is reported, did passe from thence to Pontus Euxinus, and was built by Alexander the great when the Castle Derbent was made. The 5 of October about noone the winde Northnortheast they wayed ancre, and set saile from Derbent, being alongst the coast to the Southwards to seeke their men: but as they had sailed about foure leagues the winde scanted Easterly, so that they were forced to ancre in three fathom water. The 6 day they wayed ancre, and bare further off into the sea, where they ancred in seuen fathom water, the ship being very leake, and so rotten abaft the maine mast, that a man with his nailes might scrape thorow her side. The 7 day about 7 of the clocke in the morning, they set saile, the winde Southwest. They considered the time of the yere was far spent, the ship weake, leake and rotten, and therefore determining not to tarry any longer for Wincoll and his fellowes, but to leaue them behinde, bent themselues directly towards Astracan: and sailing Northnortheast vntill midnight about 16 leagues, the winde then came to the Northnorthwest, and blew much, a very storme, which caused them to take in their sailes, sauing the fore corse, with which they were forced to steere before the sea, South by West, and Southsouthwest. And on the 8 day about two of the clocke in the morning their great boat sunke at the ships sterne, which they were forced to cut from the ship to their great griefe and discomfort: for in her they hoped to saue their liues if the ship should haue miscaried. [Sidenote: Nezauoo.] About 10 of the clocke before noone they had sight of the land about 5 leagues to the South of Derbent, and bare longst the coast to the Southeastwards vnto Nezauoo, where they came at ancre in three fathoms, and black oze, good ancre holde, whereof they were glad, as also that the winde was shifted to the Northwest, and but a meane gale. Wincoll and the rest of his fellowes being in the Armenian village, which is about 18 versts to the Westwards of Nezauoo, the place where against they rode at ancre, saw the ship as she passed by that place, and sent a man in the night following alongst the coast after her, who came against the ship where she rode, and with a firebrand in the top of a tree made signes, which was perceiued by them in the shippe, whereupon they hoisted out their skiffe, and sent her ashore to learne what was meant by the fire: which returned a letter from Wincoll, wherein he wrote that they were with such goods as they had at the Armenian village, and prayed that there they might with the same goods be taken into the ships. The 9 day it was litle winde, they wayed and bare a little farther off into the sea towards the said village, and ancred. The 10 day they sent their skiffe to the Armenian village to fetch those men and the goods they had, with order that if the winde serued, that they could not returne to fetch the ship, they of the ship promised to come for them, against the said village. This day it was calme. The 11 day the winde Northwest they rode still. The 12 day the winde Southeast they wayed ancre, and bare against and nere to the Armenian village where they ancred, and then the skiffe came aboord and tolde them that our people at shore were like to be spoiled of the Tartars, were it not that the gunners defended them: then was the skiffe sent backe againe to charge them at any hand they should hasten aboord the ship whatsoeuer it cost them. Whereupon, all the company came aboord the same day sauing Richard Relfe and two Russes, but as soone as the skiffe was returned aboord the ship, the winde blew at Southeast, and the sea was growen, so as they were forced to take in their skiffe into the ship, and rode stil till the 13 day, [Sidenote: Two Spaniards deliuered by our Englishmen.] and then being faire weather, early in the morning the skiffe was hoisted out of the ship, and sent to shore to fetch the said Relfe and the two Russes, which were ready at the shore side, and with them two Spaniards that were taken captiues at the Goletta in Barbary, which serued the Turke as souldiers. Those Spaniards (of Christian charity) they brought also aboord the ship to redeeme them from their captiuity, which were brought ouer into England, and set free and at liberty here in London, in September 1581. The winde this day at Northnortheast, faire weather. The 14 day they sent the skiffe to shore, and filled fresh water. The 15 day they rode still, being litle winde and fog. The 16 day the winde Eastsoutheast, they wayed ancre and set saile, bearing Northwards towards Astracan, and the same night they ancred in ten fathoms water, about fiue miles from the shore of the Shalkaules countrey, which place is eight leagues Northnorthwest from Derbent. The 17 day the winde at North very stormy, they rode still all that day and night. The 18 the winde all Southeast about one of the clocke afternoone, they wayed ancre, and sailed thence till foure of the clocke Northnortheast sixe leagues, then they might see the land Northwest about tenne leagues from the winde Southeast: from thence they sailed til midnight Northnortheast twelue leagues. From thence till the 19 day seuen a clocke in the morning they sailed Northnortheast eight leagues: the winde then Eastsoutheast, a faire gale, they sounded and had 17 fathoms, and sand, being (as the Master iudged) about the head of Shetley: from thence till 12 of the clocke at noone they sailed North 5 leagues, the winde then at East a faire gale, they sounded and had 5 fathoms. From thence till eight of the clocke at night, they sailed North 7 leagues, the winde then at Northeast with small raine, they tooke in their sailes, and ancred in 3 fathoms water and soft oze, where they rode still all night, and the 20 day and night the winde Northeast, as before with small raine. The 21 day the winde Northwest, they likewise rode still. The 22 day about 3 of the clocke in the afternoone, they wayed ancre, the winde Westnorthwest, and sailed from thence till sixe of the clocke at night North 4 leagues, then they ancred in 2 fathoms and a halfe soft oze, the winde at West a small breath. The 23 day about 7 of the clocke in the morning, they wayed ancre, and set saile, being litle winde Easterly, and sailed till 2 of the clocke after noone Northwest in with the shore about sixe leagues, and then ancred in 6 foot water, hauing perfect sight of the low land (sand hilles) being about 3 miles from the nerest land. This place of the land that they were against, they perceiued to be to the Westwards of the 4 Islands (called in the Russe tongue Chetera Bougori) and they found it afterwards by due proofe, to be about 50 versts, or 30 English miles to the Southwest, or Southwest by South, from the sayd Chetera Bougori. The 24 day the winde at East, and by South, a Sea winde called Gillauar, caused them to ride still. The 25 day they thought good to send in their skiffe Robert Golding, and certaine Russes, to row him alongst Northwards by the shore, to seeke the foure Islands, and so to passe vnto the Vchooge, and there to land the sayd Robert Golding to proceed to Astracan, to deliuer Amos Riall a letter, wherein he was required to prouide Pauoses to meet the shippe at the sayd Islands, and the skiffe with the Russes were appointed to returne from the Vchooge with victuals to the shippe, which skiffe departed from the shippe about nine of the clocke in the forenoone. The 26, 27, 28, and 29 dayes, the windes Easterly and Northeast, they rode still with their ship. The 30 day the winde Southeast, they wayed, and set saile to the Northeastwards: but the ship fell so on the side to the shorewards, that they were forced eftsoones to take in their saile, and ancre againe, from whence they neuer remoued her. [Sidenote: A strange accident of prouision for their reliefe.] That day they shared their bread: but in their want God sent them two couies of partridges, that came from the shore, and lighted in and about their ships, whereby they were comforted, and one that lay sicke, of whose life was small hope, recouered his health. [Sidenote: Nouember.] The 4 of Nouember the skiffe returned to the ship with some victuals, and certified that the foure Islands were about 60 versts from them to the Northeastwards. When Robert Golding came to Astracan, and deliuered there the Factors letters to Amos Rial, the duke, captaine of that place, was done to vnderstand of the ships arriuall, and of the state they were in, and their request for Pauoses, who was very glad to heare of their safe returne, and appointed to be sent with all speed two Pauoses and a Stroog, with gunners to gard and defend them. With the which Stroog and Pauoses, Amos Riall went downe to the Chetera Bougori, or 4. Islands aforesayd, where he stayed with those barks, according to the Factors appointment. The 5 day they purposed to send from the ship their skiffe with the carpenter, and 4 Russes to row him to the 4 Bougories, to request Amos Riall to come from thence with the Pauoses to the shippe with all possible speed. The skiffe with those men departed from the ship in the morning, and within one houre they met with a small boat with Russes rowing towards the ship, which came from the Ouchooge with a wilde swine and other victuals, to sell: with the same boat the skiffe returned backe to the ship after the Russes had receiued and were satisfied for the victuals they brought: the same day they returned with their boat backe toward the Ouchooge, and with them in the same boat was sent the Carpenter of the shippe to the Chetera Bougori, which were in their way, to declare vnto Amos Riall the message before appointed him. From the 5 vntill the 9 day the ship rode still with contrary winds Easterly. The same 9 day came to the shippe certaine Russes in a small boat, which brought with them some victuals sent by Amos Riall, and declared that he with the Pauoses and Stroog had remained at the Chetera Bougori fiue dayes, expecting the comming thither of the ship. The 10 day being doubtfull of the Pauoses comming, they sent Thomas Hudson Master of the ship in the skiffe (and with her went the foresayd skiffe boat) towards the Chetera Bougori to the Pauoses to bring word whether they would come to the ship or not, the wind then at Northeast with fogge. The 11 day the winde Northerly with fogge, the ship rode still. The 12 day Amos Riall, Christopher Fawcet, and a new gunner came to the ship, and with them the M. Thomas Hudson returned; but the Stroog with the gunners remained at the Chetera Bougori; and from thence (when it begun to freese) returned to Astracan. Amos Riall declared that he sent the carpenter backe from the Chetera Bougori in a small boat on the 10 day, and marueiled that he was not come to the shippe (but in the fogge the day before as afterwards they learned) missed the shippe, and ouershot her, and afterwards returning backe, he found the ship at ancre, and nothing in her but the Russes that were left to keepe her, and then he departed thence, and went to the Vchooge, and there stayed. Presently vpon the comming of the Pauoses to the ship they vsed as much speed as might be, to get the goods out of the shippe into them, and after the goods were laden in, they tooke in also of the shippes ordinance, furniture and prouiston, as much as they could. [Sidenote: Ice the 13 of Nouember in the mouth of the riuer of Volga.] The 13 day in the morning Amos Riall was sent away in a small boat towards Astracan, to prouide victuals and cariages to relieue and helpe them, who could passe no further then the foure Islands, but was there ouertaken with yce, and forced to leaue his boat, and from thence passed poste to Astracan, finding at the Vchooge the Carpenter returned from his ill iourney, very ill handled, with the extremitie of the colde. The same day they departed also in those lighters with the goods towards the Chetera Kougori, leauing the ship at once, and in her two Russes, which with three more that went in the Pauoses, to prouide victuals for themselues and the rest, and therewith promised to returne backe to the ship with all speed, had offered to undertake for twenty rubbles in money to cary the ship into some harborow, where she might safely winter, or els to keepe her where she rode all winter which was promised to be giuen them if they did it: and the same day when with those lighters they had gotten sight of the foure Islands being about eight versts Southwest from them, the winde then at Northeast, did freese the sea so as they could not row, guide, stirre or remoue the saide lighters, but as the wind and yce did force them. [Sidenote: The 16 day.] And so they continued driuing with the yce, Southeast into the sea by the space of forty houres, and then being the sixteenth day the yce stood. Whiles they droue with the yce, the dangers which they incurred were great: for oftentimes when the yce with the force of winde did breake, pieces of it were tossed and driuen one vpon another. with great force, terrible to beholde, and the same happened at sometimes so neere vnto the lighters, that they expected it would haue ouerwhelmed them to their vtter destruction: but God who had presented them from many perils before, did also saue and deliuer them then. Within three or foure dayes after the first standing of the yce, when it was firme and strong, they tooke out all their goods, being fourty and eight bales or packes of raw silke, &c. layde it on the yce, and couered the same with such prouisions as they had. [Sidenote: Trauaile upon the yce.] Then for want of victuals, &c they agreed to leaue all the goods there vpon the yce, and to go to the shore: and thereupon brake vp their Chests and Carobias, wherewith, and with such other things as they could get, they made sleddes for euery of them to draw vpon the yce, whereon they layed their clothes to keepe them warme, and such victuals as they had, and such other things as they might conueniently cary, and so they departed from the sayd goods and Pauoses very earely about one of the clocke in the morning, and trauailing on the yce, directed their way North, as neere as they could iudge, and the same day about two of the clocke in the afternoone, [Sidenote: Chetera Babbas.] they had sight of the Chetera Babbas (foure hillocks of Islands so called) vnto the same they directed themselues, and there remained that night. The goods and Pauoses which they left on the yce they iudged to be from those Chetera Babbas about 20 versts. And the next morning departed thence Eastwards, and came to the Chetera Bougories (or foure Islands before spoken of) before noone (the distance betweene those places is about 15 versts) where they remained all that night, departing thence towards Astracan: the next morning very early they lost their way through the perswasion of the Russes which were with them, taking too much towards the left hand (contrary to the opinion of M. Hudson) whereby wandering upon the yce foure dayes, not knowing whether they were entred into the Crimme Tartars land or not, at length it fortuned they met with a way that had bene trauailed, which crost backwards towards the sea: that way they tooke, and following the same, within two dayes trauaile it brought them to a place called Crasnoyare (that is to say in the English tongue) Red cliffe, which diuers of the company knew. [Sidenote: The English ship cut in pieces with yce] There they remained that night, hauing nothing to eat but one loafe of bread, which they happened to finde with the two Russes that were left in the ship to keepe her all the Winter (as is aforesaid) whom they chanced to meet going towards Astracan, about fiue miles before they came to the sayd Crasnoyare, who certified them that the ship was cut in pieces with the yce, and that they had hard scaping with their liues. In the morning they departed early from Crasnoyare towards the Ouchooge and about nine of the clocke before noone, being within 10 versts of the Vchooge, they met Amos Riall, with the carpenter, which he found at Ouchooge, and a gunner newly come out of England, and also 65 horses with so many Cassaks to guide them, and 50 gunners for gard, which brought prouision of vituals, &c. and were sent by the Duke to fetch the goods to Astracan. The meeting of that company was much ioy vnto them. [Sidenote: December] The Factors sent backe with Amos Riall and the sayd company to fetch the goods, Thomas Hudson the Master, Tobias Paris his Mate, and so they the sayd Factors and their company marched on to the Vchooge, where they refreshed themselues that day, and the night following. And from thence proceeded on towards Astracan, where they arriued the last day of Nouember. These that went for the goods after their departure from the Factors trauelled the same day vntil they came within 10 versts of the Chetera Babbas, where they rested that night. The next morning by the breake of day they departed thence, and before noone were at the Chetera Babas, where they stayed all night; but presently departed thence Thomas Hudson with the Carpenter and gunner to seeke where the goods lay: who found the same, and the next day they returned backe to their company at the Chetera Babbas, and declared vnto them in what sort they had found the sayd goods. The 3 day early in the morning they departed all from the 4 Babbas towards the said goods, and the same day did lade all the goods they could find vpon the said sleds, and with all conuenient speed returned backe towards Astracan. And when they came to the Chetera Bougori, where they rested the night, in the morning very early before the breake of day, they were assaulted by a great company of the Nagays Tartars horsemen, which came showting and hallowing with a great noise, but our people were so inuironed with the sleds, that they durst not enter vpon them, but ranne by, and shot their arrows amongst them, and hurt but one man in the head, who was a Russe, and so departed presently. Yet when it was day, they shewed themselues a good distance off from our men, being a very great troop of them, but did not assault them any more. [Sidenote: Their returne to Astracan.] The same day our men with those cariages, departed from thence towards Astracan, where they arriued in safety the 4 December, about 3 of the clocke in the afternoone, where our people greatly reioyced of their great good happe to haue escaped so many hard euents, troubles and miseries, as they did in that voyage, and had great cause therefore to praise the Almighty, who had so mercifully preserued and deliuered them. They remained the winter at Astracan, where they found great fauour and friendship of the duke, captaine, and other chiefe officers of that place: but that Winter there happened no great matter worth the noting. [Sidenote: The breaking vp of the yce.] [Sidenote: Morgan Hubblethorne dier sent into Persia.] In the spring of the yeere 1581, about the mids of March, the yce was broken vp, and cleare gone before Astracan, and the ninth of Aprill, hauing all the goods that were returned from the parts of Media, laden into a Stroog, the Factors, William Turnebull, Matthew Tailboyes, Giles Crow, Christopher Burrough, Michael Lane, Laurence Prouse gunner, Randolfe Foxe, Tho. Hudson, Tobias Parris, Morgan Hubblethorne, the dier, Rich, the Surgean, Rob. Golding, Ioh. Smith, Edw. Reding carpenter, and William Perrin gunner hauing also 40 Russes, whereof 36 were Cassacks to row, the rest merchants passengers, departed from Astracan with the sayd Stroog and goods vp the Volga towards Yeraslaue. They left behinde them at Astracan, with the English goods and merchandise there remaining, Amos Riall, W. Wincoll, and Richard Relfe, and appointed them to sell and barter the same, or so much thereof as they could to the Tisiks, if there came any thither that spring, and to others as they might, and the rest with such as they should take in exchange to returne vp to Yeraslaue that Summer, when the Emperors carriage should passe vp the Volga. The 21 day they came with their Stroog to the Perauolok, but made no stay at that place: for they had beene much troubled with yce in their comming from Astracan. [Sidenote: May.] The 3 of May about noone they came to Oueak, and from thence proceeding vp the riuer, on the 17 day William Turnebull departed from the Stroog in a small boat, and went before towards Tetusha to prouide victuals, and send downe to the Stroog, from which place they were then about 230 versts. The 23 day they met a boat with victuals, which William Turnebull sent from Tetusha, and the same day they arriued with their Stroog at Tetusha, where they stayed all night, and the next morning betimes departed thence, but W. Turnebull was gone in the small boat before to Cazan, to prouide necessaries from thence, and to make way for their dispatch. The 26 day they arriued with their Stroog at Cazan, where they remained till the fourth of Iune: the Factors sent Giles Crow from Cazan to the Mosco, with their letters the 30 of May. The 4 day of Iune they departed from Cazan with their Stroog, and arriued at Yeraslaue the 22 day about 5 of the clocke in the morning. The 23. day they prouided Telegos, to carry the goods to Vologda. The 24. day hauing the goods laden vpon Telegos, they departed with the same towards Vologda, and remained there fiue versts from Yeraslaue. The 29 day they came to Vologda, with all their goods in safety, and good order. The same 29. William Turnbull and Peter Garrard departed from Vologda post by water towards Colmogro, the third of Iuly, hauing their goods laden in a small doshnik, they departed with the same from Vologda towards Rose Island by S. Nicholas; where they arriued in safety the 16 of Iuly, and found there the Agents of Russia, and in the rode the ships sent out from England, almost laden ready to depart. The 25 day departed for England (out of the rode of S. Nicholas) the ship Elizabeth. The 26 day departed thence the Thomas Allen and Mary Susan, and in the Thomas Allen went William Turnbul, Matthew Tailboys, Thomas Hudson, and others. The goods returned of the Persia voyage were laden into the ship, William and Iohn, whereof was Master, William Bigat, and in her with the same goods came Peter Garrard and Tobias Parris. The 11 of August, the same ship being laden and despatched departed from the rode of S. Nicholas, and with her in company another of the companies fraighted ships, called the Tomasin, whereof was M. Christopher Hall. In their returne homewards they had some foule weather, and were separated at the sea, the William and Iohn put into Newcastle the 24 of September: from whence the sayd Peter Garrard and Tobias Parris came to London by land, and brought newes of the arriual of the ship. The 25 of September both the sayd ships arriued at the port of London in safety, and ankered before Limehouse and Wapping, where they were discharged, 1581. * * * * * Obseruations of the latitudes and meridian altitudes of diuers places in Russia, from the North to the South: Anno 1581. Michael Archangel. Meridian altitude obserued at Michael the Archangel, 42. degrees, 30. minuts. The true latitude, 64. degrees, 54. minuts. The English house in Colmogro. The English house in Colmogro, in latitude, 64. d. 25. m. The meridian altitude there obserued, the 29. of Iuly, 42. d. 15. m. Recola. Meridian altitude the 30 of Iuly, 41. d. 40. m. Declination 16. d. 6. m. 64. d. 20. m. Yeegris. Meridian 4 of August, 41. d. 50. m. Declination Northerly, 14. d. 49. m. 62. d. 59. m. Towlma. Meridian altitude, the 15 of August, 40. d. 45. m. Declination Northerly, 11. d. 2. m. 60. d. 17. m. Vologda. Meridian altitude, the 20 of August, 40. d. Declination Northerly, 9. d. 17. m. 59. d. 17. m. Vologda. Meridian altitude, 21 of August, 39. d. 36. m. Declination, 8. d. 56. m. 59. d. 20. m. Yeraslaue. Latitude, by gesse, 57. d. 50. m. Swyoskagorod. Meridian altitude, 21. September, 31. d. Declination, 2. d. 56. m. 56. d. 4. m. Ouslona Monastery. Meridian altitude, 23. September, 30. d. 26. m. Declination, 2. d. 56. m. 55. d. 51. m. Tetuskagorod. Meridian altitude, 28. September, 28. d. 28. m. Declination, 5. d. 35. m. 55. d. 22. m. Oueek. Meridian altitude, 5. October, 30. d. 12. m. Declination, 8. d. 18. m. 51. d. 30. m. Astracan: Astracan meridian altitude, 22. October, 29. d. 36. m. Declination, 14. d. 16. m. 46. d. 10. m. Astracan: Meridian altitude, 1 of Nouember, 26. d. 35. m. Declination, 17. d. 16. m. 46. d. 9. m. * * * * * Certaine directions giuen by M. Richard Hackluit of the Middle Temple, to M. Morgan Hubblethorne, Dier, sent into Persia, 1579. 1. For that England hath the best cloth and wool in the world, and for that the clothes of the realme haue no good vent, if good dying be not added: therfore it is much to be wished that the dying of forren countreyes were seene, to the end that the arte of dying may be brought into the Realme in greatest excellency: for thereof will follow honour to the Realme, and great and ample vent of our clothes: and of the vent of clothes, will follow the setting of our poore on worke, in all degrees of labour in clothing and dying: for which cause most principally you are sent ouer at the charge of the city: and therfore for the satisfying the lords, and of the expectation of the merchants and of your company, it behooues you to haue care to returne home with more knowledge then you caried out. 2. The great dearth of clothes is a great let in the ample vent of clothes, and the price of a cloth, for a fifth, sixth and seuenth part riseth by the colour and dying: and therefore to deuise to die as good colours with the one halfe of the present price were to the great commodity of the Realme, by sauing of great treasure in time to come. And therefore you must haue great care to haue knowledge of the materials of all the countreys that you shall passe thorow, that they may be vsed in dying, be they hearbs, weeds, barks, gummes, earths, or what els soeuer. 3 In Persia you shall finde carpets of course thrummed wooll, the best of the world, and excellently coloured: those cities and townes you must repaire to, and you must vse meanes to learne all the order of the dying of those thrummes, which are so died as neither raine, wine, nor yet vineger can staine: and if you may attaine to that cunning, you shall not need to feare dying of cloth: For if the colour holde in yarne and thrumme, it will holde much better in cloth. 4 For that in Persia they haue great colouring of silks, it behooues you to learne that also, for that cloth dying and silke dying haue a certaine affinity, and your merchants mind to bring much raw silke into the Realme, and therefore it is more requisit you learne the same. 5 In Persia there are that staine linnen cloth: it is not amisse you learne it if you can: it hath bene an olde trade in England, whereof some excellent clothes yet remaine: but the arte is now lost, and not to be found in the Realme. 6 They haue a cunning in Persia to make in buskins of Spanish leather flowers of many kindes, in most liuely colours, and these the Courtiers do weare there: to learne which arte were no harme. 7 If any Dier of China, or of the East parts of the world, be to be found in Persia, acquaint yourselfe with him, and learne what you may of him. 8 You shall finde Anile there, if you can procure the herbe that it is made of, either by seed or by plant, to cary into England, you may doe well to endeuour to enrich your countrey with the same: but withall learne you the making of the Anile, and if you can get the herbe, you may send the same dry into England, for possibly it groweth here already. 9 Returne home with you all the materials and substances that they die withall in Russia, and also in Persia, that your company may see all. 10 In some litle pot in your lodging, I wish you to make daily trials in your arte, as you shall from time to time learne ought among them. 11 Set downe in writing whatsoeuer you shall learne from day to day, lest you should forget, or lest God should call you to his mercy: and by ech returne I wish you to send in writing whatsoeuer you haue learned, or at the least keepe the same safe in your coffer, that come death or life your countrey may ioyne the thing that you goe for, and not lose the charge, and trauell bestowed in this case. 12 Learne you there to fixe and make sure the colour to be giuen by logge wood: so shall we not need to buy woad so deare, to the enriching of our enemies. 13 Enquire of the price of leckar, and all other things belonging to dying. 14 In any wise set downe in writing a true note from whence euery of them doe come, and where, and in what countrey ech of them doth grow, I meane where the naturall place of ech of them is, as how neere to such a city, or to such a sea, or to such a portable riuer in Russia, Persia, or elsewhere. 15 If before you returne you could procure a singular good workeman in the arte of Turkish carpet making, you should bring the arte into this Realme, and also thereby increase worke to your company. * * * * * Commission giuen by sir Rowland Hayward knight, and George Barrie, Aldermen and gouernours of the company of English Merchants, for discouery of new trades, vnto Arthur Pet, and Charles Iackman, for a voyage by them to be made, for discouery of Cathay, 1580. in forme following. In the name of God Almightie, and euerlasting. Amen. This writing for commission Tripartite, made the twentieth day of May Anno Dom. 1580. and in the 22. yeere of the reigne of our Souereigne Lady Elizabeth by the grace of God, Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. Betweene sir Rowland Hayward knight, and George Barne, Aldermen of the Citie of London and Gouernours of the company of English Merchants, for discouery of new trades, for the behoofe, and in the name of the said company, on the first partie, and Arthur Pet of Ratcliffe, in the Countie Middlesex, Captaine, Master, and chiefe ruler of the good barke, called the George of London, of the burthen of 40. tunnes, or thereabouts, on the second partie, and Charles Iackman of the Popler, in the said Countie of Middlesex, Captaine, Master and ruler of the good barke, called the William of London, of the burthen of 20. tunnes, or thereabouts, (which barkes are now riding at anker in the riuer of Thames against Limehouse) on the third partie: witnesseth, that the said Gouernours, and company haue hired the saide Arthur Pet, to serue in the said barke, called the George, with nine men and a boy: [Sidenote: Burroughs streits.] And likewise the said Charles Iackman, to serue in the said barke, called the William, with fiue men and a boy, for a voyage by them to be made by Gods grace, for search and discoueries of a passage by sea from hence by Boroughs streights, and the Island Vaigats, Eastwards to the countreis or dominions of the mightie Prince, the Emperour of Cathay, and in the same vnto the Cities of Cambalu and Quinsay, or to either of them. The which passage (vpon authoritie of writers, and great reason) is conceiued to bee from the Vaigats Eastwards, according to the description in plat of spirall lines, made by master William Burrough, whereof either of the saide Arthur Pet, and Charles Iackman, haue one deliuered vnto them, and also one other sailing carde, and a blanke plat for either of them. But if it should not be in all points, according to that description, yet we hope that the continent or firme land of Asia doth not stretch it selfe so farre Northwards, but that there may be found a sea passeable by it, betweene the latitude of 70. and 80. degrees. And therefore we haue appointed you with these two barkes to make triall of the same: wishing you both to ioyne in friendship together, as most deere friends and brothers, to all purposes and effects, to the furtherance and orderly performing of the same voyage. And likewise order your companies, that they of the one barke may haue such loue and care, to helpe and succour them of the other, as most deere friends and brothers would doe: so as it may appeare, that though they be two barkes, and two companies, (which is so appointed for your greater comfort and assurance) yet that you are wholy of one minde, and bend your selues to the vttermost of your powers, to performe the thing that you are both employed for. Doe you obserue good order in your dayly seruice, and pray vnto God, so shall you prosper the better. We would haue you to meete often together, to talke, conferre, consult, and agree how, and by what meanes, you may best performe this purposed voyage, according to our intents. And at such meeting we thinke it requisite, that you call vnto you your mates, and also Nicholas Chanceler, (whom wee doe appoint as merchant, to keepe accompt of the merchandise you shall buy or sell, barter or change) to the ende that whatsoeuer God should dispose of either of you, yet they may haue some instructions and knowledge howe to deale in your place, or places. And of all your assemblies and consultations together, and the substance of matter you shal at euery time agree vpon we would haue you to note them in the paper bookes that wee giue you for that purpose, vnto each barke one. We do appoint Arthur Pet in the George, as Admiral, to weare the flagge in the maine top, and Charles Iackman in the William, as Viceadmirall. For good orders to be taken for your good and orderly keeping of company together, which we wish may be such, as you should neuer lose sight the one of the other, except by both your consents, to discouer about an Island, or in some riuer, when and where you may certainly appoint to meete together againe, we referre the same to your discretions. And now for your good direction, in this voyage, we would haue you with the next good winde and weather, that God shall send thereunto meete and conuenient, after the 22. day of this present moneth of May, saile from this riuer of Thames, to the coast of Finmarke, to the North Cape there, or to the Wardhouse, and from thence direct your course to haue sight of Willoughbies land, and from it passe alongst to the Noua Zembla, keeping the same landes alwayes in your sight on your larboordsides (if conueniently you may) to the ende you may discouer, whether the same Willoughbies land be continent and firme land with Noua Zembla, or not: notwithstanding we would not haue you to entangle your selues in any Bay, or otherwise, so that it might hinder your speedy proceeding to the Island Vaigats. [Sidenote: The land of Samoeda.] And when you come to Vaigats, we would haue you to get sight of the maine land of Samoeda, which is ouer against the South part of the same Island, and from thence with Gods permission, to passe Eastwards alongst the same coast, keeping it alwayes in your sight (if conueniently you may) vntill you come to the mouth of the riuer Ob, and when you come vnto it, passe ouer the said riuers mouth vnto the border land, on the Eastside of the same (without any stay to bee made for searching inwardly in the same riuer) and being in sight of the same Easterly land, doe you in Gods name proceed alongst by it, from thence Eastwards, keeping the same alwayes on your starboord side in sight, if you may, and follow the tract of it, whether it incline Southerly or Northerly (as at times it may do both) vntill you come to, the Countrey of Cathay, or the dominion of that mightie Emperour. And if God prosper your voyage with such good successe, that you may attaine to the same, doe you seeke by all meanes you can to arriue to the Cities Cambalu, and Quinsay, or to the one of them. But if it happen that you cannot conueniently come to either of those places, or shalbe driuen to remaine and winter in some other port or place of his dominion, do you seeke by all meanes possible to winne fauour and liking of the people, by gifts and friendly demeanes towards them, and not to offer violence, or do wrong to any people or nation whatsoeuer, but therein to be innocent as doues, yet wilie as serpents, to auoid mischiefe, and defend you from hurt. [Sidenote: The Queenes letters.] And when you shall haue gotten friendship through your discreete ordering of your selues, towards the people, doe you learne of them what you can of their Prince, and shewe them one of the Queenes Maiesties, letters, which she sendeth with you (by either of you one, made of one substance and effect, for ech of you particularly) written in Latine, whereunto her Maiestie hath subscribed, and caused her signet seale to be set, the effect of the same letters you haue also written in English, for your own vnderstanding thereof. The same her Maiesties letters you shall procure to deliuer vnto the same mightie Prince, or Gouernour, with some present to be giuen, such as you shall thinke meete and conuenient, vsing your selues in all points according to the effect of the same letters, and procure againe from the same Prince, his letters accordingly. And if God so prosper your voyage, that you may this Summer passe the Streights, and compasse about the Northernmost land of Asia, vnto the country of Cathay, or dominion of that mightie Prince, and wintering in it, may obtaine from him his letters of priuiledge against the next yeeres spring, you may then after your first setting foorth, search and discouer somewhat further then you had discouered before your wintering, so farre as you shall thinke conuenient with regard had, and alwayes prouided, that you may returne home hither, to giue vs aduise of your proceedings the same Summer, or before the sharpenes or extremitie of winter ouertake you. And if it happen you cannot this summer attaine to the border of Cathay, and yet find the land beyond the Ob, to stretch it selfe Easterly, with the sea adioyning vnto it nauigable, doe you then proceed on your discouery (as before said) alongst the same continent, so farre as you can this summer, hauing care in the trauel to finde out some conuenient harborow and place, where you may winter: and when you thinke it conuenient, put your selfe to wintering, where if you happen to finde people, you shall deale with them, as we haue before aduised you to do with the people of Cathay, &c. And if you can learne that they haue a prince or chiefe gouernour, do you procure to deliuer vnto the same Prince or gouernour one of the Queenes Maiesties letters, as before said, and seeke to obtaine againe his letters accordingly. If you so happen to winter and obtaine letters of priuiledge, finding the countrey and people, with the commodities to bee such, that by vsing trade thither with the people, and for the commodities, it may be beneficial vnto vs (as we hope you may) the same wil be some good liking vnto vs: notwithstanding we would haue you the next summer (by the grace of God) at your first setting out of your wintering harborough, proceed alongest that tract of land to Cathay, if you see likelihood to passe it (for that is the Countrey that we chiefly desire to discouer) and seeing you are fully victualed for two yeres and vpwards, which you may very wel make to serue you for two yeres and a halfe, though you finde no other help, you may therefore be the bolder to aduenture in proceeding vpon your discouery: which if you do, we doubt not, but you shall atchieue the Countrey of Cathay, and deliuer to the prince there, one of her Maiesties letters, bringing from thence the same princes letters answerable: and so in the yeere of our lord 1582. returne home with good newes, and glad tidings, not onely vnto vs the aduenturers in this voyage, but also to our whole Countrey and nation, which God graunt you do, Amen. But if it happen that the land of Asia, from beyond the riuer Ob, extend it selfe Northwards to 80. degrees, or neerer the poole, whereby you find it to leade you into that extremitie, that small or no hope may be looked for, to saile that way to Cathay, doe you notwithstanding followe the tract of the same land, as farre as you can discouer this Summer, hauing care to finde out by the way a conuenient place for you to Winter in, the which (if you may discouer the same lande of Asia this Summer to extend it selfe to 80. degrees of latitude, and vpwards or to 85. degrees) we wish then that the same your wintering place may be in the riuer of Ob, or as neere the same riuer as you can, and finding in such wintering place, people, be they Samoeds, Yowgorians, or Molgomzes, &c. doe you gently entreat with them as aforesaide, [Sidenote: The Queenes letters.] and if you can learne that they haue a prince or chiefe gouernour amongst them, doe you deliuer him one of her Maiesties letters, and procure thereof an answere accordingly: do you procure to barter and exchange with the people, of the merchandise and commodities that you shall cary with you, for such commodities as you shall finde them to haue, &c. [Sidenote: The Citie of Siberia.] If you so happen to winter, we would haue you the next Summer to discouer into the riuer Ob, so farre as conueniently you may: And if you shall finde the same riuer (which is reported to be wide or broad) to be also nauigable and pleasant for you, to trauell farre into, happely you may come to the citie Siberia, or to some other towne or place habited vpon or neere the border of it, and thereby haue liking to winter out the second winter: vse you therein your discretions. [Sidenote: Willoughbies land.] But if you finde the said riuer Ob to be sholde, or not such as you may conueniently trauell in with your barkes, do you then the next summer return backe through Buroughs streights: And from that part of Noua Zembla, adioyning to the same streights, doe you come alongst the tract of that coast Westwards, keeping it on the starbord side, and the same alwayes in sight, if conueniently you may, vntil you come to Willoughbies land, if outwards bound you shall not happen to discouer and trie whether the said Willoughbies land ioyne continent with the same Noua Zembla, or not. But if you shall then proue them to be one firme and continent, you may from Noua Zembla direct your course vnto the said Willoughbies land, as you shall thinke good, and as you may most conueniently: and from Willoughbies land you shall proceed Westwards alongst the tract of it, (though it incline Northerly) euen so farre as you may or can trauell, hauing regard that in conuenient time you may returne home hither to London for wintering. And for your orderly passing in this voyage, and making obseruations in the same, we referre you to the instructions giuen by M. William Burrough, whereof one copie is annexed vnto the first part of this Indenture, vnder our seale, for you Arthur Pet, another copie of it is annexed to the second part of this Indenture, vnder our seale also, for you Charles Iackman, and a third copy thereof is annexed vnto the third part of this Indenture, remaining with vs the saide companie, sealed and subscribed by you the said Arthur Pet and Charles Iackman. And to the obseruing of all things contained in this Commission (so neere as God will permit me grace thereunto) I the said Arthur Pet doe couenant by these presents to performe them, and euery part and parcell thereof. And I the said Charles Iackman doe for my part likewise couenant by these presents to performe the same, and euery part thereof, so neere as God will giue me grace thereunto. And in witnes thereof these Indentures were sealed and deliuered accordingly, the day and yeere first aboue written. Thus the Lorde God Almightie sende you a prosperous voyage, with happie successe and safe returne, Amen. * * * * * Instructions and notes very necessary and needfull to be obserued in the purposed voyage for discouery of Cathay Eastwards, by Arthur Pet, and Charles Iackman: giuen by M. William Burrough. 1580. When you come to Orfordnesse, if the winde doe serue you to goe a seabord the sands, doe you set off from thence, and note the time diligently of your being against the said Nesse, turning then your glasse, whereby you intende to keepe your continuall watch, and apoint such course as you shal thinke good, according as the wind serueth you: And from that time forwards continually (if your ship be lose, vnder saile, a hull or trie) do you at the end of euery 4 glasses at the least (except calme) sound with your dipsin lead, and note diligently what depth you finde, and also the ground. But if it happen by swiftnes of the shippes way, or otherwise, that you cannot get ground, yet note what depth you did proue, and could finde no ground (this note is to be obserued all your voyage, as well outwards as homewards.). But when you come vpon any coast, or doe finde any sholde banke in the sea, you are then to vse your leade oftener, as you shal thinke it requisite, noting diligently the order of your depth, and the deeping and sholding. And so likewise doe you note the depth into harboroughs, riuers, &c. [Sidenote: How to note downe in his Iornall of the voyage, his dead reckoning, and other obseruations.] And in keeping your dead reckoning, it is very necessary that you doe note at the ende of euery foure glasses, what way the shippe hath made (by your best proofes to be vsed) and howe her way hath bene through the water, considering withall for the sagge [Footnote: i.e., Current.] of the sea, to leewards, accordingly as you shall finde it growen: and also to note the depth, and what things worth the noting happened in that time, with also the winde vpon what point you finde it then, and of what force or strength it is, and what sailes you beare. But if you should omit to note those things at the end of euery foure glasses, I would not haue you to let it slip any longer time, then to note it diligently at the end of euery watch, or eight glasses at the farthest. Doe you diligently obserue the latitude as often, and in as many places as you may possible, and also the variation of the Compasse (especially when you may bee at shoare vpon any land) noting the same obseruations truely, and the place and places where, and the time and times when you do the same. [Sidenote: For noting the shape and view of the land at first discouery, &c.] When you come to haue sight of any coast or land whatsoeuer, doe you presently set the same with your sailing Compasse, howe it beares off you, noting your iudgement how farre you thinke it from you, drawing also the forme of it in your booke, howe it appeares vnto you, noting diligently how the highest or notablest part thereof beareth off you, and the extreames also in sight of the same land at both ends, distinguishing them by letters, A. B. C. &c. Afterwards when you haue sailed 1. 2. 3. or 4. glasses (at the most) noting diligently what way your barke hath made, and vpon what point of the Compasse, do you againe set that first land seene, or the parts thereof, that you first obserued, if you can well perceiue or discerne them, and likewise such other notable points or signes, vpon the land that you may then see, and could not perceiue at the first time, distinguishing it also by letters from the other, and drawing in your booke the shape of the same land, as it appeareth vnto you, and so the third time; &c. And also in passing alongst by any and euery coast, doe you drawe the maner of biting in of euery Bay, and entrance of euery harborow or riuers mouth, with the lying out of euery point, or headland, (vnto the which you may giue apt names at your pleasure) and make some marke in drawing the forme and border of the same, where the high cliffs are, and where lowe land is, whether sande, hils, or woods, or whatsoeuer, not omitting to note any thing that may be sensible and apparant to you, which may serue to any good purpose. If you carefully with great heede and diligence, note the obseruations in your booke, as aforesaid, and afterwards make demonstration thereof in your plat, you shall thereby perceiue howe farre the land you first sawe, or the parts thereof obserued, was then from you, and consequently of all the rest: and also how farre the one part was from the other, and vpon what course or point of the Compasse the one lieth from the other. [Sidenote: For obseruing of tides and curants.] And when you come vpon any coast where you find floods and ebs, doe you diligently note the time of the highest and lowest water in euery place, and the slake or still water of full sea, and lowe water, and also which way the flood doeth runne, how the tides doe set, how much water it hieth, and what force the tide hath to driue a ship in one houre, or in the whole tide, as neere as you can iudge it, and what difference in time you finde betwene the running of the flood, and the ebbe. And if you finde vpon any coast the currant to runne alwayes one way, doe you also note the same duely, how it setteth in euery place, and obserue what force it hath to driue a ship in one houre, &c. [Sidenote: To take the plateformes of places within compasse of view vpon land.] Item, as often, and when as you may conueniently come vpon any land, to make obseruation for the latitude and variation, &c. doe you also (if you may) with your instrument, for trying of distances, obserue the platforme [Footenote: i.e., survey the place.] of the place, and of as many things (worth the noting) as you may then conueniently see from time to time. These orders if you diligently obserue, you may thereby perfectly set downe in the plats, that I haue giuen you your whole trauell, and description of your discouery, which is a thing that will be chiefly expected at your hands. But withall you may not forget to note as much as you can learne, vnderstand or perceiue of the maner of the soile, or fruitfulnesse of euery place and countrey you shall come in, and of the maner, shape, attire and disposition of the people, and of the commodities they haue, and what they most couet and desire of the commodities you see, and to offer them all courtesie and friendship you may or can, to winne their loue and fauour towardes you, not doing or offering them any wrong or hurt. And though you should be offered wrong at their handes, yet not to reuenge the same lightly, but by all meanes possible seeke to winne them, yet alwayes dealing wisely and with such circumspection that you keepe your selues out of their dangers. Thus I beseech God almightie to blesse you, and prosper your voyage with good and happie successe, and send you safely to returne home againe, to the great ioy and reioycing of the aduenturers with you, and all your friends and our whole countrey, Amen. * * * * * Certaine briefe aduises giuen by Master Dee, to Arthur Pet, and Charles Iackman, to bee obserued in their Northeasterne discouerie, Anno 1580. If we reckon from Wardhouse to Colgoieue Island 400. miles for almost 20. degrees difference onely of longitude very neere East and West, and about the latitude of 70. degrees and two thirde parts: From Colgoieue to Vaigats 200. miles for 10. degrees difference onely in longitude, at 70. degrees of latitude also: From Vaigats to the promontorie Tabin 60. degrees difference of longitude (the whole course, or shortest distance being East and West) in the latitude likewise of 70. degrees, maketh 1200. miles: then is summa totalis from Wardhouse to Tabin 600. leagues, or 1800. English miles. Therefore allowing in a discouery voiage for one day with another but 50. English miles; it is euident that from Wardhouse to Tabin, the course may bee sailed easily in sixe and thirtie dayes; but by Gods helpe it may be finished in much shorter time, both by helpe of winde prosperous, and light continuall for the time requisit thereunto. [Sidenote: M. Dee gaue them a Chart of his owne making, which here refers them vnto.] When you are past Tabin, or come to the longitude of 142. degrees, as your chart sheweth, or two, three, foure, or fiue degrees further Easterly, it is probable you shall finde the land on your right hand runne much Southerly and Eastward, [Footenote: Had he said forty degrees, he would have made a remarkable guess.] in which course you are like either to fall into the mouth of the famous riuer Oechardes, [Footenote: The Oechardes is probably the Hoang Ho, and Cambalu may then be Pekin.] or some other, which yet I coniecture to passe by the renowmed Citie of Cambalu, and the mouth to be in latitude about 50. or 52. degrees, and within 300. or 400. miles of Cambalu it selfe, being in the latitude of 45. degrees Southerly of the saide riuers mouth, or els that you shal trend about the very Northerne and most Easterly point of all Asia, passing by the prouince Ania, and then to the latitude of 46. degrees, keeping still the land in view on your right hand (as neere as you may with safetie) you may enter into Quinsay [Footnote: Query, Canton?] hauen, being the chiefe citie in the Northern China, as I terme it for distinctions sake, from the other better knowen. And in or about either or both of these two warme places, you may to great good purpose bee occupied the whole winter, after your arriuall in those quarters, as sometime by sea, sometime in notable fresh riuers, sometime in discreet view and noting downe the situation of the Cities within land, &c. and euer assaying to come by some charts or maps of the countrey, made and printed in Cathay or China, and by some of their bookes likewise for language, &c. You may also haue opportunitie to saile ouer to to Iapan Island, where you shall finde Christian men Iesuits of many countreys of Christendome some, and perhaps some Englishmen, at whose handes you may haue great instruction and aduise for your affaires in hand. * * * * * Notes in writing, besides more priuie by mouth, that were giuen by M. Richard Hakluyt of Eiton in the Countie of Hereford, Esquire, Anno 1580: to M. Arthur Pet, and to M. Charles Iackman, sent by the Merchants of the Moscouie companie for the discouery of the Northeast straight, not altogether vnfit for some other enterprise of discouery, hereafter to be taken in hand. What respect of Islands is to be had and why. Whereas the Portingals haue in their course to their Indies in the Southeast certaine ports and fortifications to thrust into by the way, to diuers great purposes: so you are to see what Islands, and what ports you had neede to haue by the way in your course to the Northeast. For which cause I wish you to enter into consideration of the matter, and to note all the Islands, and to set them downe in plat, to two ends: that is to say, That we may deuise to take the benefit by them, And also foresee how by them the Sauages or ciuill Princes may in any sort annoy vs in our purposed trade that way. And for that the people to the which we purpose in this voyage to go, be no Christians, it were good that the masse of our commodities were alwayes in our owne disposition, and not at the will of others. Therefore it were good that we did seeke out some small Island in the Scithian sea, where we might plant, fortefie, and staple safely, from whence (as time should serue) wee might feed those heathen nations with our commodities without cloying them, or without venturing our whole masse in the bowels of their countrey. And to which Island (if neede were, and if wee should thinke so good) wee might allure the Northeast nauie, the nauie of Cambalu to resort with their commodities to vs there planted, and stapling there. And if such an Island might be found so standing as might shorten our course, and so standing, as that the nauie of Cambalu, or other those parties might conueniently saile vnto without their dislike in respect of distance, then would it fal out well. For so, besides lesse danger and more safetie, our ships might there vnlade and lade againe, and returne the selfe same summer to the ports of England or of Norway. And if such an Island may be for the stapling of our commodities, to the which they of Cambalu would not saile, yet we might hauing ships there, imploy them in passing betweene Cambalu and that stapling place. Respect of hauens and harborowes. And if no such Islands may bee found in the Scithian sea toward the firme of Asia, then are you to search out the ports that be about Noua Zembla, all along the tract of that land, to the end you may winter there the first yeere, if you be let by contrary winds, and to the end that if we may in short time come vnto Cambalu, and vnlade and set saile againe for returne without venturing there at Cambalu, that you may on your way come as farre in returne as a port about Noua Zembla: that the summer following, you may the sooner be in England for the more speedy vent of your East commodities, and for the speedier discharge of your Mariners: if you cannot goe forward and backe in one selfe same Summer. And touching the tract of the land of Noua Zembla, toward the East out of the circle Arcticke in the mote temperate Zone, you are to haue regard: for if you finde the soyle planted with people, it is like that in time an ample vent of our warme woollen clothes may be found. [Sidenote: A good consideration.] And if there be no people at all there to be found, then you shall specially note what plentie of whales, and of other fish is to he found there, to the ende we may turne out newe found land fishing or Island fishing, or our whalefishing that way, for the ayde and comfort of our newe trades to the Northeast to the coasts of Asia. Respect of fish and certaine other things. And if the aire may be found vpon that tract temperate, and the soile yeelding wood, water, land and grasse, and the seas fish, then we may plant on that maine the offals of our people, as the Portingals do in Brasill, and so they may in our fishing in our passage, and diuers wayes yeelde commoditie to England by harbouring and victualling vs. And it may be, that the inland there may yeeld masts, pitch, tarre, hempe, and all things for the Nauie, as plentifully as Eastland doth. The Islands to be noted with their commodities and wants. To note the Islands, whether they be hie land or low land, mountaine, or flat, grauelly, clay, chalkie, or of what sorte, woody or not woody, with springs and riuers or not, and what wilde beastes they haue in the same. And whether there seeme to be in the same apt matter to build withall, as stone free or rough, and stone to make lime withall, and wood or coale to burne the same withall. To note the goodnesse or badnesse of the hauens and harborowes in the Islands. If a straight be found, what is to be done, and what great importance it may be of. And if there be a straight in the passage into the Scithian seas, the same is specially and with great regard to be noted, especially if the same straight be narrow and to be kept. I say it is to be noted as a thing that doeth much import: for what prince soeuer shall be Lorde of the same; and shall possesse the same, as the king of Denmarke doeth possesse the straight of Denmarke, he onely shall haue the trade out of these regions into the Northeast parts of the world for himselfe, and for his priuate profit, or for his subiects onely, or to enioy wonderfull benefit of the toll of the same, like as the king of Denmarke doth enioy of his straights by suffring the merchants of other Princes to passe that way. If any such straight be found, the eleuation, the high or lowe land, the hauens neere, the length of the straights, and all other such circumstances are to be set downe for many purposes: and al the Mariners in the voyage are to be sworne to keepe close all such things, that other Princes preuent vs not of the same, after our returns vpon the disclosing of the Mariners, if any such thing should hap. Which way the Sauage may bee made able to purchase our cloth and other their wants. If you find any Island or maine land populous, and that the same people hath need of cloth, then are you to deuise what commodities they haue to purchase the same withall. If they be poore, then are you to consider of the soile, and how by any possibilitie the same may be made to inrich them, that hereafter they may haue something to purchase the cloth withall. If you enter into any maine by portable riuer, and shall find any great woods, you are to note what kind of timber they be of, that we may know whether they are for pitch, tarre, mastes, dealeboord, clapboord, or for building of ships or houses, for so, if the people haue no vse of them, they may be brought perhaps to vse. Not to venture the losse of any one man. You must haue great care to preserue your people, since your number is so small, and not to venture any one man in any wise. To bring home besides merchandize certaine trifles. Bring home with you (if you may) from Cambalu or other ciuil place, one or other yong man, although you leaue one for him. Also the fruites of the Countreys if they will not of themselues dure, drie them and so preserue them. And bring with you the kernels of peares and apples, and the stones of such stonefruits as you shall find there. Also the seeds of all strange herbs and flowers, for such seeds of fruits and herbs comming from another part of the world, and so far off, will delight the fansie of many for the strangenesse, and for that the same may grow, and continue the delight long time. If you arriue at Cambalu or Quinsay, to bring thence the mappe of that countrey, for so shall you haue the perfect description, which is to great purpose. To bring thence some old printed booke, to see whether they haue had print there before it was deuised in Europe as some write. To note their force by sea and by land. If you arriue in Cambalu or Quinsay, to take a speciall view of their Nauie, and to note the force, greatnesse, maner of building of them, the sailes, the tackles, the ankers, the furniture of them, with ordinance, armour, and munition. Also, to note the force of the wals and bulwarks of their cities, their ordonance, and whether they haue any caliuers, and what powder and shot. To note what armour they haue. What swords. What pikes, halberds and bils. What horses of force, and what light horses they haue. And so throughout to note the force of the Countrey both by sea and by land. Things to be marked to make coniectures by. To take speciall note of their buildings, and of the ornaments of their houses within. Take a speciall note of their apparell and furniture, and of the substance that the same is made of, of which a Merchant may make a gesse as well of their commoditie, as also of their wants. To note their Shoppes and Warehouses, and with what commodities they abound, the price also. To see their Shambles, and to view all such things as are brought into the Markets, for so you shall soone see the commodities, and the maner of the people of the inland, and so giue a gesse of many things. To note their fields of graine, and their trees of fruite, and how they abound or not abound in one and other, and what plenty or scarsitie of fish they haue. Things to be caried with you, whereof more or lesse is to bee caried for a shew of our commodities to be made. Karsies of all orient colours, specially of stamell, broadcloth of orient colours also. Frizadoes, Motlies, Bristow friezes, Spanish blankets, Baies of al colours, specially with Stamel, Worsteds, Carels, Saies, Woadmols, Flanels, Rash, &c. Felts of diuers colours. Taffeta hats. Deepe caps for Mariners coloured in Stamel, whereof if ample bent may be found, it would turne to an infinite commoditie of the common poore people by knitting. Quilted caps of Leuant taffeta of diuers colours, for the night. Knit stocks of silke of orient colours. Knit stocks of Iersie yarne of orient colours, whereof if ample vent might folow the poore multitude should be set in worke. Stocks of karsie of diuers colours for men and for women. Garters of silke of seuerall kinds, and of colours diuers. Girdles of Buffe and all other leather, with gilt and vngilt buckles, specially waste girdles, waste girdles of veluet. Gloues of all sorts knit, and of leather. Gloues perfumed. Points of all sorts of silke, threed, and leather, of all maner of colours. Shooes of Spanish leather of diuers colours, of diuers length, cut and vncut. Shooes of other leather. Veluet shooes and pantophles. These shooes and pantophles to be sent this time, rather for a shew then for any other cause. Purses knit, and of leather. Nightcaps knit, and other. A garnish of pewter for a shew of a vent of that English commoditie, bottles, flagons, spoones, &c. of that mettall. Glasses of English making. Venice glasses. Looking glasses for women, great and faire. Small dials, a few for proofe, although there they will not hold the order they do here. Spectacles of the common sort. Others of Christall trimmed with siluer, and other wise. Hower glasses. Combes of Iuorie. Combes of boxe. Combes of horne. Linnen of diuers sorts. Handkerchiefs with silke of seuerall colours wrought. Glazen eyes to ride with against dust. Kniues in sheaths both single and double, of good edge. Needles great and small of euery kind. Buttons greater and smaller, with moulds of leather and not of wood, and such as be durable of double silke, and that of sundry colours. Boxes with weights for gold, and of euery kind of the coine of gold, good and bad, to shew that the people here vse weight and measure, which is a certaine shew of wisedom, and of certaine gouernment setled here. All the seuerall siluer coynes of our English monies, to be caried with you, to be shewed to the gouernours at Cambalu, which is a thing that shall in silence speake to wise men more then you imagine. Locks and keyes, hinges, bolts, haspes, &c. great and small of excellent workemanship, whereof if vent may be, hereafter we shall set our subiects in worke, which you must haue in great regard. For in finding ample vent of any thing that is to be wrought in this realme, is more woorth to our people besides the gaine of the merchant, then Christchurch, Bridewell, the Sauoy, and all the Hospitals of England. For banketting on shipboord persons of credite. First, the sweetest perfumes to set vnder hatches to make the place sweet against their comming aboord, if you arriue at Cambalu, Quinsey, or in any such great citie, and not among Sauages. Marmelade. Figs barrelled. Sucket Raisins of the sunne. Comfets of diuers kinds made of purpose by him that is most excellent, that shal not dissolue. Prunes damaske. Dried Peares. Smalnuts. Walnuts. Almonds. Oliues to make them taste their wine. The apple Iohn that dureth two yeres to make shew of our fruits. Hullocke. Sacke. Vials of good sweet waters, and casting bottels of glasses to besprinkle the ghests withall, after their comming aboord. Suger to vse with their wine if they will. The sweet oyle of Zante, and excellent French vineger, and a fine kind of Bisket stieped in the same do make a banketting dish, and a little Sugar cast in it cooleth and comforteth, and refresheth the spirits of man. Cynamon water/Imperiall water: is to be had with you to make a shew of by taste, and also to comfort your sicke in the voyage. With these and such like, you may banket where you arriue the greater and best persons. Or with the gift of these Marmelades in small boxes, or small vials of sweet waters you may gratifie by way of gift, or you may make a merchandize of them. The Mappe of England and of London. Take with you the mappe of England set out in faire colours, one of the biggest sort I meane, to make shew of your countrey from whence you come. And also the large Mappe of London to make shew of your Citie. And let the riuer be drawen full of Ships of all sorts, to make the more shew of your great trade and traffike in trade of merchandize. Ortelius booke of Mappes. If you take Ortelius booke of Mappes with you to marke all these Regions, it were not amisse: and if need were to present the same to the great Can, for it would be to a Prince of marueilous account. The booke of the attire of all Nations. Such a booke caried with you and bestowed in gift would be much esteemed, as I perswade my selfe. Bookes. If any man will lend you the new Herball and such Bookes as make shew of herbes, plants, trees, fishes, foules and beasts of these regions, it may much delight the great Can, and the nobilitie, and also their merchants to haue the view of them: for all things in these partes so much differing from the things of those regions, since they may not be here to see them, by meane of the distance, yet to see those things in a shadow, by this meane will delight them. The booke of Rates. Take with you the booke of Rates, to the end you may pricke all those commodities there specified, that you shall chance to find in Cambalu, in Quinsey, or in any part of the East, where you shall chance to be. Parchment. Rowles of Parchment, for that we may vent much without hurt to the Realme, and it lieth in small roume. Glew. To carie Glew, for that we haue plenty and want vent. Red Oker for Painters. To seeke vent because we haue great mines of it, and haue no vent. Sope of both kindes. To try what vent it may haue, for that we make of both kinds, and may perhaps make more. Saffron. To try what vent you may haue of Saffron, because this realme yeelds the best of the world, and for the tillage and other labours may set the poore greatly in worke to their reliefe. Aquauitæ. By new deuises wonderful quantities may be made here, and therefore to seeke the vent. Blacke Conies skins. To try the vent at Cambalu, for that it lieth towards the North, and for that we abound with the commoditie, and may spare it. Threed of all colours. The vent may set our people in worke. Copper Spurres and Hawkes bels. To see the vent for it may set our people in worke. A note and Caueat for the Merchant. That before you offer your commodities to sale, you indeuour to learne what commodities the countrey there hath. For if you bring thither veluet, taffeta, spice, or any such commoditie that you your selfe desire to lade your selfe home with, you must not sell yours deare, least hereafter you purchase theirs not so cheape as you would. Seeds for sale. Carie with you for that purpose all sorts of garden seeds, as wel of sweete strawing herbs, and of flowers, as also of pot herbes and all sorts for roots, &c. Lead of the first melting. Lead of the second melting of the slags. To make triall of the vent of Lead of all kinds. English iron, and wier of iron and copper. To try the sale of the same. Brimstone. To try the vent of the same, because we abound with it made in the Realme. Antimonie a Minerall. To see whether they haue any ample vse there for it, for that we may lade whole nauies of it, and haue no vse of it vnlesse it be for some small portion in founding of bels, or a litle that the Alcumists vse: of this you may haue two sortes at the Apothecaries. Tinder boxes with Steele, Flint & Matches and Tinder, the Matches to be made of Iuniper to auoid the offence of Brimstone. To trie and make the better sale of Brimstone by shewing the vse. Candles of Waxe to light. A painted Bellowes. For that perhaps they haue not the vse of them. A pot of cast iron. To try the sale, for that it is a naturall commoditie of this Realme. All maner of edge tools. To be sold there or to the lesse ciuil people by the way where you shall touch. What I would haue you there to remember. To note specially what excellent dying they vse in these regions, and therefore to note their garments and ornaments of houses: and to see their Die houses and the Materials & Simples that they vse about the same, and to bring musters and shewes of the colours and of the materials, for that it may serue this clothing realme to great purpose. To take with you for your owne vse. All maner of engines to take fish and foule. To take with you those things that be in perfection of goodnesse. For as the goodnesse now at the first may make your commodities in credite in time to come: so false and Sophisticate commodities shall draw you and all your commodities into contempt and ill opinion. * * * * * A letter of Gerardus Mercator, written to M. Richard Hakluyt of Oxford, touching the intended discouery of the Northeast passage, An. 1580. Literæ tuæ (vir humanissime) 19. Iunij demùm mihi redditæ fuerunt: vehementer dolui visis illis tantam, non modo temporis, sed multò magis tempestiuæ instructionis iacturam factam esse. Optassem Arthurum Pet de quibusdam non leuibus ante suum discessum præmonitum fuisse. Expeditissima sanè per Orientem in Cathaium est nauigatio: et sæpè miratus sum, eam foeliciter inchoatam, desertam fuisse, velis in occidentem translatis, postquam plus quàm dimidium itineris vestri iam notum haberent. [Sidenote: Ingens sinus post Insulam Vaigats et Nouam Zemblam.] Nam post Insulam Vaigats et Noua Zembla continuò ingens sequitur Sinus, quem ab ortu Tabin immane promontorium complectitur. In hunc medium maxima illabuntur flumina, quæ vniuersam Regionem Sericam perluentia vtque existimo in intima continentis vsque magnis nauigijs peruia, facillimam rationem exhibent quaslibet merces ex Cataio, Mangi, Mien, cæteríseque circumfusis regnis contrahendi, atque in Angliam deportandi. Cæterùm cùm non temerè cam nauigationem intermissam crederem, opinabar ab Imperatore Russorum et Moscouiæ obstaculum aliquod interiectum fuisse. Quod si verò cum illius gratia vlterior illac nauigatio detur, suaderem profecto non primùm Tabin promontorium quærere, atque explorare, sed Sinum hunc atque flumina, in ijsque portum aliquem commodissimum, stationémque Anglicis Mercatoribus deligere, ex quo deinceps maiore opportunitate, minoribúsque periculis Tabin promontorium, et totius Cathai circumnauigatio indagari posset. [Sidenote: Tabin promontorium ingens.] Esse autem ingens in Septentrionem excurrens promontorium Tabin, non ex Plinio tantùm, verùm et alijs scriptoribus, et tabulis aliquot (licèt rudius depictis) certum habeo. Polum etiam Magnetis haud longè vltra Tabin situm esse, certis Magnetis obseruationibus didici: circa quem et Tabin plurimos esse scopulos, difficilémque et periculosam nauigationibus existimo: difficiliorem tamen ad Cathaium accessum fore opinor, ea pua nunc vía in Occidentem tentatur. Propinquior enim fiet hæc nauigatio polo Magnetis quàm altera, ad quem propiùs accedere non puto tutum esse. [Sidenote: Quo propius ad polum acceditur, eò directorium Nauiticum magis a Septentrione deuiat.] Quia verò Magnes alium quam Mundi polum habet, quo ex omni parte, respicit: quo propiùs ad eum acceditur, eò directorium illud Nauticum magnetis virtute imbutum, magis à Septentrione deuiat, nunc in Occidentem, nunc in Orientem, prout quis vel orientalior, vel occidentalior est illo Meridiano qui per vtrumque polum Magnetis, et Mundi ducitur, Mirabilis est hæc varietas, et quæ nauigantem plurimùm fallere potest, nisi hanc Magnetis inconstantiam nòrit, et ad poli, eleuationem per instrumenta subinde respiciat. In hac re si non sit instructus D. Arthurus, aut ea sit dexteritate, vt deprehenso errore eum inuenire et castigare possit timeo ne deuias faciat ambages, tempus ilium fallat, et semiperacto negotio, à gelu præoccupetur: Aiunt enim Sinum illum fortiùs quotannis congelari. Quod si contingat: hoc quod consultius mihi visum fuit, proximum illi erit refugium, vt in eo sinu, ijsque fluminibus quæ dixi, portum quærat et per Legatum aliquem, cum magno Cham nomine Serenissimæ Reginæ, notitiam, amicitiámque contrahat: quam opinor Maximo orbis Imperatori gratam, imo gratissimam fore propter remotissima commercia. [Sidenote: Bautisus et Oechardus maxima flumina in hunc Sinum illabuntur.] Opinor ab ostijs Bautisi et Oechardi fluminum maximorum, vsque ad Cambalu Regiam summam Chami, non vltra 300. milliaria Germanica esse, et iter sumendum per Ezinam vrbem regni Tangut, quæ 100. tantùm milliarijs Germanicis ab ostijs distare videtur, et paret Magno Cham. [Sidenote: Postulata Mercatoris de quibus certior fieri cupit.] Valde optarem cognoscere, quàm altè communiter exurgat æstus maris in eo Moscouiæ portu quem vestri pro statione habent, et in alijs versùs orientem locis vsque ad Tabin. Item, an mare in hoc districtu semper in vnam partem, videlicet Orientem, aut Occidentem fluat, an verò pro ratione æstuum fluat et refluat, in medio inquam canali, hoc est, an ibi, sex horis in occasum, et iterum sex in ortum fluat, an verò semper hi eandem partem: aliæ enim speculationes non parum vtiles hinc dependent. Idem optarem à D. Frobiscero in occidentem obseruari. Quod ad sinum Merosro, et Canadam, ac Nouam Franciam attinet, ea in meis tabulis desumpta sum ex quadam Tabula marina, quæ à quodam sacerdote ex earum ditionum Naucleri peritissimi Galli descriptione excerpta fuit, et illustrissimo Principi Georgio ab Austria episcopo Leodiensi oblata. Non dubito, quin quantum ad littorum situm attinet et poli eleuationem, ad veritatem ea quàm proximè accedant. Habebat enim ea tabula præter scalam graduum latitudinis per medium sui extensam, aliam præterea praticularem Nouæ Franciæ littoribus adiunctam, qua deprauatæ latitudines, occasione, erroris Magnetis ibi commissæ, castigarentur. Iacobi Cnoyen Buscoducensis itinerarium per omnem Asiam, Affricam, et Septentrionem, olim mihi Amicus Antuerpiæ ab alio mutuò acceptum communicauit, eo vsus sum, et reddidi: post multos annos eundem ab amico repetij et reminisci ille non potuit à quo accepisset. Gulielmi Tripolitani et Ioannis de plano Carpini scripta non vidi, tantùm excerpta ex illis quædam in alijs scriptis libris inueni. Abilfadæ Epitome gaudeo verti, vtinam citò habeamus. Hæc (mi Domine) tuis repondenda putaui: si quid est aliud quod à me desideres, libentissimè tibi communicabo: hoc vicissim amanter à tua humanitate petens, vt quæ ex vtriusque nauigationis cursu obseruata nancisci poteris, mihi communices, penes me pro tuo arbitrio manebunt omnia, et quæcunque inde collegero, fideliter ad te perscribam, si forte ad pulcherrimum, vtilissimúmque orbi Christiano hoc nauigationis institutum aliquid opis et consilij adferre possint. Bene vale, vir doctissime. Duisburgi in Cliuia. 28. Iulij 1580. [Sidenote: Dulce mare inter Nouam Zemblam et Tabin suspicatur.] Redeunte Arthuro, quæso discas ab illo quæ optaui, et num aticubi in suo itinere, dulce mare, aut parum salsum inuenerit: suspicor enim mare inter Noua Zembla, et Tabin dulce esse. T.H. paratissimus quantus quantus sum, Gerardus Mercator. The same in English. Sir I receiued your letters the 19. of Iune: it grieued me much that vpon the sight of them the time being spent, I could not giue any conuenient instructions: I wish Arthur Pet had bene informed before his departure of some special points. The voyage to Cathaio by the East, is doutlesse very easie and short, and I haue oftentimes marueiled, that being so happily begun, it hath bene left of, and the course changed into the West, after that more then halfe of your voiage was discouered. For beyond the Island of Vaigats and Noua Zeembla, there foloweth presently a great Baie, which on the left side is inclosed with the mightie promontorie Tabin. [Sidenote: A great gulfe is beyond Vaigats, whereinto mighty riuers descend.] Into the mids hereof there fall great riuers, which passing through the whole countrey of Serica, and being as I thinke nauigable with great vessels into the heart of the continent, may be an easie means whereby to traffique for all maner of merchandize, and transport them out of Cathaio, Mangi, Mien, and other kingdoms thereabouts into England. But considering with my selfe that that nauigation was not intermitted, but vpon great occasion, I thought that the Emperor of Russia and Moscouie had hindered the proceeding thereof. [Sidenote: The best course to be taken in discoueries.] If so be that with his grace and fauour a furthur nauigation may be made, I would counsell them certainly not first to seeke out the promontorie Tabin, but to search this baie and riuers aforesayd, and in them to picke and chuse out some conuenient port and harborough for the English merchants, from whence afterward with more opportunitie and lesse perill, the promontorie Tabin and all the coast of Cathaio may bee discouered. And that there is such a huge promontorie called Tabin, I am certainly perswaded not onely out of Plinie, but also other writers, and some Maps (though somewhat rudely drawen:) and that the Pole of the Loadstone is not farre beyond Tabin, I haue learned by the certaine obseruations of the Loadstone: about which pole and Tabin I thinke there are very many rockes, and very hard and dangerous sailing: and yet a more hard and difficile passage I think it to bee this way which is now attempted by the West, for it is neerer to the pole of the Loadstone, to the which I thinke it not safe to approach. And because the Loadstone hath another pole then that of the world, to the which from all parts it hath a respect, the neerer you come vnto it, the more the needle of the Compasse doeth varie from the North, sometimes to the West, and sometimes to the East, according as a man is to the Eastward or to the Westward of that Meridian, that passeth by both the poles of the Magnes and the World. This is a strange alteration and very apt to deceiue the Sailer, vnlesse hee know the vnconstancie and variation of the Compasse, and take the eleuation of the pole sometimes with his instruments. If master Arthur be not well prouided in this behalfe, or of such dexteritie, that perceiuing the errour he be not able to correct the same, I feare lest in wandering vp and downe he lose his time, and be ouertaken with the ice in the midst of the enterprise. For that gulfe, as they say, is frozen euery yere very hard. Which if it be so, the best counsel I could giue for their best safetie, were to seeke some harborough in that baie, and those riuers whereof I haue spoken, and by some Ambassador to make friendship and acquaintance with the great Can, in name of the Queenes maiestie, which I beleeue will be gratefull to the mightiest Emperour in the world, yea most excellent for the length of the traffique, and great distance of the places. [Sidenote: The mouthes of Bautisus and Oechardus 300. leagues from Cambalu.] I thinke from the mouthes of the mighty riuers Bautisus and Oechardus to Cambalu the chiefest seat of the prince the Can, there are not past 300. Germaine miles, and to passe by Ezina a citie of the kingdom of Tangut, which seemeth to be but 100. Germaine miles from the mouthes of the sayd riuers, and is subiect to the great Can. I would gladly know how high the sea doeth flowe commonly in the port of Moscouia where your men do harborow, and in other Easterly places vnto Tabin. [Sidenote: Vpon the obseruations of the tides depend great speculations.] And also whether the sea in this streight do flow alwaies one way to the East or to the West, or whether it do ebbe and flow according to the matter of the tides in the middle of the chanel, that is to say, whether it flow there sixe houres into the West, and as many backe againe to the East, for hereupon depend other speculations of importance. I would wish M. Frobisher to obserue the same Westwards. Concerning the gulfe of Merosro and Canada, and new France which are in my mappes, they were taken out of a certaine sea card drawn by a certaine priest out of the description of a Frenchman, a Pilot very skilfull in those partes, and presented to the worthy Prince George of Austria, bishop of Liege: for the trending of the coast, and the eleuation of the pole, I doubt not but they are very neere the trueth: For the Charte had beside a scale of degrees of latitude passing through the middest of it, another particularly annexed to the coast of New France, wherewith the errour of the latitudes committed by reason of the variation of the compasse might be corrected. The historie of the voyage of Iacobus Cnoyen Buschoducensis throughout al Asia, Affrica, and the North, was lent me in time past by a friend of mine at Antwerpe. After I had vsed it, I restored it againe: after many yeeres I required it againe of my friend, but hee had forgotten of whom hee had borrowed it. The writings of Gulielmus Tripolitanus, and Ioannes de Plano Carpini I neuer saw: onely I found certaine pieces of them in other written hand bookes. I am glad the Epitomie of Abilfada is translated, I would we might haue it shortly. Thus much Sir I thought good to answere your letters: if there bee anything els that you would require of me, I will most willingly communicate it with you, crauing this likewise of your curtesie, that whatsoeuer obseruations of both these voyages shall come to your hands, you would impart them to me, they shall all remaine with mee according to your discretion and pleasure, and whatsoeuer I gather of them, I will faithfully signifie vnto you by letter if happily they may yeeld any helpe or light vnto this most excellent enterprise of nauigation, and most profitable to our Christian common wealth. Fare, you well most learned friend. At Duisburg in Cliueland, 28. of Iulie, the yeere, 1580. At Arthur his returne I pray you learne of him the things I haue requested, and whether any where in his voiage, he found the sea fresh, or not very salt: for I suppose the Sea betweene Noua Zembla and Tabin to be fresh. Yours wholly to my power to be commanded. Gerardus Mercator. * * * * * The discouerie made by M. Arthur Pet and M. Charles Iackman, of the Northeast parts, beyond the Island of Vaigatz, with two Barkes: the one called the George, the other the William, in the yeere 1580. Written by Hugh Smith. [Sidenote: May.] Upon Monday the 30. of May, we departed from Harwich in the afternoone, the winde being at South, and to the Eastward. The ebbe being spent, we could not double the pole, and therefore were constrained to put in againe vntill next day in the morning, being the last of May: which day wee wayed our ankers about 3. a clocke in the morning, the wind being West southwest. The same day we passed Orfordnesse at an East Sunne, and Stamford at a West Sunne, and Yarmouth at a West northwest sunne, and so to Winterton, where we did anker al night: it was then calme, and the flood was come. [Sidenote: Iune.] The next day being the first of Iune, we set saile at 3. a clocke in the morning, and set our course North, the wind at the Southwest, and at Southsouthwest. The 10. day about one of the clocke in the afternoone, wee put into Norway to a place where one of the headlands of the sound is called Bottel: the other headland is called Moile. [Sidenote: Kene an Island of Norway.] There is also an Island called Kene. Here I did find the pole to be eleuated 62. deg. it doeth flowe there South, and it hieth 7. or 8. foote, not aboue. The 11. day in the morning the winde came to the South and to the Southeast: the same daye at sixe in the afternoone we set saile, and bare along the coast: it was very foule weather with raine and fogge. [Sidenote: The North cape doubled.] The 22. day the wind being at West, we did hall the coast East northeast, and East. The same day at 6. in the morning we did double the north cape. About 3. in the afternoone wee past Skites bearenesse, and hald along the coast East, and East southeast, and all the same night wee halled Southeast, and Southeast by East. [Sidenote: Wardhouse.] The 23. day about 3. in the morning we came to Wardhouse, the wind at the Northwest The cause of our comming in was to seeke the William, whose companie we lost the 6. day of this moneth, and to send letters into England. About one of the clock in the after noone the William also came into Wardhouse to vs in good safetie, and all her company in good health. The 24. the wind came to the East Northeast. This day the William was hald a ground, because she was somewhat leake, and to mend her steerage. This night about 12. of the clocke she did hale a flote againe. The 25. day the wind was at East northeast. The 26. day the Toby of Harwich departed from Wardhouse for London, Thomas Greene being master, to whom we deliuered our letters. The 27. day the wind was at South southeast, and the 28. also. The 29. day about 6. in the afternoone, the wind came to the West northwest for the space of one houre, and presently to the East againe, and so was variable all the same night. The 30. about sixe in the morning, the winde came to East southeast, and continued so all the same day. [Sidenote: Iuly.] The first of Iuly about 5. in the afternoone, the wind was at Northnorthwest: and about 7. of the clocke we set saile from Wardhouse East and by South. The second day about 5. in the morning, the wind was East, and East Southeast, and we did lie to the shorewards. And about 10. in the morning the wind came to South southeast, and we laid it to the Eastward: sometime we lay East by South, some time East southeast, and sometimes East by North. [Sidenote: Willoughbies land.] About 5. in the afternoone we bare with the William, who was willing to goe with Kegor, because we thought her to be out of trie, and sailed very ill, where we might mend her steerage: whereupon Master Pet not willing to go into harborough said to Master Iackman, that if he thought himselfe not able to keepe the sea, he should doe as he thought best, and that he in the meanetime would beare with Willoughbies land, for that it was a parcel of our direction, and would meete him at Veroue Ostroue, or Vaigats, and so we set our course East northeast, the winde being at Southeast. [Sidenote: 50. leagues from Kegor.] The 3 day the winde at Southeast we found the pole to be eleuated 70. degrees 46. minuts. The same night at 12. of the clocke we sounded, but had no ground, in 120. fathoms, being fifty leagues from the one side by our reckoning East northeast from Kegor. The 4. day all the morning was calme. This day we found the pole to be eleuated 71. degrees 38. minutes. This day at 9. in the afternoone the wind at Northeast with a gentle gale, we hald along Southeast by East. The 5. day the wind at Northwest, we hald East and East by South: this day we saw land, but we could not make it, the wind being Northerly, so that we could not come neere to it. The 6. day about 2. in the afternoone, the wind at North northwest, we halde East southeast with a faire and gentle gale: this day we met with ice. About 6. in the arternoone it became calme: we with saile and oares laide it to the Northeast part, hoping that way to cleare vs of it: for that way we did see the head part of it, as we thought. Which done, about 12. of the clocke at night we gate cleere of it. We did think it to be ice of the bay of Saint Nicholas, but it was not as we found afterwards. [Sidenote: A site of perfect land.] The seuenth day we met with more yce at the East part of the other yce: we halde along a weather the yce to finde some ende thereof by east northeast. This day there appeared more land North from vs being perfect land: the ice was betweene vs and it, so that we could not come neerer to it. The same morning at sixe of the clocke wee put into the ice to finde some way through it, wee continued in it all the same day and all the night following, the winde by the North and Northwest. Wee were constrained to goe many pointes of our compasse, but we went most an Easterly course. The eight day the winde at North northwest, we continued our course, and at fiue in the morning we sounded, and had 90. fadoms red oze. This day at foure in the afternoone we sounded againe, and had 84. fadoms oze, as before. At sixe in the after noone we cleared our selues of the ice, and hald along Southeast by South: we sounded againe at 10. a clocke at night, and had 43. fathom sandy oze. The 9. day at 2. in the morning, we sounded againe, and had 45. fadoms, then there appeared a shadow of land to vs East Northeast, and so we ran with it the space of 2. houres, and then perceiuing it was but fogge, we hald along Southeast. [Sidenote: 70. deg. 3. min.] This day at 2 in the afternoone we sounded and had fiftie fadams blacke oze. Our latitude was 70. degrees three minutes. At 10. a clocke at night we sounded againe and had fiftie fadoms black oze. The tenth day the wind being at North northwest, we haled East and by North, which course we set, because at ten of the clocke afore noone wee did see land, and then wee sounded hauing 35. fadoms blacke oze. All this day there was a great fogge, so that wee durst not beare with the land to make it, and so we kept an outwardly course. [Sidenote: An Island.] This day at 6. in the afternoone we espied land, wherewith we halled, and then it grew calme: we sounded and had 120. fadoms blacke oze: and then we sent our boat a land to sound and proue the land. The same night we came with our ship within an Island, where we rode all the same night. The same night wee went into a bay to ride neere the land for wood and water. [Sidenote: The maine land.] The 11. day the wind came to the East southeast: this day about a league from vs to the Eastwards, we saw a very faire sound or riuer that past very farre into the countrey with 2. or 3. branches with an Island in the midst. The 12. of Iuly the wind was East Southeast. [Sidenote: Barebay.] This day about 11. a clocke in the morning, there came a great white beare down to the water side, and tooke the water of his owne accord, we chased him with our boate, but for all that we could doe, he gote to land and escaped from vs, where we named the bay Barebay. This day at 7. in the after noone we set saile, for we had good hope that the winde would come Westerly, and with saile and oares we gate the sea. All the night it was calme with fogge. The 13. day in the morning the wind was very variable with fog, and as it cleared vp wee met with great store of ice, which at the first shewed like land. This ice did vs much trouble, and the more because of the fog, which continued vntill the 14. day 12. of the clocke. The 14. day in the morning we were so inibayed with ice, yet we were constrained to come out as we went in, which was by great good fortune, or rather by the goodnesse of God, otherwise it had bene impossible, and at 12. of the clock we were cleere of it, the wind being at South and South by West. [Sidenote: 70. deg. 26. min.] The same day we found the pole to be eleuated 70. degrees 26. minutes: [Sidenote: The supposed maine of Noua Zembla.] we lay along the coast Northwest, thinking it to be an Island, but finding no end in rowing so long, we supposed it to be the maine of Noua Xembla. [Footnote: They were really in the Gulf of Petchora.] About 2. in the afternoone we laide it to the Southward to double the ice, which wee could not doe vpon that boorde, so that we cast about againe and lay West along vnder the ice. About seuen in the afternoone we gote about the greatest part thereof. About 11. a clock at night we brought the ice Southeast of us, and thus we were ridde of this trouble at this time. The 15. day about 3. in the morning, the winde was at South southwest: wee cast about and lay to the Eastwards: the winde did Wester, so that wee lay South southwest with a flawne sheete, and so we ranne all the same day. About 8. in the after noone we sounded, and had 23. fadoms small grey sand. This night at twelue of the clocke we sounded againe, and had 29. fadoms sand, as afore. The 16. day vnto 3. in the morning we hald along East Southeast, where we found 18. fadoms red sand, then we hald along Northeast. [Sidenote: Many ouerfals.] In these soundings wee had many ouerfals. This day at 10. of the clocke we met with more ice, which was very great, so that we coulde not tell which way to get cleere of it. Then the winde came to the South Southeast, so that we lay to the Northwards. We thought that way to cleere our selues of it, but that way we had more ice. About 6. in the afternoone, the wind came to the East. Then we lay to the Southwards that wee had 30 fadoms black oze. This day we found the pole to bee eleuated 69. deg. 40. minutes, and this night at 12. a clocke we had 41. fadoms red sand. The 17. day at 3. in the morning, we had 12. fadoms. At 9. we had 8. and 7. all this day we ran South and South by West, at the depth aforesaid, red sand, being but shallow water. At eight in the aftemoone, the winde with a showre and thunder came to the Southwest, and then we ranne East Northeast. [Sidenote: The bay of Pechora.] At 12. at night it came to the South and by East, and all this was in the bay of Pechora. The 18. day at 7. in the morning we bare with the headland of the bay, where wee founde two Islands. There are also ouerfals of water or tides. We went betweene the maine and the Island, next to the head, where we had about 2. fadoms and a halfe. We found the pole eleuated 69. deg. 13. minutes. [Sidenote: They had sight of Vaigatz.] This day we had sight of Vaigatz: the land of the maine of Pechora did trend Southeast, we hald East southeast, and had 10. fadoms oze all the same day vntill 4. in the after noone, then being calme, we ankered in 10. fadoms all the same night. The 19. day at two in the morning we set saile, and ran South and South southwest all the same day at 8. 7. and 6. fadoms, this was off the South part of Vaigatz, this part of the land lieth North and South. This day at 4. in the afternoone we found shallow water sometime 4. fadoms, sometime 3. and 2. and a halfe, and one fadome and a halfe: there we ankered and sent our boate away to sound, and all to leeward we had 4 foote and 3. foote, and 2. foot, there was not water for the boate betweene Vaigatz and the other side: finding no more water, there was no other way but to goe backe as we came in, hauing the wind Northwest, so at twelue at night we set saile. The 20. day we plied to the Northwards, and got deepe water againe 6. and 7. fadoms. The 21. day the winde by the Northwest, we hald along the coast North and North northwest, we had 8. and 9. and 10. fadoms. The 22. day the winde came to the Southwest, we bare along the coast of Vaygatz, as we found it to lie North and by West, and North northwest, and North. [Sidenote: An Island hauing store of wood and water.] The winde blewe very much with great fogge, we lacking Water and wood bare within an Island where wee founde great store of wood and water, there were three or foure goodly sounds. Vnder two points there was a crosse set vp, and a man buried at the foote of it. Vpon the said crosse Master Pet did graue his name with the date of our Lorde, and likewise vpon a stone at the foote of the crosse, and so did I also, to the end that if the William did chaunce to come thither, they might haue knowledge that wee had bene there. At eight in the afternoone the winde came to the North northwest, we set saile and turned out of the Bay. The same night the winde came to the West, so that wee lay North along the land. [Sidenote: 6. faire islands.] The 23. day at fiue in the morning, the wind came to the Southwest, a Sea boord we sawe a great number of faire Islands, to the number of sixe: a sea boord of these Islands, there are many great ouerfals, as great streames or tides: we halde Northeast and East northeast as the land did trend. At eight aforenoone the winde came to the Southeast with very much wind, raine and fogge, and very great store of ice a sea boorde: so we lay to the Southwest to attaine to one of the Islands to harbour vs if the weather did so extremely continue and to take in our boate, thinking it meete so to doe, and not to towe her in such weather. About twelue of the clocke it became very calme vpon the sudden, and came vp to the West Northwest, and Northwest by West, and then we tooke in our boate, and this done, there came downe so much winde, as we were not able to steere afore it, with corse and bonnets of each, we hald South with the land, for so the land did trend. This day all the afternoone we sailed vnder a great land of ice, we sailed betweene the land and it, being not able to crosse it. About twelue at night we found the ice to stretch into the land, that we could not get cleare to the Eastward, so we laide it to the shore, and there we founde it cleare hard aboord the shore, and we found also a very faire Island which makes a very good harbour, and within are 12. fadoms. [Sidenote: An Island to the East of Vaigatz 4. or 5. leagues] This Island is to the Eastwards of Vaigatz 4 or 5. leagues. This land of the maine doth trend Southeast, and Southeast by East. It is a very faire coast, and euen and plaine, and not full of mountaines nor rocks: you haue but shallow water of 6. or 7. fadoms, about a league from the shore, all this morning we hailed East southeast This day we found the pole to be eleuated 69. degrees 14. minutes. About 12 a clocke we were constrained to put into the ice to seeke some way to get to the Northwards of it, hoping to haue some cleare passage that way, but there was nothing but whole ice. About nine in the afternoone we had sight of the William, and when wee sawe her, there was a great land of ice betweene her and vs, so that we could not come one to the other, but as we came neere to her, we sounded our trumpet and shot off two muskets, and she put out her flag vpon her foretopmaste in token that she did see vs: all this time wee did shorten our sailes, and went with our foresaile and mainetopsaile, seeking the best way through the broken ice, she making away the best that she could to follow vs, we put out our flagge to answere her again with the like: thus we continued all the aftemoone till about 12. a clocke at night, and then we moored our ship to a piece of ice to tarie for the William. [Sidenote: The Willaim and the George meete againe.] The 25. day about fiue in the morning, the William came to vs, being both glad of our meeting. The William had her sterne post broken, that the rudder did hang clean besides the sterne, so that she could in no wise port her helme, with all hands she did lighten her sterne and trimme her head, and when we had brought her forward all that we could, wee brought a cable vnder her sterne, and with our capstaine did wind vp her sterne, and so we made it as wel as the place would giue vs leaue, and in the ende wee brought her to steere againe. Wee acknowledge this our meeting to be a great benefits of God for our mutuall comfort and so gaue his Maiestie thanks for it. All the night after we tooke our rest being made fast vpon a piece of ice: the wind was at the West Northwest, but we were so inclosed with ice that we coulde not tell which way to passe. Windes wee haue had at will, but ice and fogge too much against our willes, if it had pleased the Lod God otherwise. The 26. day the wind was at West Northwest: we set saile to the Northwardes, to seeke if we could finde any way cleare to passe to the Eastward, but the further we went that way, the more and thicker was the ice, so that we coulde goe no further. So about foure in the afternoon we were constrained to moare vpon another piece of ice. I thinke we sailed in all a league this day, here we had 15. fadoms oze, and this oze is all the chanell ouer. All the same day after foure of the clocke, and all the night we tarried there, being without all good hope, but rather in despaire. This day Master Iugman did see land East Northeast from vs, as he did thinke, whether it were land or no, I cannot tell well, but it was very like land: but the fogges haue many times deceiued vs. [Footnote: And did so again in this instance.] The 27. day the winde was at Northwest. This day at nine in the morning we set saile to seeke the shore. Further into the ice we could not goe, and at seuen in the afternoone we moared to a piece of ice, and the William with vs, here we had 14. fathoms oze. At three in the aftemoone we warpt from one ice to another. At nine in the afternoone we moared againe to a piece of ice vntill the next day. All this night it did snow with much wind, being at West Northwest, and at Northwest, and by West. The 28. day the winde came to the Southwest, and Southsouthwest: this day was a very faire day. [Sidenote: Their returne.] At one in the afternoone master Pet and master Iackman did conferre together what was best to be done considering that the windes were good for vs, and we not able to passe for ice, they did agree to seeke to the land againe, and so to Vaygatz, and there to conferre further. At 3. in the afternoone we did warpe from one piece of ice to another to get from them if it were possible: here were pieces of ice so great, that we could not see beyond them out of the toppe. Thus we warped vnlil 9. in the afternoone, and then we moared both our shippes to a great and high piece of ice, vntil the next morning. [Sidenote: The currant runneth with the winde.] The nine and twenty day the winde came to the Southwest, wee set saile at fiue in the morning to plie into the shore if it were possible, we made many turnes among the ice to small purpose, for with the winde doeth the currant runne. This day by misfortune a piece of ice stroke of our greepe afore at two afternoone, yet for all this we turned to doe our best. The William being incumbred with ice, and perceiuing that shee did litle good, tooke in all her sailes, and made her selfe fast to a piece of ice, and about foure in the afternoone she set saile to followe vs. We were afraide that shee had taken some hurt, but she was well. At seuen afore noone we tooke in all our sailes to tarie for the William, and made our shippe fast to a piece of ice: the William before she came to vs tooke in all her sailes, and moared to another piece of ice, and thus we continued vntill the next morning. The 30. day the winde at Southeast, and by South, and at 9. in the morning we set saile, and sooner would haue done if the William had bene by vs, but we did tary for her to know whether all was well with her: But as soone as we made saile, she did the like. All this day we did our best to seeke our way as the ice would giue vs leaue, sometime we lay South, sometime West, and sometime East, and thus we continued vntill eight at night, and then being calme, wee made our ship fast to a picce of ice, and went to supper. In the meane time the wind with a faire gentle gale came vp to the East, and East and by South, but there came downe a showre of raine with it, which continued the space of one houre: Which being done, it became calme againe, so that wee could doe no good all that night, but tooke our rest vntill the next day. The 31. the winde being at Southwest, we set saile to turne to windeward at three a clock in the morning. In this turning we did litle good, for the currant would not giue vs leaue. For as the winde is, so is the currant. We did our best vntill ten of the clock, and then perceiuing that we did no good, and being inclosed with ice, wee made our ships fast to a piece of ice: All this day the William lay still, and did as much good as we that did labour all the forenoone. Thus we took our rest all the same day. In the afternoone we set saile, the winde being at South and by East, we lay to the Westwards, as Southwest and Southwest and by South, and sometime to the Westward as wee might. Thus we continued vntil 9. at night, and then we could go no further for ice: so we with the William were constrained to make our ship fast to a piece of ice al the same night This day we found the pole eleuated 69. degrees 20. minutes, and here we had 17. fathoms oze. [Sidenote: August.]The first day of August was verie calme in the morning, the winde beeing at West Northwest. About twelue the winde came to the West, and continued so all the same night with great fogge. The second day the winde was at Southwest all day with rayne and fogge. All this day wee were inclosed with ice, so that we were forced to lye still. Here we had one and twentie fathoms oze. At sixe in the afternoone the winde was at West with very much foule weather, and so continued all the same night. The third day the winde was at West, and West by North, and West Northwest, this day we lay still inclosed with yce, the weather being darke with fogge: thus abiding the Lords leasure, we continued with patience. And sounding we found 21. fathoms. The fourth day we lay still inclosed with ice, the winde being at West Northwest, this ice did euery day increase vpon vs, yet putting our trust in God, we hoped to be deliuered out of it in good time. The fift day all the morning it rained with very much wind, being at South Southeast: about 3. in the afternoone we set sayle, and presently it became calme for the space of one houre, then the wind came to the North Northeast. and here we had 33. fathoms: thus we made way among the yce Southwest, and Southsouthwest, and West, as we might finde our way for the space of 3. houres: [Sidenote: A whole land of yce.] then we met with a whole land of yce, so that we could go no further: here we moared our ship to tarie for a further opening. Here we found 45. fathoms oze, and all the night was very darke with fogge. The sixt day hauing no opening of the yce wee lay still, the winde being at West, and West by South: here we had sixty three fathoms oze: all the same night the winde was at the West Northwest. The 7. day the winde was at West, and West and by North all day. And all this day we lay still being inclosed with yce, that we could not stirre, labouring onely to defend the yce as it came vpon vs. Here we had 68. fathoms oze. The 8. day was very faire and calme but foggy. This day towards night there was litle winde by the South Southwest: then the yce began a litle to open, and here we had 70. fathoms oze: all the night was foggy. The 9. day the winde was at Northwest, and by West all the afternoone we lay still because of the yce, which did still inclose vs. [Sidenote: 70. degr. 4. min.] This day we found the pole eleuated seuenty degrees, 4. minutes, we had 63. fathoms oze: this night was a very fayre night, but it freezed: in the morning we had much adoe to goe through the same: [Sidenote: Frost.] and we were in doubt that if it should haue freezed so much the night following, we should hardly haue passed out of it. This night there was one star that appeared to vs. [Marginal note: The appearing of the starres, signe of Winter.] The tenth day the winde was at East Northeast with very small gale. Wee with saile and oares made way through the yce: about fiue in the morning we set saile: sometime we laye Southwest, and sometime South, and sometime West, as wee might best finde the way. About three in the afternoone the gale began to fresh: about six in the afternoone the winde was at Northeast with fogge. [Sidenote: Much snow.] Here we had eighty eight fathoms: we bare saile all the same night, and it snowed very much. The eleuenth day we were much troubled with yce, and by great force we made our way through it, which we thought a thing impossible: but extremity doth cause men to doe much, and in the weaknesse of man Gods strength most appeareth. This day we had 95. fathoms. At three in the afternoone the winde came to the Southwest, we were forced to make our shippe faste to a piece of yce, for we were inclosed with it, and taried the Lordes leasure. This night we had 97. fathoms. The 12. day the wind was at the Southeast not very much but in a maner calme: at a 11. of the clocke the winde came to the West Southwest: all the day was very darke with snowe and fogge. At 6. in the afternoone we set saile the winde being at the North Northeast: all this night we bare away Southwest, and Southsouthwest, as well and as neere as the yce would giue vs leaue: all this night we found the yce somewhat fauourable to vs, more then it was before, wherupon we stood in good hope to get out of it. The 13. day at 7. in the morning the winde was at the Northeast, and Northeast and by East: all this day we were much troubled with the yce, for with a blow against a piece of yce we brake the stocke of our ancre, and many other great blowes we had against the yce, that it was marueilous that the ship was able to abide them: the side of our boate was broken with our ship which did recule back, the boate being betwixt a great piece of yce, and the ship, and it perished the head of our rudder. [Sidenote: great store of snowe.] This day was a very hard day with vs: at night we found much broken yce, and all this night it blewe very much winde, so that we lay in drift with the yce, and our drift was South, for the winde was at North all this night, and we had great store of snowe. The 14. day in the morning wee made our shippe fast to a piece of yce, and let her driue with it. In the meane time wee mended our boate and our steerage; all this day the winde continued Northerly, and here wee had threescore and two fathoms. Thus we lay a drift all the same night. The 15. day we set saile at 6. in the morning, the winde being at Northeast. At 9. aforenoon we entred into a clear Sea without yce, whereof wee were most glad, and not without great cause, and gaue God the praise. We had 19. fathoms water, and ranne in Southwest all the morning vntill we came to 14. fathoms, and thence we halted West, til we came to 10. fathoms, and then we went Northwest, for so the land doeth trend. At 12. of the clocke we had sight of the land, which we might haue had sooner, but it was darke and foggie all the same day: for when wee had sight of the lande, wee were not passing three leagues from it. [Sidenote: 69 degrees 49 minutes.] This day we had the pole eleuated 69 degrees 49 minutes. All day we ran along the coast in ten and nine fadoms, pepered sand. It is a very goodly coast and a bolde, and faire soundings off it, without sandes or rocks. [They are thwart against Vaigatz.] The 16 day the winde was at East: this day we were troubled againe with ice, but we made great shift with it: for we gotte betweene the shoare and it. This day at twelue of the clocke we were thwart of the Southeast part of Vaigats, all along which part there was great store of yce, so that we stood in doubt of passage, yet by much adoe we got betwixt the shoare and it: about 6 in the afternoone was found a great white beare vpon a piece of ice: all this day in the afternoone it was darke with fogge. And all the night we haled North and North by West, and sometime North and by East, for so doth the land trend; [Sidenote: Sands.] The 17 day in the morning we haled West, for so doth the land lie. The wind was at Southeast, and it was very darke with fogge, and in running along the shoare we fell a ground, but God be praised without hurt, for wee came presently off againe. [Sidenote: The Islands.] The William came to an anker to stay for vs, and sent some of their men to help vs, but before they came we were vnder saile, and as we came, to the William we did stowe our boates, and made saile, we went within some of the Islands, and haled Westsouthwest. About two of the clocke in the atfternoone, we set our course Southwest and by South: so we ranne Southwest vntill twelue at night, the wind came to the Northnortheast, and then we haled West. The 18 day at 6 in the morning we had 16 fadoms red sand: at 6 in the morning 13 fadoms. At 10. 14 fadoms, and we haled Westnorthwest. At 12 a clock the winde came to the East, and East by South, we haled West and by North all the same day and night. At 6 in the afternoone we had 17 fadoms red sand. The 19 day the wind was at Eastnortheast: at 6 in the morning wee had 19 fadoms red sand: at 12 of the clock the wind blew North and North by East, we had 17 fadoms of water, at 3 in the afternoone 15. The 20 day the wind was at Northeast, and Northnortheast: at 7 in the morning we had 30 fadomes blacke oze: at twelue of the clocke we were vpon the suddaine in shoale water, among great sands and could find no way out. By sounding and seeking about, we came aground, and so did the William, but we had no hurt, for the wind was off the shoare, and the same night it was calme: all night we did our best, but we could not haue her afloat. [Sidenote: Shoales off Colgoyeue.] These shoales doe lie off Colgoyeue; it is very flat a great way off, and it doth not high aboue 2 or 3 foote water: it floweth Northeast and Southwest. The 21 day the wind was at Southwest, and being very faire weather we did lighten our ships as much as was possible for vs to doe, by reason of the place. The same high water, by the helpe of God, we got both a floate, and the wind being at the Southwest did help vs, for it caused it to flow the more water. This day we found the pole to be eleuated 68 degrees 40 min. In the afternoone we both set saile to seeke way to get out of these sands, our boate a head sounding, hauing 6, 7, and 8 fadomes all within the sand which was without vs. We bare to the Southward, and the William bare more to the Eastwards, and night being at hand the wind came to the Southeast, whereupon we layd it to the Southwards, lying Southwest, and South and by West, and ran to 19, and 12 and 14 fadoms and presently we had sixe fadoms, which was off the sands head, which we were a ground vpon the day before. Then we cast about to the Eastwards for deepe water, which we presently had, as 10, 15, and 20 and so to 23 fadoms. [Sidenote: They lost the William here.] The 22 day at eight in the morning, we cast about to the Southward; and this day in the morning we saw the William vnder our lee as far as we could see her, and with a great fogge we lost the sight of her, and since we haue not seene her. Thus we ranne til we came to thirtie fadomes black oze, which we had at twelue of the clocke, and at three in the afternoone we had twenty and three fadoms and then we ranne Westnorthwest, and West by North, all the same night following. The 23 day we had at 6 in the morning 27 fadoms, at 8 a clocke 28 fadoms, at 9 the winde being at East Southeast, we haled Westnorthwest: [Sidenote: The land of Hungry.] this day we had sight of the land of Hugri side. At twelue of the clocke we had two fadoms sand. [Sidenote: The bay of Morzouets.] This day we ranne West and by North, and came to fiue fadoms off the bay of Morzouets. Then we layd it to the Northwards so that we lay Northnortheast off. The wind after came to the North, and North by East, and we lay East and East by North, then we layd it to the Westward againe: and thus we lay till we came to fortie fadoms, and then we went Northwest till wee came to fourteene fadoms, and so to tenne fadoms. Then we cast about to the Eastwards and lay East, and East by North all the same night. The 24 day at 8 in the morning we had 32 fadoms. We ran Northwest till we came to 11 fadoms, then we lay to the Northwards till 12 at night, and then we came to forty fadoms, then the wind at Northeast we lay to the Westwards, and haled Northeast along. The 25 at 4 in the morning we had 37 fadoms, wee ranne Northwest, the winde at Northnortheast very much. The 26 day we ran with the same winde, and found the pole to be eleuated 70 deg. 40 min. The 27 at 7 in the morning we saw land, which we made to be Kegor, then we haled Northwest, and North by West to double the North Cape. The 28 day at 3 in the morning we ran Northwest, and so all day. At night the wind came to the Southwest, and we ran Northwest all that night. [Sidenote: The towne of Hungon.] The 29 day we put into a sound called Tane, and the towne is called Hungon: we came to an ancre at 5 in the afternoone, at 25 fadoms very faire sand. This sound is very large and good, and the same night we got water aboard. The 30 day in the morning the winde at Northeast, and but litle, we set saile, and with our boate on head we got the sea about 12 of the clocke: the wind with a faire gale came to the East Southeast, and all this day and night we ran West Northwest. [Sidenote: They double the North Cape in their return.] The 31 day at 12 of the clocke we doubled the North Cape, the wind being at Eastsoutheast, we haled West all the same day, and at night we ran Westsouthwest. The 1 day of September the wind was at Northeast with very much fogge: all this day we ran Westsouthwest: at 2 in the afternoone the wind came North. The second day at 3 in the morning we doubled Fowlnesse, and the wind was this day variable at all parts of the Compasse. In the aftemoone we made but little way: at 6 a clocke the wind came to the Southwest, and we went Northwest. [Sidenote: Fowlenesse.] At 9 in the night there came downe so much winde by the Westsouthwest, that we were faine to lay it a hull, we haled it to Northwards for the space of 2 houres, and then we layd her head to the Southwards, and at the breake of day we saw land, which is very high, and is called by the men of the countrey Foulenesse. It is within ful of small Islands, and without full of rocks very farre out, and within the rockes you haue fayre sand at 20 fadoms. The 3 day in the morning we bare with the sound aforesaid: Within it is but shoale water, 4 5 and 3 fadoms, sandie ground, the land is very high, and the Church that is seene is called Helike Kirke. It doeth high here not aboue S or 9 foote. [Sidenote: Lowfoote.] The 12 day at 3 in the afternoone, we put into a sound by Lowfoote, where it doeth flowe Southwest, and by South, and doth high 7 or 8 foote water. The 13 day much wind at West: we had a ledge of rocks in the wind of vs, but the road was reasonable good for all Southerly and Westerly winds. We had the maine land in the winde of vs: this day was stormie with raine. [Sidenote: The sound of Romesal.] The 23 day at foure of the clocke in the afternoone we put into Norway, into a sound called Romesal, where it floweth Southsoutheast, and doth high 8 foote water: this place is full of low Islands, and many good sounds without the high mountaine land. Here is great store of wood growing, as firre, birch, oke, and hasell: all this night the wind was at the South, very much winde, with raine and fogge. The 28 day in the morning the wind being at Eastnortheast we set saile at 8 of the clocke, and haled out of the bay Westsouthwest, and Southwest, hauing a goodly gale vntill one of the clocke, and then the wind came to Southeast, and to the South with raine and fogge, and very much winde: at sixe of the clocke we came into a very good rode, where we did ride all the same night in good safetie. The 29 day we put into a good sound, the wind by the Southwest: at three in the afternoone there came downe very much wind by the South, and all night with vehement blastes, and raine. The 30 day all day the wind was at Westsouthwest. And in this sound the pole is eleuated 63 deg. 10 min. The first day of October the winde was at South with very much winde, and vehement blastes. The 7 day we set saile: for from the first of this moneth untill this 7 day, we had very foule weather, but specailly the fourth day when the wind was so great, that our cables brake with the very storme, and I do not think that it is possible that any more wind then that was should blow: for after the breaking of our cable, we did driue a league, before our ankers would take any hold: but God be thanked the storme began to slacke, otherwise we had bene in ill case. The 7. at night we came to an anker vntil the next day, which was the 8. day of the moneth, when as the winde grew great againe, with raine, whereupon we set saile and returned into the sound againe: and at our first comming to an anker, presently there blew so much winde, that although our best anker was out, yet the extremitie of the storm droue vs vpon a ledge of rocks, and did bruse our ship in such sort, that we were constrained to lighten her to saue her, and by this meanes (by the helpe of God) we got off our ship and stopped our leakes, and moored her in good safetie abiding for a wind. We rid from this day by reason of contrary winds, with fogge and raine vntill the 24 day, which day in the morning the winde came to the Northeast, and at 8 of the clocke we set saile. [Sidenote: Moore sound.] This sound is called Moore sound, where it higheth about 5 foote water, and floweth Southsoutheast. The next day being the 25 day we put into a sound which is called Vlta sound, where was a ship of the king of Denmark put into another sound there by, being 2 leagues to the southwards of vs, that came out of Island: the wind was contrary for vs at Southsouthwest. The 12 day of Nouember we set saile the wind being at the East Southeast, and past through the sound where the kings ship did lie: which sound is called Sloure sound. But as we did open the sound, we found the wind at the Southwest, so that we could doe no good, so that we moared our ship betweene 2. Islands vntil the 18 day, and then the weather being faire and calme, we set saile, and went to sea hoping to find a faire wind, but in the sea we found the wind at the Southwest, and Southsouthwest, so that we were constrained to returne into the same sound. The next day being the 19 the kings ship came out also, because she saw vs put to sea, and came as farre out as we, and moared where we did moare afore: And at our returne back againe, we moared our ship in an vtter sound called Scorpe sound, because the kings ship was without victuals, and we did not greatly desire her company, although they desired ours. In this sound the pole is eleuated 62 deg. 47 min. Thus we lay stil for a wind vntil the 1 of December, which day we set saile at 6 a clocke in the morning, and at four in the afternoon we laid it to the inwards. The 9 day we had sight of the coast of Scotland which was Buquhamnesse. The 10 day we were open off the Frith. The 11 day at 4 in the morning we were thwart of Barwike: at 6 we were thwart of Bamburch: the same day at 10 at night we were shot as farre as Hollyfoote. Then the wind came to the South and Southeast, so that we lay vntill the next day in the morning, and then we were constrained to put with Tinmouth. The same day at night wee haled aground to stoppe a leake, which we found to be in the skarfe afore. The wind continued by the Southeast and Southsoutheast vntill the 20 day, and then we set saile about 12 at night, bearing along the coast. The 22 day by reason of a Southeast wind, we thought we should haue bene put into Humber, but the wind came to the West, so that we haled Southeast: and at 3 in the afternoone we haled a sea boord the sands, and had shoale water off, Lymery and Owry, and were in 4 fadomes off them. The next day we haled as we might to sease Orfordnesse. The 24 day we came thwart of the Nase, about 8 in the morning. The 25 day being the Natiuity of Christ, we came to an anker betweene Old hauen and Tilberie hope. The same day we turned as high as Porshet. The 26 day we turned as high as Ratcliffe, and praised God for our safe returne. And thus I ende, 1580. [The William with Charles Iackman arriued at a port in Norway betweene Tronden and Rostock in October 1580, and there did winter: And from thence departed againe in February following, and went in company of a ship of the King of Denmarke toward Island: and since that time he was neuer heard of.] * * * * * Instructions made by the company of English, merchants for discouery of new trades, vnto Richard Gibs, William Biggat, Iohn Backhouse, William Freeman, Iohn Haly, and Iames Woodcock, &c. masters of the 9. ships and one barke that we had freighted for a voiage with them to be made (by the grace of God) from hence to S. Nicholas in Russia, and backe againe: which ships being now in the riuer of Thames are presently ready to depart vpon the said voyage, with the next apt winds that may serue thereunto: and with this Fleet afterwards was ioned M. Christopher Carlisle with the Tyger. The 1 off Iune 1582. Forasmuch as the number of shippes which we purpose to send in this fleete together for Saint Nicholas in Russia is greater then at any time heretofore wee haue sent thither, as also for that some speeches are giuen out that you shall be met withall by such as with force and violence will assault you as enemies, to the end that good order may be established among you for keeping together in company, and vniting your forces, as well for the better direction to be had in your nauigation, as also for your more safety and strength against the enemie, we haue thought good to appoint among you an Admirall and Viceadmirall, and that all of you and eueryone particularly shall be bound in the summe of one hundred pounds to keepe company together. 2 Because the Salomon is the biggest ship, best appointed, and of greatest force to defend or offend the enemie, we doe therefore appoint that ship Admirall, which shall weare the flag in the maine top. 3 The Thomas Allen being a good ship and well appointed, and for that the master of her is the ancientest master of the Fleete that hath taken charge that way, we doe appoint the same ship to be Viceadmirall, and to weare the flag in the foretop. 4 And for that the master of the Prudence is of great experience and knowledge in that voyage, we doe appoint that he with the master of the Admirall and Viceadmirall shall conferre, consult and agree vpon the courses and directions that shall be vsed in this voyage, and it shall be lawfull vnto the master of the Admirall, with the consent of M. Gibs, and M. Biggat, or one of them to make his courses and directions from time to time during the whole voyage, and all the fleete are to follow and obserue the same without straying or breaking of company at any time vpon the penaltie before specified. 5 The appointing of the ships for Admiral and Viceadmiral, and those men to consult and agree vpon the courses and directions of the voyage, as aforesaid, hath bene done by the consents and with the liking of you all, and therefore doubt not but that you will all carefully and willingly obserue the premisses. 6 Item, we haue thought good to put in mind, that at such times as you may conueniently from time to time, you do assemble and meete together, to consider, consult, and determine vpon such articles as you shall think necessary to be propounded touching your best safetie and defence against all forces that may be offered you in this voyage, as well outwards bound, and while you shall remaine in the roade and bay of S. Nicholas, as also homewardes hound, and that which you shall agree vpon, or that which most of you shal consent vnto, cause it to be set down in writing for record, which may serue for an acte amongst your selues to binde you all to obserue the same. 7 We haue appointed Iames Woodcock in the smal barke to attend vpon you, and to receiue his directions from you. You are therefore to remember well what conference and talke hath bene had with you here before your going touching the sayd barke, to what purposes she may best serue, and the maner how to imploy her, and thereupon to giue your order and direction vnto him, as the time and place shall require. [Sidenote: Berozoua Vstia.] 8 Item, if you shall vnderstand as you are outwards bound, that the enemie is gone before you to S. Nicholas, remember what aduice hath bene giuen you for your stay at Berozoua Vstia, till you haue by espials viewed and vnderstood the forces, and the manner of their abode at that place. 9 And if in the sea either outwards or homewards, or in the time of your abode at anker at Saint Nicholas, you shall be assaulted by force of any, as enemie whatsoeuer, you are to defend your selues with such forces as you may or can: trust not too farre, neither giue place to inconuenience. 10 You will not forget what conference we had touching your passing outwards bound by Wardhouse, to view and vnderstand what you can at that place, and to shew your selues, to see if there be any there that haue a mind to speake with you, for that we thinke it better then, and thereabout, then afterwards or els where. 11 While you shall remaine in the road at S. Nicholas, be circumspect and carefull to haue your ships in readinesse and in good order alwaies, and vpon all suddens. The greatest danger vnto you in that place will be while you shall shift your ships: therefore you are to consider of it, but the fittest time for you to doe the same, will bee when the winde is Southerly off the shore, or calme, and at such time you may the better doe it without danger. You must take such order among you, that your companies may be alwaies willing and ready to help one the other, and appoint among your selues such ships to shift first, and such after, in such sort and forme as you shall thinke best and most conuenient. And while they shall be in discharging, shifting, and lading, let the rest of your companies which haue not then to doe in lading or discharging, helpe those ships that shall haue labour to doe, as well for carying the barkes from ships to the shoare, or from shore to the shippe: with your boates, as also for any other helpe that they shall haue need of. 12 Remember what hath bene said vnto you touching the moring of your ships, &c. for vsing aduantage against the enemie, if you shall be assaulted in that place. 13 See that you serue God, abolish swearing and gaming, be carefull of fire and candles, &c. 14 You are to consult and agree among your selues vpon signes, tokens, and good orders for the better keeping of company together, and also the maner how and by what meanes, rescue, ayde, or helpe may be giuen by one to the other in fight, if you happen to come to it. Thus we pray God to send you a prosperous voyage and safe returne. * * * * * The opinion of Master William Burrough sent to a friend, requiring his iudgment for the fittest time of the departure of our ships towards S. Nicholas in Russia. Whereas you request me to perswade the company not to send their shippes from hence before the fine of May, I do not thinke the same so good a course for them to obserue; for you know that the sooner wee sende them hence, the sooner we may looke for their returne. [Sidenote: The Russian fleet best to be set forth in the beginning of May.] If wee sende them in the beginning of May, then may they be at Saint Nicholas by the fine of the same moneth: and by that time the greatest parte of your lading of necessitie must bee downe, especially the flaxe: but if it should fall out so lateward a breaking vp of the riuer of Duyna, that by the ende of May the goods cannot be brought to Saint Nicholas, yet this is alwayes to be accounted for certaine, that before our ships can come thither, the goods may be brought downe to that place: and if through ice the shippes be kept backe any time, the losse and charge of that time toucheth not the companie at all, but the owners of the shippes, and yet will the Owners put that in aduenture, rather than tarie longer time before their going hence. Now seeing by sending our shippes hence in the beginning of May, their arriuall at S. Nicholas may be at the ende of the same moneth, and remaining thirtie dayes there, they may bee laden and come thence by the last of Iune, and returne home hither by the 10 of August with commodities to serue the market then, it cannot bee denied but we should reape thereby great commoditie. But it may he obiected, that if all our shippes be sent then to returne as aforesaid, you shall not be able to send vs in so much cordage, Waxe and Oyles, as otherwise you should doe if they remained a moneth longer, neither could you by that time perfect your accounts to be sent in them as you would doe. For answere thereunto this is my meaning: though I wish the greatest part of our shipping to go as aforesaid, yet would I haue one good ship or two at the most well furnished in al points that should depart alwaies from hence, betweene the beginning and the 10 day of Iune: and the same to be conditioned withall to remaine at S. Nicholas from the first arriuall there vntill the middest of August, or to be despatched thence sooner, at the will and liking of our factors for the same: by this order these commodities following may ensue. 1 You may haue our commodities there timely to send vp the riuer before it waxe shallow, to be dispersed in the countrey at your pleasure. 2 The greatest part of our goods may be returned thither timely to serue the first markets. 3 Our late ships remaining so long here may serue to good purpose, for returning answere of such letters as may he sent ouer land, and receiued here before their departure. 4 Their remaining so late with you shal satisfie your desire for perfecting your accounts, and may bring such cordage, Waxe, Oile, and other commodities, as you can prouide before that time: and chiefly may serue vs in stead to bring home our goods that may be sent vs from Persia. Now seeing it may be so many wayes commodious to the commpany to obserue this order, without any charge vnto them, I wish that you put to your helping hand to further the same. * * * * * A copie of the Commission giuen to Sir Ierome Bowes, authorizing him her Maiesties Ambassadour vnto the Emperour of Russia, Anno 1583. ELIZABETHA, Dei gratia, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hyberniæ Regina, fidei defensatrix, &c. Vniuersis et singulis præsentes literas visuris et inspecturis, salutem. Cum Serenissimus Princeps, Ioannes Basilius, Rex, et magnus Dux Russiæ, Volodimeræ, Moscouiæ, et Nouogrodiæ, Rex Cazani, et Astracani, Dominus Plescoæ, et magnus Dux Smolenscoæ, Tueri, Vgori; Permiæ, Valeæ, Bolharæ, et aliarum ditionum: Dominus et magnus Dux Nouogrodiæ in inferiori regione Chernigæ, Rezanæ, Poletscoæ, Ratsauie, Yeraslaue, Bealozeri, Liflandiæ, Oudori, et Condensæ, et gubernator in tota prouincia Siberiæ, et partium Septentrionalium, et aliarum, frater, et Amicus charissimus, Nobilem virum, Feodor Andrewich Spisemski, nuper ad nos ablegauerit, ad certa quædam negotia nobiscum agenda, quæ honorem vtrinque nostrum quàm proximè attingunt, quæque rectè definiri concludique nequeunt nisi Ambassiatorem aliquem et oratorem ad præfatum serenissimum principem amandauerimus: Hinc est, quòd nos de fidelitate, industria, prouida circumspectione, et satis magno rerum vsu, prædilecti nobis famuli nostri, Hieronimi Bowes Militis, ex nobilibus domesticis nostris vnius, plurimùm confidentes, præfatum Hieronimum Bowes Militem, nostrum verum et indubitatum Ambassiatorem, Oratorem, et Commissarium specialem facimus, et constituimus per præsentes. Dantes, et concedentes eidem Hieronimo Bowes Militi oratori nostro tenore præsentium, authoritatem, et mandatum, tam generale, quàm speciate, ita quòd specialitas non deroget generalitati, nec è contra generalitas specialitati, nomine nostro, et pro nobis, cum præfato serenissimo principe, eiusque consiliarijs, et deputatis quibuscunque de præfatis negotijs et eorum singulis, tractandi, conferendi, concludendi appunctuandique, prout præfato Oratori nostro æquum, et ex honore nostro videbitur: Nec non de, et super huiusmodi tractatis, conclusis, appunctuatisque, cæterísque omnibus et singulis, præmissa quouismodo concernentibus, literas, et instrumenta valida et efficacia, nomine nostro, et pro nobis tradendi, literasque et instrumenta consimilis vigoris et effectus, ex altera parte petendi, et confici, et sigillari debitè procurandi, et recipiendi, et generaliter omnia, et singula præmissa qualitercunque concernentia, faciendi, exercendi, et expediendi, in, et eodem modo, sicut nos ipsi faceremus, et facere possemus, si essemus præsentes, etiamsi talia sint, quæ de se mandatum exigant magis speciale; promittentes bona fide, et in verbo Regio, omnia et singula, quæ per prædictum Ambassiatorem, et oratorem nostrum appunctuata, promissa. conuenta, concordata, et conclusa fuerint in hac parte, nos rata et grata, et firma habituras et obseruaturas, et superinde literas nostras patentes confirmatorias, et approbatortias in forma valida, et autentica, prout opus fuerit, daturas. In cuius rei testimonium, his præsentibus manu nostra signatis, magnum sigillum nostrum regni nostri Angleiæ apponi fecimus. Datæ è Regia nostra Grenwici quinto die mensis Iunij, Anno Dom. 1583. Regni verò nostri vicessimo quinto. The same in English. Elizabeth by the grace of God, Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. to al and singular, to whom these presents shal come to be seen and red, greeting. Whereas the most excellent prince Iohn Basiliwich king, and great duke of all Russia, Volodomer, Moscouie, and Nouogrod, king of Cazan and Astracan, lord of Plesco, and great duke of Smolensco, of Tuer, Vgor, and Permia, Valca, Bolhar and others, lord great duke of Nouogrod in the low country, of Cherniga, Rezan, Polotsco, Rostoue, Yeraslaue, Bealozera, Liefland, Oudor, and Condensa, and gouernour of al the land of Siberia, and of the North parts and other, our most deare brother and friend, did of late send vnto vs one Feodor Andrewich Spisemsky, a noble man of his, to deale with vs in certaine speciall businesses, respecting very neerely the honour of either of vs, and being such as without the speeding of some Ambassadour of ours to the aforesaid most excellent prince, cannot be sufficiently determined and concluded: For this cause we hauing great confidence in the fidelitie, industrie, prouident circumspection and conuenient experience of our welbeloued seruant Ierome Bowes, knight, & gentleman of qualitie of our householde, do by these presents make and constitute the foresaid Ierome Bowes knight our true and undoubted Ambassadour, Orator and special commisioner, giuing and graunting to the same Ierome Bowes knight, our Orator, by the vertue of these presents authoritie and commandment, as wel general as special, so that the special shall not preiudice the generall, nor on the other side the general the special to, intreat, conferre, conclude, and appoint in our name, and for us with the foresaid most excellent prince and his counsellers and deputies whatsoeuer, concerning the foresaid businesses, and ech of them, according as it shall seeme good, and for our honour to our foresaid Orator, as also of and vpon such things intreated, concluded and appointed, as in all and singular other things, any maner of way concerning the premisses, to deliuer in our name and for vs, sufficient and effectual letters and instruments and to require letters and instruments, of the like validitie and effect of the other part, and to procure them lawfully to bee made and sealed and then to receiue them, and generally to doe, execute, and dispatch al and singular other things concerning the premisses, in, and after the same maner, as we our selues would and might do if we were present, although they be such things as may seeme of themselues to require a more speciall commandement: promising in good faith and in the word of a prince, that we will hold and obserue all and singular the things which by our Ambassador aforesayd shall be appointed, promised, agreed, accorded and concluded in this behalfe; as lawfull, gratefull, and firme, and thereupon as need shall require, will giue our letters patents, confirmatory and approbatory, in forme effectuall and autenticall. In witnesse whereof, we haue caused our great seale of our kingdome of England to be put to these presents, and signed them with our owne hand. Giuen at our pallace of Greenewich the fourth day of Iune, in the yeere of our Lord 1583, and of our reigne the fiue and twentieth. * * * * * A letter sent from her Highnesse to the sayd great Duke of Russia, by sir Hierome Bowes aforesayd, her Maiesties Ambassadour. Serenissimo Principo ac Domino, Ioanni Basilio, Dei gratia Regi et magno Duci totius Russiæ, Volodomene, &c. Regi Cazani, &c. Domino Plescoæ, &c. Domino et magno Duci Nouogrodiæ &c. et Gubernatori in tota Prouincia Siberiæ; &c. Fratri et amico nostro charissimo. ELIZABETHA, Dei gratia Angliæ Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Regina, fidei defensatrix, &c. Serenissimo Principi ac Domino, Ioanni Basilio, eadem Dei gratia Regi et magno Duci totius Russiæ, Volodomeræ, Moscouiæ, et Nouogrodiæ, Regi Cazani et Astracani, Domino Plescoæ; et magno Duci Smolenscoæ, Tueri, Vgori, Permiæ, Viatskæ, Bolharæ, et aliarum ditionum, Domino et magno Duci Nouogrodiæ in inferiori regione, Chernigæ, Rezanæ, Polotscoæ, Rostouæ, Iaroslauæ, Bealozeri, Liflandiæ, Oudori et Condensæ, et Gubernatori in tota prouincia Siberiæ, et partium Septentrionalium, et aliarum, fratri, et amico suo charissimo, Salutem. Serenissime princeps; frater et amice charissime, ex ijs que nobiscum egit S. V. illustris legatus, intelleximus, quàm gratè vobis faceremus satis, si legatum aliquem cum mandatis instructum, ad S. V. ablegaremus. In quo certè quidem instituto adeò nobis ex animo placuit, quod est honestè postulatum, vt non nisi præstita re, possemus nobis quoquo modo satisfacere. Atque cum id haberemus apud nos decretum, nobis non incommodè incurrit in mentem et oculos Hieronimus Bowes miles, ex nobilibus nostris Domesticis, plurimum nobis dilectus, quem, inpræsentiarum ad S. V. ablegamus, cuius prudentiæ et fidei, totum hoc quicquid est, quod ad Serenitatum mutuò nostrarum dignitatem omandam pertinere posse arbitramur, commisimus. In quo munere perfungendo, quin omnem curam et diligentiam sit collaturus, neutiquam dubitamus: à S. autem V. rogamus, velit ei eam fidem habere in ijs persequendis quæ habet à nobis in mandatis, quam nobis habendam putaret, si essemus præsentes. Prætereà, cùm nobis multum charus sit Robertus Iacobus medicus, quem superiori [Marginal note: 1582.] anno, ad S. V. misimus, rogamus vt eum eo loco S. V. habeat, quo virum probatissimum, et singulari quàm plurimarum virtutum laude ornatum habendum esse, boni principes censent. Quem à nobis neutiquam ablegauissemus, nisi amicitiæ nostræ, et studio gratificandi S. V. plurimùm tribuissemus. In qua dum voluntate manemus erga S. V. non nisi optimè de bonis vestris meritis in præfatum Iacobum nobis pollicemur. Et Deum Opt. Max. precamur, vt S. V. saluam conseruet, et incolumem. Datæ è Regia nostra Grenouici 19 die mensis Iunij, Anno Domini 1583, regni verò nostri vicessimo quinto. S. vestra bona soror. The same in English. Elizabeth by the grace of God, Queene of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith &c. to the most excellent Prince and Lord, Iohn Basiliwich, by the same grace of God, King and great Duke of all Russia, Volodomer, Moscouie, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan and Astracan, Lord of Plesco, and great Duke of Smolensco, of Tuer, Vgor, and Permie, Viatsca, Bolhar, and others, Lord and great Duke of Nouogrod in the lowe countrey, of Cherniga, Rezan, Polotsko, Rostoue, Iaroslaue, Bealozera, Lifland, Oudor, Obdor, and Condensa, and Gouernour of all the land of Siberia, and of the North, parts and others, her dearest brother and friend, Salutations. Most excellent Prince, most deare brother and friend, by those things which the worthy ambassador of your excellency declared vnto vs, we haue vnderstood how kindly it would be taken, if we should send to your excellency an ambassador from vs, with commandement and instructions. In which matter your honourable request hath so much pleased vs, that we could not any maner of way satisfie our selues, except we performed the same. And hauing purposed with our selfe so to doe, we thought of, and remembred Ierome Bowes Knight, a gentleman of qualitie of our householde, a man very much beloued of vs, whom at this present we send vnto your Maiesty, and to whose wisdome and faithfulnesse we haue committed all, whatsoeuer we take to apperteine to the aduancement of both our honors indifferently. In the discharge of which seruice, we doubt not but that all care and diligence shall be vsed on his part, so that we intreat your Maiesty to giue him credence in the prosecuting of those things which he hath from vs in commandement, no lesse then to our selfe, if we were present. [Sidenote: Doctor Iacob.] And whereas Robert Iacob doctor of physicke is a man very deare vuto vs, whom, the last yere we sent vnto your excellency, we desire that he may haue that fauor and estimation with you, which good, princes thinke a most honest and vertuous man woorthy of: for had we not caried great respect to our mutual friendship, and indeuour to gratifie your Maiestie, we should in no case haue parted with him. And seeing we continue still the same, good will towards your excellency, we doe euen promise to our selfe your honourable kindnesses towards him: and we pray the almightie God to preserue your Maiesty in good, safetie and health. Giuen at our pallace of Greenewich the 19 day of Iune, in the yere of our Lord 1583, and of our reigne the fiue and twentieth. Your Maiesties good sister. * * * * * A briefe discourse of the voyage of Sir Ierome Bowes knight, her Maiesties ambassadour to Iuan Vasiliuich the Emperour of Moscouia, in the yeere 1583. [Sidenote: Pheodor Andreuich Phisemsky the Emperors ambassadour.] The Emperour of Russia that then liued, by name Iuan Vasiliwich, hauing deliberately considered how necessary it were for the strengthening of his estate, and that a sure commerce and entercourse of merchants should be againe renued betweene him and her sacred Maiesty of England, with such further immunities and priuileges for the honor and vtility of both their dominions, and subiects of the same, as with mutuall treatie of persons interposed on both sides, might be asserted vnto: sent ouer into this realme, in the yeere of our Lord 1582, as his ambassadour for that purpose, an ancient discreet gentleman of his householde called Pheodor Andreuich Phisemsky, accompanied with one of his Secretaries, for his better assistance in that expedition: and besides his many other directions, whereof part were to be deliuered by word of mouth, and the rest set downe in a letter vnder the Emperours signature, addressed to her Maiesty: he had in speciall charge to sollicit her Maiesty to send ouer with him to his maister an ambassador from her, to treat and contract of such affaires of importance as concerned both the realmes, which was the principall end of his imployments hither. Whereupon her Maiesty very graciously inclining to the Emperors motion, and at the humble sute of the English merchants trading those countreys being caried with the same princely respects, to satisfie his demands in that behalfe, made choice of sir Ierome Bowes, a gentleman of her Court, ordinarily attending vpon her Maiesties person, towards whom was apparantly expressed her princely opinion and fauor by the credit of this negociation. After he had receiued his commission, with other speciall letters to the Emperor, with all other instructions apperteining to his charge, and that the sayd Russe ambassadour was licenced to returne home to his maister, being honorably entertained and rewarded, the English ambassador being attended upon with forty persons at the least, very honourably furnished, whereof many were gentlemen, and one M. Humfrey Cole a learned preacher, tooke his leaue of her Maiesty at the Court at Greenwich the eighteenth of Iune, and with the other ambassadour, with their seuerall companies, embarked themselues at Harwich the two and twentieth of the same, and after a stormy voyage at the Sea, they arriued both in safety in the road of S. Nicholas the three and twentieth of Iuly next following. The Russe ambassador lodged himselfe at the abbey of S. Nicholas: and the English ambassador was lodged and well intertained by the English merchants, at their house at S. Nicholas, standing in an Island called Rose Island. The Russe ambassador hauing reposed himselfe one whole day, took his leaue of the English ambassador, and departed towards Mosco. The English ambassadour abode yet at S. Nicholas four or fiue dayes, when hauing made prouision of boats, and meanes to that purpose, he went forward vpon his iourney; towards Mosco, to a towne called Colmogro, about foure score miles distant from S. Nicholas. [Sidenote: The Hollanders intrude into our trade.] You must here vnderstand that before the English ambassadors going into Russia, there were diuers strangers, but especially certaine Dutch merchants, who had intruded themselues to trade into those countreys. Notwithstanding a priuilege of the sole trade thither was long before granted to the English merchants. These Dutch men had already so handled the matter, as they had by chargeable meanes woone three of the chiefest counsellors to the Emperour to be their assured friends, namely, Mekita Romanouich, Bodan Belskoy, and Andrew Shalkan the chancellor: for besides dayly gifts that they bestowed vpon them all, they tooke so much money of theirs at interest at fiue and twenty vpon the hundred, as they payed to some one of them fiue thousand marks yeerely for the vse of his money, and the English merchants at that time had not one friend in Court. The ambassador hauing now spent fiue weeks at S. Nicholas, and at Colmogro, there came to him then a gentleman sent from the Emperor to enterteine him, and had in charge to conduct him vp the riuers towards Mosco, and to deliuer him prouision of all kinde of victuals necessary. This gentleman being a follower of Shalkan the chancellor, was by him (as it seemed) foisted into that seruice of purpose, as afterward appeared by the course he tooke, to offer discourtesies, and occasions of mislike to the ambassador: for you must vnderstand that the chancellor and the other two great counsellors (spoken of as friends to the Dutchmen) had a purpose to oppose themselues directly against her Maiesties ambassage, especially in that point, for the barring of all strangers from trading into the Emperors countrey. This gentleman conducted the English ambassador a thousand miles vp the riuers of Dwina and Soughana, to a citie called Vologda, where receiued him another gentleman sent from the Emperor, a man of better countenance then the other, who presented the ambassador from the Emperor with two faire geldings well furnished after their maner. At a citie called Yeraslaue vpon the riuer Volga there met the ambassador a duke well accompanied, sent from the Emperor, who presented him from the Emperor a coach and ten geldings tor the more easie conueying of him to Mosco, from whence this citie was distant fiue hundred miles. Two miles on this side Mosco there met the ambassador foure gentlemen of good account, accompanied with two hundred horse: who after a little salutation, not familiar, without imbracing, tolde him that they had to say to him from the Emperor, and would haue had him light on foot to haue heard it, notwithstanding themselues would still haue sit on horsebacke: which the ambassador soone refused to doe, and so they stood long vpon termes, whether both parties should light or not: which afterwards agreed vpon, there was yet great nicenesse whose foot should not be first on ground. Their message being deliuered, and after hauing embraced ech other, they conducted the sayd ambassador to his lodging at Mosco, a house builded of purpose for him, themselues being placed in the next house to it, as appointed to furnish him of all prouisions, and to be vsed by him vpon all other occasions. The ambassador hauing beene some dayes in Mosco, and hauing in all that time bene very honorably vsed from the Emperor (for such was his will) though some of his chiefest counsellors (as is sayd) had another purpose, and did often times cunningly put it in vse: He was sent for to Court, and was accompanied thither with about forty gentlemen honorably mounted, and sumptuously arayed, and in his passage from his lodging to the court, were set in a ward fiue or sixe thousand shot, that were of the Emperors gard. At the entry into the court there met him four noble men apparelled in cloth of gold and rich furres, their caps embroidred with pearle and stone, who conducted him towards the Emperor; till he was met with foure others of greater degree then they, who guided him yet further towards the Emperor, in which passage there stood along the walles, and sate vpon benches and formes in row, seuen or eight hundred persons, said to be noblemen and gentlemen, all apparelled in garments of coloured satins and cloth of golde. These foure noblemen accompanied him to the Emperors chamber doore, where met him the Emperors herald, whose office is there held great: and with him all the great officers of the Emperors chamber, who all conducted him to the place where the Emperor safe in his state, hauing three crownes standing by him, viz. of Moscouia, Cazan and Astrakan, and also by him 4 yoong noblemen of about twenty yeres of age, of ech side, twaine, costly apparelled in white, holding vpon their shoulders ech of them a brode axe, much like to a Galloglas axe of Ireland, thin and very sharpe, the steale or handle not past halfe a yard long, and there sate about the chamber vpon benches and other low seats, aboue an hundred noblemen richly apparrelled in cloth of golde. The ambassador being thus brought to the Emperor to kisse his hand, after some complements and inquirie of her Maiesties health, he willed him goe sit downe in a place prouided for that purpose, nigh ten pases distant from him, from whence he would haue had him to haue sent him her Maiesties letters and present, which the ambassadour thinking not reasonable stept forward towards the Emperor: in which passage the chancellor came to meet him, and would haue taken his letters: to whom the ambassador sayd, that her Maiesty had directed no letters to him, and so went on, and deliuered them himselfe to the Emperors owne hands. And after hauing thus deliuered her Maiesties letters and what he had els to say at that time, he was conducted to the Councell chamber, where hauing had conference with the councell of matters of his ambassage, he was soone after sent for againe to the Emperour, where he dined in his presence at a side table, nere vnto him, and all his company at another boord, where also dined at other tables in the same place, all the chiefe noble men that were about the Court, to the number of an hundred. And in the time of this dinner, the Emperor vsed many fauors to the ambassadour and about the midst of dinner (standing vp) dranke a great carouse to the health of the Queene his good sister, and sent him a great bowle full of Rhenish wine and sugar to pledge him. The ambassadour after this, was often called to Court, where he had conference both with the Emperour and his councell of the matters in question, touching both ambassages, which diuers times raised many iarres: and in the end, after sundry meetings, the Emperour finding himself not satisfied to his liking, for that the ambassadour had not power by his commission to yeeld to euery thing that he thought fit, as a man whose will was seldom wonted to be gainsayd, let loose his passion, and with a sterne and angry countenance tolde him that he did not reckon the Queene of England to be his fellow: for there are (quoth he) that are her betters. The ambassadour greatly misliking these speeches, and being very vnwilling (how dangerous soeuer it might prooue to his owne person) to giue way to the Emperor, to derogate ought from the honour and greatness of her Maiesty: and finding also that to subiect himselfe to the angrie humour and disposition of the Emperour was not the means to winne ought at his hands, with like courage and countenance to answere his, tolde him that the Queene his Mistresse was as great a prince as any was in Christendome, equall to him that thought himselfe the greatest, well able to defend herselfe against his malice, whosoeuer, and wanted no means to offend any that either shee had or should haue cause to be enemy vnto. Yea (quoth he) How sayest thou to the French king, and the king of Spaine? Mary (quoth the ambassadour) I holde the Queene my Mistresse as great as any of them both. Then what sayest thou (quoth hee) to the Emperour of Germany? Such is the greatnesse of the Queene my Mistresse (quoth the Ambassadour) as the King, her father had (not long since) the Emperor in his pay, in his warres against France. This answer misliked the Emperor yet so much more, as that he tolde the Ambassadour, that were he not an ambassador, he would throw him out of the doores. Whereunto he answered that he might doe his will, for he was now fast within his countrey: but he had a Mistresse who (he doubted not) would be reuenged of any iniury that should be done vnto him. Whereupon the Emperour in great sudden bade him get him home. And he with no more reuerence then such vsage required, saluted the Emperor and went his way. All this notwithstanding, the ambassadour was not much sooner out of the chamber, and the Emperours cholar somewhat setled, but he deliuered to his councell that stood about him many commendations in the fauor of the Ambassador, for that he would not indure one ill word to be spoken against his mistresse, and there withall wished himselfe to haue such a seruant. The Ambassadour had not beene much more then one houre in his lodgings, but the Emperour imagining (as it seemed) by the extraordinary behauiour of the ambassador (for he wanted not wit to iudge) that he had found what was the Emperors case, sent his principall secretary vnto him, to tell him, that notwithstanding what had past, yet for the great loue that he bare to the Queene his sister, he should very shortly be called againe to Court, and haue a resolution of all the matters in question: and this secretary was now further content to impart, and sayd to the ambassadour that the Empereur was fully resolued to send a greater, noble man vnto him in ambassage to the Queene his sister, then euer he yet at any time sent out of his countrey: and that he determined also to send to the Queene a present woorth three thousand pounds, and to gratifie himselfe at his departure with a gift that should be woorth a thousand pounds: and tolde him also that the next day the Emperour would send a great noble man vnto him, to conferre with him of certaine abuses done him by Shalkan the chancellor, and his ministers. And so the day following he sent Bodan Belskoy the chiefest counceller that he had, a man most in credit with him: this man examined all matters wherewith the ambassador had found himselfe grieued, and supplied him, with what hee wanted, and righted him in all things wherein hee had beene wronged. Not long after the returne of this noble man, the Emperor caused to be set downe in his owne presence, a new and much larger allowance of diet for the ambassador then he had had before, and shortly after sent the same to the ambassadour by his principall Secretarie Sauio Frollo. This diet was so great, as the ambassadour oftentimes sought to haue it lessened, but the Emperour would not by any means. The scroule of the new diet was this: One bushel of fine meale for three dayes. One bushel of wheate meale for a day and a halfe. Two liue geese for one day. Twenty hennes for the day. Seuen sheepe for a day. One oxe for three dayes. One side of pork for a day. Seuentie egges for a day. Ten pound of butter. Seuenty peny white loaues of bread. Twelue peny loaues of bread. One veather or gallon of vinegar. Two veathers of salt cabiges. One pecke of onions. Ten pound of salt. On altine, or sixe peny woorth of waxe candles. Two altines of tallow candles. One fourth part of a veather of cherrie mead. As much of Malynouomead. Halfe a veather of burnt wine. One veather of sodden mead called Obarni. Three veathers of sweet mead. Ten veathers of white mead. Fifteene veathers of ordinary mead. Foure veathers of sweet beere. Fiftene veathers of beere. Halfe a pound of pepper. Three sollitincks or ounces of saffron. One sollitincke of mase. One sollitincke of nutmegs. Two sollitincks of cloues. Three sollitincks of sinamon. Prouender. One bushell of oats. One load of hay. One load of straw. Now he began so much to discouer his purpose and affections towards her Maiesty and her countrey, as he sent to the ambassador, intreating him that his preacher [Marginal note: M. Cole.], and doctor Iacob his English physician, might set downe the points of the religion in vse in England, which the Ambassadour caused to be done accordingly, and sent them vnto him, who seemed so well to like them, as he caused them (with much good allowance) to be publikely read before diuers of his councell, and many others of his nobility. Now he drew hotly againe in question to marry, some kinsewoman of her Maiesties, and that he would send againe into England, to haue some one of them to wife, and if her Maiestie would not vpon his next Ambassage send him such a one as he required, himselfe would then goe into England, and cary his treasure with him, and marry one of them there. Here you must vnderstand that the yeere before this ambassage, he had sent to her Maiesty by his ambassador to haue had the lady Mary Hastings in marriage, which intreaty by meanes of her inability of body, by occasion of much sicknesse, or perhaps, of no great liking either of herselfe or friends, or both, tooke no place. The ambassador was now so farre growen into the Emperors fauor, and his affection so great to England, as those great councellors that were the Ambassadors great enemies before, were now desirous of some publike courtesies at his hands for their aduantage to the Emperour: neither durst they, now any more interpose themselues twixt the Emperour and him: for not long before this, the Emperor for abusing the ambassador, had (to shew his fauour towards him) beaten Shalkan the chanceller very grieuously, and had sent him word, that he would not leaue one of his race aliue. Now whilest the ambassador was thus strongly possest of the Emperours fauor, he imployed himselfe in all he might, not onely for the speedy dispatch of the negociation he had in hand, but laboured also by all the good means he might, further to benefit his country and countreymen, and so not long after wanne at the Emperours hands not onely all those things he had in commission to treat for by his instructions, but also some other of good and great importance, for the benefit of the merchants. Priuate sutes obteined of the Emperor by the ambassador. Leaue for Richard Fransham an English man and apothecary to the Emperour, his wife, and children to come home into England, and to bring with him all such goods as he had gotten there. He obteined like leaue for Richard Elmes an English man one of the Emperours surgions. He also got leaue for Iane Ricards the widow of Doctor Bomelius a Dutchman, and physician to the Emperour, who, for treason practised with the king of Pole against the sayd Emperour, was rosted to death at the city of Mosco, in the yere 1579. These following he obteined for the behoofe of the merchants. He procured for the merchants promise of recompence for certaine goods taken from their factors by robbery vpon the Volga. He obtained likewise the payment of fiue hundred marks, which was payd for ten yeeres before his going into Russia (into the Emperors receit) for a rent of a house that they had at Vologda. He also got granted for them the repayment of fifteene hundred marks, which had bene exacted of them the two last yeres before his comming thither. He got also for them order for the repayment of an olde and desperate debt of three thousand marks, a debt so desperate, as foure yeeres left out of their accounts, and by the opinion of them all, not thought fit to be dealt with, for too much offending the Emperour, or impeaching his other businesse, which was thought at least otherwise sufficient, and was therefore left out of his instructions from her Maiesty. He obteined that all strangers were forbidden to trade any more into Russia, and that the passage and trade to all the Emperors Northern coasts and countries, from the Wardhouse to the riuer of Ob should be onely free to the English nation. Lastly, of a great desire he had to do the merchants good, without motion either of themselues here, or their Agents there, or any other of them, he obteined of the Emperour the abatement of all their custome which they had long before payd, and agreed still to continue, which custome the Dutchmen and strangers being remooued, as now it was agreed, amounted to two thousand pounds yerely. All these were granted, some already payd before his comming from Mosco, the olde priuilege ratified, newly written, signed and sealed, and was to be deliuered to the ambassadour at his next comming to Court, before when the Emperor fell sicke of a surfet, and so died. After whose death the case was woondrously altered with the ambassador: for whereas both, in his owne conceit, and in all mens opinion els, he was in great forwardnes to haue growen a great man with the Emperor, what for the loue he bare to her Maiesty, and the particular liking he had of himselfe, he now fell into the hands of his great enemies, Mekita Romanouich and Andre Shalkan the chanceller, who, after the death of the Emperour, tooke the speciall gouernment upon themselues, and so presently caused the Ambassadour to be shut vp a close prisoner in his owne house, for the space of nine weeks, and was so straightly guarded and badly vsed by those that attended him, as he dayly suspected some further mischiefe to haue followed: for in this time there grew a great vprore in Mosco of nigh twenty thousand persons, which remembring that his enemies reigned, somewhat amazed the ambassadour, but yet afterwards the matter fell out against that great counsellor Bodan Belskoy, whom I noted before to be a speciall man in the old Emperors fauor: who was now notwithstanding so outragiously assaulted, as that he was forced to seeke the Emperors chamber for his safety, and was afterwards sent away to Cazan, a place he had in gouernment, fiue hundred miles from Mosco, where he hath remained euer since, and neuer as yet called againe to court, at which time the ambassador expected some such like measure, and prepared himselfe aswell as he could, for his defence: yet happily after this, was sent for to court, to haue his dispatch, and to take his leaue of the Emperor: whither being conducted (not after the woonted maner) and brought to the councell chamber, came to him onely Shalkan the chanceller and a brother of his, who without more adoe, tolde him for the summe of his dispatch, that this Emperour would not treat of further amity with the Queene his mistresse, then such as was betweene his late father and her, before his comming thither: and would not heare any reply to be made by the ambassadour, but presently caused both himselfe and all his company to be disarmed of their weapons; and go towards the Emperor. In which passage there were such outrages offered him as had he not vsed more patience then his disposition afforded him, or the occasion required, he had not in likelihood escaped with life, but yet at length was brought to the presence of the Emperour who sayd nothing to him, but what the chancellor had already done, but offered him a letter to carry to her Maiesty, which the ambassadour (for that he knew it conteined nothing that did concerne his ambassage) refused till he saw his danger grow too great: neither would the Emperour suffer the ambassadour to reply ought, nor well he could, for they had now of purpose taken away his interpretor, being yet vnwilling (as it seemed, and suspecting the ambassadours purpose) that the Emperor and other should know how dishonourably he had beene handled: [Sidenote: The great friendship of L. Boris Pheodorouich.] for there, was at that time, in that presence a noble braue gentleman, one Boris Pheodorouich Godenoe, brother to the Emperor that now is, who yet after the death or the Emperour did alwayes vse the ambassadour most honorably, and would very willingly haue done him much more kindnesse, but his authority was not yet, till the coronation of the Emperor: but notwithstanding he sent often vnto him, not long before his departure, and accompanied his many honourable fauours with a present of two faire pieces of cloth of golde, and a tymber of very good sables: and desired that as there was kindnesse and brotherhood twixt the Emperor and her Maiesty, so there might be loue and brotherhood twixt him and the Ambassadour. Sauing from this man, there was now no more fauour left for the ambassadour in Moscouia: for the chanceller Shalkan had now sent him word that the English Emperor was dead: he had now nothing offered him but dangers and disgraces too many, and a hasty dispatch from the Mosco, that he might not tary the coronation of the new Emperour: offences many in his preparation for his long iourney, onely one meane gentleman appointed to accompany him to the sea side, expecting daily in his passage some sudden reuenge to be done vpon him, for so he understood it was threatned before his comming from the Mosco, and therefore with resolution prouided by all the meanes he might, by himselfe and his seruants for his defence (for now was his danger knowen such, as the English merchants did altogether leaue him, although he commanded them in her Maiesties name to accompany him) that if any such thing should happen to be offered him, as many of them as he could that should offer to execute it, should die with him for company: which being perceiued was thought to make his passage the safer. So afterward being driuen to disgest many iniuries by the way, at length he recouered S. Nicholas, where remembring his vnfortunate losse of the old Emperor and his ill vsage since then at the Mosco, he being forced to take a bare letter for the summe of his dispatch, conteyning nothing of that he came for, and the poore and disgraceful present sent him (in the name of the Emperour) in respect of that that was meant him by the old Emperor, knowing all these to be done in disgrace of her Maiestie and himselfe, determined now to be discharged of some part of them in such sort as he could, and so prouiding as he might to preuent his danger, in getting to his shippe, furnishing and placing his men to answere any assault that should be offered him, after he had bidden farewell to the vncourteous gentleman that brought him thither, by three or foure of the valiantest and discreetest men he had, he sent to be deliuered him or left at his lodging, his maisters weake letter, and worsse present, and so afterwards happily (though hardly) recouered his ship in safetie, although presently afterwards, there was great hurly burly after him, to force him to receiue the same againe, but failed of their purpose. So came the ambassadour from S. Nicholas the twelfth day of August, and arriued at Grauesend the twelfth of September following, and attended her Maiestie at the court at Otelands, where, after hauing kist her Maiesties hands, and deliuered some part of the successe of his ambassage, he presented her an Elke or Loshe, the Red deere of the countrey, and also a brace of Raine deare, Buck and Doe, both bearing very huge hornes: they in her Maiesties presence drew a sled and a man vpon it, after the maner of the Samoeds, a people that inhabite in the Northeast from Russia and were that yeere come ouer the sea in the winter season vpon the yce, in their sleds, drawen with these deere into Russia, where the ambassadour bought of them seuenteene, whereof he brought nine aliue into Kent. * * * * * The maner of the preferring of sutes in Russia, by the example of our English merchants bill, exhibited to the Emperour. Iohn Basiliwich, Lord, King, and great Duke of all Russia, the English merchants, William sonne of Thomas, with his company sue vnto. Lord, in the 7082. yeere of the worlds creation, thy Maiesties treasurer, named Gregorie Mekitowich Borozden, tooke of vs for thy vse 12. poods of loafe sugar, prised at 8. robles the pood, which sugar was sent to the Sloboda [Marginal note: The Emperours house of recreation.]. More, the sayd Gregorie treasurer, tooke of vs for thy Maiestie 200. reames of paper, prised at 20. altines the reame, for all which the money hath not bene payd which amounteth to 216. robles. And in the 84. yeere thy diake Stephan Lighachdo tooke of vs for thy Maiesty copper plates, for the summe of 1032. robles and one fourth part vnpayd for. Also in the said 84. yeere thy Maiesties diakes called Iuan Blasghoy, and Iuan Sobakin tooke of us for thy vse, sundry commodities and haue not payd 630. robles, the rest of the money due for the said goods. In the 83. yeere thy Maiesties treasurer Peter Gholauen tooke of vs for thy Maiestie, cloth of sundry sorts, and hath not payd of the money due therefore 538 robles. In the 88. yere, thy diakes Andrea Shalkan, and Istomay Yeuskoy tooke of vs lead for thy Maiestie, to the value of 267. robles and a halfe not payd. And in the same yeere thy Maiesties diak Boris Gregoriwich had for thy vse 15. broad cloths of diuerse sorts, prised at 210. robles, whereof 90. robles are vnpayd. Also in the said 88. yere thy diak Andrea Shalkan tooke from vs 1000. robles for thee (Lord) in ready money, yet we know not whether by thy Maiesties appointment. And also in the 89. yeere (Lord) thy diak Andrea Shalkan tooke from vs for thy Maiesty 500. robles, we know not whether by thy Maiesties order or no, because that thy authorized people do yeerely take away from vs, neither do they giue vs right in any cause. All the mony (Lord) which is not payd vs out of thy Maiesties treasury for our commodities or wares, with the money taken from vs by Andrea Shalkan, is 4273. robles 25. altines. Right noble king and Lord, shew thy mercy, and cause the money to be payd vs which is owing for our goods, as also that which has beene taken from vs: extend thy fauor, King and Lord. * * * * * A letter of M. Henrie Lane to the worshipfull M. William Sanderson, conteining a briefe discourse of that which passed in the the Northeast discouery for the space of three and thirtie yeres. Master Sanderson, as you lately requested mee, so haue I sought, and though I cannot finde things that heretofore I kept in writing and lent out to others, yet perusing at London copies of mine old letters to content one that meaneth to pleasure many, I haue briefly and as truely as I may, drawen out as foloweth: the rough hewing may be planed at your leasure, or as pleaseth him that shall take the paines. First the honorable attempt to discouer by sea Northeast and Northwest named for Cathay, being chiefly procured by priuiledge from king Edward the sixt, and other his nobilitie, by and at the cost and sute of M. Sebastian Cabota, then gouernor for discoueries with sir Andrew Iudde, sir George Barnes, sir William Garrard, M. Anthonie Hussie, and a companie of merchants, was in the last yeere of his Maiesties reigne 1553. [Sidenote: Anno 1553 M. William Burrough was then yong, and with his brother in this first voyage.] The generall charge whereof was committed to one sir Hugh Willoughbie knight, a goodly Gentleman, accompanied with sufficient number of Pilots, Maisters, Merchants and Mariners, hauing three shippes well furnished, to wit, The Bona Sperança, the Edward Bonaduenture, and the Confidentia. The Edward Bonaduenture, Richard Chanceller being Pilot, and Steuen Burrough Maister, hauing discouered Wardhouse vpon the coast of Finmark, by storme or fogge departed from the rest, found the bay of S. Nicholas now the chiefe port for Russia, there wintred in safetie, and had ayde of the people at a village called Newnox. [Sidenote: Newnox is from the road of S. Nicholas Westward 35. miles.] The other two shippes attempting further Northwards (as appeared by pamphlets found after written by Sir Hugh Willoughbie) were in September encountered with such extreame colde, that they put backe to seeke a wintring place: and missing the saide baye fell vpon a desert coast in Lappia, entring into a Riuer immediately frozen vp, since discouered, named Arzina Reca, distant East from, a Russian Monastery of Monkes called Pechingho, from whence they neuer returned, but all to the number of 70. persons perished, which was for want of experience to haue made caues and stoues. [Sidenote: Note.] These were found with the shippes the next Summer Anno 1554. by Russe fishermen: and in Anno 1555. the place sent vnto by English merchants as hereafter appeareth. [Sidenote: Anno 1554.] Anno 1554. the sayd shippe Edward Bonaduenture (although robbed homewards by Flemings) returned with her company to London, shewing and setting foorth their entertainments and discouery of the countreys euen to the citie of Mosco, from whence they brought a priuilege written in Russe with the Kings or great Dukes seale, the other two shippes looked for and vnknowen to them where they were. [Sidenote: Anno 1555.] An. 1555. the said company of Merchants for discouerie vpon a new supply, sent thither againe with two ships, to wit, the Edward Bonaduenture, and another bearing the name of the King and Queene, Philip and Marie, [Sidenote: The King and Queenes letters.] whose Maiesties by their letters to the said Moscouite, recommended sundry their subiects then passing, whereof certaine, to wit, Richard Chanceller, George Killingworth, Henry Lane, and Arthur Edwards, after their arriuall at the Bay, and passing vp Dwina to Vologda went first to Mosco, where, vpon knowledge of the said letters, they with their traine had speciall entertainment, with houses and diet appointed, and shortly permitted to the princes presence, they were with gentlemen brought through the citie of Mosco, to the castle and palace, replenished with numbers of people, and some gunners. They entred sundry roomes, furnished in shew with ancient graue personages, all in long garments of sundry colours, golde, tissue, baldekin, and violet, as our vestments and copes haue bene in England, sutable with caps, iewels, and chaines. These were found to be no countries, but ancient Moscouites, inhabitants, and other their merchants of credite, as the maner is, furnished thus from the Wardrobe and Treasurie, waiting and wearing this apparell for the time, and so to restore it. Then entring into the presence, being a large roome floored with carpets, were men of more estate, and richer shew, in number aboue an hundred set square: who after the said English men came in, doing reuerence, they all stood vp, the prince onely sitting, and yet rising at any occasion, when our King and Queenes names were read or spoken. Then after speeches by interpretation, our men kissing his hande, and bidden to dinner, were stayed in another roome, and at dinner brought through, where might be seene massie siluer and gilt plate, some like and as bigge as kilderkins, and washbowles, and entring the dining place, being the greater roome, the prince was set bare headed, his crowne and and rich cappe standing vpon a pinnacle by. Not farre distant sate his Metropolitane, with diuers other of his kindred, and chiefe Tartarian Captaines: none sate ouer against him, or any, at other tables, their backes towards him: which tables all furnished with ghests set, there was for the Englishmen, named by the Russes, Ghosti Carabelski, to wit, strangers or merchants by ship, a table in the middest of the roome, where they were set direct against the prince: and then began the seruice, brought in by a number of his yoong Lordes and Gentlemen, in such rich attire, as is aboue specified: and still from the Princes table (notwithstanding their owne furniture) they had his whole messes set ouer all in massie fine golde, deliuered euery time from him by name to them, by their seuerall Christian names, as they sate, viz. Richard, George, Henry, Arthur. [Sidenote: M. Killingworths beard of a marueilous length.] Likewise bread and sundry drinkes of purified mead, made of fine white and clarified honie. At their rising, the prince called them to his table, to receiue each one a cup from his hand to drinke, and tooke in his hand Master George Killingworths beard, which reached ouer the table, and pleasantly deliuered it the Metropolitane, who seeming to blesse it, sayd in Russe, this is Gods gift. As in deede at that time it was not onely thicke, broad, and yellow coloured, but in length fiue foot and two inches of assize. Then taking leaue, being night, they were accompanied and followed with a number, carying pots of drinke, and dishes of meat dressed, to our lodging. This yeere the two shippes, with the dead bodies of Sir Hugh Willoughbie, and his people, were sent vnto by Master Killingworth, (which remained there in Mosco Agent almost two yeeres) and much of the goods and victuals were recouered and saued. [Sidenote: Anno 1556.] Anno 1556. The company sent two ships for Russia, with extraordinary masters and saylers to bring home the two ships, which were frozen in Lappia, in the riuer of Arzina aforesaid. The two ships sent this yeere from England sailing from Lapland to the Bay of S. Nicholas, tooke in lading with passengers, to wit, a Russe ambassador, named Ioseph Napea, and some of his men shipped with Richard Chanceller in the Edward. But so it fell out that the two which came from Lappia, with all their new Masters and Mariners, neuer were heard of, but in foule weather, and wrought seas, after their two yeeres wintring in Lapland, became, as is supposed, vnstanch, and sunke, wherein were drowned also diuers Russes merchants, and seruants of the ambassadour. A third shippe the Edward aforesayd, falling on the North part of Scotland, vpon a rocke was also lost, and Master Chanceller, with diuers other, drowned. The sayd Russe ambassadour hardly escaping, with other his men, mariners, and some goods saued, were sent for into Scotland, from the King, Queene, and Merchants (the messenger being M. Doctor Laurence Hussie, and others:) And then, as in the chronicles appeareth, honorably enterteined and receiued at London. This yeere also the company furnished and sent out a pinnesse, named the Serchthrift, to discouer the harborowes in the North coast from Norway to Wardhouse, and so to the Bay of S. Nicholas. There was in her Master and Pilot, Stephen Burrough, with his brother William, and eight other. Their discouery was beyond the Bay, towarde the Samoeds, people dwelling neare the riuer of Ob, and found a sound or sea with an Island called Vaigats, first by them put into the Carde or Mappe. In that place they threw snowe out of their said pinnesse, with shouels in August, by which extremitie, and lacke of time, they came backe to Russia, and wintred at Colmogro. [Sidenote: Anno 1557.] Anno 1557. The company with foure good ships, sent backe the said Russe ambassadour, and in company with him, sent as an Agent, for further discouery, Master Anthony Ienkinson, who afterward anno 1558, with great fauour of the prince of Moscouia, and his letters passed the riuer Volga to Cazan, and meaning to seeke Cathay by land, was by many troupes and companies of vnciuil Tartarians encountred, and in danger: [Sidenote: Boghar voyage. 1560.] but keeping company with merchants of Bactria, of Boghar, and Vrgeme, trauelling with camels, he with his company, went to Boghar, and no further: whose entertainment of the king is to be had of master Ienkinson, which returned anno 1559. to Moscouie. [Sidenote: The first trade to the Narue. 1560.] And in anno 1560. he with Henry Lane, came home into England: which yeere was the first safe returne, without losse or shipwracke, or dead fraight, and burnings. And at this time was the first traffike to the Narue in Liuonia, which confines with Lituania, and all the dominions of Russia: and the markets, faires, commodities, great townes and riuers, were sent vnto by dyuers seruants: the reports were taken by Henry Lane, Agent, and deliuered to the companie, 1561. The trade to Rie, and Reuel, of old time hath bene long since frequented by our English nation, but this trade to the Narue was hitherto concealed from vs by the Danskers and Lubeckers. Anno 1561. the said Master Anthony Ienkinson went Agent into Russia; who the next yeere after, passing all the riuer of Volga to Astracan, and ouer the Caspian sea, arriued in Persia, and opened the trade thither. [Sidenote: Alcock slaine in Persia. Bannister died in Media. Edwards died at Astracan.] Also betweene the yeeres 1568. and 1573. sundry voyages after Master Ienkinsons, were made by Thomas Alcock, Arthur Edwards, Master Thomas Banister, and Master Geffrey Ducket, whose returne (if spoyle neere Volga had not preuented by rouing theeues) had altogether salued and recouered the companies (called the olde companies) great losse, charges, and damages: but the saying is true, By vnitie small things grow great, and by contention great things become small. This may be vnderstood best by the company. The forwardnesse of some few, euill doing of some vniust factors, was cause of muche of the euill successe. Arthur Edwards was sent againe 1579. and died in the voyage at Astcacan. About which matters, are to be remembred the voyages of Master Thomas Randolph Esquire, Ambassador, anno 1567. And late of Sir Ierome Bowes, anno 1583. both tending and treating for further discoueries, freedomes, and priuileges, wherewith I meddle not. But in conclusion, for their paines and aduentures this way (as diuers do now adayes other wayes) as worthy Gentlemen sent from princes, to doe their countrey good, I put them in your memorie, with my hearty farewell. From S. Margarets neere Dartforth in Kent. Yours Henry Lane. * * * * * The most solemne, and magnificent coronation of Pheodor [Marginal note: Or Theodor.] Iuanowich, Emperour of Russia &c. the tenth of Iune, in the yeere 1584; seene and obserued by Master Ierome Horsey gentleman, and seruant to her Maiesty, a man of great trauell, and long experience in those parts: wherewith is also ioyned the course of his iourney ouer land from Mosco to Emden. [Sidenote: The death of Iuan Vasiliwich, 1584. Apr. 18.] When the old Emperour Iuan Vasiliwich died, (being about the eighteenth of Aprill, 1584. after our computation) in the citie of Mosco, hauing raigned 54 yeeres, there was some tumult and vprore among some of the nobilitie, and cominaltie, which notwithstanding was quickly pacified. [Sidenote: L. Boris adopted as the Emperors third sonne.] Immediately the same night, the Prince Boris Pheodorowich Godonoua, Knez Iuan Pheodorowich, Mesthis Slafsky, Knez Iuan Petrowich Susky, Mekita Romanowich and Bodan Iacoulewich Belskoy, being all noble men, and chiefest in the Emperors Will, especially the Lord Boris, whom he adopted as his third sonne, and was brother to the Empresse, who was a man very wel liked of al estates, as no lesse worthy for his valure and wisdome: all these were appointed to dispose, and settle his sonne Pheodor Iuanowich, hauing one sworne another, and all the nobilitie, and officers whosoeuer. In the morning the dead Emperor was layd into the Church of Michael the Archangel, into a hewen sepulcre, very richly decked with vestures fit for such a purpose: and present Proclamation was made, (Emperor Pheodor Iuanowich of all Russia, &c.). Throughout all the citie of Mosco was great watch and ward, with souldiers, and gunners, good orders established, and officers placed to subdue the tumulters, and mainteine quietnes: to see what speede and policie was in this case vsed was a thing worth the beholding. This being done in Mosco, great men of birth and accompt were also presently sent to the bordering Townes, as Smolensko, Vobsko, Kasan, Nouogorod &c. with fresh garrison, and the old sent vp. As vpon the 4. of May a parliament was held, wherein were assembled, the Metropolitane, Archbishops, Bishops, Priors, and chiefe clergie men, and all the nobility whatsoeuer: where many matters were determined not pertinent to my purpose, yet all tended to a new reformation in the gouernment: but especially the terme, and time was agreed vpon for the solempnizing of the new Emperors coronation. [Sidenote: The old Empresse, her father, and her yong sonne sent to Ouglets.] In the meane time the Empresse, wife to the old Emperor, was with her child the Emperors sonne, Charlewich Demetrie Iuanowich, of one yeres age or there abouts, sent with her father Pheodor Pheodorowich Nagay, and that kindred, being 5. Brothers, to a towne called Ouglets, which was giuen ynto her, and the young Prince her sonne, with all the lands belonging to it in the shire, with officers of all sortes appointed, hauing allowance of apparell, iewels, diet, horse &c. in ample maner belonging to the estate of a princesse. [Sidenote: The day of Pheodor his coronation.] The time of mourning after their vse being expired, called Sorachyn, or fortie orderlie dayes, the day of the solemnizing of this coronation, with great preparations, was come, being vpon the 10. day of Iune, 1584: and that day then Sunday; he being of the age of 25. yeres: at which time, Master Ierome Horsey was orderly sent for, and placed in a fit roome to see all the solemnitie. The Emperor comming out of his Pallace, there went before him, the Metropolitan, Archbishops, Bishops, and chiefest Monkes, and Clergie men, with very rich Copes, and Priestes garments vpon them, carying pictures of our Ladie &c. with the Emperours Angell, banners, censers, and many other such ceremonious things, singing all the way. The Emperour with his nobilitie in order entred the Church named Blaueshina, or Blessednes, where prayers, and seruice were vsed, according to the maner of their Church: that done, they went thence to the Church, called Michael the Archangell, and there also vsed the like prayers, and seruice: and from thence to our Lady Church, Prechista, being their Cathedrall Church. In the middest thereof was a chaire of maiestie placed, wherein his Auncestors vsed to sit at such extraordinarie times: his robes were then changed, and most rich and vnualuable garments put on him: being placed in this Princely seate, his nobility standing round about him in their degres, his imperiall Crowne was set vpon his head by the Metropolitane, his Scepter globe in his right hand, his sword of Iustice in his left of great riches: his 6. Crownes also, by which he holdeth his kingdomes were set before him, and the Lord Boris Pheodorowich was placed at his right hand: then the Metropolitan read openly a booke of a small volume, with exhortations to the Emperour to minister true iustice, to inioy with tranquilitie the Crowne of his auncestors, which God had giuen him, and vsed these words following. Through the will of the almighty and without beginning God, which was before this world, whom we glorifie in the Trinitie, one onely God, the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, maker of all things, worker of all in all euery where, fulfiller of all things, by which will, and working, he both liueth, and giueth life to man: that our only God which enspireth euery one of vs his only children with his word to discerne God through our Lord Iesus Christ, and the holy quickning spirit of life, now in these perilous times establish vs to keep the right Scepter, and suffer vs to raigne of our selues to the good profit of the land, to the subduing of the people, together with the enemies, and the maintenance of vertue. And so the Metropolitan blessed and layd his crosse vpon him. After this, he was taken out of his chaire of Maiestie, hauing vpon him an vpper robe adorned with precious stones of all sorts, orient pearles of great quantitie, but alwayes augmented in riches: it was in waight two hundred pounds, the traine, and parts thereof borne vp by 6. Dukes, his chiefe imperiall Crowne vpon his head very precious: his staffe imperiall in his right hand of an vnicornes horne of three foot and a halfe in length beset with rich stones, bought of Merchants of Ausburge by the old Emperour in An. 1581, and cost him 7000. Markes sterling. This Iewel M. Horsey kept sometimes, before the Emperor had it. His scepter globe was caried before him by the prince Boris Pheodorowich, his rich cap beset with rich stones and pearles was caried before him by a Duke: his 6. Crownes also were caried by Demetrius Iuanowich Godonoua, the Emperors vncle, Mekita Romanowich the Emperors vncle, Stephan Vasiliwich, Gregory Vasiliwich, Iuan Vasiliwich brothers of the blood royal. Thus at last the Emperor came to the great Church doore, and the people cried, God saue our Emperour Pheodor Iuanowich of al Russia, His horse was there ready most richly adorned, with a couering of imbrodered pearle, and precious stones, saddle, and all furniture agreeable to it, reported to be worth 300000. markes sterling. There was a bridge made of 150. fadome in length, three maner of waies, three foote aboue ground and two fadome broad, for him to goe from one Church to the other with his Princes and nobles from the presse of the people, which were in number infinite, and some at that time pressed to death with the throng. As the Emperour returned out of the Churches, they were spred vnder foot with cloth of gold, the porches of the Church with red veluet, the bridges with scarlet, and stammell cloth from one church to another: and as soone as the Emperor was passed by, the cloth of gold, veluet and scarlet was cut, and taken of those that could come by it, euery man desirous to haue a piece, to reserue it for a monument: siluer and gold coyne, then mynted of purpose was cast among the people in great quantitie. The lord Boris Pheodorowich was sumptuously, and richly attired, with his garments decked with great orient pearle, beset with al sorts of precious stones. In like rich maner were appareled all the family of the Godonouaes in their degrees, with the rest of the princes, and nobilitie, whereof one named Knez Iuan Michalowich Glynsky, whose robe, horse, and furniture, was in register found worth one hundred thousand markes sterling, being of great antiquitie. The Empresse being in her pallace, was placed in her chaire of Maiesty also before a great open window: most precious, and rich were her robes, and shining to behold, with rich stones, and orient pearle beset, her crowne was placed vpon her head, accompanied with her Princesses, and Ladies of estate: then cried out the people, God preserue our noble Empresse Irenia. After all this the Emperour came into the Parliament house which was richly decked: there he was placed in his royall seat adorned as before: his 6. crownes were set before him vpon a table; the basin, and ewer royall of gold held by his knight of gard with his men standing two on each, side in white apparell of cloth of siluer, called Kindry, with scepters, and battle axes of gold in their hands: the Princes, and nobilitie were all placed according to their degrees, all in their rich roabs. The Emperour after a short oration, permitted euery man in order to kisse his hande: which being done, he remoued to a princely seate prepared for him at the table: where he was serued by his nobles in very princely order. The three out roomes being very great, and large were beset with plate of golde, and siluer round, from the ground vp to the vaults one vpon the other: among which plate were many barrels of siluer, and golde: this solemnitie, and triumph lasted a whole weeke, wherein many royall pastimes were shewed and vsed: after which the chiefest men of the nobilitie were elected to their places of office, and dignitie, as the Prince Boris Pheodorowich was made chiefe Counseller to the Emperor, Master of the horse, had the charge of his person, Liuetenant of the Empire, and Warlike engins, Gouernor or Liuetenant of the Empire of Cazan, and Astracan and others: to this dignitie were by Parliament, and gift of the Emperor giuen him many reuenues, and rich lands, as there was giuen him, and his for euer to inherite a prouince called Vaga, of 300. English miles in length, and 250. in bredth, with many townes and great villages populous and wealthy, his yeerely reuenue out of that prouince, is 35. thousand markes sterling, being not the 5. part of his yerely reuenue. Further, he and his house be of such authoritie, and power, that in 40. days warning they are able to bring into the fielde 100. thousand Souldiers well furnished. The conclusion of the Emperors Coronation was a peale of ordinance, called a peale royall two miles without the citie, being 170. great pieces of brasse of all sorts, as faire as any can be made, these pieces were all discharged with shot against bulwarkes made of purpose: 20. thousand hargubusers standing in 8. rankes two miles in length, appareled all in veluet, coloured silke and stammels, discharged their shot also twise ouer in good order: and so the Emperor accompanied with all his princes and nobles, at the least 50. thousand horse departed through the City to his pallace. This royall coronation would aske much time, and many leaues of paper to be described particularly as it was performed: it shal suffice, to vnderstahd that the like magnificence was neuer seen in Russia. The coronation, and other triumphes ended, al the nobilitie, officers, and merchants according to an accustomed order euery one in his place, and degree brought rich presents vnto the Emperor, wishing him long life, and ioy in his kingdome. [Sidenote: Iohn de Wale.] The same time also Master Ierom Horsey aforesaid, remayning as seruant in Russia for the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, was called for to the Emperor, as he sate in his imperiall seat, and then also a famous Merchant of Netherland being newly come to Mosco, (who gaue him selfe out to be the king of Spaines subiect) called Iohn de Wale, was in like sort called for. Some of the nobilitie would haue preferred this subiect of the Spaniard before Master Horsey seruant to the Queene of England, whereunto Master Horsey would in no case agree, saying, he would haue his legges cut off by the knees, before he would yeeld to such an indignitie offered to his Soueraigne the Queenes Maiesty of England, to bring the Emperor a present, in course after the King of Spaines subiect, or any other whatsoeuer. The Emperor, and the Prince Boris Pheodorowich perceiuing the controuersie, sent the Lord Treasorer Peter Iuanowich Galauyn, and Vasili Shalkan, both of the Counsell, to them, who deliuered the Emperor backe, Master Horseys speech: whereupon he was first in order (as good reason) admitted and presented the Emperor in the behalfe of the English merchants trading thither, a present wishing him ioy, and long to raigne in tranquilitie, and so kissed the Emperors hand, he accepting the present with good liking, and auouching, that for his sisters sake Queene Elizabeth of England, he would be a gracious Lord to her Merchants, in as ample maner as euer his father had ben: and being dismissed, he had the same day sent him 70. dishes of sundry kinds of meats, with 3. carts laden with al sorts of drinks very bountifully. After him was the foresayd subiect of the Spanish king admitted with his present, whom the Emperor willed to be no lesse faithfull and seruiceable vnto him, then the Queene of Englands subiects were and had bene, and then the king of Spaines subiects should receiue fauour accordingly. All these things thus in order performed, praises were sung in all the churches. The Emperor and Empresse very deuoutly resorted on foote to many principal Churches in the Citie, and vpon Trinitie Sunday betooke themselues to a progresse in order of procession, to a famous monasterie called Sergius and the Trinitie 60. miles distant from the Citie of Mosco, accompanied with a huge armie of Noblemen, Gentlemen, and others, mounted vpon goodly horses with furniture accordingly. The Empresse of deuotion tooke this iourney on foot all the way, accompanied with her princesses and ladies, no small number: her guard and gunners were in number 20000, her chiefe counseller or attendant, was a noble man of the blood Roial her vncle of great authoritie called Demetri Iuanowich Godonoua. All this progresse ended, both the Emperor and Empresse returned to Mosco: shortly after the Emperor by the direction of the prince Boris Pheodorowich, sent a power into the land of Siberia, where all the rich Sables and Furres are gotten. This power conquered in one yeere and a halfe, 1000. miles. [Sidenote: Chare Siberski prince of Siberia taken prisoner and brought to Mosco.] In the performance of this warre, there was taken prisoner the Emperor of the countrey called Chare Sibersky, and with him many other dukes and noble men, which were brought to Mosko with a guard of souldiers and gunners, who were receiued into the citie in very honorable maner, and do there remaine to this day. Hereupon the corrupt officers, Iudges, Iustices, captains and lieutenants through the whole kingdom were remooued, and more honest men substituted in their places, with expresse commandement, vnder seuere punishment to surcease their old bribing and extortion which they had vsed in the old Emperors time, and now to execute true iustice without respect of persons: and to the end that this might be the better done, their lands and yeerly stipends were augmented: the great taskes, customes, and duties, which were before layd vpon the people in the old Emperors time, were now abated, and some wholy remitted, and no punishments commanded to be vsed, without sufficient and due proofe, although the crime were capitall, deseruing death: many Dukes and noble men of great houses, that were vnder displeasure, and imprisoned 20. yeeres by the old Emperor, were now set at libertie and restored to their lands: all prisoners were set at libertie and their trespasses forgiuen. In summe, a great alteration vniuersally in the gouernment folowed, and yet all was done quietly, ciuilly, peaceably, without trouble to the Prince, or offence to the Subiect: and this bred great assurance and honour to the kingdom, and all was accomplished by the wisedom especially of Irenia the Empresse. [Sidenote: Sophet Keri Alli king of the Crimmes arriual at Mosco.] These things being reported and caried to the eares of the kings and princes that were borderers vpon Russia, they grew so fearefull and terrible to them, that the Monarch of all the Scythians called the Crimme Tartar or great Can himselfe, named Sophet Keri Alli, came out of his owne countrey to the Emperor of Russia, accompanied with a great number of his nobilitie well horsed, although to them that were Christians they seemed rude, yet they were personable men, and valiant: their comming was gratefull to the Emperor, and their entertainment was honourable, the Tartar prince hauing brought with him his wiues also, receiued of the Russe Emperor entertainment, and princely welcome according to their estates. Not long after, 1200. Polish gentlemen, valiant Souldiors, and proper men came to Mosko offring their seruice to the Emperor, who were all entertained: and in like sort many Chirkasses, and people of other nations came and offred seruice. And assoone as the report of this new created Emperor was spred ouer other kingdoms of Europe, there were sent to him sundry Ambassadors to wish him ioy and prosperitie in his kingdom: thither came Ambassadors from the Turke, from the Persian, the Bogharian, the Crimme, the Georgian, and many other Tartar princes. There came also Ambassadors from the Emperor of Almaine, the Pole, the Swethen, the Dane, &c. And since his coronation no enemie of his hath preuailed in his attempts. [Sidenote: The new Emperor Pheodore Iuanowich his letters and requests to the Queene.] It fell out not long after, that the Emperor was desirous to send a message to the most excellent Queene of England, for which seruice he thought no man fitter then M. Ierome Horsey, supposing that one of the Queenes owne men and subiects would be the more acceptable to her. The summe of which message was, that the Emperor desired a continuance of that league, friendship, amitie and intercourse of traffique which was betweene his father and the Queens maiestie and her subiects, with other priuate affaires besides, which are not to be made common. [Sidenote: M. Horseis voiage from Mosco to England ouerland.] Master Horsey hauing receiued the letters and requests of the Emperor, prouided for his iourney ouer land, and departed from Mosco the fift day of September, thence vnto Otuer, to Torshook, to great Nouogrod, to Vobsky, and thence to Nyhouse in Liuonia, to Wenden, and so to Riga: (where he was beset, an brought foorthwith before a Cardinall called Rageuil, but yet suffred to passe in the end:) From thence to Mito, to Golden, and Libou in Curland, to Memel, to Koningsburgh in Prussia, to Elbing, to Dantzike, to Stetine in Pomerland, to Rostock, to Lubeck, to Hamborough, to Breme, to Emden, and by sea to London. Being arriued at her maiesties roiall court, and hauing deliuered the Emperors letters with good fauour, and gracious acceptance, he was foorthwith againe commaunded to repasse into Russia, with other letters from her maiestie to the Emperor, and prince Boris Pheodorowich, answering the Emperors letters, and withall requesting the fauour and friendship, which his father had yeelded to the English merchants: and hereunto was he earnestly also solicited by the merchants of London themselues of that company, to deale in their behalfe. [Sidenote: 1586.] Being thus dispatched from London by sea, he arriued in Mosco the 20. of April 1586. and was very honourably welcommed. And for the merchants behoofe, obtained all his requests, being therein specially fauoured by the noble prince Boris Pheodorowich, who alwayes affected M. Horsey with speciall liking, And hauing obtained priuiledges for the merchants, he was recommended from the Emperor againe, to the Queene of England his mistresse, by whom the prince Boris, in token of his honorable and good opinion of the Queens maiestie, sent her highnesse a roiall present of Sables, Luzarns, cloth of gold and other rich things. So that the companie of English merchants, next to their thankfulnes to her maiestie, are to account M. Horseis paines their speciall benefit, who obtained for them those priuileges, which in twentie yeeres before would not be granted. The maner of M. Horseis last dispatch from the Emperor, because it was very honorable, I thought good to record. He was freely allowed post horses for him and his seruants, victuals and all other necessaries for his long iourney; at euery towne that he came vnto from Mosco to Vologda, which is by land fiue hundred miles, he receiued the like free and bountifull allowances, at the Emperors charge. New victuall and prouision were giuen him vpon the riuer Dwina at euery towne by the Kings officers, being one thousand miles in length. When he came to the new castle called Archangel, he was receiued of the Duke Knez Vasili Andrewich Isuenogorodsky by the Emperors commission into the Castle, gunners being set in rankes, after their vse, where he was sumptuously feasted: from thence hee was dispatched with bountifull prouision and allowance in the Dukes boat, with one hundred men to rowe him, and one hundred Gunners in other boats to conduct him, with a gentleman captaine of the Gunners. Comming to the road where the English, Dutch, and French ships rode, the gunners discharged, and the ships shot in like maner 46. pieces of their ordinance, and so he was brought to his lodging at the English house vpon Rose Island. And that which was the full and complete conclusion of the fauour of the Emperor and Boris Pheodorowich toward M. Horsey, there were the next day sent him for his further prouision vpon the sea by a gentleman and a captaine the things following. 16. liue oxen. 70. sheepe. 600. hens. 25. flitches of Bacon. 80. bushels of meale. 600. loaues of bread. 2000. egs. 10. geese. 2. cranes. 2. Swans 65. gallons of mead. 40. gallons of Aquauitæ. 60. gallons of beere. 3. yong beares. 4. hawkes. Store of onions and garlike. 10. fresh salmons. A wild bore. All these things were brought him downe by a Gentleman of the Emperors, and another of prince Boris Pheodorowich, and were recalled in order by Iohn Frese seruant to M. Horsey, together with an honorable present and reward from the prince Boris, sent him by M. Francis Cherry an Englishman: which present was a whole very rich piece of cloth of gold, and a faire paire of Sables. This gentleman hath obserued many other rare things concerning those partes, which hereafter (God willing) at more conuenient time and laisure shall come to light. * * * * * Pheodor Iuanowich the new Emperors gracious letter of priuilege to the English Merchants word for word, obtained by M. Ierome Horsey. 1586. Through the wil of the almightie, and without beginning God, which was before this world, whom we glorifie in the Trinitie, one only God the father, the sonne, and the holy ghost, maker of all things, worker of all in all euery where, fulfiller of all things, by which will and working, he both loueth and giueth life to man, That our onely God, which inspireth euery one of vs his onely children with his word, to descerne God through our Lord Iesus Christ, and the holy quickning spirit of life now in these perilous times, Establish vs to keep the right Scepter, and suffer vs of our selues to raigne to the good profite of the land, and to the subduing of the people, together with the enemies, and to the maintenance of virtue. We Pheodor the ofspring of Iohn, the great Lord, Emperor, king and great prince of all Russia, of Volodemeria, Moscouia and Nouogrod, king of Cazan, king of Astracan, Lord of Plesko, and great prince of Smolensko, of Tuer, Yougoria, Permia, Viatsko, of Bolghar and others, lord and great prince of the land of the lower Nouogrod, Chernigo, Rezan, Polotsko, Rostow. Yeraslaue, the White lake, Liefland, Oudor, Condensa, and Ruler of all Siberia, and all the Northside, and lord of many other countries. I haue gratified the merchants of England, to wit, sir Rowland Haiward, and Richard Martin Aldermen, sir George Barnes, Thomas Smith, esquire, Ierome Horsey, Richard Saltonstall, with their fellowes. I haue licensed them to saile with their shippes into our dominion the land of Dwina, with all kind of commodities to trade freely, and vnto our kingdom andd the citie of Mosco, and to all the cities of our empire of Moscouia. And the English merchants sir Rowland Haiward and his societie desired vs, that we would gratifie them to trade into our kingdom of Moscouia, and into our heritage of great Nouogrod and Plesko, and into all parts of our kingdom, to buy and sell with their wares without custome. Therefore we for our sisters sake Queene Elizabeth, and also because that they allege that they had great losse and hinderance by the venture of the sea, and otherwise, haue gratified the said English merchants sir Rowland Haiward and his societie, freely to come into our kingdom of Moscouia, and into al our dominions with al kind of commodities, to trade, and traffique freely, and at their pleasure with al kind of their commodities: also I haue commanded not to take any maner of custome for their goods, nor other customs whatsoeuer: That is to say, neither for passing by any place by water, nor for lanching, neither for passing through any place by land, neither for the vessels or boats, nor for their heads, nor for passing ouer bridges, nor for ferying ouer at any place, neither for acknowledgment at any place where they shall come, nor any maner of custome or dutie, by what name soeuer. Only they shall not bring with them into our dominions, neither recarie out of our dominions, or father any other mens goods but their owne, neither sell them nor barter them away for them. Also our natural people shall not buy and sell for them, or from them, neither shal they retaine or keepe any of our naturall subiects goods, or pawnes by them to colour them. Also they shall not send any of their Russe seruants about into any citie to ingrosse, or buy vp commodities, but into what citie they themselues shal come, they shal buy and sel, and shal sel their owne commodities and not ours. And when they shal come into our inheritance of great Nouogrod and Plesko, and through all our dominions with their commodities, then our noblemen, and captains, and euery one of our officers shall suffer them to depart according to this our letter, and shall take no custom at all of them, for any of their commodities, neither for passing through or passing by, nor for passage ouer any bridges, nor shall take of them any other dutie whatsoeuer name they haue. Also into what places of our dominion, or when they shal happen to come, and to proceed to buy or sell, and wheresoeuer they shall passe through with goods not buying of any commodities, neither will sell their owne, then in those cities and townes they shall take no maner of custome or dutie of them accordingly as before. And I haue gratified them and giuen them free leaue to traffique throughout all the dominions of our kingdom in all cities with their goods, to buy and sell all maner of commodities, without any dutie or custome whatsoeuer. And the English merchants where they are desirous to buy or sell, or barter their wares with our merchants, whole wares for wares, they shall sell their commodies whole, and not by retaile: That is to say, neither by small weight nor by the yard, to sell or barter in their owne houses, and they shal sel and barter their wares wholly, Cloth by the packe, and by the whole Cloth, and Damaske and veluet by the piece and not by the yard, and al maner of commodities that are to be sold by weight, not to sell by the small weights, as by the pound and ounce, but by whole sale: also they shall sel wines by the pipe: and by the gallon, quart or stoope they shal not sell. And they shall buy, sell and exchange their owne commodities themselues, and the Russe merchants shall not make sales or exchange for them or from them any of their commodities, neither shal they themselues conuey or cary through any other mans goods at no place instead of their owne: and which of the English merchants will at any time sell his commodities at Colmogro or Vologda or Yeraslaue, they may, and of their commodities throughout all our cities and dominions, our noblemen, captains, and euery of our officers shall take no maner of custome, according as it is written in this our gracious letter: and throughout all our dominions and cities they shal hire carriers and vessels with men to labour, at their owne charge, to transport their goods. So likewise, whensoeuer the English merchants are disposed to depart out of our kingdom into any other countrey or into their owne land, if our pleasure be, they shall take our goods with them from our Treasurie, and shall sell them, and exchange them for such commoditie as is commodious for our kingdom, and shall deliuer it into our Treasurie, and with those our commodities, our Noblemen and captains, and euery of our officers shall let them passe through all our cities also without custome according to these our letters. Also whensoeuer the English merchants shall haue sold their own goods and bought themselues commodities, and wil depart out of Mosco, then they shal manifest themselues to our chiefe Secretarie Andrew Sholkaloue, in the office where the Ambassadors are alwayes dispatched. And if the English merchants comming, haue had any mischance by the sea, insomuch that the ship be broken, or if that ship do come to any part of our country: then we will cause the goods to be sought out in true Iustice, and to be giuen to the English people, which at that time shall bee here resident in our countrey: and if so be that it so fell out that at that time there be no Englishmen within our realme: then wil we cause these goods to be laid vp in a place together, and when the people of England shall come into our realme, then we will command all those goods to be deliuered to the sayd English people. Also we haue gratified all the English merchants with the house of one Vrie here in the Mosco right ouer against S. Maximes church behind the market, and they shal dwel in the same house according as before time, and they shall keepe one alwayes in the house to keepe it, either a Russe, or one of their owne people. Also the English merchants shal possesse their houses, to wit, at Yeraslaue, Vologda, Colmogro, and the house at the hauen of the sea, and they shal dwel in those houses, according as our goodnes hath bene to them heretofore: and we haue commanded, that there shall not be taken of them no yeerely rent, nor no maner of custome, taxe, rent or any other dutie whatsoeuer for those houses, neither shal they pay any dutie or taxe with any of the townsmen of those places, and in euery one of those houses, to wit, at Yeraslaue, Vologda, and Colmogro, they shall haue men to keepe their houses, two or three of their owne countrey people, strangers or els Russes, men of the meanest sort, which shall be no merchants, that they may lay their goods in those houses, and they may sell the commodities out of those their houses to whom they please, according to this our gracious letter: and those that keepe their houses shall not sell or buy no part of their commoditie, except they be there or giue order, whereby they be not deceiued by them. So likewise I haue gratified them with their house at the sea hauen, at the mouth of Podezemsky, and we haue commanded that they shal not cary their goods from thence to the new castle S. Michael the archangel, but shall arriue, and doe as they haue done heretofore with their wares at that their house, and shall vnlade their commodities out of their ships, and shal lade them againe with Russe commodities, euen there at that their house without interruption: onely they shal permit our officers of Colmogro and sworn men to write vp those commodities, both the commodities of England, and those of Russeland, what the merchants shal declare themselues, and no otherwise, but they shal not ouerlooke their commodities, neither shal they vnbind any of their packs. And when the English merchants are disposed to send into their owne countrey, to wit, any of their owne people on land through any other kingdom whatsoeuer, they shall not send their people without our kingly knowledge, and commandement, and which of their people so euer they do meane to send out of our kingdom into their owne countrey, then they shal send those their people, not without our kingly maiesties knowledge, to wit, those that go of pleasure without carying any commodities with them, and they shal haue a letter of passe giuen vnto them, out of the office where the Ambassadors haue alwayes their dispatch. And whosoeuer hath anything to doe with them in matters of controuersie, either concerning merchandize or iniuries, then they are to be iudged by our treasurers and Secretarie of the Ambassadors office to do iustice between both parties, and to seek out the trueth of matters in al things, and whatsoeuer cannot be found out by the Law, shalbe tried by othe and lots: whose lot soeuer is taken foorth, him to haue right. And in what place of all our kingdom, in what citie soeuer they or their people shall bee, and that there happen any matter of controuersie, either concerning merchandise, iniuries or otherwise, that they haue occasion to set vpon any man by lawe, or that any seeke vpon them, concerning what matter soeuer in all our kingdom and cities, then our lieutenants, captains, and our officers shall giue them Iustice, and shall minister all true iustice betweene them, seeking out the trueth: and what cannot be truly sought by law, shalbe sought out by othe and lot; whose lot soeuer is taken out, him to haue right accordingly as before, and the Iudges or Iustices shall take of them no kind of dutie, for matters of law no where throughout all our realmes. This letter is giuen in our princely palace within the citie of Mosco, in the yeere from the foundation of the world, seuen thousand fourescore and fifteene in the moneth of February. * * * * * The Ambassage of M. Giles Fletcher, Doctor of the Ciuil Law, sent from her Maiestie to Theodor the Emperor of Russia. Anno 1588. In the yeere 1588. was sent Ambassador from her highnesse into the countrey of Russia, Giles Fletcher Doctor of the Ciuil Lawe, as well to treat with the new Emperor Pheodor Iuanowich, about league and amitie, in like maner as was before with his father Iuan Vasilowich, as also for the reestablishing and reducing into order the deciad trade of our Englishmen there. Who notwithstanding at his first arriuall at the Mosco, found some parts of hard entertainment, by meanes of certaine rumors concerning the late nauall victory which was there reported to haue fallen on the Spanish side, as also for some dislike conceiued against the priuileged trade of our English merchants. Yet in the end he obtained of the Emperour many good and equall conditions, and was curteously and honourably dismissed by him. The principall points which he entreated of, and were granted vnto him by the said Emperor were these: 1 A continuation of league and amitie betweene her Highnesse and the sayd Emperour Pheodor Iuanowich, in like maner as was before with his father Iuan Vasilowich. 2 A confirmation and reestablishment of the former priuileges of the Companie of our English merchants, which were infringed and annulled in the principal points, with diuers necessary additions to the same, for the better ordering of their trade in those countreys hereafter, viz. That the state of the priuilege granted before in the names of some priuate and particular men, be altered in that point, and the same granted by the name and stile of their incorporation, viz. To the felowship of English merchants for the discouerie of new trades. 3 That vpon euery surmise and light quarel, the said priuilege be not reuoked and annulled, as before time it hath bene. 4 That iustice shall be administred to the said Companie and their Agent without delay, vpon such as shal offer them any despite or iniurie, or shal exact or impose vpon them any paiment, taxation or imposition whatsoeuer, contrary to the freedome of the said grant. 5 That the goods and commodities of the said Companie, be not forcibly taken as before time they had bene by the Emperors officers or people of authoritie, either for the vse of the said Emperor or of his officers. But in case they haue need of the said commodities, the same to be taken at reasonable prices, and for ready money. 6 That the said Companie be not charged hereafter with the answering of such debts as are made by any Englishman not being of the societie. 7 That the Emperors authorized people shall not hereafter repute any Englishman residant in that countrey, to be any factor, seruant, or dealer, in the said Companies affaires, but such as the Agents shall inregister by name, within the offices where custome is entered in all such places of the land where the sayd Companie haue residences to traffike. 8 That the names of such as shall so be inregistred be no longer continued in record, nor themselues reputed as factors or dealers for the said Companie, then the Agent shall thinke good. But in case the said Agent in his discretion shall thinke meete to strike out of the Register any name of such as haue bene employed in the Companies seruice, the said person to be held as priuate, and whose acte in bargaining or otherwise, shall not charge the said Companie. 9 That if any English man within the countrey of Russia be suspected for any notorious crime, as felony, treason, &c. the same be not straightwaies set vpon the Pudkey, [Marginal note: It is rosting to death.] nor otherwise tormented, till such time as he shall be conuicted by plaine and euident proofes: which being done, the whole proceeding to be sent ouer to the Queene of England. 10 That the said priuilege with the additions, shall be published in all townes and partes of the Emperors dominions, where the said Companie haue traffike. 11 That the said Companie shall be permitted to vse a sole trade through the Emperours countries, by the riuer Volga into Media, Persia, Bogharia, and the other the East countries. 12 Whereas there was claimed of the said Companie the summe of 23553. markes of debt, made by certaine of their factors for the said company, for paiment whereof their whole stocke was in danger of arrest, by publike authoritie: Futher also 2140. rubbles for custome and houserent, he obtained a rebatement of eighteene thousand, one hundred fiftie and three marks of the sayd debt. The sayd Ambassador M. Giles Fletcher, as I vnderstand, hath drawen a booke intituled, Of the Russe Common wealth, containing: First, a Cosmographicall description, of the countrey, which hath these chapters. 1 Of the length and bredth of the countrey of Russia, with the names of the shires. 2 Of the soile and climate. 3 Of the natiue commodities of the countrey. Secondly, a description of their policie contained in these Chapters, viz. 1 Of the constitution or state of the Russe Common wealth. 2 Of their Parliaments, and maner of holding them, 3 Of the Russe Nobilitie and meanes whereby it is kept in an vnder proportion agreeable to that state. 4 Of the maner of gouerning their prouinces of shires. 5 Of the Emperours priuie counsell. 6 Of the Emperors customs and their reuenues, with the practises for the increase of them. 7 Of the Russe communaltie and their condition. 8 Of their publike iustice and maner of proceeding therein. 9 Of the Emperors forces for his warres, with the chiefe officers, and their salarie or pay. 10 Of their maner of mustering, armour, and prouision for victuall. 11 Of their ordering, marching, charging, and their martiall discipline. 12 Of their colonies and policie in maintaining their purchases by conquest. 13 Of their borderers with whom they haue most to doe in warre and peace. 14 Of their church officers and degrees. 15 Of their liturgie or forme of Church seruice. 16 Of their maner of administring the Sacraments. 17 Of the doctrine of the Russe church. 18 Of the maner of solemnizing their marriages. 19 Of the other ceremonies of the Russe church. Thirdly, the Oeconomie or priuate behauiour of the Russe containing these chapters. 1 Of the Emperors houshold officers, and order of his house. 2 Of the priuate behauiour and maner of the Russe people. The description of the countrey of Russia, with the bredth, length, and names of the Shires. The countrey of Russia was sometimes called Sarmatia. It changed the name (as some do suppose) for that it was parted into diuers smal, and yet absolute gouemments, not depending, nor being subiect the one to the other. For Russe in that tongue doeth signifie as much as to part, or diuide. The Russe reporteth that foure brethren, Trubor, Rurico, Sinees, and Variuus deuided among them the North parts of the country. Likewise that the South parts were possessed by 4. other, Kio, Scieko, Choranus, and their sister Libeda: each calling his territorie after his owne name. Of this partition it was called Russia, about the yere from Christ 860. [Sidenote: Strabo in his 7. booke of Geogr.] As for the coniecture which I find in some Cosmographers, that the Russe nation borowed the name of the people called Roxellani, and were the very same nation with them, it is without all good probabilitie, both in respect of the etymologie of the word (which is very far fet) and especially for the seat and dwelling of that people, which was betwixt the two ruiers of Tanais and Boristhenes, (as Strabo reporteth) quite another way from the countrey of Russia. When it bare the name of Sarmatia, it was diuided into two chiefe parts: the White and the Black. The white Sarmatia was all that part that lieth towards the North, and on the side of Liefland: as the prouinces now called Dwina, Vagha, Vstiug, Vologda, Cargapolia, Nouogrodia, &c whereof Nouogrod velica was the Metropolite or chiefe citie. Black Sarmatia was al that countrey that lieth Southward towards the Euxin or Black sea: as the dukedome of Volodemer, of Mosco, Rezan, &c. Some haue thought that the name of Sarmatia was first taken, from one Sarmates, whom Moses and Iosephus cal Asarmathes sonne to Ioktan, and nephew to Heber, of the posteritie of Sera. [Sidenote: Gen, 10. Ioseph. l. 1. ca, 14.] But this seemeth to be nothing but a coniecture taken out of the likenes of the name Asarmathes. For the dwelling of all Ioktans posteritie is described by Moses to haue bene betwixt Mescha or Masius (an hil of the Ammonites) and Sephace, nere to the riuer Euphrates: which maketh it very vnlikely that Asarmathes should plant any colonies so far off in the North and Northwest countries. [Sidenote: The borders of Russia.] It is bounded northward by the Lappes and the North Ocean. On the Southside by the Tartars called Crimmes. Eastward they haue the Nagaian Tartar, that possesseth all the countrey on the East side of Volga towards the Caspian sea. On the West and Southwest border lieth Lituania, Liuonia and Polonia. [Sidenote: The Shires of Russia.] The whole Countrey being nowe reduced vnder the gouernment of one, conteineth these chiefe Prouinces or Shires. Volodemer, (which beareth the first place in the Emperours stile, becauce their house came of the Dukes of that Countrey) Mosco, Nisnouogrod, Plesko, Smolensko, Nouogrod velica (or Nouogrod of the low Countrey) Rostoue, Yeraslaue, Bealozera, Rezan, Duyna, Cargapolia, Meschora, Vagha, Vstuga, Ghaletsa. These are the naturall shires perteyning to Russia, but farre greater and larger then the shires of England, though not so well peopled. [Sidenote: The Prouinces or Countries got by conquest.] The other Countreys or prouinces to which the Russe Emperours haue gotten perforce added of late to their other dominion, are these which followe, Twerra, Youghoria, Permia, Vadska, Boulghoria, Chernigo, Oudoria, Obdoria, Condora, with a great part of Siberia: where the people though they be not naturall Russes, yet obey the Emperour of Russia, and are ruled by the Lawes of his Countrey, paying customes and taxes, as his owne people doe. Besides these he hath vnder him the kingdomes of Cazan and Astracan, gotten by conquest not long since. As for all his possession in Lituania (to the number of 30. great Townes and more,) with Narue and Dorp in Liuonia, they are quite gone, being surprised of late yeeres by the Kings of Poland and Sweden. These Shires and Prouinces are reduced into foure Iurisdictions, which they call Chetfyrds (that is) Tetrarchies, or Fourth parts. [Sidenote: The breadth and length of the Countrey.] The whole Countrey is of great length and breadth. From the North to the South (if you measure from Cola to Astracan which bendeth somewhat Eastward) it reacheth in length about 4260. verst, or miles. [Sidenote: Pechinga.] Notwithstanding the Emperour of Russia hath more territorie Northward, farre beyond Cola vnto the Riuer of Tromschua, that runneth a hundred verst, welnigh beyond Pechingna, neere to Wardhouse but not intire nor clearely limited, by reason of the kings of Sweden and Denmarke, that haue diuers townes there, aswell as the Russe, plotted together the one with the other; euery one of them clayming the whole of those North parts as his owne right. The breadth (if you go from that part of his territorie that lyeth farthest Westward on the Narue side, to the parts of Siberia Eastward, where the Emperour hath his garrisons) is 4400. verst or thereabouts. A verst (by their reckoning) is a 1000. pases, yet lesse by one quarter than an English mile. If the whole dominion of the Russe Emperour were all habitable, and peopled in all places, as it is in some, he would either hardly holde it all within one regiment, or be ouer mightie for all his neighbour Princes. Of the Soile and Climate. The soyle of the Countrey for the most part is of a sleight sandie moulde, yet very much different one place from another, for the yeeld of such things as grow out of the earth. The Countrey Northwards towards the parts of S. Nicholas and Cola, and Northeast towards Siberia, is all very barren, and full of desert woods by reason of the Climate, and extremitie of the colde in Winter time. So likewise along the Riuer Volgha betwixt the countreys of Cazan, and Astracan: where (notwithstanding the soyle is very fruitfull) it is all vnhabited, sauing that vpon the riuer Volgha on the Westside, the Emperour hath some fewe Castels with garisons in them. This happeneth by meanes of the Crimme Tartar, that will neither himselfe plant Townes to dwel there, (liuing a wild and vagrant life) nor suffer the Russe (that is farre off with the strength of his Countrey) to people those parts. From Vologda (whieh lieth almost 1700. verst from the port of S. Nicholas) downe towards Mosco, and so towards the South part that bordereth vpon the Crimme, (which conteineth the like space of 1700. verst or there abouts) is a very fruitfull and pleasant countrey, yeelding pasture, and corne, with woods and waters in very great plentie. The like is betwixt Rezan (that lieth Southeast from Mosco) to Nouogrod and Vobsko, that reach farthest towards the Northwest. So betwixt Mosco, and Smolensko (that lyeth Southwest towards Lituania) is a very fruitfull and pleasant soile. The whole countrey differeth very much from it selfe, by reason of the yeere: so that a man would marueile to see the great, alteration and difference betwixt the Winter, and the Summer Russia. The whole Countrey in the Winter lieth vnder snow, which falleth continually, and is sometime of a yard or two thicke, but greater towards the North. [Sidenote: The colde of Russia.] The riuers and other waters are all frosen vp a yard or more thicke, how swift or broade soeuer they bee. And this continueth commonly fiue moneths, viz. from the beginning of Nouember till towardes the ende of March, what time the snow beginneth to melt. So that it would breede a frost in a man to looke abroad at that time, and see the Winter face of that Countrey. The sharpenesse of the aire you may iudge of by this: for that water dropped downe or cast vp into the air congealeth into yce before it come to the ground. In the extremitie of Winter, if you holde a pewter dish or pot in your hand, or any other metall (except in some chamber where their warme stoaues bee) your fingers will friese fast vnto it, and drawe off the skinne at the parting. When you passe out of a warme roome into a colde, you shall sensibly feele your breath to waxe starke, and euen stifeling with the colde, as you drawe it in and out. Diuers not onely that trauell abroad, but in the very markets and streetes of their Townes, are mortally pinched and killed withall: so that you shall see many drop downe in the streetes; many trauellers brought into the Townes sitting dead and stifle in their Sleds. Diuers lose their noses, the tips of their eares, and the bals of their cheeks, their toes, feete, &c. Many times (when the Winter is very hard and extreeme) the beares and woolfes issue by troopes out of the woods driuen by hunger, and enter the villages, tearing and rauening all they can finde: so that the inhabitants are faine to flie for safegard of their liues. And yet in the Sommer time you shal see such a new hiew and face of a Countrey, the woods (for the most part which are all of firre and birch) so fresh and so sweete, the pastures and medowes so greene and well growen, (and that vpon the sudden) such varietie of flowers, such noyse of birdes (specially of Nightingales, that seeme to be more lowde and of a more variable note then in other Countreys) that a man shall not lightly trauell in a more pleasant Countrey. And this fresh and speedy growth of the spring there seemeth to proceede from the benefite of the snow: which all the Winter time being spread ouer the whole Countrey as a white robe, and keeping it warme from the rigour of the frost, in the Spring time (when the Sunne waxeth wanme, and dissolueth it into water) doeth so throughly drench and soake the ground, that is somewhat of a sleight and sandie mould, and then shineth so hotely vpon it againe, that it draweth the hearbes and plants foorth in great plentie and varietie, in a very short time. As the Winter exceedeth in colde, so the Sommer inclineth to ouer much heat, specially in the moneths of Iune, Iuly and August, being much warmer then the Sommer aire in England. The countrey throughout is very well watered with springs, riuers, and Ozeraes, or lakes. Wherein the prouidence of God is to be noted, for that much of the Countrey being so farre inland, as that some part lieth a thousand miles and more euery way from any sea, yet it is serued with faire Riuers, and that in very great number, that emptying themselues one into another, runne all into the Sea. Their lakes are many and large, some of 60. 80. 100. and 200. miles long with breadth proportionate. [Sidenote: The chiefe Riuers of Russia.] The chiefe Riuers are these, First, Volgha, that hath his head or spring at the route of an Aldertree, about 200. verst aboue Yaruslaue, and groweth so bigge by the encrease of other Riuers by that time it commeth thither, that it is broad an English mile and more, and so runneth into the Caspian sea, about 2800. verst or miles of length. The next is Boristhenes (now called Neper) that diuideth the Countrey from Lituania, and falleth into the Euxin sea. The third Tanais or Don, (the ancient bounder betwixt Europe and Asia) that taketh his head out of Rezan Ozera, and so running through the Countrey of the Chrim Tartar, falleth into the great Sea, lake, or meare, (called Maeotis) by the citie of Azou. By this Riuer (as the Russe reporteth), you may passe from their Citie Mosco to Constantinople, and so into all those parts of the world by water, drawing your boate (as their maner is) ouer a little Isthmus or narrowe slip of land, a few versts ouerthwart. Which was proued not long since by an Ambassadour sent to Constantinople, who passed the riuer of Moscua, and so into another called Ocka, whence hee drew his boat ouer into Tanais, and thence passed the whole way by water. The fourth is called Duyna, many hundred miles long, that falleth Northward into the bay of S. Nicholas, and hath great Alabaster rockes on the bankes towards the sea side. The fifth Duna, that emptieth into the Baltick sea by the towne Riga. The sixt Onega, that falleth into the Bay at Solouetsko 90. verst from the port of S. Nicholas. This riuer below the towne Cargapolia, meeteth with the Riuer Volock, that falleth into the Finland Sea by the towne Yama. So that from the port of S. Nicholas into the Finland sea, and so into the Sound, you may passe all by water, as hath bene tried by the Russe. The seuenth Suchana, that floweth into Duyna, and so into the North Sea. The eight Ocka, that fetcheth his head from the borders of the Chrim, and streameth into Volgha. The ninth Moscua, that runneth thorough the Citie Mosco, and giueth it the name. There is Wichida also a very large and long riuer that riseth out of Permia, and falleth into Volgha. All these are riuers of very large streames, the least to be compared to the Thames in bignesse, and in length farre more, besides diuers other. The Pole at Mosco is 55. degrees 10. minutes. At the port of S. Nicholas towards the North 63. degrees and 50. minutes. The natiue commodities of the Countrey. [Sidenote: The fruits and graine of Russia.] For kindes of fruites, they haue Apples, peares plummes, cherries, red and blacke, (but the blacke wilde) a deene like a muske millian, but more sweete and pleasant, cucumbers and goords (which they call Arbouse) rasps, strawberies, and hurtilberies, with many other beries in great quantitie in euery wood and hedge. Their kindes of graine are wheat, rie, barley, oates, pease, buckway, psnytha, that in taste is somewhat like to rice. Of all these graines the Countrey yeeldeth very sufficient with an ouerplus quantitie, so that wheate is solde sometime for two alteens or ten pence starling the Chetfird, which maketh almost three English bushels. Their rie is sowed before the Winter, all their other graine in the Spring time, and for the most part in May. The Permians and some other that dwell farre North, and in desert places, are serued from the parts that lye more Southward, and are forced to make, bread sometimes of a kinde of roote (called Vaghnoy) and of the middle rine of the firre tree. If there be any dearth (as they accompted this last yeere Anno 1588. wheat and rie being 13. alteens, or 5. shillings fiue pence starling the Chetfird) the fault is rather in the practise of their Nobilitie that vse to engrosse it, then in the Countrey it selfe. [Sidenote: The chiefe commodities of the countrey. 1. Furres.] The natiue commodities of the Countrey (wherewith they serue both their owne turnes, and send much abroad to the great enriching of the Emperor, and his people) are many and substantiall. First, furres of all sorts. Wherein the prouidence of God is to be noted, that prouideth a naturall remedie for them, to helpe the naturall inconuenience of their Countrey by the cold of the Climat. Their chiefe furres are these, Blacke fox, Sables, Lusernes, dun fox, Martrones, Gurnestalles or Armins, Lasets or Miniuer, Beuer, Wuluerins, the skin of a great water Rat that smelleth naturally like muske, [Sidenote: These rats are in Canada.] Calaber or gray squirel, red squirel, red and white fox. Besides the great quantitie spent within the Countrey (the people being clad al in furres the whole winter) there are transported out of the Countrey some yeeres by the merchants of Turkie, Persia, Bougharia, Georgia, Armenia, and some other of Christendom, to the value of foure or fiue hundred thousand rubbles, as I haue heard of the merchants. [Sidenote: Momgosorskoy perhaps Molgomzaia.] The best Sable furre groweth in the countrey of Pechora, Momgosorskoy and Obdorskoy, the worser sort in Siberia, Perm, and other places. The blacke foxe and red come out of Siberia, white and dunne from Pechora, whence also come the white wolfe, and white Beare skin. The best Wuluerin also thence and from Perm. The best Martrons are from Siberia, Cadamo, Morum, Perm, and Cazan. Lyserns, Mineuer, and Armins, the best are out of Gallets, and Ouglits, many from Nouogrod and Perm. The Beauer of the best sort breedeth in Murmonskey by Cola. Other common furres and most of these kindes grow in many, and some in all parts of the Countrey. [Sidenote: 2. Waxe.] The second commoditie is of Waxe, whereof hath bene shipped into forreigne countreys (as I haue heard it reported by those that best know it) the summe of 50000. pood yeerely, euery pood conteyneth 40. pound, but now about 10000. pood a yeere. [Sidenote: 3. Hony.] The third is their Honie, whereof besides an exceeding great quantitie spent in their ordinary drinkes (which is Mead of all sorts) and their other vses, some good quantitie is caried out of the countrey. The chiefe encrease of hony is in Mordua and Cadam neere to the Cheremissen Tartar: much out of Seuerskoy, Rezan, Morum, Cazan, Dorogobose, and Vasma. [Sidenote: 4. Tallow.] Fourthly, of Tallow they afoord a great waight for transportation: not onely for that their countrey hath very much good ground apt for pasturage of cattell, but also by reason of their many Lents and other fastes: and partly because their greater men vse much waxe for their lights, the poorer and meaner sort birch dried in their stoaues, and cut into long shiuers, which they call Luchineos. Of tallow there hath bene shipped out of the Realme a few yeeres since about 100000. pood yerely, now not past 30000. or thereabouts. The best yeeld of tallow is in the parts and territories of Smolensko, Yaruslaue, Ouglits, Nouogrod, and Vologda, Otfer, and Gorodetskey. [Sidenote: 5. Hide.] An other principall commoditie is their Losh and Cow hide. Their Losh or Buffe hide is very faire and large. Their bull and cowe hide (for oxen they make none, neither yet weather) is of a small sise. There hath bene transported by merchants strangers some yeres 100000. hides. Now it is decreased to 30000. or thereabouts. Besides great store of goates skinnes, whereof great numbers are shipped out of the countrey. The largest kinde of Losh or Buffe breedeth about Rostoue, Wichida, Nouogrod, Morum, and Perm. The lesser sort within the kingdome of Cazan. [Sidenote: 6. Trane oyle.] Another very great and principall commoditie is their Trane oyle, drawen out of the Seal fish. Where it will not be impertinent to shewe the maner of their hunting the Seal, which they make this oyle of: which is in this sort. [Sidenote: The maner of hunting the Seale fish.] Towards the ende of Sommer (before the frost beginne) they goe downe with their boates into the bay of S. Nicholas, to a cape called Cusconesse or Foxnose, where they leaue their boats till the next spring tide. When the Sunne waxeth warme toward the spring, and yet the yce not melted within the Bay, they returne thither againe. Then drawing their boates ouer the sea yce, they vse them for houses to rest and lodge in. There are commonly about 17. or 18. fleete of them, of great large boates, which diuide themselues into diuers companies, fiue or sixe boats in a consort. They that first finde the haunt, fire a beacon, which they carry with them for the nonce. Which being espied by the other companies, by such among them as are appointed of purpose, they come altogether and compasse the Seales round about in a ring, that lie sunning themselues together vpon the yce, commonly foure or fiue thousand in a shoale, and so they inuade them euery man with his club in his hand. If they hit them on the nose they are soone killed. If on the sides or backe they beare out the blow, and many times so catch and holde downe the clubbe with their teeth by maine force, that the partie is forced to call for helpe to his fellowes. The maner of the Seals is when they see themselues beset, to gather all close together in a throng or plumpe, to sway downe the yce, and to breake it (if they can) which so bendeth the yce that many times it taketh the sea water vpon it, and maketh the hunters to wade a foote or more deepe. After the slaughter when they haue killed what they can, they fall to sharing euery boate his part in equall portions: and so they flay them, taking from the body the skin, and the lard or fat with all that cleaueth to the skin. This they take with them, leauing the bodies behind, and so go to shore. Where they digge pits, in the grounde of a fadome and an halfe deepe, or thereabout, and so taking the fat or lard off from the skinne, they throw it into the pit, and cast in among it boat burning stones to melt it withall. The vppermost and purest is sold, and vsed to oile wool for cloth, the grosser (that is of a red colour) they sell to make sope. [Sidenote: 7. Ickary.] Likewise of Ickary or Cauery, a great quantitie is made vpon the riuer of Volgha out of the fish called Bellougina, the Sturgeon, the Seueriga and the Sterledey. Whereof the most part is shipped by French and Netherlandish merchants for Italy and Spaine, some by English merchants. [Sidenote: 8. Hempe and Flaxe.] The next is of Flax and Hempe, whereof there hath bene shipped (as I haue heard merchants say) at the port of Narue a great part of 100. ships small and great yerely. Now, not past fiue. The reason of this abating and decrease of this and other commodities, that were wont to be transported in a greater quantitie, is the shutting vp of the port of the Narue towards the Finland sea, which now is in the handes and possession of the Sweden. Likewise the stopping of the passage ouerland by the way of Smolensko, and Plotsko, by reason of their warres with the Polonian, which causeth the people to be lesse prouident in mainteining and gathering these and like commodities, for that they lacke sales. For the growth of flaxe the prouince of Vobsko, and the countrey about is the chiefe and onely place. For Hempe Smolensko, Dorogobose and Vasma. [Sidenote: 9. Salt.] The countrey besides maketh great store of salt. Their best salt is made at Stararouse in very great quantitie, where they haue great store of salt wels, about 250. verst from the sea. At Astracan salt is made naturally by the sea water, that casteth it vp into great hils, and so it is digged down, and caried away by the merchants and other that wil fetch it from thence. They pay to the Emperor for acknowledgement or custome 3. d. Russe vpon euery hundred weight. [Sidenote: Nonocks.] Besides these two, they make salt in many other places of the Realme, as in Perm, Wichida, Totma, Kenitsma, Solouetsky, Ocona, Bombasey, and Nonocks, all out of salt pits, saue at Solouetsky, which lieth neere to the sea. [Sidenote: 10. Tarre.] Likewise of Tarre they make a great quantitie out of their firre trees in the conntrey of Duyna and Smolensko, whereof much is sent abroad. [Sidenote: 11. Ribazuba.] Besides these (which are all good and substantiall commodities) they haue diuers other of smaller accompt, that are naturall and proper to that countrey: as the fish tooth (which they call Ribazuba) which is vsed both among themselues, and the Persians and Bougharians that fetch it from thence for beads, kniues, and sword hafts of Noblemen and gentlemen, and for diuers other vses. Some vse the powder of it against poison, as the Vnicornes horne. The fish that weareth it is called a Morse, and is caught about Pechora. These fish teeth some of them are almost 2. foote of length, and weigh 11. or 12. pound apiece. [Sidenote: 12. Slude.] In the prouince of Corelia, and about the riuer Duyna towards the North sea, there groweth a soft rocke which they call Slude. This they cut into pieces, and so teare it into thin flakes, which naturally it is apt for, and so vse it for glasse-lanthorns and such like. It giueth both inwards and outwards a clearer light then glasse, and for this respect is better then either glasse or horne: for that it neither breaketh like glasse nor yet will burne like the lanthorne. [Sidenote: 13. Saltpeter and brimstone.] Saltpeter in many places, as at Ouglits, Yaruslaue, and Vstiug, they make and some smal store of brimstone vpon the riuer Volgha, but want skil to refine it. [Sidenote: 14. Iron.] Their iron is somewhat brittle, but a great weight of it is made in Corelia, Cargapolia, and Vstiug Thelesna. Other mine they haue none gowing within the realme. [Sidenote: The strange beastes, fish, foule, &c., that breed in Russia.] Their beasts of strange kinds are the Losh, the Ollen, the wild horse, the beare, the woluering, or wood dog, the Lyserne, the Beauer, the Sable, the Martron, the black and dunne fox, the white Beare towards the sea coast of Pechora, the Gurnstale, the Laset or Mineuer. They haue a kinde of Squirrell that hath growing on the pinion of the shoulder bone a long tuft of haire, much like vnto feathers with a far broader taile than haue any other squirrels, which they moue and shake as they leape from tree to tree, much like vnto a wing. They skise a large space, and seeme for to flie withal, and therefore they cal them Letach Vechshe, that is, the flying squirrels. Their hares and squirrels in sommer are of the same colour with ours, in Winter the hare changeth her coate into milke white, the squirrel into gray, whereof cometh the Calaber. They haue fallow deere, the roe bucke, and goats very great store. Their horses are but smal, but very swift and hard, they trauell them vnshod both winter and Sommer, without all regard of pace. Their sheepe are but smal and beare course and harsh wool. Of foule they haue diuers of the principal kinds: First, great store of hawks, the eagle, the gerfaulcon, the slightfaulcon, the goshawk, the tassel, the sparhawk, &c. But the principal hawke that breedeth in the country, is counted the gerfaulcon. Of other fowles their principal kinds are the swan tame and wilde, (whereof they haue great store) the storke, the crane, the tedder of the colour of a feasant, but far bigger and liueth in the firre woods. Of feasant and partridge they haue very great plentie. An owle there is of very a great bignesse more vgly to behold then the owles of this country, with a broad face, and eares much like vnto a man. For fresh water fish, besides the common sorts (as carpe, pikes, pearch, tench, roach, &c.) they haue diuers kinds very good and delicate: as the Bellouga or Bellougina of 4. or 5. elnes long, the Ositrina or Sturgion, the Seueriga and Sterledy somewhat in fashion and taste like to the Sturgion, but not so thick nor long. These 4. kindes of fish breed in the Volgha, and are catched in great plenty, and serued thence into the whole Realme for a great food. Of the Roes of these foure kinds they make very great store of Icary or Caueary as was said before. They haue besides these that breed in the Volgha a fish called the Riba bela, or white salmon, which they account more delicate then they do the red salmon, whereof also they haue exceeding great plentie in the Riuers Northward, as in Duyna, the riuer of Cola, &c. In the Ozera or lake neere a towne called Perislaue, not far from the Mosco, they haue a smal fish which they cal the fresh herring, of the fashion, and somewhat of the taste of a sea-herring. Their chiefe townes for fish are, Yaruslaue, Bealozera, Nouogrod, Astracan, and Cazan: which all yeeld a large custome to the Emperour euery yeere for their trades of fishing, which they practise in Sommer, but sende if frozen in the Winter time into all parts of the Realme. The chiefe Cities of Russia. The chiefe cities of Russia are Mosco, Nouogrod, Rostoue, Volodomer, Plesko, Smolensko, Iaruslaue, Perislaue, Nisnouogrod, Vologda, Vstiug, Colmogro, Cazan, Astracan, Cargapolia, Columna. [Sidenote: Mosco] The city, of Mosco is supposed to be of great antiquitie, though the first founder be vnknowen to the Russe. It seemeth to haue taken the name from the riuer that runneth on the one side of the towne. Berosus the Chaldean in his 5. booke telleth that Nimrod (whom other profane stories cal Saturne) sent Assyrius, Medus, Moscus, and Magog into Asia to plant colonies there, and that Moscus planted both in Asia and Europe. Which may make some probabilitie, that the citie, or rather the riuer whereon it is built tooke, the denomination from this Moscus: the rather because of the climate or situation, which is in the very farthest part and list of Europe, bordering vpon Asia. The Citie was much enlarged by one Iuan or Iohn, sonne to Daniel, that first changed his tide of duke into King: though that honour continued not to his posterity: the rather because he was inuested into it by the Popes Legate, who at that time was Innocentius the 4. about the yeere 1246. which was very much misliked by the Russe people, being then a part of the Easterne or Greeke Church. Since that time the name of this city hath growen more famous, and better knowen to the world: insomuch that, not only the prouince, but the whole countrey of Russia is termed by some by the name of Moscouia the Metropolite city. The forme of this city is in maner round with 3. strong wals, circuling the one within the other, and streets lying betwene, whereof the inmost wall, and the buildings closed within it (lying safest as the heart within the body, fenced and watred with the riuer Moscoua, that runneth close by it) is all accompted the Emperors castle. The number of houses (as I haue heard) through the whole Citie (being reckoned by the Emperor a little before it was fired by the Crim) was 41500. in all. Since the Tartar besieged and fired the towne, (which was in the yere 1571.) there lieth waste of it a great breadth of ground, which before was wel set and planted with buildings, specially that part on the South side of Moscua, built not long before by Basilius the Emperor for his garison of souldiers, to whom he gaue priuiledge to drinke Mead, and beere at the dry or prohibited times, when other Russes may drinke nothing but water, and for that cause called this new city by the name of Naloi, that is skinck [Footnote: From _Scenc_--drink, SAX. Where every iovial tinker for his chink, May cry, mine host, to crambe giue us drink, And do not slink, but skink, or else you stink. (B. JONSON, _New Inn_, I. 3.)] or poure in. So that now the city of Mosco is not much bigger then the city of London. [Sidenote: Nouograd.] The next in greatnes, and in a maner as large, is the citie Nouograd: where was committed (as the Russe saith) the memorable warre so much spoke of in stories of the Scythians seruants, that tooke armes against their Masters: which they report in this sort: viz. That the Boiarens or gentlemen of Nouograd and the territory about (which only are souldiers after the discipline of those countreis) had war with the Tartars. Which being wel performed and ended by them, they returned homewards. Where they vnderstood by the way that their Cholopey or bondslaues whom they left at home, had in their absence possessed their townes, lands, houses, wiues and all. At which newes being somewhat amased, and yet disdeining the villany of their seruants, they made the more speed home: and so not far from Nouograd met them in warlike maner marching against them. Whereupon aduising what was best to be done, they agreed all to set vpon them with no other shew of weapon but with their horse whips, (which as their maner is euery man rideth withal) to put them in remembrance of their seruile condition, thereby to terrifie them, and abate their courage. And so marching on and lashing al together with their whips in their hands they gaue the onset. Which seemed so terrible in the eares of their villaines, and stroke such a sense into them of the smart of the whip which they had felt before, that they fled altogether like sheepe before the driuers. In memory of this victory the Nouogradians euer since haue stamped their coine (which they cal a dingoe Nouogrodskoy currant through al Russia) with the figure of a horsman shaking a whip aloft in his hand. These 2. cities exceed the rest in greatnes. For strength their chiefe townes are Vobsko, Smolensko, Cazan and Astracan, as lying vpon the borders. [Sidenote: Iaruslaue.] But for situation Iaruslaue far exceedeth the rest. For besides the commodities that the soile yeeldeth of pasture and corne, it lieth vpon the famous riuer of Volgha, and looketh ouer it from a high banke very faire and stately to behold: whereof the towne taketh the name. For Iaraslaue in that tongue signifieth as much as a faire or famous banke. [Sidenote: Saxo Grammaticus lib. II. pag. 187.] In this towne (as may be ghessed by the name) dwelt the Russe king Vladimer sirnamed Iaruslaue, that maried the Daughter of Harald king of England, by mediation of Sweno the Dane, as is noted in the Danish story about the yere 1067. The other townes haue nothing that is greatly memorable, saue many ruines within their wals. [Sidenote: The manner of Russe building.] The streets of their cities and townes in stead of pauing are planked with fir trees, plained and layd enen close the one to the other. Their houses are of wood without any lime or stone, built very close and warme with firre trees plained and piled one vpon another. They are fastened together with dents or notches at euery corner, and so clasped fast together. Betwixt the trees or timber they thrust in mosse (whereof they gather plenty in their woods) to keep out the aire. Euery house hath a paire of staires that lead vp into the chambers out of the yard or streat after the Scottish maner. This building seemeth far better for their countrey, then that of stone or bricke; as being colder and more dampish then their wooden houses, specially of firre, that is a dry and warme wood. Whereof the prouidence of God hath giuen them such store, as that you may build a faire house for 20. or 30. rubbles or litle more, where wood is most scant. The greatest inconuenience of their wodden building is the aptnesse for firing, which happeneth very oft and in very fearful sort, by reason of the drinesse and fatnes of the fir, that being once fired, burneth like a torch, and is hardly quenched til all be burnt vp. Of the maner of Crowning or Inauguration of the Russe Emperours. The solemnities vsed at the Russe Emperors coronation, are on this maner. In the great church of Precheste (or our Lady) within the Emperors castle is erected a stage whereon standeth a scrine that beareth vpon it the Imperial cap and robe of very rich stuffe. When the day of the Inauguration is come, there resort thither, first the Patriarch with the Metropolitanes, arch-bishops, bishops, abbots and priors, al richly clad in their pontificalibus. Then enter the Deacons with the quier of singers. Who so soone as the Emperor setteth foot into the church, begin to sing: Many yeres may liue noble Theodore Iuanowich, &c: Wereunto the patriarch and Metropolite with the rest of the cleargy answere with a certaine hymne, in forme of a praier, singing it altogether with a great noise. The hymne being ended, the patriarch with the Emperor mount vp the stage, where standeth a seat ready for the Emperor. Whereupon the patriarch willeth him to sit downe, and then placing himself by him vpon another seat prouided for that purpose, boweth downe his head towards the ground, and saith this prayer: O Lord God king of kings, Lord of Lords, which by thy prophet Samuel didst chose thy seruant Dauid, and annoynt him for King ouer thy people Israel, heare now our prayer, and looke from thy sanctuary vpon this thy seruant Theodore, whom thou hast chosen and exalted for king ouer these thy holy nations anoint him with the oile of gladnes, protect by thy power, put vpon his head a crowne of gold and precious stones, giue him length of dayes, place him in the seat of Iustice, strengthen his arme, make subiect vnto him all the barbarous nations. Let thy feare be in his whole heart, turne him from an euill faith, and all errour, and shewe him the saluation of thy holy and vniuersal Church, that he may iudge thy people with iustice, and protect the children of the poore, and finally atteine euerlasting life. This prayer he speaketh with a low voice, and then pronounceth aloud: Al praise and power to God the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost. The prayer, being ended, he commandeth certaine Abbots to reach the imperiall roabe and cap: which is done very decently, and with great solemnitie, the Patriarch withal pronouncing aloud: Peace be vnto all. And so he beginneth another prayer to this effect: Bow your selues together with vs, and pray to him that reigneth ouer all. Preserue him (oh Lord) vnder thy holy protection, keepe him that hee may doe good and holy things, let Iustice shine forth in his dayes, that we may liue quietly without strife and malice. This is pronounced somewhat softly by the Patriarch, whereto hee addeth againe aloud: Thou art the king of the whole world and the sauiour of our soules, to thee the Father, sonne and Holy ghost be al praise for euer and euer. Amen. Then putting on the roabe and the cap, he blesseth the Emperour with the signe of the crosse, saying withall: In the name of the Father, the Sonne and the Holy ghost. The like is done by the Metropolites, Archbishops, and Bishops: who all in their order come to the chaire, and one after another blesse the Emperour with their two forefingers. Then is sayd by the Patriarch another prayer, that beginneth: Oh most holy virgin, mother of God &c. After which a Deacon pronounceth with a loude voice: Many yeres to noble Theodore, good, honourable, beloued of God, great Duke of Volodemer, of Mosco, Emperour, and Monarch of all Russia, &c. Whereto the other Priests and Deacons that stand somewhat farre of by the altar or table, answere singing: Many yeres, many yeres to the noble Theodore. The same note is taken vp by the Priests and Deacons, that are placed at the right and left side of the Church, and then altogether, they channt and thunder out, singing: Many yeres to the noble Theodore, good, honourable, beloued of God, great Duke of Volodomer, Mosco, Emperour of all Russia, &c. These solemnities being ended, first commeth the Patriarch with the Metropolites, Archbishops, and Bishops; then the Nobility, and the whole company in their order, to doe homage to the Emperour, bending downe their heads, and knocking them at his feete to the very ground. The stile wherewith he is inuested at his Coronation, runneth after this maner. Theodore Iuanowich, by the grace of God great Lord and Emperour of all Russia, great Duke of Volodomer, Mosco, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan, King of Astracan, Lord of Plesco, and great Duke of Smolensco, of Twerria, Ioughoria, Permia, Vadska, Bulghoria, and others; Lord and great Duke of Nouogrod of the Low countrey, of Chernigo, Rezan, Polotskoy, Rostoue, Yaruslaueley, Bealozera, Liefland, Oudoria, Obdoria, and Condensa, Commander of all Siberia, and of the North parts, and Lord of many other Countreis, &c. This stile conteineth in it all the Emperours Prouinces, and setteth foorth his greatnesse. And therefore they haue a great delight and pride in it, forcing not onely their owne people but also strangers (that haue any matter to deliuer to the Emperour by speech or writing) to repeate the whole forme from the beginning to the end. Which breedeth much cauill, and sometimes quarell betwixt them and the Tartar, and Poland Ambassadours: who refuse to call him Czar, that is Emperor, and to repeate the other parts of his long stile. My selfe when I had audience of the Emperour, thought good to salute him only with thus much viz. Emperour of all Russia, great Duke of Volodomer, Mosco and Nouogrod, King of Cazan, King of Astracan. The rest I omitted of purpose, because I knew they gloried, to haue their stile appeare to be of a larger volume then the Queenes of England. But this was taken in so ill part, that the Chancelour (who then attended the Emperour, with the rest of the nobility) with a loude chafing voice, called still vpon me to say out the rest. Whereto I answered, that the Emperors stile was very long, and could not so well be remembred by strangers, that I had repeated so much of it, as might shew that I gaue honour to the rest &c. But all would not serue till I commanded my interpreter to say it all out. Their forces for the wars, with the chief officers and their salaries. The Souldiers of Russia are called Sinaboyarskey, or the sons of Gentlemen: because they are all out of that degree, by vertue of their military profession. [Sidenote: Souldiers by birth and inheritance.] For euery souldier in Russia is a gentleman, and none are gentlemen, but only the souldiers, that take it by discent from their ancestors: so that the sonne of a gentleman (which is borne a souldier) is euer a gentleman, and a souldier withall, and professeth nothing els but military matters. When they are of yeres able to beare armes, they come to the office of Roserade, or great Constable, and there present themselues: who entreth their names, and allotteth them certaine lands to maintaine their charges, for the most part the same their fathers enioyed. For the lands assigned to maintaine the army, are euer certain, annexed to this office without improuing, or detracting one foot. But that if the Emperor haue sufficient in wages, the roomes being full so farre as the land doeth extend already, they are many times deferred, and haue nothing allowed them, except some one portion of the land be deuided into two. The whole number of his souldiers in continuall pay, is this. First he hath his Dworaney, that is, Pensioners, or Gard of his person, to the number of 15000 horsemen, with their captaines and other officers, that are alwaies in a readines. [Sidenote: Degrees of horsemen. 1. Prætoriani or such as attend the Emperors person.] Of these 15000 horsemen, there are three sorts or degrees, which differ as well in estimation as in wages, one degree from another. The first sort of them is called Dworaney Bulshey, or the company of head Pensioners, that haue some an hundred, some fourescore rubbles a yeare, and none vnder 70. The second sort are called Seredney Dworaney, or the middle rank of Pensioners. These haue sixty or fifty rubbles by the yeare, none vnder fortie. The third and lowest sort, are the Dyta Boiarskey, that is the low Pensioners. Their salary is thirty rubbles a yere for him that hath most, some haue but 25, some 20, none vnder 12. Whereof the halfe part is paid them at the Mosco, the other halfe in the field by the general, when they haue any wars, and are imploied in seruice. When they receiue their whole pay it amounteth to 55000 rubbles by the yere. And this is their wages, besides lands allotted to euery one of them, both to the greater and the lesse, according to their degrees. Whereof he that hath least, hath to yeelde him twentie rubbles or markes by the yeare. [Sidenote: Two other troupes to the number of 65000.] Besides these 15000 horsemen, that are of better choyce (as being the Emperors owne gard when himselfe goeth to the wars, not vnlike the Romane souldiers called Prætoriani) are a hundred and ten men of speciall account for their Nobilitie, and trust, which are chosen by the Emperor, and haue their names registred, that find among them for the Emperors wars, to the number of 65000. horsemen, with all necessaries meet for the wars after the Russe maner. To this end they haue yerely allowance made by the Emperor for themselues, and their companies, to the summe of 40000 rubbles. And these 65000 are to repayre to the field euery yeare on the borders towards the Crim Tartar, (except they be appointed for some other seruice) whether there be wars with the Tartars, or not. This might seeme peraduenture somewhat dangerous for some state, to haue so great forces vnder the command of Noblemen to assemble euery yere to one certain place. But the matter is so vsed, as that no danger can growe to the Emperor, or his state by this means. First, because these noblemen are many, to wit, an 110. in al, and changed by the Emperor so oft as he thinketh good. Secondly, because they haue their liuings of the Emperor, being otherwise but of very small reuenue, and receiue this yerely pay of 46000 rubbles, when it is presently to be payd forth againe to the souldiers that are vnder them. Thirdly, because for the most part they are about the Emperors person being of his Counsel, either speciall or at large. Fourthly, they are rather as paymasters, then Captaines to their companies, themselues not going forth ordinarily to the wars, saue when some of them are appointed by speciall order from the Emperor himselfe. [Sidenote: Horsemen in continuall pay 80000.] So the whole number of horsemen that are euer in a readinesse, and in continuall pay, are 80000, a few more or lesse. If he haue neede of a greater number (which seldome falleth out) then he enterteineth of those Sinaboiarskey, that are out of pay, so many as be needeth: and if yet he want of his number, he giueth charge to his Noblemen, that hold lands of him to bring into the field euery man a proportionable number of his seruants (called Kolophey, such as till his lands) with their furniture, according to the iust number that he intendeth to make. Which the seruice being done, presently lay in their weapons, and returne to their seruile occupations againe. [Sidenote: Footmen in continuall pay 12000.] Of footemen that are in continuall pay he hath to the number of 12000 all gunners, called Strelsey: Whereof 5000 are to attend about the citie of Mosco, or any other place where the Emperor shall abide, and 2000 (which are called Stremaney Strelsey, or gunners at the stirrop) about his owne person at the very Court or house where himselfe lodgeth. The rest are placed in his garison townes, till there be occasion to haue them in the field, and receiue for their salarie or stipend euery man seuen rubbles a yeare, besides twelue measures a piece of Rye, and Oates. [Sidenote: Strangers mercenaries in pay 4300.] Of mercenary Souldiers, that are strangers (whom they call Nimschoy) they haue at this time 4300 of Polonians: of Chirchasses (that are vnder the Polonians) about 4000, whereof 3500 are abroad in his garisons: of Doutches and Scots about 150: of Greekes, Turks, Danes and Swedens, all in one band, an 100 or thereabouts. But these they vse onely vpon the Tartar side, and against the Siberians: as they doe the Tartar souldiers (whom they hire sometimes, but only for the present) on the other side against the Polonian and Sweden: thinking it best policie to vse their seruice vpon the contrary border. [Sidenote: The chief captains or leaders.] The chiefe Captaines or leaders of these forces, according to their names and degrees, are these which follow. [Sidenote: 1. The Voiauod or general.] First, the Voyauoda Bulshaia, that is, the Great Captaine, or Lieutenant general vnder the Emperor. This commonly is one of the foure houses of the chiefe Nobility of the land. Their great Voiauod or general at this present in their wars, is commonly one of these foure: Knez Feodor Iuanowich Methisloskey, Knez Iuan Michalowich Glinskoy, Cherechaskoy, and Trowbetskoy, all of great nobilitie. [Sidenote: 2. Lieutenant general.] Next vnto the Voiauod or general there is some other placed as Lieutenant general, being a man of great valour and experience in the wars, who ordereth all things that the other countenanceth. At this time their principal man, and most vsed in their wars, is one Knez Demetrie Iuanowich Forestine, an ancient and expert captaine, and one that hath done great seruice (as they say) against the Tartar and Polonian. [Sidenote: 3. Marshals of the field foure.] Next under the Voiauod and his Lieutenant general are foure other that haue the marshalling of the whole army deuided among them, and may be called the marshals of the field. Euery man hath his quarter, or fourth part vnder him. Whereof the first is called the Praua Polskoy, or right wing. The second is the Leuoy Polskoy, or left wing. The third is Rusnoy Polskoy, or the broken band, because out of this there are chosen to send abroad vpon any sodaine exploit, or to make a rescue or supplie, as occasion doth require. The fourth Storoshouoy Polskoy, or the warding band. [Sidenote: Foure marshals: deputies eight.] Euery one of these foure Marshals haue two other vnder them (eight in all) that twise euery weeke at the least must muster and traine their seueral wings or bands, and hold and giue iustice for all faults, and disorders committed in the campe. And these eight are commonly chosen out of the 110. (which I spake of before) that receiue and deliuer the pay to the souldiers. [Sidenote: Fiue Coronels vnder Captaines.] Vnder these eight are diuers other Captaines, as the Gulauoy, Captaines of thousands fiue hundreds and 100. The Petyde Setskoy or Captains of fifties, and the Decetskies or Captains of tennes. [Sidenote: Sixe Masters of the Artillery.] Besides the Voiauoda or general of the armie (spoken of before) they haue two other that beare the name of Voiauoda, whereof one is the master of the great Ordinance (called Naradna voiauoda) who hath diuers vnder officers, necessary for that seruice. [The walking Captaine.] The other is called the Voiauoda gulauoy, or the walking Captaine, that hath allowed him 1000 good horsemen of principall choyce, to range and spie abroad, and hath the charge of the running Castle, which we are to speake of in the Chapter following. Al these Captains, and men of charge must once euery day resort to the Bulsha voiauoda, or General of the armie, to know his pleasure, and to informe him, if there be any requisite matter pertaining to their office. Of their mustering, and leuying of forces, maner of armour, and prouision of victuall for the warres. [Sidenote: Their order of mustering.] When wars are towards (which they faile not of lightly euery yere with the Tartar, and many times with the Polonian and Sweden) the foure Lords of the Chetfirds send forth their summons in the Emperors name, to all the Dukes and Dyacks of the Prouinces, to be proclaimed in the head townes of euery Shire: that al the Sinaboiarskey, or sonnes of gentlemen make their repaire to such a border where the seruice is to be done, at such a place, and by such a day, and there present themselues to such, and such Captaines. When they come to the place assigned them in the summons or proclamation, their names are taken by certaine officers that haue commission for that purpose from the Roserade, or high Constable, as Clarkes of the bands. If any make default or faile at the day, he is mulcted, and punished very seuerely. As for the General and other chief Captaines, they are sent thither from the Emperors owne hand, with such Commission and charge as he thinketh behoofull for the present seruice. When the souldiers are assembled, they are reduced into their bands, and companies, vnder their seueral Captaines of tennes, fifties, hundreds, thousands, &c. and these Bands into 4 Polskeis, or Legions (but of farre greater numbers then the Romane legions were) vnder their foure great Leaders, which also haue the authoritie of Marshals of the field (as was sayd before.) [Sidenote: The horsemans furniture.] Concerning their armour they are but slightly appointed. The common horseman hath nothing els but his bow in his case vnder his right arme, and his quiuer and sword hanging on the left side: except some fewe that beare a case of dagges, or a Iauelin, or short staffe along their horse side. The vnder captains wil haue commonly some piece of armour besides, as a shirt of male, or such like. The General with the other chiefe captaines and men of Nobilitie wil haue their horse very richly furnished, their saddles of cloth of gold, their bridles fair bossed and tasselled with gold, and silk fringe, bestudded with pearle and precious stones, themselues in very faire armor, which they cal Bullatnoy, made of faire shining steele, yet couered commonly with cloth of golde, and edged round with armin furre, his steele helmet on his head of a very great price, his sword bow and arrowes at his side, his speare in his hand, with another faire helmet, and Shesta pera, or horsemans scepter carried before him. Their swords, bowes, and arrowes are of the Turkish fashion. They practise like the Tartar to shoote forwards and backwards, as they flie and retire. [Sidenote: The footmans furniture.] The Strelsey or footeman hath nothing but his piece in his hand, his striking hatchet at his back, and his sword by his side. The stock of his piece is not made calieuerwise, but with a plaine and straite stocke (somewhat like a fouling piece) the barrel is rudely and vnartificially made, very heauie, yet shooteth but a very small bullet. [Sidenote: Prouision of victual.] As for their prouision of victual, the Emperor alloweth none, either for Captaine or souldiour, neither prouideth any for them except peraduenture some come for their money. Euery man is to bring sufficient for himselfe, to serue his turne for foure moneths, and if neede require to giue order for more to be brought vnto him to the Campe from his tenant that tilleth his land, or some other place. One great helpe they haue, that for lodging and diet euery Russe is prepared to be a souldier beforehand. Though the chiefe Captains and other of account cary tents with them after the fashion of ours, with some better prouision of victual then the rest. They bring with them commonly into the Campe for victuall a kind of dried bread, (which they call Suchary) with some store of meale, which they temper with water, and so make it into a ball, or small lumpe of dowe, called Tollockno. And this they eate rawe in stead of bread; Their meat is bacon, or some other flesh or fish dryed, after the Dutch maner. If the Russe soldier were as hardy to execute an enterprise, as he is hard to beare out toyle and trauell, or were otherwise as apt and well trained for the warres, as he is indifferent for his lodging and diet bee would farre exceede the souldiers of our parts. Of their marching, charging, and other Martial discipline. The Russe trusteth rather to his number, then to the valure of his souldiers, or good ordering of his forces. Their marching or leading is without al order, saue that the foure Polskey or Legions, (whereinto their armie is deuided) keepe themselues seuerall vnder their ensignes, and so thrust all on together in a hurrey, as they are directed by their Generall. Their Ensigne is the image of S. George. [Sidenote: Horsemen drummes.] The Bulsha Dworaney or chiefe horsemen, haue euery man a small drum of brasse at his saddle bowe, which he striketh when he giueth the charge, or onset. [Sidenote: The horsemans maner of charging.] They haue drummes besides of a huge bignes, which they cary with them vpon a boord layde on foure horses, that are sparred together with chaines, euery drumme haning eight strikers, or drummers, besides trumpets and shawmes, which they sound after a wilde maner, much different from ours. When they giue any charge, or make any inuasion, they make a great hallow or shoute altogether, as lowd as they can, which with the sound of their trumpets, shawmes and drummes, maketh a confused and horrible noyse. So they set on first discharging their arrowes, then dealing with their swordes, which they vse in a brauerie to shake, and brandish ouer their heads, before they come to strokes. [Sidenote: The footmans charge.] Their footmen (because otherwise they want order in leading) are commonly placed in some ambush or place of aduantage, where they most annoy the enemie, with least hurt to themselues. [Sidenote: The walking Castle.] If it be a set battell, or if any great inuasion be made vpon the Russe borders by the Tartar, they are set within the running or mouing Castle (called Bexa, or Gulaygorod) which is caried about with them by the Voiauoda golauoy (or the walking General) whom I spake of before. This walking or moouing Castle is so framed, that it may be set vp in length (as occasion doeth require) the space of one, two, three, foure, fiue, sixe, or seuen miles: for so long will reach. It is nothing els but a double wall of wood to defend them on both sides behinde and before, with a space of three yards or thereabouts, betwixt the two sides: so that they may stand within it, and haue roome enough to charge and discharge their pieces, and to vse their other weapons. It is closed at both ends, and made with loope holes on either side, to lay out the nose of their piece, or to push foorth any other weapon. It is caried with the armie wheresoeuer it goeth, being taken into pieces, and so layde on cartes sparred together, and drawen by horse that are not seene, by reason that they are couered with their cariage as with a shelfe or penthouse. When it is brought to the place where it is to be vsed (which is deuised and chosen out before by the walking Voiauod) it is planted so much as the present vse requireth, sometime a mile long, sometimes two, sometimes three or more: Which is soone done without the helpe of any Carpenter, or instrument: because the timber is so framed to claspe together one piece with in another: as is easily vnderstoode by those that know the maner of the Russe building. In this Castle standeth their shot wel fenced for aduantage, especially against the Tartar, that bringeth no ordinance, nor other weapon into the field with him, saue his sword, and bow, and arrowes. They haue also within it diuers field pieces, which they vse as occasion doth require. Of pieces for the field they carie no great store, when they warre against the Tartar: but when they deale with the Polonian (of whose forces they make more account) they go better furnished with all kind of munition, and other necessarie prouisions. It is thought that no Prince of Christendome hath better store of munition, then the Russe Emperour. And it may partly appeare by the Artillery house at Mosco, where are of all sortes of great Ordinance, all brasse pieces, very faire, to an exceeding great number. The Russe souldier is thought to be better at his defence within some castle or towne, then he is abroad at a set pitched field. Which is euer noted in the practise of his warres, and namely at the siege of Vobsco, about eight yeres since: [Sidenote: 1580.] where he repulsed the Polonian king Stepan Batore, with his whole armie of 100000 men, and forced him in the end to giue ouer his siege, with the losse of many of his best Captaines and souldiers. But in a set field the Russe is noted to haue euer the worse of the Polonian and Sweden. [Sidenote: Reward for valure.] If any behaue himselfe more valiantly then the rest, or do any special piece of seruice, the Emperor sendeth him a piece of golde, stamped with the Image of Saint George on horsebacke: Which they hang on their sleeues, and set in their caps. And this is accounted the greatest honour they can receiue, for any seruice they doe. Of their Colonies, and maintaining of their conquests, or purchases by force. The Russe Emperors of late yeres haue very much enlarged their dominions, and territories. Their first conquest after the Dukedome of Mosco, (for before that time they were but Dukes of Volodomer, as before was said) was the citie, and Dukedome of Nouogrod on the West, and Northwest side: which was no smal enlargement of their dominion, and strengthening to them for the winning of the rest. This was done by Iuan great grandfather to Theodor now Emperor, about the yere 1480. The same began likewise to encroach vpon the countries of Lituania and Liuonia, but the conquest only intended, and attempted by him vpon some part of those countries, was pursued and performed by his sonne Basileus, who first wan the citie and dukedom of Plesko, afterwards the citie and dukedome of Smolensco, and many other faire towns, with a large territory belonging vnto them, about the yere 1514. [Sidenote: 1580.] These victories against the Lettoes or Lituanians in the time of Alexander their duke, he atchieued rather by aduantage of ciuil dissentions, and treasons among themselues, then by any great policie, or force of his own. But al this was lost againe by his son Iuan Vasiliwich about 8 or 9 yeres past, vpon composition with the Polonian king Stephan Batore: whereunto he was forced by the aduantages which the Pole had then of him, by reason of the foile he had giuen him before, and the disquietnes of his own state at home. Onely the Russe Emperor, at this time hath left him on that side his countery, the cities of Smolensco, Vobsco, Chernigo, and Bealagorod in Lituania. In Liuonia, not a towne nor one foot of ground. [Sidenote: Lituania.] When Basilius first conquered those countries, he suffered then the natiues to keepe their possessions, and to inhabite all their townes, onely paying him a tribute, vnder the gouernment of his Russe Captaines. But by their conspiracies and attempts not long after, he was taught to deale more surely with them. And so comming vpon them the second time, he killed and caried away with him, three parts of foure, which he gaue or sold to the Tartars that serued him in those wars, and in stead of them placed there his Russes, so many, as might ouermatch the rest, with certaine garisons of strength besides. Wherein notwithstanding this ouersight was committed, for that (taking away with him the vpland, or countrey people that should haue tilled the ground, and might easily haue bene kept in order without any danger, by other good policies) he was driuen afterwards many yeres together, to vitaile the countrey (specially the great townes) out of his owne countrey of Russia, the soile lying there in the meane while wast and vntilled. [Sidenote: Narue.] The like fell out at the port of Narue in Liefland, where his sonne Iuan Vasiliwich deuised to build a towne, and a castle on the other side the riuer, (called Iuanogrod) to keepe the towne and countrey in subiection. The castle he caused to be so built and fortified, that it was thought to be inuincible. And when it was furnished, for reward to the Architect (that was a Polonian) he put out both his eyes, to make him vnable to build the like againe. But hauing left the natiues all within their owne countrey, without abating their number or strength, the towne and castle not long after was betraied, and surrendred againe to the king of Sweden. On the Southeast side they haue got the kingdomes of Cazan, and Astracan. These were wonne from the Tartar, by the late Emperour Iuan Vasiliwich, the one about thirtie fiue, the other about thirtie and three yeares agoe. [Sidenote: Siberia and Ob. Conquest of a 1000 miles.] Northward out of the countrey of Siberia, he hath layed vnto his realme a great breadth and length of ground, from Wichida to the riuer of Obba, about a thousand miles space: so that he is bolde to write himselfe now, The great Commander of Siberia. [Sidenote: Premia and Pechora] The countries likewise of Permia, and Pechora are a diuers people and language from the Russe, ouercome not long since, and that rather by threatning, and shaking of the sword, then by any actual force: as being a weake and naked people, without meanes to resist. That which the Russe hath in his present possession, he keepeth on this sort. [Sidenote: Means of holding chief townes.] In his foure chief border townes of Vobsko, Smolensko, Astracan, and Cazan, he hath certaine of his counsel not of the greatest nobility, but of greatest trust, which haue more authoritie within their precincts, (for the countenancing and strengthening of their gouernment there) then the other Dukes that are set to gouerne in other places, as was noted before, in the maner of ordering their Prouinces. These he changeth sometimes euery second or third yere, but exceedeth not that time, except vpon very speciall trust, and good liking of the party, and his seruice: least by enlarging of their time, they might grow into some familiaritie with the enemie (as some haue done) being so farre out of sight. The townes besides are very strongly fenced with trenches, castles, and store of munition, and haue garisons within them, to the number of two or three thousand a piece. They are stored with victual if any seige should come vpon them, for the space of two or three yeres before hand. The foure castles of Smolensko, Vobsko, Cazan and Astracan, he hath made very strong to beare out any siege: so that it is thought that those townes are impregnable. [Sidenote: Meanes of holding the countries of Pechora, Permia and Siberia.] As for the countries of Pechora and Permia, and that part of of Siberia, which he hath now vnder him, they are kept by as easie meanes, as they were first got, viz. rather by shewing, then by vsing of armes. First, he hath stored the countrie with as many Russes as there are natiues, and hath there some few souldiers in garison, inough to keepe them under. Secondly, his officers and Magistrates there are of his own Russe people, and he changeth them very often, viz. euery yere twise or thrise: notwithstanding there be no great feare of any innouation. Thirdly, he deuideth them into many smal gouernments, like a staffe broke in many small pieces: so that they haue no strength being seuered, which was but litle neither when they were al in one. Fourthly, he prouideth that the people of the countrie haue neither armor nor money, being taxed and pilled so often as he thinketh good: without any meanes to shake off that yoke, or to relieue themselues. [Sidenote: Siberia.] In Siberia (where he goeth on in pursuing his conquest) he hath diuers castles and garisons to the number of 6000 souldiers of Russes and Polonians, and sendeth many new supplies thither, to plant and inhabite, as he winneth ground. [Sidenote: The kings brother of Siberia.] At this time besides he hath gotten the kings brother of Siberia, allured by certaine of his captaines, to leaue his own country by offers of great entertainment and pleasanter life with the Russe Emperor, then he had in Siberia. [Sidenote: 1588.] He was brought in this last yere, and is now with the Emperor at Mosco well enterteined. Of the Tartars, and other borderers to the country of Russia, with whom they haue most to doe in warre, and peace. Their neighbors with whom they haue greatest dealings and intercourse, both in peace and war, are first the Tartar. [Sidenote: The Polonians called Laches by the Russe.] Secondly the Polonian whom the Russe calleth Laches, noting the first author or founder of the nation, who was called Laches or Leches, whereunto is added Po, which signifieth People, and is so made Polaches, that is, the People or posterity of Laches: which the Latins after their maner of writing cal Polonos. The third are the Swedens. The Polonians and Swedens are better knowen to these parts of Europe then are the Tartars, that are farther off from vs (as being of Asia) and diuided into many tribes, different in name, and gouernment one from another. [Sidenote: The Chrim Tartar.] The greatest and mightiest of them is the Chrim Tartar, (whom some call the Great Can) that lieth South, and Southeastward from Russia, and doth most annoy the country by often inuasions, commonly once euery yere, sometimes entring very farre within the inland parts. [Sidenote: The firing of Mosco by the Chrim Tartar in the yere 1571.] In the yere 1571 he came as farre as the citie of Mosco, with an armie of 200000 men, without any battel, or resistance at al, for that the Russe Emperor (then Iuan Vasiliwich) leading forth his armie to encounter with him, marched a wrong way. The citie he tooke not, but fired the suburbs, which by reason of the buildings (which are all of wood without any stone, brick, or lime, saue certaine out roomes) kindled so quickly, and went on with such rage, as that it consumed the greatest part of the citie almost within the space of foure houres, being of 30 miles or more of compasse. Then might you haue seene a lamentable spectacle: besides the huge and mighty flame of the citie all on light fire, the people burning in their houses and streetes, but most of all of such as laboured to passe out of the gates farthest from the enemie, where meeting together in a mightie throng, and so pressing euery man to preuent another, wedged themselues so fast within the gate, and streetes neere vnto it, as that three rankes walked one vpon the others head, the vppermost treading downe those that were lower: so that there perished at that time (as was said) by the fire and the presse, the number of 800000 people or more. The principall cause of this continual quarell betwixt the Russe and the Chrim is for the right of certaine border partes claimed by the Tartar, but possessed by the Russe. The Tartar alleageth that besides Astracan and Cazan (that are the ancient possession of the East Tartar) the whole countrey from his bounds North and Westward so farre as the citie of Mosko, and Mosko it selfe perteineth to his right. [Sidenote: Homage done by the Russe to the Chrim Tartar.] Which seemeth to haue bene true by the report of the Russes them selues, that tell of a certaine homage that was done by the Russe Emperour euery yeere to the great Chrim or Can, the Russe Emperour standing on foot and feeding the Chrims horse, (himselfe sitting on his backe) with oates out of his owne cappe, in stead of a bowle or manger, and that within the castle of Mosko. And this homage (they say) was done till the time of Basileus grandfather to this man. Who surprising the Chrim Emperour by a stratageme done by one of his nobilitie (called Iuan Demetrowich Belschey) was content with this raunsome, viz. with the changing of this homage into a tribute of furrres: which afterwards also was denied to be paide by this Emperors father. Hereupon they continue the quarrel, the Russe defending his countrey, and that which he hath won, the Chrim Tartar inuading him once or twise euery yere, sometime about Whitsontide, but oftner in haruest. What time if the great Can or Chrim come in his owne person, he bringeth with him a great armie of 100000. or 200000. men. Otherwise they make short and sudden rodes into the countrey with lesser numbers, running about the list of the border as wild geese flie, inuading and retiring where they see aduantage. Their common practise (being very populous) is to make diuers armies, and so drawing the Russe to one or two places of the frontiers, to inuade at some other place, that is left without defence. [Sidenote: The maner of the Tartars fight and armour.] Their maner of fight, or ordering of their forces is much after the Russe maner (spoken of before) saue that they are all horsemen, and carie nothing els but a bowe, a sheafe of arrowes, and a falcon sword after the Turkish fashion. They are very expert horsemen, and vse to shoote as readily backward, as forward. Some will haue a horsemans staff like to a bore speare, besides their other weapons. The common souldier hath no other armour than his ordinary apparell, viz. a blacke sheeps skin with the wool side outward in the day time, and inwarde in the night time, with a cap of the same. But their Morseys or noblemen imitate the Turk both in apparel and armour. When they are to passe ouer a riuer with their armie, they tie three or four horses together and taking long poles or pieces of wood, bind them fast to the tailes of their horse: so sitting on the poles they driue their horse ouer. At handie strokes, (when they ioyne battell) they are accounted farre better men then the Russe people, fierce by nature, but more hardy and bloody by continuall practise of warre: as men knowing no artes of peace, nor any ciuil practise. [Sidenote: The subtilitie of the Tartar.] Yet their subtility is more than may seeme to agree with their barbarous condition. By reason they are practised to inuade continually, and to robbe their neighbours that border about them, they are very pregnant, and ready witted to deuise stratagems vpon the sudden for their better aduantage. As in their warre against Beala the fourth, king of Hungarie, whome they inuaded with 500000. men, and obtained against him a great victorie. Where, among other, hauing slaine his Chancelor called Nicholas Schinick, they found about him the kings priuy seale. Whereupon they deuised presently to counterfeit letters in the kings name, to the cities and townes next about the place, where the field was fought: with charge that in no case they should conuey themselues, and their goods out of their dwellings, where they might abide safely without all feare of danger, and not leaue the countrey desolate to the possession of so vile and barbarous an enemie, as was the Tartar nation, terming themselues in all reproachful maner. For notwithstanding he had lost his carriages, with some few straglers that had marched disorderly, yet he doubted not but to recouer that losse, with the accesse of a notable victorie, if the sauage Tartar durst abide him in the field. To this purpose hauing written their letters in the Polish character, by certain yong men whom they tooke in the field, and signed them with the Kings seale, they dispatched them forth to all the quarters of Hungaria. that lay neere about the place. Wherevpon the Vngarians that were now flying away with their goods, wiues, and children, vpon the rumour of the kings ouerthrow, taking comfort of these counterfeit letters, staid at home. And so were made a pray, being surprised on the sudden by this huge number of these Tartars, that had compassed them about before they were aware. When they besiege a towne or fort, they offer much parle, and send many flattering messages to perswade a surrendry: promising all things that the inhabitants will require: but being once possessed of the place, they vse all maner of hostilitie, and crueltie. This they doe vpon a rule they haue, viz, that iustice is to bee practised but towards their owne. They encounter not lightly, but they haue some ambush, whereunto (hauing once shewed themselues, and made some short conflict) they retire as repulsed for feare, and so draw the enemie into it if they can. But the Russe beeing well acquainted with their practise is more warie of them. When they come a rouing with some small number, they set on horsebacke counterfaite shapes of men, that their number may seeme greater. When they make any onset, their maner is to make a great shoute, crying out altogether Olla Billa, Olla Billa, God helpe vs, God help vs. They contemne death so much, as that they chuse rather to die, then to yeeld to their enemie, and are seene when they are slain to bite the very weapon, when they are past striking or helping of themselues. Wherein appeareth how different the Tartar is in his desperate courage from the Russe and Turke. For the Russe souldier, if he begin once to retire, putteth all his safetie in his speedy flight. And if once he be taken by his enemy, he neither defendeth himselfe, nor intreateth for his life, as reckoning straight to die. The Turk commonly, when he is past hope of escaping, falleth to intreatie, and casteth away his weapon, offereth both his hands, and holdeth them, as it were to be tied: hoping to saue his life by offering himselfe bondslaue. The chiefe bootie the Tartars seeke for in all their warres is to get store of captiues; specially young boyes, and girles, whome they sell to the Turkes, or other their neighbours. To this purpose they take with them great baskets make like bakers panniers, to carry them tenderly, and if any of them happen to tire, or to be sicke by the way, they dash him against the ground, or some tree, and so leaue him dead. The Souldiers are not troubled with keeping the captiues and the other bootie, for hindering the execution of their warres, but they haue certaine bandes that intend nothing else, appoynted of purpose to receiue and keepe the captiues and the other praye. [Sidenote: The Tartar religion.] The Russe borderers (being vsed to their inuasions lightly euery yeere in the Sommer) keepe fewe other cattell on the border partes, saue swine onely which the Tartar will not touch, nor driue away with him: for that he is of the Turkish religion, and will eate no swines flesh. Of Christ our Sauiour they confesse as much as doeth the Turke in his Alkaron, viz. that he came of the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Marie, that he was a great Prophet, and shall be the Iudge of the worlde at the last day. In other matter likewise, they are much ordered after the manner and direction of the Turke: hauing felt the Turkish forces when hee wonne from them Azou and Caffa, with some other townes about the Euxine or blacke Sea, that were before tributaries to the Crim Tartar. So that now the Emperor of the Crims for the most part is chosen one of the Nobility whom the Turke doeth commend: whereby it is brought nowe to passe, that the Crim Tartar giueth to the Turke the tenth part of the spoyle which hee getteth in his warres against the Christians. Herein they differ from the Turkish religion, for that they haue certaine idole puppets made of silke, or like stuffe, of the fashion of a man, which they fasten to the doore of their walking houses, to be as Ianusses or keepers of their house. And these idoles are made not by all, but by certaine religious women which they haue among them for that and like vses. They haue besides the image of their King or great Can, of an huge bignesse, which they erect at euery stage when the army marcheth: and this euery one must bend and bowe vnto as he passeth by it, be he Tartar or stranger. They are much giuen to witchcraft, and ominous coniectures vpon euery accident which they heare or see. In making of mariages they haue no regard of alliance or consanguinitie. Onely with his mother, sister, and daughter a man may not marrie, and thougn he take the woman into his house, and accompany with her, yet be accounteth her not for his wife till he haue a childe by her. Then hee beginneth to take a dowry of her friends, or horse, sheepe, kine, &c. If she be barren after a certaine time, be turneth her home againe. [Sidenote: The Tartar nobilitie.] Vnder the Emperour they haue certaine Dukes, whome they call Morseis or Diuoymorseis, that rule ouer a certaine number of 10000, 20000, or 40000, a piece, which they call Hoords. When the Emperour hath any vse of them to serue in his warres, they are bound to come, and to bring with them in their Souldiers to a certain number, euery man with his two horse at the least, the one to ride on, the other to kill, when it commmeth to his turne to haue his horse eaten. [Sidenote: The tartar diet.] For their chiefe vitaile is horse flesh, which they eate without bread, or any other thing with it. So that if a Tartar be taken by a Russe, he shall he sure lightly to finde a horse-legge, or some other part of him at his saddle bowe. [Sidenote: 1588.] This last yeere when I was at the Mosco, came in one Kiriach Morsey, nephew to the Emperour of the Crims that nowe is (whose father was Emperour before) accompanied with 300. Tartars, and his two wiues, whereof one was his brothers widow. Where being intertained in very good sort after the Russe maner, hee had sent vnto his lodging for his welcome, to bee made ready for his supper and his companies, two very large and fat horses, ready flayed in a shed. They prefer it before other flesh, because the meate is stronger (as they say) then Beefe, Mutton, and such like. And yet (which is marueile) though they serue all as horsemen in the warres, and eate all of horse flesh, there are brought yeerely to the Mosco to bee exchanged for other commodities 30. or 40. thousand Tartar horse, which they call Cones. They keepe also great heards of kine, and flocks of blacke sheepe, rather for the skins and milke (which they carie with them in great bottels) then for the vse of the flesh, though sometimes they eate of it. Some vse they haue of ryse, figs, and other fruits. They drinke milke or warme blood, and for the most part card them both together. They vse sometime as they trauel by the way to let their horse blood in a vaine, and to drinke it warme, as it commeth from his bodie. [Sidenote: The Tartars dwelling.] Townes they plant none, nor other standing buildings, but haue walking houses, which the latines call Veij, built vpon wheeles like a shepheards cottage. These they drawe with them whithersoeuer they goe, driuing their cattell with them. And when they come to their stage, or standing place, they plant their carte houses verie orderly in a ranke: and so make the forme of streetes, and of a large towne. And this is the manner of the Emperor himselfe, who hath no other seat of Empire but an Agora, or towne of wood, that moueth with him whithersoeuer he goeth. As for the fixed and standing buildings vsed in other countreyes, they say they are vnwholesome and unpleasant. They begin to mooue their houses and cattell in the Spring time from the South part of their countrey towards the North partes. And so driuing on till they haue grased all vp to the first farthest part Northward, they returne backe againe towards their South countrey (where they continue all the Winter) by 10. or 12. miles a stage: in the meane while the grasse being sprung vp againe, to serue for their cattell as they returne. From the border of the Shelcan towards the Caspian sea, to the Russe frontiers, they haue a goodly Countrey, specially on the South and Southeast parts, but lost for lack of tillage. Of money they haue no vse at all, and therefore prefer brasse and steele before other metals, specially bullate, which they vse for swordes, kniues, and other necessaries. As for golde and siluer they neglect it of very purpose, (as they doe all tillage of their ground) to bee more free for their wandering kinde of life, and to keepe their Countrey lesse subiect to inuasions. Which giueth them great aduantage against all their neighbors, euer inuading and neuer being inuaded. Such as haue taken vpon them to inuade their Countrey (as of olde time Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis, on the East and Southeast side) haue done it with very ill successe: as wee finde in the stories written of those times. For their manner is when any will inuade them, to allure and drawe them on by flying and reculing (as if they were afraide) till they haue drawen them some good way within their countrey. Then when they begin to want victuall and other necessaries (as needes they must where nothing is to be had) to stoppe vp the passages, and inclose them with multitudes. By which stratagem (as we reade in Laonicus Chalcacondylas in his Turkish storie) they had welnigh surprised the great and huge armie of Tamerlan, but that hee retired with all speede hee could towardes the riuer Tanais or Don, not without great losse of his men, and cariages. [Sidenote: Pachymerius.] In the storie of Pachymerius the Greek (which he wrote of the the elder) I remember he telleth to the same purpose of one Nogas a Tartarian captaine vnder Cazan the Emperor of the East Tartars (of whom the citie and kingdome of Cazan may seeme to Emperors of Constantinople from the beginning of the reigne of Michael Palæologus to the time of Andronicus haue taken the denomination) who refused a present of Pearle and other iewels sent vnto him from Michael Palæologus: asking withall, for what vse they serued, and whether they were good to keepe away sicknesse, death, or other misfortunes of this life, or no. So that it seemeth they haue euer, or long time bene of that minde to value things no further, then by the vse and necessitie for which they serue. For person and complexion they haue broade and flatte visages, of a tanned colour into yellowe and blacke, fierce and cruell lookes, thinne haired vpon the upper lippe, and pitte of the chinne, light and nimble bodied, with short legges, as if they were made naturally for horsemen: whereto they practise themselues from their childhood, seldome going afoot about anie businesse. Their speech is verie sudden and loude, speaking as it were out of a deepe hollowe throate. When they sing you would thinke a kowe lowed, or some great bandogge howled. Their greatest exercise is shooting, wherein they traine vp their children from their verie infancie, not suffering them to eate till they haue shot neere the marke within a certaine scantling. They are the very same that sometimes were called Scythæ Nomades, or the Scythian shepheards, by the Greekes and Latines. Some thinke that the Turks took their beginning from the nation of the Crim Tartars. [Sidenote: Laonicus Calcocondylas.] Of which opinion is Laonicus Calcocondylas the Greek Historiographer, in his first booke of his Turkish storie. Wherein hee followeth diuers verie probable coniectures. [Sidenote: 1.] The first taken from the verie name it selfe, for that the worde Turke signifieth a Shepheard or one that followeth a vagrant and wilde kinde of life. By which name these Scythian Tartars haue euer beene noted, being called by the Greekes [Greek: skythai nomades] or the Scythian shepheards. [Sidenote: 2.] His second reason because the Turkes (in his time) that dwelt in Asia the lesse, to wit, in Lydia, Caria, Phrygia and Cappadocia, spake the very same language that these Tartars did, that dwelt betwixt the riuer Tanais or Don, and the countrey of Sarmatia, which (as is knowen) are these Tartars called Crims. At this time also the whole nation of the Turkes differ not much in their common speech from the Tartar language. [Sidenote: 3.] Thirdly because the Turke and the Crim Tartar agree so well together, as well in religion, as in matter of Traffique neuer inuading, or iniurying one another: saue that the Turke (since Laonicus his time) hath encroached vpon some Townes vpon the Euxin Sea, that before perteined to the Crim Tartar. [Sidenote: 4.] Fourthly, because Ortogules sonne to Oguzalpes, and father to Ottoman the first of name of the Turkish nation made his first roads out of those pans of Asia, vpon the next borderers, till hee came towardes the countreys about the hill Taurus where he ouercame the Greekes that inhabited there: and so enlarged the name and territorie of the Turkish nation, till hee came to Eubæa and Attica and other partes of Greece. [Sidenote: 1400.] This is the opinion of Laonicus, who liued among the Turkes in the time of Amurat the sixt Turkish Emperour, about the yeere 1400. when the memorie of their originall was more fresh: and therefore the likelier hee was to hit the trueth. [Sidenote: The Nagay Tartar the cruellest, The Chircase the ciuillest Tartar.] There are diuers other Tartars that border vpon Russia, as the Nayages, the Cheremissens, the Mordwites, the Chircasses, and the Shalcans, which all differ in name more then in regiment, or other condition, from the Crim Tartar, except the Chircasses that border Southwest, towardes Lituania, and are farre more ciuill than the rest of the Tartars, of a comely person, and of a stately behauiour, as applying themselues to the fashion of the Polonian. Some of them haue subiected themselues to the Kings of Poland, and professe Christianitie. The Nagay lieth Eastwarde, and is reckoned for the best man of warre among all the Tartars, but verie sauage, and cruell aboue all the rest. [Sidenote: The Cheremissen Tartar of two sorts: the Lugauoy and the Nagornay.] The Cheremessen Tartar, that lieth betwixt the Russe and the Nagay, are of two sorts, the Lugauoy (that is of the valley) and the Nagornay, or of the hilly countrey. These haue much troubled the Emperours of Russia. And therefore they are content now to buy peace of them, vnder pretence of giuing a yeerely pension of Russe commodities to their Morseys, or Diuoymorseis, that are chiefe of their tribes. For which also they are bound to serue them in their wars, vnder certaine conditions. They are said to be iust and true in their dealings: and for that cause they hate the Russe people, whom they account to be double, and false in al their dealing. And therefore the common sort are very vnwilling to keepe agreement with them, but that they are kept in by their pensions sake. [Sidenote: The Mordwit Tartar the most barbarous of the rest.] The most rude and barbarous is counted the Mordwit Tartar, that hath many selfe- fashions and strange kinds of behauiour, differing from the rest. For his religion, though he acknowledge one God, yet his manor is to worship for God, that liuing thing that he first meeteth in the morning; and to sweare by, it all that whole day, whether it be horse, dog, cat, or whatsoeuer els it bee. When his friend dieth, he killeth his best horse, and hauing flayed off the skinne hee carieth it on high vpon a long pole before the corpes to the place of buriall. This hee doeth (as the Russe saieth) that his friend may haue a good horse to carie him to heauen: but it is likelier to declare his loue towards his dead friend, in that he will haue to die with him the best thing that he hath. Next to the kingdome of Astracan, that is the farthest part Southeastward of the Russe dominion, lyeth the Shulcan, and the countrey of Media: whither the Russe marchants trade for rawe silkes, syndon, saphion, skinnes, and other commodities. The chiefe Townes of Media where the Russe tradeth, are Derbent (built by Alexander the great, as the inhabitants say) and Zamachi where the staple is kept for rawe silkes. [Sidenote: The reuiuing of silkwormes.] Their maner is in the Spring time to reuiue the silke-wormes (that lie dead all the Winter) by laying them in the warme sunne, and (to hasten their quickening that they may the sooner goe to worke) to put them into bags, and so to hang them vnder their childrens armes. [Sidenote: Chrinisin a kind of silkworme.] As for the woorme called Chrinisin (as wee call it Chrymson) that maketh coloured silke, it is bred not in Media, but in Assyria. [Sidenote: Liberty to trade downe the Caspian Sea.] This trade to Derbent and Samachi for rawe silkes, and other commodities of that Countrey, as also into Persia, and Bougharia downe the riuer of Volga, and through the Caspian sea, is permitted aswell to the English as to the Russe merchants, by the Emperours last grant at my being there. Which he accounteth for a very speciall fauour, and might proue indeede very beneficiall to our English merchants, if the trade were wel and orderly vsed. The whole nation of the Tartars are vtterly voide of all learning, and without written Law: yet certaine rules they haue which they hold by tradition, common to all the Hoords for the practise of their life. Which are of this sort. First, To obey their Emperour and other Magistrates, whatsoeuer they commaund about the publike seruice. 2 Except for the publike behoofe, euery man to be free and out of controlment. 3 No priuate man to possesse any lands, but the whole countrey to be as common. 4 To neglect all daintinesse and varietie of meates, and to content themselues with that which commeth next to hand, for more hardnesse, and readines in the executing of their affaires. 5 To weare any base attire, and to patch their clothes whether there be any neede or not: that when there is neede, it be no shame to weare a patcht coate. 6 To take or steale from any stranger whatsoeuer they can get, as beeing enemies of all men, saue to such as will subiect themselues to them. 7 Towards their owne hoorde and nation to be true in worde and deede. 8 To suffer no stranger to come within the Realme. [Sidenote: No stranger without pasport admitted.] If any doe, the same to be bondslaue to him that first taketh him, except such merchants and other as haue the Tartar Bull, or passport about them. Of the Permians, Samoites, and Lappes. The Permians and Samoites that lye from Russia, North and. Northeast, are thought likewise to haue taken their beginning from the Tartar kinde. And it may partly bee gessed by the fashion of their countenance, as hauing all broade and flat faces as the Tartars haue, except the Chircasses. [Sidenote: The Permians.] The Permians are accounted for a very ancient people. They are nowe subiect to the Russe. They liue by hunting, and trading with their furres, as also doeth the Samoit, that dwelleth more towardes the North Sea. [Sidenote: The Samoits.] The Samoit hath his name (as the Russe saith) of eating himselfe: as if in times past, they liued as the Cannibals, eating one another. [Footnote: _Samoyed_ means "self-eater", while _Samodin_ denotes "an individual". Nordenskiöld considers it probable, however, that the old tradition of man-eaters _androphagi_, living in the north, which originated with Herodotus, reappears in a Russianised form in the name "Samoyed".] Which they make more probable, because at this time they eate all kind of raw flesh, whatsoeuer it be, euen the very carion that lieth in the ditch. But as the Samoits themselues will say, they were called Samoie, that is, of themselues, as though they were Indigenæ, or people bred vpon that very soyle, that neuer changed their seate from one place to another, as most nations haue done. They are subiect at this time to the Emperour of Russia. [Sidenote: The Samoits religion.] I talked with certaine of them, and finde that they acknowledge one God: but represent him by such things as they haue most vse and good by. And therefore they worship the Sunne, the Ollen, the Losh, and such like. [Sidenote: Slata Baba or the golden Hag.] As for the story of Slata Baba, or the Golden hagge, which I haue read in some mappes, and descriptions of these countries, to be an idole after the forme of an old woman that being demanded by the Priest, giueth them certaine Oracles, concerning the successe, and euent of things, I found it to be a very fable. [Sidenotes: A fable. The Sea.] Onely in the Prouince of Obdoria vpon the sea side, neare to the mouth of the great riuer Obba, there is a rocke, which naturally (being somewhat helped by imagination) may seeme to beare the shape of a ragged woman, with a child in her armes (as the rocke by the North Cape the shape of a Frier) where the Obdorian Samoites vse much to resort, by reason of the commoditie of the place for fishing: [Sidenote: Fishing or sea.] and there, sometime (as their manner is) conceiue, and practise their sorceries, and ominous coniecturings about the good or bad speede of their iourneies, fishings, huntings and such like. [Sidenote: The Samoits habit and behauiour.] They are clad in Seale skins, with the hairie side outwards downe as low as the knees, with their breeches and netherstockes of the same, both men and women. They are all blacke haired, naturally beardlesse. And therefore the men are hardly discerned from the women by their lookes: saue that the women weare a locke of haire downe along both their eares. [Sidenote: The people of Meta Incognota such.] They liue in a manner a wilde and sauage life, rouing still from one place of the countrey to another, without any property of house or land more to one then to another. Their leader or directer in euery companie, is their Papa or Priest. [Sidenote: The Lappes.] On the North side of Russia next to Corelia, lieth the countrey of Lappia, which reacheth in length from the farthest point Northward, (towards the Northcape) to the farthest part Southeast (which, the Russe calleth Sweetnesse or Holy nose, the English men Capegrace) about 345. verst or miles. From Sweetnesse to Candelox by the way of Versega (which measureth the breadth of that countrey) is 90. miles or thereabouts. The whole countrey in a maner is either lakes, or mountaines, which towardes the Sea side are called Tondro, because they are all of harde and craggy rocke, but the inland partes are well furnished with woods that growe on the hilles sides, the lakes lying betweene. Their diet is very bare and simple. Bread they haue none, but feede onely vpon fish and foule. They are subiect to the Emperor of Russia, and the two kings of Sweden and Denmarke: which all exact tribute and custome of them (as was saide before) but the Emperor of Russia beareth the greatest hand ouer them, and exacteth of them farre more then the rest. The opinion is that they were first termed Lappes of their briefe and short speech. The Russe diuideth the whole nation of the Lappes into two series. The one they call Nowremanskoy Lapary, that is, the Norwegian Lappes because they be of the Danish religion. For the Danes and Noruegians they account for one people. The other that haue no religion at all but liue as bruite and heathenish people, without God in the worlde, they cal Dikoy Lapary, or the wilde Lappes. The whole nation is vtterly vnlearned, hauing not so much as the vse of any Alphabet, or letter among them. For practise of witchcraft and sorcerie they passe all nations in the worlde. Though for enchanting of ships that saile along their coast, (as I haue heard it reported) and their giuing of winds good to their friends, and contrary to other, whom they meane to hurt by tying of certaine knots vpon a rope (somewhat like to the tale of Aeolus his windbag) is a very fable, deuised (as may seeme) by themselues, to terrifie sailers for comming neere their coast. Their weapons are the long bow, and handgunne, wherein they excell, as well for quicknesse to charge and discharge, as for neerenesse at the marke by reason of their continuall practise (whereto they are forced) of shooting at wild fowle. Their maner is in Sommer time to come downe in great companies to the sea side, to Wardhuyse, Cola, Kegor, and the bay of Vedagoba, and there to fish for Codde, Salmon, and But-fish, which they sel to the Russes, Danes, and Noruegians, and nowe of late to the English men that trade thither with cloth, which they exchange with the Laps and Corelians for their fish, oyle, and furres, whereof also they haue some store. [Sidenote: The mart at Cola.] They hold their mart at Cola on S. Peter's day: what time the captaine of Wardhuyse (that is residant there for the king of Denmark) must be present, or at least send his deputie to set prices vpon their stockfish, train oile, furres, and other commodities: as also the Russe Emperors customer, or tribute taker, to receiue his custome, which is euer paide before any thing can bee bought or solde. When their fishing is done, their manner is to drawe their carbasses Or boates on shore, and there to leaue them with the keele turned vpwardes, till the next spring tide. [Sidenote: Sleds drawen with Deere.] Their trauaile to and fro is vpon sleddes drawen by the Olen Deere: which they vse to turne a grasing all the Sommer time in an Island called Kildyn, (of a verie good soyle compared with other partes of that Countrey) and towards the Winter time, when the snowe beginneth to fall they fetch them home againe for the vse of their sledde. The description of the regions, people, and riuers lying North and East from Moscouia: as the way from Moscouia to the riuer Petzora, and the Prouince Iugaria or Iuhra, and from thence to the riuer Obi. Likewise the description of other countreys and regions, euen vnto the Empire of the great Can of Cathay, taken out of Sigismundus ab Herberstein. [Sidenote: The dominion of the Duke of Moscouia.] The dominion of the Prince of Moscouia, reacheth farre toward the East and North, vnto the places which we will now describe. As concerning which thing, I translated a book that was presented vnto me in the Moscouites tongue, and haue here made a briefe rehearsall of the same. I will first therefore describe the iourney from Moscouia to Petzora, and so to Iugaria and Obi. From Moscouia to the citie of Vologda, are numbered fiue hundred versts, one verst, conteyning almost the space of an Italian myle. From Vologda to Vsting toward the right hand, descending with the course of the riuer of Vologda and Suchana with whom it ioyneth, are counted fiue hundred verstes, where within two versts of the towne called Strelze, and hard by the citie of Vsting, Suchana ioyneth vnto Iug which runneth from the South: from whose mouth vnto the springs of the same, are numbred fiue hundred versts. [Sidenote: Iug. So called of his swift and pleasant streame.] But Suchana and Iug, after they ioyne together, lose their first names, and make but one riuer named Dwina, by the which the passage to the citie of Colmogro conteineth fiue hundred versts, from whence, in the space of sixe dayes iourney, Dwina entreth into the North Ocean at sixe mouthes. And the greatest part of this iourney consisteth by Nauigation. For by lande from Vologda vnto Colmogro, passing ouer the riuer Vuaga, are a thousand verstes. Not farre from Colmogro, the riuer Pinega running from the East on the right hand for the space of seuen hundred versts, falleth into Dwina. From Dwina by the riuer Pienega, by the space of two hundred versts, they come to a place called Nicholai, from whence within halfe a verst ships haue passage into the riuer Kuluio, which hath his originall from a lake of the same name towarde the North, from whose springs is eight daies viage to the mouth of the same, where it entreth into the Ocean. [Sidenote: The regions by the North sea.] Sayling by the coasts of the right hand of the sea, they passe by the regions of Stanuwische, Calunczcho, and Apnu: And sayling about the promontorie or cape of Chorogoski Nose, Stanuwische, Camenckh, and Tolstickh, they come at length into the riuer Mezen, and from thence in the space of sixe dayes, to a village of the same name, standing in the mouth of the riuer Pieza, by the which againe ascending toward the left hand and sommer East, they come to the riuer Piescoia: from whence sayling for the space of fiue versts, they come into two lakes, in the which are seene two wayes: whereof one on the right side, goeth to the riner Rubicho, by the which they passe to the riuer Czircho. Other, by an other and shorter way, bring their ships from the lake directly into Czirchor: from whence, except they be hindered by tempest, they come in the space of three weekes to the riuer and mouth of Czilma, flowing into the great riuer Petzora, which in that place is two versts in breadth. Sayling from thence, they come in the space of sixe dayes to the Towne and castle of Pustosero, neare vnto the which Petzora entreth into the North Ocean at sixe monthes. The inhabitants of this place, are men of simple wit: they receiued the faith of Christ, and were baptised in the yeare M. D. xviii. From the mouth of Czilma vnto the mouth of the riuer Vssa, going by Petzora, is one moneths viage. Vssa hath his springs in the mountaine [Marginal Note: Cingulus mundi.] Poyas Semnoi, being on the left hand toward the sommer East, and springeth out of a great stone of the same mountaine, called Camen Bolschoi. From the springs of Vssa to the mouthes of the same, are numbered more then a thousand versts. Furthermore, Petzora runneth from this south winter part, from whence ascending from the mouthes of Vssa, vnto the mouthes of the riuer Stzuchogora, is three weekes viage. They that described this vyage sayd that they rested betweene the mouthes of the riuers Stzuchogora and Potzscheriema, and left their victuals there which they brought with them from Russia. Beyond the riuers of Petzora and Stzuchogora toward the mountaine Camenipoias, and the sea with the Ilands thereabout, and the Castle of Pustosero, are diuers and innumerable nations, which by one common name are called Samoged (that is) such as eate themselues. They haue great increase of foules, birdes, and diuers kindes of beastes: as Sables. Marternes, Beuers, Otters, Hermelines, Squirrels: and in the Ocean the beast called a Morse: Also Vesse, white Beares, Wolues, Hares, Equiwoduani, great Whales, and a fish called Semfi, with diuers other. [Sidenote: Wilde people.] The people of these nations come not to Moscouia: For they are wilde, and flee the company and society of other men. From the mouthes of Stzuchogora, sayling vp the riuer vnto Poiassa, Artawische, Cameni, and Poiassa the greater, is three weekes vyage. Furthermore, the ascending to the mount Camen, is three dayes iourney: from the which descending they come to the riuer Artawischa, and from thence to the riuer Sibut, from whence they passe to the Castle of Lepin, and from Lepin to the riuer Sossa. The people that inhabite the region by this riuer, are called Vuogolici. Leauing Sossa on the right hande, they come to the great riuer Obi, that springeth out of the lake Kitaisko, the which, with all the haste they could make, they could scarcely passe ouer in one day, the riuer being of such breadth that it reacheth fourescore versts. The people also that dwell about the riuer, are called Vuogolici and Vgritzschi. From the Castle of Obea, ascending by the riuer of Oby, vnto the riuer Irtische, into the which Sossa entereth, is three moneths iourney. In these places are two Castles named Ierom and Tumen, kept by certaine Lords called Knesi Iuhorski, being tributaries to the great Duke of Moscouia, as they say. Here are diuers kinds of beasts and furres. From the mouth of the riuer Irtische to the Castle of Grustina, is two moneths iourney: from whence to the lake Kitai, by the riuer Oby (which I said to haue his springs in this lake) is more then three moneths iourney. [Sidenote: Blacke men without speech.] From this lake come many blacke men; lacking the vse of common speech. They bring with them diuers wares, and especially pearles and precious stones, which they sell to the people called Grustintzi and Serponowtzi. These haue their name of the Castle Serponow, situate in the mountaines of Lucomoria, beyond the riuer Obi. [Sidenote: Men that yeerely die and reuiue.] They say that to the men of Lucomoria chauncheth a marueilous thing and incredible: For they affirme, that they die yeerely at the xxvii. day of Nouember, being the feast of S. George among the Moscouites: and that the next spring about the xxiii. day of Aprill, they reuiue as doe Frogges. [Sidenote: A strange trade of merchandise.] With these also, the people of Grustintzi and Serponowtzi exercise a new and strange kinde of trade. For when the accustomed time of their dying, or rather of sleeping, approcheth, they leaue their wares in certaine places appointed, which the Grustintzi and Serponowtzi carry away, leauing other wares of equall value in their places: which if the dead men at the time of their reuiuing perceiue to be of vnequal price, they require their owne againe: by reason whereof, much strife and righting is betweene them. From the riuer of Obi descending toward the left hand, are the people called Calami, which came thither from Obiowa and Pogosa. Beneath Obi, about Aurea Anus (that is the golden old wife) are the riuers Sossa, Berezuua, and Danadim, all which spring out of the mountaines Camen, Bolschega, Poiassa, and the rockes ioyning to the same. All the nations that inhabite from these riuers to Aurea Anus, are subiect to the prince of Moscouia. Aurea Anus, called in the Moscouites tongue, Slata Baba, is an Idol at the mouthe of Obi in the prouince of Obdora, standing on the furthest banke toward the sea. Along by the bankes of Obi, and the riuers neare there about, are here and there many castles and fortresses: all the lordes whereof are subiect to the prince of Moscouia, as they say. They say also, or rather fable, that the idol called Aurea anus, is an image like vnto an old wife, hauing a child in her lap, and that there is now seene another infant, which they say to be her nephew: Also that there are certaine instruments that make a continuall sound like the noyse of Trumpets, the which, if it so be, I thinke it to be by reason of the winde, blowing continually into the holow places of those instruments. The riuer Cossin falleth out of the mountaines of Lucomoria: In the mouth of this is a castle, whither from the springs of the great riuer Cossin, is two moneths viage. [Sidenote: Tachnin a great riuer. People of monstrous shape. A fish like a man. Plinie writeth of the like fish.] Furthermore, from the springs of the same riuer, the riuer Cassima hath his originall, which running through Lucomoria, falleth into the great riuer Tachnin, beyond the which (as is said) dwell men of prodigious shape, of whom some are ouergrowen with haire like wilde beastes, other haue heads like dogges, and their faces in their breasts, without neckes, and with long hands also, and without feete. There is likewise in the riuer Tachnin a certaine fish, with head, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, feete, and other members vtterly of humane shape, and yet, without any voyce, and pleasant to be eaten, as are other fishes. [Sidenote: The end of the iournall.] All that I haue hitherto rehearsed, I haue translated out of the saide iourney which was deliuered me in the Moscouites tongue: In the which, perhaps some things may seeme fabulous, and in maner incredible, as of the double men, and the dead reuiuing, the Aurea Anus also, and the monstrous shapes of men, with the fish of humane fourme: whereof although I haue made diligent inquisition, yet could I know nothing certaine of any that had seene the same with their eyes: neuerthelesse, to giue farther occasion to other to search the truth of these things, I haue thought good to make mention hereof. Noss in the Moscouites tongue signifieth a nose, and therefore they call all capes or points that reach into the sea by the same name. The mountaines about the riuer of Petzora are called Semnoy Poyas, or Cingulus mundi, that is, the girdle of the world, or of the earth. Kithai is a lake, of which the great Can of Cathay, whom the Moscouians cal Czar Kithaiski, hath his name: For Can in the Tartars language signifieth, A King. [Sidenote: Moria is the sea.] The places of Lucomoria, neare vnto the sea, are saluage full of woods, and inhabited without any houses. And albeit, that the author of this iourney, said, that many nations of Lucomoria are subiect to the prince of Moscouia, yet for asmuch as the kingdome of Tumen is neare thereunto, whose prince is a Tartar, and named in their Tongue, Tumenski Czar, that is, a king in Tumen, and hath of late done great domage to the prince of Moscouia: It is most like that these nations should be rather subiect vnto him. Neare vnto the riuer Petzora (whereof mention is made in this iourney) is the citie and castle of Papin or Papinowgorod, whose inhabitants are named Papini, and haue a priuate language, differing from the Moscouites. [Sidenote: High mountaines, supposed to be Hyperborei, and Rhiphei.] Beyond this riuer are exceeding high mountaines, reaching euen vnto the bankes, whose ridges or tops, by reason of continuall windes, are in maner vtterly barren without grasse or fruits. And although in diuers places they haue diuers names, yet are they commonly called Cingulus mundi, that is, the girdle of the world. In these mountaines doe Ierfalcons breede, whereof I haue spoken before. There growe also Cedar trees, among the which are found the best and blackest kinde of Sables: and onely these mountaines are seene in all the dominions of the prince of Moscouia which perhaps are the same that the old writers call Rhipheos or Hyperboreos, so named of the Greeke word, Hyper, that is, Aboue, and Boreas, that is, the North; for by reason they are couered with continuall snow and frost, they can not without great difficultie be trauayled, and reach so farre into the North, that they make the vnknown land of Engronland. The Duke of Moscouia, Basilius the sonne of Iohn, sent on a time two of his Captaines, named Simeon Pheodorowich Kurbski, & Knes Peter Vschatoi, to search the places beyond these mountaines, and to subdue the nations thereabout. Kurbski was yet aliue at my being in Moscouia, & declared vnto me that he spent xvii. daies in ascending the mountaine, & yet could not come to the top thereof, which in their tongue is called Stolp, that is, a piller. This mountaine is extended into the Ocean vnto the mouthes of the riuers of Dwina and Petzora. But now hauing spoken thus much of the said iourney, I will returne to the dominions of Moscouia, with other regions lying Eastward and South from the same, toward the mighty Empire of Cathay. But I will first speake somewhat briefly of the prouince of Rezan, and the famous riuer of Tanais. [Sidenote: The fruitfull prouince of Rezan.] The prouince of Rezan, situate betweene the riuers of Occa and Tanais, hath a citie builded of wood, not far from the bank of Occa: there was in it a castle named Iaroslaue, whereof there now remainethr nothing but tokens of the old ruine. Not farre from that citie the riuer Occa maketh an Iland named Strub, which was sometime a great Dukedome, whose prince was subiect to none other. This prouince of Rezan is more fruitful then any other of the prouinces of Moscouia: Insomuch that in this (as they say) euery graine of wheat bringeth forth two, and sometimes more eares: whose stalkes or strawes grow so thicke that horses can scarsely go through them, or Quayles flie out of them. There is great plenty of hony, fishes, foules, hirdes, and wilde beasts. The fruits also due farre exceede the fruits of Moscouia. The people are bolde and warlike men. A speciall note gathered by the excellent Venetian Cosmographer M. Iohn Baptista Ramusius out of the Atabian Geographie of Abilfada Ismael, concerning the trending of the Ocean sea from China Northward, along the coast of Tartarie and other vnknowen lands, and then running Westwards vpon the Northerne coasts of Russia, and so farther to the Northwest. Descriuendo poi il predetto Abilfadai Ismael luoghi della terra habitabile, che circuendo il mar Oceano tocca, dice cosi. [Sidenote: La regione delle Cine. Contini delli vltimi Tartari. Alcune Terre Incognite. Contini Settentrionali della Rosia.] Riuoltasi l'Oceano da leuante verso la regione delle Cine, et và alla volta di Tramontana, et passata finalmente la detta regione, se ne giunge a Gogi et Magogi, cio è alli confini de gli Vltimi Tartari, et di quiui ad Alcune Terre che sono Incognite: Et correndo sempre per Ponente, passa sopra li confini Settentrionali della Rossia, et và alla volta di Maestro. The same in English. The aforesaid Abilfada Ismael describing afterward the habitable places of the earth, which the Ocean sea in his circuit toucheth, sayth in this manner following. [Sidenote: The Countrey of China. The coasts of the vttermost Tartars. Certaine vnknowne Countreys. The Northern coasts of Russia. The Northwest.] The Ocean sea turneth from the East toward the Countrey of the Chinaes, and stretcheth toward the North, and at length hauing passed the sayd Countrey, it reacheth vnto the Gogi and Magogi, that is, to the confines of The vttermost Tartars, and from thence vnto certaine vnknowen Countreys: and running still Westward it passeth vpon the Northerne coasts of Russia, and from thence it runneth toward Northwest, (which it doth indeede vpon the coast of Lappia.) By this most notable testimony it appeareth, that the Ocean sea compasseth and enuironeth all the East, Northeast, and North parts of Asia and Europe. The Emperors priuate or houshold Officers. The chiefe Officers of the Emperors houshold are these which follow. [Sidenote: Master of the Horse.] The first is the office of the Boiaren Conesheua, or master of the Horse. Which conteineth no more then is expressed by the name, that is to be ouerseer of the Horse, and not Magister equitum, or Master of the Horsemen. For he appointeth other for that seruice, as occasion doth require, as before was sayd. He that beareth that office at this time, is Boris Pheodorowich Godonoe, brother to the Empresse. Of Horse for seruice in his warres (besides other for his ordinary vses) he hath to the number of ten thousand which are kept about Mosco. The next is the Lord Steward of his houshold at this time, one Gregory Vasilowich Godonoe. The third is his Treasurer, that keepeth all his monies, iewels, plate, &c. now called Stephan Vasilowich Godonoe. The fourth his Controller, now Andreas Petrowich Clesinine. The fift his Chamberlaine. He that attendeth that office at this time, is called Estoma Bisabroza Pastelnischay. The sixt his Tasters, now Theodor Alexandrowich, and Iuan Vasilowich Godonoe. The seuenth his Harbingers, which are three Noble men, and diuers other Gentlemen that do the office vnder them. These are his ordinary officers and offices of the chiefest account. Of Gentlemen besides them that waite about his chamber, and person (called Shilsey Strapsey) there are two hundred, all Noblemens sonnes. His ordinary Garde is two thousand Hagbutters readie with their pieces charged, and their match lighted, with other necessarie furniture continually day and night: which come not within the house, but waite without in the court or yard, where the Emperour is abiding. In the night time there lodgeth next to his bedchamber the chiefe Chamberlaine with one or two more of best trust about him. A second chamber off there lodge sixe other of like account for trust and faithfulnesse. In the thirde chamber lie certaine young Gentlemen, of these two hundred, called Shilsey Strapsey that take their turnes by forties euery night. There are groomes besides that watch in their course, and lie at euery gate and doore of the Court, called Estopnick. The Hagbutters or Gunners, whereof there are two thousand (as was sayd before) watch about the Emperours lodgings, or bedchamber by course 250. euery night, and 250. more in the Courtyarde, and about the Treasure house. His Court or house at the Mosco is made castle wise, walled about, with great store of faire ordinance planted vpon the wall, and conteyneth a great breadth of ground within it, with many, dwelling houses: Which are appointed for such as are knowen to be sure, and trustie to the Emperor. Of the priuate behauiour, or qualitie of the Russe people. The priuate behauiour and qualitie of the Russe people, may partly be vnderslood by that which hath beene sayd concerning the publique state and vsage of the Countrey. [Sidenote: Constitution of their bodies.] As touching the naturall habite of their bodies, they are for the most part of a large size, and of very fleshly bodies: accounting it a grace to be somewhat grosse and burley, and therefore they nourish and spread their beards, to haue them long and broad. But for the most part, they are very vnwieldy and vnactiue withall. Which may be thought to come partly of the climate, and the numbnesse which they get by the cold in winter, and partly of their diet that standeth most of routes, onions, garlike, cabbage, and such like things that breede grosse humors, which they vse to eate alone, and with their other meates. [Sidenote: Their diet.] Their diet is rather much then curious. At their meales they beginne commonly with a Charke or small cuppe of Aqua vitae, (which they call Russe wine) and then drinke not till towardes the end of their meales, taking it in largely, and all together, with kissing one another at euery pledge. And therefore after dinner there is no talking with them, but euery man goeth to his bench to take his afternoones sleepe, which is as ordinary with them as their nights rest. When they exceede, and haue varietie of dishes, the first are their baked meates (for roste meates they vse little) and then their broathes or pottage. Their common drinke is Mead, the poorer sort vse water and a third drinke called Quasse, which is nothing else (as we say) but water turned out of his wits, with a litle branne meashed with it. This diet would breed in them many diseases, but that they vse bathstoues or hote houses in steade of all Phisicke, commonly twise or thrise euery weeke. All the winter time, and almost the whole Semmer, they heat their Peaches, which are made like the Germane bathstoues, and their Poclads like ouens, that so warme the house that a stranger at the first shall hardly like of it. These two extremities, specially in the winter of heat within their houses, and of extreame cold without, together with their diet, make them of a darke, and sallow complexion, their skinnes being tanned and parched both with cold and with heate: specially the women, that for the greater part are of farre worse complexions, then the men. Whereof the cause I take to be their keeping within the hote houses, and busying themselues about the heating, and vsing of their bathstoues, and peaches. The Russe because that he is vsed to both these extremities of heat and of cold, can beare them both a great deale more patiently, then strangers can doe. [Sidenote: An admirable induring of extreme heat and colde at one and the same time.] You shall see them sometimes (to season their bodies) come out of their bathstoues all on a froth, and fuming as hoat almost as a pigge at a spit, and presently to leape into the riuer starke naked, or to powre colde water all ouer their bodies and that in the coldest of all the winter time. The women to mende the bad hue of their skinnes vse to paint their faces with white and red colours, so visibly, that euery man may perceiue it. Which is made no matter because it is common and liked well by their husbands: who make their wiues and daughters an ordinarie allowance to buy them colours to paint their faces withall, and delight themselues much to see them of fowle women to become such faire images. Thin parcheth the skinne, and helpeth to deforme them when their pinting is of. They apparell themselues after the Greeke manner. [Sidenote: The Noblemans attire.] The Noblemans attire is on this fashion. First a Taffia, or little nightcappe on the head, that couereth litle more then his crowne, commonly verie rich wrought of silke and golde threede, and set with pearle and precious stone. His head he keepeth shauen close to the very skinne, except he be in some displeasure with the Emperour. Then hee suffereth his haire to growe and hang downe vpon his shoulders, couering his face as ugly and deformedly as he can. Ouer the Taffia hee weareth a wide cappe of blacke Foxe (which they account for the best furre) with a Tiara or long bonnet put within it, standing vp like a Persian or Babilonian hatte. About his necke (which is seene all bare) is a coller set with pearle and precious stone, about three or foure fingers broad. Next ouer his shirt, (which is curiously wrought, because he strippeth himselfe into it in the Sommer time, while he is within the house) is a Shepon, or light garment of silke, made downe to the knees, buttoned before: and then a Caftan or a close coat buttoned, and girt to him with a Persian girdle, whereat he hangs his kniues and spoone. This commonly is of cloth of gold, and hangeth downe as low as his ankles. Ouer that he weareth a lose garment of some rich silke, furred and faced about with some golde lace, called a Ferris. An other ouer that of chainlet, or like stufle called an Alkaben, sleeued and hanging lowe, and the cape commonly brooched, and set all with pearle. When hee goeth abroad, he casteth ouer all these (which are but sleight, though they seeme to be many) an other garment tailed an Honoratkey, like to the Alkaben, saue that it is made without a coller for the necke. And this is commonly of fine cloth or Camels haire. His buskins (which he weareth in stead of hose, with linnen folles vnder them in stead of boot hose) are made of a Persian leather called Saphian, embrodered with pearle. His vpper stockes commonly are of cloth of golde. When he goeth abroad, hee mounteth on horsebacke, though it be but to the next doore: which is the maner also of the Boiarskey, or Gentlemen. [Sidenote: The Gentlemans apparel.] The Boiarskey or Gentlemans attire is of the same fashion, but differeth in stuffe: and yet he will haue his Caftan or vndercoat sometimes of cloth of golde, the rest of cloth, or silke. [Sidenote: The Noble woman's attire.] The Noble woman (called Chyna Boiarshena) weareth on her head, first a cauil of some soft silke (which is commonly redde) and ouer it a fruntlet called Obrosa, of white colour. Ouer that her cappe (made after the coife fashion of cloth of gold) called Shapka Zempska, edged with some rich furre, and set with pearle and stone. Though they haue of late begunne to disdaine embrodering with pearle aboue their cappes, because the Diacks, and some Marchants wiues haue taken vp the fashion. In their ears they weare earerings (which they call Sargee) of two inches or more compasse, the matter of gold set with Rubies or Saphires, or some like precious stone. In Sommer they goe often with kerchiefffes of fine white lawne, or cambricke, fastned vnder the chinne, with two long tassels pendent. The kerchiefe spotted and set thicke with rich pearle. When they ride or goe abroad in raynie weather, they weare white hattes with coloured bandes called Stapa Zemskoy. About their neckes they weare collers of three or foure fingers broad, set with rich pearle and precious stone. Their vpper garment is a loose gowne called Oposhen commonly of scarlet, with wide loose sleeues, hanging downe to the ground buttened before with great golde buttons or at least siluer and guilt nigh as bigge as a walnut. Which hath hanging ouer it fastned vnder the cappe, a large broad cape of some rich furre, that hangeth downe almost to the middes of their backes. Next vnder the Oposken [Trascriber's note: sic] or vpper garment, they weare another called a Leitnich that is made close before with great wide sleeues, the cuffe or halfe sleeue vp to the elbowes, commonly of cloth of golde: and vnder that a Ferris Zemskoy, which hangeth loose buttoned throughout to the very foote. On the hande wrests they weare very faire braselets, about two fingers broad of pearle and precious stone. They goe all in buskins of white, yellow, blew, or some other coloured leather, embrodered with pearle. This is the attire of the Noblewoman of Russia, when she maketh the best shewe of herselfe. The Gentlewomans apparell may differ in the stuffe, but is all one for the making or fashion. [Sidenote: The Mousicks or common man attire.] As for the poore Mousick and his wife they goe poorely cladde. The man with his Honoratkey, or loose gowne to the small of the legge, tyed together with a lace before, of course white or blew cloth, with some Shube or long wastcoate of furre, or of sheepeskinne vnder it, and his furred cappe, and buskins. The poorer sort of them haue their Honoratkey, or vpper garment, made of Kowes haire. This is their winter habite. In the sommer time, commonly they weare nothing but their shirts on their backes, and buskins on their legges. The woman goeth in a red or blewe gowne, when she maketh the best shewe, and with some warme Shube of furre vnder it in the winter time. But in the sommer, nothing but her two shirts (for so they call them) one ouer the other, whether they be within doores, or without. On their heads, they weare caps of some coloured stuffe, many of veluet, or of cloth of gold: but for the most part kerchiefs. Without earings of siluer or some other mettall, and her crosse about her necke, you shall see no Russe woman, be she wife or maide. * * * * * The Lord Boris Phcodorowich his letter to the Right Honorable William Burghley Lord high Treasurer of England. &c. [Sidenote: The Emperors stile increased.] By the grace of God the great Lord Emperor, and great Duke Theodore Iuanowich, great Lord, King, and great Duke of all Russia, of Volodemer, Mosco, and Nouogorod, king of Cazan, and Astracan, Lord of Vobsko, and great Duke of Smolensco, Tuer, Vghori, Permi, Viatsko, Bolgorie, and other places, Lorde and great Duke of Nouogrod in the Lowe Countrey, of Chernigo, Rezan, Polotsky, Rostoue, Yeroslaue, Bealozera, and Liefland, of Oudorski, Obdorski, Condinski, and commander of all Sibierland, and the North coasts, great Lorde ouer the Countrey of Iuerski, Grisinski, Emperor of Kabardinski, and of the Countrey Charchaski, and the Countrey of Gorsky, and Lord of many other regions. From Boris Pheodorowich his Maiesties brother in law, master of his horses, gouernour of the territories of Cazan and Astracan, to William Lord Burghley, Lord high Treasurer to the most vertuous Ladie Elizabeth, Queene of England. France, and Ireland, and other dominions: I receiued your Lordships letters, wherein you write that you haue receiued very ioyfully my letters sent vnto you, and aduisedly read them, and imparted the same vnto her Maiestie: [Sidenote: The English Marchants complaints.] and that your Merchants finde themselues agreeued, that when they approch these parts, and are arriued here, they are not permitted to enter into a free and liberall course of barter, traffike, and exchange of their commodities, as heretofore they haue done, but are compelled before they can enter into any traffike to accept the Emperours waxe, and other goods, at high rates farre aboue their value, to their great losse: and that they are by reason of this restraint long holden vpon these coasts to the danger of wintering by the way. Hereafter there shalbe no cause of offence giuen to the Marchants of the Queenes Maiestie Queene Elizabeth: they shall not be forced to any thing, nether are there or shall be any demands made of custome or debts. Such things as haue beene heretofore demaunded, all such things haue beene already vpon their petition and supplication commaunded to be discharged. I haue sollicited his Maiestie for them, that they be not troubled hereafter for those matters, and that a fauourable hand be caried ouer them. And according to your request I will be a meane to the Emperour for them in all their occasions, and will my selfe shew them my fauorable countenance. And I pray you (William Burghley) to signifie to her Maiesties Merchants that I promise to haue a care of them, and for the Queenes Maiestie of Englands sake, I will take her Merchants into my protection, and will defend them as the Emperours selected people vnder the Emperors commission: and by mine appointment all his Maiesties officers and authorized people shall be careful ouer them. [Sidenote: English Marchants in great fauour with the Emperor.] The Emperors gracious fauor towards them was neuer such as it is now. And where you write that at the Port the Emperors officers sell their waxe by commission at a set rate giuen them, farre aboue the value and that they enforce your Marchants to accept it, they deny that they take any such course, but say they barter their waxe for other wares, and also put their waxe to sale for readie money to your Merchants, according to the worth thereof, and as the price goeth in the custome house here. It hath beene heretofore deare, and now is sold as good cheape as in any other place, and as they can best agree: they enforce no man to buy it, but rather kepe it: therefore your Marchants haue no iust cause to make any such report. I haue expressely giuen order, that there shall be no such course vsed to enforce them, but to buy according to their owne willes, and to tarrie at the port or to depart at their pleasure. [Sidenote: Halfe the debt of Antony Marsh remitted.] And as touching the customes alreadie past, and debts demanded at your Merchants hands, whereof you write: Our Lord great Emperour and great Duke Theodore Iuanowich of all Russia of famous memory hath shewed his Maiesties especial fauour and loue, for the great loue of his welbeloued sister Queene of England, and by my peticion and mediation, whereas there was commandement giuen to take Marshes whole debt of your Merchants and factors, it is moderated to the halfe, and for the other halfe, commandement giuen it should not be taken, and the Merchants billes to be deliuered them. And to the end hereafter that her Maiesties Merchants moue no contention betwixt our Lord the Emperor and great Duke of Russia, and his welbeloued sister Queene Elizabeth, his Maiestie desireth order to be giuen, that your Marchants doe deale iustly in their traffike, and plainely without fraud or guile. And I will be a fauourer of them aboue all others, vnder his Maiesties authoritie: themselues shall see it. [Sidenote: Ann. Dom. 1590.] Written in our great Lorde the Emperours citie of Mosco in the moneth of Iuly. 7099. * * * * * The Queenes Maiesties letter to Theodore Iuanouich Emperour of Russia, 1591. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. to the right high, mighty, and right noble prince Theodore Iuanouich great Lord, King, and great Duke of all Russia, Volodemer, Mosco, Nouogrod, King of Cazan, and Astracan, Lord of Vobsko, and great Duke of Smolensko, Otuer, Vghory, Perme, Viatski, Bolgory, and other places: Lord and great Duke of Nouogrod in the low countrey, of Chernigo, Rezan, Polotsky, Rostoue, Yeraslaue, Bealozero, and Lifland, of Oudorsky, Obdorsky, Condinsky, and commander of all Sibierland and the North coasts, great Lord ouer the country of Tuersky, Grisinsky, Emperor of Kabardinsky, and of the countrey of Charkasky, and of the countrey of Gorsky, and Lord of many other countreys, our most deare and louing brother, greeting. Right noble and excellent prince, we haue receiued your Maiesties letters brought ouer by our merchants in their returne of their [Marginal note: 1590.] last voyage from your port of S. Nicholas: which letters we haue aduisedly read and considered, and thereby perceiue that your Maiesty doth greatly mislike of our late employment of Ierome Horsey into your dominions as our messenger with our Highnesse letters and also that your Maiesty doth thinke that we in our letters sent by the sayd messenger haue not obserued that due order or respect which apperteined to your princely maiesty, in the forme of the said letter, aswel touching the inlargement of your Maiesties stile and titles of honor which your Maiesty expected to haue bene therein more particularly expressed, as also in the adding of our greatest seale or signet of armes to the letters which we send to so great a Prince as your Maiesty is: in any of which points we would haue bene very loth willingly to haue giuen iust cause of offence thereby to our most deare and louing brother. And as touching the sayd messenger Ierome Horsey we are sory that contrary to our expectation he is fallen into your Maiesties displeasure, whom we minde not to mainteine in any his actions by which he hath so incurred your Maiesties mislike: yet that we had reason at such time as we sent him to your Maiesty to use his seruice as our messenger, we referre our selues to your princely iudgement, praying your Maiesty to reduce into your minde the especiall commendation, which in your letters written vnto vs in the yeere 1585, you made of the sayd Ierome Horsey his behauiour in your dominions: at which time your Maiesty was pleased to vse his seruice as your messenger to vs, requiring our answere of your letters to be returned by him and by none other. That imployment, with other occasions taken by your Maiesty to vse the seruice of the sayd Ierome Horsey (as namely in the yeere 1587) when your Maiesty sent him to vs againe with your letters, and your liberall and princely priuiledge at our request granted to our merchants (for which we haue heretofore giuen thanks to your Maiesty, so doe we hereby reiterate our thankfulnesse for the same) mooued vs to be of minde, that we could not make choise of any of our subiects so fit a messenger to your Maiesty as he, whom your Maiesty had at seuerall times vsed vpon your owne occasions into this our Realme. But least your highnesse should continue of the minde that the letters which you sent by our ambassador Giles Fletcher (wherein some mention was made of your conceiued displeasure against the sayd Horsey) came not to our hands, and that wee were kept ignorant of the complaint which your Maiesty made therein against the sayd Horsey, we do not deny but that we were acquainted aswell by our ambassadour as by those letters of some displeasure conceiued against him by your Maiesty: but your sayd letters giuing onely a short generall mention of some misdemeanour committed by him, expressing no particulars, we were of opinion that this offence was not so hainous, as that it might vtterly extinguish all your former princely fauour towards him, but that vpon his humble submission to your Maiesty, or vpon better examination of the matter of the displeasure conceiued against him, the offence might haue beene either remitted, or he thereof might haue cleared himselfe. And to that end we were not onely by his great importunity long sollicited, but by the intercession of some of our Nobility giuing credit to his owne defence, we were intreated on his behalfe to vse his seruice once againe into Russia as our messenger to your Maiestie, whereby he might haue opportunity to cleare himselfe, and either by his answere or by his submission recouer your Maiesties former fauour: whereunto our princely nature was mooued to yeeld, wishing the good of our subiect so farre foorth as his desert might carry him, or his innocencie cleare him. Thus noble Prince, our most louing and dearest brother, it may appeare vnto your Maiesty how we were induced to vse the seruice of the sayd messenger, aswell for the recouery of your Maiesties fauour towards him (if he had been found woorthy of it) as for experience of the maners and fashions of your countrey, where he hath bene much conuersant. But sith by your Maiesties letters it appeareth that he hath not cleared himselfe in your Maiesties sight, we meane not to vse him in any such price hereafter. And as touching your Maiesties conceit of the breuitie which we vsed in the setting downe of your Maiesties stile and titles of honour: as nothing is further from vs, then to abridge so great and mighty a Prince of the honour due vnto him (whom we holde for his greatnesse to deserue more honour then we are able to giue him) so shall we need no further nor surer argument to cleare vs of the suspicion of the detracting from your Maiesty any part of your iust and princely honor and greatnesse, then the consideration of our owne stile, which is thus contracted, videlicet, Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith &c. which kingdomes and dominions of ours are expressed by these generall words, videlicet, England, France, and Ireland: in euery of which there are seuerall principalities, dukedomes, earledomes, prouinces and countreys: which being seuerally expressed would enlarge much our stile, and make it of great length: which by our progenitours hath not bene vsed: notwithstanding, we thinke it no dishonour to vs, compendiously to abridge the same in all our writings and letters written to what Prince, King, or Potentate soeuer. Whereupon we inferre, that holding your Maiesties generall stile, we offer your Highnesse no dishonour in not expressing all the particular prouinces: albeit we can willingly content our selfe, upon the knowledge of your vsages and customes, to obserue that course, which your selfe shall thinke most honourable. And for the sealing vp of our letters which we write to all our allies, kinsmen, and friends, Kings and Princes, we haue in vse two seuerall seales: both which we esteeme alike honourable, being our princely seales. And as the volume of our letters falleth out to be great or small, so accordingly is our greater or lesser seale annexed to the sayd letters, without esteeming either of them more or lesse honourable then the other. So as, our most louing and dearest brother, in the said letters there was nothing done of purpose to detract from your Maiesty any thing, of the vsuall regard, which our Highnesse was woont to yeeld vnto your most noble father of famous memory Iuan Basiliuich Emperor of al Russia, or to your selfe, our dearest brother. For the residue of the points of your Maiesties letters concerning the entertainement of our ambassadour, and proceeding in the cause of Anthonie Marsh we holde our selfe satisfied with your princely answere, and doe therein note an honourable and princely care in your Maiestie to preuent the like troubles, controuersies and sutes, that Marshes cause stirred vp betweene our merchants and your subiects, which is, that your Maiestie doeth purpose from time to time to purge your Countrey of such straglers of our subiects, as doe or shall hereafter abide there, and are not of the Company of our merchants, but contemptuously depart out of our land without our Highnesse licence: of which sort there are presented vnto vs from our merchants the names of these seuerall persons, videlicet, Richard Cocks, Bennet Iackman, Rainold Kitchin, Simon Rogers, Michael Lane, Thomas Worsenham: whom it may please your Maiesty by your princely order to dismisse out of your land, that they may be sent home in the next shippes, to auoid the mislike which their residence in those parts might breed to the disturbance of our brotherly league, and the impeaching of the entercourse. And whereas, most louing and dearest brother, one William Turnebull a subiect of ours is lately deceased in your kingdome, one with whom our merchants haue had much controuersie for great summes of money due vnto them by him while he was their Agent in their affayres of merchandises: which differences by arbitrable order were reduced to the summe of 3000 rubbles, and so much should haue beene payed by him as may appeare by your Maiesties councell or magistrates of iustice by very credible information and testimony: and whereas also the sayd Turnbull was further indebted by billes of his own hand to diuers of our subiects, amounting in the whole, to the summe of 1326 pounds, which billes are exemplified vnder our great seale of England, and to be sent ouer with this bearer: of which summes he hath often promised payment: it may please your most excellent Maiestie in your approoued loue to iustice, to giue order to your fauourable councell and magistrates, that those seuerall debts may be satisfied to our merchants and subiects out of the goods, merchandise, and debts which are due to the state of the sayd Turnbull: whereof your Maiesties councell shalbe informed by the Agent of our merchants. [Sidenote: The Emperour seised our merchants goods.] We trust we shall not need to make any new request by motion to your Maiesty that some order might be taken for the finding out of the rest of our merchants goods seised to your maiesties vse in the hands and possession of Iohn Chappel their seruant, being a thing granted, and no doubt already performed by your Maiesties order. We therfore intreat your Maiesty, that as conueniently as may be, satisfaction or recompense be giuen to our said merchants towards the repairing of their sundry great losses aswell therein as otherwise by them of late sundry wayes sustained. And lastly, our most deare and louing brother, as nothing in all these our occasions is to be preferred before our entire league and amitie, descending vpon vs as an inheritance, in succession from both our ancestours and noble progenitours: so let us be carefull on both sides by all good meanes to holde and continue the same to our posterity for euer. And if any mistaking or errour of either side do rise, in not accomplishing of circumstances agreeable to the fashion of either of our countreys and kingdomes, let the same vpon our enterchangeable letters be reconciled, that our league and amitie be no way impeached for any particular occasion whatsoeuer. And thus we recommend your Maiesty to the tuition of the most High. From our royall Palace of Whitehall the 14 of Ianuary, anno Domini 1591. * * * * * The Queenes Maiesties letters to the Lord Boris Pheodorowich. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France, and Ireland, defendour of the faith, &c. to the right honourable and noble prince Lord Boris Pheodorowich Godonoua, Master of the horses to the great and mightie Emperour of Russia, his highnesse lieutenant of Cazan and Astracan, our most deare and louing cousin, greeting. Right honourable, it hath appeared vnto vs vpon the reading and perusing of the Letters lately sent vnto our Highnesse from our deare and louing brother the Emperour, in what part his Maiestie tooke the late employment of our messenger Ierome Horsey in our affaires into Russia: wherein we doe also finde the honourable endeuour vsed by your Lordship to appease his Highnesse mislike and exception taken aswell to the person of our Messenger, as to our princely letters sent by him: both of which points we haue answered in our letters sent by this bearer directed to our sayd louing brother the Emperour: vpon perusing whereof we doubt not but his Maiestie will be well satisfied touching our sayd Messenger and former letters. And for the honourable course holden by your Lordship in the interposing of your opinion and fauourable construction in a thing which might grow to the offence of the league and amitie standing betweene your Soueraigne Lord and vs (wherein your Lordship performed the office of an honourable and graue Councellour) we take our selfe beholding to your Lordship for your readinesse in that behalfe, and doe assure our selfe that the same did proceed of the especiall loue and kinde affection that your Lordship hath euer borne and continued towards vs, whereof our princely nature will neuer be vnmindfull. We haue bene also from time to time made acquainted by our chiefe and principall Councellour William Lord Burghley, Lord high Treasurour of our Highnesse Realme of England, of your letters which haue passed betweene your Lordship and him, concerning the entercourse of our Merchants trafficke in your Countreys, and of the honourable offices done by your Lordship with the Emperpur in fauour of our sayd Marchants. And lastly (which wee take a most assured argument of your vndoubted loue and affection towards vs) that your Lordship hath vouchsafed, of purpose taken into your hands the protection of our sayd Merchants, and the hearing and determining of all their causes and occasions whatsoeuer, which shall concerne them or their trade. All which wee conceiue to be done for our sake, and therefore do acknowledge ourselues to be, and still will continue beholding vnto you for the same. And whereas we haue made mention in our sayd letters written to our louing brother the Emperour of certeine debts due aswell to our merchants, as to other of our subiects by one William Turnebull a subiect of ours late deceased in Russia, wee pray you to be referred to the sayd letter. And forasmuch as the sayd cause will fall vnder your Lordships iurisdiction by reason of your acceptation of all their causes into your patronage and protection: we are so well assured of your honourable inclination to iustice, and your good affection towards our merchants for our sake, that we shall not need to intreat your honourable furtherance either of iustice or expedition in the sayd cause. And lastly considering that your noble linage together with your great wisedome and desert hath made you a principall Councellour and directour of the state of so great a Monarchie, whereby your aduice and direction is followed in all things that doe concerne the same, we haue giuen order to our sayd principall Counsellonr William Lord Burghley, treasurour of our Realme of England, that as any occasion shall arise to the hinderance of the entercourse betweene these Countreyes, or of the priuiledges graunted by his Maiestie to our merchants, that he may by aduertisement treat with your Lordshippe thereupon: which we by reason of our great princely affayres can not so conueniently at all times doe with such expedition as the cause may require. And thus with our princely commendations we bidde you farewell. From our royall Pallace of Whitehall the foureteenth day of Ianuarie, Anno Domini 1591. * * * * * To the right honourable my very good Lord, the Lord Boris Pheodorowich, Master of the horses to the great and mighty Emperour of Russia, his Highnesse Lieutenant of Cazan and Astracan, William Cecil Lord Burghley, Knight of the noble Order of the Garter, and Lord high Treasurer of England sendeth greeting. Right honourable my very good Lord, vpon the last returne of our merchants shippes out of Russia, there was brought vnto my handes, by one Francis Cherrie an English merchant, a letter directed to the Queenes Maiestie, from the great and mightie Emperour of Russia, and another letter from your Lordship directed to me: which sayd letter written from the Emperor to her Maiesty hath beene considerately and aduisedly by her Highnesse read and perused, and the matter of complaint against Ierome Horsey therein comprised thorowly examined: which hath turned the same Horsey to some great displeasure. I did also acquaint our Maiesty with the contents of your Lordships letters written to mee, and enformed her of your Lordships honourable fauour shewed to her Highnesse merchants from time to time: who tooke the same in most gracious part, and confessed her selfe infinitly beholding vnto your Lordship for many honourable offices done for her sake, the which she meant to acknowledge by her letters to be written to your Lordship vnder her princely hand and seale. And forasmuch as it hath pleased your good Lordshippe to take into your handes the protection of her Maiesties merchants, and the redresse of such iniuries as are, or shall be offered vnto them contrary to the meaning of the priuiledges and the free liberty of the entercourse, wherein some points your Lordship hath already vsed a reformation, as appeareth by your sayd letters: yet the continuance of traffique moouing, new occasions and other accidents tending to the losse of the sayd merchants, whereof some particulars haue beene offered vnto me to treat with your lordship vpon: I thought it good to referre them to your honourable consideration, that order might be taken in the same, for that they are apparantly repugnant to the Emperours letters written to her Maiestie, and doe much restraine the liberty of the trade: one is, that at the last comming of our merchants to the port of Saint Michael the Archangel, [Sidenote: This is a new port.] where the mart is holden, their goods were taken by the Emperours officers for his Highnesse seruice at such rates, as the sayd officers were disposed to set vpon them, so farre vnder their value, that the merchants could not assent to accept of those prices: [Sidenote: The English merchants 3 weeks restrained from their Mart.] which being denied, the sayd officers restrained them of all further traffique for the space of three weekes, by which meanes they were compelled to yeeld vnto their demaund how vnwillingly soeuer. Another is, that our sayd merchants are driuen to pay the Emperours officers custome for all such Russe money as they bring downe from the Mosco to the Sea side to employ there at the Mart within the Emperours owne land; which seemeth strange vnto me, considering the same money is brought from one place of the Countrey to another, and there imployed without any transport ouer the borders [Footnote: The original reads: _ouer the sayd of money_. As this is unintelligible, I have ventured to insert a new reading.] of the sayd country. These interruptions and impositions seeme not to stand with the liberties of the Emperours priuileges and freedome of the entercourse, which should be restrained neither to times or conditions, but to be free and absolute: whereof it may please your Lordship to be aduised, and to continue your honourable course holden betweene the Emperour and her Maiesty, to reconcile such differences as any occasion doth offer to their league or trafficke. Thus not doubting of your Lordships furtherance herein, I humbly take my leaue of your good Lordship. From her Maiesties royall palace of Whitehall this 15 of Ianuary 1591. * * * * * A letter from the Emperour of Russia, Theodore Iuanouich to the Queenes Maiestie. Through the tender mercie of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited vs, thereby to guide our feet into the way of peace. Euen this our God by mercy we glorifie in Trinitie. [Sidenote: The emperours stile lately enlarged.] We the great Lord, King and great Duke Theodore Iuanowich, gouernour of all Russia, of Volodimer, Mosco, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan and Astracan, Lord of Vobsco, and great Duke of Smolensco, Otuer, Vghori, Perme, Viatsky, Bulgary, and other regions, Lord and great Duke also of Nouogrod in the low countrey, of Chernigo, of Rezan, Polotsko, Rostoue, Yeroslaue, Bealozera, and of Lifland, of Vdorsky, Obdorsky, Condinsky, and all the countrey of Siberia, and commander of all the North parts, and Lord ouer the countrey of Iuersky, and King of Grusinsky, and of the countrey of Kabardinsky, Cherchasky, and Duke of Igorsky, Lord and ruler of many countreys more etc. To our louing sister Elizabeth Queene of England, France, and Ireland, &c. Louing sister, your letters sent by your seruant Thomas Lind, we haue receiued, and read what you haue written in the same touching our title, and touching your order holden in your letters heretofore sent vs by your seruant Ierome Horsey: wherein you haue answered vs sufficiently and most graciously. And whereas your Maiestie hath written in your letter concerning the goods of William Turnebull late deceased in our kingdome, that your subiects, for whom he was factour, should haue debts growing vnto them from him by account: we at your Maiesties request haue caused not onely order to be taken, but for your Highnesse sake, louing sister, we haue caused the goods to be sought out and deliuered to your merchants Agent and his company, together with his stuffe, bookes, billes and writings, as also money to the value of sixe hundred rubbles, which Christopher Holmes and Francis Cherry are to pay for ycarie [Footnote: Caviare.]: [Marginal note: This is a dainty meat made of the roas of Sturgeons.] and we haue set at libertie the said Turnebulles kinseman Raynold Kitchin and his fellowes, and deliuered them to your merchants Agent. And further, where you write vnto vs for such your subiects as letting, either in the Mosco, the Treasurehouse, or else where by any of our authorised people, but absolutely to bee at free libertie at their owne will and pleasure. And also I will continue to be their protectour and defendour in all causes, by our Lorde and kings Maiesties order and commaundement: as it shall be knowen and certified you by your people resident here in the Mosco. [Sidenote: Anno Domini 1592.] Written in our kings Maiesties royall citie of Mosco from the beginning of the world, 7101. yeere, in the moneth of Ianuary. * * * * * A most gracious Letter giuen to the English Merchants Sir Iohn Hart and his company, by Theodore Iuanowich, the King, Lord, and great duke of all Russia, the onely vpholder thereof. The onely God omnipotent before all eternitie, his will be done without ende: the Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost we glorifie in Trinitie. Our onely God the maker of all things and worker of all in all euery where with plentifull increase: for which cause he hath giuen life to man to loue him, and to trust in him: Our onely God which inspireth euery one of vs his holy children with his word to discerne good through our Lord Iesus Christ, and the holy quickning spirit of life now in these perilous times establish vs to keepe the right scepter, and suffer vs to reigne of our selues to the good profit of the land, and to the subduing of the people together with the enemies, and to, the mainteinance of vertue. We the great Lord, king and great duke Theodore Iuanowich, of all Russia the onely vpholder, of Volodimer, Mosco, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan, and king of Astracan, Lord of Vobsco, and great duke of Smolensko, of Otuer, Vghorie, Permia, Viatski, Bulgari, and other regions, great duke also of Nouogrod in the lowe Countrey, of Chernigo, of Rezan, Polotski Rostoue, Yaruslaue, Bealozero, and of Liefland, of Vdorski, Obdorski, Condenski, and commaunder of all the Countrey of Siberi and of the North parts, and Lord ouer the Countrey of Iuerski, Grusinski, and King ouer the Countrey of Igorski, and ruler ouer many other kingdomes and Lordships more. Our princely Maiestie at the request of our brother in lawe Boris Feodorowich Godenoua our seruant, and Master of our horses, generall Comptroller of our house, and gouernour of the Lordships and kingdomes of Casan and Astracan: vnto the English merchants Sir Iohn Hart knight, sir William Webbe knight, Richard Salkenstow Alderman, Nicholas Mosely alderman, Robert Doue, Wil. Garrowe, Iohn Harbey, Robert Chamberlaine, Henry Anderson, Iohn Woodworth, Francis Cherry, Iohn Merrick, and Cristopher Holmes; hath gratiously giuen leaue to come and go with their ships into our kingdome and territories of Duina with all kind of commodities at their pleasures to trafficke from the seaside to our roial city of Mosco, and in all other cities, townes, countries and territories of our whole kingdom of Mosco: vpon the humble petition and sute of the saide English merchants sir Iohn Hart and his company, wee haue giuen them leaue to passe and trafficke into all parts of our dominions and territories of Mosco, and to our inheritance of Nougrod and Plesco with their wares and commodities without paying any custome or dueties. We the great Lord, king, and great Duke Theodore Iuanowich of all Russia, haue firmely giuen and graunted vnto the aforesaide English merchants Sir Iohn Hart and his company, for the loue we beare to our deare sister Queene Elizabeth, we I say of our gracious goodnes haue giuen leaue to trauel and passe to our royall seat of Mosco, and to all the parts of our kingdome with all kinde of commodities, and to trafficke with all kinde of wares at their owne pleasure, without paying any custome of their said wares. To you our Customers we wil and command not to take any maner of custome of the said merchants and their company, neither for entering, weying nor passing by or through any place of our territories, nor for custome, of iudgement by Lawe, or for their person or persons: nor any duties ouer bridges, or for certificats or processes, or for conducting ouer any streames or waters, or for any other customes or dueties that may be named: we wil and straitly commaund you not to take any of them in any wise. Prouided alwayes, that the saide merchants shall not colour any strangers wares, nor bring them into our countrey, nor fauour them colourably, nor sel for any stranger. To you our subiects also we command, not to meddle or deale with any wares of strangers colourably, nor to haue them by you in keeping, nor to offer to sel their commodities: but themselues to sel their owne commodities in change or otherwise as they may or can. And in al townes, cities, countreys, or any part of our dominions and territories it shalbe lawful for the foresaid merchants and their the sayd Turnebulles stuffe and other things, as billes, books and writings. All which shall be deliuered to your merchants Agent and his fellowes, and in money 600 rubbles of the sayd Turnebulles. And touching your merchants, I will haue a great care ouer them, and protect them, whereby they shall suffer no damages in their trade: and all kinde of trafficke in merchandise shall be at their libertie. Written in our Lord and Kings Maiesties royall citie of Mosco, in the yeere from the beginning of the world 7101, in the moneth of Ianuarie. * * * * * A letter from the Lord Boris Pheodorowich to the right honourable Lord William Burghley, Lord high Treasurer of England. By the grace of God great Lord, King, and great Duke Theodor Iuanowich, gouernour of Russia, Volodimer, Mosco, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan and Astracan, Lord of Vobsco, and great Duke of Smolensco, Otuer, Vghory, Perme, Viatsky, Bulgary, and other regions, Lord and great Duke of all Nouogrod in the low countreys, of Chernigo, of Liffeland, of Vdorsky, Obdorsky, Condinsky, and all the countrey of Sibery, and commaunder of all the North parts, and Lord ouer the countrey of Iuersky, and King of Grusinsky, and of the countreys of Kabardinsky, Cherchasky, and Duke of Igorsky, Lord and ruler of many Countreys more &c. His princely Maiesties seruant, Lord and Master of his horses, and high Steward of his house, President of the territories of Cazan and Astracan, Boris Pheodorowich Godonoua, to the most honourable Counsellor of the most resplendent mightie great Lady Elizabeth Queene of England, France, and Ireland, William Burghley, Lord, and Knight of the Garter, high Treasurour of England, sendeth greeting. [Sidenote: M. Francis Cherie.] I perceiue by your letter that your merchants last shippes came home in saftie, and that you haue receiued the letters sent by them, by the hands of Francis Cherie, one from our Lord and great King of all Russia his Maiesty, vnto your Queenes most excellent Maiesty, and one from me to her Highnesse, and one from my selfe to you: and the contents thereof you haue caused to be read and well vnderstood at large. And whatsoeuer is therein written concerning Ierome Horsey, you haue sought out the ground thereof, and that he is in great displeasure. And her Highnesse hath written in her letter concerning her Maiesties merchants, that whereas I haue taken them into protection, she taketh it very louingly and kindely, that for her sake they haue receiued so great kindnesse. And touching the damages and hinderances which your merchaunts haue sustained by meanes of the Emperours authorised people and officers, and that they were not permitted to traffike at libertie at the Sea port in the yeere 1589, for the space of three weekes, it hath beene against the Emperours Maiesties will and pleasure, as also against mine. Where you desire and wish that betweene our Emperours Maiestie, and your Queenes Maiestie, their loue and amitie may not bee seperated at any time, but to continue: and you request mee that I should be good vnto the English Merchants, and to defend them from all such domages hereafter: your honours louing letter I haue therein throughly considered: and as I haue bene heretofore, so I will still continue to be a meane betwixt our Lorde and kings Maiestie, and your great Lady the Queene her hignesse, for the mainteyning of brotherly loue and amitie, most ioyfully and willingly, as God knoweth, aswel hereafter as I haue been heretofore: praying you to doe the like also. Mine onely desire is for your most excellent Princesse sake, to do all that lyeth in mee for the ayding, helping and protecting of her Maiesties merchants, by the order and commaundement of our Lord and king his Maiestie. And to that ende I haue giuen order to all our authorised peopie to bee careful ouer them, and to defende them in all causes, and to giue them free libertie to trafficke at their owne willes and pleasures. It may bee that your merchants doe not certifie you the trueth of all things, nor make knowen vnto your honour my readinesse to protect them: And howe my Letters and Commissions are sent to all authorised people for them, that they shoulde ayde and assist them, according to the tenour of my Letters, to all others that bee in authoritie vnder the said Officers or otherwise. Also your honour writeth of the debarring of your merchants at the sea port from their accustomed libertie of enterchangeable trafficke and bartar. Touching which complaint search and inquisition hath bene made, and commaundement giuen, that your Queenes Maiesties merchants at the Sea side, and in all places where the trade is, doe not sustaine any domage or hinderance hereafter, but that they shalbe at libertie without any hindering or haue departed out of your maiesties Realme secretly without licence, that we should giue order to send them home: concerning such your subiects for which you haue written vnto our Maiestie by letters, we will cause search to be made, and such as are willing to goe home into your kingdome, we will command forthwith to be deliuered vnto your merchants Agent, and so to passe. And such of your Maiesties people as haue giuen themselues vnder our gouernment as subiects, we thinke it not requisite to grant to let them passe. And further, where you haue written vnto vs concerning the goods of Iohn Chappell, we haue written heretofore the whole discourse thereof, not once, but sundry times, and therefore it is not needful to write any more thereof. And such goods as were found out of the goods of the sayd Chappell, the money thereof was restored to your Maiesties people William Turnbull and his fellowes. [Sidenote: M. Thomas Lind.] Your Maiesties seruant Thomas Lind we haue sent with our letters the same way whereby he came into our kingdome. The long abiding heere of your Maiesties seruant in our kingdome, was for the comming of your people from the Sea port. [Sidenote: 1592.] Written in our princely court and royall seat in the city of Mosco in the yeere from the beginning of the world 7101, in the moneth of Ianuary. * * * * * To the Queenes most excellent Maiestie from the Lord Boris Pheodorouich Godonoua. By the grace of God great Lord and great Duke Theodore Iuanouich gouernour of Russia, Volodimer, Mosco, and Nouogrod, King of Cazan and Astracan, Lord of Vobsko, and great Duke of Smolensco, Otuer, Vgbori, Perme, Viatsky, Bulgary, and other regions, Lord and great Duke of Nouogrod in the low countrey, of Chernigo, of Rezan, Polotsko, Rostoue, Ieroslaue, Bealozera, and of Lifland, of Vdorsky, Obdorsky, Condinsky, and all the countrey of Sibery, and commander of all the North parts, and Lord ouer the countrey of Iuersky, and King of Grusinsky, and of the countrey of Kabardinsky, Cherchasky, and duke of Igorsky, Lord and ruler of many countreys more, &c. Most resplendent Queene Elizabeth of England, France, and Ireland, &c. his princely Maiesties seruant, Lord and Master of his horses, and high Steward of his house, and President of the territories of Cazan and Astracan, Boris Pheodorouich Godonoua, vnto your most excellent Maiesty, great Ladie Queene Elizabeth, send my humble commendations. [Sidenote: The Empresse Irene deliuered of a daughter.] It hath pleased your Maiestie to write vnto me your gracious and princely letter by your seruant Thomas Lind: which letter I receiued with all humblenesse. During the time of the abode of your Messenger Thomas Lind here in the Mosco, it pleased God of his mercifulnesse, and our Lady the mother of God, and holy Saints, by the prayers of our lord and king his Maiestie Theodore Iuanouich ouer all Russia gouernour, the right beleeuer and louer of Christ, to send our Queene and gracious Lady Irene a yoong Princesse, to the great ioy and comfort of our kingdome, named Pheodocine. Wherefore we giue all honour and glory to the almightie God vnspeakable, whose giftes had beene manifolde with mercie vnto vs: for which all wee Christians laud and praise God. After all this your seruant was occasioned to stay vntill the comming of your merchants from the sea port. Touching the letters which you haue receiued from your louing qbrother our Lord and Master by your ambassadour, therein you perceiue sufficiently my good meaning, in trauailing for the continuance of amitie and friendship betwixt you mighty great princes, in the which I will continue mine endeauour. Also your merchants I haue taken into my protection for to defend them for the loue I beare to your Maiestie. As heeretofore I haue done it willingly, and with great care of their good, so I meane to continue so farre as God will giue me leaue: to the end that brotherly loue be holden betweene you princes without disturbance. As I haue beene to your merchants in times past, so now by the permission and commandement of our Lord and Master, I will be their defendour in all causes: and will cause all our authorised people to fauour them and to defend them, and to giue them free liberty to buy and sell at their pleasure. The merchants doe not certifie your princely Maiestie of all our friendship and fauour shewed vnto them from time to time. And whereas your Maiestie hath now written to our Lord and Master for the debts which your merchants ought to haue of William Turnebull lately disceased, I hauing perused your Maiesties letter, whereby I am requested to be a meane for the recouerie and obtaining of their sayd debts, I haue moued it to our Lord and King his Maiestie, that order may be giuen therein: and that his kinseman Rainold Kitchin with three persons more may be sent ouer together with company to sell or barter away their owne commodities in change or otherwise, for or at their pleasure as they will. And whensoeuer the said merchants or any of them come into our territories of great Nouogrod or Plesco, or to any other parts of our kingdome with their wares, by virtue of these our maiesties letters we straitly charge and command you our Captaines, generals, and all other that be authorised or in office, to suffer the aforesaid merchants to passe and repasse, and to take no kinde of custome or dutie of them, or any of their goods, howsoeuer it may haue name: nor in no place else where they shall come in all our kingdome. Likewise if they sell not nor buy no wares, you shall take no custome, but suffer them quietly to passe where they will with their goods. Of our gratious goodness and meere goodwill haue giuen the said merchants leaue to trafficke, throughout all our kingdomes, and in all townes and cities with all maner of wares and commodities without paying any custome or dutie. Wheresoeuer they shal happen to sel or barter away any of their commodities to our subiects, they are to barter or sell by wholesale, and not by retalie, as by the yard or by the ounce in their houses or elsewhere: but by the packe or whole clothes, veluets, damasks, taffaties by the piece, and not by the yard: and al other wares that are to be sold by weight, they are to be sold not by the ounce, but by great sale. Your wines shalbe solde by hogs heads, pipes or buttes, but not by quartes nor pintes. The said English merchants are to sel or barter away their owne commodities themselues, and not to suffer any Russes to buy or sell for them: nor to cary or tranport any wares of strangers in stead of their owne in no wise. And if the saide English merchants shall be desirous to sell any of their commodities at Colmogro, or vpon the Riuer of Duina, or at Vologhda or at Yeraslaue: when as the saide merchants haue solde in any of the saide Townes, Cities or territories, then you our officers and authorised people by vertue of this our gratious letter wee will and straitly commaund not to take any custome of the aforesaid merchants, howsoeuer it may be named. Also whensoeuer the saide English merchants or any of their factours shalbe desirous to hire carriers to carry their wares to any place of our dominions or Cities, it shalbe at their choyse and pleasure to hier them the best they can, and where they will, either watermen to rowe, or vessels. Also when any of the said merchants themselues, or any of theirs are desirous to trauel into any part of our dominions, or into any other kingdomes, or into their owne kingdome if any of our treasure be deliuered to them, they to take it with them, and to sel it in bartar or otherwise for such wares as are most requisit and necessary to be brought into our kingdome and to be deliuered into our treasury. You our nobilitie, generals & al others in authority suffer them to passe through al our cities, towns & countries without taking any custome of them. And when the said merchants haue done their traffick in any place & come to the Mosco, they shal make it knowen at their arriual at the house of Chancery and Secretariship to Vasili Shalcan. And further when there come any English Merchants with their ships or vessels by sea, that by mishap shalbe cast away vpon any of our shoars or costes, we wil and command you to ayde & helpe them, and to seeke for their goods so perished by any casualtie, and to be restored againe to the saide English merchants or their assignes without any prolonging or detayning. As also if any of the aforesaide merchants goods be found in any part of our coastes or streames and they not present themselues, let the sayd goods be taken and layd vp in safetie in some place or other, and be deliuered to the aforesaid merchants or their factors, vnder penaltie of our displeasure. Furthermore we King, Lord and great duke of all Russia, of our gracious goodnesse giue vnto the English merchants and their company, their house in the Citie of Mosco lying hard by the Church of S. Marke behinde the market place: which they shall keepe and remaine therein after their old accustomed vse. Prouided alwayes that they shall keepe one Russe porter or one of their owne people, & may keepe any other Russe seruant at their discretion. Also their houses in sundry places, as at Ieraslaue, Vologhda, Colmogro, and at S. Michael Archangel, all these houses they shall keepe and vse at their owne pleasure, according to our former letters patents without paying any dutie, rent, or custome. Nor you the communaltie of the said townes shal take any thing of them or theirs for any duetie that should belong to you, especially of the houses aforesaid: but the said English merchants shal enioy them peaceably for themselues and their families, but shall not suffer any other strangers Russes or others to vse the aforesaid houses. Also you shall suffer them to lay their wares and commodities in their warehouses, and to sell their commodities to whom they please without let or hindrance, by vertue of this our gratious letter. Their housekeeper being a Russe shall not vndertake to meddle, or sell any of their wares without they themselues be present, nor to buy any thing for them. Also it shalbe lawfull for the said merchants when they shal arriue at their port to lade and vnlade their merchandises as in times past they haue done at their pleasure. And when they lade their ships with Russe commodities or vnlade them, it shalbe lawfull for them to hire any of our subiects to helpe them for the present time, and for them to carry their goods to and fro with their owne vessels to S. Michael Archangel, or elsewhere. Also we command you our authorised people at the sea side as wel Customers as others to take of the foresaid merchants a note, or remembrance, what goods they bring in and ship out: whereby it may be knowen what goods come in and go out. But in no wise shall you open or vnpacke any of their wares or merchandises. In like maner when as they ship or sende away any of their countrey commodities from S. Michael Archangel to any other place, or to our royall Citie of Mosco yee shall not hinder nor let them any maner of wise for the shipping of their merchandises in or out by virtue of these our gratious letters of priuiledge giuen them. And whensoeuer any of the said English merchants haue any occasion to send ouer land out of our dominions into their own countrey any of their seruants or factors, by vertue of this our gratious letter we command you to giue them their passeport out of the office of our Secretariship. And whensoeuer any of our subiects hath any thing to do with any of the foresaid merchants by way of contentions: or that they be damnified or hindered by any of our subiects: then we appoint and ordeine our Chanceller and Secretary Vasili Shalcan to heare their causes, and finally to determine on both sides according to equitie and iustice: and that he shall search the trueth betweene both parties. And when the trueth cannot be proued or found out, then to cast lots by order of the foresaide Iudge, and he to whom the lot shall fall to take his othe. Furthermore whensoeuer any of the English merchants or their factors shall come into any parts of our dominions or Cities, and shalbe wronged any kinde of wayes in trading, or otherwise by any abused, or haue any occasion of contention with any by way of trade in merchandise or otherwayes: we straightly charge and commaund you our gouernours, and authorised subiects within all our realme and territories of the same, to minister iustice vnto the aforesaid merchants, or to their deputies, and to search the trueth of the contention: and for want of sufficient proofe cast lots who shall take his oath for the more ready triall of the cause: And in no wise to take any fee or duetie of the aforesaid English merchants for the said iudgement in Lawe. We wil and commaund all this to be obserued and kept in all parts of our dominions by all our subiects and authorised people by vertue of these our royal letters patents: And the said letters not to be diminished in any part or parsell thereof by any persons howsoeuer they be named. And whosoeuer shall withstand and not regard these our gracious letters shalbe in our high displeasure, and shal incurre the losse of his life. [Sidenote: After our accompt 1596.] This our gracious letter was giuen in our kingdom and royal City of Mosco, in the yere from the beginning of the world 7104. in the moneth of May. Subscribed by the Emperours Chancellour and Secretarie Vasili Shalean. * * * * * The contents of M. Garlands Commission vnto Thomas Simkinson for the bringing of M. Iohn Dee to the Emperour of Russia his Court. Friend Thomas Simkinson I pray you goe to Brounswik or Cassil and inquire if Master Iohn Dee be there or where he is, and when you finde him, certifie him howe that I haue sent you purposely to knowe where hee doeth remaine, and at your returne I will come and speake with him my selfe. Also you may certefie him that the Emperour of Russeland hauing certaine knowledge of his great learning and wisdome is marueilous desirous of him to come into his Countrey. And hath giuen me his letter with his hand and golden seale at it for to bring him into the Countrey with mee if it be possible, and for his liuing shewe him that he shall be sure of 2000 pound yeerely, and also all prouision for his table out of the Emperours kitching free: and if he thinke this too little, I will assure him that if he aske asmuch more hee shall haue it, and for his charges into the Countrey, I haue sufficient of the Emperours allowance to bring him and all his royally into the Countrey. And because hee may doubt of these proffers, he shall remaine at the borders vntill the Emperour be certified of him, and of his requests, which he would haue. And I am sure he shall be conueyed through the land with fiue hundred horses, and he shallbe accompted as one of the chiefest in the land next the Emperour. Also shew him howe that my Lord Protectour at my comming away did take me in his armes, and desired me as hee should be my friend to bring him with me and he would giue him of his owne purse yeerly 1000. rubbles besides the Emperours allowance. All these foresaide grauntes and demaunds doe I Thomas Simkinson acknowledge to be spoken by Edward Garland to mee, and to be sent to declare the same vnto Master Iohn Dee. And in witnesse that this is of a trueth I haue written the same with my owne hand, and thereunto set my name, in Wittingaw, otherwise called Trebona, the 18. of September, Anno 1586. By me Thomas Simkinson of Hull. * * * * * A letter to the right worshipfull M. Iohn Dee Esquire, conteyning the summe and effect of M. Edward Garland his message, deliuered to Master Dee himselfe, (Letterwise) for a more perfect memoriall thereof. Anno 1586. Right worshipfull, it may please you to vnderstand, that I was sent vnto you from the most mightie Prince Feodor Iuanowich, Lord, Emperour and great duke of Russia, &c. As also from the most excellent prince Boris Feodorowich, Lord Protector of Russia: to giue your worship to vnderstand the great good will and heartie desire they beare vnto you; for that of long time they haue had a great good report of your learning and wisedom, as also of your good counsel vnto Princes: whereupon his Maiesties most earnest desire and request is vnto you; that you would take the paines to come vnto his Citie of Mosco, to visite his Maiesties Court: for that hee is desirous of your company, and also of your good counsell in diuers matters that his Maiestie shall thinke needfull. And for the great goodwill that his Maiestie beareth vnto you, he will giue you yeerely toward your mainteinance 2000. pound starling; and the Lord Protectour will giue you a thousand rubbles, as also your prouision for your table you shall haue free out of his Maiesties kitchin: And further whatsoeuer you shall thinke needefull or conuenient for you, in any part or parts of his dominion, it shall be at your worships commaundement. And this is the summe and effect of my message and commandement guien me by his Maiestie and the Lord Protectour. In witnesse whereof I haue written this with my owne hand, the 17. of December 1586. By me Edward Garland. In Trebona Castell otherwise called, Wittingaw in Boëmia to which place this M. Edward Garland, came to M. Dee with two Moscouites to serue him, &c. He had sixe more which by M. Dees counsell were sent backe. Witnesse M. Edward Kelley, and M. Francis Garland, brother to foresaid Edward, and diuers others. It seemeth that this princely offer of the Emperour Pheodor Iuanowich, and of the L. Boris Pheoilorowich Protectour to his Maiestie, was made vnto the learned and famous Mathematitian M. Iohn Dee, partly to vse his counsell and direction about certaine discoueries to the Northeast; and partly for some other, weighty occasions: but because their conquest to Siberia was not as then fully settled, and for diuers other secret reasons, it was for that time with al thankfulness refused. * * * * * A branch of a letter from M. Iohn Merick, Agent vnto the Moscouie company in Russia, closed vp in the Mosco the 14. of March, Anno 1597. touching the death of Pheodor Iuanowich late Emperour of all Russia, &c. [Sidenote: Febr. 1597.] Hauing thus farre proceeded with this my answere vnto the chiefest points of your worships letters receiued, my desire was to haue sent one vnto you long since, as you may perceiue, by the first date: but by reason I could not get leaue, I haue deferred it of till this instant, for that there was none suffered to passe out of the land. The causes may be iudged, for that it pleased God to call out of this world, the Emperour his Maiestie, who departed about the 7. of Ianuary: and euer since hath bene a mourning time, and no suites for any matter could be heard. But it hath bene a very dead season. Yet (thankes be to God) through the wise gouernment of Lord Boris Pheodorowich the Lord Protector vnto the saide late Emperour, since his death all things haue bene very quiet without any dissention; as the like in such a great kingdome I haue not heard of. [Sidenote: Prince Boris Pheodorowich by generall consent chosen Emperour of Russia.] And now through the prouidence of Almighie God, and by surrender of the late Empresse Irenia Feodoruna, and the common consent of the Patriarch, Nobles, Bishops, and the whole Cleargie, with the whole Commons besides, choise is made of none other but of the said Lord Protector, L. Boris Pheodorowich to be Emperour, and great duke of all Russia, who was most vnwilling to receiue the kingdome, but the people would make no other choise, nor haue any other. So that with much adoe and entreatie, it hath pleased his Maiestie to take vpon him the kingdome, and he is absolute Emperor to him and his heires. And certainly God hath done much for this Countrey, and hath made the people greatly happy, in that he hath prouided and, appointed so famous and worthy a Prince: whose excellent gouernment and experience these foureteene yeeres hath bene manifest to all Russia. God graunt his highnesse a most prosperous and long raine, with his Lady the Empresse, the Prince his sonne, and the Princesse his daughter. All men do reioyce both Russe and strangers for this most famous Emperour. The Coronation is thought shalbe on the Assension day next, til which time I cannot depart from Mosco: which is a litle before the time that ordinarily I doe take my iourney from hence. And touching his Maiesties fauour towards me on your behalfe, especially for her Maiesties sake, as in foretime it was extraordinary, and so specially shewed to mee, as to none the like: so hath his highnesse promised the continuance thereof, with, further fauour as shalbe desired. Whereof I haue no doubt: for dayly I do finde the same. * * * * * A learned Epistle written 1581. vnto the famous Cosmographer M. Gerardus Mercator concerning the riuer Pechora, Naramsay, Cara reca, the mighty riuer of Ob, the place of Yaks Olgush in Siberia, the great riuer Ardoh, the lake of Kittay called of the borderers Paraha, the Countrey of Carrah Colmak, giuing good light to the discouery of the Northeast passage to Cathay, China and the Malucaes. Inclyto et celebri Gerardo Mercatori, domino et amico singulari in manus proprias Duisburgi in Cliuia. Cum meminissem, amice optime, quanta, cum vnam ageremus, delectatione afficerere in legendis Geographicis scriptis Homeri, Strabonis, Aristotelis, Plinij, Dionis et reliquorum, lætatus sum eo quod incidissem in hunc nuncium, qui tibi has literas tradit, quem tibi commendatum esse valde cupio, quique dudum Arusburgi hîc ad Ossellam fluuium appulit. Hominis experientia, vt mihi quidem videtur, multum te adiuuerit in re vna, eaque summis à te votis expetita, et magnopere elaborata, de qua tam varie inter se dissentiunt Cosmographi recentiores; patefactione nimirum ingentis illius Promontorij Tabin, celebrisque illius et opulentæ regionis sub Cathayorum rege per Oceanum ad Orientem brumalem. [Sidenote: Duæ naues ædificatæ in Duina fluuio ad patefactionem Orientalem.] Alferius is est natione Belga, qui captiuus aliquot annos vixit in Moscouitarum ditione, apud viros illic celeberrimos Yacouium et Vnekium; à quibus Antuerpiam missus est accersitum homines rei nauticæ peritos, qui satis amplo proposito præmio ad illos viros se recipiant; qui Sueuo artifice duas ad eam patefactionem naues ædificarunt in Duina fluuio. Vt ille rem proponit, quamquam sine arte, apposite tamen, et vt satis intelligas, quod quæso diligenter perpendas, aditus ad Cathayam per Orientem procul dubio breuissimus est et almodum expeditus. Adijt ipse fluuium Obam tum terra per Samoedorum et Sibericorum regionem, tum mari per littus Pechoræ fluminis ad Orientem. Hac experientia confirmatus certò apud se statuit nauim mercibus onustam, cuius carinam non nimium profundè demissam esse vult, in Sinum S. Nicolai conducere in regione Moscouitarum, instructam illam quidem rebus omnibus ad eam patefactionem necessarijs, atque illic redintegrato commeatu, Moscouitiæ nationis notissimos iusta mercede asciscere: qui et Samoedicam linguam pulchre teneant, et fluuium Ob exploratum habeant, vt qui quotannis ea loca ventitant. Vnde Maio exeunte constituit pergere ad Orientem per continentem Vgoriæ ad Orientales partes Pechoræ, Insulamque cui nomen est Dolgoia. [Sidenote: Dolgoia Insula.] Hic latitudines obseruare, terram describere, bolidem demittere, locorumque ac punctorum distantias annotare, vbi et quoties licebit. Et quoniam Pechoræ Sinus vel euntibus vel redeuntibus commodissimus est tum subsidij tum diuersorij locus propter glaciem et tempestates, diem impendere decreuit cognoscendis vadis, facillimoque nauium aditu inueniendo: quo loco antehac aquarum altitudinem duntaxat ad quinque pedes inuenit, sed profundiores canales esse non dubitat: [Sidenote: Insula Vaigats.] deinde per eos fines pergere ad tria quatuorve milliaria nautica, relicta Insula quam Vaigats vocant, media ferè via inter Vgoriam et Nouam Zemblam: [Sidenote: Sinus inter Vaigats et Obam vergens per meridiem.] tum Sinum quendam pæterire inter Vaigats atque Obam, qui per Meridiem vergens pertingit ad terram Vgoriæ, in quem confluunt exigui duo amnes Marmesia atque Karah [Marginal note: Vel Naramsey et Cara reca.], ad quos amnes gens alia Samoedorum accolit immanis et efferata. Multa in eo tractu loca vadosa, multas cataractas inuenit; sed tamen per quas possit Nauigari. [Sidenote: Littus Obæ incolitubar Ostijs trium dierum itinere.] Vbi ad fluuium Obam peruentum fuerit, qui quidem fluuius (vt referunt Samoedi) septuaginta habet ostia, quæ propter ingentem latitudinem multas magnasque concludentem Insulas, quas varij incolunt populi, vix quisquam animaduertat, ne temporis nimium impendat, constituit ad summum tria quatuorve tentate ora, ea præsertim quæ ex consilio Incolarum, quos in itinere aliquot habiturus est, commodissima videbuntur, triaque quatuorve eius regionis nauigiola tentandis Ostijs adhibere, quàm fieri potest ad littus proxime, (quod quidem sub itinere trium dierum incolitur) vt quo loco tutissime nauigan possit, intelligat. [Sidenote: Yaks Olgush locus super Obam fluuium duodecim dierum itinere a mari.] Quod si nauim per fluuium Obam aduerso amne possit impellere, prima si poterit cataracta, eaque, vt verisimile est, commodissima, ad eumque locum appellere, quem aliquando ipse cum suis aliquot per Sibericorum regionem terra adijt, qui duodecim iuxta dierum itinere distat à Mari, quà influit in mare flumen Ob, qui locus est in continente, propè fluuium Ob cui nomen est Yaks Olgush, nomine mutuato ab illo magno Profluente flumini Ob illabente, tum certè speraret maximas se difficultates superasse. Referunt enim illic populares, qui trium duntaxat dierum nauigatione ab eo loco abfuerunt (quòd illic rarum est, eo quòd multi ad vnum duntaxat diem cymbas pelliceas à littore propellentes oborta tempestate perierunt, cùm neque à sole neque à syderibus rectionem scirent petere) per transuersum fluminis Ob, vnde spaciosum esse illius latitudinem constat, grandes se carinas præciosis onustas mercibus magno fluuio delatas vidisse per Nigros, puta �thiopes. [Sidenote: Ardoh flumen influens in lacum Kitthaym: de quo in itinere ad Boghariam scribit Antonius Ienkinsonus.] Eum fluuium Ardoh illi vocant, qui influit in lacum Kittayum, quem Paraha illi nominant, cui contermina est gens illa latissimè fusa, quàm Carrah Colmak appellant, non alia certè quàm Cathaya. Illic, si necessitas postulabit, opportunum erit hybernare, se suosque reficere, resque omnes necessarias conquirere. Quòd si acciderit, non dubitat interim plurimùm se adiutum iri, plura illic quærentem atque ediscentem. Veruntamen sperat æstate eadem ad Cathayorum fines se peruenturum, nisi ingenti glaciei mole ad os fluuij Obæ impediatur, quæ maior interdum, interdum minor est. Tum per Pechoram redire statuit, atque illic hybernare: vel si id non poterit, in flumen Duinæ, quo mature satis pertinget, atque ita primo vere proximo in itinere progredi. Vnum est quòd suo loco oblitus sum. [Sidenote: Carrah Colmakest Cathaya.] Qui locum illum Yaks Olgush incolunt, à maioribus suis olim prædicatum asserunt, se in lacu Kitthayo dulcissimam campanarum harmoniam audiuisse, atque ampla ædificia conspexisse: Et cùm gentis Carrah Colmak mentionem faciunt (Cathaya illa est) ab imo pectore suspiria repetunt manibusque proiectis suspiciunt in coelum, velut insignem illius splendorem innuentes atque admirantes. Vtinam Alferius hic Cosmographiam melius saperet, multum ad illius vsum adiungeret, qui sanè plurimus est. Multa prætereo, vir amicissime, ipsumque hominem te audire cupio, qui mihi spospondit se in itinere Duisburgi te visurum. Auet enim tecum conferre sermones, et procul dubio hominem multum adiuueris. Satis instructus videtur pecunia et gratia, in quibus alijsque officijs amicitiæ feci illi, si vellet, mei copiam. Deus Optimus maximus hominis votis atque alacritati faueat, initia secundet, successus fortunet, exitum foelicissimum concedat. Vale amice ac Domine singularis. Arusburgi ad Ossellam fluuium 20. Februarij 1581. Tuus quantus quantus sum Ioannes Balakus. The same in English. To the famous and renowned Gerardus Mercator, his Reuerend and singular friend at Duisburgh in Clieueland, these be deliuered. Calling to remembrance (most deare Friend) what exceeding delight you tooke at our being together, in reading the Geographicall writings of Homer, Strabo, Aristotle, Plinie, Dion, and the rest, I reioyced not a little that I happened vpon such a messenger as the bearer of these presents, (whom I do especially recommend vnto you) who arriued lately here at Arusburg vpon the riuer of Osella. This mans experience (as I am of dpinion) will greatly auaile you to the knowledge of a certaine matter which hath bene by you so vehemently desired, and so curiously laboured for, and concerning the which the late Cosmographers do hold such varietie of opinions: namely, of the discouerie of the huge promontorie of Tabin, and of the famous and rich countreys subiect vnto the Emperor of Cathay and that by the Northeast Ocean sea. [Sidenote: Two ships built vpon the riuer of Dwina for the Northeast discouerie.] The man is called Alferius [Marginal note: Or Oliuer.] being by birth a Netherlander, who for certaine yeeres liued captiue in the dominions of Russia vnder two famous men Yacouius and Vnekius, by whom he was sent to Antwerp to procure skilfull Pilots and Mariners, (by propounding liberall rewards) to go vnto the two famous personages aforesayd, which two had set a Sweden Shipwright on worke to build two ships for the same discouerie vpon the riuer of Dwina. The passage vnto Cathay by the Northeast (as he declareth the matter, albeit without arte, yet very aptly, as you may well perceiue, which I request you diligently to consider) is without doubt very short and easie. This very man himselfe hath trauelled to the riuer of Ob, both by land, through the countreys of the Samoeds, and of Sibier, and also by Sea, along the coast of the riuer Pechora Eastward. Being encouraged by this his experience he is fully resolued with himselfe to conduct a Barke laden with merchandize (the keele whereof hee will not haue to drawe ouer much water) to the Baie of Saint Nicholas in Russia, being furnished with all things expedient for such a discouerie, and with a new supply of victuals at his arriuall there, and also to hire into his companie certaine Russes best knowen vnto himselfe, who can perfectly speake the Samoeds language, and are acquainted with the riuer of Ob, as hauing frequented those places yeere by yeere. [Sidenote: The Island of Dolgoia.] Whereupon about the ende of May hee is determined to saile from the Baie of S. Nicholas Eastward, by the maine of Ioughoria, and so to the Easterly parts of Pechora, and to the Island which is called Dolgoia. And here also hee is purposed to obserue the latitudes, to suruey and describe the countrey, to sound the depth of the Sea, and to note the distances of places, where, and so oft as occasion shall be offered. And forasmuch as the Baie of Pechora is a most conuenient place both for harbour and victuall, as well in their going foorth as in their returne home in regard of Ice and tempest, he is determined to bestow a day in sounding the Flats, and in searching out the best entrance for ships: in which place heretofore he found the water to be but fiue foote deepe, howbeit he doubteth not but that there are deeper chanels: [Sidenote: The Island of Vaigats. A Baie betweene Vaigats and Ob trending Southerly.] and then hee intendeth to proceed on along those coasts for the space of three or foure leagues, leauing the Island called Vaigats almost in the middle way betweene Vgoria and Noua Zembla: then also to passe by a certaine Baie betweene Vaigats and Ob, trending Southerly into the land of Vgoria, whereinto fall two small riuers called Marmesia and Carah [Marginal note: Or, Naramsey and Cara Reca.], vpon the which riuers doe inhabite an other barbarous and sauage nation of the Samoeds. He found many Flats in that tract of land, and many cataracts or ouerfals of water, yet such as hee was able to saile by. When hee shall come to the riuer of Ob, which riuer (as the Samoeds report) hath seuentie mouthes, which by reason of the huge breadth thereof containing many and great Islands, which are inhabited with sundry sortes of people, no man scarcely can well disouer, because he will not spend too much time, he purposeth to search three or foure at the most of the mouthes thereof, those chiefly which shall be thought most commodious by the aduise of the inhabitants, of whom hee meaneth to haue certaine with him in his voyage, and meaneth to employ three or foure boates of that Countrey in search of these mouthes, as neere as possibly he can to the shore, which within three dayes iourney of the Sea is inhabited, that he may learne where the riuer is best nauigabie. [Sidenote: The place vpon the riuer Ob, where he was but 12. dayes iourney from the mouthes thereof and is called Yaks Olgush.] If it so fall out that he may sayle vp the riuer Ob against the stream, and mount vp to that place which heretofore accompanied with certaine of his friends, he passed vnto by land through the countrey of Siberia which is about twelue dayes iourney from the Sea, where the riuer Ob falleth into the Sea, which place is in the Continent neere the riuer Ob, and is called Yaks Olgush, borowing his name from that mightie riuer which falleth into the riuer Ob, then doubtlesse hee would conceiue full hope that hee had passed the greatest difficulties: for the people dwelling thereabout report, which were three dayes sayling onely from that place beyond the riuer Ob, whereby the bredth thereof may be gathered (which is a rare matter there, because that many rowing with their boates of leather one dayes iourney onely from the shore, haue bene cast away in tempest, hauing no skill to guide themselues neither by Sunne nor Starre) that they haue seene great vessels laden with rich and precious merchandize brought downe that great riuer by blacke or swart people. [Sidenote: M. Ienkinson in his voyage to Boghar speaketh of the riuer Ardok.] They call that riuer Ardoh, which falleth into the lake of Kittay, which they call Paraha, whereupon bordereth that mighty and large nation which they call Carrah Colmak, which is none other then the nation of Cathay. There, if neede require, he may fitly Winter and refresh himselfe and his, and seeke all things which he shall stand in need of: which if it so fall out, he doubteth not but in the meane while he shall be much furthered in searching and learning out many things in that place. Howbeit, he hopeth that hee shall reach to Cathaya that very Sommer, vnlesse he be hindered by great abundance of Ice at the mouth of the riuer of Ob, which is sometimes more, and sometimes lesse. If it so fall out, he then purposeth to returne to Pechora, and there to Winter: or if he cannot doe so neither, then hee meaneth to returne to the riuer of Dwina, whither he will reach in good time enough, and so the next Spring following to proceed on his voyage. One thing in due place I forgate before. The people which dwell at that place called Yaks Olgush, affirme that they haue heard their forefathers say, that they haue heard most sweete harmonie of bels in the lake of Kitthay, and that they haue seene therein stately and large buildings: and when they make mention of the people named Currah Colmak (this countrey is Cathay) they fetch deepe sighes, and holding vp their hands, they looke vp to heauen, signifying as it were, and declaring the notable glory and magnificence of that nation. I would this Oliuer were better seen in Cosmographie, it would greatly further his experience, which doubtlesse is very great. Most deare friend, I omit many things, and I wish you should heare the man himselfe which promised mee faithfully that he would visite you in this way at Duisburg, for he desireth to conferre with you, and doubtlesse you shall very much further, the man. He seemeth sufficiently furnished with money and friends, wherein and in other offices of curtesie I offered him my furtherance if it had pleased him to haue vsed me. The Lord prosper the mans desires and forwardnesse, blesse his good beginnings, further his proceedings, and grant vnto him most happy issue. Fare you well good sir and my singular friend. From Arusburg vpon the riuer of Ossella, the 20. of February, 1581. Yours wholly at commandement, Iohn Balak Master Anthonie Ienkinson in a disputation before her Maiestie with sir Humfrey Gilbert for proofe of a passage by the Northeast to Cathaya, among other things alleageth this: videlicet, that there came a continuall streame or currant through Mare glaciale, of such swiftnesse as a Colmak told him, that if you cast any thing therein, it would presently be caried out of sight towards the West, &c. * * * * * A testimonie of the Northeasterne Discouerie made by the English, and of the profite that may arise by pursuing the same: taken out of the second volume of Nauigations and Voyages, fol. 17. of the notable Cosmographer M. Iohn Baptista Ramusius, Secretaire to the State of Venice: Written in Italian in the yeere, 1557. D'alla parte poi di sotto la nostra Tramontana, che chiascuno scrittore et Cosmographo di questi et de passati tempi fin'hora vi ha messo e mette mare congelato, et che la terra corra continuamente fino a 90. gradi verso il Polo: sopro questa mappa-mondo all' incontro si vede che la terra và solamente vn poco sopra la Noruega et Suetia, e voltando corre poi Greco e Leuante nel paese della Moscouta et Rossia, et và diritto al Cataio. Et che cio sia la verità, le nauigationi che hanno fatte gl' Inglesi con le loro naui, volendo andare à scoprire il Cataio al tempo del Re Odoardo Sesto d'Inghilterra, questi anni passati, ne possono far vera testimonianza: perche nel mezzo del loro viaggio, capitate per fortuna a i liti di Moscouia doue trouarano all' hora regnare Giouanni Vasiliuich Imperatore della Rossia e gran Duca di Moscouia, il quale con molto piacere e marauiglia vedutogli, fece grandissime carezze, hanno trouato quel mare essere nauigabile, e non agghiacciato. La qual nauigatione (ancor che con l'esito fin hora non sia stata bene intesa) se col spesso frequentarla et col lungo vso et cognitione de que' mari si continuerà, è per fare grandissima mutatione et riuolgimento nelle cose di questa nostra parte del mondo. The same in English. Moreouer (hauing before spoken of diuers particularities, in an excellent Map of Paulus Venetus) on that part subiect to our North pole, where euery writer and Cosmographer of these and of former times hitherto, haue, and doe place the frozen Sea, and that the land stretcheth continually to 90. degress, towards the pole: contrarywise, in this mappe is to bee seene, that the land extendeth onely a litle aboue Norway and Swethland, and then turning it selfe trendeth afterwards towards the Southeast and by East, vnto the countrey of Moscouie and Russia, and stretcheth directly vnto Cathay. And that this is true, the nauigations which the English men haue of late made, intending to discouer Cathay, in the time of Edward the sixt, king of England, are very sufficient witnesses. For in the mids of their voiage, lighting by chance vpon the coast of Moscouie (where they found then reigning Iohn Vasiliwich Emperor of Russia, and great Duke of Moscouia, who after he had, to his great delight and admiration, seene the English men, entertained them with exceeding great curtesies) found this sea to be nauigable, and not frozen. [Sidenote: The great hope of the Northeastern dicouerie.] Which nauigation to Cathay, although it be not as yet throughly knowen, yet if with often frequenting the same, and by long vse and knowledge of those seas it bee continued it is like to make a wonderfull change and reuolution in the state of this our port of the world. * * * * * The testimonie of Gerardus Mercator in his last large Mappe of Europe, touching the notable discoueries of the English, made of Moscouie by the Northeast. Magnam occasionem certamque rationem emendandæ Europæ nobis attulit celeberrima Angloram per Cronium mare nauigatio: quæ littora Septentrionalia Finlappie Moscouiæque iuxta coeli situm, mundíque plagas digesta habet. Exacta etiam vrbis Moscuæ latitudo ab Anglis obseruata, interiorum Regionum emendatiùs describendarum infallibilem legem præscripsit: Quibus oblatis adminiculis pulcherrimis, iniquum putaui tabulam hanc castigatiorem non reddere. The same in English. The most famous nauigation of the English men by the Northeast sea hath offered vnto me a great occasion, and certaine direction for the reformation of the mappe of Europe: which discouerie hath the Northerne parts of Finmarke, Lapland, and Moscouie, laied out according to the iust eleuation and the quarters of the world. And further, the true obseruation of the latitude of the city of Mosco, made by the foresaid Englishmen, hath yeelded me an infallible rule, for the correcting of the situation of the inland countries: which notable helps being ministred vnto me, I thought it my duetie to exhibite to the world this Mappe, more exact and perfect then hitherto it hath bene published. * * * * * Another testimonie of Ioannes Metellus Sequanus concerning the same Nauigation and Discouerie in his preface prefixed before Osorius de rebus gestis Emanuelis Regis Portugalliæ. written about the yeere, 1574. At ne omnis, vnis Hispanis, Oceani maris gloria totáque concederetur, Britanni Septentriones noua in Moscouiam nauigatione, ab hinc annis viginti plus minùs illustrarunt. Nam bellis Sueticis à Moscouitarum, Naruæque Liuoniæ exclusi commercio, iter ad illos Oceano, hinc Noruegiæ, Finmarchiæ, Lappiæ, Scricfinniæ, Biarmiæque; illinc Groenlandiæ littora præteruecti, vltrà Septuagesimum latitudinis Aquilonaris gradum sibi patefaciunt. Quam nauigationem Belgæ posteà, non sine tamen cum ijsdem Britannis velitatione, sunt secuti. Eò vehunt argenti veteris fragmenta, lineásque vestes propè detritas, omnísque generis minutiores merces, ad vsum, cultúmque corporis hominum vtriusque sexus, veluti lintea et byssea cingula, periscelides, crumenas, cultros, et id genus sexcenta. A Moschis autem pelles omnis generis pretiosas adferunt, et salmones salitos, fumóque duratos. The same in English. But least all and the whole glory of discouering the Ocean sea should be ascribed to the Spaniards, the Englishmen about twentie yeeres past, by a new nauigation into Moscouie, discouered the Northeast partes. For they by reason of the warres of Swethland being hindered from the traffique of the Moscouites and of the Narue in Liefland, opened a passage for themselues by the Ocean sea, beyond the Northerne latitude of 70. degrees: hauing in their course on the one side the coastes of Norway, Finmark, Lapland, Scrickfin and Biarmia: On the other side the coast of Gronland. Which voyage the Hollanders afterwarde entred into, but not without some conflict with the English. They cary thither old plate and course linnen cloth, and all kind of small Mercerie wares, seruing for the apparelling of men and women, as linnen, and silke girdles, garters, purses, kniues, and many such like things. And they bring away from the Moscouites, all kinde of precious Furres, and Salmons salted and dried in the smoke. END OF VOL. IV. INDICES TO VOLS. II., III., & IV. INDICES. N.B.--The large print indicates that the _whole_ section refers to the subject mentioned. VOL. II. ALANIANS, Greek Christians ALBANIA described ALEPPO (Sultan of) attacked by Tartars ALMANS (Germans), mentioned ALTI (Soldan), mentioned AMBASSADORS received by Cuyne ANDREW, duke of Russia ANDREW, (Friar) visits the Caspian ANTIOCH taken by the French AQUILEIA (Patriarch of) attacks Tartars ARCTIC OCEAN visited by Tartars ARMENIANS attacked by Tartars ASCELLINUS (Friar) sent to Tartary ASSASSIN, origin of word ASSASSINI, a mountain tribe ASTAR, mentioned ASTRACAN, mentioned AUSTRIA (Duke of) attacks Tartars AZOV, mentioned AZOV, (Sea of) BAATU. See _Bathy_ BADEN (Earl of) said to attack Tartars. BALDACH (Caliph of) attacked by Tartars--Mentioned BALDWIN OF HAINAULT, mentioned BAN, brother to Bathy, put to death BARCHIN besieged BARTHOLOMEW OF CREMONA accompanies Rubruquis to Tartary--Sent back by Bathy to Sartach. BATHY. His expedition--Carpini sent to him--His power--Receives Carpini-- Revisited by Carpini--Mentioned--His wives--His reception of Rubruquis BEARS, mentioned BEAUVAIS (Vincent of), see _Beluacensis_ BELUACENSIS (V.), quoted--note on BENEDICT (Friar) accompanies J. de Piano Carpini BERTA, mentioned BISERSMINIA, mentioned BLACK SEA. See _Pontus Euximus_ BOHEMIA, mentioned BOHEMIA (King of) attacks Tartars BOLAC, mentioned BOLESAUS, Duke of Silesia BORISTHENES. See _Dnieper_ BULGARIA (Greater). BULGARIA (Minor). BURUTABETH, mentioned. CAESARIA, mentioned. CAILAC, mentioned. CANGLE, mentioned. CARA CARUM, mentioned. CARINTHIA (Duke of) attacks Tartars. CARPINI, JOANNES DE PLANO: HIS EMBASSY FROM INNOCENT IV. TO THE TARTARS-- Sent to Tartary--Crosses Bohemia--Poland--Russia--Visits Boleslaus-- Conrad--Wasilico--Taken ill--His mission--Received by Bathy--Travels through Commania and land of Kangittae--Biserminia--Reaches the court of Cuyne--His reception--Receives letters from Cuyne--Dismissed--His return home--Mentioned CASPIAN Sea, mentioned CATHAY, mentioned. CAUCASUS, mentioned CHINGAY, mentioned CHINGIS KHAN. His origin--Defeated by Mongols--Defeats the Nestorians-- Defeats Kytai--Named Emperor--Attacks the Kirghis and the Troglodytæ-- His laws--His death CLOTH, the chief merchandise in Tartary COIAT, Sartach's Historiographer COMANI defeated by Thosut Khan--Their customs COMMANIA described CON KHAN, ruler of Kara-Katay CONRAD, duke of Mazovia CONSTANTINOPLE, mentioned CORRENSA COSMOS, the Tartar drink CRACOW, mentioned CRIT, a nomad tribe CUYNE--Entertains Carpini--Elected Emperor--His appearance--Receives ambassadors--Parts from his mother--Avenges his father's death-- Dissembles CYRPODANIS, his expedition DERBENT, mentioned DEURUM (Soldan), attacked by the Tartars DNIEPER (river), mentioned DON (river), mentioned ELDEGAY, mentioned ENGLISHMAN, extraordinary confession of an ERIVAN (lake), mentioned FRA PAOLO, mentioned FROBISHER (M.), quoted GASARIA, see Cæsaria GEORGIA, attacked by Tartars, mentioned GERMANY, mentioned GOSET accompanies Rubruquis, Sent back by Bathy GOTHS, mercenaries GUYDO, governor of Trebizond HAYTHON (Bishop), mentioned HUNGARIANS at the Court of Bathy, Descended from the Huns HUNGARY, mentioned IAEC, see _Rhymuus_ IEROSLAUS, Duke of Russia IEROSLAUS, Duke of Susdal INDIA, attacked by Tartars INNOCENT IV. sends a mission to Tartary ISIDORE, quoted IUGURES, idolaters JERUSALEM, mentioned JERUSALEM (Knights of), conquer Prussia KADAC, mentioned KANGITT�, mentioned KENCHAT, mentioned KEN KHAN, mentioned KERSOVA, see _Kertch_ KERTCH, mentioned KIEV, mentioned KIRGHIS, mentioned KYTAI, resist Chingis Khan--Use silver for missiles--Conquered--Mentioned --Make war against the besiegers of Antioch LANGA, mentioned LENA DELTA, mentioned LESGI, a tribe of Saracens M�OTIS (lake), mentioned MANCHERULE (Manchu), mentioned MANGU KHAN, mentioned MATRIGA, see _Azov_ MELVILLE, chief engineer of "Jeannette", quoted MERKIT, see _Crit_ MICHAEAS the malicious MICHAEL, Duke of Russia, martyred by the Tartars MOAL, a name of the Tartars MONSTERS, mentioned MORDUANS attacked--mentioned MOXEL, subjects of Sartach MUC, an eastern nation NAYMANI, mentioned NEPER, see _Dnieper_ NESTORIANS defeated by Chingis Khan NEUSTADT, mentioned NICHOLAS (servant to Rubruquis) OCCADAY-KHAN Builds Omyl--Succeeds Chingis--The manner of his death OMYL built ORDU (duke) mentioned ORGANUM, the land of Mangu Khan ORNA attacked PASCATIR, mentioned PARIS (MATTHEW), extract from PAROSITAE, mentioned PEREKOP (Isthmus) POLAND, mentioned PONTUS EUXIMUS, mentioned PRESTER JOHN defeats Tartars--Chief of Nestorians--His country PRUSSIA, mentioned RHA, see _Volga_ RHYMNUS (river), mentioned RUBRUQUIS (W. de). HIS VOYAGE TO TARTARY--Reaches Soldaia--Travels over Isthmus of Perekop--Reaches Tartary--Is imposed upon--Visits the Court of Scacati--Passes through Comania-- Crosses the Don--Reaches the Court of Sartach--Is received by him--Is forwarded to Bathy--Reaches the Volga--Visits the Court of Bathy--Sent on to Mangu Khan--Visits the Iugures RUSSIA, _passim_ SAINT CLEMENT, his martyrdom SAINT QUENTIN (Simon of), quoted SALT PITS, mentioned SAMOYEDS, mentioned SARPI (Paul), see _Fra Paolo_ SARTACH, mentioned--His country--Receives Rubruquis SCACATI, kinsman of Bathy--His court--Gives Rubruquis a guide SILESIA, mentioned SIMFEROPOL, mentioned SOLANGA, mentioned SOLDAIA, see _Simferopol_ SOLONIA, mentioned SUN, fable as to its rising SYNOPOLIS, mentioned SYRA ORDA, mentioned TALAS, mentioned TANAIS, see _Don_ TANGUT, mentioned TARTARS, their barbarous demeanour, _passim_--Attack Neustadt--Driven back by Christian princes--J. DE PLANO CARPINI'S ACCOUNT OF THEM--Their appearance--Marriages--Clothing--Dwellings--Religious ceremonies-- Crimes and laws--Worship the moon--Funeral rites--Compared with those of Florida--Virtues and Vices--W. DE RUBRUQUIS'S ACCOUNT OF THEM-- Defeated by Prester John--Meet with Monsters Their leaders--Ill treatment of Ambassadors--attack Bulgaria--Hungary--The Parossitæ--The Samoyeds, Armenia. Georgia--Soldan Deurum--Sultan of Aleppo--Caliph of Baldach, Military tactics--Mode of crossing rivers--Their bad faith-- Their conquests--Their plans of conquest--How to resist them--Their fodder, Mode of saluting Princes--Their way of drinking--Their carts-- Their beds Their food--Their mode of wearing their hair--Their women-- Their yearly migrations--Their manner of writing TARTARY, Description of--Political divisions TAURICA CHERSONESUS TEREK (river), mentioned THIBET, mentioned THOSSUT KHAN defeats Comani TIRBON (Prince), mentioned TRAPEZUNDA, see _Trebizond_ TREBIZOND mentioned TROGLODYT�, mentioned TURGEMANNUS accompanies Rubruquis VALAKIA, mentioned VASTACIUS, mentioned VENETUS (Paulus). See _Fra Paolo_ VOLGA (river), mentioned VUT KHAN, brother of Prester John WASILICO, duke of Russia YUO OF NARBONA. EPISTLE TO ARCHBISHOP OF BORDEAUX ZIKIA, mentioned INDEX TO VOL. III. ABERDOUR BAY, Wreck of the Edward Bonaventure in ADAMS (Clement), mentioned--HIS ACCOUNT OF SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY'S EXPEDITION �GELAND, mentioned ALCOCKE (Thomas), HIS LETTER TO RICHARD GRAY AND HENRY LANE--Put in prison--Released--Mentioned--HIS SECOND JOURNEY TO PERSIA, BY R. CHEINE, Goes to Casbin--Murdered--Account of his murder. ALEPPO. Its trade ALEXANDER VI. (Pope). His division of unknown lands annulled ALLARD the skinner, mentioned ALLEN (Thomas), mentioned ALLEN (William), mentioned AMBASSADOR, attendance on the Russian AMSTERDAM mentioned ANDREWS (John), mentioned ANNA, wife of Wladimir, mentioned ANTHONY (Nicholas), mentioned ARDOC. See _Oxus_ ARDOVIL. mentioned ARNEOSTE, a Giant, mentioned ARRASH, mentioned ARTILLERY, used in Russia--Varieties used in Europe ARUNDEL, (Henry, Earl of), mentioned ARZINA. See _Varsina_ ASTRAKAN, conquered--Mentioned ATTILA, his evil countenance AUGUST (William), mentioned AUGUSTUS, Duke of Moscovy said to be descended from AUK (Little), plentiful AURA SOLTANA, a Tartar girl AUSTEN (John), mentioned AUSTEN (Robert), mentioned AYZ, a holy Tartar BAJAZET, Emperor of Turkey, carried in a cage by Tamerlane BALKH, mentioned BANBRUCKE (Christopher), mentioned BARNES (Sir George), mentioned BARRETT (Charles), mentioned BARRIE (William), mentioned BASILIUS, Emperor of Constantinople--sends a bishop to Russia BASILIUS, son of Demetrius--succeeded by his brother BASILIUS, grandson of Demetrius--succeeds his uncle--taken prisoner by his cousins BATHY, duke of Tartary--slays Czar Georgius--Overruns Poland and Silesia-- Marches into Hungary--Defeats Bela IV BAUGHLEATA, mentioned BEARE (William), mentioned BECHER (Henry), mentioned BEDFORD (John, Earl of), mentioned BELA IV., King of Hungary--defeated by Bathy BENEDICT (Friar), sent as an ambassador to the Tartars BENTLY (Erasmus), mentioned BEROZOVA (river), mentioned BERWICK, mentioned BEST (Robert), mentioned--Is appointed Henry Lane's champion BLACKWALL, mentioned BLAGE (George), see _Blake_ BLAKE (George), mentioned BLUE Sea, mentioned BOGHAR, mentioned--described BOKHARA, see _Boghar_ BOMMELOE ISLAND visited by Burrough BONA CONFIDENTIA (The), mentioned--Its history and fate BONAVENTURE (Cape), mentioned BOND, Alderman, mentioned BONTIGNE (Roger), master of rope works at Cholmogori BORGIA, (Caesar), mentioned BORGIA (Lucretia), mentioned BORISSUS, son of Wladimir BORISTHENES, see _Dnieper_ BOSTON, mentioned BOUCHER (John), mentioned BRANDE (John), mentioned BRIAN (Leonard), sent to North Russia in search of Yew BROOKE (John), mentioned BROOKE (Rowland), mentioned BROWNE (John), mentioned BROWNE (Thomas), mentioned BUCKLAND (John), mentioned BULLCY (Thomas), quoted BUNTING (Roger), mentioned BUNTING (Thomas), mentioned BUONA SPERANZA (The), mentioned--Its history and fate BURROUGH (Stephen), HIS EXPEDITION TO DISCOVER THE RIVER OB--Sails from Ratcliffe--Entertained by Cabot at Gravesend--Embarks on Edward Bonaventure--Visits Bommeloe island--Loses sight of Searchthrift-- Reaches Hammerfest--Names North Cape--Parts from Edward Bonaventure-- Arrives in the river Kola--Meets with Russian Lodjas--Has friendly relations with a Russian named Gabriel--And unfriendly with a Karelian --Rounds Cape Canin Nos--Enters river Petchora--Meets with Ice--His adventure with a whale--Lands on Navaja Zemlia--Meets a Karelian, named Loshak, from whom he obtains information--Visits a Samoyed camp--Turned back by ice--Returns to Colmogro--RICHARD JOHNSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE--HIS VOYAGE IN SEARCH OF THE THREE LOST VESSELS--Sails in Searchthrift--Lands at Dogs Nose--Meets with a storm--Is boarded by Laps--Learns the fate of the lost ships--Invited to send English ships to Kegor--Intends to seek the river Ob--Appointed master of the Swallow BURROUGH (William) mentioned BURTON (George), mentioned BUSSARMANS, mentioned BUTTER (Miles), mentioned CABOT (Sebastian). ORDINANCES, ETC., GIVEN TO WILLOUGHBY--Named--First governor of the Muscovy Co.--Boards the Searchthrift--His age CAMA (river), mentioned CAMEN BOLDSHAY, a mountain CAMPION, a city of Cathay CANIN NOS, reached by Burrough--Mentioned CAPE (George Burton), mentioned CAPHAR mentioned CAROWE (John), mentioned CARPINI (J. de Plano) sent as ambassador to the Tartars--quoted CASBIN, mentioned CASHGAR, mentioned CASPIAN (Sea), mentioned--Visited by Jenkinson--Described CASTELlNE (Edward), mentioned CATHAY, mentioned--Its trade--ROUTES FROM RUSSIA CAUCASUS (mountains), mentioned CAZAN, conquered--Described CHAMBERLAIN (Richard), mentioned CHANCELLOR (Nicholas), mentioned CHANCELLOR (Richard). Appointed captain of the _Edward Bonaventure_--THE LETTER OF EDWARD VI. ENTRUSTED TO HIM--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA--Visits Ivan Vasilowich II.--ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGE TO RUSSIA BY CLEMENT ADAMS--Takes in provisions at Harwich--Arrives in the Bay of Saint Nicholas--HIS ACCOUNT OF RUSSIA--Grand pilot of the second voyage to Russia--Accompanies Killingworth to Moscow--Drowned in Aberdour Bay --Conveys Russian Ambassador to England--Mentioned CHAPMAN (William)--mentioned CHARTERS. THE FIRST GRANTED TO THE MUSCOVY COMPANY BY IVAN VASILOWICH II.-- GRANTED TO THE MUSCOVY CO. BY PHILIP AND MARY--BY ELIZABETH CHATTERTON (Ralph), mentioned CHEBE NAVOLOCHE (cape), mentioned CHEINIE, mentioned--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE SECOND VOYAGE INTO PERSIA CHELSIE (Cuthbert), mentioned CHESTER (Brian), mentioned CHESTER (Sir William), mentioned CHOLMOGORI, Described, Mentioned CLARENDON HIST. SOC, quoted CLARK (Edward), mentioned CLAROCKE (John), mentioned CLIFTON (William), mentioned COCKS (John), mentioned COINS. NOTICE OF RUSSIAN, BY JOHN HASSIE--Bokharian COLA. See _Kola_ COLACHE, a ring of bread COLGOIEVE. See _Kolgujev_ COLMACK, mentioned COLMOGRO. See _Cholmogori_ COMFORT (Cape), mentioned CONSTANTINUS, Emperor of Constantinople CORASSAN See _Khorassan_ CORPUS CHRISTI BAY, mentioned COSCAYNOS (Cape), mentioned COUNSELLORS APPOINTED TO MANAGE WILLOUGHBY'S EXPEDITION COYA RECA, mentioned COZAMOMET, mentioned CRIM TARTARS, mentioned CROSS ISLAND, mentioned CYPHER, letters to Muscovy Co. to be written in CZAR, meaning of title DALABERE (James), mentioned DANIEL, son of Yaroslaus--makes Mosco the capital--His sons DANTISKE (? Dantzig), mentioned--Celebrated for cables--Obtains wax from Russia DAVIS (Richard), his death DAVISON (Thomas), mentioned DEMETRIUS, son of Georgius: his son DEMETRIUS, son of Simeon--His sons DEPTFORD, mentioned DERBENT, mentioned DE VEER, mentioned DICKENSON (Henry) DIMMOCK (John), mentioned DNIEPER (river), mentioned DOG'S NOSE (Cape), mentioned DOLGOI (Island), seen by Burrough DOLGOIEVE. See _Dolgoi_ DOMS HAFF, mentioned DORSET (Henry), mentioned DRONTON. See _Trondheim_ DURFURTH (Cornelius), mentioned DURIFORTH (John), mentioned DUTCH trade with Laps, mentioned DWINA (river), mentioned--ascended by Jenkinson DYEING, materials used in--to be sent to England EASTER eggs mentioned EATON (George), mentioned EDEN (Richard), HIS TESTIMONY ABOUT CHANCELOR EDGE (Capt T.), tries to prove Willoughby's land to the Spitzbergen EDINBURGH, mentioned EDWARD BONAVENTURE (The), mentioned--Lost sight of by Willoughby-- Commissioned for Chancellor's second voyage to Russia--To be sent back to England--Takes S. Burrough to Vardoe--Parts from Searchthrift--Its fate--Conveys Russian ambassador to England EDWARD VI., HIS LETTER TO THE KINGS, ETC.--OF THE NORTH EAST--On his death- bed when Sir H. Willoughby's expedition sails EDWARDS (Arthur), merchant on board the Edward Bonaventure--Left by Killingworth at Vologda--To be sent home--LETTER TO THOMAS NICHOLS REGARDING PREPARATIONS FOR VOYAGE TO PERSIA--LETTER TO SIR T. LODGE RELATING TO THIRD VOYAGE TO PERSIA--LETTER TO MOSCOVY COMPANY--RELATING THIRD VOYAGE TO PERSIA--ANOTHER LETTER TO THE SAME EDWARDS (John), mentioned EDWARDS (Lawrence), mentioned ELIZABETH (Queen), LETTER FROM SIGISMOND AUGUSTUS--LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA IN FAVOR OF JENKINSON--LETTER TO THE SOPHY OF PERSIA--SENT BY JENKINSON ELLOT (John), mentioned ELSON (Robert), mentioned EUSTAPHIUS, abbot of Jerusalem--sent to Russia EVERY (William), mentioned FAWKNER (John), mentioned FINMARK, mentioned FLAMBOROUGH HEAD, mentioned FOEYN (Capt Svend), a whale-hunter FOWLES (Richard), mentioned FOXES, trapped along the coast of the Polar sea FOX NOSE (Cape), mentioned FOXSKINS in demand in England FRANCIS (Thomas), mentioned FROTHINGHAM (Christopher), uncle of Richard Chancellor FURS, desirable kinds GABRIEL, son of Ivan Vasilowich--adopts the name of Basilius--defeats Lithuanians GABRIEL, a Russian--friendly to S. Burrough GALLANT (Cape). See _Solinos_ GARDINER (Alexander), mentioned GARRARD (William), mentioned GARRET (William), mentioned GEFFERSON (William), mentioned GEORGIUS, son of Vuszevolodus; his sons GEORGIUS, son of Demetrius--Slain by Bathy GIBSON (Clement), mentioned GIFTS. SENT BY PHILIP AND MARY TO IVAN VASILOWICH I--SENT BY IVAN VASILOWICH I. TO PHILIP AND MARY GILLAN, mentioned GILPIN (George), sent to Scotland GITTONS (William), mentioned GLEBUS, son of Wladimir GLOVER (Thomas). LETTERS KROM MUSCOVY CO--Appointed agent--mentioned GOISWINE (George), mentioned GOOD FORTUNE (Cape), mentioned GOOSELAND, mentioned GOSTOMISLIUS persuades his fellow-citizens to make children of Prussus their rulers GRACE (Cape), mentioned GRAVESEND, mentioned GRAY (Richard), appointed commander of second voyage to Russia--Left at Vologda--LETTER FROM MUSCOVY CO--mentioned--LETTER TO HENRY LANE-- LETTER FROM TH. ALCOCK GREENEAWAY (Ralph), mentioned GREENWICH, mentioned GRESHAM (Sir John), mentioned GULISTAN, mentioned GULLISTONE. See _Gulistan_ GULLS, plentiful GULOIN, a strange beast GWINNE (Robert), mentioned GWINNE (Richard), mentioned HALGELAND; mentioned HAMANE (William), mentioned HAMBURGH receives wax from Russia HAMEL, quoted HAMMERFEST, its situation HANDCOCKS (Thomas), mentioned HANS TOWNS endeavour to stop English trade with Russia HANTE (Thomas), mentioned HARWICH, mentioned HASEL (Thomas), mentioned HASSE (John), mentioned, HIS ACCOUNT OF RUSSIAN COINS, ETC. HAUTORY (Thomas), LETTER TO HENRY LANE HAWTREY. See _Hautory_ HAYE (John), mentioned HEILICH ISLANDS, mentioned HELENA, daughter of Ivan Vasilowich, married to Alexander--King of Poland HELENA, wife of Basilius Ivanowich HENRY, Duke of Poland, slain by Tartars HERBERTSTEIN (Von), quoted HERDSON (Henry): See _Hudson_ HERODOTUS, mentioned--quoted HEYWARD (Roland), mentioned HICKMAN (Anthony), mentioned HIRCANIA. See _Shirvan_ HODSON. See _Hudson_ HOLMEHEAD, mentioned HOLMES (Giles), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE ROUTE TO CATHAY HOLST, see _Holstein_ HOLSTEIN, mentioned HOPE ISLAND, mentioned HOPKINS (John), mentioned HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM (William, Lord), mentioned HOWLET (John), master of the Philip and Mary HUDSON (Christopher), Winters at Jeraslave--Supposed relationship to Henry Hudson, the discoverer--LETTER FROM MUSCOVY COMPANY--Appointed Agent HUDSON (Henry), founder of Muscovy Company HUDSON (Henry), the discoverer, notice HULL, mentioned HULSIUS, quoted HUNGARY, invaded by Tartars HUNT (Edward), mentioned HUSIE (Anthony), mentioned HUSSIE (Hubert), mentioned HUSSIE (Laurence), mentioned IAIC (River), mentioned IAROSLAUS, sole ruler of Russia--His sons IAROSLAUS, son of Demetrius--succeeds his brother--His sons ICE, Met with by Burrough--Again met with IGOR succeeds Rurek INCENT (John). HIS ACCOUNT OF THE RECEPTION OF THE FIRST RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO ENGLAND INDIA, Bokharan trade with INGER Sound, mentioned INGRAM (Richard), mentioned INNOCENT IV, sends ambassadors to the Tartars INSTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT ADVENTURERS ON THIRD VOYAGE TO RUSSIA--TO THE MARINERS OF THE EXPEDITION OF 1557--GIVEN TO A. JENKINSON BY MUSCOVY COMPANY, ISTOMA, said to have rounded North Cape IUNA CREOS, mentioned IUG (river), mentioned IVAN VASILOWICH I., succeeds his father--Murders his relatives--His wives and children IVAN VASILOWICH II., succeeds to the Dukedom of Russia--His character-- Visited by Chancellor--Sends an embassy to Poland--HIS LETTER TO EDWARD VI. ENTRUSTED TO CHANCELLOR--mentioned--Sends an embassy to England--His wardrobe--Description of JACKS (Austen), mentioned JENKINSON (Anthony), quoted--Appointed Captain of Primrose--his intended journey to Cathay--HIS LETTER TO HENRY LANE--mentioned--HIS FIRST VOYAGE--Runs aground on Black Tail Sand--Reaches S. Nicholas Bay-- Ascends the Dwina--His interview with the Emperor--Starts for Bokhara-- HIS VOYAGE FROM MOSCO TO BOKHARA--Travels twenty days in the wilderness --INSTRUCTIONS FOR HIS VOYAGE TO PERSIA--Arrives at the court of the Sophy--Offers to buy the raw silk of Persia--A BRIEF NOTICE OF HIS JOURNEY TO RUSSIA JERASLAF, described--mentioned JOHN KALETA, son of Daniel--succeeds him--His sons JOHNSON (Richard), Left at Vologda--HIS ACCOUNT OF BURROUGH'S VOYAGE--To be sent back to England--Accompanies Jenkinson to Bokhara--NOTES ON VARIOUS ROUTES TO CATHAY--Accused of vicious living--A THIRD VOYAGE INTO PERSIA--His negligence JOHNSON (Robert), accompanies Jenkinson to Bokhara JONSON (R.) See _Johnson_ JUDD (Sir Andrew), mentioned JUDD (Richard), mentioned KAIT, mentioned KEDILWIKE (? Hammerfest), mentioned KEGOR, mentioned KEMPE (William), mentioned KENER (Edward), mentioned KETTELWIKE. See _Kedilwike_ KHORASSAN, mentioned KIEV, mentioned KIGA Bay, mentioned KILDINA (island), mentioned KILLINGWORTH (George), appointed commander of the second voyage to Russia-- HIS ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGE TO MUSCOVY (1555)--Leaves part of his company at Vologda--Travels to Moscow--Furnished with a notice of Russian coins --LETTER FROM MUSCOVY COMPANY KIOW. See Kiev KIRBIE (Thomas), mentioned KIRGHIS, mentioned KITCHIN (Alexander), Journeys into Persia--His death KNIGHT (Nicholas), mentioned KNIGHT (Sir W. P.), mentioned KOLA (Peninsula) KOLA (river), visited by S. Burrough--mentioned KOLGUJEV (island), mentioned KRASNOI (Cape). See _Cape Grace_ KREMLIN (The), mentioned LADOGA (lake), mentioned LAMPAS--A great Samoyed market LANE (Henry), accompanies Killingworth to Moscow--LETTER FROM MUSCOVY COMPANY--LETTER FROM THOMAS HAUTORY--LETTER FROM RICHARD GRAY--LETTER FROM THOMAS ALCOCK--LETTER FROM A. JENKINSON--LETTER FROM MUSCOVY COMPANY, (1560)--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN RUSSIA --His lawsuit with Sheray Costromitskey LANGLIE (Thomas), mentioned LAPLAND, Sir Hugh Willoughby winters there--Described LAPPIA. See _Lapland_ LAPS, board the Searchthrift--A vocabulary of their language LASSIE (William), mentioned LAURENCE (William), mentioned LAWRENCE (Nicholas), mentioned LEGNITZ, mentioned LETTO, mentioned LEWFOOT. See _Lofoden_ LEWIKE (Peter), mentioned LIEFLAND, mentioned LIGHT (William), mentioned LINSCHOTTEN'S drawing of Samoyed archers LIQUORICE grown in Crimea LISHBIE (Roger), mentioned LITHUANIANS, defeated by Basilius LIVONIANS attacked by Ivan Vasilowich I.--Also by Ivan Vasilowich II.--A letter concerning their relations to the Moscovites LIVVY quoted LODGE (Thomas), LETTERS FROM A. EDWARDS LODJA (A Russian ship), met with--Engraving of LOFODEN (islands), Described--Mentioned LONG (James), mentioned LOSHAK, a Karelian--His account of Novaya Zemlia and the neighbouring seas LUBECK obtains wax from Russia LUCKE (John), Taken prisoner in Liefland LUMLEY,(Lord), mentioned MAELSTROM (whirlpool) mentioned MAGDALENA BAY, mentioned MAGNUS, duke of Holstein MALESTRAND. See _Maelstrom_ MALLORY (William), mentioned MANDEVILLE, quoted MANGUSLAVE, mentioned MARIE, wife of Ivan Vasilowich MARY, granddaughter of Ivan Vasilowich--maries Magnus, duke of Holstein MARY, Queen of England. Conclusion addressed to her by Chancellor--HER RECEPTION OF THE FIRST AMBASSADOR FROM RUSSIA McCRINDLE (J. W.), his translation of the _Indica_ of Nearchus MEASURES, notice of Russian MECCA, mentioned MEDINSKI SAVOROT (Cape), mentioned MERCHANT ADVENTURERS. See _Muscovy Company_ MERRICK (William), mentioned MERST (John) MOLDAVIA, mentioned MOLTON (Richard), mentioned MONDEVSTOVA OSTROVE (island), mentioned MONTAGUE (Viscount), receives Russian Ambassador MOORE (John), mentioned MORDING (Miles), mentioned MORGAN (Richard), mentioned MORGIOVETS, mentioned MORREN (William), mentioned MOSCO; made capital--Mentioned--Description of MOSCOVIA (Duke of) HIS GENEALOGY, FROM A MS. BY A POLACKE MOSKWA (river), mentioned--blessing of MURZAY. See _Shally Mursey_ MUSCOVY COMPANY, mentioned--Articles for the second voyage--THE OATH ADMINISTERED TO THE MEMBERS--THEIR FIRST RUSSIAN CHARTER--THEIR CHARTER FROM PHILIP AND MARY--THEIR LETTER TO KILLINGWORTH AND OTHERS IN COLMOGRO--Send apprentices abroad--LETTER TO HENRY LANE, CHRIS. HUDSON, AND TH. GLOVER--ANOTHER LETTER TO THE SAME--INSTRUCTIONS TO A. JENKINSON--Privileges granted by Obdolowcan--LETTER FROM A. EDWARDS-- ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE SAME--THEIR GREAT CHARTER FROM ELIZABETH NAGAY TARTARS, mentioned NAPEA (Osep). See _Napeja_ NARAMZAY (river), mentioned NARVE (The), mentioned NARWHAL, a species of whale NASH (Thomas), mentioned NASSADES, A Russian boat NAZE (The), mentioned NAZAVOE, a port on the Caspian NEARCHUS, the account of a whale in his _Indica_ NEOPHYTUS, bishop of Ephesus, envoy to Czar Wladimir NEPEJA (Ossip Gregorjevitsch), ambassador to England--Wrecked in the Bay of Aberdour--Received by Viscount Montague--mentioned--His return to Russia--ACCOUNT OF HIS RETURN VOYAGE TO RUSSIA NEWBORROW (Nicholas), mentioned NEWCASTLE, mentioned NICOLS (Thomas), LETTER FROM A. EDWARDS--mentioned NISNI NOVGOROD, mentioned NORDENSKIOLD (Professor), quoted NORDKEIN. See _North Cape_ NORTH CAPE so named by S. Burrough--Its distance from Hammerfest--Passed by Jenkinson NOVAYA ZEMLYA, mentioned--Visited by Burrough NOVOGROD, mentioned--described OATH, ADMINISTERED TO SIR H. WILLLOUGHBY--TO THE MASTER OF THE SHIP--TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MUSCOVY CO OB (river). BURROUGHS EXPEDITION TO--Loshak's account of the route to it-- Mentioned OBDOLOWCAN King of Shirvan--Grants privileges to Jenkinson--Copy of these privileges--Mentioned--His death OCCA (river), mentioned OCTHER, mentioned OFFLEY (Thomas), mentioned OLECHUS shares Novogrod with children of Prussus OLEGA Slain OLHA marries Igor--Takes name of Helena ONEGA (Lake), mentioned ORFORDNESS, mentioned ORDINANCES, ETC., GIVEN BY CABOT TO WILLOUGHBY ORMUZ, mentioned ORWELL SANDS, mentioned OWIGA (river), mentioned OXUS (river), Its geography and history--mentioned PACIE (Edward), mentioned PAINTER (Thomas), mentioned PALLY (Thomas), mentioned PALMER (Peter), mentioned PATTERSON (Edward), mentioned PECHINCHOW MONASTERY, mentioned PEMBROKE (William, Earl of), mentioned PENTECOST (Cape), mentioned PERMIA, celebrated for Yew PEROVOLOG, mentioned PERSIA, famous for raw silk--Its trade--Description of--ARTICLES SUITABLE FOR TRADE WITH PET (Arthur), seaman on Edward Bonaventure--Appointed master of the Jesus PETSCHORA, mentioned--Reached by Borough PETT (Thomas), mentioned PHEODOR, master of a Russian Lodja PHIBARIE (George), mentioned PHILIP AND MARY of England's letter to Ivan Vasilowich II--CHARTER TO THE MUSCOVY CO.--Annul Pope Alexander's division of unknown lands PHILIP AND MARY (The), mentioned PHILLY (David), mentioned PITSLIGO (Bay of), mentioned PLESCO, mentioned--Described PLETTEBERGIUS defeats Ivan Vasilowich PLINY, quoted POINTER (Richard), mentioned POLAND, overrun by Tartars--At war with Ivan Vasilowich--An Embassy sent by Ivan Vasilowich II--Its ancient treaties with England POLONIA. See _Poland_ POSTESORA. See _Petschora_ POTTER (John), mentioned POZANKA (island), mentioned PRESLA, mentioned PRISE (Edward), mentioned PRUSSUS, said to have given his name to Prussia PURCHAS, quoted RACE (Cape), mentioned RAMUSIUS (B.) HIS ACCOUNT OF THE ROUTE FROM TAURIS TO CAMPION RATCLIFFE. Sir Hugh Willoughby sails from--Stephen Burrough leaves READ (John M.), quoted REVEL celebrated for cloth--Mentioned REYNE (John), mentioned ROBINS (John), Pilot of the Philip and Mary ROBINSON (John), mentioned ROBINSON (John), mentioned ROMANOWICH (Mikita), brother-in-law to Ivan Vasilowich II ROSE (Island), described ROSE (Christopher), mentioned ROSSE (Robert), mentioned ROST (Island), mentioned ROUNDAL (Laurence), mentioned RUBRUQUIS (W. de), quoted RUREK, son of Prussus RUSKI SAVOROT (Cape), mentioned RUSSIA, _passim_--Description of, by Chancellor--ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN--Latitudes of principal places in--DISTANCES BETWEEN CHIEF PLACES RUSSIANS, their discipline--Their Embassies--Their laws--Their punishments --Their religion--Idolatrous Russians--Their houses--Their clothing-- NOTICE AS TO THEIR COINS &C., BY JOHN HASSIE--Their river boats-- Twelfth-day ceremonies--Their priests--Their food--Their drunken habits --Their mode of travelling--Their feasts--DESCRIPTION OF THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS--Baptismal ceremonies--Their marriage ceremonies--Their funeral ceremonies--Their drinks SAINT BERNARD (Cape), mentioned SAINT DUNSTAN'S Island. Bommeloe Island so named by S. Burrough SAINT EDMUND'S POINT, mentioned SAINT GEORGE'S ISLANDS, mentioned SAINT JAMES'S ISLAND, mentioned SAINT JOHN (Cape), mentioned SAINT JOHN'S ISLANDS, mentioned SAINT NICHOLAS (Bay of) discovered by Chancellor--Mentioned SAINT NICHOLAS (town), mentioned--ROUTE AND DISTANCE TO THE CASPIAN SAINT OSYTH, mentioned SAINT PAUL'S ISLANDS, mentioned SAINT PETER'S ISLANDS, mentioned SAMAR (river), mentioned SAMARCAND, mentioned SAMOYEDS. Burrough meets with one--Their archery--Their idols--Their sledges--Giles Fletcher's account of them--Meaning of their name-- Professor Ahlquist's communication respecting them--Engraving of Samoyeds--Mentioned--Their religion--Their customs and habits-- DESCRIBED SAND, a wilderness of, 238 SANDERS (Blase), mentioned SCHLEISSING'S engraving of Samoyeds SCOTSMEN advise Chancellor to return, 58 SCOTS NESS, seen by Burrough SEALSKIN unsaleable SEAPIES, a name for _Little Auks_, which see SEARCHTHRIFT (The). BURROUGHT's EXPEDITION IN--Sails again in 1557 SEDGESWIKE (John), Left at Vologda--Mentioned SELLYZURE, mentioned SERACHICK, mentioned SEREBRENIKOFF, quoted SEVEN ISLANDS. See _St George's Island_ SEYNAM, mentioned SHABRAN, mentioned SHALLY MURZEY, his courtesy--Succeeds Obdolowcan SHMACKI, mentioned SHAW THAMAS. See _Sophy_ SHEPWASH (William), mentioned SHERAY COSTROMITSKEY, his lawsuit with Henry Lane SHIRVAN, description of SIDNEY (Sir H.) His speech about Chancellor SIGISMOND AUGUSTUS, King of Poland. HIS LETTER TO ELIZABETH SILESIA, overrun by Tartars SIMEON, succeeds John Kaleta SIMPSON (Thomas), mentioned SINAUS, son of Prussus SLEDGE TRAVELLING, mentioned SMITH (Edward), mentioned SMITH (James), mentioned SMITH (John), mentioned SMOLENSKO, mentioned SOLINOS (Cape), mentioned SOPHIA PALEOLOGUS, second wife of Ivan Vasilowich--Frees Russia from Tartar yoke--Induces her husband to leave the throne to Gabriel, her son SOPHY OF PERSIA. LETTER FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH--His 140 concubines-- Described--His intended war with the Portuguese--His conferences with A. Edwards--Articles ordered to be sent from England by SORCERY, mentioned SOUTHAM (Thomas). HIS JOURNEY FROM S. NICHOLAS TO NOVOGOROD SOWER (Cape), mentioned SPARKE (John), mentioned--HIS JOURNEY FROM ST NICHOLAS TO NOVOGROD SPITZBERGEN mentioned STAFFORD (John), mentioned STAFFORD (Richard), mentioned STANDISH (Dr.), the Emperor's physician STANFEW. See _Steenfjord_ STANTON (Robert), mentioned STEENFJORD, mentioned STEEL, abundant in Russia STELTSON (Thomas), mentioned STERFIER, mentioned STEVENS (Patrick), mentioned STOCKHOLM, mentioned STONE (Thomas), mentioned STOSLAUS, son of Igor STOWE, quoted STRABO, quoted STRATAGEM (wonderful) employed by Tartars STROWDE (Richard), mentioned STURGEON in Volga SUCCANA (river), mentioned SUTHCOT (John), mentioned SWJATOINOS, mentioned--Confounded with North Cape TAILER (Henry) mentioned TAIMUR PENINSULA, mentioned TALBOT (Lord), mentioned TAMERLANE, carries Bajazet in a cage TARTARS: Make Russians tributaries--overrun Poland and Silesia--Employ marvellous stratagem--March into Hungary--Outwitted by Sophia Palæologus--Crim Tartars at war with Muscovites--Two examined as to their country by Chancellor--Their habits &c. TASHKENT, mentioned TAURIS. See Tebris TEBRIS, mentioned TENERUK. King of Chircassi TEREPOLCHUS, slain TERWILL, mentioned THURLAND (George), mentioned TIFLIS, mentioned TILBURY, mentioned TIMOR SOLTAN a Nomad Prince TOTMA, mentioned; TOWNES (Thomas), mentioned TRI OSTROVE (island) TRIAL by lot--Account of a TRONDHEIN, mentioned TRUOR, son of Prussus TUMEN, mentioned TURCOMANIA described UGORY, celebrated for Yew URGENCE, mentioned USTIUG, mentioned VAIGATZ (islands of), visited by Burrough--revisited--mentioned VARAGERFJORD. See _Doms Haff_ VARAS, mentioned VARDOE, mentioned--Reached by Chancellor VARZINA, mentioned VASILI Pheodorowich, Russian deputy in Lapland VENETIANS. Their trade with Armenia VOLGA (river), mentioned VOLHUSKI (river), mentioned; VOLOGDA, described--Mentioned VULODIMIR. See _Wladimir_ VUSZEVOLODUS, son of Wladimir--His sons WADE (Thomas), appointed master of the Philip and Mary WAGHAM (Griffin), mentioned WALKENDEN (Geofrey), mentioned WALKER (John), mentioned WALKER (Thomas), mentioned WALTER (Thomas), mentioned WALTON (Dunston), mentioned WARDHOUSE. See _Vardoc,_ WATSON (William), mentioned WEB (John), mentioned WEIGHTS, notice of Russian WELFORD (Roger), mentioned WEXEL (river), mentioned WHALE. Burrough's adventure with one--Kinds and numbers found in Arctic Ocean--Account of meeting with a whale in the _Indian_ of Nearchus-- Three hundred taken at a cast WHITE (John), mentioned WHITE (Sir Thomas), mentioned WHITE (William), mentioned WIGGLEWORTH (Nicholas), mentioned WILLIAMS (John), mentioned WILLOGHBY (Gabriel), mentioned--His will WILLOGHBY (Sir Hugh). ORDINANCES, ETC., GIVEN HIM BY SEBASTIAN CABOT-- Appointed commander of Expedition--THE LETTER OF EDWARD VI. ENTRUSTED TO HIM--Died in Lapland--Sails from Ratcliffe--Leaves Greenwich--Passes Blackwall--Reaches Woolwich--Gravesend--Tilbury--Passes the Naze-- Anchors at Orwell Sands--Reaches the Islands of Rost--Loses sight of the Edward Bonaventure in a storm--Discovers Willoughby's Land--Lands and winters at mouth of River Varzina--Sends explorers to find habitations--Perishes at mouth of Varzihai--Object of his voyage--His body found by Russian fishermen--His body sent to England by Killingworth--A witness to the will of Gabriel Willoughby--Portrait-- Mentioned WILLOUGHBY'S LAND, mentioned--Supposed to be Kolgujev Island WILSON (Roger), mentioned WINCHESTER (William, Marquis of), mentioned WITSEN, quoted WLADIMIR slays his brothers--Turns Christian--Adopts the name of Basilius-- His sons WLADIMIR, son of Jaroslaus, ruler of Kiev--Wages war against Constantine-- Concludes a peace--Named Czar WORMS in men's legs WOOD (Richard), mentioned WOODFOORD (Alexander), mentioned WOOLWICH mentioned WRENNE (George), mentioned YARMOUTH, mentioned YAVATE, mentioned YEM (river), mentioned YEMPS, mentioned YENISEI (river) once a hunting ground for whales YORK CITY; mentioned YORKE (Sir John), mentioned ZENAN (Island), mentioned ZENORAS, quoted ZOLATITSA (Harbour), mentioned INDEX TO VOL. IV ABILFADA (I), his epitome--HIS OPINION OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN ALCOCK (T.), mentioned, 11--His death ALDAY (J.), LETTER TO MUSCOVY COMPANY ALEPPO, mentioned ALFERIUS, mentioned ALLIBONE, quoted AMSTERDAM, mentioned ANTWERP, mentioned ARDOK (river), mentioned ARDOVIL, mentioned ARZINA. See _Varzina_ ARMENIA, its trade with Venice ARRASH, mentioned ARUSBURG, mentioned ASTRAKAN, mentioned--Besieged by Turks and Tartars--Attacked by the Crim Tartars ATHERTON (A.), released from prison ATKINS (T.), his death BABYLON famous for dates BACKHOUSE (J.), mentioned BAKU, celebrated for Petroleum--mentioned BALAK (John), LETTER TO GERARD MERCATOR BAMBOROUGH HEAD, mentioned BAMBURCH. See _Bamborough_ BANNISTER (T.)--mentioned--HIS VOYAGE TO PERSIA--Goes to Casbin,--To Tervis--To Shamaki--to Arrash,-Dies BARE BAY, mentioned BARNES (Sir George), mentioned BARWICK. See _Berwick_ BASSENDINE (J.), COMMISSIONED TO SEEK NORTH EAST PASSAGE--Supposed to have been wrecked and massacred BAUTISUS (river), mentioned BEAL OZERA (Lake), mentioned BEARD, a wonderful BEROZOVA USTLA, mentioned BERWICK, mentioned BIGGAT (W.), mentioned BILBIL, mentioned BODAN BELSKOY, a Russian councellor BOGHAR (Bokhara), mentioned BOMBASINE COTTON, HOW GROWN BOMELIUS (Dr.), roasted to death BORIS PHEODOROWICH, the Emperor's brother--HIS LETTER TO LORD BURGHLEY --LETTER FROM WILLIAM CECIL--LETTER TO ELIZABETH--ANOTHER LETTER TO LORD BURGHLEY--Chosen Emperor BOTTEL (sound), mentioned BOWES (Sir Jerome). HIS APPOINTMENT AS AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA--HIS VOYAGE TO RUSSIA--mentioned BRIMSTONE, mentioned BROWNE (R.), mentioned BRUNSWICK, mentioned BURGHLEY (Lord). See (_Cecil_) BURROUGH (Christopher), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE SIXTH VOYAGE TO PERSIA BURROUGH (Stephen), mentioned BURROUGH (W.) Takes letter to Emperor of Russia--Captures Hans Snark, a pirate--INTEROGATORIES ADMINISTERED TO HIM CONCERNING THE NARVE, ETC. --DEDICATION TO ELIZABETH OF HIS MAP OF RUSSIA--The map given to Pet and Jackman--HIS INSTRUCTIONS TO ARTHUR PET AND CHARLES JACKMAN--HIS OPINION AS TO FITTEST TIME TO SAIL FOR ST. NICHOLAS--mentioned BUSORMAN, an apostate BUTLER (B.), mentioned CABOT (Sebastian), mentioned CALCONDYLAS (L.), quoted CALCUTA its trade with Portuguese CAMBALU a supposed city of Cathay--Supposed to be Pekin CANADA, mentioned CARA RECA see River Kara CARAWOOL meaning of the word CARDS playing at, a capital crime CARLISLE (C), mentioned CARPINI (J. de Plano), mentioned CASBIN, mentioned CASPIAN SEA, mentioned--Has no tide CASSEL, mentioned CATHAY, mentioned CAVIARE, mentioned CAZAN, mentioned CECIL (W., Lord Burghley). LETTER FROM BORIS PHEODOROWICH--LETTER TO BORIS PHEODOROWICH--ANOTHER LETTER FROM BORIS PHEODOROWICH CHANCELLOR (N.) appointed purser to Pet CHANCELLOR (Richard), mentioned CHAPMAN (L.), HIS ACCOUNT OF EDWARDS'S FOURTH VOYAGE TO PERSIA--Mentioned --dies CHARE SIBERSKI, Prince of Siberia--taken prisoner CHARTER GRANTED BY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA TO THE MUSCOVY COMPANY--ANOTHER --ADDITIONAL PRIVILEGES--GRANTED BY SHAH OF PERSIA TO THE MUSCOVY COMPANY--GRANTED BY PHEODOR IVANOWICH TO MUSCOVY COMPANY CHERRY (F.), mentioned CHESTER (V.), mentioned CHETERA BABBAS (island), mentioned CHETERA BOUGORI (island), mentioned CHOLMOGORI, mentioned CNOYEN (J.), mentioned COLA, ADVICE TOUCHING A VOYAGE TO--Described COCHE CALIFAY, Lord Keeper of die Great Seal of Persia COLE (H.), mentioned COLGOIEVE (island), mentioned COLMOGRO. See _Cholmogori_ CORONATION CEREMONIES in RUSSIA CURRENTS in Arctic Ocean DANCY (E.), LETTER IN VERSE FROM TURBERVILLE,--Suggestion as to his identity, ibid DEE (Dr. John), INSTRUCTIONS TO ARTHUR PET AND CHARLES JACKMAN--COMMISSION TO BRING HIM TO RUSSIA--LETTER FROM E. GARLAND--Refuses offers of Emperor of Russia DERBENT taken by the Turks--Built by Alexander the Great DICE, play at, a capital crime DOLGOIEVE (island), mentioned DON (river) mentioned DRAKE (N.), his criticism of Turberville DUCKET (G.), mentioned--HIS VOVAGE TO PERSIA--Falls ill at Ardovil--Goes to Casbin--Passes throngh Persepolis--Attacked and taken by Cossacks-- Ascends the Volga--Returns to England,--HIS ACCOUNT OF PERSIA-- mentioned DWINA (river), mentioned DYEING, PARTICULARS OF MODE EMPLOYED IN PERSIA, HOW TO BE ASCERTAINED ECLIPSE of the moon EDWARD VI, grants a charter to the Muscovy Company EDWARDS (A.), LAWRENCE CHAPMAN'S ACCOUNT OF HIS FOURTH VOYAGE TO PERSIA-- Leaves Jeraslave--Arrives at Bilbil--Assisted by Erasbec Sultan--Visits Shamaki--Teveris--Sends Chapman to Gillan--FURTHER NOTES AS TO HIS FOURTH JOURNEY--Takes letter from Elizabeth to Shah Thamas--His death-- mentioned ELIZABETH receives the Russian Ambassadors--HER LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--DEDICATION OF BURROUGH'S MAP OF RUSSIA,-HER LETTER TO SHAH THAMAS--ANOTHER LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--HER LETTER TO PHEODOR IVANOWICH--HER LETTER TO BORIS PHEODOROWICH--LETTER FROM PHEODOR IVANOWICH--LETTER FROM BORIS PHEODOROWICH ELMES (R.), mentioned EMPEROR OF RUSSIA, HIS TITLES--HIS HOUSEHOLD OFFICERS ERASBEC SULTAN assists Arthur Edwards--Sends horsemen after Plumtree FAUCET, (C.) mentioned--Left at Shamaki FAUNA of Russia FITZHERBERT released from prison FLAX, mentioned FLETCHER (Dr. Giles), HIS EMBASSY TO RUSSIA--HIS BOOK, _The Russian Commonwealth_ FOULNESS, mentioned FRANSHAM (R), mentioned FRA PAOLO, his map FREEMAN (W.), mentioned FROBISHER (M.), mentioned FURS sent to Elizabeth by Emperor of Russia--kinds to be had in Russia; GALLANT (Cape), mentioned GARLAND (E.) HIS COMMISSION TO THOMAS SIMKINSON TO BRING DR. DEE TO RUSSIA--LETTER TO DR. DEE WITH OFFERS FROM EMPEROR OF RUSSIA GARLAND (F.), mentioned GARRARD (W.), mentioned GEORGIA, mentioned GERARD (P.), mentioned GIBS (R.), mentioned GILBERT (Sir H.) has a disputation with Anthony Jenkinson GILGAT famous for silk GILLAN, mentioned GLOVER (T,), escapes from burning at Moscow GOLDEN HAG, the fable of the GOLDING (R.), mentioned GOLETTA, mentioned GRAVESEND, mentioned GREENE, (T.), allowed to traffic in Russia GREENLAND, mentioned GREENSELL, (H.), burnt at Onunz GREENWICH, mentioned GROZIN, mentioned GULIELMUS TRIPOLITANUS, mentioned HAKLUYT (R.) LETTER FROM HENRY LANE CONCERNING FIRST EMBASSY FROM RUSSIA TO ELIZABETH--INSTRUCTIONS TO M. HUBBLETHORN, DYER--NOTES TO ARTHUR PET AND CHARLES JACKMAN--LETTER FROM GERARD MERCATOR HALL (C.), mentioned HALY (J.), mentioned HAMEL, quoted HARWICH, mentioned HASTINGS (Lady Mary) asked for as a wife by Ivan Vasilowich II HAWTREY (T.), mentioned HEMP, mentioned HERBERTSTEIN (S.) HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRIES EAST AND NORTH OF RUSSIA HERODOTUS, quoted HEYWARD (R.), mentioned HIDES, mentioned HOLMES (C.), mentioned HONEY, mentioned HORSEY (Jerome) HIS ACCOUNT OF THE CORONATION OF PHEODOR IVANOWICH--Travels from Moscow to England overland--Mentioned HUBBLETHORN (M.), a dyer sent to Persia--INSTRUCTIONS FROM RICHARD HAKLUYT HUDSON (Christopher) takes a letter to the Emperor of Russia HUDSON (J.), mentioned HUGRI (Land of), mentioned HULL, the best market in England for fish HUMBER, mentioned HUNGON, mentioned HUSSIE (L.), mentioned ICE at Astrakan ICKARY, See _Caviare_ IRENE (Empress), mentioned IVAN VASILOWICH II., LETTERS FROM QUEEEN ELIZABETH--Asks Lady Mary Hastings in marriage--His death JACKMAN (Charles), COMMISSION FROM MOSCOVY COMPANY--INSTRUCTIONS FROM WILLIAM BURROUGH--INSTRCCTIONS FROM DR. DEE--NOTES FROM RICHARD HAKLUYT--HIS VOYAGE TO DISCOVER NORTH EAST PASSAGE--HIS FATE JACOB (Dr.), mentioned JAGELLON SOVEREIGNS of Poland--Sigsmuhd II., the last of the JAPAN, mentioned JENKINSON (A), HIS PROCEEDINGS IN RUSSIA--Presents his list of demands to the Emperor--The Emperor's reply--LIST OF COUNTRIES VISITED BY HIM FROM 1546 TO 1572--Mentioned--His OPINION OF THE CURRENTS IN THE ARTIC OCEAN JONSON (Ben), quoted JUDD (Sir A.), mentioned JUG (river), mentioned KARA (gulf), mentioned KARA (river), mentioned KEGOR, mentioned KELLEY (E.), mentioned KENE (island), mentioned KILLINGWORTH (George), mentioned--His wonderful beard KINE, two kinds in Persia KITCHIN (R.), mentioned LAGHON, mentioned LANE (H.), HIS LETTER TO RICHARD HAKLUYT CONCERNING THE FIRST EMBASSY FROM RUSSIA TO ELIZABETH--LETTER FROM RICHARD USCOMBE--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERIES FROM 1533 to 1583 LAPLAND proposed trade with England LAPS, described LEGENDS--The Golden Hag--Mute nations--Men that die and revive yearly-- Mysterious instruments--Monstrous nations--Human fish--Of Yaks Olgush LIND (T.), mentioned LITHUANIA, mentioned--Its conquest LOCK (M.), agent of Muscovy Company LOFODEN, mentioned LOWFOOT, See _Lofoden_ MAGNETIC POLE, Mercator's views MALTA, Turks at MARSH (A.), mentioned MARSH (J.), mentioned MECCA, mentioned MEKITA ROMANOWICH, mentioned MERCATOR (Gerard), mentioned--LETTER TO R. HAKLUYT TOUCHING NORTH EAST PASSAGE--LETTER FROM K. BALAK, HIS OPINION OF ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE NORTH EAST MERICK (J.), EXTRACT FROM LETTER TO MUSCOVY COMPANY CONCERNING DEATH OF PHEODOR IVANOWICH MEROSRO (gulf), mentioned METELLUS (J.), HIS OPINION OF ENGLISH DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTH EAST MICA, mentioned MOILE (Cape), mentioned MOORE (J.), his death MOORE (Sir T.), mentioned MOORE SOUND, mentioned MORZOVETS (Bay), mentioned MOSCOW, mentioned--Burnt by the Crim Tartars--Its description and history MUSCOVY COMPANY CHARTER GRANTED BY EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--Their house in Seething Lane--FURTHER CHARTER FROM THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--CHARTER FROM THE SHAH OF PERSIA--THEIR LETTER TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--LETTER FROM JAMES ALDAY--COMMISSION TO ARTHUR PET AND CHARLES JACKMAN FOR DISCOVERY OF CATHAY--INSTRUCTIONS TO THE RUSSIA FLEET (1582)--THEIR PETITION TO THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--CHARTER FROM PHEODOR IVANOWICH--LETTER FROM JOHN MERICK MUTE NATIONS--mentioned NAPEA, mentioned NARAMZAY (river), mentioned NARVE, mentioned--REASONS AGAINST TRADE TO--Its conquest NASE, mentioned NAUGHTON (J.), mentioned NEWCASTLE, mentioned NEW FRANCE, mentioned NEWNOX, mentioned NEZAVOO, mentioned NIJNI NOVGOROD, mentioned NORDENSKIOLD, quoted NORTH CAPE, mentioned--Doubled by Pet NORTH EAST PASSAGE, COMMISSION TO BASSENDISE AND OTHERS TO SEEK--LETTER FROM GERARD MERCATOR--PET AND JACKMAN'S EXPEDITION--HENRY LANE'S ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERIES FROM 1533 to 1583 NOVAJA ZEMLIA, mentioned NOVOGROD, mentioned--Its description and history OATLANDS, royal residence OB (river), navigable--Mentioned OECHARDES (river), mentioned--Supposed to be Hoang-Ho ORFORDNESS, mentioned ORMUZ, Portuguese at ORTELIUS (A.), mentioned OSELLA (river), mentioned OSEP NAPEA, mentioned OSMAN BASHA, mentioned OSORIUS, mentioned OTWER, mentioned OVEAK, mentioned PACHYMERIUS, quoted PARKER (M.) archbishop of Canterbury--LETTER IN VERSE FROM TORBEBVILLE PAULUS VENETUS. See _fra Paolo_ PECHINGO, mentioned PERASLAV, mentioned PERAVOLOK, mentioned PERMIA, its conquest PERMIANS, described PERSIANS, their bad faith--THEIR WRITING--How they treat strangers--Their religion--Their power--Their opinion of Christ--Their spices--Their money--Their learning--Their laws--Their various sects--Their Lent-- Their saints and pilgrimages--Their cleanliness--Their oaths--Their messengers--Rites of marriage--Baptism--Their houses--Their manner of eating--Their slaves--sale of their women PET (Arthur), COMMISSION FROM MUSCOVY COMPANY--INSTRUCTIONS FROM WILLIAM BURROGH--INSTRUCTIONS FROM DR. DEE--NOTES FROM RICHARD HAKLUYT --Mentioned--HIS VOYAGE TO DISCOVER NORTH EAST PASSAGE PETITION FROM MOSCOVY COMPANY TO EMPEROR OF RUSSIA PETROLEUM, natural springs at Baku PETSCHORA (district), its conquest PETSCHORA (gulf) PETSCHORA (river) PHENOMENON, (lunar) PHEODOR ANDREWICH PHISEMSKY, ambassador to England PHEODOR IVANOWICH, CROWNED EMPEROR OF RUSSIA--HIS CHARTER TO THE MUSCOVY COMPANY--LETTER TO ELIZABETH--ACCOUNT OF HIS DEATH PHILIP AND MARY, mentioned PINGLE (R.), mentioned--Left at Shamaki PLAGUE, the great PLUMTREE (L.), HIS ACCOUNT OF THE FIFTH VOYAGE TO PERSIA POGORELLA (T.), ambassador from Russia to Elizabeth POLAND, King of--becomes elective sovereign POLES, described POLOTZKO, mentioned PORTUGUESE, their trade with Calcutta PRINGLE (R.), mentioned PROCTOR (N.), mentioned PURCHAS, quoted QUINSAY, a supposed city of Cathay--Supposed to be Canton--mentioned RAMUSIUS (J.B.), HIS NOTE OF ABILFADA ISHMAEL'S VIEWS CONCERNING THE ARCTIC OCEAN--HIS OPINION OF THE ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE NORTH EAST RANDOLPH (T.), ACCOUNT OF HIS EMBASSY TO RUSSIA--HIS COMMISSION TO BASSENDINE--Mentioned RATCLIFF, mentioned REVEL, mentioned RIBAZUBA, See _Walrus_ RICARDS (Jane), mentioned ROMESAL (sound), mentioned ROSE ISLAND, mentioned ROWLEY (W.), escapes from fire at Mosco RUSSIA, LATITUDE OF PLACES--DESCRIBED--ITS PROVINCES--ITS SOIL AND CLIMATE --Its rivers--Its Fauna--ITS CHIEF CITIES RUSSIANS, their mode of building--THEIR MILITARY ORGANIZATION--THEIR MANNER OF LEVYING TROOPS--THEIR DISCIPLINE--THEIR CONQUESTS--THEIR HABITS AND CUSTOMS--Their physical appearance--Their diet--Their powers of endurance--Dress of nobles--Of gentlemen--Of noble women--Of the lower classes SAINT MARGARET'S (Kent), mentioned SAINT NICHOLAS, mentioned SALT, mentioned SALTPETER, mentioned SAMOYEDS, meaning of the name SAMOYEDS, described SANDERSON (W.), mentioned SAVIN (A.), Ambassador to England SAXO GRAMMATICUS, quoted SEALS, mode of hunting SEARCHTHRIFT (the), mentioned SHAH OF PERSIA, see _Shah Thamas_ SHAH THAMAS, his charter to the Muscovy Company--Sends a messenger to Bannister--Described--Letter from Elizabeth SHALKAN (Andrew), Chancellor of Russia--befriends the Dutch SHAMAKI, mentioned SIBERIA, supposed to be a city--Its conquest SIGISMUND II, adds Livonia to Poland--Mentioned SILK, produced in Armenia SILK-WORMS, mentioned SILVESTER (D.), mentioned SIMKINSON (Th.), COMMISSION FROM E. GARLAND TO BRING DR. DEE TO RUSSIA SKINK, meaning of word SLEDGES, in Lapland SLOVODA, a palace in Russia SLUDE, see _Mica_ SLURE SOUND, mentioned SMITH (Hugh), HIS ACCOUNT OF PET AND JACKSON'S EXPEDITION SMOLENSCO, mentioned SODOM, stated to be Oveak SOPHY, meaning of the title--His harem SOUTHAM (T.), mentioned--Burnt at Moscow SPARK (J.), mentioned SPENCER (E.), LETTER IN VERSE FROM TURBERVlLLE STAMFORD--mentioned STEPHEN BATHORE, establishes the Cossack Militia STRABO, quoted TABIN (peninsula), mentioned TAILBOIS (M.), mentioned TALLOW, mentioned TANAIS. See _Don_ TANE, mentioned TAR, mentioned TARTARS attack Bannister--DESCRIBED--Exact homage from Russians--Their manner of fighting--Their subtilty--Their religion--Their nobility-- Their diet--Their dwellings--Their different tribes--Their rules of life TETUSHAGOROD, mentioned TEVERIS, mentioned--Capital of Persia TILBURY, mentioned TINMOUTH. See _Tynemouth_ TRAIN OIL, mentioned TREASON, its punishment in Russia TRIAL BY LOT, mentioned TRIPOLI, a town of Syria TRONDEN. See _Trondheim_ TRONDHEIM, mentioned TSARITSNA, mentioned TURBERVIILE (G.), his letter in verse--Criticism of by Drake TURKS, their malice TURNBULL (W.) mentioned TWERDICO (S.), Ambassador from Russia to Elizabeth TYNEMOUTH, mentioned ULTA SOUND, mentioned USCOMBE (R.), HIS LETTER TO HENRY LANE USTIUG, mentioned VAIGATZ (island), mentioned VAIGATZ (straits), mentioned VARDOE, mentioned VARZINA, (river), mentioned VEDAGOBA, mentioned VENICE, its trade with Armenial--With London--With Turkey VEROVE OSTROV, mentioned VOLGA (river), mentioned.--Blessing of the river VOLOGDA, mentioned WALE (J. de), a famous Dutch merchant WALRUS mentioned WARDHOUSE, See _Vardoe_ WAX, mentioned WHALES, mentioned--Information as to fitting out a ship for fishery WILLES (R.), His notes concerning Arthur Edwards's fourth journey WILLOUGHBY (Sir H.), mentioned--his body found by Russian fishermen--Sent to England WILLOUGHBY'S LAND mentioned WINCLE (W.), mentioned--Wrecked WITTINGAU, in Bohemia WOODCOCK (J.), mentioned YAKS OLGUSH, mentioned YARMOUTH mentioned YOURT, burnt ZERE (island), mentioned CONTENTS OF VOLS; II., III, & IV. LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS. IN VOL. II. _None_. IN VOL. III. 1. PORTRAIT of SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY, FROM THE PICTURE AT GREENWICH. Frontispiece 2. RUSSIAN, LODJA, after G. DE VEER--Facsimile. Facing page 121 3. SAMOYED ARCHERS, after LINSCHOTEN--Facsimile. Facing page 130 4. SAMOYED SLEDGE AND IDOLS, from AN OLD DUTCH ENGRAVING--Facsimile Facing page 131 5. SAMOYEDS, from SCHLEISSING--Facsimile Facing page 132 IN VOL. IV. 1. MAP OF RUSSIA. Frontispiece TABLE OF CONTENTS. VOL. II. I. An Epistle from Yuo of Narbona, containing the confession of an Englishman touching the Tartars; recorded by Mathew Paris. II. Libellus Joannis de Piano Carpini Prologus Chap. 1 _De Terra_ Tartarorum. 2 De Formis Tanarorom, de Conjogio, etc. 3 De Cultu et Ceremoniis 4 De Consuetndinibus et Cibis 5 De ipsorum Imperio 6 Qualiter se habent in Præliis 7 De terris quas snbjugarunt 8 Quomodo bello occuratur Tartaris III. The long and wonderful Voyage of Friar John Se. Plano Carpini, sent Ambassadour by Pope Innocentius the IIII. An. Do. 1246, to the great Can of Tartaria. The first sending of Certaine Friers unto the Tartars from the 32. booke of Vincentius Beluicensis his Speculum Historiale, beginning at the second chapter 43 Chap. 3 Of the situation of the Tartars land 4 Of their forme, habite, and manner of living 5 Of their manners both good and bad 6 Of their lawes and customes 7 Of their superstitious traditions 8 Of the beginning of their Empire 9 Of the mutuall victories betweene them and the people of Kythay 10 Of their warre against India 11 How being repelled by monstrous men shapen like dogs, they overcame the people of Burithabeth 12 How they had the repulse at the Caspian Mountaynes 13 Of the Statutes of Chingis Cham, of his death, of his sonnes etc. 14 Of the authoritie of the Emperour and of his dukes 15 Of the election of Emperour Occoday, and of the Expedition of Duke Bathy 16 Of the Expedition of Duke Cyrpodan 17 How the Tartars behave themselves in warre 18 How they may be resisted 19 Of the journey of Frier John unto the first guard of the Tartars 20 How he and his company were at the first received of the Tartars 21 How they were received at the court of Corrensa 22 How we were received at the court of Bathy 23 How departing from Bathy, they passed through the land of Comania, and of the Kangittae 24 How they came unto the first court of the new Emperor 25 Howe they came unto Cuyne, himselfe 26 How Cuyne enterteined the Friers 27 How he was exalted to his Empire 28 Of his age and demeanour and of his seale 29 Of the admission of the Friers unto the Emperour 30 Of the place where the Emperour and his mother tooke their leaves one of another 31 How the friers gave and received letters 32 How they were licensed to depart 33 How they returned homewards IV. The Journal of Frier William Rubruquis unto the East parts of the World. An. Dom. 1253. Chap. 1 Introduction 2 Of the Tartars and of their houses 3 Of their beds and of their drinking pots 4 Of their drinkes 5 Of their foode 6 How they make their drinke called Cosmos 7 Of the beastes which they eat, of their garments, and of their manner of hunting 8 Of the fashion of cutting their haire, and of the attire of their women 9 Of the Tartarian Women and their marriages 10 Of their execution of justice and judgment, and of their deaths and burials 11 Of our first entrance among the Tartars 12 Of the court of Scacatai, etc. 13 Howe the Alanians came unto us 14 Of a Saracen which said he would be baptized, etc. 15 Of our afflictions which we sustained, etc. 16 Of the dominion of Sartach 17 Of the court of Sartach 18 How they were given in charge to goe unto Baatu, etc. 19 Howe Sartach, etc., doe reverence unto Christians 20 Of the Russians, Hungarians, and Alanians, etc. 21 Of the court of Baatu, etc. 22 Of our journey towards the court of Mangu Can 23 Of the river of Iagac, and of divers regions 24 Of the miseries which we sustained in our journey 25 How Ban was put to death; and concerning the habitation of the Dutch men 26 How the Nestorians, etc., are joined together 27 Of their temples and idols, etc. 28 Of divers and sundry nations; and of certaine people which were wont to eate their owne parents VOL. III. I. A briefe treatise of the great Duke of Moscovia, his genealogie, being taken out of the Moscovites manuscript chronicles, written by a Polacke II. Ordinances, instructions, etc., for the intended voyage for Cathay, compiled by Sebastian Cabota, Esquier, in the yere of our Lord God 1553 III. Copy of the letters which Edward the Sixt sent to the kings, etc., inhabiting the north east parts of the worlde, in the yeere of Christ 1553 IV. Copy of a note found written in the Speranza, which wintered in Lappia, where Sir Hugh Willoughby and all his companie died, being frozen to death. Anno 1,553 Sub-section I. The names of the ships, their captaines, and mariners Sub-section II. The Juramentum, or othe, ministred to the captaine Sub-section III. The othe ministred to the maister of the ship V. The booke of the great and Mighty Emperor of Russia, drawen by Richard Chancelour VI. The testimonie of M. Richard Eden [concerning Clement Adams's NAVIGATION BY THE NORTH EAST] VII. The newe Navigation and discoverie of the kingdome of Moscovia by the North East written in Latine by Clement Adams Sub-section I. Of Moscovie, which is also called Russia Sub-section II. Of Mosco, the chiefe citie of the kingdome, and of the Emperour thereof Sub-section III. Of the discipline of warre among the Russes Sub-section IV. Of the ambassadours of the Emperour of Moscovie Sub-section V. Novogorode Sub-section VI. Jeraslave Sub-section VII. Vologda Sub-section VIII. Plesco Sub-section IX. Colmogro Sub-section X. Of Controversies in lawe and how they are ended Sub-section XI Of punishments upon thieves Sub-section XII. Of their religion Sub-section XIII. Of the Moscovites that are idolators, dwelling neere to Tartaria Sub-section XIV. Of the forme of their private houses, and of the apparel of the people Sub-section XV. The conclusion to Queen Marie VIII. The copie of the Duke of Moscovie and Emperour of Russia, his letters sent to King Edward the Sixt IX. The letters of King Philip and Queenie Marie to Ivan Vasilowich the Emperour of Russia X. Articles for the commission of the merchants of this country residant in Russia and at the Wardhouse, for the second voyage, 1555 Sub-section I. The othe ministred to the servants of the fellowship XI. The letter of M. George Killingworth and...touching their enterteinement in their second voyage anno 1555 Addendum. Notice of coines, weights and measures used in Russia written by John Hasse, in the yeere 1554. XII. A copie of the first privileges graunted by the Emperour of Russia to the English Marchants, 1556. XIII. The charter of the Marchants of Russia granted upon the discoverie of the saide countrey by King Philip and Queene Marie XIV. Certaine instructions delivered in the third voyage for Russia. Anno 1556 XV. The navigation and discoverie toward the river of Ob. made by Master Steven Burrough in the yere 1556 XVI. Certaine notes unperfectly written by Richard Johnson, servant to Master Richard Chancelour, which was in the discoverie of Vaigatz, 1556 XVII. A discourse of the honorable receiving into England of the first ambassador from the Emperor of Russa in the yere of Christ, 1556, registred by Master John Incent, protonotarie XVIII. The voyage of M. Stephen Burrough an. 1557, which was sent to seeke the Bona Esperanza, the Bona Confidentia, and the Philip and Mary, which were not heard of the yeere before XIX. Instructions given to the masters and mariners passing this yeere 1577, toward the bay of St. Nicholas in Russia XX. A letter of the company of the marchants adventurers to Russia, unto George Killingworth, Richard, Giay, and Henry Lane XXI. A letter of Master Thomas Hawtrey to the Worshipfull Master Henrie Lane (1557) XXII. A letter of Master Richard Gray to Master Henric Lane (1558) XXIII. A letter of Thomas Alcock to Richard Gray and Henrie Lane (1558) XXIV. A letter of Master Anthonie Jenkinson to Master Henrie Lane (1559) XXV. A letter of the Muscovie Compaide to Henry Lane, Christopher Hudson, and Thomas Glover (1560) XXVI. Another letter to the foresaid parties (1560) XXVII. The manner of Justice by lots in Russia written by Master Henrie Lane. XXVIII. The first voyage made by Master Anthonie Jenkinson toward the land of Russia XXIX. The voyage wherein Osep Napea the Moscovite Ambassadour returned home into his countrey.... and a large description of the maners of the countrey Sub-section I. Of the Emperour Sub-section II. Of their religious men Sub-section III. Of their baptisme Sub-section IV. Of their matrimonie Sub-section V. Of their buriall Sub-section VI. The names of certaine sortes of drinkes used in Russia XXX. The voyage of Master Anthony Jenkinson to the citie of Boghar (1558). written by himselfe Addendum (_a_). The latitudes of certaine places of Russia Addendum (_b_). The way from Astrakan to Cathaya Addendum (_c_). Another way more sure to traveile Addendum (_d_). Another route Addendum (_e_). Another way neere the sea coast Addendum (_f_). Certaine countries of the Samoeds Addendum (_g_). The way from Tanris to Campion in Cathay XXXL A letter of Sigismond king of Polonia to Elizabeth XXXII. The queenes letters to the Emperour of Russia (156l) XXXIII. The queenes letters to the great Sophy of Persia XXXIV. A remembrance of the company of merchants trading into Russia to Anthony Jenkinson at his departure for Persia XXXV. A compendious declaration of the journey of A. Jenkinson from London into the land of Persia anno 1561. XXXVL. The second voyage into Persia, made by Thomas Alcock in anno 1563. written by Richard Cheinie. The third voyage into Persia by Richard Johnson, Alexander Kitchin and Arthur Edwards. 37. A letter of Arthur Edwards to Thomas 38. Another letter of Arthur Edwards to Sir Thomas Lodge, touching the successe of Richard Johnson in the third voyage into Persia 39. A letter of Arthur Edwards to the (Muscovy) companie, showing his accesse unto the Emperour of Persia 40. Another letter of Arthur Edwards written on his return out of Persia Sub-section I. The wares which the Shaugh has written to be sent him Sub-section II. Distances of certain places in Russia Sub-section III. The way and distances from St. Nicholas to the Caspian Sea XLL The way by water from Colmogro to Novogrod, by Thomas Southam XLll. An act for the corporation of Merchants adventurers, Anno. 1566 XLIII. A very briefe remembrance of a voyage made by Anthony Jenkinson from London, to Moscovia in the yeere 1566 VOL. IV. I. The priviledges graunted by the Emperour of Russia to the English merchants of that company. 1567 II. A letter of Henrie Lane to Richard Hakluit concerning the first ambassage from Russia to Queene Eizabeth. III. A letter of Queene Elizabeth to the Emperour of Russia IV. The ambassage of Thomas Randolfe to the Emperour of Russia V. A copie of the priviledges granted by the Emperor of Russia to the English merchants 1569 VI. Other special grants by his Majesty VII. A commission onto James Bassendine, James Woodcock, and Richard Browne in a voyage of discovery to the eastwards Certaine letters in verse by Master George Turberville 8. To his speciall friend Master Edward Dancie 9. To Spencer 10. To Parker XI. The fourth voyage into Persia made by Arthur Edwards, written by Lawrence Chapman XII. Notes concerning this fourth voyage into Persia, gathered by Richard Willes from the mouth of Arthur Edwards Sub-section I. The articles of the second priviledge, which are to be annexed unto the former priviledge Sub-section II. The maner how the Christians become Busormen, and forsake their religion Sub-section III. Of the tree which beareth Bombasin cotton, or Gossampine Sub-section IV. The writing of the Persians XIII. The fift voyage into Persia made by Thomas Bannister and Geoffrey Ducket, written by P. I. from the mouth of Lionel Plumtree XIV. Further observations concerning the state of Persia, written by Geoffrey Ducket Sub-section I. Of the name of the Sophy of Persia, and why he is called the Shaugh Sub-section II. Of the religion of the Persians XV. The copy of a letter to the Emperour of Russia by Christopher Hodsdon and William Burrough, 1570 XVI. A letter of Richard Uscombe to Henrie Lane, touching the burning of the citie of Mosco by the Crimme Tartar XVII. A note of the proceeding of Anthonie Jenkinson from July 1571 to July 1572 Addendum. The names of such countries as Anthony Jenkinson travelled unto from 1546 to 1572 XVIII. A letter of James Alday to Michael Lock touching a trade to be established in Lappia XIX. A request of an honest merchant to be directed in the course of killing the whale XX. The answer thereto XXI. The deposition of William Burrough to certaine interrogations ministred unto him concerning the Narve, Kegor, etc., to what king or prince they do appertaine and are subject Addendum (_a_). Certaine reasons to disswade the use of a trade to the Narve aforesaide, by way through Sweden Addendum (_b_). A remembrance of advise given to the merchants touching a voyage for Cola XXII. Dedicatorie Epistle to Queen Elizabeth, written by Master William Burrough and annexed unto his mappe of Russia XXIII. The Queene's letter to Shaugh Thamas (1579) XXIV. Advertisements and reports of the sixth voyage into Persia and Media, gathered out of sundrie letters written by Christopher Burrough, and sent to his uncle Master William Burrough Addendum (_a_). Observations of the latitudes and meridian altitudes of divers places in Russia. Anno 1581 Addendum (_b_). Certaine directions given by M. Richard Hakluit to M. Morgan Hubblethorne, dier, sent into Persia 1579 XXV. Commission given by the company of English merchants to Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman for a voyage by them to be made for discovery of Cathay 1580 Sub-section I. Instructions and notes to be observed in the purposed voyage, given by M. William Burrough Sub-section II. Certaine briefe advises given by Master Dee to Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman XXVI. Notes in writing that were given by W. Richard Hakluyt to Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman. Sub-section I. What respect of islands is to be had and why Sub-section II. Respect of havens and harborrowes Sub-section III. Respect of fish and certaine other things Sub-section IV. The islands to be noted with their commodities and wants Sub-section V. If a straight be found, what is to be done, and what great importance it may be of Sub-section VI. Which way the savage may bee made able to purchase our cloth and other their wants Sub-section VII. Not to venture the losse of any one man Sub-section VIII. To bring home besides merchandize certaine trifles Sub-section IX. To note their (foreign nations) force by sea and by land Sub-section X. Things to be marked to make conjectures by Sub-sections XI. to XXXVIII. Things to be caried with you whereof more or lesse is to bee caried for a shew of our commodities to be made XXVII. A letter of Gerardus Mercator to Richard Hakluyt, touching the intended discovery of the North East Passage. XXVIII. The discoverie made by Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman of the Northeast parts beyond the island of Vaigatz, written by Hugh Smith XXIX. Instructions made by the company of English merchants for a voyage to S. Nicholas in Russia, (1582) Sub-section I. The opinion of Master W. Burrough as to fittest time for the departure towards St. Nicholas in Russia XXX. A copie of the commission given to Sir Jerome Bowes, authorizing him her majesties ambassadour unto the Emperour of Russia XXXI. A letter from Her Highnesse to the Great Duke of Russia XXXII. A briefe discourse of the voyage of Sir Jerome Bowes in the yeere 1583 Addendum. The maner of the preferring of suites in Russia XXXIII. A letter of Henrie Lane conteining a briefe discourse of that which passed in the North East Discovery, for the space of 33 yeres XXXIV. The most solemne and magnificent coronation of Pheodor Ivanowich in the yeere 1584, seene by Jerome Horsey, where with is also joined his journey overland from Mosco to Emden XXXV. Pheodor Ivanowich, the new Emperors letter of privilege to the English merchants, 1586 XXXVI. The ambassage of M. Giles Fletcher to the Emperor of Russia, 1588 XXXVII. The booke of the Russe Common-Wealth by Giles Fletcher Section I. The description of the countrey of Russia, with the bredth, length, and names of the shires Section II. Of the soile and climate Section III. The native commodities of the countrey Section IV. The chiefe cities of Russia Section V. Of the maner of crowning or inauguration of the Russe Emperours Section VI. The style where with he is invested at his coronation Section VII. Their forces for the wars with their chief officers and their salaries Section VIII. Of their mustering and levying of forces, maner of armour, etc. Section IX. Of their marching, charging and other martial discipline. Section X. Of their colonies and mamtainmgof their conquests Section XI. Of the Tartars and other borderers to the country of Russia, etc. Section XII. Of the Permians, Samoites, and Lappes Sub-section (_a_). The description of the regions, people and rivers lying north and east from Moscovia, likewise the description of other countreys and regions, even unto the empire of the great Can of Cathay, taken out of Sigismundus ab Herbertstein Sub-section (_b_). A note gathered by John Baptista Ramusius, out of Abilfada Ishmael, concerning the trending of the ocean sea from China northward Section XIII. The Emperor's private or houshold officers Section XIV. Of the private behaviour or qualitie of the Russe people XXXVIII. The Lord Boris Pheodorowich his letter to William Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England XXXIX. The queenes majesties letter to Pheodor Ivanowich (1591) XL. The queenes majesties letters to Boris Pheodorowich XLI. Letter from Lord Burghley to Boris Pheodorowich XLII. Letter from Pheodor Ivanowich to Queen Elizabeth XLIII. Letter from Boris Pheodorowich to Queen Elizabeth XLIV. Letter from Boris Pheodorowich to Lord Burghley XLV. A letter given to the English merchants by Pheodor Ivanowich XLVI. M. Garlands commission unto Thomas Simkinson for the bringing of M. John Dee to the Emperour of Russia his court XLVII. A letter from Edward Carland to M. John Dee for the same purpose XLVIII. A branch of a letter from M. John Merick, touching the death of Pheodor Ivanowich XLIX. A letter from John Balak to Gerardus Mercator, concerning the North East L. A testimonie of the north eastern discoverie made by the English, by John Baptista Ramusius LI. The testimonie of Gerardus Metcator, touching the same. LII. The testimonie of Joannes Metellus Sequanus, concerning the same. Indices. Tables of Contents. 
7900	----	** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abbreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are placed at a convenient point. ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques AND Discoveries OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER. AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S. VOL. V. CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE. Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE. A Catalogue of the great Masters of the Order of the Dutch knights, commonly called the Hospitalaries of Ierusalem: and what great exploites euery of the saide Masters hath atchieued either in conquering the land of Prussia, or in taming and subduing the Infidels, or els in keeping them vnder their obedience and subiection, taken out of Munster. The order of the Dutch knights had their first original at Ierusalem in the yere of our Lorde 1190. within the Hospitall of the blessed Virgine: and the first Master of the saide order was called Henrie of Walpot, vnder whome many good things, and much wealth and riches were throughout all Germanie and Italie procured vnto the order: and the saide Hospitall was remoued from Ierusalem vnto Ptolemais, otherwise called Acon, and the foresaid Order grew and mightily increased, whereof I will hereafter discourse more at large in my Treatise of Syria. Henrie of Walpot deceased in the yeere of Christ 1200. The 2. Master was Otto of Kerpen, and he continued Master of the Order for the space of sixe yeeres. The 3. was Hermannus Bart a godly and deuout person, who deceased in the yeere 1210. being interred at Acon, as his predecessors were. The 4. was Hermannus de Saltza, who thirtie yeeres together gouerned the saide Order, and managed the first expedition of warre against the Infidels of Prussia, and ordained another Master also in Prussia to bee his Deputie in the same region. [Sidenote: Ensiferi fratres.] In the yeere 1239. the knights of the sword, who trauailed into Liuonia to conuert the inhabitants thereof vnto Christ, seeing they were not of sufficient force to performe that enterprise, and that their enemies increased on all sides, they vnited themselues vnto the famous Order of the Dutch knights in Prussia, that their worthie attempt might bee defended and promoted by the aide and assistance of the saide Dutch knights. [Sidenote: The first war moued against the Prussian infidels, anno dom. 1239.] At the very same time the ensigne of the crosse was exalted throughout all Germanie against the Prussians, and a great armie of souldiers was gathered together, the Burgraue of Meidenburg being generall of the armie, who combining themselues vnto the Dutch knights, ioyned battell with the Infidels, and slew about fiue hundred Gentiles, who beforetime had made horrible inuasions and in-roades into the dominions of Christians wasting all with fire and sword, but especially the land of Colm, and Lubonia, which were the Prouinces of Conradus Duke of Massouia. Nowe, the foresaide knights hauing made so huge a slaughter, built the castle of Reden, betweene Pomerania and the land of Colm, and so by degrees they gotte footing in the lande, and daylie erected more castles, as namely, Crutzburg, Wissenburg, Resil, Bartenstein, Brunsburg, and Heilsburg, and furnished them all with garrisons. The fift Master of the Order was Conradus Landgrauius, the brother of Lodouick, which was husband vnto Ladie Elizabeth. This, Conradus, by his fathers inheritance, gaue great riches and possessions vnto the Order, and caused Ladie Elizabeth to be interred at Marpurg, within the religious house of his saide Order. Vnder the gouernment of this Master, Acon in the lande of Palestina was subdued vnto the Saracens. Moreouer, in the yeere 1254. there was another great armie of Souldiers prepared against Prussia, by the Princes of Germanie. For Octacer, alias Odoacer king of Bohemia, Otto Marques of Brandeburg, the Duke of Austria, the Marques of Morauia, the Bishops of Colen and of Olmutz came marching on with great strength of their Nobles and common Souldiers, and inuading the lande of Prussia in the Winter season, they constrained the inhabitants thereof to receiue the Christian faith, and to become obedient vnto the knights. After which exploite, by the aduise and assistance of king Odoacer, there was a castle built vpon a certaine hill of Samogitia, which immediately after grewe to be a great citie, being at this day the seate of the Prince of Prussia: and it was called by Odoacer Kunigsburg, that is to say, Kings Mount, or Mount royall, being finished in the yeere 1255. Out of this fort, the knights did bridle and restraine the furie of the Infidels on all sides, and compelled them to obedience. The sixt Master was called Boppo ab Osterna, vnder whom the citie of Kunigsberg was built. [Sidenote: The Prussians abandon Christianitie.] At the very same instant the knights beeing occupied about the warre of Curland, the Prussians conspiring together, and abandoning the Christian faith, in furious maner armed themselues against the Christian, defaced and burnt down Churches, slew Priests, and to the vtmost of their abilitie, banished all faithful people. The report of which misdemeanour being published throughout all Germanie, an huge armie was leuied and sent for the defence and succour of the knights, which marching into the land of Natan, made many slaughters, and through the inconstancie of fortune sometimes woonne, and sometimes lost the victorie. Also the Infidels besieged these three castles, namely, Barstenstein, Crutzberg and Kunigsberg, and brought extreame famine vpon the Christians contained within the saide fortes. Againe, in the yeere of our Lord 1262. the Earle of Iuliers, with other Princes and great chiualrie came downe, and giuing charge vpon the Prussians, put three thousand of them to the edge of the sworde. Afterward the Prussians banding themselues together, were determined to spoile the castle of Kunigsberg, but their confederacie being disclosed, they had the repulse. And when the knightes had preuailed against them, they laide in pledges, and yet for all that were not afraid to breake their fidelitie. For vpon a certaine time, after they had giuen diuers pledges, they slewe two noble knights of the Order, and so by that meanes incensed the principall of the saide order, insomuch that they caused two paire of gallons to be set vp besides the castle, and thirtie of the Prussians pledges to be hanged therupon. Which seueritie so vexed and prouoked the Prussians, that in reuenge of the said iniury, they renewed bloody and cruel warres, slew many Christians, yea, and put 40. knights with the master of the Order, and the Marshal, vnto the edge of the sword. There was at the same instant in Pomerania a Duke called Suandepolcus, professing the Christian faith, but being ioyned in league with the Prussians, he indeuoured for many yeeres, not onely to expell the knights, but all Christians whatsoeuer out of the lande of Prussia, in which warre the foresaide knights of the Order suffered many abuses. For they lost almost all their castles, and a great number of themselues also were slaine. This Suandepolcus put in practise many lewde attempts against religion. For albeit he was baptised, he did more mischiefe then the very Infidels themselues, vntill such time as the knights being assisted by the Princes of Germanie, brought the saide Duke and the Prussians also into such straights, that (maugre their heads) they were constrained to sue for peace. Afterward Swandepolcus lying at the point of death, admonished his sonnes that they should not doe any iniurie vnto the knights of the order, affirming that himselfe neuer prospered so long as he vrged warre against them. Howbeit his sonnes for a certaine time obserued not their fathers counsel, vntill at length one of them named Warteslaus, was created one the Order, and the other called Samborus bestowed by legacie his goods and possessions vpon the saide Order, receiuing maintenance and exhibition from the saide Order, during the terme of his life. It fortuned also vnder the gouernment of the foresayde Master Boppo, that one Syr Martine a Golin beeing accompanied with another knight, went into the countrey to see howe the Prussians were imployed. And meeting with three Prussians, they slew two, and the thirde they reserued to guide them the directest way. But this guide betrayed them into their enemies handes. Which when they perceiued, they slewe the Traytour. Then fiue Prussian horsemen came riding and tooke them, deliuering them bounde to the custodie of two. And the other three pursued the horses of the two, which broke loose in the time of the fraye. And they tarying somewhat long, the other two woulde haue beheaded the two Knightes in the meane season. [Sidenote: A memorable stratageme.] And as one of them was striking with his drawen sworde, at the neck of Sir Martine, hee said vnto them: Sirs, you doe vnwisely in that you take not off my garment before it bee defiled with blood. They therefore loosing the Cordes wherewith hee was bounde, to take off his garment, set his armes more at libertie. Which Syr Martine well perceiuing reached his keeper such a boxe, that his sworde fell to the grounde. Which hee with all speede taking vp, slewe both the keepers and vnbounde his fellowe Knight. Moreouer, seeing the other three Prussians comming furiously vpon them with stoute couragious hearts they made towarde the saide Prussians, and slew them, and so escaped the danger of death. The seuenth great Master was Hanno de Sangershusen, who deceased in the yeere one thousand two hundreth seuentie fiue. The eight was Hartmannus ab Heldringen who deceased in the yeere 1282. The ninth was Burckardus a Schuuenden beeing afterwarde made knight of the order of Saint Iohns. The tenth was Conradus a Feuchtuuang: vnder this man the Citie of Acon in Palestina was sacked by the Soldan, and manie people were slayne. The Templars which were therein returned home out of Fraunce, where they had great reuenewes. The Knightes of Saint Iohn, who also had an Hospitall at Acon, changed their place, and went into the Isle of Cyprus, and from thence departing vnto Rhodes, they subdued that Islande vnto themselues. Nowe the Dutch Knights abounded with wealth and possessions throughout all Germanie, beeing Lordes of a good port of Prussia, Liuonia, and Curland, whose chiefe house was then at Marpurg, til such time as it was remooued vnto Marieburg, a Towne of Prussia. The eleuenth great Master was Godfrey Earle of Hohenloe. Vnder this man the knights sustained a great ouerthrow in Liuonia: but hauing strengthned their armie, they slewe neere vnto Rye foure thousande of their enemies. The twelfth Master was Sifridus a Feuchtuuang. Vnder this man, the principall house of the Order was translated from Marpurg to Marieburg, which in the beginning was established at Acon, and from thence was remooued vnto Venice, and from Venice vnto Marpurg. This Sifridus deceased in the yeere 1341. The thirteenth Master was called Charles Beffart of Triers. This man built a fort vpon the riuer of Mimmel, and it was named Christmimmel. The foureteenth was Warnerus ab Orsele, whome a certaine knight of the Order slewe with his sworde. The 15. was Ludolphus Duke of Brunswick, who built the Towne of Ylgenburg, and deceased 1352. The sixteenth was Theodoricus Earle of Aldenborg, and hee built the Towne of Bartenstein. The seuenteenth was Ludolphus sirnamed King. The eighteenth was Henrie a Tusimer. The nineteenth Winricus a Knoppenrodt In this mans time the knights took the king of the Lithuanians named Kinstut captiue, and kept him prisoner in Marieburg halfe a yeere, but by the helpe of a seruaunt, hauing broken out of the Castle, hee escaped away by night. But fearing that hee was layde waite for in all places, hee left his horse, and went on foote through vnknowen pathes. In the day time hee hidde himselfe in secrete places, and in the night hee continued his iourney vntil hee came vnto Massouia. But all the Knightes ioye was turned into sorrowe, after they had lost so great an enemie. The twentieth grand Master was Conradus Zolnerof Rotenstein. The one and twentieth Conradus Walenrod. [Sidenote: This man sent an ambassage to Richard the Second.] The two and twentieth Conradus a Iungingen, who deceased in the yeere one thousand foure hundreth and seuen. The three and twentieth Vlricus a Iungingen. This man dyed in battell in the yeere one thousand foure hundreth and tenne: which battell was fought against Vladislaus Father of Casimire. Both partes had leuied mightie and huge forces: vnto the Polonians the Lithuanians and the Tartars had ioyned themselues, ouer whome one Vitoldas was captaine: the Dutch Knights had taken vp Souldiers out of all Germanie. And when eache armie had encamped themselues one within twentie furlongs of another, (hoping for victorie and impatient of delay) the great Master of the Prussians sent an Herault to denounce warre vnto the King, and immediately (alarme beeing giuen) it is reported that there were in both armies, fourtie thousand horsemen in a readinesse. Vladislaus commaunded the Lithuanians and the Tartars to giue the first onsette, and placed the Polonians in the rerewarde of the battell: on the contrarie side, the Prussians regarded least of all to reserue any strong troupes behinde, which might rescue such as were wearie, and renewe the fight, if neede shoulde require, but set forwarde the flower and chiualrie of all his Souldiers in the verie forefront of the battell. The charge beeing giuen certaine vnarmed Tartars and Lithuanians were slaine handsmooth: howbeit the multitude pressed on, neither durst the fearefull Polonians turne their backes, and so a cruell battell was fought vpon the heapes of dead carkases. The combate continued a long time, terrible slaughters were committed, and the Lithuanians and Tartars were slaine like sheepe. But when newe and fresh enemies continually issued foorth, the Dutch knights being wearied, began to fight more faintly. Which Vladislaus no sooner perceiued, but in all haste hee sends forwarde his mightie and well armed bande of Polonians, who suddenly breaking in renewed the skirmish. The Dutch were not able to withstand the furie of the fresh troupes (great oddes there is betweene the wearied Souldier and him that comes in a fresh) insomuch that the knights with their people were constrained to flee. The master of the Order seeing his souldiers giue way vnto the enemie, gathered a companie together, and withstoode him in the face, howbeit himselfe was slaine for his labour, the flight of his people proued greater and more dishonourable, neither did the Dutch cease to flee, so long as the Polonian continued the chase. There fell on the Knights partie manie thousands of men, and the Polonians gotte not the victorie without great spoile and damage. This battell was foughten in regard of the bounds of regions in the yeere 1410. All Prussia following the happie successe of the Polonian king (except Marieburg onely) yeelded themselues vnto him being Conquerour. Howbeit the Emperour Sigismund taking vp the quarell, peace was ordained between the knights and Polonia, and a league concluded, certaine summes of money also were paide vnto the Polonian, Prussia was restored vnto the knights, neither was the saide order disturbed in the possession of their lands vntill the time of Friderick. The 24. Master was Henrie Earle of Plaen. This man being deposed by the Chapter, was 7. yeres holden prisoner at Dantzik. The 25. Master was Michael Kuchenmeister, that is, master of the Cookes of Sternberg. The 26. was Paulus a Russdorff. The 27. Conradus ab Ellerichshausen. This man, after diuers and sundry conflicts betweene the Dutch knights, and the king of Polonia, concluded a perpetuall league with the saide king. Howbeit the citizens of Dantzig secretely going about to obteyne their freedome, that the foresaide Order might haue no dominion ouer them, made sute vnto the Polonian king to be their Protector. This Conradus died in the yeere 1450. The 28. was Lewis ab Ellerichshausen. Vnder this man there arose a dangerous sedition in Prussia betweene the chiefe cities and the knights of the Order. The citizens demanded libertie, complaining that they were oppressed with diuers molestations. Whereupon they primly made sute vnto Casimir then king of Polonia. The Master of the Order seeing what would come to passe began to expostulate with the king, that he kept not the peace which had bene concluded betweene them to last for euer. Also Frederick the Emperour commaunded the Prussians to returne vnto the obedience of the knights, who by the dint of their swordes had released that prouince out of the hands of Infidels, and had bought it with the shedding of much blood. Notwithstanding the popular sort persisting stil in their stubborne determination, proceeded at length to open warre. The cities adhearing vnto the king vsurped diuers Castles belonging to the Master, tooke certain Commanders and knights, yea, and some they slewe also. Fiftie and fiue townes conspired together in that rebellion: but thinking their estate and strength not sure enough against their own gouernors without forrein aide, they chose king Casimir to be their lord. Heereupon the Polonian king marched into Prussia with a great armie, taking possession of such cities as yeelded themselues vnto him, and proceeding forward against Marieburg, besieged the castle and the towne. [Sidenote: The great master ouercommeth the king of Polonia.] In the meane season the Master hauing hired an armie of Germane souldiers, suddenly surprised the king at vnawares in his tents, and slewe about 300. Polonians, tooke prisoners 136. noblemen, spoiled their tents, tooke away their horses, victuals, and armour, insomuch that the king himselfe hardly escaped vpon one horse. These things came to passe in the yeere 1455. The Master hauing thus obtained the victorie, sent his armie into the countrey, and recouered the castles and cities which he had lost, to the number of 80. putting many of his enemies also vnto the sword. Moreouer, he recouered Kunigsberg being one of the foure principall cities, which are by name Thorne, Elburg, Kunigsberg, and Gdanum, that is to say, Dantzig. [Sidenote: The king by treason ouerthroweth the Master.] And when the warre was longer protracted then the Master could well beare, and a whole yeres wages was vnpaid vnto his captains, those captaines which were in the garrison of Marieburg conspired against the Master, and for a great summe of money betrayed the castle of Marieburg vnto the king. Which practise beeing knowen, the Master fled to Kunigsberg, and newe warre was begunne, and great spoile and desolation was wrought on both sides: vntill at length, after composition made, the king retayned Pomerella, and all the castles and townes therein, together with Marieburg and Elburg: and the master inioyed Samaitia, Kunigsberg, &c. This composition was concluded in the yere 1466. The 29. Master was Henrie Reuss, first being deputie, and afterwarde Master of Prussia. The 30. was Henrie a Richtenberg, who deceased in the yeere 1477. The 31. called Martine Truchses died in the yeere 1489. The 32. Iohn a Tieflen died in the yeere 1500. The 33. being Duke of Saxonie, and marques of Misn, deceased in the yeere 1510. This man began to call in question, whether the foresaid composition concluded betweene the king of Polonia, and the Order, were to bee obserued or no? especially sithence [Footnote: Since, from _siththan_, SAX. But, fair Fidessa, _sithens_ fortune's guile, Or enimies power hath now captiv'd thee. SPENS. _Faerie Queene_, I., IV., 57.] it conteined certaine articles against equitie and reason. Whereupon he appealed vnto the Bishop of Rome, vnto the Emperor, vnto the princes and electors of Germany, and preuailed with them so farre forth, that there was a day of hearing appointed at Posna in Polonia. And the Legates of both parts meeting heard complaints and excuses, and dispatched no other businesse. In the meane time Prince Frederick deceased in the tenth yeere of his gouernment. The 34. Master was Albertus marques of Brandenburg, [Footnote: Albrecht of Anspach and Baireuth, a scion of the Hohenzollerns. He was a man of will and capacity, who reinvigorated the order of the Teuton knights by renouncing Roman Catholicism and embracing Lutheranism, while he consolidated its influence by erecting Prussia into a Duchy, whose crown he placed on his own brow in 1525. After a prosperous reign he died in 1550, and his son, having lost his reason, the elector John Sigismund of Hohenzollern obtained the ducal crown in right of his wife Anna, daughter of Duke Albert.] whom the King of Polonia did so grieuously molest with war, and oppressed all Prussia with such extreme rigour, that the Prince of the countrey was constrained to make a league of foure yeeres with him, and to yeeld vnto such conditions, as turned to the vtter ouerthrowe of the whole Order. And amongst other conditions are these which follow. Sithence that the originall of all discorde betweene Polonia and the order doeth from hence arise, for that hitherto in Prussia, no lawfull heyre and successor hath borne rule and authority, but diuers and sundry haue had the gouernment thereof, by whose meanes the nations haue bene prouoked one against another, much Christian blood hath bin shed, the lands and inhabitants grieuously spoiled, and many widowes and Orphans made: the Popes, Emperors, and Princes being often solicited for the establishing of that perpetual league, which Casimir hath heretofore concluded &c. Sithence also that the truce which hath bene agreed vpon of both parties is in short time to be expired; and that it is to bee feared, that bloody warres will then be renewed, and that all things will proue worse and worse, vnlesse some lawfull composition be made, and some good and wholesome deuise be put in practise, as well for the benefit of the King and of his posteritie, as for the commoditie of the whole common weale of Prussia, especially considering that Albertus the Marques refuseth not to submitte himselfe to the Councell of the King, &c. * * * * * The Oration or speech of the Ambassadours sent from Conradus de Zolner Master generall of the land of Prussia, vnto Richard the second, King of England, and France, &c. The messengers which are sent from the Master generall of the land of Prussia, doe propound and declare the affaires and negotiations vnderwritten. [Sidenote: The ancient assistance of the kings of England against infidels.] Whereas it is apparant, that diuers and sundrie times heeretofore, your famous progenitours and predecessours the kings of England haue alwaies bene gratious promoters and speciall friends vnto the generall Masters of the land of Prussia, and of the whole order: whereas also they haue vouchsafed, by their Barons, Knights, and other their nobles of the kingdome of England, vnto the Masters and order aforesaide, sundry and manifolde fauourable assistance in the conquest of the Infidels (in whose steppes your excellent Maiestie insisting, haue, in these your dayes shewed your selfe in like sort right graciously affected vnto the Master generall which nowe is, and vnto his famous Predecessour) in due consideration of the premisses, and in regard also of diuers other affaires, which are at this present to be propounded vnto your Highnes, the foresaid Master general which now is hath caused vs his messengers to be sent with letters of credence vnto your Maiestie: humbly praying, and earnestly beseeching your roial clemency, that in times to come, the said Master general, his successors, and our whole Order may of your bounty most graciously obtaine the same fauour, beneuolence, and stedfast amity and friendship, which hath bin continued from the times of your foresaid predecessors: in regard whereof, we do offer the said Master of ours, and our whole company, vnto your highnes, as your perpetual and deuote friends. Notwithstanding (most souereigne Prince) certaine other things we haue to propound vnto your Grace, in the name and behalfe of our saide Master and Order, by way of complaint, namely, that at certaine times past, and especially within the space of x. yeeres last expired, his subiects and marchants haue sustained sundry damages and ablations of their goods, by diuers subiects and inhabitants of your realme of England, and that very often both by sea and land: the which, for the behalf, and by the appointment of the Master general aforesaid, and of his predecessor, are put downe in registers, and recorded in the writings of his cities in the land of Prussia. [Sidenote: Edward the 3.] Of which parties damnified, some haue obtained letters from the Master general that now is, and also from his predecessor, vnto your renoumed grandfather K. Edward of famous memory, and sundry times vnto your highnes also, to haue restitution made for their goods taken from them: whereby they haue nothing at al preuailed, but heaping losse vpon losse haue misspent their time and their charges: both because they were not permitted to propound and exhibit their complaints and letters before your maiesty, and also for diuers other impediments. Certain of them also considering how others of their countriemen had laboured in vain, and fearing the like successe, haue troubled the Master general very often with grieuous and sundry complaints, crauing and humbly beseeching at his hands, that he would vouchsafe graciously to prouide for them as his faithful and loial subiects, as touching the restitution of their losses: especially seeing that so much wealth of the English marchants was euery yeere to be found in Prussia, as being arrested, they might obtaine some reasonable satisfaction for their losses. Which thing the Master general aforesaid and his predecessor also haue deferred vnto this present (albeit to the great losse of their subiects) therby hauing meere and principal respect vnto those special curtesies and fauours which your excellent Maiesty and your worthy progenitors haue right gratiously vouchsafed vpon our Masters and Order: neither yet for the iniuries aforesaid, was there euer any maner of offence, or molestation offered vnto any of your subiects noble or ignoble whatsoeuer. Moreouer, in the name and behalfe of our foresad Master general we do propound vnto your excellency by way of complaint, that in the yere last past, 6 dayes after the feast of the Ascension, certain persons of your realm of England, with their ships and captains comming vnto the port of Flanders, named Swen, and finding there, amongst sundry other, 6 ships of Prussia resident, which had there arriued with diuers goods and marchandises: and being informed that they were of Prussia, and their friends, they caused them and their ships to remain next vnto their owne ships, protesting vnto them, that they should in no sort be molested of damnified by themselues or by any other of their company, and that they would faithfully defend them, as if they were their own people, from the hands of their aduersaries: and for their farther security and trust, they deliuered some of their own men and their standerds into our mens ships: howbeit a while after being stirred vp, and bent far otherwise, they took out of the foresaid ships al kind of armors, wherwith they were to gard and defend themselues from pirats, and they deteined the masters of those ships, not suffring them to return vnto their own ships and companies, one also of the said ships (hauing taken al the goods out of her) they consumed with fire. And within 3. daies after they came with one accord vnto the abouenamed ships, and tooke away from them all goods and marchandises which they could find, and all the armour and weapons of the said ships, the chestes also of the marchants, of the ship-masters, and of other persons they brake open, taking out money, iewels, garments, and diuers other commodities: and so they inflicted vpon them irrecouerable losses and vnkind grieuances. And departing out of the foresaid hauen, they caried 2. of the Prussian ship-masters with them, as their captiues vnto an hauen of England called Sandwich. Who, being afterward released were compelled to sweare, that they should not declare the iniuries offred vnto them, either before your roiall maiesty, or your hon. Councell, or your chancelor: neither, were they permitted to come on shore. And being offred such hard measure, when they made pitiful mones and complaints vnto your foresaide subiects, amongst other matters they spake on this wise vnto them: Do you complain of iniuries and losses offered vnto you? Loe, in your own countrey of Prussia there are English marchants, and goods sufficient, go your waies home therfore, and recouer your losses, taking two for one: and in this maner they were left, and so departed. Afterward returning vnto the land of Prussia, they and their friends repaired vnto the Master general, iointly and with one consent making their complaint vnto him of the losses which had bin inflicted vpon them by your subiects. And prostrating themselues at his feet, they all and euery of them made their humble sutes, yet he would haue compassion on them, as vpon his poore subiects, regarding themselues, their wiues, and children, and pitying their distres, and penury, and that he would graciously procure some redresse for them. And when he offred his letters vnto them, wishing them to prosecute their cause before your highnes, they answered that they were no way able to defray the expenses, and that others, who were in like sort damnified, had laboured that way altogether in vain and to no purpose: beseeching him again and again, that he would by another kind of means, namely by arresting of your marchants and their goods procure them restitution of their losses. [Sidenote: The arresting of the English goods and marchants.] At length the Master general being moued by so many and so great complaints, and by the molestation of his subiects, caused (albeeit full sore against his will) a certaine portion of English marchants goods to be laid hold on, and to be arrested, in his cities of Elburg and Dantzik, and to be bestowed in sure places, vntil such time as he might conueniently by his messengers propound and exhibit all and singular the premisses vnto your highnes. And forasmuch as the foresaid Master general and our Order do know no iust occasion, wherby they haue deserued your maiesties indignation, but are firmely and most vndoubtedly perswaded, to finde all curtesie, fauour, and friendship at your Highnesse, according to your wonted clemencie: the said Master generall therefore maketh no doubt, that al the aboue written damages and molestations, being in such sort, against God and iustice, offred vnto his subiects by yours, be altogether vnknown vnto your magnificence, and committed against your mind: wherfore presently vpon the foresaid arrest of your marchants goods, he dispatched his messengers vnto your roial maiesty. Wherof one deceased by the way, namely, in the territory of Holland: and the other remained sick in those parts, for a long season: and so that ambassage took none effect. Wherefore the said master general was desirous to send vs now the second time also vnto your Highnes. We do make our humble sute therfore, in the name and behalf of our master and Order aforesaid, vnto your kingly supremacy, that, hauing God and iustice before your eies, and also the dutifull and obsequious demeanor of the said master, and order towards you, you would vouchsafe to extend your gracious clemency, for the redresse of the premisses: wherby the foresaid losses may be restored and repaied vnto our subiects. All which notwithstanding, that it would please you of your wisedome and prouidence to procure so absolute a remedy, by meanes whereof, in time to come, such dealings and inconueniences may be auoided on both parts, and finally that your marchants may quietly be possessed of their goods arrested in Prussia, and our marchants may be admitted vnto the possession of their commodities attached in England, to conuert and apply them vnto such vses, as to themselues shal seem most conuenient. Howbeit (most gracious prince and lord) we are to sollicite your Highnesse, not onely about the articles to be propounded concerning the losses aforesaide, but more principally, for certain sinister reports and superstituous slanders, wherwith certaine of your subiects, not seeking for peace, haue falsly informed your maiesty, and your most honorable and discreete Councel: affirming that at the time of the aforesaid arrest your marchants were barbarously intreated, that they were cast into lothsom prisons, drenched in myre and water vp to the neck, restrained from al conference and company of men, and also that their meat was thrown vnto them, as a bone to a dog, with many other enormities, which they haue most slanderously deuised concerning the master general aforesaid, and his people, and haue published them in these dominions: vpon the occasion of which falshoods certain marchants of our parts, and of other regions of Alemain (who, of your special beneuolence, were indued with certaine priuileges and fauours in your citie of London, and in other places) were, as malefactors, apprehended and caried to prison, vntil such time as the trueth was more apparant. Whereupon, the foresaide master generall propoundeth his humble sute vnto your maiestie, that such enemies of trueth and concord, your Maiesty woulde vouchsafe in such sort to chastise, that they may be an example vnto others presuming to doe the like. Moreouer, (high and mighty Prince and lord) it was reported vnto our Master general, that his former Legats required of your maiesty safe conduct freely to come into your highnesse Realme. Which when hee heard, he was exceedingly offended therat, sithence vndoubtedly they did not this at his commaundement or direction. We therefore humbly beseech your Grace, as touching this ouersight, to holde the Master generall excused, because there is no need of safeconduct, between so speciall friends. Furthermore, sundry damages and complaints of the foresaid general Master, and his subiects are briefly exhibited, and put downe in the billes following. Also all and singular damnified persons, besides other proofes, were compelled to verifie their losses by their formall othes, taken vpon the holy Bible. Lastly, we doe make our humble suite and petition vnto the prouidence and discretion of your Highnes, and of your honorable Councell, that concerning the premisses, and all other matters propounded, or to be propounded vnto your Maiesty, we may obtaine a speedy answere, and an effectuall end. For it would redound vnto our great charges and losse to make any long delayes. * * * * * An agreement made by the Ambassadors of England and Prussia, confirmed by king Richard the second. Richard by the grace of God, king of England, and France, and lorde of Ireland. To all, vnto whom these present letters shall come, greeting. We haue seene and considered the composition, ordination, concord, and treatie, betweene our welbeloued clearke, master Nicholas Stocket, licentiat in both lawes, Walter Sibel, and Thomas Graa, citizens of our cities of London and York, our messengers and ambassadors on the one part: and the honourable and religious personages, Conradus de Walrode, great commander, Sifridus Walpode de Bassenheim, chiefe hospitalary commander in Elburg, and Vlricus Hachenberg Treasurer, the messengers and ambassadors of the right reuerend and religious lord, lord Conradus Zolner de Rothenstein, master generail of the knightly order of the Dutch hospital of Saint Mary at Ierusalem on the other part, lately concluded and agreed vpon in these words. In the name of the supreame and indiuisible Trinitie, the Father, the Sonne, and holy Ghost, Amen. Forasmuch as the author of peace will haue peacemakers to be the sons of blessednes, and the execrable enemie of peace to be expelled out of the dominions of Christians: therefore for the perpetuall memorie of the thing, be it knowen vnto all men who shall see or heare the tenour of these presents: that there being matter of dissension and discord bred betweene the most renowmed prince and king, Richard by the grace of God king of England and France, and lord of Ireland, and his subiects on the one part: and the right reuerend and religious lord, lord Conradus Zolner de Rothinstein, Master generall of the knightly order of the Dutch hospitall of S. Marie at Ierusalem, and his land of Prussia, and his subiects also, on the other part: the foresaid lord and generall master, vpon mature counsell and deliberation had, sent his honourable ambassadours towards England vnto the forenamed most soueraigne prince and king, to propound and make their complaint vnto him of violence and iniuries offered (as it is sayd) by the English vnto the Prussians: in consideration whereof certaine goods of the marchants of England were arrested in the land of Prussia. Whose complaint the foresayd most gracious prince did courteously and friendly admit, receiue, and accept, and after many speeches vttered in this treaty, louingly dismissed them vnto their owne countrey againe, promising by his letters vnto the foresayd reuerend Master generall, that hee would dispatch his ambassadours vnto the land of Prussia. [Sidenote: 1388.] Whereupon, in the yeere 1388. he sent the hono: and reuerend personages Master Nicholas Stocket licentiate of both lawes, Thomas Graa, and Walter Sibill, citizens of London and Yorke, with sufficient authority and full commandement, to handle, discusse, and finally to determine the foresaid busines, and with letters of credence vnto the right reuerend lord and master generall aforesayd. Which ambassadours, together with Iohn Beuis of London their informer, and the letters aforesaid, and their ambassage, the said right reuerend lord and Master generall, at his castle of Marienburgh, the 28. of Iuly, in the yeare aforesaid, reuerently and honourably receiued and enterteined; and in his minde esteemed them worthy to treate and decide the causes aforesayd; and so vnto the sayd ambassadours he ioyned in commission on his behalfe, three of his owne counsellors, namely the honourable and religious personages Conradus de Walrode great commander, Seiffridus Walpode de Bassenheim chiefe hospitalary and commander in Elburg, Wolricus Hachenberger treasurer, being all of the order aforesaid. Which ambassadors so entreating about the premisses, and sundry conferences and consultations hauing passed between them, friendly and with one consent, concluded an agreement and concord in manner following: That is to say: [Sidenote: 1.] First, that all arrestments, reprisals, and impignorations of whatsoeuer goods and marchandises in England and Prussia, made before the date of these presents, are from henceforth quiet, free, and released, without all fraud and dissimulation: insomuch that the damages, charges and expenses occasioned on both parts by reason of the foresayd goods arrested, are in no case hereafter to be required or chalenged by any man: but the demaunds of any man whatsoeuer propounded in this regard, are and ought to be altogether frustrate and voide, and all actions which may or shall be commenced by occasion of the sayd goods arrested, are to be extinct and of none effect. [Sidenote: 2.] Moreouer, it is secondly concluded and agreed, that all and singuler Prussians pretending themselues to be iniuried by the English at the Porte of Swen, or elsewhere, howsoeuer, and whensoeuer, before the date of these presents, hauing receiued the letters of the foresaide right reuerende lord and Master generall, and of the cities of their abode, are to repayre towards England, vnto the sayd hon: embassadours, who are to assist them, and to propound and exhibite their complaintes, into the forenamed lord and king. The most gracious prince is bounde to doe his indeuor, that the parties damnified may haue restitution of their goods made vnto them, or at least complete iustice and iudgement without delay. Also in like manner all English men affirming themselues to haue bene endamaged by Prussians, wheresoeuer, howsoeuer, and whensoeuer, are to haue recourse vnto the often forenamed right reuerend lorde the Master generall, with the letters of their king and of the cities of their aboad, propounding their complaints and causes vnto him. Who likewise is bound to doe his indeuour that the sayd losses and damages may be restored, or at the least that speedie iudgement may be, without all delayes, executed. This caueat being premised in each clause, that it may and shall be freely granted and permitted vnto euery man that will ciuilly make his suite and complaint, to doe it either by himselfe, or by his procurator or procurators. [Sidenote: 3.] Also thirdly it is agreed, that whosoeuer of Prussia is determined criminally to propound his criminal complaints in England: namely that his brother or kinseman hath beene slaine, wounded, or maimed, by English men, the same partie is to repayre vnto the citie of London in England, and into the sayd ambassadors, bringing with him the letters of the said right reuerend lord and master generall, and of the cities of their abode: which ambassadors are to haue free and full authority, according to the complaints of the men of Prussia, and the answers of the English men, to make and ordaine a friendly reconciliation; or honest recompence betweene such parties: which reconciliation the sayd parties reconciled are bound vndoubtedly and without delay to obserue. But if there be any English man found, who shall rashly contradict or contemne the composition of the foresaid ambassadors: then the sayd ambassadours are to bring the forenamed Prussian plaintifes before the presence of the kings Maiestie: and also to make supplication on the behalfe of such plaintifes, that complete iustice and iudgment may without delayes bee administred, according as those suites are commenced. Moreouer whatsoeuer English man, against whom anie one of Prussia would enter his action, shall absent himselfe at the terme, the said ambassadours are to summon and ascite the foresayd English man to appeare at the terme next insuing, that the plaintifes of Prussia may in no wise seeme to depart or to returne home, without iudgement or the assistance of lawe. Nowe if the sayd English man being summoned shall be found stubborne or disobedient, the forenamed ambassadours are to make their appeale and supplication in manner aforesayd. And in like sorte in all respects shall the English plaintifes be dealt withall in Prussia, namely in the citie of Dantzik, where the deputies of the sayd citie and of the citie of Elburg shal take vnto themselues two other head boroughs, one of Dantzik, and the other of Elburg: which foure commissioners are to haue in al respects, the very like authority of deciding, discussing, and determining all criminall complaints propounded criminally, by English men against any Prussian or Prussians, by friendly reconciliation, or honest recompense, if it be possible. But if it cannot friendly be determined, or if anie Prussian shall not yeeld obedience vnto any such order or composition, but shalbe found to contradict and to contemne the same: from thenceforth the said foure deputies and head-boroughs are to make their appeale and supplication into the Master generall of the land aforesayd, that vnto the sayd English plaintifes speedy iudgement and complete iustice may be administred. But if it shall so fall out that any of the principall offenders shall decease, or already are deceased in either of the sayd countries, that then it shall bee free and lawfull for the plaintife to prosecute his right against the goods or heires of the party deceased. Also, for the executing of the premisses the termes vnder written are appointed: namely the first, from the Sunday whereupon Quasi modo geniti is to be sung next ensuing, vntill the seuenth day following: The second vpon the feast of the holy Trinitie next to come, and for seuen dayes following: The third vpon the eight day after Saint Iohn Baptist next to come, and for seuen daies following: The fourth, last, and peremptory terme shall be vpon the feast of S. Michael next to come, and vpon seuen dayes next following. And from thenceforth all causes which concerne death, or the mayming of a member, with all actions proceeding from them, are to remaine altogether voide and extinct. And if peraduenture any one of the foresayd ambassadours, shall in the meane season dye, then the other two shall haue authoritie to chuse a third vnto them. [Sidenote: An ancient custome.] And if after the date of these presents any cause great or small doth rise or spring forth, it must bee decided in England and in Prussia, as it hath beene accustomed in times past and from ancient times. [Sidenote: 4. The priuileges of the English marchants in Prussia.] Also, it is farther concluded and agreed vpon, that all lawfull marchants of England whosoeuer shall haue free licence and authority, with all kindes of shippes, goods, and marchandises, to resorte vnto euery port of the land of Prussia, and also to transport all such goods and marchandises vp farther vnto any other place in the sayde land of Prussia, and there with all kindes of persons freely to bargaine and make sale, as heretofore it hath from auncient times bene accustomed. Which priuiledge is granted in all things and by all circumstances vnto the Prussians in England. And if after the date of these presents betweene the sayd kingdome of England, and land of Prussia any dissension or discorde (which God forefend) should arise: then the foresayd souereigne prince and king of England, and the sayd right reuerend lord the Master generall are mutually by their letters and messengers to giue certificate and intimation one vnto another, concerning the matter and cause of such dissension and discord: which intimation, on the behalfe of the foresaid souereigne prince and king of England, shall be deliuered in the forenamed castle of Marienburg: but on the behalfe of the sayd right reuerend lord the Master generall, such intimation shall be giuen in the citie of London aforesayd, vnto the Maior of the said city: that then such a denuntiation or intimation being made, the marchants of England and the subiects of the land of Prussia may, within the space of one yeere next following, freely and safely returne home with al their goods and marchandises: if at the least, in the mean while, some composition, and friendly league betweene the two foresayd countreis be not in some sorte concluded. And that all the premisses may more firmely and faithfully be put in due practise and execution on both partes, for the strong and inuiolable keeping peace and tranquillity: and also for the full confirmation and strengthening of all the sayde premisses, the three foresayd honourable and religious personages being by the said right reuerend lord the Master general appointed as commissioners to deale in the aboue written ordination and composition, haue caused their seales vnto these presents to be put: and the sayd ordination also, and letter in the same tenour word for word, and in all points euen as it is inserted into these presents, they haue mutually receiued from the abouenamed three ambassadours of the right soueraigne king of England vnder their seales. Giuen at the castle of Marienburg in the yeare of our lord aforesayd, vpon the twentieth day of the moneth of August. And we therefore doe accept, approue, ratifie, and by the tenour of these presents doe confirme, the composition, ordination, concorde, and treaty aforesayd. In testimony whereof we haue caused these our letters to be made patents. Witnesse our selues at Westminster the 22. of October, in the thirteenth yeare of our reigne. By the king and his counsell. Lincolne. * * * * * The letters of Conradas de Iungingen, Master generall of Prussia, written vnto Richard the second, king of England, in the yeere 1398, for the renouncing of a league and composition concluded betweene England and Prussia, in regard of manifold iniuries, offered vnto the Prussians. Our humble commendations, with our earnest prayers vnto God for your Maiestie, premised. Most renowned prince and mighty lord, it is not (we hope) out of your Maiesties remembrance, how our famous predecessour going immediately before vs sent certaine letters of his vnto your highnesse, effectually contayning sundry complaints of grieuances, iniuries and losses, wherewith the marchants of his lande and Order, being woont in times past to visite your kingdome with their goods and marchandises, haue bene contrary to their liberties and priuiledges annoyed with manifold iniuries and wrongs. Especially sithens they haue beene molested in your realme, being contrary to the friendly composition made and celebrated by the hono: personages, master Nicholas Stocket, Thomas Graa and Walter Sibil, in the yeare 1388, with the assistance of their coarbiters on our part and contrary to God and all iustice, oppressed with manifold damages, losses, and grieuances: as in certaine articles exhibited vnto our predecessors aforesayd it doeth more manifestly appeare. In consideration whereof being vehemently moued by the damnified parties, he humbly besought your highnesse by his messengers and letters, for complement and execution of iustice. About the which affayres your Maiestie returned your letters of answere vnto our sayd predecessor, signifying that the sayd businesse of articles concerned al the communalty of your realme, and that your highnesse purposed, after consultation had in your parliament, to send a more deliberate, answere concerning the premisses, vnto our predecessour aforesayd. Howbeit he being by death translated out of this present world, and our selues by the prouidence of God succeeding in his roome, and also long time expecting an effectuall answere from your highnesse, are not yet informed as we looked for: albeit the complaints of iniuries and losses offered vnto our subiects doe continually increase. But from hencefoorth, to prouide a remedie and a caueat for the time to come, the sayd complaynt doeth vpon great reasons mooue and inuite me. Sithens therefore in regard of the sayd composition, neither you nor your subiects may be iudged in the empire: and sithens plaine reason requireth that the one be not inriched by the others losse: as vndoubtedly our subiects should sustaine great damage by the composition aforesayd, by vertue whereof your subiects doe enioy all commodities in our lande, and contrariwise our subiects in your realme haue suffered, and as yet sundrie wayes do suffer manifold discommodities, losses and iniuries. Wherefore (most soueraigne prince and mighty lord) being reasonably mooued vpon the causes aforesayd, we doe, by the aduise of our counsellors, reuoke and repeale the sayd composition concluded as is aboue written, together with the effect thereof, purely and simply renouncing the same by these presents: refusing hereafter to haue either our selues or our subiects in any respect to stand bound by the vertue of the sayd composition: but from henceforth, and for the times heretofore also, bee it altogether voide and of none effect. Prouided notwithstanding, that from the time of the notice of this denunciation giuen vnto the hono: Maior of your citie of London, for the space of a yeare next ensuing, it shall be lawfull for all marchants of your kingdome whatsoeuer, with their goods and marchandises to returne home, according to the forme in the foresayd composition expressed: conditionaly that our subiects may euen so in all respects be permitted to depart, with the safety of their goods and liues out of your dominions: this present renuntiation, reuocation, and retractation of the order and composition aforesayd, notwithstanding. Howbeit in any other affayres whatsoeuer, deuoutly to submit our selues vnto your highnesse pleasure and command, both our selues, and our whole order are right willing and desirous: and also to benefite and promote your subiects we wil indeuour to the vtmost of our ability, Giuen in our castle of Marienburgh in the yeare of our Lord 1398, and vpon the 22. day of February. Frater Conradus de Iungingen, master generall of the Order of the Dutch knights of S. Maries hospital at Ierusalem. * * * * * A briefe relation of William Esturmy, and Iohn Kington concerning their ambassages into Prussia, and the Hans-townes. [Sidenote: 1403.] Inprimis, that in the moneth of Iuly, and in the yeare of our Lord 1403, and the fift yeare of the reigne of our souereigne Lord the king that nowe is, there came into England the ambassadours of the mighty lord Fr: Conradus de Iungingen, being then Master general of Prussia, with his letters directed vnto our foresayd souereigne lord the king, requiring amends and recompense for certaine iniuries vniustly offered by English men vnto the subiects of the sayd Master generall, written in 20. articles, which amounted vnto the summe of 19120. nobles and a halfe &c. Item, that the third day of the moneth of October, in the yeare of our Lord abouewritten, and in the fift yere of the reigne of our soueraigne lord the king, between the reuerend father in God, Henrie then bishop of Lincolne lord chancelor, and William lord de Roos high treasurer of England, on the one party and the sayd ambassadours on the other party, it was (according to their petition) amongst other things ordayned: namely that the liege people of our soueraigne lord the king should freely be permitted, vntill the feast of Easter then next after ensuing to remaine in the land of Prussia, and from thence with their goods and marchandises to returne vnto their own homes, and also, that the subiects of the sayd Master generall in the kingdome of England should haue licence and liberty to doe the like. Prouided alwayes, that after the time aboue limitted, neither the English marchants in the land of Prussia, nor the Prussian marchants in the realme of England should vse any traffique of marchandise at all, vnlesse in the meane space it were otherwise agreed and concluded by the sayd king and the sayd Master general. Item, immediately after our sayd soueraigne lord the king sent his letters by Iohn Browne marchant of Lin vnto the aforesayd Master generall, for to haue mutuall conuersation and intercourse of dealing to continue some certain space, betweene the marchants of England and of Prussia: promising in the same letters, that he would in the meane season send vnto the foresayd Master his ambassadors to intreat about the pretended iniuries aforesaide: which letters the foresayd Master, for diuers causes, refused to yeelde vnto, as in his letters sent vnto our lord the king, bearing date the 16. day of the moneth of Iuly, in the yeare of our lord 1404. more plainely appeareth. Item, that after the receit of the letters of the Master aforesaid, which are next aboue mentioned, our sayd king, according to his promise, sent William Esturmy knight, M. Iohn Kington clerke, and William Brampton citizen of London, from his court of parliament holden at Couentrie, very slightly informed, as his ambassadours into Prussia. Item, before the arriuall of the sayd ambassadours in Prussia, all intercourse of traffique betweene the English and the Prussians, in the realme of England, and in the land of Prussia was altogether restrained and prohibited: and in the same land it was ordayned and put in practise, that in whatsoeuer porte of the land of Prussia any English marchant had arriued with his goods, he was not permitted to conueigh the sayd goods, out of that porte, vnto any other place of the land of Prussia, either by water, or by lande, vnder the payne of the forfeiting of the same: but was enioyned to sell them in the very same porte, vnto the Prussians onely and to none other, to the great preiudice of our English marchants. [Sidenote: 1405.] Item, that after the arriuall of the sayd English ambassadours in the land of Prussia, it was ordayned, that from the eight day of the moneth of October, in the yeare of our lord 1405, all English marchants whatsoeuer should haue free liberty to arriue with all kindes of their marchandise in whatsoeuer port of the land of Prussia, and to make sale of them in the said land, as hath heretofore from auncient times bene accustomed. Also sundry other commodious priuiledges vnto the realme of England were then ordayned and established: as in the indentures made for this purpose it doth more manifestly appeare. Item, the said English ambassadours being arriued in the land of Prussia, demanded of the said Master generall, a reformation and amends, for the damages and iniuries offered by the Prussians vnto the liege people of our souereigne lord and king, written in fifteene articles, which losses amounted vnto summe of 4535. nobles. Item, the said Master generall, besides the articles exhibited vnto our soueraigne lord the king (as it is aboue mentioned) deliuered vnto the sayd ambassadours diuers other articles of certaine iniuries offered (as he sayth) vniustly by English men, vnto his subiects, which amounted vnto the summe of 5200. nobles. [Sidenote: 1406.] Item, it was afterward concluded, that vpon the first of May next then insuing, namely in the yeere of our Lord 1406, or within the space of one yeare immediately following there should bee made a conuenient, iust, and reasonable satisfaction, for all molestations vniustly offered on both partes, as well on the behalfe, of our soueraigne lord the king, as of the foresayd Master general. Which satisfaction not being performed, the Prussians with their goods and merchandises, within three moneths after the end of the sayd yere next following, were without molestation or impediment, enioined to depart out of the realme of England with their ships and goods, and the English men likewise, out of the territories and dominions of the said Master general, and both of them, without any further admonition, to abstaine and separate themselues, from both the countreis aforesayd. For the performance of which premisses, the ambassadors on both parts being sufficiently instructed, were appointed to meete the first day of May, at the towne of Dordract in Holland. Item, that the sayd William Esturmy and Iohn Kington in their returne homewards from Prussia towards England passed through the chiefe cities of the Hans, and treated in such sorte with the Burgomasters of them, that there were sent messengers and agents, in the behalfe of the common society of the Hans marchants, vnto the towne of Dordract, to conferre with the ambassadors of England, about the redressing of iniuries attempted on both parts: where diuers agreements were set downe betweene the sayd ambassadors, and messengers, as in the indentures made for the same purpose it doth more manifestly appeare. Item, that the meeting appointed at the towne of Dordract, vpon the first of May, was by the letters of the foresayd ambassadors, proroged vnto the first of August then next ensuing, and afterward by vertue of the kings letters vnto the first day of March next following: and there was another day of prorogation also. Item, that after the prorogations aforesayd, the ambassadors of England, and the messengers and commissioners of Prussia met together at the towne of Hage in Holland, the 28. day of August, in the yere of our lord 1407. And there was a treaty between them concerning the summe 25934. nobles and an halfe, demanded on the behalfe of the sayd Master generall for amends and recompence in consideration of wrongs offered vnto himselfe and vnto his subiects of Prussia, as is aforesayd. Also the sayd Master and his Prussians, besides the summe not yet declared in the articles, which is very small, are to rest contented and satisfied with the summe of 8957. nobles, in lieu of al the damages aforesaid: no times of paiment being then assigned or limited, but afterward to be reasonably limited and assigned, by our sayd soueraigne lord the king. Insomuch, that our said soueraigne lord the king is to write his ful intention and determination concerning this matter, in his letters to be deliuered the 16. day of March, vnto the aldermen of the marchants of the Hans residing at Bruges. Otherwise, that from thenceforth all league of friendship shall bee dissolued betweene the realme of England and the land of Prussia. Also it is farther to be noted, that in the appointment of the summe next before written to be disbursed out of England, this condition was added in writing, namely, that if by lawful testimonies it may sufficiently and effectually be prooued, concerning the chiefe articles aboue written, or any part of them, that satisfaction was made vnto any of those parties, to whom it was due: or that the goods, of and for the which complaint was made on the behalfe of Prussia, in the sayd articles, did or doe pertayne vnto others, or that any other iust, true, or reasonable cause may lawfully be proued and alledged, why the foresaid sums or any of them ought not to be payed: that then in the summes contained in the articles aboue mentioned, so much only must be cut off, or stopped, as shal be found, either to haue bene payd already, or to appertaine vnto others, or by any true, iust, and reasonable cause alledged, not to be due. Neither is it to be doubted, but for the greater part of the summe due vnto the Prussians, that not our lord the king, but others (which will in time be nominated) are, by all equity and iustice, to be compelled to make satisfaction. Also, at the day and place aboue mentioned it was appointed and agreed vpon, that our lord the king and his liege subiects, for the said 4535. nobles demanded of the English in consideration of recompence to be made for iniuries offered vnto the Prussians, are to discharge and pay the summe of 764. nobles, which are not as yet disbursed: but they haue reserued a petition to them, vnto whom the sayd summe is due, or if they please, there shalbe made satisfaction: which will be very hard and extreme dealing. Item, that in the last assembly of the sayd ambassadors of England and messengers of Prussia, holden at Hage, made as is aforesayd, for the behalfe of England, there were exhibited anew certaine articles of iniuries against the Prussians. The value of which losses amounted vnto the summe of 1825. nobles and three shillings. Item, on the contrary part for the behalfe of the Prussians the summe of 1355. nobles, eight shillings and sixe pence. Item, forasmuch as diuers articles propounded, as well on the behalfe of England, as of Prussia, and of the cities of the Hans, both heretofore and also at the last conuention holden at Hage, were so obscure, that in regard of their obscurity, there could no resolute answere bee made vnto them: and other of the sayd articles exhibited, for want of sufficient proofes, could not clearely be determined vpon: it was appointed and concluded, that all obscure articles giuen vp by any of the foresayd parties whatsoeuer, ought before the end of Easter then next ensuing, and within one whole yeare after, to be declared before the Chancelour of England, for the time being; and other articles euidently exhibited, but not sufficiently proued, to be proued, vnder paine of perpetuall exclusion. Which being done accordingly, complete iustice shall be administred on both parts. Item, as concerning the eleuenth article, for the behalfe of the Prussians, first exhibited, which conteined losses amounting vnto the summe of 2445. nobles: as touching the first article on the behalfe of England exhibited in the land of Prussia, containing losses which amounted to the summe of 900. nobles: after many things alleadged on both parts, relation thereof shall be made in the audience of the king and of the master generall: so that they shall set downe, ordaine, and determine such an ende and conclusion of those matters, as shall seeme most expedient vnto them. Now concerning the Liuonians who are subiect vnto the great Master of Prussia. Inprimis, that the Master of Prussia demaunded of the sayd English ambassadours, at their being in Prussia, on the behalfe of them of Liuonia, who are the sayd Master his liege people, to haue restitution of their losses, vniustly (as he sayth) offered vnto them by the English, namely, for the robbing and rifling of three ships. [Sidenote: These ships were taken by the English the 20. Iuly 1404.] The value of which ships and of the goods contained in them, according, to the computation of the Liuonian marchants, doeth amount vnto the summe of 8037. pound, 12. shillings 7. pence. Howbeit afterward the trueth being inquired by the sayd ambassadors of England, the losse of the Liuonians exceedeth not the summe of 7498. pound, 13. shillings, 10. pence halfepeny farthing. Item, forasmuch as in the sayd ships, on the behalfe of the sayd Master, and of certaine cities of the Hans, there are alleadged aboue 250. men very barbarously to be drowned, of whome some were noble, and others honourable personages, and the rest common marchants and mariners, there was demaunded, in the first dyet or conuention holden at Dordract, a recompense at the handes of the sayd English ambassadors: albeit this complaint was exhibited in the very latter end of al the negotiations, in forme of a scedule, the tenor whereof is in writing at this present, and beginneth in maner following: Cum vita hominum &c. Howbeit in the last conuention holden at Hage, as is aforesaid, it was concluded betweene the ambassadours of England, and the messengers and commissioners of the land of Prussia, and of the cities of the Hans; that our sayd soueraigne lord the king, should, of his great pietie, vouchsafe effectually to deuise some conuenient and wholesome remedie for the soules of such persons as were drowned. Item, that our sayd soueraigne lord the king will signifie in writing his full purpose and intention as touching this matter, vnto the aldermen of the Hans marchants residing at Bruges, vpon the sixtenth day of March next following. Otherwise, that from hencefoorth all amity and friendship, betweene the realme of England and the land of Prussia shall be dissolued. Neither is it to be doubted, but that a great part of the sayd goods, for the which they of Liuonia doe demaund restitution, namely waxe and furres, redounded vnto the vse and commoditie of our soueraigne lord the king. And also our said soueraigne lord the king gaue commandement by his letters, that some of the sayd goods should be deliuered vnto others. And a great part of them is as yet reserued in the towne of Newcastle. One Benteld also hath the best of the sayd three ships in possession. Also it is reported and thought to be true, that certaine Furriers of London, which will be detected in the end, haue had a great part of the sayd goods, namely of the Furres. Now as concerning the cities of the Hans. [Sidenote: Hamburgh.] Inprimis the Hamburgers exhibited nine articles, wherein they demaunded restitution for certaine damages offered, as they sayd, by the English men, the value of which losses amounted vnto the summe of 9117. nobles, 20 pence. For the which, after due examination, there was promised restitution to the summe of 416. nobles, 5. shillings. Besides the two articles propounded against them of Scardeburg, the summe whereof was 231. pounds, 15s. 8d. concerning the which there was sentence giuen in England by the commissioners of our lord the king, the execution whereof was promised vnto the said Hamburgers by the ambassadors of England: leaue and licence being reserued vnto the sayd Hamburgers, of declaring or explaining certaine obscure articles by them exhibited, which declaration was to be made at the feast of Easter then next to come, or within one yeare next ensuing the said feast, vnto the chancelor of England for the time being, and of proouing the sayd articles and others also, which haue not as yet sufficiently bene proued. Which being done they are to haue full complement and execution of iustice. Also by the Hamburgers there are demaunded 445. nobles from certaine of the inhabitants of Linne in England. Which summe, if it shalbe prooued to be due vnto any English men, the Hamburgers are to rest contented with those goods, which they haue already in their possessions. [Sidenote: Breme.] Item, they of Breme propounded sixe articles, wherein the summe conteined amounteth vnto 4414. nobles. And there was no satisfaction promised vnto them. But the same libertie and licence was reserued vnto them, in like maner as before vnto the Hamburgers. [Sidenote: Stralessund] Item, they of Stralessund propounded 23. articles, whereof the summe amounted vnto 7415. nobles, 20. d for the which there was promised satisfaction of 253. nobles, 3. d. Also here is a caueat to be obserued: that they of Stralessund had of English mens goods a great summe particularly to be declared, which will peraduenture suffice for a recompense. And some of their articles are concerning iniuries offered before 20, 22, 23, 24. yeres past. Also their articles are so obscure that they will neuer, or very hardly be able to declare or proue them. Howbeit there is reserued the very same liberty vnto them, that was before vnto the Hamburgers. [Sidenote: Lubec] Item, they of Lubec propounded 23. articles, the summe whereof extended vnto 8690. nobles and an halfe: whereupon it was agreed, that they should haue paied vnto them 550. nobles. There was reserued the same libertie vnto them, which, was vnto the men of Stralessund. [Sidenote: Gripeswold] Item, they of Gripeswold exhibited 5. articles, the summe whereof amounted vnto 2092. nobles and an halfe. For the which there was promised satisfaction of 153. nobles and an half. And the said men of Gripeswold haue of the goods of English men in possession, to the value of 22015. nobles, 18. s. as it is reported by them of Linne. And the same libertie is reserued vnto them that was vnto the Hamburgers. [Sidenote: Campen.] Item, they of Campen propounded ten articles, the summe whereof extended vnto 1405. nobles. There is no satisfaction promised vnto them: but the same liberty is reserued vnto them, which was vnto the other aboue mentioned. Item, the ambassadors of England demanded of the citizens of Rostok and Wismer, for damages and iniuries by them committed against the subiects of the foresayd souereigne king 32407. nobles. 2. s. 10. d. And albeit euery of the foresayd cities sent one of their burgomasters vnto the towne of Hage in Holland, to treat with the English ambassadours, it was in the end found out, that they had not any authority of negociating or concluding ought at al. And therefore they made their faithfull promises, that euery of the said cities should send vnto our soueraigne Lord the king one or two procurator or procurators sufficiently instructed to treat and conclude with our said souereigne lord the king about the damages and iniuries aforesaid at the feast of the natiuitie of Saint Iohn the Baptist. * * * * * Compositions and ordinances concluded between the messengers of Frater Conradus de Iungingen master generall of Prussia: and the chancelor and treasurer of the realme of England 1403. In the yere of our Lord 1403, vpon the feast of S. Michael the Archangel, the right hono: Henrie bishop of Lincoln, chancelor of England, and the lord de Roos high treasurer of England, and the ambassadors of Prussia, Iohn Godek of Dantzik, and Henry Monek of Elbing, masters of the same cities haue at Westminster treated in maner of composition about the articles vnderwritten: between the most souereigne lord the king of England, and the right reuerend and honorable Conradus de Iungingen Master general of Prussia as concerning the iniuries offered vnto the people of Prussia and Liuonia vpon the sea by the English. First, that all ships with their appurtenances, and the commodities of the mariners, according vnto the condition of the things, and all other goods taken away by the English, which are actually vndiuided and whole, are incontinently and with al speed to bee restored. And if there bee any defect in ought, the value of the said defect is to be accounted, and with other losses of goods to be restored, at the terme of the restitution to be made and deliuered. Item, that all ships, damages, and goods (as they are conteined in our bill of accusation) which are not now immediately restored, are to be restored and payd in the land of Prussia, between this and the terme appointed, with full execution and complement of iustice. Item, concerning the persons throwen ouer boord or slaine in the sea: it shall remayne to bee determined at the will and pleasure of the most mighty prince, the king of England, and of the right reuerend the Master of Prussia. Item, betweene this and the terme appointed for the restoring of the goods taken away, and vntill there be due payment and restitution of the said goods performed, the marchants of England and of Prussia are in no wise to exercise any traffique of merchandise at all in the foresaid lands. [Sidenote: 1403.] Memorandum, that the third day of the moneth of October, in the yere of our Lord. 1403. and in the fift yere of the reigne of the most mighty prince and lord, king Henrie the fourth, by the grace of God king of England and France &c. betweene the reuerend father Henrie bishop of Lincoln, chancelor, and the right honorable William lord de Roos, high treasurer of England, both of their counsellers vnto the sayd soueraigne king on the one party, and the right worshipfull Iohn Godeke, and Henrie Moneke, sent as messengers by the right reuerend and religious personage, Frater Gonradus de Iungingen Master generall of the Dutch knights of the Order of S. Mary on the other party: it was, at the request and instancie of the sayd messengers, appoynted, and mutually agreed vpon, that all the liege people and subiects of the sayd soueraigne lord and king shall haue free licence and liberty vntill the feast of Easter next ensuing, safety to trauel vnto the land of Prussia aforesayd, there to remaine, and thence, with their ships, marchandises, and other their goods whatsoeuer, to returne vnto their owne home: which on the other side, all the subiects of the sayd Master general may, within the terme prefixed, likewise doe, in the foresaid realme of England. Prouided alwaies, that after the time aboue limited, neither the sayd marchants of the realme of England may in the land of Prussia, nor the marchants of that land, in the realme of England, exercise any traffique at al: vnles it be otherwise ordained by some composition, betweene the foresaid king of England, and the said Master general in the meane time concluded. In witnesse wherof, one part of this present Indenture is to remaine in the custodie of the foresaid messengers. Giuen in the Chapter-house of the Church of S. Paul at London, the day and yere aboue written. * * * * * The letters of the chancelor and treasurer of England, vnto Frater Conradus de Iungingen, master generall of Prussia 1403. Right reuerend and mighty lord, your honorable messengers Iobn Godeke, and Henry Moneke, the bearers hereof comming of late before the presence of our most souereigne lord the king of England and of France, and being welcomed by our said lord with a chearefull and fauourable countenance, they presented certaine letters on your behalfe vnto the kings Maiestie, with that reuerence which beseemed them: expounding vnto his highnes, sundry piracies and molestations offered of late vpon the sea, by his liege people and subiects vnto yours, contrary to the leagues of peace and amitie, which hitherto (by Gods grace) haue bene maintained and continued on both parts. In consideration of which piracies and molestations, your messengers demanded full restitution and recompense to be made, either vnto the damnified parties, or vnto their procurators. We therefore at that time, especially being in the presence of our soueraigne (who with, his puissant army tooke his progresse towards the remote part of Wales being subiect vnto his dominion, to see iustice executed vpon his people of those parts, who very rashly haue presumed to rebell against him their souereigne, contrary to their allegeance) right well perceiued that it was his highnesse intention, that euery one should haue due iustice faithfully administred unto him, especially your subiects, and that with all fauour, whom he hath alwayes in times past right graciously intreated, as if they had bene his owne liege subiects and natiue countrey men, whome also hee purposeth hereafter friendly to protect: insomuch that betweene him and his subiects on the one party, and betweene you and yours on the other party, great abundance and perfection of mutuall amity may increase. And therefore we offered vnto your foresayd messengers, after they had particularly declared vnto vs such piracies and wrongs, to sende the kings letters vnto them of whom complaint was made, firmely inioyning them, vnder grieuous penalties, that without delay they restore or cause to bee restored vnto the parties damnified, or vnto their procuratours, all ships, marchandises, wares, and goods, by them taken or violently stolne from your subiects. And that your said messengers may partly attaine their desire, we haue commaunded certaine [Marginal note: Namely the ship of Edward Scof at Caleis, The ship of Tidman Dordewant and Tidman Warowen, at Orwel and Zepiswich.] ships, marchandises, wares and goods, found in certaine hauens, to be deliuered vnto them. Howbeit, as touching other goods, which are perhaps perished or wanting by infortunate dissipation or destruction, and for the which the said messengers of yours demand satisfaction to be made vnto them within a certain time by vs limited: may it please your honor to vnderstand that in the absence of our sayd souereigne lord the king, being as yet farre distant from vs, wee can in no wise limit or set downe any such terme of time. Notwithstanding, at the prosperous returne of our soueraigne, we are determined to commune with him about this matter. Of whose answere so soone as we be certified, we purpose to signifie his intention vnto you by our letters. Sithens also (right reuerend and mighty lord) your sayd messengers are contented, for the present, to accept of our offer aforesayde, as indeede by all reason they ought thereat to rest content, especially whereas by this meanes they shall the more speedily attaine vnto the effect of their purposes (to the shorte and wished execution and performance of which offer, we will, by Gods helpe, endeuour, to the vtmost of our ability) may it be your will and pleasure, that as in the kingdome of England, your marchants and subiects are courteously intreated: euen so the marchants and liege people of our soueraigne lord the king and of his kingdomes peaceably frequenting your parts, either in regard of traffique or of any other iust occasion, may there in like manner friendly bee vsed, and with your marchants and subiects suffered to communicate, and to haue intercourse of traffique, inioying the commodities of the ancient league. By this also the feruent zeale and affection which you beare vnto the royall crowne of England shall vndoubtedly appeare: albeit betweene the famous houses of England and of Prussia, the bandes of vnfained loue and friendship haue bin successiuely confirmed and kept inuiolable in times past And thus (right reuerend and mighty lord) wishing vnto you increase of honour and prosperity, wee take our leaues. [Sidenote: Note well. 1403.] Written at London the fift of October, in the yeare of our lord 1403. By the chancelor, the treasurer, and other lords of the hono: counsell of the king of England and France, being personally present at London. * * * * * The letters of king Henry the 4. vnto Conradus de Iungingen the master general of Prussia, for mutual conuersation and intercourse of traffique to continue between the marchants of England and of Prussia, for a certaine terme of time. Henry by the grace of God king of England and France, and lord of Ireland, to the noble and mighty personage of sacred religion, Frater Conradus de Iungingen Master generall of the Order of the Dutch knights of S. Marie &c. our most deare and welbeloued friend, greeting, and continuall increase of our auncient and sincere amity. By the grieuous complaynts of our liege subiects concerning traffique, as it were circularwise too and fro both our dominions, we haue often bene aduertised that in regard of diuers iniuries and damages, which as well our as your marchants (who by their dealings in merchandise were woont peaceably to vse mutual conuersation together, whereupon very many commodities are knowen to haue proceeded) haue, by occasion of pirates, rouing vp and down the sea, sometimes heretofore sustayned: both the sayd marchants of our and of your dominions do abstaine themselues from their wonted mutual conuersation and traffique, as they haue likewise carefully abstained at sometimes heretofore, and especially from that time, wherein, at the instant request of your messengers, being of late before our presence, the free accesse of our marchants vnto your territories and dominions, and of your marchants vnto our realmes hath bene forbidden. Sithens therefore (our most deare friend) such iniuries (if any) as haue bene attempted against your subiects, were neuer committed by our will and consent, as we thinke that your selfe on the other side haue done the like: [Sidenote The auncient friendship betweene England and Prussia.] sithens also, so much as in vs lieth, wee are ready to exhibit full iustice with fauour vnto any of your people being desirous to make complaint, so that accordingly iustice may equally be done vnto our marchants by you and your subiects, which marchants haue in like sort bene iniuried, wishing with all our heart, that the ancient friendship and loue, which hath continued a long time between our realme and your territories and dominions, may perseuere in time to come, and that sweet and acceptable peace, which is to be embraced of al Christians, may according to the good pleasure of the author of peace, be nourished and mayntained: we do most heartily require the sayd friendship, exhorting you in the Lord that you would on your behalf consent and ordain (euen as, if you shall so do, we for our part wil consent likewise) that from this present vntil the feast of Easter next insuing (al molestations and iniuries which may be offred ceasing on both parts) our subiects by your territories and dominions, and your subiects by our realms, may peaceably and securely trauel, and that according to their wonted maner, they may friendly conuerse and exercise mutual traffick together: because we are determined to send vnto you and your counsel in the mean time some of our ambassadors, friendly to intreat about, the foresaid pretended iniuries, so far forth as they shal concerne our subiects. At whose arriual we stand in good hope that by the due administration of iustice on both parts, such order (by Gods assistance) shalbe taken, that mutual peace and tranquility may be established between vs in times to come. Also our desire is in particular, that our marchants and liege subiects may haue more free passage granted them vnto the parts of Sconia, for the prouiding of herrings and of other fishes there, that they may there remayne, and from thence also may more securely returne vnto their owne home: and we beseech you in consideration of our owne selues, that you would haue our marchants and liege subiects especially recommended vnto you, safely protecting them (if need shall require) vnder the shadow of your defence: euen as you would haue vs to deale in the like case with your own subiects. Moreouer, whatsoeuer you shall thinke good to put in practise in this behalfe, may it please you of your friendship, by our faythfull subiect Iohn Browne the bearer hereof to giue vs to vnderstand. In the sonne of the glorious virgine fare ye well, with continuall prosperity and felicity according to your owne hearts desire. Giuen vnder our priuie seale, at our palace of Westminster, the fift day of Iune, and in the fift yere of our reigne. Postscriptum. Right reuerend and our most deare friend: albeit our welbeloued Arnold de Dassele the procurator of your foresaid messengers, being desirous at this time to make his final returne vnto your parts, by reason of the affayres, for which he hath remained in our realme of England, cannot as yet obtaine his wished expedition: notwithstanding you of your sincere affection ought not to maruel or any whit to be grieued thereat: because troubles of wars arising, which in some sort concerned our selues, and especially in regard of the continuall assaults of the French men and Britons against vs and our kingdome, for the offence of whom, and our owne defence, our liege subiects (especially they, of whom your subiects damnified haue made their complaints) haue armed themselues to combate vpon the sea: we could not grant vnto the foresayd Arnold such and so speedy an expedition, as he earnestly desired to haue. Vnto the which Arnold your procurator we haue offered in as short time as may be, to administer complete iustice with fauour, to the end that for this cause he might dispose himselfe to remaine in our realme of England: and yet notwithstanding wee would do the very same euen in the absence of the sayd procurator. Giuen as aboue. * * * * * To the most renowned prince and mighty Lord, Henrie king of England &c. our gracious Lord. Our humble recommendations, with our most instant and continuall prayers for you being graciously by your Maiestie taken in good part &c. Most soueraigne king, mighty prince, gratious lord, and vnto vs most vnfaynedly beloued, we receiued of late your gracious letters by your Maiesties liege subiect Iohn Brown, the contents wherof seemed to be these following: first that of long time heretofore, there haue bene between the marchants of your realm and of our lands, not only quiet and peaceable accesse one vnto another, but also mutual participation, and common traffique of their wares, being right commodious and auaileable for them both: howbeit, that now the focesaid profitable conuersation, by reason of certain notorious robberies, committed vpon the sea by pyrates against both parts, and the wonted accesse also of your subiects vnto our dominions, were altogether forbidden. Moreouer, you call to remembrance the ancient amity and friendship betweene both our lands, with the inualuable commodity of sweet amiable peace, which are by al faithful Christians, to the vtmost of their endeuour to be imbraced. Wherupon you of your exceeding clemency, do offer your Maiesties ful consent, that the foresaid prohibition being released vntil the feast of Easter next ensuing, the said marchants of your dominions may in our territories, and our marchants likewise may in your realms (al molestations ceasing) exercise their woonted traffique: especially sithens in the mean season your royall wisdome hath determined to direct vnto vs your hono: ambassadors in friendly sort to treat and parle with vs as touching the pretended iniuries, so far forth as they may concerne your subiects. Adding moreouer in particular that when your people shall repayre vnto the parts of Sconia to fish for herrings, hauing consideration and regard vnto your maiestie, we would haue them especially recommended vnto our protection &c. Most soueraigne lord and king, and gracious prince, wee doe with vnfained and hearty affection embrace the oracles of your maiesties most courteous and acceptable offer: wherein you haue vsed most diligent and effectuall perswasions, that complement of iustice should be done vnto the parties iniuried, and that peace and friendship should take place, making no doubt of your own royall person, nor of our selues or of any appertayning vnto vs, but that our inclinations and desires in this regarde are all one and the same: neither would we lightly transgresse the limits of your perswasions without some iust, weighty, and reasonable cause, forasmuch as the matters perswaded are in very deede most happy preseruatiues of a common weale, yea, and of nature, it selfe. Moreouer whereas your highnes hath farther requested vs, that the prohibition of your subiects accesse vnto our dominions might, vntill the feast of Easter next ensuing, be released: we answere (vnder correction of your maiesties more deliberate counsell) that it is farre more expedient for both parts to haue the sayd prohibition continued then released, vntil such time as satisfaction be performed on both sides vnto the parties endamaged, not in words only, but actually and really in deeds, or by some course of law or friendly composition. For there is no equall nor indifferent kinde of consort or trade between the impouerished party and him that is inriched, betweene the partie which hath obtayned iustice and him that hath obtayned none between the offender and the party offended: because they are not mooued with like affections. For the remembrance of iniuries easily stirreth vp inconsiderate motions of anger. Also, such a kind of temperature or permixtion, as it were, by way of contrariety breedeth more bitternes then sweetnes, more hate then loue: whereupon more grieuous complaints aswel vnto your highnes as vnto our selues, might be occasioned. The lord knoweth, that euen now we are too much wearied and disquieted with the importunate and instant complaints of our subiects, insomuch that wee cannot at this present by any conuenient meanes release or dissolue the sayd prohibition, before wee be sufficiently informed by your maiesties ambassadors, of the satisfaction of our endamaged subiects. [Sidenote: Margaret queen of Denmarke.] Furthermore, whereas your maiesties request, concerning your subiects that shal come vnto the parts of Sconia, is that we would defend them vnder our protection: be it knowen vnto your highnes, that for diuers considerations vs reasonably mouing, being prouoked by the queene of Denmarke and her people, being also vrged thereunto full sore against our wils, for the repelling and auoiding of iniuries, we haue sent forth our armie against them. Howbeit for a certaine time a truce is concluded on both parts, so that our people are actually returned home. Farre be it from vs also, that our subiects being occupied in warres, should in any sort willingly molest or reproach any strangers, of what landes or nations soeuer, not being our professed enemies. For this should be to oppresse the innocent in stead of the guilty, to condemne the iust for the uniust: then which nothing can be more cruel, nor a reuenge of greater impietie. In very deede (most gracious prince and lorde) we are moued with right hearty sympathy and compassion for any inconuenience which might happen in your regiment: wishing from the bottome of our hearts, that all affayres may right prosperously and happily succeede, about the royall person and regiment of your most excellent Maiestie, and that continually. The like whereof wee hope from you: most humbly commending our selues, and our whole Order vnto your highnes. Giuen at our castle of Marienburgh, the 16. day, the moneth of iuly, in the yere of our Lord 1404. * * * * * An agreement made betweene king Henry the fourth and Conradus de Iungingen Master generall of the land of Prussia. This Indenture made between Sir William Esturmy knight, Iohn Kington clerke, and William Brampton citizen of London the ambassadors, commissioners, and messengers of the most mighty prince and lord, our souereigne lord Henrie by the grace of God king of England and France, and lorde of Ireland, for the repayring, reformation, and amends of whatsoeuer damages, grieuances, excesses, violences, and iniuries in any sort vniustly attempted, done, or offered, by our sayd soueraigne lord the king and his liege people and subiects, vnto the great and mighty lord Conradus de Iungingen Master general of the order of the Dutch knights of S. Maries hospitall of Ierusalem, or his subiects: and for the requiring, demanding, and receiuing of such like reparations, reformations and amends, by the foresayd lord the Master generall, for the behalfe of himselfe or any of his subiects whatsoeuer, from and in the name of our soueraign lord the king and his subiects, vnto the sayd Master general, into his land of Prussia, by our souereigne lord the king, and appointed as ambassadors on the one party: And betweene the hono: Lords and religious personages Conradus de Lichtenstein great commander, Warnberus de Tettingen chiefe hospitalary and commander in Elbing, and Arnold de Hacken treasurer, the procurators and commissioners of the great and mighty lord the Master general, being in like and equal sort and in all respects, as the ambassadours of England are, authorised on the contrary side by the authoritie and power of the sayd Master general on the other part, witnesseth: That diuers treaties and conferences being holden between the said ambassadors, messengers, and procurators or commissioners, of and concerning the reparations, reformations and amends of certaine damages, grieuances, excesses, violences, and iniuries offered and attempted, as wel by the Prussians against the English as by the English against the Prussians, and of other actes vniustly committed on both parts: in conclusion, after the sayd treatise, the foresayd ambassadours, procurators and commissioners by vertue of the authority committed vnto them appoynted, and with one consent agreed vnto the articles vnder written. Inprimis, that for the consideration of mutuall loue and woonted friendship, and of peace and tranquillity hereafter to be continued and maintained, and also that the articles vnder written may more prosperously be brought vnto a wished effect, between our said soueraign lord the king and his liege people and subiects, and the subiects, people, and inhabitants of the territories and dominions of the foresayd lord the Master generall, it is agreed and concluded, that all liege marchants of England whatsoeuer, shall haue free licence and libertie to arriue with their shippes, goods and marchandises whatsoeuer, at any porte of the land of Prussia, and also the sayd goods and marchandises farther vnto any place of the sayd land of Prussia to transport, and these with any person or persons freely to contract and bargaine, euen as heretofore, and from auncient times it hath bene accustomed. Which liberty in all respects is granted vnto the Prussians in England. [Sidenote: 1403.] Item it is further agreed betweene the sayd ambassadours, procurators, and commissioners, that whereas of late, namely in the yeare of our lord 1403, the sayd Master general by his discreet subiects Iohn Godek of Dantzik, and Henry Monek of Elbing, his ambassadors and messengers, for this purpose hath caused certain articles, (namely 20, in number) containing in them matters of damages, molestations, violences, and iniuries committed and offered against the said Master generall and his subiects, by our sayd soueraigne lord the king his subiects and liege people, to be exhibited, giuen vp and deliuered vnto our lord the king aforesaid in his kingdome of England: it is concluded and agreed about the sayd 20, articles, by the aforesaid ambassadors, commissioners, and procurators, as in the acts and pleas had and made before the sayd ambassadors, commissioners and procurators, and in the records made and written of and about, the examination of such articles, it is more at large contayned (vnto the which the sayd ambassadors, commissioners, and messengers doe here in this place referre themselues) of the which articles also some are receiued by the commissioners aforesayd, and others are proroged vnto a certaine time vnder written, euen as in the foresayd registers it is more fully contayned and put downe in writing. As touching certaine other articles also exhibited a newe vnto the sayd English ambassadors, in the land of Prussia being 16 in number (whereof one is admitted, and the rest are proroged vntil A terme vnder written) the same course is to be taken and obserued, which was before appoynted and agreed vpon, about the articles deliuered and exhibited vnto our foresayd souraigne lorde the king, as is aforesayd. Moreouer, as touching the articles exhibited by the English ambassadours in the name and behalfe of their sayd soueraigne lord the king of England, vnto the procuratours and commissioners of the foresayd lord the Master generall (of the which some are declared already, and the declaration of the rest is proroged vntill a certayne terme vndernamed, euen as in the registers made of and vpon the examination of the sayd articles, it is more manifestly prouided) the same course is to be taken, which must be obserued about the articles of the sayd lord the Master general), exhibited, as well vnto the foresayd soueraigne prince in England, as vnto his ambassadors in the land of Prussia, euen as about the sayd articles it is before concluded. [Sidenote: The complaints of Liuonians.] And whereas on the behalfe of the citizens and marchants of the cities of Rij and Dorp [Footnote: These cities seem to haue been large commercial centres.], and of other townes in the land of Liuonia, many and great complaints haue bene by way of articles exhibited and deliuered vnto the sayd English ambassadours in the land of Prussia, which for diuers causes, could not as then be ended: therefere it is concluded and agreed vpon betweene the ambassadours, and the commissioners aforesayd, that the saide citizens and marchants may in the towne of Dordract in Holland, vpon the first day of the moneth of May next ensuing (at the which time and place, the continuation and prorogation of all other articles not fully declared in the partes of Prussia, shall be put in vre [Footnote: _Ure_ i.e., use. Norman or law French (See Kelham's Norman Dict.) This vickering will but keep our arms in _ure_, The holy battles better to endure. --_Four Prentices of London_, VI., 493. In Chaucer's time it also meant fortune, like the French Neure. (NARES' _Glossary_).] by themselues or their lawfull procurators, make their appearance, for the obtayning of a conuenient, iust, and reasonable reformation of all iniuries attempted against them, then, or at some other times within one whole yere next following, and not afterward, being effectually set downe and limited, at the place aforesaid, by the consent of the ambassadours and commissioners of either parte, all lawfull impediments ceasing. Prouided alwayes, that the value and price of all wares, goods, and marchandises, whereof the said citizens and marchants of Liuonia, in their articles receiued by the sayde English ambassadours, as is aforesayd, doe make mention, shall be iustly esteemed, prized, and approoued, not by any of England, or of Prussia, or of Liuonia, but by some other indifferent marchants of good credite, valuing them at the true rate of marchants, which such like marchandise wonld haue amounted vnto, if, at the time when they were taken, they had bene to be solde at the town of Bruges in Flanders. Forasmuch also, as diuers and sundry Prussians (who exhibited manifolde Articles of complaints, being receiued by the said English Ambassadonrs, at their abode in Prussia) made not their personall appearance, before the saide English Ambassadours, in the lande of Prussia aforesaide: The prorogation aboue-mentioned was made vnto the first day of the moneth of May: and also it was agreed vpon by the saide Ambassadours, Procurators, and Commissioners, that the saide parties which had not appeared before shall haue libertie graunted them, lawfully to make their appearance, vpon the first of May aforesaide, at the towne of Dordract, either by themselues or by their Procurators, and also to bring with them the letters testimonial, and patents, sealed with the seale of the saide Lord the master generall, (he hauing first of all receiued sound and sufficient information from the cities whereof the parties plaintife are citizens, of the damages and grieuances any way vniustly inflicted vpon them or any of them by the English) to the end that they may there by articles conueniently declare and proue, before the Ambassadours, Procurators, messengers, and Commissioners of both partes, the rate and value of their said goods: and that in so doing they may obtaine conuenient, iust, and reasonable restitution, for all acts vniustly attempted against them, then, or at some other times effectually to bee set downe and limited at the foresaid place by the consent of the Ambassadors and Commissioners of both parts, euen as it was aboue promised vnto the marchants of Liuonia. But if they of Prussia last aboue-mentioned, shall not vpon the first of May, and at the place appointed, for some cause, make their appearance, that then it shalbe lawfull for them, at any time within one whole yeere next following, to repaire vnto the lord Chancelor of England, at the citie of London, and to insinuate and declare vnto him their complaints before exhibited vnto the saide English Ambassadours in the land of Prussia, or which complaints should haue bene deliuered at the foresaid terme and place, or els, the which were not then and there fully finished and dispatched: and also by articles as is aforesaide, to declare and proue the true worth and estimation of all damages and grieuances any wayes vniustly offered by the English vnto them or any of them: to the ende that they may (as it is aboue mentioned) effectually receiue, and also speedily and easily obtaine conuenient, iust, and reasonable reformation and satisfaction, for al acts vniustly attempted against them, which are contained in the complaints not as yet fully declared and finished. Moreouer, it is appointed and agreed vpon betweene the foresaide Ambassadours and Commissioners: that the forenamed souereign Lord and the said lord the Master general are to send and set forward their Ambassadours, messengers, and Commissioners, vpon the first of May vnto the place appointed, to treate, parle, agree, and conclude about those affaires, which shal then and there happen to be treated of and handled among them. Furthermore, betweene the often mentioned Ambassadours, Procurators, and Commissioners, it is enacted and concluded: [Sidenote: Note well.] that vnto all and singular lawfull statutes, ordinations, and prohibitions framed, made, and ordained, by the saide lorde the Master generall, in his land of Prussia, or by his Proconsuls and Consuls, and his gouernours of cities, townes, villages, and of other places in the land of Prussia, vnto the obseruation whereof, aswell the subiectes of the said Master general, as foreners and strangers, are tyed and bound: vnto the very same statutes, ordinations, and prohibitions, al English marchants whatsoeuer resorting vnto the land of Prussia, must be firmely bounden and subiect. Also it is ordained, that whatsoeuer sale-clothes are already transported, or at any time hereafter to bee transported out of England into Prussia by the English marchants, and shall there be offered to bee solde, whether they be whole cloathes or halfe cloathes, they must containe both their endes. Lastly, that the matters aboue-mentioned fall not short and voyde of their wished effect; the treaty and conference about all and singular damages and grieuances (whereof there is not as yet done, but there must be, by the vertue of these presents, performed, a reformation and amendment) must be continued and proroged vntill the first of May next ensuing: as by these presents they are continued and proroged with the continuation of the dayes then immediately following, at the towne of Dordract aforesaide: at the which time and place, or at other times and places, in the meane space, as occasion shall serue, by both parties to be limited and assigned, or else within one yeere after the said first day of the moneth of May next ensuing bee expired: the hurt and damaged parties generally before-mentioned, shall haue performed vnto them a conuenient, iust, and reasonable reformation on both partes. Prouided alwayes, if within the terme of the saide yeere, some conuenient, iust, and reasonable reformation bee not performed vnto the parties iniuried, and endamaged, which are generally aboue mentioned: that then, within three whole moneths after the foresaid yere shall haue expired, the Prussians shall depart out of the realmes and dominions of the saide Soueraigne Lord the king of England, together with their marchandize, and with other goods which they shal haue gotten or bought, within the space of the foresaid three moneths: and that the English men also are likewise, in all respects bounden to auoid and (no lawfull impediment hindering them) to withdrawe themselues and to depart out of the territories and dominions of the saide Master generall, without all molestation, perturbation, and impediment whatsoeuer, none other intimation or admonition being necessarie in this regard. Howbeit least that by the robberies and piracies of some insolent and peruerse people, matter should be ministred vnto the said lord the Master generall, of swaruing from the faithfull obseruation of the foresaid agreements, or (which God forbid) any occasion bee giuen him of not obseruing them: it is also decreed by the often aboue mentioned Ambassadours and messengers, that if the goods and marchandize of any of the saide lorde Master generall his subiectes whatsoeuer shall be from henceforth vniustly taken vpon the Sea, by any English Pirates, and shalbe caried into the realme of England, and there receiued, that the Gouernours and keepers of portes, and of other places (with whatsoeuer names they be called) at the which portes and places such merchandises and goods shall chaunce to arriue, beeing onely informed of the saide goods and marchandises, by sole report, or (other proofes wanting) by probable suspition are bound to arrest and to keep them in safe custodie, fauourably to be restored vnto the owners thereof, whensoeuer they shall be lawfully demaunded: which if they shall omit or deny to performe, from thenceforth the saide gouernours and keepers are bound to make vnto the parties endamaged, a recompense of their losses. And for fault of iustice to be executed, by the said gouernours and keepers, our soueraign lord the king aboue named, after he shall conueniently be requested by the parties damnified, is bound within three moneths next ensuing (all lawfull impediments being excepted) to make correspondent, iust, and reasonable satisfaction, vnto the saide partes endamaged. Otherwise, that it shal be right lawfull for the saide lorde the Master generall, to arrest, and after the arrest to keepe in safe custodie the goods of the English marchants being in the land of Prussia, to the condigne satisfaction of such iniuries, as haue bene offered vnto his subiects, vntill his said subiects be iustly and reasonably contented. Likewise also in all respects, the same iustice is to be done vnto the English by the said Lord the Master generall and his subiects in Prussia, euen as it hath bene enacted and decreed in the aboue written clause, beginning, Cæterum ne per &c. In English: Howbeit least that &c. for the said Master general, and his subiects by the foresaide ambassadors of England, and the commissioners of the said lord the Master generall, that in like cases iustice ought to be administred on the behalfe of himselfe, and of his subiects in the realme of England. And that all and singular the couenants aboue written, may in time to come, by the parties whom they concern, firmly and inuiolably be obserued; the forenamed ambassadors, messengers, and commissioners, all and euery of them, for the full credite, probation, and testimonie of all the premisses, haue vnto these present Indentures, made for the same purpose, caused euerie one of their seales with their owne hands to be put. One part of the which indentures remaineth in the custodie of the English ambassadors, and the other part in the hands of the commissioners of Prussia. Giuen at the castle of Marienburgh in Prussia, in the yeere of our Lorde 1405. vpon the 8. day of the moneth of October. * * * * * An agreement made betweene King Henrie the fourth and the common societie of the Marchants of the Hans. This Indenture made betweene the honourable Sir William Esturmy knight, and Iohn Kington clearke, procurators, messengers, and commissioners sufficiently deputed and authorized by the most mighty Prince, Lord Henry, by the grace of God king of England, and France, and lord of Ireland, for the performation of the things vnderwritten, on the one part: and the hon. personages M. Henry Vredeland, M. Riman Salum chief notaries, Thederic Knesuolt secretary, M. Simon Clouesten chief notary, and Iohn Zotebotter citizen, being sufficiently made and ordained procurators and messengers, on the behalfe of the cities of Lubec, Bremen, Hamburg, Sund, and Gripeswold, for the demanding and obtaining seuerally, of due reformation, and recompense at the hands of our saide souereigne lord the king, and of his messengers and commissioners aforesayde, for all iniuries, damages, grieuances, and manslaughters, any wayes vniustly done, and offred seuerally by the liege people and subiects of our soueraigne lord the king, vnto the common societie of the marchants of the Hans, and vnto any of the Citizens, people and inhabitants of the cities aforesaide whatsoeuer on the other part, Witnesseth: That betweene all and euery of the saide Procurators, messengers, and Commissioners, by vertue of the authoritie committed vnto them, it hath bene and is appointed, concluded, and decreed: that the liege marchants and subiects of our said soueraigne lord the king, and the marchants of the common societie of the Dutch Hans aforesaide, from hencefoorth for one whole yeere and seuen moneths immediately next ensuing and following, shalbe permitted and licenced friendly, freely, and securely, to exercise mutual traffike, and like marchants to buy and sell together, one of, and vnto another, euen as in times past, [Sidenote: 1400.] namely, in the yeere 1400. and before that time also, they haue bin accustomed to exercise mutuall traffike and marchandise, and to buy and sell. Also the saide William and Iohn agreed and consented, that they themselues, or some other perhaps to be appointed in this behalfe by their saide lord the king in their stead, shall vpon the first day of the moneth of May next to come, with the continuation of the dayes following, at the towne of Dordract in Holland, or vpon any other terme or termes, then perhaps to bee limited, competently satisfie, and performe conuenient recompence vnto the saide common societie, citizens, people, and inhabitants of the cities aforesaide, and also of other cities, townes and villages of the Hans, of and for all iniuries, damages, grieuances, and drownings, or manslaughters done and committed, as they alleage, against them, deliuered and exhibited in written articles, vnto the aboue named William and Iohn, or els heereafter to bee deliuered and exhibited, either by the same procurators or by some others, which shall perhaps be authorized in their stead, of by the messengers procurators and commissioners of other cities, townes, and places of the Hans, in equall and like maner and forme, euen as at the saide terme limited, or then perhaps to be proroged, there is appointed by the said William and Iohn, reparation, reformation, and recompence vnto the inhabitants of Prussia, and Liuonia, for the iniuries, damages, and grieuances vniustly done and committed against them by the liege people and subiects of the saide soueraigne lord the king, in the presence of the mightie lord the Master general of Prussia, in his land of Prussia, as in certain letters indented, bearing date in the castle of Marienburgh in Prussia the eight day of the moneth of October, in the yeere of our lord 1405. and being made and written about the reparation, reformation, and recompence of such like iniuries &c. (the tenour whereof ought here to be vnderstood as if it were inserted) it is more manifestly contained. It was furthermore promised by the said William and Iohn, that they should uot inforce nor compell the citizens, people, or inhabitants of the common society of the Hans, or of the aboue named cities, or of any other cities of the Hans aforesaid (hauing receiued sufficient information of their dwelling and place of abode) to more difficult or district proofes of their Articles of complaints alreadie exhibited, and in the foresaide termes to come, to bee exhibited, then vnto the inhabitants of the lands of Prussia and Liuonia, according to the forme of the Indentures aboue mentioned. Moreouer the saide William and Iohn doe promise, that so soone as they shall come into the kingdome of England, and before the presence of their king, they shal prouide, that all and singular the priuiledges graunted vnto the marchants of the saide Hans by the renowmed kings of England, and confirmed by the said Soueraigne lord the king that now is, must, according to al their contents, be inuiolably obserued by the said soueraigne king and his subiects: and also, that from henceforth nothing is vniustly to be attempted, vpon any occasion, pretense, or colour, by the saide Soueraigne Prince, and the inhabitants, of the realme of England, to the preiudice of the sayde priuiledges. They shall prouide also, that all things heretofore attempted and practised against the saide priuiledges, shall, by reasonable, amendement and iust reformation, vtterly be abolished. But if after the date of these presents (which God forfend) within the space of the said one yere and seuen moneths prescribed any damages, iniuries or grieuances, in ships, goods, or persons, should, either by the English and the inhabitants of England be vniustly inflicted vpon the cities, and marchants of the cities, townes, and places of the Hans aforesaid, or by any merchants or others of the cities or townes of the saide Hans, either vnto the English, or vnto any of the inhabitants of that Realme, vpon any fained pretense whatsoeuer, all and singular the foresaid messengers, commissioners, ambassadours, and procurators haue promised, that all such damages, iniuries and molestations so inflicted by them who shall offer and commit them, must bee reformed and amended, after the very same forme and manner, that in the like case reformation, reparation and amends of iniuries, damages, and molestations committed by the English against them of Prussia is to be performed, according vnto a certaine clause contained in the letters aboue mentioned, which beginneth: Cæterum ne per &c. In English: Howbeit least that &c. continuing vnto that clause: Et vt præscripta omnia &c. In English: And that all the couenants aboue written &c. It was also concluded betweene the foresaide messengers, commissioners, and procurators, and with one generall consent agreed vpon, that if from the first day of the moneth of May next to come, within one whole yeere following, some conuenient, iust, and reasonable reformation be not performed vnto the parties iniured and damnified generally aboue mentioned, in regard of their damages, molestations, and iniuries: then, within three moneths after the saide yeere bee expired, the marchants of the Hans cities aforesaid are bound, without any molestation, perturbation, and impediment whatsoeuer (none other intimation or admonition being necessarie in this behalfe) to auoyde (and if no lawfull impediment shall hinder them) to abstaine and depart from the Realmes and Dominions of the said Soueraigne king of England, with their marchandize and other goods bought or gotten within the space of the saide three moneths: and also the English likewise in all respects shall auoide, abstaine, and depart from the territories and dominions of the Hans cities aforesaide. Also it was promised by the saide William and Iohn, that at the terme appointed, namely upon the first of May next following, or at some other terme or termes then limited or to bee limited, there must be made a due recompense, and a proportionall satisfaction, for all those persons of the land of Prussia, Liuonia, and of the cities, townes, and other places of the Hans who haue uniustly bene drowned, and slaine by the English: and that according to the tenour of a certain schedule written concerning a recompense to be had in regarde of the saide persons drowned and slaine, and presented unto them by Albertus Rode consul of the citie of Thoren, and by the forenamed procurators and messengers of the cities aforesaid, they must faithfully and effectually, to the vtmost of their abilitie indeuour, for the obtaining of the saide recompense and amends. In witnesse whereof (these letters of indenture remaining in the possession of the saide William and Iohn the messengers, procurators, and commissioners of England aforesaid, and left in their custodie, by the aboue named procurotors and messengers Henrie Rimarus, Thedericus, Simon, and Iohn Sotebotter, of their certaine knowledge and assurance) and for the full confirmation and testimonie of al the premisses, the foresaid procurators and messengers haue put to their seales. Giuen in the towne of Dordract the 15. day of December in the yere of our Lord 1405. William Esturmy knight, and Iohn Kington canon of Lincolne (being in this behalfe sufficiently authorized and deputed as Ambassadours, procurators, messengers and commissioners, by our said soueraigne lord the king, namely in regard of the molestations, iniuries and damages uniustly done and committed against the liege people and subiects of the foresaide most excellent Prince and lord, Lord Henry by the grace of God king of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, by the communalties of the cities of Wismer and Rostok vnderwritten, their common counsel being assembled for the same purpose, and authorized also, and as well closely as expresly maintained and ratified, by the whole companie of the common society of the marchants of the Dutch Hans) doe, in this present diet at the towne of Hage situate in the countrey of Holland, being appointed for the very same occasion, demaund of you Syr Iohn de Aa knight, and Hermannus Meyer deputies for the cities of Wismer and Rostok, and sufficiently ordeined by authority requisite in this behalfe, to be the procurators and messengers of the said cities, that conuenient, iust, and reasonable satisfaction and recompense may certainely and effectually be done vnto the iniured and endamaged parties, who are specified in the articles vnder written. [Sidenote: Newcastle. An English ship of 200 tunnes.] Imprimis, that about the feast of Easter, in the yeere of our Lord 1394. Henry van Pomeren, Godekin Michael, Clays Sheld, Hans Howfoote, Peter Hawfoote, Clays Boniface, Rainbek, and many others, with them of Wismer and of Rostok, being of the societie of the Hans, tooke, by maine force, a ship of Newcastle vpon Tine, called Godezere sailing vpon the sea towards Prussia, being of the burthen of two hundred tunnes, and belonging vnto Roger de Thorneton, Robert Gabiford, Iohn Paulin, and Thomas de Chester: which ship, together with the furniture thereof amounteth vnto the value of foure hundred, pounds: also the woollen cloth, the red wine, the golde, and the summes of money contained in the said ship amounted vnto the value of 200. marks of English money: moreouer they vniustly slew Iohn Patanson and Iohn Russell in the surprising of the shippe and goods aforesaide, and there they imprisoned the sayde parties taken, and, to their vtter vndoing, detayned them in prison for the space of three whole yeeres. [Sidenote: Hull.] Item, that in the yeere of our Lord 1394 certaine persons of Wismer and Rostok, with others of the Hans their confederates robbed one Richard Horuse of Hull of diuers goods and marchandizes in a ship called the Shipper Berline of Prussia, beeing then valued at 160. nobles. Item, that in the yeere of our Lorde 1395. Hans van Wethemonkule, Clays Scheld, Godekin Mighel, and one called Strotbeker, by force of armes, and by the assistance of the men of Wismer and Rostok, and others of the Hans, did vpon the Sea neere vnto Norway, wickedly and vniustly take from Iohn Tutteburie, fiue pieces of waxe, foure hundred of werke, and halfe a last of osmundes, and other goods, to the value of foure hundred seuentie sixe nobles. Item, in the yeere of our Lorde 1396. one Iohn van Derlowe, Hans van Gelder, and other their complices of the Hans villainously and vniustly tooke a shippe of William Terry of Hul called the Cogge, with thirtie wollen broad clothes, and a thousand narrow clothes, to the value of 200. pounds. Item, in the yeere of our Lorde 1398. one Iohn van Derlowe, Wilmer, Hans van Gelder, Clays Scheld, Euerade Pilgrimson, and diuers others of the Hans, did vpon the Sea neere vnto Norway villainously and vniustly take a shippe of Iohn Wisedome of Hull called the Trinitie, with diuers goods and marchandizes, namely oyle, waxe, and werke, to the value of 300. pounds. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1399. one Clays Scheld, and others aboue written of Wismer and Rostok, with certaine others of the Hans, their confederates, wickedly and vniustly tooke from one William Pound marchant of Hull, two cakes of waxe, to the value of 18. poundes, out of the ship called the Hawkin Derlin of Dantzik. [Sidenote: Yorke.] Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1394. one Goddekin Mighel, Clays Scheld, Storbiker, and diuers others of Wismer and Rostok, and of the Hans, wickedly and vniustly tooke out of a ship of Elbing (the master whereof was called Henry Puys) of the goods and marchandizes of Henrie Wyman, Iohn Topcliffe, and Henry Lakenswither of Yorke, namely in werke, waxe, osmunds, and bowstaues, to the value of 1060. nobles. Item, in the yeere of our Lorde 1394. certaine malefactors of Wismer and Rostok, with others of the Hans, their confederats wickedly and vniustly took out of a ship of Holland (the master whereof was called Hinkensman) 140. woollen clothes (the price of one of the which clothes was eight nobles) from Thomas Thester of Yorke, and a chest, with armour, siluer and Golde of the foresaid Thomas, to the value of 9. pounds. [Sidenote: London.] Item, in the yere of our Lord 1393. certaine malefactors of Wismer and Rostok, and others their complices of the Hans, wickedly and vniustly tooke from one Richard Abel of London woollen cloth, greene cloth, meale and fishes, to the value of 133. li. 6. s. Item, in the yeere of our Lorde 1405. about the feast of S. Michael, one Nicholas Femeer of Wismer marchant of the Hans, with the assistance of other his complices of the Hans aforesaide, wickedly and vniustly tooke from one Richard Morley citizen of London fiue lasts of herrings, besides 32. pounds, in the sea called Northsound. [Sidenote: Colchester.] Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1398; about the moneth of September, one Godekin Wisle, and Gerard Sleyre of Wismer and Rostok, with others of the Hans, their confederats wickedly and vniustly took out of a ship of Prussia (wherof the master was named Rorebek) from Iohn Seburgh marchant of Colchester two packs of woollen cloth, to the value of 100. markes: from Stephan Flispe, and Iohn Plumer marchants of the same town two packs of woollen cloth, to the value of 60. pounds: from Robert Wight marchant of the same towne, two packs of woollen cloth to the value of an 100. marks: from William Munde marchant of the same town, two fardels of woollen cloth, worth 40. li. and from Iohn Dawe, and Thomas Cornwaile marchants of the same towne, three packs of woollen cloth, worth 200. marks. Moreouer they tooke and imprisoned certain English men, which were in the said ship, namely William Fubborne seruant vnto Iohn Diere, Thomas Mersh seruant vnto Robert Wight, which Thomas paid for his ransome 20. nobles of English money, William Munde marchant of the towne aforesaide, which William, by reason of the extremity of that imprisonment, lost the sight of his eyes, and Thomas Cornwaile, marchant of the foresaide Towne, which Thomas paide for his raunsome twentie nobles. [Sidenote: Yermouth. Norwich] Item, in the yeere of our Lorde 1394 certaine malefactors of Wismer and Rostok, vpon the coastes of Denmark and Norway, beneath Scawe, and at Anold, tooke Thomas Adams and Iohn Walters marchants of Yermouth: and Robert Caumbrigge and Reginald Leman marchants of Norwich, in a certaine shippe of Elbing in Prussia (whereof one Clays Goldesmith was master) with diuers woollen clothes of the saide Thomas, Iohn, Robert, and Reginald, to the value of one thousande marks English, and carried the persons and goods aforesaide, away with them: and the said Thomas, Iohn, Robert, and Reginald they imprisoned at Courtbuttressow, and there detained them, vntill they paide an hundred markes for their redemption. [Sidenote: Yermouth.] Item in the yeere of our Lorde 1401. some of the inhabitants of Wismer and of Rostok wickedly tooke at Longsound in Norway, a certaine shippe of West-Stowe in Zealand (the Master whereof was one Gerard Dedissen) laden with diuerse goods and marchandises of Iohn Hughson of Yermouth, namely with the hides of oxen and of sheepe, with butter, masts, sparres, boordes, questingstones and wilde werke, to the value of an hundred marks, and do as yet detaine the said things in their possession, some of the Hans being their assistants in the premisses. Item, in the yeere of our Lorde 1402. certaine of the Hans, of Rostok, and of Wismer, tooke vpon the coast of England, neere vnto Plimmouth a certaine barge called the Michael of Yarmouth (whereof Hugh ap Fen was the owner, and Robert Rigweys the master) laden with bay salt, to the quantitie of 130. wayes, and with a thousand canuasse clothes of Britaine, and doe as yet detaine the saide goods in their possession, the said Hugh being endamaged, by the losse of his ship, and of his goods aforesaid 800. nobles and the foresaid Master and the mariners loosing, in regard of their wages, canuas, and armour, 200. nobles. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1405. certain malefactors of Wismer wickedly and vniustly tooke, in a certaine port of Norway called Selaw, a ship of Yarmouth (the owner whereof was William Oxney and the master Thomas Smith) laden with salt, cloth, and salmon, to the value of 40. pound, and doe as yet detaine the said ship and goods in their possession, some of the Hans their confederates ayding and assisting them at the same time. [Sidenote: Cleye.] Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1395. one Godekin Mighel, Clays Scheld, Stertebeker, and other their accomplices of the Hans, vnlawfully tooke vpon the sea a certaine ship of one Iohn Dulwer of Cley, called the Friday (whereof Laurence Tuk of Cley was master) and conueyed the ship it self vnto Maustrond in Norway, and the saide Master and mariners they robbed of diuers commodities, namely of artillery, furniture, and salt fishes being in the same ship, to the value of 500. nobles. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1395. Godekin Mighel, Clays Scheld, Stertebeker, and other their accomplices of the Hans vnlawfully tooke vpon the sea a certaine ship of one William Bets of Cleys called the Margaret (wherein Robert Robines was master) and conueyed the ship it self vnto Mawstrond in Norway, and there robbed the master and his partners of diuers commodities, namely of artillerie, furniture, and salt fishes, to the value of 400. nobles, and one of the said masters mates they maliciously drowned. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1395. about the feast of the natiuitie of S. Iohn Baptist, the forenamed Godekin and Stertebeker, with others their accomplices of the Hans, vnlawfully took vpon the sea a certain ship of Nicholas Steyhard and Iohn Letis of Cley called the Nicholas (whereof Iohn Prest was master) and conueyed the said ship vnto Mawstrond, and there robbed the said master and his companie of diuers commodities, namely of furniture and salt fishes, being in the said ship, to the value of 320. nobles. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1395. about the feast aforesaid, the said Godekins and Stertebeker, and their companions of the Hans vniustly took vpon the sea a certaine ship of Thomas Peirs of Cley called the Isabel (whereof William Noie was master) and conueyed it vnto Mawstrond, and there robbed the said master and his company of diuers commidities, as namely of furniture, and salt fishes, being in the said ship, to the value of 406. nobles. Item, in the yeere next aboue mentioned, vpon the Saterday, about the foresaid feast, the forenamed Godekins and Stertebeker, and other their accomplices of the Hans unlawfully took vpon the sea, a certain ship of one Thomas Lyderpole of Cley, called the Helena, wherein Robert Alwey was master, and also wickedly and vniustly drowned in the bottom of the sea diuers commodities, as namely salt fishes, together with the ship it selfe. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1398. about the feast of S. Michael the archangel, the foresaid Godekin and Stertebeker, with other their confederats of the Hans, took at Langsound in Norway a certain crayer of one Thomas Motte of Cley, called the Peter, (wherein Thomas Smith was master) and the foresaid crayer they wickedly and vniustly caried away, being worth 280. nobles. [Sidenote: Wiueton.] Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1395. about the feast of the natiuitie of S. Iohn Baptist, the forenamed Godekins and Stertebeker, and others of the Hans vniustly tooke a certain ship of Simon Durham, called the Dogger-ship, and the Peter of Wiueton, laden with salt fishes (whereof Iohn Austen was master) vpon the coast of Denmarke. And they caried away the saide Dogger, with the furniture thereof, and the foresaid salt fishes, to the value of 170. pound. Moreouer, the master, and 25. mariners in the same ship they maliciously slewe, and a certaine ladde of the saide Dogger they caried with them vnto Wismer. Item, in the foresaid yeere, and about the feast aforesaid, the forenamed Godekins and Stertebeker, with other their complices, vniustly tooke vpon the sea a certain ship of Thomas Lyderpole, and Iohn Coote of Wiueton: and the master and mariners which were in the saide shippe, they villanously slue, among whom they put to death one Simon Andrew, the godsonne, nephew, and seruant of the foresaid Simon Durham. Which ship, with the goods and furniture that were therein was worth 410. nobles. Item, in the very same yeere, about the feast aforesaid, the forenamed Godekins and Stertebeker and other their complices wickedly spoiled a certaine ship of the foresaid Simon Durham called the Dogger, wherein Geruase Cat was master, lying, at an anker, while the companie were occupied about fishing, and likewise vniustly tooke away with them the salt fishes, and furniture of the said ship. Moreouer, the master and his company that were in the said Dogger they beate and wounded, so that they vtterly lost their fishing for that yeere, the master and his said companie being endamaged thereby, to the summe of 200. nobles. Item, in the yere of our Lord 1396. the foresaid Godekins and Stertebeker, and other their complices vniustly tooke vpon the sea a certain crayer, called the Buss of Zeland, which one Iohn Ligate marchant, and seruant vnto the forenamed Simon Durham had laden in Prussia, on the behalfe of the said Simon, to saile for England, and spoiled the said craier, and also tooke and caried away with them the goods and marchandises of the said Simon, being in the foresaid ship, to the value of 66. pounds. Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1397. certaine malefactors of Wismer and Rostok, with certaine others of the Hans, tooke a crayer of one Peter Cole of Zeland, called the Bussship, which Alan Barret the seruant and factor of the foresaid Simon Durham had laden with mastes, sparres, and other marchandize, for the behalfe of the said Simon, and vniustly tooke from thence the goods of the said Simon, to the value of 24. pounds, and caried the same away. [Sidenote: Lenne.] Item, in the yeere of our Lord 1394. certaine malefactors of Wismer and others of the Hans vniustly tooke vpon the sea, and caried away with them a packe of woollen cloth of the foresaid Simon, worth 42. pounds, out of a certain crayer of one Thomas Fowler of Lenne being laden and bound for Dantzik in Prussia. Item, pitifully complaining the marchants of Lenne doe auouch, verifie, and affirme, that about the feast of S. George the martyr, in the yeere of our Lord 1394. sundry malefactors and robbers of Wismer and Rostok, and others of the Hans, with a great multitude of ships, arriued at the towne of Norbern in Norway, and tooke the said town by strong assault, and also wickedly and vniustly took al the marchants of Lenne there residing with their goods and cattels, and burnt their houses and mansions in the same place, and put their persons vnto great ransoms: [Sidenote: 21. houses of English marchants burnt at Norben in Norway.] euen as by the letters of safeconduct deliuered vnto the said marchants it may more euidently appeare, to the great damage and impouerishment of the marchants of Lenne: namely, Inprimis they burnt there 21. houses belonging vnto the said marchants, to the value of 440. nobles. Item, they tooke from Edmund Belyetere, Thomas Hunt, Iohn Brandon, and from other marchants of Lenne, to the value of 1815. pounds. [Concerning this surprise Albertus Krantzius in the sixt book of his history of Norway, [Footnote: _Chronica regnorum Aquiloniorum Dania, Suecia, Norwegia, Argentorati_, 1546. Folio.] and the 8. Chapter writeth in maner following. In the meane while Norway enioyed peace vnder the gouernment of a woman: vntil Albertus king of Suecia, who had now seuen yeeres continued in captiuity vnder Queen Margaret, was to be set at liberty. [Sidenote: The Vitalians.] Which, when the common souldiers of Rostok and Wismer, called the Vitalians perceiued, (who, whilest their king was holden captiue, in the right of the forenamed cities, for the behalfe of their lord the king being prince of Mekleburg by birth, vndertooke and waged warre al the time of his captiuitie) banding their forces together, they resolued, at their own costs and charges, but in the right of the said cities, to saile into the 3. kingdoms, and to take such spoiles as they could lay hold on. These common souldiers therfore, seeing an end of their tyrannical and violent dealing to approach, sailed into Norway, vnto the towne of Norbern, being a mart town for al the marchants of Germanie: who transporting fishes from thence, doe bring thither marchandises of all kinds; especially corne, vnto the scarcitie whereof, vnlesse it be brought out of other countreys, that kingdome (as we haue said) is very much subiect. Departing out of their ships and going on shore, they set vpon the towne, and by fire and sword they easily compelled the inhabitants dwelling in weake wodden houses, to giue place. Thus these Vitalians entring and surprising the towne conueyed such spoiles vnto their ships as them pleased, and hauing laden their ships with those booties, they returned home frolike vnto the ports of their own cities. Without all respect, they robbed and rifled the goods, aswel of the Germanes, as of the Noruagians: and like lewde companions, wasting and making hauock of all things, prooued themselues neuer the wealthier. For it is not the guise of such good fellowes to store vp or to preserue ought. The citizens, at the first, seemed to be inriched: howbeit afterward, (no man misdoubting any such calamitie) goods ill gotten were worse spent. Thus farre Krantzius.] Item, pitifully complaining, the foresaide marchants auouch, verifie, and affirme, that vpon the 14. day after the feast of S. George, in the yeere of our Lord next aboue written, as 4. ships of Lenne, laden with cloth, wine, and other marchandises, were sailing vpon the maine sea, with all the goods and wares conteined in them, for Prussia, sundry malefactors of Wismer and Rostok, with others of the Hans, being in diuers ships, came vpon them, and by force of armes and strong hand tooke the said ships, with the goods and marchandises contained in them: and some of the people which were in the saide foure ships, they slew, some they spoyled, and others they put vnto extreame ransomes. And carying away with them those foure ships with the commodities and marchandise therin, they parted stakes therwith, as them listed, to the great impouerishment and losse of the said marchants of Lenne, namely in cloth of William Silesden, Tho. Waterden, Ioh. Brandon, Ioh. Wesenham, and other marchants of Lenne, to the value of 3623. li. 5. s. 11. d. Item, pitifully complaining, the foresaid marchants doe affirme, that one Henry Lambolt and other his adherents, in the yeere of our Lord 1396. tooke vpon the maine sea betweene Norway and Scaw, one crayer laden with osmunds, and with diuers other marchandises, perteining vnto Iohn Brandon of Lenne, to the summe and value of 443. li. 4. s. 2. d. Moreouer, they tooke from Iohn Lakingay 4. lasts and an halfe of osmunds, to the value Of 220. lib. 10. s. Item, the foresaid marchants complaine, that certain malefactors of Wismer, with other their complices of the Hans, in the yeere of our Lord 1396. tooke from Thomas Ploket of Lenne, out of a certaine ship sailing vpon the maine sea towards Sconeland (whereof Iames Snycop was master) cloth and other marchandise, to the summe and value of 13. lib. 13. s. 4. d. Item, the aboue-named marchants complaine saying, that certaine malefactors of Wismer, with others of the Hans society, in the yere of our Lord 1397. wickedly and vniustly took out of a certaine ship of Dantzik (whereof Laurence van Russe was master) from Ralph Bedingam of Lenne, one fardel [Footnote: _Fardel_, a burden. (French, _Fardeau_.)] of cloth worth 52. li. 7. s. 6. d. Also, for the ransome of his seruant, 8. li. 6. s. 8. d. Item, they tooke from Thomas Earle diuers goods, to the value of 24. pounds. Item, the foresaid marchants complaine, that certaine malefactors of Wismer of Rostok, with others of the Hans, in the yeere of our Lord 1399, wickedly and vniustly tooke one crayer pertayning vnto Iohn Lakinglich of Lenne, laden with diuers goods and marchandise pertaining vnto sundry marchants of Lenne, namely from the forenamed Iohn one fardel of cloth, and one chest full of harneis, and other things, to the value of 90. lib. Item, they took out of the foresaid ship from Roger Hood, one fardel of cloth, and one chest with diuers goods, to the value of 58. lib. Item, from Iohn Pikeron, one fardell of cloth, and one chest with diuers goods, to the value of 440. lib. Item, from Andrew Purser one fardell of cloth, and one chest with diuers commodities therein, to the value of ten pounds. Item, the aboue named marchants complaine saying, that certaine malefactors of Wismer and Rostok, and others of the Hans, namely, Godekin Mighel, Henrie van Hall de Stertebeker, with other of their confederates, in the yeere of our Lord 1399. wickedly and vniustly took from Iohn Priour of Lenne, out of the ship of Michael van Burgh, namely 160. nests of masers, worth 100. lib. 13. s. 4. d. Item, 30. furres rigges of Kaleber woorth 13. s. 4. d. a piece, the summe totall amounting to 20. li. Item, 20. furres wombys of Kalebre worth &c. Item, one girdle of siluer, and one dagger adorned with siluer worth 30. s. Item, two coates, and one long iacket, and other goods, to the value of 30. s. Item, he paide for his ransome 4. lib. 13 s. 4. d. [Sidenote: Note the secret treasons of the Hans.] Vnto all and singular the articles aboue-written, the ambassadors of England aforesaid do further adde, that the doers and authors of the damages, iniuries, and robberies set down in the articles aboue written, (of whom some are named in particular, and others in general) performed and committed all those outrages, being hired thereunto at the expenses and charges of the common societies, of the cities aforesaid. And that the inhabitants of euery houshold in the foresaide cities (ech man according to his ability) wittingly and purposely set foorth one, two, or more men, for the very same expedition, wherein all and singular the foresaid trespasses were committed. The foresaid English ambassadors doe exhibite the articles aboue-written vnto the procurators of the cities of Wismer and Rostok aforesaid: leaue and libertie being alwayes reserued vnto the said ambassadors, to enlarge, or to diminish or to expound all, or euery, or any of the said Articles whatsoeuer, so often as it shall seeme expedient vnto them. * * * * * These be the grieuances and offences, whereat the marchants of the Hans of Almaine, comming vnto, and residing in the Realme of England, doe finde themselues aggrieued, contrarie to the Articles and priuileges of the Charter graunted vnto them by the worthy Progenitors of the king of England that now is, and also by the saide soueraigne Lord the King, ratified, and confirmed. Imprimis, whereas the foresaide marchants haue a priuilege graunted vnto them by Charter, that they may, in cities, boroughs, and in other towns and villages throughout the whole realme of England, exercise traffique in grosse, as wel with the natural inhabitants of the kingdome, as with strangers, and priuate persons: of late, those that are free denizens in the cities, boroughs, and villages within the foresaid kingdome, do hinder and restrain all others that be strangers, foreners, and aliens, that they neither can, nor dare buy and sel with the marchants of the Hans aforesaid, to their great hinderance and losse. Item, the foresaid by vertue of their charter were wont to haue and to hold Innes and mansions, for the reposing of themselues and of their goods, wheresoeuer they pleased in any cities, boroughs, or villages, throughout the whole kingdome; howbeit of late the foresaide marchants are not suffered to take vp their mansions, contrary to the tenour of their charter. Item, the foresaid marchants are priuileged not to vndergoe any other burthens or impositions, but onely to pay certaine customs, as it doeth by their charter manifestly appeare. Notwithstanding at the same time when Simon de Moreden was maior of London, the foresaid marchants were constrained, in the ward of Doue-gate at London, to pay fifteenths, tallages, and other subsidies contrary to the liberties of their charter. Whereupon the saide marchants prosecuted the matter before the Councel of our soueraign lord the king, insomuch that they were released from paying afterward any such tallages, fifteenths, and subsidies. Which marchants, a while after, of their owne accord and free will, gaue vnto the gild-hall of London an hundreth markes sterling, conditionally, that they of the citie aforesaid shoulde not at any time after exact or demaund of the said marchants, or of their successors, any tallages, fifteenths, or subsidies, contrary to the tenor of their charter, as by records in the foresaid gild-hall, it doth more plainly appeare. Howbeit of late the officers of our lord the king, in the foresaid ward of Doue-gate, constrained the marchants aforesaid to pay tallages, fifteenths, and other subsidies. And because the saide marchants murmured and refused to pay any such contributions, alleaging their priuileges, the foresaid officers arrested the goods of those said marchants (which are as yet detained vpon the arrest) notwithstanding that they were released before the councel of our soueraigne lord the king, and also that they gaue vnto the said gild-hall one hundreth marks to be released, as it is aforesaid. And also the foresaid marchants were constrained to pay 12. d. in the pound, and of late 6. d. and other subsidies, more then their ancient customes, to the great damage of those marchants. [Sidenote: The ancient customes of wools.] Item, the foresaid marchants are priuileged as touching customs of wols by them bought within the realm of England, that they are not bound to pay, ouer and besides their ancient customs, but onely xl. d, more then the homeborn marchants of England were wont to pay. [Sidenote: Pence for the towne of Cales.] But now the foresaid marchants are compelled to pay for euery sack of wool (besides the ancient custom and the 40. d. aforesaid) a certain imposition called Pence for the town of Cales, namely for euery sack of wool 19. d more then the marchants of England doe pay, to their great losse, and against the liberty of their charter. Item, the foresaid marchants are priuileged by their charter, that concerning the quantity of their merchandize brought into the realme of England (in regard whereof they are bound to pay 3. d. for the worth of euery pound of siluer) credit is to be giuen vnto them for the letters of their masters and of their companies, if they were able to shew them. And if so be they had no letters in this behalfe to shew, that then credite should bee giuen vnto themselues, and that their othe, or the othe of their atturney should be taken, without any other proof, as touching the value of their merchandize so brought in, and that thereupon they should be bound to pay customs, namely the customes of 3. d. iustly for that cause to be paid. But nowe the customers of our soueraigne lorde the king put their goods to an higher rate then they ought or were woont to be: and heereupon they compell them to pay custome for their goods, at their pleasure, scanning about their fraight and expenses particularly disbursed in regard of the said goods and marchandize, to the great hinderance of the said marchants, and against the tenor of their charter. [Sidenote: The great charter of marchants.] Item, the foresaid merchants by way of pitiful complaint do alleage, that, whereas the worthy progenitors of our Lord the king that now is, by vertue of the saide great charter, graunted liberty vnto them to pay the customes of certain clothes, namely of skarlet, and cloth died in grayne, and of other clothes of assise, which were by them to be caried out of the realme of England, euen as by their foresaid Charter it doeth more plainly appeare: and whereas our soueraigne lord the king that now is (ratifying and confirming the saide charter, and being willing that they shoulde haue more especiall fauour shewed vnto them) granted vnto them by their Charter, that the said marchants should be exempted and freed from all custome and imposition of small clothes, as in pieces and in narrow clothes which were not of assise, and in such other clothes of like qualitie: [Sidenote: A speciall charter.] yet of late the Customers of our Lorde the King that nowe is, not allowing their saide speciall Charter so graunted vnto the marchants aforesaid, do compel them to pay for straight clothes and for pieces of clothes which are not of assise, (together with other demands particularly and seuerally made) as great custome as if the clothes were full out of assise. [Sidenote: The customers of the pety custome.] Moreouer also of late, the customers of the smal or pety custome and of the subsidie doe demand of them custome for kersey-clothes equal vnto the custome of those clothes, that be of ful assise, whereas the foresaid marchants were not wont to pay for those kerseys by vertue of their Charter, but onely according to the worth of ech pound of siluer, as namely for other goods which are of golde weight: to the great hinderance of the foresaid parties, and against the manifest graunt of our soueraigne Lord the king, as it appeareth in the said speciall Charter. Item, the said merchants alleage, that they are priuiledged by their Charter, if they pay custome and subsidy for their goods in the behalfe of our lord the king, at any port of England where those goods haue arriued and afterward would transport the saide goods or any part of them vnto any other port within the realme aforesaid: that then they should be quite released from paying of any other custome for the same goods, if they bring a warrant that they haue paide the saide custome, as is aforesaide. [Sidenote: 1405.] Of late it fortuned, that a certaine man of their societie named Nicholas Crossebaire, being a marchant of the lande of Prussia, immediately after the concord was concluded betwene the English and the Prussians, brought vnto the towne of Sandwich a shippe laden with bowe-staues and other marchandize, and there well and truely paide the custome of our lord the king for all his ware: and selling there part of the same goods, he afterward transported parcel thereof in a small barke vnto London, there to be solde, and caried a warrant also with him, that he had at Sandwich paid the custome due vnto our lord the king: and yet (the said warrant notwithstanding) the customers of the pety custome and subsidy of London came and demanded custome of him at another time contrary to reason, and against the tenor of their charter: and the said Nicholas offred pledges vnto them, yea, euen ready money downe into their hands, vntil the question were discussed and determined, whether he should pay new custome or no: but this they would not doe. Then the said Nicholas brought a brief from our lord the king, to get himselfe discharged from paying the said custome: and for all that, the foresaid customers would not as yet haue regard vnto him, but kept the said goods within shipboord, vpon the riuer of Thames, for the space of 15. dayes, vntil he had paid another custome, to the great losse of the said Nicholas, for that which he sold first at Sandwich to be deliuered at London for seuen nobles, he could not afterward haue for it aboue foure nobles, and yet so was it solde, by reason of the harme which his wares had taken by lying so long vpon the water, contrary to the tenor of their Charter. Item, the said marchants do alleage, that another of their company called Peter Hertson bought at Bristow certain clothes, and laded the same in a ship, to be transported for Prussia, for the which he truely paide at Bristowe, the customs and subsidies due vnto our soueraign lord the king: which ship with the foresaid goods arriuing at London: the customers of the pety-custome and of the subsidie there would not permit the said ship with the goods to passe vnto the parts aforesaid, vntil the said Peter had paid another custome for the same goods (the warrant, which he brought with him notwithstanding) to his great hindrance, and contrary to the tenour of their Charter. Item, pitifully complaining the foresaid marchants alleage, that wheras euery marchant, bringing wares into the realm, was wont to haue a schedule wherein his name was written, for a specification and certificat of the quantity of his goods in the said schedule to be found at the arriual of the ship, without paying therfore ought at all, of late, the customers of the pety custome do compel them to pay for ech mans name written a peny, at the arriual of their goods out of euery ship wherin the said goods are found, what commodities and marchandize soeuer they be: whereas notwithstanding, if there be a chest or any other smal matter, there should not therfore be any custome due vnto our lord the king, nor any receiued vnto his Maiesties vse. [Sidenote: The customers of the subsidie.] In like maner do the customers of the subsidy deale. Whereas also the foresaid marchants were not wont to pay for a cocket for the conueyance and transportation of their goods out of the realme (albeit many names were written theirne) more then 4. d. of late the customers of the pety custom do compel them to pay for euery name contained in the same cocket 4. d. and in like sort do the customers of the saide subsidy deale. Which contribution in a yere extendeth it self vnto a great summe, to the vnknown preiudice of our lord the king, more then any man could suppose, (for the customers enioy their fees and commodities from his Maiestie that they may doe him faithfull seruice) and likewise to the great damage of the said marchants. Item, pitifully complaining the said marchants do alleage that they are constrained to pay for subsidy, sometime 12. d. and somtime 6. d. in the pound, contrary to the tenor of their charter: and yet notwithstanding when their marchandize commeth to the wharf, the customers prolong and delay the time 3. or 4. weeks before they wil take custome for their goods, in the which space other marchants sel their goods, the customers not regarding whether the goods aforesaid take wet or no: to the great damage aswel of our lord the king, as of the said marchants: because, if they had quicke dispatch, they might pay custome vnto his Maiestie oftner then they doe. Item, the said marchants doe farther alleage, that the customers of the petie custome, and of the subsidie in the port of London haue appointed among themselues certaine men to seale vp the goods of the saide marchants, so soon as they are arriued at the port of safetie, vntil the said goods be customed. By meanes of the which sealing, the foresaide parties doe compell the marchants aboue-named, (vpon an vse and custome whereof themselues haue bene the authors) to paye a certaine summe of money, to the great hinderance of the sayde marchants, and contrarie to iustice and to their charter. Moreouer, the saide customers haue ordained betweene themselues, that the saide marchants shall put or make vp no cloth into fardels, to transport out of the realme, vnlesse certaine men appointed by them for the same purpose bee there present, to see what maner of clothes they bee, vnder paine of the forfeiture of the saide goods. Also of late, when the sayde marchants would haue made up such fardels, the foresayde parties assigned to be ouerseers refused to come, vnlesse they might haue for their comming some certain summe of money, delaying and procrastinating from day to day, so long as themselues listed, to the great losse and vndoing of the foresaide marchants, and contrarie to their liberties: because the foresaide customers are bound by their office to doe this, without any contribution therefore to bee paide vnto them by the saide marchants: for that they doe enioy from our soueraigne Lord the King their fees and commodities, to the ende that they may serue him and euery marchant iustly and faithfully, without any contribution by them to be imposed anewe vpon the sayde marchants, of custome. Item, the said marchants doe alleage, that the customers and balifs of the town of Southampton do compel them to pay for euery last of herrings, pitch, and sope ashes brought thither by them 2. s. more then the kings custome: and for ech hundreth of bowstaues and boords called Waghenscot, 2. d. for euery hundreth of boords called Richolt, 4. d. and for al other marchandize brought by the foresaid marchants vnto the same towne: which contributions they neuer paid at any time heretofore, being greatly to their hinderance, and contrary to the tenour of their Charter. Item, the foresaid marchants do alleage, that one of their company; called Albert Redewish of Prussia, bringing diuers goods and marchandizes vnto Newcastle vpon Tine, and there laying the vsual custom of 3. d. in the pound for al his wares, the bailifs of the saide towne, against all reason, exacted 7. pound sterling at his hands more then the custome: whereupon the foresaide marchant got a briefe from the kings maiesty, for the recouery of the saide 7. li. according to equity and reason: howbeit, that at the comming of the said briefe the foresaid balifes would do nothing on his behalfe, but would haue slaine their foresaid associate, contrary to their charter and priuiledges. William Esturmy knight, and Iohn Kington canon of Lincolne, being by the most mighty prince and lord, L. Henry by Gods grace K. of England and France and lord of Ireland, sufficiently deputed and appointed to parle, treate, and agree with the common society of the marchants of the Hans of Dutchland or Almain, concerning and about the redressing and reformation of vniust attempts happening between our said soueraign L. the king his liege people and subiects on the one part, and between the common society aforesaid, the cities, towns, And particular persons thereof on the other part: do (for the behalf of our said soueraign L. the King, with a mind and intention to haue al and singular the things vnderwritten to come to the knowledge of the said common society) intimate, declare, and make known vnto you (hono. sirs) Henr. Westhoff citizen and deputy of the city of Lubec, Henry Fredelaw, Ioh. van Berk citizen of Colen, Mainard Buxtehude citizen, and deputy of the city of Hamburgh, M. Simon Clawstern clerk, sir Iohn de Aa knight deputie of the citie of Rostok, Herman Meyer deputy of the citie of Wismar, being as the procurators, messengers, and commissioners of the foresaid cities, assembled together at the town of Hage in Holland, with the forenamed Will. and Iohn in regard of the foresaid redres and reformation: that, euen as our said soueraign L. the king his meaning is not to disturb or hinder such priuiledges as haue bin heretofore granted and vouchsafed vnto the common society of the marchants aforesaid, by the renoumed kings of England, and the worthy progenitors of our L. the K. that now is, and by himself also vnder a certain form confirmed: euen so he is determined (without the preiudice of forren lawes) vpon iust mature, and sober deliberation, by his royall authorise to withstand such priuiledges, as by reason of the abuse thereof, haue bene infinitely preiudiciall vnto himselfe and his subiects. Inprimis the said ambassadours doe affirme as afore, that whereas all and euery the Marchants of the said company, as often as they would, were, both in the Realme of England, and in other territories and dominions subiect vnto our soueraigne lord the king, admitted and suffered (according to the tenor of the forenamed priuiledges granted vnto them) freely, friendly and securely to traffique and conuerse with any of his Maiesties liege people and subiects whatsoeuer, or with other people of whatsoeuer nation liuing in the realme of England, or in the dominions aforesaid: the said common society of marchants by their publike and deliberate common counsel did appoint and ordain, that no society in any cities, townes, or places, neither yet any particular man of any such society (there being no lawfull or reasonable cause why) shoulde in any wise admit any marchants of the realm of England resorting vnto their cities or other places for marchandise, to enioy intercourse of traffike: but that the saide English marchants should bee altogether excluded from all traffike and mutuall conuersation among them, by denouncing and inflicting grieuous penalties of money as well vpon cities as other places, and vpon particular marchants also of the foresaid societie practising the contrary. Item, that immediately after, the foresaid parties enacting and ordaining published their sayde statute and ordinance, in all kingdomes, prouinces, partes, cities, and townes, wherin any marchants of the said societie were conuersant. Item, that after that publication, the statute and ordinance aforesaid by euery of the marchants of the forenamed society were inuiolably obserued. Item, that the said statute and ordinance hath bene so rigorously put in execution, that whereas immediately after certaine English marchants with their ships, mariners, and marchandize beeing in a certaine part of one of the principall cities of the foresaide societie, vtterly destitute of meate, drinke, and money, publikely offred to sell their wollen clothes of England, onely to prouide themselues of necessary victuals: yet the marchants of the saide citie, stoutely persisting in their statute and ordinance aforesaid, straightly prohibited the buying of such clothes, vnchristianly denying meate and drinke vnto the said English marchants. Item, the foresaid society decreed and ordained, that no marchant of the saide Company should in any place or countrey whatsoeuer, buy any woollen clothes of the realme or dominion of England (albeit offered by others and not by English men) or hauing bought any, should, after the terme prefixed, sel them, imposing grieuous pecuniary mulcts, besides the forfeiture of the clothes so bought or sold, vpon them that would attempt the contrary. Item, that after the said statute and ordinance, the foresaide societie decreed, that all marchants of the said companie, hauing among their wares and marchandise any woollen clothes made in England, should either sell the saide clothes, or within a short space then limited, should, vnder penaltie of forfeiting the said clothes, utterly renounce the vse and commoditie thereof: Notwithstanding a grieuous penaltie of money being imposed vpon the violators of the same statute. [Sidenote: The Hans societie determineth the ouerthrow of English merchants.] Item, that the statutes and ordinances aforesaid might with more speed and celerity be put in execution, the said authors and publishers thereof imagining, according to their desire, that by this meanes an vtter extirpation and ouerthrow of English marchants might, yea and of necessity must ensue: upon their serious and long premeditated deliberation, straitely commanded and inioyned, vnder pain of losing the benefit of all priuileges, wheresoeuer, or by the princes of what lands, or the Magistrates of what Cities or townes soeuer vouchsafed vnto the said common societie, that not only the aldermen of that, society in al places throughout the realme of England, but also al other marchants of the said company, after the maner of marchants conuersing in the said Realme, should, without exception of persons, vtterly abstein from all intercourse of traffike with the marchants of the realme aforesaid: yea, and that they shoulde depart out of the said kingdome within a very short space limited. For the dispatching of al which premisses without delay, it was according to their commandement effectually prouided. [Sidenote: Statutes against the English marchants in Norway and Suedland.] Item, that the society aforesaid hath approued diuers very vnreasonable statutes and ordinances, made and published by the marchants of the same society residing in the kingdoms of Norway and Swedland, to the great preiudice of the kingdome of England, and the marchants thereof: and as yet both couertly and expresly do approue the same, vniustly putting them in daily execution. Item, wheras in the priuileges and indulgences granted by the renouned princes somtimes kings of England, the worthy progenitors of our souereign lord the king that now is, vnto the society aforesaid, it is prouided, that the said marchants shal not auow any man which is not of their company, nor shal not colour his goods and marchandize vnder their company; whereas also in the confirmation of the sayd priuiledges made up by our soueraigne lord that nowe is, it is manifestly prouided, that the marchants of the Hans towns, vnder the colour of their priuiledges in England, shall not vpon paine of the perpetuall frustration and reuocation of the foresayd priuiledges, receiue any stranger of any other towne in their liberties, by whom the kings custome may in any sort be withholden or diminished: and yet the contrary vnto al these prouisoes hath bin euery yere, for these 20. yeres or thereabout notoriously practised and committed, as well ioyntly by the generall counsell, and toleration of the foresayd society, as also seuerally by the aduise and permission of diuers particular cities of the foresayd Hans company to the great diminution of his maiesties custome, the estimation whereof the foresayd ambassadors are not able at this present fully to declare. [Sidenote: How many and which be the Hans townes.] But that all occasions of the last aboue mentioned diminution may bee preuented for the time to come, the sayd ambassadors doe demand to haue from the foresayd societie a declaration in writing, what and what maner of territories, cities, townes, villages or companies they be, for which the sayd society challengeth and pretendeth, that they ought to enioy the priuiledges granted vnto their marchants, as is aboue mentioned. Moreouer, it is required by the foresaid ambassadors, if the societie aforesayd hath not decreed nor ordayned the things aboue written, that the names of the cities and places decreeing and ordaining such statutes and ordinances, may by the sayd common society either now or at some other times and places conuenient for the same purpose, be expressed and set downe in writing. * * * * * A letter of Henry the fourth king of England &c. unto Frater Conradus de Iungingen the Master generall of Prussia. Henrie &c. to the most noble and mighty personage of sacred religion F: Conradus de Iungingen Master general of the order of the Dutch knights of S. Marie, our most deare friend, greeting, and continual perfection of amity. When as your messengers and ambassadors were of late personally present in Holland, and there expected the arriual of our ambassadors vntill the first day of the moneth of Nouember last expired, that there might bee by way of friendly conference a remedie prouided in regard of certaine iniuries pretended to be offered, by both our subiects one against another, for the publique commoditie of both parts, we were determined to haue sent vnto Dordract, at the foresaid daye, our welbeloued and faithfull knight William Sturmy, and our welbeloued clerke Iohn Kington, vpon our ambassage-affayres: hauing as yet in our desires, for a peaceable ending of the matter, (which, our foresayd ambassadors, by reason of the shortnes of time, or the finding out of some other remedie and happy conclusion of all and singular the foresaid attempts concerning the principall busines, could by no meanes at that instant attaine vnto) that vpon some other more conuenient day (to the end your ambassadors might not returne home altogether frustrate of their expectation) there might be, after the wonted friendly maner, a conference and agreement with your foresaid ambassadors, euen as by other letters of ours directed vnto your sayd ambassadors the second day of the moneth of Nouember aforesayd wee haue deliuered our mind vnto them. But it fortuned not long before the departure of your ambassadors into their owne countrey, that no sufficient shipping could be found wherein our sayd ambassadors might haue secure and safe passage vnto Dordract, or Middleburgh, neither was it thought that they should get any passage at all, till the ships at Middleborough were returned into our kingdome, by the force whereof they might be the more strongly wafted ouer. And so by reason of the departure of your ambassadours, all matters remaine in suspense till such time as the sayd ambassadors shall againe meete with ours to adde perfection vnto the busines as yet imperfect. Wherefore (our friend unfainedly beloued) desiring from the bottome of our heart that the integritie of loue, which hath from auncient times taken place betweene our and your subiects, may in time to come also be kept inuiolable, we haue thought good once again to send one of our foresaid ambassadors, namely William Esturmy knight to Dordract, giuing him charge thither to make haste, and there to stay, till some of your messengers, at your commandement doe in time conuenient repayre vnto that place, there (by Gods assistance) to bring the matter vnto an happy conclusion. May it please you therefore of your vnfayned friendship, without all inconuenience of delay, to returne, not vnto vs, but vnto our forenamed knight an answere in writing, what your will and determination is. Neither let it seeme strange vnto you, that we haue not at this present sent our forenamed Iohn Kington clerke together with the sayd William; for the cause of his abode with vs is, that he may in the meane season employ his care and diligence about those matters which muust be preparitues for the finall conclusion of the foresayd busines. Honorable sir, and most deare friend, we doe most heartily wish increase of prosperity and ioy vnto your person. [Sidenote: 1407.] Giuen in our palace of Westminster the 14. day of Feb. in the yeare of our Lord 1407. * * * * * To the right noble and valiant knight Sir William Sturmy sent at this present by the most souereigne King of England &c, as his ambassadour vnto Dordract, his most sincere friend. Honorable sir, our most entier friend, wee receiued the royall letters of the most mighty prince and lord, our lord the king of England and France and lord of Ireland, sent vnto vs vnder the date of the 14. day of February (which we receiued at our castle of Marienburgh the 11. of April) containing, amongst other matters, that his Maiesties purpose was once againe to sende one of his ambassadors, namely your selfe our very sincere friend vnto Dordract, giuing you in charge that you would make haste thither and there stay; vntill some of our subiects might at our commandement, in conuenient time repaire vnto the same place, there (by God's assistance) to bring our matters vnto a happy conclusion. And then he requested that wee should without delay write our determination vnto you, as the conclusion of the said letter importeth. Howbeit (our most deare friend) the treaties and conferences about the redresse or reformation of uniust attempts committed by the subiects of our sayd lord and king and our subiects, one against another, are both on our behalfe, and on the behalfe of the common societie of the Hans marchants, hitherto had, made, and continued common. And so our commissioners vpon our full and absolute commandement, shal, for the managing of these and of other affaires of the foresaid societie, many waies vrgent and difficult, vpon the feast of our Lords Ascension next to come, meet with the said societie at Lubec, there to giue notice what they haue determined to conclude in this present busines and in others for their owne behalfe. For we will giue our ambassadours, which are there to appeare, streightly in charge that according to the kings request aforesayde they doe without delay procure an answere to be written vnto your honour concerning the determination of the foresayd societie. Giuen at the place and vpon the day aboue named, in the yeare of our Lord 1407. Fr. Wemherus de Tettingen, commander in Elbing, general vice-master and lieutenant in the roome of the master generall of the Dutch knights of the Order of S. Marie &c. of late deceased. * * * * * The letters of Henry the 4. king of England &c vnto Vlricus de Iungingen Master generall of Prussia, 1408. wherein he doth ratifie and accept the last agreement made at Hage in Holland. Henry &c. vnto the honourable and religious personage Fr. Vlricus de Iungingen Master generall of the Dutch knights of S. Marie &c. our most deare friend, greeting and dayly increase of our accustomed amity and friendship. We doe by these presents giue your honour to vnderstand, that our faithfull and welbeloued William Esturmy knight, and Master Iohn Kington clerke, our ambassadours and messengers sent of late on our behalfe, vnto the presence of your predecessour for the redressing of certaine grieuances and damages being contrary to iustice offered against vs and our liege subiects by the people and subiects of your predecessors, and against them also by our subiects as it is aforesayd, in friendly maner to be procured, of late returning out of the parts of Alemain made relation vnto vs and to our counsell, that hauing conferred with your forenamed predecessour about the foresayd affayres, the particulars following were at length concluded: namely first of all, that at a certaine day and place they should meete in Holland with his ambassadors and messengers, to hold a friendly conference betweene them about the redressing and reformation of the grieuances and damages aforesayd: and that they should by equall waight of diligent elimination ponder, and in the balance of iustice discusse and define al and singular the foresaid grieuances and damages inflicted on both parts. [Sidenote: A meeting at Hage the 28. of August 1407.] Howbeit at length after sundry prorogations then made and continued on this behalfe, our ambassadors and messengers aforesaid vpon the 28. of August last past, assembling themselues for our part at the towne of Hage in Holland, the hon. and discreete personages Arnold Heket burgomaster of the towne of Dantzik, and Iohn Crolowe, for the behalf of your subiects of Prussia, and Tidman de Meule, and Iohn Epenscheid for the behalfe of Liuonia, being assembled as messengers and commissioners about the redresse and reformation aforesayd, did then and there demaund in certaine articles, of our ambassadours and messengers aboue named 25034. nobles and half a noble, for the grieuances and damages offered (as it was then said) to your subiects of Prussia, and 24082. nobles 12. s. 8. d. in recompense of the damages offered vnto those your subiects of Liuonia. And when the substance of those articles about the grieuances and losses aforesayd was by the sayd ambassadours and messengers aboue named 25034. nobles and half a noble, for the grieuances and damages offered (as it was then said) to your subiects of Prussia, and 24082. nobles, 12. s. 8. d. in recompence of the damages offered vnto those your subiects of Liuonia. And when the substance of those articles about the grieuances and losses aforesayd was by the sayd ambassadours and messengers throughly examined and discussed, by their generall consent it was finally agreed, that your subiects, in consideration of all and singular the foresayd grieuances and damages offered vnto them by our people, should within three yeares after the feast of Easter next ensuing, at three equall payments receiue from vs, namely they of Prussia, 8957. nobles, and they of Liuonia 22496. nobles, sixe pence, halfepeny, farthing, and no more, so that we our selues thought good to condescend thereunto. Howbeit, forasmuch as certaine other goods of your subiects of Prussia, and also certaine articles in the behalfe of our subiects containing grieuous complaints in them, being propounded before the ambassadors and messengers aforesaid, for the attaining of reformation in regard of the damages and grieuances offered on both parts, could not as then, for the great obscurity of diuers of the sayd articles, and also for want of sufficient proofe at the last meeting appointed and held by the foresayd ambassadors at the towne of Hage in Holland, sufficiently to be examined, discussed, and defined, it was agreed vpon by the ambassadors and messengers of both partes, that from the 15. day of October then last expired vnto the feast of Easter now next ensuing, and from thenceforth within one whole yere immediately following, the plaintifes of both parts should throughly declare before our chancelour of England for the time being, the foresayd obscurities concerning the substance of their articles, and that they should, for the obtaining of execution, and complement of iustice at our sayd chancelours hands, peremtorily minister necessary probations, vnder paine of perpetuall exclusion from the petition of those things which are contayned in the articles aboue mentioned. Prouided alwayes, that if at the last it shall be by lawfull proofes made manifest concerning the summes aboue written or any part or parcell thereof, that due satifaction hath beene made, to him or them vnto whom it was due, or that those goods of and for the which complaint hath bene made on the behalfe of your subiects haue pertained or doe appertaine vnto others, or any other iust, true, and reasonable cause may lawfully bee alleaged, why the payment of all the foresayd summes or any of them ought not to be performed: that then so much only is to be cut off or deducted from the sayd summes as shall be found to be already payd or to pertaine vnto others, or else vpon some true, iust, and reasonable cause (as is aforesayd) not to be due. We therefore considering that the sayd friendly conference, and the finall agreement ensuing thereupon are agreeable vnto reason and equitie, doe, for our part ratifie and willingly accept the very same conference and agreement. And forasmuch as it hath bene alwayes our desire, and is as yet our intention, that the league of amity and the integritie of loue, which hath of olde time bene obserued betwene our and your subiects; may in times to come perpetually remaine inuiolable, and that your and our people may hereafter, not onely for the good of our common weale but also for the commodity and peace of both parts, according to their woonted maner, assemble themselues and enioy the faithfull and mutuall conuersation one of another: we will cause in our citie of London, with the Summe of 8957. nobles satisfaction to bee made vnto the Prussians, and with the summe of 22496. nobles, sixe pence, halfe peny, farthing, recompense to be performed vnto the Liuonians, in regard of the damages and iniuries (which in very deede proceeded not of our consent) by our subiects offered vnto them, as it is afore sayd, and within three yeares after the feast of Easter next ensuing the sayd summes of money to bee payed at three payments, and by three equal portions. Conditionally that vnto our subiects which be endamaged correspondent satisfaction be likewise on your part within the terme of the foresayd three yeres performed, with paying the summes of 766. nobles and of 4535. nobles, demaunded on our bchalfe, and also with the payment of such summes as within one yeere immediately ensuing the feast of Easter aforesayd, shallbe found by sufficient declarations and proofes to be made on the behalfe of our subiects (as is aforesayd) to be due. Euen as we in like maner will make satisfaction vnto your subiects within our citie aforesayd. Now as touching the request of your ambassadors and of the Liuonians whereby we were required to procure some holesome remedy for the soules of certaine drowned persons, as conscience and religion seemeth to chalenge (in regard of whom we are moued with compassion, and do for their sakes heartily condole their mishaps) you are (our entier friend), of a certaintie to vnderstand, that after we shall be by your letters aduertized of the number, state, and condition of the sayd parties drowned, we will cause suffrages of prayers and diuers other holesome remedies profitable for the soules of the deceased and acceptable to God and men, religiously to be ordained and prouided: vpon condition, that for the soules of our drowned countrey men there be the like remedie prouided by you. The almighty grant vnto your selfe and vnto your whole Order, that, you may prosperously triumph ouer the enemies of Christ his crosse. Giuen vnder our priuie seale at our palace of Westminster the 26. of March, in the yeere of our lord 1408. and in the ninth yere of our reigne. * * * * * The letters of Fr: Vlricus Master of Prussia directed vnto the king of England, signifying that he is contented with the agreements concluded by his messengers at Hage. To the most renowmed prince and mighty lord L. Henrie king of England and France, and lord of Ireland, our most gracious lord. Vnto your highnes pleasure at all assaies humbly recommending my voluntarie seruice &c. Most renowned king, mighty prince, and gracious Lord, we receiued of late with great reuerence as it becommeth vs, by our wellbeloued Arnold de Dassel the bearer of these presents, your Maiesties letters of late directed vnto vs, making mention amongst other matters of certaine appointments first made and concluded between the noble and worthy personages William Esturmy knight, Iohn Kington clerke, and William Brampton citizen of London your ambassadours and messengers on the one parte, and our honorable and religious brethren, namely Conradus Lichtensten great commander, Warnherus de Tettingen chiefe hospitalary and commander in Elbing, and Arnold de Hacken treasurer, being the procuratours and commissioners of Fra. Conradus de Iungingen our last predecessour of famous memory on the other parte, concerning the redressing, reformation, and amendement of vniust attempts committed on both sides, at our castle of Marienburgh, and also very lately at the towne of Hage in Holland, namely the twenty eight of the moneth August in the yeare immediately past, betweene your foresayde ambassadours William Esturmy knight, and Iohn Kington clerke, for your part, and our trusty and welbeloued commissioners and procurators, namely Arnold Hecht burgomaster of our citie of Dantzik, and Iohn Crolow citizen of the same citie, for our parte. And for our more perfect knowledge in this behalfe, our sayd commissioners made relation vnto vs and vnto our whole counsell, that associating vnto themselues our messengers of Liuonia, namely, Tidman Myeul, and Iohn Epensheid, together with your foresaid ambassadours and messengers, they there finally appoynted and concluded, of and about the aboue mentioned summes of money due on both partes, of the which mention is made in your letters aforesayd. [Sidenote: Here relation is had unto the king of the Romans.] With this special prouiso that in like manner satisfaction be made in all points, both vnto other of our damnified subiects of Prussia, namely such whose goods or the true value thereof haue bene finally adiudged by the iudges or professors of our lawes, and vnto such who hauing brought their articles of complaints vnto the audience of the most dread and mighty prince and lorde, our lord Rupertus king of the Romans alwayes most soueraigne, were in conclusion to haue the estimations of their goods to be adiudged by the sentence of the sayd lord, with the aduise of two of his counsellors, and also vnto other of our subiects who haue brought in sufficient proofe of damages uniustly inflicted vpon them by your subiects, ouer and besides the premisses. So that in like maner satisfaction be made vnto the common societie of the Hans marchants: and by the arbitrament set downe in the conferences had at Marienburgh, of the which it was aboue prouided and enacted on their behalfe, namely if they will rest contented with our subiects in the courses and meanes then concluded. If not, we intend not at all to adhere vnto them in this behalfe. Afterward our messengers aforesayd, both they of Prussia and of Liuonia demanded conuenient, iust, and speedy satisfaction, with the payment of all and singular the summes aboue mentioned due vnto both parts (so farre foorth as equity and reason would yeeld vnto, for the recompense of the parties iniuried and endamaged on both sides) to be made within one whole yere accompting from the feast of Easter now last expired vnto the very same feast next to come in the yere immediatly following, and that in three seueral termes of payment, by three portions of the said summes equally to be diuided, at the towne of Bruges in Flanders as being a place indifferent for all parties, in maner and forme as it was before at Marienburgh required and stoode vpon: namely that reformation, reparation, and amendement of all uniust attempts committed on both parts ought to bee performed within one yere. Howbeit contrariwise your ambassadors aforesayd decreed that the sayd satisfaction should be performed vnto the parties iniuried of both parts within three yeeres, beginning to accompt from the feast of Easter last past. And when your ambassadours were not contented with the maner of satisfaction set downe by our men, nor our commissioners were willing in any sort to consent vnto that course which was thought conuenient by your ambassadors, the honorable messengers of the sea-townes of the Hans being there at that time present, made a motion that the foresayd satisfaction might be performed within two yeeres and a halfe, accompting from the feast of Easter last past, often before mentioned: yet vnder a certaine protestation, namely if both parties should agree vnto that forme of satisfaction, and if they should thinke good finally and conclusiuely to yeeld their consent vnto it. Which kind of satisfaction also conceiued by the messengers, your sayd ambassadours without giuing notice thereof vnto your royall Maiestie, refused finally to approue; being rather desirous to make a true and faithfull report of the sayd forme of satisfaction last aboue mentioned vnto your kingly highnesse, and that in such sorte, that (as they hoped) effectuall satisfaction and payment of all and singuler the summes due and to bee due on both partes should more conueniently and speedily bee performed. Whereupon we might be put in good hope, that more speedy and conuenient appointments of termes, for the sayd satisfaction friendly on both parts to to be performed in, would haue proceeded from your bountifull and gracious clemencie. And in very deede (most mighty prince) albeit it was neuer the meaning of our foresayd predecessor, so for foorth as these affayres concerned him, to protract and delay the execution of the sayd busines so many and such long distances of time, and that for diuers respects, both because restitution vnto the parties robbed consisted herein, and also because the sayd restitutions and satisfactions are to be made vnto poore people, widowes, orphanes, and other miserable creatures, diuersly and miserably slaine and oppressed: notwithstanding we being moued with hearty and feruent zeale and speciall affection vnto your royall crowne of England, and hauing due regard and consideration of your most excellent Maiestie, upon the aduise of our honourable brethren our counsellors, doe thankfully recieue, and by the tenour of these presents totally ratifie and approue such satisfactions of the foresayd summes howsoeuer due vnto our subiects both Prussians and Liuonians, in friendly sorte to be performed at such times and occasons limited and prefixed by your highnes as are expressed in your maiesties letters, and also of other sammes which within one yeare immediately ensuing after the feast of Easter last past, by sufficient proofes to be madee on their part before your chancelour at your citie of London shall be found due vnto them. Conditionally that without inconuenience of delay and impediment they be performed as they ought to be, according to the premisses. In like maner also we our selues within the termes of payment aboue mentioned will procure satisfaction to be without fayle perfourmed vnto your subiects endamaged, with the summe of 766. nobles being in regard of their losses, of the which they haue giuen vp sufficient informations due vnto them: and with other like summes also which are by sufficient proofes, within the yeare aforesayd, and in maner and forme prescribed to be exhibited before our treasurer at our citie of Dantzik. [Sidenote: Septem. 27. 1408.] The almighty vouchsafe prosperously and longtime to preserue your maieisties royal person. Giuen at our castle of Marienburgh the 27. of September, in the yeare of our Lord 1408. Fr. Vlricus de Tungingen master generall of the order of the Dutch-knights of S. Maries hospital of Ierusalem. * * * * * The letters of king Henry the 4. sent vnto F. Vlricus master general of Prussia, wherein he doth absolutely approue the foresaid conference holden at Hage, and treateth about a perpetual league and amitie to be concluded betweene England and Prussia. Henry by the grace of God king of England and France and lord of Ireland, vnto the noble and mighty personage of sacred religion Vlricus de Iungingen master generall of the order of the Dutch knights of S. Maries hospitall of Ierusalem, our entirely beloued friend, greeting and increase of vnfained friendship. After diuers conferences had in sundry places beyond the seas betweene the ambassadours and messengers of your late predecessor and of your selfe also, on the one parte, and betweene our especiall ambassadors and messengers on the other parte, concerning reformations, reparations, and restitutions in certaine maner and forme to be performed vnto our subiects of both parts, in regard of manifold iniuries practised against them both, and after that, in the last conference holden by the ambassadours of vs both at the towne of Hage at Holland, there was a motion made concerning a certaine forme of satisfaction, by way of finall conclusion in that behalfe: but not being as then by our ambassadours condescended vnto, because they durst not proceede vnto the same conclusion without our priuitie, relation thereof at length being by them made before vs and our counsel; we returned vnto your honour an answere in writing by our letters vnder our priuie seale, of our full purpose and intention (vnto the which letters we doe at this present referre our selues, as if they were here again expressly written) what we thought good to haue done in this behalfe: so that we also might by your friendly letters be certaynly informed of your will and express consent, being likewise conformable vnto our foresayd intention. Nowe whereas since that time we haue of late receiued the certaintie of the matter by your letters written vnto vs from your castle of Marienburgh, bearing date the 27. of September last past, contayning in effect amongst other matters, that you beeing mooued with a feruent zeale and speciall affection (as you write) vnto the royall crowne of our realme, and hauing due regard and consideration of our royall maiestie, vpon the aduise of your honourable brethren your counsellers, doe with a thankful mind accept, and by the tenour of the said letters of yours totally approue the concord of a certaine satisfaction to be performed with the payment of certaine summes of money howsoeuer due vnto your subiects as well of Prussia as of Liuonia, expressed in our former letters, within the termes prefixed by our consent and limited in our said letters, and also of other summes which within one whole yeare immediately following the feast of Easter last past, be sufficient proofes on their part to bee made before our chauncelour at our citie of London, shall be found due vnto them: conditionally, that without inconuenience of delay and impediments, the premisses be performed as they ought to be. And that your selfe also will without fayle, vpon the termes appointed for the said payments, procure satisfaction to be made accordingly vnto our endamaged subiects with the summes due vnto them by reason of their losses, whereof they haue sufficient information. Wherefore in regard of those your friendly letters, and your courteous answere returned by them vnto vs, as is aforesaid, wee doe yeelde vnto you right vnfained thanks. [Sidenote: A motion for a perpetuall league.] But because it will vndoubtedly be most acceptable and pleasing both vnto vs and vnto our people, and vnto you and your subiects that the zeale and feruencie of loue which hath from auncient times growen and increased betweene our progenitours for them and their subiects, and your predecessors and their subiects, and which by the insolencie of certayne lewde persons, without any consent of the principall lords, hath often bene violated betweene vs and you and mutually betweene the subiects of vs both may be put in perpetuall vre and obtaine full strength in time to come, sithens hereupon (by Gods assistance) it is to be hoped, that uspeakable commodity and quiet will redound vnto both parts: may it seeme good vnto your discretion, as it seemeth expedient vnto vs, that some messengers of yours sufficiently authorised to parle, agree, and conclude with our deputy, about the mutuall contraction of a perpetuall league and confimation of friendship, may with all conuenient speede be sent vnto our presence. At whose arriuall, not onely in this busines so profitable and behoouefull, but also in certaine other affaires concerning the former treaties and conclusions, they may, yea and of necessitie must greatly auayle. Wherefore (our entirely beloued friend) euen as vpon confidence of the premisses we haue thought good to grant vnto the marchants and subiects of our realme full authority to resort vnto your dominions, so we doe in like maner graunt vnto your marchants and subiects free licence and liberty with their marchandises and goods securely to come into our realmes and dominions, there to stay, and at their pleasures thence to returne home. Moreouer, if Arnold Dassel, who last of all presented your foresayd letters vnto vs, shal thinke good in the meane season to make his abode here in our dominions (as in very deede it is expedient) he may both by serious consideration and deliberate consulting with our commissioners more conueniently and prosperously finde out wayes and meanes, for the more speedy expedition of all the premisses. Fare ye well in Christ, Giuen vnder our priuie seale at our palace of Westminster, the seuenth of March, in the yere of our lord 1408. according to the computation of the church of England, and in the tenth yere of our reigne. * * * * * A new concord concluded between king Henry the 4. and Vlricus de Iungingen Master generall of Prussia in the yeare of our Lord 1409. By this indenture or letters indented be it euidently knowen (for the perpetual memory of the matter) vnto all faithfull Christians, that the noble and honourable personages Richard Merlowe Maior and citizen of London, Master Iohn Kington clerke, and William Askham citizen and Alderman of the same citie, the commissioners of the most soueraigne prince and lord, L. Henrie by the grace of God king of England and France, and lord of Ireland, and Tidericus de Longenthorpe knight, Lefardus de Hereford burgomaster of Elbing, and Iohn Crolowe citizen of the citie of Dantzik, the procurators, commissioners, deputies, and messengers of the right noble and religious personage Fr. Vlricus de Iungingen Master general of the order of the Dutch knights of S. Maries hospital of Ierusalom, hauing in the names of the sayd king and Master by vertue of the power on both parts committed vnto them, sufficient authority, haue appointed and with one consent agreed vpon all and singular the things vnder written. 1. Imprimis for the conseruation and mutuall loue and wonted amitie, and for the tranquilitie of sweete amiable peace, it is decreed and ordained, that all and singular the liege people and subiects of the Realme of England and the marchants of the territories and dominions of the said Realme and all other persons of what state or condition soeuer, shall and may safely and securely, as well by land as by water enter into the parts of Prussia, and there mutually conuers and freely after the Maner of marchants exercise traffique aswell with the Prussians as with others, of what nation or qualitie soeuer, there also make their abode, and thence vnto their owne homes and dwelling places returne, and depart vnto any place whither and so often as they shall thinke good, as well by land as by water, with their goods merchandize, and wares whatsoeuer; faithfully paying in the meane time all rights and customes due in regard of their said wares and marchandize. Reserued alwaies unto the said Master and his sucessours all right and remedie ordained, granted, and vouchsafed in certaine obligations by our Lord the king, whereof mention shall be made in the articles following. 2. It is ordained, that all and singular the subiects of the said Master generall and of his order, of what state and condition soeuer, shall and may, as well by water as by land enter into the kingdome of England and into the territories, and dominions, thereof, and there mutually conuerse, and freely after the maner of Marchants exercise traffique as well with all English people as with others of what nation or qualitie soeuer, and there also make their abode, and thence returne vnto their owne habitations and dwelling places, and to deport whither they will and as oft as they shall thinke good as well by land as by water, with their goods, marchandize and wares whatsoeuer: truely paying in the meane time all rights and customes due in regard of their said wares and Marchandize. Reserued alwayes vnto the said soueraigne king, his heires and successours, all rights and remedies ordained and graunted vnto them in certaine obligations, by the commissioners and procurators of the said Master generall aboue-named, and in the name of the said Master generall. 3. Item it is with one consent agreed upon, promised, and granted that for all and singular damages, grieuances, and robberies howsoeuer done and committed before the date of these presents against the foresaid soueraigne Prince and his subiects whatsoeuer, and all others which at the time of the grieuances, damages, and robberies aforesaid, were, or at this present are the said soueraigne king his subiects; there are due to be payed vnto the said king or his successours by the said Master generall or his successours, in full satisfaction and recompence of the damages, grieuances, and robberies aboue written, certaine summes of English money: euen as in the letters obligatorie made by the said Master generall his procurators and messengers aboue named in this behalfe, and sealed with their seales, and deliuered vnto the forenamed procurators and commissioners of our said Lord the king it is expressed more at large. 4. Item it is couenanted, graunted, and promised, that no subiect of the said Master generall or of his successours, by reason or occasion of the damages, grieuances, and robberies aforesaid, shall, by the said soueraigne king or his successours or by their authoritie or commandement, or by another person whatsoeuer who in regard of the foresaid losses, grieuances and robberies hath bene molested and damnified, or at the procurement or instant suite of any, be attached, arrested, imprisoned, or detained; nor that the goods of the said Master generall, or of his successors, or of any of them, shal be laid hold on, arrested, or detained. 5. Item it is couenanted and ordained, that if any of the liege people and subiects of the sayde Master generall or of his successors shall, contrary to the forme of the concord and graunt next aboue-written, chance to be molested or endamaged: that then the foresaid soueraigne Lord the King and his successors the kings of England are bound to make full satisfaction for all such losses as the subiects of the said Master generall or of his successours or any of them shall for that cause haue vniustly sustained, vnto the parties endamaged. Which thing if the foresaid soueraigne Prince, or his successours in the Realme of England, being conueniently requested by the letters of the said Master generall or of his successours shall refuse to doe, that then after the terme of sixe moneths immediately following the said deniall or refusall, it shalbe right lawfull for the Master generall that now is and for any of his successours in time to come (hauing first made conuenient proofe that the foresaid request was by him or them exhibited) to arrest so many goods of the foresaid king his subiects found in the land of Prussia, as may suffice for the reasonable satisfaction and recompense of any person or persons whatsoeuer vniustly molested in this behalfe; and also to detaine the said goods under arrestes, vntil condigne satisfaction and amends be made vnto the party or parties molested. 6. Item by the commissioners and procuratours often aboue named it is couenanted, promised, and graunted, that for all and singular the damages, molestations and robberies by the foresayde soueraigne king his liege people and subiects howsoeuer before the date of these presents committed and offred against the said Master general or against any of his subiects whether Prussians or Liuonians, and against all others who at the time of the damages, grieuances and robberies aforesaid were, or at this present are the subiects of the Master generall aforesaid (except notwithstanding certaine damages and grieuances hereafter to be mentioned, whereof also some prouisoes shalbe had in the articles following, which damages were before the date of these presents by the said soueraigne king his liege people and subiects inflicted vpon certaine subiects of the foresaid general Master, especially them of Prussia which hereafter shalbe named) there are certaine summes of money due to be payed vnto the said Master generall or vnto his successours by the said soueraigne Prince or his successours for the full satisfaction of the foresaid damages, molestations and robberies inflicted vpon the Prussians and Liuonians, and the others mentioned, euen as in the leters obligatorie of the said soueraigne Lord the king made in this behalfe, being giuen and deliuered vnto the said Master generall his procuratours and messengers, it is declared more at large. 7. Item, it is couenanted, granted and promised, that none of the liege people or subiects of the foresaid soueraigne prince or of his heires shall, by reason or occasion of the damages, grieuances and robberies aforesaid, by the sayd Master generall or his successours or by their authoritie and commandement, or by any other who in respect of the said damages, grieuances and robberies aboue mentioned, hath beene molested or damnified, or by any of their procurements or instant suites shalbe attached, arrested, imprisoned or detained: nor that any goods of the subiects of the said soueraigne king or his heires or any of them, shall bee attached, arrested, or detained. Reserued always vnto the forenamed Master generall and his subiects all right and remedie any way requisite or competent vnto them by meanes of the obligations aforesaid. 8. Item it is couenanted and agreed that if any of the liege people or subiects of the sayde soueraigne prince or of his heires and successours shall (contrary to the forme of concord and graunt next aboue-written) chaunce to bee molested or endamaged; that then the saide Master generall and his successours, for all losses and hindrances which the liege people and subiects of the foresayde soueraigne prince or of his heires or successours, shall by that meanes haue vniustly sustained, are bound to make full satisfaction vnto the partie endamage. Which if the Master generall aforesaid or his successors being conueniently requested by the letters of the sayde soueraigne prince or of his heires, shall refuse to doe; that then, after the space of sixe moneths next ensuing the time of the foresayde request, it may bee right lawfull for the forenamed soueraigne prince that nowe is, or that then for that time shall be (conuenient proofe being first brought, that the foresayd request had conueniently beene exhibited) to arrest so many goods of the sayde Master generall his subiects founde in the Realme of England, as may suffice for the reasonable satisfaction and amends of any person or persons vniustly molested in this behalfe; and also to detaine the sayde goods vnder safe custodie, vntill condigne satisfaction and amends be made vnto the partie or parties aggrieued. 9. Item it is couenanted that besides the summes due vnto the sayde Master generall and his successours in the behalfe of his subiects both of Prussia and of Liuonia (whereof mention is made in the former articles) there are due to be payed vnto the sayde Master generall and his successours, for sundry other damaged, grieuances, and robberies against himselfe and diuers other of his subiects of Prussia, namely. Matthewe Ludekensson, Arnold Ashen, Henri Culeman, Iohn Vnkeltop, Iohn Halewater, Egghard Scoffe of Dantzik, and Nicolas Wolmerstene of Elbing, done and committed by the sayde soueraigne king his liege people and subiects vnder-written, euen before the date of these presents, for the full satisfaction of the sayde damages, grieuances and robberies, certaine summes of nobles hereafter following. Namely Imprimis by Tutburie, and Terry of Hull, 82. nobles, which are due vnto the foresaid Matthew Ludekinson. Item by Nicholas Scot of Caleis the sonne of Tutbury, and Hilg of Hull, 256. nobles, which are due vnto the foresayd Arnold de Aschen. Item by the inhabitants of Scardeburgh, Blakeney, and Crowmer (who had one Iohn Iolly of Blakeney for their captaine) 156. nobles, which are due vnto Henrie Culeman aforesayd. Item by the inhabitants of Bayon (Whose Capitaine was one Pideuille) 125. nobles which are due vnto the said Iohn Vnkeltop. Item by the inhabitants of Plymmouth and Dertmouth (whose Captaines were Henrie Pay, and William Gadeling) 600. nobles which are due vnto the foresayde Iohn Halewater, in respect of his goods by them violently taken away. [Sidenote: A ship of the burthen of 300. tonnes.] Item 334. nobles to be payed by the selfe same parties, being due vnto the sayde Iohn Halewater by reason that they detained his ship from him three moneths and more, which ship was of the burthen of three hundreth tonnes of wine, and had in it all the foresayde time fiue and fourtie seruants maintained at the expenses of the sayde Iohn Halewater. Item that Sir William de Ethingham knight, who was Vice-admirall for the sea, must bee summoned to alleage a reasonable cause (for that the sayd Sir William with his seruants expelled the said Iohn Halewater out of his ship for the space of fifteene dayes together, and tooke of the goods and victuals of the said Iohn to the summe of 114. nobles) why he ought not to pay the said summe of 114. nobles vnto Iohn Halewater aforesaid: which if hee shall not bee willing nor able to alleage before the first of April next ensuing, that then by the kings authoritie hee must be compelled to pay unto the foresaid Iohn the said 114 nobles. Item by the inhabitants of Caleis (whose captaines were Michael Scot, Bishop, and William Horneby) 1900. nobles, which are due vnto the foresayde Eggard Scoff, because the saide soueraigne king hath giuen them in charge by the said Michael Scot and the rest concerning the payment of the summe aforesaid. Item by Iohn Bilis neere vnto Crowmer, 68. nobles, which are due vnto Nicholas Wolmersten of Elbing. Which summes of nobles must by the kings authority be leuied at the hands of his subiects aboue-mentioned betweene the time that nowe is and the feast of the Purification of the blessed virgine which shall fall in the yeere of our Lord 1411. effectually to bee deliuered and payed unto the sayd Master generall or his lawfull procurator, or vnto his successours or their lawfull procuratours, at the Citie of London, vpon the feast aforesaid. Item it is couenanted that besides the summes specified in the foresayde letters obligatorie, made in the behalfe of the said soueraigne prince, there are due to be paied vnto one Iohn Marion of Wersingham lately deceased being in his life-time the liege subiect of the foresaid soueraigne prince 200. nobles of Knglish money in regard of certaine iniuries and robberies done and committed before the date of these presents against the foresayde Iohn, by one Eghard Scoff, subiect vnto the said deceased Iohn, his wife, children, heires, or executors by the said Egghard, his heires or by the administrators of his goods at the time and place aboue mentioned. 10 Item, it is couenanted, confirmed, and promised, that for all the iniuries and robberies done and committed against one Iohn Dordewant of Elbing, being in his life time subiect vnto the sayd Master generall, by the liege people and subiects of the said soueraigne king the inhabitants of the Scardeburgh before the date of these presents; for the full recompense of all such iniuries and robberies, there must bee payed vnto one Iohn Gruk of Dantzik eight hundred nobles of English money, vpon the feast of Easter next following in the Citie of London by them of Scardeburgh being guilty and culpable in this behalfe; who are by definitiue sentence condemned vnto the said Iohn in the summe of 800. nobles by reason of the iniuries and robberies aforesaid, except the lawfull expenses in this behalfe layed out: they are also taxed in due time for the issue. And therefore the foresayde condemned parties (whose names are in the sentence against them pronounced in this behalfe more expresly conteined) must in the meane season by the kings authority be compelled and constrained really and actually to obey the foresayd sentence, namely by deliuering and paying vnto Iohn Gruk the summe of 800. nobles at the time and place aboue mentioned, with reasonable expences, wherein also the said parties stand condemned, their lawfull taxation being reserued. Item it is couenanted and granted, that the heires of Lord Henrie du Percy the younger after they shall come vnto lawfull age, and shall haue attained vnto the possession and goods of their inheritance, must be compelled by the kings authoritie (iustice going before) to make satisfaction vnto the great procurator of Marienburgh with the summe of 838. nobles in lieu of certaine corne and graine which the foresaid Lord Henrie, in the yeere 1403, bought and receiued of the said great procuratour, for the vse of the castle of Zutberwik. In testimonie and confirmation of all the which premisses, the said Tedericus Lefardus, and Iohn Crolow, of their certaine knowledges haue put their seales vnto these present letters indented, in the presence of the aboue-named Richard Merlow, Iohn Kington, and William Askam, commissioners for the behalfe of England giuen at the Citie of London in England the fourth day of December, in the yeere of our Lord 1409. * * * * * That the Brittons were in Italie and Greece with the Cimbrians and Gaules, before the incarnation of Christ. M. Wil. Camden, pag. 33. [Sidenote: Triadum Liber.] Britannos autem cum Cimbris et Gallis permistos fuisse in expeditionibus illis in Italiam et Græciam videtur. Nam præter nomen commune in Britannico Triadum libro vetustissimo, vbi tres maximi exercitus, qui è Britannis conscripti erant, memorantur, proditum est, exterum quendam ducem longè maximum exercitum hinc contraxisse, qui, populata magna Europæ parte tandem ad Græcum mare (forsitan Galatiam innuit) consederit. Britomarum item ducem inter illos militarem, cuius meminit Florus et Appianus, Britonem fuisse nomem euincit, quod Britonem magnum significat. Nec torquebo illud Strabonis, qui Brennum natione Prausum fuisse scribit vt natione Britonem faciam. The same in English. It is not vnlike that the Britons accompanied the Cimbrians and Gaules in those expeditions to Italy and Greece. For besides the common name, it is recorded in that most ancient British booke called Liber Triadum, (wherein also mention is made of three huge armies that were leuied out of Britaine) that a certaine outlandish captaine gathered from hence a mightie armie; who hauing wasted a great part of Europe, at length tooke vp his abode (perhaps the Author meaneth in Gallatia) neere vnto the sea of Greece. Likewise that the warrelike captaine Britomarus (of whom Floras and Appian doe make report) was himselfe a Briton, his very name doeth testifie, which signifieth A great Briton. Neither will I wrest that testimony of Strabo (who reporteth Brennus to haue bene a Prause by birth) that I may prooue him also to haue bene a Briton borne. * * * * * The trauaile of Helena. Helena Flauia Augusta serenissimi Coeli Britannici Regis Hæres, et vnica filia, Magni Constantini Cæsaris mater, incomparabili decore, fide, religione, bonitate, ac magnificentiâ piâ, Eusebio etiam teste, per totum resplenduit orbem: Inter omnes ætatis suæ foeminas, nulla inueniebatur eâ in liberalibus artibus doctior, nulla in instrumentis musicis peritior, aut in linguis nationum copiosior. Innatam habebat ingenij claritudinem, oris facundiam, ac morum ornatissimam compositionem: Hebraicè, Græcè et Latinè erudita. Caruerat pater alia sobole (inquit Virumnius) quæ Regni solio potiretur. Illam proprerea his instrui fecit per optimos præceptores, vt eò commodius Regni tractaret negotia. Vnde ob incredibilem eius pulchritudinem, atque alias eximias animi et corporis dotes, Constantius Chlorus Cæsar illam duxit in vxorem, atque ex eâ filium in Britanniâ genuit Constantinum Magnum. Sed eo tandem Eboraci defuncto, cum Annâ illâ Euangelicâ, in sanctâ viduitate perdurauit ad vltimum vitæ diem, tota Christianæ religione dedita. Sunt enim authores, qui narrent per instam, cessante persecutione, pacem Ecclesijs datam: Ad tantam coelestis Philosophiæ; cognitionem cam ferunt post agnitum Euangelium peruenisse, vt olim multos ediderit libros, et carmina quaædam Græca, quæ hucúsque à Pontico superesse perhibentur. Visionibus admonita Hierosolymam petijt, et onmia saluatoris loca perlustrauit. Romæ tandem octogenaria foeliciter in Christo quieuit 15. Kalendas Septembris, filio adhuc superstite, anno salutis humanæ 337. Regnante apud Britannos Octauio. Huius corpus non minimâ nunc curâ Venetijs seruatur. The same in English. Helena. Flauia Augusta, the heire and onely daughter of Coelus sometime the most excellent King of Britaine, the mother of the Emperour Constantine the great, by reason of her singular beautie, faith, religion, goodnesse and godly Maiestie (according to the testimonie of Eusebius) was famous in all the world. Amongst all the women of her time, there was none either in the liberall arts more learned, or in instruments of musike more skilfull, or in the diuers languages of nations more abundant than herselfe. She had a naturall quicknesse or excellency of wit, eloquence of speech, and a most notable grace in all her behauiour. She was seene in the Hebrew, Greeke and Latine tongues. Her father (as Virumnius reporteth) had no other childe to succeed in the kingdome after him but her, and therefore caused her to be instructed in these things by the best teachers, that thereby she might the better in time gouerne the Realme: so that by reason of her passing beautie, and other her excellent giftes of body and minde, Constantius Chlorus the Emperour married her, and had by her a sonne called Constantine the great, while hee remained in Britaine. Who at length deceasing at Yorke, this Helena (no otherwise then Anna of whom mention is made in the new Testament) continued a vertuous and holy widow to the end of her life. There are some writers which doe affirme, that persecution ceased, and peace was granted to the Christian Churches by her good meanes. After the light and knowledge of the Gospel, she grewe so skilfull in diuinitie, that shee wrote and composed diuers bookes and certaine Greeke verses also, which (as Ponticus reporteth) are yet extant. Being warned by some visions she went to Ierusalem, and visited all the places there, which Christ had frequented. She liued to the age of fourescore yeeres, and then died at Rome the 15 day of August in the yeere of oure redemption 337. Octauius being then king of Britaine, and her sonne Constantine the Emperour then also liuing, and her body is to this day very carefully preserued at Venice. * * * * * The life and trauels of Constantine the great, Emperour and king of Britaine. Flauius Constantinus cognomento Magnus post Genitorum Constantium Britannorum Rex, ac Romanorum Cæsar Augustus, ex Britannica matre in Britannia natus, et in Britannia creatus Imperator, patriam natalem magnificè suæ gloria; participem fecit, Profligatis Alemanis, Hispanis, et Francis, eorúmque Regibus pro spectaculo bestijs obiectis, Galliam subiectam tenuit: Tres Helenæ matris auunculos Brittanos, Leolinum, Traherum, et Marium, quos cæteris semper fidentiores habuerat in suis fortunis, Italis à Maxentij tyrannide foelicitèr liberatis, in Senatorum ordinem Romæ promouit. Innumeræ in eo (vt Eutropius habet) claruêre tam animi, quàm corporis virtutes, dum appetentissnnus esset gloriæ militaris, successu semper in bellis prospero. Inter literas tam Græcas quàm Latinas, à Christianissima matre Helena Christi fidem edoctus, eos honorabat præcipué [Transcriber's note: 'præciqué' in original] qui in Philosophia Christiana vitam reclinassent. Vnde ab oceani finibus nempe Britannis incipiens, ope fretus diuina, religionis curam in medijs superstitionum tenebris cepit, ab Occiduis ad Indos, innumeras ad æternæ spem vitæ erigens gentes. Animum diuinis exercendo studijs, noctes trahebat insomnes, et quæsita scribendi diuerticula per otium frequentabat: Imperium oratione, ac Sanctis operationibus continendum ratus, Egregius Christianæ disciplinæ præco, filios ac proceres docuit, pietatem diuitijs omnibus, atque adeò ipsi anteferre totius mundi Monarchiæ. Falsorum deorum euersor. Imaginum cultus per Græciam, �gyptum, Persiam, Asiam, et vniuersam ditionem Romanam, repetitis abrogat legibus, iubens per edicta Christum coli, Euangelium prædicari sacrum, Ministris honores, et alimenta dari, atque idolorum vbíque destrui templa. Et vt fidei forma cunctis videretur, Euangelium Iesu Christi ante se semper ferri fecit, et Biblia sacra ad omnes prouincias destinari, diademáque Monarchicum primus Britannis regibus dedit: Ecclesijs infinita præstitit, agros, annonam, stipem egenis, ægris, viduis, ac orphanis, pro quibusque vt pater sollicitus. Eusebium, Lactantium, et similes, familiarissimos habuit, et hanc ad Deum orationem indiès ipsis in eius vita testibus fudit. Vnum et Deum esse nouimus, vnum te Regem intelligimus, appellamus adiutorem, nobis abs te victoria cecidit, ex te Aduersarium fudimus, &c. Pro delicijs habuit, vt Sextus Aurelianus tradit, literarum studia colere, bonos artes fouere, legere, scribere, meditari: composuit Græcè et Latinè multos libros et Epistolas. E vita Nicomediæ discessit Senex, ætatis suæ Anno 66. et Imperij 32. à Christi verò incarnatione 339. Constantinopoli sepultus, Octauio in Britannijs regnante. Eius vitam in quatuor libris Eusebius Cæsariensis Græcè scripsit, et Ioannes Portesius Gallus in Latinum transtulit sermonem. The same in English. Flauius Constantine, surnamed the great, king of the Britaines after his father, and Emperor of the Romanes, borne in Britanie of Helena his mother, and there created Emperour, made his natiue countrey partaker of his singular glory and renoume. Hauing conquered and put to flight the Almanes, Spaniards, Frenchmen, and their Kings for a spectacle throwen out to wild beasts, he held France it selfe as subiect vnto him: and hauing happily deliuered the Italians from the tyrannie of Maxentius, he preferred three of his mothers vncles, all Britaines, namely, Leoline, Trahere, and Marius, whom in all his actions he had found more faithfull vnto him then any others, to be of the order of the Romane Senators. Eutropius reporteth, that he infinitely excelled in the vertues both of the mind and body also, and that hauing a pleasure in the practise of warre, and in the iust commendation, of Martiall prowesse, he neuer pitched his field but his successe in the battel was alwayes victorious. His mother Helena hauing instructed him in the faith of Christ, although hee made much of all men that were learned in the Greeke and Latine tongues, yet he yeelded speciall honor to those that spent their time in the studie of Diuinitie, which he called Christian Philosophie: so that beginning at the furthest part of the Ocean sea, which then was taken to be his owne natiue soyle of Britaine, and trusting in the assistance of God, when the darkenes of superstition was most thicke, then hee vndertooke a care of Religion, stirring vp innumerable nations from the West as farre as India it selfe, to the hope of eternall life. Hee passed many nightes without sleepe, hauing his minde occupied in diuine studies: and whensoeuer his laisure from greater affaires did permit him, his vacant times should be spent in the vse of writing and other good exercises, assuring himselfe that his kingdomes and Empire were to be continued and strengthened to him by prayer and holy workes: and oftentimes taking vpon him as it were the person of a notable preacher of Christian discipline, he would teach his children and nobilitie, that godlinesse was to be preferred before riches, yea, before the Monarchie of all the world. He ouerthrew the false gods of the heathens, and by many lawes often reuiued, he abrogated the worshipping of Images in all the countries of Greece, Egypt, Persia, Asia, and the whole Romane Empire, commanding Christ onely by his Edicts to be worshipped, the sacred Gospell to be preached, the Ministers thereof to be honored and relieued, and the temples of Idoles euery where to be destroyed. Whithersoeuer he went hee caused the booke of the Gospell of Christ to be still caried before him, that thereby it might appeare to be a forme of faith to all men, and to appertaine generally to all nations. He was the first that appointed an Imperiall Diademe, or Crowne to the Kings of Britaine. He was most beneficiall to all Churches, bestowing vpon them lands and fields, and vpoh the poore, sicke persons, widowes and orphanes, corne and wood, being as carefull of them as if he had beene their naturall father. He vsed learned men most familiarly, as Eusebius, Lactantius and others, and they are witnesses that this was his usuall prayer to God. O Lord we know thee to be the onely God, we are sure that thou art the onely King, and wee call vpon thee as our helper: through thee we haue gotten the victorie, and by thee we haue ouerthrowen the enemie. Sextus Aurelius reporteth, that it was his greatest delight to imbrace the studie of learning, to fauour good Arts, to read, write and meditate, and that he composed many bookes and Epistles both in the Greeke and Latine tongues. He died at Nicomedia, being then 66. yeres of age, in the 32. yere of his reigne, and in the 339. yeere after the Incarnation of Christ, and was buried at Constantinople, Octauius being then King of Britaine: whose life Eusebius bishop of Cæsarea hath written in Greeke in 4 bookes, which afterwards, were translated into the Latine tongue by Iohn Portes a Frenchman. * * * * * Certaine Englishmen sent to Constantinople by the French King to Iustinian the Emperour, about the yeere of Christ, 500. out of the fourth booke of Procopius de Bello Gothico. Britanniam insulam tres numerosissimæ gentes incolunt: Quorum vnicuique suus Rex imperat. Nominantur hæ gentes Angili, Frisones, et qui eiusdem sunt cum insula cognominis Britones. Tanta vero hominum multitudo esse videtur, vt singulis annis inde magno numero cum vxoribus et liberis ad Francos emigrent. Illi autem in eorum terram, quæ maximè deserta videtur, excipiunt. Vnde insulam sibi vendicare ferunt. Vtique non ita pridem, cum Francorum Rex quosdam è suis Constantinopolim ad Iustinianum legaret, Anglos etiam misit, ambitiosius vendicans, quasi hæc insula suo subesset imperio. The same in English. The Isle of Britaine is inhabited by three most populous nations, euery of which is gouerned by a seuerall king. The sayd nations are named Angili, Frisones, and Britones which last are called after the name of the Island. In this Isle there are such swarmes of people, that euery yeare they goe foorth in great numbers with their wiues and children into France. And the Frenchmen right willingly receiue them into their lande, which seemeth very desolate for want of inhabitants. Whereupon it is sayd that the French doe challenge the foresayde Island vnto themselues. For not long since, when the king of the Frankes sent certaine of his subiects ambassadours to Constantinople vnto Iustinian the Emperour, he sent English men also, ambitiously boasting, as though the sayd Isle had bene vnder his iurisdiction. * * * * * The life and trauailes of Iohn Erigena. Ioannes Erigena Britannus natione, in Meneuia vrbe, seu ad fanum Dauidis; et patricio genitore natus, dum Anglos Daci crudeles bellis ac rapinis molestarent, ac omnia illic essent tumultibus plena, longam ipse peregrinationem Athenas vsque suscepit, annósque quamplures literis Græcis, Chaldaicis, et Arabicis insudauit: omnia illic inuisit Philosophorum loca, ac studia, imo et ipsum oraculum Solis, quod �sculapius sibi construxerat. Inueniens tandem quod longo quæsierat labore, in Italiam et Galliam est reuersus vbi ob insignem eruditionem, Carolo Caluo, et postea Ludouico Balbo acceptus, Dionysij Areopagitæ libros de coelesti Hierarchia, ex Constantinopoli tunc missos Latinos fecit, Anno Dom. 858. Profectus postea in Britanniam, Alphredi Anglorum Regis, et suorum liberorum factus est præceptor, atque ipso mox adhortante, inter ocia literaria è Græco transtulit in tres linguas, scilicet Chaldaicam, Arabicam, et Latinam, Aristotelis moralia, de secretis secretorum, seu recto regimine Principum, opus certe exquisitum. In Malmsburiensi cænobio tandem, quo recreationis gratia se contulerat, inter legendum a quibusdam discipulis maleuolis interimebatur, Anno Christi, 884. The same in English. Iohn Erigene a Britane, descended of honourable parents, and borne in the Towne of S. Dauid in Wales, seeing the Englishmen to be oppressed with the warres and rapines of the cruell Danes, and all the land in a hurlie burlie, he in the meane time vndertooke a long iourney, euen as farre as Athens, and there spent many yeres in the studie of the Greeke, Chaldie, and Arabian tongues: he there frequented all the places and schooles of the Philosophers, and the oracle also of the Sunne, which �sculapius had built vnto himselfe. And hauing found at length that which he had with long trauell searched, he returned againe into Italie, and France, where for his singular learning, he was much fauoured of the two Kings Charles and Lewes, and in his being there, he translated into Latine the bookes of Dionysius Areopagita concerning the Heauenly Hierarchie, which were sent from Constantinople in the yeere 858. After this hee came backe againe into his owne Countrey, and was schoolemaster vnto Alphred then King of England, and his sonnes: and vpon his request, at his times of leasure, he translated Aristotles Morals, of the Secrets of Secrets, or of the right gouernement of Princes, out of Greeke into these three tongues, Chaldie, Arabian, and Latine, which he did very exquisitely. At the last, being in the Abbie of Malmesburie, whither he went for his recreation, and there according to his manner disputing, and reading to the Students, some of them misliking and hating him, rose against him, and slue him in the yeere of Christ, 884. * * * * * English men were the guard of the Emperours of Constantinople in the reigne of Iohn the sonne of Alexius Comnenus. Malmesburiensis, Curopolata and Camden, pag. 96. Iam inde Anglia non minus belli gloria, quam humanitatis cultu inter Florentissimas orbis Christiani gentes imprimis floruit. Adeo vt ad custodiam corporis Constantinopolitanorum Imperatorum euocati fuerint Angli. Ioannes enim Alexij Comneni filius vt refert noster Malmesburiensis, eorum fidem suspiciens præcipue familiaritati suæ applicabat amorem eorum filio transcribens: Adeo vt iam inde longo tempore fuerint imperatorum illorum satellites, Inglini Bipenniferi Nicetæ Choniatæ, Barangi Curopoatæ dicti. Qui vbique Imperatorem prosequebantur ferentes humeris secures, quas tollebant, cum Imperator ex oratorio spectandum se exhibebat Anglicè vitam diuturnam secures suas collidentes vt sonitum ederent comprecabantur. The same in English. From this time forward the kingdome of England was reputed among the most nourishing estates of Christendome, no less in chiualrie then humanitie. So farforth that the English men were sent for to be the guarders of the persons of the Emperours of Constantinople. For Iohn the sonne of Alexius Comnenus, as our countreyman William of Matmesburie reporteth, highly esteeming their fidelity, vsed them very nere about him, recommending them ouer to his sonne: so that long time afterwards the guard of those Emperours were English halberdiers, called by Nicetas Choniata, Inglini Bipeniferi, and by Curopolata, Barangi, which alwayes accompanied the Emperour with their halberds on their shoulders, which they held vp when the Emperour comming from his Oratorie shewed himselfe to the people; and clashing their halberds together to make a terrible sound, they in the English tongue wished vnto him long life. * * * * * The woorthy voiage of Richard the first, K. of England into Asia, for the recouerie of Ierusalem out of the hands of the Saracens, drawen out of the booke of Acts and Monuments of the Church of England, written by M. Iohn Foxe. King Richard the first of that name, for his great valure surnamed Ceur de Lion, the sonne of Henry the second, after the death of his father remembring the rebellions that he had vndutifully raised against him, sought for absolution of his trespasse, and in part of satisfaction for the same, agreed with Philip the French king to take his voiage with him for the recouerie of Christes patrimonie, which they called the Holy land, whereupon the sayd King Richard immediately after his Coronation, to prepare himselfe the better towards his iourney, vsed diuers meanes to take vp summes of money, and exacted a tenth of the whole Realme, the Christians to make three score and ten thousand pounds, and the Iewes which then dwelt in the Realme threescore thousand. Hauing thus gotten sufficient money for the exploite, he sent certaine Earles and Barons to Philip the French king in the time of his Parliament at S. Denis, to put him in mind of his promise made for the recouerie of Christs holy patrimonie out of the Saracens hands: To whom he sent againe in the moneth of December, that he had bound himselfe by solemne othe, deposing vpon the Euangelists, that he the yeere next following, about the time of Easter, had certainly prefixed to addresse himselfe toward that iourney, requiring him likewise not to faile, but to bee ready at the terme aboue limited, appointing also the place where both the Kings should meete together. In the yere therfore 1190. King Richard hauing committed the gouernment of this realme in his absence to the bishop of Ely then Chancellor of England, aduanced forward his iourney, and came to Turon to meet with Philip the French king, and after that went to Vizeliac, where the French king and he ioyning together, for the more continuance of their iourney, assured themselues by solemne othe, swearing fidelitie one to the other: the forme of whose oth was this. [Sidenote: The oth of fidelity betwixt King Richard and the French King.] That either of them should defend and maintaine the honour of the other, and beare true, fidelitie vnto him, of life, members and worldly honor, and that neither of them should faile one the other in their affaires: but the French King should aide the King of England in defending his land and dominions, as he would himselfe defend his owne Citie of Paris if it were besieged: and that Richard King of England likewise should aide the French King in defending his land and Dominions, no otherwise then he would defend his own Citie of Roan if it were besieged, &c. Concerning the lawes and ordinances appointed by K. Richard for his Nauie, the forme thereof was this. [Sidenote: The discipline and orders of the King.] 1. That who so killed any person on shipboord, should be tied with him that was slaine, and throwen into the sea. 2. And if he killed him on the land, he should in like manner be tied with the partie slaine, and be buried with him in the earth. 3. He that shalbe conuicted by lawfull witnes to draw out his knife or weapon to the intent to strike any man, or that hath striken any to the drawing of blood, shall loose his hand. 4. Also he that striketh any person with his hand without effusion of blood, shall be plunged three times in the sea. 5. Item, who so speaketh any opprobrious or contumelious wordes in reuiling or cursing one another, for so oftentimes as he hath reuiled, shall pay so many ounces of siluer. 6. Item, a thiefe or felon that hath stollen being lawfully conuicted, shall haue his head shorne, and boyling pitch powred vpon his head, and feathers or downe strawed vpon the same, whereby he may be knowen, and so at the first landing place they shall come to, there to be cast vp. These things thus ordered, king Richard sending his Nauie by the Spanish seas, and by the streights of Gibraltar, betweene Spaine and Africa, to meete him at Marsilia, hee himselfe went as is said to Vizeliac to the French king. Which two kings from thence went to Lions, where the bridge ouer the flood Rhodanus with preasse of people brake, and many both men and women were drowned: by occasion whereof the two kings for the combrance of their traines, were constrained to disseuer themselues for time of their iourney, appointing both to meet together in Sicily: and so Philip the French king tooke his way to Genua, and king Richard to Marsila, where be remained 8. dayes, appointing there his Nauie to meete him. From thence crossing ouer to Genua where the French king was, he passed forward by the coasts of Italy, and entred into Tiber not farre from Rome. King Richard staying in Marsilia 8. dayes for his Nauie which came not, he there hired 20. Gallies, and ten great barkes to ship ouer his men, and so came to Naples, and so partly by horse and wagon, and partly by the sea, passing to Falernum, came to Calabria, where after that he had heard that his ships were arriued at Messana in Sicilie, he made the more speed, and so the 23. of September entred Messana with such a noyse of Trumpets and Shalmes, with such a rout and shew, that it was to the great wonderment and terror both of the Frenchmen, and of all other that did heare and behold the sight. To the said towne of Messana the French king was come before the 16. of the same moneth of September, and had taken vp the pallace of Tancredus king of Sicily for his lodging: to whom king Richard after his arriuall eftsoones resorted, and when the two kings had communed together, immediately the French king tooke shipping and entred the seas, thinking to saile towards the land of Ierusalem: but after he was out of the hauen, the winde rising contrary against him, returned him backe againe to Messana. Then king Richard (whose lodging was prepared in the suburbs without the Citie) after he had resorted againe and talked with the French king, and also had sent to Tancredus king of Sicily, for deliuerance of Ioane his sister (who had beene somtimes Queene of Sicily) and had obtained her to be sent vnto him, the last day of September passed ouer the streight del Fare, and there getting a strong hold called de la Baguare, or le Bamare, and there placing his sister with a sufficient garrison, he returned againe to Messana. The 2. of October king Richard wan another strong hold, called Monasterium Griffonum, situated in the midst of the streight del Fare, betweene Messana and Calabria, from whence the Monks being expulsed, he reposed there all his store and prouision of victuals, which came from England or other places. The Citizens of Messana seeing that the king of England had wonne the castle and Island de la Baguare, and also the Monasterie of the Griffons, and doubting least the king would extend his power further to inuade their Citie, and get if he could the whole Isle of Sicilie, began to stirre against the Kings armie, and to shut the Englishmen out of the gates, and kept their walles against them. The Englishmen seeing that, made to the gates, and by force would haue broken them open, insomuch that the King riding amongst them with his staffe, and breaking diuers of their heads, could not asswage their fierceness, such was the rage of the Englishmen agaynst the citizens of Messana. The King seeing the furie of his people to be such that hee could not stay them, tooke boate, and went to the pallace of king Tancred, to talke of the matter with the French king, in which meane time the matter was so taken vp by the wise handling of the ancients of the citie, that both parts laying downe their armour, went home in peace. The fourth day of the sayd moneth of October, came to king Richard the Archbishop of Messana with two other Archbishops also with the French king, and sundry other Earles, Barons, and Bishops, to intreat of peace, who as they were together consulting, and had almost concluded vpon the peace, the Citizens of Messana issuing out of the towne, some went vp vpon the mountains, some with open force inuaded the mansion or lodging of Hugh Brune, an English captaine. The noyse whereof comming to the eares of the King, hee suddenly breaking off talke with the French king and the rest, departed from them, and comming to his men, commanded them forthwith to arme themselues. Who then with certaine of his souldiours making vp to the top of the mountaine (which seemed to passe their power to climbe) there put the Citizens to flight, chasing them downe the mountaines, vnto the very gates of the citie, whom also certaine of the kings seruants pursued into the citie, of whom fiue valiant souldiers and twentie of the kings seruants were slaine, the French King looking vpon, and not once willing to rescue them, contrary to his othe, and league before made with the king of England: for the French king with his men being there present, rode in the midst of them safely, and without any harme too and fro, and might well haue eased the Kings partie, more then he, if it had so liked him. [Sidenote: Messana won by the English.] This being knowen to the English hoste how their fellowes were slaine, and the Frenchmen permitted in the citie, and that they were excluded and the gates barred against them, being also stopped from buying of victuall, and other things, they vpon great indignation gathered themselues in armes, brast open the the gates, and scaled the wals, and so winning the citie, set up their flags with the English armes vpon the wals which when the French King did see, he was mightily offended, requiring the King of England that the Armes of France might also be set vp, and ioyned with his: but King Richard to that would in no case agree, notwithstanding to satisfie his minde, he was contented to take downe his Armes, and to commit the custodie of the citie to the Hospitaleries and Templaries of Ierusalem, till the time that Tancred king of Sicily and he should agree together vpon conditions. These things being done the fift and sixt day of October, it followed then vpon the eight day of the same, that peace was concluded among the kings. In which peace, first King Richard, and Philip the French king renewed againe their oth and league before made, concerning their mutual aide and societie, during the time of that peregrination. Secondly, peace also was concluded betweene king Richard and Tancred king of Sicily aforesaide, with conditions, that the daughter of Tancrede in case king Richard should die without issue, should be married to Arthur Duke of Britaine the kings Nephew and next heire to his crowne, whereof a formall charte was drawen, and letters sent thereof to Pope Clement being dated the ninth of Nouember. From this time vntill Februarie the next yeere these two kings kept still at Messana, either for lacke of winde and weather, or for the repairing of their shippes. And in the aforesayde Februarie, in the yeere 1191. King Richard sent ouer his gallies to Naples, there to meete his mother Elinore, and Berengaria the daughter of Zanctius king of Nauarre, whom he was purposed to marry, who by that time were come to Brundusium, vnder the conduct of Philip Earle of Flanders, and so proceeding vnto Naples, they found the kings shippes wherein they sayled to Messana. In this meane space, king Richard shewed himselfe exceeding bounteous and liberall to all men: to the French king first he gaue diuers shippes, vpon others likewise he bestowed riche rewardes, and of his treasure and goods he distributed largely to his souldiers and seruants about him, of whom it was reported, that he distributed more in one moneth, than any of his predecessors did in a whole yeere: by reason, whereof he purchased great loue and fauour, which not onely redounded to the aduancements of his fame, but also to his singular vse and profite, as the sequele afterwards prooued. The first day of March following, he left the citie of Messana, where the French King was, and went to Cathneia, a citie where Tancredus king of Sicily then lay, where he was honorably receiued, and there remained with king Tancredus three dayes and three nights. On the fourth day when he should depart, the aforesaid Tancredus offred him many rich presents in gold and siluer, and precious silkes, whereof king Richard would receiue nothing, but one little ring for a token of his good will: for the which king Richard gaue againe vnto him a riche sworde. At length when king Richard should take his leaue, king Tancred would not let him so depart, but needes would giue 4. great shippes, and 15. gallies, and furthermore hee himselfe would needes accompanie him the space of two dayes iourney, to a place called Tauernium. Then the next morning when they should take their leaue, Tancredus declared vnto him the message, which the French King a little before had sent vnto him by the Duke of Burgundie, the contents whereof were these: That the King of England was a false Traytour, and would neuer keepe the peace that was betweene them: and if the sayd Tancredus would warre against him, or secretly by night would inuade him, he with all his power would assist him, to the destruction of him and all his armie. To whom Richard the King protested againe, that he was no traytour, nor neuer had bene: and as touching the peace, begun betwixt them, the same should neuer be broken through him; neither could he beleeue that the French King being his good lord, and his sworn Compartner in that voyage, would utter any such wordes by him. Which when Tancredus heard, he bringeth foorth the letters of the French King, sent to him by the Duke of Burgundie, affirming moreouer, that if the Duke of Burgundie would denie the bringing of the said letters, he was readie to trie it with him by any of his Dukes. King Richard receiuing the letters, and musing not a little vpon the same, returneth againe to Messana. The same day that King Richard departed, the French king came to Tauernium to speake with Tancred, and there abode with him that night, and on the morrowe returned to Messana againe. From that time, King Richard mooued in stomacke against King Philip, neuer shewed any gentle countenance of peace and amitie, as he before was woont: whereat the French king greatly marueiling, and enquiring earnestly what should be the cause thereof, word was sent him againe by Philip earle of Flanders from king Richard, what words he had sent to the King of Sicily, and for testimony thereof the letters were shewed, which he wrote by the duke of Burgundie to the king of Sicily: which when the French king vnderstood, first he held his peace as guilty in his conscience, not knowing well what to answere. At length turning his tale to another matter, he began to quarrell with king Richard, pretending as though he sought causes to breake with him, and to maligne him: and therefore he forged (sayd he) these lies vpon him, and all because he by that meanes would auoid to marry with Alise his sister, according as he had promised. Adding moreouer that if he would so do, and would not marry the said Alise his sister according to his oth, he would be an enemy to him, and to his, while he liued. To this king Richard sayd againe that he could by no meanes marry that woman, forsomuch as his father had carnal copulation with her, and also had by her a sonne: for proofe whereof he had there presently to bring forth diuers and sundry witnesses to the kings face, to testifie with him. In conclusion, through counsell and perswasion of diuers about the French king, agreement at last was made, so that king Philip did acquite king Richard from this bond of marrying his sister, and king Richard againe should be bound to pay to him euery yeere for the space of fiue yeeres, two thousand markes, with certaine other conditions besides, not greatly materiall for this place. And thus peace being betweene them concluded the 28 day of the sayd moneth of March, the French king launching out of the hauen of Messana, the 22 day after in the Easter weeke, came with his armie to the siege of Achon. After the departure of the French king from Messana, king Richard with his armie yet remaining behinde, arriued Queene Alinor the kings mother, bringing with her Berengaria the king of Nauars daughter, to be espoused to king Richard: [Sidenote: The Nauie of King Richard.] which being done, king Richard in April following, about the 20 day of the sayd moneth, departed from the hauen Messana with 150 great ships, and 53 great gallies well manned and appointed, and tooke his iourney toward Achon: who being vpon the Seas on Good friday about the ninth houre, rose a mighty South winde, with a tempest, which disseuered and scattered all his Nauie, some to one place and some to another. The king with a few ships was driuen to the Ile of Creta, and there before the hauen of Rhodes cast anker. The ships that caried the kings sister, queene of Sicily, and Berengaria the king of Nauars daughter, with two ships were driuen to the Ile of Cyprus. The king making great mone for the ships of his sister, and Berengaria his wife that should be, not knowing where they were become, after the tempest was ouerblowen, sent forth his gallies diligently to seeke the rest of his Nauie dispersed, but especially the shippe wherein his sister was, and the maiden whom he should marry, who at length were found safe and merry at the port of Lymszem [Footnote: Lymasol.] in the Ile of Cyprus, notwithstanding the two other ships, which were in their company before in the same hauen, were drowned with diuers of the kings seruants and men of worship, among whom was M. Roger, called Malus Catulus, the kings Vicechancellour, who was found with the kings seale hanging about his necke. The king of Cyprus was then Isakius [Footnote: Isaac Comnenus who became King in 1184.] (called also the Emperour of the Gryffons) who tooke and imprisoned all Englishmen, which by shipwracke were cast vpon his land, also inuegled into his hands the goods and prises of them which were found drowned about his coastes, neither would suffer the ships wherein the two ladies were to enter within the port. The tidings of this being brought to king Richard, he in great wrath gathering his gallies and ships together, boordeth the land of Cyprus, where he first in gentle wise signifieth to king Isakius, how he with his English men, comming as strangers to the supportation of the holy land, were by distresse of weather driuen vpon his bounds, and therefore with all humble petition besought him in Gods behalfe, and for reuerence of the holy crosse, to let go such prisoners of his as he had in captiuitie, and to restore againe the goods of them that were drowned, which he deteined in his hands, to be employed for the behoofe of their soules. And this the king once, twise, and thrise desired of the Emperour: but he proudly answering againe, sent the king word, that he neither would let the captiues go, nor render the goods of them which were drowned. When king Richard heard this, how light the emperour Isakius made of his so humble and honest petition, and how that nothing could be gotten without violent force, eftsoones [Footnote: The Saxon _Eft_ properly means _after_. It was beginning to be obsolete in 1400 but Spencer frequently uses it. It occurs rarely after his time.] giueth commandement thorowout all his hoste to put themselues in armour and follow him, to reuenge the iniuries receiued of that proud and cruell king of Cyprus, willling them to put their trust in God, and not to misdoubt but that the Lord would stand with them, and giue them the victory. The Emperour in the meane time with his people stood warding the Sea coasts, where the English men should arriue, with swords, billes, and lances, and such other weapons as they had, setting boordes, stooles, and chestes, before them as a wall: few of them were harnessed, [Footnote: Clad in armour. This apish and unmannerly approach, This _harness'd_ masque, and unadvised revel. KING JOHN v. 2.] and for the most part all vnexpert and vnskilfull in the feates of warre. Then king Richard with his souldiers issuing out of ships, first set his bowemen before, who with their shot made a way for others to folowe. The Englishmen thus winning the land vpon them, so fiercely pressed upon the Gryffons, that after long fighting and many blowes, at last the Emperour was put to flight, whom king Richard valiantly pursued, and slue many, and diuers he tooke aliue, and had gone neere also to take the Emperour, had not the night come on and parted the battell. And thus king Richard with much spoyle, and great victory, returning to the port Towne of Lymszem, which the Townesmen had left for feare, found there great abundance of corne, wine, oyle, and victuals. The day after the victory gotten, Ioanna the Kings sister, and Berengaria the mayden, entred the Porte and Towne of Lymszem, with 50. great ships, and 14. galliots: so that all the whole Nauie there meeting together, were 254. tall shippes, and aboue threescore galliots. Then Isakius the Emperour, seeing no way for him to escape by Sea, the same night pitched his tentes fiue miles off from the English army, swearing that the third day after, he would surely giue battell to king Richard: but he preuenting him before, suddenly the same morning before the day of battell should be, setteth vpon the tentes of the Gryffons early in the morning, they being vnawares and asleepe, and made of them a great slaughter, insomuch that the Emperour was faine to runne away naked, leauing his tentes and pauilions to the Englishmen, full of horses and rich treasure, also with the Imperial standerd, the lower part whereof with a costly streamer was couered, and wrought all with golde. King Richard returning with victorie and triumph to his sister and Berengaria, shortly after in the moneth of May next following, and the 12. day of the said moneth, married the said Berengaria daughter of Zanctius, king of Nauarre, in the yle of Cyprus at Lymszem. The king of Cyprus seeing himselfe ouermatched, was driuen at length to yeelde himselfe with conditions to giue king Richard 20000. markes in golde for amends of such spoyles as he had gotten of them that were drowned, also to restore all the captiues againe to the king: and furthermore, he in his owne person, to attend vpon the king to the lande of Ierusalem, in Gods seruice and his, with 400. horsemen, and 500. footemen: in pledge whereof he would giue to his hands his castles, and his onely daughter, and would hold his kingdome of him. This done, and the Emperour swearing fidelitie to king Richard before Guido king of Ierusalem, and the prince of Antioche (who were come thither to king Richard a little before) peace was taken, and Isakius committed to the warde of certaine keepers. Notwithstanding shortly after he breaking from his keepers, was againe at defiance with the King: whereupon king Richard besetting the Iland of Cyprus round about with shippes and gallies, did in sucn sort preuaile, that the subiects of the land, were constrained to yeelde themselues to the King, and at last the daughter of the Emperour, and the Emperour himselfe, whom king Richard caused to be kept in fetters of gold and siluer, and to be sent to the citie of Tripolis. [Sidenote: The Lord Chamberlaine of King Richard left gouernour of Cyprus.] These things thus done, and all set in order touching the possession of the Ile of Cyprus, the keeping whereof he committed to Radulphe sonne of Godfrey Lord Chamberlaine, being then the first day of Iune upon the fift of the saide moneth, king Richard departed from the Ile of Cyprus, [Footnote: Cyprus, the third largest island of the Mediterranean, situated in the N.E. angle, equidistant about 60 miles from the coasts of Syria and Asia Minor. Its form was compared in ancient times to the skin of a deer. Its length, from Cape Andrea to Cape Epiphanias, the ancient Acamas, is 140 miles. Its greatest breadth, from Cape Gatto on the south coast to Cape Kormakiti on the north, is about 50 miles, but it gradually narrows towards the east, being no more than 5 miles wide near Cape Andrea. The coast of the island consists of a succession of gulfs and bays, many of which, though not sufficiently land-locked to form natural harbours, would be capable, with the addition of some artificial works, such as breakwaters, &c., of affording safe anchorage in all the preuailing winds. On the north-west and north the principal harbours or roadsteads affording shelter from certain winds are the Bay of Chrysochon and the roads of Pyros and Morpha, the harbour of Kyrenia, and the Bay of Exarkos; on the east and south, the bays and harbours of Salamis and Famagusta, the bay and roads of Larnaka, the roads of Limasol, which latter were greatly improved by the opening of an iron pier in 1882, and the small harbour of Paphos (Kuklia). The great disadvantage of all these harbours and roadsteads is the shallowness of the water for some distance from the land; this has the effect of raising a great deal of surf when the wind blows on shore, and also of compelling vessels of any size to anchor at a considerable distance out, thus making the operations of landing and embarking cargo both tedious and expensiue. It would not, however, be a matter of great expense to construct breakwaters and deepen the old harbours, especially that of Famagusta, which, at the end of the sixteenth century, was sufficiently deep and large to afford safe anchorage to the whole fleet of the Venetian Republic, and when in the outer harbour there is now shelter for about twelve ironclads. Larnaka is the port at present most frequented by trading vessels. The ancient Olympus, how called Santa Croce, rises in the centre of the island, and two principal ranges of mountains runs in the direction of its length, keeping closer to the north than to the south coast. The highest summit of the range of Santa Croce is mount Troödos, with an elevation of 6590 feet above the sea-level. Here, on the south-east slopes, are the summer quarters of the troops and the summer residence of the high commissioner. The most extensive plain, called Messarea, is in the south-east part of the island, and is watcred by the river Pedæus. The south of the island is watered by several streams, the principal of which is the river Kuris, or Lico, which falls into the sea at Episkopi, the ancient _Curium_. But these streams, which were once rivers of some importance, had very much decreased, owing to the almost complete denudation, in the plains and lower slopes of the mountains, of the forests which anciently covered them. Since the British occupation greater attention has been paid to the forests, and the beneficial results are already apparent. The Pedæus is the chief river. This and the other streams generally overflow their banks in the rainy season, and flood the land; as the waters subside, they leave behind a fertilizing mud, in the same manner as the Nile, but during the rest of the year they give but little if any help in the way of irrigation. The rainy season, although generally occurring from October to February, is not, however, to be absolutely depended upon; thus it is recorded that in 1330, during the reign of Hugo of Lusignan, the rainfall was so heavy and the rivers flooded to such an extent as to spread desolation far and near; and under Constantine there was no rain for thirty-six years, so that most of the inhabitants left the island. Again, in modern times, there was a disastrously small rainfall in 1869. The soil is naturally fertile, and formerly maintained a population of nearly 1,000,000 but the number of inhabitants in 1881 was only 185,906, of whom the bulk were Greek Christians. Cotton of the finest quality has been raised from American seed; excellent wine and all kinds of fruit are produced, but agriculture is in a most backward state. Besides the productions already named, madder, opium, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, &c., are grown. The carob-tree abounds in some districts; its succulent pods are exported to Egypt and Syria, while the fruit called St. John's Bread is used as an article of food. Of all the agricultural products, cereals hold the most important place. Wheat was largely grown until recently, but of late years, it has been in great measure replaced by barley and oats, which ripen earlier; and are not subject to the attacks of locusts.] with his shippes and gallies toward the seige of Achon, and on the next morrowe came to Tyrus, where by procurement of the French king he was restrained by the Citizens to enter. The next day after, which was the first day of Iune, crossing the seas, he met with a great carak, fraught with souldiers and men of warre to the number of a thousand and fiue hundred, which pretended to be Frenchmen, and setting foorth their flagge with the French armes, were indeede Saracens, [Sidenote: A great ship of Saracens taken by king Richard.] secretly sent with wilde fire [Footnote: Greek Fire was the name given to a composition which was largely used by the Greeks of the Byzantine Empire in their wars with the Mohammedans. Its nature was kept a profound secret for centuries, but the material is now believed to have been a mixture of nitre, sulphur, and naphtha. It burned with terrible fury wherever it fell, and it possessed the property of being inextinguishable by water. Even when poured upon the sea it would float upon the surface and still burn. It was used in warfare for a considerable time after the discovery of gunpowder, but gradually fell into the disuse as artillery became more effective. The name is still sometimes used to designate the inflammable compounds known to modern chemists which have been designed for use in incendiary shells, and for a composition which has been used by the Fenians to set fire to public buildings.] and certaine barrels of unknowen serpents to the defence of the towne of Achon, which king Richard at length perceiuing eftsoones set upon them and so vanquished them, of whom the most were drowned and some taken aliue: which being once knowen in the citie of Achon, as it was a great discomfort to them, so it was a great helpe to the Christians for winning the citie. [Sidenote: King Richard arriued at Achon.] The next day after which was the seuenth of Iune, king Richard came to Achon, which at that time had bene long besieged by the Christians. After whose comming it was not long, but the Pagans within the citie, seeing their wals to be undermined and towers ouerthrowen, were driuen by composition to escape with life and limme, to surrender the citie to the two kings. Another great helpe to the Christians in winning the citie, was this. In the said city of Achon there was a secret Christian among the Saracens, who in time of the siege thereof vsed at sundry times to cast ouer the wals into the campe of the Christians, certaine bils written in Hebrue, Greeke, and Latine, wherein he disclosed to the Christians from time to time, the doings and counsels of the enemies, aduertising them how and what way they should worke, and what to beware, and alwayes his letters began thus. In nomine Patris, et Filij, et Spiritus sancti Amen. By reason whereof the Christians were much, aduantaged in their proceedings: but this was a great heauines unto them, that neither he would utter his name, nor when the citie was got did they euer understand who he was. To make of a long siege a short narration. Vpon the twelfth day of Iuly the yeere aforesaid, the Princes and Captaines of the Pagans, vpon agreement resorted to the tent of the Templaries to commune with the two kings touching peace, and giuing vp of their citie: the forme of which peace was thus. [Sidenote: The forme of peace concluded between the Kings and Princes of Achon.] 1 That the Kings should haue the citie of Achon freely and fully deliuered vnto them, with all which was therein. 2 That 500. captiues of the Christians should be restored to them, which were in Achon. 3 That the holy crosse should be to them rendred, and a thousand Christian captiues with two hundreth horsemen, whosoeuer they themselues would chose out of all them which were in the power of the Saladine. 4 That they would giue vnto the Kings two hundreth thousand Bysants, so that they themselues should remaine as pledges in the Kings hands, for the performance hereof, that if in fortie daies, the aforesayd couenants were not accomplished, they should abide the Kings mercie touching life and limme. These couenants being agreed vpon, the Kings sent their souldiers and seruants into the citie, to take a hundreth of the richest and best of the citie, to close them vp in towers vnder strong keeping, and the residue, they committed to be kept in houses and in streetes, ministring vnto them according to their necessities: to whom notwithstanding this they permitted, that so many of them as would be baptized and receiue the faith of Christ, should be free to goe whither they would: wherupon many there were of the Pagans, which for feare of death pretended to be baptized, but afterward so soone as they could, reuolted againe to the Saladine: for the which it was afterward commanded by the Kings that none of them should be baptized against their wils. The thirteenth day of the said moneth of Iuly, King Philip of France, and King Richard, after they had obteined the possession of Achon, [Footnote: Acre, acca, anciently Ptolemais, in Syria, was taken by the Saracens in 638; by the Crusaders under Baldwin I. in 1104; by Saladin in 1187; and again by Richard I. and other Crusaders 12 July 1191, after a siege of 2 years, with a loss of 6 archbishops, 12 bishops, 40 earls, 500 barons, 300,000 soldiers. It was then named _St. Jean d'Acre_. It was retaken by the Saracens in 1291, when 60,000 Christians perished, and the nuns, who had mangled their faces to preserue their chastity, were put to death.] deuided betweene them all things therein conteined as well the people as golde and siluer, with all other furniture whatsoeuer was remaining in the citie: who in diuiding the spoyle, were so good caruers to themselues that the Knights and Barons had but litle to their share, whereupon they began to shew themselues somewhat discontented, which being knowen of the kings, they sent them answere that their wils should be satisfied. The twentieth day of Iuly, king Richard speaking with the French king, desired him that they two with their armies, would binde themselues by othe to remaine there stil in the land of Ierusalem the space of 3 yeeres, for the winning and recouering againe of those countreys: but he sayd he would sweare no such othe, and so the next day after king Richard, with his wife and sister entred into the citie of Achon, and there placed himselfe in the kings pallace: The French king remayning in the houses of the Templaries, where he continued till the end of the moneth. [Sidenote: The French kings shamefull returne home.] About the beginning of the moneth of August, Philip the French king after that he and King Richard had made agreement betweene Guido and Conradus the Marques, about the kingdome of Ierusalem, went from Achon to Tyrus, notwithstanding king Richard and all the Princes of the Christian armie with great intreatie desired him to tary, shewing what a shame it were for him to come so farre, and now to leaue vndone that for which he came, and on the 3. day of August departed from Tyrus, leauing the halfe part of the Citie of Achon in the hands of the aforesayd Conradus Marques. After his departure the Pagans refused to keepe their couenants made, who neither would restore the holy Crosse nor the money, nor their captiues, sending word to king Richard, that if he beheaded the pledges left with him at Achon, they would choppe off the heads of such captiues of the Christians, as were in their hands. [Sidenote: The captiues of the Saladine slaine by king Richard.] Shortly after this the Saladine sending great gifts to king Richard, requested the time limited for beheading of the captiues to be proroged, but the king refused to take his gifts, and to graunt his request, whereupon the Saladine caused all the Christian captiues within his possession forthwith to be beheaded, which was the 28. of August: which albeit king Richard vnderstood, yet would not he preuent the time before limitted for the execution of his prisoners, being the 20. day of August: vpon which day he caused the prisoners of the Saracens openly in the sight of the Saladines armie to loose their heads: the number of whom came to two thousand and fiue hundreth, saue onely that certaine of the principal of them he reserued for purposes and considerations, especially to make exchange for the holy Crosse, and certaine other of the Christian captiues. [Sidenote: A notable victorie against the Saladine.] After this king Richard purposed to besiege the Citie of Ioppe, where by the way beweene Achon and Ioppe, neere to a towne called Assur, Saladine with a great multitude of his Saracens came fiercely against the kings rereward, but through Gods mercifull grace in the same battell, the kings warriers acquited themselues so well, that the Saladine was put to flight, whom the Christians pursued the space of 3 miles, and he lost that same day many of his Nobles and Captaines, in such sort (as it was thought) that the Saladine was not put to such confusion 40 yeres before, and but one Christian Captaine called James Auernus in that conflict was ouerthrowen. [Sidenote: King Richard in possession of Syria.] From thence king Richard proceeding further went to Ioppe, and then to Ascalon, where he found first the citie of Ioppe forsaken of the Saracens, who durst not abide the kings comming: Ascalon the Saladine threw downe to the ground, and likewise forsooke the whole land of Syria, through all which land the king had free passage without resistance: neither durst the Saracene Prince encounter after that with K. Richard. Of all which his atcheuances the sayd K. Richard sent his letters of certificate as well into England, as also to the Abbot of Clara valle [Footnote: Clairvaux, a famous Cistercian abbey, founded in 1114 by the celebrated Bernard. It increased so rapidly that before his death, in 1153, it contained 700 monks, and had connected with it seventy-six monasteries in various parts of Europe, partly founded by Bernard and partly induced to join the brotherhood. All sorts of handicraft and agricultural operations were carried on by the brethren. After supplying the wants of their community the surplus was disposed of in the nearest markets. It was suppressed at the Revolution.] in France, well hoping that he God willing should be able to make his repaire againe to them by Easter next. Many other famous acts were done in this voyage by these two Kings, and moe should haue bene, had not they falling into discorde disseuered themselues, by reason whereof Philip the French king returned home againe within short space: who being returned againe eftsoones inuaded the countrey of Normandy, exciting also Iohn the brother of king Richard, to take on him the kingdome of Englande in his brothers absence: [Sidenote: 1193.] who then made league vpon the same with the French king, and did homage vnto him, which was about the fourth yeere of king Richard. [Sidenote: King Richard returneth from Palaestina.] Who then being in Syria, and hearing thereof, made peace with the Turkes for three yeeres: and not long after, king Richard the next Spring following returned also, who in his returne driuen by distresse of weather about the parts of Histria, in a towne called Synaca, was there taken by Lympold, Duke of the same countrey, and so solde to the Emperour for sixtie thousand Markes: who for no small ioy thereof, writeth to Philip the French king, these letters here following. * * * * * The letter of the Emperour to Philip the French king, concerning the taking of King Richard. Henricus Dei gratia Romanorum Imperator, et semper Augustus, Dilecto et speciali amico suo, Philippo illustri Francorum Regi salutem, et sinceræ dilectionis affectum. Quoniam Imperatoria Celsitudo non dubitat Regalem Magnificentiam tuam Iætiorem effici, de vniuersis quibus omnipotentia creatoris nostri nos ipsos, et Romanum Imperium honorauerit et exaltauerit, nobilitati tuæ tenore præsentium declarare duximus, quod inimicus Imperij nostri, et turbator Regni tui Rex Angliæ, quum esset in transeundo mare ad partes suas reuersurus, accidit vt ventus rupta naui sua, in qua ipse erat, induceret eum in partes Histriæ ad locum qui est inter Aquileiam, et Venetias. Vbi Rex, Dei permissione passus naufragium cum paucis euasit. Quidam itaque fidelis noster Comes, Maynardus de Grooxce, et populus regionis illius, audito quod in terra erat, et considerato diligentius, qualem nominatus Rex in terra promissionis proditionem et traditionem, et perditionis suæ cumulum exercuerat, insecuti sunt, intendentes eum captiuare. Ipso autem Rege in fugam conuerso, ceperunt de suis octo milites: Postmodum processit Rex ad Burgum in Archiepiscopatu Salseburgensi, qui vocatur Frisorum, vbi Fridericus de Betesow, Rege cum tribus tantum versus Austriam properante, noctu sex milites de suis coepit: Dilectus autem Consanguineus noster Lympoldus Dux Austriæ, obseruata strata sæpe dictum Regem iuxta Denam in villa viciniori in domo despecta captiuauit. Cum itaque in nostra nunc habeatur Potestate, et ipse semper tua molestauit, et turbationis operam præstiterit, ea quæ præmissimus, nobilitati tuæ insinuare curauimus: scientes ea dilectioni tuæ bene placita existere, animo tuo vberrimam importare lætitiam. Datum apud Ritheontum 5. Kalendas Ianua. King Richard being thus traitorously taken, and solde to the Emperour by the Duke of Austridge for 60000. markes, was there kept in custodie a yeere and 3. moneths. In some stories it is affirmed, that King Richard returning out of Asia, came to Italy with prosperous winde, where he desired of the Pope to be absolued of an othe made against his will and could not obteine it: and so setting out from thence towards England, passing by the Countrey of Conradus the Marques, whose death (he being, slaine a litle before) was falsly imputed by the French king to the king of England, there traiterously was taken (as is aforesayde) by Limpoldus duke of Austridge. Albeit in another storie I finde the matter more credibly set forth: which saith thus. That king Richard slewe the brother of this Limpoldus, playing with him at Chesse in the French Kings Court: and Limpoldus taking his vantage, was more cruel against him and deliuered him (as is sayde) to the Emperour. In whose custodie he was deteined during the time aboue mentioned, a yeere and 3. moneths. During which time of the kings endurance, the French king in the meane season stirred warre in Normandie: and Earle Iohn the Kings brother, made stirre and inuaded England, but the Barons and Bishops of the land mightily withstood him. At length it was agreed and concluded with the Emperour, that king Richard should be released for a hundreth and foure thousand pound: of which money part should remaine to the Duke of Austridge, the rest should be the Emperours. The summe of which money was here gathered and made in England of chalices, crosses, shrines, candlestickes and other Church place, also with publike contribution of Friers, Abbots, and other subiects of the Realme: whereof part was presently paid, and for the residue remaining, hostages and pledges were taken, which was about the fift yeere of his reigne: and then it was obteined of the Pope that Priestes might celebrate with Chalices of latten and tinne. [Sidenote: The iust iudgment of God vpon the Duke of Austria.] At what time this aforesaide money was payde, and the hostages giuen for the ransome of the King, I haue an olde historie which saith, that the aforesaid Duke of Austridge was shortly after plagued by God; with 5. sundry plagues. First, with the burning of his chiefe Townes. 2. With drowning of tenne thousand of his men in a flood happening no man can tell how. 3. By turning all the eares of his corne fieldes into wormes. 4. By taking away almost all the Nobles of his land by death. 5. By breaking his owne leg falling from his horse, which leg he was compelled to cut off with his owne hands, and afterwards died of the same: who then at his death is reported to forgiue K. Richard 50000. marks, and sent home the hostages that were with him. And further a certaine booke intituled Eulogium declareth, that the sayd Limpoldus duke of Austrich fell in displeasure with the bishop of Rome and died excommunicate the next yeere after, Anno 1196. But thus, as you haue heard, Richard the King was ransomed and deliuered from the couetuous captiuitie of the Emperor, and returning home made an ende of his voyage for Asia, which was both honourable to himselfe and to all Christian states, but to the Saracens the enemies of Christianitie, terrible and dishonourable. [This historie of King Richards voiage to Ierusalem is very excellently and largely written in Latine by Guilielmus Neobrigensis, [Footnote: William Little, died between 1208 and 1220. The best edition of his history is Mr Howlett's, 1884, published in the Rolls Series. It extends from the Conquest to 1197.] and Roger Houeden.] [Footnote: Roger of Hoveden, a fine old English chronicler attached to the household of Henry II. in some capacity of treasurer connected with minor abbeys and their royal dues, was also professor of theology at Oxford. His chronicle was chiefly written under Richard of the Lion Heart, and breaks off at the third year of John, 1201. It is in Latin, and is easily accessible--the _Chronica Rogeri de Hovedene_ forming part of the magnificent Rolls Series. It is in four vols. 8vo, edited, by Professor Stubbs (London, 1871) The first part of Roger's chronicle, beginning with the year 732, is really due to Benedict of Peterborough, under which name the king's treasurer, Bishop Richard Fitz Neal, wrote. It professes to continue and complete Bede's History. Roger of Hoveden is of high value for Henry II.'s time, but for that of Richard and the first year of John he is really admirable. No circumstance is too trivial for his pen, and in this garrulous diffuseness many touches are preserved of priceless worth to us, with which better authors would have disdained to cumber their work.] * * * * * Epitaphium Richardi primi regis Anglorum apud fontem Ebraldi. Scribitur hoc auro, rex auree, laus tua tota aurea, materiæ conueniente nota. Laus tua prima fuit Siculi, Cyprus altera, Dromo tertia, Caruanna quarta, suprema Iope. [Marginal note: Ciuitas Ioppe.] Retrusi Siculi, Cyprus pessundata, Dromo mersus, Caruanna capta, retenta Iope. Epitaphium eiusdem vbi viscera eius requiescunt. Viscera Kareolum, corpus fons seruat Ebraldi, et cor Rothomagus, magne Richarde, tuum. * * * * * The trauailes of Gulielmus Peregrinus. Gulielmus Peregrinus, Poeta quidem per eam ætatem excellens, genere Anglus florebat, literarum, vt multi tunc erant, amator maximus, et qui bona tempora melioribus impenderat studijs. Hic cum accepisset, expeditionem in Saracenos per Regem Richardum parari, accinxit se ad iter illud, non tantum vt miles, sed etiam in peregrinus. Vidit ea quæ in Mari Hispanico fiebant, vidit quæ in Syria et Palæstina commissa fuerunt, in Sultanum Babyloniæ Regem, ac perfidos Sarracenos. Omnia hæc scripsit, et viuis depinxit coloribus, ita vt quasi præ oculis, totum poneret negotium, idémque Argumentum cum Richardo Canonico non infoeliciter, Heroico pertractauit carmine, opúsque iam absolutum Huberto Cantuariorum Archiepiscopo, et Stephano Turnhamo Capitaneo rerum bellicarum expertissimo dedicauit, addito hoc titulo, Odeporicon Richardi Regis. Multáque alia edidisse Poetam talem non dubito, sed num extent illa eius scripta, mihi non constat. Hoc tamen satis constat, eum fuisse in pretio, Anno à saluitfero virginis partu 1200. sub Anglorum Rege Ioanne. The same in English. William the Pilgrime, a very excellent Poet in those dayes and an Englishman borne, was of great fame, being much giuen to good letters, (as many then were) and bestowed his good time in the best kinde of studies. Hee vnderstanding of the preparation of king Richard against the Saracens, prepared himselfe also for the same voyage, not onely as a Souldiour, but as a Pilgrime also. He sawe those things which happened in the Spanish Seas, and which were done in Syria and Palestina, against the Sultan the King of Babylon, and the trecherous Saracens. All which things he wrote and expressed them as it were in liuely colours, as if they had bene still in doing before his eyes, and handled the same Argument in Heroicall verse which the forenamed Richard Canonicus did. And hauing finished his worke he dedicated it to Hubert Archbishop of Canterburie, and to Stephen Turneham a most expert Captaine of warres, giuing it this Title, The expedition of King Richard. And I doubt not but that so good a Poet as hee has published many other things, but whether they be extant yea or no, I know not: but this I know, that he was a man well accounted of, and flourished in the yeere after the birth of Christ 1200. vnder king Iohn. * * * * * The comming of the Emperour of Constantinople called Baldwine into England in the yere 1247, out of Matth. Paris, and Holensh. page 239. vol. 2. About the same time, Baldwine naming himselfe emperour of Constantinople, came againe into England, to procure sone new ayd of the king towards the recouery of his empire, out of the which he was expelled by the Greeks. * * * * * Confirmatio treugarum inter Regem Angliæ Eduardum quartum, et Ioannem secundum Regem Portugalliæ, datarum in oppido montis Maioris 8. Februarij, et apud Westmonasterium 13, Septembris, 1482. anno regni 22. Regis Eduardi quarti, lingua Lusitanica ex opere sequenti excerpta. Libro das obras de Garcia de Resende, que tracta da vida è feitos del Rey dom Ioham secundo. Embaxada que el Rey mandou à el Rey D'Inglaterra. Cap. 33. Edaqui de Monte Mor mandou el Rey por embaixadores, à el rey dom Duarte de Inglaterra Ruy de Sousa-pessoa principal è de muyto bon saber é credito; de que el Rey muyto confiua: é ho doutor Ioam d'Eluas, é fernam de Pina por secretario. E foram por mar muy honradamente cum muy boa companhia: hos quaes foram en nome del rey confirmar as ligas antiquas com Inglaterra, que polla-condiçan deltas ho nouo Rey de hum zeyno é do outro era obrigado à mandar confirmar: é tambien pera monstrarem ho titolo que el rey tinha no senhorio de Guinee, pera que depois de visto el rey D'Inglaterra defendesse em todos seus reynos, que ninguen armasse nem podesse mandar à Guinee: é assi mandasse desfazer huna armada que pera laa faziam, per mandado do Duque de Medina Sidonia, hum Ioam Tintam é hum Guilherme fabiam Ingleses. Com ha qual embaixada e, rey D'Inglaterra mostrou receber grande contentamento: é foy delle commuyta honra recebida, é em tudo fez inteiramente ho que pellos embaixadores lhe foy requerido: de que elles trouxeran autenticas escrituras das diligencias que con pubricos pregones fizeram: [Sidenote: These writings are in the Towre.] é assi as prouisones das aprouaçones que eran neccssarias: è com tudo muyto ben acabado, é ha vontade del rey se vieram. * * * * * The voyage of Matthew Gourney, a most, valiant English Knight against the Moores of Algier in Barbarie and Spaine. M. Camden pag. 159. Nec tacendum Matthæum Gourney in oppido quodam, vulgari lingua Stoke vnder Hamden in comitatu Somersetensi appellato, sepultum esse, virum bellicosissimum regnante Edwardo tertio: qui 96. ætatis anno diem obiuit, cum (vt ex inscriptione videre licuit) obsidioni d'Algizer contra Saracenos, prælijs Benamazin, Sclusensi, Cressiaco, Ingenos, Pictauiensi, et Nazarano in Hispania dimicasset. The same in English. [Sidenote: In the reigne of Edward the third.] It is by no means to be passed ouer in silence, that Matthew Gourney, being a most valiant warriour in the reigne of Edward the third, lyeth buried at a certaine towne, in the countie of Somerset, commonly called Stoke vnder Hamden: who deceased in the 96. yeare of his age: and that (as it is manifest by the inscription of his monument) after he had valiantly behaued himselfe at the siege of Algizer against the Sarazens, and at the battailes of Benamazin, of Sluce, of Cressie, of Ingenos, of Poictou, and of Nazaran in Spaine. * * * * * The comming of Lyon King of Armenia into England, in the yeere 1386, and in the ninth yeere of Richard the second, in trust to finde some meanes of peace or good agreement betweene the King of England and the French king. Iohn Froyssart lib. 3. cap. 56. Thus in abiding for the Duke of Berrie, and for the Constable, who were behind, then king Lyon of Armenia, who was in France, and had assigned him by the king, sixe thousande frankes by the yeare to maintaine his estate, tooke vpon him for a good intent to goe into England to speake with the king there and his Councell, to see if he might finde any matter of peace to be had, betweene the two Realmes, England and France: And so he departed from his lodging of Saint Albeyne beside Saint Denice, alonely [Footnote: "Merely" "only." (Nare's _Glossary_.) "I speak not this _alonly_ for mine owne." MIR. FOR MAGIST., p. 367.] with his owne company, and with no great apparell. So he rode to Boloine, and there he tooke a shippe, and so sayled foorth till he came, to Douer; and there he found the Earle of Cambridge, and the Earle of Buckingham, and moe then a hundreth men of armes, and a two thousand Archers, who lay there to keepe that passage, for the brute [Footenote: Report, _French_ BRUIT. (Nare's _Glossary_). Compare 3 Ilen, vi., iv., 7.] ran, that the Frenchmen should lande there or at Sandwich, and the king lay at London, and part of his Councell with him, and daily heard tydings from all the Portes of England. When the king of Armenia was arriued at Douer, he had there good cheere, because he was a stranger, and so he came to the kings vncles there, who sweetly receiued him, and at a time conuenient, they demaunded of him from whence he came and whither he would. The king answered and sayd, that in trust of goodnesse he was come thither to see the king of England, and his Councell, to treate of peace betweene England and France, for he saide that he thought the warre was not meete: for he sayd, by reason of warre betweene these two Realmes, which hath indured so long, the Saracens, Iewes and Turkes are waxed proude, for there is none that make them any warre, and by occasion thereof I haue lost my land and Realme, and am not like to recouer them againe without there were firme peace in all Christendome: and I would gladly shew the matter that toucheth all Christendome to the king of England, and to his Councell, as I haue done to the French king. Then the kings Vncles demaunded of him if the French king sent him thither or no; he answered and sayd, no: there is no man that sent mee, but I am come hither by mine owne motion to see if the king of England and his Councel would any thing leane to any treaty of peace, then was he demaunded where the French king was, he answered I beleeue he be at Sluce, I sawe not him sithence I tooke my leaue of him at Senlize. Then he was demaunded, howe he could make any treatie of peace, and had no charge so to doe, and Sir, if yee be conueyed to the King our Nephew and to his Counsell, and the French king in the meane season enter with his puissance into England; yee may happe thereby to receiue great blame, and your person to be in great ieoperdy with them of the Countrey. Then the King answered and said, I am in suretie of the French king, for I haue sent to him, desiring him till I returne againe, not to remoue from Sluce, and I repute him so noble and so well aduised, that he will graunt my desire, and that hee will not enter into the sea, till I come againe to him. Wherefore, sirs, I pray you in the instance of loue and peace, to conuey me to speake with the King, for I desire greatly to see him: or else yee that be his Vncles, if ye haue authoritie, to giue me answere to all my demaunds. Then the Earle of Buckingham sayd, syr king of Armenia, we be ordayned here to keepe and defend this passage, and the frontiers of England, by the King and his Counsell, and wee haue no charge to meddle any further with the businesse of the Realme, without we be otherwise commanded by the King. But sith ye be come for a good intent into this Countrey, ye be right welcome; but sir, as for any firme answere ye can haue none of vs, for as now we be not of the Councell, but we shall conuey you to the king without perill or danger. The king thanked them, and said: I desire nothing else but to see the king and to speake with him. How the King of Armenia returned out of England, and of the answere that was made to him. When the king of Armenia was refreshed at Douer a day, and had spoken with the kings Vncles at good leasure, then he departed towards London, with a good conduct that, the Lords appointed to him, for feare of any recounters: so long he rode that he came to London, and in his ryding through London he was well regarded, because he was a stranger, and he had good cheare made him, and so was brought to the king, who lay at the Royall at the Queenes wardrobe, and his Councell were in London at their lodgings: The Londoners were sore fortefying of their citie. When the comming of the king of Armenia was knowen, the kings Councell drew to the King to heare what tydings the King brought in that troublous season: When the king of Armenia was come into the kings presence, he made his salutation and then beganne his processe to the states, how he was come out of France principally to see the king of England whom he had neuer seene before, and said, how he was right ioyous to be in his presence, trusting that some goodnesse might come thereby. And there he shewed by his words, that to withstande the great pestilence that was likely to be in England; therefore he was come of his owne good will to doe good therein if he might, not sent from the French king, willing to set some accorde and peace betweene the two Realmes England and France. Many faire pleasant words the king of Armenia spake to the king of England, and to his Counsell, then he was shortly answered thus: Syr king, ye be welcome into this Realme, for the king our soueraigne lord, and all we are glad to see you here, but sir, we say that the king hath not here all his Councell, but shortly they shall be here, and then ye shall be answered. The king of Armenia was content therewith, and so returned to his lodging. Within foure dayes after the king was counselled (and I thinke he had sent to his Vncles to know their intents, but they were not present at the answere giuing) to goe to the pallace at Westminster and his Councell with him, such as were about him, and to send for the king of Armenia to come thither. And when he was come into the presence of the king of England and his Councell, the king sate downe, and the king of Armenia by him, and then the Prelates and other of his Councell. There the king of Armenia rehearsed againe his requestes that he made, and also shewed wisely how all Christendome was sore decayed and feeblished by occasion of the warres betweene England and France. And how that all the knights and Squires of both Realmes entended [Footnote: Attend to. It is used in the same sense in the Alleyn papers. "Loe that I will now after Monday, intend your busines carefully." And in _Timon of Athens_ ii., 2.] nothing else, but alwayes to be on the one part or of the other: whereby the Empire of Constantinople leeseth, [Footnote: Diminisheth, dwindleth. Nares does not give this meaning, not have I ever come across a precisely similar instance of its use.] and is like to leese; for before this warre the Knights and Squires were wont to aduenture themselues. And also the king of Armenia shewed that by occasion of this warre he had lost his Realme of Armenia, therefore he desired for Gods sake that there might be some treaty of peace had betweene the two Realmes England and France. To these wordes answered the Archbishop of Canterburie, for he had charge so to doe; And he sayd, Sir king of Armenia, it is not the manner nor neuer was seene betweene two such enemies as the king of England and the French king, that the King my Souereigne lorde should be required of peace, and he to enter his land with a puissant army, wherefore sir, we say to you, that if it please you, ye may returne to the French king, and cause him and all his puissance to returne backe into their owne countreys. And when euery man be at home, then if it please you ye may returne againe hither, and then we shall gladly intende to your treatie. This was all the answere the king of Armenia could get there, and so he dined with the king of England, and had as great honour as could bee deuised, and the king offered him many great gifts of golde and siluer, but he would take none though he had neede thereof, but alonely a ring to the value of a hundreth Frankes. After dinner he tooke his leaue and returned vnto his lodging, and the next day departed, and was two days at Douer, and there he tooke his leaue of such lords as were there, and so tooke the sea in a passager, [Footnote: Generally spelt _passenger_, as in the letter of the Earl of Leicester 1585. Quoted by Nares.] and arriued at Calais and from thence went to Sluce, and there he spake with the French king and with his Vncles, and shewed them how he had bene in England, and what answere he had: the French king and his Vncles tooke no regard of his saying, but sent him backe againe into France, for their full intention was to enter into England as soone as they might haue winde and weather, and the Duke of Berrie and the Constable came to them: The winde was sore contrary to them, for therewith they could neuer enter into England but the winde was good to goe into Scotland. [Footnote: The King of Armenia here referred to was Leon VI., the last of the Cilicio Armenian dynasty founded by Rupen, a relative of Gagik, the last of the Bagratide Kings: He was taken prisoner by the Mamelukes of Egypt in 1375, and after a long captivity wandered as an exile through Europe, dying at Paris in 1393.] * * * * * The memorable victories in diuers parts of Italie of Iohn Hawkwood English man in the reigne of Richard the second, briefly recorded by M. Camden, pag. 339. Ad alteram ripam fluuij Colne oppositus est Sibble Heningham, locus natalis, vt accepi, Ioannis Hawkwoodi (Itali Aucuthum corruptè vocant) quem illi tantopere ob virtutem militarem suspexerunt, vt Senatus Florentinus propter insignia merita equestri statua et tumuli honore in eximiæ fortitudinis, fideíque testimonium ornauit. Res eius gestas Itali pleno ore praedicant; Et Paulus Iouius in elogijs celebrat: sat mihi sit Iulij Feroldi tetrastichon adijcere. Hawkwoode Anglorum decus, et decus addite genti Italicæ presidiúmque solo, Vt tumuli quondam Florentia, sic simulachri Virtutem Iouius donat honore tuam. William Thomas in his Historie of the common wealthes of Italy, maketh honorable mention of him twise, to wit, in the commonwealth of Florentia and Ferrara. * * * * * The comming of the Emperour of Constantinople into England, to desire the aide of Henry the 4. against the Turkes, 1400. [Sidenote: Thomas Walsingham.] Sub eodem tempore Imperator Constantinopolitanus venit in Angliam, postulaturus subsidium contra Turcas. Cui occurit rex cum apparatu nobili ad le Blackheath, die sancti Thomae Apostilo, susceptique, prout decuit, tantum Heroem, duxítque Londonias, et per multos dies exhibuit gloriosè, pro expensis hospitij sui soluens, et eum respiciens tanto fastigio donatiuis. Et paulo post: His auditis rumoribus, Imperator laetior recessit ab Anglis, honoratus à rege donarijs preciosis. The same in English. About the same time the Emperour of Constantinople came into England, to seek ayde against the Turkes: whom the king accompanied with his nobilitie, met withall vpon Blackheath vpon the day of saint Thomas the Apostle, and receiued him as beseemed so great a prince, and brought him to London, and roially entertained him for a long season, defraying the charges of his diet, and giuing him many honorable presents. And a litle afterward: Vpon the hearing of these newes, the emperor departed with great ioy out of England, whom the king honoured with many precious gifts. * * * * * A briefe relation of the siege and taking of the Citie of Rhodes, by Sultan Soliman the great Turke, translated out of French into English at the motion of the Reuerend Lord Thomas Dockwray, great Prior of the order of Ierusalem in England, in the yeere, 1524. Willingly faithfully to write and reduce in veritie Historiall, the great siege, cruel oppugnation, and piteous taking of the noble and renowmed citie of Rhodes, the key of Christendome, the hope of many poore Christian men, withholden in Turkie to saue and keepe them in their faith: the rest and yeerely solace of noble pilgrimes of the holy sepulchre of Iesu Christ and other holy places: the refuge and refreshing of all Christian people: hauing course of marchandise in the parties of Leuant, I promise, to all estates that shall see this present booke, that I haue left nothing for feare of any person, nor preferred it for fauour. And first I shall shewe the occasions that moued this cruell bloodshedder, enemie of our holy Christian faith, Sultan Soliman, now being great Turke, to come with a great hoste by sea and by lande, to besiege and assayle the space of sixe moneths, night and day, the noble and mightie citie of Rhodes, the yere of the incarnation of our Lord Iesu Christ, 1522. The occasions why the great Turke came to besiege the Citie of Rhodes. The first and principall cause was that he did consider and sawe by experience, that there was none other Towne nor place in Leuant that warred against him nor kept him in doubt, but this poore rocke of Rhodes. And hearing that continuall complaintes of his subiectes as well of Syria, as of Turkie, for the domages and prises dayly done of their bodies and goods by Christian men of warre receiued into Rhodes: And also of the shippes and gallies of the religion, he tooke conclusion in himselfe, that if he might put the sayde Towne in his power and subiection, that then he should be peaceable lord of all the parties of Leuant, and that his subiects should complaine no more to him. The second, that he might followe the doings of his noble predecessours, and shewe himselfe very heire of the mightie and victorious lord Sultan Selim his father, willing to put in execution the enterprise by him left the yeere one thousand fiue hundred twentie and one. The which Selim the great Turke put in all redinesse his armie to the number of three hundreth sayles purposing for to send them against Rhodes, if mortalitie had not happened in his host, and he afterwarde by the will of our lorde was surprised and taken with death: wherefore he being in the latter ende of his dayes, (as some Turkes and false christian men that were at this siege shewed me) did charge by his testament, or caused to charge his sonne now being great Turke, that after this death hee should make his two first enterprises, the one against Bellegrado in Hungarie, and the other against Rhodes, for to get him honour, and to set his Countries and subiectes in rest and suretie. The which fatherly motion easilie entered into him and was imprinted in the heart and yoong will of the sayde Solyman, his sonne, the which soone after the death of his father put in effect the first enterprise, and raised an huge hoste both by water and by land, and went himselfe in person against Bellegrado, a right strong place in Hungarie. [Sidenote: The taking of Belgrade.] And after that hee had besieged it the space of two moneths or thereabout, for fault of ordinance and vitailes, it was yeelded to him by composition the eight day of September, in the yeere of our lord, one thousand fiue hundred twentie and one. The sayd Solyman hauing this victory, being swollen and raised in pride and vaineglory, turned his heart agaynst Rhodes. Neuertheless, he not ignorant of the strength of it, and considering the qualities of the people that were within it, of whom he should be well receiued as his predecessours had bene aforetimes, doubted much, and knew not how to furnish his enterprise. For his capitaines and Bashas turned him from it as much as they might by many reasons, they knowing the force of it, saue onely Mustofa Basha his brother in lawe, the which councelled and put him in minde to goe thither. Finally, hee purposed entirely to haue it by treason or by force. [Sidenote: Forren physicians become spies oftentimes.] And also, for the same cause and purpose, his father in his dayes had sent a Iewe physician into Rhode as a spie, to haue the better knowledge of it: the sayd Solyman was informed that he was there yet, wherefore he sent him worde that he should abide there still for the same cause. And gaue in charge to one of the chiefe men in Sio, to send vnto the sayd Iewe all things needefull to maintaine him. And the same Iewe wrote to him of Sio, vnder priuie wordes, all that was done in Rhodes to giue knowledge thereof to the great Turke: and the better to hide his treason, the sayde Iewe made himselfe to bee baptised. And to bee the more named to be expert in Physike, he did some faire cures to such such as were diseased, whereby he began to bee well trusted, and came in fauour with many substantiall folkes of the towne. Among all other things whereof hee aduertised the great Turke, one was of a wall that was taken downe for to be new builded at the bulwarke of Auuergne, certifying him that if hee came hastely with his hoste, hee might easilie and at vnawares surprise the towne in such estate as it was at that time. Many other aduertisements and warnings hee shewed the Turke, which shall bee declared hereafter. [Sidenote: A Portingale traitor.] But beside his aduertisement, the sayd great Turke stirred and prouoked by a false traitour, a Portingale knight of ours, that time Chanceller of the sayd holy Religion, a man of great authoritie, dignitie, and vnderstanding, and one of the principall lordes of the counsell of the same, named Sir Andrew de Merall, by little and little was mooued and kindled to the sayd enterprise of treason, whereof was no maruell, for it was a great hope and comfort to haue such a person for him, that knew all the estate and rule of the religion and of the towne. And for to declare the occasions of the cursed and vnhappy will of the said traitor that had bene occasion of so great losse and damage, and shall be more at the length, if the diuine power set not to his hand. [Sidenote: Philip de Villiers great master.] And here it is manifestly to bee vnderstood of all men, that after the death of the noble and right prudent lord, Fabrice of Cacetto, great master of Rhodes, the sayd Sir Andrew enflamed with ambition and couetousnesse to bee great master, and seeing himselfe deceiued of his hope, by the election made the two and twentieth day of Ianuary, of the right reuerend and illustrate lord, Philip de Villiers Lisleadam, before him: from that time hee tooke so great enuie and desperation, enmitie and euil will, not onely against the sayde lord; but against all the holy religion, that hee set all his studie and purpose, to betray and sell his religion and the citie of Rhodes to the cursed misbeleeuers, forgetting the great honours and goodnesse that hee hath had of the religion, and hoped to receiue, with many other particuler pleasures that the sayd lord master had done to him. But the deuill, vnkindnesse, and wickednesse had so blinded the eyes of his thought, that hee in no wise could refraine him, but at euery purpose that was spoken afore him, hee was short and might not dissemble. And one day among other hee sayde before many knights, that hee would that his soule were at the deuill, and that Rhodes and the religion were lost. And many other foolish and dishonest purposes and wordes hee vttered, whereat none tooke heed, nor thought that hee had the courage to doe that thing that hee hath done. Howbeit, obstinate as Iudas, hee put in execution his cursed will: for soone after that the tidings of the election was sent Westward to the sayde noble lord, the sayd de Merall did send a Turke prisoner of his to Constantinople, vnder shadowe to fetch his ransome. By whom he aduertised the great Turke and his counsell, of the maner and degree of Rhodes, and in what state and condicion the towne was in of all maner of things at that time, and what might happen of it, prouoking and stirring him to come with a great hoste to besiege the towne. And after the comming of the sayd reuerend lord great master, he gaue other aduise to the great Turke, shewing him that hee could neuer haue better time to come, seeing that the great master was new come, and part of the wall taken downe, and that all Rhodes was in trouble by occasion of some Italian knights, rebels agaynst the lord great master: of the which rebellion he was causer, the better to bring his cursed mind to passe: and also gaue the sayde great Turke knowledge that all Christian princes were busie, warring each vpon other, and that he should not doubt but if the rebellion lasted among them, the towne should be his without faile, as it is seene by experience. And for lacke of succours of euery part, and especially of such as might easily haue holpen vs beyng our neighbours, with their gallies and men of warre, wherefore it is now in the handes of the enemies of the christian faith. The which monitions and reasons of the false traitor being vnderstood and pondered by the great Turke and his counsell, it was considered of them not to loose so good occasion and time. Wherefore hee made most extreme diligence to rigge and apparell many ships and vessels of diuers sorts, as galliasses, gallies, pallandres, fustes, and brigantines, to the number of 350. sailes and moe. [Footnote: A Galliasse was a 3 masted galley; Pallandres were manned by 20 men and Fustes by 12 to 15.] When the prisoner that the sayd de Merall did send into Turkie had done his commission, hee returned into Rhodes, whereof euery man had maruell. And many folkes deemed euil of his comming againe, as of a thing vnaccustomed, but none durst say any thing, seeing the sayd de Merall of so great authoritie and dignitie, and he cherished the sayd prisoner, more than he was woont to doe. Therefore belike hee had well done his message, and had brought good tidings to the damnable and shamefull mind of the sayd traitor de Merall. How the great Turke caused the passages to be kept, that none should beare tidings of his hoste to Rhodes. The great Turke intending with great diligence to make readie his hoste both by sea and by land, the better to come to his purpose, and to take the towne vnwarily as hee was aduertised, thought to keepe his doings as secret as hee might, and commaunded that none of his subiects should goe to Rhodes for any maner of thing. And likewise he tooke all the barkes and brigantines out of the hauens and portes in those coastes, because they should giue no knowledge of his armie. And also hee made the passages by land to bee kept, that none should passe. Howbeit, so great apparell of an armie could not bee long kept close: for the spies which the lord great master had sent into Turkie, brought tidings to the castle of saint Peter, and to Rhodes, of all that was said and done in Turkie. Neuerthelesse, the sayd lord gaue no great credence to all that was brought and told, because that many yeeres before, the predecessours of the great Turke had made great armies: and alway it was sayd that they went to Rhodes, the which came to none effect. And it was holden for a mocke and a by-word in many places, that the Turke would goe to besiege Rhodes. And for this reason doubt was had of this last armie, and some thought that it should haue gone into Cyprus or to Cataro, a land of the lordship of Venice. Howbeit the great master not willing to bee taken vnwarily, but the meane while as carefull and diligent for the wealth of his towne, and his people, vnderstanding these tidings of the Turkes armie, did all his diligence to repaire and strengthen the towne. Amongst all other things to build vp, and raise the bulwarke of Auuergne, and to cleanse and make deeper the ditches. And the more to cause the workemen to haste them in their businesse, the sayd lord ouersawe them twise or thrise euery day. How the lord great master counselled with the lordes for prouision of the towne. [Sidenote: Sir Iohn Bourgh the English Turcoplier.] Then the sayd reuerend lord thought to furnish and store the towne with more vitailes for the sustenance thereof, and for the same many times hee spake with the lordes that had the handling and rule of the treasurie, and of the expenses thereof in his absence, and since his comming: That is to wit, with the great Commander Gabriel de pommerolles, lieutenant of the sayd lord: The Turcoplier Sir Iohn Bourgh of the English nation: and the Chancellor Sir Andrew de Meral, of whom is spoken afore and of his vntruth agaynst his religion. The which three lordes sayd, that hee should take no thought for it, for the towne was well stored with vitailes for a great while, and that there was wheate ynough till new came in: Notwithstanding it were good to haue more, or the siege were laied afore the towne, and therefore it were behoouefull to send for wheate and other necessaries into the West for succours of the towne, and at that time to puruey for euery thing. Of the prouision for vitailes and ordinance of warre. As touching the store and ordinance of warre, the sayd lordes affirmed that there was ynough for a yeere and more, whereof the contrary was found, for it failed a moneth or the citie was yeelded. It is of trueth that there was great store, and to haue lasted longer then it did. But it was needful to spend largely at the first comming of the enemies to keepe them from comming neere, and from bringing earth to the ditches sides as they did. And moreouer you are to consider the great number of them, and their power that was spred round about the towne, giuing vs so many assaults and skirmishes in so many places as they did, and by the space of sixe whole moneths day and night assailing vs, that much ordinance and store was wasted to withstand them in all points. And if it failed, it was no maruell. Howbeit the noble lord great master, prouided speedily for it, and sent Brigantines to Lango, to the castle of saint Peter, and to the castels of his isle Feraclous and Lyndo, for to bring powder and saltpeter to strength the towne, but it suffised not. And for to speake of the purueiance of vitailes, it was aduised by the lord great master and his three lords, that it was time to send some ships for wheat to places thereabout, before the Turks hoste were come thither. And for this purpose was appointed a ship named the Gallienge, whose captaine hight [Footnote: The participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb _Hatan_, to call: "Full carefully he kept them day and night; In fairest fields, and Astrophel he _hight_." SPENSER Astrophel i., 6.] Brambois, otherwise called Wolfe, of the Almaine nation, an expert man of the sea, the which made so good diligence, that within a moneth he performed his voiage, and brought good store of wheat from Naples and Romania, [Footnote: The territory around Rome, _not_ Roumania.] which did vs great comfort. How a Brigantine was sent to Candie for wine, and of diuers ships that came to helpe the towne. After this, a motion was made to make prouision of wine for the towne, for the men of Candie durst not saile for to bring wine to Rhodes as they were woont to doe for feare of the Turkes hoste: and also they of the towne would send no ship into Candie, fearing to be taken and enclosed with the sayd hoste by the way. Howbeit some merchants of the towne, were willing to haue aduentured themselues in a good ship of the religion, named the Mary, for to haue laden her with wine in Candie. But they could not agree with the three lordes of the treasure, and their let was but for a little thing: and all the cause came of the sayd traitour de Merall, faining the wealth of the treasure: for he intended another thing, and brake this good and profitable enterprise and will of the sayd merchants, seeing that it was hurtfull to the Turke, whose part the said traitour held in his diuelish heart: that notwithstanding, the reuerend lord great master, that in all things from the beginning to the ende, hath alway shewed his good will, and with all diligence and right that might bee requisite to a soueraigne captaine and head of warre, found other expedience, and sent a Brigantine into Candie, in the which he sent a brother sergeant named Anthonie of Bosus, a well sprighted [Footnote: Loyal.] man and wise, that by his wisedome wrought so well, that, within a small time he brought fifteene vessels called Gripes, laden with wine, and with them men of warre the which came vnder shadow of those wines, because the gouernours of Candie durst let none of their men goe to the succour of Rhodes for feare of the Turke. And beside those fifteene Gripes came a good ship whose capitaine and owner was a rich yong gentleman Venetian, Messire Iohn Antonio de Bonaldi, which of his good will came with his ship laden with 700. buts of wine to succour the towne with his person and folkes, whose good and lowable will I leaue to the consideration of the readers of this present booke. For hee being purposed to haue had his wines to Constantinople, or he was enformed of the busines of Rhodes, and was in the porte du Castell in Candie, would not beare his vitailes to the enemies of the faith, but came out and returned his way toward Rhodes, forgetting all particular profite and aduantage. He being arriued at Rhodes, dispatched and sold his wine, which was a great encrease and comfort for the towne. And when he had so done, he presented his person, his ship, and his folke, to the reuerend great master, the which retained him, and set him in wages of the Religion. And during the siege, the sayd capitaine behaued him woorthily in his person, and put himselfe in such places as woorthy men ought to be, spending his goods largely without demanding any paiment or recompense for his doing, of the Religion. How the corne was shorne downe halfe ripe and brought into the towne for feare of the Turkes hoste. During these things, the reuerend lord great master carefull and busie to haue euerything necessary, as men and other strengths, sent vessels called brigantines, for to cause the wafters of the sea to come vnto Rhodes for the keeping and fortifying of the towne, the which at the first sending came and presented their persons and ships to the seruice of the religion. [Sidenote: Haruest in April and May.] After that the sayd lord caused to shere downe the Rie of his isle, and caused it to bee brought into the towne, which was done in Aprill: and then in May in some places, he made to shere the wheate halfe ripe, howbeit the most part was left in the fields, because the Turkes hoste was come out of the streights of Constantinople. And doubting that any number of ships should come before to take the people of the sayd Isle vnawares, the sayd lord made them to leaue shering of wheate, and caused the people of the furthest part of the Isle to come into the towne. While that the great master prouided for all things after the course of time and tidings that hee had, there arriued a Carak of Genoa laden with spicerie from Alexandria, the which passed before the port of Rhodes the eight day of Aprill, and rid at anker at the Fosse, 7. or 8. miles from the towne, for to know and heare tidings of the Turkish hoste. Then the lord willing to furnish him with people as most behoouefull for the towne, sent a knight of Prouence named sir Anastase de sancta Camilla, commander de la Tronquiere to the captaine of the Carak, praying him to come into the hauen with his ship for the defence of the towne, profering him what he would, assuring him ship. The captaine excused him, saying, that the merchandise was not his owne, but belonged to diuers merchants to whom he must yeeld account. Howbeit at the last after many words and promises to him made hee came into the hauen, the which captaine was named messire Domingo de Fournati, and hee in his person behaued him valiauntly in the time of the sayd siege. How the great master caused generall musters to be made, and sent a vessell to the Turkes nauie, of whom he receiued a letter. After the moneth of April the lord master seeing that the Turkes hoste drew neere, and that he had the most part of the wafters within the towne, he caused generall musters of men of armes to be made. And began at the knights, the which vpon holy Rood day in May made their musters, before the Commissioners ordained by the sayd lord in places deputed to each of them called Aalberge. The which Commissioners made report to the lordes that they had found the knights in good order of harnesse and other things necessary for warre, and their araie faire and proper, with crosses on them. When the muster of the knights was done, the lord master thought to make the musters of them of the towne, and strangers together: but his wisedome perceiued that harme should come thereby, rather then good, doubting, that the number of people should not bee so great as he would, or needed to haue, whereof the great Turke might haue knowledge by goers and commers into Rhodes, and therefore he caused them of the towne to make their musters seuerall by bandes and companies, and the strangers also by themselues, to the end that the number should not bee knowen, notwithstanding that there was good quantitie of good men and well willing to defend themselues. And the more to hearten and giue them courage and good will, some knights of the Crosse, decked their men with colours and deuises, and tooke with them men of the towne and strangers, and with great noyse of trumpets and timbrels, they made many musters, as enuying each other which should keepe best aray and order, and haue the fairest company. It was a great pleasure to see them all so well agree, and so well willing. The number of the men of the towne amounted and were esteemed, three, or foure thousand, beside men of the villages that might be 1500. or 2000. The eight day of the same moneth, the Turkes hearing of those tidings, made a fire for a token in a place called le Fisco, in the maine land right against Rhodes. And certaine dayes afore they had made another, that is to weet, when the ship of a knight named Menetow went thither, and had with him the clarke of the gallies named Iaques truchman, the which vnder shadow to speake with him, was withholden of the Turkes. For the great Turke had commanded to take him or some other man of the Rhodes to haue perfect knowledge in what estate the towne was then in euery thing. And they of the towne weening that the second fire was for to deliuer Iaques, the reuerend lord great master sent one of his galliasses, whose patron was called messire Boniface of Prouence, to know the cause thereof. And when hee arriued at the sayd place of le Fisco, he demaunded of the Turkes wherefore they had made the token of fire. And they said that it was because their lord had sent a letter to the great master, but as yet it was not come, and desired him to tary till it were brought. The patron as warie and wise in the businesse of the sea, thought in himselfe that the Turkes made such prolonging to some euill intent, or to surprise his vessell being alone, wherefore hee bade them giue him the letter speedily, or els he would goe his way, and neither tary for letter nor other thing: and told them of the euill and dishonest deed that they had done the dayes afore, to withhold the clarke vnder their words and safeconduct: and therewith he turned his galliasse to haue gone away. The Turkes seeing that, gaue him the letter, the which he tooke, and when he was arriued at Rhodes, he presented it to the lord great master, which assembled the lordes of his counsell, and made it to be red. The tenor whereof was such as foloweth. The copie of the letter that the great Turke sent to the Iord great master, and to the people of the Rhodes. Sultan Solyman Basha by the grace of God, right mightie emperor of Constantinople, and of himselfe holding both the lands of Persia, Arabia, Syria, Mecha, and Ierusalem; of Asia, Europe, Aegypt, and of all the Sea, lord and possessor: To the reuerend father lord Philip, great master of Rhodes, to his counsailors, and to all the other citizens great and small, greeting. Sending conuenient and worthy salutations to your reuerances, wee giue you to weet, that we haue receiued your letters sent vnto our imperiall maiestie by George your seruant, the tenor whereof we doe well vnderstand: and for this occasion we send vnto you this our present commaundement, to the end that we will that ye know surely how by our sentence we will haue that Isle of Rhodes for many damages and euill deeds which we haue, and heare from day to day of the sayd place done to vs and our subiects, and ye with your good will shall hold it of vs and doe vs obeisance, and giue the citie to mine imperiall maiestie. And we sweare by God that made heauen and earth, and by 26000. of our prophets, and by the 4. Misafi that fell from the skies, and by our first prophet Mahomet, that if ye doe vs homage, and yeeld you with good will vpon these othes, all you that will abide in the sayd place, great and small, shall not need to feare perill nor damage of mine imperiall maiestie, neither you, your goods, nor your men: and who so will goe to any other place with his goods and houshold, may so doe, and who so will dwell and inhabits in any other places vnder mine Imperiall maiestie, may remaine where they like best, without feare of any person. And if there bee any of the principals and woorthy men among you that is so disposed, wee shall giue him wages and prouision greater then hee hath had. And if any of you will abide in the sayd isle, yee may so doe after your auncient vsages and customes, and much better. And therefore if that Imperiall maiestie, or els know yee that wee will come vpon you with all prouisions of warre, and thereof shall come as it pleaseth God. And this wee doe, to the end that ye may know, and that ye may not say, but we haue giuen you warning. And if ye doe not thus with your good will, wee shall vault and vndermine your foundations in such maner, that they shalbe torne vpside downe, and shal make you slaues, and cause you to die, by the grace of God, as we haue done many, and hereof haue ye no doubt. Written in our court at Constantinople the first day of the moneth of Iune. How the Turkes came to land in the Isle of Lango, and were driuen to their ships againe by the Prior of S. Giles. When the lord great master and his counsell had heard the tenor of the letter, they would giue none answere to the great Turke, but that he should be receiued with good strokes of artillerie. So that to a foolish demaund behooued none answere. And it was very like that he would haue nothing. For sixe dayes after, that was the 14. day of the said moneth of Iune, the Brigantines that went toward Sio to know of the said armie, came againe and sayd, that of a trueth the said armie was comming; and that nigh to Lango an Isle of the religion, and 100. mile from Rhodes, they had seene and told 30. sailes that were most part gallies and fustes: the which vessels set men on land in the isle of Lango. Then the prior of S. Giles, Messire pre Iohn de Bidoux commander of the said place, taried not long from horsebacke with his knights and people of the isle, and he met so well with the Turkes, that he droue them to their ships, and slew a certaine number of them: and of the side of Pre Iohn some were hurt, and his horse was slaine. When the enemies were entered into their gallies, they went to a place called castle Iudeo on the maine land, betweene the sayd isle of Lango and the castle of S. Peter. How part of the nauie and armie of the great Turke came before the citie of Rhodes. The 18. day of the said moneth of Iune, these 30. gallies went from the sayd place, and passed, by the Cape of Crion, entering the gulfe of Epimes beside Rhodes, and were discouered from the shade of the hill of Salaco, a castle in the isle of Rhodes. On the morrow they came out of the gulfe by plaine day, and sailing along by the coasts, they entered into a hauen on maine land called Malfata, where they abode three dayes. Then they went from thence, and returned to the gulfe of Epimes, where they abode two dayes and two nights. The 24 day of the same moneth they issued out of Epimes, and trauersing the chanell, they came to the yle of Rhodes in a place before a castle called Faues, and they went to land, and burnt a great field of corne the same day, which was the feast of S. Iohn Baptist our patron. The guard of a castle named Absito in the yle of Rhodes discouered and spied the great hoste, and in great haste brought word to the lord master, and sayd that the sayd hoste, that was in so great number of sailes that they might not be numbred, was entered into the gulfe of Epimes. The 30 sailes that lay in the yle arose in the night, and went to the sayd hoste in the gulfe. The 26 day of Iune the sayd great hoste arose and went out of Epimes an houre after the sun rising, and trauersing the chanell, they came to a place called the Fosse, eight miles from the towne. And the 30 first sailes turned backe toward the cape of S. Martin and other places to watch for ships of Christian men, if any passed by to Rhodes. The great hoste abode still till noone or one of the clocke, and then arose, not all, but about 80 or 100 ships, as gallies, galliasses, and fusts: and passed one after another before the towne and hauen of Rhodes three miles off, and came to shore in a place nigh to land, called Perambolin, sixe miles from the towne. In the which place the sayd hoste abode from that time to the end of that vnhappy siege. The number and names of the vessels that came to besiege Rhodes. The number of the ships were these: 30 galliasses, 103 gallies, aswell bastards as subtill mahonnets, 15 taffours, 20 fusts, 64 great ships, sixe or seuen gallions, and 30 galleres, besides the nauy that waited for Christain men, if any came to succour vs. These were the vessels that came at the first to lay the siege. And sith that sayd host came out of Perambolin, there came from Syria 20 other sailes, aswell gallies as fusts. And many other ships came sith, and ioyned with the sayd army in the time of the sayd siege. And it was sayd that there were 400 sailes and moe. The same day that part of the host came to the sayd place, the reuerend lord great master ordeined a great brigandine to send into the West, to certifie our holy father the pope, and the Christian princes how the Turks army was afore Rhodes. And in the sayd vessel he sent two knights, one a French man named Sir Claude Dansoyuille called Villiers, and Sir Loys de Sidonia a Spaniard: and they went to the pope and to the emperour. After the comming of the Turks nauy into the sayd place, if was 14 or 15 dayes or they set any ordinance on land, great or small, or any quantity of men came on shore, whereof we marueiled. And it was tolde vs by some that came out of the campe, and also by the spies that the lord great master had sent abroad arayed as Turks that they, abode the commandement of their great lord, vntill the hoste by land were come into the campe. Howbeit there came some number for to view the towne, but they went priuity, for the ordinance of the towne shot without cease. All this while the gallies and galliasses went and came to land, bringing vitaile and people. At the which ships passing nigh the town, were shot many strokes with bombards, which made some slaughter of our enemies: and when the most part of them was past, they began to set ordinance on the land with great diligence. Then the lord great master departed from his palace, and lodged him nigh a church called The victory, because that place was most to be doubted: and also that at the other siege [Footnote: This refers to the siege of Rhodes in 1480, by Mohammed II., the conqueror of Constantinople.] the great businesse and assault was there. How the lord great master made his petition before the image of S. Iohn, and offered him the keyes of the towne. The day before were made many predications and sermons, and the last was in the church of S. Iohn Baptist. When the sermon was done, a pontificall Masse was celebrate with all solemnities, and all the reliques taken downe, and the lord great master and all his knights with great deuotions and reuerence heard it. And when the Masse was ended, the lord great master made a pitious oration or prayer before Saint Iohn Baptist his protectour: and aboue all other words, which were too long to tell, he besought him meekly that it would please him to take the keyes of that miserable city. The which keyes he presented and layed vpon the altar before the image, beseeching S. Iohn to take the keeping and protection thereof, and of all the religion, as by his grace he had giuen to him vnworthy, the gouerning vnto that day: and by his, holy grace to defend them from the great power of the enemies that had besieged them. How the women slaues would haue set fire in the towne. The eight day of Iuly it was knowen that the Turkish women being slaues and seruaunts in many houses of the towne, had appointed to set fire in their masters houses at the first assault that should be made, to the end that the men should leaue their posterns and defenses to go and saue their houses and goods. And it was found that a woman of Marchopota being a slaue, was first moouer thereof, the which was taken and put to execution. The same day some of our men went out for to skirmish with the Turkes, and many of them were slaine with shot of our artillerie, and of our men but one. How the Turkes layd their artillerie about the towne, and of the maner and quantitie of their pieces and gunshot. The 18. day of Iuly, for the beginning and first day they set vp a mantellet, vnder the which they put three or foure meane pieces, as sacres, wherewith they shot against the posterns of England and Prouence. But the mantellet was soone broken and cast downe, and their pieces destroyed with the shot of the wall, and they that shot them were most part slaine. As this first mantellet was broken, by the great and innumerable people that they had they set all their ordinance on land, and caried it to the places where it should be bent, or nigh thereby. And the 29. day of the same moneth, they set vp two other mantellets. One beside a church of saint Cosme and Damian, and another toward the West. And from these mantellets they shot great pieces, as Culuerings, double gunnes, and great bombards [Footnote: For particulars of the artillery used from the 14th to the 16th Centuries, see Vol. iii, page 207. note.] agaynst the wals of England and Spaine, to the which mantellets the ordinance of the towne gaue many great strokes, and often brake them. And the more to grieue the towne and to feare vs, they set vp many other mantellets in diuers places, almost round about the towne, and they were reckoned foure score: the which number was well lessened by the great quantitie of strokes of artillerie shot out of the towne from many places. The artillerie of the Turkes was such as followeth. First there were sixe great gunnes, cannons perriers of brasse, that shot a stone of three foote and a halfe: also there were 15. pieces of iron that shot stones of fiue or sixe spannes about. Also there were 14. great bombards that shot stones of eleuen spans about. Also there were twelue basiliskes, whereof they shot but with 8. that is to weet, foure shot agaynst the posterns of England and Spaine, and two against the gate of Italy: the other two shot sometime against Saint Nicholas tower. Also there were 15. double gunnes casting bullets as basiliskes. The meane shot, as sacres and pasuolans, were in great number. The handgunshot was innumerable and incredible. Also there were twelue potgunnes of brasse that shot vpward, whereof eight were set behind the church of S. Cosme and Damian, and two at saint Iohn de la Fontaine toward the port of Italy, and the other two afore the gate of Auuergne, the which were shot night and day: and there were three sorts of them, whereof the greatest were of sixe or seuen spannes about. And the sayd stones were cast into the towne to make murder of people, which is a thing very inhumane and fearefull, which maner of shooting is little vsed amongst christian men. Howbeit by euident myracle, thanked be God, the sayd pieces did no great harme, and slew not past 24. or 25. persons, and the most part women and children, and they began to shoot with, the said pieces from the 19. day of the same moneth, vnto the end of August, and it was accounted that they shot 2000. times more or lesse. Then the enemies were warned by the Iewe that wrote letters to them of all that was done and sayd in the towne, that the sayd potgunnes did no harme: wherefore they were angry, for they thought that they had slaine the third part of our people: and they were counselled by him to leaue that shooting, for it was but time lost, and pouder wasted, and then they shot no more with them. It is of a trueth that they shot with the sayd potgunnes 12. or 15. times with bullets of brasse or copper, full of wild fire, and when they were in the ayre, they flamed foorth, and in falling on the ground, they brake, and the fire came out and did some harme: But at the last wee knew the malice thereof, and the people was warie from comming neere to them, and therefore they did hurt no more folke. How the captaine Gabriel Martiningo camee to the succor of Rhodes, and all the slaues were in danger to be slaine. The 24. day of the same moneth a brigantine arriued that was sent afore into Candie, wherein came a worthy captaine named Gabriel Martiningo with two other captains. And there went to receiue him messieur prou Iohn prior of S. Giles, and the prior of Nauarre. Then after his honourable receiuing as to him well apperteined, they brought him before the lord great master that louingly receiued him, and he was gladly seene and welcommed of the people, as a man that was named very wise and ingenious in feats of warre. Then came a Spaniard renegado from the host, that gaue vs warning of all that was done in the field, and of the approaching by the trenches that our enemies made. And in likewise there arose a great noise in the towne, that the slaues Turks that wrought for vs in the diches had slaine their keepers, and would haue fled, which was not so. Neuerthelesse, the rumour was great, and they rang alarme: wherefore the sayd slaues comming to prison, as it was ordeined in al the alarmes, were met of the people, which in great anger put them to death: so that there were slaine an hundred and moe the same day. And if the lord great master had not commanded, that none should hurt them, they had bene all slaine, and there were fifteene hundredth of them: which slaues did great seruice in time of the siege: for they laboured dayly to make our defences, and to cast earth out of the ditches, and in all works they were necessary at our needs. How the great Turke arriued in person before Rhodes. The 25 day of the sayd moneth many of our men went out for to skirmish in the field and made great murder of Turks, and in likewise did our artillery. And it is to be noted that the 28 day of the same moneth the great Turke in person passed le Fisco a hauen in the maine land with a galley and a fust, and arriued about noone, where his army lay, the which day may be called unhappie for Rhodes. For his comming, his presence and continuall abiding in the fielde is and hath beene cause of the victorie that he hath had. When the gallie that he came in was arriued, all the other shippes of the hoste hanged banners aloft in their toppes and on their sayle yerdes. Soone after that the Turke was arriued, he went to land, and mounted on his horse, and rode to his pauilion which was in a high place called Megalandra, foure or fiue miles fro the towne but of the danger of the gunne shot. And on the morrow, as it was reported to vs, hee came to a Church nigh the towne called Saint Steuen, for to viewe the Towne and fortresses, whereas they had set vp mantellets for to lay their ordinance. The last day of Iuly, one of our briganidines went out with a good company of men arrayed as Turkes, and some of them could speake Turkish, and went by night to lande through the Turkes hoste, and demaunded if there were any that would passe ouer into Turkie, that they should haste them to come. The Turkes weening that they had beene of Turkie, there entred a 12. persons, the which were carried to Rhodes, by whom we knew what they did in the campe. The first day of August the Captaine Gabriel Martiningo was made knight of the order of the religion by the lord great Master, and was made the first auncient of the Italian nation, of the first baliage or priorie that should be vacant. And in the meane season the religion should giue him twelue hundred ducates for pension euery yeere, and the same day he was receiued to the Councell in the roome of a baylife. The fift day of the sayd moneth our master gunner was slaine with a gunne, which was great losse for vs at that time. The 15. day of the sayd moneth was knowen and taken for a traitor, Messire Iohn Baptista, the physicion aforesayd, which confessed his euill and diuelish doings, and had his head striken of. Of the marueiloous mounts that the Turks made afore the towne, and how the capitaines were ordered in the trenches. After the comming of the great Turke, the enemies began to shoote with ordinance of another sort then they did before, and specially with harquebushes and handguns, and also to make their trenches and approches. And also they did more diligence then afore, to bring the earth nigh the towne with spades and pickaxes. And it is to weet, that they mooued the earth from halfe a mile off, and there were shot out of the towne innumerable strokes with ordinance against the sayd earth, and innumerable quantitie of people hid behind the sayd earth, were slaine. Neuerthelesse they neuer left working till they had brought it to the brimmes of the ditches: and when it was there, they raised it higher and higher in strengthning it behind. And in conclusion the sayd earth was higher then the wals of the towne by 10. or 12. foote, and it seemed a hill. And it was agaynst the gate of Auuergne and Spaine, and beat our men that were at the gates and bulwarks, in such wise, that none durst be seene till certaine defences and repaires were made of plankes and boards to couer our people and keepe them from the shot. And at the gate of Italy was made such another heape, and in none other part. When the trenches were thus made to the ditches, the enemies made holes in the wals of the ditch outward: wherethorow they shot infinitely with handgunnes at our men aswell on the walles as on the bulwarks, and slew many of them. Then the bashas and captaines entred into the trenches, ech to his place after their order and dignity: that is to wit, Mustafa Basha as chiefe captaine entred the trench direct to the bulwarke of England with his people and captaines vnder him. Pery Bassha went to the trenches against the gate of Italy with his folkes and captaines vnder him. Acmek Bassha was in the trenches of Auuergne and Spaine with the Aga of the Ianizaires and the Beglarby of Romany with him. The Beglarby of Natolia was in the trenches of Prouence. Allibey was with his company against the gardins of saint Anthony on the North side, and diuers other captaines with him, and set his ordinance against the wall of the gate of Almaine, which was but weake, and set vp seuen mantellets by the milles toward the West: and by the space of eight or nine dayes they beat vpon the same wall; which put vs in great feare, if they had continued. Howbeit the noble lord great master forthwith caused repairs to be made within, and planks and tables to be set to fortifie the sayde weake wall: and abode there from the morning til night, to cause it to be the more hasted. The artillery of the gate of Almaine, and the Massif of the gate of the campe and of the palais beat so sore and so often vpon the sayd mantellets that it wearied the enemies to make and repaire them so often: and they tooke vp the pieces, and bare them away. And also they could not well beat the sayd wall because the brimmes of the ditch without were almost as hie as the wall that they beat. But or they bare the artillery away, they beat the steeple of S. Iohns church so, that the most part was broken and cast downe. The foresayd mantellets were appointed to beat S. Nicholas tower, and by the space of ten or twelue dayes they shot sore against it: but they had so sharpe and vigorous answere, that there was not one mantellet that abode whole an houre. The captaine of the sayd tower and his folke did such diligence and businesse in shooting off their pieces, that the enemies durst set up no more mantellets by day, nor shoot no more but onely by night, while the Moone did shine, which is a thing worthy of memory, of maruaile, and of praise. At the last when they had beaten against the sayd tower a certaine time, seeing that it furthered nothing, they tooke their ordinance from thence, and bare it where they thought best. During the shot in the sayd place, the other captaines were not idle nor in a sleepe, but without cease night and day they beat the wall of England and Spaine, and set foureteene mantellets against it, shooting great bombards, whereof some of the stones were fiue or sixe spannes about, and some other of nine or ten: and within a moneth and lesse they cast downe the wall almost euen smooth with the Barbican. And when the sayd wall was so beaten, they set to beat the bulwarke of Spaine for to raise the defences: and in their trenches they set three great bombards, which shot stones of eleuen spannes in compasse, and with the sayd pieces they beat the sayd bulwarke and wall in such wise, that they made great bracks, and the stones and earth that fell, serued the enemies for ladders, so that they might come upon the plaine ground. In like sort they raised the defences from the height of the bulwarke at the posterne of Prouence, and set three great pieces on the brimme of the ditch, which shot stones of eleuen spannes against the wall, and within a while they made a breach as at the posterne of Spaine. The artillery of the towne did shoot without cease against the mantellets, and brake many of them, but they made other as it is said in the nights. For they had all things that belonged to them, and needed. And out of the posterne of England was shot a gunne that brake downe one of the sayde mantellets, and hit upon one of the pieces, and slew foure or fiue men, and bare away both the legs of the master of the ordinance, which died soone after: whereof the great Turke was very ill content, and sayd that he had rather haue lost one of his basshas or captaines then the sayd master. Also it is to be knowen that there were three or foure mantellets addressed against the plain ground of Italy, and by continuall beating of shot that they made, there was also a breach, and by the earth and stones that were fallen, they might come vp to it. Of the politike repaires and defences that the ingenious captaine Gabriel Martiningo, made within the towne against the breaches in the walles. The captaine Gabriel Martiningo, prompt, diligent, and expert to giue remedies to the needful places, foorthwith caused to make the trauerses vpon the wall whereas the breach was, with good repaires, and gunnes small and great which were set in the sayd trauerses, the which shot not onely at the breaches but to the trenches, and made great murder of enemies aswell at the assaults that they made as otherwhiles. And beside the trauerses, the sayd captaine planted small artillery, as harquebushes, and handgunnes vpon certaine houses within the towne, that stood open against the breach, with good repaires: and from that place great slaughter of Turks was made at the assaults. Also it is of trueth that beside the sayd mantellets that shot against the wall of England and Spaine with great bombards, were two mantellets in an hie place toward the way to the gardin of Maunas, in the which were certaine double gunnes, as basilisks with holow stones and wild fire in them, which shot against the wall into the towne at all auentures for to make murder of people: howbeit, thanked be God, they did no great harme but to the houses. After these great and terrible beatings, and that the enemies had way to mount vpon the towne walles, and come to hand with vs by trauersing of their trenches to the fallen earth within the breach more surely, and without hurt of our gunshot, shooting, thorow holes that they made in the walles of the ditch without, they cast vp much stone and earth, because it should couer them from the shot of the bulwarke of Auuergne. And also they shot feruently against the bulwarke of Spaine, for to raise the defences, of the which at the last they raised the most part, reseruing only a few gunners below in the mine of the sayd bulwarke, which litle or nothing damaged them. And this is touching the gunshot, whereof I say not the third part, because it is a thing incredible to them that haue not seene it. For some dayes they shot with those great bombards that were on the brimme of the ditch, and from the mantellets bent against the wall of England and Spaine 20 or 30 times and more. And I beleeue verily that since the creation of the world such artillery, and so great quantity was neuer bent and layed before any towne as hath bene against Rhodes at this siege. Wherefore it is no maruell if the walles be and haue bene beaten downe, and if there be breaches and clifts in many places. Of the mines that the Turks made: and how they ouerthrew part of the bulwarke of England. And because as it is sayd before, that the greatest hope that the enemies had to get the towne of Rhodes, was by mining, therefore now after that I haue spoken of the gunshot and beatings, I shall shew of the mines that the Turks made, the which were in so great quantity, and in so many places, that I beleeue the third part of the towne was mined: and it is found by account made, that there were about 60 mines, howbeit, thanked be God, many of them came not to effect, by occasion of the countermines that they within made, and also trenches that the right prudent lord the great master caused to be made deepe within the ditches, vnto two or three foot of water. The which trenches and certaine pits that he had caused in the sayd ditches to be wrought, or the host arriued, serued right well since: for night and day there were men in them to watch and hearken when the enemies mined, for to meet them and cut their way, as was done many times. And for to speake of the mines that had effect, and damaged vs, it is to wit, that the fourth day of September, about foure houres after noone, the enemies put fire in two mines, one was betweene the posterne of Spaine and Auuergne, which did no hurt but to the Barbican. The other was at the bulwarke of England, which was so fell and strong, that it caused most part of the town to shake, and cast down a great part of the sayd bulwarke at the spring of the day: and by the earth and stones that fell into the ditches, the enemies came vpon the bulwarke with their banners, and fought sore and mightily with our men, not with hands, but with shot handgunnes. The lord great master that was come 15 dayes or more with his succours to the sayd bulwarke, went with his company to helpe them that fought After that they had fought the space of two or three houres, the enemies repelled and driuen backe by our men from the sayd bulwarke, and beaten with ordinance on euery side, withdrew them with their losse, shame, and damage. [A thousand and more Turkes slaine before the English bulwarke.] And this was the first victory that our lord gaue vs, and there abode of our enemies a thousand and more. When this assault was done, they, made another at the breach in the wall of Spaine, and mounted vpon it, but the ordinance of the trauerses of the walles and of the houses made so faire a riddance, that they were very willing to withdraw themselues: for at the retreat, and also at their comming the sayd ordinance of the bulwarke did them great damage, albeit that they had made some repaire of earth. Of our men died that day 25 or there about, as well knights as other. And the same day in the morning departed out of this world Gabriel de Pomerolles lieutenant to the lord master, which on a certaine day before fell from the wall as he went to see the trenches in the ditches, and hurt his breast, and for fault of good attendance he fell into a feuer, whereof he died. How the Turks assailed the bulwarke of England, and how they were driuen away. The ninth day of the sayd moneth, at seuen in the morning the enemies put fire in two mines; one at the posterne of Prouence, which had none effect: the other was at the bulwarke of England, which felled another piece nigh to that that was cast downe afore. And the sayd mine, was as fierce as the other, or more, for it seemed that all the bulwarke went downe, and almost all they that were in it ranne away. And when the standard of the religion came into the sayd bulwarke, the enemies were at the breach ready to haue entered: but when they saw the sayd standard, as people lost and ouercome, they went downe againe. Then the artillery of the bulwarke of Quosquino, and of other places, found them well enough, and slew many of them. Howbeit, their captaines made them to returne with great strokes of swordes and other weapons, and to remount vpon the earth fallen from the sayd bulwarke, and pight seuen banners nigh to our repaire. Then our men fought with morispikes and fixed speares against them the space of three whole houres, till at the last they being well beaten with great ordinance and small on euery side withdrew themselues. And of their banners our men gate one, for it was not possible to get any more: for assoone as any of our men went vp on our repaires, he was slaine with small gunnes of the trenches, and holes made in the walles of our ditches. [Sidenote: Two thousand Turks slaine at the Englis bulwarke.] And there was slaine of our enemies that day at the assault 2000 of meane men, and three persons of estate, which lay dead along in the ditch, with faire and rich harnesse. And it was reported to us from the campe, they were three saniacbeis, that is to say, great seneshalles or stuards. And of Christian men of our part abode about thirty persons. And this was the second victory giuen to us by the grace diuine. How Sir Iohn Bourgh Turcoplier of England was slaine at an assault of the English bulwarke. The 17 day of the same moneth, about midday, the enemy came againe to giue another assault to the sayd bulwarke, at the same place aforesayd, without setting of fire in mines, and brought fiue banners with them, nigh to the repaires. Then was there strong fighting on both parts, and there were gotten two of their banners, of the which sir Christopher Valdenare, that time Castelaine of Rhodes, gate one: the other was in the hands of Sir Iohn Bourgh Turcoplier of England, chiefe captaine of the succours of the sayd posterne of England, a valiant man and hardy: and in holding of it he was slaine with the stroke of a hand-gunne, which was great damage. The sayd banner was recouered by one of our men. And after long fighting on both sides, the enemies seeing that they got nothing but stripes, returned into their trenches. At the sayd fray the lord prior of S. Giles pre Iohn was hurt thorow the necke with a handgun, and was in great danger of death, but he escaped and was made whole. The same day, and the same houre of the sayd assault, the enemies mounted to the breach in the wall of Spaine, and came to the repaires to the handes of our men, and fought a great while: but the great quantity of artillery that was shot so busily and so sharply from our trauerses on ech side, and out of the bulwarks of Auuergne and Spaine, skirmished them so well, that there abode as many at that assault as at the other of England, well neere to the number of 5000. And they withdrew themselues with their great losse and confusion, which was the third time that they were chased and ouercome; thanked be our Lord, which gaue vs the force and power so to doe, for they were by estimation a hundred against one. Also the 22 day of the same moneth of September they fired a mine betweene Italy and Prouence, which did no harme. Of the terrible mine at the posterne of Auuergne. And the 23 day of the same moneth they fired two mines, one at the posterne of Spaine, and the other by the bulwarke of Auuergne, the which mine by Auuergne was so terrible, that it made all the towne to shake, and made the wall to open from aboue to beneath vnto the plaine ground; howbeit, it fell not, for the mine had vent or breath in two places, by one of the countermines, and by a rocke vnder the Barbican, the which did cleaue, and by that cleft the fury and might of the mine had issue. And if the sayd two vents had not bene, the wall had bene turned vpside downe. And for truth, as it was reported to vs out of the campe, the enemies had great hope in the sayd mine, thinking that the wall should haue bene ouerthrowen, and then they might haue entered into the towne at their pleasures: but when they saw the contrary, they were very ill pleased. And the captaines determined to giue assault at foure places at once, to make vs the more adoo, and to haue an entrance into the towne by one of the foure. And the sayd day and night they ceased not to shoot artillery: and there came in hope of the mine threescore thousand men and moe into the trenches. How the bulwarke of Spaine was lost, and woone againe. The 24 day of the same moneth, a little before day, they gaue assault at the breach of Spaine, to the bulwarke of England, to the posterne of Prouence, and at the plaine ground of Italy, all at one houre and one time. The first that mounted to the breach of Spaine, was the Aga of the Ianissaries, a valiant man, and of great courage with his company, and bare three score or three score and tenne banners and signes, and pight them in the earth of the breach, and then fought with our men, and mounted on our repaires, making other maner of fray and more rigorous then the other that were passed, and the sayd skirmish lasted about sixe houres. And forthwith, as the assault was giuen, a great sort of Turks entred into the bulwarke of Spaine, and set vp eight or nine signes or banners vpon it, and droue our men out, I can not tell how, vnwares or otherwise. And they were lords of it three houres and more. Howbeit there were of our men beneath in the mine of the sayd bulwarke, the which bulwarke so lost, gaue vs euill hope. But incontinently the lord great master being at the defence of the posterne of England, hauing knowledge of the sayd losse, and that there was great fighting and resistance on both sides at the breach of Spaine, marched thither with the banner of the crucifix, leauing the charge of the sayd bulwarke in the hands of the bailife de la Moree messieur Mery Combant. And the lord mounted on the wall of Spaine, whereas then began a great skirmish, and euery man layed his handes to worke, as well to put the enemies out of the breach, as to recouer the bulwarke that was lost. And the sayde lord sent a company of men into the bulwarke by the gate of the mine, or by the Barbican, the which entred at the sayd gate, and went vp, where they found but few Turkes. For the artillery of the posterne of England, right against the bulwarke of Spaine, had so well met and scattered them, that within a while our men had slaine all them that were left. And thus the sayde bulwarke was gotten and recouered againe, and with all diligence were made new repaires and strengths to the sayd place. And in like sort, the enemies were put from the breach, and few of them escaped, and all their banners and signes were left with vs. Surely it may be sayd, that after the grace of God (the trauerses of Spaine and Auuergne, and the small artillery set on the houses right against the sayd breaches, as it is sayd, with the comming and presence of the lord great master) hath giuen vs this dayes victory. As touching the murder of the people, done by the artillery of the bulwarkes of England and Spaine, the quantity was such that a man could not perceiue nor see any ground of the ditches. And the stench of the mastifs carions was so grieuous, that we might not suffer it seuen or eight dayes after. And at the last, they that might saue themselues did so, and withdrew themselues to the trenches: and the reuerend lord great master abode victorious of the sayd place, and in like sort of the other three assaults, the which were but little lesse then that of Spaine, for they fought long. But in conclusion, the enemies beaten on all sides, and in so many sorts, with artillery were put backe, and vanquished, that there died that day at all the foure places fifteene or sixteene thousand. And the slaughter was so great at the plaine Italy, of the cursed enemies, that the sea was made redde with their blood. And on our side also died to the number of an hundred men or more. And of men of dignity in the towne, hauing charge, died Sir Francis de Fernolz, commander of Romania, which Sir Francis was chiefe captaine of the great ship of Rhodes, and he was slaine at the plaine of Italy, wounded with two strokes of harquebushes: it was great dammage of his death, for he was a worthy man, perfect, and full of vertues. There died also messieur Nastasy de Sancta Camilla aforenamed, hauing two hundred men vnder him of the lord great masters succours. There died also diuers other worthy men that day, and many were maimed. Among all other that lost any member, messier Iohn de le Touz called Pradines, being at the sayd bulwarke, with a stroke of artillery had his arme smitten away, in great danger to haue lost his life; howbeit by the helpe of God he died not. [Sidenote: Sir Will. Weston captaine of the English posterne hurt.] In like sort the same day was hurt Sir William Weston abouesayd, captaine of the posterne of England, and had one of his fingers stricken away with an harquebush: which knight behaued himselfe right woorthily at all the assaults. Of the Turkes part, of great men, were two principall captaines slaine vnder the Aga of the Ianissaries, and another captaine that was come out of Surey to the campe certeine dayes before, with sixe hundred Mamelukes, and two or three thousand Moores. And of them that were hurt of great men the Beglarby of Natolia had a stroke with an arrow as he was in the trench of Prouence. And many other were wounded, whose names be not rehearsed here, because of shortnesse. How the great Turke for anger that he could not get the towne, would haue put his chiefe captaine to death, and how they made 11 mines vnder the bulwarke of England. During this assault, the great Turke was by his pauillion in a place that he had caused to be made, and saw all the businesse, and how his people were so sharpely put backe, and the victory lost on his side, and was very sore displeased, and halfe in despaire: and he sent for Mustafa Basha with whom he was angry, and chid him bitterly, saying that he had caused him to come thither, and had made him to beleeue that he should take the towne in fifteene dayes, or a moneth at the furthest and he had beene there already three moneths with his army, and yet they had done nothing. And after these wordes he was purposed to put him to death in the campe: but the other Bashas shewed him that he ought not to do iustice in the land of his enemies, for it would comfort them and giue them courage. Whereby he did moderate his anger, and left him for that time, and thought to send him to Cairo, least the people there would rebell, by occasion of the captain of Cairo which died a few dayes before. Howbeit he departed not so suddenly, and or he went he thought to assay it he might do some thing for to please the Turke, aswell for his honour as to saue his person, and was marueuous diligent to make mines at the bulwarke of England for to ouerthrow it. And by account were made 11 mines aswell to the sayd bulwarke as elsewhere, beside them spoken of before, and that they had fired. But the most part of the sayd mines came to no proofe though they put fire in them, and many were met with countermines, and broken by our men by the good diligence and sollicitude of sir Gabriel Du-chef, steward of the house of the lord great master, which had the charge of the sayd countermines at the same bulwarke. In the which businesse he behaued himselfe well and worthily, and spared not his goods to cause the people to worke and trauell, but spent thereof largely. How the Turks were minded to haue gone their way, and of the traitours within the towne, and of many great assaults. The Turks seeing that by mining they were nothing furthered, nor might not come to their intentions, and hauing but small store of gunpowder, were in deliberation and minde to haue raised the siege, and gone their way. And in deed some of them bare their cariages toward the shippes: and also certaine number of people went out of the trenches with their standards straight to the ships. And it was written vnto vs from the campe how the Ianissaries and other of the host would fight no more: and that they were almost all of one opinion for to go away, saue some of the captaines of the foresayd Mustafa Bassha or Acmek Bassha. And in the meane season the false traitours that were in the towne wrote letters to the campe, giuing them knowledge of all that was sayd and done among vs. And also an Albanese fled to the enemies campe, and warned them not to go, for the gunshot was nigh wasted, and that the most part of the knights and people should be theirs shortly. In like sort then wrote the abouesayd Chanceller Sir Andrew de Merall, whose treason as then was not knowen: but when it commeth to the effect of his treason, I shall shew the knowledge that he gaue to the enemies at diuers times. When the bashas and captaines of the hoste vnderstood the sayd warnings, they all purposed for to tary, and caused those tidings of the towne to be knowen ouer all the army. And beganne againe to shoot artillery faster then euer they did, for new shot was come into the campe. Then Mustafa Bassha being in despaire that he could do nothing by mines, by gunshot, nor by assaults, he being ready to depart for to goe into Surey by the great Turkes commandement, before his departing hee thought once againe to assay his aduenture, and made three assaults three dayes together. The first was on a Saturday the fourth day of October an houre before night. The other on Sunday in the morning. And the third on Munday after dinner. And the sayd three assaults were made to the bulwarke of England. And it was assailed but with stones and bagges full of artificiall fire. And at these three assaults many of our men were hurt with the sayd fire, and with the stones that came as thicke as raine or haile. But in the end the enemies got nothing but strokes, and returned into their trenches euill contented, and murmuring, and sware by their Mahomet that Mustafa Bassha shoulde not make them to mount any more to the sayd bulwarke. And that it was great folly for them to cause them to be slaine at the will and fantasie of one man. These wordes sayd in Greeke by some of the enemies were heard of our men as they went downe from the bulwarke. And because (as it is sayd) that the enemies at the assaults that were made, came vp by the earth and stones that fell from the breaches, some of our men aduised to clense the barbican, and take the earth out of the ditch, to the end that the enemies should not easily come vpon the wall. And in effect weening that it were well and behoouefull to be done, by great diligence night and day by mines they voided the barbican, and the most part of the earth that lay in the ditch was brought into the towne, the which was hurtfull afterward, and was cause that the enemies got the foot of the wall. Notwithstanding, they had it but scarsely. But this cleansing furthered the time, and caused them to get it sooner then they should haue done if the earth had lien still: but their finall intent was to raise the defence of the bulwarks, and then passe at their pleasure, and enter into the barbican, as they haue done: for the enemies seeing that the barbican was clensed, thought to get into it by the trenches, and so they did, howbeit they were certaine dayes letted by our handgun shot The enemies seeing, that they might not come neere it, couered their trenches with tables to saue themselues: and then they made a mine whereby they might goe to the barbican. So by these two meanes, afterward they were repaired with earth and with a certaine wall that they made for to eschew the shot of the bulwarks of Auuergne and Spain: and in the mine they found but two gunners, which they slew by force of men. By this manor they being couered on all parts and without any danger, passed thorow and lept into the barbican, and got the foot of the wall; which was the 17 day of October, an vnhappy day for the poore towne, and occasion of the ruine thereof, and winning of the same. At this point they slept not, but lightly and with great delight they began to picke and hew the wall. And weening to make remedy therefore, and to finde meanes to driue them from the sayde barbican with engines of fire and barrels of gunpowder, wee slew many of them, but it auailed nothing: for the quantitie and multitude of people that trauelled there was so great, that they cared not for losse of them. And if we had had men enow within the towne, there might haue bene remedy to haue raised them from thence: but considering that our force and totall hope was in people, wee left to doe many things that might haue beene done, and that should haue bene good then and other times also, for fault of men of warre. At the last it was pondred by Sir Gabriel Martiningo, that there was no remedy but to hew the wall for to meet them; and beat them with ordinance and with engins of fire to burne and vndoe them. Then our men began to hew the wall, and made some holes to shoot at the enemies that slept not, but did as wee did, and shot at vs, and indeed they slew and hurt many of our men. Then Sir Gabriel Martiningo ordeined to make repaires within the towne at the front where they did cut the wall, to the end that after the walles were cut, the enemies should know with whom to meet. The trauerses were made on ech side with good artillery great and small: and the sayd trauerses and repaires were of the length that the enemies had cut the wall, and beganne at the massife of Spaine made by the reuerend lord great master Mery d'Amboise, and ended at the church of Saint Saluador. The which trauerses and repaires the vulgar people call the Mandra, that is to say, the field. The meane time that the repaires and trauerses were made with all diligence, Sir Gabriel Martiningo neuer ceased going to euery place to puruey for all things: and he being on the bulwarke of Spaine to ordeine all things that were needfull, there came a stroke of a handgun from the trenches that smote out his eye, and put him in danger of his life, but thanked be God, he recouered his health within a moneth and a halfe. His hurt came ill to passe, for the need that we had of him that time in all things, and specially to the repaires of the breaches. Neuertheles the lord priour of S. Giles (not ignorant in all such things) with other men expert in warre, attended to the sayd repaires and trauerses, there and elswhere. The enemies on the other side night and day without rest (for the great number of labourers that they had hourely and newly ready) hewed and vndermined the sayd wall. And the 20 day of October they put fire in the vndermines, weening to haue cast downe the wall, but they could not: then they would haue pulled it downe with great ropes and ancres, but the artillery of the bulwarke of Auuergne brake their ropes, and sent them away lightly. At the last they made a mine vnder the sayd wall and breach; and the 26 day of the same moneth they did put fire to the same mine, weening to haue ouerthrowen the wall, which it did not, but raised it, and made it to fall almost straight vpright, which was more disaduantage to the enemies then profit. Then they shot artillery at it, which in fewe dayes beat it downe, and they had opening and way to come into the Towne. Neuerthelesse it was not necessary for them as then to enter: for the artillery of our repaires beat them in the forepart, and the artillery lying at the two milles at the posterne of Quosquino, and in that of England, whereas was a basiliske that beat right vpon the breach with other pieces: and therefore the enemies sought other meanes, and beganne to raise the earth betweene our two walles, drawing toward the bulwarke of England on the one side, and toward Auuergne on the other side, and would haue cut the wall further then, our trauerses were for to come in vnbeaten of our artillery. Then were the repaires inlarged and made greater with the wall that was cut, of the height of twelue, and 16 foot in bredth: and so the enemies might goe no further forward, but shot great artillery against our repaires, for to breake and cast them downe, and also they made trenches for to come right to the breach, and vnto the repaires: and certeinly we looked day by day, and houre by houre for to haue some assault. The reuerend lord great master, the which, as it is sayd, had left the bulwarke of England the day that the great assault was made, and since that time he moued not from thence while they hewed the wall, and where as the breach was, because that they were most dangerous and most vnquiet places. And continually the sayd lord kept him behinde the sayd repaires with his knights and men of succours, intentiuely ready and prepared to liue and die, and to receiue his enemies as they ought to bee receiued. And he abode three or foure dayes at the sayd breach, continuing since it was made, vnto the end, fighting with his enemies euery day in great perill of his body: for oftentimes hee put himselfe further in the prease then needed for the danger of his person, but he did it for to hearten and strengthen the courage of his people, being so well willing to defend and die for the faith. How the enemies assailed the posternes of Prouence and Italy, and how they were driuen away. By the will of our Lord, the enemies alway in feare and dread, would giue none assault, but continually shot against our repaires, and made trenches for to passe forward into the towne: by the which trenches they shot infinitely with harquebushes and handgunnes, and slew many of our folke, and specially of them that wrought and made the repaires that were broken and crased. And they put vs in such extremity, that we had almost no more slaues nor other labouring people for to repaire that which they brake night and day, which was a great hindrance for us, and the beginning of our perdition. And if we had much to doe in that place, there was not lesse at the gate of Prouence, and at the plaine of Italy: for dayly they were doing either with assault or skirmish, and most at the plaine of Italy. Howbeit by the helpe of our Lorde with the good conducting of the captaine of succours of the same place, the priour of Nauarre, that was prompt and intentiue, and could well incourage his men, the enemies had alway the woorst, and were driuen from the sayde plaine, and from the breach of Prouence. How the treason of Sir Andrew de Merall was knowen, and of the maraellous assaults that the Turks made. Vpon these termes and assaults, the treason of the chancellour Sir Andrew de Merall, of whom I spake before, was perceiued: for a seruaunt of his, named Blasie, was found shooting a quarrell of a crossebow with a letter, whereof he was accused to the lord great master, which commanded to take him and examine him by iustice, and he confessed the shot of that letter and of other before, at the commandement of his master: and sayd that he had great acquaintance with the Turks bashas, and that it was not long since he had written a letter, to them, warning them that they should not go, for gunshot began to faile, and the men were wasted by slaying and hurting at the assaults in great quantity: and if they abode still and gaue no more assaults, at the last the towne should be theirs. And diuers other things the seruant sayd of his master, of the which I haue spoken part before at the beginning, and of the warning that he gaue to the great Turke for to come. But to returne to the plaine of Italy. After many battels and assaults done in the said place, by continuall shot of seuenteene great gunnes that beat the sayde plaine, the repaires and trauerses were almost broken and lost. And by trenches the enemies were come ioining to the breach, and neuer ceased to grate the earth and scrape the earth to cause the repaires and trauerses to fall: and at the last the most part fell downe, and our men were constrained to leaue the sayd plaine, saue a camell that was toward the sea, as it were the third part thereof. Certaine dayes afore the enemies, came to the foot of the plaine, and did cut it and rased the earth, and at the last they passed thorow vnto the towne wall: and anon began to hew and cut as they did at that of Spaine. The lord great master seeing that, anon cast down a part of the church of our Lady de la Victoria, and of an other church of S. Panthalion. And within they began to make the repaires and trauerses as at the place of Spaine, whereto was made extreme diligence, but not such as the lord would, and as was needfull, because there were no labourers for to helpe. After that the enemies had woon the most part of the bulwarke of England and the plaine of Italy, they purposed to make assault to the sayde plaine, and to the breach of Spaine, and to enter into our repaires to winne them for to make an end of vs. And for euer to affeeble the repaires and for to abash vs, the 28 day of Nouember all along the day and night they ceased not to shoot great artillery both from the brimmes of the ditches with those great pieces, casting stones of nine and eleuen foot about, and from the mantellets without. And as it was reckoned, they shot the same day and night 150 times or more against our repaires and trauerses of the wall. And in the morning the 29 day of the same moneth, the vigill of S. Andrew at the spring of the day, the enemies went thorow the breach with their banners, and entred into the repaires with greater number of people then they did at the great battell in September, hardily and furiously for to fight with vs. But at their comming in, the artillery of the trauerses, and the handgunnes, and the gunshot of the milles found them so well and so sharply, that he that came in, was anon dispatched and ouerthrowen, and there abode aboue 2000 of the Turks slaine. The other that came after seeing their fellowes so euill welcomed, as people that were astonied and lost, they turned againe to their trenches: at whome the artillery of the milles shot victoriously, and hasted them to go apace: and by report from the campe there died sixe thousand or mo that day: the which day might be called very happy, and well fortunate for vs, thanked be God, for there was none that thought to escape that day, but to haue died all, and lost the towne: howbeit, the pleasure of our Lord was by euident miracle to haue it otherwise, and the enemies were chased and ouercome. And it is to be noted that the same day the raine was so great and so strong, that it made the earth to sincke a great deal that they had cast into the ditches, for to couer them from the shot of Auuergne. And the sayd earth being so suncken, the artillery of the sayde bulwarke (vnwares to them) smote them going and comming, and made great murder of the sayd dogges. The sayd day also the enemies came to the plaine of Italy for to assault it; but when they vnderstood that their fellowes had bene put backe so rudely, and with so great slaughter, they were afrayd, and so they returned againe to their trenches. How the Turks got the plaine ground of Spaine. And that done, Acmek Basha seeing their businesse euery day goe from woorse to woorse, and that at the assaults were but losse of people, without doing of any good, and that there was no man that willingly would go to it any more, he intended to giue no more assaults but to follow his trenches, and by them enter couertly without losse of a man from the breach to the other end of the towne. Semblably he intended for to winne the plaine earth beside Spaine: the which to get, he came at pleasure to the foot of the wall, and began to beat downe the plaine ground, and to giue many skirmishes and conflicts to our folke that kept it. And there were slaine many good men. And at the last, for default of more helpe and of gunshot, it was left and giuen vp of our men, and so lost. That done, the enemies came thither as in other places. And this is the third place where they came nere to the foot of the wall. And whoso wel considereth in what estate the poore towne was at that time, seeing their enemies haue so great aduantage, might well say, and iudge, that at length it should be taken, and a lost towne. How a Genouois came to the gate of the towne for to speake for a treaty and deliuerance of the same. A Few dayes after the saide iourney a Christian man that was in the campe, the which by his speech was a Genouois or Siotis, came to the gate of Auuergne, and demanded to parle, and after that he was demanded what he would haue, he sayd that he had maruell of vs why we would not yeeld our selues, seeing the pitious estate the towne was in: and he as a Christian man counselled vs to yeeld our selues with some agreement; and that if we would looke thereto, that some should be found expedient to do somewhat for our safeguard. And it is very like that he sayd not such words, nor spake so farforth in the matter, without commission from some of the chiefe of the campe, or of the great Turke himselfe. To the which Siotis was answered, that he should go away with an euill hap, and that it needed not to speake of appointment: and that though the enemies had great aduantage, there was yet enough wherewith to receiue and feast them, if they made any assault. These words heard, he went away: and two days after he came again, and demanded to speak with a marchant Genouois of the towne named Mathew de Vra, and he was answered that he which he demanded was sicke, and might not come, but that he should deliuer the letter, and it should be giuen to him. The sayd Siotis sayd nay, and that he would giue it himselfe, and speake with him: and sayd that he had also a letter of the Grand signior, for the lord master. Vpon this he was bidden to go his way: and to set him packing, they shot after him a piece of artillery. The next day after Ballantis Albanese that was fled thorow the breach of Spaine to the campe, came from the sayd Genouois proposing such words, or like as the other had sayd, saying likewise that the Grand signior had sent a letter to the lord master. To whom no words were spoken nor answere made, for the lord great master as wise and prudent considering that a towne that will heare intreatings is halfe lost, defended vpon the paine of death sith that Siotis had spoken these two times, that none should be so hardy to speak nor answere them of the campe, without his knowledge and commandement: but seeing they were such ambassadors, they reported the words of the sayd Albanese, or euer the sayd lord had knowledge of the words of the Siotis. The which words spread thorow the towne put many folke in thought, and would haue vndone that that the Siotis said the which is no maruell whereas is much people, for with good will and most often they regard sooner to saue the liues of them and their children, then they doe to the honour of the residue. Howbeit not one durst speake a word openly of that businesse, but all secretly: and some came and spake to certaine lords of the great crosse for to speake to the lord great master. And in effect some lords spake thereof to him, persuading him that it should be good to thinke thereon, seeing that the towne went to losse. To whom the sayd lord shewed many things for his honour and the Religion: and that no such things ought to be done or thought for any thing in the world, but rather he and they to die. The lords hearing this answere, went their wayes and then returned againe to the sayd lord, aduising him more to thinke well, on all things, and to the saluation of his towne and of his religion. And they said moreouer, that they doubted that the people would rather haue a peace then to die themselues, their wiues and children. The lord seeing that such words were as things inforced, as who should say, if thou do it not, we shall do it as wise men and prudent, willing to make remedies of needfull things by counsell, called the lords of his Councell for to haue aduise in these doings, and other. And when they were assembled, the lord proposed the words that were to him denounced, and sayd: With these terms and wordes came two or three marchants and citizens of the towne that knocked at the doore of the Councell, and presented a supplication to the great master, and lords of the Councel, whereby they required and besought meekely the sayd reuerend lord to haue respect to them and their poore housholds, and to make some appointment with the great Turke, seeing that the sayd matter was already forward in purpose, that he would do it; and that it would please him to consider the pitious and sorrowful estate that the towne was in; and that there was no remedy to saue it: and at the lest way, if the lord would not make appointment, to giue them leaue (of his goodnesse) to haue their wiues and their children out of the Rodes to saue them, for they would not haue them slaine nor made slaues to the enemies. And the conclusion was, that if the sayd lord would not puruey therefore, they would puruey for it themselues. And there was written in the sayd request the names of eight or ten of the richest of the towne. Which words of the sayd supplication being heard, the sayd lord and his councell were abashed and ill content as reason would, seeing that it was but a course game, and thought on many things to make answere to the sayd citizens, for to content and appease them: and also to see if they should intend to the appointment, as they required, and after as the Genouoy had reported: and the better to make the sayd answere, and to know more plainly in what estate the towne was in all things: that is to wit, first of gunpowder, and then of men of warre, and of the batteries. Also were demanded and asked the lord S. Giles pre Iohn, which had the charge of the gunpowder, and then the captaine Sir Gabriel Martiningo, for being ouer their men of warre (as it is said) as to him that knew the truth; if the towne might holde or not, or there were any meanes to saue it. The sayd lord of S. Giles arose, saying and affirming vpon his honour and his conscience that almost all the slaues and labourers were dead and hurt, and that scantly there were folke enow to remoue a piece of artillery from one place to another, and that it was vnpossible without folke any more to make or set vp the repaires the which euery day were broken and crushed by the great, furious, and continuall shot of the enemies artillery. As for gunpowder the sayd lord sayd, that all that was for store in the towne, was spent long agone, and that which was newly brought, was not to serue and furnish two assaults. And he seeing the great aduantage of the enemies being so farre within the towne, without powder to put or chase them away, for default of men, was of opinion that the towne would be lost, and that there was no meanes to saue it. The words of the sayd lord finished, the captaine Gabriel Martiningo for his discharge sayd and declared to the reuerend lord and them of the Councell, that seeing and considering the great beatings of the shot that the towne had suffered, and after seeing the entring which the enemies had so large, and that they were within the towne by their trenches both endlong and ouerthwart; seeing also that in two other places they were at the foot of the wall, and that the most part of our knights and men of warre and other were slaine and hurt, and the gunpowder wasted, and that it was vnpossible for them to resist their enemies any more, that without doubt the towne was lost if there came no succors for to helpe and resist the siege. The which opinions and reasons of these two woorthy men and expert in such feats, vnderstood and pondered by the lord great master and the lords of the Councell, they were most part aduised for to accept and take treaty if it were offered, for the saueguard of the common people, and of the holy reliques of the church, as part of the holy crosse, the holy throne, the hand of S. Iohn, and part of his head, and diuers other reliques. Howbeit the lord great master to whom the businesse belonged very neere, and that tooke it most heauily, and was more sorrowfull then any of the other, as reason required, was alway stedfast in his first purpose, rather willing to die then to consent to such a thing, and sayd againe to the lordes of the Councell: Aduise you, and thinke well on euery thing, and of the end that may happen, and he proposed to them two points: that is to wit, whether it is better for vs to die all, or to saue the people and the holy reliques. The which two points and doubts were long time disputed, and there were diuers opinions: neuerthelesse, at the last they sayd all, that howbeit that it were well and safely done to die for the faith, and most honor for vs, notwithstanding seeing and considering that there is no remedy to resist against our enemies, and meanes to saue the towne: and on the other part, that the great Turke would not oppresse vs to forsake our faith, but only would haue the towne, it were much better then, and tending to greater wealth to saue all the iewels abouesayde, that should be defiled and lost if they came in the handes of the enemies of the faith. And also to keepe so much small people, as women and children, that they would torment and cut some in pieces, other take, and perforce cause them to forsake their faith, with innumerable violences, and shamefull sinnes that should be committed and done, if the towns were put to the sword, as was done at Modon, and lately at Bellegrado. Whereby they did conclude, that it were better, and more agreeable to God, for to take the treaty, if it were proffered, then for to die as people desperate, and without hope. How the great Turke sent two of his men to the towne, to haue it by intreating. And how the lord great master sent two knights to him, to know his assurance. Vpon these consultations and words almighty God that saueth them which trust in him, and that would not that so many euils and cruelties should come to the poore city and inhabitants of it, and also that the great Turke might not arise in ouer great pride and vaineglory, put him in minde to seeke to haue the sayd towne by treaty, which he ought not to haue done for his honour, nor by reason, for the towne was in a maner his. And in like sort he ought not to haue let vs goe as he did, seeing that we were his mortall enemies euer, and shall be still in the time comming, considering the great slaughter of his people that we haue made in this siege. Howbeit, the eternall goodnesse hath blinded him, and hath pleased that these things should be thus, for some cause vnknowen of vs. And for conclusion, the great Turke sent to haue a communication and parle in following the words of the Genouese aforesayd. Then was a signe set vpon the churche of the abbey without the towne, to the which was made answere with another at the milles of Quosquino. And forthwith came two Turks to speake with them of the towne. Then the lord great master sent the Priour of S. Giles pre Iohn, and the captaine Gabriel Martiningo to know the cause of their comming. And when they came to them, without holding of long speech, the two Turkes deliuered them a letter for to beare to the lord great master from the great Turke, and then returned safely into their tents. When the two lords had receiued it, they bare and presented it to the reuerend lord great master, which caused it to be read. By the which the great Turke demanded of the lord great master to yeeld the towne to him, and in so doing he was content to let him go and all his knights, and all the other people of what condition soeuer they were, with all their goods and iewels safe without feare of any harme or displeasure of his folks. And also he swore and promised on his faith so to do. The sayd letter was sealed with his signet that he vseth, that is as it were gilded. And he sayde afterward, that if the lord great master would not accept the sayde treaty, that none of the city, of what estate soeuer he were, should thinke to escape, but that they all vnto the cats, should passe by the edge of the sword, and that they should send him an answere forthwith, either yea or nay. After the sight of the contents of the sayd letter of so great weight, and the time so short for to giue so great an answere, and with demand, the sayd lord great master and all the lords of the Councell were in great thought, howbeit they determined to giue an answere, seeing the estate of the towne so ill that it could be no woorse. Hearing the report and opinions a day or two before of the two lords ordeined to view the defects of the towne, saying that the towne was lost without remedy: considering also that the principalles of the towne would haue appointment. And in likewise, at the other counsell all the lords had already willed and declared, that it were better to saue the towne for respect of the poore people, then to put it all whole to the furie of the enemies, whereupon they agreed and concluded for to take the foresayd treatie. After the conclusion taken, answere was made readily for a good respect: that is to weet, to take the Turke at his worde, to the ende that he should not repent him of it, nor change his opinion. For euery houre his people wanne and entered further and further into the towne. And for to goe vnto the great Turke were ordeined these two knights, Sir Passin afore named, and he bare the token of the White crosse: and another of the towne named Robert de Perruse iudge Ordinarie. When these two ambassadours had made them readie, they went out at the gate of Quosquino, and went to the tent of Acmek basha, capitaine generall. And because it was late, and that they might not goe that day to the great Turke, on the next day in the morning the foresaid captaine Acmek led and conueied our sayd ambassadours to the great Turkes pauillion, that they might haue the more knowledge plainely, and for to heare his will as touching the wordes which were reported to the reuerend lord great master, and after, the contents of his letter and writings. When the sayd two ambassadours were departed out of the towne, there did enter two men of authoritie of the campe; one was nephew or kinsman of the sayd Acmek, the other was the great Turkes truchman, which the lord master caused to be well receiued, and they were lodged nigh the sayd gate of Quosquino. And then truce was taken for 3. dayes, and the enemies came to our repaires, and spake with our folke and dranke one with another. How the ambassadours of Rhodes spake with the great Turke, and what answere they had. When our ambassadours had made reuerence to the great Turke, they sayd that the lord great master of Rhodes had sent them to his Imperiall maiestie to know what he requested and desired that they might talke together, and how the great master had receiued his letter. The great Turke answered them by his truchman, that of demanding to speake together, nor writing of letter to the great master he knew nothing. Howbeit, sith the great master had sent to him for to know his will, he bade say to them that the great master should yeeld him the towne. And in so doing he promised by his faith for to let him goe with all his knights, and all other that would goe with their goods, without receiuing any displeasure of his people of the campe. And if he accepted not the sayd treatie, to certifie him that he would neuer depart from Rhodes till he had taken it, and that all his might of Turkie should die there, rather then hee would faile of it, and that there should neither great nor litle escape, but vnto the cats they should be all cut in pieces, and sayd that within 3. dayes they should giue him an answere, for hee would not that his people should loose time, and that during the sayd truce they should make no repaires nor defences within the towne. When the great Turke had ended his wordes, our ambassadours tooke their leaue of him, and returned to the towne, and there was giuen to each of them a rich garment of branched veluet, with cloth of gold of the Turkish fashion. Then Acmek basha tooke sir Passin, and led him to his pauillion, and intreating him right well, caused him to abide all that day and night: and in eating and drinking they had many discourses of things done at the siege, questioning each with other. And among all other things our ambassadour demaunded of Acmek, and prayed him to tell for trueth how many men died of the campe while the siege was laied. [Sidenote: 64000. Turks slaine at the siege of Rhodes] The said Basha sware vpon his faithand certified, that there were dead of the campe of violent death, that is to say, of gunshot and other wayes, 64000. men or more, beside them that died of sicknesse, which were about 40. or 50. thousand. How one of the ambassadours made answere of his message, and how the Commons would not agree to yeeld the towne. Returne we now to our purpose and to the answere that our ambassadours brought to the lord great master. The sayd Robert Perruse made the answere, and told what the great Turke had sayd, certifying that he would haue an answere quickly yea or nay. The which answere after the demaund of the great Turke hath bene purposed and concluded by the whole counsel, and his offer and treatie accepted, howbeit the sayd ambassadours had it not to do so soone nor the first time that they went for good reasons, but yet they would not deferre it, for feare lest he should repent him. And vpon these determinations that they would haue sent the sayd Peruse to beare the answere, came some of the common people of the towne to the lord great master, that was with the lordes of the counsell, and sayd that they were aduertised of the appointment that he had made with the great Turke, and that he would yeeld the towne with couenaunts by him taken, which, they supposed ought not to be done without calling of them. And because they were not called to it, they sayd that they would not agree thereto, and that it were better for them to die, for the great Turke by some way would put them all to death, as was done in Bellegrado in Hungarie. How the lord great master sent two ambassadors for the Commons to the great Turke. When the reuerend lord great master had heard their wordes, he sayd graciously to them, that as touching the acceptation of the great Turks offer, it was needful so to do in the degree that the towne was, and the causes wherefore he bad done it the counsell had seene and discussed, and that it was a thing that might not, nor ought not to be sayd nor published in common, for reporting of it to the enemies by traitours, but be kept still and secret. And moreouer, that it was concluded to make an answere shortly, for to take the great Turke at his word, lest he repented, him. For if they had bene called, or the answere had bene giuen, it had bene ouerlong businesse, and in the meane time the Turke might haue changed his mind, and that that he had done and concluded with the great Turke, the lordes of the counsell had well regarded and considered in all things, and for their profite and aduantage, as much or more as for that of the Religion. And that they would send to the great Turke againe other ambassadours, the better to know his will, and to be surer of his promise. Then the lord great master ordained two other ambassadours for to goe to the great Turke, which were two Spaniardes, the one named sir Raimon Market, and the other messire Lopez at whose issuing entered Sir Passin the first ambassadour, and the other two went to the tent; of Acmek basha, for to leade them to the great Turke. And when they were within the Turkes pauillion, and had done him reuerence as appertained, our ambassadours sayd that the great master had heard and seen his demaund to yeeld the towne. And for that it is a thing of great weight, and that he had to doe and say with many men of diuers nations, and because the time of answere was so short, hee might not doe that that hee demaunded so soone. Howbeit hee would speake with his people, and then hee would giue him no answere. How the Turke began the assault, and how the Commons agreed to yeeld the towne. When the great Turke heard the answere of our ambassadours, he sayd nothing, but commaunded his Bashas that they should begin the battell againe to the towne, the which was done, and then the truce was broken, and the shot of the enemies was sharper then it was afore. And on the other side nothing, or very litle for fault of pouder: for that that there was left, was kept for some great assault or neede. Howbeit the sayd Acmek Basha kept one of the ambassadours, and messire Lopez onely entered. The great master seeing the warre begun, and the shot thicker then it was afore, and the enemies entred hourely by their trenches further into the towne, called them that before had sayde to him, that they would not the towne should be yeelded, but had rather for to die. And therefore the sayd lord sayd that he was content for to die with them, and that they should dispose them to defend themselues well, or to doe their endeuour better then they had done in times past. And to the ende that each one of them should haue knowledge of his will (for as then be spake but to foure or fiue of them that gainesayd him) he made a cry through all the towne, that all they that were holden to be at the posternes or gates should giue attendance, and not to come away day nor night on payne of death: for afore, the Rhodians came but litle there. And that the other that were not of the posternes, or that were of his succours, should goe to the breach of Spaine where the sayd lord was continually, and not to goe away day nor night on the aboue sayd payne. The sayd cry made, each one were obedient for a day or twaine, howbeit a yoong Rhodian left his posterne and went to his house, which on the next day was hanged for breaking of the lordes commaundement. Notwithstanding that, by litle and litle the people annoyed them, and their heartes failed; and left the posternes and breaches: in such wise, that the enemies might come in without finding great resistaunce, but of a fewe that the lord master caused to abide there (that is to weet) knightes of his succours. And in the night he sought out more people for to keep the watch at the said breach, and paied to them as much as they would. The sayd lord seeing himself thus abandoned and left of his people, he sent to aske them againe wherefore they did not their endeuour, and why they came not to day, as they sayd before. Which made answere that they sawe and knew well that the towne was lost for certaine reasons that were told them: by occasion whereof they had gainesaid the ordinance of the sayd lord, and sayd that they had bene wrong enformed of diuers things: and on the other side, that they feared that the Turke would not hold his word. But sithens they sawe that there was none other remedie but to abide the aduenture and fortune, they sayd that they put all to the sayd lord to doe what he thought good, and that hee would see what were best for them. And required the lord, to doe them so much fauour as to let them choose one or two among them for to goe to the great Turke with his ambassadours for to haue suretie of him. The which was granted, and two ordinarie ambassadours were chosen for them; one Nicholas Vergotie, and the other Piero of saint Cretice, and the foresayd Passin should returne with them for to make the sayd answere. Then the great master or they departed (prolonging the time as much as he might) aduised to send a letter to the great Turke, the which his grandfather had written or caused to be written. In the which letter he gaue his malediction or curse to his children and successours, if they enterprised to besiege Rhodes. The sayd Robert Perruse bare the sayd letter, and as he was accustomed, he went to Acmek Basha for to cause him to haue audience, and to present the sayd letter. And the Basha sayd hee would see the letter: for it is the guise in the great Turkes court, that none may speake to him nor giue him a letter, but he be aduertised first what shall be said, or what shall be written. When the Basha had seene the wordes written in the said letter, he brake it and cast it on the ground, and did tread vpon it, saying many iniurious and villanous wordes to the sayd iudge. And bade him returne apace to his great master, and bid him to thinke on his businesses and to make answere to the great lord (as he had sent and commaunded) or els, it should not be long or he sawe his dolorous and wofull ende. And that same day were taken two men of ours that bare earth toward the bulwarke of England. Of whom the sayd Acmek caused an officer to cut off their noses, fingers, and eares, and gaue them a letter to beare to the lord great master, wherein were great wordes and threatnings. After the sayd Perruse was returned, messire Passin was sent againe to the sayde Basha, for to know of him if the great Turke would be content with any summe of money for his costes and expenses, that he had made for his armie. The which answered that such wordes or offers of siluer were not to bee sayd nor presented to the great lord on paine of life, and that hee set more by honour then by siluer. And therefore hee bade him returne and say to the great master that hee should make answere to the great lord after his demaund, to yeeld or not yeeld the towne. The sayd Passin made relation of the wordes of the Basha to the great master: the which for the great sorrow that hee had deterred alwayes, saw himselfe in such pitious estate. Notwithstanding, the sayd lord putting all to the wil of our lord, and considering that there was no remedie to do otherwise, nor to resist any more his enemies: and being constrained on all sides to make the appointment, with great heauinesse, inestimable dolours and bewailings, at the last gaue his voyce to yeeld the towne (with the treatise or offers to him presented) which was the 20. day of December, the yeere of our lord a thousand fiue hundreth and two and twentie. An answere to such as will make question for the deliuerance of the citie of Rhodes. And if by any it were demaunded wherefore the sayde lord great master hath yeelded the towne to the great Turke, requesting it with treatie and couenaunts, which was a signe that he feared and would no more fight, but goe his way. To this I answere: Notwithstanding that the great Turke was aduertised by some traitours, and by other that fled into the campe, that the powder almost failed, and that there were but fewe men of warre within the towne, yet he beleeued not, nor gaue credence of all that was reported to him, but thought verily that wee had ynough for a great while, and considered that hee must tary till they were wasted and spent, whereto behooued time. And seeing all his estate entered into strange places, and into the lands of his enemies, and had bene there already sixe moneths, (and not without great danger of his owne person) thinking on the other side, that taking the towne by assault, he should lose many of his folke; and yet when hee had ouercome and wonne the towne, they should fall each vpon other in departing of the bootie or pillage, doubting finally the hazard of warre. For these reasons and other that may be alleaged, the great Turke had much rather to haue the towne by composition and treaty then otherwise. And it suffised him to driue his olde enemies out of the countreys of Leuant, and set the subiects of his countreys in rest and suretie. And we of the towne that knew our weaknesse, and that we might do no more, it seemed better to saue so much small people, then we and they to fall into the furie of our enemies, for otherwise could we not haue done, but tempt God, and died as in dispaire. How the citie of Rhodes was yeelded to the great Turke, and of the euill behauiour of certaine Turkes. But to returne to our principall: After that the reuerend great master had giuen his voyce to the yeelding of the towne, he sent the said Passin againe for to beare it to the great Turke. And with him went the two men that were chosen of the Commons, and they went all three together to the tent of Acmek Basha. To whom the sayd Passin first made this pitious answere and conclusion to yeeld the towne. Notwithstanding, he sayd the people had ordained two men among them for to goe to the great Turke, to speake of their particular doings, and to haue some suretie of their persons, wiues, and children, to the ende that it were not done to them, as to those of Bellegrado. The sayd Acmek led the three ambassadours toward the great Turke. And when they were entered into the pauilion, the sayde messire Passin made the report of his ambassade to the sayd lord, and sayd that the great master yeelded him the towne vnder the promise made by his Imperiall maiestie, with the treatie promised. Of the which promise bee held him sure and certaine, and that hee would doe no lesse: howbeit, the people had required him to giue them licence to go to his maiestie for to aske some request of him. Then the two citizens besought the great Turke that he would for suretie remooue his campe from the towne, to the ende that they should haue no maner of harme to their bodies nor goods, and that they that would goe, should goe, and that they that would abide still, might be well entreated. The great Turke answered by his interpreter to messire Passin, that hee accepted the towne, and promised agayne vpon his faith, and on his honour to the lord great master, that he would performe that he had promised, and sent to him by the same Passin that he should not doubt of the contrary: and if he had not ships ynough for to carie his people and their goods, that hee would let them haue of his, and that he would deliuer the artillerie that was woont to be in the ships of the Religion. And as touching the request of the people, he sayd that he would remooue the campe, and that they that would abide, might abide, and they should bee well entreated, and should pay no tribute in fiue yeeres, and their children should not bee touched, and who so would goe within the sayd space of fiue yeeres, they should goe in good time. These worries ended, our ambassadours tooke leaue of him, and when they were departed, they spake againe with the saide Acmed Basba for to haue a letter of the contents of the promise of the sayd lord. And by his commandement the sayd letter was made, whereby he promised to let go the great master with all his knights, strangers and men of the towne that would go with their goods, without hauing displeasure of any of his people of the campe, or by the wayes. When the letter was made, it was deliuered to messire Passin. And as touching withdrawing of the campe, the sayd Basha promised againe that he would do it, since the great lord would so: howbeit he remooued but from the trenches, and some of his people went a litle way off. And the sayd Basha demaunded in the Turkes behalfe, that they should send to him in hostage foure and twentie knights, whereof two should bee of the great Crosse, and two and twentie citizens. And the sayd lord should send onely a captaine with three or foure hundred Ianissaries, for to keepe the towne when the campe were withdrawen. And so it was done; and beside this he gaue twelue dayes respite to the lord great master, to prepare him and depart out of Rhodes. And in conclusion all this done, our ambassadours returned and made the report to the reuerend great master of all that they had done and practised with the great Turke, and the sayd Basha, and gaue him the letter for to goe surely. Then the great master with his counsell ordained the foure and twentie persons, and other of the towne. When they were readie, they went to the campe, where they were well intreated foure dayes. During this time, Ferra Basha passed from the maine land to the campe, with foure and twentie or fiue and twentie thousand Ianissaries, which by the commaundement of the great Turke was gone vpon the borders of the countreis of the Sophie. For the Turke seeing the people of the campe discouraged and willing no more to goe to the assaults, sent to the sayde Basha to come to Rhodes with his people, which would haue withstood vs sore as fresh men. And it was the worke of God and a wonderfull myracle, that they came after that the appointment was made: for if they had come afore, it is to be supposed that the deed had gone otherwise, and there had bene many strokes giuen: but I beleeue that the ende should haue bene pitious for vs, but God would not that the Turke should haue victory vpon vs as hee might haue had, seeing the great aduantage that he had in all things, but he blinded him and would not that he should know his might. And on the other part it may be sayd and marueiled how it was possible alway to haue ouercome our enemies in all assaults and skirmishes, and at the end to loose the towne, it was the will of God that so hath pleased for some cause to vs vnknowen. It is to bee thought, that lacke of men and gunshot, and the enemies so farre within the towne, and ready to enter at other places with the treasons haue caused the towne to be lost. Two or three dayes after the comming of the sayd Basha, his Ianissaries and other of the campe entred into the Towne, which was on Christmas day, within the time giuen to vs, and then the Turkes word was broken, if it were his will or not, I cannot tell. Neuerthelesse there was no sword drawen, and in that respect promise was kept. But they made pillage, and entered by force into the houses of the castle, and tooke all that they might and would. After that they had ransacked the houses, they entered into the churches, and pilled all that they found, and brake the images. And there was no crucifix, nor figure of our lady, nor of other saints, that were left whole. Then with great inhumanitie they went into the hospitall of poore and sicke folke, called the Fermorie, and tooke all the siluer vessell that the sicke folke were serued with, and raised them out of their beds, and droue them away, some with great strokes and staues, and some were cast down from the galleries. When these hounds had done that acte, they went to the church of saint Iohn and tooke downe the tombes of the great masters, and sought if there were any treasure hid in them, and they forced certaine women and maidens. And all they that were christened and had bene Turkes afore, were they men, women or children, and children, that the sayd men had made christians, they led into Turkie, which thing is of greater importance then any of the other. The morrow after Christmas day, the reuerend lord great master went to the great Turkes pauillion for to visite him, and to be better assured of his promise, the which lord he made to be wel and graciously receiued. And he signified vnto him by his interpreter, that the case so happened to him was a thing vsuall and common: as to loose townes and lordships, and that hee should not take ouermuch thought for it: and as for his promise, he bade that he should not doubt in any thing, and that he should not feare any displeasure to his person, and that he should goe with his people without feare. With these wordes the sayd lord thanked him, and tooke his leaue and departed. FINIS. Lenuoy of the Translator. Go little booke, and woefull Tragedie, Of the Rhodian feareful oppugnation, To all estates complaining ruthfully Of thine estate, and sudden transmutation: Excusing me if in thy translation Ought be amisse in language or in werke, I me submit with their supportation, To be correct, that am so small a clerke. * * * * * An ambassage from Don Ferdinando, brother to the emperor Charles 5. vnto king Henry the 8. in the yeere 1527 desiring his aide against Solyman the great Turke. Holinshed. pag. 894. On the 14. day of March, 1527. were conueied from London to Greenwich by the earle of Rutland and others, the lord Gabriel de Salamanca, earle of Ottonburge, Iohn Burgraue of Sayluerberge, and Iohn Faber a famous clerke, after bishop of Vien, as ambassadours from Don Ferdinando, brother to Charles the emperor, newly elected king of Hungarie and Beame, after the death of his brother in law king Lewes, which was slaine by Solyman the Turke the last Sommer. This company was welcommed of the high officers, and after brought into the kings presence, all the nobilitie being present; and there after great reuerence made, M. Faber made a notable oration, taking his ground out of the Gospell, Exijt seminator seminare semen suum: and of that hee declared how Christ and his disciples went foorth to sowe, and how their seed was good that fel into the good ground, and brought foorth good fruite, which was the Christian faith. And then he declared how contrary to that sowing, Mahomet had sowen seed, which brought foorth euill fruit. He also shewed from the beginning, bow the Turkes haue increased in power, what realmes they had conquered, what people they had subdued euen to that day. He declared further what actes the great Turke then liuing had done; and in especiall, he noted the getting of Belgrade and of the Rhodes, and the slaying of the king of Hungarie, to the great rebuke (as he sayd) of all the kings christened. Hee set foorth also what power the Turke had, what diuersities of companies, what captaines he had, so that he thought, that without a marueilous great number of people, he could not be ouerthrowen. Wherefore he most humbly besought the king as S. Georges knight, and defender of the faith, to assist the king his master in that godly warre and vertuous purpose. To this oration the king by the mouth of Sir Thomas Moore answered; that much hee lamented the losse that happened in Hungarie, and if it were not for the warres which were betweene the two great princes, [Sidenote: He meaneth the Emperor and the French King.] he thought that the Turke would not haue enterprised that acte: wherefore he with all his studie would take paine, first, to set an vnitie and peace throughout all Christendome, and after that, both with money and men he would be readie to helpe toward that glorious warre, as much as any other prince in Christendome. After this done, the ambassadours were well cherished, and diuers times resorted to the court, and had great cheere and good rewards, and so the third day of May next following, they tooke their leaue and departed homeward. * * * * * The antiquitie of the trade with English ships into the Leuant. In the yeeres of our Lord, 1511. 1512. &c till the yeere 1534. diuers tall ships of London, namely, The Christopher Campion, wherein was Factor one Roger Whitcome: the Mary George, wherein was Factor William Gresham: the great Mary Grace, the Owner whereof was William Gunson, and the master one Iohn Hely: the Trinitie Fitz-williams, whereof was master Laurence Arkey: the Mathew of London, whereof was master William Capling, with certaine other ships of Southampton and Bristow, had an ordinarie and vsuall trade to Sicilia, Candie, Chio, and somewhiles to Cyprus, as also to Tripolis and Barutti in Syria. The commodities which they caried thither were fine Kersies of diuers colours, course Kersies, white Westerne dozens, Cottons, certaine clothes called Statutes, and others called Cardinal whites, and Cauleskins which were well sold in Sicilie, &c. The commodities which they returned backe were Silks, Chamlets, Rubarbe, Malmesies, Muskadels and other wines, sweete oyles, cotten wool, Turkie carpets, Galles, Pepper, Cinamon, and some other spices, &c. Besides the naturall inhabitants of the foresayd places, they had, euen in those dayes, traffique with Iewes, Turkes, and other forreiners. Neither did our merchants onely employ their owne English shipping before mentioned, but sundry strangers also: as namely Candiots, Raguseans, Sicilians, Genouezes, Venetian galliases, Spanish and Portugale ships. All which particulars doe most euidently appeare out of certaine auncient Ligier Bookes of the R. W. Sir William Locke Mercer of London, of Sir William Bowyer Alderman of London, of master Iohn Gresham, and of others; which I Richard Hakluyt haue diligently perused and copied out. And here for authorities sake I doe annexe, as a thing not impertinent to this purpose, a letter of King Henry the eight, vnto Don Iohn the third, king of Portugale. * * * * * A letter of the king of England Henry the eight, to Iohn king of Portugale, for a Portingale ship with the goods of Iohn Gresham and Wil. Locke with others, vnladen in Portugale from Chio. Serenissimo Principi, domino Ioanni Dei gratia Regi Portugalliæ, et Algarbiorum citra et vltra mare in Africa, ac domino Guineæ, et conquistæ, nauigationis, et commercij �thiopiæ, Arabiæ, Persiæ, atque Indiæ, etc. Fratri, et amico nostro charissimo. Henricus Dei gratia, Rex Angliæ, et Franciæ, fidei defensor, ac dominus Hiberniæ, Serenissimo Principi; domino Ioanni eadem gratia Regi Portugalliæ et Algarbiorum citra et vltra mare in Africa, ac domino Guineæ, et conquistæ nauigationis, et commercij �thiopiæ, Arabiæ, Persiæ, atque Indiæ etc. Fratri, et amico nostro charissimo, salutem. Tanto libentius, promptiusque iustas omnes causas vestræ Serenitati commendandas suscipimus, quanto apertiori indiès nostrorum, qui in eiusdem vestræ Serenitatis regno ac ditione negotiantur, subditorum testimonio cognoscimus, ipsam ex optimi principis officio ita accuratè, exactéque ius suum cuíque præbere, vt ad eam nemo iustitiæ consequendæ gratia frustra vnquam confugiat. Cùm itaque dilectus ac fidelis subditus noster Ioannes Gresham mercator Londoniensis nuper nobis humiliter exposuerit, quod quidam Willielmus Heith ipsius Factor, et negotiorum gestor nauim quondam Portugallensem, cui nomen erat Sancto Antonio, præerátque Diego Peres Portugallensis superioribus mensibus in Candia conduxerit, cum nauísque præfecto conuenerit, vt in insulam Chium ad quasdam diuersi generis merces onerandas primò nauigaret, in Candiámque mox aliarum mercium onerandarum gratia rediret, omnes quidem in hoc nostrum regnum postmodùm aduecturus ad valorem circiter duodecim millium ducatorum, quemadmodum ex pactionis, conuentionisque instrumento apertiùs constat, accidit, vt præfatus Diego vestræ Serenitatus subditus, dictis susceptis mercibus, et iam in itinere parùm fidelitèr, et longè præter initas conuentiones, grauissimo certe nostrorum subditorum detrimento, vbi in Portugalliæ portum diuertisset, sententiæ huc nauigandi mutata, in eodem portu commoretur, nostrorúmque etiam subditorum merces detineat: quam iniuriam (quum subditis nostris in vestræ Serenitatis regno, et ab eius subdito illata sit) ex æquitate, ac iustitia ab ipsa corrigi, emendaríque confidimus, nostro quoque potissimùm intuitu, qui vestræ Serenitatis ipsiúsque subditorum causas, mercésque, si quando in hoc nostrum regnum appulerint, semper commendatissimas habemus, id quod superiori anno testati sumus: proinde ipsam vehementer rogamus, vt Ioannem Ratliffe præsentium latorem, et dicti Ioannis Gresham nouum constitutum procuratorem, huius rei causa istuc venientem, velit in suis agendis, in dictísque bonis recuperandis, impunéque asportandis remittendísque vectigalibus (quod nos in vestros subditos fecimus) quum per nauis præfectum fraude, ac dolo istuc merces fuerint aduectæ, nisi istic vendantur, ac toto denique ex æquitate conficiendo negotio, sic commendatum suscipere, sicque ad suos, quos opus fore intellexerit magistratus missis literis rem omnem iuuare, et expedire, vi perspiciamus ex hac nostra commendatione fuisse nostrorum subditorum iuri, et indemnitati quàm maximè consultum. Quod nobis gratissimum est futurum, et in re consimili, aut grauiori vestra Serenitas nos sibi gratificandi cupidissimos experietur, quæ foeliciter valeat. Ex Regia nostra de Waltham, Die 15. Octobr. 1531. The same in English. To the high and mighty prince, Iohn by the grace of God, king of Portugale, and of Algarue on this side and beyond the sea in Africa, lord of Ghinea, and of the conquest, nauigation, and traffique of �thiopia, Arabia, Persia, India, &c. our most deere and welbeloued brother. Henry by the grace of God, king of England and of France, defender of the faith, and lord of Ireland; to Iohn by the same grace, king of Portugale and Algarue, on this side and beyond the sea in Africa, and lord of Ghinea, and of the conquest, nauigation, and traffique of �thiopia, Arabia, Persia, India, &c. our most deare and welbeloued brother, sendeth greeting. So much the more willingly and readily we vndertake the recommending of all iust causes vnto your highnesse, because by the daily testimonie of our subiects which traffike in your kingdoms and dominions, we are informed, that according to the dutie of a most worthy prince, so carefully and exactly you minister iustice vnto euery man, that all men most willingly repaire vnto your highnesse, with full trust to obtaine the same. Whereas therefore our welbeloued and trustie subiect Iohn Gresham merchant of London, of late in humble maner hath signified vnto vs, that one William Heith his Factor and Agent, certaine moneths agoe had hired in Candie a certaine Portugale ship called Santo Antonio, (the patrone whereof is Diego Perez) and couenanted with the patrone of the sayd ship, that he should first saile to the Isle of Sio, to take in merchandize of sundry sortes, and then eftsoones returne to Candie, to be fraighted with other goods, all which he was to bring into our kingdome of England, to the value of 12000 ducats, as by their billes of couenant and agreement more plainly appeareth: it so fel out, that the aforesaid Diego your highnes subiect hauing receiued the said goods, very trecherously and much contrary to his couenant, to the exceeding great losse of our subiects, putting in by the way into an hauen of Portugale, and altering his purpose of comming into England, he remaineth still in that hauen, and likewise detaineth our subiects goods. Which iniury (seeing it is done in your Highnes kingdome) we hope your Highnes will see reformed according to equity and right, the rather at our request, which alwayes haue had a speciall care of the causes and goods of your Highnes, and of your subiects whensoeuer they come into our kingdome, whereof we made proofe the last yeere. Wherefore wee instantly request your Highnes, that you would so receiue Iohn Ratcliffe the bearer of these present letters, and the new appointed agent of Iohn Gresham, which commeth into your dominions about this busines, being thus commended vnto you in this busines, and recouering and freely bringing home of the said goods, and in remitting of the customs, vnlesse they were sold there (the like whereof we did towards your subiects) seeing by the fraud and deceit of the patron of the ship, the wares were brought thither, and finally in dispatching the whole matter, according to iustice, and so further the same by directing your highnes letters to your officers whom it may concerne, that we may perceiue, that our subiects right and liberty hath especially bene maintained vpon this our commendation. Which we will take in most thankful part, and your highnes shal find vs in the like or a greater matter most readie to gratifie you, whom we wish most heartily well to fare. From our court at Waltham the 15. of October 1531. * * * * * A voyage made with the shippes called the Holy Crosse, and the Mathew Gonson, to the Iles of Candia and Chio, about the yeere 1534, according to a relation made to Master Richard Hackluit, by Iohn Williamson, Cooper and citizen of London, who liued in the yeere 1592, and went as cooper in the Mathew Gonson the next voyage after. [Sidenote: The Holy Crosse and the Mathew Gonson depart for Turkie.] The shippes called the Holy Crosse, and the Mathew Gonson, made a voyage to the Islandes of Candia and Chio in Turkie, about the yeere 1534. And in the Mathew Crosse went as Captaine M. Richard Gonson, sonne of old Master William Gonson, paymaster of the kings nauie. In this first voyage went William Holstocke (who afterwards was Controuller of her Maiesties Nauie, lately deceased) as page to M. Richard Gonson aforesaid, which M. Gonson died in Chio in this his first voyage. The ship called the Holy Crosse was a short shippe, and of burden 160 tunnes. And hauing beene a full yeere at the sea in performance of this voyage, with great danger she returned home, where, vpon her arriual at Blackwall, in the riuer of Thames, her wine and oyle caske was found so weake, that they were not able to hoyse them out of the ship, but were constrayned to draw them as they lay, and put their wine and oyle into new vessels, and so to vnlade the shippe. Their chiefe fraight, was very excellent Muscatels and red Malmesie, the like whereof were seeldome seene before in England. They brought home also good quantitie of sweete oyles, cotton wooles, Turkie Carpets, Galles, Cynamon, and some other spices. The saide shippe called the Holy Crosse was so shaken in this voyage, and so weakened, that she was layd vp in the docke, and neuer made voyage after. * * * * * Another voyage to the Iles of Candia and Chio made by the shippe the Mathew Gonson, about the yeere 1535, according to the relation of Iohn Williamson, then Cooper in the same ship, made to M. Richard Hackluit in the yeere 1592. [Sidenote: The Mathew Gonson goeth into Turkie.] The good shippe called the Mathew Gonson, of burden 300 tunnes, whereof was owner old M. William Gonson, pay-master of the kings Nauie, made her voyage in the yeere 1535. In this ship went as Captaine Richard Gray, who long after died in Russia, Master William Holstocke afterward Controuller of the Queenes Nauie went then as purser in the same voyage. The Master was one Iohn Pichet, seruant to old M. William Gonson, Iames Rumnie was mate. The master Cooper was Iohn Williamson citizen of London, liuing in the yeere 1592, and dwelling in Sant Dunstons parish in the East. The M. Gunner was Iohn Godfrey of Bristoll. In this ship were 6 gunners and 4 trumpetters, all which foure trumpetters at our returne hornewards went on land at Messina in the Iland of Sicilia, as our ship road there at anker, and gat them into the Gallies that lay neere vnto vs, and in them went to Rome. The whole number of our companie in this ship were about 100. men, we were also furnished with a great bote, which was able to cary 10 tunnes of water, which at our returne homewards we towed all the way from Chio vntill we came through the straight of Gibraltar into the maine Ocean. We had also a great long boat and a skiff. We were out vpon this voyage eleuen moneths, yet in all this time there died of sicknesse but one man, whose name was George Forrest, being seruant to our Carpenter called Thomas Plummer. In a great lygier booke of one William Eyms, seruant vnto Sir William Bowyer Alderman of London, bearing date the 15 of Nouember 1533, and continued vntill the 4. of Iuly 1544. I find that the said William Eyms was factor in Chio, not only for his Master, but also for the duke of Norfolkes grace and for many other worshipful marchants of London, among whom I find the accompts of these especially, to wit, of his said Master, sir William Bowyer, of William and Nicholas Wilford Marchant-taylors of London, of Thomas Curtis pewterer, of Iohn Starkey Mercer, of William Ostrige Marchant, and of Richard Field Draper. And further I find in the said ligier booke, a note of the said Eyms, of all such goods as he left in the hands of Robert Bye in Chio, who became his Masters factor in his roome, and another like note of particulers of goods that he left in the hands of Oliuer Lesson, seruant to William and Nicholas Wilford. And for proofe of the continuance of this trade vntill the end of the yeere 1552. I found annexed vnto the former note of the goods left with Robert Bye in Chio, a letter being dated the 27 of Nouember 1552 in London. * * * * * The Epitaph of the valiant Esquire M. Peter Read in the south Ile of Saint Peters Church in the citie of Norwich, which was knighted by Charles the fift at the winning of Tunis in the yeere of our Lord 1538. Here vnder lieth the corpes of Peter Reade Esquire, who hath worthily serued, not onely his Prince and Countrey, but also the Emperour Charles the fift, both at his conquest of Barbarie, and at his siege at Tunis, as also in other places. Who had giuen him by the said Emperour for his valiant deedes the order of Barbary. Who dyed the 29 day of December, in the yeere of our Lord God 1566. * * * * * A discourse of the trade to Chio, in the yeere 1569. made by Caspar Campion, vnto master Michael Locke, and vnto master William Winter, as by his letters vnto them both shall appeare. Written the 14. of February. Worshipfull Sir, &c. As these dayes past I spake vnto you about the procurement of a safeconduct from the great Turke, for a trade to Chio: The way and maner how it may be obtained with great ease shall plainly appeare vnto you in the lines following. Sir, you shall vnderstand that the Island of Chio in time past hath bene a Signiorie or lordship of it selfe, and did belong vnto the Genowaies. There were 24. of them that gouerned the island which were called Mauneses. But in continuance of time the Turke waxed so strong and mightie, that they, considering they were not able to keepe it, vnlesse they should become his tributaries, because the Island had no corne, nor any kind of vitailes to sustaine themselues, but onely that which must of necessitie come out of the Turkes dominions, and the sayd island being inclosed with the Turks round about, and but 12. miles from the Turks Continent, therefore the said Genowaies did compound and agree to be the Turkes tributaries, and to pay him 14000. thousand ducates yeerely. Alwayes prouided, that they should keep their lawes both spirituall and temporall, as they did when the Iland was in their owne hands. Thus he granted them their priuiledge, which they inioyed for many yeeres, so that all strangers, and also many Englishmen did trade thither of long continuance, and went and came in safety. [Sidenote: The Prince Pedro Doria is captaine of 40 gallies vnder the Emperor.] In this meane time, the prince Pedro Doria (being a Genouois) became a captaine to serue the Emperour with 30 or 40 gallies against the Turke. And since that time diuers other captaines belonging to Genoa haue bene in the seruice of king Philip against the Turke. Moreouer, whensoeuer the Turke made out any army, he perceiued that no nation did him more hurt then those Genouois, who were his tributaries. Likewise at the Turkes siege of Malta, before which place he lay a great while, with losse of his men, and also of his gallies, he found none so troublesome vnto his force, as one Iuanette Doria a Genouois, and diuers others of the Iland of Chio, who were his tributaries. [Sidenote: The Mauneses put out of the Iland of Chio by the Turke.] At which sight, he tooke such displeasure against them of Chio, that he sent certaine of his gallies to the Iland, for to seise vpon all the goods of the 24 Mauneses and to turne them with their wiues and children out of the Iland, but they would let none other depart, because the Iland should not be vnpeopled. So that now the Turke hath sent one of his chiefe men to rule there: whereby now it will be more easie to obtaine our safeconduct then euer it was before. [Sidenote: The custome thorowout all Turkie is ten in euery hundreth.] For if the townesmen of Chio did know that we would trade thither (as we did in times past) they themselues, and also the customer (for the Turke in all his dominions doth rent his customes) would be the chiefest procurer of this our safe conduct, for his owne gaine: which is no small matter: for we can pay no lesse than ten in the hundred thorowout the Turks whole dominion. Insomuch, that if one of our shippes should go thither, it would be for the customers profit 4000 ducats at least, whereas if we should not trade thither, he should lose so much. [Sidenote: English men do buy more commodities of Chio then any other nation.] Also the burgesses, and the common people would be very glad of our trade there, for the Communalty do get more by our countreymen then they do any nation whatsoeuer: for we do vse to buy many of their silke quilts, and of their Scamato and Dimite, that the poore people make in that towne, more then any other nation, so that we would not so gladly trade, but the people of the countrey would be twise so willing. Wherefore they themselues would be a meanes vnto their gouernour, by their petition to bring this trade to passe: giuing him to vnderstand that of all nations in the world we do him least hurt, and that we may do his countrey great good in consuming those commodities which his countrey people make. Furthermore, it were farre more requisite that we should cary our owne commodities, then to suffer a stranger to cary them thither, for that we can affoord them better cheape then a stranger can. I write not this by hearsay of other men, but of mine own experience, for I haue traded in the countrey aboue this 30 yeres, and haue bene maried in the towne of Chio full 24. yeres, so that you may assure yourselfe that I will write nothing but truth. [Sidenote: Great store of sundry commodities to be had in Chio.] Now I will declare vnto you the wares and commodities that are in the countreys neere about Chio. There are very good galles, the best sort whereof are sold in England fiue shillings deerer then any other countrey galles, There is also cotton wooll, tanned hides, hides in the haire, waxe, chamlets, mocayares, grogerams, silke of diuers countreys, cordouan skinnes, tanned white, to be made blacke, of them great quantity, and also course wooll to make beds. The naturall commodities growing in the Iland it selfe are silke rawe, and masticke. Of these commodities there are laden yeerely ten or twelue great ships of Genoa, besides fiue or sixe that do belong to the towne of Chio, which ships are fraughted for Genoa, Messina, and Ancona. And now that the Mauneses and the chiefe merchants of Genoa are banished, the trade is cleane lost, by reason whereof merchandise must now of necessity be better cheape then they haue bene in times past. But yet when all those ships did trade to the countrey, and also our ships, we neuer had lesse then three kintals of galles for a carsie, and in England we sold them for 35 and 36 shillings the hundred. And whereas now they are brought by the Venetians, they sell them vnto vs for three pound tenne shillings, and foure pound the hundred. Also we had three kintals of cotten wooll for a carsie, and solde the wooll in England for 50 shillings or 3 pound at the most, whereas now the Italians sell the some to vs for 4 pound 10 shillings and 5 pound the hundred. In like maner chamlets, whereas we had three pieces, and of the best sort two and a halfe for a carsie, and could not sell them aboue 20 shillings and 22 shillings the piece, they sell them for 30 and 35 shillings the piece. Also grogerams, where we had of the best, two pieces and a halfe for a carsie, they sell them for foure shillings and foure shillings and sixe pence the yard. Carpets the smaller sort which serue for cupboords, we had three for a carsie: whereas we at the most could not sell them but for 26 shillings the piece, they sell them for 35 shillings the piece. And so all other commodities that the Venetians do bring, they sell them to vs for the third part more gaines then we our selues in those dayes that we traded in those parts. Likewise the barrels of oile that they bring from Candia, we neuer could sell them aboue foure nobles the barrell, where they sell them alwayes for 50 shillings and 3 pound the barrell. What great pity is this, that we should loose so good a trade, and may haue it in our owne hands, and be better welcome to that countrey then the Venetians. Moreouer, the Venetians come very little to Chio, for their trade is into Alexandria. And for to assure you that we had these commodities in barter of our carsies, looke into your fathers books, and the books of Sir Iohn Gresham, and his brethren, and you shall finde what I haue sayd to be true. [Sidenote: Diuers places where we may haue sweete oiles for our clothing farre cheaper then out of Spaine.] Also you know, that we are forced to seeke oiles out of Spaine, and that for these many yeeres they haue bene solde for 25 pound and 30 pound the tunne: whereas, if we can obtaine the foresayd safeconduct from the Turke, there are diuers places in his dominions, where we may lade 500 tunnes, at 5 pound sterling the tunne. The places are Modon, and Coron, which are but twelue miles distant the one from the other, and do stand in our way to Chio, as you may plainly see by the Card. Also these are places where we may vtter our owne commodities, and not onely these two places, but many others, where we may haue oiles, and be better vsed then we are in Spaine, where we pay very deare, and also are very euill intreated many wayes, as to you is hot vnknowen. So that by these meanes (if the marchants will) we may be eased, and haue such a trade as the like is not in Christendome. Now, as for getting the safeconduct, if I were but able to spend one hundred pounds by the yeere, I would be bound to lose it, if that I did not obtaine the foresayd safeconduct. For I know that if the inhabitants of Chio did but thinke that wee would trade thither againe, they at their owne cost would procure to vs a safeconduct, without any peny of charges to the marchants. So that if the marchants will but beare my charges to solicit the cause, I will vndertake it my selfe. Wherefore I pray you speake to M. Winter and the other marchants, that this matter may take effect And let me haue your answere herein assoone as conueniently you may, for that the time of the yeere draweth nigh that this businesse must be done. Thus I commit you to God, and rest alwayes yours to command. Yours as your seruant Gaspar Campion. * * * * * The first voyage of Robert Baker (to Guinie), with the Minion, and Primrose, set out in October, 1562. by Sir William Garrard, Sir William Chester, M. Thomas Lodge, Anthony Hickman, and Edward Castelin. As men whose heads be fraught. with care, haue seldom rest: (For through the head the body strait with sorowes is opprest:) So I that late on bed lay wake, for that the watch Pursued mine eye, and causde my hed no sleepe at all to catch: To thinke vpon my chaunce which hath me now betide: To lie a prisoner here in France, for raunsome where I bide; And feeling still such thoughts so thicke in head to runne, As in the sommer day the moats doe fall into the Sunne, To walke then vp I rose, fansie to put to flight: And thus a while I doe purpose to passe away the night. Morpheus I perceiu'd [The God of Sleepe.] had small regarde of me, Therefore I should be but deceiu'd on bed longer to lie. And thus without delay rising as voide of sleepe, I horned Cynthia sawe streight way [The Moone.] in at my grate to peepe: Who passing on her way, eke knowing well my case, How I in darke dungeon there lay alwayes looking for grace: To, me then walking tho in darke withouten light, She wipte her face, and straight did show the best countnance she might: Astonneth eke my head and senses for a space, And olde fansies away now fled she putteth new in place. Then leaning in my grate wherein full bright she shinde, And viewing her thus on her gate she mazeth streight my minde: And makes me thinke anon how oft in Ginnie lande She was my friend, when I haue gone all night vpon the sande, Walking and watching efte least any boate or ship At any time, while we had slept perhaps by vs might slip. And streight with ardent fire my head inflameth shee, Eke me inspires with whole desire to put in memorie, Those daungers I haue bid and Laberinth that I Haue past without the clue of threede, eke harder ieopardie. I then gin take in hand straight way to put in rime, Such trauell, as in Ginnie lande I haue past in my time. But hauing writte a while I fall faint by the way, And eke at night I lothe that stile which I haue writte that day. And thinke my doings then vnworthy sure, to be Set forth in print before all men, for eueryone to see. Eke with dispaire therefore my pen I cast away, And did intende this neuer more hereafter to assay. My fellow prisoner then sir Edward Gages sonne [Sir Edward Gages sonne, Willes me to take againe my pen whose name was George Gage.] and ende that I begonne. By this our friends (sayth he) shall right well vnderstande And knowe the great trauels that we haue past in Heathen lande. Take pen therefore againe in hande, I you require, And thinke (saith he) thereof no paine to graunt this my desire. Then once againe my hed my hande a worke doth sette: But first I fall vpon my bed. and there deepe sighes I fette, To see that this to taske is giuen me silly wight: And of Minerua helpe I aske that she me teach aright. Helpe now without delay, helpe, helpe, ye Muses nine, O Cleo, and Calliope, shew me how to define In condigne stile and phrase eche thing in euery line, To you I giue loe all the praise the trauell only mine. Giue care then ye that long to know of my estate, Which am in France in prison strong as I wrote home of late: Against all lawe or right as I doe thinke in deede, Sith that the warre is ended quite, [The warre at Newe hauen.] and pease is well agreed Yet least perchaunce you might much maruell, how that I Into a Frenchmans powre should light In prison here to lie: Giue now attentiue heede, a straunge tale gin I tell, How I this yeare haue bene besteede, scaping the gates of hell, More harde I thinke truly, in more daunger of life, Than olde Orpheus did when he through hell did seeke his wife, Whose musike so did sounde in pleasant play of string, That Cerberus that hellish hounde (who as the poets sing Hauing three huge heads great, which doe continually Still breath out firy flames of heate most horrible to see) Did giue him leaue to passe in at the gates of Hell: Of which gate he chiefe porter was the Poets thus me tell. And how he past alone through great king Plutos Court Yea ferried ouer with Charon [Caron passenger of Hell.] and yet he did no hurt. Well to my purpose now, in Hell what hurt had hee? Perchance he might strange sights inow and vgly spirits there see: Perhaps eke Tantalus, there, making of his mone, Who staru'd always: and Sysiphus still rolling vp the stone. Yet Orpheus passed by, and went still on his way, There was no torment came him nigh or heate to make him stay. And I a Gods name woulde at hazarde play my life In Guinie lande, to seeke for golde, as Orpheus sought his wife. At which saide lande of Guinie [His first voyage 1562.] I was eke once before, And scapt the death as narrowly As Orpheus did and more. Which first ill lucke will I recite, then iudge you plaine, If loue plagued me not now rightly this yeare to goe againe. The other yeere before when Neptune vs had brought Safely vnto that burning shore, for which so long we sought, One day when shippe was fast in sea at anker holde, The sailes vpfirll'd, all businesse past the boteswaine then I tolde, That he forthwith shoulde see the small pinnesse well mande, Eke all things therin prest to be that we shoulde haue a lande, And gunner see that ye want not bowe, pike, or bill. Your ordinance well primed be with lintstocks burning still. With merchandize a shore, we hied to traffike then, Making the sea fome vs before, by force of nine good men. And rowing long, at last a riuer we espie, In at the which we bare full fast to see what there might be. And entring in, we see a number of blacke soules, Whose likelinesse seem'd men to be, but as blacke as coles. Their Captaine comes to me as naked as my naile, Not hauing witte or honestie to couer once his taile. By which I doe here gesse and gather by the way, That he from man and manlinesse was voide and cleane astray. And sitting in a trough, a boate made of a logge, The very same wherein you know we vse to serue a hogge, Aloofe he staide at first, put water to his cheeke, A signe that he would not vs trust vnlesse we did the like. That signe we did likewise, to put him out of feare, And shewd him much braue marchandise to make him come vs neare. The wilde man then did come, by signes nowe crieth the fiend Of those gay things to giue him some and I should be his friend. I traffikt there that time for such things as they had, At night to ship I caried him, where I with clothes him clad, Yea, made him there good cheere, and he by signes againe Tolde vs that he would fraight vs then after a day or twaine. And eene thus as we were in talke, looking about, Our boate he sawe with wares that there was tied at sterne without: Which boate he viewing still, as then well stuft with ware. We thinking he had ment no ill, had thereof little care. And the next morne, againe we caried him a shore, Eke bartred there that day with them as we had done before. But when Phoebus began somewhat for to draw neare To Icarus his Court, the sonne of Dedalus most deare, (Whose chaunce it is to dwell amids the Ocean flood, Because that he obseru'd not well his fathers counsell good) We then with saile and ore to ship began to hie, That we might fetch aboorde, before the day had lost his eye. To ship we come at last, which rid foure leagues from shore Refresht vs after trauaile past taken that day before. Then, as it was our guise, our boate at sterne we tie, Eke therin leaue our marchandise, as they were wont to be. With troughes then two or three [The theft of the Negroes.] this Captaine comes by night Aboord our boate, where he with wares himselfe now fraighteth quight. The watch now hearing this, the boate they hal'd vp fast: But gone was all the marchandise, and they escapte and past. The next morne then by day againe we went to shore, Amends to haue for that which they had stolne the night before. But all in vaine was it, our signes were now too bad, They would not vnderstand a whit of any thing they had. But as though they had wrong [A conflict between the Negros for to reuenged be, and our men.] As we row'd downe the streame along after comes hee and hee. A hundred boats come fro the steremost towne I say, At least meets vs as many mo before, to make vs stay. In euery boat two men, and great long targets twaine: Most of their darts had long strings then to picke and pull againe. Now gunners to your charge, giue fier all arow, Ech slaue for feare forsakes his barge, and ducks in water low. We downe the streame amaine do row to get the sea, They ouertake vs soone againe, and let vs of our way. Then did the slaues draw neere, with dart and target thicke, With diuelish fixed eyes they peere where they their darts may sticke. Now Mariners do push with right good will the pike, The haileshot of the harquebush The naked slaue doth strike. Through targe and body right that downe he falleth dead His fellow then in heauie plight, doth swimme away afraid. To bathe in brutish bloud, then fleeth the graygoose wing. The halberders at hand be good, and hew that all doth ring. Yet gunner play thy part, make haileshot walke againe, And fellowes row with like good heart that we may get the maine. Our arrowes all now spent, the Negroes gan approach: But pikes in hand already hent the blacke beast fast doth broch. Their captaine being wood, a villaine long and large, With pois'ned dart in hand doth shroud himselfe vnder his targe. And hard aboord he comes to enter in our boat, Our maisters mate, his pike eftsoones strikes through his targe and throat. The capteine now past charge of this brutish blacke gard, His pike he halde backe which in targe alas was fixed hard: And wresting it with might, to pull it forth in hast, A deadly dart strikes him too right and in his flesh sticks fast, He stands still like a man, and shrinkes not once therefore, But strikes him with his owne dart then which shot at him before. Then presse they on, and shake their darts on euery side, Which, in our flesh doth light, and make both deadly wounds and wide. The gunner in that stound with two darts strooke at last, Shrinks not yet though the double wound with streames of bloud out brast. And eke the maisters mate, of stomacke bolde and stout, For all his wound receiu'd of late, yet stirred not a foot. But kept his standing still, till that a deathful dart Did strike him through the ribs so ill that scarce it mist his hart. The dart out hal'd quickly, his guts came out withall, And so great streames of bloud that he for faintnesse downe gan fall. The Negros seeing this, how he for dead doth lie, Who erst so valiant prou'd iwis, they gladly, shout and crie: And then do minde as there to enter in his place, They thinke so many wounded were the rest would yeld for grace. We then stand by the pike, and foure row on our boat, Their darts among vs fast they strike that few were free I wot. In legge and eke in thigh, some wounded eke in th'arme, Yea many darts stucke vs hard by, that mist and did no harme. By little thus at last, in great danger of life We got the sea, and almost past the danger erst so rife. Then gin they all retire sith all their darts were spent They had nought to reuenge their ire, and thus away they went. Our boat to ship doth roe, where two ores make soft way Sixe of vs nine were wounded so, [Sixe of our men wounded.] the seuenth for dead there lay. Lo, heare how cruelly the fiends ment vs to kill, Causelesse you see, if they truly on vs might had their will. And yet we gaue before much merchandize away, Among those slaues, thinking therefore to haue friendship for aye. And Orpheus past I wot the passage quietly, Among the soules in Charons boat, and yet to say truly I neuer read that he paid for his passage there, Who past and repast for to see. if that his wife there were. Nor yet that he paid ought, or any bribe there gaue To any office, while he sought his wife againe to haue. Whereby I surely gesse these men with whom that we Haue had to do, are fiends more fierce then those in hell that be. Well we now scaping thus the danger I haue tolde, Aboord we come, where few of vs could stand now being colde. Our wounds now being drest, to meat went they that list, But I desired rather rest, for this in minde I wist. That if I might get once a sleepe that were full sound, I should not feele my weary bones nor yet my smarting wound. And lying long aloft vpon my bed in paine, Vnto Morpheus call'd I oft that he would not disdaine To heare me then poore wight, but sende me helpe with speed That I might haue good rest this night of which I had great need. Me thought then by and by. there hung a heauie waight, At ech eye lid, which clos'd mine eye and eke my head was fraight. And being streight sleepe, I fell into a sweauen, That of my wound I tooke no keepe I dream'd I was in heauen. Where as me thought I see god Mars in armor bright, His arming sword naked holdes he in hand, ready to fight. Castor and Pollux there all complet stand him by, Least if that Mars conuinced were they might reuenged be. Then came marching along the great blacke smith Vulcan, Hauing a staffe of yron strong, and thus at last began: O Mars, thou God of might, what is the cause that thou Hast chaleng'd me with thee to fight? lo present am I now. Wherefore if that thou hast any great grudge to me, Before this day be spent and past it shall reuenged be. Then spake god Mars and said, for that thou churlish wight, Thy brutish blacke people hast made with those white men to fight Which cal'd on me for aid, I bid thee warre for this. Then answered Vulcan straight and said that that coast sure was his. And therefore he would still his blacke burnt men defend, And if he might, all other kill which to that coast did wend, Yea thus (said he) in boast that we his men had slaine, And ere that we should passe this coast he would vs kill againe. Now marcheth Mars amaine and fiercely gins to fight, The sturdie smith strikes free againe whose blowes dint where they light. But iupiter that sat in his great royall throne Hearing this noise maruell'd thereat, and streightway sendeth one To know the cause thereof: but hearing them in fight, Commandeth them for to leaue off by vertue of his might, And of Vulcan demands the cause: then answered he, O mightie Loue whose power commands and rules all things that be, Who at a word hast power all things to destroy cleane, And in the moment of an houre, canst them restore againe, The same God licence me to speake now here my minde: It is not, Loue, vnknowne to thee, how that I was assign'd, And pointed king of most of all the Ginnie land, A people lo is on my coast which doth me now withstand. They do my people strike, they do this day them kill, To whom I minde to do the like if I may haue my will. Then Iupiter bespake: O Vulcan then said he, Let this thy rage and anger slake for this time presently, But if at any time these men chance there againe, Doe as thou list, the charge is thine I will not meddle then. I know, them well (said he) these men need not to seeke, They haue so fruitfull a countrey that there is none the like. But if they can not be therewith content, but still Will seeke for golde so couetously worke then with them thy will. And therewith straight doth send. a pursuiuant in post, To whom (saith he) see that thou wend vnto the windie coast, To Eolus, the king command him thus from me, That he straight way without lingring do set at libertie, His seruant Zephirus, which now is lockt so low, Eke that he do command him thus, that he straight way do go To Vulcans coast in hast, a ship where he shall finde, Which ship he must with gentle blast and eke with moderate winde, Conduct safe to that coast which Albion was hight, And that no stormes do them withstand by day or eke by night. I sleeping all this space, as it were in a trance, The noise of them that hail'd apace did waken me by chance. Then looking out to know what winde did blow in skie, The maister straight came to me tho and thus said by and by. All our ill lucke is past, we haue a merie winde, I hope England, if this winde last, yet once againe to finde. When this I vnderstand, to loue I vowed then, Forswearing cleane the Ginnie land for comming there againe. And passing on in post with fauourable windes, We all arriu'd on Englands coast with passing cheerefull mindes. * * * * * The second voyage to Guinie, and the riuer of Sesto, set out in the Moneth of Nouember 1563, by Sir William Gerrard, Sir William Chester, Sir Thomas Lodge, Maister Beniamin Gonston, Maister William Winter, Maister Lionel Ducket, Anthonie Hickman, and Edward Castelin, with two ships, the one called the Iohn Baptist, wherein went for Maister, Laurence Rondell: and the other the Marlin, wherein went also for Maister, Robert Reuell, hauing for Factors, Robert Baker, Iustinian Goodwine, Iames Gleidell, and George Gage: and written in verse by the foresaid Robert Baker. You heard before, that home I got from Ginnie at the last, But by and by, I quite forgot the sorrowes I had past. And ships rigged also, with speed to ship againe, I being then requir'd to go, did not denie them plaine, But granted them to go, vnhappie foolish wight, When they command, eke there to do the best seruice I might. In fine, to go our way now serueth time and tide. We hauing nothing vs to stay, what should we longer bide? The hempen band with helpe of Mariners doth threat To wey and reare that slouthfull whelpe [The anker.] vp from his mothers teat. The Maister then gan cheere with siluer whistle blast His Mariners, which at the Icere are laboring wondrous fast. Some other then againe, the maineyard vp to hoise, The hard haler doth hale a maine, while other at a trice Cut saile without delay: the rest that be below, Both sheats abaft do hale straitway and boleins all let go. The Helme a Mariner in hand then strait way tooke, The Pilot eke what course to stir within his care did looke. Againe with siluer blast, the Maister doth not faile, To cause his mates fortwith in hast abroad to put more saile. We then lanch from the shore, sith warre we knew it right. And kept in sea aloofe therefore two dayes and eke a night. And, as it is the guise, to toppe a man we send, Who straight a saile or two espies, with whom we then do wend. Aloofe would some with one, and roomeward would the rest: But with the tallest ship we gone, whom we thinke to be best. At last, in camming neere as captaines vse to do, I hale them, and of whence they were I did desire to know: Of France when they had said, we weaued them a maine, But they nothing therewith dismaid did like to vs againe. We then our selues aduant through hope of purchase here, Amaine say we, ye iolly gallant or you shall buie it deere. To arme the maine top tho the boatswaine goeth eke, His mate to the foretop also makes hast to do the like. To top both stones and darts good fellowes hoise apace: The quarter maisters with glad hearts do know ech one his place. Our topsailes strike we tho and fit our sailes to fight, Our bulwarke at maine mast also is made likewise aright. Vpon our poope eke then right subtilly we lay Pouder, to blow vp all such men, as enter theraway. Our Trumpetter aloft now sounds the feats of war, The brasen pieces roring oft fling forth both chain and bar. Some of the yardes againe do weaue with naked swoord, And crying loud to them amaine they bid vs come aboord. To bath hir feet in bloud the graigoose fleeth in hast: And Mariners as Lions wood, do crie abroad as fast. Now firie Faulkons flie right greedie of their pray, And kils at first stone dead truely ech thing within their way. Alarme ye now my mates I say, see that ye nothing lacke. At euery loope then gins straightway a harquebush to cracke. Their saile to burne, we shoot our arrowes of wilde fire, And pikes burning therewith about lads tosse with like desire. Eke straightway forth for wine the steward call I then, With fiery spice enough therein I drinke vnto my men, And then euen with a woord our lime pot prest to fall, This iolly gallant we clap aboord and enter him withall. Their nettings now gan teare dint of heauie stone. And some mens heads witnesse did beare who neuer could make mone. The harquebush acroke which hie on top doth lie, Discharg'd full of haileshot doth smoke to kill his enemie. Which in his enemies top doth fight, there it to keepe, Yet he at last a deadly lope is made from thence to lepe. Then entreth one withall into this Frenchman's top, Who cuts ech rope, and makes to fall his yard, withouten stop. Then Mariners belowe, as carelesse of the pike, Do hew, and kill still as they goe, and force not where they strike. And still the trumpets sound with pleasant blast doth cheare Ech Mariner, so in that stound that they nothing did feare. The Maister then also, his mates to cheare in fight, His Whistle chearefully doth blow, whereby strait euery wight So fierce begins to be, that Frenchmen gin to stoe, And English men as right worthy do catch for pillage tho. What would you more I say but tell the truth alway: We vsde our matters so this day we caried him away, Vnto a port in Spaine, which sure is call'd the Groine, Whereas we for French lading plaine receiued readie coine. Well thus this good lucke past, we through salt Seas did scoure, To Ginney coast eke come at last, O that vnhappie houre. My hand alas for feare now shakes, of this to write, Mine eye almost full fraught with teare, eke lets me to indite. What should I here recite the miserie I had, When none of you will scarce credit that ere it was so bad? Well, yet I would assay to let it, if I might, But O Minerua, helpe me aye, my wits astond be quite. Yea helpe, ye muses nine, lot no thought me withstand, Aid me this thing well to define, which here I take in hand. Well, thus it fortuned tho, in Ginney now arriu'd, Nine men in boat to shoe we go, where we traffike espide, And parting at midday from ship, on good intent In hope of traffike there I say to shore away we went. Our ships then riding fast in sea at anker bight, We minded to dispatch in hast, cke to returne that night. But being hard by land, there suddenly doth rise A mightie winde, wherewith it raind and thundred, in such wise, That we by shore did ride, where we best Port might finde, Our ships we thinke from anker slide, a trice before the winde. This night Vulcan begins on vs reueng'd to be, And thunderbolts about he flings most terrible to see, Admixt with fierie flame which cracks about our cares. And thus gins he to play his game, as now to him appeares, He Eolus hath feed herein to be his friend, And all the whirling windes with speed among vs doth he send, Thus hard by shore we lay, this wet and weary night, But on next morne and all the day of ship we had no sight. For Vulcan all this night from fierie forge so fast Sent thunder bolts with such great light, that when the night was passed, The next day there remaind so great smoke all about, Much like a mist, eke therewith raine, that we were wet throughout. And thus in smoke mindes he to part vs from our ship: Thus nere a one ech other see, and so haue we the slip. Our ships then backe againe, thinking we were behinde, Do saile by shore a day or twaine in hope there vs to finde. And we the contrary, do row along the shore Forward thinking our ships to be still sailing vs before. They sailing thus two dayes or three, and could not finde vs than Do thinke in that foule night we were drowned euery man. Our ship then newes doth beare when she to England wends That we nine surely drowned were, and thus doth tell our friends: While we thus being lost, aliue in miserie Do row in hope yet on this coast, our ships to finde truly. Well thus one day we spent, tho next and third likewise, But all in vaine was our intent, no man a saile espies: Three dayes be now cleane past since any of vs nine, Of any kinde of food hath tast, and thus gan we to pine, Till at the last bare need bids vs hale in with land, That we might get some root or weed our hunger to withstand: And being come to shore, with Negros we intreat, That for our wares which we had there they would giue vs to eat. Then fetch they vs of roots, and such things as they had, We gaue to them our wares to boote and were thereof right glad. To sea go we againe, in hope along the shore, To finde our ships, yet thinking plaine that they had beene before. And thus with saile and ore twelue dayes we went hard by The strange vncomfortable shore where we nothing espie, But all thicke woods and bush and mightie wildernesse, Out of the which oft times do rush strange beasts both wilde and fierse, Whereof oft times we see, at going downe of Sunne, Diuers descend in companie, and to the sea they come. Where as vpon the sand they lie, and chew the cud: Sometime in water eke they stand and wallow in the floud. The Elephant we see, a great vnweldie beast, With water fils his troonke right hie and blowes it on the rest. The Hart I saw likewise delighted in the soile, The wilde Boare eke after his guise with snout in earth doth moile. A great strange beast also, the Antelope I weene I there did see, and many mo, which erst I haue not seene. And oftentimes we see a man a shore or twaine, Who strait brings out his Almadie and rowes to vs a maine. Here let we anker fall, of wares a shew we make, We bid him choose among them all, what wares that he will take To bring to vs some fish, and fresh water therefore, Or else of meat some daintie dish, which their cookes dresse ashore. They bring vs by and by great roots and beries eke, Which grow vpon the high palme tree, such meat as they do like. We drinke eke of their wine much like our whey to see: Which is the sappe as I haue seene that runnes out of a tree. Thus do they bring ech thing which they thinke to be good, Sometime wilde hony combes they bring Which they finde in the wood, With roots and baggage eke our corps we thus sustaine From famine though it be so weake, that death was figured plaine In euery ioynt for lacke of sustenance and rest. That still we thinke our hearts would breake with sorrowes so opprest. We now alongst the coast haue saild so many a mile, That sure we be our ships be lost, what should we do this while? In Heathen land we be, impossible it is That we should fetch our owne countrey in such a boat as this. We now gan to perceiue that wee had ouerpast The Melegate coast so much, that we were come at last Vnto the coast of Myne, for Niegros came aboord With weights to poise their golde so fine, yea speaking euery word In Portugesse right well demanding traffike there? If we had any wares to sell, and where our ships then were? We answered them againe, we had two ships at sea, The which would come trafike with them we thought within a day. The cause why we thus said, was hope to be well vsde: But seeing this, as men dismaid away we went and musde Whither our ships were gone, what way were best for vs: Shall we here perish now saith one? no, let vs not do thus: We see all hope is past our ships to finde againe, And here our liues do shorten fast in miserie and paine: For why the raging heat of Sunne, being so extreme, Consumes our flesh away in sweat, as dayly it is seene. The Ternados againe so often in a weeke, With great lightnings, thunder and raine with such abundance eke, Doe so beat vs by night, that we sleepe not at all, Whereby our strength is vaded quite. no man an ore can hale. How hard liue we, alas? three whole dayes oft be past, Ere we poore men (a heauie case) of any thing doe tast. These twentie dayes ye see, we haue sit still ech one, Which we doe of necessitie, for place to walke is none. Our legs now vs deceiue, swolne euery ioint withall, With this disease, which, by your leaue, the Scuruie men doe call. We cannot long endure in this case as we be, To leaue our boat I am right sure, compeld we must agree. Three wayes for vs there is, and this is my request, That we may of these three deuise, to choose thereof the best. The Castle of the Mine is not farre hence, we know, To morrow morne we there may be, if thither you will goe. There Portingals do lie, are christened men they be: If we dare trust their curtesie, the worst is hanging glee. Our miserie may make them pitie vs the more, Nine such yong men great pains would take for life to hale an ore. Their Gallies may perhaps lacke such yong men as we, And thus it may fall in our laps, all Galeyslaues to be, During our life, and this, we shall be sure to haue, Although we row, such meate as is the allowance of a slaue. But here we rowe and sterue, our misery is so sore: The slaue with meat inough they serue, that he may teare his ore. If this you will not like. the next way is to goe: Vnto the Negros, and to seeke what friendship they will shew. But what fauour would ye of these men looke to haue: Who beastly sauage people be, farre worse then any slaue? If Cannibals they be in kind, we doe not know, But if they be, then welcome we, to pot straightway we goe. They naked goe likewise, for shame we cannot so: We cannot liue after their guise, thus naked for to go. By rootes and leaues they liue, as beasts doe in the wood: Among these heathen who can thriue, with this so wilde a food? The piercing heate againe, that, scorcheth with such strength, Piercing our naked flesh, with paine, will vs consume at length. The third and last is this, (if those two you refuse) To die in miserable wise, here in the boate you chuse. And this iudge by the way, more trust is to be giuen, Vnto the Portingals alway, sith they be christned men, Then to these brutish sort, which beastly are ye see: Who of our death will make a sport, if Canibals they be. We all with one consent, now death despising plaine: (Sith if we die as innocent, the more it is our gaine) Our sayle we hoyse in hast, wih speed we mind to go Vnto the castell, now not past a twentie leagues vs fro. And sayling all this day, we spied late in the night. And we past by thus on our way, vpon the shore a light. Then sayd our Boateswaine thus, by this great light a shore, Trafique there seemes, will you let vs anker this night therefore, And trie if we may get, this next morning by day, Some kind of food for vs to eate, and then to goe our way? We anker there that night, the next morning to shore: And in the place, where we the light did see the night before: A watch house now there stood, vpon a rocke without: Hard by a great blacke crosse of wood, which putteth vs in doubt, What place that this should be, and looking to the shore, A Castell there we gan espie, this made vs doubt the more. Wherein we saw did stand a Portingall or twaine; Who held a white flag in his hand, and waued vs amaine. Our flesh as fraile now shakes, whereby we gan retire, And he at vs a shot then makes, a Negro giuing fire. A piece discharged thus, the hissing pellet lights, I thinke within a yard of vs, but none of vs it hits. We wisht then we had there a good ship, eke or twaine, But helpelesse now, we rowe a shore to know th'end of our paine. The neerer that we went to them vnto the shore, To yeld our selues, as first we ment they still did shoot the more. Now Canons loud gan rore, and Culuerins now crackt, The Castell eke it thundred sore, as though the wals were sackt. Some shot doth light hard by, some ouer vs againe: But though the shot so thicke doth flie, yet rowe we in a maine, That now so neere we be vnto the castell wall, That none of them at vs we see, can make a shot at all. We ment a land to goe, their curtesie to trie: But from the wall great stones they throw, and therewith by and by, The Negros marching downe, in battell ray do come, With dart and target from the towne, and follow all a dromme. A bowe in hand some hent, with poisn'd arrow prest, To strike therewith they be full bent, a pined English brest. But stones come downe so fast on vs on euery side, We thinke our boats bottom would brast if long we thus abide. And arrowes flie so thicke, hissing at euery eare, Which both in clothes and flesh do sticke, that we, as men past feare, Cry now, Launch, launch in hast, hale of the boate amaine: Foure men in banke let them sit fast and rowe to sea againe. The other fiue like men, do manfully in hand, Take vp each kind of weapon then, these wolues here to withstand. A harquebush takes one, another bends his bowe, Among the slaues then downe fals one and other hurt I trowe. At those Portingals then shoot we, vpon the Fort which stand, In long fine white shirts as we see, and lintstocks in their hand. And of these shirts so white we painted some full red, Striking their open corps in sight, with dint of arrow head. For we sawe they had there no Gallies vs to take, Where threatnings them could vs not feare or make vs once to shake. Then Canons loud gan rore, and pellets flie about, And each man haleth his ore and mooued not a foote. Yea, though the poulder sent the pellets thicke away, Yet spite of them cleane through we went at last, and got the sea, And pieces charging fast, they shot after vs so, That wonder was it how we past the furie of our foe, The pinned anne felt not as now, the heauie ore: With foure such ores was neuer boat I thinke, row'd so before. To seaward scaping so, three Negroes we see there, Came rowing after vs to know, what countrey men we were? We answered Englishmen, and that thither we came, With wares to trafique there with them, if they had meant the same. They Portuguse doe speake right naturall iwis: And of our ship to know they seeke, how big and where she is. We answered them again we had two ships at sea, Right well appointed full of men, that streight would take their way Along the coast for gold, they tarry but for vs, Which came with wares there to haue sold but that they vs'd vs thus. Then gan they vs to pray, if we lackt any thing, To anker there all that whole day, and they to vs would bring All things that we doe want, they sory say they be: But we their words yet trusting scant, refuse their curtesie. We aske them of this hold what place that it should be, Then they againe thus straight vs told that Portingals there lie. And how that point they sayd, which there hard by we see, Was one of Cape three points that lay the Westernmost of three. Withouten further speech, we hoise our saile to sea: Minding a friendlier place to seech, and thus we part our way. We mind truly to prooue the Portingals no more: But now t'assay rather what loue Negroes will shew a shore. We then with saile and ore, went backe againe in hast: A thirtie leagues I thinke, and more from thence where we were chast. And here we anker fall, aboord the Negros come: We gaue gay things vnto them all, and thus their hearts we wonne. At last aboord comes one, that was the kings chiefe sonne: To whom by signes I made great mone, how that I was vndone, Had lost our ships, and eke were almost staru'd for meate, And knew not where our ships to seeke, or any thing to eate. I offred him our wares, and bid him take them all: but he perceiuing now the teares, which from our eyes did fall, Had great pitie on vs, and sayd he would haue nought, But streight by signes he will'd vs then, that we should take no thought. As one whom God has sent, and kept for vs in store, To know in hast away he went, the Kings pleasure on shore. And came foorthwith againe, yea, bade vs come a land: Whereof God knowes we were ful faine, when this we vnderstand. Each man bankes to his ore, to hale the boate a land: Where as we see vpon the shore, fiue hundred Negros stand. Our men rowing in a maine, the billow went so hie, That straight a waue ouerwhelms vs cleane and there in sea we lie. The Negros by and by, came swimming vs to saue: And brought vs all to land quickly, not one durst play the knaue. The Kings sonne after this, a stout and valiant man, In whom I thinke Nature iwis, hath wrought all that she can, He then I say commaunds them straight to saue our boate, To worke forthwith goe many hands, and bring the same a floate. Some swimme to saue an ore, some diue for things be lost: I thinke there helpe to hale a shore fiue hundred men almost. Our boate thus halde vp drie, all things streight way were brought The which we mist or could espie, no man that durst keepe ought. Then vs they led away, knowing we wanted meate. And gaue to us, euen such as they themselues do daily eate. Was neuer Owle in wood halfe so much wondered at, As we were then poore men, alas, which there among them sat. We feared yet our part, and wisht a moneth were past, For each man there went with his dart, which made vs oft agast. We lay vpon the ground, with them there all that night: But fearing still a deadly wound, we could not sleepe a whit. Two dayes thus past we well, no man vs offred wrong: The cause thereof I gin you tell, they thought this them among: Our ships had bene at sea, and would come there before Two dayes, to fetch vs thence away, and giue them wares good store. But when they thus heare tell how that our ships be lost, And that we know not very well, when ships will come to coast: They then waxe wearie streight, and they which did before At sundry times giue vs to eate, did giue vs now no more. Our lowance waxt so small, that neuer nine gesse, Were seru'd the like, yet still withall, it waxed lesse and lesse. Some run now in the wood, and there for rootes do seeke, Base meat would here be counted good too bad that we mislike Our clothes now rot with sweat, and from our backs do fall, Saue that whom nature wils for shame, we couer nought at all. One runs to seeke for clay to fashion straight a pot, And hardens it in Sunne all day: another faileth not To fetch home wood for night, and eke for fire sought, That we our roots and things seeth might if any home were brought. The rest the wood doth seeke, eke euery bush and tree For berries and such baggage like, which should seeme meate to bee. Our fingers serue in steed, both of pickaxe and spade, To dig and pull vp euery weed, that grew within the shade. Eke diged for rootes the ground, and searcht on euery brier For berries, which if we had found, then streight way to the fire: Where we rost some of those, the rest seeth in a pot, And of this banket nought we lose, nor fragment resteth not. The night as beasts we lie the bare hard earth, vpon, And round by vs a great fire light to keepe wilde beasts vs from. But what should I recite, or couet to declare My sorrowes past, or eke t'endite of my hard Ginnie fare? I cease here to enlarge my miserie in that land, A toy in head doth now me charge, as here to hold my hand. In fine, what would ye more, the heat did so exceed, That wanting cloths it scorcht so sore no man could it abide. The countrey eke so wilde, and vnhealthfull withall, That hungry stomacks neuer fill'd, doth cause faint bodies fall. Our men fall sicke apace, and cherishing haue none: That now of nine, within short space, we be left three alone, Alas, what great agast to vs three liuing yet, Was it to see, that death so fast away our fellowes fet? And then to loue on hie we call for helpe and grace, And him beseech vnfainedly, to fetch vs from this place. From this wild heathen land, to Christendome againe, Or else to lay on vs his hand, and rid vs from our paine. Lest that we ouerprest with too much miserie, Perhaps as weake breake our behest which we owe God on high. And least we liuing here among this heathen, might Perchance for need do that which were right hainous in his sight. Well, to my purpose then, when we to loue thus crie, To helpe vs hence poore silly men from this our miserie. He hearing vs at length, how we to him doe call, He helps vs with his wonted strength, and straight thither withall, A French ship sends at last, with whom we three go hence: But six in earth there lie full fast, and neuer like come thence. This Frenchman as I say, through salt and surging seas, Vs brought from Ginnie land, away to France, the Lord we praise. And warre he proues it plaine when we entered his ship, A prisner therefore I remaine, and hence I cannot slip Till that my ramsome be agreed vpon, and paid, Which being leuied yet so hie, no agreement cant be made. And such is lo my chance, the meane time to abide A prisner for ransome in France, till God send time and tide. From whence this idle rime to England I doe send: And thus till I haue further time, this Tragedie I end. R. Baker. * * * * * The voyage of M. Roger Bodenham with the great Barke Aucher to Candia and Chio, in the yeere 1550. In the yeere 1550. the 13 of Nouember I Roger Bodenham Captaine of the Barke Aucher entered the said ship at Grauesend, for my voiage to the Ilands of Candia and Chio in the Leuant. The master of my ship was one William Sherwood. [Sidenote: The Barke Aucher goeth for Leuant.] From thence we departed to Tilbery hope, and there remained with contrarie windes vntill the 6. of Ianuarie, 1551. The 6 of Ianuary, the M. came to Tilbery, and I had prouided a skilfull pylot to cary me ouer the lands end, whose name was M. Wood, and with all speede I valed downe that night 10 miles to take the tide in the morning, which happily I did, and that night came to Douer, and there came to an anker, and there remained vntill Tuesday, meeting with the worthy knight sir Anthony Aucher owner of the saide ship. The 11 day we arriued in Plimoth, and the 13 in the morning we set forward on our voyage with a prosperous winde, and the 16 we had sight of Cape Finister on the coast of Spaine. The 30 we arriued at Cades, and there discharged certaine marchandise, and tooke others aboord. [Sidenote: Mallorca.] The 20 of February we departed from Cades, and passed the straights of Gibraltar that night, and the 25 we came to the Ile of Mallorca, and stated there fiue daies with contrary windes. The first of March, we had sight of Sardenna, and the fift of the said month wee arriued at Messina in Sicilia, and there discharged much goods and remained there vntill good Fryday in Lent. The chiefe marchant that landed the sayd Barke Aucher was a marchant stranger called Anselm Saluago, and because the time was then very dangerous, and on going into Leuant, especially to Chio, without a safe conduct from the Turke, the said Anselm promised the owner Sir Anthony Aucher, that we should receiue the same at Messina. But I was posted from thence to Candia, and there I was answered that I should send to Chio, and there I should haue my safe conduct. I was forced to send one, and hee had his answere that the Turke would giue none, willing me to looke what was best for me to doe, which was no small trouble to me, considering I was bound to deliuer the goods that were in the ship at Chio, or send them at mine aduenture. [Sidenote: The Turke prepareth an army to besiege Malta] The marchants without care of the losse of the ship would haue compelled me to goe, or send their goods at mine aduenture, the which I denied, and sayd plainely I would not goe, because the Turkes gallies were come foorth to go against Malta, but by the French kings means, he was perswaded to leaue Malta, and to goe to Tripoly in Barbary, which by the French he wan. In this time there were in Candia certaine Turkes vessels called Skyrasas, which had brought wheat thither to sell, and were ready to depart for Turkie. And they departed in the morning be times, carying newes that I would not goe foorth: the same night I prepared beforehande what I thought good, without making any man priuie, vntill I sawe time. Then I had no small businesse to cause my mariners to venture with the ship in such a manifest danger. Neuerthelesse I wan them to goe all with me, except three which I set on land, and with all diligence I was readie to set foorth about eight of the clocke at night, being a faire moone shine night, and went out. Then my 3 marriners made such requests vnto the rest of my men to come aborde, as I was constrained to take them in. [Sidenote: The Barke Ancher at Milcone.] And so with good wind we put into the Archipelago, and being among the Ilands the winde scanted, and I was forced to anker at an Iland called Micone, where I taried 10 or 12 daies, hauing a Greeke Pilot to carrie the ship to Chio. In this meane season, there came many small botes with mysson sayles to go for Chio, with diuerse goods to sell, and the Pilot requested me that I would let them goe in my company, to which I yeelded. After the sayd dayes expired, I wayed and set saile for the Iland of Chio, with which place I fel in the after noone, whereupon I cast to seaward againe to come with the Iland in the morning betimes. The foresaid smal vessels which came in my company, departed from me to win the shore, to get in the night, but vpon a sudden they espied 3 foystes of Turkes comming vpon them to spoyle them. My Pilot, hauing a sonne in one of those small vessels, entreted me to cast about towards them, which at his request I did, and being something farre from them, I caused my Gunner to shoot a demycoluering at a foyst that was readie to enter one of the botes. That was so happy a shot, that it made the Turke to fall a sterne of the bote and to leaue him, by the which meanes hee escaped. Then they all came to me, and requested that they might hang at my sterne vntill day light, by which time I came before the Mole of Chio, and sent my bote on land to the marchants of that place to send for their goods out of hand, or else I would returne back with all to Candia, and they should fetch their goods there. [Sidenote: The towne of Chio is bound in 12000 ducats for the safegard of Barke Aucher.] But in fine, what by perswasion of my merchant English men, and those of Chio, I was entreated to come into the harbour, and had a safe assurance for 20 dayes against the Turkes army, with a bond of the citie in the summe of 12000 ducats. So I made hast and solde such goods as I had to Turkes that came thither, and put all in order, with as much speede as I could, fearing the comming of the Turkes nauie, of the which, the chiefe of the citie knew right wel. So vpon the sudden they called me of great friendship, and in secret told me, I had no way to saue my selfe but to be gone, for said they, we be not able to defend you, that are not able to help our selues, for the Turke where he commeth, taketh what he will, and leaueth what he list, but the chiefe of the Turkes set order that none shal do any harme to the people or to their goods. This was such news to me, that indeed I was at my wits end, and was brought into many imaginations how to do, for that the winde was contrarie. In fine, I determined to goe foorth. [Sidenote: The companie do murmure against their Captaine.] But the marchants English men and other regarding more their gaines then the ship, hindred me very much in my purpose of going foorth, and made the marriners to come to me to demaund their wages to be payed them out of hande, and to haue a time to employ the same there. But God prouided so for me, that I paied them their money that night, and then charged them, that if they would not set the ship foorth, I would make them to answere the same in England, with danger of their heads. Many were married in England, and had somewhat to loose, those did sticke to me. I had twelue gunners: the Master gunner who was a madde brayned fellow, and the owners seruant had a parlament betweene themselues, and he vpon the same came vp to me with his sword drawen, swearing that hee had promised the owner Sir Anthony Aucher, to liue and die in the sayde shippe against all that should offer any harme to the shippe, and that he would fight with the whole armie of the Turkes, and neuer yeelde: with this fellow I had much to doe, but at the last I made him confesse his fault and followe mine aduise. Thus with much labour I gat out of the Mole of Chio, into the sea by warping foorth, with the helpe of Genoueses botes, and a French bote that was in the Mole, and being out God sent mee a speciall gale of winde to goe my way. [Sidenote: The Turkes Gallies come to seeke the Barke Aucher.] Then I caused a peece to be shotte off for some of my men that were yet in the towne, and with much a doe they came aboord, and then I set sayle a little before one of the clocke, and I made all the sayle I could, and about halfe an houre past two of the clocke there came seuen gallies into Chio to stay the shippe: and the admirall of them was in a great rage because she was gone. Whereupon they put some of the best in prison, and tooke all the men of the three ships which I left in the port, and put them into the Gallies. They would haue followed after mee, but that the townes men found meanes they did not The next day came thither a hundred more of Gallies, and there taried for their whole companie, which being together were about two hundred and 50 sayle, taking their voyage for to surprise the Iland of Malta. The next day after I departed, I had the sight of Candia, but I was two dayes after or euer I could get in, where I thought my selfe out of their daunger. There I continued vntill the Turkes armie was past, who came within the sight of the towne. There was preparation made as though the Turks had come thither. [Sidenote: Fiue thousand banished men in Candia.] There be, in that Iland of Candia many banished men, that liue continually in the mountaines, they came down to serue, to the number of foure or fiue thousand, they are good archers, euery one with his bowe and arrowes, a sword and a dagger, with long haire, and bootes that reach vp to their grine, and a shirt of male, hanging the one halfe before, and the other halfe behinde, these were sent away againe assoon as the armie was past. They would drinke wine out of all measure. Then the armie being past, I laded my shippe with wines and other things; and so after I had that which I left in Chio, I departed for Messina. In the way I found about Zante, certaine Galliots of Turkes, laying abord of certaine vessels of Venice laden with Muscatels: I rescued them, and had but a barrell of wine for my powder and shot: and within a few dayes after I came to Messina. I had in my shippe a Spanish pilot called Noblezia, which I tooke in at Cades at my comming foorth: he went with me all this voyage into the Leuant without wages, of good will that he bare me and the shippe, he stoode me in good steede vntill I came backe againe to Cades, and then I needed no Pilot. And so from thence I came to London with the shippe and goods in safetie, God be praysed. And all those Mariners that were in my sayd shippe, which were, besides boyes, three score and tenne, for the most part were within fiue or sixe yeeres after able to take charge, and did. [Sidenote: Master Richard Chancellour. Master Mathew Baker.] Richard Chanceller, who first discouered Russia, was with me in that voyage, and Mathew Baker, who afterward became the Queenes Maiesties chiefe ship-wright. * * * * * Another discourse of the trade to Chio in the yeere 1569, made by Gaspar Campion, vnto master M. William Winter. It may please your worship to vnderstand, that as concerning the voyage to Chio, what great profit would be gotten, both for marchants, and also for owners of shippes (as it was well knowen in those dayes when the Matthew Gonson, the Trinitie Fitzwilliams, and the Sauiour of Bristow, with diuers other ships which traded thither yerely, and made their voyage in ten or twelue moneths, and the longest in a yeere) M. Francis Lambert, M. Iohn Brooke, and M. Drauer can truely informe you heereof at large. And by reason that wee haue not traded into those parts these many yeeres, and the Turke is growen mighty, whereby our ships doe not trade as they were woont, I finde that the Venetians doe bring those commodities hither, and doe sell them for double the value that we our selues were accustomed to fetch them. Wherefore, as I am informed by the aboue named men, that there is none so fit to furnish this voyage as your selfe: my request is that there may be a shippe of conuenient burthen prepared for this voyage, and then I will satisfie you at large what is to be done therein. And because the Turke, as I sayd before, is waxen strong, and hath put out the Christian rulers, and placed his owne subiects, we may doubt whether we may so peaceably trade thither as we were woont: therefore I dare vndertake to obtaine a safeconduct, if my charges may be borne to goe and come. Of the way how this may be done, M. Locke can satisfie you at large. [Sidenote: Gaspar Campion maried in Chio 24 yeeres.] Moreouer, I can informe you more of the trade of that countrey, then any other, for that I haue bene in those parts these thirty yeeres, and haue bene married in the very towne of Chio full foure and twenty yeres. Furthermore, when one of our ships commeth thither, they bring at the least sixe or eight thousand carsies, so that the customs thereof is profitable for the prince, and the returne of them is profitable to the common people: for in barter of our wares, we tooke the commodities which the poore of that towne made in their houses: so that one of our shippes brought the prince and countrey more gaines than sixe ships of other nations. The want of this our trade thither was the onely cause why the Christian rulers were displaced: for when they payd not their yerely tribute, they were put out by force. Touching the ship that must go, she must obserue this order, she must be a ship of countenance, and she must not touch in any part of Spaine, for the times are dangerous, nor take in any lading there: but she must lade in England, either goods of our owne, or els of strangers, and go to Genoa or Legorno, where we may be wel intreated, and from thence she must make her money to buy wines, by exchange to Candia, for there both custom and exchange are reasonable: and not do as the Math. Gonson and other ships did in time past, who made sale of their wares at Messina for the lading of their wines, and payed for turning their white money into guide after foure and fiue in the hundredth, and also did hazzard the losse of shippe and goods by carrying away their money. Thus by the aforesayd course we shall trade quietly, and not be subiect to these dangers. [Sidenote: Store of hoops laden at Castilla de la mare for Candia.] Also from Legorno to Castilla de la mar, which is but 16 milesfrom Naples, and the ready way to Candia, you may lade hoopes, which will cost carolins of Naples 27 and a halfe the thousand, which is ducats two and a halfe of Spaine. And in Candia for euery thousand of hoops you shall haue a but of Malmesey cleare of all charges. Insomuch that a ship of the burden of the Mathew Gonson will cary foure hundredth thousand hoops, so that one thousand ducats will lade her, and this is an vsual trade to Candia, as M. Michael Locke can testifie. Furthermore, it is not vnknowen to you, that the oiles which we do spend in England for our cloth, are brought out of Spaine, and that very deare, and in England we cannot sell them vnder 28 pound and 30 pound the tunne: I say we may haue good oile, and better cheape in diuers places within the streights. Wherefore if you thinke good to take this voyage in hand, I will informe you more particularly when you please. In the meane time I rest your worships to command. Yours at your pleasure Iasper Campion. * * * * * The true report of the siege and taking of Famagusta, of the antique writers called Tamassus, a city in Cyprus 1571. In the which the whole order of all the skirmishes, batteries, mines, and assaults giuen to the sayd fortresse, may plainly appear. Englished out of Italian by William Malim. To the right honourable and his singular good Lord, and onely Patron the Earle of Leicester, Baron of Denbigh, Knight of the honourable order of the Garter, one of the Queenes Maiesties most honourable priuy Councell &c. William Malim wisheth long health with increase of honour. It hath bene a naturall instinct (right honourable and mine especiall good lord) ingraffed in noble personages hearts, much approued and confirmed also by custome, for them to seeke from time to time, by some meanes in their life, by the which they after their death might deliuer ouer their name to their posteritie: least otherwise with their body, their fame also altogether might perchance be buried. Vpon the which consideration we reade many notable and famous things to haue bene erected in time past of noble personages (hauing had wealth at will) in such sort, that not onely certaine ruines of the same sumptuous works, builded so many hundred yeres past, do still remaine, but also the most part of those princes, the authours of them, do continually by them dwell in our memories. As the Pyramides made at Memphis, or neere the famous riuer of Nilus, by the great expenses of the kings of Egypt: the tower called Pharia, made in the Iland of Pharos by king Ptolomee: the walles of Babylon, made or at least reedified by queene Semiramis; Dianas church at Ephesus builded by all the noble persons of Asia; Mausolus toome or sepulchre, made by his wife queene of Caria: Colossus Solis placed at Rhodes, I remember not by what Princes charge, but made by the hands of Cares Lindius scholar to Lysippus: and the image of Iupiter, made of Yuory by the hands of the skilful workman Phydias. The which monuments made of barbarous and heathen Princes to redeeme themselues from obliuion deserued both for the magnificence, and perfect workmanship of the same, to be accounted in those dayes as the seuen woonders of the world. Since the which time, an easier, readier, and lighter way, being also of more continuance then the former, hath bene found out, namely, Letters, which were first inuented by the Caldies and Egyptians, as we reade, and augmented since by others, to our great benefit, and now last of all (no long time past) the same to haue bene committed to Printers presses, to the greatest perfection of the same; men being first inforced to write their actes and monuments in beasts skinnes dried, in barkes of trees, or otherwise perchance as vnreadily. By the which benefit of letters (now reduced into print) we see how easie a thing it is and hath bene for noble persons, to liue for euer by the helpe of learned men. For the memory of those two woorthy and valiant captaines Scipio and Hannibal had bene long before this present quite forgotten, except Titus Liuius, or some such learned Historiographer had written of them in time. And Alexander Magnus himselfe that great conquerour had nothing beene spoken of, had not Q. Curtius, or some other like by his learned stile reuiued the remembrance of him, and called backe his doings to his posteritie. For the which cause we see commonly, in all ages learned men to be much made of by noble personages, as that rare paterne of learning Aristotle to haue bene greatly honoured of that former renowmed Monarch Alexander: who affirmed openly, that he was more bound to his Master Aristotle, then to king Philip his father, because the one had well framed his minde, the other onely his body. Many other like examples I could alledge at this present, if I knew not vnto whom I now wrote, or in what: for your honour being skilfull in histories, and so familiarly acquainted with the matter it selfe, that is in still entertaining learned men with all curtesie, I should seeme to light a candle at noone tide, to put you in remembrance of the one, or to exhort you to doe the other, dayly being accustomed to performe the same. Crassus sayth in Tullies first booke, De Oratore: that a Lawyer's house is the oracle of the whole citie. But I can iustly witnesse, that for these fiue yeeres last past, since my returne from my trauell beyond the seas, that your lodging in the Court (where I through your vndeserued goodnesse to my great comfort do dayly frequent) hath bene a continuall receptacle or harbour for all learned men comming from both the eyes of the realme, Cambridge, and Oxford (of the which Vniuersity your lordship is Chanceller) to their great satisfaction of minde, and ready dispatch of their sutes. Especially for Preachers and Ministers of true religion: of the which you haue beene from time to time not onely a great fauourer, but an earnest furtherer, and protectour: so that these two nurseries of learning (in one of the which I haue before this spent part of my time, that I may speake boldly what I thinke) should wrong your honour greatly, and much forget themselues, if by all meanes possible they should not heerafter (as at this present to their smal powers many well learned gentlemen of them do) labour and trauell in shewing of themselues thankefull, to reuerence and honour your lordship, and honest their owne names: whose studies certeinly would suddenly decay and fall flat, if they were not held vp by such noble proppes, and had not some sure ankerholds in their distresse to leane vnto. How ready dayly your trauell is, and hath long beene besides to benefit all other persons, in whom any sparke of vertue or honesty remaineth, I need not labour to expresse, the world knowing already the same. But whosoeuer they be, that in all their life time haue an especiall care by all meanes to profit as many as they be able, and hurt none, do not onely a laudable act, but leade a perfect and very godly life. Whereupon Strabo affirmeth this most truely to be spoken of them: Mortales tum demum Deum imitari, cum benefici fuerint. That is, Mortall men then specially to follow the nature of God, when they are beneficiall and bountifull to others. Great commendation vndoubtedly it bringeth to any noble personage, that as the Moone, that light and brightness which she receiueth of the Sun, is wont presently to spread abroad upon the face of the earth, to the refreshing and comforting all inferiour and naturall things bearing life: so for him, to bestow all that fauour and credit, which he hath gotten at the princes handes, to the helpe and reliefe of the woorthy and needy. Great is the force (my right honourable lord) of true vertue, which causeth men, as Tully writeth in his booke De Amicitia, to be loued and honoured oft of those persons, which neuer saw them. [Sidenote: Master Malim at Constantinople 1564.] Whereof I neuer had better proofe (I take God and mine one conscience to witnesse, the which I declared also to certaine of my friends assone as I returned) then at my last being at Constantinople, in the yere of our Lord 1564, whereas I oft resorting (as occasion serued) to the right honorable Christian ambassadors, while I made my abode there (namely vnto Monsieur Antonio Petrimol, lieger there for the French king, Sig. M. Victor Bragadino, for the segniory of Venice, Sig. Lorenzo Giustiniano, for the state of Scio, or Chios, and Sig. Albertacio delli Alberti, for the duke of Florence) heard them often report and speake very honourably of your lordship, partly for your other good inclinations of nature, but especially for your liberality, and courteous intreating of diuers of their friends and countrymen, which vpon sundry occasions had bene here in this our realme. So that to conclude, all men iustly fauour your honourable dealings and deserts: and I for my part haue reuerenced and honoured the same euermore both here at home, and elswhere abroad, wishing often to haue had some iust occasion to pay part of that in good will, which my slender abilitie will neuer suffer me fully to discharge. For vnto whom should I sooner present any thing any way, especially concerning matters done abroad, then vnto your lordship, by whom I was much cherished abroad in my trauell, and mainteined since my returne here at home? For the which cause I haue enterprised (hoping greatly of your lordships fauour herein) to clothe and set forth a few Italian newes in our English attire, being first mooued thereunto by the right worshipfull M. D. Wilson Master of her Maiesties Requests, your honours assured trusty friend, a great and painfull furtherer of learning, whom I, and many other for diuers respects ought to reuerence: who remembring that I had bene at Cyprus, was willing that my pen should trauell about the Christian and Turkish affaires, which there lately haue happened: perswading himselfe, that somewhat thereby I might benefit this our natiue countrey. Against whose reasonable motion I could not greatly wrestle, hazzarding rather my slender skill in attempting and performing this his requested taske, then he through my refusall should seeme to want any iot of my good will. In offering vp the which newes, although I shall present no new thing to your honour, because you are so well acquainted with the Italian copy, as I know: yet I trust your lordship will not mislike, that the same which is both pleasant to reade, and so necessary to be knowen for diuers of our captaines and other our countreymen, which are ignorant in the Italian tongue, may thus now shew it selfe abroad, couered vnder the wing of your lordships protection. Certeinly it mooueth me much to remember the losse of those three notable Ilands, to the great discomfort of all Christendome, to those hellish Turkes, horseleeches of Christian blood: [Sidenote: Rhodes lost.] namely Rhodes besieged on S. Iohn Baptists day, and taken on Iohns day the Euangelist, being the 27 of December 1522. [Sidenote: Scio lost.] Scio or Chios being lost since my being there, taken of Piali Basha with 80 gallies, the 17 of April 1566. [Sidenote: Cyprus lost.] And now last or all not only Famagusta the chiefe holde and fortresse in Cyprus to haue bene lost of the Venetians the 15 of August last past 1571 (the chiefe gouernors and captaines of them being hewen in sunder by the commandement of that tyrant Mustafa Basha) but all the whole Iland also to be conquered by those cruell Turks, ancient professed enemies to all Christian religion. In the which euill successe (comming to vs as I take it for our offences) as I lament the generall losse: so I am surely pensiue to vnderstand by this too true a report of the vile death of two particular noble gentlemen of Venice, Sig. M. Lorenzo Tiepolo, and Sig. M. Giouanni Antonio Querini: of both the which I in my trauaile was very courteously vsed, the former of them being then (as now also he was in this ouerthrow) gouernour of Baffo in Cyprus, the other captaine of one of the castels at Corcyra in Greece, now called Corfu. But things past are past amendment, and they could neuer die more honourably, then in the defence of their countrey. Besides that the late blowes, which the Turks haue receiued since this their fury, in token of Gods wrath against them, do much comfort euery Christian heart. Moreouer this uniforme preparation which is certainly concluded, and forthwith looked for, by very many Christian Princes (would God by all generally) against these barbarous Mahometists: whose cruelty and beastly behauiour I partly know, and am able to iudge of, hauing bene in Turky amongst them more than eight moneths together. Whose vnfaithfulnesse also and breach of promise, as the Venetians manly courage in defence of themselues, and their fortresse, your honour may easily reade in this short treatise and small handfull of leaues, I hauing set downe also a short description of the Iland of Cyprus, for the better vnderstanding of the whole matter. The which I not onely must humbly beseech your honour now fauourably to accept as an earnest peny of more to come, and of my present good will: but with your accustomed goodnesse toward me, to defend the same against such persons, whose tongues too readily roule sometime against other mens painfull trauells, perswading themselues to purchase the sooner some credit of learning with the ruder sort, by controlling and ouerdaintie sifting of other mens laboured tasks, for I know in all ages to be found as well Basilisks as Elephants. Thus nothing doubting of your ready ayd herein, as I assuredly trust of your honours fauourable acceptation of this my poore present, wishing long life with the increase of Gods holy spirit to your lordship and to all your most honourable familie (vnto whom I haue wholly dedicated my selfe by mine owne choise and election for euer) I, crauing pardon for my former boldnesse, most humbly thus take my leaue. From Lambhith the 23 of March. Ann. 1572. Your honours most humble and faithfull seruant for euer, William Malim. A briefe description of the Iland of Cyprus: by the which not onely the Venetians title why they haue so long enioyed it, but also the Turks, whereby now he claimeth it, may plainly appeare. The Iland of Cyprus is inuironed with diuers seas: for Westward it is washed with the sea called Pamphilium: Southward, with the sea �gyptum: on the East part, with the sea Syrium: and Northward, with the sea called Cilicium. The which Iland in time past had diuers names: called once Acamantis, as Sabellicus witnesseth. Philonides maketh mention, that it was called sometime Cerasis. Xenogoras writeth, that it was named Aspelia, Amathusa, and Macaria. There were in times past fifteene cities or famous townes in it, but now very few, amongst the which Famagusta is the chiefest and strongest, situated by the sea side. There is also Nicosia, which was woont, by the traffike of marchants, to be very wealthy: besides the city of Baffo, Arnica, Saline, Limisso, Melipotamo, and Episcopia. Timosthenes affirmeth, that this Iland is in compasse 429 miles and Arthemidorus writeth the length of the same to be 162 miles, measuring of it from the East to the West, betwixt two promontories named Dinaretta and Acamanta. This Iland is thought to be very rich, abundant of Wine, Oile, Graine, Pitch, Rozin, Allum, Salt, and of diuers precious stones, pleasant, profitable, and necessary for mans vse, and much frequented of Marchants of Syria, vnto the which it lieth very nere. It hath bene, as Plinie writeth, ioyned sometime with Syria, as Sicilia hath beene also with Italy. It was a long time subiect vnto the Romans, after to the Persians, and to the Soldan of �gypt. The selfe same Iland was sometime also English, being conquered by king Richard the first, in his voyage to Hierusalem in the yeere of our Lord 1192. Who (as Polydore writeth in his fourteenth booke of our English historie) being prohibited by the Cypriottes from arriual there, inuaded and conquered the same soone after by force: and hauing left behinde him sufficient garrisons to keepe the same, departed from thence to Ptolemayda: who afterward exchanged the same with Guy of Lusignan, that was the last christened king of Hierusalem, for the same kingdome. For the which cause the kings of England were long time after called kings of Hierusalem. And last of all, the Venetians haue enioyed it of late a long time, in this order following. In the yeere of our Lord 1476, Iohn king of the said Iland, sonne to Ianus of Lusignan, had by Helen his wife, which was of the Emperiall house of Paleologus, one daughter only called Charlotta, and a bastard called Iames: the which Iames was afterward consecrated Bishop of Nicosia. This Charlotta was married first to the king of Portingall, of whom he had no issue, so that he being dead, Lewes Duke of Sauoy (to whom shee was the second time married) sonne to Lewes the second of that name (vnto whom the said Iland by the right of this his wife Charlotta did appertaine) had the possession of the same. Iames the bastard assoone as his father was dead, of a bishop became a souldiour, and with an army wanne the Iland, making it his owne by force. This Duke of Sauoy hearing these newes, with a number of well appointed souldiers, arriued shortly after in Cyprus, and recouering againe the Iland, compelled the bastard to flie forthwith ouer to the Soldan of �gypt. Who making himselfe his subiect, in time so wrought and tempered the matter, that the Soldan in person at his request passed ouer into Cyprus, besieged Duke Lewes in the castle of Nicosia, and at length compelled him to depart, leauing his kingdome. So that this Bishop became againe King of this Iland: who shortly after cleauing to the Venetians hauing made a league of friendship with them, married by their consent one Catherina the daughter of Marco Cornaro, which Catherin the Senate of Venice adopted vnto them soone after as their daughter. This Bishop not long after sickened, and died, leauing this his wife with child, who liued not long after his fathers death. By the which meanes the Venetians making themselues the next heires to Catherina by the law of adoption, tooke vnto them the possession of this kingdome, and haue kept and enioyed the same almost this hundred yeeres. Now this great Turke called Sultan Selim in the right of the Soldan of �gypt, whom his grandfather (called also Sultan Selim) conquered, pretendeth a right title vnto it, and now, as you may vnderstand by reading of this short Treatise, hath by conquest obtained the same. Whom I pray the euerliuing God, if it be his holy will, shortly to root out from thence. To the Reader. I am not ignorant (gentle Reader) how hard a matter it is for any one man to write that, which should please and satisfie all persons, we being commonly of so diuers opinions and contrary iudgements: againe Tully affirmeth it to be a very difficult thing, to finde out any matter which in his owne kinde may be in all respects perfect. Wherefore I trust by your owne iudgement I ought of reason to be the sooner pardoned (my translation being precisely tied to mine authours meaning) if anything herein besides be thought to be wanting: I haue learned by the way how comberous a thing it is to turne the selfe same matter out of the Italian language into our countrey speech. But who so doeth what he possibly can is bound to no more. And I now at the request of others (who put me in minde, that I was not onely borne vnto my selfe) haue accomplished that in the ende, which I promised and was required. With what paine and diligence, I referre me to them which are skilfull in the Italian tongue, or may the better iudge, if it please them to trie the same, casting aside this exampler. I speake it not arrogantly, I take God to witnesse: but mens painefull trauels ought not lightly to be condemned: nor surely at any time are woont to be of the learned, or discreet. By whose gentle acceptation if these my present doings be now supported, I will perswade my selfe that I haue reaped sufficient fruit of my trauell. Vnto whome with all my heart I wish prosperous successe in all their affaires. Ann. Dom. 1572. W. M. In Turchas precatio. Summe Deus, succurre tuis, miseresce tuorum, Et subeat gentis te noua cura tuæ. Quem das tantorum finem, Rex magne, laborum? In nos vibrabit tela quoúsque Sathan? Antè Rhodum, max indè Chium, nunc denique Cyprum, Turcharum cepit sanguinolenta manus. Mustafa foedifragus partes grassatur in omnes, Et Veneta Cypriam strage cruentat humum. Nec finem imponit sceleri, mollituè furorem, Nec nisi potato sanguine pastus abit. Qualis, quæ nunquam nisi plena tuménsque cruore Sanguisuga obsessam mittit hirudo cutem. Torturam sequitur tortura, cruorque cruorem, Et cædem admissam cædis alius amor. Sæuit inops animi, nec vel se temperat ipse, Vel manus indomitum nostra domare potest. At tu, magne Pater, tumidum disperde Tyrannum, Nec sine mactari semper ouile tuum. Exulet hoc monstrum, ne sanguine terra redundet. Excutiántque nouum Cypria regna iugum. Et quod Christicolæ foedns pepigere Monarchæ, Id faustum nobis omnibus esse velis. Tu pagna illorum pugnas, et bella secundes. Captiuósque tibi subde per arma Scythas. Sic tua per totum fundetur gloria mundum, Vnus sic Christus fiet, et vna fides. Gulielmus Malim. The true report of all the successe of Famagusta, made by the Earle Nestor Martiningo, vnto the renowmed Prince the Duke of Venice. The sixteenth day of February, 1571, [Footnote: In Italy and other places the date of the yere of the Lord is alwayes changed the first of Ianuary, or on New yeres day, and from that day reckoned vpon: although wee heere in England, especially the temporall lawyers for certaine causes are not woont to alter the same vntill the Annunciation of our Ladie.] the fleet which had brought the ayde vnto Famagusta, departed from thence, whereas were found in all the army, but foure thousand footmen, eight hundred of them chosen souldiers, and three thousand (accounting the Citizens and other of the Villages) the rest two hundred in number were souldiers of Albania. After the arriuall of the which succour, the fortification of the City went more diligently forward of all hands, then it did before, the whole garison, the Grecian Citizens inhabiting the Towne, the Gouernours and Captaines not withdrawing themselues from any kinde of labour, for the better incouragement and good example of others, both night and day searching the watch, to the intent with more carefull heed taking they might beware of their enemies, against whom they made no sally out of the City to skirmish but very seldome, especially to vnderstand when they might learne the intent of the enemies. Whilest we made this diligent prouision within the Citie, the Turks without made no lesse preparation of all things necessary, fit to batter the fortresse withall, as in bringing out of Caramania and Syria with all speed by the Sea, many wool packs, a great quantitie of wood and timber, diuers pieces of artillery, engins, and other things expedient for their purpose. At the beginning of April Halli Basha landed there with fourscore gallies or thereabout in his company, who brought thither that, which of our enemies was desired, who soone after departing from thence, and leauing behinde him thirty gallies, which continually transported souldiers, munition, fresh victuals, and necessaries, besides a great number of Caramusalins, [Footnote: Carumusalini be vessels like vnto the French Gabards, sailing dayly vpon the riuer of Bordeaux, which saile with a mizen or triangle saile.] or Brigandines, great Hulkes called Maones, [Footnote: Maone be vessels like vnto the great hulks, which come hither from Denmarke, some of the which cary 7 or 8 hundred tunnes a piece, flat and broad, which saile some of them with seuen misens a piece.] and large broad vessels termed of them Palandrie, [Footnote: Palandrie be great flat vessels made like Feriboats to transport horse.] which continually passed to and fro between Cyprus and Syria, and other places thereabout, which they did with great speed, standing in feare of the Christian army. And about the middest of the same moneth the Turkes caused to be brought out of the Citie of Nicosia, [Footnote: Nicosia, otherwise called Licosia.] which they had wonne a little before, fifteene pieces of artillery, and raising their army from whence they were before, making ditches and trenches necessary, incamped themselues in gardens, and towards the West part of Famagusta neere a place called Precipola. The fiue and twentieth day of the same moneth they raised vp mounts to plant their artillery vpon, and caused trenches to be made for harquebuzers, one very nigh another, approaching still very neere the Citie, in such order, as was almost impossible to stay the same, fortie thousand of their Pioners continually labouring there the most part of all the night The intent of the enemie being then knowen, and in what part of the Citie he minded most to plant his battery, we tooke diligent heed on the other part, to repaire and fortifie all places necessary within. For the which cause wee placed a great watch in that way, which was couered with a counterscharfe, and in the sallies of their priuy. Posternes, for the defence of the said counterscharfe, there were new flanckers made, also Trauerses called Butterisses made vpon the Cortaine, with one trench of Turues two foot high and broad, the which was made on that side of the wall of the Citie, which was already battered with the shot of the Turkes, with certaine loopes holes for our Harquebuzers, by the which they defended the counterscharfe. Two noble personages Bragadino and Baglione [Footnote: Sig. Bragadino was Proueditore, that is, Gouernour, and Sig. Baglione Generall of the Christian armie.] personally tooke this charge on them, by the which meanes the Christian affaires passed in very good order. All the bread for our Souldiours was made in one storehouse, of the which noble gentleman Lorenzo Tiepolo captaine of Baffo [Footnote: Baffo of the ancient writers named Paphos, in the which Citie there was a sumptuous Church dedicated to Venus.] had charge, who refused no paine, where thought his trauell might preuaile. In the castle was placed that famous gentleman Andrea Bragadino, who with a diligent gard had charge on that part of the castle principally, next vnto the sea side, trimming and digging out new flanckers for the better defence of the Arsenall. [Footnote: Arsenall in Constantinople and Venice is the place for munition and artillery to lie in.] A valiant knight named Foito was appointed Master of the Ordinance, who was slain within few dayes after in a skirmish, whose garrison the noble Bragadino Proueditore before named presently deliuered ouer to me. Three other captaines were appointed ouer the wilde-fire with twentie footmen for euery one of them, chosen out of the armie, to vse and execute the same as occasion should serue. The best pieces of Ordinance were brought foorth vnto that side of the towne, where the battery was looked for to be made: and they made priuy fences to couer the better their cannon shot withall. There was no want in the Christians to annoy their enemies in issuing often out of euery side against them, as well to hinder their determinations, as to hurt them otherwise at diuers times. They also rendered to vs the like. For three hundred of the inhabitants of Famagusta one time issuing out of the citie, armed onely with their swords and targets, with so many Italian Harquebuzers also in their company, receiued great dammage, because the trenches of the enemies were made about so thicke, although at the same present wee compelled them to flie, and slew also many of them: yet they increased to such number, that they killed presently thirty, and hurt there threescore of our company. For the which cause order was taken, that our men should no more come forth of their holde, committing themselues to manifest perill to bid their enemies the base. The Turkes in processe of time by little and little with their trenches, came at length to the toppe of the counterscharfe, and hauing furnished their forts the nineteenth day of May, began their battery with ten forts, hauing threescore and foureteene pieces of great artillery within their custody, amongst the which there were four Basilikes (for so they terme them) of an immeasurable greatnesse, and began to batter from the gate Limisso vnto the Arsenall, and layed fiue batteries against the towne, the one against the great high Turret of the Arsenall, which was battered with fiue pieces of Ordinance mounted vpon that fort of the rocke, the other against the Cortaine it selfe of the Arsenall, battered by one fort with eleuen pieces: another against the Keepe of Andruzzi with two commanders, or caualiers, which were aboue with one fort of eleuen other pieces: another battery against the Turret of S. Nappa, the which was battered with foure Basilisks. The gate of Limisso, which had one high commander or caualier alone, and a Brey and Cortaine without was battered by the forts with three and thirty pieces of artillery, whereas Mustafa himselfe Generall of the Turkes army tooke the charge in person. At the first they seemed not to care much to spoile the walles, but shot still into the city, and against our Ordinance, which greatly galled them. Whereupon they, who were within the city, as well our souldiers as the Grecians, assoone as the battery began, withdrawing themselues, came and dwelt by the walles of the citie, whereas they continued from that time to the end of the siege. The noble Bragadino lodged in the Keepe of Andruzzi, Baglioni in that ward of S. Nappa. The honourable Tiepolo in that which was called Campo Santo. Wherefore they being present at all that was done, both encouraged, and punished the souldiers according to their deserts. The right worshipfull Luigi Martiningo was appointed chiefe ouer the Ordinance, who answering all mens expectation of him, with great courage diuided the charge thereof vnto sixe other inferiour captaines, who tooke order and care for that company, and for the prouision of things necessary for the gunners: one company of the Grecians being appointed to euery gate of the Citie for to attend vpon the seruice of the artillery. The valiant captaine Francesco Bagone warded at the Keepe, and at the great Commander of the Arsenall. Captaine Pietro Conte attended the Cortaine, at the Commander of the Volti, and at the Keepe of Campo Santo. I for my part attended vpon the Commander of Campo Santo, and vpon the Commander of Andruzzi, and of the Cortaine, vnto the Turret of Santa Nappa. The Earle Hercole Martiningo attended vpon the Commander of Santa Nappa, and to the whole Cortaine, vnto the gate of Limisso. Horatio Captaine of Veletri attended vpon the Brey and Cortaine, toward the Bulwarke. Vpon the high Commander of Limisso, which was more troubled then all the rest, attended the Captaine Roberto Maluezzi. At the same time, when the battery began (by the commission of the honourable Bragadino) victuals were appointed, and giuen to all the souldiers, as well Grecians, as Italians, and Gunners: namely Wine, Pottage, Cheese, and Bakon: all the which things were brought to the walks as heed did require in very good order, so that no souldier there spent anymore in bread than two souses a day. [Marginal note: Two Venetian souses or Soldi amount but to one peny English.] They were payed at the end of euery thirty dayes with the great trauell of that right worshipfull Venetian gentleman M. Giouanni Antonio Querini, who besides this his ordinary charge was found present in all weighty and dangerous affaires to the great incouragement of our souldiers. And wee make a counterbattery against our enemies for ten dayes space, with so great rage, that we choked and destroyed fifteene of their best pieces, also we killed and dispatched of them about thirty thousand at that season, so that they were disappointed at that time, of their battery in that place, and were greatly dismayed. But we forseeing that we had no great store of powder left, there was made a restraint, and such order taken, that thirty, pieces should not shoot off but thirty shot a piece euery day, and that in the presence of the Captaines, who were still present, because the Souldiers and Gunners should not shoot off in vaine. The nine and twentieth day of May there came towards vs from Candia a Fregat or Pinnace, the which giuing vs great hope and lightening of ayde, encreased maruellously euery mans courage. The Turks with great trauell and slaughter of both sides, had woone at the last the counterscharfe from vs, with great resistance and mortalitie on both parts. Whereupon they began on the other side of the fift battery to fill vp the ditch, with the earth that they threw downe, which was taken neere the wall of the counterscharfe. But all that earth and falling downe of the wall made by the shot of their artillery, was carried away of vs within the city, all our company labouring continually as well by night as day, vntil our enemies had made certaine loope-holes in the wall, thorow the which they flancking and scouring all the ditch with their harquebussie, stopped our former course of carying, or going that way any more, without certaine and expresse danger. But M. Gioanni Marmori, a fortifier, had deuised a certaine kinde of ioyned boords, the which being caried of the souldiers, defended them from the shot of the harquebuzers, so that some other quantity of earth, but no great store, was caried also away: in the which place this foresayd fortifier was slaine, who had done especiall good seruice in all our necessary affaires. And our enemies hauing cast so much earth into the ditch, as filled it vp againe, and made it a firme way to the wall of the counterscharfe, and casting before them the earth by little and little, they made one trauerse euen vnto the wall on two sides in all their batteries, the which they made thicke and strong with woolpacks; and other fagots, to assure themselues the better of our flanckers. When they had once possessed the ditch, that they could not be hurt of vs but by chance, they began foorthwith to cast and digge out vndermines to vndermine the Brey, the Turret of Santa Nappa, the Commander of Andruzzi, the Keepe of Campo Santo, the Cortaine, and the Turrion of the Arsenatl: so that being able no longer to serue our turne and inioy those fewe flanckers, we threw downe wilde-fire into our enemies campe, the which annoyed them very sore, because it fired their woolpacks, and also their fagots. And for the better encouragement of the souldiers, the right honorable Bragadino gaue to euery souldier one duckat, the which could gaine or recouer any of the former woolpackes, making countermines in all places. To the which charge Maggio the fortifier knight was appointed, who in all our businesse serued with such diligence and courage, as he was able, or was requisite. But the countermines met not, sauing those of the Commander of S. Nappa, of Andruzzi, and that of Campo Santo, because they were open, and our men sallied out often both by day and night into the ditch to perceiue better the way of the mines, and to fire the fagots and wooll. Nor we ceassed at any time through the vnspeakable trauell of the Lord Baglione (who had the ouersight of all these matters) to trouble our enemies intents, by all maner of wit and policie, diuiding the companies for the batteries, ioyning and planting in all places a garrison of the Albanois [Footnote: Albanois souldiers, souldiers of Albania, otherwise called Epirus, who commonly serue the Venetians both on horsebacke and foot, very skilfull and painfull.] souldiers, who as well on foot as on horsebacke, shewed always notable courage and manhood. The first assault. The one and twentieth day of Iune they put fire to the mine of the Turret of the Arsenall, whereas Giambelat Bey took charge, who with great ruine rent in sunder a most great and thicke wall, and so opened the same, that he threw downe more then halfe thereof, breaking also one part of the vaimure, made before to vpholde the assault. And suddenly a great number of the Turkes skipping vpon the ruines thereof, displayed their Ensignes, euen to the toppe of the same. Captain Pietro Conte with his company was in that ward, the which was much shaken and terrified by that sudden ruine. I with my company came first thither, so that they shortly tooke the repulse, and although they refreshed themselues with new supplies fiue or sixe times, yet they failed of their purpose. There fought personally the Lord Baglione: Bragadino and Querini [Footnote: Of this noble and painfull Venetian gentleman M. Gio. Antonio Querini (who was afterwardes hewed in sunder by the commandement of Mustafa) I was entertained very courteously in my trauell at Corcyra, now called Corfu, he being then there Mag. Castellano or Captaine of one of the Castles.] being armed stood not farre off to refresh and comfort our Souldiours, and the Captaine of the Castell with the Ordinance, that was planted vpon the Butteries, destroyed many of our enemies, when they gaue the assault, the which endured fiue houres together: so that of Turkes were slaine very many, and of our side betweene them that were slaine and hurt one hundred: most part of the which number were cast away by a mischance of our wilde-fire, the which being vnaduisedly and negligently handled, burnt vp many of our owne company. There died at that present the Earle Gio. Francesco Goro, the Captaine Barnardino Agubio: and by the throwing of stones Hercole Malatesta, Captaine Pietro Conte, with other Captaines and Standerd-bearers, were very sore hurt. [Sidenote: In extremities men haue no regard to spare trifles.] The night following arriued in Cyprus a Pinasse from Candia, which bringing newes of most certaine ayde, greatly increased both the mirth and courage of vs all, so that we made soone after, with the helpe of the Captaine Marco Criuellatore, and Maggio the knight, certain retreats flancked to all the places beaten downe, and whereas they suspected that the enemy had digged up any mines, with hogheads, Chests, Tikes, and Sacks stuffed full of moist earth (the Grecians with all speed hauing already brought almost all that which they had) because their hauing dispatched their Canueis about necessary vses, they brought their hangings, cortaines, carpets, euen to their very sheets, to make and stuffe vp their foresayd sacks, a very good and ready way to make vp againe their vaimures, the which were throwen downe with the fury of the artillery, which neuer stinted, so that we made vp againe still that in the night, the which was throwen downe and broken in the day, sleeping very seldome: [Footnote: Prouident and carefull gouernours or magistrates seldome sleepe all the night at any time, much lesse in dangerous seasons.] all the souldiers standing alwayes vpon the walles, visited continually of the Gouernors of the Citie, which slept at no time, but in the extreame heat of the day, hauing no other time to take their rest, because the enemie was at hand giuing vs continually alarmes, not suffering vs long to breath. The second assault. The nine and twentieth day of the same moneth they set the mine made towards the Brey on fire, the which mine was digged in stone, which brake and cleft all things in pieces, and caused great ruine, making an easie way for the enemy to assault vs, who with an outragious fury came to the toppe, whereas Mustafa their General was altogether present, which assault was receiued, and stayed at the beginning [Footnote: A small thing at the beginning, or in due time done, helpeth much.] of the Earle Hercole Martiningo with his garrison, and so were repulsed by our company, who fought without any aduantage of couert, the vaimure being throwen downe by the mine. There were slaine of our company Captaine Meani the Serieant Maior of our armie, Captaine Celio de Fuochi, Captaine Erasmo da Fermo: and Captaine Soldatello, Antonio d'Ascoli, Captain Gio. d'Istria, Standerd bearers, with many other officers, were sore wounded, there died also 30 other of our common souldiers. At the Arsenall they were beaten backe with greater dammage of our enemies, and small hurt to vs. Fiue onely of our part being slaine there, whereas Captaine Giacomo de Fabriano also was killed, and I was wounded in my left legge with an harquebush shot. The which assault continued sixe houres, the Bishop of Limisso standing vp there, incouraging the Souldiours. Where also were found present stout women, [Footnote: That certaine women inhabiting this Iland be viragos, or mankind, I saw sufficient triall at my last being there, in a city called Saline.] who came thither with weapons, stones, and water, to help the Souldiours. Our enemies vnderstanding how great hinderance they had receiued at these two assaults, changed their mindes, and began againe with greater fury than euer they had before accustomed to lay battery to all places, and into our retreats, so that they labouring more speedily then euer they did, made seuen other forts more, vnder the castle, and taking away the artillery from them which was farther off, planting of it somewhat neerer, to the number of fourescore, they battered the holde with so great rage, that on the eighth day of Iuly, with the same night also were numbred fiue thousand Canon shot, and after that sort they ouerthrew to the ground the vaimures, that scarsely with great trauell and paine we could repaire them againe, because our men that laboured about them were continually slaine by their Ordinance, and by reason of the endlesse tempest of the shot of their Harquebuzers. And our men beganne to decrease. For the Turkes caused vs to retire from our Breyes, by the violence of their artillery and mining, in such sort, that there being no more standing left for our Souldiours, because we making our vaimures more thicke, our standing began to waxe narrower, the which presently we of necessitie enlarged with boords as a scaffolde to the vaimure, whereby we might haue more elbow room to fight. Captain Maggio also made one mine vnder the sayd Brey, to the intent, that we being not able any longer to keepe it, the same might be left to our enemies to their great hinderance. [Footnote: It is accounted a good warlike shift, to leaue that to our enemies with hinderance, which we can not any longer keepe, and vse to our owne commodity.] The third assault. To the sayd Brey the ninth day of Iuly they gaue the third assault to the Turrion of Santa Nappa, to that of Andruzzi, to the Cortaine, to the Keepe of the Arsenall: the which assault hauing continued more then sixe houres, they were beaten backe in foure places, but we left the Brey to their great losse, and ours also: because we being assaulted, our company being not able to mannage their pikes in good order, by reason of the narrownesse of the standing where they were, being willing to retire in that order, as the L. Baglione had prescribed vnto them, and could not, cast themselues at the last into a confuse order, and retired, they being mingled amongst the Turks: so that fire being giuen to our mine, the same (with a terrible sight to beholde) slew presently of our enemies more then one thousand, and aboue one hundred of vs. There was slaine Roberto Maluezzi, and Captaine Marchetto de Fermo was grieuously wounded. At the assault of the Arsenall was slaine Captaine Dauid Noce master of the campe, and I myself was hurt by the racing of a cannon shot. This assault continued fiue houres, and the Citizens of Famagusta shewed great courage in euery place, with their women also, and yoong striplings. The Brey was so defaced by reason of this mine set on fire, that no body any more attempted to recouer the same, because there was no apt place remaining to stay vpon. The left flancker onely remained still, whereas another mine was made. The gate of Limisso was ouer against this foresayd Brey, and somewhat lower, which was alwayes open, hauing made to the same a Portall, with a Percollois annexed to it, the which Percollois by the cutting of a small cord, was a present defence to the gate, and our Souldiours gaue their attendance by that gate to bring in the battered earth, which fell in the ditches from the rampaire: and when they saw that their enemies in foure dayes came not thither, they beganne to entrench aboue the Brey, and by the flanckers aboue they suffered no person to passe out of the gate, the which thing brought great suspition vnto our enemies, because they were often times assailed of our company. The fourth assault. Wherefore they came to the foureteenth day of Iuly to assault the gate of Limisso, and laying their battery to all other places, they came and planted their Ensignes euen before the gate, whereas the L. Baglione, and Sig. Luigi were in readinesse, who had taken vpon them to defend that gate of the Citie. Who assoone as they had encouraged their Souldiours, [Footnote: The forwardnesse of the captaine at dangerous times not only much comforteth the common souldier, but also increaseth greatly his credit and commendation with all men.] sallying swiftly foorth, killed, and put to flight the greater part of them, and at the last giuing fire to the mine of the flancker slew foure hundred Turkes, and Sig. Baglione at the same time woon an Ensigne of our enemies, wrasting it violently out of one of the Ensigne bearers hands. The day following they gaue fire to the mine of the cortaine, the which thing not falling out greatly to their purpose, they followed not their prepared assault. Wherefore they beganne to fortifie, and aduance higher their trauerses in the ditches, for their better assurance against they should giue the assault: and they had emptied and carried away all the earth neere vnto the counterskarfe, where they lodged in their pauillions, so that we could not descrie them. They shot seuen pieces of artillery vpon the wall of the counterscharfe so couertly, that they were not seene: two from the Brey of the Turrion of Santa Nappa, one from Andruzzi, and two other all along the battery of the Cortaine. And they came with certaine boordes couered with rawe and greene hides, vnder which they brought their men to digge in the vaimures, we being nothing behinde or forgetfull to cast wilde-fire amongst them, and sometime to issue foorth of our sallies called Posternes, to offend their Pioners, although to our great hindrance. And we still repaired the vaimures by all meanes possible, with Buffe skins, being moist and wet, throwing in also earth, shreads, and cotton with water, being well bound together with cordes: all the women of Famagusta gathering themselues together into companies in euery street (being guided of one of their Monkes called Caloiero) resorted daily to a certaine place appointed to labour, gathering and prouiding for the souldiers, stones and water, the which was kept for all assaults in halfe buts to quench the fire, which the Turks threw amongst them. Hauing had no great successe in taking of the gate, they found out a newe way, neuer heard of before, in gathering together a great quantity of certaine wood called Teglia, [Footnote: Teglia in Latine called Teda is a certaine wood which burneth easily, and sauoreth vnpleasantly, of the which there is great store in Sicilia: sometime it is vsed for a torch.] which easily burned, and smelt very euill, the which they throwing before the former gate of the Citie, and fagots fastened to the same, with certaine beames besmeered with Pitch, kindled suddenly so great a fire, as was not possible for vs to quench the same, although we threw vpon it whole Buts of water, which were throwen downe from an high Commander, which Buts presently brake in sunder. [Sidenote: No necessarie thing to bee done was left vnattempted on either part.] This fire continued foure dayes, wherefore we were inforced by reason of the extreame heat and stinch, to withdraw ourselues further inward, and they descended towardes their lower flanckers, beganne other mines, so that the gate was shut vp, because it would be no longer kept open and suddenly (a thing maruellous to be spoken) the standing of the Brey being repaired, and made vp againe, they planted one piece ouer against the gate, the which of vs with stones, earth and other things, was suddenly buried vp. [Sidenote: Mans courage oft abateth, but hope seldome forsaketh.] By this time we were driuen to an exigent, all our prouision within the citie stooping very lowe, sauing onely hope, the noble courage of the Gouernours and Captaines, and the stout readinesse of the Souldiours: our wine, and flesh as well powdered as vnpowdered was spent, nor there was any Cheese to be gotten, but vpon an vnreasonable price, our company hauing eating vp their Horses, Asses, and Cats, for lacke of other victualls: there was nothing left to be eaten, but a small quantitie of Bread, and Beanes, and we dranke water and Vinegar together, whereof was not much left. When that we perceiued that our enemies had digged and cast vp three mines in the Commander of the gate, they labouring in all places more diligently then euer they did before, bringing into the ditch, ouer against the battery of the Cortaine, a hill of earth, as high as the wall: and already they came to the wall aboue the counterscharfe ouer against the Turrion of the Arsenall, and had made one Commander complete, fenced with shares, like unto plough shares, in proportion and height correspondent to ours. Within the Citie were remaining but fiue hundreth Italian Souldiers, who were not hurt, yet very faint and weary by their long watching and paines in fighting in those feruent and burning heates, which are in those parts. [Footnote: In Iuly the heat is so extreme in this Iland, that the inhabitants thereof are not woont to trauell, but by night onley.] [Sidenote: A letter of supplication exhibited by the Cypriotes vnto Sig. Bragadino.] And the greater and better part, also of the Grecians were by this time slaine, whenas the chiefe of those Citizens remaining did fully resolue themselues (the which was about the twentieth day of Iuly) to present a supplication in writing to that noble gentleman Bragadino Proueditore, desiring and beseeching him, that seeing their Citie and Fortresse was thus battered and brought to extremitie, without sufficient ayde to defend the same, without substance or sustenance, hauing no hope of succour, or any newe supply, they hauing spent and consumed not onely their goods, but also their liues for the defence of them, and in testifying of their dutifull seruice towardes the noble and royall state of the Segniorie of Venice, that it might nowe please him, and the rest of the honourable Gouernours, that were present, and put in trust, hauing a carefull eye vnto some honourable conditions, to haue now at the last a respect to the credit and honour of their long trauelled wiues, and the safegard of their poore children, which otherwise were shortly very like to be a pray to their bloodthirsting and rauening enemies. [Sidenote: The answere of the former letter.] To the which letter or supplication speedy answere was made by the forenamed honourable Bragadino, comforting them, that they should by no meanes abate their courage, and that shortly he looked for succour from the Segniorie, diminishing as much as hee might, the feare which they had conceiued in their hearts, dispatching and sending away suddenly from Cyprus into Candia, a Pinnesse to certifie the duke and gouernours there, in what extremitie they were. The Turkes by this time had ended their mines, and set them on fire, the 29. of Iuly; in the which space our men, according as they were woont to doe, renued and made vp againe the vaimures ruined before by the Ordinance, and hauing no other stuffe left to aduance them with, made sackes of Kersie, vnto the which the noble Tiepolo diligently looked. [Sidenote: It standeth with reason, in hope of sauing the greater, to let the lesser go.] The three mines of the Commander did great damage to vs, hauing throwen downe the greater part of the earth, whereas the the gouernour Randacchi was slaine. The mine of the Arsenall ouerthrew all the rest of the Turrion, hauing smoldered and choked one whole garrison of our souldiers, the two flanckers onely still remaining. The fift assault. The enemies trauelled much to become masters of those foresayd flankers, and to sally foorth by the other batteries, and this assault lasted from three of the clocke in the after noone vntil night, where, and at what time were slaine very many of our enemies. In this assault Sig. Giacomo Strambali, amongst the rest, shewed much worthinesse, as hee had done before in other conflicts. The sixt and last assault. The next morning following, at the breake of the day, they assailed all places, the which assault continued more then sixe houres, with very little hurt on our side, because our enemies fought more coldly then they were wont to doe, annoying of vs continually on the Sea side with their Gallies, shooting in all their assaults and batteries continually Cannon shot in all parts of the Citie, as neere as they might. After we had defended and repulsed this assault, and perceiued things brought to a narrower straite then they were wont to be at, wee hauing left in all the whole Citie but seuen barrels of pouder, the gouernours of the Citie fully determined to yeelde vp themselues and the Citie, with honourable conditions. [Footnote: Necessitie oft times presseth vs in the end to that, which our will continually spurneth against.] Wherefore the first of August in the after noone, they tooke a truce, one being come for that purpose from Mustafa the Generall, with whom they concluded the next morning following to giue two hostages a piece, vntill such time as both armies were agreed. For our hostages (by the appointment of the right honourable Bragadino) were sent foorth the earle Hercole Martinengo, and Signior Matteo Colsi a Citizen of Famagusta, and from our enemies came into the Citie the Lieutenant of Mustafa, and the Aga of the Gianizzers, [Footnote: Giannezeri be the gard of the great Turke, so that Aga de Giannizeri is the captaine of the Turkes gard.] the which were met, euen vnto the gate of the Citie of Signiour Baglione with two hundreth harquebusers: ours also were met in like maner with great pompe with horsemen and harquebusers, with the sonne also of Mustafa in person, who made very much of them. The Lord Baglione imparld with these hostages, which were then come for that purpose of the articles of peace, requiring by them of their Generall, their liues, armour, and goods, fiue peeces of Ordinance, three of the best horses, and safe passage from thence vnto Candia accompanied with their Gallies, and last of all, that the Grecians inhabiting the Island, might dwell there still quietly, and enioy peaceably their owne goods and possessions, liuing still Christians hereafter, as they had done before. All the which requests and articles were agreed vpon, granted, and subscribed vnto by the hand of Mustafa. [Footnote: Iust Turkish dealing, to speake and not to meane: sodainly to promise, and neuer to perform the same.] Foorthwith were sent Gallies, and other vessels into the hauen, so that our souldiers immediately began to imbarke themselues, of the which the greater part were already gone aboorde, the Nobilitie and our chiefe Captaines also being likewise very desirous to depart. The 15. of August in the morning, the worthy Bragadino sent me with a letter vnto Mustafa, by the which hee signified, that the same night hee would come vnto him to deliuer vp the keyes of the Citie, and that he would leaue in the holde the honourable gentleman Tiepolo, praying him therefore, that whilest hee should haue iust cause thus to bee abroad, that there might be no harme done at home, and in the Citie. The Turkes from our truce taking vntill that time, practised with vs all familiarly, and without any suspition of sinister or double dealing, they hauing shewed vs much courtesie both in word and deede. Mustafa himselfe by worde of mouth presently answered me to this letter, in this sort, that I should returne, and make relation to this noble man Bragadino, who had sent mee, that he should come ouer to him at his owne pleasure, for hee was very desirous both to see and know him, for his great worthinesse and prowesse, that hee had tried to be in him, and in the other of his Captaines and Souldiers, of whose manhood and courage he would honourably report, where soeuer he came, as occasion should serue thereunto: and to conclude, that hee should nothing doubt of any thing: because in no maner of condition hee would suffer any violence to be done to those, which remained behind within the Citie. So I speedily returning made true report of the same: and towards night about foure of the clocke, the right honourable Bragadino accompanied with the L. Baglione, with Signior Aluigi Martinengo, with the right worshipfull Signior Gio. Antonio Querini, with the right worshipfull Signior Andrea Bragadino, with the knight of Haste, with the captaine Carlo Ragonasco, with captaine Francesco Straco, with captaine Hector of Brescia, with captaine Girolomo di Sacile, and with other gentlemen and fiftie souldiours, the Gouernours and Noble men with their swordes, and the souldiours with their harquebuzes came foorth of their hold, and went vnto the pauillion of Mustafa, of whom, all they at the beginning were curteously receiued, and caused to sit downe by him, he reasoning and discoursing with them of diuers things, a certaine time, and drawing them from one matter to another, at the last vpon a sudden picked a quarell vnto them, especially burdening that noble Bragadino with an vntrueth, laying to his charge that he had caused certaine of his slaues in the time that the truce continued between them, to be put to death. The which thing was most false. So that hee being angry therewith, suddenly stept foorth, and commaunded them to bee bound. Thus they being vnarmed (not suffered at that time to enter into his pauillion, with their former weapons) and bound, were led one by one into the market place, before his pauillion, being presently cut and hewen in sunder in his presence, and last of all from that woorthy and noble Bragadino (who being bound as the rest, and being commaunded twise or thrise to stretch foorth his necke, as though hee should haue bene beheaded, the which most boldly hee did without any sparke of feare) his eares were cut off, and causing him to bee stretched out most vilely vpon the ground, Mustafa talked with him, and blasphemed the holy name of our Sauiour, demaunding him; where is now thy Christ, that hee helpeth thee not? [Footnote: The propertie of true fortitude is, not to be broken with sudden terrors. Mustafa, cosin germaine to the thiefe, which hong on the left side of our Sauiour at his Passion.] To all the which no answere at all was giuen of that honourable gentleman. The earle Hercole Martinengo, which was sent for one of the hostages, who was also bound, was hidden by one of Mustafas eunuches vntill such time as his furie was past, afterward his life being graunted him, hee was made the eunuches slaue. Three Grecians which were vnder his pauillion were left vntouched. All the souldiers which were found in the campe, and all sortes of Christians to the number of three hundred, were suddenly slaine, they nothing mistrusting any such treason, or tirannie. The Christian souldiers which were embarked a litle before, were linked and fettered with iron chaines, made slaues, all things being taken from them; and stripped into their shirtes. The second day after this murther was committed, which was the 17. of August, Mustafa entred the first time into the Citie, and caused the valiant and wise gouernour Tiepolo to bee hanged, who remained behind, waiting the returne of Signior Bragadino. I being in the citie at that present, when other of my countreymen were thus miserably slaine and made slaues, hid my selfe in certaine of the Grecians houses the space of fiue dayes, and they not being able to keepe mee in couert any longer for feare of the great penaltie, which was proclaimed agaynst such transgressors and concealers, I offred, and gaue my selfe slaue to one Sangiaccho del Bir, promising him fiue hundred Zechins [Footnote: Zechini, be certaine pieces of fine gold coined in Venice, euery one of the which is in value sixe shillings eight pence of our mony, and somewhat better: and equal altogether to a Turkish Byraltom.] for my ransome, with whom I remained in the Campe. The Friday folowing (being the Turkes sabbath day) this woorthy and patient gentlemen Bragadino was led still in the presence of that vnfaithfull tirant Mustafa, to the batteries made vnto the Citie, whereas he being compelled to cary two baskets of earth, the one vpon his backe: the other in his hand slaue-like, to euery sundry battrie, being enforced also to kisse the ground as oft as he passed by him, was afterward brought vnto the sea side, where he being placed in a chaire to leane and stay vpon, was winched vp in that chaire, and fastened vnto the maineyard of a galley, and hoisted vp with a crane, to shew him to all the Christian souldiers and slaues (which were in the hauen already shipped) hee being afterward let downe, and brought to the market place, the tormentors tooke of his clothes from him, and tacked him vnto the pillorie, whereas he was most cruelly flaied quicke; with so great constancie and faith on his part, that be neuer lost or abated any iot of his stedfast courage, being so farre from any fainting, that hee at that present with most stout heart reproched them, and spake much shame of his most traitorous dealing in breaking of his faithfull promise. At the last without any kind of alteration of his constancie, he recommending his soule vnto almightie God, gaue vp the ghost. When hee had thus ended his life (thanks be to God) his skin being taken and filled with strawe, was commanded foorthwith to be hanged vpon the bowsprit of a Foist, [Footnote: A Foist as it were a Brigandine, being somewhat larger then halfe a galley, much vsed of the Turkish Cursaros, or as we call them Pirates or Rouers.] and to be caried alongst the coast of Syria by the sea side, that all the port townes might see, and understand who he was. This is now so much as I am able to declare to your highnesse by that I sawe my selfe, and can remember whilest that I was in the Fortresse: that also which by true relation of others I could understand, and sawe also my selfe in the campe, whilest I was slaue, I will likewise briefly vtter vnto you. The enemies armie was in number, two hundred thousand persons of all sortes and qualities. Of souldiers which tooke pay there were 80. thousand, besides the which number, there were l4. thousand of Giannizzers taken out from all the holdes of Syria, Caramania, Natolia, and part of them also which came from the gate [Footnote: The gate of the great Turke, is as much to say, as Constantinople: the which they call in the Turkish language Stanboll.] of the great Turke. The venturers with the sword were 60. thousand in number. The reason, why there were so many of this sort, was because Mustafa had dispersed a rumour through the Turkes dominion, that Famagusta was much more wealthy and rich, then the citie of Nicosia was: so for that cause, and by the commodious and easie passage from Syria ouer into Cyprus, these venturers were easily induced to come thither. [Footnote: Gli Venturieri da spada, are a kind of venturing souldiers, who commonly are wont to follow the army in hope of the spoile.] In 75. dayes (all the which time the batterie still continued) 140. thousand iron pellets were shot of, numbred, and seene. The chiefe personages which were in their armie neere vnto Mustafa, were these following; the Bassa of Aleppo, [Footnote: Aleppo, a famous citie neere vnto Antiochia, otherwise called in Greeke, [Greek: haeliopolis], the city of the Sunne.] the Bassa of Natolia, Musafer Bassa of Nicosia, the Bassa of Caramaniai, the Aga of the Giannizzers, Giambelat Bey, [Footnote: Bey in the Turkish language, signifieth knight with vs.] the Sangiaccho of Tripolis, the Begliarbei of Greece, [Footnote: Begliarbei signifieth lord Admirall.] the Bassa of Sciuassi and of Marasco, Ferca Framburaro, the Sangiaccho of Antipo, [Footnote: Sangiaccho, is that person with the Turkes, that gouerneth a prouince or countrey.] Soliman Bey, three Sangiacchos of Arabia, Mustafa Bey generall of the Venturers, Fergat gouernour of Malathia, the Framburaro of Diuerie, the Sangiaccho of Arabia and other Sangiacchos of lesser credite, with the number of fourescore thousand persons beside, as by the muster made by his Commission might well appeare. The Framburaro which was at Rhodes, was appointed and left gouernour at Famagusta, and the report was that there should bee left in all the Island of Cyprus, twentie thousand persons, with two thousand horses, many of the which I saw, being very leane and euill appoynted for seruice. It seemeth also a thing not impertinent to the matter, to signifie to you, how I, by the especiall grace of God, was deliuered out of their cruell hands, [Footnote: God suffereth much to be done to his seruants, but neuer forsaketh them.] I hauing paied within two and fortie dayes (all the which time I was slaue) fiue hundred Zechins for my ransome to him, whose prisoner I was, by the meanes of the Consul for the French merchants, a Ligier then at Tripolis, who a litle before came from Tripolis in Syria vnto Cyprus, into the Turkes campe. Yet for all that I had paied this summe of money to him, hee would not so set me at libertie, but fed mee vp still with faire wordes, and promised mee that hee would first bring mee vnto his gouernment, which abutted vpon a piece of the famous riuer of Euphrates, and dismisse me. The which malice and falsehood of his I perceiuing, determined with my selfe to giue him the slip, [Footnote: Necessitie oft times sharpeneth mens wits, and causeth boldnes.] and to flie: so I waiting my time, and repairing often to the Citie, at length met with a small Fisher boate, of the which a small saile made of two shirts, I passed ouer from Cyprus vnto Tripolis, being in very great danger of drowning, whereas I remained in couert in the house of certaine Christians, vntill the fiue and twentie of September, at what time I departed from thence in a little French shippe called Santa Vittor, which came into these partes, and as wee rode, wee touched at a part of Cyprus Westward, called Capo delle Gatte, where as I came on land, and talking with certaine of the inhabitants of the Villages, who were then by chaunce a Hauking, demaunded of them, how they were intreated of the Turkes, and after what sort the Island was tilled: to the which they answered, that they could not possiblie bee in worse pickle then they were at that present, not enioying that quietly which was their owne, being made villains and slaues, and almost alwayes carying away the Bastonados, so that now (they sayd) they knew by triall too perfectly the pleasant and peaceable gouernment of the Christians, wishing and praying God that they might shortly returne. [Footnote: The nature of euery commoditie is sooner vnderstood by lacking, then by continuall enioying of the same.] And concerning the tillage of the Island they made answere moreouer, that no part of it was plowed or laboured, sauing onely that mountaine which was towards the West, and that because they were litle troubled with the crueltie of the Turkes, but as for the plaine and east part of the Island, there was small seede sowen therein, but became in a maner desert, there being left but few inhabitants, and lesse store of cattell there. Afterward wee departing from thence we arriued in Candia, [Footnote: Candia of the old writers called Creta in Latin, [Greek: Hekatompolis] in Greek, because it had once a 100. Cities in it, now there remaining but onely 4. thus commonly named, Candia, la Cania, Retima, and Scythia.] I for my part being clothed in sackecloth, whereas soone after by the great curtesie of the right honourable Signior Latino Orsino, I was new apparelled accordingly, friendly welcommed, and my necessitie relieued. From whence I shortly after sayling in a Cypriettes ship (thankes be to almightie God) arriued in this Citie in health, and am safely come home now at the honorable feete of your highnesse. The Captains of the Christians slaine in Famagusta. The lord Estor Baglione. The lord Aluigi Martinengo. The lord Federico Baglione. The knight of Asta Vicegouernor. The Capitaine Dauid Noce Master of the Campe. The capitaine Meani of Perugia Serieant Maior. The earle Sigismond of Casoldo. The earle Francesco of Lobi of Cremona. The captaine Francesco Troncauilla. The captaine Hannibal Adama of Fermo. The captaine Scipio of the citie of Castello. The captaine Charles Ragonasco of Cremona. The captaine Francesco Siraco. The captaine Robeto Maluezzo. The captaine Cæsar of Aduersa. The captaine Bernardin of Agubio. The captaine Francesco Bugon of Verona. The captaine Iames of Fabiana. The captaine Sebastian del Sole of Florence. The captaine Hector of Brescia, the successour to the captaine Cæsar of Aduersa. The captaine Flaminio of Florence, successor vnto Sebastian del Sole. The captaine Erasmus of Fermo, successor to the captaine of Cernole. The captaine Bartholomew of Cernole. The captaine Iohn Battista of Riuarole. The captaine Iohn Francesco of Venice. The names of Christians made slaues. The Earle Herocles Martinengo, with Iulius Cæsar Ghelfo a Souldiour of Bressa. The earle Nestor Martinengo, which fled. The captaine Marco Criuellatore. The lord Herocles Malatesta. The captaine Peter Conte of Montalberto. The captaine Horatio of Veletri. The captaine Aluigi Pezano. The Conte Iames of Corbara. The captaine Iohn of Istria. The captaine Soldatelli of Agubio. The captaine Iohn of Ascoli. The captaine Antonie of the same towne. The captaine Sebastian of the same towne. The captaine Salgano of the citie of Castello. The captaine Marcheso of Fermo. The captaine Iohn Antonio of Piacenza. The captaine Carletto Naldo. The captaine Lorenzo Fornaretti. The captaine Barnardo of Brescia. The captaine Barnardino Coco. The captaine Simon Bagnese, successour to the captaine Dauid Noce. The captaine Tiberio Ceruto, successor vnto Conte Sigismond. The captaine Ioseph of Lanciano, successour vnto captaine Francesco Troncauilla. The captaine Morgante, successor to captain Hannibal. The Lieutenant, successour vnto the captaine Scipio. The Standerd bearer, successour to captaine Roberto. The captaine Ottauia of Rimini, successour to the captaine Francesco Bugon. The captaine Mario de Fabiano, successour to captaine Iacomo. The captaine Francesco of Venice, successour vnto captaine Antonio. The captaine Matteo of Capua. The captaine Iohn Maria of Verona. The captaine Mancino. The Fortifiers. Iohn Marmori, slaine. The knight Maggio, slaue. Turkish Captaines at Famagusta. Mustafa Generall. The Bassa of Aleppo. The Bassa of Natolia, slaine. Musafer Bassa of Nicosia. The Bassa of Catamania. The Aga of the Giannizers. Giambelat Bey. The Sangiaccho of Tripolis, slaine. The Begliarbei of Greece. The Bassa of Sciuassi and Marasco. Ferca Framburaro. The Sangiaccho of Antipo, slaine. Soliman Bey, slaine. Three Sangiacchos of Arabia slaine. Mustafa Bey, General of the Venturers, slain. Fergat, ruler of Malathia, slaine. The Framburaro of Diuerie, slaine. * * * * * The renuing and increasing of an ancient and commodious trade vnto diuerse places in the Leuant seas, and to the chiefest partes of all the great Turks dominions, by the meanes of the Right worsh. citizens Sir Edward Osburne Alderman, and M. Richard Staper marchant of London. This trade into the Leuant (as is elsewhere mentioned) was very vsuall and much frequented from the yeere of our Lord 1511, till the yeere 1534, and afterwards also, though not so commonly, vntill the yeere 1550, when as the barke Aucher vnder the conduct of M. Roger Bodenham made a prosperous voyage vnto Sicilia, Candia, Sio, and other places within the Leuant. Since which time the foresaid trade (notwithstanding the Grand Signiors ample priuilege granted to M. Anthony Ienkenson 1553, and the strong and weighty reasons of Gaspar Campion for that purpose) was vtterly discontinued, and in maner quite forgotten, as if it had neuer bene, for the space of 20 years and more. Howbeit, the discreete and worthy citizens Sir Edward Osborne and M. Richard Staper seriously considering what benefite might grow to the common wealth by renuing of the foresaid discontinued trade, to the inlarging of her Maiesties customes, the furthering of nauigation, the venting of diuerse generall commodities of this Realme, and the inriching of the citie of London, determined to vse some effectuall meanes for the reestablishing and augmenting thereof. [Sidenote: The voyage of Iohn Wight, and Ioseph Clements to Constantinople.] Wherefore about the yeere 1575 the foresaid R. W. marchants at their charges and expenses sent Iohn Wight and Ioseph Clements by the way of Poland to Constantinople, where the said Ioseph remained 18 monethes to procure a safe conduct from the grand Signior, for M. William Harborne, then factor for Sir Edward Osborne, to haue free accesse into his Highnes dominions, and obtained the same. [Sidenote: The first voyage of M. William Harborne to Constantinople.] Which businesse after two yeres chargeable trauell and suit being accomplished, the sayd M. Harborne the first of Iuly 1578 departed from London by the sea to Hamburgh, and thence accompanied with Ioseph Clements his guide and a seruant, he trauelled to Leopolis in Poland, and then apparelling himselfe, his guide, and his seruant after the Turkish fashion (hauing first obteyned the king of Poland his safe conduct to passe at Camienijecz the frontier towne of his dominions next vnto Turky) by good means he obteined fauour of one Acmet Chaus the Turks ambassadour then in Poland, and readie to returne to Constantinople, to bee receiued into his companie and carouan. And so the fourth of September 1578 he departed with the said Acmet from Leopolis in Poland, and trauelling through Moldauia, Valachia, Bulgaria, and Romania, gratifying the Voiauodes with certaine courtesies, he arriued at Constantinople the 28 of October next insuing. Where he behaued himselfe so wisely and discreetly, that within few moneths after he obtained not onely the great Turkes large and ample priuiledge for himselfe, and the two worshipfull persons aforesaid, but also procured his honourable and friendly letters vnto her Maiestie in maner following. * * * * * The letters sent from the Imperiall Musulmanlike highnesse of Zuldan Murad Can, to the sacred regall Maiestie of Elizabeth Queene of England, the fifteenth of March 1579, conteyning the grant of the first priuileges. In greatness and glory most renowmed Elizabeth, most sacred Queene, and noble prince of the most mightie worshippers of Iesus, most wise gouernour of the causes and affaires of the people and family of Nazareth, cloud of most pleasant raine, and sweetest fountaine of noblenesse and vertue, ladie and heire of the perpetuall happinesse and glory of the noble Realme of England (whom all sorts seeke vnto and submit themselues) we wish most prosperous successe and happie ends to all your actions, and do offer vnto you such pleasures and curtesies as are worthy of our mutuall and eternall familiaritie: thus ending (as best beseemeth vs) out former salutations. In most friendly maner we giue you to vnderstand, that a certaine man hath come vnto vs in the name of your most excellent Regall Maiestie, commending vnto vs from you all kindnesse, curtesie and friendly offices on your part, and did humbly require that our Imperiall highnesse would vouchsafe to giue leaue and libertie to him and vnto two other merchants of your kingdome [Sidenote: These two were Sir Edward Osborne and M. Richard Staper.], to resort hither and returne againe, and that by way of traffike they might be suffered to trade hither with their goods and merchandizes to our Imperiall dominions, and in like sort to make their returne. Our stately Court and Countrey hath beene euer open for the accesse both of our enemies and friends. But because we are informed that your most excellent Regall Maiesty doth abound with good will, humanitie, and all kind of louing affection towards vs, so much the rather shall the same our Countrey be alwayes open to such of your subiects, as by way of merchandize shall trade hither: and we will neuer faile to aide and succor any of them that are or shal be willing to esteeme of our friendship, fauour, and assistance: but will reckon it some part of our dutie to gratifie them by all good meanes. And forasmuch as our Imperiall highnesse is giuen to vnderstand that your most excellent Regall Maiestie doth excell in bountie and curtesie, we therfore haue sent out our Imperiall commandement to all our kings, iudges, and trauellers by sea, to all our Captaines and voluntarie seafaring men, all condemned persons, and officers of Ports and customes, straightly charging and commanding them, that such foresaid persons as shall resort hither by sea from the Realme of England, either with great or small vessels to trade by way of marchandize, may lawfully come to our imperiall Dominions, and freely returne home againe, and that no man shall dare to molest or trouble them. [Sidenote: He calleth the Germaine emperor but king of Germanie.] And if in like sort they shall come into our dominions by land, either on foote or on horsebacke, no man shall at any time withstand or hinder them: but as our familiars and confederates, the French, Venetians, Polonians, and the king of Germany, with diuers other our neighbours about vs, haue libertie to come hither, and to returne againe into their owne countreys, in like sort the marchants of your most excellent Regall Maiesties kingdome shall haue safe conduct and leaue to repayre hither to our Imperiall dominions, and so to returne againe into their owne Country: straightly charging that they be suffered to vse and trade all kind of marchandize as any other Christians doe, without let or disturbance of any. [Sidenote: The Turke demandeth like priuiledges for his subjects in the Queenes dominions.] Therefore when these our Imperiall letters shall be brought to your most excellent Maiestie, it shall be meet, according to our beneuolence, humanity, and familiarity toards your most excellent Maiesty, that you likewise bethinke your selfe of your like beneuolence, humanitie and friendshippe towards vs, to open the gate thereof vnto vs, and to nourish by all good meanes this kindnesse and friendship: and that like libertie may be granted by your Highnesse to our subiects and merchants to come with their merchandizes to your dominions, either by sea with their ships, or by land with their wagons or horses, and to returne home againe: and that your most excellent Regall Maiestie do alwayes declare your humanitie, good will, and friendship towards vs, and alwayes keepe open the dore thereof vnto vs. Giuen at our citie of Constantinople the fifteenth day of March, and in the yeere of our most holy Prophet Mahomet. [Marginal note: With vs the yeere 1579.] * * * * * The answere of her Maiestie to the aforesaid Letters of the Great Turke, sent the 15 of October 1579, in the Prudence of London by Master Richard Stanley. Elizabetha Dei ter maximi, et vnici coeli terræque Conditoris gratia, Angliæ, Franciæ et Hiberniæ regina, fidei Christianæ contra omnes omnium inter Christianos degentium, et Christi nomen falsò profitentium Idololatrias inuictissima et potentissima Defensatrix, augustissimo, inuictissimóque principi Sultan Murad Can, Turcici regni dominatori potentissimo, Imperíjque orientis, Monarchæ supra omnes soli et supremo, salutem, et multos cum rerum optimarum affluentia foelices, et fortunatos annos. Augustissime et inuictissime Cæesar, accepimus inuicttissimæ Cæsareæ vestræ celsitudinis literas, die decimoquinto Martij currentis anni ad nos scriptas Constantinopoli, ex quibus intelligimus quàm benignè quámque clementer, literæ supplices quæ Cæsareæ vestræ celsitudini a quodam subdito nostro Guilielmo Hareborno in Imperiali Celsitudinis vestræ ciuitate Constantinopoli commorante offerebantur, literæ profectionis pro se et socijs eius duobus hominibus mercatoribus subditis nostris cum mercibus suis ad terras ditionésque Imperio vestro subiectas iam per mare quàm per terras, indéque reuersionis veniæ potestatísque humillimam complexæ petitionem, ab inuictissima vestra Cæsarea celsitudine, acceptæ fuerunt. Neque id solùm, sed quàm mira cum facilitate, dignáque augustissima Cæsarea cleméntia, quod erat in dictis literis supplicibus positum, ei socíjsque suis donatum et concessum fuit, pro ea, vti videtur, solùm opinione, quam de nobis, et nostra amicitia vestra celsitudo concepit. Quod singulare beneficium in dictos subditos nostros collatum tam gratè tamque beneuolè accepimus (maximas celsitudini vestræ propterea et agentes, et habentes gratias) nullo vt vnquam patiemur tempore, pro facultatum nostrarum ratione, proque ea quam nobis inseuit ter maximus mundi monarcha Deus (per quem et cuius auspicijs regnamus) naturæ bonitate, qua remotissimas nos esse voluit, et abhorrentes ab ingratitudinis omni vel minima suspitione, docuitque nullorum vnquam vt principum, vllis in nos meritis nos sineremus vinci, aut superari, vt apud ingratam principem tantum beneficium deposuisse, se vestra Celsitudo existimet. Proptereaque animum nostrum inpræsentiarum vestræ celsitudini emetimur, benè sentiendo et prædicando, quantopere nos obstrictas beneficij huius in subditos nostros collati putemus memoriâ sempiternâ: longè vberiorem, et ampliorem gratitudinis erga vestram celsitudinem nostræ testificationem daturæ, cum tempora incident, vt possimus et à nobis desiderabitur. Quoniam autem quæ nostris paucis subditis, eáque suis ipsorum precibus, sine vlla intercessione nostra concessa donatio est, in æquè libera potestate sita est ad omnes terras ditionesque Imperio vestro subiectas, com mercibus suis tam per mare quàm per terras eundi et redeundi, atque inuictissimæ Cæsareæ vestræ celsitudinis confoederatis, Gallis, Polonis, Venetis, atque adeo regis Romanorum subditis largita vnquam aut donata fuit, celsitudinem vestram rogamus ne tam singularis beneficentiæ laus in tam angustis terminis duorum aut trium hominum concludatur, sed ad vniuersos subditos nostrus diffusa, propagatáque, celsitudinis vestræ beneficium eò reddat augustius, quò eiusdem donatio latiùs patebit, et ad plures pertinebit. Cuius tam singularis in nos beneficij meritum, eò erit celsitudini vestræ minùs poenitendum, quò sunt merces illæ, quibus regna nostra abundant, et aliorum principum ditiones egent, tam humanis vsibus comodæ támque necessariæ, nulla gens vt sit, quæ eis carere queat, proptereáque longissimis, difficillimísque itineribus conquisitis non vehementer gaudeat. Cariùs autem distrabunt alijs, quo ex labore suo quisque victum et quæstum quæritat, adeo vt in earum acquisitione vtilitas, in emptione autem ab alijs onus sit. Vtilitas celsitudinis vestræ subditis augebitur liberâ hac paucorum nostrorum hominum ad terras vestras perfectione: onus minuctur, profectionis, quorumcúnque subditorum nostrorum donatione. Accedet præterea quæ à nobis in celsitudinis vestræ subditos proficiscetur, par, æquáque mercium exercendarum libertas, quoties et quando voluerint ad regna dominiáque nostra mercaturæ gratia accedere. Quam celsitudini vestræ pollicemur tam amplam latéque patentem fore, quàm est vlla à confoederatorum vestrorum vllis principibus antedictis, regibus videlicet Romanorum, Gallorum, Polonorum, ac republica Veneta, celsitudinis vestræ subditis vllo vnquam tempore concessa et donata. Qua in re si honestæ petitioni nostræ inuictissima Caæsarea vestra celsitudo dignabitur auscultate, faciétque vt acceptis nostris literis intelligamus gratum nè habitura sit quod ab ea contendibus et rogamus, ea proposita præstitáque securitate, quæ subditos nostros quoscúnque ad dominia sua, terra, maríque proficiscentes, indéque reuerentes tutos et secures reddat ab omni quorumcúnque subditorum suorum iniuria, efficiemus, vt quæ Deus opt. max. in regna dominiáque nostra contulit commoda (quæ tam singularia sunt, omnium vt principum animos pelliceant ad amicitiam, summæque necessitudinis coniunctionem nobiscum contrahendam, stabiliendámque quo liberius tantis summi Dei beneficijs fruantur, quibus carere nequeunt) nostri subditi ad regna dominiáque Celsitudinis vestræ aduehunt tam affluenter támque cumulate, vt vtríque incommodo prædicto necessitatis et oneris plenissimè succurratur. Facit prætereà singularis ista Celsitudinis vestræ in nos Gentémque nostram summæ beneuolentiæ significatio ac fides, vt eandem, in causam quorumdam subditorum nostrorum, qui captiui triremibus vestris detinentur, interpellemus, rogemúsque, vt quoniam nullo in celsitudinem vestram peccato suo, siuè arma in eam ferendo, siuè iniquiùs præter fas et ius gentium se gerendo in suos subditos, in hanc calamitatem inciderint, soluti vinculis, et libertate donati, nobis pro sua fide et obsequio inseruientes, causam vberiorem præbeant vestræ Celsitudinis in nos humanitatem prædicandi: et Deum illum, qui solus, et supra omnia et omnes est acerrimus idololatriæ vindicator, suíque honoris contra Gentium et aliorum falsos Deos Zelotes, præcabimur, vt vestram inuictissimam Cæsaream Celsitudinem omni beatitate eorum donorum fortunet, quæ sola et summè iure merito habentur desideratissima. Datæ è Regia nostra Grenouici, prope ciuitatem nostram Londinum, quintodecimo Mensis Octobris, Anno Iesu Christi Saluatoris nostri 1579, Regni verò nostri vicessimo primo. The same in English. Elizabeth by the grace of the most mightie God, and onely Creatour of heauen and earth, of England, France and Ireland Queene, the most inuincible and most mighty defender of the Christian faith against all kinde of idolatries, of all that liue among the Christians, and fully professe the Name of Christ, vnto the most Imperiall and most inuincible prince, Zaldan Murad Can, the most mightie ruler of the kingdome of Turkie, sole and aboue all, and most souereigne Monarch of the East Empire, greeting, and many happy and fortunate yeeres, with abundance of the best things. Most Imperiall and most inuincible Emperour, wee haue receiued the letters of your mightie highnesse written to vs from Constantinople the fifteenth day of March this present yere, whereby we vnderstand how gratiously, and how fauourably the humble petitions of one William Hareborne a subiect of ours, resident in the Imperiall citie of your highnes presented vnto your Maiestie for the obteining of accesse for him and two other Marchants more of his company our subiects also, to come with marchandizes both by sea and land, to the countries and territories subiect to your gouernment, and from thence againe to returne home with good leaue and libertie, were accepted of your most inuincible Imperiall highnesse, and not that onely, but with an extraordinarie speed and worthy your Imperiall grace, that which was craued by petition was granted to him, and his company in regard onely (as it seemeth) of the opinion which your highnesse conceiued of vs and our amitie: which singular benefit done to our aforesaid subiects, wee take so thankefully, and so good part (yeelding for the same our greatest thanks to your highnesse) that we will neuer giue occasion to your said highnesse (according as time, and the respect of our affaires will permit) once to thinke so great a pleasure bestowed vpon an vngratefull Prince. For the Almighty God, by whom, and by whose grace we reigne, hath planted in vs this goodnesse of nature, that wee detest and abhorre the least suspition of ingratitude, and hath taught vs not to suffer our selues to bee ouermatched with the good demerits of other Princes. And therefore at this time wee doe extende our good minde vnto your highnesse, by well concerning, and publishing also abroad, how much we repute our selfe bound in an euerlasting remembrance for this good pleasure to our Subiects, meaning to yeelde a much more large and plentifull testification of our thankefulnesse, when time conuenient shall fall out, and the same shall bee looked for at our handes. But whereas that graunt which was giuen to a fewe of our Subiects, at their onely request without any intercession of ours, standeth in as free a libertie of comming and going to and from all the lands and kingdoms subiect to your Maiestie, both by land and sea with marchandizes, as euer was granted to any of your Imperiall highnesse confederates, as namely to the French, the Polonians, the Venetians, as also to the subiects of the king of the Romanes, wee desire of your highnesse that the commendation of such singular courtesie may not bee so narrowly restrained to two or three men onely, but may be inlarged to all our subiects in generall, that thereby your highnesse goodnesse may appeare the more notable, by reason of the graunting of the same to a greater number of persons. The bestowing of which so singular a benefit your highnesse shall so much the lesse repent you of, by howe much the more fit and necessary for the vse of man those commodities are, wherewith our kingdomes doe abound, and the kingdomes of other princes doe want, so that there is no nation that can be without them, but are glad to come by them, although by very long and difficult trauels: and when they haue them, they sell them much deerer to others, because euery man seeketh to make profite by his labour: so that in the getting of them there is profit, but in the buying of them from others there is losse. But this profite will be increased to the subiects of your highnesse by this free accesse of a few of our subiects to your dominions, as also the losse and burden wilbe eased, by the permission of generall accesse to all our people. And furthermore we will graunt as equall and as free a libertie to the subiects of your highnesse with vs for the vse of traffique, when they wil and as often as they wil, to come, and go to and from vs and our kingdomes. Which libertie wee promise to your highnesse shalbe as ample, and as large as any was euer giuen or granted to your subiects by the aforesaide princes your confederate, as namely the king of the Romanes, of France, of Poland, and the common wealth of Venice. In which matter, if your most inuincible Imperiall highnesse shall vouchsafe to incline to our reasonable request, and shall giue order vpon these our letters, that wee may haue knowledge how the same is accepted of you, and whether it wilbe granted, with sufficient securitie for our subiects to go, and returne safe and secure from all violences and inuiries of your people, we on the other side wil giue order, that those commodities which Almighty God hath bestowed vpon our kingdomes (which are in deed so excellent, that by reason of them all princes are drawen to enter, and confirme leagues of amitie and good neighborhood with vs, by that meanes to enioy these so great blessings of God, which we haue, and they can in no case want) our subiects shall bring them so abundantly and plentifully to the kingdomes and dominions of your highnesse, that both the former inconueniences of necessitie, and losse, shall most sufficiently be taken away. Moreouer the signification and assurance of your highnesse great affection to vs and our nation, doeth cause vs also to intreat and vse mediation on the behalfe of certain of our subiects, who are deteined as slaues and captiues in your Gallies, for whom we craue, that forasmuch as they are fallen into that misery, not by any offence of theirs, by bearing of armes against your highnesse, or in behauing of themselues contrarie to honestie, and to the law of nations, they may be deliuered from their bondage, and restored to libertie, for their seruice towardes vs, according to their dutie: which thing shall yeeld much more abundant cause to vs of commending your clemencie, and of beseeching that God (who onely is aboue all things, and all men, and is a most seuere reuenger of all idolatrie, and is ielous of his honour against the false gods of the nations) to adorne your most inuincible Imperiall highnesse with all the blessings of those gifts, which onely and deseruedly are accounted most worthy of asking. Giuen at our palace of Greenwich, neere to our citie of London, the fiue and twentieth day of October, in the yeere of Iesus Christ our Sauiour one thousand, fiue hundreth, seuentie and nine, and of our reigne the one and twentieth. * * * * * The charter of the priuileges granted to the English, and the league of the great Turke with the Queenes Maiestie in respect of traffique, dated in Iune 1580. Immensa et maxima ex potestate potentissimi, terribilibúsque verbis et nunquam finienda innumerabiliue clementia et ineffabili auxilio sanctissimi et pura mente colendissimi tremendissimíque modernæ ætatis monarcha, totius orbis terrarum potentribus sceptra diuidere potens, clementiæ, gratiæque diuinæ vmbra, regnorum prouinciarumue, et vrbium ciuitatumue distributor permultarum: Nos sacratissimus Cæsar Muzulmanicus Mecchæ, id est domus diuinæ, Medinæ, gloriosissimæ et beatissimæ Ierusalem, Aegypti fertilissimæ, Iemen, et Zouan, Eden et Canan, Sami paciferæ et Hebes, Iabza et Pazra, Zerazub et Halepiæ, Caramariæ et Diabekiruan, et Dulkadiriæ, Babyloniæ, et totius triplicis Arabiæ, Euzorum et Georgianorum, Cypri diuitis, et regnorum Asiæ Ozakior, Camporum Maris albi et nigri, Græciæ et Mesopotamiæ, Africæ et Goletæ, Algeris et Tripolis occidentalis, selectissimæque Europæ, Budæ, et Temeswar, et regnorum transalpinorum, et his similium permultorum princeps Cæsarué sacerrimus, potentissimus Murad Can, filius principis Zelim Can, qui fuit Zoleiman Can, qui fuit Zelim Can, qui fuit Paiezid Can, qui fuit Mehemed Can, &c. Nos princeps potentissimos Murad Can hoc in signum nostræ Cæsareæ amicitiæ significamus, manifestamus, quòd in temporibus modernis Regina Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Elizabetha in Christianitate honoratissima Regina (cuius mercatorum exitus sit foelicissimus) ad nostram excelsam, et iustitiæ plenam, fulgidissimámue portam, quæ omnibus principibus mundi est refugium et requies, per egregium Gulielmum Harebornum literas misit suas, quibus sua maiestas significauit, quod tempore præterito quidam subditi sui venissent ad nostram portam excelsam, et suam obedientiam erga eam demonstrauissent, et ob eam causam illis quoque ad nostras ditiones mercandi gratia venire et redire poscerent venia et potestas fuisset data: et quòd in locis et hospitijs eorum per mare et terram nemo auderet impedire et illis damnum facere, mandatum Cæsareum fuisset datum: et quòd hanc nostram gratiam, quam paucis hominibus suæ maiestatis demonstrauissemus, vniuersis suis subditis concederemus petebat. [Sidenote: Foedus Turcici Imperatoris cum Regina initum.] Quare, quemadmodum cum serenissimis beneuolentiam et obedientiam, seruitiáue sua demonstrantibus erga nostram portam excelsam regibus et principibus confoederatis (vt sunt rex Gallorum. Veneti, et rex Polonorum, et cæteri) pacem et foedus sanctissimum pepigimus: sic etiam cum præfata Regina amicitiam custodiendam, pacem et foedus coniunximus. Illius igitur homines, et vniuersi mercatores, sine aliquo impedimento cum suis mercibus et oneribus cunctis ad nostras ditionis Cæsareas pacificè et securè veniant, et suam exerceant mercaturam, maneant in suis statibus, et secundum suos mores negocientur. Et adhæc, sua maiestas significabat ex hominibus suis aliquos iamdudum captos fuisse, et in captiuitate detineri, et quod hi dimitterentur petebat, et quòd sicut alijs principibus nobiscum confoederatis priuilegia et mandate Cæsarea super foedus sanctissimum dedissemus, sic præfatæ quoque Reginæ priuilegium et mandata Cæsareæ vt daremus, nostræ Cæsareæ celsitudini placeret. Quare secundùm nostram beneuolentiam et gratiam innatam, optata suæ maiestatis apud nos grata fuere: Et hoc nostrum priuilegium iustitijs plenum dedimus maiestata suæ: Et Beglerbegis, Zanziacbegis famulis nostris, et Kazijs, id est, iudicibus, et omnibus teloniatoribus omnium locorum, portuum, et vadorum firmiter mandamus, vt donec ex parte præfatæ reginæ foedus, et pax, et eorum conditiones articulíque (vt conuenit) custodiuntur et seruantur, nostræ quóque Cæsareæ celsitudinis mandata sunt: [Sidenote: Articuli huius priuilegij.] 1 Vt præfatæ Reginæ homines, et subditi eius quibusuis rebus et mercibus, oneribus et suppellectilibus per mare in magnis et paruis nauibus, per terram autem homines cum oneribus et pecoribus, securè et pacificè ad nostras ditiones Cæsareas veniant, et nemo illis noceat, sed securè et sine aliquo impedimento negocientur, et in suis statibus et conditionibus permaneant. 2 Item, si præfeti homines et mercatores in suis rectis vijs et negociationibus aliquo modo caperentur, sine aliqua tergiuersatione dimittantur liberentúrque. 3 Item, si naues eorum ad aliquos portus et loca venire voluerint, pacificè omni in tempore, et sine impedimento veniant, et discedant in sua loca. 4 Item, si in tempestatibus maris naues eorum essent in periculo et auxilio opus esset illis, naues nostræ Cæsareæ celsitudinis, earúmque homines, et aliornm naues hominésque statim auxilium et opem ferant illis, mandamus. 5 Item, si edulia suis pecunijs emere voluerint, nemo resistat illis, sed sine impedimento edulia emant. 6 Item, si infortunium maris naues eorum in terram proiecerit, Begi et iudices, et cæteri nostri subditi sint auxilio illis, merces et res eorum quæ remanserint iterum reddantur illis, et nemo impediat illos. 7 Item, si præfatæ reginæ homines, eorum interpretes, et mercatores, siue per terram, siue per mare mercandi gratiâ ad nostras ditiones venire velint, legitimo telonio, et vectigali reddito, pacificè vagentur, capitanei et reges maris et nauium, et aliud genus hominum per mare vagantium in personis, et rebus eorum, pecoribúsque, ne noceant illis. 8 Item, si aliquis ex Anglis debitor, aut ære alieno esset obstrictus, inueniríque non possit, ratione debitorum alterius nullus nisi esset fideiussor capiatur aut impediatur. 9 Item, si Anglus testamentum fecerit, et sua bona cuicúnque legauerit, illi dentur bona illius, et si sine testamento moreretur, consul eorum cuicúnque sociorum mortui hominis dixerit debere dari, illi, dentur bona mortui hominis. 10 Item, si Angli, et ad Angliam pertinentium locorum mercatores et interpretes, in vendendis et emendis mercibus fideiussionibus et rebus aliquid negocij habuerint, ad iudicem veniant, et in librum inscribi faciant negotium, et si voluerint, literas quóque accepiant à iudice, propterea quòd si aliquid inciderit, videant librum et literas, et secundum tenorem eorum perficiantur negocia eorum suspecta: si autem néque in librum inscriberentur, néque literas haberent, iudex falsa testimonia non admittat, sed secundúm iustitiam legem administrans non sinat illos impediri. 11 Item, si aliquis disceret, quod isti Christiani nostræ fidei Muzulmanicæ male dixerint, et eam vituperijs affecerint, in hoc negocio etiam et alijs, testes falsi minimè admittantur. 12 Item, si aliquis eorum aliquod facinus patraret, et fugiens non possit inueniri, nullus nisi esset fideiussor pro alterius facto retineatur. 13 Item, si aliquod mancipium Anglicum inueniretur, et consul eorum peteret illud, examinetur diligenter mancipium, et si inuentum fuerit Anglicum, accipiatur, et reddatur Anglis. 14 Item, si aliquis ex Anglis huc venerit habitandi aut mercandi gratiâ, sine sit vxoratus, siue sit sine vxore, non saluat censum. 15 Item, si in Alexandria, in Damasco, in Samia, in Tunis, in Tripoli occidentali, in Aegypti portubus et in alijs omnibus locis, vbicúnque voluerint facere Consules, faciant: Et iterum si voluerint eos mutare, et in loco priorum consulum alios locare, liberè faciant, et nemo illis resistat. 16 Item, si illorum interpres in arduis negotijs occupatis abesset, donec veniret interpres, expectetur, et interem nemo illos impediat. 17 Item, si Angli inter se aliquam litem haberent et vellent ad suos consules ire, nemo resistat illis, sed liberè veniant ad Consules suos, vt secundùm mores eorum finiatur lis orta. 18 Item, si post tempus aut datum huius priuilegij, piratæ, aut alij aliqui liberi gubernatores nauium per mare vagarites, aliquem ex Anglis ceperint, et trans mare vel cis mare venderint, secundùm iustitiam examinetur: et si Anglus inuentus fuerit, et religionem Muzulmanicam assumpserit, liberè dimittatur: si autem adhuc esset Christianas, Anglis reddatur, et emptores suam pecuniam ab illo petant, à quo emerant. 19 Item, si nostræ Cæsareæ Celsitudinis naues armatæ exiuerint ad mare, et ibi inuenerint naues Anglicas merces portantes, nemo impediat illas, imò amicè tractentur, et nullum damnum faciant illis: Quemadmodum Gallis, Venetis, et cæteris nobiscum con foederatis regibus, et principibus priuilegium, et articulos priuilegijs dedimus, et concessimus, simili modo his quòque Anglis priuilegium et articulos priuilegijs dedimus et concessimus, et contra legem diuinam, et hoc priuilegium, nemo vnquam aliquid audeat facere. 20 Item, si naues magnæ, et paruæ in itinere et loco vbi stant detinebuntur, nemo illos audeat impedire, sed potius auxilio sint illis. 21 Item, si latrones et fures vi raperent naues illorum nauiumque merces, magna diligentia quærantu latrones et fures, et seuerissimè puniantur. 23 Ad extremum, Beglerbegij, et Zanziaebegi, Capitanei nostri, Mancipia, et per mare nauigantes serui Capitaneorum, et Indices, et Teloniatores nauium Reiz dicti, et liberi Rez, omnes isti præfati, secundum tenorem huius priuilegij, tenorémue articulorum eius, omnia facere teneantur, et debeæt. Et donec hoc in priuilegio descriptum foedus, et pax illius Maiestatis ex parte sanctè seruabitur, et custodietur, ex parte etiam nostra Cæsarea custodiri, et obseruari mandamus. Datum Constantinopoli, anno nostri prophetæ Sanctissimi 988, in principio mensis Iunij, anno autem Iesu 1580. The iterpretation of the letters, or priuilege of the most mightie and Musumanlike Emperour Zuldan Murad Can, granted at the request of Elizabeth by the grace of the most mightie God, and only Creator of heauen and earth, of England, France and Ireland Queene, confirming a peace and league betwixt both the said Princes and their subiects. We most sacred Musolmanlike Emperor, by the infinite and exceeding great power, by the euerlasting and wonderfull clemencie, and by the vnspeakable helpe of the most mighty and most holy God, creator of all things, to be worshipped and feared with all purenesse of minde, and reuerence of speech. The prince of these present times the onely Monarch of this age, able to giue scepters to the potentates of the whole world, the shadow of the diuine mercy and grace, the distributer of many kingdoms, prouinces, townes and cities, Prince, and most sacred Emperour of Mecca, that is to say, of Gods house, of Medina, of the most glorious and blessed Ierusalem, of the most fertile Egypt, Iemen and Iouan, Eden and Canaan, of Samos the peaceable, and of Hebes, of Iabza, and Pazra, of Zeruzub and Halepia, of Caramaria and Diabekiruan, of Dulkadiria, of Babylon, and of all the three Arabias, of the Euzians and Georgians, of Cyprus the rich, and of the kingdomes of Asia, of Ozakior, of the tracts of the white and blacke Sea, of Grecia and Mesopotamia, of Africa and Goleta, of Alger, and of Tripolis in the West, of the most choise and principall Europe, of Buda and Temeswar, and of the kingdomes beyond the Alpes, and many other such like, most mightie Murad Can, the sonne of the Emperour Zelim Can, which was the sonne of Zoleiman Can, which was the sodne of Zelim Can, which was the sonne of Paiizid Can, which was the sonne of Mehemed Can, &c. We most mightie prince Murad Can, in token of our Imperiall friendship, doe signifie and declare, that now of late Elizabeth Queene of England, France and Ireland, the most honourable Queene of Christendom (to whose marchants we wish happy successe) sent her letters by her worthy seruant William Hareborne vnto our stately and most magnificent Porch replenished with iustice, which is a refuge and Sanctuary to all the prince of the world, by which letters her Maiestie signified, that whereas heretofore certaine of her subiects had repaired to our saide stately Porche, and had shewed their obedience to the same, and for that cause had desired that leaue and libertie might also be granted vnto them, to come and goe for traffiques sake too and from our dominions, and that our Imperial commandement might be giuen, that no man should presume to hurt or hinder them, in any of their abodes or passages by sea or land, and whereas shee requested that we would graunt to all her subiects in generall, this our fauour, which before wee had extended onely to a fewe of her people: therefore as we haue entred into amitie, and most holy league with the most excellent kings and princes our confederates, shewing their deuotion, and obedience or seruices towards our stately Porch (as namely the French king, the Venetians, the king of Polonia and others) so also we haue contracted an inuiolable amitie, peace and league with the aforesaid Queene, Therefore wee giue licence to all her people, and marchants, peaceably and safely to come vnto our imperiall dominions, with all their marchandise and goods without any impeachment, to exercise their traffique, to vse their owne customes, and to buy and sell according to the fashions of their owne countrey. And further her Maiestie signified vnto vs, that certaine of her people had heretofore bene taken prisoners, and were detained in captiuitie, and required that they might bee set at libertie, and that as we had graunted vnto other Princes our confederats, priuileges, and Imperiall decrees, concerning our most inuiolable league with them, so it would please our Imperial Maiesty to graunt and confirme the like priuiledges, and princely decrees to the aforesaid Queene. Wherefore according to our humanitie and gracious ingraffed disposition, the requests of her Maiestie we accepted of vs, and we haue granted vnto her Maiestie the priuilege of ours agreeable to reason and equitie. And we straightly command all our Beglerbegs, and Zanziacbegs our seruants, and our Reyz, that is to say, our Iudges, and all our customers in all places, hauens and passages, that as long as this league and amitie with the conditions, and articles thereof, are kept and obserued on the behalfe of the aforesaid Queene. 1 Our Imperiall commandement and pleasure is, that the people and subiects of the same Queene, may safely and securely come to our princely dominions, with their goods and marchandise, and ladings, and other commodities by sea in great and smal vessels, and by land with their carriages and cattels, and that no man shall hurt them, but they may buy and sell without any hinderance, and obserue the customes and orders of their owne countrey. 2 Item, if the aforesaid people and marchants shalbe at any time in the course of their iourneis and dealings by any meanes taken, they shall be deliuered and inlarged, without any excuse or cauillation. 3 Item, if their ships purpose to arriue in any of our ports and hauens, it shalbe lawfull for them so to do in peace, and from thence againe to depart, without any let or impediment. 4 Item, if it shall happen that any of their ships in tempestuous weather shall bee in danger of losse and perishing, and thereupon shall stand in need of our helpe, we will, and commaund that our men and ships be ready to helpe and succour them. 5 Item, if they shalbe willing to buy any victuals for their money, no person shall withstande them, but they shall buy the same without any disturbance to the contrary. 6 Item, if by any casualtie their shippes shall bee driuen on shoare in perill of shipwracke, our Begs and Iudges, and other our Subiects shall succour them, and such wares, and goods of theirs as shall bee recouered from the losse, shall bee restored to them, and no man shall wrong them. 7 Item, if the people of the aforesayd Queene, their interpreters and marchants, shall for traffique sake, either by lande or Sea repaire to our dominions paying our lawfull toll and custome, they shall haue quiet passage, and none of our Captaines or gouernours of the Sea, and shippes, nor any kinde of persons, shall either in their bodies, or in their goods and cattells, any way molest them. 8 Item, If any Englishman shall grow in debt, and so owe money to any other man, and thereupon doth absent himselfe that he can not be found, let no man be arrested or apprehended for any other mans debt, except he be surety. 9 Item, if any Englishman shall make his will and testament to whom soeuer by the same hee shall giue his goods, the partie shall haue them accordingly, and if hee die intestate, hee to whom the Consull or gouernour of the societie shall say the goods of the dead are to bee giuen, hee shall haue the same. 10 Item, if the Englishmen or the marchants and interpreters of any places vnder the iurisdiction of England shall happen in the buying and selling of wares, by promises or otherwise to come in controuersie, let him go to the Iudge, and cause the matter to be entred into a booke, and if they wil, let them also take letters of the Iudge testifying the same, that men may see the booke and letters, whatsoeuer thing shall happen, and that according to the tenour thereof the matter in controuersie and in doubt may be ended: but if such things be neither entred in booke, nor yet the persons haue taken letters of the Iudge, yet he shall admit no false witnesse, but shall excute the Law according to iustice, and shall not suffer them to be abused. 11 Item, if any man shall say, that these being Christians haue spoken any thing to the derogation of our holy faith and religion, and haue slandered the same, in this matter as in all others, let no false witnesses in any case be admitted. 12 Item, if any one of them shall commit any great crime, and flying thereupon cannot bee found, let no man be arrested, or detained for another mans fact, except he be his suretie. 13 Item, if any slaue shall be found to be an Englishmen and their Consull or gouernour shall sue for his libertie, let the same slaue be diligently examined, and if hee be found in deed to be English, let him be discharged and restored to the Englishmen. 14 Item, if any Englishman shall come hither either to dwel or trafique, whether hee be married or vnmarried, he shall pay no polle or head money. 15 Item, if either in Alexandria, Damasco, Samos, Tunis, Tripolis, in the west, the port townes of �gypt, or in any other places, they purpose to choose to themselues Consuls or gouernours, let them doe so, and if they will alter them at any time, and in the roome of the former Consuls place others, and let them do so also, and no man shall restraine them. 16 Item, if their interpreter shalbe at any time absent, being occupied in other serious matters, let the thing then in question bee stayed and differed till his comming, and in the meane time no man shall trouble them. 17 Item, if any variance or controuersie shall arise among the Englishmen, and thereupon they shall appeale to their Counsuls or gouernours, let no man molest them, but let them freely doe so, that the controuersie begunne may be finished according to their owne customes. 18 Item, if after the time and date of this priuilege, any pirats or other free gouernours of ships trading the Sea shall take any Englishman, and shall make sale of him, either beyonde the Sea or on the side of the Sea, the matter shalbe examined to iustice, and if the partie shalbe found to be English, and shall receiue the holy religion, then let him freely be discharged, but if he wil still remaine a Christian, let him then be restored to the Englishmen, and the buyers shall demaund their money againe of them who solde the man. 19. Item, if the ships of warre of our Imperiall highnesse shal at anytime goe forth to Sea, and shall finde any English ships laden with merchandise, no man shall hidder them, but rather shall vse them friendly, and doe them no wrong, euen as wee haue giuen and granted articles, and priuileges to the French, Venetians, and other Kings and princes our confederates, so also wee haue giuen the like to the English: and contrary to this our diuine lawe and priuilege, let no man presume to doe any thing. 20 Item, if either their great or small ships shall in the course of their voyage, or in any place to which they come, bee stayed or arrested, let no man continue the same arrest, but rather helpe and assist them. 21 Item, if any theeues and robbers shall by force take away any of their ships, and marchandise, let the same theeues and robbers be sought and searched for with all diligence, and let them be punished most seuerely. 22 Last of all the Beglerbegs, and Zanziacbegs, our Captaines, our slaues and seruants of Captaines vsing the sea, and our Iudges, customers and gouernours of ships called Reiz, and free Reiz, all these, according to the tenor of this priuilege and articles, shalbe bound to doe accordingly: and as long as the Queene of England on her part shall duely keepe and obserue this league and holy peace, expressed in this priuilege, we also for our Imperial part, do charge and commaund the same so long to be straightly kept and obserued. Giuen at Constantinople, in the 988. yeere of our most holy prophet, in the beginning of the moneth of Iune, And in the yeere of Iesus 1580. * * * * * Her Maiesties, letter to the Turke or Grand Signior 1581. promising redresse of the disorders of Peter Baker of Ratcliffe, committed in the Leuant. Elizabeth by the diuine grace of the eternall God, of England, France and Ireland most sacred Queene, and of the most Christian faith, against all the prophaners of his most holy Name the zealous and mightie defendour, &c. To the most renowned and emperious Cæsar, Sultan Murad Can, Emperour of all the dominions of Turkie, and of all the East Monarchie chiefe aboue all others whosoeuer, most fortunate yeeres with the successe of al true happinesse. As with very great desire we wish and embrace the loue and amitie of forreine Princes, and in the same by al good dueties and meanes we seeke to bee confirmed: so to vs there may bee nothing more grieuous and disliking, then that any thing should happen through the default of our Subiects, which any way might bring our faith and fidelitie into suspition: Although wee are not ignorant how many good princes, by the like misaduenture be abused, where the doings of the Subiects are imputed to the want of good gouernment. But such mutters of importance and so well approued we may not omit: such is to vs the sacred estimation of our honour, and of our Christian profession, as we would the same should appeare as well in the concluding of our promises and agreements, as in the faithfull performing of the same. The matter which by these our letters wee specially beholde, is a most iniurious and grieuous wrong which of late came vnto our vnderstanding, that should be done vnto certaine of your subiects by certaine of our Subiects, at yet not apprehended: but with all seueretie vpon their apprehension they are to be awarded for the same. [Footnote: This was Baker of Ratcliffe, who with the barke called the Roe, robbed certaine Grecians in the Leuant.] And as the deede in it selfe is most wicked, so it is much more intollerable, by how much it doeth infringe the credit of our faith, violate the force of our authoritie, and impeach the estimation of our word faithfully giuen vnto your Imperiall dignitie. In which so great a disorder if wee should not manifest our hatred towardes so wicked and euill disposed persons, we might not onely most iustly be reproued in the iudgement of all such as truely fauour Iustice, but also of all Princes the patrones of right and equitie, might no lesse be condemned. That therefore considered, which of our parts is ordained in this cause which may be to the good liking of your highnesse, we are most especially to request of your Imperiall Maiestie, that through the default and disorder of a son of euill and wicked disposed persons, you wil not withdraw your gratious fauour from vs, neither to hinder the traffique of our Subiects, which by virtue of your highnesse sufferance, and power of your licence are permitted to trade into your dominion and countreys or that either in their persons or goods they be preiudiced in their traueyling by land or by water, promising vnto your greatnesse most faithfully, that the goods whereof your subiects by great wrong and violence haue bene spoyled, shall wholly againe be restored, if either by the liues or possessions of the robbers it may any way be brought to passe: And that hereafter (as now being taught by this euill example) wee will haue speciall care that none vnder the title of our authoritie shall be suffered to commit any the like wrongs or iniuries. Neither they which haue committed these euil parts had any power vnder your highnesse safeconduct graunted vnto our subiects, but from some other safeconduct whether it were true or fained, we knowe not, or whether they bought it of any person within the gouernment of Marseils: but vnder the colour thereof they haue done that, which the trueth of our dealing doeth vtterly abhorre. Notwithstanding howsoeuer it be, wee will surely measure their euill proceedings with most sharpe and iust correction, and that it shall repent them of the impeachment of our honours, as also it shalbe an example of our indignation, that others may dread at all times, to commit the like offence. Wherefore that our amitie might be continued, as if this vnfortunate hap had neuer chanced, and that the singuler affection of our Subiects towardes your Imperiall Maiestie vowed, and dayly more and more desired, might be conserued and defended, we thereunto do make our humble suite vnto your greatnesse: And for so great goodnesse towardes vs and our people granted, doe most humbly pray vnto the Almightie creatour of heauen and earth, euer to maintaine and keepe your most renowned Maiestie in all happinesse and prosperitie. Dated at our palace of Greenewich the 26. of Iune, Anno 1581. * * * * * The letters patents, or priuileges graunted by her Maiestie to Sir Edward Osborne, Master Richard Staper, and certaine other Marchants of London for their trade into the dominions of the great Turke, in the yeere 1581. Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. To all our Officers, ministers, and Subiects, and to all other people as well within this our Realme of England, as else where vnder our obeysance, iurisdiction, or otherwise, vnto whom these our letters shall be seene, shewed or read, greeting. Where our welbeloued Subiects Edward Osborne Alderman of our Citie of London, and Richard Staper of our sayde City Merchant, haue by great aduenture and industrie, with their great costes and charges, by the space of sundry late yeeres, trauailed, and caused trauaile to bee taken, as well by secret and good meanes, as by dangerous wayes and passages both by lande and Sea, to finde out and set open a trade of Marchandize and traffique into the Lands, Islands, dominions, and territories of the great Turke, commonly called the Grand Signior, not heretofore in the memory of any man nowe liuing knowen to be commonly vsed and frequented by way of marchandise, by any the Marchants or any Subiects of vs, or our progenitours; and also haue by their like good meanes and industrie, and great charges procured of the sayde Grand Signior (in our name), amitie, safetie, and freedome, for trade and traffique of Marchandise to bee vsed, and continued by our Subiects within his sayde Dominions, whereby there is good and apparant hope and likelyhoode both that many good offices may bee done for the peace of Christendome, and reliefe of many Christians that bee or may happen to bee in thraldome or necessitie vnder the sayde Grand Signior, his vassals or Subiects, and also good and profitable vent and vtterance may be had of the commodities of our Realme, and sundry other great benefites to the aduancement of our honour, and dignitie Royall, the increase of the reuenues of our Crowne, and generall wealth of our Realme: Knowe ye, that hereupon wee greatly tendering the wealth of our people, and the incouragement of our Subiects in their good enterprises for the aduancement of the Common weale, haue of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, giuen and graunted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successours, doe giue and graunt vnta our sayd trustie, and welbeloued Subiects Edward Osborne, and vnto Thomas Smith of London Esquier, Richard Staper, and William Garret of London Marchants, their executors, and administrators, and to the executours and administratours of them, and of euery of them, that they, and euery of them, and such other person and persons Englishmen borne, not exceeding the number of twelue, as they the sayde Edward, and Richard shall appoint, nominate, or admit to be parteners, aduenturers, or doers with them the sayde Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, in their societie by themselues, their seruants, Factours or deputies, and to such others as shall bee nominated according to the tenour of these our letters Patents, shall and may during the terme of seuen yeeres from the date of these Patents, freely trade, traffique, and vse feates of Marchandise into, and from the dominions of the sayde Grand Signior, and euery of them, in such order, and maner, forme, liberties and condition to all intents and purposes as shalbe betweene them limitted, and agreed, and not otherwise, without any molestation, impeachment, or disturbance, any Lawe, statute, vsage, diuersitie of religion or faith, or other cause or matter whatsoeuer to the contrary notwithstanding. And that it shalbe lawful to the said Edward and Richard their executors and administrators, (during the said terme) to appoint or admit to be parteners and aduenturers with them the sayde Edward, Thomas, Richard and William; such persons not exceeding the number of twelue (as afore is said) to trafique and vse the said trade and feat of marchandise according to our saide graunt. And that all and euery such person and persons, as shall hereafter fortune to bee appointed or admitted as parteners in the saide trade or trafique according to these our letters patents, shall and may from the time of such appointment or admittance, haue and enioy the freedome and libertie of the said trade and trafique during the residue of the said terme of seuen yeeres, according to such limitation and agreement as is aforesaide, and that it shall and may be lawfull to and for the saide Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, their executours and administratours, seruants factours and deputies, and all such as shall be so appointed, nominated or admitted, to be parteners or aduenturers in the saide trade, or so many of them as can and will, to assemble themselues for or about any the matters, causes, affaires or businesse of the saide trade, in any place or places for the same conuenient, from time to time during the said terme of 7. yeeres, within our dominions or elsewhere, and to make, ordeine, and constitute reasonable lawes and ordinances, for the good gouernment of the said Company, and for the better aduancement and continuance of the said trade, and trafique, not being contrary or repugnant to the lawes, estatutes or customes of our Realme, and the same lawes or ordinances so made to put in vse, and execute accordingly, and at their pleasures to reuoke the same lawes and ordinances, or any of them, as occasion shall require. And in consideration that the said Edward Osborne hath bene the principall setter foorth and doer in the opening, and putting in vse of the said trade, we do therefore especially ordeine, constitute, and prouide by these patents, that the saide Edward Osborne shall be gouernour of all such as by vertue of these our letters patents, shall be parteners, aduenturers, or trafiquers in the said trade, during the said terme of seuen yeeres, if he so long liue: And that if the saide Edward shall happen to decease during the saide terme, the saide Richard Staper then liuing, then the said Richard Staper shall likewise be gouernour during the residue of the said terme (if he so long liue) and that if the said Edward and Richard shall both happen to decease during the said terme, then the partners or aduenturers for the time being, or the greatest, part of them, shall from time to time as necessitie shall require, choose and elect a gouernour of the said Company. Prouided alwayes, that if there shall happen any great or vrgent occasion to remoue or displace any person that shall be gouernour of the saide fellowship, that then it shall, and may be lawfull for vs, our heires and successours, to remooue, and displace euery such gouernour, and to place another of the said fellowship in the same office, during such time as such person should haue enioyed the same, according to this our graunt, if there had bene no cause to the contrary. And we further for vs, our heires, and successors, of our especiall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, do graunt to the said Edward Osborne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, their executors and administrators, that nothing shall bee done to be of force or validitie touching the sayde trade or trafique, or the exercise thereof, without or against the consent of the saide Edward, during such time as hee shall bee Gouernour as afore is saide. And after that time without the consent of the Gouernour for the time being, and the more part of the said Company. And further, wee of our more ample and abundant grace, meere motion and certame knowledge, haue graunted, and by these patents for vs, our heires and successors, doe graunt to the saide Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, their executors and administrators, that they, the saide Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, their executors and administrators, and the said person and persons, by them the said Edward and Richard to be nominated, or appointed as afore is said, together, with such two other persons, as wee our heires or successors from time to time during the sayd terme shall nominate, shall haue the whole trade and trafique, and the whole entire onely libertie, vse and priuilege of trading, and trafiquing, and vsing feate of marchandise, into, and from the said dominions of the said Grand Signior, and euery of them. And when there shall be no such persons so nominated or appointed by vs, our heires or successors, that then the said Edward Osborne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, their executors and administrators, and such persons by them so to be appointed, shall haue the saide whole trade and trafique, and the whole entire, and onely libertie, vse, and priuilege of trading and trafiquing aforesaid. And that they the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, their executors and administrators, and also al such as shal so be nominated or appointed to be partners or aduenturers in the said trade, according to such agreement as is abouesaid, and euery of them, their seruants, factors and deputies, shal haue ful and free authoritie, libertie, facultie, licence and power to trade and trafique into and from all and euery of the saide dominions of the saide Grand Signior, and into, and from all places where, by occasion of the said trade, they shall happen to arriue or come, whether they be Christians, Turkes, Gentiles or other, and into, and from all Seas, riuers, ports, regions, territories, dominions, coastes, and places with their ships, barks, pinnesses and other vessels, and with such mariners and men, as they will lead with them or send for the said trade, as they shall thinke good at their owne proper cost and expenses, any law, statute, vsage, or matter whatsoeuer to the contrary notwistanding. And that it shalbe lawful for the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, and to the person aforesaid, and to and for the mariners and seamen to bee vsed and employed in the said trade and voyage to set and place in the tops of their ships and other vessels the armes of England with the red crosse ouer the same, as heretofore, they haue vsed the red crosse, any matter or thing to the contrary notwithstanding. And we of our further royall fauor, and of our especiall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion haue graunted, and by these presents doe graunt to the said Edward Osburne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, their executors and administrators by these presents, that the said lands, territories, and dominions of the said Grand Signior, or any other of them, shall not be visited, frequented, nor haunted by way of marchandise by any other our subiects during the said terme, contrary to the true meaning of these patents. And by vertue of our high prerogatiue royall (which wee will not haue argued or brought in question) we straightly charge and commaund, and prohibite for vs, our heires, and successours, all our subiects (of what degree or qualitie soeuer they be) that none of them directly, or indirectly, do visite, haunt, frequent or trade, trafique, or aduenture by way of marchandise into, or from any of the Dominions Of the saide Grand Signior, or other places aboue sayde by water or by lande (other then the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, their executours or administrators, or such as shalbe admitted, and nominated as is aforesaide) without, expresse licence, agreement, and consent of the saide Gouernour, and company or the more part of them, whereof the said Gouernour alwayes to be one, vpon paine of our high indignation, and of forfeiture and losse, as well of the ship and shippes, with the furniture thereof, as also of the goods, marchandizes, and things whatsoeuer they be of those our Subiects which shall attempt, or presume to saile, trafigue, or aduenture, to or from any the dominions, or places abouesaid, contrary to the prohibition aforesaid: the one halfe of the same forfeiture to be to the vse of vs, our heires and successors, and the other halfe to the vse of the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, and the said companie, and further to suffer imprisonment during our pleasure, and such other punishment as to vs, for so high contempt, shal seeme meete and conuenient. And further of our grace speciall, certaine knowledge and meere motion we haue condescended and graunted, and by these patents for vs, our heires and successors, doe condescend and graunt to the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, their executors and administrators, that we our heires and successors during the said terme, will not graunt liberty, licence or power to any person or persons whatsoeuer, contrary to the tenor of these our letters patents, to saile, passe, trade, or trafique into or from the said dominions of the said Grand Signior or any of them, without the consent of the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, and such as shalbe named or appointed as afore is said, or the most of them. And that if at any time hereafter during the said terme, the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, or the suruiuors of them, shal admit or nominate any of our subiects to be partners and aduenturers in the said trade to the number of 12. or vnder as afore is said, that, then we our heires and successors at the instance and petition of the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, or the suruiuors of them in our Chauncerie to be made, and vpon the sight of these presents, will grant and make to the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, of to the suruiuors of them, and to such persons as so shall be nominated or appointed by their speciall names, surnames, and additions as is aforesaid, new letters patents vnder the great seale of England in due forme of law with like agreements, clauses, prohibitions, prouisoes and articles (mutatis mutandis) as in these our letters patents are conteined, for, and during the residue of the said terme of seuen yeres then remaining vnexpired. And that the sight of these presents shalbe sufficient warrant to the Lord Chancellour, or Lord keeper of the great seale for the time being, for the making, sealing and passing of such new letters patents, without further writ or warrant for the same to be required, had, or obtained. And the said Edward Osburne, Thomas Smith, and Richard Staper, and William Garret and such others as shalbe so nominated or appointed, as is aforesaid, to be of their trade or companie; shall yeerely during 6. of the last yeres of the said 7. yeres, lade out of this our Realme, and bring home yeerely, for, and in the feate and trade of marchandizing aforesaid, so much goods and marchandizes, as the custome, and subsidie inwards and outwards, shall amount in the whole to the summe of 500. li. yeerely. So that the said Edward Osburne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret and the said persons so to be nominated as is aforesaid, or any of them, or their ship or shippes be not barred, stayed, restrained or let by any reasonable occasion from the saide trade or trafique, and so that the said ship or ships do not perish by any misfortune, or bee spoyled by the way in their voyage. And further, the said Edward Osborne; Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, and such others as shall be appointed as aforesaide to be of their said trade or Company, shall giue notice vnto the Lord Admirall of England, or to some of the principall officers of the Admiraltie for the time being, of such ship or shippes as they shall set foorth in the same voyage, and of the number of Mariners appointed to goe in the same ship or shippes, by the space of fifteene dayes before the setting or going foorth of the same ship or shippes. And also the said Edward Osborne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper and William Garret, and such other as shall be by them the saide Edward and Richard, nominated to be of the said trade, shall and will at the setting foorth of their ship, or shippes, for the same voyage, permit and suffer the Master of the Ordinance of vs, our heires and successors, or some others, our or their principall officers of the Ordinance, to take a view of the number and quantitie of such Ordinance, power, and munition as shall be caried in the said ship, or shippes, and shall also at the returne of the same ship, or shippes, suffer a view to be taken, and vpon request made, make an accompt to the saide officers of our Ordinance, of the expenses, and wastes of the said Ordinance, power, and munition, so to bee caried in the same ship, or shippes. Prouided alwayes, that if any of the said trade or Company, or their seruants, factors, or sailers, in any ship by them laden, shall commit any piracie or outrage vpon the seas, and that, if the said Company or societie shall not, or do not, within reasonable time, after complaint made, or notice giuen to the said Company, or to any of them, either satisfie or recompense the parties that so shall fortune to be robbed, or spoiled by any of the said Company, or sailers, in the said ships, or else shall not do their endeuour to the vttermost oftheir reasonable power, to haue the parties so offending punished for the same their offences, that then, and from thencefoorth, these present letters patents shall be vtterly voyd, cease, and determine. Prouided likewise, that if it shall hereafter appeare vnto vs, our heires, or successors that this grant, or the continuance thereof in the whole, or in any part thereof, shall not be profitable to vs, our heires, our successors, or to this our Realme, that then, and from thencefoorth, vpon, and after one full yeeres warning, to be giuen vnto the said Company, or to the Gouernour thereof, by vs, our heires or successors, this present grant shall cease, be voyd, and determine, to all intents, constructions, and purposes. Prouided also, that we, our heires and successors, from time to time, during the said 7. yeeres, may lawfully nominate, appoint, and authorise two persons, being fit men, to be of the saide company, and for want or lacke of them, two others to be aduenturers in the said trade, for such stocke and summe of money, as they shall put in, so that the said persons to bee nominated, or authorised, shall be contributorie to all charges of the said trade and aduenture indifferently, according to their stockes: and as other aduenturers of the said trade shall doe for their stockes, and so that likewise they doe obserue the orders of the said Company, allowable by this our graunt, and that such persons so to be appointed by vs, our heires or successors, shall and may, with the saide Company, and fellowship, vse the trade and feate of marchandise aforesaide, and all the liberties and priuileges herein before granted, according to the meaning of these our letters patents, any thing in these our letters patents contained to the contrary notwithstanding. And further of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, we haue condescended and granted, and by these presents for vs, our heires and successors, doe condescend, and grant to the said Edward Osborne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, their executors, and administrators, that if at the ende of the said terme of seuen yeeres, it shall seeme meete, and conuenient vnto the saide Edward Osborne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, or the suruiuer of them, that this present grant shall be continued: and if that also it shall appeare vnto vs, our heires, or successors, that the continuance thereof shall not be preiudiciall, or hurtfull to this our Realme, that then we, our heires, or successors, at the instance and petition of the said Edward Osborne, Thomas Smith, Richard Staper, and William Garret, or the suruiuor of them, to be made to vs, our heires, or successors, wil grant and make to the said Edward, Thomas, Richard and William, or the suruiuor of them, and to such other persons, as so shall be by the said Edward and Richard nominated and appointed, new letters patents, vnder the great seale of England, in due forme of lawe, with like couenants, grants, clauses, and articles, as in these presents are contained, or with addition of other necessary articles, or change of these, in some part, for and during the full terme of seuen yeeres then next following. Willing, and straightly commanding, and charging all and singuler our Admirals, Viceadmirals, Justices, Maiors, Sheriffes Escheaters, Constables, Bailiffes, and all and singuler our other officers, ministers, liege men, and subiects whatsoeuer, to be aiding, fauouring, helping, and assisting vnto the said Gouernour, and company, and their successors, and to their Deputies, officers, seruants, assignes, and ministers, and euery of them, in executing and enioying the premisses, as well on land as on sea, from time to time, and at all times when you, or any of you, shall be thereunto required, any statute, act, ordinance, prouiso, proclamation, or restraint heretofore had, made, set forth, ordained, or prouided, or any other matter, cause or thing to the contrary, in any wise notwithstanding. In witnesse whereof we haue caused these our letters to be made patents, witnesse our selfe, at Westminster, the 11. day of September, in the 23. yeere of our raigne. * * * * * The Queenes Commission vnder the great seale, to her seruant master William Hareborne, to be her maiesties Ambassadour or Agent, in the partes of Turkie. 1582. Elizabetha, Dei optimi Maximi, conditoris, et rectoris vnici clementia, Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ Regina, veræ fidei contra Idololatras falso Christi nomen profitentes inuicta et potentissima propugnatrix, vniuersis, et singulis præsentes has literas visuris, et inspecturis, salutem. Cùm, augustissimus, et inuictissimus princeps, Zuldan Murad Can, Turcici regni Dominator potentissimus imperiíque Orientis Monarcha, foedus, amicitiámque nobiscum percusserit, iurauerítque, (quam nos perpetuis futuris temporibus, quantum in nobis erit; inuiolatè seruare destinamus) ad eámque magis ornandam, illustrandámque concesserit idem augustissimus Imperator subditis nostris liberam suas merces excercendi rationem in omnibus Musulmanici imperij sui partibus, cum tam ampla priuilegorum concessione, quàm alijs bonis principibus, socijs, et foederatis nostris largitus est, quoram priuilegiorum donationem nos gratam, acceptámque habentes, pari cum animi gratitudine colere certum habemus deliberatúmque, nihil, in votis, habentes potiùs, quàm bonorum erga nos principum animos beneuolos honoratissima mente fouere, promereríque: Sciatis, nos de singulari erga nos, obsequiúmque nostrum, fide, obseruantia, prudentia, et dextaitate multum nobis chari Guilielmi Hareborne, è custodibus corporis nostri vnius, plurimùm confidentes, eum Oratorem, Nuntium, Procuratorem, et Agentem nostrum certum et indubitatum ordinamus, facimus, et constituimus, per præsentes: dantes ei, et concedentes potestatem, et authoritatem, nomine nostro, et pro nobis prædictum amicitiæ foedus confirmandi, priuilegiorum concessionem in manus suas capiendi, ratámque habendi, omnibus et singulis subditis nostris, Musulmanicis oris terrísque negotiantibus, pro Maiestatis nostræ authoritate præscipiendi, mandaníque, vt sint in suis commercijs, quamdiu, quotiésque cum Mansulmanicis versantur, dictorum, priuilegiorum præscripto obtemperantes in omnibus, ac per omnia, ad obsequia tanta amicitia digna se componentes, ac in delinquentes in foedus nostrum iustitiam exequatur. Potestatem, et authoritatem ei damus in omnes, et singulos subditos nostros in quibuscunque et locis, et partibus Musulmanici Imperij dominationi subiectis negotiantes, constituendi emporiorum suorum sedes in quibus voluerit portubus, et ciuitatibus, in alijs vetandi, in constitutis autem emporiorum sedibus, consules curandi, leges præceptionésque ferendi, condendique, quarum ex præscripto dicti nostri subditi, et eorum quilibet sese publicè, et priuatim gerant, eorum violatores corrigendi, castigandíque omnia denique et singula faciendi, perimplendíque, quæ ad dictorum subditorum nostrorum honestam gubernationem, et commercij exercendi in illis partibus rationem pertinent: promittentes bona fide, et in verbo Regio, nos ratum, gratum, et firmum habituas, quæcunque dictus Orator, et Agens noster, à legibus nostris non abhorrentia in præmissis aut præmissorum aliquo fecerít. In cuius rei testimonium, has literas nostras fieri fecimus patentes, et sigilli nostri impressione iussimus muniri. Datum è castro nostro Windesoriæ, 20. die Mensis Nouembris, Anno Iesu Christi 1582. regni verò nostri, vicesimo quarto. The same in English. Elizabeth, by the clemencie of the most good and most great God, the only creator and gouernour of all things, Queene of England, France, and Ireland, inuincible, and most mightie defender of the true faith, against all Idolaters falsly professing the name of Christ, to all and singuler persons, to whose sight and view these our present letters may come, greeting. Whereas the most renowmed, and most inuincible Prince Zuldan Marad Can, the most mighty gouernour of the kingdom of Turkie, and Monarch of the East Empire, hath entered into league and friendship with vs, (which we for our part, as much as lieth in vs, doe purpose solemnly, and inuiolablie to keepe in all times to come) and whereas for the better countenancing and authorizing of the same, the foresayd renowmed Emperour hath graunted vnto our subiects free libertie of traffique, in all the partes of his sacred Empire, with as ample and large a grant of priuileges, as is giuen to other good Princes our neighbours and confederates, the grant of which priuileges, we taking very thankfully, and acceptably, are certainely, and throughly determined to keepe and mainetaine, with the like goodnesse and curtesie of minde, desiring nothing more, then with an honourable respect to nourish, and deserue the beneuolent affections of good Princes toward vs: Know ye, that wee thinking well, and hauing good confidence in the singular trustinesse, obedience, wisedome, and disposition of our welbeloued seruant William Hareborne, one of the Esquiers of our body, towards vs, and our seruice, doe by these presents, make, ordaine and constitute him our true and vndoubted Orator, Messenger, Deputie, and Agent. Giuing and granting vnto him power and authoritie, in our name, and for vs, to confirme the foresaid league of friendship, to take into his hands, and to ratifie the grant of the priuileges, and to command, and enioyne by the authoritie of our Maiestie, all and singular our Subiects trading and dealing in any of the coastes and kingdomes of that Empire, that as long as they remaine in traffique with his subiects, they be obedient to the prescription and order of the foresayd priuileges, applying themselues in all things, and through all things, to such duties and seruices as appertaine to so great a league and friendship, and the offenders agaynst this our league to receiue iustice, and punishment accordingly. We further giue unto him power and authoritie ouer all and singuler our Subiects, dealing, and vsing traffique in any place or part whatsoeuer, subiect to the gouernment of that Empire, to appoint the places of their traffiques, in what Hauen or Citie it shall please him, and to prohibite them from all other places, and wheresoeuer their traffiques are appointed to bee kept, there to make and create Consuls or Gouernors, to enact lawes and statutes, by the vertue and tenor whereof all our foresayd subiects, and euery one of them, shall both publikely and priuately vse and behaue themselues, to correct and punish the breakers of those lawes: and last of all, to doe and fulfill all and singular things whatsoeuer, which shall seeme requisite and conuenient for the honest and orderly gouernment of our said subiects, and of the maner of their trafique in those parts. Promising assuredly, and in the word of a Prince, that whatsoeuer shall be done of our sayd Orator and Agent, in all, or in any of the premisses, not repugnant and contrary to our lawes, shall be accepted, ratified, and confirmed by vs. In witness whereof we haue caused these our letters to be made patents, and our seale thereunto to be appensed. Giuen at our Castle of Windsore, the 20. day of Nouember, in the yeere of Christ 1582. and of our raigne the 24. * * * * * The Queenes Letter to the great Turke 1582. written in commendation of Master Hareborne, when he was sent Ambassadour. Elizabeth &c. Augustissimo inuictissimóque principi, etc Cùm ad postulatum nostrum Cæsarea vestra Maiestas, anno saluatoris nostri Iesu 1580. pacis foedus nobiscum pepigerit, coniunctum cum liberalissima priuilegiorum quorundam concessione, quorum beneficio subditi nostri cum omni securitate tutissimè liberriméque ad vniuersas et singulas Musulmanici imperij vestri partes terra maríque proficisci, in ijsque commercij exercendi gratia, negotiari, habitare, manere, exindéque ire et redire cum volent queant, ab ijs qui sub Cæsarea vestra Maiestate in magistratu sunt vbique locorum protegendi defendendíque sine vlla vel corporum, vel bonorum læsione: nos tantæ concessionis beneficium gratum acceptúmque habentes, quantum in nobis est, approbamus confirmamúsque: pollicentes in verbo regio, quod nos eandem pacem sine vlla violatione sartam tectámque conseruabimus: faciemúsque vt subditi nostri priuilegiorum sibi indultorum concessione ita vtantur, vt Cæsaream vestram Maiestatem magnificentissimæ suæ liberalitatis nunquam poenitere queat. Quoniam autem concessionis huius virtus in vsu potiùs quam verbis, Maiestatis vtriúsque nostrum sententiâ, ponenda videtur, voluimus hunc mandatarium virum Guilielmum Hareborne, ex satellitibus quibus ad corporis nostri tutelam vtimur vnum, virum compluribus virtutibus ornatum, ad Cæsaream vestram, Maiestatem ablegare, qui tum nomine nostro vobis gratias ageret; tum vt eius opera vteremur ad eam subditorum nostrorum mercimoniorum rationem stabiliendam, tam in Imperiali vestra ciuitate Constantinopoli, quàm alijs imperij vestri Musulmanici locis, quæ ex præscripto priuilegiorum, Cæsareæ vestræ Maiestatis benignítate, conceditur, et ex vsu subditorum vtriúsque nostrum erit. Ad quam rem quoniam opus illi erit Cæsareæ vestræ Maiestatis authoritate, summa contentione ab eadem rogarmus, velit id agere apud omnes qui sub se in magistratu sunt, vt quibuscunque poterunt melioribus modis huic nostro mandatario in Cæsareæ vestræ Maiestatis placito exequendo, adiutores sint et esse velint. Ei enim hanc curam demandauimus, in qua quàm fidem suam sit honestè liberaturus erga Maiestatem vtriusque nostrum neutiquam dubitamus: cui etiam, vt in omnibus sint obtemperantes nostri subditi, quantum Cæsareæ vestræ Maiestatis concessio patitur, volumus. [Sidenote: Mustafa interpres.] Præterea, cum præclarus vir Mustaia sacræ Cæsareæ vestræ Maiestatis Musulmanorum interpres egregiam nauarit operam vt hoc inter nos foedus fieret, rogamus summoperè vt in nostram gratiam eum in Mustafaracarum ordinem Cæsarea vestra Maiestas recipere dignetur. Si in his alijsque omnibus honestis causis hic noster agens subitíque nostri Imperatoriæ vestræ sublimitatis æquanimitatem senserint, florebit inter has gentes nobile commercium, et nos omnibus officijs huic vestræ Maiestatis fauori et beneuolentiæ (si vlla ratione rebus vestris commodare poterimus) respondere libentissimè semper paratæ erimus. Deus optimus maximus mundi opifex, etc. The same in English. Elizabeth by the grace of the most mightie God and only creator of heauen and earth, of England, France, and Ireland Queene, the most inuincible and most mightie defender of the Christian faith against all kind of idolatries of all that liue among the Christians and falsly professe the name of Christ, vnto the most Imperiall and most inuincible prince, Sultan Murad Can, the most mighty ruler of the kingdom of Turkie, sole aboue all, and most soueraigne Monarch of the East Empire, greeting. Whereas at our request your Imperiall Maiestie in the yeere of our Sauiour Iesus 1580. hath entered into a league of peace with vs, whereunto was vnited a most large and bountifull grant of certaine priuileges, by benefite whereof our subiects may with all securitie most safely and freely trauell by Sea and land into all and singular parts of your Musulmanlike Empire, and in the same exercising the trade of marchandise, may traffique, dwell, remaine, depart from thence, and returne thither at their pleasure, and in places be maintained and defended from all damage of bodies and goods, by such as are in authoritie vnder your Imperiall Maiestie: we thankfully and gratefully receiuing the benefite of so great a priuilege, as much as in vs lieth doe approue and confirme the same, promising in the worde of a Prince, that we will keepe the saide league perfect and inuiolable, and will cause our subiects so to vse the grant of the priuileges giuen vnto them, as your Imperiall Maiestie shall neuer haue occasion to repent you of your most princely liberalitie. [Sidenote: M. Wil. Hareborne sent ambassador to the Turke.] And because the force of this grant, in the iudgement of both our maiesties, seemeth rather to consist in the vse thereof then in the wordes, we thought good to send vnto your Imperiall maiestie this our ambassadour William Hareborne, one of the Esquiers of our body, which both on our behalfe should yeeld thanks vnto your maiestie, and also that we might vse his good indeauour for the establishing of such order in our subiects trade of merchandise, as well in your Imperiall citie of Constantinople, as in other places of your Musulmanlike Empire, as according to the prescript of the priuileges is granted by your princely maiesties goodnesse, and shall be for the benefite of both our subiects. For performance whereof because hee standeth in neede of your Imperiall Maiesties authoritie, wee earnestly beseech the same, that you would cause all those which bee in authoritie vnder your Highnesse, by all their best meanes to aide and assist this our Ambassadour in executing this your Imperiall Maiesties pleasure, for vnto him wee haue committed this charge: wherein how honestly hee will discharge his credite toward both our Maiesties, I no whit stand in doubt: to whom also our pleasure is, that all our subiects shall bee obedient, as farre as the grant of your Imperiall maiestie doeth permit. [Sidenote: A request for the preferring of Mustafa Beg.] Moreouer, whereas that woorthie personage Mustafa, your Imperiall maiesties Interpretor, hath taken speciall paines for the procuring of this league betweene vs, wee earnestly beseech you that for our sakes your Imperiall Maiestie would vouchsafe to aduance him vnto the degree of the Mustafaraks or chiefe pensioners. If in these and in all other honest causes, our aforesayde Agent and our subiectes shall finde your Imperiall Highnesses fauour, a noble traffique will flourish betweene these nations, and wee (if by any way wee may stand your State in steade) will alwayes most willingly be readie to requite this your Maiesties fauour and good will with all kinde of good offices. Almightie God the maker of the world preserue and keepe your Imperiall Maiestie, &c. * * * * * A Letter of the Queenes Maiestie to Alli Bassa the Turkes high Admirall, sent by her ambassadour M. William Hareborne, and deliuered vnto him aboord his gallie in the Arsenal. Elizabetha, &c. Illustrissimo viro Alli Bassa, magni Musulmanici Cæsaris Admiralio, salutem et successus fortunatos. Non ignotum esse Excellentiæ vestræ arbitramur, priuilegia quædam à potentissimo Cæsare Musulmanico domino vestro clementissimo subditis nostris Anglicis concessa esse, vt illis liceat in omnibus imperij Musulmarnici prouincijs tutò et securé manere ac negotiari: non aliter quàm hoc ipsum Francis, Polonis, Venetis Germanis antea indultum est. Qua ex causa nos Gulielmum Hareborne nobis dilectum, è corporis custodibus vnum, ac multis nominibus ornatum ad inclytam Constantinoplis ciuitatem pro agente misimus: qui, ex priuilegiorum prædictorum præscripto nostras et subditorum nostrorum res in illis locis constitueret. Facere igitur non potimus, quin Excellentiæ vestræ. Guilielmum hunc, pro ea qua apud magnum Cæsarem polles authoritate, commendaremus: petentes summopere vt tutò in mari sine Classiariorum vestrorum violentia, et securè in portibus absque ministrorum rapinis et iniuria, tam ipse quàm omnes Angli subditi nostri possint versori: vti pro tenore literarum patentium à magno Cæsare concessarum illis licere ex illarum conspectione perspicuum esse potest. Gratissimum ergo nobis excellentia vestra facerit, si portuum omnium, aliorúmque locorum, qui vestræ iurisdictioni parent, custodibus, item classium et nauium præfectis omnibus mandare velit, vt Guilielmus iste, aliíque Angli subditi nostri cum in illorum erunt potestate, amicè et humaniter tractarentur. Quemadmodum nos vicissim omnes magni Cæsaris subditos omni humanitatis genere tructabimus, si in Oceani maria, aliáue loca venerint, quæ nostro parent imperio. Postremo excellentiam vestram pro eo quem in nostros extendet fauore ijs omnibus officijs prosequemur, quæ à gratissima principe in optime de semerentes debent proficisci. Benè et foeliciter valeas. Datum è castro nostro Windesorij die vicessimo mensis Nouembris, Anno Iesu Christi saluatoris nostri 1582. Regni verò nostri vicessimo quarto. * * * * * A briefe Remembrance of things to be indeuoured at Constantinople, and in other places in Turkie; touching our Clothing and our Dying, and things that bee incident to the same, and touching ample vent of our naturall commodities, and of the labour of our poore people withall, and of the generall enriching of this Realme: drawen by M. Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple, and giuen to a friend that was sent into Turkie 1582. 1 Anile wherewith we colour Blew to be brought into this realme by seed or roote. 2 And the Arte of compounding of the same. 3 And also all other herbes vsed in dying in like maner to bee brought in. 4 And all Trees whose Leaues, Seedes, or Barkes, or Wood doe serue to that vse, to be brought into this realme by Seed or Roote. 5 All little Plants and Buskes seruing to that vse to be brought in. 6 To learne to know all earths and minerals forren vsed in dying, and their naturall places, for possible the like may here be found vpon sight. 7 Also with the materials vsed in dying to bring in the excellencie of the arte of dying. 8 To procure from Muhaisira a citie in �gypt to Constantinople, the seed of Sesamum the herbe, and the same into this realme. Common trade is betweene Alexandria and Constantinople, and therefore you may easily procure the seeds. Of this seed much oyle is made, and many mils set on worke about the same in the sayde Muhaisira, and if this seede may prosper in England, infinite benefite to our Clothing trade may rise by the same. This citie is situate vpon Nilus the riuer, and thence this is brought to Venice and to diuers other Cities of Italie, and to Antwerpe. 9 To note all kindes of clothing in Turkie, and all degrees of their labour in the same. 10 To endeanour rather the vent of Kersies, then of other Clothes as a thing more beneficiall to our people. 11 To endeauour the sale of such our clothes as bee coloured with our owne naturall colours as much as you can, rather then such as be coloured with forren colours. 12 To seeke out a vent for our Bonettos, a cap made for Barbarie, for that the poore people may reape great profite by the trade. 13 To endeuour vent of knit Stocks made of Norwich yarne, and of other yarne, which brought to great trade, may turne our poore people to great benefite, besides the vent of the substance, of our colours, and of our diuers labour. 14 To endeuor a vent of our Saffron for the benefit of our poore people: for a large vent found, it setteth many on worke. * * * * * Remembrances for master S. to giue him the better occasion to informe himselfe of some things in England, and after of some other things in Turkie, to the great profite of the Common weale of this Countrey. Written by the foresayd master Richard Hakluyt, for a principall English Factor at Constantinople 1582. Since all men confesse (that be not barbarously bred) that men are borne as well to seeke the common commoditie of their Countrey, as their owne priuate benefite, it may seeme follie to perswade that point, for each man meaneth so to doe. But wherein men should seeke the common commoditie, and what way, and by what meane that is to bee brought about, is the point or summe of the matter, since euery good man is ready to imploy his labour. This is to bee done by an infinite sort of meanes, as the number of things bee infinite that may be done for common benefite of the Realme. And as the chiefe things so to bee done be diuers, so are they to be done by diuers men, as they bee by wit and maner of education more fit, or lesse fit, for this and for that. And for that of many things that tend to the common benefite of the State, some tend more, and some lesse, I finde that no one thing, after one other, is greater then Clothing, and the things incident to the same. And vnderstanding that you are of right good capacitie, and become a Factor at Constantinople, and in other partes in Turkie, I finde no man fitter of all the English Factors there, then you. And therefore I am so bold to put you in minde, and to tell you wherein with some indeuour you may chaunce to doe your Countrey much good, and giue an infinite sorte of the poore people occasion to pray for you here throughout the Realme this that I meane is in matter of Cloth, &c. 1 First, you cannot denie but that this Realme yeeldeth the most fine Wooll, the most soft, the most strong Wooll, the most durable in Cloth, and most apte of nature of all other to receiue Die, and that no Island or any one kingdome so small doeth yeeld so great abundance of the same and that no Wooll is lesse subiect to mothes, or to fretting in presse, then this as the old Parliament robes of Kings, and of many noble Peeres to be shewed may plainly testifie. 2 There is no commoditie of this Realme that may set so many poore subiects on worke, as this doeth, that doeth bring in so much treasure, and so much enrich the merchant, and so much employ the Nauie of this Realme, as this commoditie of our Wooll doeth. Ample and full Vent of this noble and rich commoditie is it that the common weale of this realme doeth require. Spaine nowe aboundeth with Wools, and the same are Clothed. Turkie hath Wools, and so haue diuers prouinces of Christendome and of Heathenesse, and cloth is made of the same in diuers places. 1 But if England haue the most fine, and the most excellent Wools of the world in all respects (as it cannot bee denied, but it hath). 2 If there may bee added to the same, excellent artificiall, and true making, and excellent dying. 3 Then no doubt but that we shall haue vent for our Clothes, although the rest of the world did abound much more with Wool then it doeth, and although their workemanship and their dying were in euery degree equal with ours of England, vnlesse the labour of our people imployed that way, and the materials vsed in dying should be the cause of the contrary by dearth. But if Forren nations turne their Wools, inferiour to ours, into truer and more excellent made cloth, and shall die the same in truer, surer, and more excellent and more delectable colours, then shall they sell and make ample vent of their Clothes, when the English cloth of better wooll shall rest vnsold, to the spoyle of the Merchant, of the Clothier, and of the breeder of the wooll, and to the turning to bag and wallet of the infinite number of the poore people imploied in clothing in seuerall degrees of labour here in England. Which things wayed, I am to tell you what things I wish you in this Realme, and after in Turkie, to indeuour from time to time, as your laisure may permit the same. Before you goe out of the Realme, that you learne: 1 To know wooll, all kind of clothes made in this realme, and all other employments of wooll, home or forren, be the same in Felt clokes, felt hats, in the red knit cap for Barbarie, called Bonettos rugios colorados, or whatsoeuer, &c. All the deceits in Clothmaking; as the sorting together of Wools of seuerall natures, some of nature to shrink, some to hold out, which causeth cloth to cockle and lie vneuen. The euill sorting of threed of good or bad wooll, some tootoo [Footnote: Tootoo. The duplication is often used for the sake of emphasis. "A lesson tootoo hard for living clay." _Spenser, Faerie Queen,_ iii., iv., 26.] hard spun, some tootoo soft spun deliuered to be wouen. The faults in Weauing. The faults in Walking, [Footnote: A "Walker" is a fuller of cloth. "She curst the weaver and the walker." _Boy and Mantle, Percy Rel_., iii., 5.] Rowing, and Burling and in Racking [Footnote: Stretching. "Two lutes rack's up / To the same pitch." _The Slighted Maid_, p. 53.] the Clothes aboue measure vpon the Teintors: all which faults may be learned of honest men, which faults are to be knowen to the merchant, to be shunned and not to be vsed. 2 Then to learne of the Diers to discerne all kind of colours; as which be good and sure, and which will not hold: which be faire, which not; which colours by the dearth of the substances bee deare, and which by reason of the cheapenesse of the Materials with which they be died, be cheape colours. 3 Then to take the names of all the materials and substaunces vsed in this Citie or in the realme, in dying of cloth or silke. To learne to know them, as which be good, which bad. And what colours they die. And what prices they be of. And of them which bee the Naturals of this Realme, and in what part of the Realme they are to be had. And of all the forren materials vsed in dying to know the very naturall places of them, and the plentie or the scarcenesse of each of them. These things superficially learned in the realme before you goe, you are the fitter in forren parts to serue your Countrey, for by this meanes you haue an enterie into the thing that I wish you to trauell in. What you shall doe in Turkie, besides the businesse of your Factorship. 1 Forasmuch as it is reported that the Woollen clothes died in Turkie bee most excellently died, you shall send home into this realme certaine Mowsters or pieces of Shew to be brought to the diers hall, there to be shewed, partly to remooue out of their heads, the tootoo great opinion they haue concerned of their owne cunning, and partly to mooue them for shame to endeuour to learne more knowledge to the honour of their countrey of England, and to the vniuersall benefit of the realme. 2 You shall deuise to amend the Dying of England, by carying hence an apte yoong man brought vp in the Arte, or by bringing one or other from thence of skill, or rather to deuise to bring one for Silkes, and another for Wooll and for Woollen cloth, and if you cannot worke this by ordinarie meanes, then to worke it by some great Bassas meane, or if your owne credite there be not sufficient by meane of your small abode in those parties, to worke it by the helpe of the French ambassador there resident, for which purpose you may insinuate your selfe into his acquaintance, and otherwise to leaue no meane vnsought that tendeth to this end, wherein you are to doe as circumstances may permit. 3 Then to learne to know all the materials and substances that the Turkes vse in dying, be they of Herbes, simple or compound, be they plants, Barkes, Wood, Berries, Seedes, Graines, or Minerall matter, or what els soeuer. But before all other, such things as yeeld those famous colours that carrie such speciall report of excellencie, that our Merchaunts may bring them to this realme by ordinarie trade, as a light meane for the better vent of our clothes. 4 To know the vse of those, and where the naturall place of them and of ech of them is, I meane the place where ech of them groweth or is bred. 5 And in any wise, if Anile that coloureth blew be a naturall commodity of those parts, and if it be compounded of an herbe, to send the same into this realme by seed or by root in barrell of earth, with all the whole order of sowing, setting, planting, replanting, and with the compounding of the same, that it may become a naturall commodity in this realme as Woad is, to this end that the high price of forreine Woad (which deuoureth yeerely great treasure) may be brought downe. So shall the marchant buy his cloth lesse deare, and so he shalbe able to occupy with lesse stocke, be able to afoord cloth cheaper, make more ample vent, and also become a greater gainer himselfe, and all this to the benefit of this realme. 6 To do the like with herbe and plant, or tree that in dying is of any excellent vse, as to send the same by seed, berry, root, &c: for by such meanes Saffron was brought first into this realme, which hath sent many poore on worke, and brought great wealth into this realme. Thus may Sumack, the plant wherewith the most excellent blacks be died in Spaine, be brought out of Spaine, and out of the Ilands of the same, if it will grow in this more colde climat. For thus was Woad brought into this realme, and came to good perfection, to the great losse of the French our olde enemies. And it doth maruellously import this realme to make naturall in this realme such things as be special in the dying of our clothes. And to speake of such things as colour blew, they are of greatest vse, and are grounds of the most excellent colours, and therefore of all other to be brought into this realme, be it Anile or any other materiall of that quality. 7 And because yellowes and greenes are colours of small prices in this realme, by reason that Olde and Greenweed wherewith they be died be naturall here, and in great plenty, therefore to bring our clothes so died to common sale in Turkie were to the great benefit of the merchant, and other poore subiects of this realme, for in sale of such our owne naturall colours we consume not our treasure in forren colours, and yet we sell our owne trifles dearely perhaps. 8 The woolles being naturall, and excellent colours for dying becomming by this meanes here also naturall, in all the arte of Clothing then we want but one onely speciall thing. For in this so temperate a climat our people may labor the yere thorowout, whereas in some regions of the world they cannot worke for extreme heat, as in some other regions they cannot worke for extreme colde a good part of the yere. And the people of this realme by the great and blessed abundance of victuall are cheaply fed, and therefore may afoord their labour cheape. And where the Clothiers in Flanders by the Flatnesse of their riuers cannot make Walkmilles [Footnote: Fulling, or the art of scouring, cleansing, and thickening cloth, &c., in a mill, makes the material more compact and durable. Walkmill is the old name for a fullingmill.] for their clothes, but are forced to thicken and dresse all their clothes by the foot and by the labour of men, whereby their clothes are raised to an higher price, we of England haue in all Shires store of milles vpon falling riuers. And these riuers being in temperate zones are not dried vp in Summer with drought and heat as the riuers be in Spaine and in hotter regions, nor frozen vp in Winter as all the riuers be in all the North regions of the world: so as our milles may go and worke at all times, and dresse clothes cheaply. Then we haue also for scowring our clothes earths and claies, as Walkers clay, [Footnote: Fuller's earth, which attains a thickness of 150 feet near Bath.] and the clay of Oborne little inferior to Sope in scowring and in thicking. Then also haue we some reasonable store of Alum and Copporas here made for dying, and are like to haue increase of the same. Then we haue many good waters apt for dying, and people to spin and to doe the rest of all the labours we want not. [Sidenote: Supply of the want of oile.] So as there wanteth, if colours might be brought in and made naturall, but onely Oile: the want whereof if any man could deuise to supply at the full with any thing that might become naturall in this realme, he whatsoeuer he were that could bring it about, might deserue immortall fame in this our Common wealth, and such a deuise was offered to the Parliament and refused, because they denied to endow him with a certaine liberty, some others hauing obtained the same before, that practised to worke that effect by Radish seed, which onely made a triall of small quantity, and that went no further, to make that Oile in plenty: and now he that offered this deuise was a marchant, and is dead, and withall the deuise is dead with him. It is written by one that wrote of Afrike, [Sidenote: Leo Africanus lib. 8.] that in Egypt in a city called Muhaisira there be many milles imployed in making of Oile of the seed of an herbe called Sesamum. Pena and Lobell, Physicians, write in our time, that this herbe is a codded herbe full of oily seed, and that there is plenty of this seede brought out of Egypt to diuers Cities in Italy. If this herbe will prosper in this realme, our marchants may easily bring of it, &c. 9 Hauing heerein thus troubled you by raising to your minde the consideration of certaine things, it shall not be impertinent to tell you that it shall not be amisse that you note all the order of the degrees of labour vsed in Turky, in the arte of Clothing, and to see if any way they excell in that profession our people of these parts, and to bring notice of the same into this realme. 10 And if you shall finde that they make any cloth of any kind not made in this realme, that is there of great vse, then to bring of the same into this realme some Mowsters, that our people may fall into the trade, and prepare the same for Turkie: for the more kinds of cloth we can deuise to make, the more ample vent of our commoditie we shall haue, and the more sale of the labour of our poore subiects that els for lacke of labour become idle and burdenous to the common weale, and hurtfull to many: and in England we are in our clothing trade to frame our selues according to the desires of forren nations, be it that they desire thicke or thinne, broad or narrowe, long or short, white or blacke. 11 But with this prouiso alwayes, that our cloth passe out with as much labour of our people as may be, wherein great consideration ought to be had: for (if vent might so admit it) as it were the greatest madnesse in the world for vs to vent our wooll not clothed, so were it madnesse to vent our wooll in part or in the whole turned into broad cloth, if we might vent the same in Kersies: for there is great difference in profit to our people betweene the clothing of a sacke of wooll in the one, and the like sacke of wooll in the other, of which I wish the marchant of England to haue as great care as he may for the vniuersall benefit of the poore: and the turning of a sacke of wooll into Bonets is better then both &c. And also not to cary out of the realme any cloth white, but died if it may be, that the subiects of this realme may take as much benefit as is possible, and rather to seeke the vent of the clothes died with the naturall colours of England, then such as be died with forren colours. 12 And if of necessity we must be forced to receiue certaine colours from forren parts, for that this climat will not breed them, I wish that our marchants procure Anile and such other things to be planted in like climats where now it growes, in diuers others places, that this realme may haue that brought in for as base prices as is possible, and that falling out with one place we may receiue the same from another, and not buy the same at the second or the third hand &c. For if a commodity that is to be had of meere necessity, be in one hand, it is dearely purchased. 1. How many seuerall colours be died is to be learned of our Diers before you depart. 2 Then how many of those colours England doth die of her owne naturall home materials and substances, and how many not. 3 Then to bring into this realme herbs and plants to become naturall in our soiles, that may die the rest of the colours, that presently of our owne things here growing we can not yet die, and this from all forren places. 4 There is a wood called Logwood or Palo Campechio, it is cheape and yeeldeth a glorious blew, but our workmen can not make it sure. This wood you must take with you, and see whether the Silke diers or Wooll diers in Turky can doe it, with this one you may inrich your selfe very much, and therefore it is to be endeuoured earnestly by you. It may bring downe the price of Woad and of Anile. Other some things to be remembred. If you can finde oat at Tripoly in Syria or elsewhere a vent for the Cappes called in Barbarie, Bonettos colorados rugios, which is a red Scottish cap as it were without brims, you should do your countrey much good: for as a sacke of wooll turned into fine Deuonshire kersies doth set many more people on worke then a sacke spunne for broad cloth in a grosser threed, so a sacke of wool turned into those Bonets doth set many more poore people on worke, then a sacke turned into Kersies, by reason of the knitting. And therefore if you can indeuour that, you worke great effect. And no doubt that a maruellous vent may be found out of them into Afrike by the way of Alexandria, and by Alcayer [Footnote: Cairo.] Southeast and Southwest thence. 2 And by the vent of our knit hose of Woollen yarne, Woorsted yarne, and of Linnen thred, great benefit to our people may arise, and a great value in fine Kersies and in those knit wares may be couched in a small roome in the ship. And for these things our people are growen apt, and by indeuour may be drawen to great trade. 3 Saffron the best of the vniuersall world groweth in this realme, and forasmuch as it is a thing that requireth much labour in diuers sorts, and setteth the people on worke so plentifully, I wish you to see whether you can finde out ample vent for the same, since it is gone out of great vse in those parts. It is a spice that is cordiall, and may be vsed in meats, and that is excellent in dying of yellow silks. This commodity of Saffron groweth fifty miles from Tripoli in Syria, on an high hill called in those parts Garian, so as there you may learne at that port of Tripoli the value of the pound, the goodnesse of it, and the places of the vent. But it is sayd that from that hill there passeth yeerly of that commodity fifteene moiles [Footnote: A Mule. "Well, make much of him; I see he was never born to ride upon a moyle."--_Every man out of his humour_, ii., 3.] laden, and that those regions notwithstanding lacke sufficiencie of that commodity. But if a vent might be found, men would in Essex about Saffronwalden [Footnote: Saffron Walden--_Saffron Weal-den_. The woody Saffron Hill.] and in Cambridge shire reuiue the trade for the benefit of the setting of the poore on worke. So would they doe in Hereford shire by Wales, where the best of all England is, in which place the soile yeelds the wilde Saffron commonly, which sheweth the naturall inclination of the same soile to the bearing of the right Saffron, if the soile be manured and that way employed. [Sidenote: Leo Africanus lib. 4.] 4. There is a walled towne not farre from Barbarie, called Hubbed, toward the South from the famous towne Telensin, [Footnote: Tlemcen, on a tributary of the Tafna, in Algeria.] about six miles: the inhabitants of which towne in effect be all Diers. And it is sayd that thereabout they haue plenty of Anile, and that they occupy that, and also that they vse there in their dyings, of the Saffron aforesayd. [Sidenote: This may be learned at Alger.] The trueth whereof, in the Southerly ports of the Mediteran sea, is easily learned in your passage to Tripoli, or in returne from thence homeward you may vnderstand it. It is reported at Saffronwalden that a Pilgrim purposing to do good to his countrey, stole an head of Saffron, and hid the same in his Palmers staffe, which he had made hollow before of purpose, and so he brought this root into this realme, with venture of his life: for if he had bene taken, by the law of the countrey from whence it came, he had died for the fact. If the like loue in this our age were in our people that now become great trauellers, many knowledges, and many trades, and many herbes and plants might be brought into this realme that might doe the realme good. And the Romans hauing that care, brought from all coasts of the world into Italie all arts and sciences, and all kinds of beasts and fowile, and all herbs, trees, busks and plants that might yeeld profit or pleasure to their countrey of Italie. And if this care had not bene heretofore in our ancestors, then, had our life bene sauage now, for then we had not had Wheat nor Rie, Peaze nor Beanes, Barley nor Oats, Peare nor Apple, Vine nor many other profitable and pleasant plants, Bull nor Cow, Sheepe nor Swine, Horse nor Mare, Cocke nor Hen, nor a number of other things that we inioy, without which our life were to be sayd barbarous: for these things and a thousand that we vse more the first inhabitors of this Iland found not here. And in time of memory things haue bene brought in that were not here before, as the Damaske rose by Doctour Linaker king Henry the seuenth and king Henry the eights Physician, the Turky cocks and hennes about fifty yeres past, the Artichowe in time of king Henry the eight, and of later time was procured out of Italy the Muske rose plant, the plumme called the Perdigwena, and two kindes more by the Lord Cromwell after his trauell, and the Abricot by a French Priest one Wolfe Gardiner to king Henry the eight: and now within these foure yeeres there haue bene brought into England from Vienna in Austria diuers kinds of flowers called Tulipas, and those and other procured thither a little before from Constantinople by an excellent man called M. Carolus Clusius. And it is sayd that since we traded to Zante that the plant that beareth the Coren is also brought into this realme from thence; and although it bring not fruit to perfection, yet it may serue for pleasure and for some vse, like as our vines doe, which we cannot well spare, although the climat so colde will not permit vs to haue good wines of them. And many other things haue bene brought in, that haue degenerated by reason of the colde climat, some other things brought in haue by negligence bene lost. The Archbishop of Canterburie Edmund Grindall, after he returned out of Germany, brought into this realme the plant of Tamariske from thence, and this plant he hath so increased that there be here thousands of them; and many people haue receiued great health by this plant: and if of things brought in such care were had, then could not the first labour be lost. The seed of Tobacco hath bene brought hither out of the West Indies, [Footnote: As these instructions were written in 1582, how can Tobacco have been introduced by Raleigh in 1586, as generally asserted? It is not more probable that it dates from Sir John Hawkin's voyage 1565?] it groweth heere, and with the herbe many haue bene eased of the reumes, &c. Each one of a great number of things were woorthy of a iourney to be made into Spaine, Italy, Barbarie, Egypt, Zante, Constantinople, the West Indies, and to diuers other places neerer and further off then any of these, yet forasmuch as the poore are not able, and for that the rich setled at home in quiet will not, therefore we are to make sute to such as repaire to forren kingdomes, for other businesses, to haue some care heerein, and to set before their eyes the examples of these good men, and to endeuour to do for their parts the like, as their speciall businesses may permit the same. Thus giuing you occasion by way of a little remembrance, to haue a desire to doe your countrey good you shall, if you haue any inclination to such good, do more good to the poore ready to starue for reliefe, then euer any subiect did in this realme by building of Almes-houses, and by giuing of lands and goods to the reliefe of the poore. Thus may you helpe to driue idlenesse the mother of most mischiefs out of the realme, and winne you perpetuall fame, and the prayer of the poore, which is more woorth then all the golde of Peru, and of all the West Indies. * * * * * The voyage of the Susan of London to Constantinople, wherein the worshipfull M. William Harborne was sent first Ambassadour vnto Sultan Murad Can, the great Turke, with whom he continued as her Maiesties Ligier almost sixe yeeres. The 14 of Nouember 1582, we departed from Blackewall, bound for the Citie of Constantinople, in the tall shippe called the Susan of London: the Master whereof was Richard Parsons, a very excellent and skilfull man in his facultie. But by occasion of contrary weather we spent two moneths before we could recouer the Kowes [Footnote: Cowes.] in the Isle of Wight. [Sidenote: Ianuary the foureteenth.] Where the 14 of Ianuary following we tooke in the worshipfull M. William Hareborne her Maiesties Ambassadour to the Turke, and his company, and sailed thence to Yarmouth in the foresayd Isle of Wight. The 19 we put from Wight. The 26 we did see Capo de Sant Vincente. The same day we were thwart of Capo Santo Maria. The 27 we passed by Tariffa, and Gibraltar. The 28 in the morning we passed by Velez Malaga: and that night were thwart of Capo de Gates. The 29 at night we had sight of Capo de Palos. The 30 in the morning we did see the high land of Denia, [Footnote: Near Cape Antonio.] in the kingdome of Valentia, and that night we had sight of the Iland Formentera. The 31 in the morning appeared the Iland of Cabrera. [Footnote: A small island south of Majorca.] [Sidenote: February the first.] The first of February we put into a Port in Mallorca, [Footnote: Maiorca.] called Porto de Sant Pedro: where they would haue euill intreated vs for comming into the Harbour: we thought we might haue bene as bolde there as in other places of Christendome, but it proued farre otherwise. [Sidenote: The shippes men goe on land at Porto de Sant Pedro.] The first man we met on land was a simple Shepheard, of whom we demanded whether wee might haue a sheepe or such like to refresh our selues, who tolde vs yea. And by such conference had with him, at the last be came aboord once or twise, and had the best cheare that we could make him: and our Ambassadour himselfe talked with him, and still be made vs faire promises, but nothing at all meant to performe the same, as the end shewed. In the meane time came in a shippe of Marseils, the Master whereof did know our Ambassadour very well, with whom our Ambassadour had conference, and with his Marchants also. They came from Alger in Barbarie, which is vnder the gouernement of the Great Turke. They did present our Ambassadour with an Ape, wherefore he made very much of them, and had them often aboord. [Sidenote: The Ambassadour betrayed.] By them I suppose, he, was bewrayed of his purpose as touching his message, but yet still we had faire words of the Shepheard aforesayd, and others. So that vpon their words, our Purser and another man went to a Towne which was three or foure miles from the port, and there were well entertained, and had of the people very faire speeches, and such small things as could be gotten vpon the sudden, and so returned to the shippe that day. Then wee were emboldened, and thought all had bene well, according to their talke. [Sidenote: February the sixth.] The next day, being the sixth day of Februarie, two of our Gentlemen, with one of our Marchants, and the Purser, and one of the Ambassadours men went to the Towne aforesayd, thinking to doe as the Purser and the other had done before, but it prooued contrary: for at their comming thither they had faire wordes a while, and had bread and wine, and such necessaries for their money, vntill such time as they were beset with men, and the Maiorcans neuer shewed in their countenance any such matter, but as the manner of all the people in the dominions of Spaine is, for the most part to be trecherous to vs, if they thinke they haue any aduantage. [Sidenote: The English men are surprised.] For vpon the sudden they layed handes on them, and put them in holde, as sure as might be in such a simple Towne. Then were they well guarded with men both day and night, and still deluded with faire words, and they sayd to our men it was for no hurt, but that the Viceroy of the Iland would come aboard to see the shippe. But they presently sent the Purser to the Towne of Maiorca, where he was examined by the Viceroy very straightly, what their shippe and captaine were, and what voyage they intended, but he confessed nothing at all. In the meane time they in the Towne were likewise straightly examined by a Priest and other officers vpon their othes: who for their othes sake declared the whole estate of their voyage. The Ambassadours man was a French man, and therefore was suffered to goe to the shippe on a message, but he could tell the Ambassadour none other newes, but that the Viceroy would come aboord the shippe, and that our men should come with him, but they had another meaning. For the Marseilian Marchants were stayed in like maner in the Towne, onely to make a better shew vnto vs. But in the meane time, being there three or foure dayes, there came men vnto vs euery day, more or lesse, but one day especially there came two men on horsebacke, whom we tooke to be officers, being lusty men, and very well horsed. These men desired to speake with our Captaine (for all things that passed there were done in the name of our Captaine Iohn Gray) for it was sayd by vs there, that he was Captaine of one of her Maiesties shippes: wherefore all things passed in his name: and the Ambassadour not seene in any thing but rather concealed, and yet did all, because of his tongue and good inditing in that language. For he himselfe went on land clothed in Veluet, and talked with these men, and with him ten or twelue lusty fellowes well weaponed, ech one hauing a Boarespeare or a Caliuer, the Captaine Iohn Gray being one of them, and our boat lying by very warely kept and ready. For then wee began to suspect, because the place was more frequented with men than it was woont. [Sidenote: The Spaniards come to the sea side to speak with the captaine.] The men on horsebacke were in doubt to come neere, because hee came so well weaponed. But they bade him welcome, and gaue him great salutations, in words as their maner is: and demanded why he came so strong, for they sayd he needed not to feare any man in the Iland. Answere was made, that it was the maner of English Captaines to goe with their guard in strange places. Then they tolde our Ambassador (thinking him to be the Captaine) that they were sent from the Viceroy to know what they did lacke, for they promised him beefe or mutton, or any thing that was in the Iland to be had, but their purpose was to haue gotten more of our men if they could, and they sayde that wee should haue our men againe the next day: with such prety delusions they fed vs still. Then our Ambassadour did write a letter to the Viceroy in her Maiesties name, and in our Captaine Iohn Grayes name, and not in his owne, and sent it by them, desiring him to send his men, and not to trouble him in his voyage, for he had giuen him no such cause, nor any of his. So these men departed with great courtesie in words on both parts. And in all this time we did see men on horsebacke and on foot in the woods and trees more then they were accustomed to be, but we could perceiue nothing thereby. [Sidenote: The Spaniards come again to parle.] The next day, or the second, came either foure or sixe of the best of them as wee thought (the Viceroy excepted) and very many men besides in the fieldes, both on foot and on horse, but came not neere the water side. And those in like order desired to speake with the Captaine and that when he came on land the trumpets might sound: but then the Ambassadour, whom they thought to be Captaine, would not goe, nor suffer the trumpets to be sounded, for that he thought it was a trappe to take himselfe, and more of his company. But did send one of the principall of the Marchants to talke with them. And the Captaine Iohn Gray went also with him, not being knowen of the Spaniards, for he went as a souldiour. Thus they receiued of those men the like wordes as they had of the other before mentioned, who sayd we should haue our men againe, for they meant vs no hurt. [Sidenote: The Ambassadour writeth to the Viceroy.] Then our Ambassadour did write another letter, and sent it by them to the Viceroy, in like order as he did before, but he receiued no answere of any of them. In all this time they had priuily gathered together the principall men of the iland, and had laboured day and night to bring downe ordinance, not making any shew of their trecherie towards vs. But the same night following, we saw very many lights passe in the woods among the trees. [Sidenote: The ninth of February.] And in the morning when the watch was broken vp, being Saturday the ninth of Februarie, at faire day light, one of our men looked foorth, and saw standing on land the cariage of a piece: then was one commanded to goe into the toppe, and there he did descrie two or three pieces and also many men on the shore, with diuers weapons that they brought. Then they suddenly tooke foure or fiue brasse pieces, and placed them on either side of the harborough where we should go out, and hid them with stones and bushes that we should not see them. Now I think the harborough not to be aboue the eight part of a mile ouer. Thus perceiuing their meaning which was most plaine: wee agreed to take vp our anker and goe out, and leaue our men there, hauing none other way to take. Then our Ambassadour intreated the Master of the Marseilian, his friend, to goe on land with his boat, and to know the trueth: who satisfied his request. And at his returne he tolde vs that it was very true, that they would lay holde of vs if they could. Then we weighed our ankers: but hauing little winde, we towed the ship forward with the boat. The Viceroy himselfe was at the water side with more then fiue hundred men on both sides of the harbour as we thought. [Sidenote: The ship Susan prepareth to defend herselfe.] And when we came out with our shippe as far as their ordinance, our Ambassadour and the Captaine being in their armour, the Master commanding of the company, and trimming of the sailes, the Pilot standing on the poope, attending to his charge, with other very well furnished, and euery man in order about their businesse very ready, they on land on the contrary part hauing a very faire piece mounted on the North side openly in all our sights, as the shippe passed by, they trauersed that piece right with the maine mast or after-quarter of the shippe, and a Gunner standing by, with a lint-stocke in his hand, about foureteene or fifteene foot long, being (as we thought) ready to giue fire. Our whole noise of trumpets were sounding on the poope with drumme and flute, and a Minion of brasse on the summer decke, with two or three other pieces, alwayes by our Gunners trauersed mouth to mouth with theirs on land, still looking when they on land should shoot, for to answere them againe. The Pilot standing on the poope, seeing this readinesse, and the shippe going very softly, because of the calmenesse of the winde, he called to them on the South side, where the Viceroy was, and sayd vnto him: Haue you warres with vs? If you haue, it is more then we know; but by your prouision it seemeth so: if you haue, shoot in Gods name, and spare not, but they held all fast and shot not. Then the Viceroy himselfe held vp a paper, and sayd he, had a letter for our Captaine, and desired vs to stay for it. Then we answered and sayd we would not; but willed him to send it by the Marseilians boat, and our men also, All this while, our trumpets, drum and flute sounded, and so we passed out in the face of them all. When they perceiued that they could lay no holde on vs, they presently sent to the Towne for our men, whom within lesse then three houres after they sent aboord with the sayd letter, wherein he desired our Captaine and his company not to take it in ill part, for he meant them no harme, but would haue seene our shippe. His letter did import these and such like faire speeches: for it altogether contained courteous salutations, saying that he might boldly come into any port within his Iland, and that he and his would shew him what friendship they might: and that the iniury that was offered was done at the requst of the Shepheards; and poore people of the countrey, for the more safegard of their flockes, and because it was not a thing vsuall to haue any such shippe to come into that port, with many other deceitfull words in the sayd letter. [Sidenote: The effect of the Ambassadours answere.] Then our Ambassadour wrote vnto him another letter to answer that, and gaue him thanks for his men that he had sent him, and also for his good will, and sent him a present. This done, we shot off halfe a dozen pieces, hoised our sailes, and departed on our voyage. Then the Purser and the rest of our men that had beene in holde, tolde vs that they did see the Captaine, and other gentlemen of the Iland, hauing their buskins and stockings torne from their legges, with labouring in the bushes day and night to make that sudden prouision. The 12 of February we saw an Iland of Africa side called Galata, [Footnote: Galita, off Cape Serrat, in Tunis.] where they vse to drag out of the Sea much Corall, and we saw likewise Sardinia, which is an Iland subiect to Spaine. The 13 in the morning we were hard by Sardinia. The 15 we did see an Iland neere Sicilia, and an Iland on Africa side called Cysimbre. [Footnote: Zembra, off Cape Bon.] The same day likewise we saw an Iland called Pantalaria, and that night we were thwart the middle of Sicilia. The 16 at night we were as farre as Capo Passaro, which is the Southeast part of Sicilia., The 24 we were put into a port called Porte de Conte, in an Iland called Cephalonia: it is an out Iland in the dominions of Grecia, and now at this present gouerned by the Signory of Venice, as the rest of Grecia is vnder the Turke, for the most part. The 27 we came from thence, and that day arriued at Zante which is also in Grecia: for at this present wee entred the parts of Grecia. The second of March we came from Zante; and the same day were thwart of an Iland called Prodeno [Footnote: Probably Strivali.] and the 4 we were thwart of an Iland called Sapientia [Footnote: Off Cape Gallo.] againe. There standeth a faire Towne and a Castle on the maine ouer against it, called Modon. The same day by reason of contrary windes we put backe againe to Prodeno, because we could not fetch Sapientia. The ninth we came from thence, and were as farre as Sapientia againe. The tenth we were as farre shot as Capo Matapan; and that day we entered the Archipelago, and passed thorow betweene Cerigo and Capo Malio. [Footnote: Cape Malea.] This Cerigo is an Iland where one Menelaus did sometimes reigne, from whome was stollen by Paris faire Helena, and carried to Troy, as ancient Recordes doe declare. The same day we had sight of a little Iland called Bellapola, and did likewise see both the Milos, [Footnote: Milo and Anti-Milo, the latter a rocky islet, six miles north-west of Milo.] being Ilands in the Archipelago. The 11 in the morning we were hard by an Iland called Falconara, [Footnote: Falconers.] and the Iland of the Antemila. [Footnote: Ante-Milo.] The 12 in the morning we were betweene Fermenia [Footnote: Thermia, so called from the warm springs at the foot of Santa Irene.] and Zea, being both Ilands. That night wee were betweene Negroponte and Andri, being likewise Ilands. The 13 in the morning we were hard by Parsa [Footnote: Probably Psara.] and Sarafo, being Ilands nine or tenne miles from Chio, and could not fetch Chio. [Sidenote: Sigra, a port in Metelin.] So we put roome with a port in Metelin [Footnote: Mitylene, the ancient Lesbos.] called Sigra, and about nine of the clocke at night we ankered there. The 15 we came from thence, the sixteenth we put into Porto Delfi. This port is 9 English miles to the Northward of the City of Chio, (and it may be twelue of their miles) this night we stayed in the sayd port, being in the Iland of Chio. Then went our Marchant and one or two with him to the City of Chio. [Sidenote: Ermin, or Customer.] And when the By, who is the gouernour of the Iland (and is in their language a Duke) had communed with the Marchant, and those that were with him, and vnderstood of our arriuall within his dominion, the day following he armed his gallies, and came to welcome our Ambassadour, accompanied with the Ermine, that is, the Kings Customer, and also the French Consull, with diuers of the chiefe of the City, and offered him as much friendship as he could or would desire: for he did offer to attend vpon vs, and towe vs if need were to the Castles. The 21 we departed from thence, and thar day passed by port Sigra againe. This Iland of Metelin is part of Asia, and is neere to Natolia. The 22 we passed by a head land called Baberno, [Footnote: Cape Baba.] and is also in Asia. And that day at night we passed by the Isle of Tenedo, part of Asia, and by another Iland called Maure. And the same day we passed thorow the straights of Galipoli, and by the Castles, and also by the Towne of Galipoli it selfe, which standeth in Europa. And that night we were in sight of Marmora which is neere Natolia, and part of Asia. The 23 in the morning, we were thwart of Araclia, [Footnote: Erekli.] and that night we ankered in Silauria. [Footnote: Silivri.] The 24 in the morning the Marchant and the Pilot were set on land to goe to the City about the Ambassadours businesse, but there they could not land because we had the winde faire. That place of some is called Ponte grande, and is foure and twenty miles on this side of Constantinople, and because of the winde, they followed in the skiffe vntill they came to a place called Ponte picola, and there is a little bridge; it standeth eight Turkish miles from Constantinople, there the Marchant and the Pilot landed. At this bridge is an house of the great Turkes with a faire Garden belonging vnto it, neere the which is a point called Ponte S. Stephano, and there the shippe ankered that day. The 26 day the ship came to the seuen Towers, and the 27 we came neerer. The 29 there came three gallies to bring vs vp further: and when the shippe came against the great Turks palace, we shot off all our ordinance to the number of foure and thirty pieces. [Sidenote: The arriuall of the Susan at Constantinople.] Then landed our Ambassadour, and then we discharged foure and twentie pieces, who was receiued with more then fifty or threescore men on horsebacke. [Sidenote: The Ambassadour giueth a present to the great Bassa.] The ninth of April he presented the great bassa with sixe clothes, foure canes of siluer double gilt, and one piece of fine holland, and to three other Bassas, that is to say, the second Bassa which is a gelded man, and his name is Mahomet Bassa, to the third who maried the great Turks sister, and to the fourth whom they call Abraham Bassa, to euery one of these he gaue foure clothes. [Sidenote: A man halfe naked goeth before the greaat Bassa.] Now, before the great Bassa, and Abraham Bassa, at their returne from the Court (and as we thinke at other times, but at that time for a certaine) there came a man in maner of a foole, who gaue a great shout three or foure times, crying very hollowly, the place rebounded with the sound, and this man, say they, is a prophet of Mahomet, his armes and legges naked, on his feet he did weare woodden pattens of two sorts, in his hand, a flagge, or streamer set on a short speare painted, he carried a mat and bottels, and other trumpery at his backe, and sometimes vnder his arme, on his head he had a cappe of white Camels haire, flat like an helmet, written about with letters, and about his head a linnen rowle. Other seruingmen there were with the sayd Bassas, with red attire on their heads, much like French hoods, but the long flappe somewhat smaller towardes the end, with scuffes or plates of mettall, like vnto the chape of an ancient arming sword, standing on their foreheads like other Ianisaries. [The Ambassadours entertainment with the Bassas.] These Bassas entertained vs as followeth: First, they brought vs into a hall, there to stand on one side, and our Ambassadour and gentlemen on the other side, who sate them downe on a bench couered with carpets, the Ambassadour in the midst; on his left hand sate our gentlemen, and on his right hand the Turkes, next to the doore where their master goeth in and out: the common sort of Turkes stayed in the Court yard, not suffered to come neere vs. When our Ambassadour had sitten halfe an houre, the Bassas (who sate by themselues in an inner small roome) sent for him; to whom the Ambassadour and his gentlemen went: they all kissed his hand, and presently returned (the Ambassadour only excepted, who stayed there, and a Turks chaus [Footnote: Interpreter.] with him) with the Ambassadour and his gentlemen went in also so many of our men as there were presents to cary in, but these neither kissed his hand nor taried. After this I went to visit the church of Santa Sophia, which was the chiefe church when it was the Christians, and now is the chiefe see and church of primacie of this Turke present: before I entred I was willed to put off my shoes, to the end I should not prophane their church, I being a Christian. [Sidenote: A description of their church.] The pillers on both sides of the church are very costly and rich, their Pulpets seemely and handsome, two are common to preach in, the third reserued onely for their Paschall. The ground is couered with Mats, and the walles hanged with Tapistry. They haue also Lamps in their churches, one in the middle of the church of exceeding greatnesse, and another in another part of the church of cleane golde, or double gilded, full as bigge as a barrel. Round about the church there is a gallery builded vpon rich and stately pillers. That day I was in both the chappels, in one of the which lieth the Turkes father, and fiue of his sonnes in tombes right costly, with their turbents very white and cleane, shifted (as they say) euery Friday, they be not on their heads, but stand on mouldes made for that purpose. At the endes, ouer, and about their tombes are belts, like girdles, beset with iewels. In the other chappell are foure other of his sonnes, and one daughter, in like order. In the first chappell is a thing foure foot high, couered with greene, beset with mother of pearle very richly. This is a relique of Mahomet, and standeth on the left side of the head of the great Turks tombe. These chappels haue their floores couered, and their walles hanged with Tapistrie of great price, I could value the couering and hangings of one of the chappels, at no lesse then fiue hundred poundes, besides their lamps hanging richly gilded. These chappels haue their roofes curiously wrought with rich stone, and gilded. And there lie the bookes of their Lawes for euery man to reade. [Sidenote: The ship cometh to the custome house.] The 11 day of April the shippe came to the Key of the Custome house. [Sidenote: The Ambassadour presenteth the Admirall Vchali.] The 16 the Ambassadour and we his men went to the Captaine Bassa, who is Admirall of the seas, his name is Vchali, he would not receiue vs into his house, but into his gallie, to deliuer our present, which was as followeth: Foure pieces of cloth, and two siluer pots gilt and grauen. The poope or sterne of his gally was gilded both within and without, and vnder his feet, and where he sate was all couered with very rich Tapistry. Our Ambassadour and his gentlemen kissed his hand, and then the gentlemen were commanded out, and our Ambassadour sate downe by him on his left hand, and the chaus stood before him. Our men might walke in the gally fore and after, some of vs taried, and some went out againe. The gally had seuen pieces of brasse in her prowe, small and great, she had thirty bankes or oares on either side, and at euery banke or oare seuen men to rowe. [Sidenote: The Susan goeth from the Custome house. The Admirall departeth to the sea.] The 18 day the shippe went from the Key. And 21 the Admirall tooke his leaue of the great Turke, being bound to the Sea with sixe and thirty gallies, very fairely beautified with gilding and painting, and beset with flags and streamers, all the which gallies discharged their ordinance: and we for his farewell gaue him one and twentie pieces. Then he went to his house with his gallies, and the 22 he went to the Sea, and the Castle that standeth in the water gaue him foureteene or sixteene pieces: and when he came against the Turks Seraglio he shot off all his caliuers and his great pieces, and so hee went his way. [Sidenote: The Ambassadour repaireth to the great Turks court.] The 24 our Ambassadour went to the Court, whose entertainement with the order therof followeth. When wee came first on land there was way made for vs by two or three Bassaes and diuers chauses on horsebacke with their men on foot, to accompany our Ambassadour to the Court. Also they brought horses for him and his gentlemen for to ride, which were very richly furnished: and by the way there met with vs other chauses to accompany vs to the Court. When we came there wee passed thorow two gates, at the second gate there stood very many men with horses attending on their masters. When we came within that gate we were within a very faire Court yard, in compasse twise so bigge as Pauls Church-yard. On the right hand of the sayd Court was a faire gallerie like an Alley, and within it were placed railes and such other prouision. On the left side was the like, halfe the Court ouer: it was diuided into two parts, the innermost fairer then the other. The other part of that side is the place where the Councell doe vsually sit, and at the inner end of that is a faire place to sit in, much like vnto that place in Pauls Church-yard, where the Maior and his brethren vse to sit, thither was our Ambassador brought, and set in that place. Within that sayde place is another like open roome, where hee did eate. [Sidenote: The entertainment at dinner of the Ambassadours men.] Assoone as wee came in, wee were placed in the innermost alley of the second roome, on the left side of the Court, which was spread with carpets on the ground fourescore or fourescore and tenne foot long, with an hundred and fiftie seuerall dishes set thereon, that is to say, Mutton boiled and rosted, Rice diuersly dressed, Fritters of the finest fashion, and dishes daintily dight with pritty pappe, with infinite others, I know not how to expresse them. We had also rosted Hennes with sundry sorts of fowles to me vnknowen. The gentlemen and we sate downe on the ground, for it is their maner so to feede. There were also Greekes and others set to furnish out the roome. Our drinke was made with Rose water and Sugar and spices brewed together. Those that did serue vs with it had a great bagge tied ouer their showlders, with a broad belt like an arming belt full of plates of copper and gilt, with part of the sayd bagge vnder his arme, and the mouth in his hand: then he had a deuise to let it out when he would into cuppes, when we called for drinke. The Ambassadour when hee had eaten, passed by vs, with the chauses aforesayd, and sate him downe in an inner roome. This place where he sate was against the gate where we came in, and hard by the Councell chamber end, somewhat on the left side of the Court, this was at the East end of the Court, for we came in at the West. All this time our presents stood by vs vntill we had dined, and diner once ended, this was their order of taking vp the dishes. Certaine were called in, like those of the Blacke gard in the Court of England, the Turks call them Moglans. These came in like rude and rauening Mastifs, without order or fashion, and made cleane riddance: for he whose hungry eye one dish could not fill turned two, one into the other, and thus euen on the sudden was made a cleane riddance of all. Then came certaine chauses and brought our gentlemen to sit with the Ambassadour. Immediately came officers and appointed Ianisers to beare from vs our presents, who caried them on the right side of the Court, and set them hard by the doore of the Priuy chamber, as we call it: there all things stoode for the space of an houre. Thus the Ambassadour and his gentlemen sate still, and to the Southward of them was a doore whereas the great Turke himselfe went in and out at, and on the South side of that doore sate on a bench all his chiefe lordes and gentlemen, and on the North side of the West gate stood his gard, in number as I gesse them a thousand men. These men haue on their heads round cappes of mettall like sculles, but sharpe in the toppe, in this they haue a bunch of Ostridge feathers, as bigge as a brush, with the corner or edge forward: at the lower end of these feathers was there a smaller feather, like those that are commonly worn here. Some of his gard had smal staues, and most of them were weaponed with bowes and arrowes. Here they waited, during our abode at the Court, to gard their Lord. After the Ambassadour with his gentlemen had sitten an houre and more, there came three or foure chauses, and brought them into the great Turkes presence. At the Priuy chamber doore two noble men tooke the Ambassadour by ech arme one, and put their fingers within his sleeues, and so brought him to the great Turke where he sumptuously sate alone. He kissed his hand and stood by vntill all the gentlemen were brought before him in like maner, one by one, and ledde backewards againe his face towards the Turke; for they might neither tarry nor turne their backs, and in like maner returned the Ambassadour. The salutation that the Noble men did, was taking them by the hands. All this time they trode on cloth of golde, most of the Noble men that sate on the South side of the Priuy chamber sate likewise on cloth of golde. Many officers or Ianisaries there were with staues, who kept very good order, for no Turke whatsoeuer might goe any further than they willed him. [Sidenote: The Turke is presented with a rich present.] At our Ambassadours entring they followed that bare his presents, to say, twelue fine broad clothes, two pieces of fine holland, tenne pieces of plate double gilt, one case of candlesticks, the case whereof was very large, and three foot high and more, two very great Cannes or pots, and one lesser, one basin and ewer, two poppiniayes of siluer, the one with two beads: they were to drinke in: two bottles with chaines, three faire mastifs in coats of redde cloth, three spaniels, two bloodhounds, one common hunting hound, two greyhounds, two little dogges in coats of silke: one clocke valued at fiue hundred pounds sterling: ouer it was a forrest with trees of siluer, among the which were deere chased with dogs, and men on horsebacke following, men drawing of water, others carrying mine oare on barrowes: on the toppe of the clocke stood a castle, and on the castle a mill. All these were of siluer. And the clocke was round beset with iewels. All the time that we stayed at the Councell chamber doore they were telling or weighing of money to send into Persia for his Souldiours pay. There were carried out an hundred and three and thirty bags, and in euery bagge, as it was tolde vs, one thousand ducats, which amounteth to three hundred and thirty thousand, [Footnote: Blank in original.] and in sterling English money to fourescore and nineteene thousand pounds. The Captaine of the guard in the meane time went to the great Turke, and returned againe, then they of the Court made obeisance to him, bowing downe their heads, and their hands on their breasts, and he in like order resaluted them: he was in cloth of siluer, he went and came with two or three with him and no more. Then wee went out at the first gate, and there we were commanded to stay vntill the Captaine of the guard was passed by and all his guard with him, part before him and part behinde him, some on horsebacke and some on foot, but the most part on foot carrying on their shoulders the money before mentioned, and so we passed home. There was in the Court during our abode there, for the most part a foole resembling the first, but not naked as was the other at the Bassas: but he turned him continually, and cried Hough very hollowly. The third of May I saw the Turke go to the church: he had more then two hundred and fifty horses before and behinde him, but most before him. There were many empty horses that came in no order. Many of his Nobilitie were in cloth of golde, but himselfe in white sattin. There did ride behinde him sixe or seuen youthes, one or two whereof carried water for him to drinke as they sayd. There were many of his guard running before him and behinde him, and when he alighted, they cried Hough very hollowly, as the aforesayd fooles. * * * * * A letter of Mustapha Chaus to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie. Serenissima, prudentissima, et sacra Regia Maiestas, domina mihi semper clementissima, meorum fidelium officiorum promptam paratissimámque commendationem. Generosus et virtuosus Gulielmus Hareborne legatus vestræ sacræ Maiestatis venit ad portam excelsissimam potentissimi et inuictissimi, et semper Augustissimi Cæsaris Sultan Murad Can, cui Deus omnipotens benedicat. Et quanto honore, quanta dignitate, quantáque humanitate aliorum confoederatorum legati accipiuntur, præfatus quoque legatus vester tanta reuerentia, tantáque amplitudine acceptus et collocatus est in porta excelsissima. Et posthac subditi et homines vestræ sacræ Maiestatis ad ditiones omnes Cæsareas venire, et sua negocia tractare, et ad suam patriam redire sine impedimento, vt in literis excelsissimi, potentissimi, et inuictissimi et semper Augustissimi Cæsaris ad vestram sacram Regiam Maiestatem datis facile patet, tranquillè et pacificè possunt. Ego autem imprimis diligentem operam et fidele studium et nunc eodem confirmando nauaui, et in futurum quoque vsque in vltimum vitæ spiritum in negotijs potentissimi et inuictissimi Cæsaris et vestræ sacræ Regiæ Maiestatis egregiam nauabo operam. Quod Deus omnipotens ad emolumentum et vtilitatem vtriúsque Reipublicæ secundet. Amen. Sacram Regiam Maiestatem foelicissimè valere exopto. Datum Constantinopoli anno 1583, die octauo Maij. * * * * * A letter of M. Harborne to Mustapha, challenging him for his dishonest dealing in translating of three of the Grand Signior his commandements. Domine Mustapha, nescimus quid sihi velit, cum nobis mandata ad finem vtilem concessa perperàm reddas, quæ male scripta, plus damni, quàm vtilitatis adferant: quemadmodum constat ex tribus receptis mandatis, in quibus summum aut principale deest aut aufertur. In posterum noli ita nobiscum agere. Ita enim ludibrio erimus omnibus in nostrum et tuum dedecus. Cum nos multarum actionum spem Turcicè scriptarum in tua prudentia reponimus, ita prouidere debes, vt non eueniant huius modi mala. Quocirca deinceps cum mandatum aut scriptum aliquod accipias, verbura ad verbum conuertatur in Latinum sermonem, ne damnum insequatur. Nosti multos habere nos inimicos conatibus nostris inuidentes, quoram malitiæ vestræ est prudentiæ aduersari. Hi nostri, Secretarius et minimus interpres ex nostra parte dicent in tribus illis receptis mandateis errata. Vt deinceps similes errores non eueniant precamur. Ista emendes, et cætera Serenissimæ regiæ Maiestatis negocia, vti decet vestræ conditionis hominem, meliùs cures. Nam vnicuique suo officio strenuè est laborandum vt debito tramite omnia succedant: quod spero te facturtum. Bene vale. * * * * * A petition exhibited to the viceroy for reformation of sundry iniuries offered our nation in Morea, as also for sundry demaundes needefull for the establishing of the traffike in those parts. 1 First that our people may be freed of such wonted molestation, as the Ianisers of Patrasso haue alwayes from time to time offered them, not regarding the kings commandements to the contrary. That they be remoued and called away from thence, and none other remaine in their place. 2 That where heretofore the kings commandements haue beene graunted to ours, that no person whatsoeuer shall forceably take from them any of their commodities, otherwise then paying them before the deliuerie thereof, for the same in readie money, at such price as they themselues will, and sell ordinarily to others, as also that no officer whatsoeuer, of the kings or any other, shall force them to buy any commodities of that countrey, otherwise then the needfull, at their owne will and pleasure, that the said commandements not heretofore obeyed may be renued with such straight charge for the execution of the same, as is requisite for their due effect. 3 That whereas sundry exactions and oppressions be offered ours by such Byes, Saniacbies, iustices and Cadies, Ianizaries, Capagies, and others, officers of the kings comming downe into those parts, who finding there resident no other nation but only ours, will vnder the name of presents forceable take from them what they please: We do require to obuent these harmes, it may be specified by a commandement from the king to which of such his officers, presents may be giuen, and their sundry values, whereby both they and ours may rest contented, seuerely prohibiting in the said Commandement, that they take no more then that appointed them, and that no other officers but those onely specified in that commaundement, doe forcibly require of them any thing whatsoeuer. 4. That the Nadir and Customer of the port, hauing permitted our ship to lade, doe not after demand of the marchants any other then the outward custome due to the king for the same goods. And being so laden, may by them and the Cadie with other their inferiour officers be visited, requiring for the visiting no more then formerly they were accustomed to pay at their first comming. After which the said ship to depart at the Consul's pleasure, without any molestation of them, or any other officer whatsoeuer. 5. That Mahomet Chaus, sometime Nadir of Lepanto, and Azon Agon his substitute being with him may be seuerely punished to the example of others, for often and vniustly molesting our nation, contrarie to the kings commandement, which they disdainefully contemned, as also that the said Mahomet restore and pay vnto ours thirtie [Footnote: Blank in original.] for 300 sackes of currants nowe taken forcibly out of a barke, comming thither from the hither partes of Morea, to pay the king his custome, and that from hence forth; neither the said Mahomet, Azon Agon, nor any other officer or person whatsoeuer doe hinder or trouble any of ours going thither or to any other place about their affaires. 6. That whereas certaine Iews of Lepanto owing money to our marchants for commodities solde them, haue not hitherto satisfied them, notwithstanding ours had from the king a commandement for the recouery of the same debts, but fled and absented themselues out of the Towne at the comming of the same, another more forcible commaundement may be graunted ours, that for nonpaiement, whatsoeuer may be found of theirs in goods, houses, vineyards, or any other thing, may be sold, and ours satisfied of their said debt, according to equitie and reason. * * * * * A commandement to Patrasso in Morea. When this commandement shall come vnto you, know you, that the Consull of the English Nation in our port of Patrasso, hath giuen vs to vnderstand, that formerly we granted him a commandement that hauing paied once custome for the currants bought to lade in their ships, they shall not pay it again: according to which they bringing it to the port of Patrasso, informing thereof Mahomet the Nadir of Lepanto, he contrary to the tenor thereof and former order, doth againe take another custome of him, and requiring him to know why he so did contrary to our commandement, he answered vs, he tooke it not for custome, but for a present. Moreouer the sayd Consull certified vs how that the said Nadir contrary to ancient custome doth not take for the kings right as he ought currents, but will haue of the poore men money at his pleasure, and therewith buyeth currents at a very low price, which after he doth forcibly sell to vs at a much higher price, saying it is remainder of the goods of the king, and by this meanes doth hurt the poore men and do them wrong. Wherefore I command you by this my commandement, that you looke to this matter betweene this Consull, the Nadir, and this people, and do therein equally according to right. And see that our commandement in this matter be obserued in such sort, as they hauing once in the port paied full custome, do not pay it againe, neither that this Nadir do take any more money of them by the way of present, for that therein it is most certaine he doth them iniurie contrarie to the Canon. And if with you shall be found to the value of one Asper taken heretofore wrongfully of them, see it presently restored to them, without any default. And from hencefoorth see that he doe neither him nor his people wrong, but that he deale with them in all things according to our Canon, that the Consull and his hereafter haue no occasion any more to complaine here in our Court, and that the Nadir proceed in gathering corants of the people after the old order and not otherwise. This know you for certaine, and giue credit to this my commaundement, which hauing read deliuer againe into the Consuls handes. From Constantinople the yeere of Mahomet 993. * * * * * A commandement for Chio. Vobis, Beg et Cadi et Ermini, qui estis in Chio, significamus: quòd serenissimæ Reginæ Maiestatis Angliæ orator, qui est in excelsa porta per literas significauit nobis, quod ex nauibus Anglicis vna nauis venisset ad portum Chio, et illinc Constantinopolim recto cursu voluisset venire, et contra priuilegium detinuistis, et non siuistis venire. Hæc prædictus orator significauit nobis; et petiuit a nobis in hoc negocio hoc mandatum, vt naues Anglicæ veniant et redeant in nostras ditiones Cæsareas. Priuilegium datum et concessum est ex parte Serenitatis Cæsareæ nostræ: et huius priuilegij copia data est sub insigni nostro: Et contra nostrum priuilegium Cæsareum quod ita agitur, quæ est causa? Quando cum hoc mandato nostro homines illorum ad vos venerint ex prædicta Anglia, si nauis venerit ad portum vestrum, et si res et merces ex naue exemerint, et vendiderint, et tricessimam secumdam partem rediderint, et res quæ manserint Constantinopolim auferre velint, patiantur: Et si aliquis contra priuilegium et articulos eius aliquid ageret, non sinatis, nec vos facite: et impediri non sinatis eos, vt rectà Constantinopolim venientes in suis negotiationibus sine molestia esse possint. Et quicunque contra hoc mandatum et priuilegium nostrum aliquid fecerit, nobis significate. Huic mandato nostro et insigni fidem adhibete. In principio mensis Decembris. * * * * * A commandement for Baliabadram. Serenissimæ Reginæ Angliæ orator literis supplicatorijs in porta nostra fulgida significauit, quod Baliabadram venientes mercatores, naues et homines eorum, contra priuilegium impedirentur et molestarentur. Inter nos enim et Reginam cum foedus sit, vt mercatores, homines et naues eorum contra priuilegium impediantur aut molestentur, nullo vnquam pacto concedimus. Mandamus igitur, vt literæ nostræ Cæsareæ, quàm primum tibi exhibitæ fuerint, has in persona propria cures, secundum quod conuenit, videasque ex Anglia Baliabadram cum mercibus venientibus mercatoribus, et alias ob causas venientibus hominibus, in summa Angliensibus et nauibus eorum, et in nauibus existentibus mercibus et rebus contra foedus et priuilegium, iniuria, vis aut damnum non inferatur: sed, vt conuenit, defendas, vt naues, mercatores, et homines, nostri velut proprij subditi, liberi ab omni vi et iniuria permaneant; et negotijs suis incumbant. Et quod ilius loci Ianisseri illos impedirent, significatum est: vt illi illis nocumento sint nullo modo concedimus. Iuxta tenorem mandata huius illos commonefacias, vt nihil quicquam contra foedas faciant, ita vt nunquam huiusmodi querela huc veniat, quia quicquid acciderit, a te expostulabimus. Negligentiam postponito, et insigni Cæsareo fidem adhibeto. * * * * * A commaundement for Egypt. Scito quod orator Reginæ Angliæ in porta mea existens libellum supplicem ad portam nostram mittens significauit, quod cum ex �gypto Consul eorum abesset, Consul illic Gallicus existens, Vento nuncupatus, quamuis ante hæc tempora ne manus in Anglos mitteret mandatum nostrum fuerit datum, Angli sub vexillo et tutela nostra sunt inquiens, mandatum Cæsareum vili existimans, non cessauit perturbare Anglos. Quare scito quod Reginæ Angliæ priuilegium nostrum est datum. Iuxta illud priuilegium Anglis nulla ratione Consul Gallicus Consulatum agat, neue manus immittat, mandatum nostrum postulauit eius legatus. Quare mando, vt contra priuilegium nostrum Consul Gallicus Anglis iniuriam non inferat, neue Consulatum agat. Iudici �gypti literæ nostræ sunt datæ: hanc ob causam mando tibi quoque, vt iuxta illud mandatum nostrum, contra priuilegium nostrum Anglis Gallum Consulatum agere nunquam patiare. Sic scito, et insigni meo fidem adhibeto. * * * * * A commaundement of the Grand Signior to the Cadie or Iudge of Alexandria. The Embassadour for the Queenes most excellent Maiestie of England certified vs howe that at the death of one of their marchants in Alexandria called Edward Chamberlaine, the French Consul Vento sealing vp his fondego and chamber, tooke vnder his seale al his goods and merchandise into his power, and required our commandement that all the goods might be restored againe according to iustice vnto the Englishmen: wherefore we commaund you that hauing receiued this our commandement, you assemble those of the one part and of the other together, and if it be not passed fiue yeeres, if you haue not looked to it heretofore, now carefully looke to it, and if it be according to their Arz or certificate presented vnto vs, that the foresaid French Consull Vento hath wrongfully taken into his power the goods of the deceased English marchant vnder his seale, that then you cause him to restore all the said goods and marchandise sealed by him, and make good that which is thereof wanting vnto the English marchants: doe in this matter according to iustice, and credite this our seale. * * * * * A commandement to the Bassa of Alexandria. The Embassadour for the Queenes most excellent Maiesty of England by supplication certified vs, how that notwithstanding our priuilege granted them to make Consuls in al parts of our dominions to gouerne their nation according to their owne custome and law, to defend them against all wrongs and iniuries whatsoeuer: yet that the French Consull affirming to thee that art Bassa, that they were vnder his banner, and that he should gouerne them, and ouersee their businesse, and hauing got a new priuilege, mentioning therein the English men to be vnder his banner, did by all meanes molest and trouble them, insomuch that their Consull oppressed with many iniuries fled away, and that thou which art Beglerbie didst maintaine the French Consul herein: whereupon the Embassadour required our commandement, that they might haue iustice for these iniuries: wherefore we commaunde thee that hauing receiued this our commandement, you examine diligently that this priuilege, and send the copie thereof hither, and if it be found that the French Consull Vento hath by subtilitie got the aforesaid priuilege written, that you then see him punished, and suffer not hereafter the French or Venetian Consuls to intermeddle with their businesse. Obey this our commaundement, and giue credit to the seale. * * * * * A commaundement to the Byes, and Cadies of Metelin and Rhodes, and to all the Cadies and Byes in the way to Constantinople. To the Saniakbies of Rhodes and Metelin, to the Saniacbies bordering on the sea coast, and to the Cadies in Rhodes and Metelin, and to the Ermins in the other ports and coastes. This commaundement comming to you, know that the Embassadour of England required of vs our commaundement that their ships comming to Chio, and from thence to Constantinople; no man should hurt them or offer any violence, either in the way on the sea or on the land, or in the portes. I haue commaunded, that their ships comming to any of the said places or ports with marchandise, if they themselues will, they may sell their commodities, and as much, and as little as they will, and if it be in a place where custome was not woont to be taken, hauing taken the custome due by the olde Canon you suffer them not to bee iniuried, either in the way, portes, or other places, but that they may come in quietnesse to Constantinople, and certifie vs of those that be disobedient to our commaundement, and giue credite to our seale. And hauing read this our commandement, giue it to them againe. * * * * * A commaundement for Aleppo. When my letters shal come vnto you, know that the Queene of England her Embassador by supplication certified how that before this time we had giuen our commaundement that the summe of 70 ducats, and other marchandize belonging to one William Barret in Aleppo, now dead, saying he was a Venetian, should be giuen to the Venetians. And if they did find that he was not a Venetian, my will was that they should send all his goods and marchandize to our port into my treasuries. But because that man was an Englishman, the Embassadour required that the sayde goods might not be diminished, but that they might be restored to one of their Englishmen. This businesse was signified vnto vs in the nine hundred ninety and fourth yere of Mahomet, and in the moneth of May the 10. day. This businesse pertaineth to the Englishmen, who haue in their handes our priuilege, according to which priuilege being in their hands let this matter be done. Against this priuilege do nothing, aske nothing of them, but restore to euery one his goods. And I command that when my commandement shall come vnto you, you doe according to it. And if it be according as the Ambassadour certified, that they haue the priuilege, peruse the same, looke that nothing be committed against it and our league, and let none trouble them contrarie to it, restore them their goods according to iustice, and take heede diligently in this businesse: if another strange marchant be dead, and his goods and marchandize be taken, if he be neither Venetian, nor Englishman, let not his goods perish among you. Before this time one of our Chauses called Cerkes Mahomet chaus was sent with our commaundement to sende the money and marchandize of a dead marchant to our port, and hitherto no letters or newes is come of this matter, for which you shall be punished. Wherefore beware, and if he that is dead be neither Venetian nor Englishman in veritie, doe not loose the goods of the said dead marchant, vnder the name of a Venetian or Englishman, doe not to the discommoditie of my treasurie, for after it will be hard to recouer it. * * * * * The voyage of Master Henry Austell by Venice and thence to Ragusa ouer land, and so to Constantinople: and from thence by Moldauia, Polonia, Silesia and Germanie to Hamburg, &c. The 9. of Iune we tooke shipping at Harewich and the next day landed at the Ramekins in the Isle of Walcheren with very stormy weather, and that night went to Middleburch in the same Island. The twelft we tooke shipping for Holland, and the 13. we landed at Schiedam: and the same day went to Delft by boat, and so that night to the Hage. The 17. we tooke shipping at Amsterdam, and the 18. we landed at Enckhuysen. The 19. we tooke shipping and by the Zuydersee we passed that day the Vlie, and so into the maine sea; And the next day we entred into the riuer of Hamburg called the Elbe. The 21. we came to anker in the same riuer before a towne of the bishop of Breme called Staden, where they pay a certaine toll, and specially for wine, and so that night wee landed at Hamburg, where we stayde three dayes. The 24. wee departed from Hamburg in the company of Edward Parish Marchant, and that day wee baited at Wyntson, and so ouer the heathes we left Lunenburg on the left hand, and trauailed all that night. The 25. we met with Master Sanders vpon the heathes, and passed by a towne of the duke of Lunenburg called Geftherne, [Footnote: Gifhorn, on the river Aller.] and from thence through many waters, wee lay that night within an English mile of Brunswig. The 27. we lay at Halberstat, which is a great towne subiect to the bishop of that towne. The 28. we baited at Erinsleiben: and there wee entred into the duke of Saxon his countrey: and the same night we lay at a town called Eisleben, where Martine Luther was borne. [Footnote: 10th November, 1483.] The 29. we passed by Mansfield, where there are many Copper mines: and so that night went to Neuburg vpon the riuer of Sala; [Footnote: Saale.] and at that time there was a great faire. 30. we baited at a proper towne called Iena vpon the same riuer and the same night wee lay at Cone vpon that riuer. The first of Iuly we baited at Salfeld: and the same day we entred first into the great woods of fine trees, and that night to Greuandal. The second to dinner to Neustat. The 3. day to dinner at Bamberg: and before wee came to the towne wee passed the riuer of Mayne that runneth towards Arnfurt, and that night to Forchaim. The 4. we came to Nurenberg, and there stayed two dayes. The 6. to bed to Blayfield. [Footnote: Pleinfeld.] The 7. we passed without Weissenburg to dinner at Monhaim, and that night we passed the riuer of Danubius at Tonewertd, [Footnote: Donauwerth.] and so to be to Nurendof. The 8. we came to Augspurg, otherwise called Augusta, vpon the riuer of Lech. The 9. we lay at Landsberg vpon the said riuer, in the duke of Bauars countrey, The 10. to dinner at Suanego, [Footnote: Shongau.] and that night to Hambers [Footnote: Amergan.] against the mountains, where the small toyes be made. The 11. to dinner to Parcberk, [Footnote: Partenkirch.] and that night to Sefelt in the Archduke of Austria his countrey. The 12. to dinner at Inspruck, and that night to bed at Landeck, where there is a toll, and it is the place where Charles the fift and his brother Ferdinand did meet. And there is a table of brasse with Latine letters in memorie thereof. The 13. we passed by Stizen, and dined at Prisena, and so that night to Clusen. [Footnote: Autstell thus crossed the Alps by Trent and not by the Brenner, which would seem the most direct route to Venice.] The 14. to dinner at Bolsan and to bed at Neumark, and by the way we passed the dangerous place, where so many murthers haue bene committed. The 15. to dinner at Trent: That day we entred the borders of Italy, that night to Lenigo. [Footnote: Probably a misprint for Levigo.] The 16. to dinner at Grigno, where the last toll of the Emperour is: and so we came by Chursa, which is a streight passage. And the keeper thereof is drawne vp by a cord into his holde. And that night we went to Capana to bed in the countrey of the Venetians. The 17. to dinner at castle Franco: by the way we stayed at Taruiso, and there tooke coche, and that night came to Mestre to bed. The 18. in the morning we came to Venice, and there we stayed 15. dayes. In which time the duke of Venice called Nicholas de Ponte died, and we saw his burial. The Senators were continually shut vp together, as the maner is, to chuse a new duke, which was not yet chosen when we departed from thence. The 2. of August at night wee did embarke our selues vpon the Frigate of Cattaro, an hauen neere Ragusa. The 3. we came to a towne in Istria called Citta noua. The 4. we came to Parenzo, and so that night to Forcera of the bishop. The 5. we passed by Rouigno: and a litle beyond we met with 3. Galies of the Venetians: we passed in the sight of Pola; and the same day passed the gulfe that parteth Istria from Dalmatia. [Footnote: Gulf of Quarnero.] The 6. of August we came to Zara in Dalmatia, a strong towne of the Venetians: and so that night to Sebenico, which standeth in a marueilous goodly hauen, with a strong castle at the entrie thereof. The 7. we came to Lezina, and went not on shoore, but traueiled all night. The 8. we passed by a very well seated towne called Curzola, which standeth in an island of that name. The 9. in the morning betimes we landed at Ragusa, and there stayed three daies, where we found many friendly gentlemen. The 11 being prouided of a Ianizarie we departed from Ragusa in the company of halfe a dosen Marchants of that towne: and within 6 miles we entred into the countrey of Seruia. So trauailing in barren and craggie mountaines for the space of foure dayes, wee came by a small Towne of the Turkes called Chiernisa, being the 14. of the moneth; and there wee parted from the Marchants. The 16. we dined in a Cauarsara hi a Towne called Focea, [Marginal note: Or, Fochia.] [Footnote: Fotchia.] being then greatly infected with the plague. The 17. we lay by a Towne called Taslizea. [Footnote: Tachlidcha.] The 20. we came to Nouibazar. The 21. we parted from thence, trauailing stil in a countrey very ill inhabited, and lying in the fields. The 22. we passed within sight of Nicea. [Sidenote: Or, Nissa.] The 23. we passed in sight of another towne called Circui: [Footnote: Sharkei.] and about those places wee began to leaue the mountaines, and to enter into a very faire and fertile countrey, but as euill inhabited as the other, or worse. The 27. we came to Sophia, where wee stayed three dayes, being our Ianizaries home: and by good chance we lay in a Marchants house of Ragusa, that came in company with vs from Nouibazar; and also wee had in company, euer since wee came from Focea, a Turke which was a very good fellow, and he kept with vs till we came very neere Constantinople. The first of September we came to Philippopoli, which seemeth to be an ancient towne, and standeth vpon the riuer of Stanuch. [Footnote: The Maritza.] The 4. we came to Andrinopoli, a very great and ancient towne, which standeth in a very large and champion [Footnote: Flat--"the Champion fields with corn are seen," (Poor Robin, 1694).] countrey, and there the great Turks mother doth lye, being a place, where the Emperours of the Turkes were wont to lye very much. The 5. we lay in one of the great Cauarzaras that were built by Mahomet Bassha with so many goodly commodities. The 6. we lay in another of them. The 8. we came to Siliueri, [Footnote: Silivri.] which by report was the last towne that remained Christian. The 9. of September wee arriued at the great and most stately Citie of Constantinople, which for the situation and proude seate thereof, for the beautifull and commodious hauens, and for the great and sumptuous buildings of their Temples, which they call Moschea, is to be preferred before all the Cities of Europe. And there the Emperour of the Turkes then liuing, whose name was Amurat, kept his Court and residence, in a marueilous goodly place, with diuers gardens and houses of pleasure, which is at the least two English miles in compasse, and the three parts thereof ioyne vpon the sea: and on the Northeast part of the Citie on the other side of the water ouer against the Citie is the Towne of Pera, where the most part of the Christians do lye. And there also wee did lye. And on the North part of the saide Towne is the Arsenal, where the Galies are built and doe remaine: And on the Southside is all the Ordinance, artilerie, and houses of munition. Note that by the way as wee came from Ragusa to Constantinople, wee left on our right hand the Countreys of Albania, and Macedonia, and on the left hande the countreys of Bosnia, Bulgaria, and the riuer of Danubius. The 14. of September was the Turkes Beyram [Footnote: Bairam is the designation of the only two festivals annually celebrated by the Turks and other Mohammedan nations. The first is also called _Id-at-Fitr_, "the festival of the interruption," alluding to the breaking of the universal fast which is rigorously observed during the month Ramazan. It commences from the moment when the new moon of the month Shewel becomes visible, the appearance of which, as marking the termination of four weeks of abstinence and restraint is looked for and watched with great eagerness. The second festival, denominated _Id-al-Asha_ or _Kurban Bairam_, "the festival of the sacrifices," is instituted in commemoration of Abraham offering his son Isaac and is celebrated seventy days after the former, on the 10th of Zulhijjah, the day appointed for slaying the victims by the pilgrims at Mecca. The festival lasts four days. At Constantinople the two bairams are celebrated with much pomp. Amurath III, son of Selim II.] that is, one of their chiefest feastes. The 16. we went to the blacke Sea called Pontus Euxinus, and there vpon a rocke we sawe a piller of white Marble that was set vp by Pompeius: and from thence we passed to the other side of the water, vpon the shore of Asia and there we dined. The 25. we departed from Constantinople. The 29. we came to an ancient Towne called Cherchisea, that is to say, fourtie Churches, which in the olde time was a very great City, now full of scattered buildiugs. The 4. of October wee came to Prouaz, one dayes iourney distant from Varna vpon the Blacke Sea. The 9. we came to Saxi [Footnote: Tsakchi, S. E. of Galatz.] vpon the riuer of Danubius. The 10. we passed the said riuer which in that place is about a mile ouer, and then we entered into the countrey Bogdania [Marginal note: Or, Moldauia]: they are Christians but subiects to the Turkes. The 12. we came to Palsin vpon the riuer Prut. [Footnote: Faltsi.] The 14: wee came to Yas [Footnote: Jassy.] the principall Towne of Bogdania, where Peter the Vayuoda prince of that Countrey keepeth his residence, of whom wee receuied great courtesie, and of the gentlemen of his Court: And he caused vs to be safe conducted through his said Countrey, and conueyed without coste. The 17. we came to Stepanitze. [Footnote: Stephanesti, on the frontier between Moldavia and Bessarabia.] The 19. we came to Zotschen, [Footnote: Chotin.] which is the last towne of Bogdania vpon the riuer of Neister, that parteth the said countrey from Podolia. The 20. we passed the riuer of Nyester and came to Camyenetz [Footnote: on the river Smokriz.] in the countrey of Podolia, subiect to the king of Poland: this is one of the strongest Townes by nature and situation that can be seene. The 21. we came to Skala. [Footnote: A market town on the Podhoree, S. of Zeryz.] The 22. to Slothone, or Scloczow. [Footnote: Czorkorw, on the Sered.] The 24. to Leopolis [Footnote: Lemberg, also called Leopol.] which is in Russia alba, and so is the most part of the countrey betwixt Camyenetz and it. And it is a towne very well built, well gouerned, full of trafique and plentifull: and there we stayed fiue dayes. The 30. we baited at Grodecz, and that night at Vilna [Footnote: Probably Sandova--Wisznia.] The 31. we dined at Mostiska, [Footnote: Mosciska.] and that night at Rodmena. [Footnote: Radymno.] The first of Nouember in the morning before day wee passed without the Towne of Iaroslaw, where they say is one of the greatest faires in all Poland, and chiefly of horses, and that night to Rosdnoska. [Footnote: Rosnialov.] The second to diner at Lanczut, [Footnote: Lanaif.] at night to Retsbou. [Footnote: Rzeszow.] The thirde to Sendxizow, [Footnote: Sedziszow.] at night to Tarnow, and that night wee mette with the Palatine Laski. The fourth to Vonuez, [Footnote: Woinicz.] and that night to Brytska. [Footnote: Brzesko.] The fift to Kuhena. [Footnote: Perhaps, Kozmice.] The 6. to Cracouia the principall Citie of all Poland: at which time the King was gone to Lituania: for he doeth make his residence one yeere in Poland, and the other in Lituania. Cracouia standeth on the riuer of Vistula. The 9. wee departed from Cracouia, and that night wee came to a village hard by a Towne called Ilkusch, [Footnote: Olkusz.] where the leade Mines are. The 10. wee passed by a Towne called Slawkow: where there are also leade Mines, and baited that day at Bendzin, [Footnote: Bedzin.] which is the last tome of Poland towards Silesia; and there is a toll. [Sidenote: Salt digged out of mountaines in Poland] Note that all the Countreys of Poland, Russia alba, Podolia, Bogdania, and diuers other Countreys adioyning vnto them, doe consume no other salt but such as is digged in Sorstyn mountaine neere to Cracouia which is as hard as any stone; it is very good, and goeth further then any other salt. That night we lay at Bitom, [Footnote: Beuthen.] which is the first Towne of Silesia. The 12. we passed by a great towne called Strelitz, and that night we lay at Oppelen vpon the riuer of Odera. The 13. we passed by Schurgasse, [Footnote: Schurgast.] and that night wee lay without the towne of Brigk: [Footnote: Brieg.] for wee coulde not bee suffered to come in by reason of the plague which was in those partes in diuers Townes. The 14. we passed by Olaw, [Footnote: Oblau.] and that night we came to the Citie of Breslaw, which is a faire towne, great, well built and well seated vpon the riuer of Odera. The 16. we baited at Neumargt. [Footnote: Neumark.] The 17. wee passed by Lignizt and by Hayn, [Footnote: Hainau.] and that night to Buntzel. [Footnote: Buntzlau.] The 18. we passed by Naumburg through Gorlitz vpon the riuer of Neiss, and that night lay without Reichenbach. The 19. wee passed by Baudzen and Cannitz, [Footnote: Camenz.] and that night to Rensperg. The 20. we passed by Hayn, by Strelen, were we should haue passed the riuer of Elbe, but the boate was not there, so that night we lay at a towne called Mulberg. The 21. we passed the said riuer, wee went by Belgern, by Torga, by Dumitch: and at night to Bretch. The 22. wee passed the Elbe againe at Wittenberg, which is a very strong towne, with a good Vniuersitie: and that day we passed by Coswig. The 23. wee passed through Zerbst in the morning, and that night at Magdeburg, a very strong Towne, and well gouerned as wee did heare. The most part of the Countrey, after wee were come one dayes iourney on this side Breslawe to this place, belongeth to the Duke of Saxon. The 24. wee passed by a castle of the Marques of Brandenburg called Wolmerstat, and that night we lay at Garleben. The 25. wee lay at Soltwedel. The 26. at Berg. The 27. we baited at Lunenborg, and that night we lay at Winson. The 28. we came to Homborg, and there stayed one weeke. The 5. of December wee departed from Hamborg, and passed the Elbe by boate being much frosen, and from the riuer went on foote to Boxtchoede, being a long Dutch mile off, and there we lay; and from thence passed ouer land to Emden. Thence hauing passed through Friseland and Holland, the 25. being Christmas day in the morning we came to Delft: where wee found the right honourable the Earle of Leicester with a goodly company of Lords, knights, gentlemen, and souldiers. The 28. at night to Roterodam. The 29. to the Briel, and there stayed eight dayes for passage. The fift of Ianuary we tooke shipping. The 7. we landed at Grauesend, and so that night at London with the helpe of almightie God. * * * * * The Turkes passeport or safeconduct for Captaine Austell, and Iacomo Manuchio. Know thou which art Voyuoda of Bogdania, and Valachia, and other our officers abiding and dwelling on the way by which men commonly passe into Bogdania, and Valachia, that the Embassador of England hauing two English gentlemen desirous to depart for England, the one named Henry Austel, and the other Iacomo de Manuchio, requested our hignesse letters of Safeconduct to passe through our dominions with one seruant to attende on them. Wherefore wee straightly charge you and all other our seruants by whom they shall passe, that hauing receiued this our commandement, you haue diligent care and regard that they may haue prouided for them in this their iourney (for their money) all such necessary prouision as shalbe necessary for themselues and their horses, in such sort as they may haue no cause hereafter to complaine of you. And if by chaunce they come vnto any place, where they shal stand in feare either of their persons or goods, that then you carefully cause them to bee guarded with your men, and to be conducted through all suspected places, with sufficient company; But haue great regard that they conuey not out of our countrey any of pur seruiceable horses. Obey our commandement, and giue credite to this our Seale. * * * * * A Passeport of the Earle of Leicester for Thomas Foster gentleman trauailing to Constantinople. Robertus Comes Leicestriæ, baro de Denbigh, ordinum Garterij et Sancti Michaelis eques auratus, Serenissimæ Reginæ Angliæ a Secretioribus consilijs, et magister equorum, dux et capitaneus generalis exercitus eiusdem Regiæ maiestatis in Belgio, et gubernator generalis Hollandiæ, Zelandiæ, et prouinciarum vnitarum et associatarum, omnibus, ad quos præsentes literæ peruenerint, salutem. Cùm lator præsentium Thomas Foster nobilis Anglus necessarijs de causis hinc Constantinopolim profecturus sit, et inde ad nos quanta potest celeritate reuersurus: petimus ab omnibus et singulis Regibus, principibus, nobilibus, magistratibus, et alijs, mandent et permittant dicto Thomæ cum duobus famulis liberum transitum per eorum ditiones et territoria sine detentione aut impedimento iniusto, et prouideri sibi de necessarijs iustum precium reddenti, ac aliter conuenienter et humaniter tractari, vt occasiones eius eundi et redeundi requirent: Sicut nos Maiestates, Serenitates, Celsitudines, et dominationes vestræ paratos inuenietis, vt vestratibus in similibus casibus gratum similiter faciamus. Datum in castris nostris Duisburgi, decimo die Septembris, anno 1586. stylo veteri. * * * * * The returne of Master William Harborne from Constantinople ouer land to London 1588. I departed from Constantinople with 30. persons of my suit and family the 3. of August. Passing through the Countries of Thracia, now called Romania the great, Valachia and Moldauia, where ariuing the 5. of September I was according to the Grand Signior his commandement very courteously interteined by Peter his positiue prince, a Greeke by profession, with whom was concluded that her Maiesties subiects there trafiquing should pay but three vpon the hundreth, which as well his owne Subiects as all other nations answere: [Sidenote: The letters of the Prince of Moldauia to the Queene. Letters of the Chanceler of Poland to the Queene.] whose letters to her Maiestie be extant. Whence I proceeded into Poland, where the high Chanceler sent for mee the 27. of the same moneth. And after most honorable intertainment imparted with me in secret maner the late passed and present occurrents of that kingdome, and also he writ to her Maiestie. Thence I hasted vnto Elbing, where the 12. of October I was most friendly welcomed by the Senate of that City, whom I finde and iudge to be faithfully deuoted to her Maiesties seruice, whose letters likewise vnto the same were presented me. No lesse at Dantzik the 27. of that moneth I was courteously receiued by one of the Buroughmasters accompanied with two others of the Senate, and a Ciuil doctor their Secretarie. After going through the land of Pomer I rested one day at Stetin, where, for that the duke was absent, nothing ensued. At Rostoke I passed through the Citie without any stay, and at Wismar receiued like friendly greeting as in the other places: but at Lubeck, for that I came late and departed early in the morning, I was not visited. At Hamburg the 19. of Nouember, and at Stoad the ninth of December in like maner I was saluted by a Boroughmaster and the Secretarie, and in all these places they presented mee sundry sorts of their best wine and fresh fish, euery of them with a long discourse, congratulating, in the names of their whole Senate, her Maiesties victory ouer the Spaniard, and my safe returne, concluding with offer of their ready seruice to her future disposing. Yet the Dantziks after my departure thence caused the Marchants to pay custome for the goods they brought with them in my company, which none other towne neither Infidels nor Christians on the way euer demanded. And notwithstanding the premisses, I was most certainly informed of sundry of our nation there resident that most of the Hansetowns vpon the sea coasts, especially Dantzik, Lubeck, and Hamborough haue laden and were shipping for Spaine, great prouision of corne, cables, ropes, powder, saltpeter, hargubusses, armour, iron, leade, copper, and all other munition seruing for the warre. Whereupon I gather their fained courtesie proceeded rather for feare then of any good affection vnto her Maiesties seruice, Elbing and Stoad onely excepted, which of duetie for their commoditie I esteemed well affected. * * * * * The priuilege of Peter the Prince of Moldauia graunted to the English Marchants. Petrus Dei gratia princeps Valachiæ et Moldauiæ; significamus præsentibus, vniuersis et singulis quorum interest ac intererit, quòd cum magnifico domino Guilielmo Hareborne oratore Serenissimæ ac potentissimæ dominæ, dominæ Elizabethæ Dei gratia Angliæ, Franciæ, ac Hiberniæ Reginæ apud Serenissimum ac potentissimum Turcarum Imperatorem hanc constitutionem fecerimus: Nimirùm vt dehinc suæ Serenitatis subditis, omnibúsque mercatoribus integrum sit hîc in prouincia nostra commorandi, conuersandi, mercandi, vendendi, contrahendíque, imo omnia exercendi, quæ mercaturæ ac vitæ humanæ societas vsúsque requirit, sine vlla alicuius contradictione, aut inhibitione: saluo ac integro tamen iure Telonij nostri: hoc est, vt a singulis rebus centum ducatorum pretij, tres numerent. Quod ratum ac firmum constitutione nostra haberi volumus. In cuius rei firmius testimonium, sigillum nostrum appressum est. Actum in castris nostris die 27. mensis Augusti, anno Domini 1588. The same in English. Peter by the grace of God prince of Valachia and Moldauia; we signifie by these presents to all and singuler persons, whom it doth or shall concerne, that we haue made this agreement with the worthy gentleman William Hareborne Ambassador of the right high and mighty prince, the Lady Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England, France and Ireland, with the most puissant and mightie Emperour of the Turkes: To witte, that from hencefoorth it shalbe lawfull for her highnesse subiects and all her Marchants, to remaine, conuerse, buy, sel, bargaine and exercise all such things, as the trade of marchandise, and humane societie and vse requireth, without any hinderance or let: the right of our Custome alwayes reserued; That is, that they pay three ducats vpon all such things as amount to the price of one hundred ducats. Which by this our ordinance we command to be surely and firmely obserued; For the more assured testimony whereof our seale is hereunto annexed. Giuen in our Campe the 27. of the moneth of August in the yeere of our Lord 1588. * * * * * The letters of Sinan Bassa chiefe counsellour to Sultan Murad Can the Grand Signior, to the sacred Maiestie of Elizabeth Queene of England, shewing that vpon her request, and for her sake especially, hee graunted peace vnto the King and kingdome Of Poland. Gloriosissima et splendore fulgidissima foeminarum, selectíssima Princeps magnanimorum IESVM sectantium, regni inclyti Angliæ Regina Serenissima Elizibetha, moderatrix rerum et negotiorum omnium plebis et familiæ Nazarenorum sapientissima; Origo splendoris et gloriæ dulcissima; nebes pluuiarum gratissima, heres et domina beatitudinis et gloriæ regni inclyti Angliæ; ad quam omnes supplices confugiunt, incrementum omnium rerum et actionum Serenitatis vestræ beatissimum, exitusque foelicissimos à Creatore omnipotente optantes, mutuáque et perpetua familiaritate nostra digna vota et laudes sempiternas offerentes: Significamus Ser. vestræ amicissimè; Quia sunt anni aliquot, à quibus annis potentissima Cæsarea celsitudo bella ineffabilia cum Casul-bas, Principe nempe Persarum gessit; ratione quorum bellorum in partes alias bellum mouere noluit, ob eamque causam in partibus Poloniæ latrones quidam Cosaci nuncupati, et alij facinorosi in partibus illis existentes, subditos Cæsaris potentissimi turbare et infestare non desierunt. Nunc autem partibus Persicis compositis et absolutis, in partibus Poloniæ et alijs partibus exurgentes facinorosos punire constituens, Beglerbego Græciæ exercitu aliquo adiuncto, et Principi Tartarorum madato Cæsaris misso, anno proximè præterito pars aliqua Regni Poloniæ infestata, turbata et deuastata fuit, et Cosaci alijque facinorosi iuxta merita sua puniti fuerunt. Quo rex Poloniæ viso duos legatos ad Cæsaream celsitudinem mittens, quòd facinorosos exquirere, et poena perfecta punire, et ab annis multis ad portam Cæsareæ celsitudinis missum munus augere vellet, significauit. Cæsarea autem celsitudo (cui Creator omnipotens tantam suppeditauit potentiam, et quæ omnes supplices exaudire dignata est) supplicatione Regis Poloniæ non accepta, iterùm in regem Poloniæ exercitum suum mittere, et Creatoris omnipotentis auxilio regnum eius subuertere constituerat. Verum Legato Serenitatis vestræ in porta beata et fulgida Cæsareæ celsitudinis residente sese interponente. Et quòd Serenitati vestræ ex partibus Poloniæ, fruges, puluis, arbores nauium, tormenta, et alia necessaria suppediterantur significante, et pacem pro regno et rege Poloniæ petente, neuè regnum Poloniæ ex parte Cæsareæ celsitudinis turbaretur vel infestaretur intercedente, Serenitatisque vestræ hanc singularem esse voluntatem exponente, Legati serenitatis vestræ significatio et intercessio cùm Cæsareæ celsitudini significata fuisset, In fauorem serenitatis vestræ, cui omnis honos et gratia debetur, iuxta modum prædictum, vt Cosaci facinoros exquirantur et poena perfecta puniantur, aut ratione muneris aliquantuli eorum delicta condonentur, hac inquam conditione literæ Cæsareæ celsitudinis ad Regem Poloniæ sunt datæ. Si autem ex parte Serenitatis vestræ foedus et pax sollicitata non fuisset, nulla ratione Cæsara celsitudo foedus cum regno Poloniæ inijsset. In fauorem autem Serenitatis vestræ regno et Regi Poloniæ singularem gratiam Cæsarea celsitudo exhibuit. Quod tàm Serenitas vestra, quàm etiam Rex et regnum Poloniæ sibi certò persuadere debent. Serenitatem vestram benè foelicissiméque valere cupimus. Datum Constantinopoli in fine mensis Sabaum nuncupati, Anno prophetæ nostri sacrati Mahumeddi nongentesimo, nonagesimo, octauo. IESV vero Anno millesimo quingentesimo nonagesimo, die duodecimo mensis Iunij. The same in English. Most glorious, and the most resplendent of women, most select Princesse, most gratious Elizabeth Queene of the valiant followers of Iesus in the famous kingdom of England, most wise gouernesse of all the affaires and bussinesses of the people and family of the Nazarens, most sweet fountaine of brightnesse and glory, most acceptable cloud of raine, inheritresse and Ladie of the blessednesse and glory of the renowmed kingdome of England, to whom in humble wise all men offer their petitions: wishing of the almightie Creator most happie increase and prosperous successe vnto all your Maiesties affaires and actions, and offering vp mutuall and perpetuall vowes worthy of our familiarity; with eternall prayses: In most friendly manner we signifie vnto your princely Highnesse, that certaine yeeres past the most mightie Cesarlike maiestie of the Grand Signor waged vnspeakeable warres with Casul-bas the Prince of the Persians, in regarde of which warres he would not goe in battell against any other places; and for that cause certaine theeues in the partes of Polonia called Cosacks, and other notorious persons liuing in the same partes ceased not to trouble and molest the subiects of our most mightie Emperour. But now hauing finished and brought to some good issue his affaires in Persia, determining to punish the saide malefactors of Poland, and for that purpose committing an army vnto the Beglerbeg of Grecia, and the yeere last past, sending his imperiall commaundement vnto the Prince of the Tartars, he hath forraged, molested, and layed waste some part of the kingdome of Poland, and the Cosacks and other notorious offenders haue receiued condigne punishment. Which the king of Poland perceiuing sent two Embassadours to his imperiall Highnesse signifying, that he would hunt out the said malefactors, and inflict most seuere punishments vpon them, and also that he would better his gift, which he hath for many yeeres heretofore ordinarily sent vnto the porch of his imperiall Highnesse. Howbeit his imperiall maiestie (vpon whom the almightie creator hath bestowed so great power, and who vouchsafeth to giue eare vnto all humble suppliants) reiecting the supplication of the King of Poland, determined againe to send his armie against the said king, and by the helpe of the Almightie creator, vtterly to subuert and ouerthrowe his kingdome. But your Maiesties Embassadour resident in the blessed and glorious porch of his imperiall Highnesse interposing himselfe as a mediatour, signifying that from the partes of Poland you were furnished with corne, gun-powder, mastes of ships, guns, and other necessaries, and crauing peace on the behalfe of the kingdome and king of Poland, and making intercession, that the said king might not be molested nor troubled by the meanes of the Grand Signior, and declaring that this was your Maiesties most earnest desire; so soone as the report and intercession of your Maiesties Embassadour was signified vnto the Grand Signor, for your sake, vnto whom all honour and fauourable regard is due, vpon the condition aforesaid, namely, that the wicked Cosacks might be sought out and grieuously punished, or that their offences might be remitted for the value of some small gift, vpon this condition (I say) the letters of his imperiall Highnesse were sent vnto the king of Poland. Howbeit had not this conclusion of league and amitie beene sollicited on the behalfe of your Maiestie, his imperiall Highnesse would neuer haue vouchsafed the same vnto the kingdome of Poland. But for your Maiesties sake his imperiall Higrrnesse hath exhibited this so singular a fauour vnto the said king and kingdome of Poland. And hereof your Maiestie and the king of Poland ought cenainely to be perswaded. We wish your Maiestie most happily and well to fare. Giuen at Constantinople in the ende of the moneth called Sabaum, in the yeere of our sacred prophet Mahomet 998, and in the yeere of Iesus 1590, the 12 of Iune. * * * * * A letter written by the most high and mighty Empresse the wife of the Grand Signior Sultan Murad Can to the Queenes Maiesty of England, in the yeere of our Lord, 1594. Il principio del ragionamento nostro sia scrittura perfetta nelle quatro parte del mondo, in nome di quello che ha creato indifferentemente tante infinite creature, che non haueuano anima ni persona, e di quello che fa girar gli noue cieli, e che la terra sette volte vna sopra l'altra fa firmar; Signor e Re senza vicere, e che non ha comparacion alla sua creatione ne opera, e vno senza precio, adorato incomparabilmente, l'altissimo Dio creatore; che non ha similitudine, si come è descrito dalli propheti: a la cui grandessa non si arriue, e alla perfettione sua compiuta non si oppone, e quel omnipotente creatore e cooperatore; alla grandessa del quale inchinano tutti li propheti; fra quali il maggior e che ha ottenuto gracia, horto del paradiso, ragi dal sole, amato del altssimo Dio e Mahomet Mustaffa, al qual e suoi adherenti e imitatori sia perpetua pace: alla cui sepultura odorifera si fa ogni honore. Quello che è imperator de sette climati, e delle quatro parti del mondo, inuincibile Re di Græcia, Agiamia, Vngeria, Tartaria, Valachia, Rossia, Turchia, Arabia, Bagdet, Caramania, Abessis, Giouasir, Siruan, Barbaria, Algieri, Franchia, Coruacia, Belgrado, &c. sempre felicissimo e de dodeci Auoli possessor della corona, e della stirpe di Adam, fin hora Imperator, figliolo del'Imperatore, conseruato de la diuina prouidenza, Re di ogni dignita e honore, Sultan Murat, che Il Signor Dio sempre augmenti le sue forzze, e padre di quello a cui aspetta la corona imperiale, horto e cypresso mirabile, degno della sedia regale, e vero herede del commando imperiale, dignissimo Mehemet Can, filiol de Sultan Murat Can, che dio compisca li suoi dissegni, e alunga li suoi giorni felici: Dalla parte della madre del qual si scriue la presente alla serenissima e gloriosissima fra le prudentissime Donne, e eletta fra li triomlanti sotto il standardo di Iesu Christo, potentissima e ricchissima regitrice, e al mondo singularissima fra il feminil sesso, la serenissima Regina d'Ingilterra, che segue le vestigie de Maria virgine, il fine della qoale sia con bene e perfettione, secondo il suo desiderio. Le mando vna salutacion di pace, cosi honorata, che non basta tutta la copia di rosignoli con le loro musiche ariuare, non che con questa carta: l'amore singulare che e conciputo fra noi, e simile a vn'horto di Vccelli vagi; che il Signor Dio la faci degna di saluacione, e il fine suo sia tale, che in questo mondo e nel' futuro sia con pace. Doppo comparsi li suoi honorati presenti da la sedia de la Serenita vostra, sapera che sono capitati in vna hora che ogni punto e stato vna consolation di lungo tempo, per occasione del Ambassadore di vostra serenita venuto alla felice porta del Imperatore, con tanto nostro contento, quanto si posso desiderare, e con quello vna lettera di vostra serenetà, che ci estata presentata dalli nostri Eunuchi con gran honore; liccarta de la quale odoraua di camfora e ambracano, et l'inchiostro di musco perfetto, et quella peruenuta in nostro mano tutta la continenza di essa a parte ho ascoltato intentamente. Quello che hora si conuiene e, che correspondente alla nostra affecione, in tutto quello che si aspetta allie cose attenente alli paesi che sono sotto il commando di vostra serenità, lei non manchi di sempre tenermi, dato noticia, che in tutto quello che li occorerà, Io possi compiacerla; de quello che fra le nostre serenità e conueniente, accioche quelle cose che si interprenderano, habino il desiderato buon fine; perche Io saro sempre ricordeuole al altissimo Imperatore delle occorenze di vostra serenita, per che sia in ogni occasione compiaciuta. La pace sia con vostra serenita, e con quelli che seguitano dretamente la via di Dio. Scritta al primi dell luna di Rabie Liuol, anno del profeta 1002, et di Iesu 1594. The same in English. Let the beginning of our discourse be a perfect writing in the foure parts of the world, in the name of him which hath indifferently created such infinite numbers of creatures, which had neither soule nor body, and of him which mooueth the nine heauens, and stablisheth the earth seuen times one aboue another, which is Lord and king without any deputy, who hath no comparison to his creation and worke, and is one inestimable, worshipped without all comparison, the most high God, the creator, which hath nothing like vnto him, according as he is described by the Prophets, to whose power no man can attaine, and whose absolute perfection no man may controll; and that omnipotent creatour and fellow-worker, to whose Maiesty all the Prophets submit themselues, among whom the greatest, and which hath obtained greatest fauour, the garden of Paradise, the beame of the Sunne, the beloued of the most high God is Mahomet Mustafa, to whom and to his adherents and followers be perpetuall peace, to whose fragrant sepulture all honour is performed. He which is emperour of the seuen climats and of the foure parts of the world, the inuincible king of Graecia, Agiamia, Hungaria, Tartaria, Valachia, Rossia, Turchia, Arabia, Bagdet, Caramania, Abessis, Giouasir, Siruan, Barbaria, Alger, Franchia, Coruacia, Belgrade, &c. alwayes most happy, and possessour of the crowne from twelue of his ancestours; and of the seed of Adam, at this present emperour, the sonne of an emperour, preserued by the diuine prouidence, a king woorthy of all glory and honour, Sultan Murad, whose forces the Lord God alwayes increase, and father of him to whom the imperiall crowne is to descend, the paradise and woonderfull tall cypresse, worthy of the royall throne, and true heire of the imperiall authority, most woorthy Mehemet Can, the sonne of Sultan Murad Can, whose enterprise God vouchsafe to accomplish, and to prolong his happy dayes: on the behalfe of whose mother [Marginal note: This Sultana is mother to Mahumet which now reigneth a Emperour.] this present letter is written to the most gracious and most glorious, the wisest among women, and chosen among those which triumph vnder the standard of Iesus Christ, the most mighty and most rich gouernour, and most rare among womankinde in the world, the most gracious Queene of England, which follow the steps of the virgine Mary, whose end be prosperous and perfect, according to your hearts desire. I send your Maiesty so honorable and sweet a salutation of peace, that al the flocke of Nightingales with their melody cannot attaine to the like, much lesse this simple letter of mine. The singular loue which we haue conceiued one toward the other is like to a garden of pleasant birds: and the Lord God vouchsafe to saue and keepe you, and send your Maiesty an happy end both in this world and in the world to come. After the arriuall of your honourable presents, from the Court of your Maiesty, your Highnesse shall vnderstand that they came in such a season, that euery minute ministred occasion of long consolation by reason of the comming of your Maiesties Ambassadour to the triumphant Court of the Emperour, to our so great contentment as we could possibly wish, who brought a letter from your Maiestie, which with great honour was presented vnto vs by our eunuks, the paper whereof did smell most fragrantly of camfor and ambargriese, and the incke of perfect muske; the contents whereof we haue heard very attentiuely from point to point. I thinke it therefore expedient, that, according to our mutuall affection, in any thing whatsoeuer may concerne the countreys which are subiect to your Maiesty, I neuer faile, hauing information giuen vnto me, in whatsoeuer occasion shall be ministred, to gratifie your Maiesty to my power in any reesonable and conuenient matter, that all your subiects businesses and affaires may haue a wished and happy end. For I will alwayes be a sollicitour to the most mighty Emperour for your Maiesties affaires, that your Maiesty at all times may be fully satisfied. Peace be to your Maiesty, and to all such as follow rightly the way of God. [Sidenote: Ann. Dom. 1594] Written the first day of the Moone of Rabie Liuol in the yere of the Prophet, 1002. END OF VOL. V. 
7182	----	** Transcriber's Notes ** The printed edition from which this e-text has been produced retains the spelling and abreviations of Hakluyt's 16th-century original. In this version, the spelling has been retained, but the following manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded: - vowels with macrons = vowel + 'n' or 'm' - q; = -que (in the Latin) - y[e] = the; y[t] = that; w[t] = with This edition contains footnotes and two types of sidenotes. Most footnotes are added by the editor. They follow modern (19th-century) spelling conventions. Those that don't are Hakluyt's (and are not always systematically marked as such by the editor). The sidenotes are Hakluyt's own. Summarizing sidenotes are labelled [Sidenote: ] and placed before the sentence to which they apply. Sidenotes that are keyed with a symbol are labeled [Marginal note: ] and placed at the point of the symbol, except in poetry, where they are moved to the nearest convenient break in the text. ** End Transcriber's Notes ** THE PRINCIPAL Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries OF THE ENGLISH NATION. Collected by RICHARD HAKLUYT, PREACHER AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMIDT, F.R.H.S. NORTHERN EUROPE VOL. I. EDITORS PREFACE "This elaborate and excellent Collection, which redounds as much to the glory of the English Nation as any book that ever was published, has already had sufficient complaints made in its behalf against our suffering it to become so scarce and obscure, by neglecting to _republish_ it in a fair impression, with proper illustrations and especially an _Index_. But there may still be room left for a favourable construction of such neglect, and the hope that nothing but the casual scarcity of a work so long since out of print may have prevented its falling into those able hands that might, by such an edition, have rewarded the eminent _Examples_ preserved therein, the _Collector_ thereof and _themselves_ according to their deserts." Thus wrote Oldys (The British Librarian, No III, March, 1737, page 137), nearly 150. years ago, and what has been done to remove this, reproach? The work has become so rare that even a reckless expenditure of money cannot procure a copy [Footnote: Mr. Quantch, the eminent Bibliopole, is now asking £42 for a copy of the 1598-1600 edition.] It has indeed long been felt that a handy edition of the celebrated "Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels and Discoveries of the English Nation," published by Richard Hakluyt 1598, 1599, 1600, was one of the greatest desiderata of all interested in History, Travel, or Adventure. The labour and cost involved have however hitherto deterred publishers from attempting to meet the want except in the case of the very limited reprint of 1809-12. [Footnote: Of this edition 250 copies were printed on royal paper, and 75 copies on imperial paper.] As regards the labour involved, the following brief summary of the contents of the Second Edition will give the reader some idea of its extent. I refer those who desire a complete analysis to Oldys. Volume I. (1598) deals with Voyages to the North and North East, and contains _One hundred and nine_ separate narratives, from Arthur's Expedition to Norway in 517 to the celebrated Expedition to Cadiz, in the reign of good Queen Bess. Amongst the chief voyages may be mentioned: Edgar's voyage round Britain in 973; an account of the Knights of Jerusalem; Cabot's voyages; Chancellor's voyages to Russia; Elizabeth's Embassies, to Russia, Persia, &c.; the Destruction of the Armada; &c., &c. Volume II. (1599) treats of Voyages to the South and South East, beginning with that of the Empress Helena to Jerusalem in 337. The chief narratives are those of Edward the Confessor's Embassy to Constantinople; The History of the English Guard in that City; Richard Coeur de Lion's travels; Anthony Beck's voyage to Tartary in 1330; The English in Algiers and Tunis (1400); Solyman's Conquest of Rhodes; Foxe's narrative of his captivity; Voyages to India, China, Guinea, the Canaries; the account of the Levant Company; and the travels of Raleigh, Frobisher, Grenville, &c. It contains _One hundred and sixty-five_ separate pieces. Volume III. (1600) has _Two hundred and forty-three different narratives_, commencing with the fabulous Discovery of the West Indies in 1170, by Madoc, Prince of Wales. It contains the voyages of Columbus; of Cabot and his Sons; of Davis, Smith, Frobisher, Drake, Hawkins; the Discoveries of Newfoundland, Virginia, Florida, the Antilles, &c.; Raleigh's voyages to Guiana; Drake's great Voyage; travels in South America, China, Japan, and all countries in the West; an account of the Empire of El Dorado, &c. The three volumes of the Second Edition therefore together contain _Five hundred and seventeen_ separate narratives. When to this we add those narratives included in the First Edition, but omitted in the Second, all the voyages printed by Hakluyt or at his suggestion, such as "Divers Voyages touching the Discoverie of America," "The Conquest of Terra Florida," "The Historie of the West Indies," &c., &c., and many of the publications of the Hakluyt Society, some idea may be formed of the magnitude of the undertaking. I trust the notes and illustrations I have appended may prove useful to students and ordinary readers; I can assure any who may be disposed to cavil at their brevity that many a _line_ has cost me hours of research. In conclusion, a short account of the previous editions of Hakluyt's Voyages may be found useful. The _First_ Edition (London: G. Bishop and R. Newberie) 1589, was in one volume folio. It contains, besides the Dedication to Sir Francis Walsingham (see page 3), a preface (see page 9), tables and index, 825 pages of matter. The map referred to in the preface was one which Hakluyt substituted for the one engraved by Molyneux, which was not ready in time and which was used for the Second Edition. The _Second_ Edition (London, G. Bishop, R. Newberie, and R, Barker), 1598, 1599, 1600, folio, 3 vols. in 2, is the basis of our present edition. The celebrated voyage to Cadiz (pages 607-19 of first volume) is wanting in many copies. It was suppressed by order of Elizabeth, on the disgrace of the Earl of Essex. The first volume sometimes bears the date of 1598. Prefixed is an Epistle Dedicatorie, a preface, complimentary verses, &c. (twelve leaves). It contains 619 pages. Volume II. has eight leaves of prefatory matter, 312 pages for _Part I_., and 204 pages for _Part II_. For Volume III. there are also eight leaves for title, dedication, &c., and 868 pages. The _Third_ Edition (London, printed by G. Woodfall), 1809-12, royal 410, 5 vols., is an excellent reprint of the two early editions. It is very scarce, a poor copy fetching £17 to £18. Since this edition, there has been no reprint of the Collection. I have taken upon myself to alter the order of the different voyages. I have grouped together those voyages which relate to the same parts of the globe, instead of adopting the somewhat haphazard arrangement of the original edition. This, and the indices I have added to each volume, will, I hope, greatly assist the student. The maps, with the exception of the facsimile ones, are modern; on them I have traced the presumed course of the journey or journeys they refer to. The illustrations I have taken from a variety of sources, which are always indicated. EDMUND GOLDSMID. EDINBURGH, _August 23rd_, 1884. THE PRINCIPAL NAVIGATIONS, VOYAGES, TRAFFIQUES, AND DISCOVERIES OF THE ENGLISH NATION, MADE BY SEA OR OUER-LAND TO THE REMOTE AND FARTHEST DISTANT QUARTERS OF THE EARTH, AT ANY TIME WITHIN THE COMPASSE OF THESE 1600 YERES: DIUIDED INTO THREE SEUERALL VOLUMES, ACCORDING TO THE POSITIONS OF THE REGIONS WHEREUNTO THEY WERE DIRECTED. THE FIRST VOLUME CONTAINETH The Worthy Discoueries, &c. of the English toward the North and Northeast by Sea, AS OF LAPLAND, SCRIKFINIA, CORELIA, THE BAIE OF S. NICOLAS, THE ISLES OF COLGOEVE, VAIGATZ, AND NOUA ZEMBLE, TOWARD THE GREAT RIUER OB, THE MIGHTY EMPIRE OF RUSSIA, THE CASPIAN SEA, GEORGIA, ARMENIA, MEDIA, PERSIA, BOGHAR IN BACTRIA, AND DIUERS KINGDOMES OF TARTARIA: TOGETHER WITH MANY NOTABLE MONUMENTS AND TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENT FORREN TRADES, AND OF THE WARRELIKE AND OTHER SHIPPING OF THIS REALME OF ENGLAND IN FORMER AGES, WHEREUNTO IS ANNEXED A Briefe Commentary of the True State of Island and of the Northern Seas and Lands Situate that Way: AS ALSO The Memorable Defeat of the Spanish Huge Armada, Anno 1588. THE SECOND VOLUME COMPREHENDETH The Principall Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoueries of the English Nation made by Sea or Ouer-land, TO THE SOUTH AND SOUTH-EAST PARTS OF THE WORLD, AS WELL WITHIN AS WITHOUT THE STREIGHT OF GIBRALTAR AT ANY TIME WITHIN THE COMPASSE OF THESE 1600 YERES: DIVIDED INTO TWO SEUERAL PARTS, &c. By Richard Hakluyt PREACHER, AND SOMETIME STUDENT OF CHRIST-CHVRCH IN OXFORD IMPRINTED AT LONDON BY GEORGE BISHOP, RALPH NEWBERIE, AND ROBERT BARKER. ANNO 1599. DEDICATION TO THE FIRST EDITION TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM KNIGHT, [Footnote: Born at Chislehurst, Kent, in 1536 He was educated at King's College Cambridge, where he specialty devoted himself to the study of languages in which he became proficient. Appointed Ambassador to Paris in 1570, he distinguished himself by the extensive system of "secret police," or spies which he established. He was present at the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, which did not excite in his cold diplomatic mind the horror it created in England. On his return in 1573 he became Secretary of State. Ten years later he was Ambassador to James VI of Scotland and in 1586 he sat as one of the commissioners on the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. In the matter of the Rabbington Conspiracy, he is said to have "outdone the Jesuits in their own Low, and overreached them in their equivocation." He died in 1590, in comparative disgrace with his mistress.] PRINCIPALL SECRETARIE TO HER MAIESTIE, CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHIE OF LANCASTER, AND ONE OF HER MAIESTIES MOST HONOURABLE PRIUIE COUNCELL. Right Honorable, I do remember that being a youth, and one of her Maiesties scholars at Westminster [Footnote: We know little of Richard Hakluyt beyond what we can gather from his writings. He was born at Eyton, in Herefordshire in 1553; was educated, as we here learn, at Westminster School and afterward, at Christ Church, Oxford, where geography was his favourite study; In 1584 he went to Paris as Chaplain to the English Embassy and, during his absence, was made Prebendary of Bristol. On his return he published several works, Leo's "Geographical History of Africa," translated from the Spanish, and Peter Martyr's "History of the West Indies" In 1605 he became Prebendary of Westminster, and Rector of Wetherogset in Suffolk. He died in 1616. In compiling the present work, Hakluyt had the assistance of Sir Walter Raleigh.] that fruitfull nurserie, it was my happe to visit the chamber of M. Richard Hakluyt, my cosin, a Gentleman of the Middle Temple, well knowen vnto you, at a time when I found lying open vpon his boord certeine bookes of Cosmographie, with an vniuersall Mappe: he seeing me somewhat curious in the view therof, began to instruct my ignorance, by shewing me the diuision of the earth into three parts after the olde account, and then according to the latter, & better distribution, into more: he pointed with his wand to all the knowen Seas, Gulfs, Bayes, Straights, Capes, Riuers, Empires, Kingdomes, Dukedomes, and Territories of ech part, with declaration also of their speciall commodities, & particular wants, which by the benefit of traffike, & entercourse of merchants, are plentifully supplied. From the Mappe he brought me to the Bible, and turning to the 107. Psalme, directed mee to the 23 & 24 verses, where I read, that they which go downe to the sea in ships, and occupy by the great waters, they see the works of the Lord, and his woonders in the deepe, &c. Which words of the Prophet together with my cousins discourse (things of high and rare delight to my yong nature) tooke in me so deepe an impression, that I constantly resolued, if euer I were preferred to the Vniuersity, where better time, and more conuenient place might be ministred for these studies, I would by Gods assistance prosecute that knowledge and kinde of literature, the doores whereof (after a sort) were so happily opened before me. According to which my resolution, when, not long after, I was remoued to Christ-church in Oxford, my exercises of duety first performed, I fell to my intended course, and by degrees read ouer whatsoeuer printed or written discoueries and voyages I found extant either in the Greeke, Latine, Italian, Spanish, Portugall, French, or English languages, and, in my publike lectures was the first, that produced and shewed both the olde imperfectly composed, and the new lately reformed Mappes, Globes, Spheares, [Footnote: "Ortelius, in his 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,' the first edition of which was in 1570, gives a list of about 150 geographical treatises."--Hallam's "Literature of Europe," c. xvii. § 53.] and other instruments of this Art for demonstration in the common schooles, to the singular pleasure, and generall contentment of my auditory. In continuance of time, and by reason principally of my insight in this study, I grew familiarly acquainted with the chiefest Captaines at sea, the greatest Merchants, and the best Manners of our nation: by which meanes hauing gotten somewhat more then common knowledge, I passed at length the narrow seas into France with sir Edward Stafford, her Maiesties carefull and discreet Ligier, where during my fiue yeeres abroad with him in his dangerous and chargeable residencie in her Highnes seruice, I both heard in speech, and read in books other nations miraculously extolled for their discoueries and notable enterprises by sea, but the English of all others for their sluggish security, and continuall neglect of the like attempts especially in so long and happy a time of peace, either ignominiously reported, or exceedingly condemned: which singular opportunity, if some other people our neighbors had beene blessed with, their protestations are often and vehement, they would farre otherwise haue vsed. And that the trueth and euidence heerof may better appeare, these are the very words of Popiliniere in his booke called L'Admiral de France, and printed at Paris. Fol. 73. pag 1, 2. The occasion of his speech is the commendation of the Rhodnais, who being (as we are) Islanders, were excellent in nauigation, whereupon he woondereth much that the English should not surpasse in that qualitie, in this sort: Ce qui m'a fait autresfois rechercher les occasions, qui empeschent, que les Anglois, qui ont d'esprit, de moyens & valeur assez, pour s'aquerir vn grand honeur parmi tous les Chrestiens, ne se font plus valoir sur l'element qui leur est, & doit estre plus naturel qu' à autres peuples: qui leur doiuent ceder en la structure, accommodement & police de nauires: comme i' ay veu en plusieurs endroits parmi eux. [Footnote: _Translation_ "This made me inquire into the reasons which prevent the English, who have sufficient intelligence, means, and courage to acquire great honour amongst all Christians, from shining more on the element which is and ought to be more natural to them than to other nations, who must needs yield to them in the building, fitting out, and management of ships, as I have my self often witnessed when amongst them."] Thus both hearing, and reading the obloquie of our nation, and finding few or none of our owne men able to replie heerin: and further, not seeing any man to haue care to recommend to the world, the industrious labors, and painefull trauels of our countrey men: for stopping the mouthes of the reprochers, my selfe being the last winter returned from France with the honorable the Lady Sheffield, for her passing good behauior highly esteemed in all the French court, determined notwithstanding all difficulties, to vndertake the burden of that worke wherin all others pretended either ignorance, or lacke of leasure, or want of sufficient argument, whereas (to speake truely) the huge toile, and the small profit to insue, were the chiefe causes of the refusall. I call the worke a burden, in consideration that these voyages lay so dispersed, scattered, and hidden in seuerall hucksters hands, that I now woonder at my selfe, to see how I was able to endure the delayes, curiosity, and backwardnesse of many from whom I was to receiue my originals: so that I haue iust cause to make that complaint of the maliciousnes of diuers in our time, which Plinie [Footnote: Plinius. lib. 25. cap. 1. Naturalis historiæ.] made of the men of his age: At nos elaborata ijs abscondere átque supprimere cupimus, & fraudare vitam etiam alienis bonis, &c. To harpe no longer vpon this string, & to speake a word of that iust commendation which our nation doe indeed deserue: it can not be denied, but as in all former ages, they haue bene men full of actiuity, stirrers abroad, and searchers of the remote parts of the world, so in this most famous and peerlesse gouernement of her most excellent Maiesty, her subiects through the speciall assistance, and blessing of God, in searching the most opposite corners and quarters of the world, and to speake plainly, in compassing the vaste globe of the earth more then once, haue excelled all the nations and people of the earth. For, which of the kings of this land before her Maiesty, had theyr banners euer beene in the Caspian sea? which of them hath euer dealt with the Emperor of Persia, as her Maiesty hath done, and obteined for her merchants large & louing; priuileges? who euer saw before this regiment, an English Ligier in the stately porch of the Grand Signor at Constantinople? who euer found English Consuls & Agents at Tripolis in Syria, at Aleppo, at Babylon, at Balsara, and which is more, who euer heard of Englishman at Goa before now? what English shippes did heeretofore euer anker in the mighty riuer of Plate? passe and repasse the vnpassable (in former opinion) straight of Magellan, range along the coast of Chili, Peru, and all the backside of Noua Hispania, further then any Christian euer passed, trauers the mighty bredth of the South sea, land vpon the Luzones in despight of the enemy, enter into alliance, amity, and traffike with the princes of the Moluccaes, & the Isle of Iaua, double the famous Cape of Bona Speranza, ariue at the Isle of Santa Helena, & last of al ruturne home most richly laden with the commodities of China, as the subiects of this now florishing monarchy haue done? Lucius Florus in the very end of his historie de gestis Romanorum recordeth as a wonderfull miracle, that the Seres, (which I take to be the people of Cathay, or China) sent ambassadors to Rome, to intreate friedship, as moued with the fame of the maiesty of the Romane Empire. And haue not we as good cause to admire, that the Kings of the Moluccæs and Iaua maior, haue desired the fauour of her maiestie, and the commerce & traffike of her people? Is it not as strange that the borne naturalles of Iapan, and the Philippinæs are here to be seene, agreeing with our climate, speaking our language, and informing vs of the state of their Easterne habitations? For mine owne part, I take it as a pledge of Gods further fauour both vnto vs and them: to them especially, vnto whose doors I doubt not in time shall be by vs caried the incomparable treasure of the truth of Christianity, and of the Gospell, while we vse and exercise common trade with their marchants. I must confesse to haue read in the excellent history intituled Origines of Ioannes Goropius, a testimonie of king Henrie the viij, a prince of noble memory, whose intention was once, if death had not preuented him, to haue done some singular thing in this case: whose words speaking of his dealing to that end with himselfe, he being a stranger, & his history rare, I thought good in this place verbatim to record: Ante viginti & plus eo annos ab Henrico Kneuetto Equite Anglo nomine Regis Henrici arram accepi, qua conuenerat, Regio sumptu me totam Asiam, quoad Turcorum & Persarum Regum commendationes, & legationes admitterentur, peragraturum. Ab his enim duobus Asiæ principibus facile se impetraturum sperabat, vt non solùm tutò mihi per ipsorum fines liceret ire, sed vt commendatione etiam ipsorum ad confinia quoque daretur penetrare. Sumptus quidem non exiguus erat futurus, sed tanta erat principi cognoscendi auiditas, vt nullis pecunijs ad hoc iter necessarijs se diceret parsurum. O Dignum Regia Maiestate animum, O me foelicem, si Deus non antè & Kneuettum & Regem abstulisset, quàm reuersus ab hac peregrinatione fuissem, &c. [Footnote: Ioannis Goropij Becari originum lib. 5 pag 494. _Translation_: "More than twenty years before I received from Henry Knevett, an English knight, in the name of King Henry, a retaining fee, it being agreed that I should travel at the king's expense throughout Asia, so far as the letters of introduction or embassies of the Turkish and Persian monarchs would enable me. For he (the king) hoped easily to obtain from these two Asiatic monarchs not only permission for me to travel through their territories, but also, by their influence, through the frontier states of their kingdoms. The cost was not to be light, but such was that prince's eagerness, after knowledge that he declared he would spare no expense for this journey. O mind worthy of regal dignity! O happy me if God had not called away both Knevett and the king before I had returned from that journey!"] But as the purpose of Dauid the king to builde a house and temple to God was accepted, although Salomon performed it: so I make no question, but that the zeale in this matter of the aforesaid most renowmed prince may seeme no lesse worthy (in his kinde) of acceptation, although reserued for the person of our Salomon her gratious Maiesty, whome I feare not to pronounce to haue receiued the same Heroicall spirit, and most honorable disposition, as an inheritance from her famous father. Now wheras I haue alwayes noted your wisdome to haue had a speciall care of the honor of her Maiesty, the good reputation of our country, & the aduancing of nauigation, the very walles of this our Island, as the oracle is reported to haue spoken of the sea forces of Athens: [Footnote: Plutarch in the life of Themistocles.] and whereas I acknowledge in all dutifull sort how honorably both by your letter and speech I haue bene animated in this and other my trauels, I see my selfe bound to make presentment of this worke to your selfe, as the fruits of your owne incouragements, & the manifestation both of my vnfained seruice to my prince and country, and of my particular duty to your honour: which I haue done with the lesse suspition either of not satisfying the world, or of not answering your owne expectation, in that according to your order, it hath passed the sight, and partly also the censure of the learned phisitian M. Doctor Iames, a man many wayes very notably qualified. And thus beseeching God, the giuer of all true honor & wisdome to increase both these blessings in you, with continuance of health, strength, happinesse, and whatsoeuer good thing els your selfe can wish, I humbly take my leaue. London the 17. of Nouember. Your honors most humble alwayes to be commanded RICHARD HAKLUYT. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION RICHARD HAKLUYT TO THE FAVOURABLE READER I haue thought it very requisite for thy further instruction and direction in this historie (Good Reader) to acquaint thee brieflie with the Methode and order which I haue vsed in the whole course thereof: and by the way also to let thee vnderstand by whose friendly aide in this my trauell I haue bene furthered: acknowledging that ancient speach to be no lesse true then inenious, that the offence is great, Non agnoscere per quos profeceris, not to speake of them by whom a man in his indeuours is assisted. Concerning my proceeding therefore in this present worke, it hath bene this. Whatsoeuer testimonie I haue found in any author of authoritie appertaining to my argument, either stranger or naturall, I haue recorded the same word for word, with his particular name and page of booke where it is extant. If the same were not reduced into our common language, I haue first expressed it in the same termes wherein it is originally written whether it were a Latine, Italian, Spanish or Portugall discourse, or whatsoeuer els, and thereunto in the next roome haue annexed the signification and translation of the wordes in English. And to the ende that those men which were the paynefull and personall trauellers might reape that good opinion, and iust commendation which they haue deserued, and further that euery man might answere for himselfe, iustifie his reports, and stand accountable for his owne doings, I haue referred euery voyage to his Author, which both in person hath performed, and in writing hath left the same: for I am not ignorant of Ptolomies assertion, that Peregrinationis historia, and not those wearie volumes bearing the titles of vniuersall Cosmographie which some men that I could name haue published as their owne, beyng in deed most vntruly and vnprofitablie ramassed and hurled together, is that which must bring vs to the certayne and full discouerie of the world. Moreouer, I meddle in this worke with the Nauigations onely of our owne nation: And albeit I alleage in a few places (as the matter and occasion required) some strangers as witnesses of the things done yet are they none but such as either faithfully remember, or sufficiently confirme the trauels of our owne people: of whom (to speake trueth) I haue receiued more light in some respects then all our owne Historians could affoord me in this case, Bale, Foxe, and Eden onely excepted. And it is a thing withall principally to be considered that I stand not vpon any action perfourmed neere home, nor in any part of Europe commonly frequented by our shipping, as for example: Not vpon that victorious exploit not long since atchieued in our narow Seas agaynst that monstrous Spanish army vnder the valiant and prouident conduct of the right honourable the lord Charles Howard high Admirall of England: Not vpon the good seruices of our two woorthie Generals in their late Portugall expedition: Not vpon the two most fortunate attempts of our famous Chieftaine Sir Frauncis Drake, the one in the Baie of Cales vpon a great part of the enimies chiefest shippes the other neere the Islands vpon the great Carrack of the East India, the first (though peraduenture not the last) of that employment, that euer discharged Molucca spices in English portes: these (albeit singular and happy voyages of our renowmed countrymen) I omit, as things distinct and without the compasse of my prescribed limites, beyng neither of remote length and spaciousnesse, neither of search and discouerie of strange coasts, the chiefe subiect of this my labour. [Footnote: Halkuyt afterwards, in his second edition, did not omit these remarkable adventures.] Thus much in breuitie shall serue thee for the generall order. Particularhe I haue disposed and digested the whole worke into 3. partes, or as it were Classes, not without my reasons. In the first I haue martialled all our voyages of any moment that haue bene performed to the South and Southeast parts of the world, by which I chiefly meane that part of Asia which is neerest, and of the rest hithermost towards vs: For I find that the oldest trauels as well of the ancient Britains, as of the English, were ordinarie to Iudea which is in Asia, termed by them the Holy land, principally for deuotions sake according to the time, although I read in Ioseph Bengorion a very authenticall Hebrew author, a testimonie of the passing of 20000. Britains valiant souldiours, to the siege and fearefull sacking of Ierusalem vnder the conduct of Vespasian and Titus the Romane Emperour, a thing in deed of all the rest most ancient. But of latter dayes I see our men haue pierced further into the East, haue passed downe the mightie riuer Euphrates, haue sayled from Balsara through the Persian gulfe to the Citie of Ormuz, and from thence to Chaul and Goa in the East India, which passages written by the parties themselues are herein to be read. To these I haue added the Nauigations of the English made for the parts of Africa, and either within or without the streights of Gibraltar: within to Constantinople in Romania, to Alexandria, and Cayro in Egypt, to Tunez, to Goletta, to Malta, to Algier, and to Tripolis in Barbary: without, to Santa Cruz, to Asafi, to the Citie of Marocco, to the riuer of Senega, to the Isles of Cape Verde, to Guynea, to Benyn, and round about the dreadfull Cape of Bona Speranza, as farre as Goa. The north, and Northeasterne voyages of our nation I haue produced in the second place, because our accesse to those quarters of the world is later and not so auncient as the former: and yet some of our trauailes that way be of more antiquitie by many hundred yeeres, then those that haue bene made to the westerne coastes of America. Vnder this title thou shalt first finde the old northerne Nauigations of our Brittish Kings as of Arthur, of Malgo, of Edgar Pacificus the Saxon Monarch, with that also of Nicholaus de Linna vnder the North pole: next to them in consequence, the discoueries of the bay of Saint Nicholas, of Colgoieue, of Pechora, of the Isles of Vaigats, of Noua Zembla, and of the Sea eastwards towardes the riuer of Ob: after this, the opening by sea of the great Dukedome and Empire of Russia, with the notable and strange iourney of Master Ienkinson to Boghar in Bactria. Whereunto thou maist adde sixe of our voyages eleuen hundred verstes vp against the streame of Dwina to the towne of Vologhda thence one hundred and fourescore verstes by land to Yeraslaue standing vpon the mighty riuer of Volga: there hence aboue two thousand and fiue hundred versts downe the streame to the ancient marte Towne of Astracan, and so to the manifolde mouthes of Volga, and from thence also by ship ouer the Caspian sea into Media, and further then that also with Camels vnto Georgia, Armenia, Hyrcania, Gillan, and the cheefest Cities of the Empire of Persia: wherein the Companie of Moscouie Marchants to the perpetual honor of their Citie, and societie, haue performed more then any one, yea then all the nations of Europe besides: which thing is also acknowledged by the most learned Cosmographers and Historiographers of Christendome, with whose honorable testimonies of the action not many for number, but sufficient for authoritie I haue concluded this second part. Touching the westerne Nauigations, and trauailes of ours, they succeede naturallie in the third and last roome, for asmuch as in order and course those coastes, and quarters came last of all to our knowledge and experience. Herein thou shall reade the attempt by Sea of the sonne of one of the Princes of Northwales in saylng and searching towards the west more then 400. yeeres since: the offer made by Christopher Columbus that renowned Genouoys to the most sage Prince of noble memoire King Henrie the 7. with his prompt and cheerefull acceptation thereof, and the occasion whereupon it became fruitlesse, and at that time of no great effect to this kingdome: then followe the letters Patentes of the foresaid noble Prince giuen to Iohn Cabot a Venetian and his 3. sonnes, to discouer & conquer in his name, and vnder his Banners vnknowen Regions who with that royall incouragement & contribution of the king himselfe, and some assistance in charges of English Marchants departed [Footnote: Robert Fabian] with 5. sailes from the Port of Bristoll accompanied with 300. Englishmen, and first of any Christians found out that mightie and large tract of lande and Sea, from the circle Arcticke as farre as Florida, as appeareth in the discourse thereof. The triumphant reigne of King Henry the 8. yelded some prosecution of this discouerie for the 3. voyages performed, and the 4. intended for all Asia by his Maiesties selfe, do approoue and confirme the same. Then in processe of yeeres ariseth the first English trade to Brasill, the first passing of some of our nation in the ordinarie Spanish fleetes to the west Indies, and the huge Citie of Mexico in Noua Hispania. Then immediately ensue 3. voyages made by M. Iohn Hawkins now Knight, then Esquire, to Hispaniola, and the gulfe of Mexico: vpon which depende sixe verie excellent discourses of our men, whereof some for 15. or 16. whole yeeres inhabited in New Spaine, and ranged the whole Countrie, wherein are disclosed the cheefest secretes of the west India, which may in time turne to our no smal aduantage. The next leaues thou turnest, do yeelde thee the first valiant enterprise of Sir Francis Drake vpon Nombre de Dios, the mules laden with treasure which he surprised, and the house called the Cruzes, which his fire consumed: and therewith is ioyned an action more venterous then happie of Iohn Oxnam of Plimmouth written, and confessed by a Spaniard, which with his companie passed ouer the streight Istme of Darien, and building certaine pinnesses on the west shoare, was the first Englishman that entered the South sea. To passe ouer Master Frobisher, and his actions which I haue also newly though briefely printed, and as it were reuiued, whatsoeuer Master Iohn Dauis hath performed in continuing that discouery, which Master Frobisher began for the northwest passage, I haue faithfully at large communicated it with thee, that so the great good hope, & singular probabilities & almost certaintie therof, which by his industry haue risen, may be knowen generally of all men, that some may yet still proscute so noble an action. Sir Humfrey Gilbert, that couragious Knight, and very expert in the mysteries of Nauigation amongst the rest is not forgotten: his learned reasons & arguments for the proofe of the passage before named, together with his last more commendable resolution then fortunate successe, are here both to be read. The continuance of the historie, produceth the beginnings, and proceedings of the two English Colonies planted in Virginia at the charges of sir Walter Raleigh, whose entrance vpon those newe inhabitations had bene happie, if it had ben as seruiously followed, as it was cheerefuly vndertaken. I could not omit in this parte the two voyages made not long since to the Southwest, whereof I thinke the Spanyard hath had some knowledge, and felt some blowes: the one of Master Edward Fenton, and his consort Master Luke Warde: the other of Master Robert Withrington, and his hardie consort Master Christopher Lister as farre as 44. degrees of southerly latitude, set out at the direction and charge of the right honorable the Earle of Cumberland, both which in diuers respectes may yelde both profite and pleasure to the reader, being carefully perused. For the conclusion of all, the memorable voyage of Master Thomas Candish into the South sea, and from thence about the globe of the earth doth satisfie mee, and I doubt not but will fully content thee: which as in time it is later then that of Sir Franncis Drake, so in relation of the Philippinæs, Iapan, China and the Isle of S. Helena it is more particular, and exact: and therfore the want of the first made by Sir Frauncis Drake will be the lesse: wherein I must confesse to haue taken more then ordinarie paines, meaning to haue inserted it in this worke but being of late (contrary to my expectation) seriously delt withall, not to anticipate or preuent another mans paines and charge in drawing all the seruices of that worthie Knight into one volume, I haue yeelded vnto those my freindes which pressed me in the matter, referring the further knowledge of his proceedings to those intended discourses. [Footnote: This, however, he printed privately.] Now for the other part of my promise, I must craue thy further patience friendly reader, and some longer suspence from the worke it selfe, in acquainting thee with those vertuous gentlemen and others which partly for their priuate affection to my selfe, but chiefely for their deuotion to the furtherance of this my trauaile, haue yelded me their seuerall good assistances: for I accompt him vnworthy of future fauours, that is not thankefull for former benefites. In respect of a generall incouragement in this laborious trauaile, it were grosse ingratitude in me to forget and wilfull maliciousnes not to confesse that man, whose onely name doth carrie with it sufficient estimation and loue, and that is Master Edward Dier, of whom I will speake thus much in few wordes, that both my selfe and my intentions herein by his friendly meanes haue bene made knowne to those, who in sundrie particulars haue much steeded me. More specially in my first part, Master Richard Staper Marchant of London, hath furnished me with diuers thinges touching the trade of Turkie, and other places in the East. Master William Burrowgh, Clarke of her Maiesties nauie and Master Anthonie Ienkinson, both gentlemen of great experience, and obseruations in the north Regions, haue much pleasured me in the second part. In the third and last besides myne owne extreeme trauaile in the histories of the Spanyards, my cheefest light hath bene receiued from Sir Iohn Hawkins, Sir Walter Raleigh, and my kinseman Master Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple. And whereas in the course of this history often mention is made of many beastes, birds, fishes, serpents, plants, fruits, hearbes, rootes, apparell, armour, boates, and such other rare and strange curiosities, which wise men take great pleasure to reade of, but much more contentment to see: herein I my selfe to my singular delight haue bene as it were rauished in beholding all the premisses gathered together with no small cost, and preserued with no litle diligence, in the excellent Cabinets of my very worshipfull and learned friends M. Richard Garthe, one of the Clearkes of the pettie Bags, and M. William Cope Gentleman Vssier to the right Honourable and most prudent Counseller (the Seneca of our common wealth,) the Lord Burleigh, high Treasourer of England. Nowe, because peraduenture it would bee expected as necessarie, that the descriptions of so many parts of the world would farre more easily be conceiued of the Readers, by adding Geographicall, and Hydrographicall tables thereuuto, thou art by the way to be admonished that I haue contented my selfe with inserting into the worke one of the best generall mappes of the world onely, vntill the comming out of a very large and most exact terrestriall Globe, collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest, and latest discoueries, both Spanish Portugall, and English, composed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare Gentleman in his profession, being therein for diuers yeeres, greatly supported by the purse and liberalitie of the worshipfull marchant M. William Sanderson. [Footnote: This map it has been found impossible to reproduce in facsimile, though every effort has been made, a facsimile of Ziegler's Map of 1532 has been substituted as a Frontispiece to this Volume.] This being the summe of those things which I thought good to admonish thee of (good Reader) it remaineth that thou take the profite and pleasure of the worke: which I wish to bee as great to thee, as my paines and labour haue bene in bringing these rawe fruits vnto this ripenesse, and in reducing these loose papers into this order. Farewell. DEDICATION TO THE SECOND EDITION, TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MY SINGULAR GOOD LORD THE LORD CHARLES HOWARD, [Footnote: He was the grandson of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk and was born in 1536. He entered the army early, and distinguished himself in suppressing the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland in 1568 (for full particulars of which see Froude, "History of England," vol IX, p 96). He became Lord High Admiral in 1585, and rendered great service in 1588 against the Invincible Armada. In 1596 he was created Earl of Nottingham for his Expedition against Cadiz in conjunction with the Earl of Essex. In 1601 he suppressed the revolt of the latter and made him prisoner. He was present at Elizabeth's death in 1603, and the following year went as ambassador to Spain. He died in 1624, never having forfeited in any way the confidence of his sovereign or the esteem of his countrymen.] EARLE OF NOTINGHAM, BARON OF EFFINGHAM, KNIGHT OF THE NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, LORD HIGH ADMIRALL OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND WALES, &c, ONE OF HER MAIESTIES MOST HONOURABLE PRIVIE COUNSELL. Right Honourable and my very good Lord, after I had long since published in Print many Nauigations and Discoueries of strangers in diuers languages, as well here at London, as in the citie of Paris, during my fiue yeeres abode in France, with the woorthie Knight Sir Edward Stafford your brother in lawe, her maiesties most prudent and carefull Ambassador ligier with the French King: and had waded on still farther and farther in the sweet studie of the historie of Cosmographie, I began at length to conceiue, that with diligent obseruation, some thing might be gathered which might commend our nation for their high courage and singular actiuitie in the Search and Discouerie of the most vnknowen quarters of the world. Howbeit, seeing no man to step forth to vndertake the recording of so many memorable actions, but euery man to folow his priuate affaires: the ardent loue of my countrey deuoured all difficulties, and as it were with a sharpe goad prouoked me and thrust me forward into this most troublesome and painfull action. And after great charges and infinite cares after many watchings, toiles, and trauels, and wearing out of my weake body: at length I haue collected three seuerall Volumes of the English Nauigations Traffiques, and Discoueries, to strange, remote, and farre distant countreys. Which worke of mine I haue not included within the compasse of things onely done in these latter dayes, as though litle, or nothing woorthie of memorie had bene performed in former ages: but mounting aloft by the space of many hundred yeares, haue brought to light many very rare and worthy monuments, which long haue ben miserably scattered in mystic corners, & retchlesly hidden in mistie darkenesse, and were very like for the greatest part to haue bene buried in perpetual obliuion. The first Volume of this worke I haue thus for the present brought to light, reseruing the other two vntill the next Spring, when by Gods grace they shall come to the Presse. In the meane season bethinking my selfe of some munificent and bountifull Patrone, I called to mind your honourable Lordship, who both in regard of my particular obligation, and also in respect of the subiect and matter, might iustly chalenge the Patronage thereof. For first I remembered how much I was bound, and how deeply indebted for my yongest brother Edmund Hackluyt, to whom for the space of foure whole yeares your Lordship committed the gouernment and instruction of that honorable yong noble man, your sonne & heire apparant, the lord William Howard, of whose high spirit and wonderful towardlinesse full many a time hath he boasted vnto me. Secondly, the bounden duetie which I owe to your most deare sister the lady Sheffield, my singular good lady & honorable, mistresse, admonished me to be mindfull of the renoumed familie of the Howards. Thirdly, when I found in the first Patent graunted by Queene Marie to the Moscouie companie, that my lord your father being then lord high Admirall of England was one of the first fauourers and furtherers, with his purse and countenance, of the strange and wonderfull Discouerie of Russia, the chiefe contents of this present Volume, then I remembred the sage saying of sweet Isocrates, That sonnes ought not onely to be inheritors of their fathers substance but also of their commendable vertues and honours. But what speake I of your ancestors honors (which to say the trueth are very great, and such as our Cronicles haue notably blazoned) when as your owne Heroicall actions from time to time haue shewed themselues so admirable, as no antiquitie hath affoorded greater, and the future times will not in haste (I thinke) performe the like. To come to some particulars when the Emperors sister the spouse of Spaine, with a Fleete of an 130. sailes, stoutly and proudly passed the narow Seas, your Lordship accompanied with ten ships onely of her Maiesties Name Roiall, enuironed their Fleet in most strange and warrelike sort, enforced them to stoope gallant, and to vaile their bonets for the Queene of England, and made them perfectly to vnderstand that olde speach of the prince of Poets: Non illi imperium pelagi sæuúmmque tridentem, sed tibi sorte datum. [Footnote: Virgil, Æneid I _Translation_ "Not to him is given by fate the empire of the ocean and the potent trident, but to thee."] Yet after they had acknowledged their dutie, your lordship on her Maiesties behalfe conducted her safely through our English chanell, and performed all good offices of honor and humanitie to that forren Princesse. At that time all England beholding your most honorable cariage of your selfe in that so weightie seruice, began to cast an extraordinarie eie vpon your lordship, and deeply to conceiue that singular hope which since by your most worthie & wonderfull seruice, your L. hath more then fully satisfied. I meane (among others) that glorious triumphant, and thrise-happy victory atchieued against that huge and haultie Spanish Armada (which is notably described in the ende of this volume) wherein being chiefe and sole Commander vnder her sacred and roiall Maiestie, your noble gouernment and worthy behauior, your high wisedom, discretion and happinesse, accompanied with the heauenly blessing of the Almightie, are shewed most euidently to haue bene such as all posteritie and succeeding ages shall neuer cease to sing and resound your infinite prayse and eternall commendations. As for the late renoumed expedition and honorable voyage vnto Cadiz, the vanquishing of part of the king of Spaines Armada, the destruction of the rich West Indian Fleete, the chasing of so many braue and gallant Gallics, the miraculous winning, sacking, and burning of that almost impregnable citie of Cadiz, the surprising of the towne of Faraon vpon the coast of Portugal, and other rare appendances of that enterprise, because they be hereafter so iudicially set downe, by a very graue and learned Gentleman, which was an eye witnesse in all that action, I referre your good L. to his faithfull report, wherein I trust (as much as in him lay) he hath wittingly depriued no man of his right. Vpon these and other the like considerations, I thought it fit and very conuenient to commend with all humilitie and reuerence this first part of our English Voiages & Discoueries vnto your Honors fauourable censure and patronage. And here by the way most humbly crauing pardon, and alwayes submitting my poore opinion to your Lordships most deep and percing insight, especially in this matter, as being the father and principall fauourer of the English Nauigation, I trust it shall not be impertinent in passing by, to point at the meanes of breeding vp of skilfull Sea-men and Mariners in this Realms. Sithence your Lordship is not ignorant, that ships are to litle purpose without skilfull Sea-men; and since Sea-men are not bred vp to perfection of skill in much lesse time (as it is said) then in the time of two prentiships; and since no kinde of men of any profession in the common wealth passe their yeres in so great and continuall hazard of life; and since of so many, so few grow to gray heires: how needfull it is, that by way of Lectures and such like instructions, these ought to haue a better education, then hitherto they haue had; all wise men may easily iudge. When I call to minde, how many noble ships haue been lost, how many worthy persons haue bene drenched in the sea, and how greatly this Realme hath bene impouerished by losse of great Ordinance and other rich commodities through the ignorance of our Sea-men, I haue greatly wished there were a Lecture of Nauigation read in this Citie, for the banishing of our former grosse ignorance in Marine causes, and for the increase and generall multiplying of the sea-knowledge in this age, wherein God hath raised so generall a desire in the youth of this Realme to discouer all parts of the face of the earth, to this Realme in former ages not knowen. And, that it may appeare that this is no vaine fancie nor deuise of mine, it may please your Lordship to vnderstand, that the late Emperour Charles the fift, considering the rawnesse of his Sea-men, and the manifolde shipwracks which they susteyned in passing and repassing betweene Spaine and the West Indies, with an high reach and great foresight, established not onely a Pilote Maior, for the examination of such as sought to take charge of ships in that voyage, but also founded a notable Lecture of the Art of Nauigation, which is read to this day in the Contractation house at Siuil. The readers of which Lecture haue not only carefully taught and instructed the Spanish Mariners by word of mouth, but also haue published sundry exact and worthy treatises concerning Marine causes, for the direction and incouragement of posteritie. The learned works of three of which readers, namely of Alonso de Chauez, of Hieronymo de Chauez, and of Roderigo Zamorano came long ago very happily to my hands, together with the straight and seuere examining of all such Masters as desire to take charge for the West Indies. Which when I first read and duely considered, it seemed to mee so excellent and so exact a course as I greatly wished, that I might be so happy as to see the like order established here with vs. This matter, as it seemeth, tooke no light impression in the royall brest of that most renowmed and victorious prince King Henry the eight of famous memory, who for the increase of knowledge in his Seamen, with princely liberalitie erected three seuerall Guilds or brotherhoods, the one at Deptford here vpon the Thames, the other at Kingston vpon Hull, and the third at Newcastle vpon Tine: which last was established in the 28. yeere of his reigne. The chiefe motiues which induced his princely wisedome hereunto himselfe expresseth in maner following: Vt magistri, marinarij, gubernatores, & alij officiarij nauium, iuuentutem suam in exercitatione gubernationis nauium transigentes, mutilati aut aliquo alio casu in paupertatem collapsi, aliquod releuamen ad eorum sustentationem habeant, quo non solùm illi reficiantur, verùm etiam alij iuuenes moueantur & instigentur ad eandem artem exercendam, ratione cuius, doctiores & aptiores fiant nauibus & alijs vasis nostris & aliorum quorumcúnque in Mare gubernandis & manutenendis, tam pacis, quàm belli tempore, cùm opus postulet, etc. [Footnote: _Translation_ "That masters, mariners pilots, and other officers of ships, who have passed their youth in the profession of navigating vessels, being mutilated, or reduced to poverty through any other cause, might have some means of subsistence, by which not only they may be made comfortable but by which other youths may be induced and led to the exercise of the same profession, through which they may become more apt to and skilful in the pilotage and management at sea of ships and vessels in times of peace or war, as is neccssary," etc.] To descend a little lower, king Edward the sixth, that prince of peerelesse hope, with the aduice of his sage and prudent Counsaile, before he entered into the Northeasterne discouery, aduanced the worthy and excellent Sebastian Cabota to be grand Pilot of England, allowing him a most bountifull pension of 166. li. vj. s. viij. d. by the yeere during his life as appeareth in his Letters Patents which are to be seene in the third part of my worke. And if God had granted him longer life, I doubt not but as he dealt most royally in establishing that office of Pilote Maior (which not long after to the great hinderance of this Common wealth was miserably turned to other priuate vses) so his princely Maiestie would haue shewed himselfe no nigard in erecting, in imitation of Spaine, the like profitable Lecture of the Art of Nauigation. And surely when I considered of late the memorable bountie of sir Thomas Gresham, [Footnote: He was the son of Sir Richard Gresham, merchant and Lord Mayor of London, and was born in 1519. Educated at Cambridge, he was placed under his uncle, Sir John Gresham, and enrolled a member of the Mercers Company. His father had been the king's agent at Antwerp, and the person who succeeded him, having mismanaged the royal affairs, Sir Thomas was sent over in 1552. to retrieve them. This he was most successful in doing. Elizabeth removed him from his office, but soon restored and knighted him. He planned and erected the Royal Exchange in London, in imitation of that of Antwerp, and the queen opened it in person in 1570. Having built a mansion in Bishopsgate Street, he directed by his will that it should be converted into habitations and lecture rooms for seven professors or lecturers on the seven liberal sciences, and their salaries to be paid out of the revenues of the Royal Exchange. These and other benefactions procured for him the name of the "Royal Merchant." He died in 1579. Gresham College has since been converted into the General Excise Office, and the lectures have been given in a room over the Exchange.] who being but a Merchant hath founded so many chargeable Lectures, and some of them also which are Mathematicall, tending to the aduancement of Marine causes; I nothing doubted of your Lordships forwardnes in settling and establishing of this Lecture: but rather when your Lordship shall see the noble and rare effects thereof, you will be heartily sory that all this while it hath not bene erected. As therefore our skill in Nauigation hath hitherto bene very much bettered and increased vnder the Admiraltie of your Lordship; so if this one thing be added thereunto, together with seuere and straight discipline, I doubt not but with Gods good blessing it will shortly grow to the hiest pitch and top of all perfection: which whensoeuer it shall come to passe, I assure my selfe it will turne to the infinite wealth and honour of our Countrey, to the prosperous and speedy discouerie of many rich lands and territories of heathens and gentiles as yet vnknowen, to the honest employment of many thousands of our idle people, to the great comfort and reioycing of our friends, to the terror, daunting and confusion of our foes. To ende this matter, let me now I beseech you speake vnto your Lordship, as in times past the elder Scipio spake to Cornelius Scipio Africanus: Quò sis, Africane, alacrior ad tutandam Rempublicam, sic habeto: Omnibus, qui patriam conseruauerint, adiuuerint, auxerint, certum esse in coelo, ac definitum locum, vbi beati æuo sempiterno fruantur. It remaineth therefore, that as your Lordship from time to time vnder her most gracious and excellent Maiestie, haue shewed your selfe a valiant protectour, a carefull conseruer, and an happy enlarger of the honour and reputation of your Countrey; so at length you may enioy those celestial blessings, which are prepared to such as tread your steps, and seeke to aspire to such diuine and heroical vertues. And euen here I surcease, wishing all temporal and spirituall blessings of the life present and that which is to come to be powred out in most ample measure, not onely vpon your honourable Lordship, the noble and vertuous Lady your bedfellow, and those two rare iewels, your generous off-springs, but also vpon all the rest wheresoeuer of that your noble and renowmed family. From London the 7. day of this present October 1598. Your honours most humble alwayes to be commanded: Richard Hakluyt Preacher. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION A preface to the Reader as touching the principall Voyages and discourses in this first part. Hauing for the benefit and honour of my Countrey zealously bestowed so many yeres, so much trauaile and cost, to bring Antiquities smothered and buried in darke silence, to light, and to preserue certaine memorable exploits of late yeres by our English nation atchieued, from the greedy and deuouring lawes of obliuion: to gather likewise, and as it were to incorporate into one body the torne and scattered limmes of our ancient and late Nauigations by Sea, our voyages by land, and traffiques of merchandise by both: and hauing (so much as in me lieth) restored ech particular member, being before displaced, to their true ioynts and ligaments; I meane, by the helpe of Geographie and Chronologie (which I may call the Sunne and the Moone, the right eye and the left of all history) referred ech particular relation to the due time and place: I do this second time (friendly Reader, if not to satisfie, yet at least for the present to allay and hold in suspense thine expectation) presume to offer vnto thy view this first part of my threefold discourse. For the bringing of which into this homely and rough-hewen shape, which here thou seest; what restlesse nights, what painefull dayes, what heat, what cold I haue indured; how many long & chargeable iourneys I haue trauailed; how many famous libraries I haue searched into; what varietie of ancient and moderne writers I haue perused; what a number of old records, patents, priuleges, letters, &c. I haue redeemed from obscuritie and perishing; into how manifold acquaintance I haue entered; what expenses I haue not spared; and yet what faire opportunities of priuate game, preferment, and ease I haue neglected; albeit thyselfe canst hardly imagine, yet I by daily experience do finde & feele, and some of my entier friends can sufficiently testifie. Howbeit (as I told thee at the first) the honour and benefit of this common weale wherein I liue and breathe, hath made all difficulties seeme easie, all paines and industrie pleasant and all expenses of light value and moment vnto me. For (to conteine myselfe onely within the bounds of this present discourse and in the midst thereof to begin) wil it not in all posteritie be as great a renowme vnto our English nation to haue bene the first discouerers of a Sea beyond the North cape (neuer certainly knowen before) and of a conuenient passage into the huge Empire of Russia by the bay of S. Nicholas and the riuer of Duina; as for the Portugales to haue found a Sea beyond the Cape of Buona Esperanza, and so consequently a passage by Sea into the East Indies; or for the Italians and Spaniards to haue discouered vnknowen landes so many hundred leagues Westward and Southwestward of the streits of Gibraltar, & of the pillers of Hercules? Be it granted that the renowmed Portugale Vasques de Gama trauersed the maine Ocean Southward of Africke: Did not Richard Chanceler and his mates performe the like Northward of Europe? Suppose that Columbus that noble and high-spinted Genuois escried vnknowen landes to the Westward of Europe and Africke: Did not the valiant English knight sir Hugh Willoughby; did not the famous Pilots Stephen Burrough, Arthur Pet, and Charles Iackman accoast Noua Zembia, Colgoieue, and Vaigatz to the North of Europe and Asia? Howbeit you will say perhaps, not with the like golden successe, not with such deductions of Colonies, nor attaining of conquests. True it is that our successe hath not bene correspondent vnto theirs: yet in this our attempt the vncertaintie of finding was farre greater, and the difficultie and danger of searching was no whit lesse. For hath not Herodotus (a man for his time, most skilfull and iudicial in Cosmographie, who writ aboue 2000. yeeres ago) in his 4. booke called Melpomene, signified vnto the Portugales in plaine termes; that Africa, except the small Isthmus between the Arabian gulfe and the Mediterran sea, was on all sides enuironed with the Ocean? And for the further confirmation thereof, doth he not make mention of one Neco an Ægyptian King, who (for trials sake) sent a fleet of Phoenicians downe the Red sea, who setting forth in Autumne and sailing Southward till they had the Sunne at noonetide vpon their sterbourd (that is to say hauing crossed the Æquinoctial and the Southerne tropique) after a long Nauigation directed their course to the North and in the space of 3. years enuironed all Africk, passing home through the Gaditan strait and arriuing in Ægypt. And doth not [Footnote: Lib. 2. nat. hist. cap. 67.] Plinie tell them that noble Hanno in the flourishing time and estate of Carthage sailed from Gades in Spaine to the coast of Arabia foelix, and put down his whole iournall in writing? Doth he not make mention that in the time of Augustus Cæsar the wracke of certaine Spanish ships was found floating in the Arabian gulfe? And, not to be ouer tedious in alleaging of testimonies, doth not Strabo in the 2. booke of his Geography, together with Cornelius Nepos and Plinie in the place beforenamed, agree all in one, that one Eudoxus fleeing from King Lathyrus, and sailing downe the Arabian bay, sailed along, doubled the Southern point of Africk, and at length arriued at Gades? And what should I speake of the Spaniards? Was not diuine [Footnote: In Timæo] Plato (who liued so many ages ago and plainely described their West Indies vnder the name of Atlantis) was not he (I say) instead of a Cosmographer vnto them? Were not those Carthaginians mentioned by Aristotle lib. [Footnote: [Greek: peri thaumasion akousmaton]] de admirabil. auscult. their forerunners? And had they not Columbus to stirre them vp and pricke them forward vnto their Westerne discoueries; yea to be their chiefe loads man and Pilot? Sithens therefore these two worthy Nations had those bright lampes of learning (I meane the most ancient and best Philosophers, Historiographers and Geographers) to shewe them light; and the load starre of experience (to wit those great exploits and voyages layed vp in store and recorded) whereby to shape their course: what great attempt might they not presume to vndertake? But alas our English nation, at the first setting foorth for their Northeasterne discouery, were either altogether destitute of such cleare lights and inducements or if they had any inkling at all it was as misty as they found the Northren seas, and so obscure and ambiguous, that it was meet rather to deterre them then to giue them encouragement. But besides the foresaid vncertaintie into what dangers and difficulties they plunged themselues, Animus meminisse horret, I tremble to recount. For first they were to expose themselues vnto the rigour of the sterne and vncouth Northren seas, and to make triall of the swelling waues and boistrous winds which there commonly do surge and blow: then were they to saile by the ragged and perilous coast of Norway, to frequent the vnhaunted shoares of Finmark, to double the dreadfull and misty North cape, to beare with Willoughbres land, to run along within kenning of the Countreys of Lapland and Corelia, and as it were to open and vnlocke the seuen-fold mouth of Duina. Moreouer, in their Northeasterly Nauigations, vpon the seas and by the coasts of Condora, Colgoieue, Petzora, Ioughoria, Samoedia, Noua Zembla, &c. and their passing and returne through the streits of Vaigats, vnto what drifts of snow and mountaines of yce euen in Iune, Iuly, and August, vnto what hideous ouerfals, vncertaine currents, darke mistes and fogs, and diuers other fearefull inconueniences they were subiect and in danger of, I wish you rather to learne out of the voyages of sir Hugh Willoughbie, Stephen Burrough, Arthur Pet and the rest, then to expect in this place an endlesse catalogue thereof. And here by the way I cannot but highly commend the great industry and magnanimity of the Hollanders, who within these few yeeres haue discouered to 78. yea (as themselues affirme) to 81. degrees of Northerly latitude [Footnote: This is wrong. The Austro-Hungarian Expedition of 1872-1874 only reached 81° in Franz Josef Land. Barentz certainly neuer penetrated beyond 77° or 78°] yet with this prouiso; that our English nation led them the dance, brake the yce before them, and gaue them good leaue to light their candle at our torch [Footnote: This refers to the expeditions of Willoughby (1553), Frobisher (1576-7), Pett, Jackman (1580), and Davis (1585)]. But nowe it is high time for vs to weigh our ancre, to hoise vp our sailes, to get cleare of these boistrous, frosty, and misty seas, and with all speede to direct our course for the milde, lightsome, temperate, and warme Atlantick Ocean, ouer which the Spaniards and Portugales haue made so many pleasant prosperous and golden voyages. And albeit I cannot deny, that both of them in their East and West Indian Nauigations haue indured many tempests, dangers, and shipwracks: yet this dare I boldly affirme; first that a great number of them haue satisfied their fame-thirsty and gold-thirsty mindes with that reputation and wealth, which made all perils and misaduentures seeme tolerable vnto them, and secondly, that their first attempts (which in this comparison I doe onely stand vpon) were no whit more difficult and dangerous, then ours to the Northeast. For admit that the way was much longer, yet was it neuer barred with ice, mist, or darknes, but was at all seasons of the yeere open and Nauigable; yea and that for the most part with fortunate and fit gales of winde. Moreouer they had no forren prince to intercept or molest them, but their owne Townes, Islands and maine lands to succour them. The Spaniards had the Canary Isles: and so had the Portugales the Isles of the Acores of Porto santo, of Madera, of Cape verd, the castle of Mina, the fruitfull and profitable Isle of S. Thomas, being all of them conueniently situated, and well fraught with commodities. And had they not continuall and yerely trade in some one part or other of Africa, for getting of slaues, for sugar, for Elephants teeth, graines, siluer, gold and other precious wares, which serued as allurements to draw them on by little and little, and as proppes to stay them from giuing ouer their attempts? But nowe let vs leaue them and returne home vnto ourselues. In this first volume (Friendly Reader) besides our Northeasterne Discoueries by sea, and the memorable voyage of M. Christopher Hodson, and M. William Burrough, Anno 1570. to the Narue, wherein with merchants ships onely, they tooke fiue strong and warrelike ships of the Freebooters, which lay within the sound of Denmark of purpose to intercept our English Fleete: besides 1 all these (I say) thou maiest find here recorded, to the lasting honor of our nation, all their long and dangerous voyages for the aduauncing of traffique by riuer and by land to all parts of the huge and wide Empire of Russia: as namely Richard Chanceler his first fortunate arriuall at Newnox, his passing vp the riuer of Dwina to the citie of Vologda for the space of 1100. versts, and from thence to Yaruslaue, Rostoue, Peraslaue, and so to the famous citie of Mosco, being 1500. versts trauell in all. Moreouer, here thou hast his voiage penned by himselfe (which I hold to be very authentical, & for the which I do acknowledge my selfe beholding vnto the excellent Librarie of the right honorable my lord Lumley) wherein he describeth in part the state of Russia, the maners of the people and their religion, the magnificence of the Court, the maiestie, power, and riches of the Emperour, and the gracious entertainment of himselfe. But if he being the first man, and not hauing so perfect intelligence as they that came after him, doeth not fullie satisfie your expectation in describing the foresayd countrey and people; I then referre you to Clement Adams his relation next following, to M. Ienkinsons discourse as touching that argument to the smooth verses of M. George Turberuile, and to a learned and excellent discourse set downe pag. 536. of this volume, [Footnote: Refers to _original_ edition.] and the pages following. Vnto all which (if you please) you may adde Richard Iohnsons strange report of the Samoeds pag. 316. But to returne to our voyages performed within the bounds of Russia, I suppose (among the rest) that difficult iourney of Southam and Sparke, from Colmogro and S. Nicholas Baie, vp the great riuer of Onega, and so by other riuers and lakes to the citie of Nouogrod velica vpon the West frontier of Russia, to be right woorthy of obseruation; as likewise that of Thomas Alcock from Mosco to Smolensko, and thence to Tirwill in Polonia, pag. 339. & that also of M. Hierome Horsey from Mosco to Vobsko, and so through Liefland to Riga, thence by the chiefe townes of Prussia and Pomerland to Rostok, and so to Hamburg, Breme, Emden, &c. Neither hath our nation bene contented onely throughly to search into all parts of the Inland, and view the Northren, Southerne, and Westerne frontiers, but also by the rulers of Moscua, Occa and Volga, to visite Cazan and Astracan, the farthest Easterne and Southeasterne bounds of that huge Empire. And yet not containing themselues within all that maine circumference they haue aduentured their persons, shippes, and goods, homewards and outwards, foureteene times ouer the vnknowen and dangerous Caspian sea; that valiant, wise, and personable gentleman M. Anthonie Ienkinson being their first ring-leader: who in Anno 1558. sailing from Astracan towards the East shore of the Caspian sea, and there arriuing at the port of Mangusla, trauelled thence by Vrgence and Shelisur, and by the riuers of Oxus and Ardok, 40. dayes iourney ouer desert and wast countreys, to Boghar a principall citie of Bactria, being there & by the way friendly entertained, dismissed, and safely conducted by certaine Tartarian kings and Murses. Then haue you a second Nauigation of his performance to the South shore of the foresayd Caspian sea, together with his landing at Derbent, his arriuall at Shabran, his proceeding vnto Shamaky, the great curtesie vouchsafed on him by Obdolowcan king of Hircan, his iourney after of 30. dayes Southward, by Yauate, Ardouil, and other townes and cities to Casben, being as then the seate imperiall of Shaugh Thamas the great Sophy of Persia, with diuers other notable accidents in his going foorth, in his abode there, and in his returne home. Immediately after you haue set downe in fiue seuerall voiages the successe of M. Ienkinsons laudable and well-begun enterprise, vnder the foresayd Shaugh Thamas, vnder Shally Murzey the new king of Hircan, and lastly our traffique with Osman Basha the great Turkes lieutenant at Derbent. Moreouer, as in M. Ienkinsons trauel to Boghar the Tartars, with their territories, habitations, maner of liuing, apparell, food, armour, &c. are most liuely represented vnto you: so likewise in the sixe Persian Iournals you may here and there obserue the state of that countrey, of the great Shaugh and of his subiects, together with their religion, lawes, customes, & maner of gouernment, their coines, weights and measures, the distances of places, the temperature of the climate and region, and the natural commodities and discommodities of the same. Furthermore in this first Volume, all the Ambassages and Negociations from her Maiestie to the Russian Emperor, or from him vnto her Maiestie, seemed by good right to chalenge their due places of Record. As namely, first that of M. Randolph, 1568. then the emploiment of M. Ienkinson 1571. thirdly, Sir Ierome Bowes his honorable commission and ambassage 1582. and last of all the Ambassage of M. Doct. Fletcher 1588. Neither do we forget the Emperours first Ambassador Osep Napea, his arriuall in Scotland, his most honourable entertainment and abode in England, and his dismission into Russeland. In the second place we doe make mention of Stephen Tuerdico, and Pheodata Pogorella; thirdly, of Andrea Sauin; and lastly, of Pheodor Andrewich Phisemski. And to be briefe, I haue not omitted the Commissions, Letters, Priuileges, Instructions, Obseruations, or any other Particulars which might serue both in this age, and with all posteritie, either for presidents in such like princely and weightie actions to bee imitated, or as woorthy monuments in no wise to bee buried in silence. Finally that nothing should be wanting which might adde any grace or shew of perfection vnto this discourse of Russia; I haue prefixed before the beginning thereof, the petigree and genealogie of the Russian Emperors and Dukes, gathered out of their owne Chronicles by a Polonian, containing in briefe many notable antiquities and much knowledge of those partes as likewise about the conclusion, I haue signified in the branch of a letter the last Emperour Pheodor Iuanowich his death, and the inauguration of Boris Pheodorowich vnto the Empire. But that no man should imagine that our forren trades of merchandise haue bene comprised within some few yeeres or at least wise haue not bene of any long continuance, let vs now withdraw our selues from our affaires in Russia, and ascending somewhat higher, let vs take a sleight suruey of our traffiques and negotiations in former ages. First therefore the reader may haue recourse vnto the 137 page [Footnote: This refers to the original edition] of this Volume & there with great delight and admiration, consider out of the iudicial Historiographer Cornelius Tacitus, that the Citie of London fifteene hundred yeeres agoe in the time of Nero the Emperour was most famous for multitude of merchants and concourse of people. In the pages folowing he may learne out of Venerable Beda, that almost 900. yeeres past, in the time of the Saxons, the said citie of London was multorum emporium populorum, a Mart towne for many nations. There he may behold, out of William of Malmesburie, a league concluded betweene the most renowned and victorious Germane Emperour Carolus Magnus, and the Saxon king Offa, together with the sayd Charles his patronage and protection granted vnto all English merchants which in those dayes frequented his dominions. There may hee plainly see in an auncient testimonie translated out of the Saxon tongue, how our merchants were often woont for traffiques sake, so many hundred yeeres since, to crosse the wide Seas and how their industry in so doing was recompensed. Yea, there mayest thou obserue (friendly Reader) what priuileges the Danish king Canutus obtained at Rome of Pope Iohn of Conradus the Emperour, and of king Rudolphus for our English merchants Aduenturers of those times. Then if you shall thinke good to descend vnto the times and ages succeeding the conquest, there may you partly see what our state of merchandise was in the time of king Stephen and of his predecessor, and how the Citie of Bristol (which may seeme somewhat strange) was then greatly resorted vnto with ships from Norway and from Ireland. There may you see the friendly league betweene king Henry the second, and the famous Germane Emperour Friderick Barbarossa, and the gracious authorizing of both their merchats to traffique in either of their dominions. And what need I to put you in mind of king Iohn his fauourable safe conduct, whereby all forren merchants were to haue the same priuileges here in England, which our English merchants enioied abroad in their seuerall countreys. Or what should I signifie vnto you the entercourse of league and of other curtesies betweene king Henry the third, and Haquinus king of Norway; and likewise of the free trade of merchandise between their subiects: or tell you what fauours the citizens of Colen, of Lubek, and of all the Hansetownes obtained of king Edward the first; or to what high endes and purposes the generall, large, and stately Charter concerning all outlandish merchants whatsoeuer was by the same prince most graciously published? You are of your owne industry sufficiently able to conceiue of the letters & negotiatios which passed between K. Edward the 2. & Haquinus the Noruagian king; of our English merchants and their goods detained vpon arrest at Bergen in Norway; and also of the first ordination of a Staple, or of one onely setled Mart towne for the vttering of English woolls & woollen fells instituted by the sayd K. Edward last before named. All which (Reader) being throughly considered, I referre you then to the Ambassages, Letters, Traffiques, and prohibition of Traffiques, concluding and repealing of leagues, damages, reprisals, arrests, complaints, supplications, compositions and restitutions which happened in the time of king Richard the 2. and king Henry the 4. between the said kings and their subiects on the one partie; and Conradus de Zolner, Conradus de Iungingen, and Vlricus de Iungingen, three of the great masters of Prussia, and their subiects, with the common societie of the Hans-townes on the other partie. In all which discourse you may note very many memorable things; as namely first the wise, discreet, and cautelous dealing of the Ambassadors and Commissioners of both parts, then the wealth of the foresaid nations, and their manifold and most vsuall kinds of wares vttered in those dayes, as likewise the qualitie, burthen, and strength of their shipping, the number of their Mariners, the maner of their combates at sea, the number and names of the English townes which traded that way, with the particular places as well vpon the coast of Norway, as euery where within the sound of Denmark which they frequented; together with the inueterate malice and craftie crueltie of the Hanse. And because the name, office, and dignitie of the masters generall or great Masters of Prussia would otherwise haue been vtterly darke and vnknowen to the greater part of Readers, I haue set downe immediatly before the first Prussian ambasasage, pagina 158 [Footnote: This means, of course, page 158 of _original_ edition.] a briefe and orderly Catalogue of them all, containing the first originall and institution of themselues and of their whole knightly order and brotherhood, with the increase of reuenues and wealth which befell them afterward in Italy and Germany and the great conquests which they atchieued vpon the infidels of Prussia, Samogitia, Curland, Liefland, Lituania, &c. also their decay and finall ouerthrow, partly by the reuolt of diuers Townes and Castles vnder their iurisdiction, and partly by the meanes of their next mightie neighbour the King of Poland. After all these, out of 2. branches of 2. ancient statutes, is partly shewed our trade and the successe thereof with diuers forren Nations in the time of K. Henry the sixth. Then followeth the true processe of English policie, I meane that excellent and pithy treatise de politia conseruatiua maris: which I cannot to any thing more fitly compare, then to the Emperour of Russia his palace called the golden Castle, and described by Richard Chanceller page 264. [Footnote: _Ibidem_.] of this volume: whereof albeit the outward apparance was but homely and no whit correspondent to the name, yet was it within so beautified and adorned with the Emperour his maiesticall presence, with the honourable and great assembly of his rich-attired Peers and Senatours, with an inualuable and huge masse of gold and siluer plate, & with other princely magnificence; that well might the eyes of the beholders be dazeled, and their cogitations astonished thereat. For indeed the exteriour habit of this our English politician, to wit, the harsh and vnaffected stile of his substantiall verses and the olde dialect of his wordes is such; as the first may seeme to haue bene whistled of Pans oaten pipe, and the second to haue proceeded from the mother of Euander; but take you off his vtmost weed, and beholde the comelinesse, beautie, and riches which lie hid within his inward sense and sentence, and you shall finde (I wisse) so much true and sound policy, so much delightfull and pertinent history, so many liuely descriptions of the shipping and wares in his time of all the nations almost in Christendome, and such a subtile discouery of outlandish merchants fraud, and of the sophistication of their wares, that needes you must acknowledge, that more matter and substance could in no wise be comprised in so little a roome. [Footnote: The poem here alluded to was written between 1416 and 1438, as appears from the lines: "For Sigismond, the great Emperour Wich yet reigneth, when he was in this land With King Henryy the fifth" etc. Sigismund died in 1438, and visited England in 1416.] And notwithstanding (as I said) his stile be vnpolished, and his phrases somewhat out of vse, yet, so neere as the written copies would giue me leaue, I haue most religiously without alteration obserued the same, thinking it farre more conuenient that himselfe should speake, then that I should bee his spokesman, and that the Readers should enioy his true verses, then mine or any other mans fained prose. Next after the conclusion of the last mentioned discourse, the Reader may in some sort take a vieu of our state of merchandise vnder K. Edward the fourth, as likewise of the establishing of an English company in the Netherlands, and of all the discreet prouisoes, iust ordinations, & gratious priuileges conteined in the large Charter which was granted for the same purpose. Now besides our voyages and trades of late yeeres to the North and Northeast regions of the world, and our ancient traffique also to those parts; I haue not bene vnmindefull (so farre as the histories of England and of other Countreys would giue me direction) to place in the fore-front of this booke those forren conquests, exploits, and trauels of our English nation, which haue bene atchieued of old. Where in the first place (as I am credibly informed out of Galfridas Monumetensis, and out of M. Lambert his [Greek: Archaionomia]) I haue published vnto the world the noble actes of Arthur and Malgo two British Kings. Then followeth in the Saxons time K. Edwin his conquest of Man and Anglesey, and the expedition of Bertus into Ireland. Next succeedeth Octher making relation of his doings, and describing the North Countreys, vnto his soueraigne Lord K. Ecfrid. After whom Wolstans Nauigation within the Sound of Denmark is mentioned, the voyage of the yong Princes Edmund and Edward into Sweden and Hungarie is recorded, as likewise the mariage of Harald his daughter vnto the Russian duke Ieruslaus. Neither is that Englishman forgotten, who was forced to traueile with the cruel Tartars into their Countrey, and from thence to beare them company into Hungary and Poland. And because those Northeasterne Regions beyond Volga, by reason of the huge deserts, the colde climate, and the barbarous inciuilitie of the people there inhabiting, were neuer yet throughly traueiled by any of our Nation, nor sufficiently knowen vnto vs: I haue here annexed vnto the said Englishmans traueile, the rare & memorable iournals of 2. Friers, who were some of the first Christians that trauailed farthest that way, and brought home most particular intelligence & knowledge of all things which they had seene. These Friers were sent as Ambassadours vnto the sauage Tartars (who had as then wasted and ouerrunne a great part of Asia, and had pierced farre into Europe with fire and sword) to mitigate their fury, and to offer the glad tidings of the Gospel vnto them. The former, namely Iohannes de Plano Carpini (whose iourney, because he road sixe moneths poste directly beyond Boristhenes, did, I thinke, both for length and difficultie farre surpasse that of Alexander the great, vnto the riuer of Indus) was in the yeere 1246. sent with the authoritie and commission of a Legate from Pope Innocentius the fourth: who passed through more garisons of the Tartars, and wandered ouer more vast, barren, and cold deserts, then (I suppose) an army of an hundred thousand good souldiers could haue done. The other, to wit, William de Rubricis, was 1253. by the way of Constantinople, of the Euxin sea, and of Taurica Chersonesus imployed in an ambassage from Lewis the French King (waging warre as then against the Saracens in the Holy land) vnto one Sartach a great duke of the Tartars, which Sartach sent him forthwith vnto his father Baatu, and from Baatu he was conducted ouer many large territories vnto the Court of Mangu-Can their Emperour. Both of them haue so well played their parts, in declaring what befell them before they came at the Tartars, what a terrible and vnmanerly welcomming they had at their first arriuall, what cold intertainment they felt in traueiling towards the great Can, and what slender cheere they found at his Court, that they seeme no lesse worthy of praise then of pitie. But in describing of the Tartars Countrey, and of the Regions adiacent, in setting downe the base and sillie beginnings of that huge and ouerspreading Empire, in registring their manifolde warres and bloody conquests, in making relation of their herds and mooueable Townes, as likewise of their food, apparell and armour, and in setting downe their vnmercifull lawes, their fond superstitions, their bestiall liues their vicious maners, their slauish subiection to their owne superiours, and their disdainfull and brutish inhumanitie vnto strangers, they deserue most exceeding and high commendation. Howbeit if any man shall obiect that they haue certaine incredible relations; I answere, first that many true things may to the ignorant seeme incredible. But suppose there be some particulars which hardly will be credited; yet thus much I will boldly say for the Friers, that those particulars are but few, and that they doe not auouch them vnder their owne names, but from the report of others. Yet farther imagine that they did auouch them, were they not to be pardoned as well as Herodotus, Strabo, Plutarch, Plinie, Solinus, yea & a great many of our new principall writers, whose names you may see about the end of this Preface; euery one of which hath reported more strange things then the Friers between the both? Nay, there is not any history in the world (the most Holy writ excepted) whereof we are precisely bound to beleeue ech word and syllable. Moreouer sithens these two iournals are so rare, that Mercator and Ortelius (as their letters vnto me do testifie) were many yeeres very inquisitiue, and could not for all that attaine vnto them; and sithens they haue bene of so great accompt with those two famous Cosmographers, that according to some fragments of them they haue described in their Mappes a great part of those Northeastern Regions; sith also that these two relations containe in some respect more exact history of those vnknowen parts, then all the ancient and newe writers that euer I could set mine eyes on; I thought it good if the translation should chance to swerue in ought from the originals (both for the preseruation of the originals themselues, and the satisfying of the Reader) to put them downe word for word in that homely stile wherein they were first penned. And for these two rare iewels, as likewise for many other extraordinary courtesies, I must here acknowledge my selfe most deepely bounded vnto the right reuerend, graue and learned Prelate, my very good lord the Bishop of Chichester, and L. high Almner vnto her Maiestie; by whose friendship and meanes I had free accesse vnto the right honor my L. Lumley his stately library, and was permitted to copy out of ancient manuscripts, these two iournals and some others also. After these Friers (thought not in the next place) foloweth a testimonie of Gerardus Mercator, and another of M. Dee, concerning one Nicholas de Linna an English Franciscan Frier. Then succeedeth the long iourney of Henry Earle of Derbie, and afterward king of England into Prussia & Lithuania, with a briefe remembrance of his valiant exploits against the Infidels there; as namely, that with the help of certaine his Associates, he vanquished the king of Letto his armie, put the sayd king to flight, tooke and slew diuers of his captains, aduanced his English colours vpon the wall of Vilna, & made the citie it selfe to yeeld. Then mention is made also of Tho. of Woodstock his trauel into Pruis, and of his returne home. And lastly, our old English father Ennius, I meane, the learned, wittie, and profound Geffrey Chaucer, vnder the person of his knight, doeth full iudicially and like a cunning Cosmographer, make report of the long voiages and woorthy exploits of our English Nobles, Knights, & Gentlemen, to the Northren, and to other partes of the world in his dayes. Neither haue we comprehended in this Volume, onely our Trades and Voiages both new and old; but also haue scattered here and there (as the circumstance of times would giue vs leaue) certaine fragments concerning the beginnings, antiquities, and grouth of the classical and warrelike shipping of this Island: as namely, first of the great nauie of that victorious Saxon prince king Edgar, mentioned by Florentius Wigorniensis, Roger Houeden, Rainulph of Chester, Matthew of Westminster, Flores historiarum, & in the libel of English policie, pag. 224. and 225. of this present volume. [Footnote: _Original_ edition.] Of which Authors some affirme the sayd fleet to haue consisted of 4800. others of 4000. some others of 3600. ships: howbeit (if I may presume to gloze vpon the text) I verily thinke that they were not comparable, either for burthen, strength, building, or nimble stirrage vnto the ships of later times, and specially of this age. But howsoeuer it be, they all agree in this, that by meanes of the sayd huge Fleet he was a most puissant prince; yea, and some of them affirme together with William of Malmesbury, that he was not onely soueraigne lord of all the British seas, and of the whole Ile of Britanne it selfe, but also that he brought vnder his yoke of subiection, most of the Isles and some of the maine lands adiacent. And for that most of our Nauigators at this time bee (for want of trade and practise that way) either vtterly ignorant or but meanely skilfull, in the true state of the Seas, Shoulds and Islands, lying between the North part of Ireland and of Scotland, I haue for their better encouragement (if any weightie action shall hereafter chance to drawe them into those quarters) translated into English a briefe treatise called A Chronicle of the Kings of Man. Wherein they may behold as well the tragical and dolefull historie of those parts for the space almost of 300. yeeres, as also the most ordinarie and accustomed nauigations through those very seas, and amidst those Northwesterne Isles called the Hebrides, so many hundred yeeres agoe. For they shall there read, that euen then (when men were but rude in sea causes in regard of the great knowledge which we now haue) first Godredus Crouan with a whole Fleet of ships throughly haunted some places in that sea; secondly, that one Ingemundus setting saile out of Norway, arriued vpon the Isle of Lewis; then, that Magnus the king of Norwau came into the same seas with 160. sailes, and hauing subdued the Orkney Isles in his way, passed on in like conquering maner, directing his course (as it should seeme) euen through the very midst, and on all sides of the Hebrides, who sailing thence to Man, conquered it also, proceeding afterward as farre as Anglesey; and lastly crossing ouer from the Isle of Man to the East part of Ireland. Yea, there they shall read of Godredus the sonne of Olauus his voiage to the king of Norway, of his expedition with 80. ships against Sumerledus, of Sumerled his expedition with 53. ships against him; of Godred his flight and second iourney into Norway, of Sumerled his second arriuall with 160. shippes at Rhinfrin vpon the coast of Man, and of many other such combates, assaults, & voyages which were performed onely vpon those seas & Islands. And for the bringing of this woorthy monument to light, we doe owe great thanks vnto the iudiciall and famous Antiquarie M Camden. But sithens we are entred into a discourse of the ancient warrehke shipping of this land the reader shall giue me leaue to borow one principall note out of this litle historie, before I quite take my leaue thereof, and that is in few words, that K. Iohn passed into Ireland with a Fleet of 500. sailes; so great were our sea-forces euen in his time. Neither did our shipping for the warres first begin to flourish with king Iohn, but long before his dayes in the reign of K. Edward the Confessor, of William the Conquerour, of William Rufus and the rest, there were diuers men of warre which did valiant seruice at sea, and for their paines were roially rewarded. All this and more then this you may see recorded, pag. 19. [Footnote: Of original edition.] out of the learned Gentleman M. Lambert his Perambulation of Kent; namely, the antiquitie of the Kentish Cinque ports, which of the sea-townes they were, how they were infranchised, what gracious priuileges and high prerogatiues were by diuers kings vouchsafed vpon them, and what seruices they were tied vnto in regard thereof; to wit, how many ships, how many souldiers mariners, Garsons, and for how many dayes each of them, and all of them were to furnish for the kings vse; and lastly what great exploits they performed vnder the conduct of Hubert of Burrough, as likewise against the Welshmen, vpon 200. French ships, and vnder the commaund of captaine Henry Pay. Then haue you, pag. 130, [Footnote: Of original edition.] the franke and bountifull Charter granted by king Edward the first, vpon the foresayd Cinque portes: & next thereunto a Roll of the mightie fleet of seuen hundred ships which K. Edward the third had with him vnto the siege of Caleis: out of which Roll (before I proceed any further) let me giue you a double obseruation. First that these ships, according to the number of the mariners which were in all 14151. persons, seeme to haue bene of great burthen; and secondly, that Yarmouth an hauen towne in Northfolke (which I much wonder at) set foorth almost twise as many ships and mariners, as either the king did at his owne costs and charges, or as any one citie or towne in England besides. Howbeit Tho. Walsingham maketh plaine and euident mention of a farre greater Fleete of the same king; namely, of 1100. shippes lying before Sandwich, being all of them sufficiently well furnished. Moreouer the Reader may behold, pag. 205, [Footnote: Of original edition.] a notable testimonie of the mightie ships of that valiant prince king Henry the 5. who (when after his great victory at Agincourt the Frenchmen to recouer Harflew had hired certain Spanish and Italian ships and forces, & had vnited their owne strength vnto them) sent his brother Iohn Duke of Bedford to encounter them, who bidding them battell got the victory, taking some of their ships and, sinking others, and putting the residue to dishonorable flight. Likewise comming the next yeere with stronger powers, and being then also ouercome, they were glad to conclude a perpetuall league with K. Henry: & propter eorum naues (saieth mine Author) that is for the resistance of their ships, the sayd king caused such huge ships to be built, quales non erant in mundo, as the like were not to be found in the whole world besides. But to leaue our ancient shipping, and descend vnto later times, I thinke that neuer was any nation blessed of IEHOVAH, with a more glorious and wonderfull victory vpon the Seas, then our vanquishing of the dreadfull Spanish Armada, 1588. But why should I presume to call it our vanquishing; when as the greatest part of them escaped vs, and were onely by Gods out-stretched arme ouerwhelmed in the Seas, dashed in pieces against the Rockes, and made fearefull spectacles and examples of his iudgements vnto all Christendome. An excellent discourse whereof, as likewise of the honourable expedition vnder two of the most noble and valiant peeres of this Realme, I meane the renoumed Erle of Essex, and the right honorable the lord Charles Howard, lord high Admirall of England, made 1596. vnto the strong citie of Cadiz, I haue set downe as a double epiphonema to conclude this my first volume withall. Both of which, albeit they ought of right to haue bene placed among the Southerne voyages of our nation, yet partly to satisfie the importunitie of some of my special friends, and partly, not longer to depriue the diligent Reader of two such woorthy and long expected discourses, I haue made bold to straine a litle curtesie with that methode which I first propounded vnto my selfe. And here had I almost forgotten to put the Reader in mind of that learned and Philosophical treatise of the true state of Iseland, and so consequently of the Northren Seas & regions lying that way, wherein a great number of none of the meanest Historiographers and Cosmographers of later times, as namely, Munster, Gemma Frisius, Zieglerus, Krantzius, Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus Magnus, Peucerus and others, are by euident arguments conuinced of manifold errors, that is to say, as touching the true situation and Northerly latitude of that Island, and of the distance thereof from other places, touching the length of dayes in Sommer and of nights in Winter, of the temperature of the land and sea, of the time and maner of the congealing, continuance, and thawing of the Ice in those Seas, of the first Discouerie and inhabiting of that Island, of the first planting of Christianitie there, as likewise of the continuall flaming of mountains, strange qualities of fountaines, of hel-mouth, and of purgatorie which those authors haue fondly written and imagined to be there. All which treatise ought to be the more acceptable, first in that it hath brought sound trueth with it, and secondly, in that it commeth from that farre Northren climate which most men would suppose could not affoord any one so learned a Patrone for it selfe. And thus (friendly Reader) thou seest the briefe summe and scope of all my labours for the common-wealths sake, and thy sake, bestowed vpon this first Volume: which if thou shall as thankefully accept, as I haue willingly and freely imparted with thee, I shall bee the better encouraged speedily to acquaint thee with those rare, delightfull and profitable histories, which I purpose (God willing) to publish concerning the Southerne and Westerne parts of the World. * * * * * [Greek: EIS APODAEMIAS BRETTANON PONAEMA RIKARDOU TOU HAKLYITOU, Hygon ho Brochthonos. Ossoi gaian echousi Brotoi henos ekpephyasi hos allaela horan ethnesi charma physei. Hos de thaliplagktos metekiathen ethnea pleista, hoikoi mimnazous axiagastos ephy. Exocha Brettanoi d', alloin schisthentes erantai, idmenai allothroun phyla polysperea. Indous hesperious kai eoous, Aithiopas te kai Moschous, kai pant eschatounta genae. Touton d' oia malista, klyta, klytos Haklyutos graphen ariphradeos, mnaem aei essomenon.] * * * * * In nauales RICHARDI HAKLUYTI Commentarios. Anglia magnarum foecunda puerpera rerum, siue solum spectes nobile, siue salum; Quæ quantum sumptis se nobilitauent armis, siue domi gessit prælia, siue foris; Multorum celebrant matura volumina: tantæ Insula materiem paruula laudis alit. At se in quot, qualésque, & quando effuderit oras, qua fidit ignotum peruia classis iter, Solius Hakluyti decus est, prædiuite penna ostendisse suis ciuibus ausa mari Quæcunque idcirco celeri gens Anglica naui, Oceani tristes spernere docta minas, A primi generísque & gentis origine gessit, qua via per fluctus vlla pattre potest, Siue decus laudémque secuta, vt & hostibus alas demeret, atque suis læta pararet opes: Hoc opus Hakluyti; cui debet patria multum, cui multum, patriæ quisquis amicus erit Qui re námque magis se nostra Britannta iactat, quàm quod sit præter cætera classe potens? Quam prius obsessam tenebris sic liberat, vt nunc quisque sciat quàm sit nobile classis opus. Quam si Dædalicè vtemur surgemus in altum, sin autem Icaricè, quod voret, æquor habet. RICH. MVLCASTER. Eiusdem in eundem Qui graui primus cecinit camoena Aureum vellus, procerésque Græcos, quos sibi adiunxit comites Ianson Vectus in Argo Naue, quàm primùm secuisse fluctus prædicant salsos, sibi comparauit Inde non vnquam moritura magnæ præmia famæ Tanta si merces calamum secuta Vnicæ nauis referentis acta, Quanta Rachardum manet Hakluytum gloria? cuius Penna descripsit freta mille, mille Insulæ nostræ celeres carinas, Quæ per immensi loca peruolarunt omnia mundi Senties gratam patriam, tuæque Laudis æternùm memorem, & laboris: Quæ tua cura, calamóque totum ibit in orbem: Quam doces omni studio fouere Nauticum robur, validámque classem. Hac luet quisquis violentus Anglo vsserit hostis. * * * * * In eximium opus R. HAKLUYTI de Anglorum ad disiunctissimas regiones nauigationibus GVLIELMI CAMDENI Hexastichon. Anglia quæ penitùs toto discluditur orbe, Angulus orbis erat, paruus & orbis erat. Nunc cùm sepositos alios detexent orbes, Maximus orbis honos, Orbis & orbis erit. At quid Haklute tibi monstranti hæc debeat orbis? Laus tua, crede mihi, non erit orbe minor. * * * * * Di Marc' Antonio Pigafeta Gentilhuomo Vicentino Ignota mi starei, con poco honore Sepolta nell' oscure, antiche carte, S'alcun de figli miei con spesa & arte Non hauesse hor scoperto il mio splendore Ramusio pria pieno d' ardente amore Manifesto le mie piu riche parte, Che son lá doue il Maragnon diparte, E doue il Negro allaga, e'l Gange scorre, Hakluyto poi senza verun risguardo Di fatica o di danno accolt' hà insieme, Ciò c' hà potuto hauer da typhi Inglesi. Onde vedrassie dove bella sguardo, E la Dwina agghiaccia, e l' Obi freme, Et altri membri miei non ben palesi. EXTRACT FROM OLDYS'S LIBRARIAN, 1738. (Article Hakluyt's Voyages.) p. 137. Oldys (having given a list of the contents of the three volumes of Hakluyt) concludes, This summary may sufficiently intimate what a treasury of maritime knowledge it is, wherefore we shall here take our leave of it, with referring only to a needful observation or two: And first, As it has been so useful to many of our authors, not only in Cosmography, and Navigation, but in History, especially that of the glorious reign in which so many brave exploits were atchievcd; As it has been such a LEADING STAR TO THE NAVAL HISTORIES since compiled; and saved from the wreck of oblivion many exemplary incidents in the lives of our most renowned navigators; it has therefore been unworthily omitted in the English historical library. And lastly, though the first volume of this collection, does frequently appear, by the date, in the title page, to be printed in 1599, the reader is not thence to conclude the said volume was then reprinted, but only the title page, as upon collating the books we have observed, and further, that in the said last printed title page, there is no mention made of the Cadiz Voyage; to omit which, might be one reason of reprinting that page; for it being one of the most prosperous and honourable enterprizes that ever the Earl of Essex was ingaged in, and he falling into the Queen's unpardonable displeasure at this time, our author, Mr. Hakluyt, might probably receive command or direction, even from one of the patrons to whom these Voyages are dedicated, who was of the contrary faction not only to suppress all memorial of that action in the front of this book, but even cancel the whole narrative thereof at the end of it, in all the copies (far the greatest part of the impression) which remained unpublished. And in that castrated manner the volume has descended to posterity; not but if the castration was intended to have been concealed from us, the last leaf of the preface would have been reprinted also, with the like omission of what is there mentioned concerning the insertion of this Voyage. But at last, about the middle of the late King's reign, an uncastrated copy did arise, and the said Voyage was reprinted from it, whereby many imperfect books have been made complete. EXTRACT FROM ZOUCH'S LIFE OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, page 317. Every reader conversant in the annals of oar Naval transactions will cheerfully acknowledge the merit of Richard Hakluyt, who devoted his studies to the investigation of those periods of the English history, which regard the improvement of navigation and commerce. He had the advantage of an academical education. He was elected Student of Christ-Church in Oxford in 1570, and was therefore contemporary with Sidney at the University. To him we are principally indebted for a clear and comprehensive description of those noble discoveries of the English nation made by sea or over land to the most distant quarter of the earth. His incomparable industry was remunerated with every possible encouragement by Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Philip Sidney. To the latter, as to a most generous promoter of all ingenious and useful knowledge, he inscribed his first collection of voyages and discoveries, printed in 1582. Thus animated and encouraged, he was enabled to leave to posterity the fruits of his unwearied labours--an invaluable treasure of nautical information, preserved in volumes, which even at this day, affix to his name a brilliancy of reputation, which a series of ages can never efface or obscure. CERTEINE TESTIMONIES CONCERNING K. ARTHUR AND HIS CONQUESTS OF THE NORTH REGIONS, TAKEN OUT OF THE HISTORIE OF THE KINGS OF BRITAINE. WRITTEN BY GALFRIDUS MONUMETENSIS, AND NEWLY PRINTED AT HEIDELBERGE, ANNO 1587. Lib 9. cap. 10. Anno Christi, 517. Arthurus, secundo regni sui anno subiugatis totius Hyberniæ partibus, classem suam direxit in Islandiam, eámque debellato populo subiugauit. Exin diuulgato per cæteraa insulas rumore, quòd ei nulla Prouincia resistere poterat, Doldauius rex Gotlandiæ, & Gunfacius rex Orcadum vltro venerunt, promissóque vectigali subiectionem fecerunt. Emensa deinde hyeme, reuersus est in Britanniam, statúmque regni in firmam pacem renouans, moram duodecim annis ibidem fecit. The same in English. In the yere Of Christ, 517. king Arthur in the second yeere of his reigne, hauing subdued all parts of Ireland, sailed with his fleet into Island, and brought it and the people thereof vnder his subiection. The rumour afterwards being spread thorowout all the other Islands, that no countrey was able to withstand him, Doldamus the king of Gotland, and Gunfacius the king of Orkney, came voluntarily vnto him, and yeelded him their obedience promising to pay him tribute. The Winter being spent, he returned into Britaine, and establishing his kingdome in perfect peace, he continued there for the space of twelue yeres. Lib 9. cap. 12. Missis deinde in diuersa regna Legatis, inuitantur tam ex Gallijs quàm ex collateralibus Insulis Oceani qui ad curiam venire deberent, &c. Et paulò post: Ex collateralibus autem Insulis Guillaumurius rex Hyberniæ, Maluasius rex Islandiæ, Doldauius rex Gotlandiæ, Gunnasius rex Orchadum, Lot rex Noruegiæ, Aschihus rex Danorum. The same in English. After that king Arthur sending his messenger into diuers kingdomes, he summoned such as were to come to his Court, as well out of France, as out of the adiacent Islands of the sea, &c. and a little after: From those adiacent Islands came Guillaumarius king of Ireland, Maluasius king of Island, Doldauius king of Gotland, Gunnasius king of Orkney, Lot the king of Norway, and Aschilius the king of Denmarke. Lib 9. cap. 19. At reges cæterarum Insularam, quoniam non duxerant in morem equites habere, pedites quot quisque debebat, promittunt, ita vt ex sex Insulis, videlicet, Hyberniæ, Islandiæ, Gotlandiæ, Orcadum, Noruegiæ, atque Daciæ, sexies viginti millia essent annumerata. The same in English. But the kings of the other Islands, because it was not their custome to breed vp horses, promised the king as many footmen, as euery man was bound to send: so that out of the six Islands, namely of Ireland, Island, Gotland, Orkney, Norway, and Denmarke, the king had sixe score thousand souldiers sent him. * * * * * A testnnome of the right and appendances of the crowne of the kingdome of Britaine, taken out of M. Lambard, his [Greek: Arkaionomia], fol 137. pag. 2. Arthurus qui fuit quondam inclytissimus Rex Britonum, vir magnus fuit & animosus, & miles illustris. Parum fuit ei regnum istud, non fuit animus eius contentus regno Britanniæ. Subiugauit igitur sibi strenuè Scantiam totam, quæ modo Norweia vocatur, & omnes insulas vltra Scantiam, scz. Islandiam, & Grenlandiam, quæ sunt de appendicijs Norweiæ, & Suechordam, & Hyberniam, & Gutlandiam, & Daciam, Semelandiam, Winlandiam, Curlandiam, Roe, Femelandiam, Wirelandiam, Flandriam, Cherelam, Lappam, & omnes alias terras & insulas, Orientalis Oceani vsque Russiam (in Lappa scilicet posuit Orientalem metam regni Britanniæ) & multas insulas vltra Scantiam, vsque dum sub Septentrione, quæ sunt de appendicibus Scantiæ, quæ modo Norweia vocatur. Fuerunt autem ibi Christiani occultè. Arthurus autem Christianus optimus fuit, & fecit eos baptizari, & vnum Deum per totam Norweiam venerari, & vnam fidem Christi semper inuiolatam custodire, & suscipere. Ceperunt vniuersi proceres Norweiæ vxores suas de nobili gente Britonum tempore illo, vnde Norwegienses dicunt se exijsse de gente & sanguine regni huius. Impetrauit enim temporibus illis Arthurus rex à domino Papa, & à Curia Romana, quod confirmata sit Norweia, in perpetuum coronæ Britanniæ in augmentum regni huius, vocauítque illam dictus Arthurus Cameram Britanniæ. Hac verò de causa dicunt Norwegienses, se debere in regno isto cohabitare & dicunt se esse de corpore regni huius, scilicet de corona Britanniæ. Maluerunt enim manere in regno isto, quàm in terra eorum propria. Terra enim eorum arida est, & montuosa, & sterilis, & non sunt ibi segetes nisi per loca. Ista verò opulenta est, & fertilis, & crescunt hic segetes, & cætera vniuersa. Qua ex causa sæpius per vices gesta sunt bella atrocissima inter Anglos & Norwegienses, & interfecti sunt innumerabiles. Occupauerunt verò Norwegienses terras multas & insulas regni huius, quas adhuc detinent occupatas, nec potuerunt vnquam postea penitus euelli. Tandem modò confederati sunt nobis fide, & sacramento, & per vxores suas, quas postea ceperunt de sanguine nostro, & per affinitates, & coniugia. Ita demum constituit, & eis concessit bonus rex Edouardus propinquus noster (qui fuit optimus filius pacis) per commune consilium totius regni. Qua de causa possent, & debent prædicti de cætero nobiscum cohabitare, & remanere in regno, sicut coniurati fratres nostri. The same in English. Arthur which was sometimes the most renowmed king of the Britains, was a mightie, and valiant man, and a famous warriour. This kingdome was too litle for him, & his minde was not contented with it. He therefore valiantly subdued all Scantia, which is now called Norway, and all the Islands beyond Norway, to wit, Island and Greenland, which are apperteining vnto Norway, Sweueland, Ireland, Gotland, Denmarke, Someland, Windland, Curland, Roe, Femeland, Wireland, Flanders, Cherilland, Lapland, and all the other lands & Islands of the East sea, euen vnto Russia (in which Lapland he placed the Easterly bounds of his Brittish Empire) and many other Islands beyond Norway, euen vnder the North pole, which are appendances of Scantia, now called Norway. These people were wild and sauage, and had not in them the loue of God nor of their neighbors, because all euil commeth from the North, yet there were among them certeine Christians liuing in secret. But king Arthur was an exceeding good Christian, and caused them to be baptized, and thorowout all Norway to worship one God, and to receiue and keepe inuiolably for euer, faith in Christ onely. At that time all the noble men of Norway tooke wiues of the noble nation of the Britaines, whereupon the Norses say, that they are descended of the race and blood of this kingdome. The aforesayd king Arthur obteined also in those dayes of the Pope & court of Rome, that Norway should be for euer annexed to the crowne of Britaine for the inlargement of this kingdome, and he called it the chamber of Britaine. For this cause the Norses say, that they ought to dwell with vs in this kingdome, to wit, that they belong to the crowne of Britaine: for they had rather dwell here then in their owne natiue countrey, which is drie and full of mountaines, and barren, and no graine growing there, but in certeine places. But this countrey of Britaine is fruitfull, wherein corne and all other good things do grow and increase, for which cause many cruell battels haue bene oftentimes fought betwixt the Englishmen and the people of Norway, and infinite numbers of people haue bene slaine, & the Norses haue possessed many lands and Islands of this Empire, which vnto this day they doe possesse, neither could they euer afterwards be fully expelled. But now at length they are incorporated with vs by the receiuing of our religion and sacraments, and by taking wiues of our nation, and by affinitie, and marriages. For so the good king Edward (who was a notable mainteiner of peace) ordeined and granted vnto them by the generall consent of the whole kingdome, so that the people may, and ought from hencefoorth dwell and remaine in this kingdome with vs as our louing sworne brethren. * * * * * A testimonie out of the foresayd Galfridus Monumetensis concerning the conquests, of Malgo, king of England. Lib. II. cap. 7. Vortipono successit Malgo, omnium ferè Britanniæ pulcherrimus, multorum tyrannoram depulsor, robustus armis, largior cæteris, & vltra modum probitate præclarus. Hic etiam totam Insulam obtinuit, & sex comprouinciales Oceani Insulas: Hyberniam videlicet, atque Islandiam, Gotlandiam, Orcades, Noruegiam, Daciam, adiecit dirissimis prælijs potestati suæ. The same in English. Malgo succeeded Vortiponus which was the goodliest man in person of all Britaine, a prince that expulsed many tyrants. He was strong and valiant in warre, taller then most men that then liued, and exceeding famous for his vertues. This king also, obteined the gouernment of the whole Island of Britaine, and by most sharpe battailes he recouered to his Empire the sixe Islands of the Ocean sea, which before had bene made tributaries by king Arthur, namely Ireland, Island, Gotland, Orkney, Norway, and Denmarke. * * * * * The conquest of the Isles of Anglesey and Man by Edwin the Saxon king of Northumberland written in the second Booke and fift Chapter of Beda his Ecclesiasticall historie of the English nation. Eduinus Nordanhumbrorum gentis, id est, eius quæ ad borealem Humbri fluminis plagam inhabitat, maiore potentia cunctis qui Britanniam incolunt, Anglorum pariter & Britonum populis præfuit, præter Cantuarios tantùm, necnòn & Menauias Britonum insulas, quæ inter Hiberniam & Britanniam sitæ sunt, Anglorum subiecit potestati. The same in English. Edwin king of the people Northumberland, that is to say of them which inhabit to the North of the riuer Humber, being of greater authontie then any other potentate in the whole Isle of Britaine, bare rule as well ouer the English as the British nation, except onely the people of Kent: who also brought in subiection vnder the English, the Isles of Man and Anglesey, and the other Northwesterne Isles of the Britons, which are situate betweene Britaine and Ireland. Another testimonie alledged by Beda to the same purpose. Lib 2. cap 9. Anno ab incarnatione Domini sexcentesimo vicesimo quarto, gens Nordanhumbrorum, hoc est, ea natio Anglorum quæ ad aquilonarem Humbri fluminis plagam habitat, cùm rege suo Eduino, verbum fidei (prædicante Paulino, cuius supra meminimus) suscepit: cui videlicèt regi in auspicium suscipiendæ fidei, & regni coelestis potestas & terrem creuerat imperij: ita vt (quod nemo Anglorum ante eum fecit) omnes Britanniæ fines, qua vel ipsorum vel Britonum Prouinciæ habitabantur, sub ditione acceperit. Quìn & Menauias insulas (sicut & supra docuimus) imperio subiugauit Anglorum. Quarum prior quæ ad austrum est, & situ amplior & frugum prouentu atque vbertate foelicior, nongentarum sexaginta familiarum mensuram, iuxta æstimationem Anglorum, secunda trecentarum & vltrà spatium tenet. The Same in English. In the yeere from the incarnation of our Lord, sixe hundreth twentie and foure, the people of Northumberland, to wit, those English people which inhabit on the North side of the riuer of Humber, together with their king Edwin, at the Christian preaching and perswasion of Paulinus aboue mentioned, embraced the Gospel. Vnder which king, after he had once accepted of the Christian faith, the power both of the heauenly & of his earthly kingdome was inlarged; insomuch, that he (which no English king had done before him) brought vnder his subiection all the prouinces of Britaine, which were inhabited either by the English men themselues, or by the Britons. Moreouer, he subdued vnto the crowne of England (as we haue aboue signified) the Hebrides, commonly called the Westerne Islands. The principall wherof being more commodiously and pleasantly seated towards the South, and more abounding with corne then the rest, conteineth according to the estimation of the English, roome enough for 960. families, and the second for 300. and aboue. * * * * * The voyage of Bertus, generall of an armie sent into Ireland by Ecfridus king of Northumberland, in the yere of our Lord 684, out of the 4. Booke and 26. Chapter of Beda his Ecclesiasticall Hystorie. Anno Dominicæ incarnationis sexcentesimo octogesimo quarto, Ecfridus rex Nordanhumbrorum, misso Hiberniam cùm excercitu duce Berto, vastauit miserè gentem innoxiam, & nationi Anglorum semper amicissimam, ita vt nec ecclesijs quidem aut monasterijs manus, parceret hostilis. At insulani & quantum valuere armis arma repellebant, & inuocantes diuinæ auxilum pietatis coelitus se vindicari continuis diù imprecationibus postulabant. Et quamuis maledici regnum Dei possidere non possint, creditum tamen est, quod hi qui merito impietatis suæ maledicebantur, ocyus Domino vindice, poenas sui reatus luerent. The same in English. In the yeere of our Lord 684, Ecfrid the king of Northumberland sent captaine Bert into Ireland with an armie, which Bert miserably wasted that innocent nation being alwayes most friendly vnto the people of England, insomuch that the fury of the enemy spared neither churches nor monasteries. Howbeit the Islanders to their power repelled armes with armes, and crauing Gods aid from heauen with continuall imprecations and curses, they pleaded for reuenge. And albeit cursed speakers can by no meanes inherit the kingdome of God, it was thought notwithstanding, that they which were accursed for their impiety did not long escape the vengeance of God imminent for their offences. * * * * * The voyage of Octher made to the Northeast parts beyond Norway, reported by himselfe vnto Alfred the famous king of England, about the yere 890. Octher said, that the countrey wherein he dwelt was called Helgoland. Octher tolde his lord king Alfred that he dwelt furthest North of any other Norman. [Sidenote: Fynnes live by hunting and fishing.] He sayd that he dwelt towards the North part of the land toward the West coast: and affirmed that the land, notwithstanding it stretcheth marueilous farre towards the North, yet it is all desert and not inhabited, vnlesse it be very few places, here and there, where certeine Finnes dwell vpon the coast, who liue by hunting all the Winter, and by fishing in Summer. He said that vpon a certeine time he fell into a fantasie and desire to prooue and know how farre that land stretched Northward, and whether there were any habitation of men North beyond the desert. Whereupon he tooke his voyage directly North along the coast, hauing vpon his steereboord alwayes the desert land, and vpon the leereboord the maine Ocean: and continued his course for the space of 3. dayes. [Sidenote: The Place wither the whale hunters trauel.] In which space he was come as far towards the North, as commonly the whale hunters vse to trauell. Whence he proceeded in his course still towards the North so farre as he was able to saile in other 3. dayes. At the end whereof he perceiued that the coast turned towards the East, or els the sea opened with a maine gulfe into the land, he knew not how farre. Well he wist and remembred, that he was faine to stay till he had a Westerne winde, and somewhat Northerly: and thence he sailed plaine East along the coast still so far as he was able in the space of 4. dayes. At the end of which time he was compelled againe to stay till he had a full Northerly winde, forsomuch as the coast bowed thence directly towards the South, or at least wise the sea opened into the land he could not tell how farre: so that he sailed thence along the coast continually full South, so farre as he could trauaile in 5. dayes; and at the fifth dayes end he discouered a mightie riuer which opened very farre into the land. [Sidenote: The Riuer of Duina of likelihood.] At the entrie of which riuer he stayed his course, and conclusion turned back againe, for he durst not enter thereinto for feare of the inhabitants of the land; perceiuing that on the other side of the riuer the countrey was thorowly inhabited: which was the first peopled land that he had found since his departure from his owne dwelling: [Sidenote: A Desert countrey. Fynnes.] whereas continually thorowout all his voyage he had euermore on his steereboord, a wildernesse and desert countrey, except that in some places, he saw a few fishers, fowlers, and hunters, which were all Fynnes: and all the way vpon his leereboord was the maine ocean. [Sidenote: Biarmia.] The Biarmes had inhabited and tilled their countrey indifferent well, notwithstanding he was afrayed to go vpon shore. [Sidenote: Terfynnes.] But the countrey of the Terfynnes lay all waste, and not inhabited, except it were, as we haue sayd, whereas dwelled certeine hunters, fowlers, and fishers. The Biarmes tolde him a number of stories both of their owne countrey, and of the countreys adioyning. Howbeit, he knew not, nor could affirme any thing for certeine trueth; forsomuch as he was not vpon land, nor saw any himselfe. [Sidenote: The Fynnes and Biarmes speak one language.] This onely he iudged, that the Fynnes and Biarmes speake but one language. [Sidenote: Horsewhales teeth commended.] The principall purpose of his traueile this way, was to encrease the knowledge and discouerie of these coasts and countreyes, for the more commoditie of fishing of horsewhales, [Footnote: Or morses.] which haue in their teeth bones of great price and excellencie: whereof he brought some at his returne vnto the king. [Sidenote: Use of the morses skins for cables.] Their skinnes are also very good to make cables for shippes, and so vsed. This kinde of whale is much lesse in quantitie then other kindes, hauing not in length or aboue seuen elles. And as for the common kind of whales, the place of most and best hunting of them is in his owne countrey: whereof some be 48. elles of length, and some 50. of which sort he affirmed that he himselfe was one of the sixe, which in the space of 3. dayes killed threescore. He was a man of exceeding wealth in such riches, wherein the wealth of that countrey doth consist. [Sidenote: Sixe hundreth raine Deere.] At the same time that he came to the king, he had of his owne breed 600. tame Deere, of that kinde which they call Rane Deere: of the which number 6, were stall Rane Deere, a beast of great value, and maruellously esteemed among the Fynnes, for that with them they catch the wilde Rane Deere. He was among the chiefe men of his countrey one: and yet he, had but 20. kine, and 20. swine, and that little which he tilled, he tilled it all with horses. [Sidenote: The Fynnes trubute.] Their principall wealth consisteth in the tribute which the Fynnes pay them, which is all in skinnes of wilde beasts, feathers of birds, whale bones, and cables, and tacklings for shippes made of Whales or Seales skinnes. [Sidenote: Note. Cables of Whales and Seales skins.] Euery man payeth according to his abilities. The richest pay ordinarily 15. cases of Marterns, 5. Rane Deere skinnes, and one Beare, ten bushels of feathers, a coat of a Beares skinne, two cables threescore elles long a piece, the one made of Whales skin, the other Seales. He sayd, that the countrey of Norway was very long and small. So much of it as either beareth any good pasture, or may be tilled, lieth vpon the Sea coast, which notwithstanding in some places is very rockie and stonie: [Sidenote: A description of Norway.] and all Eastward all along against the inhabited land, lie wilde and huge hilles and mountaines, which are in some places inhabited by the Fynnes. The inhabited land is broadest toward the South & the further it stretcheth towards the North, it groweth euermore smaller and smaller. Towards the South it is peraduenture threescore miles in bredth or broader in some places: about the middest, 30 miles or aboue, and towards the North where it is smallest, he affirmeth that it proueth not three miles from the Sea to the mountaines. [Sidenote: The bredth of the mountaines.] The mountaines be in breadth of such quantitie, as a man is able to traueile ouer in a fortnight, and in some places no more then may be trauailed in sixe dayes. [Sidenote: Swethland. Queeneland.] Right ouer against this land in the other side of the mountaines, somewhat towards the South lieth Swethland, and against the same towards the North, lieth Queeneland. The Quenes sometimes passing the mountaines, inuade and spoile the Normans: and on the contrary part, the Normans likewise sometimes spoile their countrey. [Sidenote: Boats caried on mens backs.] Among the mountaines be many and great lakes in sundry places of fresh water, into the which the Queenes vse to carie their boats vpon their backs ouer lande, and thereby inuade and spoile the countrey of the Normans. These boats of theirs be very little and very light. * * * * * The voyage of Octher out of his countrey of Halgoland into the sound of Denmarke vnto a port called Hetha, which seemeth to be Wismer or Rostorke. Octher sayd that the countrey wherein he dwelled, was called Halgoland: and affirmed that there was no man dwelling towards the North from him. From this countrey towards the South, there is a certeine port [Marginal note: Or streight.] [Footnote: It seemeth to be about Elsenborg--_Original note_.] called Scirings hall, whither, he sayth that a man was not able to saile in a moneths space, if he lay still by night, although he had euery day a full winde. [Sidenote: The description of the Sound of Denmarke.] And he shall saile all the way along the coast, hauing on his steereboord, first Iutland and the Islands which lie betwixt this countrey & Iutland, still along the coast of this countrey, till he came to Scirings hall hauing it on his larboord. At Scirings hall there entreth into the land a maine gulfe of the Sea, which is so broad, that a man cannot see ouer it: [Sidenote: Gotland.] and on the other side against the same, is Gotland, and then Silland. This sea stretcheth many hundreth miles vp into the land. [Sidenote: Vandals.] From Scirings hall he sayd that be sailed in 5. dayes to the port which is called Hetha, which lieth betwixt the countries of Wendles, Saxons, and Angles, whereunto it is subiect. And as he sailed thitherward from Scirings hall, he had vpon his steereboord Denmarke, and on his leereboord the maine sea, for the space of 3. dayes: [Sidenote: Hetha but two dayes sayling from Seland.] and 2. dayes before, he arriued in Hetha, [Footnote: It seemeth to be Wismer or Rostocke-- _Original note_.] he had Gotland on leerboord, and Silland. with diuers other Islands. In that countrey dwelt English men, before they came into this land. And these 2. days he had vpon his leereboord the Islands that are subiect to Denmarke. * * * * * Wolstans nauigation in the East sea, from Hetha to Trusco, which is about Dantzig. Wolstan sayd, that he departed from Hetha, and arriued at Trusco, in the space of 7. dayes, and 7. nights: during which time, his shippe kept her course continually vnder saile. All this voyage Wenedland [Footnote: Prussia.] was still vpon his steerboord, and on his leerboord was Langland, Layland, Falster, and Sconie: all which countreyes are subiect to Denmarke. [Sidenote: Bargenland or Borholme.] Vpon his leerboord also, was Bargenland, which hath a priuate king, to whom it is subiect. Hauing left Bargenland, he passed by Blekingie, Meere, Eland and Gotland, hauing them on his leerboord: all which countreys are subiect to Sweden: and Wenedland was all the way vpon his steerboord, vntil he came to Wixel mouth. [Sidenote: Wixel is the riuer that falleth into the sea by Dantzig.] Wixel is a very great riuer which runneth along betwixt Witland and Wenedland. Witland is appertaining to the Easterlings, and the riuer of Wixel runneth out of Wenedland into Eastmeere, which Eastmeere is at the least 15. miles in breadth. [Sidenote: Fuso.] There runneth also another riuer called Ilsing from the East, and falleth into Eastmeere, out of another lake vpon the banke, whereupon is situated Fruso. So that Ilsing comming out of Eastland, [Footnote: Lithuania.] and Wixel out of Wenedland, both fall together into Eastmeere, and there Wixel depriueth Ilsing of his name, and runneth thence West & North into the sea; whereof the place is called Wixelmouth. [Sidenote: The description of Eastland.] Eastland is a very large land, and there be many cities and townes withtn it, and in euery one of them is a king: whereby there is continually among them great strife and contention. There is great plentie of hony and fish. [Sidenote: Mares milke a chiefe drinke.] The wealthiest men drinke commonly Mares milke, and the poore people and slaues meade. There is no ale brewed among the Easterlings, but of mead there is plentie. * * * * * The nauigation of King Edgar, taken out of Florentius Wigoriensis, Houeden, and M. Dee his discourse of the Brittish Monarchie, pag. 54, 55, &c. I haue often times (sayd he) and many wayes looked into the state of earthly kingdomes, generally the whole world ouer (as farre as it may be yet knowen to Christian men commonly) being a studie of no great difficultie, but rather a purpose somewhat answerable to a perfect Cosmographer, to finde himselfe Cosmopolites, a citizen and member of the whole and onely one mysticall citie vniuersall, and so consequently to meditate of the Cosmopoliticall gouernment thereof, vnder the King almightie, passing on very swiftly toward the most dreadfull and most comfortable terme prefixed. And I finde (sayd he) that if this British Monarchie would heretofore haue followed the aduantages which they haue had onward, they might very well, yer this, haue surpassed by iustice, and godly sort, any particular Monarchie els, that euer was on earth since mans creation, and that to all such purposes as to God are most acceptable, and to all perfect common wealths, most honorable, profitable, and comfortable. But yet (sayd he) there is a little locke of Lady Occasion flickering in the aire, by our hands to catch hold on, whereby we may yet once more (before all be vtterly past, and for euer) discreetly and valiantly recouer and enioy, if not all our ancient & due appurtenances to this Imperiall Brittish monarchie, yet at the least some such notable portion thereof, as (al circumstances duely and iustly appertaining to peace & amitie with forrein princes being offred & vsed) this may become the most peaceable, most rich, most puissant, & most florishing monarchie of al els (this day) in chnstendome. Peaceable, I say, euen with the most part of the selfe same respects that good king Edgar had (being but a Saxon) and by sundry such meanes, as he chiefly in this Empire did put in proofe and vse triumphantly, whereupon his sirname was Pacificus, most aptly and iustly. This peaceable king Edgar had in his minde about six hundred yeeres past, the representation of a great part of the selfe same Idæa, which from aboue onely, & by no mans deuise hath streamed downe into my imagination, being as it becommeth a subiect carefull for the godly prosperitie of this British Empire vnder our most peaceable Queene Elizabeth. For, Ædgaros pacificus, Regni sui prospiciens vtilitati, pariter & quieti, quatuor millia octingentas sibi robustas congregauit naues è quibus mille ducentas, in plaga Angliæ Orientali, mille ducentas in Occidentali, mille ducentas in Australi, mille ducentas in Septentrionali pelago constituit, vt ad defensionem regni sui, contra exteras nationes, bellorum discrimina sustinerent. [Footnote: _Translation_: "Edgar the Pacific, looking forward to the benefit and peace of his kingdom, collected Four Thousand Eight Hundred powerful ships, of which he stationed One Thousand Two Hundred on the East Coast of England, One Thousand Two Hundred on the West Coast, One Thousand Two Hundred on the South Coast, and One Thousand Two Hundred on the Northern Coast, in order to be prepared for war in defence of his kingdom against foreign nations."] O wisedome imperiall, most diligently to be imitated, _videlicet, prospicere_, to foresee. O charitable kingly parent, that was touched with ardent zeale, for procuring the publike profite of his kingdome, yea and also the peaceable enioying thereof. O, of an incredible masse of treasure, a kingly portion, yet, in his coffers remayning: if then he had, (or late) before any warres, seeing no notable taxe, or contribution publike is historically mentioned to haue bene for the charges leuied: if in peace he himselfe flourished so wealthily: O marueilous politicall, & princely prudencie, in time of peace to foresee, and preuent, (and that most puissantly, and inuinciblly) all possible malice, fraude, force, and mischiefe forrain. O most discreet liberalitie to such excellent vses, powring out his treasure so abundantly. O faithfull English people (then,) and worthy subiects, of such an Imperiall and godly Gouernour. O your true, and willing hearts, and blessed ready hands (then,) so to impart such abundance of victuals for those huge Names maintenance: so (I say) as neither dearth of famine, seemed (fondly) to be feared of you, for any intolerable want likely to ensue thereby, nor prices of victuals complained of to be vnreasonable enhaunsed by you, finding, for their great sales so good, and rare opportunitie. This peaceable king Edgar, was one of the perfect Imperiall Monarches of this British Empire, and therefore thus his fame remaineth (for euer) recorded. [Sidenote: Charta Regis Henrici secundi.] Anglici orbis Basileus, flos, & decus Ædgarus, non minus memorabilis Anglis, quàm Cyrus Persis, Romulus Romanis, Alexander Macedonibus, Arsaces Parthis, Carolus Francis, Anno vitæ 37. Regni sui cùm fratre, & post 21. Idibus Iulij obijt, & apud Glascon sepelitur. [Footnote: _Translation_: "The king of the English realm, that flower (of kings) and renowned Edgar, not less famous amongst the English than Cyrus amongst the Persians, Romulus amongst the Romans, Alexander amongst the Macedonians, Arsaces amongst the Parthians, Charles (the Great) amongst the Franks, in the 37th year of his age and 21st year of his reign with his brother and alone, died on the Ides of July, and was buried at Glastonbary."] O Glastonbury, Glastonbury, the treasurie of the carcases of so famous, and so many persons (_Quæ olim mater sanctorum dicta es, & ab alijs, tumulus sanctorum, quam ab ipsis discipulis Domini, ædificatam fuisse venerabilis habet Antiquorum authoritas_) how lamentable is thy case nowe? howe hath hypocrisie and pride wrought thy desolation? though I omit here the names of very many other, both excellent holy men, and mighty princes, whose carcases are committed to thy custody, yet that Apostolike Ioseph, that triumphant British Arthur, and nowe this peaceable and prouident Saxon king Edgar, doe force me with a certaine sorowful reuerence, here to celebrate thy memorie. [Sidenote: Ranulphus Cestrinis.] This peaceable king, Edgar, (as by ancient Recordes may appeare) his Sommer progresses, and yerely chiefe pastimes were, the sailing round about this whole Isle of Albion, garded with his grand name of 4000. saile at the least, parted into 4. equall parts of petie Nauies, eche one being of 1000. ships, for so it is anciently recorded. Idem quoque Ædgarus 4000. naues congregauit, ex quibus omni anno, post festum Paschale, 1000. naues ad quamlibet Angliæ partem statuit, sic, æstate Insulam circumnauigauit: hyeme verò, iudicia in Prouincia exercuit: & hæc omnia ad sui exercitium & ad hostium fecit terrorem. [Footnote: _Translation_: "The same Edgar collected Four Thousand ships, of which each year, after Easter, he placed One Thousand on each side of England, and thus sailed round the Island in summer; but in winter he rendered justice throughout the country; and he did all this for the practice of his own navy and the terror of his enemies."] Could, and would that peaceable & wise king Edgar, before need, as being in peace and quiet with all nations about him, and notwithstanding mistrusting his possible enemies, make his pastimes so roially, politically and triumphantly, with so many thousand ships, and at the least with ten times so many men as ships and that yerely? and shall we being not assured of such neighbors friendship as may become to vs as cruel and tyrannicall enemies as neuer king Edgar needed to dread the like, and they as many and mighty princes, as neuer king Edgar coped with the like, shall we (said he) not iudge it some part of wisdome, to imitate carefully in some litle proportion (though not with so many thousands) the prosperous pastimes of peaceable king Edgar, that Saxonicall Alexander? yea, prosperous pastimes these may be iustly counted, by which he also made euident to the whole world, that as he wisely knew the ancient bounds and limits of this British Empire, so that he could and would royally, iustly, and triumphantly enioy the same, spite of the deuil, and maugre the force of any forreine potentate. And al that, so highly and faithfully to the glory of God finally intended and brought to passe, as the wisest and godliest prelates and counsellors of those dayes (so counted of and recorded) coulde best aduise and direct him, or perchance, but sincerely commend and duetifully incourage him in, he being of himselfe so bent, as purposing first inuincibly to fortifie the chiefe and vttermost walles of his Islandish Monarchie, against all forreine encombrance possible. And in that fortification furthering and assuring to trust best his owne ouersight and iudgement, in yerely viewing the same in euery quarter thereof, and that as it were for his pastime Imperiall, also in Sommer time, to the ende that afterward in all securitie, hee might in Winter time (_vacare_) be at conuenient leisure on land, chiefly to set foorth God's due honour and secondly to vnderstand and diligently to listen to the causes and complaints of his commons. For as Mattheus Westmonasteriensis of him to his Imperiall commendation hath left vs a remembrance. Habebat autem præterea consuetudinem, per omnes Regni prouincias transire, vt intelligeret quomodo legum iura, & suorum statuta decretorum, a principibus obseruarentur, & ne pauperes à potentibus præiudicium passi, opprimerentur diligenter inuestigare solebat; in vno fortitudini, in altero Iustitia studens & Reipub. regníque vtilitati consulens in vtroque. Hinc hostibus circumquáque timor, & amor omnium erga eum excreuerat subditorum. [Footnote: _Translation_: "He had, besides the habit of travelling through all the provinces of the kingdom, to ascertain how the enactments of the law and the ordinances of his decrees were carried out by those in authority; and he was careful that the poor who suffered injury from those in power should have justice done them, promoting courage in one, justice in another, in both ways benefiting the Crown and State. Thus on every side the fear of his enemies and the love of his subiects increased."] Thus we see how in opportunitie, this peaceable Edgar procured to this Empire such prosperous securitie, that his true and faithfull subiects, all maner of wayes (that is at home and also at sea, both outward and inward) might peaceably, safely and sccurely employ their wits and trauels for the marueilous enriching of this kingdome and pleasuring very many other, carying forth the naturall commodities of this land, abounding here aboue our necessity vses (and due store reserued) and likewise againe furnishing the same with all necessary and not superfluous forreine commodities, fet from farre or foreign countreys. This was in deed (as before is recorded) a kingly prouidence. Reipub. Regnique vtilitati consulens, &c. besides with great vtilitie and profite publique foreseene and by his meanes enioyed, he himselfe vsed most gladly the aduantage of that securitie, in ministring of iustice or causing the same to be executed all his kingdome ouer not squemishly, frowningly or skornefully shunning the ragged and tattered sleeue of any suppliant, holding vp to him a simple soiled bill of complaint or petition, and that homely contriued, or afrayde at, and timerously hasting from the sickly pale face or feeble limmed suter, extreemely constrained so to speake for himselfe, nor parcially smoothering his owne conscience, to fauour or mainteine the foule fault and trespasse vnlawfull of any his subiects, how mightie or necessary soeuer, they (els) were, but diligently made search, least Pauperes a potentibus præiudicium passi, opprimerentur. Thus did publique securitie from forrein foe abroad, and true loue of his owne subiects, garding him at home, and the heauenly spirit directing all his good purposes, cause iustice and equitie in all quarters of this Albion to flourish. For which his peaceable and prosperous benefits at the eternall king his hand obteined, hee became not insolent or declined to tyrannicall regiment (as some princes in other countreis haue made their liues Comicotragical) but with all his foresaide inunicible Sea-force, aboundant wealth, triumphant peace, with securitie and Iustice ouer all his Monarchie preuailing, his heart was continually, and most zealously bent to set foorth the glory, laude and honour of the Almightie Creator, the heauenly and euerlasting king, by such principall and princely meanes, as (then) were deemed to God most acceptable, as many monuments yet to our dayes remaining, do of him vndoubtedly testifie: As this, for one [Footnote: Ex charta fundationis Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Wigorniæ.] Altitonantis Dei largiflua clementia, qui est rex Regium, Ego Ædgarus Anglorum Basileus omniúmque Regum, Insulatum, Oceanique Britanniam circumiacentis, cunctarúmque nationum quæ infra eam includuntur, Imperator, & Dominus, gratias ago ipsi Deo omnipotenti, Regi meo, qui meum Imperium sic ampliauit, & exaltauit super regnum patrum meorum: qui licet Monarchiam totius Angliæ adepti sunt a tempore Athelstani (qui primus regnum Anglorum, & omnes Nationes, quæ Britanniam incolunt, sibi Armis subegit) nullus tamen eorum vltra eius fines imperium suum dilatare aggressus est. Mihi autem concessit propitia Diuinitas, cum Anglorum Imperio, omnia regna Insularum Oceani, cùm suis ferocissimis Regibus, vsque Noruegiam, maximámque partem Hyberniæ, cùm sua nobilissima Ciuitate Dublinia, Anglorum regno subiugare: Duos etiam omnes, meis Imperijs colla subdere (Dei laudente gratia) coegi. Quaproptcr & ego Christi gloriam, & laudem exaltare, & eius seruitium amplificare deuotus disposui, & per meos fideles Fautores, Dunstanum, viz. Archiepiscopum, Athelwoldum, & Oswaldum episcopos (quos mihi patres spirituales, & Consiliatores elegi) magna er parte, secundum quod disposui, effeci, &c. [Footnote: _Translation_ "By the wide-extending Grace of the mighty God of Thunders, who is king of kings, I, Edgar, king of Angles and of all Kingdoms, and Islands, and of the Ocean lying around Britain, Emperor and Lord of all the nations therein contained, return thanks to that same, all-powerful God, my king, who has thus extended my Empire and exalted me above the state of my forefathers, who, although they held sway ouer all England from the days of Athelstan (who first conquered the kingdom of the Angles and all the nations which inhabit Britain) yet none attempted to extend his empire beyond the frontiers of Athetstan's kingdom. Favouring Providence, however, has permitted me, together with the throne of England, to add thereto all the kingdoms of the Islands of the Ocean, with their warlike kings, as far as Norway, and the greater part of Ireland, with its very powerful city of Dublin, all of whom, by the help of God, I have compelled, to bow the neck to my power. Wherefore I desire to exalt the glory and praise of Christ, and increase His worship, and by my faithful counsellors, viz., Dunstan the Archbishop and Athelwold and Oswald, bishops (whom I have chosen to be my spiritual Fathers and Aduisers), I have in a great measure performed what I intended etc."] And againe this in another Monument. [Footnote: Fundatio Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Eliensis.] Omnipotentis Dei, &c. Ipsius nutu & gratia suffultus, Ego Ædgarus Basileus dilectæ Insulæ Albionis, subditis nobis sceptris Scotorum, Cumbrorum, ac Brytonum, & omnium circumcirca Regionum, quieta pace perfruens, studiosus sollicitè de laudibus creatoris omnium occupo addendis. Ne nunc inertia, nostrísque diebus (plus æquo) seruitus eius tepescere videatur, &c. 18. mei terreni Imperij anno, &c. Anno Incarnationis Dominicæ, 973. Ego Ædgarus totius Albionis Basileus hoc priuilegium (tanta roboratum authontate) crucis. Thaumate confirmaui. [Footnote: _Translation_ "In the name of Almighty God, etc. Strengthened by the favour and grace of God, I, Edgar, king of the favoured Isle of Albion having made subject to us the kingdoms of the Scots, the Cumbrians, the Britons, and all regions around, in the enjoyment of quiet peace, being anxious, to increase the praise of the Creator of all things, in order that lukewarmness may not appear to render His worship less earnest in these our days, etc., in the 18th year of my earthly reign, and the year of the Holy Incarnation 973. etc., I, Edgar, king of all Albion, haue confirmed that privilege, etc."] So that by all these rehearsed Records, it is most euident that the peaceable king Edgar, was one of those Monarchs, in whose handes (if life had suffised) the incredible value and priuiledge granted by God and nature vnto this British monarchie might haue bene peaceably purchased in such sort, as the very blessing and fauour of the diuine Trinitie hath laid meanes for our industrie to attaine to, and enioye the same by. And though sundry other valiant princes and kings of this land I could recite, which in times past haue either by intent gone about or by wise and valiant exploit, haue meetely well prospered towards this Islandish appropriate supremacie attaining, yet neuer any other reasonable meanes was vsed, or by humane wit, or industrie can be contriued, to al purposes sufficient, but only by our sea forces preuailing, and so by our inuincible enioying al within the sea limites of our British royaltie contained. To which incredible political mysterie attaining, no easier, readier or perfecter plat and introduction, is (as yet) come to my imagination then is the present and continuall seruice of threescore good and tall warlike ships, with twentie smaller barkes, and those 80. ships (great and smal) with 6660. apt men furnished, and all singularly well appointed for seruice both on sea and land, faithfully and diligently to be done in such circumspect and discreet order as partly I haue in other places declared, and further (vpon good occasion offered) may declare. This grand name of peaceable King Edgar, of so many thousand ships, and they furnished with an hundred thousand men at the least, with all the finall intents of those sea forces, so inuincible, continually maintained, the order of the execution of their seruice, the godly and Imperial successe thereof, are in a maner kingly lessons and prophetical incouragements to vs left, euen now to bee as prouident for publique securitie as he was, to be as skilful of our sea right and royal limits, and wisely to finde our selues as able to recouer and enioy the same as he was, who could not chuse, but with the passing and yeerely sayling about this British Albion, with all the lesser Isles next adiacent round about it, he could not chuse I say, but by such ful and peaceable possession, find himselfe (according to right, and his hearts desire) the true and soueraigne Monarch of all the British Ocean, enuironing any way his empire of Albion and Ireland, with the lesser Islands next adiacent: with memorial whereof, as with one very precious iewel Imperial, hee adorned the title and crowne of his regalitie, as with the testimonie annexed of the states and nobles of his Empire, to commit to perpetuall memorie, the stile of his chiefe worldly dignitie, in this very tenor of words before also remembred. [Sidenote: Note the Queenes Maiesties royaltie ouer the British Ocean sea, round about the British Empire.] Ego Ædgarus Anglorum Basileus, omniúmque Regum, Insularum, Oceanique Britanniam circumiacentis, cunctarúmque nationum, quæ infra eam includuntur, Imperator, & Dominus. * * * * * The voyage of Edmund and Edward the sonnes of King Edmund Ironside into Hungarie, Anno D. 1017. Recorded by Florentius Wigorniensis pag. 391. [Sidenote: An. Dom. 1017.] Dedit consilium Edricus Canuto regi, vt clitunculos Eadwardum & Eadmundum regis Eadmundi filios necaret. Sed quia magnum dedecus sibi videbatur, vt in Anglia perimerentur, paruo elapso tempore, ad regem Suauorum occidendos misit. Qui, licèt foedus esset inter eos, precibus illius nullatenùs voluit acquiescere, sed illos ad regem Hungarorum Salomonem nomine misit nutriendos vitæque reseruandos. Quorum vnus scilicet Eadmundus processu temporis ibidem vitam finiuit. Eadwardus verò Agatham filiam Germani Imperatoris Henrici in matrimonium accepit, ex qua Margaretam Scotorum reginam, & Christinam Sanctimonialem, & Clitonem Eadgarum suscepit. [Footnote: "Pus par le conseil le duc Edric aveit il en pense de aver tue les fiz le re Edmund; cest a dire, Eduuard e Edmun. Mes pur ceo ke il fust avis ke ceo eust este grant honte ali, si il les eust fet tuer en Engleterre, e pur ceo ke il se duta ausi ke se il demorassent en Engleterre ke il pensent en prendre contre lui, il les envea al rei de Sueue, e ly manda ke il les meist ala mort: ki ne, voleit unkes fere sa priere mes les envea a Salomon le rei de Hungrie pur nurir. E tant com il furunt la, Edmund morust tost, e Eduuard prist a femme Agathe la filie le emperour Henri, de la quele il engendra Margarete, ki pus fust reyne de Escoce, e Edgar" (_Le Liuere de reis de Engleterre_, MS in Trinity College, Cambridge.)] The same in English Edric counselled king Kanutus to murther the young princes Edward and Edmund the sonnes of King Edmund. But because it seemed a thing very dishonourable vnto him to haue them put to death in England, hee sent them, after a short space, vnto the king of Sweden to be slaine. Who, albeit there was a league betweene them, would in no case condescend vnto Canutus his bloody request, but sent them vnto Salomon [Footnote: An error for _Stephen_ the Holy, who married the sister of Henry II William of Malmesbory makes Agatha the niece of Henry and daughter of Stephen.] the king of Hungarie to be nourished and preserued aliue. The one whereof namely Edmund in processe of time there deceased. But Edward receiued to wife Agatha daughter vnto the Germane Emperour Henry of whom he begot Margaret the Queene of the Seots, and Christina a Nunne, and Clito Edgar. [Footnote: Edgar Atheling] * * * * * Chronicle of the Kings of Man, taken out of M. Camdens Chorographie. In the yeere of our Lord 1066, Edward King of England, of famous memory deceased, whom Harald sonne of Godwin succeeded in his kingdome, against which Harald the king of Norwaie called Harald Harfager fought a battel at Stamford bridge, where the English winning the fielde put all the Norwegians to flight: [Footnote: "Memes cel an Harald le rey de Norweye, frere Seint Olaf, ariva al flum de Tine a Nof Chastel ou plus de Ve granz neofs, a ki le connte Tostin, le frere le rey Harald de Engletere, vint ou sa nauie, si com il aveient fet covenant en semble, e vindrunt sus a Richale (_Richmond_) e destrurent tut le pais de Euerwyk (_York_) E Kant ceo out oy Harald, le rei de Engletere, tant tost se mist conntre eus ou son ost en vn liu ki hom apele Stamfordbrigge e la twa il le rey de Norweye e Tostin son frere de meine, e grant partie del ost. Mes IX. de ses chivalers pus le lesserent, pur ceo ke il ne les voleit ren doner de la preye ki il prist des Norreis." (_Le Liuere de reis de Engleterre_ MS in Trinity College, Cambridge.)] out of which flight one Godredus surnamed Crouan (the sonne of Harald the blacke, who had before time fled out of Island) repaired vnto Godred sonne of Syrric who then reigned in Man and was right friendly and honourably enterteined by him. [Sidenote: Fingal.] In the very same yeere William the Conquerour subdued England and Godred the sonne of Syrric, king of Man, deceased, after whom succeeded his sonne Fingal. In the yeere 1066. Godredus Crouan gathered a fleete of ships, and sailed vnto Man, and giuing battell vnto the people of the countrey, was vanquished and put to flight. The second time also hauing gathered his armie and ships together, hee came vnto Man, fought with the inhabitants, lost the victorie, and was chaced away. Yea, the third time [Footnote: in 1077] he assembled a great multitude, and comming by night vnto the port which is called Ramsa, [Footnote: Ramsay] hid 300. of his men in a wood standing vpon the side of the hill called Scacafel. The Sunne was no sooner vp, but the Mannians arranged themselues and with great furie set vpon Godred. And in the midst of the skirmish, the foresaid 300. men rising out of their ambush, and comming vpon the backes of the Mannians, molested them so sore, that they were enforced to flie. But when they saw that they were ouercome and had no place of refuge to retire vnto (for the tide of the sea had filled the chanel of the riuer of Ramsa [Footnote: The riuer Colby]) and seeing the enemie so fiercely pursuing them on the other side, they which remained, with lamentable outcries beseeched Godred to spare their liues. Then hee being mooued with compassion, and pitying their extreme calamitie, because hee had bene of late sustained and nourished among them, sounded a retreat and forbad his souldiers to make any longer pursuit. The day following Godred put his souldiers to their choice, whether they would diuide Man among themselues and inhabite it, or whether they would take the wealth of the countrey, and so returne vnto their owne home. Howbeit, it pleased them better to waste the whole Island and to enrich themselues with the commodities thereof, and so to returne from whence they came. Nowe Godred himselfe with a fewe Islanders which had remained with him, tooke possession of the South part of the Island, and vnto the remnant of the Mannians he granted the North part thereof, vpon condition, that none of them should at any time afterward dare once to chalenge any parcell of the said ground by title of inheritance. Whereupon it commeth to passe, that vnto this day the whole Island is the kings owne Fee-simple, and that all the reuenues thereof pertaine vnto him. [Sidenote: Boats hauing not past three yron nailes in them] Also Godredus subdued Dublin vnto himselfe & a great part of Lainestir. And he so tamed the Scots, that none of them durst build a ship or a boate, with aboue three yron nailes in it. Hee reigned 16. yeeres and died in the Island called Yle. [Footnote: Yell, a northern island of the Shetland group, seventeen miles by seven.] He left behinde him three sonnes, Lagman, Harald, and Olauus. Lagman being the eldest chalenged the kingdome and reigned seuen yeeres. Howbeit Harald his brother rebelled against him a long time, but being at length taken by Lagman, hee was gelt and had his eyes put out. Afterward Lagman repenting him that he had put out the eyes of his brother, did of his owne accord relinquish his kingdome, and taking vpon him the badge of the crosse, he went on pilgrimage to Ierusalem, in which iourney also he died. In the yeere 1075. all the principall men of the Islands hauing intelligence of the death of Lagman, sent messengers vnto Murccardus O-Brien King of Irland, requesting him that hee would send some wel-disposed person of his owne kinred and blood royall, vntill Olauus sonne of Godred were come to full age. The king most willingly condescended vnto their request, and sent vnto them one Dopnald the sonne of Tade, charging and commaunding him that with all meekenesse and modestie, hee should gouerne that kingdome, which of right belonged not vnto him. Howbeit he, after he had once attained vnto the kingdome, neglecting the commaundement of his lord, vsurped the gouernment with great tyrannie, committing many heinous crimes, and so he reigned very disorderly for the space of three yeeres. Then all the princes of the Islands making a generall conspiracie, banded themselues against him, and expelled him out of their dominions. And he flying into Irland returned no more vnto them. In the yeere 1077. one Ingemundus was sent from the king of Norway, to take possession of the kingdome of the Islands. And being come vnto the Island of Leodus, [Footnote: Lewis.] he sent messengers vnto all the princes of the Islands to come vnto him, commaunding them to assemble themselues, and to appoint him to be their King. In the meane season he and his companions spent their time in robbing and rioting, rauished women and virgines, and addicted themselues to filthy pleasures and to the lustes of the flesh. And when these things, were reported vnto the princes of the Islands, who had assembled themselues to chuse him king, being mightely incensed thereat, they made haste towards him, and comming vpon him in the night they burnt the house wherein hee was and slue both him and the rest of his company, partly with sword and partly with fire. In the yeere 1008. the abbey of S. Manes at Cistertrum was founded. In the same yeere also Antiochri was taken by the Chnstians and a Comet appeared. Moreouer the same yeere there was a battel fought betweene the inhabitants of Man at Santwat [Footnote: In the parish of Jurby.] and they of the North obtained the victory. In which battell were slaine Earle Othor and Mac-Maras chieftaines of both parts. The same yeere Magnus king of Norway, sonne of Olauus, sonne of Harald Harfagre, being desirous to view the corpse of S. Olauus king and Martyr, gaue commaundment that his monument should be opened. But the Bishop and the Clergie withstanding this his attempt, the king went very boldly and by his kingly authoritie caused the cophin to be opened. And when hee had scene with his eyes and handled with his hands the incorrupt body of the foresaid King and Martyr, a sudden feare came vpon him and he departed with great haste. The night following Olauus king and Martyr appeared vnto him in a vision saying: Chuse (I say) vnto your selfe one of these two, either within 30. dayes to lose your life with your kingdome, or else to depart from Norway and neuer to see it againe. The King so soone as he was awaked out of sleepe, called his princes and Senatours, and expounded the foresaide vision vnto them. And they also being astonished thereat gaue him this counsell, that with all speed he should depart out of Norway. Then he without any further delay caused a Nauie of 160. ships to be prouided, and so sailed vnto the Islands of Orkney, which hee presently subdued, and passing along through all the Islands and conquering them at length he came vnto the Isle of Man, where he was no sooner arriued, but hee went vnto the Isle of S. Patric to see the place of battell, where the inhabitants of Man had of late fought, because many of the dead bodies were as yet vnburied. And seeing that it was a most beautifull Island, it pleased him exceeding well, and therefore hee made choice to inhabite therein his owne selfe, and built forts there which are at this day called by his owne name. He had the people of Galway in such awe that he constrained them to cut downe their owne timber, and to bring it vnto his shore for the building of his fortes. Hee sailed on further vnto the Isle of Anglesey neere vnto Wales, and finding two harles therein (either of them being called by the name of Hugo) be slue the one, and the other hee put to flight, and so subdued the Island. But the Welshmen presented many gifts vnto him, and so bidding them farewell he returned vnto Man. Vnto Murecard king of Irland he sent his shooes, commaunding him that he should cary them on his shoulders, vpon the birth-day of our Lord through the midst of his Palace, in the sight of his Embassadours, that thereby it might appeare vnto them that he was subiect vnto king Magnus. Which when the Irishmen heard, they toke it grieuously and disdeined much thereat. But the King being better aduised, I had rather (said he) not onely beare his shooes, but eate his shooes, then that king Magnus should destroy any one prouince in Irland. Wherefore he fulfilled his commaundement, and honourably enterteined his Embassadours. Many giftes also he sent vnto king Magnus by them, and concluded a league. But the messengers returning vnto their lord, tolde him of the situation of Irland, of the beautie thereof, of the fruitfulnesse of the soile, and of the holesomnesse of the aire. Magnus hearing these things was fully resolued to conquer all Irland vnto himselfe. And for the same purpose he commaunded that a Fleet should be made ready. But he taking his voyage with sixteene ships, & being desirous to view the land, when he had vndiscreetly departed from his Nauie, he was suddenly inuironed by the Irish, and was himselfe slaine, together with all that were with him almost. Hee was interred neere vnto the Church of S. Patric in Armagh. Hee reigned sixe yeeres. After his death the Princes of the Islands sent for Olauus the sonne of Godredus Crouan, who liued in the Court of Henry King of England son vnto William the Conquerour. In the yeere 1102. Olauus sonne of Godredus Crouan beganne his reigne and reigned fourtie yeeres. He was a peaceable man being in league with all the Kings of Scotland and Irland in his time. He took to wife Affrica the daughter of Fergusius of Galway, of whom he begat Godredus. Of his concubines he begat Regnaldus, Lagmannus, and Haraldus, and many daughters, whereof one married vnto Sumerledus king of Herergaidel, [Footnote: Argyll.] which afterward occasioned the ouerthrow of the whole kingdome of the Islands. He begat foure sonnes by her, namely Dulgallus, Raignaldus, Engus and Olauus. In the yeere 1134. Olaaus gaue vnto Yuo the Abbat of Furnes a portion of his owne ground in Man to build an Abbey in the place which is called Russin. [Footnote: Rushen] Also hee inriched with reuenues and indued with priuiledges al places of religion within his islands. In the yere 1142. Godredus the son of Olauus sailed vnto the K. of Norway called Hinge, and doing his homage vnto him he remained with him, & was by him honorably enterteined. The same vere the 3. sonnes of Harald brother vnto Olauus, who were brought vp at the citie of Dublin, gathering together a great multitude of people, and all the fugitiues and vagabonds of the kingdome resorted vnto Man, and demaunded of the said king the one halfe of al the kingdome of the Islands. Which thing when the king heard, being desirous to pacifie them, he answered that he would consult about that matter. And a day and place being appointed, where the consultation should bee kept, in the meane time those miscreants conspired together, about the murthering of the King. And when the day appointed was come, both companies assembled themselues vnto the hauen towne called Ramsa, and they sate in order, the king with his nobilitie on the one side, and they with their confederates on the other side. Howbeit Regnaldus who had an intention to slay the king, stoode a-side in the midst of the house talking with one of the Princes of the lande. And being called to come vnto the king he turned himselfe about as if hee would haue saluted him, and lifting vp his glittering axe, he chopt the kings head quite off at a blow. [Sidenote: 1143.] Nowe hauing committed this outragious villanie, within a short space they diuided the Island betweene themselues, and gathering an armie together sailed vnto Galway, intending to subdue that also, howbeit the people of Galway assembled themselues, and with great furie encountred with them. Then they immediately turning their backs with great confusion fled vnto Man. And as touching all the Galwedians which inhabited in the said Island, some of them they slue, and the residue they banished. In the yeere 1143. Godredus sonne of Olauus returning out of Norway was created king of Man, who in reuenge of his fathers death, put out the eyes of two of Haralds sonnes and slue the thirde. In the yeere 1144. Godredus began his reigne, and hee reigned thirtie yeeres. In the thirde yeere of his reigne the citizens of Dublin sent for him and created him king of Dublin, against whom Murecardus king of Irland made warre, and encamping himselfe at the citie called Coridelis, he sent his brother Osibel with 3000. horsemen vnto Dublin, who was slaine by Godred and the Dubliners, the rest of his company being put to flight. These things being thus finished, Godredus returned vnto Man, and began to exercise tyrannie, disinheriting certaine of his nobles, of whome one called Thorfinus the sonne of Oter, being mightier then the rest, went vnto Sumerledus, and named Dubgal the sonne of Sumerledus, king of the Islands, and subdued many of the said Islands on his behalfe. Whereof when Godred had intelligence by one Paulus, prouiding a Nauie, hee went to meete Sumerledus comming against him with 80. ships: [Sidenote: 1156.] and in the yeere 1156. vpon the night of the feast of Epiphanie, there was a Sea-battell fought, and many being slaine on both parts, the day folowing they were pacified, and diuided the kingdome of the Islands among themselues, and it continued two kingdomes from that day vnto this present time. And this was the cause of the ruine of the monarchie of the Islands, from which time the sonnes of Sumerled inioyed the one halfe thereof. In the yeere 1158. Sumerled came vnto Man with 53. ships, putting Godred to flight and wasting the Island: and Godred sailed vnto Norway to seeke for aide against Sumerled. In the yere 1164. Sumerled gathered a fleete of 160. ships together; and arriued at Rhinfrin, [Footnote: Renfrew] intending to subdue all Scotland vnto himselfe: howbeit, by Gods iust iudgement being ouercome by a few, together with his sonne, and an innumerable multitude of people, he was slaine. The very same yere there was a battel fought at Ramsa, betweene Reginald the brother of Godred, and the inhabitants of Man, but by the stratageme of a certaine Earle the Mannians were put to flight. Then began Reginald to vsurpe the kingly authoritie. Howbeit his brother Godred, within foure dayes after comming out of Norway with a great power of armed men, apprehended his brother Reginald, gelt him, and put out his eyes. The same yeere deceased Malcolme the king of Scots and his brother William succeeded in the kmgdome. In the yeere 1166. two Comets appeared in the moneth of August before the rising of the Sunne, one to the South and another to the North. In the yeere 1171. Richard earle of Penbroke sailed into Irland, and subdued Dublin with a great part of Irland. In the yere 1176. Iohn Curcy conquered Vlster vnto himselfe. And at the same time also Viuianus legate from the sea of Rome came into Man, & caused king Godred to bee lawfully wedded vnto his wife Phingola, daughter of Maclotlen son of Murkartac king of Irland, mother of Olauus, who was then 3. yeeres old. Siluanus the abbat married them, vnto whom the very same day, king Godred gaue a portion of ground in Mirescoge, where he built a Monastery: howbeit, in processe of time, the said land with the monkes, was granted vnto the abbey of Russin. In the yere 1172. Reginaldus the son of Eacmarcat (a man descended of the blood royal) comming into Man with a great multitude of people, in the absence of the king, at the first conflict hee put to flight certaine watchmen which kept the shoare, & slue about 30. persons. Whereupon the very same day the Mannians arranging themselues put him, & almost almost al his folowers to the sword. In the yere 1183. O-Fogolt was vicount of Man. In the yere 1185. the Sunne was ecclipsed vpon the feast of S. Philip and Iacob. In the yere 1187. deceased Godred king of the Islands, vpon the 4. of the Ides of Nouember, and the next sommer his body was translated vnto the island of Hy. He left 3. sonnes behinde him Reginaldus Olauus, and Yuarus. In his life time he ordeined his sonne Olauus to be his heire apparant because he onely was borne legitimate. But the Mannians, when Olauus was scarce ten yeeres olde, sent vnto the islands for Reginald and created him king. In the yeere 1187. began Reginald the sonne of Godred to reigne ouer the islands: and Murchardus a man of great power throughout all the kingdome of the islands was put to death. In the yere 1192. there was a battel fought betweene Reginald and Engus the two sonnes of Sumerled: but Engus obtained the victory. The same yere was the abbey of Russin remooued vnto Dufglas, [Footnote: Douglas] howbeit within foure yeeres after the monkes returned vnto Russin. In the yere 1203. Michæl bishop of the islands deceased at Fontanas, and Nicholas succeeded in his roome. In the yere 1204. Hugo de Lacy inuaded Vlster with an armie and encountered with Iohn de Curcy, tooke him prisoner & subdued Vlster vnto himselfe. Afterward he permitted the said Iohn to goe at libertie, who comming vnto king Reginald was honourably enterteined by him, because he was his sonne in lawe, for Iohn de Curcy had taken to wife Affrica the daughter of Godredus, which founded the abbey of _S. Mary de iugo domini_, and was there buried. In the yeere 1205. Iohn de Curcy & Reginald king of the islands inuading Vlster with a hundreth ships at the port which is called Stranfeord did negligently besiege the castle of Rath: but Walter de Lacy comming vpon them with his armie, put them to flight, & from that time Curcy neuer recouered his land. In the yeere 1210. Engus the son of Sumerled & his 3. sonnes were slaine. [Sidenote: King Iohn passed into Irland with 500. sailes] At the same time Iohn king of England conducted a fleet of 500. ships into Irland, and subdued it vnto himselfe and sending a certaine earle named Fulco, vnto the isle of Man, his souldiours almost vtterly wasted it the space of 15. dayes, and hauing taken pledges they returned home into their owne countrey. King Reginald and his nobles were at this time absent from Man. In the yere 1217. deceased Nicolas bishop of the islands, and was buried in Vlster, in the house of Benchor, whom Reginald succeeded. I thinke it not amisse to report somewhat more concerning the two foresaid brethren Reginaldus and Olauus. Reginald gaue vnto his brother Olauus, the island called Lodhus or Lewes, which is saide to be larger then the rest of the islands, but almost destitute of inhabitants, because it is so ful of mountaines & quarreis, being almost no where fit for tillage. Howbeit the inhabitants thereof do liue for the most part vpon hunting and fishing. Olauus therefore went to take possession of this Island, and dwelt therein leading a poore life; and when he saw that it would by no meanes suffice for the sustentation of himselfe & his folowers hee went boldly vnto his brother Reginald, who as then remained in the islands, & spake on this wise vnto him. My brother (said he) and my lord and king you know that the kingdom of the islands pertained vnto me by right of inheritance, howbett because the Lord had chosen you to beare the scepter, I doe not enuie that honour vnto you, neither doeth it any whit grieue me that you are exalted vnto this royall dignitie. Nowe therefore I beseech you to prouide mee some portion of land in the islands, whereby I may honestly liue. For the island of Lewis which you gaue me is not sufficient for my maintenance. Which his brother Reginald hearing said that he would consult about the premisses. And on the morow when Olauus was sent for to parle, Reginald comanded him to be attached, and to be caried vnto William king of Scotland and with him to remame prisoner: and Olauus remained in prison almost for the space of 7. yeres. But at the 7. yeres end William king of Scots deceased, and Alexander his sonne reigned in his stead. The foresaid William, before his death, commanded that all prisoners should be set at libertie. Olauus therefore being at libertie came vnto Man, and immediatly with a great company of nobles tooke his iourney vnto S. Iames: and his brother Reginald caused the said Olauus to take vnto wife, the daughter of a certaine noble man of Kentyre, cousine german vnto his owne wife, & by name being called Lauon, and he granted vnto him the possession of Lewis. After a few dayes Reginald the bishop of the Islands hauing gathered a Synod, separated Olauus and Godred his sonne, and Lauon his wife, namely because shee was cousin german vnto his former wife. Afterward Olauus maried Scristina daughter vnto Ferkarus earle of Rosse. Hereupon the wife of Reginald Queene of the Islands being incensed, sent letters vnto the Island of Sky in K. Reginald his name to her sonne Godred willing him to take Olauus. Which comandement Godred putting in practise, & entring the isle of Lewis for the same purpose, Olauus fled in a little skiffe vnto his father in law the earle of Rosse, & in the meane time Godred wasted the isle of Lewis. At the very same time Pol the son of Boke vicount of Sky, being a man of power in al the islands, because he would not consent vnto Godred, fled, & dwelt together with Olauus in the dominions of the earle of Rosse, & making a league with Olauus, they went both in a ship vnto Sky. To be short, sending certaine spies, they were informed that Godred remained secure with a smal company in a certaine Isle called the isle of S. Colomba. [Footnote: Iona.] And vniting vnto themselues their friends and acquaintance, & others that would goe voluntarily with them, in the dead of the night, hauing lanched 5. ships from the next sea-shore, which was distant about the space of 2. furlongs from the foresaid Island, they enuironed the said Island on all sides. Now Godred and his company rising early in the morning, and seeing themselues beset with their enemies on all sides, they were vtterly astonied. Howbeit arming themselues they began stoutly to make resistance, but altogether in vaine. For about 9. of the clocke in the morning, Olauus and the foresaid vicount Pol, with al their souldiers, entred the Island, and hauing slaine all whom they found without the precincts of the Church, they apprehended Godred, gelding him, and putting out his eyes. Vnto which action Olauus gaue not his consent, neither could he withstand it, by reason of the forenamed vicount the son of Boke. This was done in the yere of Christ 1223. The next sommer folowing Olauus hauing receiued pledges from all the chiefe men of the Islands, with a fleet of 32 ships sailed vnto Man, and arriued at Rognolfwaht. [Footnote: Peel.] [Sidenote: The Isle of Man aduanced to a kingdome] At the same time Reginald and Olauus diuided the kingdome of the Islands betweene themselues, Man being granted vnto Reginald, & besides his portion the name of a king also. Olauus hauing recieued certaine victuals of the people of Man, returned, together with his company, vnto his owne portion of Islands. The yeere folowing Reginald taking vnto him Alanus lord of Galway, together with his subiects of Man, sailed vnto the Islands, that hee might take away that portion of ground from his brother Olauus, which he had granted vnto him, and subdue it vnto himselfe. Howbeit, by reason that the people of Man had no list to fight against Olauus or the Islanders, because they bare good will towards them, Reginald and Alanus lord of Galway being defeated of their purpose, returned home vnto their owne. Within a short space after Reginald, vnder pretense of going vnto the Court of his lord the king of England, receiued an 100. markes of the people of Man, and tooke his iourney vnto Alanus lord of Galway. Which the people of Man hearing tooke great indignation thereat, insomuch that they sent for Olauus, and appointed him to be their king. In the yeere 1226. Olauus recouered his inheritance, that is to say the kingdome of Man and of the Islands, which Reginald his brother had gouerned for the space of 38. yeeres, and he reigned two yeeres in safetie. In the yeere 1228. Olauus with all his nobles of Man, and the stronger part of his people, sailed vnto the Islands. A short space after Alanus lord of Galway, Thomas earle of Athol, & king Reginald came vnto Man with a mightie army, and wasted all the South part of Man, spoiled the Churches, and slue all the men whom they coulde take, insomuch, that the Southpart of the saide Island was brought almost into desolation. And then Alanus returned with his army into his owne land, leauing behind him bailiffes and substitutes in Man, which should gather vp and render vnto him the tribute of the countrey. Howbeit king Olauus came suddenly vpon them, chaced them away and recouered his kingdome. And the Mannians which of late were dispersed and scattered abroad, began to vnite themselues, and to inhabite without feare. The same yeere, in the time of Winter, vpon the sudden, and in the very dead of the night came king Reginald out of Galway with fiue ships, & burnt all the ships of his brother Olauus and of the nobles of Man, at the isle of S. Patric, & concluding a peace with his brother, remained at the port of Ragnolwath 40. dayes; in the meane while hee allured vnto himselfe all the Islanders vpon the South part of Man, who sware, that they would aduenture their liues, vntill hee had gotten the one halfe of his kingdome: contrary wise Olauus ioyned vnto himselfe them of the North part, & vpon the 14. of February in the place called Tingualla, [Footnote: Tynwald Mount.] a field was fought betweene the two brothers, wherein Olauus got the victory, and Reginald the king was by certaine souldiers slaine without the knowledge of his brother. Also certaine pirates comming to the South part of Man, wasted & spoiled it. The monkes of Russin conueyed the body of K. Reginald, vnto the abbey of S. Mary of Fournes, & there he was interred in the place, which his owne selfe had chosen for the purpose. After these things Olauus traueiled vnto the king of Norway, but before he was arriued there, Haco king of Norway appointed a certaine noble man named Husbac the son of Owmund to be king of the Islands of the Hebrides & called his name Haco. Then came the said Haco with Olauus & Godred Don the son of Reginald and a multitude of Noruegians, vnto the Islands, and while they were giuing an assault vnto a castle in the Island of Both. [Footnote: Bute.] Haco being hit with a stone died, and was buried in Iona. In the yere 1230. came Olauus with Godredus Don and certeine Noruegians vnto Man, and they parted the kingdome among themselues, Olauus stil reteining Man. Godred as he was going vnto the Islands, was slaine in the Isle of Lewis, & Olauus inioyed the kingdome of the islands also. In the yere 1237. vpon the 12. of the kalends of Iune, Olauus sonne of Godred king of Man deceased in the isle of S. Patric, and was interred in the abbey of Russin. He reigned 11. yeres, two while his brother was aliue, and nine after his death. Haraldus his sonne being of the age of 14. yeres, succeeded, and he reigned 12. yeeres. The first yere of his reigne taking his iourney vnto the islands, he appointed one Loglen his kinsman to be his deputie in Man. The Autumne folowing Haraldus sent the three sonnes of Nel, namely Dufgaldus, Torquellus, & Molmore, and his friend Ioseph vnto Man, that they might enter into cosultation together. Wherefore the 25. day they assembled themselues at Tingualla: and malice growing betweene the sonnes of Nel, and Loglen they fel to blowes and skirmished sore on both parts, Molmore, Dufgald, and the foresaid Ioseph being all slaine in the fray. The Spring folowing, king Harald came into the Isle of Man, and Loglen fleeing into Wales, was himselfe, together with Godred the sonne of Olauus his pupil, and 40. others, drowned by shipwracke. In the yere 1238. Gospatricius and Gillescrist sonne of Mac-Kerthac came from the king of Norway vnto Man, expelling Harald out of the said island, and taking tribute on the behalfe of the Noruegian king, because the said Harald refused to come vnto his Court. In the yere 1240. Gospatricius deceased and was buried in the abbey of Russin. In the yere 1239. Haraldus went vnto the king of Norway who within two yeres confirmed vnto him, his heires and successors, vnder seale, all the islands which his predecessors enioyed. In the yeere 1242. Haraldus returned out of Norway vnto Man and being honorably receiued by the inhabitants he liued in peace with the kings of England and Scotland. In the yere 1247. Haraldus (like as his father also before him) was knighted by the king of England, and so being rewarded with many gifts he returned home. The same yere he was sent for by the king of Norway, and he maried his daughter. And in the yere 1249. as he was returning home with his wife, with Laurence the elect of Man, and with many other nobles, neere vnto the confines of Radland, he was drowned in a tempest. In the yere 1249. Reginald the sonne of Olauus and brother vnto Harald began to reigne the day next before the nones of May: and vpon the 30. day of the same moneth he was slaine by Yuarus a souldier, and other of his complices in the South part of a certaine medow neere vnto the Church of the holy Trinitie, and he was buried at the Church of S. Marie at Russin. The same yere Alexander king of Scots prouided a great nauie of ships that he might conquere the islands vnto himselfe, howbeit falling into an ague at the isle of Kenwary [Footnote: Query, Kerrera.] he deceased. Then Haraldus the sonne of Godred Don vsurped the name of a king ouer the islands, hee banished also all the princes of Harald the sonne of Olauus and ordeined his fugitiues to bee princes and nobles in their stead. In the yere 1250. Haraldus the son of Godred Don being summoned by letters went vnto the king of Norway who deteined him in prison because he had vniustly possessed the kingdome. The same yeere Magnus the sonne of Olauus, and Iohn the sonne of Dugalt arriued at Roghalwhat, which Iohn named himselfe king, but the Mannians taking it grieuously, that Magnus was not nominated, draue them from their shoare, and many of the company perished by shipwracke. In the yeere 1252. came Magnus the sonne of Olauus vnto Man, and was ordained king. The yere folowing he tooke his iourney vnto the king of Norway & there he remained one whole yere. In the yeere 1254. Haco king of Norway ordeined Magnus the sonne of Olauus king of the islands, confirming them to him and to his heires, and by name vnto Harald his brother. In the yere 1256. Magnus tooke his iourney into England, and was by the king of England created knight. In the yere 1257. the Church of S. Maries of Russin was dedicated by Richard bishop of Soder. In the yeere 1260. Haco king of Norway came into the parts of Scotland, and without atchieuing ought, turning his course towards the Orcades he there deceased at Kirwas, [Footnote: Kirkwall. The date is an error Hacos expedition took place in 1263. He sailed from Herdle-Voer on the 5th of July, and died Saturday, 15th December (_Det Norske Folks Historie_, by P. A. Munch.)] and was buried at Bergen. In the yeere 1265. Magnus the sonne of Olauus king of Man and of the Islands died at the castle of Russin, and was buried at the Church of St. Mary at Russin. In the yere 1266. the kingdome of the Islands was translated vnto Alexander king of Scots. * * * * * That which followeth was written in a new character or letter, and of a diuers kinde from the former. In the yeere 1270. vpon the seuenth day of October the Fleete of Alexander king of Scots arriued at Roghalwath, and the next day before the sunne rising there was a battell fought betweene the Mannians and the Scots, in the which conflict there were slaine 535. Mannians: whereupon a certaine versifier writeth to this effect: Fiue hundreth fourtie men are slaine: against ill haps, Yee Mannians arme your selues, for feare of afterclaps. In the yeere 1313. Robert king of Scots beseiged the castle of Russin, which Dingaway Dowil held against him howbeit at the last the king tooke the castle. In the yeere 1316. vpon the feast of Ascension, Richard le Mandeuile and his brethren, with diuers great personages of Irland arriued at Ramaldwath, demaunding to haue victuals and money ministred vnto them, because they had bene spoyled by their enemies, which made continuall warre vpon them. But when the whole company of the Mannians answered that they would giue nothing, they proceeded against them in warlike maner with two bands, till they were come vnder the side of the hill called Warthfel, in the fielde where Iohn Mandeuile remained, and there hauing fought a battell, the Irish ouercame the people of Man, and spoiled the Island and the Abbey of Russmin also: and when they had reueled a whole moneth in the Island, lading their ships they retained home. * * * * * The mariage of the daughter of Harald, slaine by William the conquerour, vnto Ieruslaus duke of Russia, taken out of the 9. booke of the Danish historie written by Saxo Grammaticus. An. D. 1067. [Sidenote: 1067.] Haraldo cæso, filij eius duo confestim in Daniam cum sorore migrarunt. Quos Sweno, paterni illorum menti oblitus consanguineæ pietatis more accepit, puellamque Ruthenorum regi Waldemaro, (qui & ipse Iarislaus a suis est appellatus) nuptum dedit. Eidem postmodùm nostri temporis dux, vt sanguinis, ita & nominis hæres, ex filia nepos obuenit. Itaque hinc Britannicus, indè Eous sanguis in salutarem nostri principis ortum confluens communem stirpem duaram gentium ornamentum effecit. The same in English. Harald being slaine his two sonnes with their sister sped themselues immediatly into Denmarke. Whom Sweno forgetting their fathers deserts receiued in most kinde and friendly maner, and bestowed the yong damosell in mariage vpon Waldemarus king of Russia who was also called by his subiects Iarislaus. Afterward the said Waldemarus had by his daughter a nephew being duke at this present, who succeeded his predecessour both in lineal descent and in name also. Wherefore the English blood on the one side and the Russian on the other side concurring to the ioyful birth of our prince, caused that mutual kinred to be an ornament vnto both nations. * * * * * The state of the shipping of the Cinque ports from Edward the Confessour and William the Conquerour, and so downe to Edward the first, faithfully gathered by the learned Gentleman M. William Lambert in his Perambulation of Kent, out of the most ancient Records of England. [Sidenote: The antiquity of the Ports. 1070.] I finde in the booke of the generall suruey of the Realme, which William the Conquerour caused to bee made in the fourth yeere of his reigne, and to be called Domesday, because (as Matthew Parise saith) it spared no man but iudged all men indifferently, as the Lord in that great day wil do, that Douer, Sandwich, and Rumney, were in the time of K. Edward the Confessour discharged almost of all maner of imposicions and burdens (which other townes did beare) in consideration of such seruice to bee done by them vpon the sea, as in their special titles shall hereafter appeare. Whereupon, although I might ground reasonable coniecture, that the immunitie of the hauen Townes (which we nowe call by a certaine number, the Cinque Ports) might take their beginning from the same Edward: yet for as much as I read in the Chartre of K. Edward the first after the conquest (which is reported in our booke of Entries) A recitall of the graunts of sundry kings to the Fiue Ports, the same reaching no higher then to William the Conquerour, I will leaue my coniecture, and leane to his Chartre: contenting my selfe to yeelde to the Conquerour, the thankes of other mens benefits, seeing those which were benefited, were wisely contented (as the case then stood) to like better of his confirmation (or second gift) then of K. Edwards first graunt, and endowment. And to the ende that I may proceed in some maner of array, I will first shewe, which Townes were at the beginning taken for the Fiue Ports, and what others be now reputed in the same number: secondly, what seruice they ought, and did in times passed: and lastly, what priuiledges they haue therefore, and by what persons they haue bene gouerned. If I should iudge by the common, and rude verse, Douer, Sandwicus, Ry, Rum, Frigmare ventus, [Sidenote: Which be the Fiue Ports.] I must say that Douer, Sandwich, Rie, Rumney, and Winchelsey, (for that is, Frigmare ventus) be the Fiue Ports: Againe, if I should be ruled by the Rolle which reciteth the Ports that send Barons to the Parliament, I must then adde to these, Hastings and Hyde, for they also haue their Barons as well as the other and so should I not onely, not shew which were the first Fiue, but also (by addition of two others) increase both the number, and doubtfulnesse. Leauing the verse therefore, for ignorance of the authour and suspition of his authoritie, and forsaking the Rolle (as not assured of the antiquitie) I will flee to Henry Bracton, [Sidenote: 1250.] a man both ancient, learned, and credible, which liued vnder K. Henry the thirde and wrote (aboue three hundreth yeeres since) learnedly of the lawes of this Realme. [Sidenote: Citizens were called Barons in old time.] He (I say) in the third booke of his worke, [Footnote: _De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ_.] and treatise of the Crowne taking in hand to shewe the articles inquirable before the Iustice in Eire, (or Itinerent as we called them because they vsed to ride from place to place throughout the Realme, for administration of iustice) setteth forth a special fourme of writs, to be directed seuerally to the Bailifes of Hastings, Hithe, Rumney, Douer, and Sandwich, commanding them that they should cause twentie & foure of their Barons (for so their Burgesses, or townesmen, and the citizens of London likewise, were wont to be termed) to appeare before the Kings Iustices at Shipwey in Kent (as they accustomed to do) there to enquire of such points, as should be giuen in charge. [Sidenote: Contention betwtene Yarmouth and the Fiue Ports. 1250. Antiquitie of Yarmouth fishing.] Which done, hee addeth moreouer, that forsomuch as there was oftentimes contention betwene them of the Fiue Ports, & the inhabitants of Yarmouth in Norfolke, and Donwich in Suffolke, there should be seuerall writs directed to them also, returnable before the same Iustices at the same day and place, reciting, that where the King had by his former writs sommoned the Pleas of the Fiue Ports to bee holden at Shipwey, if any of the same townes had cause to complaine of any (being within the liberties of the said Ports) he should be at Shipwey to propound against him, and there to receiue according to law and Iustice. Thus much I recite out of Bracton, partly to shew that Shipwey was before K. Edward the firsts time, the place of assembly for the Plees of the Fiue Ports: partly to notifie the difference, and controuersie that long time since was betweene these Ports, and those other townes: But purposely, and chiefly, to proue, that Hastings, and Hithe, Douer, Rumney, and Sandwich, were in Bractons time accompted the Fiue principall hauens or Ports, which were endowed with priuiledge, and had the same ratified by the great Chartre of England. Neither yet will I deny, but that soone after, Winchelsey and Rie might be added to the number. [Sidenote: 1268.] For I find in an old recorde, that king Henry the third tooke into his owne hands (for the better defence of the Realme) the townes of Winchelsey, and Rie, which belonged before to the Monasterie of Fescampe in Normandie, and gaue therefore in exchange, the Manor of Chiltham in Gloucestershire, & diuers other lands in Lincolneshire. This he did, partly to conceale from the Priors Aliens the intelligence of the secret affaires of his Realme, and partly because of a great disobedience & excesse, that was committed by the inhabitants of Wincelsey, against Prince Edward his eldest sonne. And therefore, although I can easily be led to thinke, that he submitted them for their correction to the order, and gouernance of the Fiue ports, yet I stand doubtfull whether hee made them partners of their priuiledges or no, for that had bene a preferment, and no punishment vnto them: [Sidenote: Winchelsey first builded 1277] but I suspect rather, that his sonne king Edward the first, (by whose encouragement and aide, olde Winchelsey was afterward abandoned, and the newe towne builded) was the first that apparelled them with that preeminence. By this therefore let it appeare, that Hastings, Douer, Hithe, Rumney, and Sandwich, were the first Ports of priuiledge: which (because they were 5. in number) both at the first gaue, and yet continue, to all the residue, the name of Cinque Ports, although not onely Winchelsey and Rie, be (since that time) incorporated with them as principals, but diuers other places also (for the ease of their charge) be crept in, as partes, lims, and members of the same. Now therefore, somewhat shalbe said, as touching the seruices that these Ports of duetie owe, and in deed haue done, to the Princes: whereof the one (I meane with what number of vessels, in what maner of furniture, and for how long season, they ought to wait on the king at the Sea, vpon their owne charges) shall partly appeare by that which we shall presently say, and partly by that which shall followe in Sandwich, and Rumney: The other shall bee made manifest by examples, drawne out of good histories: and they both shall be testified by the words of king Edward the first in his owne Chartre. The booke of Domesday before remembred, chargeth Douer with twentie vessels at the sea, whereof eche to be furnished with one and twentie men for fifteene dayes together: and saith further, that Rumney and Sandwich answered the like seruice. But now whether this (like) ought to be vnderstoode of the like altogether, both in respect of the number and seruice, or of the (like) in respect of seruice according to the proportion of their abilite onely, I may not hereby take vpon me to determine. For on the one side, if Rumney, Sandwich, and the residue should likewise finde twentie vessels a piece, then (as you shall anone see) the fiue Ports were subiect to a greater charge at that time then King Edward the first layd vpon them: And on the other side if they were onely chargeable after their proportion, then know I not how farre to burthen them, seeing the Record of Domesday it selfe bideth them to no certeintie. And therefore leauing this as I find it I must elsewhere make inquisition for more lightsome proofe. And first I will haue recourse to king Edward the first his Chartre, in which I read, that At ech time that the King passeth ouer the sea, the Ports ought to rigge vp fiftie and seuen ships, (whereof euery one to haue twentie armed souldiers) and to mainteine them at their owne costes, by the space of fifteene dayes together. And thus it stoode with the Ports for their generall charge, in the sixt yeere of his reigne, for then was this Chartre sealed. But as touching the particular burthen of ech one, I haue seene two diuers testimonies, of which the first is a note in French (bearing the countenance of a Record) and is intituled, to haue bene renued in the two and twentie yeere of the Reigne of the same king, by Stephan Penchester, then Constable of Douer Castle, in which the particular charge is set downe in this maner. The Port of Hastings ought to finde three ships. The lowie of Peuensey one. Buluerhithe and Petit Iahn, one. Bekesborne in Kent, seuen. Grenche at Gillingham in Kent, two men and armour, with the ships of Hastings. The towne of Rie, fiue. To it was Tenterdene annexed, in the time of King Henrie the sixt. The towne of Winchelsey, tenne. The Port of Rumney, foure. Lydde, seuen. The Port of Hythe, fiue. The Port of Douer, nineteene. The towne of Folkestone, seuen. The towne of Feuersham, seuen. The Port of Sandwich, with Stonor, Fordwich, Dale, &c. fiue. These ships they ought to finde vpon fortie dayes summons, armed and arrayed at their owne charge, and in ech of them twentie men, besides the Master of the Mariners: all which they shall likewise mainteine fiue dayes together at their owne costs, giuing to the Maister sixe pence by the day, to the Constable sixe pence, and to ech other Mariner three pence. And after those fiue dayes ended, the King shall defray the charges. The other is a Latine Custumall of the towne of Hyde, the which although it pretend not so great antiquity as the first, yet seemeth it to me to import as much or more likelihood and credit: It standeth thus. These be the Fiue Ports of our soueraigne Lord the King hauing liberties, which other Ports haue not: Hasting, Romenal, Heth, Douer, Sandwich, the chiefe Townes. The seruices due by the same. Hasting shall finde 21. ships, in euery ship 21. men, and a Garcion, or Boy, which is called a Gromet. To it perteine (as the members of one towne) the Seashore in Seford, Peuenshey, Hodeney, Winchelsey, Rie, Ihame, Bekesbourne, Grenge, Northie, Bulwerheth. Romenal 5. ships, in euery ship 21. men, and a Garcion: To it perteine, as members thereof, Promhell, Lede, Eastwestone, Dengemareys, olde Rumney. Hethe 5. ships, as Romenal before. To it perteineth the Westhethe. Douer 21, ships, as Hasting before. To it pertaine, Folkstane, Feuersham, and S. Margarets, not concerning the land, but for the goods and cartels. Sandwich 5. ships, as Romenal and hethe. To it perteine Fordwich, Reculuer, Serre, and Dele, not for the soile, but for the goods. Summe of ships 57. Summe of the men 1187. and 57. Garcions. This seruice, the Barons of the Fiue Ports doe acknowledge to owe to the King, vpon summons yerely (if it happen) by the space of 15. dayes together, at their owne costs and changes, accounting that for the first day of the 15. in which they shall spread their sailes to goe towards those parts that the King intendeth: and to serue so long after 15. dayes, as the King will, at his owne pay and wages. Thus much out of these ancient notes, whereby your selfe may easily discerne the difference: but whether the one or the other, or (by reason of some latter dispensation) neither of these, haue place at this day, I must referre it to them that be priuie, and of counsell with the Ports: and so leauing this also vndecided, holde on the way, wherein I am entred. This duetie of attendance therefore (being deuised for the honourable transportation, and safe conduct of the Kings owne person or his armie ouer the narrow Seas) the Ports haue not onely most diligently euer since that time performed, but furthermore also valiantly behaued themselues against the enemie from time to time, in sundrie exploits by water, as occasion hath bene proferred, or the necessitie of the Realme required. [Sidenote: The good seruice of the fiue ports. 1217] And amongst other feats not vnwoorthy perpetuall remembrance, after such time as Lewes (the eldest sonne of the French King) had entred the Realme to aide Stephan Langton the Archbishop, and the Nobilitie, in the life of King Iohn, and had sent into France for new supply of Souldiers after his death, Hubert of Borough (then captaine of Douer) following the opinion of Themistocles in the exposition of the oracle of the wooden walles, by the aide of the Port townes, armed fortie tall ships, and meeting with eightie saile of Frenchmen vpon the high seas, gaue them a most couragious encounter, in which he tooke some, sunke others, and discomfited the rest. King Henrie the third also, after that he came to riper age, had great benefit by the seruice of the Cinque Ports: [Sidenote: 1278.] And king Edward the first in his Chartre, maketh their continuall faithfull seruice (and especially their good endeuour, then lately shewed against the Welshmen) the principall cause, and motiue of that his liberall grant. [Sidenote: 1293.] Furthermore, about the midst of the reigne of the same king, an hundreth saile of the Nauie of the Ports fought at the Sea with a fleet of 200. French men, all which (notwithstanding the great oddes of the number) they tooke, and slew, and sunke so many of the Mariners, that France was thereby (for a long season after) in maner destitute, both of Seamen, and shipping. [Sidenote: 1406.] Finally, and to conclude this part, in the dayes of king Henrie the the fourth, the name of the Fiue Ports, vnder the conduct of one Henrie Paye, surprised one hundreth and twentie French ships, all laden with Salt, Iron, Oile, and no worse merchandize. [Sidenote: Priuiledges of the fiue ports.] The priuiledges of these Ports being first granted by Edward the Confessour, and William the Conquerour, and then confirmed and increased by William Rufus, Henrie the second, Richard the first, Henrie the third, and king Edward the first be very great, considering either the honour and ease, or the freedome and exemption, that the inhabitants haue by reason of the same. Part of the great Charter granted by king Edward the first to the Barons of the Cinque portes, in the sixt yeere of his reigne 1278. for their good seruices done vnto him by sea, wherein is mention of their former ancient Charters from Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, William Rufus, Henry the second, king Richard the first, king Iohn, and Henry the third continued vnto them. Edward by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, & duke of Gastcoigne, to all Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earles, Barons, Iustices, Shirifs, Prouosts, Officers, & to all Bayliffes and true subiects greeting. You shall knowe that for the faithfull seruice that our Barons of the fiue Ports hitherto to our predecessors kings of England, & vnto vs lately in our armie of Wales haue done, and for their good seruice to vs and our heires kings of England, truly to be continued in time to come, we haue granted & by this our Charter confirmed for vs and our heires, to the same our Barons and to their heires, all their liberties and freedomes. So that they shall be free from all toll, and from all custome; that is to say from all lastage, tallage, passage, cariage, riuage, asponsage, and from all wrecke, and from all their sale, carying and recarying through all our realme and dominion, with socke and souke, toll and theme. And that they shall haue Infangthefe, and that they shall be wreckefree, lastagefree, and louecopfree. [Sidenote: The fishing at great Yarmouth.] And that they shall haue Denne and Strande at great Yarmouth, according as it is contayned in the ordinance by vs thereof made perpetually to bee obserued. And also that they are free from all shires and hundreds: so that if any person will plead against them, they shall not aunswere nor pleade otherwise then they were wont to plead in the time of the lord, king Henrie our great grandfather. And that they shall haue their findelles in the sea and in the land. And that they be free of all their goods and of all their marchandises as our freemen. And that they haue their honours in our court, and their liberties throughout all the land wheresoeuer they shall come. And that they shall be free for euer of all their lands, which in the time of Lord Henrie the king our father [Sidenote: Henry the third.] they possessed: that is to say in the 44. yere of his reign, from all maner of summonces before our Iustices to any maner of pleadings, iourneying in what shire soeuer their lands are. So that they shall not be bound to come before the Iustices aforesaid, except any of the same Barons doe implead any man, or if any man be impleaded. And that they shall not pleade in any other place, except where they ought, and where they were wont, that is to say, at Shepeway. And they that haue their liberties and freedomes from hencefoorth, as they and their predecessors haue had them at any time better, more fully and honourably in the time of the kings of England, Edward [Sidenote: Edward the confessor.], William the first, William the second, Henrie the king our great grandfather, and in the times of king Richard, and king Iohn our grandfathers, and lord king Henrie our father, by their Charters, as the same Charters which the same our Barons thereof haue, and which we haue seene, doe reasonably testifie. And we forbid that no man vniustly trouble them nor their marchandise vpon our forfeyture of ten pounds. So neuerthelesse, that when the same Barons shall fayle in doing of Iustice or in receiuing of Iustice, our Warden, and the wardens of our heires of the Cinque Portes, which for the time shall be, their Ports and liberties may enter for to doe their full Iustice. [Sidenote: 57. Ships of the Cinque Ports bound to serue the king 15. dayes at their owne costs.] So also that the sayd Barons and their heires, do vnto vs and to our heirs kings of England by the yeare their full seruice of shippes at their costs by the space of fifteene dayes at our somounce, or at the somounce of our heires. We haue granted also vnto them of our speciall grace that they haue Outfangthefe in their lands within the Ports aforesayd, in the same maner that Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earles and Barons, haue in their manours in the countie of Kent. And they be not put in any Assises, Iuries, or Recognisances by reason of their forreine tenure against their will: and that they be free of all their owne wines for which they do trauaile of our right prise, [Footnote: Prisage--one cask in ten, on wine, was the first customs-duty levied in England.] that is to say, of one tunne before the mast, and of another behind the maste. We haue granted furthermore vnto the said Barons for vs and our heires, that they for euer haue this liberty, that is to say, That we or our heires shall not haue the wardship or mariages of their heires by reason of their landes, which they holde within the liberties and Portes aforesayde, for the which they doe their seruice aforesayd: and for the which wee and our progenitors had not the wardships and marriages in time past. But we our aforesayd confirmation vpon the liberties and freedomes aforesayde, and our grants following to them of our especiall grace, of newe haue caused to be made, sauing alwaies in al things our kingly dignitie: And sauing vnto vs and to our heires, plea of our crowne, life and member. Wherefore we will and surely command for vs and our heires that the aforesaid Barons and their heires for euer haue all the aforesaid liberties and freedomes, as the aforesaid Charters do reasonably testifie. And that of our especial grace they haue outfangthefe in their lands within the Ports aforesaid after the manner that Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earles and Barons haue in their manours in the county of Kent. And that they be not put in Assizes, Iuries, or recognisances by reason of their forreine tenure against their will. And that they bee free of their owne wines for which they trauaile of our right price or custome, that is to say of one tunne of wine before the maste, and of another tunne behinde the maste. And that likewise for euer they haue the libertie aforesayde: that is to say: That wee and our heires haue not the worships or mariages of their heires by reason of their landes which they holde within the liberties and Portes aforesayd, for the which their seruice aforesaid, and for which wee and our predecessors the wardships and mariages haue not had in times past, But our aforesayd confirmation of their liberties and freedomes aforesaid and other grants following to them of our especiall grace of new we haue caused to bee made. Sauing alwayes and in all things our regall dignity. And sauing vnto vs and our heires the pleas of our crowne of life and member as is aforesayd. These being witnesses, the reuerend father Robert of Portuens Cardinall of the holie Church of Rome, frier William of Southhampton Prior prouincial of the friers preachers in England, William of Valencia our vncle, Roger of the dead sea, Roger of Clifford, Master Robert Samuel deane of Sarum, Master Robert of Scarborough the Archdeacon of East Riding, Master Robert of Seyton, Bartholomew of Southley, Thomas of Wayland, Walter of Hoptan, Thomas of Normannel, Steuen of Pennester, Frances of Bonaua, Iohn of Lenetotes, Iohn of Metingham and others. Giuen by our hand at Westminster the fourteenth day of Iune, in the sixth yeare of our reigne. [Sidenote: Thomas Walsingham writeth that he had once 1100. strong shippes.] The roll of the huge fleete of Edward the third before Calice, extant in the kings wardrobe in London, whereby the wonderfull strength of England by sea in those days may appeare. The South fleete. The Kings /Shippes 25. Lyme /Ships 4. \Mariners 419. \Mariners 62. London /Shippes 25. Seton /Ships 2. \Mariners 662. \Mariners 25. Aileford /Shippes 2. Sydmouth /Ships 3. \Mariners 24. \Mariners 62. Hoo /Shippes 2. Exmouth /Ships 10. \Mariners 24. \Mariners 193. Maydstone /Shippes 2. Tegmouth /Ships 7. \Mariners 51. \Mariners 120. Hope /Shippes 2. Dartmouth /Ships 31. \Mariners 59. \Mariners 757. New Hithe /Shippes 5. Portsmouth /Ships 5. \Mariners 49. \Mariners 96. Margat /Shippes 15. Plimouth /Ships 26. \Mariners 160. \Mariners 603. [1]Motue /Shippes 2. Loo /Ships 20. \Mariners 22. \Mariners 315. Feuersham /Shippes 2. Yalme /Ships 2. \Mariners 25. \Mariners 47. Sandwich /Ships 22. [2]Fowey /Ships 47. \Mariners 504. \Mariners 770. Douer /Ships 16. Bristol /Ships 22. \Mariners 336. \Mariners 608. Wight /Ships 13. Tenmouth /Ships 2. \Mariners 220. \Mariners 25. Winchelsey /Ships 21. Hasting /Ships 5. \Mariners 596. \Mariners 96. Waymouth /Ships 15. Romney /Ships 4. \Mariners 263. \Mariners 65. Rye /Ships 9. Swanrey /Ships 1. \Mariners 156. \Mariners 29. Hithe /Ships 6. Ilfercombe /Ships 6. \Mariners 122. \Mariners 79. Shoreham /Ships 20. [4]Patricke- /Ships 2. \Mariners 329. stowe \Mariners 27. [3]Soford /Ships 5. Polerwan /Ships 1. \Mariners 80. \Mariners 60. Newmouth /Ships 2. Wadworth /Ships 1. \Mariners 18. \Mariners 14. Hamowl /Ships 7. Kardife /Ships 1. hooke \Mariners 117. \Mariners 51. Hoke /Ships 11. Bridgwater /Ships 1. \Mariners 208. \Mariners 15. Southhapton /Ships 21. Kaermarthen /Ships 1. \Mariners 576. \Mariners 16. Lymington /Ships 9. Caileches- /Ships 1. \Mariners 159. worth \Mariners 12. Poole /Ships 4. Mulbrooke /Ships 1. \Mariners 94. \Mariners 12. Wareham /Ships 3. Summe of the /Ships 493. \Mariners 59. South fleete \Mariners 9630. [Footnote 1: Or, Morne.] [Footnote 2: Or, Foy.] [Footnote 3: Or, Seford.] [Footnote 4: Or, Padstow.] The North fleete Bamburgh /Ships 1. Waynefleet /Ships 2. \Mariners 9. \Mariners 49. Newcastle /Ships 17. Wrangle /Ships 1. \Mariners 314. \Mariners 8. Walrich /Ships 1. [2]Lenne /Ships 16. \Mariners 12. \Mariners 382. Hertilpoole /Ships 5. Blackney /Ships 2. \Mariners 145. \Mariners 38. Hull /Ships 16. Scarborough /Ships 1. \Mariners 466. \Mariners 19. Yorke /Ships 1. [3]Yearnmouth /Ships 43. \Mariners 9. \Mariners 1950. or 1075. Ranenser /Ships 1. Donwich /Ships 6. \Mariners 27. \Mariners 102. Woodhouse /Ships 1. Orford /Ships 3. \Mariners 22. \Mariners 62. [1]Stokhithe /Ships 1. Goford /Ships 13. \Mariners 10. \Mariners 303. Barton /Ships 3. Herwich /Ships 14. \Mariners 30. \Mariners 283. Swinefleete /Ships 1. Ipswich /Ships 12. \Mariners 11. \Mariners 239. Saltfleet /Ships 2. Mersey /Ships 1. \Mariners 49. \Mariners 6. Grimesby /Ships 11. [4]Brightlingsey /Ships 5. \Mariners 171. \Mariners 61. Colchester /Ships 5. Boston /Ships 17. \Mariners 90. \Mariners 361. Whitbanes /Ships 1. Swinhumber /Ships 1. \Mariners 17. \Mariners 32. Malden /Ships 2. Barton /Ships 5. \Mariners 32. \Mariners 91. Derwen /Ships 1. The Summe /Ships 217. \Mariners 15. of the North \Mariners 4521. fleete The summe totall of /Ships 700. all the English fleete \Mariners 14151. [Footnote 1: Stockhith] [Footnote 2: Or, Linne] [Footnote 3: Or, Yermouth] [Footnote 4: Now Brickelsey] Estrangers their ships and mariners Bayon /Ships 15. Flanders /Ships 14. \Mariners 439. \Mariners 133. Spayne /Ships 7. Gelderland /Ships 1. \Mariners 184. \Mariners 24. Ireland /Ships 1. \Mariners 25. The summe of all the Estrangers /Ships 38. \Mariners 805. The summe of expenses aswell of wages & prests as for the expenses of the kings houses, and for other gifts and rewards, shippes and other things necessary to the parties of France and Normandie, and before Calice, during the siege there, as it appeareth in the accompts of William Norwel keeper of the kings Wardrobe from the 21. day of April in the 18 yeere of the reigne of the said king vnto the foure and twentieth day of Nouember in the one and twentieth yeere of his reigne, is iii. hondreth xxxvii. thousand li. ix. s. iiii. d. * * * * * A note out of Thomas Walsmgham [Footnote: Thomas Walsingham, a native of Norfolk and Benedictine monk of St. Albans. He wrote _A History of England, from 1273 to the Death of Henry V_, and _Ypodigma Neustriæ_. His writings contain very little original information.] touching the huge Fleete of eleuen hundred well furnished ships wherewith King Edward the third passed ouer vnto Calais in the yeere 1359. Anno gratiæ 1359. Iohannes Rex Franciæ sub vmbra pacis, & dolose obtulit Regi Angliæ Flandriam, Picardiam, Aquitaniam, aliasque terras quas equitauerat & vastarat: pro quibus omnibus ratificandis, idem Rex Edwardus in Franciam nuncios suos direxit: quibus omnibus Franci contradixerunt. Vnde motus Rex Angliæ, celeriter se & suos præparauit ad transfretandum, ducens secum principem Walliæ Edwardum suum primogenitum, ducem Henricim Lancastriæ & ferè proceres omnes, quos comitabantur vel sequebantur poene mille currus, habuitque apud Sanwicam instructas optime vndecies centum naues, & cum hoc apparatu ad humiliandum Francorum fastum Franciam nauigauit, relicto domino Thoma de Woodstock filio suo minore admodum paruulo Anglici regni custode, sub tutela tamen. The same in English. In the yeere of our Lord 1359. Iohn the French king craftily, and vnder pretence of peace offered vnto Edward the third king of England, Flanders, Picardie, Gascoigne, and other territories which he had spoyled and wasted, for the ratifying of which agreement the foresaid king Edward sent his ambassadors into France, but the Frenchmen gainsaied them in all their articles and demaunds. Whereupon the king of England being prouoked, speedily prepared himselfe and his forces to crosse the seas, carying with him Edward Prince of Wales his heire apparant, and Henry duke of Lancaster and almost all his Nobles, with a thousand wagons and cartes attending vpon them. And the said king had at Sandwich eleuen hundred ships exceedingly well furnished: with which preparation he passed ouer the seas, to abate the Frenchmens arrogancie, leauing his yonger sonne Thomas of Woodstocke, being very tender of age as his vicegerent in the Realme of England, albeit not without a protectour, &c. * * * * * The voyage of Nicholas de Lynna a Franciscan Frier, and an excellent Mathematician of Oxford, to all the Regions situate vnder the North pole, in the yeere 1360. and in the raigne of Edward the 3. king of England. [Sidenote: The words of Gerardus Mercator in the foote of his general Map vpon the description of the North partes.] Quod ad descriptionem partium Septentrionalium attinet, eam nos accipimus ex Itinerario Iacobi Cnoyen Buscoducensis qui quædam ex rebus gestis Arthuri Britanni citat, maiorem autem partem & potiora, a Sacerdote quodam apud Regem Noruegiæ, An. Dom. 1364. didicit. Descenderat is ex illis quos Arthurus ad has habitandas insulas miserat, & referebat, An. 1360. Minoritam quendam Anglum Oxonieasem Mathematicum in eas insulas venisse, ipsisque relictis ad vlteriora arte Magica profectu descripsisse omnia, & Astrolabio dimensum esse in hanc subiectam formam ferè, vti ex Iacobo collegimus, Euripos illos quatuor dicebat tanto impetu ad interiorem voraginem rapi, vt naues semel ingressæ nullo vento retroagi possent, neque verò vnquam tantam ibi ventum esse, vt molæ frumentariæ circumagendæ sufficiat. Simillima his habet Giraldus Cambrensis (qui floruit, An. 1210.) in libro de mirabilibus Hyberniæ, sic enim scribit. Non procul ab insulis Hebridibus, Islandia, &c. ex parte Boreali, est maris quædam miranda vorago, in quam à remotis partibus omnes vndique fluctus marini tanquam ex condicto fluunt, & recurrunt, qui in secreta naturæ penetralia se ibi transfundentes, quasi in Abyssum vorantur. Si verò nauem hac fortè transire contigerit, tanta rapitur, & attrahitur fluctuum violentia, vt eam statim irreuocabiliter vis voracitatis absorbeat. Quatuor voragines huius Oceani, a quatuor oppositis mundi partibus Philosophi describunt, vnde & tam marinos fluctus, quàm & Æolicos flatus causaliter peruenire nonnulli coniectant. The same in English. Touching the description of the North partes, I haue taken the same out of the voyage of Iames Cnoyen of Hartzeuan Buske, which alleageth certaine conquests of Arthur king of Britaine: and the most part, and chiefest things among the rest, he learned of a certaine priest in the king of Norwayes court, in the yeere 1364. This priest was descended from them which king Arthur had sent to inhabite these Islands, and he reported that in the yeere 1360, a certaine English Frier, a Franciscan, and a Mathematician of Oxford, came into those Islands, who leauing them, and passing further by his Magicall Arte, described all those places that he sawe, and tooke the height of them with his Astrolabe, according to the forme that I (Gerard Mercator) haue set downe in my mappe, and as I haue taken it out of the aforesaid Iames Cnoyen. Hee sayd that those foure Indraughts were drawne into an inward gulfe or whirlepoole, with so great a force, that the ships which once entred therein, could by no meanes be driuen backe againe, and that there is neuer in those parts so much winde blowing, as might be sufficient to driue a Corne mill. Giraldus Cambrensis (who florished in the yeere 1210, vnder king Iohn) in his booke of the miracles of Ireland, hath certaine words altogether alike with these videlicet: [Sidenote: There is a notable whirlepoole on the coast of Norway, caled Malestrando (Mælstrom), about the latitude of 68.] Not farre from these Islands (namely the Hebrides, Island &c.) towards the North there is a certaine woonderful whirlpoole of the sea, whereinto all the waues of the sea from farre haue their course and recourse, as it were without stoppe: which, there conueying themselues into the secret receptacles of nature, are swallowed vp, as it were, into a bottomlesse pit, and if it chance that any shippe doe passe this way, it is pulled, and drawen with such a violence of the waues, that eftsoones without remedy, the force of the whirlepoole deuoureth the same. The Philosophers describe foure indranghts of this Ocean sea, in the foure opposite quarters of the world, from whence many doe coniecture that as well the flowing of the sea, as the blasts of the winde, haue their first originall. * * * * * A Testimonie of the learned Mathematician master Iohn Dee, [Footnote: Born in London in 1537. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was a man of vast erudition, but being, in Mary's reign, suspected of devoting himself to the "black art," a mob broke into his house and destroyed his library, museum, and mathematical instruments, said to be worth £2,000; and he himself was cast into prison. He was in great favour with Queen Elizabeth, who is said to haue paid him a salary, employed him on secret political missions, and visited him at Mortlake. He professed to be able to raise the dead, and had a magic ball (in reality a lump of black lead), in which he pretended to read the future, and which was afterwards in Horace Walpole's collection at Strawberry Hill. In 1596. he was made Warden of Manchester College, and died in 1608.] touching the foresaid voyage of Nicholas De Linna. Anno 1360. (that is to wit, in the 34. yeere of the reigne of the triumphant king Edward the third) a frier of Oxford, being a good Astronomer, went in companie with others to the most Northren Islands of the world, and there leauing his company together, hee transited alone, and purposely described all the Northerne Islands, with the indrawing seas: and the record thereof at his returne he deliuered to the king of England. [Sidenote: Inuentio Fortunata.] The name of which booke is Inuentio Fortunata (aliter fortunæ) qui liber incipit a gradu 54. vsque ad polum. Which frier for sundry purposes after that did fiue times passe from England thither, and home againe. It is to be noted, that from the hauen of Linne in Norfolke (whereof the foresaid Francisan frier tooke his name) to Island, it is not about a fortnights sailing with an ordinarie winde, and hath bene of many yeeres a very common and vsuall trade: which further appeareth by the priuileges granted to the Fisher men of the towne of Blacknie in the said Countie of Norfolke, by king Edward the third for their exemption and freedome from his ordinary seruice in respect of their trade to Island. [Sidenote: An 2. & 4. & 31. Edwardi tertij.] * * * * * The voyage of Henry Earle of Derbie, after Duke of Hereford and lastly king of England by the name of Henry the fourth, An. Dom 1340. into Prussia and Lettowe against the infidels, recorded by Thomas of Walsingham [Sidenote: An. Dom. 1390.] Dominus Henricus Comes de Derbie per idem tempos profectus est in le Pruys, vbi cum adjutorio marescalli dictæ patriæ & cujusdam Regis vocati Wytot deuicit exercitum Regis de Lettowe, captis quatuor ducibus, & tribus peremptis & amplius quam trecentis, de valentioribus exercitus sapradicti pariter interemptis. Ciuitas quoque vocatur [Marginal note: Alias Vilna] Will in cujus castellum Rex de Lettowe nomine Skirgalle confugerat, potenti virtute dicti Comitis maximè atque suorum capta est. Namque qui fuerunt de familia sua primi murum ascenderant & vexillum ejus super muros, cæteris vel torpentibus vel ignorantibus, posuerunt. Captaque sunt ibi vel occisa quatuor millia plebanorum, fratre Regis de Poleyn inter cæteros ibi perempto, qui aduersarius nostri fuit Obsessumque fuit castrum dictæ Ciuitatis per quinque hebdomadas: Sed propter infirmitates, quibus vexabatur exercitus magistri de Pruys & de Lifland noluerunt diutiùs expectare. Facti sunt Christiani de gente de Lettowe octo. Et magister de Lifland duxit secum in suam patriam tria millia captiuorum. The same in English. About the same time L. Henry the Earle of Derbie trauailed into Prussia, where, with the helpe of the Marshall of the same Prouince, and of a certaine king called Wytot, hee vanquished the armie of the king of Lettowe, with the captiuitie of foure Lithuanian Dukes, and the slaughter of three, besides more then three hundred of the principall common souldiers of the sayd armie which were slaine. The Citie also which is called Wil or Vilna, into the castle whereof the king of Lettow named Skirgalle fled for his sauegard, was, by the valour of the sayd Earle especially and of his followers, surprised and taken. For certaine of the chiefe men of his familie, while others were slouthfull or at least ignorant of their intent, skaling the walles, aduanced his colours thereupon. And there were taken and slaine foure thousand of the common souldiers, and amongst others was slaine the king of Poland his brother, who was our professed enemie. And the castle of the foresaid Citie was besieged for the space of fiue weekes: but by reason of the infirmities and inconueniences wherewith the whole armie was annoyed, the great masters of Prussia and of Lifland would not stay any longer. There were conuerted of the nation of Lettowe eight persons vnto the Christian faith. And the master of Lifland carried home with him into his countrey three thousand captiues. * * * * * The voyage of Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester into Prussia, in the yeere 1391. written by Thomas Walsingham. Eodem tempore dux Glouerniæ Dominus Thomas de Woodstock [Marginal note: Filius natu minimus Edwardi 3.], multis moerentibus, iter apparauit versùs le Pruys: quem non Loudinensium gemitus, non communis vulgi moeror retinere poterant, quin proficisci vellet. Nam plebs communis tàm Vrbana quàm rustica metuebant quòd eo absente aliquod nouum detrimentum succresceret, quo præsente nihil tale timebant. Siquidèm in eo spes & solatium totus patriæ reposita videbantur. Ipse verò mòx, vt fines patriæ suæ transijt, illicò aduersa agitatus fortuna, nunc hàc nunc illàc turbinibus procellosis circumfertur; & in tantum destituitur, vt de vita etiam desperaret. [Sidenote: Reditus.] Tandem post Daciam, post Norwagiam, post Scoticam barbariem non sine mortis pauore transcursam, peruenit Northumbriam, & ad castellum se contulit de Tinnemutha velut assylum antiquitus notum sibi: vbi per aliquot dies recreatus iter assumpsit versus manerium suum de Plashy, magnum apportans gaudium toti regno, tam de eius euasione, quàm de aduentu suo. The same in English. At the same time the Duke of Glocester Lord Thomas of Woodstock (the yongest sonne of Edward the third) to the great griefe of many, tooke his iourney towards Prussia: whom neither the Londoners mones nor yet the lamentation of the communaltie could restraine from his intended expedition. For the common people both of the Citie and of the countrey feared lest in his absence some newe calamitie might happen; which they feared not while he was present. For in him the whole nation seemed to repose their hope and comfort. Howbeit hauing skarce passed as yet the bounds of his owne countrey, he was immediatly by hard fortune tossed vp and downe with dangerous stormes and tempests, and was brought into such distresse, that he despaired euen of his owne life. At length, hauing not without danger of death, sailed along the coastes of Denmarke, Norway, and Scotland, he returned into Northumberland, and went to the castle of Tinmouth as vnto a place of refuge knowen of olde vnto him; where, after hee had refreshed himselfe a fewe dayes, hee tooke his iourney toward his Mannour of Plashy, bringing great ioy vnto the whole kingdome, aswell in regard of his safetie as of his returne. * * * * * The verses of Geofrey Chaucer in the knights Prologue, who liuing in the yeere 1402. [Footnote: Chaucer died 25. October, 1400, according to the inscription on his tombstone at Westminster. Urry, in his edition of Chaucer, folio, 1721, p. 534, attributes the _Epistle to Cupid_ to Thomas Occleue, Chaucer's scholar, but does not give his authority.] (as hee writeth himselfe in his Epistle of Cupide) shewed that the English Knights after the losse of Acon, were wont in his time to trauaile into Prussia and Lettowe, and other heathen lands, to aduance the Christian faith against Infidels and miscreants, and to seeke honour by feats of armes. The English Knights Prologue. [Sidenote: Long trauaile.] A Knight there was, and that a worthie man, that from the time that he first began to riden out, he loued Cheualrie, trouth, honour, freedome, and Curtesie. full worthy was he in his lords warre: and thereto had hee ridden no man farre, As well in Christendome as in Heathennesse, and euer had honour for his worthinesse. [Sidenote: Alexandria.] At Alisandre hee was, when it was wonne: full oft time hee had the bourd begon abouen all nations in Pruce, In Lettowe had hee riden, and in Ruce, no Christen man so oft of his degree: In Granade at the siege had he bee At Algezer[1]: and ridden in Belmarye: At Leyes [2] was hee, and also at Satalye,[3] when they were wonne: and in the great see at many a Noble armie had hee bee. At mortall battailes had he bin fifteene, And foughten for our faith at Tramissen,[4] in listes thries, and aye slayne his foe: This ilke worthie Knight had bin also, sometime with the lord of Palathye [5] ayenst another Heathen in Turkie. Written in the lustie moneth of May in our Palace, where many a million of louers true haue habitation, The yeere of grace ioyfull and iocond, a thousand, foure hundred and second. [Footnote 1: Algezer in Granado.] [Footnote 2: Layas in Armenia. Froysart. lib. 3. cap. 40.] [Footnote 3: Satalie in the mayne of Asia neere Rhods.] [Footnote 4: Tremisen is in Barbarie.] [Footnote 5: Or, Palice. Froysart lib. 3. cap. 40.] * * * * * The original proceedings and successe of the Northren domestical and forren trades and traffique of this Isle of Britain from the time of Nero the Emperour, who deceased in the yeere of our Lord 70. vnder the Romans, Britons, Saxons, and Danes, till the conquest: and from the conquest, vntill this present time, gathered out of the most authenticall histories and records of this nation. * * * * * A testimonie out of the fourteenth Booke of the Annales of Cornelius Tacitus, proouing London to haue bene a famous Mart Towne in the reigne of Nero the Emperour, which died in the yeere of Christ 70. At Suetonius mira constantia medios inter hostes Londinium perrexit, cognomento quidem coloniæ non insigne, sed copia negociatorum & commeatu maxime celebre. The same in English. But Suetonius with wonderfull constancie passed through the middest of his enemies, vnto London, which though it were not honoured with the name and title of a Romane Colonie, yet was it most famous for multitude of Marchants and concourse of people. * * * * * A testimome out of Venerable Beda (which died in the yeere of our Lord 734.) proouing London to haue bene a Citie of great traffike and Marchandize not long after the beginning of the Saxons reigne. Anno Domminæ incarnationis sexcentesimo quarto Augustinus Britanniarum Archiepiscopus ordinauit duos Episcopos, Mellitum videlicet & Iustum: Mellitum quidem ad prædicandum prouinciæ Orientalium Saxonum, qui Tamesi fluuio dirimuntur à Cantia & ipsi Orientali Mari contigui, quorum Metropolis Londonia Ciuitas est super ripam præfati fluminis posita & ipsa multorum emporium populorum, terra marique venientium. [Footnote: Beda Ecclesiasticæ historiæ Gentis Anglornm lib. 2. cap 3.] The same in English. In the yeere of the incarnation of Chnst 604. Augustine Archbishop of Britaine consecrated two Bishops, to wit Mellitus and Iustus. He appoynted Mellitus to preach to the East Saxons which are diuided from Kent by the riuer of Thames, and border vpon the Easterne sea, whose chiefe and Metropolitane Citie is London seated vpon the banke of the aforesaid riuer, which is also a Marte Towne of many nations, which repayre thither by sea and by land. * * * * * The league betweene Carolus Magnus and Offa King of Mercia concerning safe trade of the English Marchants in all the Emperours Dominion. This Offa died in the yeere of our Lord 795. Offa interea Carolum magnum Regem Francorum frequentibus legationibus amicum parauit: quamuis non facile quod suis artibus conduceret in Caroli animo inuenerit. Discordarunt antea, adeo vt magnis motibus vtrobique concurrentibus, etiam negociatorum commeatus prohiberentur. Est Epistola Albini huiusce rei index, cuius partem hic apponam. Nescio quid de nobis venturum sit. [Sidenote: Nauigatio interdicta.] Aliquid enim dissentionis diabolico fomento inflammante, nuper inter Regem Carolum & Regem Offam exortum est: ita vt vtrinque nauigatio interdicta negociantibus cesset. Sunt qui dicant nos pro pace in illas partes mittendos. Et nonnullis interpositis, Nunc, inquit, ex verbis Caroli foedus firmum inter eum & Offam compactum subijciam. Carolus gratia Dei Rex Francorum, & Longobardorum, & patricius Romanorum, viro venerando & fratri charissimo Offæ Regi Mercioram salutem. Primo gratias agimus omnipotenti deo, de salute animarum, de Cathocæ fidei sinceritate, quam in vestris laudabiliter paginis reperimus exaratam. De peregrinis vero qui pro amore Dei, & salute animarum suarum beatoram Apostolorum limina desiderant adire, cum pace sine omni perturbatione vadant. Sed si aliqui, non religioni seruientes, sed lucra sectantes, inueniantur inter eos, locis opportunis statuta soluant telonia. [Sidenote: Negociatorum Anglicanorum patrocinium.] Negociatores quoque volumus vt ex mandato nostro patrocinium habeant in Regno nostro legitime. Et si aliquo loco iniusta affligantur oppressione, reclament ad nos vel nostros indices, & plenam videbimus iustitiam fieri. [Footnote: Malmsbur. de gestis Regum Anglorum lib. 1. cap 4.] The same in English. In the meane season Offa by often legacies solicited Charles le maigne the king of France, to be his friend: albeit he could not easily finde king Charles any whit enclined to further and promote his craftie attempts. [Sidenote: Traffique prohibited] Their mindes were so alienated before, that bearing hauty stomacks on both parts, euen the mutuall traffique of their Marchants was prohibited. The Epistle of Albmus is a sufficient testimony of this matter part whereof I will here put downe. I know not (quoth he) what will become of vs. [Sidenote: Nauigation forbidden.] For there is of late, by the instigation of the deuill, some discord and variance sprung vp betweene king Charles and king Offa: insomuch that sailing to and fro is forbidden vnto the Marchants of both their dominions. Some say that we are to be sent, for the obtaining of a peace, into those partes. And againe, after a fewe lines. Nowe (quoth he) out of Charles his owne words, I will make report of the league concluded betweene him and Offa. [Sidenote: A league between Carol. Mag. and K. Offa.] Charles by the grace of God king of the Franks and Lombards and Senatour of the Romanes, vnto the reuerend and his most deare brother Offa king of the Mercians sendeth greeting. First we doe render vnto almightie God most humble thankes for the saluation of soules, and the sinceritie of the Catholique faith, which we, to your great commendation, haue found signified in your letters. As touching those pilgrimes, who for the loue of God and their owne soules health, are desirous to resort vnto the Churches of the holy Apostles, let them goe in peace without all disturbance. But if any be found amongst them not honouring religion, but following their owne gaine, they are to pay their ordinarie customes at places conuenient. [Sidenote: Protection of the English marchants] It is our pleasure also and commandement, that your marchants shall haue lawfull patronage and protection in our dominions. Who, if in any place they chance to be afflicted with any vniust oppression, let them make their supplication vnto vs, or vnto our Iudges, and we will see iustice executed to the full. * * * * * An ancient testimonie translated out of the olde Saxon lawes, containing among other things the aduancement of Marchants for their thrise crossing the wide seas, set downe by the learned Gentleman Master William Lambert pagina 500. of his perambulation of Kent. It was sometime in English lawes, that the people and the lawes were in reputation: and then were the wisest of the people worship worthy, euery one after his degree: Earle, and Churle, Thein, and vnder-Thein. And if a churle thriued so, that hee had fully fiue hides of his owne land, a Church and a Kitchin, a Belhouse, and a gate, a seate, and a seuerall office in the Kings hall, then was he thenceforth the Theins right worthy. And if a Thein so thriued, that he serued the king, and on his message rid in his houshold, if he then had a Thein that followed him, the which to the kings iourney fiue hides had, and in the kings seate his Lord serued, and thrise with his errand had gone to the king, he might afterward with his foreoth his lords part play at any great neede. And if a Thein did thriue so, that he became an Earle; then was he afterward an Earles right worthie. And if a Marchant so thriued, that he passed thrise ouer the wide seas, of his owne craft, he was thencefoorth a Theins right worthie. And if a scholar so prospered thorow learning that he degree had, and serued Christ, he was then afterward of dignitie and peace so much worthie, as thereunto belonged, vnlesse he forfaited so, that he the vse of his degree vse he might. * * * * * A testimonie of certaine priuiledges obtained for the English and Danish Merchants of Conradus the Emperour and Iohn the Bishop of Rome by Canutus the King of England in his iourney to Rome, extracted out of a letter of his written vnto the Cleargie of England. Sit vobis notom quia magna congregatio nobilora in ipsa solemnitate Pascali, Romæ cum Domino Papa Ioanne, & imperatore Conrado erat, scilicet omnes principes gentium a monte Gargano, vsque ad istum proximum Mare: qui omnes me & honorifice suscepere, & magnificis donis honorauere. Maxime autem ab imperatore donis varijs & muneribus pretiosis honoratus sum, tam in vasis aureis & argenteis, quam in pallijs & vestibus valde pretiosis. Locutus sum igitur cum ipso imperatore, & Domino Papa, & principibus qui ibi erant, de necessitatibus totius populi mei, tam Angli quam Dani, vt eis concederetur lex æquior, & pax securior in via Romam adeundi, & ne tot clausuris per viam arcerentur, & propter iniustum teloneum fatigarentur. Annuítque postulatis Imperator, & Rodulphus Rex, qui maxime ipsarum clausurarum dominatur, cunctique principes edictis firmarunt, vt homines mei tam Mercatores, quàm alij orandi gratia viatores, absque omni anguria clausurarum & teloneariorum, cum firma pace Romam eant & redeant. [Footnote: William of Malmsb. lib. 2. cap. 9. de gestis Regum Anglorum.] The same in English. You are to vnderstand, that at the feast of Easter, there was a great company of Nobles with Pope Iohn and Conradus the Emperour assembled at Rome, namely all the princes of the nations from mount Garganus [Footnote: Garganus a mountain of Apulia in Italy.] vnto the West Ocean sea. Who all of them honourably interteined me, and welcomed mee with rich and magnificent gifts: but especially the Emperour bestowed diuers costly presents and rewards vpon mee, both in vessels or golde and siluer, and also in cloakes and garments of great value. Wherefore I conferred with the Emperour himselfe and the Pope, and with the other Princes who were there present, concerning the necessities of all my subiects both Englishmen and Danes; that a more fauourable law & secure peace in their way to Rome might bee graunted vnto them, and that they might not bee hindered by so many stops & impediments in their iourney, and weaned by reason of iniust exactions. And the Emperour condescended vnto my request, and king Rodulphus also, who hath greatest authoritie ouer the foresaid stops and streights, and all the other princes confirmed by their Edicts, that my subiects, as well Marchants, as others who trauailed for deuotions sake, should without all hinderance and restraint of the foresaid stops and customers, goe vnto Rome in peace, and returne from thence in safetie. * * * * * The flourishing state of Marchandise in the Citie of London in the dayes of Willielmus Malmesburiensis, which died in the yeere 1142. in the reigne of K. Stephen. Haud longe a Rofa quasi viginti quinque milliarijs est Londonia Ciuitas nobilis, opima ciuium diuitijs, constipata negociatorum ex omni terra, & maxime ex Germania venientium, commercijs. Vnde fit vt cum vbique in Anglia caritas victualium pro sterili prouentu messium sit, ibi necessaria distrahantur & emantur minore, quàm alibi, vel vendentium compendio, vel ementium dispendio. Peregrinas inuehit merces Ciuitatis finibus Tamesis fluuius famosus, qui citra vrbem ad 80. milliaria fonticulo fusus, vltra plus 70. nomen profert. [Footnote: Guliel. Malmesb. de gestis pont. Anglorum lib. 2.] The same in English. Not farre from Rochester, about the distance of fiue and twenty miles, standeth the Noble Citie of London, abounding with the riches of the inhabitants, [Sidenote: Germanie] and being frequented with the traffique of Marchants resorting thither out of all nations, and especially out of Germanie. Whereupon it commeth to passe, that when any generall dearth of victuals falleth out in England, by reason of the scarcitie of corne, things necessary may there be prouided and bought with lesse gaine vnto the sellers, and with lesse hinderance and losse vnto the buyers, then in any other place of the Realme. Outlandish wares are conueighed into the same Citie by the famous riuer of Thames: which riuer springing out of a fountaine 80. miles beyond the Citie, is called by one and the selfe same name 70. miles beneath it. * * * * * The aforesaid William of Malmesburie writeth of traffike in his time to Bristowe in his fourth booke de gestis pontificum Anghorum, after this maner. In eadem valle est vicus celeberrimus Bristow nomine, in quo est nauium portus ab Hibernia & Norwegia & cæteris transmarinis terris venientium receptaculum, ne scilicet genitalibus diuitijs tam fortunata regio peregrinarum opum frauderetur commercio. The same in English. [Sidenote: Norway.] In the same valley stands the famous Towne of Bristow, [Footnote: Bristol.] with an Hauen belonging thereunto, which is a commodious and safe receptacle for all ships directing their course for the same, from Ireland, Norway, and other outlandish and foren countreys: namely that a region so fortunate and blessed with the riches that nature hath vouchsafed thereupon should not bee destitute of the wealth and commodities of other lands. * * * * * The league betweene Henry the second and Fredericke Barbarossa Emperour of Germanie, wherein is mention of friendly traffike betweene the Marchants of the Empire and England, confirmed in the yeere of our Lord 1157, recorded in the first Booke and seuenteenth Chapter of Radeuicus Canonicus Frisingensis, being an appendix to Otto Frisingensis. Ibidem tunc affuere etiam Henrici Regis Angliæ missi, varia & preciosa donaria multo lepore verborum adornata præstantes. Inter quæ papilionem vnum quantitate maximum, qualitate optimum perspeximus. Cuius si quantitatem requiris, non nisi machinis & instrumentorum genere & adminiculo leuari poterat: si qualitatem, nec materia nec opere ipsum putem aliquando ab aliquo huiusce apparatu superatum iri. Literas quoque mellito sermone plenas pariter direxerat, quarum hic tenor fuit. Præcordiali amico suo, Frederico Dei gratia Romanorum imperatori inuictissimo, Henricus Rex Angliæ, dux Normanniæ, & Aquitaniæ, & Comes Andegauensis, salutem, & veræ dilectionis concordiam. Excellentiæ vestræ quantas possumus referimus grates, dominantium optime, quod nos nuncijs vestris visitare, salutare literis, muneribus præuenire, & quod his charius amplectimur, pacis & amoris inuicem dignatus estis foedera inchoare. Exultauimus, & quodammodo animum nobis crescere, & in maius sensimus euehi dum vestra promissio, in qua nobis spem dedistis in disponendis. Regni nostri negocijs, alacriores nos reddidit, & promptiores. Exultauimus inquam, & tota mente magnificentiæ vestræ assurreximus, id vobis in sincero cordis affectu respondentes, quod quicquid ad honorem vestrum spectare nouerimus, pro posse nostro effectui mancipare parati sumus. Regnum nostrum & quicquid vbique nostræ subijcitur ditioni vobis exponimus & vestræ committimus potestati, vt ad vestrum nutum omnia disponantur, & in omnibus vestri fiat voluntas imperij. [Sidedote: Commercia inter Germanos & Anglos.] Sit igitur inter nos & populos nostros dilectionis & pacis vnitas indiuisa, commercia tuta. Ita tamen vt vobis, qui dignitate præminetis, imperandi cedat authoritas, nobis non deerit voluntas obsequendi. Et sicut vestraa Serenitatis memoriam vestrorum excitat in nobis munerum largitio, sic vos nostri quoque reminisci præoptamus, mittentes quæ pulchriora penes nos erant, & vobis magis placitura. Attendite itaque dantis affectum, non data, & eo animo quo dantur accipite. De manu beati Iacobi, super qua nobis scripsistis, in ore magistri Hereberti & Guilielmi Clerici nostri verbum posuimus. Teste Thoma Cancellario apud Northanton. The same in English. There were present also the same tune, the messengers of Henry [Footnote: The Second.] king of England presenting diuers rich and precious gifts, and that with great learning & eloquence of speech. Amongst the which we saw a pauilion, most large in quantity, & most excellent in quality. For if you desire to know the quantitie therof, it could not be erected without engines and a kinde of instruments, and maine force: if the qualitie, I thinke there was neuer any furniture of the same kinde, that surpassed the same either in stuffe or workemanship. The said king directed his letters also, full of sugred speeches, the tenour whereof was this that followeth. To his entirely beloued friend Frederick [Footnote: Son of Frederick, Duke of Suabia, was born in 1121. and succeeded his uncle Conrad III. in 1152 as Emperor of the West. As was proved by his campaigns in Italy in 1154, 1158, and 1162, and by the justice and probity of his administration, he was equally great as a soldier and as a ruler. He joined the Third Crusade in 1189, and was drowned whilst crossing a river in Asia in June, 1190. His memory is still cherished amongst the peasants of Germany, who look upon him in the same light as the Welsh on Arthur.] by the grace of God Emperour of the Romanes most inuincible, Henry king of England, duke of Normandie and Aquitaine, Earle of Anjou wisheth health and concord of sincere amitie. We doe render vnto your highnes (most renowmed and peerelesse Prince) exceeding great thanks for that you haue so graciously vouchsafed by your messengers to visite vs in your letters to salute vs, with your gifts to present vs, and (which wee doe more highly esteeme of then all the rest) to beginne a league of peace and friendship betweene vs. We reioyced, and in a maner sensibly felt our selues to bee greatly emboldened, and our courage to encrease, whilest your promise, whereby you put vs in good comfort, did make vs more cheerefull and resolute, in managing the affaires of our kingdome. We reioyced (I say) & in our secret cogitations did humble obeisance vnto your Maiestie, giuing you at this time to vnderstand from the sincere & vnfained affection of our heart, that whatsoeuer we shal know to tend vnto your honour, we are, to our power most ready to put in practise. Our kingdome, and whatsoeuer is vnder our iurisdiction we doe offer vnto you, and commit the same vnto our highnesse, that all matters may be disposed according to your direction, and that your pleasure may in all things be fulfilled. Let there be therefore betweene our selues and our subiects, an indiuisible vnitie of friendship and peace, and safe trade of Marchandize yet so, as that vnto you (who excell in dignitie) authoritie in commanding may bee ascribed, and diligence in obeying shall not want in vs. And as the liberalitie of your rewards doeth often put vs in remembrance of your Maiestie euen so in like maner sending vnto your Highnesse the most rare things in our custodie and which we thought should be most acceptable vnto you, wee doe most heartily wish that your selfe also would not altogether bee vnmindefull of vs. Haue respect therefore not vnto the gifts, but vnto the affection of the giuer, and accept of them with that minde, wherewith they are offered vnto you. Concerning the hand of S Iames, [Footnote: According to the legend, the relics of this saint were miraculously conveyed to Spain in a ship of marble from Jerusalem, where he was bishop.] about which you wrote vnto vs, we haue sent you word by M Herbert, and by William the Clerke. Witnes Thomas our Chancelour at Northanton. * * * * * A generall safe conduct graunted to all forreine Marchants by king Iohn in the [Marginal note: 1199] first yeere of his reigne, as appeareth in the Records of the Tower, Anno 1. Regis Ioannis. Ioannes Dei gratij &c. Maiori & Communitati Londinensi salutam. Sciatis voluntatem esse nostram, quod omnes Mercatores de quicunque fuerunt terra saluum habeant conductum ire & redire cum mercibus suis in Angliam. [Sidenote: Solitæ mercatorum consuetudines.] Volumus etiam quod eandem habeant pacem in Anglia, quam Mercatores de Anglia habent in terris illis vnde fuerunt egressi. Et ideo vobis præcipimus, quod hoc faciatis denunciari in Balliua vestra, & firmiter teneri; permittentes eos ire & redire sine impedimento per debitas & rectas & solitas consuetudines in Balliua vestra. Teste Galfredo filio Petri comite Essexiæ apud Kinefard 5. die Aprilis. In eadem forma scribitur vicecomiti Sudsex, Maiori & commumtati Ciuitatis Winton, Balliuo de Southampton, Balliuo de Lenne, Balliuo Kent, Vicecomiti Norffolciæ & Suffolciæ, Vicecomiti dorset & Sommerset, Baronibus de quinque portubus, Vicecomiti de Southampton sire, Vicecomiti de Herttford & Essex, Vicecomiti Cornubiæ & Deuon. The same in English. Iohn by the grace of God &c. to the Maior and communaltie of London, greeting. You are to vnderstand, that it is our pleasure, that all Marchants of what nation soeuer shall haue safe conduct to passe and repasse with their Marchandize into England. It is our will also, that they be vouchsafed the same fauour in England, which is granted vnto the English Marchants in those places from whence they come. [Sidenote: The ancient customes of Marchaunts.] And therefore we giue you in charge, that you cause this to be published, and proclaimed in your bailiwicke, & firmely to be obserued, permitting them to goe & come, without impediment, according to the due, right and ancient customes vsed in your said Bailiwucke. Witnesse Geofry Fitz-Peter Earle of Essex at Kinefard the 5. day of April. The same forme of writing was sent to the sherife of Sudsex, to the Maior and communaltie of the Citie of Winchester, to the Baily of Southampton, the Baily of Lenne, the Baily of Kent, the sherife of Norfolke and Suffolke, the sherife of Dorset and Sommerset, the Barons of the Cinque-ports, the sherife of Souththampton shire the sherife of Hertford and Essex the sherife of Cornewal and Deuon. * * * * * Literæ regis Henrici tertij ad Haquinum Regem Norwegiæ de pacis foedere & intercursu mercandisandi Anno 1 Henrici 3. [Marginal note: 1216.] Henricus Dei gratia &c. Haquino eadem gratia Regi Norwegiæ salutem. Immensas nobilitati vestræ referimus gratiarum actiones de his quæ per literas vestris prudentem virum. Abbatem de Lisa nobis significastis volentes & desiderantes foedus pacis & dilectionis libenter nobiscum inire & nobiscum confoederari. Bene autem placet & placebit nobis quod terræ nostræ comunes sint, & Mercatores & homines qui sunt de potestate vestra libere & sine impedimento terram nostrum adire possint, & homines & Mercatores nostri similiter terri vestram. Dum tamen literas vestras patentes super hoc nobis destinctis & nos vobis nostras transmittemus. Interim autem bene volumus & concedimus, quod Mercatores tam de terra vestra quàm nostra eant veniant, & recedant per terras nostras Et si quid vestræ sederit voluntati quod facere valeamus id securè nobis significetis. Detinuimus autem adhuc Abbatem prælictum, vt de naui vestra & rebus in ea contentis pro posse nostro restitutionem fieri faceremus: per quem de statu nostro & Regni nostri vos certificare curabimus & quàm citius &c. Teste me ipso apud Lamhithe decimo die Octobris. Eodem modo scribitur S. Duci Norwegiæ ibidem & eodem die. The letters of King Henry the third vnto Haquinus [Footnote: Haco IV., bastard of the able adventurer Swerro. His invasion of Scotland in 1263 forms a striking episode of medæval history.] King of Norway concerning a treatie of peace and mutuall traffique of marchandize, &c. Henry by the grace of God, &c. vnto Haquinus by the same grace King of Norway sendeth greeting. Wee render vnto your highnesse vnspeakeable thanks for those things which by your letters, and by your discreete subiect the Abbat of Lisa, you haue signified vnto vs, and also for that you are right willing and desirous to begin and to conclude betweene vs both, a league of peace and amitie. And wee for our part both nowe are, and hereafter shalbe well contented that both our lands be common to the ende that the Marchants and people of your dominions may freely and without impediment resort vnto our land, and our people and Marchants may likewise haue recourse vnto your territories. Prouided, that for the confirmation of this matter, you send vnto vs your letters patents, and wee will send ours also vnto you. Howbeit in the meane while wee doe will and freely graunt, that the Marchants both of our and your lands, may goe, come, and returne to and from both our Dominions. And if there be ought in your minde, whereby we might stand you in any stead, you may boldly signifie the same vnto vs. Wee haue as yet deteined the foresaid Abbat, that wee might, to our abilitie, cause restitution to be made for your ship, and for the things therein contained: by whome wee will certifie you of our owne estate, and of the estate of our kingdome so soone, &c, Witnesse our selfe at Lambith the tenth of October. Another letter in the same forme and to the same effect was there and then sent vnto S. Duke of Norway. Mandatum pro Coga Regis Norwegiæ Anno 13. Henrici 3. Mandatum est omnibus Balliuis portuum in quos ventura est Coga de Norwegia, in qua venerint in Angliam milites Regis Norwegiæ & Mercatores Saxoniæ, quod cum prædictam Cogam in portus suos venire contigerit, saluò permittant ipsam Cogam in portubus suis morari, quamdiu necesse habuerit, & libere sine impedimento inde recedere quando voluerint. Teste Rege. The same in English. A Mandate for the King of Norway his Ship called the Cog. Wee will and commaund all bailifes of Portes, at the which the Cog of Norway (wherein certaine of the king of Norwaie his souldiers, and certaine Marchants of Saxonie are comming for England) shall touch, that, when the foresaid Cog shall chance to arriue at any of their Hauens, they doe permit the said Cog safely to remaine in their said Hauens so long as neede shall require, and without impediment also freely to depart thence, whensoeuer the gouernours Of the sayd ship shall thinke it expedient. Witnesse the King. * * * * * Carta pro Mercatoribus de Colonia anno 20. Henrici 3. Confirmata per Regem Edwardum primum 8. Iulij Anno Regni 18. prout extat in rotulo cartarum de Anno 18. Regis Edwardi primi. Rex Archiepiscopis &c. salutem. Sciatis nos quietos clamasse pro nobis & hæredibus nostris dilectos nostros, Ciues de Colonia, & mercandisam suam de illis duobus solidis, [Marginal note: Antiqua consuetudo Gildhallæ Coloniensium Londini.] quos solebant dare de Gildhalia sua London, & de omnibus alijs consuetudinibus & demandis, quæ pertinent ad nos in London, & per totam terram nostram; & quod liberè possunt ire ad ferias, per totam terram nostram & emere & vendere in villa London & alibi, salua libertate Ciuitatis nostræ London. Quare volumus & firmiter præcipimus pro nobis & hæredibus nostris quod prædicti ciues de Colonia prænommatas libertates & libera consuetudines habeant per totam terram nostram Angliæ sicut prædictum est. His testibus, venerabili patre Waltero Caerleoiensi Episcopo, Wilhelmo de Ferarijs, Gilberto Basset, Waltero de Bello campo, Hugone Disspenser, Waltero Marescallo, Galfrido Dispenser, Bartholomæo Pech, Bartholomæo de Saukeuill, & alijs. Data per manum venerabilis patris Radulphi Cicistronsis Episcopi, Cancellarij nostri apud Dauintre Octauo die Nouembris, Anno Regni nostri vicesimo. The same in English. A Charter graunted for the behalfe of the Marchants of Colen [Footnote: Cologne.] in the twentieth yeere of Henry the third, confirmed by King Edward the first, as it is extant in the roule of Charters, in the eighteenth yeere of King Edward the first. The King vnto Archbishops &c. greeting. [Sidenote: The ancient custome of the Coloners Gildhall in London.] Be it knowen vnto you, that wee haue quite claimed, and for vs and our heires released our welbeloued the Citizens of Colen and their marchandize, from the payment of those two shillings which they were wont to pay out of their Gildhall at London and from all other customes and demaunds, which perteine vnto vs, either in London, or in any other place of our Dominions and that they may safely resort vnto Fayers throughout our whole Kingdome, and buy and sell in the Citie of London. Wherefore we will and firmely command for vs and our heires, that the forenamed Marchants of Colen may enioy the liberties and free priuiledges aboue-mentioned, throughout our whole kingdome of England as is aforesaid. Witnesses, the reuerend father Walter Bishop of Carlil, William de Ferarijs, Gilbert Basset, Walter de Beauchamp Hugh Disspenser, Walter Marescal, Geofrie Disspensser. Bartholomew Peach, Bartholomew de Saukeuill and others. Giuen by the hand of the reuerend father Ralph Bishop of Chichester and our Chauncellour at Dauintre, the eight day of Nouember in the twentieth yeere of our reigne. * * * * * Carta Lubecensibus ad septennium concessa. Anno 41. Henrici 3. [Sidenote: Carta conditionalis] Henricus dei gracia Rex Angliæ dominus Hiberniæ, dux Normaniæ, Aquitaniæ, & Comes Andegauiæ, omnibus Balliuis suis salutem. [Sidenote: Ricardus Comes Cornubiaæ Rex Romanorum.] Sciatis nos ad instantiam dilecti & fidelis fratris nostri Ricardi Comitis Cornubiæ in Regum Romanorum electi, suscepisse in protectionem & defensionem nostram & saluum & securum conductum nostrum Burgenses de Lubek in Alemania cum omnibus rebus & mercandisis quas in Regnum nostrum deferent, vel facient deferri. Et eis concessimus, quod de omnibus rebus & mercandisis suis nihil capiatur ad opus nostrum vel alterius contra voluntatem eorundem; sed libere vendant & negocientur inde in Regno prædicto, prout sibi viderint expedire. Et ideo vobis mandamus, quod dictis Burgensibus vel eorum nuncijs in veniendo in terram nostram cum rebus & mercandisis suis ibidem morando, & inde recedendo, nullum inferatis, aut ab alijs inferri permittatis impedimentum aut grauamen. Nec eos contra quietantiam prædictam vexetis, aut ab alijs vexari permittatis. In cuius rei testimonium has literas nostras fiera fecimus patentes per septennium durantes: Dum tamen ijdem Burgenses interim bene & fideliter se habuerint erga præfatum electum fratrem nostrum. Teste meipso apud Westmonasterium vndecimo die Maij Anno Regni nostri quadragesimo primo. Hæc litera duplicata est, pro Burgensibus & mercatoribus Dacis, Brunswig, & Lubek. The same in English. The charter of Lubek granted for seuen yeeres, obtained in the one and fortieth yeere of Henry the third. Henry by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandie and Aquitaine, and Earle of Anjou, to all his Bailifs sendeth greeting. Know ye that at the instant request of our welbeloued and trusty brother Richard Earle of Cornewal being of late elected king of the Romanes, we haue receiued vnder our protection and defence, and vnder our safe and secure conduct, the citizens of Lubek in Alemain, with all their goods and wares, which they shall bring or cause to be brought into our kingdome. We haue also granted vnto them, that of all their goods and merchandize, nothing shal be seized vnto the vse of our selues, or of any other without their owne consent, but that they may freely sell and exercise traffike therewith according as they shall thinke expedient. And therefore we straightly command you, that neither your selues do offer, nor that you permit any other to offer any impediment or moletstation vnto the said Burgers or vnto their messengers, either at their comming into our land, with their goods and marchandize, in the time of their abode there, or at their departure from thence, and that yee neither molest them your selues, nor yet suffer them by others to be molested, contrary to the aforesaid Charter. In testimonie whereof, we haue caused these our Letters to be made Patents, during the space of seuen yeeres next following. Prouided, that the sayd Burghers doe in the meane time behaue themselues well and faithfully towards our foresaid elected brother. Witnesse our selues at Westminster the eleuenth day of March, [Footnote: _Sic_ in Hakluyt. It should be _May_.] in the one and fortieth yeere of our reigne. * * * * * This Letter was doubled, namely for the Burghers, and the Marchants of Denmarke, of Brunswig, and of Lubecke. Carta pro Mercatoribus Alemanniæ, qui habent domum in London, quæ Gildhalla Teutonicorum vulgariter nuncupatur. Anno 44. Henrici tertij, & Anno primo & 29. Edwardi primi renouata & confirmata. Ad instantiam Serenissimi principis Richardi Romanorum Regis charissimi fratris nostri concedimus mercatonbus Alemanniæ, illis videlicet qui habent domum in Ciuitate nostra London, quæ Gildhalla Teutonicorum vulganter nuncupatur, quod eos vniuersos manutenebimus per totum Regnum nostrum in omnibus ijsdem libertatibus & liberis consuetudinibus, quibus ipsi nostris & [Marginal note: Nota antiquitatem.] progenitorum nostrorum temporibus vsi sunt & gauisi. Ipsosque extra huiusmodi libertates & liberas consuetudines non trahemus, nec trahi aliquatenus permittemus. In cuius rei testimonium has literas nostras fieri fecimus patentes. The same in English A charter for the Marchants of Almaine, who haue an house at London commonly called [Marginal note: The Stiliard.] the Guild hall of the Dutch, graunted in the 44. yeere of Henry the third, renued and confirmed in the 1. & 29. yeere of Edward the first. At the instant request of the most gracious Prince Richard king of the Romanes our most deare brother, wee doe graunt vnto the Marchants of Alemain (namely vnto those that haue an house in our citie of London, commonly called the Guildhall of the Dutch Merchants) that we will, throughout our whole Realme, maintaine all and euery of them, in all those liberties and free customes, which both in our times, and in the times of our progenitors, they haue vsed and enioyed. [Sidenote: Note the antiquity.] Neither will we inforce them beyond these liberties and free customes, nor in any wise permit them to be inforced. In witnesse whereof, wee haue caused these our letters to be made patents. * * * * * Mandatum regis Edwardi primi de mercatoribus alienigenis. Mercatores extranei vendant mercimonia sua in ciuitate London &c. infra quadraginta dies post ingressum suum, anno 3. Edwardi primi. The same in English. A mandate of king Edward the first concerning outlandish marchants. We will and command that outlandish marchants doe sel their wares in the citie of London &c. within forty dayes of their ariuall. * * * * * The great Charter granted vnto forreine marchants by king Edward the first, in the 31. yeare of his reigne commonly called Carta mercatoria, Anno Domini 1303. Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Dommus Hiberniæ dux Aquitaniæ, Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Prioribus, Comitibus, Baronibus, Iustitiarijs, Vicecomitibus, præpositis, ministris, & omnibus balliuis & fidelibus suis salutem. Circa bonum statum omnium mercatorum subscriptorum regnorum, terrarum, & prouinciarum, videlicet Alemanniæ, Franciæ, Hispaniæ, Portugalliæ, Nauarræ, Lombardiæ, Thusciæ, Prouinciæ, Cataloniæ, ducatus nostri Aquitaniæ, Tholosaniæ, Caturluni, Flandriæ, Brabantiæ, & omnium aliarum terrarum & locorum extraneorum, quocunque nomine censeantur, venientium in regnum nostrum Angliæ & ibidem conuersantium nos præcipua cura sollicitat, qualiter sub nostro dominio tranquillitatis & plenæ securitatis immunitas eisdem mercatoribus futuris temporibus præparetur. Vt itaque vota ipsorum reddantur ad nostra & regni nostri seruitia promptiora, ipsorum petitionibus fauorabiliter annuentes, & pro statu eorundem plenius assecurando, in forma quæ sequitur ordinantes, pro nobis & hæredibus nostris in perpetuum subscripta dictis mercatoribus duximus concedenda. 1. In primis videlicet quod omnes mercatores dictorum regnorum & terrarum saluè & secure sub tuitione & protectione nostra in dictum regnum nostrum Angliæ, & vbique infra potestatem nostram alibi veniant cum mercandisis suis quibuscunque de muragio, pontagio & pannagio liberi & quieti. Quodque infra idem regnum & potestatem nostram in ciuitatibus, burgis, & villis mercatorijs possunt mercari duntaxat in grosso tam cum indigenis seu incolis eiusdem regni & potestatis nostræ prædictæ, quàm cum alienigenis, extraneis, vel priuatis. Ita tamen quod merces, quæ vulgariter merceriæ vocantur, ac species, minutatim vendi possint, prout antea fieri consueuit. [Sidenote: Exceptio contra notorios regni hostes.] Et quod omnes prædicti mercatores mercandisas suas, quas ipsos ad prædictum regnum & potestatem nostram adducere, seu infra idem regnum & potestatem nostram emere, vel aliàs acquirere contingerit, possint quo voluerint tam infra regnum & potestatem nostram prædictam, quàm extra ducere vel portare facere, præterquam ad terras manifestorum & notoriorum hostium regni nostri, soluendo consuetudines quas debebunt: vinis duntaxat exceptis, quæ de codem regno seu potestate nostra, postquam infra idem regnum seu potestatem nostram ducta fuerint, sine voluntate & licentia specili non liceat eis educere quoquo modo. 2. Item quod prædicti mercatores in ciuitatibus, burgis, & villis prædictis pro voluntate sua hospitari valeant, & morari cum bonis suis ad gratiam ipsorum, quorum sunt hospitia siue domus. 3. Item quod quilibet contractus per ipsos mercatores cum quibuscunque personis vndecunque fuerint super quocunque genere mercandisæ initus, firmus sit & stabilis, ita quod neuter mercatorum ab illo contractu possit recedere, vel resilire, postquam denarius Dei inter principales personas contrahentes datus fuerit & receptus. Et si forsan super contractu euismodi contentio oriatur fiat inde probatio aut inquisitio secundum vsus & consuetudines feriarum & villarum, vbi dictum contractum fieri contigerit & iniri. 4. Item promittimus præfatis mercatoribus pro nobis & hæredibus nostris in perpetuum concedentes, quod nullam prisam vel arrestationem, seu dilationem occasione prisæ de cætero de mercimonijs mercandisis seu alijs bonis suis per nos vel alium seu alios pro aliqua necessitate vel casu contra voluntatem ipsorum mercatorum aliquatenus faciemus, aut fieri patiemur, nisi statim soluto precio pro quo ipsi mercatores alijs eiusmodi mercimonia vendere possint, vel eis aliter satisfacto, ita quod reputent se contentos: Et quod super mercimonia, mercandisas, seu bona ipsorum per nos vel ministros nostros nulla appreciatio aut estimatio imponetur. [Sidenote: Lex mercatoria.] 5. Item volumus quod omnes balliui & ministri feriarum, ciuitatum, burgorum, & villarum mercatoriarum mercatoribus antedictis conquerentibus coram ijs celerem iustitiam faciant de die in diem sine dilatione secundum legem mercatoriam, de vniuersis & singulis quæ per eandem legem poterunt terminari. Et si forte inueniatur defectus in aliquo balliuorum vel ministrorum prædictorum, vnde ijdem mercatores vel eorum aliquis dilationis incommoda sustinuerint vel sustineant, licet mercator versus partem in principali recuperauerit damna sua, nihilominus balliuus vel minister alius versus nos, prout delictum exigit puniatur. Et punitionem istam concedimus in fauorem mercatorum prædictorum pro corum iustitia maturanda. 6. Item quod in omnibus generibus placitorum, saluo casu criminis pro quo infligenda est poena mortis, vbi mercator implacitatus fuerit, vel alium implacitauent, cuiuscunque conditionis idem implacitatus extiterit, extraneus vel priuatus, in nundinis, ciuitatibus, siue Burgis, vbi fuerit sufficiens copia mercatorum prædictarum terrarum, & inquisitio fieri debeat, sit medietas inquisitionis de eijsdem mercatoribus, & medietas altera de probis & legalibus hominibus loci illius vbi placitum illud esse contigent. Et si de mercatoribus dictaram terrarum numerus non inuenientur sufficiens, ponentur in inquisitione illi qui idonei inuenientur ibidem, & residij sint de alijs bonis hominibus & idoneis de locis in quibus placitum illud erit. 7. Item volumus, ordinamus, & statuimus, quod in qualibet villa mercatoria & feria regni nostri prædicti & alibi infra potestatem nostram pondus nostrum in certo loco ponatur & ante ponderationem statera in presentia emptoris & venditoris vacua videatur & quòd brachia sint equalia & ex tunc ponderator ponderet in æquali. Et cum stateram posuerit in æquali statim amoueat manus suas, ita quod remaneat in æquali; quodque per totum regnum & potestatem nostram sit vnum pondus & vna mensura: & signo standardi nostri signentur: Et quod quilibet possit habere stateram vnius quaternionis, & infra, vbi contra domini loci, aut libertatem per nos & antecessores nostros concessam illud non fuerit, siue contra villarum & feriarum consuetudinem hactenus obseruatam. 8. Item volumus & concedimus, quod aliquis certus homo fidelis & discretus Londini residens assignetur iustitiarius mercatoribus memoratis, coram quo valeant specialiter placitare, & debita sua recuperare celeriter, si Vicecomites & Maiores eis non facerent de die in diem celeris iustitiæ complementum: Et inde fiat Commissio extra Cartam præsentem concessa mercatoribus antedictis: [Sidenote: Lex mercatoria quæ?] scilicet de his quæ sunt inter mercatores & mercatores secundum legem mercatoriam deducenda. [Sidenote: Antiquæ Costumæ.] 9. Item ordinamus & statuimus, & ordinationem illam statutúmque pro nobis & hæredibtis nostris in perpetuum volumus firmiter obseruari, quòd pro quacunque libertate, quam nos vel hæredes nostri de cætero concedemus, præfati mercatores supradictas libertates vel earum aliquam non amittant. Pro prædictis autem libertatibus & liberis consuetudinibus obtinendis, & prisis nostris remittendis ijdem supradicti mercatores vniuersi & singuli pro se & omnibus alijs de partibus suis nobis concorditer & vnanimiter concesserunt, quòd de quolibet dolio vini, quod adducent vel adduci facient infra regnum & potestatem nostram, & vnde marinarijs fretum soluere tenebuntur, soluent nobis & hæredibus nostris nomine Custumæ duos solidos vltra antiquas custumas debitas & in denarijs solui consuetas nobis, aut alias infra quadraginta dies, postquam extra naues ad terram posita fuerint dicta vina. Item de quolibet sacco lanarum, quem dicti mercatores, aut alij nomine ipsorum ement & è regno educent, aut emi & educi facient, soluent quadraginta denarios de incremento vltra custumam antiquam dimidiæ marcæ, quæ prius fuerat persoluta pro lasta coriorum extra regnum & potestatem nostram vehendorum dimidiam marcam supra id quòd ex antiqua custuma ante soluebatur. Et similiter de trecentis pellibus lanitis extra regnum & potestatem nostram ducendis quadraginta denarios vltra certum illud, quod de antiqua custuma fuerat prius datum. Item duos solidos de quolibet scarlato & panno tincto in grano. Item decem & octo denarios de quolibet panno, in quo pars grani fuerit intermixta. Item duodecem denarios de quolibet panno alio sine grano. Item duodecem denarios de qualibet æris quintalla. 10. Cumque de præfatis mercatoribus nonnuli eorum alias excicere soleant mercandisas, vt de Aucrio ponderis, & de alijs rebus subtilibus, sicut de pannis Tarsensibus, de serico, & cindallis, de seta & alijs diuersis mercibus, & de equis etiam & alijs animalibus, blado & alijs rebus & mercandisis multimodis, quæ ad certam custumam facile poni non poterunt, ijdem mercatores concesserunt dare nobis & hæredibus nostris de qualibet libra argenti estimationis seu valoris rerum & mercandisaram huiusmodi, quocunque nomine censeantur; tres denarios de libra in introitu rerum & mercandisaram ipsarum in regnum & potestatem nostram prædictam infra viginti dies postquam huiusmodi res & mercandisæ in regnum & potestatem nostram adductæ & etiam ibidem exoneratæ seu venditæ fuerint. Et similiter tres denarios de qualibet libra argenti in eductione quarumcunque rerum & mercandisaram huiusmodi emptarum in regno & potestate nostris prædictis vltra custumas nobis aut alijs ante datas. Et super valore & estimatione rerum & mercandisarum huiusmodi de quibus tres denarij de qualibet libra argenti sicut prædicitur sunt soluendi, credatur eis per literas, quas de Dominis aut socijs suis ostendere poterunt: Et si literas non habeant stetur in hac parte prædictorum mercatorum, si præsentes fuerint, vel valetorum suorum in eorandem mercatorum absentia, iuramentis. 11. Liceat insuper socijs de societate prædictorum mercatorum infra regnum & potestatem nostram prædictas, lanas vendere alijs suis socijs, & similiter emere ab ijsdem absque custuma soluenda. Ita tamen quod dictæ lattæ ad tales manus non deueniant, quòd de custuma nobis debita defraudemur. Et præterea est sciendum, quòd postquam supradicti mercatores semel in vno loco infra regnum & potestatem nostram custumam nobis concessam superius pro mercandisis suis in forma soluerint supradicta, & suum habeant inde warantum, siue huiusmodi mercandisæ infra regnum & potestatem nostram remaneant, siue exterius deferantur, (exceptis vinis, quæ de regno & potestate, nostris prædictis sine volnntate & licentia nostra sicut prædictum est nullatenus educantur:) Volumus, ac pro nobis, ac hæredibus nostris concedimus, quòd nulla exactio, prisa, vel præstatio, aut aliquod onus super personas mercatorum prædictorum, mercandisas seu bona eorundem altquatenus imponatur contra formam expressam superius & concessam. His testibus veracibus principalibus, Roberto Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliæ primate, Waltero Couentriæ & Lichfildiæ episcopo, Henrico de Lacy Lincolniense, Humfredo de Bohum comite Herfordiense, & Essexiæ & Constabulo magno Angliæ, Adomaro de Valentia, Galfrido de Gaymal, Hugone de Lespensor,[Footnote: _Sic_.] Waltero de Bello campo, senescallo hospitij nostri, Roberto de Burijs, & alijs. Datum per manum nostram apud Windesore, primo die Februarij, anno regni nostri xxxj. The aforesaid generall Charter in English. Edward by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Aquitaine, to Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earles, Barons, Iustices, Vicounts, gouernours, officers, and all bayliffes, and his faithfull people sendeth greeting. Wee haue speciall care for the good estate of all marchants of the kingdomes, lands, and countries following: to wit of Almaine, France, Spaine, Portugal, Nauarre, Lombardie, Florence, Prouence, Catalonia, of our duchie of Aquitaine, Tholosa, Caturlune, [Footnote: Catalonia] Flanders, Brabant, and of all other forreine countreis and places by what name soeuer they be called, which come into our kingdome of England, and there remayne, that the sayd marchants may liue in quiet and full securitie vnder our dominion in time to come. Wherefore that their hearts desires may bee more readily inclined to our seruice and the seruice of our kingdome, wee fauourably agreeing to their petitions, for the fuller assuring of their estate, haue thought good to graunt to the sayd merchants for vs and our heires for euer these priuiledges vnder written, ordaining in forme as followeth. 1. First, that all marchants of the sayd kingdomes and countreys may come into our kingdome of England, and any where else into our dominion with their marchandises whatsoeuer safely and securely vnder our defence and protection without paying wharfage, pontage, or pannage. And that in Cities, Boroughs, and market townes of the sayd kingdome and dominion they may traffique onely by the great [Footnote: Wholesale.] as well with the naturall subiects and inhabitantes of our aforesayde kingdome and dominion, as with forreiners, straungers, or priuate persons. Yet so that marchandises which are commonly called mercerie wares, and spices, may be sold by the small, [Footnote: Retail.] as heretofore hath bin accustomed. [Sidenote: An exception for traficking with the known enemies of the kingdome.] And that all the aforesaid marchants may cary or cause to be caried whither they will, aswell within our realme or dominion, as out of the same; sauing vnto the countreis of the manifest and knowne enemies of our kingdome, those marchandises which they shall bring into our foresayd realme and dominion or buy or otherwise purchase in our sayd realme and dominion paying such customes as they ought to doe: except onely wines, which it shall not be any wayes lawfull for them to cary out of our sayd realme and dominion without our speciall fauour and licence, after they be once brought into our realme and dominion. 2. Item that the aforesayd marchants may at their pleasure lodge & remaine with their goods in the cities, boroughs, and townes aforesaid, with the good liking of those which are owners of their lodgings. 3. Item that euery bargaine made by the said marchants with any maner of persons, of what places soeuer they be for any kind of marchadise whatsoeuer, shalbe firme & stable so that none of both the marchants shall shrinke or giue backe from that bargaine, after that the earnest penie be once giuen and taken betweene the principall bargayners. And if peraduenture any strife arise about the same bargaine, the triall and inquirie thereof shall be made according to the vses and customes of the fayres and townes where it chanced that the said bargaine was made and contracted. 4. Item, we promise the aforesaid marchants granting for euer for vs and our heires, that from hence foorth we will not in any wise make nor cause to be made any stay or arrest, or any delay by reason of arrest of their wares, marchandises or other goods, by our selues, or by any other or others for any neede or accident against the will of the sayd marchants, without present payment of such a price as the marchants would haue sold those marchandises for to other men, or without making of them other satisfaction, so that they shall hold themselues well contented and that no price or valuation shalbe set vpon their wares, marchandises, & goods by vs or by any officer of ours. 5. Item, we will that all bayliffes and officers of fayres, cities, boroughs, and market townes shall doe speedie iustice from day to day without delay accgrdmg to the lawe of Marchants to the aforesayd marchants when they shall complaine before them, touching all and singuler causes, which may be determined by the same law. [Sidenote: Where is this law now become?] And if default be found in any of the bayliffes or officers aforesayd, whereby the sayd marchants or any of them haue sustained, or do sustaine any damage through delay, though the marchant recouer his losses against the partie principall, yet the bayliffe or other officer shall be punished to vs ward, according to the qualitie of the default. And wee doe grant this punishment in fauour of the aforesayd marchants in regard of the hastening of their iustice. 6. Item, that in al maner of pleas, sauing in case where punishment of death is to be inflicted, where a marchant is vnpleaded, or sueth another, of what condition soeuer hee bee which is sued, whether stranger or home borne, in fayres, cities, or boroughs, where sufficient numbers of marchants of the foresayd countreis are, and where the triall ought to bee made, let the one halfe of the Iurie be of the sayd marchants, and the other halfe of good and lawfull men of the place wheie the suite shall fall out to bee: and if sufficient number of marchants of the sayd countries cannot bee found, those which shall be found fit in that place shall be put vpon the Iurie, and the rest shall be chosen of good and fit men of the places where such suit shall chance to be. 7. Item we will, we ordaine, and wee appoint, that in euery market towne and fayre of our realme aforesayd and elsewhere within our dominion our weight shall bee set in some certaine place, and that before the weighing the balance shall bee seene emptie in the presence of the buyer and of the seller, and that the skales bee equall: and that afterward the weigher weigh in the equall balance. And when hee hath set the balances euen, let him straightway remooue his hands, so that the balance may remayne euen: And that throughout all our kingdome and dominion there be one weight and one measure, and that they be marked with the marke of our standard. And that euery man may haue a weight of one quarter of an hundred, and vnder, where the same hath not bin contrary to the liberty of the lord of the place, and contrary to the libertie granted by vs and our predecessors, or contrary to the custome of townes and fayres which hath hitherto beene obserued. 8. Item we will and we grant that some certaine faythfull and discreete man resident in London be appointed to doe Iustice to the aforesayd marchants, before whome they may haue their sutes decided, and may speedilie recouer their debts, if the Shiriffes and Maior should not from day to day giue them speedy iustice. And hereof let a Commission be made: which we grant vnto the aforesaid marchants besides this present Charter: to wit of such things as betweene marchant and marchant are to be decided according to the lawe of marchants. 9. Item we ordayne and appoynt, and wee will that this ordinance and statute shall firmely bee obserued for euer for vs and our heires, that the aforesayd marchants shal not loose the aforesayd liberties nor any of them, for any libertie whatsoeuer, which wee or our heires hereafter shall grant. And for the obtayning of the aforesayd liberties and free customes, and for remission of our arresting of their goods the aforesayd marchants all and euery of them for themsetues and all other of their parties with one accorde and one consent hane granted vnto vs, that of euery tunne of wine, which they shall bring or cause to be brought into our realme and dominion, for which they shall bee bound to pay freight vnto the mariners, besides the olde customes which are due and were woont to bee payd vnto vs, they will pay vnto vs and to our heires in the name of a custome two shillings in money, either out of hande, or else within fortie dayes after the sayd wines shall bee brought on land out of the shippes. Item for euery sacke of wooll, which the sayd marchants or others in their name shall buy and carie out of the realme, or cause to bee brought and caried out, they will pay forty pence aboue the old custome of halfe a marke, which was payed heretofore: And for a last of hides to bee caryed out of our realme and dominion halfe a marke aboue that which heretofore was payed by the olde custome. And likewise for three hundreth Felles with the wooll on them to bee transported out of our realme and dominion fortie pence, aboue that certaine rate which before was payed by the olde custome: Also two shillings vpon euery scarlate and euery cloth died in graine. Item eighteene pence for euery cloth wherein any kind of graine is mingled. Item twelue pence vpon euery cloth dyed without graine. Item twelue pence vpon euerie quintall of copper. And whereas sundrie of the aforesayd marchants are woont to exercise other marchandises, as of Hauer de pois, and other fine wares, as sarcenets, lawnes, cindalles, and silke, and diuers other marchandlses, and to sell horses and other beastes, corne, and sundrie other things and marchandlses, which cannot easily bee reduced vnto a certaine custome: the sayd marchants haue granted to giue vnto vs, and to our heires of euery pound of siluer of the estemation and value of these kinde of goods and marchandises, by what name soeuer they be called, three pence in the pound in the bringing in of these goods into our realme and dominion aforesaid, within twentie dayes after these goods and marchandlses shall be brought into our realme and dominion, and shall be there vnladen and solde. And likewise three pence vpon euery pound of siluer in the carying out of any such goods and marchandises which are bought in our realme and dominion aforesayd aboue the customes beforetime payd vnto vs or any of our progenitors. And touching the value and estimation of these goods and marchandises, whereof three pence of euery pound of siluer, as is aforesayd, is to be payd, credite shalbe giuen vnto them vpon the letters which they are able to shewe from their masters or parteners. And if they haue no letters in this behalfe, we will stand to the othe of the foresayd marchants if they bee present, or in their absence to the othes of their seruants. Moreouer, it shall be lawfull for such as be of the company of the aforesayd marchants within our realme and dominion aforesayd, to sell woolles to other of their company, and likewise to buy of them without paying of custome. Yet so, that the said wools come not to such hands, that wee be defrauded of the custome due vnto vs. And furthermore it is to be vnderstood, that after that the aforesaid marchants haue once payed in one place within our realme and dominion, the custome aboue granted vnto vs in forme aforesayd for their marchandises, & haue their warrant therof, whether these marchandises remayne within our kingdome or be caried out (excepting wines, which in no wise shalbe caried forth of our realme and dominion aforesayd without our fauour & licence as is aforesayd) we wil and we grant for vs and our heires, that no execution, attachment or loane, or any other burthen be layd vpon the persons of the aforesayd marchants, vpon their marchandises or goods in any case contrary to the forme before mentioned and granted. The faithfull & principall witnesses of these presents are these Robert Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, Walter bishop of Couetrey and Lichfield, Henry Lacie of Lincolne, Humfrey de Bohume, Earle of Herford and Essex high Constable of England, Adomare of Valentia, Geofrey of Gaymal, Hugh Spenser, Walter Beauchampe Seneschall of our house, Robert of Bures, and others. Giuen by our owne hand at Windesore the first day of February, in the yere of our reigne xxxi. * * * * * De mercatoribus Angliæ in Norwegia arestatis, & eorum mercimonijs de arrestandis literæ Edwardi secundi anno sexto regni sui, Haquino regi Norwegiæ. Magnifico principi domino Haquino Dei gratia regi Norwegiæ illustri amico suo charissimo Edwardus eadem Dei gratia rex Angliæ, Dom. Hiberniæ, & dux Aquitaniæ salutem cum dilectione sincera. Miramur non modicum & in intimis conturbamur de grauaminibus & oppressionibus quæ subditis nostris infra regnum vestrum causa negociandi venientibus his diebus plus solito absque causa rationabili, sicut ex graui querela didicimus, inferuntur. Nuper siquidem Willihelmus filius Laurentij de Waynfleete, Simon filius Alani de eadem, Guido filius Mathei & eorum socij mercatores nostri nobis conquerendo monstrarunt, quod cum ipsi quosdam homines & seruientes suos cum tribus nauibus suis ad partes regni vestri, ad negotiandum ibidem transmisissent: [Sidenote: Villa de Tonnesbergh.] & naues illæ in portu villæ vestræ de Tonnesbergh halece & alijs bonis diuersis vsque ad magnam summam oneratæ fuissent Et licet nautis nauium prædictarum hominibusque & sermentibus prædictis à regno vestro liberè cum nauibus & bonis prædictis ad partes Angliæ redeundi vestras fieri feceritis de conductu, postmodùm tamen antequam naues illæ propter venti contrarietatem portum prædictum exire potuerunt, quidam balliui vestri naues prædictas cum hominibus & bonis omnibus tunc existentibus in eisdem, occasione mortis cuiusdam militis nuper balliui vestri in Vikia per malefactores & piratas, dum naues prædictæ in portu supradicto sicut præmittitur remanserunt supra mare vt dicitur interfecti, de mandato vestro vt dicebant arrestarunt, & diu sub aresto huiusmodi detinebant, quousque videlicet homines & marinarij prædicti de quadraginta libris sterlingorum certo die statuto ad opus vestrum pro qualibet naui prædictarum soluendis inuiti & coacti securitatem inuenissent: Et similiter de eisdem nauibus cum hominibus prædictis infra portum prædictum citra festum natiuitatis Sancti Ioannis Baptistæ proximo futuro ad standum tunc ibidem de personis & nauibus suis vestræ gratiæ seu voluntatis arbirio reducendis tres obsides vlterius liberassent: quod ipsis valde graue censetur & auditu mirabile auribus audientium non immerito reputatur. Et quia contra rationem & æquitatem, omnemque iustitiam fore dinoscitur, atque legem, quòd delinquentium culpæ seu demerita in personis vel rebus illorum qui criminis rei conscij vel participes, seu de huiusmodi delinquentium societate non fuerunt, aliqualiter vlciscantur, vestram amicitiam affectuose requirimus & rogamus quatenus præmissa diligenti meditatione zelo iustitiæ ponderantes, obsides prædictos iubere velitis ab hostagiamento huiusmodi liberari, dictamque securitatem relaxari penitus & resolui. Scientes pro certo, quod si malefactores prædicti, qui dictum militem vestrum vt dicitur, occiderunt, alicubi infra regnum seu potestatem nostram poterunt inueniri, de ipsis iustitiam & iudicium secundum legem & consuetudinem eiusdem regni fieri faciemus. Non enim possumus his diebus æequanimiter tolerare quod naues prædictæ seu aliæ de regno nostro, quæ semper promptæ ad nostrum seruitium esse debent, extra idem regnum ad partes remotas se diuertant sine nostra licentia speciali. Quid autem ad hanc nostram instantiam faciendum decreueritis in præmissis, nobis si placeat rescribatis per præsentium portatorem. Datæ apud Windesore decimo sexto die Aprilis. The same in English. The letters of Edward the second vnto Haquinus king of Norway, concerning the English marchants arrested in Norway, and their goods to be freed from arrest. To the mighty Prince, lord Haquinus, by the grace of God the famous king of Norway his most deare friend Edward by the same grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland duke of Aquitaine, greeting and sincere loue. We maruell not a little, and are much disquieted in our cogitations, considering the greeuances and oppressions which (as wee haue beene informed by pitifull complaints) are at this present more than in times past without any reasonable cause inflicted vpon our subiects, which doe vsually resort vnto your kingdome for traffiques sake. For of late one William the sonne of Laurence of Wainfleete, and one Simon the sonne of Alan of the same towne, and Guido the sonne of Mathew and their associates our marchants, in complayning wise declared vnto vs: [Sidenote: The towne of Tonesbergh.] that hauing sent certaine of their factors and seruants, with three shippes into your dominions, there to exercise traffique, and the sayd ships being laden in the hauen of your towne of Tonnesbergh, with Herrings and other commodities to a great value: and also the said mariners, men, and seruants of the foresayd shippes, being licenced by vertue of the safe conduct which you had granted them, freely to returne from your kingdome vnto the parts of England with their ships and goods aforesayd, but afterward not being able to depart out of your hauen by reason of contrary windes: certaine of your bayliffes vpon occasion of the slaughter of a knight being himselfe also of late your bayliffe of Vikia, committed by malefactors and Pirates vpon the sea, whilest the sayd shippes remained in the hauen aforesayd, did at yoar commandement (as they say) arrest, and for a long season also deteined vnder that arrest, the foresaid ships, with all the men and goods that were in them: namely vntill such time, as the men and mariners aforesaide (beeing driuen perforce, and constrained thereunto) should lay in sufficient securitie for the payment of fortie pounds sterling, vpon a certain day appointed, vnto your vse for euery of the foresaide ships and: also vntill they had moreouer deliuered three pledges, for the bringing of the saide ships and men backe againe into the foresaid hauen, before the feast of the natiuitie of S. Iohn the Baptist next ensuing, then and there to stand vnto your fauour and curtesie, as touching the said persons, and those ships of theirs: which dealing, the parties themselues take very grieuously, yea, and all others that heare thereof thinke it to be a strange and vnwonted course. And because it is most vndoubtedly contrary to all reason, equitie, iustice, and lawe, that the faults or demerits of offenders should in any sort be punished in such persons, or in their goods, as neither haue bene accessory nor partakers in the crime, nor haue had any society with the saide offenders: we doe heartily intreat and request your Highnes, that weighing and pondering the matter in the balance of iustice, you would of your loue and friendship, command the foresaid pledges to be set at libertie, and the said securitie vtterly to bee released and acquited. And know you this for a certaintie, that if the foresaide malefactors, who (as it is reported) slewe your Knight aforesaide shall any where within our realme and dominions be found, we wil cause iustice and iudgement to bee executed vpon them, according to the Lawe and custome of our sayde Realme. For we cannot in these times conueniently and well indure, that the ships aforesaide, or any other ships of our kingdome (which ought alwayes to be in a readinesse for our seruice) should without speciall licence, depart out of our saide kingdome, vnto forreine dominions. Nowe, what you shall think good at this our request to performe in the premisses, may it please you by the bearer of these presents to returne an answere vnto vs. Geuen at Windsore the 16. of April. * * * * * Another Letter of Edward the second, to Haquinus King of Norway, in the behalfe of certaine English Marchants Magnifico Principi Dom Haquino Dei gratia regi Norwegiæ illustri, amico suo charissimo, Edwardus eadem Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, dominus Hyberniæ, & dux Aquitaniæ, salutem cum dilectione sincera. [Sidenote: Northbernæ villa.] Querelam dilectorum Mercatorum nostrorum Thomæ de Swyn de Waynfleete, & Simonis filij Alani de eadem recepimus, continentem, Quod cùm ipsi nuper quosdam seruientes suos infrà regnum vestrum pro suis ibidem exercendis mercimonijs transmisissent, Thesaurarius vester bona & mercimonia prædictorum Thomæ & Simonis ad valenciam quadraginta librarum, quæ seruientes prædicti in villa de Northberne in sua custodia habuerunt, die Sancti Michælis vltimò præterita fecit absque causa rationabili arestari, & ea adhuc taliter arestata detinet iniustè, in ipsorum Thomæ & Simonis damnum non modicum & depauperationem manifestam. Et quia eisdem mercatoribus nostris subuenire volumus, quatenus suadente iustitia poterimus in hac parte, vestram amicitiam requirimus cum affectu, quatenus audita querela prædictorum Thomæ & Simonis, vel ipsorum atturnatorum super restitutione bonorum & mercimoniorum prædictorum impendere velitis eisdem celeris iustitiæ complementum: Ita quod pro defectu exhibitionis iustitiæ super arestatione prædicta non oporteat nos pro mercatoribus nostris prædictis de alio remedio prouidere. Nobis autem quid ad hanc nostram instantiam duxeritis faciendum, rescribere velitis per præsentium portitorem. Datæ vt supra. The same in English. To the mightie Prince Lord Haquinus, by the grace of God the famous King of Norway, his most deare friend Edward by the same grace of God king of England, Lorde of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, greeting and sincere loue. Wee receiued the complaint of our welbeloued Merchants Thomas de Swyn of Waynfleet, and Simon the sonne of Alanus of the same towne: the contents whereof are, that whereas of late, the saide parties sent certaine of their seruants to traffike in your kingdome, your Treasurer vpon the feast of S. Michæl last past, without any iust or reasonable occasion, caused the goods and merchandise of the foresaide Thomas and Simon, to the value of fortie pound, which their said seruants had vnder their custodie at the towne of Northberne, to be arrested, and as yet also iniurously deteineth the same vnder the same arrest, to the great damage and impouereshing of the sayd Thomas and Simon. And forasmuch as our desire is to succour these our marchants so far foorth as we can, Iustice requiring no lesse in this behalfe, we doe right earnestly request you, that hauing hearde the complaint and supplication of the foresayde Thomas and Simon, or of their Atturneyes, you woulde of your loue and friendship, vouchsafe them speedie administration of Iustice, about the restitution of their goods and marchandise aforesaide: least that for want of the exhibiting of Iustice about the foresaid arrest, we be constrained to prouide some other remedie for our marchants aforesaid. Our request is, that you would by the bearer of these presents, returne an answere vnto vs, what you are determined to doe, at this our instant motion. Giuen as aboue. * * * * * A third letter of King Edward the second, to Haquinus King of Norway in the behalfe of certaine English Marchants. Magnifico Principi Domino Haquino Dei gratia Regi Norwegiæ illustri, amico suo charissimo, Edwardus eadem Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, dominus Hyberniæ, & dux Aquitaniæ, salutem cum dilectione sincera. Pro mercatoribus nostris Lennæ, & partium vicinarum, quos Balliuus & Officiarij vestri ciuitatis vestræ Bergen dudum ceperunt, & stricto carceri manciparunt, quorum multi vt iam intelleximus, propter alimentorum subtractionem & duritiam, ac asperitatem carceris perierunt, vt ipsorum & bonorum suorum deliberationem præcipere curaretis, vestræ serenitati Regiæ nostras nuper transmisimus literas speciales. Sed vos, retentis adhuc in carcere nostris mercatoribus sicut prius, nobis per literas vestras quas audiuimus & intelleximus diligenter, inter cætera rescripsistis, quod quidam mercatores de regno vestro de iniurijs, violentijs & arrestationibus, quibus in regno nostro his diebus sunt vt asserunt, contra iustitiam aggrauati, multipliciter conqueruntur, adijciendo in vestris literis memoratis, quod quidam iniquitatis filij in villa Lennæ, ad piscandum vt dicebant halecia venientes quendam militem Balliuum vestrum, in Vikia vnà cum decem alijs subditis vestris, in vestris & regni vestri negotijs existentibus crudeliter occiderunt. Super quibus mens nostra grauatur quàmplurimum & turbatur, præsertim quum nunquam nostræ fuerit voluntatis, quod iniuriæ, violentiæ, seu arrestationes aliquæ mercatoribus, vel alijs de regno vestro per aliquos de regno & potestate nostris fierent indebitè vel iniustè: nec adhuc intelligere possumus, quod mercatoribus vestris per aliquem vel aliquos de subditis nostris huc vsque aliter factum fuerit: Scientes pro certo quod si nobis per inquisitiones legitimas constare poterit huiusmodi grauamina subditis vestris infra regnum nostrum illata fuisse, nos sufficientes emendas, & satisfactiones debitas super illis, celerísque iustitiæ complementum fieri faciemus. Et insuper si malefactores prædicti, qui præfatum militem, & alios secum existentes, vt præmittitur, occiderunt, de regnò, seu potestate nostra sint, vel infrà idem regnum vel potestatem poterunt inueniri, de ipsis iudicium & iustitiam fieri pracipiemus, secundum Leges & consuetudines regni nostri. [Sidenote: Antiquitas comercij inter Angliam & Norwegiam.] Et quia inter nos & vos, nostrósque & vestros subditos hinc inde foueri desideramus mutuam concordiam & amorem; ita quod mercatores nostri & vestri mercandisas suas in nostris & vestris regnis & dominijs liberè, & absque impedimento valeant exercere, prout temporibus progenitorum nostrorum fieri consueuit, & ex dictarum literarum vestrarum serie collegimus euidenter vos promptos esse similiter, & paratos ad omnia & singula, quæ pro vobis & vestris subditis super discordijs, contentionibus, aut grauaminibus inter nostros & vestros subditos qualitercunque suscitatis pro bono pacis & iustitiæ fuerint æquanimiter facienda; Nos consimilia pro nobis & nostris, quantum ad nos & ad ipsos attinet, illius amore, qui pacis author fore dinoscitur, & pro quiete & commodo populi vtriusque regnorum nostrorum, quatenus ius & ratio dictitauerint, promittimus nos factoros: Vestram amicitiam requirentes obnixius & rogantes, quatenus mercatores nostros prædictos, qui adhuc superstites relinquuntur, quos etiam tempore, quo dicta felonia committi dicebatur, interclusos tenebat custodia carceralis, iubere velitis nostri contemplatione, zelóque iustitiæ ab huiusmodi custodia liberari, bona ab ipsis capta eis prout iustum fuerit restitui faciendo. Et vt deliberatio mercatorum nostrorum prædictorum, & bonorum suorum eò facilius concedatur, placeat vobis cum diligentia debita ponderare, quod Galfridus Drewe, & quidam alijs mercatores nostri de Lenne, quibusdam mercatoribus de regno vestro occasione eiusdem grauaminis ipsis mercatoribus vestris, ad sectam Tidemanni Lippe infrà regnum nostrum, vt dicebatur, illati, centum libras sterlingorum persoluerunt, sicut in quodam scripto indentato inter Ingelramum Lende de Thorenden, & quosdam alios mercatores vestros ex parte vna, & præfatam Galfridum, & quosdam alios de regno nostro similiter ex altera confecto, vidimus contineri. Si qui verò de subditis vestris de aliquibus subditis nostris, de aliqua iniuria ipsis facta querelas in curia nostra deponere voluerint, & prosequi cum effectu, ipsorum subditorum vestrorum petitiones admitti, & eis super querelis huiusmodi plenam & celerem iustitia fieri faciemus. Ita quod ijdem subditi vestri exinde reputare debebunt meritò se contentos. Et interim de excessibus & grauaminibus subditis vestris infrà regnum nostrum qualitercunque illatis inquiri faciemus cum diligentia veritatem. Vestræ igitur voluntatis beneplacitum in præmissis nobis rescribere velitis per præsentium portitorem. Datas apud Westminster tertio die Aprilis. The same in English. To the mightie Prince king Haquinus, by the grace of God the famous king of Norway, his most deare friend Edward by the same grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, greeting and sincere loue. We sent of late vnto your royall maiestie our special letters, for the behalfe of our late marchants of Lenne, and of the coast adioyning (whome your baily and officers of the citie of Bergen lately apprehended, committing them to close prison, many of whome, as we vnderstand, are, for want of due nourishment, and by reason of the extremitie & loathsomnesse of the prison, quite perished) that you would cause them and their goods to bee released. Howbeit, you reteining as yet our marchants in durance as before, in your letters, which we haue diligently heard, and throughly vnderstood, haue, amongst other matters, returned this answere vnto vs, that certaine marchants of your kingdome doe make sundrie complaints of iniuries, violences and arrests, whereby they haue lately (as themselues auouch) contrary to iustice bene aggrieued and oppressed in our dominions adding moreouer in your sayde letters, that certaine sonnes of iniquitie of the towne of Lenne, comming, as they saide, to fish for herings cruelly murthered a certaine Knight, who was in times past your bayliffe of Vikia, together with ten others of your subiects, being imployed about the affaires of your kingdome. In consideration whereof our minde is exceedingly and aboue measure grieued and troubled, especially sithence it as neuer any part of our intent, that any iniuries, violences, or arrests should vniustly be inflicted vpon any marchants, or any others of your realme by any of our kingdomes: neither can we as yet haue any intelligence, that any such hard measure hath bene offered vnto any of your marchants, by any one or moe of our subiects: giuing you for a certaintie to vnderstand, that if vpon lawfull inquisition we shal be aduertised of any such grieuances, which haue bene offered vnto your subiects within our realme, we will cause speedie iustice to be administred, and sufficient recompence, and due satisfaction to be made in regarde thereof. And moreouer, if the saide malefactors, which, as it is aforesaid, slewe the forenamed Knight, and others of his companie, either be appertaining vnto our kingdome and dominion, or may at any time be found within our saide kingdome or dominion, we will command iustice and lodgement to be executed vpon them according to the lawes and customes of our realme. And forasmuch as our desire is, that mutuall concord and amitie should be mainteined and cherished between your and our subiects on both parts: so that our and your marchants may, in both our Realmes and dominions, freely and without impediment exercise their traffique, as in the times of our progenitors it hath bene accustomed; [Sidenode: The antiquity of traffique betweene England and Norway] Whereas also we euidently gathered out of the contents of your letter, that you are in like sort readie and willing to put all things in practise, which are by you and your subiects (for the taking away of discords, contentions, and molestations howsoeuer occasioned, and sprung vp betweene your and our subiects) louingly to be performed: we also doe promise for our selues and our subiects so much as in vs and them lieth for his sake who is knowen to be the author of peace, and for the benefite & tranquilitie of both our Realmes (as iustice and reason shall moue vs) to doe the like. Desiring and earnestly requesting at your hands, that of your loue and friendship, hauing regard of vs, and consideration of iustice, you would commaund that our foresaide marchants, who as yet remaine aliue, and who also at the time of the saide felonie committed, were shut vp in close prison, be deliuered out of the saide thraldome, causing their goods which haue bene taken from them, to bee, according vnto iustice, restored to them again. And that the deliuerie of our foresaide marchants and goods, may be the more easily yeelded vnto, may it please you with diligent obseruation to consider, that Gefferey Drew, and certaine other of our marchants of Lenne, vpon occasion of the greiuances offered vnto your marchants within our Realme, (as the report goeth) at the suite of Tidman Lippe, paide vnto the same your marchants an hundreth pound sterling: euen as in a certain Indenture made betweene Ingelram Lende of Thorenden, and some other of your marchants on the one part, and betweene the foresaide Geffrey, and certaine of our marchants on the other part, wee sawe conteined. Moreouer, if any of your subiects be minded to exhibite, and effectually to prosecute their complaints in our Court, concerning any of our subiects, or of any iniury done vnto them, we will cause the petitions of those your subiects to be admitted, and also full and speedie iustice to be administred, vpon any such like complaints of theirs. Insomuch, that those your subiects shal thinke themselues right well and sufficiently contented therewithall. And in the meane space we will cause diligent inquisition of the trueth to be made, of all excesses and grieuances howsoeuer offered vnto your subiects within our dominions. May it please you therfore, by the bearer of these presents, to returne an answere vnto vs, what you are determined to doe in the premisses. Giuen at Westminster, the third day of April. * * * * * De Stapula tenenda in certo loco ordinatio, Anno 13. Edwardi secundi. Rex collectoribus custumæ lanarum & pellium lanutarum in portu London salutem. Cùm nos vicesimo die Maij anno regni nostri sexto attendentes damna & grauamina, quæ mercatoribus de regno nostro diuersimode euenerunt, ex eo quod mercatores tam indigenæ quàm alienigenæ lanas & pelles lanutas infra regnum & potestatem nostram ementes, & se cum eisdem lanis & pellibus ad vendendum eas ad diuersa loca infra terras Brabantiæ, Flandriæ, & de Artoys eorum libito voluntatis transtulerint: [Sidenote: Maior & Communitas stapulæ.] & volentes etiam huiusmodi damnis & grauaminibus quatenus bono modo possemus prouidere, de consilio nostro ordinauerimus, quod mercatores indigenæ & alienigenæ lanas & pelles huiusmodi infrà regnum & potestatem prædictam ementes, & ad terras prædictas ibidem vendendas ducere volentes, lanas illas & pelles ad certam stapulam infrà aliquam earundem terrarum, per Maiorem & Communitatem eorundem mercatorum, de regno nostro ordinandam assignari, ac prout & quando expedire viderint mutandum, & non ad alia loca in terris illis ducant, seu duci faciant vllo modo: & inter cætera concesserimus mercatoribus de regno nostro supradicto pro nobis & hæredibus nostris, quòd ipsi Maior & consilium dictorum mercatorum, qui pro tempore fuerint, quibuscunque mercatoribus indigenis seu alienigenis, qui contra dictam ordinationem venerint, & modo rationabili conuicti fuerint, certas pecuniæ summas pro delictis illis imponant, & quòd illæ huiusmodi summæ de bonis & mercimonijs mercatorum sic delinquentium, vbicunque ea infra regnum & potestatem prædictam inueniri contigerit, per ministros nostros ad opus nostrum leuentur: prout in Charta nostra inde confecta plenius continetur: [Sidenote: Charta anno regni sexio confecta.] quam quidem Chartam per singulos comitatus regni nostri super costeras maris fecimus publicari, & firmiter inhiberi, ne qui mercatores indigenæ seu alienigenæ contra tenorem Chartæ prædictæ sub poenis contentis in eadem venerint vllo modo: Ac postmodum dato nobis intelligi, quod quàmplures mercatores tam indigenæ quàm alienigenæ, lanas & pelles lanutas infrà regnum & potestatem prædictas ementes, & se cum eisdem lanis & pellibus ad vendendum eas ad alia loca in dictis terris, quàm ad Stapulam iuxta concessionem nostram prædictam per Maiorem & communitatem dictorum mercatorum de regno nostro in aliqua terrarum illarum ordinatam & assignatam transtulerint in nostri contemptum, & contra Chartam ordinationis, publicationis & inhibitionis prædictarum assignauerimus quosdam fideles nostros in diuersis partibus regni ad inquirendum de lanis & pellibus lanutis ad dictas terras alibi quàm ad Stapulam illam ductis, ita quod emendæ inde ad nos pertinentes, ad opus nostram leuentur; etiam intellexerimus, quod quasi omnes mercatores tam indigenæ quàm alienigenæ huiusmodi mercimonia in dicto regno nostro exercentes sunt culpabiles de præmissis: & quod plures inde indictati, ac alij timentes inde indictari, lanas suas ac pelles lanutas sub nominibus aliorum non culpabilium faciunt aduocari, & extra regnum nostrum transmitti quibusdam alienigenis, sic culpabilibus in dictum regnum forsitan non reuersuris, vt sic forisfacturas prædictas effugiant, & nos de emenda ad nos sic pertinente illudant: quæ si permitterentur sic transire in nostri damnum non modicum redundarent. Nos volentes huiusmodi fraudibus obuiare, & nostris damnis quatenus bono modo poterimus præcauere, vobis præcipimus firmiter iniungentes, quod à singulis mercatoribus lanas seu pelles lanutas per portum prædictum ad partes exteras ducere volentibus corporale sacramentum ad sancta Dei Euangelia recipiatis, quod ipsi lanas seu pelles lanutas sub nomine ipsius, cuius propriæ sunt, & non alterius aduocabunt, & tunc recepta ab illo cuius lanæ & pelles huiusmodi erunt, vel nomine suo sufficiente securitate pro qua respondere volueritis, de respondendo & faciendo nobis id quod ad nos pertinet de lanis & pellibus lanutis per ipsum ductis seu missis ad aliquam dictarum terrarum Flandriæ & Brabantiæ, & de Artoys contra formam Chartæ, proclamationis, & inhibitionis supradictarum, si ipsum super hoc conuinci contingat, lanas & pelles illas lanutas extra portum prædictum, recepta prius custuma debita de eisdem, ad partes exteras transire pemittatis. Teste Rege apud Doueram decimo octauo die Iunij, per ipsum Regem & Consilium. Et postmodùm per breue de priuato sigillo eodem modo mandatum est collectoribus custumæ prædicts in portubus subscriptis: Videlicet, In portu villæ Southhampton. In portu villæ Weymouth. In portu villæ Sancti Botolphi. In portu villæ de Kingtone super Hull. In portu villæ de nouo Castro. In portu villæ de magna Iernemutha. In portu villæ de Lenne. In portu villæ de Gypwico. The same in English. An Ordinance of the Staple to bee holden at one certaine place. The King vnto his Collectors of custome, for wooll and woollen fels, in his port of London, greeting. Whereas we vpon the 20. of May, in the sixt yeere of our reigne, considering the damages and grieuances that haue diuersly happened vnto the marchants of our realme, vpon occasion that the marchants both of our owne, & of other countreis, buying vp wooll and woollen fels within our kingdome and dominions, haue, for the better sale thereof, at their pleasure conueyed theselues, and trasported the said wooll & fels into sundry places within the prouinces of Brabant, Flanders and Artoys: and being desirous also, to our power, to prouide a remedie against such damages and inconueniences, haue ordained by our counsel, that all marchants, both homeborne and aliens, buying vp such wools and fels, within our kingdome and dominion aforesaid, and being desirous to transport them into the foresaid prouinces, there to bee solde, may carrie the saide wools and fels, or cause them to be caried to some certaine staple, within any of the saide Prouinces, by the Maior and Communaltie of the said marchants of our realme, to be appointed and assigned, and when they shall thinke it expedient, to be changed and remoued, and not vnto any other place within the saide Prouinces whatsoeuer: and whereas also, amongst other things, we haue granted vnto the marchants of our foresaid realme, for vs and our heires, that the Maior and Councel of the saide marchants for the time being, may impose vpon all marchants, home-borne or aliens whatsoeuer, that shall transgresse the foresaid ordination, and shall thereof lawfully be conuicted, certaine summes of money to be paid for their offences, and that such summes must by our ministers and officers, to our vse, be leuied out of the goods and wares of the marchants so offending, wheresoeuer they shall chance to be found within our kingdome and dominions aforesaid, [Sidenote: A Charter made in the sixt yeere of his reigne.] as in our Charter made for the same purpose it is more plainly expressed, (which Charter we haue caused to be published vpon the Sea-coasts, throughout all the countreys of our realme, and a strong prohibition to be proclaimed, that no marchants, neither home-borne, nor strangers, may in any wise transgresse the tenour of the foresaide Charter, vnder the penalties therein contained) and whereas afterward it beeing giuen vs to vnderstand, that diuers marchants both homeborne and aliens, bought vp such woolles and woollen felles within our saide Realme and dominions, and conueyed themselues with the saide wools and felles for the sale thereof vnto other places within the foresaide Prouinces, besides the saide Staple, which was, according to our graunt aforesaide appointed and ordained by the Maior and communaltie of the said marchants of our Realme, in some one of those Prouinces, to the contempt of our authoritie, and contrary to the Charter of the ordination, publication, and inhibition aforesaide, wee assigned certaine of our faithfull subiects, in diuers parts of our Realme, to make inquisition for such wools and woollen felles, as were conueyed vnto any other place of the saide Prouinces, then vnto the Staple, so that by these meanes, the penalties due vnto vs might bee leuied vnto our vse: and hauing intelligence also, that in a maner all marchants both home-borne, and strangers bartering such wares in our kingdome, are culpable of the premisses, and that many being indicted thereupon, and others fearing to bee indicted, doe cause their wools and woollen felles to bee auouched vnder the names of persons not culpable, and to be sent ouer vnto certaine strangers being also culpable, and not minding perhaps to return any more into our realme, that they may so escape the foresaid forfeitures, and defraud vs of the penaltie, appertaining of right vnto vs, (which abuses, if they were suffered so to goe vnpunished woulde redound vnto our extreame hinderance:) and beeing likewise desirous to withstand such deceitefull dealing, and so farre forth as wee can, to preuent our owne losses, we firmely command, and streightly charge you, that you doe receiue of euery particular marchant, desirous to conuey any wools, or woollen fels out of the foresaid port, into any forrein dominions, a corporal oath vpon Gods holy Euangelists that they shall auouch all those wools and woollen fels vnder his name vnto whom they doe properly belong, & vnder the name of none other: and then taking sufficient security from the owner of those wools and fels, or in his name, in regard whereof you wil vndertake to warrantize, and make good vnto vs those penalties and forfaitures which shal vnto vs appertaine, for all wools, and woollen fels conueied or sent by any of the foresaid merchants vnto any of the said prouinces of Flanders, Brabant, and Artoys, contrary to the Charter of the Proclamation and inhibition aboue mentioned (if they shal chance to be conuinced hereof) that first, our due custome being receiued, you doe permit the said wools and woollen fels to passe out of the foresaid port into forrein countnes. Witnes the king at Douer the 18. day of Iune. By the king himselfe and his Councell. And afterwarde by a Writte vnder the Kings priuie Seale there was a like commandement giuen vnto the Collectors of the custome aforesayde in the portes vnderwritten. That is to say: In the port of the Towne of: Weymouth. Southhampton. Saint Botulphs towne, now called Boston. Kingtone vpon Hull. Newcastle. Iernemouth magna, or Yermouth. Lenne. Gypwick or Ipswich. * * * * * Carta Henrici quarti Anno [Marginal note: 1404] quinto regni sui concessa mercatoribus Angliæ in partibus Prussiæ, Daciæ, Norwegiæ, Swethiæ, & Germaniæ, de gubernatore inter ipsos ibidem constituendo. Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ & Franciæ & Dominus Hiberniæ omnibus, ad quos præsentes literæ peruenerint, salutem Sciatis quod cum, vt accepimus, ob defectum boni & sani regiminis & gubernationis, diuersa damna, dissensiones, grauamina, & angustiæ inter mercatores Regni nostri Angliæ in partibus Pruciæ, Daciæ, Noruegiæ, Hansæ, & Suethiæ commorantes sæpius ante hæc tempora mota fuissent & perpetrata, ac maiora, exinde, quod absit, futuris temporibus verisimiliter euenire formidantur, nisi pro meliori gubernatione inter eosdem mercatores mutuò habenda manus nostras adiutrices apponamus: Nos damnis & periculis in hac parte imminentibus præcauere, & eosdem Mercatores & alios de dicto regno nostro ad partes prædictas venturos iuste & fideliter regi & pertractari intime desiderantes, volumus & tenore præsentium concedimus eisdem mercatoribus, quod ipsi quoties & quando eis placuerit in quodam loco competenti & honesto, vbi sibi placuerit, se congregare & vnire, & certas personas sufficientes & idoneas in gubernatores suos in eisdem partibus inter se ad eorum libitum eligere & obtinere valeant libere & impune: Dantes vlterius & concedentes huiusmodi gubernatoribus per prædictos Mercatores sic eligendis, quantum in nobis est, potestatem & authoritatem speciales, omnes & singulos mercatores Anglicos ad partes prædictas de cætero venientes & declinantes per se vel sufficientes loca sua tenentes regendi & gubernandi, ac eis & eorum cuilibet in suis causis & querelis quibuscunque inter eos in partibus prædictis motis vel mouendis plenam & celerem iusticiam faciendi & quascunque quæstiones contentiones, discordias, & debatas inter ipsos mercatores Anglicos partium prædictarum motas sue mouendas reformandi, reformationemque petendi, redigendi, sedandi, & pacificandi, & quascunque transgressiones, damna, mesprisiones, excessus, violencias, & iniurias mercatoribus partium prædictarum per prædictos mercatores Anglicos factas seu faciendas redigendi, reparandi, restaurandi, & emendandi, consimilesque restitutiones, reparationes, restaurationes & emandationes de ipsis mercatoribus partium prædictarum seu deputatis suis requirendi, petendi, & recipiendi: Ac de communi assensu mercatorum Anglicorum prædictorum statuta, ordinationes, & consuetudines, prout pro meliori gubernatione status eorundem mercatorum Anglicorum in hac parte videbitur expedire, faciendi & stabiliendi & omnes & singulos mercatores Anglicos præfatis gubernatoribus sic eligendis vel eorum loca tenentibus seu eorum alicui, aut alicui statutorum, ordinationum & consuetudinum prædictarum contrarios, rebelles, vel inobedientes iuxta quantitatem delicti sui in hac parte rationabiliter puniendi. Volentes insuper omnia iusta & rationabilia statuta, ordinationes & consuetudines per dictos gubernatores sic eligendos in forma prædicta facienda & stabilienda, nec non omnes iustas & rationabiles ordinationones per [Marginal note: Nota.] nuper gubernatores prædictorum mercatorum Anglicorum de communi assensu eorundem mercatorum pro huiusmodi gubernatione sua in partibus prædictis iuxta priuilegia & authoritates sibi per magistrum. Pruciæ seu alios dominos partium prædictarum concessa, factas & stabilitas, sen per prædictos gubernatores nunc vt præmittitur eligendos iuxta priuilegia prædicta, seu alia priuilegia eisdem mercatoribus Anglicis per prædictos magistrum & dominos in posterum concedenda, facienda & stabilienda, rata, firma & accepta haberi, & pro ratis firmis, & acceptis ibidem fimiter & inuiolabiter obseruari. Damus autem vniuersis & singulis mercatoribus Anghcis prædictis tenere præsentium firmiter in mandatis, quod eisdem gubernatonbus sic eligendis & eorum loca tenentibus in præmissis omnibus & singulis ac alijs gubernationem & regimen in hac parte qualitercunque concernentibus intendentes sint, consulentes obedientes & auxiliantes prout decet. Data in palatio nostro Westmonasterij sub magni sigili nostri testimomo sexto die Iunij Anno regni nostri quinto. A Charter of King Henry the fourth graunted in the fift yeere of his reigne to the English Marchants resident in the partes of Prussia, Denmarke, Norway, Sweden, and Germanie for the chusing of gouernours among themselues. Henry by the grace of God king of England and of France, and lord of Ireland to all to whom these present letters may come, sendeth greeting. Know ye, that whereas, according as we are informed, through want of good and discreete rule and gouernement, sundry damages, strifes, oppressions, and wrongs oftentimes heretofore haue bene moued and committed among the Marchants of our kingdome of England remaining in the parties of Prussia, Denmarke, Norway, the Hans steeds and Sweden, and greater hereafter, which God forbid, are feared to be like to fall out, vnlesse we put to our helping hands for the procuring of better gouernement to be maintained among the said Marchants: wee heartily desiring to preuent the perrils and dangers which are like to fall out in this case, and that the sayde Marchants and others which shall trauaile out of our said Realme into the partes aforesaid may iustly and faithfully be ruled and intreated, we will and graunt by the tenour of these presents to the said Marchants, that they may freely and without danger assemble and meete together as often and whensoeuer they please in some conuenient and honest place where they shall thinke good, and that they may choose among themselues certaine sufficient and fit persons for their gouernours in those parts at their good liking. And furthermore we giue and graunt to the said Gouernours which are in such sort to be chosen by the aforesaid Marchants, as much as in vs lieth, speciall power and authoritie to rule and gouerne all and singular the English Marchants which hereafter shall come or repayre to the parts aforesaid by themselues or their sufficient Deputies, and to minister vnto them and euery of them in their causes and quarels whatsoeuer, which are sprung vp, or shall hereafter fall out among them in the parts aforesaid full and speedie iustice, and to reforme all maner of questions, contentious discords, and debates moued or to be moued betweene the English Marchants remayning in those parts, and to seeke reformation, to redresse, appease, and compound the same. And further to redresse, restore, repayre and satisfie all transgressions, damages, misprisions, outrages, violences, and iniuries done or to be done by the aforesaid English Marchants against the Marchants of those parts: And to require, demaund and receiue the like restitutions, reparations, satisfactions and amends of the Marchants of those parts or of their deputies. And by the common consent of the aforesaid English Marchants to make and establish statutes, ordinances, and customes, as shall seeme expedient in that behalfe for the better gouernement of the state of the said English Marchants: and to punish with reason according to the quantitie of their fault in that behalfe all and singular the English Marchants which shall withstand, resist or disobey the aforesaid gouernours so to be chosen or their deputies, or any of them: or any of the aforesaid statutes, ordinances, or customes. Moreouer we doe ratifie, confirme, and approoue, and as ratified, confirmed, and approoued, wee command firmely and inuiolably there to be obserued all iust, and reasonable statutes, ordinances, and customes which shalbe made and established by the said gouernors, so to be chosen, in forme aforesaid, and also all iust and reasonable ordinances made & established by the late gouernours of the aforesaid English Marchants with the common consent of the sayd Marchants for this their gouernement in the parts aforesayd, according to the priuileges and authorities now granted vnto them by the Master of Prussia, or other Lords of the partes aforesayd, or which shall be made and established by the aforesayd gouernours now as is mentioned to be chosen according to the aforesaid priuileges heretofore graunted, or other priuileges hereafter to bee granted to the sayde English Marchants by the aforesayde Master and lords of the Countrey. And furthermore by the tenor of these presents we straitely commaund all and singular the aforesaid English Marchants, that they attend, aduise, obey and assist, as it becommeth them, the sayde gouernours so to bee chosen, and their deputies in all and singular the premisses and other things, which any way may concerne in this behalfe their rule and gouernement. Giuen in our Palace at Westminster vnder the testimonie of our great Seale the sixt day of Iune in the fift yeere of our reigne. * * * * * A note touching the mighty Ships of King Henry the fift, mentioned hereafter in the treatie of keeping the sea, taken out of a Chronicle in the Trinitie Church of Winchester. Eodem anno quo victoria potitus est videlicet Anno Domini 1415. & regni sui Anno tertio, post bellum de Agencourt, conducti a Francis venerunt cum multis Nauibus recuperaturi Harfletum. Sed Rex Angliæ misit fratrem suum Iohannem Ducem Bedfordiæ & Andegauiæ, qui pugnauit cum eis & vicit, & Naues cepit, & quasdam submersit: cæteri fugerunt cum Hispanis nauibus qui venerant cum eis Anno gratiæ 1416. Sequenti vero Anno redierunt potentiores, & iterum deuicti perpetuam pacem cum Rege composuerunt, & propter eorum naues fecit Rex fieri naues quales non erant in mundo. De his sic conductis a Francis ita metricè scribitur. [Sidenote: Naues maximæ Henrici quinti.] Regum belligero trito celeberrimus aruo Gallos, Hispanos, Ianos, deuicit, & Vrget, Vastat; turbantur cætera regna metu. Nauali bello bis deuicti quoque Iani. * * * * * A branch of a Statute made in the eight yeere of Henry the sixt, for the trade to Norwey, Sweueland, Denmarke, and Fynmarke. Item because that the kings most deare Vncle, the king of Denmarke, Norway and Sueueland, as the same our soueraigne Lord the king of his intimation hath vnderstood, considering the manifold & great losses, perils, hurts and damage which haue late happened as well to him and his, as to other foraines and strangers, and also friends and speciall subiects of our said soueraigne Lord the king of his realme of England, by the going in, entring & passage of such forain & strange persons into his realme of Norwey & other dominions, streits, territories, iurisdictions & places subdued and subiect to him, specially into his Isles of Fynmarke, and elsewhere, aswell in their persons as their things and goods: for eschuing of such losses, perils, hurts & damages, and that such like (which God forbid) should not hereafter happen: our said soueraigne Lord the king hath ordeined and statuted, that all and singular strangers, as well Englishmen and others willing to apply by Ship and come into his realme of Norwey and other dominions, straights, territories, iurisdictions, Isles & places aforesaid with their ships to the intent to get or haue fish or any other Marchandises, or goods, shall apply and come to his Towne of Northberne, where the said king of Denmarke hath specially ordained and stablished his staple for the concourses of strangers and specially of Englishmen, to the exercise of such Marchandises granting to the said Englishmen that they shall there inioy in and by all things the same fauour, priuileges and prerogatiues which they of the Hans did enioy. Therefore our said soueraigne Lord the king willing the loue, affinitie and amities to be firmely obserued, which betwixt his said Vncle and his noble progenitors of good memory, their Realmes, lands, dominions, streites, territories, iurisdictions and their said places, and the same our soueraigne Lord the king & his noble progenitours of famous memory, his great men, subiects, Realmes, lands & dominions hath bene of old times hitherto continued nor nothing by our said soueraigne Lord the king or his people to be attempted or done whereby such amities by reason of any dissensions, enemities or discords might be broken: by the aduise of the Lords spintuall & temporall & of the comons of his said Realme of England, assembled in this present Parliament, hath ordained, prohibiting that none of his liege people nor subiects of his Realme of England by audacitie of their follie presume to enter the Realmes, lands, dominions, straits, terntones, iurisdictions & places of the said king of Denmarke against the ordinance, prohibition & interdiction of the same his Vncle aboue remembred, & in contempt of the same, vpon paine of forfeiture of all their moueable goods & imprisonment of their persons at the kings will. * * * * * Another branch of a statute made in the tenth yeere of the reigne of Henry the sixt concerning the state of the English Marchants in the dominions of the king of Denmarke. Item because that our soueraigne Lord the king at the grieuous complaint to him made in this Parliament by the commons of his realme of England being in this Parliament is informed that many of his faithfull liege people be greatly impouerished, vndone, & in point to be destroyed by the king of Denmarke & his lieges, which be of the amitie of the king our soueraigne Lord, because that they do daily take of his said faithfull subiects their goods, so that they haue taken of marchants of York and Kinston vpon Hul goods & marchandises to the valour of v. M. li. within a yeere, and of other lieges & marchants of the realme of England goods & cattals to the valour of xx. M. li. wherof they haue no remedie of the said king of Denmarke, nor of none other, forasmuch as none of them commeth within the Realme of England, nor nothing haue in the same realme of England, & that the goods be taken out of the same Realme: The king willing to prouide remedy for his said liege people, hath ordeined & established, that if the goods of any of the said his lieges be or shalbe taken by the said king of Denmarke or any of his said lieges, the keeper of the priuie seale for the time being, shall haue power to make to the partie grieued letters of request vnder the priuie seale, without any other pursuite to be made to any for restitution to be had of the goods so taken & to be taken. And if restitution be not made by such letters, the king our soueraigne lord by the aduise of his counsel shal prouide to the partie grieued his couenable remedy, according as the case requireth. * * * * * Here beginneth the Prologue of the processe of the Libel of English policie, exhorting all England to keepe the sea, and namely the narrowe sea shewing what profite commeth thereof, and also what worship and saluation to England, and to all English-men. [Sidenote: Incipit liber de custodia Maris præsertim arcti inter Doueram & Galisiam.] The true processe of English policie Of vtterward to keepe this regne in rest Of our England, that no man may deny, Ner say of sooth but it is one of the best, Is this, that who seeth South, North, East and West, Cherish Marchandise, keepe the admiraltie, That wee bee Masters of the narrowe see For Sigismond the great Emperour, Wich yet reigneth, when he was in this land [1] With king Henry the fift, Prince of honour Here much glory, as him thought, he found, A mightie land which had take in hand To werre in France and make mortalitie, And euer well kept round about the see. [Footnote 1: It is clear, from these lines, that this poem must have been written between 1416, when Sigismond was in England, and 1438, when he died.] [Sidenote: Videns imperator Sigismundus duas villas inter cæteras Anglie scilicet Calisiam & Doueream ponens suos duos digitos super duos suos oculos ait regi: Frater custodite istas duas villas sicut duos vestros oculos.] And to the king thus hee sayd: My brother, (When hee perceiued two Townes Caleis and Douer) Of all your Townes to chuse of one and other, To keepe the sea and soone to come ouer To werre outwards and your regne to recouer: Keepe these two Townes sure, and your Maiestee As your tweyne eyne: so keepe the narrowe see. For if this sea bee kept in time of werre, Who can heere passe without danger and woe Who may escape, who may mischiefe differre What Marchandie may forby bee agoe: For needs hem must take trewes euery foe: Flanders and Spaine, and other, trust to mee, Or ellis hindred all for this Narrow see. Therefore I cast mee by a little writing To shew at eye this conclusion, For conscience and for mine acquiting Against God and ageyne abusion, And cowardise, and to our enemies confusion. For foure things our Noble [2] sheweth to me, King, Ship, and Swerd, and power of the see [Foonote 2: The Noble was coined by Edward the third Anno regni 18. Quatuor considerantur in moneta aurea Anglica, quæ dicitur Nobile: scilicet Rex, Nauis gladius, & Mare: Quæ designant potestatem Anglicorum super Mare. In quorum opprobrium his diebus Britones minores & Flandrenses & alij dicunt Anglicis: Tollite de vestro Nobile nauem & imponite ouem. Intendentes, quod sicut quondam à tempore Edwardi tertij Anglici erant domini Maris, modo his diebus sunt vecordes, victi, & ad bellandum & Mare obseruandum velut oues.] Where ben our ships, where ben our swerds become: Our enemies bed for the ship set a sheepe. Alas our rule halteth, it is benome. Who dare well say that lordship should take keepe: I will assay, though mine heart ginne to weepe, To doe this werke, if wee will euer thee, For very shame to keepe about the see. Shall any Prince, what so be his name, Which hath Nobles much leche ours, Bee Lord of see: and Flemings to our blame, Stop vs, take vs, and so make fade the flowers Of English state, and disteyne our honours: For cowardise alas it should so bee Therefore I ginne to write nowe of the see. Of the commodities of Spaine and of Flanders. The first Chapter Knowe well all men that profits in certaine Commodities called comming out of Spaine And Marchandie, who so will weete what it is, Bene Figs, Raisins, wine Bastard, and Datis, And Licoris, Siuill oyle, and graine, White Pastill Sope, and Waxe is not vayne. Yron, Wooll, Wadmolle, Gotefell, Kidfell also: For Poynt-makers full needefull bene they tweyn Saffron, Quickesiluer, which owne Spaine Marchandy, Is into Flanders shipped full craftily, Vnto Bruges as to her staple fayre: The Hauen of Scluse hir Hauen for her repayre Which is cleped Swyn tho shippes giding: Where many vessels and fayre are abiding. But these marchandes with their shippes great, And such chaffare as they bye and get By the weyes must nede take on hand By the coasts to passe of our England, Betwixt Douer and Caleis, this is no doubt. Who can well els such matter bring about? [Sidenote: Flemish cloth made of English Wooll.] And when these sayd Marchants discharged bee Of Marchandie in Flanders nere the see, Then they bee charged againe with Marchandy, That to Flanders bougeth full richly. Fine cloth of Ypre that named is better than ours, Cloth of Curtrike, [3] fine cloth of all colours, Much Fustian, and also Linen cloth. But Flemings, if yee bee not wroth, The great substance of your cloth at the full Yee wot ye make it of our English woll. [Footnote 3: Courtrai.] [Sidenote: The necessarie coniunction of Spaine and Flanders.] Then may it not sinke in mannis brayne, But that it must this Marchandy of Spaine Both out and in by our costes passe: Hee that sayd nay in witte was like an asse. Wee should haue peace with the grounds tweyne Thus if this see were kept, I dare well sayne. For Spaine and Flanders is as eche other brother, And neither may well liue without other: They may not liuen to maintaine their degrees, Without our English commodities: Wolle and Tynne: for the woolle of England Susteineth the Commons Flemings I vnderstand. Then if England would her wolle restraine From Flanders, this followeth in certaine, Flanders of nede must with vs haue peace, Or els shee is destroyed without lees. Also if Flanders thus destroyed bee: Some Marchandy of Spaine will neuer ythee: For destroyed it is, and as in cheeffe The wolle of Spaine it commeth not to preeffe, But if it be costed and menged well Amongst the English wolle the greter delle. For Spanish wooll in Flaunders draped is, And euer hath bee, that men haue minde of this: And yet Wooll is one of the chiefe Marchandy That longeth to Spaine: who so will espie, It is of little value, trust vnto mee, With English wooll but if it menged bee. Thus if the sea be kept, than herken hether, If these two lands comen not together: So that the Fleete of Flanders passe nought That in the narrowe see it be not brought Into the Rochelle to fetch the famose wine, Ner into Bytonuse Bay for salt so fine, What is then Spaine? What is Flanders also? As who sayd, nought, the thrift is agoe For the little land of Flanders is But a staple to other lands ywis: And all that groweth in Flanders graine and seede May not a Moneth finde hem meate and brede. What hath then Flanders, bee Flemings lieffe or loth, But a little Mader and Flemish Cloth: By Drapering of our wooll in substance Liuen her commons, this is her gouernance, Without which they may not liue at ease. Thus must hem sterue, or with vs must haue peace. Of the commodities of Portugal. The second Chapter, The Marchandy also of Portugal By diuers lands turne into sale. Portugalers with vs haue troth in hand: Whose Marchandy commeth much into England. They ben our friends, with their commodities, And wee English passen into their countrees. Her land hath wine, Osey, Waxe, and Graine, Figges, Reysins, Hony and Cordoweyne: Dates, and Salt, Hides, and such Marchandy: And if they would to Flanders passe for by, They should not bee suffred ones ner twyes, For supporting of our cruell enemies, That is to say Flemings with her gyle: For changeable they are in little while. [Note well.] Then I conclude by reasons many moe, If we suffred neither friend nor foe, What so enemies, and so supporting Passe for by vs in time of werring, Seth our friends will not ben in cause Of our hindring, if reson lede this clause: Then nede from Flanders peace bee to vs sought, And other lands should seeke peace, dout nought: For Flanders is Staple, as men tell mee, To all nations of Christianitie. The commodities of pety Britaine,[Footnote: Brittany] with her Rouers on the sea. The third Chapter [Sidenote: The Britons great Rouers and Theeues.] Furthermore to write I am faine Somewhat speaking of the little Britayne. Commoditie thereof there, is and was, Salt, and wine, crest cloth and canuas. And the land of Flaunders sickerly Is the staple of their Marchandy. Wich Marchandie may not passe away But by the coast of England, this is no nay. And of this Britaine, who so trueth louis, Are the greatest rouers and the greatest theeuis, That haue bene in the sea many one yeere: That our Merchants haue bought full dere. For they haue tooke notable goods of ours, On this side see, these false pelours Called, of Saincte Malo, and ellis where: Which to their Duke none obeysance will bere: With such colours wee haue bee hindred sore. And fayned peace is called no werre herefore. Thus they haue bene in diuers coasts many Of our England, more then rehearse can I: In Norfolke coastes, and other places about, And robbed and brent and slame by many a rowte: And they haue also ransomed Towne by Towne: That into the regnes of bost haue run her sowne: Wich hath bin ruth vnto this Realme and shame: They that the sea should keepe are much to blame. For Britayne is of easie reputation; And Saincte Malo turneth hem to reprobation. A storie of Edward the third his ordinance for Britayne. [Sidenote: Historia ostendens quam ordinationem Rex Edwardus tertius fecit contra de prædicatores marinos Brittaniæ minoris ad debellandum eos & subiugandum Britannos minores.] Here bring I in a stone to mee lent, That a good Squire in time of Parliament Tooke vnto mee well written in a scrowe: That I haue commond both with high and lowe, Of which all men accorden into one, That it was done not many yeeres agone But when noble King Edward the third Reigned in grace, right thus it betyd. For hee had a maner gelosie To his Marchants and loued them hartily. He feld the weyes to rule well the see, Whereby Marchants might haue prosperitee. That for Harflew [4] Houndflew [5] did he maken; And great werre that time were vndertaken, betwixt the King and the Duke of Britayne: At last to fall to peace both were they fayne: Vpon the wich made with conuencion Our Marchants made hem readie bowne Toward Britayne to loade their Marchandie, Wening hem friends they went foorth boldly: But soone anon our Marchants were ytake, And wee spedde neuer the better for truce sake. They lost her good, her nauy and spending: But their complaint came vnto the king. Then wext he wroth, and to the Duke he sent, And complained that such harme was hent; By conuention and peace made so refused: Wich Duke sent againe, and him excused, Rehearsing that the mount of Saincte Michael, And Sainct Malo would neuer a dell Be subiect vnto his gouernance, Nor be vnder his obeysance: And so they did withouten him that deede. But when the king anon had taken heede: Hee in his herte set a iudgement, Without calling of any Parliament, Or greate tarry to take long aduise To fortifie anon he did deuise Of English Townes three, that is to say, Dertmouth, Plymouth, the third it is Fowey: And gaue hem helpe and notable puisance With insistence set them in gouernance Vpon pety Bretayne for to werre. Those good sea men would no more differre, But bete hem home and made they might not rowte, Tooke prisoners, and made them for to lowte. And efte the Duke, an ensample wise, Wrote to the king as he first did deuise, Him excusing: But our men wood With great power passed ouer the floode And werred foorth into the Dukes londe, And had ny destroyed free and bond. But than the Duke knewe that the townes three Should haue lost all his natiue Countrie, He vndertooke by suretie true not false, For mount Michael and Saincte Malo als. And other parties of the litle Brytaine, Which to obey, as sayd was, were not fayne The Duke hymselfe for all did vndertake: With all his herte a full peace did hee make: So that in all the life time of the king, Marchants had peace withouten werring: [Footnote 4: Harfleur] [Footnote 5: Honfleur] [Sidenote: Statutum Regis Edwardi tertij pro Lombardis.] He made a statute for Lombards in this land, That they should in noe wise take on hande Here to inhabite, here to chardge and dischardge But fortie dayes, no more time had they large. This good king by witte of such appreiffe Kept his Marchants and the sea from mischiefe. Of the commodities of Scotland and draping of her wolles in Flanders. The fourth Chapiter [Sidenote: Anno Domini 1436. Hen 6. 14.] Moreouer of Scotland the commodities Are Felles, Hides, and of Wooll the Fleese. And all these must passe by vs away Into Flanders by England, sooth to say. And all her woolle was draped for to sell In the Townes of Poperinge and of Bell: Which my Lord of Glocester with ire For her falshed set vpon a fire. And yet they of Bell and Poperinge Could neuer drape her wool for any thing, But if they had English woll withall. Our goodly wooll which is so generall Needefull to them in Spaine and Scotland als, And other costes, this sentence is nnot false: Yee worthy Marchants I doe it vpon yow, I haue this learned ye wot well where and howe: Ye wotte the Staple of that Marchandie, Of this Scotland is Flaunders sekerly. And the Scots bene charged knowen at the eye, Out of Flanders with little Mercerie, And great plentie of Haberdashers Ware, And halfe her shippes with cart wheeles bare, And with Barrowes are laden as in substance: Thus most rude ware are in her cheuesance. So they may not forbeare this Flemish land. Therefore if wee would manly take in hand, To keepe this Sea from Flanders and from Spaine, And from Scotland, like as from pety Britaine, Wee should right soone haue peace for all her bosts, For they must needes passe by our English costs. Of the commodities of Pruce, and High Dutch men, and Easterlings. The fifth Chapitle. Nowe goe foorth to the commodities, That commeth from Pruce in two maner degrees. For two maner people haue such vse, That is to say, High Duch men of Pruse, And Esterlings, which might not be forborne, Out of Flanders, but it were verely lorne. For they bring in the substance of the Beere, That they drinken feele too good chepe, not dere. Yee haue heard that two Flemings togider Will vndertake or they goe any whither, Or they rise once to drinke a Ferkin full, Of good Beerekin: so sore they hall and pull. Vnder the board they pissen as they sit: This commeth of couenant of a worthie wit. Without Caleis in their Butter they cakked When they fled home, and when they leysure lacked To holde their siege, they went like as a Doe: Well was that Fleming that might trusse, and goe. For feare they turned backe and hyed fast, My Lord of Glocester made hem so agast With his commimg, and sought hem in her land, And brent and slowe as he had take on hand: So that our enemies durst not bide, nor stere, They fled to mewe, they durst no more appeare, Rebuked sore for euer so shamefully, Vnto her vtter euerlasting villany. Nowe Beere and Bakon bene fro Pruse ybrought Into Flanders, as loued and farre ysought: Osmond, Copper, Bow-staues, Steele, and Wexe, Peltreware and grey Pitch, Terre, Board, and flexe, And Colleyne threed, Fustian and Canuas, Card, Bukeram: of olde time thus it was. But the Flemings among these things dere, In common louen best Bakon and Beere. Also Pruse men maken her aduenture Of Plate of siluer of wedges good and sure In great plentie which they bring and bye, Out of the lands of Beame and Hungarie: Which is increase full great vnto their land, And they bene laden, I vnderstand, With wollen cloth all maner of colours By dyers crafted full diuers, that ben ours. And they aduenture full greatly vnto the Bay, for salt that is needefull withouten nay. Thus if they would not our friends bee, We might lightly stoppe hem in the see: They should not passe our streemes withouten leue, It would not be, but if we should hem greue. Of the commodities of the Genuoys and her great Caracks. Chap. 6. The Genuois comen in sundry wies Into this land with diuers marchandises In great Caracks, arrayed withouten lacke With cloth of gold, silke, and pepper blacke They bring with them, and of crood [6] great plentee, Woll Oyle, Woad ashen, by vessel in the see, Cotton, Rochalum, and good gold of Genne. And then be charged with wolle againe I wenne, And wollen cloth of ours of colours all. And they aduenture, as ofte it doth befall, Into Flanders with such things as they bye, That is their chefe staple sekerly: And if they would be our full enemies, They should not passe our stremes with merchandise. [Footnote 6: Woad.] The comodities and nicetees of the Venetians and Florentines, with their Gallees. Chap. 7. The great Galees of Venice and Florence Be well laden with things of complacence, All spicery and of grossers ware: With sweete wines all maner of chaffare, Apes, and Iapes, and marmusets tayled, Nifles and trifles that little haue auayled: And things with which they fetely blere our eye: With things not induring that we bye. For much of this chaffare that is wastable Might be forborne for dere and deceiuable. And that I wene as for infirmities In our England are such commodities Withouten helpe of any other lond Which by witte and practise both yfound: That all humors might be voyded sure, With that we gleder with our English cure: That we should haue no neede of Scamonie, Turbit, enforbe, correct Diagredie, Rubarbe, Sene, and yet they ben to needefull, But I know things al so speedefull, That growen here, as those things sayd. Let of this matter no man be dismayde; But that a man may voyde infirmitie Without degrees fet fro beyond the sea. And yet they should except be any thing It were but sugre, trust to my saying: He that trusteth not to my saying and sentence, Let him better search experience. In this matter I will not ferther prease, Who so not beleeueth, let him leaue and cease. Thus these galeys for this licking ware, And eating ware, bare hence out best chaffare. Cloth, woll, and tinne, which as I sayd before, Out of this lond worst might be forbore, For ech other land of necessitie Haue great neede to buy some of them three: And we receiue of hem into this coste Ware and chaffare that lightly wilbe loste. And would Iesus, that our Lord is wold Consider this well both yong and old: Namely old that haue experience, That might the yong exhorte to prudence; What harme, what hurt, and what hinderance Is done to vs, vnto our great grieuance, Of such lands, and of such nations: As experte men know by probations, By writings as discouered our counsailes, And false colour alwaies the countertailes Of our enimies: that doth vs hindering Vnto our goods, our Relme, and to the king: As wise men haue shewed well at eye; And all this is couloured by marchandye. An example of deceite Also they bere the gold out of this land, And sucke the thrift away out of our hand: As the Waspe souketh honie fro the bee, So minisheth our commoditee. Nor wol ye here how they in Cotteswold Were wont to borrow or they shold be sold Her woll good as for yere and yere. Of cloth and tinne they did in like manere: And in her galies ship this marchandie: Then soone at Venice of them men woll it bye. Then vtterne there the chaffare by the peise, And lightly als there they make her reise. And when the goods beene at Venice sold, Then to carie her change they this money haue, They will it profer, their subtiltie to saue, To English marchants to yeue it out by eschange To be payed againe they make not strange, At the receiuing and sight of a letter, Here in England, seeming for the better, by foure pence lesse in the noble round: That is twelue pence in the golden pound. And if wee wol haue of payment A full moneth, than must him needes assent To eight pence losse, that is shillings twaine In the English pound: as eft soone again, For two moneths twelue pence must he pay. In the English pound what is that to say, But shillings three? So that in pound fell For hurt and harme hard is with hem to dwell. And when English marchants haue content This eschange in England of assent, That these sayd Venecians haue in woone And Florentines to bere her gold soone Ouer the see into Flanders againe: And thus they liue in Flanders sooth to saine, And in London with such cheuisance, That men call vsury, to our losse and hinderance. Another example of deceite. Now lesten well how they made vs a valeys When they borrowed at the town of Caleis As they were wont, their woll that was hem lent, For yere and yere they should make payment. And sometimes als two yere and two yeare. This was fayre [7] loue: but yet will ye heare How they to Bruges would her woll carie, And for hem take payment withouten tarie, And sell it fast for ready money in hand. For fifty pounds of money of losse they wold not wond In a thousand pound, and liue thereby Till the day of payment easily, Come againe in exchange: making Full like vsury, as men make vndertaking. Than whan this payment of a thousand pound Was well content, they should haue chaffare sound If they wold fro the Staple full, Receiue againe three thousand pound in woll. In Cotteswold also they ride about, And all England, and buy withouten doubte What them list with freedome and franchise, More then we English may gitten many wise But would God that without lenger delayes These galees were vnfraught in fortie dayes, And in fortie dayes charged againe, And that they might be put to certaine To goe to oste, as we there with hem doe. It were expedient that they did right soe, As we doe there. If the king would it: Ah what worship wold fall to English wit? What profite also to our marchandie Which wold of nede be cherished hertilie? For I would witte, why now our nauie fayleth, [Note diligently] When manie a foe vs at our doore assayleth. [Sidenote: A woful complaint of lacke of nauie if need come. A storie of destruction of Denmarke for destruction of their marchants.] Now in these dayes, that if there come a nede, What nauie should we haue it is to drede. In Denmarke were full noble conquerours In time past, full worthy warriours: Which when they had their marchants destroyed, To pouerty they fell, thus were they noyed: And so they stand at mischiefe at this day. This learned I late well writon, this no nay. Therefore beware, I can no better will, If grace it woll, of other mennis perill. For if marchants were cherished to her speede, We were not likely to fayle in any neede. If they be rich, then in prosperitee Shalbe our londe, lords, and commontee, And in worship. Now thinke I on the sonne Of Marchandy Richard of Whitingdon; [Sidenote: The prayse of Richard of Whittingdon marchant.] That load sterre, and chiefe chosen floure: What hath by him our England of honour, And what profite hath bin of his riches, And yet lasteth dayly in worthines? That pen and paper may not me suffice Him to describe: so high he was of price Aboue marchants, that set him one of the best: I can no more, but God haue him in rest. [Footnote 7: Or, lone.] Now the principal matter. What reason is it that we should goe to oste In their countries, & in this English coste They should not so? bat haue more liberty Then we our selues now also motte I thee. I would to gifts men should take no heede That letteth our thing publicke for to speede For this we see well euery day at eye, Gifts and fests stopen our policie. Now see that fooles ben either they or wee But euer we haue the worse in this countree. Therefore let hem vnto oste go here, Or be we free with hem in like manere In their countrees: and if it will not bee, Compell them vnto oste, and yee shall see Moch auantage, and moch profite arise, Moch more then I can write in any wise. Of our charge and discharge at her marts. Conceiue wel here, that Englishmen at martes Be discharged, for all her craftes and artes, In Brabant of her marchandy In fourteene dayes, and ageine hastily In the same dayes fourteene acharged eft. And if they bide lenger all is bereft, Anon they should forfeit her goods all, Or marchandy: it should no better fall. And we to martis in Brabant charged beene With English cloth full good and fayre to seene: We ben againe charged with mercerie, Haburdasher ware, and with grosserie: To which marts, that English men call fayres, Ech nation oft maketh her repayres: English, and French, Lombards, Iennoyes, Catalones, thedre they take her wayes: Scots, Spaniards, Irishmen there abides, With great plenty bringing of sale hides. And I here say that we in Brabant bye, Flanders and Zeland more of marchandy In common vse then done all other nations: This haue I heard of marchants relations: And if the English ben not in the marts They ben feeble, and as nought bene her parts. For they byemore, and fro purse put out More marchandie then all the other rowte. Kept then the see, shippes should not bring ne fetch, And then the carreys wold not thidre stretch: And so those marts wold full euill thee, If we manly kept about the see. Of the commodities of Brabant and Zeland and Henauld and marchandy carried by land to the martes. Cap. 8. Yet marchandy of Brabant and Zeland The Madre and Woad, that dyers take on hand To dyen with, Garlike and Onions, And saltfishe als for husband and commons. But they of Holland at Caleis byen our felles, And wolles our, that Englishmen hem selles. And the chaffare that Englishmen doe byen In the marts, that noe man may denien, Is not made in Brabant that cuntree: It commeth from out of Henauld, not by see, But al by land, by carts, and from France, Bourgoyne, Colem, Cameret in substance, Therefore at marts if there be a restraint, Men seyne plainely that list no fables paynt, If Englishmen be withdrawen away, Is great rebuke and losse to her affray: As though we sent into the land of France Ten thousand people, men of good puissance, To werre vnto her hindring multifarie. So ben our English marchants necessarie. If it be thus assay, and we shall witten Of men experte, by whom I haue this written. [Sidenote: What our marchants bye in that cost more then all other.] For sayd is that this carted marchandy Draweth in value as much verily, As all the goods that come in shippes thider, Which Englishmen bye most and bring it hither. For her marts ben febel, shame to say, But Englishmen thither dresse her way. A conclusion of this depending of keeping of the sea. Than I conclude, if neuer so much by land Were by carres brought vnto their hand, If well the sea were kept in gouernance They should by sea haue no deliuerance. Wee should hem stop, and we should hem destroy, As prisoners we should hem bring to annoy. And so we should of our cruell enimies Make our friends for feare of marchandies, If they were not suffered for to passe Into Flanders. But we be frayle as glasse And also brittle, not thought neuer abiding, But when grace shineth soone are we sliding, We will it not receiue in any wise: That maken lust, enuie, and couetise: Expone me this; and yee shall sooth it find, Bere it away, and keepe it in your mind. Then shuld worship vnto our Noble bee In feate and forme to lord and Maiestie: Liche as the seale the greatest of this land On the one side hath, as I vnderstand, A prince riding with his swerd ydraw, In the other side sitting, soth it is in saw, Betokening good rule and punishing In very deede of England by the king. And it is so God blessed mought he bee. So in likewise I would were on the see By the Noble, that swerde should haue power, And the ships on the sea about vs here. What needeth a garland which is made of Iuie Shewe a tauerne winelesse, also thriue I? If men were wise, the Frenchmen and Fleming Shuld bere no state in sea by werring. Then Hankin lyons shuld not be so bold To stoppe wine, and shippes for to hold Vnto our shame. He had be beten thence Alas, alas, why did we this offence, Fully to shend the old English fames; And the profits of England and their names: Why is this power called of couetise; With false colours cast beforn our eyes? That if good men called werriours Would take in hand for the commons succours, To purge the sea vnto our great auayle, And winne hem goods, and haue vp the sayle, And on our enimies their liues to impart, So that they might their prises well departe, As reson wold, iustice and equitie; To make land haue lordship of the sea. [Sidenote: Lombards are cause enough to hurt this land although there were none other cause. False colouring of goods by Lombards. Alas for bribes & gift of good feasts & other means that stoppen our policie. This is the very state of our time.] Then shall Lombards and other fained friends Make her chalenges by colour false offends, And say their chaffare in the shippes is, And chalenge al. Looke if this be amisse. For thus may al that men haue bought to sore, Ben soone excused, and saued by false colour. Beware yee men that bere the great in hand That they destroy the policie of this land, By gifte and good, and the fine golden clothis, And silke, and other: say yee not this soth is? But if we had very experience That they take meede with prime violence, Carpets, and things of price and pleasance, Whereby stopped should be good gouernance: And if it were as yee say to mee, Than wold I say, alas cupiditie, That they that haue her liues put in drede, Shalbe soone out of winning, all for meed, And lose her costes, and brought to pouerty, That they shall neuer haue lust to goe to sea. An exhortation to make an ordinance against colour of maintainers and excusers of folkes goods [Sidenote: It is a marueilous thing that so great a sicknes and hurt of the land may haue no remedie of so many as take heselues wise men of gouernance.] For this colour that must be sayd alofte And be declared of the great full ofte, That our seamen wol by many wise Spoile our friends in steede of our enimies: For which colour and Lombards maintenance, The king it needes to make an ordinance With his Counsayle that may not fayle, I trowe, That friends should from enimies be knowe, Our enimies taken and our friends spared: The remedy of hem must be declared. Thus may the sea be kept in no sell, For if ought be spoken, wot yee well, We haue the strokes, and enemies haue the winning: But mayntainers are parteners of the finning. We liue in lust and bide in couetise; This is our rule to maintaine marchandise, And policie that wee haue on the sea, And, but God helpe, it will no other bee. Of the commodities of Ireland and policie and keeping thereof and conquering of wild Irish: with an incident of Wales. Chap. 9. I cast to speake of Ireland but a litle: Commodities of it I will entitle, Hides, and fish, Salmon, Hake, Herringe, Irish wooll, and linen cloth, faldinge, And marterns goode ben her marchandie, Hertes Hides, and other of Venerie.[8] Skinnes of Otter, Squirell and Irish hare, Of sheepe, lambe, and Fox, is her chaffare, Felles of Kiddes, and Conies great plentie. So that if Ireland helpe vs to keepe the sea, Because the King cleped is Rex Angliæ, And is Dominus also Hyberniæ, Old possessed by Progenitours: The Irish men haue cause like to ours Our land and hers together to defend, That no enemie should hurt ne offend, Ireland ne vs: but as one commontie Should helpe well to keepe about the sea: For they haue hauens great, and goodly bayes, Sure, wyde and deepe, of good assayes, At Waterford, and costes many one. And as men sayne in England be there none Better hauens, ships in to ride, No more sure for enemies to abide, Why speake I thus so much of Ireland? For all so much as I can vnderstand, It is fertile for things that there doe growe And multiplien, loke who lust to knowe, So large, so good, and so commodious, That to declare is strange and maruailous. [Footnote 8: Hunting.] [Sidenote: Mynes of siluer and gold in Ireland.] For of siluer and golde there is the oore, Among the wilde Irish though they be poore. For they are rude can thereon no skill: So that if we had their peace and good will To myne and fine, and metal for to pure, In wilde Irish might we finde the cure, As in London saith a Iuellere, Which brought from thence golde oore to vs here, Whereof was fyned mettal good and clene, As they touch, no better could be seene. Nowe here beware and heartily take intent, As yee will answere at last iudgement, That for slought and for racheshede Yee remember with all your might to hede To keepe Ireland that it be not lost. For it is a boterasse and a post, Vnder England, and Wales another: God forbid, but ech were others brother, Of one ligeance due vnto the king. But I haue pittie in good faith of this thing That I shall say with auisement: I am aferde that Ireland will be shent: It must awey, it wol bee lost from vs, But if thou helpe, thou Iesu gracious, And giue vs grace al slought to leue beside. For much thing in my herte is hide, Which in another treatise I caste to write Made al onely for that soile and site, Of fertile Ireland, wich might not be forborne, But if England were nigh as goode as gone. God forbid that a wild Irish wirlinge Should be chosen for to bee their kinge, After her conqueste for our last puissance, And hinder vs by other lands alliance. Wise men seyn, wich felin not, ne douten, That wild Irish so much of ground haue gotten There vpon vs, as likenesse may be Like as England to sheeris two or three Of this our land is made comparable: So wild Irish haue wonne on vs vnable Yet to defend, and of none power, That our ground is there a litle corner, To all Ireland in true comparison. It needeth no more this matter to expon. Which if it bee lost, as Christ Iesu forbed, Farewel Wales, then England commeth to dred, For aliance of Scotland and of Spaine, [Sidenote: This is now to be greatly feared.] And other moe, as the pety Bretaine, And so haue enemies enuiron round about. I beseech God, that some prayers deuout Mutt let the said apparance probable Thus disposed without feyned fable. But all onely for perill that I see Thus imminent, it's likely for to bee, And well I wotte, that from hence to Rome, And, as men say, in all Christendome, Is no ground ne land to Ireland liche, So large, so good, so plenteous, so riche, That to this worde Dominus doe long. Then mee semeth that right were and no wrong, To get the lande: and it were piteous To vs to lese this high name Dommus. And all this word Dominus of name Shuld haue the ground obeysant wilde and tame. That name and people togidre might accord Al the ground subiect to the Lord. And that it is possible to bee subiect, Vnto the king wel shal it bee detect, In the litle booke that I of spake. I trowe reson al this wol vndertake, And I knowe wel howe it stante, Alas fortune beginneth so to scant, Or ellis grace, that deade is gouernance. For so minisheth parties of our puissance, In that land that wee lese euery yere, More ground and more, as well as yee may here. I herd a man speake to mee full late, Which was a lord [9] of full great estate; Than expense of one yere done in France Werred on men well willed of puissance This said ground of Ireland to conquere. And yet because England might not forbere These said expenses gadred in one yeere, But in three yeeres or foure gadred vp here, Might winne Ireland to a finall conqueste, In one sole yeere to set vs all at reste. And how soone wolde this be paied ageyne: Which were it worth yerely, if wee not feyne: I wol declare, who so luste to looke, I trowe full plainely in my litle booke. But couetise, and singularitie Of owne profite, enuie, crueltie, Hath doon vs harme, and doe vs euery day, And musters made that shame is to say: Our money spent al to litle auaile, And our enimies so greatly doone preuaile, That what harme may fall and ouerthwerte I may vnneth write more for sore of herte. [Footnote 9: This Lorde was the Earle of Ormond that told to me this matter, that he would vndertake it, in pain of losse of al his liuelihood. But this proffer could not be admitted. Ergo malè.] An exhortation to the keeping of Wales Beware of Wales, Christ Iesu mutt vs keepe, That it make not our childers childe to weepe, Ne vs also, so if it goe his way, By vnwarenes: seth that many a day Men haue bee ferde of her rebellion, By great tokens and ostentation: Seche the meanes with a discrete auise, And helpe that they rudely not arise For to rebell, that Christ it forbede. Looke wel aboute, for God wote yee haue neede, Vnfainingly, vnfeyning and vnfeynt, That conscience for slought you not atteynt: Kepe well that grounde for harme that may ben vsed, Or afore God mutte yee ben accused. Of the commodious Stockfish of Island and keeping of the Sea namely the Narrow sea, with an incident of the keeping of Caleis. Chap. 10. [Sidenote: The trade of Bristow to Island.] [Sidenote: The old trade of Scarborough to Island and the North.] Of Island to write is litle nede, Saue of Stock fish. Yet forsooth in deed Out of Bristowe, and costes many one, Men haue practised by nedle and by stone Thider wardes within a litle while, Within twelue yere, and without perill Gon and come, as men were wont of old Of Scarborough, vnto the costes cold. And nowe so fele shippes this yeere there ware, That moch losse for vnfreyght they bare: Island might not make hem to bee fraught Vnto the Hawys: thus much harme they caught. Then here I ende of the commoditees For which neede is well to kepe the seas: Este and Weste, South and North they bee. And chiefly kepe the sharpe narrow see, Betweene Douer and Caleis: and as thus that foes passe none without good will of vs: And they abide our danger in the length, What for our costis and Caleis in our strength. An exhortation for the sure keeping of Caleis. And for the loue of God, and of his blisse Cherish yee Caleis better then it is. See well thereto, and heare the grete complaint That true men tellen, that woll no lies paint, And as yee know that writing commeth from thence: Doe not to England for slought so great offence, But that redressed it bee for any thing: Leste a song of sorrow that wee sing. For litle wenith the foole who so might chese What harme it were good Caleis for to lese: What wo it were for all this English ground. [Sidenote: The ioy of Sigismund the Emperour that Caleis was English.] Which wel concerned the Emperour Sigismound, That of all ioyes made it one of the moste, That Caleis was subiect vnto English coste. Him thought it was a iewel most of all, And so the same in Latine did it call. And if yee wol more of Caleis heare and knowe, I cast to write within a litle scrowe, Like as I haue done before by and by In other parteis of our policie. Loke how hard it was at the first to get; And by my counsell lightly doe not it let. For if wee lese it with shame of face Wilfully, it is for lacke of grace. Howe was Harflew [10] cried vpon, and Rone,[11] That they were likely for shought to be gone: Howe was it warned and cried on in England, I make record with this pen in my hand. It was warened plainely in Normandie, And in England, and I thereon did crie. The world was defrauded, it betyde right so. Farewell Harflew: lewdly it was a go. Nowe ware Caleis, I can say no better: My soule discharge I by this present letter. [Footnote 10: Harfleur, which was lost in 1449.] [Footnote 11: Rouen] After the Chapitles of commodities, of diuers lands, sheweth the conclusion of keeping of the sea enuiron, by a storie of King Edgar and two incidents of King Edward the third, and King Henrie the fifth. Chap. 11. Now see we well then that this round see To our Noble by pariformitee Vnder the ship shewed there the sayle, And our king with royal apparayle, With swerd drawen bright and extent For to chastise enimies violent; Should be lord of the sea about, To keepe enimies from within and without; To behold through Christianitee Master and lord enuiron of the see: All liuing men such a prince to dreed, Of such a regne to bee aferd indeed. Thus proue I well that it was thus of old; Which by a [*] Chronicle anon shalbe told, Right curious: but I will interprete It into English, as I did it gete: Of king Edgar: O most marueilous Prince liuing, wittie, and cheualerous: So good that none of his predecessours Was to him liche in prudence and honours. Hee was fortanate and more gracious Then other before, and more glorious: He was beneth no man in holines: Hee passed all in vertuous sweetnes. [Marginal note *: Dicit Chronica, quod iste Edgarus cunctis prædecessoribus suis fælicior, nulli sanctitate inferior, omnibus morum suauitate præstantior fuerit Luxit ipse Anglis non minus memorabilis quàm Cyrus Persis, Carolus Francis, Romulus verò Romanis.] Of English kings was none so commendable To English men no lesse memorable: Then Cyrus was to Perse by puissance, And as great Charles was to them of France, And as to the Romanes was great Romulus, So was to England this worthy Edgarus. I may not write more of his worthines For lacke of time, ne of his holines: But to my matter I him exemplifie, Of conditions tweyne and of his policie: Within his land was one, this is no doubt, And another in the see without, That in time of Winter and of werre, When boystrous windes put see men into fere; Within his land about by all prouinces Hee passed through, perceiuing his princes, Lords, and others of the commontee, Who was oppressour, and who to pouertee Was drawen and brought, and who was clene in life, And was by mischiefe and by strife With ouer leding and extortion: And good and badde of eche condition Hee aspied: and his ministers als, Who did trought, and which of hem was fals: Howe the right and lawes of the land Were execute, and who durst take in hand To disobey his statutes and decrees, If they were well kept in all countrees: Of these he made subtile inuestigation Of his owne espie, and other men's relation. Among other was his great busines, Well to ben ware, that great men of riches, And men of might in citie nor in towne Should to the poore doe non oppression. Thus was he wont in this Winter tide, On such enforchise busily to abide. This was his labour for the publike thing, Thus was hee occupied: a passing holy King Nowe to purpose, in the Sommer faire Of lusty season, whan clered was the aire, He had redie shippes made before Great and huge, not fewe but many a store: Full three thousand and sixe hundred also Stately inough on our sea to goe. [Sidenote: Dicit Chronica præparauerat naues robustissimas numero tria millia sexcenta: in quibus redeunte æstate omnem insulam ad terrorem extraneorum & ad suorum excitationem cum maximo apparatu circumnauigare consueuerat.] The Chronicles say, these shippes were full boysteous: Such things long to kings victorious. In Sommer tide would hee haue in wonne And in custome to be ful redie soone, With multitude of men of good array And instruments of werre of best assay. Who could hem well in any wise descriue? It were not light for eny man aliue. Thus he and his would enter shippes great Habiliments hauing and the fleete Of See werres, that ioyfull was to see Such a nauie and Lord of Maiestee, There present in person hem among To saile and rowe enuiron all along, So regal liche about the English isle; To all strangers terrours and perile. Whose fame went about in all the world stout, Vnto great fere of all that be without, And exercise to Knights and his meynee To him longing of his natall cuntree For courage of nede must haue exercise, Thus occupied for esshewin of vice This knew the king that policie espied; Winter and Somer he was thus occupied. Thus conclude I by authoritee Of Chronike, that enuiron the see Should bene our subiects vnto the King, And hee bee Lord thereof for eny thing: For great worship and for profile also To defend his land fro euery foo. That worthy king I leue, Edgar by name, And all the Chronike of his worthy fame: [Sidenote: Dicit Chronica &c. vt non minus quantum ei etiam in hac vita bononum operum mercedem donauerit: cum aliquando ad maximam eius festiuitatem, reges, comites multarúmque, prouinciarum protectores conuenissent, &c.] Saffe onely this I may not passe away, A worde of mighty strength till that I say, That graunted him God such worship here, For his merites, hee was without pere, That sometime at his great festiuitee Kings, and Erles of many a countree, And princes fele were there present, And many Lords came thider by assent. To his worship: but in a certaine day Hee bad shippes to be redie of aray: For to visit Saint Iohns Church hee list Rowing vnto the good holie Baptist, Hee assigned to Erles, Lords, and knights Many ships right goodly to sights: And for himselfe and eight kings moo Subiect to him hee made kepe one of thoo, A good shippe, and entrede into it With eight kings, and downe did they sit; And eche of them an ore tooke in hand, At ore hales, as I vnderstand, And he himselfe at the shippe behinde As steris man it became of kinde. Such another rowing I dare well say, Was not seene of Princes many a day. Lo than how hee in waters got the price, In lande, in see, that I may not suffice To tell, O right, O magnanimitee, That king Edgar had vpon the see. An incident of the Lord of the sea King Edward the third. Of king Edward I passe and his prowes On lande, on sea yee knowe his worthines: The siege of Caleis, ye know well all the matter Round about by land, and by the water, Howe it lasted not yeeres many agoe, After the battell of Crecye was ydoe: Howe it was closed enuiron about, Olde men sawe it, which liuen, this is no doubt. [Sidenote: Caleis was yeelded to the English 1347.] Old Knights say that the Duke of Borgoyn, Late rebuked for all his golden coyne; Of ship on see made no besieging there, For want of shippes that durst not come for feare. It was nothing besieged by the see: Thus call they it no siege for honestee. Gonnes assailed, but assault was there none, No siege, but fuge: well was he that might be gone: This maner carping haue knights ferre in age, Expert through age of this maner language. [Sidenote: King Edward had 700. English ships and 14151. English mariners before Caleis.] But king Edward made a siege royall, And wanne the towne: and in especiall The sea was kept, and thereof he was Lord. Thus made he Nobles coyned of record; In whose time was no nauie on the see That might withstand his maiestie. Battell of Scluse,[12] yee may rede euery day, Howe it was done I leue and goe my way: It was so late done that yee it knowe, In comparison within a litle throwe: For which to God giue we honour and glorie, For Lord of see the king was with victorie. [Footnote 12: The battle of L'Ecluse.] Another incident of keeping of the see, in the time of the marueilous werriour and victorious Prince, King Henrie the fifth, and of his great shippes. [Sidenote: The great ships of Henry the fift, made at Hampton.] And if I should conclude all by the King Henrie the fift, what was his purposing, Whan at Hampton he made the great dromons, Which passed other great ships of all the commons, The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the holy Ghost, And other moe, which as nowe bee lost. What hope ye was the kings great intent Of thoo shippes, and what in minde hee meant? It was not ellis, but that hee cast to bee Lorde round about enuiron of the see. And when Harflew had her siege about, There came caracks horrible great and stoute In the narrow see willing to abide, To stoppe vs there with multitude of pride. [Sidenote: Great caracks of Genoa taken by the Duke of Bedford.] My Lord of Bedford came on and had the cure, Destroyed they were by that discomfiture. [Sidenote: 1416.] This was after the king Harflew had wonne, Whan our enemies to siege had begonne: That all was slaine or take, by true relation, To his worshippe, and of his English nation. [Sidenote: The French nauie thus ouerthrowen was of fiue hundred saile.] There was present the kings chamberlaine At both battailes; which knoweth this in certaine; He can it tell other wise then I: Aske him, and witte; I passe foorth hastily What had this king of his magnificence, Of great courage of wisedome, and prudence? Prouision, forewitte, audacitee, Of fortitude, iustice, and agilitee, Discretion, subtile auisednesse, Attemperance, Noblesse, and worthinesse: Science, prowesse, deuotion, equitie, Of most estate, with his magnanimitie Liche to Edgar, and the saide Edward, As much of both liche hem as in regard. Where was on liue a man more victorious, And in so short time prince so marueilous? By land and sea, so well he him acquitte, To speake of him I stony in my witte Thus here I leaue the king with his noblesse, Henry the fift, with whom all my processe Of this true booke of pure policie Of sea keeping, entending victorie I leaue endly: for about in the see No prince was of better strenuitee. And if he had to this time liued here, He had bene Prince named withouten pere: [Sidenote: The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the holy Ghost] His great ships should haue ben put in preefe, Vnto the ende that he ment of in cheefe, For doubt it not but that he would haue bee Lord and master about the round see: And kept it sure to stoppe our enemies hence, And wonne vs good, and wisely brought it thence: That no passage should be without danger, And his licence on see to moue and sterre. Of vnitie, shewing of our keeping of the see: with an endly or finall processe of peace by authoritie. Chap. 12. [Sidenote: Exhortatio generales in custodiam totius Angliæ per diligentiam custodiæ circutus maris circa littora eiusdem: quæ debet esse per vnanimitatem Consilariorum regis, & hominum bonæ voluntatus.] Now than for loue of Christ, and of his ioy, Bring it England out of trouble and noy: Take heart and witte, and set a gouernance, Set many wits withouten variance, To one accord and vnanimitee. Put to good will for to keepe the see. First for worship and profite also, And to rebuke of eche euill willed foe. Thus shall worship and riches to vs long. Than to the Noble shall we doe no wrong, To beare that coyne in figure and in deede, To our courage, and to our enemies dreede: For which they must dresse hem to peace in haste, Or ellis their thrift to standen and to waste. As this processe hath proued by and by All by reason and expert policy; And by stories which proued well this parte: Or ellis I will my life put in ieoparte, But many londs would seche her peace for nede, The see well kept: it must be doo for drede. Thus must Flanders for nede haue vnitee And peace with vs: it will non other bee, Within short while: and ambassadours Would bene here soone to treate for their succours. [Sidenote: Tres sunt causæ prædictæ custodiæ scilcet, honor commodum regnum, & opprobrium inimicis.] This vnitie is to God pleasance: And peace after the werres variance. The ende of battaile is peace sikerly, And power causeth peace finally. Kept than the sea about in speciall, Which of England is the towne wall. As though England were likened to a citie, And the wall enuiron were the see Kepe then the sea that is the wall of England: And than is England kept by Goddes hande; That as for any thing that is without, England were at ease withouten doubt, And thus should euery lond one with another Entercommon as brother with his brother And liue togither werrelesse in vnitie, Without rancour in very charitie, In rest and peace, to Christes great pleasance, Without strife, debate and variance. Which peace men should enserche with businesse, And knit it saddely holding in holinesse. [Sidenote: Ephes. 4. Solliciti sitis seruare vnitatem spiritus in vinculo pacis.] The Apostle seith, if ye list to see, Bee yee busie for to keepe vnitee Of the spirit in the bond of peace. Which is nedeful to all withouten lese. The Prophet biddeth vs peace for to enquire To pursue it, this is holy desire. Our Lord Iesu saith, Blessed motte they bee That maken peace; that is tranquillitee. [Sidenote: Matth. 5. Beati pacifici quoniam filij Dei vocabuntur.] For peace makers, as Matthew writeth aright, Should be called the sonnes of God almight. God giue vs grace, the weyes for to keepe Of his precepts, and slugly not to sleepe In shame of sinne: that our verry foo Might be to vs conuers, and turned so. [Sidenote: Cum placuerint Domino viæ hominis eius inimicos ad pacem conuertet] For in the Prouerbs is a text to this purpose Plaine inough without any glose: When mens weyes please vnto our Lord, It shall conuert and bring to accord Mans enemies vnto peace verray, In vnitie, to liue to Goddis pay, With vnitie, peace, rest and charitie. Hee that was here cladde in humanitie, That came from heauen, and styed vp with our nature, Or hee ascended, he gaue to vs cure, And left with vs peace, ageyne striffe and debate, Mote giue vs peace, so well irradicate Here in this world: that after all this feste [Sidenote: Vrbs beata Ierusalem dicta pacis visio.] Wee may haue peace in the land of beheste Ierusalem, which of peace is the sight, With his brightnes of eternall light, There glorified in rest with his tuition, The Deitie to see with full fruition: Hee second person in diuinenesse is, Who vs assume, and bring vs to the blis. Amen Here endeth the true procease of the Libel of English policie, exhorting all England to keepe the sea enuiron: shewing what profit and saluation, with worship commeth thereof to the reigne of England. Goe forth Libelle, and meekely shew thy face; Appearing euer with humble countenance: And pray my Lords to take in grace, In opposaile and cherishing the aduance. To hardines if that not variance Thou hast fro trought by full experience Authors and reasons: if ought faile in substance Remit to hem that yafe thee this science; That seth it is soth in verray fayth, [Sidenote: The wise lord of Hungerfords iudgement of this booke.] That the wise Lord Baron of Hungerford Hath thee ouerseene, and verely he saith That thou art true, and thus he doeth record, Next the Gospel: God wotte it was his worde, When hee thee redde all ouer in a night. Goe forth trew booke, and Christ defend thy right. _Explicit libellus de Politia conseruatiua maris_. * * * * * Breuis Commentarius de Islandia: quo Scriptorum de hac Insula errores deteguntur, & extraneorum quorundam conuitijs, ac calumnijs, quibus Islandis liberiùs insultare solent, occurritur: per Arngrimum Ionam Islandum. Serenissimo Principi ac Domino, domino Christiano IIII, Daniæ, Noruegiæ, Vandalorum, Gothorúmque, Regi electo: Slesuici, Holsatiæ, Stormariæ & Dithmarsiæ Duci: Comiti in Oldenburg & Delmenhorst: Domino suo clementissimo. Præclaram sanè apud Historicos meretur laudem, Sereniss. Princeps, Anchuri illius Midæ regis filij ausus plusquam humanus, & in patriam pietas, ferè exemplo carens, quòd ad occludendum ingentem circa Celænam Phrygiæ oppidum, terræ hiatum, quotidie homines haud exiguo numero, & quicquid in propinquo erat, absorbentem, sese vltrò obtulerit. Cum enim ab oraculo Midas pater accepisset, non prius conclusum iri istam voraginem, quam res eò preciosissimæ immitterentur: Anchurus existimans, nihil esse anima pretiosius, sese viuum in illud profundissimum chasma præcipitem dedit: ídque tanto animi cum feruore, vt neque parentis desiderio, neque dulcissimæ coniugis amplexu vel lachrymis, ab isto proposito se retrahi passus sit. Nec inferiorem multò consecuti sunt gloriam Sperthius & Bulis, Lacedæmonij, qui ad auertendam potentissimi Regis Persarum Xerxis, ob occisos à Lacedemonijs Darij patris legatos, vltionem, ad Regem profecti sunt, & vt legatorum necem in se, non in patria vlcisceretur, erectis & constantibus animis sese obtulerunt. Quæ verò res, Sereniss. Princeps, illos ac alios complures mouit, vt patriæ flagrantes amore, nullum pro ea periculum, nullas molestias, imò ne mortem ipsam recusarint, ea profectò me quoque impulit, non quidem, vt quemadmodum illi, mortem sponte oppeterem, aut me mactandum vltro offerrem, sed tamen, vt id quòd solum possem, in gratiam patriæ tentarem: Hoc est, vt scriptorum de ea errores colligerem & rumusculos vanos refellerem: Ac ita rem profectò periculosam, & multorum forsan sinistro obnoxiam iudicio, aggrederer. In eo proposito me etiam Cn. Pompeij exemplum confirmauit: Quem rei frumentariaæ apud Romanos procuratorem, cum in summa Vrbis annonæ charitate, in Sicilia, Sardinia & Africa frumentum collegisset, maiorem patriæ, quàm sui, tradunt rationem habuisse. Cum enim Romam versus properaret, & ingenti ac periculosa oborta tempestate, Naucleros trepidare, nec se ventorum aut maris sævitiæ committere velle animaduerteret, ipse nauim primus ingressus, anchoras tolli iussit, in hæc verba exclamans: Vt nauigemus vrget necessitas: vt viuamus, non vrget. Quibus vir prudentissimus innuisse videtur, patriæ periclitantis maiorem habendam rationem, quàm priuatæ incolumitatis. Hunc ego sic imitor, (Si parua licet componere magnis, & muscam Elephanto conferre) vt collectis ac comportatis ijs, quibus ad succurrendum gentis nostræ nomini ac famæ, apud extraneos, ex maleuolorum quorundam inuidia iam diu laboranti vterer; paucula hæc in lucem emittere, méque pelago huic quantumuis turbulento committere, lintea ventis tradere, cúmque illo exclamare non dubitem: Vt scribamus, vrget necessitas: Vt verò scriptum nostrum, cuiusuis, delicato palato, vbíque satisfaciat, aut omnem Momi proteruiam effugiat, non vrget. Institutum meum complures probaturos spero: successum forsan non itidem omnes probabunt. Nihiiominus tamen maiorem habendam rationem patriæ, multorum hactenus opprobria & contumelias sustinentis, quàm siue laudis, siue vituperationis, ad me ipsum hinc forsan redituræ, existimabam. Quid enim causæ esse potest, cur nonnullorum odium & inuidentiam, cum hoc patriæ, benefaciendi seu gratificandi studio fortè coniunctam recusem? Quodsi scriptorum errores liberius notare, si quorundam calumnias durius perstringere videbor, eos tamen æquos me habiturum censores confido, qui paulò diligentius animaduertere volent, quam parùm tolerabiles sint scriptorum de nostra gente errores: quot etiam & quàm graues quorundam in nos calumniæ, quibus nationem nostram varijs modis laccssiuere, & etiamnum lacessere non desistunt. Dandum etiam aliquid omnibus congenito soli natalis amori est; Dandum iusto, ob hanc patriæ illatam iniuriam, dolori. Et ego quidem, quantum fieri potuit, vbíque mihi temperaui, ac à conuitijs abstinere volui: quòd si quid videatur mollius dicendnm fuisse, id prædicta ratione veniam, spero, merebitur. Cum igitur hæc mihi subeunda sit alea, quod omnibus scriptum aliquod edituris in more positum animaduerto, id mihi hoc tempore solicitè curandum est: Nempè vt patronum & mecænatem aliquem huic meo commentariolo quæram, sub cuius nomine & numine, tutius in vulgi manus exeat. Eam igitur ad rem nihil poterit contingere optatius, vestra, clementissime Princeps Sereniss. Maiestate: Et enim nos ei, qui vitam & fortunas nostras in suam potestatem & tutelam accepit, ei inquam, nomen quoque gentis nostræ innocenter contaminatum, curæ vt sit, supplices rogamus. Imò verò, Rex clementiss. non solùm ad hanc rem, S. Maiestatis V. clemens implorare auxilium necessum habemus; Sed ad multa quoque alia, quæ in nostra patria desiderantur, aut quæ alioqui ad huius vtilitatem & salutem communem spectant: quæque non per me, sed per summorum nostræ gentis viroram libellos supplices hoc tempore exponuntur, aut certè breui exponentur. Nihil enim dubitamus quin S. V. Maiestas, Christianissimorum maiorum exemplo, etiam nostram patriam, inter reliquas imperij sui Insulas, sua cura & protectione regia dignari velit. Nam quæ nostra est ad S. Maiestatem V. confugiendi necessitas, ea est S. Maiestatis V. in nobis subleuandis, curandis & protegendis, gloria: Et ob nutritam extremi ferè orbis Arctoi ecclesiam, in remotissimis M. V. imperij finibus, quæ tranquillitatem & tuta singulari Dei beneficio halcyonia habet, præmium, ac reposita in coelis immarcessibilis vitæ æternæ corona. Cæterum cùm illa huius loci non sint, id quod mei est propositi subiungo: & à S. Maiestate V. ea, qua par est, amimi submissione peto, vt huic meæ opellæ & studio in patriam collato, fauere, & patroni benigni esse loco, clementer dignetur. Quod superest, Sereniss. Princeps, Dom. clementissime, Maiestatem V. sapientiæ & prudentiæ, omniúmque adeò virtutnm heroicarum indies incrementa sumentem, ad summum imperij fastigium, summas ille regnorum, omniúmque adeò rerum humanaram dispensator, Deos opt. max. euehat: Euectam, omni rerum foelicissimo successu continuè beet: Beatámque hoc modo, vt summum horum regnorum ornamentum, columen, præesidium, Ecclesiæ clypeum & munimen, quàm diutissimè conseruet: Ac tandem in altera vita, in solido regni coelestis gaudio, cùm præcipuis ecclesiæ Dei nutritijs, syderis instar, illustrem fulgere faciat. Faxit etiam idem Pater clementis. vt hæc vota, quanto sæpius, in amplissimorum Maiestatis V. regnorum & Insularem quouis angulo, quotidiè repetuntur ac ingeminantur, tantò rata magis & certiora, maneant. Haffniæ 1593. Mense Mart. S. M. V. humiliter subiectus: Aragrimos Ionas Islandus. The same in English. A briefe commentarie of Island: wherein the errors of such as haue written concerning this Island, are detected, and the slanders, and reproches of certaine strangers, which they haue vsed ouer-boldly against the people of Island are confuted. By Arngrimus Ionas, of Island. To the most mighty Prince and Lord, Lord Christian the 4. [Footnote: Christian IV. was the last elective king of Denmark and Norway. Frederick III. in 1665 changed the constituion to an hereditary monarchy, vested in his own family.] of Denmarke, Norway, and of the Vandals and Gothes, King elect: of Sleswic, Holste, Stormar, and Dithmarse Duke: Earle of Oldenburg, and Delmenhorst: His most gratious Lord. That heroical attempt of Anchurus, sonne of King Midas (most gratious prince) and that pietie towards his countrey in maner peerelesse, deserueth highly to be renowmed in histories: in that freely and couragiously he offered his owne person, for the stopping vp of an huge gulfe of earth, about Celoena, a towne in Phrigia, which daily swallowed multitudes of men and whatsoeuer else came neere vnto it. For when his father Midas was aduertised by the Oracle, that the said gulfe should not be shut vp, before things most precious were cast into it; Anchurus deeming nothing to be more inualuable then life plunged himselfe aliue downe headlong into that bottomless hole; and that with so great vehemencie of mind, that neither by his fathers request nor by the allurements and teares of his most amiable wife, he suffered himselfe to be drawne backe from this his enterprise. [Footnote: It is added that Midas raised an altar to Jupiter on the spot.] Sperthius also and Bulis, two Lacedemonians, were not much inferiour to the former, who to turne away the reuenge of Xerxes that most puissant King of the Persians, entended against the Lacedemonians, for killing the ambassadors of his father Darius, hyed them vnto the sayd king and that he might auenge the ambassadours death vpon them, not vpon their countrey, with hardy, and constant mindes presented themselues before him. The very same thing (most gracious prince) which moued them and many others being enflamed with the loue of their countrey, to refuse for the benefite thereof, no danger, no trouble, no nor death it selfe, the same thing (I say) hath also enforced me, not indeed to vndergoe voluntarie death, or freely to offer my selfe vnto the slaughter, but yet to assay that which I am able for the good of my countrey: namely, that I may gather together and refute the errors, and vaine reports of writers, concerning the same: and so take vpon me a thing very dangerous, and perhaps subiect to the sinister iudgement of many. In this purpose the example of Cneius Pompeius hath likewise confirmed me: who being chosen procurator for corne among the Romanes, and in an extreme scarcetie and dearth of the citie hauing taken vp some store of grains in Sicilia, Sardinia, and Africa, is reported to haue had greater regard of his countrey, then of himselfe. For when he made haste towards Rome, and a mighty and dangerous tempest arising, he perceiued the Pilots to tremble, and to be vnwilling to commit themselues to the rigor of the stormie sea, himselfe first going on boord, and commanding the anchors to be weighed, brake foorth into these words: That we should sayle necessitie vrgeth: but that we should liue, it vrgeth not. In which words he seemeth wisely to inferre, that greater care is to be had of our countrey lying in danger, then of our owne priuate safetie. This man doe I thus imitate, If small with great as equals may agree: And Flie with Elephant compared bee. Namely that gathering together and laying vp in store those things which might be applied to succour the fame and credite of our nation, hauing now this long time bene oppressed with strangers, through the enuie of certeine malicious persons, I boldly aduenture to present these fewe meditations of mine vnto the viewe of the world, and so hoysing vp sailes to commit my selfe vnto a troublesome sea, and to breake foorth into the like speeches with him: That I should write necessitie vrgeth: but that my writings in all places should satisfie euery delicate taste, or escape all peeuishnes of carpers it vrgeth not. I doubt not but many will allow this my enterprise: the successe perhaps all men will not approue. Neuertheles, I thought that there was greater regard to be had of my countrey, sustaining so many mens mocks and reproches, then of mine owne praise or dispraise, redounding perhaps vnto me vpon this occasion. For what cause should moue me to shunne the enuie and hate of some men, being ioyned with an endeuour to benefite and gratifie my countrey? [Sidenote: The errors of the writers of Island intolerable.] But if I shall seeme somewhat too bold in censuring the errors of writers, or too seuere in reprehending the slanders of some men: yet I hope all they will iudge indifferently of me, who shall seriously consider, how intolerable the errors of writers are, concerning our nation: how many also and how grieuous be the reproches of some, against vs, wherewith they haue sundry wayes prouoked our nation, and as yet will not cease to prouoke. They ought also to haue me excused in regard of that in-bred affection rooted in the hearts of all men, towards their natiue soile, and to pardon my iust griefe for these iniures offered vnto my countrey. And I in very deed, so much as lay in me, haue in all places moderated my selfe, and haue bene desirous to abstaine from reproches but if any man thinke, we should haue vsed more temperance in our stile, I trust, the former reason will content him. Sithens therefore, I am to vndergo the same hazard, which I see is commonly incident to all men that publish any writings: I must now haue especiall regarde of this one thing: namely, of seeking out some patron, and Mecoenas for this my briefe commentary, vnder whose name and protection it may more safety passe through the hands of all men. But for this purpose I could not finde out, nor wish for any man more fit then your royal Maiestie, most gratious prince For vnto him, who hath receiued vnder his power & tuition our liues and goods, vnto him (I say) doe we make humble sute, that he would haue respect also vnto the credit of our nation, so iniuriously disgraced. Yea verily (most gracious King) we are constreined to craue your Maiesties mercifull aide, not only in this matter, but in many other things also which are wanting in our countrey, or which otherwise belong to the publique commoditie and welfare thereof which not by me, but by the letters supplicatory of the chiefe men of our nation, are at this time declared, or will shortly be declared. For we doubt not but that your sacred Maiesties, after the example of your Christian predecessors, will vouchsafe vnto our countrey also, amongst other Islands of your Maiesties dominion, your kingly care and protection. For as the necessitie of fleeing for redresse vnto your sacred Maiestie, is ours so the glory of relieuing, regarding, and protecting vs, shal wholy redound vnto your sacred Maiestie: as also, there is layd vp for you, in respect of your fostering and preseruing of Gods church, vpon the extreme northerly parts almost of the whole earth, and in the vttermost bounds of your Maiesties dominion (which by the singular goodnes of God, enioyeth at this present tranquillitie and quiet safetie) a reward and crowne of immortall life in the heauens. But considering these things are not proper to this place, I wil leaue them, and returne to my purpose which I haue in hand: most humbly beseeching your S. M. that yon would of your clemencie vouchsafe to become a fauorer, and patron vnto these my labours and studies, for the behalfe of my countrey. It now remaineth (most gracious and mercifull souereigne) for vs to make our humble prayers vnto almighty God, that king of kings, and disposer of all humane affaires, that it would please him of his infinite goodnes, to aduance your Maiestie (yearely growing vp in wisedome & experience, and all other heroicall vertues) to the highest pitch of souereigntie: and being aduanced, continually to blesse yon with most prosperous successe in all your affaires: and being blessed, long to preserue you, as the chief ornament, defence and safegarde of these kingdomes, and as the shield and fortresse of his church: and hereafter in the life to come, to make you shine glorious like a starre, amongst the principall nurcing fathers of Gods Church, in the perfect ioy of his heauenly kingdome. The same most mercifull father likewise grant, that these praiers, the oftener they be dayly repeated and multiplied in euery corner of your Maiesties most ample territories & Islands, so much the more sure and certain they may remaine, Amen. At Haffnia, or Copen Hagen 1593. in the moneth of March. Y. S. M. most humble subiect, Arngrimus Ionas, Islander. [Footnote: A celebrated Icelandic astronomer, disciple of Tycho Brahe, and coadjutor of the Bishop of Holen, died in 1649 at the great age of 95. His principal works, besides his Description and History of Iceland, (published at Amsterdam in 1643, 4to), are _Idea Vera Magistratus_ (Copenhagen, 1689, 8vo); _Rerum Islandicarum libri tres_ (Hamburg, 1630, 4to); _The Life of Gundebrand de Thorlac_, etc. He is remembered amongst the peasantry of Iceland as the only instance known in that country of a man of ninety-one marrying a girl in her teens.] Benigno & pio Lectori salutem. In lucem exijt circa annum Christi 1561. Hamburgi foetus valdè deformis, patre quodam Germanico propola: Rhythmi videlicet Germanici, omnium qui vnquam leguntur spurcissimi & mendacissimi in gentem Islandicam. Nec sufficiebat sordido Typographo sordidum illum foetum semel emisisse, nisi tertiùm etiam aut quartùm publicasset, quo videlicet magis innocenti genti apud Germanos & Danos, aliósque vicinos populos summam & nunquam delendam ignominiam, quantum, in ipso fuit, inureret. Tantum Typographi huius odium fuit, & ex re illicita lucri auiditas. Et hoc in illa ciuitate, quæ plurimos annos commercia sua magno suorum cùm lucro in Islandia exercuit, impunè fecit. Ioachimus Leo nomen illi est, dignus certè qui Leones pascat. Reperiuntur præterea multi alij scriptores, qui cum miracula naturæ, quæ in hac Insula creduntur esse plurima, & gentis Islandicæ mores ac instituta describere se velle putant, à re ipsa & veritate prorsus aberrarunt, nautarnm fabulas plusquam aniles, & vulgi opiniones vanissimas secuti. Hi Scriptores etsi non tam spurca & probrosa reliquerunt, quàm sordidus iste Rhythmista: multa tamen sunt in illorum scriptis, quæ illos excusare non possunt, aut prorsus liberare, quo minus innocentem gentem suis scriptis deridendam alijs exposuerint. Hæc animaduertens, legens, expendens, subinde nouis, qui Islandorum nomen & æstimationem læderent, scriptoribus ortis, alienorum laborum suffuratoribus impudicis, qui etiam non desinunt gentem nostram nouis conspurcare mendacijs, lectorésque noua monstrorum enumeratione & descriptionibus fictis deludere, sæpe optabam esse aliquem, qui ad errata Historicorum, & aliorum iniquorum censorum responderet, quíque aliquo scripto innocentem gentem à tot conuicijs si non liberaret, certè aliquo modo apud pios & candidos Lectores defenderet. Quare hoc tempore Author eram honesto studioso, _Arngrimo Ionæ_ F. vt reuolutis scriptorum monumentis, qui de Islandia aliquid scripserunt, errores & mendacia solidis rationibus detegeret. Ille etsi primò reluctabatur, vicit tamen demum admonitio, amórque communis patriæ, ita vt hunc qualemcunque commentariolum conscriberet, non ex vanis vulgi fabulis, sed & ex sua & multorum fide dignorum experientia, comprobationibus sumptis. Ille verò, qui hanc rem meo est aggressus instinctu, vicissim à me suo quasi iure flagitabat, vt in has pagellas, vel tribus saltem verbis præfarer: existimans aliquid fidei vel authoritatis opusculo inde conciliatum iri. Quare vt mentem breuiter exponam: Ego quidem & honestam & necessariam quoque operam nauasse eum iudico, qui non modò scriptorum varias sententias de rebus ignotis perpendere, & inuicem conferre, nec non ad veritatis & experientiæ censuram exigere: Sed etiam patriam à venenatis quorundam sycophantarum morsibus vindicare conatus sit. Æquum est igitur, Lector optime, vt quicquid hoc est opusculi, velut sanctissimo veritatis & patriæ amore aduersus Zoilorum proteruiam munitum & muniendum excipias. Vale. Gudbrandus Thorliacus Epìscopus Holensis in Islandia. Anno 1592. Iul. 29. [Footnote: In the _original_ edition of the description of Iceland by Arngrimus, follow these lines: ¶ Authoris ad Lectorem. Imbute Lector suauis arte Palladis, Lector benigne, humane, multùm candide, Qui cuncta scis collis sacri mysteria: Has videris si fortè quando paginas Non lectione síque dedignabere, Fac, nos tuo candori vt hæc committimus Et æquitati, fronte sic non tetrica, Vultu legas nec ista quando turbido: Communis vnquam sortis haud sis immemor, Infirmitas quam nostra nobis contulit. Obnoxius nam non quis est mortalium Erroribus næuísque semper plurimis? Quod si diu multúmque cogitauens, Nostris eris conatibus paulò æquior, Tuis & isto rite pacto consules: Candore nam quo nostra arctans vtere, En te legentes rursus vtentur pari: Sic ipse semper alteri quæ feceris. Æqualitatis lege & hæc fient tibi. De gente multis prædicata Islandica Authoribus quamuis probata maximis, Nostro periclo hucúsque vulgò credita, Licere nobis credimus refellere, Non vt notam scriptorum muram nomini, Nostrum sed à nota probosa vindicem: Hoc institutum iúsque fásque comprobant: Hoc nostra consuetudo léxque comprobant: Hoc digna lectu exempla denique comprobant. Ergo faue: nostris faue conatibus, Sis mitis indulgens et æquus arbiter, O lector arte imbute suauis Palladis, Lector benigne, amice, multum candide, Qui cuncta scis collis sacri mysteria.] The same in English. To the courteous and Christian reader Gudbrandus Thorlacius, Bishop of Holen in Island, wisheth health. There came to light about the yeare of Christ 1561, a very deformed impe, begotten by a certain Pedlar of Germany: namely a booke of German rimes of al that euer were read the most filthy and most slanderous against the nation of Island. Neither did it suffice the base printer once to send abroad that base brat, but he must publish it also thrise or foure times ouer: that he might thereby, what lay in him, more deepely disgrace our innocent nation among the Germans, & Danes, and other neighbour countries, with shamefull, and euerlasting ignominie. So great was the malice of this printer, & his desire so greedy to get lucre, by a thing vnlawfull. And this he did without controlment, euen in that citie, which these many yeres hath trafficked with Island to the great gaine, and commodity of the citizens. His name is Ioachimus Leo, a man worthy to become lions foode. [Sidenote: Great errors grow vpon mariners fabulous reports.] Moreouer, there are many other writers found, who when they would seeme to describe the miracles of nature, which are thought to be very many in this Island, & the maners, & customs of the Islanders, haue altogether swarued from the matter and truth it selfe, following mariners fables more trifling than old wiues tales, & the most vain opinions of the common sort. These writers, although they haue not left behind them such filthy and reprochful stuffe as that base rimer: yet there are many things in their writings that wil not suffer them to be excused, & altogether acquited from causing an innocent nation to be had in derision by others. Wherefore marking, reading, & weighing these things with my selfe, & considering that there dayly spring vp new writers, which offer iniury to the fame & reputation of the Islanders, being such men also as do shamelesly filtch out of other mens labours, deluding their readers with feined descriptions, & a new rehearsal of monsters, I often wished that some one man would come forth, to make answere to the errors of historiographers & other vniust censurers: and by some writing, if not to free our innocent nation from so many reproches, yet at leastwise, in some sort to defend it, among Christian & friendly readers. And for this cause I haue now procured an honest and learned young man one Arngrimus Fitz-Ionas, to peruse the works of authors, that haue written anything concerning Island, and by sound reasons to detect their errors, & falshoods. And albeit at the first he was very loth, yet at length my friendly admonition, & the common loue of his countrey preuailed with him so farre, that he compiled this briefe commentary, taking his proofes, not out of the vaine fables of the people, but from his owne experience, and many other mens also of sufficient credit. Now, he that vndertooke this matter at my procurement, did againe as it were by his owne authority chalenge at my hands, that I should in two or three words at least, make a preface vnto his booke; thinking it might gaine some credit, and authority thereby. Wherfore to speake my minde in a word: for my part, I iudge hin to haue taken both honest & necessary paines, who hath done his indeuour not onely to weigh the diuers opinions of wrighters concerning things vnknowen, and to examine them by the censure of trueth, and experience, but also to defend his countrey from the venemous bitings of certaine sycophants. It is thy part therefore (gentle reader) to accept this small treatise of his, being as it were guarded with the sacred loue of truth, and of his countrey, against the peruersnes of carpers. Farewel. Anno 1592. Iulii 19. COMMENTARII DE ISLANDIA INITIUM. Quemadmodum in militia castrensi, alios nulla æqua ratione adductos, sed ambitione, inuidia & auaritia motos, Martis castra sequi animaduertimus: Alios verò iustis de causis arma sumere; vt qui vel doctrinæ coelestis propagandæ aut seruandæ ergo bella mouent, vel aliquo modo lacessiti paratam vim ac iniuriam repellunt, vel saltem non lacessiti, propter obsidentem hostem metu in armis esse coguntur: Non secus Apollini militantes: alij animo nequaquam bono, Philosophico seu verius Christiano, ad scribendum feruntur: puta qui gloriæ cupiditate, qui liuore ac odio, qui affectata ignorantia alios sugillant, vt ipsi potiores habeantur, nunc in personam, nomen ac famam alicuius, nunc in gentem totam stylum acuentes, atque impudenter quasi mentiendo, insontem nationem & populos commaculantes: Alij verò contrà, animo ingenuo multa lucubrando inuestigant & in lucem emittunt; vt qui scientiam Theologicam & Philosophicam scriptis mandarunt, quique suis vigilijs veterum monumenta nobis explicuerunt: qui quicquid in illis obscurum, imperfectum, inordinatum animaduerterunt, vsu & experientia duce illustrarunt, explerunt, ordinarunt: qui mundi historias, bona fide, æternæ memoriæ consecrarunt: qui linguarum cognitionem suis indefessis laboribus iuuerunt: denique qui aliorum in se suamue gentem vel patriam, licentiosam petulantiam reprimere, calumnias refellere, & quandam quasi vim iniustam propulsare annixi sunt. Et quidem ego, cui literas vix, ac ne vix quidem videre contigit, omnium qui diuinæ Palladi nomen dederunt, longè infimus (vt id ingenuè de mea tenuitate confitear) facere certè non possum, quin me, in illorum aciem conferam, qui gentis suæ maculam abluere, veritatem ipsam asserere, & conuitiantium iugum detrectare studuerunt: Maiora ingenio sors denegauit: Id quoquo modo tentare compellit ipsius veritatis dignitas, & innatus amor patriæ, quam extraneos nonnullos falsis rumoribus deformare, varijs conuitijs, magna cum voluptate proscindere, aliísque nationibus deridendam propinare comperimus. Quorum petulantiæ occurrere, & criminationes falsas, detectis simul scriptorum de hac Insula erroribus, apud bonos & cordatos viros, (Nam vulgus sui semper simile, falsi & vani tenacissimum, non est quòd sperem me ab hac inueterata opinione abducere posse) diluere hoc commentariolo decreui. Etsi autem Islandia multos habet, vt ætate, ita ingenio & eruditione me longe superiores, ideóque ad hanc causam patriæ suscipiendam multò magis idoneos: Ego tamen optimi & clarissimi viri, Dom. Gudbrandi Thorlacij, Episcopi Holensis, apud Islandos, sollicitationibus motus communi causæ, pro viribus, nequaquam deesse volui, tum vt æquissimæ postulationi ipsius parerem, atque amorem & studium debitum erga patriam declararem, tum vt reliquos sympatriotas meos, in bonarum literarum scientia foelicius versatos, atque in rerum plurimarum cognitione vlterius progresses, ad hoc gentis nostræ patrocinium inuitarem: Tantum abest, vt ijs qui idem conabuntur, obstaculo esse voluerim. Cæterum vt ad rem redeamus, quoniam illi quicunque sunt nostræ gentis obtrectatores, testimonio scripto se vti ac niti iactitant: videndum omnino est, quidnam de Islandia, & quàm vera scriptores prodiderint, vt si fortè isti, alijs in nos dicendi aliquam occasionem dederint, patefactis ipsorum erroribus (nolo enim quid durius dicere) quàm meritò nos calumnientur, reliquis planum fiat, Porrò, quamuis vetustiorum quorundam scripta de hac Insula, ad veritatis & experientiæ normam exigere non verear: Tamen nobis eorundem alioqui sacra est memoria, reuerenda dignitas, suspicienda eruditio, laudanda voluntas & in Rempub. literariam studium; Nouitij verò, si qui sunt id genus scriptores, aut verius pasquilli, cum ijs longè veriora quàm scripserant, audire & nosse de Islandia licuerit, sua leuitate & ingenio malè candido, nihil nisi inuidiæ & calumniæ maculam lucrati esse videbuntur. [Sidenote: Commentarij duæ partes.] Atque vt Commentarius hic noster aliquid ordinis habeat, duo erunt propositæ orationis capita, vnum de Insula, de incolis alterum: quantum quidem de his duobus capitibus Scriptores qui in nostris manibus versantur, annotatum reliquerunt: Quoniam vltra has metas vagari, vel plura quàm hæc ipsa, & quæ huc pertinere videbuntur attingere nolo. Non enim ex professo Historicum vel geographum sed disputatorem tantùm agimus. [Sidenote: Primæ partis tractatio.] Itaque omissa longiore præfatione partem primam, quæ est de situ, nomine, miraculis & alijs quibusdam adiunctis Insulæ, aggrediamur. The same im English. HERE BEGINNETH THE COMMENTARY OF ISLAND. Euen as in war, dayly experience teacheth vs, that some vpon no iust & lawful grounds (being egged on by ambition, enuie, and couetise) are induced to follow the armie, and on the contrary side, that others arme themselues vpon iust and necessary causes: namely such as go to battell for the defence and propagation of the Gospel, or such as being any way prouoked thereunto, doe withstand present violence and wrong, or at least (not being prouoked) by reason of the enemie approching are constrained to be vp in armes right so, they that fight vnder Apolloes banner. Amongst whom, a great part, not vpon any honest, philosophical, or indeede Christian intention, addresse themselues to wright: especially such as for desire of glory, for enuy and spight, or vpon malicious and affected ignorance, carpe at others: and that they may be accompted superiours, sometimes whette their stiles against the person, name and fame of this or that particular man, sometimes inueighing against a whole countrey, and by shamelesse vntrueths disgracing innocent nations and people. Againe, others of an ingenuous minde, doe by great industry, search and bring to light things profitable: namely, they that write of Diuinity, Philosophy, History and such like: and they who (taking vse and experience for their guides) in the said Sciences haue brought things obscure to light, things maimed to perfection, and things confused to order: and they that haue faithfully commended to euerlasting posteritie, the stories of the whole world: that by their infinite labours haue aduaunced the knowledge of tongues: to be short, that endeuour themselues to represse the insolencie, confute the slanders, and withstand the vniust violence of others, against themselues, their Nation or their Countrey: And I for my part, hauing scarce attained the sight of good letters, and being the meanest of all the followers of Minerua (that I may freely acknowledge mine owne wants) can do no lesse then become one of their number, who haue applied themselues to ridde their countrey from dishonor, to auouch the trueth, and to shake off the yoke of railers & reuilers. My estate enabled me onely to write; howbeit the excellencie of trueth and the in bred affection I beare to my countrey enforceth me to do the best I can: sithens it hath pleased some strangers by false rumours to deface, and by manifolde reproches to iniurie my sayd countrey, making it a by word, and a langhing-stocke to all other nations. To meet with whose insolencie and false accusations, as also to detect the errours of certeine writers concerning this Island, vnto good and well affected men (for the common people will be alwayes like themselues, stubbornly mainteining that which is false and foolish, neither can I hope to remooue them from this accustomed and stale opinion) I haue penned the treatise following. And albeit Island is not destitute of many excellent men, who, both in age, wit, and learning, are by many degrees my superiors, and therefore more fit to take the defence of the countrey into their hands: notwithstanding, being earnestly perswaded thereunto, by that godly & famous man Gudbrandus Thorlacius Bishop of Hola in Island, I thought good (to the vtmost of mine ability) to be no whit wanting vnto the common cause: both that I might obey his most reasonable request, and also that I might encourage other of my countreymen, who haue bene better trained vp in good learning, and indued with a greater measure of knowledge then I my selfe, to the defence of this our nation: so farre am I from hindering any man to vndertake the like enterprise. But to returne to the matter, because they (whatsoeuer they be) that reproch and maligne our nation, make their boast that they vse the testimonies of writers: we are seriously to consider, what things, and how true, writers haue reported of Island, to the end that if they haue giuen (perhaps) any occasion to others of inueying against vs, their errours being layd open (for I will not speake more sharpely) all the world may see how iustly they do reproch vs. And albeit I nothing doubt to examine some ancient writers of this Island, by the rule of trueth and experience: yet (otherwise) their memory is precious in our eyes, their dignity reuerend, their learning to be had in honour, and their zeale and affection towards the whole common wealth of learned men, highly to be commended: but as for nouices (if there be any such writers or rather pasquilles) when they shall heare and know truer matters concerning Island, then they themselues haue written, they shall seeme by their inconstancie and peruerse wit to haue gained nought else but a blacke marke of enuy and reproch. And that this commentarie of mine may haue some order, it shall be diuided into two general parts: the first of the Island, the second of the inhabitants: and of these two but so farfoorth as those writers which are come to our hands haue left recorded: because I am not determined to wander out of these lists, or to handle more then these things and some other which perteine vnto them. For I professe not my selfe an Historiographer, or Geographer, but onely a Disputer. Wherefore omitting a longer Preface, let vs come to the first part concerning the situation, the name, miracles, and certaine other adiuncts of this Iland. SECTIO PRIMA. [Sidenote: Munst. lib. 4. Cosmograph.] Insula Islandiæ, quæ per immensum à cæteris secreta longè sita est in Oceano, vixque à nauigantibus agnoscitur, &c. Et si hæc tractare, quæ ipsam terram vel illius adiuncta seu proprietates concernunt, ad gentem vel incolas à calumniantium morsu vindicandos parùm faciat: tamen id nequaquam omittendum videtur. Sed de his primùm, & quidem prolixiùs aliquantò agendum est, vt perspecto, quàm vera de hac re tradant illi Islandiæ scriptores, facilè inde candidus Lector, in ijs quæ de Incolis scripta reliquerant, quæque ab illis alij, tanquam Dijs prodentibus, acceperunt, vnde sua in gentem nostram ludibria depromi aiunt, quantum fidei mereantur, iudicet. Primum igitur distantiam Islandiæ à reliquis terris non immensam esse, nec tantam, quanta vulgò putatur, si quis insulæ longitudinem & latitudinem aliquo modo cognitam haberet, facilè demonstrari posset. Non enim id alio, quàm isto cognosci exactè posse modo existimarim, cum nulli dubium sit, quàm semper nautarum vel rectissimus, vt illis videtur, cursus aberret. Quare varias authorum de situ Islandiæ sententias subiungam, vt inde quiuis de distantia id colligat, quod maximè verisimile videbitur, donec fortè aliquando propria edoctus experientia, meam quoque sententiam si non interponam, tamen adiungam. Longit. Latitud. Munsterus Islandiam collocat sub gradibus ferè 20 68 Gerardus Mercator 352 68 Gemma Frisius: Medium Islandiæ: 7 0 65 30 Hersee: 7 40 60 42 Thirtes: 5 50 64 44 Nadar: 6 40 57 20 Iacobi Ziegleri: Littus Islandiæ Occident. 20 63 Chos promontorium: 22 46 63 Latus orientale extenditur contra Septentrionem: & finis extensionis habet 30 68 Latus septentrionale contra occidentem extenditur, & finis extensionis habet 28 69 Lateris Occidentalis descriptio. Heckelfel promontorium 25 67 Madher promontorium 21 20 65 10 Ciuitates in ea mediterraneæ sunt Holen Episcopalis 28 67 50 Schalholten Episcopalis 22 63 30 Reinholdus. Per Holen Islandiæ 68 Ioh. Myritius. Per Med. Islandiæ 69 Neander. Islandia tribus gradibus in circulum vsque Arcticum ab æquinoctiali excurrit, adeò ferè, vt mediam circulus ille secet, &c. Et si qui sunt præterea, qui vel in mappis, vel alioqui suis scriptis Insulæ situm notarunt, quorum plures sententias referre nihil attinet, cùm quò plures habeas, eò magis dissidentes reperias. Ego quamuis verisimiles coniecturas habeo, cur nullæ citatæ de Islandiæ situ sententiæ assentiar, quin potius diuersum quippiam ab ijs omnibus statuam, tamen id ipsum in dubio relinquere malo, quàm quicquam non exploratum satis affirmare, donec, vt dixi, fortè aliquando non coniecturam, sed obseruationem & experientiam propriam afferre liceat. [Sidenote: Bidui nauigatio ab Islandia ad Noruagiam desertam.] Distantiam ab ostio Albis ad portum Istandiæ meridionalis Batzende, quidam scripserat esse circiter 400. milliarium: Vnde si longitudinis differentiam ad meridianum Hamburgensem supputaueris, nullam modò positarum longitudinum habebit illo in loco Islandia. Ego ternis Hamburgensium nauigationibus docere possum, septimo die Hamburgum ex Islandia peruentum esse. Præterea etiam, Insulæ quæ ab ouium multitudine Færeyjar, seu rectius Faareyjar dictæ sunt, bidui nauigatione, vt & littora Noruagiæ deserta distant. Quatridui verò nauigatione in Gronlandiam habitabilem, & pari ferè temporis interuallo, ad prouinciam Noruagiæ Stad. inter opida Nidrosiam & Bergas sitam peruenitur, quemadmodum in harum nationum vetustis codicibus reperimus. The same in English. THE FIRST SECTION. [Sidenote: Munsterus lib. 4. cosmographiæ] The Isle of Island being seuered from other countreys an infinite distance, standeth farre into the Ocean, and is scarse knowen vnto Sailers. Albeit a discourse of those things which concerne the land, and the adiuncts or properties thereof be of little moment to defend the nation or inhabitants from the biting of slanderers, yet seemeth it in no case to be omitted, but to be intreated of in the first place; that the friendly reader perceiuing how truely those writers of Island haue reported in this respect, may thereby also easily iudge what credit is to be giuen vnto them in other matters which they haue left written concerning the inhabitants, and which others haue receiued from them as oracles, from whence (as they say) they haue borrowed scoffes and taunts against our nation. First therefore, that the distance of Island from other countreys is not infinite, nor indeed so great as men commonly imagine, it might easily be prouided, if one did but in some sort know the true longitude & latitude of the said Iland. For I am of opinion that it cannot exactly be knowen any other way then this, whenas it is manifest how the Mariners course (be it neuer so direct, as they suppose) doth at all times swerue. In the meane while therfore I will set downe diuers opinions of authors, concerning the situation of Island, that from hence euery man may gather that of the distance which seemeth most probable, vntil perhaps my selfe being one day taught by mine owne experience, may, if not intrude, yet at least adioin, what I shal thinke true as touching this matter. [Footnote: The real position of Iceland is 700 miles west of Norway, 200 miles east of Greenland, and 320 miles north-west of the Faroe Islands. It lies between latitude 63° 25 and 66° 32 north and longitude 13° 30' and 24° 30' west; length east to west 280 miles; breadth 210 miles. It will be thus seen that while Frisius is nearly right in his latitude, Gerard Mercator is considerably out. As regards the longitude, whilst Munster's estimate is converted to the standard of Greenwich, Mercator's reckoning is from Copenhagen or Hamburg, and Frisius has reckoned east of Reikiavik or Skallholt.] Longit. Latitud. deg min. deg min. Munster placeth Island almost in 20 68 Gerardus Mercator 325 68 Gemma Frisius placeth the midst of Island 7 0 65 30 Hersee 7 40 60 42 Thirtes 5 50 64 44 Nadar 6 40 57 10 Iacobus Zieglerus The West shore of Island 20 0 63 0 The promontorie of Chos 22 46 63 0 The East shore is extended Northward, and hath bounds of extension in 30 0 68 0 The North shore is extended Westward and hath bounds of extension in 28 0 69 0 The description of the West side The promontorie of Heckelfell 25 0 67 0 The promontorie of Madher 21 20 65 10 The inland cities of Island Holen the seat of a bishop 28 0 67 50 Schalholten the seat of a bishop 22 63 30 Reinholdus By Holen in Island 68 Iohannes Miritius By Mid-Island 69-1/2 Neander Island stretcheth it selfe 3 degrees within the circle arctic from the equinoctial, insomuch that the said circle arctic doeth almost diuide it in the midst &c. There be others also, who either in their maps, or writings haue noted the situation of Island: notwithstanding it is to no purpose to set downe any more of their opinions, because the more you haue, the more contrary shall you finde them. For my part, albeit I haue probable coniectures perswading me not to beleeue any of the former opinions, concerning the situation of Island, but to dissent from them all: yet had I rather leaue the matter in suspense then affirme an vncerteinty, vntill (as I haue sayd) I may be able perhappes one day not to gesse at the matter, but to bring forth mine owne obseruation, and experience. [Sidenote: Seuen dayes sailing from Island to Hamburg Island but two dayes sailing distant from Faar-Islands & from the desert shores of Norway.] A certeine writer hath put downe the distance betweene the mouth of Elbe & Batzende in the South part of Island to be 400 leagues: from whence if you shall account the difference of longitude to the meridian of Hamburgh, Island must haue none of the forenamed longitudes in that place. I am able to proue by three sundry voyages of certaine Hamburgers, that it is but seuen dayes sailing from Island to Hamburgh. Besides all those Islands, which by reason of the abundance of sheepe, are called Fareyiar or more rightly Faareyiar,[Footnote: Faroe Islands.] as likewise the desert shores of Norway, are distant from vs but two dayes sailing. We haue foure dayes sailing into habitable Gronland; and almost in the same quantitie of time we passe ouer to the prouince of Norway, called Stad, lying betweene the townes of Nidrosia or Trondon, [Footnote: Trondheim.] and Bergen, as we finde in the ancient records of these nations. SECTIO SECUNDA. [Sidenote: Munsterus, Olaus magnus & reliqui.] In hac, æstiuo solstitio, sole signum Cancri transeunte, nox nulla, brumali Solstitio proinde nullus dies. Item, Vadianus. In ea autem Insula quæ longe Supra Arcticum circulum in amplissimo Oceano sita est, Islandia hodie dicta, & terris congelati maris proxima, quas Entgronlandt vocant, menses sunt plures sine noctibus. Nullum esse hyemali solstitio diem, id est, tempus quo sol supra horizontem conspicitur in illo tantum Islandiæ angulo, si modò quis est, fatemur, vbi polus ad integros 67. gradus attollitur. Holis autem, quæ est sedes Episcopalis Borealis Islandiæ, sita etiam in angustissima & profundissima conualle, latitudo est circiter grad. 65. 44. min. vt à Domino Gudbrando eiusdem loci Episcopo accepimus, & illic diem breuissimum habemus ad minimum duarum horarum, in meridionali autem Islandia longiorem, vt ex artificum tabulis videre est. Vnde constat nec Islandiam vltra Arcticum circulum positam esse, nec menses plures noctibus in æstiuo, vel diebus in brumali solstitio carere. The same in English. THE SECOND SECTION. [Sidenote: Munsterus, Olaus Magnus and others.] In this Iland, at the Summer solstitium, the Sun passing thorow the signe of Cancer, there is no night, and therefore at the Winter solstitium there is no day. Also: Vadianus. But in that Iland, which farre within the artic circle is seated in the maine Ocean, at this day called Island, and next vnto the lands of the frozen sea, which they call Engrontland, there be many moneths in the yere without nights. At the solstitium of winter, that there is no day (that is to say, no time, wherein the Sunne is seene aboue the horizon) we confesse to be true onely in that angle of Island (if there be any such angle) where the pole is eleuated full 67. degrees. But at Holen (which is the bishops seat for the North part of Island, and lieth in a most deepe valley) the latitude is about 65. degrees and 44. minutes, as I am enformed by the reuerend father, Gudbrand, bishop of that place: and yet there, the shortest day in all the yere is at least two houres long, and in South-Island longer, as it appeareth by the tables of Mathematicians. [Sidenote: Island is not within the circle arctic.] Heerehence it is manifest, first that Island is not situate beyond the arctic circle: [Footnote: This is true, except for the very small portion of Iceland round about Cape North.] secondly, that in Island there are not wanting in Summer solstitium many nights, nor in Winter solstitium many dayes. SECTIO TERTIA. [Sidenote: Musterus Saxo.] Nomen habet à glacie quæ illi perpetuo ad Boream adheret Item. A latere Occidentali Noruagiæ Insula, quæ Glacialis dicitur, magno circumfusa Oceano repentur, obsoletæ admodum habitationis tellus, &c. Item, Hæc est Thyle, nulli veterum non celebrata. Nomen habet à glacie) Tria nomina consequenter sortita est Islandia. [Sidenote: Snelandia.] Nam qui omnium primus eius inuentor fuisse creditur Naddocus genere Noruagus, cum versus insulas Farenses nauigaret tempestate valida, ad littora Islandiæ Orientalis fortè appulit: vbi cum fuisset aliquot septimanas cum socijs commoratus, animaduertit immodicam niuium copiam, montium quorundam cacumina obtegentem, atque ideò à niue nomen Insulæ Snelandia indidit. Hunc secutus alter, Gardarus, fama quam de Islandia Naddocus attulerat impulsus, Insulam quæsitum abijt, reperit, & nomen de suo nomine Gardarsholme id est, Gardars Insula imposuit. Quin & plures nouam terram visendi cupido incessit: nam & post illos duos adhuc tertius quidam Noruagus (Floki nomen habuit) contulit se in Islandiam, illique à glacie qua viderat ipsam cingi nomen fecit. Obsoletæ admodum) Ego ex istis verbis Saxonis hanc sententiam nequaquam eruo, vt quidam, quòd inde ab initio habitatam esse Islandiam, seu vt verbo dicam, Islandos autocthonas dicat, cum constet vix ante annos 718. incoli coeptam. Hæc est Thyle) Grammatici certant & adhuc sub iudice lis est. Quam tamen facilè dirimi posse crediderim, si quis animaduertat, circa annum Domini 874. primùm fuisse inhabitatam. Nisi quis dicere velit Thulen illum Ægypti Regem, quem hoc ipsi nomen dedisse putant, ad Insulam iam tum incultam & inhabitatam penetrasse. Illud verò rursus si quis neget, per me sanè licebit, vt illud sit quaddam quasi spectaculum, dum ita in contrarias scinduntur sententias. Vnus affirmat esse Islandiam. Alter quandam insulam, vbi arbores bis in anno fructificant. Tertius vnam ex Orcadibus, siue vitimam in ditione Scoti, vt Ioannes Myritius & alij, qui nomen illius referunt, Thylensey, quod etiam Virgilius per suam vltimam Thylen sensisse videtur. Siquidem vltra Britannos, quo nomine Angli hodie dicti & Scoti veniunt, nullos populos statueret. Quod vel ex illo Virgilij Eclog I. apparet: Et penitus toto diuisos orbe Britannos. Quartus vnam ex Farensibus. Quintus Telemarchiam Noruagiæ. Sextus Schrichfinniam. Perpetuò ad Boream adhæret.) Illud verò, Glaciem Insulæ perpetuò, vel vt paulò post asserit Munsterus: Octo continuis mensibus adhærere: neutrum verum est. [Sidenote: Glacies Aprili aut Maio soluitur.] Nam vt plurimum in mense Aprili aut Maio soluitur, & Occidentem versus propellitur, nec ante Ianuarium aut Februarium sæpissimè etiam tardius redit. Quid? quòd plurimos annos numerare licet, quibus glaciem illam huius nationis immite flagellum, ne viderit quidem Islandia: Quod etiam hoc anno 1592. compertum est. Vnde constat quàm verè à Frisio scriptum sit, nauigationem ad hanc insulam tantùm quadrimestrem patere, propter glaciem & frigora, quibus intercludatur iter, Cùm Anglicæ naues quotannis nunc in Martio, nunc in Aprili, quædam in Maio, Germanorum & Danorum in Maio & Iunio, plærumque ad nos redeant, & harum quædam non ante Augustum iterum hinc soluunt. Superiore autem anno 1591. quædam nauis Germanica, cupro onusta, portum Islandiæ Vopnafiord 14. dies circiter in Nouembri occupauit, quibus lapsis inde foeliciter soluit Quare cum glacies Islandiæ, nec perpetuò, neque octo mensibus adhæreat, Munsterus & Frisius manifestè falluntur. The same in English. THE THIRD SECTION. It is named of the ice which continually cleaueth vnto the North part thereof. [Sidenote: Munsterus Saxo] Another writeth: From the West part of Norway there lieth an Iland which is named of the ice, enuironed with an huge sea, and being a countrey of ancient habitation, &c. Zieglerus. This is Thyle [Footnote: Thule] whereof most of the ancient writers haue made mention. It is named of ice, &c. Island hath beene called by three names, one after another. [Sidenote: Island first discouered by Naddocus in a tempest.] For one Naddocus a Noruagian borne, who is thought to be the first Discouerer of the same, as he was sailing towards the Faar-Ilands, [Footnote: Faroe Islands.] through a violent tempest did by chance arriue at the East shore of Island; [Sidenote: Sneland.] where staying with his whole company certaine weeks, he beheld abundance of snow couering the tops of the mountaines, and thereupon, in regard of the snow, called this Iland Sneland. [Sidenote: Gardarsholme] After him one Gardarus, being mooued thereunto by the report which Naddocus gaue out concerning Island, went to seeke the sayd Iland who when he had found it, called it after his owne name Gardars-holme, that is to say, Gardars Ile. There were more also desirous to visit this new land. [Sidenote: Island.] For after the two former a certaine third Noruagian, called Flok, went into Island, and named it of the ice, wherewith he saw it enuironed. Of ancient habitation &c. I gather not this opinion out of these wordes of Saxo (as some men do) that Island hath bene inhabited from the beginning or (to speake in one word) that the people of Island were autochthones, that is, earth-bred, or bred out of their owne soile like vnto trees and herbs: sithens it is euident that this Island scarse began to be inhabited no longer agoe then about 718 yeres since. [Footnote: The Viking Naddodr is said to have discovered Iceland in 860, and it was colonised by Ingulf, a chieftain from the west coast of Norway.] This is Thyle, &c. Grammarians wrangle about this name, and as yet the controuersie is not decided. Which notwithstanding, I thinke might easily grow to composition, if men would vnderstand that this Iland was first inhabited about the yeere of our Lord 874. Vnlesse some man will say that Thule King of Ægypt (who, as it is thought, gaue this name thereunto) passed so farre vnto an Iland, which was at that time vntilled, and destitute of inhabitants. Againe, if any man will denie this, he may for all me, that it may seeme to be but a dreame, while they are distracted into so many contrary opinions. One affirmes that it is Island: another, that it is a certeine Iland, where trees beare fruit twise in a yeere: the third, that it is one of the Orcades, or the last Iland of the Scotish dominion, as Iohannes Myritius and others, calling it by the name of Thylensey, which Virgil also seemeth to haue meant by his vltima Thyle. If beyond the Britans (by which name the English men and Scots onely at this day are called) he imagined none other nation to inhabit. Which is euident out of that verse of Virgil in his first Eclogue: And Britans whole from all the world diuided. The fourth writeth, that it is one of the Faar-Ilands: the fift, that it is Telemark in Norway: the sixt, that it is Scrichfinnia. [Sidenote: The ice of Iseland sets always to the West.] Which continually cleaueth to the North part of the Iland. That clause that ice continually cleaueth &c. or as Munster affirmeth a little after, that it cleaueth for the space of eight whole moneths, are neither of them both true, when as for the most part the ice is thawed in the moneth of April or May, and is driuen towards the West: neither doth it returne before Ianuarie or Februarie, nay often times it commeth later. [Sidenote: No ice at all some yeres in Island.] What if a man should recken vp many yeeres, wherein ice (the sharpe scourge of this our nation) hath not at all bene seene about Island? which was found to be true this present yeere 1592. Heereupon it is manifest how truely Frisius hath written that nauigation to this Iland lieth open onely for foure moneths in a yeere, and no longer, by reason of the ice and colde, whereby the passage is shut vp, when as English ships euery yere, sometimes in March, sometimes in April, and some of them in May; the Germans and Danes, in May and Iune, doe vsually returne vnto vs, and some of them depart not againe from hence till August. [Sidenote: Nauigation open to Island from March till the midst of Nouember.] But the last yere, being 1591, there lay a certeine shippe of Germanie laden with Copper within the hauen of Vopnafiord in the coast of Island about fourteene dayes in the moneth of Nouember, which time being expired, she fortunately set saile. Wherefore, seeing that ice, neither continually, nor yet eight moneths cleaueth vnto Iland, Munster and Frisius are much deceiued. [Footnote: The mean temperature of Iceland is said to be 40 degrees.] SECTIO QUARTA [Sidenote: Kranzius. Munsterus.] Tam grandis Insula, vt populos multos contineat. Item, Zieglerus. Situs Insulæ extenditur inter austrum & boream ducentorum prope Schænorum longitudine. Grandis.) Wilstenius quidam, rector Scholæ OLDENBVRGENSIS Anno 1591. ad auunculum meum in Islandia Occidentali misit breuem commentarium, quem ex scriptorum rapsodijs de Islandia collegerat. Vbi sic reperimus Islandia duplo maior Sicilia,&c. Sicilia autem secundum Munsterum 150. milliaria Germanica in ambitu habet. [Sidenote: Magnitudo Islandiæ.] Nostræ verò Insulæ ambitus etsi nobis non est exactè cognitus, tamen vetus & constans opinio, & apud nostrates recepta 144. milliaria numerat per duodecim videlicet promontoria Islandiæ insigniora, quæ singula 12. inter se milliaribus distent, aut circiter, quæ collecta prædictam summam ostendunt. Populos multos.) Gysserus quidam, circa annum Domini 1090, Episcopus Schalholtensts in Islandia, omnes Insulæ colonos seu rusticos qui tantas facultates possiderent, vt regi tributum soluere tenerentur (reliquis pauperibus cum foeminis & promiscuo vulgo omissis) lustrari curauit, reperítque in parte Insulæ Orientali 700, meridionali 1000, Occidentali 1100, Aquilonari 1200. Summa 4000. colonorum tributa soluentium. Iam si quis experiatur, inueniet Insulam plus dimidio fuisse inhabitatam. The same in English. THE FOURTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Krantzius. Munsterus.] The Iland is so great that it conteineth many people. Item Zieglerus sayth: The situation of the Iland is extended betweene the South and the North almost 200 leagues in length. So great, &c. One Wilstenius schoolemaster of Oldenburg, in the yere 1591, sent vnto mine Vncle in West Island, a short treatise which he had gathered out of the fragments of sundrie writers, concerning Island. Where we found thus written: Island is twise as great as Sicilie, &c. But Sicilie, according to Munster, hath 150. Germaine miles in compasse. [Sidenote: 144. Germaine miles in compasse.] As for the circuit of our Iland, although it be not exactly knowen vnto vs, yet the ancient, constant, and receiued opinion of the inhabitants accounteth it l44 leagues; namely by the 12 promontories of Iland, which are commonly knowen, being distant one from another 12 leagues or thereabout, which two numbers being mulitplied, produce the whole summe. [Footnote: The exact area is 39,737 square miles.] Many people, &c. One Gysserus about the yere of our Lord 1090, being bishop of Schalholten in Island, caused all the husbandmen, or countreymen of the Iland, who, in regard of their possessions were bound to pay tribute to the king, to be numbred (omitting the poorer sort with women, and the meaner sort of the communally) and he found in the East part of Island 700, in the South part 1000, in the West part 1100, in the North part 1200, to the number of 4000. inhabitants paying tribute. Now if any man will trie, he shall finde that more then halfe the Iland was at that time vnpeopled. [Footnote: In 1875 the population was 69,800.] SECTIO QUINTA. [Sidenote: Munst. Frisius, Ziegler] Insula multa sui parte montosa est & inculta. Qua parte autem plana est præstat plurimum pabulo, tam læto, vt pecus depellatur à pascuis, ne ab aruina suffocetur. Id suffocationis periculum nullo testimomo, nec nostra nec patrum nostrorum, vel quàm longè retro numeraris, memoria confirmari potest. The same in English. THE FIFTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Munster. Frisius. Zieglerus.] The Iland, most part thereof, is mountainous and vntilled But that part which is plaine doth greatly abound with fodder, which is so ranke, that they are faine to driue their cattell from the pasture, least they surfet or be choaked. That danger of surfetting or choaking was neuer heard tell of, in our fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers or any of our predecessours dayes, be they neuer so ancient. [Footnote: In the tenth and eleventh centuries, corn and other crops seem to have been raised in considerable quantities, but at present only small crops of potatoes, turnips, and cabbages are grown. The pastures are good, and many horses, cattle, and sheep are reared.] SECTIO SEXTA. [Sidenote: Munst. Frisius.] Sunt in hac Insula montes elati in coelum, quorum vertices perpetua niue candent, radices sempiterno igne æstuant. Primus Occidentem versus est, qui vocatur Hecla, alter crucis, tertius Helga. Item Zieglerus. Rupes siue promontorium Hecla æstuans perpetuis ignibus. Item Saxo. In hac itidem Insula mons est, qui rupem sideream perpetuæ flagrationis æstibus imitatus, incendia sempiterna iugi flammarum eructatione continuat. Miracula Islandiæ Munsterus & Frisius narraturi mox in vestibulo, magno suo cum incommodo impingunt. Nam quod hic de monte Hecla asserunt, etsi aliquam habet veritatis speciem, tamen quod idem de duobus alijs montibus perpetuo igne æstuantibus dicunt, manifestè erroneum est. Illi enim in Islandia non extant, nec quicquam, quod huic tanto scriptorum errori occasionem dederit, imaginari possumus. Facta tamen est, sed nunc demum Anno 1581. ex monte quodam australis Islandiæ, maritimo, perpetuis niuibus & glacie obducto memorabilis fumi ac flammæ eruptio, magna saxorum ac cineris copia eiecta. Cæterum ille mons longe est ab his tribus, quos authores commemorant, diuersissimus. Porro etsi hæc de montibus ignitis maximè vera narrarent, annon naturaliter ista contingerent? An ad extruendam illam, quæ mox in Munstero, Zieglero & Frisio sequitur, de orco Islandico opinionem aliquid faciunt? Ego sanè nefas esse duco, his vel similibus naturæ miraculis ab absurda asserenda abuti, vel hæc tanquam impossibilia cum quadam impietate mirari. Quasi verò non concurrant in huiusmodi incendijs causæ ad hanc rem satis validæ. Est in horum montium radicibus materia vri aptissima, nempe sulphurea & bituminosa. Accedit aër per poros ac cauernas in terræ viscera ingressus, ac illum maximi incendij fomitem exsufflans vnà cum nitro, qua exsufflatione tanquam follibus quibusdam, ardentissima excitatur flamma. Habet siquidem ignis, his ita conacnientibus, quæ tria ad vrendum sunt necessaria, materiam scilicet, motum, & tandem penetrandi facultatem: Materiam quidem pinguem & humidam ideoque flammas diuturnas alentem: Motum præstat per terræ cauernas admissus aër: Penetrandi facultatem facit ignis vis inuicta, sine respiraculo esse nescientis, & incredibili conatu violenter erumpentis, atque ita (non secus ac in cuniculis machinisue seu tormentis bellicis, globi è ferro maximi, magno cum fragore ac strepitu, à sulphure & nitro, è quibus pyrius puluis conficitur, excitato, eijciuntur) lapides & Saxa in ista voragine ignita, ceu quodam camino, collique facta cum immodica arenæ & cinerum copia, exspuentis & eiaculantis, idque vt plurimum, non sine terræmotu: qui si secundum profunditatem terræ fiat, succussio à Possidoneo appellatur vel hiatus erit, vel pulsus. Hiatu terra dehiscit: pulsu eleuatur intumescens, & nonunquam, vt inquit Plinius [Sidenote: Lib. 2. cap. 20.], motes magnas egerit: Cuiusmodi terræmotus iam mentionem fecimus, maritima Islandiæ Australis Anno 1581 infestantis quíque à Pontano his verbis scitissimè describitur. Ergo incerta ferens raptim vestigia, anhelus Spiritus incursat, nunc huc, nunc percitus illuc, Explorátque abitum insistens, & singula tentat, Si qua forte queat victis erumpere claustris. Interea tremit ingentem factura ruinam Terra, suis quatiens latas cum moenibus vrbes: Dissiliunt auulsa iugis immania saxa, &c. Hæc addere libuit, non quòd cuiquam hæc ignota esse existimemus; sed ne nos alij ignorare credant, atque ideo ad suas fabulas, quas hinc extruunt, confugere velle. Cæterum video quid etiamnum admirationem non exiguam scriptoribus moueat, in his, quos ignoranter fingunt, tribus Islandiæ montibus, videlicet cum eorum basin semper ardere dicant, summitates tamen nunquam niue careant. Porrò id admirari, est præter authoritatem tantorum virorum, quibus Ætnæ incendium optimè notum erat, quæ, cùm secundum Plinium hybernis temporibus niualis sit, noctibus tamen, eodem teste, semper ardet. Quare etiam secundum illos, ille mons, cum adhac niuium copia obducitur, & tamen ardeat sordidarum animarum quoque erit receptaculum: id quod Heclæ propter niues in summo vertice & basin æstuantem, adscribere non dubitarunt. [Sidenote: Cardanus.] Vix autem mirum esse potest, quòd ignis montis radicibus latens, & nunquam, nisi rarissimè erumpens, excelsa montis cacumina, quæ niuibus obducuntur, non collique faciat. Nam & in Caira, altissima montis cacumina niuibus semper candentia esse perhibentur: & in Beragua quidem similiter, sed 5000 passuum in coelum elata, quæ niuibus nunquam liberentur, cum tamen partibus tantum decem ab æquatore distent. Vtrámque hanc prouinciam iuxta Pariam esse sitam accepimus. Quid? quod illa Teneriffæ (quæ vna, est ex insulis Canarijs, quæ & fortunatæ) pyramis, secundum Munsterum, 8 aut 9 milliarium Germanicorum altitudine in aëra assurgens, atque instar Ætnæ iugiter conflagrans, niues, quibus media cingitur, teste Benzone Italo, Indiæ occidentalis Historico, non resoluit. Quod ipsum in nostra Hecla quid est, quod magis miremur? Atque hæc ita breuiter de incendijs montanis. Nunc illud quoque castigandum arbitramur, quod hos montes in coelum vsque attolli scribant. Habent enim nullam præ cæteris Islandiæ montibus notabilem altitudinem. Precipuè tertius ille Helga à Munstero appellatus, nobis Helgafel. i. Sacer mons, apud monasterium eiusdem nominis, nulla sui parts tempore æstiuo nimbus obductus, nec montis excelsi, sed potius collis humilis nomen meretur, nunquam, vt initio huius sectionis dixi, de incendio suspectus. Nec verò perpetuæ niues Heclæ, vel paucis alijs adscribi debebant: Permultos enim habet eiusmodi montes niuosos Islandia, quos omnes vel toto anno, non facilè collegerit aut connumerarit, horum prædicator & admirator Cosmographus. Quin etiam id non negligendum, quod mons Hecla non occidentem versus, vt à Munstero & Zieglero annotatum est, sed inter meridiem & orientem positus sit. Nec promontorium est: sed mons ferè mediterraneus. [Sidenote: Annales Islandiæ.] Incendia perpetua ragi, &c. Quicunque perpetuam flammarum cructationem Heclæ adscripserunt, toto coelo errarunt, adeò, vt quoties flammas eructarit, nostrates in annales retulerint, viz. anno Christi 1104. 1157. 1222. 1300. 1341. 1362. & 1389. Neque enim ab illo de montis incendio audire licuit, vsque ad annum 1558. quæ vltima fuit in illo monte eruptio. Interea non nego, fieri posse, quin mons infernè latentes intus flammas & incendia alat, quæ videlicet statis interuallis, vt hactenus annotatum est, eruperint, aut etiam forte posthac erumpant. The same in English. THE SIXTH SECTION [Sidenote: Monsterus. Frisius.] There be in this Iland mountaines lift vp to the skies, whose tops being white with perpetuall snowe, their roots boile with euerlasting fire. The first is towards the West, called Hecla: the other the mountaine of the crosse: and the third Helga. Item Zieglerus. The rocke or promontone of Hecla boileth with continuall fire. Item: Saxo. There is in this Iland also a mountaine, which resembling the starrie firmament, with perpetuall flashings of fire, continueth alwayes burning, by vncessant belching out of flames. Munster and Frisius being about to report the woonders of Island doe presently stumble, as it were, vpon the thresholde, to the great inconuenience of them both. For that which they heere affirme of mount Hecla, although it hath some shew of trueth: notwithstanding concerning the other two mountaines, that they should burne with perpetuall fire, it is a manifest errour. For there are no such mountaines to be found in Island, nor yet any thing els (so farre foorth as wee can imagine) which might minister occasion of so great an errour vnto writers. Howbeit there was seene (yet very lately) in the yeere 1581 out of a certaine mountaine of South Island lying neere the Sea, and couered ouer with continuall snow and frost, a marueilous eruption of smoke and fire, casting vp abundance of stones and ashes. But this mountaine is farre from the other three, which the sayd authours doe mention. Howbeit, suppose that these things be true which they report of firie mountaines: is it possible therefore that they should seeme strange, or monstrous, whenas they proceed from naturall causes? What? Doe they any whit preuaile to establish that opinion concerning the hell of Island, which followeth next after in Munster, Ziegler, and Frisius? For my part, I thinke it no way tollerable, that men should abuse these, and the like miracles of nature, to auouch absurdities, or, that they should with a kinde of impietie woonder at them, as at matters impossible. As though in these kindes of inflammations, there did not concurre causes of sufficient force for the same purpose. There is in the rootes of these mountaines a matter most apt to be set on fire, comming so neere as it doeth to the nature of brimstone and pitch. There is ayer also which insinuating it selfe by passages, and holes, into the very bowels of the earth, doeth puffe vp the nourishment of so huge a fire, together with Salt-peter, by which puffing (as it were with certeine bellowes) a most ardent flame is kindled. [Sidenote: Three naturall causes of firie mountaines.] For, all these thus concurring fire hath those three things, which necessarily make it burne, that is to say, matter, motion, and force of making passage: matter which is fattie and moyst, and therefore nourisheth lasting flames: motion which the ayer doeth performe, being admitted into the caues of the earth: force of making passage, and that the inuincible might of fire it selfe (which can not be without inspiration of ayre, and can not but breake foorth with an incredible strength) doeth bring to passe: and so (euen as in vndermining trenches and engines or great warrelike ordinance, huge yron bullets are cast foorth with monstrous roaring, and cracking, by the force of kindled Brimstone, and Salt-peeter, whereof Gunne-powder is compounded) chingle and great stones being skorched in that fiery gulfe, as it were in a furnace, together with abundance of sande and ashes, are vomitted vp and discharged, and that for the most part not without an earthquake which, if it commeth from the depth of the earth, (being called by Possidonius, Succussio) it must either be either an opening or a quaking. Opening causeth the earth in some places to gape, and fall a sunder. By quaking the earth is heaued vp and swelleth, and sometimes (as Plinie saith) [Sidenote: Lib. 20. cap. 20.] casteth out huge heaps: such an earth-quake was the same which I euen now mentioned, which in the yere 1581 did so sore trouble the South shore of Island. And this kinde of earth-quake is most clearkely described by Pontanus in these verses: The stirrng breath runnes on with stealing steppes, vrged now vp, and now enforced downe: For freedome eke tries all, it skips, it leaps, to ridde it selfe from vncouth dungeon. Then quakes the earth as it would burst anon, The earth yquakes, and walled cities quiuer. Strong quarries cracke, and stones from hilles doe shiuer. I thought good to adde these things, not that I suppose any man to be ignorant thereof: but least other men should thinke that we are ignorant, and therefore that we will runne after their fables, which they do from hence establish. But yet there is somewhat more in these three famed mountaines of Island, which causeth the sayd writers not a little to woonder, namely whereas they say that their foundations are alwayes burning, and yet for all that, their toppes be neuer destitute of snowe. Howbeit, it beseemeth not the authority and learning of such great clearks to marueile at this, who can not but well know the flames of mount Aetna, which (according to Plinie) being full of snowe all Winter, notwithstanding (as the same man witnesseth) it doth alwayes burne. Wherefore, if we will giue credit vnto them, euen this mountaine also, sithens it is couered with snowe, and yet burneth, must be a prison of vncleane soules: which thing they haue not doubted to ascribe vnto Hecla, in regard of the frozen top, and the fine bottome. And it is no marueile that fire lurking so deepe in the roots of a mountaine, and neuer breaking forth except it be very seldome, should not be able continually to melt the snowe couering the toppe of the sayd mountaine. [Sidenote: Cardanus] For in Caira (or Capira) also, the highest toppes of the mountaine are sayd continually to be white with snowe: and those in Veragua likewise, which are fiue miles high, and neuer without snowe, being distant notwithstanding but onely 10 degrees from the equinoctiall. We haue heard that either of the forsayd Prouinces standeth neere vnto Paria. What, if in Teneriffa (which is one of the Canarie or fortunate Islands) the Pike [Footnote: The Peak.] so called, arising into the ayre, according to Munster, eight or nine Germaine miles in height, and continually flaming like Aetna: yet (as Benzo an Italian, and Historiographer of the West Indies witnesseth) is it not able to melt the girdle of snowe embracing the middest thereof. Which thing, what reason haue we more to admire in the mountaine of Hecla? And thus much briefly concerning firie mountaines. Now that also is to be amended, whereas they write that these mountaines are lifted vp euen vnto the skies. For they haue no extraordinarie height beyond the other mountaines of Island, but especially that third mountaine, called by Munster Helga, and by vs Helgafel, that is the holy mount, standing iust by a monastery of the same name, being couered with snowe, vpon no part thereof in Summer time, neither deserueth it the name of an high mountaine, but rather of an humble hillocke, neuer yet as I sayd in the beginning of this section, so much as once suspected of burning. Neither yet ought perpetuall snowe to be ascribed to Hecla onely, or to a few others; for Island hath very many such snowy mountaines, all which the Cosmographer (who hath so extolled and admired these three) should not easily find out, and reckon vp in a whole yere. And that also is not to be omitted, that mount Hecla standeth not towards the West, as Munster and Ziegler haue noted, but betweene the South and the East: neither is it an headland, but rather a mid-land hill. [Sidenote: The chronicles of Island.] Continueth alwayes burning &c. whosoeuer they be that haue ascribed vnto Hecla perpetuall belching out of flames, they are farre besides the marke: insomuch that as often as it hath bene enflamed, our countreymen haue recorded it in their yerely Chronicles for a rare accident: namely in the yeeres of Christ 1104, 1157, 1222, 1300, 1341, 1362, and 1389: For from that yeere we neuer heard of the burning of this mountaine vntill the yeere 1558, which was the last breaking foorth of fire in that mountaine. In the meane time I say not that is impossible, but that the bottome of the hill may inwardly breed and nourish flames, which at certaine seasons (as hath bene heretofore obserued) haue burst out, and perhaps may do the like hereafter. [Footnote: The surface of the country is very mountainous, but there are no definite ranges, the isolated volcanic masses being separated by elevated plateaux of greater or less size. The whole centre is, in fact, an almost continuous desert fringed by a belt of pasture land, lying along the coast and running up the valleys of several of the greater riuers. This desert is occupied partly by snow mountains and glaciers, partly by enormous lava streams, partly by undulating plains of black volcanic sand, shingle, and loose stones. This region is of course without verdure, and entirely uninhabited. The rocks are all of igneous origin, but of very different ages, traps, basalts, amygdaloids, tufas, ochres, and porous lavas. The number of active volcanoes is, at present, not great, but hot springs and mud volcanoes testify to the existence of volcanic action along a line running from the extreme south west at Cape Reykjanes to the north coast near Husavik. The only recent well ascertained eruptions have been from Hecla, Aotlugja, Skaptar Vokul, and (in 1874-5) from the mountains to the south-east of Myratu Lake. The eruption of Skaptar in 1783 is the greatest anywhere on record in respect of the quantity of lava and ashes ejected. Earthquakes are not unfrequent. The greatest mountain group is the Vatna or Klofa Yokul, on the south coast, a mass of snow and ice covering many hundred square miles, and sending down prodigious glaciers which almost reach the sea. From one of these a torrent issues, little more than a hundred yards long, and a mile and a half broad. The line of perpetual snow ranges from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. The loftiest summits of this great mountain mass have never been ascended, but the highest point is believed to be the Orefa Yolcal, 6,405 feet. The other considerable peaks in different parts of the island are Herdubreidr (an extinct volcano), 5,290 feet, Eyjafjalla Yokul, 5,579 feet, Snæfels Yokul, 5,965 feet, and Hecla, 5,095 feet.] SECTIO SEPTIMA. [Sidenote: Frisius. Munst.] Montis Heclæ flamma nec stuppam lucernarum luminibus aptissimam adurit, neque aqua extinguitur: Eóque impetu, quo apud nos machinis bellicis, globi eijciuntur, illinc lapides magni in aera emittuntur, ex frigoris & ignis & sulphuris commixtione. Is locus à quibusdam putatur carcer sordidarum animarum. Item Zieglerus. Is locos est carcer sordidarum animarum. Nec stuppam adurit.) Vnde habeant Scriptores, non satis conijcitur. Hæc enim nostris hominibus prorsus ignota, nec hic vnquam, nisi prodidissent illi, audita fuissent. Nemo enim est apud nos tam temerariæ curiositatis, vt huius rei periculum, ardente monte, facere ansit, vel quod scire licuit, vnquam ausis fuerit. Quod tamen Munsterus asserit. Qui, inquit, naturam tanti incendij contemplari cupiunt, & ob id ad montem propius accedunt, eos vna aliqua vorago viuos absorbet &c. Quæ res, vt dixi, nostræ genti est ignota prorsus. Exstat tamen liber veteri Noruagorum lingua scriptus, in quo terrarum, aquarum, ignis, aëris, &c. miracula aliquot confusa reperias, pauca vera, plurima vana & falsa. Vnde facile apparet, à Sophis quibusdam, si dijs placet, in Papatu olim esse conscriptum: [Sidenote: Speculum Regale.] Speculum Regale nomen dederunt, propter vanissima mendacia, quibus totus, sed plærúmque sub religionis & pietatís prætextu (quo difficilius est fucum agnoscere) scatet speculum minimè regale, sed Anile & Irregulare. In hoc speculo figmenta quædam de Heclæ incendio, his quæ nunc tractamus non multum dissimilia, habentur, nullo experimento magis quàm hæc stabilita, ideóque explodenda. Cæterum ne audaculus videar, qui speculum illud Regale mendacij accusem; nullum verò ex his quæ minus credibilia affert, recenseam; Accipe horum pauca Lector, quæ fidem minimè mereri existimarim. 1. De quadam Insula Hyberniæ; quæ templum & Parochiam habet: Cuius incolæ decedentes non inhumantur: sed ad aggerem seu parietem coemeterij, viuorum instar erecti, consistunt perpetuò: Nec vlli corruptioni, nec ruinæ. obnoxij: vt posterum quiuis suos maiores ibi quærere & conspicere possit. 2. De altera Hyberniæ Insula, vbi homines emori nequeant. 3. De omni terrâ & omnibus arboribus Hyberniæ, quæ omnibus omninò venenis resistant, serpentes & alia venenata, vbiuis terrarum, solâ virtute & præsentia, etiam sine contactu, enecent. 4. De tertia Hyberniæ Insula: Quòd hæc dimidia Diabolorum colonia facta sit. In dimidiam vero propter templum ibidem exstructum, iuris habeant nihil, licet & pastore (vt tota Insula incolis) & sacris perpetuò careat: idque per naturam ita esse. 5. De quarta Hyberniæ Insula, quæ in lacu quòdam satis vasto fluitet: cuius gramina, quibusuis morbis præssentissimum remedium existant: Insula verò ripam lacus statis temporibus accedat, idque vt plurimum, diebus Dominicis, vt tum quiuis facilè eam veluti nauim quandam, ingrediatur: id quod tamen pluribus simul, per fatum licere negat. Hanc vero Insulam septimo quoque anno ripæ adnasci tradit, vt à continente non discernas: In eius autem locum mox succedere alteram, priori, naturam, magnitudine & virtute consimilem: quæ vnde veniat, nesciri: idque cum quòdam quasi tonitru contingere. 6. De venatoribus Noruegiæ, qui lignum domare (sic enim loquitur, quantumuis impropriè: cùm ligno vt non vita, ita nec domitura competat) adeo docti sint, vt asseres 8. vlnas longi, plantis pedum eorundem alligati, tanta eos celeritate, vel in excelsis montibus, promoueant, vt non modò canum venaticorum, aut caprearum cursu, sed etiam auium volatu superari nequeant: atque vnico cursu, vnico etiam hastæ ictu, nouem vel plures capreas feriant. [Sidenote: Gronlandia.] Hæc & similia, de Hybernia, Noruegia, Islandia, Gronlandia, de aquæ & aëris etiam miraculis, centonum ille magister, in suum speculum collegit: Quibus, licet suis admirationem, vulgo stuporem, nobis tamen risum concitauit. Sed Frisium audiamus. Flamma, inquit, Montis Heclæ nec stuppam, lucernarum luminibus aptissimam, adurit, nec aqua extinguitur. Atqui inquam, ex Schola vestra Philosophica petitis rationibus hoc Paradoxon confirmari poterit. Docent enim Physici, commune esse validioribus flammis omnibus vt siccis extinguantur, alantur verò humidis: Vnde etiam fabri, aqua inspersa, ignem excitare solent. Cùm enim, aiunt, ardentior fuerit ignis, à frigido incitatur, & ab humido alitur, quorum vtrumque aquæ inest. Item: Aqua solet vehementes accendere ignes: Quoniam humidum ipsum quod exhalat, pinguius redditur, nec à circumfuso fumo absumitur, sed totum ignis ipse depascitur, quò purior inde factus, ac simul collectus, à frigido alacrior inde redditur. Vnde etiam ignes artificiosi aqua minimè extinguibiles. Item: Sunt sulphure & bitumine loca abundantia, quæ sponte ardent, quorum flamma aqua minimè extinguitur. Prodidit etiam Philosophus, Aqua ali ignem. Arist. 3. de anim. Et Plin. lib. 2. Nat. Histor. cap. 110. Et Strabo lib. 7. In Nymphæo excitè Petra flamma, que aqua accenditur. Idem, Viret æternùm contexens fontem igneum fraxinus. Quin & repentinos ignes in aquis existere, vt Thrasumenum lacum in agro Perusino arsisse totum, idem autor est. [Sidenote: Chronica Islandie.] Et anno 1226, & 1236. non procul à promontorio Islandiæ Reykianes, flamma ex ipso mari erupit. Etiam in corporibus humanis repentinos ignes emicuisse, vt Seruio Tullio dormienti, è capite flammam exsilijsse: Et L. Martium in Hispania, interfectis Scipionibus, concionem seu orationem ad milites habentem, atque ad vltionem exhortantem, conflagrasse, Valerius Antias narrat. Meminit etiam Plinius flammæ montanæ, quæ, vt aqua accendatur, ita terra aut foeno extinguatur. Item, Alterius campestris, que frondem densi supra se nemoris non adurat. Quæ cum ita sint, mirum, homines id in solâ Heclâ mirari (ponam enim iam ita esse, cum non sit tamen, quòd à quoquam scire potuerim) quòd multis aliarum terrarum partibus seu locis, tam montanis, quàm campestribus, cum ea commune esset. Eo impetu quo apud nos globi. Sic enim Munsterus. [Sidenote: Frisius.] Mons ipse cum furit, inquit, horribilia tonitrua insonat, proijcit ingentia Saxa, sulphur euomit, cineribus egestis, tam longè terram circumcirca operit, vt ad vicesimum lapidem coli non possit, &c. Cæterum oportuit potius cum Ætnâ, aut alijs montibus flammiuomis, quos mox recitabo, comparasse, cum non deesset, non modò simile, sed prope idem: Nisi fortè quòd incendia rarius ex Heclâ erumpant, quàm alijs id genus montibus. Nam proxunis 34. annis prorsus quieuit, facta videlicet vltima eruptione, An. 1558. vt superius annotauimus. Et nihil tam magnificè dici potest de nostra Hecla, quin idem, vel maius cæteris montibus flammiuomis competat, vt mox apparebit. Quòd verò sulphur eiaculetur, manifestum est commentum nullo experimento apud nostrates cognitum. Is locus est carcer sordidarum animarum. Hic præfandum esse mihi video, atque veniam à Lectore petendam quòd cum initio proposuerim, de terra & incolis diuisim agere in hac prima parte tamen, quæ sunt meritò secundæ partis miscere cogar. Euenit hoc scriptorum culpa, qui Insulæ situi ac miraculis, religionis incolarum particulam hanc, de opinione infernalis carceris, confuderunt. Quare etiam vt hunc locum attingamus, quis non miretur isthoc commentum ab homine cordato in Historia positum esse? Quis non miretur, viros sapientes eò perduci, vt hæc vulgi deliramenta auscultent, nedum sequantur? Vulgus enim extraneorum & hominum colluuies nautica (hic enim saniores omnes tam inter nautas quam reliquos excipio,) de hoc insolito naturæ miraculo audiens, ingenito stupore ad istam, de carcere animarum, imaginationem fertur: Siquidem incendio nullam substerni materiam videt, quemadmodum in domesticis focis fieri consueuit. Atque hac persuasione vulgi fama inoleuit dum (vt ad maledicta optimè assuefactum est) vnus alteri huius montis incendum imprecatur. Quasi verò ignis elementaris & materiatus ac visibilis, animas, i. substantias spirituales comburat. Quis deníque non miretur cur eundem carcere damnatorum, non in Ætna etiam, nihilo minus ignibus ac incendijs celebri, confingant? At confinxit dices, Gregorius Pontifex. Purgatorium igitur est. Sit sanè: Eadem igitur huius carceris veritas quæ & purgatorij. Sed priusquam longius procedamus, libet hic referre fabulam perlepidam, huius opinionis infernalis originem & fundamentum: Nempe cuidam extraneorum naui Islandiam relinquenti & turgidis velis citissimo cursu iter suum rectà legenti, factam obuiam alteram similiter impigro cursu, sed contra vim tempestatum, velis & remis nitentem: cuius præfectus rogatus, quinam essent? Respondisse fertur: De Bischop van Bremen. Iterum rogatus quo tenderent? ait. Thom Heckelfeldt tho, Thom Heckelfeldt tho. Hæc videns Lector vereor, ne peluim postulet dari: Est enim mendacium adeo detestandum, vt facilè nauseam pariat. Abeat igitur ad Cynosarges & ranas palustres: illud enim eiusde facimus atque illarum coax, coax. Nec verò dignum est hoc commentum, quod rideatur, nedum refutetur. Sed nolo cum insanis Papistis nugari: Quin potius ad scriptores nostros conuertamur. Atque inprimis nequeo hic, clarissimi viri, D. Casparis Peuceri, illud præterire. Est in Islandia, inquit, mons Hecla, qui immanis barathri, vel inferni potius profunditate terribilis, eiulantium miserabili & lamentabili ploratu personat, vt voces plorantium circumquaque, ad interuallum magni milliaris audiantur. Circumnolitant hunc coruorum & vulturum nigerrima agmina, quæ nidulari ibidem ab incolis existimantur. Vulgus incolarum descensum esse per voraginem illam ad inferos persuasum habet: Inde cum prælia committuntur alibi in quacunque parte orbis terrarum aut cædes fiunt cruentæ commoueri horrendos circumcirca tumultus & excitari clamores atque eiulatus ingentes longâ experientiâ didicerunt. Quis verò rem tam incredibilem ad te vir doctissime perferre ausus fuit? Nec enim vultures habet Islandia, sed genus aquilarum secundum, quod ab albicante caudâ Plinius notauit & Pygarsum appellauit. Nec vlli sunt huius spectaculi apud nos testes: Nec deníque ibidem coruos aut aquilas nidificare probabile est, quæ, igni & fumo semper inimicissimo, potius à focis vel incendijs arceantur. Et nihilominus in huius rei testimonium, (vt & exauditi per voraginem montis tumultus extranei,) experientiam incolarum allegant, quæ certè contraria omnia testatur. Vnde verò foramen vel fenestra illa montana, per quam clamores, strepitus & tumultus apud antipodes, periæcos & antæcos factos exaudiremus? De quâ re multa essent, quæ authorem istius mendacij interrogatum haberem, modò quid de illo nobis constaret: qui vtinam veriora narrare discat, nec tam perfrictâ fronte similia, incomperta, átque, adeò incredibilia, clarissimo viro Peucero, aut alijs referre præsumat. Ast verò Munsterus cum incendij tanti & tam incredilis caussas in famosissimâ Ætna inuestigare conatus sit, quam rem illic naturalem facit, hic verò præternaturalem imo infernalem faciat, an non monstri simile est? Cæterum de Æthnâ quid dico? Quin potius videamus quid de Heclæ incendio alias sentiat Munsterus. [Sidenote: Munsterus Cosmograph. vniuersal. lib. 1. cap. 7.] Dubium non est, inquit, montes olim & campos arsisse in orbe terrarum: Et nostra quidem state ardent. Verbi gratia: In Islandia mons Hecla statis temporibus foras proijcit ingentia Saxa, euomit sulphur spargit cineres, tam longè circumcirca, vt terra ad vicesimum lapidem coli non possit. Vbi autem montium incendia perpetua sunt, intelligimus nullam esse obstructionem meatuum, per quos modò, quasi fluuium quendam, ignes, modò flammas, nunc verò fumum tantùm euomunt. Sin per temporum interualla increscunt, internis meatibus obturatis, eius viscera nihilominus ardent Superioris autem partis incendia, propter fomitis inopiam, non nihil remittunt ad tempus. Ast vbi spiritus vehementior, rursus reclusis meatibus ijsdem vel alijs, ex carcere magnâ vi erumpit, cineres, arenam, sulphur, pumices, massas, quæ habent speciem ferri, saxa, aliásque materias foras proijcit, plerúnque non sine detrimento regionis adiacentis. Hæc Munsterus. Vbi videas quæso Lector, quomodo suo se iugulet gladio, videas inquam hic eadem de incendio Heclæ & Ætnæ opinionem & sententiam, quæ tamen lib 4. eiusdem, admodum est dispar, vt illic ad causas infernales confugiat. Habet profectò Indiæ occidentalis mons quidam flammiuomus æquiores multò, quàm hic noster censores & historicos, minimè illic barathrum exædificantes: Cuius historiam, quia & breuis est, & non illepida, subijciam, ab Hieronimo Benzone Italo in Historiar noui orbis, lib. 2. his verbis descriptam. Triginta quínque, inquit, milliarium interuallo abest Legione mons flammiuomus, qui per ingentem craterem tantos sæpe flammarum globos eructat, vt noctu latissimè vltra 10000. passuum incendia reluceant. Nonnullis fuit opinio, intus liquefactum aurum esse, perpetuam ignibus materiam. Itáque Dominicanus quidam monachus cum eius rei periculum facere vellet, ahenum & catenam ferream fabricari curat móxque in montis iugum cum quatuor alijs Hispanis ascendens, catenam cum aheno ad centum quadraginta vlnas in caminum demittit. Ibi ignis feruore, ahenum cum parte catenæ liquefactum est. Monachus non leuiter iratus Legionem recurrit, fabrum incusat, quòd catenam tenuiorem multò, quàm iussisset ipse, esset fabricatus. Faber aliam multo crassiorem excudit. Monachus montem repetit: Catenam & lebetem demittit. Res priori incoepto similem exitum habuit. Nec tantùm resolutus lebes euanuit, verum etiam flammæ globus repentè è profundo exsiliens, propemodum & Fratrem & socios absumpsit. Omnes quidem adeo perculsi in vrbem reuersi sunt, vt de eo incoepto exequendo nunquam deinceps cogitarent &c. O quam censura dispar? In montano Indiæ occidentalis camino auram: Islandiæ verò, infernum quærunt. Sed hoc vt nimis recens, ac veteribus ignotum fortasse reijcient: Cur igitur eundem, quem in Hecla Islandiæ, animarum in Chimæra carcerem, Lyciæ monte, cuius noctu diúque flamma immortalis perhibetur, non sunt imaginati scriptores? Cur no in Ephesi montibus, quos tæda flammante tactos, tantum ignis concipere accepimus, vt lapides quoque & arenæ in ipsis aquis ardeant, & ex quibus accenso baculo, si quis sulcum traxerit, riuos ignium sequi narrator à Plinio? Cur non in Cophantro Bactrorum monte, noctu semper conflagrante? Cur non in Hiera Insula, medio mari ardente? Cur non in Æolia, similiter in ipso mari olim dies aliquot aliquot accensa? Cur non in Babyloniorum campo, interdiu flagrante? Cur non in Æthiopum campis, Stellarum modo, noctu semper nitentibus? Cur non in illo Liparæ tumulo, ampla & profunda voragine hiante, teste Aristotele, ad quem non tutò noctu accedatur: ex quo Cymbalorum sonitus, crotalorum boatus, cum insolitis & inconditis cachinnis exaudiantur? Cur non in Neapolitanorum agro ad Puteolos? Cur non in illa superius commemorata Teneriffæ pyramide montana, instar Ætnæ, iugiter ardente, & lapides, vt ex Munstero videre est, in aëra exspuente? Cur non in illo Aethiopum iugo, quod Plinius testatur, horum omnium maximo aduri incendio? Cur non denique in Vesuuio monte, non sine insigni viciniæ clade, & C. Plinij exitiali detrimento, dum insueti incendij causas perscrutaturus venit, nubium tenus flammas cum saxis euomente, pumicum & cinerum ineffabili copiâ aëra replente, & solem meridianum per totam viciniam densissimis tenebris intercipiente? Dicam, & dicam quod res est: Quia scilicet illis, vtpote notioribus, fidem, etsi inferni esse incendia finxissent, minimè adhiberi præuidebant: Heclæ verò æstum, cuius rumor tardius ad eorum aures peruenit, huic commento vanissimo stabiliendo, magis inseruire putabant. Sed facessite: Depræhensa fraus est: Desinite posthac illam de inferno Heklensi opinionem cuiquam velle persuadere. Docuit enim & nos, & alios, vobis inuitis, consimilibus incendijs, operationes suas Natura, non Infernus. Sed videamus iam plura eiusdem farinæ vulgi mendacia, quæ Historicis & Cosmographis nostris adeò malè imposuerunt. The same in English. THE SEUENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Frisius. Munsterus.] The flame of mount Hecla will not burne towe (which is most apt for the wieke of a candle) neither is it quenched with water: and by the same force that bullets are discharged out of warlike engines with vs, from thence are great stones cast foorth into the aire, by reason of the mixture of colde, and fire, and brimstone. This place is thought of some to be the prison of vncleane soules. Item: Zieglerus. This place is the prison of vncleane soules. Will not burne towe. Where these writers should finde such matters, it is not easie to coniecture. For our people are altogether ignorant of them, neither had they euer bene heard of heere among vs, if they had not brought them to light. For there is no man with vs so rashly and fondly curious, that dareth for his life, the hill being on fire, trie any such conclusions, or (to our knowledge) that euer durst: which notwithstanding Munster affirmeth, saying: They that are desirous to contemplate the nature of so huge a fire, & for the same purpose approch vnto the mountaine, are by some gulfe swallowed vp aliue, &c. which thing (as I sayd) is altogether vnknowen vnto our nation. [Sidenote: Speculum regale written in the Noruagian tongue.] Yet there is a booke extant, written in the ancient language of the Noruagians, wherein you may finde some miracles of earth, water, fire, and aire, &c. confusedly written, few of them true, and the most part vaine and false. Whereupon it easily appeareth that it was written long since by some that were imagined to be great wise men in the time of Popery. [Sidenote: Whence the fables of Island grew.] They called it a royall looking glasse: howbeit, in regard of the fond fables, wherewith (but for the most part vnder the shew of religion and piety, whereby it is more difficult to finde out the cousinage) it doeth all ouer swarme, it deserueth not the name of a looking glasse royall, but rather of a popular, and olde wiues looking glasse. In this glasse there are found certaine figments of the burning of Hecla, not much vnlike these which we now entreat of, nor any whit more grounded vpon experience, and for that cause to be reiected. But that I may not seeme somewhat foolehardy, for accusing this royall looking glasse of falshood (not to mention any of those things which it reporteth as lesse credible) loe heere a few things (friendly reader) which I suppose deserue no credit at all. 1. Of a certain Isle in Ireland, hauing a church and a parish in it, the inhabitants whereof deceasing are not buried in the earth, but like liuing men, do continually, against some banke or wall in the Churchyard, stand bolt-vpright: neither are they subiect to any corruption or downefall: insomuch that any of the posteritie, may there seeke for, and beholde their ancestors. 2. Of another Isle of Ireland, where men are not mortall. 3. Of all the earth and trees of Ireland, being of force to resist all poisons, and to kill serpents, and other venimous things, in any countrey whatsoeuer, by the only vertue and presence thereof yea euen without touching. 4. Of a third Isle of Ireland, that the one halfe thereof became an habitation of deuils, but that the sayd deuils haue no iurisdiction ouer the other halfe, by reason of a Church there built, although, as the whole Isle is without inhabitants, so this part is continually destitute of a Pastor, and of diuine seruice: and that it is so by nature. 5. Of a fourth Isle of Ireland floating vp and downe in an huge lake, the grasse whereof is a most present remedy for all kinde of diseases, and that the Iland, at certeine seasons, especially on Sundayes, commeth to the banke of the lake, so that any man may then easily enter into it, as it were into a shippe: which notwithstanding (sayth he) destiny will not suffer any more then one to enter at a time. Furthermore he reporteth that this Island euery seuenth yere groweth fast to the banke, so that you cannot discerne it from firme land: but that into the place thereof there succeedeth another, altogether like the former, in nature, quantitie, and vertue: which, from what place it commeth, no man can tell: and that all this happeneth with a kinde of thundering. 6. Of the hunters of Norway who are so expert to tame wood (for so he speaketh very improperly, whereas vnto wood neither life nor taming can be ascribed) that wooden pattens of eight elnes long being bound to the soles of their feet do cary them with so great celeritie euen vpon hie mountaines, that they cannot be outrun, either by the swiftnes of hounds and deere, or yet by the flying of birds. And that they will kill nine roes or more at one course & with one stroke of a dart. These and such like, concerning Ireland, Norway, Island, Gronland. of the miracles of water, and aire, this master of fragments hath gathered together into his looking glasse: whereby, although he hath made his owne followers woonder, and the common people to be astonished, yet hath he ministred vnto vs nothing but occasion of laughter. But let vs heare Frisius. The flame of mount Hecla (sayth he) will not burne towe (which is most apt matter for the wicke of a candle) neither is it quenched with water. But I say that this strange opinion may be confirmed by many reasons borrowed out of your schoole of Philosophy. For the natarall Philosophers doe teach, That it is common to all forcible flames to be quenched with dry things, and nourished with moiste: whereupon, euen blacksmithes, by sprinckling on of water, vse to quicken and strengthen their fire. For (say they) when fire is more vehement, it is stirred vp by colde, and nourished by moisture, both which qualities doe concurre in water. Item, water is wont to kindle skorching fires: because the moisture it selfe, which ariseth, doth proue more fattie and grosse, neither is it consumed by the smoke enclosing it, but the fire it selfe feedeth vpon the whole substance thereof, whereby being made purer, and gathering round together, it becommeth then more vehement by reason of colde. And therefore also wild-fires cannot be quenched with water. Item, There be places abounding with brimstone and pitch, which burne of their owne accord, the flame wherof cannot be quenched with water. The graund Philosopher also hath affirmed, that fire is nourished by water. Arist 3. de anim. And Plinie, in the second booke of his naturall historie cap. 110. And Strabo in his 7. booke. In Nympheum there proceedeth a flame out of a rocke, which is kindled with water. The same author sayth: The ashe continually flourisheth, couering a burning fountaine. And moreouer that there are sudden fires at some times, euen vpon waters, as namely that the lake of Thrasumenus in the field of Perugi, was all on fire, as the same Strabo witnesseth. And in the yeares 1226, and 1236, not farre from the promontorie of Islande called Reykians, a flame of fire brake forth out of the sea. Yea euen vpon mens bodies sudden fires haue glittered: as namely, there sprang a flame from the head of Seruius Tullius lying a sleepe: and also Lucius Martius in Spaine after the death of the Scipions, making an oration to his souldiers, and exhorting them to reuenge, was all in a flame, as Valerius Antias doth report. Plinie in like sort maketh mention of a flame in a certaine mountaine, which, as it is kindled with water, so is it quenched with earth or haye: also of another field which burneth not the leaues of shadie trees that growe directly ouer it. These things being thus, it is strange that men should accompt that a wonder in Hecla onely (for I will graunt it to be, for disputation sake, when indeede there is no such matter so farre foorth as euer I could learne of any man) which is common to manie other parts or places in the world, both hilly and plaine, as well as to this. [Sidenote: Frisius.] And by the same force that bullets, &c. Munster saith the like also. This mountaine when it rageth, it soundeth like dreadfull thunder, casteth forth huge stones, disgorgeth brimstone and with the cinders that are blowen abroad, it couereth so much ground round about it, that no man can inhabite within 20. miles thereof, &c. Howbeit, they ought to haue compared it with Aetna, or with other fierie mountaines, whereof I will presently make mention, seeing there is to be found in them, not onely a like accident, but in a manner the very same. Vnlesse perhaps this be the difference, that flames brake seldomer out of Hecla, then out of other mountaines of the same kinde. For it hath now rested these 34. yeares full out, the last fierie breach being made in the yeare 1558. as we haue before noted. And there can no such wonders be affirmed of our Hecla, but the same or greater are to be ascribed vnto other burning mountaines, as it shall by and by appeare. But that brimstone should be sent foorth it is a meere fable, and neuer knowen vnto our nation, by any experiment. This place is the prison of vncleane soules. Here I am constrained to vse a preface, and to craue pardon of the Reader, because, whereas in the beginning I propounded vnto my selfe to treat of the land, and of the inhabitants distinctly by themselues, I must of necessitie confusedly handle certaine matters in this first part, which do properly belong vnto the second. This is come to passe through the fault of these writers, who haue confounded this part of the inhabitants religion concerning the opinion of hell, or of the infernall prison, with the situation & miracles of the island. Wherfore that we may come to this matter, who can but wonder that wise men should be growen to this point, not onely to listen after, but euen to follow and embrace the dotings of the rude people: For the common sort of strangers, and the offskowring of mariners (here I do except them of better iudgement aswell mariners as others) hearing of this rare miracle of nature, by an inbred and naturall blockishnesse are earned to this imagination of the prison of soules: and that because they see no wood nor any such fewell layed vpon this fire as they haue in their owne chimneys at home. And by this perswasion of the grosse multitude, the report grew strong, especially (as they are too much accustomed to banning and cursing) while one would wish to another the firie torments of this mountaine. As though elementarie, materiall and visible fire could consume mens soules being spirituall, bodiless and inuisible substances. And to be short, who can but woonder, why they should not faine the same prison of damned soules, aswell in mount Aetna, being no lesse famous for fires and inflamations then this: But you will say, that Pope Gregorie fained it so to be. Therefore it is purgatorie. I am content it should be so: then there is the same trueth of this prison that there is of purgatorie. But before I proceede any further I thinke it not amisse to tell a merie tale, which was the originall and ground of this hellish opinion: namely that a ship of certaine strangers departing from Island, vnder full saile, a most swift pace, going diectly on her course, met with another ship sailing against winde & weather, and the force of the tempest as swiftly as themselues, who hailing them of whence they were, answere was giuen by their gouernor, De Bischop van Bremen: being the second time asked whether they were bound: he answered, Thom Heckelfeld tho, Thom Heckelfeld tho. I am affeard lest the reader at the sight of these things should call for a bason: for it is such an abominable lie, that it would make a man cast his gorge to heare it. Away with it therefore to fenny frogs, for we esteeme no more of it, then of their croaking coax coax. Nay, it is so palpable that it is not worthy to be smiled at, much lesse to be refuted. But I will not trifle any longer with the fond Papists: let vs rather come vnto our owne writers. And first of all I cannot here omit a saying of that most worthie man Doctor Caspar Peucer. There is in Islande (quoth he) mount Hecla, being of as dreadfull a depth as any vaste gulfe, or as hell it selfe, which resoundeth with lamentable, & miserable yellings, that the noise of the cryers may be heard for the space of a great league round about. Great swarmes of vgly blacke Rauens and Vultures lie hoouering about this place which are thought of the inhabitantes to nestle there. The common people of that countrey are verily perswaded, that there is a descent downe into hell by this gulfe: and therefore when any battailes are foughten else where, in whatsoeuer part of the whole world, or any bloudie slaughters are committed, they haue learned by long experience, what horrible tumults and out-cryes, what monstrous skritches are heard round about this mountaine. Who durst be so bold (most learned Sir) to bring such an incredible report to your eares: Neither hath Island any Vultures, but that second kinde of Eagles, which Plinie noted by their white tayles, and called them Pygarsi: neither are there any with vs, that can beare witnesse of the foresaid spectacle: nor yet is it likely that Rauens and Eagles would nestle in that place, when as they should rather be driuen from thence by fire and smoke, being things most contrarie to their nature. And yet notwithstanding for proofe of this matter, as also of a strange tumult heard within the hollow of the mountaine, they allege the experience of the inhabitants, which indeede testifieth all things to the contrarie. But whereabout should that hole or windowe of the mountaine be, by the which we may heare outcries, noyse and tumults done among them, who inhabite the most contrarie, distant, and remote places of the earth from vs: Concerning which thing I would aske the author of this fable many questions, if I might but come to the knowledge of him: in the meane time I could wish that from hencefoorth he would learne to tell troth, & not presume with so impudent a face to enforme excellent Peucer, or others, of such vnknowen and incredible matters. But to returne to Munster, who endeuouring to search out the causes of the great and strange fire of that famous hill Aetna, is it not monstrous that the very same thing which he there maketh natural, he should here imagine to be preternaturall, yea infernal? But why do I speake of Aetna? Let vs rather consider what Munster in another place thinketh of the burning of Hecla. [Sidenote: Munsterus Cosmograph. vniuersalis lib. 1. cap. 7.] It is without doubt (saith he) that some mountaines and fields burned in old time throughout the whole world: and in this our age do burne. As for example: mount Hecla in Island at certaine seasons casteth abroad great stones, spitteth out brimstone, and disperseth ashes, for such a distance round about, that the land cannot be inhabited within 20. miles thereof. But where mountaines do continually burne we vnderstand that there is no stopping of the passages, wherby they poure forth abundance of fire sometime flaming, & sometime smoaking gas it were a streaming flood. But if betweene times the fire encreaseth, all secret passages being shut vp, the inner parts of the mountaine are notwithstanding enflamed. The fire in the vpper part, for want of matter, somewhat abateth for the time. But when a more vehement spirite (the same, or other passages being set open again) doth with great violence breake prison, it casteth forth ashes, sand, brimstone, pumistones, lumpes resembling iron, great stones, & much other matter, not without the domage of the whole region adioyning. Thus farre Munster. Where consider (good Reader) how he cutteth his throat with his owne sword, consider (I say) that in this place there is the very same opinion of the burning of Hecla, & the burning of Aetna, which notwithstanding in his 4. booke is very diuerse, for there he is faine to run to infernall causes. A certaine fierie mountaine of West India hath farre more friendly censurers, & historiographers then our Hecla, who make not an infernall gulfe therof. The History of which mountain (because it is short & sweete) I will set downe, being written by Hieronimus Benzo an Italian, in his history of the new world, lib. 2. These be the words. "About 35. miles distant from Leon there is a mountaine which at a great hole belcheth out such mightie balles of flames, that in the night they shine farre and neare, aboue 100. miles. Some were of opinion that within it was molten gold ministring continuall matter & nourishment for the fire. Hereupon a certain Dominican Frier, determining to make trial of the matter, caused a brasse kettle, & an iron chain to be made: afterward ascending to the top of the hill with 4. other Spaniards, he letteth downe the chaine & the kettle 140. elnes into the fornace: there, by extreme heate of the fire, the kettle, & part of the chaine melted. The monke in a rage ran back to Leon, & chid the smith, because he had made the chaine far more slender then himselfe had commanded. The smith hammers out another of more substance & strength then the former. The Monke returnes to the mountains, and lets downe the chaine & the cauldron; but with the like successe that he had before. Neither did the caldron only vanish & melt away: but also, vpon the sudden there came out of the depth a flame of fire, which had almost consumed the Frier, & his companions. Then they all returned so astonished, that they had small list afterward to prosecute that attempt, &c." What great difference is there betweene these two censures? In a fiery hill of West India they search for gold: but in mount Hecla of Island they seeke for hel. Howbeit they wil perhaps reiect this as a thing too new, & altogether vnknowen to ancient writers. Why therefore haue not writers imagined the same prison of soules to be in Chimæra an hill in Lycia (which, by report, flameth continually day and night) that is in mount Hecla of Island? Why haue they not imagined the same to be in the mountaines of Ephesus, which being touched with a burning torch, are reported to conceiue so much fire, that the very stones & sand lying in the water are caused to burne, & from the which (a staffe being burnt vpon them, & trailed after a man on the ground) there proceede whole riuers of fire, as Plinie testifieth? Why not in Cophantrus a mountaine of Bactria, alwayes burning in the night? Why not in the Isle of Hiera, flaming in the midst of the sea? Why not in Aeolia in old time likewise burning for certaine daies in the midst of the sea? Why not in the field of Babylon burning in the day season? Why not in the fields of Aethiopia glittering alwaies like stars in the night? Why not in the hill of Lipara opening with a wide and bottomlesse gulfe (as Aristotle beareth record) whereunto it is dangerous to approch in the night: from whence the sound of Cymbals and the noyse of rattles, with vnwonted and vncouth laughters are heard? Why not in the field of Naples, neare vnto Puteoli? Why not in the Pike of Teneriffa before mentioned, like Aetna continually burning and casting vp stones into the aier, as Munster himselfe witnesseth? Why not in that Aethiopian hill, which Plinie affirmeth to burne more then all the former? And to conclude, why not in the mountaine of Vesuuius, which (to the great damage of al the countrey adioyning, & to the vtter destruction of Caius Plinius prying into the causes of so strange a fire) vomiting out flames as high as the clouds, filling the aire with great abundance of pumistones, and ashes, & with palpable darknesse intercepting the light of the sunne from al the region therabout? I wil speake, & yet speake no more then the truth: because in deede they foresaw, that men would yeeld no credite to those things as being too well knowen, though they should haue feined them to haue beene the flames of hell: but they thought the burning of Hecla (the rumour whereof came more slowly to their eares) to be fitter for the establishing of this fond fable. But get ye packing, your fraud is found out: leaue off for shame hereafter to perswade any simple man, that there is a hel in mount Hecla. For nature hath taught both vs & others (maugre your opinion) to acknowledge her operations in these fire workes, not the fury of hell. But now let vs examine a few more such fables of the common people, which haue so vnhappily misledd our historiographers & cosmographers. SECTIO OCTAUA. [Sidenote: Frisius Zieglerus, Olauus Magn.] Iuxta hos montes (tres prædictos Heclam, &c.) sunt tres hiatus immanes, quorum altitudinem apud montem Heclam potissimum, ne Lynceus quidem perspicere queat: Sed apparent ipsum inspicientibus, homines primùm submersi, adhuc spiritum exhalantes, qui amicis suis, vt ad propria redeant, hortantibus, magnis suspirijs se ad montem Heclam proficisci debere respondent: Sicque subitò euanescunt. Ad confirmandum superius mendacium de Inferno terrestri ac visibili, commentum hoc, non minus calumniosum (etsi facilè largiar, Frisium non tam calumniandi, quàm noua & inaudita prædicandi animo ista scripsisse) quàm falsum ac gerris Siculis longè vanius ac detestabilius, excogitarunt homines ignaui, nec coelum ec infernum scientes. Quos scriptores isti, viri alioqui præclarissimi & optimè de Repub. literaria meriti, nimium præpropero iudicio secuti sunt. Cæterum optandum esset, nullos tanto nouitatis studio Historias scribere, vt non vereantur aniles quasuis nugas ijs inserere, atque ita aurum purum coeno aspergere. Qui verò demum sunt homines illi submersi, in lacu infernali natitantes, & nihilominus cum notis & amicis confabulantes? Anne nobis veterem Orphea, cum sua Euridice, in Stygias relabente vndas, colloquentem, & in his extremi orbis partibus, tanquam ad Tanaim Hebrúmque niualem, cantus exercentem lyricos, rediuiuum dabitis? Certè, etsi nolint alij futilem huiusmodi ineptiarum leuitatem ac mendacium agnoscere, agnouit tamen rerum omnium haud negligens æstimator Cardanus, lib. 18. subtil. cuius hæc sunt verba. Est Hecla mons in Islandia, ardétque non aliter ac Ætna in Sicilia per interualla, ideóque persuasione longa (vulgi) concepta, quòd ibi expientur animaæ. Alij, ne vani sint, affingunt inania fabulæ, vt consona videantur. Quæ sunt autem illa inania? Quòd spectra comminiscuntur, se ad montem Heclam ire respondentia, ait idem. Et addit. Nec in Islandia solum, sed vbique, licet rarò, talia contingunt: Subdítque de laruâ homicidâ Historiam, quæ sic habet. Efferebatur, inquit, anno præterito, funus viri plebeij Mediolani, orientali in porta iuxta templum maius foro venali, quòd à caulium frequentia nomen caulis nostra lingua sonat. Occurrit mihi notus: Peto, vt medicorum moris est, quo morbo excesserit? Respondet ille: consuesse hunc virum hora noctis, tertia à labore redire domum: Vidit lemurem nocte quadam insequentem: Quam cum effugere conaretur, ocyus citato pede abibat: Sed à spectro captus atque in terram proiectus videbatur. Exclamare nitebatur: Non poterat. Tandem, cum diu in terra cum larua volutatus esset, inuentus à prætereuntibus quibusdam, semiuiuus domum relatus, cum resipuisset, interrogatus, hæc quæ minus expectabantur, retulit. Ob id animam despondens, cum nec ab amicis, nec medicis, nec sacerdotibus persuaderi potuisset, inania esse hæc, octo inde diebus perijt. Audiui postmodum & ab alijs, qui vicini essent illi, neminem ab inimico vulneratum tam constanter de illo testatum, vt hic, quod à mortuo fuisset in terram prouolutus. Cum quidam quærerent, quid ille postquam in terram volutaretur ageret? Conatum, inquit, mortuum adhibitis gulæ manibus, vt eum strangularet: Nec obstitisse quicquam, nisi quòd se ipsum tueretur manibus. Cum alij dubitarent, ne fortè hæc à viuo passus esset, interrogarentque in quo mortuum à viuo secernere potuisset? Caussam reddidit satis probabilem, dicens se tanquam cottum attrectasse, nec pondus habuisse, nisi vt premebatur. Et paulò post addit. Eadem verò ratione qua in Islandia, in arenæ solitudinibus Ægypti & Æthiopiæ, Indiæque vbi Sol ardet, eædem imagines, eadem spectra viatores ludificare solent. Hactenus Cardanus. Inde tamen nemo concluseret, sicut de Islandia scriptores nostri faciunt, in illis Ægypti and Æthiopiæ, Indiæque locis, carcerem existere damnatorum. Hæc ex Cardano adscribere libuit, vt etiam extraneorum testimonia pro nobis, contra figmenta tanta afferamus. Conuincit autem præsens Cardani locus hæc duo, scilicet: nec esse Islandiæ proprias spectrorum apparitiones: (quod etiam omnes norunt, nisi eius rei ignorantiam nimis affectent) nec illud mortuorum cum viuis, in hiatu Heclensi, colloquium, nisi ementitis hominum fabulis, quauis ampulla vani oribus, niti, quibus beluæ vulgares, ad confirmandam de animarum cruciatibus opinionem, vsæ fuerant. Et quisquam est, qui illis scriptorum hiatibus, mortuorum miraculis ad summum vsque refertis, adduci potest vt credat? Quisquam, qui vanitatem tantam non cotemnat? Certè. Nam & hinc conuicia in gentem nostram recte sumi aiunt: Nihil scilicet hac proiectius ac deterius esse vsquam, quæ intra limites Orcum habeat. Scilicet hoc commodi nobis peperit Historicorum ad res nouas diuulgandas auiditas. Verum illa è vulgi dementia nata opinio, vt stulta ac inanis, & in opprobrium nostræ gentis conficta, hactenus, vt spero, satis labefactata est. Quare iam perge Lector, vlterius hanc de secretis infernalibus Philosophiam cognoscere. The same in English. THE EIGHT SECTION. [Sidenote: Frisius. Zieglerus. Olaus magnus.] Neare vnto the mountaines (the 3. fornamed Hecla &c.) there be three vaste holes, the depth whereof, especially at mount Hecla, cannot be discerned by any man, be he neuer so sharpe sighted: but there appeare to the beholders thereof certaine men at that instant plunged in, & as yet drawing their breath, who answere their friends (exhorting them with deepe sighs to returne home) that they must depart to mount Hecla: and with that, they suddenly vanish away. To confirme the former lie, of an earthly & visible hell (albeit I will easily grant that Frisius in writing these things did not entend to reproch any, but only to blaze abroad new & incredible matters) certaine idle companions knowing neither hell nor heauen haue inuented this fable, no lesse reprochfull then false, and more vaine & detestable then Sicilian scoffes. Which fellowes these writers (being otherwise men of excellent parts, and to whom learning is much indebted) haue followed with an ouer hastie iudgement. But it were to be wished, that none would write Histories with so great a desire of setting foorth nouelties & strange things, that they feare not, in that regard to broch any fabulous & old-wiues toyes, & so to defile pure gold with filthy mire. But I pray you, how might those drowned men be swimming in the infernal lake, & yet for al that, parletng with their acquaintance & friends? What? Will you coniure, & raise vp vnto vs from death to life old, Orpheus conferring with his wife Euridice (drawen backe againe down to the Stigian flood) & in these parts of the world, as it were by the bankes of snowey Tanais, & Hebrus descanting vpon his harpe? But in very deed although others will not acknowledge the falsbood, & vanity of these trifles, yet Cardane being a diligent considerer of al things in his 18. booke de subtilitate, doth acknowledge & find them out. Whose words be these. There is Hecla a mountaine in Island, which burneth like vnto Ætna at certain seasons, & hereupon the comon people haue conceiued an opinion this long time, that soules are there purged: some, least they should seeme liars, heape vp more vanities to this fable, that it may appeare to be probable, & agreeable to reason. But what be those vanities? namely, they feine certaine ghosts answering them, that they are going to mount Hecla; as the same Cardane saith. And further he addeth. Neither in Island only, but euery where (albeit seldome) such things come to passe. And then he tels this storie following of a man-killing spright. There was (saith he) solemnized this last yeare the funerall of a comon citizen, in the gate neare vnto the great Church, by that marketplace, which in regard of the abundace of herbs, in our tong hath the name of the herbmarket. There meets with me one of mine acquaintance: I (according to the custome of Phisitians) presently aske of what disease the man died? he giueth me answere that this man vsed to come home from his labour 3. houres within night: one night among the rest he espied an hobgoblin pursuing him: which to auoid, he ran away with al speed: but being caught by the spright, he was throwne down vpon the ground. He would faine haue made a shout, & was not able. At length (when the spright & he had struggled together vpon the ground a good while) he was found by certain passengers, & carried home halfe dead. And when he was come to himselfe againe, being asked what was the matter, he vp and tolde this strange relation. Hereupon (being vtterly daunted, & discouraged, when neither by his friends, nor by Phisitians, nor by Priests, he could be perswaded, that these things were but his owne conceits, & that there was no such matter) 8. daies after he died. I heard also afterward of others which were his neighbors, that no man could more constantly affirme himselfe to be wounded of his enemy, then this man did, that he was cast vpon the ground by a ghost. And when some demanded what he did, after he was tumbled on the earth? The dead man (quoth he) laying his hands to my throat, went about to strangle me: neither was there any remedy, but by defending my selfe with mine own hands. When others doubted least he might suffer these things of a liuing man, they asked him how he could discerne a dead man from a liuing? To this he rendered a very probable reason, saying that he seemed in handling to be like Cottum, & that he had no weight, but held him down by maine force. And presently after he addeth. In like manner as in Island, so in the desert sands of Ægypt, Æthiopia, and India, where the sunne is hot, the very same apparitions, the same sprights are wont to delude wayfaring men. Thus much Cardane. Yet from hence (I trow) no man will conclude as our writers of Island do, that in the places of Ægypt, Æthiopia, and India, there is a prison of damned soules. I thought good to write these things out of Cardane, that I may bring euen the testimony of strangers on our sides, against such monstrous fables. This place of Cardane implieth these two things, namely that apparitions of sprights are not proper to Island alone (which thing al men know, if they do not maliciously feigne themselues to be ignorant). And secondly that that conference of the dead with the liuing in the gulfe of Hecla is not grounded vpon any certainty, but only vpon fables coined by some idle persons, being more vaine then any bubble, which the brutish common sort haue vsed, to confirme their opinion of the tormenting of soules. And is there any man so fantasticall, that wilbe induced to beleeue these gulfes, mentioned by writers, to be any where extant, although they be neuer so ful of dead mens miracles? yea doubtlesse. For from hence also they say, that reproches are iustly vsed against our nation: namely that there is nothing in all the world more base, & worthlesse then it, which conteineth hell within the bounds therof. This verely is the good that we haue gotten by those historiographers, who haue bin so greedy to publish nouelties. But this opinion, bred by the sottishnes of the common people hath hitherto (as I hope) bene sufficiently ouerthrowen as a thing foolish & vaine, and as being deuised for the vpbrayding of our nation. Wherefore, proceede (friendly Reader) and be farther instructed in this philosophy of infernall secrets. SECTIO NONA. [Sidenote: Frisius & Munst.] Circum verò Insulam, per septem aut octo menses fluctuat glacies, miserabilem quendam gemitum, & ab humana voce non alienum, ex collisione edens. Putant incolæ, & in monte Hecla, & in glacie loca esse, in quibus animæ suorum crucientur. Egregium scilicet Historiæ augmentum, de Orro Islandico in vnius montis basin, haud sanè vastam, coacto: Et interdum (statis forsan temporibus) loca commutante. Vbi scilicet domi in foco montano delitescere piget, & exire, pelagúsque sed sine rate, tentare iuuat, seseque in glaciei frustella colligere. Audite porrò, huius secreti admiratores: En porrigam Historicis aliud Historiæ auctarium nequaquam contemnendum. Scribant igitur, quotquot his scriptorum commentis adherent, Islandos non solùm infernum intra limites habere, sed & scientes volentes ingredi, atque intactos eodem die egredi. Quid ita? Quia peruetus est Insulæ consuetudo, vt maritimi in hanc glaciem, ab Historicis infernalem factam, manè phocas, seu vitulos marinos captum eant, ac vesperi incolumes redeant. Addite etiam, in scrinijs & alijs vasis ab Islandis carcerem damnatorum asseruari, vt paulò post ex Frisio audiemus. Sed maturè prævidendum erit vobis, ne Islandi fortitudinis & constantiæ laudem vestris nationibus præripiant: Quippe qui tormenta (vt historicis vestris placet) barathri sustinuisse & velint & possint, illáque sine vllo grauiore damno perrumpere atque effugere valeant, quod quidem ipsum ex iam dictis efficitur: Et multos nostratium enumerare possum, qui in ipso venationis actu longiusculè à littore digressi, glacie à Zephyris dissipata, multa milliaria glaciei insidentes, tempestatis violentia profligati, & aliquot dies ac noctes continuas crudelissimi pelagi fluctibus iactati, sicque (id enim, inquam, ex præsenti Historicorum problemate consequitur) tormenta & cruciatus barathri glacialis experti sunt: Qui tandem mutata tempestate, atque à Borea spirantibus ventis, ad littora, cum hoc suo glaciali nauigio rursus adacti, incolumes domum peruenerunt: Quorum aliqui etiam hodie viuunt. Quare hoc nouitatis auidi arripiant, indeque, si placet, iustum volumen conficiant, atque ad Historiam suam apponant. Nec enim vanissima illa commenta aliter, quàm eiusmodi iocularibus excipienda & confundenda videntur. Cæterum, ioco seposito, vnde digressi sumus, reuertamur. Primùm igitur ex sectione secunda satis constat, glaciem, neque septem, neque octo mensibus circa ipsam Insulam fluitare: Deinde etiam, glaciem hanc, et si interdum ex collisione grandes sonitus & fragores edit, interdum propter vndarum alluuionem, raucum murmur personat, quicquam tamen humanæ voci simile resonare aut eiulare minimè fatemur. Quod autem dicunt, nos & in glacie, & in monte Hecla loca statuere, in quibus animæ, nostrorum crucientur, Id verò seriò pernegamus, Deóque ac Domino nostro Iesu Christo, qui nos à morte & inferno eripuit, & regni coelestis ianuam nobis reserauit, gratias ex animo agimus, quòd nos de loco, in quem animæ nostrorum defunctorum commigrent, rectius, quàm dicunt isti Historici, instituerit. Scimus & tenemus animas piorum non in Purgatoriam Pontificiorum, aut campos Elysios, sed in sinum Abrabæ, in manum Dei, in Paradisum coelestem, mox è corporis ergastulo transferri. Scimus & tenemus de impiorum animabus, non in montanos focos & cineres, vel glaciem nostris oculis expositam, deflectere, sed in extremas mox abripi tenebras, vbi est fletus & stridor dentium, vbi est frigus, vbi est ignis ille, non vulgaris, sed extra nostram scientiam & subtilem disputationem positus. Vbi non modò corpora, sed animæ etiam, i.e. substantiæ spirituales, cruciantur. Huic extremo & tenebricoso carceri non Islandos viciniores, quàm Germanos, Danos, Gallos, Italos, aut quamuis aliam gentem, quoad loci situm, statuimus. Nec de huius carceris loco sitúue quicquam disputare attinet: sufficit nobis abundè, quòd illius tenebricosum foetorem & reliqua tormenta, dante & iuuante Domino nostro Iesu Christo, cuius precioso sanguine redempti sumus, nonquam sumus visuri aut sensuri. Atque hic de orco Islandico disputationis colophon esto. The same in English. THE NINTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Frisius and Munster.] But round about the Iland, for the space of 7. or 8. moneths in a yere there floateth ise, making a miserable kind of mone, and not vnlike to mans voice, by reason of the clashing together. The inhabitants are of opinion that in mount Hecla and in the ise, there are places wherein the soules of their countreymen are tormented. No doubt, a worthy augmentation of the history, concerning the hel of Island, shut vp within the botome of one mountaine, & that no great one: yea, at some times (by fits and seasons) changing places: namely, when it is weary of lurking at home by the fires side within the mountaine, it delighteth to be ranging abroad, & to venter to sea, but without a ship, & to gather it selfe round into morsels of yce. Come forth, & giue care all ye that wonder at this secret. Lo, I will afford these historiographers another addition of history very notable. Let them write therfore, that the Islanders haue not only hel within their iurisdictction, but also that they enter into it willingly & wittingly, & come forth againe vntouched the very same day. How can that be? [Sidenote: Taking of Seales on the the ice.] Why it is an ancient custome of the Island that they which inhabite neare the sea shore do vsually go betimes in a morning to catch Seales, euen vpon the very same ise which the historiographers make to be hel, & in the euening returne home safe and sound. Set downe also (if ye please) that the prison of the damned is kept in store by the Islanders in coffers and vessels, as we shall anon heare out of Frisius. But you had need wisely to foresee, lest the Islanders beguile all your countries of the commendation of courage & constacy: namely, as they (for so it pleaseth your writers to report) who both can and will endure the torments of hell, & who are able to breake through & escape them, without any farther hurt: which thing is necessarily to be collected out of that, that hath bin before mentioned. [Sidenote: Westrerne winds disperse the ice.] And I am able to reckon vp a great many of our countnmen who in the very act of hunting, wandring somewhat farre from the shoare (the ice being dispersed by westerne winds) & for the space of many leagues resting vpon the ice, being chased with the violence of the tempest, & some whole daies & nights being tossed vp & downe in the waues of the raging sea, & so (for it followeth by good consequence out of this probleme of the historiographers) haue had experience of the torments, & paines of this hell of ice. Who at the last, the weather being changed, & the winds blowing at the North, being transported again to the shoare, in this their ship of ice, haue returned home in safety: some of which number are aliue at this day. Wherefore let such as be desirous of newes snatch vp this, & (if they please) let them frame a whole volume hereof, & adde it to their history. Neither do these vaine phantasies deserue otherwise to be handled & confuted, then with such like meriments, & sportings. But to lay aside all iesting, let vs returne to the matter from whence we are digressed. [Sidenote: Ice floateth not 7. or 8. moneths about Island.] First of all therefore it is euident enough out of the second section, viz. ice floateth not about this Iland, neither 8. nor 7. moneths in a yere then, that this ice (although at some times by shuffling together it maketh monstrous soundings & cracklings, & againe at some times with the beating of the water, it sendeth forth an hoarse kind of murmuring) doth any thing at all resound or lament, like vnto mans voice, we may in no case confesse. But wheras they say that, both in the Isle, and in mount Hecla we appoint certaine places, wherin the soules of our countrimen are tormented, we vtterly stand to the deniall of that and we thanke God & our Lord Iesus Christ from the botome of our hearts (who hath deliuered vs from death & hell, & opened vnto vs the gate of the kingdome of heaæn because he hath instructed vs more truely, concernmg the place, whether the soules of our deceased countrimen depart, then these historiographers doe tell vs. We know and maintain that the soules of the godly are transported immediatly out of their bodily prisons, not into the Papists purgatory, nor into the Elysian fields, but into Abrahams bosome, into the hand of God, & into the heauenly paradise. We know & maintaine concerning the soules of the wicked, that they wander not into the fires & ashes of mountaines or into visible ice, but immediatly are carried away into vtter darknesse, where is weeping & gnashing of teeth, where there is colde also, & fire not comon, but far beyond our knowledge & curious disputation. Where not onely bodies, but soules also, that is spirituall substances are tormented. And we do also hold, that the Islanders are no whit nearer vnto this extreame & darke prison, in regard of the situation of place, then the Germans, Danes, Frenchmen, Italians, or any other nation whatsoeuer. Neither is it any thing to the purpose, at all to dispute of the place or situation of this dungeon. It is sufficient for vs, that (by the grace and assistance of our Lord Iesus Christ, with whose precious blood we are redeemed) we shall neuer see that vtter darknesse, nor feele the rest of the torments that be there. Now let vs here shut vp the disputation concerning the hell of Island. SECTIO DECIMA. [Sidenote: Frisius, Zieglerus Saxo fere similiter.] Quòd si quis ex hac glacie magnam partem ceperit, eámque vasi ant scrinio inclusam, quàm diligentissimè asseruarit, illa tempore glaciei, quæ circum insulam est, degelantis, euanescit, vt neque minima eius particula vel guttula aquæ reperiatur. Id profecto necessariò addendum fuit: Hanc scilicet glaciem, voces humanas, secundum Historicos, representatem, & damnatorom receptaculum existentem, non esse, vt reliqua in vastissima hac vniuersitate omnia, ex Elementi alicuius materia conflatam. Siquidem cum corpus esse videatur, corpus tamen non sit, (quod ex Frisij paradoxo rectè deducitur) cum etiam corpora dura & solida perrumpat, non secus ac, spectra & genij: Restat igitur cum non sit elementaris naturæ, vt vel spiritualem habeat materiam, vel coelestem, vel quod ipsi forsan largiantur, infernalem. Infernalem tamen esse non assentiemur, quia ad aures nostras peruenit frigus infernale longè esse intractabilius, quam est hæc glacies, humanis manibus in scrinio reposita, nec quicquam suo contactu, vel nudatam carnem lædere valens. Nec profectò spiritualem esse dabimus; accepimus enim à Physicis, substantias spirituales nec cerni, nec tangi, nec ijs quicquam decedere posse: quæ tamen omnia in hanc historicorum glaciem, quantumuis, secundum illos, hyperphysicam, cadere certum & manifestum est. Præterea & hoc verissimum est, eam calore solis resolutam, ac in superficie sua stagnantem, siti piscatorum restinguendæ, non secus ac riuos terrestres, inseruire: Id quod substantiæ spirituali denegatum est. Non est igitur spiritualis, vt nec infernalis. Iam verò coelestem habere materiam, nemo audebit dicere: Ne forte inde aliquis suspicetur, glaciem hanc barathrum, quod illi Historici affingunt, secum è coelo traxisse: Vel id coelo, quippe eiusdem materiæ cum glacie, commune esse, atque ita carcer damnatorum cum Paradiso coelesti loca commutasse, Historicorum culpa putetur. Quare cum glacies hæc Historica nec sit elementaris, vt ex præsenti loco Frisij optimè sequi iam toties monuimus: nec spiritualis, nec infernalis, quod vtrúmque breuibus, solidis tamen rationibns demonstrauimus: nec coelestis materiæ, quod opinari religio vetat: relinquitur omnino, vt secnndum eosdem Historicos nulla sit, quam tamen illi tàm cum stupenda admiratione prædicant, & nos videri ac tangi putamus. Est igitur, & non est: Quod axioma vbi secundum idem, & ad idem, & eodem tempore, verum esse poterit, nos demum miraculis istis glacialibus credemus. Itáque iam vides Lector, ad hæc refellenda nullo alio esse opus, quàm monstrari quomodo secum dissideant. Sed haud mirum, eum qui semel vulgi fabulosis rumoribus se cermisit, sæpius errare. Cuiusmodi etiam prodidit quidam de glaciei huius Sympathia, quòd videlicet molis, cuius pars esset, discessum insequeretur, vt omnem obseruatíonis diligentiam ineuitabili fugæ necessitate deciperet. Atqui sæpe idimus eiusmodi solitariam molem post abactam reliquam glaciem, nullis vectibus nullis machinis detentam, ad líttus multis septimanis consistere. Palam est igitur, illud de glacie miraculum fundamento niti, quàm est ipsa glacies, magis lubrico. The same in English. THE TENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Frisius. Zieglerus. Saxo.] If any man shall take a great quantity of this ice, & shall keepe it neuer so warily enclosed in a coffer or vessel, it wil at that time when the ice thaweth about the Iland, vtterly vanish away, so that not the least part thereof, no nor a drop of water is to be found. Surely, this was of necessity to be added: namely, that this ice, which according to historiographers representeth mans voice, & is the place of the damned, doth not as all other things in this wide world, consist of the matter of some element. For whereas it seemeth to be a body, when indeed it is no body: (which may directly be gathered out of Frisius absurd opinion) whereas also it pierceth through hard & solide bodies, no otherwise then spirits & ghosts: therefore it remaineth, seeing it is not of an elementary nature, that it must haue either a spirituall, or a celestial, or an infernal matter. But that it should be infernall, we can not be perswaded, because we haue heard that infernall cold is farre more vnsufferable then this ise, which vseth to be put into a boxe with mens hands, & is not of force any whit to hurt euen naked flesh, by touching thereof. Nor yet will we grant it to be spirituall: for we haue learned in naturall Philosophy, that spiritual substances can neither be seene nor felt, & cannot haue any thing taken from them: all which things do notwithstanding most manifestly agree to this ise of the Historiographers, howsoeuer according to them it be supernatural. Besides also, it is most true, that the very same yse being melted with the heat of the sunne, & resolued into water, vpon the vpper part therof, standeth fishermen in as good stead to quench their thirst, as any land-riuer would do, which thing can no way be ascribed to a spirituall substance. It is not therefore spirituall, nor yet infernall. Now none wilbe so bold to affirme, that it hath celestiall matter, least some man perhaps might hereupon imagine, that this ise hath brought hell (which the historiographers annexe vnto it) downe from heauen together with it selfe: or that the same thing should be common vnto heauen, being of one & the same matter with ise, & so that the prison of the damned may be thought to haue changed places with the heauenly paradise, & all by the ouersight of these Historiographers. Wherfore seeing the matter of this historicall ise is neither elementarie (as we haue so often proued by this place of Frisius) neither spirituall, nor infernall, both which we haue concluded euidently in short, yet sound and substanciall reasons: nor yet celestiall matter, which, religion forbiddeth a man once to imagine: it is altogether manifest, that according to the said historiographers, there is no such thing at all, which notwithstanding they blaze abroad with such astonishing admiration, & which we thinke to be an ordinary matter commonly seene and felt. Therefore it is, and it is not: which proposition when it shall fall out true, in the same respect, in the same part, and at the same time, then will we giue credite to these frozen miracles. Now therefore the Reader may easily iudge, that wee need none other helpe to refute these things, but onely to shew how they disagree one with another. But it is no maruell that he, which hath once enclined himselfe to the fabulous reports of the common people, should oftentimes fall into error. There was a like strange thing inuented by another concerning the sympathy or conioining of this ise: namely, that it followeth the departure of that huge lumpe, whereof it is a part, so narrowly, & so swiftly, that a man by no diligence can obserue it, by reason of the vnchangeable necessitie of following. But we haue oftentimes seene such a solitarie lumpe of ise remaining (after the other parts thereof were driuen away) and lying vpon the shore for many weekes together, without any posts or engines at all to stay it. Therefore it is plaine that these miracles of ise are grounded vpon a more slippery foundation then ise it selfe. SECTIO VNDECIMA. [Sidenote: Frisius.] Non procat ab his montibus, (tribus prædictis) ad maritimas oras vergentibus, sunt quatuor fontes diuersissimæ naturæ. Vnus suo perpetuo ardore omne corpus sibi immissum raptim conuertit in saxum, manente tamen priore formâ. Alter est algoris intolrerabilis. Tertius vel melle dulcior & restinguendæ siti iucundissimus. Quartus plane exitialis, pestilens, & virulentus. Etiam hæc fontium topographia satis apertè monstrat, quàm ex impuro fonte has suas narrationes omnes miraculosas hauserit Geographus. Id enim dicere videtur: Montes hos tres prædictos ferè, contiguos esse: Siquidem tribus montibus quatuor fontes indiscrete adscribit. Alioqui si non vicinos statuisset, vni alicui horam duos fontes adscripsisset. Sed neque hi montes contigui sunt (quippe multis milliaribus inuicem dissiti) neque iuxta hos fontes illi quatuor reperiuntur: quod, qui credere nolit, experiatur. Cæterum ad hæc confundenda sufficit, credo, ipsorum historicorum contrarietas. Nam de duobas fontibas quidam Frisio his verbis contradicit. Erumpunt ex eodem monte (Heclâ) fontes duo, quorum alter equarum frigiditate, alter feruore intolerabili exedit omnem elementarem vim. Hi duo sunt primi illi Frisij fontes, nisi quod hîc miraculum indurandi corpora, alteri fontium attributum, omissum sit. Atqui non simul possunt ex ipso monte, & iuxta montem erumpere. Hîc vero libenter quæsierim, quâ ratione quisquam ex Peripatecicis dicat, aliquid ipso elemento aquæ frigidius, aut igne calidius? Vnde demum, scriptores, ista frigiditas? Vnde iste feruor? Nonne è Schola vestra accepimus aquam esse elementum frigidissimum & humidum, atque adeo fngidissimum, vt ad constituendas qualitates secundas, remitti sit necesse, nec simplicem vsibus humanis inseruire? (Hæc ego nunc Physicorum oracula fundo, vera an falsa, nescio). Testis est vnus omnium, & pro omnibus, Iohannes Fernelius lib. 2. Physiologiæ, cap. 4. Sic, inquit, qualitates hæ (quatuor primæ) quatuor rerum naturis summæ obtigerunt, vt quemadmodum paro igne nihil calidius, nihilque leuius: Sic terra nihil siccius, nihil grauius: Aquam sinceram, nullius medicamenti vis gelida euincet, vt nec aërem, vllius humor. Summæ præterea sic illis insunt, vt ne minimum quidem possint augescere, remitti verò possint. Nolo huc rationes seu argumenta Physicorum aggregare. Vnum profecto hic cauendum est, ne dum fontium miracula prædicant scriptores, vt glaciem Islandorum, ita etiam fontes creatorum numero eximant. Nos fontium adiuncta, quæ huc scriptores pertraxerunt ordine persequemur. Primus suo perpetuo calore: Plurimæ sunt in Islandia thermæ seu fontes calidi: Pauciores ardentes: quos neque cuiquam miraculo esse debere existimamus, cum huiusmodi, vt a scriptoribus didici, passim abundet Germania, præcipuè in ijs locis, quæ non sunt procul ab Alpium radicibus. Nota est fama thermarum Badensium, Gebarsuiliensium, Calbensium, in ducatu Wirtebergensi, & multarum aliarum quarum meminit Fuchsius in lib. de arte medendi. Et non solum Germania, sed etiam Gallia, & longe magis omnium bonorum parens Italia, inquit Cardanus. Et Aristoteles narrat, circa Epyrum calidas aquas scaturire, vnde locus Pyriphlegeton appellatur. Atque inquam, hæc ideo minus miranda, quod vt incendij montani, ita feruoris aquei caussas indagarint Naturæ speculatores: Aquam scilicet per terræ venas sulphureas, aut aluminosas labi, indeque non calorem solùm, sed saporem etiam & virtutes alienas concipere. Docuit hoc Aristoteles libro de mundo. Continet, inquit, terra in se multos fontes, vt aquæ, ita & spiritus & ignis: Quidam amnium more fluunt, & vel ignescens eijciunt ferrum: Nunc tepidæ aquæ erumpunt, nunc feruentissimæ, nunc temperatæ. [Sidenote: Lib 3. Nat. quæst.] Et Seneca: Empedocles existimabat ignibus, quos multis locis apertos tegit terra, aquam calescere, si subiecti sint solo, per quod aquæ transitus est. Et scite de thermis Baianis Pontanus. Baiano sed ne fumare in littore thermas Mirere, aut liquidis fluitare incendia venis: Vulcani fora sulphureis incensa caminis Ipsa monent, latè multùm tellure sub ima Debacchari ignem, camposque exurere opertos. Inde fluit, calidum referens ex igne vaporem, Vnda fugax, tectis feruent & balnea flammis. Hoc loco attingendum duxi quod tradit Saxo Grammaticus, Danorum celebratissimus historicus, Islandiæ fontes quosdam nunc ad summum excrescere, & exundare: Nunc adeò subsidere, vt vix fontes agnoscas. Qui etsi rariores apud nos inueniuntur, adscribam tamen similes, etiam alibi à natura productos, ne quis hic monstri quippiam imaginetur. Hos autem recitat Plinius. In Tenedo Insula vnum, qui semper à tertia noctis hora, in sextam solstitio æstiuo exundet. In agro Pitinate, trans Apenninum montem, fluuium esse, qui omnibus Solstitijs æstiuis exundet, brumali tempore siccetur. Refert etiam de fonte quodam satis largo, qui singulis horis intumeseat & residat. Nec id magis neglidendum: subire terras flumina, rursusque redire; vt Lycus in Asia, Erasinus in Argolica, Tigris in Mesopotamia, quibus Cardanus addit Tanaim in Moscouia: Et quæ in Æsculapij fonte Athenis immersa sunt, in Phaletico reddi. Et Seneca scribit esse flumina, quæ in specum aliquem subterraneum demissa, ex hominum oculis se subducunt, quæ consumi paulatim & intercidere constet: Eademque post interuallum reuerti, recipereque & nomen & cursum priorem. Et iterum Plinius; fluuium in Atinate campo mersum, post 20 millia passuum exire. Quæ omnia, & his similia, Islandiæ fontes, miraculo nullo, præ cæteris esse debere, ostendunt. Omne corpus immissum continuò conuertit in saxum. His duobus adiunctis, feruore nempe, seu ardore vehementissimo, & virtute indurandi corpora, primum suum fontem describit Frisius. Et fama quidem accepi, ipse non sum expertus, existere similem fontem in Islandia, non procul à sede Episcopali Schalholt, apud villam nomine Haukadal. Habet simile Seneca, dicens, fontem quendam esse, qui ligna in lapides conuertat, hominumque viscera indurescere, qui aquam eius biberint: Et addit eiusmodi fontes in quibusdam Italiæ locis inueniri: quod Ouidias Ciconum flumini tribuit 15. Metamorph. Flumen habent Cicones, quod potum saxea reddit Viscera, quod tactis inducit marmora rebus. Et Cardanus: Georgius Agricola, inquit, in Elbogano tractu iuxta oppidum à falconibns cognominatum, integras cum corpore abietes in lapidem conuersas esse, atque quod maius est, in rimis etiam Pyritidem lapidem continere. Et Domitius Brusonius, in Sylare amne, qui radices montis eius, qui est in agro vrbis Vrsentinorum olim, nunc Contursij lambit, folia & arborum ramos in lapides transire, non fide aliorum, sed propria, vt qui incola sit regionis, (cui rei etiam Plinius astipulatur) narrat, cortices aute lapidum, annos numero ostendere. Sic (si scriptoribus credimus) guttæ Gotici fontis sparsæ lapidescunt. Et in Vngaria, Cepusij aqua, in vrceos infusa, lapidescit. Plinius refert etiam, vt in Ciconom flumine, & in Piceno lacu velino, lignum deiectum, lapideo cortice obduci. Secundus algoris intolerabitis. Quantum ad secundum fontem attinet, nullus hic est quòd quisquam sciat, algoris intolerabilis, sed plurimi bene frigidi, ita vt vulgaribus riuis æstiuo sole tepescentibus, non sine voluptate ex frigidioribus illis aquam hauriamus. Sunt & longè frigidiores fortè alibi: Nam & Cardanus in agro Corinthio è montis vertice fluentem riuum commemorat, niue frigidiorem: Et intra primum à Culma lapidem, Insanam vocatum: quæ aqua cum feruere videatur, sit tamen longe frigidissima, &c. Tertius vel melle dulcior. Neque id prorsus verum est. Non enim est vllus apud nos, qui vel minima ex parte cum mellis dulcedine conferri possit. Rectius igitur Saxo, qui fontes (quoniam plures sunt) in Islandia dicit inueniri Cerealem referentes liquorem, vt etiam ibidem non diuersi saporis solùm, sed diuersi etiam coloris fontes & flumina reperiuntur. Etsi autem tradunt Physici aquam naturaliter ex se neque saporem neque odorem habere, tamen, vt superius attigimus, veri simile est, quod alij per accidens vocant, eam sæpe referre qualitatem terræ, in qua generatur, & per cuius venas transitum atque excursum habet: Atque hinc aquarum odores, colores, sapores, alios atque alios existere, Cuiusmodi sunt, de quibus narrat Seneca, quorum alij famem excitant, alij bibentes inebrient, alij memoriæ officiant, alij inuent eandem, alij vini saporem & virtutem repræsentent: [Sidenote: Lib. de mirab. auscultat.] Vt ille apud Plinium in Andro Insula fons, in templo Liberi, qui Nonis Ian: vini sapore fluat. Et apud Aristotelem fons in agro Carthaginensi, qui oleum præbeat, & guttulas Cedri odore representet. Item, Orcus fluuius Thessaliæ, influens in Peneum, olei instar supernatans: [Sidenote: Lib. 2. de Element.] Cuiusmodi etiam narrat Cardanus in Saxonia esse, iuxta Brumonis oppidum, fontem oleo perfusum: Et in Sueuia, iuxta Coenobium, cui Tergensche nomen est. Item, in valle mentis Iurassi. Causam huius rei putat esse bitumen valde pingue, quod oleum sine dubio contineat. Idem, famam esse ait, in Cardia, iuxta locum Dascbyli, in campo albo aquam esse lacte dulciorem. Aliam quoque iuxta pontem, qua Valdeburgum itur. Iam aquarum vini saporem referentium meminit his verbis Propertius, 3. lib. Elegiar. En tibi per mediam bene olentia flumina Naxon, Vnde tuum pota Naxia turba merum. Est autem Naxus Insula vna ex Cycladibus, in mari Ægeo. Causam huius assignat Cardanus, quod hydromel vetustate transeat in vinum. Aristoteles commemorat Siciliæ fontem, quo incolæ loco aceti vtantur. Idem saporum aquæ causam in calorem retulit, quod terra excocta mutet & præbeat saporem aquæ. Iam de aquæ coloribus ita Cardanus. Eadem est ratio colorum aquæ, ait, quæ & saporum: videlicet à terra originem trahere. Nam Candida est aqua, ad secundum lapidem à Glauca, Misenæ oppido: Rubea, vt in Radera Misenæ fluuio, iuxta Radeburgum: Et olim in Iudæa iuxta Ioppen: Viridis, in Carpato monte, iuxta Neusolam: Cærulea aut blaua, inter Feltrium & Taruisium, & in Thermopylis etiam talem fuisse referunt: Nigerrima in Allera fluuio Saxoniæ, vbi in Visurgim se exonerat. Caussæ sunt argillæ colores, sed tenuiores. Item Aristoteles: circa Iapygiam promontorium, esse fontem, qui sanguinem fundat, addens, eam maris partem suo foetore nauigantes procul arcere. Aiunt præterea in Idumæa fontem esse, qui quater in anno colorem mutet, cum sit colore nunc viridi, nunc albo, nunc sanguineo, nunc lutulento. Et de aquarum odore sic Cardanus. Similis ratio differentiæ est in odoribus. Plerumque tamen aquarum odores iniucundi sunt, quòd rarò terra bene oleat. Pessimè olim foetabat in Ælide, Anigri fluminis aqua, vsque ad perniciem, non solum piscium, sed etiam hominum. Iuxta Metonem in Messania, in puteo quodam optimè olens aqua hauriebatur. Hæc ideo recito, vt nullus magis in Islandia quàm alibi, aquarum, colores, odores, sapores, miretur. Quartus plane exitialis. Autor est Isidoras, esse fontem quendam, cuius aqua pota vitam extinguat: Et Plinius: Iuxta Nonarim, inquit, Arcadiæ, Styx (iuxta Cyllenem montem, ait Cardan. Sola equi vngula continebatur: referunt ea sublatum Alexandrum magnum) nec odore differens, nec colore, epota illico necat. Idem, In Beroso Taurorum colle sunt tres fontes sine remedio, sine dolore mortiferi: Et quod longè maximum est, quod Seneca stagnum esse dicat, in quod prospicientes statim moriantur. Nos verò Islandi etiam hunc quartum Frisij fontem, cuius etiam Saxo meminit, vt antehac semper, itidem etiam nobis hodie penitus ignotum testamur: Hocque igitur nomine, Deo immortales gratias agimus, quòd ab eiusmodi fontibus & serpentibus, insectis venenatis, ac alijs pestiferis & contagiosis, esse nos immunes voluerit. Præterea est apud prædictos fontes tanta sulphuris copia. Montes tres à Munstero & Frisio igniuomi dicti, omnes longissimo interuallo à nostris fodinis distant. Quare cum iuxta hos montes fontibus quatuor, quos tantopere miraculis celebrant, locum & situm faciant, necesse est eos fontes pari ferè interuallo à fodinis sulphureis remotos esse. Nec verò apud montem Heclam, vt Munsterus, nec apud hos Frisij fontes (quorum rumor quàm verus sit, hactenus ostensum est) sulphur effoditur: Nec patrum nostrorum memoria effossum esse arbitramur. [Sidenote: Sulpher in bore. ali Islandiæ parte.] Neque verum est, quod de sulphuris copia tradit Munsterus, esse videlicet pene vnicum Insulæ mercimonium & vectigal. Nam cum insula in quatuor partes diuisa sit, quarta pars, nempe borealis, tantum dimidia, hoc vtitur mercimonio, nec sulphuris mica in vectigal Insulæ penditur. The same in English. THE ELEUENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Frisius.] Not farre from these mountaines (the three forenamed) declining to the sea shoare, there be foure fountaines of a most contrary nature betweene themselues. The first, by reason of his continuall heat conuerteth into a stone any body cast into it, the former shape only still remaining. The second is extremely cold. The third is sweeter then honey, and most pleasant to quench thirst. The fourth is altogether deadly, pestilent, and full of ranke poison. Euen this description of fountaines doth sufficiently declare howe impure that fountaine was, out of which the geographer drew all these miraculous stories. For he seemeth to affirme, that the three foresaid mountaines doe almost touch one another: for he ascribeth foure fountaines indifferently vnto them all. Otherwise if he had not made them stand neare together, he would haue placed next vnto some one of these, two of the foresaid fountaines. But neither doe these mountaines touch (being distant so many leagues a sunder), neither are there any such foure fountaines neare vnto them, which, he that wil not beleeue, let him go try. But to confute these things, the very contrariety of writers is sufficient. For another concerning two fountaines gainsayth Frisius in these words. There do burst out of the same hill Hecla two fountames, the one whereof, by reason of the cold streames, the other with intollerable heat exceedeth al the force of elements. These be Frisius his two first fountaines, sauing that here is omitted the miracle of hardening bodies, being by him attributed to one of the said fountaines. But they cannot at one time breake forth, both out of the mountaine it selfe, and neare vnto the mountaine. But here I would willingly demannd, by what reason any of the Peripateticks can affirme, that there is some thing in nature colder then the element of water, or hotter then the element of fire. From whence (I pray yon, learned writers) proceedeth this coldnesse: From whence commeth this heate: Haue we not learned out of your schole that water is an element most colde and somewhat moist: and in such sort most cold, that for the making of secundarie qualities, it must of necessitie be remitted, & being simple, that it cannot be applyed to the vses of mankind: I do here deliuer these Oracles of the naturall Philosophers, not knowing whether they be true or false. M. Iohn Fernelius, lib. 2. Phys. cap. 4. may stand for one witnesse amongst all the rest, & in stead of the all. So excessiue (satth he) be these foure first qualities in the foure elements, that as nothing is hotter then pure fire, & nothing lighter: so nothing is drier then earth, & nothing heauier: and as for pure water, there is no qualitie of any medicine whatsoeuer exceedeth the coldnes thereof, nor the moisture of aire. Moreouer, the said qualities be so extreme & surpassing in them, that they cannot be any whit encreased, but remitted they may be. I wil not heare heape vp the reasons or arguments of the natural Philosophers. These writers had need be warie of one thing, lest while they too much magnifie the miracles of the fountains, they exempt them out of the number of things created, as wel as they did the ice of the Islanders. We wil prosecute in order the properties of these fountains set downe by the foresaid writers. [Sidenote: Many hote Baths in Island.] The first by reason of his continuall heat. There be very many Baths or hote fountains in Island, but fewer vehemently hote, which we thinke ought not to make any man wonder, when as I haue learned out of authors, that Germanie euery where aboundeth with such hote Baths, especially neere the foot of the Alpes. The hote Baths of Baden, Gebarsuil, Calben in the dutchy of Wirtenberg and many other be very famous: all which Fuchsius doeth mention in his booke de Arte medendi. And not onely Germanie, but also France, & beyond all the rest Italy that mother of all commodities, saith Cardan. And Aristotle reporteth, that about Epyrus these hote waters doe much abound, whereupon the place is called Pyriplegethon. [Sidenote: The causes of hote Baths.] And I say, these things should therefore be the lesse admired, because the searchers of nature haue as wel found out causes of the heate in waters, as of the fire in mountaines: namely, that water runneth within the earth through certaine veines of Brimstone & Allom and from thence taketh not onely heat, but taste also & other strange qualities. Aristotle in his booke de Mundo hath taught this. The earth (saith he) conteineth within it fountains not only of water, but also of spirite & fire: some of them flowing like riuers, doe cast foorth red hote iron: from whence also doeth flow, sometimes luke-warme water, sometimes skalding hote, and somtimes temperate. And Seneca. [Sidenote: Lib. 3. nat. quæst.] Empedocles thought that Baths were made hote by fire, which the earth secretly conteineth in many places, especially if the said fire bee vnder that ground where the water passeth. And Pontanus writeth very learnedly concerning the Baian Baths. No maruell though from banke of Baian shore hote Baths, or veines of skalding licour flow: For Vulcans forge incensed euermore doeth teach vs plaine, that heart of earth below And bowels burne, and fire enraged glow. From hence the flitting flood sends smokie streames, And Baths doe boil with secret burning gleames. I thought good in this placel to touch that which Saxo Grammaticus the most famous historiographer of the Danes reporteth. That certaine fountains of Island do somtime encrease & flow vp to the brinke: sometimes againe they fall so lowe that you can skarse discerne them to be fountaines. Which kind of fountaines, albeit they bee very seldome found with vs, yet I will make mention of some like vnto them, produced by nature in other countries, lest any man should think it somwhat strange. Plinie maketh a great recitall of these. There is one (saieth he) in the Isle of Tenedos, which at the Solstitium of sommer doth alwaies flow from the third houre of the night, till the sixt. In the field of Pitinas beyond the Apennine mountaine, there is a riuer which in the midst of sommer alwaies encreaseth, and in winter is dried vp. He maketh mention also of a very large fountaine, which euery houre doeth encrease and fall. Neither is it to be omitted, that some riuers run vnder the ground, and after that fall againe into an open chanel: as Lycus in Asia, Erasinus in Argolica, Tigris in Mesopotamia, vnto which Cardan addeth Tanais in Moscouia: and those things which were throwen into Æsculapius fountaine at Athens, were cast vp againe in Phaletico. And Seneca writeth that there are certaine riuers which being let downe into some caue vnder ground, are withdrawen out of sight, seeming for the time to be vtteriy perished and taken away, and that after some distance the very same riuers returne, enioying their former name and their course. And againe Plinie reporteth that there is a riuer receiued vnder ground in the field of Atinas that issueth out twentie miles from that place. All which examples and the like, should teach vs that the fonutaines of Island are not to be made greater wonders then the rest. Doth forthwith conuert into a stone any body cast into it. By these two properties, namely warmth or most vehement heat, & a vertue of hardening bodies doth Frisius describe his first fountaine. And I haue heard reported (though I neuer had experience thereof my selfe) that there is such a fountain in Island not far from the bishops seat of Schalholt, in a village called Haukadal. Seneca reporteth of the like, saying: That there is a certain fountain which conuerteth wood into stone, hardening the bowels of those men which drinke thereof. And addeth further, that such fountains are to bee found in certaine places of Italy: which thing Ouid in the 15. booke of his Metamor. ascribeth vnto the riuer of the Cicones. Water drunke out of Ciconian flood fleshy bowels to flintie stone doeth change: Ought else therewith besprinckt, as earth or wood becommeth marble streight: a thing most strange. And Cardane. Georgius Agricola affirmeth, that in the territorie of Elbogan, about the town which is named of Falcons, that the whole bodies of Pine trees are conuerted into stone, and which is more wonderfull, that they containe, within certaine rifts, the stone called Pyrites, or the Flint. And Domitius Brusonius reporteth, that in the riuer of Silar (running by the foote of that mountain which standeth in the field of the citie in old time called Vrsence, but now Contursia) leaues and boughs of trees change into stones, & that, not vpon other mens credite, but vpon his own experience, being borne & brought vp in that country, which thing Plinie also auoucheth, saying, that the said stones doe shew the number of their yeeres, by the number of their Barks, or stony husks. So (if we may giue credite to authors) drops of the Gothes fountain being dispersed abroad, become stones. And in Hungary, the water of Cepusius being poured into pitchers, is conuerted to stone. And Plinie reporteth, that wood being cast into the riuer of the Cicones, and into the Veline lake in the field of Pice, is enclosed in a barke of stone growing ouer it. [Sidenote: Riuers of Island in sommer season lukewarme.] The second is extremely cold. As for the second fountaine, here is none to any mens knowledge so extremely cold: In deed there be very many that bee indifferently coole, insomuch that (our common riuers in the Sommer time being luke-warme) wee take delight to fetch water from those coole springs. It may be that there are some farre colder in other countries: for Cardane maketh mention of a riuer (streaming from the top of an hill in the field of Corinth) colder then snow, and within a mile of Culma, the riuer called Insana seeming to be very hote is most extremely cold, &c. The third is sweeter than honie. Neither is this altogether true. For there is not any fountaine with vs, which may in the least respect be compared with the sweetnesse of honie. And therfore Saxo wrote more truly, saying, that certaine fountaines (for there be very many) yeelding taste as good as beere, and also in the same place there are fountains & riuers not onely of diuers tasts, but of diuers colours. And albeit naturall Philosophers teach, that water naturally of it selfe hath neither taste nor smel, yet it is likely (as we haue touched before, which other call per accidens) that oftentimes it representeth the qualities of that earth wherein it is engendred, and through the veines whereof it hath passage and issue: and from hence proceed the diuers & sundry smels, colours and sauours of all waters. Of such waters doeth Seneca make mention, whereof some prouoke hunger, others make men drunken, some hurt the memory, & some helpe it, & some resemble the very qualitie and taste of wine, as that fountaine which Plinie speaketh of [Sidenote: In lib. de mirab.] in the Isle of Andros, within the temple of Bacchus, which in the Nones of Ianuary vsed to flow ouer with wine. And Aristotle reporteth, that in the field of Carthage there is a fountain which yeeldeth oile, & certaine drops smelling like Cedar. Also Orcus a riuer of Thessalie flowing into Peneus, swimmeth aloft like oile. Cardane reporteth, that there is in Saxonie, neere vnto the town of Brunswic, a fountaine mixed with oile: and another in Sueuia neere vnto the Abbey called Tergensch. Also in the valley of the mountain Iurassus. He supposeth the cause of this thing to bee very fattie pitch, which cannot but conteine oile in it. The same author saieth: It is reported that in Cardia neere to the place of Daschylus, in the white field, there is water sweeter then milke. Another also neere vnto the bridge which we passe ouer going to the towne of Valdeburg. Propertius likewise in the third booke of his Elegies mentioneth certaine waters representing the sauour of wine in these words. Amidst the Isle of Naxus loe, with fragrant smels and fine A freshet runs; ye Naxians goe fill cups, carouse, there's wine. This Naxus is one of the Islands called Cydades lying in the Ægæan sea. Cardane giueth a reason hereof, namely, because Hydromel or water-hony, in long continuance will become wine. Aristotle nameth a fountaine in Sicilia, which the inhabitants vse in stead of vineger. The same author maketh the cause of sauours in water to be heate, because the earth being hote changeth and giueth sauour vnto the water. Now concerning the colours of water so saieth Cardane. There is the same reason (saith he) of the colours of water, that there is of the sauours thereof, for both haue their originall from the earth. For there is white water within two miles of Glanca a town in Misena: red water in Radera a riuer of Misena not farre from Radeburg: & in old time neere vnto Ioppa in Iudea: greene water in the mountaine of Carpathus by Nensola: skie-coloured or blue water betweene the mountains of Feltrius & Taruisius: & it is reported that there was water of that colour in Thermopylis; cole-blacke water in Alera a riuer of Saxonie, at that place where it dischargeth it self into the Weser. The causes of these colours are the colours of the soile. Also Aristotle saieth, that about the promontorie of Iapigia, there is a fountaine which streameth blood: adding moreouer, that Mariners are driuen farre from that place of the sea, by reason of the extreme stench thereof. Furthermore, they say that in Idumæa there is a fountaine which changeth color foure times in a yeere: for somtimes it is greene, somtime white, somtime bloodie, & somtimes muddy coloured. Concerning the smels of waters, thus writeth Cardane. There is the like reason of difference in smell. But for the most part the steames of waters bee vnpleasant, because the earth doeth seldome times smel well. The water of the riuer Anigris in Aelis stanke, to the destruction, not onely of fishes, but also of men. About Meton in Messania, out of a certaine pond there hath bene drawen most sweet smelling, and odoriferous water. I doe recite all these examples to the end that no man should make a greater wonder at the colours, smels, and sauours of waters that be in Island, then at those which are in other countreis. The fourth is altogether deadly. Isidore affirmeth, that there is a certaine fountaine whose water being drunke, extingnisheth life. And Plinie saieth, That about Nonaris in Arcadia, the riuer of Styx (neere the mountaine of Cillene, saieth Cardane: it would be contained in nothing but an horse-hoofe: and it is reported that Alexander the great was poisoned therewithal) not differing from other water, neither in smell nor colour, being drunke, is present death. [Sidenote: The same Author saieth.] In Berosus an hill of the people called Tauri, there are three fountains, euery one of them deadly without remedy, & yet without griefe. And (which is the strangest thing of all the rest) Seneca maketh mention of a poole, into which whosoeuer looke, do presently die. But, as for this fourth fountaine of Frisius, which Saxo doeth likewise mention, we Islanders, as alwayes heretofore, so euen at this day do testifie, that it is vtterly vnknowen vnto vs: [Sidenote: Island free from snakes and other venemous beasts.] and therefore in this regard, we render vnto God immortall thanks, because he hath vouchsafed to preserue our nation from such fountains, from serpents and venemous wormes, & from al other pestiferous & contagious creatures. Furthermore about the foresaid mountaines there is such abundance of brimstone. The three mountains called by Munster and Frisius, Fierie mountains, do all of them stand an huge distance from our Mines. Wherefore, when as neere vnto these hils they haue found out a place for foure fountains, which they doe so mightily extoll for wonders, they must needs haue some Brimstone Mines also, standing a like distance from the said fountaines. And assuredly, neither about mount Hecla, as Munster would haue it, nor by Frisius his fountaines (the report whereof how true it is, hath bene hitherto declared) is Brimstone digged vp at this day: nor I thinke euer was within the remembrance of our fathers. Neither is it true that Munster reporteth concerning the abundance of Brimstone namely, that it is almost the onely merchandize and tribute of the Iland. [Sidenote: Brimstone Mines onely in the North part of Island.] For whereas the Iland is deuided into foure partes, the fourth part onely towards the North (nay, but euen the halfe thereof) doeth vse it for merchandize, and there is not one crumme of Brimstone paied for tribute the Iland. SECTIO DVODECIMA. [Sidenote: Munst] Piscium tanta est copia in hac Insula, vt ad altitudinem domorum sub aperto coelo vendedi exponantur. Sub aperto coelo. Id quidem facere vidimus mercatores extraneos, donec naues mercibus extraneis exonerarint, incipiantque easdem rursus piscibus & reliquis nostratium mercibus onerare. An verò nostri homines id aliquando fecerint, non satis liquet. Certè copiosa illa & vetus piscium abundantia iam desijt, Islandis & istius boni, & aliorum penuria laborare incipientibus, Domino Deo meritum impietatis nostræ flagellum, quod vtinam fitè agnoscamus, immittente. The same in English. THE TWELFTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Munster] There are so great store of fishes in this Iland, that they are laid foorth on piles to be sold in the open aire, as high as the tops of houses. In the open aire. In deed we haue seen other country merchants doe so, vntill they had vnladen their ships of outlandish wares, & filled them againe with fishes & with other of our countrey merchandize. But whether our men haue done the like at any time, it is not manifest. [Sidenote: Abundance of fish about island diminished.] Certainly, that plentifull and ancient abundance of fish is now decaied, and the Islanders now begin to be pinched with the want of these and other good things, the Lord laying the iust scourge of our impietie vpon vs, which I pray God we may duely acknowledge. SECTIO DECIMATERTIA. [Sidenote: Frisius.] Equos habent velocissimos, qui sine intermissione 30. millaria continuo cursu conficiunt. Quidam in sua mappa Islandiæ, 20. millaria comunuo cursu assequi tradit cuiusdam parosciæ equos. Sed vtrumque impossibile ducimus. Nam maximæ celeritatis & roboris bestias (Rangiferos appellant) scribit Munsterus non nisi 30. millaria 24. horarum spacio conficere. The same in English. THE THIRTEENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Frisius.] They haue most swift horses, which wil run without ceasing a continual course for the space of 30. leagues. A Certaine Cosmographer in his Map of Island reporteth concerning the horses of one parish, that they will run 20. leagues at once in a continued race. But we account both to bee impossible. For Munster writeth that those beasts which excell all other in swiftnesse & strength of body, called Rangiferi [Marginal note: Raine deere], cannot run aboue 36. leagues in 24. houres. SECTIO DECIMAQUARTA. [Sidenote: Munst.] Cete grandia instar montium prope Islandium aliquando conspiciuntur, quæ naues euertunt, nisi tubarum sono absterreantur, aut missis in mare rotundis & vacuis vasis, quorum lusu delectantur, ludificentor. Fit aliquando, vt nautæ in dorsa cetorum, quæ Insulas esse putant, anchoras figentes. sæpe periclitentur, vocantur autem eorum lingua Trollwal, Tuffelwalen. i. Diabolica cete. Instar montium: En tibi iterum, Lector, Munsteri, Telenicis Echo, et cæcum, vt dici solet, insomnium. Deformat, me Hercule, adeò mendax et absurda hyperbole historiam, idque tantò magis quantò minus est necessaria. Nam quorsum attinet mentiri Historicum, si historia est rei veræ narratio? Quorsum tropicas hyperboles assumet? Quid conabitur persuadere, aut quo pertrahere Lectorem, siquidem nihil nisi simplicem rerum expositionem sibi proponit? Pictoribus atque, Poëtis, Quodlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas: Non itidem Historicis. Dorsa cetorum, quæ insulas putant. Nata est hæc fabula, vt et reliquæ, ex mendacio quodam, vt antiquo, ita ridiculo et vano, cuius ego fidem titiuilitio non emam. Est autem tale: Missos fuisse olim Legatos cum sodalitio monastico, ab Episcopo Bremensi (Brandanus veteribus Noruagis, Crantzio, ni fallor, Alebrandus appellatur) ad fidem Papisticam, quæ tum Christiana putabatur, in Septentrione prædicandam et diuulgandam: Eosque, vbi immensum iter Septentrionem versus nauigando consumpsissent ad insulam quandam peruenisse: ibique iacta anchora descensum in Insulam fecisse, focos accendisse: (Nam verisimile est nautas in ipso mari glaciali frigore non parum esse vexatos) et commeatum naualem ad reliquum iter expediuisse. Ast vbi bene ignibus accensis incaluerant foci, Insulam hanc submersam cito euanuisse, nautas autem per præsentem scapham vix seruatos fuisse. Habes huius rei fundamentum, Lector, sed quàm incredibile, ipse vides. Quid verò tandem est animi nautis, qui in mari procelloso videntes scopulum, vel, vt Munsterus, Insulam perexiguam emergere, non vitent potius omni studio, allisionem et naufragium metuentes, quàm vt in portu parum tuto quiescere tentent? Sed vbi anchora figenda? Solent enim, vt plurimum deesse nautis tam immensi funes, vt in altissimo æquore anchoram demittant: Igitur in dorsis cetorum, respondet Munsterus. Oportet igitur, vestigium vnci prius effodiant. O stultos nautas, balenarum carnem, à terræ cespitibus, inter fodiendum, non dignoscentes nec lubricam cetorum cutem, à terrestri superficie internoscentes. Digni profectò, quibuscum ipse Munsterus, nauclerus transfretaret. Equidem hoc loco, vt et superius, de miraculis Islandiæ terrestribus agens, è Tantali; vt aiunt, horto fructus colligit, id est, ea consectatur, quæ nunquam reperiuntur, nec vsquam sunt, dum miracula hinc inde conquirere, terram et pelagus verrere, ad Historiæ suæ supplementum studet: Vbi tamen nihil nisi cotnmentitia tantum venari potest. Vocantur autem lingua eorum Trollwal. Ne vltra peram, Munstere: Nullam siquidem es linguæ nostræ cognitionem adeptus: Quare meritò puderet tantum virum, rem ignotam alios velle docere: Est enim eiusmodi incoeptum erroribus obnoxium complurimis, vt vel hoc tuo exemplo docebimus. Dum enim vis alijs autor esse, quomodo nostra lingua balenæ vel cete appellentur, detracta, per inscitiam, aspiratione, quæ pene sola vocis significationem facit, quod minimè verum est, affers: Non enim val nostra lingua balenam, sed electionem siue delectum significat, à verbo, Eg vel .i. eligo, vel deligo: vnde val, &c. At balena Hualur nobis vocatur: Vnde tu Trollhualur scribere debebas. Nec verò Troll Diabolum, vt tu interpretaris, sed Gigantes quosdam montanos significat. Vides igitur, quomodo in toto vocabulo turpiter, quod haud tamen mirum, erres. Leuis quidem illa in linguam nostram iniuria, in vnica tantum voce: quoniam plures, haud dubiè, non noras. Idem alijs etiam vsu venit: Non enim probandum est, quòd quidam, dum Islandiæ descriptionem, ab Islandis acceptam, ederet, maluerit omnia, aut certè plurima promontoriorum, sinuum, montium, fontium, fluminum, tesquorum, vallium, collium, pagorum nomina desprauare (quòd nostræ linguæ ignaris, non sciret à nostratibus accepta satis exactè legere) atque corrumpere, quàm prius ab ipsis Islandis, qui turn temporis, id est, Anno 1585. In Academia Haffniensi vixerunt, quomodo singula legi ac scribi deberent, ediscere. Ipsum certè hac natiuorum nominum et appellationum voluntaria deprauatione, (qua factum est, vt ipsi ea legentes, paucissima nostra agnoscamus) in linguam nostram, alioqui puram et auitam penè elegantiam retinentem, non leuiter peccasse reputamus. Cæterum iam plurima Islandiæ miracula, quæ quidem scriptores nostri attigerunt, sic vtcunque examinauimus. Sed tamen priusquam alio diuertamur, in hac parte attingendum videtur, quod idem ille in mappa Islandiæ, quam sub suo nomine, prædicto anno edi fecerat, de duobus, præter supra dictos, fontibus Islandiæ prodidit: quorum alter lanas albas colore nigro, alter nigras, albo inficiat. Quod quidem vbi acceperit, aut vnde habeat, scire equidem non possumus: Nec enim apud nostrates, nec apud extraneos scriptores, reperire licuit. Sed vndecunque est, fabula est, nec veritatis micam habet. Quamuis autem sit incredibile, Lanas nigras albo infici colore, cum traditum sit a Plinio, Lanarum nigras nullum imbibere colorem: Tamen simile quiddam narratur à Theophrasto: Flumen esse in Macedonia, quod oues nigras, albas reddat. Et illa, cuius etiam superious memini, rapsodia Noruagica, speculum scilicet illud Regale, hos ipsos fontes Irlandiæ, quæ hodie Hybernia, non Islandiæ esse affirmat. Quod forsan Lectori imposuit, in lingua peregrina, pro R, S, legenti. Non maiorem fidem meretur, quod Historicus quidam habet. Esse in Islandia saxum, quod montium prærupta non extrinseca agitatione, sed propria natiuaque motione peruolitet: Id qui credere volet, quid incredibile ducet? Est enim commentum tam inauditum, vt nullum eius simile, fabulatos fuisse Epicuræos (qui tamen multa incredibilia excogitasse Luciano visi sunt) constet: Nisi fortè hominem qui Islandis proprio nomine Stein dicitur, sentit Historicus rupes quasdam circuisse, vel circumreptasse. Quod, etsi ridiculum est in Historiam miraculosam referre, hominem scilicet moueri vel ambulare, tamen ad saluandam Historici fidem, simulandum: ne figmentum illud, per se satis absurdum, nec dignum quod legatur, durius perstringamus. Eodem crimine tenentur, quicunque; Islandiæ, coruos albos, picas, lepores, et vultures adscripserunt: Perrarò enim vultures, cum glacie marina, sicut etiam vrsos (sed hos sæpius quam vultures) et cornicum quoddam genus, Islandis Isakrakur, aduenire obseruatum est. Picas verò et lepores, vt et coruos albos, nunquam Islandia habuit. Atque hæc ferè sunt, quæ de prima commentarij nostri parte per quotidianas oocupationes, in præsentia, affere licuit. Quæ in hunc finem à me scripta sunt, (quod etiam prius testatus sum,) vt scriptorum de terra ignota errores, et quorundam etiam affectata vanitas, patefierent: Neque enim eorum famæ quicquam detractum cupio: Sed quòd veritati et patriæ, operam meam consecraram, ilia, quæ hactenus dicta sunt à multis, de Insula, fidem valde exiguam mereri, necesse habui ostendere: ac ita mihi viam ad sequentia de Incolis sternere. Commentarij primæ partis Finis. The same in English. THE FOURETEENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Munster] There be seen sometimes neere vnto Island huge Whales like vnto mountains, which ouerturne ships, vnlesse they be terrified away with the sound of trumpets, or beguiled with round and emptie vessels, which they delight to tosse vp and downe. It sometimes falleth out that Mariners thinking these Whales to be Ilands, and casting out ankers vpon their backs, are often in danger of drowning. They are called in their tongue Trollwal Tuffelwalen, that is to say, the deuilish Whale. Like vnto mountains. Loe here once againe (gentle Reader) Munsters falsifying eccho, and (as the prouerbe saieth) his blind dreame. Such a false and sencelesse ouer reaching doeth exceedingly disgrace an historie, and that by so much the more, by how much the lesse necessary it is. For to what purpose should an Historiographer make leasings, if history be a report of plaine trueth? Why should he vse such strange surmountings? What is it that he would perswade, or whither would he rauish the reader, if he propoundeth vnto himselfe nothing but the simple declaration of things: Poets and Painters had leaue of old, To feigne, to blaze, in all things to be bold. But not Historiographers. The backs of Whales which they thinke to be Ilands. This fable, like all the rest, was bred of an old, ridiculous and vaine tale, the credite and trueth whereof is not woorth a strawe. [Sidenote: Certain letters sent by Brandan bishop of Breme, to preach Christian faith in the North.] And it is this that foloweth, namely, that the bishop of Breme (called by the ancient Norwaies Brandan, and by Krantzius, if I be not deceiued, Alebrandus) in old time sent certanie Legates with a Couen of Friers to preach and publish in the North the popish faith, which was then thought to bee Christian, and when they had spent a long iourney in sailing towards the North, they came vnto an Iland, and there casting their anker they went a shore, and kindled fiers (for it is very likely that the Mariners were not a litle vexed with the nipping cold which they felt at sea) and so prouided victuals for the rest of their iourny. But when their fires grew very hote, this Iland sanke, and suddenly vanished away, and the Mariners escaped drowning very narowly with the boate that was present. This is the foundation of the matter, but how incredible it is, I appeale to the Reader. But what ailed these Mariners, or what meant they to doe, who in a tempestuous sea, seeing a rocke before their eyes, or (as Munster saieth) a little Iland, would not rather with all diligence haue auoided it for feare of running a shore and shipwracke, then to rest in such a dangerous harbour? But in what ground should the anker be fastened? for Mariners for the most part are destitute of such long cables, whereby they may let downe an anker to the bottom of the maine sea, therfore vpon the backs of Whales, saith Munster. But then they had need first to bore a hole for the flouke to take hold in. O silly Mariners that in digging can not discern Whales flesh from lumps of earth, nor know the slippery skin of a Whale from the vpper part of the ground: with out doubt they are woorthy to haue Munster for a Pilot. Verily in this place (as likewise before treating of the land-miracles of Island) he gathereth fruits as they say, out of Tantalus his garden, and foloweth hard after those things which will neuer and no where be found, while he endeuoureth to proule here and there for miracles, perusing sea and land to stuffe vp his history where notwithstanding he cannot hunt out ought but feigned things. But they are called in their language Trollwal. Go not farther then your skil, Munster, for I take it you cannot skill of our tongue: and therefore it may be a shame for a learned man to teach others that which he knoweth not himselfe: for such an attempt is subiect to manifold errours, as we will shew by this your example. For while you take in hand to schoole others, & to teach them by what name a Whale-fish is to be called in our tongue, leauing out through ignorance the letter H, which almost alone maketh vp the signification of the worde, you deliuer that which is not true: for val in our language signifieth not a Whale, but chusing or choise of the verbe Eg vel, that is to say, I chuse, or I make choise, from whence val is deriued, &c. But a Whale is called Hualur with vs, & therefore you ought to haue written Trollhualur. Neither doeth Troll signifie the deuill, as you interprete it, but certaine Giants that liue in mountaines. You see therefore (and no maruel) how you erre in the whole word. It is no great iniurie to our language being in one word onely: because (doubtlesse) you knew not more then one. Others also do offend in the same fault, for it is not to be allowed that a certaine man being about to publish a Map of Island receiued from Islanders themselues, had rather marre the fashion of all, or in very deed of the most names of Capes, Baies, mountaines, springs, riuers, homocks, valleis, hils & townes (because that being ignorant of our language, he was not able to read those things aright, which he receiued from our countreymen) he had rather (I say) depraue & corrupt them all, then learne of the Islanders themselues, which at that time, namely in the yeere 1585, liued in the vniuersitie of Hafnia, or Copen Hagen, how euery thing ought to be read and written. And we esteeme him for this his wilfull marring of our natiue names and words, (where vpon it came to passe that we reading the same, could acknowledge very few to be oure owne) that he is no slight offender against our tongue, otherwise retaining the pure and the ancient propertie. But now we haue after some sort examined most of the myracles of Island, which our writers haue mentioned. Notwithstanding before we enter into any further matter, we thinke it good in this section to touch that which the last forenamed man (in this Map of Island, that he caused to be put forth in the foresaid yeere vnder his own name) hath giuen out concerning two other fountains besides the former: whereof the one should die white wooll black, & the other blacke wooll white. [Sidenote: Who be the Islandish writers?] Which thing where he receiued it, or whence he had it, we can by nomeans imagine: for it is not to be found in our own writers, nor in the writers of other countries. But whence soeuer it be, it is but a tale, & hath not one iote of trueth in it. And although it be incredible That black wooll may be died of a white colour, seeing it is affirmed by Plinie, that blacke wooll (of all other) will receiue no colour: notwithstanding there is some such thing reported by Theophrastus: namely, that there is a riuer in Macedonia which maketh blacke sheepe white. [Sidenote: Speculum regale.] Also that Norway pamphlet called the Roiall looking-glasse, which I mentioned before, doth attribute these fountains to Ireland, which is also called Hybernia, and not to Island. Which peraduenture deceiued the Reader, reading in a strange language S in stead of R. That likewise deserueth no better credite which another Author writeth: That there is a certaine great stone in Island which runneth vp and downe the crags and clifs of mountaines by no outward force, but by the owne proper and natural motion. Hee that will beleeue this, what will he not beleeue? For it is such a rare deuise that the Epicures themselues (who yet seemed to Lucian to haue fained many incredible things) I am sure neuer inuented the like: vnlesse perhaps the sayd Author doeth imagine (that a man who is called of the Islanders by the proper name of Stein) should compasse about, and clime vp certaine rockes: which although it be ridiculous to put into a story of wonders, namely, that a man should mooue or walke, yet is it so to bee supposed to saue the credite of the Author, that we may not more seuerely condemne that fable, which is so sencelesse of it selfe and not woorthy to be read. [Sidenote: Vultures, beares and crows come vpon the drift Ice into Island.] They are gulltie of the same crime also who haue found out rauens, pies [Footnote: Magpies.], hares and vultures, all white in Island for it is wel knowen that vultures come very seldome together with the Ise of the sea, vnto vs, as beares also (but they seldomer then vultures) and a certaine kind of crowes called by the Islanders Isakrakur. But as for white pies, hares, and rauens Island neuer had any. [Footnote: All modern writers, however, ascribe white hares to Iceland.] And these in a maner be the things which, in regard of our daily busines, we were able at this present to affoord, as touching the former part of our treatise, which were penned by me for this purpos (as in the beginning I did protest) that the errors of Authors concerning an vnknowen land, and the affected vanitie also of some men might be disclosed, for I am not desirous to diminish any mans good name: but because I consecrated these my labours to trueth and to my countrey, I could not chuse but shew, that those things which hitherto haue bene reported by many concerning our Island deserue very litle credite: and so to addresse my selfe vnto the matters folowing concerning the Inhabitants. Here endeth the first part of the Commentarie. Commentarij de Islandia pars secunda: quæ est de incolis. Absolutis hactenus miraculis Islandiæ, (cum nonnullis alijs, primæ parti annexis) quæ dum scriptores, velut Agamemnonios quosdam fontes, imò, vt quiddam præter et contra omnem naturam, mirantur, nec non variè deprædicant, minus veritati ipsi, et authoritati suæ cousulunt; monet propositæ orationis series, vt ad alteram commentarij partem nos conferamus, quæ est de incolis: Vbi quid primùm dicam, aut vnde initium sumom, non satis teneo. Tanta enim sunt in nos vltimos Islandos, et tot quorundam ludibria, tot opprobria, tot scommata, tot dicteria, (Atque inter hæc etiam nonnulla eorum, qui simplicissimam veritatem profiteri, volunt, nempe historicorum) vt si singula recensere velim, non aliud quàm Icariæ numerum dicere *corier* aquæ. Sed, vt dixi initio, non cum omnibus æquè stricto iure agemus. Nam licet Krantzius, Munsterus, Frisius, et alij, nimis audacter multa de gente nostra scripserint: Tamen suis monumentis de studijs liberalibus alioqui benè meriti, etiam apud nos eo erunt in precio, quo merentur. Verùm interea, etsi quis velit eos à calumniandi nota liberare, tamen non leue est, eos res quasdam tam absurdas, impossibiles et ridiculas proposuisse, cuiusmodi illa fuerunt, quæ hactenus exposuimus, tum impias, et atrocitate mendaciorum horrendas, cuiusmodi iam sequentur aliquot, in historias retulisse. Ast alijs, quicunque; sunt, qui quotidianus conuicijs nationem Islandorum incessunt, responsio, quam merentur, parata esse debet: Ex quorum numero, scurra ille fuit, qui rhythmis aliquot, in gentis nostræ contumeliam, Germanica lingua editis, nomen suum immortali dedecori consecrauit. Quapropter, vt instituti nostri ratio exigit, dum scriptorum de hac re monumenta persequimur, etsi quædam in eis occurrant, quæ coutumeliæ parum habent, nos tamen plæraque excutiemus, et errores, vt hactenas, annotabimus: tum si quid veri interea attulerint, id nequaquam dissimulabimus. [Sidenote: Secundæ partis distributio.] Ac eo modo, primùm Munsterum, Krantzium, Frisium, et si qui sunt alij, audiemus, Graculo illo, cum suis rhythmis Germanicis, dira calumnia infectis in postremum, vt dignus est, relecto locum. [Sidenote: 1. Capitis huius partis diuisio.] In hunc igitur modum, primùm de fide seu Religione Islandorum: Deinde de ipsorum moribus, institutis seu viuendi ratione, authores isti scribunt. The same in English. Of Island the second part, concerning the Inhabitants. Hauing hitherto finished the miracles of Island with certaine other particulars belonging to the first part, the which while writers doe wonder at and diuersly extoll as it were the fountains of Agamemnon, yea, as things besides and against all nature, they haue bene very carelesse both of trueth it selfe, & of their owne credite. Now the course of the present speach doeth admonish mee to make haste vnto the other part of the treatise concerning the Inhabitants wherein what I should first say, or where I should begin, I am altogether ignorant. For there be such monstrous, and so many mocks, reproches, skoffes, and taunts of certaine men against vs poore Islanders dwelling in the vtmost parts & the world (and amongst these also, some things of theirs who take vpon them to professe most simple trueth, namely Historiographers) insomuch, that to reckon vp the particulars were nothing els but to tell the drops of the Icarian sea. But as I said in the beginning, we will not deale alike seuerely with all. For although Krantzius, Munsterus, Frisius & others haue written many things too boldly of our nation yet hauing otherwise deserued wel of learning by their monuments, they shalbe still in ye same reputation with vs that they are worthy of. Howbeit in the meane time, although a man would free them from the marke of slanderers, yet is it no small matter that they should broch certaine sencelesse, impossible & ridiculous things, such as those are which we haue hitherto laid downe as also that they should record in histories prophane and horrible vntrueths, some of which kind shal now immediately be discussed. As for others, whatsoeuer they be, who vpbraid the nation of Islanders with daily reproches, they are to haue that answere in a readinesse which such men deserue. In the number of whom, that scoffer is to be accounted, who by a company of rimes published in the Germane tongue, to the disgrace of our countrey, hath brought his name into euerlasting ignominie. Wherefore as our present businesse requireth, while we are in hand with the writings of Authors concerning this matter, although we meet with some things containing litle reproch, notwithstanding we will examine most of them, noting the errors as hitherto we haue done in the meane time also when they shall alleage any trueth, we will in no case dissemble it. And after this maner, first we will heare Munster, Krantzius and Frisius, and others also, if there be any more, what they haue to say, reiecting that Paro and his Dutch rimes infected with fell slander, as he is woorthy vnto the last place. First therefore the sayd Authors write concerning the faith or religion of the Islanders and secondly, of their Maners, Customes, and course of life in maner folowing. SECTIO PRIMA. Adalbertius Metropolitanus Hamburgensis, Anno Christi 1070. Vidit ad Christum conuersos Islandos: licet ante susceptam Christi fidem, lege Naturali vuuentes, non multum à lege nostra discrepantes: itaque, pretentibus illis, ordinauit quendam virum sanctum, primum Episcopum, nomine Isleif. Krantzius his verbis, et Munsterus alibi, fidei seu Religionis Christianæ dignitatem Islandis videntur adscribere: Facerentque et se, et veritate dignum, nisi eandem alias nobis adimerent. Nam (vt de Krantzio infra) Munsterus, quæ supra prodidit, de fide nostra, seu opinione circa Inferni locum situmque, omnino est à Christiana pietate alienum: Velle scilicet scrutari arcana, quæ Deus sibi soli reseruauit, quæque voluit nostrum captum excedere: Non enim reperitur de hac re quicquam in literis sacris, vbi locus vel sitis inferni seu ignis æterni, Diabolo et Angelis ipsius, adeoque damnatis omnibus animabus destinati, determinetur, aut circumscribatur: Nullam inquam, infra terram, seu in ea, aut vlla alia huius mundi parte, corporalem seu localem situm illi damnatorum carceri pagina sacra assignat: quinimo, terram hanc interituram, et terram nouam et coelos nouos, iustorum et sanctorum habitacula, creanda affirmat: Apoc. 2. 2, Petri 3, Esa. 65. Quare Christianus rerum adeò abstrusarum inquisitionem libenter præterit: tum dogmata nullis appertis et illustribus scripturæ sacras testimonijs stabilita, velut certa et vera recipere, aut alijs tradere, nefas esse ducit. Deut 4. et 12, Esa. 8. Matth, 17. 2, Timoth. 3. Deinde etiam pugnat acriter cum Religione Christiana, quo Munsterus & Krantzius Islandos ornant, encomium: Eos videlicet, catulos ac pueros suos æquo habere in precio. De quo infra, section. 7. Sic igitur secum dissidet Munst. dum quos Christianos assent, inferni architectos alias facit: Item, Krantzius et Munsterus, dum quos fide Christo insertos affirmant, eosdem omni pietatis et honestatis sensu exuunt: quòd scribant filios ab his, non maiore cura, quàm catulos diligi. Sed vt ad rem: De Religione equidem nostra, quæ qualiseu fuerit, cum Ethnicismus primùm fugari coepit, nihil magnificè diceret possumus: quemadmodum nec alia Septentrionis Regna vicina, vti existimo, de suis fidei initijs. Fatendum enim est, et cum serijs gemitibus deplorandum vsque ad illam nunquam satis prædicatam diem, quæ nobis velut immortalitatis initium illuxit et repurgati Euangelij doctrinam attulit, tenebras plusquam Cimmerias, etiam nostris hominibus, vt reliquis Septentrionis Ecclesijs, offusas fuisse. Illud tamen piè nobis sentire liceat, apud nos, vt et in vicina Noruegia (nam nolo vltra septa vagari, et de populis ignotis quicquam pronunciare) eiecta primùm Idololatria Ethnica, sinceriorem longè et simpliciorem fidem seu religionem Christianam viguisse; quippe veneno Papistico minus infectam, quam posteà, vbi auctum Romanæ sedis fermentum pestiferum, et malum contagiosum maturuit, et per totum orbem virus suum diffudit: Nam vt posteà apparebit, multis annus antequam noua Pontificiorum Idololatria vires et incrementum cepit, Islandia Christum amplexa est: et vt laudatissimi duo illi Noruegiæ Reges, quibus vt commune nomen, ita commune nominis Christi propagandi studium et professio, nihil nisi fidem in Deum Patrem, Filium, et spiritum Sanctum, sonabat. Dico autem illum Olaum Thryggonis F. qui Anno Christi 968. natus, Anno ætatis 27. imperium Noruegiæ adeptus est, et primus, vt accepimus, Noruegis Christum obtrusit: quibus imperitabat annis 5. Et huic cognominem, Olaum nuncupatum Sanctum, Haraldi F. Qui anno Christi 1013. aut circiter, imperij habenas arctius in primis obtinuit. Per annos fere 17. Christi doctrinam audacter tradidit. Anno Christi 1030. ab improbis parricidis nefariè interfectus, in pago Noruegise Stickla Stodum, pro Christi nomine cruorem fudit. Habuit etiam nostra patria inter multos alios quendam insignem pietate virum; cui Nialus nomen erat, qui circa annum Christi 1000 vixit in prædio seu villa Berthors huol, sita in Parochia Islandiæ, Landenum: Quique rerum humanarum experientia, circumspecta animi prudentia, sagacitate et consilio, habebatur insignis. Cum enim, eius seculo, indomitis Islandia motibus fluctuaret, incolis à nullo ferè superiore magistratu repressis, nullis se factionibus immiscuit: Plurimas cauta animi virtute ac industria composuit. Nunquam vim fecit, nec passus est, si vltimum tantum in vita diem excipias. Adeò studiosè seditiones et turbas vitauit aliosque vitare aut euadere cupientes optimè iuuit. Nec quisquam eius consilio, nisi maximo suo commodo est vnquam vsus: nec quisquam ab eo, nisi cum vitæ et fortunarum penculo deflexit. Tam certum ab eo oraculum petebatur, vt valde mirandum sit, vnde homini tanta futurorum euentuum, et tam certa coniectura et consilium esse potuerit, quanta in ipso deprehensa est. Vnde ipsius cauta, prouidens et consilij plena sapientia, apud nostrates in prouerbium abijt: Nials biita raden: quasi dicas, Niali consilium; vel, Niali consilio res geritur, aut succedit: cùm quid prudenter et admirando cum consilio gestum est. Hic cum domi suæ, à 100. viris coniuratis ob cædem à filio ipsius, ipso tamen inscio, patratam cingeretur, et inimicis domum vndique igni succendentibus, sibi videret supremum fatum instare, ait tandem. Hæc quidem fato, hoc est, voluntate diuina accidunt. Cæterum spem et fiduciam in Christo sitam habeo, nos (de se et vxore loquens) licet corpus hoc nostrum caducum, inimicorum flammis, mortalitatis corruptionem subeat, ab æternis tamen flammis liberatum iri. Sicque inter has voces, et flammarum sævitiam, vitam, An. Christo 1010. cum vxore et filio homicida, finiuit. Vox profectò filijs Dei non indigna, animæ, cum mortis acerbitate luctantis summum solatium arguens. Hæc ideo addidi, vt ostendam quà coniectura adducar ad extstimamdum mox initio Christianismi (vt sic loquar) apud nos recepti, non fuisse tam deceptas et errorum tenebris immersas hominum mentes, quàm nunc, paulò ante hæc nostra tempora fuerunt. Ast verò iam postquam Dominus Deus per Lutherum, et Lutheri in vinea Domini collegas, et pios successores, salutis doctrinam illustriorem reddidit, mentiùmque nostrarum graui veterno et densa caligine excussis, dextræ suæ digito, hoc est, spiritu Sancto, (Matth. 12. vers. 28.) cordis nostri auriculas vellicauit, ac oculos, quibus saluificam ipsius veritatem cerneremus, nobis aperuit: Nos omnes et singuli credimus et confitemur Deum esse Spiritum, (Iohan. 4. vers. 24.) æternum (Esai 40. vers. 28.) Infinitum (Ierem. 23. vers. 24. Psalm. 136. vers. 7. 8. 9.) optimum (Matth. 19. 17.) omnipotentem (Gene. 17. 1. Apocal. 1. 8.) Vnum essentia et natura: Vnum prouidentia: vnum efficentia rerum et administratione (Deut 6. 5. Ephes. 4. 5.) At personis diuinitatis, proprietatibusque distinctum, Patrem, Filium et spiritum Sanctum (Matth. 28. 19. & 3. 17.) Deum Patrem quidem, primam diuinitatis personam, coeli terræ et omnium rerum creatorem (Gene. 1. vers. 1. & sequent.) Sustentatorem et gubernatorem (Psal. 115. 3. Heb. 1. 3.) Patrem Domini nostri Iesu Christi (Psalm. 2. 7. & sequent:) et nostrum per eundem Patrem (Rom. 8. 15.) Animæ et corporis curatorem (Luc. 12. 12,) Tum Iesum Christum, secundam diuinitatis personam, filium Dei patris (Iohan. 1. 18. &c.) Vnigenitum (Iohan. 1. 29. Heb. 1. 2.) æqualem patri (1. Paral. 17. 13. Iohan. 1. 1.) Deum verum (Iohan. 1. 2. &c.) ante omnia creata præordinatum (1. Pet. 1. 20. Apocal. 13. 8. &c.) et statim post lapsum, promissum Messiam (Gen. 3. 15.) Sanctis Patriarchis identidem promulgatum, vt Abrahæ (Gen. 12. 3. &c.) Isaac. (Gen. 26. 4.) Iacob. (Gen. 28. 14.) et promissionibus confirmatum (Genes. 49. 9. Esa. 11. 1. 10.) Sacrificijs Mosaicis (Leuit. 1. 2. &c.) Et alijs typis præfiguratum: immolatione Isaac (Gen. 22.) Exaltatione ænei serpentis. (Num. 21.) Iona (Ion. 2. &c.) Prophetarum testimonio proclamatum (Esai 7. 14. &c.) ac tandem in plenitudine temporis verè exhibitum: hominem verum (Iohan. 1. 14. &c. Paul. Galat. 4.) mortuum pro peccatis nostris: resuscitatum propter iustificationem nostri (Rom. 4. 25. &c.) Ascendentem in coelum (Act. 1. 9. &c.) ac pro nobis ad dexteram patris sine intermissione interpellantem (1. Iohan, 2. 1. &c.) per spiritum Sanctum suum qui tertia est diuinitatis persona patri et filio compar et consubstantialis. (Actor. 5. 4.) Ecclesiam sibi verbo et Sacramentis colligentem (Matth. 16. 18. Roman. 10. 14. &c) Et ad vitam æternam sanctificantem (Actor. 9. 31. &c.) Ac tandem consummatis seculis è coelo, venturum (Actor, 1. 11.) Iudicare viuos et mortuos (1. Thess. 4. 15.) redditurum impijs secundum opera sua, eòsque poenis æternis adiudicaturum (Mat 13. 42. & 25. 41.) credentes verò in nomine ipsius æterna vita donaturum (Mat 25. 34. &c.) Hunc, inquam, Iesum Christum redemptorem (Mat 1. 21.) Caput (1. Corinth. 12. 27.) et Dominum nostrum (Ephes. 4. 5.) agnoscimus: Nosque illi nomen in sacro baptismo dare ac dedisse (Actor. 2. 38.) Et per baptismum illi insertos esse (1. Cor. 12. 13.) apertè, ingenuè, liberè ac libenter fatemur ac contestamur: omnesque alios, quicunque aliud nomen sub coelo datum esse hominibus, per quod salui fiant, comminiscuntur, seriò detestamur, execramur et damnamus. (Actor. 4. 12.) Verbum ipsius sanctissimum vnicam salutis normam statuimus, illudque tantummodò, omnibus humanis commentis abiectis et spretis, infallibilem fidei nostræ regulam et amussim nobis proponimus: (Galat 1. 8. Esa. 29. 13. Ezech. 20.) Quod duplicis Testamenti, veteris et noui appellatione complectimur. (Hebr. 8.) traditum per Prophetas et Apostolos (Ephes. 2. 20.) singulari et immensa Dei bonitate in hunc vsque diem semper in Ecclesia conseruatum et conseruandum in posterum. (Matth. 28. vlt. Psalm. 71. 18. 1. Cor. 11. 26.) Deo igitur optimo maximo gratias ex animo et toto pectore agimus, quòd etiam ad nos, vastissimo interuallo à reliquo Ecclesiæ corpore diuulsos et vltimas mundi partes habitantes, lumen hoc suum, concessum, ad reuelationem gentium, et paratum ante faciem omnium populorum, olim pio Simeoni benigne ostensum (Nam in Christo omnes thesauri saptentiæ reconditi) quod nunc totam nostram gentem radijs suis saluificis illuminat ac fouet, pertingere voluerit. Hæc ita breuiter, ipsam summam perstringendo, fides nostra est, et nostra religio, quaro monstrante spirtu Sancto, et ipsius in vinea Christi ministris, bausimus: idque ex fontibus Isrælis. [Sidenote: Krantzius.] Anno Domini 1070. vidit ad Christum conuersos Islandos. Dubium nobis est, vtrum his verbis dicere voluerit Krantzius, Islandos primùm Anno Domini 1070. ad Christum esse conuersos an verò, prius quidem esse conuersos non neget, sed eo primùm anno id Adalberto innotuisse dicat. [Sidenote: Chronologiæ Islandicæ gentis antiquissimæ.] Vtrumuis autem affirmet, tamen fidem ipsius hoc loco suspectam reddunt annales et chronologiæ nostræ gentis antiquissimæ, quæ contrarium testantur: quibus vtrum malis, de rebus nostris proprijs et domesticis et intra nostræ insulæ limites gestis credere, an verò Krantzio, aut cuius alteri in nostratium rerum historia peregrino, sit penes tuum, candide Lector, arbitrium. Ego profecto multis adducor vt nostris potius assentiar. Nostrates emm nota tantum et fere domestica asserunt: ille peregrina et ignota. Hi suas Chronologias sine aliarum omnium nationum labe, macula et sugillatione contexuerunt tantummodò, vt rebus gestis suum verum tempus seu æram assignarent; ille quædam cum re et veritate pugnantia in contumeliam gentis nostræ ignotissimæ, historiæ suæ admiscuit, vt paulò post apparebit: hi omnium episcoporum Islandiæ nomina, annos, ordinem et successum describunt: ille vnius tantùm mentionem facit, idque longè secus quàm res habet. Porrò vt his fidem faciam, panca, quæ in ventustissimis nostris annalibus de Islandia ad Christum conuersa, et de Episcoporum in nostris Ecclesijs successione reperi, quorum etiam fides apud nos publicè recepta est, cum extraneis communicabo. [Sidenote: Vetustissmum annales.] Quæ tametsi leuiuscula, nec omnia prorsus digna quæ scribantur, scribenda tamen omninò sunt ad nostrarum rerum veritatem, aduersus Krantzium et alios asserendam: Sic igitur habent. [Sidenote: 874. Islandia primum inhabituta.] Anno Christi 874. prius quidem, vt ante commemorauimus, inuenta, sed tunc primum à Noruagis (quorum princeps fuit Ingulphus quidam, è cuios nomine promontorium Islandiæ orientalis Ingulffs hoffdi appellatitionem traxit) occupata est Islandia. Hi plures quam 400. cum cognatis et agnatis et præterea numerosa familia nominatim in annalibus nostris recensentur: nec illorum tantùm numerus describitur, sed quas oras, quæ littora, et quæ loca mediterranea, singuli occupauerint et incoluerint, et quomodo primi inhabitatores, fretis, sinibus, portubus, Isthmis, porthmis, promontorijs, rupibus, scopulis, montibus, collibus, vallibus, tesquis, fontibus, fluminibus, riuis, ac denique villis seu domicilijs suis nomina dederint, quorum hodiè plæraque retinentur et in vsu sunt, apertè narratur. Itaque Noruagi occupatæ iam Islandiæ 60. annorum spacio, aut circiter, habitabiles partes sua multitudine implent: Centum verò prope modum annis Ethnici manserunt, ci paucissimos, qui in Noruagia fortè sacro fonte abluti fuerant, excipias. [Sidenote: 974.] Annis autem vix centum à primo ingressu elapsis, mox de religione Christiana agi coeptum est, nempe circa annum Domini 974. quæ res non sine insigni rebellione plusquam 20 annis variè à multis tentata est. [Sidenote: Fredericus Saxo.] Commemorantur autem duo Episcopi extranei, qui cum alijs, in conuertenda ad fidem Christi insula, diligenter laborarint: Prior Fridericus, Saxo natione, qui anno 981. ad Islandos venit, atque docendi munere strenuè functus est, ac tantum fecit, vt Anno 984, sacræ ædes Islandis in vsu fuerint. Alter verò ille extraneus Episcopus siue concionator, quem Thangbrandt nuncupauere, anno 997. in Islandiam primùm venit. [Sidenote: Anno Dom. 1000.] Hinc post 26, annorum disceptationem de religione, tandem Anno 1000. in conuentu generali omnium incolarum decretum est, vniuersali eorundem consensu, vt Ethnicorum numinum cultu seposito, religionem sectarentur Christianam. Rursus in solenni incolarum conuentu Anno 1050. sancitum est, vt leges seculares seu politicæ (quarum constitutiones allatas ex Noruagia quidam Vlfliotus, Anno 926. Islandis communicarat) vbique cederent iuri Canonico seu diuino. Anno 1056. abit peregrè ex Islandia Isleifus quidam, in Episcopum Islandiæ ordinandus. Redit ordinatus in Islandiam, et Cathedram Schalholtensem adit Anno 1057. Moritur 1080. Ætatis 74. 4. Kalendas Iulias. Videbuntur forsitan hæc minuta, concisa, vilia, nec narratione satis digna, cum multis fortè quæ sequuntur: Sed nec historiam Romanam conteximus, nec tam minuta erunt, quin contra Krantzij et aliorum errores conuincendos, prout nostrum est institutum, valeant. Et certè, quantum ad fidem nostrarum Chronologiarum, constat Saxonem Grammaticum non parum illis tribuisse: Cuius, in præfatione suæ Danæ, hæc sunt verba. Nec Thylensium inquit, (sic enim Islandos appellat) industria silentio obliteranda: qui cum ob natiuam soli sterilitatem, luxuriæ nutrimentis carentes, officia continuæ sobrietatis exerceant, omniàque vitæ momenta ad alienoram operum notitiam conferre soleant, inopiam ingenio pensant. Cunctarum quippe nationum res gestas cognosse, memoriæque mandare, voluptatis loco reputant non minoris gloriæ iudicantes, alienas virtutes disserere, quam proprias exhibere. Quorum thesauros Historicarum rerum pignoribus refertos curiosius consulens, haud paruam præsentis operis partem ex eorum relationis imitatione contexui: nec arbitros habere contempsi, quos tamta vetustatis peritia callere noui. Hæc Saxo. Quare lubet Episcoporum Islandiæ Catalogum persequi, vt ex annalibus nostris continuata diligenter, quoad eius fieri potest, omnium series, his quæ de primo Isleifo contra Krantzium attulimus, fidem faciat. The same in English. THE FIRST SECTION [Sidenote: Krantzius in præfatione suæ Norwegiæ.] Adalbert Metropolitane of Hamburg in the yeere of Christ 1070. saw the Islanders concerted Christianitie: albeit, before the receiuing of Christian faith, they liued according to the lawe of nature, and did not much differ from our lawe: therefore at their humble request, he appointed a certaine holy man named Islief to be their first Bishop. Krantzios in these words, and Munster other where, doe seeme to attribute vnto the Islanders the prerogatiue of Christian faith and they should deale both beseeming themselues and the trueth, if they did not in other places depriue vs of the same. For (to speake of Krantzras anone) that which Munster before reported concerning our faith or opinion about the place and situation of hell, is very farre from Christian pietie: namely to be desirous to prie into those secrets which God hath kept close vnto himselfe alone, and which his pleasure is, should exceed our capacitie: for there is not any thing found in the holy Scriptures of this matter, where the place and situation of hell, or of eternall fire prepared for the deuill and his angels, and so for all damned soules, is bounded or compassed about. The holy Bible (I say) assigneth no locall or bodily situation beneath the earth, or vpon the earth, or in any other place of this world, to that prison of the damned: but it affirmeth that this earth shall perish, and that a new earth, and new heauens shall be created for the habitation of iust and holy men, Reuel. 2. 2. Pet. 3. and Esay [Footnote: Isaiah] 65. wherefore a Christian man willingly giueth ouer to search into such hidden secrets and he accounteth it vnlawful to receiue or deliuer vnto others, opinions (grounded vpon no plaine and manifest places of Scripture) for certainties and trueths, Deut. 4. and 12. Esay 8. Matth. 27. 2. Tim 3. Further also that commendation wherewith Munster and Krantzius doe grace the Islanders, is meerly contrary to Christian religion: namely that they make al one reckoning of their whelps and of their children. But more of this matter anone in the 7. section. So therefore Munster disagreeth with himselfe, whereas those whom he affirmeth to be Christians, afterward, he maketh to be master builders of hell. Also Krantzius and Munster both together, when as those whom they affirme to be engraffed by faith into Christ, they except from all sense of piety and honesty, in that they write that their sonnes are not dearer vnto them then their whelpes. But to returne to the matter: In very deed we haue no great thing to say concerning our religion, what, or of what sort it was when Gentilisme was first put to flight. No more (I thinke) haue other Northern nations neere vnto vs to say concerning the beginning of their faith. For (alas) we must needs confesse and bewaile with deepe sighes, that vntill that day which shined vnto vs like the beginning of immortalitie, and brought vnto vs the pure doctrine of the gospel, our countrymen, as likewise other churches of the North, were ouerspred with more then Cimmerian darkenesse. But we may iustly and religiously thinke thus muche, that among vs and our neighbours of Norway (for I will not range out of my bounds, nor affirme any thing of vnknowen people) after heathenish idolatry was rooted out, Christian faith and religion did florish far more sincere, and simple, as being lesse infected with the poison of poperie, at that time, then afterward, when as the pestiferous leauen of the see of Rome being augmented, and the contagious mischiefe growing ripe, the poison thereof was dispersed through the whole world: for, as it shal afterward appeare, Island embraced Christ many yeeres before the new idolatry of the papists began to preuaile, and did sound foorth nothing but faith in God the Father, the Sonne and the holy Ghost, like vnto those two most renouned kings of Norway, who as they had one common name, so had they one common care and profession to aduance the gospel of Christ. [Sidenote: The first christian king of Norway] I meane Olaus the sonne of Thryggo, who was borne in the yere of Christ 968. attaining to the kingdom of Norway in the 27. yeere of his age, and was the first, as we haue heard, that offred Chnst vnto the Norwegians, ouer whom hee reigned fiue yeeres and another of that name called Olaus Sanctus the sonne of Harald, who in the yeere of Christ 1013. or there about, gouerned with more seueritie, and for the space of 17. yeeres did boldly deliuer the doctrine of Christ. In the yere of Chnst 1030. being vniustlie slaine by wicked murtherers, he shed his blood for the name of Christ in a town of Norway called Sticfla Stodum. [Sidenote: Nialus the first knowne professour of Christian faith in Island.] Our countrey also had, among many other, one man of excellent pietie whose name was Nialus, who about the yeere of Chnst 1000. liued in the village of Berthorshuol situate in the parish of Island called Landehum: who also for his experience in humane affaires, for his great wisedome and sage counsell was accompted famous. For whereas in his time Island was turmoiled with many fierce mutinies, the inhabitants being in subiection to no superiour magistrate, he intermedled not in any quarels, sauing that by his discreet vertue and diligence he set through and brought to composition a great number: hee neuer did nor suffered violence, but onely vpon the last day of his life. So carefully auoyded he al seditions and strifes: and gaue good assistance to others, who were desirous also to auoyd and escape them: neither did any man euer put in practise his counsel, but it turned to his especiall good: nor euer any did swerue therefrom, but with the danger of his life and possessions. The wordes or rather the oracles that came from him were so certaine, that it was wonderful from whence any man should haue so great and so sure forecast and counsell of things to come, as was found to be in him. Whereupon his discreet and prouident wisedome, ioyned with counsell became a prouerbe amongst vs, "Nials byta raden:" That is to say, the counsel of Nialus or, the thing is done, or succeedeth by Nialus his counsel: when any business was atchieued prudently, and with admirable discretion. This man, when, for a slaughter committed by his sonne without his knowledge, he was in his owne house beset with a 100. men, who had conspired his death, and when his enemies began on all sides to set his house on fire, seeing his ende approch, at length he brake into these words. "Doubtlesse these things happen by fate, that is, by the will of God. Howbeit, I put my hope and confidence in Christ, that we (meaning his wife and himselfe) although this our fraile body shal vndergoe the corruption of death, in the fire of our enemies, yet, that it shalbe deliuered from eternal flames." And so in the midst of these voyces, and in the fury of the flames, he with his wife and the manslayer his sonne, in the yere of Christ 1010. ended his life. A voyce vndoubtedly full well beseeming the sonnes of God, arguing the notable comfort of his soule amidst the very pangs of death. I therefore added those things to shew by what reason I was moued to thinke that in the very beginning of Christianitie receiued amongst vs, mens minds were not so beguiled and ouerwhelmed in the darkenes of errors, as of late, a little before these our times they haue bene. [Sidenote: A summe of the Islanders Religion.] But after the Lord God by Luther, and Luthers fellow-labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, and by godly successours, did make the doctrine of saluation more manifest, and shaking off the heauie slothe, and thicke miste of our minds by the finger of his right hand, that is by his holy spirit (Matth. 12. v. 28.) did plucke the eares of our hearts, and opened our eyes that we might behold his sauing health: We all, and euery of vs do belieue and confesse that God is a spirit (Iohn 4. v. 24.) eternal (Esay. 40. v. 28.) infinite (Iere. 23. v. 24. Psal 139. v. 7. 8. 9.) most good (Matth. 19. v. 17.) almighty (Gen. 17. 1. Reuel. 1. 8.) one in being, and nature: one in prouidence, one in the making and gouerning of all things (Deut. 6. 5. Ephe. 4. 5.) But distinguished by the persons of the Godhead and their properties, the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost (Matth. 28. 19. and 3. 17.) God the Father the first person of the Godhead creator of heauen and earth, and all other things (Gen. 1. v. 1. and in those that folow) the vpholder and gouernor of all (Psa. 115. 3. Heb. 1. 3.) Father of our Lord Iesus Christ (Psal. 2, 7. and verses following) and our Father through him (Rom. 8. 15.) keeper of our soules and bodies (Luke 12. 12.). And that Iesus Christ the second person of the Godhead is the sonne of God the Father (Iohn 1. 18. &c.) onely begotten (Iohn 1. 29. Heb. 1. 2.) equal to his Father (1. Chro. 17. 13. Ioh. 1. 1.) true God (Iohn 1. 2. &c.) foreappointed before the creation of all things (1. Pet. 1. 20, Reuel 13. 8. &c.) and presently after mans fell promised to be the Messias (Gene. 3. 15. &c.) published eftsoones vnto the holy Patriaches, as vnto Abraham (Gen. 12. 3. &c.) vnto Isaac (Gen. 26. 4.) vnto Iacob (Gene. 28. 14.) and confirmed by promises (Gen. 49. 9. Esa. 11. 1, 10.) prefigured by the sacrifices of Moses (Leu. 1. 2. &c.) and by other types, as namely by the offering of Isaac (Gen. 22.) by the lifting vp of the brazen serpent (Num. 21.) by Ionas (Ionas 2. &c.) proclaimed by the testimony of the Prophets (Esa. 7. 14.) and at length in the fulnesse of time truely exhibited: true man (Iohn 1. 14. &c. Gal. 4.) that he died for our sinnes, and was raised again for our iustification (Rom. 4. 25. &c.) Ascending into heauen (Acts 1. 9. &c.) and making intercession for vs at the right hand of his Father without ceasing (1. Iohn 2. 1. &c.) by his holy Spirit (which is the thirde person of the Godhead, coequall, and consubstantial to the Father and the Sonne, Acts. 5. 4.) gathering the Church to himselfe by the word, and Sacraments (Matth. 16. 18. Rom. 10. 14. &c.) and sanctifying it to eternal life, (Acts. 9. 31. &c.) And that one day at the end of the world he will come from heauen (Acts 1. 11.) to iudge the quicke and the dead (1. Thessal. 4. 15.) that he will render vnto the wicked according to their workes, and that he will iudge mem to eternal paines (Matth. 13. 42. and 25. 4.) but that he wil reward them, with eternal life, who beleeue in his Name (Matth. 25. 34.) This Iesus Christ (I say) wee acknowledge to be our Redeemer (Matth. 1. 21.) our head (1. Corinth. 12. 27.) and our Lord (Ephe. 4. 5.) And that wee in our holy baptisme do giue, and haue giuen our names vnto him (Acts. 2. 38.) and that wee are engraffed into him by baptisme (1. Corin. 12. 13.) And this we do plainely, ingenuously, freely, and willingly confesse and witnesse: And as for all others who inuent any other name in heauen giuen vnto men by which they may be saued, we doe earnestly detest, cursse, and condemne them (Acts. 4. 12.) We holde his most holy Word to be the onely rule of our saluation: and that alone (al mans deuises being cast away and contemned) we propound vnto our selues as an infallible rule, and leuel of our faith (Galat. 1. 8. Esai 29. 13. Ezech. 20.) which we conteine vnder the name of the olde and newe Testament (Hebr. 8.) deliuered by the Prophets and Apostles (Ephe 2. 20) by the singular and infinite goodnesse of God, presented euer vnto this day and to be preserued here after alwayes in the Church (Matth 28. last verse. Psal 71. 18. 1 Cor 11. 26.) Therefore we render thankes vnto our most gratious and Almighty God from our soule, and from our whole heart, because that euen vnto vs being separated an huge distance from the rest of the body of his Church, and inhabiting the farthest parts of the world, hee would that this light graunted for the reuelation of the Gentiles, and prepared before the face of all people, and in olde time fauourably shewed to holy Simeon (for in Christ are all the treasures of wisedome hidden) which now doeth enlighten and cherish with the sauing beames thereof our whole nation, that hee would (I say) this light should come vnto vs. This in briefe (running ouer the very summe) is our faith, and our Religion, which by the direction of the holy Spirt and of his Ministers in the vineyard of Christ, we haue drawen and that out of the fountaines of Isræl. [Sidenote: Kranzius] In the yeere of our Lord 1070. saw the Ilanders conuerted vnto Christ, &c. It is doubtful vnto vs whether in these words Kranzius would haue said, that the Islanders were first conuerted vnto Christ in the yeere of our Lord 1070. or whether he doth not deny that they were indeed before conuerted, but saith that it was knowne first vnto Adalbert that yeere. [Sidenote: The most ancient Chronicles of Island.] But whethersoeuer of these he affirmeth: notwithstanding the yeerely records, and most auncient Chronicles of our nation testifying the contrary do make his credite to be suspected in this place, vnto which records and Chronicles, whether you had rather giue assent concerning our owne proper and domesbcal affaires, done within the bounds of our Island, or to Krantzaus or any other being ignorant in the story of our countrey, I appeale (friendly reader) vnto your owne discretion. For my part I am enforced by many reasons to agree rather vnto our owne writers. For our countreymen affirme those things onely that be knowen, and in a maner domesticall he writeth matters forreine and vnknowen they haue compiled their histories without the diffaming, disgracing or reprehending of any other nations, onely that they might assigne vnto their owne acts and exploits the true time or age thereof: he hath intermedled in his historie certaine things contrary to the trueth, and that to the vpbraiding of our nation being most vnknowen vnto him, as it shall immediatly appeare: they describe the names, yeres, order, succession of all the Bishops of Island: he mentioneth onely one, and that farre otherwise then the trueth. Furthermore that I may make good the credite of our Countreymen, I wil impart with strangers a fewe things which I found in our most ancient records of the conuersion of Island vnto Christ, and of the succession of Bishops in our Churches. Which although they be of litle moment, and not altogether worthy to be written, yet must they of necessitie bee set downe for the defence of the trueth of our affaires against Krantzius and others: thus therefore standeth the certaintie thereof. [Sidenote: Island first inhabited.] In the yeere of Christ 874. Island (being indeed discouered before that time, as is aboue mentioned) was then first of all inhabited by certaine Noruagians. Their chiefetaine was one Ingulphus from whose name the East cape of Island is called Ingulffs hoffdi. These planters are reckoned vp by name in our recordes more then to the number of 400 together with those of their blood and kinred, and great families besides neither onely is their number described, but it is also plainely set downe, what coasts, what shores, and what inland places eche of them did occupie and inhabite, and what names the first inhabitants did giue vnto Streights, bayes, harboroughs, necklands, creekes, capes, rockes, cragges, mountaines, hilles, valleys, homockes, springs, floods, riuers. And to be short, what names they gaue vnto their graunges or houses, whereof many at this day are reteined and vsed. Therefore the Norwayes with their company peopled all the habitable parts of Island now occupied by them for the space of 60. yeeres or thereabout but they remayned Ethnickes almost 100. yeres, except a very fewe which were baptised in Norwaie. But scarce a 100. yeres from their first entrance being past, presently Christian religion began to be considered vpon, namely about the yeere of our Lord 974. Which thing aboue 20. yeres together, was diuersly attempted of many not without notable rebellion: amongst the rest there are mentioned two outlandish Bishops, who with others diligently laboured in conuerting the Island to Christian faith: [Sidenote: Saxo, the first preacher of the Christian faith in Island. Anno Domini 981.] the former was one Fridericus a Saxon borne, who in the yeere 981. came into Island, and behaued himselfe couragiously in the office of preaching, and preuailed so much, that in the yeere 984. Churches were vsed in Island. But the other outlandish Bishop or preacher whom they called Thangbrandt came first into Island in the yeere 997. [Sidenote: Anno Domini 1000.] And then after 26. yeeres consulting about Religion, at length in the yeere 1000, it was decreed in a generall assembly of all the inhabitants by their whole consent, that the worship of heathenish Idoles being abandoned, they should embrace Christian Religion. Againe, in the yeere 1050, it was decreed in a solemne assembly of the inhabitants, that temporall or politique lawes (the constitutions whereof being brought out of Norwaie were communicated vnto the Islanders by one Vlfliot in the yeere 926.) should euery where giue place to the Canon or diuine Lawe. In the yere 1056. one Isleif went beyond the seas out of Island to be consecrated bishop of Island. He came home consecrated into Island, and entred into the bishopricke of Scalholt in the yeere 1057. He died 1080. in the yeere of his age 74. The 4. of the Kalends of Iuly. These things perhaps wil seeme trifling, short and base, not sufficiently worthy to be mentioned, together with many other matters which follow: but neither doe wee compile the Romane history, neither yet shall these things be so trifling, but that they may be of sufficient force to conuince the errours of Krantzius and others, according to our purpose. [Sidenote: A notable testimonie of Saxo concerning the Islanders.] And vndoubtedly as touching the trueth of our histories, it is euident that Saxo Grammaticus attributeth very much vnto them: whose words in his preface of Denmarke be these: Neither is the diligence of the Thylenses (for so he calleth Islanders) to be smothered in silence: who when as by reason of the natiue barrennes of their soile, wanting nourishments of riot, they do exercise the duties of continuall sobrietie, and vse to bestow all the time of their life in the knowledge of other men's exploits they supply their want by their wit. For they esteeme it a pleasure to know and commit vnto memory the famous acts of other nations, reckoning it no lesse praiseworthy to discourse of other mens vertues, then to practise their owne. Whose treasures replenished with the monuments of historical matters, I more curiously searching into, haue compiled no smal part of this present worke by following of their relation neither despised I to haue those men for my iudges, whom I knew to be skilful in so great knowledge of antiquitie. Thus farre Saxo. Wherefore I thinke it not amisse to proceede in the recitall of the Bishops of Island, that the order and descent of them all, being so farre foorth as is possible, diligently put together out of our yeerely records, may make good that which we haue alledged against Krantzius concerning Isleif the first Bishop of Island. CATALOGUS CHRONOLOGICUS EPISCOPORUM ISLANDIÆ. Anno Episcopi Schalholtenses Christi I. Isleif. 1056 Ordinatur peregrè. 1057 Redit et Schalholtensem cathedram adit 1080 Anno ætat 74. Moritur 4. Kalend. Iul. II. Gysserus. 1082 Ordinatur peregrè, 1083 Redit in Islandiam cum Episopatu. 1118 Moritur 5. Kalend. Maias qui fuit dies Martis. III. Thorlacus Runolphi. F. Anno ætatis Ordinatur eodem anno, quo prædecessor. 32: Gysserus vita excessit, sed tamen ante illius obitum 30. die 1133 Moritur. IV. Magnus 1134 Ordinatur. 1148 Postridiè festi omnium Sanctorum in villa sacerdotali Hittardal comuiuans, coenaculo fulmine percusso, cum viris 70. flammis absumptus est. V. Klaingus. 1151 Eligitur. 1152 Cathedram adit. 1176 Moritur. VI. Thorlacus. Eligitur biennio ante obit, prædecessoris 1178 Ordinatur. 1193 Moritur. VII. Paulus. 1195 Ordinatur. 1211 Moritur. VIII. Magnus. 1216 Ordinatur. IX. Siguardus. 1239 Cathedram adit. 1268 Moritur. X. Arnerus. 1269 Cathedram adit. 1298 Moritur. XI. Arnerus Helgonis F. 1304 Ordinatur. 1305 Cathedram adit. 1309 In Noruagiam abit ligna à rege Noruagiæ petiturus, quibus templum Schalholtense reædificaretur, quod eodem anno fulmine tactum conflagrarat. 1310 Redit ex intinere. 1320 Moritur. XII. Ionas Haldorus. 1321 Eligitur. 1322 Ordinatur Kal. Augusti. 1323 Cathedram adit. 1338 Moritur. XIII. Ionas Indridi F. Roruages 1339 Cathedram adit. 1341 Moritur. XIV. Ionas Siguardi F. 1343 Cathedram adit. 1348 Moritur pridiè Diui Magni. XV. Gyrthus. 1349 Ordinatus Asloiæ Noruagorum, ab Episcopo Asloensi Salomone. 1356 Abiens peregrè fluctibus vitam finit. XVI. Thorarinnus. 1362 Cathedram adit. 1364 Moritur. XVII. Oddgeirus. 1366 Cathedram adit. 1381 Moritur in assumpt. beatæ virginis, in portu Noruagiæ Burgensi, è mercium aceruo in imum nauis delapsus. Sepultus Bergis in æde Saluatoris. XVIII. Michaël Danus. 1385 Cathedral adit. 1388 Resignat profectus in Daniam. XIX. Wilhelmus Danus. 1394 Cathedram adit. Moritur. XX. Arnerus. Hic cognomento fuit Milldur. i. liberalis. Gessit vna pæfecturam Islandiæ tertius: Episcopatum Schalholtens. & vice Episcopatum Holensem. 1420 Obijt. XXI. Ionas Gerichso. 1432 Suecus siue cognomento siue natione præest Ecclesiæ Schalholtensi: ac posteà ob quædam nimis audacter tentata, à quodam Thorualdo de Modruvallum (vt fama est) captus, & aligato ad collum saxo in amne Schalholtensi, qui à ponte nomen habet, viuus submersus & strangulatus est. XXII. Gosuinus. 1445 Præest Ecclesiæ Schalholtensi. XXIII. Sueno. 1472 Dictus sapiens præest. XXIV. Magnus Riolphi F. 1489 Præest. XXV. Stephanus. 1494 Cathedram adit. Deinde Godtschalco episcopo Holensi, qui crudelis nomen meritus esse videtur, Synchronos similem cum illo clementiæ & iusticiæ laudem reportauit. 1519 Moritur: aut circiter. XXVI. Augmundus. Eligitur anno obitus Stephani 1522 Cathedram adit. Hoc episcopo, prefectus regius cum comitibus aliquot Scalhotiam inuitatus, in ipso conuiuio à coniuram quibusdam interfectus est, eò quòd impiè passim in incolas & bona ipsorum grassatus esset. Augmundus vcro tanquam istius cædis author, quanquam se iuramento purgarat in Daniam transuectus, Obijt. XXVII. Gysserus. 1540 Eligitur viuente Augmundo 1541 Cathedram adit, Papisticarum traditionum abrogator circa coniugium 1544 sacerdotum: Eius nuptiæ Schalholtiæ celebratæ. XXVIII. Martinus. 1547 Præest, & sequentibus. XXIX. Gislaus Ionas. Hic statim, Augmundo episcopo, coepit iuuenis veræ pietatis & purioris doctrinæ Euangelicæ studio, & amore flagrare, eandemque pastor ecclesiæ Sclardalemsis diligenter propagare, qua ratione Pontificiorum odium adeò in se deriuauit, vt illorum insidijs ac rabiei cedere coactus, Hamburgum se contulerit, vnde Haffniam Danorum profectus, in coepto veræ Theologiæ studio strenuè pergens, in multorum, præcipuè verò in summa D. D. Petri Palladu tum temporis Episcopi, familiaritate et gratia viuebat. 1556 Postea, inde in patriam reuerso, Martinus sponte cessit. 1587 Moritur et hic 31. annos plus minus Euangelium Iesu Christi professus: nec tantum viua voce, sed et quocunque demum potuit modo, docendo, dicendo, scribendo, re et consilio Ecclesiam Dei iuuit et promouit. XXX. Otto Knerus Vir grauis, pius et eruditus. 1588 Electus abit patria. 1589 Ordinatur. Redit et cathedram adit, susceptique muneris labores aggreditur. * * * * * Anno Episcopi Holenses. Christi I. Ionas Augmundi F. Isleifi discipulus. 1106 Ordinatur peregrè: anno ætat. 64. cognomentum illi, sanctus: curus memoriæ dies 3. Martij, apud Islandos est antiquitùs dicatus. 1121 Moritur 11. Kalend. Maias. II. Ketillus siue Catullus. 1122 Ordinatur. 1145 Moritur. III. Biorno. 1147 Ordinatus venit in Islandiam. 1162 Moritur. IV. Brandus. 1163 Ordinatur. 1165 Cathedram adit. 1201 Moritur. V. Gudmundus, cognomento Bonus. 1203 Eligitur et ordinatur. 1237 Moritur. VI. Botolphus. 1239 Redit ordinatus. 1246 Moritur. VII. Henricus. 1247 Cathedram adit. 1260 Moritur. VIII. Brandus. 1262 Abbas peregrè abit. 1263 Cathedram adit. 1264 Moritur. IX. Iorundus. 1267 Cathedram adit. 1313 Moritur. X. Audunnus. 1314 Cathedram adit. 1322 Moritur. XI. Laurentius. 1324 Eligitur & ordinatur. 1331 Moritur Idib. April. XII. Egillus. 1332 Cathedram adit. 1341 Moritur. XIII. Ormus. 1343 Cathedram adit. 1355 Moritur in festo omnium Sanctorum. XIV. Ionas Erici F. _cognomento_ Skalle 1358 Cathedram Holensem aditurus venit in Islandiam. Hic Ionas, olim in Grondlandiæ Episcopatum Gronlandis ordinatus, à Pontifice Romano Episcopus impetrauit, vt liceret sibi Episcopatum Holensem adire, qui 1356 tunc temporis vacabat. Vnde cum confirmationem huius dignitatis ac munerus, à Pontifice acceptam, veniens non proferret, apud Presbyteros dioecesis Holensis, suspectæ fidet esse coepit. Quare abijsdem in Noruagiam relegæus est, vt ea res arbitrio Regis componeretur. Rege igitur ipsius partibus fauente Cathedram Holensem obitnuit. 1391 Moritur. XV. Petrus. Ordinatur, quo anno prædecessor rebus mortalium exemptus est. 1392 Cathedram adit Holensem. Moritur. XVI. Ionas Wilhelmus. 1432 Anglus, siue genere, siue cognomine, præfuit Ecclcsiæ Holensi. XVII. Godschalcus. 1457 Moritur. XVIII. Olaus Rogwaldi F. 1458 Prædicti Godschalchi ex sorore nepos, vterque Noruagus, eligitur. 1497 Moritur. XIX. Godschalcus. De mortus Olai nepos ex fratre, et ille Noruagus, eligitur eodem anno quo patruus decessit. 1500 Cathedram adit, ac per totos 20. annos multos ex subditis duriter exercuisse fertur. Anno 1520. cum inter pocula et voluptates conuiuales versaretur audirétque obijsse Ionam Sigismundum, quem cum vxore et liberis multos annos crudelissimè vexauerat, in subitum morbum repentè incidit, et sic paulò post, eam, qua in tota vita in miseros subditos vsus est vim cum miserabili morte commutauit. XX. Ionas Aræsonius. 1525 Cathedram adit: etiam hic papisticarum superstitionum vltimus et acerrimus assertor. Qui, cum Gyssero et Martino episcopus Schalhotiæ acriter resisteret, à pientiss. Rege Christiano 1548 tertio iubetur sub poena exilij protinus in Daniam aduentare. 1550 Sed hoc neglecto, captum Martinum Schalholtiæ Episcopum custodiæ mandauit. Tandem et ipse à viro quodam magni nominis, quem prius vt fertur, lacessiuerat, captus, ac Schalholtiam adductus, ibidem cum filijs duobus, authoritate regij præfecti, capitis 1551 supplicio affectus est. In cuius vltionem, non multò post præfectus ille regius, cum socijs aliquot, à quibusdam sicarijs, decollatorum olim famulis, nefarie occisus est. XXI. Olaus Bialterus. 1552 Abit patria. 1553 Cathderam adit. Hic primus sincerioris doctrinæ apud Holenses amorem in multorum animis, etiam adhuc prædecessoris sui collega, accendit: Deinde eandem doctrinam Episcopus apertius docuit et propugnauit. 1568 Moritur. XXII. Gudbrandus Thorlacius. Ille non modò suæ ætatis, sed et posterntatis ornamentum. Qui præterquam quod inchoatum opus à prædecessore Olao sibi relictum ducente S. S. optimè ad eam, quam dedit Deus perfectionem, deduxit, (dico labores et diligentiam in asserenda veritate Euangelica, et papisticis superstitionibus abrogandis) etiam in hac patria sua officinam Typographicam primus Islandorum aperuit. Cui idcirco patria inter libros complures in linguam vernaculam translatos, etiam sacrosancta Biblia, elegantissimis typis Islandica lingua in officna ipsius excusa, in æternum debebit. Hic inquam Episcopus præsens, officium suscepturus. 1570 Abijt. 1571 Redit Cathedram Holensem ingreditur. The same in English. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE BlSHOPS OF ISLAND. The Bishops of Schalholt. In the yeere of Christ I. Isleif. Consecrated beyond the seas. 1056 Returneth and entereth the Bishops sea of Schalholt. 1057 Dieth in the yere of his age 74. the 4. of the 1080 Kalends of Iuly. II. Gysserus. Consecrated beyond the sea. 1082 Returneth into Island with his Bishopricke. 1083 Dieth the 5. of the Kal. of May being tuesday. 1118 III. Thorlacus sonne of Runulphus. Consecrated the same yeere, wherein his predecessor. In the year Gysserus deceased, but yet 30. dayes before of his age 32 his death. Dieth. 1133 IV. Magnus. Consecrated. 1134 On the morrowe after the feast of all Saints, in his 1148 parish towne of Hiitardal, the house being striken with lightning, hee, and 70. men with him were consumed with fire. V. Klaingus. Chosen. 1151 Entreth the see. 1152 Dieth. 1176 VI. Thorlacus. Chosen two yeres before the death of his predecessour. Consecrated. 1178 Dieth. 1193 VII. Paulus. Consecrated. 1195 Dieth. 1211 VIII. Magnus. Consecrated. 1216 IX. Siguardus. Entreth his see. 1239 Dieth. 1268 X. Arnerus. Entreth his see. 1269 Dieth. 1298 XI. Arnerus sonne of Helgo. Consecrated. 1304 Entreth the see. 1305 Saileth into Norwaie, to craue timber of the king of Norway, 1309 wherewith the Church of Schalholt might be reedified, which the same yere being toucht with lightning, was burnt downe. Returneth home. 1310 Dieth. 1320 XII. Ionas Haldorus Elected. 1321 Consecrated the first of August. 1322 Entreth his see. 1323 Dieth. 1338 XIII. Ionas, sonne of Indred, a Noruagian borne. Entreth his see. 1339 Dieth. 1341 XIV. Ionas sonne of Siguardus. Entreth his see. 1343 Dieth on S. Magnus euen. 1348 XV. Gyrthus. Consecrated at Aslo in Norway by Salomon bishop of Aslo. 1349 Going beyond the seas he was drowned. 1356 XVI. Thorarinnus. Entreth his see. 1362 Dieth. 1364 XVII. Oddgeirus. Entreth his see. 1366 Dieth vpon the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, in the port of 1381 Bergen in Norway, falling downe from a packe of wares into the botome of the ship. He was buried at Bergen in the Church of our Sauiour. XVIII. Michael a Dane. Entreth his see. 1385 Resigneth, and saileth into Denmarke. 1388 XIX. William a Dane. Entereth the Bishopricke. 1394 Dieth. XX. Arnerus. Arnerus sirnamed Mildur, that is to say Liberall. He was at one time Lord President of all Island, bishop of Schalholt, and vicebishop of Holen. He died. 1420 XXI. Ionas Gerichson. Sueden either sirnamed or borne is made Bishop ouer the Church of 1432 Schalholt and afterward for certaine bolde attempts being taken by one Thorualdus de Modruuollum (as it is reported) and a great stone being bound to his necke, hee was cast aliue into the riuer of Schalholt, (which taketh name of the bridge) and was there strangled. XXII. Goswinus. Bishop of Schalholt. 1445 XXIII. Sueno. Called the wise, bishop of Schalholt. 1472 XXIV. Magnus sonne of Riolphus. Bishop &c. 1489 XXV. Stephen. Entreth the See. Then (liuing at one time with Godschalchus bishop 1494 of Holen, who seemed worthy to be sirnamed cruel) he had the same commendations for mercy and iustice, that Godschalchus had. He died: or thereabout. 1519 XXVI. Augmundus. Chosen in the yeere wherein Stephen deceased. Entreth the see. 1522 While he was Bishop, the kings Lieutenant with some of his followers being inuited to Schalholt, in the time of the banquet was slaine by certaine conspirators because hee had in all places wickedly wasted the inhabitants and their goods. But Augmundus as the authour of that murther (although he purged himselfe with an othe) being transported into Denmarke there ended his life. XXVII. Gysserus. Elected, Augmundus yet liuing. 1540 Entred the see. 1541 He was the abolisher of Popish traditions about Priests marriages: his owne marriage being solemnized at Schalholt. 1544 XXVIII. Martinus. Bishop &c. And the yeeres following. 1547 XXIX. Gislaus Ionas. This man presently, in the time of bishop Augmund began in his youth to be enflamed with the loue of true pietie, & of the pure doctrine of the Gospel, & being pastour of the Church of Selardal, diligently to aduance the same, by which meanes he did so procure vnto himselfe the hatred of Papists, as being constreined to giue place vnto their craft & crueltie, he departed ouer to Hamburg, from whence comming to Copen Hagen in Denmarke & painefully proceeding in his former study of diuintie, he liued in the familiaritie, and fauour of many, but specially of D. D. Peter Palladius: who was at that time bishop there. Afterward returning into his countrey, Martine gaue place 1556 vnto him of his owne accord. This man died also, hauing for the 1587 space of 31. years or there abouts, professed the Gospel of Iesus Christ: neither did he helpe & further the Church of God by the sound of his voice much, but by all other meanes to the vtmost of his abilities, by teaching, preaching, writing, by his wealth & his counsel. XXX. Otto Knerus. A graue, godly, and learned man. Being Chosen he departeth his 1588 country. Hee is consecrated returneth, and entreth the sea, 1589 endeuouring himselfe in the labours of his function. * * * * * The Bishops of Holen In the yeere of Christ I. Ionas sonne of Augrnundus. Isleif his disciple. 1106 Consecrated beyonde the seas in the yeere of his age 64, his surname was Sanctus, vnto whose memorie the 3. of March was by the inhabitants in old time dedicated. Dieth the 11. of the Kalends of May. 1121 II. Ketillus or Catullus. Consecrated. 1121 Dieth. 1145 III. Biorno. Being consecrated came into Island. 1147 Dieth. 1162 IV. Brandus. Consecrated 1163 Entreth his Episcopall see. 1165 Dieth. 1201 V. Gudmundus sirnamed Bonus. Elected and consecrated. 1203 Dieth. 1237 VI. Botolphus. Returneth consecrated. 1239 Dieth. 1246 VII. Henricus. Entreth the see. 1247 Dieth. 1260 VIII. Brandus an Abbat. Goeth beyond the seas. 1262 Entreth the Bishopricke. 1263 Dieth. 1264 IX. Iorundus. Entreth his see. 1267 Dieth. 1313 X. Audunnus. Entreth his see. 1314 Dieth. 1322 XI. Laurentinus. Elected and consecrated. 1324 Dieth in the Ides of April 1331 XII. Egillus. Entreth his see. 1332 Dieth. 1341 XIII. Ormus. Entreth his see. 1343 Dieth vpon the feast of all Saints. 1355 XIV. Ionas Sonne of Ericus, sirnamed Skalle. Being to enter his sea of Holen came into Island. This Ionas 1358 being before time consecrated bishop of Gronland, obteined A Bishop licence of the bishop of Rome to enter the See of Holen, which Gronland was at that time vacant. Whereupon comming and not bringing 1356 with him the confirmation of this dignitie and function, receiued from the Pope hee began to be suspected among the priests of the diocesse of Holen. Wherefore he was sent backe by them into Norway that the matter might bee set through by the iudgement of the king. The king therefore fauouring his part, he obteined the bishopricke of Holen. He dieth. 1391 XV. Peter. Consecrated the same yeere wherein his predecessour departed out of this present life. Entreth the see of Holen. 1392 Dieth XVI. Ionas Wilhelmus. An Englishman Bishop of English, either borne or sirnamed. Island. Entred the see. 1432 XVII. Godschalcus. Died. 1457 XVIII. Olaus. Son of Rogwaldus nephew to the forenamed Godschalcus by the sisters side, both of them being Norwayes. He was established. 1458 He died. 1497 XIX. Godschalcus. The nephewe of Olaus deceased, by the brothers side: also hee being a Noruagian was elected the same yeere wherein his vncle deceased. He entreth the see. And for the space of 20. whole yeres is 1500 reported cruelly to haue entreated many of the subiects. In the yeere 1520. when he was in the midst of his cups, and banquetting dishes, and heard that Ionas Sigismundus was departed out of this life (whom with his wife and children, he had for many yeres most cruelly oppressed) he presently fell into a sudden disease, and so not long after changed that violence for miserable death, which in his whole life he had vsed against his distressed subiects. XX. Ionas Aræsonius. Entreth the see. 1525 This man was the last and most earnest mainteiner of Popish superstitions. Who stoutely withstanding Gysserus and Martinus bishops of Schalholt, was commanded by the most religious king Christian the 3. vnder paine of banishment to come with all speed into Denmarke. But neglecting the king's commaundement, hee tooke Martine bishop of Schalholt, and committed him to ward. At length he himselfe also being taken by a man of great name (whom before that time, it is saide, he had prouoked) and being brought to Schalholt, was, together with his two sonnes, by the authoritie of the kings Lieutenant beheaded. In reuenge 1551 whereof not long after, the saide Lieu-tenant with some of his company, was villanously slaine by certaine roysters, which were once seruants to the parties beheaded. XXI. Olaus Walterus. Departed his countrey. 1552 Entreth the see. 1553 This man (being as yet in the life time of his predecessour fellow-labourer with him) was the first that kindled the loue of sincere doctrine at Holen in the hearts of many: and then being bishop did openly teache and defend the said doctrine. He died. 1568 XXII. Gudbrandus Thorlacius. The ornament, not onely of his age, but of posteritie also who besides that, by the direction of the holy spirit, he hath most notably brought the worke begunne, and left vnto him by his predecessour Olaus to that perfection which it hath pleased God to vouchsafe: (namely his labours and diligence in maintayning the trueth of the Gospel, and in abolishing of Popish superstitions) euen in this his countrey hee is the first that hath established a Printing house. For which cause his countrey (besides, for many other books translated into our mother tongue) shalbe eternally bounded vnto him, that the sacred Bible also, by his meanes, is fairely printed in the language of Island. (I say) being at this present, Hee Bishop, when he was about to take his charge: Departed his countrey. 1570 Returned and entred the see of Holen. 1571 Circa hæc igitur tempora mentibus nostris è coelo redditta lux est, et regni coelestis ianua per sinceriorem doctrinæ Christianæ expositionem reserata. Nam et Schola triuialis in vtraque sede Episcopali, laudatissimi Regis Daniæ Christiani tertij munificentia et pietate, circa annum 1553. fundata est: ac subinde patris Christianissimi eximiam pietatem imitante filio, Diuo Friderico secundo rege nostro sanctissimo, Anno 1588. ad coelestem patriam euocato, aucta et promota: quæ etiam hodiè, clementissimi regis et principis nostri, Christiani 4. fauore et nutu viget floretque: in qua iuuentus nostræ Insulæ, artium dicendi et sacræ Theologiæ rudimentis imbuta, ad scientiam et veram pietatem formatur, vt hinc ministri Ecclesiarum petantur. Peruenimus tandem ad hodiernum vsque diem in Episcoporum Islandiæ catalogo: quo prædicti viri clarissimi Dom. Gudbrandus Thorlacius, et Dom. Otto Enerus ille Holis, hic Schalholtiæ Ecclesiarum sunt antistites: quorum vtrumque, vt Deus opt. max. Ecclesiæ suæ saluum et superstitem, propter gloriam nominis sui sanctissimi, diu conseruare velit, omnes seriò et ardentibus votis flagitamus. The same in English. In these times therefore light is restored vnto our soules from heauen, and the gate of the kingdome of heauen is opened vnto vs by the sincere preaching of Christian doctrine. For in either of the Bishops seats there is a free schoole founded by the liberality and pietie of that most renoumed King of Denmarke Christian the third: and afterward the sonne following the godly steppes of his most Christian father, the said Free schooles by Lord Friderick the second, our most religious King, being called vp to his heauenly countrey in the yeare 1588, haue beene encreased and furthered: which at this day also doe prosper and flourish by the fauour and authoritie of the most gracious King and our Prince, Christian the fourth, wherein the youth of our Islande being instructed in the rudiments of liberall artes, and sacred diuinitie, are trained vp to knowledge and true godlinesse, that from hence ministers of Churches may proceede. We are come at length in the register of the Bishops of Island downe to this present day, wherein the forenamed excellent men Gudbrandus Thorlacius, and Otto Enerus, the one at Holen, and the other at Schalholt are Bishops of our Cathedrall Churches both of which men, that it would please God long to preserue vnto his Church in health and life, for the glorie of his most holy name, we all doe earnestly and with feruent prayers beseech him. SECTIO SECVNDA. [Sidenote: Must. Krantz. Frisius.] Specus habitant plerùmque, aut ad montium latera in excauatis mansiunculis. Et mox: Templa habent multa et domos ex ossibus piscium et balenarum constructas. Item: Multi etiam ad pellendam frigoris asperitatem in cauernis latitant, quemadmodum Africani ad solis æstum vitandum. Item Munsterus. Multi in Islandia hodie costis et ossibus balenarum, domos suas construunt, &c. Hic membrum secundum initium sumit, de incolarum viuendi ratione et moribus. Et primùm, quibus vtantur, edificijs seu domibus: nempè secundum Munsterum, Krantzium, Frisium, &c. Specubus et montium cauernis. Quamuis autem in splendidis ædificijs, alijsque id genus mundani ornatus pretiosis rebus parum inest, quod ad verè beatam vitam conferre queat, tamen nec hîc veritatem tacere possumus: dicimúsque omnino Cosmographos et Historicos in errore etiam hîc versari. Etenim, cuiusmodi gentis publica domicilia esse scribunt, ea sunt tantùm in paucis locis, tum magalia, vt opilionum, tum piscatorum casæ et receptacula, eo tantum anni tempore quo piscaturæ operam dare, aut propter gregem excubare opus habent. [Sidenote: Negotiatio cum Noruagis desijt. Sylua fluctibus maris delatæ.] At ipsas domus, seu ipsa hominum domicilia, antiquitus quidem satis magnificè et sumptuosè, quoad huius terræ fert conditio, ligno, cespite et saxis habuerunt Islandi constructa, vsque ad illud tempus, quo illis cum Noruagis, qui ligna sufficiebant, negociatio, et mercium commutatio esse desijt, quæ inde paulatim collabi incipiunt: Cum nec syluas ædificijs aptas habeamus, nec fluctuum maris beneficio iam vt olim ad littora, quod minima ex parte sufficiat, adferatur: Nec mercatores extranei inopiæ nostræ succurrant. Vnde plurima rura ignobiliora ab antiqua illa integritate multum declinarunt, et iam quædam collapsa sunt, quædam ruinam minantur. Nihilominus multa sunt prædia, multæ villæ, quas haud facile recensuero, quarum ædificia veterem illam excellentiam imitantur, et quarum domus sunt maximæ, et latæ et longæ, tum plærúmque benè altæ. Vt exempli gratia. Prædia seu villæ, quæ cubilia habent plusquam 50. cubitos longa, 10. lata, alta 20. Tum reliquas domus, vt coenaculum, hypocaustum, penuarium &c. huic sua proportione respondentes. Possum multa nostratium ædificia ampla et vasta, nec in speciem deformia, nec ob artis structuram et sumptuosam firmitudinem, seu robur, contemnenda cum aliquot delubris, siue sacris ædibus, solis lignis, antiqua et operosa grauitate et pulchritudine extructis commemorare: Cuiusmodi est templum Cathedrale Holense atrium habens, cuius columnæ vtrinque quinque vlnas 14. altæ, 5. circiter crassæ: tum trabes ac tigna, et reliquum culmen, huic substructioni proportionaliter respondens. Ligna ad hoc ipsum atrium Anno 1584. horrenda tempestate collapsum, clementissimus Rex noster D. Fridericus cuius nobis sacratissima est memoria, Anno 1588. benignissimè largitus est. Ipsum verò templum atrium suum omni quantitate manifeste excedit: tum templi intima pars quæ chorus appellari solet, et templi meditullio, et atrio magnitudine nonnihil cedit. Erat autem hoc longè maius olim, vt accepi Schalholtense, quod iam bis concrematum, ad inferiorem magnitudinem redactum est. Prætereà aliquot alia templa nostræ Insulæ horum antiquam magnificentiam imitantia licet non æquintia. Sed hic nequaquam res exigere videtur, vt in prolixiorem eius rei descriptionem euager. Vt enim Domus et edificia nostra nihil depredicamus: ita eorundem nos nihil pudet, quòd contenti paupertate nostra Christo gratias immortales agamus, qui à nobis vili tecto non dedignatur recipi, quòdque templa et domus nostras quas Munsterus Krantzius et Frisius piscium et balenarum ossibus non verè dicunt extructas, non aspernetur magis, quàm illa extraneorum culmina marmorea, parietes vermiculatos pauimenta tesselata reliquùmque id genus ornamenti. The same in English. THE SECOND SECTION. [Sidenote: Munsterus. Krantzius. Frisius.] They inhabite for the most part in caues, or hollowe places within the sides of mountaines. And againe, They haue many houses and Churches built with the bones of fishes, and Whales. Againe. Many of them also to auoide the extremitie of colde, doe keepe themselues close in their caues, euen as the people of Africa doe to auoyde the heate of the sunne. Also Munster sayth: Many in Island at this day build their houses with the ribbes and bones of Whales. Here the second member taketh his beginning concerning the course of life, and the manners of the inhabitants. And first of all what buildings or houses they doe vse namely according to Munster, Krantinus, Frisius &c. Holes and caues of mountaines. But although in gorgeous buildings, and such other worldly braueries there is very little helpe to the attayning of a life truely happie: notwithstanding, wee can not in this place conceale the truth and we plainly affirme that Cosmographers and Historiographers also doe erre in this point. For such habitations as they write to be common vnto the whole nation, are but in verie fewe places, and are either sheepe-cots for shepheards, or cottages and receptacles for fishermen at that time of the yeere onely when they goe a fishing, and the others stande in neede to watch their flocke. [Sidenote: Traffike with the people of Norway ceaseth.] But for their houses themselues, and the verie dwelling places of men, the Islanders haue had them built from auncient time stately and sumptuously enough, according to the condition of the Countrey, with timber, stones, and turfes, vntill such time as traffike and exchange of wares beganne to cease betweene them and the Noruagians, who were wont to supply them with timber, and for that cause nowe our houses beginne to decay whenas neither we haue woods of conuenient for building, [Sidenote: Drift wood not so plentifull now as in times past] nor yet there are nowe a dayes, as there were in olde time, trees cast vpon our shores by the benefite of the sea, which may in any sort relieue vs: neither doe outlandish Merchants succour our neccessities; whereupon many of our meanest countrey villages are much decayed from their auncicnt integritie, some whereof be fallen to the ground, and others bee very ruinous. Notwithstanding there be many farmes and villages which I cannot easily reckon vp, the buildings whereof doe resemble that auncient excellencie, the houses being verie large both in breadth and length, and for the most part in height also As for example farmes or granges which conteine chambers in them, more than fiftie cubites in length, tenne in breadth, and twentie in height. And so other roomes, as a parler, a stoue, a butterie, &c. answering in proportion vnto the former. I could here name many of our countrey buildings both large and wide neither ilfauoured in shewe, nor base in regarde of their workemanship and costly firmenesse or strength, with certaine Churches also, or religious houses, built of timber onely, according to auncient and artificiall seemelinesse and beautie: as the Cathedrall Church of Holen hauing a bodie the fiue pillars whereof on both sides be foure elnes high, and about fiue elnes thicke, as also beames and weather-bourdes, and the rest of the roofe proportionally answering to this lower building. Our most gracious King Lord Frederick, whose memory is most sacred vnto vs, in the yere 1588. did most liberally bestowe timber for the reedifying of this body being cast downe in the yere 1584. by an horrible tempest. But the Church it selfe doth manifestlie exceed the body thereof in all quantity: also the inner part of the Church, which is commonly called the quier is somwhat lesse, both then the middle part of the Church, and also then the bodie. The Church of Schalholt was farre greater as I haue heard in olde time, then this our Cathedrall, which hauing now beene twise burnt, is brought to a lesser scantling. Likewise there be some other Churches of our Island, although not matching, yet resembling the auncient magnificence of these. But here the matter seemeth not to require that I shoulde runne into a long description of these things. For as wee doe not greatly extoll our houses and buildings, so are we nothing ashamed of them, because being content with our pouertie, we render vnto Christ immortall prayse who despiseth not to be receiued of vs vnder a base roofe, and contemneth not our temples and houses (which Munster, Krantzius, and Frisius doe not truely affirme to be built of fishes and Whales bones) more then the marble vaults, the painted walles, the square pauements, and such like ornamentes of Churches and houses in other countries. SECTIO TERTIA. [Sidenote: Munsterus Krantzius.] Commum tecto, victu, statu, (hic Krantzius habet, strato) gaudent cum iumentis. Item: Solo pastu pecorum et nunc captura piscium victitant. Hæc sunt et sequentia, quæ Krantzius suo Munstero præmansa, in os ingessit, adeò vt Munstero non opus fuent ea vel semel masticare, quod ex collatione vtriusque patet. Munsterus enim hæc opprobria, vt ex Krantzij in suam Noruegiam præfatione hausta deglutierat, ita eadem cruda lib. 4. Cosmographiæ capit. 8. in gentem nostram euomit. Quæ hactenus fuerunt, etsi satis grauia sunt, tolerabiliora tamen erant. Hoc verò commentum malignissimum, et quæ sequentur, non facilè est sine stomacho præterire. Nostrum igitur est, etiam hîc veritatem asserere, et mendacium in Authoris caput retorquere. Tecto: Primùm igitur quod de commum tecto (vti etiam de victu et statu) cum iumentis dicunt, falsum et erroneum clamamus, teste non modò re ipsa, si quis id hodiè perquirere volet: Sed etiam multorum extraneorum, qui aliquot apud nos annos egerant, et veritati plus quam gentem nostram calumniandi affectui tribuunt, experientia; qui ipsi domos et habitationes nostras viderunt, et norunt in singulis prædijs seu villis, multas esse distinctas domus: nempe in abiectissimis et vilissimis 7. vel 8. in maioribus, nunc decem, nunc 20. In maximis, nunc 40, nunc 50; quæ vt plurimùm, et tecto et parietibus distinctæ, vni possessori vel domino, rarò duobus aut tribus, rarissimè pluribus inseruiunt, ac vsibus quotidianis et domesticis sufficiunt. Vnde facilè intelligis, Lector, quàm verè eodem tecto cum iumentis vtantur Islandi, cum singuli rustici in hac domuum varietate, peculiaria bouilia, ouilia, equitia, agnilia, debitis interuallis dissita habeant, quæ serui, quoties opus est, petunt, vnde rursus habitationem subinde repetunt. Quòd autem quidam in mappa Islandiæ de prouinca Skagefiord annotauit, sub eodem tecto homines, canes, sues et oues, viuere, partim falsum, partim minimè mirandum est. De ouibus quidem, vt iam dictum est, et præcipuè suibus (cum illa prouincia sues non habeat) falsum: De canibus haud mirum, cum illis nec regum aulæ caruerint nec hodiè careant, vt nimis omnibus est notum. Sed de canibus paulò post Sect 7. huius. Victu. An iumentorum pabula possint commodè victus appellatione contineri, meritò dubitauerim. Cùm Doletus, Ciceronis interpretem agens, dicat: Victum, inquit, cum iureconsultis, ita exponemus, vt victus verbo contineantur, quæ esui, potui, cultuique corporis, quæque ad viuendum homini sunt necessana. Et Vlpianus, de verborum significat. Ijsdem verbis victum definit. Hoc loco verò Authores illi, etiam iumentorum pabula, victum appellant. Cæterum videamus quomodo hîc eluceat veritatis et candoris præstantia. Iumenta non habemus præterquam equos et boues: His gramina et foenum (nisi vbi foeni inopia obrepit) pabulum, aqua potum præbet. At hi ipsi scriptores fatentur, Islandos piscibus, butyro, carnibus, tum bubulis, tum ouillis, etiam frumento, licet pauco et aduentitio viuere. Non igitur cibum habent cum brutis communem, quod tamen ijdem his verbis asserunt. Communi victu gaudent cum iumentis: Quod quid sit Munstero, ipse paulò superius haud obscurè docuit. Islandia, innquit, populos multos continet, solo pecorum pastu, et nunc captura piscium victitantes. Quid autem est pecorum pastus, aliud, quàm pecorum cibus? ait Doletus: nisi Munsterus fortè pecorum pasium, ipsa pecora ad pastum hominum mactata appellet: cui, vt existimo, vsus Romanorum refragatur, qui, vt homines vesci, ita pecora pasci docuit: hominúmque victum pecorum autem, pastum et pabulum vocari iussit. An verò existimem tam dementes fuisse Munsterum et Krantzium vt senserint Islandos graminibus et foeno viuere? Quo miseriæ Nabuchodonozor, diuinæ vltionis iugum subiens redactus est Dani 4. 30. Facilè dabimus multa, quibus homines, non modò nostrates, sed vestrates quoque vescuntur, iumenta et pecora fortè non reijcere, si familiari pabulo destituantur. Vt equi frumento et panibus hordeaceis pascuntur: ijdem lac (quemadmodum etiam vituli et agni) et cereuisiam, si offeratur bibunt, et quidem auidè. Sed et canes quævis fercula et cibaria deuorant. An idcircò quisquam dicet, homines communi victu cum canibus et iumentis gaudere? Iam quæcunque famis grassantis tempore contigere pro vniuersali gentis alicuius consuetudine in historiam referri non debent. Vt non licet nobis de extraneis scribere huius aut illius terræ populos canum murium aut felium vsu victitare solitos, etsi fortè fame siue obsidione, siue alioqui annonas charitate inualescente immissa, id factitarint. Potum autem interdum esse multis cum iumentis communem non magnoperè contraibimus: nempè aquam limpidissimam, naturalem ilium potum omnibus animantibus à Deo creatum quem etiam ex parte, medicinæ consulti comendant, imò nec patres Hebræi nec ipse Seruator noster fastidiebat. Ad amictum verò quod attinet, (Nam et amictum victus vocabulo comprehendimus) nequaquam hic cum iumentis communis est. Illa enim pilis et villis natura (quod Munsterum et Krantzium nouisse iurarim) vestiuit: homines, alioqui nudi, pannis corpus induere necesse habent. Hæc indumenta, quæ quidem Islandia suppeditat, ex lanis ouium conficiuntur. Sed non cogitaram ideò recte dici, amictum esse nobis cum ouibus communem siue eundem. Vtuntur etiam extranei pannis ex ouilla lana confectis, licet artificio subtiliore. Sed de indumentis nihil: Stultum enim est, ex eo laudem vel superbam æstimationem quærere quod naturæ nostræ infirmitatem arguit. Statu. Restat ille status quem cum brutis habere communem dicimur. Qui qualis aut cuiusmodi sit, aut eum esse velint nostri scriptores, certè non facilè assequor. Status inquit Doletus est vel corporis, vel causarum vel ordinis et conditionis. Certè alium esse statum nostri corporis quàm iumentorum (nam præter duos pedes etiam manus habemus et corpore ac vultu sursum erecto incedimus) alium item ordinem et conditionem nostram ducimus. Illi boni viri si id de se aut alijs cognitum habent fateantur. Nos hæc tam vana et in Deum creatorem nostrum tam contemptibilia irridemus, nec prolixiore tractatu dignamur. [Sidenote: Occasi harum fabularum.] Cæterum quia nostrum est nec amori patriæ, nec vlli rei tantum tribuere, quin plus semper et vbique veritati largiamur: Dicam quid sit quod huic infami scriptorum conuicio occasionem fortè dederit. Sunt in vicinia Schalholtiæ, ad littus Islandie australe paroechiolæ tres, inter duos rapidissimos amnes Thiorsaa et Olffwis Aa interceptæ; quæ et syluis et cespitibus consueto gentis ad focos alendos fomite ferè destituuntur. In istis paroechijs habitantes et si qui sint vicini, quamuis plures eorum, vt de omnibus rebus ad rem familiarem pertinentibus, ita etiam de his, quæ ad focos et balnea opus habent, sibi opportunè prospiciunt: Tamen sunt inter eos quidam sed infirma tantum sortis coloni, qui quoniam estis rebus domi destituantur, nec aliunde petere eas valeant in culinis foeno ad coquendos cibos vtuntur: Ast vbi hyemis niuosæ sævitia horrida ingruit, coloni isti miseri ad suum bouile refugiunt illic scilicet exstructis tabulatis interidiù operas domesticas exercentes, à bobus, cum focos habere nequeant, calorem mutuantur, quemadmodum mihi ab alijs narratum est. Sicque illi tantùm qui sanè paucissimi sunt, communi cum bobus tecto in bruma vti quidem non gaudent, sed coguntur. Verùm victum et statum longè alium habent, de qua re hactenus. Hæc est in istis Paroechiolis quorundam sors et inopia, quorum conditio idcirco etiam apud nos fabula vulgi effecta est, quamuis non satis iustè. Vbi quo iure toti genti tribuatur, quod vix ac ne vix quidem de istis paucis colonis verùm est, libentur quæsierim? Tædet de his pluribus agere: Tantum quia mihi cum Theologis res est illud Saiomonis ijs reponam. [Sidenote: Prouerb 14.] Qui calummatur egenum, deridet factorem eius. Equidem quia gens hæc nostra pauper et egena est et fuit, ad veluti quidam mendicus inter diuites, tot extraneorum probra et scommata tulit. Sed videant cui exprobrent. Certè, si aliud nihil nobis cum illis commune est, tamen omnes ex ijsdem constamus elementis, et vnus et idem omnium Pater, Deus. The same in English. THE THIRD SECTION. [Sidenote: Krantzius Munsterus.] They and their cattell vse all one house, all one food or victuals, one state (here Krantzius hath it lodging.) Also. They liue onely by feeding of cattell, and sometimes by taking of fishes. Those be the things together with those that followe, which Krantzius hath champed, and put into Munsters mouth, so that Munster shall not neede so much as once to chewe them, which may appeare by comparing them both together. For Munster, as hee swallowed these reproches, taking them out of Krantzius his preface vpon Norway, so he casteth vp the verie same morsels vndigested and rawe against our nation, in his fourth booke of Cosmographie cap. 8. Those things which haue beene hitherto, although they haue sufficiently grieued vs yet will we let them seeme more tollerable: but this most malitious deuise, and those which follow we cannot easily brooke. It is our part therefore in this place also to auouch the trueth, and to turne the leasing vpon the authors owne head. House, &c. First, that which they say concerning the same common house (as also liuing, and state) with our cattell, we plainely affirme to be false and erronious, not onely the truth it selfe being our witnesse, if any man would make triall, but also the experience of manie strangers, that haue liued some yeeres amongst vs, and haue more minde to speake the trueth then to reuile our nation: who haue seene our house and habitations with their owne eyes, and knewe that in euery particular farme or graunge there were many seuerall roomes namely, in those that were most simple and base, seuen or eight: In others which were greater, sometimes tenne, and sometimes twentie. In the greatest sometimes fortie, and sometimes fiftie. Which for the most part being seuered, both by roofes and walles, doe serue for the dayly and household affaires of one owner or master, seldome of two or three, but almost neuer of more: whereupon the Reader may easily iudge, howe true it is that the Islanders and their cattell haue all one house to lie in, when euery husbandman in this varietie of roomes hath seuerall oxe stalles, sheepe-cotes, stables lambes-cots separated in different spaces one from another, which the seruants goe vnto so oft as neede requireth, and from thence returne backe to the dwelling houses. But whereas one noted in his Mappe of Island, concerning the prouince of Skagefiord, that vnder the same roofe, men, dogges swine and sheepe liue altogether, it is partly false, and partly no maruell: for sheepe, as it hath been sayde, and especially for swine (when as that prouince hath no swine at alt) it is vtterly false: for dogges it is no maruell, when is not kings courts were euer, or at this day are destitute of them, as it is well knowen to all men. But as touching dogges afterward in the seuenth section. Victuals, &c. Whither beasts meate may fitly be termed by the name of Victus, a man may lustly doubt: When Doletus interpreting a peece of Tullie, saith: As for Victus (sayth he) wee will so expound it with the Ciuilians, namely that we comprehend vnder the word of Victus all things necessarie for the life of man as meate, drinke, attire of the bodie, &c. And Vlpianus de verborum significatione defineth Victus in the very same words. But in this place the saide authors call beaste meate by the name of Victus. But let vs see what trueth and plaine dealing is to be found in these men. We haue no labouring cattel besides horses and oxen: these haue grasse and hay (except where haye is wanting) for their fodder, and water to drinke. Now, the very same writers confesse, that the Islanders liue by fish, butter, flesh both beefe and mutton, and corne also, though it bee scarce, and brought out of other countries. Therefore they haue not the same foode with brute beasts, which notwithstanding the sayde writers affirme in these wordes: They and their cattel vse all one victuals or food. What Munsters meaning is in this clause, he himselfe a little before hath plainely taught. Island (saith he) conteineth many people liuing onely with the food of cattell, and sometimes by taking of fishes. But what else is the food of cattell, but the meat of cattell, saith Doletus? Vnlesse perhaps Munster calleth the food of cattell, cattell themselues slaine for the foode of men: whom, as I thinke, the vse of the latine tongue doth gaine say, which hath taught vs that as men doe eate, so beasts do feede, and hath termed the victuals of men, and the food or fodder of cattell. But may I thinke that Munster and Krantzius were so mad as to imagine that the Islanders liue vpon grasse and hay: To this passe of miserie was Nabuchodonozor brought vndergoing the yoke of Gods vengeance Daniel 4. vers. 30. We will easily graunt that beasts and cattell will not perhaps refuse many things, which men not onely of our countrey but of yours also eate, if the saide beasts be destitute of their vsuall food: as horses are fedde with corne and barley loaues: they will drinke milke also (like vnto calues and lambes) and ale if it be proffered them, and that greedily. And dogges in like manner will deuour any deinty dishes whatsoeuer. May any man therefore say that men vse the same common victuals with dogges and horses? Now, whatsoeuer things haue happened in the time of grieuous famine ought not to be recorded in historie for the generall custome of any countrey. As it is not lawfull for vs to write concerning other nations, that the people of this or that countrie, doe vsually liue by eating of dogs, mise, cats, although perhaps in the time of famine or seige or dearth of corne, they haue often bene constrained so to doe. But that the same drinke is sometimes common to many men with beasts we will not greatly gainesay: namely most pure water, that naturall drinke created by God for all liuing creatures: which also in some respect Phisicians doe commende, yea, neither the Patriarkes themselues, nor our sauiour Christ despised it. As touching apparell (for we comprehend apparell also vnder the name of Victus) it is no wise common to vs with beasts. For nature hath clad them with hairs and bristles (as I dare say Munster and Krantzius cannot be ignorant) men, being otherwise naked stande in neede of clothes to couer their bodies. But I had not thought it might therefore haue properly beene sayde that sheepe and we haue all one apparell. Men of other countries also weare cloth of sheepes wooll, although it be more finely wrought. But no more concerning the attire of the bodie. For it is a meere folly to seeke for praise, and ambitious reputation by that, which argueth the infirmitie of our nature. State, &c. Now, it remaineth that we should speake of that state, which we are sayd to haue common with beasts; but of what kinde or maner it should be, or our writers would haue it to be I cannot easily discerne. State (sayth Doletus) is either of the body, or of causes, or of order and condition. Doubtlesse, that there is another state of our bodies then of beasts (for besides our two feet, we haue hands also, and go with our bodies, and countenances lift vpright) and that we be of another order and condition from them, we are verily perswaded. As for these good fellowes, if they know any such matter by themselues or others, let them disclose it. We doe altogether scorne these, being so vaine things, and breeding so great contempt against the Maiesty of God our creator, neither do we vouchsafe them any larger discourse. But because it is our duty not so highly to regard either the loue of our countrey, or of any other thing whatsoeuer, but that we may be ready at all times and in all places, to giue trueth the preheminence: I will say in a word what that was which perhaps might minister occasion to this infamous reproch of writers. There be neere vnto Schalholt, vpon the South shore of Island three small parishes standing betweene two most swift riuers Thiorsaa and Olffwis Aa, being in a maner destitute both of wood and turfe, which is the accustomed fewell of the countrey. And although most of the inhabitants of these parishes and some of their neighbours, as they doe in time of yeere prouide all things necessary for householde, so especially those things which belong to fires and bathes: notwithstanding there be certaine among them of the basest sort of people, who because they want those things at home, and are not able to prouide them from other places, are constrained to vse straw for the dressing of their meat. But when the sharpe rigor of snowy Winter commeth on, these poore people betake them to their oxe stalles, and there setting vp sheds, and doing their necessary businesse in the day time, when they are not able to make fires, they borrow heat from their oxen, as it hath beene reported to mee by others: And so they onely being verie fewe in number, doe not willingly enioye, but are constrayned to vse the same common house with their oxen. But for their liuelihoode and state it is farre otherwise with them then with their oxen, of which thing I haue entreated before. This is the lot, & pouertie of certaine men in those pettie parishes, the condition whereof is therefore made a common byworde of the people amongst vs, though somewhat iniuriously. Where I would willingly demaund with what honestie men can impute that vnto the whole nation, which is hard and skantly true of these fewe poore men? I am wearie to stay any longer in this matter: onely, because I haue to doe with Diuines, let that of Salomon suffice, Prouerbs 17, verse 5. Hee that mocketh the poore, reprocheth him that made him. And in very deede, because this our nation is nowe, and heretofore hath been poore and needie, and as it were a begger amongest many rich men, it hath susteined so many taunts and scoffes of strangers. But let them take heede whom they vpbraide. Verely if there were nothing else common vnto vs with them, yet we both consist of the same elements, and haue all one father and God. SECTIO QUARTA. [Sidenote: Krantzius Munster] In simplicitate sancta vitam agunt, cum nihil amplius quærant quàm natura concedit. Beata gens, cuius paupertati nullus inuidet. Sed mercatores Anglici et Dani quiescere gentem non sinunt, qui ob piscaturam vehendam terram illam frequentantes cum mercibus omnigenis vitia quoque nostra inuexerunt. Nam et fruges aquæ miscere in potum didicerunt, et simplicis aquæ haustus oderunt. Nunc aurum et argentum cum nostris admirantur. Simplicitate. Equidem sanctæ simphcitatis laudem nobis attribui, meritò gaudemus: Sed id dolemus, quòd reperiatur etiam apud nos iustitiæ ac legum ingens deprauatio, ac magna anarchia, quam multorum scelerum myriades consequuntur, quod pij et boni omnes quotidiè deplorant. Id mali autem nequaquam supremi Magistratus, hoc est, Regis nostri clementissimi, sed verius nostra culpa accidit: qui hæc quæ clàm ipso præposterè geruntur et quæ in inferiore magistratu desiderantur, ad maiestatem ipsius non deferimus. Mercatores. Mercatores porrò, non solùm Angli et Dani, sed maximè Germani, vt nunc, ita olim terram nostram, non ob piscaturam sed pisces euehendos frequentantes, nequaquam artem illam, miscendarum frugum aquæ, Islandos docuerunt. Quippe ipsi Noruagi primi, quòd nobis constet, terræ nostræ incolæ; à quibus oriundi sunt Islandi, artem illam, sicut etiam aureos argenteósque nummos, secum ex Noruegia attulerunt; vt initio non fuerit minor argenti et auri vsus apud nos, quàm est hodiè. Et quidem ante Danorum, Germanorum, Anglorumue frequentes ad nos nauigationes, terra nostra multò, quàm nunc, senescentis mundi incommoda, coelo solóque persentiens, fertilior, in delectis simis quibúsque locis, Cereris munera produxit. The same in English. THE FOURTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Krantzius. Munster.] They leade their liues in holy simplicitie, not seeking any more then nature doeth afforde. A happie Nation, whose pouertie no man doth enuie. But the English and Danish merchants suffer not the nation to be at rest, who frequenting that countrey to transport fishing, haue conueighed thither our vices, together with their manifolde wares. For nowe, they haue learned to brew their water with corne, and beginne to despise, and loath the drinking of faire water. Now they couet golde and siluer like vnto our men. Simplicitie, &c. I am exceedingly glad, that the commendation of holy simplicitie is giuen vnto vs. But it grieueth vs that there is found so great a decay of iustice, and good lawes, and so great want of gouernement amongst vs, which is the cause of many thousande haynous offences which all honest and godly men doe continually bewayle. This inconuenience doth not happen through the negligence of the highest Magistrate, that is of our most gracious King, but rather by our owne fault, who doe not present these thinges vnto his Maiestie, which are disorderly committed without his knowledge, and which are wanting in the inferiour Magistrate. Merchants. Moreouer, Merchants, not onely of England and Denmarke, but especially of Germanie, as at this time, so heretofore frequenting our countrey, not to transport fishing, but fishes, taught not Islanders the arte of brewing corne with water. For the Noruagians themselues, the first, to our knowledge, that inhabited this Island, from whom ye Islanders are lineally descended, brought with them out of Norway that arte, as also golde and siluer coine, so that in old time there was no lesse vse of siluer and golde with vs, then there is at this day. [Sidenote: Corne of old time growing on Island.] And it is certaine that before the often nauigations of Danes, Germans, and English men vnto vs, our land was much more fertile then nowe it is (feeling the inconueniences of the aged and decayed worlde, both from heauen and earth) and brought foorth, in certaine choyse places, corne in abundance. SECTIO QUINTA. [Sidenote: Munsterus. Krantzius.] Rex Daniæ qui et Noruagiæ quotannis præfectum immittit genti. Anno Domino 846. natus est Haraldus Harfagre (quod auricomum vel pulchricomum dixeris) Qui deinde Anno 858, Rex Noruagiæ designatus, vbi ætas viresque iustum incrementum acceperunt, formam imperij Noruagici mutauit. Nam antea in minutas prouincias diuisum (quas Fylki vocabant, et qui his præerant regulos, Fylkis Konga) ad Monarchiam armis potentibus redegit. Id cum et genere et potentia valentes aliquot regni incolæ ægrè ferrent, patria exulare, quàm ipsius Tyrannidis iugum non detrectare maluerunt. Vnde hi in Islandiam, antea quidem à quibusdam visam et inuentam, at desertam tamen, colonias, dicto Superius Anno 874. transtulerunt: Atque sic genti nostræ originem præbentes, se Islandos nuncuparunt, quod nomen hodiè posteri retinent. Vixerunt itaque Islandi diu, nullius imperium agnoscentes, annis scilicet 386. plus minus. Et quamuis Rex Noruagiæ Haquinus ille conatus, qui omnium regum Noruagiæ diutissimè, nempe plusquam 66. annos imperium gerebat, sæpè per legatos tentarat tributarios sibi facere Islandos, constanter tamen semper restiterunt, donec tandem circa annum Domini 1260. homagium ipsi præstarent. [Sidenote: Margareta.] Atque postea semper in data fide persistentes, et regibus Noruagiæ parentes, translato per Margaretam, Daniæ, Sueciæ, et Noruagiæ reginam, Noruagorum imperio, ad Danos, vnà cum reliquis imperij Noruagici Insulis, Serenissimum Daniæ regem; Dominum et Regem suum hodiè salutant. The same in English. THE FIFTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Munsterus. Krantzius.] The King of Denmarke and Norway sendeth euery yeere a Lieutenant into the Countrey. In the yeere of our Lord eight hundred fortie and sixe Harold Harfagre (which is to say, golden haires or faire lockes) was borne. Who afterward in the yeere eight hundred fiftie and eight, being chosen king of Norway, when he was growen to age, and full strength, chaunged the forme of the Noruagian gouernment. For whereas before it was diuided into pettie Prouinces (which they called Fylki, and the pettie kings that gouerned them, fylkis konga) he reduced it by force of armes vnto a Monarchie. [Sidenote: The occasion of the first inhabiting of Island by the people of Norway.] But when some inhabitants of the countrie, being mightie, and descended of good parentages, could not well brooke this hard dealing, they chose rather to be banished their countrey, then not to shake off the yoke of tyranny. Whereupon, they in the yeere aboue named eight hundred seuentie and foure, transported colonies into Island being before discouered by some men and found out, but vnpeopled as yet: And so being the first founders of our nation, they called themselues Islanders, which name their posteritie reteineth vnto this day. And therefore the Islanders liued a long time, namely, three hundred eightie and sixe yeeres, more or lesse, acknowledging no submission to any other Nation. [Sidenote: Haquinus coronatus.] And although Haquinus that crowned King of Norway who reigned longest of any Noruagian king, namely, about sixtie sixe yeares, did oftentimes attempt by Ambassadours to make the Islanders become tributaries vnto him, notwithstanding at all times they constantly withstoode him, till at length about the yeere of our Lord 1260. they performed homage vnto him. And afterward continued alwayes in their promised loyaltie, being subiects to the king of Norway. But now at this day, since the Empire of the Noruagians was translated by Margaret Queene of Denmarke, Suedeland, and Norway vnto the Danes, they doe honour as their soueraigne Lord and King the most gracious king of Denmarke. SEXIO SEXTA. [Sidenote: Krantzius Munsterus] Omnia eos communia sunt, præter vxores. Hoc loco præmittit Krantzius talem Ironiam. Multa insignia in moribus illorum, &c. Porrò etiam hic fidem vestram eleuat ingenium, ad asserendum res incompertas nimis procliue, cupidinem nouitatis, et nominis ac famaæ, imò veritatis curam preposteram arguit, omnium et rerum personarúmque et temporum experientia: O scriptores suspiciendi. Testes sunt leges politicæ, quibus inde ab initio cum Noruagis vsi sunt eisdem Islandi: De Rege et subditis: De foro, et his quæ in forensem disceptationem cadere possunt: De hæreditatibus: adoptionibus, nuptijs, furto, rapinis, mutuo contractibus et cæteris: Quæ omnia, quorsum illis, quebus res omnes sunt communes? Testes sunt, tot de bonis mobilibus et immobilibus contentiones, turbæ et certamina, in foris ac iudicijs Islandorum: Testes sunt Reges nunc Daniæ et olim Noruagiæ, qui tot libellis supplicibus Islandorum, ad componendas istas de possessionibus controuersias, olim et nunc interpellati sæpè fuerant. Testis contra seipsum Krantzius, cuius verba distinction. i. huius, hæc fuerunt. Ante susceptam Christi fidem (Islandi) lege naturali viuentes parum à lege nostra discrepabant, &c. Si lege naturæ, certè lege illa iustitiæ, quæ tribuit vnicuique suum: Si lege iustitiæ, certè proprietatum et dominiorum distinctiones in nostra gente locum habuisse oportet: Quanquam autem in hanc ipsam legem etiam in Ecclesia, et quidem satis atrocitur, sæpè delinquitur tamen et Ecclesia et Ethnici iustissimam et optimam esse semper fassi sunt. The same in English. THE SIXTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Krantzius. Munsterus.] All things are common among them except their wiues. Here Krantzius in the first place beginneth with such a gybe There be many notable things in their manners, &c. Moreouer, your wit being too hastie in affirming things vnknowen, doth here also diminish your credite. The experience as well of all things as of persons and times proueth your ouer greedie desire of noueltie, of fame and vaine glorie, and argueth your great negligence in maintaining the truth. O worthy writers. But whether the aforesayde things bee true or no, wee call the lawes of our Countrey to witnesse, which the Islanders from the beginning haue vsed all one with the Norwayes: of the King and his subiects: of the seate of iustice, and of law cases which come to be decided there, of inheritances: of adoptions, marriages, theft, extortions, lending, bargaines, and the rest: all which, to what purpose should they be enioyned vnto them with whom all things are common? We call to witnesse so many broyls and contentions in our courts, and places of iudgement in Island concerning goods mooueable, and immooueable: we call to witnesse our kings now of Denmarke, aforetime of Norway, who by so many billes of supplication out of Island in old time, and of late haue beene often interrupted, for the setting through of controuersies concerning possessions. Wee call Krantzius himselfe to witnesse against himselfe, whose words in the first section were these: Before the receiuing of Christian faith the Islanders liuing according to the lawe of nature did not much differ from our lawe &c. If by the lawe of nature, then doubtlesse by that lawe of iustice, which giueth to euery man his owne: If by the lawe of iustice, then certainely distinctions of properties and possessions must needes haue taken place in our Nation: and although this very lawe is often transgressed, and that haynously euen in the Church: notwithstanding both the Church, and also heathen men doe acknowledge it to be most iust and good. SECTIO SEPTIMA. Catulos suos et pueros æquo habent in precio: Nisi quod à pauperioribus facilius impetrabis filium quàm catulum, &c. Quamuis principio huius commentarioli censuerim, Munsterum et alios magni nominis viros, in ijs, quæ de Islandia scripta reliquerunt, esse à calumnæ nota liberandos: num tamen id hîc, etiam à candidissimo et maxime sincero quocunque fieri possit, non satis video. Quid enim mouit tantos viros, vt Nautarum maleuolas nugas et mendacia secuti, tam atroci et contumelioso opprobrio gentem nostram diffamarent, commacularentque? Nihil profectò, nisi secura ridendi et contemnendi gentem pauperem et ignotam, licentia, et si quæ sunt huic vicia confinia. Cæterum nôrint omnes non tam Islandis, quàm ipsis Authoribus, incommodare hoc mendacium. Cum enim illud, et plurima etiam alia in historiam suam accumulant, efficiunt vnà, vt alibi quoque suspectæ fidei habeantur. Illudque quod ait Aristoteles lucrantur, vt cum vera dixerint, illis sine suspitione non credatur. Sed age Lector, subsiste paulisper, mecùmque grauitatem et sapientiam tantorum virorum expende: Ne tantum Islandiæ Elogium intactum prætereamus. Docuerunt hactenus Krantzius et Munsterus: Islandos esse Christianos. Item: Islandos ante susceptam Christi fidem lege naturali vixisse. Item: Islandos vixisse lege quadam non multum à lege Germanorum discrepante. Item: Vixisse eos in sancta simplicitate. Adesdum igitur Lector, et quas Christianismi, Legis naturalis, legis Germanorum, santæ simplicitatis notas Authores illi requirant, et in Islandis monstrent ac depingant, perpende. Vna fuit supra, quòd infernum siue carcerem damnatorum montis Heclæ voragine et radicibus circumscribant Islandi: de quo vide Sect. i. huius: et sect. 7. prior. part. Altera nota, quòd, cum Anabaptistis, proprietatum et dominiorum distinctiones tollant: de quo Sect. præced. Tertia eàque longe excellentissima hæc est: illi præclari affectus naturales, amor, cura, et animus tam pius et paternus Islandorum in liberos, quòd videlicit eiusdem precij sint apud illos canes et filij, aut hi etiam viltoris. Siccine nobis Munstere et Krantzi. Legem Christi, naturæ, Germanorum, et sanctam simplicitatem depingitis: O picturam præclaram et excellentem, quamuis non prorsus Apellæam: O Inuentum acutum et admirandum, si benè authenticum: O scientiam plusquàm humanam, etsi non prorsus diuinam. Nos verò Islandi, quamuis vltimi et gelidum conclusi ad Arcton, longè alias Christianismi notas requirimis. Nam et præceptum Dei habemus, vt quilibet proximum diligat velut seipsum. Iam nemo est, puto, qui seipsum non plus diligat, aut pluris faciat, quàm canem. Quod si tantus esse debet proximi cuiuslibet fauor, tanta æstimatio, tantus amor, quantus quæso erit in liberos? Quorum arctissimum amorem, præterquam quod ipsa parens natura nobis firmissimè conciliauit, etiam Lex diuina curam summam in enutriendo habere iussit (Exo. 12. 24. Ephe. 6, 4.) vt scilicet sint in sancto coniugio, Ecclesiæ quædam seminaria, omnis pietatis et honestatis exercitia: Prout vates ille pulcherrimè cecinit. Vult Ecclesiolam quamlibet esse domum. Item: Coniugium humanæ quædam est Academia vitæ. Vt iam satis constet, apud Christianos longè pluris faciendos et curandos filios, quàm canes: Et, si qui non aliter curent, Christianos non esse. Sed et hic in prolem dulcissimam affectus naturalis in Ethnicis etiam satis apertè conspicitur: vt si quos hoc penitùs exueris, eosdem etiam homines esse negaueris. Monstrant id matres Carthaginenses, cum tertio bello Punico adolescentes quique lectissimi obsides in Siciliam mitterentur, quos illæ fletu et lamentatione miserabili ad naues comitatæ, et ex his quædam à filioram compleximus ægrè diuulsæ, cum ventis pandi vela cernerent, nauesque è portu egredi, dolore stimulante, in subiectos fluctus dissiluere: Sabellico authore. Monstrat Ægeus, qui nauem filij Thesei, cum velis atri coloris, ex Creta redeuntem cerneret, perijsse filium ratus, vitam in proximis vndis finiuit. Sabellic. lib. 3. cap. 4. Monstrat Gordianus senior, Africæ proconsul, qui similiter, ob rumores de morte filij, vitam suspendio clausit. Campofulgos. lib. 5. cap. 7. Monstrant idem Iocasta Creontis filia, Auctolia Sinonis F. Anius Tuscorum Rex, Orodes Rex Parthorum, et alij numero innumero. De quibus vide stat. lib. 2. Plutarchum, et alios, &c. Huc illud. Amor descendit, &c. Adeò, vt videas non minus esse homini proprium, sobolem intimè diligere, et summo amore prosequi, quàm aut volare; vt si iam aliquando homines esse Islandos, nedum Christianos scriptores nostri fassi sint, hunc amorem et affectum in filios ijsdem, quantumuis inuiti et repugnantes, adscribant: sin minus, non modò hominis titulum et dignitatem illis detrahant, sed etiam infrà bruta et quasuis bestias, quæ ipsæ, stimulante natura, maximo prolis suæ et arctissimo amore tenentur, deprimant. Non addam contra hoc impudens mendacium exempla etiam nostratium satis illustria: Tacebo leges nostras plagiarias ipsis Islandis antiquiores, quippe a Noruagis acceptas, quæ exstant in codice legum nostrarum, titulo Mannhelge: cap. 5. Si quis hominem liberum (quemuis nedum filium) extraneis vendat, &c. Iam verò si quis eò fortunæ deueniat, vt proprium filium, siue incolæ, siue extranei alicuius potestati, vel fame vel extrema quacunque vrgente necessitate, aut periculo, permittat, ne familicum *media deficientem aspicere cogatur, canem verò in proprias dapes reseruet, Is minimè dicendus est filium æquo aut inferiore loco habere quàm canem, siue id faciant, Islandi, siue extranei quilibet. Offenderant fortè Germanorum vel Danorum nautæ apud nos mendicos quosdam, liberis onustos, quorum hîc maximus est numerus, qui iocando, vt sunt nugis scurrilibus addicti, dixerint: Da mihi aut vende hoc vel illud: Cumque rogarint extranei: Quid tu mihi vicissim? Responderint mendici. Habeo liberos 10. vel 14. dabo ex eis vnum vel plures, &c. Solet enim ista mendicorum colluuies istiusmodi scurriles dialogismos cum extraneis instituere. Quod si tum quispiam bonus vir, misertus stoliditatis et inopiæ mendicorum, vno illos filio leuauerit, eique propter Deum in alijs terris, aliquo tandem modo benè prospexerit, num mendicus, qui alioqui cum filio, fame et paupertate moriturus, filium miserenti permittit et committit, filium istum suum minoris facit quàm canem? Præstitum est à multis tam Islandis quàm extraneis huiusmodi beneuolentiæ et commiserationis opus: ex quibus fuit vir nobilissimus Accilius Iulius à serenissimo rege Daniæ olim missus ad Islandos, Anno Domini 1552. Qui vt audiui, 15. pueros pauperculos assumpsit et secum in Daniam auexit: Vbi postea ipsius beneficio singulos suo vitæ generi addictos, in viros bonos et frugi euasisse, mihi narratum est. Quid si quis in extrema constitutus angustia, filium non modò vendat; sed si emptorem non habet, ipse mactet et comedat? Nota sunt huius rei exempla: Parentum videlicet inuitiæ crudelitatis in filios, stimulante non odio vel astorgia, sed ineuitabili necessitate compellente. Num quis inde vniuersale gentis alicuius conuicium exstruxerit? Legimus, in obsidione Samariæ matres duas filios suos mactasse, et coctos comedisse: 4. Reg. C. 6. Legimus in obsidione Ierosolymitana, quam flebilis fuerit vox miserrimæ matris, filium misellum iam mactaturæ. Infans, ait, (referam enim Eusebij verba de hac re, etsi notissima, vt miseræ matris affectus appareat,) miselle et infelix, cuinam in hoc belli. famis, et seditionis tumultu, te commodè reseruem? Si Romanorum subijciamur imperio, illic seruitutis iugo pressi, vitam infoeliciter exigemus. Sed seruitutum credo fames anteuertet. Accedit factiosorum prædonum turba, his vtrisque miserijs toleratu multò asperior. Age igitur mi gnate, sis matri cibus, sis prædonibus furia, sis communi hominum vitæ fabula, quæ res vna ad Iudæorum calamitates deesse videtur. Quæ cum dixisset, natum trucidat, assatumque dimidium mox comedit, dimidium reseruat &c. Eusebius libro 3. capite 6. Iam quis est, qui non credat misserrimam hanc matrem filium hunc suum, domini alicuius, si se obtulisset, apud quem credidisset seruatum iri, aut emptoris possessioni fuisse permissuram? Nota est fames, Calagurium, Hispaniæ vrbem, olim à Cneio Pompeio obsessam opprimens (Val. libro septimo cap. 7.) cuius ciuibus, vxores et liberi in vsum estremæ dapis conuersi sunt, quos profectò; pro cibarijs et alijs dapibus haud inuiti vendidissent. Nota est quoque fames, quæ Anno Domini 851. (Vincent. libro 25. cap. 36.) Germaniam attriuit, vt etiam pater filium suum deuorare voluerit. Notum etiam est, post mortem Henrici septimi Imperat fame per triennium continuata, quomodo parentes liberos, vel liberi parentes deuorarint, et præcipuè quidem in Polonia et Bohemia. Et ne exempla tantùm antiqua petamus, accepimus tantam annonæ sæuitiam, Anno 1586. et 1587. in Hungaria grassatam fuisse, vt quidam alimentorum inopia adacti immanissimo Christianorum hosti proprios liberos vendiderint, et in perpetuum seruitutis iugum manciparint: quidam paruulos suos, quos vlterius tolerare non sustinebant, crudeli misericordia in Danubium proiecisse, et, suffocasse dicantur. Sed, num hæc et similia exempla quempiam eò insaniæ adigent, vt dicat hanc vel illam nationem, liberos in escam propriam mactare *consuettisse, Turcis libenter vendere, aut aquis submergere et suffocare solitam esse? Non opinor. Sic neque, quòd mendici apud Islandos, extrema vrgente necessitate, cuius durissimi sunt morsus, filios suos libenter amittant, toti genti, et quidem probri loco, communiter adscribendum est à quoquam, nisi apud eundem omnis pudor, candor, humanitas, veritas exulent. Cæterum optarim ego, parcius Islandis canum curam exprobrare illos populos, quorum matronæ, et præcipuè nobiles, canes in maximis delicijs habent, vt eos vel in plateis, ne dicam in sacris concionibus, sinum gestent, quem morem in peregrinis quibusdam, quos Romæ catulos simiarum et canum in gremio circumferre Cæsar conspexit, hac quæstione reprehendit, dum quæreret: Numquid apud ipsos mulieres liberos non parerent? Monens errare eos, qui à natura inditos sibi affectus, quibus in amorem hominum ac præcipuè sobolis incitarentur, in bestias transferunt, quarum deliciarum voluptas Islandorum gentem, nunquam cepit aut habuit. Quare iam Munstere et Krantzi, alias nobis Christianitatis, (vt sic dicam) legis naturæ, legis item Germanorum, et sanctæ simplicitatis notas qusente. The same in English. THE SEVENTH SECTION. They make all one reckoning of their whelpes, and of their children: except that of the poorer sort you shall easier obtaine their sonne then their shalke. Although in the beginning of this Treatise I thought that Munster and other men of great name in those things which they haue left written concerning Islande, were not to bee charged with slander, yet whether that fauour may here be shewed by any man whatsoeuer (be he neuer so fauourable, and neuer so sincere) I doe not sufficiently conceiue. For what should moue such great men, following the despightful lyes, and fables of mariners, to defame and staine our nation with so horrible and so shamefull a reproch? Surely nothing else but a carelesse licentiousnesse to deride and contemne a poore and vnknowen Nation, and such other like vices. But, be it knowen to all men that this vntrueth doth not so much hurt to the Islanders, as to the authors themselues. For in heaping vp this, and a great number of others into their Histories, they cause their credite in other places also to be suspected: And hereby they gaine thus muche (as Aristotle sayth) that when they speake trueth no man will beleeue them without suspition. But attend a while (Reader) and consider with me the grauitie and wisedome of these great Clarkes: that we may not let passe such a notable commendation of Island. Krantzius and Munster haue hitherto taught, that the Islanders are Christians. Also: that before receiuing of Christian faith they liued according to the lawe of Nature. Also: that the Islanders liued after a law not much differing from the lawe of the Germanes. Also, that they liued in holy simplicitie. Attend I say (good Reader) and consider, what markes of Christianitie, of the lawe of nature, of the Germanes law, of holy simplicitie, these authors require, and what markes they shew and describe in the Islanders. There was one of the sayd markes before: namely, that the Islanders doe place hell or the prison of the damned, within the gulfe and bottome of mount Hecla: concerning which, reade the first section of this part, and the seuenth section of the former. The seconde marke is, that with the Anabaptists they take away distinctions of properties and possessions: in the section next going before. The third and most excellent is this: those singular and natural affections, that loue and tender care, and that fatherly and godly minde of the Islanders towards their children, namely, that they make the same accompt of them, or lesse then they doe of their dogges. What? Will Munster and Krantzius after this fashion picture out vnto vs the lawe of Christ, the lawe of nature, the lawe of the Germanes, and holy simplicitie? O rare and excellent picture, though not altogether matching the skill of Apelles: O sharpe and wonderfull inuention, if authenticall: O knowledge more then humane, though not at all diuine. But wee Islanders (albeit the farthest of all nations and inhabiting a frozen clime) require farre other notes of Christianitie. For we haue the commaundement of God, that euery man should loue his neighbour as himselfe. Nowe there is none (I suppose) that doeth not loue or esteeme more of himselfe then of his dogge. And if there ought to bee so great fauour, so great estimation, so great loue vnto our neighbour, then how great affection doe we owe vnto our children? The most neare and inseparable loue of whom, besides that nature hath most friendly setled in our mindes, the loue of God also commaundeth vs to haue speciall regard in trayning them vp (Exod 12. 24. Ephes. 6. 4.) namely that there may be in holy marriage certaine seminaries of Gods Church, and exercises of all pietie and honestie according to the excellent saying of the Poet-- God will haue each family, A little Church to be, Also, Of humane life or mans societie, A Schole or College is holy matrimonie That it may be manifest, that among Christians their sonnes are more to be accompted of and regarded, then their dogges: and if any doe no otherwise esteeme of them, that they are no Christians. But this naturall affection towarde our most deare of-spring is plainely seene in the heathen themselues: that whomsoeuer you totally depriue of this, you denie them also to bee men. The mothers of Carthage testifie this to be true, when as in the third Punic warre the most choyse and gallant young men in all the Citie were sent as pledges into Sicilia, whom they followed vnto the shippes with most miserable weeping and lamentation, and some of them being with griefe separated from their deare sonnes, when they sawe the saules hoysed, and the shippes departing out of the hauen, for very anguish cast themselues headlong into the water: as Sabellicus witnesseth. Egæus doth testifie this, who when he sawe the shippe of his sonne Theseus, returning out of Creete with blacke sayles, thinking that his sonne had perished, ended his life in the next waters: Sabell lib. 3. cap 4. Gordianus the elder, Proconsul of Affrica, doth testifie this, who likewise, vpon rumours of the death of his sonne, hanged himselfe. Campoful lib 5. cap. 7. Also, Iocasta the daughter of Creon, Auctolia daughter of Simon, Anius King of the Thuscans, Orodes King of the Parthians, and an infinite number of others. Concerning whom reade Plutarch stat. lib. 2. and other authors, &c. To these may be added that sentence, Loue descendeth, &c. So that you see, it is no lesse proper to a man entirely to loue his children, then for a bird to flie: that if our writers at any time haue confessed the Islanders to be men (muche lesse to be Christians,) they must, will they nill they, ascribe vnto them this loue and affection towardes their children: if not, they doe not onely take from them the title and dignitie of men, but also they debase them vnder euery brute beast, which euen by the instinct of nature are bound with exceeding great loue, and tender affection towards their young ones. I will not adde against this shamelesse vntruth most notable examples of our owen countreymen: I will omit our lawes of man-stealing, more ancient then the Islanders themselues, being receiued from the Noruagians, and are extant in our booke of lawes vnder the title Manhelge cap. 5, Whosoeuer selleth a free man (any man much more a sonne) vnto strangers, &c. Now if any man be driuen to that hard fortune, that he must needs commit his own sonne into the hands of some inhabitant or stranger, being vrged thereunto by famine, or any other extreame necessity, that he may not be constrained to see him hunger-starued for want of sustenance, but keepeth his dogge still for his owne eating, this man is not to be sayd, that he esteemeth equally or more basely of his sonne then of his dogge: whether Islanders or any other countreymen do the same. [Sidenote: The occasion of this slander.] The Germane or the Danish mariners might perhaps find amongst vs certaine beggars laden with children (for we haue here a great number of them) who in iesting maner, for they are much giuen to trifling talke, might saye: Giue me this, or sell me that: and when the stranger should aske, What will you giue me for it? the beggar might answere: I haue ten or foureteene children, I will giue you some one or more of them, &c. For this rabble of beggars vseth thus fondly to prate with strangers. Now if there be any well-disposed man, who pitying the need and folly of these beggers, releaseth them of one sonne, and doth for Gods sake by some meanes prouide for him in another countrey: doth the begger therefore (who together with his sonne being ready to die for hunger and pouerty, yeeldeth and committeth his sonne into the hands of a mercifull man) make lesse account of his sonne then of his dogge? Such works of loue and mercie haue bene performed by many, as well Islanders themselues as strangers: one of which number was that honourable man Accilius Iulius, being sent by the most gracious King of Denmarke into Island in the yere of our Lord 1552, who, as I haue heard, tooke, and carried with him into Denmarke fiftene poore boyes: where afterward it was reported vnto me, that, by his good meanes euery one of them being bound to a seuerall trade, proued good and thriftie men. What if some man be driuen to that passe, that he doth not onely sell his sonne but not finding a chapman, his owne selfe killeth and eateth him? Examples of this kinde be common, namely of the vnwilling and forced cruelty of parents towards their children, not being pricked on through hate, or want of naturall affection, but being compelled thereunto by vrgent necessity. Shall any man hereupon ground a generall reproch against a whole nation? We reade that in the siege of Samaria, two mothers slew their sonnes, and eat them sodden: 4. King, chap. 6. We reade in the siege of Ierusalem, how lamentable the voice of that distressed mother was, being about to kill her tender childe: My sweete babe, sayth she (for I will report Eusebius owne words, concerning this matter, though very common, that the affection of a mother may appeare) borne to miserie and mishap, for whom should I conueniently reserue thee in this tumult of famine, of warre, and sedition? If we be subdued to the gouernment of the Romans, we shall weare out our vnhappy dayes vnder the yoke of slauery. But I thinke famine will preuent captiuity. Besides, there is a rout of seditious rebels much more intollerable then either of the former miseries. Come on therefore, my sonne, be thou meat vnto thy mother, a fury to these rebels, and a byword in the common life of men, which one thing onely is wanting to make vp the calamities of the Iewes. These sayings being ended, she killeth her sonne, roasting and eating one halfe, and reseruing the other, &c. Eusebius lib 3. cap. 6. Now, what man will not beleeue that this vnhappy mother would full gladly haue passed ouer this her sonne into the possession of some master or chapman, if she could haue happened vpon any such, with whom she thought he might haue beene preserued: That famine is well knowen which oppressed Calagurium, a city of Spaine, when in olde time Cneius Pompeius layed siege thereunto (Valerius lib. 7. cap. 7.) the citizens whereof conuerted their wiues and children into meat for the satisfying of their extreame hunger, whom doubtlesse they would with all their heartes haue solde for other victuals. That famine also is well knowen which in the yere of our Lord 851. (Vincent lib. 35. cap 26.) afflicted Germany, insomuch that the father was glad to deuoure his owne sonne. It was well knowen after the death of the Emperour Henry the seuenth, in a famine continuing three whole yeres, how the parents would deuoure their children, and the children their parents, and that especially in Polonia and Bohemia. And that we may not onely allege ancient examples: it is reported that there was such a grieuous dearth of corne in the yeeres 1586, and 1587, thorowout Hungary, that some being compelled for want of food were faine to sell their children vnto the most bloudy and barbarous enemy of Christians, and so to enthrall them to the perpetuall yoke of Turkish slauery: and some are sayd to haue taken their children, whom they could no longer sustaine, and with cruell mercy to haue cast them into Danubius, and drowned them. But should these stories and the like make any man so mad as to affirme that this or that nation accustometh to kill their children for their owne food, and to sell them willingly vnto the Turks, or to drowne and strangle them willingly in the water? I cannot thinke it. So neither (because beggers in Island being enforced through extreame and biting necessitie, do willingly part with their sonnes) is this custome generally to be imputed vnto the whole nation, and that by way of disgrace, by any man, except it be such an one who hath taken his leaue of all modesty, plaine dealing, humanity, and trueth. But I could wish that the loue of dogges in Islanders might be more sparingly reprehended by those people, whose matrons, and specially their noble women, take so great delight in dogs, that they carry them in their bosomes thorow the open streetes. I will not say in Churches: which feshion Cæsar blamed in certaine strangers, whom he sawe at Rome carrying about yoong apes and whelpes in their armes, asking them this question: Whether women in their countrey brought foorth children or no? signifying heereby, that they do greatly offend who bestow vpon beasts these naturall affections, wherewith they should be inuited to the loue of mankinde, and specially of their owne ofspring, which strange pleasure neuer ouertooke, nor possessed the nation of the Islanders. Wherefore now (Munster and Krantzius) you must finde vs out other marks of Christianity, of the law of nature, of the Germans law, and of holy simplicity. SECTIO OCTAVA. [Sidenote: Krantzius Munsterus] Episcopum suum colunt pro Rege ad cuius nutum respicit totus populus. Quicquid ex lege, scripturis, et ex consuetudine aliarum gentium constituit, quàm sancte obseruant. Fuit equidem initio ferè ad repurgatam Euangelij doctrinam maxima Episcopi obseruantia; sed nunquam tanta vt exteris legibus aut consuetudini cederent nostræ leges politicæ, ex nutu Episcopi. Nec tempore Alberti Krantzij, multò minus Munsteri (quorum ille 1517, hic 1552. post partum salutiferum decessit) Episcopi Islandorum regiam obtinuerunt authoritatem, cùm scilicet multi ex ijs, qui diuitijs paulò plus valebant aduersus ipsos consurgere non dubitarint; quæ res apud nostrates liquido constat. Intenm tamen Episcopi, anathematis fulmine terribiles, alios in suam potestatem redegerunt, alios furibunda sæuitia id temporis persecuti sunt. Porrò etsi tum fuit magna, imò maxima Episcopi obseruantia, tamen nunc dispulsis tenebris Papisticis, alia ratione homines Satan aggreditur, eorùmque mentes contemptus libertate et refractaria contumacia, aduersus Deum et sacrum ministerium, etiam hîc armare non negligit. The same in English. THE EIGHTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Krantzius, Munsterus] They honour their Bishop as their King vnto whose command all the whole people haue respect. Whatsoeuer he prescribeth out of the law, the scriptures, or the customes of other nations, they do full holily obserue. There was indeed at the beginning, about the time of the reformation of religion, great reuerence had vnto the bishop; but neuer so great, that our politique lawes at the bishops command should giue place to outlandish lawes and customes. Neither in the time of Albertus Krantzius, much lesse of Munster (of which two the first deceased in the yere of our Lord 1517, and the second 1552) the bishops of Island had the authonty of kings, when as many of the country which were of the richer sort, would not doubt to rebell against them; which thing is too well knowen in our countrey. Yet in the meane time, the bishops being terrible with their authority of excommunication, reduced some vnder their subiection, and others at that time they cruelly persecuted. Moreouer, albeit at that time the bishop was had in great, yea, in exceeding great reuerence, yet now adayes, the darkenesse of popery being dispelled, the deuill assaulteth men after another sort, and euen here amongst vs, he is not slacke to arme their minds with contempt, and peruerse stubburnnesse against God, and his holy ministery. SECTIO NONA. [Sidenote: Munster.] Illic victitant plerumque piscibus, propter magnam penuriam frumenti, quod aliunde à maritimis ciuitatibus infertur: & qui inde cum magno lucro pisces exportant. Item Munsterus. Illic piscibus induratis vtuntur loco panis qui illic non crescit. Vide Lector, quàm Munsterum iuuet, eadem oberrare chorda: vt cum de gente ignota nihil scribere possit, quod coloris aliquid habeat, vel falsa afferre, vel eadem sæpius repetere, sicque cramben eandem recoquere sustineat: Dixerat enim paulò ante, Islandos piscibus viuere. Verba ipsius superiùs etiam recitata, hæc sunt. Islandia populos continet multos, solo pecorum pastu et nunc captura piscium victitantes, etc. Et vt cætera transeam in quibus leue quiddam notari poterat: Illud sanè, panem in Islandia non crescere, perquam verùm est. Quod etiam illi cum Germania commune esse crediderim, quòd videlicet nec illic panis crescat, nisi fortè in Munsteri, agro, vbi etiam acetum naturale optimè crescit. Sed hæc, troporum indulgentia, scilicet, salua erunt. Ad conicia autem, quæ ex victu Islandorum petunt extranei, infrà paucis respondebitur, Sect. 15. The same in English. THE NINTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Munsterus.] They liue there for the most part vpon fishes, because of their great want of corne, which is brought in from the port townes of other countreys: who cary home fishes from thence with great gaine. Also Munster sayth, they do there vse stockefish in stead of bread, which groweth not in that countrey. Consider (friendly reader) how Munster is delighted to harpe vpon one string, that when he can write nothing of an vnknowen nation which may cary any shew with it, he is faine either to bring in falshood, or often to repeat the same things, and so to become tedious vnto his reader: for he sayd a little before, that the Islanders liue vpon fish. His words aboue recited were these: Island conteineth many people liuing onely with the food of cattell, and sometimes by taking of fishes. And that I may omit the rest in which some trifle might be noted whereas he sayeth that bread groweth not in Island: it is most true: which I thinke is common therewith to Germany also, because bread groweth not there neither, except it be in Munsters field where naturall vineger also doth marueillously encrease. But these toyes, by the liberty of rethoricke forsooth, shall be out of danger. Howbeit, vnto these reproches, which strangers do gather from the meats and drinks of the Islanders, we will hereafter briefly answere, Sect. 15. SECTIO DECIMA. [Sidenote: Munster. Krantzius.] Incolæ res maiorum et sui temporis celebrant cantibus et insculpunt scopulis, atque promontorijs, vt nulla, nisi cum naturæ iniuria, intercidant apud posteritatem. [Sidenote: Frisius.] Citharædi, et qui testudine ludunt, apud eos reperiuntur quàm plurimi, qui prædulci modulamine et volucres et pisces irretiant et capiant. [Sidenote: Veterum gesta apud Islandes conseruata.] Quin veterum gesta aliquot cantibus et poematibus nostratium, vt et soluta oratione, apud nos conseruentur, non negamus. Quòd verò à nobis aut maioribus nostris eadem scopulis vel promontorijs insculpta sunt, eam non licet nobis, vt neque illam tantam Citharædorum, aues aut pieces demulcentium, laudem accipere. Statuimus enim animi esse generosi ac veracis, vt crimina falsa refellere, ita laudem immeritam sibi haud vendicare, nec, etsi quis tribuat, agnoscere. The same in English. THE TENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: Munsterus. Krantzius.] The inhabitants do celebrate the actes of their ancestours, and of their times, with songs, and they graue them in rocks and promontories, that they may not decay with posterity, but onely by the defect of nature. [Sidenote: Frisius.] There be diuers found amongst them that be minstrels, and can play vpon the lute, who with their delectable musicke ensnare and take both fowles and fishes. [Sidenote: The Islanders preserue in writing the acts of their ancestors.] We denie not but that some woorthy actes of our forefathers be reserued in the songs and poemes of our countreymen, as also in prose: but that the same things haue beene engrauen by vs, or by our ancestors in rocks or promontories, we may in no case acknowledge that praise be due vnto vs, nor yet the other of minstrels, and taking of birds and fishes. For we holde it to be part of an honest and ingenuous mind, as to refute false crimes, so not to challenge vndeserued praise vnto himselfe, nor to accept it being offered. SECTIO VNDECIMA. Sed cum scriptoribus iam dictis, viris alioqui spectatæ eruditionis et preclari nominis, qui tamen hæc ita inconsideratè scriptis suis interseruerunt, actionis finis esto. Etiam magna mei pars est exhaosta laboris: Sed restat tamen fætus ille vipereus Germanicus, quem idcircò anonymum secundo partu mater edi voluit, vt venenatis aculeis nomen Islandorum tantò liberiùs pungeret. Porrò licet aduersus hanc bestiam in arenam descendere non dubitem, omnibus tamen constate volo, quonam hoc animo faciam, videlicet, non vt cum illius pestifera virulentia, conuicijs aut maledicentia certem (Nam vt est in triuiali paroemia, Hoc scio pro certo, quod si cum stercore certo, Vinco, seu vincor, semper ego maculor:) Sed vt bonis et cordatis omnibus, etiam extraneis, satisfaciam qui maledicentiam istam Germanicam lecturi vel audituri sunt, aut olim audierint, ne et hi nos meritò calumniam tantam sustinere credant: Tum etiam vt alios qui istis virulentis rhythmis Germanicis, in gentis nostræ opprobrium vtuntur, et inde dicteria et comumeliosas subsannationes ad despiciendos Islandos petunt, ab ilia mordendi licentia in posterum, si fieri possit, abducamus. Ergò, ne longis ambagibus Lectori fastidium oratio nostra pariat, ad ea narranda accedam, quæ maledicus ille Gennanus in suum pasquillum congessit: Quem etiam sua de Islandis carmina Encomiastica recitantem in his pagellis introducerem, nisi præuiderem foetum ilium probrosum, tot et tam varijs maledictis turgidum, omnibus bonis nauseam mouere posse, ac sua spurcitie ab ijs legendis absterrere. Referam igitur præcipua, (ijs scilicet omissis quæ cum alijs communia habet, atque hactenus ventilata sunt) sed, quàm ille, longe mitius; ne, vt dixi, linguæ ipsius obscoena petulantia, aures bonæ et eruditæ offendantur: Qui ipsum videre aut audire volet, quærat apud propolas. Nobis inquam, non est in animo putida ipsius calumnia et conuiciorum sentina, has chartas inquinare. [Sidenote: 1. Obiectio seu conuicium.] Primùm igitur obijcit Germanicus hic noster, si Dijs placet, Historicus: Multos ex pastoribus Islandiæ toto biennio sacram concionem ad populum nullam habere: Vt in priore editione, huius pasquilli legitur, quod tamen posterior editio eiusdem refutat: Dicens, eosdem pastores in integro anno tantum quinquies concionari solitos: quæ duo quàm ritè sibi consentiant, videas bone Lector, cum constet Authorem mox à prima editione vix vidisse Islandiam. Ita scilicet plerúmque mendacium mendacio proditur, iuxta illud: Verum verò consentit; Falsum nec vero nec falso. Sed com nostrum non sit veritatem vspiam dissimulare, nos haud negandum ducimus conciones sacras circa id tempus, quo iste Sycophanta in Islandia vixit, nempe anno 1554. aut circiter multò fuisse rariores, quàm sunt hodiè, tum scilicet tenebris Papisticis vix dum discussis. Quod etiam de Psalmis Dauidicis à vulgo Latinè demurmuratis, vt idem nostratibus exprobrat, intelligere est: Papistæ enim totam spem salutis in sua Missa collocantes, de concione aut doctrina parum fuere solliciti. Postquam verò caligine illa exempti sumus, aliter se rem habere, Deo imprimis gratias agimus: Licet quorundam pastorum nostrorum tardam stupiditatem, segnitiem et curam præposteram non possimus omni modo excusare. Quod vtrum in nullos suorum popularium etiam competat, aliæ quoque nationes viderint. The same in English. THE ELEVENTH SECTION. But now, let this be the end of our controuersie with the authours aforesayd, being otherwise men of excellent learning, and of great renoume, who notwithstanding so inconsiderately haue entermedled these things in their writings. And now the better part of my labour is finished. But yet there remaynes that viperous German brood, the mother whereof would haue come to light, as it were at a second birth, without name, that it might so much the more freely wound the fame of the Islanders with venomous sting. Moreouer, although I be not afrayd to encounter with this beast, yet would I haue all men to know with what minde I vndertake this enterprise, namely, not that I meane to contend with his pestiferous rancour, by reproches, and railing speeches (for as it is in the common prouerbe: I know, that if I striue with dung most vile, How ere it be, my selfe I shall defile); but that I may satisfie all honest and well affected men, euen strangers themselues, who shall hereafter reade or heare, or haue heretofore heard that Germane pasquill, least they also should thinke that we woorthily sustaine so monstrous a disgrace: and also that I may from henceforth, if it be possible, restraine others (who vse those venomous Germaine rimes to the vpbrading of our nation, and from hence borrow their scoffes, and reproachfull taunts to the debasing of vs Iselanders) from that libertie of backbiting. Therefore, that I may not be tedious to the reader with long circumstances, I will come to the rehearsing of those things which that railing Germane hath heaped vp in his leud pasquill: whom also I could bring in, repeating his friendly verses of the Ilanders, within the compasse of this my booke, but that I doe foresee that the sayd slanderous libell being stuffed with so many and diuers reproches, might breed offence to all honest men, and deterre them from reading it, with the filthinesse thereof. I will therefore repeat the principall matters (omitting those things which he hath common with others, or, that heretofore haue been examined) but farre more modestly then he, least (as I sayd) I cause good and learned mens cares to tingle at his leud and vnseemely rimes: that they are desirous to see or heare him let them enquire at the Stationers. It is no part of our meaning (I say) to defile these papers with his stinking slanders, or with the filthy sinke of his reproches. [Sidenote: The first obiection or reproch.] First therefore, this our goodly Germaine Historiographer obiecteth that there be many Pastours in Island, which preach not to their people once in two yeres, as it is read in the former edition of this pasquill, which notwithstanding the latter edition doth refute: saying that the sayd Pastours vse to preach but fiue times in an whole yeere which two, how well they agree together, let the reader be iudge, seeing it is manifest that the authour himselfe, presently after the first edition, had scarse seene Island. So oftentimes one he betrayeth another, according to that saying: Trueth agreeth vnto trueth; but falshood agreeth neither to trueth nor to falshood. But sith it is our part not to dissemble the trueth in any place, we will not denie that holy sermons, about the time wherein this sycophant liued in Island, namely in the yere 1554, were seldomer in vse then they are at this day, namely, the darkenesse of popery being scarsely at that time dispelled. Which also is to be vnderstood concerning the Psalmes of Dauid mumbled by the common people in Latine, as he casteth vs in the teeth: for the Papists grounding all the hope of their saluation in the Masse, did little regard the sermon or doctrine. But after we were freed from that mist, it hath bene (God be thanked) farre otherwise with vs: although we cannot altogether excuse the dulnesse, slouth, and preposterous care of certeine of our Pastours. Which, whether it agreeth to any of their countreymen or no, let other nations iudge. SECTIO DUODECIMA. [Sidenote: 2. Conuitium] Secundò calumniatur vitilitigator: Adulteria et scortationes non modò publica esse et frequentia scelera inter Islandos: sed ab ijs pro scelere ne haberi quidem. Etsi autem foedissimæ istæ turpitudines etiam in nostra repub. non prorsus inusitatæ sunt: tamen cum omnibus constet in alijs quoque nationibus longè etiam frequentiores esse, cum ibi quoque populi frequentia maior: immeritò et malignè hoc nomine magis Islandos, quàm populos et gentes reliquas, quarum, vt dixi, nomen etiam plus nostratibus hoc crimine malè audit, notauit. Et licet ex animo optarim longè minus ad scelera, et turpitudines in nostra patria conniueri, quàm passim hîc fieri videmus: tamen etiam innata illa mordendi libidine, hoc veterator in præsenti conuitio attexuit: videlicet, quòd scelera ista ab Islandis pro scelere non habeantur. Nam in quâ demum repub. id impudens ille asserere audet? Illane; quæ in legem codicis ll. titulo Mannhelge: cap. 28. iurauit; quæ statuit, vt iterum adulterium qui cum coniuge alterius commiserit, confiscatis suis bonis, capite etiam pectatur? Illane, quæ pro adulterio, à famulo cum vxore domini commisso, non ita dudum 80. thalerorum mulctam irrogauit? Illane, quæ eundem, si ad statutum tempus non soluerit vel vades dederit, in exilium proscribendum decreuit? Illane: cuius leges politicæ, quemuis in adulterio cum vxore, à viro legitime deprehensum, si euaserit, homicidij mulctam expendere iubent? Illane, cuius itidem leges politicæ, in complexu matris, filiæ aut sororis, à filio, patre, vel fratre deprehensum, vitam suam midio eius, quod quis si eundem insontem interfecisset, expendere teneretur, redimere iubent? Illane, cuius leges politicæ adultorium sceleris infandi nomine notarunt et damnarunt? Et in eo tertiò deprehensum, capite plectendum seuerè mandant? Cernis igitur, Lector benigne, quàm iniurium habeamus notarium, dicentem: Adulterium et scortationes in Islandia peccati aut sceleris nomen non mereri. Nam licet politici quidam hoc vel illud scelus impunitum omittant, non debet tota gens, non leges, non boni et pij omnes, eo nomine in ius vocari, aut male audire. The same in English. THE TWELFTH SECTION. [Sidenote: The second reproach. ] Secondly, the trifler shamefully reporteth, that adulteries and whoredomes are not onely publique, and common vices amongst Islanders: but that they are not accounted by them for vices. Although indeed these most filthy abominations, euen in our common wealth, be not altogether vnusuall: notwithstanding, since al men know that they are farre more common in other nations, where be greater multitudes of people, he did vndeseruedly, and maliciously note the Islanders rather with this reproch, then other people and nations, who are more infamous with this crime then our countreymen. And albeit I wish with all mine heart that vices and enormities were much lesse wincked at in our countrey, then we see they are, yet notwithstanding this iugler by reason of his naturall inclination to backbiting, hath added this in his last reproch: namely that these vices by the Iselanders are not accounted for vice. For, in what common wealth dare the impudent companion affirme this to be true? What? in that common wealth which hath sworne to obserue the law contained in our statute booke vnder the title of Manhelge chap 28, whereby it is enacted, that whosoeuer committeth adultery with another man's wife the second time, his goods being confiscate, he shall be punished with death? Or in that common wealth, which not long since hath inflicted the penalty of 80 dollers vpon a seruant committing adultery with his masters wife? Or in that common wealth which hath decreed that if he doth not pay, nor lay in sureties at the day appointed he shalbe banished the country? Or in that common wealth the politike lawes whereof doe streightly command that whosoeuer be according to law found in adultery with another man's wife, by her husband, if he escape, he shall vndergoe the punishment of manslaughter? Or in that common wealth, the politike lawes whereof do also enioyne a man that is taken in carnall copulation with the mother, daughter, or sister, by the sonne, father, or brother, to redeeme his life with the one halfe of that which he oaght to haue payed, if he had shed the innocent bloud of the sayd party? Or in that common wealth the pollitike lawes whereof haue noted and condemned adultery vnder the name of a most heinous offence? And do straightly command that he which is taken the third time in that beastly act shalbe punished with death? You see therefore (friendly readers) what an iniurious Notary we haue, affirming that adultery and whoredome in Island deserueth not the name of sinne and wickednesse for although some officers let slip this or that vice vnpunished, yet ought not the whole nation, nor the lawes, nor all good and godly men, in that regard, to be accused or euill spoken of. SECTIO DECIMATERTIA. [Sidenote: 3. Conuitium] Tertium conuicium est, quo fraudis et perfidiæ erga Germanos Islandis notam inurit. Fuit autem proculdubio famosi huius libelli author, cerdo et propola circumforaneus, multòsque Ilandiæ angulos, sordidæ mercaturæ gratia, ostintim adierat: quod ipse de se in præclaris illi suis rythmis testatur, maximam Islandiæ partem sibi peragratam esse. Vnde cum ipse mala fide cum mulus egerit (plerumque enim fraus et mendacia coniunguntur, et mendacem se fuisse, hac ingenij sui experientia satis probauit) etiam fortè à se deceptorum fraudem est expertus. Hinc illa in totam gentem criminatio extitit: Dissimulato intereà, qua fide quidam Germanorum, quibus annua est nauigatio ad Islandos, cum nostris hominibus agant. Ea autem querela, cum non alios conuiciari, sed aliorum in gentem nostram immerita conuncia monstrare instituerim, consultò supersedeo. The same in English. THE THIRTEENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: The third reproach] The third reproch is, whereby he doth brand the Islanders with the marke of deceit and trechery toward the Germans. Doubtles the author of this libell was some vagabond huckster or pedler, and had gone particularly into many corners of Island to vtter his trumpery wares, which he also testifieth of himselfe in his worthy rimes, that he had trauailed thorow the greatest part of Island, whereupon when he had played the cousining mate with others (for often times deceit and lying are ioyned together, and he hath sufficiently proued himselfe to be a liar, by this triall of his wit) peraduenture himselfe was beguiled by them whom he before time had defrauded. From hence proceedeth this slander, against our whole Nation: dissembling in the meane time with what honestie certaine Germans, making yerely voyages into Island, deale with our men. But seeing by this complaint I haue not determined to reproch others, but to lay open the vndeserued reproches of others against oar nation, I do here of purpose surcease. SECTIO DECIMAQUARTA. [Sidenote: 4. 5. 6. & 7. Conuitia.] Quarto: negat in conuituijs quemquam discumbentium à mensa surgere: sed matres familias singulis conuiuis quoties opus fuerit matellas porrigere. Prætereà variam conuiuiorum edendi bibendíque rusticitatem notat. Cubandi et prandendi ritus obijcit: quod decem plus minus in eodem lecto promiscuè viri cum foeminis pernoctent, inque lecto cibum capiant: atque interea se non nisi aleæ aut latrunculorum ludo exerceant. Sexto. Calumniatur eosdem faciem et os vrina proluere. Septimo. Nuptiarum, sponsalium, natalitiorum celebritatem et funerum ritus contemptuosè extenuat. Hæc et huiusmodi plurima in gentem insontem, imò de se et suis optimè meritam, impurus calumniator euomit. Quæ quidem eius generis sunt, vt illi de his respondere prorsus dedignemur. Nam vt demus (quod tamen non damus) aliquid huiusmodi apud homines sordidos, et ex ipsa vulgi colluuie infimos, quibuscum longè sæpius, quàm bonus et honestis conuersabatur, animaduertisse præclarum hunc notarium Gemanicum (vixerat enim, vt eius rhythmi testantur, diutiuscule in locis maritimis Islandiæ, quo ferè promiscuum vulgus, tempore piscaturæ annuatim confluit, et tam extraneorum nautarum, quàm sua nequitia corruptum, sæpius inhonestè mores et vtam instituit) Tamen manifestiorem etiam hoc loco iniuriam nobis facit, vnius nebulonis et desperati Sycophantæ turpitudine, totam gentem (vt ferè solent etiam alij) aspergendo, quàm vt refutatione vlla indigeat. Cuius rei etiam ipsi extranei in nostra Insula non parum versati, locupletissimi testes esse possunt. Possem multas eius farinæ foeditates, rusticitates et obscoenitates etiam in ipsius natione deprehensas colligere. Sed odi facundiam caninam, nec in aliorum opprobrium disertum esse iuuat: nec tam tenet esse volo, vt verbulis transuerberer. Id tantum viderint boni et pij omnes, cuius sit animi, pessima quæque ab vno aut altera designata, toti genti obijcere. Si quis Germaniæ aut alterius nationes vrbes et pagos omnes peragret, et scelera ac mores pessimos, furta, homicidia, parricidia, scortationes, adulteria, incestus luxuriem, rapinas et reliquas impietates et obscoenitates in vnum coactas, omnibus Germanis, aut alioqui alteri cuiuis toti nationi communes esse asserat, atque hæc omnia insigniter mentiendo, exaggeret, ísne optimæ rei studiosus habebitur? Sed quid mirum, licet verbero, et, vt propriè notem, porcus impurus, iste, inquam, Rhythmista, naturam et ingenium suum eiusmodi loidoria prodiderit? Notum est enim porcos, cum hortos amænissimos intrarint, nec lilium nec rosas aut flores alioqui pulcherrimos et suauissimos decerpere: Sed rostro in coenum prono, quicquid est luti et stercoris volutare, vertere et inuertere, donec impurissima, hoc est, suo genio apprimè congruentia eruant, vbi demum solida voluptate pascuntur. Ad istum igitur modum hic porcus Rythmista, optima, et quæ in nostra Repub. laudabilia esse possunt, sicco pede præterit, pessima quæque atque ea, vel à nullo, vel admodum paucis designata, hoc est, suæ naturæ, et ingenio aptissima, vt se esse, qui dicitur, re ipsa probaret, corrasit; vnde posthac porci nomen ex moribus et ingenio ipsius factum, sortitor. The same in English. THE FOURTEENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: The 4. 5. 6. & 7. reproches.] Fourthly, he sayth that in bankets none of the ghests vse to rise from the table: but that the good wife of the house reacheth to euery one a chamber pot, so oft as need requireth. Moreouer, he noteth much vnmanerliness of eating and drinking at bankets. Fiftly, he obiecteth customes of lying in bed, and of dining: namely that ten persons, more or lesse, men and women be altogether in the same bed, and that they eat their meat lying in bed: and that in the meane time they do nothing but play at dice or at tables. Sixtly, he reporteth that they wash their hands or their faces in pisse. Seuenthly, he despightfully abaseth our solemnizings of marriages, spousals, birth-dayes, and our customes at burials. These, and a number of such like reproches hath this impure slanderer, spued foorth against an innocent nation, yea and that nation which hath deserued right well of him and his countrimen. Which are of the same kind with these, in so much that we altogether disdeigne to make answere vnto them. For, that we may graunt (which notwithstanding we will in no case yeelde vnto) that this worthy Germane notarie obserued some such matter among base companions, and the very of-scouring of the common people, with whom he was much more conuersant than with good and honest persons (for he had liued, as his rimes testifie, somewhat long vpon the coast of Island, whither a confused rout of the meanest common people, in fishing time do yerely resort, who being naught aswell through their owne leudnesse, as by the wicked behauiour of outlandish mariners, often times doe leade a badde and dishonest life) notwithstanding we are in this place more manifestly wronged through the knauery of this one varlet, and desperate sycophant by his defaming of the whole nation (as others also vsually do) then that it should neede any refutation at all. Of which thing strangers themselues, who are not a little conuersant in our Iland, may be most sufficient witnesses. I could also gather together many such filthy, vnmannerly, and baudie fashions noted by others euen in his own countrey. But I detest this dogged eloquence, neither take I any pleasure to be witty in the disgracing of others: and yet I will not shew my selfe such a milke-soppe as to be daunted with light words. Onely, let all honest and good men consider, what disposition it argueth, for one to obiect against a whole nation certaine misdemeanours committed by some one or other particular man. If any man should trauell thorowout all the cities and townes of Germanie or any other nation, and heaping together the offences, and most leud maners, the robberies, manslaughters, murthers, whoredomes, adulteries, incests, riots, extortions, and other prophane, and filthy actes, should affirme them to be common to all Germans, or otherwise to any other whole nation, and should exaggerate all these things with notorious lies, is he to be accounted one that spends his time in a good argument? But what maruaile is it, though a varlet, and, that I may giue him his true title, a filthy hogge, that imer (I say) hath bewrayed his nature and disposition in reproches? For it is well knowen that swine, when they enter into most pleasant gardens, do not plucke lilies or roses, or any other most beautifull aud sweet flowers; but thrusting their snouts into the ground, doe tumble and tosse vp and downe whatsoeuer durt and dung they can finde, vntill they haue rooted vp most vncleane things, namely such as are best agreeable to their nature, wherewith they greedily glut themselues: Euen so this hoggish Rimer lightly passeth ouer the best and most commendable things of our Common wealth, but as for the woorst, and those which haue been committed by none, or by very few, namely, such things as best fit his humour and disposition (that he might indeed show himselfe to be the same which we haue termed him) those things (I say) hath he scraped vp together: whereupon hereafter by my consent, for his maners and disposition let him enioy the name of a swine. SECTIO DECIMAQUINTA. [Sidenote: 9. Conuitium.] Nonum conuicium hic recensebimus, quod à victu, ac præcipuè cibo potu Islandorum maledicus ille porcus, non vno aut paucis verbis, sed prolixa inuectiua petiuit: Nempe quòd cibis vtantur vetustis, et insulsis, idque sine panis vsu: Tum etiam quòd varia et incognita extraneis piscium genera illis sint esui, et aquam ac serum lactis in potum misceant. Quæ omnia venenatus hic pasquillus diserta contumelia, et ingeniosa calumnia, pulchrè amplificauit. Cæterum etsi ilium prolixiore responsione non dignemur: tamen propter alios, qui hodie hanc rem partim mirantur, partim haud leuiter nostræ genti obijciunt, pauca hoc loco addenda videbantur. Primùm igitur totam hanc gentem bipartitò secabimus: In mendicos, et hos qui et se et cum alijs etiam mendicos alunt. Mendicorum, et eorum qui ad hos proximè accedunt, omnia cibaria recensere aut examinare haud facile est, nec quod illos edere, aut edisse, extrema aliquando coegit necessitas, reliquæ genti cibariorum genera aut numerum præscribere fas est. Nam et de suffocatis quidem non comedendis legem habemus inter canones, quorum seruantissima videri voluit antiquitas. Deinde etiam tempora distinguemus, vt nihil minim sit grassante annonæ sæuitia, multa à multis ad explendam famem adhiberi aut adhibita fuisse, quæ alias vix canes pascant. Vt nuperrimè de Parisiensibus accepimus, Anno 1590, arctissima Henrici 4. Nauarræi obsidione pressis, et famem Saguntinam, vt P. Lindebergius loquitur, perpessis; eos non modò equinam, sed morticinam quoque carnem ex mortuorum ossibus in mortario contusis farinæ pugillo vno aut altero misto, confectam, in suas dapes conuertisse, et de alijs quoque populis notum est, qui simili vrgente inopia, etiam murium, felium et canum esu victi tarint. Sic etiam Islandis aliquando vsu venit (quanquam a canina, munum et felium, vt et humana carne hactenus, nobis quantum constat, abstinuerint) licet non ab hoste obsessis: Nam cùm ad victum necessaria ex terra marique petant, et ab extraneis nihil commeatus, aut parum admodum aquehatur, quoties terræ, marisque munera DEVS præcluserit, horrendam annonæ caritatem ingruere et ingruisse, et dira fame vexare incolas, necesse est. Vnde fit, vt illos qui in diem viuere soliti fuerint, nec præcedentium annorum superantes commeatus habuerint, extrema tentasse, quoties egestas vrserit, credibile. Cæterum, vtrum hæc res publico et perpetuo opprobrio magis apud Islandos, quàm alias nationes, occasionem meritò præbere debeat, candidis et bonis animis iudi candum relinquo. Porrò quod de gentis nostræ proprijs et consuetis alimentis multi obijcere solent, potissimum de carne, piscibus, butyro, absque sale inueteratis, Item de lacticinijs, frumenti inopia, potu aquæ, &c. et reliquis: id nos in plurimis Islandiæ locis (nam sunt multi quoque nostratium, qui Danorum et Germanorum more, quantum quidem castis et temperatis animis ad mediocritatem sufficere debet, licet magna condimentorum varietate, vt et ipsis Pharmacopolijs, destituimur, mensam instruere et frugaliter viuere sustineant) ita se habere haud multis refragabimur, videlicet prædicta victus genera, passim sine salis condimento vsitata esse. Et insuper addemus, hæc ipsa cibaria, quæ extranei quidam vel nominare horrent, ipsos tamen extraneos apud nos, non sine voluptate, manducare solitos. [Sidenote: Ratio conseruandos cibos sine sale.] Nam etsi frumenti aut farris penè nihil vulgò habeamus, nec sal, gulæ irritamentum, ad cibaria condienda, omnibus suppetit: docuit tamen Deus opt. max. etiam nostros homines rationem tractandi et conseruandi, quæ ad vitam sustentandam spectant, vt appareat, Deum in alendis Islandis non esse ad panem vel salem alligatum. Quòd verò sua omnia extranei iucundiora et salubriora clamant; negamus tamen satis causæ esse, cur nostra nobis exprobrent: Nec nos DEVM gulæ nostræ debitorem reputamus; quin potius toto pectore gratias agimus, quod sine opiparis illis delicijs et lautitijs, quæ tam iucundæ et salubres putantur, etiam nostræ gentis hominibus, annos et ætatem bonam, tum valetudinem etiam firmissimam, robur ac vires validas (quæ omnia statimus boni et conuenientis alimenti, [Greek: kai tes euchrasias] esse indicia) concedere dignetur, cum ingenio etiam non prorsus tam crasso ac sterili, quàm huic nostro aëri et alimentis assignare Philosophi videntur, quod re libentius, quàm verbis multi fortasse nostratium comprobare poterant. Ni nos (vt inquit ille) paupertas inuidia deprimeret. Sed hic vulgi iudicium, vt in alijs sæpè, etiam eos qui sapere volunt (iam omnes bonos et cordatos excipio) nimis apertè decipit: Videlicet hoc ipso, quòd omnia, quæ illorum vsus non admittit, aut quæ non viderunt, aut experti sunt antea, continuò damnent. Veluti, si quis, qui mare nunquam vidit, mare mediterraneum esse aliquod, non possit adduci vt credat: Sic illi sensu suæ experientiæ omnia metiuntur, vt nihil sit bonum, nihil conductibile, nisi quo illi soli viuunt: At profectò nos, eò dementiæ non processimus, vt eos qui locustis vescuntur, quod tum de alijs, tum Æthiopiæ quibusdam populis, ideo (autore Diodoro) Acridophagis appellatis, et Indiæ, gente, cui Mandrorum nomen Clytharcus et Magestanes dederunt, teste Agatarchide, didicimus; aut ranis, aut cancris mannis, aut squillis gibbis, quæ res hodiè nota est, vulgi propterea ludibrijs exponere præsumamus, a quibus tamen edulijs, in totum nostra consuetudo abhorret. The same in English. THE FIFTEENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: The ninth reproch.] Wee will heere rehearse the ninth reproch, which that slanderous hogge hath drawen from the maner of liuing, and specially from the meat and drinke of the Islanders, and that not in one or a few wordes, but in a large inuectiue: namely, that they eate olde and vnsauoury meates, and that, without the vse of bread. Also that they eate diuers kinds of fishes which are vnknowen to strangers: and that they mingle water and whey together for drinke. All which this venemous pasquill, with eloquent railing and wittie slaunder hath set out at the full. And albeit we doe scarse vouchsafe to stand longer about answering of him, yet in regard of others, who at this day partly woonder at the matter, and partly obiect it to our nation, we thought good to adde some few things in this place. First therefore we will diuide this our nation into two parts: into beggers, and those that susteine both themselues, and amongst others, beggers also. As touching all kinds of meats wherewith beggers and other poore men satisfie their hunger, it is no easie matter to rehearse and examine them; neither, because extreame necessity hath at some times compelled them to eate this or that, therefore it is meet to prescribe certeine kindes and number of meats to the rest of the nation. For we haue also a law among the canons apostolicall, which forbiddeth to eat things strangled: in the obseruing of which canons, antiquity hath seemed to be very deuout. Moreouer, we will make a distinction of times also, that it may seeme no strange accident in the time of famine, though many things are, and haue bene vsed by a great number of men to satisfie their hunger, which at other times are scarse meat for dogges. As very lately in the yeere 1590 we heard concerning the citizens of Paris, being enuironed with the most streite siege of Henrie the fourth, King of Nauarre, suffering (as Petrus Lindebergius speaketh) the famine of Saguntum; insomuch that they did not onely eate their horses, but also taking the flesh of dead men, and beating their bones to powder in a morter, they mingle therewith a bandfull or two of meale, esteeming it dainties. And it is well knowen also of other nations who in the like vrgent necessities haue liued by eating of mise, cats and dogs. In like maner sometimes are we Islanders constrained to doe, not being besieged by our enemies (although hitherto we haue abstained from mans flesh, yea, and to our knowledge, from dogs, mise, and cats) for whereas we prouide things necessary for food out of the land and sea, and no sustenance, or very little is brought vnto vs by strangers: so often as God withholdeth his gifts of land and sea, then must follow and ensue a dreadfull scarsity of victuals, whereupon the inhabitants are sometimes vexed with grieuous famine. And therefore it is likely that they amongst vs which vsed to liue from hand to mouth, and had not some prouision of former yeeres remaining, haue beene driuen to great extremities, so often as need hath enforced them thereunto. But whether this thing ought woorthily to minister occasion to a publike and perpetuall reproch against the Islanders, more then other nations, I referre it to the iudgement of indifferent and honest mindes. Moreouer, whereas diuers vse to obiect concerning the proper and accustomed fare of our country, especially of flesh, fish, butter being long time kept without salt, also concerning white-meats, want of corne, drinking of water, and such like: in most places of Island (for there be many of our countrimen also, who, after the maner of the Danes and Germans so farre foorth as ought in a meane to suffice chast and temperate minds, although we haue not any great variety of sauce, being destitute of Apothecaries shops, are of ability to furnish their table, and to liue moderately) we confesse it to be euen so: [Sidenote: Want of salt in Island.] namely that the foresaid kind of victuals are vsed in most places without the seasoning of salt. And I wil further adde, that the very same meats, which certaine strangers abhorre so much as to name, yet strangers themselues, when they are among vs do vse to eat them with delight. [Sidenote: The Islanders meanes of preseruing their meates without salt.] For albeit for the most part we haue no corne, nor meale, nor yet salt the prouocation of gluttony, for the seasoning of our victuals, is common to vs all, yet notwithstanding almighty God of his goodnesse hath taught our men also the wauy how they should handle, and keepe in store those things which belong to the sustentation of life, to the end it may appeare, that God in nourishing and susteining of vs Islanders, is not tyed to bread and salt. But whereas strangers boast that all their victuals are more pleasant and wholesome: yet we denie that to be a sufficient reason, why they should vpbraid vs in regard of ours: neither do we thinke God to be a debter vnto our deinty mouthes: but rather we giue him thanks with our whole hearts, that he vouchsafeth without this delicate and nice fare, which is esteemed to be so pleasant and wholesome, to grant euen vnto the men of our countrey many yeeres, and a good age as also constant health, and flourishing strength of body; all which we account to be signes of wholesome and conuenient nourishment and of a perfect constitution. Besides, our wits are not altogether so grosse and barren, as the philosophers seeme to assigne vnto this our aier, and these nourishments, which perhaps many of our countreymen could much rather verifie in deeds then in words, if (as the Poet sayth) enuious pouerty did not holde vs downe. But here the iudgement of the common people, as often in other matters, doth too plainly deceiue (I except all good and well experienced men) some of them which would seeme to be wise, namely, that whatsoeuer their vse doth admit, or that they haue not seene, nor had trial of beforetime, they presently condemne. As for example, he that neuer saw the sea will not be persuaded that there is a mediterrane sea; so doe they measure all things by their owne experience and conceit, as though there were nothing good and profitable, but that onely wherewith they mainteine their liues. But we are not growen to that pitch of folly, that because we haue heard of certaine people of Aethiopia, which are fed with locusts, being therefore called by Diodorus, Acridophagi, and of a certaine nation of India also, whom Clitarchus and Megasthenes haue named Mandri, as Agatarchides witnesseth, or of others that liue vpon frogs or sea-crabs, or round shrimps, which thing is at this day commonly knowen, that (I say) we should therefore presume to make them a laughing stocke to the common people, because we are not accustomed to such sustenance. SECTIO DECIMASEXTA. [Sidenote: 10. Conuicium.] Decimo. Hospitalitatem nostris hominibus inhumanissimus porcus obijcit. Marsupium inquit, non cirumferunt, nec hospitiari aut conuiuari gratis pudor est. Nam si quis aliquid haberet, quod cum alijs communicaret, id faceret sane in primis ac libenter. His quoque annectamus, quod templa, seu sacras ædiculas domi propriæ à multis Islandorum extructas velut pudendum quiddam commemorat: quodque eas primùm omnium de manè oraturi petant, nec à quoquam prius interpellari patiantur. Hæc ille velut insigne quoddam dedecus in Islandis notauit. Scilicet, quia nihil cum Amaricino, sui: Nec porci diuina vnquam amarunt: quod sanè metuo ne nimis verè de hoc conuiciatore dicatur, id quod vel ex his vltimis duabus obiectionibus constare poterit. Verùm enimuerò cùm ipse suarum virtutum sit testis locupletissimus, nos Lectorem eius rei cupidum ad ipsius hoc opus Poëticum remittimus, quod is de Islandia composuit, et nos tam aliquot proximis distinctionibus examinauimus: cuius maledicentiæ et foeditatis nos hic pro ipso puduit; ita, vt quæ is Satyrica, at quid Satyrica? Sathanica, inquam, mordacitate et maledicentia in nostram gentem scribere non erubuit, nos tamen referre pigeat: Tanta eius est et tam abominanda petulantia, tam atrox calumnia. DEVS BONE: Hoc conuiciorum plaustrum (paucissima namque attigimus: Nolui enim laterem lauare, et stulto, vt inquit ille sapientissimus, secundum stultitiam suam respondere, cum in ipsius Rhythmis verbum non sit quod conuicio careat) qui viderit, nonne iudicabit pasquilli istius autorem hominem fuisse pessimum, imò fæcem hominum, cum virtutis ac veritatis contemptorem, sine pietate, sine humanitate? Sed hîc meritò dubitauerim, peiusne horum conuiciorum autor de Islandis meritus sit, an verò Typographus ille Ioachimus Leo (et quicunque sunt alij, qui in suis editionibus, nec suum nec vrbis suæ nomen profiteri ausi sunt) qui illa iam bis, si non sæpius Typis suis Hamburgi euulgauit. Hoccine impunè fieri sinitis, ô senatus populusque Hamburgensis? Hanccine statuistis gratiam deberi Islandiæ, quæ vrbi vestræ iam plurimos annos, exportatis affatim nostratium quibusuis commodis, pecudum, pecorumque carnibus butyro et piscium copia quotannis, penè immodica, quædam quasi cella penuaria fuit? [Sidenote: Vrbes Angliæ commercia olim in Islandia excercentes.] Sensere huius Insulæ commoda etiam Hollandiæ olim et Angliæ vrbes aliquot: Præterea Danis, Bremensibus, et Lubecensibus cum Islandis commercia diu fuerunt. Sed a nullis vnquam tale encomium, talem gratiam reportarunt, qualis hæc est Gregoriana calumnia: In vestrâ, vestrâ inquam vrbe, nata, edita, iterata, si non tertiata: quæ alias nationes, quibus Islandia vix, ac ne vix quidem, nomine tenus, alioqui innotuerat, ad huius gentis opprobrium et contemptum armauit: quam à ciue vestro acceptam iniuriam, iam 30. annos, et plus eò, Islandia sustinet. Sed etiam, inscio magistratu, eiusmodi multa sæpè fiunt: Neque; enim dubitamus, quin viri boni eiusmodi scripta famosa indignè ferant, et ne edantur, diligenter caueant: cum tales editiones pugnent cum iure naturali: Ne alteri facias, quod tibi factum non velis: Et Cæsareo, de libellis famosis: in quo irrogatur poena grauissima ijs, qui tales libellos componunt, scribunt, proferunt, emi vendiue curant, aut non statim repertos discerpunt. Cæterum iam tandem receptui canamus: Nosque ad te, Islandia parens carissima, quàm nec paupertas, nec frigora, nec id genus incommoda alia, quamdiu Chnsto hospitia cupidè et libenter exhibere non desistis, inuisam fecient conuertamus: Vbi te primùm ad id quod modò diximus, nempè serium et ardens studium ac amorem DEI, et diuinæ scientiæ, nobis in Christo patefactæ, totis viribus hortamur: vt vni huic cuncta posthabeas, doctrinæ et verbi cupiditate flagres: Sacrum ministerium et ministros, non parum cures, non contemnas aut odio prosequeris: sed reuerearis, foueas, ames. Contra facientes, pro impijs et profanis habeas: vt omnia ad pietatis et honestatis præscriptum geras, in vita priuata et communi, vt huic status et ordines Ecclesiastici et Politici, in vniversum obtemperent: In vtroque vitæ genere ab illi amussi seu norma æqui et boni dependeas, et cæteros qui pertinacia ac impietate ab ea deflectunt, auersens, quos æquum est poenis condignis affici, id quod magistratur curæ futurum non diffidimus. In pritmis verò nullos nisi spectatæ fidei et probitatis viros, quique ad istas virtutes, reliquas huc pertinentes coniungant, ad gubernacula admittas, qua ratione reliquis incommodis ritè occurritur Res ista enim, si probe curetur, vt videlicet, qui munus publicum gerunt, ex bonis omnibus optimi quique deligantur, improbi et huic rei inepti, procul inde arceantur, subditorum conditio, longè erit optatissima: vita et mores tantò magis laudabiles sequentur: pietas et honestas tantò erunt illustriores. At verò si secus fiat. si Pastores Ecclesiarum suo muneri, vel vita vel doctrina non respondeant, si ad administrationem politicam promiscuè admittantur, quicunque eò propria leuitate, ambitione vel auaritia et contentione honoris, ruunt: si ijdem criminum aut improbitatis, vel suspecti vel conuicti sint, aut suspectorum et conuictorum protectores, vel ijsdem illicite indulgentes, quis tuus quæso demum futurus est status? quæ facies? quæ conditio? Certe longe omnium miserrima. Nec enim alio pacto citius ad ruinam et interitum tuum appropinquabis, quàm si istis te regendam commiseris, qui quod in ijs est, licet sint et ipsi ex tuis, iugulum tuum, propter emolumenta priuata, et odia latentia, quotidiè petere contendunt/ Quamobrem (ne ista pluribus agam) quanti intersit, vt hæc probè curentur, facile, ô Patria, intelligis. Sed dum hæc tuis auribus à me occinuntur, utinam gemitus meos altissimos, qui sub hac ad te Apostrophe latent, Serenis simæ Regiæ Maiestatis aures exaudiant, apud quam ego pro te ita deploro damna publica, quæ ea de causa exoriuntur maximè, quòd patria nostra à regia sede, et conspectu, tantò interuallo sit remota, vt multi propterea tantò sibi maiorem sumant licentiam, et impunitatem securius promittant. Cæterum ista numini iustissimo, quod æquis omnia oculis aspicit, committenda ducimus. Reliquum est, ô patria, vt studium in te nostrum, eo quo speramus animo i. comi et benigno, suscipias: quod quamuis minimè tale est, quale optaremus, tamen cum VELLE SIT INSTAR OMNIVM, nolui idcirco desistere, quod pro tuo nomine, tua dignitate, tua innocentia pugnare me satis strenuè diffiderem. Quin potius, quicquid id est si modò quicquam est et quantulumcunque tandem, quod ad tui patrocinium pro mea tenui parte afterre possem, nequaquam supprimendum putaui nec enim illos laudare soleo, Qui, quod desperent inuicti membra Glyconis, Nodosa nolunt corpus prohibere Chiragra. Me sanè, si hæc commentatiuncula non erit tibi aut mihi dedecori, operæ nequaquam poenitebit. Quod si ad laudem vel aliquale patrocinium tui aliquid faciat, operam perdidisse haud videbor. Sin verò alios alumnos, meos conterraneos, arte et industria superiores, ad causam tuam, vel nunc, vel in posterum suscipiendam, hoc conatu tenello excitauero, quid est cur operæ precium non fecisse dicar? quibus scribentibus, licet mea fama in obscuro futura est, tamen præstantia illorum, qui nomini officient meo, me consolabor: Nam etsi famæ et nominis cura surnma esse debett maior tamen patriæ; cuius dignitate salua et incolumni, nos quoque saluos et incolumes reputabimus. Scripsi Holis Hialtædalensium in Islandia, Æræ Christianæ Anno 1592. 17. Kalendas Maias. The same in English. THE SIXTEENTH SECTION. [Sidenote: The tenth reproch.] Tenthly, that vnciuill beast casteth our men in the teeth with their good hospitality. They do not (sayth he) carry about money with them in their purses, neither is it any shame to be enterteined in a strange place, and to haue meat and drinke bestowed of free cost. For if they had any thing which they might impart with others, they would very gladly. Moreouer, he maketh mention of certeine churches or holy chappels (as of a base thing) which many of the Islanders haue built in their owne houses: and that first of all in the morning, they haue recourse thither, to make their prayers, neither do they suffer any man before they haue done their deuotion to interrupt them. These be the things which he hath set downe as some notable disgrace vnto the Islanders. And no maruell: For filthy swine detest all cleanly ones, And hogs vncleane regarde not precious stones. Which I feare, least it may be too truely affirmed of this slanderer, as it is manifest out of these two last obiections. Howbeit, sithens he himselfe is a most sufficient witnesse of his owne vertues, we will referre the reader, who is desirous to know more of him vnto his booke of rimes against Island, which we haue now examined in our former sections at whose railing and filthy speeches we haue bene ashamed on his behalfe: insomuch that those things which he with satyrical, satyrical? nay sathanicall biting and reuiling of our nation, hath not blushed to write, are irksome for vs to repeat: so great and abominable is his insolency and his reproches so heinous. Good God! whosoeuer shall view this cartlode of slanders (for we haue mentioned the least part thereof, because I was loth to lose my labour, or, as the wise man sayth, to answere a foole according to his foolishnesse, whereas in his rimes there is not one word without a reproch) will he not iudge the authour of this pasquill to haue bene a most lewde man, yea the very drosse of mankinde, without pietie, without humanitie? But here I haue iust occasion to doubt whether the authour of these reuilings hath bene the more iniurious to Islanders, or the Printer thereof Ioachimus Leo (and whatsoeuer else they be who in their editions dare neither professe their own name, nor the name of their Citie) which Leo hath nowe twise, if not oftener, published the saide pamphlet at Hamburg. Doe you suffer this to goe vnpunished, O ye counsell and commons of Hamburg? What? [Sidenote: The commodities of Island.] Haue you determined to gratifie Island in this sort, which these many yeeres, by reason of your aboundant traffique with vs, and your transporting home of all our commodities, of our beeues and muttons, and of an incredible deale of butter and fishes, hath bene vnto your Citie in stead of a storehouse. [Sidenote: The ancient traffique of England with Island.] In times past also, certaine Cities of England and of Holland haue reaped the commodities of this Isle. Moreouer, there hath bene ancient traffique of Denmarke, Breme, and Lubeck with the Islanders. But they neuer gained by any of their chapmen such commendations, and such thanks, as are contained in this libell: It hath in your, in your Citie (I say) bene bred, brought foorth, iterated, if not the thirde time published: which I hath armed other people vnto whom the name of Island was otherwise scarce knowne, to the disdaine and contempt of this our Nation: and this iniurie offered by a Citizen of yours, hath Island susteined these 30. yeeres and more, and doeth as yet susteine. But many such accidents often come to passe without the knowledge of the magistrate, neither do we doubt but that good men are grieued at such infamous libels, and do take diligent heed that they be not published: for such editions are contrary to the lawe of nature: Doe not that to another which thou wouldest not haue done vnto thy selfe: [Sidenote: Lawes against libels.] and to the laws Emperial of infamous libels: wherein is enioyned a most grieuous penaltie vnto those who inuent, write, ytter, or cause such libels to be bought or sold, or do not presently vpon the finding thereof teare them in pieces. But now time bids vs to sound a retreat: and to returne home vnto thee, Island (our most deare mother) whom neither pouertie, nor colde, nor any other such inconueniences shall make ircksome vnto vs, so long as thou ceasest not to giue heartie and willing entertainment vnto Christ: where, first we doe earnestly exhort thee to the serious and ardent affection, and loue of God, and of the heauenly knowledge reueiled vnto vs in Christ: that thou wouldest preferre this before all things, being enflamed with desire of doctrine, and of the worde: that thou wouldest not lightly esteeme, contemne or hate the holy ministerie and ministers, but reuerence, cherish and loue them. Accompting those that practise the contrary as wicked and prophane: and managing all thine affaires both priuate and publique, according to the prescript rule of pietie and honestie, that vnto this, thy states and orders Ecclesiasticall and politique may in all things be conformed; and so in either kinde of life relying thy selfe vpon that leuell and line of equitie and iustice, and auoyding others, who vpon stubbernesse and impietie swerue therefrom. That thou wouldest also inflict iust punishments vpon offenders: All which we doubt not but the Magistrate will haue respect vnto. But especially that thou admittest none to be Magistrates, but men of approued fidelitie and honestie, and such as may adioyne vnto these vertues others hereto belonging, by which meanes inconueniences may fitly be preuented. For if this matter be well handled, namely that they which are the best of all good men be chosen to beare publicke authoritie, wicked and vnfit men being altogether reiected; the condition of the subiects shalbe most prosperous: the hues and maners of all men shal proue by so much the more commendable; godlinesse also and honestie shal become the more glorious. But on the contrary, if pastours of Churches be not answerable to their function, either in life or doctrine; if all men without respect or difference be admitted to the gouernment of the common wealth, who aspire thereunto by their owne rashnesse, ambition, or auarice, and desire of honour, yea though they be suspected or conuicted of crimes and dishonestie, or be protectours or vniust fauourers of such persons as are suspected and conuicted; then what will be thy state, oh Island? What wil be thy outward show or condition? Doubtlesse most miserable. Neither shalt thou by any other meanes more suddenly approch to thy ruine and destruction, then if thou committest thy selfe to the gouernment of such men, who to the vttermost of their power, although they be of thine owne brood, dayly seeke thine ouerthrow for their owne priuate aduantage and secret malice. Wherefore (to be short) let these be to aduertise my deare Countrey, how behouefull it is that the matters aforesaid be put in practise. But whilest I am speaking these things vnto thee (my Countrey) oh that my deepe and dolefull sighes, which lie hid in the former speach, might pierce the eares of our Kings most excellent Maiestie, before whom, on thy behalfe I doe bewaile the publique miseries, which in this respect especially doe arise, because wee are so farre distant from the seate and royall presence of our King, that many therefore take more libertie, and promise more securitie of offending vnto themselues. But we will commit all these matters to the most iust Judge of heauen and earth who beholdeth all things in equitie. Nowe it remaineth (my beloued Countrey) that thou wouldest take in good part these my labours employed in thy seruice, and accept them with that fauourable and courteous minde which I haue expected. And although they be not of such worth as I could wish, yet sith a willing minde is worth all, I would not therefore giue ouer because I mistrusted my selfe as one insufficient to contend for thine innocencie, for thy reputation, and thine honour, my deare Countrey. But rather whatsoeuer it be (if it be ought) and how mickle soeuer which for my slender abilitie I was able to afford in thy defence, I thought good not to suppresse it: for I esteeme not those men worthy of commendation, who despairing To ouergrow the limmes of Lyco stoute, Neglect to cure their bodies of the goute: And in very deed, it doeth no whit repent me of my labour, if this little treatise shall tend neither to thine, nor to mine owne disgrace. But if it shall any thing auaile to thine honour or defence, I will thinke my trauaile right well bestowed. Yea, if by this my slender attempt, I may but onely excite other of thy children, and my natiue Countreymen, being farre my superiours both in learning and industrie to take thy cause in hand, either nowe or hereafter what reason is there why any man should say that it is not worth my labour? Nowe, if they addresse themselues to write, howsoeuer my fame shalbe obscured, yet wil I comfort my selfe with their excellencie, who are like to impaire my credite: for albeit a man ought to haue speciall regard of his name and fame, yet he is to haue more of his Countrey, whose dignitie being safe and sound, we also must needes esteeme our selues to be in safetie. Written at Holen Hialtedale in Island, the yeere of our Lord 1592. the 17. of the Kalends of May. * * * * * A letter written by the graue and learned Gudbrandus Thorlacius Bishop of Holen in Island, concerning the ancient state of Island and Gronland, &c. Reuerendissimo viro, eruditione et virtute conspicuo, D. Hugoni Branham, Ecclesiæ Hareuicensis in Anglia pastori vigilantissimo, fratri et symmystæ obseruando. Mirabar equidem (vt conijcis, reuerende domine pastor) primo literarum tuarum intuitu, ignotum me, ab ignoto, scriptis salutari. Cæterùm, cum vlterius progrederer, comperi me, si non aliter, certè nomine tenùs, tibi (quæ tua est humanitas) innotuisse: Simúlque quòd te nominis Islandorum studiosum experirer, ex animo gauisus sum. Vnde etiam faciam, vt tua pietas, tuúmque nomen, de Euangelio Iesu Christi nobis congratulantis, dèque gente nostra tàm benignè támque honorificè sentientis, et scribentis apud nos ignotum esse desinat. [Sidenote: Commentarius breuis de Islandia: per Arngrimum Ionam Islandum editus, 1593.] Quòd verò ad antiquitatis monimenta attinet, quæ hic extare creduntur, nihil sanè est (præter illa, quorum in Commentario isto de Islandia, quem vidisse te scribis, fit mentio) de hac nostra insula lectu scriptuuà dignum, quod cum humanitate tua communicem. De vicinis itidem terris pauca, præter historiam Regum Noruegiæ, seu veriùs eiusdem historiæ fragmenta; quæ alijs alitèr descripta sunt: sunt tamen talia, quæ Krantzius non attigerit, aut eorum certè pauca. De vicina quoque Gronlandia, id veterum opinione habemus, eam magno circuitu ab extrema Noruegia, vbi Biarmlandia [Marginal note: Biarmia.] nuncupatur, et à qua haud vasto interuallo sita sit, circum quasi Islandiam exporrigi. Illic nostrates aliquando commercia exetcuisse, et eam terram tempore Pontificiorum suos Episcopos habuisse annales nostri testantur. Cætera nobis incognita. [Sidenote: Gronlandia olim suos habuit Episcopos.] At hodie fama est, vestris Brittannis (quos ego propè maris dominos appellarim) quotannis csse in Gronlandia negotmiones de qua re, si me certiorem feceris, non erit iniucundum. Euam velim quæcunque noua erunt de rebus vestratium aut vicinorum regnorum, ea non omittas. Vale foeliciter (reuerende Dom. pastor) Deo musis, et commissio gregi quàm diuttssime superstes, Amen. Ex Islindij in festo visitationis D. Mariæ Anni 1595. Human. tuæ studiosus Gudbrandus Thorlacius Episcopus Holensis in Islandia. The same in English. To the reuerend, learned, and vertuous, Master Hugh Branham minister of the Church of Harewich in England, his brother and felow pastour, &c. I much marueiled (euen as you your selfe, reuerend sir coniectured that I would) at the first sight of your letters, that being a stranger I should be saluted in writing by one altogether vnknown vnto mee. Howbeit, reading a little further I found my selfe, if not otherwise, yet by name at least (which procedeth of your courtesie) knowne vnto you: And also, for that I sawe you desirous of the credite and honest report of vs Islanders, I greatly reioyced. Wherefore I my selfe will be a meane, that your vertue and good name (because you congratulate with vs for the gospel of Christ here published, and doe thinke and write so louingly and honourably of our nation) may sease hereafter to be vnknown amongst vs. [Sidenote: This is the brief Commentarie of Ionas Arngrimus immediatly going before.] As touching the monuments of antiquitie which are here thought to be extant, there is, in very deede nothing (except those particulars, whereof mention is made in the Commentary of Island which you write vnto me that you haue seene) worthy to be read or written, which I may communicate with you. And as concerning our neighbor Countreys we haue litle to shewe, besides the history of the Kings of Norway, (or rather some fragments of the same history) which others haue otherwise described: howbeit they are all in a maner such things as Crantzius neuer mentioned: vnlesse it be some fewe relations. Moreouer, as touching Grondland, we holde this from the opinion of our ancestours, that, from the extreeme part of Norway, which is called Biarmlandia [Marginal note: Biarmia.] and from whence the saide Gronland is not farre distant, it fetcheth about the Northren coast of Island with an huge circuit in maner of an halfe Moone. [Sidenote: Gronland in old time had Christian Bishops.] Our Chronicles likewise doe testifue that our owne countreymen in times past resorted thither for traffique, and also that the very same countrey of Gronland had certaine Bishops in the dayes of Poperie. More then this we cannot auouch. But now it is reported that your Englishmen (whom I may almost call the lordes of the Ocean sea) make yeerely voyages vnto Gronland: concerning which matter if you please to giue me further aduertisement, you shall doe me an especial fauour. Moreouer, whatsoeuer newes you heare concerning the the affaires of England or of other Countreys thereabout, I pray you make vs acquainted therewith. Thus (reuerend sir) wishing you long life, for the seruice of God, for the increase of learning, and the benefit of the people committed to your charge, I bid you farewel. From Island vpon the feast of the visitation of the blessed Virgine Mary, Anno Dom. 1595. Yours Gudbrandus Thorlacius Bishop of Hola in Island. INDEX. _Where the same Document is given in Latin and English the reference is to the English Version._ NB--The large print indicates that the _whole_ section refers to the subject mentioned. ADAMS, Clement, mentioned AFFRICA, daughter of Fergus of Galway, marries Olavus AFRICA, a peninsula --Circumnavigated --Portuguese trade with AGATHA marries Edward Atheling AGINCOURT, battle of ALCOCK, Thomas his voyage ALEPPO, Elizabeths communications with ALEXANDER (the Great), mentioned ALEXANDRIA (Egypt), mentioned ALFRED mentioned ALGESIRAS or Algezar, mentioned ALGIERS, English at AMERICA, discovered ANGLES, mentioned ANGLESEY, conquered --CONQUEST OF BY EDMUND ANTIOCH, taken AQUITAINE, mentioned ARABIA, Felix, mentioned ARABIAN Gulf, mentioned ARDOK (River), visited by Jenkinson ARDOVIL, mentioned ARGYLE, mentioned ARISTOTLE, quoted ARMADA, The Great ARMENIA, English in ARSACES, mentioned ARTHUR, King, mentioned --THE CONQUESTS OF --Buried at Glastonbury --Alluded to (_ note_) ASAFI, English at ASCHILIUS, King, submits to Arthur ASTRAKHAN, English at ATHELSTAN, mentioned ATHELWOLD, Bishop, mentioned (_note_) ATLANTIS, mentioned AUGUSTINE, Archbishop of Britain AUGUSTUS, mentioned AUSTRO HUNGARIAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION, mentioned (_note_) AZORES, mentioned BAATU, mentioned BABYLON, Elizabeth's communications with BALE, mentioned BALSARA, Elizabeth's communications with BALTIC, mentioned --Described BARBAROSSA Frederick, HIS TREATY WITH HENRY II --Biographical Notice (_note_) BARENTZ, mentioned (_note_) BARGENLAND (_see Borhalme_) BEDE, Venerable, quoted --HIS ACCOUNT OF THE CONQUEST OF ANGLESEY AND MAN --THE VOYAGE OF BERTUS --HIS TESTIMONY TO THE IMPORTANCE OF LONDON VNDER THE SAXONS BEDFORD, John, Duke of, defeats the French --Defeats Genoese BENGORION, Joseph, quoted BENIN, English in BERGEN, mentioned BERTUS, mentioned --Account of his voyage into Ireland BIARMIA described --Mentioned BLEKINGIE, mentioned BOATS, limited to three iron nails BOKHARA or Boghar, mentioned --Visited by Jenkinson BONA SPERANZA (Cape of), Englishmen double BORHOLME, mentioned BORIS, Emperor, mentioned BORISTHENES, mentioned BOSTON (Lincolnshire), mentioned BOWES, Jerome, mentioned BRABANT, mentioned BRACTON, Henry, quoted BRAZIL, first English trade to BREMEN, mentioned BRISTOL, mentioned --Its trade with Norway and Ireland BRITTANY, mentioned BRUNSWICK, mentioned BURLEIGH, Lord, mentioned BURROUGH, Hubert defeats the Welsh BURROUGH, Stephen, mentioned BURROUGH, William, assists Hakluyt --His voyage BUTE, mentioned CABOT, John, patent granted by Henry VII. to CABOT, Sebastian, created Grand Pilot CADIZ, Expedition to, mentioned CAIRO, mentioned CALAIS, mentioned CAMDEN, eulogised --His eulogy of Hakluyt. --His CHRONICLES OF THE KINGS OF MAN CANARY ISLES, mentioned CANDISH, Thomas, mentioned CANUTE obtains privileges at Rome --Mentioned CAPE VERDE Islands, English in CARDANUS, quoted CARPINI, Joannes de Piano, his journey CASBEN, mentioned CASPIAN (Sea), mentioned --Visited fourteen times CATALONIA, mentioned CAZAN, mentioned CHANCELLOR, Richard, doubles North Cape --Arrives in Russia CHARLEMAGNE, concludes treaty with Offa --Mentioned CHARLES V. founds lecture on navigation CHAUCER, Geoffrey, mentioned --Quoted CHAUEZ, Alonso de, quoted CHAUEZ, Hieronymo de, quoted CHAUL, Englishmen at CHERRILLAND, mentioned CHESTER, Rainulf de, quoted CHILI, Englishmen in CHINA, traffic with --Sends Embassy to Rome --Mentioned CHRISTIAN IV, dedication of Commentary on Iceland to CHRISTINA, daughter of Edward Atheling CINQUE (Ports), mentioned --HISTORY OF, FROM EDWARD THE CONFESSOR TO EDWARD I. CNOYEN, James, quoted COG, The, mentioned COLBY, (River), mentioned COLGOIEVE (Gulf of), mentioned COLMOGRO, mentioned COLOGNE, mentioned COLUMBUS, Christopher, mentioned --Discovers America COMETS COMMERCE, HISTORY OF CONDORA, visited CONRAD, Emperor, confers privileges on Canute CONSTANTINOPLE, mentioned COPE, William, his collection of curiosities CORELIA, coasted CORNWALL, Richard, Earl of, King of the Romans COURCY, John de, conquers Ulster --Taken prisoner --Invades Man COURLAND, mentioned CROUAlN, Godred, mentioned CRUZES burnt by Drake CUMBERLAND, Earl of, sends Expedition to South West CYRUS, mentioned DANTZIG, mentioned DARIEN, (Isthmus of), crossed by Oxnam DAVIS, John, mentioned DEAL, mentioned DEDICATION To First Edition --To Second Edition DEE, Doctor, mentioned --His Testimony Touching Nicholas de Lenna --Biographical notice DENMARK, submits to Arthur --Conquered by Malgo --Mentioned DENMARK (Sound of), [_See Baltic_] DEPTFORD, Guild of Navigation founded at DERBENT, visited by Jenkinson --Mentioned DERBY, Henry, Earl of, his journey DIODURUS, quoted DOLDAVIUS, King, submits to Arthur DONALD, usurps kingdom of Man DOOMSDAY Book, quoted DOUGLAS (Man), mentioned DOVER, one of Cinque Ports --Mentioned DRAKE Sir Francis, mentioned DUBLIN, mentioned --Taken by Gadred Cronan DUGALD, son of Sumerled, becomes King of Man DWINA (River), English on --Mentioned --Visited --Description of DYER or Dier, Edward, assists Hakluyt EASTERLINGS, mentioned EASTLAND (_See Lithunia_) EASTMEERE, mentioned EST(Sea) (_See Baltic_) ECFRID, mentioned --Sends army into Ireland EDEN, Richard, mentioned EDGAR, Atheling, mentioned EDGAR, King, mentioned --His navigation --Surnamed Pacificus--Buried at Glastonbury EDMUND, Prince, mentioned --His Voyage into Hungary EDRIC, mentioned EDWARD, Atheling, mentioned --His voyage into Hungary EDWARD the Conftssor, mentioned EDWRD I, confers privileges on Cologne, Lubeck, and Hanse Towns --Grants the Great Charter --Grants Charter to Cinque Ports EDWARD II, corresponds with Haco --Decree of Staple EDWARD III, his fleet against Calais EDWARD IV, trade under KDWARD VI, names Sebastian Cabot, Grand Pilot of England EDWIN, King, conquers Man and Anglesey ELAND, mentioned ELIZABETH, Queen, portrait ELSENBORG, mentioned ELY, Foundation Charter of Cathedral EMDEN, mentioned ENNIUS, Father, mentioned EPISTLE to Cupid, quoted --Its authorship ESSEX, Earl of, his expedition against Cadiz --Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Earl of EUDOXUS, mentioned EUPHRATES (River), Englishmen on EUROPE, Map of Northern EUXINE (Sea), mentioned FABIAN, Robert, quoted FALSTER, mentioned FARAON, taken by Howard FAROE Islands, mentioned FAVERSHAM, mentioned FEMELAND, mentioned FENTON, Edward, mentioned FERNELIUS, John, quoted FINGAL, King of Man FINMARK, visited --Mentioned FINONS, described --Pay tribute to Biarmes FLANDERS, mentioned FLETCHER, Doctor, mentioned FLORENCE, mentioned FLORES Historiarum, quoted FLORIDA, discovered by Cabot FLORUS, Lucius, quoted FOLKESTONE, mentioned FONTANAS, mentioned FOX, mentioned FRANCE, mentioned FRANZ-JOSEF Land, discovered FREDERICK SAXO, mentioned FREDERIC III, changes constitution of Norway FRISIUS, mentioned --Confuted FROBISHER, mentioned FRUSO, mentioned GADES (_see Gibraltar_) GALWY, subdued by Magnus GAMA, Vasco de, doubles Cape of Good Hope GARGANUS (Mount), mentioned GARTH or Garthe, Richard, his collection of curiosities GENOA, mentioned GERMANY, a Charter for Merchants of --Mentioned GEORGIA, English in GIBRALTAR (Straits of), mentioned GILBERT, Sir Humphrey, mentioned GILLAN (Persia), English in GIRALDUS CAMBRIENSIS, quoted GLASTONBURY, Invocation to GOA, Englishmen at GODRED, his voyage to Norway --Mentioned GODRED, son of Olavus --Murdered GODRED. (_See Cronan_) GOLETTA, English at GOROPIUS, Joannes, quoted GOSPATRICIUS, usurps Man GOTHLAND, submits to Arthur --Mentioned --Conquered by Malgo GRANADA, mentioned GREENLAND, mentioned GRESHAM COLLEGE, founded GRESHAM, Sir John, mentioned GRESHAM, Sir Richard, mentioned GRESHAM, Sir Thomas, founds lectures --Biographical sketch (_note_.) GUILLAUMURIUS, King, sends Ambassadors to Arthur GUINEA, English in GUNFACIUS, King, submits to Arthur HACO takes possession of the Islands HACO HUSBAC invades the Islands HACO IV., his treaties with Henry III. --HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH HENRY III. --His expedition to Scotland HAINAULT, mentioned HAKLUYT, Edmund, tutor to Lord William Howard HAKLUYT, Richard, of Middle Temple --Assists his cousin HAKLUYT, Richard, preacher, biographical notice --Greek eulogy of --Latin eulogy by Richard Mukaster --Anonymous eulogy --Latin eulogy by Camden --Italian eulogy by M. A. Pigafeta --Eulogy by Oldys --Eulogy by Zouch HAMBURG, mentioned HANNO, mentioned HANSE towns, treat with Edward I. --With Henry IV. HARFLEUR, mentioned HAROLD, daughter of, marries Jeruslaus HAROLD Harfager, mentioned HAROLD, son of Godred Crouan HAROLD, son of Godwin, mentioned HAROLD, son of Olave, King of Man, mentioned --Regains his kingdom HAROLD (the Black), mentioned HASTINGS, mentioned HAWKINS, Sir John, his voyage --Assists Hakluyt HEBRIDES, mentioned --Conquered by Edwin HECLA, mentioned HELGAFEL (Mount) mentioned HELIGOLAND, mentioned HENRY, Emperor of Germany, mentioned HENRY II., his treaty with Frederick Barbarossa --His charter quoted --Mentioned HENRY III, his treaties with Haco --His CORRESPONDENCE WITH HACO --His PRIVILEGES TO LUBECK HENRY IV his treaties with the Great Masters of Prussia His CHARTER TO ENGLISH MERCHANTS HENRY V, mentioned --His FLEET HENRY VI, trade under HENRY VII, offer made by Columbus to HENRY VIII employs Knevett --Supports explorations --Founds Guilds of Navigation HERDLE-VOER, mentioned HERODOTUS, quoted --Mentioned HETHA, mentioned HINGE, King of Norway HIREAN, mentioned HISPANIA, Nova, Englishmen in HISPANIOLA, visited by Hawkins HODSON, Christopher, mentioned HORSEY, HIEROME, his journey HOVEDEN, Roger de, mentioned HOWARD, Lord Charles, mentioned --Dedication of Second Edition to --Biographical notice --Accompanies Essex HOWARD, Lord William, mentioned HUGO, Earls, taken and slain HUMBER (River), mentioned HUNGARY, mentioned HUNGERFORD, Earl of, mentioned HY, Isle of, mentioned HYRCAMlA, English in HYTHE, mentioned ICELAND, true state of --Conquered by Arthur --Sends Ambassadors --Mentioned --Conquered by Malgo --A COMMENTARY OF, BY ARNGRIMUS JONAS --Map of --Longitude and latitude --Mean Temperature --Size --Barrenness --Mountains and volcanoes --Volcanic eruptions --Gysers --Brimstone mines --Abundance of fish --Reindeer --Fauna --Conversion to Christianity --Oldest chronicles --Bishops of Schalholt --Bishops of Holen --The houses are built of fishes' bones --Men and beasts all live in one house --The habits of the inhabitants --Their morals --A yearly governor sent from Denmark --Community of property --Their want of love for their children --The status of the bishops --Food --Ancient trade with England ICELANDIC clergy, defended IERUSLAUS. (_See Jeruslaus_) ILSING, mentioned INDIAN (Ocean), discovered by Portuguese INDIES (West) first visited by Englishmen --Mentioned --Described by Plato INDUS (River), mentioned INGEMUNDUS lands in Lewes --Sent to Man INGULPH colonizes Iceland INNOCENTIUS IV, mentioned IONA, mentioned IOUGHORIA, mentioned IPSWICH, mentioned IRELAND, invaded by Bertus --Invaded by Magnus --Conquered by John --By Arthur --Sends Ambassadors --Mentioned --Conquered by Malgo ISOCRATES, quoted IUNGINGEN, Conrad de, mentioned IUNGINGEN, Ulrich de, mentioned JACKMAN, Charles, mentioned JAMES, Doctor, assists Hakluyt JAPAN, mentioned JAPANESE in England JAVA, treaties with JENKINSON, Anthony, mentioned --Assists Hakluyt --His narrative JERUSALEM, Britains at Siege of JERUSLAUS, marries Harold's daughter JOHN, King, confers privileges on foreigners --Conquers Ireland --Mentioned JOHN, Pope, confers privileges on Canute JOHNSON, Richard, mentioned JONAS, Arngrimus, HIS COMMENTARIE OF ICELAND --Biographical notice JOSEPH of Arimathea, buried at Glastonbury JUSTUS, Bishop JUTLAND, mentioned KENT, mentioned KERWARY, Isle of, mentioned KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, Guild of Navigation founded at --Mentioned KIRKWALL, Haco buried at KNEVETT, Sir Henry, Agent for Henry VIII KRANTZIUS, mentioned --Confuted LACY, Hugo de, invades Ulster LACY, Walter de, defeats De Courcy LAGMAN, mentioned LAMBERT'S [Greek: Archaionomia] quoted --His Perambulations of Kent quoted --The History of the Cinque Ports LANGLAND, mentioned LAPLAND coasted --Mentioned LATHYRUS, mentioned LAYLAND, mentioned LEINSTER, mentioned LEO, Joachim, criticised LETTO, King of, conquered LEWES, Isle of, conquered --Mentioned LIBEL, Law of, in Iceland LIEFLAND, visited by Horsey --Mentioned LINNA, Nicholas de, mentioned --ACCOUNT OF HIS VOYAGES TO THE NORTH LISTER, Christopher, mentioned LITHUANIA, mentioned --Described LIVERE DE REIS DE ENGLETERRE, MS., quoted LOGLEN, Deputy in Man LOMBARDS, mentioned LOMBARDY, mentioned LONDON, famous for Commerce --Its importance under the Saxons --Under Stephen LOT, King, submits to Arthur LUMLEY, Lord, his Library LUZONES, Englishmen landing on LYNN (Norfolk), mentioned MACMARRAS, slain MADEIRA, mentioned MæLSTROM, described MAGELLAN, Straits of, Englishmen passing through MAGNUS, King of Norway --Opens coffin of St Olave MALCOLM, King of Scotland, dies MALGO, mentioned --THE CONQUESTS OF MALMESBURY, William of, quoted --His ACCOUNT OF THE TREATY BETWEEN CHARLEMAGNE AND OFFA --HIS ACCOUNT OF LONDON UNDER STEPHEN MALTA, English at MALVASIUS, King, sends Ambassadors to Arthur MAN, Isle of, conquered --Chronicles of, mentioned --CONQUEST OF, BY EDWIN --CHRONICLE OF THE KINGS OF --Transferred to Scotland MANCHESTER, mentioned MANGUCAN, Emperor of Tartary MANGUSLA, mentioned MARE'S Milk MARGARET of Scotland, mentioned MARY, Queen, grants patent to Muscovy Company MEDIA, English in MEDITERRANEAN, mentioned MEERE, mentioned MELLITUS, Bishop of East Saxons MERCATOR, mentioned --Quoted MERCHANTS, raised in rank for thrice crossing the sea --Ancient customs of --Arrested by Haco MEXICO, English in MEXICO, Gulf of, visited by Hawkins MICHæL, Bishop of the Isles MOLLINEUX, his map mentioned MOLUCCAS, Treaties with --Sir Francis Drake visits MONMOUTH, Geoffrey de, quoted --His ACCOUNT OF ARTHUR --HIS ACCOUNT OF MALGO MOROCCO, English in MORSES MOSCOW, English at MOSKOWA (River), mentioned MULCASTER, Richard, Eulogy of Hakluyts Collection MUNCH, P. A., quoted MUNSTER, mentioned --Confuted MUSCOVY Company, mentioned --Receives patent from Queen Mary NADDODR, mentioned NAVARRE, mentioned NAVIGATION, Lecture on, suggested --Founded by Charles V. NECO, King of Egypt, mentioned NEPOS, Cornelius, mentioned NERO, mentioned NETHERLANDS Company formed NEWCASTLE-UPON TYNE, Guild of Navigation founded at --Mentioned NIALUS, mentioned NICHOLAS, Bishop of the Isles NOBLE (coin) NOMBRE DE BIOS, visited by Drake NORTHBERN, mentioned NORTH CAPE, doubled NORTHUMBERLAND, mentioned NORTH WEST PASSAGE NORWAY, mentioned --Submits to Arthur --Conquered by Malgo --Described NOVA ZEMBLA, mentioned NOVGOROD, mentioned OBDOLOWCAN, King of Hircan, mentioned OBI (River), mentioned O'BRIEN, Murecardus, King of Ireland --Forced to carry shoes of Magnus OCCA (River), mentioned OCCLEVE, Thomas, THE EPISTLE OF CUPID attributed to OCTHER, mentioned --His VOYAGE TO THE NORTH EAST --HIS VOVAGE INTO THE SOUND Of DENMARK OFFA, TREATY WITH CHARLEMAGNE O'FOGOLT, Viscount of Man OLAVE, mentioned --His coffin opened --Appears to Magnus OLAVUS MAGNUS, mentioned --Confuted OLAVUS, son of Godred Crouan --King of Man --Detailed biography OLDYS, quoted ONEGA (River) mentioned ORKNEYS, conquered by Magnus --Submit to Arthur --Conquered by Malgo --Mentioned ORMOND, Earl of, mentioned ORMUZ, Englishmen at ORTELIUS, quoted --Mentioned OSEP NAPEA, Russian Ambassador OSMAN, Basha, mentioned OSWALD, Bishop, mentioned OTHOR, Earl, slain OTTO Frisingensas, quoted OVID, quoted OXNAM, John, crosses Isthmus of Darien OXUS (River), visited by Jenkinson PACIFIC, first visited by English PAGORELLA, Pheodata, Russian Ambassador PAULINUS, converts Northumbrians PAY, Henry, defeats the French PECHORA (Gulf), mentioned PEEL (Man), mentioned PEMBROKE, Richard, Earl of, invades Ireland PEROSLAF, English at PERSIA, Elizabeth's communications with PERSIAN GULF, Englishmen on PERU, Englishmen in PETT, Arthur, mentioned PETZORA. (_See Pechora_). PEUCER, Casper, mentioned --Quoted PEVENSEY, mentioned PHOENICIANS, circumnavigate Africa PHEODOR, Emperor of Russia PHILLIPPINES, inhabitants at, in England --Mentioned PHISEMSKI, Pheodor, Russian Ambassador PIGAFETTA, Marco Antonio, his eulogy of Hakluyt PLATE (River), Englishmen at PLATO, quoted PLINY, quoted --Mentioned PLUTARCH, quoted --Mentioned POLAND, mentioned POLICY, THE PROCESS OF THE LIBEL OF --Eulogised --Quoted POLITIA, (_See Policy_) POMERANIA, mentioned POMERLAND, (_See Pomtrenia_) PONTANUS, quoted POPILINIERE, quoted PORTO SANTO, mentioned PORTUGAL, mentioned PREFACE, Editors --To first edition, To second edition PRISAGE PROPERTIUS, quoted PROUENCE, mentioned PRUSSIA, mentioned --Grand Masters of PTOLOMY, quoted QUENELAND, mentioned RADEVIEUS Frisingensis, quoted RALEIGH, Sir Walter, assists in compiling this Collection --Plants colonies in Virginia RAMSEY (Man), taken by Godred Crouan --Conspiracy at --Battle of RANDOLPH, Ambassador to Russia REGINALD, Bishop of the Isles REGINALD, Son of Eacmarcat, invades Man REGINALD, Son of Olavus, usurps Kingdom of Man --King of Man --Detailed biogragraphy REIN-DEER RHINFRIN, or RENFREW, mentioned RICHARD, Bishop of Sodor RICHARD II, his treaties with the Great Masters of Prussia RICHMOND (Yorkshire), mentioned RIGA, visited by Horsey ROCHESTER, mentioned ROE, mentioncd ROGNOLPWAHT (_See Peel_) ROMNEY ROMULUS, mentioned ROSTOFF, English at ROSTOK, visited by Horsey --Mentioned ROYAL Exchange, founded RUBRIEIS, William de, his journey RUDULPH, King, confers pnvileges on Canute RUSHEN or Russin, Abbey of, founded --Grant of land to --Removed to Douglas RUSSIA, mentioned, 11, 17, 24 RYE SAINT DUNSTAN, mentioned SAINT HELENA, English at --Mentioned SAINT JAMES, Legend of SAINT LOUIS, mentioned SAINT MARY'S, Abbey of, founded SAINT NICHOLAS (Bay), mentioned SAINT PATRICK (Armagh), burial place of Magnus SAINT PATRICK, Isle of, taken by Magnus SAINT THOMAS, Isle of, mentioned SALOMON, a mistake for _Stephen_, King of Hungary SALT, scarcity of, in Iceland SAMOEDIA, mentioned SAMOGITIA, mentioned SANDERSON, William, mentioned SANDWICH, mentioned SANTA CRUZ, English at SANTWAT (Man), battle of SARTACH, Duke of Tartary SAXO GRAMMATIEUS, mentioned --HIS ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE OF HAROLD'S DAUGHTER TO JERUSLAUS --Confuted SAXONS, cross the seas --Mentioned SCACAFELL (Man) SCARBOROUGH, mentioned SCIPIO AFRICANUS, mentioned SCIPIO (the Elder), quoted SCIRINGS HALI, mentioned SCONIE, mentioned SCOTLAND, mentioned SEALS, Capture of, in Iceland SEMELAND, mentioned SENECCA, quoted SENEGAL, English in SEVILLE, Lecture on Navigation at SHAHRAM, visited by Jenkinson SHALLY MURZEY, mentioned SHAMAKY, visited by Jenkinson SHEFFIELD, Lady, mentioned SHELISUR, mentioned SIDNEY, Sir Philip, fellow-student of Hakluyt SIGISMUND, Emperor SILLAND, mentioned SMOLENSK, visited by Alcock SOLIMUS, mentioned SOUTHAM, mentioned SOUTHAMPTON, mentioned SPAIN, mentioned SPARKE, mentioned STAFFORD, Sir Edward, mentioned STAMFORD BRIDGE, Battle of STAPER, Richard, assists Hakluyt STAPLE ordained for wool STEPHEN, trade under STEPHEN the Holy STILYARD, the, mentioned STRABO, quoted --Mentioned SUETONIUS, mentioned SUEZ, Isthmus of, mentioned SUMERLED, his wars with Godred --Marries his daughter --His sons quarrel SUN, eclipsed SWEDEN, mentioned SWERRO, mentioned SYRRIE, mentioned TACITUS, quoted TARTARS take an Englishman prisoner --Visited by two friars TAURICA CHERSONESUS, mentioned TENERIFFE, mentioned THAMAS, Shah, mumoned THEOPHRASTUS, quoted THORLACIUS GUDBRANDUS, Introduction to Arngrinus Jonas's Commentary on Iceland --A LETTER TO THE REV HUGH BRANCHAIN THULE, identical with Iceland TINGUALLA, (_See Tynwald Mount_) TIRIVIL, mentioned TITUS, mentioned TONESBERG, mentioned TOSTI mentioned TOULOUSE, mentioned TRIPOLIS, Elizabeth's communications with TRUSCO, mentioned TUERDICO, Stephen, Russian Ambassador TUNIS, English at TURBEVILLE, George, mentioned TURKEY, Elizabeths communications with --Mentioned TYCHO BRAHE, mentioned TYNE (River) TYNEMOUTH CASTLE, mentioned TYNWALD MOUNT, Battle of URGENCE, mentioned URRY, quoted, VAIGATZ, Isles of, mentioned VANDALS, mentioned VENICE, mentioned VESPASIAN, mentioned VESUVIUS, mentioned VIRGIL, quoted VIRGINIA, English colonies in VIVIANUS, marries Godred to Rhingola VOBSKO, visited by Horsey VOLGA, English on the VOLOGDA, English at VORTIPORIUS, mentioned WALES, Princce of, voyage to North West WALPOLE, Horace mentioned WALSINGHAM, Sir Francis, portrait --Dedication to Biographical Notice --Mentioned WALSINGHAM, Thomas quoted --HIS ROLE OF THE FLEET OF EDWARD III --Biographical Notice --THE VOYAGE OF HENRY, EARL OF DERBY --VOYAGE OF THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK WARD, Luke, mentioned WENFDLAND, (_See Prussia_) WESTMINSTER ABBEY mentioned WESTMINSTER, Matthew of quoted WEXEL or WIXEL (River) mentioned WEXELMOUTH or WIXELMOUTH WEYMOUTH, mentioned WHALES, Hunting of --In Iceland WHITTINGTON, Richard WILLIAM I, mentioned WILLIAM II, mentioned WILNA, taken WILLOUGHBY, Sir Hugh, mentioned WlLLOLGHBY'S LAND, visited WINCHELSEA WINDLAND, mentioned WIRELND, mentioned WISMER, mentioned WITHRINGTON, Robert, mentioned WITLAND, mentioned WOLSIAN, HIS NAVIGATION --Mentioned WOODSTOCK, Thomas of, his journey WOOL, Staple for WORCESTER, Foundation Charter of Cathedral quoted WORCESTER, Florence of, quoted --HIS ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF THE SONS OF EDMUND IRONSIDE YARMOUTH, mentioned YAVATE, mentioned YELL or YLE (Island), mentioned YENO, Abbot of Furness YEROSLAV, English at YORK, taken by Harold and Tosti ZAMORANO, Rodengo, mentioned ZEELAND, mentioned ZIEGLER, J., mentioned --Confuted --Map of Northern Europe from his _Schndta_ ZOLNER, Conrad de, mentioned ZOUCH'S eulogy of Hakluyt LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS 1. MAP OF NORTHERN EUROPE FROM J. ZIEGLER's _Schodia_, 1532 2. PORTRAIT Of QUEEN ELIZABETH after WHITE--_Facsimile_ 3. PORTRAIT OF SIR FRANCIS WALSIGHAM, after VIRTUE 4. MAP OF ICELAND TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Editor's Preface II. Facsimile Title-Page III. Dedication to First Edition IV. Preface to First Edition V. Dedication to Second Edition VI. Preface to Second Edition VII. [Greek: Eis Apodaemias Brettanon ponaema Richardon tou Haklitou] VIII. In Nauales Richardi Hakluyti Commentarios, R. Mulcaster IX. Ejusdem in eundem X. In eximium opus R. Hakluyti Gulielmi Camdeni Hexastichon XI. Marco Antonio Pigafeta ad Hakluytum XII. Extract from Oldys's Librarian, 1738. XIII. Extract from Zouch's Life of Sir Philip Sidney 1. The Conquests of Arthur, from Geoffrey of Monmouth 2. A Testimonie of the Right and Appendances of the Crowne of the Kingdome of Britaine, taken out of Mr. Lambard, his [Greek: Archaionomia] 3. A Testimonie concerning the Conquests of Malgo, King of England, from Geofrrey of Monmouth 4. The Conquest of the Isles of Anglesey and Man, by Edwin, King of Northumberland, from Bede's Ecclesiastical History 5. Another Testimonie by Bede to the same purpose 6. The Voyage of Bertus, Generall of an Armie sent into Ireland by Ecfridus, King of Northumberland, from Bede's Ecclesiastical History 7. The Voyage of Octher, made to the North-East parts beyond Norway, reported by himselfe unto Alfred 8. The Voyage of Octher out of his countrey of Halgoland into the Sound of Denmarke 9. Wolstan's Navigation in the East Sea (Baltic), from Hetha to Trusco, which is about Dantzig 10. The Navigation of King Edgar, from Florence of Worcester, Hoveden, and Dr. Dee 11. The Voyage of Edmund and Edward, the Sonnes of King Edmund Ironside, into Hungarie, from Florence of Worcester 12. A Chronicle of the Kings of Man from Camden's Chorographia 13. The Marriage of the Daughter of Harold to Jeruslaus, Duke of Russia, from Saxo Grammaticus 14. The State of the Shipping of the Cinque Ports from Edward the Confessour and William the Conqueror, and so downe to Edward I., from Lambert's Perambulations of Kent 15. The roll of the huge Fleete of Edward III. before Calice, from Thomas Walsingham 16. The Voyage of Nicholas de Linna, a Franciscan Frier, and an excellent Mathetician, of Oxford, to all the regions situate under the North Pole, in the yeere 1360 17. A Testimonie of the learned Mathematician Master John Dee, touching the foresaid Voyage of Nicholas de Linna 18. The Voyage of Henry, Earle of Derbie, after Duke of Hereford, and lastly King of England, by the name of Henry IV., into Prussia and Lettowe, against the Infidels, from Thomas of Walsmgham 19. The Voyage of Thomas of Woodstocke, Duke of Gloucester, into Prussia, written by Thomas Walsingham 20. The verses of Geoffrey Chaucer, showing that the English Knights were wont in his time to travaile into Prussia and other heathen lands The original proceedings and successe of the northren, domestical, and forren trades and traffiques of this Isle of Britain, from the time of Nero the Emperor, who deceased in the yeere of our Lord 70, under the Romans, Britons, Saxons, and Danes, till the Conquest; and from the Conquest untill this present time, gathered out of the most authenticall histories and records of this Nation, viz.: 21. A Testimonie out of Cornelius Tacitus, proving London to have bene a famous Mart Town in the Reigne of Nero the Enperour 22. A Testimome out of Venerable Beda, proving London to have bene a citie of great Trafficke, not long after the beginning of the Saxons Reigne 23. The League betweene Carolus Magnus and Offa, concerning safe trade of English Merchants 24. An ancient Testimonie as to the rank of Merchants, from Lambert's Perambulation of Kent 25. A Testimonie of certaine privileges obtained for English and Danish Merchants, of Conrad the Emperor, and John, Bishop of Rome, by Canutus the Kinmg, extracted out of a Letter of his 26. The flourishing state of the citie of London, in the Reigne of King Stephen, from William of Malmsbury 27. The Traffike of Bristow with Norway and Ireland, from William of Malmsbury 28. The League betwecne Henry II., and Frederick Barbarossa, from Radevicus and Otto Frisingenses 29. A generall safe-conduct granted to all forreine Marchants by King John, from the Records of the Tower 30. The Letters of King Henry III., unto Haquinus, King of Norway, concerning a Treaty of Peace 31. A Mandate for the King of Norway, his ship called The Cog 31. A charter granted to the Merchants of Colen, by Edward I. 33. The Charter of Lubeck, graunted by Henry III. 34. A Charter for the Marchants of Almaine, graunted by Edward I. 35. A Mandate of King Edward I., concerning outlandish Marchants 36. The Great Charter granted unto forreine Marchants by Edward I. 37. The Letters of Edward II., unto Haquinus, King of Norway, concerning the English Marchants arrested in Germany 38. An Ordinance of the Staple to be holden at one certaine place 39. A Charter of King Henry IV., to English Merchants resident in Prussia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany 40. A note touching the mighty ships of King Henry V., from a Chronicle in the Trinity Church of Winchester 41. A branch of a Statute made in the Reigne of Henry VI., for the trade to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finmark 42. Another branch of a Statute made in the Reigne of Henry VI., concerning the English Marchants in Denmark 43. The Process or the Libel of English Policie, exhorting all England to Keepe the Sea 44. A brief Commentarie of Island: wherein the errors of such as have written concerning this island are detected, and the Slanders and Reproches of certaine strangers, which they have used over boldly against the People of Island are confuted by Arngrimus Ionas BOOK I. SECTION 1. The Isle of Island, being severed from other countries, an infinite distance standeth farre into the ocean, etc. SECTION 2. In this Island at the Summer Solstitum there is no night, etc. SECTION 3. It is named of the ice, which continually cleaveth unto the north part thereof. SECTION 4. The Island is so great that it containeth many people, etc. SECTION 5. The Island, the most part thereof, is mountainous and untilled. SECTION 6. There be in this Island mountaines lift up to the skies, whose tops being white with perpetual snowe, their roots boile with everlasting fire, etc. SECTION 7. The flame of Mount Hecla will not burne towe, neither is it quenched with water.... This place is thought by some to be the prison of uncleane soules, etc. SECTION 8. Neare unto the mountaines there be three vast holes, the depth thereof cannot be discerned by any man; but there appeare to the beholders thereof certaine men at that instant plunged in, who answere their friends, exhorting them, with deepe sighs, to returne home, and, with that, they suddenly vanish away SECTION 9. But round about the Island there floateth ice. The inhabitants are of opinion that in Mount Hecla and in the ice there are places wherein the soules of their countrymen are tormented, SECTION 10. If any man shall take a great quantity of this ice, and shall keepe it never so warily in a coffer or vessel, it wil, at the time when the ice thaweth about the Island, utterly vanish away, etc. SECTION 11. Not far from the Mountains there be four fountaines of a most contrary nature betweene themselves. The first converteth into a stoen any body cast into it. The second is extremely cold. The third is sweeter than honey. The fourth is altogether deadly, etc. SECTION 12. There are so great store of Fishes in this Island that they are laid forth on piles to be sold in the open air, as high as the tops of houses SECTION 13. They have most swift horses, which will run without ceasing a continual course, for the space of thirty leagues SECTION 14. There be seen neare unto Island huge whales.... It sometimes falleth out that Mariners thinking these whales to be Islands, and casting out upon their backs, are often in danger of drowning, etc. BOOK II. Introduction SECTION 1. Adalbert, Metropolitanate of Hamburg, saw the Islanders converted unto Christianity.... At their humble request he appointed a certaine holy man named Islief to be thsir first Bishop Chronology of the Bishops of Schalholt Chronology of the Bishops of Holen SECTION 2. They inhabit caves.... and have many houses built with the bones of fishes, etc. SECTION 3. They and their cattell use all one house, etc. SECTION 4. The customs of the inhabitants SECTION 5. The King of Denmarke and Norway sendeth every year a Lieutenant into the country SECTION 6. All things are common among them, except their wives SECTION 7. They make all one reckoning of their whelpes and of their children, etc. SECTION 8. They honour their Bishop as their King, etc. SECTION 9. They live there for the most part upon fishes, etc. SECTION 10. The inhabitants do celebrate the acts of their ancestors.... with songs, and they grave them in rocks.... There be divers found among them that be minstrels, etc. SECTION 11. Joachim Leo and his slanders on Iceland, SECTION 12. Adulteries and Whoredoms arc not only public and common vices.... but are not accounted by them for vices SECTION 13. The treachery of the inhabitants SECTION 14. The good wife of the house reacheth to every one a Chamber-pot.... at Banquets.... Ten persons, men and women, lie together in one bed, etc., SECTION 15. The food of the inhabitants SECTION 16. The simple manners of the inhabitants, and their Commerce, etc. 45. A Letter written by Gudbrandus Thorlacius, Bishop of Holen in Island, concerning the Ancient State of Island and Gronland, Index List of Plates and Maps Table of Contents END OF VOL. 1 
42059	----	file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) By Justin Winsor. NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA. With Bibliographical and Descriptive Essays on its Historical Sources and Authorities. Profusely illustrated with portraits, maps, facsimiles, etc. Edited by JUSTIN WINSOR, Librarian of Harvard University, with the coöperation of a Committee from the Massachusetts Historical Society, and with the aid of other learned Societies. In eight royal 8vo volumes. Each volume, _net_, $5.50; sheep, _net_, $6.50; half morocco, _net_, $7.50. (_Sold only by subscription for the entire set._) READER'S HANDBOOK OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 16mo, $1.25. WAS SHAKESPEARE SHAPLEIGH? 16mo, rubricated parchment paper, 75 cents. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. With portrait and maps. 8vo. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, BOSTON AND NEW YORK. [Illustration: BEHAIM, 1492.] [Illustration: AMERICA, 1892.] CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND HOW HE RECEIVED AND IMPARTED THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY BY JUSTIN WINSOR They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.--_Psalms_, cvii. 23, 24 BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1891 Copyright, 1891, BY JUSTIN WINSOR. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. To FRANCIS PARKMAN, LL.D., THE HISTORIAN OF NEW FRANCE. DEAR PARKMAN:-- You and I have not followed the maritime peoples of western Europe in planting and defending their flags on the American shores without observing the strange fortunes of the Italians, in that they have provided pioneers for those Atlantic nations without having once secured in the New World a foothold for themselves. When Venice gave her Cabot to England and Florence bestowed Verrazano upon France, these explorers established the territorial claims of their respective and foster motherlands, leading to those contrasts and conflicts which it has been your fortune to illustrate as no one else has. When Genoa gave Columbus to Spain and Florence accredited her Vespucius to Portugal, these adjacent powers, whom the Bull of Demarcation would have kept asunder in the new hemisphere, established their rival races in middle and southern America, neighboring as in the Old World; but their contrasts and conflicts have never had so worthy a historian as you have been for those of the north. The beginnings of their commingled history I have tried to relate in the present work, and I turn naturally to associate in it the name of the brilliant historian of FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA with that of your obliged friend, [Illustration: Justin Winsor] CAMBRIDGE, _June, 1890_. CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE CHAPTER I. SOURCES, AND THE GATHERERS OF THEM 1 ILLUSTRATIONS: Manuscript of Columbus, 2; the Genoa Custodia, 5; Columbus's Letter to the Bank of St. George, 6; Columbus's Annotations on the _Imago Mundi_, 8; First Page, Columbus's First Letter, Latin edition (1493), 16; Archivo de Simancas, 24. CHAPTER II. BIOGRAPHERS AND PORTRAITISTS 30 ILLUSTRATIONS: Page of the Giustiniani Psalter, 31; Notes of Ferdinand Columbus on his Books, 42; Las Casas, 48; Roselly de Lorgues, 53; St. Christopher, a Vignette on La Cosa's Map (1500), 62; Earliest Engraved Likeness of Columbus in Jovius, 63; the Florence Columbus, 65; the Yañez Columbus, 66; a Reproduction of the Capriolo Cut of Columbus, 67; De Bry's Engraving of Columbus, 68; the Bust on the Tomb at Havana, 69. CHAPTER III. THE ANCESTRY AND HOME OF COLUMBUS 71 CHAPTER IV. THE UNCERTAINTIES OF THE EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS 79 ILLUSTRATIONS: Drawing ascribed to Columbus, 80; Benincasa's Map (1476), 81; Ship of the Fifteenth Century, 82. CHAPTER V. THE ALLUREMENTS OF PORTUGAL 85 ILLUSTRATIONS: Part of the Laurentian Portolano, 87; Map of Andrea Bianco, 89; Prince Henry, the Navigator, 93; Astrolabes of Regiomontanus, 95, 96; Sketch Map of African Discovery, 98; Fra Mauro's World-Map, 99; Tomb of Prince Henry at Batalha, 100; Statue of Prince Henry at Belem, 101. CHAPTER VI. COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL 103 ILLUSTRATIONS: Toscanelli's Map restored, 110; Map of Eastern Asia, with Old and New Names, 113; Catalan Map of Eastern Asia (1375), 114; Marco Polo, 115; Albertus Magnus, 120; the Laon Globe, 123; Oceanic Currents, 130; Tables of Regiomontanus (1474-1506), 132; Map of the African Coast (1478), 133; Martin Behaim, 134. CHAPTER VII. WAS COLUMBUS IN THE NORTH? 135 ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of Olaus Magnus (1539), 136; Map of Claudius Clavus (1427), 141; Bordone's Map (1528), 142; Map of Sigurd Stephanus (1570), 145. CHAPTER VIII. COLUMBUS LEAVES PORTUGAL FOR SPAIN 149 ILLUSTRATIONS: Portuguese Mappemonde (1490), 152; Père Juan Perez de Marchena, 155; University of Salamanca, 162; Monument to Columbus at Genoa, 163; Ptolemy's Map of Spain (1482), 165; Cathedral of Seville, 171; Cathedral of Cordoba, 172. CHAPTER IX. THE FINAL AGREEMENT AND THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1492 178 ILLUSTRATIONS: Behaim's Globe (1492), 186, 187; Doppelmayer's Reproduction of this Globe, 188, 189; the actual America in Relation to Behaim's Geography, 190; Ships of Columbus's Time, 192, 193; Map of the Canary Islands, 194; Map of the Routes of Columbus, 196; of his track in 1492, 197; Map of the Agonic Line, 199; Lapis Polaris Magnes, 200; Map of Polar Regions by Mercator (1509), 202; Map of the Landfall of Columbus, 210; Columbus's Armor, 211; Maps of the Bahamas (1601 and modern), 212, 213. CHAPTER X. AMONG THE ISLANDS AND THE RETURN VOYAGE 218 ILLUSTRATION: Indian Beds, 222. CHAPTER XI. COLUMBUS IN SPAIN AGAIN; MARCH TO SEPTEMBER, 1493 243 ILLUSTRATIONS: The Arms of Columbus, 250; Pope Alexander VI., 253; Crossbow-Maker, 258; Clock-Maker, 260. CHAPTER XII. THE SECOND VOYAGE, 1493-1494 264 ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of Guadaloupe, Marie Galante, and Dominica, 267; Cannibal Islands, 269. CHAPTER XIII. THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED, 1494 284 ILLUSTRATION: Mass on Shore, 298. CHAPTER XIV. THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED, 1494-1496 303 ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of the Native Divisions of Española, 306; Map of Spanish Settlements in Española, 321. CHAPTER XV. IN SPAIN, 1496-1498. DA GAMA, VESPUCIUS, CABOT 325 LLUSTRATIONS: Ferdinand of Aragon, 328; Bartholomew Columbus, 329; Vasco Da Gama, 334; Map of South Africa (1513), 335; Earliest Representation of South American Natives, 336. CHAPTER XVI. THE THIRD VOYAGE, 1498-1500 347 ILLUSTRATIONS: Map of the Gulf of Paria, 353; Pre-Columbian Mappemonde, restored, 357; Ramusio's Map of Española, 369; La Cosa's Map (1500), 380, 381; Ribero's Map of the Antilles (1529), 383; Wytfliet's Cuba, 384, 385. CHAPTER XVII. THE DEGRADATION AND DISHEARTENMENT OF COLUMBUS (1500) 388 ILLUSTRATION: Santo Domingo, 391. CHAPTER XVIII. COLUMBUS AGAIN IN SPAIN, 1500-1502 407 ILLUSTRATIONS: First Page of the _Mundus Novus_, 411; Map of the Straits of Belle Isle, 413; Manuscript of Gaspar Cortereal, 414; of Miguel Cortereal, 416; the Cantino Map, 419. CHAPTER XIX. THE FOURTH VOYAGE, 1502-1504 437 ILLUSTRATIONS: Bellin's Map of Honduras, 443; of Veragua, 446. CHAPTER XX. COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS. DEATH AND CHARACTER 477 ILLUSTRATIONS: House where Columbus died, 490; Cathedral at Santo Domingo, 493; Statue of Columbus at Santo Domingo, 495. CHAPTER XXI. THE DESCENT OF COLUMBUS'S HONORS 513 ILLUSTRATIONS: Pope Julius II., 517; Charles the Fifth, 519; Ruins of Diego Colon's House, 521. APPENDIX. THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS 529 ILLUSTRATIONS: Ptolemy, 530; Map by Donis (1482), 531; Ruysch's Map (1508), 532; the so-called Admiral's Map (1513), 534; Münster's Map (1532), 535; Title-Page of the _Globus Mundi_, 352; of Eden's _Treatyse of the Newe India_, 537; Vespucius, 539; Title of the _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, 541; Map in Ptolemy (1513), 544, 545; the Tross Gores, 547; the Hauslab Globe, 548; the Nordenskiöld Gores, 549; Map by Apianus (1520), 550; Schöner's Globe (1515), 551; Frisius's Map (1522), 552; Peter Martyr's Map (1511), 557; Ponce de Leon, 558; his tracks on the Florida Coast, 559; Ayllon's Map, 561; Balboa, 563; Grijalva, 566; Globe in Schöner's _Opusculum_, 567; Garay's Map of the Gulf of Mexico, 568; Cortes's Map of the Gulf of Mexico, 569; the Maiollo Map (1527), 570; the Lenox Globe, 571; Schöner's Globe (1520), 572; Magellan, 573; Magellan's Straits by Pizafetta, 575; Modern Map of the Straits, 576; Freire's Map (1546), 578; Sylvanus's Map in Ptolemy (1511), 579; Stobnieza's Map, 580; the Alleged Da Vinci Sketch-Map, 582; Reisch's Map (1515), 583; Pomponius Mela's World-Map, 584; Vadianus, 585; Apianus, 586; Schöner, 588; Rosenthal or Nuremberg Gores, 590; the Martyr-Oviedo Map (1534), 592, 593; the Verrazano Map, 594; Sketch of Agnese's Map (1536), 595; Münster's Map (1540), 596, 597; Michael Lok's Map (1582), 598; John White's Map, 599; Robert Thorne's Map (1527), 600; Sebastian Münster, 602; House and Library of Ferdinand Columbus, 604; Spanish Map (1527), 605; the Nancy Globe, 606, 607; Map of Orontius Finæus (1532), 608; the same, reduced to Mercator's projection, 609; Cortes, 610; Castillo's California, 611; Extract from an old Portolano of the northeast Coast of North America, 613; Homem's Map (1558), 614; Ziegler's Schondia, 615; Ruscelli's Map (1544), 616; Carta Marina (1548), 617; Myritius's Map (1590), 618; Zaltière's Map (1566), 619; Porcacchi's Map (1572), 620; Mercator's Globe (1538), 622, 623; Münster's America (1545), 624; Mercator's Gores (1541), reduced to a plane projection, 625; Sebastian Cabot's Mappemonde (1544), 626; Medina's Map (1544), 628, 629; Wytfliet's America (1597), 630, 631; the Cross-Staff, 632; the Zeni Map, 634, 635; the Map in the Warsaw Codex (1467), 636, 637; Mercator's America (1569), 638; Portrait of Mercator, 639; of Ortelius, 640; Map by Ortelius (1570), 641; Sebastian Cabot, 642; Frobisher, 643; Frobisher's Chart (1578), 644; Francis Drake, 645; Gilbert's Map (1576), 647; the Back-Staff, 648; Luke Fox's Map of the Arctic Regions (1635), 651; Hennepin's Map of Jesso, 653; Domina Farrer's Map (1651), 654, 655; Buache's Theory of North American Geography (1752), 656; Map of Bering's Straits, 657; Map of the Northwest Passage, 659. INDEX 661 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. CHAPTER I. SOURCES, AND THE GATHERERS OF THEM. In considering the sources of information, which are original, as distinct from those which are derivative, we must place first in importance the writings of Columbus himself. We may place next the documentary proofs belonging to private and public archives. [Sidenote: His prolixity.] Harrisse points out that Columbus, in his time, acquired such a popular reputation for prolixity that a court fool of Charles the Fifth linked the discoverer of the Indies with Ptolemy as twins in the art of blotting. He wrote as easily as people of rapid impulses usually do, when they are not restrained by habits of orderly deliberation. He has left us a mass of jumbled thoughts and experiences, which, unfortunately, often perplex the historian, while they of necessity aid him. [Sidenote: His writings.] Ninety-seven distinct pieces of writing by the hand of Columbus either exist or are known to have existed. Of such, whether memoirs, relations, or letters, sixty-four are preserved in their entirety. These include twenty-four which are wholly or in part in his own hand. All of them have been printed entire, except one which is in the Biblioteca Colombina, in Seville, the _Libro de las Proficias_, written apparently between 1501 and 1504, of which only part is in Columbus's own hand. A second document, a memoir addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, before June, 1497, is now in the collection of the Marquis of San Roman at Madrid, and was printed for the first time by Harrisse in his _Christophe Colomb_. A third and fourth are in the public archives in Madrid, being letters addressed to the Spanish monarchs: one without date in 1496 or 1497, or perhaps earlier, in 1493, and the other February 6, 1502; and both have been printed and given in facsimile in the _Cartas de Indias_, a collection published by the Spanish government in 1877. The majority of the existing private papers of Columbus are preserved in Spain, in the hands of the present representative of Columbus, the Duke of Veragua, and these have all been printed in the great collection of Navarrete. They consist, as enumerated by Harrisse in his _Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_, of the following pieces: a single letter addressed about the year 1500 to Ferdinand and Isabella; four letters addressed to Father Gaspar Gorricio,--one from San Lucar, April 4, 1502; a second from the Grand Canaria, May, 1502; a third from Jamaica, July 7, 1503; and the last from Seville, January 4, 1505;--a memorial addressed to his son, Diego, written either in December, 1504, or in January, 1505; and eleven letters addressed also to Diego, all from Seville, late in 1504 or early in 1505. [Illustration: MANUSCRIPT OF COLUMBUS. [From a MS. in the Biblioteca Colombina, given in Harrisse's _Notes on Columbus_.]] [Sidenote: All in Spanish.] Without exception, the letters of Columbus of which we have knowledge were written in Spanish. Harrisse has conjectured that his stay in Spain made him a better master of that language than the poor advantages of his early life had made him of his mother tongue. [Sidenote: His privileges.] Columbus was more careful of the documentary proofs of his titles and privileges, granted in consequence of his discoveries, than of his own writings. He had more solicitude to protect, by such records, the pecuniary and titular rights of his descendants than to preserve those personal papers which, in the eyes of the historian, are far more valuable. These attested evidences of his rights were for a while inclosed in an iron chest, kept at his tomb in the monastery of Las Cuevas, near Seville, and they remained down to 1609 in the custody of the Carthusian friars of that convent. At this date, Nuño de Portugallo having been declared the heir to the estate and titles of Columbus, the papers were transferred to his keeping; and in the end, by legal decision, they passed to that Duke of Veragua who was the grandfather of the present duke, who in due time inherited these public memorials, and now preserves them in Madrid. [Sidenote: _Codex Diplomaticus._] In 1502 there were copies made in book form, known as the _Codex Diplomaticus_, of these and other pertinent documents, raising the number from thirty-six to forty-four. These copies were attested at Seville, by order of the Admiral, who then aimed to place them so that the record of his deeds and rights should not be lost. Two copies seem to have been sent by him through different channels to Nicoló Oderigo, the Genoese ambassador in Madrid; and in 1670 both of these copies came from a descendant of that ambassador as a gift to the Republic of Genoa. Both of these later disappeared from its archives. A third copy was sent to Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, the factor of Columbus in Española, and this copy is not now known. A fourth copy was deposited in the monastery of Las Cuevas, near Seville, to be later sent to Father Gorricio. It is very likely this last copy which is mentioned by Edward Everett in a note to his oration at Plymouth (Boston, 1825, p. 64), where, referring to the two copies sent to Oderigo as the only ones made by the order of Columbus, as then understood, he adds: "Whether the two manuscripts thus mentioned be the only ones in existence may admit of doubt. When I was in Florence, in 1818, a small folio manuscript was brought to me, written on parchment, apparently two or three centuries old, in binding once very rich, but now worn, containing a series of documents in Latin and Spanish, with the following title on the first blank page: 'Treslado de las Bullas del Papa Alexandro VI., de la concession de las Indias y los titulos, privilegios y cedulas reales, que se dieron a Christoval Colon.' I was led by this title to purchase the book." After referring to the _Codice_, then just published, he adds: "I was surprised to find my manuscript, as far as it goes, nearly identical in its contents with that of Genoa, supposed to be one of the only two in existence. My manuscript consists of almost eighty closely written folio pages, which coincide precisely with the text of the first thirty-seven documents, contained in two hundred and forty pages of the Genoese volume." Caleb Cushing says of the Everett manuscript, which he had examined before he wrote of it in the _North American Review_, October, 1825, that, "so far as it goes, it is a much more perfect one than the Oderigo manuscript, as several passages which Spotorno was unable to decipher in the latter are very plain and legible in the former, which indeed is in most complete preservation." I am sorry to learn from Dr. William Everett that this manuscript is not at present easily accessible. Of the two copies named above as having disappeared from the archives of Genoa, Harrisse at a late day found one in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. It had been taken to Paris in 1811, when Napoleon I. caused the archives of Genoa to be sent to that city, and it was not returned when the chief part of the documents was recovered by Genoa in 1815. The other copy was in 1816 among the papers of Count Cambiaso, and was bought by the Sardinian government, and given to the city of Genoa, where it is now deposited in a marble _custodia_, which, surmounted by a bust of Columbus, stands at present in the main hall of the palace of the municipality. This "custodia" is a pillar, in which a door of gilded bronze closes the receptacle that contains the relics, which are themselves inclosed in a bag of Spanish leather, richly embossed. A copy of this last document was made and placed in the archives at Turin. [Sidenote: Their publication by Spotorno.] These papers, as selected by Columbus for preservation, were edited by Father Spotorno at Genoa, in 1823, in a volume called _Codice diplomatico Colombo-Americano_, and published by authority of the state. There was an English edition at London, in 1823; and a Spanish at Havana, in 1867. Spotorno was reprinted, with additional matter, at Genoa, in 1857, as _La Tavola di Bronzo, il pallio di seta, ed il Codice Colomboamericano, nuovamente illustrati per cura di Giuseppe Banchero_. [Illustration: THE GENOA CUSTODIA.] [Sidenote: Letters to the Bank of St. George.] This Spotorno volume included two additional letters of Columbus, not yet mentioned, and addressed, March 21, 1502, and December 27, 1504, to Oderigo. They were found pasted in the duplicate copy of the papers given to Genoa, and are now preserved in a glass case, in the same custodia. A third letter, April 2, 1502, addressed to the governors of the bank of St. George, was omitted by Spotorno; but it is given by Harrisse in his _Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_ (New York, 1888). This last was one of two letters, which Columbus sent, as he says, to the bank, but the other has not been found. The history of the one preserved is traced by Harrisse in the work last mentioned, and there are lithographic and photographic reproductions of it. Harrisse's work just referred to was undertaken to prove the forgery of a manuscript which has within a few years been offered for sale, either as a duplicate of the one at Genoa, or as the original. When represented as the original, the one at Genoa is pronounced a facsimile of it. Harrisse seems to have proved the forgery of the one which is seeking a purchaser. [Illustration: COLUMBUS'S LETTER, APRIL 2, 1502, ADDRESSED TO THE BANK OF ST. GEORGE IN GENOA. [Reduced in size by photographic process.]] [Sidenote: Marginalia.] [Sidenote: Toscanelli's letter.] Some manuscript marginalia found in three different books, used by Columbus and preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville, are also remnants of the autographs of Columbus. These marginal notes are in copies of Æneas Sylvius's _Historia Rerum ubique gestarum_ (Venice, 1477) of a Latin version of Marco Polo (Antwerp, 1485?), and of Pierre d'Ailly's _De Imagine Mundi_ (perhaps 1490), though there is some suspicion that these last-mentioned notes may be those of Bartholomew, and not of Christopher, Columbus. These books have been particularly described in José Silverio Jorrin's _Varios Autografos ineditos de Cristóbal Colon_, published at Havana in 1888. In May, 1860, José Maria Fernandez y Velasco, the librarian of the Biblioteca Colombina, discovered a Latin text of the letter of Toscanelli, written by Columbus in this same copy of Æneas Sylvius. He believed it a Latin version of a letter originally written in Italian; but it was left for Harrisse to discover that the Latin was the original draft. A facsimile of this script is in Harrisse's _Fernando Colon_ (Seville, 1871), and specimens of the marginalia were first given by Harrisse in his _Notes on Columbus_, whence they are reproduced in part in the _Narrative and Critical History of America_ (vol. ii.). [Sidenote: Harrisse's memorial of Columbus.] It is understood that, under the auspices of the Italian government, Harrisse is now engaged in collating the texts and preparing a national memorial issue of the writings of Columbus, somewhat in accordance with a proposition which he made to the Minister of Public Instruction at Rome in his _Le Quatrième Centenaire de la Découverte du Nouveau Monde_ (Genoa, 1887). [Sidenote: Columbus's printed works.] There are references to printed works of Columbus which I have not seen, as a _Declaracion de Tabla Navigatoria_, annexed to a treatise, _Del Uso de la Carta de Navegar_, by Dr. Grajales: a _Tratado de las Cinco Zonas Habitables_, which Humboldt found it very difficult to find. [Illustration: ANNOTATIONS BY COLUMBUS ON THE _IMAGO MUNDI_. [From Harrisse's _Notes on Columbus_.]] [Sidenote: His lost writings.] Of the manuscripts of Columbus which are lost, there are traces still to be discovered. One letter, which he dated off the Canaries, February 15, 1493, and which must have contained some account of his first voyage, is only known to us from an intimation of Marino Sanuto that it was included in the _Chronica Delphinea_. It is probably from an imperfect copy of this last in the library at Brescia, that the letter in question was given in the book's third part (A. D. 1457-1500), which is now missing. We know also, from a letter still preserved (December 27, 1504), that there must be a letter somewhere, if not destroyed, sent by him respecting his fourth voyage, to Messer Gian Luigi Fieschi, as is supposed, the same who led the famous conspiracy against the house of Doria. Other letters, Columbus tells us, were sent at times to the Signora Madonna Catalina, who was in some way related to Fieschi. In 1780, Francesco Pesaro, examining the papers of the Council of Ten, at Venice, read there a memoir of Columbus, setting forth his maritime project; or at least Pesaro was so understood by Marin, who gives the story at a later day in the seventh volume of his history of Venetian commerce. As Harrisse remarks, this paper, if it could be discovered, would prove the most interesting of all Columbian documents, since it would probably be found to fall within a period, from 1473 to 1487, when we have little or nothing authentic respecting Columbus's life. Indeed, it might happily elucidate a stage in the development of the Admiral's cosmographical views of which we know nothing. We have the letter which Columbus addressed to Alexander VI., in February, 1502, as preserved in a copy made by his son Ferdinand; but no historical student has ever seen the Commentary, which he is said to have written after the manner of Cæsar, recounting the haps and mishaps of the first voyage, and which he is thought to have sent to the ruling Pontiff. This act of duty, if done after his return from his last voyage, must have been made to Julius the Second, not to Alexander. [Sidenote: Journal of his first voyage.] Irving and others seem to have considered that this Cæsarian performance was in fact, the well-known journal of the first voyage; but there is a good deal of difficulty in identifying that which we only know in an abridged form, as made by Las Casas, with the narrative sent or intended to be sent to the Pope. Ferdinand, or the writer of the _Historie_, later to be mentioned, it seems clear, had Columbus's journal before him, though he excuses himself from quoting much from it, in order to avoid wearying the reader. The original "journal" seems to have been in 1554 still in the possession of Luis Colon. It had not, accordingly, at that date been put among the treasures of the Biblioteca Colombina. Thus it may have fallen, with Luis's other papers, to his nephew and heir, Diego Colon y Pravia, who in 1578 entrusted them to Luis de Cardona. Here we lose sight of them. [Sidenote: Abridged by Las Casas.] Las Casas's abridgment in his own handwriting, however, has come down to us, and some entries in it would seem to indicate that Las Casas abridged a copy, and not the original. It was, up to 1886, in the library of the Duke of Orsuna, in Madrid, and was at that date bought by the Spanish government. While it was in the possession of Orsuna, it was printed by Varnhagen, in his _Verdadera Guanahani_ (1864). It was clearly used by Las Casas in his own _Historia_, and was also in the hands of Ferdinand, when he wrote, or outlined, perhaps, what now passes for the life of his father, and Ferdinand's statements can sometimes correct or qualify the text in Las Casas. There is some reason to suppose that Herrera may have used the original. Las Casas tells us that in some parts, and particularly in describing the landfall and the events immediately succeeding, he did not vary the words of the original. This Las Casas abridgment was in the archives of the Duke del Infantado, when Navarrete discovered its importance, and edited it as early as 1791, though it was not given to the public till Navarrete published his _Coleccion_ in 1825. When this journal is read, even as we have it, it is hard to imagine that Columbus could have intended so disjointed a performance to be an imitation of the method of Cæsar's _Commentaries_. The American public was early given an opportunity to judge of this, and of its importance. It was by the instigation of George Ticknor that Samuel Kettell made a translation of the text as given by Navarrete, and published it in Boston in 1827, as a _Personal Narrative of the first Voyage of Columbus to America, from a Manuscript recently discovered in Spain_. * * * * * [Sidenote: Descriptions of his first voyage.] We also know that Columbus wrote other concise accounts of his discovery. On his return voyage, during a gale, on February 14, 1493, fearing his ship would founder, he prepared a statement on parchment, which was incased in wax, put in a barrel, and thrown overboard, to take the chance of washing ashore. A similar account, protected in like manner, he placed on his vessel's poop, to be washed off in case of disaster. Neither of these came, as far as is known, to the notice of anybody. They very likely simply duplicated the letters which he wrote on the voyage, intended to be dispatched to their destination on reaching port. The dates and places of these letters are not reconcilable with his journal. He was apparently approaching the Azores, when, on February 15, he dated a letter "off the Canaries," directed to Luis de Santangel. So false a record as "the Canaries" has never been satisfactorily explained. It may be imagined, perhaps, that the letter had been written when Columbus supposed he would make those islands instead of the Azores, and that the place of writing was not changed. It is quite enough, however, to rest satisfied with the fact that Columbus was always careless, and easily erred in such things, as Navarrete has shown. The postscript which is added is dated March 14, which seems hardly probable, or even possible, so that March 4 has been suggested. He professes to write it on the day of his entering the Tagus, and this was March 4. It is possible that he altered the date when he reached Palos, as is Major's opinion. Columbus calls this a second letter. Perhaps a former letter was the one which, as already stated, we have lost in the missing part of the _Chronica Delphinea_. [Sidenote: Letter to Santangel.] [Sidenote: Letter to Sanchez.] The original of this letter to Santangel, the treasurer of Aragon, and intended for the eyes of Ferdinand and Isabella, was in Spanish, and is known in what is thought to be a contemporary copy, found by Navarrete at Simancas; and it is printed by him in his _Coleccion_, and is given by Kettell in English, to make no other mention of places where it is accessible. Harrisse denies that this Simancas manuscript represents the original, as Navarrete had contended. A letter dated off the island of Santa Maria, the southernmost of the Azores, three days after the letter to Santangel, February 18, essentially the same, and addressed to Gabriel Sanchez, was found in what seemed to be an early copy, among the papers of the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca. This text was printed by Varnhagen at Valencia, in 1858, as _Primera Epistola del Almirante Don Cristóbal Colon_, and it is claimed by him that it probably much more nearly represents the original of Columbus's own drafting. [Sidenote: Printed editions.] There was placed in 1852 in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at Milan, from the library of Baron Pietro Custodi, a printed edition of this Spanish letter, issued in 1493, perhaps somewhere in Spain or Portugal, for Barcelona and Lisbon have been named. Harrisse conjectures that Sanchez gave his copy to some printer in Barcelona. Others have contended that it was not printed in Spain at all. No other copy of this edition has ever been discovered. It was edited by Cesare Correnti at Milan in 1863, in a volume called _Lettere autografe di Cristoforo Colombo, nuovamente stampate_, and was again issued in facsimile in 1866 at Milan, under the care of Girolamo d'Adda, as _Lettera in lingua Spagnuola diretta da Cristoforo Colombo a Luis de Sant-Angel_. Major and Becher, among others, have given versions of it to the English reader, and Harrisse gives it side by side with a French version in his _Christophe Colomb_ (i. 420), and with an English one in his _Notes on Columbus_. This text in Spanish print had been thought the only avenue of approach to the actual manuscript draft of Columbus, till very recently two other editions, slightly varying, are said to have been discovered, one or both of which are held by some, but on no satisfactory showing, to have preceded in issue, probably by a short interval, the Ambrosian copy. One of these newly alleged editions is on four leaves in quarto, and represents the letter as dated on February 15 and March 14, and its cut of type has been held to be evidence of having been printed at Burgos, or possibly at Salamanca. That this and the Ambrosian letter were printed one from the other, or independently from some unknown anterior edition, has been held to be clear from the fact that they correspond throughout in the division of lines and pages. It is not easily determined which was the earlier of the two, since there are errors in each corrected in the other. This unique four-leaf quarto was a few months since offered for sale in London, by Ellis and Elvey, who have published (1889) an English translation of it, with annotations by Julia E. S. Rae. It is now understood to be in the possession of a New York collector. It is but fair to say that suspicions of its genuineness have been entertained; indeed, there can be scarce a doubt that it is a modern fabrication. The other of these newly discovered editions is in folio of two leaves, and was the last discovered, and was very recently held by Maisonneuve of Paris at 65,000 francs, and has since been offered by Quaritch in London for £1,600. It is said to have been discovered in Spain, and to have been printed at Barcelona; and this last fact is thought to be apparent from the Catalan form of some of the Spanish, which has disappeared in the Ambrosian text. It also gives the dates February 15 and March 14. A facsimile edition has been issued under the title _La Lettre de Christophe Colomb, annonçant la Découverte du Nouveau Monde_. Caleb Cushing, in the _North American Review_ in October, 1825, refers to newspaper stories then current of a recent sale of a copy of the Spanish text in London, for £33 12_s._ to the Duke of Buckingham. It cannot now be traced. [Sidenote: Catalan text.] Harrisse finds in Ferdinand's catalogue of the Biblioteca Colombina what was probably a Catalan text of this Spanish letter; but it has disappeared from the collection. [Sidenote: Letter found by Bergenroth.] Bergenroth found at Simancas, some years ago, the text of another letter by Columbus, with the identical dates already given, and addressed to a friend; but it conveyed nothing not known in the printed Spanish texts. He, however, gave a full abstract of it in the _Calendar of State Papers relating to England and Spain_. [Sidenote: Columbus gives papers to Bernaldez.] Columbus is known, after his return from the second voyage, to have been the guest of Andrès Bernaldez, the Cura de los Palacios, and he is also known to have placed papers in this friend's hands; and so it has been held probable by Muñoz that another Spanish text of Columbus's first account is embodied in Bernaldez's _Historia de los Reyes Católicos_. The manuscript of this work, which gives thirteen chapters to Columbus, long remained unprinted in the royal library at Madrid, and Irving, Prescott, and Humboldt all used it in that form. It was finally printed at Granada in 1856, as edited by Miguel Lafuente y Alcántara, and was reprinted at Seville in 1870. Harrisse, in his _Notes on Columbus_, gives an English version of this section on the Columbus voyage. [Sidenote: Varieties of the Spanish text.] These, then, are all the varieties of the Spanish text of Columbus's first announcement of his discovery which are at present known. When the Ambrosian text was thought to be the only printed form of it, Varnhagen, in his _Carta de Cristóbal Colon enviada de Lisboa á Barcelona en Marzo de 1493_ (Vienna, 1869; and Paris, 1870), collated the different texts to try to reconstruct a possible original text, as Columbus wrote it. In the opinion of Major no one of these texts can be considered an accurate transcript of the original. [Sidenote: Origin of the Latin text.] There is a difference of opinion among these critics as to the origin of the Latin text which scholars generally cite as this first letter of Columbus. Major thinks this Latin text was not taken from the Spanish, though similar to it; while Varnhagen thinks that the particular Spanish text found in the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca was the original of the Latin version. [Sidenote: Transient fame of the discovery.] There is nothing more striking in the history of the years immediately following the discovery of America than the transient character of the fame which Columbus acquired by it. It was another and later generation that fixed his name in the world's regard. [Sidenote: English mentions of it.] Harrisse points out how some of the standard chroniclers of the world's history, like Ferrebouc, Regnault, Galliot du Pré, and Fabian, failed during the early half of the sixteenth century to make any note of the acts of Columbus; and he could find no earlier mention among the German chroniclers than that of Heinrich Steinhowel, some time after 1531. There was even great reticence among the chroniclers of the Low Countries; and in England we need to look into the dispatches sent thence by the Spanish ambassadors to find the merest mention of Columbus so early as 1498. Perhaps the reference to him made eleven years later (1509), in an English version of Brandt's _Shyppe of Fools_, and another still ten years later in a little native comedy called _The New Interlude_, may have been not wholly unintelligible. It was not till about 1550 that, so far as England is concerned, Columbus really became a historical character, in Edward Hall's _Chronicle_. Speaking of the fewness of the autographs of Columbus which are preserved, Harrisse adds: "The fact is that Columbus was very far from being in his lifetime the important personage he now is; and his writings, which then commanded neither respect nor attention, were probably thrown into the waste-basket as soon as received." [Sidenote: Editions of the Latin text.] Nevertheless, substantial proof seems to exist in the several editions of the Latin version of this first letter, which were issued in the months immediately following the return of Columbus from his first voyage, as well as in the popular versification of its text by Dati in two editions, both in October, 1493, besides another at Florence in 1495, to show that for a brief interval, at least, the news was more or less engrossing to the public mind in certain confined areas of Europe. Before the discovery of the printed editions of the Spanish text, there existed an impression that either the interest in Spain was less than in Italy, or some effort was made by the Spanish government to prevent a wide dissemination of the details of the news. The two Genoese ambassadors who left Barcelona some time after the return of Columbus, perhaps in August, 1493, may possibly have taken to Italy with them some Spanish edition of the letter. The news, however, had in some form reached Rome in season to be the subject of a papal bull on May 3d. We know that Aliander or Leander de Cosco, who made the Latin version, very likely from the Sanchez copy, finished it probably at Barcelona, on the 29th of April, not on the 25th as is sometimes said. Cosco sent it at once to Rome to be printed, and his manuscript possibly conveyed the first tidings, to Italy,--such is Harrisse's theory,--where it reached first the hands of the Bishop of Monte Peloso, who added to it a Latin epigram. It was he who is supposed to have committed it to the printer in Rome, and in that city, during the rest of 1493, four editions at least of Cosco's Latin appeared. Two of these editions are supposed to be printed by Plannck, a famous Roman printer; one is known to have come from the press of Franck Silber. All but one were little quartos, of the familiar old style, of three or four black-letter leaves; while the exception was a small octavo with woodcuts. It is Harrisse's opinion that this pictorial edition was really printed at Basle. In Paris, during the same time or shortly after, there were three editions of a similar appearance, all from one press. The latest of all, brought to light but recently, seems to have been printed by a distinguished Flemish printer, Thierry Martens, probably at Antwerp. It is not improbable that other editions printed in all these or other cities may yet be found. It is noteworthy that nothing was issued in Germany, as far as we know, before a German version of the letter appeared at Strassburg in 1497. [Illustration: FIRST PAGE, COLUMBUS'S FIRST LETTER, LATIN EDITION, 1493. [From the Barlow copy, now in the Boston Public Library.]] The text in all these Latin editions is intended to be the same. But a very few copies of any edition, and only a single copy of two or three of them, are known. The Lenox, the Carter-Brown, and the Ives libraries in this country are the chief ones possessing any of them, and the collections of the late Henry C. Murphy and Samuel L. M. Barlow also possessed a copy or two, the edition owned by Barlow passing in February, 1890, to the Boston Public Library. This scarcity and the rivalry of collectors would probably, in case any one of them should be brought upon the market, raise the price to fifteen hundred dollars or more. The student is not so restricted as this might imply, for in several cases there have been modern facsimiles and reprints, and there is an early reprint by Veradus, annexed to his poem (1494) on the capture of Granada. The text usually quoted by the older writers, however, is that embodied in the _Bellum Christianorum Principum_ of Robertus Monarchus (Basle, 1533). [Sidenote: Order of publication.] In these original small quartos and octavos, there is just enough uncertainty and obscurity as to dates and printers, to lure bibliographers and critics of typography into research and controversy; and hardly any two of them agree in assigning the same order of publication to these several issues. The present writer has in the second volume of the _Narrative and Critical History of America_ grouped the varied views, so far as they had in 1885 been made known. The bibliography to which Harrisse refers as being at the end of his work on Columbus was crowded out of its place and has not appeared; but he enters into a long examination of the question of priority in the second chapter of his last volume. The earliest English translation of this Latin text appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ in 1816, and other issues have been variously made since that date. * * * * * [Sidenote: Additional sources respecting the first voyage.] We get some details of this first voyage in Oviedo, which we do not find in the journal, and Vicente Yañez Pinzon and Hernan Perez Matheos, who were companions of Columbus, are said to be the source of this additional matter. The testimony in the lawsuit of 1515, particularly that of Garcia Hernandez, who was in the "Pinta," and of a sailor named Francisco Garcia Vallejo, adds other details. [Sidenote: Second voyage.] There is no existing account by Columbus himself of his experiences during his second voyage, and of that cruise along the Cuban coast in which he supposed himself to have come in sight of the Golden Chersonesus. The _Historie_ tells us that during this cruise he kept a journal, _Libro del Segundo Viage_, till he was prostrated by sickness, and this itinerary is cited both in the _Historie_ and by Las Casas. We also get at second-hand from Columbus, what was derived from him in conversation after his return to Spain, in the account of these explorations which Bernaldez has embodied in his _Reyes Católicos_. Irving says that he found these descriptions of Bernaldez by far the most useful of the sources for this period, as giving him the details for a picturesque narrative. On disembarking at Cadiz in June, 1495, Columbus sent to his sovereigns two dispatches, neither of which is now known. [Sidenote: Columbus's letters.] It was in the collection of the Duke of Veragua that Navarrete discovered fifteen autograph letters of Columbus, four of them addressed to his friend, the Father Gaspar Gorricio, and the rest to his son Diego. Navarrete speaks of them when found as in a very deplorable and in parts almost unreadable condition, and severely taxing, for deciphering them, the practiced skill of Tomas Gonzalez, which had been acquired in the care which he had bestowed on the archives of Simancas. It is known that two letters addressed to Gorricio in 1498, and four in 1501, beside a single letter addressed in the last year to Diego Colon, which were in the iron chest at Las Cuevas, are not now in the archives of the Duke of Veragua; and it is further known that during the great lawsuit of Columbus's heirs, Cristoval de Cardona tampered with that chest, and was brought to account for the act in 1580. Whatever he removed may possibly some day be found, as Harrisse thinks, among the notarial records of Valencia. [Sidenote: Third voyage.] Two letters of Columbus respecting his third voyage are only known in early copies; one in Las Casas's hand belonged to the Duke of Orsuna, and the other addressed to the nurse of Prince Juan is in the Custodia collection at Genoa. Both are printed by Navarrete. [Sidenote: Fourth voyage.] Columbus, in a letter dated December 27, 1504, mentions a relation of his fourth voyage with a supplement, which he had sent from Seville to Oderigo; but it is not known. We are without trace also of other letters, which he wrote at Dominica and at other points during this voyage. We do know, however, a letter addressed by Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, giving some account of his voyage to July 7, 1503. The lost Spanish original is represented in an early copy, which is printed by Navarrete. Though no contemporary Spanish edition is known, an Italian version was issued at Venice in 1505, as _Copia de la Lettera per Colombo mandata_. This was reprinted with comments by Morelli, at Bassano, in 1810, and the title which this librarian gave it of _Lettera Rarissima_ has clung to it, in most of the citations which refer to it. Peter Martyr, writing in January, 1494, mentions just having received a letter from Columbus, but it is not known to exist. [Sidenote: Las Casas uses Columbus's papers.] Las Casas is said to have once possessed a treatise by Columbus on the information obtained from Portuguese and Spanish pilots, concerning western lands; and he also refers to _Libros de Memorias del Almirante_. He is also known by his own statements to have had numerous autograph letters of Columbus. What has become of them is not known. If they were left in the monastery of San Gregorio at Valladolid, where Las Casas used them, they have disappeared with papers of the convent, since they were not among the archives of the suppressed convents, as Harrisse tells us, which were entrusted in 1850 to the Academy of History at Madrid. [Sidenote: Work on the Arctic pole.] In his letter to Doña Juana, Columbus says that he has deposited a work in the Convent de la Mejorada, in which he has predicted the discovery of the Arctic pole. It has not been found. [Sidenote: Missing letters.] Harrisse also tells us of the unsuccessful search which he has made for an alleged letter of Columbus, said in Gunther and Schultz's handbook of autographs (Leipzig, 1856) to have been bought in England by the Duke of Buckingham; and it was learned from Tross, the Paris bookseller, that about 1850 some autograph letters of Columbus, seen by him, were sent to England for sale. [Sidenote: Columbus's maps.] After his return from his first voyage, Columbus prepared a map and an accompanying table of longitudes and latitudes for the new discoveries. They are known to have been the subject of correspondence between him and the queen. There are various other references to maps which Columbus had constructed, to embody his views or show his discoveries. Not one, certainly to be attributed to him, is known, though Ojeda, Niño, and others are recorded as having used, in their explorations, maps made by Columbus. Peter Martyr's language does not indicate that Columbus ever completed any chart, though he had, with the help of his brother Bartholomew, begun one. The map in the Ptolemy of 1513 is said by Santarem to have been drawn by Columbus, or to have been based on his memoranda, but the explanation on the map seems rather to imply that information derived from an admiral in the service of Portugal was used in correcting it, and since Harrisse has brought to light what is usually called the Cantino map, there is strong ground for supposing that the two had one prototype. * * * * * [Sidenote: Italian notarial records.] Let us pass from records by Columbus to those about him. We owe to an ancient custom of Italy that so much has been preserved, to throw in the aggregate no small amount of light on the domestic life of the family in which Columbus was the oldest born. During the fourteen years in which his father lived at Savona, every little business act and legal transaction was attested before notaries, whose records have been preserved filed in _filzas_ in the archives of the town. These _filzas_ were simply a file of documents tied together by a string passed through each, and a _filza_ generally embraced a year's accumulation. The photographic facsimile which Harrisse gives in his _Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_, of the letter of Columbus preserved by the bank, shows how the sheet was folded once lengthwise, and then the hole was made midway in each fold. We learn in this way that, as early as 1470 and later, Columbus stood security for his father. We find him in 1472 the witness of another's will. As under the Justinian procedure the notary's declaration sufficed, such documents in Italy are not rendered additionally interesting by the autograph of the witness, as they would be in England. This notarial resource is no new discovery. As early as 1602, thirteen documents drawn from similar depositaries were printed at Genoa, in some annotations by Giulio Salinerio upon Cornelius Tacitus. Other similar papers were discovered by the archivists of Savona, Gian Tommaso and Giambattista Belloro, in 1810 (reprinted, 1821) and 1839 respectively, and proving the general correctness of the earlier accounts of Columbus's younger days given in Gallo, Senarega, and Giustiniani. It is to be regretted that the original entries of some of these notarial acts are not now to be found, but patient search may yet discover them, and even do something more to elucidate the life of the Columbus family in Savona. [Sidenote: Savona.] There has been brought into prominence and published lately a memoir of the illustrious natives of Savona, written by a lawyer, Giovanni Vincenzo Verzellino, who died in that town in 1638. This document was printed at Savona in 1885, under the editorial care of Andrea Astengo; but Harrisse has given greater currency to its elucidations for our purpose in his _Christophe Colomb et Savone_ (Genoa, 1877). [Sidenote: Genoa notarial records.] Harrisse is not unwisely confident that the nineteen documents--if no more have been added--throwing light on minor points of the obscure parts of the life of Columbus and his kindred, which during recent years have been discovered in the notarial files of Genoa by the Marquis Marcello Staglieno, may be only the precursors of others yet to be unearthed, and that the pages of the _Giornale Ligustico_ may continue to record such discoveries as it has in the past. [Sidenote: Records of the Bank of St. George.] The records of the Bank of Saint George in Genoa have yielded something, but not much. In the state archives of Genoa, preserved since 1817 in the Palazzetto, we might hope to find some report of the great discovery, of which the Genoese ambassadors, Francesco Marchesio and Gian Antonio Grimaldi, were informed, just as they were taking leave of Ferdinand and Isabella for returning to Italy; but nothing of that kind has yet been brought to light there; nor was it ever there, unless the account which Senarega gives in the narrative printed in Muratori was borrowed thence. We may hope, but probably in vain, to have these public archives determine if Columbus really offered to serve his native country in a voyage of discovery. The inquirer is more fortunate if he explores what there is left of the archives of the old abbey of St. Stephen, which, since the suppression of the convents in 1797, have been a part of the public papers, for he can find in them some help in solving some pertinent questions. [Sidenote: Vatican archives.] [Sidenote: Hidden manuscripts.] [Sidenote: Letters about Columbus.] Harrisse tells us in 1887 that he had been waiting two years for permission to search the archives of the Vatican. What may yet be revealed in that repository, the world waits anxiously to learn. It may be that some one shall yet discover there the communication in which Ferdinand and Isabella announced to the Pope the consummation of the hopes of Columbus. It may be that the diplomatic correspondence covering the claims of Spain by virtue of the discovery of Columbus, and leading to the bull of demarcation of May, 1493, may yet be found, accompanied by maps, of the highest interest in interpreting the relations of the new geography. There is no assurance that the end of manuscript disclosures has yet come. Some new bit of documentary proof has been found at times in places quite unexpected. The number of Italian observers in those days of maritime excitement living in the seaports and trading places of Spain and Portugal, kept their home friends alert in expectation by reason of such appetizing news. Such are the letters sent to Italy by Hanibal Januarius, and by Luca, the Florentine engineer, concerning the first voyage. There are similar transient summaries of the second voyage. Some have been found in the papers of Macchiavelli, and others had been arranged by Zorzi for a new edition of his documentary collection. These have all been recovered of recent years, and Harrisse himself, Gargiolli, Guerrini, and others, have been instrumental in their publication. * * * * * [Sidenote: Spanish archives.] [Sidenote: Simancas and Seville.] [Sidenote: Simancas.] It was thirty-seven years after the death of Columbus before, under an order of Charles the Fifth, February 19, 1543, the archives of Spain were placed in some sort of order and security at Simancas. The great masses of papers filed by the crown secretaries and the Councils of the Indies and of Seville, were gradually gathered there, but not until many had been lost. Others apparently disappeared at a later day, for we are now aware that many to which Herrera refers cannot be found. New efforts to secure the preservation and systematize the accumulation of manuscripts were made by order of Philip the Second in 1567, but it would seem without all the success that might have been desired. Towards the end of the last century, it was the wish of Charles the Third that all the public papers relating to the New World should be selected from Simancas and all other places of deposit and carried to Seville. The act was accomplished in 1788, when they were placed in a new building which had been provided for them. Thus it is that to-day the student of Columbus must rather search Seville than Simancas for new documents, though a few papers of some interest in connection with the contests of his heirs with the crown of Castile may still exist at Simancas. Thirty years ago, if not now, as Bergenroth tells us, there was little comfort for the student of history in working at Simancas. The papers are preserved in an old castle, formerly belonging to the admirals of Castile, which had been confiscated and devoted to the uses of such a repository. The one large room which was assigned for the accommodation of readers had a northern aspect, and as no fires were allowed, the note-taker found not infrequently in winter the ink partially congealed in his pen. There was no imaginable warmth even in the landscape as seen from the windows, since, amid a treeless waste, the whistle of cold blasts in winter and a blinding African heat in summer characterize the climate of this part of Old Castile. Of the early career of Columbus, it is very certain that something may be gained at Simancas, for when Bergenroth, sent by the English government, made search there to illustrate the relations of Spain with England, and published his results, with the assistance of Gayangos, in 1862-1879, as a _Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers relating to Negotiations between England and Spain_, one of the earliest entries of his first printed volume, under 1485, was a complaint of Ferdinand and Isabella against a Columbus--some have supposed it our Christopher--for his participancy in the piratical service of the French. [Illustration: ARCHIVO DE SIMANCAS. [From Parcerisa and Quadrado's _España_.]] [Sidenote: Seville.] Harrisse complains that we have as yet but scant knowledge of what the archives of the Indies at Seville may contain, but they probably throw light rather upon the successors of Columbus than upon the career of the Admiral himself. [Sidenote: Seville notarial records.] The notarial archives of Seville are of recent construction, the gathering of scattered material having been first ordered so late as 1869. The partial examination which has since been made of them has revealed some slight evidences of the life of some of Columbus's kindred, and it is quite possible some future inquirer will be rewarded for his diligent search among them. It is also not unlikely that something of interest may be brought to light respecting the descendants of Columbus who have lived in Seville, like the Counts of Gelves; but little can be expected regarding the life of the Admiral himself. [Sidenote: Santa Maria de las Cuevas.] The personal fame of Columbus is much more intimately connected with the monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas. Here his remains were transported in 1509; and at a later time, his brother and son, each Diego by name, were laid beside him, as was his grandson Luis. Here in an iron chest the family muniments and jewels were kept, as has been said. It is affirmed that all the documents which might have grown out of these transactions of duty and precaution, and which might incidentally have yielded some biographical information, are nowhere to be found in the records of the monastery. A century ago or so, when Muñoz was working in these records, there seems to have been enough to repay his exertions, as we know by his citations made between 1781 and 1792. * * * * * [Sidenote: Portuguese archives. Torre do Tombo.] The national archives of the Torre do Tombo, at Lisbon, begun so far back as 1390, are well known to have been explored by Santarem, then their keeper, primarily for traces of the career of Vespucius; but so intelligent an antiquary could not have forgotten, as a secondary aim, the acts of Columbus. The search yielded him, however, nothing in this last direction; nor was Varnhagen more fortunate. Harrisse had hopes to discover there the correspondence of Columbus with John the Second, in 1488; but the search was futile in this respect, though it yielded not a little respecting the Perestrello family, out of which Columbus took his wife, the mother of the heir of his titles. There is even hope that the notarial acts of Lisbon might serve a similar purpose to those which have been so fruitful in Genoa and Savona. There are documents of great interest which may be yet obscurely hidden away, somewhere in Portugal, like the letter from the mouth of the Tagus, which Columbus on his return in March, 1493, addressed to the Portuguese king, and the diplomatic correspondence of John the Second and Ferdinand of Aragon, which the project of a second voyage occasioned, as well as the preliminaries of the treaty of Tordesillas. [Sidenote: Santo Domingo archives.] [Sidenote: Lawsuit papers.] There may be yet some hope from the archives of Santo Domingo itself, and from those of its Cathedral, to trace in some of their lines the descendants of the Admiral through his son Diego. The mishaps of nature and war have, however, much impaired the records. Of Columbus himself there is scarce a chance to learn anything here. The papers of the famous lawsuit of Diego Colon with the crown seem to have escaped the attention of all the historians before the time of Muñoz and Navarrete. The direct line of male descendants of the Admiral ended in 1578, when his great-grandson, Diego Colon y Pravia, died on the 27th January, a childless man. Then began another contest for the heritage and titles, and it lasted for thirty years, till in 1608 the Council of the Indies judged the rights to descend by a turn back to Diego's aunt Isabel, and thence to her grandson, Nuño de Portugallo, Count of Gelves. The excluded heirs, represented by the children of a sister of Diego, Francisca, who had married Diego Ortegon, were naturally not content; and out of the contest which followed we get a large mass of printed statements and counter statements, which used with caution, offer a study perhaps of some of the transmitted traits of Columbus. Harrisse names and describes nineteen of these documentary memorials, the last of which bears date in 1792. The most important of them all, however, is one printed at Madrid in 1606, known as _Memorial del Pleyto_, in which we find the descent of the true and spurious lines, and learn something too much of the scandalous life of Luis, the grandson of the Admiral, to say nothing of the illegitimate taints of various other branches. Harrisse finds assistance in working out some of the lines of the Admiral's descendants, in Antonio Caetano de Sousa's _Historia Genealogica da Casa Real Portugueza_ (Lisbon, 1735-49, in 14 vols.). [Sidenote: The Muñoz collection.] The most important collection of documents gathered by individual efforts in Spain, to illustrate the early history of the New World, was that made by Juan Bautista Muñoz, in pursuance of royal orders issued to him in 1781 and 1788, to examine all Spanish archives, for the purpose of collecting material for a comprehensive History of the Indies. Muñoz has given in the introduction of his history a clear statement of the condition of the different depositories of archives in Spain, as he found them towards the end of the last century, when a royal order opened them all to his search. A first volume of Muñoz's elaborate and judicious work was issued in 1793, and Muñoz died in 1799, without venturing on a second volume to carry the story beyond 1500, where he had left it. He was attacked for his views, and there was more or less of a pamphlet war over the book before death took him from the strife; but he left a fragment of the second volume in manuscript, and of this there is a copy in the Lenox Library in New York. Another copy was sold in the Brinley sale. The Muñoz collection of copies came in part, at least, at some time after the collector's death into the hands of Antonio de Uguina, who placed them at the disposal of Irving; and Ternaux seems also to have used them. They were finally deposited by the Spanish government in the Academy of History at Madrid. Here Alfred Demersey saw them in 1862-63, and described them in the _Bulletin_ of the French Geographical Society in June, 1864, and it is on this description as well as on one in Fuster's _Biblioteca Valenciana_, that Harrisse depends, not having himself examined the documents. [Sidenote: The Navarrete collection.] Martin Fernandez de Navarrete was guided in his career as a collector of documents, when Charles the Fourth made an order, October 15, 1789, that there should be such a work begun to constitute the nucleus of a library and museum. The troublous times which succeeded interrupted the work, and it was not till 1825 that Navarrete brought out the first volume of his _Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos que hicieron por Mar los Españoles desde_ _Fines del Siglo XV._, a publication which a fifth volume completed in 1837, when he was over seventy years of age. Any life of Columbus written from documentary sources must reflect much light from this collection of Navarrete, of which the first two volumes are entirely given to the career of the Admiral, and indeed bear the distinctive title of _Relaciones, Cartas y otros Documentos_, relating to him. [Sidenote: The researches of Navarrete.] Navarrete was engaged thirty years on his work in the archives of Spain, and was aided part of the time by Muñoz the historian, and by Gonzales the keeper of the archives at Simancas. His researches extended to all the public repositories, and to such private ones as could be thought to illustrate the period of discovery. Navarrete has told the story of his searches in the various archives of Spain, in the introduction to his _Coleccion_, and how it was while searching for the evidences of the alleged voyage of Maldonado on the Pacific coast of North America, in 1588, that he stumbled upon Las Casas's copies of the relations of Columbus, for his first and third voyages, then hid away in the archives of the Duc del Infantado; and he was happy to have first brought them to the attention of Muñoz. There are some advantages for the student in the use of the French edition of Navarrete's _Relations des Quatre Voyages entrepris par Colomb_, since the version was revised by Navarrete himself, and it is elucidated, not so much as one would wish, with notes by Rémusat, Balbi, Cuvier, Jomard, Letronne, St. Martin, Walckenaer, and others. It was published at Paris in three volumes in 1828. The work contains Navarrete's accounts of Spanish pre-Columbian voyages, of the later literature on Columbus, and of the voyages of discovery made by other efforts of the Spaniards, beside the documentary material respecting Columbus and his voyages, the result of his continued labors. Caleb Cushing, in his _Reminiscences of Spain_ in 1833, while commending the general purposes of Navarrete, complains of his attempts to divert the indignation of posterity from the selfish conduct of Ferdinand, and to vindicate him from the charge of injustice towards Columbus. This plea does not find to-day the same sympathy in students that it did sixty years ago. [Sidenote: Madrid Academy of History.] Father Antonio de Aspa of the monastery of the Mejorada, formed a collection of documents relating to the discovery of the New World, and it was in this collection, now preserved in the Academy of History at Madrid, that Navarrete discovered that curious narration of the second voyage of Columbus by Dr. Chanca, which had been sent to the chapter of the Cathedral, and which Navarrete included in his collection. It is thought that Bernaldez had used this Chanca narrative in his _Reyes Católicos_. [Sidenote: _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos._] Navarrete's name is also connected, as one of its editors, with the extensive _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de España_, the publication of which was begun in Madrid in 1847, two years before Navarrete's death. This collection yields something in elucidation of the story to be here told; but not much, except that in it, at a late day, the _Historia_ of Las Casas was first printed. In 1864, there was still another series begun at Madrid, _Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista y Colonizacion de las Posesiones Españolas en América y Oceania_, under the editing of Joaquin Pacheco and Francisco de Cárdenas, who have not always satisfied students by the way in which they have done their work. Beyond the papers which Navarrete had earlier given, and which are here reprinted, there is not much in this collection to repay the student of Columbus, except some long accounts of the Repartimiento in Española. [Sidenote: Cartas de Indias.] The latest documentary contribution is the large folio, with an appendix of facsimile writings of Columbus, Vespucius, and others, published at Madrid in 1877, by the government, and called _Cartas de Indias_, in which it has been hinted some use has been made of the matter accumulated by Navarrete for additional volumes of his _Coleccion_. [Illustration: PART OF A PAGE IN THE GIUSTINIANI PSALTER, SHOWING THE BEGINNING OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED LIFE OF COLUMBUS. [From the copy in Harvard College Library.]] CHAPTER II. BIOGRAPHERS AND PORTRAITISTS. [Sidenote: Contemporary notices.] [Sidenote: Giustiniani.] We may most readily divide by the nationalities of the writers our enumeration of those who have used the material which has been considered in the previous chapter. We begin, naturally, with the Italians, the countrymen of Columbus. We may look first to three Genoese, and it has been shown that while they used documents apparently now lost, they took nothing from them which we cannot get from other sources; and they all borrowed from common originals, or from each other. Two of these writers are Antonio Gallo, the official chronicler of the Genoese Republic, on the first and second voyages of Columbus, and so presumably writing before the third was made, and Bartholomew Senarega on the affairs of Genoa, both of which recitals were published by Muratori, in his great Italian collection. The third is Giustiniani, the Bishop of Nebbio, who, publishing in 1516, at Genoa, a polyglot Psalter, added, as one of his elucidations of the nineteenth psalm, on the plea that Columbus had often boasted he was chosen to fulfill its prophecy, a brief life of Columbus, in which the story of the humble origin of the navigator has in the past been supposed to have first been told. The other accounts, it now appears, had given that condition an equal prominence. Giustiniani was but a child when Columbus left Genoa, and could not have known him; and taking, very likely, much from hearsay, he might have made some errors, which were repeated or only partly corrected in his Annals of Genoa, published in 1537, the year following his own death. It is not found, however, that the sketch is in any essential particular far from correct, and it has been confirmed by recent investigations. The English of it is given in Harrisse's _Notes on Columbus_ (pp. 74-79). The statements of the Psalter respecting Columbus were reckoned with other things so false that the Senate of Genoa prohibited its perusal and allowed no one to possess it,--at least so it is claimed in the _Historie_ of 1571; but no one has ever found such a decree, nor is it mentioned by any who would have been likely to revert to it, had it ever existed. [Sidenote: Bergomas.] The account in the _Collectanea_ of Battista Fulgoso (sometimes written Fregoso), printed at Milan in 1509, is of scarcely any original value, though of interest as the work of another Genoese. Allegetto degli Allegetti, whose _Ephemerides_ is also published in Muratori, deserves scarcely more credit, though he seems to have got his information from the letters of Italian merchants living in Spain, who communicated current news to their home correspondents. Bergomas, who had published a chronicle as early as 1483, made additions to his work from time to time, and in an edition printed at Venice, in 1503, he paraphrased Columbus's own account of his first voyage, which was reprinted in the subsequent edition of 1506. In this latter year Maffei de Volterra published a commentary at Rome, of much the same importance. Such was the filtering process by which Italy, through her own writers, acquired contemporary knowledge of her adventurous son. The method was scarcely improved in the condensation of Jovius (1551), or in the traveler's tales of Benzoni (1565). [Sidenote: Casoni, 1708.] [Sidenote: Bossi.] Harrisse affirms that it is not till we come down to the Annals of Genoa, published by Filippo Casoni, in 1708, that we get any new material in an Italian writer, and on a few points this last writer has adduced documentary evidence, not earlier made known. It is only when we pass into the present century that we find any of the countrymen of Columbus undertaking in a sustained way to tell the whole story of Columbus's life. Léon had noted that at some time in Spain, without giving place and date, Columbus had printed a little tract, _Declaration de Tabla Navigatoria_; but no one before Luigi Bossi had undertaken to investigate the writings of Columbus. He is precursor of all the modern biographers of Columbus, and his book was published at Milan, in 1818. He claimed in his appendix to have added rare and unpublished documents, but Harrisse points out how they had all been printed earlier. Bossi expresses opinions respecting the Spanish nation that are by no means acceptable to that people, and Navarrete not infrequently takes the Italian writer to task for this as for his many errors of statement, and for the confidence which he places even in the pictorial designs of De Bry as historical records. There is nothing more striking in the history of American discovery than the fact that the Italian people furnished to Spain Columbus, to England Cabot, and to France Verrazano; and that the three leading powers of Europe, following as maritime explorers in the lead of Portugal, who could not dispense with Vespucius, another Italian, pushed their rights through men whom they had borrowed from the central region of the Mediterranean, while Italy in its own name never possessed a rood of American soil. The adopted country of each of these Italians gave more or less of its own impress to its foster child. No one of these men was so impressible as Columbus, and no country so much as Spain was likely at this time to exercise an influence on the character of an alien. Humboldt has remarked that Columbus got his theological fervor in Andalusia and Granada, and we can scarcely imagine Columbus in the garb of a Franciscan walking the streets of free and commercial Genoa as he did those of Seville, when he returned from his second voyage. The latest of the considerable popular Italian lives of Columbus is G. B. Lemoyne's _Colombo e la Scoperta dell' America_, issued at Turin, in 1873. * * * * * [Sidenote: Portuguese writers.] We may pass now to the historians of that country to which Columbus betook himself on leaving Italy; but about all to be found at first hand is in the chronicle of João II. of Portugal, as prepared by Ruy de Pina, the archivist of the Torre do Tombo. At the time of the voyage of Columbus Ruy was over fifty, while Garcia de Resende was a young man then living at the Portuguese court, who in his _Choronica_, published in 1596, did little more than borrow from his elder, Ruy; and Resende in turn furnished to João de Barros the staple of the latter's narrative in his _Decada da Asia_, printed at Lisbon, in 1752. * * * * * [Sidenote: Spanish writers.] [Sidenote: Peter Martyr.] We find more of value when we summon the Spanish writers. Although Peter Martyr d'Anghiera was an Italian, Muñoz reckons him a Spaniard, since he was naturalized in Spain. He was a man of thirty years, when, coming from Rome, he settled in Spain, a few years before Columbus attracted much notice. Martyr had been borne thither on a reputation of his own, which had commended his busy young nature to the attention of the Spanish court. He took orders and entered upon a prosperous career, proceeding by steps, which successively made him the chaplain of Queen Isabella, a prior of the Cathedral of Granada, and ultimately the official chronicler of the Indies. Very soon after his arrival in Spain, he had disclosed a quick eye for the changeful life about him, and he began in 1488 the writing of those letters which, to the number of over eight hundred, exist to attest his active interest in the events of his day. These events he continued to observe till 1525. We have no more vivid source of the contemporary history, particularly as it concerned the maritime enterprise of the peninsular peoples. He wrote fluently, and, as he tells us, sometimes while waiting for dinner, and necessarily with haste. He jotted down first and unconfirmed reports, and let them stand. He got news by hearsay, and confounded events. He had candor and sincerity enough, however, not to prize his own works above their true value. He knew Columbus, and, his letters readily reflect what interest there was in the exploits of Columbus, immediately on his return from his first voyage; but the earlier preparations of the navigator for that voyage, with the problematical characteristics of the undertaking, do not seem to have made any impression upon Peter Martyr, and it is not till May of 1493, when the discovery had been made, and later in September, that he chronicles the divulged existence of the newly discovered islands. The three letters in which this wonderful intelligence was first communicated are printed by Harrisse in English, in his _Notes on Columbus_. Las Casas tells us how Peter Martyr got his accounts of the first discoveries directly from the lips of Columbus himself and from those who accompanied him; but he does not fail to tell us also of the dangers of too implicitly trusting to all that Peter says. From May 14, 1493, to June 5, 1497, in twelve separate letters, we read what this observer has to say of the great navigator who had suddenly and temporarily stepped into the glare of notice. These and other letters of Peter Martyr have not escaped some serious criticism. There are contradictions and anachronisms in them that have forcibly helped Ranke, Hallam, Gerigk, and others to count the text which we have as more or less changed from what must have been the text, if honestly written by Martyr. They have imagined that some editor, willful or careless, has thrown this luckless accompaniment upon them. The letters, however, claimed the confidence of Prescott, and have, as regards the parts touching the new discoveries, seldom failed to impress with their importance those who have used them. It is the opinion of the last examiner of them, J. H. Mariéjol, in his _Peter Martyr d'Anghera_ (Paris, 1887), that to read them attentively is the best refutation of the skeptics. Martyr ceased to refer to the affairs of the New World after 1499, and those of his earlier letters which illustrate the early voyage have appeared in a French version, made by Gaffarel and Louvot (Paris, 1885). The representations of Columbus easily convinced Martyr that there opened a subject worthy of his pen, and he set about composing a special treatise on the discoveries in the New World, and, under the title of _De Orbe Novo_, it occupied his attention from October, 1494, to the day of his death. For the earlier years he had, if we may believe him, not a little help from Columbus himself; and it would seem from his one hundred and thirty-five epistles that he was not altogether prepared to go with Columbus, in accounting the new islands as lying off the coast of Asia. He is particularly valuable to us in treating of Columbus's conflicts with the natives of Española, and Las Casas found him as helpful as we do. These _Decades_, as the treatise is usually called, formed enlarged bulletins, which, in several copies, were transmitted by him to some of his noble friends in Italy, to keep them conversant with the passing events. [Sidenote: Trivigiano.] A certain Angelo Trivigiano, into whose hands a copy of some of the early sections fell, translated them into easy, not to say vulgar, Italian, and sent them to Venice, in four different copies, a few months after they were written; and in this way the first seven books of the first decade fell into the hands of a Venetian printer, who, in April, 1504, brought out a little book of sixteen leaves in the dialect of that region, known in bibliography as the _Libretto de Tutta la Navigation de Re de Spagna de le Isole et Terreni novamente trovati_. This publication is known to us in a single copy lacking a title, in the Biblioteca Marciana. Here we have the first account of the new discoveries, written upon report, and supplementing the narrative of Columbus himself. We also find in this little narrative some personal details about Columbus, not contained in the same portions when embodied in the larger _De Orbe Novo_ of Martyr, and it may be a question if somebody who acted as editor to the Venetian version may not have added them to the translation. The story of the new discoveries attracted enough notice to make Zorzi or Montalboddo--if one or the other were its editor--include this Venetian version of Martyr bodily in the collection of voyages which, as _Paesi novamente retrovati_, was published at Vicentia somewhere about November, 1507. It is, perhaps, a measure of the interest felt in the undertakings of Columbus, not easily understood at this day, that it took fourteen years for a scant recital of such events to work themselves into the context of so composite a record of discovery as the _Paesi_ proved to be; and still more remarkable it may be accounted that the story could be told with but few actual references to the hero of the transactions, "Columbus, the Genoese." It is not only the compiler who is so reticent, but it is the author whence he borrowed what he had to say, Martyr himself, the observer and acquaintance of Columbus, who buries the discoverer under the event. With such an augury, it is not so strange that at about the same time in the little town of St. Dié, in the Vosges, a sequestered teacher could suggest a name derived from that of a follower of Columbus, Americus Vespucius, for that part of the new lands then brought into prominence. If the documentary proofs of Columbus's priority had given to the Admiral's name the same prominence which the event received, the result might not, in the end, have been so discouraging to justice. Martyr, unfortunately, with all his advantages, and with his access to the archives of the Indies, did not burden his recital with documents. He was even less observant of the lighter traits that interest those eager for news than might have been expected, for the busy chaplain was a gossip by nature: he liked to retail hearsays and rumors; he enlivened his letters with personal characteristics; but in speaking of Columbus he is singularly reticent upon all that might picture the man to us as he lived. [Sidenote: Oviedo.] [Sidenote: Ramusio.] When, in 1534, these portions of Martyr's _Decades_ were combined with a summary of Oviedo, in a fresh publication, there were some curious personal details added to Martyr's narrative; but as Ramusio is supposed to have edited the compilation, these particulars are usually accredited to that author. It is not known whence this Italian compiler could have got them, and there is no confirmation of them elsewhere to be found. If these additions, as is supposed, were a foreign graft upon Martyr's recitals, the staple of his narrative still remains not altogether free from some suspicions that, as a writer himself, he was not wholly frank and trustworthy. At least a certain confusion in his method leads some of the critics to discover something like imposture in what they charge as a habit of antedating a letter so as to appear prophetic; while his defenders find in these same evidences of incongruity a sign of spontaneity that argues freshness and sincerity. * * * * * [Sidenote: Bernaldez.] The confidence which we may readily place in what is said of Columbus in the chronicle of Ferdinand and Isabella, written by Andrès Bernaldez, is prompted by his acquaintance with Columbus, and by his being the recipient of some of the navigator's own writings from his own hands. He is also known to have had access to what Chanca and other companions of Columbus had written. This country curate, who lived in the neighborhood of Seville, was also the chaplain of the Archbishop of Seville, a personal friend of the Admiral, and from him Bernaldez received some help. He does not add much, however, to what is given us by Peter Martyr, though in respect to the second voyage and to a few personal details Bernaldez is of some confirmatory value. The manuscript of his narrative remained unprinted in the royal library at Madrid till about thirty-five years ago; but nearly all the leading writers have made use of it in copies which have been furnished. * * * * * [Sidenote: Oviedo.] In coming to Oviedo, we encounter a chronicler who, as a writer, possesses an art far from skillful. Muñoz laments that his learning was not equal to his diligence. He finds him of little service for the times of Columbus, and largely because he was neglectful of documents and pursued uncritical combinations of tales and truths. With all his vagaries he is a helpful guide. "It is not," says Harrisse, "that Oviedo shows so much critical sagacity, as it is that he collates all the sources available to him, and gives the reader the clues to a final judgment." He is generally deemed honest, though Las Casas thought him otherwise. The author of the _Historie_ looks upon him as an enemy of Columbus, and would make it appear that he listened to the tales of the Pinzons, who were enemies of the Admiral. His administrative services in the Indies show that he could be faithful to a trust, even at the risk of popularity. This gives a presumption in favor of his historic fairness. He was intelligent if not learned, and a power of happy judgments served him in good stead, even with a somewhat loose method of taking things as he heard them. He further inspires us with a certain amount of confidence, because he is not always a hero-worshiper, and he does not hesitate to tell a story, which seems to have been in circulation, to the effect that Columbus got his geographical ideas from an old pilot. Oviedo, however, refrains from setting the tale down as a fact, as some of the later writers, using little of Oviedo's caution, and borrowing from him, did. His opportunities of knowing the truth were certainly exceptional, though it does not appear that he ever had direct communication with the Admiral himself. He was but a lad of fifteen when we find him jotting down notes of what he saw and heard, as a page in attendance upon Don Juan, the son of the Spanish sovereigns, when, at Barcelona, he saw them receive Columbus after his first voyage. During five years, between 1497 and 1502, he was in Italy. With that exception he was living within the Spanish court up to 1514, when he was sent to the New World, and passed there the greater part of his remaining life. While he had been at court in his earlier years, the sons of Columbus, Diego and Ferdinand, were his companions in the pages' anteroom, and he could hardly have failed to profit by their acquaintance. We know that from the younger son he did derive not a little information. When he went to America, some of Columbus's companions and followers were still living,--Pinzon, Ponce de Leon, and Diego Velasquez,--and all these could hardly have failed to help him in his note-taking. He also tells us that he sought some of the Italian compatriots of the Admiral, though Harrisse judges that what he got from them was not altogether trustworthy. Oviedo rose naturally in due time into the position of chronicler of the Indies, and tried his skill at first in a descriptive account of the New World. A command of Charles the Fifth, with all the facilities which such an order implied, though doubtless in some degree embarrassed by many of the documentary proofs being preserved rather in Spain than in the Indies, finally set him to work on a _Historia General de las Indias_, the opening portions of which, and those covering the career of Columbus, were printed at Seville in 1535. It is the work of a consistent though not blinded admirer of the Discoverer, and while we might wish he had helped us to more of the proofs of his narrative, his recital is, on the whole, one to be signally grateful for. Gomara, in the early part of his history, mixed up what he took from Oviedo with what else came in his way, with an avidity that rejected little. * * * * * [Sidenote: _Historie_ ascribed to Ferdinand Columbus.] But it is to a biography of Columbus, written by his youngest son, Ferdinand, as was universally believed up to 1871, that all the historians of the Admiral have been mainly indebted for the personal details and other circumstances which lend vividness to his story. As the book has to-day a good many able defenders, notwithstanding the discredit which Harrisse has sought to place upon it, it is worth while to trace the devious paths of its transmission, and to measure the burden of confidence placed upon it from the days of Ferdinand to our own. The rumor goes that some of the statements in the Psalter note of 1516, particularly one respecting the low origin of the Admiral, disturbed the pride of Ferdinand to such a degree that this son of Columbus undertook to leave behind him a detailed account of his father's career, such as the Admiral, though urged to do it, had never found time to write. Ferdinand was his youngest son, and was born only three or four years before his father left Palos. There are two dates given for his birth, each apparently on good authority, but these are a year apart. [Sidenote: Career of Ferdinand Columbus.] The language of Columbus's will, as well as the explicit statements of Oviedo and Las Casas, leaves no reasonable ground for doubting his illegitimacy. Bastardy was no bar to heirship in Spain, if a testator chose to make a natural son his heir, as Columbus did, in giving Ferdinand the right to his titles after the failure of heirs to Diego, his legitimate son. Columbus's influence early found him a place as a page at court, and during the Admiral's fourth voyage, in 1502-1504, the boy accompanied his father, and once or twice at a later day he again visited the Indies. When Columbus died, this son inherited many of his papers; but if his own avowal be believed, he had neglected occasions in his father's lifetime to question the Admiral respecting his early life, not having, as he says, at that time learned to have interest in such matters. His subsequent education at court, however, implanted in his mind a good deal of the scholar's taste, and as a courtier in attendance upon Charles the Fifth he had seasons of travel, visiting pretty much every part of Western Europe, during which he had opportunities to pick up in many places a large collection of books. He often noted in them the place and date of purchase, so that it is not difficult to learn in this way something of his wanderings. The income of Ferdinand was large, or the equivalent of what Harrisse calls to-day 180,000 francs, which was derived from territorial rights in San Domingo, coming to him from the Admiral, increased by slave labor in the mines, assigned to him by King Ferdinand, which at one time included the service of four hundred Indians, and enlarged by pensions bestowed by Charles the Fifth. It has been said sometimes that he was in orders; but Harrisse, his chief biographer, could find no proof of it. Oviedo describes him in 1535 as a person of "much nobility of character, of an affable turn and of a sweet conversation." [Sidenote: Biblioteca Colombina.] When he died at Seville, July 12, 1539, he had amassed a collection of books, variously estimated in contemporary accounts at from twelve to twenty thousand volumes. Harrisse, in his _Grandeur et Décadence de la Colombine_ (2d ed., Paris, 1885), represents Ferdinand as having searched from 1510 to 1537 all the principal book marts of Europe. He left these books by will to his minor nephew, Luis Colon, son of Diego, but there was a considerable delay before Luis renounced the legacy, with the conditions attached. Legal proceedings, which accompanied the transactions of its executors, so delayed the consummation of the alternative injunction of the will that the chapter of the Cathedral of Seville, which, was to receive the library in case Don Luis declined it, did not get possession of it till 1552. The care of it which ensued seems to have been of a varied nature. Forty years later a scholar bitterly complains that it was inaccessible. It is known that by royal command certain books and papers were given up to enrich the national archives, which, however, no longer contain them. When, in 1684, the monks awoke to a sense of their responsibility and had a new inventory of the books made, it was found that the collection had been reduced to four or five thousand volumes. After the librarian who then had charge of it died in 1709, the collection again fell into neglect. There are sad stories of roistering children let loose in its halls to make havoc of its treasures. There was no responsible care again taken of it till a new librarian was chosen, in 1832, who discovered what any one might have learned before, that the money which Ferdinand left for the care and increase of the library had never been applied to it, and that the principal, even, had disappeared. Other means of increasing it were availed of, and the loss of the original inestimable bibliographical treasures was forgotten in the crowd of modern books which were placed upon its shelves. Amid all this new growth, it does not appear just how many of the books which descended from Ferdinand still remain in it. Something of the old carelessness--to give it no worse name--has despoiled it, even as late as 1884 and 1885, when large numbers of the priceless treasures still remaining found a way to the Quay Voltaire and other marts for old books in Paris, while others were disposed of in London, Amsterdam, and even in Spain. This outrage was promptly exposed by Harrisse in the _Revue Critique_, and in two monographs, _Grandeur et Décadence_, etc., already named, and in his _Colombine et Clément Marot_ (Paris, 1886); and the story has been further recapitulated in the accounts of Ferdinand and his library, which Harrisse has also given in his _Excerpta Colombiana: Bibliographie de Quatre Cents Pièces Gothiques_ _Francaises, Italiennes et Latines du Commencement du XVI Siecle_ (Paris, 1887), an account of book rarities found in that library. [Illustration: SPECIMENS OF THE NOTES OF FERDINAND COLUMBUS ON HIS BOOKS. [From Harrisse's _Grandeur el Décadence de la Colombine_ (Paris, 1885).]] [Sidenote: Perez de Oliva.] We are fortunate, nevertheless, in having a manuscript catalogue of it in Ferdinand's own hand, though not a complete one, for he died while he was making it. This library, as well as what we know of his writings and of the reputation which he bore among his contemporaries, many of whom speak of him and of his library with approbation, shows us that a habit, careless of inquiry in his boyhood, gave place in his riper years to study and respect for learning. He is said by the inscription on his tomb to have composed an extensive work on the New World and his father's finding of it, but it has disappeared. Neither in his library nor in his catalogue do we find any trace of the life of his father which he is credited with having prepared. None of his friends, some of them writers on the New World, make any mention of such a book. There is in the catalogue a note, however, of a life of Columbus written about 1525, of which the manuscript is credited to Ferdinand Perez de Oliva, a man of some repute, who died in 1530. Whether this writing bore any significant relation to the life which is associated with the owner of the library is apparently beyond discovery. It can scarcely be supposed that it could have been written other than with Ferdinand's cognizance. That there was an account of the Admiral's career, quoted in Las Casas and attributed to Ferdinand Columbus, and that it existed before 1559, seems to be nearly certain. A manuscript of the end of the sixteenth century, by Gonzalo Argote de Molina, mentions a report that Ferdinand had written a life of his father. Harrisse tells us that he has seen a printed book catalogue, apparently of the time of Muñoz or Navarette, in which a Spanish life of Columbus by Ferdinand Columbus is entered; but the fact stands without any explanation or verification. Spotorno, in 1823, in an introduction to his collection of documents about Columbus, says that the manuscript of what has passed for Ferdinand's memoir of his father was taken from Spain to Genoa by Luis Colon, the Duke of Veragua, son of Diego and grandson of Christopher Columbus. It is not known that Luis ever had any personal relations with Ferdinand, who died while Luis was still in Santo Domingo. [Sidenote: Character of the _Historie_.] It is said that it was in 1568 that Luis took the manuscript to Genoa, but in that year he is known to have been living elsewhere. He had been arrested in Spain in 1558 for having three wives, when he was exiled to Oran, in Africa, for ten years, and he died in 1572. Spotorno adds that the manuscript afterwards fell into the hands of a patrician, Marini, from whom Alfonzo de Ullua received it, and translated it into Italian. It is shown, however, that Marini was not living at this time. The original Spanish, if that was the tongue of the manuscript, then disappeared, and the world has only known it in this Italian _Historie_, published in 1571. Whether the copy brought to Italy had been in any way changed from its original condition, or whether the version then made public fairly represented it, there does not seem any way of determining to the satisfaction of everybody. At all events, the world thought it had got something of value and of authority, and in sundry editions and retranslations, with more or less editing and augmentation, it has passed down to our time--the last edition appearing in 1867--unquestioned for its service to the biographers of Columbus. Muñoz hardly knew what to make of some of "its unaccountable errors," and conjectured that the Italian version had been made from "a corrupt and false copy;" and coupling with it the "miserable" Spanish rendering in Barcia's _Historiadores_, Muñoz adds that "a number of falsities and absurdities is discernible in both." Humboldt had indeed expressed wonder at the ignorance of the book in nautical matters, considering the reputation which Ferdinand held in such affairs. It began the Admiral's story in detail when he was said to be fifty-six years of age. It has never been clear to all minds that Ferdinand's asseveration of a youthful want of curiosity respecting the Admiral's early life was sufficient to account for so much reticence respecting that formative period. It has been, accordingly, sometimes suspected that a desire to ignore the family's early insignificance rather than ignorance had most to do with this absence of information. This seems to be Irving's inference from the facts. [Sidenote: Attacked by Harrisse.] In 1871, Henry Harrisse, who in 1866 had written of the book, "It is generally accepted with some latitude," made the first assault on its integrity, in his _Fernando Colon_, published in Seville, in Spanish, which was followed the next year by his _Fernand Colomb_, in the original French text as it had been written, and published at Paris. Harrisse's view was reënforced in the _Additions_ to his _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, and he again reverted to the subject in the first volume of his _Christophe Colomb_, in 1884. In the interim the entire text of Las Casas's _Historia_ had been published for the first time, rendering a comparison of the two books more easy. Harrisse availed himself of this facility of examination, and made no abatement of his confident disbelief. That Las Casas borrowed from the _Historie_, or rather that the two books had a common source, Harrisse thinks satisfactorily shown. He further throws out the hint that this source, or prototype, may have been one of the lost essays of Ferdinand, in which he had followed the career of his father; or indeed, in some way, the account written by Oliva may have formed the basis of the book. He further implies that, in the transformation to the Italian edition of 1571, there were engrafted upon the narrative many contradictions and anachronisms, which seriously impair its value. Hence, as he contends, it is a shame to impose its authorship in that foreign shape upon Ferdinand. He also denies in the main the story of its transmission as told by Spotorno. So much of this book as is authentic, and may be found to be corroborated by other evidence, may very likely be due to the manuscript of Oliva, transported to Italy, and used as the work of Ferdinand Columbus, to give it larger interest than the name of Oliva would carry; while, to gratify prejudices and increase its attractions, the various interpolations were made, which Harrisse thinks--and with much reason--could not have proceeded from one so near to Columbus, so well informed, and so kindly in disposition as we know his son Ferdinand to have been. [Sidenote: Defended by Stevens and others.] So iconoclastic an outburst was sure to elicit vindicators of the world's faith as it had long been held. In counter publications, Harrisse and D'Avezac, the latter an eminent French authority on questions of this period, fought out their battle, not without some sharpness. Henry Stevens, an old antagonist of Harrisse, assailed the new views with his accustomed confidence and rasping assertion. Oscar Peschel, the German historian, and Count Circourt, the French student, gave their opposing opinions; and the issue has been joined by others, particularly within a few years by Prospero Peragallo, the pastor of an Italian church in Lisbon, who has pressed defensive views with some force in his _L'Autenticità delle Historie di Fernando Colombo_ (1884), and later in his _Cristoforo Colombo et sua Famiglia_ (1888). It is held by some of these later advocates of the book that parts of the original Spanish text can be identified in Las Casas. The controversy has thus had two stages. The first was marked by the strenuousness of D'Avezac fifteen years ago. The second sprang from the renewed propositions of Harrisse in his _Christophe Colomb_, ten years later. Sundry critics have summed up the opposing arguments with more or less tendency to oppose the iconoclast, and chief among them are two German scholars: Professor Max Büdinger, in his _Acten zur Columbus' Geschichte_ (Wien, 1886), and his _Zur Columbus Literatur_ (Wien, 1889); and Professor Eugen Gelcich, in the _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_ (1887). Harrisse's views cannot be said to have conquered a position; but his own scrutiny and that which he has engendered in others have done good work in keeping the _Historie_ constantly subject to critical caution. Dr. Shea still says of it: "It is based on the same documents of Christopher Columbus which Las Casas used. It is a work of authority." * * * * * [Sidenote: Las Casas.] Reference has already been made to the tardy publication of the narrative of Las Casas. Columbus had been dead something over twenty years, when this good man set about the task of describing in this work what he had seen and heard respecting the New World,--or at least this is the generally accredited interval, making him begin the work in 1527; and yet it is best to remember that Helps could not find any positive evidence of his being at work on the manuscript before 1552. Las Casas did not live to finish the task, though he labored upon it down to 1561, when he was eighty-seven years old. He died five years later. Irving, who made great use of Las Casas, professed to consult him with that caution which he deemed necessary in respect to a writer given to prejudice and overheated zeal. For the period of Columbus's public life (1492-1506), no other one of his contemporaries gives us so much of documentary proof. Of the thirty-one papers, falling within this interval, which he transcribed into his pages nearly in their entirety,--throwing out some preserved in the archives of the Duke of Veragua, and others found at Simancas or Seville,--there remain seventeen, that would be lost to us but for this faithful chronicler. How did he command this rich resource? As a native of Seville, Las Casas had come there to be consecrated as bishop in 1544, and again in 1547, after he had quitted the New World forever. At this time the family papers of Columbus, then held for Luis Colon, a minor, were locked up in a strong box in the custody of the monks of the neighboring monastery of Las Cuevas. There is no evidence, however, that the chest was opened for the inspection of the chronicler. He also professes to use original letters sent by Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, which he must have found in the archives at Valladolid before 1545, or at Simancas after that date. Again he speaks of citing as in his own collection attested copies of some of Columbus's letters. In 1550, and during his later years, Las Casas lived in the monastery of San Gregorio, at Valladolid, leaving it only for visits to Toledo or Madrid, unless it was for briefer visits to Simancas, not far off. Some of the documents, which he might have found in that repository, are not at present in those archives. It was there that he might have found numerous letters which he cites, but which are not otherwise known. From the use Las Casas makes of them, it would seem that they were of more importance in showing the discontent and querulousness of Columbus than as adding to details of his career. Again it appears clear that Las Casas got documents in some way from the royal archives. We know the journal of Columbus on his first voyage only from the abridgment which Las Casas made of it, and much the same is true of the record of his third voyage. In some portion, at least, of his citations from the letters of Columbus, there may be reason to think that Las Casas took them at second hand, and Harrisse, with his belief in the derivative character of the _Historie_ of Ferdinand Columbus, very easily conjectures that this primal source may have been the manuscript upon which the compiler of the _Historie_ was equally dependent. One kind of reasoning which Harrisse uses is this: If Las Casas had used the original Latin of the correspondence with Toscanelli, instead of the text of this supposed Spanish prototype, it would not appear in so bad a state as it does in Las Casas's book. [Illustration: LAS CASAS.] If this missing prototype of the _Historie_ was among Ferdinand's books in his library, which had been removed from his house in 1544 to the convent of San Pablo in Seville, and was not removed to the cathedral till 1552, it may also have happened that along with it he used there the _De Imagine Mundi_ of Pierre d'Ailly, Columbus's own copy of which was, and still is, preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina, and shows the Admiral's own manuscript annotations. It was in the chapel of San Pablo that Las Casas had been consecrated as bishop in 1544, and his associations with the monks could have given easy access to what they held in custody,--too easy, perhaps, if Harrisse's supposition is correct, that they let him take away the map which Toscanelli sent to Columbus, and which would account for its not being in the library now. [Sidenote: His opportunities.] We know, also, that Las Casas had use of the famous letter respecting his third voyage, which the Admiral addressed to the nurse of the Infant Don Juan, and which was first laid before modern students when Spotorno printed it, in 1823. We further understand that the account of the fourth voyage, which students now call, in its Italian form, the _Lettera Rarissima_, was also at his disposal, as were many letters of Bartholomew, the brother of Columbus, though they apparently only elucidate the African voyage of Diaz. In addition to these manuscript sources, Las Casas shows that, as a student, he was familiar with and appreciated the decades of Peter Martyr, and had read the accounts of Columbus in Garcia de Resende, Barros, and Castañeda,--to say nothing of what he may have derived from the supposable prototype of the _Historie_. It is certain that his personal acquaintance brought him into relations with the Admiral himself,--for he accompanied him on his fourth voyage,--with the Admiral's brother, son, and son's wife; and moreover his own father and uncle had sailed with Columbus. There were, among his other acquaintances, the Archbishop of Seville, Pinzon, and other of the contemporary navigators. It has been claimed by some, not accurately, we suspect, that Las Casas had also accompanied Columbus on his third voyage. Notwithstanding all these opportunities of acquiring a thorough intimacy with the story of Columbus, it is contended by Harrisse that the aid afforded by Las Casas disappoints one; and that all essential data with which his narrative is supplied can be found elsewhere, nearer the primal source. [Sidenote: Character of his writings.] This condition arises, as he thinks, from the fact that the one engrossing purpose of Las Casas--his aim to emancipate the Indians from a cruel domination--constantly stood in the way of a critical consideration of the other aspects of the early Spanish contact with the New World. It was while at the University of Salamanca that the father of Las Casas gave the son an Indian slave, one of those whom Columbus had sent home; and it was taken from the young student when Isabella decreed the undoing of Columbus's kidnapping exploits. It was this event which set Las Casas to thinking on the miseries of the poor natives, which Columbus had planned, and which enables us to discover, in the example of Las Casas, that the customs of the time are not altogether an unanswerable defense of the time's inhumanity and greed. As is well known, all but the most recent writers on Spanish-American history have been forced to use this work of Las Casas in manuscript copies, as a license to print such an exposure of Spanish cruelty could not be obtained till 1875, when the _Historia_ was first printed at Madrid. * * * * * [Sidenote: Herrera.] Herrera, so far as his record concerns Columbus, simply gives us what he takes from Las Casas. He was born about the time that the older writer was probably making his investigations. Herrera did not publish his results, which are slavishly chronological in their method, till half a century later (1601-15). Though then the official historiographer of the Indies, with all the chances for close investigation which that situation afforded him, Herrera failed in all ways to make the record of his _Historia_ that comprehensive and genuine source of the story of Columbus which the reader might naturally look for. The continued obscuration of Las Casas by reason of the long delay in printing his manuscript served to give Herrera, through many generations, a prominence as an authoritative source which he could not otherwise have had. Irving, when he worked at the subject, soon discovered that Las Casas stood behind the story as Herrera told it, and accordingly the American writer resorted by preference to such a copy of the manuscript of Las Casas as he could get. There is a manifest tendency in Herrera to turn Las Casas's qualified statements into absolute ones. [Sidenote: Later Spanish writers.] The personal contributions of the later writers, Muñoz and Navarrete, have been already considered, in speaking of the diversified mass of documentary proofs which accompany or gave rise to their narratives. The _Colon en España_ of Tomas Rodriguez Pinilla (Madrid, 1884) is in effect a life of the Admiral; but it ignores much of the recent critical and controversial literature, and deals mainly with the old established outline of events. * * * * * [Sidenote: German writers.] [Sidenote: Humboldt.] Among the Germans there was nothing published of any importance till the critical studies of Forster, Peschel, and Ruge, in recent days. De Bry had, indeed, by his translations of Benzoni (1594) and Herrera (1623), familiarized the Germans with the main facts of the career of Columbus. During the present century, Humboldt, in his _Examen Critique de l'Histoire et de la Geographie du Nouveau Continent_, has borrowed the language of France to show the scope of his critical and learned inquiries into the early history of the Spanish contact in America, and has left it to another hand to give a German rendering to his labors. With this work by Humboldt, brought out in its completer shape in 1836-39, and using most happily all that had been done by Muñoz and Navarrete to make clear both the acts and environments of the Admiral, the intelligence of our own time may indeed be said to have first clearly apprehended, under the light of a critical spirit, in which Irving was deficient, the true significance of the great deeds that gave America to Europe. Humboldt has strikingly grouped the lives of Toscanelli and Las Casas, from the birth of the Florentine physician in 1397 to the death of the Apostle to the Indians in 1566, as covering the beginning and end of the great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. [Sidenote: Henry Harrisse.] It is also to be remarked that this service of broadly, and at the same time critically, surveying the field was the work of a German writing in French; while it is to an American citizen writing in French that we owe, in more recent years, such a minute collation and examination of every original source of information as set the labors of Henry Harrisse, for thoroughness and discrimination, in advance of any critical labor that has ever before been given to the career and character of Christopher Columbus. Without the aid of his researches, as embodied in his _Christophe Colomb_ (Paris, 1884), it would have been quite impossible for the present writer to have reached conclusions on a good many mooted points in the history of the Admiral and of his reputation. Of almost equal usefulness have been the various subsidiary books and tracts which Harrisse has devoted to similar fields. Harrisse's books constitute a good example of the constant change of opinion and revision of the relations of facts which are going on incessantly in the mind of a vigilant student in recondite fields of research. The progress of the correction of error respecting Columbus is illustrated continually in his series of books on the great navigator, beginning with the _Notes on Columbus_ (N. Y., 1866), which have been intermittently published by him during the last twenty-five years. Harrisse himself is a good deal addicted to hypotheses; but they fare hard at his hands if advanced by others. [Sidenote: French writers.] [Sidenote: Attempted canonization of Columbus.] [Illustration: ROSELLY DE LORGUES.] The only other significant essays which have been made in French have been a series of biographies of Columbus, emphasizing his missionary spirit, which have been aimed to prepare the way for the canonization of the great navigator, in recognition of his instrumentality in carrying the cross to the New World. That, in the spirit which characterized the age of discovery, the voyage of Columbus was, at least in profession, held to be one conducted primarily for that end does not, certainly, admit of dispute. Columbus himself, in his letter to Sanchez, speaks of the rejoicing of Christ at seeing the future redemption of souls. He made a first offering of the foreign gold by converting a mass of it into a cup to hold the sacred host, and he spent a wordy enthusiasm in promises of a new crusade to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the Moslems. Ferdinand and Isabella dwelt upon the propagandist spirit of the enterprise they had sanctioned, in their appeals to the Pontiff to confirm their worldly gain in its results. Ferdinand, the son of the Admiral, referring to the family name of Colombo, speaks of his father as like Noah's dove, carrying the olive branch and oil of baptism over the ocean. Professions, however, were easy; faith is always exuberant under success, and the world, and even the Catholic world, learned, as the ages went on, to look upon the spirit that put the poor heathen beyond the pale of humanity as not particularly sanctifying a pioneer of devastation. [Sidenote: Roselly de Lorgues.] It is the world's misfortune when a great opportunity loses any of its dignity; and it is no great satisfaction to look upon a person of Columbus's environments and find him but a creature of questionable grace. So his canonization has not, with all the endeavors which have been made, been brought about. The most conspicuous of the advocates of it, with a crowd of imitators about him, has been Antoine François Félix Valalette, Comte Roselly de Lorgues, who began in 1844 to devote his energies to this end. He has published several books on Columbus, part of them biographical, and all of them, including his _Christoph Colomb_ of 1864, mere disguised supplications to the Pope to order a deserved sanctification. As contributions to the historical study of the life of Columbus, they are of no importance whatever. Every act and saying of the Admiral capable of subserving the purpose in view are simply made the salient points of a career assumed to be holy. Columbus was in fact of a piece, in this respect, with the age in which he lived. The official and officious religious profession of the time belonged to a period which invented the Inquisition and extirpated a race in order to send them to heaven. None knew this better than those, like Las Casas, who mated their faith with charity of act. Columbus and Las Casas had little in common. The _Histoire Posthume de Colomb_, which Roselly de Lorgues finally published in 1885, is recognized even by Catholic writers as a work of great violence and indiscretion, in its denunciations of all who fail to see the saintly character of Columbus. Its inordinate intemperance gave a great advantage to Cesario Fernandez Duro in his examination of De Lorgues's position, made in his _Colon y la Historia Postuma_. Columbus was certainly a mundane verity. De Lorgues tells us that if we cannot believe in the supernatural we cannot understand this worldly man. The writers who have followed him, like Charles Buet in his _Christophe Colomb_ (Paris, 1886), have taken this position. The Catholic body has so far summoned enough advocates of historic truth to prevent the result which these enthusiasts have kept in view, notwithstanding the seeming acquiescence of Pius IX. The most popular of the idealizing lives of Columbus is probably that by Auguste, Marquis de Belloy, which is tricked out with a display of engravings as idealized as the text, and has been reproduced in English at Philadelphia (1878, 1889). It is simply an ordinary rendering of the common and conventional stories of the last four centuries. The most eminent Catholic historical student of the United States, Dr. John Gilmary Shea, in a paper on this century's estimates of Columbus, in the _American Catholic Quarterly Review_ (1887), while referring to the "imposing array of members of the hierarchy" who have urged the beatification of Columbus, added, "But calm official scrutiny of the question was required before permission could be given to introduce the cause;" and this permission has not yet been given, and the evidence in its favor has not yet been officially produced. France has taken the lead in these movements for canonization, ostensibly for the reason that she needed to make some reparation for snatching the honor of naming the New World from Columbus, through the printing-presses of Saint Dié and Strassburg. A sketch of the literature which has followed this movement is given in Baron van Brocken's _Des Vicissitudes Posthumes de Christophe Colomb, et de sa Beatification Possible_ (Leipzig et Paris, 1865). * * * * * [Sidenote: English writers.] [Sidenote: Robertson.] Of the writers in English, the labors of Hakluyt and Purchas only incidentally touched the career of Columbus; and it was not till Stevens issued his garbled version of Herrera in 1725, that the English public got the record of the Spanish historian, garnished with something that did not represent the original. This book of Stevens is responsible for not a little in English opinion respecting the Spanish age of discovery, which needs in these later days to be qualified. Some of the early collections of voyages, like those of Churchill, Pinkerton, and Kerr, included the story of the _Historie_ of 1571. It was not till Robertson, in 1777, published the beginning of a contemplated _History of America_ that the English reader had for the first time a scholarly and justified narrative, which indeed for a long time remained the ordinary source of the English view of Columbus. It was, however, but an outline sketch, not a sixth or seventh part in extent of what Irving, when he was considering the subject, thought necessary for a reasonable presentation of the subject. Robertson's footnotes show that his main dependence for the story of Columbus was upon the pages of the _Historie_ of 1571, Peter Martyr, Oviedo, and Herrera. He was debarred the help to be derived from what we now use, as conveying Columbus's own record of his story. Lord Grantham, then the British ambassador at Madrid, did all the service he could, and his secretary of legation worked asssiduously in complying with the wishes which Robertson preferred; but no solicitation could at that day render easily accessible the archives at Simancas. Still, Robertson got from one source or another more than it was pleasant to the Spanish authorities to see in print, and they later contrived to prevent a publication of his work in Spanish. [Sidenote: Jeremy Belknap.] The earliest considerable recounting of the story of Columbus in America was by Dr. Jeremy Belknap, who, having delivered a commemorative discourse in Boston in 1792, before the Massachusetts Historical Society, afterward augmented his text when it became a part of his well-known _American Biography_, a work of respectable standing for the time, but little remembered to-day. [Sidenote: Washington Irving.] It was in 1827 that Washington Irving published his _Life of Columbus_, and he produced a book that has long remained for the English reader a standard biography. Irving's canons of historical criticism were not, however, such as the fearless and discriminating student to-day would approve. He commended Herrera for "the amiable and pardonable error of softening excesses," as if a historian sat in a confessional to deal out exculpations. The learning which probes long established pretenses and grateful deceits was not acceptable to Irving. "There is a certain meddlesome spirit," he says, "which, in the garb of learned research, goes prying about the traces of history, casting down its monuments, and marring and mutilating its fairest trophies. Care should be taken to vindicate great names from such pernicious erudition." Under such conditions as Irving summoned, there was little chance that a world's exemplar would be pushed from his pedestal, no matter what the evidence. The _vera pro gratis_ in personal characterization must not assail the traditional hero. And such was Irving's notion of the upright intelligence of a historian. Mr. Alexander H. Everett, who was then the minister of the United States at Madrid, saw a chance of making a readable book out of the journal of Columbus as preserved by Las Casas, and recommended the task of translating it to Irving, then in Europe. This proposition carried the willing writer to Madrid, where he found comfortable quarters, with quick sympathy of intercourse, under the roof of a Boston scholar then living there, Obadiah Rich. The first two volumes of the documentary work of Navarrete coming out opportunely, Irving was not long in determining that, with its wealth of material, there was a better opportunity for a newly studied life of Columbus than for the proposed task. So Irving settled down in Madrid to the larger endeavor, and soon found that he could have other assistance and encouragement from Navarrete himself, from the Duke of Veragua, and from the then possessor of the papers of Muñoz. The subject grew under his hands. "I had no idea," he says, "of what a complete labyrinth I had entangled myself in." He regretted that the third volume of Navarrete's book was not far enough advanced to be serviceable; but he worked as best he could, and found many more facilities than Robertson's helper had discovered. He went to the Biblioteca Colombina, and he even brought the annotations of Columbus in the copy of Pierre d'Ailly, there preserved, to the attention of its custodians for the first time; almost feeling himself the discoverer of the book, though it was known to him that Las Casas, at least, had had the advantage of using these minutes of Columbus. Irving knew that his pains were not unavailing, at any rate, for the English reader. "I have woven into my book," he says, "many curious particulars not hitherto known concerning Columbus; and I think I have thrown light upon some points of his character which have not been brought out by his former biographers." One of the things that pleased the new biographer most was his discovery, as he felt, in the account by Bernaldez, that Columbus was born ten years earlier than had been usually reckoned; and he supposed that this increase of the age of the discoverer at the time of his voyage added much greater force to the characteristics of his career. Irving's book readily made a mark. Jeffrey thought that its fame would be enduring, and at a time when no one looked for new light from Italy, he considered that Irving had done best in working, almost exclusively, the Spanish field, where alone "it was obvious" material could be found. When Alexander H. Everett, pardonably, as a godfather to the work, undertook in January, 1829, to say in the _North American Review_ that Irving's book was a delight of readers, he anticipated the judgment of posterity; but when he added that it was, by its perfection, the despair of critics, he was forgetful of a method of critical research that is not prone to be dazed by the prestige of demigods. In the interval between the first and second editions of the book, Irving paid a visit to Palos and the convent of La Rabida, and he got elsewhere some new light in the papers of the lawsuit of Columbus's heirs. The new edition which soon followed profited by all these circumstances. [Sidenote: Prescott.] Irving's occupation of the field rendered it both easy and gracious for Prescott, when, ten years later (1837), he published his _Ferdinand and Isabella_, to say that his predecessor had stripped the story of Columbus of the charm of novelty; but he was not quite sure, however, in the privacy of his correspondence, that Irving, by attempting to continue the course of Columbus's life in detail after the striking crisis of the discovery, had made so imposing a drama as he would have done by condensing the story of his later years. In this Prescott shared something of the spirit of Irving, in composing history to be read as a pastime, rather than as a study of completed truth. Prescott's own treatment of the subject is scant, as he confined his detailed record to the actions incident to the inception and perfection of the enterprise of the Admiral, to the doings in Spain or at court. He was, at the same time, far more independent than Irving had been, in his views of the individual character round which so much revolves, and the reader is not wholly blinded to the unwholesome deceit and overweening selfishness of Columbus. [Sidenote: Arthur Helps.] Within twenty years Arthur Helps approached the subject from the point of view of one who was determined, as he thought no one of the writers on the subject of the Spanish Conquest had been, to trace the origin of, and responsibility for, the devastating methods of Spanish colonial government; "not conquest only, but the result of conquest, the mode of colonial government which ultimately prevailed, the extirpation of native races, the introduction of other races, the growth of slavery, and the settlement of the _encomiendas_, on which all Indian society depended." It is not to Helps, therefore, that we are to look for any extended biography of Columbus; and when he finds him in chains, sent back to Spain, he says of the prisoner, "He did not know how many wretched beings would have to traverse those seas, in bonds much worse than his; nor did he foresee, I trust, that some of his doings would further all this coming misery." It does not appear from his footnotes that Helps depended upon other than the obvious authorities, though he says that he examined the Muñoz collection, then as now in the Royal Academy of History at Madrid. [Sidenote: R. H. Major.] The last scholarly summary of Columbus's career previous to the views incident to the criticism of Harrisse on the _Historie_ of 1571 was that which was given by R. H. Major, in the second edition of his _Select Letters of Columbus_ (London, 1870). * * * * * [Sidenote: Aaron Goodrich.] There have been two treatments of the subject by Americans within the last twenty years, which are characteristic. The _Life and Achievements of the So-called Christopher Columbus_ (New York, 1874), by Aaron Goodrich, mixes that unreasoning trust and querulous conceit which is so often thrown into the scale when the merits of the discoverers of the alleged Vinland are contrasted with those of the imagined Indies. With a craze of petulancy, he is not able to see anything that cannot be twisted into defamation, and his book is as absurdly constant in derogation as the hallucinations of De Lorgues are in the other direction. [Sidenote: H. H. Bancroft.] When Hubert Howe Bancroft opened the story of his Pacific States in his _History of Central America_ (San Francisco, 1882), he rehearsed the story of Columbus, but did not attempt to follow it critically except as he tracked the Admiral along the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. This writer's estimate of the character of Columbus conveys a representation of what the Admiral really was, juster than national pride, religious sympathy, or kindly adulation has usually permitted. It is unfortunately, not altogether chaste in its literary presentation. His characterization of Irving and Prescott in their endeavors to draw the character of Columbus has more merit in its insight than skill in its drafting. [Sidenote: Winsor.] [Sidenote: Bibliography of Columbus.] The brief sketch of the career of Columbus, and the examination of the events that culminated in his maritime risks and developments, as it was included in the _Narrative and Critical History of America_ (vol. ii., Boston, 1885), gave the present writer an opportunity to study the sources and trace the bibliographical threads that run through an extended and diversified literature, in a way, it may be, not earlier presented to the English reader. If any one desires to compass all the elucidations and guides which a thorough student of the career and fame of Columbus would wish to consider, the apparatus thus referred to, and the footnotes in Harrisse's _Christophe Colomb_ and in his other germane publications, would probably most essentially shorten his labors. Harrisse, who has prepared, but not yet published, lists of the books devoted to Columbus _exclusively_, says that they number about six hundred titles. The literature which treats of him incidentally is of a vast extent. * * * * * [Sidenote: Varied estimates of Columbus.] In concluding this summary of the commentaries upon the life of Columbus, the thought comes back that his career has been singularly subject to the gauging of opinionated chroniclers. The figure of the man, as he lives to-day in the mind of the general reader, in whatever country, comports in the main with the characterizations of Irving, De Lorgues, or Goodrich. These last two have entered upon their works with a determined purpose, the Frenchman of making a saint, and the American a scamp, of the great discoverer of America. They each, in their twists, pervert and emphasize every trait and every incident to favor their views. Their narratives are each without any background of that mixture of incongruity, inconsistency, and fatality from which no human being is wholly free. Their books are absolutely worthless as historical records. That of Goodrich has probably done little to make proselytes. That of De Lorgues has infected a large body of tributary devotees of the Catholic Church. The work of Irving is much above any such level; but it has done more harm because its charms are insidious. He recognized at least that human life is composite; but he had as much of a predetermination as they, and his purpose was to create a hero. He glorified what was heroic, palliated what was unheroic, and minimized the doubtful aspects of Columbus's character. His book is, therefore, dangerously seductive to the popular sense. The genuine Columbus evaporates under the warmth of the writer's genius, and we have nothing left but a refinement of his clay. The _Life of Columbus_ was a sudden product of success, and it has kept its hold on the public very constantly; but it has lost ground in these later years among scholarly inquirers. They have, by their collation of its narrative with the original sources, discovered its flaccid character. They have outgrown the witcheries of its graceful style. They have learned to put at their value the repetitionary changes of stock sentiment, which swell the body of the text, sometimes, provokingly. [Sidenote: Portraits of Columbus.] [Sidenote: Columbus's person.] Out of the variety of testimony respecting the person of the adult Columbus, it is not easy to draw a picture that his contemporaries would surely recognize. Likeness we have none that can be proved beyond a question the result of any sitting, or even of any acquaintance. If we were called upon to picture him as he stood on San Salvador, we might figure a man of impressive stature with lofty, not to say austere, bearing, his face longer by something more than its breadth, his cheek bones high, his nose aquiline, his eyes a light gray, his complexion fair with freckles spotting a ruddy glow, his hair once light, but then turned to gray. His favorite garb seems to have been the frock of a Franciscan monk. Such a figure would not conflict with the descriptions which those who knew him, and those who had questioned his associates, have transmitted to us, as we read them in the pages ascribed to Ferdinand, his son; in those of the Spanish historian, Oviedo; of the priest Las Casas; and in the later recitals of Gomara and Benzoni, and of the official chronicler of the Spanish Indies, Antonio Herrera. The oldest description of all is one made in 1501, in the unauthorized version of the first decade of Peter Martyr, emanating, very likely, from the translator Trivigiano, who had then recently come in contact with Columbus. [Sidenote: La Cosa's St. Christopher.] Turning from these descriptions to the pictures that have been put forth as likenesses, we find not a little difficulty in reconciling the two. There is nothing that unmistakably goes back to the lifetime of Columbus except the figure of St. Christopher, which makes a vignette in colors on the mappemonde, which was drawn in 1500, by one of Columbus's pilots, Juan de la Cosa, and is now preserved in Madrid. It has been fondly claimed that Cosa transferred the features of his master to the lineaments of the saint; but the assertion is wholly without proof. [Illustration: ST. CHRISTOPHER. [The vignette of La Cosa's map.]] [Sidenote: Jovius's gallery.] [Illustration: JOVIUS'S COLUMBUS, THE EARLIEST ENGRAVED LIKENESS.] Paolo Giovio, or, as better known in the Latin form, Paulus Jovius, was old enough in 1492 to have, in later life, remembered the thrill of expectation which ran for the moment through parts of Europe, when the letter of Columbus describing his voyage was published in Italy, where Jovius was then a schoolboy. He was but an infant, or perhaps not born when Columbus left Italy. So the interest of Jovius in the Discoverer could hardly have arisen from any other associations than those easily suggestive to one who, like Jovius, was a student of his own times. Columbus had been dead ten years when Jovius, as a historian, attracted the notice of Pope Leo X., and entered upon such a career of prosperity that he could build a villa on Lake Como, and adorn it with a gallery of portraits of those who had made his age famous. That he included a likeness of Columbus among his heroes there seems to be no doubt. Whether the likeness was painted from life, and by whom, or modeled after an ideal, more or less accordant with the reports of those who may have known the Genoese, is entirely beyond our knowledge. As a historian Jovius professed the right to distort the truth for any purpose that suited him, and his conceptions of the truth of portraiture may quite as well have been equally loose. Just a year before his own death, Jovius gave a sketch of Columbus's career in his _Elogia Virorum Illustrium_, published at Florence in 1551; but it was not till twenty-four years later, in 1575, that a new edition of the book gave wood-cuts of the portraits in the gallery of the Como villa, to illustrate the sketches, and that of Columbus appeared among them. This engraving, then, is the oldest likeness of Columbus presenting any claims to consideration. It found place also, within a year or two, in what purported to be a collection of portraits from the Jovian gallery; and the engraver of them was Tobias Stimmer, a Swiss designer, who stands in the biographical dictionaries of artists as born in 1534, and of course could not have assisted his skill by any knowledge of Columbus, on his own part. This picture, to which a large part of the very various likenesses called those of Columbus can be traced, is done in the bold, easy handling common in the wood-cuts of that day, and with a precision of skill that might well make one believe that it preserves a dashing verisimilitude to the original picture. It represents a full-face, shaven, curly-haired man, with a thoughtful and somewhat sad countenance, his hands gathering about the waist a priest's robe, of which the hood has fallen about his neck. If there is any picture to be judged authentic, this is best entitled to that estimation. [Sidenote: The Florence picture.] Connection with the Como gallery is held to be so significant of the authenticity of any portrait of Columbus that it is claimed for two other pictures, which are near enough alike to have followed the same prototype, and which are not, except in garb, very unlike the Jovian wood-cut. As copies of the Como original in features, they may easily have varied in apparel. One of these is a picture preserved in the gallery at Florence,--a well-moulded, intellectual head, full-faced, above a closely buttoned tunic, or frock, seen within drapery that falls off the shoulders. It is not claimed to be the Como portrait, but it may have been painted from it, perhaps by Christofano dell' Altissimo, some time before 1568. A copy of it was made for Thomas Jefferson, which, having hung for a while at Monticello, came at last to Boston, and passed into the gallery of the Massachusetts Historical Society. [Illustration: THE FLORENCE COLUMBUS.] [Sidenote: The Yanez picture.] The picture resembling this, and which may have had equal claims of association with the Jovian gallery, is one now preserved in Madrid, and the oldest canvas representing Columbus that is known in Spain. It takes the name of the Yanez portrait from that of the owner of it, from whom it was bought in Granada, in 1763. Representing, when brought to notice, a garment trimmed with fur, there has been disclosed upon it, and underlying this later paint, an original, close-fitting tunic, much like the Florence picture; while a further removal of the superposed pigment has revealed an inscription, supposed to authenticate it as Columbus, the discoverer of the New World. It is said that the Duke of Veragua holds it to be the most authentic likeness of his ancestor. [Illustration: THE YANEZ COLUMBUS.] [Sidenote: De Bry's picture.] [Illustration: COLUMBUS. [A reproduction of the so-called Capriolo cut given in Giuseppe Banchero's _La Tavola di Bronzo_, (Genoa, 1857), and based on the Jovian type.]] Another conspicuous portrait is that given by De Bry in the larger series of his Collection of Early Voyages. De Bry claims that it was painted by order of King Ferdinand, and that it was purloined from the offices of the Council of the Indies in Spain, and brought to the Netherlands, and in this way fell into the hands of that engraver and editor. It bears little resemblance to the pictures already mentioned; nor does it appear to conform to the descriptions of Columbus's person. It has a more rugged and shorter face, with a profusion of closely waved hair falling beneath an ugly, angular cap. De Bry engraved it, or rather published it, in 1595, twenty years after the Jovian wood-cut appeared, and we know of no engraving intervening. No one of the generation that was old enough to have known the navigator could then have survived, and the picture has no other voucher than the professions of the engraver of it. [Illustration: DE BRY'S COLUMBUS.] [Sidenote: Other portraits.] [Sidenote: Havana monument.] [Sidenote: Peschiera's bust.] These are but a few of the many pictures that have been made to pass, first and last, for Columbus, and the only ones meriting serious study for their claims. The American public was long taught to regard the effigy of Columbus as that of a bedizened courtier, because Prescott selected for an engraving to adorn his _Ferdinand and Isabella_ a picture of such a person, which is ascribed to Parmigiano, and is preserved in the Museo Borbonico, at Naples. Its claims long ago ceased to be considered. The traveler in Cuba sees in the Cathedral at Havana a monumental effigy, of which there is no evidence of authenticity worthy of consideration. The traveler in Italy can see in Genoa, placed on the cabinet which was made to hold the manuscript titles of Columbus, a bust by Peschiera. It has the negative merit of having no relation to any of the alleged portraits; but represents the sculptor's conception of the man, guided by the scant descriptions of him given to us by his contemporaries. [Illustration: THE BUST OF COLUMBUS ON THE TOMB AT HAVANA.] If the reader desires to see how extensive the field of research is, for one who can spend the time in tracing all the clues connected with all the representations which pass for Columbus, he can make a beginning, at least, under the guidance of the essay on the portraits which the present writer contributed to the _Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. ii. When Columbus, in 1502, ordered a tenth of his income to be paid annually to the Bank of St. George, in Genoa, for the purpose of reducing the tax upon corn, wine, and other provisions, the generous act, if it had been carried out, would have entitled him to such a recognition as a public benefactor as the bank was accustomed to bestow. The main hall of the palace of this institution commemorates such patriotic efforts by showing a sitting statue for the largest benefactors; a standing figure for lesser gifts, while still lower gradations of charitable help are indicated in busts, or in mere inscriptions on a mural tablet. It has been thought that posterity, curious to see the great Admiral as his contemporaries saw him, suffers with the state of Genoa, in not having such an effigy, by the neglect or inattention which followed upon the announced purpose of Columbus. We certainly find there to-day no such visible proof of his munificence or aspect. Harrisse, while referring to this deprivation, takes occasion, in his _Bank of St. George_ (p. 108), to say that he does not "believe that the portrait of Columbus was ever drawn, carved, or painted from the life." He contends that portrait-painting was not common in Spain, in Columbus's day, and that we have no trace of the painters, whose work constitutes the beginning of the art, in any record, or authentic effigy, to show that the person of the Admiral was ever made the subject of the art. The same writer indicates that the interval during which Columbus was popular enough to be painted extended over only six weeks in April and May, 1493. He finds that much greater heroes, as the world then determined, like Boabdil and Cordova, were not thus honored, and holds that the portraits of Ferdinand and Isabella, which editions of Prescott have made familiar, are really fancy pictures of the close of the sixteenth century. CHAPTER III. THE ANCESTRY AND HOME OF COLUMBUS. [Sidenote: The name Colombo.] No one has mastered so thoroughly as Harrisse the intricacies of the Columbus genealogy. A pride in the name of Colombo has been shared by all who have borne it or have had relationship with it, and there has been a not unworthy competition among many branches of the common stock to establish the evidences of their descent in connection, more or less intimate, with the greatest name that has signalized the family history. This reduplication of families, as well as the constant recurrence of the same fore-names, particularly common in Italian families, has rendered it difficult to construct the genealogical tree of the Admiral, and has given ground for drafts of his pedigree, acceptable to some, and disputed by other claimants of kinship. [Sidenote: The French Colombos.] There was a Gascon-French subject of Louis XI., Guillaume de Casanove, sometimes called Coulomp, Coullon, Colon, in the Italian accounts Colombo, and Latinized as Columbus, who is said to have commanded a fleet of seven sail, which, in October, 1474, captured two galleys belonging to Ferdinand, king of Sicily. When Leibnitz published, for the first time, some of the diplomatic correspondence which ensued, he interjected the fore-name Christophorus in the references to the Columbus of this narrative. This was in his _Codex Juris Gentium Diplomaticus_, published at Hannover in 1693. Leibnitz was soon undeceived by Nicolas Thoynard, who explained that the corsair in question was Guillaume de Casanove, vice-admiral of France, and Leibnitz disavowed the imputation upon the Genoese navigator in a subsequent volume. Though there is some difference of opinion respecting the identity of Casanove and the capturer of the galleys, there can no longer be any doubt, in the light of pertinent investigations, that the French Colombos were of no immediate kin to the family of Genoa and Savona, as is abundantly set forth by Harrisse in his _Les Colombo de France et d'Italie_ (Paris, 1874). Since the French Coullon, or Coulomp, was sometimes in the waters neighboring to Genoa, it is not unlikely that some confusion may arise in separating the Italian from the French Colombos; and it has been pointed out that a certain entry of wreckage in the registry of Genoa, which Spotorno associates with Christopher Columbus, may more probably be connected with this Gascon navigator. Bossi, the earliest biographer in recent times, considers that a Colombo named in a letter to the Duke of Milan as being in a naval fight off Cyprus, between Genoese and Venetian vessels, in 1476, was the discoverer of the New World. Harrisse, in his _Les Colombo_, has printed this letter, and from it it does not appear that the commander of the Genoese fleet is known by name, and that the only mention of a Colombo is that a fleet commanded by one of that name was somewhere encountered. There is no indication, however, that this commander was Christopher Columbus. The presumption is that he was the roving Casanove. Leibnitz was doubtless misled by the assertion of the _Historie_ of 1571, which allows that Christopher Columbus had sailed under the orders of an admiral of his name and family, and, particularly, was in that naval combat off Lisbon, when, his vessel getting on fire, he swam with the aid of an oar to the Portuguese shore. The doubtful character of this episode will be considered later; but it is more to the purpose here that this same book, in citing a letter, of which we are supposed to have the complete text as preserved by Columbus himself, makes Columbus say that he was not the only admiral which his family had produced. This is a clear reference, it is supposed, to this vice-admiral of France. It is enough to say that the genuine text of this letter to the nurse of Don Juan does not contain this controverted passage, and the defenders of the truth of the _Historie_, like D'Avezac, are forced to imagine there must have been another letter, not now known. [Sidenote: The younger French admiral.] Beside the elder admiral of France, the name of Colombo Junior belonged to another of these French sea-rovers in the fifteenth century, who has been held to be a nephew, or at least a relative, of the elder. He has also sometimes been confounded with the Genoese Columbus. [Sidenote: Genealogy.] [Sidenote: Pretenders.] To determine the exact relationship between the various French and Italian Colombos and Coulons of the fifteenth century would be hazardous. It is enough to say that no evidence that stands a critical test remains to connect these famous mariners with the line of Christopher Columbus. The genealogical tables which Spotorno presents, upon which Caleb Cushing enlightened American readers at the time in the _North American Review_, and in which the French family is made to issue from an alleged great-grandfather of Christopher Columbus, are affirmed by Harrisse, with much reason, to have been made up not far from 1583, to support the claims of Bernardo and Baldassare (Balthazar) Colombo, as pretenders to the rights and titles of the discoverer of the New World. * * * * * Ferdinand is made in his own name to say of his father, "I think it better that all the honor be derived to us from his person than to go about to inquire whether his father was a merchant or a man of quality, that kept his hawks and hounds." Other biographers, however, have pursued the inquiry diligently. [Sidenote: Columbus's family line.] In one of the sections of his book on _Christopher Columbus and the Bank of Saint George_, Harrisse has shown how the notarial records of Savona and Genoa have been worked, to develop the early history of the Admiral's family from documentary proofs. These evidences are distinct from the narratives of those who had known him, or who at a later day had told his story, as Gallo, the writer of the _Historie_, and Oviedo did. Reference has already been made to the prevalence of Colombo as a patronymic in Genoa and the neighboring country at that time. Harrisse in his _Christophe Colomb_ has enumerated two hundred of this name in Liguria alone, in those days, who seem to have had no kinship to the family of the Admiral. There appear to have been in Genoa, moreover, four Colombos, and in Liguria, outside of Genoa, six others who bore the name of Christopher's father, Domenico; but the searchers have not yet found a single other Christoforo. These facts show the discrimination which those who of late years have been investigating the history of the Admiral's family have been obliged to exercise. There are sixty notarial acts of one kind and another, out of which these investigators have constructed a pedigree, which must stand till present knowledge is increased or overthrown. [Sidenote: His grandfather.] What we know in the main is this: Giovanni Colombo, the grandfather of the Admiral, lived probably in Quinto al Mare, and was of a stock that seemingly had been earlier settled in the valley of Fontanabuona, a region east of Genoa. This is a parentage of the father of Columbus quite different from that shown in the genealogical chart made by Napione in 1805 and later; and Harrisse tells us that the notarial acts which were given then as the authority for such other line of descent cannot now be found, and that there are grave doubts of their authenticity. [Sidenote: His father.] It was this Giovanni's son, Domenico, who came from Quinto (where he left a brother, Antonio) at least as early as 1439, and perhaps earlier, and settled himself in the wool-weaver's quarter, so called, in Genoa, where in due time he owned a house. Thence he seems to have removed to Savona, where various notarial acts recognize him at a later period as a Genoese, resident in Savona. The essential thing remaining to be proved is that the Domenico Colombo of these notarial acts was the Domenico who was the father of Christopher Columbus. For this purpose we must take the testimony of those who knew the genuine Colombos, as Oviedo and Gallo did; and from their statements we learn that the father of Christopher was a weaver named Domenico, who lived in Genoa, and had sons, Christoforo, Bartolomeo, and Giacomo. These, then, are the test conditions, and finding them every one answered in the Savona-Genoa family, the proof seems incontestable, even to the further fact that at the end of the fifteenth century all three brothers had for some years lived under the Spanish crown. It is too much to say that this concatenation of identities may not possibly be overturned, perhaps by discrediting the documents, not indeed untried already by Peragallo and others, but it is safe to accept it under present conditions of knowledge; though we have to trust on some points to the statements of those who have seen what no longer can be found. Domenico Colombo, who had removed to Savona in 1470, did not, apparently, prosper there. He and his son Christopher pursued their trade as weavers, as the notarial records show. Lamartine, in his _Life of Columbus_, speaking of the wool-carding of the time, calls it "a business now low, but then respectable and almost noble,"--an idealization quite of a kind with the spirit that pervades Lamartine's book, and a spirit in which it has been a fashion to write of Columbus and other heroes. The calling was doubtless, then as now, simply respectable. The father added some experience, it would seem, in keeping a house of entertainment. The joint profit, however, of these two occupations did not suffice to keep him free from debt, out of which his son Christopher is known to have helped him in some measure. Domenico sold and bought small landed properties, but did not pay for one of them at least. There were fifteen years of this precarious life passed in Savona, during which he lost his wife, when, putting his youngest son to an apprenticeship, he returned in 1484, or perhaps a little earlier, to Genoa, to try other chances. His fortune here was no better. Insolvency still followed him. When we lose sight of him, in 1494, the old man may, it is hoped, have heard rumors of the transient prosperity of his son, and perhaps have read in the fresh little quartos of Plaanck the marvelous tale of the great discovery. He lived we know not how much longer, but probably died before the winter of 1499-1500, when the heirs of Corrado de Cuneo, who had never received due payment for an estate which Domenico had bought in Savona, got judgment against Christopher and his brother Diego, the sons of Domenico, then of course beyond reach in foreign lands. [Sidenote: Domenico's house in Genoa.] Within a few years the Marquis Marcello Staglieno, a learned antiquary in Genoa, who has succeeded in throwing much new light on the early life of Columbus from the notarial records of that city, has identified a house in the Vico Dritto Ponticello, No. 37, as the one in which Domenico Colombo lived during the younger years of Christopher's life. The municipality bought this estate in June, 1887, and placed over its door an inscription recording the associations of the spot. Harrisse thinks it not unlikely that the great navigator was even born here. The discovery of his father's ownership of the house seems to have been made by carefully tracing back the title of the land to the time when Domenico owned it. This was rendered surer by tracing the titles of the adjoining estates back to the time of Nicolas Paravania and Antonio Bondi, who, according to the notarial act of 1477, recording Domenico's wife's assent to the sale of the property, lived as Domenico's next neighbors. [Sidenote: Columbus born.] If Christopher Columbus was born in this house, that event took place, as notarial records, brought to bear by the Marquis Staglieno, make evident, between October 29, 1446, and October 29, 1451; and if some degree of inference be allowed, Harrisse thinks he can narrow the range to the twelve months between March 15, 1446, and March 20, 1447. This is the period within which, by deduction from other statements, some of the modern authorities, like Muñoz, Bossi, and Spotorno, among the Italians, D'Avezac among the French, and Major in England, have placed the event of Columbus's birth without the aid of attested documents. This conclusion has been reached by taking an avowal of Columbus that he had led twenty-three years a sailor's life at the time of his first voyage, and was fourteen years old when he began a seaman's career. The question which complicates the decision is: When did Columbus consider his sailor's life to have ended? If in 1492, as Peschel contends, it would carry his birth back no farther than 1455-56, according as fractions are managed; and Peschel accepts this date, because he believes the unconfirmed statement of Columbus in a letter of July 7, 1503, that he was twenty-eight when he entered the service of Spain in 1484. [Sidenote: 1445-1447.] But if 1484 is accepted as the termination of that twenty-three years of sea life, as Muñoz and the others already mentioned say, then we get the result which most nearly accords with the notarial records, and we can place the birth of Columbus somewhere in the years 1445-47, according as the fractions are considered. This again is confirmed by another of the varied statements of Columbus, that in 1501 it was forty years since, at fourteen, he first took to the sea. [Sidenote: 1435-1437.] There has been one other deduction used, through which Navarrete, Humboldt, Irving, Roselly de Lorgues, Napione, and others, who copy them, determine that his birth must have taken place, by a similar fractional allowance of margin, in 1435-37. This is based upon the explicit statement of Andrès Bernaldez, in his book on the Catholic monarchs of Spain, that Columbus at his death was about seventy years old. So there is a twenty years' range for those who may be influenced by one line of argument or another in determining the date of the Admiral's birth. Many writers have discussed the arguments; but the weight of authority seems, on the whole, to rest upon the records which are used by Harrisse. [Sidenote: His mother, brothers, and sister.] The mother of Columbus was Susanna, a daughter of Giacomo de Fontanarossa, and Domenico married her in the Bisagno country, a region lying east of Genoa. She was certainly dead in 1489, and had, perhaps, died as early as 1482, in Savona. Beside Christoforo, this alliance with Domenico Colombo produced four other children, who were probably born in one and the same house. They were Giovanni-Pellegrino, who, in 1501, had been dead ten years, and was unmarried; Bartolomeo, who was never married, and who will be encountered later as Bartholomew; and Giacomo, who when he went to Spain became known as Diego Colon, but who is called Jacobus in all Latin narratives. There was also a daughter, Bianchinetta, who married a cheesemonger named Bavarello, and had one child. [Sidenote: His uncle and cousins.] Antonio, the brother of Domenico, seems to have had three sons, Giovanni, Matteo, and Amighetto. They were thus cousins of the Admiral, and they were so far cognizant of his fame in 1496 as to combine in a declaration before a notary that they united in sending one of their number, Giovanni, on a voyage to Spain to visit their famous kinsman, the Admiral of the Indies; their object being, most probably, to profit, if they could, by basking in his favor. [Sidenote: Born in Genoa.] [Sidenote: Claim for Savona,] [Sidenote: and other places.] If the evidences thus set forth of his family history be accepted, there is no question that Columbus, as he himself always said, and finally in his will declared, and as Ferdinand knew, although it is not affirmed in the _Historie_, was born in Genoa. Among the early writers, if we except Galindez de Carvajal, who claimed him for Savona, there seems to have been little or no doubt that he was born in Genoa. Peter Martyr and Las Casas affirm it. Bernaldez believed it. Giustiniani asserts it. But when Oviedo, not many years after Columbus's death, wrote, it was become so doubtful where Columbus was born that he mentions five or six towns which claimed the honor of being his birthplace. The claim for Savona has always remained, after Genoa, that which has received the best recognition. The grounds of such a belief, however, have been pretty well disproved in Harrisse's _Christophe Colomb et Savone_ (Genoa, 1887), and it has been shown, as it would seem conclusively, that, prior to Domenico Colombo's settling in Savona in 1470-71, he had lived in Genoa, where his children, taking into account their known or computed ages, must have been born. It seems useless to rehearse the arguments which strenuous advocates have, at one time or another, offered in support of the pretensions of many other Italian towns and villages to have furnished the great discoverer to the world,--Plaisance, Cuccaro, Cogoleto, Pradello, Nervi, Albissola, Bogliasco, Cosseria, Finale, Oneglia, Quinto, Novare, Chiavari, Milan, Modena. The pretensions of some of them were so urgent that in 1812 the Academy of History at Genoa thought it worth while to present the proofs as respects their city in a formal way. The claims of Cuccaro were used in support of a suit by Balthazar Colombo, to obtain possession of the Admiral's legal rights. The claim of Cogoleto seems to have been mixed up with the supposed birth of the corsairs, Colombos, in that town, who for a long while were confounded with the Admiral. There is left in favor of any of them, after their claims are critically examined, nothing but local pride and enthusiasm. The latest claimant for the honor is the town of Calvi, in Corsica, and this cause has been particularly embraced by the French. So late as 1882, President Grévy, of the French Republic, undertook to give a national sanction to these claims by approving the erection there of a statue of Columbus. The assumption is based upon a tradition that the great discoverer was a native of that place. The principal elucidator of that claim, the Abbé Martin Casanova de Pioggiola, seems to have a comfortable notion that tradition is the strongest kind of historical proof, though it is not certain that he would think so with respect to the twenty and more other places on the Italian coast where similar traditions exist or are said to be current. Harrisse seems to have thought the claim worth refuting in his _Christophe Colomb et La Corse_ (Paris, 1888), to say nothing of other examinations of the subject in the _Revue de Paris_ and the _Revue Critique_, and of two very recent refutations, one by the Abbé Casabianca in his _Le Berceau de Christophe Colomb et la Corse_ (Paris, 1889), and the last word of Harrisse in the _Revue Historique_ (1890, p. 182). CHAPTER IV. THE UNCERTAINTIES OF THE EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS. The condition of knowledge respecting Columbus's early life was such, when Prescott wrote, that few would dispute his conclusion that it is hopeless to unravel the entanglement of events, associated with the opening of his career. The critical discernment of Harrisse and other recent investigators has since then done something to make the confusion even more apparent by unsettling convictions too hastily assumed. A bunch of bewildering statements, in despite of all that present scholarship can do, is left to such experts as may be possessed in the future of more determinate knowledge. It may well be doubted if absolute clarification of the record is ever to be possible. [Sidenote: His education.] [Illustration: DRAWING ASCRIBED TO COLUMBUS.] The student naturally inquires of the contemporaries of Columbus as to the quality and extent of his early education, and he derives most from Las Casas and the _Historie_ of 1571. It has of late been ascertained that the woolcombers of Genoa established local schools for the education of their children, and the young Christopher may have had his share of their instruction, in addition to whatever he picked up at his trade, which continued, as long as he remained in Italy, that of his father. We know from the manuscripts which have come down to us that Columbus acquired the manual dexterity of a good penman; and if some existing drawings are not apocryphal, he had a deft hand, too, in making a spirited sketch with a few strokes. His drawing of maps, which we are also told about, implies that he had fulfilled Ptolemy's definition of that art of the cosmographer which could represent the cartographic outlines of countries with supposable correctness. He could do it with such skill that he practiced it at one time, as is said, for the gaining of a livelihood. We know, trusting the _Historie_, that he was for a brief period at the University of Pavia, perhaps not far from 1460, where he sought to understand the mysteries of cosmography, astrology, and geometry. [Sidenote: At Pavia.] Bossi has enumerated the professors in these departments at that time, from whose teaching Columbus may possibly have profited. Harrisse with his accustomed distrust, throws great doubt on the whole narrative of his university experiences, and thinks Pavia at this time offered no peculiar advantages for an aspiring seaman, to be compared with the practical instruction which Genoa in its commercial eminence could at the same time have offered to any sea-smitten boy. It was at Genoa at this very time (1461), that Benincasa was producing his famous sea-charts. [Illustration: ANDREAS BENINCASA, 1476. [From St. Martin's _Atlas_.]] [Sidenote: Goes to sea.] After his possible, if not probable, sojourn at Pavia, made transient, it has been suggested but not proved, by the failing fortunes of his father, Christopher returned to Genoa, and then after an uncertain interval entered on his seafaring career. If what passes for his own statement be taken he was at this turn of his life not more than fourteen years old. The attractions of the sea at that period of the fifteenth century were great for adventurous youths. There was a spice of piracy in even the soberest ventures of commerce. The ships of one Christian state preyed on another. Private ventures were buccaneerish, and the hand of the Catalonian and of the Moslem were turned against all. The news which sped from one end of the Mediterranean to the other was of fight and plunder, here and everywhere. Occasionally it was mixed with rumors of the voyages beyond the Straits of Hercules, which told of the Portuguese and their hazards on the African coast towards the equator. [Sidenote: Prince Henry, the Navigator.] Not far from the time when our vigorous young Genoese wool-comber may be supposed to have embarked on some of these venturesome exploits of the great inland sea, there might have come jumping from port to port, westerly along the Mediterranean shores, the story of the death of that great maritime spirit of Portugal, Prince Henry, the Navigator, and of the latest feats of his captains in the great ocean of the west. [Illustration: SHIP, FIFTEENTH CENTURY. [From the _Isolario_, 1547.]] [Sidenote: Anjou's expedition.] It has been usual to associate the earliest maritime career of our dashing Genoese with an expedition fitted out in Genoa by John of Anjou, Duke of Calabria, to recover possession of the kingdom of Naples for his father, Duke René, Count of Provence. This is known to have been undertaken in 1459-61. The pride of Genoa encouraged the service of the attacking fleet, and many a citizen cast in his lot with that naval armament, and embarked with his own subsidiary command. There is mention of a certain doughty captain, Colombo by name, as leading one part of this expeditionary force. He was very likely one of those French corsairs of that name, already mentioned, and likely to have been a man of importance in the Franco-Genoese train. He has, indeed, been sometimes made a kinsman of the wool-comber's son. There is little likelihood of his having been our Christopher himself, then, as we may easily picture him, a red-haired youth, or in life's early prime, with a ruddy complexion,--a type of the Italian which one to-day is not without the chance of encountering in the north of Italy, preserving, it may be, some of that northern blood which had produced the Vikings. The _Historie_ of 1571 gives what purports to be a letter of Columbus describing some of the events of this campaign. It was addressed to the Spanish monarchs in 1495. If Anjou was connected with any service in which Columbus took part, it is easy to make it manifest that it could not have happened later than 1461, because the reverses of that year drove the unfortunate René into permanent retirement. The rebuttal of this testimony depends largely upon the date of Columbus's birth; and if that is placed in 1446, as seems well established, Columbus, the Genoese mariner, could hardly have commanded a galley in it at fourteen; and it is still more improbable if, as D'Avezac says, Columbus was in the expedition when it set out in 1459, since the boy Christopher was then but twelve. As Harrisse puts it, the letter of Columbus quoted in the _Historie_ is apocryphal, or the correct date of Columbus's birth is not 1446. It is, however, not to be forgotten that Columbus himself testifies to the tender age at which he began his sea-service, when, in 1501, he recalled some of his early experiences; but, unfortunately, Columbus was chronically given to looseness of statement, and the testimony of his contemporaries is often the better authority. In 1501, his mind, moreover, was verging on irresponsibility. He had a talent for deceit, and sometimes boasted of it, or at least counted it a merit. Much investigation has wonderfully confirmed the accuracy of that earliest sketch of his career contained in the Giustiniani Psalter in 1516; and it is learned from that narrative that Columbus had attained an adult age when he first went to sea,--and this was one of the statements which the _Historie_ of 1571 sought to discredit. If the notarial records of Savona are correct in calling Columbus a wool-comber in 1472, and he was of the Savona family, and born in 1446, he was then twenty-six years old, and of the adult age that is claimed by the Psalter and by other early writers, who either knew or mentioned him, when he began his seafaring life. In that case he could have had no part in the Anjou-René expedition, whose whole story, even with the expositions of Harrisse and Max Büdinger, is shrouded in uncertainties of time and place. That after 1473 he disappears from every notarial record that can be found in Genoa shows, in Harrisse's opinion, that it was not till then that he took to the sea as a profession. We cannot say that the information which we have of this early seafaring life of Columbus, whenever beginning, is deserving of much credit, and it is difficult to place whatever it includes in chronological order. We may infer from one of his statements that he had, at some time, been at Scio observing the making of mastic. Certain reports which most likely concern his namesakes, the French corsairs, are sometimes associated with him as leading an attack on Spanish galleys somewhere in the service of Louis XI., or as cruising near Cyprus. So everything is misty about these early days; but the imagination of some of his biographers gives us abundant precision for the daily life of the school-boy, apprentice, cabin boy, mariner, and corsair, even to the receiving of a wound which we know troubled him in his later years. Such a story of details is the filling up of a scant outline with the colors of an unfaithful limner. CHAPTER V. THE ALLUREMENTS OF PORTUGAL. [Sidenote: 1473.] [Sidenote: Maritime enterprise in Portugal.] Columbus, disappearing from Italy in 1473, is next found in Portugal, and it is a natural inquiry why an active, adventurous spirit, having tested the exhilaration of the sea, should have made his way to that outpost of maritime ambition, bordering on the great waters, that had for many ages attracted and puzzled the discoverer and cosmographer. It is hardly to be doubted that the fame of the Portuguese voyaging out upon the vasty deep, or following the western coast of Africa, had for some time been a not unusual topic of talk among the seamen of the Mediterranean. It may be only less probable that an intercourse of seafaring Mediterranean people with the Arabs of the Levant had brought rumors of voyages in the ocean that washed the eastern shores of Africa. These stories from the Orient might well have induced some to speculate that such voyages were but the complements of those of the Portuguese in their efforts to solve the problem of the circumnavigation of the great African continent. It is not, then, surprising that a doughty mariner like Columbus, in life's prime, should have desired to be in the thick of such discussions, and to no other European region could he have turned as a wanderer with the same satisfaction as to Portugal. Let us see how the great maritime questions stood in Portugal in 1473, and from what antecedents they had arisen. [Sidenote: Portuguese seamanship.] [Sidenote: Explorations on the Sea of Darkness.] [Sidenote: Marino Sanuto, 1306.] The Portuguese, at this time, had the reputation of being the most expert seamen in Europe, or at least they divided it with the Catalans and Majorcans. Their fame lasted, and at a later day was repeated by Acosta. These hardy mariners had pushed boldly out, as early as we have any records, into the enticing and yet forbidding Sea of Darkness, not often perhaps willingly out of sight of land; but storms not infrequently gave them the experience of sea and sky, and nothing else. The great ocean was an untried waste for cartography. A few straggling beliefs in islands lying westward had come down from the ancients, and the fantastic notions of floating islands and steady lands, upon which the imagination of the Middle Ages thrived, were still rife, when we find in the map of Marino Sanuto, in 1306, what may well be considered the beginning of Atlantic cartography. [Sidenote: The Canaries.] There is no occasion to make it evident that the Islands of the West found by the Phoenicians, the Fortunate Islands of Sertorius, and the Hesperides of Pliny were the Canaries of later times, brought to light after thirteen centuries of oblivion; but these islands stand in the planisphere of Sanuto at the beginning of the fourteenth century, to be casually visited by the Spaniards and others for a hundred years and more before the Norman, Jean de Béthencourt, in the beginning of the fifteenth century (1402), settled himself on one of them. Here his kinspeople ruled, till finally the rival claims of sovereignty by Spain and Portugal ended in the rights of Spain being established, with compensating exclusive rights to Portugal on the African coast. [Sidenote: The Genoese in Portugal.] But it was by Genoese in the service of Portugal, the fame of whose exploits may not have been unknown to Columbus, that the most important discoveries of ocean islands had been made. [Sidenote: Madeira.] It was in the early part of the fourteenth century that the Madeira group had been discovered. In the Laurentian portolano of 1351, preserved at Florence, it is unmistakably laid down and properly named, and that atlas has been considered, for several reasons, the work of Genoese, and as probably recording the voyage by the Genoese Pezagno for the Portuguese king,--at least Major holds that to be demonstrable. The real right of the Portuguese to these islands, rests, however, on their rediscovery by Prince Henry's captains at a still later period, in 1418-20, when Madeira, seen as a cloud in the horizon from Porto Santo, was approached in a boat from the smaller island. [Sidenote: Azores.] [Sidenote: Maps.] It is also from the Laurentian portolano of 1351 that we know how, at some anterior time, the greater group of the Azores had been found by Portuguese vessels under Genoese commanders. We find these islands also in the Catalan map of 1373, and in that of Pizigani of the same period (1367, 1373). [Illustration: PART OF THE LAURENTIAN PORTOLANO. [From Major's _Prince Henry_.]] [Sidenote: Robert Machin.] It was in the reign of Edward III. of England that one Robert Machin, flying from England to avoid pursuit for stealing a wife, accidentally reached the island of Madeira. Here disaster overtook Machin's company, but some of his crew reached Africa in a boat and were made captives by the Moors. In 1416, the Spaniards sent an expedition to redeem Christian captives held by these same Moors, and, while bringing them away, the Spanish ship was overcome by a Portuguese navigator, Zarco, and among his prisoners was one Morales, who had heard, as was reported, of the experiences of Machin. [Sidenote: Porto Santo and Madeira rediscovered.] Zarco, a little later, being sent by Prince Henry of Portugal to the coast of Guinea, was driven out to sea, and discovered the island of Porto Santo; and subsequently, under the prompting of Morales, he rediscovered Madeira, then uninhabited. This was in 1418 or 1419, and though there are some divergences in the different forms of the story, and though romance and anachronism somewhat obscure its truth, the main circumstances are fairly discernible. [Sidenote: The Perestrello family.] This discovery was the beginning of the revelations which the navigators of Prince Henry were to make. A few years later (1425) he dispatched colonists to occupy the two islands, and among them was a gentleman of the household, Bartolomeo Perestrello, whose name, in a descendant, we shall again encounter when, near the close of the century, we follow Columbus himself to this same island of Porto Santo. [Sidenote: Maps.] It is conjectured that the position of the Azores was laid down on a map which, brought to Portugal from Venice in 1428, instigated Prince Henry to order his seamen to rediscover those islands. That they are laid down on Valsequa's Catalan map of 1439 is held to indicate the accomplishment of the prince's purpose, probably in 1432, though it took twenty years to bring the entire group within the knowledge of the Portuguese. [Sidenote: Bianco's map, 1436.] [Sidenote: Other maps.] The well-known map of Andrea Bianco in 1436, preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana at Venice, records also the extent of supposition at that date respecting the island-studded waste of the Atlantic. Between this date and the period of the arrival of Columbus in Portugal, the best known names of the map makers of the Atlantic are those of Valsequa (1439), Leardo (1448, 1452, 1458), Pareto (1455), and Fra Mauro (1459). This last there will be occasion to mention later. [Sidenote: Flores.] In 1452, Pedro de Valasco, in sailing about Fayal westerly, seeing and following a flight of birds, had discovered the island of Flores. From what Columbus says in the journal of his first voyage, forty years later, this tracking of the flight of birds was not an unusual way, in these early exploring days, of finding new islands. [Illustration: MAP OF ANDREA BIANCO. [From _Allgem. Geog. Ephemeriden_, Weimar, 1807.]] Thus it was that down to a period a very little later than the middle of the fifteenth century the Portuguese had been accustoming themselves to these hazards of the open ocean. Without knowing it they had, in the discovery of Flores, actually reached the farthest land westerly, which could in the better knowledge of later years be looked upon as the remotest outpost of the Old World. * * * * * [Sidenote: The African route to India.] There was, as they thought, a much larger cosmographical problem lying to the south,--a route to India by a supposable African cape. For centuries the Orient had been the dream of the philosopher and the goal of the merchant. Everything in the East was thought to be on a larger scale than in Europe,--metals were more abundant, pearls were rarer, spices were richer, plants were nobler, animals were statelier. Everything but man was more lordly. He had been fed there so luxuriously that he was believed to have dwindled in character. Europe was the world of active intelligence, the inheritor of Greek and Roman power, and its typical man belonged naturally with the grander externals of the East. There was a fitness in bringing the better man and the better nature into such relations that the one should sustain and enjoy the other. [Sidenote: China.] The earliest historical record of the peoples of Western Asia with China goes back, according to Yule, to the second century before Christ. Three hundred years later we find the first trace of Roman intercourse (A. D. 166). With India, China had some trade by sea as early as the fourth century, and with Babylonia possibly in the fifth century. There were Christian Nestorian missionaries there as early as the eighth century, and some of their teachings had been found there by Western travelers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The communication of Ceylon with China was revived in the thirteenth century. [Sidenote: Cathay.] [Sidenote: Marco Polo.] It was in the twelfth century, under the Mongol dynasty, that China became first generally known in Europe, under the name of Cathay, and then for the first time the Western nations received travelers' stories of the kingdom of the great Khan. Two Franciscans, one an Italian, Plano Carpini, the other a Fleming, Rubruquis, sent on missions for the Church, returned to Europe respectively in 1247 and 1255. It was not, however, till Marco Polo returned from his visit to Kublai Khan, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, that a new enlargement of the ideas of Europe respecting the far Orient took place. The influence of his marvelous tales continued down to the days of Columbus, and when the great discoverer came on the scene it was to find the public mind occupied with the hopes of reaching these Eastern realms by way of the south. The experimental and accidental voyagings of the Portuguese on the Atlantic were held to be but preliminary to a steadier progression down the coast of Africa. [Sidenote: The African route and the ancients.] [Sidenote: The African cape.] Whether the ancients had succeeded in circumnavigating Africa is a question never likely to be definitely settled, and opposing views, as weighed by Bunbury in his _History of Ancient Geography_, are too evenly balanced to allow either side readily to make conquest of judicial minds. It is certain that Hipparchus had denied the possibility of it, and had supposed the Indian Ocean a land-bound sea, Africa extending at the south so as to connect with a southern prolongation of eastern Asia. This view had been adopted by Ptolemy, whose opinions were dominating at this time the Western mind. Nevertheless, that Africa ended in a southern cape seems to have been conceived of by those who doubted the authority of Ptolemy early enough for Sanuto, in 1306, to portray such a cape in his planisphere. If Sanuto really knew of its existence the source of his knowledge is a subject for curious speculation. Not unlikely an African cape may have been surmised by the Venetian sailors, who, frequenting the Mediterranean coasts of Asia Minor, came in contact with the Arabs. These last may have cherished the traditions of maritime explorers on the east coast of Africa, who may have already discovered the great southern cape, perhaps without passing it. [Sidenote: African coast discovery, 1393.] Navarrete records that as early as 1393 a company had been formed in Andalusia and Biscay for promoting discoveries down the coast of Africa. It was an effort to secure in the end such a route to Asia as might enable the people of the Iberian peninsula to share with those of the Italian the trade with the East, which the latter had long conducted wholly or in part overland from the Levant. The port of Barcelona had indeed a share in this opulent commerce; but its product for Spain was insignificant in comparison with that for Italy. [Sidenote: Prince Henry, the Navigator.] The guiding spirit in this new habit of exploration was that scion of the royal family of Portugal who became famous eventually as Prince Henry the Navigator, and whose biography has been laid before the English reader within twenty years, abundantly elucidated by the careful hand of Richard H. Major. The Prince had assisted King João in the attack on the Moors at Ceuta, in 1415, and this success had opened to the Prince the prospect of possessing the Guinea coast, and of ultimately finding and passing the anticipated cape at the southern end of Africa. [Sidenote: Cape Bojador.] This was the mission to which the Prince early in the fifteenth century gave himself. His ships began to crawl down the western Barbary coast, and each season added to the extent of their explorations, but Cape Bojador for a while blocked their way, just as it had stayed other hardy adventurers even before the birth of Henry. "We may wonder," says Helps, "that he never took personal command of any of his expeditions, but he may have thought that he served the cause better by remaining at home, and forming a centre whence the electric energy of enterprise was communicated to many discoverers and then again collected from them." [Sidenote: Sagres.] Meanwhile, Prince Henry had received from his father the government of Algaroe, and he selected the secluded promontory of Sagres, jutting into the sea at the southwestern extremity of Portugal, as his home, going here in 1418, or possibly somewhat later. Whether he so organized his efforts as to establish here a school of navigation is in dispute, but it is probably merely a question of what constitutes a school. There seems no doubt that he built an observatory and drew about him skillful men in the nautical arts, including a somewhat famous Majorcan, Jayme. He and his staff of workers took seamanship as they found it, with its cylindrical charts, and so developed it that it became in the hands of the Portuguese the evidence of the highest skill then attainable. [Sidenote: Art of seamanship.] Seamanship as then practiced has become an interesting study. Under the guidance of Humboldt, in his remarkable work, the _Examen Critique_, in which he couples a consideration of the nautical astronomy with the needs of this age of discovery, we find an easy path among the intricacies of the art. These complications have, in special aspects, been further elucidated by Navarrete, Margry, and a recent German writer, Professor Ernst Mayer. [Sidenote: Lully's _Arte de Navegar_.] It was just at the end of the thirteenth century (1295) that the _Arte de Navegar_ of Raymond Lully, or Lullius, gave mariners a handbook, which, so far as is made apparent, was not superseded by a better even in the time of Columbus. [Illustration: PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR. [From a Chronicle in the National Library at Paris.]] [Sidenote: Sacrobosco.] Another nautical text-book at this time was a treatise by John Holywood, a Yorkshire man, who needs to be a little dressed up when we think of him as the Latinized Sacrobosco. His _Sphera Mundi_ was not put into type till 1472, just before Columbus's arrival in Portugal,--a work which is mainly paraphrased from Ptolemy's _Almagest_. It was one of the books which, by law, the royal cosmographer of Spain, at a later day, was directed to expound in his courses of instruction. [Sidenote: The loadstone.] The loadstone was known in western and northern Europe as early as the eleventh century, and for two or three centuries there are found in books occasional references to the magnet. We are in much doubt, however, as to the prevalence of its use in navigation. If we are to believe some writers on the subject, it was known to the Norsemen as early as the seventh century. Its use in the Levant, derived, doubtless, from the peoples navigating the Indian Ocean, goes back to an antiquity not easily to be limited. [Sidenote: Magnetic needle.] By the year 1200, a knowledge of the magnetic needle, coming from China through the Arabs, had become common enough in Europe to be mentioned in literature, and in another century its use did not escape record by the chroniclers of maritime progress. In the fourteenth century, the adventurous spirit of the Catalans and the Normans stretched the scope of their observations from the Hebrides on the north to the west coast of tropical Africa on the south, and to the westward, two fifths across the Atlantic to the neighborhood of the Azores,--voyages made safely under the direction of the magnet. [Sidenote: Observations for latitude.] [Sidenote: The astrolabe.] There was not much difficulty in computing latitude either by the altitude of the polar star or by using tables of the sun's declination, which the astronomers of the time were equal to calculating. The astrolabe used for gauging the altitude was a simple instrument, which had been long in use among the Mediterranean seamen, and had been described by Raymond Lullius in the latter part of the thirteenth century. Before Columbus's time it had been somewhat improved by Johannes Müller of Königsberg, who became better known from the Latin form of his native town as Regiomontanus. He had, perhaps, the best reputation in his day as a nautical astronomer, and Humboldt has explained the importance of his labors in the help which he afforded in an age of discovery. [Sidenote: Dead reckoning.] It is quite certain that the navigators of Prince Henry, and even Columbus, practiced no artificial method for ascertaining the speed of their ships. With vessels of the model of those days, no great rapidity was possible, and the utmost a ship could do under favorable circumstances was not usually beyond four miles an hour. The hourglass gave them the time, and afforded the multiple according as the eye adjusted the apparent number of miles which the ship was making hour by hour. This was the method by which Columbus, in 1492, calculated the distances, which he recorded day by day in his journal. Of course the practiced seaman made allowances for drift in the ocean currents, and met with more or less intelligence the various deterrent elements in beating to windward. [Sidenote: The seaman's log.] Humboldt, with his keen insight into all such problems concerning their relations to oceanic discoveries, tells us in his _Cosmos_ how he has made the history of the log a subject of special investigation in the sixth volume of his _Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la Géographie_, which, unfortunately, the world has never seen; but he gives, apparently, the results in his later _Cosmos_. [Illustration: THE ASTROLABE OF REGIOMONTANUS.] It is perhaps surprising that the Mediterranean peoples had not perceived a method, somewhat clumsy as it was, which had been in use by the Romans in the time of the republic. Though the habit of throwing the log is still, in our day, kept up on ocean steamers, I find that experienced commanders quite as willingly depend on the report of their engineers as to the number of revolutions which the wheel or screw has made in the twenty-four hours. In this they were anticipated by these republicans of Rome who attached wheels of four feet diameter to the sides of their ships and let the passage of the water turn them. Their revolutions were then recorded by a device which threw a pebble into a tally-pot for each revolution. [Illustration: REGIOMONTANUS'S ASTROLABE, 1468. [After an original in the museum at Nuremberg, shown in E. Mayer's _Die Hilfsmittel der Schiffahrtskunde_.]] From that time, so far as Humboldt could ascertain, down to a period later than Columbus, and certainly after the revival of long ocean voyages by the Catalans, Portuguese, and Normans, there seems to have been no skill beyond that of the eyes in measuring the speed of vessels. After the days of Columbus, it is only when we come to the voyages of Magellan that we find any mention of such a device as a log, which consisted, as his chronicler explains, of some arrangements of cog-wheels and chains carried on the poop. [Sidenote: Prince Henry's character.] Such were in brief the elements of seamanship in which Prince Henry the Navigator caused his sailors to be instructed, and which more or less governed the instrumentalities employed in his career of discovery. He was a man who, as his motto tells us, wished, and was able, to do well. He was shadowed with few infirmities of spirit. He joined with the pluck of his half-English blood--for he was the grandson of John of Gaunt--a training for endurance derived in his country's prolonged contests with the Moor. He was the staple and lofty exemplar of this great age of discovery. He was more so than Columbus, and rendered the adventitious career of the Genoese possible. He knew how to manage men, and stuck devotedly to his work. He respected his helpers too much to drug them with deceit, and there is a straightforward honesty of purpose in his endeavors. He was a trainer of men, and they grew courageous under his instruction. To sail into the supposed burning zone beyond Cape Bojador, and to face the destruction of life which was believed to be inevitable, required a courage quite as conspicuous as to cleave the floating verdure of the Sargasso Sea, on a western passage. It must be confessed that he shared with Columbus those proclivities which in the instigators of African slavery so easily slipped into cruelty. They each believed there was a merit, if a heathen's soul be at stake, in not letting commiseration get the better of piety. [Sidenote: Cape Bojador passed, 1434.] It was not till 1434 that Prince Henry's captains finally passed Cape Bojador. It was a strenuous and daring effort in the face of conceded danger, and under the impulse of the Prince's earnest urging. Gil Eannes returned from this accomplished act a hero in the eyes of his master. Had it ever been passed before? Not apparently in any way to affect the importance of this Portuguese enterprise. We can go back indeed, to the expedition of Hanno the Carthaginian, and in the commentaries of Carl Müller and Vivien de St. Martin track that navigator outside the Pillars of Hercules, and follow him southerly possibly to Cape Verde or its vicinity; and this, if Major's arguments are to be accepted, is the only antecedent venture beyond Cape Bojador, though there have been claims set up for the Genoese, the Catalans, and the Dieppese. That the map of Marino Sanuto in 1306, and the so-called Laurentian portolano of 1351, both of which establish a vague southerly limit to Africa, rather give expression to a theory than chronicle the experience of navigators is the opinion of Major. It is of course possible that some indefinite knowledge of oriental tracking of the eastern coast of Africa, and developing its terminal shape southerly, may have passed, as already intimated, with other nautical knowledge, by the Red Sea to the Mediterranean peoples. To attempt to settle the question of any circumnavigation of Africa before the days of Diaz and Da Gama, by the evidence of earlier maps, makes us confront very closely geographical theories on the one hand, and on the other a possible actual knowledge filtered through the Arabs. All this renders it imprudent to assume any tone of certainty in the matter. [Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF AFRICAN DISCOVERY.] The captains of Prince Henry now began, season by season, to make a steady advance. The Pope had granted to the Portuguese monarchy the exclusive right to discovered lands on this unexplored route to India, and had enjoined all others not to interfere. [Sidenote: Cape Blanco passed, 1441.] In 1441 the Prince's ships passed beyond Cape Blanco, and in succeeding years they still pushed on little by little, bringing home in 1442 some negroes for slaves, the first which were seen in Europe, as Helps supposes, though this is a matter of some doubt. [Sidenote: Cape Verde reached, 1445.] Cape Verde had been reached by Diniz Dyàz (Fernandez) in 1445, and the discovery that the coast beyond had a general easterly trend did much to encourage the Portuguese, with the illusory hope that the way to India was at last opened. They had by this time passed beyond the countries of the Moors, and were coasting along a country inhabited by negroes. [Sidenote: Cadamosto, 1445.] [Sidenote: Cape Verde Islands.] In 1455, the Venetian Cadamosto, a man who proved that he could write intelligently of what he saw, was induced by Prince Henry to conduct a new expedition, which was led to the Gambia; so that Europeans saw for the first time the constellation of the Southern Cross. In the following year, still patronized by Prince Henry, who fitted out one of his vessels, Cadamosto discovered the Cape Verde Islands, or at least his narrative would indicate that he did. By comparison of documents, however, Major has made it pretty clear that Cadamosto arrogated to himself a glory which belonged to another, and that the true discoverer of the Cape Verde Islands was Diogo Gomez, in 1460. It was on this second voyage that Cadamosto passed Cape Roxo, and reached the Rio Grande. [Illustration: FRA MAURO'S WORLD, 1439.] [Sidenote: Fra Mauro's maps, 1457.] [Illustration: TOMB OF PRINCE HENRY AT BATALHA. [From Major's _Prince Henry_.]] [Sidenote: Prince Henry dies, 1460.] In 1457, Prince Henry sent, by order of his nephew and sovereign, Alfonso V., the maps of his captains to Venice, to have them combined in a large mappemonde; and Fra Mauro was entrusted with the making of it, in which he was assisted by Andrea Bianco, a famous cartographer of the time. This great map came to Portugal the year before the Prince died, and it stands as his final record, left behind him at his death, November 13, 1460, to attest his constancy and leadership. The pecuniary sacrifices which he had so greatly incurred in his enterprises had fatally embarrassed his estate. His death was not as Columbus's was, an obscuration that no one noted; his life was prolonged in the school of seamanship which he had created. [Illustration: STATUE OF PRINCE HENRY AT BELEM. [From Major's _Prince Henry_.]] The Prince's enthusiasm in his belief that there was a great southern point of Africa had been imparted to all his followers. Fra Mauro gave it credence in his map by an indication that an Indian junk from the East had rounded the cape with the sun in 1420. In this Mauro map the easterly trend of the coast beyond Cape Verde is adequately shown, but it is made only as the northern shore of a deep gulf indenting the continent. The more southern parts are simply forced into a shape to suit and fill out the circular dimensions of the map. [Sidenote: Sierra Leone, Gold Coast.] [Sidenote: La Mina.] Within a few years after Henry's death--though some place it earlier--the explorations had been pushed to Sierra Leone and beyond Cape Mezurada. When the revenues of the Gold Coast were farmed out in 1469, it was agreed that discovery should be pushed a hundred leagues farther south annually; and by 1474, when the contract expired, Fernam Gomez, who had taken it, had already found the gold dust region of La Mina, which Columbus, in 1492, was counseled by Spain to avoid while searching for his western lands. This, then, was the condition of Portuguese seamanship and of its exploits when Columbus, some time, probably, in 1473, reached Portugal. He found that country so content with the rich product of the Guinea coast that it was some years later before the Portuguese began to push still farther to the south. The desire to extend the Christian faith to heathen, often on the lips of the discoverers of the fifteenth century, was never so powerful but that gold and pearls made them forget it. CHAPTER VI. COLUMBUS IN PORTUGAL. [Sidenote: Date of his arrival.] [Sidenote: 1470.] It has been held by Navarrete, Irving, and other writers of the older school that Columbus first arrived in Portugal in 1470; and his coming has commonly been connected with a naval battle near Lisbon, in which he escaped from a burning ship by swimming to land with the aid of an oar. It is easily proved, however, that notarial entries in Italy show him to have been in that country on August 7, 1473. We may, indeed, by some stretch of inference, allow the old date to be sustained, by supposing that he really was domiciled in Lisbon as early as 1470, but made occasional visits to his motherland for the next three or four years. [Sidenote: Supposed naval battle.] The naval battle, in its details, is borrowed by the _Historie_ of 1571 from the _Rerum Venitiarum ab Urbe Condita_ of Sabellicus. This author makes Christopher Columbus a son of the younger corsair Colombo, who commanded in the fight, which could not have happened either in 1470, the year usually given, or in 1473-74, the time better determined for Columbus's arrival in Portugal, since this particular action is known to have taken place on August 22, 1485. Those who defend the _Historie_, like D'Avezac, claim that its account simply confounds the battle of 1485 with an earlier one, and that the story of the oar must be accepted as an incident of this supposable anterior fight. The action in 1485 took place when the French corsair, Casaneuve or Colombo, intercepted some richly laden Venetian galleys between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent. History makes no mention of any earlier action of similar import which could have been the occasion of the escape by swimming; and to sustain the _Historie_ by supposing such is a simple, perhaps allowable, hypothesis. [Sidenote: Probable arrival in 1473-1474.] Rawdon Brown, in the introduction to his volumes of the _Calendar of State Papers in the Archives of Venice_, has connected Columbus with this naval combat, but, as he later acknowledged to Harrisse, solely on the authority of the _Historie_. Irving has rejected the story. There seems no occasion to doubt its inconsistencies and anachronisms, and, once discarded, we are thrown back upon the notarial evidence in Italy, by which we may venture to accept the date of 1473-74 as that of the entrance of Columbus into Portugal. Irving, though he discards the associated incidents, accepts the earlier date. Nevertheless, the date of 1473-74 is not taken without some hazard. As it has been of late ascertained that when Columbus left Portugal it was not for good, as was supposed, so it may yet be discovered that it was from some earlier adventure that the buoyancy of an oar took him to the land. [Sidenote: Italians as maritime discoverers.] This coming of an Italian to Portugal to throw in his lot with a foreign people leads the considerate observer to reflect on the strange vicissitudes which caused Italy to furnish to the western nations so many conspicuous leaders in the great explorations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, without profiting in the slightest degree through territorial return. Cadamosto and Cabot, the Venetians, Columbus, the Genoese, Vespucius and Verrazano, the Florentines, are, on the whole, the most important of the great captains of discovery in this virgin age of maritime exploration through the dark waters of the Atlantic; and yet Spain and Portugal, France and England, were those who profited by their genius and labors. It is a singular fact that, during the years which Columbus spent in Portugal, there is not a single act of his life that can be credited with an exact date, and few can be placed beyond cavil by undisputed documentary evidence. [Sidenote: Occupation in Portugal.] It is the usual story, given by his earliest Italian biographers, Gallo and his copiers, that Columbus had found his brother Bartholomew already domiciled in Portugal, and earning a living by making charts and selling books, and that Christopher naturally fell, for a while, into similar occupations. He was not, we are also told, unmindful of his father's distresses in Italy, when he disposed of his small earnings. We likewise know the names of a few of his fellow Genoese settled in Lisbon in traffic, because he speaks of their kindnesses to him, and the help which they had given him (1482) in what would appear to have been commercial ventures. It seems not unlikely that he had not been long in the country when the incident occurred at Lisbon which led to his marriage, which is thus recorded in the _Historie_. [Sidenote: His marriage.] During his customary attendance upon divine worship in the Convent of All Saints, his devotion was observed by one of the pensioners of the monastery, who sought him with such expressions of affection that he easily yielded to her charms. This woman, Felipa Moñiz by name, is said to have been a daughter, by his wife Caterina Visconti, of Bartolomeo Perestrello, a gentleman of Italian origin, who is associated with the colonization of Madeira and Porto Santo. From anything which Columbus himself says and is preserved to us, we know nothing more than that he desired in his will that masses should be said for the repose of her soul; for she was then long dead, and, as Diego tells us, was buried in Lisbon. We learn her name for the first time from Diego's will, in 1509, and this is absolutely all the documentary evidence which we have concerning her. Oviedo and the writers who wrote before the publication of the _Historie_ had only said that Columbus had married in Portugal, without further particulars. [Sidenote: The Perestrellos.] But the _Historie_, with Las Casas following it, does not wholly satisfy our curiosity, neither does Oviedo, later, nor Gomara and Benzoni, who copy from Oviedo. There arises a question of the identity of this Bartolomeo Perestrello, among three of the name of three succeeding generations. Somewhere about 1420, or later, the eldest of this line was made the first governor of Porto Santo, after the island had been discovered by one of the expeditions which had been down the African coast. It is of him the story goes that, taking some rabbits thither, their progeny so quickly possessed the island that its settlers deserted it! Such genealogical information as can be acquired of this earliest Perestrello is against the supposition of his being the father of Felipa Moñiz, but rather indicates that by a second wife, Isabel Moñiz by name, he had the second Bartolomeo, who in turn became the father of our Felipa Moñiz. The testimony of Las Casas seems to favor this view. If this is the Bartolomeo who, having attained his majority, was assigned to the captaincy of Porto Santo in 1473, it could hardly be that a daughter would have been old enough to marry in 1474-75. The first Bartolomeo, if he was the father-in-law of Columbus, seems to have died in 1457, and was succeeded in 1458, in command of the island of Porto Santo, by another son-in-law, Pedro Correa da Cunha, who married a daughter of his first marriage,--or at least that is one version of this genealogical complication,--and who was later succeeded in 1473 by the second Bartolomeo. The Count Bernardo Pallastrelli, a modern member of the family, has of late years, in his _Il Suocero e la Moglie di Cristoforo Colombo_ (2d ed., Piacenza, 1876), attempted to identify the kindred of the wife of Columbus. He has examined the views of Harrisse, who is on the whole inclined to believe that the wife of Columbus was a daughter of one Vasco Gill Moñiz, whose sister had married the Perestrello of the _Historie_ story. The successive wills of Diego Columbus, it may be observed, call her in one (1509) Philippa Moñiz, and in the other (1523) Philippa Muñiz, without the addition of Perestrello. The genealogical table of the count's monograph, on the other hand, makes Felipa to be the child of Isabella Moñiz, who was the second wife of Bartolomeo Pallastrelli, the son of Felipo, who came to Portugal some time after 1371, from Plaisance, in Italy. Bartolomeo had been one of the household of Prince Henry, and had been charged by him with founding a colony at Porto Santo, in 1425, over which island he was long afterward (1446) made governor. We must leave it as a question involved in much doubt. [Sidenote: Columbus's son Diego born.] The issue of this marriage was one son, Diego, but there is no distinct evidence as to the date of his birth. Sundry incidents go to show that it was somewhere between 1475 and 1479. Columbus's marriage to Doña Felipa had probably taken place at Lisbon, and not before 1474 at the earliest, a date not difficult to reconcile with the year (1473-74) now held to be that of his arrival in Portugal. It is supposed that it was while Columbus was living at Porto Santo, where his wife had some property, that Diego was born, though Harrisse doubts if any evidence can be adduced to support such a statement beyond a sort of conjecture on Las Casas's part, derived from something he thought he remembered Diego to have told him. [Sidenote: Perestrello's MSS.] The story of Columbus's marriage, as given in the _Historie_ and followed by Oviedo, couples with it the belief that it was among the papers of his dead father-in-law, Perestrello, that Columbus found documents and maps which prompted him to the conception of a western passage to Asia. In that case, this may perhaps have been the motive which induced him to draw from Paolo Toscanelli that famous letter, which is usually held to have had an important influence on the mind of Columbus. [Sidenote: Story of a sailor dying in Columbus's house.] The fact of such relationship of Columbus with Perestrello is called in question, and so is another incident often related by the biographers of Columbus. This is that an old seaman who had returned from an adventurous voyage westward had found shelter in the house of Columbus, and had died there, but not before he had disclosed to him a discovery he had made of land to the west. This story is not told in any writer that is now known before Gomara (1552), and we are warned by Benzoni that in Gomara's hands this pilot story was simply an invention "to diminish the immortal fame of Christopher Columbus, as there were many who could not endure that a foreigner and Italian should have acquired so much honor and so much glory, not only for the Spanish kingdom, but also for the other nations of the world." [Sidenote: Pomponius Mela, Strabo, etc.] [Sidenote: Manilius, Solinus, Ptolemy.] It is certain, however, that under the impulse of the young art of printing men's minds had at this time become more alive than they had been for centuries to the search for cosmographical views. The old geographers, just at this time, were one by one finding their way into print, mainly in Italy, while the intercourse of that country with Portugal was quickened by the attractions of the Portuguese discoveries. While Columbus was still in Italy, the great popularity of Pomponius Mela began with the first edition in Latin, which was printed at Milan in 1471, followed soon by other editions in Venice. The _De Situ Orbis_ of Strabo had already been given to the world in Latin as early as 1469, and during the next few years this text was several times reprinted at Rome and Venice. The teaching of the sphericity of the earth in the astronomical poem of Manilius, long a favorite with the monks of the Middle Ages, who repeated it in their labored script, appeared in type at Nuremberg at the same time. The _Polyhistor_ of Solinus did not long delay to follow. A Latin version of Ptolemy had existed since 1409, but it was later than the rest in appearing in print, and bears the date of 1475. These were the newer issues of the Italian and German presses, which were attracting the notice of the learned in this country of the new activities when Columbus came among them, and they were having their palpable effect. [Sidenote: Toscanelli's theory.] [Sidenote: His letter to Columbus.] Just when we know not, but some time earlier than this, Alfonso V. of Portugal had sought, through the medium of the monk Fernando Martinez (Fernam Martins), to know precisely what was meant by the bruit of Toscanelli's theory of a westward way to India. To an inquiry thus vouched Toscanelli had replied to Fernando Martinez (June 25, 1474), some days before a similar inquiry addressed to Toscanelli reached Florence, from Columbus himself, and through the agency of an aged Florentine merchant settled in Lisbon. It seems probable that no knowledge of Martinez's correspondence with Toscanelli had come to the notice of Columbus; and that the message which the Genoese sent to the Florentine was due simply to the same current rumors of Toscanelli's views which had attracted the attention of the king. So in replying to Columbus Toscanelli simply shortened his task by inclosing, with a brief introduction, a copy of the letter, which he says he had sent "some days before" to Martinez. This letter outlined a plan of western discovery; but it is difficult to establish beyond doubt the exact position which the letter of Toscanelli should hold in the growth of Columbus's views. If Columbus reached Portugal as late as 1473-74, as seems likely, it is rendered less certain that Columbus had grasped his idea anterior to the spread of Toscanelli's theory. In any event, the letter of the Florentine physician would strengthen the growing notions of the Genoese. As Toscanelli was at this time a man of seventy-seven, and as a belief in the sphericity of the earth was then not unprevalent, and as the theory of a westward way to the East was a necessary concomitant of such views in the minds of thinking men, it can hardly be denied that the latent faith in a westward passage only needed a vigilant mind to develop the theory, and an adventurous spirit to prove its correctness. The development had been found in Toscanelli and the proof was waiting for Columbus,--both Italians; but Humboldt points out how the Florentine very likely thought he was communicating with a Portuguese, when he wrote to Columbus. This letter has been known since 1571 in the Italian text as given in the _Historie_, which, as it turns out, was inexact and overladen with additions. At least such is the inference when we compare this Italian text with a Latin text, supposed to be the original tongue of the letter, which has been discovered of late years in the handwriting of Columbus himself, on the flyleaf of an Æneas Sylvius (1477), once belonging to Columbus, and still preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville. The letter which is given in the _Historie_ is accompanied by an antescript, which says that the copy had been sent to Columbus at his request, and that it had been originally addressed to Martinez, some time "before the wars of Castile." How much later than the date June 25, 1474, this copy was sent to Columbus, and when it was received by him, there is no sure means of determining, and it may yet be in itself one of the factors for limiting the range of months during which Columbus must have arrived in Portugal. [Sidenote: Toscanelli's visions of the East.] The extravagances of the letter of Toscanelli, in his opulent descriptions of a marvelous Asiatic region, were safely made in that age without incurring the charge of credulity. Travelers could tell tales then that were as secure from detection as the revealed arcana of the Zuñi have been in our own days. Two hundred towns, whose marble bridges spanned a single river, and whose commerce could incite the cupidity of the world, was a tale easily to stir numerous circles of listeners in the maritime towns of the Mediterranean, wherever wandering mongers of marvels came and went. There were such travelers whose recitals Toscanelli had read, and others whose tales he had heard from their own lips, and these last were pretty sure to augment the wonders of the elder talebearers. Columbus had felt this influence with the rest, and the tales lost nothing of their vividness in coming to him freshened, as it were, by the curious mind of the Florentine physician. The map which accompanied Toscanelli's letter, and which depicted his notions of the Asiatic coast lying over against that of Spain, is lost to us, but various attempts have been made to restore it, as is done in the sketch annexed. It will be a precious memorial, if ever recovered, worthy of study as a reflex, in more concise representation than is found in the text of the letter, of the ideas which one of the most learned cosmographers of his day had imbibed from mingled demonstrations of science and imagination. [Illustration: TOSCANELLI'S MAP AS RESTORED IN _DAS AUSLAND_.] [Sidenote: The passage westward.] It is said that in our own day, in the first stages of a belief in the practicability of an Atlantic telegraphic cable, it was seriously claimed that the vast stretch of its extension could be broken by a halfway station on Jacquet Island, one of those relics of the Middle Ages, which has disappeared from our ocean charts only in recent years. [Sidenote: Antillia.] Just in the same way all the beliefs which men had had in the island of Antillia, and in the existence of many another visionary bit of land, came to the assistance of these theoretical discoverers in planning the chances of a desperate voyage far out into a sea of gorgons and chimeras dire. Toscanelli's map sought to direct the course of any one who dared to make the passage, in a way that, in case of disaster to his ships, a secure harbor could be found in Antillia, and in such other havens as no lack of islands would supply. Ferdinand claimed to have found in his father's papers some statements which he had drawn from Aristotle of Carthaginian voyages to Antillia, on the strength of which the Portuguese had laid that island down in their charts in the latitude of Lisbon, as one occupied by their people in 714, when Spain was conquered by the Moors. Even so recently as the time of Prince Henry it had been visited by Portuguese ships, if records were to be believed. It also stands in the Bianco map of 1436. [Sidenote: Fabulous islands of the Atlantic.] There are few more curious investigations than those which concern these fantastic and fabulous islands of the Sea of Darkness. They are connected with views which were an inheritance in part from the classic times, with involved notions of the abodes of the blessed and of demoniacal spirits. In part they were the aërial creation of popular mythologies, going back to a remoteness of which it is impossible to trace the beginning, and which got a variable color from the popular fancies of succeeding generations. The whole subject is curiously without the field of geography, though entering into all surveys of mediæval knowledge of the earth, and depending very largely for its elucidation on the maps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, whose mythical traces are not beyond recognition in some of the best maps which have instructed a generation still living. [Sidenote: St. Brandan.] To place the island of the Irish St. Brandan--whose coming there with his monks is spoken of as taking place in the sixth century--in the catalogue of insular entities is to place geography in such a marvelous guise as would have satisfied the monk Philoponus and the rest of the credulous fictionmongers who hang about the skirts of the historic field. But the belief in it long prevailed, and the apparition sometimes came to sailors' eyes as late as the last century. [Sidenote: Antillia, or the Seven Cities.] The great island of Antillia, or the Seven Cities, already referred to, was recognized, so far as we know, for the first time in the Weimar map of 1424, and is known in legends as the resort of some Spanish bishops, flying from the victorious Moors, in the eighth century. It never quite died out from the recognition of curious minds, and was even thought to have been seen by the Portuguese, not far from the time when Columbus was born. Peter Martyr also, after Columbus had returned from his first voyage, had a fancy that what the Admiral had discovered was really the great island of Antillia, and its attendant groups of smaller isles, and the fancy was perpetuated when Wytfliet and Ortelius popularized the name of Antilles for the West Indian Archipelago. [Sidenote: Brazil Island.] Another fleeting insular vision of this pseudo-geographical realm was a smaller body of floating land, very inconstant in position, which is always given some form of the name that, in later times, got a constant shape in the word Brazil. We can trace it back into the portolanos of the middle of the fourteenth century; and it had not disappeared as a survival twenty or thirty years ago in the admiralty charts of Great Britain. The English were sending out expeditions from Bristol in search of it even while Columbus was seeking countenance for his western schemes; and Cabot, at a little later day, was instrumental in other searches. [Sidenote: Travelers in the Orient.] Foremost among the travelers who had excited the interest of Toscanelli, and whose names he possibly brought for the first time to the attention of Columbus, were Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and Nicolas de Conti. [Illustration: MODERN EASTERN ASIA, WITH THE OLD AND NEW NAMES. [From Yule's _Cathay_.]] [Sidenote: Marco Polo,] It is a question to be resolved only by critical study as to what was the language in which Marco Polo first dictated, in a Genoese prison in 1298, the original narrative of his experiences in Cathay. The inquiry has engaged the attention of all his editors, and has invited the critical sagacity of D'Avezac. There seems little doubt that it was written down in French. [Illustration: EASTERN ASIA, CATALAN MAP, 1375. [From Yule's _Cathay_, vol. i.]] [Illustration: MARCO POLO. [From an original at Rome.]] There are no references by Columbus himself to the Asiatic travels of Marco Polo, but his acquaintance with the marvelous book of the Venetian observer may safely be assumed. The multiplication of texts of the _Milione_ following upon his first dictation, and upon the subsequent revision in 1307, may not, indeed, have caused it to be widely known in various manuscript forms, be it in Latin or Italian. Nor is it likely that Columbus could have read the earliest edition which was put in type, for it was in German in 1477; but there is the interesting possibility that this work of the Nuremberg press may have been known to Martin Behaim, a Nuremberger then in Lisbon, and likely enough to have been a familiar of Columbus. The fact that there is in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville a copy of the first Latin printed edition (1485) with notes, which seem to be in Columbus's handwriting, may be taken as evidence, that at least in the later years of his study the inspiration which Marco Polo could well have been to him was not wanting; and the story may even be true as told in Navarrete, that Columbus had a copy of this famous book at his side during his first voyage, in 1492. At the time when Humboldt doubted the knowledge of Columbus in respect to Marco Polo, this treasure of the Colombina was not known, and these later developments have shown how such a question was not to be settled as Humboldt supposed, by the fact that Columbus quoted Æneas Sylvius upon Cipango, and did not quote Marco Polo. [Sidenote: Sir John Mandeville.] Neither does Columbus refer to the journey and strange stories of Sir John Mandeville, whose recitals came to a generation which was beginning to forget the stories of Marco Polo, and which, by fostering a passion for the marvelous, had readily become open to the English knight's bewildering fancies. The same negation of evidence, however, that satisfied Humboldt as respects Marco Polo will hardly suffice to establish Columbus's ignorance of the marvels which did more, perhaps, than the narratives of any other traveler to awaken Europe to the wonders of the Orient. Bernaldez, in fact, tells us that Columbus was a reader of Mandeville, whose recital was first printed in French at Lyons in 1480, within a few years after Columbus's arrival in Portugal. [Sidenote: Nicolo di Conti.] It was to Florence, in Toscanelli's time, not far from 1420, that Nicolo di Conti, a Venetian, came, after his long sojourn of a quarter of a century in the far East. In Conti's new marvels, the Florentine scholar saw a rejuvenation of the wonders of Marco Polo. It was from Conti, doubtless, that Toscanelli got some of that confidence in a western voyage which, in his epistle to Columbus, he speaks of as derived from a returned traveler. Pope Eugene IV., not far from the time of the birth of Columbus, compelled Conti to relate his experiences to Poggio Bracciolini. This scribe made what he could out of the monstrous tales, and translated the stories into Latin. In this condition Columbus may have known the narrative at a later day. The information which Conti gave was eagerly availed of by the cosmographers of the time, and Colonel Yule, the modern English writer on ancient Cathay, thinks that Fra Mauro got for his map more from Conti than that traveler ventured to disclose to Poggio. [Sidenote: Toscanelli's death, 1482.] Toscanelli, at the time of writing this letter to Columbus, had long enjoyed a reputation as a student of terrestrial and celestial phenomena. He had received, in 1463, the dedication by Regiomontanus of his treatise on the quadrature of the circle. He was, as has been said, an old man of seventy-seven when Columbus opened his correspondence with him. It was not his fate to live long enough to see his physical views substantiated by Diaz and Columbus, for he died in 1482. [Sidenote: Columbus confers with others.] In two of the contemporary writers, Bartholomew Columbus is credited with having incited his brother Christopher to the views which he developed regarding a western passage, and these two were Antonio Gallo and Giustiniani, the commentator of the Psalms. It has been of late contended by H. Grothe, in his _Leonardo da Vinci_ (Berlin, 1874), that it was at this time, too, when that eminent artist conducted a correspondence with Columbus about a western way to Asia. But there is little need of particularizing other advocates of a belief which had within the range of credible history never ceased to have exponents. The conception was in no respect the merit of Columbus, except as he grasped a tradition, which others did not, and it is strange, that Navarrete in quoting the testimony of Ferdinand and Isabella, of August 8, 1497, to the credit of the discovery of Columbus, as his own proper work, does not see that it was the venturesome, and as was then thought foolhardy, deed to prove the conception which those monarchs commended, and not the conception itself. [Sidenote: Columbus writes out reasons for his belief.] We learn from the _Historie_ that its writer had found among the papers of Columbus the evidence of the grounds of his belief in the western passage, as under varying impressions it had been formulated in his mind. These reasons divide easily into three groups: First, those based on deductions drawn from scientific research, and as expressed in the beliefs of Ptolemy, Marinus, Strabo, and Pliny; second, views which the authority of eminent writers had rendered weightier, quoting as such the works of Aristotle, Seneca, Strabo, Pliny, Solinus, Marco Polo, Mandeville, Pierre d'Ailly, and Toscanelli; and third, the stories of sailors as to lands and indications of lands westerly. From these views, instigated or confirmed by such opinions, Columbus gradually arranged his opinions, in not one of which did he prove to be right, except as regards the sphericity of the earth; and the last was a belief which had been the common property of learned men, and at intervals occupying even the popular mind, from a very early date. [Sidenote: Sphericity of the earth.] [Sidenote: Transmission of the belief in it.] The conception among the Greeks of a plane earth, which was taught in the Homeric and Hesiodic poems, began to give place to a crude notion of a spherical form at a period that no one can definitely determine, though we find it taught by the Pythagoreans in Italy in the sixth century before Christ. The spherical view and its demonstration passed down through long generations of Greeks, under the sanction of Plato and their other highest thinkers. In the fourth century before Christ, Aristotle and others, by watching the moon's shadow in an eclipse, and by observing the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies in different latitudes, had proved the roundness of the earth to their satisfaction; Eratosthenes first measured a degree of latitude in the third century; Hipparchus, in the second century, was the earliest to establish geographical positions; and in the second century of the Christian era Ptolemy had formulated for succeeding times the general scope of the transmitted belief. During all these centuries it was perhaps rather a possession of the learned. We infer from Aristotle that the view was a novelty in his time; but in the third century before Christ it began to engage popular attention in the poem of Aratus, and at about 200 B. C. Crates is said to have given palpable manifestation of the theory in a globe, ten feet in diameter, which he constructed. The belief passed to Italy and the Latins, and was sung by Hyginus and Manilius in the time of Augustus. We find it also in the minds of Pliny, Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid. So the belief became the heirloom of the learned throughout the classic times, and it was directly coupled in the minds of Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Seneca, and others with a conviction, more or less pronounced, of an easy western voyage from Spain to India. [Sidenote: Seneca's _Medea_.] [Sidenote: Cosmas.] [Sidenote: Bacon, Albertus Magnus, Pierre d'Ailly.] No one of the ancient expressions of this belief seems to have clung more in the memory of Columbus than that in the _Medea_ of Seneca; and it is an interesting confirmation that in a copy of the book which belonged to his son Ferdinand, and which is now preserved in Seville, the passage is scored by the son's hand, while in a marginal note he has attested the fact that its prophecy of a western passage had been made good by his father in 1492. Though the opinion was opposed by St. Chrysostom in the fourth century, it was taught by St. Augustine and Isidore in the fifth. Cosmas in the sixth century was unable to understand how, if the earth was a sphere, those at the antipodes could see Christ at his coming. That settled the question in his mind. The Venerable Bede, however, in the eighth century, was not constrained by any such arguments, and taught the spherical theory. Jourdain, a modern French authority, has found distinct evidence that all through the Middle Ages the belief in the western way was kept alive by the study of Aristotle; and we know how the Arabs perpetuated the teachings of that philosopher, which in turn were percolated through the Levant to Mediterranean peoples. It is a striking fact that at a time when Spain was bending all her energies to drive the Moor from the Iberian peninsula, that country was also engaged in pursuing those discoveries along the western way to India which were almost a direct result of the Arab preservation of the cosmographical learning of Aristotle and Ptolemy. A belief in an earth-ball had the testimony of Dante in the twelfth century, and it was the well-known faith of Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and the schoolmen, in the thirteenth. It continued to be held by the philosophers, who kept alive these more recent names, and came to Columbus because of the use of Bacon which Pierre d'Ailly had made. The belief in the sphericity of the earth carried with it of necessity another,--that the east was to be found in the west. Superstition, ignorance, and fear might magnify the obstacles to a passage through that drear Sea of Darkness, but in Columbus's time, in some learned minds at least, there was no distrust as to the accomplishment of such a voyage beyond the chance of obstacles in the way. [Illustration: ALBERTUS MAGNUS. [From Reusner's _Icones_.]] [Sidenote: The belief opposed by the Church.] It is true that in this interval of very many centuries there had been lapses into unbelief. There were long periods, indeed, when no one dared to teach the doctrine. Whenever and wherever the Epicureans supplanted the Pythagoreans, the belief fell with the disciples of Pythagoras. There had been, during the days of St. Chrysostom and other of the fathers, a decision of the Church against it. There were doubtless, as Humboldt says, conservers, during all this time, of the traditions of antiquity, since the monasteries and colleges--even in an age when to be unlearned was more pardonable than to be pagan--were of themselves quite a world apart from the dullness of the masses of the people. [Sidenote: Pierre D'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_.] [Sidenote: Roger Bacon's _Opus Majus_.] A hundred years before Columbus, the inheritor of much of this conservation was the Bishop of Cambray, that Pierre d'Ailly whose _Imago Mundi_ (1410) was so often on the lips of Columbus, and out of which it is more than likely that Columbus drank of the knowledge of Aristotle, Strabo, and Seneca, and to a degree greater perhaps than he was aware of he took thence the wisdom of Roger Bacon. It was through the _Opus Majus_ (1267) of this English philosopher that western Europe found accessible the stories of the "silver walls and golden towers" of Quinsay as described by Rubruquis, the wandering missionary, who in the thirteenth century excited the cupidity of the Mediterranean merchants by his accounts of the inexhaustible treasures of eastern Asia, and which the reader of to-day may find in the collections of Samuel Purchas. Pierre d'Ailly's position in regard to cosmographical knowledge was hardly a dominant one. He seems to know nothing of Marco Polo, Bacon's contemporary, and he never speaks of Cathay, even when he urges the views which he has borrowed from Roger Bacon, of the extension of Asia towards Western Europe. Any acquaintance with the _Imago Mundi_ during these days of Columbus in Portugal came probably through report, though possibly he may have met with manuscripts of the work; for it was not till after he had gone to Spain that D'Ailly could have been read in any printed edition, the first being issued in 1490. [Sidenote: Rotundity and gravitation.] The theory of the rotundity of the earth carried with it one objection, which in the time of Columbus was sure sooner or later to be seized upon. If, going west, the ship sank with the declivity of the earth's contour, how was she going to mount such an elevation on her return voyage?--a doubt not so unreasonable in an age which had hardly more than the vaguest notion of the laws of gravitation, though some, like Vespucius, were not without a certain prescience of the fact. [Sidenote: Size of the earth.] By the middle of the third century before Christ, Eratosthenes, accepting sphericity, had by astronomical methods studied the extent of the earth's circumference, and, according to the interpretation of his results by modern scholars, he came surprisingly near to the actual size, when he exceeded the truth by perhaps a twelfth part. The calculations of Eratosthenes commended themselves to Hipparchus, Strabo, and Pliny. A century later than Eratosthenes, a new calculation, made by Posidonius of Rhodes, reduced the magnitude to a globe of about four fifths its proper size. It was palpably certain to the observant philosophers, from the beginning of their observations on the size of the earth, that the portion known to commerce and curiosity was but a small part of what might yet be known. The unknown, however, is always a terror. Going north from temperate Europe increased the cold, going south augmented the heat; and it was no bold thought for the naturalist to conclude that a north existed in which the cold was unbearable, and a south in which the heat was too great for life. Views like these stayed the impulse for exploration even down to the century of Columbus, and magnified the horrors which so long balked the exploration of the Portuguese on the African coast. There had been intervals, however, when men in the Indian Ocean had dared to pass the equator. [Sidenote: Unknown regions.] [Sidenote: Strabo and Marinus on the size of the earth.] Therefore it was before the age of Columbus that, east and west along the temperate belt, men's minds groped to find new conditions beyond the range of known habitable regions. Strabo, in the first century before Christ, made this habitable zone stretch over 120 degrees, or a third of the circumference of the earth. The corresponding extension of Marinus of Tyre in the second century after Christ stretched over 225 degrees. This geographer did not define the land's border on the ocean at the east, but it was not unusual with the cosmographers who followed him to carry the farthest limits of Asia to what is actually the meridian of the Sandwich Islands. On the west Marinus pushed the Fortunate Islands (Canaries) two degrees and a half beyond Cape Finisterre, failing to comprehend their real position, which for the westernmost, Ferro, is something like nine degrees beyond the farther limits of the main land. [Sidenote: Ptolemy's view.] The belt of the known world running in the direction of the equator was, in the conception of Ptolemy, the contemporary of Marinus, about seventy-nine degrees wide, sixteen of these being south of the equatorial line. This was a contraction from the previous estimate of Marinus, who had made it over eighty-seven degrees. [Sidenote: Toscanelli's view.] Toscanelli reduced the globe to a circumference of about 18,000 miles, losing about 6,000 miles; and the untracked ocean, lying west of Lisbon, was about one third of this distance. In other words, the known world occupied about 240 of the 360 degrees constituting the equatorial length. Few of the various computations of this time gave such scant dimensions to the unknown proportion of the line. The Laon globe, which was made ten or twelve years later than Toscanelli's time, was equally scant. Behaim, who figured out the relations of the known to the unknown circuit, during the summer before Columbus sailed on his first voyage, reduced what was known to not much more than a third of the whole. It was the fashion, too, with an easy reliance on their genuineness, to refer to the visions of Esdras in support of a belief in the small part--a sixth--of the surface of the globe covered by the ocean. [Illustration: LAON GLOBE. [After D'Avezac.]] [Sidenote: Views of Columbus.] The problem lay in Columbus's mind thus: he accepted the theory of the division of the circumference of the earth into twenty-four hours, as it had come down from Marinus of Tyre, when this ancient astronomer supposed that from the eastern verge of Asia to the western extremity of Europe there was a space of fifteen hours. The discovery of the Azores had pushed the known limit a single hour farther towards the setting sun, making sixteen hours, or two thirds of the circumference of 360 degrees. There were left eight hours, or one hundred and twenty degrees, to represent the space between the Azores and Asia. This calculation in reality brought the Asiatic coast forward to the meridian of California, obliterating the width of the Pacific at that latitude, and reducing by so much the size of the globe as Columbus measured it, on the assumption that Marinus was correct. This, however, he denied. If the _Historie_ reports Columbus exactly, he contended that the testimony of Marco Polo and Mandeville carried the verge of Asia so far east that the land distance was more than fifteen hours across; and by as much as this increased the distance, by so much more was the Asiatic shore pushed nearer the coasts of Europe. "We can thus determine," he says, "that India is even neighboring to Spain and Africa." [Sidenote: Length of a degree.] The calculation of course depended on what was the length of a degree, and on this point there was some difference of opinion. Toscanelli had so reduced a degree's length that China was brought forward on his planisphere till its coast line cut the meridian of the present Newfoundland. [Sidenote: Quinsay.] We can well imagine how this undue contraction of the size of the globe, as the belief lay in the mind of Columbus, and as he expressed it later (July 7, 1503), did much to push him forward, and was a helpful illusion in inducing others to venture upon the voyage with him. The courage required to sail out of some Iberian port due west a hundred and twenty degrees in order to strike the regions about the great Chinese city of Quinsay, or Kanfu, Hangtscheufu, and Kingszu, as it has been later called, was more easily summoned than if the actual distance of two hundred and thirty-one degrees had been recognized, or even the two hundred and four degrees necessary in reality to reach Cipango, or Japan. The views of Toscanelli, as we have seen, reduced the duration of risk westward to so small a figure as fifty-two degrees. So it had not been an unusual belief, more or less prominent for many generations, that with a fair wind it required no great run westward to reach Cathay, if one dared to undertake it. If there were no insurmountable obstacles in the Sea of Darkness, it would not be difficult to reach earlier that multitude of islands which was supposed to fringe the coast of China. [Sidenote: Asiatic islands.] [Sidenote: Cipango.] [Sidenote: Spanish and Portuguese explorations.] It was a common belief, moreover, that somewhere in this void lay the great island of Cipango,--the goal of Columbus's voyage. Sometimes nearer and sometimes farther it lay from the Asiatic coast. Pinzon saw in Rome in 1491 a map which carried it well away from that coast; and if one could find somewhere in the English archives the sea-chart with which Bartholomew Columbus enforced the views of his brother, to gain the support of the English king, it is supposed that it would reveal a somewhat similar location of the coveted island. Here, then, was a space, larger or smaller, as men differently believed, interjacent along this known zone between the ascertained extreme east in Asia and the accepted most distant west at Cape St. Vincent in Spain, as was thought in Strabo's time, or at the Canaries, as was comprehended in the days of Ptolemy. What there was in this unknown space between Spain and Cathay was the problem which balked the philosophers quite as much as that other uncertainty, which concerned what might possibly be found in the southern hemisphere, could one dare to enter the torrid heats of the supposed equatorial ocean, or in the northern wastes, could one venture to sail beyond the Arctic Circle. These curious quests of the inquisitive and learned minds of the early centuries of the Christian era were the prototypes of the actual explorations which it was given in the fifteenth century to the Spaniards and Portuguese respectively to undertake. The commercial rivalry which had in the past kept Genoa and Venice watchful of each other's advantage had by their maritime ventures in the Atlantic passed to these two peninsular nations, and England was not long behind them in starting in her race for maritime supremacy. [Sidenote: Sea of Darkness.] It was in human nature that these unknown regions should become those either of enchantment or dismay, according to personal proclivities. It is not necessary to seek far for any reason for this. An unknown stretch of waters was just the place for the resorts of the Gorgons and to find the Islands of the Blest, and to nurture other creations of the literary and spiritual instincts, seeking to give a habitation to fancies. It is equally in human nature that what the intellect has habilitated in this way the fears, desires, and superstitions of men in due time turn to their own use. It was easy, under the stress of all this complexity of belief and anticipation, for this supposable interjacent oceanic void to teem in men's imaginations with regions of almost every imaginable character; and when, in the days of the Roman republic, the Canaries were reached, there was no doubt but the ancient Islands of the Blest had been found, only in turn to pass out of cognizance, and once more to fall into the abyss of the Unknown. [Sidenote: Story of Atlantis.] [Sidenote: Land of the Meropes.] [Sidenote: Saturnian continent.] There are, however, three legends which have come down to us from the classic times, which the discovery of America revived with new interest in the speculative excursions of the curiously learned, and it is one of the proofs of the narrow range of Columbus's acquaintance with original classic writers that these legends were not pressed by him in support of his views. The most persistent of these in presenting a question for the physical geographer is the story of Atlantis, traced to a tale told by Plato of a tradition of an island in the Atlantic which eight thousand years ago had existed in the west, opposite the Pillars of Hercules; and which, in a great inundation, had sunken beneath the sea, leaving in mid ocean large mud shoals to impede navigation and add to the terrors of a vast unknown deep. There have been those since the time of Gomara who have believed that the land which Columbus found dry and inhabited was a resurrected Atlantis, and geographers even of the seventeenth century have mapped out its provinces within the usual outline of the American continents. Others have held, and some still hold, that the Atlantic islands are but peaks of this submerged continent. There is no evidence to show that these fancies of the philosopher ever disturbed even the most erratic moments of Columbus, nor could he have pored over the printed Latin of Plato, if it came in his way, till its first edition appeared in 1483, during his stay in Portugal. Neither do we find that he makes any references to that other creation, the land of the Meropes, as figured in the passages cited by Ælian some seven hundred years after Theopompus had conjured up the vision in the fourth century before Christ. Equally ignorant was Columbus, it would appear, of the great Saturnian continent, lying five days west from Britain, which makes a story in Plutarch's _Morals_. [Sidenote: Earlier voyages on the Atlantic.] [Sidenote: Phoenicians.] [Sidenote: Carthaginians.] [Sidenote: Romans.] We deal with a different problem when we pass from these theories and imaginings of western lands to such records as exist of what seem like attempts in the earliest days to attain by actual exploration the secret of this interjacent void. The Phoenicians had passed the Straits of Gibraltar and found Gades (Cadiz), and very likely attempted to course the Atlantic, about 1100 years before the birth of Christ. Perhaps they went to Cornwall for tin. It may have been by no means impossible for them to have passed among the Azores and even to have reached the American islands and main, as a statement in Diodorus Siculus has been interpreted to signify. Then five hundred years later or more we observe the Carthaginians pursuing their adventurous way outside the Pillars of Hercules, going down the African coast under Hanno to try the equatorial horrors, or running westerly under Hamilko to wonder at the Sargasso sea. Later, the Phoenicians seem to have made some lodgment in the islands off the coasts of northwestern Africa. The Romans in the fourth century before Christ pushed their way out into the Atlantic under Pytheas and Euthymenes, the one daring to go as far as Thule--whatever that was--in the north, and the other to Senegal in the south. It was in the same century that Rome had the strange sight of some unknown barbarians, of a race not recognizable, who were taken upon the shores of the German Ocean, where they had been cast away. Later writers have imagined--for no stronger word can be used--that these weird beings were North American Indians, or rather more probably Eskimos. About the same time, Sertorius, a Roman commander in Spain, learned, as already mentioned, of some salubrious islands lying westward from Africa, and gave Horace an opportunity, in the evil days of the civil war, to picture them as a refuge. When the Romans ruled the world, commerce lost much of the hazard and enterprise which had earlier instigated international rivalry. The interest in the western ocean subsided into merely speculative concern; and wild fancy was brought into play in depicting its horrors, its demons and shoals, with the intermingling of sky and water. [Sidenote: Knowledge of such early attempts.] [Sidenote: Maps XVth cent.] [Sidenote: Genoese voyages, 1291.] It is by no means certain that Columbus knew anything of this ancient lore of the early Mediterranean people. There is little or nothing in the early maps of the fifteenth century to indicate that such knowledge was current among those who made or contributed to the making of such of these maps as have come down to us. The work of some of the more famous chart makers Columbus could hardly have failed to see, or heard discussed in the maritime circles of Portugal; and indeed it was to his own countrymen, Marino Sanuto, Pizignani, Bianco, and Fra Mauro, that Portuguese navigators were most indebted for the broad cartographical treatment of their own discoveries. At the same time there was no dearth of legends of the venturesome Genoese, with fortunes not always reassuring. There was a story, for instance, of some of these latter people, who in 1291 had sailed west from the Pillars of Hercules and had never returned. Such was a legend that might not have escaped Columbus's attention even in his own country, associating with it the names of the luckless Tedisio Doria and Ugolino Vivaldi in their efforts to find a western way to India. Harrisse, however, who has gone over all the evidence of such a purpose, fails to be satisfied. These stories of ocean hazards hung naturally about the seaports of Portugal. [Sidenote: Antillia.] Galvano tells us of such a tale concerning a Portuguese ship, driven west, in 1447, to an island with seven cities, where its sailors found the people speaking Portuguese, who said they had deserted their country on the death of King Roderigo. This is the legend of Antillia, already referred to. [Sidenote: Islands seen.] Columbus recalled, when afterwards at the Canaries on his first voyage, how it was during his sojourn in Portugal that some one from Madeira presented to the Portuguese king a petition for a vessel to go in quest of land, occasionally seen to the westward from that island. Similar stories were not unknown to him of like apparitions being familiar in the Azores. A story which he had also heard of one Antonio Leme having seen three islands one hundred leagues west of the Azores had been set down to a credulous eye, which had been deceived by floating fields of vegetation. [Sidenote: The Basques.] There was no obstacle in the passing of similar reports around the Bay of Biscay from the coasts of the Basques, and the story might be heard of Jean de Echaide, who had found stores of stockfish off a land far oceanward,--an exploit supposed to be commemorated in the island of Stokafixia, which stands far away to the westward in the Bianco map of 1436. All these tales of the early visits of the Basques to what imaginative minds have supposed parts of the American coasts derive much of their perennial charm from associations with a remarkable people. There is indeed nothing improbable in a hardy daring which could have borne the Basques to the Newfoundland shores at almost any date earlier than the time of Columbus. [Sidenote: Newfoundland banks possibly visited.] Fructuoso, writing as late as 1590, claimed that a Portuguese navigator, João Vaz Cortereal, had sailed to the codfish coast of Newfoundland as early as 1464, but Barrow seems to be the only writer of recent times who has believed the tale, and Biddle and Harrisse find no evidence to sustain it. [Sidenote: Tartary supposed to be seen.] There is a statement recorded by Columbus, if we may trust the account of the _Historie_, that a sailor at Santa Maria had told him how, being driven westerly in a voyage to Ireland, he had seen land, which he then thought to be Tartary. Some similar experiences were also told to Columbus by Pieter de Velasco, of Galicia; and this land, according to the account, would seem to have been the same sought at a later day by the Cortereals (1500). [Sidenote: Dubious pre-Columbian voyages.] It is not easy to deal historically with long-held traditions. The furbishers of transmitted lore easily make it reflect what they bring to it. To find illustrations in any inquiry is not so difficult if you select what you wish, and discard all else, and the result of this discriminating accretion often looks very plausible. Historical truth is reached by balancing everything, and not by assimilating that which easily suits. Almost all these discussions of pre-Columbian voyagings to America afford illustrations of this perverted method. Events in which there is no inherent untruth are not left with the natural defense of probability, but are proved by deductions and inferences which could just as well be applied to prove many things else, and are indeed applied in a new way by every new upstart in such inquiries. The story of each discoverer before Columbus has been upheld by the stock intimation of white-bearded men, whose advent is somehow mysteriously discovered to have left traces among the aborigines of every section of the coast. * * * * * [Illustration: OCEANIC CURRENTS. [From Reclus's _Amérique Boréale_.]] [Sidenote: Traces of a western land in drift.] There was another class of evidence which, as the _Historie_ informs us, served some purpose in bringing conviction to the mind of Columbus. Such were the phenomenal washing ashore on European coasts of unknown pines and other trees, sculptured logs, huge bamboos, whose joints could be made into vessels to hold nine bottles of wine, and dead bodies with strange, broad faces. Even canoes, with living men in them of wonderful aspects, had at times been reported as thrown upon the Atlantic islands. Such events had not been unnoticed ever since the Canaries and the Azores had been inhabited by a continental race, and conjectures had been rife long before the time of Columbus that westerly winds had brought these estrays from a distant land,--a belief more comprehensible at that time than any dependence upon the unsuspected fact that it was the oceanic currents, rather, which impelled these migratory objects. [Sidenote: Gulf Stream.] It required the experiences of later Spanish navigators along the Bahama Channel, and those of the French and English farther north upon the Banks of Newfoundland, before it became clear that the currents of the Atlantic, grazing the Cape of Good Hope and whirling in the Gulf of Mexico, sprayed in a curling fringe in the North Atlantic. This in a measure became patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert sixty or seventy years after the death of Columbus. If science had then been equal to the microscopic tasks which at this day it imposes on itself, the question of western lands might have been studied with an interest beyond what attached to the trunks of trees, carved timbers, edible nuts, and seeds of alien plants, which the Gulf Stream is still bringing to the shores of Europe. It might have found in the dust settling upon the throngs of men in the Old World, the shells of animalcules, differing from those known to the observing eye in Europe, which, indeed, had been carried in the upper currents of air from the banks of the Orinoco. * * * * * [Sidenote: Influence of Portuguese discoveries upon Columbus.] [Sidenote: _Ephemerides_ of Regiomontanus.] Once in Portugal, Columbus was brought in close contact with that eager spirit of exploration which had survived the example of Prince Henry and his navigators. If Las Casas was well informed, these Portuguese discoveries were not without great influence upon the Genoese's receptive mind. He was now where he could hear the fresh stories of their extending acquaintance with the African coast. His wife's sister, by the accepted accounts, had married Pedro Correa, a navigator not without fame in those days, and a companion in maritime inquiry upon whom Columbus could naturally depend,--unless, as Harrisse decides, he was no navigator at all. Columbus was also at hand to observe the growing skill in the arts of navigation which gave the Portuguese their preëminence. He had not been long in Lisbon when Regiomontanus gave a new power in astronomical calculations of positions at sea by publishing his _Ephemerides_, for the interval from 1475 to 1506, upon which Columbus was yet to depend in his eventful voyage. [Sidenote: Martin Behaim.] The most famous of the pupils of this German mathematician was himself in Lisbon during the years of Columbus's sojourn. We have no distinct evidence that Martin Behaim, a Nuremberger, passed any courtesies with the Genoese adventurer, but it is not improbable that he did. His position was one that would attract Columbus, who might never have been sought by Behaim. The Nuremberger's standing was, indeed, such as to gain the attention of the Court, and he was thought not unworthy to be joined with the two royal physicians, Roderigo and Josef, on a commission to improve the astrolabe. Their perfected results mark an epoch in the art of seamanship in that age. [Illustration: SAMPLES OF THE TABLES OF REGIOMONTANUS, 1474-1506.] [Illustration: THE AFRICAN COAST, 1478. [From Nordenskiöld's _Facsimile Atlas_.]] [Sidenote: Guinea coast, 1482.] [Sidenote: The Congo reached, 1484.] It was a new sensation when news came that at last the Portuguese had crossed the equator, in pushing along the African coast. In January, 1482, they had said their first mass on the Guinea coast, and the castle of San Jorge da Mina was soon built under the new impulse to enterprise which came with the accession of João II. In 1484 they reached the Congo, under the guidance of Diogo Cam, and Martin Behaim was of his company. [Illustration: MARTIN BEHAIM.] These voyages were not without strong allurements to the Genoese sailor. He is thought to have been a participant in some of the later cruises. The _Historie_ claims that he began to reason, from his new experiences, that if land could be discovered to the south there was much the same chance of like discoveries in the west. But there were experiences of other kinds which, in the interim, if we believe the story, he underwent in the north. CHAPTER VII. WAS COLUMBUS IN THE NORTH? [Sidenote: Columbus supposed to have sailed beyond Iceland, 1477.] There is, in the minds of some inquirers into the early discovery of America, no more pivotal incident attaching to the career of Columbus than an alleged voyage made to the vicinity of what is supposed to have been Iceland, in the assigned year of 1477. The incident is surrounded with the confusion that belongs to everything dependent on Columbus's own statements, or on what is put forth as such. Our chief knowledge of his voyage is in the doubtful Italian rendering of the _Historie_ of 1571, where, citing a memoir by Columbus himself on the five habitable zones, the translator or adapter of that book makes the Admiral say that "in February, 1477, he sailed a hundred leagues beyond the island Tile, which lies under the seventy-third parallel, and not under the sixty-third, as some say." The only evidence that he saw Tile, in sailing beyond it, is in what he further says, that he was able to ascertain that the tide rose and fell twenty-six fathoms, which observation necessitates the seeing of some land, whether Tile or not. [Sidenote: Inconsistencies in the statement.] There is no land at all in the northern Atlantic under 73°. Iceland stretches from 64° to 67°; Jan Mayen is too small for Columbus's further description of the island, and is at 71°, and Spitzbergen is at 76°. What Columbus says of the English of Bristol trading at this island points to Iceland; and it is easy, if one will, to imagine a misprint of the figures, an error of calculation, a carelessness of statement, or even the disappearance, through some cataclysm, of the island, as has been suggested. [Illustration: MAP OF OLAUS MAGNUS, 1539. [From Dr. Brenner's Essay.]] Humboldt in his _Cosmos_ quotes Columbus as saying of this voyage near Thule that "the sea was not at that time covered with ice," and he credits that statement to the same _Tratado de las Cinco Zonas Habitables_ of Columbus, and urges in proof that Finn Magnusen had found in ancient historical sources that in February, 1477, ice had not set in on the southern coast of that island. [Sidenote: Thyle.] Speaking of "Tile," the same narrative adds that "it is west of the western verge of Ptolemy [that is, Ptolemy's world map], and larger than England." This expression of its size could point only to Iceland, of all islands in the northern seas. There are elements in the story, however, not easily reconcilable with what might be expected of an experienced mariner; and if the story is true in its main purpose, there is little more in the details than the careless inexactness, which characterizes a good many of the well-authenticated asseverations of Columbus. [Sidenote: The Zeni's Frisland.] Again the narrative says, "It is true that Ptolemy's Thule is where that geographer placed it, but that it is now called Frislande." Does this mean that the Zeni story had been a matter of common talk forty years after the voyage to their Frisland had been made, and eighty-four years before a later scion of the family published the remarkable narrative in Venice, in 1558? It is possible that the maker of the _Historie_ of 1571, in the way in which it was given to the world, had interpolated this reference to the Frisland of the Zeni to help sustain the credit of his own or the other book. A voyage undertaken by Columbus to such high latitudes is rendered in all respects doubtful, to say the least, from the fact that in 1492 Columbus detailed for the eyes of his sovereigns the unusual advantages of the harbors of the new islands which he had discovered, and added that he was entitled to express such an opinion, because his exploration had extended from Guinea on the south to England on the north. It was an occasion when he desired to make his acquaintance seem as wide as the facts would warrant, and yet he does not profess to have been farther north than England. A hundred leagues, moreover, beyond Iceland might well have carried him to the upper Greenland coast, but he makes no mention of other land being seen in those high latitudes. [Sidenote: Thyle and Iceland.] Thyle and Iceland are made different islands in the Ptolemy of 1486, which, if it does not prove that Iceland was not then the same as Thyle in the mind of geographers, shows that geographical confusion still prevailed at the north. It may be further remarked that Muñoz and others have found no time in Columbus's career to which this voyage to the north could so easily pertain as to a period anterior to his going to Portugal, and consequently some years before the 1477 of the _Historie_. [Sidenote: The English in Iceland.] [Sidenote: Kolno.] [Sidenote: The Zeni.] A voyage to Iceland was certainly no new thing. The English traded there, and a large commerce was maintained with it by Bristol, and had been for many years. A story grew up at a later day, and found expression in Gomara and Wytfliet, that in 1476, the year before this alleged voyage of Columbus, a Danish expedition, under the command of the Pole Kolno, or Skolno, had found in these northern regions an entrance to the straits of Anian, which figure so constantly in later maps, and which opened a passage to the Indies; but there seems to be no reason to believe that it had any definite foundation, and it could hardly have been known to Columbus. It is also easy to conjecture that Columbus had been impelled to join some English trading vessel from Bristol, through mere nautical curiosity, and even been urged by reports which may have reached him of the northern explorations of the Zeni, long before the accounts were printed. But if he knew anything, he either treasured it up as a proof of his theories, not yet to be divulged,--why is not clear,--or, what is vastly more probable, it never occurred to him to associate any of these dim regions with the coasts of Marco Polo's Cathay. [Sidenote: Madoc.] There was no lack of stories, even at this time, of venturesome voyages west along the latitude of England and to the northwest, and of these tales Columbus may possibly have heard. Such was the story which had been obscurely recorded, that Madoc, a Welsh chieftain, in the later years of the twelfth century had carried a colony westerly. Nor can it be positively asserted that the Estotiland and Drogeo of the Zeni narrative, then lying in the cabinet of an Italian family unknown, had ever come to his knowledge. There are stories in the _Historie_ of reports which had reached him, that mariners sailing for Ireland had been driven west, and had sighted land which had been supposed to be Tartary, which at a later day was thought to be the Baccalaos of the Cortereals. [Sidenote: Bresil, or Brazil, Island.] The island of Bresil had been floating about the Atlantic, usually in the latitude of Ireland, since the days when the maker of the Catalan planisphere, in 1375, placed it in that sea, and current stories of its existence resulted, at a later day (1480), in the sending from Bristol of an expedition of search, as has already been said. [Sidenote: Did Columbus land on Thule?] Finn Magnusen among the Scandinavian writers, and De Costa and others among Americans, have thought it probable that Columbus landed at Hualfiord, in Iceland. Columbus, however, does not give sufficient ground for any such inference. He says he went beyond Thule, not to it, whatever Thule was, and we only know by his observations on the tides, that he approached dry land. [Sidenote: Bishop Magnus in Iceland.] Laing, in his introduction to the _Heimskringla_, says confidently that Columbus "came to Iceland from Bristol, in 1477, on purpose to gain nautical information,"--an inference merely,--"and must have heard of the written accounts of the Norse discoveries recorded in" the _Codex Flatoyensis_. Laing says again that as Bishop Magnus is known to have been in Iceland in the spring of 1477, "it is presumed Columbus must have met and conversed with him"! A great deal turns on this purely imaginary conversation, and the possibilities of its scope. [Sidenote: The Norse in Iceland.] [Sidenote: Eric the Red.] [Sidenote: Greenland.] The listening Columbus might, indeed, have heard of Irish monks and their followers, who had been found in Iceland by the first Norse visitors, six hundred years before, if perchance the traditions of them had been preserved, and these may even have included the somewhat vague stories of visits to a country somewhere, which they called Ireland the Great. Possibly, too, there were stories told at the firesides of the adventures of a sea-rover, Gunnbiorn by name, who had been driven westerly from Iceland and had seen a strange land, which after some years was visited by Eric the Red; and there might have been wondrous stories told of this same land, which Eric had called Greenland, in order to lure settlers, where there is some reason to believe yet earlier wanderers had found a home. [Sidenote: _Heimskringla._] [Sidenote: Position of Greenland.] [Sidenote: Thought to be a part of Europe.] There mightpossibly have been shown to Columbus an old manuscript chronicle of the kings of Norway, which they called the _Heimskringla_, and which had been written by Snorre Sturlason in the thirteenth century; and if he had turned the leaves with any curiosity, he could have read, or have had translated for him, accounts of the Norse colonization of Greenland in the ninth century. Where, then, was this Greenland? Could it possibly have had any connection with that Cathay of Marco Polo, so real in the vision of Columbus, and which was supposed to lie above India in the higher latitudes? As a student of contemporary cartography, Columbus would have answered such a question readily, had it been suggested; for he would have known that Greenland had been represented in all the maps, since it was first recognized at all, as merely an extended peninsula of Scandinavia, made by a southward twist to enfold a northern sea, in which Iceland lay. One certainly cannot venture to say how far Columbus may have had an acquaintance with the cartographical repertories, more or less well stocked, as they doubtless were, in the great commercial centres of maritime Europe, but the knowledge which we to-day have in detail could hardly have been otherwise than a common possession among students of geography then. We comprehend now how, as far back as 1427, a map of Claudius Clavus showed Greenland as this peninsular adjunct to the northwest of Europe,--a view enforced also in a map of 1447, in the Pitti palace, and in one which Nordenskiöld recently found in a Codex of Ptolemy at Warsaw, dated in 1467. A few years later, and certainly before Columbus could have gone on this voyage, we find a map which it is more probable he could have known, and that is the engraved one of Nicholas Donis, drawn presumably in 1471, and later included in the edition of Ptolemy published at Ulm in 1482. The same European connection is here maintained. Again it is represented in the map of Henricus Martellus (1489-90), in a way that produced a succession of maps, which till long after the death of Columbus continued to make this Norse colony a territorial appendage of Scandinavian Europe, betraying not the slightest symptom of a belief that Eric the Red had strayed beyond the circle of European connections. [Illustration: CLAUDIUS CLAVUS, 1427. [From Nordenskiöld's _Studien_.]] [Illustration: BORDONE, 1528. [Greenland is the Northernmost Peninsula of N. W. Europe.]] [Sidenote: Made a Part of Asia.] It is only when we get down to the later years of Columbus's life that we find, on a Portuguese chart of 1503, a glimmer of the truth, and this only transiently, though the conception of the mariners, upon which this map was based, probably associated Greenland with the Asiatic main, as Ruysch certainly did, by a bold effort to reconcile the Norse traditions with the new views of his time, when he produced the first engraved map of the discoveries of Columbus and Cabot in the Roman Ptolemy of 1508. [Sidenote: Again made a part of Europe.] It is thus beyond dispute that if Columbus entertained any views as to the geographical relations of Greenland, which had been practically lost to Europe since communication with it ceased, earlier in the fifteenth century, they were simply those of a peninsula of northern Europe, which could have no connection with any country lying beyond the Atlantic; for it was not till after his death that any general conception of it associated with the Asiatic main arose. It is quite certain, however, that as the conception began to prevail, after the discovery of the South Sea by Balboa, in 1513, that an interjacent new world had really been found, there was a tendency, as shown in the map of Thorne (1527), representing current views in Spain, and in those of Finæus (1531), Ziegler (1532), Mercator (1538), and Bordone (1528-1547), to relegate the position of Greenland to a peninsular connection with Europe. There is a curious instance of the evolution of the correct idea in the Ptolemy of 1525, and repeated in the same plate as used in the editions of 1535 and 1545. The map was originally engraved to show "Gronlandia" as a European peninsula, but apparently, at a later stage, the word Gronlandia was cut in the corner beside the sketch of an elephant, and farther west, as if to indicate its transoceanic and Asiatic situation, though there was no attempt to draw in a coast line. [Sidenote: Later diverse views.] Later in the century there was a strife of opinion between the geographers of the north, as represented in the Olaus Magnus map of 1567, who disconnected the country from Europe, and those of the south, who still united Greenland with Scandinavia, as was done in the Zeno map of 1558. By this time, however, the southern geographers had begun to doubt, and after 1540 we find Labrador and Greenland put in close proximity in many of their maps; and in this the editors of the Ptolemy of 1561 agreed, when they altered their reëngraved map--as the plate shows--in a way to disconnect Greenland from Scandinavia. It is not necessary to trace the cartographical history of Greenland to a later day. It is manifest that it was long after Columbus's death when the question was raised of its having any other connection than with Europe, and Columbus could have learned in Iceland nothing to suggest to him that the land of Eric the Red had any connection with the western shores of Asia, of which he was dreaming. [Sidenote: Discovery of Vinland.] If any of the learned men in Iceland had referred Columbus once more to the _Heimskringla_, it would have been to the brief entry which it shows in the records as the leading Norse historian made it, of the story of the discovery of Vinland. There he would have read, "Leif also found Vinland the Good," and he could have read nothing more. There was nothing in this to excite the most vivid imagination as to place or direction. [Sidenote: Scandinavian views of Vinland.] [Sidenote: Stephanius's map, 1570.] It was not till a time long after the period of Columbus that, so far as we know, any cartographical records of the discoveries associated with the Vinland voyages were made in the north; and not till the discoveries of Columbus and his successors were a common inheritance in Europe did some of the northern geographers, in 1570, undertake to reconcile the tales of the sagas with the new beliefs. The testimony of these later maps is presumably the transmitted view then held in the north from the interpretation of the Norse sagas in the light of later knowledge. This testimony is that the "America" of the Spaniards, including Terra Florida and the "Albania" of the English, was a territory south of the Norse region and beyond a separating water, very likely that of Davis' Straits. The map of Sigurd Stephanius of this date (1570) puts Vinland north of the Straits of Belle Isle, and makes it end at the south in a "wild sea," which separates it [B of map] from "America." Torfæus quotes Torlacius as saying that this map of Stephanius's was drawn from ancient Icelandic records. If this cartographical record has its apparent value, it is not likely that Columbus could have seen in it anything more than a manifestation of that vague boreal region which was far remote from the thoughts which possessed him, in seeking a way to India over against Spain. [Illustration: SIGURD STEPHANIUS, 1570.] [Sidenote: Dubious sagas.] Beside the scant historic record respecting Vinland which has been cited from the _Heimskringla_, it is further possible that Columbus may have seen that series of sagas which had come down in oral shape to the twelfth century. At this period put into writing, two hundred years after the events of the Vinland voyages, there are none of the manuscript copies of these sagas now existing which go back of the fourteenth century. This rendering of the old sagas into script came at a time when, in addition to the inevitable transformations of long oral tradition, there was superadded the romancing spirit then rife in the north, and which had come to them from the south of Europe. The result of this blending of confused tradition with the romancing of the period of the written preservation has thrown, even among the Scandinavians themselves, a shade of doubt, more or less intense at times, which envelops the saga record with much that is indistinguishable from myth, leaving little but the general drift of the story to be held of the nature of a historic record. The Icelandic editor of Egel's saga, published at Reikjavik in 1856, acknowledges this unavoidable reflex of the times when the sagas were reduced to writing, and the most experienced of the recent writers on Greenland, Henrik Rink, has allowed the untrustworthiness of the sagas except for their general scope. [Sidenote: Codex Flatoyensis.] [Sidenote: Leif Erikson.] Less than a hundred years before the alleged visit of Columbus to Thule, there had been a compilation of some of the early sagas, and this _Codex Flatoyensis_ is the only authority which we have for any details of the Vinland voyages. It is possible that the manuscript now known is but one copy of several or many which may have been made at an early period, not preceding, however, the twelfth century, when writing was introduced. This particular manuscript was discovered in an Icelandic monastery in the seventeenth century, and there is no evidence of its being known before. Of course it is possible that copies may have been in the hands of learned Icelanders at the time of Columbus's supposed voyage to the north, and he may have heard of it, or have had parts of it read to him. The collection is recognized by Scandinavian writers as being the most confused and incongruous of similar records; and it is out of such romancing, traditionary, and conflicting recitals that the story of the Norse voyages to Vinland is made, if it is made at all. The sagas say that it was sixteen winters after the settlement of Greenland that Leif went to Norway, and in the next year he sailed to Vinland. These are the data from which the year A. D. 1000 has been deduced as that of the beginning of the Vinland voyages. The principal events are to be traced in the saga of Eric the Red, which, in the judgment of Rask, a leading Norse authority, is "somewhat fabulous, written long after the event, and taken from tradition." [Sidenote: Peringskiöld's edition of the sagas.] Such, then, was the record which, if it ever came to the notice of Columbus, was little suited to make upon him any impression to be associated in his mind with the Asia of his dreams. Humboldt, discussing the chances of Columbus's gaining any knowledge of the story, thinks that when the Spanish Crown was contesting with the heirs of the Admiral his rights of discovery, the citing of these northern experiences of Columbus would have been in the Crown's favor, if there had been any conception at that time that the Norse discoveries, even if known to general Europe, had any relation to the geographical problems then under discussion. Similar views have been expressed by Wheaton and Prescott, and there is no evidence that up to the time of Columbus an acquaintance with the Vinland story had ever entered into the body of historical knowledge possessed by Europeans in general. The scant references in the manuscripts of Adam of Bremen (A. D. 1073), of Ordericus Vitalis (A. D. 1140), and of Saxo Grammaticus (A. D. 1200), were not likely to be widely comprehended, even if they were at all known, and a close scrutiny of the literature of the subject does not seem to indicate that there was any considerable means of propagating a knowledge of the sagas before Peringskiöld printed them in 1697, two hundred years after the time of Columbus. This editor inserted them in an edition of the _Heimskringla_ and concealed the patchwork. This deception caused it afterwards to be supposed that the accounts in the _Heimskringla_ had been interpolated by some later reviser of the chronicle; but the truth regarding Peringskiöld's action was ultimately known. [Sidenote: Probabilities.] Basing, then, their investigation on a narrative confessedly confused and unauthentic, modern writers have sought to determine with precision the fact of Norse visits to British America, and to identify the localities. The fact that every investigator finds geographical correspondences where he likes, and quite independently of all others, is testimony of itself to the confused condition of the story. The soil of the United States and Nova Scotia contiguous to the Atlantic may now safely be said to have been examined by competent critics sufficiently to affirm that no archæological trace of the presence of the Norse here is discernible. As to such a forbidding coast as that of Labrador, there has been as yet no such familiarity with it by trained archæologists as to render it reasonably certain that some trace may not be found there, and on this account George Bancroft allows the possibility that the Norse may have reached that coast. There remains, then, no evidence beyond a strong probability that the Norse from Greenland crossed Davis' Straits and followed south the American coast. That indisputable archæological proofs may yet be found to establish the fact of their southern course and sojourn is certainly possible. Meanwhile we must be content that there is no testimony satisfactory to a careful historical student, that this course and such sojourn ever took place. A belief in it must rest on the probabilities of the case. Many writers upon the Norseman discovery would do well to remember the advice of Ampère to present as doubtful what is true, sooner than to give as true what is doubtful. "Ignorance," says Muñoz, in speaking of the treacherous grounds of unsupported narrative, "is generally accompanied by vanity and temerity." [Sidenote: Did Columbus hear of the saga stories?] It is an obvious and alluring supposition that this story should have been presented to Columbus, whatever the effect may have been on his mind. Lowell in a poem pardonably pictures him as saying:-- "I brooded on the wise Athenian's tale Of happy Atlantis; and heard Björne's keel Crunch the gray pebbles of the Vinland shore, For I believed the poets." But the belief is only a proposition. Rafn and other extreme advocates of the Norse discovery have made as much as they could of the supposition of Columbus's cognizance of the Norse voyages. Laing seems confident that this contact must have happened. The question, however, must remain unsettled; and whether Columbus landed in Iceland or not, and whether the bruit of the Norse expeditions struck his ears elsewhere or not, the fact of his never mentioning them, when he summoned every supposable evidence to induce acceptance of his views, seems to be enough to show at least that to a mind possessed as his was of the scheme of finding India by the west the stories of such northern wandering offered no suggestion applicable to his purpose. It is, moreover, inconceivable that Columbus should have taken a course southwest from the Canaries, if he had been prompted in any way by tidings of land in the northwest. CHAPTER VIII. COLUMBUS LEAVES PORTUGAL FOR SPAIN. [Sidenote: Columbus's obscure record, 1473-1487.] It is a rather striking fact, as Harrisse puts it, that we cannot place with an exact date any event in Columbus's life from August 7, 1473, when a document shows him to have been in Savona, Italy, till he received at Cordoba, Spain, from the treasurer of the Catholic sovereigns, his first gratuity on May 5, 1487, as is shown by the entry in the books, "given this day 3,000 maravedis," about $18, "to Cristobal Colomo, a stranger." The events of this period of about fourteen years were those which made possible his later career. The incidents connected with this time have become the shuttlecocks which have been driven backward and forward in their chronological bearings, by all who have undertaken to study the details of this part of Columbus's life. It is nearly as true now as it was when Prescott wrote, that "the discrepancies among the earliest authorities are such as to render hopeless any attempt to settle with precision the chronology of Columbus's movements previous to his first voyage." [Sidenote: His motives for leaving Portugal.] [Sidenote: Chief sources of our knowledge.] The motives which induced him to abandon Portugal, where he had married, and where he had apparently found not a little to reconcile him to his exile, are not obscure ones as detailed in the ordinary accounts of his life. All these narratives are in the main based, first, on the _Historie_ (1571); secondly, on the great historical work of Joam de Barros, pertaining to the discoveries of the Portuguese in the East Indies, first published in 1552, and still holding probably the loftiest position in the historical literature of that country; and, finally, on the lives of João II., then monarch of Portugal, by Ruy de Pina and by Vasconcellos. The latter borrowing in the main from the former, was exclusively used by Irving. Las Casas apparently depended on Barros as well as on the _Historie_. It is necessary to reconcile their statements, as well as it can be done, to get even an inductive view of the events concerned. The treatment of the subject by Irving would make it certain that it was a new confidence in the ability to make long voyages, inspired by the improvements of the astrolabe as directed by Behaim, that first gave Columbus the assurance to ask for royal patronage of the maritime scheme which had been developing in his mind. [Sidenote: Columbus and Behaim.] Just what constituted the acquaintance of Columbus with Behaim is not clearly established. Herrera speaks of them as friends. Humboldt thinks some intimacy between them may have existed, but finds no decisive proof of it. Behaim had spent much of his life in Lisbon and in the Azores, and there are some striking correspondences in their careers, if we accept the usual accounts. They were born and died in the same year. Each lived for a while on an Atlantic island, the Nuremberger at Fayal, and the Genoese at Porto Santo; and each married the daughter of the governor of his respective island. They pursued their nautical studies at the same time in Lisbon, and the same physicians who reported to the Portuguese king upon Columbus's scheme of westward sailing were engaged with Behaim in perfecting the sea astrolabe. [Sidenote: Columbus and the king of Portugal.] The account of the audience with the king which we find in the _Historie_ is to the effect that Columbus finally succeeded in inducing João to believe in the practicability of a western passage to Asia; but that the monarch could not be brought to assent to all the titular and pecuniary rewards which Columbus contended for as emoluments of success, and that a commission, to whom the monarch referred the project, pronounced the views of Columbus simply chimerical. Barros represents that the advances of Columbus were altogether too arrogant and fantastic ever to have gained the consideration of the king, who easily disposed of the Genoese's pretentious importunities by throwing the burden of denial upon a commission. This body consisted of the two physicians of the royal household, already mentioned, Roderigo and Josef, to whom was added Cazadilla, the Bishop of Ceuta. Vasconcellos's addition to this story, which he derived almost entirely from Ruy de Pina, Resende, and Barros, is that there was subsequently another reference to a royal council, in which the subject was discussed in arguments, of which that historian preserves some reports. This discussion went farther than was perhaps intended, since Cazadilla proceeded to discourage all attempts at exploration even by the African route, as imperiling the safety of the state, because of the money which was required; and because it kept at too great a distance for an emergency a considerable force in ships and men. In fact the drift of the debate seems to have ignored the main projects as of little moment and as too visionary, and the energy of the hour was centered in a rallying speech made by the Count of Villa Real, who endeavored to save the interests of African exploration. The count's speech quite accomplished its purpose, if we can trust the reports, since it reassured the rather drooping energies of the king, and induced some active measures to reach the extremity of Africa. [Sidenote: Diaz's African voyage, 1486.] [Sidenote: Passes the Cape.] [Illustration: PORTUGUESE MAPPEMONDE, 1490. [Sketched from the original MS. in the British Museum.]] In August, 1486, Bartholomew Diaz, the most eminent of a line of Portuguese navigators, had departed on the African route, with two consorts. As he neared the latitude of the looked-for Cape, he was driven south, and forced away from the land, by a storm. When he was enabled to return on his track he struck the coast, really to the eastward of the true cape, though he did not at the time know it. This was in May, 1487. His crew being unwilling to proceed farther, he finally turned westerly, and in due time discovered what he had done. The first passage of the Cape was thus made while sailing west, just as, possibly, the mariners of the Indian seas may have done. In December he was back in Lisbon with the exhilarating news, and it was probably conveyed to Columbus, who was then in Spain, by his brother Bartholomew, the companion of Diaz in this eventful voyage, as Las Casas discovered by an entry made by Bartholomew himself in a copy of D'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_. Thirty years before, as we have seen, Fra Mauro had prefigured the Cape in his map, but it was now to be put on the charts as a geographical discovery; and by 1490, or thereabouts, succeeding Portuguese navigators had pushed up the west coast of Africa to a point shown in a map preserved in the British Museum, but not far enough to connect with what was supposed with some certainty to be the limit reached during the voyages of the Arabian navigators, while sailing south from the Red Sea. There was apparently not a clear conception in the minds of the Portuguese, at this time, just how far from the Cape the entrance of the Arabian waters really was. It is possible that intelligence may have thus early come from the Indian Ocean, by way of the Mediterranean, that the Oriental sailors knew of the great African cape by approaching it from the east. [Sidenote: Portuguese missionaries to Egypt.] Such knowledge, if held to be visionary, was, however, established with some certainty in men's minds before Da Gama actually effected the passage of the Cape. This confirmation had doubtless come through some missionaries of the Portuguese king, who in 1490 sent such a positive message from Cairo. But while the new exertions along the African coast, thus inadvertently instigated by Columbus, were making, what was becoming of his own westward scheme? [Sidenote: The Portuguese send out an expedition to forestall Columbus.] The story goes that it was by the advice of Cazadilla that the Portuguese king lent himself to an unworthy device. This was a project to test the views of Columbus, and profit by them without paying him his price. An outline of his intended voyage had been secured from him in the investigation already mentioned. A caravel, under pretense of a voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands, was now dispatched to search for the Cipango of Marco Polo, in the position which Columbus had given it in his chart. The mercenary craft started out, and buffeted with head seas and angry winds long enough to emasculate what little courage the crew possessed. Without the prop of conviction they deserted their purpose and returned. Once in port, they began to berate the Genoese for his foolhardy scheme. In this way they sought to vindicate their own timidity. This disclosed to Columbus the trick which had been played upon him. Such is the story as the _Historie_ tells it, and which has been adopted by Herrera and others. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus leaves Portugal, 1484.] At this point there is too much uncertainty respecting the movements of Columbus for even his credulous biographers to fill out the tale. It seems to be agreed that in the latter part of 1484 he left Portugal with a secrecy which was supposed to be necessary to escape the vigilance of the government spies. There is beside some reason for believing that it was also well for him to shun arrest for debts, which had been incurred in the distractions of his affairs. [Sidenote: Supposed visit of Columbus to Genoa.] There is no other authority than Ramusio for believing with Muñoz that Columbus had already laid his project before the government of Genoa by letter, and that he now went to reënforce it in person. That power was sorely pressed with misfortunes at this time, and is said to have declined to entertain his proposals. It may be the applicant was dismissed contemptuously, as is sometimes said. It is not, however, as Harrisse has pointed out, till we come down to Cassoni, in his _Annals of Genoa_, published in 1708, that we find a single Genoese authority crediting the story of this visit to Genoa. Harrisse, with his skeptical tendency, does not believe the statement. [Sidenote: Supposed visit to Venice.] Eagerness to fill the gaps in his itinerary has sometimes induced the supposition that Columbus made an equally unsuccessful offer to Venice; but the statement is not found except in modern writers, with no other citations to sustain it than the recollections of some one who had seen at some time in the archives a memorial to this effect made by Columbus. Some writers make him at this time also visit his father and provide for his comfort,--a belief not altogether consonant with the supposition of Columbus's escape from Portugal as a debtor. [Sidenote: The death of his wife.] [Sidenote: Shown to be uncertain.] Irving and the biographers in general find in the death of Columbus's wife a severing of the ties which bound him to Portugal; but if there is any truth in the tumultuous letter which Columbus wrote to Doña Juana de la Torre in 1500, he left behind him in Portugal, when he fled into Spain, a wife and children. If there is the necessary veracity in the _Historie_, this wife had died before he abandoned the country. That he had other children at this time than Diego is only known through this sad, ejaculatory epistle. If he left a wife in Portugal, as his own words aver, Harrisse seems justified in saying that he deserted her, and in the same letter Columbus himself says that he never saw her again. [Sidenote: Convent of Rabida.] Ever since a physician of Palos, Garcia Fernandez, gave his testimony in the lawsuit through which, after Columbus's death, his son defended his titles against the Crown, the picturesque story of the convent of Rabida, and the appearance at its gate of a forlorn traveler accompanied by a little boy, and the supplication for bread and water for the child, has stood in the lives of Columbus as the opening scene of his career in Spain. This Franciscan convent, dedicated to Santa Maria de Rabida, stood on a height within sight of the sea, very near the town of Palos, and after having fallen into a ruin it was restored by the Duke of Montpensier in 1855. A recent traveler has found this restoration "modernized, whitewashed, and forlorn," while the refurnishing of the interior is described as "paltry and vulgar," even in the cell of its friar, where the visitor now finds a portrait of Columbus and pictures of scenes in his career. [Illustration: PÈRE JUAN PEREZ DE MARCHENA. [As given by Roselly de Lorgues.]] [Sidenote: Friar Marchena.] This friar, Juan Perez de Marchena, was at the time of the supposed visit of Columbus the prior of the convent, and being casually attracted by the scene at the gate, where the porter was refreshing the vagrant travelers, and by the foreign accent of the stranger, he entered into talk with the elder of them and learned his name. Columbus also told him that he was bound to Huelva to find the home of one Muliar, a Spaniard who had married the youngest sister of his wife. The story goes further that the friar was not uninformed in the cosmographical lore of the time, had not been unobservant of the maritime intelligence which had naturally been rife in the neighboring seaport of Palos, and had kept watch of the recent progress in geographical science. He was accordingly able to appreciate the interest which Columbus manifested in such subjects, as he unfolded his own notions of still greater discoveries which might be made at the west. Keeping the wanderer and his little child a few days, Marchena invited to the convent, to join with them in discussion, the most learned man whom the neighborhood afforded, the physician of Palos,--the very one from whose testimony our information comes. Their talks were not without reënforcements from the experiences of some of the mariners of that seaport, particularly one Pedro de Velasco, who told of manifestation of land which he had himself seen, without absolute contact, thirty years before, when his ship had been blown a long distance to the northwest of Ireland. [Sidenote: Columbus goes to Cordoba.] The friendship formed in the convent kept Columbus there amid congenial sympathizers, and it was not till some time in the winter of 1485-86, and when he heard that the Spanish sovereigns were at Cordoba, gathering a force to attack the Moors in Granada, that, leaving behind his boy to be instructed in the convent, Columbus started for that city. He went not without confidence and elation, as he bore a letter of credentials which the friar had given him to a friend, Fernando de Talavera, the prior of the monastery of Prado, and confessor of Queen Isabella. [Sidenote: Doubts about the visits to Rabida.] This story has almost always been placed in the opening of the career of Columbus in Spain. It has often in sympathizing hands pointed a moral in contrasting the abject condition of those days with the proud expectancy under which, some years later, he sailed out of the neighboring harbor of Palos, within eyeshot of the monks of Rabida. Irving, however, as he analyzed the reports of the famous trial already referred to, was quite sure that the events of two visits to Rabida had been unwittingly run into one in testimony given after so long an interval of years. It does indeed seem that we must either apply this evidence of 1513 and 1515 to a later visit, or else we must determine that there was great similarity in some of the incidents of the two visits. The date of 1491, to which Harrisse pushes the incidents forward, depends in part on the evidence of one Rodriguez Cobezudo that in 1513 it was about twenty-two years since he had lent a mule to Juan Perez de Marchena, when he went to Santa Fé from Rabida to interpose for Columbus. The testimony of Garcia Fernandez is that this visit of Marchena took place after Columbus had once been rebuffed at court, and the words of the witness indicate that it was on that visit when Juan Perez asked Columbus who he was and whence he came; showing, perhaps, that it was the first time Perez had seen Columbus. Accordingly this, as well as the mule story, points to 1491. But that the circumstances of the visit which Garcia Fernandez recounts may have belonged to an earlier visit, in part confounded after fifteen years with a later one, may yet be not beyond a possibility. It is to be remembered that the _Historie_ speaks of two visits, one later than that of 1484. It is not easy to see that all the testimony which Harrisse introduced to make the visit of 1491 the first and only visit of Columbus to the convent is sufficient to do more than render the case probable. [Sidenote: 1486. Enters the service of Spain.] We determine the exact date of the entering of Columbus into the service of Spain to be January 20, 1486, from a record of his in his journal on shipboard under January 14, 1493, where he says that on the 20th of the same month he would have been in their Highnesses' service just seven years. We find almost as a matter of course other statements of his which give somewhat different dates by deduction. Two statements of Columbus agreeing would be a little suspicious. Certain payments on the part of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon do not seem to have begun, however, till the next year, or at least we have no earlier record of such than one on May 5, 1487, and from that date on they were made at not great intervals, till an interruption came, as will be later shown. [Sidenote: Changes his name to Colon.] In Spain the Christoforo Colombo of Genoa chose to call himself Cristoval Colon, and the _Historie_ tells us that he sought merely to make his descendants distinct of name from their remote kin. He argued that the Roman name was Colonus, which readily was transformed to a Spanish equivalent. Inasmuch as the Duke of Medina-Celi, who kept Columbus in his house for two years during the early years of his Spanish residence, calls him Colomo in 1493, and Oviedo calls him Colom, it is a question if he chose the form of Colon before he became famous by his voyage. [Sidenote: The Genoese in Spain.] The Genoese had been for a long period a privileged people in Spain, dating such acceptance back to the time of St. Ferdinand. Navarrete has instanced numerous confirmations of these early favors by successive monarchs down to the time of Columbus. But neither this prestige of his birthright nor the letter of Friar Perez had been sufficient to secure in the busy camp at Cordoba any recognition of this otherwise unheralded and humble suitor. The power of the sovereigns was overtaxed already in the engrossing preparations which the Court and army were making for a vigorous campaign against the Moors. The exigencies of the war carried the sovereigns, sometimes together and at other times apart, from point to point. Siege after siege was conducted, and Talavera, whose devotion had been counted upon by Columbus, had too much to occupy his attention, to give ear to propositions which at best he deemed chimerical. [Sidenote: Columbus in Cordoba.] We know in a vague way that while the Court was thus withdrawn from Cordoba the disheartened wanderer remained in that city, supporting himself, according to Bernaldez, in drafting charts and in selling printed books, which Harrisse suspects may have been publications, such as were then current, containing calendars and astronomical predictions, like the _Lunarios_ of Granollach and Andrès de Li. [Sidenote: Makes acquaintances.] It was probably at this time, too, that he made the acquaintance of Alonso de Quintanilla, the comptroller of the finances of Castile. He attained some terms of friendship with Antonio Geraldini, the papal nuncio, and his brother, Alexander Geraldini, the tutor of the royal children. It is claimed that all these friends became interested in his projects, and were advocates of them. [Sidenote: Writes out the proofs of a western land.] We are told by Las Casas that Columbus at one time gathered and placed in order all the varied manifestations, as he conceived them, of some such transatlantic region as his theory demanded; and it seems probable that this task was done during a period of weary waiting in Cordoba. We know nothing, however, of the manuscript except as Las Casas and the _Historie_ have used its material, and through them some of the details have been gleaned in the preceding chapter. [Sidenote: Mendoza.] These accessions of friends, aided doubtless by some such systemization of the knowledge to be brought to the question as this lost manuscript implies, opened the way to an acquaintance with Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. This prelate, from the confidence which the sovereigns placed in him, was known in Martyr's phrase as "the third king of Spain," and it could but be seen by Columbus that his sympathies were essential to the success of plans so far reaching as his own. The cardinal was gracious in his intercourse, and by no means inaccessible to such a suitor as Columbus; but he was educated in the exclusive spirit of the prevailing theology, and he had a keen scent for anything that might be supposed heterodox. It proved necessary for the thought of a spherical earth to rest some time in his mind, till his ruminations could bring him to a perception of the truths of science. [Sidenote: Gets the ear of Ferdinand for Columbus.] According to the reports which Oviedo gives us, the seed which Columbus sowed, in his various talks with the cardinal, in due time germinated, and the constant mentor of the sovereigns was at last brought to prepare the way, so that Columbus could have a royal audience. Thus it was that Columbus finally got the ear of Ferdinand, at Salamanca, whither the monarchs had come for a winter's sojourn after the turmoils of a summer's campaign against the Moors. [Sidenote: Characters of the sovereigns of Spain.] We cannot proceed farther in this narrative without understanding, in the light of all the early and late evidence which we have, what kind of beings these sovereigns of Aragon and Castile were, with whom Columbus was to have so much intercourse in the years to come. Ferdinand and Isabella, the wearers of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, were linked in common interests, and their joint reign had augured a powerful, because united, Spain. The student of their characters, as he works among the documents of the time, cannot avoid the recognition of qualities little calculated to satisfy demands for nobleness and devotion which the world has learned to associate with royal obligations. It may be possibly too much to say that habitually, but not too much to assert that often, these Spanish monarchs were more ready at perfidy and deceit than even an allowance for the teachings of their time would permit. Often the student will find himself forced to grant that the queen was more culpable in these respects than the king. An anxious inquirer into the queen's ways is not quite sure that she was able to distinguish between her own interests and those of God. The documentary researches of Bergenroth have decidedly lowered her in the judgments of those who have studied that investigator's results. We need to plead the times for her, and we need to push the plea very far. [Sidenote: Isabella.] "Perhaps," says Helps, speaking of Isabella, "there is hardly any great personage whose name and authority are found in connection with so much that is strikingly evil, all of it done, or rather assented to, upon the highest and purest motives." To palliate on such grounds is to believe in the irresponsibility of motives, which should transcend times and occasions. She is not, however, without loyal adulators of her own time and race. We read in Oviedo of her splendid soul. Peter Martyr found commendations of ordinary humanity not enough for her. Those nearest her person spoke as admiringly. It is the fortune, however, of a historical student, who lies beyond the influence of personal favor, to read in archives her most secret professions, and to gauge the innermost wishes of a soul which was carefully posed before her contemporaries. It is mirrored to-day in a thousand revealing lenses that were not to be seen by her contemporaries. Irving and Prescott simply fall into the adulation of her servitors, and make her confessors responsible for her acquiescence in the expulsion of the Jews and in the horrors of the Inquisition. [Sidenote: Ferdinand.] The king, perhaps, was good enough for a king as such personages went in the fifteenth century; but his smiles and remorseless coldness were mixed as few could mix them, even in those days. If the Pope regarded him from Italy, that Holy Father called him pious. The modern student finds him a bigot. His subjects thought him great and glorious, but they did not see his dispatches, nor know his sometimes baleful domination in his cabinet. The French would not trust him. The English watched his ambition. The Moors knew him as their conqueror. The Jews fled before his evil eye. The miserable saw him in his inquisitors. All this pleased the Pope, and the papal will made him in preferred phrase His Most Catholic Majesty,--a phrase that rings in diplomatic formalities to-day. Every purpose upon which he had set his heart was apt to blind him to aught else, and at times very conveniently so. We may allow that it is precisely this single mind which makes a conspicuous name in history; but conspicuousness and justness do not always march with a locked step. He had, of course, virtues that shone when the sun shone. He could be equable. He knew how to work steadily, to eat moderately, and to dress simply. He was enterprising in his actions, as the Moors and heretics found out. He did not extort money; he only extorted agonized confessions. He said masses, and prayed equally well for God's benediction on evil as on good things. He made promises, and then got the papal dispensation to break them. He juggled in state policy as his mind changed, and he worked his craft very readily. Machiavelli would have liked this in him, and indeed he was a good scholar of an existing school, which counted the act of outwitting better than the arts of honesty; and perhaps the world is not loftier in the purposes of statecraft to-day. He got people to admire him, but few to love him. [Sidenote: Columbus's views considered by Talavera and others.] [Sidenote: At Salamanca.] The result of an audience with the king was that the projects of Columbus were committed to Talavera, to be laid by him before such a body of wise men as the prior could gather in council. Las Casas says that the consideration of the plans was entrusted to "certain persons of the Court," and he enumerates Cardinal Mendoza, Diego de Deza, Alonso de Cardenas, and Juan Cabrero, the royal chamberlain. The meeting was seemingly held in the winter of 1486-87. The Catholic writers accuse Irving, and apparently with right, of an unwarranted assumption of the importance of what he calls the Council at Salamanca, and they find he has no authority for it, except a writer one hundred and twenty years after the event, who mentions the matter but incidentally. This source was Remesal's _Historia de Chyapa_ (Madrid, 1619), an account of one of the Mexican provinces. There seems no reason to suppose that at best it was anything more than some informal conference of Talavera with a few councilors, and in no way associated with the prestige of the university at Salamanca. The registers of the university, which begin back of the assigned date for such Council, have been examined in vain for any reference to it. [Illustration: UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA. [_España_, p. 132]] [Illustration: MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS ERECTED AT GENOA, 1862.] The "Junta of Salamanca" has passed into history as a convocation of considerable extent and importance, and a representation of it is made to adorn one of the bas-reliefs of the Admiral's monument at Genoa. We have, however, absolutely no documentary records of it. Of whatever moment it may have been, if the problem as Columbus would have presented it had been discussed, the reports, if preserved, could have thrown much light upon the relations which the cosmographical views of its principal character bore to the opinions then prevailing in learned circles of Spain. We know what the _Historie_, Bernaldez, and Las Casas tell us of Columbus's advocacy, but we must regret the loss of his own language and his own way of explaining himself to these learned men. Such a paper would serve a purpose of showing how, in this period of courageous and ardent insistence on a physical truth, he stood manfully for the light that was in him; and it would afford a needed foil to those pitiful aberrations of intellect which, in the years following, took possession of him, and which were so constantly reiterated with painful and maundering wailing. [Sidenote: Find favor with Deza.] Discarding, then, the array of argument which Irving borrows from Remesal, and barely associating a little conference, in which Columbus is a central figure, with that St. Stephen's convent whose wondrous petrifactions of creamy and reticulated stone still hold the admiring traveler, we must accept nothing more about its meetings than the scant testimony which has come down to us. It is pleasant to think how it was here that the active interest which Diego de Deza, a Dominican friar, finally took in the cause of Columbus may have had its beginning; but the extent of our positive knowledge regarding the meeting is the deposition of Rodriguez de Maldonado, who simply says that several learned men and mariners, hearing the arguments of Columbus, decided they could not be true, or at least a majority so decided, and that this testimony against Columbus had no effect to convince him of his errors. This is all that the "Junta of Salamanca" meant. A minority of unknown size favored the advocate. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1487. The Court at Cordoba.] [Sidenote: Malaga surrenders, 1487.] When the spring of 1487 came, and the court departed to Cordoba, and began to make preparations for the campaign against Malaga, there was no hope that the considerations which had begun in the learned sessions at Salamanca would be followed up. Columbus seems to have journeyed after the Court in its migrations: sometimes lured by pittances doled out to him by the royal treasurer; sometimes getting pecuniary assistance from his new friend, Diego de Deza; selling now and then a map that he had made, it may be; and accepting hospitality where he could get it, from such as Alonso de Quintanilla. In these wandering days, he was for a while, at least, in attendance on the Court, then surrounded with military parade, before the Moorish stronghold at Malaga. The town surrendered on August 18, 1487, and the Court then returned to Cordoba. [Illustration: SPAIN, 1482. [From the _Ptolemy_ of 1482.]] [Sidenote: 1487. Intimacy of Columbus with Beatrix Enriquez.] [Sidenote: Ferdinand Columbus born, 1488.] It was in the autumn of 1487, at Cordoba, that Columbus fell into such an intimacy as spousehood only can sanction with a person of good condition as to birth, but poor in the world's goods. Whether this relation had the sanction of the Church or not has been a subject of much inquiry and opinion. The class of French writers, who are aiming to secure the canonization of Columbus, have found it essential to clear the moral character of Columbus from every taint, and they confidently assert, and doubtless think they show, that nothing but conjugal right is manifest in this connection,--a question which the Church will in due time have to decide, if it ever brings itself to the recognition of the saintly character of the great discoverer. Even the ardent supporters of the cause of beatification are forced to admit that there is no record of such a marriage. No contemporary recognition of such a relation is evinced by any family ceremonies of baptism or the like, and there is no mention of a wife in all the transactions of the crowning endeavors of his life. As viceroy, at a later day, he constantly appears with no attendant vice-queen. She is absolutely out of sight until Columbus makes a significant reference to her in his last will, when he recommends this Beatrix Enriquez to his lawful son Diego; saying that she is a person to whom the testator had been under great obligations, and that his conscience is burdened respecting her, for a reason which he does not then think fitting to explain. This testamentary behest and acknowledgment, in connection with other manifestations, and the absence of proof to the contrary, has caused the belief to be general among his biographers, early and late, that the fruit of this intimacy, Ferdinand Columbus, was an illegitimate offspring. He was born, as near as can be made out, on the 15th of August, 1488. The mother very likely received for a while some consolation from her lover, but Columbus did not apparently carry her to Seville, when he went there himself; and the support which he gave her was not altogether regularly afforded, and was never of the quality which he asked Diego to grant to her when he died. She unquestionably survived the making of Diego's will in 1523, and then she fades into oblivion. Her son, Ferdinand, if he is the author of the _Historie_, makes no mention of a marriage to his mother, though he is careful to record the one which was indisputably legal, and whose fruit was Diego, the Admiral's successor. The lawful son was directed by Columbus, when starting on his third voyage, to pay to Beatrix ten thousand maravedis a year; but he seems to have neglected to do so for the last three or four years of her life. Diego finally ordered these arrears to be paid to her heirs. Las Casas distinctly speaks of Ferdinand as a natural son, and Las Casas had the best of opportunities for knowing whereof he wrote. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus sends his brother to England.] [Sidenote: Relations of England to the views of Columbus.] While all this suspense and amorous intrigue were perplexing the ardent theorist, he is supposed to have dispatched his brother Bartholomew to England to disclose his projects to Henry VII. Hakluyt, in his _Westerne Planting_, tells us that it "made much for the title of the kings of England" to the New World that Henry VII. gave a ready acceptance to the theory of Columbus as set forth somewhat tardily by his brother Bartholomew, when escaping from the detention of the pirates, he was at last able, on February 13, 1488, to offer in England his sea-card, embodying Christopher's theories, for the royal consideration. [Sidenote: The Cabots in England.] William Castell, in his _Short Discovery of America_, says that Henry VII. "unhappily refused to be at any charge in the discovery, supposing the learned Columbus to build castles in the air." It is a common story that Henry finally brought himself to accede to the importunities of Bartholomew, but only at a late day, and after Christopher had effected his conquest of the Spanish Court. Columbus himself is credited with saying that Henry actually wrote him a letter of acceptance. This epistle was very likely a fruition of the new impulses to oceanic discovery which the presence, a little later, of the Venetian Cabots, was making current among the English sailors; for John Cabot and his sons, one of whom, Sebastian, being at that time a youth of sixteen or seventeen, had, according to the best testimony, established a home in Bristol, not far from 1490. If the report of the Spanish envoy in England to his sovereigns is correct as to dates, it was near this time that the Bristol merchants were renewing their quests oceanward for the islands of Brazil and the Seven Cities. We have seen that these islands with others had for some time appeared on the conjectural charts of the Atlantic, and very likely they had appeared on the sea-card shown by Bartholomew Columbus to Henry VII. These efforts may perhaps have been in a measure instigated by that fact. At all events, any hazards of further western exploration could be met with greater heart if such stations of progress could be found in mid ocean. Of the report of all this which Bartholomew may have made to his brother we know absolutely nothing, and he seems not to have returned to Spain till after a sojourn in France which ended in 1494. [Sidenote: Columbus invited back to Portugal.] It was believed by Irving that Columbus, having opened a correspondence with the Portuguese king respecting a return to the service of that country, had received from that monarch an epistle, dated March 20, 1488, in which he was permitted to come back, with the offer of protection against any suit of civil or criminal nature, and that this had been declined. We are left to conjecture of what suits of either kind he could have been apprehensive. Humboldt commends the sagacity of Navarrete in discerning that it was not so much the persuasion of Diego de Deza which kept Columbus at this time from accepting such royal offers, as the illicit connection which he had formed in Cordoba with Doña Beatrix Enriquez, who before the summer was over had given birth to a son. On the other hand, that the permission was not neglected seems proved by a memorandum made by Columbus's own hand in a copy of Pierre d'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_, preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville, where, under date of December, 1488, "at Lisbon," he speaks of the return of Diaz from his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. This proof is indeed subject to the qualification that Las Casas has considered the handwriting of the note to be that of Bartholomew Columbus, but Harrisse has no question of its identity with the chirography of Columbus. This last critic ventures the conjecture that it was in some way to settle the estate of his wife that Columbus at this time visited Portugal. [Sidenote: Spanish subsidies withheld.] Columbus had ceased to receive the Spanish subsidies in June, 1488, or at least we know no record of any later largess. Ferdinand was born to him in August. It was very likely subsequent to this last event that Columbus crossed the Spanish frontier into Portugal, if Harrisse's view of his crossing at all be accepted. His stay was without doubt a short one, and from 1489 to 1492 there is every indication that he never left the Spanish kingdom. [Sidenote: Duke of Medina-Celi harbors Columbus.] We know on the testimony of a letter of Luis de la Cerda, the Duke of Medina-Celi, given in Navarrete, that for two years after the arrival of Columbus from Portugal he had been a guest under the duke's roof in Cogulludo, and it seems to Harrisse probable that this gracious help on the part of the duke was bestowed after the return to Spain. All that we know with certainty of its date is that it occurred before the first voyage, the duke himself mentioning it in a letter of March 19, 1493. [Sidenote: 1489. Columbus ordered to Cordoba.] It was not till May, 1489, when the court was again at Cordoba, according to Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga, in his work on Seville, that the sovereigns were gracious enough to order Columbus to appear there, when they furnished him lodgings. They also, perhaps, at the same time, issued a general order, dated at Cordoba May 12, in which all cities and towns were directed to furnish suitable accommodations to Columbus and his attendants, inasmuch as he was journeying in the royal service. [Sidenote: Columbus at the siege of Baza.] [Sidenote: Friars from the Holy Sepulchre.] The year 1489 was a hazardous but fruitful one. The sovereigns were pushing vigorously their conquest of the Moor. Isabella herself attended the army, and may have appeared in the beleaguering lines about Baza, in one of those suits of armor which are still shown to travelers. Zuñiga says that Columbus arrayed himself among the combatants, and was doubtless acquainted with the mission of two friars who had been guardians of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. These priests arrived during the siege, bringing a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt, in which that potentate threatened to destroy all Christians within his grasp, unless the war against Granada should be stopped. The point of driving the Moors from Spain was too nearly reached for such a threat to be effective, and Isabella decreed the annual payment of a thousand ducats to support the faithful custodians of the Sepulchre, and sent a veil embroidered with her own hand to decorate the shrine. Irving traces to this circumstance the impulse, which Columbus frequently in later days showed, to devote the anticipated wealth of the Indies to a crusade in Palestine, to recover and protect the Holy Sepulchre. [Sidenote: Boabdil surrenders, December 22, 1489.] [Sidenote: Columbus's views again considered.] The campaign closed with the surrender on December 22 of the fortress of Baza, when Spain received from Muley Boabdil, the elder of the rival Moorish kings, all the territory which he claimed to have in his power. In February, 1490, Ferdinand and Isabella entered Seville in triumph, and a season of hilarity and splendor followed, signalized in the spring by the celebration with great jubilation of the marriage of the Princess Isabella with Don Alonzo, the heir to the crown of Portugal. These engrossing scenes were little suited to give Columbus a chance to press his projects on the Court. He soon found nothing could be done to get the farther attention of the monarchs till some respites occurred in the preparations for their final campaign against the younger Moorish king. It was at this time, as Irving and others have conjectured, that the consideration of the project of a western passage, which had been dropped when events moved the Court from Salamanca, was again taken up by such investigators as Talavera had summoned, and again the result was an adverse decision. This determination was communicated by Talavera himself to the sovereign, and it was accompanied by the opinion that it did not become great princes to engage in such chimerical undertakings. [Sidenote: Deza impressed.] [Sidenote: Delays.] It is supposed, however, that the decision was not reached without some reservation in the minds of certain of the reviewers, and that especially this was the case with Diego de Deza, who showed that the stress of the arguments advanced by Columbus had not been without result. This friar was tutor to Prince Juan, and it was not difficult for him to modify the emphatic denial of the judges. It was the pride of those who later erected the tombstone of Deza, in the cathedral at Seville, to inscribe upon it that he was the generous and faithful patron of Columbus. A temporizing policy was, therefore, adopted by the monarchs, and Columbus was informed that for the present the perils and expenses of the war called for an undivided attention, and that further consideration of his project must be deferred till the war was over. It was at Cordoba that this decision reached Columbus. [Sidenote: Columbus goes to Seville; but is repelled.] In his eagerness of hope he suspected that the judgment had received some adverse color in passing through Talavera's mind, and so he hastened to Seville, but only to meet the same chilling repulse from the monarchs themselves. With dashed expectations he left the city, feeling that the instrumentality of Talavera, as Peter Martyr tells us, had turned the sovereigns against him. [Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF SEVILLE. [From Parcerisa and Quadrado's _España_.]] [Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF CORDOBA. [From Parcerisa and Quadrado's _España_.]] [Sidenote: Seeks the grandees of Spain.] [Sidenote: Medina-Sidonia and Medina-Celi.] Columbus now sought to engage the attention of some of the powerful grandees of Spain, who, though subjects, were almost autocratic in their own regions, serving the Crown not so much as vassals as sympathetic helpers in its wars. They were depended upon to recruit the armies from their own trains and dependents; money came from their chests, provisions from their estates, and ships from their own marine; their landed patrimonies, indeed, covered long stretches of the coast, whose harbors sheltered their considerable navies. Such were the dukes of Medina-Sidonia and Medina-Celi. Columbus found in them, however, the same wariness which he had experienced at the greater court. There was a willingness to listen; they found some lures in the great hopes of Eastern wealth which animated Columbus, but in the end there was the same disappointment. One of them, the Duke of Medina-Celi, at last adroitly parried the importunities of Columbus, by averring that the project deserved the royal patronage rather than his meaner aid. He, however, told the suitor, if a farther application should be made to the Crown at some more opportune moment, he would labor with the queen in its behalf. The duke kept his word, and we get much of what we know of his interest in Columbus from the information given by one of the duke's household to Las Casas. This differs so far as to make the duke, perhaps as Harrisse thinks in the spring of 1491, actually fit out some caravels for the use of Columbus; but when seeking a royal license, he was informed that the queen had determined to embark in the enterprise herself. Such a decision seems to carry this part of the story, at least, forward to a time when Columbus was summoned from Rabida. [Sidenote: Columbus at Rabida.] A consultation which now took place at the convent of Rabida affords particulars which the historians have found difficulty, as already stated, in keeping distinct from those of an earlier visit, if there was such. Columbus, according to the usual story, visited the convent apparently in October or November, 1491, with the purpose of reclaiming his son Diego, and taking him to Cordoba, where he might be left with Ferdinand in the charge of the latter's mother. Columbus himself intended to pass to France, to see if a letter, which had been received from the king of France, might possibly open the way to the fulfillment of his great hopes. It is represented that it was this expressed intention of abandoning Spain which aroused the patriotism of Marchena, who undertook to prevent the sacrifice. [Sidenote: Marchena encourages him.] [Sidenote: Talks with Pinzon.] We derive what we know of his method of prevention from the testimony of Garcia Fernandez, the physician of Palos, who has been cited in respect to the alleged earlier visit. This witness says that he was summoned to Rabida to confer with Columbus. It is also made a part of the story that the head of a family of famous navigators in Palos, Martin Alonso Pinzon, was likewise drawn into the little company assembled by the friar to consider the new situation. Pinzon readily gave his adherence to the views of Columbus. It is claimed, however, that the presence of Pinzon is disproved by documents showing him to have been in Rome at this time. [Sidenote: Cousin's alleged voyage, 1488,] [Sidenote: and Pinzon's supposed connection with it.] An alleged voyage of Jean Cousin, in 1488, two years and more before this, from Dieppe to the coast of Brazil, is here brought in by certain French writers, like Estancelin and Gaffarel, as throwing some light on the intercourse of Columbus and Pinzon, later if not now. It must be acknowledged that few other than French writers have credited the voyage at all. Major, who gave the story careful examination, utterly discredits it. It is a part of the story that one Pinzon, a Castilian, accompanied Cousin as a pilot, and this man is identified by these French writers as the navigator who is now represented as yielding a ready credence to the views of Columbus, and for the reason that he knew more than he openly professed. They find in the later intercourse of Columbus and this Pinzon certain evidence of the estimation in which Columbus seemed to hold the practiced judgment, if not the knowledge, of Pinzon. This they think conspicuous in the yielding which Columbus made to Pinzon's opinion during Columbus's first voyage, in changing his course to the southwest, which is taken to have been due to a knowledge of Pinzon's former experience in passing those seas in 1488. They trace to it the confidence of Pinzon in separating from the Admiral on the coast of Cuba, and in his seeking to anticipate Columbus by an earlier arrival at Palos, on the return, as the reader will later learn. Thus it is ingeniously claimed that the pilot of Cousin and colleague of Columbus were one and the same person. It has hardly convinced other students than the French. When the Pinzon of the "Pinta" at a later day was striving to discredit the leadership of Columbus, in the famous suit of the Admiral's heirs, he could hardly, for any reason which the French writers aver, have neglected so important a piece of evidence as the fact of the Cousin voyage and his connection with it, if there had been any truth in it. [Sidenote: Pinzon aids Columbus,] So we must be content, it is pretty clear, in charging Pinzon's conversion to the views of Columbus at Rabida upon the efficacy of Columbus's arguments. This success of Columbus brought some substantial fruit in the promise which Pinzon now made to bear the expenses of a renewed suit to Ferdinand and Isabella. [Sidenote: and Rodriguez goes to Santa Fé, with a letter to the queen.] [Sidenote: Marchena follows.] [Sidenote: The queen invites Columbus once more.] A conclusion to the deliberation of this little circle in the convent was soon reached. Columbus threw his cause into the hands of his friends, and agreed to rest quietly in the convent while they pressed his claims. Perez wrote a letter of supplication to the Queen, and it was dispatched by a respectable navigator of the neighborhood, Sebastian Rodriguez. He found the Queen in the city of Santa Fé, which had grown up in the military surroundings before the city of Granada, whose siege the Spanish armies were then pressing. The epistle was opportune, for it reënforced one which she had already received from the Duke of Medina-Celi, who had been faithful to his promise to Columbus, and who, judging from a letter which he wrote at a later day, March 19, 1493, took to himself not a little credit that he had thus been instrumental, as he thought, in preventing Columbus throwing himself into the service of France. The result was that the pilot took back to Rabida an intimation to Marchena that his presence would be welcome at Santa Fé. So mounting his mule, after midnight, fourteen days after Rodriguez had departed, the friar followed the pilot's tracks, which took him through some of the regions already conquered from the Moors, and, reaching the Court, presented himself before the Queen. Perez is said to have found a seconder in Luis de Santangel, a fiscal officer of Aragon, and in the Marchioness of Moya, one of the ladies of the household. The friar is thought to have urged his petition so strongly that the Queen, who had all along been more open to the representations of Columbus than Ferdinand had been, finally determined to listen once more to the Genoese's appeals. [Sidenote: Columbus reaches Santa Fé, December, 1491.] [Sidenote: Quintanilla and Mendoza.] Learning of the poor plight of Columbus, she ordered a gratuity to be sent to him, to restore his wardrobe and to furnish himself with the conveniences of the journey. Perez, having borne back the happy news, again returned to the Court, with Columbus under his protection. Thus once more buoyed in hope, and suitably arrayed for appearing at Court, Columbus, on his mule, early in December, 1491, rode into the camp at Santa Fé, where he was received and provided with lodgings by the accountant-general. This officer was one whom he had occasion happily to remember, Alonso de Quintanilla, through whose offices it was, in the end, that the Grand Cardinal of Spain, Mendoza, was at this time brought into sympathy with the Genoese aspirant. [Sidenote: Boabdil the younger submits.] [Sidenote: The Moorish wars end.] Military events were still too imposing, however, for any immediate attention to his projects, and he looked on with admiration and a reserved expectancy, while the grand parade of the final submission of Boabdil the younger, the last of the Moorish kings, took place, and a long procession of the magnificence of Spain moved forward from the beleaguering camp to receive the keys of the Alhambra. Wars succeeding wars for nearly eight centuries had now come to an end. The Christian banner of Spain floated over the Moorish palace. The kingdom was alive in all its provinces. Congratulation and jubilation, with glitter and vauntings, pervaded the air. [Sidenote: Talavera and Columbus.] Few observed the humble Genoese who stood waiting the sovereigns' pleasure during all this tumult of joy; but he was not forgotten. They remembered, as he did, the promise given him at Seville. The war was over, and the time was come. Talavera had by this time gone so far towards an appreciation of Columbus's views that Peter Martyr tells him, at a later day, that the project would not have succeeded without him. He was directed to confer with the expectant dreamer, and Cardinal Mendoza became prominent in the negotiations. Columbus's position was thus changed. He had been a suitor. He was now sought. He had been persuaded from his purposed visit to France, in order that he might by his plans rehabilitate Spain with a new glory, complemental to her martial pride. This view as presented by Perez to Isabella had been accepted, and Columbus was summoned to present his case. [Sidenote: The mistake of Columbus.] Here, when he seemed at last to be on the verge of success, the poor man, unused to good fortune, and mistaking its token, repeated the mistake which had driven him an outcast from Portugal. His arrogant spirit led him to magnify his importance before he had proved it; and he failed in the modesty which marks a conquering spirit. True science places no gratulations higher than those of its own conscience. Copernicus was at this moment delving into the secrets of nature like a nobleman of the universe. So he stands for all time in lofty contrast to the plebeian nature and sordid cravings of his contemporary. [Sidenote: His pretensions.] When, at the very outset of the negotiations, Talavera found this uplifted suitor making demands that belonged rather to proved success than to a contingent one, there was little prospect of accommodation, unless one side or the other should abandon its position. If Columbus's own words count for anything, he was conscious of being a laughing-stock, while he was making claims for office and emoluments that would mortgage the power of a kingdom. A dramatic instinct has in many minds saved Columbus from the critical estimate of such presumption. Irving and the French canonizers dwell on what strikes them as constancy of purpose and loftiness of spirit. They marvel that poverty, neglect, ridicule, contumely, and disappointment had not dwarfed his spirit. This is the vulgar liking for the hero who is without heroism, and the martyr who makes a trade of it. The honest historian has another purpose. He tries to gauge pretense by wisdom. Columbus was indeed to succeed; but his success was an error in geography, and a failure in policy and in morals. The Crown was yet to succumb; but its submission was to entail miseries upon Columbus and his line, and a reproach upon Spain. The outcome to Columbus and to Spain is the direst comment of all. Columbus would not abate one jot of his pretensions, and an end was put to the negotiations. Making up his mind to carry his suit to France, he left Cordoba on his mule, in the beginning of February, 1492. CHAPTER IX. THE FINAL AGREEMENT AND THE FIRST VOYAGE, 1492. [Sidenote: Columbus leaves the Court.] Columbus, a disheartened wanderer, with his back turned on the Spanish Court, his mule plodding the road to Cordoba, offered a sad picture to the few adherents whom he had left behind. They had grown to have his grasp of confidence, but lacked his spirit to clothe an experimental service with all the certainties of an accomplished fact. [Sidenote: The Queen relents.] The sight of the departing theorist abandoning the country, and going to seek countenance at rival courts, stirred the Spanish pride. He and his friends had, in mutual counsels, pictured the realms of the Indies made tributary to the Spanish fame. It was this conception of a chance so near fruition, and now vanishing, that moved Luis de Santangel and Alonso de Quintanilla to determine on one last effort. They immediately sought the Queen. In an audience the two advocates presented the case anew, appealing to the royal ambition, to the opportunity of spreading her holy religion, to the occasions of replenishing her treasure-chests, emptied by the war, and to every other impulse, whether of pride or patriotism. The trivial cost and risk were contrasted with the glowing possibilities. They repeated the offer of Columbus to share an eighth of the expense. They pictured her caravels, fitted out at a cost of not more than 3,000,000 crowns, bearing the banner of Spain to these regions of opulence. The vision, once fixed in the royal eye, spread under their warmth of description, into succeeding glimpses of increasing splendor. Finally the warmth and glory of an almost realized expectancy filled the Queen's cabinet. The conquest was made. The royal companion, the Marchioness of Moya, saw and encouraged the kindling enthusiasm of Isabella; but a shade came over the Queen's face. The others knew it was the thought of Ferdinand's aloofness. The warrior of Aragon, with new conquests to regulate, with a treasury drained almost to the last penny, would have little heart for an undertaking in which his enthusiasm, if existing at all, had always been dull as compared with hers. She solved the difficulty in a flash. The voyage shall be the venture of Castile alone, and it shall be undertaken. [Sidenote: Columbus brought back.] Orders were at once given for a messenger to overtake Columbus. A horseman came up with him at the bridge of Pinòs, two leagues from Granada. There was a moment's hesitancy, as thoughts of cruelly protracted and suspended feelings in the past came over him. His decision, however, was not stayed. He turned his mule, and journeyed back to the city. Columbus was sought once more, and in a way to give him the vantage which his imperious demands could easily use. The interview with the Queen which followed removed all doubt of his complete ascendency. Ferdinand in turn yielded to the persuasions of his chamberlain, Juan Cabrero, and to the supplications of Isabella; but he succumbed without faith, if the story which is told of him in relation to the demand for similar concessions made twenty years later by Ponce de Leon is to be believed. "Ah," said Ferdinand, to the discoverer of Florida, "it is one thing to give a stretch of power when no one anticipates the exercise of it; but we have learned something since then; you will succeed, and it is another thing to give such power to you." This story goes a great way to explain the later efforts of the Crown to counteract the power which was, in the flush of excitement, unwittingly given to the new Admiral. [Sidenote: The Queen's jewels.] The ensuing days were devoted to the arrangement of details. The usual story, derived from the _Historie_, is that the Queen offered to pawn her jewels, as her treasury of Castile could hardly furnish the small sum required; but Harrisse is led to believe that the exigencies of the war had already required this sacrifice of the Queen, though the documentary evidence is wanting. Santangel, however, interposed. As treasurer of the ecclesiastical revenues in Aragon, he was able to show that while Isabella was foremost in promoting the enterprise, Ferdinand could join her in a loan from these coffers; and so it was that the necessary funds were, in reality, paid in the end from the revenues of Aragon. This is the common story, enlarged by later writers upon the narrative in Las Casas; but Harrisse finds no warrant for it, and judges the advance of funds to have been by Santangel from his private revenues, and in the interests of Castile only. And this seems to be proved by the invariable exclusion of Ferdinand's subjects from participating in the advantages of trade in the new lands, unless an exception was made for some signal service. This rule, indeed, prevailed, even after Ferdinand began to reign alone. [Sidenote: Aims of the expedition.] [Sidenote: End of the world approaching.] There is something quite as amusing as edifying in the ostensible purposes of all this endeavor. To tap the resources of the luxuriant East might be gratifying, but it was holy to conceive that the energies of the undertaking were going to fill the treasury out of which a new crusade for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre could be sustained. The pearls and spices of the Orient, the gold and precious jewels of its mines, might conduce to the gorgeous and luxurious display of the throne, but there was a noble condescension in giving Columbus a gracious letter to the Great Khan, and in hoping to seduce his subjects to the sway of a religion that allowed to the heathen no rights but conversion. There was at least a century and a half of such holy endeavors left for the ministrants of the church, as was believed, since the seven thousand years of the earth's duration was within one hundred and fifty-five years of its close, as the calculations of King Alonso showed. Columbus had been further drawn to these conclusions from his study of that conglomerating cardinal, Pierre d'Ailly, whose works, in a full edition, had been at this time only a few months in the book stalls. Humboldt has gone into an examination of the data to show that Columbus's calculation was singularly inexact; but the labor of verification seems hardly necessary, except as a curious study of absurdities. Columbus's career has too many such to detain us on any one. [Sidenote: 1492. April 17. Agreement with Columbus.] On April 17, 1492, the King and Queen signed at Santa Fé and delivered to Columbus a passport to all persons in unknown parts, commending the Admiral to their friendship. This paper is preserved in Barcelona. On the same day the monarchs agreed to the conditions of a document which was drawn by the royal secretary, Juan de Coloma, and is preserved among the papers of the Duke of Veragua. It was printed from that copy by Navarrete, and is again printed by Bergenroth as found at Barcelona. As formulated in English by Irving, its purport is as follows:-- 1. That Columbus should have for himself during his life, and for his heirs and successors forever, the office of Admiral in all the lands and continents which he might discover or acquire in the ocean, with similar honors and prerogatives to those enjoyed by the high admiral of Castile in his district. 2. That he should be viceroy and governor-general over all the said lands and continents, with the privilege of nominating three candidates for the government of each island or province, one of whom should be selected by the sovereigns. 3. That he should be entitled to reserve for himself one tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and all other articles of merchandises, in whatever manner found, bought, bartered, or gained within his admiralty, the costs being first deducted. 4. That he or his lieutenant should be the sole judge in all causes or disputes arising out of traffic between those countries and Spain, provided the high admiral of Castile had similar jurisdiction in his district. 5. That he might then and at all after times contribute an eighth part of the expense in fitting out vessels to sail on this enterprise, and receive an eighth part of the profits. [Sidenote: 1492. April 30. Colummbus allowed to use the prefix Don.] These capitulations were followed on the 30th of April by a commission which the sovereigns signed at Granada, in which it was further granted that the Admiral and his heirs should use the prefix Don. [Sidenote: Arranges his domestic affairs.] It is supposed he now gave some heed to his domestic concerns. We know nothing, however, of any provision for the lonely Beatrix, but it is said that he placed his boy Ferdinand, then but four years of age, at school in Cordoba near his mother. He left his lawful son, Diego, well provided for through an appointment by the Queen, on May 8, which made him page to Prince Juan, the heir apparent. [Sidenote: 1492. May. Reaches Palos.] Columbus himself tells us that he then left Granada on the 12th of May, 1492, and went direct to Palos; stopping, however, on the way at Rabida, to exchange congratulations with its friar, Juan Perez, if indeed he did not lodge at the convent during his stay in the seaport. [Sidenote: Palos described.] Palos to-day consists of a double street of lowly, whitened houses, in a depression among the hills. The guides point out the ruins of a larger house, which was the home of the Pinzons. The Moorish mosque, converted into St. George's church in Columbus's day, still stands on the hill, just outside the village, with an image of St. George and the dragon over its high altar, just as Columbus saw it, while above the church are existing ruins of an old Moorish castle. [Sidenote: Ships fitted out.] The story which Las Casas has told of the fitting out of the vessels does not agree in some leading particulars with that which Navarrete holds to be more safely drawn from the documents which he has published. The fact seems to be that two of the vessels of Columbus were not constructed by the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, and later bought by the Queen, as Las Casas says; but, it happening that the town of Palos, in consequence of some offense to the royal dignity, had been mulcted in the service of two armed caravels for twelve months, the opportunity was now taken by royal order, dated April 30, 1492, of assigning this service of crews and vessels to Columbus's fateful expedition. [Sidenote: The Pinzons aid him.] The royal command had also provided that Columbus might add a third vessel, which he did with the aid, it is supposed, of the Pinzons, though there is no documentary proof to show whence he acquired the necessary means. Las Casas and Herrera, however, favor the supposition, and it is of course sustained in the evidence adduced in the famous trial which was intended to magnify the service of the Pinzons. It was also directed that the seamen of the little fleet should receive the usual wages of those serving in armed vessels, and be paid four months in advance. All maritime towns were enjoined to furnish supplies at a reasonable price. All criminal processes against anybody engaged for the voyage were to be suspended, and this suspension was to last for two months after the return. [Sidenote: 1492. May 23. Demands two ships of Palos.] [Sidenote: 1492. June 20. Vessels and crews impressed.] [Sidenote: The Pinzons.] It was on the 23d of May that, accompanied by Juan Perez, Columbus met the people of Palos assembled in the church of St. George, while a notary read the royal commands laid upon the town. It took a little time for the simple people to divine the full extent of such an order,--its consignment of fellow-creatures to the dreaded evils of the great unknown ocean. The reluctance to enter upon the undertaking proved so great, except among a few prisoners taken from the jails, that it became necessary to report the obstacle to the Court, when a new peremptory order was issued on June 20 to impress the vessels and crews. Juan de Peñalosa, an officer of the royal household, appeared in Palos to enforce this demand. Even such imperative measures availed little, and it was not till Martin Alonso Pinzon came forward, and either by an agreement to divide with Columbus the profits, or through some other understanding,--for the testimony on the point is doubtful, and Las Casas disbelieves any such division of profits,--exerted his influence, in which he was aided by his brother, also a navigator, Vicente Yañez Pinzon. There is a story traceable to a son of the elder Pinzon, who testified in the Columbus lawsuit that Martin Alonso had at one time become convinced of the existence of western lands from some documents and charts which he had seen at Rome. The story, like that of his companionship with Cousin, already referred to, has in it, however, many elements of suspicion. This help of the Pinzons proved opportune and did much to save the cause, for it had up to this time seemed impossible to get vessels or crews. The standing of these navigators as men and their promise to embark personally put a new complexion on the undertaking, and within a month the armament was made up. Harrisse has examined the evidence in the matter to see if there is any proof that the Pinzons contributed more than their personal influence, but there is no apparent ground for believing they did, unless they stood behind Columbus in his share of the expenses, which are computed at 500,000 maravedis, while those of the Queen, arranged through Santangel, are reckoned at 1,140,000 of that money. The fleet consisted, as Peter Martyr tells us, of two open caravels, "Nina" and "Pinta"--the latter, with its crew, being pressed into the service,--decked only at the extremities, where high prows and poops gave quarters for the crews and their officers. A large-decked vessel of the register known as a carack, and renamed by Columbus the "Santa Maria," which proved "a dull sailer and unfit for discovery," was taken by Columbus as his flagship. There is some confusion in the testimony relating to the name of this ship. The _Historie_ alone calls her by this name. Las Casas simply styles her "The Captain." One of the pilots speaks of her as the "Mari Galante." Her owner was one Juan de la Cosa, apparently not the same person as the navigator and cosmographer later to be met, and he had command of her, while Pero Alonso Nino and Sancho Ruis served as pilots. [Sidenote: Character of the ships.] Captain G. V. Fox has made an estimate of her dimensions from her reputed tonnage by the scale of that time, and thinks she was sixty-three feet over all in length, fifty-one feet along her keel, twenty feet beam, and ten and a half in depth. [Sidenote: The crews.] The two Pinzons were assigned to the command of the other caravels,--Martin Alonso to the "Pinta," the larger of the two, with a third brother of his as pilot, and Vicente Yañez to the "Nina." Many obstacles and the natural repugnances of sailors to embark in so hazardous a service still delayed the preparations, but by the beginning of August the arrangements were complete, and a hundred and twenty persons, as Peter Martyr and Oviedo tell us, but perhaps the _Historie_ and Las Casas are more correct in saying ninety in all, were ready to be committed to what many of them felt were most desperate fortunes. Duro has of late published in his _Colón y Pinzon_ what purports to be a list of their names. It shows in Tallerte de Lajes a native of England who has been thought to be one named in his vernacular Arthur Lake; and Guillemio Ires, called of Galway, has sometimes been fancied to have borne in his own land the name perhaps of Rice, Herries, or Harris. There was no lack of the formal assignments usual in such important undertakings. There was a notary to record the proceedings and a historian to array the story; an interpreter to be prepared with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, and Armenian, in the hopes that one of these tongues might serve in intercourse with the great Asiatic potentates, and a metallurgist to pronounce upon precious ores. They were not without a physician and a surgeon. It does not appear if their hazards should require the last solemn rites that there was any priest to shrive them; but Columbus determined to start with all the solemnity that a confession and the communion could impart, and this service was performed by Juan Perez, both for him and for his entire company. [Sidenote: Sailing directions from the Crown.] The directions of the Crown also provided that Columbus should avoid the Guinea coast and all other possessions of the Portuguese, which seems to be little more than a striking manifestation of a certain kind of incredulity respecting what Columbus, after all, meant by sailing west. Indeed, there was necessarily more or less vagueness in everybody's mind as to what a western passage would reveal, or how far a westerly course might of necessity be swung one way or the other. [Sidenote: Islands first to be sought.] The _Historie_ tells us distinctly that Columbus hoped to find some intermediate land before reaching India, to be used, as the modern phrase goes, as a sort of base of operations. This hope rested on the belief, then common, that there was more land than sea on the earth, and consequently that no wide stretch of ocean could exist without interlying lands. There was, moreover, no confidence that such things as floating islands might not be encountered. Pliny and Seneca had described them, and Columbus was inclined to believe that St. Brandan and the Seven Cities, and such isles as the dwellers at the Azores had claimed to see in the offing, might be of this character. There seems, in fact, to be ground for believing that Columbus thought his course to the Asiatic shores could hardly fail to bring him in view of other regions or islands lying in the western ocean. Muñoz holds that "the glory of such discoveries inflamed him still more, perhaps, than his chief design." [Sidenote: Asiatic archipelago.] That a vast archipelago would, be the first land encountered was not without confident believers. The Catalan map of 1374 had shown such islands in vast numbers, amounting to 7,548 in all; Marco Polo had made them 12,700, or was thought to do so; and Behaim was yet to cite the latter on his globe. [Sidenote: Behaim's globe.] It was, indeed, at this very season that Behaim, having returned from Lisbon to his home in Nuremberg, had imparted to the burghers of that inland town those great cosmographical conceptions, which he was accustomed to hear discussed in the Atlantic seaports. Such views were exemplified in a large globe which Behaim had spent the summer in constructing in Nuremberg. It was made of pasteboard covered with parchment, and is twenty-one inches in diameter. [Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE, 1492. _Note._ The curved sides of these cuts divide the Globe in the mid Atlantic.] [Illustration: BEHAIM'S GLOBE, 1492. [Taken from Ernest Mayer's _Die Hilfsmittel der Schiffahrtkunde_ (Wein, 1879).]] [Illustration: DOPPELMAYER'S ENGRAVING OF BEHAIM'S GLOBE, MUCH REDUCED.] [Sidenote: Laon globe.] It shows the equator, the tropics, the polar circle, in a latitudinal way; but the first meridian, passing through Madeira, is the only one of the longitudinal sectors which it represents. Behaim had in this work the help of Holtzschner, and the globe has come down to our day, preserved in the town hall at Nuremberg, one of the sights and honors of that city. It shares the credit, however, with another, called the Laon globe, as the only well-authenticated geographical spheres which date back of the discovery of America. This Laon globe is much smaller, being only six inches in diameter; and though it is dated 1493, it is thought to have been made a few years earlier,--as D'Avezac thinks, in 1486. [Illustration: THE ACTUAL AMERICA IN RELATION TO BEHAIM'S GEOGRAPHY.] Clements K. Markham, in a recent edition of Robert Hues' _Tractatus de Globis_, cites Nordenskiöld as considering Behaim's globe, without comparison, the most important geographical document since the atlas of Ptolemy, in A. D. 150. "He points out that it is the first which unreservedly adopts the existence of antipodes; the first which clearly shows that there is a passage from Europe to India; the first which attempts to deal with the discoveries of Marco Polo. It is an exact representation of geographical knowledge immediately previous to the first voyage of Columbus." The Behaim globe has become familiar by many published drawings. [Sidenote: Toscanelli's map.] It has been claimed that Columbus probably took with him, on his voyage, the map which he had received from Toscanelli, with its delineation of the interjacent and island-studded ocean, which washed alike the shores of Europe and Asia, and that it was the subject of study by him and Pinzon at a time when Columbus refers in his journal to the use they made of a chart. That Toscanelli's map long survived the voyage is known, and Las Casas used it. Humboldt has not the same confidence which Sprengel had, that at this time it crossed the sea in the "Santa Maria;" and he is inclined rather to suppose that the details of Toscanelli's chart, added to all others which Columbus had gathered from the maps of Bianco and Benincasa--for it is not possible he could have seen the work of Behaim, unless indeed, in fragmentary preconceptions--must have served him better as laid down on a chart of his own drafting. There is good reason to suppose that, more than once, with the skill which he is known to have possessed, he must have made such charts, to enforce and demonstrate his belief, which, though in the main like that of Toscanelli, were in matters of distance quite different. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1492, August 3, Columbus sails.] So, everything being ready, on the third of August, 1492, a half hour before sunrise, he unmoored his little fleet in the stream and, spreading his sails, the vessels passed out of the little river roadstead of Palos, gazed after, perhaps, in the increasing light, as the little crafts reached the ocean, by the friar of Rabida, from its distant promontory of rock. [Illustration: SHIPS OF COLUMBUS'S TIME. (From Medina's _Arte de Navegar_, 1545.)] [Sidenote: On Friday.] The day was Friday, and the advocates of Columbus's canonization have not failed to see a purpose in its choice, as the day of our Redemption, and as that of the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre by Geoffrey de Bouillon, and of the rendition of Granada, with the fall of the Moslem power in Spain. We must resort to the books of such advocates, if we would enliven the picture with a multitude of rites and devotional feelings that they gather in the meshes of the story of the departure. They supply to the embarkation a variety of detail that their holy purposes readily imagine, and place Columbus at last on his poop, with the standard of the Cross, the image of the Saviour nailed to the holy wood, waving in the early breezes that heralded the day. The embellishments may be pleasing, but they are not of the strictest authenticity. [Illustration: SHIP, 1486.] [Sidenote: Keeps a journal.] In order that his performance of an embassy to the princes of the East might be duly chronicled, Columbus determined, as his journal says, to keep an account of the voyage by the west, "by which course," he says, "unto the present time, we do not know, _for certain_, that any one has passed." It was his purpose to write down, as he proceeded, everything he saw and all that he did, and to make a chart of his discoveries, and to show the directions of his track. [Illustration: [From Bethencourt's _Canarian_, London, 1872.]] [Sidenote: The "Pinta" disabled.] Nothing occurred during those early August days to mar his run to the Canaries, except the apprehension which he felt that an accident, happening to the rudder of the "Pinta,"--a steering gear now for some time in use, in place of the old lateral paddles,--was a trick of two men, her owners, Gomez Rascon and Christopher Quintero, to impede a voyage in which they had no heart. The Admiral knew the disposition of these men well enough not to be surprised at the mishap, but he tried to feel secure in the prompt energy of Pinzon, who commanded the "Pinta." [Sidenote: Reaches the Canaries.] As he passed (August 24-25, 1492) the peak of Teneriffe, it was the time of an eruption, of which he makes bare mention in his journal. It is to the corresponding passages of the _Historie_, that we owe the somewhat sensational stories of the terrors of the sailors, some of whom certainly must long have been accustomed to like displays in the volcanoes of the Mediterranean. [Sidenote: 1492. September 6, leaves Gomera.] At the Gran Canaria the "Nina" was left to have her lateen sails changed to square ones; and the "Pinta," it being found impossible to find a better vessel to take her place, was also left to be overhauled for her leaks, and to have her rudder again repaired, while Columbus visited Gomera, another of the islands. The fleet was reunited at Gomera on September 2. Here he fell in with some residents of Ferro, the westernmost of the group, who repeated the old stories of land occasionally seen from its heights, lying towards the setting sun. Having taking on board wood, water, and provisions, Columbus finally sailed from Gomera on the morning of Thursday, September 6. He seems to have soon spoken a vessel from Ferro, and from this he learned that three Portuguese caravels were lying in wait for him in the neighborhood of that island, with a purpose as he thought of visiting in some way upon him, for having gone over to the interests of Spain, the indignation of the Portuguese king. He escaped encountering them. [Sidenote: Sunday, September 9, 1492.] [Sidenote: Falsifies his reckoning.] Up to Sunday, September 9, they had experienced so much calm weather, that their progress had been slow. This tediousness soon raised an apprehension in the mind of Columbus that the voyage might prove too long for the constancy of his men. He accordingly determined to falsify his reckoning. This deceit was a large confession of his own timidity in dealing with his crew, and it marked the beginning of a long struggle with deceived and mutinous subordinates, which forms so large a part of the record of his subsequent career. [Illustration: ROUTES OF COLUMBUS'S FOUR VOYAGES. [Taken from the map in Blanchero's _La Tavola di Bronzo_ (Geneva, 1857).]] [Illustration: COLUMBUS'S TRACK IN 1492.] The result of Monday's sail, which he knew to be sixty leagues, he noted as forty-eight, so that the distance from home might appear less than it was. He continued to practice this deceit. [Sidenote: His dead reckoning.] The distances given by Columbus are those of dead reckoning beyond any question. Lieutenant Murdock, of the United States navy, who has commented on this voyage, makes his league the equivalent of three modern nautical miles, and his mile about three quarters of our present estimate for that distance. Navarrete says that Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, which are a quarter less than a Spanish mile. The Admiral had expected to make land after sailing about seven hundred leagues from Ferro; and in ordering his vessels in case of separation to proceed westward, he warned them when they sailed that distance to come to the wind at night, and only to proceed by day. The log as at present understood in navigation had not yet been devised. Columbus depended in judging of his speed on the eye alone, basing his calculations on the passage of objects or bubbles past the ship, while the running out of his hour glasses afforded the multiple for long distances. [Sidenote: 1492. September 13.] [Sidenote: Reaches point of no variation of the needle.] [Sidenote: Knowledge of the magnet.] On Thursday, the 13th of September, he notes that the ships were encountering adverse currents. He was now three degrees west of Flores, and the needle of the compass pointed as it had never been observed before, directly to the true north. His observation of this fact marks a significant point in the history of navigation. The polarity of the magnet, an ancient possession of the Chinese, had been known perhaps for three hundred years, when this new spirit of discovery awoke in the fifteenth century. The Indian Ocean and its traditions were to impart, perhaps through the Arabs, perhaps through the returning Crusaders, a knowledge of the magnet to the dwellers on the shores of the Mediterranean, and to the hardier mariners who pushed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, so that the new route to that same Indian Ocean was made possible in the fifteenth century. The way was prepared for it gradually. The Catalans from the port of Barcelona pushed out into the great Sea of Darkness under the direction of their needles, as early at least as the twelfth century. The pilots of Genoa and Venice, the hardy Majorcans and the adventurous Moors, were followers of almost equal temerity. [Illustration: [From the _United States Coast Survey Report_, 1880, No. 84.]] [Sidenote: Variation of the needle.] A knowledge of the variation of the needle came more slowly to be known to the mariners of the Mediterranean. It had been observed by Peregrini as early as 1269, but that knowledge of it which rendered it greatly serviceable in voyages does not seem to be plainly indicated in any of the charts of these transition centuries, till we find it laid down on the maps of Andrea Bianco in 1436. [Illustration: [From Hirth's _Bilderbuch_, vol. iii.]] It was no new thing then when Columbus, as he sailed westward, marked the variation, proceeding from the northeast more and more westerly; but it was a revelation when he came to a position where the magnetic north and the north star stood in conjunction, as they did on this 13th of September, 1492. [Sidenote: Columbus's misconception of the line of no variation.] [Sidenote: Sebastian Cabot's observations of its help in determining longitude.] As he still moved westerly the magnetic line was found to move farther and farther away from the pole as it had before the 13th approached it. To an observer of Columbus's quick perceptions, there was a ready guess to possess his mind. This inference was that this line of no variation was a meridian line, and that divergences from it east and west might have a regularity which would be found to furnish a method of ascertaining longitude far easier and surer than tables or water clocks. We know that four years later he tried to sail his ship on observations of this kind. The same idea seems to have occurred to Sebastian Cabot, when a little afterwards he approached and passed in a higher latitude, what he supposed to be the meridian of no variation. Humboldt is inclined to believe that the possibility of such a method of ascertaining longitude was that uncommunicable secret, which Sebastian Cabot many years later hinted at on his death-bed. The claim was made near a century later by Livio Sanuto in his _Geographia_, published at Venice, in 1588, that Sebastian Cabot had been the first to observe this variation, and had explained it to Edward VI., and that he had on a chart placed the line of no variation at a point one hundred and ten miles west of the island of Flores in the Azores. [Sidenote: Various views.] These observations of Columbus and Cabot were not wholly accepted during the sixteenth century. Robert Hues, in 1592, a hundred years later, tells us that Medina, the Spanish grand pilot, was not disinclined to believe that mariners saw more in it than really existed and that they found it a convenient way to excuse their own blunders. Nonius was credited with saying that it simply meant that worn-out magnets were used, which had lost their power to point correctly to the pole. Others had contended that it was through insufficient application of the loadstone to the iron that it was so devious in its work. [Illustration: PART OF MERCATOR'S POLAR REGIONS, 1569. [From R. Mercator's Atlas of 1595.]] [Sidenote: Better understood.] What was thought possible by the early navigators possessed the minds of all seamen in varying experiments for two centuries and a half. Though not reaching such satisfactory results as were hoped for, the expectation did not prove so chimerical as was sometimes imagined when it was discovered that the lines of variation were neither parallel, nor straight, nor constant. The line of no variation which Columbus found near the Azores has moved westward with erratic inclinations, until to-day it is not far from a straight line from Carolina to Guiana. Science, beginning with its crude efforts at the hands of Alonzo de Santa Cruz, in 1530, has so mapped the surface of the globe with observations of its multifarious freaks of variation, and the changes are so slow, that a magnetic chart is not a bad guide to-day for ascertaining the longitude in any latitude for a few years neighboring to the date of its records. So science has come round in some measure to the dreams of Columbus and Cabot. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus remarks on changes of temperature and aberrations of stars.] But this was not the only development which came from this ominous day in the mid Atlantic in that September of 1492. The fancy of Columbus was easily excited, and notions of a change of climate, and even aberrations of the stars were easily imagined by him amid the strange phenomena of that untracked waste. While Columbus was suspecting that the north star was somewhat willfully shifting from the magnetic pole, now to a distance of 5° and then of 10°, the calculations of modern astronomers have gauged the polar distance existing in 1492 at 3° 28´, as against the 1° 20´ of to-day. The confusion of Columbus was very like his confounding an old world with a new, inasmuch as he supposed it was the pole star and not the needle which was shifting. [Sidenote: Imagines a protuberance on the earth.] He argued from what he saw, or thought he saw, that the line of no variation marked the beginning of a protuberance of the earth, up which he ascended as he sailed westerly, and that this was the reason of the cooler weather which he experienced. He never got over some notions of this kind, and believed he found confirmation of them in his later voyages. [Sidenote: The magnetic pole.] Even as early as the reign of Edward III. of England, Nicholas of Lynn, a voyager to the northern seas, is thought to have definitely fixed the magnetic pole in the Arctic regions, transmitting his views to Cnoyen, the master of the later Mercator, in respect to the four circumpolar islands, which in the sixteenth century made so constant a surrounding of the northern pole. [Sidenote: 1492. September 14.] [Sidenote: September 15.] [Sidenote: September 16.] [Sidenote: Sargasso Sea.] The next day (September 14), after these magnetic observations, a water wagtail was seen from the "Nina,"--a bird which Columbus thought unaccustomed to fly over twenty-five leagues from land, and the ships were now, according to their reckoning, not far from two hundred leagues from the Canaries. On Saturday, they saw a distant bolt of fire fall into the sea. On Sunday, they had a drizzling rain, followed by pleasant weather, which reminded Columbus of the nightingales, gladdening the climate of Andalusia in April. They found around the ships much green floatage of weeds, which led them to think some islands must be near. Navarrete thinks there was some truth in this, inasmuch as the charts of the early part of this century represent breakers as having been seen in 1802, near the spot where Columbus can be computed to have been at this time. Columbus was in fact within that extensive _prairie_ of floating seaweed which is known as the Sargasso Sea, whose principal longitudinal axis is found in modern times to lie along the parallel of 41° 30´, and the best calculations which can be made from the rather uncertain data of Columbus's journal seem to point to about the same position. There is nothing in all these accounts, as we have them abridged by Las Casas, to indicate any great surprise, and certainly nothing of the overwhelming fear which, the _Historie_ tells us, the sailors experienced when they found their ships among these floating masses of weeds, raising apprehension of a perpetual entanglement in their swashing folds. [Sidenote: 1492. September 17.] [Sidenote: September 18.] The next day (September 17) the currents became favorable, and the weeds still floated about them. The variation of the needle now became so great that the seamen were dismayed, as the journal says, and the observation being repeated Columbus practiced another deceit and made it appear that there had been really no variation, but only a shifting of the polar star! The weeds were now judged to be river weeds, and a live crab was found among them,--a sure sign of near land, as Columbus believed, or affected to believe. They killed a tunny and saw others. They again observed a water wagtail, "which does not sleep at sea." Each ship pushed on for the advance, for it was thought the goal was near. The next day the "Pinta" shot ahead and saw great flocks of birds towards the west. Columbus conceived that the sea was growing fresher. Heavy clouds hung on the northern horizon, a sure sign of land, it was supposed. [Sidenote: 1492. September 19.] On the next day two pelicans came on board, and Columbus records that these birds are not accustomed to go twenty leagues from land. So he sounded with a line of two hundred fathoms to be sure he was not approaching land; but no bottom was found. A drizzling rain also betokened land, which they could not stop to find, but would search for on their return, as the journal says. The pilots now compared their reckonings. Columbus said they were 400 leagues, while the "Pinta's" record showed 420, and the "Nina's" 440. [Sidenote: 1492. September 20.] [Sidenote: September 22. Changes his course.] [Sidenote: Head wind.] [Sidenote: September 25.] On September 20, other pelicans came on board; and the ships were again among the weeds. Columbus was determined to ascertain if these indicated shoal water and sounded, but could not reach bottom. The men caught a bird with feet like a gull; but they were convinced it was a river bird. Then singing land-birds, as was fancied, hovered about as it darkened, but they disappeared before morning. Then a pelican was observed flying to the southwest, and as "these birds sleep on shore, and go to sea in the morning," the men encouraged themselves with the belief that they could not be far from land. The next day a whale could but be another indication of land; and the weeds covered the sea all about. On Saturday, they steered west by northwest, and got clear of the weeds. This change of course so far to the north, which had begun on the previous day, was occasioned by a head wind, and Columbus says that he welcomed it, because it had the effect of convincing the sailors that westerly winds to return by were not impossible. On Sunday (September 23), they found the wind still varying; but they made more westering than before,--weeds, crabs, and birds still about them. Now there was smooth water, which again depressed the seamen; then the sea arose, mysteriously, for there was no wind to cause it. They still kept their course westerly and continued it till the night of September 25. [Sidenote: Appearances of land.] [Sidenote: Again changes his course.] [Sidenote: September 26.] [Sidenote: 1492. September 27.] [Sidenote: September 30.] [Sidenote: October 1.] [Sidenote: October 3.] [Sidenote: October 6.] [Sidenote: October 7.] [Sidenote: Shifts his course to follow some birds.] Columbus at this time conferred with Pinzon, as to a chart which they carried, which showed some islands, near where they now supposed the ships to be. That they had not seen land, they believed was either due to currents which had carried them too far north, or else their reckoning was not correct. At sunset Pinzon hailed the Admiral, and said he saw land, claiming the reward. The two crews were confident that such was the case, and under the lead of their commanders they all kneeled and repeated the _Gloria in Excelsis_. The land appeared to lie southwest, and everybody saw the apparition. Columbus changed the fleet's course to reach it; and as the vessels went on, in the smooth sea, the men had the heart, under their expectation, to bathe in its amber glories. On Wednesday, they were undeceived, and found that the clouds had played them a trick. On the 27th their course lay more directly west. So they went on, and still remarked upon all the birds they saw and weed-drift which they pierced. Some of the fowl they thought to be such as were common at the Cape de Verde Islands, and were not supposed to go far to sea. On the 30th September, they still observed the needles of their compasses to vary, but the journal records that it was the pole star which moved, and not the needle. On October 1, Columbus says they were 707 leagues from Ferro; but he had made his crew believe they were only 584. As they went on, little new for the next few days is recorded in the journal; but on October 3, they thought they saw among the weeds something like fruits. By the 6th, Pinzon began to urge a southwesterly course, in order to find the islands, which the signs seemed to indicate in that direction. Still the Admiral would not swerve from his purpose, and kept his course westerly. On Sunday, the "Nina" fired a bombard and hoisted a flag as a signal that she saw land, but it proved a delusion. Observing towards evening a flock of birds flying to the southwest, the Admiral yielded to Pinzon's belief, and shifted his course to follow the birds. He records as a further reason for it that it was by following the flight of birds that the Portuguese had been so successful in discovering islands in other seas. [Sidenote: Cipango.] Columbus now found himself two hundred miles and more farther than the three thousand miles west of Spain, where he supposed Cipango to lie, and he was 25-1/2° north of the equator, according to his astrolabe. The true distance of Cipango or Japan was sixty-eight hundred miles still farther, or beyond both North America and the Pacific. How much beyond that island, in its supposed geographical position, Columbus expected to find the Asiatic main we can only conjecture from the restorations which modern scholars have made of Toscanelli's map, which makes the island about 10° east of Asia, and from Behaim's globe, which makes it 20°. It should be borne in mind that the knowledge of its position came from Marco Polo, and he does not distinctly say how far it was from the Asiatic coast. In a general way, as to these distances from Spain to China, Toscanelli and Behaim agreed, and there is no reason to believe that the views of Columbus were in any noteworthy degree different. [Sidenote: Relations of Pinzon to the change of course.] In the trial, years afterwards, when the Fiscal contested the rights of Diego Colon, it was put in evidence by one Vallejo, a seaman, that Pinzon was induced to urge the direction to be changed to the southwest, because he had in the preceding evening observed a flight of parrots in that direction, which could have only been seeking land. It was the main purpose of the evidence in this part of the trial to show that Pinzon had all along forced Columbus forward against his will. How pregnant this change of course in the vessels of Columbus was has not escaped the observation of Humboldt and many others. A day or two further on his westerly way, and the Gulf Stream would, perhaps, insensibly have borne the little fleet up the Atlantic coast of the future United States, so that the banner of Castile might have been planted at Carolina. [Sidenote: October 7.] [Sidenote: October 8-10.] On the 7th of October, Columbus was pretty nearly in latitude 25° 50',--that of one of the Bahama Islands. Just where he was by longitude there is much more doubt, probably between 65° and 66°. On the next day the land birds flying along the course of the ships seemed to confirm their hopes. On the 10th the journal records that the men began to lose patience; but the Admiral reassured them by reminding them of the profits in store for them, and of the folly of seeking to return, when they had already gone so far. [Sidenote: Story of a mutiny.] It is possible that, in this entry, Columbus conceals the story which later came out in the recital of Oviedo, with more detail than in the _Historie_ and Las Casas, that the rebellion of his crew was threatening enough to oblige him to promise to turn back if land was not discovered in three days. Most commentators, however, are inclined to think that this story of a mutinous revolt was merely engrafted from hearsay or other source by Oviedo upon the more genuine recital, and that the conspiracy to throw the Admiral into the sea has no substantial basis in contemporary report. Irving, who has a dramatic tendency throughout his whole account of the voyage to heighten his recital with touches of the imagination, nevertheless allows this, and thinks that Oviedo was misled by listening to a pilot, who was a personal enemy of the Admiral. The elucidations of the voyage which were drawn out in the famous suit of Diego with the Crown in 1513 and 1515, afford no ground for any belief in this story of the mutiny and the concession of Columbus to it. It is not, however, difficult to conceive the recurrent fears of his men and the incessant anxiety of Columbus to quiet them. From what Peter Martyr tells us,--and he may have got it directly from Columbus's lips,--the task was not an easy one to preserve subordination and to instill confidence. He represents that Columbus was forced to resort in turn to argument, persuasion, and enticements, and to picture the misfortunes of the royal displeasure. [Sidenote: 1492. October 11.] The next day, notwithstanding a heavier sea than they had before encountered, certain signs sufficed to lift them out of their despondency. These were floating logs, or pieces of wood, one of them apparently carved by hand, bits of cane, a green rush, a stalk of rose berries, and other drifting tokens. [Sidenote: 1492. October 11. Steer west.] [Sidenote: Columbus sees a light.] Their southwesterly course had now brought them down to about the twenty-fourth parallel, when after sunset on the 11th they shifted their course to due west, while the crew of the Admiral's ship united, with more fervor than usual, in the _Salve Regina_. At about ten o'clock Columbus, peering into the night, thought he saw--if we may believe him--a moving light, and pointing out the direction to Pero Gutierrez, this companion saw it too; but another, Rodrigo Sanchez, situated apparently on another part of the vessel, was not able to see it. It was not brought to the attention of any others. The Admiral says that the light seemed to be moving up and down, and he claimed to have got other glimpses of its glimmer at a later moment. He ordered the _Salve_ to be chanted, and directed a vigilant watch to be set on the forecastle. To sharpen their vision he promised a silken jacket, beside the income of ten thousand maravedis which the King and Queen had offered to the fortunate man who should first descry the coveted land. This light has been the occasion of much comment, and nothing will ever, it is likely, be settled about it, further than that the Admiral, with an inconsiderate rivalry of a common sailor who later saw the actual land, and with an ungenerous assurance ill-befitting a commander, pocketed a reward which belonged to another. If Oviedo, with his prejudices, is to be believed, Columbus was not even the first who claimed to have seen this dubious light. There is a common story that the poor sailor, who was defrauded, later turned Mohammedan, and went to live among that juster people. There is a sort of retributive justice in the fact that the pension of the Crown was made a charge upon the shambles of Seville, and thence Columbus received it till he died. Whether the light is to be considered a reality or a fiction will depend much on the theory each may hold regarding the position of the landfall. When Columbus claimed to have discovered it, he was twelve or fourteen leagues away from the island where, four hours later, land was indubitably found. Was the light on a canoe? Was it on some small, outlying island, as has been suggested? Was it a torch carried from hut to hut, as Herrera avers? Was it on either of the other vessels? Was it on the low island on which, the next morning, he landed? There was no elevation on that island sufficient to show even a strong light at a distance of ten leagues. Was it a fancy or a deceit? No one can say. It is very difficult for Navarrete, and even for Irving, to rest satisfied with what, after all, may have been only an illusion of a fevered mind, making a record of the incident in the excitement of a wonderful hour, when his intelligence was not as circumspect as it might have been. [Illustration: THE LANDFALL OF COLUMBUS, 1492. [After Ruge.]] [Sidenote: 1492, October 12, land discovered.] [Sidenote: Guanahani.] Four hours after the light was seen, at two o'clock in the morning, when the moon, near its third quarter, was in the east, the "Pinta" keeping ahead, one of her sailors, Rodrigo de Triana, descried the land, two leagues away, and a gun communicated the joyful intelligence to the other ships. The fleet took in sail, and each vessel, under backed sheets, was pointed to the wind. Thus they waited for daybreak. It was a proud moment of painful suspense for Columbus; and brimming hopes, perhaps fears of disappointment, must have accompanied that hour of wavering enchantment. It was Friday, October 12, of the old chronology, and the little fleet had been thirty-three days on its way from the Canaries, and we must add ten days more, to complete the period since they left Palos. The land before them was seen, as the day dawned, to be a small island, "called in the Indian tongue" Guanahani. Some naked natives were descried. The Admiral and the commanders of the other vessels prepared to land. Columbus took the royal standard and the others each a banner of the green cross, which bore the initials of the sovereign with a cross between, a crown surmounting every letter. Thus, with the emblems of their power, and accompanied by Rodrigo de Escoveda and Rodrigo Sanchez and some seamen, the boat rowed to the shore. They immediately took formal possession of the land, and the notary recorded it. [Illustration: COLUMBUS'S ARMOR.] [Illustration: BAHAMA ISLANDS ANTONIO DE HERRERA 1601. [From Major's _Select Letters of Columbus_, 2d Edition.]] [Illustration: BAHAMA ISLANDS MODERN [From Major's _Select Letters of Columbus_, 2d Edition.]] [Sidenote: Columbus lands and utters a prayer.] The words of the prayer usually given as uttered by Columbus on taking possession of San Salvador, when he named the island, cannot be traced farther back than a collection of _Tablas Chronologicas_, got together at Valencia in 1689, by a Jesuit father, Claudio Clemente. Harrisse finds no authority for the statement of the French canonizers that Columbus established a form of prayer which was long in vogue, for such occupations of new lands. Las Casas, from whom we have the best account of the ceremonies of the landing, does not mention it; but we find pictured in his pages the grave impressiveness of the hour; the form of Columbus, with a crimson robe over his armor, central and grand; and the humbleness of his followers in their contrition for the hours of their faint-heartedness. [Sidenote: The island described.] Columbus now enters in his journal his impressions of the island and its inhabitants. He says of the land that it bore green trees, was watered by many streams, and produced divers fruits. In another place he speaks of the island as flat, without lofty eminence, surrounded by reefs, with a lake in the interior. The courses and distances of his sailing both before and on leaving the island, as well as this description, are the best means we have of identifying the spot of this portentous landfall. The early maps may help in a subsidiary way, but with little precision. [Sidenote: Identification of the landfall.] There is just enough uncertainty and contradiction respecting the data and arguments applied in the solution of this question, to render it probable that men will never quite agree which of the Bahamas it was upon which these startled and exultant Europeans first stepped. Though Las Casas reports the journal of Columbus unabridged for a period after the landfall, he unfortunately condenses it for some time previous. There is apparently no chance of finding geographical conditions that in every respect will agree with this record of Columbus, and we must content ourselves with what offers the fewest disagreements. An obvious method, if we could depend on Columbus's dead reckoning, would be to see for what island the actual distance from the Canaries would be nearest to his computed run; but currents and errors of the eye necessarily throw this sort of computation out of the question, and Capt. G. A. Fox, who has tried it, finds that Cat Island is three hundred and seventeen, the Grand Turk six hundred and twenty-four nautical miles, and the other supposable points at intermediate distances out of the way as compared with his computation of the distance run by Columbus, three thousand four hundred and fifty-eight of such miles. [Sidenote: The Bahamas.] [Sidenote: San Salvador, or Cat Island.] [Sidenote: Other islands.] [Sidenote: Methods of identification.] [Sidenote: Acklin Island.] The reader will remember the Bahama group as a range of islands, islets, and rocks, said to be some three thousand in number, running southeast from a point part way up the Florida coast, and approaching at the other end the coast of Hispaniola. In the latitude of the lower point of Florida, and five degrees east of it, is the island of San Salvador or Cat Island, which is the most northerly of those claimed to have been the landfall of Columbus. Proceeding down the group, we encounter Watling's, Samana, Acklin (with the Plana Cays), Mariguana, and the Grand Turk,--all of which have their advocates. The three methods of identification which have been followed are, first, by plotting the outward track; second, by plotting the track between the landfall and Cuba, both forward and backward; third, by applying the descriptions, particularly Columbus's, of the island first seen. In this last test, Harrisse prefers to apply the description of Las Casas, which is borrowed in part from that of the _Historie_, and he reconciles Columbus's apparent discrepancy when he says in one place that the island was "pretty large," and in another "small," by supposing that he may have applied these opposite terms, the lesser to the Plana Cays, as first seen, and the other to the Crooked Group, or Acklin Island, lying just westerly, on which he may have landed. Harrisse is the only one who makes this identification; and he finds some confirmation in later maps, which show thereabout an island, Triango or Triangulo, a name said by Las Casas to have been applied to Guanahani at a later day. There is no known map earlier than 1540 bearing this alternative name of Triango. [Sidenote: San Salvador.] San Salvador seems to have been the island selected by the earliest of modern inquirers, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it has had the support of Irving and Humboldt in later times. Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie of the United States navy worked out the problem for Irving. It is much larger than any of the other islands, and could hardly have been called by Columbus in any alternative way a "small" island, while it does not answer Columbus's description of being level, having on it an eminence of four hundred feet, and no interior lagoon, as his Guanahani demands. The French canonizers stand by the old traditions, and find it meet to say that "the English Protestants not finding the name San Salvador fine enough have substituted for it that of Cat, and in their hydrographical atlases the Island of the Holy Saviour is nobly called Cat Island." [Sidenote: Watling's Island.] The weight of modern testimony seems to favor Watling's island, and it so far answers to Columbus's description that about one third of its interior is water, corresponding to his "large lagoon." Muñoz first suggested it in 1793; but the arguments in its favor were first spread out by Captain Becher of the royal navy in 1856, and he seems to have induced Oscar Peschel in 1858 to adopt the same views in his history of the range of modern discovery. Major, the map custodian of the British Museum, who had previously followed Navarrete in favoring the Grand Turk, again addressed himself to the problem in 1870, and fell into line with the adherents of Watling's. No other considerable advocacy of this island, if we except the testimony of Gerard Stein in 1883, in a book on voyages of discovery, appeared till Lieut. J. B. Murdoch, an officer of the American navy, made a very careful examination of the subject in the _Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute_ in 1884, which is accepted by Charles A. Schott in the _Bulletin of the United States Coast Survey_. Murdoch was the first to plot in a backward way the track between Guanahani and Cuba, and he finds more points of resemblance in Columbus's description with Watling's than with any other. The latest adherent is the eminent geographer, Clements R. Markham, in the bulletin of the Italian Geographical Society in 1889. Perhaps no cartographical argument has been so effective as that of Major in comparing modern charts with the map of Herrera, in which the latter lays Guanahani down. [Sidenote: Samana.] [Sidenote: Grand Turk Island.] An elaborate attempt to identify Samana as the landfall was made by the late Capt. Gustavus Vasa Fox, in an appendix to the _Report of the United States Coast Survey_ for 1880. Varnhagen, in 1864, selected Mariguana, and defended his choice in a paper. This island fails to satisfy the physical conditions in being without interior water. Such a qualification, however, belongs to the Grand Turk Island, which was advocated first by Navarrete in 1826, whose views have since been supported by George Gibbs, and for a while by Major. It is rather curious to note that Caleb Cushing, who undertook to examine this question in the _North American Review_, under the guidance of Navarrete's theory, tried the same backward method which has been later applied to the problem, but with quite different results from those reached by more recent investigators. He says, "By setting out from Nipe [which is the point where Columbus struck Cuba] and proceeding in a retrograde direction along his course, we may surely trace his path, and shall be convinced that Guanahani is no other than Turk's Island." CHAPTER X. AMONG THE ISLANDS AND THE RETURN VOYAGE. [Sidenote: The natives of Guanahani.] We learn that, after these ceremonies on the shore, the natives began fearlessly to gather about the strangers. Columbus, by causing red caps, strings of beads, and other trinkets to be distributed among them, made an easy conquest of their friendship. Later the men swam out to the ship to exchange their balls of thread, their javelins, and parrots for whatever they could get in return. The description which Columbus gives us in his journal of the appearance and condition of these new people is the earliest, of course, in our knowledge of them. His record is interesting for the effect which the creatures had upon him, and for the statement of their condition before the Spaniards had set an impress upon their unfortunate race. They struck Columbus as, on the whole, a very poor people, going naked, and, judging from a single girl whom he saw, this nudity was the practice of the women. They all seemed young, not over thirty, well made, with fine shapes and faces. Their hair was coarse, and combed short over the forehead; but hung long behind. The bodies of many were differently colored with pigments of many hues, though of some only the face, the eyes, or the nose were painted. Columbus was satisfied that they had no knowledge of edged weapons, because they grasped his sword by the blade and cut themselves. Their javelins were sticks pointed with fishbones. When he observed scars on their bodies, they managed to explain to him that enemies, whom the Admiral supposed to come from the continent, sometimes invaded their island, and that such wounds were received in defending themselves. They appeared to him to have no religion, which satisfied him that the task of converting them to Christianity would not be difficult. They learned readily to pronounce such words as were repeated to them. [Sidenote: 1492. October 13.] [Sidenote: Affinities of the Lucayans.] On the next day after landing, Saturday, Columbus describes again the throng that came to the shore, and was struck with their broad foreheads. He deemed it a natural coincidence, being in the latitude of the Canaries, that the natives had the complexion prevalent among the natives of those islands. In this he anticipated the conclusions of the anthropologists, who have found in the skulls preserved in caves both in the Bahamas and in the Canaries, such striking similarities as have led to the supposition that ocean currents may have borne across the sea some of the old Guanche stock of the Canaries, itself very likely the remnant of the people of the European river-drift. Professor W. K. Brooks, of the Johns Hopkins University, who has recently published in the _Popular Science Monthly_ (November, 1889) a study of the bones of the Lucayans as found in caves in the Bahamas, reports that these relics indicate a muscular, heavy people, about the size of the average European, with protuberant square jaws, sloping eyes, and very round skulls, but artificially flattened on the forehead,--a result singularly confirming Columbus's description of broader heads than he had ever seen. [Sidenote: Hammocks.] "The Ceboynas," says a recent writer on these Indians, "gave us the hammock, and this one Lucayan word is their only monument," for a population larger than inhabits these islands to-day were in twelve years swept from the surface of the earth by a system devised by Columbus. [Sidenote: Canoes.] The Admiral also describes their canoes, made in a wonderful manner of a single tree-trunk, and large enough to hold forty or forty-five men, though some were so small as to carry a single person only. Their oars are shaped like the wooden shovels with which bakers slip their loaves into ovens. If a canoe upsets, it is righted as they swim. [Sidenote: Gold among them.] Columbus was attracted by bits of gold dangling at the nose of some among them. By signs he soon learned that a greater abundance of this metal could be found on an island to the south; but they seemed unable to direct him with any precision how to reach that island, or at least it was not easy so to interpret any of their signs. "Poor wretches!" exclaims Helps, "if they had possessed the slightest gift of prophecy, they would have thrown these baubles into the deepest sea." [Sidenote: Columbus traffics with them.] They pointed in all directions, but towards the east as the way to other lands; and implied that those enemies who came from the northwest often passed to the south after gold. He found that broken dishes and bits of glass served as well for traffic with them as more valuable articles, and balls of threads of cotton, grown on the island, seemed their most merchantable commodity. [Sidenote: 1492. October 14, sails towards Cipango.] With this rude foretaste, Columbus determined to push on for the richer Cipango. On the next day he coasted along the island in his boats, discovering two or three villages, where the inhabitants were friendly. They seemed to think that the strangers had come from heaven,--at least Columbus so interpreted their prostrations and uplifted hands. Columbus, fearful of the reefs parallel to the shore, kept outside of them, and as he moved along, saw a point of land which a ditch might convert into an island. He thought this would afford a good site for a fort, if there was need of one. [Sidenote: 1492. October 14.] [Sidenote: Columbus proposes to enslave the natives.] [Sidenote: 1492. October 15.] [Sidenote: 1492. October 16.] It was on this Sunday that Columbus, in what he thought doubtless the spirit of the day in dealing with heathens, gives us his first intimation of the desirability of using force to make these poor creatures serve their new masters. On returning to the ships and setting sail, he soon found that he was in an archipelago. He had seized some natives, who were now on board. These repeated to him the names of more than a hundred islands. He describes those within sight as level, fertile, and populous, and he determined to steer for what seemed the largest. He stood off and on during the night of the 14th, and by noon of the 15th he had reached this other island, which he found at the easterly end to run five leagues north and south, and to extend east and west a distance of ten leagues. Lured by a still larger island farther west he pushed on, and skirting the shore reached its western extremity. He cast anchor there at sunset, and named the island Santa Maria de la Concepcion. The natives on board told him that the people here wore gold bracelets. Columbus thought this story might be a device of his prisoners to obtain opportunities to escape. On the next day, he repeated the forms of landing and taking possession. Two of the prisoners contrived to escape. One of them jumped overboard and was rescued by a native canoe. The Spaniards overtook the canoe, but not till its occupants had escaped. A single man, coming off in another canoe, was seized and taken on board; but Columbus thought him a good messenger of amity, and loading him with presents, "not worth four maravedis," he put him ashore. Columbus watched the liberated savage, and judged from the wonder of the crowds which surrounded him that his ruse of friendship had been well played. [Sidenote: Columbus sees a large island.] Another large island appeared westerly about nine leagues, famous for its gold ornaments, as his prisoners again declared. It is significant that in his journal, since he discovered the bits of gold at San Salvador, Columbus has not a word to say of reclaiming the benighted heathen; but he constantly repeats his hope "with the help of our Lord," of finding gold. On the way thither he had picked up a second single man in a canoe, who had apparently followed him from San Salvador. He determined to bestow some favors upon him and let him go, as he had done with the other. [Sidenote: 1492. October 16.] This new island, which he reached October 16, and called Fernandina, he found to be about twenty-eight leagues long, with a safer shore than the others. He anchored near a village, where the man whom he had set free had already come, bringing good reports of the stranger, and so the Spaniards got a kind reception. Great numbers of natives came off in canoes, to whom the men gave trinkets and molasses. He took on board some water, the natives assisting the crew. Getting an impression that the island contained a mine of gold, he resolved to follow the coast, and find Samaot, where the gold was said to be. Columbus thought he saw some improvement in the natives over those he had seen before, remarking upon the cotton cloth with which they partly covered their persons. He was surprised to find that distinct branches of the same tree bore different leaves. A single tree, as he says, will show as many as five or six varieties, not done by grafting, but a natural growth. He wondered at the brilliant fish, and found no land creatures but parrots and lizards, though a boy of the company told him that he had seen a snake. On Wednesday he started to sail around the island. In a little haven, where they tarried awhile, they first entered the native houses. [Sidenote: Hammocks.] They found everything in them neat, with nets extended between posts, which they called _hamacs_,--a name soon adopted by sailors for swinging-beds. The houses were shaped like tents, with high chimneys, but not more than twelve or fifteen together. Dogs were running about them, but they could not bark. Columbus endeavored to buy a bit of gold, cut or stamped, which was hanging from a man's nose; but the savage refused his offers. [Illustration: INDIAN BEDS.] [Sidenote: 1492. October 19.] The ships continued their course about the island, the weather not altogether favorable; but on October 19 they veered away to another island to the west of Fernandina, which Columbus named Isabella, after his Queen. This he pronounced the most beautiful he had seen; and he remarks on the interior region of it being higher than in the other islands, and the source of streams. The breezes from the shore brought him odors, and when he landed he became conscious that his botanical knowledge did not aid him in selecting such dyestuffs, medicines, and spices as would command high prices in Spain. He saw a hideous reptile, and the canonizers, after their amusing fashion, tell us that "to see and attack him were the same thing for Columbus, for he considered it of importance to accustom Spanish intrepidity to such warfare." [Sidenote: To find gold Columbus's main object.] [Sidenote: 1492. October 21.] The reptile proved inoffensive. The signs of his prisoners were interpreted to repeat here the welcome tale of gold. He understood them to refer to a king decked with gold. "I do not, however," he adds, "give much credit to these accounts, for I understand the natives but imperfectly." "I am proceeding solely in quest of gold and spices," he says again. [Sidenote: Cuba heard of.] [Sidenote: 1492. October 24. Isabella.] On Sunday they went ashore, and found a house from which the occupants had recently departed. The foliage was enchanting. Flocks of parrots obscured the sky. Specimens were gathered of wonderful trees. They killed a snake in a lake. They cajoled some timid natives with beads, and got their help in filling their water cask. They heard of a very large island named Colba, which had ships and sailors, as the natives were thought to say. They had little doubt that these stories referred to Cipango. They hoped the native king would bring them gold in the night; but this not happening, and being cheered by the accounts of Colba, they made up their minds that it would be a waste of time to search longer for this backward king, and so resolved to run for the big island. [Sidenote: October 26.] Starting from Isabella at midnight on October 24, and passing other smaller islands, they finally, on Sunday, October 26, entered a river near the easterly end of Cuba. [Sidenote: Cuba.] The track of Columbus from San Salvador to Cuba has been as variously disputed as the landfall; indeed, the divergent views of the landfall necessitate such later variations. [Sidenote: Pearls.] They landed within the river's mouth, and discovered deserted houses, which from the implements within they supposed to be the houses of fishermen. Columbus observed that the grass grew down to the water's edge; and he reasoned therefrom that the sea could never be rough. He now observed mountains, and likened them to those of Sicily. He finally supposed his prisoners to affirm by their signs that the island was too large for a canoe to sail round it in twenty days. There were the old stories of gold; but the mention of pearls appears now for the first time in the journal, which in this place, however, we have only in Las Casas's abridgment. [Sidenote: Columbus supposes himself at Mangi.] When the natives pointed to the interior and said, "Cubanacan," meaning, it is supposed, an inland region, Columbus imagined it was a reference to Kublai Khan; and the Cuban name of Mangon he was very ready to associate with the Mangi of Mandeville. As he still coasted westerly he found river and village, and made more use of his prisoners than had before been possible. They seem by this time to have settled into an acquiescent spirit. He wondered in one place at statues which looked like women. He was not quite sure whether the natives kept them for the love of the beautiful, or for worship. [Sidenote: Columbus supposes himself on the coast of Cathay.] He found domesticated fowl; and saw a skull, which he supposed was a cow's, which was probably that of the sea-calf, a denizen of these waters. He thought the temperature cooler than in the other islands, and ascribed the change to the mountains. He observed on one of these eminences a protuberance that looked like a mosque. Such interpretation as the Spaniards could make of their prisoners' signs convinced them that if they sailed farther west they would find some potentate, and so they pushed on. Bad weather, however, delayed them, and they again opened communication with the natives. They could hear nothing of gold, but saw a silver trinket; and learned, as they thought, that news of their coming had been carried to the distant king. Columbus felt convinced that the people of these regions were banded enemies of the Great Khan, and that he had at last struck the continent of Cathay, and was skirting the shores of the Zartun and Quinsay of Marco Polo. Taking an observation, Columbus found himself to be in 21° north latitude, and as near as he could reckon, he was 1142 leagues west of Ferro. He really was 1105. [Sidenote: 1492. November 2-5.] [Sidenote: Cuba explored.] [Sidenote: Tobacco.] [Sidenote: Potatoes.] From Friday, November 2, to Monday, November 5, two Spaniards, whom Columbus had sent into the interior, accompanied by some Indians, had made their way unmolested in their search for a king. They had been entertained here and there with ceremony, and apparently worshiped as celestial comers. The evidences of the early Spanish voyagers give pretty constant testimony that the whites were supposed to have come from the skies. Columbus had given to his envoys samples of cinnamon, pepper, and other spices, which were shown to the people. In reply, his messengers learned that such things grew to the southeast of them. Columbus later, in his first letter, speaks of cinnamon as one of the spices which they found, but it turned out to be the bark of a sort of laurel. Las Casas, in mentioning this expedition, says that the Spaniards found the natives smoking small tubes of dried leaves, filled with other leaves, which they called _tobacos_. Sir Arthur Helps aptly remarks on this trivial discovery by the Spaniards of a great financial resource of modern statesmen, since tobacco has in the end proved more productive to the Spanish crown than the gold which Columbus sought. The Spaniards found no large villages; but they perceived great stores of fine cotton of a long staple. They found the people eating what we must recognize as potatoes. The absence of gold gave Columbus an opportunity to wish more fervently than before for the conversion of some of these people. [Sidenote: One-eyed and dog-faced men.] [Sidenote: Cannibals.] While this party was absent, Columbus found a quiet beach, and careened his ships, one at a time. In melting his tar, the wood which he used gave out a powerful odor, and he pronounced it the mastic gum, which Europe had always got from Chios. As this work was going on, the Spaniards got from the natives, as best they could, many intimations of larger wealth and commerce to the southeast. Other strange stories were told of men with one eye, and faces like dogs, and of cruel, bloodthirsty man-eaters, who fought to appease their appetite on the flesh of the slain. [Sidenote: 1492. November 12.] [Sidenote: Babeque.] It was not till the 12th of November that Columbus left this hospitable haven, at daybreak, in search of a place called Babeque, "where gold was collected at night by torch-light upon the shore, and afterward hammered into bars." He the more readily retraced his track, that the coast to the westward seemed to trend northerly, and he dreaded a colder climate. He must leave for another time the sight of men with tails, who inhabited a province in that direction, as he was informed. Again the historian recognizes how a chance turned the Spaniards away from a greater goal. If Columbus had gone on westerly and discovered the insular character of Cuba, he might have sought the main of Mexico and Yucatan, and anticipated the wonders of the conquest of Cortez. He never was undeceived in believing that Cuba was the Asiatic main. [Sidenote: Columbus captures some natives.] Columbus sailed back over his course with an inordinate idea of the riches of the country which he was leaving. He thought the people docile; that their simple belief in a God was easily to be enlarged into the true faith, whereby Spain might gain vassals and the church a people. He managed to entice on board, and took away, six men, seven women, and three children, condoning the act of kidnapping--the canonizers call it "retaining on board"--by a purpose to teach them the Spanish language, and open a readier avenue to their benighted souls. He allowed the men to have women to share their durance, as such ways, he says, had proved useful on the coast of Guinea. The Admiral says in his first letter, referring to his captives, "that we immediately understood each other, either by words or signs." This was his message to expectant Europe. His journal is far from conveying that impression. [Sidenote: 1492. November 14.] The ships now steered east-by-south, passing mountainous lands, which on November 14 he tried to approach. After a while he discovered a harbor, which he could enter, and found it filled with lofty wooded islands, some pointed and some flat at the top. He was quite sure he had now got among the islands which are made to swarm on the Asiatic coast in the early accounts and maps. He now speaks of his practice in all his landings to set up and leave a cross. He observed, also, a promontory in the bay fit for a fortress, and caught a strange fish resembling a hog. He was at this time embayed in the King's Garden, as the archipelago is called. [Sidenote: Pinzon deserts.] [Sidenote: 1492. November 23.] Shortly after this, when they had been baffled in their courses, Martin Alonso Pinzon, incited, as the record says, by his cupidity to find the stores of gold to which some of his Indian captives had directed him, disregarded the Admiral's signals, and sailed away in the "Pinta." The flagship kept a light for him all night, at the mast-head; but in the morning the caravel was out of sight. The Admiral takes occasion in his journal to remark that this was not the first act of Pinzon's insubordination. On Friday, November 23, the vessels approached a headland, which the Indians called Bohio. [Sidenote: 1492. November 24.] The prisoners here began to manifest fear, for it was a spot where the one-eyed people and the cannibals dwelt; but on Saturday, November 24, the ships were forced back into the gulf with the many islands, where Columbus found a desirable roadstead, which he had not before discovered. [Sidenote: 1492. November 25.] On Sunday, exploring in a boat, he found in a stream "certain stones which shone with spots of a golden hue; and recollecting that gold was found in the river Tagus near the sea, he entertained no doubt that this was the metal, and directed that a collection of the stones should be made to carry to the King and Queen." It becomes noticeable, as Columbus goes on, that every new place surpasses all others; the atmosphere is better; the trees are more marvelous. He now found pines fit for masts, and secured some for the "Nina." As he coasted the next day along what he believed to be a continental coast, he tried in his journal to account for the absence of towns in so beautiful a country. That there were inhabitants he knew, for he found traces of them on going ashore. He had discovered that all the natives had a great dread of a people whom they called Caniba or Canima, and he argued that the towns were kept back from the coast to avoid the chances of the maritime attacks of this fierce people. There was no doubt in the mind of Columbus that these inroads were conducted by subjects of the Great Khan. While he was still stretching his course along this coast, observing its harbors, seeing more signs of habitation, and attempting to hold intercourse with the frightened natives, now anchoring in some haven, and now running up adjacent rivers in a galley, he found time to jot down in this journal for the future perusal of his sovereigns some of his suspicions, prophecies, and determinations. He complains of the difficulty of understanding his prisoners, and seems conscious of his frequent misconceptions of their meaning. He says he has lost confidence in them, and somewhat innocently imagines that they would escape if they could! Then he speaks of a determination to acquire their language, which he supposes to be the same through all the region. "In this way," he adds, "we can learn the riches of the country, and make endeavors to convert these people to our religion, for they are without even the faith of an idolater." He descants upon the salubrity of the air; not one of his crew had had any illness, "except an old man, all his life a sufferer from the stone." There is at times a somewhat amusing innocence in his conclusions, as when finding a cake of wax in one of the houses, which Las Casas thinks was brought from Yucatan, he "was of the opinion that where wax was found there must be a great many other valuable commodities." [Sidenote: 1492. December 4.] [Sidenote: Leaves Cuba or Juana.] [Sidenote: Bohio. Española.] [Sidenote: Tortuga.] The ships were now detained in their harbor for several days, during which the men made excursions, and found a populous country; they succeeded at times in getting into communication with the natives. Finally, on December 4, he left the Puerto Santo, as he called it, and coasting along easterly he reached the next day the extreme eastern end of what we now know to be Cuba, or Juana as he had named it, after Prince Juan. Cruising about, he seems to have had an apprehension that the land he had been following might not after all be the main, for he appears to have looked around the southerly side of this end of Cuba and to have seen the southwesterly trend of its coast. He observed, the same day, land in the southeast, which his Indians called Bohio, and this was subsequently named Española. Las Casas explains that Columbus here mistook the Indian word meaning house for the name of the island, which was really in their tongue called Haiti. It is significant of the difficulty in identifying the bays and headlands of the journal, that at this point Las Casas puts on one side, and Navarrete on the opposite side, of the passage dividing Cuba from Española, one of the capes which Columbus indicates. Changing his course for this lofty island, he dispatched the "Nina" to search its shore and find a harbor. That night the Admiral's ship beat about, waiting for daylight. When it came, he took his observations of the coast, and espying an island separated by a wide channel from the other land, he named this island Tortuga. Finding his way into a harbor--the present St. Nicholas--he declares that a thousand caracks could sail about in it. Here he saw, as before, large canoes, and many natives, who fled on his approach. The Spaniards soon began as they went on to observe lofty and extensive mountains, "the whole country appearing like Castile." They saw another reminder of Spain as they were rowing about a harbor, which they entered, and which was opposite Tortuga, when a skate leaped into their boat, and the Admiral records it as a first instance in which they had seen a fish similar to those of the Spanish waters. He says, too, that he heard on the shore nightingales "and other Spanish birds," mistaking of course their identity. He saw myrtles and other trees "like those of Castile." There was another obvious reference to the old country in the name of Española, which he now bestowed upon the island. He could find few of the inhabitants, and conjectured that their towns were back from the coast. The men, however, captured a handsome young woman who wore a bit of gold at her nose; and having bestowed upon her gifts, let her go. Soon after, the Admiral sent a party to a town of a thousand houses, thinking the luck of the woman would embolden the people to have a parley. The inhabitants fled in fear at first; but growing bolder came in great crowds, and brought presents of parrots. [Sidenote: Columbus finds his latitude.] It was here that Columbus took his latitude and found it to be 17°,--while in fact it was 20°. The journal gives numerous instances during all these explorations of the bestowing of names upon headlands and harbors, few of which have remained to this day. It was a common custom to make such use of a Saint's name on his natal day. [Sidenote: Saints' names.] Dr. Shea in a paper which he published in 1876, in the first volume of the _American Catholic Quarterly_, has emphasized the help which the Roman nomenclature of Saints' days, given to rivers and headlands, affords to the geographical student in tracking the early explorers along the coasts of the New World. This method of tracing the progress of maritime discovery suggested itself early to Oviedo, and has been appealed to by Henry C. Murphy and other modern authorities on this subject. [Sidenote: 1492. December 14.] [Sidenote: Tortuga.] Finally, on Friday, December 14, they sailed out of the harbor toward Tortuga. He found this island to be under extensive cultivation like a plain of Cordoba. The wind not holding for him to take the course which he wished to run, Columbus returned to his last harbor, the Puerto de la Concepcion. Again on Saturday he left it, and standing across to Tortuga once more, he went towards the shore and proceeded up a stream in his boats. The inhabitants fled as he approached, and burning fires in Tortuga as well as in Española seemed to be signals that the Spaniards were moving. [Sidenote: Babeque.] During the night, proceeding along the channel between the two islands, the Admiral met and took on board a solitary Indian in his canoe. The usual gifts were put upon him, and when the ships anchored near a village, he was sent ashore with the customary effect. The beach soon swarmed with people, gathered with their king, and some came on board. The Spaniards got from them without difficulty the bits of gold which they wore at their ears and noses. One of the captive Indians who talked with the king told this "youth of twenty-one," that the Spaniards had come from heaven and were going to Babeque to find gold; and the king told the Admiral's messenger, who delivered to him a present, that if he sailed in a certain course two days he would arrive there. This is the last we hear of Babeque, a place Columbus never found, at least under that name. Humboldt remarks that Columbus mentions the name of Babeque more than fourteen times in his journal, but it cannot certainly be identified with Española, as the _Historie_ of 1571 declares it to be. D'Avezac has since shared Humboldt's view. Las Casas hesitatingly thought it might have referred to Jamaica. Then the journal describes the country, saying that the land is lofty, but that the highest mountains are arable, and that the trees are so luxuriant that they become black rather than green. The journal further describes this new people as stout and courageous, very different from the timid islanders of other parts, and without religion. With his usual habit of contradiction, Columbus goes on immediately to speak of their pusillanimity, saying that three Spaniards were more than a match for a thousand of them. He prefigures their fate in calling them "well-fitted to be governed and set to work to till the land and do whatsoever is necessary." [Sidenote: 1492. December 17.] [Sidenote: Cannibals.] It was on Monday, December 17, while lying off Española, that the Spaniards got for the first time something more than rumor respecting the people of Caniba or the cannibals. These new evidences were certain arrows which the natives showed to them, and which they said had belonged to those man-eaters. They were pieces of cane, tipped with sticks which had been hardened by fire. [Sidenote: Cacique.] "They were exhibited by two Indians who had lost some flesh from their bodies, eaten out by the cannibals. This the Admiral did not believe." It was now, too, that the Spaniards found gold in larger quantities than they had seen it before. They saw some beaten into thin plates. The cacique--here this word appears for the first time--cut a plate as big as his hand into pieces and bartered them, promising to have more to exchange the next day. He gave the Spaniards to understand that there was more gold in Tortuga than in Española. It is to be remarked, also, in the Admiral's account, that while "Our Lord" is not recorded as indicating to him any method of converting the poor heathen, it was "Our Lord" who was now about to direct the Admiral to Babeque. [Sidenote: 1492. December 18.] The next day, December 18, the Admiral lay at anchor, both because wind failed him, and because he would be able to see the gold which the cacique had promised to bring. It also gave him an opportunity to deck his ships and fire his guns in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. In due time the king appeared, borne on a sort of litter by his men, and boarding the ship, that chieftain found Columbus at table in his cabin. The cacique was placed beside the Admiral, and similar viands and drinks were placed before him, of which he partook. Two of his dusky followers, sitting at his feet, followed their master in the act. Columbus, observing that the hangings of his bed had attracted the attention of the savage, gave them to him, and added to the present some amber beads from his own neck, some red shoes, and a flask of orange-flower water. "This day," says the record, "little gold was obtained; but an old man indicated that at a distance of a hundred leagues or more were some islands, where much gold could be found, and in some it was so plentiful that it was collected and bolted with sieves, then melted and beaten into divers forms. One of the islands was said to be all gold, and the Admiral determined to go in the direction which this man pointed." [Sidenote: 1492. December 20.] [Sidenote: St. Thomas Island.] That night they tried in vain to stand out beyond Tortuga, but on the 20th of December, the record places the ships in a harbor between a little island, which Columbus called St. Thomas, and the main island. During the following day, December 21, he surveyed the roadstead, and going about the region in his boats, he had a number of interviews with the natives, which ended with an interchange of gifts and courtesies. [Sidenote: 1492. December 22.] On Saturday, December 22, they encountered some people, sent by a neighboring cacique, whom the Admiral's own Indians could not readily understand, the first of this kind mentioned in the journal. Writing in regard to a party which Columbus at this time sent to visit a large town not far off, he speaks of having his secretary accompany them, in order to repress the Spaniards' greediness,--an estimate of his followers which the Admiral had not before suffered himself to record, if we can trust the Las Casas manuscript. The results of this foray were three fat geese and some bits of gold. As he entered the adventure in his journal, he dwelt on the hope of gold being on the island in abundance, and if only the spot could be found, it might be got for little or nothing. "Our Lord, in whose hands are all things, be my help," he cries. "Our Lord, in his mercy, direct me where I may find the gold mine." [Sidenote: Cibao.] The Admiral now learns the name of another chief officer, Nitayno, whose precise position was not apparent, but Las Casas tells us later that this word was the title of one nearest in rank to the cacique. When an Indian spoke of a place named Cibao, far to the east, where the king had banners made of plates of gold, the Admiral, in his eager confidence, had no hesitation in identifying it with Cipango and its gorgeous prince. It proved to be the place where in the end the best mines were found. [Sidenote: 1492. December 23.] In speaking of the next day, Sunday, December 23, Las Casas tells us that Columbus was not in the habit of sailing on Sunday, not because he was superstitious, but because he was pious; but that he did not omit the opportunity at this time of coursing the coast, "in order to display the symbols of Redemption." [Sidenote: Columbus shipwrecked.] Christmas found them in distress. The night before, everything looking favorable, and the vessel sailing along quietly, Columbus had gone to bed, being much in need of rest. The helmsman put a boy at the tiller and went to sleep. The rest of the crew were not slow to do the same. The vessel was in this condition, with no one but the boy awake, when, carried out of her course by the current, she struck a sand bank. The cry of the boy awakened the Admiral, and he was the first to discover the danger of their situation. He ordered out a boat's crew to carry an anchor astern, but, bewildered or frightened, the men pulled for the "Nina." The crew of that caravel warned them off, to do their duty, and sent their own boat to assist. Help, however, availed nothing. The "Santa Maria" had careened, and her seams were opening. Her mast had been cut away, but she failed to right herself. The Admiral now abandoned her and rowed to the "Nina" with his men. Communicating with the cacique in the morning, that chieftain sent many canoes to assist in unloading the ship, so that in a short time everything of value was saved. This assistance gave occasion for mutual confidences between the Spaniards and the natives. "They are a loving, uncovetous people," he enters in his journal. One wonders, with the later experience of his new friends, if the cacique could have said as much in return. The Admiral began to be convinced that "the Lord had permitted the shipwreck in order that he might choose this place for a settlement." The canonizers go further and say, "the shipwreck made him an engineer." Irving, whose heedless embellishments of the story of these times may amuse the pastime reader, but hardly satisfy the student, was not blind to the misfortunes of what Columbus at the time called the divine interposition. "This shipwreck," Irving says, "shackled and limited all Columbus's future discoveries. It linked his fortunes for the remainder of his life to this island, which was doomed to be to him a source of cares and troubles, to involve him in a thousand perplexities, and to becloud his declining years with humiliation and disappointment." [Sidenote: Fort built.] The saving of his stores and the loss of his ship had indeed already suggested what some of his men had asked for, that they might be left there, while the Admiral returned to Spain with the tidings of the discovery, if--as the uncomfortable thought sprung up in his mind--he had not already been anticipated by the recreant commander of the "Pinta." Accordingly Columbus ordered the construction of a fort, with tower and ditch, and arrangements were soon made to provide bread and wine for more than a year, beside seed for the next planting-time. The ship's long-boat could be left; and a calker, carpenter, cooper, engineer, tailor, and surgeon could be found among his company, to be of the party who were to remain and "search for the gold mine." He says that he expected they would collect a ton of gold in the interval of his absence; "for I have before protested to your Highnesses," he adds as he makes an entry for his sovereigns to read, "that the profits shall go to making a conquest of Jerusalem." [Sidenote: Garrison of La Navidad.] We know the names of those who agreed to stay on the island. Navarrete discovered the list in a proclamation made in 1507 to pay what was due them to their next of kin. This list gives forty names, though some accounts of the voyage say they numbered a few less. The company included the Irishman and Englishman already mentioned. [Sidenote: 1492. December 27.] [Sidenote: December 30.] [Sidenote: December 31.] On the 27th of December, Columbus got the first tidings of the "Pinta" since she deserted him; and he sent a Spaniard, with Indians to handle the canoe, to a harbor at the end of the island, where he supposed Pinzon's ship to be. Columbus was now perfecting his plans for the fort, and tried to make out if Guacanagari, the king, was not trying to conceal from him the situation of the mines. On Sunday, December 30, the Spanish and native leaders vied with each other in graciousness. The savage put his crown upon the Admiral. Columbus took off his necklace and scarlet cloak and placed them on the king. He clothed the savage's naked feet with buskins and decked the dusky hand with a silver ring. On Monday, work was resumed in preparing for their return to Spain, for, with the "Pinta" gone--for the canoe sent to find her had returned unsuccessful--and the "Nina" alone remaining, it was necessary to diminish the risk attending the enterprise. [Sidenote: 1493. January 2.] On January 2, 1493, there was to be leave-taking of the cacique. To impart to him and to his people a dread of Spanish power, in the interests of those to be left, he made an exhibition of the force of his bombards, by sending a shot clean through the hull of the dismantled wreck. It is curious to observe how Irving, with a somewhat cheap melodramatic instinct, makes this shot tear through a beautiful grove like a bolt from heaven! The king made some return by ordering an effigy of Columbus to be finished in gold, in ten days,--as at least so Columbus understood one of his Indians to announce the cacique's purpose. [Sidenote: 1493. January 4.] [Sidenote: January 6.] Having commissioned Diego de Arana as commander and Pedro Gutierrez and Roderigo de Escoveda to act as his lieutenants of the fort and its thirty-nine men, Columbus now embarked, but not before he had addressed all sorts of good advice to those he was to leave behind,--advice that did no good, if the subsequent events are clearly divined. It was not, however, till Friday, January 4, 1493, that the wind permitted him to stand out of the harbor of the Villa de Navidad, as he had named the fort and settlement from the fact of his shipwreck there on the day of the nativity. Two days later they met the "Pinta," and Pinzon, her commander, soon boarded the Admiral to explain his absence, "saying he had left against his will." The Admiral doubted such professions; but did not think it prudent to show active resentment, as Las Casas tells us. The fact apparently was that Pinzon had not found the gold he went in search of and so he had returned to meet his commander. He had been coasting the island for over twenty days, and had been seen by the natives, who made the report to the Admiral already mentioned. Some Indians whom he had taken captive were subsequently released by the Admiral, for the usual ulterior purpose. It is curious to observe how an act of kidnapping which emulated the Admiral's, if done by Pinzon, is called by the canonizers, "joining violence to rapine." [Sidenote: Jamaica.] At this time Columbus records his first intelligence respecting an island, Yamaye, south of Cuba, which seems to have been Jamaica, where, as he learned, gold was to be found in grains of the size of beans, while in Española the grains were nearly the size of kernels of wheat. He was also informed of an island to the east, inhabited by women only. He also understood that the people of the continent to the south were clothed, and did not go naked like those of the islands. Both vessels now having made a harbor, and the "Nina" beginning to leak, a day was spent in calking her seams. Columbus was not without apprehension that the two brothers, Martin Alonso Pinzon of the "Pinta," and Vicente Jañez Pinzon who had commanded the "Nina," might now with their adherents combine for mischief. He was accordingly all the more anxious to hasten his departure, without further following the coast of Española. Going up a river to replenish his water, he found on taking the casks on board that the crevices of the hoops had gathered fine bits of gold from the stream. This led him to count the neighboring streams, which he supposed might also contain gold. [Sidenote: Columbus sees mermaids.] It was not only gold which he saw. Three mermaids stood high out of the water, with not very comely faces to be sure, but similar to those of human beings; and he recalled having seen the like on the pepper coast in Guinea. The commentators suppose they may have been sea-calves indistinctly seen. [Sidenote: 1493. January 10. The ships sail for Spain.] [Sidenote: January 12. Caribs.] The two ships started once more on the 10th, sometimes lying to at night for fear of shoals, making and naming cape after cape. On the 12th, entering a harbor, Columbus discovered an Indian, whom he took for a Carib, as he had learned to call the cannibals which he so often heard of. His own Indians did not wholly understand this strange savage. When they sent him ashore the Spaniards found fifty-five Indians armed with bows and wooden swords. They were prevailed upon at first to hold communication; but soon showed a less friendly spirit, and Columbus for the first time records a fight, in which several of the natives were wounded. An island to the eastward was now supposed to be the Carib region, and he desired to capture some of its natives. Navarrete supposes that Porto Rico is here referred to. He also observed, as his vessels went easterly, that he was encountering some of the same sort of seaweed which he had sailed through when steering west, and it occurred to him that perhaps these islands stretched easterly, so as really to be not far distant from the Canaries. It may be observed that this propinquity of the new islands to those of the Atlantic, longer known, was not wholly eradicated from the maps till well into the earlier years of the sixteenth century. [Sidenote: Caribs and Amazons.] They had secured some additional Indians near where they had had their fight, and one of them now directed Columbus towards the island of the Caribs. The leaks of the vessels increasing and his crews desponding, Columbus soon thought it more prudent to shift his course for Spain direct, supposing at the same time that it would take him near Matinino, where the tribe of women lived. He had gotten the story somehow, very likely by a credulous adaptation of Marco Polo, that the Caribs visited this island once a year and reclaimed the male offspring, leaving the female young to keep up the tribe. In following the Admiral along these coasts of Cuba and Española, no attempt has here been made to identify all his bays and rivers. Navarrete and the other commentators have done so, but not always with agreement. [Sidenote: 1493. January 16.] On the 16th, they had their last look at a distant cape of Española, and were then in the broad ocean, with seaweed and tunnies and pelicans to break its monotony. The "Pinta," having an unsound mast, lagged behind, and so the "Nina" had to slacken sail. [Sidenote: Homeward voyage.] Columbus now followed a course which for a long time, owing to defects in the methods of ascertaining longitude, was the mariner's readiest recourse to reach his port. This was to run up his latitudes to that of his destination, and then follow the parallel till he sighted a familiar landmark. [Sidenote: 1493. February 10.] [Sidenote: February 13.] [Sidenote: A gale.] By February 10, when they began to compare reckonings, Columbus placed his position in the latitude of Flores, while the others thought they were on a more southern course, and a hundred and fifty leagues nearer Spain. By the 12th it was apparent that a gale was coming on. The next day, February 13, the storm increased. During the following night both vessels took in all sail and scudded before the wind. They lost sight of each other's lights, and never joined company. The "Pinta" with her weak mast was blown away to the north. The Admiral's ship could bear the gale better, but as his ballast was insufficient, he had to fill his water casks with sea-water. Sensible of their peril, his crew made vows, to be kept if they were saved. They drew lots to determine who should carry a wax taper of five pounds to St. Mary of Guadalupe, and the penance fell to the Admiral. A sailor by another lot was doomed to make a pilgrimage to St. Mary of Lorette in the papal territory. A third lot was drawn for a night watch at St. Clara de Mogues, and it fell upon Columbus. Then they all vowed to pay their devotions at the nearest church of Our Lady if only they got ashore alive. [Sidenote: A narrative of his voyage thrown overboard.] There was one thought which more than another troubled Columbus at this moment, and this was that in case his ship foundered, the world might never know of his success, for he was apprehensive that the "Pinta" had already foundered. Not to alarm the crew, he kept from them the fact that a cask which they had seen him throw overboard contained an account of his voyage, written on parchment, rolled in a waxed cloth. He trusted to the chance of some one finding it. He placed a similar cask on the poop, to be washed off in case the ship went down. He does not mention this in the journal. [Sidenote: 1493. January 15.] [Sidenote: January 16. Land seen.] [Sidenote: At the Azores.] [Sidenote: 1493. February 18.] After sunset on the 15th there were signs of clearing in the west, and the waves began to fall. The next morning at sunrise there was land ahead. Now came the test of their reckoning. Some thought it the rock of Cintra near Lisbon; others said Madeira; Columbus decided they were near the Azores. The land was soon made out to be an island; but a head wind thwarted them. Other land was next seen astern. While they were saying their _Salve_ in the evening, some of the crew discerned a light to leeward, which might have been on the island first seen. Then later they saw another island, but night and the clouds obscured it too much to be recognized. The journal is blank for the 17th of February, except that under the next day, the 18th, Columbus records that after sunset of the 17th they sailed round an island to find an anchorage; but being unsuccessful in the search they beat out to sea again. In the morning of the 18th they stood in, discovered an anchorage, sent a boat ashore, and found it was St. Mary's of the Azores. Columbus was right! [Sidenote: 1493. February 21.] After sunset he received some provisions, which Juan de Casteñeda, the Portuguese governor of the island, had sent to him. Meanwhile three Spaniards whom Columbus sent ashore had failed to return, not a little to his disturbance, for he was aware that there might be among the Portuguese some jealousy of his success. To fulfill one of the vows made during the gale, he now sent one half his crew ashore in penitential garments to a hermitage near the shore, intending on their return to go himself with the other half. The record then reads: "The men being at their devotion, they were attacked by Casteñeda with horse and foot, and made prisoners." Not being able to see the hermitage from his anchorage, and not suspecting this event, but still anxious, he made sail and proceeded till he got a view of the spot. Now he saw the horsemen, and how presently they dismounted, and with arms in their hands, entering a boat, approached the ship. Then followed a parley, in which Columbus thought he discovered a purpose of the Portuguese to capture him, and they on their part discovered it to be not quite safe to board the Admiral. To enforce his dignity and authority as a representative of the sovereigns of Castile, he held up to the boats his commission with its royal insignia; and reminded them that his instructions had been to treat all Portuguese ships with respect, since a spirit of amity existed between the two Crowns. It behooved the Portuguese, as he told them, to be wary lest by any hostile act they brought upon themselves the indignation of those higher in authority. The lofty bearing of Casteñeda continuing, Columbus began to fear that hostilities might possibly have broken out between Spain and Portugal. So the interview ended with little satisfaction to either, and the Admiral returned to his old anchorage. The next day, to work off the lee shore, they sailed for St. Michael's, and the weather continuing stormy he found himself crippled in having but three experienced seamen among the crew which remained to him. So not seeing St. Michael's they again bore away, on Thursday the 21st, for St. Mary's, and again reached their former anchorage. The storms of these latter days here induced Columbus in his journal to recall how placid the sea had been among those other new-found islands, and how likely it was the terrestrial] paradise was in that region, as theologians and learned philosophers had supposed. From these thoughts he was aroused by a boat from shore with a notary on board, and Columbus, after completing his entertainment of the visitors, was asked to show his royal commission. He records his belief that this was done to give the Portuguese an opportunity of retreating from their belligerent attitude. At all events it had that effect, and the Spaniards who had been restrained were at once released. It is surmised that the conduct of Casteñeda was in conformity with instructions from Lisbon, to detain Columbus should he find his way to any dependency of the Portuguese crown. [Sidenote: 1493. February 24.] [Sidenote: February 25.] [Sidenote: Rock of Cintra seen.] [Sidenote: In the Tagus.] [Sidenote: Sends letter to the king of Portugal.] On Sunday, the 24th, the ship again put out to sea; on Wednesday, they encountered another gale; and on the following Sunday, they were again in such peril that they made new vows. At daylight the next day, some land which they had seen in the night, not without gloomy apprehension of being driven upon it, proved to be the rock of Cintra. The mouth of the Tagus was before them, and the people of the adjacent town, observing the peril of the strange ship, offered prayers for its safety. The entrance of the river was safely made and the multitude welcomed them. Up the Tagus they went to Rastelo, and anchored at about three o'clock in the afternoon. Here Columbus learned that the wintry roughness which he had recently experienced was but a part of the general severity of the season. From this place he dispatched a messenger to Spain to convey the news of his arrival to his sovereigns, and at the same time he sent a letter to the king of Portugal, then sojourning nine leagues away. He explained in it how he had asked the hospitality of a Portuguese port, because the Spanish sovereigns had directed him to do so, if he needed supplies. He further informed the king that he had come from the "Indies," which he had reached by sailing west. He hoped he would be allowed to bring his caravel to Lisbon, to be more secure; for rumors of a lading of gold might incite reckless persons, in so lonely a place as he then lay, to deeds of violence. [Sidenote: Name of India.] The _Historie_ says that Columbus had determined beforehand to call whatever land he should discover, India, because he thought India was a name to suggest riches, and to invite encouragement for his project. While this letter to the Portuguese king was in transit, the attempt was made by certain officers of the Portuguese navy in the port of Rastelo to induce Columbus to leave his ship and give an account of himself; but he would make no compromise of the dignity of a Castilian admiral. When his resentment was known and his commission was shown, the Portuguese officers changed their policy to one of courtesy. The next day, and on the one following, the news of his arrival being spread about, a vast multitude came in boats from all parts to see him and his Indians. [Sidenote: 1493. March 8.] [Sidenote: Columbus visits the king.] On the third day, a royal messenger brought an invitation from the king to come and visit the court, which Columbus, not without apprehension, accepted. The king's steward had been sent to accompany him and provide for his entertainment on the way. On the night of the following day, he reached Val do Paraiso, where the king was. This spot was nine leagues from Lisbon, and it was supposed that his reception was not held in that city because a pest was raging there. A royal greeting was given to him. The king affected to believe that the voyage of Columbus was made to regions which the Portuguese had been allowed to occupy by a convention agreed upon with Spain in 1479. The Admiral undeceived him, and showed the king that his ships had not been near Guinea. We have another account of this interview at Val do Paraiso, in the pages of the Portuguese historian, Barros, tinged, doubtless, with something of pique and prejudice, because the profit of the voyage had not been for the benefit of Portugal. That historian charges Columbus with extravagance, and even insolence, in his language to the king. He says that Columbus chided the monarch for the faithlessness that had lost him such an empire. He is represented as launching these rebukes so vehemently that the attending nobles were provoked to a degree which prompted whispers of assassination. That Columbus found his first harbor in the Tagus has given other of the older Portuguese writers, like Faria y Sousa, in his _Europa Portuguesa_, and Vasconcelles and Resende, in their lives of João II., occasion to represent that his entering it was not so much induced by stress of weather as to seek a triumph over the Portuguese king in the first flush of the news. It is also said that the resolution was formed by the king to avail himself of the knowledge of two Portuguese who were found among Columbus's men. With their aid he proposed to send an armed expedition to take possession of the new-found regions before Columbus could fit out a fleet for a second voyage. Francisco de Almeida was even selected, according to the report, to command this force. We hear, however, nothing more of it, and the Bull of Demarcation put an end to all such rivalries. If, on the contrary, we may believe Columbus himself, in a letter which he subsequently wrote, he did not escape being suspected in Spain of having thus put himself in the power of the Portuguese in order to surrender the Indies to them. [Sidenote: 1493. March 11. Columbus leaves the court.] [Sidenote: Sails from the Tagus.] [Sidenote: Reaches Palos, March 15, 1493.] Spending Sunday at court, Columbus departed on Monday, March 11, having first dispatched messages to the King and Queen of Spain. An escort of knights was provided for him, and taking the monastery of Villafranca on his way, he kissed the hand of the Portuguese queen, who was there lodging, and journeying on, arrived at his caravel on Tuesday night. The next day he put to sea, and on Thursday morning was off Cape St. Vincent. The next morning they were off the island of Saltes, and crossing bar with the flood, he anchored on March 15, 1493, not far from noon, where he had unmoored the "Santa Maria" over seven months before. "I made the passage thither in seventy-one days," he says in his published letter; "and back in forty-eight, during thirteen of which number I was driven about by storms." [Sidenote: The "Pinta's" experiences.] The "Pinta," which had parted company with the Admiral on the 14th of February, had been driven by the gale into Bayona, a port of Gallicia, in the northwest corner of Spain, whence Pinzon, its commander, had dispatched a messenger to give information of his arrival and of his intended visit to the Court. A royal order peremptorily stayed, however, his projected visit, and left the first announcement of the news to be proclaimed by Columbus himself. This is the story which later writers have borrowed from the _Historie_. [Sidenote: She reaches Palos.] [Sidenote: Death of Pinzon.] Oviedo tells us that the "Pinta" put to sea again from the Gallician harbor, and entered the port of Palos on the same day with Columbus, but her commander, fearing arrest or other unpleasantness, kept himself concealed till Columbus had started for Barcelona. Not many days later Pinzon died in his own house in Palos. Las Casas would have us believe that his death arose from mortification at the displeasure of his sovereigns; but Harrisse points out that when Charles V. bestowed a coat-armor on the family, he recognized his merit as the discoverer of Española. There is little trustworthy information on the matter, and Muñoz, whose lack of knowledge prompts inferences on his part, represents that it was Pinzon's request to explain his desertion of Columbus, which was neglected by the Court, and impressed him with the royal displeasure. CHAPTER XI. COLUMBUS IN SPAIN AGAIN; MARCH TO SEPTEMBER, 1493. Peter Martyr tells us of the common ignorance and dread pervading the ordinary ranks of society, before and during the absence of Columbus, in respect to all that part of the earth's circumference which the sun looked upon beyond Gades, till it again cast its rays upon the Golden Chersonesus. During this absence from the known and habitable regions of the globe, that orb was thought to sweep over the ominous and foreboding Sea of Darkness. No one could tell how wide that sea was. The learned disagreed in their estimates. A conception, far under the actual condition, had played no small part in making the voyage of Columbus possible. Men possessed legends of its mysteries. Fables of its many islands were repeated; but no one then living was credibly thought to have tested its glooms except by sailing a little beyond the outermost of the Azores. [Sidenote: Palos aroused at the return of Columbus.] It calls for no stretch of the imagination to picture the public sentiment in little Palos during the months of anxiety which many households had endured since that August morning, when in its dim light Columbus, the Pinzons, and all their companions had been wafted gently out to sea by the current and the breeze. The winter had been unusually savage and weird. The navigators to the Atlantic islands had reported rough passages, and the ocean had broken wildly for long intervals along the rocks and sands of the peninsular shores. It is a natural movement of the mind to wrap the absent in the gloom of the present hour; and while Columbus had been passing along the gentle waters of the new archipelago, his actual experiences had been in strange contrast to the turmoil of the sea as it washed the European shores. He had indeed suffered on his return voyage the full tumultuousness of the elements, and we can hardly fail to recognize the disquiet of mind and falling of heart which those savage gales must have given to the kin and friends of the untraceable wanderers. The stories, then, which we have of the thanksgiving and jubilation of the people of Palos, when the "Nina" was descried passing the bar of the river, fall readily among the accepted truths of history. We can imagine how despondency vanished amid the acclaims of exultation; how multitudes hung upon the words of strange revelations; how the gaping populace wondered at the bedecked Indians; and how throngs of people opened a way that Columbus might lead the votive procession to the church. The canonizers of course read between the lines of the records that it was to the Church of Rabida that Columbus with his men now betook themselves. It matters little. There was much to mar the delight of some in the households. Comforting reports must be told of those who were left at La Navidad. No one had died, unless the gale had submerged the "Pinta" and her crew. She had not been seen since the "Nina" parted with her in the gale. The story of her rescue has already been told. She entered the river before the rejoicings of the day were over, and relieved the remaining anxiety. [Sidenote: The Court at Barcelona.] The Spanish Court was known to be at this time at Barcelona, the Catalan port on the Mediterranean. Columbus's first impulse was to proceed thither in his caravel; but his recent hazards made him prudent, and so dispatching a messenger to the Court, he proceeded to Seville to wait their majesties' commands. Of the native prisoners which he had brought away, one had died at sea, three were too sick to follow him, and were left at Palos, while six accompanied him on his journey. [Sidenote: 1493. March 30. Columbus summoned to Court.] The messenger with such startling news had sped quickly; and Columbus did not wait long for a response to his letter. The document (March 30) showed that the event had made a deep impression on the Court. The new domain of the west dwarfed for a while the conquests from the Moors. There was great eagerness to complete the title, and gather its wealth. Columbus was accordingly instructed to set in motion at once measures for a new expedition, and then to appear at Court and explain to the monarchs what action on their part was needful. The demand was promptly answered; and having organized the necessary arrangements in Seville for the preparation of a fleet, he departed for Barcelona to make homage to his sovereigns. His Indians accompanied him. Porters bore his various wonders from the new islands. His story had preceded him, and town after town vied with each other in welcoming him, and passing him on to new amazements and honors. [Sidenote: 1493. April. In Barcelona.] [Sidenote: Received by the sovereigns.] By the middle of April he approached Barcelona, and was met by throngs of people, who conducted him into the city. His Indians, arrayed in effective if not accustomed ornament of gold, led the line. Bearers of all the marvels of the Indies followed, with their forty parrots and other strange birds of liveliest plumage, with the skins of unknown animals, with priceless plants that would now supplant the eastern spices, and with the precious ornaments of the dusky kings and princes whom he had met. Next, on horseback, came Columbus himself, conspicuous amid the mounted chivalry of Spain. Thus the procession marched on, through crowded streets, amid the shouts of lookers-on, to the alcazar of the Moorish kings in the Calle Ancha, at this time the residence of the Bishop of Urgil, where it is supposed Ferdinand and Isabella had caused their thrones to be set up, with a canopy of brocaded gold drooping about them. Here the monarchs awaited the coming of Columbus. [Sidenote: King Ferdinand.] [Sidenote: Queen Isabella.] Ferdinand, as the accounts picture him, was a man whose moderate stature was helped by his erectness and robes to a decided dignity of carriage. His expression in the ruddy glow of his complexion, clearness of eye, and loftiness of brow, grew gracious in any pleasurable excitement. The Queen was a very suitable companion, grave and graceful in her demeanor. Her blue eyes and auburn tresses comported with her outwardly benign air, and one looked sharply to see anything of her firmness and courage in the prevailing sweetness of her manner. The heir apparent, Prince Juan, was seated by their side. The dignitaries of the Court were grouped about. [Sidenote: Columbus before the Court.] Las Casas tells us how commanding Columbus looked when he entered the room, surrounded by a brilliant company of cavaliers. When he approached the royal dais, both monarchs rose to receive him standing; and when he stooped to kiss their hands, they gently and graciously lifted him, and made him sit as they did. They then asked to be told of what he had seen. As Columbus proceeded in his narrative, he pointed out the visible objects of his speech,--the Indians, the birds, the skins, the barbaric ornaments, and the stores of gold. We are told of the prayer of the sovereigns at the close, in which all joined; and of the chanted _Te Deum_ from the choir of the royal chapel, which bore the thoughts of every one, says the narrator, on the wings of melody to celestial delights. This ceremony ended, Columbus was conducted like a royal guest to the lodgings which had been provided for him. It has been a question if the details of this reception, which are put by Irving in imaginative fullness, and are commonly told on such a thread of incidents as have been related, are warranted by the scant accounts which are furnished us in the _Historie_, in Las Casas, and in Peter Martyr, particularly since the incident does not seem to have made enough of an impression at the time to have been noticed at all in the _Dietaria_ of the city, a record of events embodying those of far inferior interest as we would now value them. Mr. George Sumner carefully scanned this record many years ago, and could find not the slightest reference to the festivities. He fancies that the incidents in the mind of the recorder may have lost their significance through an Aragonese jealousy of the supremacy of Leon and Castile. It is certainly true that in Peter Martyr, the contemporary observer of this supposed pageantry, there is nothing to warrant the exuberance of later writers. Martyr simply says that Columbus was allowed to sit in the sovereigns' presence. Whatever the fact as to details, it seems quite evident that this season at Barcelona made the only unalloyed days of happiness, freed of anxiety, which Columbus ever experienced. He was observed of all, and everybody was complacent to him. His will was apparently law to King and subject. Las Casas tells us that he passed among the admiring throngs with his face wreathed with smiles of content. An equal complacency of delight and expectation settled upon all with whom he talked of the wonders of the land which he had found. They dreamed as he did of entering into golden cities with their hundred bridges, that might cause new exultations, to which the present were as nothing. It was a fatal lure to the proud Spanish nature, and no one was doomed to expiate the folly of the delusion more poignantly than Columbus himself. [Sidenote: Spread of the news.] Now that India had been found by the west, as was believed, and Barcelona was very likely palpitating with the thought, the news spread in every direction. What were the discoveries of the Phoenicians to this? What questions of ethnology, language, species, migrations, phenomena of all sorts, in man and in the natural world, were pressing upon the mind, as the results were considered? Were not these parrots which Columbus had exhibited such as Pliny tells us are in Asia? The great event had fallen in the midst of geographical development, and was understood at last. Marco Polo and the others had told their marvels of the east. The navigators of Prince Henry had found new wonders on the sea. Regiomontanus, Behaim, and Toscanelli had not communed in vain with cosmographical problems. Even errors had been stepping-stones; as when the belief in the easterly over-extension of Asia had pictured it near enough in the west to convince men that the hazard of the Sea of Darkness was not so great after all. [Sidenote: Peter Martyr records the event.] Spain was then the centre of much activity of mind. "I am here," records Peter Martyr, "at the source of this welcome intelligence from the new found lands, and as the historian of such events, I may hope to go down to posterity as their recorder." We must remember this profession when we try to account for his meagre record of the reception at Barcelona. That part of the letter of Peter Martyr, dated at Barcelona, on the ides of May, 1493, which conveyed to his correspondent the first tidings of Columbus's return, is in these words, as translated by Harrisse: "A certain Christopher Colonus, a Ligurian, returned from the antipodes. He had obtained for that purpose three ships from my sovereigns, with much difficulty, because the ideas which he expressed were considered extravagant. He came back and brought specimens of many precious things, especially gold, which those regions naturally produce." Martyr also tells us that when Pomponius Laetus got such news, he could scarcely refrain "from tears of joy at so unlooked-for an event." "What more delicious food for an ingenious mind!" said Martyr to him in return. "To talk with people who have seen all this is elevating to the mind." The confidence of Martyr, however, in the belief of Columbus that the true Indies had been found was not marked. He speaks of the islands as adjacent to, and not themselves, the East. [Sidenote: The news in England.] Sebastian Cabot remembered the time when these marvelous tidings reached the court of Henry VII. in London, and he tells us that it was accounted a "thing more divine than human." [Sidenote: Columbus's first letter.] A letter which Columbus had written and early dispatched to Barcelona, nearly in duplicate, to the treasurers of the two crowns was promptly translated into Latin, and was sent to Italy to be issued in numerous editions, to be copied in turn by the Paris and Antwerp printers, and a little more sluggishly by those of Germany. [Sidenote: Influence of the event.] There is, however, singularly little commenting on these events that passed into print and has come down to us; and we may well doubt if the effect on the public mind, beyond certain learned circles, was at all commensurate with what we may now imagine the recognition of so important an event ought to have been. Nordenskiöld, studying the cartography and literature of the early discoveries in America in his _Facsimile Atlas_, is forced to the conclusion that "scarcely any discovery of importance was ever received with so much indifference, even in circles where sufficient genius and statesmanship ought to have prevailed to appreciate the changes they foreshadowed in the development of the economical and political conditions of mankind." [Sidenote: 1493. June 19. Carjaval's oration.] It happened on June 19, 1493, but a few weeks after the Pope had made his first public recognition of the discovery, that the Spanish ambassador at the Papal Court, Bernardin de Carjaval, referred in an oration to "the unknown lands, lately found, lying towards the Indies;" and at about the same time there was but a mere reference to the event in the _Los Tratados_ of Doctor Alonso Ortis, published at Seville. [Sidenote: Columbus in favor.] While this strange bruit was thus spreading more or less, we get some glimpses of the personal life of Columbus during these days of his sojourn in Barcelona. We hear of him riding through the streets on horseback, on one side of the King, with Prince Juan on the other. [Sidenote: Reward for first seeing land.] We find record of his being awarded the pension of thirty crowns, as the first discoverer of land, by virtue of the mysterious light, and Irving thinks that we may condone this theft from the brave sailor who unquestionably saw land the first, by remembering that "Columbus's whole ambition was involved." It seems to others that his whole character was involved. [Sidenote: Story of the egg.] We find him a guest at a banquet given by Cardinal Mendoza, and the well-known story of his making an egg stand upright, by chipping one end of it, is associated with this merriment of the table. An impertinent question of a shallow courtier had induced Columbus to show a table full of guests that it was easy enough to do anything when the way was pointed out. The story, except as belonging to a traditional stock of anecdotes, dating far back of Columbus, always ready for an application, has no authority earlier than Benzoni, and loses its point in the destruction of the end on which the aim was to make it stand. This has been so palpable to some of the repeaters of the story that they have supposed that the feat was accomplished, not by cracking the end of the egg, but by using a quick motion which broke the sack which holds the yolk, so that that weightier substance settled at one end, and balanced the egg in an upright position. So passed the time with the new-made hero, in drinking, as Irving expresses it, "the honeyed draught of popularity before enmity and detraction had time to drug it with bitterness." [Sidenote: 1493. May 20. Receives a coat of arms.] We find the sovereigns bestowing upon him, on the 20th of May, a coat of arms, which shows a castle and a lion in the upper quarters, and in those below, a group of golden islands in a sea of waves, on the one hand, and the arms to which his family had been entitled, on the other. Humboldt speaks of this archipelago as the first map of America, but he apparently knew only Oviedo's description of the arms, for the latter places the islands in a gulf formed by a mainland, and in this fashion they are grouped in a blazon of the arms which is preserved at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Paris--a duplicate being at Genoa. Harrisse says that this design is the original water-color, made under Columbus's eye in 1502. In this picture,--which is the earliest blazonry which has come down to us,--the other lower quarter has the five golden anchors on a blue ground, which it is claimed was adjudged to Columbus as the distinctive badge of an Admiral of Spain. The personal arms are relegated to a minor overlying shield at the lower point of the escutcheon. Oviedo also says that trees and other objects should be figured on the mainland. [Illustration: THE ARMS OF COLUMBUS. [From Oviedo's _Cosmica_.]] The lion and castle of the original grant were simply reminders of the arms of Leon and Castile; but Columbus seems, of his own motion, so far as Harrisse can discover, to have changed the blazonry of those objects in the drawing of 1502 to agree with those of the royal arms. It was by the same arrogant license, apparently, that he introduced later the continental shore of the archipelago; and Harrisse can find no record that the anchors were ever by any authority added to his blazon, nor that the professed family arms, borne in connection, had any warrant whatever. The earliest engraved copy of the arms is in the _Historia General_ of Oviedo in 1535, where a profile helmet supports a crest made of a globe topped by a cross. In Oviedo's _Coronica_ of 1547, the helmet is shown in front view. There seems to have been some wide discrepancies in the heraldic excursions of these early writers. Las Casas, for instance, puts the golden lion in a silver field,--when heraldry abhors a conjunction of metals, as much as nature abhors a vacuum. The discussion of the family arms which were added by Columbus to the escutcheon made a significant part of the arguments in the suit, many years later, of Baldassare (Balthazar) Colombo to possess the Admiral's dignities; and as Harrisse points out, the emblem of those Italian Colombos of any pretensions to nobility was invariably a dove of some kind,--a device quite distinct from those designated by Columbus. This assumption of family arms by Columbus is held by Harrisse to be simply a concession to the prejudices of his period, and to the exigencies of his new position. The arms have been changed under the dukes of Veragua to show silver-capped waves in the sea, while a globe surmounted by a cross is placed in the midst of a gulf containing only five islands. [Sidenote: His alleged motto.] There is another later accompaniment of the arms, of which the origin has escaped all search. It is far more familiar than the escutcheon, on which it plays the part of a motto. It sometimes represents that Columbus found for the allied crowns a new world, and at other times that he gave one to them. Por Castilla é por Leon Nuevo Mundo halló Colon. A Castilla, y a Leon Nuevo Mundo dió Colon. Oviedo is the earliest to mention this distich in 1535. It is given in the _Historie_, not as a motto of the arms, but as an inscription placed by the king on the tomb of Columbus some years after his death. If this is true, it does away with the claims of Gomara that Columbus himself added it to his arms. * * * * * [Sidenote: Diplomacy of the Bull of Demarcation.] But diplomacy had its part to play in these events. As the Christian world at that time recognized the rights of the Holy Father to confirm any trespass on the possessions of the heathen, there was a prompt effort on the part of Ferdinand to bring the matter to the attention of the Pope. As early as 1438, bulls of Martin V. and Eugene IV. had permitted the Spaniards to sail west and the Portuguese south; and a confirmation of the same had been made by Pope Nicholas the Fifth. In 1479, the rival crowns of Portugal and Spain had agreed to respect their mutual rights under these papal decisions. The messengers whom Ferdinand sent to Rome were instructed to intimate that the actual possession which had been made in their behalf of these new regions did not require papal sanction, as they had met there no Christian occupants; but that as dutiful children of the church it would be grateful to receive such a benediction on their energies for the faith as a confirmatory bull would imply. Ferdinand had too much of wiliness in his own nature, and the practice of it was too much a part of the epoch, wholly to trust a man so notoriously perverse and obstinate as Alexander VI. was. Though Muñoz calls Alexander the friend of Ferdinand, and though the Pope was by birth an Aragonese, experience had shown that there was no certainty of his support in a matter affecting the interest of Spain. [Sidenote: 1493. May 3. The Bull issued.] A folio printed leaf in Gothic characters, of which the single copy sold in London in 1854 is said to be the only one known to bibliographers, made public to the world the famous Bull of Demarcation of Alexander VI., bearing date May 3, 1493. If one would believe Hakluyt, the Pope had been induced to do this act by his own option, rather than at the intercession of the Spanish monarchs. Under it, and a second bull of the day following, Spain was entitled to possess, "on condition of planting the Catholic faith," all lands not already occupied by Christian powers, west of a meridian drawn one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape de Verde Islands, evidently on the supposition that these two groups were in the same longitude, the fact being that the most westerly of the southern, and the most easterly of the northern, group possessed nearly the same meridian. Though Portugal was not mentioned in describing this line, it was understood that there was reserved to her the same privilege easterly. [Illustration: POPE ALEXANDER VI. [A bust in the Berlin Museum.]] There was not as yet any consideration given to the division which this great circle meridian was likely to make on the other side of the globe, where Portugal was yet to be most interested. The Cape of Good Hope had not then been doubled, and the present effect of the division was to confine the Portuguese to an exploration of the western African coast and to adjacent islands. It will be observed that in the placing of this line the magnetic phenomena which Columbus had observed on his recent voyage were not forgotten, if the coincidence can be so interpreted. Humboldt suggests that it can. [Sidenote: Line of no variation.] To make a physical limit serve a political one was an obvious recourse at a time when the line of no variation was thought to be unique and of a true north and south direction; but within a century the observers found three other lines, as Acosta tells us in his _Historia Natural de las Indias_, in 1589; and there proved to be a persistent migration of these lines, all little suited to terrestrial demarcations. Roselly de Lorgues and the canonizers, however, having given to Columbus the planning of the line in his cell at Rabida, think, with a surprising prescience on his part, and with a very convenient obliviousness on their part, that he had chosen "precisely the only point of our planet which science would choose in our day,--a mysterious demarcation made by its omnipotent Creator," in sovereign disregard, unfortunately, of the laws of his own universe! [Sidenote: Suspicious movements in Portugal.] Meanwhile there were movements in Portugal which Ferdinand had not failed to notice. An ambassador had come from its king, asking permission to buy certain articles of prohibited exportation for use on an African expedition which the Portuguese were fitting out. Ferdinand suspected that the true purpose of this armament was to seize the new islands, under a pretense as dishonorable as that which covered the ostensible voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands, by whose exposure Columbus had been driven into Spain. The Spanish monarch was alert enough to get quite beforehand with his royal brother. Before the ambassador of which mention has been made had come to the Spanish Court, Ferdinand had dispatched Lope de Herrera to Lisbon, armed with a conciliatory and a denunciatory letter, to use one or the other, as he might find the conditions demanded. The Portuguese historian Resende tells us that João, in order to give a wrong scent, had openly bestowed largesses on some and had secretly suborned other members of Ferdinand's cabinet, so that he did not lack for knowledge of the Spanish intentions from the latter members. He and his ambassadors were accordingly found by Ferdinand to be inexplicably prepared at every new turn of the negotiations. In this way João had been informed of the double mission of Herrera, and could avoid the issue with him, while he sent his own ambassadors to Spain, to promise that, pending their negotiations, no vessel should sail on any voyage of discovery for sixty days. They were also to propose that instead of the papal line, one should be drawn due west from the Canaries, giving all new discoveries north to the Spaniards, and all south to the Portuguese. This new move Ferdinand turned to his own advantage, for it gave him the opportunity to enter upon a course of diplomacy which he could extend long enough to allow Columbus to get off with a new armament. He then sent a fresh embassy, with instructions to move slowly and protract the discussion, but to resort, when compelled, to a proposition for arbitration. João was foiled and he knew it. "These ambassadors," he said, "have no feet to hurry and no head to propound." The Spanish game was the best played, and the Portuguese king grew fretful under it, and intimated sometimes a purpose to proceed to violence, but he was restrained by a better wisdom. We depend mainly upon the Portuguese historians for understanding these complications, and it is to be hoped that some time the archives of the Vatican may reveal the substance of these tripartite negotiations of the papal court and the two crowns. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1493. May. Honors of Columbus confirmed.] [Sidenote: May 28. Columbus leaves Barcelona.] [Sidenote: June. In Seville.] [Sidenote: Fonseca.] Before Columbus had left Barcelona, a large gratuity had been awarded to him by his sovereigns; an order had been issued commanding free lodgings to be given to him and his followers, wherever he went, and the original stipulations as to honors and authority, made by the sovereigns at Santa Fé, had been confirmed (May 28). A royal seal was now confided to his keeping, to be set to letters patent, and to commissions that it might be found necessary to issue. It might be used even in appointing a deputy, to act in the absence of Columbus. His appointments were to hold during the royal pleasure. His own power was defined at the same time, and in particular to hold command over the entire expedition, and to conduct its future government and explorations. He left Barcelona, after leavetakings, on May 28; and his instructions, as printed by Navarrete, were signed the next day. It is not unlikely they were based on suggestions of Columbus made in a letter, without date, which has recently been printed in the _Cartas de Indias_ (1877). Early in June, he was in Seville, and soon after he was joined by Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, who, as representative of the Crown, had been made the chief director of the preparations. It is claimed by Harrisse that this priest has been painted by the biographers of Columbus much blacker than he really was, on the strength of the objurgations which the _Historie_ bestows upon him. Las Casas calls him worldly; and he deserves the epithet if a dominating career of thirty years in controlling the affairs of the Indies is any evidence of fitness in such matters. His position placed him where he had purposes to thwart as well as projects to foster, and the record of this age of discovery is not without many proofs of selfish and dishonorable motives, which Fonseca might be called upon to repress. That his discrimination was not always clear-sighted may be expected; that he was sometimes perfidious may be true, but he was dealing mainly with those who could be perfidious also. That he abused his authority might also go without dispute; but so did Columbus and the rest. In the game of diamond-cut-diamond, it is not always just to single out a single victim for condemnation, as is done by Irving and the canonizers. It was while at Seville, engaged in this work of preparation, that Fonseca sought to check the demands of Columbus as respects the number of his personal servitors. That these demands were immoderate, the character of Columbus, never cautious under incitement, warrants us in believing; and that the official guardian of the royal treasury should have views of his own is not to be wondered at. The story goes that the sovereigns forced Fonseca to yield, and that this was the offense of Columbus which could neither be forgotten nor forgiven by Fonseca, and for which severities were visited upon him and his heirs in the years to come. Irving is confident that Fonseca has escaped the condemnation which Spanish writers would willingly have put upon him, for fear of the ecclesiastical censors of the press. [Sidenote: Council for the Indies.] The measures which were now taken in accordance with the instructions given to Columbus, already referred to, to regulate the commerce of the Indies, with a custom house at Cadiz and a corresponding one in Española under the control of the Admiral, ripened in time into what was known as the Council for the Indies. It had been early determined (May 23) to control all emigration to the new regions, and no one was allowed to trade thither except under license from the monarchs, Columbus, or Fonseca. [Sidenote: New fleet equipped.] A royal order had put all ships and appurtenances in the ports of Andalusia at the demand of Fonseca and Columbus, for a reasonable compensation, and compelled all persons required for the service to embark in it on suitable pay. Two thirds of the ecclesiastical tithes, the sequestered property of banished Jews, and other resources were set apart to meet these expenses, and the treasurer was authorized to contract a loan, if necessary. To eke out the resources, this last was resorted to, and 5,000,000 maravedis were borrowed from the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. All the transactions relating to the procuring and dispensing of moneys had been confided to a treasurer, Francisco Pinelo; with the aid of an accountant, Juan de Soria. Everything was hurriedly gathered for the armament, for it was of the utmost importance that the preparations should move faster than the watching diplomacy. Artillery which had been in use on shipboard for more than a century and a half was speedily amassed. The arquebuse, however, had not altogether been supplanted by the matchlock, and was yet preferred in some hands for its lightness. Military stores which had been left over from the Moorish war and were now housed in the Alhambra, at this time converted into an arsenal, were opportunely drawn upon. [Sidenote: Beradi and Vespucius.] The labor of an intermediary in much of this preparation fell upon Juonato Beradi, a Florentine merchant then settled in Seville, and it is interesting to know that Americus Vespucius, then a mature man of two and forty, was engaged under Beradi in this work of preparation. [Sidenote: 1493. June 20.] From the fact that certain horsemen and agriculturists were ordered to be in Seville on June 20, and to hold themselves in readiness to embark, it may be inferred that the sailing of some portion of the fleet may at that time have been expected at a date not much later. [Illustration: CROSSBOW-MAKER. [From Jost Amman's _Beschreibung_, 1586.]] [Sidenote: Isabella's interest.] [Sidenote: Indians baptized.] The interest of Isabella in the new expedition was almost wholly on its emotional and intellectual side. She had been greatly engrossed with the spiritual welfare of the Indians whom Columbus had taken to Barcelona. Their baptism had taken place with great state and ceremony, the King, Queen, and Prince Juan officiating as sponsors. It was intended that they should reëmbark with the new expedition. Prince Juan, however, picked out one of these Indians for his personal service, and when the fellow died, two years later, it was a source of gratification, as Herrera tells us, that at last one of his race had entered the gates of heaven! Only four of the six ever reached their native country. We know nothing of the fate of those left sick at Palos. [Sidenote: Father Buil.] The Pope, to further all methods for the extension of the faith, had commissioned (June 24) a Benedictine monk, Bernardo Buil (Boyle), of Catalonia, to be his apostolic vicar in the new world, and this priest was to be accompanied by eleven brothers of the order. The Queen intrusted to them the sacred vessels and vestments from her own altar. The instructions which Columbus received were to deal lovingly with the poor natives. We shall see how faithful he was to the behest. Isabella's musings were not, however, all so piously confined. She wrote to Columbus from Segovia in August, requiring him to make provisions for bringing back to Spain specimens of the peculiar birds of the new regions, as indications of untried climates and seasons. [Sidenote: Astronomy and navigation.] Again, in writing to Columbus, September 5, she urged him not to rely wholly on his own great knowledge, but to take such a skillful astronomer on his voyage as Fray Antonio de Marchena,--the same whom Columbus later spoke of as being one of the two persons who had never made him a laughing-stock. Muñoz says the office of astronomer was not filled. Dealing with the question of longitude was a matter in which there was at this time little insight, and no general agreement. Columbus, as we have seen, suspected the variation of the needle might afford the basis of a system; but he grew to apprehend, as he tells us in the narrative of his fourth voyage, that the astronomical method was the only infallible one, but whether his preference was for the opposition of planets, the occultations of stars, the changes in the moon's declination, or the comparisons of Jupiter's altitude with the lunar position,--all of which were in some form in vogue,--does not appear. The method by conveyance of time, so well known now in the use of chronometers, seems to have later been suggested by Alonso de Santa Cruz,--too late for the recognition of Columbus; but the instrumentality of water-clocks, sand-clocks, and other crude devices, like the timing of burning wicks, was too uncertain to obtain even transient sanction. [Sidenote: Astrolabe.] The astrolabe, for all the improvements of Behaim, was still an awkward instrument for ascertaining latitude, especially on a rolling or pitching ship, and we know that Vasco da Gama went on shore at the Cape de Verde Islands to take observations when the motion of the sea balked him on shipboard. [Illustration: THE CLOCK-MAKER. [From Jost Amman's _Beschreibung_, Frankfort.]] [Sidenote: Cross-staff and Jackstaff.] Whether the cross-staff or Jackstaff, a seaboard implement somewhat more convenient than the astrolabe, was known to Columbus is not very clear,--probably it was not; but the navigators that soon followed him found it more manageable on rolling ships than the older instruments. It was simply a stick, along which, after one end of it was placed at the eye, a scaled crossbar was pushed until its two ends touched, the lower, the horizon, and the upper, the heavenly body whose altitude was to be taken. A scale on the stick then showed, at the point where the bar was left, the degree of latitude. [Sidenote: Errors in latitude.] The best of such aids, however, did not conduce to great accuracy, and the early maps, in comparison with modern, show sometimes several degrees of error in scaling from the equator. An error once committed was readily copied, and different cartographical records put in service by the professional map makers came sometimes by a process of averages to show some surprising diversities, with positive errors of considerable extent. The island of Cuba, for instance, early found place in the charts seven and eight degrees too far north, with dependent islands in equally wrong positions. * * * * * [Sidenote: Seventeen vessels ready.] As the preparations went on, a fleet of seventeen vessels, large and small, three of which were called transports, had, according to the best estimates, finally been put in readiness. Scillacio tells us that some of the smallest had been constructed of light draft, especially for exploring service. Horses and domestic animals of all kinds were at last gathered on board. Every kind of seed and agricultural implement, stores of commodities for barter with the Indians, and all the appurtenances of active life were accumulated. Muñoz remarks that it is evident that sugar cane, rice, and vines had not been discovered or noted by Columbus on his first voyage, or we would not have found them among the commodities provided for the second. [Sidenote: Ojeda.] [Sidenote: Their companies.] In making up the company of the adventurers, there was little need of active measures to induce recruits. Many an Hidalgo and cavalier took service at their own cost. Galvano, who must have received the reports by tradition, says that such was the "desire of travel that the men were ready to leap into the sea to swim, if it had been possible, into these new found parts." Traffic, adventure, luxury, feats of arms,--all were inducements that lured one individual or another. Some there were to make names for themselves in their new fields. Such was Alonso de Ojeda, a daring youth, expert in all activities, who had served his ambition in the Moorish wars, and had been particularly favored by the Duke of Medina-Celi, the friend of Columbus. [Sidenote: Las Casas, Ponce de Leon, La Cosa, etc.] We find others whose names we shall again encounter. The younger brother of Columbus, Diego Colon, had come to Spain, attracted by the success of Christopher. The father and uncle of Las Casas, from whose conversations with the Admiral that historian could profit in the future, Juan Ponce de Leon, the later discoverer of Florida, Juan de la Cosa, whose map is the first we have of the New World, and Dr. Chanca, a physician of Seville, who was pensioned by the Crown, and to whom we owe one of the narratives of the voyage, were also of the company. [Sidenote: 1,500 souls embark.] The thousand persons to which the expedition had at first been limited became, under the pressure of eager cavaliers, nearer 1,200, and this number was eventually increased by stowaways and other hangers-on, till the number embarked was not much short of 1,500. This is Oviedo's statement. Bernaldez and Peter Martyr make the number 1,200, or thereabouts. Perhaps these were the ordinary hands, and the 300 more were officers and the like, for the statements do not render it certain how the enumerations are made. So far as we know their names, but a single companion of Columbus in his first voyage was now with him. The twenty horsemen, already mentioned are supposed to be the only mounted soldiers that embarked. Columbus says, in a letter addressed to their majesties, that "the number of colonists who desire to go thither amounts to two thousand," which would indicate that a large number were denied. The letter is undated, and may not be of a date near the sailing; if it is, it probably indicates to some degree the number of persons who were denied embarkation. As the day approached for the departure there was some uneasiness over a report of a Portuguese caravel sailing westward from Madeira, and it was proposed to send some of the fleet in advance to overtake the vessel; but after some diplomatic fence between Ferdinand and João, the disquiet ended, or at least nothing was done on either side. At one time Columbus had hoped to embark on the 15th of August; but it was six weeks later before everything was ready. CHAPTER XII. THE SECOND VOYAGE. 1493-1494. [Sidenote: The embarkation.] The last day in port was a season of solemnity and gratulation. Coma, a Spaniard, who, if not an eyewitness, got his description from observers, thus describes the scene in a letter to Scillacio in Pavia: "The religious rites usual on such occasions were performed by the sailors; the last embraces were given; the ships were hung with brilliant cloths; streamers were wound in the rigging; and the royal standard flapped everywhere at the sterns of the vessels. The pipers and harpers held in mute astonishment the Nereids and even the Sirens with their sweet modulations. The shores reëchoed the clang of trumpets and the braying of clarions. The discharge of cannon rolled over the water. Some Venetian galleys chancing to enter the harbor joined in the jubilation, and the cheers of united nations went up with prayers for blessings on the venturing crews." [Sidenote: 1493. September 25. The fleet sails.] Night followed, calm or broken, restful or wearisome, as the case might be, for one or another, and when the day dawned (September 25, 1493) the note of preparation was everywhere heard. It was the same on the three great caracks, on the lesser caravels, and on the light craft, which had been especially fitted for exploration. The eager and curious mass of beings which crowded their decks were certainly a motley show. There were cavalier and priest, hidalgo and artisan, soldier and sailor. The ambitious thoughts which animated them were as various as their habits. There were those of the adventurer, with no purpose whatever but pastime, be it easy or severe. There was the greed of the speculator, counting the values of trinkets against stores of gold. [Sidenote: Columbus's character.] There was the brooding of the administrators, with unsolved problems of new communities in their heads. There were ears that already caught the songs of salvation from native throats. There was Columbus himself, combining all ambitions in one, looking around this harbor of Cadiz studded with his lordly fleet, spreading its creaking sails, lifting its dripping anchors. It was his to contrast it with the scene at Palos a little over a year before. This needy Genoese vested with the viceroyalty of a new world was more of an adventurer than any. He was a speculator who overstepped them all in audacious visions and golden expectancies. He was an administrator over a new government, untried and undivined. To his ears the hymns of the Church soared with a militant warning, dooming the heathen of the Indies, and appalling the Moslem hordes that imperiled the Holy Sepulchre. [Sidenote: 1493. October 1. Canaries.] Under the eye of this one commanding spirit, the vessels fell into a common course, and were wafted out upon the great ocean under the lead of the escorting galleys of the Venetians. The responsibility of the captain-general of the great armament had begun. He had been instructed to steer widely clear of the Portuguese coast, and he bore away in the lead directly to the southwest. On the seventh day (October 1) they reached the Gran Canaria, where they tarried to repair a leaky ship. On the 5th they anchored at Gomera. Two days were required here to complete some parts of their equipment, for the islands had already become the centre of great industries and produced largely. "They have enterprising merchants who carry their commerce to many shores," wrote Coma to Scillacio. There were wood and water to be taken on board. A variety of domestic animals, calves, goats, sheep, and swine; some fowls, and the seed of many orchard and garden fruits, oranges, lemons, melons, and the like, were gathered from the inhabitants and stowed away in the remaining spaces of the ships. [Sidenote: 1493. October 13. At sea.] On the 7th the fleet sailed, but it was not till the 13th that the gentle winds had taken them beyond Ferro and the unbounded sea was about the great Admiral. He bore away much more southerly than in his first voyage, so as to strike, if he could, the islands that were so constantly spoken of, the previous year, as lying southeasterly from Española. [Sidenote: St. Elmo's light.] His ultimate port was, of course, the harbor of La Navidad, and he had issued sealed instructions to all his commanders, to guide any one who should part company with the fleet. The winds were favorable, but the dull sailing of the Admiral's ship restrained the rest. In ten days they had overshot the longitude of the Sargossa Sea without seeing it, leaving its floating weeds to the north. In a few days more they experienced heavy tempests. They gathered confidence from an old belief, when they saw St. Elmo waving his lambent flames about the upper rigging, while they greeted his presence with their prayers and songs. "The fact is certain," says Coma, "that two lights shone through the darkness of the night on the topmast of the Admiral's ship. Forthwith the tempest began to abate, the sea to remit its fury, the waves their violence, and the surface of the waves became as smooth as polished marble." This sudden gale of four hours' duration came on St. Simon's eve. The same authority represents that the protracted voyage had caused their water to run low, for the Admiral, confident of his nearness to land, and partly to reassure the timid, had caused it to be served unstintingly. "You might compare him to Moses," adds Coma, "encouraging the thirsty armies of the Israelites in the dry wastes of the wilderness." [Sidenote: 1493. November 2.] [Sidenote: November 3.] [Sidenote: Dominica Island.] [Sidenote: Marigalante.] [Sidenote: 1493. November 3. Guadaloupe.] On Saturday, November 2, the leaders compared reckonings. Some thought they had come 780 leagues from Ferro; others, 800. There were anxiety and weariness on board. The constant fatigue of bailing out the leaky ships had had its disheartening effect. Columbus, with a practiced eye, saw signs of land in the color of the water and the shifting winds, and he signaled every vessel to take in sail. It was a waiting night. The first light of Sunday glinted on the top of a lofty mountain ahead, descried by a watch at the Admiral's masthead. As the island was approached, the Admiral named it, in remembrance of the holy day, Dominica. The usual service with the _Salve Regina_ was chanted throughout the fleet, which moved on steadily, bringing island after island into view. Columbus could find no good anchorage at Dominica, and leaving one vessel to continue the search, he passed on to another island, which he named from his ship, Marigalante. Here he landed, set up the royal banner in token of possession of the group,--for he had seen six islands,--and sought for inhabitants. He could find none, nor any signs of occupation. There was nothing but a tangle of wood in every direction, a sparkling mass of leafage, trembling in luxurious beauty and giving off odors of spice. Some of the men tasted an unknown fruit, and suffered an immediate inflammation about the face, which it required remedies to assuage. The next morning Columbus was attracted by the lofty volcanic peak of another island, and, sailing up to it, he could see cascades on the sides of this eminence. [Illustration: GUADALOUPE, MARIE GALANTE, AND DOMINICA. [From Henrique's _Les Colonies Françoises_, Paris, 1889.]] "Among those who viewed this marvelous phenomena at a distance from the ships," says Coma, "it was at first a subject of dispute whether it were light reflected from masses of compact snow, or the broad surface of a smooth-worn road. At last the opinion prevailed that it was a vast river." [Sidenote: November 4.] Columbus remembered that he had promised the monks of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, in Estremadura, to place some token of them in this strange world, and so he gave this island the name of Guadaloupe. Landing the next day, a week of wonders followed. [Sidenote: Cannibals.] The exploring parties found the first village abandoned; but this had been done so hastily that some young children had been left behind. These they decked with hawks' bells, to win their returning parents. One place showed a public square surrounded by rectangular houses, made of logs and intertwined branches, and thatched with palms. They went through the houses and noted what they saw. They observed at the entrance of one some serpents carved in wood. They found netted hammocks, beside calabashes, pottery, and even skulls used for utensils of household service. They discovered cloth made of cotton; bows and bone-tipped arrows, said sometimes to be pointed with human shin-bones; domesticated fowl very like geese; tame parrots; and pineapples, whose flavor enchanted them. They found what might possibly be relics of Europe, washed hither by the equatorial currents as they set from the African coasts,--an iron pot, as they thought it (we know this from the _Historie_), and the stern-timber of a vessel, which they could have less easily mistaken. They found something to horrify them in human bones, the remains of a feast, as they were ready enough to believe, for they were seeking confirmation of the stories of cannibals which Columbus had heard on his first voyage. They learned that boys were fattened like capons. [Illustration: [From Philoponus's _Nota Typis Transacta Navigatio_.]] The next day they captured a youth and some women, but the men eluded them. Columbus was now fully convinced that he had at last discovered the cannibals, and when it was found that one of his captains and eight men had not returned to their ship, he was under great apprehensions. He sent exploring parties into the woods. They hallooed and fired their arquebuses, but to no avail. As they threaded their way through the thickets, they came upon some villages, but the inhabitants fled, leaving their meals half cooked; and they were convinced they saw human flesh on the spit and in the pots. While this party was absent, some women belonging to the neighboring islands, captives of this savage people, came off to the ships and sought protection. Columbus decked them with rings and bells, and forced them ashore, while they begged to remain. The islanders stripped off their ornaments, and allowed them to return for more. These women said that the chief of the island and most of the warriors were absent on a predatory expedition. [Sidenote: Ojeda's expedition.] The party searching for the lost men returned without success, when Alonso de Ojeda offered to lead forty men into the interior for a more thorough search. This party was as unsuccessful as the other. Ojeda reported he had crossed twenty-six streams in going inland, and that the country was found everywhere abounding in odorous trees, strange and delicious fruits, and brilliant birds. While this second party was gone, the crews took aboard a supply of water, and on Ojeda's return Columbus resolved to proceed, and was on the point of sailing, when the absent men appeared on the shore and signaled to be taken off. They had got lost in a tangled and pathless forest, and all efforts to climb high enough in trees to see the stars and determine their course had been hopeless. Finally striking the sea, they had followed the shore till they opportunely espied the fleet. They brought with them some women and boys, but reported they had seen no men. [Sidenote: Cannibals.] Among the accounts of these early experiences of the Spaniards with the native people, the story of cannibalism is a constant theme. To circulate such stories enhanced the wonder with which Europe was to be impressed. [Sidenote: Caribs.] The cruelty of the custom was not altogether unwelcome to warrant a retaliatory mercilessness. Historians have not wholly decided that this is enough to account for the most positive statements about man-eating tribes. Fears and prejudices might do much to raise such a belief, or at least to magnify the habits. Irving remarks that the preservation of parts of the human body, among the natives of Española, was looked upon as a votive service to ancestors, and it may have needed only prejudice to convert such a custom into cannibalism when found with the Caribs. The adventurousness of the nature of this fierce people and their wanderings in wars naturally served to sharpen their intellects beyond the passive unobservance of the pacific tribes on which they preyed; so they became more readily, for this reason, the possessors of any passion or vice that the European instinct craved to fasten somewhere upon a strange people. [Sidenote: Caribs and Lucayans.] The contiguity of these two races, the fierce Carib and the timid tribes of the more northern islands, has long puzzled the ethnologist. Irving indulged in some rambling notions of the origin of the Carib, derived from observations of the early students of the obscure relations of the American peoples. Larger inquiry and more scientific observation has since Irving's time been given to the subject, still without bringing the question to recognizable bearings. The craniology of the Caribs is scantily known, and there is much yet to be divulged. The race in its purity has long been extinct. Lucien de Rosny, in an anthropological study of the Antilles published by the French Society of Ethnology in 1886, has amassed considerable data for future deductions. It is a question with some modern examiners if the distinction between these insular peoples was not one of accident and surroundings rather than of blood. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1493. November 10. Columbus leaves Guadaloupe.] When Columbus sailed from Guadaloupe on November 10, he steered northwest for Española, though his captives told him that the mainland lay to the south. He passed various islands, but did not cast anchor till the 14th, when he reached the island named by him Santa Cruz, and found it still a region of Caribs. It was here the Spaniards had their first fight with this fierce people in trying to capture a canoe filled with them. The white men rammed and overturned the hollowed log; but the Indians fought in the water so courageously that some of the Spanish bucklers were pierced with the native poisoned arrows, and one of the Spaniards, later, died of such a wound inflicted by one of the savage women. All the Caribs, however, were finally captured and placed in irons on board ship. One was so badly wounded that recovery was not thought possible, and he was thrown overboard. The fellow struck for the shore, and was killed by the Spanish arrows. The accounts describe their ferocious aspect, their coarse hair, their eyes circled with red paint, and the muscular parts of their limbs artificially extended by tight bands below and above. [Sidenote: Porto Rico.] Proceeding thence and passing a group of wild and craggy islets, which he named after St. Ursula and her Eleven Thousand Virgins, Columbus at last reached the island now called Porto Rico, which his captives pointed out to him as their home and the usual field of the Carib incursions. The island struck the strangers by its size, its beautiful woods and many harbors, in one of which, at its west end, they finally anchored. There was a village close by, which, by their accounts, was trim, and not without some pretensions to skill in laying out, with its seaside terraces. The inhabitants, however, had fled. Two days later, the fleet weighed anchor and steered for La Navidad. [Sidenote: 1493. November 22. Española.] It was the 22d of November when the explorers made a level shore, which they later discovered to be the eastern end of Española. They passed gently along the northern coast, and at an attractive spot sent a boat ashore with the body of the Biscayan sailor who had died of the poisoned arrow, while two of the light caravels hovered near the beach to protect the burying party. Coming to the spot where Columbus had had his armed conflict with the natives the year before, and where one of the Indians who had been baptized at Barcelona was taken, this fellow, loaded with presents and decked in person, was sent on shore for the influence he might exert on his people. This supposable neophyte does not again appear in history. Only one of these native converts now remained, and the accounts say that he lived faithfully with the Spaniards. Five of the seven who embarked had died on the voyage. [Sidenote: 1493. November 25.] [Sidenote: 1493. November 27. Off La Navidad.] On the 25th, while the fleet was at anchor at Monte Christo, where Columbus had found gold in the river during his first voyage, the sailors discovered some decomposed bodies, one of them showing a beard, which raised apprehensions of the fate of the men left at La Navidad. The neighboring natives came aboard for traffic with so much readiness, however, that it did much to allay suspicion. It was the 27th when, after dark, Columbus cast anchor opposite the fort, about a league from land. It was too late to see anything more than the outline of the hills. Expecting a response from the fort, he fired two cannons; but there was no sound except the echoes. The Spaniards looked in vain for lights on the shore. The darkness was mysterious and painful. Before midnight a canoe was heard approaching, and a native twice asked for the Admiral. A boat was lowered from one of the vessels, and towed the canoe to the flag-ship. The natives were not willing to board her till Columbus himself appeared at the waist, and by the light of a lantern revealed his countenance to them. This reassured them. Their leader brought presents--some accounts say ewers of gold, others say masks ornamented with gold--from the cacique, Guacanagari, whose friendly assistance had been counted upon so much to befriend the little garrison at La Navidad. [Sidenote: Its garrison killed.] These formalities over, Columbus inquired for Diego de Arana and his men. The young Lucayan, now Columbus's only interpreter, did the best he could with a dialect not his own to make a connected story out of the replies, which was in effect that sickness and dissension, together with the withdrawal of some to other parts of the island, had reduced the ranks of the garrison, when the fort as well as the neighboring village of Guacanagari was suddenly attacked by a mountain chieftain, Caonabo, who burned both fort and village. Those of the Spaniards who were not driven into the sea to perish had been put to death. In this fight the friendly cacique had been wounded. The visitors said that this chieftain's hurt had prevented his coming with them to greet the Admiral; but that he would come in the morning. Coma, in his account of this midnight interview, is not so explicit, and leaves the reader to infer that Columbus did not get quite so clear an apprehension of the fate of his colony. When the dawn came, the harbor appeared desolate. Not a canoe was seen where so many sped about in the previous year. A boat was sent ashore, and found every sign that the fort had been sacked as well as destroyed. Fragments of clothing and bits of merchandise were scattered amid its blackened ruins. There were Indians lurking behind distant trees, but no one approached, and as the cacique had not kept the word which he had sent of coming himself in the morning, suspicions began to arise that the story of its destruction had not been honestly given. The new-comers passed a disturbed night with increasing mistrust, and the next morning Columbus landed and saw all for himself. He traveled farther away from the shore than those who landed on the preceding day, and gained some confirmation of the story in finding the village of the cacique a mass of blackened ruins. Cannon were again discharged, in the hopes that their reverberating echoes might reach the ears of those who were said to have abandoned the fort before the massacre. The well and ditch were cleaned out to see if any treasure had been cast into it, as Columbus had directed in case of disaster. Nothing was found, and this seemed to confirm the tale of the suddenness of the attack. Columbus and his men went still farther inland to a village; but its inmates had hurriedly fled, so that many articles of European make, stockings and a Moorish robe among them, had been left behind, spoils doubtless of the fort. Returning nearer the fort, they discovered the bodies of eleven men buried, with the grass growing above them, and enough remained of their clothing to show they were Europeans. This is Dr. Chanca's statement, who says the men had not been dead two months. Coma says that the bodies were unburied, and had lain for nearly three months in the open air; and that they were now given Christian burial. [Sidenote: Guacanagari and Caonabo.] Later in the day, a few of the natives were lured by friendly signs to come near enough to talk with the Lucayan interpreter. The story in much of its details was gradually drawn out, and Columbus finally possessed himself of a pretty clear conception of the course of the disastrous events. It was a tale of cruelty, avarice, and sensuality towards the natives on the part of the Spaniards, and of jealousy and brawls among themselves. No word of their governor had been sufficient to restrain their outbursts of passionate encounter, and no sense of insecurity could deter them from the most foolhardy risks while away from the fort's protection. Those who had been appointed to succeed Arana, if there were an occasion, revolted against him, and, being unsuccessful in overthrowing him, they went off with their adherents in search of the mines of Cibao. This carried them beyond the protection of Guacanagari, and into the territory of his enemy, Caonabo, a wandering Carib who had offered himself to the interior natives as their chieftain, and who had acquired a great ascendency in the island. This leader, who had learned of the dissensions among the Spaniards, was no sooner informed of the coming of these renegades within his reach than he caused them to be seized and killed. This emboldened him to join forces with another cacique, a neighbor of Guacanagari, and to attempt to drive the Spaniards from the island, since they had become a standing menace to his power, as he reasoned. The confederates marched stealthily, and stole into the vicinity of the fort in the night. Arana had but ten men within the stockade, and they kept no watch. Other Spaniards were quartered in the adjacent village. The onset was sudden and effective, and the dismal ruins of the fort and village were thought to confirm the story. [Sidenote: Doña Catalina.] Other confirmations followed. A caravel was sent to explore easterly, and was soon boarded by two Indians from the shore, who invited the captain, Maldonado, to visit the cacique, who lay ill at a neighboring village. The captain went, and found Guacanagari laid up with a bandaged leg. The savage told a story which agreed with the one just related, and on its being repeated to Columbus, the Admiral himself, with an imposing train, went to see the cacique. Guacanagari seemed anxious, in repeating the story, to convince the Admiral of his own loyalty to the Spaniards, and pointed to his wounds and to those of some of his people as proof. There was the usual interchange of presents, hawks' bells for gold, and similar reckonings. Before leaving, Columbus asked to have his surgeon examine the wound, which the cacique said had been occasioned by a stone striking the leg. To get more light, the chieftain went out-of-doors, leaning upon the Admiral's arm. When the bandage was removed, there was no external sign of hurt; but the cacique winced if the flesh was touched. Father Boyle, who was in the Admiral's train, thought the wound a pretense, and the story fabricated to conceal the perfidy of the cacique, and urged Columbus to make an instant example of the traitor. The Admiral was not so confident as the priest, and at all events he thought a course of pacification and procrastination was the better policy. The interview did not end, according to Coma, without some strange manifestations on the part of the cacique, which led the Spaniards for a moment to fear that a trial of arms was to come. The chief was not indisposed to try his legs enough to return with the Admiral to his ship that very evening. Here he saw the Carib prisoners, and the accounts tell us how he shuddered at the sight of them. He wondered at the horses and other strange creatures which were shown to him. Coma tells us that the Indians thought that the horses were fed on human flesh. The women who had been rescued from the Caribs attracted, perhaps, even more the attention of the savage, and particularly a lofty creature among them, whom the Spaniards had named Doña Catalina. Guacanagari was observed to talk with her more confidingly than he did with the others. Father Boyle urged upon the Admiral that a duress similar to that of Catalina was none too good for the perfidious cacique, as the priest persisted in calling the savage, but Columbus hesitated. There was, however, little left of that mutual confidence which had characterized the relations of the Admiral and the chieftain during the trying days of the shipwreck, the year before. When the Admiral offered to hang a cross on the neck of his visitor, and the cacique understood it to be the Christian emblem, he shrank from the visible contact of a faith of which the past months had revealed its character. With this manifestation they parted, and the cacique was set ashore. Coma seems to unite the incidents of this interview on the ship with those of the meeting ashore. [Sidenote: The cacique and Catalina.] There comes in here, according to the received accounts, a little passage of Indian intrigue and gallantry. A messenger appeared the next day to inquire when the Admiral sailed, and later another to barter gold. This last held some talk with the Indian women, and particularly with Catalina. About midnight a light appeared on the shore, and Catalina and her companions, while the ship's company, except a watch, were sleeping, let themselves down the vessel's side, and struck out for the shore. The watch discovered the escape, but not in time to prevent the women having a considerable start. Boats pursued, but the swimmers touched the beach first. Four of them, however, were caught, but Catalina and the others escaped. When, the next morning, Columbus sent a demand for the fugitives, it was found that Guacanagari had moved his household and all his effects into the interior of the island. The story got its fitting climax in the suspicious minds of the Spaniards, when they supposed that the fugitive beauty was with him. Here was only a fresh instance of the savage's perfidy. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus abandons La Navidad.] Columbus had before this made up his mind that the vicinity of his hapless fort was not a good site for the town which he intended to build. The ground was low, moist, and unhealthy. There were no building stones near at hand. There was need of haste in a decision. The men were weary of their confinement on shipboard. The horses and other animals suffered from a like restraint. Accordingly expeditions were sent to explore the coast, and it soon became evident that they must move beyond the limits of Guacanagari's territory, if they would find the conditions demanded. Melchior Maldonado, in command of one of these expeditions, had gone eastward until he coasted the country of another cacique. This chief at first showed hostility, but was won at last by amicable signs. From him they learned that Guacanagari had gone to the mountains. From another they got the story of the massacre of the fort, almost entirely accordant with what they had already discovered. [Sidenote: Isabella founded.] [Sidenote: Cibao gold mines.] Not one of the reports from these minor explorations was satisfactory, and December 7, the entire fleet weighed anchor to proceed farther east. Stress of weather caused them to put into a harbor, which on examination seemed favorable for their building project. The roadstead was wide. A rocky point offered a site for a citadel. There were two rivers winding close by in an attractive country, and capable of running mills. Nature, as they saw it, was variegated and alluring. Flowers and fruits were in abundance. "Garden seeds came up in five days after they were sown," says Coma of their trial of the soil, "and the gardens were speedily clothed in green, producing plentifully onions and pumpkins, radishes and beets." "Vegetables," wrote Dr. Chanca, "attain a more luxuriant growth here in eight days than they would in Spain in twenty." It was also learned that the gold mines of the Cibao mountains were inland from the spot, at no great distance. The disembarkation began. Days of busy exertion followed. Horses, livestock, provisions, munitions, and the varied merchandise were the centre of a lively scene about their encampment. This they established near a sheet of water. Artificers, herdsmen, cavaliers, priests, laborers, and placemen made up the motley groups which were seen on all sides. [Sidenote: Sickness in the colony.] In later years, the Spaniards regulated all the formalities and prescribed with precision the proceedings in the laying out of towns in the New World, but Columbus had no such directions. The planting of a settlement was a novel and untried method. It was a natural thought to commemorate in the new Christian city the great patroness of his undertaking, and the settlement bore from the first the name of Isabella. His engineers laid out square and street. A site for the church was marked, another for a public storehouse, another for the house of the Admiral,--all of stone. The ruins of these three buildings are the most conspicuous relics in the present solitary waste. The great mass of tenements, which were stretched along the streets back from the public square, where the main edifice stood, were as hastily run up as possible, to cover in the colony. It was time enough for solider structures later to take their places. Parties were occupied in clearing fields and setting out orchards. There were landing piers to be made at the shore. So everybody tasked bodily strength in rival endeavors. The natural results followed in so incongruous a crowd. Those not accustomed to labor broke down from its hardships. The seekers for pleasure, not finding it in the common toil, rushed into excesses, and imperiled all. The little lake, so attractive to the inexperienced, was soon, with its night vapors, the source of disease. Few knew how to protect themselves from the insidious malaria. Discomfort induced discouragement, and the mental firmness so necessary in facing strange and exacting circumstances gave way. [Sidenote: Columbus sick.] Forebodings added greater energy to the disease. It was not long before the colony was a camp of hospitals, about one half the people being incapacitated for labor. In the midst of all this downheartedness Columbus himself succumbed, and for some weeks was unable to direct the trying state of affairs, except as he could do so in the intervals of his lassitude. But as the weeks went on a better condition was apparent. Work took a more steady aspect. The ships had discharged their burdens. They lay ready for the return voyage. [Sidenote: Sends Ojeda to seek the Cibao mines.] Columbus had depended on the exertions of the little colony at La Navidad to amass a store of gold and other precious commodities with which to laden the returning vessels. He knew the disappointment which would arise if they should carry little else than the dismal tale of disaster. Nothing lay upon his mind more weightily than this mortification and misfortune. There was nothing to be done but to seek the mines of Cibao, for the chance of sending more encouraging reports. Gold had indeed been brought in to the settlement, but only scantily; and its quantity was not suited to make real the gorgeous dreams of the East with which Spain was too familiar. So an expedition to Cibao was organized, and Ojeda was placed in command. The force assigned to him was but fifteen men in all, but each was well armed and courageous. They expected perils, for they had to invade the territory of Caonabo, the destroyer of La Navidad. [Sidenote: 1494. January. First mass.] The march began early in January, 1494; perhaps just after they had celebrated their first solemn mass in a temporary chapel on January 6. For two days their progress was slow and toilsome, through forests without a sign of human life, for the savage denizens had moved back from the vicinity of the Spaniards. The men encamped, the second night, on the top of a mountain, and when the dawn broke they looked down on its further side over a broad valley, with its scattered villages. They boldly descended, and met nothing but hospitality from the villagers. Their course now lay towards and up the opposite slope of the valley. They pushed on without an obstacle. [Sidenote: Gold found.] [Sidenote: Gorvalan's expedition.] The rude inhabitants of the mountains were as friendly as those of the valley. They did not see nor did they hear anything of the great Caonabo. Every stream they passed glittered with particles of gold in its sand. The natives had an expert way of separating the metal, and the Spaniards flattered them for their skill. Occasionally a nugget was found. Ojeda picked up a lump which weighed nine ounces, and Peter Martyr looked upon it wonderingly when it reached Spain. If all this was found on the surface, what must be the wealth in the bowels of these astounding mountains? The obvious answer was what Ojeda hastened back to make to Columbus. A similar story was got from a young cavalier, Gorvalan, who had been dispatched in another direction with another force. There was in all this the foundation of miracles for the glib tongue and lively imagination. One of these exuberant stories reached Coma, and Scillacio makes him say that "the most splendid thing of all (which I should be ashamed to commit to writing, if I had not received it from a trustworthy source) is that, a rock adjacent to a mountain being struck with a club, a large quantity of gold burst out, and particles of gold of indescribable brightness glittered all around the spot. Ojeda was loaded down by means of this outburst." It was stories like these which prepared the way for the future reaction in Spain. [Sidenote: Columbus writes to the sovereigns.] There was material now to give spirit to the dispatch to his sovereigns, and Columbus sat down to write it. It has come down to us, and is printed in Navarrete's collection, just as it was perused by the King and Queen, who entered in the margins their comments and orders. Columbus refers at the beginning to letters already written to their Highnesses, and mentions others addressed to Father Buele and to the treasurer, but they are not known. Then, speaking of the expeditions of Ojeda and Gorvalan, he begs the sovereigns to satisfy themselves of the hopeful prospects for gold by questioning Gorvalan, who was to return with the ships. He advises their Highnesses to return thanks to God for all this. Those personages write in the margin, "Their Highnesses return thanks to God!" He then explains his embarrassment from the sickness of his men,--the "greater part of all," as he adds,--and says that the Indians are very familiar, rambling about the settlement both day and night, necessitating a constant watch. As he makes excuses and gives his reasons for not doing this or that, the compliant monarchs as constantly write against the paragraphs, "He has done well." Columbus says he is building stone bulwarks for defense, and when this is done he shall provide for accumulating gold. "Exactly as should be done," chime in the monarchs. He then asks for fresh provisions to be sent to him, and tells how much they have done in planting. "Fonseca has been ordered to send further seeds," is the comment. He complains that the wine casks had been badly coopered at Seville, and that the wine had all run out, so that wine was their prime necessity. He urges that calves, heifers, asses, working mares, be sent to them; and that above all, to prevent discouragement, the supplies should arrive at Isabella by May, and that particularly medicines should come, as their stock was exhausted. He then refers to the cannibals whom he would send back, and asks that they may be made acquainted with the true faith and taught the Spanish tongue. "His suggestions are good," is the marginal royal comment. [Sidenote: Columbus proposes a trade in slaves.] Now comes the vital point of his dispatch. We want cattle, he says. They can be paid for in Carib slaves. Let yearly caravels conduct this trade. It will be easy, with the boats which are building, to capture a plenty of these savages. Duties can be levied on these importations of slaves. On this point he urges a reply. The monarchs see the fatality of the step, and, according to the marginal comment, suspend judgment and ask the Admiral's further thoughts. "A more distinct suggestion for the establishment of a slave trade was never proposed," is the modern comment of Arthur Helps. Columbus then adds that he has bought for the use of the colony certain of the vessels which brought them out, and these would be retained at Isabella, and used in making further discoveries. The comment is that Fonseca will pay the owners. He then intimates that more care should be exercised in the selection of placemen sent to the colony, for the enterprise had suffered already from unfitness in such matters. The monarchs promise amends. He complains that the Granada lancemen, who offered themselves in Seville mounted on fine horses, had subsequently exchanged these animals to their own personal advantage for inferior horses. He says the footmen made similar exchanges to fill their own pockets. [Sidenote: 1404. January 30. Signs his letter.] [Sidenote: Gold, the Christians' God!] [Sidenote: 1494. February 2. The fleet returns to Spain.] [Sidenote: Chanca's narrative.] So, dating this memorial on January 30, 1494, the man who was ambitious to become the first slave-driver of the New World laid down his quill, praising God, as he asked his sovereigns to do. The poor creatures who wandered in and about among the cabins of the Spaniards were fast forming their own comments, which were quite as astute as those of the Admiral's royal masters. Holding up a piece of gold, the natives learned to say,--and Columbus had given them their first lesson in such philosophy,--"Behold the Christians' God!" Benzoni, the first traveler who came among them with his eyes open, and daring to record the truth, heard them say this. Intrusting his memorial to Antonio de Torres, and putting him in command of the twelve ships that were to return to Spain, Columbus saw the fleet sail away on February 2, 1494. There would seem to have been committed to some one on the ships two other accounts of the results of this second voyage up to this time, which have come down to us. One of these is a narrative by Dr. Chanca, the physician of the colony, whom Columbus, in his memorial to the monarchs, credits with doing good service in his profession at a sacrifice of the larger emoluments which the practice of it had brought to him in Seville. The narrative of Chanca had been sent by him to the cathedral chapter of Seville. The original is thought to be lost; but Navarrete used a transcript which belonged to a collection formed by Father Antonio de Aspa, a monk of the monastery of the Mejorada, where Columbus is known to have deposited some of his papers. Major has given us an English translation of it in his _Select Letters of Columbus_. Major's text will also be found in the late James Lenox's English version of the other account, which he gave to scholars in 1859. [Sidenote: Coma's narrative.] There is a curious misconception in this last document, which represents that Columbus had reached these new regions by the African route of the Portuguese,--a confusion doubtless arising from the imperfect knowledge which the Italian translator, Nicholas Scillacio, had of the current geographical developments. A Spaniard, Guglielmo Coma, seems to have written about the new discoveries in some letters, apparently revived in some way from somebody's personal observation, which Scillacio put into a Latin dress, and published at Pavia, or possibly at Pisa. This little tract is of the utmost rarity, and Mr. Lenox, considering the suggestion of Ronchini, that the blunder of Scillacio may have caused the destruction of the edition, replies by calling attention to the fact that it is scarcely rarer than many other of the contemporary tracts of Columbus's voyage, about which there exists no such reason. [Sidenote: Verde's letters.] We get also some reports by Torres himself on the affairs of the colony in various letters of a Florentine merchant, Simone Verde, to whom he had communicated them. These letters have been recently (1875) found in the archives of Florence, and have been made better known still later by Harrisse. CHAPTER XIII. THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED. 1494. [Sidenote: Life in Isabella.] The departure of the fleet made conspicuous at last a threatening faction of those whose terms of service had prevented their taking passage in the ships. This organized discontent was the natural result of a depressing feeling that all the dreams of ease and plenty which had sustained them in their embarkation were but delusions. Life in Isabella had made many of them painfully conscious of the lack of that success and comfort which had been counted upon. The failure of what in these later days is known as the commissariat was not surprising. With all our modern experience in fitting out great expeditions, we know how often the fate of such enterprises is put in jeopardy by rascally contractors. Their arts, however, are not new ones. Fonseca was not so wary, Columbus was not so exacting, that such arts could not be practiced in Seville, as to-day in London and New York. This jobbery, added to the scant experience of honest endeavor, inevitably brought misfortune and suffering through spoiled provisions and wasted supplies. [Sidenote: Mutinous factions.] The faction, taking advantage of this condition, had two persons for leaders, whose official position gave the body a vantage-ground. Bernal Diaz de Pisa was the comptroller of the colony, and his office permitted him to have an oversight of the Admiral's accounts. It is said that before this time he had put himself in antagonism to authority by questioning some of the doings of the Admiral. He began now to talk to the people of the Admiral's deceptive and exaggerating descriptions intended for effect in Spain, and no doubt represented them to be at least as false as they were. Diaz drew pictures that produced a prevailing gloom beyond what the facts warranted, for deceit is a game of varying extremes. [Sidenote: Their schemes discovered.] He was helped on by the assayer of the colony, Fermin Cado, who spoke as an authority on the poor quality of the gold, and on the Indian habit of amassing it in their families, so that the moderate extent of it which the natives had offered was not the accretions of a day, but the result of the labor of generations. With leaders acting in concert, it had been planned to seize the remaining ships, and to return to Spain. This done, the mutineers expected to justify their conduct by charges against the Admiral, and a statement of them had already been drawn up by Bernal Diaz. The mutiny, however, was discovered, and Columbus had the first of his many experiences in suppressing a revolt. Bernal Diaz was imprisoned on one of the ships, and was carried to Spain for trial. Other leaders were punished in one way and another. To prevent the chances of success in future schemes of revolt, all munitions and implements of war were placed together in one of the ships, under a supervision which Columbus thought he could trust. The prompt action of the Admiral had not been taken without some question of his authority, or at least it was held that he had been injudicious in the exercise of it. The event left a rankling passion among many of the colonists against what was called Columbus's vindictiveness and presumptuous zeal. With it all was the feeling that a foreigner was oppressing them, and was weaving about them the meshes of his arbitrary ambition. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus goes to the gold mines.] [Sidenote: Diego Colon.] Columbus now determined to go himself to the gold regions of the interior. He arranged that Diego, his brother,--another foreigner!--should have the command in his absence. Las Casas pictures for us this younger of the Colombos, and calls him gentle, unobtrusive, and kindly. He allows to him a priest's devotion, but does not consider him quite worldly enough in his dealings with men to secure himself against ungenerous wiles. [Sidenote: 1494. March 12.] It was the 12th of March when Columbus set out on his march. He conducted a military contingent of about 400 well-armed men, including what lancers he could mount. In his train followed an array of workmen, miners, artificers, and porters, with their burdens of merchandise and implements. A mass of the natives hovered about the procession. [Sidenote: Columbus makes a road.] [Sidenote: The Vega Real.] Their progress was as martial as it could be made. Banners were flaunted. Drums and trumpets were sounded. Their armor was made to glisten. Crossing the low land, they came to a defile in the mountain. There was nothing before them but a tortuous native trail winding upward among the rocks and through tangled forest. It was ill suited for the passage of a heavily burdened force. Some of the younger cavaliers sprang to the front, and gathering around them woodmen and pioneers, they opened the way; and thus a road was constructed through the pass, the first made in the New World. This work of the proud cavaliers was called _El puerto de los Hidalgos_. The summit of the mountain afforded afresh the grateful view of the luxuriant valley which had delighted Ojeda,--royally rich as it was in every aspect, and deserving the name which Columbus now gave it of the Vega Real. [Sidenote: Erects a cross.] Here, on the summit of Santo Cerro, the tradition of the island goes that Columbus caused that cross to be erected which the traveler to-day looks upon in one of the side chapels of the cathedral at Santo Domingo. It stood long enough to perform many miracles, as the believers tell us, and was miraculously saved in an earthquake. De Lorgues does not dare to connect the actual erection with the holy trophy of the cathedral. Descending to the lowlands, the little army and its followers attracted the notice of the amazed natives by clangor and parade. This display was made more astounding whenever the horses were set to prancing, as they approached and passed a native hamlet. Las Casas tells us that the first horseman who dismounted was thought by the natives to have parceled out a single creature into convenient parts. The Indians, timid at first, were enticed by a show of trinkets, and played upon by the interpreters. Thus they gradually were won over to repay all kindnesses with food and drink, while they rendered many other kindly services. The army came to a large stream, and Columbus called it the River of Reeds. It was the same which, the year before, knowing it only where it emptied into the sea, he had called the River of Gold, because he had been struck with the shining particles which he found among its sands. Here they encamped. The men bathed. They found everything about them like the dales of Paradise, if we may believe their rehearsals. The landscape was very different from that which Bernal Diaz was to tell of, if only once he got the ears of the Court in Seville. [Sidenote: Cibao mountains.] The river was so wide and deep that the men could not ford it, so they made rafts to take over everything but the horses. These swam the current. Then the force passed on, but was confronted at last by the rugged slopes of the Cibao mountains. The soldiers clambered up the defile painfully and slowly. The pioneers had done what they could to smooth the way, but the ascent was wearying. They could occasionally turn from their toil to look back over this luxuriant valley which they were leaving, and lose their vision in its vast extent. Las Casas describes it as eighty leagues one way, and twenty or thirty the other. [Sidenote: Fort St. Thomas.] It was a scene of bewildering beauty that they left behind; it was one of sterile heights, scraggy pines, and rocky precipices which they entered. The leaders computed that they were eighteen leagues from Isabella, and as Columbus thought he saw signs of gold, amber, lapis lazuli, copper, and one knows not what else of wealth, all about him, he was content to establish his fortified position hereabouts, without pushing farther. He looked around, and found at the foot of one of the declivities of the interior of this mountainous region a fertile plain, with a running river, gurgling over beds of jasper and marble, and in the midst of it a little eminence, which he could easily fortify, as the river nearly surrounded it like a natural ditch. Here he built his fort. Recent travelers say that an overgrowth of trees now covers traces of its foundations. The fortress was, as he believed, so near the gold that one could see it with his eyes and touch it with his hands, and so, as Las Casas tells us, he named it St. Thomas. The Indians had already learned to recognize the Christian's god. They found the golden deity in bits in the streams. They took the idol tenderly to his militant people. For their part, the poor natives much preferred rings and hawks' bells, and so a basis of traffic was easily found. In this way Columbus got some gold, but he more readily got stories of other spots, whither the natives pointed vaguely, where nuggets, which would dwarf all these bits, could be found. Columbus began to wonder why he never reached the best places. [Sidenote: Country examined.] [Sidenote: Columbus returns to Isabella.] The Spaniards soon got to know the region better. Juan de Luxan, who had been sent out with a party to see what he could find, reported that the region was mountainous and in its upper parts sterile, to be sure, but that there were delicious valleys, and plenty of land to cultivate, and pasturing enough for herds. When he came back with these reports, the men put a good deal of heart in the work which they were bestowing on the citadel of St. Thomas, so that it was soon done. Pedro Margarite was placed in command with fifty-six men, and then Columbus started to return to Isabella. [Sidenote: Natives of the valley.] When the Admiral reached the valley, he met a train of supplies going forward to St. Thomas, and as there were difficulties of fording and other obstacles, he spent some time in examining the country and marking out lines of communication. This brought him into contact with the villages of the valley, and he grew better informed of the kind of people among whom his colonists were to live. He did not, however, discern that under a usually pacific demeanor there was no lack of vigorous determination in this people, which it might not be so wise to irritate to the point of vengeance. He found, too, that they had a religion, perhaps prompting to some virtues he little suspected in his own, and that they jealously guarded their idols. He discovered that experience had given them no near acquaintance with the medicinal properties of the native herbs and trees. They associated myths with places, and would tell you that the sun and moon were but creatures of their island which had escaped from one of their caverns, and that mankind had sprung from the crannies of their rocky places. The bounteousness of nature, causing little care for the future, had spread among them a love of hospitality, and Columbus found himself welcome everywhere, and continued to be so till he and his abused their privileges. [Sidenote: 1494. March 29. Columbus in Isabella.] On the 29th of March, Columbus was back in Isabella, to find that the plantings of January were already yielding fruits, and the colony, in its agricultural aspects, at least, was promising, for the small areas that had already been cultivated. But the tidings from the new fort in the mountains which had just come in by messenger were not so cheering, for it seemed to be the story of La Navidad repeated. The license and exactions of the garrison had stirred up the neighboring natives, and Pedro Margarite, in his message, showed his anxiety lest Caonabo should be able to mass the savages, exasperated by their wrongs, in an attack upon the post. Columbus sent a small reinforcement to St. Thomas, and dispatched a force to make a better road thither, in order to facilitate any future operations. [Sidenote: Condition of the town.] The Admiral's more immediate attention was demanded by the condition of Isabella. Intermittent fever and various other disturbances incident to a new turning of a reeking soil were making sad ravages in the colony. The work of building suffered in consequence. The sick engrossed the attention of men withdrawn from their active labors, or they were left to suffer from the want of such kindly aid. The humidity of the climate and a prodigal waste had brought provisions so low that an allowance even of the unwholesome stock which remained was made necessary. In order to provide against impending famine, men were taken from the public works and put to labor on a mill, in order that they might get flour. No respect was paid to persons, and cavalier and priest were forced into the common service. The Admiral was obliged to meet the necessities by compulsory measures, for even an obvious need did not prevent the indifferent from shirking, and the priest and hidalgo from asserting their privileged rights. Any authority that enforced sacrifice galled the proud spirits, and the indignity of labor caused a mortification and despair that soon thinned the ranks of the best blood of the colony. Dying voices cursed the delusion which had brought them to the New World, the victims, as they claimed, of the avarice and deceit of a hated alien to their race. [Sidenote: Ojeda sent to St. Thomas.] Supineness in the commander would have brought everything in the colony to a disastrous close. A steady progression of some sort might be remedial. The Admiral's active mind determined on the diversion of further exploration with such a force as could be equipped. He mustered a little army, consisting of 250 men armed with crossbows, 100 with matchlocks, 16 mounted lancemen, and 20 officers. Ojeda was put at their head, with orders to lead them to St. Thomas, which post he was to govern while Margarite took the expeditionary party and scoured the country. Navarrete has preserved for us the instructions which Columbus imparted. They counseled a considerate regard for the natives, who must, however, be made to furnish all necessaries at fair prices. Above all, every Spaniard must be prevented from engaging in private trade, since the profits of such bartering were reserved to the Crown, and it did not help Columbus in his dealings with the refractory colonists to have it known that a foreign interloper, like himself, shared this profit with the Crown. Margarite was also told that he must capture, by force or stratagem, the cacique Caonabo and his brothers. [Sidenote: 1494. April 9.] When Ojeda, who had started on April 9, reached the Vega Real, he learned that three Spaniards, returning from St. Thomas, had been robbed by a party of Indians, people of a neighboring cacique. Ojeda seized the offenders, the ears of one of whom he cut off, and then capturing the cacique himself and some of his family, he sent the whole party to Isabella. Columbus took prompt revenge, or made the show of doing so; but just as the sentence of execution was to be inflicted, he yielded to the importunities of another cacique, and thought to keep by it his reputation for clemency. Presently another horseman came in from St. Thomas, who, on his way, had rescued, single-handed and with the aid of the terror which his animal inspired, another party of five Spaniards, whom he had found in the hands of the same tribe. [Sidenote: Diego and the junto.] Such easy conquests convinced Columbus that only proper prudence was demanded to maintain the Spanish supremacy with even a diminished force. He had not forgotten the fears of the Portuguese which were harassing the Spanish Court when he left Seville, and, to anticipate them, he was anxious to make a more thorough examination of Cuba, which was a part of the neighboring main of Cathay, as he was ready to suppose. He therefore commissioned a sort of junto to rule, while in person he should conduct such an expedition by water. His brother Diego was placed in command during his absence, and he gave him four counselors, Father Boyle, Pedro Fernandez Coronel, Alonso Sanchez Carvajal, and Juan de Luxan. He took three caravels, the smallest of his little fleet, as better suited to explore, and left the two large ones behind. [Sidenote: 1494. April 24. Columbus sails for Cuba.] It was April 24 when Columbus sailed from Isabella, and at once he ran westerly. He stopped at his old fort, La Navidad, but found that Guacanagari avoided him, and no time could be lost in discovering why. On the 29th, he left Española behind and struck across to the Cuban shore. Here, following the southern side of that island, he anchored first in a harbor where there were preparations for a native feast; but the people fled when he landed, and the not overfed Spaniards enjoyed the repast that was abandoned. The Lucayan interpreter, who was of the party, managed after a while to allure a single Indian, more confident than the rest, to approach; and when this Cuban learned from one of a similar race the peaceful purposes of the Spaniards, he went and told others, and so in a little while Columbus was able to hold a parley with a considerable group. He caused reparation to be made for the food which his men had taken, and then exchanged farewells with the astounded folk. [Sidenote: 1494. May 1. On the Cuban coast.] On May 1, he raised anchor, and coasted still westerly, keeping near the shore. The country grew more populous. The amenities of his intercourse with the feast-makers had doubtless been made known along the coast, and as a result he was easily kept supplied with fresh fruits by the natives. Their canoes constantly put off from the shore as the ships glided by. He next anchored in the harbor which was probably that known to-day as St. Jago de Cuba, where he received the same hospitality, and dispensed the same store of trinkets in return. [Sidenote: 1494. May 3. Steers for Jamaica.] Here, as elsewhere along the route, the Lucayan had learned from the natives that a great island lay away to the south, which was the source of what gold they had. The information was too frequently repeated to be casual, and so, on May 3, Columbus boldly stood off shore, and brought his ships to a course due south. [Sidenote: Natives of Jamaica.] [Sidenote: A dog set upon them.] [Sidenote: Santiago or Jamaica.] [Sidenote: Character of natives.] It was not long before thin blue films appeared on the horizon. They deepened and grew into peaks. It was two days before the ships were near enough to their massive forms to see the signs of habitations everywhere scattered along the shore. The vessels stood in close to the land. A native flotilla hovered about, at first with menaces, but their occupants were soon won to friendliness by kindly signs. Not so, however, in the harbor, where, on the next day, he sought shelter and an opportunity to careen a leaky ship. Here the shore swarmed with painted men, and some canoes with feathered warriors advanced to oppose a landing. They hurled their javelins without effect, and filled the air with their screams and whoops. Columbus then sent in his boats nearer the shore than his ships could go, and under cover of a discharge from his bombards a party landed, and with their crossbows put the Indians to flight. Bernaldez tells that a dog was let loose upon the savages, and this is the earliest mention of that canine warfare which the Spaniards later made so sanguinary. Columbus now landed and took possession of the island under the name of Santiago, but the name did not supplant the native Jamaica. The warning lesson had its effect, and the next day some envoys of the cacique of the region made offers of amity, which were readily accepted. For three days this friendly intercourse was kept up, with the customary exchange of gifts. The Spaniards could but observe a marked difference in the character of this new people. They were more martial and better sailors than any they had seen since they left the Carib islands. The enormous mahogany-trees of the islands furnished them with trunks, out of which they constructed the largest canoes. Columbus saw one which was ninety-six feet long and eight broad. There was also in these people a degree of merriment such as the Spaniards had not noticed before, more docility and quick apprehension, and Peter Martyr gathered from those with whom he had talked that in almost all ways they seemed a manlier and experter race. Their cloth, utensils, and implements were of a character not differing from others the explorers had seen, but of better handiwork. As soon as he floated his ship, Columbus again stretched his course to the west, finding no further show of resistance. The native dugout sallied forth to trade from every little inlet which was passed. Finally, a youth came off and begged to be taken to the Spaniards' home, and the _Historie_ tells us that it was not without a scene of distress that he bade his kinsfolk good-by, in spite of all their endeavors to reclaim him. Columbus was struck with the courage and confidence of the youth, and ordered special kindnesses to be shown to him. We hear nothing more of the lad. [Sidenote: Columbus returns to Cuba.] [Sidenote: 1494. May 18.] [Sidenote: The Queen's Gardens.] Reaching now the extreme westerly end of Jamaica, and finding the wind setting right for Cuba, Columbus shifted his course thither, and bore away to the north. On the 18th of May, he was once more on its coast. The people were everywhere friendly. They told him that Cuba was an island, but of such extent that they had never seen the end of it. This did not convince Columbus that it was other than the mainland. So he went on towards the west, in full confidence that he would come to Cathay, or at least, such seemed his expectation. He presently rounded a point, and saw before him a large archipelago. He was now at that point where the Cabo de la Cruz on the south and this archipelago in the northwest embay a broad gulf. The islands seemed almost without number, and they studded the sea with verdant spots. He called them the Queen's Gardens. He could get better seaway by standing further south, and so pass beyond the islands; but suspecting that they were the very islands which lay in masses along the coast of Cathay, as Marco Polo and Mandeville had said, he was prompted to risk the intricacies of their navigation; so he clung to the shore, and felt that without doubt he was verging on the territories of the Great Khan. He began soon to apprehend his risks. The channels were devious. The shoals perplexed him. There was often no room to wear ship, and the boats had to tow the caravels at intervals to clearer water. They could not proceed at all without throwing the lead. The wind was capricious, and whirled round the compass with the sun. Sudden tempests threatened danger. With all this anxiety, there was much to beguile. Every aspect of nature was like the descriptions of the East in the travelers' tales. The Spaniards looked for inhabitants, but none were to be seen. At last they espied a village on one of the islands, but on landing (May 22), not a soul could be found,--only the spoils of the sea which a fishing people would be likely to gather. Another day, they met a canoe from which some natives were fishing. The men came on board without trepidation and gave the Spaniards what fish they wanted. They had a wonderful way of catching fish. They used a live fish much as a falcon is used in catching its quarry. This fish would fasten itself to its prey by suckers growing about the head. The native fishermen let it out with a line attached to its tail, and pulled in both the catcher and the caught when the prey had been seized. These people also told the same story of the interminable extent westerly of the Cuban coast. [Sidenote: 1494. June 3.] [Sidenote: Men with tails.] Columbus now passed out from among these islands and steered towards a mountainous region, where he again landed and opened intercourse with a pacific tribe on June 3. An old cacique repeated the same story of the illimitable land, and referred to the province of Mangon as lying farther west. This name was enough to rekindle the imagination of the Admiral. Was not Mangi the richest of the provinces that Sir John Mandeville had spoken of? He learned also that a people with tails lived there, just as that veracious narrator had described, and they wore long garments to conceal that appendage. What a sight a procession of these Asiatics would make in another reception at the Spanish Court! [Sidenote: Gulf of Xagua.] [Sidenote: White-robed men.] There was nothing now to impede the progress of the caravels, and on the vessels went in their westward course. Every day the crews got fresh fruits from the friendly canoes. They paid nothing for the balmy odors from the land. They next came to the Gulf of Xagua, and passing this they again sailed into shallow waters, whitened with the floating sand, which the waves kept in suspension. The course of the ships was tortuous among the bars, and they felt relieved when at last they found a place where their anchors would hold. To make sure that a way through this labyrinth could be found, Columbus sent his smallest caravel ahead, and then following her guidance, the little fleet, with great difficulty, and not without much danger at times, came out into clearer water. Later, he saw a deep bay on his right, and tacking across the opening he lay his course for some distant mountains. Here he anchored to replenish his water-casks. An archer straying into the forest came back on the run, saying that he had seen white-robed people. Here, then, thought Columbus, were the people who were concealing their tails! He sent out two parties to reconnoitre. They found nothing but a tangled wilderness. It has been suggested that the timorous and credulous archer had got half a sight of a flock of white cranes feeding in a savanna. Such is the interpretation of this story by Irving, and Humboldt tells us there is enough in his experience with the habits of these birds to make it certain that the interpretation is warranted. [Sidenote: Columbus believes he sees the Golden Chersonesus,] Still the Admiral went on westerly, opening communication occasionally with the shore, but to little advantage in gathering information, for the expedition had gone beyond the range of dialects where the Lucayan interpreter could be of service. The shore people continued to point west, and the most that could be made of their signs was that a powerful king reigned in that direction, and that he wore white robes. This is the story as Bernaldez gives it; and Columbus very likely thought it a premonition of Prester John. The coast still stretched to the setting sun, if Columbus divined the native signs aright, but no one could tell how far. The sea again became shallow, and the keels of the caravels stirred up the bottom. The accounts speak of wonderful crowds of tortoises covering the water, pigeons darkening the sky, and gaudy butterflies sweeping about in clouds. The shore was too low for habitation; but they saw smoke and other signs of life in the high lands of the interior. When the coast line began to trend to the southwest,--it was Marco Polo who said it would,--there could be little doubt that the Golden Chersonesus of the ancients, which we know to-day as the Malacca peninsula, must be beyond. [Sidenote: by which he would return to Spain.] What next? was the thought which passed through the fevered brain of the Admiral. He had an answer in his mind, and it would make a new sensation for his poor colony at Isabella to hear of him in Spain. Passing the Golden Chersonesus, had he not the alternative of steering homeward by way of Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope, and so astound the Portuguese more than he did when he entered the Tagus? Or, abandoning the Indian Ocean and entering the Red Sea, could he not proceed to its northern extremity, and there, deserting his ships, join a caravan passing through Jerusalem and Jaffa, and so embark again on the Mediterranean and sail into Barcelona, a more wonderful explorer than before? These were the sublimating thoughts that now buoyed the Admiral, as he looked along the far-stretching coast,--or at least his friend Bernaldez got this impression from his intercourse with Columbus after his return to Spain. [Sidenote: His crew rebel.] If the compliant spirit of his crew had not been exhausted, he would perhaps have gone on, and would have been forced by developments to a revision of his geographical faith. His vessels, unfortunately, were strained in all their seams. Their leaks had spoiled his provisions. Incessant labor had begun to tell upon the health of the crew. They much preferred the chances of a return to Isabella, with all its hazards, than a sight of Jaffa and the Mediterranean, with the untold dangers of getting there. The Admiral, however, still pursued his course for a few days more to a point, as Humboldt holds, opposite the St. Philip Keys, when, finding the coast trending sharply to the southwest, and his crew becoming clamorous, he determined to go no farther. [Sidenote: 1494. June 12. He turns back.] It was now the 12th of June, 1494, and if we had nothing but the _Historie_ to guide us, we should be ignorant of the singular turn which affairs took. Whoever wrote that book had, by the time it was written, become conscious that obliviousness was sometimes necessary to preserve the reputation of the Admiral. The strange document which interests us, however, has not been lost, and we can read it in Navarrete. [Sidenote: Enforces an oath upon his men] It is not difficult to understand the disquietude of Columbus's mind. He had determined to find Cathay as a counterpoise to the troubled conditions at Isabella, both to assuage the gloomy forebodings of the colonists and to reassure the public mind in Spain, which might receive, as he knew, a shock by the reports which Torres's fleet had carried to Europe. He had been forced by a mutinous crew to a determination to turn back, but his discontented companions might be complacent enough to express an opinion, if not complacent enough to run farther hazards. So Columbus committed himself to the last resort of deluded minds, when dealing with geographical or historical problems,--that of seeking to establish the truth by building monuments, placing inscriptions, and certifications under oath. He caused the eighty men who constituted the crew of his little squadron--and we find their name in Duro's _Colón y Pinzón_--to swear before a notary that it was possible to go from Cuba to Spain by land, across Asia. [Sidenote: that Cuba is a continent.] It was solemnly affirmed by this official that if any should swerve from this belief, the miserable skeptic, if an officer, should be fined 10,000 maravedis; and if a sailor, he should receive a hundred lashes and have his tongue pulled out. Such were the scarcely heroic measures that Columbus thought it necessary to employ if he would dispel any belief that all these islands of the Indies were but an ocean archipelago after all, and that the width of the unknown void between Europe and Asia, which he was so confident he had traversed, was yet undetermined. To make Cuba a continent by affidavit was easy; to make it appear the identical kingdom of the Great Khan, he hoped would follow. During his first voyage, so far as he could make out an intelligible statement from what the natives indicated, he was of the opinion that Cuba was an island. It is to be feared that he had now reached a state of mind in which he did not dare to think it an island. If we believe the _Historie_,--or some passages in it, at least,--written, as we know, after the geography of the New World was fairly understood, and if we accept the evidence of the copyist, Herrera, Columbus never really supposed he was in Asia. If this is true, he took marvelous pains to deceive others by appearing to be deceived himself, as this notarial exhibition and his solemn asseveration to the Pope in 1502 show. The writers just cited say that he simply juggled the world by giving the name India to these regions, as better suited to allure emigration. Such testimony, if accepted, establishes the fraudulent character of these notarial proceedings. It is fair to say, however, that he wrote to Peter Martyr, just after the return of the caravels to Isabella, expressing a confident belief in his having come near to the region of the Ganges; and divesting the testimony of all the jugglery with which others have invested it, there seems little doubt that in this belief, at least, Columbus was sincere. * * * * * [Illustration: MASS ON SHORE. [From Philoponus's _Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio_.]] [Sidenote: 1494. June 13.] [Sidenote: 1494. June 30.] [Sidenote: 1494. July 7.] On the next day, Columbus, standing to the southeast, reached a large island, the present Isle of Pines, which he called Evangelista. In endeavoring to skirt it on the south, he was entangled once more in a way that made him abandon the hope of a directer passage to Española that way, and to resolve to follow the coast back as he had come. He lost ten days in these uncertain efforts, which, with his provisions rapidly diminishing, did not conduce to reassure his crew. On June 30, trying to follow the intricacies of the channels which had perplexed him before, the Admiral's ship got a severe thump on the bottom, which for a while threatened disaster. She was pulled through, however, by main force, and after a while was speeding east in clear water. They had now sailed beyond those marshy reaches of the coast, where they were cut off from intercourse with the shore, and hoped soon to find a harbor, where food and rest might restore the strength of the crew. Their daily allowance had been reduced to a pound of mouldy bread and a swallow or two of wine. It was the 7th of July when they anchored in an acceptable harbor. Here they landed, and interchanged the customary pledges of amity with a cacique who presented himself on the shore. Men having been sent to cut down some trees, a large cross was made, and erected in a grove, and on this spot, with a crowd of natives looking on, the Spaniard celebrated high mass. A venerable Indian, who watched all the ceremonials with close attention, divining their religious nature, made known to the Admiral, through the Lucayan interpreter, something of the sustaining belief of his own people, in words that were impressive. Columbus's confidence in the incapacity of the native mind for such high conceptions as this poor Indian manifested received a grateful shock when the old man, grave in his manner and unconscious in his dignity, pictured the opposite rewards of the good and bad in another world. Then turning to the Admiral, he reminded him that wrong upon the unoffending was no passport to the blessings of the future. The historian who tells us this story, and recounts how it impressed the Admiral, does not say that its warnings troubled him much in the times to come, when the unoffending were grievously wronged. Perhaps there was something of this forgetful spirit in the taking of a young Indian away from his friends, as the chroniclers say he did, in this very harbor. [Sidenote: 1494. July 16.] [Sidenote: 1494. July 18.] [Sidenote: On the coast of Jamaica.] On July 16, Columbus left the harbor, and steering off shore to escape the intricate channels of the Queen's Gardens which he was now re-approaching, he soon found searoom, and bore away toward Española. A gale coming on, the caravels were forced in shore, and discovered an anchorage under Cabo de Cruz. Here they remained for three days, but the wind still blowing from the east, Columbus thought it a good opportunity to complete the circuit of Jamaica. He accordingly stood across towards that island. He was a month in beating to the eastward along its southern coast, for the winds were very capricious. Every night he anchored under the land, and the natives supplied him with provisions. At one place, a cacique presented himself in much feathered finery, accompanied by his wife and relatives, with a retinue bedizened in the native fashion, and doing homage to the Admiral. It was shown how effective the Lucayan's pictures of Spanish glory and prowess had been, when the cacique proposed to put himself and all his train in the Admiral's charge for passage to the great country of the Spanish King. The offer was rather embarrassing to the Admiral, with his provisions running low, and his ships not of the largest. He relieved himself by promising to conform to the wishes of the cacique at a more opportune moment. [Sidenote: 1494. August 19.] [Sidenote: Española.] [Sidenote: 1494. August 23.] [Sidenote: Alto Velo.] By the 19th of August, Columbus had passed the easternmost extremity of Jamaica, and on the next day he was skirting the long peninsula which juts from the southwestern angle of Española. He was not, however, aware of his position till on the 23d a cacique came off to the caravels, and addressed Columbus by his title, with some words of Castilian interlarded in his speech. It was now made clear that the ships had nearly reached their goal, and nothing was left but to follow the circuit of the island. It was no easy task to do so with a wornout crew and crazy ships. The little fleet was separated in a gale, and when Columbus made the lofty rocky island which is now known as Alto Velo, resembling as it does in outline a tall ship under sail, he ran under its lee, and sent a boat ashore, with orders for the men to scale its heights, to learn if the missing caravels were anywhere to be seen. This endeavor was without result, but it was not long before the fleet was reunited. Further on, the Admiral learned from the natives that some of the Spaniards had been in that part of the island, coming from the other side. Finding thus through the native reports that all was quiet at Isabella, he landed nine men to push across the island and report his coming. Somewhat further to the east, a storm impending, he found a harbor, where the weather forced him to remain for eight days. The Admiral's vessel had succeeded in entering a roadstead, but the others lay outside, buffeting the storm,--naturally a source of constant anxiety to him. [Sidenote: Columbus observes eclipse of the moon.] It was while in this suspense that Columbus took advantage of an eclipse of the moon, to ascertain his longitude. His calculations made him five hours and a half west of Seville,--an hour and a quarter too much, making an error of eighteen degrees. This mistake was quite as likely owing to the rudeness of his method as to the pardonable errors of the lunar tables of Regiomontanus (Venice, 1492), then in use. These tables followed methods which had more or less controlled calculations from the time of Hipparchus. The error of Columbus is not surprising. Even a century later, when Robert Hues published his treatise on the Molineaux globe (1592), the difficulties were in large part uncontrollable. "The most certain of all for this purpose," says this mathematician, "is confessed by all writers to be by eclipses of the moon. But now these eclipses happen but seldom, but are more seldom seen, yet most seldom and in very few places observed by the skillful artists in this science. So that there are but few longitudes of places designed out by this means. But this is an uncertain and ticklish way, and subject to many difficulties. Others have gone other ways to work, as, namely, by observing the space of the equinoctial hours betwixt the meridians of two places, which they conceive may be taken by the help of sundials, or clocks, or hourglasses, either with water or sand or the like. But all these conceits, long since devised, having been more strictly and accurately examined, have been disallowed and rejected by all learned men--at least those of riper judgments--as being altogether unable to perform that which is required of them. I shall not stand here to discover the errors and uncertainties of these instruments. Away with all such trifling, cheating rascals!" [Sidenote: 1494. September 24.] [Sidenote: Columbus reaches Isabella.] The weather moderating, Columbus stood out of the channel of Saona on September 24, and meeting the other caravels, which had weathered the storm, he still steered to the east. They reached the farthest end of Española opposite Porto Rico, and ran out to the island of Mona, in the channel between the two larger islands. Shortly after leaving Mona, Columbus, worn with the anxieties of a five months' voyage, in which his nervous excitement and high hopes had sustained him wonderfully, began to feel the reaction. His near approach to Isabella accelerated this recoil, till his whole system suddenly succumbed. He lay in a stupor, knowing little, remembering nothing, his eyes dim and vitality oozing. Under other command, the little fleet sorrowfully, but gladly, entered the harbor of Isabella. Our most effective source for the history of this striking cruise is the work of Bernaldez, already referred to. CHAPTER XIV. THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED. 1494-1496. [Sidenote: 1494. September 29. Columbus in Isabella.] It was the 29th of September, 1494, when the "Nina," with the senseless Admiral on board, and her frail consorts stood into the harbor of Isabella. Taken ashore, the sick man found no restorative like the presence of his brother Bartholomew, who had reached Isabella during the Admiral's absence. [Sidenote: Finds Bartholomew Columbus there.] [Sidenote: Bartholomew's career in England.] Several years had elapsed since the two congenial brothers had parted. We have seen that this brother had probably been with Bartholomew Diaz when he discovered the African cape. It is supposed, from the inscriptions on it, that the map delivered by Bartholomew to Henry VII. had shown the results of Diaz's discoveries. This chart had been taken to England, when Bartholomew had gone thither, to engage the interest of Henry VII. in Columbus's behalf. There is some obscurity about the movements of Bartholomew at this time, but there is thought by some to be reason to believe that he finally got sufficient encouragement from that Tudor prince to start for Spain with offers for his brother. The _Historie_ tells us that the propositions of Bartholomew were speedily accepted by Henry, and this statement prevails in the earlier English writers, like Hakluyt and Bacon; but Oviedo says the scheme was derided, and Geraldini says it was declined. Bartholomew reached Paris just at the time when word had come there of Columbus's return from his first voyage. His kinship to the Admiral, and his own expositions of the geographical problem then attracting so much attention, drew him within the influence of the French court, and Charles VIII. is said to have furnished him the means--as Bartholomew was then low in purse--to pursue his way to Spain. [Sidenote: In Spain.] He was, however, too late to see the Admiral, who had already departed from Cadiz on this second voyage. Finding that it had been arranged for his brother's sons to be pages at Court, he sought them, and in company with them he presented himself before the Spanish monarchs at Valladolid. These sovereigns were about fitting out a supply fleet for Española, and Bartholomew was put in command of an advance section of it. Sailing from Cadiz on April 30, 1494, with three caravels, he reached Isabella on St. John's Day, after the Admiral had left for his western cruise. [Sidenote: His character.] [Sidenote: Created Adelantado.] If it was prudent for Columbus to bring another foreigner to his aid, he found in Bartholomew a fitter and more courageous spirit than Diego possessed. The Admiral was pretty sure now to have an active and fearless deputy, sterner, indeed, in his habitual bearing than Columbus, and with a hardihood both of spirit and body that fitted him for command. These qualities were not suited to pacify the haughty hidalgos, but they were merits which rendered him able to confront the discontent of all settlers, and gave him the temper to stand in no fear of them. He brought to the government of an ill-assorted community a good deal that the Admiral lacked. He was soberer in his imagination; not so prone to let his wishes figure the future; more practiced, if we may believe Las Casas, in the arts of composition, and able to speak and write much more directly and comprehensibly than his brother. He managed men better, and business proceeded more regularly under his control, and he contrived to save what was possible from the wreck of disorder into which his brother's unfitness for command had thrown the colony. This is the man whom Las Casas enables us to understand, through the traits of character which he depicts. Columbus was now to create this brother his representative, in certain ways, with the title of Adelantado. It was also no small satisfaction to the Admiral, in his present weakness, to learn of the well-being of his children, and of the continued favor with which he was held at Court, little anticipating the resentment of Ferdinand that an office of the rank of Adelantado should be created by any delegated authority. [Sidenote: Papal Bull of Extension.] Columbus had pursued his recent explorations in some measure to forestall what he feared the Portuguese might be led to attempt in the same direction, for he had not been unaware of the disturbance in the court at Lisbon which the papal line of demarcation had created. He was glad now to learn from his brother that his own fleet had hardly got to sea from Cadiz, in September, 1493, when the Pope, by another bull on the 26th of that month, had declared that all countries of the eastern Indies which the Spaniards might find, in case they were not already in Christian hands, should be included in the grant made to Spain. This Bull of Extension, as it was called, was a new thorn in the side of Portugal, and time would reveal its effect. Alexander had resisted all importunities to recede from his position, taken in May. * * * * * [Sidenote: Events in Española during the absence of Columbus.] Let us look now at what had happened in Española during the absence of Columbus; but in the first place, we must mark out the native division of the island with whose history Columbus's career is so associated. Just back of Isabella, and about the Vega Real, whose bewildering beauties of grove and savanna have excited the admiration of modern visitors, lay the territory tributary to a cacique named Guarionex, which was bounded south by the Cibao gold mountains. South of these interior ridges and extending to the southern shore of the island lay the region (Maguana) of the most warlike of all the native princes, Caonabo, whose wife, Anacaona, was a sister of Behechio, who governed Xaragua, as the larger part of the southern coast, westward of Caonabo's domain, including the long southwestern peninsula, was called. The northeastern part of the island (Marien) was subject to Guacanagari, the cacique neighboring to La Navidad. The eastern end (Higuay) of the island was under the domination of a chief named Cotabanana. It will be remembered that before starting for Cuba the Admiral had equipped an expedition, which, when it arrived at St. Thomas, was to be consigned to the charge of Pedro Margarite. This officer had instructions to explore the mountains of Cibao, and map out its resources. He was not to harass the natives by impositions, but he was to make them fear his power. It was also his business to avoid reducing the colony's supplies by making the natives support this exploring force. If he could not get this support by fair means, he was to use foul means. Such instructions were hazardous enough; but Margarite was not the man to soften their application. He had even failed to grasp the spirit of the instructions which had been given by Columbus to ensnare Caonabo, which were "as thoroughly base and treacherous as could well be imagined," says Helps, and the reader can see them in Navarrete. [Illustration: NATIVE DIVISIONS OF ESPAÑOLA. [From Charlevoix's _L'Isle Espagnole_, Amsterdam, 1733.]] This commander had spent his time mainly among the luxurious scenes of the Vega Real, despoiling its tribes of their provisions, and squandering the energies of his men in sensual diversions. The natives, who ought to have been his helpers, became irritated at his extortions and indignant at the invasion of their household happiness. The condition in the tribes which this riotous conduct had induced looked so threatening that Diego Columbus, as president of the council, wrote to Margarite in remonstrance, and reminded him of the Admiral's instructions to explore the mountains. [Sidenote: Factions.] The haughty Spaniard, taking umbrage at what he deemed an interference with his independent command, readily lent himself to the faction inimical to Columbus. With his aid and with that of Father Boyle, a brother Catalonian, who had proved false to his office as a member of the ruling council and even finally disregardful of the royal wishes that he should remain in the colony, an uneasy party was soon banded together in Isabella. The modern French canonizers, in order to reconcile the choice by the Pope of this recusant priest, claim that his Holiness, or the king for him, confounded a Benedictine and Franciscan priest of the same name, and that the Benedictine was an unlucky changeling--perhaps even purposely--for the true monk of the Franciscans. In the face of Diego, this cabal found little difficulty in planning to leave the island for Spain in the ships which had come with Bartholomew Columbus. Diego had no power to meet with compulsion the defiance of these mutineers, and was subjected to the sore mortification of seeing the rebels sail out of the harbor for Spain. There was left to Diego, however, some satisfaction in feeling that such dangerous ringleaders were gone; but it was not unaccompanied with anxiety to know what effect their representations would have at Court. A like anxiety now became poignant in the Admiral's mind, on his return. The stories which Diego and Bartholomew were compelled to tell Columbus of the sequel of this violent abandonment of the colony were sad ones. The license which Pedro Margarite had permitted became more extended, when the little armed force of the colony found itself without military restraint. It soon disbanded in large part, and lawless squads of soldiers were scattered throughout the country, wherever passion or avarice could find anything to prey upon. The long-suffering Indians soon reached the limits of endurance. A few acts of vengeance encouraged them to commit others, and everywhere small parties of the Spaniards were cut off as they wandered about for food and lustful conquests. The inhabitants of villages turned upon such stragglers as abused their hospitalities. Houses where they sheltered themselves were fired. Detached posts were besieged. [Sidenote: Caonabo and Fort St. Thomas.] While this condition prevailed, Caonabo planned to surprise Fort St. Thomas. Ojeda, here in control with fifty men, commanded about the only remnant of the Spanish forces which acknowledged the discipline of a competent leader. The vigilant Ojeda did not fail to get intelligence of Caonabo's intentions. He made new vows to the Virgin, before an old Flemish picture of Our Lady which hung in his chamber in the fort, and which never failed to encourage him, wherever he tarried or wherever he strayed. Every man was under arms, and every eye was alert, when their commander, as great in spirit as he was diminutive in stature, marshaled his fifty men along his ramparts, as Caonabo with his horde of naked warriors advanced to surprise him. The outraged cacique was too late. No unclothed natives dared to come within range of the Spanish crossbows and arquebuses. Ojeda met every artful and stealthy approach by a sally that dropped the bravest of Caonabo's warriors. The cacique next tried to starve the Spaniards out. His parties infested every path, and if a foraging force came out, or one of succor endeavored to get in, multitudes of the natives foiled the endeavor. Famine was impending in the fort. The procrastinations of the arts of beleaguering always help the white man behind his ramparts, when the savage is his enemy. The native force dwindled under the delays, and Caonabo at last abandoned the siege. [Sidenote: Caonabo's league.] The native leader now gave himself to a larger enterprise. His spies told him of the weakened condition of Isabella, and he resolved to form a league of the principal caciques of the island to attack that settlement. Wherever the Spaniards had penetrated, they had turned the friendliest feelings into hatred, and in remote parts of the island the reports of the Spanish ravages served, almost as much as the experience of them, to embitter the savage. It was no small success for Caonabo to make the other caciques believe that the supernatural character of the Spaniards would not protect them if a combined attack should be arranged. He persuaded all of them but Guacanagari, for that earliest friend of Columbus remained firm in his devotion to the Spaniards. The Admiral's confidence in him had not been misplaced. He was subjected to attacks by the other chieftains, but his constancy survived them all. In these incursions of his neighbors, his wives were killed and captured, and among them the dauntless Catalina, as is affirmed; but his zeal for his white neighbors did not abate. [Sidenote: Columbus and Guacanagari.] When Guacanagari heard that Columbus had returned, he repaired to Isabella, and from this faithful ally the Admiral learned of the plans which were only waiting further developments for precipitate action. [Sidenote: Fort Conception.] Columbus, thus forewarned, was eager to break any confederacy of the Indians before it could gather strength. He had hardly a leader disengaged whom he could send on the warpath. It was scarcely politic to place Bartholomew in any such command over the few remaining Spanish cavaliers whose spirit was so necessary to any military adventure. He sent a party, however, to relieve a small garrison near the villages of Guatiguana, a tributary chief to the great cacique Guarionex; but the party resorted to the old excesses, and came near defeating the purposes of Columbus. Guatiguana was prevailed upon, however, to come to the Spanish settlement, and Columbus, to seal his agreement of amity with him, persuaded him to let the Lucayan interpreter marry his daughter. To this diplomatic arrangement the Admiral added the more powerful argument of a fort, called La Concepcion, which he later built where it could command the Vega Real. * * * * * [Sidenote: Torres's ships arrive.] It was not long before four ships, with Antonio Torres in command, arrived from Spain, bringing a new store of provisions, another physician, and more medicines, and, what was much needed, artificers and numerous gardeners. There was some hope now that the soil could be made to do its part in the support of the colony. [Sidenote: 1494. June 7. Treaty of Tordesillas.] To the Admiral came a letter, dated August 16, from Ferdinand and Isabella, giving him notice that all the difficulties with Portugal had been amicably adjusted. The court of Lisbon, finding that Pope Alexander was not inclined to recede from his position, and Spain not courting any difference that would lead to hostilities, both countries had easily been brought to an agreement, which was made at Tordesillas, June 7, 1494, to move the line of demarcation so much farther as to fall 370 leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. Each country then bound itself to respect its granted rights under the bull thus modified. The historical study of this diplomatic controversy over the papal division of the world is much embarrassed by the lack of documentary records of the correspondence carried on by Spain, Portugal, and the Pope. [Sidenote: The sovereign's letter to Columbus,] This letter of August 16 must have been very gratifying to Columbus. Their Majesties told him that one of the principal reasons of their rejoicing in his discoveries was that they felt it all due to his genius and perseverance, and that the events had justified his foreknowledge and their expectations. So now, in their desire to define the new line of demarcation, and in the hope that it might be found to run through some ocean island, where a monument could be erected, they turned to him for assistance, and they expected that if he could not return to assist in these final negotiations, he would dispatch to them some one who was competent to deal with the geographical problem. [Sidenote: and to the colonists.] Torres had also brought a general letter of counsel to the colonists, commanding them to obey all the wishes and to bow to the authority of the Admiral. Whatever his lack of responsibility, in some measure at least, for the undoubted commercial failure of the colony, its want of a product in any degree commensurate both with expectation and outlay could not fail, as he well understood, to have a strong effect both on the spirit of the people and on the constancy of his royal patrons, who might, under the urging of Margarite and his abettors, have already swerved from his support. [Sidenote: 1495. February 24. The fleet returns to Spain.] [Sidenote: Carrying slaves.] [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] Reasons of this kind made it imperative that the newly arrived ships should be returned without delay, and with such reassuring messages and returns as could be furnished. The fleet departed on February 24, 1495. Himself still prostrate, and needing his brother Bartholomew to act during this season of his incapacity, there was no one he could spare so well to meet the wishes of the sovereigns as his other brother. So armed with maps and instructions, and with the further mission of protecting the Admiral's interest at Court, Diego embarked in one of the caravels. All the gold which had been collected was consigned to Diego's care, but it was only a sorry show, after all. There had been a variety of new fruits and spices, and samples of baser metals gathered, and these helped to complete the lading. There was one resource left. He had intimated his readiness to avail himself of it in the communication of his views to the sovereigns, which Torres had already conveyed to them. He now gave the plan the full force of an experiment, and packed into the little caravels full five hundred of the unhappy natives, to be sold as slaves. "The very ship," says Helps, "which brought that admirable reply from Ferdinand and Isabella to Columbus, begging him to seek some other way to Christianity than through slavery, even for wild man-devouring Caribs, should go back full of slaves taken from among the mild islanders of Hispaniola." The act was a long step in the miserable degradation which Columbus put upon those poor creatures whose existence he had made known to the world. Almost in the same breath, as in his letter to Santangel, he had suggested the future of a slave traffic out of that very existence. It is an obvious plea in his defense that the example of the church and of kings had made such heartless conduct a common resort to meet the financial burdens of conquest. The Portuguese had done it in Africa; the Spaniards had done it in Spain. The contemporary history of that age may be said to ring with the wails and moans of such negro and Moorish victims. A Holy Religion had unblushingly been made the sponsor for such a crime. Theologians had proved that the Word of God could ordain misery in this world, if only the recompense came--or be supposed to come--in a passport to the Christian's heaven. The merit which Columbus arrogated to himself was that he was superior to the cosmographical knowledge of his time. It was the merit of Las Casas that he threw upon the reeking passions of the enslaver the light of a religion that was above sophistry and purer than cupidity. The existence of Las Casas is the arraignment of Columbus. It may be indeed asking too much of weak humanity to be good in all things, and therein rests the pitiful plea for Columbus, the originator of American slavery. * * * * * [Sidenote: Attacked by bloodhounds.] Events soon became ominous. A savage host began to gather in the Vega Real, and all that Columbus, now recovering his strength, could marshal in his defense was about two hundred foot and twenty horse, but they were cased in steel, and the natives were naked. In this respect, the fight was unequal, and the more so that the Spaniards were now able to take into the field a pack of twenty implacable bloodhounds. The bare bodies of the Indians had no protection against their insatiate thirst. [Sidenote: 1495. March 27. Columbus marches,] [Sidenote: and fights in the Vega Real.] It was the 27th of March, 1495, when Columbus, at the head of this little army, marched forth from Isabella, to confront a force of the natives, which, if we choose to believe the figures that are given by Las Casas, amounted to 100,000 men, massed under the command of Manicaotex. The whites climbed the Pass of the Hidalgos, where Columbus had opened the way the year before, and descended into that lovely valley, no longer a hospitable paradise. As they approached the hostile horde, details were sent to make the attacks various and simultaneous. The Indians were surprised at the flashes of the arquebuses from every quarter of the woody covert, and the clang of their enemies' drums and the bray of their trumpets drowned the savage yells. The native army had already begun to stagger in their wonder and perplexity, when Ojeda, seizing the opportune moment, dashed with his mounted lancemen right into the centre of the dusky mass. The bloodhounds rushed to their sanguinary work on his flanks. The task was soon done. The woods were filled with flying and shrieking savages. The league of the caciques was broken, and it was only left for the conquerors to gather up their prisoners. Guacanagari, who had followed the white army with a train of his subjects, looked on with the same wonder which struck the Indians who were beaten. [Sidenote: 1495. April 25.] There was no opportunity for him to fight at all. The rout had been complete. This notable conflict taking place on April 25, 1495, is a central point in a somewhat bewildering tangle of events, as our authorities relate them, so that it is not easy in all cases to establish their sequence. * * * * * [Sidenote: Caonabo captured by Ojeda.] The question of dealing with Caonabo was still the most important of all. It was solved by the cunning and dash of Ojeda. Presenting his plan to the Admiral, he was commanded to carry it out. Taking ten men whom he could trust, Ojeda boldly sought the village where Caonabo was quartered, and with as much intrepidity as cunning put himself in the power of that cacique. The chieftain was not without chivalry, and the confidence and audacity of Ojeda won him. Hospitality was extended, and the confidences of a mutual respect soon ensued. Ojeda proposed that Caonabo should accompany him to Isabella, to make a compact of friendship with the Viceroy. All then would be peaceful. Caonabo, who had often wondered at the talking of the great bell in the chapel at Isabella, as he had heard it when skulking about the settlement, eagerly sprang to the lure, when Ojeda promised that he should have the bell. Ojeda, congratulating himself on the success of his bait, was disconcerted when he found that the cacique intended that a large force of armed followers should make the visit with him. To prevent this, Ojeda resorted to a stratagem, which is related by Las Casas, who says it was often spoken of when that priest first came to the island, six years later. Muñoz was not brought to believe the tale; but Helps sees no obstacle to giving it credence. The Spaniards and the Indians were all on the march together, and had encamped by a river. Ojeda produced a set of burnished steel manacles, and told the cacique that they were ornaments such as the King of Spain wore on solemn occasions, and that he had been commanded to give them to the most distinguished native prince. He first proposed a bath in the river. The swim over, Caonabo was prevailed upon to be put behind Ojeda astride the same horse. Then the shining baubles were adjusted, apparently without exciting suspicion, amid the elation of the savage at his high seat upon the wondrous beast. A few sweeping gallops of the horse, guided by Ojeda, and followed by the other mounted spearmen, scattered the amazed crowd of the cacique's attendants. Then at a convenient gap in the circle Ojeda spurred his steed, and the whole mounted party dashed into the forest and away. The party drew up only when they had got beyond pursuit, in order to bind the cacique faster in his seat. So in due time, this little cavalcade galloped into Isabella with its manacled prisoner. [Sidenote: Meets Columbus.] The meeting of Columbus and his captive was one of very different emotions in the two,--the Admiral rejoicing that his most active foe was in his power, and the cacique abating nothing of the defiance which belonged to his freedom. Las Casas tells us that, as Caonabo lay in his shackles in an outer apartment of the Admiral's house, the people came and looked at him. He also relates that the bold Ojeda was the only one toward whom the prisoner manifested any respect, acknowledging in this way his admiration for his audacity. He would maintain only an indifferent haughtiness toward the Admiral, who had not, as he said, the courage to do himself what he left to the bravery of his lieutenant. [Sidenote: Ojeda attacks the Indians.] Ojeda presently returned to his command at St. Thomas, only to find that a brother of Caonabo had gathered the Indians for an assault. Dauntless audacity again saved him. He had brought with him some new men, and so, leaving a garrison in the fort, he sallied forth with his horsemen and with as many foot as he could muster and attacked the approaching host. A charge of the glittering horse, with the flashing of sabres, broke the dusky line. The savages fled, leaving their commander a prisoner in Ojeda's hands. Columbus followed up these triumphs by a march through the country. Every opposition needed scarce more than a dash of Ojeda's cavalry to break it. The Vega was once more quiet with a sullen submission. The confederated caciques all sued for peace, except Behechio, who ruled the southwestern corner of the island. The whites had not yet invaded his territory, and he retired morosely, taking with him his sister, Anacaona, the wife of the imprisoned Caonabo. [Sidenote: Repartimientos and encomiendas.] The battle and the succeeding collapse had settled the fate of the poor natives. The policy of subjecting men by violence to pay the tribute of their lives and property to Spanish cupidity was begun in earnest, and it was shortly after made to include the labor on the Spanish farms, which, under the names of repartimientos and encomiendas, demoralized the lives of master and slave. When prisoners were gathered in such numbers that to guard them was a burden, there could be but little delay in forcing the issue of the slave trade upon the Crown as a part of an established policy. To the mind of Columbus, there was now some chance of repelling the accusations of Margarite and Father Boyle by palpable returns of olive flesh and shining metal. A scheme of enforced contribution of gold was accordingly planned. Each native above the age of fourteen was required to pay every three months, into the Spanish coffers, his share of gold, measured by the capacity of a hawk's bell for the common person, and by that of a calabash for the cacique. In the regions distant from the gold deposits, cotton was accepted as a substitute, twenty-five pounds for each person. A copper medal was put on the neck of every Indian for each payment, and new exactions were levied upon those who failed to show the medals. The amount of this tribute was more than the poor natives could find, and Guarionex tried to have it commuted for grain; but the golden greed of Columbus was inexorable. He preferred to reduce the requirements rather than vary the kind. A half of a hawk's bell of gold was better than stores of grain. "It is a curious circumstance," says Irving, "that the miseries of the poor natives should thus be measured out, as it were, by the very baubles which first fascinated them." [Sidenote: Forts built.] To make this payment sure, it was necessary to establish other armed posts through the country; and there were speedily built that of Magdalena in the Vega, one called Esperanza in Cibao, another named Catalina, beside La Concepcion, which has already been mentioned. [Sidenote: The natives debased.] The change which ensued in the lives of the natives was pitiable. The labor of sifting the sands of the streams for gold, which they had heretofore made a mere pastime to secure bits to pound into ornaments, became a depressing task. To work fields under a tropical sun, where they had basked for sportive rest, converted their native joyousness into despair. They sang their grief in melancholy songs, as Peter Martyr tells us. Gradually they withdrew from their old haunts, and by hiding in the mountains, they sought to avoid the exactions, and to force the Spaniards, thus no longer supplied by native labor with food, to abandon their posts and retire to Isabella, if not to leave the island. [Sidenote: Guacanagari disappears.] Scant fare for themselves and the misery of dank lurking-places were preferable to the heavy burdens of the taskmasters. They died in their retreats rather than return to their miserable labors. Even the long-tried friend of the Spaniards, Guacanagari, was made no exception. He and his people suffered every exaction with the rest of their countrymen. The cacique himself is said eventually to have buried himself in despair in the mountain fastnesses, and so passed from the sight of men. The Spaniards were not so easily to be thwarted. They hunted the poor creatures like game, and, under the goading of lashes, such as survived were in time returned to their slavery. So thoroughly was every instinct of vengeance rooted out of the naturally timid nature of the Indians that a Spaniard might, as Las Casas tells us, march solemnly like an army through the most solitary parts of the island and receive tribute at every demand. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus's interests in Spain.] It is time to watch the effect of the representations of Margarite and Father Boyle at the Spanish Court. Columbus had been doubtless impelled, in these schemes of cruel exaction, by the fear of their influence, and with the hope of meeting their sneers at his ill success with substantial tribute to the Crown. The charges against Columbus and his policy and against his misrepresentation had all the immediate effect of accusations which are supported by one-sided witnesses. Every sentiment of jealousy and pride was played upon, and every circumstance of palliation and modification was ignored. The suspicious reservation which had more or less characterized the bearing of Ferdinand towards the transactions of the hero could become a background to the newer emotions. Fonseca and the comptroller Juan de Soria are charged with an easy acceptance of every insinuation against the Viceroy. The canonizers cannot execrate Fonseca enough. They make him alternately the creature and beguiler of the King. His subserviency, his trading in bishoprics, and his alleged hatred of Columbus are features of all their portraits of him. [Sidenote: Aguado sent to Española.] The case against the Admiral was thus successfully argued. Testimony like that of the receiver of the Crown taxes in rebuttal of charges seemed to weigh little. Movements having been instituted at once (April 7, 1495) to succor the colony by the immediate dispatch of supplies, it was two days later agreed with Beradi--the same with whom Vespucius had been associated, as we have seen--to furnish twelve ships for Española. The resolution was then taken to send an agent to investigate the affairs of the colony. If he should find the Admiral still absent,--for the length of his cruise to Cuba had already, at that time, begun to excite apprehension of his safety,--this same agent was to superintend the distribution of the supplies which he was to take. At this juncture, in April, 1495, Torres, arriving with his fleet, reported the Admiral's safe return, and submitted the notarial document, in which Columbus had made it clear to his own satisfaction that the Golden Chersonesus was in sight. Whether that freak of geographical prescience threw about his expedition a temporary splendor, and again wakened the gratitude of the sovereigns, as Irving says it did, may be left to the imagination; but the fact remains that the sovereigns did not swerve from their purpose to send an inquisitor to the colony, and the same Juan Aguado who had come back with credentials from the Admiral himself was selected for the mission. [Sidenote: 1495. April 10. All Spaniards allowed to explore.] [Sidenote: Nameless voyagers.] There were some recent orders of the Crown which Aguado was to break to the Admiral, from which Columbus could not fail to discover that the exclusiveness of his powers was seriously impaired. On the 10th of April, 1495, it had been ordered that any native-born Spaniard could invade the seas which had been sacredly apportioned to Columbus, that such navigator might discover what he could, and even settle, if he liked, in Española. This order was a ground of serious complaint by Columbus at a later day, for the reason that this license was availed of by unworthy interlopers. He declares that after the way had been shown even the very tailors turned explorers. It seems tolerably certain that this irresponsible voyaging, which continued till Columbus induced the monarchs to rescind the order in June, 1497, worked developments in the current cartography of the new regions which it is difficult to trace to their distinct sources. Gomara intimates that during this period there were nameless voyagers, of whose exploits we have no record by which to identify them, and Navarrete and Humboldt find evidences of explorations which cannot otherwise be accounted for. [Sidenote: Enemies of Columbus.] How far this condition of affairs was brought about by the importunities of the enemies of Columbus is not clear. The surviving Pinzons are said to have been in part those who influenced the monarchs, but doubtless a share of profits, which the Crown required from all such private speculation, was quite as strong an incentive as any importunities of eager mariners. The burdens of the official expeditions were onerous for an exhausted treasury, and any resource to replenish its coffers was not very narrowly scrutinized in the light of the pledges which Columbus had exacted from a Crown that was beginning to understand the impolicy of such concessions. [Sidenote: Fonseca and Diego Colon.] There was also at this time a passage of words between Fonseca and Diego Colon that was not without irritating elements. The Admiral's brother had brought some gold with him, which he claimed as his own. Fonseca withheld it, but in the end obeyed the sovereign's order and released it. It was no time to add to the complications of the Crown's relations with the distant Viceroy. [Sidenote: Royal letter to Columbus.] Aguado bore a royal letter, which commanded Columbus to reduce the dependents of the colony to five hundred, as a necessary retrenchment. There had previously been a thousand. Directions were also given to control the apportionment of rations. A new metallurgist and master-miner, Pablo Belvis, was sent out, and extraordinary privileges in the working of the mines were given to him. Muñoz says that he introduced there the quicksilver process of separating the gold from the sand. A number of new priests were collected to take the place of those who had returned, or who desired to come back. [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] Such were the companions and instructions that Aguado was commissioned to bear to Columbus. There was still another movement in the policy of the Crown that offered the Viceroy little ground for reassurance. The prisoners which he had sent by the ships raised a serious question. It was determined that any transaction looking to the making slaves of them had not been authorized; but the desire of Columbus so to treat them had at first been met by a royal order directing their sale in the marts of Andalusia. A few days later, under the influence of Isabella, this order had been suspended, till an inquiry could be made into the cause of the capture of the Indians, and until the theologians could decide upon the justifiableness of such a sale. If we may believe Bernaldez, who pictures their misery, they were subsequently sold in Seville. Muñoz, however, says that he could not find that the trouble which harassed the theologians was ever decided. Such hesitancy was calculated to present a cruel dilemma to the Viceroy, since the only way in which the clamor of the Court for gold could be promptly appeased came near being prohibited by what Columbus must have called the misapplied mercy of the Queen. He failed to see, as Muñoz suggests, why vassals of the Crown, entering upon acts of resistance, should not be subjected to every sort of cruelty. Humboldt wonders at any hesitancy when the grand inquisitor, Torquemada, was burning heretics so fiercely at this time that such expiations of the poor Moors and Jews numbered 8,800 between 1481 and 1498! [Sidenote: 1495. October. Aguado at Isabella.] Aguado, with four caravels, and Diego Columbus accompanying him, having sailed from Cadiz late in August, 1495, reached the harbor of Isabella some time in October. The new commissioner found the Admiral absent, occupied with affairs in other parts of the island. Aguado soon made known his authority. It was embraced in a brief missive, dated April 9, 1495, and as Irving translates it, it read: "Cavaliers, esquires, and other persons, who by our orders are in the Indies, we send to you Juan Aguado, our groom of the chambers, who will speak to you on our part. We command you to give him faith and credit." The efficacy of such an order depended on the royal purpose that was behind it, and on the will of the commissioner, which might or might not conform to that purpose. It has been a plea of Irving and others that Aguado, elated by a transient authority, transcended the intentions of the monarchs. It is not easy to find a definite determination of such a question. It appears that when the instrument was proclaimed by trumpet, the general opinion did not interpret the order as a suspension of the Viceroy's powers. The Adelantado, who was governing in Columbus's absence, saw the new commissioner order arrests, countermand directions, and in various ways assume the functions of a governor. Bartholomew was in no condition to do more than mildly remonstrate. It was clearly not safe for him to provoke the great body of the discontented colonists, who professed now to find a champion sent to them by royal order. [Sidenote: Meets Columbus.] Columbus heard of Aguado's arrival, and at once returned to Isabella. Aguado, who had started to find him with an escort of horse, missed him on the road, and this delayed their meeting a little. When the conference came, Columbus, with a dignified and courteous air, bowed to a superior authority. It has passed into history that Aguado was disappointed at this quiet submission, and had hoped for an altercation, which might warrant some peremptory force. It is also said that later he endeavored to make it appear how Columbus had not been so complacent as was becoming. It was soon apparent that this displacement of the Admiral was restoring even the natives to hope, and their caciques were not slow in presenting complaints, not certainly without reason, to the ascendant power, and against the merciless extortions of the Admiral. [Sidenote: Accuses Columbus.] The budget of accusations which Aguado had accumulated was now full enough, and he ordered the vessels to make ready to carry him back to Spain. The situation for Columbus was a serious one. He had in all this trial experienced the results of the intrigues of Margarite and Father Boyle. He knew of the damaging persuasiveness of the Pinzons. He had not much to expect from the advocacy of Diego. There was nothing for him to do but to face in person the charges as reënforced by Aguado. He resolved to return in the ships. "It is not one of the least singular traits in his history," says Irving, "that after having been so many years in persuading mankind that there was a new world to be discovered, he had almost an equal trouble in proving to them the advantage of the discovery." He himself never did prove it. [Sidenote: Ships wrecked in the harbor.] The ships were ready. They lay at anchor in the roadstead. A cloud of vapor and dust was seen in the east. It was borne headlong before a hurricane such as the Spaniards had never seen, and the natives could not remember its equal. It cut a track through the forests. It lashed the sea until its expanse seethed and writhed and sent its harried waters tossing in a seeming fright. The uplifted surges broke the natural barriers and started inland. The ships shuddered at their anchorage; cables snapped; three caravels sunk, and the rest were dashed on the beach. The tumult lasted for three hours, and then the sun shone upon the havoc. [Illustration: SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN ESPAÑOLA. [From Charlevoix's _L'Isle Espagnole_ (Amsterdam, 1733).]] There was but one vessel left in the harbor, and she was shattered. It was the "Nina," which had borne Columbus in his western cruise. As soon as the little colony recovered its senses, men were set to work repairing the solitary caravel, and constructing another out of the remnants of the wrecks. [Sidenote: Miguel Diaz finds gold.] [Sidenote: Hayna mines.] [Sidenote: Solomon's Ophir.] While this was going on, a young Spaniard, Miguel Diaz by name, presented himself in Isabella. He had been in the service of the Adelantado, and was not unrecognized. He was one who had some time before wounded another Spaniard in a duel, and, supposing that the wound was mortal, he had, with a few friends, fled into the woods and wandered away till he came to the banks of the Ozema, a river on the southern coast of the island, at the mouth of which the city of Santo Domingo now stands. Here, as he said, he had attracted the attention of a female cacique, there reigning, and had become her lover. She confided to him the fact that there were rich gold mines in her territory, and to make him more content in her company, she suggested that perhaps the Admiral, if he knew of the mines, would abandon the low site of Isabella, and find a better one on the Ozema. Acting on this suggestion, Diaz, with some guides, returned to the neighborhood of Isabella, and lingered in concealment till he learned that his antagonist had survived his wound. Then, making bold, he entered the town, as we have seen. His story was a welcome one, and the Adelantado was dispatched with a force to verify the adventurer's statement. In due time, the party returned, and reported that at a river named Hayna they had found such stores of gold that Cibao was poor in comparison. The explorers had seen the metal in all the streams; they observed it in the hillsides. They had discovered two deep excavations, which looked as if the mines had been worked at some time by a more enterprising people, since of these great holes the natives could give no account. Once more the Admiral's imagination was fired. He felt sure that he had come upon the Ophir of Solomon. These ancient mines must have yielded the gold which covered the great Temple. Had the Admiral not discovered already the course of the ships which sought it? Did they not come from the Persian gulf, round the Golden Chersonesus, and so easterly, as he himself had in the reverse way tracked the very course? Here was a new splendor for the Court of Spain. If the name of India was redolent of spices, that of Ophir could but be resplendent with gold! That was a message worth taking to Europe. The two caravels were now ready. The Adelantado was left in command, with Diego to succeed in case of his death. Francisco Roldan was commissioned as chief magistrate, and the Fathers Juan Berzognon and Roman Pane remained behind to pursue missionary labors among the natives. Instructions were left that the valley of the Ozema should be occupied, and a fort built in it. Diaz, with his queenly Catalina, had become important. [Sidenote: 1496. March 10. Columbus and Aguado sail for Spain, carrying Caonabo.] There was a motley company of about two hundred and fifty persons, largely discontents and vagabonds, crowded into the two ships. Columbus was in one, and Aguado in the other. So they started on their adventurous and wearying voyage on March 10, 1496. They carried about thirty Indians in confinement, and among them the manacled Caonabo, with some of his relatives. Columbus told Bernaldez that he took the chieftain over to impress him with Spanish power, and that he intended to send him back and release him in the end. His release came otherwise. There is some disagreement of testimony on the point, some alleging that he was drowned during the hurricane in the harbor, but the better opinion seems to be that he died on the voyage, of a broken spirit. At any rate, he never reached Spain, and we hear of him only once while on shipboard. [Sidenote: 1496. April 6.] We have seen that on his return voyage in 1492 Columbus had pushed north before turning east. It does not appear how much he had learned of the experience of Torres's easterly passages. Perhaps it was only to make a new trial that he now steered directly east. He met the trade winds and the calms of the tropics, and had been almost a month at sea when, on April 6, he found himself still neighboring to the islands of the Caribs. His crew needed rest and provisions, and he bore away to seek them. He anchored for a while at Marigalante, and then passed on to Guadaloupe. [Sidenote: At Guadaloupe.] [Sidenote: 1496. June.] [Sidenote: 1496. June 11. Cadiz.] He had some difficulty in landing, as a wild, screaming mass of natives was gathered on the beach in a hostile manner. A discharge of the Spanish arquebuses cleared the way, and later a party scouring the woods captured some of the courageous women of the tribe. These were all released, however, except a strong, powerful woman, who, with a daughter, refused to be left, for the reason, as the story goes, that she had conceived a passion for Caonabo. By the 20th, the ships again set sail; but the same easterly trades baffled them, and another month was passed without much progress. By the beginning of June, provisions were so reduced that there were fears of famine, and it began to be considered whether the voyagers might not emulate the Caribs and eat the Indians. Columbus interfered, on the plea that the poor creatures were Christian enough to be protected from such a fate; but as it turned out, they were not Christian enough to be saved from the slave-block in Andalusia. The alert senses of Columbus had convinced him that land could not be far distant, and he was confirmed in this by his reckoning. These opinions of Columbus were questioned, however, and it was not at all clear in the minds of some, even of the experienced pilots who were on board, that they were so near the latitude of Cape St. Vincent as the Admiral affirmed. Some of these navigators put the ships as far north as the Bay of Biscay, others even as far as the English Channel. Columbus one night ordered sail to be taken in. They were too near the land to proceed. In the morning, they saw land in the neighborhood of Cape St. Vincent. On June 11, they entered the harbor of Cadiz. CHAPTER XV. IN SPAIN, 1496-1498. DA GAMA, VESPUCIUS, CABOT. [Sidenote: 1496. Columbus arrives at Cadiz,] "The wretched men crawled forth," as Irving tells us of their debarkation, "emaciated by the diseases of the colony and the hardships of the voyage, who carried in their yellow countenances, says an old writer, a mockery of that gold which had been the object of their search, and who had nothing to relate of the New World but tales of sickness, poverty, and disappointment." This is the key to the contrasts in the present reception of the adventurers with that which greeted Columbus on his return to Palos. When Columbus landed at Cadiz, he was clothed with the robe and girdled with the cord of the Franciscans. His face was unshaven. Whether this was in penance, or an assumption of piety to serve as a lure, is not clear. Oviedo says it was to express his humility; and his humbled pride needed some such expression. [Sidenote: and learns the condition of the public mind.] He found in the harbor three caravels just about starting for Española with tardy supplies. It had been intended to send some in January; but the ships which started with them suffered wreck on the neighboring coasts. He had only to ask Pedro Alonso Niño, the commander of this little fleet, for his dispatches, to find the condition of feeling which he was to encounter in Spain. They gave him a sense, more than ever before, of the urgent necessity of making the colony tributary to the treasury of the Crown. It was clear that discord and unproductiveness were not much longer to be endured. So he wrote a letter to the Adelantado, which was to go by the ships, urging expedition in quieting the life of the colonists, and in bringing the resources of the island under such control that it could be made to yield a steady flow of treasure. [Sidenote: 1496. June 17. Columbus writes to Bartholomew.] To this end, the new mines of Hayna must be further explored, and the working of them started with diligence. A port of shipment should be found in their neighborhood, he adds. With such instructions to Bartholomew, the caravels sailed on June 17, 1496. It must have been with some trepidation that Columbus forwarded to the Court the tidings of his arrival. If the two dispatches which he sent could have been preserved, we might better understand his mental condition. [Sidenote: Invited to Court.] As soon as the messages of Columbus reached their Majesties, then at Almazan, they sent, July 12, 1496, a letter inviting him to Court, and reassuring him in his despondency by expressions of kindness. So he started to join the Court in a somewhat better frame of mind. He led some of his bedecked Indians in his train, not forgetting "in the towns" to make a cacique among them wear conspicuously a golden necklace. Bernaldez tells us that it was in this wily fashion that Columbus made his journey into the country of Castile,--"the which collar," that writer adds, "I have seen and held in these hands;" and he goes on to describe the other precious ornaments of the natives, which Columbus took care that the gaping crowds should see on this wandering mission. It is one of the anachronisms of the _Historie_ of 1571 that it places the Court at this time at Burgos, and makes it there to celebrate the marriage of the crown prince with Margaret of Austria. The author of that book speaks of seeing the festivities himself, then in attendance as a page upon Don Juan. It was a singular lapse of memory in Ferdinand Columbus--if this statement is his--to make two events like the arrival of his father at Court, with all the incidental parade as described in the book, and the ceremonies of that wedding festival identical in time. The wedding was in fact nine months later, in April, 1497. [Sidenote: Received by the sovereigns.] [Sidenote: Makes new demands.] Columbus's reception, wherever it was, seems to have been gracious, and he made the most of the amenities of the occasion to picture, in his old exaggerating way, the wealth of the Ophir mines. He was encouraged by the effect which his enthusiasm had produced to ask to be supplied with another fleet, partly to send additional supplies to Española, but mainly to enable him to discover that continental land farther south, of which he had so constantly heard reports. It was easy for the monarchs to give fair promises, and quite as easy to forget them, for a while at least, in the busy scenes which their political ambitions were producing. Belligerent relations with France necessitated a vigilant watch about the Pyrenees. There were fleets to be maintained to resist, both in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coast, attacks which might unexpectedly fall. An imposing armada was preparing to go to Flanders to carry thither the Princess Juana to her espousal with Philip of Austria. The same fleet was to bring back Philip's sister Margaret to become the bride of Prince Juan, in those ceremonials to which reference has already been made. [Sidenote: 1496. Autumn. A new expedition ordered.] These events were too engrossing for the monarchs to give much attention to the wishes of Columbus, and it was not till the autumn of 1496 that an appropriation was made to equip another little squadron for him. The hopes it raised were soon dashed, for having some occasion to need money promptly, at a crisis of the contest which the King was waging with France, the money which had been intended for Columbus was diverted to the new exigency. What was worse in the eyes of Columbus, it was to be paid out of some gold which it was supposed that Niño had brought back from the mines of Hayna. This officer on arriving at Cadiz had sent to the Court some boastful messages about his golden lading, which were not confirmed when in December the sober dispatch of the Adelantado, which Niño had kept back, came to be read. The nearest approach to gold which the caravels brought was another crowd of dusky slaves, and the dispatches of Bartholomew pictured the colony in the same conditions of destitution as before. There was no stimulant in such reports either for the Admiral or for the Court, and the New World was again dismissed from the minds of all, or consigned to their derision. [Sidenote: 1497. Spring. Columbus's rights reaffirmed.] [Sidenote: New powers.] [Illustration: FERDINAND OF ARAGON. [From an ancient medallion given in Buckingham Smith's _Coleccion_.]] When the spring months of 1497 arrived, there were new hopes. The wedding of Prince Juan at Burgos was over, and the Queen was left more at liberty to think of her patronage of the new discoveries. The King was growing more and more apathetic, and some of the leading spirits of the Court were inimical, either actively or reservedly. By the Queen's influence, the old rights bestowed upon Columbus were reaffirmed (April 23, 1497), and he was offered a large landed estate in Española, with a new territorial title; but he was wise enough to see that to accept it would complicate his affairs beyond their present entanglement. He was solicitous, however, to remove some of his present pecuniary embarrassments, and it was arranged that he should be relieved from bearing an eighth of the cost of the ventures of the last three years, and that he should surrender all rights to the profits; while for the three years to come he should have an eighth of the gross income, and a further tenth of the net proceeds. Later, the original agreement was to be restored. His brother Bartholomew was created Adelantado, giving thus the royal sanction to the earlier act of the Admiral. [Sidenote: Fonseca allowed to grant licenses.] In the letters patent made out previous to Columbus's second voyage, the Crown distinctly reserved the right to grant other licenses, and invested Fonseca with the power to do so, allowing to Columbus nothing more than one eighth of the tonnage; and in the ordinance of June 2, 1497, in which they now revoked all previous licenses, the revocation was confined to such things as were repugnant to the rights of Columbus. It was also agreed that the Crown should maintain for him a body of three hundred and thirty gentlemen, soldiers, and helpers, to accompany him on his new expedition, and this number could be increased, if the profits of the colony warranted the expenditure. Power was given to him to grant land to such as would cultivate the soil for four years; but all brazil-wood and metals were to be reserved for the Crown. [Illustration: BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS. [From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] All this seemed to indicate that the complaints which had been made against the oppressive sternness of the Admiral's rule had not as yet broken down the barriers of the Queen's protection. Indeed, we find up to this time no record of any serious question at Court of his authority, and Irving thinks nothing indicates any symptom of the royal discontent except the reiterated injunctions, in the orders given to him respecting the natives and the colonists, that leniency should govern his conduct so far as was safe. [Sidenote: 1498. February 22. Makes a will.] Permission being given to him to entail his estates, he marked out in a testamentary document (February 22, 1498) the succession of his heirs,--male heirs, with Ferdinand's rights protected, if Diego's line ran out; then male heirs of his brothers; and if all male heirs failed, then the estates were to descend by the female line. The title Admiral was made the paramount honor, and to be the perpetual distinction of his representatives. The entail was to furnish forever a tenth of its revenues to charitable uses. Genoa was placed particularly under the patronage of his succeeding representatives, with injunctions always to do that city service, as far as the interests of the Church and the Spanish Crown would permit. Investments were to be made from time to time in the bank of St. George at Genoa, to accumulate against the opportune moment when the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre seemed feasible, either to help to that end any state expedition or to fit out a private one. He enjoined upon his heirs a constant, unwavering devotion to the Papal Church and to the Spanish Crown. At every season of confession, his representative was commanded to lay open his heart to the confessor, who must be prompted by a perusal of the will to ask the crucial questions. It was in the same document that Columbus prescribed the signature of his representatives in succeeding generations, following a formula which he always used himself. [Sidenote: Columbus's signature.] .S. .S.A.S. X M Y [Greek: Chr~o] FERENS. The interpretation of this has been various: _Servus Supplex Altissimi Salvatoris, Christus, Maria, Yoseph, Christo ferens_, is one solution; _Servidor sus Altezas sacras, Christo, Maria Ysabel_, is another; and these are not all. * * * * * [Sidenote: Unpopularity of Columbus.] The complacency of the Queen was soothing; her appointment of his son Ferdinand as her page (February 18, 1498) was gratifying, but it could not wholly compensate Columbus for the condition of the public mind, of which he was in every way forcibly reminded. There were both the whisper of detraction spreading abroad, and the outspoken objurgation. The physical debility of his returned companions was made a strong contrast to his reiterated stories of Paradise. Fortunes wrecked, labor wasted, and lives lost had found but a pitiable compensation in a few cargoes of miserable slaves. The people had heard of his enchanting landscapes, but they had found his aloes and mastic of no value. Hidalgoes said there was nothing of the luxury they had been told to expect. The gorgeous cities of the Great Khan had not been found. Such were the kind of taunts to which he was subjected. [Sidenote: His sojourn with Bernaldez.] Columbus, during this period of his sojourn in Spain, spent a considerable interval under the roof of Andres Bernaldez, and we get in his history of the Spanish kings the advantage of the talks which the two friends had together. The Admiral is known to have left with Bernaldez various documents which were given to him in the presence of Juan de Fonseca. From the way in which Bernaldez speaks of these papers, they would seem to have been accounts of the voyage of Columbus then already made, and it was upon these documents that Bernaldez says he based his own narratives. [Sidenote: Bernaldez's opinions.] This ecclesiastic had known Columbus at an earlier day, when the Genoese was a vender of books in Andalusia, as he says; in characterizing him, he calls his friend in another place a man of an ingenious turn, but not of much learning, and he leaves one to infer that the book-vender was not much suspected of great familiarity with his wares. We get as clearly from Bernaldez as from any other source the measure of the disappointment which the public shared as respects the conspicuous failure of these voyages of Columbus in their pecuniary relations. [Sidenote: Scant returns of gold.] The results are summed up by that historian to show that the cost of the voyages had been so great and the returns so small that it came to be believed that there was in the new regions no gold to speak of. Taking the first voyage,--and the second was hardly better, considering the larger opportunities,--Harrisse has collated, for instance, all the references to what gold Columbus may have gathered; and though there are some contradictory reports, the weight of testimony seems to confine the amount to an inconsiderable sum, which consisted in the main of personal ornaments. There are legends of the gold brought to Spain from this voyage being used to gild palaces and churches, to make altar ornaments for the cathedral at Toledo, to serve as gifts of homage to the Pope, but we may safely say that no reputable authority supports any such statements. Notwithstanding this seeming royal content of which the signs have been given, there was, by virtue of a discontented and irritated public sentiment, a course open to Columbus in these efforts to fit out his new expedition which was far from easy. There was so much disinclination in the merchants to furnish ships that it required a royal order to seize them before the small fleet could be gathered. [Sidenote: Difficulties in fitting out the new expedition.] [Sidenote: Criminals enlisted.] The enlistments to man the ships and make up the contingent destined for the colony were more difficult still. The alacrity with which everybody bounded to the summons on his second voyage had entirely gone, and it was only by the foolish device which Columbus decided upon of opening the doors of the prisons and of giving pardon to criminals at large, that he was enabled to help on the registration of his company. [Sidenote: 1498. Two caravels sail.] Finding that all went slowly, and knowing that the colony at Española must be suffering from want of supplies, the Queen was induced to order two caravels of the fleet to sail at once, early in 1498, under the command of Pedro Fernandez Coronel. This was only possible because the Queen took some money which she had laid aside as a part of a dower which was intended for her daughter Isabella, then betrothed to Emmanuel, the King of Portugal. [Sidenote: Fonseca's lack of heart.] So much was gratifying; but the main object of the new expedition was to make new discoveries, and there were many harassing delays yet in store for Columbus before he could depart with the rest of his fleet. These delays, as we shall see, enabled another people, under the lead of another Italian, to precede him and make the first discovery of the mainland. The Queen was cordial, but an affliction came to distract her, in the death of Prince Juan. Fonseca, who was now in charge of the fitting out of the caravels, seems to have lacked heart in the enterprise; but it serves the purpose of Columbus's adulatory biographers to give that agent of the Crown the character of a determined enemy of Columbus. [Sidenote: Columbus's altercation with Fonseca's accountant.] Even the prisons did not disgorge their vermin, as he had wished, and his company gathered very slowly, and never became full. Las Casas tells us that troubles followed him even to the dock. The accountant of Fonseca, one Ximeno de Breviesca, got into an altercation with the Admiral, who knocked him down and exhibited other marks of passion. Las Casas further tells us that this violence, through the representations of it which Fonseca made, produced a greater effect on the monarchs than all the allegations of the Admiral's cruelty and vindictiveness which his accusers from Española had constantly brought forward, and that it was the immediate cause of the change of royal sentiment towards him, which soon afterwards appeared. Columbus seems to have discovered the mistake he had made very promptly, and wrote to the monarchs to counteract its effect. It was therefore with this new anxiety upon his mind that he for the third time committed himself to his career of adventure and exploration. The canonizers would have it that their sainted hero found it necessary to prove by his energy in personal violence that age had not impaired his manhood for the trials before him! * * * * * Before following Columbus on this voyage, the reader must take a glance at the conditions of discovery elsewhere, for these other events were intimately connected with the significance of Columbus's own voyagings. [Sidenote: Da Gama's passage of the African cape.] The problem which the Portuguese had undertaken to solve was, as has been seen, the passage to India by the Stormy Cape of Africa. Even before Columbus had sailed on his first voyage, word had come in 1490 to encourage King João II. His emissaries in Cairo had learned from the Arab sailors that the passage of the cape was practicable on the side of the Indian Ocean. The success of his Spanish rivals under Columbus in due time encouraged the Portuguese king still more, or at least piqued him to new efforts. [Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA. [From Stanley's _Da Gama_.]] [Sidenote: Reaches Calicut May 20, 1498.] Vasco da Gama was finally put in command of a fleet specially equipped. It was now some years since his pilot, Pero de Alemquer, had carried Diaz well off the cape. On Sunday, July 8, 1497, Da Gama sailed from below Lisbon, and on November 22 he passed with full sheets the formidable cape. It was not, however, till December 17 that he reached the point where Diaz had turned back. His further progress does not concern us here. Suffice it to say that he cast anchor at Calicut May 20, 1498, and India was reached ten days before Columbus started a third time to verify his own beliefs, but really to find them errors. Towards the end of August, or perhaps early in September, of the next year (1499), Da Gama arrived at Lisbon on his return voyage, anticipated, indeed, by one of his caravels, which, separated from the commander in April or May, had pushed ahead and reached home on the 10th of July. Portugal at once resounded with jubilation. The fleet had returned crippled with disabled crews, and half the vessels had disappeared; but the solution of a great problem had been reached. The voyage of Da Gama, opening a trade eagerly pursued and eagerly met, offered, as we shall see, a great contrast to the small immediate results which came from the futile efforts of Columbus to find a western way to the same regions. [Illustration: SOUTHERN PART OF AFRICA. [From the Ptolemy of 1513.]] [Sidenote: Supposed voyage of Vespucius.] There have been students of these early explorers who have contended that, while Columbus was harassed in Spain with these delays in preparing for his third voyage, the Florentine Vespucius, whom we have encountered already as helping Berardi in the equipment of Columbus's fleets, had, in a voyage of which we have some confused chronology, already in 1497 discovered and coursed the northern shores of the mainland south of the Caribbean Sea. [Illustration: EARLIEST REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH AMERICAN NATIVES, 1497-1504. [From Stevens's reproduction in his _American Bibliographer_.]] Bernaldez tells us that, during the interval between the second and third voyages of Columbus, the Admiral "accorded permission to other captains to make discoveries at the west, who went and discovered various islands." Whether we can connect this statement with any such voyage as is now to be considered is a matter of dispute. [Sidenote: Who discovered South America?] This question of the first discovery of the mainland of South America,--we shall see that North America's mainland had already been discovered,--whether by Columbus or Vespucius, is one which has long vexed the historian and still does perplex him, though the general consensus of opinion at the present day is in favor of Columbus, while pursuing the voyage through which we are soon to follow him. The question is much complicated by the uncertainties and confusion of the narratives which are our only guides. The discovery, if not claimed by Vespucius, has been vigorously claimed for him. Its particulars are also made a part of the doubt which has clouded the recitals concerning the voyage of Pinzon and Solis to the Honduras coast, which are usually placed later; but by Oviedo and Gomara this voyage is said to have preceded that of Columbus. [Sidenote: Claimed for Vespucius.] The claim for Vespucius is at the best but an enforced method of clarifying the published texts concerning the voyages, in the hopes of finding something like consistency in their dates. Any commentator who undertakes to get at the truth must necessarily give himself up to some sort of conjecture, not only as respects the varied inconsistencies of the narrative, but also as regards the manifold blunders of the printer of the little book which records the voyages. Muñoz had it in mind, it is understood, to prove that Vespucius could not have been on the coast at the date of his alleged discovery; but in the opinions of some the documents do not prove all that Muñoz, Navarrete, and Humboldt have claimed, while the advocacy of Varnhagen in favor of Vespucius does not allow that writer to see what he apparently does not desire to see. The most, perhaps, that we can say is that the proof against the view of Varnhagen, who is in favor of such a voyage in 1497, is not wholly substantiated. The fact seems to be, so far as can be made out, that Vespucius passed from one commander's employ to another's, at a date when Ojeda, in 1499, had not completed his voyage, and when Pinzon started. So supposing a return to Spain in order for Vespucius to restart with Pinzon, it is also supposable that the year 1499 itself may have seen him under two different leaders. If this is the correct view, it of course carries forward the date to a time later than the discovery of the mainland by Columbus. It is nothing but plausible conjecture, after all; but something of the nature of conjecture is necessary to dissipate the confusion. The belief of this sharing of service is the best working hypothesis yet devised upon the question. If Vespucius was thus with Pinzon, and this latter navigator did, as Oviedo claims, precede Columbus to the mainland, there is no proof of it to prevent a marked difference of opinion among all the writers, in that some ignore the Florentine navigator entirely, and others confidently construct the story of his discovery, which has in turn taken root and been widely believed. [Sidenote: Alleged voyage of 1497.] A voyage of 1497 does not find mention in any of the contemporary Portuguese chroniclers. This absence of reference is serious evidence against it. It seems to be certain that within twenty years of their publication, there were doubts raised of the veracity of the narratives attributed to Vespucius, and Sebastian Cabot tells us in 1505 that he does not believe them in respect to this one voyage at any rate, and Las Casas is about as well convinced as Cabot was that the story was unfounded. Las Casas's papers passed probably to Herrera, who, under the influence of them, it would seem, formulated a distinct allegation that Vespucius had falsified the dates, converting 1499 into 1497. To destroy all the claims associated with Pinzon and Solis, Herrera carried their voyage forward to 1506. It was in 1601 that this historian made these points, and so far as he regulated the opinions of Europe for a century and a half, including those of England as derived through Robertson, Vespucius lived in the world's regard with a clouded reputation. The attempt of Bandini in the middle of the last century to lift the shadow was not very fortunate, but better success followed later, when Canovai delivered an address which then and afterwards, when it was reinforced by other publications of his, was something like a gage thrown to the old-time defamatory spirit. This denunciatory view was vigorously worked, with Navarrete's help, by Santarem in the _Coleccion_ of that Spanish scholar, whence Irving in turn got his opinions. Santarem professed to have made most extensive examinations of Portuguese and French manuscripts without finding a trace of the Florentine. Undaunted by all such negative testimony, the Portuguese Varnhagen, as early as 1839, began a series of publications aimed at rehabilitating the fame of Vespucius, against the views of all the later writers, Humboldt, Navarrete, Santarem, and the rest. Humboldt claimed to adduce evidence to show that Vespucius was all the while in Europe. Varnhagen finally brought himself to the belief that in this disputed voyage of 1497 Vespucius, acting under the orders of Vicente Yañez Pinzon and Juan Diaz de Solis, really reached the main at Honduras, whence he followed the curvatures of the coast northerly till he reached the capes of Chesapeake. Thence he steered easterly, passed the Bermudas, and arrived at Seville. If this is so, he circumnavigated the archipelago of the Antilles, and disproved the continental connection of Cuba. Varnhagen even goes so far as to maintain that Vespucius had not been deceived into supposing the coast was that of Asia, but that he divined the truth. Varnhagen stands, however, alone in this estimate of the evidence. Valentini, in our day, has even supposed that the incomplete Cuba of the Ruysch map of 1508 was really the Yucatan shore, which Vespucius had skirted. The claim which some French zealots in maritime discovery have attempted to sustain, of Norman adventurers being on the Brazil coast in 1497-98, is hardly worth consideration. * * * * * [Sidenote: The English expedition under Cabot.] We turn now to other problems. The Bull of Demarcation was far from being acceptable as an ultimate decision in England, and the spirit of her people towards it is well shown in the _Westerne Planting_ of Hakluyt. This chronicler mistrusts that its "certain secret causes"--which words he had found in the papal bull, probably by using an inaccurate version--were no other than "the feare and jelousie that King Henry of England, with whom Bartholomew Columbus had been to deal in this enterprise, and who even now was ready to send him into Spain to call his brother Christopher to England, should put a foot into this action;" and so the Pope, "fearing that either the King of Portugal might be reconciled to Columbus, or that he might be drawn into England, thought secretly by his unlawful division to defraud England and Portugal of that benefit." So England and Portugal had something like a common cause, and the record of how they worked that cause is told in the stories of Cabot first, and of Cortereal later. We will examine at this point the Cabot story only. [Sidenote: Newfoundland fisheries.] Bristol had long been the seat of the English commerce with Iceland, and one of the commodities received in return for English goods was the stockfish, which Cabot was to recognize on the Newfoundland banks. These stories of the codfish noticed by Cabot recalled in the mind of Galvano in 1555, and again more forcibly to Hakluyt a half century later, when Germany was now found to be not far from the latitude of Baccalaos, that there was a tale of some strange men, in the time of Frederick Barbarossa (A. D. 1153), being driven to Lubec in a canoe. It is by no means beyond possibility that the Basque and other fishermen of Europe may have already strayed to these fishing grounds of Newfoundland, at some period anterior to this voyage of Cabot, and even traces of their frequenting the coast in Bradore Bay have been pointed out, but without convincing as yet the careful student. [Sidenote: John Cabot.] A Venetian named Zuan Caboto, settling in England, and thenceforward calling himself John Cabot, being a man of experience in travel, and having seen at one time at Mecca the caravans returning from the east, was impressed, as Columbus had been, with a belief in the roundness of the earth. It is not unlikely that this belief had taken for him a compelling nature from the stories which had come to England of the successful voyage of the Spaniards. Indeed, Ramusio distinctly tells us that it was the bruit of Columbus's first voyage which gave to Cabot "a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing." [Sidenote: 1496. March 5. Cabot's patent.] [Sidenote: 1497. May. Cabot sails.] When Cabot had received for himself and his three sons--one of whom was Sebastian Cabot--a patent (March 5, 1496) from Henry VII. to discover and trade with unknown countries beyond the seas, the envoy of Ferdinand and Isabella at the English court was promptly instructed to protest against any infringement of the rights of Spain in the western regions. Whether this protest was accountable for the delay in sailing, or not, does not appear, for Cabot did not set sail from Bristol till May, 1497. [Sidenote: Ruysch with Cabot.] It is inferred from what Beneventanus says in his _Ptolemy_ of 1508 that Ruysch, who gives us the earliest engraved map of Cabot's discoveries, was a companion of Cabot in this initial voyage. When that editor says that he learned from Ruysch of his experiences in sailing from the south of England to a point in 53 degrees of north latitude, and thence due west, it may be referred to such participancy in this expedition from Bristol. We know from a conversation which is reported in Ramusio--unless there is some mistake in it--that Cabot apprehended the nature of what we call great circle sailing, and claimed that his course to the northwest would open India by a shorter route than the westerly run of Columbus. [Sidenote: 1497. June 24. Cabot sees land.] [Sidenote: Date of the voyage, 1494 or 1497?] When Cabot had ventured westerly 700 leagues, he found land, June 24, 1497. There has been some confidence at different times, early and late, that the date of this first Cabot voyage was in reality three years before this. The belief arose from the date of 1494 being given in what seem to have been early copies of a map ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, whence the date 1494 was copied by Hakluyt in 1589, though eleven years later he changed it to 1497. It is sufficient to say that few of the critics of our day, except D'Avezac, hold to this date of 1494. Major supposes that the map of 1544, now in the Paris library and ascribed to Cabot, was a re-drawn draft from the lost Spanish original, in which the date in Roman letters, VII, may have been so carelessly made in joining the arms of the V that it was read IIII; and some such inference was apparently in the mind of Henry Stevens when he published his little tract on Sebastian Cabot in 1870. The country which Cabot thus first saw was supposed by him to be a part of Asia, and to be occupied, though no inhabitants were seen. [Sidenote: Cabot's landfall.] Cabot was for over three hundred years considered as having made his landfall on the coast of Labrador, or at least we find no record that the legend of the map of 1544, placing it at Cape Breton, had impressed itself authoritatively upon the minds of Cabot's contemporaries and successors. Biddle and Humboldt, in the early part of the present century, accepted the Labrador landfall with little question. So it happened that when, in 1843, the Cabot mappemonde of 1544 was discovered, and it was found to place the landfall at the island of Cape Breton, a certain definiteness, where there had been so much vagueness, afforded the student some relief; but as the novelty of the sensation wore off, confidence was again lost, inasmuch as the various uncertainties of the document give much ground for the rejection of all parts of its testimony at variance with better vouched beliefs. It is quite possible that more satisfactory proofs can be adduced of another region for the landfall, but none such have yet been presented to scholars. It is commonly held now that, sighting land at Cape Breton, Cabot coursed northerly, passed the present Prince Edward Island, and then sailed out of the Strait of Belle Isle,--or at least this is as reasonable a route to make out of the scant record as any, though there is nothing like a commonly received opinion on his track. There is some ground for thinking that he could not have entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence at all. He landed nowhere and saw no inhabitants. If he struck the mainland, it was probably the coasts of New Brunswick or Labrador bordering on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The two islands which he observed on his right may have been headlands of Newfoundland, seeming to be isolated. [Sidenote: 1497. August. Cabot returns.] He reached Bristol in August, having been absent about three months. Raimondo de Soncino, under date of the 24th of that month, wrote to Italy of Cabot's return, and a fortnight earlier (August 10) we find record of a gratuity of ten pounds given to Cabot in recognition of this service. It proved to be an expedition which was to create a greater sensation of its kind than the English had before known. Bristol had nurtured for some years a race of hardy seamen. They had risked the dangers of the great unknown ocean in efforts to find the fabulous island of Brazil, and they had pushed adventurously westward at times, but always to return without success. The intercourse of England with the northern nations and with Iceland may have given them tidings of Greenland; but there is no reason to believe that they ever supposed that country to be other than an extended peninsula of Europe, enfolding the North Atlantic. [Sidenote: Cabot in England.] Cabot's telling of a new land, his supposing it the empire of the Great Khan, his tales of the wonderful fishing ground thereabouts, where the water was so dense with fish that his vessels were impeded, and his expectation of finding the land of spices if he went southward from the region of his landfall, were all stories calculated to incite wonder and speculation. It was not strange, then, that England found she had her new sea-hero, as Spain had hers in Columbus; that the king gave him money and a pension; and that, conscious of a certain dignity, Cabot went about the city, drawing the attention of the curious by reason of the fine silks in which he arrayed himself. [Sidenote: Spain jealous of England.] Cabot had no sooner returned than Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish envoy in London, again entered a protest, and gave notice to the English king that the land which had been discovered belonged to his master. There is some evidence that Spain kept close watch on the country at the north through succeeding years, and even intended settlement. [Sidenote: Cabot in Seville?] This Spanish ambassador wrote home from London, July 25, 1498, that after his first voyage, Cabot had been in Seville and Lisbon. This renders somewhat probable the suspicion that he may have had conferences with La Cosa and Columbus. [Sidenote: Cabot's charts.] That John Cabot, on returning from his first voyage, produced a chart which he had made, and that on this and on a solid globe, also of his construction, he had laid down what he considered to be the region he had reached, now admit of no doubt. Foreign residents at the English court reported such facts to the courts of Italy and of Spain. In the map of La Cosa (1500), we find what is considered a reflex of this Cabot chart, in the words running along a stretch of the northeast coast of Asia, which announce the waters adjacent as those visited by the English, and a neighboring headland as the Cape of the English. Even La Cosa's use of the Cabot map was lost sight of before long, and this record of La Cosa remained unknown till Humboldt discovered the map in Paris, in 1832, in the library of Baron Walckenaer, whence it passed in 1853 into the royal museum at Madrid. The views of Cabot respecting this region seem to have been soon obscured by the more current charts showing the voyages of the Cortereals, when the Cape of the English readily disappeared in the "Cabo de Portogesi," a forerunner, very likely, of what we know to-day as Cape Race. [Sidenote: 1497-98. February. The second Cabot voyage.] Such an appetizing tale as that of the first Cabot expedition was not likely to rest without a sequel. On the 3d of February, 1497-98, nearly four months before Columbus sailed on his third voyage, the English king granted a new patent to John Cabot, giving him the right to man six ships if he could, and in May he was at sea. Though his sons were not mentioned in the patent, it is supposed that Sebastian Cabot accompanied his father. One vessel putting back to Ireland, five others went on, carrying John Cabot westward somewhere and to oblivion, for we never hear of him again. Stevens ventures the suggestion that John Cabot may have died on the voyage of 1498, whereby Sebastian came into command, and so into a prominence in his own recollections of the voyage, which may account for the obscuration of his father's participancy in the enterprise. One of the ships would seem to have been commanded by Lanslot Thirkill, of London. What we know of this second voyage are mentions in later years, vague in character, and apparently traceable to what Sebastian had said of it, and not always clearly, for there is an evident commingling of events of this and of the earlier voyage. We get what we know mainly from Peter Martyr, who tells us that Cabot called the region Baccalaos, and from Ramusio, who reports at second hand Sebastian's account, made forty years after the event. From such indefinite sources we can make out that the little fleet steered northwesterly, and got into water packed with ice, and found itself in a latitude where there was little night. Thence turning south they ran down to 36° north latitude. The crews landed here and there, and saw people dressed in skins, who used copper implements. When they reached England we do not know, but it was after October, 1498. [Sidenote: Extent of this voyage.] The question of this voyage having extended down the Atlantic seaboard of the present United States to the region of Florida, as has been urged, seems to be set at rest in Stevens's opinion, from the fact that, had Cabot gone so far, he would scarcely have acquiesced in the claims of Ponce de Leon, Ayllon, and Gomez to have first tracked parts of this coast, when Sebastian Cabot as pilot major of Spain (1518), and as president of the Congress of Badajoz (1524), had to adjudicate on such pretensions. There are some objections to this view, in that the results of _unofficial_ explorers as shown in the Portuguese map of Cantino--if that proposition is tenable--and the rival English discoverers, of whom Cabot had been one, might easily have been held to be beyond the Spanish jurisdiction. It is not difficult to demonstrate in these matters the Spanish constant unrecognition of other national explorations. It has also sometimes been held that the wild character of the coast along which Cabot sailed must have convinced him that he was bordering some continental region intervening between him and the true coast of Asia; that with the "great displeasure" he had felt in finding the land running north, Cabot, in fact, must have comprehended the geographical problem of America long before it was comprehended by the Spaniards. The testimony of the La Cosa and Ruysch maps is not favorable to such a belief. [Sidenote: England rests her claim on it.] It seems pretty certain that the success of the Cabot voyage in any worldly gain was not sufficient to move the English again for a long period. Still, the political effect was to raise a claim for England to a region not then known to be a new continent, but of an appreciable acquisition, and England never afterwards failed to rest her rights upon this claim of discovery; and even her successors, the American people, have not been without cause to rest valuable privileges upon the same. The geographical effect was seen in the earliest map which we possess of the new lands as discovered by Spain and England, the great oxhide map of Juan de la Cosa, the companion of Columbus on his second voyage, and the cartographer of his discoveries, which has already been mentioned, and of which a further description will be given later. [Sidenote: Scant knowledge of the Cabot voyages.] Why is it that we know no more of these voyages of the Cabots? There seems to be some ground for the suspicion that the "maps and discourses" which Sebastian Cabot left behind him in the hands of William Worthington may have fallen, through the subornation by Spain of the latter, into the hands of the rivals of England at a period just after the publication (1582) of Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, wherein the possession of them by Worthington was made known; at least, Biddle has advanced such a theory, and it has some support in what may be conjectured of the history of the famous Cabot map of 1544, only brought to light three hundred years later. [Sidenote: The Cabot mappemonde.] Here was a map evidently based in part on such information as was known in Spain. It was engraved, as seems likely, though purporting to be the work of Cabot, in the Low Countries, and was issued without name of publisher or place, as if to elude responsibility. Notwithstanding it was an engraved map, implying many copies, it entirely disappeared, and would not have been known to exist except that there are references to such a map as having hung in the gallery at Whitehall, as used by Ortelius before 1570, and as noted by Sanuto in 1588. So thorough a suppression would seem to imply an effort on the part of the Spanish authorities to prevent the world's profiting by the publication of maritime knowledge which in some clandestine way had escaped from the Spanish hydrographical office. That this suppression was in effect nearly successful may be inferred from the fact that but a single copy of the map has come down to us, the one now in the great library at Paris, which was found in Germany by Von Martius in 1843. [Sidenote: Writers on Cabot.] There has been a good deal done of late years--beginning with Biddle's _Sebastian Cabot_ in 1831, a noteworthy book, showing how much the critical spirit can do to unravel confusion, and ending with the chapter on Cabot by the late Dr. Charles Deane in the _Narrative and Critical History of America_, and with the _Jean et Sébastien Cabot_ of Harrisse (Paris, 1882)--to clear up the great obscurity regarding the two voyages of John Cabot in 1497 and 1498, an obscurity so dense that for two hundred years after the events there was no suspicion among writers that there had been more than a single voyage. It would appear that this obscurity had mainly arisen from the way in which Sebastian Cabot himself spoke of his explorations, or rather from the way in which he is reported to have spoken. CHAPTER XVI. THE THIRD VOYAGE. 1498-1500. [Sidenote: Sources. Columbus's letters and journal.] In following the events of the third voyage, we have to depend mainly on two letters written by Columbus himself. One is addressed to the Spanish monarchs, and is preserved in a copy made by Las Casas. What Peter Martyr tells us seems to have been borrowed from this letter. The other is addressed to the "nurse" of Prince Juan, of which there are copies in the Columbus Custodia at Genoa, and in the Muñoz collection of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid. They are both printed in Navarrete and elsewhere, and Major in his _Select Letters of Columbus_ gives English versions. There are also some evidences that the account of this voyage given in the _Itinerarium Portugalensium_ was based on Columbus's journal, which Las Casas is known to have had, and to have used in his _Historia_, adding thereto some details which he got from a recital by Bernaldo de Ibarra, one of Columbus's companions,--indeed, his secretary. The map which accompanied these accounts by Columbus is lost. We only know its existence through the use of it made by Ojeda and others. Las Casas interspersed among the details which he recorded from Columbus's journal some particulars which he got from Alonso de Vallejo. One of the pilots, Hernan Perez Matheos, enabled Oviedo to add still something more to the other sources; and then we have additional light from the mouths of various witnesses in the Columbus lawsuit. There is a little at second hand, but of small importance, in a letter of Simon Verde printed by Harrisse. [Sidenote: Columbus's son Diego.] Before setting sail, Columbus prepared some directions for his son Diego, of which we have only recently had notes, such appearing in the bulletin of the Italian Geographical Society for December, 1889. He commands in these injunctions that Diego shall have an affectionate regard for the mother of his half-brother Ferdinand, adds some rules for the guidance of his bearing towards his sovereigns and his fellow-men, and recommends him to resort to Father Gaspar Gorricio whenever he might feel in need of advice. [Sidenote: 1498. May 30. Columbus sails.] [Sidenote: Rumors of a southern continent.] Columbus lifted anchor in the port of San Lucar de Barrameda on May 30, 1498. He was physically far from being in a good condition for so adventurous an undertaking. He had hoped, he says to his sovereigns, "to find repose in Spain; whereas on the contrary I have experienced nothing but opposition and vexation." His six vessels stood off to the southwest, to avoid a French--some say a Portuguese--fleet which was said to be cruising near Cape St. Vincent. His plan was a definite one, to keep in a southerly course till he reached the equatorial regions, and then to proceed west. By this course, he hoped to strike in that direction the continental mass of which he had intimation both from the reports of the natives in Española and from the trend which he had found in his last voyage the Cuban coast to have. Herrera tells us that the Portuguese king professed to have some knowledge of a continent in this direction, and we may connect it, if we choose, with the stories respecting Behaim and others, who had already sailed thitherward, as some reports go; but it is hard to comprehend that any belief of that kind was other than a guess at a compensating scheme of geography beyond the Atlantic, to correspond with the balance of Africa against Europe in the eastern hemisphere. It is barely possible, though there is no positive evidence of it, that the reports from England of the Cabot discoveries at the north may have given a hint of like prolongation to the south. But a more impelling instinct was the prevalent one of his time, which accompanied what Michelet calls that terrible malady breaking out in this age of Europe, the hunger and thirst for gold and other precious things, and which associated the possession of them with the warmer regions of the globe. "To the south," said Peter Martyr. "He who would find riches must avoid the cold north!" [Sidenote: Jayme Ferrer.] Navarrete preserves a letter which was written to Columbus by Jayme Ferrer, a lapidary of distinction. This jeweler confirmed the prevalent notion, and said that in all his intercourse with distant marts, whence Europe derived its gold and jewels, he had learned from their vendors how such objects of commerce usually came in greatest abundance from near the equator, while black races were those that predominated near such sources. Therefore, as Ferrer told Columbus, steer south and find a black race, if you would get at such opulent abundance. The Admiral remembered he had heard in Española of blacks that had come from the south to that island in the past, and he had taken to Spain some of the metal which had been given to him as of the kind with which their javelins had been pointed. The Spanish assayers had found it a composition of gold, copper, and silver. [Sidenote: Columbus steers southerly.] [Sidenote: 1498. June 16. At Gomera.] So it was with expectations like these that Columbus now worked his way south. He touched for wood and water at Porto Santo and Madeira, and thence proceeded to Gomera. Here, on June 16, he found a French cruiser with two Spanish prizes, but the three ships eluded his grasp and got to sea. He sent three caravels in pursuit, and the Spanish prisoners rising on the crew of one of the prizes, she was easily captured and brought into port. [Sidenote: Sends three ships direct to Española.] The Spanish fleet sailed again on June 21. The Admiral had detailed three of his ships to proceed direct to Española to find the new port on its southern side near the mines of Hayna. Their respective captains were to command the little squadron successively a week at a time. These men were: Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, a man of good reputation; Pedro de Arona, a brother of Beatrix de Henriquez, who had borne Ferdinand to the Admiral; and Juan Antonio Colombo, a Genoese and distant kinsman of the Admiral. [Sidenote: Columbus at the Cape de Verde Islands.] Parting with these vessels off Ferro, Columbus, with the three others,--one of which, the flagship, being decked, of a hundred tons burthen, and requiring three fathoms of water,--steered for the Cape de Verde Islands. His stay here was not inspiring. A depressing climate of vapor and an arid landscape told upon his health and upon that of his crew. Encountering difficulties in getting fresh provisions and cattle, he sailed again on July 5, standing to the southwest. [Sidenote: 1498. July 15.] [Sidenote: Calms and torrid heats.] [Sidenote: 1498. July 31. Trinidad seen.] [Sidenote: August 1.] Calms and the currents among the islands baffled him, however, and it was the 7th before the high peak of Del Fuego sank astern. By the 15th of July he had reached the latitude of 5° north. He was now within the verge of the equatorial calms. The air soon burned everything distressingly; the rigging oozed with the running tar; the seams of the vessels opened; provisions grew putrid, and the wine casks shrank and leaked. The fiery ordeal called for all the constancy of the crew, and the Admiral himself needed all the fortitude he could command to bear a brave face amid the twinges of gout which were prostrating him. He changed his course to see if he could not run out of the intolerable heat, and after a tedious interval, with no cessation of the humid and enervating air, the ships gradually drew into a fresher atmosphere. A breeze rippled the water, and the sun shone the more refreshing for its clearness. He now steered due west, hoping to find land before his water and provisions failed. He did not discover land as soon as he expected, and so bore away to the north, thinking to see some of the Carib Islands. On July 31 relief came, none too soon, for their water was nearly exhausted. A mariner, about midday, peering about from the masthead, saw three peaks just rising above the horizon. The cry of land was like a benison. The _Salve Regina_ was intoned in every part of the ship. Columbus now headed the fleet for the land. As the ships went on and the three peaks grew into a triple mountain, he gave the island the name of Trinidad, a reminder in its peak of the Trinity, which he had determined at the start to commemorate by bestowing that appellation on the first land he saw. He coasted the shore of this island for some distance before he could find a harbor to careen his ships and replenish his water casks. On August 1 he anchored to get water, and was surprised at the fresh luxuriance of the country. He could see habitations in the interior, but nowhere along the shore were any signs of occupation. His men, while filling the casks, discovered footprints and other traces of human life, but those who made them kept out of sight. [Sidenote: First sees the South American coast.] He was now on the southern side of the island, and in that channel which separates Trinidad from the low country about the mouths of the Orinoco. Before long he could see the opposite coast stretching away for twenty leagues, but he did not suspect it to be other than an island, which he named La Isla Santa. It was indeed strange but not surprising that Columbus found an island of a new continent, and supposed it the mainland of the Old World, as happened during his earlier voyages; and equally striking it was that now when he had actually seen the mainland of a new world he did not know it. [Sidenote: 1498. August 2.] By the 2d of August the Admiral had approached that narrow channel where the southwest corner of Trinidad comes nearest to the mainland, and here he anchored. A large canoe, containing five and twenty Indians, put off towards his ships, but finally its occupants lay upon their paddles a bowshot away. Columbus describes them as comely in shape, naked but for breech-cloths, and wearing variegated scarfs about their heads. They were lighter in skin than any Indians he had seen before. This fact was not very promising in view of the belief that precious products would be found in a country inhabited by blacks. The men had bucklers, too, a defense he had never seen before among these new tribes. He tried to lure them on board by showing trinkets, and by improvising some music and dances among his crew. The last expedient was evidently looked upon as a challenge, and was met by a flight of arrows. Two crossbows were discharged in return, and the canoe fled. The natives seemed to have less fear of the smaller caravels, and approached near enough for the captain of one of them to throw some presents to them, a cap, and a mantle, and the like; but when the Indians saw that a boat was sent to the Admiral's ship, they again fled. While here at anchor, the crew were permitted to go ashore and refresh themselves. They found much delight in the cool air of the morning and evening, coming after their experiences of the torrid suffocation of the calm latitudes. Nature had appeared to them never so fresh. [Sidenote: The Gulf Stream.] [Sidenote: Boca del Sierpe.] [Sidenote: Gulf of Paria.] [Sidenote: Boca del Drago.] Columbus grew uneasy in his insecure anchorage, for he had discovered as yet no roadstead. He saw the current flowing by with a strength that alarmed him. The waters seemed to tumble in commotion as they were jammed together in the narrow pass before him. It was his first experience of that African current which, setting across the ocean, plunges hereabouts into the Caribbean Sea, and, sweeping around the great gulf, passes north in what we know as the Gulf Stream. Columbus was as yet ignorant, too, of the great masses of water which the many mouths of the Orinoco discharge along this shore; and when at night a great roaring billow of water came across the channel,--very likely an unusual volume of the river water poured out of a sudden,--and he found his own ship lifting at her anchor and one of his caravels snapping her cable, he felt himself in the face of new dangers, and of forces of nature to which he was not accustomed. To a seaman's senses not used to such phenomena, the situation of the ships was alarming. Before him was the surging flow of the current through the narrow pass, which he had already named the Mouth of the Serpent (Boca del Sierpe). To attempt its passage was almost foolhardy. To return along the coast stemming such a current seemed nearly impossible. He then sent his boats to examine the pass, and they found more water than was supposed, and on the assurances of the pilot, and the wind favoring, he headed his ships for the boiling eddies, passed safely through, and soon reached the placid water beyond. The shore of Trinidad stretched northerly, and he turned to follow it, but somebody getting a taste of the water found it to be fresh. Here was a new surprise. He had not yet comprehended that he was within a land-locked gulf, where the rush of the Orinoco sweetens the tide throughout. As he approached the northwestern limit of Trinidad, he found that a lofty cape jutted out opposite a similar headland to the west, and that between them lay a second surging channel, beset with rocks and seeming to be more dangerous than the last. So he gave it a more ferocious name, the Mouth of the Dragon (Boca del Drago). To follow the opposite coast presented an alternative that did not require so much risk, and, still ignorant of the way in which his fleet was embayed in this marvelous water, he ran across on Sunday, August 5, to the opposite shore. He now coasted it to find a better opening to the north, for he had supposed this slender peninsula to be another island. The water grew fresher as he went on. The shore attracted him, with its harbors and salubrious, restful air, but he was anxious to get into the open sea. He saw no inhabitants. The liveliest creatures which he observed were the chattering monkeys. At length, the country becoming more level, he ran into the mouth of a river and cast anchor. It was perhaps here that the Spaniards first set foot on the continent. The accounts are somewhat confused, and need some license in reconciling them. They had, possibly, landed earlier. [Illustration: GULF OF PARIA.] [Sidenote: Paria.] A canoe with three natives now came out to the caravel nearest shore. The Spanish captain secured the men by a clever trick. After a parley, he gave them to understand he would go on shore in their boat, and jumping violently on its gunwale, he overturned it. The occupants were easily captured in the water. Being taken on board the flagship, the inevitable hawks' bells captivated them, and they were set on shore to delight their fellows. Other parleys and interchanges of gifts followed. Columbus now ascertained, as well as he could by signs, that the word "Paria," which he heard, was the name of the country. The Indians pointed westerly, and indicated that men were much more numerous that way. The Spaniards were struck with the tall stature of the men, and noted the absence of braids in their hair. It was curious to see them smell of everything that was new to them,--a piece of brass, for instance. It seemed to be their sense of inquiry and recognition. It is not certain if Columbus participated in this intercourse on shore. He was suffering from a severe eruption of the eyes, and one of the witnesses said that the formal taking possession of the country was done by deputy on that account. This statement is contradicted by others. [Sidenote: The natives.] As he went on, the country became even more attractive, with its limpid streams, its open and luxuriant woods, its clambering vines, all enlivened with the flitting of brilliant birds. So he called the place The Gardens. The natives appeared to him to partake of the excellence of the country. They were, as he thought, manlier in bearing, shapelier in frame, with greater intelligence in their eyes, than any he had earlier discovered. Their arts were evidently superior to anything he had yet seen. Their canoes were handier, lighter, and had covered pavilions in the waist. There were strings of pearls upon the women which raised in the Spaniards an increased sense of cupidity. The men found oysters clinging to the boughs that drooped along the shore. Columbus recalled how he had read in Pliny of the habit of the pearl oyster to open the mouth to catch the dew, which was converted within into pearls. The people were as hospitable as they were gracious, and gave the strangers feasts as they passed from cabin to cabin. They pointed beyond the hills, and signified that another coast lay there, where a greater store of pearls could be found. [Sidenote: 1498. August 10.] To leave this paradise was necessary, and on August 10 the ships went further on, soon to find the water growing still fresher and more shallow. At last, thinking it dangerous to push his flagship into such shoals, Columbus sent his lightest caravel ahead, and waited her coming back. On the next day she returned, and reported that there was an inner bay beyond the islands which were seen, into which large volumes of fresh water poured, as if a huge continent were drained. Here were conditions for examination under more favorable circumstances, and on August 11 Columbus turned his prow toward the Dragon's Mouth. His stewards declared the provisions growing bad, and even the large stores intended for the colony were beginning to spoil. It was necessary to reach his destination. Columbus's own health was sinking. His gout had little cessation. His eyes had almost closed with a weariness that he had before experienced on the Cuban cruise, and he could but think of the way in which he had been taken prostrate into Isabella on returning from that expedition. [Sidenote: Passes the Boca del Drago.] [Sidenote: Tobago and Grenada.] [Sidenote: Cubagua and Margarita.] Near the Dragon's Mouth he found a harbor in which to prepare for the passage of the tumultuous strait. There seemed no escape from the trial. The passage lay before him, wide enough in itself, but two islands parted its currents and forced the boiling waters into narrower confines. Columbus studied their motion, and finally made up his mind that the turmoil of the waters might after all come from the meeting of the tide and the fresh currents seeking the open sea, and not from rocks or shoals. At all events, the passage must be made. The wind veering round to the right quarter, he set sail and entered the boisterous currents. As long as the wind lasted there was a good chance of keeping his steering way. Unfortunately, the wind died away, and so he trusted to luck and the sweeping currents. They carried him safely beyond. Once without, he was brought within sight of two islands to the northeast. They were apparently those we to-day call Tobago and Grenada. It was now the 15th of August, and Columbus turned westward to track the coast. He came to the islands of Cubagua and Margarita, and surprised some native canoes fishing for pearls. [Sidenote: Pearls.] His crews soon got into parley with the natives, and breaking up some Valentia ware into bits, the Spaniards bartered them so successfully that they secured three pounds, as Columbus tells us, of the coveted jewels. He had satisfied himself that here was a new field for the wealth which could alone restore his credit in Spain; but he could not tarry. As he wore ship, he left behind a mountainous reach of the coast that stretched westerly, and he would fain think that India lay that way, as it had from Cuba. At that island and here, he had touched, as he thought, the confines of Asia, two protuberant peninsulas, or perhaps masses of the continent, separated by a strait, which possibly lay ahead of him. [Sidenote: Columbus's geographical delusions.] There was much that had been novel in all these experiences. Columbus felt that the New World was throwing wider open the gates of its sublime secrets. Lying on his couch, almost helpless from the cruel agonies of the gout, and sightless from the malady of his eyes, the active mind of the Admiral worked at the old problems anew. We know it all from the letter which a few weeks later he drafted for the perusal of his sovereigns, and from his reports to Peter Martyr, which that chronicler has preserved for us. We know from this letter that his thoughts were still dwelling on the Mount Sopora of Solomon, "which mountain your Highnesses now possess in the island of Española,"--a convenient stepping-stone to other credulous fancies, as we shall see. The sweetness and volume of the water which had met him in the Gulf of Paria were significant to him of a great watershed behind. He reverted to the statement in Esdras of the vast preponderance on the globe of land, six parts to one of water, and thought he saw a confirmation of it in the immense flow that argued a corresponding expansion of land. He recalled all that he recollected of Aristotle and the other sages. He went back to his experiences in mid-ocean, when he was startled at the coincidence of the needle and the pole star. He remembered how he had found all the conditions of temperature and the other physical aspects to be changed as he passed that line, and it seemed as if he was sweeping into regions more ethereal. He had found the same difference when he passed, a few weeks before, out of the baleful heats of the tropical calms. He grew to think that this line of no variation of magnetism with corresponding marvels of nature marked but the beginning of a new section of the earth that no one had dreamed of. St. Augustine, St. Basil, and St. Ambrose had placed the Garden of Eden far in the Old World's east, apart from the common vicinage of men, high up above the baser parts of the earth, in a region bathed in the purest ether, and so high that the deluge had not reached it. All the stories of the Middle Ages, absorbed in the speculative philosophy of his own time, had pointed to the distant east as the seat of Paradise, and was he not now coming to it by the western passage? If the scant riches of the soil could not restore the enthusiasm which his earlier discoveries aroused in the dull spirits of Europe, would not a glimpse of the ecstatic pleasures of Eden open their eyes anew? He had endeavored to make his contemporaries feel that the earth was round, and he had proved it, as he thought, by almost touching, in a westward passage, the Golden Chersonesus. It is significant that the later _Historie_ of 1571 omits this vagary of Paradise. The world had moved, and geographical discovery had made some records in the interim, awkward for the biographer of Columbus. [Illustration: PRE-COLUMBIAN MAPPEMONDE, PRESERVED AT RAVENNA, RESTORED BY GRAVIER AFTER D'AVEZAC IN _BULLETIN DE LA SOCIÉTÉ NORMANDE_, 1888.] [Sidenote: Paradise found.] There was a newer belief linked with this hope of Paradise. All this wondrous life and salubrity which Columbus saw and felt, if it had not been able to restore his health, could only come from his progress up a swelling apex of the earth, which buttressed the Garden of Eden. It was clear to his mind that instead of being round the earth was pear-shaped, and that this great eminence, up which he had been going, was constantly lifting him into purer air. The great fountain which watered the spacious garden of the early race had discharged its currents down these ethereal slopes, and sweetened all this gulf that had held him so close within its embaying girth. If such were the wonders of these outposts of the celestial life, what must be the products to be seen as one journeyed up, along the courses of such celestial streams? As he steered for Española, he found the currents still helped him, or he imagined they did. Was it not that he was slipping easily down this wonderful declivity? [Sidenote: Columbus and Vespucius.] That he had again discovered the mainland he was convinced by such speculations. He had no conception of the physical truth. The vagaries of his time found in him the creature of their most rampant hallucinations. This aberration was a potent cause in depriving him of the chance to place his own name on this goal of his ambition. It accounts much for the greater impression which Americus Vespucius, with his clearer instincts, was soon to make on the expectant and learned world. The voyage of that Florentine merchant, one of those trespassers that Columbus complained of, was, before the Admiral should see Spain again, to instigate the publication of a narrative, which took from its true discoverer the rightful baptism of the world he had unwittingly found. The wild imaginings of Columbus, gathered from every resource of the superstitious past, moulded by him into beliefs that appealed but little to the soberer intelligence of his time, made known in tumultuous writings, and presently to be expressed with every symptom of mental wandering in more elaborate treatises, offered to his time an obvious contrast to the steadier head of Vespucius. The latter's far more graphic description gained for him, as we shall see, the position of a recognized authority. While Columbus was puzzling over the aberration of the pole star and misshaping the earth, Vespucius was comprehending the law of gravitation upon our floating sphere, and ultimately representing it in the diagram which illustrated his narrative. We shall need to return on a later page to these causes which led to the naming of America. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1498. August 19. Columbus sees Española.] [Sidenote: His observations of nature.] [Sidenote: Meets the Adelantado.] For four days Columbus had sailed away to the northwest, coming to the wind every night as a precaution, before he sighted Española on August 19, being then, as he made out, about fifty leagues west of the spot where he supposed the port had been established for the mines of Hayna. He thought that he had been steering nearer that point, but the currents had probably carried him unconsciously west by night, as they were at that moment doing with the relief ships that he had parted with off Ferro. As Columbus speculated on this steady flow of waters with that keenness of observation upon natural phenomena which attracted the admiration of Humboldt, and which is really striking, if we separate it from his turbulent fancies, he accounted by its attrition for the predominating shape of the islands which he had seen, which had their greatest length in the direction of the current. He knew that its force would, perhaps, long delay him in his efforts to work eastward, and so he opened communication with the shore in hopes to find a messenger by whom to dispatch a letter to the Adelantado. This was easily done, and the letter reached its destination, whereupon Bartholomew started out in a caravel to meet the little fleet. It was with some misgiving that Columbus resumed his course, for he had seen a crossbow in the hands of a native. It was not an article of commerce, and it might signify another disaster like that of La Navidad. He was accordingly relieved when he shortly afterwards saw a Spanish caravel approaching, and, hailing the vessel, found that the Adelantado had come to greet him. There was much interchange of news and thought to occupy the two in their first conference; and Columbus's anxiety to know the condition of the colony elicited a wearisome story, little calculated to make any better record in Spain than the reports of his own rule in the island. [Sidenote: Events in Española during the absence of Columbus.] [Sidenote: Santo Domingo founded.] [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] The chief points of it were these: Bartholomew had early carried out the Admiral's behests to occupy the Hayna country. He had built there a fortress which he had named St. Cristoval, but the workmen, finding particles of gold in the stones and sands which they used, had nicknamed it the Golden Tower. While this was doing, there was difficulty in supporting the workmen. Provisions were scarce, and the Indians were not inclined to part with what they had. The Adelantado could go to the Vega and exact the quarterly tribute under compulsion; but that hardly sufficed to keep famine from the door at St. Cristoval. Nothing had as yet been done to plant the ground near the fort, nor had herds been moved there. The settlement of Isabella was too far away for support. Meanwhile Niño had arrived with his caravels, but he had not brought all the expected help, for the passage had spoiled much of the lading. It was by Niño that Bartholomew received that dispatch from his brother which he had written in the harbor of Cadiz when, on his arrival from his second voyage, he had discerned the condition of public opinion. It was at this time, too, that he repeated to Bartholomew the decision of the theologians, that to be taken in war, or to be guilty of slaying any of their Majesties' liege subjects, was quite enough to render the Indians fit subjects for the slave-block. The Admiral's directions, therefore, were to be sure that this test kept up the supply of slaves; and as there was nobody to dispute the judgment of his deputy, Niño had taken back to Spain those three hundred, which were, as we have seen, so readily converted into reputed gold on his arrival. [Sidenote: Santo Domingo named.] Bartholomew had selected the site for a new town near the mouth of the Ozema, convenient for the shipment of the Hayna treasure, and, naming it at first the New Isabella, it soon received the more permanent appellation of Santo Domingo, which it still bears. [Sidenote: Xaragua conquered.] [Sidenote: Behechio and Anacaona.] Bartholomew had a pleasing story to tell of the way in which he had brought Behechio and his province of Xaragua into subjection. This territory was the region westward from about the point where Columbus had touched the island a few days before. Anacaona, the wife of Caonabo,--now indeed his widow,--had taken refuge with Behechio, her brother, after the fall of her husband. She is represented as a woman of fine appearance, and more delicate and susceptible in her thoughts than was usual among her people; and perhaps Bartholomew told his brother what has since been surmised by Spanish writers, that she had managed to get word to him of her friendly sentiments for celestial visitors. Bartholomew found, as he was marching thither with such forces as he could spare for the expedition, that the cacique who met him in battle array was easily disposed, for some reason or other, perhaps through Anacaona's influence, to dismiss his armed warriors, and to escort his visitor through his country with great parade of hospitality. When they reached the cacique's chief town, a sort of fête was prepared in the Adelantado's honor, and a mock battle, not without sacrifice of life, was fought for his delectation. Peter Martyr tells us that when the comely young Indian maidens advanced with their palm branches and saluted the Adelantado, it seemed as if the beautiful dryads of the olden tales had slipped out of the vernal woods. Then Anacaona appeared on a litter, with no apparel but garlands, the most beautiful dryad of them all. Everybody feasted, and Bartholomew, to ingratiate himself with his host, eat and praised their rarest delicacy, the guana lizard, which had been offered to them many times before, but which they never as yet had tasted. It became after this a fashion with the Spaniards to dote on lizard flesh. Everything within the next two or three days served to cement this new friendship, when the Adelantado put it to a test, as indeed had been his purpose from the beginning. He told the cacique of the great power of his master and of the Spanish sovereigns; of their gracious regard for all their distant subjects, and of the poor recompense of a tribute which was expected for their protection. "Gold!" exclaimed the cacique, "we have no gold here." "Oh, whatever you have, cotton, hemp, cassava bread,--anything will be acceptable." So the details were arranged. The cacique was gratified at being let off so easy, and the Spaniards went their way. [Sidenote: Native conspiracy.] This and the subsequent visit of Bartholomew to Xaragua to receive the tribute were about the only cheery incidents in the dreary retrospect to which the Admiral listened. The rest was trouble and despair. A line of military posts had been built connecting the two Spanish settlements, and the manning of them, with their dependent villages, enabled the Adelantado to scatter a part of the too numerous colony at Isabella, so that it might be relieved of so many mouths to feed. This done, there was a conspiracy of the natives to be crushed. Two of the priests had made some converts in the Vega, and had built a chapel for the use of the neophytes. One of the Spaniards had outraged a wife of the cacique. Either for this cause, or for the audacious propagandism of the priests, some natives broke into the Spanish chapel, destroyed its shrine, and buried some of its holy vessels in a field. Plants grew up there in the form of a cross, say the veracious narrators. This, nevertheless, did not satisfy the Spaniards. They seized such Indians as they considered to have been engaged in the desecration, and gave them the fire and fagots, as they would have done to Moor or Jew. The horrible punishment aroused the cacique Guarionex with a new fury. He leagued the neighboring caciques into a conspiracy. Their combined forces were threatening Fort Conception when the Adelantado arrived with succor. By an adroit movement, Bartholomew ensnared by night every one of the leaders in their villages, and executed two of them. The others he ostentatiously pardoned, and he could tell Columbus of the great renown he got for his clemency. [Sidenote: Roldan's revolt.] There was nothing in all the bad tidings which Bartholomew had to rehearse quite so disheartening as the revolt of Roldan, the chief judge of the island,--a man who had been lifted from obscurity to a position of such importance that Columbus had placed the administration of justice in his hands. The reports of the unpopularity of Columbus in Spain, and the growing antipathy in Isabella to the rule of Bartholomew as a foreigner, had served to consolidate the growing number of the discontented, and Roldan saw the opportunity of easily raising himself in the popular estimate by organizing the latent spirit of rebellion. It was even planned to assassinate the Adelantado, under cover of a tumult, which was to be raised at an execution ordered by him; but as the Adelantado had pardoned the offender, the occasion slipped by. Bartholomew's absence in Xaragua gave another opportunity. He had sent back from that country a caravel loaded with cotton, as a tribute, and Diego, then in command at Isabella, after unlading the vessel, drew her up on the beach. The story was busily circulated that this act was done simply to prevent any one seizing the ship and carrying to Spain intelligence of the misery to which the rule of the Columbuses was subjecting the people. The populace made an issue on that act, and asked that the vessel be sent to Cadiz for supplies. Diego objected, and to divert the minds of the rebellious, as well as to remove Roldan from their counsels, he sent him with a force into the Vega, to overawe some caciques who had been dilatory in their tribute. This mission, however, only helped Roldan to consolidate his faction, and gave him the chance to encourage the caciques to join resistance. [Sidenote: The mutineers in the Vega Real.] [Sidenote: At Isabella.] Roldan had seventy well-armed men in his party when he returned to Isabella to confront Bartholomew, who had by this time got back from Xaragua. The Adelantado was not so easily frightened as Roldan had hoped, and finding it not safe to risk an open revolt, this mutinous leader withdrew to the Vega with the expectation of surprising Fort Conception. That post, however, as well as an outlying fortified house, was under loyal command, and Roldan was for a while thwarted. Bartholomew was not at all sure of any of the principal Spaniards, but how far the disaffection had gone he was unable to determine. Although he knew that certain leading men were friendly to Roldan, he was not prepared to be passive. His safety depended on resolution, and so he marched at once to the Vega. Roldan was in the neighborhood, and was invited to a parley. It led to nothing. The mutineers, making up their minds to fly to the delightful pleasures of Xaragua, suddenly marched back to Isabella, plundered the arsenal and storehouses, and tried to launch the caravel. The vessel was too firmly imbedded to move, and Roldan was forced to undertake the journey to Xaragua by land. To leave the Adelantado behind was a sure way to bring an enemy in his rear, and he accordingly thought it safer to reduce the garrison at Conception, and perhaps capture the Adelantado. [Sidenote: Coronel arrives.] This movement failed; but it resulted in Roldan's ingratiating himself with the tributary caciques, and intercepting the garrison's supplies. It was at this juncture, when everything looked desperate for Bartholomew, shut up in the Vega fort, that news reached him of the arrival (February 3, 1498) at the new port of Santo Domingo of the advance section of the Admiral's fleet, sent thither, as we have seen, by the Queen's assiduity, under the command of Pedro Fernandez Coronel. Bartholomew could tell the Admiral of the good effect which the intelligence received through Coronel had on the colony. His own title of Adelantado, it was learned, was legitimated by the act of the sovereigns; and Columbus himself had been powerful enough to secure confirmation of his old honors, and to obtain new pledges for the future. The mutineers soon saw that the aspects of their revolt were changed. They could not, it would seem, place that dependence on the unpopularity of the Admiral at Court which had been a good part of their encouragement. [Sidenote: Bartholomew's new honors.] Proceeding to Santo Domingo, Bartholomew proclaimed his new honors, and, anxious to pacificate the island before the arrival of Columbus, he dispatched Coronel to communicate with Roldan, who had sulkily followed the Adelantado in his march from the Vega. Roldan refused all intercourse, and, shielding himself behind a pass in the mountains, he warned off the pacificator. He would yield to no one but the Admiral. [Sidenote: The rebels go to Xaragua.] There was nothing for the Adelantado to do but to outlaw the rebels, who, in turn, sped away to what Irving calls the "soft witcheries" of the Xaragua dryads. The archrebel was thus well out of the way for a time; but his influence still worked among the Indians of the Vega, and Bartholomew had not long left Conception before the garrison was made aware of a native conspiracy to surprise it. [Sidenote: Guarionex's revolt.] Word was sent to Santo Domingo, and the Adelantado was promptly on the march for relief. Guarionex, who had headed the revolt again, fled to the mountains of Ciguay, where a mountain cacique, Mayobanex, the same who had conducted the attack on the Spaniards at the Gulf of Samana during the first voyage, received the fugitive chief of the valley. It was into these mountain fastnesses that the Adelantado now pursued the fugitives, with a force of ninety foot, a few horse, and some auxiliary Indians. He boldly thridded the defiles, and crossed the streams, under the showers of lances and arrows. As the native hordes fled before him, he fired their villages in the hope of forcing the Ciguayans to surrender their guest; but the mountain leaders could not be prevailed upon to wrong the rights of hospitality. When no longer able to resist in arms, Mayobanex and Guarionex fled to the hills. The Adelantado now sent all of his men back to the Vega to look after the crops, except about thirty, and with these he scoured the region. He would not have had success by mere persistency, but he got it by artifice and treachery. Both Mayobanex and Guarionex were betrayed in their hiding-places and captured. Clemency was shown to their families and adherents, and they were released; but both caciques remained in their bonds as hostages for the maintenance of the quiet which was now at last in some measure secured. [Sidenote: 1498. August 30. Columbus arrives.] Such was the condition of affairs when Columbus arrived and heard the story of these two troubled years and more during which he had been absent. * * * * * It was the 30th of August when Columbus and his brother landed at Santo Domingo. There had not been much to encourage the Admiral in this story of the antecedent events. No portrayal of riot, dissolution, rapine, intrigue, and idleness could surpass what he saw and heard of the bedraggled and impoverished settlement at Isabella. The stores which he had brought would be helpful in restoring confidence and health; but it was a source of anxiety to him that nothing had been heard of the three caravels from which he had parted off Ferro. [Sidenote: Roldan and the belated ships.] These vessels appeared not long afterwards, bringing a new perplexity. Forced by currents which their crews did not understand, they had been carried westerly, and had wandered about in the unknown seas in search of Española. A few days before reaching Santo Domingo, the ships had anchored off the territory of Behechio, where Roldan and his followers already were. The mutineers observed the approach of the caravels, not quite sure of their character, thinking possibly that they had been dispatched against their band; but Roldan boldly went on board, and, ascertaining their condition, he had the address to represent that he was stationed in that region to collect the tribute, and was in need of stores, arms, and munitions. The commander of the vessel at once sent on shore what he demanded; and while this was going on, Roldan's men ingratiated themselves with the company on board the caravels, and readily enlisted a part of them in the revolt. The new-comers, being some of the emancipated convicts which Columbus had so unwisely registered among his crews, were not difficult to entice to a life of pleasure. By the time Roldan had secured his supplies and was ready to announce his true character, it was not certain how far the captains of the vessels could trust their crews. The chief of these commanders undertook, when the worst was known, to bring the revolters back to their loyalty; but he argued in vain. The wind being easterly, and to work up against it to Santo Domingo being a slow process, it was decided that one of the captains, Colombo, should conduct about forty armed men by land to the new town. When he landed them, the insidious work of the mutineers became apparent. Only eight of his party stood to his command, and over forty marched over to the rebels, each with his arms. The overland march was necessarily given up, and the three caravels, to prevent further desertions, hoisted sail and departed. Carvajal remained behind to urge Roldan to duty; but the most he could do was to exact a promise that he would submit to the Admiral if pardoned, but not to the Adelantado. [Sidenote: 1498. September 12.] The report which Carvajal made to Columbus, when shortly afterwards he joined his companions in Santo Domingo, coming by land, was not very assuring. Columbus was too conscious of the prevalence of discontent, and he had been made painfully aware of the uncertainty of convict loyalty. He then made up his mind that all such men were a menace, and that they were best got rid of. Accordingly he announced that five ships were ready to sail for Spain and would take any who should desire to go, and that the passage would be free. [Sidenote: Roldan and Ballester.] [Sidenote: 1498. October 18. The ships sail for Spain.] Learning from Carvajal that Roldan was likely soon to lead his men near Fort Conception, Columbus notified Miguel Ballester, its commander, to be on his guard. He also directed him to seek an interview with the rebel leader, in order to lure him back to duty by offer of pardon from the Admiral. As soon as Ballester heard of Roldan's arrival in the neighborhood, he went out to meet him. Roldan, however, was in no mood to succumb. His force had grown, and some of the leading Spaniards had been drawn towards him. So he defied the Admiral in his speeches, and sent him word that if he had any further communications to make to him they should be sent by Carvajal, for he would treat with no other. Columbus, on receiving this message, and not knowing how far the conspiracy had extended among those about him, ordered out the military force of the settlement. There were not more than seventy men to respond; nor did he feel much confidence in half of these. There being little chance of any turn of affairs for the better with which he could regale the sovereigns, Columbus ordered the waiting ships to sail, and on October 18 they put to sea. [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] The ships carried two letters which Columbus had written to the monarchs. In the one he spoke of his new discoveries, and of the views which had developed in his mind from the new phenomena, as has already been represented, and promised that the Adelantado should soon be dispatched with three caravels to make further explorations. In the other he repeated the story of events since he had landed at Santo Domingo. He urged that Roldan might be recalled to Spain for examination, or that he might be committed to the custody of Carvajal and Ballester to determine the foundation of his grievances. At the same time he requested that a further license be given, to last two years, for the capture and transmission of slaves. It was not unlikely that the case of Roldan and his abettors was represented with equal confidence in other letters, for there were many hands among the passengers to which they could be confided. [Sidenote: Columbus seeks to quiet the colony.] [Sidenote: 1498. October 20.] The ships gone, the Admiral gave himself to the difficult task of pacificating the colony. The vigorous rule of the Adelantado had made enemies who were to be propitiated, though Las Casas tells us that the rule had been strict no farther than that it had been necessarily imperative in emergencies. Columbus wrote on October 20 an expostulatory letter to Roldan. To send it by Carvajal, as was necessary, if Roldan was to receive it, would be to intrust negotiations to a person who was already committed in some sort to the rebel's plan, or at least some of the Admiral's leading councilors believed such to be the case, apparently too hastily. Columbus did not share that distrust, and Carvajal was sent. This letter crossed one from the leading rebels, in which they demanded from Columbus release from his service, and expressed their determination to maintain independence. [Sidenote: Conferences with Roldan.] [Sidenote: 1498. November 6. Roldan's terms.] When Carvajal reached Bonao, where the rebels were gathered,--and Ballester had accompanied him,--their joint persuasions had some effect on Roldan and others, principal rebels; but the followers, as a mass, objected to the leaders entering into any conference except under a written guaranty of safety for them and those that should accompany them. This message was accordingly returned to Columbus, and Ballester at the same time wrote to him that the revolt was fast making head; that the garrisons were disaffected, and losing by desertion; and that the common people could not be trusted to stand by the Admiral if it came to war. He advised, therefore, a speedy reconciliation or agreement of some sort. The guaranty was sent, and Roldan soon presented himself to the Admiral. The demands of the rebel and the prerogatives of the Admiral were, it proved, too widely apart for any accommodation. So Roldan, having possessed himself of the state of feeling in Santo Domingo, returned to his followers, promising to submit definite terms in writing. These were sent under date of November 6, 1498, with a demand for an answer before the 11th. The terms were inadmissible. To disarm charges of exaction, Columbus made public proclamation of a readiness to grant pardon to all who should return to allegiance within thirty days, and to such he would give free transportation to Spain. Carvajal carried this paper to Roldan, and was accompanied by Columbus's major-domo, Diego de Salamanca, in the hopes that the two might yet arrange some terms, mutually acceptable. [Illustration: ESPAÑOLA, RAMUSIO, 1555.] [Sidenote: Columbus agrees to them.] The messenger found Roldan advanced from Bonao, and besieging Ballester in Conception. The revolt had gone too far, apparently, to be stayed, but the persuasion of the mediators at last prevailed, and terms were arranged. These provided full pardon and certificates of good conduct; free passage from Xaragua, to which point two caravels should be sent; the full complement of slaves which other returning colonists had; liberty for such as had them to take their native wives, and restoration of sequestered property. Roldan and his companions signed this agreement on November 16, and agreed to wait eight days for the signature of the Admiral. Columbus signed it on the 21st, and further granted indulgences of one kind or another to such as chose to remain in Española. [Sidenote: Delays in carrying out the agreement.] [Sidenote: New agreement.] [Sidenote: Signed September 28, 1499.] Under the agreement, the ships were to be ready in fifty days, but Columbus, in the disorganized state of the colony, found it impossible to avoid delays, and his self-congratulations that he had got rid of the turbulent horde were far from warranted. While under this impression, and absent with the Adelantado, inspecting the posts throughout the island, and deciding how best he could restore the regularities of life and business, the arrangements which he had made for carrying out the agreement with Roldan had sorely miscarried. Nearly double the time assigned to the preparation of the caravels had elapsed, when the vessels at last left Santo Domingo for Xaragua. A storm disabling one of them, there were still further delays; and when all were ready, the procrastination in their outfit offered new grounds for dispute, and it was found necessary to revise the agreement. Carvajal was still the mediator. Roldan met the Admiral on a caravel, which had sailed toward Xaragua. The terms which Roldan now proposed were that he should be permitted to send some of his friends, fifteen in number, if he desired so many, to Spain; that those who remained should have grants of land; that proclamation should be made of the baseless character of the charges against him and his accomplices; and that he himself should be restored to his office of Alcalde Mayor. Columbus, who had received a letter from Fonseca in the meanwhile, showing that there was little chance of relief from Spain, saw the hopelessness of his situation, and sufficiently humbled himself to accept the terms. When they were submitted to the body of the mutineers, this assembly added another clause giving them the right to enforce the agreement by compulsion in case the Admiral failed to carry it out. This, also, was agreed to in despair; while the Admiral endeavored to relieve the mortification of the act by inserting a clause enforcing obedience to the commands of the sovereigns, of himself, and of his regularly appointed justices. This agreement was ratified at Santo Domingo, September 28, 1499. [Sidenote: Roldan reinstated.] [Sidenote: Repartimientos.] [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] It was not a pleasant task for Columbus to brook the presence of Roldan and his victorious faction in Santo Domingo. The reinstated alcalde had no occasion to be very complaisant after he had seen the Admiral cringe before him. Columbus endeavored, in making the grants of lands, to separate the restored rebels as much as he could, in order to avoid the risks of other mutinous combinations. He agreed with the caciques that they should be relieved from the ordinary tribute of treasure if they would furnish these new grantees with laborers for their farms. Thus at the hands of Columbus arose the beginning of that system of _repartimientos_, with all its miseries for the poor natives, which ended in their extermination. The apologists of Columbus consider that the exigencies of his situation forced him into these fiendish enactments, and that he is not to be held responsible for them as of his free will. They forget the expressions of his first letter to Santangel, which prefigured all the misery which fell upon myriads of these poor creatures. The record, unfortunately, shows that it was Columbus who invariably led opinion in all these oppressions, and not he who followed it. His artfulness never sprang to a new device so exultingly as when it was a method of increasing the revenue at the cost of the natives. When we read, in the letter written to his sovereigns during this absence, of his always impressing on the natives, in his intercourse with them, "the courtesy and nobleness of all Christians," we shudder at the hollowness of the profession. [Sidenote: Roldan's demands.] The personal demands of Roldan under the capitulation were also to be met. They included restoration of lands which he called his own, new lands to be granted, the stocking of them from the public herds; and Columbus met them, at least, until the grants should be confirmed at Court. This was not all. Roldan visited Bonao, and made one of his late lieutenants an assistant alcalde,--an assumption of the power of appointment at which Columbus was offended, as some tell us; but if the _Historie_ is to be depended on, the appointment invited no unfavorable comment from Columbus. When it was found that this new officer was building a structure ostensibly for farm purposes, but of a character more like a fortress, suitable for some new mutiny to rally in, Columbus at last rose on his dignity and forbade it. [Sidenote: 1499. October. Caravels sent to Spain.] [Sidenote: Columbus sends Ballester to support his cause in Spain.] In October, 1499, the Admiral dispatched two caravels to Spain. It did not seem safe for him to embark in them, though he felt his presence was needed at Court to counteract the mischief of his enemies and Roldan's friends. Some of the latter went in the ships. The most he could do was to trust his cause to Miguel Ballester and Garcia de Barrantes, who embarked as his representatives. They bore his letters to the monarchs. In these he enumerated the compulsions under which he had signed the capitulation with Roldan, and begged their Majesties to treat it as given under coercion, and to bring the rebels to trial. He then mentioned what other assistants he needed in governing the colony, such as a learned judge and some discreet councilors. He ended with asking that his son, Diego, might be spared from Court to assist him. * * * * * [Sidenote: Royal infringements of Columbus's privileges.] [Sidenote: 1499. Ojeda's voyage.] While Columbus was making these requests, he was ignorant of the way in which the Spanish Court had already made serious trespasses upon his prerogatives as Admiral of the Indies. He had said in his letter to the sovereigns, "Your Majesties will determine on what is to be done," in consequence of these new discoveries at Paria. He was soon to become painfully conscious of what was done. The real hero of Columbus's second voyage, Alonso de Ojeda, comes again on the scene. He was in Spain when the accounts which Columbus had transmitted to Court of his discoveries about the Gulf of Paria reached Seville. Such glowing descriptions fired his ambition, and learning from Columbus's other letters and from the reports by those who had returned of the critical condition of affairs in Española, he anticipated the truth when he supposed that the Admiral could not so smother the disquiet of his colony as to venture to leave it for further explorations. He saw, too, the maps which Columbus had sent back and the pearls which he had gathered. He acknowledged all this in a deposition taken at Santo Domingo in 1513. So he proposed to Fonseca that he might be allowed to undertake a private voyage, and profit, for himself and for the Crown, by the resources of the country, inasmuch as it must be a long time before Columbus himself could do so. Fonseca readily commended the plan and gave him a license, stipulating that he should avoid any Portuguese possession and any lands that Columbus had discovered before 1495. It was the purpose, by giving this date, to throw open the Paria region. [Sidenote: Vespucius with Ojeda.] [Sidenote: Juan de la Cosa.] [Sidenote: 1499. May 20. Ojeda sails.] [Sidenote: At Venezuela.] The ships were fitted out at Seville in the early part of 1499, and some men, famous in these years, made part of the company which sailed on them. There was Americus Vespucius, who was seemingly now for the first time to embark for the New World, since it is likely that out of this very expedition the alleged voyage of his in 1497 has been made to appear by some perversion of chronology. There was Juan de la Cosa, a famous hydrographer, who was the companion of Columbus in his second Cuban cruise. Irving says that he was with Columbus in his first voyage; but it is thought that it was another of the same name who appears in the registers of that expedition. Several of those who had returned from Española after the Paria cruise of Columbus were also enlisted, and among them Bartholomew Roldan, the pilot of that earlier fleet. The expedition of Ojeda sailed May 20, 1499. They made land 200 leagues east of the Orinoco, and then, guided by Columbus's charts, the ships followed his track through the Serpent's and the Dragon's Mouths. Thence passing Margarita, they sailed on towards the mountains which Columbus had seen, and finally entered a gulf, where they saw some pile dwellings of the natives. They accordingly named the basin Venezuela, in reference to the great sea-built city of the Adriatic. It is noteworthy that Ojeda, in reporting to their Majesties an account of this voyage, says that he met in this neighborhood some English vessels, an expedition which may have been instigated by Cabot's success. It is to be observed, at the same time, that this is the only authority which we have for such an early visit of the English to this vicinity, and the statement is not credited by Biddle, Helps, and other recent writers. Ojeda turned eastward not long after, having run short of provisions. He then approached the prohibited Española, and hoped to elude notice while foraging at its western end. [Sidenote: 1499. September 5. Ojeda touches at Española.] It was while here that Ojeda's caravels were seen and tidings of their presence were transmitted to Santo Domingo. Ignorance of what he had to deal with in these intruders was one of the reasons which made it out of the question for Columbus to return to Spain in the ships which he had dispatched in October. Ojeda had appeared on the coast on September 5, 1499, and as succeeding reports came to Columbus, it was divulged that Ojeda was in command, and that he was cutting dyewoods thereabouts. [Sidenote: Columbus sends Roldan to warn Ojeda off.] Now was the time to heal the dissensions of Roldan, and to give him a chance to recover his reputation. So the Admiral selected his late bitter enemy to manage the expedition which he thought it necessary to dispatch to the spot. Roldan sailed in command of two caravels on September 29, and, approaching unobserved the place where Ojeda's ships were at anchor, he landed with twenty-five men, and sent out scouts. They soon reported that Ojeda was some distance away from his ships at an Indian village, making cassava bread. Ojeda heard of the approach, but not in time to prevent Roldan getting between him and his ships. The intruder met him boldly, said he was on an exploring expedition, and had put in for supplies, and that if Roldan would come on board his ships, he would show his license signed by Fonseca. When Roldan went on board, he saw the document. He also learned from those he talked with in the ships--and there were among them some whom he knew, and some who had been in Española--that the Admiral's name was in disgrace at Court, and there was imminent danger of his being deprived of his command at Española. Moreover, the Queen, who had befriended him against all others, was ill beyond recovery. Ojeda promising to sail round to Santo Domingo and explain his conduct to the Admiral, Roldan left him, and carried back the intelligence to Columbus. The Viceroy waited patiently for Ojeda's vessels to appear, and to hear the explanation of what he deemed a flagrant violation of his rights. Ojeda, having got rid of Roldan, had accomplished all that he intended by the promise. When he set sail, it was to pass round the coast easterly to the shore of Xaragua, where he anchored, and opened communication with the Spanish settlers, remnants of Roldan's party, who had not been quite satisfied to find their reinstated leader acting as an emissary of Columbus. Ojeda, with impetuous sympathy, listened to their complaints, and had agreed to be their leader in marching to Santo Domingo to demand some redresses, when Roldan, sent by Columbus to watch him, once more appeared. Ojeda declined a conference, and kept on his ship. [Sidenote: 1500. June. Ojeda reaches Cadiz.] Roldan had harbored a deserter from one of Ojeda's fleet, and as he refusedto give him up, Ojeda watched his opportunity and seized two of Roldan's men to hold as hostages. So the two wary adventurers watched each other for an advantage. After a while, Ojeda, in his ships, stood down the coast. Roldan followed along the shore. Coming up to where the ships were anchored, Roldan induced Ojeda to send a boat ashore, when, by an artifice, he captured the boat and its crew. This game of stratagems ended with an agreement on Ojeda's part to leave the island, while Roldan restored the captive boat. The prisoners were exchanged. Ojeda bore off shore, and though Roldan heard of his landing again at a distant point, he was gone when the pursuers reached the spot. Las Casas says that Ojeda made for some islands, where he completed his lading of slaves, and set sail for Spain, arriving at Cadiz in June, 1500. * * * * * [Sidenote: Niño's voyage to the pearl coast.] [Sidenote: Guerra aids him.] While Columbus was congratulating himself on being well rid of this dangerous visitor, he was not at all aware of the uncontrollable eagerness which the joyous reports of pearls had engendered in the adventurous spirits of the Spanish seaports. Among such impatient sailors was the pilot, Pedro Alonso Niño, who had accompanied Columbus on his first voyage, and had also but recently returned from the Paria coast, having been likewise with the Admiral on his third voyage. He found Fonseca as willing, if only the Crown could have its share, as Ojeda had found him, and just as forgetful of the vested rights of Columbus. So the license was granted only a few days after that given to Ojeda, and of similar import. Niño, being a poor man, sought the aid of Luis Guerra in fitting out a small caravel of only fifty tons; and in consideration of this assistance, Guerra's brother, Cristoval, was placed in command, with a crew, all told, of thirty-three souls. They sailed from Palos early in June, 1499, and were only fifteen days behind Ojeda on the coast. They had some encounters and some festivities with the natives; but they studiously attended to their main object of bartering for pearls, and when they reached Spain on their return in April, 1500, and laid out the shares for the Crown, for Guerra, and for the crew, of the rich stores of pearls which they had gathered, men said, "Here at last is one voyage to the new islands from which some adequate return is got." And so the first commensurate product of the Indies, instead of saving the credit of Columbus, filled the pockets of an interloping adventurer. * * * * * [Sidenote: V. Y. Pinzon's voyage.] [Sidenote: 1499. December.] [Sidenote: Pinzon crosses the equator.] [Sidenote: The southern sky.] But a more considerable undertaking of the same illegitimate character was that of Vicente Yañez Pinzon, the companion of Columbus on his first voyage. Leaguing with him a number of the seamen of the Admiral, including some of his pilots on his last voyage, Pinzon fitted out at Palos four caravels, which sailed near the beginning of December, 1499, not far from the time when Columbus was thinking, because of the flight of Ojeda, that an end was at last coming to these intrusions within his prescribed seas. Pinzon was not so much influenced by greed as by something of that spirit which had led him to embark with Columbus in 1492, the genuine eagerness of the explorer. He was destined to do what Columbus had been prevented from doing by the intense heat and by the demoralized condition of his crew,--strike the New World in the equatorial latitudes. So he stood boldly southwest, and crossed the equator, the first to do it west of the line of demarcation. Here were new constellations as well as a new continent for the transatlantic discoverer. The north star had sunk out of sight. Thus it was that the southern heavens brought a new difficulty to navigation, as well as unwonted stellar groups to the curious observer. The sailor of the northern seas had long been accustomed to the fixity of the polar star in making his observations for latitude. The southern heavens were without any conspicuous star in the neighborhood of the pole: and in order to determine such questions, the star at the foot of the Southern Cross was soon selected, but it necessitated an allowance of 30° in all observations. [Sidenote: 1500. January 20. Sees Cape Consolation.] [Sidenote: Coasts north.] It was on January 20, 1500, or thereabouts, that Pinzon saw a cape which he called Consolation, and which very likely was the modern Cape St. Augustine,--though the identification is not established to the satisfaction of all,--which would make Pinzon the first European to see the most easterly limit of the great southern continent. A belief like this requires us, necessarily, to reject Varnhagen's view that as early as the previous June (1499) Ojeda had made his landfall just as far to the east. Pinzon took possession of the country, and then, sailing north, passed the mouth of the Amazon, and found that even out of sight of land he could replenish his water-casks from the flow of fresh waters, which the great river poured into the ocean. It did not occur to his practical mind, as it had under similar circumstances to Columbus, that he was drinking the waters of Paradise! [Sidenote: 1500. June. Pinzon at Española.] [Sidenote: Reaches Palos, September, 1500.] Reaching the Gulf of Paria, Pinzon passed out into the Caribbean Sea, and touched at Española in the latter part of June, 1500. Proceeding thence to the Lucayan Islands, two of his caravels were swallowed up in a gale, and the other two disabled. The remaining ships crossed to Española to refit, whence sailing once more, they reached Palos in September, 1500. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1500. January. Diego de Lepe's voyage.] Meanwhile, following Pinzon, Diego de Lepe, sailing also from Palos with two caravels in January, 1500, tracked the coast from below Cape St. Augustine northward. He was the first to double this cape, as he showed in the map which he made for Fonseca, and doing so he saw the coast stretching ahead to the southwest. From this time South America presents on the charts this established trend of the coast. Humboldt thinks that Diego touched at Española before returning to Spain in June, 1500. * * * * * [Sidenote: Portuguese explorations by the African route.] We must now return to the further exploration of the Portuguese by the African route, for we have reached a period when, by accident and because of the revised line of demarcation, the Portuguese pursuing that route acquired at the same time a right on the American coast which they have since maintained in Brazil, as against what seems to have been a little earlier discovery of that coast by Pinzon, in the voyage already mentioned. [Sidenote: 1500. March 9.] [Sidenote: Cabral discovers the Brazil coast.] [Sidenote: 1500. May 1.] In the year following the return to Lisbon of Da Gama with the marvelous story of the African route to India, the Portuguese government were prompted naturally enough to establish more firmly their commercial relations with Calicut. They accordingly fitted out three ships to make trial once more of the voyage. The command was given to Pedro Alvarez Cabral, and there were placed under him Diaz, who had first rounded the stormy cape, and Coelho, who had accompanied Da Gama. The expedition sailed on March 9, 1500. Leaving the Cape de Verde Islands, Cabral shaped his course more westerly than Da Gama had done, but for what reason is not satisfactorily ascertained. Perhaps it was to avoid the calms off the coast of Guinea; perhaps to avoid breasting a storm; and indeed it may have been only to see if any land lay thitherward easterly of the great line of demarcation. Whatever the motive, the fleet was brought on April 22 opposite an eminence, which received then the name of Monte Pascoal, and is to-day, as then it became by right of discovery, within the Portuguese limits of South America, the Land of the True Cross, as he named it, Vera Cruz; later, however, to be changed to Santa Cruz. The coast was examined, and in the bay of Porto Seguro, on May 1, formal possession of the country was taken for the crown of Portugal. Cabral sent a caravel back with the news, expressed in a letter drawn up by Pedro Vaz de Caminha. This letter, which is dated on the day possession was taken, was first made known by Muñoz, who discovered it in the archives at Lisbon. It was not till July 29 that the Portuguese king, in a letter which is printed by Navarrete, notified the Spanish monarchs of Cabral's discovery, and this letter was printed in Rome, October 23, 1500. It seems to have been the apprehension of the Portuguese, if we may trust this letter, that the new coast lay directly in the route to the Cape of Good Hope, though on the right hand. [Sidenote: Cabral at Calicut, September 13, 1500.] Leaving two banished criminals to seek their chances of life in the country, and to ascertain its products, Cabral set sail on May 22, and proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope. Fearful gales were encountered and four vessels were lost, and his subordinate, Diaz, found an ocean grave off the stormy cape of his own finding. But Calicut was at last reached, September 13. * * * * * [Sidenote: Date of Cabral's discovery.] [Sidenote: His landfall.] There is a day or two difference in the dates assigned by different authorities for this discovery of Cabral. Ramusio, quoting a pilot of the fleet fourteen months after the event, says April 24, and leading Portuguese historians have followed him; but the letter which Cabral sent back to Portugal, as already related, says April 22. The question would be a trifling one, as Humboldt suggests, except that it bears upon the question of just where this fortuitous landfall was made, involving estimates of distance sailed before Cabral entered the harbor of Porto Seguro. It is probable that this was at a point a hundred and seventy leagues south of the spot reached earlier (January, 1500) by Pinzon and De Lepe. Yet on this point there are some differences of opinion, which are recapitulated by Humboldt. [Sidenote: Cabral and Pinzon.] The most impartial critics, however, agree with Humboldt in giving Pinzon the lead, if not to the extent of the forty-eight days before Cabral left Lisbon, as Humboldt contends. If Barros is correct in his deductions, it was not known on board of Cabral's fleet that Columbus had already discovered in the Paria region what he supposed an extension of the Asiatic main. The first conclusion of the Portuguese naturally was that they had stumbled either on a new group of islands, or perhaps on some outlying members of the group of the Antilles. Of course nothing was known at the time of the discoveries of Pinzon and Lepe. [Sidenote: The results of the African route.] It has often been remarked that if Columbus had not sailed in 1492, Cabral would have revealed America in 1500. It is a striking fact that the Portuguese had pursued their quest for India with an intelligence and prescience which geographical truth confirmed. The Spaniards went their way in error, and it took them nearly thirty years to find a route that could bring them where they could defend at the antipodes their rights under the Bull of Demarcation. Columbus sought India and found America without knowing it. Cabral, bound for the Cape of Good Hope, stumbled upon Brazil, and preëmpted the share of Portugal in the New World as Da Gama has already secured it in Asia. Thus the African route revealed both Cathay and America. * * * * * [Sidenote: The Columbus lawsuit.] [Sidenote: La Cosa's map, 1500.] For these voyages commingling with those of Columbus along the spaces of the Caribbean Sea, we get the best information, all things considered, from the testimonies of the participants in them, which were rendered in the famous lawsuit which the Crown waged against the heirs of Columbus. The well-known map of Juan de la Cosa posts us best on the cartographical results of these same voyages up to the summer of 1500. [Illustration] [Illustration: SKETCH OF LA COSA'S MAP.] La Cosa was, as Las Casas called him, the best of the pilots then living, and there is a story of his arrogating to himself a superiority to Columbus, even. As La Cosa returned to Spain with Ojeda in June, 1500, and sailed again in October with Bastidas, this famous map was apparently made in that interval, since it purports in an inscription to have been drafted in 1500. In posting the geographical knowledge which he had acquired up to that date, La Cosa drew upon his own experiences in the voyages which he had already made with Columbus (1493-96), and with Ojeda (1499-1500). It is to be regretted that we have from his pencil no later draft, for his experience in these seas was long and intimate, since he accompanied Bastidas in 1500-2, led expeditions of his own in 1504-6 and 1507-8, and went again with Ojeda in 1509. La Cosa, indeed, does not seem to have improved his map on any subsequent date, and that he puts down Cape St. Augustine so accurately is another proof of that headland being seen by Pinzon or Lepe in 1500, and that news of its discovery had reached the map makers. [Sidenote: Objections to La Cosa's map.] The objections to La Cosa's map as a source of historical information have been that (1) he gives an incorrect shape to Cuba, and makes it an island eight years before Ocampo sailed around it; and that (2) he gives an unrecognizable coast northward from where the Gulf of Mexico should be. Henry Stevens, in his _Historical and Geographical Notes_, undertakes to answer these objections. [Sidenote: Insularity of Cuba.] First, Stevens reverts to the belief of La Cosa that he did not imagine Cuba to be an island, because no one ever knew of an island 335 leagues long, as Columbus and he, sailing along its southern side, had found it to be, taking the distance they had gone rather than the true limits. Stevens depends much on the belief of Columbus that the bay of islands which he fancied himself within, when he turned back, was the Gulf of Ganges,--supposing that Peter Martyr quoted Columbus, when he wrote to that effect in August, 1495. If Varnhagen is correct in his routes of Vespucius, that navigator, in 1497, making the circuit of the Gulf of Mexico, had established the insularity of Cuba. Few modern scholars, it is fair to say, accept Varnhagen's theories. It became a question, after Humboldt had made the La Cosa chart public in 1833, how its maker had got the information of the insularity of Cuba. Humboldt was convinced that though a "complacent witness" to Columbus's ridiculous notarial transaction during his second voyage, La Cosa had dared to tell the truth, even at the small risk of having his tongue pulled out. [Illustration: RIBERO'S ANTILLES, 1529.] The Admiral's belief, bolstered after his own fashion by suborning his crew, was far from being accepted by all. Peter Martyr not long afterward voiced the hesitancy which was growing. It was beginning to be believed that the earth was larger than Columbus thought, and that his discoveries had not taken him as far as Cathay. Every new report veered the vane on this old gossiper's steeple, and he went on believing one day and disbelieving the next. [Illustration: WYTFLIET'S CUBA.] We may perhaps question now if the official promulgation of the Cuban circumnavigation by Sebastian Ocampo in 1508 was much more than the Spanish acknowledgment of its insularity, when they could no longer deny it. Henry Stevens has claimed to put La Cosa's island of Cuba in accord with Columbus, or at least partly so. He finds this western limit of Cuba on the La Cosa map drawn with "a dash of green paint," which he holds to be a color used to define unknown coasts. He studied the map in Jomard's colored facsimile, and trusted it, not having examined the original to this end,--though he had apparently seen it in the Paris auction-room in 1853, when, as a competitor, he had run up the price which the Spanish government paid for it. He says that the same green emblem of unknown lands is also placed upon the coast of Asia, where a peninsular Cuba would have joined it. He seems to forget that he should have found, to support his theory, a gap rather than a supposable coast, and should rather have pointed to the vignette of St. Christopher as affording that gap. [Illustration: WYTFLIET'S CUBA.] Ruysch in 1507 marked in his map this unknown western limit with a conventional scroll, while he made his north coast not unlike the Asiatic coast of Mauro (1457) and Behaim (1492), and with no gap. Stevens also interprets the St. Dié map of 1508-13 as showing this peninsular Cuba in what is there placed as the main, with a duplicated insular Cuba in what is called Isabella. The warrant for this supposition is the transfer under disguises of the La Cosa and Ruysch names of their Cuba to the continental coast of the St. Dié map, leaving the "Isabella" entirely devoid of names. Stevens ventures the opinion that La Cosa may have been on the first voyage of Columbus as well as on the second, and his reason for this is that the north coast of Cuba, which Columbus then coasted, is so correctly drawn; but this opinion ignores the probability, indeed the certainty, that this approximate accuracy could just as well be reached by copying from Columbus's map of that first voyage. It should be borne in mind, however, that Varnhagen, who had faith in the 1497 voyage of Vespucius as having settled the insular character of Cuba, interprets this St. Dié map quite differently, as showing a rudimentary Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi mouth instead of the Gulf of Ganges. [Sidenote: La Cosa's coast of Asia.] Second, Stevens grasps the obvious interpretation that La Cosa simply drew in for this northern coast that of Asia as he conceived it. This hardly needs elucidation. But his opinion is not so well grounded that the northern part of this Asiatic coast, where La Cosa intended to improve on the notions which had come from Marco Polo and the rest, is simply the _northern_ coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as laid down by the explorations of Cabot. If it be taken as giving from Cabot's recitals the trend of the coasts found by him, it seems to show that that navigator knew nothing of the southern entrance of that gulf. This adds further to the uncertainty of what is called the Cabot mappemonde of 1544. That La Cosa intended the coasts of the Cabots' discoveries to belong to inland waters Stevens thinks is implied by the sea thereabouts being called _Mar_ instead of _Mar oceanus_. It is difficult to see the force of these supplemental views of Stevens, and to look upon the drawing of La Cosa in this northern region as other than Asia modified vaguely by the salient points of the outer coast lines as glimpsed by Cabot. If the Spanish envoy in England carried out his intention of sending a copy of Cabot's chart to Spain, it could hardly have escaped falling into the hands of La Cosa. We have already mentioned the chance of John Cabot having visited the peninsula in the interval between his two voyages. [Sidenote: Columbus and the Cabot voyages.] The chief ground for believing that Columbus ever heard of the voyages of the Cabots--for there is no plain statement that he did--is that we know how La Cosa had knowledge of them; and that upon his map the vignette of St. Christopher bearing the infant Christ may possibly have been, as it has sometimes been held to be, a direct reference to La Cosa's commander, who may be supposed in that case to have been acquainted with the compliment paid him, and consequently with the map's record of the Cabots. [Sidenote: The Cantino map.] Whether La Cosa understood the natives better than Columbus, or whether he had information of which we have no record, it is certain that within two years rumor or fact brought it to the knowledge of the Portuguese that the westerly end of Cuba lay contiguous to a continental shore, stretching to the north, in much the position of the eastern seaboard of the United States. This is manifest from the Cantino map, which was sent from Lisbon to Italy before November, 1502, and which prefigured the so-called Admiral's map of the Ptolemy of 1513. There will be occasion to discuss later the over-confident dictum of Stevens that this supposed North American coast was simply a duplicated Cuba, turned north and south, and stretching from a warm region, as the Spaniards knew it, well up into the frozen north. Cosa's map seems to have exerted little or no influence on the earliest printed maps of the New World, and in this it differs from the Cantino map. [Sidenote: Minor expeditions.] We know not what unexpected developments may further have sprung from obscure and furtive explorations, which were now beginning to be common, and of which the record is often nothing more than an inference. Stories of gold and pearls were great incentives. The age was full of a spirit of private adventure. The voyages of Ojeda, Niño, and Pinzon were but the more conspicuous. CHAPTER XVII. THE DEGRADATION AND DISHEARTENMENT OF COLUMBUS. 1500. Columbus, writing to the Spanish sovereigns from Española, said, in reference to the lifelong opposition which he had encountered:-- [Sidenote: Opponents of Columbus.] "May it please the Lord to forgive those who have calumniated and still calumniate this excellent enterprise of mine, and oppose and have opposed its advancement, without considering how much glory and greatness will accrue from it to your Highnesses throughout all the world. They cannot state anything in disparagement of it except its expense, and that I have not immediately sent back the ships loaded with gold." [Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] Was this an honest statement? Columbus knew perfectly well that there had been much else than disappointment at the scant pecuniary returns. He knew that there was a widespread dissatisfaction at his personal mismanagement of the colony; at his alleged arrogance and cupidity as a foreigner; at his nepotism; at his inordinate exaltation of promise, and at his errant faith that brooked no dispute. He knew also that his enthusiasm had captivated the Queen, and that as long as she could be held captive he could appeal to her not in vain. If there had been any honesty in the Queen's professions in respect to the selling of slaves, he knew that he had outraged them. Even when he was writing this letter, it came over him that there was a fearful hazard for him both in the persistency of this denunciation of others against him and in the heedless arrogance of such perverseness on his own part. "I know," he says, "that water dropping on a stone will at length make a hole." We shall see before long that foreboding cavity. [Sidenote: Columbus and Roldan.] [Sidenote: Guevara.] [Sidenote: Anacaona's daughter.] [Sidenote: Adrian do Moxica.] The defection of Roldan turned so completely into servility is but one of the strange contrasts of the wonderful course of vicissitudes in the life of Columbus. There presently came a new trial for him and for Roldan. A young well-born Spaniard, Fernando de Guevara, had appeared in Española recently, and by his dissolute life he had created such scandals in Santo Domingo that Columbus had ordered him to leave the island. He had been sent to Xaragua to embark in one of Ojeda's ships; but that adventurer had left the coast when the outlaw reached the port. While waiting another opportunity to embark, Guevara was kept in that part of the island under Roldan's eye. This implied no such restraint as to deny him access to the society of Anacaona, with whose daughter, Higuamota, who seems to have inherited something of her mother's commanding beauty and mental qualities, he fell in love, and found his passion requited. He sought companionship also with one of the lieutenants of Roldan, who had been a leader in his late revolt, Adrian de Moxica, then living not far away, who had for him the additional attachment of kinship, for the two were cousins. Las Casas tells us that Roldan had himself a passion for the young Indian beauty, and it may have been for this as well as for his desire to obey the Admiral that he commanded the young cavalier to go to a more distant province. The ardent lover had sought to prepare his way for a speedy marriage by trying to procure a priest to baptize the maiden. This caused more urgent commands from Roldan, which were ostentatiously obeyed, only to be eluded by a clandestine return, when he was screened with some associates in the house of Anacaona. This queenly woman seems to have favored his suit with her daughter. He was once more ordered away, when he began to bear himself defiantly, but soon changed his method to suppliancy. Roldan was appeased by this. Guevara, however, only made it the cloak for revenge, and with some of his friends formed a plot to kill Roldan. This leaked out, and the youth and his accomplices were arrested and sent to Santo Domingo. This action aroused Roldan's old confederate, Moxica, and, indignant at the way in which the renegade rebel had dared to turn upon his former associates, Moxica resolved upon revenge. [Sidenote: Moxica's plot.] [Sidenote: Moxica taken.] To carry it out he started on a tour through the country where the late mutineers were settled, and readily engaged their sympathies. Among those who joined in his plot was Pedro Riquelme, whom Roldan had made assistant alcalde. The old spirit of revolt was rampant. The confederates were ready for any excess, either upon Roldan or upon the Admiral. Columbus was at Conception in the midst of the aroused district, when a deserter from the plotters informed him of their plan. With a small party the Admiral at once sped in the night to the unguarded quarters of the leaders, and Moxica and several of his chief advisers were suddenly captured and carried to the fort. The execution of the ringleader was at once ordered. Impatient at the way in which the condemned man dallied in his confessions to a priest, Columbus ordered him pushed headlong from the battlements. The French canonists screen Columbus for this act by making Roldan the perpetrator of it. The other confederates were ironed in confinement at Conception, except Riquelme, who was taken later and conveyed to Santo Domingo. The revolt was thus summarily crushed. Those who had escaped fled to Xaragua, whither the Adelantado and Roldan pursued them without mercy. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus and his colony.] Columbus had perhaps never got his colony under better control than existed after this vigorous exhibition of his authority. Such a show of prompt and audacious energy was needed to restore the moral supremacy which his recusancy under the threats of Roldan had lost. The fair weather was not to last long. [Sidenote: 1500. August 23. Bobadilla arrives.] Early in the morning of August 23, 1500, two caravels were descried off the harbor of Santo Domingo. The Admiral's brother Diego was in authority, Columbus being still at Conception, and Bartholomew absent with Roldan. Diego sent out a canoe to learn the purpose of the visitors. It returned, and brought word that a commissioner was come to inquire into the late rebellion of Roldan. Diego's messengers had at the same time informed the newcomer of the most recent defection of Moxica, and that there were still other executions to take place, particularly those of Riquelme and Guevara, who were confined in the town. As the ships entered the river, the gibbets on either bank, with their dangling Spaniards, showed the commissioner that there were other troublous times to inquire into than those named in his warrant. While the commissioner remained on board his ship, receiving the court of those who early sought to propitiate him, and while he was getting his first information of the condition of the island, mainly from those who had something to gain by the excess of their denunciations, it is necessary to go back a little in time, and ascertain who this important personage was, and what was the mission on which he had been sent. [Illustration: VILLE DE S^T. DOMINGUE. SANTO DOMINGO. 1754.] [Sidenote: Growth of the royal dissatisfaction with Columbus.] The arrangements for sending him had been made slowly. They were even outlined when Ojeda had started on his voyage, for he had, in his interviews with Roldan, blindly indicated that some astonishment of this sort was in store. Evidently Fonseca had not allowed Ojeda to depart without some intimations. [Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] Notwithstanding Columbus professed to believe that nothing but the lack of pecuniary return for the great outlays of his expeditions could be alleged against them, he was well aware, and he had constantly acted as if well aware, of the great array of accusations which had been made against him in Spain, with a principal purpose of undermining the indulgent regard of the Queen for him. He had known it with sorrow during his last visit to Spain, and had found, as we have seen, that he could not secure men to accompany him and put themselves under his control unless he unshackled criminals in the jails. He little thought that such utter disregard of the morals and self-respect of those whom he had settled in the New World would, by a sort of retributive justice, open the way, however unjustly, to put the displaced gyves on himself, amid the exultant feelings of these same criminals. Such reiterated criminations were like the water-drops that wear the stone, and he had, as we have noted, felt the certainty of direful results. [Sidenote: His exaggerations of the wealth of the Indies.] [Sidenote: Columbus deceives the Crown.] [Sidenote: Columbus's sons hooted at in the Alhambra.] How much the disappointment at the lack of gold had to do with increasing the force of these charges, it is not difficult to imagine. Columbus was certainly not responsible for that; but he was responsible for the inordinate growth of the belief in the profuse wealth of the new-found Indies. His constantly repeated stories of the wonderful richness of the region had done their work. His professions of a purpose to enrich the world with noble benefactions, and to spend his treasure on the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, were the vain boastings of a man who thought thereby to enroll his name among the benefactors of the Church. He did not perceive that the populace would wonder whence these resources were to come, unless it was by defrauding the Crown of its share, and by amassing gold while they could not get any. There is something ludicrous in the excuse which he later gave for concealing from the sovereigns his accumulation of pearls. He felt it sufficient to say that he thought he would wait till he could make as good a show of gold! There were some things that even fifteenth-century Christians held to be more sacred than wresting Jerusalem from the Moslem, and these were money in hand when they had earned it, and food to eat when their misfortunes had beggared their lives. It was not an uncalled-for strain on their loyalty to the Crown, when the notion prevailed that the sovereigns and their favorite were gathering riches out of their despair. There was little to be wondered at, in the crowd of these hungry and debilitated victims, wandering about the courts of the Alhambra, under the royal windows, and clamoring for their pay. There was nothing to be surprised at in the hootings that followed the Admiral's sons, pages of the Queen, if they passed within sight of these embittered throngs. [Sidenote: Ferdinand's confessed blunder.] It was quite evident that Ferdinand, who had never warmed to the Admiral's enthusiasm, had long been conscious that in the exclusive and extended powers which had been given to Columbus a serious administrative blunder had been made. He said as much at a later day to Ponce de Leon. The Queen had been faithful, but the recurrent charges had given of late a wrench to her constancy. Was it not certain that something must be wrong, or these accusations would not go on increasing? Had not the great discoverer fulfilled his mission when he unveiled a new world? Was it quite sure that the ability to govern it went along with the genius to find it? These were the questions which Isabella began to put to herself. [Sidenote: Isabella begins to doubt.] [Sidenote: Columbus to be superseded.] [Sidenote: Witnesses against Columbus.] She was not a person to hesitate at anything, when conviction came. She had shown this in the treatment of the Jews, of the Moors, and of other heretics. The conviction that Columbus was not equal to his trust was now coming to her. The news of the serious outbreak of Roldan's conspiracy brought the matter to a test, and in the spring of 1499 the purpose to send out some one with almost unlimited powers for any emergency was decided upon. Still the details were not worked out, and there were occurrences in the internal and external affairs of Spain that required the prior attention of the sovereigns. Very likely the news of Columbus's success in finding a new source of wealth in the pearls of Paria may have had something to do with the delay. When the ships which carried to Spain a crowd of Roldan's followers arrived, the question took a fresh interest. Columbus's friends, Ballester and Barrantes, now found their testimony could make little headway against the crowd of embittered witnesses on the other side. Isabella, besides, was forced to see in the slaves that Columbus had sent by the same ships something of an obstinate opposition to her own wishes. Las Casas tells us that so great was the Queen's displeasure that it was only the remembrance of Columbus's services that saved him from prompt disgrace. To be sure, the slaves had been sent in part by virtue of the capitulation which Columbus had made with the rebels, but should the Viceroy of the Indies be forced to such capitulations? Had he kept the colony in a condition worthy of her queenly patronage, when it could be reported to her that the daughters of caciques were found among these natives bearing their hybrid babes? "What authority had my viceroy to give my vassals to such ends?" she asked. [Sidenote: Columbus and the slave trade.] [Sidenote: Bobadilla appointed commissioner.] There were two things in recent letters of Columbus which damaged his cause just at this juncture. One was his petition for a new lease of the slave trade. This Isabella answered by ordering all slaves which he had sent home to be sought out and returned. Her agents found a few. The other was the request of Columbus for a judge to examine the dispute between himself and Roldan. This Ferdinand answered by appointing the commissioner whose arrival at Santo Domingo we have chronicled. He was Francisco de Bobadilla, an officer of the royal household. Before disclosing what Bobadilla did in Santo Domingo, it is best to try to find out what he was expected to do. [Sidenote: His character.] There is no person connected with the career of Columbus--hardly excepting Fonseca--more generally defamed than this man, who was, nevertheless, if we may believe Oviedo, a very honest and a very religious man. The historians of Columbus need to mete out to Bobadilla what very few have done, the same measure of palliation which they are more willing to bestow on Columbus. With this parallel justice, it may be that he will not bear with discredit a comparison with Columbus himself, in all that makes a man's actions excusable under provocation and responsibility. An indecency of haste may come from an excess of zeal quite as well as from an unbridled virulence. It may be in some ways a question if the conditions this man was sent to correct were the result of the weakness or inadaptability of Columbus, or merely the outcome of circumstances, enough beyond his control to allow of excuses. There is, however, no question that the Spanish government had duties to perform towards itself and its subjects which made it properly disinclined to jeopardize the interests which accompany such duties. [Sidenote: Bobadilla's powers.] Bobadilla was, to be sure, invested with dangerous powers, but not with more dangerous ones than Columbus himself had possessed. When two such personations of unbridled authority come in antagonism, the possessor of the greater authority is sure to confirm himself by commensurate exactions upon the other. Bobadilla's commission was an implied warrant to that end. He might have been more prudent of his own state, and should have remembered that a trust of the nature of that with which he was invested was sure to be made accountable to those who imparted to him the power, and perhaps at a time when they chose to abandon their own instructions. He ought to have known that such an abandonment comes very easy to all governments in emergencies. He might have been more considerate of the man whom Spain had so recently flattered. He should not have forgotten, if almost everybody else had, that the Admiral had given a new world to Spain. [Sidenote: Columbus and the criminals.] He should not have been unmindful, if almost every one else was, that this new world was a delusion now, but might dissolve into a beatific vision. But all this was rather more than human nature was capable of in an age like that. It is to be said of Bobadilla that when he summoned Columbus to Santo Domingo and prejudged him guilty, he had shown no more disregard of a rival power, which he was sent to regulate, than Columbus had manifested for a deluded colony, when he selfishly infected it with the poison of the prisons. It must not, indeed, be forgotten that the strongest support of the new envoy came from the very elements of vice which Columbus had implanted in the island. He grew to understand this, and later he was forced to give a condemnation of his own act when he urged the sending of such as are honorably known, "that the country may be peopled with honest men." [Sidenote: Bobadilla's character.] [Sidenote: Did he exceed his powers?] Las Casas tells us of Bobadilla that his probity and disinterestedness were such that no one could attack them. If it be left for posterity to decide between the word of Las Casas and Columbus, in estimates of virtue and honesty, there is no question of the result. When Bobadilla was selected to be sent to Española, there was every reason to choose the most upright of persons. There was every reason, also, to instruct him with a care that should consider every probable attendant circumstance. After this was done, the discretion of the man was to determine all. We can read in the records the formal instructions; but there were beside, as is expressly stated, verbal directions which can only be surmised. Bobadilla was accused of exceeding the wishes of the Queen. Are we sure that he did? It is no sign of it that the monarchs subsequently found it politic to disclaim the act of their agent. Such a desertion of a subordinate was not unusual in those times, nor indeed would it be now. If Isabella, "for the love of Christ and the Virgin Mary," could depopulate towns, as she said she did, by the ravages of the inquisition, and fill her coffers by the attendant sequestrations, it is not difficult to conceive that, with a similar and convenient conviction of duty, she would give no narrow range to her vindictiveness and religious zeal when she came to deal with an Admiral whom she had created, and who was not very deferential to her wishes. [Sidenote: Bobadilla's powers.] A synopsis of the powers confided to Bobadilla in writing needs to be presented. They begin with a letter of March 21, 1499, referring to reports of the Roldan insurrection, and directing him, if on inquiry he finds any persons culpable, to arrest them and sequestrate their effects, and to call upon the Admiral for assistance in carrying out these orders. Two months later, May 21, a circular letter was framed and addressed to the magistrates of the islands, which seems to have been intended to accredit Bobadilla to them, if the Admiral should be no longer in command. This order gave notice to these magistrates of the full powers which had been given to Bobadilla in civil and criminal jurisdiction. Another order of the same date, addressed to the "Admiral of the ocean sea," orders him to surrender all royal property, whether forts, arms, or otherwise, into Bobadilla's hands,--evidently intended to have an accompanying effect with the other. Of a date five days later another letter addressed to the Admiral reads to this effect:-- "We have directed Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer of this, to tell you for us of certain things to be mentioned by him. We ask you to give faith and credence to what he says, and to obey him. May 26, 1499." [Sidenote: His verbal orders.] [Sidenote: 1500. July. Bobadilla leaves Spain.] This is an explicit avowal on the sovereigns' part of having given verbal orders. In addition to these instructions, a royal order required the commissioner to ascertain what was due from the Crown for unpaid salaries, and to compel the Admiral to join in liquidating such obligations so far as he was bound for them, "that there may be no more complaints." If one may believe Columbus's own statements as made in his subsequent letter to the nurse of Prince Juan, it had been neglect, and not inability, on his part which had allowed these arrears to accrue. Bobadilla was also furnished with blanks signed by the sovereigns, to be used to further their purposes in any way and at his discretion. With these extraordinary documents, and possessed of such verbal and confidential directions as we may imagine rather than prove, Bobadilla had sailed in July, 1500, more than a year after the letters were dated. His two caravels brought back to Española a number of natives, who were in charge of some Franciscan friars. [Sidenote: Bobadilla lands at Santo Domingo.] We left Bobadilla on board his ship, receiving court from all who desired thus early to get his ear. It was not till the next day that he landed, attended by a guard of twenty-five men, when he proceeded to the church to mass. [Sidenote: His demands.] This over, the crowd gathered before the church. Bobadilla ordered a herald to read his original commission of March 21, 1499, and then he demanded of the acting governor, Diego, who was present, that Guevara, Riquelme, and the other prisoners should be delivered to him, together with all the evidence in their cases, and that the accusers and magistrates should appear before him. Diego referred him to the Admiral as alone having power in such matters, and asked for a copy of the document just read to send to Columbus. This Bobadilla declined to give, and retired, intimating, however, that there were reserved powers which he had, before which even the Admiral must bow. The peremptoriness of this movement was, it would seem, uncalled for, and there could have been little misfortune in waiting the coming of the Admiral, compared with the natural results of such sudden overturning of established authority in the absence of the holder of it. Urgency may not, nevertheless, have been without its claims. It was desirable to stay the intended executions; and we know not what exaggerations had already filled the ears of Bobadilla. At this time there would seem to have been the occasion to deliver the letter to Columbus which had commanded his obedience to the verbal instructions of the sovereigns; and such a delivery might have turned the current of these hurrying events, for Columbus had shown, in the case of Agueda, that he was graciously inclined to authority. Instead of this, however, Bobadilla, the next day, again appeared at mass, and caused his other commissions to be read, which in effect made him supersede the Admiral. This superiority Diego and his councilors still unadvisedly declined to recognize. The other mandates were read in succession; and the gradual rise to power, which the documents seemed to imply, as the progress of the investigations demanded support, was thus reached at a bound. This is the view of the case which has been taken by Columbus's biographers, as naturally drawn from the succession of the powers which were given to Bobadilla. It is merely an inference, and we know not the directions for their proclamations, which had been verbally imparted to Bobadilla. It is this uncertainty which surrounds the case with doubt. It is apparent that the reading of these papers had begun to impress the rabble, if not those in authority. That order which commanded the payment of arrears of salaries had a very gratifying effect on those who had suffered from delays. Nothing, however, moved the representatives of the Viceroy, who would not believe that anything could surpass his long-conceded authority. [Sidenote: Bobadilla assaults the fort.] There is nothing strange in the excitement of an officer who finds his undoubted supremacy thus obstinately spurned, and we must trace to such excitement the somewhat overstrained conduct which made a show of carrying by assault the fortress in which Guevara and the other prisoners were confined. Miguel Diaz, who commanded the fort,--the same who had disclosed the Hayna mines,--when summoned to surrender had referred Bobadilla to the Admiral from whom his orders came, and asked for copies of the letters patent and orders, for more considerate attention. It was hardly to be expected that Bobadilla was to be beguiled by any such device, when he had a force of armed men at his back, aided by his crew and the aroused rabble, and when there was nothing before him but a weak citadel with few defenders. There was nothing to withstand the somewhat ridiculous shock of the assault but a few frail bars, and no need of the scaling ladders which were ostentatiously set up. Diaz and one companion, with sword in hand, stood passively representing the outraged dignity of command. Bobadilla was victorious, and the manacled Guevara and the rest passed over to new and less stringent keepers. [Sidenote: Bobadilla in full possession.] Bobadilla was now in possession of every channel of authority. He domiciled himself in the house of Columbus, took possession of all his effects, including his papers, making no distinction between public and private ones, and used what money he could find to pay the debts of the Admiral as they were presented to him. This proceeding was well calculated to increase his popularity, and it was still more enhanced when he proclaimed liberty to all to gather gold for twenty years, with only the payment of one seventh instead of a third to the Crown. [Sidenote: Columbus hears of Bobadilla.] [Sidenote: Columbus and the Franciscans.] Let us turn to Columbus himself. The reports which reached him at Fort Conception did not at first convey to him an adequate notion of what he was to encounter. He associated the proceedings with such unwarranted acts as Ojeda's and Pinzon's in coming with their ships within his prescribed dominion. The greater audacity, however, alarmed him, and the threats which Bobadilla had made of sending him to Spain in irons, and the known success of his usurpation within the town, were little calculated to make Columbus confident in the temporary character of the outburst. He moved his quarters to Bonao to be nearer the confusion, and here he met an officer bearing to him a copy of the letters under which the government had been assumed by Bobadilla. Still the one addressed to Columbus, commanding him to acquiesce, was held back. It showed palpably that Bobadilla conceived he had passed beyond the judicial aim of his commission. Columbus, on his part, was loath to reach that conclusion, and tried to gain time. He wrote to Bobadilla an exculpating and temporizing letter, saying that he was about to leave for Spain, when everything would pass regularly into Bobadilla's control. He sent other letters, calculated to create delays, to the Franciscans who had come with him. He had himself affiliated with that order, and perhaps thought his influence might not be unheeded. He got no replies, and perhaps never knew what the spirit of these friars was. They evidently reflected the kind of testimony which Bobadilla had been accumulating. We find somewhat later, in a report of one of them, Nicholas Glassberger,--who speaks of the 1,500 natives whom they had made haste to baptize in Santo Domingo,--some of the cruel insinuations which were rife, when he speaks of "a certain admiral, captain, and chief, who had ill treated these natives, taking their goods and wives, and capturing their virgin daughters, and had been sent to Spain in chains." [Sidenote: Bobadilla sends the sovereigns' letter to Columbus.] Columbus as yet could hardly have looked forward to any such indignity as manacles on his limbs. Nor did he probably suspect that Bobadilla was using the signed blanks, entrusted to him by the sovereigns, to engage the interests of Roldan and other deputies of the Viceroy scattered through the island. Columbus, in these uncertainties, caused it to be known that he considered his perpetual powers still unrevoked, if indeed they were revocable at all. This state of his mind was rudely jarred by receiving a little later, at the hands of Francisco Velasquez, the deputy treasurer, and of Juan de Trasierra, one of the Franciscans, the letter addressed to him by the sovereigns, commanding him to respect what Bobadilla should tell him. Here was tangible authority; and when it was accompanied by a summons from Bobadilla to appear before him, he hesitated no longer, and, with the little state befitting his disgrace, proceeded at once to Santo Domingo. [Sidenote: Columbus approaches Santo Domingo.] [Sidenote: 1500. August 23. Columbus is imprisoned in chains.] The Admiral's brother Diego had already been confined in irons on one of the caravels; and Bobadilla, affecting to believe, as Irving holds, that Columbus would not come in any compliant mood, made a bustle of armed preparation. There was, however, no such intention on Columbus's part, nor had been, since the royal mandate of implicit obedience had been received. He came as quietly as the circumstances would permit, and when the new governor heard he was within his grasp, his orders to seize him and throw him into prison were promptly executed (August 23, 1500). In the southeastern part of the town, the tower still stands, with little signs of decay, which then received the dejected Admiral, and from its summit all approaching vessels are signaled to-day. Las Casas tells us of the shameless and graceless cook, one of Columbus's own household, who riveted the fetters. "I knew the fellow," says that historian, "and I think his name was Espinosa." While the Adelantado was at large with an armed force, Bobadilla was not altogether secure in his triumph. He demanded of Columbus to write to his brother and counsel him to come in and surrender. This Columbus did, assuring the Adelantado of their safety in trusting to the later justice of the Crown. Bartholomew obeyed, as the best authorities say, though Peter Martyr mentions a rumor that he came in no accommodating spirit, and was captured while in advance of his force. It is certain he also was placed in irons, and confined on one of the caravels. It was Bobadilla's purpose to keep the leaders apart, so there could be no concert of action, and even to prevent their seeing any one who could inform them of the progress of the inquest, which was at once begun. [Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] It seems evident that Bobadilla, either of his own impulse or in accordance with secret instructions, was acting with a secrecy and precipitancy which would have been justifiable in the presence of armed sedition, but was uncalled for with no organized opposition to embarrass him. Columbus at a later day tells us that he was denied ample clothing, even, and was otherwise ill treated. He says, too, he had no statement of charges given to him. It is a later story, started by Charlevoix, that such accusations were presented to him in writing, and met by him in the same method. The trial was certainly a remarkable procedure, except we consider it simply an _ex parte_ process for indictment only, as indeed it really was. Irving lays stress on the reversal by Bobadilla of the natural order of his acts, amounting, in fact, to prejudging a person he was sent to examine. He also thinks that the governor was hurried to his conclusions in order to make up a show of necessity for his precipitate action. It has something of that look. "The rebels he had been sent to judge became, by this singular perversion of rule," says Irving, "necessary and cherished evidences to criminate those against whom they had rebelled." This is the mistake of the apologists for Columbus. Bobadilla seems to have been sent to judge between two parties, and not to assume that only one was culpable. Even Irving suspects the true conditions. He allows that Bobadilla would not have dared to go to this length, had he not felt assured that "certain things," as the mandate to Columbus expressed it, would not be displeasing to the king. The charges against the Admiral had been stock ones for years, and we have encountered them more than once in the progress of this narrative. They are rehearsed at length in the documents given by Navarrete, and are repeated and summarized by Peter Martyr. It is perhaps true that there was some novelty in the asseveration that Columbus's recent refusal to have some Indians baptized was simply because it deprived him of selling them as slaves. This accusation, considering Columbus's relations to the slave trade which he had created, is as little to be wondered at as any. [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] Las Casas tells us how indignant Isabella had been with his presumptuous way of dealing with what she called her subjects; and by a royal order of June 20, 1500, she had ordered, as we have seen, the return in Bobadilla's fleet of nineteen of the slaves who had been sold. There was no better way of commending Bobadilla's action to the Queen, apparently, than by making the most of Columbus's unfortunate relations to the slave trade. As the accusations were piled up, Bobadilla saw the inquest leading, in his mind, to but one conclusion, the unnatural character of the Viceroy and his unfitness for command,--a phrase not far from the truth, but hardly requiring the extraordinary proceedings which had brought the governor to a recognition of it. There is little question that the public sentiment of the colony, so far at least as it dare manifest itself, commended the governor. Columbus in his dungeon might not see this with his own eyes, but if the reports are true, his ears carried it to his spirit, for howls and taunts against him came from beyond the walls, as the expression of the hordes which felt relieved by his fate. Columbus himself confessed that Bobadilla had "succeeded to the full" in making him hated of the people. All this was matter to brood upon in his loneliness. He magnified slight hints. He more than suspected he was doomed to a violent fate. When Alonso de Villejo, who was to conduct him to Spain, in charge of the returning ships, came to the dungeon, Columbus saw for the first time some recognition of his unfortunate condition. Las Casas, in recounting the interview, says that Villejo was "an hidalgo of honorable character and my particular friend," and he doubtless got his account of what took place from that important participant. "Villejo," said the prisoner, "whither do you take me?" "To embark on the ship, your excellency." "To embark, Villejo? Is that the truth?" "It is true," said the captain. For the first time the poor Admiral felt that he yet might see Spain and her sovereigns. [Sidenote: 1500. October. Columbus sent to Spain.] [Sidenote: His chains.] The caravels set sail in October, 1500, and soon passed out of earshot of the hootings that were sent after the miserable prisoners. The new keepers of Columbus were not of the same sort as those who cast such farewell taunts. If the _Historie_ is to be believed, Bobadilla had ordered the chains to be kept on throughout the voyage, since, as the writer of that book grimly suggests, Columbus might at any time swim back, if not secured. Villejo was kind. So was the master of the caravel, Andreas Martin. They suggested that they could remove the manacles during the voyage; but the Admiral, with that cherished constancy which persons feel, not always wisely, in such predicaments, thinking to magnify martyrdom, refused. "No," he said; "my sovereigns ordered me to submit, and Bobadilla has chained me. I will wear these irons until by royal order they are removed, and I shall keep them as relics and memorials of my services." * * * * * [Sidenote: Degradation of Columbus.] [Sidenote: His letter to the nurse of Prince Juan analyzed.] [Sidenote: Charges against Columbus.] The relations of Columbus and Bobadilla bring before us the most startling of the many combinations of events in the history of a career which is sadder, perhaps, notwithstanding its glory, than any other mortal presents in profane history. The degradation of such a man appeals more forcibly to human sympathy than almost any other event in the record of humanity. That sympathy has obscured the import of his degradation, and that mournful explanation of the events, which, either on his voyage or shortly after his return, Columbus wrote and sent to the nurse of Prince Juan, has long worked upon the sensibilities of a world tender for his misfortunes. We cannot indeed read this letter without compassion, nor can we read it dispassionately without perceiving that the feelings of the man who wrote it had been despoiled of a judicial temper by his errors as well as by his miseries. His statements of the case are wholly one-sided. He never sees what it pains him to see. He forgets everything that an enemy would remember. He finds it difficult to tell the truth, and trusts to iterated professions to be taken for truths. He claims to have no conception why he was imprisoned, when he knew perfectly well, as he says himself, that he had endeavored to create an opposition to constituted authority "by verbal and written declarations;" and he reiterates this statement after he had bowed to royal commands that were as explicit as his own treatment of them had been recalcitrant. Indeed, he puts himself in the rather ridiculous posture of answering a long series of charges, of which at the same time he professes to be ignorant. In the course of this letter, Columbus set up a claim that he had been seriously misjudged in trying to measure his accountability by the laws that govern established governments rather than by those which grant indulgences to the conqueror of a numerous and warlike nation. The position is curiously inconsistent with his professed intentions, as the sole ruler of a colony, to be just in the eyes of God and men. The Crown had given him its authority to establish precisely what he claims had not been established, a government of laws kindly disposed to protect both Spaniard and native, and yet he did not understand why his doings were called in question. He had boasted repeatedly how far from warlike and dangerous the natives were, so that a score of Spaniards could put seven thousand to rout, as he was eager to report in one case. The chief of the accusations against him did not pertain to his malfeasance in regard to the natives, but towards the Spaniards themselves, and it was begging the question to consider his companions a conquered nation. If there were no established government as respects them, he would be the last to admit it; and if it were proved against him, there was no one so responsible for the absence of it as himself. Again he says: "I ought to be judged by cavaliers who have gained victories themselves,--by gentlemen, and not by lawyers." The fact was that the case had been judged by hidalgoes without number, and to his disgrace, and it was taken from them to give him the protection of the law, such as it was; and, as he himself acknowledges, there is in the Indies "neither civil right nor judgment seat." As he was the source of all the bulwarks of life and liberty in these same Indies, he thus acknowledges the deficiencies of his own protective agencies. There is something childishly immature in the proposition which he advances that he should be judged by persons in his own pay. [Sidenote: Palliation.] It is of course necessary to allow the writer of this letter all the palliation that a man in his distressed and disordered condition might claim. Columbus had in fact been perceptibly drifting into a state of delusion and aberration of mind ever since the sustaining power of a great cause had been lifted from him. From the moment when he turned his mule back at the instance of Isabella's message, the lofty purpose had degenerated to a besetting cupidity, in which he made even the Divinity a constant abettor. In this same letter he tells of a vision of the previous Christmas, when the Lord confronted him miraculously, and reminded him of his vow to amass treasure enough in seven years to undertake his crusade to Jerusalem. This visible Godhead then comforted him with the assurance that his divine power would see that it came to pass. "The seven years you were to await have not yet passed. Trust in me and all will be right." It is easy to point to numerous such instances in Columbus's career, and the canonizers do not neglect to do so, as evincing the sublime confidence of the devoted servant of the Lord; but one can hardly put out of mind the concomitants of all such confidence. The most that we can allow is the unaccountableness of a much-vexed conscience. CHAPTER XVIII. COLUMBUS AGAIN IN SPAIN. 1500-1502. [Sidenote: 1500. October. Columbus reaches Cadiz.] [Sidenote: Public sympathy at his degradation.] It was in October, 1500, after a voyage of less discomfort than usual, that the ships of Villejo, carrying his manacled prisoners, entered the harbor of Cadiz. If Bobadilla had precipitately prejudged his chief prisoner, public sentiment, when it became known that Columbus had arrived in chains, was not less headlong in its sympathetic revulsion. Bobadilla would at this moment have stood a small chance for a dispassionate examination. The discoverer of the New World coming back from it a degraded prisoner was a discordant spectacle in the public mind, filled with recollections of those days of the first return to Palos, when a new range had been given to man's conceptions of the physical world. This common outburst of indignation showed, as many times before and since, how the world's sense of justice has in it more of spirit than of steady discernment. The hectic flush was sure to pass,--as it did. [Sidenote: Columbus's letter to the nurse of Prince Juan.] It was while on his voyage, or shortly after his return, that Columbus wrote the letter to the lady of the Court usually spoken of as the nurse of Prince Juan, which has been already considered. Before the proceedings of the inquest which Bobadilla had forwarded by the ship were sent to the Court, then in the Alhambra, Columbus, with the connivance of Martin, the captain of his caravel, had got this exculpatory letter off by a special messenger. The lady to whom it was addressed was, it will be remembered, Doña Juana de la Torre, an intimate companion of the Queen, with whom the Admiral's two sons, as pages of the Queen, had been for some months in daily relations. The text of this letter has long been known. Las Casas copied it in his _Historia_. Navarrete gives it from another copy, but corrected by the text preserved at Genoa; while Harrisse tells us that the text in Paris contains an important passage not in that at Genoa. [Sidenote: The sovereigns order Columbus to be released.] While its ejaculatory arguments are not well calculated to impose on the sober historian, there was enough of fervor laid against its background of distressing humility to work on the sympathies of its recipient, and of the Queen, to whom it was early and naturally revealed. "I have now reached that point that there is no man so vile, but thinks it his right to insult me," was the language, almost at its opening, which met their eyes. The further reading of the letter brought up a picture of the manacled Admiral. Very likely the rumor of the rising indignation spreading from Cadiz to Seville, and from Seville elsewhere, as well as the letters of the alcalde of Cadiz, into whose hands Columbus had been delivered, and of Villejo, who had had him in custody, added to the tumult of sensations mutually shared in that little circle of the monarchs and the Doña Juana. If we take the prompt action of the sovereigns in ordering the immediate release of Columbus, their letter of sympathy at the baseness of his treatment, the two thousand ducats put at his disposal to prepare for a visit to the Court, and the cordial royal summons for him to come,--if all these be taken at their apparent value, the candid observer finds himself growing distrustful of Bobadilla's justification through his secret instructions. As the observer goes on in the story and notes the sequel, he is more inclined to believe that the sovereigns, borne on the rising tide of indignant sympathy, had defended themselves at the expense of their commissioner. We may never know the truth. [Sidenote: 1500. December 17. Columbus at Court.] That was a striking scene when Columbus, delivered from his irons on the 17th of December, 1500, held his first interview with the Spanish monarchs. Oviedo was an eyewitness of it; but we find more of its accompaniments in the story as told by Herrera than in the scant narrative of the _Historie_. Humboldt fancies that it was the Admiral's son who wrote it. The author of that book had no heart to record at much length the professions of regret on the part of the King, since they were not easily reconcilable with what, in that writer's judgment, would have been the honorable reception of Bobadilla and Roldan, had they escaped the fate of the tempests which later overwhelmed them. When the first warmth of Columbus's reception had subsided, there would have been no reason to suspect that those absent servants of the Crown would have been denied a suitable welcome. Herrera tells us of the touching character of this interview of December 17; how the Queen burst into tears, and the emotional Admiral cast himself on the ground at her feet. When Columbus could speak, he began to recall the reasons for which he had been imprisoned, and rehearsed them with humble and exculpatory professions. He forgot that in the letter which so excited their sympathy he had denied that he knew any such reasons, and the sovereigns forgot it too. The meeting had awakened the tenderer parts of their natures, and their hearts went out to him. They made verbal promises of largesses and professions of restitution, but Harrisse could find no written expressions of this kind, till in the instructions of March 14, 1502, when they expressed their directions for his guidance during his next voyage. The Admiral grew confident, as of old, in their presence. He had always reached a coign of vantage in his personal intercourse with the Queen. He had evidently not lost that power. He began to picture his return to Santo Domingo with the triumph that he now enjoyed. It was a hollow hope. He was never again to be Viceroy of the Indies. [Sidenote: Columbus suspended from power.] [Sidenote: Other explorers in American waters.] [Sidenote: Portuguese claims.] The disorders in Española were but a part of the reasons why it was now decided to suspend the patented rights of the Admiral, if not permanently to deny the further exercise of them. We have seen how the government had committed itself to other discoveries, profiting, as it did, by the maps which Columbus had sent back to Spain. These discoveries were a new source of tribute which could not be neglected. Rival nations too were alert, and ships of the Portuguese and of the English had been found prowling about within the unquestioned limits allowed to Spain by the new treaty line of Tordesillas. At the north and at the south these same powers were pushing their search, to see if perchance portions of the new regions could not be found to project so far east as to bring them on the Portuguese side of that same line. Portugal had already claimed that Cabral had found such territory under the equator and south of it. An eastward projection of Brazil at the south, twenty degrees and more, is very common in the contemporary Portuguese maps. [Sidenote: 1501. May 13. Coelho's voyage.] [Sidenote: Was Vespucius on this voyage?] On the 13th of May, 1501, a new Portuguese fleet of three ships, under the command of Gonçalo Coelho, sailed from Lisbon to develop the coast of the southern Vera Cruz, as South America was now called, and to see if a way could be found through it to the Moluccas. In June, the fleet, while at the Cape de Verde Islands, met Cabral with his vessels on their return from India. Here it was that Cabral's interpreter, Gasparo, communicated the particulars of Cabral's discovery to Vespucius, who was, as seems pretty clear, though by no means certain, on board this outward-bound fleet. A letter exists, brought to light by Count Baldelli Boni, not, however, in the hand of Vespucius, in which the writer, under date of June 4, gave the results of his note-takings with Cabral to Pier Francisco de Medici. Varnhagen is in some doubt about the genuineness of this document. Indeed, the historian, if he weighs all the testimony that has been adduced for and against the participancy of Vespucius in this voyage, can hardly be quite sure that the Florentine was aboard at all, and Santarem is confident he was not. Navarrete thinks he was perhaps there in some subordinate capacity. Humboldt is staggered at the profession of Vespucius in still keeping the Great Bear above the horizon at 32° south, since it is lost after reaching 26°. [Sidenote: The _Mundus Novus_ of Vespucius.] With all this doubt, we have got to make something out of another letter, which in the published copy purports to have been written in 1503 about this voyage by Vespucius himself, and from it we learn that his ship had struck the coast at Cape St. Roque, on August 17, 1501. The discoverers reached and named Cape St. Augustine on August 28. On November 1, they were at Bahia. By the 3d of April, 1502, they had reached the latitude of 52° south, when, driven off the coast in a severe gale, they made apparently the island of Georgia, whence they stood over to Africa, and reached Lisbon on September, 7, 1502. By what name Vespucius called this South American coast we do not know, for his original Italian text is lost, but the _Mundus Novus_ of the Latin paraphrase or version raised a feeling of expectancy that something new had really been found, distinct from the spicy East. Varnhagen is convinced that Vespucius, different from Columbus, had awakened to the conception of an absolutely new quarter of the earth. There is little ground for the belief, however, in its full extent and confidence. The little tract had in it the elements of popularity, and in 1504 and 1505 the German and French presses gave it currency in several editions in the Latin tongue, whence it was turned into Italian, German, and Dutch, spreading through Europe the fame of Vespucius. We trace to this voyage the origin of the nomenclature of the coast of the South American continent which then grew up, and is represented in the earlier maps, like that of Lorenz Fries, for instance, in 1504. [Illustration: MUNDUS NOVUS, first page.] [Sidenote: Discoveries of Vespucius.] [Sidenote: Maps of early voyages.] A letter dated August 12, 1507, preserved in Tritemius's _Epistolarum familiarum libri duo_ (1536), has been thought to refer to a printed map which showed the discoveries of Vespucius down to 10° south. This map is unknown, apparently, as the particulars given concerning it do not agree with the map of Ruysch, the only one, so far as known, to antedate that epistle. It is possibly the missing map which Waldseemüller is thought to have first made, and which became the prototype of the recognized Waldseemüller map of the Ptolemy of 1513, and was possibly the one from which the Cantino map, yet to be described, was perfected in other parts than those of the Cortereal discoveries. This anterior map may have been merely an early state of the plate, and Lelewel gives reasons for believing that early impressions of this map were in the market in 1507. [Sidenote: Columbus and Vespucius.] Thus while Columbus was nurturing his deferred hopes, neglected and poor, and awaiting what after all was but a tantalizing revival of royal interest, the rival Portuguese, acting most probably under the influences of Columbus's own countryman, this Florentine, were stretching farther towards the true western route to the Moluccas than the Admiral had any conception of. Vespucius was also at the same time unwittingly asserting claims which should in the end rob the Great Discoverer of the meed of bestowing his name on the new continent which he had just as unwittingly discovered. The contrast is of the same strange impressiveness which marks so many of the improbable turns in the career of Columbus. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1500. Spanish purposes at the north.] Meanwhile, what was going on in the north, where Portugal was pushing her discoveries in the region already explored by Cabot? The Spaniards had been dilatory here. The monarchs, May 6, 1500, while they were distracted with the reports of the disquietude of Española, had turned their attention in this direction, and had thought of sending ships into the seas which "Sebastian Cabot had discovered." They had done nothing, however, though Navarrete finds that explorations thitherward, under Juan Dornelos and Ojeda, had been planned. [Illustration: STRAITS OF BELLE ISLE, SHOWING SITE OF EARLY NORMAN FISHING STATION AT BRADORE. [After Reclus's _L'Amerique_.]] [Illustration: MS. OF GASPAR CORTEREAL. [From Harrisse's _Cortereal_, _Postscriptum_, 1883.]] [Sidenote: Bretons and Normans at the north.] If we may believe some of the accounts of explorations this way on the part of the Bretons and Normans, they had founded a settlement called Brest on the Labrador coast, just within the Straits of Belle Isle, on a bay now called Bradore, as early as 1500. It is said that traces of their houses can be still seen there. But there is no definite contemporary record of their exploits. We have such records of the Portuguese movements, though not through Spanish sources. Unaccountably, Peter Martyr, who kept himself alert for all such impressions, makes no reference to any Portuguese voyages; and it is only when we come down to Gomara (1551) that we find a Spanish writer reverting to the narratives. In doing so, Gomara makes, at the same time, some confusion in the chronology. [Sidenote: Cortereal voyages.] Portugal had missed a great opportunity in discrediting Columbus, but she had succeeded in finding one in Da Gama. She was now in wait for a chance to mate her southern route with a western, or rather with a northern,--at any rate, with one which would give her some warrant for efforts not openly in violation of the negotiations which had followed upon the Bull of Demarcation. Opportunely, word came to Lisbon of the successes of the Cabot voyages, and there was the probability of islands and interjacent passages at the north very like the geographical configuration which the Spaniards had found farther south. To appearances, Cabot had met with such land on the Portuguese side of the division line of the treaty of Tordesillas. [Sidenote: 1500. Gaspar Cortereal.] [Sidenote: 1501. Gaspar Cortereal again.] King Emanuel had a vassal in Gaspar Cortereal, who at this time was a man about fifty years old, and he had already in years past conducted explorations oceanward, though we have no definite knowledge of their results. It has been conjectured that Columbus may have known him; but there is nothing to make this certain. At any rate, there was little in the surroundings of Columbus at Española, when he was subjected to chains in the summer of 1500, to remind him of any northern rivalry, though the visits of Ojeda and Pinzon to that island were foreboding. It was just at that time that Cortereal sailed away from Portugal to the northwest. He discovered the Terra do Labrador, which he named apparently because he thought its natives would increase very handily the slave labor of Portugal. To follow up this quest, Gaspar sailed again with three ships, May 15, 1501, which is the date given by Damian de Goes. Harrisse is not so sure, but finds that Gaspar was still in port April 21, 1501. Cortereal ran a course a little more to the west, and came to a coast, two thousand miles away, as was reckoned, and skirted it without finding any end. He decided from the volume of its rivers, that it was probably a continental area. The voyagers found in the hands of some natives whom they saw a broken sword and two silver earrings, evidently of Italian make. The natural inference is that they had fallen among tribes which Cabot had encountered on his second voyage, if indeed these relics did not represent earlier visitors. Cortereal also found in a high latitude a country which he called _Terra Verde_. Two of the vessels returned safely, bringing home some of the natives, and the capture of such, to make good the name bestowed during the previous voyage, seems to have been the principal aim of the explorers. The third ship, with Gaspar on board, was never afterwards heard of. [Illustration: MS. OF MIGUEL CORTEREAL. [From Harrisse's _Cortereal, Postscriptum_.]] [Sidenote: Original sources on the Cortereal voyages.] [Sidenote: Portuguese habit of concealing information.] It so happened that Pasqualigo, the Venetian ambassador in Lisbon, made record of the return of the first of these vessels, in a letter which he wrote from Lisbon, October 19, 1501; and it is from this, which made part of the well-known _Paesi novamente retrovati_ (Vicenza, 1507), that we derive what little knowledge we have of these voyages. The reports have fortunately been supplemented by Harrisse in a dispatch dated October 17, 1501, which he has produced from the archives of Modena, in which one Alberto Cantino tells how he heard the captain of the vessel which arrived second tell the story to the king. This dispatch to the Duke of Ferrara was followed by a map showing the new discoveries. This cartographical record had been known for some years before it was reproduced by Harrisse on a large scale. It is apparent from this that the discoverers believed, or feigned to believe, that the new-found regions lay westward from Ireland half-way to the American coasts. The evidence that they feigned to believe rather than that they knew these lands to be east of their limitary line may not be found; but it was probably some such doubt of their honesty which induced Robert Thorne, of Bristol, to speak of the purpose which the Portuguese had in falsifying their maps. Nor were the frauds confined to maps. Translations were distorted and narratives perverted. Biddle, in his _Life of Cabot_, points out a marked instance of this, where the simple language of Pasqualigo is twisted so as to convey the impression of a long acquaintance of the natives with Italian commodities, as proving that the Italians had formerly visited the region,--a hint which Biddle supposed the Zeni narrative at a later date was contrived to sustain, so as to deceive many writers. We shall soon revert to this Cantino map. [Sidenote: 1501. Miguel Cortereal.] The voyage which Miguel Cortereal is known to have undertaken in the summer of 1501, which has been connected with this series of northwest voyages, is held by Harrisse, in his revised opinions, not to have been to the New World at all, but to have been conducted against the Grand Turk, and Cortereal returned from it on November 4, 1501. [Sidenote: 1502. Miguel Cortereal again.] To search for the missing Gaspar Cortereal, Miguel, on May 10, 1502, again sailed to the northwest with two or three ships. They found the same coast as before, searched it without success, and returned again without a leader; for Miguel's ship missed the others at a rendezvous and was never again heard of. [Sidenote: Terre des Cortereal.] [Sidenote: Straits of Anian.] The endeavors of the Portuguese in this direction did not end here; and the region thus brought by them to the attention of the cartographer soon acquired in their maps the name of _Terre des Cortereal_, or _Terra dos Corte reals_, or, as Latinized by Sylvanus, _Regalis Domus_. There is little, however, to connect these earliest ventures with later history, except perhaps that from their experiences it is that a vague cartographical conception of the fabled Straits of Anian confronts us in many of the maps of the latter half of the sixteenth century. No one has made it quite sure whence the appellation or even the idea of such a strait came. By some it has been thought to have grown out of Marco Polo's Ania, which was conceived to be in the north. By Navarrete, Humboldt, and others it has been made to grow in some way out of these Cortereal voyages, and Humboldt supposes that the entrance to Hudson Bay, under 60° north latitude, was thought at that time to lead to some sort of a transcontinental passage, going it is hardly known where. The name does not seem at first to have been magnified into all its later associations of a kingdom, or "regnum" of Anian, as the Latin nomenclature then had it. Its great city of Quivira did not appear till some time after the middle of the sixteenth century, and then it was not always quite certain to the cosmographical mind whether all this magnificence might not better be placed on the Asiatic side of such a strait. This imaginary channel was made for a long period to run along the parallels of latitudes somewhere in the northern regions of the New World, after America had begun generally to have its independent existence recognized, south of the Arctic regions at least. The next stage of the belief violently changed the course of the straits across the parallels, prefiguring the later discovered Bering's Straits; and this is made prominent in maps of Zalterius (1566) and Mercator (1569), and in the maps of those who copied these masters. [Sidenote: Spanish maps.] [Sidenote: Maps of the Cortereal discoveries.] It took thirty years for the Cortereal discoveries to work their way into the conceptions of the Spanish map makers. Whether this dilatory belief came from lack of information, obliviousness, or simply from an heroic persistence in ignoring what was not their boast, is a question to be decided through an estimate of the Spanish character. There seems, however, to have been interest enough on the part of a single Italian noble to seek information at once, as we see from the Cantino map; but the knowledge was not, nevertheless, apparently a matter of such interest but it could escape Ruysch in 1508. Not till Sylvanus issued his edition of Ptolemy, in 1511, did any signs of these Cortereal expeditions appear on an engraved map. [Illustration: THE CANTINO MAP.] [Sidenote: The Cantino map. 1502.] Only a few years have passed since students of these cartographical fields were first allowed free study of this Cantino map. It is, after La Cosa, the most interesting of all the early maps of the American coast as its configuration had grown to be comprehended in the ten years which followed the first voyage of Columbus. [Sidenote: The Cortereal discoveries east of the line of demarcation.] [Sidenote: Terra Verde.] There are three special points of interest in this chart. The first is the evident purpose of the maker, when sending it (1502) to his correspondent in Italy, to render it clear that the coasts which the Portuguese had tracked in the northwest Atlantic were sufficiently protuberant towards the rising sun to throw them on the Portuguese side of the revised line of demarcation. It is by no means certain, however, in doing so, that they pretended their discoveries to have been other than neighboring to Asia, since a peninsula north of these regions is called a "point of Asia." The ordinary belief of geographers at that time was that our modern Greenland was an extension of northern Europe. So it does not seem altogether certain that the _Terra Verde_ of Cortereal can be held to be identical with its namesake of the Sagas. [Sidenote: Columbus and the Cantino map in the Paria region.] [Sidenote: Columbus in want.] The second point of interest is what seems to be the connection between this map and those which had emanated from the results of the Columbus voyages, directly or indirectly. Columbus had made a chart of his track through the Gulf of Paria, and had sent it to Spain, and Ojeda had coursed the same region by it. We know from a letter of Angelo Trivigiano, the secretary of the Venetian ambassador in Spain, dated at Granada, August 21, 1501, and addressed to Domenico Malipiero, that at that time Columbus, who had ingratiated himself with the writer of the letter, was living without money, in great want, and out of favor with the sovereigns. This letter-writer then speaks of his intercession with Peter Martyr to have copies of his narrative of the voyages of Columbus made, and of his pleading with Columbus himself to have transcripts of his own letters to his sovereigns given to him, as well as a map of the new discoveries from the Admiral's own charts, which he then had with him in Granada. There are three letters of Trivigiano, but the originals are not known. Foscarini in 1752 used them in his _Della Letteratura veneziana_, as found in the library of Jacopo Soranzo; but both these originals and Foscarini's copies have eluded the search of Harrisse, who gives them as printed or abstracted by Zurla. What we have is not supposed to be the entire text, and we may well regret the loss of the rest. Trivigiano says of the map that he expected it to be extremely well executed on a large scale, giving ample details of the country which had been discovered. He refers to the delays incident to sending to Palos to have it made, because persons capable of such work could only be found there. No such copy as that made for Malipiero is now known. Harrisse thinks that if it is ever discovered it will be very like the Cantino map, with the Cortereal discoveries left out. This same commentator also points out that there are certainly indications in the Cantino map that the maker of it, in drafting the region about the Gulf of Paria at least, worked either from Columbus's map or from some copy of it, for his information seems to be more correct than that which La Cosa followed. [Sidenote: What is the coast north of Cuba?] The third point of interest in this Cantino map, and one which has given rise to opposing views, respects that coast which is drawn in it north of the completed Cuba, and which at first glance is taken with little question for the Atlantic coast of the United States from Florida up. Is it such? Did the cartographers of that time have anything more than conjecture by which to run such a coast line? A letter of Pasqualigo, dated at Lisbon, October 18, 1501, and found by Von Ranke at Venice in the diary of Marino Sanuto,--a running record of events, which begins in 1496,--has been interpreted by Humboldt as signifying that at this time it was known among the Portuguese observers of the maritime reports that a continental stretch of coast connected the Spanish discoveries in the Antilles with those of the Portuguese at the north. Harrisse questions this interpretation, and considers that what Humboldt thinks knowledge was simply a tentative conjecture. If this knowledge is represented in the Cantino map, there is certainly too great remoteness in the regions of the Cortereal discoveries to form such a connection. It is of course possible that the map is a falsification in this respect, to make the line of demarcation serve the Portuguese interests, and such falsification is by no means improbable. [Sidenote: The Cantino and La Cosa maps at variance.] [Sidenote: Bimini.] It will be remembered that the La Cosa map showed no hesitancy in placing the Antilles on the coast of Asia, and put the region of the Cabot landfall on the coast of Cathay. Consequently, the difference between the La Cosa and the Cantino maps for this region north of Cuba is phenomenal. In these two or three years (1500-1502), something had come to pass which seemed to raise the suspicion that this northern continental line might possibly not be Asiatic after all, or at least it might not have the trend or contour which had before been given it on the Asiatic theory. It is an interesting question from whom this information could have come. Was this coast in the Cantino map indeed not North American, but the coast of Yucatan, misplaced, as one conjecture has been? But this involves a recognition of some voyage on the Yucatan coast of which we have no record. Was it the result of one of the voyages of Vespucius, and was Varnhagen right in tracking that navigator up the east Florida shore? Was it drawn by some unauthorized Spanish mariners, who were--we know Columbus complained of such--invading his vested rights, or perhaps by some of those to whom he was finally induced to concede the privilege of exploration? Was it found by some English explorer who answers the description of Ojeda in 1501, when he complains that people of this nation had been in these regions some years before? Was it the discovery of some of those against whom a royal prohibition of discovery was issued by the Catholic kings, September 3, 1501? Was it anything more than the result of some vague information from the Lucayan Indians, aided by a sprinkling of supposable names, respecting a land called Bimini lying there away? Eight or nine years later, Peter Martyr, in the map which he published in 1511, seems to have thought so, and certain stories of a fountain of youth in regions lying in that direction were already prevalent, as Martyr also shows us. The fact seems to be that we have no Spanish map between the making of La Cosa's in 1500 and this one of Peter Martyr in 1511, to indicate any Spanish acquaintance with such a northern coast. [Sidenote: Peter Martyr's map. 1511.] This map of 1511, if it is honest enough to show what the Spanish government knew of Florida, is indicative of but the vaguest information, and its divulgence of that coast may, in Brevoort's opinion, account for the rarity of the chart, in view of the determination of Spain to keep control as far as she could of all cartographical records of what her explorers found out. It is evident, if we accept the theory of this Cantino map showing the coast of the United States, that we have in it a delineation nearer the source by several years than those which modern students have longer known in the Waldseemüller map of 1508, the Stobnicza map of 1512, the Reisch map of 1515, and the so-called Admiral's map of 1513,--all which arose, it is very clear, from much the same source as this of Cantino. What is that source? There are some things that seem to indicate that this source was the description of Portuguese rather than of other seamen. This belief falls in with what we know of the cordial relations of Portugal and Duke René, under whose auspices Waldseemüller at least worked. Thus it would seem that while Spain was impeding cartographical knowledge through the rest of Europe, Portugal was so assiduously helping it that for many years the Ptolemies and other central and southern European publications were making known the cosmographical ideas which originated in Portugal. It has been already said that Humboldt in his _Examen Critique_ (iv. 262) refers to a letter which indicates that in October, 1501, the Portuguese had already learned, or it may be only conjectured, that the coast from the region of the Antilles ran uninterruptedly north till it united with the snowy shores of the northern discoveries. This, then, seems to indicate that it was a Portuguese source that supplied conjecture, if not fact, to the maker of the Cantino map. Harrisse's solution of this matter, as also mentioned already, is that the letter found by Von Ranke and the letter which we know Pasqualigo sent to Venice about the Cortereal voyages were one and the same, and that it was rather conjecture than fact that the Portuguese possessed at this time. The obvious difficulty in the cartographical problem for the Portuguese was, as has been said, to make it appear that they were not disregarding the agreement at Tordesillas while they were securing a region for sovereignty. We have already said that this accounts for the extreme eastern position found in the Cantino and the cognate maps of the Newfoundland region, which, as thus drawn, it was not easy to connect with the coast line of eastern Florida. Hence the open sea-gap which exists between them in the maps, while the evidence of the descriptions would make the coast line continuous. We have thus suggested possible solutions of this continental shore above Florida. It must be confessed that the truth is far from patent, and we must yet wait perhaps a long time before we discover, if indeed we ever do, to whom this mapping of the coast, as shown in the Cantino map, was due. [Sidenote: Was the Florida coast known?] There are evidences other than those of this Cantino map that the Portuguese were in this Floridian region in the early years of the sixteenth century, and Lelewel tried to work out their discoveries from scattered data, in a conjectural map, which he marks 1501-1504, and which resembles the Ptolemy map of 1513. The bringing forward of the Cantino map confirms much of the supposed cartography. There is one theory which to some minds gives a very easy solution of this problem, without requiring belief in any knowledge, clandestine or public, of such a land. Brevoort in his _Verrazano_ had already been inclined to the view later emphasized by Stevens in his _Schöner_, and reiterated by Coote in his editorial revision of that posthumous work. Stevens is content to allow Ocampo, in 1508, to have been the earliest probable discoverer of this coast, and Ponce de Leon as the original attested finder in 1513. [Sidenote: This Cantino coast a duplicated Cuba.] The Stevens theory is that this seeming Florida arose from a Portuguese misconception of the first two voyages of Columbus, by which two regions were thought to have been coasted instead of different sides of the same, and that what others consider an early premonition of Florida and the upper coasts was simply a duplicated Cuba, to make good the Portuguese conception. It is not explained how so strange a misconception of very palpable truths could have arisen, or how a coast trending north and south so far could have been confounded with one stretching at right angles to such a course for so short a distance. Stevens traces the influence of his "bogus Cuba" in a long series of maps based on Portuguese notions, in which he names those of Waldseemüller (1513), Stobnicza (1512), Schöner (1515, 1520), Reisch (1515), Bordone (1528), Solinus (1520), Friess (1522), and Grynæus (1532--made probably earlier), as opposed to the Spanish and more truthful view, which is expressed by Ruysch (1507-8) and Peter Martyr, (1511). It is a proposition not to be dismissed lightly nor accepted triumphantly on our present knowledge. We must wait for further developments. The fancy that this coast was Asia and that Cuba was Asia might, indeed, have led to the transfer to it at one time of the names which Columbus had placed along the north coast of his supposed peninsular Cuba; but that proves a misplacement of the names, and not a creation of the coast. For a while this continental land was backed up on the maps against a meridian scale, which hid the secret of its western limits, and left it a possible segment of Asia. Then it stood out alone with a north and southwestern line, but with Asia beyond, just as if it were no part of it, and this delineation was common even while there was a division of geographical belief as to North America and Asia being one. [Sidenote: Cuba an island.] The fact that Cuba, in the drafting of the La Cosa and Cantino maps, is represented as an island has at times been held to signify that the views of Columbus respecting its peninsular rather than its insular character were not wholly shared by his contemporaries. That foolish act by which, under penalty, the Admiral forced his crew to swear that it was a part of the main might well imply that he expected his assertions would be far from acceptable to other cosmographers. If Varnhagen's opinion as to the track of Vespucius in his voyage of 1497, following the contour of the Gulf of Mexico, be accepted as knowledge of the time, the insularity of Cuba was necessarily proved even at that early day; but it is the opinion of Henry Stevens, as has been already shown, that the green outline of the western parts of Cuba in La Cosa's chart was only the conventional way of expressing an uncertain coast. Consequently it did not imply insularity. If it is to be supposed that the Portuguese had a similar method of expressing uncertainties of coast, they did not employ it in the Cantino map, and Cuba in 1502 is unmistakably an island. It is, moreover, sufficiently like the Cuba of La Cosa to show it was drawn from one and the same prototype. If the maker of the Cantino map followed La Cosa, or a copy of La Cosa, or the material from which La Cosa worked, there is no proof that he ever suspected the peninsularity of Cuba. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus looking on at other explorations.] Columbus, in his hours of neglect, and amid his unheeded pleas for recognition, during these two grewsome years in Spain, may never have comprehended in their full significance these active efforts of the Portuguese to anticipate his own hopes of a western passage beyond the Golden Chersonesus; but the doings of Mendoza, Cristobal Guerra, and other fellow-subjects of Spain were not wholly unknown to him. [Sidenote: 1500. October. Bastidas's expedition.] In October, 1500, and before Columbus knew just what his reception in Spain was going to be, Rodrigo de Bastidas, accompanied by La Cosa and Vasco Nuñez Balboa, sailed from Cadiz on an expedition that had for its object to secure to the Crown one quarter of the profits, and to make an examination of the coast line beyond the bay of Venezuela, in order that it might be made sure that no channel to an open sea lay beyond. The two caravels followed the shore to Nombre de Dios, and at the narrowest part of the isthmus, without suspecting their nearness to the longed-for sea, the navigators turned back. Finding their vessels unseaworthy, for the worms had riddled their bottoms, they sought a harbor in Española, near which their vessels foundered after they had saved a part of their lading. A little later, this gave Bobadilla a chance to arrest the commander for illicit trade with the natives. This transaction was nothing more, apparently, than the barter of trinkets for provisions, as he was leading his men across the island to the settlements. [Sidenote: Portuguese and English in these regions.] It was while with Bastidas, in 1501-2, that La Cosa reports seeing the Portuguese prowling about the Caribbean and Mexican waters, seeking for a passage to Calicut. It was while on a mission of remonstrance to Lisbon that La Cosa was later arrested and imprisoned, and remained till August, 1504, a prisoner in Portugal. [Sidenote: 1502. January. Ojeda's voyage.] We have seen that in 1499 Ojeda had met or heard of English vessels on the coast of Terra Firma, or professed that he had. The Spanish government, suspecting they were but precursors of others who might attempt to occupy the coast, determined on thwarting such purposes, if possible, by anticipating occupation. Ojeda was given the power to lead thither a colony, if he could do it without cost to the Crown, which reserved a due share of his profits. He obtained the assistance of Juan de Vegara and Garcia de Ocampo, and with this backing he sailed with four ships from Cadiz in January, 1502, while Columbus was preparing his own little fleet for his last voyage. It was a venture, however, that came to naught. The natives, under ample provocation, proved hostile, food was lacking, the leaders quarreled, and the partners of Ojeda, combining, overpowered (May, 1502) their leader, and sent him a prisoner to Española, where he arrived in September, 1502. [Sidenote: English in the West Indies.] There has never been any clear definition as to who these Englishmen were, or what was their project, during these earliest years of the sixteenth century. There is evidence that Henry VII. about this time authorized some ventures in which his countrymen were joint sharers with the Portuguese, but we know nothing further of the regions visited than that the Privy Purse expenses show how some Bristol men received a gratuity for having been at the "Newefounde Launde." There is also a vague notion to be formed from an old entry that Sebastian Cabot himself again visited this region in 1503, and brought home three of the natives,--to say nothing of additional even vaguer suspicions of other ventures of the English at this time. * * * * * In enumerating the ocean movements that were now going on, some intimation has been given of the tiresome expectancy of something better which was intermittently beguiling the spirits of Columbus during the eighteen months that he remained in Spain. It is necessary to trace his unhappy life in some detail, though the particulars are not abundant. [Sidenote: Columbus's life in Spain. 1500-1502.] Ferdinand had not been unobservant of all these expeditionary movements, and they were quite as threatening to the Spanish supremacy in the New World as his own personal defection was to the dejected Admiral. It had become very clear that by tying his own hands, as he had in the compact which Columbus was urging to have observed, the King had allowed opportunities to pass by which he could profit through the newly aroused enthusiasm of the seaports. [Sidenote: Ferdinand allows other expeditions.] We have seen that he had, nevertheless, through Fonseca sanctioned the expeditions of Ojeda, Pinzon, and others, and had notably in that of Niño got large profits for the exchequer. He had done this in defiance of the vested rights of Columbus, and there is little doubt that to bring Columbus into disgrace by the loss of his Admiral's power served in part to open the field of discovery more as Ferdinand wished. With the Viceroy dethroned and become a waiting suitor, there was little to stay Ferdinand's ambition in sending out other explorers. His experience had taught him to allow no stipulations on which explorers could found exorbitant demands upon the booty and profit of the ventures. Anybody could sail westward now, and there was no longer the courage of conviction required to face an unknown sea and find an opposite shore. Columbus, who had shown the way, was now easily cast off as a useless pilot. It was not difficult for the King to frame excuses when Columbus urged his reinstatement. There was no use in sending back an unpopular viceroy before the people of the colony had been quieted. Give them time. It might be seasonable enough to send to them their old master when they had forgotten their misfortunes under him. Perhaps a better man than Bobadilla could be found to still the commotions, and if so he might be sent. In the face of all this and the King's determination, Columbus could do nothing but acquiesce, and so he gradually made up his mind to bide his time once more. It was not a new discipline for him. [Sidenote: Bobadilla's rule in Española.] It was clear from the intelligence which was reaching Spain that Bobadilla would have to be superseded. Freed from the restraints which had created so much complaint during the rule of Columbus, and even courted with offers of indulgence, the miserable colony at Española readily degenerated from bad to worse. The new governor had hoped to find that a lack of constraint would do for the people what an excess of it had failed to do. He erred in his judgment, and let the colony slip beyond his control. Licentiousness was everywhere. The only exaction he required was the tribute of gold. He reduced the proportion which must be surrendered to the Crown from a third to an eleventh, but he so apportioned the labor of the natives to the colonists that the yield of gold grew rapidly, and became more with the tax an eleventh than it had been when it was a third. This inhuman degradation of the poor natives had become an organized misery when, a little later, Las Casas arrived in the colony, and he depicts the baleful contrasts of the Indians and their attractive island. Gold was potent, but it was not potent enough to keep Bobadilla in his place. The representations of the agony of life among the natives were so harrowing that it was decided to send a new governor at once. [Sidenote: Ovando sent to Española.] The person selected was Nicholas de Ovando, a man of whom Las Casas, who went out with him, gives a high character for justice, sobriety, and graciousness. Perhaps he deserved it. The sympathizers with Columbus find it hard to believe such praise. Ovando was commissioned as governor over all the continental and insular domains, then acquired or thereafter to be added to the Crown in the New World. He was to have his capital at Santo Domingo. He was deputed, with about as much authority as Bobadilla had had, to correct abuses and punish delinquents, and was to take one third of all gold so far stored up, and one half of what was yet to be gathered. He was to monopolize all trade for the Crown. He was to segregate the colonists as much as possible in settlements. No supplies were to be allowed to the people unless they got them through the royal factor. New efforts were to be made through some Franciscans, who accompanied Ovando, to convert the Indians. The natives were to be made to work in the mines as hired servants, paid by the Crown. [Sidenote: Negro slaves to be introduced.] It had already become evident that such labor as the mining of gold required was too exhausting for the natives, and the death-rate among them was such that eyes were already opened to the danger of extermination. By a sophistry which suited a sixteenth-century Christian, the existence of this poor race was to be prolonged by introducing the negro race from Africa, to take the heavier burden of the toil, because it was believed they would die more slowly under the trial. So it was royally ordered that slaves, born of Africans, in Spain, might be carried to Española. The promise of Columbus's letter to Sanchez was beginning to prove delusive. It was going to require the degradation of two races instead of one. That was all! [Sidenote: 1501. Columbus's property restored.] [Sidenote: His factor.] To assuage the smart of all this forcible deprivation of his power, Columbus was apprised that under a royal order of September 27, 1501, Ovando would see to the restitution of any property of his which Bobadilla had appropriated, and that the Admiral was to be allowed to send a factor in the fleet to look after his interests under the articles which divided the gold and treasure between him and the Crown. To this office of factor Columbus appointed Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal. [Sidenote: Ovando's fleet.] [Sidenote: 1502. February 3. It sails.] The pomp and circumstance of the fleet were like a biting sarcasm to the poor Admiral. One might expect he could have no high opinions of its pilots, for we find him writing to the sovereigns, on February 6, a letter laying before them certain observations on the art of navigation, in which he says: "There will be many who will desire to sail to the discovered islands; and if the way is known those who have had experience of it may safest traverse it." Perhaps he meant to imply that better pilots were more important than much parade. He in his most favored time had never been fitted out with a fleet of thirty sail, so many of them large ships. He had never carried out so many cavaliers, nor so large a proportion of such persons of rank, as made a shining part of the 2,500 souls now embarked. He could contrast his Franciscan gown and girdle of rope with Ovando's brilliant silks and brocades which the sovereigns authorized him to wear. There was more state in the new governor's bodyguard of twenty-two esquires, mounted and foot, than Columbus had ever dreamed of in Santo Domingo. Instead of vile convicts there were respectable married men with their families, the guaranty of honorable living. So that when the fleet went to sea, February 13, 1502, there were hopes that a right method of founding a colony on family life had at last found favor. [Sidenote: 1502. April. Reaches Santo Domingo.] The vessels very soon encountered a gale, in which one ship foundered, and from the deck-loads which were thrown over from the rest and floated to the shore it was for a long time apprehended that the fleet had suffered much more severely. A single ship was all that failed finally to reach Santo Domingo about the middle of April, 1502. Let us turn now to Columbus himself. He had not failed, as we have said, to reach something like mental quiet in the conviction that he could expect nothing but neglect for the present. So his active mind engaged in those visionary and speculative trains of thought wherein, when his body was weary and his spirits harried, he was prone to find relief. [Sidenote: Columbus's _Libros de las proficias_.] He set himself to the composition of a maundering and erratic paper, which, under the title of _Libros de las proficias_, is preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville. The manuscript, however, is not in the handwriting of Columbus, and no one has thought it worth while to print the whole of it. [Sidenote: Isaiah's prophecy.] [Sidenote: Conquest of the Holy Land.] In it there is evidence of his study, with the assistance of a Carthusian friar, of the Bible and of the early fathers of the Church, and it shows, as his letter to Juan's nurse had shown, how he had at last worked himself into the belief that all his early arguments for the westward passage were vain; that he had simply been impelled by something that he had not then suspected; and that his was but a predestined mission to make good what he imagined was the prophecy of Isaiah in the Apocalypse. This having been done, there was something yet left to be accomplished before the anticipated eclipse of all earthly things came on, and that was the conquest of the Holy Land, for which he was the appointed leader. He addressed this driveling exposition, together with an urgent appeal for the undertaking of the crusade, to Ferdinand and Isabella, but without convincing them that such a self-appointed instrument of God was quite worthy of their employment. [Sidenote: End of the world.] The great catastrophe of the world's end was, as Columbus calculated, about 155 years away. He based his estimate upon an opinion of St. Augustine that the world would endure for 7,000 years; and upon King Alfonso's reckoning that nearly 5,344 years had passed when Christ appeared. The 1,501 years since made the sum 6,845, leaving out of the 7,000 the 155 years of his belief. [Sidenote: Defeated by Satan.] He also fancied, or professed to believe, in a letter which he subsequently wrote to the Pope, that the present deprivation of his titles and rights was the work of Satan, who came to see that the success of Columbus in the Indies would be only a preparation for the Admiral's long-vaunted recovery of the Holy Land. The Spanish government meanwhile knew, and they had reason to know, that their denial of his prerogatives had quite as much to do with other things as with a legion of diabolical powers. Unfortunately for Columbus, neither they nor the Pope were inclined to act on any interpretation of fate that did not include a civil policy of justice and prosperity. [Sidenote: His geographical whimsies.] [Sidenote: Would seek a passage westerly through the Caribbean Sea.] [Sidenote: Columbus misunderstands the currents.] These visions of Columbus were harmless, and served to beguile him with pious whimsies. But the mood did not last. He next turned to his old geographical problems. The Portuguese were searching north and south for the passage that would lead to some indefinite land of spices, and afford a new way to reach the trade with Calicut and the Moluccas, which at this time, by the African route, was pouring wealth into the Portuguese treasury in splendid contrast to the scant return from the Spanish Indies. He harbored a belief that a better passage might yet be found beyond the Caribbean Sea. La Cosa, in placing that vignette of St. Christopher and the infant Christ athwart the supposed juncture of Asia and South America, had eluded the question, not solved it. Columbus would now go and attack the problem on the spot. His expectation to find a desired opening in that direction was based on physical phenomena, but in fact on only partial knowledge of them. He had been aware of the strong currents which set westward through the Caribbean Sea, and he had found them still flowing west when he had reached the limit of his exploration of the southern coast of Cuba. Bastidas, who had just pushed farther west on the main coast, had turned back while the currents were still flowing on, along what seemed an endless coast beyond. Bastidas did not arrive in Spain till some months after Columbus had sailed, for he was detained a prisoner in Española at this time. Some tidings of his experiences may have reached Spain, however, or the Admiral may not have got his confirmation of these views till he found that voyager at Santo Domingo, later. Columbus had believed Cuba to be another main, confining this onward waste of waters to the south of it. [Sidenote: Gulf Stream.] It was clear to him that such currents must find an outlet to the west, and if found, such a passage would carry him on to the sea that washed the Golden Chersonesus. He indeed died without knowing the truth. This same current, deflected about Honduras and Yucatan, sweeps by a northerly circuit round the great Gulf of Mexico, and, passing out by the Cape of Florida, flows northward in what we now call the Gulf Stream. There is nothing in all the efforts of the canonizers more absurdly puerile than De Lorgues's version of the way in which Columbus came to believe in this strait. He had a vision, and saw it! The only difficulty in the matter was that the poor Admiral was so ecstatic in his hallucination that he mistook the narrowness of an isthmus for the narrowness of a strait! [Sidenote: A convenient relief to Ferdinand to send Columbus on such a search.] [Sidenote: 1501. Columbus prepares to equip his ships.] [Sidenote: 1502. February. Columbus writes to the Pope.] The proposition of such a search was not inopportune in the eyes of Ferdinand. There were those about the Court who thought it unwise to give further employment to a man who was degraded from his honors; but to the King it was a convenient way of removing a persistent and active-minded complainant from the vicinity of the Court, to send him on some quest or other, and no one could tell but there was some truth in his new views. It was worth while to let him try. So once again, by the royal permission, Columbus set himself to work equipping a little fleet. It was the autumn of 1501 when he appeared in Seville with the sovereign's commands. He varied his work of preparing the ships with spending some part of his time on his treatise on the prophecies, while a friar named Gaspar Gorricio helped him in the labor. Early in 1502 he had got it into shape to present to the sovereigns, and in February he wrote the letter to Pope Alexander VII. which has already been mentioned. [Sidenote: Forbidden to touch at Española.] As the preparations went on, he began to think of Española, and how he might perhaps be allowed to touch there; but orders were given to him forbidding it on the outward passage, though suffering it on the return, for it was hoped by that time that the disorders of the island would be suppressed. It was arranged that the Adelantado and his own son Ferdinand should accompany him, and some interpreters learned in Arabic were put on board, in case his success put him in contact with the people of the Great Khan. The suspension of his rights lay heavily on his mind, and early in March, 1502, he ventured to refer to the subject once more in a letter to the sovereigns. They replied, March 14, in some instructions which they sent from Valencia de Torre, advising him to keep his mind at ease, and leave such things to the care of his son Diego. They assured him that in due time the proper restitution of all would be made, and that he must abide the time. [Sidenote: 1502. January 5. Columbus's care to preserve his titles, etc.] He had already taken steps to secure a perpetuity of the record of his honors and deeds, if nothing else could be permanent. It was at Seville, January 5, 1502, that Columbus, appearing before a notary in his own house, attested that series of documents respecting his titles and prerogatives which are so religiously preserved at Genoa. These papers, as we have seen, were copies which Columbus had lately secured from the documents in the Spanish Admiralty, among which he was careful to include the revocation of June 2, 1497, of the licenses which, much to Columbus's annoyance, had been granted in 1495, to allow others than himself to explore in the new regions. We may not wonder at this, but we can hardly conjecture why a transaction of his which had caused as much as anything his wrongs, mortification, and the loss of his dignities should have been as assiduously preserved. These are the royal orders which enabled Columbus, at his request, to fill up his colony with unshackled convicts. This he might as well have let the world forget. The royal order requiring Bobadilla or his successor to restore all the sequestered property of Columbus, and the new declaration of his rights, he might well have been anxious to preserve. [Sidenote: Columbus and the Bank of St. George.] There was one other act to be done which lay upon his mind, now that the time of sailing approached. He wished to make provision that his heirs should be able to confer some favor on his native city, and he directed that investments should be made for that purpose in the Bank of St. George at Genoa. He then notified the managers of that bank of his intention in a letter which is so characteristic of his moods of dementation that it is here copied as Harrisse translates it:-- HIGH NOBLE LORDS:--Although the body walks about here, the heart is constantly over there. Our Lord has conferred on me the greatest favor to any one since David. The results of my undertaking already appear, and would shine greatly were they not concealed by the blindness of the government. I am going again to the Indies under the auspices of the Holy Trinity, soon to return; and since I am mortal, I leave it with my son Diego that you receive every year, forever, one tenth of the entire revenue, such as it may be, for the purpose of reducing the tax upon corn, wine, and other provisions. If that tenth amounts to something, collect it. If not, take at least the will for the deed. I beg of you to entertain regard for the son I have recommended to you. Nicolo de Oderigo knows more about my own affairs than I do myself, and I have sent him the transcripts of any privileges and letters for safe-keeping. I should be glad if you could see them. My lords, the King and Queen endeavor to honor me more than ever. May the Holy Trinity preserve your noble persons and increase your most magnificent House. Done in Sevilla, on the second day of April, 1502. The chief Admiral of the ocean, Viceroy and Governor-General of the islands and continent of Asia and the Indies, of my lords, the King and Queen, their Captain-General of the sea, and of their Council. .S. .S.A.S. X M Y [Greek: Chr~o] FERENS. [Sidenote: 1502. December 8. The bank's reply.] The letter was handed by Columbus to a Genoese banker, then in Spain, Francisco de Rivarolla, who forwarded it to Oderigo; but as this ambassador was then on his way to Spain, Harrisse conjectures that he did not receive the letter till his return to Genoa, for the reply of the bank is dated December 8, 1502, long after Columbus had sailed. This response was addressed to Diego, and inclosed a letter to the Admiral. The great affection and good will of Columbus towards "his first country" gratified them inexpressibly, as they said to the son; and to the father they acknowledged the act of his intentions to be "as great and extraordinary as that which has been recorded about any man in the world, considering that by your own skill, energy, and prudence, you have discovered such a considerable portion of this earth and sphere of the lower world, which during so many years past and centuries had remained unknown to its inhabitants." The letter of Columbus to the bank remained on the files of that institution--a single sheet of paper, written on one side only, and pierced in the centre for the thread of the file--undiscovered till the archivist of the bank, attracted by the indorsement, M D II, EPLA D. ADMIRATI DON XROPHORI COLUMBI, identified it in 1829, when, at the request of the authorities of Genoa, it was transferred to the keeping of its archivists. It is to be seen at the city hall, to-day, placed between two glass plates, so that either side of the paper can be read. CHAPTER XIX. THE FOURTH VOYAGE. 1502-1504. [Sidenote: 1502. March. Columbus commanded to sail.] [Sidenote: May 9-11. Sailed.] Their Majesties, in March, 1502, were evidently disturbed at Columbus's delays in sailing, since such detentions brought to them nothing but the Admiral's continued importunities. They now instructed him to sail without the least delay. Nevertheless, Columbus, who had given out, as Trivigiano reports, that he expected his discoveries on this voyage to be more surprising and helpful than any yet made, his purpose being, in fact, to circumnavigate the globe, did not sail from Cadiz till May 9 or 11, 1502,--the accounts vary. He had four caravels, from fifty to seventy tons each, and they carried in all not over one hundred and fifty men. [Sidenote: His instructions.] Apparently not forgetting the Admiral's convenient reservation respecting the pearls in his third voyage, their Majesties in their instructions particularly enjoined upon him that all gold and other precious commodities which he might find should be committed at once to the keeping of François de Porras, who was sent with him to the end that the sovereigns might have trustworthy evidence in his accounts of the amount received. Equally mindful of earlier defections, their further instructions also forbade the taking of any slaves. [Sidenote: The physical and mental condition of Columbus.] Years had begun to rest heavily on the frame of Columbus. His constitution had been strained by long exposures, and his spirits had little elasticity left. Hope, to be sure, had not altogether departed from his ardent nature; but it was a hope that had experienced many reverses, and its pinions were clipped. There was still in him no lack of mental vitality; but his reason had lost equipoise, and his discernment was clouded with illusory visions. There was the utmost desire at this time on the part of their Majesties that no rupture should break the friendly relations which were sustained with the Portuguese court, and it had been arranged that, in case Columbus should fall in with any Portuguese fleet, there should be the most civil interchange of courtesies. The Spanish monarchs had also given orders, since word had come of the Moors besieging a Portuguese post on the African coast, that Columbus should first go thither and afford the garrison relief. [Sidenote: Columbus stops on the African coast.] [Sidenote: 1502. May. At the Canaries.] It was found, on reaching that African harbor on the 15th, that the Moors had departed. So, with no longer delay than to exchange civilities, he lifted anchor on the same day and put to sea. It was while he was at the Canaries, May 20-25, taking in wood and water, that Columbus wrote to his devoted Gorricio a letter, which Navarrete preserves. "Now my voyage will be made in the name of the Holy Trinity," he says, "and I hope for success." [Sidenote: 1502. June 15. Reaches Martinico.] There is little to note on the voyage, which had been a prosperous one, and on June 15 he reached Martinino (Martinico). He himself professes to have been but twenty days between Cadiz and Martinino, but the statement seems to have been confused, with his usual inaccuracy. He thence pushed leisurely along over much the same track which he had pursued on his second voyage, till he steered finally for Santo Domingo. [Sidenote: Determines to go to Española.] It will be recollected that the royal orders issued to him before leaving Spain were so far at variance with Columbus's wishes that he was denied the satisfaction of touching at Española. There can be little question as to the wisdom of an injunction which the Admiral now determined to disregard. His excuse was that his principal caravel was a poor sailer, and he thought he could commit no mistake in insuring greater success for his voyage by exchanging at that port this vessel for a better one. He forgot his own treatment of Ojeda when he drove that adventurer from the island, where, to provision a vessel whose crew was starving, Ojeda dared to trench on his government. When we view this pretense for thrusting himself upon an unwilling community in the light of his unusually quick and prosperous voyage and his failure to make any mention of his vessel's defects when he wrote from the Canaries, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that his determination to call at Española was suddenly taken. His whole conduct in the matter looks like an obstinate purpose to carry his own point against the royal commands, just as he had tried to carry it against the injunctions respecting the making of slaves. We must remember this when we come to consider the later neglect on the part of the King. We must remember, also, the considerate language with which the sovereigns had conveyed this injunction: "It is not fit that you should lose so much time; it is much fitter that you should go another way; though if it appears necessary, and God is willing, you may stay there a little while on your return." Roselly de Lorgues, with his customary disingenuousness, merely says that Columbus came to Santo Domingo, to deliver letters with which he was charged, and to exchange one of his caravels. [Sidenote: 1502. June 29. Columbus arrives off Santo Domingo.] [Sidenote: Columbus forbidden to enter the harbor.] It was the 29th of June when the little fleet of Columbus arrived off the port. He sent in one of his commanders to ask permission to shelter his ships, and the privilege of negotiating for another caravel, since, as he says, "one of his ships had become unseaworthy and could no longer carry sail." His request came to Ovando, who was now in command. This governor had left Spain in February, only a month before Columbus received his final instructions, and there can be little doubt that he had learned from Fonseca that those instructions would enjoin Columbus not to complicate in any way Ovando's assumption of command by approaching his capital. Las Casas seems to imply this. However it may be, Ovando was amply qualified by his own instructions to do what he thought the circumstances required. Columbus represented that a storm was coming on, or rather the _Historie_ tells us that he did. It is to be remarked that Columbus himself makes no such statement. At all events, word was sent back to Columbus by his boat that he could not enter the harbor. Irving calls this an "ungracious refusal," and it turned out that later events have opportunely afforded the apologists for the Admiral the occasion to point a moral to his advantage, particularly since Columbus, if we may believe the doubtful story, confident of his prognostications, had again sent word that the fleet lying in the harbor, ready to sail, would go out at great peril in view of an impending storm. It seems to be quite uncertain if at the time his crew had any knowledge of his reasons for nearing Española, or of his being denied admittance to the port. At least Porras, from the way he describes the events, leaves one to make such an inference. [Sidenote: Ovando's fleet.] [Sidenote: Bobadilla, Roldan, and others on the fleet.] [Sidenote: Columbus's factor had placed his gold on one of the ships.] This fleet in the harbor was that which had brought Ovando, and was now laden for the return. There was on board of it, as Columbus might have learned from his messengers, the man of all men whom he most hated, Bobadilla, who had gracefully yielded the power to Ovando two months before, and of whom Las Casas, who was then fresh in his inquisitive seeking after knowledge respecting the Indies and on the spot, could not find that any one spoke ill. On the same ship was Columbus's old rebellious and tergiversating companion, Roldan, whose conduct had been in these two months examined, and who was now to be sent to Spain for further investigations. There was also embarked, but in chains, the unfortunate cacique of the Vega, Guarionex, to be made a show of in Seville. The lading of the ships was the most wonderful for wealth that had ever been sent from the island. There was the gold which Bobadilla had collected, including a remarkable nugget which an Indian woman had picked up in a brook, and a large quantity which Roldan and his friends were taking on their own account, as the profit of their separate enterprises. Carvajal, whom Columbus had sent out with Ovando as his factor, to look after his pecuniary interests under the provisions which the royal commands had made, had also placed in one of the caravels four thousand pieces of the same precious metal, the result of the settlement of Ovando with Bobadilla, and the accretions of the Admiral's share of the Crown's profits. [Sidenote: Ovando's fleet puts to sea and is wrecked;] Undismayed by the warnings of Columbus, this fleet at once put to sea, the Admiral's little caravels having meanwhile crept under the shore at a distance to find such shelter as they could. The larger fleet stood homeward, and was scarcely off the easterly end of Española when a furious hurricane burst upon it. The ship which carried Bobadilla, Roldan, and Guarionex succumbed and went down. [Sidenote: but ship with Columbus's gold is saved.] Others foundered later. Some of the vessels managed to return to Santo Domingo in a shattered condition. A single caravel, it is usually stated, survived the shock, so that it alone could proceed on the voyage; and if the testimony is to be believed, this was the weakest of them all, but she carried the gold of Columbus. Among the caravels which put back to Santo Domingo for repairs was one on which Bastidas was going to Spain for trial. This one arrived at Cadiz in September, 1502. [Sidenote: Columbus's ships weather the gale.] The ships of Columbus had weathered the gale. That of the Admiral, by keeping close in to land, had fared best. The others, seeking sea-room, had suffered more. They lost sight of each other, however, during the height of the gale; but when it was over, they met together at Port Hermoso, at the westerly end of the island. The gale is a picture over which the glow of a retributive justice, under the favoring dispensation of chance, is so easily thrown by sympathetic writers that the effusions of the sentimentalists have got to stand at last for historic verity. De Lorgues does not lose the opportunity to make the most of it. [Sidenote: 1502. July 14. Columbus sails away.] [Sidenote: July 30. At Guanaja.] [Sidenote: Meets a strange canoe.] Columbus, having lingered about the island to repair his ships and refresh his crews, and also to avoid a second storm, did not finally get away till July 14, when he steered directly for Terra Firma. The currents perplexed him, and, as there was little wind, he was swept west further than he expected. He first touched at some islands near Jamaica. Thence he proceeded west a quarter southwest, for four days, without seeing land, as Porras tells us, when, bewildered, he turned to the northwest, and then north. But finding himself (July 24) in the archipelago near Cuba, which on his second voyage he had called The Gardens, he soon after getting a fair wind (July 27) stood southwest, and on July 30 made a small island, off the northern coast of Honduras, called Guanaja by the natives, and Isla de Pinos by himself. He was now in sight of the mountains of the mainland. The natives struck him as of a physical type different from all others whom he had seen. A large canoe, eight feet beam, and of great length, though made of a single log, approached with still stranger people in it. [Sidenote: On the Honduras coast.] They had apparently come from a region further north; and under a canopy in the waist of the canoe sat a cacique with his dependents. The boat was propelled by five and twenty men with paddles. It carried various articles to convince Columbus that he had found a people more advanced in arts than those of the regions earlier discovered. They had with them copper implements, including hatchets, bells, and the like. He saw something like a crucible in which metal had been melted. Their wooden swords were jagged with sharp flints, their clothes were carefully made, their utensils were polished and handy. Columbus traded off some trinkets for such specimens as he wanted. If he now had gone in the direction from which this marvelous canoe had come, he might have thus early opened the wondrous world of Yucatan and Mexico, and closed his career with more marvels yet. His beatific visions, which he supposed were leading him under the will of the Deity, led him, however, south. The delusive strait was there. He found an old man among the Indians, whom he kept as a guide, since the savage could draw a sort of chart of the coast. He dismissed the rest with presents, after he had wrested from them what he wanted. Approaching the mainland, near the present Cape of Honduras, the Adelantado landed on Sunday, August 14, and mass was celebrated in a grove near the beach. Again, on the 17th, Bartholomew landed some distance eastward of the first spot, and here, by a river (Rio de la Posesion, now Rio Tinto), he planted the Castilian banner and formally took possession of the country. The Indians were friendly, and there was an interchange of provisions and trinkets. The natives were tattooed, and they had other customs, such as the wearing of cotton jackets, and the distending of their ears by rings, which were new to the Spaniards. [Sidenote: Seeking a strait.] [Sidenote: Columbus oppressed with the gout.] [Illustration: BELLIN'S HONDURAS.] Tracking the coast still eastward, Columbus struggled against the current, apparently without reasoning that he might be thus sailing away from the strait, so engrossed was he with the thought that such a channel must be looked for farther south. His visions had not helped him to comprehend the sweep of waters that would disprove his mock oaths of the Cuban coast. So he wore ship constantly against the tempest and current, and crawled with bewildered expectation along the shore. All this tacking tore his sails, racked his caravels, and wore out his seamen. The men were in despair, and confessed one another. Some made vows of penance, if their lives were preserved. Columbus was himself wrenched with the gout, and from a sort of pavilion, which covered his couch on the quarter deck, he kept a good eye on all they encountered. "The distress of my son," he says, "grieved me to the soul, and the more when I considered his tender age; for he was but thirteen years old, and he enduring so much toil for so long a time." "My brother," he adds further, "was in the ship that was in the worst condition and the most exposed to danger; and my grief on this account was the greater that I brought him with me against his will." [Sidenote: 1502. September. Cape Gracios à Dios.] [Sidenote: Loses a boat's crew.] [Sidenote: 1502. September 25. The Garden.] It was no easy work to make the seventy leagues from Cape Honduras to Cape Gracios à Dios, and the bestowal of this name denoted his thankfulness to God, when, after forty days of this strenuous endeavor, his caravels were at last able to round the cape, on September 12 (or 14). A seaboard stretching away to the south lay open before him,--now known as the Mosquito Coast. The current which sets west so persistently here splits and sends a branch down this coast. So with a "fair wind and tide," as he says, they followed its varied scenery of crag and lowland for more than sixty leagues, till they discovered a great flow of water coming out of a river. It seemed to offer an opportunity to replenish their casks and get some store of wood. On the 16th of September, they anchored, and sent their boats to explore. A meeting of the tide and the river's flow raised later a tumultuous sea at the bar, just as the boats were coming out. The men were unable to surmount the difficulty, and one of the boats was lost, with all on board. Columbus recorded their misfortune in the name which he gave to the river, El Rio del Desastre. Still coasting onward, on September 25 they came to an alluring roadstead between an island and the main, where there was everything to enchant that verdure and fragrance could produce. He named the spot The Garden (La Huerta). Here, at anchor, they had enough to occupy them for a day or two in restoring the damage of the tempest, and in drying their stores, which had been drenched by the unceasing downpour of the clouds. The natives watched them from the shore, and made a show of their weapons. The Spaniards remaining inactive, the savages grew more confident of the pacific intent of their visitors, and soon began swimming off to the caravels. Columbus tried the effect of largesses, refusing to barter, and made gifts of the Spanish baubles. Such gratuities, however, created distrust, and every trinket was returned. [Sidenote: Character of the natives.] Two young girls had been sent on board as hostages, while the Spaniards were on shore getting water; but even they were stripped of their Spanish finery when restored to their friends, and every bit of it was returned to the givers. There seem to be discordant statements by Columbus and in the _Historie_ respecting these young women, and Columbus gives them a worse character than his chronicler. When the Adelantado went ashore with a notary, and this official displayed his paper and inkhorn, it seemed to strike the wondering natives as a spell. They fled, and returned with something like a censer, from which they scattered the smoke as if to disperse all baleful spirits. These unaccustomed traits of the natives worked on the superstitions of the Spaniards. They began to fancy they had got within an atmosphere of sorceries, and Columbus, thinking of the two Indian maiden hostages, was certain there was a spell of witchcraft about them, and he never quite freed his mind of this necromantic ghost. The old Indian whom Columbus had taken for a guide when first he touched the coast, having been set ashore at Cape Gracios à Dios, enriched with presents, Columbus now seized seven of this new tribe, and selecting two of the most intelligent as other guides, he let the rest go. The seizure was greatly resented by the tribe, and they sent emissaries to negotiate for the release of the captives, but to no effect. [Sidenote: 1502. October. Cariari.] [Sidenote: Gold sought at Veragua.] Departing on October 5 from the region which the natives called Cariari, and where the fame of Columbus is still preserved in the Bahia del Almirante, the explorers soon found the coast trending once more towards the east. They were tracking what is now known as the shore of Costa Rica. They soon entered the large and island-studded Caribaro Bay. Here the Spaniards were delighted to find the natives wearing plates of gold as ornaments. They tried to traffic for them, but the Indians were loath to part with their treasures. The natives intimated that there was much more of this metal farther on at a place called Veragua. So the ships sailed on, October 17, and reached that coast. The Spaniards came to a river; but the natives sent defiance to them in the blasts of their conch-shells, while they shook at them their lances. Entering the tide, they splashed the water towards their enemies, in token of contempt. Columbus's Indian guides soon pacified them, and a round of barter followed, by which seventeen of their gold disks were secured for three hawks' bells. The intercourse ended, however, in a little hostile bout, during which the Spanish crossbows and lombards soon brought the savages to obedience. [Illustration: BELLINI'S VERAGUA.] [Sidenote: Ciguare.] [Sidenote: At the isthmus.] Still the caravels went on. The same scene of startled natives, in defiant attitude, soon soothed by the trinkets was repeated everywhere. In one place the Spaniards found what they had never seen before, a wall laid of stone and lime, and Columbus began to think of the civilized East again. Coast peoples are always barbarous, as he says; but it is the inland people who are rich. As he passed along this coast of Veragua, as the name has got to be written, though his notary at the time caught the Indian pronunciation as Cobraba, his interpreters pointed out its villages, and the chief one of all; and when they had passed on a little farther they told him he was sailing beyond the gold country. Columbus was not sure but they were trying to induce him to open communication again with the shore, to offer chances for their escape. The seeker of the strait could not stop for gold. His vision led him on to that marvelous land of Ciguare, of which these successive native tribes told him, situated ten days inland, and where the people reveled in gold, sailed in ships, and conducted commerce in spices and other precious commodities. The women there were decked, so they said, with corals and pearls. "I should be content," he says, "if a tithe of this which I hear is true." He even fancied, from all he could understand of their signs and language, that these Ciguare people were as terrible in war as the Spaniards, and rode on beasts. "They also say that the sea surrounds Ciguare, and that ten days' journey from thence is the river Ganges." Humboldt seems to think that in all this Columbus got a conception of that great western ocean which was lying so much nearer to him than he supposed. It may be doubted if it was quite so clear to Columbus as Humboldt thinks; but there is good reason to believe that Columbus imagined this wonderful region of Ciguare was half-way to the Ganges. If, as his canonizers fondly suppose, he had not mistaken in his visions an isthmus for a strait, he might have been prompted to cross the slender barrier which now separated him from his goal. [Sidenote: 1502. November 2.] [Sidenote: Porto Bello.] [Sidenote: Nombre de Dios.] On the 2d of November, the ships again anchored in a spacious harbor, so beautiful in its groves and fruits, and with such deep water close to the shore, that Columbus gave it the name of Puerto Bello (Porto Bello),--an appellation which has never left it. It rained for seven days while they lay here, doing nothing but trading a little with the natives for provisions. The Indians offered no gold, and hardly any was seen. Starting once more, the Spaniards came in sight of the cape known since as Nombre de Dios, but they were thwarted for a while in their attempts to pass it. They soon found a harbor, where they stayed till November 23; then going on again, they secured anchorage in a basin so small that the caravels were placed almost beside the shore. Columbus was kept here by the weather for nine days. The basking alligators reminded him of the crocodiles of the Nile. The natives were uncommonly gentle and gracious, and provisions were plenty. The ease with which the seamen could steal ashore at night began to be demoralizing, leading to indignities at the native houses. The savage temper was at last aroused, and the Spanish revelries were brought to an end by an attack on the ships. It ceased, as usual, after a few discharges of the ships' guns. [Sidenote: Bastidas's exploration of this coast.] Columbus had not yet found any deflection of that current which sweeps in this region towards the Gulf of Mexico. He had struggled against its powerful flow in every stage of his progress along the coast. Whether this had brought him to believe that his vision of a strait was delusive does not appear. Whether he really knew that he had actually joined his own explorations, going east, to those which Bastidas had made from the west is equally unknown, though it is possible he may have got an intimation of celestial and winged monsters from the natives. If he comprehended it, he saw that there could be no strait, this way at least. Bastidas, as we have seen, was on board Bobadilla's fleet when Columbus lay off Santo Domingo. There is a chance that Columbus's messenger who went ashore may have seen him and his charts, and may have communicated some notes of the maps to the Admiral. Some of the companions of Bastidas on his voyage had reached Spain before Columbus sailed, and there may have been some knowledge imparted in that way. If Columbus knew the truth, he did not disclose it. Porras, possibly at a later day, seems to have been better informed, or at least he imparts more in his narrative than Columbus does. He says he saw in the people of these parts many of the traits of those of the pearl coast at Paria, and that the maps, which they possessed, showed that it was to this point that the explorations of Ojeda and Bastidas had been pushed. [Sidenote: Columbus turns back.] [Sidenote: 1502. December 5.] [Sidenote: A gale.] There were other things that might readily have made him turn back, as well as this despair of finding a strait. His crew were dissatisfied with leaving the gold of Veragua. His ships were badly bored by the worms, and they had become, from this cause and by reason of the heavy weather which had so mercilessly followed them, more and more unseaworthy. So on December 5, 1502, when he passed out of the little harbor of El Retrete, he began a backward course. Pretty soon the wind, which had all along faced him from the east, blew strongly from the west, checking him as much going backward as it had in his onward course. It seemed as if the elements were turned against him. The gale was making sport of him, as it veered in all directions. It was indeed a Coast of Contrasts (La Costa de los Contrastes), as Columbus called it. The lightning streaked the skies continually. The thunder was appalling. For nine days the little ships, strained at every seam, leaking at every point where the tropical sea worm had pierced them, writhed in a struggle of death. At one time a gigantic waterspout formed within sight. The sea surged around its base. The clouds stooped to give it force. It came staggering and lunging towards the fragile barks. The crews exorcised the watery spirit by repeating the Gospel of St. John the Evangelist, and the crazy column passed on the other side of them. Added to their peril through it all were the horrors of an impending famine. Their biscuit were revolting because of the worms. They caught sharks for food. [Sidenote: 1502. December 17.] [Sidenote: Bethlehem River.] [Sidenote: 1503. January 24.] [Sidenote: Bartholomew seeks the mines.] At last, on December 17, the fleet reunited,--for they had, during the gales, lost sight of each other,--and entered a harbor, where they found the native cabins built in the tree tops, to be out of the way of griffins, or some other beasts. After further buffeting of the tempests, they finally made a harbor on the coast of Veragua, in a river which Columbus named Santa Maria de Belen (Bethlehem), it being Epiphany Day; and here at last they anchored two of the caravels on January 9, and the other two on the 10th (1503). Columbus had been nearly a month in passing thirty leagues of coast. The Indians were at first quieted in the usual way, and some gold was obtained by barter. The Spaniards had not been here long, however, when they found themselves (January 24, 1503) in as much danger by the sudden swelling of the river as they had been at sea. It was evidently occasioned by continued falls of rain in distant mountains, which they could see. The caravels were knocked about like cockboats. The Admiral's ship snapped a mast. "It rained without ceasing," says the Admiral, recording his miseries, "until the 14th of February;" and during the continuance of the storm the Adelantado was sent on a boat expedition to ascend the Veragua River, three miles along the coast, where he was to search for mines. The party proceeded on February 6 as far as they could in the boats, and then, leaving part of the men for a guard, and taking guides, which the Quibian--that being the name, as he says, which they gave to the lord of the country--had provided, they reached a country where the soil to their eyes seemed full of particles of gold. Columbus says that he afterwards learned that it was a device of the crafty Quibian to conduct them to the mines of a rival chief, while his own were richer and nearer, all of which, nevertheless, did not escape the keen Spanish scent for gold. Bartholomew made other excursions along the coast; but nowhere did it seem to him that gold was as plenty as at Veragua. [Sidenote: Mines of Aurea.] Columbus now reverted to his old fancies. He remembered that Josephus has described the getting of gold for the Temple of Jerusalem from the Golden Chersonesus, and was not this the very spot? "Josephus thinks that this gold of the Chronicles and the Book of Kings was found in the Aurea," he says. "If it were so, I contend that these mines of the Aurea are identical with those of Veragua. David in his will left 3,000 quintals of Indian gold to Solomon, to assist in building the Temple, and according to Josephus it came from these lands." He had seen, as he says, more promise of gold here in two days than in Española in four years. It was very easy now to dwarf his Ophir at Hayna! Those other riches were left to those who had wronged him. The pearls of the Paria coast might be the game of the common adventurer. Here was the princely domain of the divinely led discoverer, who was rewarded at last! [Sidenote: Columbus seeks to make a settlement.] A plan was soon made of founding a settlement to hold the region and gain information, while Columbus returned to Spain for supplies. Eighty men were to stay. They began to build houses. They divided the stock of provisions and munitions, and transferred that intended for the colony to one of the caravels, which was to be left with them. Particular pains were taken to propitiate the natives by presents, and the Quibian was regaled with delicacies and gifts. When this was done, it was found that a dry season had come on, and there was not water enough on the bar to float the returning caravels. [Sidenote: Diego Mendez's exploits.] [Sidenote: The Quibian taken,] [Sidenote: but escapes.] Meanwhile the Quibian had formed a league to exterminate the intruders. Columbus sent a brave fellow, Diego Mendez, to see what he could learn. He found a force of savages advancing to the attack; but this single Spaniard disconcerted them, and they put off the plan. Again, with but a single companion, one Rodrigo de Escobar, Mendez boldly went into the Quibian's village, and came back alive to tell the Admiral of all the preparations for war which he had seen, or which were inferred at least. The news excited the quick spirits of the Adelantado, and, following a plan of Mendez, he at once started (March 30) with an armed force. He came with such celerity to the cacique's village that the savages were not prepared for their intrusion, and by a rapid artifice he surrounded the lodge of the Quibian, and captured him with fifty of his followers. The Adelantado sent him, bound hand and foot, and under escort, down the river, in charge of Juan Sanchez, who rather resented any intimation of the Adelantado to be careful of his prisoner. As the boat neared the mouth of the river, her commander yielded to the Quibian's importunities to loosen his bonds, when the chief, watching his opportunity, slipped overboard and dove to the bottom. The night was dark, and he was not seen when he came to the surface, and was not pursued. The other prisoners were delivered to the Admiral. The Adelantado meanwhile had sacked the cacique's cabin, and brought away its golden treasures. [Sidenote: 1503. April 6.] [Sidenote: The settlement attacked.] Columbus, confident that the Quibian had been drowned, and that the chastisement which had been given his tribe was a wholesome lesson, began again to arrange for his departure. As the river had risen a little, he succeeded in getting his lightened caravels over the bar, and anchored them outside, where their lading was again put on board. To offer some last injunctions and to get water, Columbus, on April 6, sent a boat, in command of Diego Tristan, to the Adelantado, who was to be left in command. When the boat got in, Tristan found the settlement in great peril. The Quibian, who had reached the shore in safety after his adventure, had quickly organized an attacking party, and had fallen upon the settlement. The savages were fast getting their revenge, for the unequal contest had lasted nearly three hours, when the Adelantado and Mendez, rallying a small force, rushed so impetuously upon them that, with the aid of a fierce bloodhound, the native host was scattered in a trice. Only one Spaniard had been killed and eight wounded, including the Adelantado; but the rout of the Indians was complete. [Sidenote: Tristan murdered.] It was while these scenes were going on that Tristan arrived in his boat opposite the settlement. He dallied till the affair was ended, and then proceeded up the river to get some water. Those on shore warned him of the danger of ambuscade; but he persisted. When he had got well beyond the support of the settlement, his boat was beset with a shower of javelins from the overhanging banks on both sides, while a cloud of canoes attacked him front and rear. But a single Spaniard escaped by diving, and brought the tale of disaster to his countrymen. The condition of the settlement was now alarming. The Indians, encouraged by their success in overcoming the boat, once more gathered to attack the little group of "encroaching Spaniards," as Columbus could but call them. The houses which sheltered them were so near the thick forest that the savages approached them on all sides under shelter. The woods rang with their yells and with the blasts of their conch-shells. The Spaniards got, in their panic, beyond the control of the Adelantado. They prepared to take the caravel and leave the river; but it was found she would not float over the bar. They then sought to send a boat to the Admiral, lying outside, to prevent his sailing without them; but the current and tide commingling made such a commotion on the bar that no boat could live in the sea. The bodies of Tristan and his men came floating down stream, with carrion crows perched upon them at their ghastly feast. It seemed as if nature visited them with premonitions. At last the Adelantado brought a sufficient number of men into such a steady mood that they finally constructed out of whatever they could get some sort of a breastwork near the shore, where the ground was open. Here they could use their matchlocks and have a clear sweep about them. They placed behind this bulwark two small falconets, and prepared to defend themselves. They were in this condition for four days. Their provisions, however, began to run short, and every Spaniard who dared to forage was sure to be cut off. Their ammunition, too, was not abundant. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus at anchor outside the bar.] Meanwhile Columbus was in a similar state of anxiety. "The Admiral was suffering from a severe fever," he says, "and worn with fatigue." His ships were lying at anchor outside the bar, with the risk of being obliged to put to sea at any moment, to work off a lee shore. Tristan's prolonged absence harassed him. Another incident was not less ominous. The companions of the Quibian were confined on board in the forecastle; and it was the intention to take them to Spain as hostages, as it was felt they would be, for the colony left behind. Those in charge of them had become careless about securing the hatchway, and one night they failed to chain it, trusting probably to the watchfulness of certain sailors who slept upon the hatch. The savages, finding a footing upon some ballast which they piled up beneath, suddenly threw off the cover, casting the sleeping sailors violently aside, and before the guard could be called the greater part of the prisoners had jumped into the sea and escaped. Such as were secured were thrust back, but the next morning it was found that they all had strangled themselves. [Sidenote: Ledesma's exploit.] After such manifestations of ferocious determination, Columbus began to be further alarmed for the safety of his brother's companions and of Tristan's. For days a tossing surf had made an impassable barrier between him and the shore. He had but one boat, and he did not dare to risk it in an attempt to land. Finally, his Sevillian pilot, Pedro Ledesma, offered to brave the dangers by swimming, if the boat would take him close to the surf. The trial was made; the man committed himself to the surf, and by his strength and skill so surmounted wave after wave that he at length reached stiller water, and was seen to mount the shore. In due time he was again seen on the beach, and plunging in once more, was equally successful in passing the raging waters, and was picked up by the boat. He had a sad tale to tell the Admiral. It was a story of insubordination, a powerless Adelantado, and a frantic eagerness to escape somehow. Ledesma said that the men were preparing canoes to come off to the ships, since their caravel was unable to pass the bar. [Sidenote: Resolve to abandon the region.] There was long consideration in these hours of disheartenment; but the end of it was a decision to rescue the colony and abandon the coast. The winds never ceased to be high, and Columbus's ships, in their weakened condition, were only kept afloat by care and vigilance. The loss of the boat's crew threw greater burdens and strains upon those who were left. It was impossible while the surf lasted to send in his only boat, and quite as impossible for the fragile canoes of his colony to brave the dangers of the bar in coming out. There was nothing for Columbus to do but to hold to his anchor as long as he could, and wait. [Sidenote: Columbus in delirium hears a voice.] Our pity for the man is sometimes likely to unfit us to judge his own record. Let us try to believe what he says of himself, and watch him in his delirium. "Groaning with exhaustion," he says, "I fell asleep in the highest part of the ship, and heard a compassionate voice address me." It bade him be of good cheer, and take courage in the service of God! What the God of all had done for Moses and David would be done for him! As we read the long report of this divine utterance, as Columbus is careful to record it, we learn that the Creator was aware of his servant's name resounding marvelously throughout the earth. We find, however, that the divine belief curiously reflected the confidence of Columbus that it was India, and not America, that had been revealed. "Remember David," said the Voice, "how he was a shepherd, and was made a king. Remember Abraham, how he was a hundred when he begat Isaac, and that there is youth still for the aged." Columbus adds that when the Voice chided him he wept for his errors, and that he heard it all as in a trance. The obvious interpretation of all this is either that by the record Columbus intended a fable to impress the sovereigns, for whom he was writing, or that he was so moved to hallucinations that he believed what he wrote. The hero worship of Irving decides the question easily. "Such an idea," says Irving, referring to the argument of deceit, and forgetting the Admiral's partiality for such practices, "is inconsistent with the character of Columbus. In recalling a dream, one is unconsciously apt to give it a little coherency." Irving's plea is that it was a mere dream, which was mistaken by Columbus, in his feverish excitement, for a revelation. "The artless manner," adds that biographer, "in which he mingles the rhapsodies and dreams of his imagination with simple facts and sound practical observations, pouring them forth with a kind of Scriptural solemnity and poetry of language, is one of the most striking illustrations of a character richly compounded of extraordinary and apparently contradictory elements." We may perhaps ask, Was Irving's hero a deceiver, or was he mad? The chances seem to be that the whole vision was simply the product of one of those fits of aberration which in these later years were no strangers to Columbus's existence. His mind was not infrequently, amid disappointments and distractions, in no fit condition to ward off hallucination. Humboldt speaks of Columbus's letter describing this vision as showing the disordered mind of a proud soul weighed down with dead hopes. He has no fear that the strange mixture of force and weakness, of pride and touching humility, which accompanies these secret contortions will ever impress the world with other feelings than those of commiseration. It is a hard thing for any one, seeking to do justice to the agonies of such spirits, to measure them in the calmness of better days. "Let those who are accustomed to slander and aspersion ask, while they sit in security at home, Why dost thou not do so and so under such circumstances?" says Columbus himself. It is far easier to let one's self loose into the vortex and be tossed with sympathy. But if four centuries have done anything for us, they ought to have cleared the air of its mirages. What is pitiable may not be noble. [Sidenote: The colony embark.] The Voice was, of course, associated in Columbus's mind with the good weather which followed. During this a raft was made of two canoes lashed together beneath a platform, and, using this for ferrying, all the stores were floated off safely to the ships, so that in the end nothing was left behind but the decaying and stranded caravel. This labor was done under the direction of Diego Mendez, whom the Admiral rewarded by kissing him on the cheek, and by giving him command of Tristan's caravel, which was the Admiral's flagship. [Sidenote: 1503. April, Columbus sails away.] It is a strange commentary on the career and fame of Columbus that the name of this disastrous coast should represent him to this day in the title of his descendant, the Duke of Veragua. Never a man turned the prow of his ship from scenes which he would sooner forget, with more sorrow and relief, than Columbus, in the latter days of April, 1503, with his enfeebled crews and his crazy hulks, stood away, as he thought, for Española. And yet three months later, and almost in the same breath with which he had rehearsed these miseries, with that obliviousness which so often caught his errant mind, he wrote to his sovereigns that "there is not in the world a country, whose inhabitants are more timid; added to which there is a good harbor, a beautiful river, and the whole place is capable of being easily put into a state of defense. Your people that may come here, if they should wish to become masters of the products of other lands, will have to take them by force, or retire empty-handed. In this country they will simply have to trust their persons in the hands of a savage." The man was mad. It was easterly that Columbus steered when his ships swung round to their destined course. It was not without fear and even indignation that his crews saw what they thought a purpose to sail directly for Spain in the sorry plight of the ships. Mendez, indeed, who commanded the Admiral's own ship, says "they thought to reach Spain." The Admiral, however, seems to have had two purposes. He intended to run eastward far enough to allow for the currents, when he should finally head for Santo Domingo. He intended also to disguise as much as he could the route back, for fear that others would avail themselves of his crew's knowledge to rediscover these golden coasts. He remembered how the companions of his Paria voyage had led other expeditions to that region of pearls. He is said also to have taken from his crew all their memoranda of the voyage, so that there would be no such aid available to guide others. "None of them can explain whither I went, nor whence I came," he says. "They do not know the way to return thither." [Sidenote: At Puerto Bello.] [Sidenote: At the Gulf of Darien.] [Sidenote: 1503. May 10.] [Sidenote: May 30. On the Cuban coast.] [Sidenote: 1503. June 23. Reaches Jamaica.] By the time he reached Puerto Bello, one of his caravels had become so weakened by the boring worms that he had to abandon her and crowd his men into the two remaining vessels. His crews became clamorous when he reached the Gulf of Darien, where he thought it prudent to abandon his easterly course and steer to the north. It was now May 1. He hugged the wind to overcome the currents, but when he sighted some islands to the westward of Española, on the 10th, it was evident that the currents had been bearing him westerly all the while. They were still drifting him westerly, when he found himself, on May 30, among the islands on the Cuban coast which he had called The Gardens. "I had reached," he says in his old delusion, "the province of Mago, which is contiguous to that of Cathay." Here the ships anchored to give the men refreshment. The labor of keeping the vessels free from water had been excessive, and in a secure roadstead it could now be carried on with some respite of toil, if the weather would only hold good. This was not to be, however. A gale ensued in which they lost their anchors. The two caravels, moreover, sustained serious damage by collision. All the anchors of the Admiral's ship had gone but one, and though that held, the cable nearly wore asunder. After six days of this stormy weather, he dared at last to crawl along the coast. Fortunately, he got some native provisions at one place, which enabled him to feed his famished men. The currents and adverse winds, however, proved too much for the power of his ships to work to windward. They were all the while in danger of foundering. "With three pumps and the use of pots and kettles," he says, "we could scarcely clear the water that came into the ship, there being no remedy but this for the mischief done by the ship worm." He reluctantly, therefore, bore away for Jamaica, where, on June 23, he put into Puerto Buono (Dry Harbor). [Sidenote: 1503. July, August. His ships stranded]. Finding neither water nor food here, he went on the next day to Port San Gloria, known in later days as Don Christopher's Cove. Here he found it necessary, a little later (July 23 and August 12), to run his sinking ships, one after the other, aground, but he managed to place them side by side, so that they could be lashed together. They soon filled with the tide. Cabins were built on the forecastles and sterns to live in, and bulwarks of defense were reared as best they could be along the vessels' waists. Columbus now took the strictest precautions to prevent his men wandering ashore, for it was of the utmost importance that no indignity should be offered the natives while they were in such hazardous and almost defenseless straits. It became at once a serious question how to feed his men. Whatever scant provisions remained on board the stranded caravels were spoiled. His immediate savage neighbors supplied them with cassava bread and other food for a while, but they had no reserved stores to draw upon, and these sources were soon exhausted. [Sidenote: Mendez seeks food for the company.] Diego Mendez now offered, with three men, carrying goods to barter, to make a circuit of the island, so that he could reach different caciques, with whom he could bargain for the preparation and carriage of food to the Spaniards. As he concluded his successive impromptu agreements with cacique after cacique, he sent a man back loaded with what he could carry, to acquaint the Admiral, and let him prepare for a further exchange of trinkets. Finally, Mendez, left without a companion, still went on, getting some Indian porters to help him from place to place. In this way he reached the eastern end of the island, where he ingratiated himself with a powerful cacique, and was soon on excellent terms with him. From this chieftain he got a canoe with natives to paddle, and loading it with provisions, he skirted westerly along the coast, until he reached the Spaniards' harbor. His mission bade fair to have accomplished its purpose, and provisions came in plentifully for a while under the arrangements which he had made. [Sidenote: Mendez prepares to go to Española.] Columbus's next thought was to get word, if possible, to Ovando, at Española, so that the governor could send a vessel to rescue them. Columbus proposed to Mendez that he should attempt the passage with the canoe in which he had returned from his expedition. Mendez pictured the risks of going forty leagues in these treacherous seas in a frail canoe, and intimated that the Admiral had better make trial of the courage of the whole company first. He said that if no one else offered to go he would shame them by his courage, as he had more than once done before. So the company were assembled, and Columbus made public the proposition. Every one hung back from the hazards, and Mendez won his new triumph, as he had supposed he would. He then set to work fitting the canoe for the voyage. He put a keel to her. He built up her sides so that she could better ward off the seas, and rigged a mast and sail. She was soon loaded with the necessary provisions for himself, one other Spaniard, and the six Indians who were to ply the paddles. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1503. July 7. Letter of Columbus to the sovereigns.] The Admiral, while the preparations were making, drew up a letter to his sovereigns, which it was intended that Mendez, after arranging with Ovando for the rescue, should bear himself to Spain by the first opportunity. At least it is the reasonable assumption of Humboldt that this is the letter which has come down to us dated July 7, 1503. [Sidenote: _Lettera rarissima._] It is not known that this epistle was printed at the time, though manuscript copies seem to have circulated. An Italian version of it was, however, printed at Venice a year before Columbus died. The original Spanish text was not known to scholars till Navarrete, having discovered in the king's library at Madrid an early transcript of it, printed it in the first volume of his _Coleccion_. It is the document usually referred to, from the title of Morelli's reprint (1810) of the Italian text, as the _Lettera rarissima di Cristoforo Colombo_. This letter is even more than his treatise on the prophets a sorrowful index of his wandering reason. In parts it is the merest jumble of hurrying thoughts, with no plan or steady purpose in view. It is in places well calculated to arouse the deepest pity. It was, of course, avowedly written at a venture, inasmuch as the chance of its reaching the hands of his sovereigns was a very small one. "I send this letter," he says, "by means of and by the hands of Indians; it will be a miracle if it reaches its destination." He not only goes back over the adventures of the present expedition, in a recital which has been not infrequently quoted in previous pages, but he reverts gloomily to the more distant past. He lingers on the discouragements of his first years in Spain. "Every one to whom the enterprise was mentioned," he says of those days, "treated it as ridiculous, but now there is not a man, down to the very tailors, who does not beg to be allowed to become a discoverer." He remembers the neglect which followed upon the first flush of indignation when he returned to Spain in chains. "The twenty years' service through which I have passed with so much toil and danger have profited me nothing, and at this very day I do not possess a roof in Spain that I can call my own. If I wish to eat or sleep I have nowhere to go but to a low tavern, and most times lack wherewith to pay the bill. Another anxiety wrings my very heartstrings, when I think of my son Diego, whom I have left an orphan in Spain, stripped of the house and property which is due to him on my account, although I had looked upon it as a certainty that your Majesties, as just and grateful princes, would restore it to him in all respects with increase." "I was twenty-eight years old," he says again, "when I came into your Highnesses' services, and now I have not a hair upon me that is not gray, my body is infirm, and all that was left to me, as well as to my brother, has been taken away and sold, even to the frock that I wore, to my great dishonor." And then, referring to his present condition, he adds: "Solitary in my trouble, sick, and in daily expectation of death, I am surrounded by millions of hostile savages, full of cruelty. Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth, and justice!" He next works over in his mind the old geographical problems. He recalls his calculation of an eclipse in 1494, when he supposed, in his error, that he had "sailed twenty-four degrees westward in nine hours." He recalls the stories that he had heard on the Veragua coast, and thinks that he had known it all before from books. Marinus had come near the truth, he gives out, and the Portuguese have proved that the Indies in Ethiopia is, as Marinus had said, four and twenty degrees from the equinoctial line. "The world is but small," he sums up; "out of seven divisions of it, the dry part occupies six, and the seventh is entirely covered by water. I say that the world is not so large as vulgar opinion makes it, and that one degree from the equinoctial line measures fifty-six miles and two thirds, and this may be proved to a nicety." [Sidenote: Columbus on gold.] And then, in his thoughts, he turns back to his quest for gold, just as he had done in action at Darien, when in despair he gave up the search for a strait. It was gold, to his mind, that could draw souls from purgatory. He exclaims: "Gold is the most precious of all commodities. Gold constitutes treasure, and he who possesses it has all he needs in this world, as also the means of rescuing souls from purgatory, and restoring them to the enjoyment of paradise." Then his hopes swell with the vision of that wealth which he thought he had found, and would yet return to. He alone had the clues to it, which he had concealed from others. "I can safely assert that to my mind my people returning to Spain are the bearers of the best news that ever was carried to Spain.... I had certainly foreseen how things would be. I think more of this opening for commerce than of all that has been done in the Indies. This is not a child to be left to the care of a stepmother." These were some of the thoughts, in large part tumultuous, incoherent, dispirited, harrowing, weakening, and sad, penned within sound of the noise of Mendez's preparations, and disclosing an exultant and bewildered being, singularly compounded. This script was committed to Mendez, beside one addressed to Ovando, and another to his friend in Spain, Father Gorricio, to whom he imparts some of the same frantic expectations. "If my voyage will turn out as favorable to my health," he says, "and to the tranquillity of my house, as it is likely to be for the glory of my royal masters, I shall live long." * * * * * [Sidenote: Mendez starts.] Mendez started bravely. He worked along the coast of the island towards its eastern end; not without peril, however, both from the sea and from the Indians. Finally, his party fell captives to a startled cacique; but while the savages were disputing over a division of the spoils, Mendez succeeded in slipping back to the canoe, and, putting off alone, paddled it back to the stranded ships. [Sidenote: Mendez starts again.] Another trial was made at once, with larger preparation. A second canoe was added to the expedition, and the charge of this was given to Bartholomew Fiesco, a Genoese, who had commanded one of the caravels. The daring adventurers started again with an armed party under the Adelantado following them along the shore. The land and boat forces reached the end of the island without molestation, and then, bidding each other farewell, the canoes headed boldly away from land, and were soon lost to the sight of the Adelantado in the deepening twilight. The land party returned to the Admiral without adventure. There was little now for the poor company to do but to await the return of Fiesco, who had been directed to come back at once and satisfy the Admiral that Mendez had safely accomplished his mission. [Sidenote: The revolt of Porras.] Many days passed, and straining eyes were directed along the shore to catch a glimpse of Fiesco's canoe; but it came not. There was not much left to allay fear or stifle disheartenment. The cramped quarters of the tenements on the hulks, the bad food which the men were forced to depend upon, and the vain watchings soon produced murmurs of discontent, which it needed but the captious spirit of a leader to convert into the turmoil of revolt. Such a gatherer of sedition soon appeared. There were in the company two brothers, Francisco de Porras, who had commanded one of the vessels, and Diego de Porras, who had, as we have seen, been joined to the expedition to check off the Admiral's accounts of treasures acquired. The very espionage of his office was an offense to the Admiral. It was through the caballing of these two men that the alien spirits of the colony found in one of them at last a determined actor. It is not easy to discover how far the accusations against the Admiral, which these men now began to dwell upon, were generally believed. It served the leaders' purposes to have it appear that Columbus was in reality banished from Spain, and had no intention of returning thither till Mendez and Fiesco had succeeded in making favor for him at Court; and that it was upon such a mission that these lieutenants had been sent. It was therefore necessary, if those who were thus cruelly confined in Jamaica wished to escape a lingering death, to put on a bold front, and demand to be led away to Española in such canoes as could be got of the Indians. [Sidenote: 1504. January 2. Demands of Porras.] [Sidenote: The flotilla of Porras sails.] It was on the 2d of January, 1504, that, with a crowd of sympathizers watching within easy call, Francisco de Porras suddenly presented himself in the cabin of the weary and bedridden Admiral. An altercation ensued, in which the Admiral, propped in his couch, endeavored to assuage the bursting violence of his accuser, and to bring him to a sense of the patient duty which the conditions demanded. It was one of the times when desperate straits seemed to restore the manhood of Columbus. It was, however, of little use. The crisis was not one that, in the present temper of the mutineers, could be avoided. Porras, finding that the Admiral could not be swayed, called out in a loud voice, "I am for Castile! Those who will may come with me!" This signal was expected, and a shout rang in the air among those who were awaiting it. It aroused Columbus from his couch, and he staggered into sight; but his presence caused no cessation of the tumult. Some of his loyal companions, fearing violence, took him back to his bed. The Adelantado braced himself with his lance for an encounter, and was pacified only by the persuasions of the Admiral's friends. They loyally said, "Let the mutineers go. We will remain." The angry faction seized ten canoes, which the Admiral had secured from the Indians, and putting in them what they could get, they embarked for their perilous voyage. Some others who had not joined in their plot being allured by the flattering hope of release, there were forty-eight in all, and the little flotilla, amid the mingled execrations and murmurs of despair among the weak and the downcast who stayed behind, paddled out of that fateful harbor. The greater part of all who were vigorous had now gone. There were a few strong souls, with some vitality left in them, among the small company which remained to the Admiral; but the most of them were sorry objects, with dejected minds and bodies more or less prostrate from disease and privation. The conviction soon settled upon this deserted community that nothing could save them but a brotherly and confident determination to help one another, and to arouse to the utmost whatever of cheer and good will was latent in their spirits. They could hardly have met an attack of the natives, and they knew it. This made them more considerate in their treatment of their neighbors, and the supply of provisions which they could get from those who visited the ship was plentiful for a while. But the habits of the savages were not to accumulate much beyond present needs, and when the baubles which the Spaniards could distribute began to lose their strange attractiveness, the incentive was gone to induce exertion, and supplies were brought in less and less frequently. It was soon found that hawks' bells had diminished in value. It took several to appease the native cupidity where one had formerly done it. [Sidenote: Porras's men still on the island.] There was another difficulty. There were failures on the part of the more distant villages to send in their customary contributions, and it soon came to be known that Porras and his crew, instead of having left the island, were wandering about, exacting provisions and committing indignities against the inhabitants wherever they went. * * * * * [Sidenote: His voyage a failure.] It seems that the ten canoes had followed the coast to the nearest point to Española, at the eastern end of the island, and here, waiting for a calm sea, and securing some Indians to paddle, the mutineers had finally pushed off for their voyage. The boats had scarcely gone four leagues from land, when the wind rose and the sea began to alarm them. So they turned back. The men were little used to the management of the canoes, and they soon found themselves in great peril. It seemed necessary to lighten the canoes, which were now taking in water to a dangerous extent. They threw over much of their provisions; but this was not enough. They then sacrificed one after another the natives. If these resisted, a swoop of the sword ended their miseries. Once in the water, the poor Indians began to seize the gunwales; but the sword chopped off their hands. So all but a few of them, who were absolutely necessary to manage the canoes, were thrown into the sea. Such were the perils through which the mutineers passed in reaching the land. A long month was now passed waiting for another calm sea; but when they tempted it once more, it rose as before, and they again sought the land. All hope of success was now abandoned. From that time Porras and his band gave themselves up to a lawless, wandering life, during which they created new jealousies among the tribes. As we have seen, by their exactions they began at last to tap the distant sources of supplies for the Admiral and his loyal adherents. [Sidenote: 1504. February 29. Eclipse of the moon.] Columbus now resorted to an expedient characteristic of the ingenious fertility of his mind. His astronomical tables enabled him to expect the approach of a lunar eclipse (February 29, 1504), and finding it close at hand he hastily summoned some of the neighboring caciques. He told them that the God of the Spaniards was displeased at their neglect to feed his people, and that He was about to manifest that displeasure by withdrawing the moon and leaving them to such baleful influences as they had provoked. When night fell and the shadow began to steal over the moon, a long howl of horror arose, and promises of supplies were made by the stricken caciques. They hurled themselves for protection at the feet of the Admiral. Columbus retired for an ostensible communion with this potent Spirit, and just as the hour came for the shadow to withdraw he appeared, and announced that their contrition had appeased the Deity, and a sign would be given of his content. Gradually the moon passed out of the shadow, and when in the clear heavens the luminary was again swimming unobstructed in her light, the work of astonishment had been done. After that, Columbus was never much in fear of famine. * * * * * [Sidenote: The canoe voyage of Mendez.] [Sidenote: At Navasa Island.] It is time now to see how much more successful Mendez and Fiesco had been than Porras and his crew. They had accomplished the voyage to Española, it is true, but under such perils and sufferings that Fiesco could not induce a crew sufficient to man the canoe to return with him to the Admiral. The passage had been made under the most violent conditions of tropical heat and unprotected endurance. Their supply of water had given out, and the tortures of thirst came on. They looked out for the little island of Navasa, which lay in their track, where they thought that in the crevices of the rocks they might find some water. They looked in vain. The day when they had hoped to see it passed, and night came on. One of the Indians died, and was dropped overboard. Others lay panting and exhausted in the bottom of the canoes. Mendez sat watching a glimmer of light in the eastern horizon that betokened the coming of the moon. [Sidenote: They see Española.] [Sidenote: Mendez lands at Española.] Presently a faint glisten of the real orb grew into a segment. He could see the water line as the illumination increased. There was a black stretch of something jagging the lower edge of the segment. It was land! Navasa had been found. By morning they had reached the island. Water was discovered among the rocks; but some drank too freely, and paid the penalty of their lives. Mussels were picked up along the shore; they built a fire and boiled them. All day long they gazed longingly on the distant mountains of Española, which were in full sight. Refreshed by the day's rest, they embarked again at nightfall, and on the following day arrived at Cape Tiburon, the southwestern peninsula of Española, having been four days on the voyage from Jamaica. They landed among hospitable natives, and having waited two days to recuperate, Mendez took some savages in a canoe, and started to go along the coast to Santo Domingo, one hundred and thirty leagues distant. He had gone nearly two thirds of the distance when, communicating with the shore, he learned that Ovando was not in Santo Domingo, but at Xaragua. So Mendez abandoned his canoe, and started alone through the forests to seek the governor. [Sidenote: Ovando delays sending relief to Columbus.] Ovando received him cordially, but made excuses for not sending relief to Columbus at once. He was himself occupied with the wars which he was conducting against the natives. There was no ship in Santo Domingo of sufficient burden to be dispatched for such a rescue. So excuse after excuse, and promises of attention unfulfilled, kept Mendez in the camp of Ovando for seven months. The governor always had reasons for denying him permission to go to Santo Domingo, where Mendez had hopes of procuring a vessel. This procrastinating conduct has naturally given rise to the suspicion that Ovando was not over-anxious to deliver Columbus from his perils; and there can be little question that for the Admiral to have sunk into oblivion and leave no trace would have relieved both the governor and his royal master of some embarrassments. At length Ovando consented to the departure of Mendez to Santo Domingo. There was a fleet of caravels expected there, and Mendez was anxious to see if he could not procure one of them on the Admiral's own account to undertake the voyage of rescue. His importunities became so pressing that Ovando at last consented to his starting for that port, seventy leagues distant. [Sidenote: Ovando sends Escobar to observe Columbus.] No sooner was Mendez gone than Ovando determined to ascertain the condition of the party at Jamaica without helping them, and so he dispatched a caravel to reconnoitre. He purposely sent a small craft, that there might be no excuse for attempting to bring off the company; and to prevent seizure of the vessel by Columbus, her commander was instructed to lie off the harbor, and only send in a boat, to communicate with no one but Columbus; and he was particularly enjoined to avoid being enticed on board the stranded caravels. The command of this little craft of espionage was given to one of Columbus's enemies, Diego de Escobar, who had been active as Roldan's lieutenant in his revolt. When the vessel appeared off the harbor where Columbus was, eight months had passed since Mendez and Fiesco had departed. All hopes of hearing of them had been abandoned. A rumor had come in from the natives that a vessel, bottom upwards, had been seen near the island, drifting with the current. It is said to have been a story started by Porras that its effect might be distressing to Columbus's adherents. It seems to have had the effect to hasten further discontent in that stricken band, and a new revolt was almost ready to make itself known when Escobar's tiny caravel was descried standing in towards shore. The vessel was seen to lie to, when a boat soon left her side. As it came within hailing, the figure of Escobar was recognized. Columbus knew that he had once condemned the man to death. Bobadilla had pardoned him. The boat bumped against the side of one of the stranded caravels; the crew brought it sidewise against the hulk, when a letter for the Admiral was handed up. Columbus's men made ready to receive a cask of wine and side of bacon, which Escobar's companions lifted on board. All at once a quick motion pushed the boat from the hulks, and Escobar stopped her when she had got out of reach. He now addressed Columbus, and gave him the assurances of Ovando's regret that he had no suitable vessel to send to him, but that he hoped before long to have such. He added that if Columbus desired to reply to Ovando's letter, he would wait a brief interval for him to prepare an answer. The Admiral hastily made his reply in as courteous terms as possible, commending the purposes of Mendez and Fiesco to the governor's kind attention, and closed with saying that he reposed full confidence in Ovando's expressed intention to rescue his people, and that he would stay on the wrecks in patience till the ships came. Escobar received the letter, and returned to his caravel, which at once disappeared in the falling gloom of night. Columbus was not without apprehension that Escobar had come simply to make sure that the Admiral and his company still survived, and Las Casas, who was then at Santo Domingo, seems to have been of the opinion that Ovando had at this time no purpose to do more. The selection of Escobar to carry a kindly message gave certainly a dubious ostentation to all expressions of friendly interest. The transaction may possibly admit of other interpretations. Ovando may reasonably have desired that Columbus and his faithful adherents should not abide long in Española, as in the absence of vessels returning to Spain the Admiral might be obliged to do. There were rumors that Columbus, indignant at the wrongs which he felt he had received at the hands of his sovereigns, had determined to hold his new discoveries for Genoa, and the Admiral had referred to such reports in his recent letter to the Spanish monarchs. Such reports easily put Ovando on his guard, and he may have desired time to get instructions from Spain. At all events, it was very palpable that Ovando was cautious and perhaps inhuman, and Columbus was to be left till Escobar's report should decide what action was best. [Sidenote: Columbus communicates with Porras.] Columbus endeavored to make use of the letter which Escobar had brought from Ovando to win Porras and his vagabonds back to loyalty and duty. He dispatched messengers to their camp to say that Ovando had notified him of his purpose to send a vessel to take them off the island. The Admiral was ready to promise forgiveness and forgetfulness, if the mutineers would come in and submit to the requirements of the orderly life of his people. He accompanied the message with a part of the bacon which Escobar had delivered as a present from the governor. The lure, however, was not effective. Porras met the ambassadors, and declined the proffers. He said his followers were quite content with the freedom of the island. The fact seemed to be that the mutineers were not quite sure of the Admiral's sincerity, and feared to put themselves in his power. They were ready to come in when the vessels came, if transportation would be allowed them so that their band should not be divided; and until then they would cause the Admiral's party no trouble, unless Columbus refused to share with them his stores and trinkets, which they must have, peacefully or forcibly, since they had lost all their supplies in the gales which had driven them back. It was evident that Porras and his company were not reduced to such straits that they could be reasoned with, and the messengers returned. [Sidenote: Bartholomew and his men confront the Porras mutineers.] The author of the _Historie_, and others who follow his statements, represent that the body of the mutineers was far from being as arrogant as their leaders, was much more tractable in spirit, and was inclined to catch at the chance of rescue. The leaders labored with the men to keep them steady in their revolt. Porras and his abettors did what they could to picture the cruelties of the Admiral, and even accused him of necromancy in summoning the ghost of a caravel by which to make his people believe that Escobar had really been there. Then, to give some activity to their courage, the whole body of the mutineers was led towards the harbor on pretense of capturing stores. The Adelantado went out to meet them with fifty armed followers, the best he could collect from the wearied companions of the Admiral. Porras refused all offers of conference, and led his band to the attack. There was a plan laid among them that six of the stoutest should attack the Adelantado simultaneously, thinking that if their leader should be overpowered the rest would flee. The Adelantado's courage rose with the exigency, as it was wont to do. He swung his sword with vigor, and one after another the assailants fell. At last Porras struck him such a blow that the Adelantado's buckler was cleft and his hand wounded. The blow was too powerful for the giver of it. His sword remained wedged in the buckler, affording his enemy a chance to close, while an attempt was made to extricate the weapon. Others came to the loyal leader's assistance, and Porras was secured and bound. [Sidenote: Porras taken.] [Sidenote: Sanchez killed.] [Sidenote: Ledesma wounded.] This turned the current of the fight. The rebels, seeing their leader a prisoner, fled in confusion, leaving the field to the party of the Adelantado. The fight had been a fierce one. They found among the rebel dead Juan Sanchez, who had let slip the captured Quibian, and among the wounded Pedro Ledesma, who had braved the breakers at Veragua. Las Casas, who knew the latter at a later day, deriving some help from him in telling the story of these eventful months, speaks of the many and fearful wounds which he bore in evidence of his rebellion and courage, and of the sturdy activity of his assailants. We owe also to Ledesma and to some of his companions, who, with himself, were witnesses in the later lawsuit of Diego Colon with the Crown, certain details which the principal narrators fail to give us. A charm had seemed throughout the conflict to protect the Admiral's friends. None were killed outright, and but one other beside their leader was wounded. This man, the Admiral's steward, subsequently died. [Sidenote: 1504. March 20. The rebels propose to submit.] The victors returned to the ships with their prisoners; and in the midst of the gratulations which followed on the next day, March 20, 1504, the fugitives sent in an address to the Admiral, begging to be pardoned and received back to his care and fortunes. They acknowledged their errors in the most abject professions, and called upon Heaven to show no mercy, and upon man to know no sympathy, in dealing retribution, if they failed in their fidelity thereafter. The proposition of surrender was not without embarrassment. The Admiral was fearful of the trial of their constancy when they might gather about him with all the chances of further cabaling. He also knew that his provisions were fast running out. Accordingly, in accepting their surrender, he placed them under officers whom he could trust, and supplying them with articles of barter, he let them wander about the island under suitable discipline, hoping that they would find food where they could. He promised, however, to recall them when the expected ships arrived. [Sidenote: Ships come to rescue them.] It was not long they had to wait. One day two ships were seen standing in towards the harbor. One of them proved to be a caravel which Mendez had bought on the Admiral's account, out of a fleet of three, just then arrived from Spain, and had victualed for the occasion. Having seen it depart from Santo Domingo, Mendez, in the other ships of this opportune fleet, sailed directly for Spain, to carry out the further instructions of the Admiral. The other of the approaching ships was in command of Diego de Salcedo, the Admiral's factor, and had been dispatched by Ovando. Las Casas tells us that the governor was really forced to this action by public sentiment, which had grown in consequence of the stories of the trials of Columbus which Mendez had told. It is said that even the priests did not hesitate to point a moral in their pulpits with the governor's dilatory sympathy. [Sidenote: 1504. June 28. Columbus leaves Jamaica.] Finally, on June 28, everything was ready for departure, and Columbus turned away from the scene of so much trouble. "Columbus informed me afterwards, in Spain," says Mendez, recording the events, "that in no part of his life did he ever experience so joyful a day, for he had never hoped to have left that place alive." Four years later, under authority from the Admiral's son Diego, the town of Sevilla Nueva, later known as Sevilla d'Oro, was founded on the very spot. [Sidenote: Events at Española during the absence of Columbus.] [Sidenote: Ovando's rule.] The Admiral now committed himself once more to the treacherous currents and adverse winds of these seas. We have seen that Mendez urged his canoe across the gap between Jamaica and the nearest point of Española in four days; but it took the ships of Columbus about seven weeks to reach the haven of Santo Domingo. There was much time during this long and vexatious voyage for Columbus to learn from Salcedo the direful history of the colony which had been wrested from him, and which even under the enlarged powers of Ovando had not been without manifold tribulations. We must rehearse rapidly the occurrences, as Columbus heard of them. He could have got but the scantiest inkling of what had happened during the earliest months of Ovando's rule, when he applied by messenger, in vain, for admission to the harbor, now more than two years ago. The historian of this period must depend mainly upon Las Casas, who had come out with Ovando, and we must sketch an outline of the tale, as Columbus heard it, from that writer's _Historia_. It was the old sad story of misguided aspirants for wealth in their first experiences with the hazards and toils of mining,--much labor, disappointed hopes, failing provisions, no gold, sickness, disgust, and a desponding return of the toilers from the scene of their infatuation. It took but eight days for the crowds from Ovando's fleet, who trudged off manfully to the mountains on their landing, to come trooping back, dispirited and diseased. [Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.] [Sidenote: 1503. December 20. Forced labor of the natives.] Columbus could hardly have listened to what was said of suffering among the natives during these two years of his absence without a vivid consciousness of the baleful system which he had introduced when he assigned crowds of the poor Indians to be put to inhuman tasks by Roldan's crew. The institution of this kind of distribution of labor had grown naturally, but it had become so appalling under Bobadilla that, when Ovando was sent out, he was instructed to put an end to it. It was not long before the governor had to confront the exasperated throngs coming back from the mines, dejected and empty-handed. It was apparent that nothing of the expected revenue to the Crown was likely to be produced from half the yield of metal when there was no yield at all. So, to induce greater industry, Ovando reduced the share of the Crown to a third, and next to a fifth, but without success. It was too apparent that the Spaniards would not persist in labors which brought them so little. At a period when Columbus was flattering himself that he was laying claim to far richer gold fields at Veragua, Ovando was devising a renewal of the Admiral's old slave-driving methods to make the mines of Hayna yield what they could. He sent messages to the sovereigns informing them that their kindness to the natives was really inconsiderate; that the poor creatures, released from labor, were giving themselves up to mischief; and that, to make good Christians of them, there was needed the appetizing effect of healthful work upon the native soul. The appeal and the frugal returns to the treasury were quite sufficient to gain the sovereigns to Ovando's views; and while bewailing any cruelty to the poor natives, and expressing hopes for their spiritual relief, their Majesties were not averse, as they said (December 20, 1503), to these Indians being made to labor as much as was needful to their health. This was sufficient. The fatal system of Columbus was revived with increased enormities. Six or eight months of unremitting labor, with insufficient food, were cruelly exacted of every native. They were torn from their families, carried to distant parts of the island, kept to their work by the lash, and, if they dared to escape, almost surely recaptured, to work out their period under the burden of chains. At last, when they were dismissed till their labor was again required, Las Casas tells us that the passage through the island of these miserable creatures could be traced by their fallen and decaying bodies. This was a story that, if Columbus possessed any of the tendernesses that glowed in the heart of Las Casas, could not have been a pleasant one for his contemplation. [Sidenote: Anacaona treacherously treated.] [Sidenote: The Indians slaughtered.] There was another story to which Columbus may have listened. It is very likely that Salcedo may have got all the particulars from Diego Mendez, who was a witness of the foul deeds which had indeed occurred during those seven months when Ovando, then on an expedition in Xaragua, kept that messenger of Columbus waiting his pleasure. Anacaona, the sister of Behechio, had succeeded to that cacique in the rule of Xaragua. The licentious conduct and the capricious demands of the Spaniards settled in this region had increased the natural distrust and indignation of the Indians, and some signs of discontent which they manifested had been recounted to Ovando as indications of a revolt which it was necessary to nip in the bud. So the governor had marched into the country with three hundred foot and seventy horse. The chieftainess, Anacaona, came forth to meet him with much native parade, and gave all the honor which her savage ceremonials could signify to her distinguished guest. She lodged him as well as she could, and caused many games to be played for his divertisement. In return, Ovando prepared a tournament calculated to raise the expectation of his simple hosts, and horseman and foot came to the lists in full armor and adornment for the heralded show. On a signal from Ovando, the innocent parade was converted in an instant into a fanatical onslaught. The assembled caciques were hedged about with armed men, and all were burned in their cabins. The general populace were transfixed and trampled by the charging mounted spearmen, and only those who could elude the obstinate and headlong dashes of the cavalry escaped. Anacaona was seized and conveyed in chains to Santo Domingo, where, with the merest pretense of a trial for conspiracy, she was soon hanged. [Sidenote: Xaragua and Higuey over-run.] [Sidenote: Esquibel's campaign.] And this was the pacification of Xaragua. That of Higuey, the most eastern of the provinces, and which had not yet acknowledged the sway of the Spaniards, followed, with the same resorts to cruelty. A cacique of this region had been slain by a fierce Spanish dog which had been set upon him. This impelled some of the natives living on the coast to seize a canoe having eight Spaniards in it, and to slaughter them; whereupon Juan de Esquibel was sent with four hundred men on a campaign against Cotabanama, the chief cacique of Higuey. The invaders met more heroism in the defenders of this country than they had been accustomed to, but the Spanish armor and weapons enabled Esquibel to raid through the land with almost constant success. The Indians at last sued for peace, and agreed to furnish a tribute of provisions. Esquibel built a small fortress, and putting some men in it, he returned to Santo Domingo; not, however, until he had received Cotabanama in his camp. The Spanish leader brought back to Ovando a story of the splendid physical power of this native chief, whose stature, proportions, and strength excited the admiration of the Spaniards. [Sidenote: New revolt in Higuey.] The peace was not of long duration. The reckless habits of the garrison had once more aroused the courage of the Indians, and some of the latest occurrences which Salcedo could tell of as having been reported at Santo Domingo just before his sailing for Jamaica were the events of a new revolt in Higuey. [Sidenote: 1504. August 3. Columbus at Beata.] [Sidenote: 1504. August 15. At Santo Domingo.] Such were the stories which Columbus may have listened to during the tedious voyage which was now, on August 3, approaching an end. On that day his ships sailed under the lea of the little island of Beata, which lies midway of the southern coast of Española. Here he landed a messenger, and ordered him to convey a letter to Ovando, warning the governor of his approach. Salcedo had told Columbus that the governor was not without apprehension that his coming might raise some factious disturbances among the people, and in this letter the Admiral sought to disabuse Ovando's mind of such suspicions, and to express his own purpose to avoid every act of irritation which might possibly embarrass the administration of the island. The letter dispatched, Columbus again set sail, and on August 15 his ship entered the harbor of Santo Domingo. Ovando received him with every outward token of respect, and lodged him in his own house. Columbus, however, never believed that this officious kindness was other than a cloak to Ovando's dislike, if not hatred. There was no little popular sympathy for the misfortunes which Columbus had experienced, but his relations with the governor were not such as to lighten the anxieties of his sojourn. It is known that Cortes was at this time only recently arrived at Santo Domingo; but we can only conjecture what may have been his interest in Columbus's recitals. [Sidenote: Columbus and Ovando.] There soon arose questions of jurisdiction. Ovando ordered the release of Porras, and arranged for sending him to Spain for trial. The governor also attempted to interfere with the Admiral's control of his own crew, on the ground that his commission gave him command over all the regions of the new islands and the main. Columbus cited the instructions, which gave him power to rule and judge his own followers. Ovando did not push his claims to extremities, but the irritation never subsided; and Columbus seems to have lost no opportunity, if we may judge from his later letters, to pick up every scandalous story and tale of maladministration of which he could learn, and which could be charged against Ovando in later appeals to the sovereigns for a restitution of his own rights. The Admiral also inquired into his pecuniary interests in the island, and found, as he thought, that Ovando had obstructed his factor in the gathering of his share. Indeed, there may have been some truth in this; for Carvajal, Columbus's first factor, had complained of such acts to the sovereigns, which elicited an admonishment from them to Ovando. [Sidenote: 1504. September 12. Columbus sails for Spain.] [Sidenote: 1504. November 7. Reaches San Lucar.] Such money as Columbus could now collect he used in refitting the ship which had brought him from Jamaica, and he put her under the order of the Adelantado. Securing also another caravel for his own conveyance, he embarked on her with his son, and on September 12 both ships started on their homeward voyage. They were scarcely at sea, when the ship which bore the Admiral lost her mast in a gale. He transferred himself and his immediate dependents to the other vessel, and sent the disabled caravel back to Santo Domingo. His solitary vessel now went forward, amid all the adversities that seemed to cling inevitably to this last of Columbus's expeditions. Tempest after tempest pursued him. The masts were sprung, and again sprung; and in a forlorn and disabled condition the little hapless bark finally entered the port of San Lucar on November 7, 1504. He had been absent from Spain for two years and a half. CHAPTER XX. COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS.--DEATH AND CHARACTER. 1504-1506. [Sidenote: Columbus in Seville till May, 1505.] [Sidenote: Letters to his son.] From San Lucar, Columbus, a sick man in search of quiet and rest, was conveyed to Seville. Unhappily, there was neither repose nor peace of mind in store for him. He remained in that city till May, 1505, broken in spirits and almost helpless of limb. Fortunately, we can trace his varying mental moods during these few months in a series of letters, most of which are addressed by him to his son Diego, then closely attached to the Court. These writings have fortunately come down to us, and they constitute the only series of Columbus's letters which we have, showing the habits of his mind consecutively for a confined period, so that we get a close watch upon his thoughts. They are the wails of a neglected soul, and the cries of one whose hope is cruelly deferred. They have in their entirety a good deal of that haphazard jerkiness tiresome to read, and not easily made evident in abstract. They are, however, not so deficient in mental equipoise as, for instance, the letter sent from Jamaica. This is perhaps owing to the one absorbing burden of them, his hope of recovering possession of his suspended authority. [Sidenote: 1504. November 21.] He writes on November 21, 1504, a fortnight after his landing at San Lucar, telling his son how he has engaged his old friend, the Dominican Deza, now the Bishop of Palencia, to intercede with the sovereigns, that justice may be done to him with respect to his income, the payment of which Ovando had all along, as he contends, obstructed at Española. He tries to argue that if their Highnesses but knew it, they would, in ordering restitution to him, increase their own share. He hopes they have no doubt that his zeal for their interests has been quite as much as he could manifest if he had paradise to gain, and hopes they will remember, respecting any errors he may have committed, that the Lord of all judges such things by the intention rather than by the outcome. He seems to have a suspicion that Porras, now at liberty and about the Court, might be insidiously at work to his old commander's disadvantage, and he represents that neither Porras nor his brother had been suitable persons for their offices, and that what had been done respecting them would be approved on inquiry. "Their revolt," he says, "surprised me, considering all that I had done for them, as much as the sun would have alarmed me if it had shot shadows instead of light." He complains of Ovando's taking the prisoners, who had been companions of Porras, from his hands, and that, made free, they had even dared to present themselves at Court. "I have written," he adds, "to their Highnesses about it, and I have told them that it can't be possible that they would tolerate such an offense." He says further that he has written to the royal treasurer, begging him to come to no decision of the representations of such detractors until the other side could be heard, and he adds that he has sent to the treasurer a copy of the oath which the mutineers sent in after Porras had been taken. "Recall to all these people," he writes to his son, "my infirmities, and the recompense due to me for my services." Diego was naturally, from his residence at Court, a convenient medium to bring all Columbus's wishes to the notice of those about the sovereigns. The Admiral writes to Diego again that he hopes their Highnesses will see to the paying of his men who had come home. "They are poor, and have been gone three years," he says. "They bring home evidences of the greatest of expectations in the new gold fields of Veragua;" and then he advises his son to bring this fact to the attention of all who are concerned, and to urge the colonizing of the new country as the best way to profit from its gold mines. For a while he harbored the hope that he might at once go on to the Court, and a litter which had served in the obsequies of Cardinal Mendoza was put at his disposal; but this plan was soon given up. [Sidenote: 1504. November 28.] A week later, having in the interim received a letter of the 15th, from Diego, Columbus writes again, under date of November 28. In this epistle he speaks of the severity of his disease, which keeps him in Seville, from which, however, he hopes to depart the coming week, and of his disappointment that the sovereigns had not replied to his inquiries. He sends his love to Diego Mendez, hoping that his friend's zeal and love of truth will enable him to overcome the deceits and intrigues of Porras. [Sidenote: 1504. November 26. Queen Isabella dies.] [Sidenote: Isabella's character.] Columbus was not at this time aware that the impending death of the Queen had something to do with the delays in his own affairs at Court. Two days (November 26) before the Admiral wrote this note, Isabella had died, worn out by her labors, and depressed by the afflictions which she had experienced in her domestic circle. She was an unlovely woman at the best, an obstructor of Christian charity, but in her wiles she had allured Columbus to a belief in her countenance of him. The conventional estimate of her character, which is enforced in the rather cloying descriptions of Prescott, is such as her flatterers drew in her own times; but the revelations of historical research hardly confirm it. It was with her much as with Columbus,--she was too largely a creature of her own age to be solely judged by the criteria of all ages, as lofty characters can be. The loss of her influence on the king removed, as it proved, even the chance of a flattering delusiveness in the hopes of Columbus. As the compiler of the _Historie_ expresses it, "Columbus had always enjoyed her favor and protection, while the King had always been indifferent, or rather inimical." She had indeed, during the Admiral's absence on his last voyage, manifested some new appreciation of his services, which cost her little, however, when she made his eldest son one of her bodyguard and naturalized his brother Diego, to fit him for ecclesiastical preferment. [Sidenote: 1504. December 1.] On December 1, ignorant of the sad occurrences at Court, Columbus writes again, chiding Diego that he had not in his dutifulness written to his poor father. "You ought to know," he says, "that I have no pleasure now but in a letter from you." Columbus by this time had become, by the constant arrival of couriers, aware of the anxiety at Court over the Queen's health, and he prays that the Holy Trinity will restore her to health, to the end that all that has been begun may be happily finished. He reiterates what he had previously written about the increasing severity of his malady, his inability to travel, his want of money, and how he had used all he could get in Española to bring home his poor companions. He commends anew to Diego his brother Ferdinand, and speaks of this younger son's character as beyond his years. "Ten brothers would not be too many for you," he adds; "in good as in bad fortune, I have never found better friends than my brothers." Nothing troubles him more than the delays in hearing from Court. A rumor had reached him that it was intended to send some bishops to the Indies, and that the Bishop of Palencia was charged with the matter. He begs Diego to say to the bishop that it was worth while, in the interests of all, to confer with the Admiral first. In explaining why he does not write to Diego Mendez, he says that he is obliged to write by night, since by day his hands are weak and painful. He adds that the vessel which put back to Santo Domingo had arrived, bringing the papers in Porras's case, the result of the inquest which had been taken at Jamaica, so that he could now be able to present an indictment to the Council of the Indies. His indignation is aroused at the mention of it. "What can be so foul and brutal! If their Highnesses pass it by, who is going again to lead men upon their service!" [Sidenote: 1504. December 3.] Two days later (December 3), he writes again to Diego about the neglect which he is experiencing from him and from others at Court. "Everybody except myself is receiving letters," he says. He incloses a memoir expressing what he thought it was necessary to do in the present conjunction of his affairs. This document opens with calling upon Diego zealously to pray to God for the soul of the Queen. "One must believe she is now clothed with a sainted glory, no longer regretting the bitterness and weariness of this life." The King, he adds, "deserves all our sympathy and devotion." He then informs Diego that he has directed his brother, his uncle, and Carvajal to add all their importunities to his son's, and to the written prayers which he himself has sent, that consideration should be given to the affairs of the Indies. Nothing, he says, can be more urgent than to remedy the abuses there. In all this he curiously takes on the tone of his own accusers a few years before. He represents that pecuniary returns from Española are delayed; that the governor is detested by all; that a suitable person sent there could restore harmony in less than three months; and that other fortresses, which are much needed, should be built, "all of which I can do in his Highness's service," he exclaims, "and any other, not having my personal interests at stake, could not do it so well!" Then he repeats how, immediately after his arrival at San Lucar, he had written to the King a very long letter, advising action in the matter, to which no reply had been returned. [Sidenote: 1503. January 20. The _Casa de Contratacion_ established.] It was during Columbus's absence on this last voyage that, by an ordinance made at Alcalá, January 20, 1503, the famous _Casa de Contratacion_ was established, with authority over the affairs of the Indies, having the power to grant licenses, to dispatch fleets, to dispose of the results of trade or exploration, and to exercise certain judicial prerogatives. This council was to consist of a treasurer, a factor, and a comptroller, to whom two persons learned in the law were given as advisers. Alexander VI. had already, by a bull of November 16, 1501, authorized the payment to the constituted Spanish officials of all the tithes of the colonies, which went a long way in giving Spain ecclesiastical supremacy in the Indies, in addition to her political control. It was to this council that Columbus refers, when he says he had told the gentlemen of the _Contratacion_ that they ought to abide by the verbal and written orders which the King had given, and that, above all, they should watch lest people should sail to the Indies without permission. He reminded them of the sorry character of the people already in the New World, and of the way in which treasure was stored there without protection. [Sidenote: 1504. December 13.] Ten days later (December 13), he writes again to Diego, recurring to his bitter memories of Ovando, charging him with diverting the revenues, and with bearing himself so haughtily that no one dared remonstrate. "Everybody says that I have as much as 11,000 or 12,000 castellanos in Española, and I have not received a quarter. Since I came away he must have received 5,000." He then urges Diego to sue the King for a mandatory letter to be sent to Ovando, forcing immediate payment. "Carvajal knows very well that this ought to be done. Show him this letter," he adds. Then referring to his denied rights, and to the best way to make the King sensible of his earlier promises, he next advises Diego to lessen his expenses; to treat his uncle with the respect which is due to him; and to bear himself towards his younger brother as an older brother should. "You have no other brother," he says; "and thank God this one is all you could desire. He was born with a good nature." Then he reverts to the Queen's death. "People tell me," he writes, "that on her death-bed she expressed a wish that my possession of the Indies should be restored to me." [Sidenote: 1504. December 21.] A week later (December 21), he once more bewails the way in which he is left without tidings. He recounts the exertions he had made to send money to his advocates at Court, and tells Diego how he must somehow continue to get on as best he can till their Highnesses are content to give them back their power. He repeats that to bring his companions home from Santo Domingo he had spent twelve hundred castellanos, and that he had represented to the King the royal indebtedness for this, but it produced no reimbursement. He asks Diego to find out if the Queen, "now with God, no doubt," had spoken of him in her will; and perhaps the Bishop of Palencia, "who was the cause of their Majesties' acquiring the Indies, and of my returning to the Court when I had departed," or the chamberlain of the King could find this out. Columbus may have lived to learn that the only item of the Queen's will in which he could possibly have been in mind was the one in which she showed that she was aroused to the enormities which Columbus had imposed on the Indians, and which had come to such results that, as Las Casas says, it had been endeavored to keep the knowledge of it from the Queen's ears. She earnestly enjoined upon her successors a change of attitude towards the poor Indians. [Sidenote: Columbus writes to the Pope.] Columbus further says that the Pope had complained that no account of his voyage had been sent to Rome, and that accordingly he had prepared one, and he desired Diego to read it, and to let the King and the bishop also peruse it before it was forwarded to Rome. It is possible that the Adelantado was dispatched with the letter. The canonizers say that the mission to Rome had also a secret purpose, which was to counteract the schemes of Fonseca to create bishoprics in Española, and that the advice of Columbus in the end prevailed over the "cunning of diplomacy." [Sidenote: 1505. February 23. Columbus allowed to ride a mule.] There had been some time before, owing to the difficulty which had been experienced in mounting the royal cavalry, an order promulgated forbidding the use of mules in travel, since it was thought that the preference for this animal had brought about the deterioration and scarcity of horses. It was to this injunction that Columbus now referred when he asked Diego to get a dispensation from the King to allow him to enjoy the easier seat of a mule when he should venture on his journey towards the Court, which, with this help, he hoped to be able to begin within a few weeks. Such an order was in due time issued on February 23, 1505. [Sidenote: 1504. December 29.] On December 29, Columbus wrote again. The letter was full of the same pitiful suspense. He had received no letters. He could but repeat the old story of the letters of credit which he had sent and which had not been acknowledged. No one of his people had been paid, he said, neither the faithful nor the mutineers. "They are all poor. They are going to Court," he adds, "to press their claims. Aid them in it." He excepts, however, from the kind interest of his friends two fellows who had been with him on his last voyage, one Camacho and Master Bernal, the latter the physician of the flagship. Bernal was the instigator of the revolt of Porras, he says, "and I pardoned him at the prayer of my brother." [Sidenote: Columbus and the Bank of St. George.] It will be remembered that, previous to starting on his last voyage, Columbus had written to the Bank of St. George in Genoa, proposing a gift of a tenth of his income for the benefit of his native town. The letter was long in reaching its destination, but a reply was duly sent through his son Diego. It never reached Columbus, and this apparent spurning of his gift by Genoa caused not a small part of his present disgust with the world. [Sidenote: 1504. December 27.] On December 27, 1504, he wrote to Nicolo Oderigo, reminding him of the letter, and complaining that while he had expected to be met on his return by some confidential agent of the bank, he had not even had a letter in response. "It was uncourteous in these gentlemen of St. George not to have favored me with an answer." The intention was, in fact, far from being unappreciated, and at a later day the promise became so far magnified as to be regarded as an actual gift, in which the Genoese were not without pride. The purpose never, however, had a fulfillment. [Sidenote: 1505. January 4.] On January 4, 1505, the Admiral wrote to his friend Father Gorricio, telling him that Diego Mendez had arrived from the Court, and asking the friar to encase in wax the documentary privileges of the Admiral which had been intrusted to him, and to send them to him. "My disease grows better day by day," he adds. [Sidenote: 1505. January 18.] On January 18, 1505, he again wrote. The epistle was in some small degree cheery. He had heard at last from Diego. "Zamora the courier has arrived, and I have looked with great delight upon thy letter, thy uncle's, thy brother's, and Carvajal's." Diego Mendez, he says, sets out in three or four days with an order for payment. He refers with some playfulness, even, to Fonseca, who had just been raised to the bishopric of Placentia, and had not yet returned from Flanders to take possession of the seat. "If the Bishop of Placentia has arrived, or when he comes, tell him how much pleased I am at his elevation; and that when I come to Court I shall depend on lodging with his Grace, whether he wishes it or not, that we may renew our old fraternal bonds." His biographers have been in some little uncertainty whether he really meant here Fonseca or his old friend Deza, who had just left that bishopric vacant for the higher post of Archbishop of Seville. A strict application of dates makes the reference to Fonseca. One may imagine, however, that Columbus was not accurately informed. It is indeed hard to understand the pleasantry, if Fonseca was the bitter enemy of Columbus that he is pictured by Irving. Some ships from Española had put into the Tagus. "They have not arrived here from Lisbon," he adds. "They bring much gold, but none for me." [Sidenote: Conference with Vespucius.] [Sidenote: Vespucius's account of his voyage.] We next find Columbus in close communion with a contemporary with whose fame his own is sadly conjoined. Some account of the events of the voyage which Vespucius had made along the coast of South America with Coelho, from which he had returned to Lisbon in September, 1502, has been given on an earlier page. Those events and his descriptions had already brought the name of Vespucius into prominence throughout Europe, but hardly before he had started on another voyage in the spring or early summer of 1503, just at the time when Columbus was endeavoring to work his way from the Veragua coast to Española. The authorities are not quite agreed whether it was on May 10, 1503, or a month later, on June 10, that the little Portuguese fleet in which Vespucius sailed left the Tagus, to find a way, if possible, to the Moluccas somewhere along the same great coast. This expedition had started under the command of Coelho, but meeting with mishaps, by which the fleet was separated, Vespucius, with his own vessel, joined later by another with which he fell in, proceeded to Bahia, where a factory for storing Brazil-wood was erected; thence, after a stay there, they sailed for Lisbon, arriving there after an absence of seventy-seven days, on June 18, 1504. It was later, on September 4, that Vespucius wrote, or rather dated, that account of his voyage which was to work such marvels, as we shall see, in the reputation of himself and of Columbus. There is no reason to suppose that Columbus ever knew of this letter of September 4, so subversive as it turned out of his just fame; nor, judging from the account of their interview which Columbus records, is there any reason to suppose that Vespucius himself had any conception of the work which that fateful letter was already accomplishing, and to which reference will be made later. [Sidenote: 1505. February 5.] On February 5, 1505, Columbus wrote to Diego: "Within two days I have talked with Americus Vespucius, who will bear this to you, and who is summoned to Court on matters of navigation. He has always manifested a disposition to be friendly to me. Fortune has not always favored him, and in this he is not different from many others. His ventures have not always been as successful as he would wish. He left me full of the kindliest purposes towards me, and will do anything for me which is in his power. I hardly knew what to tell him would be helpful in him to do for me, because I did not know what purpose there was in calling him to Court. Find out what he can do, and he will do it; only let it be so managed that he will not be suspected of rendering me aid. I have told him all that it is possible to tell him as to my own affairs, including what I have done and what recompense I have had. Show this letter to the Adelantado, so that he may advise how Vespucius can be made serviceable to us." [Sidenote: 1505. April 24. Vespucius naturalized.] We soon after this find Vespucius installed as an agent of the Spanish government, naturalized on April 24 as a Castilian, and occupied at the seaports in superintending the fitting out of ships for the Indies, with an annual salary of thirty thousand maravedis. We can find no trace of any assistance that he afforded the cause of Columbus. [Sidenote: Columbus's effects sold.] Meanwhile events were taking place which Columbus might well perhaps have arrested, could he have got the royal ear. An order had been sent in February to Española to sell the effects of Columbus, and in April other property of the Admiral had been seized to satisfy his creditors. [Sidenote: 1505. May. Columbus goes to Segovia.] [Sidenote: August 25. Attests his will.] [Sidenote: Columbus and Ferdinand.] In May, 1505, Columbus, with the friendly care of his brother Bartholomew, set out on his journey to Segovia, where the Court then was. This is the statement of Las Casas, but Harrisse can find no evidence of his being near the Court till August, when, on the 25th, he attested, as will appear, his will before a notary. The change bringing him into the presence of his royal master only made his mortification more poignant. His personal suit to the King was quite as ineffective as his letters had been. The sovereign was outwardly beneficent, and inwardly uncompliant. The Admiral's recitals respecting his last voyage, both of promised wealth and of saddened toil, made little impression. Las Casas suspects that the insinuations of Porras had preoccupied the royal mind. To rid himself of the importunities of Columbus, the King proposed an arbiter, and readily consented to the choice which Columbus made of his old friend Deza, now Archbishop of Seville; but Columbus was too immovably fixed upon his own rights to consent that more than the question of revenue should be considered by such an arbiter. His recorded privileges and the pledged word of the sovereign were not matters to be reconsidered. Such was not, however, the opinion of the King. He evaded the point in his talk with bland countenance, and did nothing in his acts beyond referring the question anew to a body of counselors convened to determine the fulfillment of the Queen's will. They did nothing quite as easily as the King. Las Casas tells us that the King was only restrained by motives of outward decency from a public rejection of all the binding obligations towards the Admiral into which he had entered jointly with the Queen. [Sidenote: 1505. August 25. His will.] [Sidenote: Columbus pleads for his son.] [Sidenote: Rejects offers of estates.] Columbus found in all this nothing to comfort a sick and desponding man, and sank in despair upon his couch. He roused enough to have a will drafted August 25, which confirmed a testament made in 1502, before starting on his last voyage. His disease renewed its attacks. An old wound had reopened. From a bed of pain he began again his written appeals. He now gave up all hopes for himself, but he pleaded for his son, that upon him the honors which he himself had so laboriously won should be bestowed. Diego at the same time, in seconding the petition, promised, if the reinstatement took place, that he would count those among his counselors whom the royal will should designate. Nothing of protest or appeal came opportunely to the determined King. "The more he was petitioned," says Las Casas, "the more bland he was in avoiding any conclusion." He hoped by exhausting the patience of the Admiral to induce him to accept some estates in Castile in lieu of such powers in the Indies. Columbus rejected all such intimations with indignation. He would have nothing but his bonded rights. "I have done all that I can do," he said in a pitiful, despairing letter to Deza. "I must leave the issue to God. He has always sustained me in extremities." "It argued," says Prescott, in commenting on this, "less knowledge of character than the King usually showed, that he should have thought the man who had broken off all negotiations on the threshold of a dubious enterprise, rather than abate one tittle of his demands, would consent to such abatement, when the success of that enterprise was so gloriously established." [Sidenote: Columbus at Salamanca.] [Sidenote: Mendez and Columbus.] The Admiral was, during this part of his suit, apparently at Salamanca, for Mendez speaks of him as being there confined to his bed with the gout, while he himself was doing all he could to press his master's claims to have Diego recognized in his rights. In return for this service, Mendez asked to be appointed principal Alguazil of Española for life, and he says the Admiral acknowledged that such an appointment was but a trifling remuneration for his great services, but the requital never came. [Sidenote: Columbus unable to leave Valladolid to greet Philip and Juana.] There broke a glimmer of hope. The death of the Queen had left the throne of Castile to her daughter Juana, the wife of Philip of Austria, and they had arrived from Flanders to be installed in their inheritance. Columbus, who had followed the Court from Segovia to Salamanca, thence to Valladolid, was now unable to move further in his decrepitude, and sent the Adelantado to propitiate the daughter of Isabella, with the trust that something of her mother's sympathy might be vouchsafed to his entreaties. Bartholomew never saw his brother again, and was not privileged to communicate to him the gracious hopes which the benignity of his reception raised. [Sidenote: Negroes sent to Española.] A year had passed since the Admiral had come to the neighborhood of the Court, wherever it was, and nothing had been accomplished in respect to his personal interests. Indeed, little touching the Indies at all seems to have been done. There had been trial made of sending negro slaves to Española as indicating that the native bondage needed reinforcement; but Ovando had reported that the experiment was a failure, since the negroes only mixed with the Indians and taught them bad habits. Ferdinando cared little for this, and at Segovia, September 15, 1505, he notified Ovando that he should send some more negroes. Whether Columbus was aware of this change in the methods of extracting gold from the soil we cannot find. [Sidenote: 1506. May 4. Codicil to his will.] As soon as Bartholomew had started on his mission the malady of Columbus increased. He became conscious that the time had come to make his final dispositions. It was on May 4, 1506, according to the common story, that he signed a codicil to his will on a blank page in a breviary which had been given to him, as he says, by Alexander VI., and which had "comforted him in his battles, his captivities, and his misfortunes." This document has been accepted by some of the commentators as genuine; Harrisse and others are convinced of its apocryphal character. It was not found till 1779. It is a strange document, if authentic. [Sidenote: Thought to be spurious.] Itholds that such dignities as were his under the Spanish Crown, acknowledged or not, were his of right to alienate from the Spanish throne. It was, if anything, a mere act of bravado, as if to flout at the authority which could dare deprive him of his possessions. He provides for the descent of his honors in the male line, and that failing, he bequeaths them to the republic of Genoa! It was a gauge of hostile demands on Spain which no one but a madman would imagine that Genoa would accept if she could. He bestowed on his native city, in the same reckless way, the means to erect a hospital, and designated that such resources should come from his Italian estates, whatever they were. Certainly the easiest way to dispose of the paper is to consider it a fraud. If such, it was devised by some one who entered into the spirit of the Admiral's madness, and made the most of rumors that had been afloat respecting Columbus's purposes to benefit Genoa at the expense of Spain. [Sidenote: 1506. May 19. Ratified his will.] About a fortnight later (May 19), he ratified an undoubted will, which had been drafted by his own hand the year before at Segovia, and executed it with the customary formalities. Its testamentary provisions were not unnatural. He made Diego his heir, and his entailed property was, in default of heirs to Diego, to pass to his illegitimate son Ferdinand, and from him, in like default, to his own brother, the Adelantado, and his male descendants; and all such failing, to the female lines in a similar succession. He enjoined upon his representatives, of whatever generation, to serve the Spanish King with fidelity. Upon Diego, and upon later heads of the family, he imposed the duty of relieving all distressed relatives and others in poverty. He imposed on his lawful son the appointment of some one of his lineage to live constantly in Genoa, to maintain the family dignity. He directed him to grant due allowances to his brother and uncle; and when the estates yielded the means, to erect a chapel in the Vega of Española, where masses might be said daily for the repose of the souls of himself and of his nearest relatives. He made the furthering of the crusade to recover the Holy Sepulchre equally contingent upon the increase of his income. He also directed Diego to provide for the maintenance of Donna Beatrix Enriquez, the mother of Ferdinand, as "a person to whom I am under great obligations," and "let this be done for the discharge of my conscience, for it weighs heavy on my soul,--the reasons for which I am not here permitted to give;" and this was a behest that Diego, in his own will, acknowledges his failure to observe during the last years of the lady's life. Then, in a codicil, Columbus enumerates sundry little bequests to other persons to whom he was indebted, and whose kindness he wished to remember. He was honest enough to add that his bequests were imaginary unless his rights were acknowledged. "Hitherto I neither have had, nor have I now, any positive income." He failed to express any wish respecting the spot of his interment. The documents were committed at once to a notary, from whose archives a copy was obtained in 1524 by his son Diego, and this copy exists to-day among the family papers in the hands of the Duke of Veragua. [Sidenote: 1506. May 20. Columbus dies.] This making of a will was almost his last act. On the next day he partook of the sacrament, and uttering, "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit," he gasped his last. It was on the 20th of May, 1506,--by some circumstances we might rather say May 21,--in the city of Valladolid, that this singular, hopeful, despondent, melancholy life came to its end. He died at the house No. 7 Calle de Colon, which is still shown to travelers. [Illustration: HOUSE WHERE COLUMBUS DIED. [From Ruge's _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_.]] [Sidenote: His death unnoticed.] There was a small circle of relatives and friends who mourned. The tale of his departure came like a sough of wind to a few others, who had seen no way to alleviate a misery that merited their sympathy. The King could have but found it a relief from the indiscretion of his early promises. The world at large thought no more of the mournful procession which bore that wayworn body to the grave than it did of any poor creature journeying on his bier to the potter's field. It is hard to conceive how the fame of a man over whose acts in 1493 learned men cried for joy, and by whose deeds the adventurous spirit had been stirred in every seaport of western Europe, should have so completely passed into oblivion that a professed chronicler like Peter Martyr, busy tattler as he was, should take no notice of his illness and death. There have come down to us five long letters full of news and gossip, which Martyr wrote from Valladolid at this very time, with not a word in them of the man he had so often commemorated. Fracanzio da Montalboddo, publishing in 1507 some correction of his early voyages, had not heard of Columbus's death; nor had Madrignano in dating his Latin rendering of the same book in 1508. It was not till twenty-seven days after the death-bed scene that the briefest notice was made in passing, in an official document of the town, to the effect that "the said Admiral is dead!" [Sidenote: His burial.] [Sidenote: His coffin carried to Seville.] It is not even certain where the body was first placed, though it is usually affirmed to have been deposited in the Franciscan convent in Valladolid. Nor is there any evidence to support another equally prevalent story that King Ferdinand had ordered the removal of the remains to Seville seven years later, when a monument was built bearing the often-quoted distich,-- À CASTILLA Y À LEON NUEVO MUNDO DIÓ COLON,-- it being pretty evident that such an inscription was never thought of till Castellanos suggested it in his _Elegias_ in 1588. If Diego's will in 1509 can be interpreted on this matter, it seems pretty sure that within three years (1509) after the death of Columbus, instead of seven, his coffin had been conveyed to Seville and placed inside the convent of Las Cuevas, in the vault of the Carthusians, where the bodies of his son Diego and brother Bartholomew were in due time to rest beside his own. Here the remains were undisturbed till 1536, when the records of the convent affirm that they were given up for transportation, though the royal order is given as of June 2, 1537. From that date till 1549 there is room for conjecture as to their abiding-place. [Sidenote: 1541. Removed to Santo Domingo.] [Sidenote: Remains removed to Havana.] It was during this interval that his family were seeking to carry out what was supposed to be the wish of the Admiral to rest finally in the island of Española. From 1537 to 1540 the government are known to have issued three different orders respecting the removal of the remains, and it is conjectured the transference was actually made in 1541, shortly after the completion of the cathedral at Santo Domingo. If any record was made at the time to designate the spot of the reëntombment in that edifice, it is not now known, and it was not till 1676 that somebody placed an entry in its records that the burial had been made on the right of the altar. A few years later (1683), the recollections of aged people are quoted to substantiate such a statement. We find no other notice till a century afterwards, when, on the occasion of some repairs, a stone vault, supposed in the traditions to be that which held the remains, was found on "the gospel side" of the chancel, while another on "the epistle side" was thought to contain the remains of Bartholomew Columbus. This was the suspected situation of the graves when the treaty of Basle, in 1795, gave the Santo Domingo end of the island to France, and the Spanish authorities, acting in concert with the Duke of Veragua, as the representative of the family of Columbus, determined on the removal of the remains to Havana. It is a question which has been raised since 1877 whether the body of Columbus was the one then removed, and over which so much parade was made during the transportation and reinterment in Cuba. There has been a controversy on the point, in which the Bishop of Santo Domingo and his adherents have claimed that the remains of Columbus are still in their charge, while it was those of his son Diego which had been removed. The Academy of History at Madrid have denied this, and in a long report to the Spanish government have asserted that there was no mistake in the transfer, and that the additional casket found was that of Christopher Colon, the grandson. [Illustration: CATHEDRAL AT SANTO DOMINGO.] [Sidenote: Question of the identity of his remains.] It was represented, moreover, that those features of the inscription on the lately found leaden box which seemed to indicate it as the casket of the first Admiral of the Indies had been fraudulently added or altered. The question has probably been thrown into the category of doubt, though the case as presented in favor of Santo Domingo has some recognizably weak points, which the advocates of the other side have made the most of, and to the satisfaction perhaps of the more careful inquirers. The controversial literature on the subject is considerable. The repairs of 1877 in the Santo Domingo cathedral revealed the empty vault from which the transported body had been taken; but they showed also the occupied vault of the grandson Luis, and another in which was a leaden case which bore the inscriptions which are in dispute. [Sidenote: Alleged burial of his chains with him.] It is the statement of the _Historie_ that Columbus preserved the chains in which he had come home from his third voyage, and that he had them buried with him, or intended to do so. The story is often repeated, but it has no other authority than the somewhat dubious one of that book; and it finds no confirmation in Las Casas, Peter Martyr, Bernaldez, or Oviedo. Humboldt says that he made futile inquiry of those who had assisted in the reinterment at Havana, if there were any trace of these fetters or of oxide of iron in the coffin. In the accounts of the recent discovery of remains at Santo Domingo, it is said that there was equally no trace of fetters in the casket. * * * * * [Sidenote: The age of Columbus.] The age of Columbus is almost without a parallel, presenting perhaps the most striking appearances since the star shone upon Bethlehem. It saw Martin Luther burn the Pope's bull, and assert a new kind of independence. It added Erasmus to the broadeners of life. Ancient art was revivified in the discovery of its most significant remains. Modern art stood confessed in Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Titian, Raphael, Holbein, and Dürer. Copernicus found in the skies a wonderful development without great telescopic help. The route of the Portuguese by the African cape and the voyage of Columbus opened new worlds to thought and commerce. They made the earth seem to man, north and south, east and west, as man never before had imagined it. It looked as if mercantile endeavor was to be constrained by no bounds. Articles of trade were multiplied amazingly. Every movement was not only new and broad, but it was rapid beyond conception. It was more like the remodeling of Japan, which we have seen in our day, than anything that had been earlier known. [Illustration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS AT SANTO DOMINGO.] The long sway of the Moors was disintegrating. The Arab domination in science and seamanship was yielding to the Western genius. The Turks had in the boyhood (1453) of Columbus consummated their last great triumph in the capture of Constantinople, thus placing a barrier to Christian commerce with the East. This conquest drove out the learned Christians of the East, who had drunk of the Arab erudition, and they fled with their stores of learning to the western lands, coming back to the heirs of the Romans with the spirit which Rome in the past had sent to the East. But what Christian Europe was losing in the East Portugal and Prince Henry were gaining for her in the great and forbidding western waste of waters and along its African shores. As the hot tide of Mahometan invasion rolled over the Bosphorus, the burning equatorial zone was pierced from the north along the coasts of the Black Continent. [Sidenote: Italian discoverers.] [Sidenote: His growing belief in the western passage.] Italy, seeing her maritime power drop away as the naval supremacy of the Atlantic seaboard rose, was forced to send her experienced navigators to the oceanic ports, to maintain the supremacy of her name and genius in Cadamosto, Columbus, Vespucius, Cabot, and Verrazano. Those cosmographical views which had come down the ages, at times obscured, then for a while patent, and of which the traces had lurked in the minds of learned men by an almost continuous sequence for many centuries, at last possessed by inheritance the mind of Columbus. By reading, by conference with others, by noting phenomena, and by reasoning, in the light of all these, upon the problem of a western passage to India, obvious as it was if once the sphericity of the earth be acknowledged, he gradually grew to be confident in himself and trustful in his agency with others. He was far from being alone in his beliefs, nor was his age anything more than a reflection of long periods of like belief. [Sidenote: Deficiencies of character.] There was simply needed a man with courage and constancy in his convictions, so that the theory could be demonstrated. This age produced him. Enthusiasm and the contagion of palpable though shadowy truths gave Columbus, after much tribulation, the countenance in high quarters that enabled him to reach success, deceptive though it was. It would have been well for his memory if he had died when his master work was done. With his great aim certified by its results, though they were far from being what he thought, he was unfortunately left in the end to be laid bare on trial, a common mortal after all, the creature of buffeting circumstances, and a weakling in every element of command. His imagination had availed him in his upward course when a serene habit in his waiting days could obscure his defects. Later, the problems he encountered were those that required an eye to command, with tact to persuade and skill to coerce, and he had none of them. [Sidenote: Roger Bacon and Columbus.] [Sidenote: Pierre d'Ailly's _Imago Mundi_.] The man who becomes the conspicuous developer of any great world-movement is usually the embodiment of the ripened aspirations of his time. Such was Columbus. It is the forerunner, the man who has little countenance in his age, who points the way for some hazardous after-soul to pursue. Such was Roger Bacon, the English Franciscan. It was Bacon's lot to direct into proper channels the new surging of the experimental sciences which was induced by the revived study of Aristotle, and was carrying dismay into the strongholds of Platonism. Standing out from the background of Arab regenerating learning, the name of Roger Bacon, linked often with that of Albertus Magnus, stood for the best knowledge and insight of the thirteenth century. Bacon it was who gave that tendency to thought which, seized by Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, and incorporated by him in his _Imago Mundi_ (1410), became the link between Bacon and Columbus. Humboldt has indeed expressed his belief that this encyclopædic Survey of the World exercised a more important influence upon the discovery of America than even the prompting which Columbus got from his correspondence with Toscanelli. How well Columbus pored over the pages of the _Imago Mundi_ we know from the annotations of his own copy, which is still preserved in the Biblioteca Colombina. It seems likely that Columbus got directly from this book most that he knew of those passages in Aristotle, Strabo, and Seneca which speak of the Asiatic shores as lying opposite to Hispania. There is some evidence that this book was his companion even on his voyages, and Humboldt points out how he translates a passage from it, word for word, when in 1498 he embodied it in a letter which he wrote to his sovereigns from Española. [Sidenote: His acquaintance with the elder writers.] If we take the pains, as Humboldt did, to examine the writings of Columbus, to ascertain the sources which he cited, we find what appears to be a broad acquaintance with books. It is to be remembered, however, that the Admiral quoted usually at second hand, and that he got his acquaintance with classic authors, at least, mainly through this _Imago Mundi_ of Pierre d'Ailly. Humboldt, in making his list of Columbus's authors, omits the references to the Scriptures and to the Church fathers, "in whom," as he says, "Columbus was singularly versed," and then gives the following catalogue:-- Aristotle; Julius Cæsar; Strabo; Seneca; Pliny; Ptolemy; Solinus; Julius Capitolinus; Alfrazano; Avenruyz; Rabbi Samuel de Israel; Isidore, Bishop of Seville; the Venerable Bede; Strabus, Abbé of Reichenau; Duns Scotus; François Mayronis; Abbé Joachim de Calabre; Sacrobosco, being in fact the English mathematician Holywood; Nicholas de Lyra, the Norman Franciscan; King Alfonso the Wise, and his Moorish scribes; Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly; Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris; Pope Pius II., otherwise known as Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini; Regiomontanus, as the Latinized name of Johann Müller of Königsberg is given, though Columbus does not really name him; Paolo Toscanelli, the Florentine physician; and Nicolas de Conti, of whom he had heard through Toscanelli, perhaps. Humboldt can find no evidence that Columbus had read the travels of Marco Polo, and does not discover why Navarrete holds that he had, though Polo's stories must have permeated much that Columbus read; nor does he understand why Irving says that Columbus took Marco Polo's book on his first voyage. [Sidenote: Columbus and Toscanelli.] We see often in the world's history a simultaneousness in the regeneration of thought. Here and there a seer works on in ignorance of some obscure brother elsewhere. Rumor and circulating manuscripts bring them into sympathy. They grow by the correlation. It is just this correspondence that confronts us in Columbus and Toscanelli, and it is not quite, but almost, perceptible that this wise Florentine doctor was the first, despite Humboldt's theory, to plant in the mind of Columbus his aspirations for the truths of geography. It is meet that Columbus should not be mentioned without the accompanying name of Toscanelli. It was the Genoese's different fortune that he could attempt as a seaman a practical demonstration of his fellow Italian's views. Many a twin movement of the world's groping spirit thus seeks the light. Progress naturally pushes on parallel lines. Commerce thrusts her intercourse to remotest regions, while the Church yearns for new souls to convert, and peers longingly into the dim spaces that skirt the world's geography. Navigators improve their methods, and learned men in the arts supply them with exacter instruments. The widespread manifestations of all this new life at last crystallize, and Gama and Columbus appear, the reflex of every development. [Sidenote: Opportuneness of his discoveries.] Thus the discovery of Columbus came in the ripeness of time. No one of the anterior accidents, suggesting a western land, granting that there was some measure of fact in all of them, had come to a world prepared to think on their developments. Vinland was practically forgotten, wherever it may have been. The tales of Fousang had never a listener in Europe. Madoc was as unknown as Elidacthon. While the new Indies were not in their turn to be forgotten, their discoverer was to bury himself in a world of conjecture. The superlatives of Columbus soon spent their influence. The pioneer was lost sight of in the new currents of thought which he had started. Not of least interest among them was the cognizance of new races of men, and new revelations in the animal and physical kingdoms, while the question of their origins pressed very soon on the theological and scientific sense of the age. * * * * * [Sidenote: Not above his age.] [Sidenote: Claims for palliation.] No man craves more than Columbus to be judged with all the palliations demanded of a difference of his own age and ours. No child of any age ever did less to improve his contemporaries, and few ever did more to prepare the way for such improvements. The age created him and the age left him. There is no more conspicuous example in history of a man showing the path and losing it. It is by no means sure, with all our boast of benevolent progress, that atrocities not much short of those which we ascribe to Columbus and his compeers may not at any time disgrace the coming as they have blackened the past years of the nineteenth century. This fact gives us the right to judge the infirmities of man in any age from the high vantage-ground of the best emotions of all the centuries. In the application of such perennial justice Columbus must inevitably suffer. The degradation of the times ceases to be an excuse when the man to be judged stands on the pinnacle of the ages. The biographer cannot forget, indeed, that Columbus is a portrait set in the surroundings of his times; but it is equally his duty at the same time to judge the paths which he trod by the scale of an eternal nobleness. [Sidenote: Test of his character.] [Sidenote: Not a creator of ideas.] The very domination of this man in the history of two hemispheres warrants us in estimating him by an austere sense of occasions lost and of opportunities embraced. The really great man is superior to his age, and anticipates its future; not as a sudden apparition, but as the embodiment of a long growth of ideas of which he is the inheritor and the capable exemplar. Humboldt makes this personal domination of two kinds. The one comes from the direct influence of character; the other from the creation of an idea, which, freed from personality, works its controlling mission by changing the face of things. It is of this last description that Humboldt makes the domination of Columbus. It is extremely doubtful if any instance can be found of a great idea changing the world's history, which has been created by any single man. None such was created by Columbus. There are always forerunners whose agency is postponed because the times are not propitious. A masterful thought has often a long pedigree, starting from a remote antiquity, but it will be dormant till it is environed by the circumstances suited to fructify it. This was just the destiny of the intuition which began with Aristotle and came down to Columbus. To make his first voyage partook of foolhardiness, as many a looker-on reasonably declared. It was none the less foolhardy when it was done. If he had reached the opulent and powerful kings of the Orient, his little cockboats and their brave souls might have fared hard for their intrusion. His blunder in geography very likely saved him from annihilation. * * * * * [Sidenote: His character differently drawn.] [Sidenote: Prescott.] [Sidenote: Irving.] The character of Columbus has been variously drawn, almost always with a violent projection of the limner's own personality. We find Prescott contending that "whatever the defects of Columbus's mental constitution, the finger of the historian will find it difficult to point to a single blemish in his moral character." It is certainly difficult to point to a more flagrant disregard of truth than when we find Prescott further saying, "Whether we contemplate his character in its public or private relations, in all its features it wears the same noble aspects. It was in perfect harmony with the grandeur of his plans, and with results more stupendous than those which Heaven has permitted any other mortal to achieve." It is very striking to find Prescott, after thus speaking of his private as well as public character, and forgetting the remorse of Columbus for the social wrongs he had committed, append in a footnote to this very passage a reference to his "illegitimate" son. It seems to mark an obdurate purpose to disguise the truth. This is also nowhere more patent than in the palliating hero-worship of Irving, with his constant effort to save a world's exemplar for the world's admiration, and more for the world's sake than for Columbus's. Irving at one time berates the biographer who lets "pernicious erudition" destroy a world's exemplar; and at another time he does not know that he is criticising himself when he says that "he who paints a great man merely in great and heroic traits, though he may produce a fine picture, will never present a faithful portrait." The commendation which he bestows upon Herrera is for precisely what militates against the highest aims of history, since he praises that Spanish historian's disregard of judicial fairness. In the being which Irving makes stand for the historic Columbus, his skill in softened expression induced Humboldt to suppose that Irving's avoidance of exaggeration gave a force to his eulogy, but there was little need to exaggerate merits, if defects were blurred. [Sidenote: Humboldt.] The learned German adds, in the opening of the third volume of his _Examen Critique_, his own sense of the impressiveness of Columbus. That impressiveness stands confessed; but it is like a gyrating storm that knows no law but the vagrancy of destruction. One need not look long to discover the secret of Humboldt's estimate of Columbus. Without having that grasp of the picturesque which appeals so effectively to the popular mind in the letters of Vespucius, the Admiral was certainly not destitute of keen observation of nature, but unfortunately this quality was not infrequently prostituted to ignoble purposes. To a student of Humboldt's proclivities, these traits of observation touched closely his sympathy. He speaks in his _Cosmos_ of the development of this exact scrutiny in manifold directions, notwithstanding Columbus's previous ignorance of natural history, and tells us that this capacity for noting natural phenomena arose from his contact with such. It would have been better for the fame of Columbus if he had kept this scientific survey in its purity. It was simply, for instance, a vitiated desire to astound that made him mingle theological and physical theories about the land of Paradise. Such jugglery was promptly weighed in Spain and Italy by Peter Martyr and others as the wild, disjointed effusions of an overwrought mind, and "the reflex of a false erudition," as Humboldt expresses it. It was palpably by another effort, of a like kind, that he seized upon the views of the fathers of the Church that the earthly Paradise lay in the extreme Orient, and he was quite as audacious when he exacted the oath on the Cuban coast, to make it appear by it that he had really reached the outermost parts of Asia. [Sidenote: Observations of nature.] Humboldt seeks to explain this errant habit by calling it "the sudden movement of his ardent and passionate soul; the disarrangement of ideas which were the effect of an incoherent method and of the extreme rapidity of his reading; while all was increased by his misfortunes and religious mysticism." Such an explanation hardly relieves the subject of it from blunter imputations. This urgency for some responsive wonderment at every experience appears constantly in the journal of Columbus's first voyage, as, for instance, when he makes every harbor exceed in beauty the last he had seen. This was the commonplace exaggeration which in our day is confined to the calls of speculating land companies. The fact was that Humboldt transferred to his hero something of the superlative love of nature that he himself had experienced in the same regions; but there was all the difference between him and Columbus that there is between a genuine love of nature and a commercial use of it. Whenever Columbus could divert his mind from a purpose to make the Indies a paying investment, we find some signs of an insight that shows either observation of his own or the garnering of it from others, as, for example, when he remarks on the decrease of rain in the Canaries and the Azores which followed upon the felling of trees, and when he conjectures that the elongated shape of the islands of the Antilles on the lines of the parallels was due to the strength of the equatorial current. [Sidenote: Roselly de Lorgues and his school.] [Sidenote: Harrisse.] Since Irving, Prescott, and Humboldt did their work, there has sprung up the unreasoning and ecstatic French school under the lead of Roselly de Lorgues, who seek to ascribe to Columbus all the virtues of a saint. "Columbus had no defect of character and no worldly quality," they say. The antiquarian and searching spirit of Harrisse, and of those writers who have mainly been led into the closest study of the events of the life of Columbus, has not done so much to mould opinion as regards the estimate in which the Admiral should be held as to eliminate confusing statements and put in order corroborating facts. The reaction from the laudation of the canonizers has not produced any writer of consideration to array such derogatory estimates as effectually as a plain recital of established facts would do it. Hubert Bancroft, in the incidental mention which he makes of Columbus, has touched his character not inaptly, and with a consistent recognition of its infirmities. Even Prescott, who verges constantly on the ecstatic elements of the adulatory biographer, is forced to entertain at times "a suspicion of a temporary alienation of mind," and in regard to the letter which Columbus wrote from Jamaica to the sovereigns, is obliged to recognize "sober narrative and sound reasoning strangely blended with crazy dreams and doleful lamentations." [Sidenote: Aaron Goodrich.] "Vagaries like these," he adds, "which came occasionally like clouds over his soul to shut out the light of reason, cannot fail to fill the mind of the reader, as they doubtless did those of the sovereigns, with mingled sentiments of wonder and compassion." An unstinted denunciatory purpose, much weakened by an inconsiderate rush of disdain, characterizes an American writer, Aaron Goodrich, in his _Life of the so-called Christopher Columbus_ (New York, 1875); but the critic's temper is too peevish and his opinions are too unreservedly biased to make his results of any value. [Sidenote: Humboldt.] The mental hallucinations of Columbus, so patent in his last years, were not beyond recognition at a much earlier age, and those who would get the true import of his character must trace these sorrowful manifestations to their beginnings, and distinguish accurately between Columbus when his purpose was lofty and unselfish and himself again when he became mercenary and erratic. So much does the verdict of history lodge occasionally more in the narrator of events than in the character of them that, in Humboldt's balancing of the baser with the nobler symptoms of Columbus's nature, he does not find even the most degraded of his actions other than powerful in will, and sometimes, at least, clear in intelligence. There were certainly curiously transparent, but transient gleams of wisdom to the last. Humboldt further says that the faith of Columbus soothed his dreary and weary adversities by the charm of ascetic reveries. So a handsome euphuism tries to save his fame from harsher epithets. It was a faith, says the same delineator, which justified at need, under the pretext of a religious object, the employment of deceit and the excess of a despotic power; a tenderer form, doubtless, of the vulgar expression that the end sanctifies the means. It is not, however, within the practice of the better historical criticism of our day to let such elegant wariness beguile the reader's mind. If the different, not to say more advanced, condition of the critical mind is to be of avail to a new age through the advantage gained from all the ages, it is in precisely this emancipation from the trammels of traditionary bondage that the historian asserts his own, and dispels the glamour of a conventionalized hero-worship. [Sidenote: Dr. J. G. Shea.] Dr. Shea, our most distinguished Catholic scholar, who has dealt with the character of Columbus, says: "He accomplished less than some adventurers with poor equipped vessels. He seems to have succeeded in attaching but few men to him who adhered loyally to his cause. Those under him were constantly rebellious and mutinous; those over him found him impracticable. To array all these as enemies, inspired by a satanic hostility to a great servant of God, is to ask too much for our belief;" and yet this is precisely what Irving by constant modifications, and De Lorgues in a monstrous degree, feel themselves justified in doing. [Sidenote: The French canonizers.] There is nothing in Columbus's career that these French canonizers do not find convertible to their purpose, whether it be his wild vow to raise 4,000 horse and 50,000 foot in seven years, wherewith to snatch the Holy Sepulchre from the infidel, or the most commonplace of his canting ejaculations. That Columbus was a devout Catholic, according to the Catholicism of his epoch, does not admit of question, but when tried by any test that finds the perennial in holy acts, Columbus fails to bear the examination. He had nothing of the generous and noble spirit of a conjoint lover of man and of God, as the higher spirits of all times have developed it. There was no all-loving Deity in his conception. His Lord was one in whose name it was convenient to practice enormities. He shared this subterfuge with Isabella and the rest. We need to think on what Las Casas could be among his contemporaries, if we hesitate to apply the conceptions of an everlasting humanity. [Sidenote: Converts and slaves.] The mines which Columbus went to seek were hard to find. The people he went to save to Christ were easy to exterminate. He mourned bitterly that his own efforts were ill requited. He had no pity for the misery of others, except they be his dependents and co-sharers of his purposes. He found a policy worth commemorating in slitting the noses and tearing off the ears of a naked heathen. He vindicates his excess by impressing upon the world that a man setting out to conquer the Indies must not be judged by the amenities of life which belong to a quiet rule in established countries. Yet, with a chance to establish a humane life among peoples ready to be moulded to good purposes, he sought from the very first to organize among them the inherited evils of "established countries." He talked a great deal about making converts of the poor souls, while the very first sight which he had of them prompted him to consign them to the slave-mart, just as if the first step to Christianize was the step which unmans. The first vicar apostolic sent to teach the faith in Santo Domingo returned to Spain, no longer able to remain, powerless, in sight of the cruelties practiced by Columbus. Isabella prevented the selling of the natives as slaves in Spain, when Columbus had dispatched thither five shiploads. Las Casas tells us that in 1494-96 Columbus was generally hated in Española for his odiousness and injustice, and that the Admiral's policy with the natives killed a third of them in those two years. The Franciscans, when they arrived at the island, found the colonists exuberant that they had been relieved of the rule which Columbus had instituted; and the Benedictines and Dominicans added their testimony to the same effect. [Sidenote: He urges enslaving the natives from the first.] The very first words, as has been said, that he used, in conveying to expectant Europe the wonders of his discovery, suggested a scheme of enslaving the strange people. He had already made the voyage that of a kidnapper, by entrapping nine of the unsuspecting natives. On his second voyage he sent home a vessel-load of slaves, on the pretense of converting them, but his sovereigns intimated to him that it would cost less to convert them in their own homes. Then he thought of the righteous alternative of sending some to Spain to be sold to buy provisions to support those who would convert others in their homes. The monarchs were perhaps dazed at this sophistry; and Columbus again sent home four vessels laden with reeking cargoes of flesh. When he returned to Spain, in 1496, to circumvent his enemies, he once more sought in his turn, and by his reasoning, to cheat the devil of heathen souls by sending other cargoes. At last the line was drawn. It was not to save their souls, but to punish them for daring to war against the Spaniards, that they should be made to endure such horrors. It is to Columbus, also, that we trace the beginning of that monstrous guilt which Spanish law sanctioned under the name of _repartimientos_, and by which to every colonist, and even to the vilest, absolute power was given over as many natives as his means and rank entitled him to hold. Las Casas tells us that Ferdinand could hardly have had a conception of the enormities of the system. If so, it was because he winked out of sight the testimony of observers, while he listened to the tales prompted of greed, rapine, and cruelty. The value of the system to force heathen out of hell, and at the same time to replenish his treasury, was the side of it presented to Ferdinand's mind by such as had access to his person. In 1501, we find the Dominicans entering their protest, and by this Ferdinand was moved to take the counsel of men learned in the law and in what passed in those days for Christian ethics. This court of appeal approved these necessary efforts, as was claimed, to increase those who were new to the faith, and to reward those who supported it. Peter Martyr expressed the comforting sentiments of the age: "National right and that of the Church concede personal liberty to man. State policy, however, demurs. Custom repels the idea. Long experience shows that slavery is necessary to prevent those returning to their idolatry and error whom the Church has once gained." All professed servants of the Church, with a few exceptions like Las Casas, ranged themselves with Columbus on the side of such specious thoughts; and Las Casas, in recognizing this fact, asks what we could expect of an old sailor and fighter like Columbus, when the wisest and most respectable of the priesthood backed him in his views. It was indeed the misery of Columbus to miss the opportunity of being wiser than his fellows, the occasion always sought by a commanding spirit, and it was offered to him almost as to no other. [Sidenote: Progress of slavery in the West Indies.] There was no restraining the evil. The cupidity of the colonists overcame all obstacles. The Queen was beguiled into giving equivocal instructions to Ovando, who succeeded to Bobadilla, and out of them by interpretation grew an increase of the monstrous evil. In 1503, every atrocity had reached a legal recognition. Labor was forced; the slaves were carried whither the colonists willed; and for eight months at least in every year, families were at pleasure disrupted without mercy. One feels some satisfaction in seeing Columbus himself at last, in a letter to Diego, December 1, 1504, shudder at the atrocities of Ovando. When one sees the utter annihilation of the whole race of the Antilles, a thing clearly assured at the date of the death of Columbus, one wishes that that dismal death-bed in Valladolid could have had its gloom illumined by a consciousness that the hand which lifted the banner of Spain and of Christ at San Salvador had done something to stay the misery which cupidity and perverted piety had put in course. When a man seeks to find and parades reasons for committing a crime, it is to stifle his conscience. Columbus passed years in doing it. [Sidenote: Talavera.] [Sidenote: The Franciscans.] Back of Isabella in this spasmodic interest in the Indians was the celebrated Archbishop of Granada, Fernando de Talavera, whom we have earlier known as the prior of Prado. He had been since 1478 the confessor of the Queen, and when the time came for sending missionaries to the Antilles it was natural that they were of the order of St. Jerome, of which Talavera was himself a member. Columbus, through a policy which induced him to make as apparent as possible his mingling of interests with the Church, had before this adopted the garb of the Franciscans, and this order was the second in time to be seen in Española in 1502. They were the least tolerant of the leading orders, and had already shown a disposition to harass the Indians, and were known to treat haughtily the Queen's intercessions for the poor souls. It was not till after the death of Columbus that the Dominicans, coming in 1510, reinforced the kindly spirit of the priests of St. Jerome. Still later they too abandoned their humanity. * * * * * [Sidenote: Columbus's mercenary impulses.] [Sidenote: His praise of gold.] The downfall of Columbus began when he wrested from the reluctant monarchs what he called his privileges, and when he insisted upon riches as the accompaniment of such state and consequence as those privileges might entail. The terms were granted, so far as the King was concerned, simply to put a stop to importunities, for he never anticipated being called upon to confirm them. The insistency of Columbus in this respect is in strange contrast to the satisfaction which the captains of Prince Henry, Da Gama and the rest, were content to find in the unpolluted triumphs of science. The mercenary Columbus was forced to the utterance of Solomon: "I looked upon the labor that I had labored to do, and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit." The Preacher never had a better example. Columbus was wont to say that gold gave the soul its flight to paradise. Perhaps he referred to the masses which could be bought, or to the alms which could propitiate Heaven. He might better have remembered the words of warning given to Baruch: "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. For, saith the Lord, thy life will I give unto them for a prey in all places whither thou goest." And a prey in all places he became. Humboldt seeks to palliate this cupidity by making him the conscious inheritor of the pecuniary chances which every free son of Genoa expected to find within his grasp by commercial enterprise. Such prominence was sought because it carried with it power and influence in the republic. If Columbus had found riches in the New World as easily as he anticipated, it is possible that such affluence would have moulded his character in other ways for good or for evil. He soon found himself confronting a difficult task, to satisfy with insufficient means a craving which his exaggerations had established. This led him to spare no device, at whatever sacrifice of the natives, to produce the coveted gold, and it was an ingenious mockery that induced him to deck his captives with golden chains and parade them through the Spanish towns. [Sidenote: Nicolas de Conti.] [Sidenote: The world's disgust.] After Da Gama had opened the route to Cathay by the Cape of Good Hope, and Columbus had, as he supposed, touched the eastern confines of the same country, the wonderful stories of Asiatic glories told by Nicolas de Conti were translated, by order of King Emanuel (in 1500), into Portuguese. It is no wonder that the interest in the development of 1492 soon waned when the world began to compare the descriptions of the region beyond the Ganges, as made known by Marco Polo, and so recently by Conti, and the apparent confirmation of them established by the Portuguese, with the meagre resources which Columbus had associated with the same country, in all that he could say about the Antilles or bring from them. An adventurous voyage across the Sea of Darkness begat little satisfaction, if all there was to show for it consisted of men with tails or a single eye, or races of Amazons and cannibals. [Sidenote: Columbus's lack of generosity.] When we view the character of Columbus in its influence upon the minds of men, we find some strange anomalies. Before his passion was tainted with the ambition of wealth and its consequence, and while he was urging the acceptance of his views for their own sake, it is very evident that he impressed others in a way that never happened after he had secured his privileges. It is after this turning-point of his life that we begin to see his falsities and indiscretions, or at least to find record of them. The incident of the moving light in the night before his first landfall is a striking instance of his daring disregard of all the qualities that help a commander in his dominance over his men. It needs little discrimination to discern the utter deceitfulness of that pretense. A noble desire to win the loftiest honors of the discovery did not satisfy a mean, insatiable greed. He blunted every sentiment of generosity when he deprived a poor sailor of his pecuniary reward. That there was no actual light to be seen is apparent from the distance that the discoverers sailed before they saw land, since if the light had been ahead they would not have gone on, and if it had been abeam they would not have left it. The evidence is that of himself and a thrall, and he kept it secret at the time. The author of the _Historie_ sees the difficulty, and attempts to vaporize the whole story by saying that the light was spiritual, and not physical. Navarrete passes it by as a thing necessary, for the fame of Columbus, to be ignored. [Sidenote: His enforced oath at Cuba.] A second instance of Columbus's luckless impotence, at a time when an honorable man would have relied upon his character, was the attempt to make it appear that he had reached the coast of Asia by imposing an oath on his men to that effect, in penalty of having their tongues wrenched out if they recanted. One can hardly conceive a more debasing exercise of power. [Sidenote: His ambition of territorial power.] His insistence upon territorial power was the serious mistake of his life. He thought, in making an agreement with his sovereigns to become a viceroy, that he was securing an honor; he was in truth pledging his happiness and beggaring his life. He sought to attain that which the fates had unfitted him for, and the Spanish monarchs, in an evil day, which was in due time their regret, submitted to his hallucinated dictation. No man ever evinced less capacity for ruling a colony. [Sidenote: His professed inspiration.] The most sorrowful of all the phases of Columbus's character is that hapless collapse, when he abandoned all faith in the natural world, and his premonitions of it, and threw himself headlong into the vortex of what he called inspiration. Everything in his scientific argument had been logical. It produced the reliance which comes of wisdom. It was a manly show of an incisive reason. If he had rested here his claims for honor, he would have ranked with the great seers of the universe, with Copernicus and the rest. His successful suit with the Spanish sovereigns turned his head, and his degradation began when he debased a noble purpose to the level of mercenary claims. He relied, during his first voyage, more on chicanery in controlling his crew than upon the dignity of his aim and the natural command inherent in a lofty spirit. This deceit was the beginning of his decadence, which ended in a sad self-aggrandizement, when he felt himself no longer an instrument of intuition to probe the secrets of the earth, but a possessor of miraculous inspiration. The man who had been self-contained became a thrall to a fevered hallucination. The earnest mental study which had sustained his inquisitive spirit through long years of dealings with the great physical problems of the earth was forgotten. He hopelessly began to accredit to Divinity the measure of his own fallibility. "God made me," he says, "the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth, of which He spoke in the Apocalypse by St. John, after having spoken of it by the mouth of Isaiah, and He showed me the spot where to find it." He no longer thought it the views of Aristotle which guided him. The Greek might be pardoned for his ignorance of the intervening America. It was mere sacrilege to impute such ignorance to the Divine wisdom. [Sidenote: Lost his friends.] There is no excuse but the plea of insanity. He naturally lost his friends with losing his manly devotion to a cause. I do not find the beginning of this surrender of his manhood earlier than in the will which he signed February 22, 1498, when he credits the Holy Trinity with having inspired him with the idea that one could go to the Indies by passing westward. In his letter to the nurse of Don Juan, he says that the prophecy of Isaiah in the Apocalypse had found its interpreter in him, the messenger to disclose a new part of the world. "Human reason," he wrote in the _Proficias_, "mathematics, and maps have served me in no wise. What I have accomplished is simply the fulfillment of the prophecy of David." [Sidenote: His pitiable death.] We have seen a pitiable man meet a pitiable death. Hardly a name in profane history is more august than his. Hardly another character in the world's record has made so little of its opportunities. His discovery was a blunder; his blunder was a new world; the New World is his monument! Its discoverer might have been its father; he proved to be its despoiler. He might have given its young days such a benignity as the world likes to associate with a maker; he left it a legacy of devastation and crime. He might have been an unselfish promoter of geographical science; he proved a rabid seeker for gold and a viceroyalty. He might have won converts to the fold of Christ by the kindness of his spirit; he gained the execrations of the good angels. He might, like Las Casas, have rebuked the fiendishness of his contemporaries; he set them an example of perverted belief. The triumph of Barcelona led down to the ignominy of Valladolid, with every step in the degradation palpable and resultant. CHAPTER XXI. THE DESCENT OF COLUMBUS'S HONORS. [Sidenote: His kinsfolk.] Columbus had left behind him, as the natural guardians of his name and honors, the following relatives: his brother Bartholomew, who in December, 1508, had issue of an illegitimate daughter, his only child so far as known; his brother Diego, who, as a priest, was precluded from having lawful issue; his son Diego, now become the first inheritor of his honors; his natural son, Ferdinand, the most considerable in intellectual habit of all Columbus's immediate kin. [Sidenote: His son Diego.] The descent of his titles depended in the first instance on such a marriage as Diego might contract. Within a year or two Diego had had by different women two bastard children, Francisco and Cristoval, shut off from heirship by the manner of their birth. Diego was at this time not far from four and twenty years of age. Ten or twelve days after Diego succeeded to his inheritance, Philip the Handsome, now sharing the throne of Castile as husband of Juana, daughter of Isabella, ordered that what was due to Columbus should be paid to his successor. This order reached Española in June, 1506, but was not obeyed promptly; and when Ferdinand of Aragon returned from Italy in August, 1507, and succeeded to the Castilian throne, he repeated the order on August 24. [Sidenote: Diego's income.] [Sidenote: Diego presses for a restitution of Columbus's honors.] It would seem that in due time Diego was in receipt of 450,000 ounces of gold annually from the four foundries in Española. This, with whatever else there may have been, was by no means satisfactory to the young aspirant, and he began to press Ferdinand for a restitution of his inherited honors and powers with all the pertinacity which had characterized his father's urgency. [Sidenote: 1508. Suit against the Crown.] Upon the return of Ferdinand from Naples, Diego determined to push the matter to an issue, but Ferdinand still evaded it. Diego now asked, according to Las Casas and Herrera, to be allowed to bring a suit against the Crown before the Council of the Indies, and the King yielded to the request, confident, very likely, in his ability to control the verdict in the public interests. The suit at once began (1508), and continued for several years before all was accomplished, and in December of that same year (1508), we find Diego empowering an attorney of the Duke of Alva to represent his case. The defense of the Crown was that a transmission of the viceroyalty to the Admiral's son was against public policy, and at variance with a law of 1480, which forbade any judicial office under the Crown being held in perpetuity. It was further argued in the Crown's behalf that Columbus had not been the chief instrument of the first discovery and had not discovered the mainland, but that other voyagers had anticipated him. In response to all allegations, Diego rested his case on the contracts of the Crown with his father, which assured him the powers he asked for. Further than this, the Crown had already recognized, he claimed, a part of the contract in its orders of June 2, 1506, and August 24, 1507, whereby the revenues due under the contracts had been restored to him. It was also charged by the defense that Columbus had been relieved of his powers because he had abused them, and the answer to this was that the sovereigns' letter of 1502 had acknowledged that Bobadilla acted without authority. A number of navigators in the western seas were put on the stand to rebut the allegation of existing knowledge of the coast before the voyages of Columbus, particularly in substantiating the priority of the voyage of Columbus to the coast of Paria, and the evidence was sufficient to show that all the alleged claims were simply perverted notions of the really later voyage of Ojeda in 1499. It is from the testimony at this time, as given in Navarrete, that the biographers of Columbus derive considerable information, not otherwise attainable, respecting the voyages of Columbus,--testimony, however, which the historian is obliged to weigh with caution in many respects. [Sidenote: Diego wins.] The case was promptly disposed of in Diego's favor, but not without suspicions of the Crown's influence to that end. The suit is, indeed, one of the puzzles in the history of Columbus and his fame. If it was a suit to secure a verdict against the Crown in order to protect the Crown's rights under the bull of demarcation, we can understand why much that would have helped the position of the fiscal was not brought forward. If it was what it purported to be, an effort to relieve the Crown of obligations fastened upon it under misconceptions or deceits, we may well marvel at such omission of evidence. [Sidenote: Diego marries Maria de Toledo.] [Sidenote: Diego waives his right to the title of Viceroy.] It was left for the King to act on the decision for restitution. This might have been by his studied procrastination indefinitely delayed but for a shrewd movement on the part of Diego, who opportunely aspired to the hand of Doña Maria de Toledo, the daughter of Fernando de Toledo. This nobleman was brother of the Duke of Alva, one of the proudest grandees of Spain, and he was also cousin of Ferdinand, the King. The alliance, soon effected, brought the young suitor a powerful friend in his uncle, and the bride's family were not averse to a connection with the heir to the viceroyalty of the Indies, now that it was confirmed by the Council of the Indies. Harrisse cannot find that the promised dower ever came with the wife; but, on the contrary, Diego seems to have become the financial agent of his wife's family. A demand for the royal acquiescence in the orders of the Council could now be more easily made, and Ferdinand readily conceded all but the title of Viceroy. Diego waived that for the time, and he was accordingly accredited as governor of Española, in the place of Ovando. [Sidenote: Ovando recalled.] Isabella had indeed, while on her death-bed, importuned the King to recall Ovando, because of the appalling stories of his cruelty to the Indians. Ferdinand had found that the governor's vigilance conduced to heavy remittances of gold, and had shown no eagerness to carry out the Queen's wishes. He had even ordered Ovando to begin that transference of the poor Lucayan Indians from their own islands to work in the Española mines which soon resulted in the depopulation of the Bahamas. Now that he was forced to withdraw Ovando he made it as agreeable for him as possible, and in the end there was no lack of commendation of his administration. Indeed, as Spaniards went in those days, Ovando was good enough to gain the love of Las Casas, "except for some errors of moral blindness." [Sidenote: 1509. June 9. Diego sails for Española.] It was on May 3, 1509, that Ferdinand gave Diego his instructions; and on June 9, the new governor with his noble wife sailed from San Lucar. There went with Diego, beside a large number of noble Spaniards who introduced, as Oviedo says, an infusion of the best Spanish blood into the colony, his brother Ferdinand, who was specially charged, as Oviedo further tells us, to found monasteries and churches. His two uncles also accompanied him. Bartholomew had gone to Rome after Columbus's death, with the intention of inducing Pope Julius II. to urge upon the King a new voyage of discovery; and Harrisse thinks that this is proved by some memoranda attached to an account of the coasts of Veragua, which it is supposed that Bartholomew gave at this time to a canon of the Lateran, which is now preserved in the Megliavecchian library, and has been printed by Harrisse in his _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_. It was perhaps on this visit that the Adelantado took to Rome that map of Columbus's voyage to those coasts which it is usually said was carried there in 1505, when he may possibly have borne thither the letter of Columbus to the Pope. [Sidenote: Bartholomew Columbus, and Diego Mendez.] The position which Bartholomew now went with Diego to assume, that of the Chief Alguazil of Santo Domingo, caused much complaint from Diego Mendez, who claimed the credit of bringing about the restitution of Diego's power, and who had, as he says, been promised both by Columbus and by his son this office as recompense for his many services. [Sidenote: 1509. July 10. Diego reaches his government.] The fleet arrived at its destination July 10, 1509. The wife of the governor had taken a retinue, which for splendor had never before been equaled in the New World, and it enabled her to maintain a kind of viceregal state in the little capital. It all helped Diego to begin his rule with no inconsiderable consequence. There was needed something of such attraction to beguile the spirits of the settlers, for, as Benzoni learned years afterwards, when he visited the region, the coming of the son of Columbus had not failed to engender jealousies, which attached to the imposition of another foreigner upon the colony. [Sidenote: Ojeda and Nicuessa.] The King was determined that Diego's rule should be confined to Española, and, much to the governor's annoyance, he parceled out the coasts which Columbus had tracked near the Isthmus of Panama into two governments, and installed Ojeda in command of the eastern one, which was called New Andalusia, while the one beyond the Gulf of Uraba, which included Veragua, he gave to Diego de Nicuessa, and called it Castilla del Oro. [Illustration: POPE JULIUS II.] [Sidenote: Porto Rico.] [Sidenote: Faction of Passamonte.] [Sidenote: 1511. October 5. _Audiencia._] This action of the King, as well as his effort to put Porto Rico under an independent governor, incited new expostulations from Diego, and served to make his rule in the island quite as uncomfortable as its management had been to his father. There also grew up the same discouragement from faction. The King's treasurer, Miguel Passamonte, became the head of the rebellious party, not without suspicion that he was prompted to much denunciations in his confidential communications with the King. Reports of Diego's misdeeds and ambitions, threatening the royal power even, were assiduously conveyed to the King. The sovereign devised a sort of corrective, as he thought, of this, by instituting later, October 5, 1511, a court of appeals, or _Audiencia_, to which the aggrieved colonists could go in their defense against oppression or extortion. Its natural effect was to undermine the governor's authority and to weaken his influence. He found himself thwarted in all efforts to relieve the Indians of their burdens, as nothing of that sort could be done without disturbing the revenues of leading colonists. There was no great inducement to undo measures by which no one profited in receipts more than himself, and the cruel devastation of the native population ran on as it had done. He certainly did not show himself averse to continuing the system of _repartimientos_ for the benefit of himself and his friends. Diego, who had been for a while in Spain, returned in 1512 to Española, and later new orders were sent out by the King, and these included commands to reduce the labor of the Indians one third, to import negro slaves from Guinea as a measure of further relief to the natives, and to brand Carib slaves, so as to protect other Indians from harsh treatment intended for the Caribs alone. [Sidenote: Bartholomew Columbus died.] Diego was again in Spain in 1513, and the attempts of Ojeda and Nicuessa having failed, later orders in 1514 so far reinstated Diego in his viceregal power as to permit him to send his uncle Bartholomew to take possession of the Veragua coast. But the life of the Adelantado was drawing to a close, and his death soon occurring nothing was done. [Sidenote: 1515. Diego in Spain.] Affairs had come to such a pass that Diego again felt it necessary to repair to Court to counteract his enemies' intrigues, and once more getting permission from the King, he sailed for Spain, April 9, 1515, leaving the Vice-Queen with a council in authority. Diego found the King open and kindly, and not averse to acknowledging the merits of his government. He again pressed his bonded rights with the old fervency. "I would bestow them willingly on you," said the King; "but I cannot do so without intrusting them also to your son and to his successors." "Is it just," said Diego, "that I should suffer for a son which I may never have?" Las Casas tells us that Diego repeated this colloquy to him. [Illustration: CHARLES THE FIFTH.] [Sidenote: 1516. January 23. Ferdinand died.] The King found it reasonable to question if Columbus had really sailed along all the coasts in which Diego claimed a share, and ordered an examination of the matter to be made. While these claims were in abeyance, the King died, January 23, 1516. [Sidenote: Diego again in Española.] [Sidenote: 1520. Diego in Spain.] [Sidenote: Diego partially reinstated.] This event much retarded the settlement of the difficulties. Cardinal Ximenes, who held power for a while, was not willing to act, and nothing was done for four years, during part of which period Diego was certainly in Española. We know also that he was present at the convocation of Barcelona, presided over by the Emperor, when Las Casas made his urgent appeals for the Indians and pictured their hardships. Finally, in 1520, when Charles V. was about to embark for Flanders, Diego was in a position to advance to the Emperor so large a sum as ten thousand ducats, which was, as it appears, about a fifth of his annual income from Española at this time. This financial succor seemed to open the way for the Emperor to dismiss all charges against Diego, and to reinstate him in qualified authority as Viceroy over the Indies. [Sidenote: 1520. September. Diego returns to Española.] This seeming restitution was not without a disagreeable accompaniment in the appointment of a supervisor to reside at his viceregal court and report on the Viceroy's doings. In September, 1520, Diego sailed once more for his government, and on November 14 we find him in Santo Domingo, and shortly afterwards engaged in the construction of a lordly palace, which he was to occupy, and which is seen there to-day. The substantialness of its structure gave rise to rumors that he was preparing a fortress for ulterior aims. [Sidenote: Negro slaves increase.] Diego soon found that various administrative measures had not gone well in his absence. Commanders of some of the provinces had exceeded their powers, and it became necessary to supersede them. This made them enemies as a matter of course. The raising of sugar-cane had rapidly developed under the imported African labor, and the revenues now came for the most part from the plantations rather than from the mines. The negroes so increased that it was not long before some of them dared to rise in revolt, but the mischief was stopped by a rapid swoop of armed horsemen. [Illustration: RUINS OF DIEGO COLON'S HOUSE.] [Sidenote: 1523. Diego in Spain.] [Sidenote: 1526. February 23. Diego dies.] The jealousies and revengeful accusations of Diego's enemies were not so easily quelled, and before long he was summoned to Spain to render an account of his doings, for Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon had presented charges against him. On September 16, 1523, Diego embarked, and landed at St. Lucar November 5. He presented himself before the Emperor at Vittoria in January, 1524, and reviewed his conduct. This he succeeded in doing in a manner to disarm his foes; and this success encouraged him to press anew for his inherited rights. The demand ended in the questions in dispute being referred to a board; and Diego for two years followed the Court in its migrations, to be in attendance on the sessions of this commission. His health gave way under the strain, so that, with everything still unsettled, he died at Montalvan, February 23, 1526, having survived his father for twenty troublous years. His remains were laid in the monastery of Las Cuevas by the side of Columbus. Being later conveyed to the cathedral at Santo Domingo, they were, if one may credit the quite unproved statements of the priests of the cathedral, mistaken for those of his father, and taken to Havana in 1795. [Sidenote: His family.] [Sidenote: Luis Colon succeeds.] The Vice-Queen and her family were still in Santo Domingo, and her children were seven in number, four daughters and three sons. The descent of the honors came eventually to the descendants of one of these daughters, Isabel, who married George of Portugal, Count of Gelves. Of the three sons, Luis succeeded his father, who was in turn succeeded by Diego, a son of Luis's brother Cristoval. The Vice-Queen, after making an ineffectual attempt to colonize Veragua, in which she was thwarted by the royal _Audiencia_ at Española, returned to Spain in 1529. Her son Luis, the heir, was still a child, having been born in 1521 or 1522. For fourteen years his mother pressed his claims upon the Emperor, Charles V., and she was during a part of the time in such distress that she borrowed money of Ferdinand Columbus and pledged her jewels. She lived till 1549, and died at Santo Domingo. [Sidenote: 1536. The Crown's compromise with Luis.] [Sidenote: Duke of Veragua.] [Sidenote: 1540. Luis in Española.] Early in 1536 the Cardinal Garcia de Loyasa, in behalf of the Council of the Indies, rendered a decision in which he and Ferdinand Columbus had acted as arbiters, which was confirmed by the Emperor in September of the same year. This was that, upon the abandonment by Luis of all claims upon the revenues of the Indies, of the title of Viceroy, and of the right to appoint the officers of the New World, he should be given the island of Jamaica in fief, a perpetual annuity of ten thousand ducats, and the title of Duke of Veragua, with an estate twenty-five leagues square in that province, to support the title and functions of Admiral of the Indies. In 1540 Luis returned to Española with the title of Captain-General, and in 1542 married at Santo Domingo, much against his mother's wish, Maria de Orozco, who later lived in Honduras and married another. While she was still living, Luis again espoused at Santo Domingo Maria de Mosquera. In 1551 he returned to Spain. [Sidenote: Columbus's privileges gradually abridged.] [Sidenote: 1556. All Columbus's territorial rights abandoned.] Whatever remained of the rights which Columbus had sought to transmit to his heirs had already been modified to their detriment by Charles, under decrees in 1540, 1541, and 1542; and when Charles was succeeded by Philip II., early in 1556, one of the first acts of the latter was to force Luis to abandon his fief of Veragua and to throw up his power as Admiral. The Council of the Indies took cognizance of the case in July, 1556, and on September 28 following, Philip II., at Ghent, recompensed the grandson of Columbus, for his submission to the inevitable, by decreeing to Luis the honorary title of Admiral of the Indies and Duke of Veragua, with an income of seven thousand ducats. So in fifty years the dreams of Columbus for territorial magnificence came to naught, and the confident injunctions of his will were dissipated in the air. [Sidenote: Luis a polygamist.] [Sidenote: 1572. Luis dies.] Immediately after this, Luis furtively married, while his other wives were still living, Ana de Castro Ossorio. The authorities found in these polygamous acts a convenient opportunity to get another troublesome Colon out of the way, and arrested Luis in 1559. He was held in prison for nearly five years, and when in 1563 judgment was got against him, he was sentenced to ten years of exile, half of which was to be passed in Oran, in Africa. While his appeal was pending, his scandalous life added crime to crime, and finally, in November, 1565, his sentence being confirmed, he was conducted to Oran, and there he died February 3, 1572. THE COLUMBUS PEDIGREE. NOTE. Dotted lines mark illegitimate descents; the dash-and-dot lines mark pretended descents. The heavy face numerals show the successful holders of the honors of Columbus. The lines _a a_, _b b_, and _c c_ join respectively. _Fadrique Enriquez_, Adm. of Castile. | +-----+------+ | | Alvarez = Maria. Juana = Juan II. de | |of Aragon. _Toledo_ | | +----------------------_a_ +-----+------+ +----+----+ | | | |Ferdinand| = Isabella of Filipe = CRISTOFORO = Beatrix Duke of Fernando. |of Aragon| Castile. Moniz | =1= ¦ Henriquez, _Alba_. | +---------+ | ¦ living in 1513. | +-----------------------------------+ ¦ | | Fernando, Maria de = DIEGO, b. 1488, Toledo | =2= d. 1526. d. 1539. | +---------+-----------------+---------------+-----------------------+-------------------------_b_ | | | | | Felipa, Maria Juana Isabel Luisa de = LUIS = Maria de nun. = Sancho = Luis de = Jorge de Carvajal ¦ =3= | Mosquira. | de Cardona, | la Cueva. Portogallo. ¦ | | Adm. of | | ¦ +------------+ | Aragon. | | ¦ | | +----------+-------+ | | ¦ | | | | | Maria, =Alvaro.= Cristoval. Maria, Filipa, _c_ =Cristoval=, Luis, Maria = Carlos de | of the d. 1577. d.s.p. d.s.p. = Fr. | Arellano, | Convent 1583. de Mendoza| d. bef. 1600. +-------+------+ of San d. 1605. | | | Quirce. | | Jorge NUÑO DE =5= | | Alberti, PORTOGALLO, | | d. 1581. established in | | 1608. Maria Juana | d.s.p. = Fr. Pacheco, | | d. 1605. ALVARO =6= +---------+ | JACINTO. |James II.| = Arabella Carlos. | |England. | ¦ Churchill. | | +---------+ ¦ | PEDRO NUÑO. =7= ¦ | | Duke of Various | Berwick. lines. | | PEDRO MANUEL. =8= | | | +----------------------------+---+ | | | James STUART, = Catarina PEDRO NUÑO, =9= Duke of Liria, | Ventura, d. 1753, d. 1738. | d. 1740. without legitimate | issue. JACOBO EDUARDO. | =10= | CARLOS FERNANDO. | =11= | JACOBO FILIPE, =12= dispossessed in 1790; the decree of 1664 reversed. | | Continued to our day. Dominico Susanna Colombo, of DOMENICO = Fontanarosa. _Cuccaro_. | | _a_---------------+-------------+------------+-------------+ ¦ | | | | | Bartolomeo. Giovanni Giacomo Blanchinetta ¦ ¦ | Pelegrino, or Diego, = Giacomo | ¦ ¦ d. s. p. priest. Paravello. ¦ ¦ | | Maria, ¦ ¦ nun, | | b. 1508. .----.----.----.----.----.----. ¦ | | _b_---------------+--------------------+ ¦ ¦ | | | | Ana = Cristoval = Magdalena Diego ¦ ¦ de | | de = Isabel | | Pravia | | Guzman. Justenian. ¦ ¦ | | | | +------+-----+ +---------+ ¦ ¦ | | | | | _c_ = DIEGO, Francesca Maria ¦ ¦ =4= d.s.p. = Diego = Luis de | | 1578. | Ortegon. Avila. ¦ ¦ | | | | | | ¦ ¦ Josefa | Bernardo Balthazar = De Paz de la _Luis de_ Colombo, Colombo, | Serra. AVILA, of Cogoleto. of Cuccaro. | d. 1633. | Josefa = Martín de | LARREATEGUI. | Diego. | | Francisco. | | Pedro Isidoro. | | MANIANO(1790). =13= | | PEDRO. =14= | | CRISTOVAL. =15= | | Son b. 1878. [Sidenote: His heirs.] [Sidenote: His daughter marries her cousin Diego, the male heir.] [Sidenote: Columbus's male line extinct.] Luis left two illegitimate children, one a son; but his lawful heirs were adjudged to be the children of Maria de Mosquera, two daughters, one a nun and the other Filipa. This last presented a claim for the titles in opposition to the demands of Diego, the nephew of her father. She declared this cousin to be the natural, and not the lawful, son of Luis's brother. It was easy enough to forget such imputations in coming to the final conclusion, when Filipa and Diego took each other in marriage (May 15, 1573) to compose their differences, the husband becoming Duke of Veragua. Filipa died in November, 1577, and her husband January 27, 1578. As they had no children, the male line of Columbus became extinct seventy years after his death. [Sidenote: The long lawsuit and its many contestants.] The lawsuit which followed for the settlement of the succession was a famous one. It lasted thirty years. The claimants were at first eight in number, but they were reduced to five by deaths during the progress of the trials. The first was Francesca, own sister of Diego, the late Duke. Her claim was rejected; but five generations later the dignities returned to her descendants. The second was the representative of Maria, the daughter of Luis, and sister-in-law of Diego. The claim made by her heir, the convent of San Quirce, was discarded. The third was Cristoval, the bastard son of Luis, who claimed to be the fruit of a marriage of Luis, concluded while he was in prison accused of polygamy. Cristoval died in 1601, before the cause was decided. The fourth was Alvaro de Portogallo, Count of Gelves, a son of Isabel, the sister of Luis. He had unsuccessfully claimed the titles when Luis died, in 1572, and again put forth his claims in 1578, when Diego died, but he himself died, pending a decision, in 1581. His son, Jorge Alberto, inherited his rights, but died in 1589, before a decision was reached, when his younger brother, Nuño de Portogallo, became the claimant, and his rights were established by the tribunal in 1608, when he became Duke of Veragua. His enjoyment of the title was not without unrest, but the attempts to dispossess him failed. The fifth was Cristoval de Cardona, Admiral of Aragon, son of Maria, elder sister of Luis. This claimant died in 1583, while his claim, having once been allowed, was held in abeyance by an appeal of his rivals. His sister, Maria, was then adjudged inheritor of the honors, but she died in 1605, before the final decree. The sixth was Maria de la Cueva, daughter of Juana, sister of Luis, who died before December, 1600, while her daughter died in 1605, leaving Carlos Pacheco a claimant, whose rights were disallowed. The seventh was Balthazar Colombo, a descendant of a Domenico Colombo, who was, according to the claim, the same Domenico who was the father of Columbus. His genealogical record was not accepted. The eighth was Bernardo Colombo, who claimed to be a descendant of Bartholomew Columbus, the Adelantado, a claim not made good. These last two contestants rested their title in part on the fact that their ancestors had always borne the name of Colombo, and this was required by Columbus to belong to the inheritors of his honors. The lineal ancestors of the other claimants had borne the names of Cardona, Portogallo, or Avila. * * * * * [Sidenote: Nuño de Portogallo succeeds, and the line later changes.] From Nuño de Portogallo the titles descended to his son Alvaro Jacinto, and then to the latter's son, Pedro Nuño. His rights were contested by Luis de Avila (grandson of Cristoval, brother of Luis Colon), who tried in 1620 to reverse the verdict of 1608, and it was not till 1664 that Pedro Nuño defeated his adversaries. He was succeeded by his son, Pedro Manuel, and he by his son, Pedro Nuño, who died in 1733, when this male line became extinct. The titles were now illegally assumed by Pedro Nuño's sister, Catarina Ventura, who by marriage gave them to her husband, James Fitz-James Stuart, son of the famous Duke of Berwick, and by inheritance in his own right, Duke of Liria. When he died, in 1738, the titles passed to his son, Jacobo Eduardo; thence to the latter's son, Carlos Fernando, who transmitted them to his son, Jacobo Filipe. This last was obliged, by a verdict in 1790, which reversed the decree of 1664, to yield the titles to the line of Francesca, sister of Diego, the fourth holder of them. This Francesca married Diego Ortegon, and their grandchild, Josefa, married Martin Larreategui, whose great-great-grandson, Mariano (by decrees 1790-96), became Duke of Veragua, from whom the title descended to his son, Pedro, and then to his grandson, Cristoval, the present Duke, born in 1837, whose heir, the next Duke, was born in 1878. The value of the titles is said to-day to represent about eight or ten thousand dollars, and this income is chargeable upon the revenues of Cuba and Porto Rico. In concluding this rapid sketch of the descent of the blood and honors of Columbus, two striking thoughts are presented. The Larreateguis are a Basque family. The blood of Columbus, the Genoese, now mingles with that of the hardiest race of navigators of western Europe, and of whom it may be expected that if ever earlier contact of Europe with the New World is proved, these Basques will be found the forerunners of Columbus. The blood of the supposed discoverer of the western passage to Asia flows with that of the earliest stock which is left to us of that Oriental wave of population which inundated Europe, in the far-away times when the races which make our modern Christian histories were being disposed in valleys and on the coasts of what was then the Western World. APPENDIX. THE GEOGRAPHICAL RESULTS. [Sidenote: Progress of discovery.] There was a struggling effort of the geographical sense of the world for thirty years and more after the death of Columbus, before the fact began to be grasped that a great continent was interposed as a substantial and independent barrier in the track to India. It took nearly a half century more before men generally recognized that fact, and then in most cases it was accepted with the reservation of a possible Asiatic connection at the extreme north. It was something more than two hundred and twenty years from the death of Columbus before that severance at the north was incontestably established by the voyage of Bering, and a hundred and thirty years longer before at last the contour of the northern coast of the continent was established by the proof of the long-sought northwest passage in 1850. We must now, to complete the story of the influence of Columbus, rehearse somewhat concisely the narrative of this progressive outcome of that wonderful voyage of 1492. The spirit of western discovery, which Columbus imparted, was of long continuance. [Sidenote: The influence of Ptolemy and his career.] "If we wish to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted," says Dr. Kohl, "with the history of discovery in the New World, we must not only follow the navigators on their ships, but we must look into the cabinets of princes and into the counting-houses of merchants, and likewise watch the scholars in their speculative studies." There was no rallying point for the scholar of cosmography in those early days of discovery like the text and influence of Ptolemy. We know little of this ancient geographer beyond the fact of his living in the early portion of the second century, and mainly at Alexandria, the fittest home of a geographer at that time, since this Egyptian city was peerless for commerce and learning. Here he could do best what he advises all geographers to do, consult the journals of travelers, and get information of eclipses, as the same phenomena were observed at different places; such, for instance, as that of the moon noted at Arbela in the fifth, and seen at Carthage in the second hour. [Sidenote: Portolanos.] The precision of Ptolemy was covered out of sight by graphic fancies among the cosmographers of succeeding ages, till about the beginning of the fourteenth century Italy and the western Mediterranean islands began to produce those atlases of sea-charts, which have come down to us under the name of "portolanos;" and still later a new impetus was given to geographical study by the manuscripts of Ptolemy, with his maps, which began to be common in western Europe in the beginning of the fifteenth century, largely through the influence of communications with the Byzantine peoples. [Illustration: PTOLEMY. [From Reusner's _Icones_.]] The portolanos, however, never lost their importance. Nordenskiöld says that, from the great number of them still extant in Italy, we may deduce that they had a greater circulation during the sixteenth century than printed cartographical works. About five hundred of these sea-charts are known in Italian libraries, and the greater proportion of them are of Italian origin. [Sidenote: Latin text of Ptolemy.] [Sidenote: The Donis maps.] It is a composite Latin text, brought into final shape by Jacobus Angelus not far from 1400-1410, which was the basis of the early printed editions of Ptolemy. This version was for a while circulated in manuscript, sometimes with copies of the maps of the Old World having a Latinized nomenclature; and the public libraries of Europe contain here and there specimens of these early copies, one of which it is thought was known to Pierre d'Ailly. It is a question if Angelus supplied the maps which accompanied these early manuscripts, and which got into the Bologna edition of 1462 (wrongly dated for 1472), and into the metrical version of Berlingièri. These maps, whether always the same in the early manuscripts or not, were later superseded by a new set of maps made by a German cartographer, Nicolaus Donis, which he added to a revision of Angelus's Latin text. These later maps were close copies of the original Greek maps, and were accompanied by others of a similar workmanship, which represented better knowledge than the Greeks had. In 1478 these Donis maps were first engraved on copper, and were used in the later editions of 1490, and slightly corrected in those of 1507 and 1508. The engravers were Schweinheim and Buckinck, and their work, following copies of it in the edition of 1490, has been admirably reproduced in _The Facsimile Atlas_ of Nordenskiöld (Stockholm, 1889). [Illustration: DONIS, 1482.] [Sidenote: Greenland in maps.] Meanwhile, editions of the text of Angelus had been issued at Ulm in 1482, and giving additions in 1486, with woodcut maps, the same in both issues on a different projection, assigned to Dominus Nicolaus Germanus, who had, according to Nordenskiöld, completed the manuscript fifteen years earlier. It is significant, perhaps, of the slowness with which the bruit of Portuguese discoveries to the south had traveled that there is in the maps of Africa no extension of Ptolemy's knowledge. But if they are deficient in the south, they are remarkable in the north for showing the coming America in a delineation of Greenland, which, as we have already pointed out, was no new object in the manuscript portolanos, even as far back as the early part of the same century. [Illustration: RUYSCH, 1508.] Two years after the death of Columbus, we find in the edition of 1508, and sometimes in the edition of 1507,--there is no difference between the two issues except in the title-page,--the first engraved map which has particular reference to the new geographical developments of the age. [Sidenote: 1507-8. The Ruysch map.] This Ruysch map shows the African coast discoveries of the Portuguese, with the discoveries of Marco Polo towards the east. In connection with the latter, the same material which Behaim had used in his globe seems to have been equally accessible to Ruysch. The latter's map has a legend on the sea between Iceland and Greenland, saying that an island situated there was burnt up in 1456. This statement has been connected by some with another contained in the Sagas, that from an island in this channel both Greenland and Iceland could be seen. We also learn from another legend that Portuguese vessels had pushed down the South American coast to 50° south latitude, and the historians of these early voyages have been unable to say who the pioneers were who have left us so early a description of Brazil. [Sidenote: Columbus and the Ruysch map.] It is inferred from a reference of Beneventanus, in his Ptolemy, respecting this map, that some aid had been derived from a map made by one of the Columbuses, and a statement that Bartholomew Columbus, in Rome in 1505, gave a map of the new discoveries to a canon of San Giovanni di Laterano has been thought to refer to such a map, which would, if it could be established, closely connect the Ruysch map with Columbus. It is also supposed to have some relation to Cabot, since a voyage which Ruysch made to the new regions westward from England may have been, and probably was, with that navigator. In this case, the reference to that part of the coast of Asia which the English discovered may record Ruysch's personal experiences. If these things can be considered as reasonably established, it gives great interest to this map of Ruysch, and connects Columbus not only with the earliest manuscript map, La Cosa of 1500, but also with the earliest engraved map of the New World, as Ruysch's map was. [Sidenote: Sources of the Ruysch map.] In speaking of the Ruysch map, Henry Stevens thinks that the cartographer laid down the central archipelago of America from the printed letter of Columbus, because it was the only account in print in 1507; but why restrict the sources of information to those in print, when La Cosa's map might have been copied, or the material which La Cosa employed might have been used by others, and when the Cantino map is a familiar copy of Portuguese originals, all of which might well have been known in the varied circles with which Ruysch is seen by his map to have been familiar? [Sidenote: Portuguese geography and maps.] While it is a fact that central and northern Europe got its cartographical knowledge of the New World almost wholly from Portugal, owing, perhaps, to the exertions of Spain to preserve their explorers' secrets, we do not, at the same time, find a single engraved Portuguese map of the early years of this period of discovery. [Sidenote: Portuguese portolano.] [Sidenote: Pedro Reinel.] A large map, to show the Portuguese discoveries during years then recent, was probably made for King Emanuel, and it has come down to us, being preserved now at Munich. This chart wholly omits the Spanish work of exploration, and records only the coasts coursed by Cabral in the south, and by the Cortereals in the north. We have a further and similar record in the chart of Pedro Reinel, which could not have been made far from the same time, and which introduces to us the same prominent cape which in La Cosa's map had been called the English cape as "Cavo Razo," a name preserved to us to-day in the Cape Race of Newfoundland. [Illustration: THE SO-CALLED ADMIRAL'S MAP.] [Sidenote: Spain and Portugal conceal their geographical secrets.] There is abundant evidence of the non-communicative policy of Spain. This secretiveness was understood at the time Robert Thorne, in 1527, complained, as well as Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his _Discoverie_, that a similar injunction was later laid by Portugal. In Veitia Linage's _Norte_ we read of the cabinets in which these maps were preserved, and how the Spanish pilot major and royal cosmographer alone kept the keys. There exists a document by which one of the companions of Magellan was put under a penalty of two thousand ducats not to disclose the route he traversed in that famous voyage. We know how Columbus endeavored to conceal the route of his final voyage, in which he reached the coast of Veragua. [Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1532.] [Illustration: GLOBUS MUNDI.] [Sidenote: A strait to India.] In the two maps of nearly equal date, being the earliest engraved charts which we have, the Ruysch map of 1508 and the so-called Admiral's map of 1507 (1513), the question of a strait leading to the Asiatic seas, which Columbus had spent so much energy in trying to find during his last voyage, is treated differently. We have seen that La Cosa confessed his uncertain knowledge by covering the place with a vignette. In the Ruysch map there is left the possibility of such a passage; in the other there is none, for the main shore is that of Asia itself, whose coast line uninterruptedly connects with that of South America. The belief in such a strait in due time was fixed, and lingered even beyond the time when Cortes showed there was no ground for it. We find it in Schöner's globes, in the Tross gores, and even so late as 1532, in the belated map of Münster. [Illustration: EDEN.] [Sidenote: Earliest map to show America made north of the Alps.] The map of the _Globus Mundi_ (Strassburg, 1509) has some significance as being the earliest issued north of the Alps, recording both the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries; though it merely gives the projecting angle of the South American coast as representing the developments of the west. [Sidenote: English references to America.] [Sidenote: Richard Eden.] It is doubtful if any reference to the new discoveries had appeared in English literature before Alexander Barclay produced in 1509 a translation of Brant's _Ship of Fools_, and for a few years there were only chance references which made no impression on the literary instincts of the time. It was not till after the middle of the century, in 1553, that Richard Eden, translating a section of Sebastian Münster's _Cosmographia_, published it in London as a _Treatyse of the newe India_, and English-reading people first saw a considerable account of what the rest of Europe had been doing in contrast with the English maritime apathy. Two years later (1555), Eden, drawing this time upon Peter Martyr, did much in his _Decades of the Newe World_ to enlarge the English conceptions. [Sidenote: The naming of America.] But the most striking and significant of all the literary movements which grew out of the new oceanic developments was that which gave a name to the New World, and has left a continent, which Columbus unwittingly found, the monument of another's fame. [Sidenote: 1504. September. Letter of Vespucius.] It was in September, 1504, that Vespucius, remembering an old schoolmate in Florence, Piero Soderini, who was then the perpetual Gonfalonière of that city, took what it is supposed he had written out at length concerning his experiences in the New World, and made an abstract of it in Italian. Dating this on the 4th of that month, he dispatched it to Italy. It is a question whether the original of this abridged text of Vespucius is now known, though Varnhagen, with a confidence few scholars have shared, has claimed such authenticity for a text which he has printed. [Sidenote: St. Dié.] [Sidenote: Duke René.] It concerns us chiefly to know that somehow a copy of this condensed narrative of Vespucius came into the hands of his fellow-townsman, Fra Giovanni Giocondo, then in Paris at work as an architect constructing a bridge over the Seine. It is to be allowed that R. H. Major, in tracing the origin of the French text, assumes something to complete his story, and that this precise genesis of the narrative which was received by Duke René of Lorraine is open to some question. The supposition that a young Alsatian, then in Paris, Mathias Ringmann, had been a friend of Giocondo, and had been the bearer of this new version to René, is likewise a conjecture. Whether Ringmann was such a messenger or not matters little, but the time was fast approaching when this young man was to be associated with a proposition made in the little village of St. Dié, in the Vosges, which was one of those obscure but far-reaching mental premonitions so often affecting the world's history, without the backing of great names or great events. This almost unknown place was within the domain of this same Duke René, a wise man, who liked scholars and scholarly tomes. His patronage had fostered there a small college and a printing-press. There had been grouped around these agencies a number of learned men, or those ambitious of knowledge. Scholars in other parts of Europe, when they heard of this little coterie, wondered how its members had congregated there. One Walter Lud, or Gualterus Ludovicus, as they liked to Latinize his name, a dependent and secretary of Duke René, was now a man not much under sixty, and he had been the grouper and manager of this body of scholars. There had lately been brought to join them this same Mathias Ringmann, who came from Paris with all the learning that he had tried to imbibe under the tutoring of Dr. John Faber. If we believe the story as Major has worked it out, Ringmann had come to this sparse community with all the fervor for the exploits of Vespucius which he got in the French capital from associating with that Florentine's admirer, the architect Giocondo. [Illustration: VESPUCIUS.] Coming to St. Dié, Ringmann had been made a professor of Latin, and with the usual nominal alternation had become known as Philesius; and as such he appears a little later in connection with a Latin version of the French of Giocondo, which was soon made by another of the St. Dié scholars, a canon of the cathedral there, Jean Bassin de Sandacourt. Still another young man, Walter Waldseemüller, had not long before been made a teacher of geography in the college, and his name, as was the wont, had been classicized into Hylacomylus. There have now been brought before the reader all the actors in this little St. Dié drama, upon which we, as Americans, must gaze back through the centuries as upon the baptismal scene of a continent. [Sidenote: Waldseemüller.] [Sidenote: _Cosmographiæ Introductio._] The Duke had emphasized the cosmographical studies of the age by this appointment of an energetic young student of geography, who seems to have had a deft hand at map-making. Waldseemüller had some hand, at least, in fashioning a map of the new discoveries at the west, and the Duke had caused the map to be engraved, and we find a stray note of sales of it singly as early as 1507, though it was not till 1513 that it fairly got before the world in the Ptolemy of that year. Waldseemüller had also developed out of these studies a little cosmographical treatise, which the college press was set to work upon, and to swell it to the dignity of a book, thin as it still was, the diminutive quarto was made to include Bassin's Latin version of the Vespucius narrative, set out with some Latin verses by Ringmann. The little book called _Cosmographiæ Introductio_ was brought out at this obscure college press in St. Dié, in April and August, 1507. There were some varieties in each of these issues, while that part which constituted the Vespucius narrative was further issued in a separate publication. [Illustration: TITLE OF THE COSMOGRAPHIÆ INTRODUCTIO.] It was in this form that Vespucius's narrative was for the first time, unless Varnhagen's judgment to the contrary is superior to all others, brought before the world. The most significant quality of the little book, however, was the proposition which Waldseemüller, with his anonymous views on cosmography, advanced in the introductory parts. It is assumed by writers on the subject that it was not Waldseemüller alone who was responsible for the plan there given to name that part of the New World which Americus Vespucius had described after the voyager who had so graphically told his experiences on its shores. The plan, it is supposed, met with the approval of, or was the outcome of the counsels of, this little band of St. Dié scholars collectively. It is not the belief of students generally that this coterie, any more than Vespucius himself, ever imagined that the new regions were really disjoined from the Asiatic main, though Varnhagen contends that Vespucius knew they were. [Sidenote:_Mundus Novus._] One thing is certainly true: that there wasno intention to apply the name which was now proposed to anything more than the continental mass of the Brazilian shore which Vespucius had coasted, and which was looked upon as a distinct region from the islands which Columbus had traversed. It had come to be believed that the archipelago of Columbus was far from the paradise of luxury and wealth that his extravagant terms called for, and which the descriptions of Marco Polo had led the world to expect, supposing the regions of the overland and oceanic discoverers to be the same. Further than this, a new expectation had been aroused by the reports which had come to Europe of the vaster proportions and of the brilliant paroquets--for such trivial aspects gave emphasis--of the more southern regions. It was an instance of the eagerness with which deluded minds, to atone for their first disappointment, grasp at the chances of a newer satisfaction. This was the hope which was entertained of this _Mundus Novus_ of Vespucius,--not a new world in the sense of a new continent. The Española and its neighboring regions of Columbus, and the Baccalaos of Cabot and Cortereal, clothed in imagination with the descriptions of Marco Polo, were nothing but the Old World approached from the east instead of from the west. It was different with the _Mundus Novus_ of Vespucius. Here was in reality a new life and habitation, doubtless connected, but how it was not known, with the great eastern world of the merchants. It corresponded with nothing, so far as understood, in the Asiatic chorography. It was ready for a new name, and it was alone associated with the man who had, in the autumn of 1502, so described it, and from no one else could its name be so acceptably taken. Europe and Asia were geographically contiguous, and so might be Asia and the new "America." [Sidenote: Eclipse of Columbus's name.] The sudden eclipse which the name of Columbus underwent, as the fame of Vespucius ran through the popular mind, was no unusual thing in the vicissitudes of reputations. Factitious prominence is gained without great difficulty by one or for one, if popular issues of the press are worked in his interest, and if a great variety of favoring circumstances unite in giving currency to rumors and reports which tend to invest him with exclusive interest. The curious public willingly lends itself to any end that taxes nothing but its credulity and good nature. [Sidenote: Fame of Vespucius.] We have associated with Vespucius just the elements of such a success, while the fame of Columbus was waning to the death, namely: a stretch of continental coast, promising something more than the scattered trifles of an insalubrious archipelago; a new southern heavens, offering other glimpses of immensity; descriptions that were calculated to replace in new variety and mystery the stale stories of Cipango and Cathay: the busy yearnings of a group of young and ardent spirits, having all the apparatus of a press to apply to the making of a public sentiment; and the enthusiasm of narrators who sought to season their marvels of discovery with new delights and honors. The hold which Vespucius had seized upon the imagination of Europe, and which doubtless served to give him prominence in the popular appreciation, as it has served many a ready and picturesque writer since, was that glowing redundancy of description, both of the earth and the southern constellations, which forms so conspicuous a feature of his narratives. It was the later voyage of Vespucius, and not his alleged voyage of 1497, which raised, as Humboldt has pointed out, the great interest which his name suggested. [Sidenote: Columbus and Vespucius.] Just what the notion prevailing at the time was of the respective exploits of Columbus and Vespucius is easily gathered from a letter dated May 20, 1506, which appears in a _Dyalogus Johannis Stamler de diversarum gencium sectis, et mundi regionibus_, published in 1508. In this treatise a reference is made to the letters of Columbus (1493) and Vespucius (1503) as concerning an insular and continental space respectively. It speaks of "Cristofer Colom, the discoverer of _new islands_, and of Albericus Vespucius concerning the new discovered _world_, to both of whom our age is most largely indebted." It will be remembered that an early misnaming of Vespucius by calling him Albericus instead of Americus, which took place in one of the early editions of his narrative, remained for some time to confuse the copiers of them. [Sidenote: Vespucius on gravitation.] If we may judge from a diagram which Vespucius gives of a globe with two standing men on it ninety degrees apart, each dropping a line to the centre of the earth, this navigator had grasped, together with the idea of the sphericity of the globe, the essential conditions of gravitation. There could be no up-hill sailing when the zenith was always overhead. Curiously enough, the supposition of Columbus, when as he sailed on his third voyage he found the air grow colder, was that he was actually sailing up-hill, ascending a protuberance of the earth which was like the stem end of a pear, with the crowning region of the earthly paradise atop of all! Such contrasts show the lesser navigator to be the greater physicist, and they go not a small way in accounting for the levelness of head which gained the suffrages of the wise. * * * * * [Illustration: PART OF MAP IN THE PTOLEMY OF 1513.] [Illustration: PART OF MAP IN THE PTOLEMY OF 1513.] [Sidenote: 1508. Duke René died.] [Sidenote: 1509. _Globus Mundi._] When Duke René, upon whom so much had depended in the little community at St. Dié, died, in 1508, the geographical printing schemes of Waldseemüller and his fellows received a severe reverse, and for a few years we hear nothing more of the edition of Ptolemy which had been planned. The next year (1509), Waldseemüller, now putting his name to his little treatise, was forced, because of the failure of the college press, to go to Strassburg to have a new edition of it printed (1509). The proposals for naming the continental discoveries of Vespucius seem not in the interim to have excited any question, and so they are repeated. We look in vain in the copy of this edition which Ferdinand Columbus bought at Venice in July, 1521, and which is preserved at Seville, for any marginal protest. The author of the _Historie_, how far soever Ferdinand may have been responsible for that book, is equally reticent. There was indeed no reason why he should take any exception. The fitness of the appellation was accepted as in no way invalidating the claim of Columbus to discoveries farther to the north; and in another little tract, printed at the same time at Grüniger's Strassburg press, the anonymous _Globus Mundi_, the name "America" is adopted in the text, though the small bit of the new coast shown in its map is called by a translation of Vespucius's own designation merely "_Newe Welt_." [Sidenote: 1513. The Strassburg Ptolemy.] The Ptolemy scheme bore fruit at last, and at Strassburg, also, for here the edition whose maps are associated with the name of Waldseemüller, and whose text shows some of the influence of a Greek manuscript of the old geographer which Ringmann had earlier brought from Italy, came out in 1513. Here was a chance, in a book far more sure to have influence than the little anonymous tract of 1507, to impress the new name America upon the world of scholars and observers, and the opportunity was not seized. It is not easy to divine the cause of such an omission. The edition has two maps which show this Vespucian continent in precisely the same way, though but one of them shows also to its full extent the region of Columbus's explorations. On one of these maps the southern regions have no designation whatever, and on the other, the "Admiral's map," there is a legend stretched across it, assigning the discovery of the region to Columbus. We do not know, in all the contemporary literature which has come down to us, that up to 1513 there had been any rebuke at the ignorance or temerity which appeared in its large bearing to be depriving Columbus of a rightful honor. That in 1509 Waldseemüller should have enforced the credit given to Vespucius, and in 1513 revoked it in favor of Columbus, seems to indicate qualms of conscience of which we have no other trace. Perhaps, indeed, this reversion of sympathy is of itself an evidence that Waldseemüller had less to do with the edition than has been supposed. It is too much to assert that Waldseemüller repented of his haste, but the facts in one light would indicate it. [Sidenote: The name America begins to be accepted.] [Illustration: THE TROSS GORES.] Like many such headlong projects, however, the purpose had passed beyond the control of its promoters. The euphony, if not the fitness, of the name America had attracted attention, and there are several printed and manuscript globes and maps in existence which at an early date adopted that designation for the southern continent. Nordenskiöld (_Facsimile Atlas_, p. 42) quotes from the commentaries of the German Coclæus, contained in the _Meteorologia Aristotelis_ of Jacobus Faber (Nuremberg, 1512) a passage referring to the "Nova Americi terra." [Sidenote: 1516-17. First in a map.] To complicate matters still more, within a few years after this an undated edition of Waldseemüller's tract appeared at Lyons,--perhaps without his participation,--which was always found, down to 1881, without a map, though the copies known were very few; but in that year a copy with a map was discovered, now owned by an American collector, in which the proposition of the text is enforced with the name America on the representation of South America. A section of this map is here given as the Tross Gores. In the present condition of our knowledge of the matter, it was thus at a date somewhere about 1516-17 that the name appeared first in any printed map, unless, indeed, we allow a somewhat earlier date to two globes in the Hauslab collection at Vienna. On the date of these last objects there is, however, much difference of opinion, and one of them has been depicted and discussed in the _Mittheilungen_ of the Geographische Gesellschaft (1886, p. 364) of Vienna. Here, as in the descriptive texts, it must be clearly kept in mind, however, that no one at this date thought of applying the name to more than the land which Vespucius had found stretching south beyond the equator on the east side of South America, and which Balboa had shown to have a similar trend on the west. The islands and region to the north, which Columbus and Cabot had been the pioneers in discovering, still remained a mystery in their relations to Asia, and there was yet a long time to elapse before the truth should be manifest to all, that a similar expanse of ocean lay westerly at the north, as was shown by Balboa to extend in the same direction at the south. [Illustration: THE HAUSLAB GLOBE.] This Vespucian baptism of South America now easily worked its way to general recognition. It is found in a contemporary set of gores which Nordenskiöld has of late brought to light, and was soon adopted by the Nuremberg globe-maker, Schöner (1515, etc.); by Vadianus at Vienna, when editing Pomponius Mela (1515); by Apian on a map used in an edition of Solinus, edited by Camers (1520); and by Lorenz Friess, who had been of Duke René's coterie and a correspondent of Vespucius, on a map introduced into the Grüniger Ptolemy, published at Strassburg (1522), which also reproduced the Waldseemüller map of 1513. This is the earliest of the Ptolemies in which we find the name accepted on its maps. [Sidenote: 1522. The name first in a Ptolemy.] [Illustration: THE NORDENSKIÖLD GORES.] [Illustration: APIANUS, 1520.] [Illustration: SCHÖNER GLOBE, 1515.] [Illustration: FRIESS (_Frisius_), IN THE PTOLEMY OF 1522.] There is one significant fact concerning the conflict of the Crown with the heirs of Columbus, which followed upon the Admiral's death, and in which the advocates of the government sought to prove that the claim of Columbus to have discovered the continental shore about the Gulf of Paria in 1498 was not to be sustained in view of visits by others at an earlier date. This significant fact is that Vespucius is not once mentioned during the litigation. It is of course possible, and perhaps probable, that it was for the interests of both parties to keep out of view a servant of Portugal trenching upon what was believed to be Spanish territories. The same impulse could hardly have influenced Ferdinand Columbus in the silent acquiescence which, as a contemporary informs us, was his attitude towards the action of the St. Dié professors. There seems little doubt of his acceptance of a view, then undoubtedly common, that there was no conflict of the claims of the respective navigators, because their different fields of exploration had not brought such claims in juxtaposition. [Sidenote: Who first landed on the southern main?] [Sidenote: Vespucius's maps.] [Sidenote: Vespucius not privy to the naming.] Following, however, upon the assertion of Waldseemüller, that Vespucius had "found" this continental tract needing a name, there grew up a belief in some quarters, and deducible from the very obscure chronology of his narrative, which formulated itself in a statement that Vespucius had really been the first to set foot on any part of this extended main. It was here that very soon the jealousy of those who had the good name of Columbus in their keeping began to manifest itself, and some time after 1527,--if we accept that year as the date of his beginning work on the _Historie_,--Las Casas, who had had some intimate relations with Columbus, tells us that the report was rife of Vespucius himself being privy to such pretensions. Unless Las Casas, or the reporters to whom he referred, had material of which no one now has knowledge, it is certain that there is no evidence connecting Vespucius with the St. Dié proposition, and it is equally certain that evidence fails to establish beyond doubt the publication of any map bearing the name America while Vespucius lived. He had been made pilot major of Spain March 22, 1508, and had died February 22, 1512. We have no chart made by Vespucius himself, though it is known that in 1518 such a chart was in the possession of Ferdinand, brother of Charles the Fifth. The recovery of this chart would doubtless render a signal service in illuminating this and other questions of early American cartography. It might show us how far, if at all, Vespucius "sinfully failed towards the Admiral," as Las Casas reports of him, and adds: "If Vespucius purposely gave currency to this belief of his first setting foot on the main, it was a great wickedness; and if it was not done intentionally, it looks like it." With all this predisposition, however, towards an implication of Vespucius, Las Casas was cautious enough to consider that, after all, it may have been the St. Dié coterie who were alone responsible for starting the rumor. [Sidenote: "America" not used in Spain.] [Sidenote: 1541. Mercator first applied the name to both North and South America.] It is very clear that in Spain there had been no recognition of the name "America," nor was it ever officially recognized by the Spanish government. Las Casas understood that it had been applied by "foreigners," who had, as he says, "called America what ought to be called Columba." Just what date should attach to this protest of Las Casas is not determinable. If it was later than the gore-map of Mercator in 1541, which was the first, so far as is known, to apply the name to both North and South America, there is certainly good reason for the disquietude of Las Casas. If it was before that, it was because, with the progress of discovery, it had become more and more clear that all parts of the new regions were component parts of an absolutely new continent, upon which the name of the first discoverer of any part of it, main or insular, ought to have been bestowed. That it should be left to "foreign writers," as Las Casas said, to give a name representing a rival interest to a world that Spanish enterprise had made known was no less an indignity to Spain than to her great though adopted Admiral. [Sidenote: Spread of the name in central Europe.] It happens that the suggestion which sprang up in the Vosges worked steadily onward through the whole of central Europe. That it had so successful a propagation is owing, beyond a doubt, as much to the exclusive spirit of the Spanish government in keeping to itself its hydrographical progress as to any other cause. We have seen how the name spread through Germany and Austria. It was taken up by Stobnicza in Poland in 1512, in a Cracow introduction to Ptolemy; and many other of the geographical writers of central and southern Europe adopted the designation. The _New Interlude_, published in England in 1519, had used it, and towards the middle of the century the fame of Vespucius had occupied England, so far as Sir Thomas More and William Cunningham represent it, to the almost total obscuration of Columbus. It was but a question of time when Vespucius would be charged with promoting his own glory by borrowing the plumes of Columbus. Whether Las Casas, in what has been quoted, initiated such accusations or not, the account of that writer was in manuscript and could have had but small currency. [Sidenote: 1533. Schöner accuses Vespucius of participation in the injustice.] The first accusation in print, so far as has been discovered, came from the German geographer, Johann Schöner, who, having already in his earlier globes adopted the name America, now in a tract called _Opusculum Geographicum_, which he printed at Nuremberg in 1533, openly charged Vespucius with attaching his own name to a region of India Superior. Two years later, Servetus, while he repeated in his Ptolemy of 1535 the earlier maps bearing the name America, entered in his text a protest against its use by alleging distinctly that Columbus was earlier than Vespucius in finding the new main. Within a little more than a year from the death of Vespucius, and while the maps assigned to Waldseemüller were pressed on the attention of scholars, the integralness of the great southern continent, to which a name commemorating Americus had been given, was made manifest, or at least probable, by the discovery of Balboa. * * * * * [Sidenote: A barrier suspected.] Let us now see how the course of discovery was finding record during these early years of the sixteenth century in respect to the great but unsuspected barrier which actually interposed in the way of those who sought Asia over against Spain. [Sidenote: Discoveries in the north.] [Sidenote: 1504. Normans and Bretons.] In the north, the discoveries of the English under Cabot, and of the Portuguese under the Cortereals, soon led the Normans and Bretons from Dieppe and Saint Malo to follow in the wake of such predecessors. As early as 1504 the fishermen of these latter peoples seem to have been on the northern coasts, and we owe to them the name of Cape Breton, which is thought to be the oldest French name in our American geography. It is the "Gran Capitano" of Ramusio who credits the Bretons with these early visits at the north, though we get no positive cartographical record of such visits till 1520, in a map which is given by Kunstmann in his _Atlas_. [Sidenote: 1505. Portuguese.] Again, in 1505, some Portuguese appear to have been on the Newfoundland coast under the royal patronage of Henry VII. of England, and by 1506 the Portuguese fishermen were regular frequenters of the Newfoundland banks. We find in the old maps Portuguese names somewhat widely scattered on the neighboring coast lines, for the frequenting of the region by the fishermen of that nation continued well towards the close of the century. [Sidenote: 1506. Spaniards.] There are also stories of one Velasco, a Spaniard, visiting the St. Lawrence in 1506, and Juan de Agramonte in 1511 entered into an agreement with the Spanish King to pursue discovery in these parts more actively, but we have no definite knowledge of results. [Sidenote: 1517. Sebastian Cabot.] [Sidenote: 1521. Portuguese.] The death of Ferdinand, January 23, 1516, would seem to have put a stop to a voyage which had already been planned for Spain by Sebastian Cabot, to find a northwest passage; but the next year (1517) Cabot, in behalf of England, had sailed to Hudson's Strait, and thence north to 67° 30', finding "no night there," and observing extraordinary variations of the compass. Somewhat later there are the very doubtful claims of the Portuguese to explorations under Fagundes about the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1521. [Sidenote: 1506. Ango's captains.] [Sidenote: Denys's map.] [Sidenote: 1518. Léry.] By 1506 also there is something like certainty respecting the Normans, and under the influence of a notable Dieppese, Jean Ango, we soon meet a class of adventurous mariners tempting distant and marvelous seas. We read of Pierre Crignon, and Thomas Aubert, both of Dieppe, Jean Denys of Honfleur, and Jean Parmentier, all of whom have come down to us through the pages of Ramusio. It is of Jean Denys in 1506, and of Thomas Aubert a little later, that we find the fullest recitals. To Denys there has been ascribed a mysterious chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; but if the copy which is preserved represents it, there can be no hesitation in discarding it as a much later cartographical record. The original is said to have been found in the archives of the ministry of war in Paris so late as 1854, but no such map is found there now. The copy which was made for the Canadian archives is at Ottawa, and I have been favored by the authorities there with a tracing of it. No one of authority will be inclined to dispute the judgment of Harrisse that it is apocryphal. We are accordingly left in uncertainty just how far at this time the contour of the Golfo Quadrago, as the Gulf of St. Lawrence was called, was made out. Aubert is said to have brought to France seven of the natives of the region in 1509. Ten years or more later (1519, etc.), the Baron de Léry is thought to have attempted a French settlement thereabouts, of which perhaps the only traces were some European cattle, the descendants of his small herd landed there in 1528, which were found on Sable Island many years later. [Sidenote: 1526. Nicholas Don.] We know from Herrera that in 1526 Nicholas Don, a Breton, was fishing off Baccalaos, and Rut tells us that in 1527 Norman and Breton vessels were pulling fish on the shores of Newfoundland. Such mentions mark the early French knowledge of these northern coasts, but there is little in it all to show any contribution to geographical developments. [Illustration: PETER MARTYR, 1511.] [Illustration: PONCE DE LEON. [From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] [Sidenote: Attempts to connect the northern discoveries with those of the Spanish.] [Sidenote: 1511. Peter Martyr's map.] [Sidenote: 1512. Ponce de Leon.] [Sidenote: 1513. March.] [Sidenote: Florida.] Before this, however, the first serious attempt of which we have incontrovertible evidence was made to connect these discoveries in the north with those of the Spanish in the Antilles. As early as 1511 the map given by Peter Martyr had shown that, from the native reports or otherwise, a notion had arisen of lands lying north of Cuba. In 1512 Ponce de Leon was seeking a commission to authorize him to go and see what this reported land was like, with its fountain of youth. He got it February 23, 1512, when Ferdinand commissioned him "to find and settle the island of Bimini," if none had already been there, or if Portugal had not already acquired possession in any part that he sought. Delays in preparation postponed the actual departure of his expedition from Porto Rico till March, 1513. On the 23d of that month, Easter Sunday, he struck the mainland somewhere opposite the Bahamas, and named the country Florida, from the day of the calendar. He tracked the coast northward to a little above 30° north latitude. Then he retraced his way, and rounding the southern cape, went well up the western side of the peninsula. Whether any stray explorers had been before along this shore may be a question. Private Spanish or Portuguese adventurers, or even Englishmen, had not been unknown in neighboring waters some years earlier, as we have evidence. We find certainly in this voyage of Ponce de Leon for the first time an unmistakable official undertaking, which we might expect would soon have produced its cartographical record. The interdicts of the Council of the Indies were, however, too powerful, and the old lines of the Cantino map still lingered in the maps for some years, though by 1520 the Floridian peninsula began to take recognizable shape in certain Spanish maps. [Illustration: PONCE DE LEON'S TRACK.] [Sidenote: Bimini.] Just what stood for Bimini in the reports of this expedition is not clear; but there seems to have been a vague notion of its not being the same as Florida, for when Ponce de Leon got a new patent in September, 1514, he was authorized to settle both "islands," Bimini and Florida, and Diego Colon as viceroy was directed to help on the expedition. Seven years, however, passed in delays, so that it was not till 1521 that he attempted to make a settlement, but just at what point is not known. Sickness and loss in encounters with the Indians soon discouraged him, and he returned to Cuba to die of an arrow wound received in one of the forays of the natives. [Sidenote: 1519. Pineda.] It was still a question if Florida connected with any adjacent lands. Several minor expeditions had added something to the stretch of coast, but the main problem still stood unsolved. In 1519 Pineda had made the circuit of the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and at the river Panuco he had been challenged by Cortes as trenching on his government. Turning again eastward, Pineda found the mouth of the river named by him Del Espiritu Santo, which passes with many modern students as the first indication in history of the great Mississippi, while others trace the first signs of that river to Cabeça de Vaca in 1528, or to the passage higher up its current by De Soto in 1541. Believing it at first the long-looked-for strait to pass to the Indies, Pineda entered it, only to be satisfied that it must gather the watershed of a continent, which in this part was now named Amichel. It seemed accordingly certain that no passage to the west was to be found in this part of the gulf, and that Florida must be more than an island. [Sidenote: 1520. Ayllon.] [Sidenote: Spaniards in Virginia.] While these explorations were going on in the gulf, others were conducted on the Atlantic side of Florida. If the Pompey Stone which has been found in New York State, to the confusion of historical students, be accepted as genuine, it is evidence that the Spaniard had in 1520 penetrated from some point on the coast to that region. In 1520 we get demonstrable proof, when Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon sent a caravel under Gordillo, which joined company on the way with another vessel bound on a slave-hunting expedition, and the two, proceeding northward, sighted the main coast at a river which they found to be in thirty-three and a half degrees of north latitude, on the South Carolina coast. They returned without further exploration. Ayllon, without great success, attempted further explorations in 1525; but in 1526 he went again with greater preparations, and made his landfall a little farther north, near the mouth of the Wateree River, which he called the Jordan, and sailed on to the Chesapeake, where, with the help of negro slaves, then first introduced into this region, he began the building of a town at or near the spot where the English in the next century founded Jamestown; or at least this is the conjecture of Dr. Shea. Here Ayllon died of a pestilential fever October 18, 1526, when the disheartened colonists, one hundred and fifty out of the original five hundred, returned to Santo Domingo. [Illustration: THE AYLLON MAP.] [Sidenote: 1524. Gomez.] [Sidenote: Chaves's map.] [Sidenote: 1529. Ribero's map.] While these unfortunate experiences were in progress, Estevan Gomez, sent by the Spanish government, after the close of the conference at Badajos, to make sure that there was no passage to the Moluccas anywhere along this Atlantic coast, started in the autumn of 1524, if the data we have admit of that conclusion as to the time, from Corunna, in the north of Spain. He proceeded at once, as Charles V. had directed him, to the Baccalaos region, striking the mainland possibly at Labrador, and then turned south, carefully examining all inlets. We have no authoritative narrative sanctioned by his name, or by that of any one accompanying the expedition; nor has the map which Alonso Chaves made to conform to what was reported by Gomez been preserved, but the essential features of the exploration are apparently embodied in the great map of Ribero (1529), and we have sundry stray references in the later chroniclers. From all this it would seem that Gomez followed the coast southward to the point of Florida, and made it certain to most minds that no such passage to India existed, though there was a lingering suspicion that the Gulf of St. Lawrence had not been sufficiently explored. * * * * * [Sidenote: Shores of the Caribbean Sea.] [Sidenote: Ojeda and Nicuessa.] Let us turn now to the southern shores of the Caribbean Sea. New efforts at colonizing here were undertaken in 1508-9. By this time the coast had been pretty carefully made out as far as Honduras, largely through the explorations of Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa. The scheme was a dual one, and introduces us to two new designations of the regions separated by that indentation of the coast known as the Gulf of Uraba. Here Ojeda and Nicuessa were sent to organize governments, and rule their respective provinces of Nueva Andalusia and Castilla del Oro for the period of four years. Mention has already been made of this in the preceding chapter. They delayed getting to their governments, quarreled for a while about their bounds on each other, fought the natives with desperation but not with much profit, lost La Cosa in one of the encounters, and were thwarted in their purpose of holding Jamaica as a granary and in getting settlers from Española by the alertness of Diego Colon, who preferred to be tributary to no one. All this had driven Ojeda to great stress in the little colony of San Sebastian which he had founded. He attempted to return for aid to Española, and was wrecked on the voyage. This caused him to miss his lieutenant Enciso, who was on his way to him with recruits. So Ojeda passes out of history, except so far as he tells his story in the testimony he gave in the suit of the heirs of Columbus in 1513-15. [Sidenote: Pizarro.] [Illustration: BALBOA. [From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] New heroes were coming on. A certain Pizarro had been left in command by Ojeda,--not many years afterwards to be heard of. One Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a poor and debt-burdened fugitive, was on board of Enciso's ship, and had wit enough to suggest that a region like San Sebastian, inhabited by tribes which used poisoned arrows, was not the place for a colony struggling for existence and dependent on foraging. So they removed the remnants of the colony, which Enciso had turned back as they were escaping, to the other side of the bay, and in this way the new settlement came within the jurisdiction of Nicuessa, whom a combination soon deposed and shipped to sea, never to be heard of. It was in these commotions that Vasco Nuñez de Balboa brought himself into a prominence that ended in his being commissioned by Diego Colon as governor of the new colony. He had, meanwhile, got more knowledge of a great sea at the westward than Columbus had acquired on the coast of Veragua in 1503. Balboa rightly divined that its discovery, if he could effect it, would serve him a good purpose in quieting any jealousies of his rule, of which he was beginning to observe symptoms. [Sidenote: 1513. Balboa and the South Sea.] So on the 1st of September, 1513, he set out in the direction which the natives hadindicated, and by the 24th he had reached a mountain from the topof which his guides told him he would behold the sea. On the 25th his party ascended, himself in front, and it was not long before he stood gazing upon the distant ocean, the first of Europeans to discern the long-coveted sea. Down the other slope the Spaniards went. The path was a difficult one, and it was three days before one of his advanced squads reached the beach. Not till the next day, the 29th, did Vasco Nuñez himself join those in advance, when, striding into the tide, he took possession of the sea and its bordering lands in the name of his sovereigns. It was on Saint Miguel's Day, and the Bay of Saint Miguel marks the spot to-day. Towards the end of January, 1514, he was again with the colony at Antigua del Darien. Thence, in March, he dispatched a messenger to Spain with news of the great discovery. [Sidenote: Pedrarias.] [Sidenote: 1517. Balboa executed.] This courier did not reach Europe till after a new expedition had been dispatched under Pedrarias, and with him went a number of followers, who did in due time their part in thridding and designating these new paths of exploration. We recognize among them Hernando de Soto, Bernal Diaz, the chronicler of the exploits of Cortes, and Oviedo, the historian. It was from April till June, 1514, that Pedrarias was on his way, and it was not long before the new governor with his imposing array of strength brought the recusant Balboa to trial, out of which he emerged burdened with heavy fines. The new governor planned at once to reap the fruits of Balboa's discovery. An expedition was sent along his track, which embarked on the new sea and gathered spoils where it could. Pedrarias soon grew jealous of Balboa, for it was not without justice that the state of the augmented colony was held to compare unfavorably with the conditions which Balboa had maintained during his rule. But constancy was never of much prevalence in these days, and Balboa's chains, lately imposed, were stricken off to give him charge of an exploration of the sea which he had discovered. Once here, Balboa planned new conquests and a new independency. Pedrarias, hearing of it through a false friend of Balboa, enticed the latter into his neighborhood, and a trial was soon set on foot, which ended in the execution of Balboa and his abettors. This was in 1517. It was not long before Pedrarias removed his capital to Panama, and in 1519 and during the few following years his captains pushed their explorations northerly along the shores of the South Sea, as the new ocean had been at once called. [Sidenote: 1515. Biru.] [Sidenote: 1519. Panama founded.] As early as 1515 Pizarro and Morales had wandered down the coast southward to a region called Biru by the natives, and this was as far as adventure had carried any Spaniard, during the ten years since Balboa's discovery. They had learned here of a rich region farther on, and it got to be spoken of by the same name, or by a perversion of it, as Peru. In this interval the town of Panama had been founded (1519), and Pizarro and Almagro, with the priest Luque, were among those to whom allotments were made. [Sidenote: Peru.] [Sidenote: Chili.] [Sidenote: Chiloe.] It was by these three associates, in 1524 and 1526, that the expeditions were organized which led to the exploration of the coasts of Peru and the conquest of the region. The equator was crossed in 1526; in 1527 they reached 9° south. It was not till 1535 that, in the progress of events, a knowledge of the coast was extended south to the neighborhood of Lima, which was founded in that year. In the autumn of 1535, Almagro started south to make conquest of Chili, and the bay of Valparaiso was occupied in September, 1536. Eight years later, in 1544, explorations were pushed south to 41°. It was only in 1557 that expeditions reached the archipelago of Chiloe, and the whole coast of South America on the Pacific was made out with some detail down to the region which Magellan had skirted, as will be shortly shown. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1508. Ocampo and Cuba.] It will be remembered that in 1503 Columbus had struck the coast of Honduras west of Cape Gracias à Dios. He learned then of lands to the northwest from some Indians whom he met in a canoe, but his eagerness to find the strait of his dreams led him south. It was fourteen years before the promise of that canoe was revealed. In 1508 Ocampo had found the western extremity of Cuba, and made the oath of Columbus ridiculous. [Sidenote: 1517. Yucatan.] In 1517 a slave-hunting expedition, having steered towards the west from Cuba, discovered the shores of Yucatan; and the next year (1518) the real exploration of that region began when Juan de Grijalva, a nephew of the governor of Cuba, led thither an expedition which explored the coast of Yucatan and Mexico. [Sidenote: 1518. Cortes.] [Sidenote: 1519.] When Grijalva returned to Cuba in 1518, it was to find an expedition already planned to follow up his discoveries, and Hernando Cortes, who had been in the New World since 1504, had been chosen to lead it, with instructions to make further explorations of the coast,--a purpose very soon to become obscured in other objects. He sailed on the 17th of November, and stopped along the coast of Cuba for recruits, so it was not till February 18, 1519, that he sunk the shores of Cuba behind him, and in March he was skirting the Yucatan shore and sailed on to San Juan de Uloa. In due time, forgetting his instructions, and caring for other conquests than those of discovery, he began his march inland. The story of the conquest of Mexico does not help us in the aim now in view, and we leave it untold. [Illustration: GRIJALVA. [From Barcia's _Herrera_.]] [Sidenote: Quinsay.] It was not long after this conquest before belated apostles of the belief of Columbus appeared, urging that the capital of Montezuma was in reality the Quinsay of Marco Polo, with its great commercial interests, as was maintained by Schöner in his _Opusculum Geographicum_ in 1533. [Illustration: GLOBE GIVEN IN SCHÖNER'S _OPUSCULUM GEOGRAPHICUM_, 1533.] [Sidenote: 1520. Garay.] [Sidenote: Gulf of Mexico.] [Sidenote: 1524. Cortes's Gulf of Mexico.] [Sidenote: Yucatan as an island.] We have seen how Pineda's expedition to the northern parts of the Gulf of Mexico in 1519 had improved the knowledge of that shore, and we have a map embodying these explorations, which was sent to Spain in 1520 by Garay, then governor of Jamaica. It was now pretty clear that the blank spaces of earlier maps, leaving it uncertain if there was a passage westerly somewhere in the northwest corner of the gulf, should be filled compactly. Still, a belief that such a passage existed somewhere in the western contour of the gulf was not readily abandoned. Cortes, when he sent to Spain his sketch of the gulf, which was published there in 1524, was dwelling on the hope that some such channel existed near Yucatan, and his insular delineation of that peninsula, with a shadowy strait at its base, was eagerly grasped by the cartographers. Such a severance finds a place in the map of Maiollo of 1527, which is preserved in the Ambrosian library at Milan. Grijalva, some years earlier, had been sent, as we have seen, to sail round Yucatan; and though there are various theories about the origin of that name, it seems likely enough that the tendency to give it an insular form arose from a misconception of the Indian appellation. At all events, the island of Yucatan lingered long in the early maps. [Illustration: GULF OF MEXICO, 1520.] [Sidenote: 1523. Cortes.] In 1523 Cortes had sent expeditions up the Pacific, and one up the Atlantic side of North America, to find the wished-for passage; but in vain. * * * * * [Sidenote: Spanish and Portuguese rivalries.] Meanwhile, important movements were making by the Portuguese beyond that great sea of the south which Balboa had discovered. These movements were little suspected by the Spaniards till the development of them brought into contact these two great oceanic rivals. [Illustration: GULF OF MEXICO, BY CORTES.] [Sidenote: 1511. Moluccas.] [Sidenote: A western passage sought at the south.] The Portuguese, year after year, had extended farther and farther their conquests by the African route. Arabia, India, Malacca, Sumatra, fell under their sway, and their course was still eastward, until in 1511 the coveted land of spices, the clove and the nutmeg, was reached in the Molucca Islands. This progress of the Portuguese had been watched with a jealous eye by Spain. It was a question if, in passing to these islands, the Portuguese had not crossed the line of demarcation as carried to the antipodes. If they had, territory neighboring to the Spanish American discoveries had been appropriated by that rival power wholly unconfronted. This was simply because the Spanish navigators had not as yet succeeded in finding a passage through the opposing barrier of what they were beginning to suspect was after all an intervening land. Meanwhile, Columbus and all since his day having failed to find such a passage by way of the Caribbean Sea, and no one yet discovering any at the north, nothing was left but to seek it at the south. This was the only chance of contesting with the Portuguese the rights which occupation was establishing for them at the Moluccas. [Sidenote: 1508. Pinzon and Solis.] On the 29th of June, 1508, a new expedition left San Lucar under Pinzon and Solis. They made their landfall near Cape St. Augustine, and, passing south along the coast of what had now come to be commonly called Brazil, they traversed the opening of the broad estuary of the La Plata without knowing it, and went five degrees beyond (40° south latitude) without finding the sought-for passage. [Illustration: MAIOLLO MAP, 1527.] [Sidenote: 1511. Portuguese at Rio de Janeiro.] [Sidenote: Ferdinand Columbus and the western passage.] There is some reason to suppose that as early as 1511 the Portuguese had become in some degree familiar with the coast about Rio de Janeiro, and there is a story of one Juan de Braza settling near this striking bay at this early day. It was during the same year (1511) that Ferdinand Columbus prepared his _Colon de Concordia_, and in this he maintained the theory of a passage to be found somewhere beyond the point towards the south which the explorers had thus far reached. [Illustration: DE COSTA'S DRAWING FROM THE LENOX GLOBE.] [Sidenote: 1516. Solis.] [Illustration: SCHÖNER'S GLOBE, 1520.] [Illustration: MAGELLAN.] [Sidenote: 1519. Magellan.] A few years later (1516) the Spanish King sent Juan Diaz de Solis to search anew for a passage. He found the La Plata, and for a while hoped he had discovered the looked-for strait. Magellan, who had taken some umbrage during his Portuguese service, came finally to the Spanish King, and, on the plea that the Moluccas fell within the Spanish range under the line of demarcation, suggested an expedition to occupy them. He professed to be able to reach them by a strait which he could find somewhere to the south of the La Plata. It has long been a question if Magellan's anticipation was based simply on a conjecture that, as Africa had been found to end in a southern point, America would likewise be discovered to have a similar southern cape. It has also been a question if Magellan actually had any tidings from earlier voyages to afford a ground for believing in such a geographical fact. It is possible that other early discoverers had been less careful than Solis, and had been misled by the broad estuary of the La Plata to think that it was really an interoceanic passage. Some such intelligence would seem to have instigated the conditions portrayed in one early map, but the general notion of cartographers at the time terminates the known coast at Cape Frio, near Rio de Janeiro, as is seen to be the case in the Ptolemy map of 1513. There is a story, originating with Pigafetta, his historian, that Magellan had seen a map of Martin Behaim, showing a southern cape; but if this map existed, it revealed probably nothing more than a conjectural termination, as shown in the Lenox and earliest Schöner globes of 1515 and 1520. Still, Wieser and Nordenskiöld are far from being confident that some definite knowledge of such a cape had not been attained, probably, as it is thought, from private commercial voyage of which we may have a record in the _Newe Zeitung_ and in the _Luculentissima Descriptio_. It is to be feared that the fact, whatever it may have been, must remain shadowy. Magellan's fleet was ready in August, 1519. His preparation had been watched with jealousy by Portugal, and it was even hinted that if the expedition sailed a matrimonial alliance of Spain and Portugal which was contemplated must be broken off. Magellan was appealed to by the Portuguese ambassador to abandon his purpose, as one likely to embroil the two countries. The stubborn navigator was not to be persuaded, and the Spanish King made him governor of all countries he might discover on the "back side" of the New World. In the late days of 1519, Magellan touched the coast at Rio de Janeiro, where, remaining awhile, he enjoyed the fruits of its equable climate. Then, passing on, he crossed the mouth of the La Plata, and soon found that he had reached a colder climate and was sailing along a different coast. The verdure which had followed the warm currents from the equatorial north gave way to the concomitants of an icy flow from the Antarctic regions which made the landscape sterile. So on he went along this inhospitable region, seeking the expected strait. His search in every inlet was so faithful that he neared the southern goal but slowly. The sternness of winter caught his little barks in a harbor near 50° south latitude, and his Spanish crews, restless under the command of a Portuguese, revolted. The rebels were soon more numerous than the faithful. The position was more threatening than any Columbus had encountered, but the Portuguese had a hardy courage and majesty of command that the Genoese never could summon. Magellan confronted the rebels so boldly that they soon quailed. He was in unquestioned command of his own vessels from that time forward. The fate of the conquered rioters, Juan de Carthagena and Sanchez de la Reina, cast on the inhospitable shore of Patagonia in expiation of their offense, is in strong contrast to the easy victory which Columbus too often yielded, to those who questioned his authority. The story of Magellan's pushing his fleet southward and through the strait with a reluctant crew is that of one of the royally courageous acts of the age of discovery. [Sidenote: 1520. October. Magellan enters the strait.] On October 21, 1520, the ships entered the longed-for strait, and on the 28th of November they sailed into the new sea; then stretching their course nearly north, keeping well in sight of the coast till the Chiloe Archipelago was passed, the ships steered west of Juan Fernandez without seeing it, and subsequently gradually turned their prows towards the west. [Illustration: MAGELLAN'S STRAITS BY PIZAFETTA. [The north is at the bottom.]] [Sidenote: The western way discovered.] It is not necessary for our present purpose to follow the incidents of the rest of this wondrous voyage,--the reaching the Ladrones and the Asiatic islands, Magellan's own life sacrificed, all his ships but one abandoned or lost, the passing of the Cape of Good Hope by the "Victoria," and her arrival on September 6, 1522, under Del Cano, at the Spanish harbor from which the fleet had sailed. The Emperor bestowed on this lucky first of circumnavigators the proud motto, inscribed on a globe, "Primus circumdedisti me." The Spaniards' western way to the Moluccas was now disclosed. [Illustration: MAGELLAN'S STRAIT.] [Sidenote: Pacific Ocean.] The South Sea of Balboa, as soon as Magellan had established its extension farther south, took from Magellan's company the name Pacific, though the original name which Balboa had applied to it did not entirely go out of vogue for a long time in those portions contiguous to the waters bounding the isthmus and its adjacent lands. [Sidenote: North America and Asia held to be one.] For a long time after it was known that South America was severed, as Magellan proved, from Asia, the belief was still commonly held that North America and Asia were one and continuous. While no one ventures to suspect that Columbus had any prescience of these later developments, there are those like Varnhagen who claim a distinct insight for Vespucius; but it is by no means clear, in the passages which are cited, that Vespucius thought the continental mass of South America more distinct from Asia than Columbus did, when the volume of water poured out by the Orinoco convinced the Admiral that he was skirting a continent, and not an island. That Columbus thought to place there the region of the Biblical paradise shows that its continental features did not dissociate it from Asia. The New World of Vespucius was established by his own testimony as hardly more than a new part of Asia. [Sidenote: 1525. Loyasa.] [Sidenote: De Hoces discovers Cape Horn.] In 1525 Loyasa was sent to make further examination of Magellan's Strait. It was at this time that one of his ships, commanded by Francisco de Hoces, was driven south in February, 1526, and discovered Cape Horn, rendering the insular character of Tierra del Fuego all but certain. The fact was kept secret, and the map makers were not generally made aware of this terminal cape till Drake saw it, fifty-two years later. It was not till 1615-17 that Schouten and Lemaire made clear the eastern limits of Tierra del Fuego when they discovered the passage between that island and Staten Island, and during the same interval Schouten doubled Cape Horn for the first time. It was in 1618-19 that the observations of Nodal first gave the easterly bend to the southern extremity of the continent. [Sidenote: 1535. Chili.] The last stretch of the main coast of South America to be made out was that on the Pacific side from the point where Magellan turned away from it up to the bounds of Peru, where Pizarro and his followers had mapped it. This trend of the coast began to be understood about 1535; but it was some years before its details got into maps. The final definition of it came from Camargo's voyage in 1540, and was first embodied with something like accuracy in Juan Freire's map of 1546, and was later helped by explorations from the north. But this proximate precision gave way in 1569 to a protuberant angle of the Chili coast, as drawn by Mercator, which in turn lingered on the chart till the next century. * * * * * [Sidenote: Cartographical views.] We need now to turn from these records of the voyagers to see what impression their discoveries had been making upon the cartographers and geographers of Europe. [Sidenote: Sylvanus's Ptolemy. 1511.] Bernardus Sylvanus Ebolensis, in a new edition of Ptolemy which was issued at Venice in 1511, paid great attention to the changes necessary to make Ptolemy's descriptions correspond to later explorations in the Old World, but less attention to the more important developments of the New World. Nordenskiöld thinks that this condition of Sylvanus's mind shows how little had been the impression yet made at Venice by the discoveries of Columbus and Da Gama. The maps of this Ptolemy are woodcuts, with type let in for the names, which are printed in red, in contrast with the black impressed from the block. [Sidenote: Nordenskiöld gores.] Sylvanus's map is the second engraved map showing the new discoveries, and the earliest of the heart-shaped projections. It has in "Regalis Domus" the earliest allusion to the Cortereal voyage in a printed map. Sylvanus follows Ruysch in making Greenland a part of Asia. The rude map gores of about the same date which Nordenskiöld has brought to the attention of scholars, and which he considers to have been made at Ingolstadt, agree mainly with this map of Sylvanus, and in respect to the western world both of these maps, as well as the Schöner globe of 1515, seem to have been based on much the same material. [Illustration: FREIRE'S MAP, 1546.] [Illustration: SYLVANUS'S PTOLEMY OF 1511.] [Illustration: STOBNICZA'S MAP.] [Sidenote: 1512. Stobnicza map.] We find in 1512, where we might least expect it, one of the most remarkable of the early maps, which was made for an introduction to Ptolemy, published at this date at Cracow, in Poland, by Stobnicza. This cartographer was the earliest to introduce into the plane delineation of the globe the now palpable division of its surface into an eastern and western hemisphere. His map, for some reason, is rarely found in the book to which it belongs. Nordenskiöld says he has examined many copies of the book in the libraries of Scandinavia, Russia, and Poland, without finding a copy with it; but it is found in other copies in the great libraries at Vienna and Munich. He thinks the map may have been excluded from most of the editions because of its rudeness, or "on account of its being contrary to the old doctrines of the Church." Its importance in the growth of the ideas respecting the new discoveries in the western hemisphere is, however, very great, since for the first time it gives a north and south continent connected by an isthmus, and represents as never before in an engraved map the western hemisphere as an entirety. This is remarkable, as it was published a year before Balboa made his discovery of the Pacific Ocean. It is not difficult to see the truth of Nordenskiöld's statement that the map divides the waters of the globe into two almost equal oceans, "communicating only in the extreme south and in the extreme north," but the south communication which is unmistakable is by the Cape of Good Hope. The extremity of South America is not reached because of the marginal scale, and because of the same scale it is not apparent that there is any connection between the Pacific and Indian oceans, and for similar reasons connection is not always clear at the north. There must have been information at hand to the maker of this map of which modern scholars can find no other trace, or else there was a wild speculative spirit which directed the pencil in some singular though crude correspondence to actual fact. This is apparent in its straight conjectural lines on the west coast of South America, which prefigure the discoveries following upon the enterprise of Balboa and the voyage of Magellan. [Sidenote: The Lenox globe.] [Sidenote: Da Vinci globe.] If Stobnicza, apparently, had not dared to carry the southern extremity of South America to a point, there had been no such hesitancy in the makers of two globes of about the same date,--the little copper sphere picked up by Richard M. Hunt, the architect, in an old shop in Paris, and now in the Lenox Library in New York, and the rude sketch, giving quartered hemispheres separated on the line of the equator, which is preserved in the cabinet of Queen Victoria, at Windsor, among the papers of Leonardo da Vinci. This little draft has a singular interest both from its association with so great a name as Da Vinci's, and because it bears at what is, perhaps, the earliest date to be connected with such cartographical use the name America lettered on the South American continent. Major has contended for its being the work of Da Vinci himself, but Nordenskiöld demurs. This Swedish geographer is rather inclined to think it the work of a not very well informed copier working on some Portuguese prototype. [Sidenote: 1507-13. Admiral's map.] [Sidenote: 1515. Reisch's map.] It is worthy of remark that, in the same year with the discovery of the South Sea by Balboa, an edition of Ptolemy made popular a map which had indeed been cut in its first state as early as 1507, but which still preserved the contiguity of the Antilles to the region of the Ganges and its three mouths. This was the well-known "Admiral's map," usually associated with the name of Waldseemüller, and if this same cartographer, as Franz Wieser conjectures, is responsible for the map in Reisch's _Margarita philosophica_ (1515), a sort of cyclopædia, he had in the interim awaked to the significance of the discovery of Balboa, for the Ganges has disappeared, and Cipango is made to lie in an ocean beyond the continental Zoana Mela (America), which has an undefined western limit, as it had already been depicted in the Stobnicza map of 1512. [Illustration: THE ALLEGED DA VINCI SKETCH. [_Combination._]] [Sidenote: First modern atlas.] It was in this Strassburg Ptolemy of 1513 that Ringmann, who had been concerned in inventing the name of America, revised the Latin of Angelus, using a Greek manuscript of Ptolemy for the purpose. Nordenskiöld speaks of this edition as the first modern atlas of the world, extended so as to give in two of its maps--that known as the "Admiral's map," and another of Africa--the results following upon the discoveries of Columbus and Da Gama. This "Admiral's map," which has been so often associated with Columbus, is hardly a fair representation of the knowledge that Columbus had attained, and seems rather to be the embodiment of the discoveries of many, as the description of it, indeed, would leave us to infer; while the other American chart of the volume is clearly of Portuguese rather than of Spanish origin, as may be inferred by the lavish display of the coast connected with the descriptions by Vespucius. On the other hand, nothing but the islands of Española and Cuba stand in it for the explorations of Columbus. Both of these maps are given elsewhere in this Appendix. [Illustration: REISCH, 1515.] [Illustration: THE WORLD OF POMPONIUS MELA. [From Bunbury's _Ancient Geography_.]] [Sidenote: Asiatic connection of North America.] We could hardly expect, indeed, to find in these maps of the Ptolemy of 1513 the results of Balboa's discovery at the isthmus; but that the maps were left to do service in the edition of 1520 indicates that the discovery of the South Sea had by no means unsettled the public mind as to the Asiatic connection of the regions both north and south of the Antilles. Within the next few years several maps indicate the enduring strength of this conviction. A Portuguese portolano of 1516-20, in the Royal Library at Munich, shows Moslem flags on the coasts of Venezuela and Nicaragua. A map of Ayllon's discoveries on the Atlantic coast in 1520, preserved in the British Museum, has a Chinaman and an elephant delineated on the empty spaces of the continent. Still, geographical opinions had become divided, and the independent continental masses of Stobnicza were having some ready advocates. [Illustration: VADIANUS.] [Illustration: APIANUS. [From Reusner's _Icones_.]] [Sidenote: Vienna geographers.] [Sidenote: Pomponius Mela.] [Sidenote: Solinus.] [Sidenote: Vadianus.] [Sidenote: 1520. Apianus.] There was at this time a circle of geographers working at Vienna, reëditing the ancient cosmographers, and bringing them into relations with the new results of discovery. Two of these early writers thus attracting attention were Pomponius Mela, whose _Cosmographia_ dated back to the first century, and Solinus, whose _Polyhistor_ was of the third. The Mela fell to the care of Johann Camers, who published it as _De Situ Orbis_ at Vienna in 1512, at the press of Singrein; and this was followed in 1518 by another issue, taken in hand by Joachim Watt, better known under the Latinized name of Vadianus, who had been born in Switzerland, and who was one of the earlier helpers in popularizing the name of America. The Solinus, the care of which was undertaken by Camers, the teacher of Watt, was produced under these new auspices at the same time. Two years later (1520) both of these old writers attained new currency while issued together and accompanied by a map of Apianus,--as the German Bienewitz classicized his name,--in which further iteration was given to the name of America by attaching it to the southern continent of the west. [Sidenote: A strait at the Isthmus of Panama.] [Sidenote: 1515. Schöner.] [Sidenote: Antarctic continent.] In this map Apianus, in 1520, was combining views of the western hemisphere, which had within the few antecedent years found advocacy among a new school of cartographers. These students represented the northern and southern continents as independent entities, disconnected at the isthmus, where Columbus had hoped to find his strait. This is shown in the earliest of the Schöner globes, the three copies of which known to us are preserved, one at Frankfort and two at Weimar. It is in the _Luculentissima Descriptio_, which was written to accompany this Schöner globe of 1515, where we find that statement already referred to, which chronicles, as Wieser thinks, an earlier voyage than Magellan's to the southern strait, which separated the "America" of Vespucius from that great Antarctic continent which did not entirely disappear from our maps till after the voyage of Cook. [Sidenote: 1515. Reisch.] [Sidenote: Brazil.] It is a striking instance of careless contemporary observation, which the student of this early cartography has often to confront, that while Reisch, in his popular cyclopædia of the _Margarita Philosophica_ which he published first in 1503, gave not the slightest intimation of the discoveries of Columbus, he did not much improve matters in 1515, when he ignored the discoveries of Balboa, and reproduced in the main the so-called "Admiral's map" of the Ptolemy of 1513. It is to be observed, however, that Reisch was in this reproduced map of 1515 the first of map makers to offer in the word "Prisilia" on the coast of Vespucius the prototype of the modern Brazil. It will be remembered that Cabral had supposed it an island, and had named it the Isla de Santa Cruz. The change of name induced a pious Portuguese to believe it an instigation of the devil to supplant the remembrance of the holy and sacred wood of the great martyr by the worldly wood, which was commonly used to give a red color to cloth! [Sidenote: Theories of seamanship.] In 1519, in the _Suma de Geographia_ of Fernandez d'Enciso, published later at Seville, in 1530, we have the experience of one of Ojeda's companions in 1509. This little folio, now a scarce book, is of interest as first formulating for practical use some of the new theories of seamanship as developed under the long voyages at this time becoming common. It has also a marked interest as being the earliest book of the Spanish press which had given consideration at any length to the new possessions of Spain. [Sidenote: 1522. Frisius.] We again find a similar indisposition to keep abreast of discovery, so perplexing to later scholars, in the new-cast edition of Ptolemy in 1522, which contains the well-known map of Laurentius Frisius. It is called by Nordenskiöld, in subjecting it to analysis in his _Facsimile Atlas_, "an original work, but bad beyond all criticism, as well from a geographical as from a xylographical point of view." One sees, indeed, in the maps of this edition, no knowledge of the increase of geographical knowledge during later years. We observe, too, that they go back to Behaim's interpretation of Marco Polo's India, for the eastern shores of Asia. The publisher, Thomas Ancuparius, seems never to have heard of Columbus, or at least fails to mention him, while he awards the discovery of the New World to Vespucius. The maps, reduced in the main from those of the edition of 1513, were repeated in those of 1525, 1535, and 1541, without change and from the same blocks. [Illustration: SCHÖNER.] The results of the voyage of Magellan and Del Cano promptly attained a more authentic record than usually fell to the lot of these early ocean experiences. [Sidenote: 1523. Magellan's voyage described.] The company which reached Spain in the "Victoria" went at once to Valladolid to report to the Emperor, and while there a pupil and secretary of Peter Martyr, then at Court, Maximilianus Transylvanus by name, got from these men the particulars of their discoveries, and, writing them out in Latin, he sent the missive to his father, the Archbishop of Salzburg,--the young man was a natural son of this prelate,--and in some way the narrative got into print at Cologne and Rome in 1523. [Sidenote: 1523. Schöner.] [Sidenote: Rosenthal gores.] Schöner printed in 1523 a little tract, _De nuper ... repertis insulis ac regionibus_ to elucidate a globe which he had at that time constructed. It was published at Timiripæ, as the imprint reads, which has been identified by Coote as the Grecized form of the name of a small village not far from Bamberg, where Schöner was at that time a parochial vicar. When a new set of engraved gores were first brought to light by Ludwig Rosenthal, in Munich, in 1885, they were considered by Wieser, who published an account of them in 1888, as the lost globe of Schöner. Stevens, in a posthumous book on _Johann Schöner_, expressed a similar belief. This was a view which Stevens's editor, C. H. Coote, accepted. The opinion, however, is open to question, and Nordenskiöld finds that the Rosenthal gores have nothing to do with the lost globe of Schöner, and puts them much later, as having been printed at Nuremberg about 1540. * * * * * [Sidenote: Political aspects of Magellan's voyage.] [Sidenote: Gomez.] The voyage of Magellan had reopened the controversy of Spain with Portugal, stayed but not settled by the treaty of Tordesillas. Estevan Gomez, a recusant captain of Magellan's fleet, who had deserted him just as he was entering the straits, had arrived in Spain May 6, 1521, and had his own way for some time in making representation of the foolhardiness of Magellan's undertaking. On March 27, 1523, Gomez received a concession from the Emperor to go on a small armed vessel for a year's cruise in the northwest, to make farther search for a passage, but he was not to trespass on any Portuguese possession. The disputes between Portugal and Spain intensifying, Gomez's voyage was in the mean time put off for a while. [Sidenote: Dispute over the Moluccas.] [Sidenote: Congress at Badajos.] [Illustration: ROSENTHAL OR NUREMBERG GORES.] Gomara tells us that, in the opinion of his time, the Spaniards had gained the Moluccas, at the conference at Tordesillas, by yielding to the demands of the Portuguese, so that what Portugal gained in Brazil and Newfoundland she lost in Asia and adjacent parts. The Portuguese historian, Osorius, viewed it differently; he counted in the American gain for his country, but he denied the Spanish rights at the antipodes. So the longitude of the Moluccas became a sharp political dispute, which there was an attempt to settle in 1524 in a congress of the two nations that was convened alternately at Badajos and Elvas, situated on opposite sides of the Caya, a stream which separates the two countries. [Sidenote: Council of the Indies.] Ferdinand Columbus, by a decree of February 19, 1524, had been made one of the arbiters. After two months of wrangling, each side stood stiff in its own opinions, and it was found best to break up the congress. Following upon the dissolution of this body, the Spanish government was impelled to make the management of the Indies more effective than it had been under the commissions which had existed, and on August 18, 1524, the Council of the Indies was reorganized in more permanent form. [Sidenote: Gomez's voyage.] An immediate result of the interchange of views at Badajos was a renewal of the Gomez project, to examine more carefully the eastern coast of what is now the United States, in the hopes of yet discovering a western passage. Of that voyage, which is first mentioned in the _Sumario_ of Oviedo in 1526, and of the failure of its chief aim, enough has already been said in the early part of this appendix. It has been supposed by Harrisse that the results of this voyage were embodied in the earliest printed Spanish map which we have showing lines of latitude and longitude,--that found in a joint edition of Martyr and Oviedo (1534), and which is only known in a copy now in the Lenox Library. The purpose which followed upon the congress of Badajos, to penetrate the Atlantic coast line and find a passage to the western sea, was communicated to Cortes, then in Mexico, some time before the date of his fourth letter, October 15, 1524. The news found him already convinced of the desirableness of establishing a port on the great sea of the west, and he selected Zucatula as a station for the fleets which he undertook to build. [Sidenote: 1526. Cortes sends ships to the Moluccas.] [Sidenote: The Moluccas sold to Portugal.] Other projects delayed the preparations which were planned, and it was not till September 3, 1526, that Cortes signified to the Emperor his readiness to send his ships to the Moluccas. After a brief experimental trip up the coast from Zucatula, three of his vessels were finally dispatched, in October, 1527, on a disastrous voyage to those islands, where the purpose was to confront the Portuguese pretensions. It so happened, meanwhile, that Charles V. needed money for his projects in Italy, and he called Ferdinand Columbus to Court to consult with him about a sale of his rights in the Moluccas to Portugal. Ferdinand made a report, which has not come down to us, but a decision to sell was reached, and the Portuguese King agreed to the price of purchase on June 20, 1530. Thus the Moluccas, which had been so long the goal of Spanish ambition, pass out of view in connection with American discovery. There is some ground for the suspicion, if not belief, that the Portuguese from the Moluccas had before this pushed eastward across the Pacific, and had even struck the western verge of that continent which separated them from the Spanish explorers on the Atlantic side. [Illustration: MARTYR-OVIEDO] [Illustration: MAP, 1534.] [Sidenote: North America, east coast.] [Sidenote: Verrazano.] We come next to some further developments on the eastern coast of North America. A certain French corsair, known from his Florentine birth as Juan Florin, had become a terror by preying on the Spanish commerce in the Indies. In January, 1524, he was on his way, under the name of Verrazano, in the expedition which has given him fame, and has supplied not a little ground for contention, and even for total distrust of the voyage as a fact. He struck the coast of North Carolina, turned south, but, finding no harbor, retraced his course, and, making several landings farther north, finally entered, as it would seem from his description, the harbor of New York. The only point that he names is a triangular island which he saw as he went still farther to the east, and which has been supposed to be Block Island, or possibly Martha's Vineyard. At all events, the name Luisa which he gave to it after the mother of Francis I. clung to an island in this neighborhood in the maps for some time longer. So he went on, and, if his landings have been rightly identified, he touched at Newport, then at some place evidently near Portsmouth in New Hampshire, and then, skirting the islands of the Maine coast, he reached the country which he recognized as that where the Bretons had been. He now ended what he considered the exploration of seven hundred leagues of an unknown land, and bore away for France, reaching Dieppe in July, whence, on the 9th, he wrote the letter to the King which is the source of our information. Attempts have been made, especially by the late Henry C. Murphy, to prove this letter a forgery, but in the opinion of most scholars without success. [Illustration: THE VERRAZANO MAP.] [Illustration: AGNESE, 1536.] [Sidenote: The Verrazano map.] Fortunately for the student, Hieronimo da Verrazano made, in 1529, a map, still preserved in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, in which the discoveries of his brother, Giovanni, are laid down. In this the name of Nova Gallia supplants that of Francesca, which had been used in the map of Maiollo (1527), supposed, also, to have some relation to the Verrazano voyage. [Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1540.] The most distinguishing feature of the Verrazano map is a great inland expanse of water, which was taken to be a part of some western ocean, and which remained for a long while in some form or other in the maps. It was made to approach so near the Atlantic that at one point there was nothing but a slender isthmus connecting the discoveries of the north with the country of Ponce de Leon and Ayllon at the south. [Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1540.] [Sidenote: The sea of Verrazano.] It is in the _Sumario_ (1526) of Oviedo that we get the first idea of this sea of Verrazano, as Brevoort contends, and we see it in the Maiollo map of the next year, called "Mare Indicum," as if it were an indentation of the great western ocean of Balboa. It was a favorite fancy of Baptista Agnese, in the series of portolanos associated with his name during the middle of the century, and in which he usually indicated supposable ocean routes to Asia. As time went on, the idea was so far modified that this indentation took the shape of a loop of the Arctic seas, or of that stretch of water which at the north connected the Atlantic and Pacific, as shown in the Münster map in the Ptolemy of 1540,--a map apparently based on the portolanos of Agnese,--though the older form of the sea seems to be adopted in the globe of Ulpius (1542). This idea of a Carolinian isthmus prevailed for some years, and may have grown out of a misconception of the Carolina sounds, though it is sometimes carried far enough north, as in the Lok map of 1582, to seem as if Buzzard's Bay were in some way thought to stretch westerly into its depths. The last trace of this mysterious inner ocean, so far as I have discovered, is in a map made by one of Ralegh's colonists in 1585, and preserved among the drawings of John White in the De Bry collection of the British Museum, and brought to light by Dr. Edward Eggleston. This drawing makes for the only time that I have observed it, an actual channel at "Port Royal," leading to this oceanic expanse, which was later interpreted as an inland lake. Thus it was that this geographical blunder lived more or less constantly in a succession of maps for about sixty years, until sometimes it vanished in a large lake in Carolina, or in the north it dwindled until it began to take a new lease of life in an incipient Hudson's Bay, as in the great Lake of Tadenac, figured in the Molineaux map of 1600, and in the Lago Dagolesme in the Botero map of 1603. [Illustration: MICHAEL LOK, 1582.] [Illustration: JOHN WHITE'S MAP. [Communicated by Dr. Edward Eggleston.]] [Sidenote: Norumbega.] It was apparently during the voyage of Verrazano that an Indian name which was understood as "Aranbega" was picked up along the northern coasts as designating the region, and which a little later was reported by others as "Norumbega," and so passed into the mysterious and fabled nomenclature of the coast with a good deal of the unstableness that attended the fabulous islands of the Atlantic in the fancy of the geographers of the Middle Ages. As a definition of territory it gradually grew to have a more and more restricted application, coming down mainly after a while to the limits of the later New England, and at last finding, as Dr. Dee (1580), Molineaux (1600), and Champlain (1604) understood it, a home on the Penobscot. Still the region it represented contracted and expanded in people's notions, and on maps the name seemed to have a license to wander. * * * * * [Illustration: ROBERT THORNE, 1527.] [Sidenote: The English on the coast.] [Sidenote: William Hawkins.] During this period the English also were up and down the coast, but they contributed little to our geographical knowledge. Slave-catching on the coast of Guinea, and lucrative sales of the human plunder in the Spanish West Indies and neighboring regions, seem to have taken William Hawkins and others of his countrymen to these coasts not infrequently between 1525 and 1540. [Sidenote: John Rut.] There is some reason to believe that John Rut, an Englishman, may have explored the northeast coasts of the present United States in 1527, a proposition, however, open to argument, as the counter reasonings of Dr. Kohl and Dr. De Costa show. It is certain that at this time Robert Thorne, an English merchant living in Seville, was gaining what knowledge he could to promote English enterprise in the north, and there has come down to us the map which in 1527 he gave to the English ambassador in Spain, Edward Leigh, to be transmitted to Henry VIII. * * * * * [Sidenote: Progress of maritime art.] It was in 1526 when the Spanish authorities thought that the time was fitting for making a sort of register of the progress of discovery and of the attendant cartographical advances. Nordenskiöld says that "from the beginning of the printing of maps the graduations of latitude and longitude were marked down in most printed maps, at least in the margin;" the most conspicuous example of omitting these being, perhaps, in the work of Sebastian Münster, at a period a little later than the one we have now reached. [Sidenote: Latitude and longitude.] In 1503 Reisch for the first time settled upon something like the modern methods of indicating latitude and longitude in the map which he annexed to his _Margarita philosophica_ at Freiburg, though so far as climatic lines could stand for latitudinal notions, Pierre d'Ailly had set an example of scaling the zones from the equator in his map of 1410. The Spaniards, however, did not fall into the method of Reisch, so far as published maps are concerned, till long afterwards (1534). [Sidenote: Italian maps.] Up to the time when the Strassburg Ptolemy was issued, in 1513, the chief activity in map-making had been in Italy. The cartographers of that country got what they could from Spain, but the main dependence was on Portuguese sources, though the rivals of Spain were not always free in imparting the knowledge of their hydrographical offices, since we find Robert Thorne, in 1527, charging the Portuguese with having falsified their records. It is worthy of remark that no official map of the Indies was published in Spain till 1790. [Illustration: SEBASTIAN MÜNSTER. [From Reusner's _Icones_, 1590.]] [Sidenote: Cartographical activity north of the Alps.] [Sidenote: Map projections.] After 1513, and so on to the middle of the century, it was to the north of the Alps that the cosmographical students turned for the latest light upon all oceanic movements. The question of longitude was the serious one which both navigators and map makers encountered. The cartographers were trying all sorts of experiments in representing the converging meridians on a plane surface, so as not to distort the geography, and in order to afford some manifest method for the guidance of ships. [Sidenote: Lunar observations.] [Sidenote: Chronometers.] These experiments resulted, as Nordenskiöld counts, in something like twenty different projections being devised before 1600. For the seaman the difficulty was no less burdensome in trying to place his ship at sea, or to map the contours of the coasts he was following. The navigator's main dependence was the course he was steering and an estimate of his progress. He made such allowance as he could for his drift in the currents. We have seen how the imperfection of his instruments and the defects of his lunar tables misled Columbus egregiously in the attempts which he made to define the longitude of the Antilles. He placed Española at 70° west of Seville, and La Cosa came near him in counting it about 68°, so far as one can interpret his map. The Dutch at this time were beginning to grasp the idea of a chronometer, which was the device finally to prove the most satisfactory in these efforts. [Sidenote: Earliest sea-atlas.] Reinerus Gemma of Friesland, known better as Gemma Frisius, began to make the Dutch nautical views better known when he suggested, a few years later, the carrying of time in running off the longitudes, and something of his impress on the epoch was shown in the stand which a pupil, Mercator, took in geographical science. The _Spieghel der Zeevaardt_ of Lucas Wagenaer, in 1584 (Leyden), was the first sea-atlas ever printed, and showed again the Dutch advance. There were also other requirements of sea service that were not forgotten, among which was a knowledge of prevalent winds and ocean currents, and this was so satisfactorily acquired that the return voyage from the Antilles came, within thirty years after Columbus, to be made with remarkable ease. Oviedo tells us that in 1525 two caravels were but twenty-five days in passing from San Domingo to the river of Seville. Two of the duties imposed by the Spanish government upon the Casa de la Contratacion, soon after the discovery of the New World, were to patronize invention to the end of discovering a process for making fresh water out of salt, and to improve ships' pumps,--the last a conception not to take effective shape till Ribero, the royal cosmographer, secured a royal pension for such an invention in 1526. * * * * * [Sidenote: Congress of pilots at Seville.] It was in the midst of these developments, both of the practical parts of seamanship and of the progress of oceanic discovery, that in 1526 there was held at Seville a convention of pilots and cosmographers, called by royal order, to consolidate and correlate all the cartographical data which had accumulated up to that time respecting the new discoveries. [Sidenote: Ferdinand Columbus.] Ferdinand Columbus was at this time in Seville, engaged in completing a house and library for himself, and in planting the park about them with trees brought from the New World, a single one of which, a West Indian sapodilla, was still standing in 1871. It was in this house that the convention sat, and Ferdinand Columbus presided over it, while the examinations of the pilots were conducted by Diego Ribero and Alonso de Chaves. [Illustration: HOUSE AND LIBRARY OF FERDINAND COLUMBUS.] [Sidenote: 1527-29. Maps.] There have come down to us two monumental maps, the outgrowth of this convention. One of these is dated at Seville, in 1527, purporting to be the work of the royal cosmographer, and has been usually known by the name of Ferdinand Columbus; and the other, dated 1529, is known to have been made by Diego Ribero, also a royal cosmographer. These maps closely resemble each other. [Illustration: SPANISH MAP, 1527. [After sketch in E. Mayer's _Die Entwicklung der Seekarten_ (Wien, 1877).]] The Weimar chart of 1527, which Kohl, Stevens, and others have assigned to Ferdinand Columbus, has been ascribed by Harrisse to Nuño Garcia de Toreno, but by Coote, in editing Stevens on _Schöner_, it is assigned to Ribero, as a precursor of his undoubted production of 1529. [Sidenote: Idea of a new continent spreading.] We have seen how, succeeding to the belief of Columbus that the new regions were Asia, there had grown up, a few years after his death, in spite of his audacious notarial act at Cuba, a strong presumption among geographical students that a new continent had been found. We have seen this conception taking form with more or less uncertainty as to its western confines immediately upon, and even anticipating, the discovery of the actual South Sea by Balboa, and can follow it down in the maps or globes of Stobnicza and Da Vinci, in that known as the Lenox globe, in those called the Tross and Nordenskiöld gores, the Schöner and Hauslab globes, the Ptolemy map of 1513, and in those of Reisch, Apianus, Laurentius Frisius, Maiollo, Bordone, Homem, and Münster,--not to name some others. In twenty years it had come to be a prevalent belief, and men's minds were turned to a consideration of the possibility of this revealed continent having been, after all, known to the ancients, as Glareanus, quoting Virgil, was the earliest to assert in 1527. [Illustration: THE NANCY GLOBE.] [Sidenote: Reaction in the monk Franciscus.] About 1525 there came a partial reaction, as if the discovery of Balboa had been pushed too far in its supposed results. We find this taking form in 1526, in an identification of North America with eastern Asia in a map ascribed to the monk Franciscus, while South America is laid down as a continental island, separated from India by a strait only. The strait is soon succeeded by an isthmus, and in this way we get a solution of the problem which had some currency for half a century or more. [Sidenote: Orontius Finæus.] Orontius Finæus was one of these later compromisers in cartography, in a map which he is supposed to have made in 1531, but which appeared the next year in the _Novus Orbis_ (1532) of Simon Grynæus, and was used in some later publications also. We find in this map, about the Gulf of Mexico, the names which Cortes had applied in his map of 1520 mingled with those of the Asiatic coast of Marco Polo. We annex a sketch of this map as reduced by Brevoort to Mercator's projection. A map very similar to this and of about the same date is preserved in the British Museum among the Sloane manuscripts, and the same bold solution of the difficulty is found in the Nancy globe of about 1540, and in the globe of Gaspar Vopel of 1543. [Illustration: THE NANCY GLOBE.] [Sidenote: Johann Schöner.] There is a good instance of the instability of geographical knowledge at this time in the conversion of Johann Schöner from a belief in an insular North America, to which he had clung in his globes of 1515 and 1520, to a position which he took in 1533, in his _Opusculum Geographicum_, where he maintains that the city of Mexico is the Quinsay of Marco Polo. [Illustration: ORONTIUS FINÆUS, 1532. [After Cimelinus's Copperplate of 1566.]] [Illustration: ORONTIUS FINÆUS, 1531. [Reduced by Brevoort to Mercator's projection.]] [Sidenote: The Pacific explored.] [Sidenote: California.] [Illustration: CORTES.] Previous to Cortes's departure for Spain in 1528, he had, as we have seen, dispatched vessels from Tehuantepec to the Moluccas, but nothing was done to explore the Pacific coast northward till his return to Mexico. In the spring or early summer of 1532 he sent Hurtado de Mendoza up the coast; but little success attending the exploration, Cortes himself proceeded to Tehuantepec and constructed other vessels, which sailed in October, 1533. A gale drove them to the west, and when they succeeded in working back and making the coast, they found themselves well up what proved to be the California peninsula. They now coasted south and developed its shape, which was further brought out in detail by an expedition led by Cortes himself in 1535, and by a later one sent by him under Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. Cortes had supposed the peninsula an island, but this expedition of 1539 demonstrated the fact that no passage to the outer sea existed at the head of the gulf, which these earliest navigators had called the Sea of Cortes. The conqueror of Mexico had now made his last expedition on the Pacific, and his name was not destined to be long connected with this new field of discovery, unless, indeed, it was a prompting of Cortes--hardly proved, however--which attached to this peninsular region the euphonious name of California, and which, after an interval when the gulf was called the Red Sea, was applied to that water also. The views of Ulloa were confirmed in part, at least, by Castillo in 1540, who has left us a map of the gulf. [Illustration: CASTILLO'S CALIFORNIA.] The outer coast of the peninsula as far north as 28° 30' had been established in 1533. It was ten years later, in 1543, that Cabrillo, making his landfall in the neighborhood of 33°, just within the southern bounds of the present State of California, coasted up to Cape Mendocino, and perhaps to 44°, or nearly, to that spot, in the present State of Oregon. If Cabrillo, who had died January 3, 1543, did not himself go so high, the credit belongs to Ferrelo, his chief pilot. Late in 1542 Mendoza sent an expedition under Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, across the Pacific, and if a map of Juan Freire, made in 1546, is an indication of his route, he seems to have gone higher up the coast than any previous explorer. * * * * * [Sidenote: The Atlantic coast of North America.] While this development of the northwest coast of North America was going on, there were other discoverers still endeavoring on the Atlantic side to connect the waters of the two oceans. [Sidenote: 1534. Cartier.] In April, 1534, Jacques Cartier, a jovial and roistering fellow, as Father Jouon des Longrais, his latest biographer, makes him out (_Jacques Cartier_, Paris, 1888), and who had led the roving life of a corsair in the recent wars of France, was now turning his energy to solve the great problem of this western passage. He sailed from St. Malo, and for the first time laid open, by an official examination, the inner spaces of the St. Lawrence Gulf, which might have been, indeed, and probably were, known earlier to the hardy Breton and Norman fishermen. We are deficient in a knowledge of the early frequenting of these coasts because the charts of such fishermen, and of those who visited the region for trade in peltries, have not come down to us, though Kohl thinks there is some likelihood of such records being preserved in a portolano of the British Museum. The track of Cartier about the Gulf of St. Lawrence has caused some discussion and difference of opinion in the publications of Kohl, De Costa, Laverdière, and W. F. Ganong, the latter writer claiming, in a careful paper in the _Transactions_ of the Royal Society of Canada for 1889, that in the correct interpretation of Cartier's first voyage we find a key to the cartography of the gulf for almost a century. The Rotz map of 1542 seems to be the earliest map which we know to show a knowledge of Cartier's first voyage. The Henri II. map of 1542 still more develops his work of exploration. The chance of further discovery in this direction induced the French king once more to commission Cartier, October 30, 1534, and early in 1535 his little fleet sailed, and by August, after some discouragements, not lessened when he found the water freshening, he began to ascend the St. Lawrence River, reaching the site of Montreal. No map by Cartier himself is preserved, though it is known that he made such. Thenceforward the cartography of this northeastern region showed the St. Lawrence Gulf in a better development of the earlier so-called Square Gulf and of the great river of Canada. It is of record that Francis I., in commissioning Cartier, considered that he was dispatching him to ascend an Asiatic river, and the name of Lachine even to-day is preserved as evidence of the belief which Cartier entertained that he was within the bounds of China. [Illustration: SKETCH FROM A PORTOLANO IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.] [Sidenote: John Rotz's map.] John Rotz's _Boke of Idiography_--a manuscript of 1542, preserved in the British Museum--shows, in his drawing of the region about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, certain signs, as Kohl thinks, of having had access to the charts of Cartier, and Harrisse traces in them the combined influence of the Portuguese and Dieppe navigators. The Cartier voyages seem to have made little impression outside of France, and we find for some years few traces of his discoveries in the portolanos of Italy and in the maps of the rest of Europe. It was only when the expedition of Roberval, in 1540-41, excited attention that the rest of Europe seemed to recognize these French efforts. [Illustration: HOMEM, 1558.] [Illustration: ZIEGLER'S SCHONDIA.] [Sidenote: Cartier's later voyages.] [Sidenote: Allefonsce.] The later voyages of Cartier, in 1541 and 1543, revealed nothing more of general geographical interest. Indeed, the hope of a western passage in this direction had been abandoned in effect after Cartier's second voyage, although the pilot Allefonsce, who accompanied a later expedition, had been detailed to explore the Labrador coast to that end, and had been turned back by ice. After this he seems to have gone south into a great bay, under 42°, the end of which he did not reach. This may have been the large expanse partly shut in by Cape Sable (Nova Scotia) and Cape Cod, now called in the coast survey charts the Gulf of Maine; or perhaps it may conform, taking into account his registered latitude, to the inner bight of it called Massachusetts Bay. At all events, Allefonsce believed himself on coasts contiguous to Tartary, through which he had hopes to find access to the more hospitable orient (occident) farther south. He apparently had something of the same notion regarding the westerly stretch of water which he found below Cape Cod, extending he knew not where, along the inclosure of the present Long Island Sound. In the years both before and after the middle of the century, French vessels were on this coast in considerable numbers for purposes of trade or for protecting French interests, but we know nothing of any accessions to geographical knowledge which they made. [Illustration: RUSCELLI, 1544.] Allefonsce speaks of the Saguenay as widening, when he went up, till it seemed to be an arm of the sea, and "I think the same," he adds, "runs into the Sea of Cathay;" and so he draws it on one of his maps,--an idea made more general in the map of Homem in 1558, where the St. Lawrence really becomes a channel, locked by islands, bordering an Arctic Sea. Ramusio, in 1553, has inferred from such reports as he could get of Cartier's explorations, that his track had lain in channels bounded by islands, and a similar view had already been expressed in a portolano of 1536, preserved in the Bodleian, which Kohl associates with Homem or Agnese. The oceanic expansion of the Saguenay is preserved as late as the Molineaux map of 1600. [Sidenote: River of Norumbega.] It is to the work of Allefonsce that we probably owe another confusion of this northern cartography in the sixteenth century. What we now know as Penobscot Bay and River was called by him the River of Norumbega, and he seems to have given some ground for believing that this river connected the waters of the Atlantic with the great river of Canada, just as we find it later shown upon Gastaldi's map in Ramusio, by Ruscelli in 1561, by Martines in 1578, by Lok in 1582, and by Jacques de Vaulx in 1584. [Sidenote: Greenland connects Europe and America.] While this idea of the north was developing, there came in another that made the peninsular Greenland of the ante-Columbian maps grow into a link of land connecting Europe with the Americo-Asiatic main, so that one might in truth perambulate the globe dryshod. We find this conception in the maps of the Bavarian Ziegler (1532), and in the Italians Ruscelli (1544) and Gastaldi (1548),--the last two represented in the Ptolemies of those years published in Italy. But these Italian cosmographers were by no means constant in their belief, as Ruscelli showed in his Ptolemy of 1561, and Gastaldi in his Ramusio map of 1550. [Illustration: CARTA MARINA, 1548.] [Sidenote: Asia and America joined in the higher latitudes.] [Illustration: MYRITIUS, 1590.] As the Pacific explorations were stretched northward from Mexico, and the peninsula of California was brought into prominence, there remained for some time a suspicion that the western ocean made a great northerly bend, so as to sever North America from Asia except along the higher latitudes. We find this northerly extension of the Pacific in a map of copper preserved in the Carter-Brown library, which seems to have been the work of a Florentine goldsmith somewhere about 1535; in the Carta Marina of Gastaldi in 1548; and it even exists in maps of a later date, like that of Paolo de Furlani (1560) and that of Myritius (1587). [Illustration: ZALTIÈRE, 1566.] [Sidenote: Entanglement of the American and Asiatic coasts.] [Sidenote: 1728. Bering.] This map of Myritius, which appeared in his _Opusculum Geographicum_, published at Ingolstadt in 1590, is the work of, perhaps, the last of the geographers who did not leave more or less doubt about the connection of North America with Asia. So it took about a full century for the entanglement of the coasts of Asia and America, which Columbus had imagined, to be practically eradicated from the maps. Not that there were not doubters, even very early, but the faith in a new continent grew slowly and had many set-backs; nor did the Asiatic connection fade entirely out, as among the possibilities of geography, for considerably more than a century yet to come. The uncertainties of the higher latitudes kept knowledge in suspense, and even the English settlers on the northerly coasts of the United States were not quite sure. Thomas Morton, the chronicler of a colony on the Massachusetts shores, felt it necessary, so late as 1636, to make a reservation that possibly the mainland of America bordered on the land of the Tartars. Indeed, no one could say positively, though much was conjectured, that there was not a terrestrial connection in the extreme northwest, under arctic latitudes, till Bering in 1728, two hundred and thirty-six years after Columbus offered his prayer at San Salvador, passed from the Pacific into the polar waters. This became the solution of the fabled straits of Anian, an inheritance from the very earliest days of northern exploration, which, after the middle of the sixteenth century, was revived in the maps of Martines, Zaltière, Mercator, Porcacchi, Furlani, and Wytfliet, prefiguring the channel which Bering passed. Much in the same way as the southern apex of South America was a vision in men's minds long before Magellan found his way to the Pacific. [Illustration: PORCACCHI, 1572.] [Sidenote: 1536. Chaves.] [Sidenote: 1538. Mercator.] [Sidenote: 1540. Hartmann gores.] But we have anticipated a little. Coincident with the efforts of Cartier to discover this northern passage we mark other navigators working at the same problem. The Spaniard Alonso de Chaves made a chart of this eastern coast in 1536; but we only know of its existence from the description of it written by Oviedo in 1537. In the earliest map which we have from the hand of Gerard Mercator, and of which the only copy known was discovered some years ago by the late James Carson Brevoort, of New York, we find the northern passage well defined in 1538, and a broad channel separating the western coast of America from a parallel coast of Asia,--a kind of delineation which is followed in some globe-gores of about 1540, which Nordenskiöld thinks may have been the work of George Hartmann, of Nuremberg. This map is evidently based on Portuguese information, and that Swedish scholar finds no ground for associating it with the lost globe of Schöner, as Stevens has done. A facsimile of part of it has already been given. [Sidenote: 1540-45. Münster.] Sebastian Münster, in his maps in the Ptolemy of 1540-45, makes a clear seaway to the Moluccas somewhere in the latitude of the Strait of Belle Isle. Münster was in many ways antiquated in his notions. He often resorted to the old device of the Middle Ages by supplying the place of geographical details with figures of savages and monsters. * * * * * We come now to two significant maps in the early history of American cartography. [Illustration: MERCATOR'S GLOBE OF 1538.] Columbus had been dead five and thirty years when a natural result grew out of those circumstances which conspired to name the largest part of the new discoveries after a secondary pathfinder. We have seen that there seemed at first no injustice in the name of America being applied to a region in the main external to the range of Columbus's own explorations, and how it took nearly a half century before public opinion, as expressed in the protest of Schöner in 1533, recognized the injustice of using another's name. [Sidenote: 1541. Mercator.] Whether that protest was prompted by a tendency, already shown, to give the name to the whole western hemisphere is not clear; but certainly within eight years such a general application was publicly made, when Mercator, in drafting in 1541 some gores for a globe, divided the name AME--RICA so that it covered both North and South America, and qualified its application by a legend which says that the continent is "called to-day by many, New India." Thus a name that in the beginning was given to a part in distinction merely and without any reference to the entire field of the new explorations, was now become, by implication, an injustice to the great first discoverer of all. The mischief, aided by accident and by a not unaccountable evolution, was not to be undone, and, in the singular mutations of fate, a people inhabiting a region of which neither Columbus nor Vespucius had any conception are now distinctively known in the world's history as Americans. [Illustration: MERCATOR'S GLOBE OF 1538.] These 1541 gores of Mercator were first made known to scholars a few years ago, when the Belgian government issued a facsimile edition of the only copy then known, which the Royal Library at Brussels had just acquired; but since there have been two other copies brought to light,--one at St. Nicholas in Belgium, and the other in the Imperial library at Vienna. * * * * * [Sidenote: Henry II. map.] [Sidenote: 1544. Cabot map.] There are some indications on Spanish globes of about 1540, and in the Desceliers or Henry II. map of 1546, that the Spanish government had sent explorers to the region of Canada not long after Cartier's earliest explorations, and it is significant that the earliest published map to show these Cartier discoveries is the other of the two maps already referred to, namely, the Cabot mappemonde of 1544, which has been supposed a Spanish cartographical waif. Early publications of southern and middle Europe showed little recognition of the same knowledge. [Illustration: MÜNSTER, 1545.] The Cabot map has been an enigma to scholars ever since it was discovered in Germany, in 1843, by Von Martius. It was deposited the next year in the great library at Paris. It is a large elliptical world-map, struck from an engraved plate, and it bears sundry elucidating inscriptions, some of which must needs have come from Sebastian Cabot, others seem hardly to merit his authorship, and one acknowledges him as the maker of the map. There is, accordingly, a composite character to the production, not easily to be analyzed so as to show the credible and the incredible by clear lines of demarcation. We learn from it how it proclaimed for the first time the real agency of John Cabot in the discovery of North America, confirmed when Hakluyt, in 1582, printed the patent from Henry VII. There is an unaccountable year given for that discovery, namely, 1494, but we seem to get the true date when Michael Lok, in 1582, puts down "J. Cabot. 1497," against Cape Breton in his map of that year. As this last map appeared in Hakluyt's _Divers Voyages_, and as Hakluyt tells us of the existence of Cabot's maps and of his seeing them, we may presume that we have in this date of 1497 an authoritative statement. We learn also from this map of 1544 that the land first seen was the point of the island now called Cape Breton. Without the aid of this map, Biddle, who wrote before its discovery, had contended for Labrador as the landfall. [Illustration: MERCATOR, 1541. [Sketched from his gores.]] [Illustration: FROM THE SEBASTIAN CABOT MAPPEMONDE. 1514.] [Sidenote: Scarcity of Spanish printed maps.] We know, on the testimony of Robert Thorne in 1527, if from no other source, that it was a settled policy of the Spanish government to allow no one but proper cartographical designers to make its maps, "for that peradventure it would not sound well to them that a stranger should know or discover their secrets." This doubtless accounts for the fact that, in the two hundred maps mentioned by Ortelius in 1570 as used by him in compiling his atlas, not one was published in Spain; and every bibliographer knows that not a single edition of Ptolemy, the best known channel of communicating geographical knowledge in this age of discovery, bears a Spanish imprint. The two general maps of America during the sixteenth century, which Dr. Kohl could trace to Spanish presses, were that of Medina in 1545 and that of Gomara in 1554, and these were not of a scale to be of any service in navigating. [Sidenote: Cabot's connection with the map of 1544.] There seem to be insuperable objections to considering that Sebastian Cabot had direct influence in the production of the map now under consideration. It is full of a lack of knowledge which it is not possible to ascribe to him. That it is based upon some drafts of Cabot is most probably true; but they are clearly drafts, confused and in some ways perverted, and eked out by whatever could be picked up from other sources. That the Cabot map was issued in more than one edition is inferred partly from the fact that the legends which Chytræus quotes from it differ somewhat from those now in the copy preserved in Paris; and indeed Harrisse finds reason to suppose that there may have been four different editions. That in some form or other it was better known in England than elsewhere is deduced from certain relations sustained with that country on the part of those who have mentioned the map,--Livio Sanuto, Ortelius, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Richard Willes, Hakluyt, and Purchas. Whoever its author and whatever its minor defects, this so-called Cabot map of 1544 may reasonably be accepted as the earliest really honest, unimaginative exhibition of the American continent which had been made. There was in it no attempt to fancy a northwest passage; no confidence in the marine or terrestrial actuality of the region now known to be covered by the north Pacific; no certainty about the entire western coast line of South America, though this might have been decided upon if the maker of the map had been posted to date for that region. The maker of it further showed nothing of that presumption, which soon became prevalent, of making Tierra del Fuego merely but one of the various promontories of an immense Antarctic continent, which later stood in the planispheres of Ortelius and Wytfliet. [Illustration: MEDINA, 1544.] [Sidenote: Geographical study transferred to Italy.] This map of Cabot was the last of the principal cartographical monuments made north of the Alps in this early half of the sixteenth century. The centre of geographical study was now transferred to Italy, where it had begun with the opening of the interest in oceanic discovery. For the next score years and more we must look mainly to Venice for the newer development. [Illustration: MEDINA, 1544.] [Sidenote: 1548, Gastaldi.] In the Venice Ptolemy of 1548, we have for the first time a _series_ of maps of the New World by Gastaldi, which were simply enlarged by Ruscelli in the edition of 1561, except in a few instances, where new details were added, like the making of Yucatan a peninsula instead of the island which Gastaldi had drawn. They were repeated in the edition of 1562. [Sidenote: Sea manuals.] Meanwhile the most popular sea manuals of this period were Spanish; but they studiously avoided throwing much light on the new geography. [Illustration: WYTFLIET, 1597.] That of Martin Cortes was the first to suggest a magnetic pole as distinct from the terrestrial pole. Its rival, the _Arte de Navegar_ of Pedro de Medina, published at Valladolid in 1545, never reached the same degree of popularity, nor did it deserve to, for his notions were in some respects erratic. The English in their theories of navigation had long depended on the teachings of the Spaniards, and Eden had translated the chief Spanish manual in his _Arte of Navigation_ of 1561. [Illustration: WYTFLIET, 1597.] [Sidenote: Ship's log.] A great advance was possible now, for a new principle had been devised, and an estimate of the progress of a ship was no longer dependent on visual observation. The log had made it possible to put dead reckoning on a pretty firm basis. This was the great new feature of the _Regiment of the Sea_, which the Englishman, William Bourne, published in 1573; and sixteen years later, in 1589, another Englishman, Blunderville, made popularly known the new instrument for taking meridian altitudes at sea, the cross-staff, which had very early superseded the astrolabe on shipboard. The inclination or dip of the needle, showing by its increase an approach to a magnetic pole, was not scaled till 1576, when Robert Norman made his observations, and it is not without some service to-day in that combination of phenomena of which Columbus noted the earliest traces in his first voyage of 1492. [Illustration: THE CROSS-STAFF.] [Sidenote: Italian discoverers.] [Sidenote: English discoverers.] It is significant how large a part in the cardinal discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was taken by Italian navigators, seamen, shipwrights, mathematicians, and merchants, whether in Portugal or Spain, France or England. It is curious, too, to observe how, when the theoretical work and confirmatory explorations were finished, and the commercial spirit succeeded to that of science, England embarked with her adventurous spirit. The death of Queen Mary in 1558 was the signal for English exertion, and that exertion became ominous to all Europe in the reign of Elizabeth, accompanied by an intellectual movement, typified in Bacon and Shakespeare, similar to that which stirred the age of Columbus and the Italian renaissance. [Sidenote: John Hawkins.] John Hawkins and African marauders of his English kind were selling negro slaves in Española in 1562 and subsequent years, and from them we get our first English accounts of the Florida coast, which on their return voyages they skirted. [Sidenote: New France.] [Sidenote: Spanish settlements fail at the north.] America had at this time been abandoned for a long while to Spain and France, and the latter power had only entered into competition with Charles V., when Francis I., as we have seen, had sent out Verrazano in 1521 to take possession of the north Atlantic coasts. Out of this grew upon the maps the designation of New France, which was attached to the main portion of the North American continent. And this French claim is recognized in the maps, painted about 1562, on the walls of the geographical gallery in the Vatican. So the French stole upon the possession of Spain in the West Indies; and the English followed in their wake, when the death of Mary rendered it easier for the English to smother their inherited antipathy to France. This done, the English in due time joined the French in efforts to gain an ascendency over Spain in the Indies, to compensate for the loss of such power in Italy. The Spaniards, though they had attempted to make settlements along the Chesapeake at different times between 1566 and 1573, never succeeded in making any impression on the history of this northern region. * * * * * The cartography of the north was at this period subject to two new influences; and both of them make large demands upon the credulity of scholarship in these latter days. [Sidenote: André Thevet.] Attempts have been made to trace some portion of the development of the coasts of the northeastern parts of the United States to the publications of a mendacious monk, André Thevet. He had been sent out to the French colony of Rio de Janeiro in 1555, where he remained prostrated with illness till he was able to reëmbark for France, January 31, 1556. In 1558 he published his _Singularitez de la France Antarctique_, a descriptive and conglomerate work, patched together from all such sources as he could pillage, professing to follow more or less his experiences on this voyage. He says nothing in it of his tracking along the east coast of the present United States. Seeking notoriety and prestige for his country, he pretends, however, in his _Cosmographie_ published in 1575, to recount the experiences of the same voyage, and now he professes to have followed this same eastern coast to the region of Norumbega. Well-equipped scholars find no occasion to believe that these later statements were other than boldly conceived falsehoods, which he had endeavored to make plausible by the commingling of what he could filch from the narratives of others. * * * * * [Sidenote: The Zeni story.] [Illustration: THE ZENI MAP.] It was at this time also (1558) that there was published at Venice the strange and riddle-like narrative which purports to give the experiences of the brothers Zeni in the north Atlantic waters in the fourteenth century. The publication came at a time when, with the transfer of cartographical interest from over the Alps to the home of its earliest growth, the countrymen of Columbus were seeking to reinstate their credit as explorers, which during the fifteenth century and the early part of the sixteenth they had lost to the peoples of the Iberian peninsula. Anything, therefore, which could emphasize their claims was a welcome solace. This accounts both for the bringing forward at this time of the long-concealed Zeni narrative,--granting its genuineness,--and for the influence which its accompanying map had upon contemporary cartography. This map professed to be based upon the discoveries made by the Zeni brothers, and upon the knowledge acquired by them at the north in the fourteenth century. It accordingly indicated the existence of countries called Estotiland and Drogeo, lying to the west, which it was now easy to identify with the Baccalaos of the Cabots, and with the New France of the later French. [Sidenote: The Zeni map.] "If this remarkable map," says Nordenskiöld, "had not received extensive circulation under the sanction of Ptolemy's name," for it was copied in the edition of 1561 of that geographer, "it would probably have been soon forgotten. During nearly a whole century it had exercised an influence on the mapping of the northern countries to which there are few parallels to be found in the history of cartography." It is Nordenskiöld's further opinion that the Zeni map was drawn from an old map of the north made in the thirteenth century, from which the map found in the Warsaw Codex of Ptolemy of 1467 was also drawn. He further infers that some changes and additions were imposed to make it correspond with the text of the Zeni narrative. [Illustration: THE ZENI MAP.] * * * * * The year 1569 is marked by a stride in cartographical science, of which we have not yet outgrown the necessity. [Illustration: THE WARSAW CODEX, 1467; after Nordenskiöld.] [Sidenote: 1569. Mercator's projection.] The plotting of courses and distances, as practiced by the early explorers, was subject to all the errors which necessarily accompany the lack of well-established principles, in representing the curved surface of the globe on a plane chart. Cumbrous and rude globes were made to do duty as best they could; but they were ill adapted to use at sea. Nordenskiöld (_Facsimile Atlas_, p. 22) has pointed out that Pirckheimer, in the Ptolemy of 1525, had seemingly anticipated the theory which Mercator now with some sort of prevision developed into a principle, which was applied in his great plane chart of 1569. The principle, however, was not definite enough in his mind for the clear exposition of formulæ, and he seems not to have attempted to do more than rough-hew the idea. The hint was a good one, and it was left for the Englishman Edward Wright to put its principles into a formulated problem in 1599, a century and more after Columbus had dared to track the ocean by following latitudinal lines in the simplest manner. [Illustration: THE WARSAW CODEX, 1467; after Nordenskiöld.] It has been supposed that Wright had the fashioning of the large map which, on this same Mercator projection, Hakluyt had included in his _Principall Navigations_ in 1599. Hondius had also adopted a like method in his _mappemonde_ of the same year. [Sidenote: 1570. The _Theatrum_ of Ortelius.] [Sidenote: Decline of Ptolemy.] [Illustration: MERCATOR, 1569.] In 1570 the publication of the great atlas of Abraham Ortelius showed that the centre of map-making had again passed from Italy, and had found a lodgment in the Netherlands. The _Theatrum_ of Ortelius was the signal for the downfall of the Ptolemy series as the leading exemplar of geographical ideas. The editions of that old cartographer, with their newer revisions, never again attained the influence with which they had been invested since the invention of printing. This influence had been so great that Nordenskiöld finds that between 1520 and 1550 the Ptolemy maps had been five times as numerous as any other. They had now passed away; and it is curious to observe that Ortelius seems to have been ignorant of some of the typical maps anterior to his time, and which we now look to in tracing the history of American cartography, like those of Ruysch, Stobnicza, Agnese, Apianus, Vadianus, and Girava. [Sidenote: Ortelius.] It has already been mentioned that when Ortelius published his _Theatrum_, and gave a list of ninety-nine makers of maps whom he had consulted, not a solitary one of Spanish make was to be found among them. It shows how effectually the Council of the Indies had concealed the cartographical records of their office. [Illustration: MERCATOR.] [Sidenote: 1577. English explorations.] [Sidenote: 1548. Sebastian Cabot.] It was eighty years since the English under John Cabot had undertaken a voyage of discovery in the New World. The interval passed not without preparation for new efforts, which had for a time, however, been extended to the northwest rather than to the northeast. In 1548 Sebastian Cabot had returned to his native land to assume the first place in her maritime world. His influence in directing, and that of Richard Eden in informing, the English mind prepared the way for the advent of Frobisher, the younger Hawkins, and Drake. [Sidenote: 1576. Frobisher.] [Illustration: ORTELIUS.] [Sidenote: 1577-78. Frobisher.] Frobisher's voyage of 1576 was the true beginning of the arctic search for a northwest passage, all earlier efforts having been in lower latitudes. He had sought, by leaving Greenland on the right, to pass north of the great American barrier, and thus reach the land of spices. He congratulated himself on having found the long-desired strait, when, naming it for himself, he returned to England. Frobisher attempted to add to these earlier discoveries by a voyage the next year, 1577, but he made exploration secondary to mining for gold, and not much was done. A third voyage in 1578 brought him into Hudson's Straits, which he entered with the hope of finding it the channel to Cathay. But in all his voyages Frobisher only crossed the threshold of the arctic north. [Illustration: ORTELIUS, 1570.] [Sidenote: The Zeni influence.] [Illustration: SEBASTIAN CABOT.] It was one of the results of Frobisher's voyages that they served to implant in the minds of the cartographers of the northern waters the notions of the Zeni geography, and aided to give those notions a new lease of favor. It is conjectured that Frobisher had the Zeni map with him, or its counterpart in one of the recent Ptolemies. This map had placed the point of Greenland under 66° instead of 61°, and under the last latitude this map had shown the southern coast of its insular Frisland. Therefore, when Frobisher saw land under 61°, which was in fact Greenland, he supposed it to be Frisland, and thus the maps after him became confused. A like mischance befell Davis, a little later. When this navigator found Greenland in 61°, he supposed it an island south of Greenland, which he called "Desolation," and the fancy grew up that Frobisher's route must have gone north of this island and between it and Greenland, and so we have in later maps this other misplacement of discoveries. [Illustration: FROBISHER.] [Sidenote: 1577. Francis Drake.] While Frobisher was absent, Drake developed his great scheme of following in the southerly track of Magellan. [Sidenote: Drake sees Cape Horn.] Four years before (1573), being at Panama, he had seen from a treetop the great Pacific, and had resolved to be the first of the English to furrow its depths. In 1577, starting on his great voyage of circumnavigation, he soon added a new stretch of the Pacific coast to the better knowledge of the world. When he returned to England, he proved to be the first commander who had taken his ship, the "Pelican," later called the "Golden Hind" wholly round the globe, for Magellan had died on the way. Passing through Magellan's Strait and entering the Pacific, Drake's ship was separated from its companions and driven south. It was then he saw the Cape Horn of a later Dutch navigator, and proved the non-existence of that neighboring antarctic continent, which was still persistently to cling to the maps. Bereft of his other ships, which the storm had driven apart, Drake, during the early months of 1579, made havoc among the Spanish galleons which were on the South American coasts. [Illustration: FROBISHER, 1578.] In March, 1579, surfeited with plunder, he started north from the coast of Mexico, to find a passage to the Atlantic in the upper latitudes. [Sidenote: In the north Pacific.] In June he had reached 42° north, though some have supposed that he went several degrees higher. He had met, however, a rigorous season, and his ropes crackled with the ice. The change was such a contrast to the allurements of his experiences farther to the south that he gave up his search for the strait that would carry him, as he had hoped, to the Atlantic, and, turning south, he reached a bay somewhere in the neighborhood of San Francisco, where he tarried for a while. Having placed the name of New Albion on the upper California coast, and fearing to run the hazards of the southern seas, where his plundering had made the Spaniards alert, he sailed westerly, and, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, reached England in due time, and was acknowledged to be the earliest of English circumnavigators. [Illustration: FRANCIS DRAKE.] It is one of the results of Drake's explorations in 1579-80 that we get in subsequent maps a more northerly trend to the California coast. [Sidenote: Confusion in the Pacific coast cartography.] Shortly after this, a great confusion in the maps of this Pacific region came in. From what it arose is not very apparent, except that absence of direct knowledge in geography opens a wide field for discursiveness. The Michael Lok map of 1582 indicates this uncertainty. It seemed to be the notion that the Arctic Sea was one and the same with that of Verrazano; also, that it came down to about the latitude of Puget Sound, and that the Gulf of California stretched nearly up to meet it. * * * * * [Sidenote: Francisco Gali.] [Sidenote: Proves the great width of the Pacific.] Francisco Gali, a Spanish commander, returning to Acapulco from China in 1583, tried the experiment of steering northward to about 38°, when he turned west and sighted the American coast in that latitude. At this point he steered south, and showed the practicability of following this circuitous route with less time than was required to buffet the easterly trades by a direct eastern passage. His experiment established one other fact, namely, the great width of water separating the two continents in those upper latitudes; for he had found it to be 1200 leagues across instead of there being a narrow strait, as the theorizing geographers had supposed. Gali seems also to have shown that the distance south from Cape Mendocino to the point of the California peninsula was not more than half as great as the maps had made it. His voyage was a significant source of enlightenment to the cartographers. * * * * * [Sidenote: Eastern coast of North America.] [Sidenote: 1579. The English on the coast.] To return to the eastern coasts, an English vessel under Simon Ferdinando spent a short season in 1579 somewhere about the Gulf of Maine, and was followed the next year by another under John Walker, and in 1593 by still a third under Richard Strong. [Sidenote: Sir Humphrey Gilbert.] For eighty years England might have rested her claim to North America on the discoveries of the Cabots; but Queen Elizabeth first gave prominence to these pretensions when she granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578 the right to make a settlement somewhere in these more northerly regions. Gilbert's first voyage accomplished nothing, and there was an interdict to prevent a second, since England might have use for daring seamen nearer home. "First," says Robert Hues, "Sir Humphrey Gilbert, with great courage and forces, attempted to make discovery of those parts of America which were yet unknown to the Spaniards; but the success was not answerable." The effort was not renewed till 1583, when Gilbert took possession of Newfoundland and attempted to make settlements farther south; but disaster followed him, and his ship foundered off the Azores on his return voyage. [Illustration: GILBERT'S MAP, 1576.] [Sidenote: Sir Walter Ralegh.] It was at this time that Sir Walter Ralegh came into prominence in pushing English colonization in America. He had been associated with his half-brother, Gilbert, in the earlier movements, but now he was alone. In 1584 he got his new charter, partly by reason of the urgency of Hakluyt in his _Westerne Planting_. Ralegh had his eye upon a more southern coast than Gilbert had aimed for,--upon one better fitted to develop self-dependent colonization. He knew that north of what was called Florida the Spaniards had but scantily tracked the country, and that they probably maintained no settlements. Therefore to reach a region somewhere south of the Chesapeake was the aim of the first company sent out under Ralegh's inspiration. These adventurers made their landfall where they could find no good inlet, and so sailed north, searching, until at last they reached the sounds on the North Carolina coast, and tarried awhile. Satisfied with the quality of the country, they returned to England; and their recitals so pleased Ralegh and the Queen that the country was named Virginia, and preparations were made to dispatch a colony. It went the next year, but its history is of no farther importance to our present purpose than that it marks the commencement of English colonization, disastrous though it was, on the North American continent, and the beginning of detailed English cartography of its coast, in the map, already referred to, which seems to open a passage, somewhere near Port Royal, to an interior sea. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1585-86. John Davis.] In 1585-86 John Davis had been buffeting among the icebergs of Greenland and the north in hopes to find a passage by the northwest; on June 30, 1587, he reached 72° 12' on the Greenland coast, and discovered the strait known by his name, and in 1595 when he published his _World's Hydrographical Description_, he maintained that he had touched the threshold of the northwest passage. He tells us that the globe of Molineaux shows how far he went. [Sidenote: English seamanship.] Seamanship owes more to Davis than to any other Englishman. In 1590, or thereabout, he improved the cross-staff, and giving somewhat more of complexity to it, he produced the back-staff. This instrument gave the observer the opportunity of avoiding the glare of the sun, since it was used with his back to that luminary; and when Flamsteed, the first astronomer royal at Greenwich, used a glass lens to throw reflected light, the first approach to the great principle of taking angles by reflection was made, which was later, in 1731, to be carried to a practical result in Hadley's quadrant. [Illustration: BACK-STAFF.] The art of finding longitude was still in an uncertain state. Gemma Frisius, as we have noted, had as early as 1530 divined the method of carrying time by a watch; but it was not till 1726 that anything really practicable came of it, in a timekeeper constructed by Harrison. This watch was continually improved by him up to 1761, when the method of ascertaining longitude by chronometer became well established; and a few years later (1767) the first nautical almanac was published, affording a reasonably good guide in lunar distances, as a means in the computations of longitude. [Sidenote: 1676.] In 1676 the Greenwich observatory had been founded to attempt the rectification of lunar tables, then so erroneous that the calculations for longitude were still uncertain. In 1701 Edmund Halley had published his great variation charts. These dates will fix in the reader's mind the advance of scientific skill as applied to navigation and discovery. It will be well also to remember that in 1594 Davis published his _Seaman's Secrets_, the first manual in the English tongue, written by a practical sailor, in which the principles of great circle sailing were explained. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1583-84. Earliest marine atlas.] [Sidenote: 1592. Dutch West India Company.] [Sidenote: 1598.] The first marine atlas had been printed at Leyden in 1583-84; but the Dutch had not at that time taken any active part in the development of discovery in the New World. Their longing for a share in it, mated with a certain hostile intention towards the Spaniards, instigated the formation of the West India Company, which had first been conceived in the mind of William Usselinx in 1592, though it was not put into execution till twenty-five years later. It was claimed by the Dutch that in 1598 the ships of their Greenland Company had discovered the Hudson River, though there can be little doubt that the French, Spanish, and perhaps English had been there much earlier. It is also claimed that the straits shown in Lok's map in 1582 had instigated Heinrich Hudson to his later search. But the truth in all these questions which involve national rights is very much perplexed with claim and counter-claim, invention and perversion, in which historical data are at the beck of political objects. [Sidenote: 1598. The Dutch on the North American coasts.] [Sidenote: The English.] By the end of the sixteenth century the Dutch began to appear on the coasts of the Middle and New England States, and the cartography of those regions developed rapidly under their observation; but it was through the boating explorations of Captain John Smith in 1614 that it took a shape nearer the truth. It is to him that the northerly parts owe the name of New England, which Prince Charles confirmed for it. The reports from Hudson, May, and others instigated a plan marked out in 1618, but not directly ordered by the States General till 1621, which led to the Dutch occupation of Manhattan and the neighboring regions, introducing more strongly than before a Dutch element into the maps. [Sidenote: The English leaders in maritime discovery.] [Sidenote: Richard Hakluyt.] When the seventeenth century opened, the English had come well to the front in maritime explorations. A large-minded and patriotic man, Sir Thomas Smith, did much in his capacity as governor of the "merchants trading into the East Indies" to direct contemporary knowledge into better channels. Dr. Thomas Hood gave public lectures in London on the improvements in methods of navigation. Richard Hakluyt, the historiographer of the new company, had already shown that he had inherited the spirit of helpful patronage which had characterized the labors of Eden. [Sidenote: 1600.] [Sidenote: The search for a western passage at the north.] [Sidenote: 1601. George Waymouth.] We find the peninsula made by the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic insularized from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the transverse channel being now on the line of the Hudson, then of the Penobscot, then of the St. Croix, and when the seventeenth century came in, it was not wholly determined that the longed-for western passage might not yet be found somewhere in this region. On July 24, 1601, George Waymouth, a navigator, as he was called, applied to the London East India Company to be assisted in making an attempt to discover a northwest passage to India, and the company agreed to his proposition. The Muscovy Company protested in vain against such an infringement of its own rights; but it found a way to smother its grief and join with its rival in the enterprise. Through such joint action Waymouth was sent by the northwest "towards Cataya or China, or the back side of America," bearing with him a letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Emperor of "China or Kathia." The attempt failed, and Waymouth returned almost ignominiously. [Sidenote: Hudson at the north.] In 1602, under instructions from the East India Company, he again sailed, and now pushed a little farther into Hudson's Strait than any one had been before. In 1609 Hudson had made some explorations, defining a little more clearly the northern coasts of the present United States; and in 1610 he sailed again from England to attempt the discovery of the northwest passage, in a small craft of fifty-five tons, with twenty-three souls on board. Following the tracks of Davis and Waymouth, he went farther than they, and revealed to the world the great inland sea which is known by his name, and in which he probably perished. [Sidenote: Hudson's Bay.] [Sidenote: 1615. Baffin's Bay.] In 1612-13 Sir Thomas Button developed more exactly the outline in part of this great bay, and in 1614 the _Discovery_, under Robert Bylot and William Baffin, passed along the coasts of Hudson's Strait, making most careful observation, and Baffin took for the first time at sea a lunar observation for longitude, according to a method which had been suggested as early as 1514. It was on a voyage undertaken in the next year, 1615, that Baffin, exceeding the northing of Davis, found lying before him the great expanse of Baffin's Bay, through which he proceeded till he found a northern exit in Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, under 78°. Baffin did all this with an accuracy which surprised Sir John Ross, who was the next to enter the bay, two centuries later. It was in these years of Hudson and Baffin that Napier invented logarithms and simplified the processes of nautical calculations. [Illustration: LUKE FOX, 1635.] [Sidenote: 1631. Luke Fox.] [Sidenote: Thomas James.] The voyage of Luke Fox in 1631 developed some portions of the western shores of Hudson's Bay, and he returned confident, from his observation of the tides farther north, that they indicated a western passage; and in the same year Thomas James searched the more southern limits of the great bay with no more success. These voyages put a stay for more than a hundred years to efforts in this direction to find the passage so long sought. [Sidenote: 1602. Gosnold.] Up to 1602 the explorations of our northern coasts seem to have been ordinarily made either by a sweep northerly from Europe, striking Newfoundland and then proceeding south, or by a southerly sweep following the Spanish tracks and coasting north from Florida. In this year, 1602, the Englishman Gosnold, without any earlier example that we know of since the time of Verrazano, stood directly to the New England coast, and in the accounts of his voyage we begin to find some particular knowledge of the contour of this coast, which opens the way to identifications of landmarks. The explorations of Pring (1603), Champlain (1604), Waymouth (1605), Popham (1607), Hudson (1609), Smith (1614), Dermer (1619), and others which followed are of no more importance in our present survey than as marking further stages of detailed geography. Even Dermer was dreaming of a western passage yet to be found in this region. * * * * * [Sidenote: Discoveries on the Pacific coast.] We must now turn to follow the development during the seventeenth century of the discoveries on the Pacific coast. [Sidenote: 1602. Viscaino.] Sebastian Viscaino, in his voyage up the coast from Acapulco in 1602, sought the hidden straits as high as 42°, and one of his captains reporting the coast to trend easterly at 43°, his story confused the geography of this region for many years. This supposed trend was held to indicate another passage to the Gulf of California, making the peninsula of that name an island, and so it long remained on the maps, after once getting possession, some years later (1622), of the cartographical fancy. [Sidenote: 1643. De Vries.] Some explorations of the Dutch under De Vries, in 1643, were the source of a notion later prevailing, that there was an interjacent land in the north Pacific, which they called "Jesso," and which was supposed to be separated by passages both from America and from Asia; and for half a century or more the supposition, connected more or less with a land seen by João da Gama, was accepted in some quarters. Indeed, this notion may be said to have not wholly disappeared till the maps of Cook's voyage came out in 1777-78, when the Aleutian Islands got something like their proper delineation. [Sidenote: Confused geographical notions of a western sea.] In fact, so vague was the conception of what might be the easterly extension of the northern sea in the latitudinal forties that the notion of a sea something like the old one of Verrazano was even thought in 1625 by Briggs in Purchas, and again in 1651 in Farrer's map of Virginia, to bathe the western slope of the Alleghanies. [Sidenote: 1700.] [Sidenote: Maldonado, Da Fuca, De Fonte.] Early in the eighteenth century, even the best cartographers ran wild in their delineations of the Pacific coast. A series of multifarious notions, arising from more or less faith in the alleged explorations of Maldonado, Da Fuca, and De Fonte, some of them assumed to have been made more than a century earlier, filled the maps with seas and straits, identified sometimes with the old strait of Anian, and converting the northwestern parts of North America into a network of surmises, that look strangely to our present eyes. Some of these wild configurations prevailed even after the middle of the century, but they were finally eliminated from the maps by the expedition of that James Cook who first saw the light in a Yorkshire cabin in 1728. [Illustration: JESSO. [After Hennepin.]] [Sidenote: 1724. Bering.] [Sidenote: 1728.] In 1724 Peter the Great equipped Vitus Bering's first expedition, and in December, 1724, five weeks before his death, the Czar gave the commanding officer his instruction to coast northward and find if the Asiatic and American coasts were continuous, as they were supposed to be. There were, however, among the Siberians, some reports of the dividing waters and of a great land beyond, and these rumors had been prevailing since 1711. Peter the Great died January 28, 1725 (old style), just as Bering was beginning his journey, and not till March, 1728, did that navigator reach the neighborhood of the sea. In July he spread his sails on a vessel which he had built. [Illustration: DOMINA FARRER'S MAP, 1651.] [Illustration: DOMINA FARRER'S MAP, 1651.] [Illustration: BUACHE'S THEORY, 1752.] [Illustration: BERING'S STRAITS.] [Sidenote: 1732.] [Sidenote: 1741. Bering.] By the middle of August he had passed beyond the easternmost point of Asia, and was standing out into the Arctic Ocean, when he turned on his track and sailed south. Neither in going nor in returning did he see land to the east, the mists being too thick. He had thus established the limits of the Russian Empire, but he had not as yet learned of the close proximity of the American shores. His discoveries did not get any cartographical record till Kiriloff made his map of Russia in 1734, using the map which Bering had made in Moscow in 1731. The following year (1732), Gvosdjeff espied the opposite coast; but it was not till 1741 that Bering sailed once more from the Asiatic side to seek the American coast. He steered southeast, and soon found that the land seen by Da Gama, and which the Delisles had so long kept on their maps, did not exist there. [Sidenote: Aleutian Islands.] Thence sailing northward, Bering sighted the coast in July and had Mount St. Elias before him, then named by him from that saint's day in the calendar. On his return route some vague conception of the Aleutian Islands was gained, the beginning of a better cartography, in which was also embodied the stretch of coast which Bering's associate, Chirikoff, discovered farther east and south. [Sidenote: Northern Pacific.] In 1757 Venegas, uninformed as to these Russian discoveries, confessed in his _California_ that nothing was really known of the coast line in the higher latitudes,--an ignorance that was the source of a great variety of conjectures, including a large inland sea of the west connecting with the Pacific, which was not wholly discarded till near the end of the century, as has already been mentioned. * * * * * [Sidenote: The search for the northwest passage.] The search for the northwest passage to Asia, as it had been begun by the English under Cabot in 1497, was also the last of all the endeavors to isolate the continent. The creation of the Hudson Bay Company in 1670 was ostensibly to promote "the discovery of a new passage into the South Sea," but the world knows how for two centuries that organization obstinately neglected, or as far as they dared, the leading purpose for which they pretended to ask a charter. They gave their well-directed energies to the amassing of fortunes with as much persistency as the Spaniards did at the south, but with this difference: that the wisdom in their employment of the aborigines was as eminent as with the Southrons it was lacking. It was left for other agencies of the British government successfully to accomplish, with the aid of the votaries of geographical science, what the pecuniary speculators of Fen Church Street hardly dared to contemplate. [Sidenote: 1779. James Cook.] The spirit of the old navigators was revived in James Cook, when in 1779 he endeavored to pass eastward by Bering's Straits; but it was not till forty years later that a series of arctic explorations was begun, in which the English races of both continents have shown so conspicuous a skill and fortitude. [Sidenote: Kendrick in the "Columbia."] While the English, French, and Spaniards were dodging one another in their exploring efforts along this upper coast, a Boston ship, the "Columbia," under Captain Kendrick, entered the Columbia River, then named; and to these American explorations, as well as to the contemporary ones of Vancouver, the geographical confusion finally yielded place to something like an intelligible idea. [Sidenote: 1790-95. Vancouver.] It had also been the aim of Vancouver in 1790-95 "to ascertain the existence of any navigable communication between the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans," and the correspondence of the British government leading to this expedition has only been lately printed in the _Report_ of the Dominion archivist, Douglas Brymner, for 1889. [Illustration: THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE.] [Sidenote: Arctic explorers.] [Sidenote: 1850. McClure finds the northwest passage.] The names of Barrow, Ross, Parry, and Franklin, not to mention others of a later period, make the story of the final severance of the continent in the arctic seas one of conspicuous interest in the history of maritime exploration. Captain Robert L. McClure, in the "Investigator," late in 1850 passed into Bering's Straits, and before September closed his ship was bound in the ice. In October McClure made a sledge journey easterly over a frozen channel and reached the open sea, which thirty years before Parry had passed into from the Atlantic side. The northwest passage was at last discovered. We have seen that within thirty years from the death of Columbus the outline of South America was defined, while it had taken nearly two centuries and a quarter to free the coast lines of the New World from an entanglement in men's minds with the outlines of eastern Asia, and another century and a quarter were required to complete the arctic contour of America, so that the New World at last should stand a wholly revealed and separate continent. Nor had all this labor been done by governments alone. The private merchant and the individual adventurer, equipping ships and sailing without national help, had done no small part of it. Dr. Kohl strikingly says, "The extreme northern limit of America, the desolate peninsula Boothia, is named after the English merchant who fitted out the arctic expedition of Sir John Ross; and the southernmost strait, beyond Patagonia, preserves the name of Le Maire, the merchant at whose charge it was disclosed to the world!" INDEX. Acklin Island, 215. Adam of Bremen, 147. Adda, G. d', 12. Admiral's map, 534, 546, 581. _See_ Waldseemüller. Africa, circumnavigations of, 91; discoveries along its coast, 91, 151; early maps, 133; Ptolemy's map of its southern part, 335. Agnese Baptista, his maps, 595, 597. Aguado, Juan, sent to Española, 317; his conduct, 319. Ailly, Pierre d', _De Imagine Mundi_, 7, 8, 121, 180, 497; his map (1410), 601. Albertus Magnus, 497; portrait, 120. Aleutian Islands, 652, 658. Alexander VI., letter to, from Columbus, 9; pope, 252; his bull of demarcation, 252; his bust, 253. Alfonso V. (Portugal), 108. Aliacus. _See_ Ailly. Allefonsce, 614. Allegetto degli Allegetti, _Ephemerides_, 32. Almagro, 565. Alto Velo, 390. Alva, Duke of, 514, 515. Amazons, 235, 237. America, mainland first seen by Columbus, 351; gradually developed as a continent, 529, 606, 619, 660; history of its name, 538, 621; earliest maps bearing the name, 547-552; the name never recognized in Spain, 554; earliest on maps, 581; was it known to the ancients? 606. _See_ North _and_ South America. Anacaona, 305; entertains Bartholomew Columbus, 361; captured, 473. Ancuparius, 588. Angelus, Jacobus. 531. Ango, Jean, 556. Anian, Straits of, 418, 620. Antarctic continent, 628, 644. Antillia, belief in, 111, 112, 128. Apianus, his map (1520), 550, 587; portrait, 586. Archipelago on the Asiatic coast, 190. Arctic explorations, 640, 658, 659, 660. Asia, as known to Marco Polo, etc., map, 113, 114. Aspa, Ant. de, his documents, 29. Astrolabe, 94-96, 132, 150, 260, 632. Atlantic Ocean, early cartography of, 86, 88; floating islands in, 185; its archipelago, 185; as defined by Behaim compared with its actual condition, 190; early voyages on, 603. Atlantis, story of, 126. Aubert, Thomas, 556. Audiencia, 518. Avila, Luis de, 527. Ayala, Pedro de, 343. Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, 561; and Diego Colon, 522; his map, 561, 584; settlement on the Potomac, 561. Azores discovered, 86, 88. Babeque, 225, 230, 231. Baccalaos, 344. Back-staff, 648. Bacon, Roger, _Opus majus_, 121, 497. Badajos, congress at, 590. Baffin, Wm., 650. Baffin's Bay, 651. Bahamas, Herrera's map, 212; modern map, 213; character of, 215; their peoples, 218; depopulated, 515. Balboa, 562; portrait, 563; discovers the South Sea, 564, 606; executed, 564. Ballester, Miguel, 366, 372. Bancroft, H. H., on Columbus, 59, 503. Bank of St. George, and its records, 21, 70. Barclay, Alex., translates Brant, 537. Barlow, S. L. M., his library, 17. Barrentes, Garcia de, 372. Barros, João de. _Decada_, 33, 149, 241. Bastidas, Rodrigo de, on the South American coast, 426, 528. Basques on the Atlantic, 128; fishermen, 340. Baza, siege of, 169. Behaim, Martin, in Lisbon, 132; improves the astrolabe, 132; at sea, 134; portrait, 134; and Columbus, 150; his globe, 185-188, 533. Behechio, 305, 361. Belknap, Dr. Jeremy, on Columbus, 55. Belloy, Marquis de, life of Columbus, 54. Beneventanus, 533. Benincasa, maps, 81. Benzoni, 32, 51. Beradi, Juonato, 258, 317. Bergenroth, _Calendar_, 13, 23. Bergomas, his chronicle, 32. Bering's Straits, 418, 657. Bering, his discoveries, 529, 620, 653. Bernaldez, Andrès, friend of Columbus, 13, 331; _Historia_, 13, 18, 37. Berwick, Duke of, 527. Béthencourt, Jean de, 86. Bianco, Andrea, his map, 88, 89; helps Fra Mauro, 100. Bienewitz. _See_ Apianus. Bimini, 422, 558, 560. Birds, flight of, 88. Blanco, Cape, passed, 98. Bloodhounds, 312. Blunderville, 632. Bobadilla, Francisco de, sent to Santo Domingo, 390; his character, 395; his instructions, 396, 397; reaches Española, 398; his acts, 398; their effect upon Columbus, 400; arrests Bastidas, 426; his rule in Santo Domingo, 428; superseded, 429; to return to Spain, 440; lost, 440. Bohio, 228. Bojador, Cape, passed, 97. Bordone, map, 142. Bossi, L., on Columbus, 32. Bourne, Wm., _The Regiment of the Sea_, 631. Boyle. _See_ Buil. Brandt, _Shyppe of Fools_, 14. Brazil coast visited by Cabral, 378; early explorers, 533. Brazil, island of, 112, 139. Breton explorations, 555, 556. Breviesca, Ximeno de, 333. Brevoort, J. C., 597, 607, 621. Briggs in Purchas, 652. Bristol, England, and its maritime expeditions, 342. Brocken, Baron van, _Colomb_, 55. Brymner, Douglas, 660. Buache, his map, 656. Büdinger, Max, _Acten zur Columbus Geschichte_, 46; _Zur Columbus Literatur_, 46. Buet, C., _Colomb_, 54. Buil, Bernardo, sent to the New World, 259. Bull of demarcation, 22, 252, 339. Bull of extension, 305. Button, Sir Thomas, 650. Bylot, Robert, 650. Cabot, John, in England, 167, 340; sails on a voyage of discovery, 340; earliest engraved map of his discoveries, 341; great circle sailing, 341; discovers land, 341; question of his landfall, 341; returns to Bristol, 342; question of his going to Seville, 343; his second voyage, 344; its extent, 344; lack of knowledge respecting these voyages, 345; authorities on, 346; was his voyage known to Columbus? 386; and the Ruysch map, 533; his explorations, 624. Cabot, Sebastian, his observation of the line of no variation, 201; on Columbus's discovery, 248; his participancy in his father's voyages, 344; his papers, 345; alleged voyage, 427; voyages, 555; his mappemonde, 341, 345, 624, 626, 627; returns to England, 639; portrait, 642. Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, on the South American coast, 377. Cabrero, Juan, 161. Cabrillo, 611. Cacique, 231. Cadamosto, his voyage, 98. Cado, Fermin, 285. California, peninsula of, 610; its name, 611; map, 611; mapped as an island, 652; Drake on the coast, 644, 645. Cam, Diogo, 134. Camargo on the coast of Chili, 577. Camers, Johann, 585. Canaries, their history, 86; map of, 194. Cannibals, 225, 227, 230, 268, 270, 281. Canoes, 219. Cantino, Alberto, 417; Cantino map, 387; sketched, 419; its traits examined, 420; its relation with Columbus, 421. Caonabo, 305; attacks La Navidad, 273, 275; attacks St. Thomas, 308; forms a league, 308; captured, 313; dies, 323. Cape Blanco, 98. Cape Bojador, 97. Cape Breton, 627. Cape of Good Hope discovered, 151. Cape Horn discovered, 577; seen by Drake, 644. Cape Race, 534. Cape Verde Island discovered, 199. Cardenas, Alonso de, 161. Cardona, Cristoval de, Admiral of Aragon, 524, 526, 527. Caribs, 236, 271, 323. Carpini, Plano, 90. Carthaginians as voyagers, 127. Cartier, Jacques, his explorations, 612, 624. Carvajal, Alonso Sanchez de, factor of Columbus, 430. Carvajal, Bernardin de, 248. Casa de Contratacion, 481. Casaneuve. _See_ Colombo the Corsair. Casanove, 71. Casoni, F., annals of Genoa, 32, 154. Casteñeda, Juan de, 238. Castellanos, _Elegias_, 491. Castillo, 611. Catalan seamanship, 94. Catalina, Doña, 9, 276. Cathay, 224, 457; early name of China, 90; map of, 113, 114; as found by the Portuguese, 509. Cazadilla, 150. Chanca, Dr., his narrative, 29; goes to the new world, 262, 282. Charles V., portrait, 519. Chaves, Alonso, his map, 561, 621; at the Seville Conference, 604. Chesapeake Bay, Spaniards in the, 633. Chili discovered, 565, 577. China, early known, 90. _See_ Cathay. Chronica Delphinea, 9, 11. Chronometers, 260, 603. Chytræus, 627. Cibao, 232; its mines visited by Ojeda, 279. Ciguare, 447. Cipango, 125; map, 113. Circourt, Count, 46. Clavus, Claudius, 140, 141. Clemente, Claudio, _Tablas_, 214. Climatic lines, 601. Codex Flatoyensis, 146. Coelho's voyage, 410. Colombo, Balthazar, 525, 527. Colombo, Bernardo, 525, 527. Colombo, Corsair, 71, 72, 83, 84. Colon, Cristoval (bastard son of Luis, grandson of Columbus), 526. Colon, Diego (brother of Columbus), born, 77; in Spain and in Columbus's second expedition, 262; his character, 285; placed by Columbus in command at Isabella, 290; goes to Spain, 311; quarrels with Fonseca, 318. Colon, Diego (son of Columbus), 106; page to the Queen, 181; at Court, 478, 479; receives letter from Columbus, 478; his illegitimate children, 513; receives what was due to his father, 513; urges the King to restore his father's privileges, 513; his suit against the Crown, 514, 553; wins, 515; marriage, 515; denied the title of Viceroy, 515; Governor of Española, 515, 516; in Spain, 519; lends money to Charles V., 520; his income, 520; Viceroy, 520; builds a palace, 520; its ruins, 520; in Spain pressing his claims, 522; dies, 522; his children, 522. Colon, Diego (great-grandson of Columbus), marries and becomes Duke of Veragua, 525, 526; his connection with the _Historie_ of 1571, 44. Colon, Luis (grandson of Columbus), succeeds his father, 522; makes compromise with the Crown, 522; holds Jamaica, 523; made Duke of Veragua, 523; governs Española, 523; his marriages, 523; imprisoned and dies, 523; his children, 526. Colon. _See_ Columbus. Columbia River, 658. Columbus, Bartholomew (brother of Columbus), born, 77; in Portugal, 104; affects Columbus's views, 117; with Diaz on the African coast, 151, 303; sent to England, 167, 303, 339; in France, 168, 303; reaches Española, 303; made Adelantado, 304; left in command by Columbus, 323; confirmed by the Crown as Adelantado, 328; portrait, 329; attacks the Quibian, 451; sees Columbus for the last time, 488; survives him, 513; goes to Rome, 516; takes a map, 516, 533; goes to Española, 516; dies, 518; reputed descendant, 527. COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, sources of information, 1; biographers, 30; his prolixity and confusion, 1; his writings, 1; _Libro de las Proficias_, 1; facsimile of his handwriting, 2; his private papers, 2; letters, 2, 5; written in Spanish, 2; his privileges, 3; _Codex Diplomaticus_, 3; the Custodia at Genoa, 4, 5; Bank of St. George, 5; marginalia, 7; _Declaracion de Tabla navigatoria_, 7, 32; _Cinco Zonas_, 7; lost manuscripts, 8; MS. annotations, 8; missing letters, 9, 18, 19; missing commentary, 9; journal of his first voyage, 9, 193; printed in English, 10; letters on his discovery, 10; printed editions, 12; Catalan text, 13; Latin text, 14; his transient fame, 14; in England, 14; autographs, 14; edition of the Latin first letter, 15; facsimile of a page, 16; libraries possessing copies, 17; bibliography of first letter, 17; other accounts of first voyage, 17; lawsuits of heirs, 18, 26, 514; account of his second voyage, 18, 264; _Libro del Segundo Viage_, 18, 264; letters owned by the Duke de Veragua, 18; accounts of his third voyage, 18, 347; of his fourth voyage, 19; _Lettera rarissima_, 19; _Libros de memorias_, 19; work on the Arctic Pole, 19; his maps, 29; _Memorial del Pleyto_, 26; Italian accounts of, 30; influenced by his Spanish life, 33; Portuguese accounts, 33; Spanish accounts, 33; documents preserved by Las Casas, 47; canonization, 52; English accounts, 55; life by Irving, 56; bibliography, 59; his portraits, 61-70; his person, 61; tomb at Havana, 69; his promise to the Bank of St. George, 5, 70; ancestry, 71; early home, 71; name of Colombo, 71; the French family, 71; professes he was not the first admiral of his name, 72; spurious genealogies, 73, 74; prevalence of the name Colombo, 73; his grandfather, 74; his father, 74; life at Savona, 75; Genoa, 75; his birth, 76; disputed date, 76; his mother, 77; her offspring, 77; place of his birth, 77; many claimants, 78; uncertainties of his early life, 79; his early education, 79; his penmanship and drawing, 79; specimen of it, 80; said to have been at Pavia, 79; at Genoa, 81; in Anjou's expedition, 83; his youth at sea, 83; drawn to Portugal, 86, 102; living there, 103; alleged swimming with an oar, 103; marries, 105; supposed interview with a sailor who had sailed west, 107; knew Marco Polo's book, 116; Mandeville's book, 116; the ground of his belief in a western passage, 117; inherits his views of the sphericity of the earth, 119; of its size, 123; his ignorance of the Atlantis story, etc., 126, 148; learns of western lands, 129; in Portugal, 131; in Iceland, 135; _Tratado de las Cinco Zonas_, 137; and the Sagas, 146; his first gratuity in Spain, 149; difficulty in following his movements, 149; interviews the Portuguese king, 150; abandons Portugal, 149, 153; did he lay his project before the authorities of Genoa? 153; did he propose to those of Venice? 154; did he leave a wife in Portugal? 154; enters Spain, 154, 157, 169; at Rabida, 154, 173; calls himself Colon, 157; receives gratuities, 157, 168; sells books and maps, 158; writes out his proofs of a new world, 158; interview with Ferdinand of Spain, 159; his monument at Genoa, 163; at Malaga, 165; connection with Beatrix Enriquez, 166; his son Ferdinand born, 166; his views in England, 167; invited back to Portugal, 168; lived in Spain with the Duke of Medina-Celi, 169; at Cordova, 169; at Baza, 169; his views again rejected, 170; at Santa Fé, 176; his arrogant demands, 177; starts for France, 177; recalled and agreed with, 179; his passport, 180; the capitulations, 181; allowed to use Don, 181; at Palos, 181; his fleet fitted out, 182; expenses of the first voyage, 183; his flag-ship, 183; her size, 184; hopes to find mid-ocean islands, 185; sails, 191; keeps a journal, 193; the "Pinta" disabled, 195; sees Teneriffe, 195; at the Canaries, 195; falsifies his reckoning, 195; map of the routes of his four voyages, 196; of the first voyage, 197; his dead reckoning, 198; his judgment of his speed, 198; observes no variation of his needle, 198; watches the stars, 203; believed the earth pear-shaped, 203; meets a west wind, 205; thinks he sees land, 206; follows the flight of birds, 206; pacifies his crew, 207; alleged mutiny, 208; claims to see a light, 208; receives a reward for first seeing land, 209, 249; map of the landfall, 210; land actually seen, 211; land taken possession of, 211; his armor, 211; question of his landfall, 214; trades with the natives, 218, 220; first intimates his intention to enslave them, 220; finds other islands, 220; eager to find gold, 221; reaches Cuba, 223; mentions pearls for the first time, 223; thought himself on the coast of Cathay, 224; takes an observation, 224; meets with tobacco, 225; with potatoes, 225; hears of cannibals, 225; seeks Babeque, 225; difficult communication with the natives, 226, 227; in the King's Garden, 226; deserted by Pinzon, 226; at Española, 228; takes his latitude, 229; entertains a cacique, 231; meets with a new language, 232; seeks gold, 232; shipwrecked, 232; builds a fort, 233; names it La Navidad, 235; hears of Jamaica, 235; of Amazons, 235; fears the Pinzons, 235; sees mermaids, 236; sails for Spain, 236; meets a gale, 237; separates from the "Pinta," 237; throws overboard an account of his discoveries, 238; makes land at the Azores, 238; gets provisions, 238; his men captured on shore, 239; again at sea, 240; enters the Tagus, 240; reason for using the name Indies, 240; goes to the Portuguese Court, 241; leaves the Tagus, having sent a letter to the Spanish Court, 242; reaches Palos, 242; the "Pinta" arrives the same day, 242, 244; his Indians, 244, 259, 272; summoned to Court, 244; at Barcelona, 245; reception, 245; his life there, 246, 247, 249, 256; his first letter, 248; scant impression made by the announcement, 248; the egg story, 249; receives a coat-of-arms, 249, 550; his family arms, 251; his motto, 251; receives the royal seal, 256; leaves the Court, 256; in Seville, 256; relations with Fonseca begin, 256; fits out the second expedition, 257, 258, 261; embarks, 263; sails, 264; his character, 265; at the Canaries, 265; at Dominica, 266; at Marigalante, 266; at Guadaloupe, 268; fights the Caribs at Santa Cruz, 271; reaches Española, 272; arrives at La Navidad, 273; finds it destroyed and abandons it, 275, 277; disembarks at another harbor, 278; founds Isabella, 278; grows ill, 279; expeditions to seek gold, 279, 280; writes to the sovereigns, 280; the fleet leaves him, 282; harassed by factions, 284; leads an expedition inland, 285; builds Fort St. Thomas, 287; returns to Isabella, 288; sends Ojeda to St. Thomas, 289; sails to explore Cuba, 290; discovers Jamaica, 291; returns to Cuba, 293; imagines his approach to the Golden Chersonesus, 295; exacts an oath from his men that they were in Asia, 296; doubts as to his own belief, 297; return voyage, 299; on the Jamaica coast, 300; calculates his longitude on the Española coast, 301; falls into a stupor, 302; reaches Isabella, 302; finds his brother Bartholomew there, 303; learns what had happened in his absence, 304; receives supplies, 309; sends the fleet back, 310; sends Diego to Spain, 311; sends natives as slaves, 311; battle of the Vega Real, 312; oppresses the natives, 315; his enemies in Spain, 318; receives a royal letter by Aguado, 319; the fleet wrecked, 321; thinks the mines of Hayna the Ophir of Solomon, 322; sails for Spain, 323; reaches Cadiz, 324; lands in the garb of a Franciscan, 325; proceeds to Court, 326; asks for a new fleet, 326; delays, 327; his rights reaffirmed, 328; new proportion of profits, 328; his will, 330; his signature, 330; lives with Andres Bernaldez, 331; his character drawn by Bernaldez, 331; enlists criminals, 332; his altercation with Fonseca's agent, 333; had authorized voyages, 336; the third voyage and its sources, 347; leaves directions for his son Diego, 348; sails from San Lucar, 348; his course, 348; letter to him from Jayme Ferrer, 349; captures a French prize, 349; at the Cape de Verde Islands, 349; at Trinidad, 350; first sees mainland, 351; touches the Gulf Stream, 352; grows ill, 355, 356; his geographical delusions, 356; compared with Vespucius, 358; observations of nature, 359; meets the Adelantado, 359; reaches Santo Domingo, 365; his experience with convict settlers, 366, 392, 396, 434; sends letters to Spain, 367; treats with Roldan, 368, 370; institutes repartimientos, 371; sends other ships to Spain, 371; his prerogatives as Admiral infringed, 372; sends Roldan against Ojeda, 374; did he know of Cabot's voyage? 386; his wrongs from furtive voyagers, 372-387; opposition to his rule in the Antilles, 388; his new relations with Roldan, 389; quells Moxica's plot, 390; Bobadilla arrives, 390; charges against the Admiral, 392, 402, 404; his deceiving the Crown, 393; receives copies of Bobadilla's instructions, 400; reaches Santo Domingo, 401; imprisoned and fettered, 401; sent to Spain in chains, 403; his letter to Prince Juan's nurse, 404, 405, 407; his alienation of mind, 405; reaches Cadiz, 407; his reception, 408, 409; suspended from power, 409; his connection with the Cantino map, 420, 421; his destitution, 420; his vested rights invaded, 428; his demands unheeded, 428; sends a factor to Española, 430; _Libros de las Proficias_, 431; his projected conquest of the Holy Land, 431; defeated by Satan, 431; dreams on a hidden channel through the new world, 432; still seeking the Great Khan, 433; his purposed gift to Genoa, 434; writes to the Bank of St. George, 435; his fourth voyage, 437; his mental and physical condition, 437; at Martinico, 438; touches at the forbidden Santo Domingo, 438; but is denied the port, 439; his ships ride out a gale, 441; on the Honduras coast, 441; meets a large canoe, 442; says mass on the land, 442; on the Veragua coast, 445; touches the region tracked by Bastidas, 448; sees a waterspout, 449; returns to Veragua, 450; finds the gold mines of Solomon, 450; plans settlement at Veragua, 451; dangers, 451; has a fever, 453; hears a voice, 454; the colony rescued, 456; sails away, 456; abandons one caravel, 457; on the Cuban coast, 457; goes to Jamaica, 457; strands his ships, 458; sends Mendez to Ovando, 458, 461; writes a letter to his sovereigns, 459; _Lettera rarissima_, 459; his worship of gold, 461; the revolt of Porras, 462; Porras sails away, 464; but returns to the island and wanders about, 464; predicts an eclipse of the moon, 465; Escobar arrives, 467; and leaves, 468; negotiations with Porras, 468; fight between the rebels and the Adelantado, 469; Porras captured, 469; the rebels surrender, 470; Mendez sends to rescue him, 470; leaves Jamaica, 471; learns of events in Española during his absence, 472; reaches Santo Domingo, 475; relations with Ovando, 475; sails for Spain, 475; arrives, 476; in Seville, 477; his letters at this time, 477; his appeals, 477; fears Porras, 478, 479; appeals to Mendez, 479; his increasing malady, 480; sends a narrative to Rome, 482; suffered to ride on a mule, 483; relations with the Bank of St. George in Genoa, 483; his privileges, 484; doubtful reference to Fonseca, 484; later relations with Vespucius, 484; his property sold, 486; goes to Segovia, 486; Deza asked to arbitrate, 486; makes a will, 487; at Salamanca, 487; at Valladolid, 488; seeks to propitiate Juana, 488; makes a codicil to his will, 488; its doubtful character, 488; ratifies his will, 489; its provisions, 489; dies, 490; his death unnoticed, 491; later distich proposed for his tomb, 491; successive places of interment, 491; his bones removed to Santo Domingo, 492; to Havana, 492; controversy over their present position, 492; his chains, 494; the age of Columbus, 494; statue at Santo Domingo, 495; his character, his dependence on the _Imago Mundi_, 497; on other authors, 498; relations with Toscanelli, 499; different delineations of his character, 501; his observations of nature, 502; his overwrought mind, 502; hallucinations, 503, 504; arguments for his canonization, 505; purpose to gain the Holy Sepulchre, 505; his Catholicism, 505; his urgency to enslave the Indians, 505, 506; his scheme of repartimientos 506; adopts garb of the Franciscans, 508; mercenary, 508, 509; the moving light of his first voyage, 510; insistence on territorial power, 510; claims inspiration, 511; his heirs, 513; his discoveries denied after his death, 514, 520; his territorial power lost by his descendants, 523; table of his descendants, 524, 525; his male line becomes extinct, 526; lawsuit to establish the succession, 526; female line through the Portogallos fails, 527; now represented by the Larreategui family, 528; present value of the estates, 528; the geographical results of his discoveries, 529; connection with early maps, 533, 534; his errors in longitude, 603; his observations of magnetic influence, 632. Columbus, Ferdinand (bastard son of Columbus), 480, 482; his _Historie_, 39; doubts respecting it, 39; his career, 40; his income, 40; his library, 40; its catalogue, 42; English editions of the _Historie_, 55; his birth, 166; at school, 181; made page of the Queen, 331; his ability, 513; goes with Diego to Española, 515; aids his brother's widow, 522; an arbiter, 522; owns Ptolemy (1513), 545; his disregard of the claims urged for Vespucius, 553; his _Colon de Concordia_, 571; arbiter at the Congress of Badajos, 591; advises the King, 591; his house at Seville, 603; at the Seville Conference, 604; map inscribed to him, 605. Coma, Guglielmo, 282. Conti, Nicolo di, 116, 509. Cook, James, voyage, 633, 658. Cordova, Cathedral of, 172. Coronel, Pedro Fernandez, 332, 364. Correa da Cunha, Pedro, 106, 131. Correnti, C., 12. Corsairs, 71. Corsica, claim for Columbus's birth in, 77. Cortereal discoveries, 577. Cortereal, Gaspar, manuscript, facsimile, 414; his voyage to Labrador, 415. Cortereal, João Vaz, 129. Cortereal, Miguel, his handwriting, facsimile, 416; his voyages, 417. Cortes, Hernando, in Santo Domingo, 475; sails for Mexico, 565; his map of the Gulf of Mexico, 567, 569, 607; his exploring expeditions, 568; planning to explore the Pacific, 591; his Pacific explorations, 610; his portrait, 610. Cortes, Martin, 630. Cosa, Juan de la, 426; goes to the new world, 262; his charts, 343, 345, 380-382; with Ojeda, 373. Cosco, Leander de, 15. Costa Rica, map, 443. Cotabanama, 305, 474. Coulomp, 71. Cousin, Jean, on the Brazil coast, 174. Crignon, Pierre, 556. Criminals enlisted by Columbus, 332. Crossbows, 258. Cross-staff, 261, 632, 648. _See_ Back-staff. Cuba, reached by Columbus, 223; believed to be Asia, 226; named Juana, 228; its southern coast explored, 291; insularity of, 384; Wytfliet's map, 384-85; its cartography, 424; Columbus's views, 425; circumnavigated, 565. Cubagua, 355. Cushing, Caleb, on the Everett MS., 4; on Navarrete, 28; on Columbus's landfall, 217. Darien, isthmus, map, 446. Dati, versifies Columbus's first letter, 15. D'Avezac on the _Historie_, 45. Davis, John, in the north, 643, 648; his _Seaman's Secrets_, 649. Dead reckoning, 94. De Bry, 51; his engraving of Columbus, 66, 68. Degree, length of, 124. Del Cano, 576. Demarcation. _See_ Bull of. Demersey, A., on the Muñoz MSS., 27. Denys, Jean, 556. Desceliers (or Henri II.) map, 612, 624. Deza, Diego de, 161, 164, 170; asked to arbitrate between Columbus and the King, 486. Diaz, Bart., on the African coast, 151. Diaz, Miguel, 322, 399. Diaz de Pisa, Bernal, 284. Dogs used against the natives, 292, 312. Dominica, 266. Dominicans in Española, 508. Don, Nicholas, 556. Donis, Nicholas, his map, 140, 531. Drake, Francis, sees Cape Horn, 577; his voyages, 643; portrait, 645, 654. Drogeo, 635. Duro, C. F., _Colon_, etc., 54. Dutch, the, their American explorations, 649. Earth, sphericity of, 118; size of, 121; how far known before Columbus, 122. East India Company, 650. Eden, R., _Treatyse of the Newe India_, 537, 538; _Decades_, 538; _Arte of Navigation_, 631; influence in England, 639. Eden (paradise), situation of, 357. Eggleston, Edward, 597, 599. Enciso, Fernandes d', _Geographia_, 587. Encomiendas, 314. England, reception of Columbus's news in, 167; earliest mention of the Spanish discoveries, 537; sea-manuals in, 631; effects on discovery of her commercial spirit, 632; her explorations, 639; beginning of her colonization, 648; her later explorations, 650; her seamen in the Caribbean Sea, 373, 426, 427; on the eastern coast of North America, 601. Enriquez, Beatrix, connection with Columbus, 166; noticed in Columbus's will, 489. Equator, crossed by the Portuguese, 134; first crossed on the American side, 376. Eric the Red, 139, 140, 144, 146. Escobar, Diego de, sent to Jamaica by Ovando, 467. Escobar, Roderigo de, 451. Escoveda, Rodrigo de, 235. Española, discovered and named, 228, 229; its divisions, 305; Charlevoix's map, 306; Ramusio's map of, 369; Ovando recalled, 515; Diego Colon governor, 515; sugar cane raised, 520. Esquibel, Juan de, 474. Estotiland, 635. Evangelista, 297. Everett, A. H., on Irving's Columbus, 56. Everett, Edward, possessed a copy of Columbus's privileges, 3. Faber, Jacobus, _Meteorologia_, 546. Faber, Dr. John, 540. Fagundes, 566. Faria y Sousa, _Europa Portuguesa_, 241. Farrer, Domina, her map, 652, 654, 655. Ferdinand of Spain, his character, 159; his unwillingness to embark in Columbus's plans, 178; his appearance, 245; grows apathetic, 327; his portrait, 328; his distrust of Columbus, 393, 427, 479, 486; sends Bobadilla to Santo Domingo, 394; dies 520, 555. Ferdinando, Simon, 646. Fernandina, 221. Ferrelo, 612. Ferrer, Jayme, letter to Columbus, 349. Fieschi, G. L., 9. Fiesco, B., 462. Finæus, Orontius, his map, 607-609. Flamsteed, 648. Floating islands, 190. Flores discovered, 88. Florida coast early known, 424; discovered, 558; English on the coast, 632. Fonseca, Juan Rodriguez de, relations with Columbus begin, 256; his character, 256, 257, 316; quarrel with Diego Colon, 318; allowed to grant licenses, 329; lukewarm towards the third voyage of Columbus, 333; made bishop of Placentia, 484. Fontanarossa, G. de, 77. Fonte, de, 653. Fort Concepcion, 309. Fox, G. A., on Columbus's landfall, 214, 216. Fox, Luke, his map, 651. France, her share in American explorations, 633. Franciscus, monk, his map, 606. Franciscans in Española, 508. Freire, Juan, his map, 577, 578, 612. Friess. _See_ Frisius. Frisius, Laurentius, his map (1522), 552, 588. Frisland, 137, 145. Frobisher, his voyages, 640; portrait, 643; his map, 644. Fuca, Da, 653. Fulgoso, B., _Collectanea_, 32. Furlani, Paolo de, 619. Fuster, _Bibl. Valenciana_, 27. Gali, Francisco, 646. Gallo, Ant., on Columbus, 30. Gama, João da, 652. Gama, Vasco da, portrait, 334; his voyage, 334. Ganong, W. F., 612. Garay, 566; his map, 568. Gastaldi, his map, 616-618, 629. Gelcich, E., on the _Historie_, 46. Gemma Frisius, nautical improvements, 603, 648. Genoa, records, 21; Columbus's early life in, 75, 77; citizens of, in Spain, 158; Columbus's monument, 163; favored in Columbus's will, 330; Bank of St. George, 435, 483; her citizens in Portugal, 86; on the Atlantic, 128. Geraldini, Antonio, 158. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, his voyages, 646; his map, 647. Giocondo, 538. Giovio. _See_ Jovius. Giustiniani, his Psalter, 30, 83; his Annals of Genoa, 30. Glareanus on the ancients' knowledge of America, 606. Glassberger, Nicholas, 400. _Globus Mundi_, 536, 537, 546. Gold mines, 232; scant returns, 332. Gomara, the historian, 39. Gomera (Canaries), 195. Gomez, Estevan, on the Atlantic coast, 561, 589, 591; cartographical results, 591-593. Gonzales, keeper of the Spanish archives, 28. Goodrich, Aaron, _Columbus_, 59, 60, 504. Gorricio, Gaspar, 433, 484; friend of Columbus, 18; adviser of Diego Colon, 348. Gorvalan, 280. Gosnold on the New England coast, 652 Granada, siege of, 175. Grand Turk Island, 216. Great circle sailing, 341, 649. Great Khan, letter to, 180. Greenland, 139, 140; held to be a part of Europe, 140, 145, 152; part of Asia, 143; a link between Europe and Asia, 616; delineated on maps (Zeni), 634, 643; (1467), 636; (1482), 531, 532; (1508), 532; (1511), 577; (1513), 544; (1527), 600; (1576), 647; (1582), 598. Grenada, 355. Grimaldi, G. A., 21. Grijalva, 565; portrait, 566. Grönlandia, 145. _See_ Greenland. Grothe, H., _Da Vinci_, 117. Grynæus, Simon. _Novus Orbis_, 607. Guacanagari, the savage king, 234, 273, 275, 277; faithful, 309; maltreated, 316. Guadaloupe, 268, 323. Guanahani, seen by Columbus, 211. Guarionex, 305, 309; his conspiracy, 362, 364; embarked for Spain, 440; lost, 440. Guelves, Count of, 524, 526. Guerra, Luis, 375. Guevara, Fernand de, watched by Roldan, 389. Gulf Stream, 131, 352, 433. Gutierrez, Pedro, 208. Hadley's quadrant, 648. Hakluyt, Richard, _Principall Navigations_, 637; _Western Planting_, 647; his interest in explorations, 650. Hall, Edw., _Chronicle_, 14. Halley, Edmund, his variation charts, 649. Hammocks, 219, 222. Hanno, the Carthaginian, 97. Harrison's chronometer, 649. Harrisse, Henry, his works on Columbus, 7, 51, 52; on the Biblioteca Colombina, 41; attacks the character of the _Historie_ of 1571, 44; his _Fernando Colon_, 45; _Les Colombo_, 71; _Bank of St. George_, 73. Hartmann, George, his gores, 621. Hauslab globes, 547, 548. Hawkins, John, 632. Hawkins, Wm., 601. Hayna mines, 322. Hayna country, 360. Hayti. _See_ Española. Heimskringla, 140, 147. Helleland, 145. Helps, Arthur, on the Spanish Conquest and Columbus, 58. Henry the Navigator, Prince, death, 82, 100; his navigators, 88, 97; his relations to African discovery, 91; his school, 92; his portrait, 93; his character, 97; his tomb, 101; his statue, 102. Henri II., map. _See_ Desceliers. Herrera, the historian, 50; map of Bahamas, 212. Higuay, 305; conquered, 474. Hispaniola. _See_ Española. Hoces, F. de, discovers Cape Horn. 576. Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 169; Columbus's purpose to rescue it, 170, 180. Holywood. John, _Sphera Mundi_, 93. Homem's map, 614, 616. Hondius, 637. Honduras, early voyages to, 337, 339; map, 443; coast explored, 562. Hood, Dr. Thomas, 650. Hudson's Bay, 650. Hudson Bay Company, 658. Hudson River, 649. Hudson, Heinrich, his voyages, 649, 650. Hues, Robert, _Tractatus_, 191, 201, 301. Humboldt, Alex. von, _Exam. Critique_, 51; on Columbus, 502, 504. Ibarra, Bernaldo de, 347. Iceland, Columbus at, 135; early map, 136. India, African route to, 90; strait to, sought, 535, 555, 567, 569, 587, 591; discovered at the south, 576. Indies, name why used, 240. Irving, W., _Columbus_, 55, 60; his historical habit, 233, 234; on Columbus, 501, 505. Isabella of Spain, her character, 159, 479; yields to Columbus's views, 178; her appearance, 245; her interest in Columbus's second voyage, 258; her faith in Columbus shaken, 393, 396, 409; dies, 479; her will about the Indians, 482. Isabella (island), 222. Isabella (town) founded, 278. Italy, her relations to American discovery, 33; her conspicuous mariners, 104, 632; and the new age, 496; cartographers of, 601, 628. Jack-staff, 261. Jacquet Island, 111. Jamaica, possibly Babeque, 230; called Yamaye, 235; discovered by Columbus, 291; again visited, 300; Columbus at, during his last voyage, 457. Januarius, Hanibal, 22. Japan, supposed position, 207. _See_ Cipango. Jayme, 92. Jesso, 652, 653. John of Anjou, 82, 84. Jorrin, J. S., _Varios Autografos_, 7. Jovius (Giovio) Paulus, his biography, 32; his picture of Columbus, 61, 63; _Elogia_, 64. Juana. _See_ Cuba. Julius II., Pope, portrait, 517. Kettell, Samuel, 10. Khan, the Great, 90, 224. King's Garden, 226. Kolno (Skolno), 138. Kublai Khan, 90, 224. Labrador coast, Normans on, 413; Portuguese on, 415. Lachine, 613. Lafuente y Alcántara, 13. Lake, Arthur, 184. Lamartine on Columbus, 75. La mina (Gold coast), 101. Laon globe, 123, 190. Larreategui family, representatives of Columbus, 528. Las Casas, B., his abridgment of Columbus's journal, 10; his papers of Columbus, 19, 47; his _Historia_, 45, 46; his career, 47; his portrait, 48; his pity for the Indians, 50; his father goes to the new world, 262; at Santo Domingo, 429; appeals for the Indians, 520; on the respective merits of Columbus and Vespucius, 553. Latitude, errors in observing, 261. Latitude and longitude on maps, 601, 602. Laurentian portolano (1351), 87. Ledesma, Pedro, 454, 470. Leibnitz, _Codex_, 71. Leigh, Edward, 601. Lemoyne, G. B., _Colombo_, 33. Lenox globe, 571. Lepe, Diego de, on the South American coast, 377. Léry, Baron de, 556. Liria, Duke of, 527. Lisbon, naval battle near, 103; Genoese in, 104. Loadstone, its history. 93. _See_ Magnet. Log, ship's, 95, 96, 631. Lok, Michael, map (1582), 597, 598, 616, 624, 646. Long Island Sound, 616. Longitude, methods of ascertaining, 259; difficulties in computing, 602, 648, 650. _See_ Latitude. Longrais, Jouon des, _Cartier_, 612. Lorgues, Roselly de, on Columbus, 53, 60, 503, 505. Loyasa, 576. Luca, the Florentine engineer, 22. Lucayans, 218, 219, 271; destroyed, 219, 515. Lud, Walter, 439. Lully, Raymond, _Arte de Navegar_, 93. Luxan, Juan de, 288. Machin, Robert, at Madeira, 87. McClure, R. L., 660. Madeira discovered, 86, 88. Madoc, 138. Magellan's voyage, 571, 589; his portrait, 572; compared with Columbus, 574; maps of his straits, 575, 576. Magnet, its history, 93; use of, 198; needle, 632; pole, 203, 630. _See_ Needle. Magnus, Bishop, 139. Maguana, 305. Maine, Gulf of, 616, 646. Maiollo map (1527), 570, 595, 597. Major, R. H., on Columbus, 58; on the naming of America, 538. Malaga, Columbus at the siege of, 165. Maldonado, Melchior, 277, 653. Mandeville, Sir John, his travels, 116. Mangon, 224, 294. Manhattan, 649. Manicaotex, 312. Manilius, 107. Mappemonde, Portuguese (1490), 152. Maps, fifteenth century, 128; projections of, 603. _See_ Portolano. Marchena, Antonio de, 259. Marchena, Juan Perez de, 155; portrait, 155; intercedes for Columbus, 175. Marchesio, F., 21. Margarita, 355. Margarite, Pedro, at St. Thomas, 288; his career, 307. Mariéjol, J. H., _Peter Martyr_, 35. Marien, 305. Marigalante, 266. Mariguana, 216. Marin, on Venetian commerce, 9. Marine atlases, 649. Markham, Clements R., his _Hues_, 191. Markland, 145. Martens, T., printer, 16. Martines, his map, 616. Martinez, Fernando, 108. Martyr, Peter, has letters from Columbus, 19; account of, 34; knew Columbus, 35; his letters, 34; _De Orbe Novo_, or _Decades_, 35; on Isabella, 160; on Columbus's discovery, 247; his map, (1511), 422, 556, 557; fails to notice the death of Columbus, 491. Massachusetts Bay, 616. Mastic, 225. Matheos, Hernan Perez, 347. Mayobanex, 364. Mauro, Fra, his world map, 99, 101, 116. Medina, Pedro de, _Arte de Navegar_, 630; map, 628, 629. Medina-Celi, Duke of, 173; entertains Columbus, 169. Medina-Sidonia, Duke of, 173. Mela, Pomponius, 107; his world-map, 584; _Cosmographia_, 585. Mendez, Diego, his exploits, 451, 452, 456, 458; sails from Jamaica for Española, 461; arrives, 466; sends to rescue Columbus, 470; goes to Spain, 471; appealed to by Columbus, 479, 487; denied office by Diego Colon, 516. Mendoza, Hurtado de, 610, 612. Mendoza, Pedro Gonzales de, 159, 176. Mercator, Gerard, pupil of Gemma, 603; his earliest map, 621-623; his globe of 1541, 554, 621, 625; his projection, 636; his map (1569), 638; portrait, 639. Mercator, R., his map of the polar regions, 202. Mermaids, 236. Meropes, 126. Mississippi River discovered, 560. Molineaux, his map, 616, 648. Moluccas occupied by the Portuguese, 569; dispute over their longitude, 590; sold by Spain to Portugal, 591. Moniz, Felipa, wife of Columbus, 105; her family, 106. Monte Peloso, Bishop of, 15. Moon, eclipse of, 465. Morton, Thos., _New English Canaan_, 620. Mosquito coast, 444. Moxica, Adrian de, 389. Moya, Marchioness of, 175, 178. Müller, Johannes, 94. Muñoz, J. B., his labors, 27; his _Historia_, 27. Münster, Seb., his maps, 621, 624 (1532); 535, 537 (1540); 596, 597; portrait, 602. Muratori, his collection, 30. Murphy, Henry C., 595; his library, 17. Muscovy Company, 650. Myritius, his map, 618. Nancy globe, 606, 607. Napier, logarithms, 651. Nautical almanac, 649. Navasa, island, 465. Navarrete, M. F. de, his _Coleccion_, 27; the French edition, 28; criticised by Caleb Cushing, 28. Navidad, La, destroyed, 273. Navigation, art of, 131; Columbus's method, 237, 260. Needle, no variation of the, 198, 254; its change of position, 199, 206, 254. _See_ Magnet. Negroes, first seen as slaves in Europe, 98; early introduced in Española, 429, 488. New Albion, 645. New England, named, 649. Newfoundland banks, early visits, 129, 340. Newfoundland, visited by Gilbert, 646. New France, 633. Nicaragua, map of, 443. Nicuessa, Diego de, in Castilla del Oro, 517, 562. Niño, Pedro Alonso, 325; on the pearl coast, 375. Nombre de Dios, Cape, 448. Nordenskiöld on Columbus's discovery, 248; his _Facsimile Atlas_, 531, 532, 546, 548, 573, 577, 578, 581, 582, 588, 589, 635, 636, 638; map gores discovered by him, 549. Norman seamanship, 94; explorations, 555, 556. Norman, Robt., 632. North America held to be continuous with Asia, 576, 584. _See_ America. Northwest passage, the search for, 529, 640, 648, 650-652, 658; mapped, 659. Norumbega, 599, 616, 633. Notarial records in Italy, 20; in Spain, 25; in Portugal, 26. Nuremberg, Behaim's globe at, 191. Ocampo, 565. Oceanic currents, 130, 603. Odericus Vitalis, 147. Oderigo, Nicolo, 483. Ojeda, Alonso de, in Columbus's second expedition, 262, 270; at St. Thomas, 289; attacked by Caonabo, 308; captures Caonabo, 313; fired by Columbus's experiences in Paria, 372; is permitted by Fonseca to sail thither, 372; reaches Venezuela, 373; at Española, 373; returns to Spain, 375; voyage (1499), 514; his (1502) voyage, 427; in New Andalusia, 517, 562. Oliva, Perez de, on Columbus, 43, 45. Ophir of Solomon, 322. Orient, European notions of, 90, 109. Ortegon, Diego, 528. Ortelius, his _Theatrum_, 627, 638; portrait, 640; his map of America, 641. Ortis, Alonso, _Los Tratados_, 248. Ovando, Nicholas de, sent to Santo Domingo, 429; receives Mendez, 466; his rule in Española, 466, 471; sends a caraval to Jamaica to observe Columbus, 467; sends to rescue him, 471; receives him at Santo Domingo, 475; recalled from Española, 515. Oviedo, on the first voyage, 17; as a writer, 38; his career, 38; _Historia_, 39; on Isabella, 160; on the arms of Columbus, 251; on his motto, 251. Oysters, 354. Pacheco, his _Coleccion_, 29. Pacheco, Carlos, 527. Pacific Ocean named, 576; explorations, 618; Drake in the, 644; sees Cape Horn, 644; Gali's explorations, 646; discoveries, 652; wild theories about its coast, 652, 656, 658. _Paesi novamente retrovati_, 417. Palos, 182. Panama founded, 565. Papal authority to discover new lands, 252. Paria, Gulf of, map, 353; land of, 354. Parmentier, Jean, 556. Passamonte, Miguel, 518. Pavia, university at, 80. Pearls, 354. Pedrarias, 564. Peragallo, Prospero, _Historie di F. Colombo_, 46. Perestrello, Bart., 88. Perestrello family, 105. Peringskiöld, 147. Peru discovered, 564, 565. Pesaro, F., 9. Peschel, Oscar, on the _Historie_, 46. Peter the Great, 653. Pezagno, the Genoese, 86. Phoenicians as explorers, 127. Philip II., of Spain, 523. Philip the Handsome, 513. Pineda, 560. Pinelo, Francisco, 257. Pinilla, T. R., _Colon en España_, 51. Pinzon, Martin Alonso, at Rabida, 174; engages with Columbus, 183; deserts Columbus, 226; returns, 235; reaches Palos and dies, 242. Pinzon, Vicente Yañez, with Columbus, 183; his voyage (1494) across the equator, 376; sees Cape St. Augustine, 376; at Española, 377. Pinzon and Solis's expedition, 570. Piracy, 81. Pirckheimer, 636. Pizarro, 562, 564. Plaanck, the printer, 15. Plato and Atlantis, 126. Plutarch's Saturnian Continent, 126. Polar regions, map of, 202. Polo, Marco, 90, 498; annotations of Columbus in, 7; in Cathay, 114; his narrative _Milione_, 114; his portrait, 115; known to Columbus, 115. Pompey stone, 560. Ponce de Leon, Juan, 179, 556; goes to the New World, 262; portrait, 558; his track, 559. Porcacchi, his map, 620. Porras, François de, 437; his revolt, 462; ended, 470; at court, 478. Porto Bello, 448. Porto Rico, 236, 272, 517. Porto Santo discovered, 88, 105, 106. Portolanos, 530. _See_ Maps. Potatoes, 225. Portogallo, Alonso de, Count of Guelves, 526. Portogallo, Nuño de, becomes Duke of Veragua, 524, 526. Portugal, archives, 25; attractions for Columbus, 85; spirit of exploration in, 86; her expert seamen, 86, 92; Genoese in her service, 86; discovers Madeira, 86; and the Azores, 86; Columbus in, 103, 149; the King sends an expedition to anticipate Columbus's discovery, 153; Columbus's second visit, 168; the bull of demarcation, 254; negotiations with Spain, 255; her pursuit of African discovery, 334; establishes claims in South America, through the voyage of Cabral, 377; sends out Coelho (1501), 410; settlements on the Labrador coast, 415; maps in, falsified, 417; the spread of cartographical ideas, 423; earliest maps, 533, 534; denies them to other nations, 534; her seamen on the Newfoundland coast, 555, 556; push the African route to the Moluccas, 569; on the coast of Brazil, 570; on the Pacific coast, 592; cartographical progress in, 602. Prado, prior of, 508. Prescott's, W. H., _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 57; on Columbus, 501, 503. Ptolemy, influence of, 91, 529, 638; portrait, 530; maps in, 530, 531, 627; editions, 108; (1511), 577; (1513), 544, 545, 546, 582, 584; (Stobnicza), 578; (1522), 588; (1525), 588; (1535), 555, 588; (1541), 588. Queen's Gardens, 293, 299. Quibian, 450; his attacks, 451; captured, 451; escapes, 451. Quinsay, 121, 124, 566, 607. Quintanilla, Alonzo de, 158, 165, 176, 178. Rabida, Convent of, 154; at what date was Columbus there? 155, 173. Rae, J. E. S., 12. Ralegh, Sir Walter, his American projects, 647. Ramusio on Columbus, 37. Regiomontanus, 94, 301; his astrolabe, 95, 96; _Ephemerides_, 131. Reinel, Pedro, his map, 534. Reisch, _Margarita Phil._, 582, 587, 601; map, 583, 587. Remesal's _Chyapa_, 161. Rene, Duke of Provence, 82, 538, 543. Repartimientos, 314, 506, 507, 518. Resende, Garcia de, _Choronica_, 33. Ribero, map of the Antilles, 383; map (1529), 562, 605; invents a ship's pump, 603; at the Seville conference, 604. Ringmann, M., 538. Rink, Henrik, 146. Riquelme, Pedro, 389, 390. Robertson, Wm., _America_, 55. Robertus Monarchus, _Bellum Christianorum Principum_, 17. Roberval, 614. Rodriguez, Sebastian, 175. Roldan revolts, 362, 366; reinstated, 370; sent to confront Ojeda, 374; watched by Moxica, 389; sails for Spain, 440; lost, 440. Romans on the Atlantic, 127. Roselly de Lorgues, his efforts to effect canonization of Columbus, 53, 60, 503, 505. Ross, Sir John, 651. Rotz, map, 612; _Boke of Idiography_, 613. Roxo, Cape, passed, 99. Rubruquis, 90, 121. Ruscelli, his map, 616, 617. Rut, John, 601. Ruy de Pina, archivist of Portugal, 33, 149. Ruysch, map, 143, 532; _Ptolemy_, 341. Sabellicus, 103. Sacrobosco. _See_ Holywood. Sagas, 146. Saguenay River, 616. St. Brandan's Island, 112. St. Dié, college at, 538. St. Jerome, monks of, 508. St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 612. St. Thomas (fort), 287. St. Thomas (island), 231. Saints' days, suggest geographical names, 229. Salamanca, council of, 161, 164; University, 162. Salcedo, Diego de, goes to Jamaica, 471. Samaot, 221. San Jorge da Mina, 134. San Salvador, 211, 215. Sanarega, Bart., 21, 30. Sanchez, Gabriel, letter to, 11. Sanchez, Juan, 451; killed, 470. Sanchez, Rodrigo, 209. Sandacourt, J. B. de, 540. Santa Cruz, Alonso de, 203. Santa Cruz (island), 271. Santa Maria de la Concepcion, 220. Santa Maria de las Cuevas, 25. Santangel, Luis de, 11, 175, 178. Santo Domingo, archives, 26; founded, 360; cathedral at, 492, 493. Sanuto, Livio, _Geographia_, 201. Sanuto, Marino, his diary, 421; cartographer, 86. Sargasso Sea, 204. Savona, records of, 20; the Colombos of, 74. Saxo Grammaticus, 147. Schöner, Johann, his globe, 551, 572; his charges against Vespucius, 554; _Opusculum geographicum_, 555, 567, 607; _Luculentissima descriptio_, 587; portrait, 588; _De insulis_, 589; his alleged globe, 589, 590; his variable beliefs, 607. Schouten defines Tierra del Fuego, 577. Sea-atlases, 603. Sea of Darkness, 86, 243; fantastic islands of, 111. Sea-manuals, 630. Seamanship, early, 92. Seneca, his _Medea_, 118. Servetus, his _Ptolemy_, 555. Seven Cities, Island of. _See_ Antillia. Sevilla d'Oro, 471. Seville, archives at, 23; cathedral of, 171; cartographical conference at, 603. Shea, J. G., on the _Historie_, 46; on the canonization of Columbus, 54; onColumbus, 504. Ships (fifteenth century), 82; speed of, 94; of Columbus's time, 192, 193. Sierra Leone discovered, 101. Silber, Franck, the printer, 15. Simancas, archives, 22, 23; view of the building, 24. Skralingeland, 145. Slavery, efforts of Columbus to place the Indians in, 220, 230, 281, 282, 311, 314, 318, 327, 331, 360, 367, 371, 394, 402, 403, 429, 437, 472, 482, 505, 506; after Columbus's time, 518, 520. Smith, Captain John, his explorations, 649. Smith, Sir Thomas, 630. Solinus, 107. Soria, Juan de, 257. Sousa, A. C. de, _Hist. Geneal._, 27. South America, earliest picture of the natives, 336; earliest seen, 352; its coast nomenclature, 412; supposed southern cape, 573. _See_ America. Southern cross first seen, 99, 376. Spain, archives of, 22; publication of, 28, 29; _Cartas de Indias_, 29; Columbus in, 154; the Genoese in, 157; map of (1482), 165; powerful grandees, 172; the bull of demarcation, 254; suspicious of Portugal, 254; council for the Indies, 257; plans expedition to the north, 413; her authority in the Indies, 481; the Crown's suit with Diego Colon, 514, 553; King Ferdinand dies, 520; Charles V., 523; Philip II., 523; her secretiveness about maps, 534, 554, 560, 627, 639; earliest accounts of America, 587; her seamen in the St. Lawrence region, 555; on the Atlantic coast, 560; council of the Indies instituted, 591; failure to publish map in, 602; Casa de la Contratacion, 603; her sea-manuals, 630. Spotorno, Father, _Codice diplom. Colom. Americano_, 4; _La Tavola di Bronzo_, 5. Square Gulf, 613. Staglieno, the Genoese antiquary, 21, 75. Stamler, Johannis, 543. Stephanius, Sigurd, his map, 144, 145. Stevens, Henry, 533; on the _Historie_, 45; on La Cosa's map, 385; his _Schöner_, 424. Stevens, edition of Herrera, 55. Stimmer, Tobias, 64. Stobnicza's introduction to Ptolemy, 578; his map, 580, 581, 585. Stockfish, 128, 340. Strabo, 107. Straits of Hercules, voyages beyond, 81. Strong, Richard, 646. Sumner, George, 246. Sylvanus, his edition of Ptolemy first gave maps of the Cortereal discoveries, 419; edits Ptolemy, 577; his map, 579. Sylvius, Æneas, _Historia_, 7. Talavera, Fernando de, 156, 508; and Columbus's projects, 161, 176. Teneriffe, 195. Terra Verde, 416, 420. Thevet, André, his stories, 633. Thorne, Robt., map (1527), 600-602. Thyle, 135. Ticknor, George, 10. Tobacco, 225. Tobago, 355. Tordesillas, treaty of, 310. Torre do Tombo, archives, 25. Torres, Antonio de, returns to Spain in command of fleet, 282, 317. Tortuga, 228, 229. Toscanelli, Paolo, 499; his letters, 7, 107-109; his map, 49, 109, 110, 191; dies, 117. Triana, Rodrigo de, 211. Trinidad, 350. Tristan, Diego, his fate, 452, 453. Tritemius, _Epistolarum libri_, 412. Trivigiano, A., translates Peter Martyr, 35; _Libretto_, 36; his letters, 420. Tross gores, 547. Ulloa, Francisco de, 610. Ullua, Alfonso de, 44. Ulpius globe, 597. Usselinx, W., 20, 649. Vadianus, portrait, 585. Vallejo, Alonso de, 347. Valsequa's map, 88. Vancouver, 658. Variation. _See_ Needle. Varnhagen on the first letter of Columbus, 14; and the early cartography, 382, 386. Vasconcellos, 149. Vatican archives, 22; maps, 633. Vaulx, 616. Velasco, Pedro de, 156. Vega Real, 286; its natives, 288. Venegas, _California_, 658. Venezuela, named by Ojeda, 373. Venice, cartographers of, 629. Veradus, 17. Veragua, map, 446; characteristics of its coast, 447; its abortive settlement, 456; Duke of, title given to Columbus's grandson, 523. Verde, Simone, 283, 347. Verde, Cape, reached, 98. Verrazano on the Atlantic coast, 592, 593; map, 594; his voyage disputed, 595; his so-called sea, 596, 646; discoveries, 633. Verzellino, G. V., his memoirs, 21. Vespucius, Americus, and the naming of America, 30; engaged in fitting out the second expedition of Columbus, 258; supposed voyage (1497), 336; controversy over, 338; his character as a writer, 359; his first voyage, 373; in Coelho's fleet, 410; his _Mundus Novus_, 410, 411, 542; relations to the early cartography, 412; his name bestowed on the New World, 36, 412, 538-555; personal relations with Columbus, 484; his narrative, 485; writes an account of his voyage, 538; portrait, 539; his narrative published, 540; his discoveries compared with those of Columbus, 542, 543; miscalled Albericus, 543; suspects gravitation, 543; not called in the Columbus lawsuit, 553; charged with being privy to the naming of America, 553, 554; pilot major, 553; dies, 553; his map, 553; his fame in England, 554. Vienna, geographers at, 585. Villalobos, 612. Vinci, Leonardo da, his map, 581, 582. Vinland, 144, 146. Virginia, named, 648; map, 654, 655. Viscaino, Sebastian, 652. Vopel, Gaspar, his globe, 607. Volterra, Maffei de, 32. Vries, De, 652. Wagenaer, Lucas, his _Spieghel_, 603. Waldseemüller, his career, 540; _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, 540; its title, 541; edits Ptolemy, 546, 582; his map, 412. Walker, John, 646. Warsaw codex (Ptolemy), map, 635-637. Watling's Island, 216. Watt, Joachim. _See_ Vadianus. Waymouth, George, 650. West India Company, 649. White, John, his map, 597, 599. Winsor, Justin, _America_, 59. Wright, Edw., improves Mercator's projection, 637. Wytfliet, his maps, 630, 631. Xaragua, 305; made subject, 361, 473. Ximenes in power, 520. Yucatan, 629; discovered, 565, 567. Zarco, 87. Zeni, the, 138, 634; their map, 634, 635; their influence, 642. Ziegler, _Schondia_ and its map, 615, 617. Zoana mela, 582, 583. Zorzi _or_ Montalboddo, _Paesi novamente retrovati_, 36. Zuñiga, Diego Ortiz de, on Seville, 169. 
46372	----	[Illustration: GIGANTIC CUTTLE FISH. _See page 649._] OCEAN'S STORY; OR, Triumphs of Thirty Centuries; A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF MARITIME ADVENTURES, ACHIEVEMENTS, EXPLORATIONS, DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS: AND OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF SHIP-BUILDING AND OCEAN NAVIGATION FROM THE ARK TO THE IRON STEAMSHIPS, BY FRANK B. GOODRICH, Esq. AUTHOR OF "LETTERS OF DICK TINTO," "THE COURT OF NAPOLEON," &C. _WITH AN ACCOUNT OF ADVENTURES BENEATH THE SEA; DIVING, DREDGING, DEEP SEA SOUNDING, LATEST SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS, &c., &c., PREPARED WITH GREAT CARE_ BY EDWARD HOWLAND, Esq. AUTHOR OF MANY POPULAR WORKS. OVER 200 SPIRITED ILLUSTRATIONS. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION. HUBBARD BROS., PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, AND CINCINNATI; VALLEY PUBLISHING CO., ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO; A. L. BANCROFT & CO., SAN FRANCISCO; FRANK W. OLIVER, DAVENPORT, IOWA; H. A. W. BLACKBURN, DETROIT, MICH.; G. L. BENJAMIN, FOND DU LAC, WIS.; SCHUYLER SMITH & CO., LONDON, ONTARIO; W. E. ERSKINE & CO., ST. JOHN'S, N. B.; JNO. KILLAM, SR., YARMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA; M. M. BURNHAM, SYRACUSE, N.Y. 1875. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878. BY HUBBARD BROS., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. CONTENTS. SECTION I. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. PAGE CHAPTER I.--The Purpose of this Work--The Ocean in the Scriptural Period--The Marvels of the Sea--The Classic Legends--The Fantastic Notions entertained of the North and the Equator--The Giant of the Canaries--The Sea of Sea-Weed--The Spectre of the Cape--The Gradual Surrender of the Secrets of the Sea--It becomes the Highway of Nations--Its Present Aspect--Its Poetical Significance--Its Moral Lessons 19 CHAPTER II.--The Origin of Navigation--The Nautilus--The Split Reed and Beetle--The Beaver floating upon a Log--The Hollow Tree--The First Canoe--The Floating Nutshell--The Oar--The Rudder--The Sail--The Tradition of the First Sail-Boat 31 CHAPTER III.--The Flood and the Building of the Ark--The Arguments of Infidelity against a Universal Deluge--The Material of which the Ark was built--Its Capacity, Dimensions, and Form--Its Proportions copied in Modern Ocean-Steamers 36 CHAPTER IV.--The Ships, Commerce, and Navigation of the Phoenicians--Their Trade with Ophir--Sidon and Tyre--Their Voyage round Africa--New Tyre--A Patriotic Phoenician Captain--The Egyptians as a Maritime People--Their Ships and Commerce--The Jews--Their Geography--Ideas upon the Shape of the Earth--The World as known to the Hebrews 46 CHAPTER V.--The Early Maritime History of the Greeks--The Expedition of the Argonauts--The Vessels used in the Trojan War--Ship-Building in the Time of Homer--The Poetic Geography of the Greeks--The Palace of the Sun--The Marvels of a Voyage out of Sight of Land--The Geography of Hesiod--Of Anaximander--Of Thales, Herodotus, Socrates, and Eratosthenes--The Great Ocean is named the Atlantic 54 CHAPTER VI.--Construction of Greek Vessels--The Prow, Poop, Rudder, Oars, Masts, Sails, Cordage, Bulwarks, Anchors--Biremes, Triremes, Quadriremes, Quinqueremes--The Grand Galley of Ptolemy Philopator--Roman Vessels--Their Navy--Mimic Sea-Fights--The Five Voyages of Antiquity 65 CHAPTER VII.--The Voyage of Hanno the Carthaginian--He sees Crocodiles, Apes, and Volcanoes--The Voyage of Himilcon to Al-Bion--The Voyage and Ignominious Fate of Sataspes the Persian--The Voyage of Pytheas the Phocian--The Sacred Promontory--A New Atmosphere--Amber--Return Home--The Veracity of Pytheas' Narrative--The Expedition of Nearchus the Macedonian--Strange Phenomena in the Heavens--The Icthyophagi--Houses built of the Bones of Whales--Fish Flour--A Battle with Whales--An Unexpected Meeting--The Distance traversed by Nearchus--The Voyage of Eudoxus along the African Coast--State of Navigation at the Opening of the Christian Era 75 SECTION II. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION, A.D. 1300. CHAPTER VIII.--Navigation during the Roman Empire--The Rise of Venice and Genoa--The Crusades--Their Effect upon Commerce--Wedding of the Adriatic--Creation of the French Navy--Introduction of Eastern Art into Europe--Maps of the Middle Ages--Remote Effect of the Crusades upon Geographical Science 92 CHAPTER IX.--The Scandinavian Sailors--Their Piracies and Commerce--The Anglo-Saxons--Alfred the Great a Ship-Builder--The Voyage of Beowulf--Discovery of Iceland by the Danes--Discovery of Greenland--The Voyage of Bjarni and Leif to the American Continent--Their Discovery of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Nantucket, and Massachusetts--Adventures of Thorwald and Thorfinn--Comparison of the Discoveries of the Northmen with those of Columbus 99 CHAPTER X.--The Travels of Marco Polo--The First Mention of Japan in History--Kublai Khan--Marco Polo's Voyage from Amoy to Ormuz--Malacca--Sumatra--Pygmies--Singular Stories of Diamonds--The Roc--Polo not recognised upon his Return--His Imprisonment--The Publication of his Narrative--The Interest awakened in China, Japan, and the Islands of Spices 108 CHAPTER XI.--The First Mention of the Loadstone in History--Its Early Names--The First Mention of its Directive Power--A Poem upon the Compass Six Hundred Years Old--Friar Bacon's Magnet--The Loadstone in Arabia--An Eye-Witness of its Efficiency in the Syrian Waters in the Year 1240--The Magnet in China--Early Mention of it in Chinese Works--The Variation noticed in the Twelfth Century--Other Discoveries made by the Chinese--Modern Errors--Flavio Gioia--The Arms of Amalfi--All Records lost of the First Voyage made with the Compass by a European Ship 113 SECTION III. FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION TO THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD UNDER MAGELLAN: 1300-1519. CHAPTER XII.--The Portuguese on the Coast of Africa--The Spaniards and the Canary Isles--Don Henry of Portugal--The Terrible Cape, now Cape Bojador--The Sacred Promontory--Discovery of the Madeiras--A Dreadful Phenomenon--A Prolific Rabbit and a Wonderful Conflagration--Hostility of the Portuguese to further Maritime Adventure--The Bay of Horses--The First Gold-Dust seen in Europe--Discovery of Cape Verd and the Azores--The Europeans approach the Equator--Journey of Cada-Mosto--Death of Don Henry--Progress of Navigation under the Auspices of this Prince 122 CHAPTER XIII.--The Portuguese cross the Equator from Guinea to Congo--John II. conceives the idea of a Route by Sea to the Indies--His Artifices to prevent the Interference of other Nations--The Overland Journey of Covillam to India--The Voyage of Bartholomew Diaz--The Doubling of the Tremendous Cape--Its Baptism by the King--Injurious Effects of Success upon Portuguese Ambition 133 CHAPTER XIV.--Birth of Christopher Columbus--His Early Life and Education--His First Voyage--His Marriage--His Maritime Contemplations--He makes Proposals to the Senate of Genoa, the Court of Venice, and the King of Portugal--The Duplicity of the latter--Columbus visits Spain--Juan de Marchena--Columbus repairs to Cordova--His Second Marriage--His Letter to the King--The Junto of Salamanca--Columbus resolves to shake the dust of Spain from his feet--Marchena's Letter to Isabella--The Queen gives Audience to Columbus--The Conditions stipulated by the latter--Isabella accepts the Enterprise, while Ferdinand remains aloof 137 CHAPTER XV.--The Port of Palos--The Superstition of its Mariners--The Hand of Satan--A Bird which lifted Vessels to the Clouds--The Pinta and the Nina--The Santa Maria--Capacity of a Spanish Caravel--The three Pinzons--The Departure--Columbus' Journal--The Helm of the Pinta unshipped--The Variation of the Needle--The Appearance of the Tropical Atlantic--Floating Vegetation--The Sargasso Sea--Alarm and threatened Mutiny of the Sailors--Perplexities of Columbus--Land! Land! a False Alarm--Indications of the Vicinity of Land--Murmurs of the Crews--Open Revolt quelled by Columbus--Floating Reeds and Tufts of Grass--Land at last--The Vessels anchor over-night 147 CHAPTER XVI.--Discovery of Guanahani--Ceremonies of taking Possession--Exploration of the Neighboring Islands--Search for Gold--Cuba supposed by Columbus to be Japan--The Cannibals--Haiti--Return Homewards--A Storm--An Appeal to the Virgin--Arrival at the Azores--Conduct of the Portuguese--Columbus at Lisbon--At Palos--At Barcelona--Columbus' Second Voyage--Discovery of Guadeloupe, Antigoa, Santa Cruz, Jamaica--Illness of Columbus--Terrible Battle between the Spaniards and the Savages--Columbus returns to Spain--His Reception by the Queen--His Third Voyage--The Region of Calms--Discovery of Trinidad and of the Main Land--Assumpcion and Margarita--Columbus in Chains 158 CHAPTER XVII.--The Failing Health of Columbus--His Fourth Voyage--Martinique, Porto Rico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama--His Search for a Channel across the Isthmus--He predicts an Eclipse of the Moon at Jamaica--His Return--The Death of Isabella--Columbus Penniless at Valladolid--His Death--His Four Burials--The Injustice of the World towards Columbus--Christopher Pigeon--Amerigo Vespucci--The New World named America--Errors of Modern Historians--The District of Columbia--John Cabot in Labrador--Sebastian Cabot in Hudson's Bay--Vincent Yanez Pinzon at the Mouths of the Amazon 168 CHAPTER XVIII.--Portuguese Navigation under Emmanuel--Popular Prejudices--The Lusind of Camoens--Vasco da Gama--Maps of Africa of the Period--Preparations for an Indian Voyage--Religious Ceremonies--The Departure--Rendezvous at the Cape Verds--Landing upon the Coast--The Natives--An Invitation to Dinner, and its Consequences--A Storm--Mutiny--The Spectre of the Cape 179 CHAPTER XIX.--Da Gama and the Negroes--The Hottentots and Caffres--Adventure with an Albatross--The River of Good Promise--Mozambique--Treachery of the Natives--Mombassa--Melinda, and its Amiable King--Festivities--The Malabar Coast--Calicut--The Route to the Indies discovered 189 CHAPTER XX.--The Moors in Hindostan--Condition of the Country upon the Arrival of Da Gama--Hostility of the Moors--They prejudice the King of Calicut against the Portuguese--Consequent Hostilities--Da Gama sets out upon his Return--Wild Cinnamon-A Moorish Pirate disguised as an Italian Christian--A Tempestuous Voyage--Wreck of the San Rafael--Honors and Titles bestowed upon Da Gama--An Expedition fitted out under Alvarez Cabral--Accidental Discovery of Brazil--Comets and Water-Spouts--Loss of Four Vessels--A Bazaar established at Calicut--Attack by the Moors--Cabral withdraws to Cochin--Visits Cananor and takes in a Load of Cinnamon--Is received with Coldness upon his Return--Vasco da Gama recalled into the Service by the King--His Achievements at Sofala, Cananor, and Calicut--He hangs Fifty Indians at the Yard-Arm--Protects Cochin and threatens Calicut--Withdraws to Private Life 197 CHAPTER XXI.--Spread of the Portuguese East Indian Empire--Alphonzo d'Albuquerque--Immense Sacrifice of Life--Ancient Route of the Spice-Trade with Europe--Commerce by Caravans--Revolution produced by opening the New Route--Francesco Almeida--Discovery of Ceylon--Tristan d'Acunha--The Portuguese Mars--His Views of Empire--An Arsenal established at Goa--Reduction of Malacca--Siam and Sumatra send Embassies to Albuquerque--The Island of Ormuz--Death of Albuquerque--Extent of the Portuguese Dominion--Ormuz becomes the great Emporium of the East--Fall of the Portuguese Empire 207 CHAPTER XXII.--Ponce de Leon--The Fountain of Youth--Discovery of Florida--The Martyrs and the Tortugas--The Bahama Channel--Vasco Nuñez de Balboa--He goes to Sea in a Barrel--Marries a Lady of the Isthmus--His Search for Gold--Hears of a Mighty Ocean--Undertakes to reach it--Preparations for the Expedition--Leoncico the Bloodhound--Battle with a Cacique--Ascent of the Mountains--Balboa mounts to the Summit alone--The First Sight of the Pacific--Ceremonies of taking Possession--Balboa up to his Knees in the Ocean--Every one tastes the Water--A Voyage upon the Pacific, and a Narrow Escape--Ignominious Fate of Balboa--Juan Diaz de Solis--Discovers the Rio de la Plata--His Horrible Death by Cannibals 213 CHAPTER XXIII.--Remarkable Foresight of the Court of Rome--A Papal Bull--Ferdinand Magellan--He offers his Services to Spain--His Plans--His Fleet--Pigafetta the Historian--An Inauspicious Start--Teneriffe and its Legends--St. Elmo's Fire--The Crew make Famous Bargains with the Cannibals--Heavy Price paid for the King of Spades--Patagonian Giants--Pigafetta's Exaggerations--The Healing Art in Patagonia--The Tragedy of Port Julian--Discovery of a Strait--The Open Sea--Cape Deseado--The Ocean named Pacific--Ravages of the Scurvy--A Patagonian Paul--The Needle becomes Lethargic--Discovery of the Ladrones--The First Cocoanut--A Catholic Ceremony upon a Pagan Island 225 CHAPTER XXIV.--Discovery of the Philippines--The King of Zubu wishes the King of Spain to pay Tribute--He finally abandons the idea--A whole Island converted to Christianity--Magellan performs a Miracle--A Dumb Man recovers his Speech--Magellan invades a Refractory Island--His Death--Attempts to recover his Body--The Christian Island returns to Idolatry--The Ships arrive at Borneo--The Sailors drink too freely of Arrack--Festivities and Treachery--Vivid Imagination of Pigafetta--The Fleet arrives at the Moluccas--The King of Tidore--A Brisk Trade in Cloves--The Spice-Tariff--The Vittoria sails Homeward--Pigafetta is again imaginative--Arrival at the Cape Verds--Loss of One Day--Completion of the First Voyage of Circumnavigation--Pigafetta's Romance becomes Veritable History 236 SECTION IV. FROM THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD TO THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN: 1519-1616. CHAPTER XXV.--Voyage of Jacques Cartier--Maritime Projects of Francis I. of France--Gulf of St Lawrence--A Quick Trip Home--Second Voyage--Canada, Quebec, Montreal--A Captive King--Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor--Discovery of Nova Zembla--Disastrous Winter--Fate of the Expedition--Martin Frobisher--His Voyage in Quest of a Northwest Passage--Greenland--Labrador--Frobisher's Straits--Exchange of Captives--Supposed Discovery of Gold--Second Voyage--A Cargo of Precious Earth taken on Board--Meta Incognita--Third Voyage--A Mortifying Conclusion 245 CHAPTER XXVI.--Origin of English Piracy--Sir John Hawkins--Francis Drake--His First Voyage to the Spanish Main--Commission granted by Queen Elizabeth--Expedition against the Spanish Possessions--Exploits at Mogador and Santiago--Crossing the Line--Arrival in Patagonia--Trial and Execution of Doughty--Passage through Magellan's Strait--Adventures of William Pitcher and Seven Men--Cape Horn--Arrival at Valparaiso--Rifling of a Catholic Church 256 CHAPTER XXVII.--Drake's Exploit with a Sleeping Spaniard--His Achievements at Callao--Battle with a Treasure-Ship--Drake gives a Receipt for her Cargo--Indites a Touching Epistle--His Plans for Returning Home--Fresh Captures--Performances at Guatulco and Acapulco--Drake dismisses his Pilot--Exceeding Cold Weather--Drake regarded as a God by the Californians--Sails for the Moluccas--Visits Ternate and Celebes--The Pelican upon a Reef--The Return Voyage--Protest of the Spanish Ambassador--He styles Drake the Master-Thief of the Unknown World--Queen Elizabeth on board the Pelican--Drake's Use of his Fortune--His Death--The Voyage of John Davis to the Northwest 267 CHAPTER XXVIII.--Policy of Queen Elizabeth--Thomas Cavendish--His First Voyage--Exploits upon the African and Brazilian Coasts--Port Desire--Port Famine--Battles with the Araucanians--Capture of Paita--Robbery of a Church--Repeated Acts of Brigandage--Capture of the Santa Anna--The Return Voyage--Cavendish's Account of the Expedition--The Spanish Armada--Preparations in England--The Conflict--Total Rout of the Invincibles--Procession in Commemoration of the Event 276 CHAPTER XXIX.--The Fiction of El Dorado--Manoa--Description of its Fabled Splendors--Attempts of the Spaniards to Discover it--Sir Walter Raleigh--His Voyage to Guiana--His Account of the Orinoco--His Description of the Scenery--His Return--His Second Voyage--Expedition to Newfoundland--His Death--Modern Interpretation of the Legend of El Dorado 285 CHAPTER XXX.--Discovery of the Solomon Islands by Mendana--He seeks for them again Thirty Years later--Quiros--The Marquesas Islands--The Women compared with those of Lima--Strange Fruits--Conversions to Christianity--Arduous Voyage--Santa Cruz--Mendana exchanges Names with Malopé--Hostilities--War, and its Results--Death of Mendana--Quiros conducts the Ships to Manilla 291 CHAPTER XXXI.--Attempts of the Dutch to discover a Northeast Passage--Voyage of Wilhelm Barentz--Arrival at Nova Zembla--Winter Quarters--Building a House--Fights with Bears--The Sun Disappears--The Clock Stops, and the Beer Freezes--The House is Snowed up--The Hot-Ache--Fox-Traps--Twelfth Night--Return of the Sun--The Ships prove Unseaworthy--Preparations to Depart in the Boats--Death of Barentz--Arrival at Amsterdam--Results of the Voyage 297 CHAPTER XXXII.--The Five Ships of Rotterdam--Battle at the Island of Brava--Sebald de Weert--Disasters in the Strait of Magellan--The Crew eat Uncooked Food--The Fleet is scattered to the Winds--Adventures of De Weert--A Wretched Object--Return to Holland--Voyage of Oliver Van Noort--Barbarous Punishment--The Emblem of Hope becomes a Cause of Despair--Fight with the Patagonians--Arrest of the Vice-Admiral--His Punishment--Description of a Chilian Beverage--Capture of a Spanish Treasure-Ship--A Pilot thrown Overboard--Sea-Fight off Manilla--Return Home, after the First Dutch Voyage of Circumnavigation 304 CHAPTER XXXIII.--Quiros' Theory of a Southern Continent--His Arguments and Memorials--His First Voyage--Discoveries--Encarnaçion--Sagittaria, or Tahiti--Description of these Islands--Manicolo--Espiritu Santo--Its Productions and Inhabitants--Quiros before the King of Spain--His Belief in his Discovery of a Continent--His Disappointment--Renewed Solicitations--Death of Quiros--Discoveries of Torrès--The Muscovy Company of London--Henry Hudson--His Voyages to Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla--His Voyage to America--Casts Anchor at Sandy Hook--Ascends the Hudson River as far as the Site of Albany--His Voyage to Iceland and Hudson's Bay--Disastrous Winter--Mutiny--Hudson set adrift--His Death 316 CHAPTER XXXIV.--The Fleet of Joris Spilbergen--Arrival in Brazil--Adventures in the Strait of Magellan--Trade at Mocha Island--Treachery at Santa Maria--Terrible Battle between the Dutch and Spanish Fleets--Ravages of the Coast--Skirmishes Upon the Land--Spilbergen sails for Manilla--Arrival at Ternate--His Return Home--The Voyage of Schouten and Lemaire--Lemonade at Sierra Leone--A Collision at Sea--Discovery of Staten Land--Cape Horn--Lemaire's Strait--Arrival at Batavia--Confiscation of the Ships--General Results of the Voyage--The Voyage of William Baffin--Arctic Researches during the Seventeenth Century 326 SECTION V. FROM THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN TO THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION: 1616-1807. CHAPTER XXXV.--A Famous Vessel--The Mayflower--Her Appearance--The Speedwell--Departure of the Two Ships--Alleged Unseaworthiness of the Speedwell--The Mayflower sails alone--The Equinoctial--Consultations--A Remedy applied--First View of the Land--Subsequent History and Fate of the Mayflower 339 CHAPTER XXXVI.--Discovery of New Holland--Tasman ordered to survey the Island--Discovery of Van Diemen's Land--Of New Zealand--Murderers' Bay--The Friendly Islands--The Feejees--New Britain--An Earthquake at Sea--A Copious Language--Circumnavigation of New Holland--Return to Batavia--Results of the Voyage--Dutch Opinions of Tasman's Merit 346 CHAPTER XXXVII.--Piracy--Origin of the Buccaneers--Their Manner of Life--Dress--Occupation-The Island of Tortuga their Head-Quarters--Their Religious Scruples--Manner of dividing Spoils--The Exterminator--The Observance of the Sabbath--Exploits of Henry Morgan--Impotence of the Spaniards--Career of William Dampier--His First Piratical Cruise--Adventures by Land and Sea--Description of the Plantain-Tree--Lingering Deaths by Poison--Reproaches of Conscience--The New-Hollanders--Dampier's Dangerous Voyage in an Open Boat--Piracy upon the American Coast--William Kidd sent against the Pirates--He turns Pirate himself--His Exploits, Detection, and Execution--His Buried Treasures--Wreck of the Whidah Pirate-Ship 351 CHAPTER XXXVIII.--The Voyage of Woodes Rogers-Desertion checked by a Novel Circumstance--A Light seen upon the Island of Juan Fernandez--A Boat sent to Reconnoitre--Alexander Selkirk discovered--His History and Adventures--His Dress, Food, and Occupations--He ships with Rogers as Second Mate--Turtles and Tortoises--Fight with a Spanish Treasure-Ship--Profits of the Voyage--The South Sea Bubble--Its Inflation and Collapse--Measures of Relief 373 CHAPTER XXXIX.--The Dutch West India Company--Renewed Search for the Terra Australis Incognita--Jacob Roggewein--His Voyage of Discovery--Brush with Pirates--Arrival at Juan Fernandez--Easter Island--Its Inhabitants--Entertainment of one on board the Ship--A Misunderstanding--Pernicious and Recreation Islands--Glimpse of the Society Islands--A Famine in the Fleet--Arrival at New Britain--Confiscation of the Ship at Batavia--Decision of the States-General--Vitus Behring--Behring's Strait--Description of the Scene--Death of Behring--Subsequent Survey of the Strait 383 CHAPTER XL.--Piratical Voyage under George Anson--Unparalleled Mortality--Arrival and Sojourn at Juan Fernandez--A Prize--Capture of Paita--Preparations to attack the Manilla Galleon--Disappointment--Fortunate Arrival at Tinian--Romantic Account of the Island--A Storm--Anson's Ship driven out to Sea--The Abandoned Crew set about building a Boat--Return of the Centurion--Battle with the Manilla Galleon--Anson's Arrival in England--The Proceeds of the Cruise 393 CHAPTER XLI.--The First Scientific Voyage of Circumnavigation--The Dolphin and Tamar--Byron in Patagonia--Falkland Islands--Islands of Disappointment--Arrival at Tinian--Byron versus Anson--The Voyage Home--Wallis and Carteret--Their Observations in Patagonia--Wallis at Tahiti--A Desperate Battle--Nails lose their Value--A Tahitian Romance--Pitcairn's Island--Queen Charlotte's Islands--New Britain--The Voyage Home--A Man-of-War Destroyed by Fire 410 CHAPTER XLII.--Colonization of the Falkland Islands--Antoine de Bougainville--His Voyage around the World--Adventure at Montevideo--The Patagonians--Taking Possession of Tahiti--French Gallantry--Ceremonies of Reception--Sojourn at the Island--Aotourou--The First Female Circumnavigator--Famine on Board--Remarkable Cascade--Arrival at the Moluccas--Incidents there--Return Home 426 CHAPTER XLIII.--Expedition despatched at the Instance of the Royal Society--Lieutenant James Cook--Incidents of the Voyages--A Night on Shore in Terra del Fuego--Arrival at Tahiti--The Natives pick their Pockets--The Observatory--A Native chews a Quid of Tobacco--The Transit of Venus--Two of the Marines take unto themselves Wives--New Zealand--Adventures there--Remarkable War-Canoe--Cannibalism demonstrated--Theory of a Southern Continent subverted--New Holland--Botany Bay--The Endeavor on the Rocks--Expedient to stop the Leak--A Conflagration--Passage through a Reef--Arrival at Batavia--Mortality on the Voyage Home--Cook promoted to the Rank of Commander 435 CHAPTER XLIV.--Cook's Second Voyage--A Storm--Separation of the Ships--Aurora Australis--New Zealand--Six Water-Spouts at once--Tahiti again--Petty Thefts of the Natives--Cook visits the Tahitian Theatre--Omai--Arrival at the Friendly Islands--The Fleet witness a Feast of Human Flesh--The New Hebrides--New Caledonia--Return Home--Honors bestowed upon Cook 451 CHAPTER XLV.--Cook's Third Voyage--The Northwest Passage--Omai--His Reception at Home--The Crew forego their Grog--Discovery of the Sandwich Islands--Nootka Sound--The Natives--Cape Prince of Wales--Two Continents in Sight--Icy Cape--Return to the Sandwich Islands--Cook is deified--Interview with Tereoboo--Subsequent Difficulties--A Skirmish--Pitched Battle and Death of Cook--Recovery of a Portion of his Remains--Funeral Ceremonies--Life and Services of Cook 461 CHAPTER XLVI.--Louis XVI. and the Science of Navigation--Voyage of Lapérouse--Arrival at Easter Island--Address of the Natives--Owhyhee--Trade at Mowee--Survey of the American Coast--A Remarkable Inlet--Distressing Calamity--Sojourn at Monterey--Run across the Pacific--The Japanese Waters--Arrival at Petropaulowski--Affray at Navigators' Isles--Lapérouse arrives at Botany Bay, and is never seen again, alive or dead--Voyages made in Search of him--D'Entrecasteaux--Dillon--D'Urville--Discovery of numerous Relics of the Ships at Manicolo--Theory of the Fate of Lapérouse--Erection of a Monument to his Memory 480 CHAPTER XLVII.--The Transplantation of the Bread-Fruit Tree--The Voyage of the Bounty--A Mutiny--Bligh, the Captain, with Eighteen Men, cast adrift in the Launch--Incidents of the Voyage from Tahiti to Timor--Terrible Sufferings and a Marvellous Escape--Arrival of the Mutineers at Tahiti--Their Removal to Pitcairn's Island--Subsequent History--Voyage of Vancouver--Algerine Piracy--Burning of the Philadelphia--Proud Position of the United States 492 CHAPTER XLVIII.--Application of Steam to Navigation--Robert Fulton--Chancellor Livingston--Launch of the Clermont--She crosses the Hudson River--Her Voyage to Albany--Description of the Scene--Fulton's own Account--Legislative Protection granted to Fulton--The Pendulum-Engine--Construction of other Steamboats--The Steam-Frigate Fulton the First--The First Ocean-Steamer, the Savannah--Account of her Voyage--Misapprehensions upon the Subject 508 SECTION VI. FROM THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION TO THE LAYING OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE: 1807-1858. CHAPTER XLIX.--Arctic Explorations--Russian Researches under Krusenstern and Kotzebue--Freycinet--Ross--The Crimson Cliffs--Lancaster Sound--Buchan and Franklin--Parry--The Polar Sea--Winter Quarters--Return Home--Duperrey--Episodes in the Whale-Fishery--Parry's Polar Voyage--Boat-Sledges--Method of Travel--Disheartening Discovery--82° 43' North 519 CHAPTER L.--Ross's Second Voyage--The North Magnetic Pole--D'Urville--Enderby's Land--Back's Voyage in the Terror--The Great Western and Sirius--United States' Exploring Expedition--The Antarctic Continent--Sir John Franklin's Last Voyage in the Erebus and Terror--Efforts made to relieve him--Discovery of the Scene of his First Winter Quarters--The Grinnell Expedition--The Advance and Rescue--Lieutenant de Haven--Dr. Kane--Return of the Expedition 535 CHAPTER LI.--Kennedy's Expedition--Sir Edward Belcher--McClure--Discovery of the Northwest Passage--Junction of McClure and Kellett--Episode of the Resolute--Commodore Perry's Expedition--Decisive Traces of the Fate of Sir John Franklin--The Leviathan 553 CHAPTER LII.--The Second Grinnell Expedition--The Advance in Winter Quarters--Total Darkness--Sledge-Parties--Adventures--The First Death--Tennyson's Monument--Humboldt Glacier--The Open Polar Sea--Second Winter--Abandonment of the Brig--The Water again--Upernavik--Rescue by Captain Hartstene--Death and Services of Dr. Kane--Attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable 561 CHAPTER LIII.--Second and Third Attempts to lay the Atlantic Cable--The Failure in the Month of June--Description of the Cable--The Voyage of the Niagara--The Continuity--All Right again--Change from one Coil to Another--The Knights of the Black Hand--Unfavorable Symptoms--The Insulation broken--The Third of August--An Anxious Moment--Land discovered--Trinity Bay--Mr. Field visits the Telegraph Station--The Operators taken by Surprise--Landing of the Cable--Impressive Ceremony--Captain Hudson returns Thanks to Heaven--The Voyage of the Agamemnon--The Queen's Message--The Sixteenth of August--Deep-Sea Telegraphing--The Equator and the Cable 576 CHAPTER LIV.--Diving--The first diving-bell--Fixed apparatus supplied with compressed air--The submarine hydrostat--Operations at Hell Gate--Diving apparatus--Submarine explosions--Improved diving dresses--Their use--Work of various kinds done with them--Instances of this--Seeking the treasure of the Hussar--Sunken ships in Sebastopol--Operations in Mobile--The Dry Dock at Pensacola Bay--The beauties of the submarine world--Habits of the fish--Possible depth of descent 594 CHAPTER LV.--Fishing--The ocean as a field--The crops it yields--The sponge--Transplanting sponges--Coral fisheries--The coral an animal--The discovery of this--Oyster fishery--The oyster a social animal--The young oyster--Oyster culture--Dredging for oysters--The American oyster fishery--Pearl oysters--The value of the pearl fishery--Shark fishing--Cuttle fish 627 CHAPTER LVI.--Dredging in modern times--What it has taught us--Deep sea soundings--First attempts--Implements used for it--The chance for inventors--The temperature of the sea--Deep sea temperature--Self-regulating thermometers--Serial temperature soundings--Animal life of the sea--Deep sea dredging--The dredging apparatus of the Porcupine 652 CHAPTER LVII.--The development of ship building--New models for ships--Steam ship navigation--Monitors--Iron-plated frigates--Tin-clads--Rams--Torpedo boats--Their use in the Confederacy--Life Rafts--Yacht building--Ocean yacht race--The cost of a yacht 673 CHAPTER LVIII.--Our knowledge of the earth and sea--How it has increased--The earth the daughter of the ocean--The opinion of science--The mean depth of the ocean--The extent of the ocean--Its volume--Specific gravity of sea-water--Constitution of salt-water--The silver in the sea--The waves of the sea--The currents of the ocean--The tides--The aquarium--The commerce of modern times--The spread of peace 696 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. No. Page 1. Gigantic Cuttle Fish _Frontispiece._ 2. Asiatic Deluge 18 3. Hand of Satan 19 4. Stormy Petrel 30 5. The First Navigator 31 6. Modern Row Boat 33 7. The Deluge and the Ark 35 8. Noctulius Miliaris 45 9. Supposed form of the ship _Argo_ 54 10. The World, according to Homer 61 11. The Earth, according to Anaximander 62 12. The Great Penguin 64 13. Greek Vessel of the 6th Century 65 14. The Ptolemy Philopator 72 15. Common Penguin 74 16. The Sacred Promontory 78 17. Plan of Pythias' Voyage 79 18. Plan of the Voyage of Nearchus 83 19. Supposed form of the ships of Nearchus 91 20. Venetian Galley of the 10th Century 92 21. Wedding the Adriatic 95 22. Danish vessel of the 10th Century 99 23. The Northmen of America 104 24. Fishing for Herrings 107 25. Ancient Chinese Compass 113 26. Chinese Junk 119 27. Ship of the 14th Century 121 28. Teneriffe 122 29. Cape Bojador 124 30. Cape Verd 130 31. Sea Swallow 132 32. Christopher Columbus 137 33. Violet Asteria 145 34. The Fleet of Columbus 146 35. Head of the Merganser 147 36. The _Nina_ homeward bound 157 37. Columbus taking possession of Guanchani 158 38. Reception of Columbus by Ferdinand, etc. 162 39. Columbus in chains at Cadiz 168 40. Water Spout 170 41. The Phaeton 178 42. Vasco de Gama 179 43. Map of Africa, drawn 1497 182 44. Spectre of the Cape 187 45. Phosphorescence 188 46. The Man overboard, and the Albatross 189 47. Calicut in the 16th Century 196 48. Wreck of the _San Raphael_ 197 49. De Gama's Flag Ship 204 50. Vessels employed in the Spice Trade in the 16th Century 207 51. Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth 213 52. Balboa and the Indian 217 53. Balboa discovering the Pacific Ocean 219 54. Balboa taking possession of the Pacific Ocean 221 55. Fate of De Solis and his companions 224 56. Ferdinand Magellan 225 57. Cape Virgin, east end Magellan's Strait 231 58. Laminaria 235 59. Natives of Borneo prepare to attack Magellan 236 60. Tidore 242 61. Scene on the Canadian Coast 246 62. Henry VIII. Embarking at Dover 255 63. Francis Drake 256 64. Drake and his Raft 260 65. Drake and the Patagonians 261 66. Drake condemning Doughty 262 67. Sea Anemones 266 68. Drake interrupting Justin at Acopulco 270 69. Queen Elizabeth knighting Drake 274 70. British Ship of War. 1578 276 71. Cavendish in Brazil 277 72. Port Famine 278 73. Hull of a vessel of the Armada 282 74. Procession in honor of the defeat of the Armada 284 75. Sir Walter Raleigh 285 76. Native of the Solomon Islands 291 77. Islanders before a Breeze 296 78. The Dutch at Walrus Island 297 79. The Dutch in Winter quarters 299 80. The female Otter and her young 303 81. Funeral of Mahu at Brava Island 304 82. Affray between the Dutch and Patagonians 310 83. The Two Admirals at close quarters 314 84. A Dutch Pic-Nic in the Mauritius 315 85. Turtles Head 315 86. Woman and Child of Espiritu Santu 316 87. Scene at Tahiti 318 88. Hudson's vessel, _The Half Moon_, off Sandy Hook 323 89. Dutch vessel trading at the Ladrones 326 90. Conflict between the Dutch and Spanish Fleets 330 91. The Dutch surprised by the Spaniards 331 92. Cape Horn 335 93. The _Concord_ at Fly Island 336 94. Arctic Gull 338 95. _Speedwell_ and _Mayflower_ 339 96. Cod Fish 345 97. Tasman's vessel, _The Zeehaan_ 346 98. Murderer's Bay 349 99. Natives of Murderer's Bay 349 100. A Buccaneer 351 101. Boats used in the Philippian Islands 360 102. Surf Bathing by Natives 362 103. Polynesian Canoe with its Outrigger 364 104. Dampier's Boat in a Storm 365 105. Wreck of the Pirate Ship, _Whidah_ 372 106. Home of Alexander Selkirk 373 107. Selkirk and his Family 376 108. Catching Turtles 378 109. The Hammer-headed Shark 382 110. The Eagle and the Pirate 383 111. Mirage at Behring's Straits 391 112. Lord Anson 393 113. Bombardment of Paita 397 114. Anson's Encampment at Firman 401 115. The Centurion and the Treasure Ship 407 116. Byron at King George's Island 410 117. Parting of Wallis and Oberea 418 118. Burning of the _Le Prince_ 423 119. Chain of Phosphorescent Salpas 425 120. Bougainville 426 121. A Ferry Boat at Buenos Ayres 428 122. Bougainville at Magellan's Straits 429 123. Cascade at Port Praslin 433 124. Capt. James Cook 435 125. A New Zealand Canoe 443 126. Cape Pigeon 450 127. Cook's ship beset by Water Spouts 451 128. King Otoo's sister dancing 455 129. Reception of Cook at the Friendly Islands 456 130. Canoes of the Friendly Islands 458 131. New Caledonian double Canoe 460 132. Sandwich Island King to visit Cook 461 133. Omai 465 134. Habitations in Nootka Sound 467 135. Man of the Sandwich Islands 469 136. Woman of Sandwich Islands 470 137. Fight with the Natives 472 138. Death of Capt. Cook 474 139. Lapérouse 480 140. Lapérouse's Disaster at Frenchport 485 141. Remnants of the wreck 490 142. Consecration of the Cenotaph 491 143. Scene in Terra del Fuego 492 144. Colonists of Pitcairn's Island 498 145. A Deserted Village 501 146. The _Discovery_ on a Rock 502 147. Burning of the _Philadelphia_ 506 148. The _Clermont_, the first steamboat 508 149. The _Savannah_, the first ocean steamer 517 150. Head of a White Bear 519 151. Reception of Otzebue at Otdia 520 152. Sea Lions upon the Ice 523 153. Attacked by Walruses 524 154. White Bears 526 155. Cutting In 529 156. Cutting Out 529 157. The Whale of Capt. de Blois 531 158. The Navigators frozen in 535 159. The _Victory_ in a Gale 536 160. Dr. Kane 547 161. Dr. Kane passing through Devil's Nip 548 162. The Seal 552 163. Japanese Vessel 558 164. The Leviathan 559 165. Cape Alexander, the Arctic Gibraltar 561 166. Chaos 563 167. Wild Dog Team 565 168. Open Polar Sea 566 169. Seeking Eider Down 570 170. The Telegraphic Fleet 571 171. Hauling the Cable ashore 573 172. Landing the Cable 574 173. A hollow Wave 575 174. The Cable in the bed of the Ocean 576 175. Sections of Atlantic Cable 577 176. The Telegraphic Plateau 584 177. The _Agamemnon_ in a Gale 590 178. The Seal 594 179. Diving Bell 595 180. Fixed Apparatus supplied with Compressed Air 596 181. Payerne's Submarine Hydrostat 598 182. Mushroom Drill 601 183. Ready to go down 603 184. Putting in the Charges 605 185. Grappling Machine 606 186. Divers dressed in their Apparatus 607 187. Divers finding a Box of Gold 608 188. Arming the Diver 611 189. Casting off the Diver 612 190. Diver down 613 191. Cannon, bell, and bones, brought up from the Wreck 615 192. Salvage of Russian Ships 616 193. Caulking a Vessel 617 194. The Northern Diver 625 195. Star Fish 627 196. Sponge fishing 628 197. Coral fishing off coast of Sicily 631 198. Faggots suspended to receive Oyster Spat 636 199. Dredging for Oysters 639 200. A Shell containing Chinese Pearls 640 201. Pearl Fisher in danger 642 202. Shark fishing 646 203. Cuttle fish making his Cloud 648 204. Ideal Scene 650 205. Red Coral 651 206. Dredging 652 207. Brook's Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus 657 208. Bull Dog Sounding Machine 659 209. Massey's Sounding Machine 660 210. The stern of the _Porcupine_ 668 211. Sail boat in a Gale 673 212. _Pennsylvania_ and _Ohio_ on the Stocks 675 213. Monitors 678 214. Plans of the Monitors 679 215. St. Louis 680 216. Double Ender 681 217. _Minnehaha_, or Tin Clad 683 218. The Ram Ironsides 685 219. Torpedo Explosion 687 220. Life Raft 691 221. Ocean Yacht Race, _Henrietta_, _Vesta_ and _Fleetwing_ 694 222. Fancy Sail Race 695 223. Appearance of Ice at the Poles 710 224. Light Ship 711 225. A Coral Island 712 [Illustration: ASIATIC DELUGE.] [Illustration: THE HAND OF SATAN UPON THE SEA OF DARKNESS.] Section I. FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. CHAPTER I. THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK--THE OCEAN IN THE SCRIPTURAL PERIOD--THE MARVELS OF THE SEA--THE CLASSIC LEGENDS--THE FANTASTIC NOTIONS ENTERTAINED OF THE NORTH AND THE EQUATOR--THE GIANT OF THE CANARIES--THE SEA OF SEA-WEED--THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE--THE GRADUAL SURRENDER OF THE SECRETS OF THE SEA--IT BECOMES THE HIGHWAY OF NATIONS--ITS PRESENT ASPECT--ITS POETICAL SIGNIFICANCE--ITS MORAL LESSONS. A history of the ocean from the Flood to the Atlantic Telegraph, with a parallel sketch of ship-building from the Ark to the Iron Clad; a narrative of the rise of commerce, from the days when Solomon's ships traded with Ophir, to the time when the steam whistle is heard on every open sea; a consecutive chronicle of the progress of navigation, from the day when the timid mariner hugged the coast by day and prudently cast anchor by night, to the time when the steamship, apparently endowed with reason, or at least guided by instinct, seems almost to dispense with the aid of man,--such a theme seems to offer topics of interest which it would be difficult to find in any other subject. The reader will readily perceive its scope when we have briefly rehearsed what the sea once was to man, and what it now is,--the purpose of the work being to narrate how from the one it has become the other. In early times, in the scriptural and classic periods, the great oceans were unknown. Mankind--at least that portion whose history has descended to us--dwelt upon the borders of an inland, mediterranean sea. They had never heard of such an expanse of water as the Atlantic, and certainly had never seen it. The land-locked sheet which lay spread out at their feet was at all times full of mystery, and often even of dread and secret misgiving. Those who ventured forth upon its bosom came home and told marvellous tales of the sights they had seen and the perils they had endured. Homer's heroes returned to Ithaca with the music of the sirens in their ears and the cruelties of the giants upon their lips. The Argonauts saw whirling rocks implanted in the sea, to warn and repel the approaching navigator; and, as if the mystery of the waters had tinged with fable even the dry land beyond it, they filled the Caucasus with wild stories of enchantresses, of bulls that breathed fire, and of a race of men that sprang, like a ripened harvest, from the prolific soil. If the ancients were ignorant of the shape of the earth, it was for the very reason that they were ignorant of the ocean. Their geographers and philosophers, whose observations were confined to fragments of Europe, Asia, and Africa, alternately made the world a cylinder, a flat surface begirt by water, a drum, a boat, a disk. The legends that sprang from these confused and contradictory notions made the land a scene of marvels and the water an abode of terrors. At a later period, when, with the progress of time, the love of adventure or the needs of commerce had drawn the navigator from the Mediterranean through the Pillars of Hercules into the Atlantic, and when some conception of the immensity of the waters had forced itself upon minds dwarfed by the contracted limits of the inland sea, then the ocean became in good earnest a receptacle of gloomy and appalling horrors, and the marvels narrated by those fortunate enough to return told how deeply the imagination had been stirred by the new scenes opened to their vision. Pytheas, who coasted from Marseilles to the Shetland Isles, and who there obtained a glance at the bleak and wintry desolation of the North Sea, declared, on reaching home, that his further progress was barred by an immense black mollusk, which hung suspended in the air, and in which a ship would be inextricably involved, and where no man could breathe. The menaces of the South were even more appalling than the perils of the North; for he who should venture, it was said, across the equator into the regions of the Sun, would be changed into a negro for his rashness: besides, in the popular belief, the waters there were not navigable. Upon the quaint charts of the Middle Ages, a giant located upon the Canary Islands forbade all farther venture westward, by brandishing his formidable club in the path of all vessels coming from the east. Upon these singular maps the concealed and treacherous horrors of the deep were displayed in the grotesque shapes of sea-monsters and distorted water-unicorns, which were represented as careering through space and waylaying the navigator. Even in the time of Columbus, and when the introduction of the compass into European ships should have somewhat diminished the fantastic terrors of the sea, we find that the Arabians, the best geographers of the time, represented the bony and gnarled hand of Satan as rising from the waves of the Sea of Darkness,--as the Atlantic was then called,--ready to seize and engulf the presumptuous mariner. The sailors of Columbus, on reaching the Sargasso Sea, where the collected weeds offered an impediment to their progress, thought they had arrived at the limit of navigation and the end of the world. Five years later, the crew of da Gama, on doubling the Cape of Good Hope, imagined they saw, in the threatening clouds that gathered about Table Rock, the form of a spectre waving off their vessel and crying woe to all who should thus invade his dread dominion. The Neptune of the classics, in short, who disported himself in the narrow waters of the Mediterranean, and of whose wrath we have read the famous mythologic accounts, was a deity altogether bland and debonnaire compared to the gloomy and revengeful monopolist of the seas, such as the historians and geographers of the Middle Ages painted him. And now Columbus had discovered the Western Continent, da Gama had found an ocean route to the Indies, and Magellan, sailing around the world, had proved its sphericity and approached the Spice Islands from the east. For centuries, now, the two great oceans were the scenes of grand and useful maritime expeditions. The tropical islands of the Pacific arose, one by one, from the bosom of the sea, to reward the navigator or relieve the outcast. The Spanish, by dint of cruelty and rapacity, filled their famous Manilla galleons and Acapulco treasure-ships with the spoils of warfare and the legitimate fruits of trade. The English, seeking to annoy a nation with whom, though not at war, they were certainly not at peace, sent against their golden fleets the piratical squadrons of Anson, Drake, and Hawkins. For years property was not safe upon the sea, and trading-ships went armed, while the armed vessels of nations turned buccaneers. The Portuguese and Dutch colonized the coasts and islands of India, Spain sent Cortez and Pizarro to Mexico and Peru, and England drove the Puritans across a stormy sea to Plymouth. Commerce was spread over the world, and Civilization and Christianity were introduced into the desert and the wilderness. Two centuries more, and steam made the Atlantic Ocean a ferry-transit, and the electric telegraph has now made its three thousand miles of salt water but as one link in that girdle which Shakspeare foresaw and which Puck promised to perform. The cable is complete and in working-order from New Orleans to Sebastopol. Having thus rapidly described what the ocean once was in man's estimation, and having cursorily traced the steps by which it has taken its place in the world's economy, it remains for us to say what the ocean now is, and what place it now holds. It is the peaceful Highway of Nations,--a highway without tax or toll. Were the noble idea of the late Secretary Marcy adopted by all nations, private property upon the sea would be sacred even in time of war. If the distances be considered, the sea is the safest and most commodious route from spot to spot, whether for merchandise or man. It has given up its secrets, with perhaps the single exception of its depth, and, like the lightning and the thunderbolt, has submitted to the yoke. Though still sublime in its immensity and its power, it has lost those features of character which once made it mysterious and fantastic, and has become the sober and humdrum pathway of traffic. Mail-routes are as distinctly marked upon its surface as the equator, or the meridian of Greenwich: steamships leave their docks punctually at the stroke of noon. The monsters that plough its waters have been hunted by man till the race is well nigh exhausted; for the leviathan which frightened the ancients is the whale which has illuminated the moderns. The chant of the sirens is hushed, and in its place are heard the clatter of rushing paddle-wheels, the fog-whistle on the banks, the song of the forecastle, the yo-ho of sailors toiling at the ropes, the salute in mid-ocean,--sometimes--alas!--the minute-gun at sea. The romance and fable that once had here their chosen home, have fled to the caves and taken refuge amid the grottos; and the legends that were lately told of the ocean would now be out of place even in a graveyard or a haunted house. The sailor, to whom once the route was trackless and untrodden, now consults a volume of charts which he has obtained from the National Observatory, and finds his course laid out upon data derived from analogy and oft-repeated experience. He takes this or that direction in accordance with known facts of the prevalence of winds or the motion of currents. He keeps a record of his own experience, that in its turn it may be useful to others. He has plans and surveys which give him the bearings of every port, the indentations of every coast, the soundings of every pass. Beacons warn him of reefs and sunken rocks, and buoys mark out his course through the shallows of sounds and straits. A modern light-house costs a million dollars, and a breakwater involves the finances of a state. If a new light-house is erected, or is the warning lamp for any reason discontinued, upon any coast, the fact is made known to the commerce of all nations by a "Notice to Mariners," inserted in the marine department of the newspapers most likely to meet their eye. A vessel at sea is safer from spoliation than is the traveller upon the high road or the sojourner in a city; for there are robbers and depredators everywhere upon the land, while there is not a pirate on the ocean. There are well-laden treasure-ships in the Panama and California waters, as in the times of Drake and Anson; but the world is much older than it was, and buccaneers and flibustiers now only infest the land. In short, the ocean, once a formidable and repellant element, now furnishes Christian food and healthful employment to millions. Instead of serving to affright and appall the dwellers upon the continents which it surrounds, it renders their atmosphere more respirable, it affords them safe conveyance, and raises for them a school of heroes. The ocean, then, has a history: it has a past worth narrating, adventures worth telling, and it has played a part in the advancement of science, in the extension of geographical knowledge, in the spread of civilization and the progress of discovery, which it is eminently worth our while to ponder and digest. Its gradual submission to invasion from the land, its successive surrender of the islands in the tropics and the ice-mountains at the poles, its slow but certain release of its secrets, its final abandonment of its exclusiveness, form--with a multitude of attendant incidents, accidents, battles, disasters, shipwrecks, famines, robberies, mutinies, piracies--the theme and purpose of these pages. Although the ocean has lost its terrors and has given up its dominion of dread over the mind of man, it is still poetic, and has been often made to assume a profound moral significance and furnish apt religious illustrations. In this connection, we cannot do better than to quote, from Dr. Greenwood's "Poetry and Mystery of the Sea," a passage which strongly and beautifully enforces this view:-- "'The sea is his, and He made it,' cries the Psalmist of Israel, in one of those bursts of enthusiasm in which he so often expresses the whole of a vast subject by a few simple words. Whose else, indeed, could it be, and by whom else could it have been made? Who else can heave its tides and appoint its bounds? Who else can urge its mighty waves to madness with the breath and wings of the tempest, and then speak to it again in a master's accents and bid it be still? Who else could have peopled it with its countless inhabitants, and caused it to bring forth its various productions, and filled it from its deepest bed to its expanded surface, filled it from its centre to its remotest shores, filled it to the brim with beauty and mystery and power? Majestic Ocean! Glorious Sea! No created being rules thee or made thee. "What is there more sublime than the trackless, desert, all-surrounding, unfathomable sea? What is there more peacefully sublime than the calm, gently-heaving, silent sea? What is there more terribly sublime than the angry, dashing, foaming sea? Power--resistless, overwhelming power--is its attribute and its expression, whether in the careless, conscious grandeur of its deep rest, or the wild tumult of its excited wrath. It is awful when its crested waves rise up to make a compact with the black clouds and the howling winds, and the thunder and the thunderbolt, and they sweep on, in the joy of their dread alliance, to do the Almighty's bidding. And it is awful, too, when it stretches its broad level out to meet in quiet union the bended sky, and show in the line of meeting the vast rotundity of the world. There is majesty in its wide expanse, separating and enclosing the great continents of the earth, occupying two-thirds of the whole surface of the globe, penetrating the land with its bays and secondary seas, and receiving the constantly-pouring tribute of every river, of every shore. There is majesty in its fulness, never diminishing and never increasing. There is majesty in its integrity,--for its whole vast substance is uniform in its local unity, for there is but one ocean, and the inhabitants of any one maritime spot may visit the inhabitants of any other in the wide world. Its depth is sublime: who can sound it? Its strength is sublime: what fabric of man can resist it? Its voice is sublime, whether in the prolonged song of its ripple or the stern music of its roar,--whether it utters its hollow and melancholy tones within a labyrinth of wave-worn caves, or thunders at the base of some huge promontory, or beats against a toiling vessel's sides, lulling the voyager to rest with the strains of its wild monotony, or dies away, with the calm and fading twilight, in gentle murmurs on some sheltered shore. "The sea possesses beauty, in richness, of its own; it borrows it from earth, and air, and heaven. The clouds lend it the various dyes of their wardrobe, and throw down upon it the broad masses of their shadows as they go sailing and sweeping by. The rainbow laves in it its many-colored feet. The sun loves to visit it, and the moon and the glittering brotherhood of planets and stars, for they delight themselves in its beauty. The sunbeams return from it in showers of diamonds and glances of fire; the moonbeams find in it a pathway of silver, where they dance to and fro, with the breezes and the waves, through the livelong night. It has a light, too, of its own,--a soft and sparkling light, rivaling the stars; and often does the ship which cuts its surface leave streaming behind a Milky Way of dim and uncertain lustre, like that which is shining dimly above. It harmonizes in its forms and sounds both with the night and the day. It cheerfully reflects the light, and it unites solemnly with the darkness. It imparts sweetness to the music of men, and grandeur to the thunder of heaven. What landscape is so beautiful as one upon the borders of the sea? The spirit of its loveliness is from the waters where it dwells and rests, singing its spells and scattering its charms on all the coasts. What rocks and cliffs are so glorious as those which are washed by the chafing sea? What groves and fields and dwellings are so enchanting as those which stand by the reflecting sea? "If we could see the great ocean as it can be seen by no mortal eye, beholding at one view what we are now obliged to visit in detail and spot by spot,--if we could, from a flight far higher than the eagle's, view the immense surface of the deep all spread out beneath us like a universal chart,--what an infinite variety such a scene would display! Here a storm would be raging, the thunder bursting, the waters boiling, and rain and foam and fire all mingling together; and here, next to this scene of magnificent confusion, we should see the bright blue waves glittering in the sun and clapping their hands for very gladness. Here we should see a cluster of green islands set like jewels in the bosom of the sea; and there we should see broad shoals and gray rocks, fretting the billows and threatening the mariner. Here we should discern a ship propelled by the steady wind of the tropics, and inhaling the almost visible odors which diffuse themselves around the Spice Islands of the East; there we should behold a vessel piercing the cold barrier of the North, struggling among hills and fields of ice, and contending with Winter in his own everlasting dominion. Nor are the ships of man the only travellers we shall perceive upon this mighty map of the ocean. Flocks of sea-birds are passing and repassing, diving for their food or for pastime, migrating from shore to shore with unwearied wing and undeviating instinct, or wheeling and swarming around the rocks which they make alive and vocal by their numbers and their clanging cries. "We shall behold new wonders and riches when we investigate the sea-shore. We shall find both beauty for the eye and food for the body, in the varieties of shell-fish which adhere in myriads to the rocks or form their close dark burrows in the sands. In some parts of the world we shall see those houses of stone which the little coral-insect rears up with patient industry from the bottom of the waters, till they grow into formidable rocks and broad forests whose branches never wave and whose leaves never fall. In other parts we shall see those pale, glistening pearls which adorn the crowns of princes and are woven in the hair of beauty, extorted by the relentless grasp of man from the hidden stores of ocean. And spread round every coast there are beds of flowers and thickets of plants, which the dew does not nourish, and which man has not sown, nor cultivated, nor reaped, but which seem to belong to the floods alone and the denizens of the floods, until they are thrown up by the surges, and we discover that even the dead spoils of the fields of ocean may fertilize and enrich the fields of earth. They have a life, and a nourishment, and an economy of their own; and we know little of them, except that they are there, in their briny nurseries, reared up into luxuriance by what would kill, like a mortal poison, the vegetation of the land. "There is mystery in the sea. There is mystery in its depths. It is unfathomed, and, perhaps, unfathomable. Who can tell, who shall know, how near its pits run down to the central core of the world? Who can tell what wells, what fountains, are there, to which the fountains of the earth are but drops? Who shall say whence the ocean derives those inexhaustible supplies of salt which so impregnate its waters that all the rivers of the earth, pouring into it from the time of the creation, have not been able to freshen them? What undescribed monsters, what unimaginable shapes, may be roving in the profoundest places of the sea, never seeking--and perhaps, from their nature, never able to seek--the upper waters and expose themselves to the gaze of man! What glittering riches, what heaps of gold, what stores of gems, there must be scattered in lavish profusion in the ocean's lowest bed! What spoils from all climates, what works of art from all lands, have been engulfed by the insatiable and reckless waves! Who shall go down to examine and reclaim this uncounted and idle wealth? Who bears the keys of the deep? "And oh! yet more affecting to the heart and mysterious to the mind, what companies of human beings are locked up in that wide, weltering, unsearchable grave of the sea! Where are the bodies of those lost ones over whom the melancholy waves alone have been chanting requiem? What shrouds were wrapped round the limbs of beauty, and of manhood, and of placid infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor of that secret tomb? Where are the bones, the relics, of the brave and the timid, the good and the bad, the parent, the child, the wife, the husband, the brother, the sister, the lover, which have been tossed and scattered and buried by the washing, wasting, wandering sea? The journeying winds may sigh as year after year they pass over their beds. The solitary rain-cloud may weep in darkness over the mingled remains which lie strewed in that unwonted cemetery. But who shall tell the bereaved to what spot their affections may cling? And where shall human tears be shed throughout that solemn sepulchre? It is mystery all. When shall it be resolved? Who shall find it out? Who but He to whom the wildest waves listen reverently, and to whom all nature bows; He who shall one day speak, and be heard in ocean's profoundest caves; to whom the deep, even the lowest deep, shall give up its dead, when the sun shall sicken, and the earth and the isles shall languish, and the heavens be rolled together like a scroll, and there shall be NO MORE SEA!" It now remains for us to investigate the origin of navigation, as preliminary to our subject, and then to commence the task before us with the history of Noah, the first seaman, and the Ark, the vessel he commanded. [Illustration: THE STORMY PETREL.] [Illustration: THE FIRST NAVIGATOR.] CHAPTER II. THE ORIGIN OF NAVIGATION--THE NAUTILUS--THE SPLIT REED AND BEETLE--THE BEAVER FLOATING UPON A LOG--THE HOLLOW TREE--THE FIRST CANOE--THE FLOATING NUTSHELL--THE OAR--THE RUDDER--THE SAIL--THE TRADITION OF THE FIRST SAIL-BOAT. The origin of navigation is unknown. It has baffled the research of antiquaries, for the simple reason that men sailed upon the sea before they committed the records of their history to paper, or that such records, if any existed, were swept away and lost in the periods of anarchy which succeeded. Imagination has suggested that the nautilus, or Portuguese man-of-war, raising its tiny sail and floating off before the breeze, first pointed out to man the use which might be made of the wind as a propelling force; that a split reed, following the current of some tranquil stream and transporting a beetle over its glassy surface, was the first canoe, while the beetle was the first sailor. Mythology represents Hercules as sailing in a boat formed of the hide of a lion, and translates ships to the skies, where they still figure among the constellations. Fable makes Atlas claim the invention of the oar, and gives to Tiphys, the pilot of the Argo, the invention of the rudder. The attributing of these discoveries and improvements to particular individuals doubtless afforded pastime to poets in ages when poetry was more popular than history. Instead of trusting to these fanciful authorities, we may form a very rational theory upon the matter in the following manner:-- Whether it was an insect that floated on a leaf across a rivulet and was stranded on the bank, or a beaver carried down a river upon a log, or a bear borne away upon an iceberg, that first awakened man to the conception of trusting himself fearlessly upon the water, it is highly probable that he learned from animals, whose natural element it is, the manner of supporting his body upon it and of forcing his way through it. A frog darting away from the rim of a pond and striking out with his fore-legs may have suggested swimming, and the beaver floating on a log may have suggested following his example. The log may not have been sufficiently buoyant, and the adventurer may have added to its buoyancy by using his arms and legs. Even to this day the Indians of our own country cross a rapid stream by clasping the trunk of a tree with the left leg and arm and propelling themselves with the right. Thus the first step was taken; and the second was either to place several logs together, thus forming a raft, and raising its sides, or to make use of a tree hollowed out by nature. Many trees grow hollow naturally, such as oaks, limes, beeches, and willows; and it would not require a degree of adaptation beyond the capacity of a savage, to fit them to float and move upon the water. The next step was probably to hollow out by art a sound log, thus imitating the trunk which had been eroded by time and decay. And, in making this step from the sound to the hollow log, the primitive mariners may have been assisted by observing how an empty nut-shell or an inverted tortoise-shell floated upon the water, preserving their inner surface dry and protecting such objects as their size enabled them to carry. It has been aptly remarked that this first step was the greatest of all,--"for the transition from the hollow tree to the ship-of-the-line is not so difficult as the transition from nonentity to the hollow tree." The first object for obtaining motion upon the water must evidently have been to enable the navigator to cross a river,--not to ascend or descend it; as it is apparent he would not seek the means of following or stemming its current while the same purpose could be more easily served by walking along the shore. It is not difficult to suppose that the oar was suggested by the legs of a frog or the fins of a fish. The early navigator, seated in his hollow tree, might at first seek to propel himself with his hands, and might then artificially lengthen them by a piece of wood fashioned in imitation of the hand and arm,--a long pole terminating in a thin flat blade. Here was the origin of the modern row-boat, one of the most graceful inventions of man. [Illustration] From the oar to the rudder the transition was easy, for the oar is in itself a rudder, and was for a long time used as one. It must have been observed at an early day that a canoe in motion was diverted from its direct course by plunging an oar into the water and suffering it to remain there. It must have been observed, too, that an oar in or towards the stern was more effective in giving a new direction to the canoe than an oar in any other place. It was a natural suggestion of prudence, then, to assign this duty to one particular oarsman, and to place him altogether at the stern. The sail is not so easily accounted for. An ancient tradition relates that a fisherman and his sweetheart, allured from the shore in the hope of discovering an island, and surprised by a tempest, were in imminent danger of destruction. Their only oar was wrenched from the grasp of the fisherman, and the frail bark was thus left to the mercy of the waves. The maiden raised her white veil to protect herself and her lover from the storm; the wind, inflating this fragile garment, impelled them slowly but surely towards the coast. Their aged sire, the tradition continues, suddenly seized with prophetic inspiration, exclaimed, "The future is unfolded to my view! Art is advancing to perfection! My children, you have discovered a powerful agent in navigation. All nations will cover the ocean with their fleets and wander to distant regions. Men, differing in their manners and separated by seas, will disembark upon peaceful shores, and import thence foreign science, superfluities, and art. Then shall the mariner fearlessly cruise over the immense abyss and discover new lands and unknown seas!" Though we may admire the foresight of this patriarch, we cannot applaud him for choosing a moment so inopportune for exercising his peculiar gift: it would certainly have been more natural to afford some comfort to his weather-beaten children. The legend even goes on to state that he at once fixed a pole in the middle of the canoe, and, attaching to it a piece of cloth, invented the first sail-boat. Mythology assigns a different, though similar, origin to the invention:--Iris, seeking her son in a bark which she impelled by oars, perceived that the wind inflated her garments and gently forced her in the direction in which she was going. No research would bring the investigator to conclusions more satisfactory than these. The fact would still remain, that the first mention in profane history of constructions moving upon the water, is many centuries subsequent to the period in which the idea of building such constructions must be presumed to have been first conceived. It would consequently be idle to devote more space to this subject; and we proceed at once, therefore, to the first of recorded ventures upon the sea. [Illustration: THE DELUGE AND THE ARK.] CHAPTER III. THE FLOOD AND THE BUILDING OF THE ARK--THE ARGUMENTS OF INFIDELITY AGAINST A UNIVERSAL DELUGE--THE MATERIAL OF WHICH THE ARK WAS BUILT--ITS CAPACITY, DIMENSIONS, AND FORM--ITS PROPORTIONS COPIED IN MODERN OCEAN STEAMERS. The earliest mention of the sea made in history occurs in the first chapter of Genesis. During the period of chaos, and before the creation of light, darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Upon the third day the waters under the heavens were gathered together in one place and were called Seas; the dry land appeared and was called Earth. The waters were commanded to bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life; and, upon the creation of man in the image of God, dominion was given him over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. In the year of the world 1556--according to the generally accepted computation--God determined to destroy man and all creeping things and the fowls of the air, for He said, "It repenteth me that I have made them." Noah alone found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was instructed to build him an ark of gopher-wood three hundred cubits in length, fifty in breadth, and thirty in height. It was to consist of three stories, divided into rooms, to contain one door and one window, and was to be smeared within and without with pitch. Noah was engaged one hundred years in constructing the ark,--from the age of five hundred to that of six hundred years,--and when it was fully completed he gathered his family into it, with pairs of all living creatures. Then were the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened. The rains descended during forty days and forty nights. The waters arose and lifted up the ark from the earth. The mountains were covered to a depth of twenty-two feet, and all flesh died that moved upon the earth: Noah alone remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. The flood commenced in the second month of Noah's six hundredth year. During five months the waters prevailed; in the seventh the ark rested upon the summit of Mount Ararat. In the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen; in the eleventh Noah sent forth a dove, which speedily returned, having found no rest for the sole of her foot; on the seventeenth day he again sent forth the dove, which returned, bringing an olive-leaf in her bill, and, being again sent forth, returned no more. On the first day of the first month of his six hundred and first year, Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw that the face of the ground was dry. Toward the close of the second month the earth was dried, and Noah went forth with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives. He built an altar and offered burnt-offerings of every beast and fowl to the Lord. God then made a promise to Noah that he would no more destroy the earth by flood, and stretched the rainbow in the clouds in token of this solemn covenant between himself and the children of men. Such is the scriptural history of the Deluge,--the first great chronological event in the annals of the world after the Creation. The investigations of philosophy and of infidelity into the accuracy of the Mosaic account have resulted in furnishing confirmation of the most direct and positive kind. The principal objections of cavillers turn upon three points: 1st, the absence of any concurrent testimony by the profane writers of antiquity; 2d, the apparent impossibility of accounting for the quantity of water necessary to overflow the whole earth to the depth stated; and, 3d, the needlessness of a universal deluge, as the same purpose might have been answered by a partial one. These objections may be briefly considered here. 1. The absence of positive testimony from profane historians. However true it may be that there is no consecutive account of the Deluge except that given in the Bible, it is certain that records relating to the ark had been preserved, among the early nations of the world and in the general system of Gentile mythology. Plutarch mentions the dove that was sent forth from the ark. The Greek fable of Deucalion and Pyrrha is absolutely the same as the scriptural narrative of Noah and his wife. The Egyptians carried their deity, upon occasions of solemnity, in an ark or boat, and this ark was called "Baris," from the name of a mountain upon which, doubtless, in their own legend, the Egyptian ark had rested, as did the scriptural ark upon Mount Ararat. The Temple of Sesostris was fashioned after the model of the ark, and was consecrated to Osiris at Theba. This name of Theba given to a city is an important point, for Theba was the appellation of the ark itself. The same name was borne by numerous cities in Boeotia, Attica, Ionia, Syria, and Italy; and the city of Apamea, in Phrygia, was originally called Kibotos, or Ark, in memory of the Deluge. This fact shows that the tradition of the Deluge was preserved in Asia Minor from a very remote antiquity. In India, ancient mythological books have been shown to contain fragmentary accounts of some great overflow corresponding in a remarkable degree with that given by Moses. The Africans, the Chinese, and the American Indians even, have traditions of a flood in the early annals of the world, and of the preservation of the human race and of animated nature by means of an ark. It is impossible to account for the universality of this legend, unless the fact of the Deluge be admitted. 2. The apparent material impossibility of producing water in sufficient quantity to overflow the earth. The means by which the flood was produced are stated in the Mosaic narrative: the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened; that is, the water rushed out from the bowels of the earth, where it had been confined, and the clouds poured forth their rains. This would seem to be a sufficient explanation, if any explanation of an event clearly miraculous and supernatural be necessary at all. It has been discovered, however, that the Deluge might have been caused, and might at any time be repeated, by a very simple process. It has been demonstrated that the various seas and oceans which invest the two principal hemispheres, contain water enough to overflow the land and cover the highest mountains to the depth of twenty-two feet, were their temperature merely raised to a degree equal to that of the shallow tropical seas! Were the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans suddenly warmed to a point perfectly compatible with the maintenance of animal life, they would expand sufficiently to overflow the Cordilleras and the Alps. 3. The needlessness of a universal deluge, as a partial one would have answered all purposes. That the Deluge was universal is distinctly stated by Scripture. Had not God intended it to be so, he would hardly have instructed Noah to spend a hundred years in the construction of an ark: a spot of the earth yet uninhabited by man might have been designated, where Noah could have gathered his family; there would have been no necessity for shutting up pairs of all animals in the ark with which to re-stock the earth, for they could have been easily brought from the parts of the earth not overflowed into those that were. Then we are told that the water ascended twenty-two feet above the highest mountains,--a distinct physical proof that the whole earth was inundated, for water then, as now, would seek its level, and must, by the laws of gravity, spread itself over the rest of the earth, unless, indeed, it were retained there by a miracle; and in this case Moses would certainly have mentioned it, as he did the suspension of the laws of nature in the case of the waters of the Red Sea. Then, again, had the Deluge been partial and confined to the neighborhood of the Euphrates and Tigris, it would be impossible to account for the fact that in remote countries--in Italy, France, Germany, England, the United States--there have been found, in places far from the sea, and upon the tops of high mountains, the teeth and bones of animals, fishes in an entire condition, sea-shells, ears of corn, &c., petrified. The explanation of this has always been derived from the circumstance of a universal deluge. The fact, too, already mentioned, that the Chinese, the Greeks, and the Indians have traditions of a deluge, seems to be conclusive evidence that that terrible dispensation was not confined to the district which was at that period scriptural ground, but visited alike Palestine and Peru, Canaan and Connecticut. We now return to the ark, the period of whose completion we have already given,--the year of the world 1656, or the year before Christ 2348. Three points are now to be considered:--the material of which it was built, its capacity and dimensions, and its form. 1. _The Material of which it was built._ The Mosaic account says expressly that it was built of gopher-wood; but it has never been satisfactorily determined what wood is meant by the term "gopher." Numerous interpretations have been placed upon it: by one authority it is rendered "timber squared by the workman;" by another, "timber made from trees which shoot out quadrangular branches in the same horizontal line," such as cedar and fir; by another, "smoothed or planed timber;" by another, "wood that does not readily decay," such as boxwood or cedar; by another, "the wood of such trees as abound with resinous, inflammable juices," as the cedar, fir, cypress, pine, &c. That the ark was built of cedar would seem to be probable, from the fact that this wood corresponds more than any other with the numerous significations given to the term "gopher," as it is quadrangular in its branches, durable, almost incorruptible, resinous, and highly inflammable; from the fact, too, that it is abundant in Asia, and known to have been employed by the Assyrians and Egyptians in the construction of ships. One or two authorities, however, maintain that the ark was made of the wood of the cypress, their grounds being that the cypress was considered by the ancients the most durable wood against rot and worms; that it abounded in Assyria, where the ark was probably built; and that it was frequently employed in the construction of ships, especially by Alexander, who built a whole fleet from the cypress groves in the neighborhood of Babylon. 2. _Its Capacity and Dimensions._ The proportions of the ark, as given in the sacred volume, have been examined and compared with the greatest precision by the most learned and accurate calculators; and, assuming the cubit to have been of the value of eighteen inches of the present day, it follows that the ark was four hundred and fifty feet long, by seventy-five wide, by forty-five high. From these data its burden has been deduced, and is now understood to have been forty-two thousand four hundred and thirteen tons. Such a construction would have allowed ample room for the eight persons who were to inhabit it,--Noah and his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives,--about two hundred and fifty pair of four-footed beasts, the fowls of the air, such reptiles and insects as could not live under water, together with the food necessary for their subsistence for a twelvemonth. It has been doubted whether Noah took with him into the ark specimens of all living creatures. It is reasonable to suppose that, as the world was nearly seventeen centuries old, the animal creation had spread itself over a large portion of the antediluvian earth, and that certain species had consequently become indigenous in certain climates. It is therefore probable that many species were not to be found in the country where Noah dwelt and where he built the ark. We are not told in the Bible that any kind of animals were brought from a distance,--a fact which renders it probable that Noah only saved pairs of the species which had become natives of the territory which he inhabited. This would be to suppose that many species perished in the flood and were consequently never renewed,--a supposition which derives strong support from the numerous discoveries made in modern times of the exuviæ of animals which no longer exist, and whose destruction is attributed to the Deluge. A list of such extinct species was drawn up by Cuvier. The presumptive evidence which may be adduced in support of the scriptural history of the preparation of the ark is very strong; it is, indeed, the only solution of an otherwise insuperable difficulty. The early records of the whole Gentile world, as has been stated, concur in declaring the fact of a universal deluge; and yet the human race and all the more useful and important species of animals survived it. Now, the people of those times had no ships and were totally unacquainted with navigation: it is evident, therefore, that they were not saved by vessels in ordinary use. Even though we were to suppose them possessed of shipping, it is impossible to believe that they would or could have provisioned them for a year's cruise, unless we suppose them to have been forewarned precisely as Moses relates; and it is certainly as easy to believe the whole of the Bible narrative as a portion. Such a structure as the ark, for the preservation and sustenance of the human race and of the animal kingdom, seems, then, to have been absolutely indispensable. 3. _Its Form._ From the dimensions given in the sixth chapter of Genesis, it is evident that the ark had the shape of an oblong square, with a sloping roof and a flat bottom; that it was furnished with neither helm, mast, nor oars; that it was intended to lie upon the water without rolling, and formed to float rather than to sail. Its proportions, it has been remarked, nearly agree with those of the human figure,--three hundred cubits in length being six times its breadth, fifty cubits, and the average length of the human frame being to its width as six is to one. Now, the body of a man lying in the water flat on his back will float with little or no exertion. It would appear, therefore, that similar proportions would suit a vessel whose purpose was floating only. It is not necessary to suppose that the ark had to contend with either storm or wind. The waves of water lying to the depth of a few fathoms upon a submerged continent could not, at any rate, be compared in violence to those of the ocean. The gathering of the flood lasted but forty days, and although the ark floated for a year, nearly eleven months were occupied in the subsidence of the water. It is probable that the ark was gradually and slowly surrounded by the advancing tide, was quietly lifted up upon its surface, that it hovered about the spot where it was constructed, and finally, upon the disappearance of the water, settled as quietly back upon its broad basis and projecting supports. It is a curious fact that many minds which have refused to accept the evidences of a communication between God and man in the instances of Moses and of our Savior, admit the strong probability of a communication having passed from God to Noah. The chain of argument is indeed exceedingly strong. Mr. Taylor thus seeks to establish the fact that the Deity did, in the case of Noah, condescend to make known his intentions to man. "Was the Deluge," he asks, "a real occurrence? All mankind acknowledge it. Wherever tradition has been maintained, wherever written records are preserved, wherever commemorative rites have been instituted, what has been their subject? The Deluge:--deliverance from destruction by a flood. The savage and the sage agree in this: North and South, East and West, relate the danger of their great ancestor from overwhelming waters. But he was saved: and how? By personal exertion? By long-continued swimming? By concealment in the highest mountains? No: but by enclosure in a large floating edifice of his own construction. But this labor was long: it was not the work of a day: he must have foreseen so astonishing an event a considerable time previous to its actual occurrence. Whence did he receive this foreknowledge? Did the earth inform him that at twenty, thirty, forty years' distance it would disgorge a flood? Surely not. Did the stars announce that they would dissolve the terrestrial atmosphere in terrific rains? Surely not. Whence, then, had Noah his foreknowledge? Did he begin to build when the first showers descended? It was too late. Had he been accustomed to rains, formerly? Why think them now of importance? Had he never seen rain? What could induce him to provide against it? Why this year more than last year? Why last year more than the year before? These inquiries are direct: we cannot flinch from the fact. Erase it from the Mosaic records, still it is recorded in Greece, in Egypt, in India, in Britain; it is registered in the very _sacra_ of the pagan world. Go, infidel, take your choice of difficulties: either disparage all mankind as fools, as willing dupes to superstitious commemoration, or allow that this fact, this one fact, is established by testimony abundantly sufficient; but remember that if it be established, it implies a _communication from God to man_. Who could inform Noah? Why did not that great patriarch provide against fire? against earthquakes? against explosions? Why against water? why against a deluge? Away with subterfuge! confess frankly it was the dictation of Deity. Say that He only who made the world could predict the time and causes of this devastation, that He only could excite the hope of restoration, or suggest a method of deliverance." It is a remarkable fact, and one which goes far to support the argument often urged to combat the opinions of atheists, that the ark could not have been built by man, unassisted by the divine intelligence, at that age of the world,--that the ark, the first and largest ship ever built, had precisely the same proportions as the ocean steamers of our own day. Its dimensions were, as we have said, three hundred cubits, by fifty, by thirty. Those of several of the fleetest Atlantic mail steamers are three hundred feet in length, fifty feet in breadth of beam, and twenty-eight and a half in depth. They have, like the ark, upper, lower, and middle stories. It is, to say the least, singular, that the ship-builders of the present day, neglecting the experience acquired by man from forty-two centuries spent more or less upon the sea, should so directly and unreservedly return to the model of the vessel constructed to outride the Flood. It was therefore with obvious propriety that, at one of the late convivial meetings in England during the preparations for laying the telegraphic cable, after due honor had been paid to the celebrities of the occasion and the moment, after the health of the Queen and the memory of Columbus had been pledged and drunk, a toast was offered to our great ancestor Noah. Though the proposition was received with hilarity and the idea seemed to savor somewhat of a jest, yet the patriarch's claims, as the first admiral on record, to being the father of seamen and the great originator of navigation, were willingly and vociferously acknowledged. After this recognition--which must, from the circumstances, be regarded as in some measure official and conclusive--we could not consistently have ventured to withhold from him the first place in this record of the triumphs of thirty centuries. [Illustration: NOCTILUCA VILIARIS.] CHAPTER IV. THE SHIPS, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION OF THE PHOENICIANS--THEIR TRADE WITH OPHIR--SIDON AND TYRE--THEIR VOYAGE ROUND AFRICA--NEW TYRE--A PATRIOTIC PHOENICIAN CAPTAIN--THE EGYPTIANS AS A MARITIME PEOPLE--THEIR SHIPS AND COMMERCE--THE JEWS--THEIR GEOGRAPHY--IDEAS UPON THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH--THE WORLD AS KNOWN TO THE HEBREWS. It is upon the shores of the Mediterranean, alike the sea of the Bible and of mythology, of Mount Ararat and Mount Olympus,--among the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews,--that we must look for the earliest traces of navigation and commerce. The most cursory inspection of a map of Palestine, Phoenicia, and Egypt will show how admirably these countries were situated for trade both by land and sea. The Phoenicians, though confined to the narrow slip of land between Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean, possessed a safe coast and the admirable harbor of Sidon, while their mountains furnished them an abundant supply of the best woods for ship-building. The confined limits of their own territory prevented them from being themselves producers or manufacturers,--a circumstance which naturally led them to be the carriers of producing and manufacturing nations whose maritime advantages were inferior to their own. The fact, also, that the Jews were prevented by their government, laws, and religion from engaging extensively in commerce, and that the Egyptians were characteristically averse to the sea, augmented the commercial supremacy of the Phoenicians,--a supremacy recognised both in the sacred writings and in profane records. It is now generally conceded that the date of the maritime enterprises which rendered the Phoenicians famous in antiquity must be fixed between the years 1700 and 1100 before Christ. The renowned city of Sidon was the centre from which their expeditions were sent forth. What was the specific object of these excursions, or in what order of time they took place, is but imperfectly known: it would appear, however, that their adventurers traded at first with Cyprus and Rhodes, then with Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, Gaul, and the coast of Spain upon the Mediterranean. About 1250 B.B., their ships ventured cautiously beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, and founded Cadiz upon a coast washed by the Atlantic. A little later they founded establishments upon the western coast of Africa. Homer asserts that at the Trojan War, 1194 BC., the Phoenicians furnished the belligerents with many articles of luxury and convenience; and we are told by Scripture that their ships brought gold to Solomon from Ophir, in 1000 B.C. Tyre seems now to have superseded Sidon, though at what period is not known. It had become a flourishing mart before 600 B.C. who lived at that time, has left a glowing and picturesque description of its wealth, which must have proceeded from a long-established commerce. He enumerates, among the articles used in building the Tyrian ships, the fir-trees of Senir, the cedars of Lebanon, the oaks of Bashan, the ivory of the Indies, the linen of Egypt, and the purple of the Isles of Elishah. He mentions, as brought to the great emporium from Syria, Damascus, Greece, and Arabia, silver, tin, lead, and vessels of brass; slaves, horses, mules; carpets, ebony, ivory, pearls, and silk; wheat, balm, honey, oil, and gum; wine, wool, and iron. It is about this period--600 B.C.--that the Phoenicians, though under Egyptian commanders, appear to have performed a voyage which, if authentic, may justly be regarded as the most important in their annals,--a circumnavigation of Africa. The extent of this unknown region, and the peculiar aspects of man and nature there, had already drawn toward it in a particular degree the attention of the ancient world. The manner in which its coasts converged, south of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, suggested the idea of a peninsula, the circumnavigation of which might be effected even by the limited resources of the early naval powers. The first attempt in this direction originated in a quarter which had been accustomed, from its agricultural avocations, to hold itself aloof from every species of maritime enterprise. It was undertaken by order of Necho, king of Egypt,--the Pharaoh Necho of the Scriptures,--and is recorded by Herodotus as follows: "When Necho had desisted from his attempts to join the Red Sea with the Mediterranean by means of a canal at the Isthmus of Suez, he despatched some vessels, under the guidance of Phoenician pilots, with orders to sail down the Red Sea and follow the coast of Africa: they were to return to Egypt by the Pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians, therefore, taking their course by way of the Red Sea, sailed onward to the Southern Ocean. Upon the approach of autumn they landed in Libya and planted corn in the place where they first went ashore. When this was ripe they cut it down and set sail again. Having in this manner consumed two years, in the third they passed the Pillars of Hercules and returned to Egypt. This story may be believed by others, but to me it appears incredible, for they affirm that when they sailed round Libya they had the sun on their right hand." In the time of Herodotus, the Greeks were unacquainted with the phenomenon of a shadow falling to the south,--one which the Phoenicians would naturally have witnessed had they actually passed the Cape of Good Hope, for the sun would have been on their right hand, or in the north, and would thus have projected shadows to the south. As this story was not one likely to have been invented in the time of Necho, it is the strongest proof that could be adduced of the reality of the voyage. Doubts have been raised in modern times upon the accuracy of the narrative; but the objections are considered as having been refuted by Rennell and Heeren. Bartholomew Diaz has the credit of having discovered and having been the first to double the Cape of Good Hope, in 1486: it is clear that, if the claims of the Phoenician pilots are to be regarded, Diaz was preceded in this path at least twenty centuries. Soon after the date of this voyage, Tyre was besieged and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The inhabitants succeeded in escaping with their property to an island near the shore, where they founded New Tyre, which soon surpassed, both in commerce and shipping, the city they had abandoned. The Phoenicians seem now to have advanced with their system of colonization farther to the south upon the coast of Africa, and farther to the north upon the coast of Spain. They discovered the Cassiterides--now the Scilly Islands--upon the coast of Cornwall, and retained the monopoly of the trade in the tin which they found there. They carried spices and perfumes, obtained from Arabia, to Greece, where they were employed for sacrifice and incense. They also sold there the manufactures, purple, and jewels of Tyre and Sidon. From Spain they obtained silver, corn, wine, oil, wax, wool, and fruits. They procured amber in some place which they visited in the North,--doubtless the shores of the Baltic. As the value of this article was equal to that of gold, they desired to retain the monopoly of the trade and to keep all knowledge of the regions yielding it from their commercial rivals. Hence the secret was most carefully hoarded. A remarkable circumstance connected with the maritime history of the Phoenicians was their jealousy of the influence of foreigners. When a strange ship was observed to keep them company at sea, they would either outsail her, or at night change their course and disappear. On one occasion a Phoenician captain, finding himself pursued by a Roman vessel, ran his ship aground and wrecked her, rather than lose the secret which a capture would have revealed. This act was deemed so patriotic that the government rewarded him, and compensated him for the loss of his vessel. New Tyre was destroyed by Alexander the Great, 324 B.C. The inhabitants were either put to death or sold as slaves, and thus the maritime glory of the Phoenicians came to an untimely end. Little is known of the construction and equipment of Phoenician ships. All that can be said with certainty is, that there were two kinds,--those employed in commerce and those used for war,--a distinction, indeed, which all nations, both ancient and modern, have found it convenient to make. The hulls of the trading-vessels were round, that they might carry more goods, while the fighting-ships were longer and sharp at the bottom. In other respects they probably resembled the vessels of Greece and Rome, for which they undoubtedly furnished models. Of these fuller details have reached us, and we shall speak of them in their place. The Phoenicians were better astronomers than the unskilful navigators who had preceded them; for, while these attempted to guide their course by the imperfect aid of the constellation known as the Great Bear,--some of whose stars are forty degrees from the pole,--the Phoenicians were the first to apply to maritime purposes the Lesser Bear,--the group which has furnished to more modern navigation the North or Polar Star. It is not probable that they fixed upon this particular star, for at that period--1250 years B.C.--it was eighteen degrees from the pole, too distant to serve any positive astronomical purpose. We come now to the Egyptians as a maritime people in the earliest historical periods, of whom we have incidentally said that they were characteristically disinclined to enter with spirit into any maritime enterprises, whether for commerce or war. This may have been owing to the want of proper timber, to the insalubrity of the sea-coasts, and to the absence of good harbors; while the advantages presented by the Nile for intercourse and traffic with the interior precluded the necessity of resorting to commerce by sea. Sesostris, who lived about 1650 years before Christ, is supposed to have been the first king who overcame the dislike of the Egyptians to the water. Herodotus assigns him a large fleet in the Red Sea, and other historians attribute to him fleets upon the Mediterranean. Upon his death, his subjects relapsed into their former aversion for commerce. Bocchoris, 700 B.C., imitated and revived his legislation upon the subject; and during the reign of Psammeticus the ports of Egypt were first opened to foreign ships, and intercourse with the Greeks was for the first time encouraged. It was Necho, the successor of Psammeticus, who employed, 600 B.C., the Phoenicians in the voyage around Africa of which we have spoken; and this enterprise bespeaks a monarch bent on maritime discovery. Apries, the grandson of Necho, took the city of Sidon by storm and defeated the Phoenicians in a sea-fight. It is probable that the Egyptians, had they continued independent, would have become distinguished as a commercial people; but seventy years afterwards they were conquered by the Persians, and became successively subject to the Macedonians and Romans. We possess but little knowledge of the construction and equipment of the Egyptian ships. According to Herodotus, they were built of planks of the thorn-tree, fastened together, like tiles, with a great number of wooden pins, and were entirely without ribs. On the inside papyrus was used for stopping the crevices. The sails were made of the papyrus, or of twisted rushes. These vessels were always towed up the Nile, while they descended the stream in the following manner. The current not acting with sufficient force upon their flat bottoms, the sailors hung a bundle of tamarisk over the prow and let it down under the keel by a rope: the stream, bearing upon this bundle, carried the boat along with great celerity. The Jews, whose country was ill situated for commerce by sea, were even more averse than the Egyptians to intercourse with foreigners and to maritime occupations. Joppa was the only seaport of Judea and Jerusalem, and into it many of the articles used by Solomon in the construction of the Temple were imported. During Solomon's reign, he employed the ships of his ally, Hiram, King of Tyre, in commercial avocations, for which his own people were not fitted. It is among the Jews, whose history is given in the Scripture with so much detail, that we should naturally look for the earliest geographical records. The sacred writers, however, seem to have entertained no idea of any system of geography, having been occupied with the affairs of the world to come, to the total exclusion of the concerns of the mundane earth. They do not even allude to any such branch of learning as being then in existence. It is clear that the Hebrews never attempted to form any theory upon the structure and shape of the globe. Their ideas with regard to the boundaries of the known world may be vaguely inferred from the tenth chapter of Genesis, from the chapters treating of the commerce of Tyre, and from various detached allusions in the prophets. The idea, common to all uninstructed people, that the earth is a flat surface and the heaven a firmament or curtain spread over it, prevails throughout the Bible. The abode of darkness and of the shadow of death was conceived to be a deep pit beneath it. One sacred writer speaks of the earth as being "hung upon nothing;" another speaks of the "pillars of the earth," and another of the "pillars of heaven." These allusions show sufficiently that, though the writers of those days were impressed by the external view of the grand scenes of nature, they did not endeavor to group them into any regular system. The localities always alluded to as being at the farthest bounds of their geographical knowledge are Tarshish, Ophir, the Isles, Sheba, Dedan, The River, Gog, Magog, and the North. The first has given rise to infinite discussion. The best theory makes it the name of Carthage, and gives it, by extension, to the whole continent of Africa. Ophir is probably Sofala, on the eastern coast of Africa. The Isles are thought to have been the southern coasts and promontories of Europe, Greece, Italy, &c., which were supposed at that period to be insular. Sheba was Sabæa, or Arabia Felix. Dedan is supposed to have been a port in the Persian Gulf. The River was the Euphrates, beyond which were tracts indefinitely known as Elam and Media, and still beyond a region known as "The Ends of the Earth." Gog, Magog, and the North have been usually supposed to refer to the inhabitants of Scythia and Sarmatia, and the hyperborean nations in general, though a later and more natural theory makes them refer to the migratory shepherds and warriors of Cappadocia, Phrygia, and Galatia. It thus appears that the primitive Israelites knew little beyond the limits of their own country, Egypt, and the regions lying between the Mediterranean, or the Sea, and the Euphrates. A knowledge of the water, we have already remarked, is essential to the formation of any correct and adequate idea of the shape and extent of the land. The Jews had never ventured forth upon the sea for the discovery of new regions, and were, in consequence, ignorant even of that in which they dwelt. We shall find that the Greeks and Romans, whose maritime history we shall now briefly narrate, approached the truth in regard to the form and extent of the world, precisely as their commerce expanded and their ambition for conquest and colonization augmented. [Illustration: SUPPOSED FORM OF THE SHIP ARGO, (FROM AN ANCIENT BAS-RELIEF.)] CHAPTER V. THE EARLY MARITIME HISTORY OF THE GREEKS--THE EXPEDITION OF THE ARGONAUTS--THE VESSELS USED IN THE TROJAN WAR--SHIP-BUILDING IN THE TIME OF HOMER--THE POETIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE GREEKS--THE PALACE OF THE SUN--THE MARVELS OF A VOYAGE OUT OF SIGHT OF LAND--THE GEOGRAPHY OF HESIOD--OF ANAXIMANDER--OF THALES, HERODOTUS, SOCRATES, AND ERATOSTHENES--THE GREAT OCEAN IS NAMED THE ATLANTIC. At what period the Greeks began to build vessels and to venture upon the waters washing their coasts and girding their numerous archipelagoes, is not known: it is certain, at any rate, that the commencement of navigation with them, as with all other nations, must be referred to a time much anterior to the ages of which we have any record. Long voyages are mentioned as having taken place at periods so early that they must be considered mythical. The first maritime adventure which lays any claim to authenticity, and the most celebrated in ancient times, is the expedition of the Argonauts to Colchis. Though this enterprise is by many learned authorities deemed fabulous, we shall nevertheless consider three points connected with it,--the probable era of the voyage, its supposed object, and the various routes by which the adventurers are said to have returned. The date of the expedition, if it took place at all, may be safely fixed at the year 1250 B.C. A theory propounded by Sir Isaac Newton would connect it with the year 937; but this is regarded with less favor than the earlier date. Its alleged object was the Golden Fleece; but what this was can only be conjectured. It is hardly likely that the people of that age would have been tempted by the prospect of commercial advantages by opening a trade with the Euxine Sea. It is quite as unlikely that they would have undertaken so dangerous a voyage for the purpose of plunder, better opportunities for which existed much nearer home. The supposition that the Golden Fleece was a parchment containing the secret of transmuting the baser metals into gold, and the opinion that the Argonauts went in quest of skins and rich furs, hardly require discussion. There seems, indeed, no adequate motive but a desire to obtain the precious metals, which were believed to be furnished in abundance by the mines near the Black Sea. Why these mines were symbolized under the appellation of a golden fleece it is not easy to say, and no satisfactory reason has ever been suggested. The most probable is that the gold dust was supposed to be washed down the sides of the Caucasus Mountains by torrents, and caught by fleeces of wool placed among the rocks by the inhabitants. Jason, the son of the King of Thessaly, being deprived of his inheritance, and having resolved to seek his fortune by some remote and hazardous expedition, was induced to go in quest of the Golden Fleece in Colchis. He enlisted fifty men, and employed a person named Argus to build him a ship, which from him was called Argo, the adventurers being named Argonauts. The Argo is described as a pentecontoros,--that is, a vessel with fifty oars. The number of the Argonauts is usually stated at fifty, though one authority asserts that they numbered one hundred. They started from Iolcos in Thessaly, and with a south wind sailed east by north. The narrative of the expedition is full of wonders. They landed at the island of Lemnos, where they found that the women had just murdered their husbands and fathers. The Argonauts supplied the place of the assassinated relatives, and Jason had two sons by one of the bereaved Lemnians. When the vessel arrived at the entrance to the Euxine,--the narrow strait now called the Bosphorus,--they built a temple, and implored the protection of the gods against the Symplegades, or Whirling Rocks, which guarded the passage. A seer named Phineas was consulted upon the probability of their sailing through unharmed. The rocks were imagined to float upon the waves, and, when any thing attempted to pass through, to seize and crush it. According to Homer,-- "No bird of air, no dove of swiftest wing, That bears ambrosia to th' ethereal king, Shuns the dire rocks: in vain she cuts the skies: The dire rocks meet, and crush her as she flies." Phineas advised them to loose a dove, to mark its flight, and to judge from its fate of the destiny reserved for them. They did so, determined to push boldly on if the bird got through in safety. The pigeon escaped with the loss of some of its tail-feathers. The Argo dashed onward, and cleared the formidable rocks with the loss of a few of its stern ornaments. From this time forward, the legend adds, the Symplegades remained fixed, and were no longer a terror to navigators. The Argonauts, after entering the Black Sea, sailed due east, to the mouth of the river Phasis, now the Rione. Æetes, the king, promised to give Jason the fleece upon certain conditions. These he was enabled to fulfil by the aid of Medea, a sorceress, and daughter of Æetes. They then fled together to Greece. The route followed by the Argonauts upon their return is differently given by the various poets who have told the story and the commentators who have illustrated it. By one they are represented as sailing up some river across the continent to the Baltic, and thence homeward along the coasts of France and Spain, and through the Straits of Gibraltar. It is needless to say that there is no river which flows between the Euxine and the Baltic. Other tracks laid down are equally preposterous in the eyes of modern geography. Herodotus adopts the tradition that they returned by the same way they went,--the only way, indeed, they could have returned,--by water. The reader, in view of the romantic embellishments with which this story is loaded, and of the strong doubts resting upon it as an historical event, must choose, from among the various theories, we have given, the one he deems the most satisfactory. One generation after the date we have assigned to this expedition occurred the Trojan War. In the year 1194 B.C., all the Greek states, with Agamemnon at their head, united to revenge the insult offered to Menelaus, King of Sparta, by the Trojan prince Paris, who had carried off the king's wife Helen. During the interval the Greeks, if the Homeric account is to be believed, had made great advances in the arts of ship-building and navigation; for in a very short time eleven hundred and fifty ships were collected at Aulis, the general rendezvous. The Boeotians furnished fifty, and the other states contributed in proportion. Each of them contained one hundred and twenty warriors; they must therefore have been vessels of considerable magnitude. All the ships are described as having masts which could be taken down as occasion required. The sail could only be used when the wind was directly astern. The delicate art of sailing in the wind's eye, or of making to the north with a north wind, was not yet understood. The principal propelling power lay in the oars, which turned in leathern thongs as a key in its hole. Homer represents the ships to have been black, from the color of the pitch with which they were smeared. The sides near the prow were often painted red, whence vessels are sometimes called by the poets red-cheeked. On their arrival upon the Trojan coast, the Greeks drew their fleet up on the land and anchored them by means of large stones. They then surrounded them with fortifications, to protect them from the enemy. Homer, who lived two centuries later,--1000 B.C.,--has left us a tolerably full account of the ship-building, navigation, and geography of his time. The following passage from the Odyssey, as rendered into English by Cowper, is regarded by antiquaries as important, showing, as it does, the point at which the art of ship-building had now arrived. Ulysses, having been wrecked upon an island, is enabled to build a ship by the aid of the nymph Calypso. "She gave him, fitted to the grasp, an axe Of iron, ponderous, double-edged, with haft Of olive-wood inserted firm, and wrought With curious art. Then, placing in his hand A polish'd adze, she led herself the way To her isle's utmost verge, where loftiest stood The alder, poplar, and cloud-piercing fir, Though sapless, sound, and fitted for his use As buoyant most. To that once verdant grove His steps the beauteous nymph Calypso led, And sought her home again. Then slept not he, But, swinging with both hands the axe, his task Soon finish'd: trees full twenty to the ground He cast, which dextrous with his adze he smoothed, The knotted surface chipping by a line. Meantime the lovely goddess to his aid Sharp augers brought, with which he bored the beams, Then placed them side by side, adapting each To other, and the seams with wadding closed. Broad as an artist skill'd in naval works The bottom of a ship of burthen spreads, Such breadth Ulysses to his raft assign'd. He decked her over with long planks, upborne On massy beams: he made the mast, to which He added, suitable, the yard: he framed Rudder and helm to regulate her course: With wickerwork he border'd all the length For safety, and much ballast stow'd within. Meantime Calypso brought him, for a sail, Fittest materials, which he also shaped, And to it all due furniture annex'd Of cordage strong, foot-ropes, and ropes aloft; Then heaved her down with levers to the deep." Besides the facts contained in this passage, it is worth remarking that Homer seems to regard ship-builders with no little consideration, inasmuch as he calls them "artists." The Greeks, like the Hebrews, were ignorant of the real figure of the earth. It is in Homer that we find the first written trace of the widely prevalent idea that the earth is a flat surface begirt on every side by the ocean. This was a natural belief in a region almost insular, like Greece, where the visible horizon and an enveloping sea suggested the idea of a flat circle. Homer took the lead among the poetic geographers of Greece, and his authority gave to the subject a fanciful cast, the traces of which are not yet obliterated. Beneath the earth he placed the fabled regions of Elysium and Tartarus: above the whole rose the grand arch of the heavens, which were supposed to rest on the summits of the highest mountains. The sun, moon, and stars were believed to rise from the waves of the sea, and to sink again beneath them on their return from the skies. Homer's distribution of the land was even more fantastic. Beyond the limits of Greece and the western coasts of Asia Minor his knowledge was uncertain and obscure. He had heard vaguely of Thebes, the mighty capital of Egypt, and in his verse sang of its hundred gates and of the countless hosts it sent forth to battle. The Ethiopians, who lived beyond, were deemed to be the most remote dwellers upon the habitable earth. Towards the centre of Africa were the stupendous ridges of the Atlas Mountains: Homer deified the highest peak, and made it a giant supporting upon his shoulders the outspreading canopy of the heavens. The narrow passage leading from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and now known as the Straits of Gibraltar, was believed to have been discovered by Hercules, and the mountains on either side--Gibraltar and Ceuta--were, from him, called the Pillars of Hercules. Colchos, upon the Black Sea, was believed to be an ocean-city; and here Greek fancy located the Palace of the Sun. It was here that the charioteer of the skies gave rest to his coursers during the night, and from whence in the morning he drove them forth again. Colchos, therefore, was Homer's eastern confine of the globe. On the north, Rhodope, or the Riphean Mountains, were supposed to enclose the hyperborean limits of the world. Beyond them dwelt a fabled race, seated in the recesses of their valleys and sheltered from the contests of the elements. They were represented as exempt from all ills, physical and moral, from sickness, the changes of the seasons, and even from death. A race directly the converse of the ideal hyperboreans were the Cimmerians, located at the mouth of the Sea of Azof, who are described by Homer as dwelling in perpetual darkness and never visited by the sun. He imagined the existence of numerous other nations, who long continued to hold a place in ancient geography. The Cyclops, who had but one eye, were placed in Sicily; the Arimaspians, similarly afflicted, inhabited the frontiers of India; the Pigmies, or Dwarfs, who fought pitched battles with the cranes, were supposed to dwell in Africa, in India, and, in fact, to occupy the whole southern border of the Earth. In the time of Homer, all voyages in which the mariner lost sight of land were considered as fraught with the extremest peril. No navigator ever visited Africa or Sicily from choice, but only when driven there by tempest and typhoon, and then his woes usually terminated in shipwreck: a return was not merely a marvel, but a miracle. Homer made Sicily the principal scene of the lamentable adventures of Ulysses, and sufficient traces are furnished by the Odyssey of the distorted and exaggerated notions entertained in the poet's time of the character of places reached by a voyage at sea. The existence of monsters of frightful form and size, such as Polyphemus, who watched for the destruction of the mariner and even roasted and devoured his quivering limbs; of treacherous enchantresses, such as Circe, who lured but to ensnare; of amiable goddesses, like Calypso, who offered immortality in exchange for love,--was doubtless believed by Homer, though we must make some allowance for poetical license. At any rate, the invention of these fables is not to be attributed to Homer, who, at the most, gave a highly-colored repetition of the terrific reports brought back from those formidable coasts by the few who had been fortunate enough to return. It was thus that an ideal and poetic character was communicated to the science of geography by the fables with which Homer tinged his narrative. In the early ages of the world, science and poetry were twin sisters: every poet was a savant, and every savant was a poet. [Illustration: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HOMER.] As far as his ideas can be reduced to a system, the earth was a flat disk, around which flowed the river Ocean. The accompanying plan will enable the reader to form an adequate conception of the Homeric geography. The radius of the territories described by Homer with any degree of precision was hardly three hundred miles in length. Hesiod, who lived a century after Homer, thus states the scientific attainments of his time:--"The space between the heavens and the earth is exactly the same as that between the earth and Tartarus beneath it. A brazen anvil, if tossed from heaven, would fall during nine days and nine nights, and would reach the earth upon the tenth day. Were it to continue its course towards the abode of darkness, it would be nine days and nine nights more in accomplishing the distance." It is worth while remarking that this statement is at variance with that of Homer, who makes Vulcan, when precipitated from heaven by Jupiter, land at Lemnos in a single day: he had travelled, therefore, nearly twenty times faster than one of his own anvils. Hesiod intended to convey, by this illustrations, an imposing idea of the loftiness of the heavens. In the eyes of modern astronomy, nothing can be more paltry. The time that an anvil thrown from Halcyon, the brightest star of the Pleiades, towards our globe, would require to reach it, may perhaps be imagined from the fact that the rays of light emitted by Halcyon travel five centuries before they strike the earth! It is thus that the positive revelations of modern science surpass in marvels the most daring inventions of ancient fable. [Illustration: THE EARTH ACCORDING TO ANAXIMANDER.] Anaximander, four hundred years after Homer, held that the earth, instead of being flat, was in the form of a cylinder, convex upon its upper surface. Its diameter was three times greater than its height; and its form was round, as if it had been shaped by a turner's lathe. The Oracle of Delphi was the centre of his system. Somewhat later, Thales, one of the Seven Sages, declared his belief that the earth was spherical, and remained suspended in mid air without support of any kind. This frightful doctrine made few proselytes: it was not likely, indeed, that any one but a sage would adopt a theory which made him the inhabitant of a globe abandoned and isolated in the midst of space. In the fifth century before Christ, Herodotus, the most celebrated traveller of antiquity, and consequently capable of forming rational ideas upon the subject of geography, rectified many errors which had crept into the popular belief, though Homer was still considered infallible by the masses of the people. "I know of no such river as the ocean," he says, ironically: "this denomination seems to be a pure invention of Homer and the old poets. I cannot help laughing when I hear of the river Ocean, and of the spherical form of the earth, as if it were the work of a turner." He displaced the centre of the inhabited surface, which the Greeks had at first made Mount Olympus and afterwards Delphi, making Rhodes the fortunate possessor of the privilege. Socrates, a century later, (400 B.C.,) asserted that the earth was in the form of a globe, sustained in the middle of the heavens by its own equilibrium. About the year 230 B.C., Eratosthenes, a Greek of Cyrene, succeeded in reducing geography to a system, under the patronage of the Ptolemies of Egypt, which gave him access to the immense mass of materials gathered by Alexander and his successors and accumulated at the Alexandrian Library. The spherical form of the earth was now quite generally considered by scientific men to be the correct theory, though it could never be substantiated till some navigator, sailing to the east, should return by the west. Eratosthenes, proceeding upon this principle, made it his study to adjust to it all the known features of the globe. The great ocean of Homer and Herodotus, surrounding the world, still remained in his system. He compared, however, the magnitude of the regions known in his time with what he conceived to be the whole circumference, and became convinced that only a third part of the space was filled up. He conjectured that the remaining space might consist of one great ocean, which he called the Atlantic, from Mount Atlas, which was fancifully believed to support the globe. He supposed, too, that lands and islands might be discovered in it by sailing towards the west. We shall now proceed to give such a description of the vessels used by the Greeks after the time of Homer, as the confused and incomplete data which have reached us will enable us to furnish. [Illustration: THE GREAT PENGUIN.] [Illustration: A GREEK VESSEL OF THE SIXTH CENTURY B.C.] CHAPTER VI. CONSTRUCTION OF GREEK VESSELS--THE PROW, POOP, RUDDER, OARS, MASTS, SAILS, CORDAGE, BULWARKS, ANCHORS--BIREMES, TRIREMES, QUADRIREMES, QUINQUEREMES--THE GRAND GALLEY OF PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR--ROMAN VESSELS--THEIR NAVY--MIMIC SEA-FIGHTS--THE FIVE VOYAGES OF ANTIQUITY. The prow or foredeck of Greek vessels was ornamented on both sides by figures in mosaic or painted. An eye on each side of the cutwater, as is represented above, was a very common embellishment. A projection from the head of the prow, pointed or covered with brass, and intended to damage an enemy upon collision, was often in the shape of a wild beast, or helmet, or even the neck of a swan. Below this was the rostrum or beak, which consisted of a beam armed with sharp and solid irons. They were at first above the water; but their efficiency was afterwards increased by putting them below the water-line and rendering them invisible. The commanding officer of the prow was next in rank to the helmsman, and had charge of the rigging and the control of the rowers. The deck proper, or middle deck, appears to have been raised above the bulwark, or at least upon a line with its upper edge, thus enabling the soldiers to see far around them and hurl their darts at the enemy from a commanding position. The POOP, or stern, was usually higher than the rest of the vessel, and upon it the helmsman had his elevated seat. It was rounder than the prow, though its extremity was likewise sharp. It was embellished in various ways, but especially with the figure of the tutelary goddess or deity of the vessel. Over the helmsman was a roof, and above that an elegant ornament, rising from the stern and bending gracefully over him. In consequence of its conspicuous place and beautiful form, this ornament, named an aplustre, was considered emblematic of the sea, and was carried off by the victor in a naval engagement, as a standard or a scalp in more modern times. The RUDDER was a singular contrivance. The origin of this very useful invention is attributed by Pliny, as we have said, to Tiphys, of the Argo,--a doubtful pilot of a doubtful vessel. Previous to this, vessels must have been guided by the same oars which propelled them. The Grecian rudder was a long oar with a very broad blade, inserted, not at the extremity of the stern, but at either side where it begins to curve; and a ship usually had two, both being managed by the same man. In large ships they were connected by a pole which kept them parallel and gave to both the position in which either was turned. The rudder seems to have been considered an emblem, as it frequently occurs on gems, coins, and cameos. Thus a Triton is found represented as blowing a shell and holding a rudder over his shoulder. A tiller and cornucopia are frequently seen in juxtaposition. A cameo, still preserved, shows a Venus Anadyomene leaning with her left arm upon a rudder the same height as herself, and thereby indicating, as is supposed, her own maritime origin. The OARS, bearing a name which at first signified only the blade, but was afterwards applied to all oars except the rudder, varied in size as they were used by a higher or lower rank of rowers. A trireme may be said to have had one hundred and seventy oars, a quinquereme three hundred, and even four hundred. The lower part of the holes through which the oars passed appears to have been covered with leather, which also extended a little way outside the hole. In vessels mounting five ranks of oars, the upper ones were of course much larger than the lower ones, and we therefore find it stated by Greek authors that the lower rank of rowers, having the shortest oars and consequently the easiest work, received the smallest salary, while those who had the largest oars and the heaviest work received the largest salary. They sat upon benches attached to the ribs of the vessel, each oar being managed by one man. The MASTS of Grecian vessels, of which there were one, two, and three, were usually made of the fir-tree. A vessel with thirty rowers had two masts, the smaller being near the prow. In three-masted vessels the largest mast was nearest the stern. The part of the mast immediately above the yard formed a structure similar to a drinking-cup, and the sailors ascended into it in order to manage the sails, to obtain a wider view, and to discharge missiles. In large ships these were made of bronze and would hold three men: they were furnished with pulleys for hoisting stones and projectiles from below. The portion of the mast above the cup, or _carchesium_, was called the distaff, and corresponded to the modern topmast. The sail was hoisted, as at present, by means of pulleys and a hoop sliding up and down the mast. The SAILS were usually square. It was not common to furnish more than one sail to one ship, and it was then attached with the yard to the great mast. Sometimes each of the two masts of a trireme had two sails, which were spread the one over the other, those of the foremast being used only on occasions when great speed was required. It does not appear that the triangular or lateen sail, so prevalent afterwards among the Romans, was ever used by the Greeks. In Homer's time, sails were of linen. Subsequently, sail-cloth was made of hemp, rushes, and leather. Originally white, the sails of the ancients were afterwards dyed of various colors. Those of Alexander's Indus fleet, of which we shall hereafter speak more particularly, were blue, white, and yellow. Those of pirates were sea-green, and those of Cleopatra, at the battle of Actium, were purple. The CORDAGE used was of various sizes and strength. In the first place, thick and broad ropes ran in a horizontal direction around the ship from stem to stern, for the purpose of binding the whole fabric strongly together. They ran around in several circles and at fixed distances from each other. Their number varied according to the size of the ship, a trireme usually requiring four, and six in case they were intended for very boisterous weather. These ropes were always held in readiness in the Attic arsenals. A second-sized rope was used for the anchors, while those attached to the masts, sails, and yards were altogether lighter and made with greater care. One of these ran from the top of the mainmast to the prow, corresponding to the modern mainstay. The BULWARKS were artificially elevated beyond the height intended by the builder of the frame by means of a wickerwork covered with skins. These served as a protection from high waves, and also as a breastwork against the enemy. They appear to have been fixed upon the upper edge of the wooden bulwark, and to have been removed when not wanted. Each galley had four, two of which were "white," and two "made of hair." What these distinctions were is quite unknown. The ANCHORS of Greek vessels, in the earlier periods, were stones or crates of sand, but soon came to be made of iron, and to be formed with teeth or flukes. The Greeks used the several expressions of lowering, casting, and weighing anchor precisely as we do, and the elliptical phrase "to weigh" meant then, as now, to "set sail." Each ship had several anchors: we learn, from the twenty-seventh chapter of Acts, that the vessel of St. Paul had four. The last and heaviest anchor was considered "sacred," in the same way as it is now regarded as "a last hope." The sailors, in casting it, recommended themselves to the protection of the gods; and it was rather a pretext for resorting to prayer than an instrument reliable from its strength and weight. "In our day," says an eminent writer upon the art of ship-building, "when every thing is calculated and weighed, and, even in this most poetic of professions, tends to the driest and most prosaic materialism, instead of the sacred anchor, cast in the midst of prayer and sacrifice, we have the anchor of eight thousand pounds." With all proper deference to the religious spirit of this learned commentator, we may remark, without irreverence, that even the most "poetic" of mariners would prefer a single modern best bower to a dozen of the sacred anchors of the Greeks; and it can hardly be doubted that, if the latter themselves had been acquainted with the "anchor of eight thousand pounds," they would have dispensed with both prayer and sacrifice. Heaven helps those who help themselves. Every Greek vessel had a distinctive name, which was usually of the feminine gender, and often that of some popular heroine. In many cases, the name of the builder was added. After the Trojan War, the establishment of Greek colonies upon foreign coasts, the commercial intercourse with these colonies, and the very prevalent practice of piracy, contributed largely to the improvement of ships and of navigation. For many years no innovation was made upon the custom of employing ships with one rank of rowers on each side. The Erythræan Greeks are supposed to have invented the biremes, with two ranks, and the Corinthians the triremes, with three. Themistocles, in the fifth century B.C., persuaded the Athenians to build two hundred triremes, for the purpose of attacking Ægina. Even at this period, vessels were not provided with complete decks, some having partial decks, and some none at all, the only protection for the men consisting in the bulwark. The invention of decked ships is ascribed to the Thasians. After Alexander the Great, the Rhodians became the greatest maritime power in Greece. The Colossus of Rhodes, a brazen statue of Apollo, one hundred feet high, seems to have been erected in assertion of their commercial supremacy, for the legend is that it stood across the mouth of the harbor, and that vessels passed between its legs. Navigation still remained what it had been before, the Greeks seldom venturing into the open sea, and considering it necessary to remain in sight of the coast by day and to observe the rising and setting of the stars by night, in order to replace the landmarks no longer visible in the darkness. In winter, navigation was suspended altogether. Rather than double a cape, they would drag their vessel across a neck of land from one sea to another, by machines contrived for the purpose. This was frequently done across the Isthmus of Corinth. The ordinary size of a war-galley or trireme may be inferred from the fact that its complement of men was two hundred and thirty; and its speed in smooth water and with a favorable wind may be stated as very nearly that of a modern steamboat. Dionysius of Syracuse (405 B.C.) is said to have built the first quadrireme and quinquereme in Greece,--inventions which he probably obtained from the Carthaginians and Salaminians. Alexander the Great built ships with twelve and thirty ranks of oars. Ptolemy Philopator, of Egypt, is said to have constructed one of forty, after a Greek model. Callixenus has left a description of this vessel; and this, having been transcribed by Plutarch and Athenæus, was, until very lately, thus supported by competent authority, regarded as quite authentic. Late investigations have shown conclusively that the vessel, with the proportions given, never could have existed. She was said to have had forty tiers of oars, one above the other. It is clear that the uppermost tiers must have been of enormous length to reach the water, and we find their length stated, in consequence, at seventy feet. Sixty feet of this length must naturally have been without the vessel, leaving ten feet of handle within. As the strength of no one man would be sufficient to manage an oar thus unequally poised, the fabulists assert that the handles were made of lead, that the equilibrium might be restored. What the story thus gains in weight, however, it certainly loses in credibility. Oars of seventy feet were out of the question, even in the heroic ages. Their number was equally extraordinary, for they counted no less than four thousand, and were managed by four thousand men. Besides these, there were two thousand eight hundred and fifty combatants collected in castles and behind her bulwarks. She had four rudders, each forty-five feet long, and a double prow. This last feature would have been an impediment instead of an advantage, as the re-entering angles of the two prows would have presented a very violent resistance to the water, which, in its turn, would have exerted a great power to separate them. Her stern was said to have been decorated with resplendent paintings of terrible and fantastic animals, her oars to have protruded through masses of foliage, and, as if she was not already overladen, her hold was declared to have contained huge quantities of grain. A critical comparison has shown that this famous galley could not have turned her head from west to east without describing an enormous orbit and occupying a full hour in the manoeuvre. Indeed, had the Egyptians been foolish enough to build such a ship, they would not have been fortunate enough to navigate her. Nevertheless, as it is quite clear that Ptolemy did construct a galley of unusual size and capacity, modern commentators have earnestly sought to explain away the glaring exaggerations and impossibilities of the description given by Callixenus. The chief difficulty lay in the forty tiers of oars and in the four thousand oarsmen. The engraving upon the opposite page gives a representation of the Ptolemy, as she may reasonably be supposed to have appeared. Instead of forty _tiers_, she has, when thus restored, forty _groups_ of oars: with this substitution, and a liberal diminution in the aggregate number, it is not improbable that she may have existed, and floated even. It is not, however, pretended by Callixenus that she was ever useful in war: she seems to have been regarded as a curiosity and a spectacle. She was, in fact, the Leviathan of antiquity,--the original "Triton among the minnows." [Illustration: THE PTOLEMY PHILOPATOR.] The Romans obtained the models of their vessels from the Greeks, though they remained almost entirely unacquainted with the sea till the third century before Christ. They then had no fleet, and few or no ships for any peaceful or commercial use. Livy mentions the appointment of naval decemvirs about the year 300 B.C. But it was not till 260 B.C. that Rome became a maritime power. It was now seen that she could not maintain herself against Carthage without a navy, and the senate ordered the immediate construction of a fleet. Triremes would have been of little avail against the high-bulwarked quinqueremes of the Carthaginians. It so happened, very fortunately for them, that a vessel of the largest class, belonging to Carthage, was wrecked upon the coast of Bruttium, and thus furnished them a model. They built, after this design, over one hundred vessels, the greater part of them quinqueremes, the whole being completed in sixty days after the trees were cut down. Thus built of green timber, they were unsound and clumsy. Still, to their own astonishment, they achieved a naval victory, capturing fifty of the enemy's vessels. Seventeen of their own were taken and destroyed by the Carthaginians off Messina. It was not long before the Romans completely crippled the maritime power of their African foe. From this time forward they continued to maintain a powerful navy, and built vessels with six and even ten ranks of oars. The construction of their vessels differed little from that of the Greeks, with the exception of the destructive engines of war and the towers and platforms with which they furnished them. During the Imperial period, the Romans took great delight in witnessing representations of fights at sea, and their emperors were equally fond of exhibiting them. The first spectacle of this kind, or _naumachia_, was given by Julius Cæsar upon a lake dug for the purpose in the Campus Martius. Augustus caused a lake or "stagnum" to be made for a similar use. This remained as the permanent scene of such exhibitions. The combatants in these fights were usually captives or criminals condemned to death, who fought as in gladiatorial combats, until one side was exterminated or spared by imperial clemency. In a naumachia given by Nero, there were sea-monsters swimming about in the artificial lake. Claudius ordered a naval battle upon Lake Fucinus, in which one hundred ships and nineteen thousand combatants were engaged. Troops of nereids were seen swimming about, and the signal for attack was given by a silver Triton, who was made, by means of machinery, to blow the alarum upon a trumpet. We now proceed to narrate, in chronological order, the very few voyages of discovery made previous to the Christian era. These were those of Hanno to Sierra Leone, of Sataspes to Sahara, of Nearchus from the Indus to the Tigris, of Pytheas from Massilia to Shetland, and of Eudoxus from Cadiz to the Equator. [Illustration: THE COMMON PENGUIN.] CHAPTER VII. THE VOYAGE OF HANNO THE CARTHAGINIAN--HE SEES CROCODILES, APES, AND VOLCANOES--THE VOYAGE OF HIMILCON TO AL-BION--THE VOYAGE AND IGNOMINIOUS FATE OF SATASPES THE PERSIAN--THE VOYAGE OF PYTHEAS THE PHOCIAN--THE SACRED PROMONTORY--A NEW ATMOSPHERE--AMBER--RETURN HOME--THE VERACITY OF PYTHEAS' NARRATIVE--THE EXPEDITION OF NEARCHUS THE MACEDONIAN--STRANGE PHENOMENA IN THE HEAVENS--THE ICTHYOPHAGI--HOUSES BUILT OF THE BONES OF WHALES--FISH FLOUR--A BATTLE WITH WHALES--AN UNEXPECTED MEETING--THE DISTANCE TRAVERSED BY NEARCHUS--THE VOYAGE OF EUDOXUS ALONG THE AFRICAN COAST--STATE OF NAVIGATION AT THE OPENING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA. At a period which it is no longer possible to settle with precision, but certainly anterior to the fifth century B.C., the Carthaginians, then in the height of their maritime and commercial prosperity, ordered a navigator by the name of Hanno to make a voyage beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and to found cities along the western shore of Africa. He set sail with a fleet of sixty vessels, each of which was impelled by fifty oars. He carried with him thirty thousand men and women, with abundant supplies and provisions. Within a week after passing the straits, they founded a city and erected a temple to Neptune; they also established five trading stations along the coast. They saw a race of people called Lixitæ, with whom they formed ties of friendship, and by whom they were furnished with interpreters. Continuing their course, they found another race dressed in the skins of wild beasts, who repelled them from the shore with stones and other missiles. They next came to the mouth of a river which was filled with crocodiles and hippopotami. They soon arrived at a coast edged with high mountains covered with trees, the wood of which was odoriferous and variously tinted. Beyond was an immense opening of the sea, bordered by plains on which they saw many blazing fires. Then they came to a large bay, in which was an island enclosing a salt-water lake, in which, again, was another island. Entering this lake in the night, they saw huge fires burning and heard the sounds of musical instruments and the cries of innumerable human beings. They next reached the fiery region of Thymiamata, whence torrents of flame poured down into the sea. Here the heat of the earth was such that the foot could not rest upon it. After four days' farther sail, they again found the land at night enveloped in flames. In the midst of these fires appeared one much more lofty than the rest: this, when seen by daylight, proved to be a very tall mountain, called the Chariot of the Gods. They soon met with a rude description of people, who had rough skins, and among whom the females were much more numerous than the males: the interpreters called them _Gorillæ_. They endeavored to catch some of them, but only succeeded in capturing three females, who made so violent a resistance, that they were obliged to kill them and strip off their skins, which they carried back to Carthage. Being out of provisions at this point, they were unable to pursue their voyage, and returned home. This narrative, as given by Hanno himself, hardly fills two octavo pages: volumes of commentaries have been written upon it by geographers and antiquaries. The most probable of the various hypotheses formed upon it, is, that Hanno's voyage extended to Sherbro Sound, a little south of Sierra Leone. The features of man and nature, as described by Hanno, are to be found in Tropical Africa only: Ethiopians or negroes; Gorillæ, who are clearly apes, or orang-outangs; rivers so large as to contain crocodiles and river-horses. The great conflagrations of the grass, too, and the music and dancing prolonged through the night, are phenomena which have been observed only in the negro territories. But this hypothesis is not accepted by all geographers, one of whom gives to Hanno's course an extent of three thousand miles, while another limits it to less than seven hundred. While Hanno was thus exploring the western coast of Africa, another Carthaginian, named Himilcon, was sent by his countrymen to the North of Europe. From a very vague description of his voyage given in a Latin poem entitled _Ora Maritima_, it is plain that he crossed the Bay of Biscay, and found, upon islands, as is asserted, but probably upon the mainland, a race of athletic people who went fearlessly to sea in barks made of skins sewed together. They crossed, in the space of two days, to a place called the Sacred Island, (Ireland,) which was not far from another island, named Al-Bion, (England.) No further details of this expedition have been preserved. Upon the establishment of the Persian sway over the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, towards the close of the fifth century B.C., the exploration of Africa became the peculiar province of the Persian monarchs. But this nation labored under an unconquerable aversion for the sea, and the only maritime effort of theirs on record was entirely casual in its origin, and futile in its results. It was as follows, as recorded by Herodotus: Sataspes, a Persian nobleman, having committed a crime punishable with death, was condemned by Xerxes to be crucified. One of his friends persuaded the monarch to commute the sentence into a voyage around Africa, which, he said, was much more severe, and might result advantageously to the nation. Sataspes obtained a vessel and recruited a crew in Egypt, and, sailing through the Pillars of Hercules, bent his course southward. He is represented as having beat about for many weeks, and probably reached the shores of the Great Saharan Desert. The aspect of this formidable and tempest-lashed coast might well appall an amateur navigator accustomed to the luxurious indolence of a Persian court. He seems to have preferred crucifixion to circumnavigation, for he at once measured back his course to the Straits. He gave an incoherent account of his adventures to Xerxes, attributing his failure to the interference of an insurmountable obstacle, the nature of which he was unable to explain. Xerxes would listen to no excuse, and ordered the original sentence to be executed forthwith. Authorities differ as to the fate of Sataspes,--one asserting that he suffered the ignominious death to which he was condemned, and another alleging that he made his escape to the island of Samos. [Illustration: THE SACRED PROMONTORY.] A colony which had been established at Massilia--now Marseilles--about six hundred years before Christ, by the Phocians, was, in the year 340 B.C., at the height of its commercial prosperity. The citizens, being desirous of extending their maritime relations, sent, at this period, upon an expedition to the North of Europe, through the Pillars of Hercules, a learned geographer and astronomer by the name of Pytheas. He started with a single ship, the finances of the city not permitting a larger outlay of means. He passed the Pillars on the sixteenth day from Massilia; and on the twentieth he arrived at the Sacred Promontory, the extreme western point of Iberia or Spain. A temple to Hercules had been erected at this spot. The inhabitants of the promontory declared, during the time of Pytheas, and, indeed, for two hundred years afterwards, that as the sun plunged at evening into the sea, they heard a hissing like that of a red-hot body suddenly dropped into water. [Illustration: PLAN OF PYTHEAS' VOYAGE.] Following the coasts of Iberia and of Celtica, he came to the point of land now known as Finisterre, in France, and the promontory Calbium. Turning to the east, he was surprised to find himself in a wide gulf, with Celtica on his right, and an immense island on his left. The gulf was the British Channel, and the island the Al-Bion that Himilcon had vaguely discerned some centuries before. It was at this point that Pytheas may be said to have begun his career; and the discovery of Great Britain may safely be attributed to him. He described the island as having the form of an isosceles triangle, as may be seen upon the foregoing plan. Three promontories formed the three angles,--Belerium being now Land's End, Cantium Cape Pepperness, and Orcas Duncansby Head. He found the inhabitants of the southern coast industrious and sociable, peaceable, honest, and sober. They raised wheat and worked rich mines of tin. As he sailed northward, along the eastern coast, he noticed that the days grew sensibly longer; and at Point Orcas, nineteen hours elapsed between the rising and the setting of the sun. He sailed still northward, and six days after leaving Orcas he came to an island, or a continent--he knew not which,--which he called Thule. As he found he could go no farther to the north, he spoke of this spot as _Ultima Thule_, an expression which has passed into the figurative language of all modern nations as one denoting any remote point. Thule is generally considered to have been Shetland, although theories have been ardently advocated making it respectively Iceland, Sweden, and Jutland. The narrative of Pytheas, which has been thus far clear and reliable, assumes at this point a very fabulous aspect. He declares that north of Thule there was neither earth, nor sea, nor air. A sort of dense concretion of all the elements occupied space and enveloped the world. He compared it to the thick, viscid animal substance called _pulmo marinus_, a sort of mollusk or medusa. He said that this substance was the basis of the universe, and that in it earth, air, and sky hung, as it were, suspended. This illusion has been explained by the dreary spectacle of fogs, mists, rains, and tempests which at this point of his voyage must have met the gaze of the daring navigator. It would have been difficult for any mind, in those early ages, to have been on its guard against the sinister impressions likely to result from the contemplation of a scene so appalling. It must be remembered that Pytheas was accustomed to the pure and transparent atmosphere, the dazzling sky, and the phosphorescent waters of the Mediterranean. It would have been astonishing if a man educated among the splendors of an almost tropical climate had not been oppressed by influences so gloomy. It was the belief of all early navigators that a point would be found somewhere without the Pillars of Hercules beyond which it would be impossible to penetrate. While timid adventurers declared they had arrived at this point hardly a week's sail from the Straits, and declared that an atmosphere of mist, darkness, and gigantic sea-weed barred their passage, Pytheas did not allow his imagination to be affected or his courage to be shaken till he found himself in presence of the sombre and formidable scenery of what, with true geographical propriety, he denominated "Thule and her utmost isles." Leaving his animal atmosphere behind him, Pytheas returned to Orcas and from thence to Cantium. Instead of following his former track through the British Channel homeward, he turned to the eastward, and arrived, in a few days' sail, at the mouth of the Rhine. He found the country here inhabited by a race of fierce barbarians. Upon the shores of a vast gulf, beyond, dwelt the Teutons and the Guttones. In this gulf was an island named Abalcia, upon whose shores the waves deposited, in spring, immense quantities of yellow amber, which the inhabitants burned instead of wood, or sold for fuel to their neighbors the Teutons. Pytheas pursued his voyage as far as a river named Tanais, now supposed to be either the Elbe or the Oder. He considered this stream to be the eastern boundary of Celtica, in which he included Germania. He now turned his face homeward, and, coasting along the shores of Celtica and Iberia, arrived without accident or adventure at Massilia. He had sailed one hundred and eighty-six thousand stadia, or eleven thousand miles: the duration of the expedition was less than a year. Geographers subsequent to Pytheas strove zealously to discredit his assertions. One denied the voyage altogether; another questioned the veracity of the narrative. Strabo was particularly hostile to Pytheas, whom he said he would prove "a liar of the first magnitude." He was thus led to make long quotations from his descriptions for the purpose of refuting them. As the original account given by Pytheas is not extant, the world is indebted to the skepticism of Strabo for all that it knows of one of the most interesting and daring maritime enterprises of antiquity. In the year 326 before Christ, Alexander of Macedon, having accomplished the conquest of Persia, and having invaded Hindostan by the north, found himself compelled, by a mutiny of his troops, to arrest his course upon the eastern bank of the river Indus. He was here seized with a desire to explore the lower course of that river, and afterwards the southern shores of Asia, a tract of coast with which the Greeks were entirely unacquainted. The object of the expedition was partly exploration, and partly to convey a portion of the army back to Babylon upon the river Euphrates. The dangers of the enterprise and the improbability of success deterred the greater part of the naval officers from attempting it, as neither the Arabian Sea nor the Persian Gulf had ever been traversed before. Nearchus, the admiral of the fleet, proposed several candidates for the perilous honor, who variously excused themselves. Nearchus at last proffered his own services, which, after some hesitation, were accepted. This selection of a commander tranquillized the soldiers and sailors intended for the expedition; for they felt that Alexander would not have sent his intimate friend upon a voyage from which he would not be likely to return. The splendor of the preparations, the beauty of the vessels, the confidence of the officers, also went far towards dissipating their fears. At the word of Alexander, says a modern poet,-- "The pines descend; the thronging masts aspire; The novel sails swell beauteous o'er the curves Of Indus: to the moderator's song The oars keep time, while bold Nearchus guides Aloft the gallies. On the foremost prow The monarch from his golden goblet pours A full libation to the gods, and calls By name the mighty rivers through whose course He seeks the sea." Alexander accompanied his fleet to the delta of the Indus, from whence he obtained a view of the gulf. He then returned to lead his men across Gedrosia, Caramania, and Persis to Babylon. Nearchus then set sail, after offering sacrifices to Neptune and Jupiter Salvator, and ordering a series of games and gymnastic exercises. The voyage thus undertaken was an event of real importance in the history of navigation: it opened a route between Europe and the extremities of Asia. It was the source of the discoveries made in later times by the Portuguese, and the primary, though remote, cause of the successful establishment of the British in India. [Illustration: PLAN OF THE VOYAGE OF NEARCHUS.] At the very mouth of the river they met a formidable obstacle,--a rocky bar over which the waves broke with extreme violence. Through this bar, in its softest parts, they cut a canal one-third of a mile in length, and at high tide passed through it with the fleet. They had hardly reached the open ocean before a heavy gale drove them into an indentation of land protected by an island: to this natural harbor Nearchus gave the name of Alexander. Here he caused a camp to be laid out and entrenched, and remained for twenty-four days, the soldiers subsisting chiefly on shell-fish. When the gale abated they again embarked, meeting with constant adventures and difficulties upon their way. One day they would pass through huge menacing rocks, so near that they touched them with their oars on either side. On another they would be compelled, on landing for water, to ascend for miles into the interior before finding fresh-water sources. A storm caused two galleys and a vessel to founder, the crews of which, however, succeeded in swimming to shore. Nearchus caused his whole army to land at this point, for they needed repose, and his shattered fleet required repairs. He met with Leonatus, whom Alexander had detached from the main body of the army to follow the coasts and keep up a communication with Nearchus. Wheat was also sent to this spot by Alexander for the fleet, and each vessel took a supply sufficient for ten days. Nearchus exchanged such sailors and soldiers as had proved inefficient, for fresh men selected from the division of Leonatus. At this point the narrative becomes strongly tinged with the usual exaggerations of the early navigators. Nearchus asserts that he observed strange phenomena in the heavens. When the sun was in the meridian, he says, no shadow was projected, and the stars which they were accustomed to see above them were now crouching close to the horizon; others, that had never before disappeared from the sky, now rose and set at intervals. The assertion in regard to shadows at noon is evidently a fabrication. Enough was known of astronomy and the motions of the heavenly bodies, in the time of Nearchus, to convince the learned that there must be a point where no shadow would be cast by a body directly beneath the sun at the summer solstice; and Nearchus, with a vanity quite usual in the conquerors and adventurers of those times, chose to assert, and he perhaps believed, that he had seen this singular phenomenon. Two circumstances will show the inaccuracy of his statement. The alleged appearance took place in the middle of the month of November, and twenty-five degrees north of the equator. Even had Nearchus been at this spot in midsummer, he would have seen shadows of very respectable length. Upon the coast of Gedrosia he found a people called Icthyophagi, or Fish-eaters. The mutton here tasted of fish, and Nearchus discovered that the sheep eat fish as well as the inhabitants, for the land yielded no pasturage. In one of the villages of the Fish-eaters Nearchus engaged a pilot who undertook to guide him as far as Caramania. The aspect of the coast now became less repulsive, and palm-trees, myrtles, and flowers grew wild upon the hill-sides. Such was the delight of the Macedonians at this sight, that they landed and wove garlands and wreaths of the foliage for the wives and daughters of the natives. Farther on, at a spot where the inhabitants made them presents of roasted tunny-fish--the first cooked fish they had yet received from the Icthyophagi--and where they noticed wheat-fields, they landed, and, after taking possession of the village, demanded the surrender of all their wheat. The people made a feeble resistance, and then gave up all the flour they possessed,--not wheat flour, but fish flour,--flour made by reducing fish to powder, as we make flour by pulverizing the kernels of wheat. The coast again becoming almost desert, the crew were obliged to eat the tender buds of palm-trees, and on one occasion were glad to devour seven camels which they were fortunate enough to encounter. Besides the dangers of famine, Nearchus had to contend with legions of whales, many of them one hundred and fifty feet long,--a prodigious size for inland seas like the Persian Gulf. One day he noticed a jet of water of great height and violence, and soon the air was filled with spray tossed up by a sportive herd of these monsters. The frightened sailors let drop their oars: but Nearchus encouraged them and dissipated their fears. He placed the vessels of the fleet abreast in a single line, and ordered them to advance simultaneously at full speed, as in a naval combat, and, upon approaching the whales, to terrify them by shouts and the din of trumpets. At a given signal, the vessels started and dashed forward upon the cetaceous army: the whales plunged into the abysses of the water, and, reappearing at the sterns of the fleet, sent up a shower of spurts in derision of their timorous enemy. Nearchus found these fish so abundant that large numbers of them were stranded in every storm: the inhabitants built houses of their bones, using the larger bones for posts, planks, and doors; the jawbones furnished an excellent thatch, or roofing material. He also saw huts constructed of the back-bones of smaller fish. The fleet now reached the coast of Caramania, after passing an island supposed to be inhabited by an enchantress very much like the Circe of the Greek fable, who was said to seduce navigators by the promise of voluptuous pleasures and then change them into fish. Nearchus now found his distresses nearly at an end, as the soil was productive of grain and fruit, and as the streams yielded an abundance of water. He soon came in view of a vast promontory on the Arabian side, (Cape Mussendoun,) which seemed completely to close the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The sailors, weary of their long voyage, earnestly besought Nearchus to land here and to march across the country to Babylon. Nearchus insisted that this would not be fulfilling the intentions of Alexander, whose command it was to survey every portion of the coast from the Indus to the Euphrates. They doubled the cape, therefore, and entered the Persian Gulf. Keeping close to the northern shore, they came at last to a tract of territory inhabited by friendly races and yielding an abundance of every fruit except the olive. They landed at the mouth of the Anamis,--the modern Minab,--and refreshed themselves after their long hardships. They reposed under the shade of palms, and conversed gayly of the dangers they had escaped and the wonders they had seen. A party wandered from the coast towards the interior, and, to their surprise and joy, met a man clothed in the Greek chlamys and speaking the Greek language. They asked him who he was and what country he was from. He replied that he belonged to the army of Alexander, and that the camp was not far off. Transported with delight, they took the stranger to Nearchus, whom he told that Alexander was at five days' journey from the sea. Nearchus, upon receiving this intelligence, caused his ships to be drawn on shore, a rampart to be built round them, and repairs to be commenced upon them, while he, Archius, a lieutenant, and six sailors should set out to find the camp of the king. As they approached the outposts, soldiers sent forward to meet them by Alexander, who had been informed of their coming, did not recognise them, on account of their changed dress and haggard aspect. Alexander received them with kindness, but in deep sorrow, for he had conceived the idea that the eight persons before him were all that had survived the perils of the sea. "You two have returned," he said, "you and Archius, safe and sound, and this alone renders the loss of my fleet endurable: tell me in what manner perished my vessels and my army." Upon learning the safety of the entire expedition, he is said to have burst into a flood of tears, and to have sworn that he derived more pleasure from this event than from the entire conquest of Asia. He offered sacrifices to Jupiter, Hercules, Apollo, and Neptune. He then proposed that Nearchus should repose from his trials, and that another should conduct the fleet to Susa, the capital of Susiana. Nearchus thought it unjust, however, that the glory of completing a task which he had so successfully begun should be taken from him, and retained the command. He was obliged to fight his way back to the sea through warlike and hostile tribes. The rest of the voyage, along the coasts of Caramania and Persis,--the modern Fars,--was comparatively easy, orders having been given by Alexander that Nearchus should find at intervals supplies of every species of provisions. On the 24th of February, in the year 325 B.C., the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Euphrates. Nearchus learned that Alexander had already reached Susa, which was situated some forty miles towards the interior upon the borders of the Tigris. He therefore ascended that river, and, at a bridge newly thrown over it for the passage of Alexander's army, the junction of the long-separated naval and land forces took place. Nearchus received a crown of gold for his success in the expedition; the pilot was rewarded with a crown of smaller size, and the debts of the army were discharged by Alexander. The voyage had occupied nearly five months, and the distance sailed was not far from fifteen hundred miles, if the sinuosities and indentations of the coast are included, and twelve hundred in a straight line. Half of this period of five months must be considered to have been spent upon the land, in surveys of the coast, in repairs of the vessels, and in forays in search of food and water. The same route is now usually traversed by merchant vessels in the space of three weeks. Nothing can give a better idea of the immense service Nearchus was thought to have rendered the state, than the fact that it was in the convivialities of a banquet in his honor, a year later, that Alexander abandoned himself to the excesses which resulted in his death. Eudoxus, the next navigator in chronological order, was a native of Cyzicus, in Mysia, and was sent by its citizens, in the third century B.C., upon a mission connected with the promotion of geographical science, to Alexandria, then the seat of maritime enterprise. He became strongly imbued with the spirit of exploration and investigation which reigned there, and succeeded in inducing Ptolemy Euergetes, the reigning king, to fit out a naval armament, and to send it under his command upon an expedition down the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea. He appears to have made a successful voyage, for he returned with a cargo of aromatics and precious stones. It is supposed that he sailed down the Red Sea, and, passing out by the Straits of Babelmandel, followed the southern coast of Arabia as far as the Persian Gulf: it is altogether unlikely that he reached the shores of India. Euergetes plundered him of his wealth upon his return, but died soon after, leaving the throne to his widow Cleopatra. The queen took Eudoxus into favor, and sent him upon a fresh voyage. He seems to have been driven by unfavorable winds upon the coast of Abyssinia, where he made advantageous bargains with the inhabitants. He rescued from the water a fragment of a wreck,--the prow of a vessel which, from a sculpture representing the figure of a horse, seemed to have come from the West. This prow was exhibited by Eudoxus in the harbor of Alexandria, and was declared by some mariners from Cadiz to be of the precise form peculiar to large vessels which went from that port to fish upon the coast of Mauritania, or Morocco. It was evident, therefore, to the ardent mind of Eudoxus, that this fragment of a wrecked vessel, left to the mercy of the waves, had performed the grand maritime problem of antiquity,--the circuit of Africa. He abandoned himself with enthusiastic credulity to the enticing hope that he might himself succeed in achieving this darling object of the ambition of princes, kings, and states. He determined to renounce the deceitful patronage of courts, and to start with a new expedition from Cadiz. He went thither by way of Massilia and other trading settlements, and urged all who were animated by the spirit of progress to follow him. He thus succeeded in equipping an armada, consisting of one ship and two large boats, on board of which were not only goods and provisions and the necessary crews, but artisans, scientific men, and musicians. The very ardor and extravagance of their hopes, and perhaps, too, the undue gayety in which they took their departure, unfitted them to encounter the dangers and hardships of African discovery. The crew were frightened at the swell of the open sea through which Eudoxus wished to make his way, and insisted upon following the shore, according to the usual cautious method of those days. The consequence was that the ship was stranded, and the cargo was with difficulty saved. Eudoxus prosecuted the voyage in a single ship of lighter construction, till he came to a race of people who spoke, as he thought, the same language as those he had met on the opposite side of the continent. Thinking this discovery enough for the expedition in its now enfeebled state, he returned to Spain and equipped another small fleet, better fitted to buffet the waves of the open sea. He again set forth; but the narrative, as handed down by Strabo, breaks off at this point, and we are without information upon the results of the enterprise. It is true that rumor and fable have supplied the place of authentic facts, and that Eudoxus is described by one version as having actually circumnavigated Africa; by another, as having come to a race of people who were born dumb; and by another, as having fallen in with a nation who had no mouths, but received their food through an orifice in the nose. These exaggerations are unworthy of notice; and they do not seem to have thrown discredit upon the account of the earlier experience of Eudoxus, which ranks among the most esteemed narratives of ancient maritime adventure. We have thus given, in some detail, descriptions of all the noteworthy experiments in navigation previous to the birth of Christ. Two features, it will be at once remarked, characterized all these efforts:--1st, The only reliable propelling force continued to lie in the oars; and, 2d, no sailor ventured out of sight of land, unless, as when crossing the Mediterranean, he knew that other lands lay beyond the visible horizon. We close this division of the subject with the general observation, that the opening of the Christian era found the world almost entirely under Roman dominion,--one which preferred extending its sway by land to prosecuting discovery by sea. The Mediterranean was, thus far, the only seat of commerce and the exclusive scene of navigation. Though Hanno and Eudoxus had indeed passed the Pillars of Hercules, and had coasted along the African shore as far as the negro territories, and though Pytheas, proceeding to the north, had visited--still hugging the land--the Baltic and the British Channel, their expeditions must be considered as at once venturesome and futile, for the age was not able to repeat them, and totally failed to make them useful either to geography or commerce. As long as the centre of power, of luxury, of wealth, remains within the Mediterranean, as long as Tyre, Sidon, Rome, Carthage, successively control the destinies of the world, so long shall we find mankind lacking both the motive and the means to seek new worlds, by sea, beyond. Time, however, will furnish both the motive and the means: we shall find the one, as we proceed, in the Spice Islands of the East, the other in the Mariner's Compass. The next division of our subject will narrate how the contests between the Crescent and the Cross over the tomb of Christ brought Europe and Asia into contact and acquaintanceship; and how the commerce and intercourse which were the immediate consequences led to that general and absorbing interest in the sea and ships which eventually produced Columbus and Magellan. The influence of nutmeg and cinnamon upon the spread of the gospel and the development of science is a theme which we shall show to be not unworthy of earnest and philosophical inquiry. [Illustration: SUPPOSED FORM OF THE SHIPS OF NEARCHUS.] [Illustration: VENETIAN GALLEY OF THE TENTH CENTURY.] Section II. FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA TO THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION, A.D. 1300. CHAPTER VIII. NAVIGATION DURING THE ROMAN EMPIRE--THE RISE OF VENICE AND GENOA--THE CRUSADES--THEIR EFFECT UPON COMMERCE--WEDDING OF THE ADRIATIC--CREATION OF THE FRENCH NAVY--INTRODUCTION OF EASTERN ART INTO EUROPE--MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES--REMOTE EFFECT OF THE CRUSADES UPON GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. We have taken the birth of Christ as a point of departure in the history of navigation, merely because of the prominence of that event in the annals of the world, not on account of any connection that it has with the chronicles of the sea. So far from that, the first five centuries of the Christian era are an absolute blank in all matters which pertain to our subject. The Roman Empire rose and fell; and its rise and fall concerned the Mediterranean only. Not even Julius Cæsar, the greatest man in Roman history, has a place in maritime records; unless, when crossing the Adriatic in a fishing-boat during a storm, his memorable words of encouragement to the fisherman, "Fear nothing! you carry Cæsar and his fortunes!" are sufficient to connect him with the sea. Neither Pompey, nor Sylla, nor Augustus, nor Nero, nor Titus, nor Constantine, nor Theodosius, nor Attila, can claim part or lot in the dominion of man over the ocean. And so we glide rapidly over five centuries. Upon the invasion of Italy by the barbarians, A.D. 476, the Veneti, a tribe dwelling upon the northeastern shores of the Adriatic, escaped from their ravages by fleeing to the marshes and sandy inlets formed by the deposits of the rivers which there fall into the gulf. Here they were secure; for the water around them was too deep to allow of an attack from the land, and too shallow to admit the approach of ships from the sea. Their only resource was the water and the employments it afforded. At first they caught fish; then they made salt, and finally engaged in maritime traffic. Early in the seventh century their traders were known at Constantinople, in the Levant, and at Alexandria. Their city soon covered ninety islands, connected together by bridges. They established mercantile factories at Rome, and extended their authority into Istria and Dalmatia. In the eighth century they chased the pirates, and in the ninth they fought the Saracens. At this period Genoa, too, rose into notice, and the Genoese and the Venetians at once became commercial rivals and the monopolists of the Mediterranean. And now Peter the Hermit, barefooted and penniless, inveighing against the atrocities of the Turks towards Christians at Jerusalem, exhorted the warriors of the Cross to take up arms against the infidels. He inspired all Europe with an enthusiasm like his own, and enlisted a million followers in the cause. The passion of the age was for war, peril, and adventure; and fighting for the Sepulchre was a more agreeable method of doing penance than wearing sackcloth or mortifying the flesh. The First Crusade, a motley array of knights, spendthrifts, barons, beggars, women, and children, set out upon their wild career. Then came the Second, the Third, and the Fourth. Crusading was the amusement and occupation of two centuries. Two millions of Europeans perished in the cause before it was abandoned. A few words concerning its effect upon the civilization of Europe are necessary here, in direct pursuance of our subject. During their stay in Palestine the Crusaders learned, and in a measure acquired, the habits of Eastern life. They brought back with them a taste for the peculiar products of that region,--jewels, silks, cutlery, perfumes, spices. A brisk commerce through the length and breadth of the Mediterranean was the speedy consequence. Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Venice, covered the waters of their inland sea with sails, trafficking from the ports of Italy to those of Syria and Egypt. In every maritime city conquered by the Crusaders, trading-stations and bazaars were established. Marseilles obtained from the kings of Jerusalem privileges and monopolies of trade upon their territory. Venice surpassed all her rivals in the splendor and extent of her commerce, and it was for this that the Pope, Alexander III., sent the Doge the famous nuptial ring with which, in assertion of his naval supremacy, "to wed the Adriatic." The ceremony was performed from the deck of the Bucentaur, or state-galley, with every possible accompaniment of pomp and parade. The vessel was crowned with flowers like a bride, and amid the harmonies of music and the acclamations of the spectators the ring was dropped into the sea. The Republic and the Adriatic, long betrothed, were now indissolubly wedded. This ceremony was repeated from year to year. The Normans, the Danes, the Dutch, imitated the example of the Italians, or, as they were then called, the Lombards, but were rather occupied in conveying provisions to the armies than in trading for their own account. It was during the Crusades that the French navy was created. Philip Augustus, who, on his way to Syria, and thence home again, could not have remained insensible to the advantages of possessing a strong force upon the ocean, formed, upon his return, the nucleus of a national fleet, for the purpose of defending his coasts either against pirates or foreign invasion. [Illustration: THE DOGE OF VENICE WEDDING THE ADRIATIC.] While the necessity of transporting articles from the East to supply the demand thus created in the West gave a stimulus to commerce and navigation, manufactures were encouraged and developed by the operation of the same cause. The Italians learned from the Greeks the art of weaving silk, which soon resulted in the weaving of cloth of gold and silver. They learned to mould glass in a multitude of new and curious forms. From the manufactories of Syria, where stuffs were made of camels' hair, improvements were introduced into the manufactures of Europe, where they were woven of no other material than lambs' wool. Palestine also suggested to crusaders returning home the advantages of windmills for grinding flour. Arabia furnished the art of tempering arms and polishing steel, of chasing gold and silver, of mounting stones in rich and massive settings. Constantinople furnished the Christians with many splendid specimens of ancient art,--groups, statues, and the Corinthian horses, and thus awakened European taste. Nearly all the Gothic monuments of Europe which still excite the admiration of the tourist owe their existence to this communication with the Greeks by means of the Crusades, and to the wonder which seized the Frank and Lombard at the sight of the churches and palaces of Byzantium. The Europeans carried back with them the architecture of the Saracens. Saint Mark's at Venice was built from the plans, and under the direction, of an unbeliever. The Cathedral and Spire of Strasburg, with their gigantic and yet delicate proportions, the Minster of Amiens, the Sainte Chapelle of Paris, were constructed in close imitation of the chef-d'oeuvres of Eastern art. Painting upon glass was also brought from Constantinople, and the early painters of Christendom were speedily employed in tracing in colors, upon the windows of abbeys and cathedrals, the exploits of the Crusaders and the triumphs of the Cross. From the Arabs and the Greeks, too, the Europeans received their first lessons in the natural and exact sciences. Imperfect and incomplete as were the astronomy, the botany, the mathematics, and the geography of the Arabians, they were far in advance of the same professions as understood and practised in Europe. The languages were improved and enriched by the association and exchange of ideas into which English, Germans, Italians, and French were forced. The confusion of tongues, which was as complete as at Babel, was somewhat corrected by the harmony of interest and oneness of purpose which animated all, of whatever name and lineage, who gathered around the Sepulchre. It is obvious, therefore, that the effect of the Crusades, so far as it is the object of a work like the present to trace and delineate it, was to give the people of Europe a new motive for maintaining an intercourse with the people of Asia. They had seen their superior civilization, and sought to introduce it among themselves. They had learned to appreciate their skill in the arts, and resolved to acclimate those arts at home. They had accustomed themselves to many articles of luxury, which had become articles of necessity, and which it was now essential, therefore, to transport from the Levant, from the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, to the Bay of Venice and the Gulf of Genoa. There was a demand, in short, in the West, for the products, the manufactures, the arts, of the East. Here was the origin of the immense Eastern commerce which now fell into the hands of the Genoese and Venetians, and which, resulting from the Crusades, compelled us to the digression we have made. It is not our purpose, however, to refer more at length to this commerce, as it was carried on upon seas which had been navigated for twenty centuries; and we must hasten forward to the period when new paths were laid out over the immensity of the waters. A map, published just anterior to the First Crusade, fully displays the ignorance which then prevailed in geographical science. The sea, as in the age of Homer, is made to surround the world as a river, the land being divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Africa and Asia are joined together in the South, and the Indian Ocean is an inland sea. Asia is as large as the other two continents combined. On the east there is a small spot indicated as the position of the Garden of Eden by the words _Hic est Paradisus_. Europe and Africa are separated from Asia by a long canal, which may be either the Nile or the Hellespont. Africa is still considered the land of mystery and fable: its northern part only is considered inhabitable, the south being even unapproachable, on account of the torrents of flame poured on it by the sun. The Frozen Ocean, the Baltic, the White Sea, and the Caspian, are all united. The Northern regions are represented as forming one single island. Scandinavia is made the birthplace and residence of the Amazons, the famous women-warriors to whom antiquity had given a home in the Caucasus. We shall, in due order, proceed to show that the indirect and remote effect of the Crusades, and of the intercourse produced by them between two totally separated regions, was to induce the _Discovery of America_, the _Doubling of the Cape of Good Hope_, and the _Passage of the Straits_ at the southern extremity of Patagonia,--results due to COLUMBUS, VASCO DA GAMA, and MAGELLAN, every one of whom were seeking, in the voyages which have rendered them immortal, another passage to the Indies than that held by the Italians--so far as they could prosecute it in vessels upon the Mediterranean. But, before we can proceed from the coasting enterprises of the Lombards upon the land-locked waters of their inland sea, to the daring ventures of the Portuguese and Spaniards upon the raging billows of the Tropical and South Atlantic, we must turn for a moment to the North of Europe, and inquire into the maritime achievements of the Anglo-Saxons and the Northmen during the Dark and Middle Ages. [Illustration: DANISH VESSEL OF THE TENTH CENTURY: FROM AN INSCRIPTION.] CHAPTER IX. THE SCANDINAVIAN SAILORS--THEIR PIRACIES AND COMMERCE--THE ANGLO-SAXONS--ALFRED THE GREAT A SHIP-BUILDER--THE VOYAGE OF BEOWULF--DISCOVERY OF ICELAND BY THE DANES--DISCOVERY OF GREENLAND--THE VOYAGE OF BJARNI AND LEIF TO THE AMERICAN CONTINENT--THEIR DISCOVERY OF NEWFOUNDLAND, NOVA SCOTIA, NANTUCKET, AND MASSACHUSETTS--ADVENTURES OF THORWALD AND THORFINN--COMPARISON OF THE DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN WITH THOSE OF COLUMBUS. The nations inhabiting the borders of the Baltic and the coasts of Norway, as well as those dwelling on the shores of the German Ocean, were situated quite as favorably for maritime enterprise as those upon the banks of the Mediterranean. Though their earliest expeditions by sea were not stimulated by the same cause,--the desire for commercial intercourse,--they arose from causes equally active. While the Mediterranean countries possessed a fruitful soil and a balmy climate, those of the North, under a sky comparatively ungenial, afforded their inhabitants but a few of the articles which they needed: they were led, therefore, to increase their power by sea, in order to establish themselves in more favored climes, or at least to obtain from them by plunder what their own country could not furnish. Thus they neglected the arts of agriculture, and became inured to a life of piracy upon the sea. They spent their lives in planning and executing maritime expeditions. Fathers gave fleets to their sons, and bade them seek their fortune on the ocean-highway. The ships, at first small,--being mere barks propelled by twelve oars,--came at last to be capable of carrying one hundred or one hundred and twenty men. They were supplied with stones, arrows, ropes with which to overset small vessels, and grappling-irons with which to come to close quarters. It would be remote from our purpose to notice these piratical excursions, were it not that they sometimes resulted in discovery or commerce. Many of the marauders settled permanently in England in the seventh century, and established there the Anglo-Saxon dominion. Alfred, their most celebrated king, obliged to defend his territory from the Danes, turned his attention zealously to every thing connected with ships, commerce, discovery, and geography, and became the first founder of that naval power which was at a later period to be the world's dread and admiration. The idea of ship-building once conceived, it was prosecuted with astonishing vigor. Alfred not only multiplied their number, but introduced material improvements. Towards the latter part of his reign, his fleet numbered one hundred sail: it was divided into small squadrons and stationed at various places along the coast. The oldest epic in any modern language, the Anglo-Saxon poem of "Beowulf," the Sea-Goth, written in forty-three cantos, and containing some six thousand lines, is occupied mainly in narrating the marvellous exploits of its hero, his combats with a pestilential fire-drake, and his slaying of "a grim giant named Grendel, a descendant of Cain." It incidentally describes a voyage made by Beowulf previous to the ninth century, and from this we may gather a few details, at best barren and unsatisfactory, of the equipments of a vessel in those days. In the extract which we give, the word "sea-nose" will readily be understood as meaning headland, or promontory: "When the king had awaited The time he should stay, Came many to fare On the billows so free. His ship they bore out To the brim of the ocean, And his comrades sat down At their oars as he bade. A word could control His good fellows, the Shylds. On the deck of the ship He stood, by the mast. Ne'er did I hear Of a vessel appointed Better for battle, With weapons of war, And waistcoats of wool, And axes and swords. * * * * The ship was on the waves, Boat under the cliffs. The barons ready To the prow mounted. The chieftains bore On the naked breast Bright ornaments, War-gear, Goth-like. The men shoved off, Men on their willing way, The bounden wood. Then went over the sea-waves, Hurried by the wind, The ship with foamy neck, Most like a sea-fowl, Till about one hour Of the second day The curved prow Had passed onward. So that the sailors The land saw, The shore-cliffs shining, Mountains steep, And broad sea-noses. Then was the sea-sailing Of the Earl at an end. God thanked he That to him the sea-journey Easy had been." In the year 863, a Dane of Swedish origin, named Gardar, adventurously pushing off into the Northern Ocean, though upon an object which history has not recorded, discovered the island-rock whose appropriate name is Iceland. Eleven years later, a navigator named Ingolf colonized the country, the colonists, many of whom belonged to the most esteemed families in the North, establishing a flourishing republic. The situation of these people, isolated in the midst of an Arctic ocean, and their relation to the mother-country, compelled them to exert and develop their hereditary maritime proclivities. In 877, a sailor named Gunnbjörn saw a mountainous coast far to the west, supposed to be now concealed or rendered inaccessible by the descent of Arctic ice. Erik the Red, who had been banished from Norway for murder and had settled in Iceland, was in his turn outlawed thence in 983: he sailed to the west and discovered a land which he called Greenland, because, as he said, "people will be attracted hither if the land has a good name." He returned to Iceland, and, in the year 985, a large number of ships--according to some authorities, thirty-five--followed him to the new settlement and established themselves on its southwestern shore. In 986, Bjarni Herjulfson-Bjarni, the son of Herjulf, in a voyage from Iceland to Greenland, was driven a long distance from the accustomed track. He at last saw land to the west, and took counsel with his men as to what land it could be. Bjarni declared it his opinion that it was not Greenland. They sailed close in shore, and noticed that there were no mountains, but that the land was undulating and well wooded. They left the land on their larboard side, and sailed away for two days, when they saw land again. They asked Bjarni if he thought this was Greenland; and he replied that "he thought it as little to be Greenland as the other, as he saw no high ice-hills." The sailors wished to wood and water there, but Bjarni would not consent. They sailed for three days to the north, and saw a bold shore with high mountains and ice-hills. Bjarni would not land, saying, "To me this land appears little inviting." Sailing for four days more to the northeast, they came to a country which Bjarni confidently pronounced to be Greenland, where he landed and afterwards settled. Various data furnished by this narrative, in the original Icelandic records, have enabled geographers to determine the various coasts thus dimly seen by Bjarni, but upon which he did not land. They are supposed to have been those of Long Island, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. In the year 994, Leif Erikson--Leif the son of Erik the Outlaw--bought Bjarni's ship, and engaged thirty-five men to navigate it, as he intended to sail upon a voyage of discovery. He asked his father Erik to be the captain; but Erik declined, being, as he said, well stricken in years. They sailed away into the sea, and discovered first the land which Bjarni had discovered last. They went ashore, saw no grass, but plenty of icebergs, and an abundance of flat stones. From the latter circumstance they named the place _Helluland_, _hellu_ signifying a flat stone. There can be no doubt that the spot thus named is the modern Newfoundland. They went on board again, and proceeded on their way. They went ashore a second time, where the land was flat and covered with wood and white sand. "This," said Leif, "shall be named after its qualities, and called Markland," (woodland.) This is undoubtedly Nova Scotia. They sailed again to the south for two days and came to an island which lay to the eastward of the mainland. They observed dew upon the grass, and this dew, upon being touched with the finger and raised to the mouth, tasted exceedingly sweet. This appears to have been Nantucket, where honey-dew is known to abound. [Illustration: THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA.] They proceeded on through a tract of shoal water, which corresponds with the sound between Nantucket and Cape Cod, and appear to have run across the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, and to have ascended the Pocasset River as far as Mount Hope Bay, which they took for a lake. Here they cast anchor, and, "bringing their skin cots from the ship, proceeded to make booths." They remained during the winter, finding plenty of salmon in the river and lake. "The nature of the country was, as they thought, so good, that cattle would not require housefeeding in winter, for there came no frost, and little did the grass wither there." Their statement that on the shortest day the sun was above the horizon from half-past seven till half-past four enables geographers to fix the latitude of the place where they were at 41° 43' 10", which is very nearly that of Mount Hope Bay. One evening a man of the party was missing,--a German named Tyrker, whom Leif regarded as his foster-father. He determined to seek for him, and for this purpose chose twelve reliable men. Tyrker soon returned and said that he had been a long distance into the interior, and had found vines and grapes. "But is this true, my fosterer?" said Leif. "Surely is it true," he returned; "for I was bred up in a land where there is no want of either vines or grapes." The next morning Leif said to his sailors, "We will now set about two things, in that the one day we gather grapes, and the other cut vines and fell trees, so from thence will be a loading for my ship." The record states that the long-boat was filled with grapes. Leif gave the country the name of Vinland, from its vines. To the reader of the present day it may seem that the wild vines of Massachusetts and Rhode Island can hardly have been so prominent a feature of the native products as to have given a name to the whole region. But it is certain that six centuries later the Puritans found wild maize and grapes growing there in profusion, while the neighboring island of Martha's Vineyard received its name from the English for a precisely similar reason. Upon the return of Leif to Greenland, his brother Thorwald thought that "these new lands had been much too little explored." Leif gave him his ship, and he put out to sea, with thirty men, in the year 1002. Nothing is known of their voyage till they came to Leif's booths in Vinland. They laid up their ship, caught fish for their support, and spent a pleasant winter. They passed two years in exploring the interior, and then returned by the north, where Thorwald was killed in a battle with the Esquimaux. But a more successful discoverer than any of these was Thorfinn Karlsnefne,--that is, Thorfinn the Predestined Hero. He was a wealthy merchant of Iceland, the heir of Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian princes. He visited Greenland in 1006, where he married Gudrida, the widow of an Icelandic adventurer, and in 1007 sailed, in three ships and with one hundred and sixty men, upon a voyage to Vinland. His wife went with him, and, in the autumn of the same year, bore him a son named Snorri, who was, of course, the first of European blood born in America. From him the celebrated Swedish sculptor Thorwaldsen was lineally descended. Thorfinn remained here three years, and had many communications with the aborigines. A singular result of this relation may perhaps be traced in the names successively given to one spot. The Northmen called one of their settlements Hóp, and the Puritans, six centuries later, found that the Indians called it Haup. It would appear that they had continued, in their own tongue, the appellation bestowed upon the place in the Norse language. The Puritans anglicized it, and called it Mount Hope. We have no accounts of any further voyages made by the Northmen to America. The records were preserved in the literature of the island, but the memory of them gradually faded away from the popular mind. Several writers claim for these early navigators a degree of merit beyond that which they are willing to accord to Columbus. They reply to the argument that Bjarni's discovery of the American coast was merely accidental, as he had started in search of Greenland, that Columbus' discovery of America was accidental also, as he started in search of Asia, and as he believed the land to be Asia to the day of his death. "Besides," they say, "how different were the circumstances under which the two voyages were made! The Northmen, without compass or quadrant, without any of the advantages of science, geographical knowledge, personal experience, or previous discoveries, without the support of either kings or governments,--which Columbus, however discouraged at the outset, eventually obtained,--but guided by the stars, and upheld by their own private resources and a spirit of adventure which no dangers could repress, crossed the broad Northern ocean and explored these distant lands." This is all true; and doubtless our wonder at the success with which these early voyages were prosecuted would be augmented tenfold, could we obtain authentic information upon the character and capacity of the ships in which they were made. Nothing reliable exists upon this subject, except a few rude inscriptions; and from these, as reproduced in the engravings we have given, it would actually appear that the vessels used had no decks, and that they were partly propelled by oars. However navigation may have improved since the days of the Northmen, it is certain that no sailor would now attempt an Arctic voyage in an open boat; and when we read of the perils and sufferings of our modern Polar adventurers, it is impossible not to be amazed at the success with which the Danes and Norwegians, with their slender appliances, endured and outlived them. [Illustration: FISHING FOR HERRING.] CHAPTER X. THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO--THE FIRST MENTION OF JAPAN IN HISTORY--KUBLAI KHAN--MARCO POLO'S VOYAGE FROM AMOY TO ORMUZ--MALACCA--SUMATRA--PYGMIES--SINGULAR STORIES OF DIAMONDS--THE ROC--POLO NOT RECOGNISED UPON HIS RETURN--HIS IMPRISONMENT--THE PUBLICATION OF HIS NARRATIVE--THE INTEREST AWAKENED IN CHINA, JAPAN, AND THE ISLANDS OF SPICES. The call to arms against the Moslems fixed, as we have said, the attention of Europe upon the East. The travels of Carpini, Rubruquis, and Ascelin, in Tartary and in China, revealed the existence of numerous tribes in localities believed to be occupied by the ocean. Hordes of savages, we are told, and whole nations of powerful and warlike people, emerged from the imaginary waters of Eoüs, the fabulous sea of antiquity and bed of Aurora. Marco Polo, whose celebrated journey was performed during the twenty years closing the thirteenth century, made known the centre and eastern extremity of Asia, Japan, a portion of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, a part of the continent of Africa, and, by hearsay, the large island of Madagascar. We subjoin a brief account of that portion of his travels which was prosecuted by sea. He became a great favorite with Kublai Khan, whose winter capital was Khanbalik or Pekin, and served him for many years as one of his confidential officers. He was the first European who heard of the island of Japan, of which he speaks thus:--"Zipangu, or Cipango, is an island in the Eastern Ocean, situated about fifteen hundred miles from the mainland. It is quite large. The inhabitants have fair complexions, are civilized in their manners, though their religion is idolatry. They have gold in the greatest abundance, but its exportation is forbidden. The entire roof of the sovereign's palace is stated to be covered with a plating of gold, as we cover churches and other buildings with lead. So famous is the wealth of this island that Kublai Khan was fired with the desire of annexing it to his dominions. He sent out a numerous fleet and a powerful army; but a violent storm dispersed and wrecked the ships, and thirty thousand men were thrown upon a desert island a few miles from Cipango. They expected nothing but death or captivity, as they could obtain no means of subsistence. Being attacked from Cipango, they got in the rear of the enemy, took possession of their fleet, and put off for the main island. They kept the colors flying from the masts, and entered the chief city unsuspected. All the inhabitants were gone except the women. They took possession, but were closely besieged for six months, until, despairing of relief, they surrendered, on condition of their lives being spared. This took place in the year 1284." Such was the first intelligence of the island of Japan which ever reached the ears of Europeans. After a stay of seventeen years in China, Marco and his companions resolved to make an attempt to return to their native land. Kublai Khan, however, was unwilling to part with them; and they owed their final release to a circumstance wholly unexpected. An embassy from Persia had visited Pekin, and had selected one of Kublai's grand-daughters for the wife of their prince. They set out with her on their journey to Persia, but, after meeting with incredible obstacles, were obliged to return to the Chinese capital. Marco had, at this time, just returned from a voyage among the islands of the Indian Sea, and had laid before the khan his observations upon the feasibility of navigation in those waters. The ambassadors sought an interview with Marco Polo, and found that they had all a common interest,--that of getting away as speedily as possible. The khan was forced to facilitate the departure of the envoys, though it deprived him of his friends the Venetians. Preparations were made upon a grand scale for the expedition. Fourteen four-masted ships, a part of them with crews of two hundred and fifty men, were equipped and victualled for two years. The khan bade the Polo party an affectionate adieu, making them his ambassadors to the principal courts of Europe, and extorting from them a promise to return to his service after a visit to their own country. Thus honorably dismissed, they set sail from the port of Amoy, in 1291. They coasted along the shores of Cochin China, and came in sight of the islands of Borneo and Java, though they did not land there. At the island of Bintan, near the Straits of Malacca, they obtained some knowledge of the kingdom of the Malays at the southern extremity of the peninsula. They landed upon Sumatra, and visited many parts of the island. Marco thus speaks of one branch of the trade of the inhabitants:--"It should be known that what is reported respecting the mummies of pygmies sent to Europe from India is only an idle tale, these pretended human dwarfs being manufactured in this island in the following manner. The country produces a large species of monkey having a countenance resembling that of a man. The Sumatrans catch them, shave off their hair, dry and preserve their bodies with camphor and other drugs, and prepare them generally so as to give them the appearance of little men. They then pack them in wooden boxes and sell them to traders, by whom they are vended for pygmies in all parts of the world. But there are no such things as pygmies in India or anywhere else. It is mere monkey-trade." From Sumatra, Marco and his companions sailed into the Bay of Bengal, touched at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, arrived at Ceylon, and, doubling the southern point of Hindostan, continued to the northward along its western coast. The pearl-fishery here attracted their attention; and Marco, in his description of the diamonds of a kingdom named Murphili, narrates, as a fact, a story which was afterwards incorporated in the Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor,--that of pieces of meat being thrown by the jewel-hunters into inaccessible valleys, whence they were brought back again by eagles and storks with quantities of diamonds clinging to them. But the story occurs in the writings of one of the Christian Fathers of the fourth century, and Marco Polo only gives it as a legend which he heard. He also alludes to the bird called the roc, which was so large that it lifted elephants into the air; its feathers measured ninety spans. The locality frequented by these monstrous ornithological specimens was the island of Madagascar. The voyage appears to have ended at Ormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, after a navigation of a year and a half. Six hundred men of the various crews had died upon the way. There is no mention made in history of the return of the fleet to China, though Kublai Khan is known to have died three years after the departure of the Venetians. After various adventures, Marco Polo and his companions arrived in Venice, in 1295. They had been absent twenty-one years, and their nearest relatives did not know them. When they attempted to converse in Italian, their use of foreign idioms and barbarous forms of expression rendered their language hardly intelligible. Possession had been taken of their houses by some of their kindred, and they found it difficult to expel them. Their statements were disbelieved, till, by displaying their immense wealth and their priceless collections of jewels and precious stones, they forced their countrymen to give credit to adventures which must clearly have been extraordinary, to have resulted in such acquisitions of treasure. Marco's riches gave him the name of Milione; and he is designated, in the records of the Venetian Republic, and upon the title-page of his work,--still extant,--as Messer Marco Milione. He was induced to write an account of his adventures in the following manner. A war between the Venetians and the Genoese resulted in the capture of the galley of which he was commander. He was imprisoned during four years at Genoa. His surprising history becoming known, he was visited by all the principal inhabitants, who were anxious to listen to his narrative. The frequent necessity of repeating the same story became intolerably irksome to him, and he resolved to commit it to writing. He thus gave the first impulse to the promotion of geographical science. He procured from Venice the original notes he had made in the course of his travels, and, with their assistance and that of a Genoese amanuensis, the narrative was composed in his cell. It is a work of great research and deep interest. Formerly read for its marvels, it is now perused as the earliest authentic account of a region which still remains a _terra incognita_, and whose inhabitants repel curiosity and decline mingling with other nations upon the usual reciprocal terms of fellowship and good-will. Marco Polo is now justly considered the founder of the modern geography of Asia. It was long before any new discoveries were added to those of the illustrious Venetian, but his original statements were confirmed in many quarters:--by Oderic, who visited India and China in 1320; by Schiltberger, of Munich, who accompanied Tamerlane in his expeditions through Central Asia; by Pegoletti, an Italian merchant who went to Pekin, through the heart of Asia, in 1335; and by Clavijo, in 1403, who was sent by Spain as ambassador to Samarcand. Thus, a European had been to the regions of spices and had returned. From this time forward the world was to know no rest till the route by sea had been discovered. [Illustration: ANCIENT CHINESE COMPASS.] CHAPTER XI. THE FIRST MENTION OF THE LOADSTONE IN HISTORY--ITS EARLY NAMES--THE FIRST MENTION OF ITS DIRECTIVE POWER--A POEM UPON THE COMPASS SIX HUNDRED YEARS OLD--FRIAR BACON'S MAGNET--THE LOADSTONE IN ARABIA--AN EYE-WITNESS OF ITS EFFICIENCY IN THE SYRIAN WATERS IN THE YEAR 1240--THE MAGNET IN CHINA--EARLY MENTION OF IT IN CHINESE WORKS--THE VARIATION NOTICED IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY--OTHER DISCOVERIES MADE BY THE CHINESE--MODERN ERRORS--FLAVIO GIOIA--THE ARMS OF AMALFI--ALL RECORDS LOST OF THE FIRST VOYAGE MADE WITH THE COMPASS BY A EUROPEAN SHIP. We have arrived at a momentous epoch in the history of the sea. It was at this period that the mariner's compass was--we do not say invented--but introduced into European navigation. That this admirable instrument, which, in half a century, changed the face of the earth, by leading to the discovery of America and thus proving the sphericity of the world, should remain unclaimed by its author, and that we are unable to point to him who thus blessed and benefited his race; must always be a subject of regret. So far from being able to name the individual to whom the invention is due, it has long been deemed impossible to fix even upon the nation who first used the needle at sea. We hope, however, by availing ourselves of recent researches made in France, to arrive at a conclusion not only satisfactory, but inevitable. In tracing the history of the compass, we must naturally begin with the magnet. The ancients were fully acquainted with the loadstone, and with its power of attracting iron, though they were totally ignorant of its polarity. That they were so, is evident from the fact that the classic authors and ancient works upon navigation and kindred subjects do not furnish one word upon the subject. Claudian has left, in one of his idyls, a long description of the stone, and of its peculiar, indeed, magical, affinity for iron. Had he entertained the most distant idea that this stone could communicate to a steel needle the power of indicating the north, it is not to be supposed for an instant that he would have omitted mentioning it. The earliest name of the loadstone was Hercules' Stone, which was soon changed to _magnes_, from the fact that it was found in abundance in a region called Magnesia, in Lydia. Hence our word magnet. It was not till the fourth century of our era that the quality of repelling as well as of attracting iron seems to have been discovered. Marcellus, the physician of Theodosius the Great, is the first author who mentions this new quality. The Romans, who acquired a knowledge of the magnet from the Greeks, preserved the name, though several of their authors, and Pliny among them, mention a tradition, that the magnet was so called from a shepherd named Magnes, who was the first to discover a mine of loadstone, by the nails in his shoes clinging to the metal. The first mention in European history of the polarity of the magnetized needle, and of its importance to mariners, occurs in a satirical French poem written in 1190 by one Guyot de Provins. His object was to level, by implication, an invective against the Court of Rome; and he did it in the following neat manner. The translator has endeavored to preserve the quaint style of the original: "As for our Father the Pope, I would he were like the star Which moves not. Very well see it The sailors who are on the watch. By this star they go and come, And hold their course and their way. They call it the Polar Star. It is fixed, very unchangeable: All the others move, And alter their places and turn, But this star moves not. They make a contrivance which cannot lie, By the virtue of the magnet. An ugly and brownish stone, To which iron spontaneously joins itself, They have: and they observe the right point, After they have caused a needle to touch it, And placed it in a rush: They put it in the water, without any thing more, And the rush keeps it on the surface; Then it turns its point direct Towards the star with such certainty, That no man will ever have any doubt of it; Nor will it ever for any thing go false. When the sea is dark and hazy, That they can neither see star nor moon, Then they place a light by the needle, And so they have no fear of going wrong: Towards the star goes the point, Whereby the mariners have the skill To keep the right way. It is an art which cannot fail." It may be very properly inferred, from the fact that the poet does not merely allude to the compass, but describes it and the polar star at some length, that it was not generally known, and, in fact, had been lately introduced into the Mediterranean. Whence it had been introduced there, we shall learn as we proceed. The second historical mention of the compass occurs in a description of Palestine by Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, in the year 1218, in which is the following passage:--"The loadstone is found in India, to which, from some hidden cause, iron spontaneously attaches itself. The moment an iron needle is touched by this stone, it at once points towards the North Star, which, though the other stars revolve, is fixed as if it were the axis of the firmament: from whence it has become necessary to those who navigate the seas." Brunetto Latini, a grammarian of Florence, and preceptor of Dante, settled in Paris about the year 1260, and composed a work entitled the "Treasure," in which he distinctly describes the process and the consequence of magnetizing a needle. He also went to England, and, in a letter of which fragments have been published, writes thus:--"Friar Bacon showed me a magnet, an ugly and black stone, to which iron doth willingly cling: you rub a needle upon it, the which needle, being placed upon a point, remains suspended and turns against the Star, even though the night be stormy and neither star nor moon be seen; and thus the mariner is guided on his way." The Italian Jesuit Riccioli, in his work upon Geography and Hydrography, states, that before 1270, the French mariners used "a magnetized needle, which they kept floating in a small vessel of water, supported on two tubes, so as not to sink." All these authors agree in fixing the period at which the use of the needle was popularized in Europe, at the latter part of the twelfth and the commencement of the thirteenth century. Not one of them mentions the inventor by name, or even indicates his nation. This circumstance leads to the conviction that it was unknown to them, and that, consequently, the inventor was not a European. The theory that the Europeans obtained it from the Arabians, and the Arabians from the Chinese, is supported by the following facts: A manuscript work, written by an Arabian named Bailak, a native of Kibdjak, and entitled "The Merchant's Guide in the Purchase of Stones," thus speaks of the loadstone in the year 1242:--"Among the properties of the magnet, it is to be noticed that the captains who sail in the Syrian waters, when the night is dark, take a vessel of water, upon which they place a needle buried in the pith of a reed, and which thus floats upon the water. Then they take a loadstone as big as the palm of the hand, or even smaller. They hold it near the surface of the water, giving it a rotary motion until the needle turns upon the water: they then withdraw the stone suddenly, when the needle, with its two ends, points to the north and south. I saw this with my own eyes, on my voyage from Tripoli, in Syria, to Alexandria, in the year 640. [640 of the Hegira, 1240 A.D.] "I heard it said that the captains in the Indian seas substitute for the needle and reed a hollow iron fish, magnetized, so that, when placed in the water, it points to the north with its head and to the south with its tail. The reason that the fish swims, not sinks, is that metallic bodies, even the heaviest, float when hollow, and when they displace a quantity of water greater than their own weight." It may fairly be inferred, from this passage, that, at the time spoken of, (1240,) the practice was already of long standing in this quarter, and that the needle and its polarity had been long known and employed at sea. That is, the Arabs had become familiar with the loadstone in 1240, while Friar Bacon regarded it, in England, as a huge curiosity in 1260,--twenty years afterwards. The priority of the invention would seem to be thus incontestably proven for the Arabs. But we shall see speedily that it derived its origin from a region situated still farther to the east, and many centuries earlier. A famous Chinese dictionary, terminated in the year 121 of our era, thus defines the word magnet:--"The name of a stone which gives direction to a needle." This is quoted in numerous modern dictionaries. One published during the Tsin dynasty--that is, between 265 and 419--states that ships guided their course _to the south_ by means of the magnet. The Chinese word for magnet--_Tchi nan_--signifies, Indicator of the South. It was natural for the Chinese, when they first saw a needle point both north and south, to take the Antarctic pole for the principal point of attraction, for with them the south had always been the first of the cardinal points,--the emperor's throne and all the Government edifices invariably being built to face the south. A Chinese work of authority, composed about the year 1000, contains this passage:--"Fortune-tellers rub the point of a needle with a loadstone to give it the power of indicating the south." A medical natural history, published in China in 1112, speaks even of the variation of the needle,--a phenomenon first noticed in Europe by Christopher Columbus in 1492:--"When," it says, "a point of iron is touched by a loadstone, it receives the power of indicating the south: still, it declines towards the east, and does not point exactly to the south." This observation, made at the beginning of the twelfth century, was confirmed by magnetic experiments made at Pekin, in 1780, by a Frenchman; only the latter, finding the variation to be from the north, set it down as from 2° to 2° 30' to the west, while the Chinese, persisting in calling it a variation from the south, set it down as being from 2° to 2° 30' to the east. Thus, the Chinese, who were acquainted with the polarity of a magnetized needle as early as the year 121, and who noticed the variation in 1112, may be safely supposed to have employed it at sea in the long voyages which they made in the seventh and eighth centuries, the route of which has come down to us. Their vessels sailed from Canton, through the Straits of Malacca, to the Malabar coast, to the mouths of the Indus and the Euphrates. It is difficult to believe that, aware of the use to which the needle might be applied, they did not so apply it. While thus claiming for the Chinese the first knowledge and application of the polarity of the needle, we may say, incidentally, that it is now certain that they made numerous other discoveries of importance long before the Europeans. They knew the attractive power of amber in the first century of our era, and a Chinese author said, in 324, "The magnet attracts iron, and amber attracts mustard-seed." They ascribed the tides to the influence of the moon in the ninth century. Printing was invented in the province of Chin about the year 920, and gunpowder would seem to have been made there long before Berthold Schwartz mixed it in 1330. Still, it is not necessary to resort to the argument of analogy to support the claims of the Chinese to this admirable invention: the direct evidence, as we have rehearsed it, is amply sufficient. [Illustration: CHINESE JUNK.] A century ago, Flavio Gioia, a captain or pilot of Amalfi, in the kingdom of Naples, was recognised throughout Europe as the true inventor of the compass. He lived in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and biographers have even fixed the date of the memorable invention at the year 1303. The principal foundation for this assertion was the following line from a poem by Antonio of Bologna, who lived but a short time after Gioia:-- "Prima dedit nautis usam magnetis Amalphis." Amalfi first gave to sailors the use of the magnet. The tradition was subsequently confirmed by the statement made by authors of repute, that the city of Amalfi, in order to commemorate an invention of so much importance, assumed a compass for its coat of arms. This was believed till the year 1810, when the coat of arms of Amalfi was found in the library at Naples. It did not answer at all to the description given of it: instead of the eight wings which were said to represent the four cardinal points and their divisions, it had but two, in which no resemblance to a compass could be traced. Later investigations have, as we have said, completely demolished all the arguments by which the compass was maintained to be of European origin and of modern date. The curious reader will find the extracts from Chinese works which substantiate the Chinese claim, in a volume upon the subject published in 1834, at Paris, by M. J. Klaproth, and composed at the request of Baron Humboldt. In the sketch which we are now about to give of the Portuguese voyages to the African coast, it will be remarked that the compass was already introduced and acclimated. No mention whatever is extant of the first venture made upon the Atlantic under the auspices of this mysterious but unerring guide. Science and history must forever regret that the first European navigator who employed it did not leave a record of the experiment. What would be more interesting to-day than the log of the earliest voyage thus accomplished in European waters? The modern reader would surely give his sympathy, unreservedly, to a narrative in which the navigator should describe his wonder, his terror, his joy, when, throughout the voyage, he saw the tremulous index point invariably north; when, upon the dispersion of the clouds which had concealed the Star from view, it was found precisely where the needle indicated: when, upon its being diverted from the line of direction by some curious and perhaps incredulous experimenter, it slowly but surely returned, remaining fixed and constant through storm and calm, at midnight and at noon. What would be more interesting than the speculations of such a captain upon the cause of the marvellous dispensation? And what more amusing than the commentaries of the forecastle, and the learned explanations of the veteran salts to the raw recruits? But all this absorbing lore has hopelessly disappeared, and the mariner's compass will forever remain mysterious in its principle, mysterious in its origin, mysterious in its history. We shall have occasion to return to the subject from another point of view, when, in describing the Arctic voyages of the present century, we shall find James Clarke Ross standing upon the North Magnetic Pole. [Illustration: SHIP OF FOURTEENTH CENTURY.] [Illustration: TENERIFFE.] Section III. FROM THE APPLICATION OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE TO EUROPEAN NAVIGATION TO THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD UNDER MAGELLAN--1300--1519. CHAPTER XII. THE PORTUGUESE ON THE COAST OF AFRICA--THE SPANIARDS AND THE CANARY ISLES--DON HENRY OF PORTUGAL--THE TERRIBLE CAPE, NOW CAPE BOJADOR--THE SACRED PROMONTORY--DISCOVERY OF THE MADEIRAS--A DREADFUL PHENOMENON--A PROLIFIC RABBIT AND A WONDERFUL CONFLAGRATION--HOSTILITY OF THE PORTUGUESE TO FURTHER MARITIME ADVENTURE--THE BAY OF HORSES--THE FIRST GOLD DUST SEEN IN EUROPE--DISCOVERY OF CAPE VERD AND THE AZORES--THE EUROPEANS APPROACH THE EQUATOR--JOURNEY OF CADA-MOSTO--DEATH OF DON HENRY--PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THIS PRINCE. We are now to consider at some length a series of voyages, tedious and fruitless at first, successful in the end, undertaken by the Portuguese, in their age of maritime heroism, to discover a passage by sea to the famous commercial region of the Indies, some general knowledge of which had been preserved since the Persian, Macedonian, and Roman Empires. The achievements which we are about to narrate were so surprising, so significant, and so complete, that, as has been aptly remarked, they can never happen again in history, unless, indeed, Providence were to create new and accessible worlds for discovery and conquest, or to replunge mankind for ages into ignorance and superstition. But, before proceeding with the discoveries of the Portuguese, we must mention a previous discovery made by accident in the same region by the French and Spanish. About the year 1330, a French ship was driven among a number of islands which lay off the coast of the Desert of Sahara. These had been known to the ancients as the Fortunate Islands, and Juba of Mauritania, who is quoted by Pliny, calls two of them by name,--Trivaria, or Snow Island, and Canaria, or Island of Dogs. They had been lost to the knowledge of the Europeans for a thousand years, and it was a storm which revealed their existence, as we have said, to a vessel forced by stress of weather to escape from the coast into the open sea. The Spaniards profited by the vicinity of the group to make discoveries and settlements among them. Trivaria became Teneriffe, and Canaria the Grand Canary. It was here that superstition now placed the limits of navigation, and expressed the idea upon maps, by representing a giant armed with a formidable club, and dwelling in a tower, as threatening ships with destruction if they ventured farther out to sea. It is in this immediate neighborhood that we are now about to follow the flaring and patient enterprises of the Portuguese. [Illustration: CAPE BOJADOR.] Don Henry, the fifth son of John I. of Portugal, was placed by his father, in 1415, in command of the city of Ceuta, in Africa, which he had just conquered from the Moors. During his stay here, the young prince acquired much information relative to the seas and coasts of Western Africa, and this first suggested in his mind a plan for maritime discovery, which afterwards became his favorite and almost exclusive pursuit. He sent a vessel upon the first voyage of exploration undertaken by any nation in modern times. The commander was instructed to follow the western coast of Africa, and, if possible, to pass the cape called by the Portuguese Cape Non, Nun, or Noun. This had hitherto been considered the utmost southern limit of navigation by the Europeans, and had obtained its name from the negative term in the Portuguese language--implying that there was _nothing_ beyond. A current proverb expressed the idea thus: Whoe'er would pass the Cape of Non Shall turn again, or else begone. The fate of this vessel has not been recorded; but Don Henry continued for many years to send other vessels upon the same errand. Several of them proceeded one hundred and eighty miles beyond Cape Non, to another and more formidable promontory, to which they gave the name of Bojador--from _bojar_, to double--on account of the circuit which must be made to get around it, as it stretches more than one hundred miles into the ocean. The tides and shoals here formed a current twenty miles wide; and the spectacle of this swollen and beating surge, which precluded all possibility of creeping along close to the coast, filled these timid navigators with terror and amazement. They dared not venture out of sight of land, and, seized with a sudden remembrance of the fabulous horrors of the torrid zone, they regarded the interposition of this terrific cape as a providential warning, and sailed hastily back to Portugal. There, with that fancy for embellishment peculiar to sailors of all ages, they narrated stories, or, as would be said in the present day, yarns, calculated forever to dissuade from further ventures in the latitudes of Capes Non and Bojador. Don Henry, who had returned from Ceuta, resolved, in spite of these obstacles, to employ a portion of his revenue as Grand Master of the Order of Christ, in further maritime experiments. He fixed his residence upon the Sacrum Promontorium of the Romans, of which we have given a representation in the chapter describing the voyage of Pytheas. Here he indulged that passion for navigation and mathematics which he had hitherto been compelled to neglect. In 1418, two naval officers of his household volunteered their lives in an attempt to surmount the perils of Bojador. Juan Gonzalez Vasco and Tristan Vax Texeira embarked in a vessel called a _barcha_ and resembling a brig with topsails, and steered for the tremendous cape. Before reaching it, however, a violent storm drove them out to sea, and the crew, on losing sight of their accustomed landmarks, gave themselves up to despair. But, upon the abatement of the tempest, they found themselves in sight of an island four hundred miles to the west of the coast. Thus was discovered Porto Santo, the smallest of the group of the Madeiras, and thus was the feasibility and advantage of abandoning coasting voyages and venturing boldly out to sea made manifest. The adventurers returned to Portugal, and gave glowing accounts of the fertility of the soil, of the mildness of the climate, and the character of the inhabitants. Vessels were fitted out to colonize and cultivate the island; but a singular and most untoward event rendered it useless as a place of refreshment for navigators. A single rabbit littered during the voyage, and was let loose upon the island with her progeny: these multiplied so rapidly that in two years they eat every green thing which its soil produced. Porto Santo was therefore, for a time, abandoned. During their residence there, however, Gonzalez and Vax noticed with wonder a strange and perpetual appearance in the horizon to the southwest. A thick, impenetrable cloud hovered over the waves, and thence extended to the skies. Some believed it to be a dreadful abyss, and others a fabulous island, while superstition traced amid the gloom Dante's inscription on the portal of the Inferno: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! Gonzalez and Vax bore this state of suspense with the impatience of seamen, while from dawn to sunset the meteor, or the portent, preserved its uniform sullen aspect. At last they started in pursuit. It was urged, by a Spaniard named Juan de Morales, that the shadows hanging in the air could be accounted for by supposing that the soil of an island in the vicinity, being shaded from the sun by thick and lofty trees, exhaled dense and opaque vapors, which spread throughout the sky. As the ship advanced, the towering spectre was observed to thicken and to expand until it became horrible to view. The roaring of the sea increased, and the crew called on Gonzalez to flee from the fearful scene. But soon the weather became calm, and deeper shadows were observed through the portentous gloom. Faint images of rocks seemed to the excited crew the menacing figures of giants. The atmosphere was now transparent; the hoarse echo of the waves abated; the clouds dispersed, and the woodlands were unveiled. The seamen rested on their oars, while Gonzalez admired the wild luxuriance of nature in a spot which superstition had so long dreaded to approach. A rivulet, issuing from a glen, whose paler verdure formed a striking contrast with the deep green of venerable cedars, seemed to pour a stream of milk into a spacious basin. They searched in vain for traces of either inhabitants or cattle. The abundance of building-wood which the island furnished suggested the name of Madeira; and a tract covered with fennel (funcha) marked the site of the future town of Funchal. A modern poet thus describes in verse the scene which we have narrated in prose: "Bojador's rocks Arise at distance, frowning o'er the surf, That boils for many a league without. Its course The ship holds on, till, lo! the beauteous isle That shielded late the sufferers from the storm Springs o'er the wave again. Then they refresh Their wasted strength, and lift their vows to Heaven. But Heaven denies their further search; for ah! What fearful apparition, pall'd in clouds, Forever sits upon the western wave, Like night, and, in its strange portentous gloom Wrapping the lonely waters, seems the bounds Of nature? Still it sits, day after day, The same mysterious vision. Holy saints! Is it the dread abyss where all things cease? The favoring gales invite: the bowsprit bears Right onward to the fearful shade: more black The cloudy spectre towers: already fear Shrinks at the view, aghast and breathless. Hark! 'Twas more than the deep murmur of the surge That struck the ear; whilst through the lurid gloom Gigantic phantoms seem to lift in air Their misty arms. Yet, yet--bear boldly on: The mist dissolves: seen through the parting haze, Romantic rocks, like the depicted clouds, Shine out: beneath, a blooming wilderness Of varied wood is spread, that scents the air; Where fruits of golden rind, thick interspersed And pendent, through the mantling umbrage gleam Inviting." Gonzalez and Vax returned at once to Lisbon, where a public day of audience was appointed by the king to give every celebrity to this successful voyage. Madeira was at once colonized and cultivated; and it is said that Gonzalez, in order to clear a space for his intended city of Funchal, set the shrubs and bushes on fire, and that the flames, being communicated to the forests, burned for seven years. The sugarcane was planted, and its cultivation yielded immense sums until sugar-plantations were established in Brazil and thus interfered with the monopoly. The attention of the islanders was then transferred to the grape, and from that time to this Madeira has supplied the world with a favorite--nay, almost indispensable--brand of wine. Don Henry had now, it would appear, surmounted the principal obstacles opposed by ignorance or prejudice to the object of his laudable ambition. But there were many interests threatened by a continuance of discovery by sea. The military beheld with jealous dislike the distinction obtained by, and now willingly accorded to, a profession they held inferior to their own. The nobility dreaded the opening of a source of wealth which would raise the mercantile character, and in an equal degree lower the assumptions and pretensions of artificial social rank. Political economists suggested that there were barren spots in Portugal as capable of cultivation as any desert islands in the sea or any sandy coasts within the tropics. It was urged, too, that any Portuguese who should pass Cape Bojador would inevitably be changed into a negro, and would forever retain this brand of his temerity. While Henry was resisting the arguments of his detractors, his father died, and was succeeded upon the throne by his son Edward. The latter gave every encouragement to the maritime projects of his brother, and, in 1433, one Gilianez, having incurred the displeasure of Henry, determined to regain his favor by doubling Cape Bojador. Though we are without details of the voyage, we know at least that it was successful, and that the historians of the time represent the feat as more remarkable than any of the labors of Hercules. Gilianez reported that the sea beyond Bojador was quite as navigable as the Mediterranean, and that the climate and soil of the coast were agreeable and fertile. He was sent the next year, with Henry's cup-bearer, Baldoza, over the same route, and they advanced ninety miles beyond the cape with the conscious pride of being the first Europeans who had ventured so far towards the fatal vicinity of the equator. Though they saw no inhabitants, they noticed the tracks of caravans. They were ordered, in 1435, to resume their discoveries, and to prolong their voyage till they should meet with inhabitants. In latitude 24° north, one hundred and thirty miles beyond Bojador, two horses were landed, and two Portuguese youths, sixteen years of age, were directed to mount them and advance into the interior. They returned the next morning, saying that they had seen and attacked a band of nineteen natives. A strong force was despatched to the cave in which they were said to have taken shelter: their weapons only were found. This spot was called _Angra dos Cavallos_, or Bay of Horses. The two vessels continued on forty miles farther, to a place where they killed a large number of seals and took their skins on board. Their provisions were now nearly exhausted, and the expedition, having penetrated nearly two hundred miles beyond the cape, returned to Lisbon. [Illustration: CAPE VERD.] The Portuguese war with Tangiers now absorbed the entire naval and maritime resources of the country, and the plague of Lisbon stayed for a time the patriotic enterprises of Don Henry. In 1440-42, expeditions sent in the same direction resulted in the capture and transfer of several Moors to Portugal, and in the payment to their captors, as ransom, of the first GOLD DUST ever beheld by Europeans. A river, or arm of the sea, near the spot where this gold was paid, received, from that circumstance, the name of _Rio del Ouro_. This gold dust at once operated as a sovereign panacea upon the obstinacy and irritation of the public mind. It has been well remarked that "this is the primary date to which we may refer that turn for adventure which sprang up in Europe, and which pervaded all the ardent spirits in every country for the two succeeding centuries, and which never ceased till it had united the four quarters of the globe in commercial intercourse. Henry had stood alone for almost forty years; and, had he fallen before those few ounces of gold reached his country, the spirit of discovery might have perished with him, and his designs have been condemned as the dreams of a visionary." The sight of the precious metal placed the discoveries and enterprises of Don Henry beyond the reach of detraction or prejudice. Numerous expeditions were successively fitted out:--that of Nuno Tristan, in 1443, who discovered the Arguin Islands, thirty miles to the southeast of Cape Blanco; that of Juan Diaz and others in 1444; that of Gonzalez da Cintra in 1445, who, with seven others, was killed fifty miles south of the Rio del Ouro,--this being the first loss of life on the part of the Portuguese since they had undertaken their explorations. In 1446, a gentleman of Lisbon, by the name of Fernandez, determined to proceed farther to the southward than any other navigator, and accordingly fitted out a vessel under the patronage of the prince. Passing the Senegal River, he stood boldly on till he reached the most western promontory of Africa, to which, from the number of green palms which he found there, he gave the name of Cape Verd. Being alarmed by the breakers with which this shore is lined, he returned to Portugal with the gratifying news of his discovery. In 1447, Nuno Tristan sailed one hundred and eighty miles beyond Cape Verd, and reached the mouth of a river, which he called the Rio Grande, now the Gambia. He was attacked by the natives with volleys of poisoned arrows, of the effects of which all his crew and officers died but four; and the ship was at last brought home by these four survivors, after wandering two months upon the Atlantic. The next expedition, under Alvaro Fernando, carried out an antidote against the poisoned shafts of the enemy, which successfully combated the venom, as all who were wounded recovered. The Açores, or Azores, were now discovered, about nine hundred miles to the west of Portugal; but some doubts exist both as to the discoverer and the date. They doubtless received their name from the number of hawks which were seen there, Açor signifying hawk in Portuguese. Santa Maria and San Miguel were named from the saints upon whose days they were first seen. Terceira obtained its name from the circumstance that it was the third that was discovered. Fayal was so called from the beech-trees it produced; Graciosa, from its agreeable climate and fertile soil; Flores, from its flowers; and Corvo, from its crows. The various clusters of islands which thus arose in the Atlantic, from the Azores to Cape Verd, now formed a succession of maritime colonies and nurseries for seamen, and thus enabled navigators to avoid the coast, where the outrages they endured from Moors and negroes threatened to exhaust their patience. The ships of Don Henry had now penetrated within ten degrees of the equator, and the outcry against venturing into a region where the very air was fatal broke out afresh. In this point of view, therefore, the settlement of the Azores was a matter of no little importance. In 1449, King Alphonso gave his uncle, Don Henry, permission to colonize these islands. In 1457, Henry obtained for them several important privileges, the principal of which was the exemption of their inhabitants from any duties upon their commerce in Portuguese and Spanish ports. In the years 1455-56-57, a Venetian, by the name of Cada-Mosto, undertook, under the patronage of Don Henry, two voyages of discovery along the African coast. The narrative of his adventures, being in the first person, is the oldest nautical journal extant, with the single exception of one of Alfred the Great, still in existence. But, as it is principally occupied with descriptions of the manners and customs of the Africans, and as he did not proceed beyond the Rio Grande, thus adding little or nothing to maritime discovery, an account of his voyage would be out of place here. Don Henry died shortly after the return of Cada-Mosto from his second voyage, and for a season this calamity palsied the naval enterprise of his countrymen. They had been accustomed to derive from him, not only the encouragement necessary for the prosecution of such attempts, but even sailing directions and instructions upon all matters of detail. It can easily be conceived that the demise of this illustrious prince should temporarily dishearten navigators and paralyze discovery. Under his auspices the Portuguese had pushed their discoveries from Cape Non to Sierra Leone,--from the twenty-ninth to the eighth degree of north latitude. He died at Sagres--the city, half ship-yard, half arsenal, which he had founded upon the Sacrum Promontorium. [Illustration: SEA SWALLOW.] CHAPTER XIII. THE PORTUGUESE CROSS THE EQUATOR FROM GUINEA TO CONGO--JOHN II. CONCEIVES THE IDEA OF A ROUTE BY SEA TO THE INDIES--HIS ARTIFICES TO PREVENT THE INTERFERENCE OF OTHER NATIONS--THE OVERLAND JOURNEY OF COVILLAM TO INDIA--THE VOYAGE OF BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ--THE DOUBLING OF THE TREMENDOUS CAPE--ITS BAPTISM BY THE KING--INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF SUCCESS UPON PORTUGUESE AMBITION. During the remainder of the reign of Alphonso V.--which terminated in 1481--the Portuguese advanced over the coast and Gulf of Guinea and the adjacent islands to the northern boundary of the great kingdom of Congo, and had therefore arrived within six hundred and fifty marine leagues of the cape which forms the southern point of the African continent. They had crossed the equator, and not a man had turned black. They had entered into a brisk gold-trade with the savages of Guinea. John II., the son and successor of Alphonso, determined to fortify a point called Mina, from its abundant mines, and sent out twelve vessels with building materials and six hundred men. The negroes at first resisted, but finally yielded their consent. The fort was constructed and named St. Jorge da Mina; the quarry from which the first stone was taken being the favorite god of the tribe that inhabited the coast. John II. now added to his other titles that of Lord of Guinea. In the hope of opening a passage by sea to the rich spice-countries of India, he asked the support and countenance of the different states of Christendom. But the established mercantile interest of these countries was naturally hostile to a project which aimed at changing the route of Eastern commerce. John next applied to the Pope for an increase of power, and obtained from his holiness a grant of all the lands which his navigators should discover in sailing _from west to east_. The grand idea of sailing from east to west--one which implied a knowledge of the sphericity of the globe--had not yet, to outward appearance, penetrated the brain of either pope or layman. One Christopher Columbus, however, was already brooding over it in secret and in silence. It had hitherto been customary for Portuguese navigators to erect wooden crosses upon all lands discovered by them. John II. now commanded them to employ stone pillars six feet high, and to inscribe upon them, in the Latin and Portuguese languages, the date, the name of the reigning monarch, and that of the discoverer. Diego Cam was the first to comply with this command; he set up a column at the mouth of the river Congo, at which he arrived in 1484. An ambassador was sent by the chief of the territory to Portugal, where he embraced Christianity and was baptized by the name of John. The anxiety of the king now increased in reference to interference by other nations: he therefore sent to King Edward, of England, an earnest request that he would prevent the intended voyage to Guinea of two of his subjects, John Tintam and William Fabian, with which request Edward saw fit to comply. The Portuguese monarch now carefully concealed the progress of his navigators upon the African coast, and on all occasions magnified the perils of a Congo voyage. He declared that every quarter of the moon produced a tempest; that the shores were girt with inhospitable rocks; that the inhabitants were cannibals, and that the only vessels which could live in the waters of the torrid zone were caravels of Portuguese build. Suspecting that three sailors who had left Portugal for Spain intended to sell the secret to the foreign king, he ordered them to be pursued and taken. Two were killed, and the third was broken upon the wheel. "Let every man abide in his element:" said John; "I am not partial to travelling seamen." We now approach an era of great achievements. John determined, in 1486, to assist the attempts made on sea by journeys over land. Accordingly a squadron was fitted out under Bartholomew Diaz, one of the officers of the royal household, while Pedro de Covillam and Alphonso de Payra, both well versed in Arabic, received the following order respecting a land journey:--"To discover the country of Prester John, the King of Abyssinia, to trace the Venetian commerce in drugs and spices to its source, and to ascertain whether it were possible for ships to sail round the extremity of Africa to India." They went by way of Naples, the Island of Rhodes, Alexandria, and Cairo, to Aden in Arabia. Here they separated, Covillam proceeding to Cananor and Goa, upon the Malabar coast of Hindostan, and being the first Portuguese that ever saw India. He went from there to Sofala, on the eastern coast of Africa, and saw the Island of the Moon, now Madagascar. He penetrated to the court of Prester John, the King of Abyssinia, and became so necessary to the happiness of that potentate, that he was compelled to live and die in his dominions. An embassy sent by Prester John to Lisbon made the Portuguese acquainted with Covillam's adventures. Long ere this, however, Bartholomew Diaz had sailed upon the voyage which has immortalized his name. He received the command of a fleet, consisting of two ships of fifty tons each, and of a tender to carry provisions, and set sail towards the end of August, 1486, steering directly to the south. It is much to be regretted that so few details exist in reference to this memorable expedition. We know little more than the fact that the first stone pillar which Diaz erected was placed four hundred miles beyond that of any preceding navigator. Striking out boldly here into the open sea, he resolved to make a wide circuit before returning landward. He did so; and the first land he saw, on again touching the continent, lay one hundred miles to the eastward of the great southern cape, which he had passed without seeing it. Ignorant of this, he still kept on, amazed that the land should now trend to the east and finally to the north. Alarmed, and nearly destitute of provisions, mortified at the failure of his enterprise, Diaz unwillingly put back. What was his joy and surprise when the tremendous and long-sought promontory--the object of the hopes and desires of the Portuguese for seventy-five years, and which, either from the distance or the haze, had before been concealed--now burst upon his view! Diaz returned to Portugal in December, 1487, and, in his narrative to the king, stated that he had given to the formidable promontory he had doubled the name of "Cape of Tempests." But the king, animated by the conviction that Portugal would now reap the abundant harvest prepared by this cheering event, thought he could suggest a more appropriate appellation. The Portuguese poet, Camoens, thus alludes to this circumstance: "At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape, And from her raging tempests named the Cape. 'Thou southmost point,' the joyful king exclaimed, 'CAPE OF GOOD HOPE be thou forever named!'" Successful and triumphant as was this voyage of Diaz, it eventually tended to injure the interests of Portugal, inasmuch as it withdrew the regards of King John from other and important plans of discovery, and rendered him inattentive to the efforts of rival powers upon the ocean. It caused him, amid the intoxication of the moment, to refuse the services and reject the science of one who now offered to conduct the vessels of Portugal to the Indies by an untried route. It caused him, as we shall soon have occasion to narrate, to turn a deaf ear to the proposals of Columbus, who had humbly brought to Lisbon the mighty scheme with which he had been contemptuously repulsed from Genoa. We have arrived at the Great Era in Navigation,--the age of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan. [Illustration: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.] CHAPTER XIV. BIRTH OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS--HIS EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION--HIS FIRST VOYAGE--HIS MARRIAGE--HIS MARITIME CONTEMPLATIONS--HE MAKES PROPOSALS TO THE SENATE OF GENOA, THE COURT OF VENICE, AND THE KING OF PORTUGAL--THE DUPLICITY OF THE LATTER--COLUMBUS VISITS SPAIN--JUAN DE MARCHENA--COLUMBUS REPAIRS TO CORDOVA--HIS SECOND MARRIAGE--HIS LETTER TO THE KING--THE JUNTO OF SALAMANCA--COLUMBUS RESOLVES TO SHAKE THE DUST OF SPAIN FROM HIS FEET--MARCHENA'S LETTER TO ISABELLA--THE QUEEN GIVES AUDIENCE TO COLUMBUS--THE CONDITIONS STIPULATED BY THE LATTER--ISABELLA ACCEPTS THE ENTERPRISE, WHILE FERDINAND REMAINS ALOOF. Cristofero Colombo (in Spanish Colon, in French Colomb, in Latin and English Columbus) was born in Genoa, in the year 1435.[1] His father was a wool-comber, and Christopher followed, for a time, the same occupation. He was sent, however, at the age of ten years, to the University of Pavia, where he seems to have studied, though with little advantage, natural philosophy and astronomy, or, as it was then called, astrology. Returning to his father's bench, he worked at wool-combing, with his brother Bartholomew, till he was fourteen years of age. By this time the natural influence of the situation, the atmosphere, and the traditions of Genoa had awakened in him the tastes and the ambition of a sailor. The sea had long been the home and the life of the Genoese: it was the theatre of their glory, and their avenue to wealth. Christopher's great-uncle, Colombo, commanded a fleet intrusted to him by the king, and with which he carried on a predatory warfare against the Venetians and Neapolitans. His nephew joined his ship, and thus became acquainted with the whole extent of the Mediterranean, which was at that period ploughed by the pirates of the Archipelago and the corsairs of the Barbary States. As the vessel went armed to the teeth, the young sailor not only learned the art of navigation, but acquired those habits of discipline and subordination, of self-command and presence of mind, which afterwards served him in so good stead. This manner of life lasted for many years, till Columbus, at the age of thirty, was wrecked off the coast of Portugal, and reached, with some difficulty, the city of Lisbon. Here he found his brother Bartholomew settled, and occupying himself in drawing plans, charts, and maps for the use of navigators. Christopher joined him, and gained a sufficient livelihood by copying manuscripts and black-letter books, and aiding his brother in his avocations. He soon married an Italian lady named Felippa di Perestrello, whose father, now dead, had been Governor of the island of Porto Santo, one of the Madeiras. This union between the humble son of a wool-comber and the daughter of an Italian gentleman is deemed, by several of the biographers of Columbus, a strong proof of the nobility of his ancestry. After his marriage, he left for Porto Santo,--the sterile dowry of his wife,--where his first son, Diego, was born. We have already seen that the period was one of the greatest excitement and expectancy in regard to maritime discovery. Columbus had long reflected upon the existence of land in the west, upon the sphericity of the earth, and upon the possibility of crossing the Atlantic. He had already conceived the idea of reaching Asia by following the setting sun across the immensity of the waters. His mind, too, was kindled to religious enthusiasm by the allusions in the Bible to the universal diffusion of the gospel, and, in his dreams of nautical discovery, the belief that he was destined to be an apostle, sent to extend the dominion of the cross, predominated over more worldly aspirations. For years, while struggling with disappointment and harassed by poverty, he pursued this idea with the pertinacity of a monomaniac. When forty years old, and residing at Lisbon, he proposed to the Senate of Genoa to leave the Mediterranean by the Straits of Gibraltar and to proceed to the west, in the sea known as the Ocean, as far as the "lands where spices bloom," and thus circumnavigate the earth. The Genoese, whose maritime knowledge was confined to the Mediterranean, and who had no fancy for adventures upon the ocean, declined listening to the proposition, pretexting the penury of the treasury. It would also seem that overtures made by Columbus to the Council of Venice were similarly rejected. For a time, therefore, he abandoned all efforts to further his desires. In 1477, he made a voyage to Iceland, in order to discover whether it was inhabited, and even sailed one hundred leagues beyond it,--where, to his astonishment, he found the sea not frozen. Upon the accession of John II. to the throne of Portugal,--a sovereign whom we have already shown to be deeply interested in the progress of the art of navigation,--Columbus made known to him his opinions and his plans, assigning the extension of the gospel as the avowed and final object of the expedition. The subject was referred to a maritime junto and to a high council, by both of whom it was rejected as visionary and absurd. The king was induced, however, by one of his councillors, to equip a caravel and send it on a voyage of discovery upon the route traced out by Columbus, and thus obtain for himself the glory of the expedition, if successful. Columbus was invited to hand in to the Government his maps and charts, together with his written views upon the whole subject. This he did, supposing, in his simplicity, that another examination was to be made of the practicability of the venture. The king despatched a caravel, under the command of one of the ablest pilots of his marine, to follow the track indicated. The vessel left, but soon returned, her crew having been appalled at sight of the boundless horizon, and her captain having lost his courage in a storm. Columbus, indignant at this duplicity, secretly left Lisbon and returned home to Genoa. At this period he had the misfortune to lose his wife Felippa, who had shared his confidence in the existence of unknown lands, and whose encouragement had sustained him in his disappointments. This was in the year 1484. He renewed his proposal to the Senate of Genoa, which was again rejected. He now cast his eyes upon the other European powers, among whom the two sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, seemed to deserve the preference. Not far from Palos, upon the Spanish coast, and in sight of the ocean, stood, upon a promontory half hidden by pine-trees, a monastery--known as La Rabida--dedicated to the Virgin, and inhabited by Franciscan friars. The Superior, Juan Perez de Marchena, offered an example of fervent piety and of theological erudition, at the same time that he was a skilful mathematician and an ardent practitioner of the exact sciences. He was at once an astronomer, a devotee, and a poet. During the hours of slumber, he often ascended to the summit of the abbey, and, looking out upon the ocean,--known as the Sea of Darkness,--would ask himself if beyond this expanse of waters there was no land yet unclaimed by Christianity. He rejected as fabulous the current idea that a vessel might sail three years to the west without reaching a hospitable shore. The ocean, formidable to others and intelligible to few, was to him the abode of secrets which man was invited to unfold. One day a traveller rang at the gate and asked for refreshment for himself and his son. Being interrogated as to the object of his journey, he replied that he was on his way to the court of Spain to communicate an important matter to the king and queen. The traveller was Christopher Columbus. How he came to pass by this obscure monastery--which lay altogether off his route--has never been explained. A providential guidance had brought him into the presence of the man the best calculated to comprehend his purpose, in a country where he was totally without friends and with whose language he was completely unacquainted. A common sympathy drew them together; and Columbus, accepting for a period the hospitality of Marchena, made him the confidant of his views. Thus, while the colleges and universities of Christendom still held the childish theory that the earth was flat, and that the sea was the path to utter and outer darkness, Columbus and Marchena, filled with a spontaneous and implicit faith, intuitively believed in the sphericity of the globe and the existence of a nameless continent beyond the ocean. In theory they had solved the great question whether the ship which should depart by the west would come back by the east. Marchena gave Columbus a letter of recommendation to the queen's confessor, and, during his absence, promised to educate and maintain his son Diego. Thus tranquillized in his affections, and aided in his schemes, Columbus departed for Cordova. Here he was destined to undergo another disappointment; for the queen's confessor, his expected patron, treated him as a dreaming speculator and needy adventurer. He soon became again isolated and forgotten. In the midst of his indigence, however, a noble lady, Beatrix Enriquez, young and beautiful, though not rich, noticed his manners and his language, so evidently above his condition, and detained him at Cordova long after his hopes were extinguished. He married her: she bore him a son, Fernando, who afterwards became his father's biographer and historian. Columbus now wrote to the king a brief and concise letter, setting forth his desires. It was never answered. After a multitude of similar deceptions and disappointments, Geraldini, the ambassador of the Pope, presented him to Mendoza, the Grand Cardinal, through whose influence Columbus obtained an audience of Ferdinand, who appointed a junto of wise men to examine and report upon his scheme. This junto, made up of theologians and not of navigators and geographers, and which sat at Salamanca, opposed Columbus on biblical grounds, declared the theory a dangerous if not heretical innovation, and finally reported unfavorably. This decision was quite in harmony with public opinion in Salamanca, where Columbus was spoken of as "a foreigner who asserted that the world was round like an orange, and that there were places where the people walked on their heads." Seven years were thus wasted in solicitation, suspense, and disappointment. From time to time Columbus had reason to hope that his proposals would be reconsidered; but in 1490 the siege of Baza, the last stronghold of the Moors, and in 1491 the marriage of Isabella, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, with Don Alonzo of Portugal, absorbed the attention of their majesties to the exclusion of all scientific pre-occupations. Finally, when the matter was reopened, and the junto was reassembled, its president, Fernando de Talavera, was instructed to say that the exhaustion of the treasury necessitated the postponement of the whole subject until the close of the war with Grenada. At last, Columbus, reflecting upon the delays, refusals, affronts, and suspicions of which he had been the object, the time he had wasted, and the antechambers in which he had waited the condescension of the great, resolved to shake the dust of Spain from his feet, and returned to the abbey of his friend Marchena. He arrived there bearing upon his person the impress of poverty, fatigue, and exhausted patience. Marchena was profoundly annoyed by the reflection that the glory of the future discoveries of Columbus would be thus taken from Spain and conferred upon some rival power. Fearing, however, that he had too readily lent his ear to theories which had been twice rejected as puerile by a competent junto, he sent for an eminent mathematician of Palos, Garcia Hernandez, a physician by profession. They then conferred together upon the subject and pronounced the execution of the project feasible. The assertion that the famous sailor Martin Alonzo Pinzon was a party to the conference would appear to be an error. Pinzon was at this period at Rome, and did not see Columbus for a year or more afterwards. Marchena at once wrote an eloquent letter to Queen Isabella, and intrusted it to a pilot whose relations with the court rendered him a safe and reliable messenger. He gave the missive into the hands of the queen, and returned to the monastery the bearer of an invitation to Marchena to repair at once to Santa Fe, where the court then was, engaged in investing Grenada. Columbus borrowed a mule for the friar, who left secretly at midnight and arrived safely at Santa Fe. That Isabella should, at such a moment, when engaged in war and harassed by financial embarrassments, listen to a proposition which had been twice condemned by a learned body of men, is a circumstance which entitles her in the highest degree to a share in the glory which her protégé Columbus was, through her, destined to obtain. She received Marchena graciously, and instructed him to summon Columbus, to whom she sent twenty thousand maravedis--seventy dollars, nearly--with which to purchase a horse and a proper dress in which to appear before her. Columbus arrived at Santa Fe just before the surrender of Grenada and the termination of the struggle between the Crescent and the Cross. He was present at the delivery of the keys of the city and the abandonment of the Alhambra to Isabella by the Moorish king, Boabdil el Chico. After the official rejoicings, the queen gave audience to Columbus. As she already believed in the practicability of the scheme, the only subjects to be discussed were the means of execution, and the recompense to be awarded to Columbus in case of success. A committee was appointed to consider this latter point. Columbus fixed his conditions as follows: He should receive the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean: He should be Viceroy and Governor-General of all islands and mainlands he might discover: He should levy a tax for his own benefit upon all productions--whether spices, fruits, perfumes, gold, silver, pearls, or diamonds--discovered in, or exported from, the lands under his authority: And his titles should be transmissible in his family, forever, by the laws of primogeniture. These conditions, being such as would place the threadbare solicitor above the noblest house in Spain, were treated with derision by the committee, and Columbus was regarded as an insolent braggart. He would not abate one tittle of his claims, though, after eighteen years of fruitless effort, he now saw all his hopes at the point of being again dashed to earth. He mounted his mule, and departed for Cordova before quitting Spain forever. Two friends of the queen now represented the departure of Columbus as an immense and irreparable loss, and, by their supplications and protestations, induced her once more to consider the vast importance of the plans he proposed. Moved by their persuasions, she declared that she accepted the enterprise, not jointly, as the wife of the King of Spain, but independently, as Queen of Castile. As the treasury was depleted by the drains of war, she offered to defray the expenses with her own jewels. A messenger was despatched for Columbus, who was overtaken a few miles from Grenada. He at first hesitated to return; but, after reflecting upon the heroic determination of Isabella, who thus took the initiative in a perilous undertaking, against the report of the junto, the advice of her councillors, and in spite of the indifference of the king, he obeyed with alacrity, and returned to Santa Fe. He was received with distinction by the court and with affectionate consideration by the queen. Ferdinand remained a stranger to the expedition. He applied his signature to the stipulations, but caused it to be distinctly set down that the whole affair was undertaken by the Queen of Castile, at her own risk and peril,--thus excluding himself forever from lot or parcel in this transcendent enterprise. [Illustration: VIOLET ASTERIA.] [Illustration: THE FLEET OF COLUMBUS.] [Illustration: HEAD OF MERGONSER.] CHAPTER XV. THE PORT OF PALOS--THE SUPERSTITION OF ITS MARINERS--THE HAND OF SATAN--A BIRD WHICH LIFTED VESSELS TO THE CLOUDS--THE PINTA AND THE NINA--THE SANTA MARIA--CAPACITY OF A SPANISH CARAVEL--THE THREE PINZONS--THE DEPARTURE--COLUMBUS' JOURNAL--THE HELM OF THE PINTA UNSHIPPED--THE VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE--THE APPEARANCE OF THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC--FLOATING VEGETATION--THE SARGASSO SEA--ALARM, AND THREATENED MUTINY, OF THE SAILORS--PERPLEXITIES OF COLUMBUS--LAND! LAND! A FALSE ALARM--INDICATIONS OF THE VICINITY OF LAND--MURMURS OF THE CREWS--OPEN REVOLT QUELLED BY COLUMBUS--FLOATING REEDS AND TUFTS OF GRASS--LAND AT LAST--THE VESSELS ANCHOR OVER-NIGHT. Columbus received his letters-patent, granting him all the privileges and titles he had demanded, on the 30th of April, 1492. His son Diego was made page to the prince-royal,--a favor only accorded to children of noble families. The harbor of Palos was chosen as the port of departure; and its inhabitants, whose annual taxes consisted in furnishing two caravels, armed and manned, to the Government, were instructed to place them, within ten days, at the orders of Columbus. Persons awaiting trial or condemnation were to have the privilege of escaping verdict and punishment by embarking upon this terrible and perhaps fatal voyage. The mariners of Palos received these tidings with dismay. Nothing was certainly in those days more calculated to strike with terror the cautious coaster than a voyage upon the boundless, endless MARE TENEBROSUM, which, in the imagination not only of the ignorant, but even of the educated, was the home of chaos, if not the seat of Erebus. Upon the maps of the world designed at this period, the words Mare Tenebrosum were surrounded with figures of imps and devils, compared to which the Cyclops, griffins, and centaurs of mythology were modest and benign creations. The Arabians, who were forbidden by the Koran to depict the forms of animals, gave, as they thought, a fitting character to the sea, by representing the hand of Satan upon their charts, ready to clutch and drag beneath the waves all who should be so rash as to brave the displeasure of Bahr-al-Talmet. Besides Satan, besides the Leviathan and Behemoth, and other similar submarine terrors, the adventurer upon the open sea would find adversaries in the air; and, if he escaped the blast and the thunderbolt, it would be to fall a victim to the roc, that gigantic bird which lifted ships into the air and crunched them in the clouds. This roc, from terrifying the companions of Columbus, has descended to amuse children in the nautical romance of Sinbad the Sailor. Time passed, and the authorities of Palos had yet furnished nothing towards the voyage. Owners of vessels hid them in distant creeks, and the port became gradually a desert. The court ordered stringent measures, and at last a caravel named the Pinta was seized and laid up for repairs. All the carpenters turned sick, and neither rope, wood, nor tar were to be found. In vain did Marchena, the zealous Franciscan of Palos, who was beloved by all its inhabitants, undertake a crusade among the seafaring population in favor of the project: the whole Andalusian coast considered it chimerical and a temptation of Providence. Martin Alonzo Pinzon, one of three brothers, all seamen, and who had at this period lately returned from Rome, where the Pope's librarian had shown him a map bearing the representation of land in the Atlantic to the west, was introduced by Marchena to Columbus. The report soon became current that the brothers, whose credit and influence at Palos were very great, intended to risk the adventure on board of the caravel Nina, belonging to the younger of the three. The mariners took courage, and the city of Palos contributed its second caravel, the Gallega, making three in all. This Gallega, though old and heavy and unfit for the service, was stout and solid, and Columbus chose her for his flag-ship, rebaptizing her, however, the Santa Maria. Towards the end of July, the vessels were nearly ready for sea, and Columbus retired for a period to the monastery, where he passed his days in prayer and his nights in contemplation. On one occasion he left the convent and appeared among the workmen: he surprised the sailors, condemned by the city to accompany him to the west, engaged in putting the rudder of the Pinta together in such a manner that the first storm would unship it. Marchena redoubled his exhortations, and at last the expedition was ready. Popular belief has, in modern times, represented these vessels as much smaller than they probably really were. The term _caravel_, of doubtful etymology, affords no indication of their tonnage or capacity. Caravels were used, however, to transport troops, provisions, and artillery, and even to fight upon the high seas. They were sent by Portugal to the coast of Africa. John II. had, as we have narrated, sent a vessel to the west in order to anticipate Columbus; and this vessel was a caravel. The smallest of the three--the Nina--subsequently, when at sea, took on board fifty-six men, in addition to her own crew, a number of cannon, and a portion of the rigging of the Santa Maria, without lowering her water-line; and Columbus once threatened a Portuguese officer to take one hundred of his men on board the Nina and carry them to Castile. Neither she, nor the other two caravels, were the "light barks" or "shallops" which historians have delighted to represent them. The importance of the subject requires that we describe the three vessels with all the minuteness which the late researches of which we have spoken will authorize. The Santa Maria measured about ninety feet at the keel. She had four masts, two of them square-rigged, and two furnished with the lateen-sails of the Mediterranean. She had a deck extending from stem to stern, and a double deck at the poop, twenty-six feet long,--one-third, nearly, of her entire length. The double deck was pierced for cannon, the forward-deck being armed with smaller pieces, used for throwing stones and grape. From the journal of Columbus we know that he employed, in the manoeuvres, quite a complicated system of ropes and pulleys. Eight anchors hung over her sides. She represented in her general characteristics a modern vessel of twenty guns. She was manned by sixty-six men, not one of whom was from Palos,--one of them being an Englishman, and one an Irishman,--and was commanded by Columbus. The Pinta and the Nina were decked only forward and aft, the space in the middle being entirely uncovered. Their armament was equal to that of sloops of sixteen and ten guns respectively. Alonzo Pinzon commanded the Pinta, whose total crew, including the officers, numbered thirty men. The youngest of the three Pinzons, Vincent Yanez, commanded the Nina, with twenty-three men. The provisions of the fleet consisted of smoked beef, salt pork, rice, dried peas and other vegetables, herrings, wine, oil, vinegar, &c., sufficient for a year. As the day approached and the danger grew more imminent, the apprehension increased, and the sailors expressed a desire to reconcile themselves with Heaven and obtain absolution for their sins. They went in procession to the monastery of La Rabida, with Columbus at their head, and received the Eucharist from the hands of the Franciscan Marchena. Columbus, while waiting for the land-breeze, retired for a last time to the convent, to meditate upon the duties before him and to peruse his favorite book, the Gospel of St. John. At three o'clock in the morning of the 3d of August he was awakened by the murmuring of the long wished for wind in the tops of the pine-trees which bordered his cell. The coming day was Friday, a day inauspicious to sailors, but to him a day of good omen. He arose, summoned Marchena, from whom he received the communion, and then descended, on foot, the steep declivity which leads to Palos. The Santa Maria at once sent her boat to receive the admiral, and at the sound of the preparations and the orders of the pilots, the inhabitants awoke and opened wide their windows. Mothers, wives and sisters, fathers and brothers, ran in confusion to the shore, to bid a last farewell to those whom they might perhaps never see again. The royal standard, representing the Crucifixion, was hoisted at the main; and Columbus, standing upon the quarterdeck, gave the order to spread the sails in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus commenced the most memorable venture upon the ocean that man had then made or has made since,--the record of whose shortest day is more stored with incident than was the whole voyage of Jason, from the Whirling Rocks to the Golden Fleece. Columbus commenced his journal at once, and it is from the passages of this narrative which are still extant, that we shall derive an account of the voyage. He begins by declaring the object of the expedition to be to extend the blessings of the gospel to nations supposed to be without it. He adds, that he shall write at night the events of the day, and each morning the occurrences of the night. He will mark the lands he shall discover upon the chart, and will banish sleep from his eyelids in order to watch the progress of his vessel. All went well till Monday, when the helm of the Pinta fell to pieces,--this accident having been a second time prepared by her refractory owners. The fleet made the best of their way to the Canaries, where the Pinta was repaired. They sailed again on the 6th of September, narrowly escaping attack from three Portuguese caravels that King John had sent against Columbus, indignant that he should have transferred to another power the proposal he had once made to himself. Thus far the route had lain over the beaten track between the continent and the Canaries, along the coast of Africa. As they now launched into the open sea, and as the Peak of Teneriffe sank under the horizon behind them, the heart of Columbus beat high with joy, while the courage of his officers and men died away within them. The Admiral kept two logs, one for himself and one for the crew, the latter scoring a distance less than that which they had really made, and thus keeping them in ignorance of their actual distance from home. His course was to the southwest. The sky, the stars, the horizon, the water, changed visibly as they advanced. Familiar constellations disappeared, others took their place. On the 13th of September, Columbus observed a strange and fearful phenomenon. The needle, which till then had been infallible, swerved from the Polar star, and tremblingly diverged to the northwest. The next day, this variation was still more marked. Columbus took every precaution to conceal a discovery so discouraging from the fleet, and one which alarmed even him. The water now became more limpid, the climate more bland, and the sky more transparent. There was a delicate haze in the air, and a fragrance peculiar to the sea in the fresh breeze. Aquatic plants, apparently newly detached from the rocks or the bed of the ocean, floated upon the waves. For the first time in the history of the world, the tranquil beauties and the solemn splendors of the tropical Atlantic were passing before the gaze of human beings. According to the journal of Columbus, "nothing was wanting in the scene except the song of the nightingale to remind him of Andalusia in April." The proximity of land seemed often to be indicated by the odor with which the winds were laden, by the abundance of marine plants, and the presence of birds. Columbus would not alter his course, as he did not wish to abate the confidence of his men in his own belief that land was to be found by steering west. The floating vegetation now became so abundant that it retarded the passage of the vessels. The sailors became seriously alarmed. They thought themselves arrived at the limit of the world, where an element, too unstable to tread upon, too dense to sail through, admonished the rash stranger to take warning and return. They feared that the caravels would be involved beyond extrication, and that the monsters lying in wait beneath the floating herbage would make an easy meal of their defenceless crews. The trade-winds, then unknown, were another cause of anxiety; for, if they always blew to the westward, as they appeared to do, how could the ships ever return eastward to Europe? In the midst of the apprehensions excited by these causes, which nearly drove the terrified men to mutiny, a contrary wind sprang up, and the revolt was thus providentially quelled. Columbus wrote in his journal, "this opposing wind came very opportunely, for my crew was in great agitation, imagining that no wind ever blew in these regions by which they could return to Spain." But the terrors of the ignorant men soon broke out afresh. Seaweed and tropical marine plants reappeared in heavy masses, and seemed to shut in the ships among their stagnant growth. The breeze no longer formed billows upon the surface of the waters. The sailors declared that they were in those dismal quarters of the world where the winds lose their impulse and the waters their equilibrium, and that soon fierce aquatic monsters would seize hold of the keels of the ships and keep them prisoners amid the weeds. In the midst of the perplexities to which Columbus was thus exposed, the sea became suddenly agitated, though the wind did not increase. This revival of motion in the element they thought relapsed into sullen inactivity, again cheered the crew into a temporary tranquillity.[2] At sunset on the 25th, Alonzo Pinzon, rushing excitedly upon the quarterdeck of the Pinta, shouted, "Land! land! My lord, I was the first to see it!" The sailors of the Nina clambered joyfully into the tops, and Columbus fell upon his knees in thanksgiving. But the morn dissipated the illusion, and the ocean stretched forth its illimitable expanse as before. On the 1st of October, one of the lieutenants declared with anguish that they were seventeen hundred miles from the Canaries, intelligence which terribly alarmed the crew, though they had really made a much greater distance, being actually twenty-one hundred miles from Teneriffe, according to Columbus' private reckoning. The indications of the vicinity of land had been so often deceitful, that the crew no longer put faith in them, and fell from discouragement into taciturnity, and from taciturnity into insubordination. The discontent was general, and no efforts were made to conceal it. In their mutinous conversations, they spoke contemptuously of Columbus as "the Genoese," as a charlatan and a rogue. Was it just, they said, that one hundred and twenty men should perish by the caprice and obstinacy of one single man, and that man a foreigner and an impostor? If he persisted in proceeding "towards his everlasting west, which went on and on, and never came to an end," he ought to be thrown into the sea and left there. On their return they could easily say that he had fallen into the waves while gazing at the stars. A revolt was agreed upon between the crews of the three ships, who were on several occasions brought into communication by the sending of boats from the one to the other. The captains of the Pinta and the Nina were aware of what was transpiring, but for the time being maintained a cautious neutrality. The sea continued calm as the Guadalquivir at Seville, the air was laden with tropical fragrance, and in twenty-four hours the fleet, apparently at rest, glided imperceptibly over one hundred and eighty miles. This motionless rapidity, as it were, thoroughly terrified the crew, and, breaking out into open mutiny, they refused, on the 10th of October, to go any farther westward. The Nina and the Pinta rejoined the Santa Maria; the brothers Pinzon, followed by their men, leaped upon her deck, and commanded Columbus to put his ship about and return to Palos. At this most vital point of the narrative, our authorities are contradictory, while the journal of Columbus himself is silent. According to Oviedo,--a writer who obtained his information from an enemy of Columbus,--the latter yielded to his men so far as to propose a compromise, and to consent to return unless land was discovered in three days' sail. To say the least, such a submission to the menaces and behests of his infuriated subalterns was not an act compatible with the character of Columbus, with his well known self-reliance, and his openly expressed and constantly reiterated confidence in the Divine protection. The Catholic biography, which we have quoted, attributes the pacification of the revolt directly to the Divine interference, asserting that no human philosophy can explain this sudden and complete suspension of the prevailing exasperation and animosity. It is certain, at any rate, that the demonstration, which began at nightfall, had ceased long before the morning's dawn. And now pigeons flew in abundance about the ships, and green canes and reeds floated languidly by. A bush, its branches red with berries, was recovered from the water by the Nina. A tuft of grass and a piece of wood, which appeared to have been cut by some iron instrument, were picked up by the Pinta. Such indications were sufficient to sustain the most dejected. Still the sun sank to rest in a horizon whose pure line was unbroken by land and unsullied by terrestrial vapor. The caravels were called together, and, after the usual prayer to the Virgin, Columbus announced to them that their trials were at an end, and that the morrow's light would bring with it the realization of all their hopes. The pilots were instructed to take in sail after midnight, and a velvet pourpoint was promised to him who should first see land. The crews which, two days before, considered Columbus as a trickster and a cheat, now received his word as they would a gospel from on high. The expectation and impatience which pervaded the three ships were indescribable. No eye was closed that night. The Pinta, being the most rapid sailer, was a long way in advance of the others. The Nina and the Santa Maria followed slowly, for sail had now been shortened, in her track. Suddenly a flash and a heavy report from the Pinta announced the joyful tidings. A Spaniard of Palos, named Juan Rodriguez Bermejo, had seen the land and won the velvet pourpoint. Columbus fell upon his knees, and, raising his hands to heaven, sang the Te Deum Laudamus. The sails were then furled and the fleet lay to. Arms and holiday dresses were prepared, for they knew not what the day would bring forth, whether the land would offer hospitality or challenge to combat. The great mystery of the ocean was to be revealed on the morrow: in the meantime, the night and the darkness had in their keeping the mighty secret--whether the land was a savage desert or a spicy and blooming garden. [Illustration: THE NINA HOMEWARD BOUND.] [Illustration: COLUMBUS TAKING POSSESSION OF GUANAHANI.] CHAPTER XVI. DISCOVERY OF GUANAHANI--CEREMONIES OF TAKING POSSESSION--EXPLORATION OF THE NEIGHBORING ISLANDS--SEARCH FOR GOLD--CUBA SUPPOSED BY COLUMBUS TO BE JAPAN--THE CANNIBALS--HAITI--RETURN HOMEWARDS--A STORM--AN APPEAL TO THE VIRGIN--ARRIVAL AT THE AZORES--CONDUCT OF THE PORTUGUESE--COLUMBUS AT LISBON--AT PALOS--AT BARCELONA--COLUMBUS' SECOND VOYAGE--DISCOVERY OF GUADELOUPE, ANTIGOA, SANTA CRUZ, JAMAICA--ILLNESS OF COLUMBUS--TERRIBLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE SPANIARDS AND THE SAVAGES--COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SPAIN--HIS RECEPTION BY THE QUEEN--HIS THIRD VOYAGE--THE REGION OF CALMS--DISCOVERY OF TRINIDAD AND OF THE MAIN LAND--ASSUMPCION AND MARGARITA--COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. On Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, the kindling dawn revealed to the wondering eyes of our adventurers the bright colors and early-morning beauties of an island clothed in verdure, and teeming with the fruits and vegetation of mid-autumn in the tropics. Its surface undulated gently, massive forests skirted the spots cleared for cultivation, and the sparkling water of a fresh lake glittered amid the luxuriant foliage which encircled it. An anchorage was easily found, and Columbus, dressed in official costume, and bearing the royal standard in his hand, landed upon the silent and deserted shore. He planted the standard, and, prostrating himself before it, kissed the earth he had discovered; he then uttered the since famous prayer, the opening lines of which were, by order of the Spanish sovereigns, repeated by subsequent discoverers upon all similar occasions. He drew his sword, and, naming the land San Salvador, in memory of the Saviour, took possession of it for the Crown of Castile. The crews recognised Columbus as Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of the Indies. The most mutinous and outrageous thronged closely about him, and crouched at the feet of one who, in their eyes, had already wealth and honors in his gift. The island at which Columbus had landed was called by the natives Guanahani, and is now one of the archipelago of the Bahamas. The inhabitants had retreated to the woods at the arrival of the strangers; but, being gradually reassured, suffered their confidence to be won, and received from them fragments of glass and earthen-ware as presents possessing a supernatural virtue. Columbus took seven of them on board, being anxious to convey them to Spain and offer them to the king, promising however to return them. Then he weighed anchor and explored the wonderful region in which these lovely islands lie. New lands were constantly, as it were, rising from the waves; the eye could hardly number them, but the seven natives called over a hundred of them by name. He landed successively at Concepçion, la Fernandine, and Isabella; at all of which he was enchanted by the magnificence of the vegetation, the superb plumage of the birds, and the delicious fragrance with which the forests and the air were filled. He sought everywhere for traces of gold in the soil, for he hoped thus to interest Spain in a continuance of his explorations. Such was his desire to obtain a sight of the precious metal, that he passed rapidly from island to island, indifferent to every other subject. At last, the natives spoke of a large and marvellous land, called Cuba, where there were spices, gold, ships, and merchants. Supposing this to be the wonderful Cipango, described by Marco Polo, he set sail at once. It was now the 24th of October. On the 28th, at dawn, Columbus discovered an island, which, in its extent and in its general characteristics, reminded him strongly of Sicily, in the Mediterranean. As he approached, his senses underwent a species of confusion from the miraculous fertility and luxuriance of the vegetation. In his journal, he does not attempt to describe his emotions, but, preserving the silence of stupefaction, says simply that "he never saw any thing so magnificent." He no longer doubted that this beautiful spot was the real Cipango. He landed, gave to the island the name of Juana, and commenced a search for gold, which resulted in a complete disappointment. On leaving Cuba, he gave it a name which he thought more appropriate than Juana, styling its eastern extremity Alpha and Omega, being, as he thought, the region where the East Indies finished and where the West Indies began. This error of Columbus was the cause of the North American savages being called Indians--an error which has been perpetuated in spite of the progress of geographical discovery, and which will doubtless endure forever. On the 6th of December, he discovered an island, named Haiti by the natives, and which he called Hispaniola, as it reminded him of the fairest tracts of Spain. He found that the inhabitants had the reputation with their neighbors of devouring human flesh; they were called _Caniba_ people, an epithet which, after the necessary modifications, has passed into all European languages. The Caribs were the nation meant. At this point, the captain of the Pinta deserted the fleet, in order to make discoveries on his own account. Soon after, the Santa Maria was wrecked upon the coast of Haiti, and Columbus, thinking that this accident was intended as an indication of the Divine will that he should establish a colony there, built a fort of live timber, in which he placed forty-two men. He weighed anchor in the Nina, on the 11th of January, 1493, and shortly after fell in with the Pinta. He pretended to believe and accept the falsehoods and contradictions which Pinzon alleged as the reasons for his abandonment of the fleet. The two vessels now turned their heads east, Columbus hoping to discover a cannibal island on his way, as he wished to carry a professor of the disgusting practice to Spain. No event of moment happened until the 12th of February, a month afterwards, when a terrible storm burst over the hitherto tranquil waters. Its violence increased to such a degree that nothing remained but a desperate appeal to "Mary, the Mother of God." A quantity of dried peas, equal in number to the number of men on board the Nina, were placed in a sailor's woollen cap, one of them being marked with a cross. He who should draw this pea, was to go on a pilgrimage to the church of Saint Mary at Guadeloupe, bearing a candle weighing five pounds, in case the ship were saved. Columbus was the first to draw, and he drew the marked pea. Other vows of this sort were made, and, finally, one to go in procession, and with bare feet, to the nearest cathedral of whatever land they should first reach. The admiral, fearing that his discovery would perish with him, withdrew to his cabin, during the fiercest period of the tumult, and wrote upon parchment two separate and concise narratives of his discoveries. He enclosed them both in wax, and, placing one in an empty barrel, threw it into the sea. The other, similarly enclosed, he attached to the poop of the Nina, intending to cut it loose at the moment of going down. Happily, the storm subsided; and, on the 17th, the shattered vessels arrived at the southernmost island of the Azores, belonging to the King of Portugal. Here half the crew went in procession to the chapel, to discharge their vow; and, while Columbus was waiting to go with the other half, the Portuguese made a sally, surrounded the first portion, and made them prisoners. After a useless protest, Columbus departed with the men that remained, having with him, in the Nina, but three able-bodied seamen. Another storm now threw him upon the coast of Portugal, at the mouth of the Tagus. Here he narrowly escaped shipwreck a second time, but, with the assistance of the wonder-stricken inhabitants, reached in safety the roads of Rostello. The king, though jealous of the maritime renown he was acquiring for Spain, received him with distinction and dismissed him with presents. Columbus arrived, in the Nina, at Palos on Friday, the 15th of March, seven months and twelve days after his departure. Alonzo Pinzon had already arrived in the Pinta, and, believing Columbus to have perished in the storm, had written to the court, narrating the discoveries made by the fleet, and claiming for himself the merit and the recompense. [Illustration: RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS BY FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.] It is not our province to relate the history of the career of Columbus upon land, nor have we space so to do. We can only briefly allude to his discharge, by pilgrimages to holy shrines, of the vows, which, three times out of four, had, by lot, devolved upon him: to the week he spent with Marchena, and in the silence of the cloister, at la Rabida; to the princely honors he received in his progress to Barcelona, whither the court had gone; to his reception by the king and queen, in which Ferdinand and Isabella rose as he approached, raised him as he kneeled to kiss their hands, and ordered him to be seated in their presence. The Spanish sovereigns soon fitted out a new expedition; and, on the 25th of September, 1493, Columbus left the port of Cadiz with seventeen vessels, five hundred sailors, soldiers, citizens and servants, and one thousand colonists, three hundred of whom had smuggled themselves on board. He sailed directly for the Carib or Cannibal Islands, and on the 3d of November arrived in their midst. He named one of them Maria-Galanta, from his flag-ship; another, Guadeloupe, from one of the shrines of Spain where he had discharged a vow. He here found numerous and disgusting evidences of the truth of the story that these people lived on human flesh. The island which he named Montserrat, in honor of the famous sanctuary of that name, had been depopulated by the Caribs. He gave to the next land the name of Santa Maria l'Antigoa; it is now known as Antigoa, simply. Another he called Santa Cruz, in honor of the cross. Returning to Hispaniola, he found the fort destroyed and the garrison massacred. Having founded the city of Isabella upon another part of the island, he sent back twelve of his ships to Spain, and with three of the remaining five, one of which was the famous Nina, started upon a voyage of discovery in the surrounding waters. He touched at Alpha and Omega, and inquired of the savages where he could find gold. They pointed to the south. Two days afterwards, Columbus descried lofty mountains, with blue summits, upon an island to which he gave the name of Jamaica, in honor of St. James. Then returning to Cuba, and following the southern coast a distance sufficient to convince the three crews that it was a continent and not an island, he took possession of it as such. He then wished to revisit the Caribbean Islands and destroy the boats of the inhabitants, that they might no longer prey upon their neighbors, but the direction of the winds would not permit him to sail to the west. Returning to Isabella, he met his brother Bartholomew, who had just arrived from Spain, bearing a letter from the queen. He also found, to his extreme regret, that the officers he had left in charge of the colony had transcended their authority and had abandoned their duties. Margarit, the commander, and Boil, the vicar, had departed in the ship that had brought Bartholomew. Overcome by the toils and privations he had undergone, and sick at heart at the sight of the disasters under which the colony was laboring, he fell into a deep lethargy, and for a long time it was doubtful whether he would ever awake again. He did awake, however, but only to a poignant consciousness of the miseries the Spanish invasion had brought upon the island. The Spaniards and Indians had become, through the treachery of the former, hostile during his absence, and battles, surprises, and murders were of daily occurrence. Seeing the necessity of a vigorous effort in order to maintain his authority over the natives, he led his two hundred and twenty men against a furious throng of naked, painted savages, whose numbers were declared by the Spaniards to be no less than one hundred thousand. The Indians were defeated with great slaughter, and were subjected to the payment of tribute and to the indignity of taxation. At this period, an officer, named Juan Aguado, sent out by Ferdinand and Isabella upon the malicious representations of Margarit and Father Boil, to inquire into the state of the colony and the conduct of Columbus, arrived in the island. Columbus determined to return himself to Spain, to present in person a justification of his course. A violent storm having destroyed all the vessels except the Nina, Columbus took the command of her, Aguado building a caravel for himself from the wrecks of the others. They both left Isabella on the 10th of March, 1496, taking with them the sick and disappointed, to the number of two hundred and twenty-five, and thirty-two Indians, whom they forced to accompany them. They touched at Guadeloupe for wood and water, and, after repulsing an attack of Caribs, contrived to gain their confidence, and to obtain the articles of which they stood in need. They left again on the 20th of April. After a long and painful voyage, in the course of which it was proposed to throw the Indians overboard in order to lessen the consumption of food, they arrived, without material damage, at the port of Cadiz. Columbus wrote to the king and queen, and during the month that elapsed before their answer was received, allowed his beard to grow, and, disgusted with the world, assumed the garments and the badges of a Franciscan friar. He was soon summoned to Burgos, then the residence of the court, where Isabella, forgetting the calumnies of which he had been the object and the accusations his enemies had heaped upon him, loaded him with favors and kindness. Numerous circumstances prevented Columbus from requesting the immediate equipment of another expedition. It was not till the 30th of May, 1498, that he sailed again for his discoveries in the West. He left San Lucar with six caravels, three laden with supplies and reinforcements for the colony at Isabella, and three intended to accompany himself upon a search for the mainland, which he believed to exist west of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica. On the 15th of July, in the latitude of Sierra Leone, they came into the region of calms, where the water seemed like molten silver beneath a tropical sun. Not a breath of air stirred, not a cloud intercepted the fiery rays which fell vertically upon them from the skies. The provisions decayed in the hold, the pitch and tar boiled upon the ropes. The barrels of wine and water opened in wide seams, and scattered their precious contents to waste. The grains of wheat were wrinkled and shrivelled as if roasting before the fire. For eight days this incandescence lasted, till an east wind sprang up and wafted them to a more temperate spot in the torrid zone. On the 31st of July land was discovered in the west,--three mountain peaks seeming to ascend from one and the same base. Columbus had made a vow to give the name of the Trinity to the first land he should discover, and this singular triune form of the land now before them was noticed as a wonderful coincidence by all on board. It was named, therefore, Trinidad; it lies off the northern coast of Venezuela, in the Continent of South America. The innumerable islands, formed by the forty mouths of the Orinoco, were next discovered, and shortly afterwards the continent to the north, which Columbus judged to be the mainland from the volume of water brought to the sea by the Orinoco. Columbus was not the first to set foot upon the New World he had discovered: being confined to his cabin by an attack of ophthalmia, he sent Pedro de Terreros to take possession in his stead. This discovery of the Southern portion of the Western Continent was, however, as we shall soon have occasion to show, subsequent to that of the Northern portion by John Cabot, who visited Labrador in 1497. The fleet was unable to remain in these seductive regions, owing to the scarcity of provisions and the increasing blindness of the admiral. He would have been glad to stay in a spot which, in his letter to his sovereigns, he describes as the Terrestrial Paradise, the Orinoco being one of the four streams flowing from it, as described in the Bible. The fact that this river throws from its forty issues fresh water enough to overcome the saltness of the sea to a great distance from the shore, was one of the circumstances which gave to this portion of the world the somewhat marvellous and fantastic character with which the imagination of Columbus invested it. He sailed at once from the continent to Hispaniola, discovering and naming the islands of Assumpcion and la Margarita. At Hispaniola he again found famine, distress, rebellion, and panic on every side. Malversation and mutiny had brought the colony to the very verge of ruin. We have not space to detail the manoeuvres and machinations by which the mind of Ferdinand was prejudiced towards Columbus, and, in consequence of which, Francesco Bobadilla was sent by him in July, 1500, to investigate the charges brought against the admiral. Arrogant in his newly acquired honors, Bobadilla took the part of the malcontents, and, placing Columbus in chains, sent him back to Spain. He arrived at Cadiz on the 20th of November, after the most rapid passage yet made across the ocean. The general burst of indignation at the shocking spectacle of Columbus in fetters, compelled Ferdinand to disclaim all knowledge of the transaction. Isabella accorded him a private audience, in which she shed tears at the sufferings and indignities he had undergone. The king kept him waiting nine months, wasting his time in fruitless applications for redress, and finally appointed Nicholas Ovando Governor of Hispaniola in his place. [Illustration: COLUMBUS IN CHAINS AT CADIZ.] CHAPTER XVII. THE FAILING HEALTH OF COLUMBUS--HIS FOURTH VOYAGES--MARTINIQUE, PORTO RICCO, NICARAGUA, COSTA RICCA, PANAMA--HIS SEARCH FOR A CHANNEL ACROSS THE ISTHMUS--HE PREDICTS AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON AT JAMAICA--HIS RETURN--THE DEATH OF ISABELLA--COLUMBUS PENNILESS AT VALLADOLID--HIS DEATH--HIS FOUR BURIALS--THE INJUSTICE OF THE WORLD TOWARDS COLUMBUS--CHRISTOPHER PIGEON--AMERIGO VESPUCCI--THE NEW WORLD NAMED AMERICA--ERRORS OF MODERN HISTORIANS--THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA--JOHN CABOT IN LABRADOR--SEBASTIAN CABOT IN HUDSON'S BAY--VINCENT YANEZ PINZON AT THE MOUTHS OF THE AMAZON. Columbus was now advanced in years, and his sufferings and labors had dimmed his eyesight and bowed his frame; but his mind was yet active, and his enthusiasm in the cause of discovery irrepressible. He had convinced himself, and now sought to convince the queen, that to the westward of the regions he had visited the land converged, leaving a narrow passage through which he hoped to pass, and proceed to the Indies beyond. This convergence of the land did in reality exist, but the strait of water he expected to find was, and is, a strait of land--the Isthmus of Panama. However, the queen approved of the plan, and gave him four ships, equipped and victualled for two years. Columbus had conceived the immense idea of passing through the strait, and returning by Asia and the Cape of Good Hope, thus circumnavigating the globe and proving its spherical form. He departed from Cadiz on the 8th of May, 1502. He touched at, and named, Martinique early in June, and afterwards at St. Jean, now Porto Ricco. Ovando refused his request to land at Isabella to repair his vessel and exchange one of them for a faster sailer. Escaping a terrible storm, which wrecked and utterly destroyed the splendid fleet in which the rapacious pillagers of the island had embarked their ill-gotten wealth, he was driven by the winds to Jamaica, and thence by the currents to Cuba. Here a strong north wind enabled him to sail south southwest, towards the latitude where he expected to find the strait. He touched the mainland of North America at Truxillo, in Honduras, and coasted thence southward along the Mosquito shore, Nicaragua, Costa Ricca, and Panama. Here he explored every sinuosity and indentation of the shore, seeking at the very spot where civilization and commerce now require a canal, a passage which he considered as demanded by Nature and accorded by Providence. He followed the isthmus as far as the Gulf of Darien, and then, driven by a furious tropical tempest, returned as far as Veragua, in search of rich gold mines of which he had heard. The storm lasted for eight days, concluding with a terrible display of water-spouts, which Columbus is said to have regarded as a work of the devil, and to have dispelled by bringing forth the Bible and exorcising the demon. One of the water-spouts passed between the ships without injuring them, and spun away, muttering and terrible, to spend its fury elsewhere. [Illustration: THE WATERSPOUT.] On reaching Veragua, Columbus sent his brother up a river, which he called Bethlehem, or by contraction Belem, to seek for gold. His researches seeming to indicate the presence of the precious metal, Columbus determined to establish a colony upon the river, an attempt which was defeated by the hostility of the natives. Their fierce resistance and the crazy state of his vessels forced Columbus, in April, 1503, to make the best of his way to Hispaniola with two crowded vessels, which, being totally unseaworthy, he was obliged to run ashore at Jamaica. There Columbus awed the natives and subdued them to obedience and submission, by predicting an eclipse of the moon. Thus left without a single vessel, he had no resource but to send to Hispaniola for assistance. After a period of fifteen months lost in quelling mutinies and in opposing the cruelties and exactions of the new masters of the island, he obtained a caravel, and again sailed for Spain on the 12th of September, 1504. During the passage, he was compelled, by a severe attack of rheumatism, to remain confined to his cabin. His tempest-tossed and shattered bark at last cast anchor in the harbor of San Lucar. He proceeded to Seville, where he heard, with dismay, of the illness, and then of the death, of his patroness Isabella. Sickness now detained him at Seville till the spring of 1505, when he arrived, exhausted and paralytic, before the king. Here he underwent another courtly denial of redress. He was now without shelter and without hope. He was compelled to borrow money with which to pay for a shabby room at a miserable inn. He lingered for a year in poverty and neglect, and died at last in Valladolid, on the 20th of May, 1506. The revolting ingratitude of Ferdinand of Spain thus caused the death, in rags, in destitution, and in infirmity, of the greatest man that has ever served the cause of progress or labored in the paths of science. Had we written the life of Columbus, and not thus briefly sketched the history of his voyages, we should have found it easy to assert and maintain his claim to this commanding position. The agitation of the life of Columbus followed his remains to the grave,--for he was buried four successive times, and his dead body made the passage of the Atlantic. It was first deposited in the vaults of the Franciscan Convent of Valladolid, where it remained seven years. In 1513, Ferdinand, now old and perhaps repentant, caused the coffin to be brought from Valladolid to Seville, where a solemn service was said over it in the grand cathedral. It was then placed in the chapel belonging to the Chartreux. In 1536, the coffin was transported to the city of St. Domingo, in the island of Hispaniola. Here it remained for two hundred and sixty years. In 1795, Spain ceded the island to France, stipulating that the ashes of Columbus should be transferred to Spanish soil. In December of the same year, the vault was opened, and the fragments which were found--those of a leaden coffin, mingled with bones and dust returned to dust--were carefully collected. They were carried on board the brigantine Discovery, which transported them to the frigate San Lorenzo, by which they were taken to Havana, where, in the presence of the Governor-General of Cuba and in the midst of imposing ceremonies, they were consigned to their fourth and final resting-place. It will not be altogether out of place to group together here the numerous and remarkable instances of the world's injustice and ingratitude towards Columbus. We have said that he died in penury at Valladolid. A publication, issued periodically in that city from 1333 to 1539, chronicling every event of local interest--births, marriages, deaths, fires, executions, appointments, church ceremonies--did not mention, or in any way allude to, the death of Columbus. Pierre Martyr, a poet of Lombardy, once his intimate friend, and who had said, at the time of his first voyage, that by singing of his discoveries he would descend to immortality with him, seemed to think, later in life, that he should peril his chances of immortality were he to sing of his death, for his muse held her peace. In 1507, a collection of voyages was published by Fracanzo de Montalbodo, in which no mention was made of Columbus' fourth voyage, and in which Columbus himself was alluded to as still alive. In 1508, a Latin translation of this work was published, in the preface to which Columbus was mentioned as still living in honor at the court of Spain. Another famous work of the time attributes the discovery of the New World, not to the calculations and science of a man, but to the accidental wanderings of a tempest-driven caravel. Not ten years after the death of Columbus, the chaplain of one of the kings of Italy, in a work upon "Memorable Events in Spain," stated that a New World had been discovered in the West by one PETER COLUMBUS. And, in the same taste and spirit, a German doctor, in the first German book which spoke of the New World, did not once mention the name of Columbus, but, translating the proper name as if it were a common noun, calls him Christoffel Dawber, which, being translated back again, signifies CHRISTOPHER PIGEON. We shall now speak of that signal instance of public ingratitude and national forgetfulness which is universally regretted, yet will never be repaired,--the giving to the New World the name of America and not that of Columbia,--a substitution due to an obscure and ignorant French publisher of St. Dié, in Lorraine. Amerigo Vespucci, born at Florence fifteen years after Columbus, and the third son of a notary, appears to have been led by mercantile tastes to Spain in 1486, where he became a factor in a wealthy house at Seville. He abandoned the counter, however, for navigation and mathematics, and took to the sea for a livelihood. He was at first a practical astronomer, and finally a pilot-major. He went four times on expeditions to the New World, in 1499, 1500, 1501, 1502. During the first, he coasted along the land at the mouths of the Orinoco, which had been discovered by Columbus the preceding year. Even had he been the first to discover the mainland,--which he was not,--there would have been no merit in it, for he was merely a subordinate officer on board a ship following in the track of Columbus, seven years after the latter had traced it upon the ocean and the charts of the marine. He published an account of his voyage. But it does not appear that he ever claimed honor as the first discoverer, and the friendly relations he maintained with the family of Columbus after the death of the latter show that they did not consider him as attempting to obtain a distinction which did not belong to him. The error flowed from another and more distant source. Columbus had died in 1506, and had been forgotten. In 1507, a Frenchman of St. Dié republished Vespucci's narrative, substituting the date of 1497 for that of 1499,--thus making it appear that Vespucci had preceded, instead of followed, Columbus in his discovery of the mainland. He did not once mention Columbus, and attributed the whole merit of the western voyages to Vespucci. He added that he did not see why from the name of Amerigo an appellation could not be derived for the continent he had discovered, and proposed that of America, as having a feminine termination like that of Europa, Asia, and Africa, and as possessing a musical sound likely to catch the public ear. This work was dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian, and passed rapidly through editions in various languages. Thus far no specific name had been given to the continent. Its situation was sometimes indicated upon maps by a cross, and sometimes by the words TERRA SANCTÆ CRUCIS, SIVE MUNDUS NOVUS, often printed in red capitals. In 1522, for the first time, the name of America, under its French form of _Amérique_, was printed upon a map at Lyons. Germany followed, and the presses of Basle and Zurich aided the usurpation. Florence was but too eager to accept a name which flattered her vanity; and, as Genoa did not protest in the name of Columbus, Italy yielded to the current, and did a large share in the labor of injustice. In 1570, the name of America was for the first time engraved upon a metal globe, and from this time forward the spoliation may be regarded as accomplished. Columbus had been twice buried and twice forgotten; and now his very name was lost,--the continent he had found having been baptized in honor of another, and his race in the male line being extinct,--for Diego and Fernando had died without heirs. In modern times, in our own day even, it has been a common practice to depreciate the services of Columbus, and eminent writers have thought it no disgrace to profess and testify ignorance of his history and life. Raynal, a French philosopher of distinction, declared, about the year 1760, that the passage of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama was a greater achievement than the crossing of the Atlantic by Columbus. He offered a prize for disquisitions upon the question, "Has the discovery of America been useful or prejudicial to the human race?" Buffon seems, too, to have considered the discoveries of the Portuguese in the East as more important than those of Columbus in the West. Robertson, in his History of America, says that even without Columbus some happy accident would have discovered the New World a few years later. Fontenelle, and many others, attribute the first notice of the variation of the compass to Cabot in 1497, though Columbus distinctly mentions noticing it in his journal on the 13th of September, 1492. A late Spanish historian writes:--"Columbus made nothing but discoveries in these regions; conquest was reserved for Cortez and Pizarro." Lamartine makes an error of fifteen years in stating the period of the return of Columbus to Spain. Dumas asserts that Columbus passed "a portion of his life in prison,"--an expression he would not probably have used, knowingly, to designate a period of three months. Granier de Cassagnac places the last voyage of Columbus in 1493, instead of 1502. St. Hilaire makes the celebrated Las Casas cross the sea with Columbus nine years too soon. These mis-statements, though not resulting in distortion or misrepresentation of character, are the effects of that indifference which for centuries history has manifested towards the life, services, and death of Columbus. Columbia is the poetic and symbolical name of America, occurring in the National Anthem and in numerous effusions of patriotic verse. An effort to avenge the memory of the discoverer was made by giving his name, officially, to a tract borrowed from Virginia and Maryland, and measuring one hundred miles square,--the seat of the American Government. So far from this tardy acknowledgment being a reparation, however, it is probable that the spirit of the departed benefactor, if summoned to speak, would declare it the last, and by no means the least, of the long line of insults that an ungrateful posterity had heaped upon his memory. It will be proper to add to this view of the voyages of Columbus a brief account of those effected immediately afterwards by John and Sebastian Cabot, and by Vincent Yanez Pinzon. In the year 1496, Henry VII. of England, stimulated by the success of Columbus, granted a patent to one Giovanni Gabotto, a Venetian dwelling in Bristol, to go in search of unknown lands. Little is known of this person, whose name has been Anglicized into John Cabot, except that he was a wealthy and intelligent merchant and fond of maritime discovery. He had three sons, one of whom, named Sebastian, was nineteen years old at the time of the voyage, upon which, with his brothers, he accompanied his father. They sailed in a ship named the Matthew, and on the 24th of June, 1497, discovered the mainland of America, eighteen months before Columbus set foot upon it at the mouths of the Orinoco. For a long time it was supposed that Cabot had landed upon Newfoundland, but it is now considered settled that Labrador was the portion of the continent first discovered by a European. No account of the further prosecution of the voyage has reached us, and the only official record of Cabot's return is an entry in the privy-purse expenses of Henry, 10th August, 1497:-"To hym that found the New Isle, 10_l._" Thus, fifty days had not elapsed between the discovery and its recompense in England,--a fact which shows that Cabot returned home at once. He is supposed to have died about the year 1499. Sebastian Cabot, the second son, who is regarded as by far the most scientific navigator of this family of seamen, appears to have lived in complete obscurity during the following twelve years. Disgusted, however, by the want of consideration of the English authorities towards him, he accepted an invitation from King Ferdinand to visit Spain in 1512. Here, for several years, he was employed in revising maps and charts, and, with the title of Captain and a liberal salary, held the honorable position of Member of the Council of the Indies. The death of Ferdinand and the intrigues of the enemies of Columbus induced him to return to England in 1517. He was employed by Henry VIII., in connection with one Sir Thomas Perte, to make an attempt at a Northwest passage. On this voyage he is said to have gained Hudson's Bay, and to have given English names to sundry places there. So few details of the expedition have been preserved, that the latitude reached (67 1/2 degrees) is referred by different authorities both to the north and the south. The malice or cowardice of Sir Thomas Perte compelled Cabot to return without accomplishing any thing worthy of being recorded. It was often said afterwards, that if the New World could not be called Columbia, it would be better to name it Cabotiana than America. Vincent Yanez Pinzon, the youngest of the three brothers who had accompanied Columbus upon his first voyage, determined, upon hearing, in 1499, that the continent was discovered, on trying his fortunes at the head of an expedition, instead of in a subordinate position. He found no difficulty in equipping four caravels, and in inducing several of those who had seen the coast of Paria to embark with him as pilots. He sailed from Palos in December, 1499, and proceeded directly to the southwest. During a storm which obscured the heavens he crossed the equator, and on the disappearance of the clouds no longer recognised the constellations, changed as they were from those of the Northern to those of the Southern hemisphere. Pinzon was thus the first European who crossed the line in the Atlantic. The sailors, unacquainted with the Southern sky, and dismayed at the absence of the polar star, were for a time filled with superstitious terrors. Pinzon, however, persisted, and, on the 20th of January, 1500, discovered land in eight degrees of south latitude. He took possession for the Crown of Spain, and named it Santa Maria de la Consolaçion. We shall soon have occasion to mention why this name was superseded by that of Brazil. Pinzon explored with amazement the huge mouths of the Amazon, whose immense torrents, as they emptied into the sea, freshened its waters for many leagues from the land. Sailing to the north, he followed the coast for four hundred leagues, and then returned to Palos, carrying with him three thousand pounds' weight of dye-woods and the first opossum ever seen in Europe. And now, having closed the fifteenth century with the achievements of the Spanish in the West, we open the sixteenth with those of the Portuguese in the East. [Illustration: THE PHAETON OR TROPIC BIRD.] [Illustration: VASCO DA GAMA.] CHAPTER XVIII. PORTUGUESE NAVIGATION UNDER EMMANUEL--POPULAR PREJUDICES--THE LUSIAD OF CAMOENS--VASCO DA GAMA--MAPS OF AFRICA OF THE PERIOD--PREPARATIONS FOR AN INDIAN VOYAGE--RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES--THE DEPARTURE--RENDEZVOUS AT THE CAPE VERDS--LANDING UPON THE COAST--THE NATIVES--AN INVITATION TO DINNER, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES--A STORM--MUTINY--THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE. In the year 1495, John II. of Portugal was succeeded by his cousin, Emmanuel, into whose mind he had a short time before his death instilled a portion of his own zeal for maritime discovery and commercial supremacy. He had especially dwelt upon the necessity of continuing the progress of African research beyond the point which Bartholomew Diaz had lately reached, into the regions where lay the East Indies with their wealth and marvellous productions, and thus substituting for the tedious land-route a more expeditious track by sea. Upon his accession, Emmanuel found that a strong opposition existed to the extension of Portuguese commerce and discovery. Arguments were urged against it in his own councils, and had a marked effect upon the public mind by heightening the danger of the intended voyage. In our narrative of the first East Indian expedition, we shall often have occasion to quote from a poem written in commemoration of it,--the Lusiad of Camoens, a semi-religious epic and the masterpiece of Portuguese literature,--Lusiade being the poetic and symbolical name of Portugal. Camoens describes at the outset the hostility of the nation to further maritime adventure, and places in the mouth of a reverend adviser of the king the following forcible appeal: "Oh, frantic thirst of Honor and of Fame, The crowd's blind tribute, a fallacious name; What stings, what plagues, what secret scourges cursed, Torment those bosoms where thy pride is nursed! What dangers threaten and what deaths destroy The hapless youth whom thy vain gleams decoy! Thou dazzling meteor, vain as fleeting air, What new dread horror dost thou now prepare? Oh, madness of Ambition! thus to dare Dangers so fruitless, so remote a war! That Fame's vain flattery may thy name adorn, And thy proud titles on her flag be borne: Thee, Lord of Persia, thee of India lord, O'er Ethiopia vast, and Araby adored!" Never was any expedition, whether by land or water, so unpopular as this of King Emmanuel. The murmurs of the cabinet were re-echoed by the populace, who were wrought upon to such an extent that they believed the natural consequence of an invasion of the Indian seas would be the arrival in the Tagus of the wroth and avenging Sultan of Egypt. But Emmanuel, who, we are told, "regarded Diffidence as the mark of a low and grovelling mind, and Hope the quality of a noble and aspiring soul," discerned prospects of national advantage in the scheme, and determined to pursue it to a prosperous issue. King John, before his death, and shortly after the return of Diaz, had ordered timber to be purchased for the construction of ships fit to cope with the storms of the redoubtable Cape. Emmanuel now sought a capable commander, and, after much deliberation, fixed upon a gentleman of his own household, Vasco da Gama by name, a native of the seaport of Sines, and already favorably known for enterprise and naval skill. We are told that "he was formed for the service to which he was called,--violent indeed in his temper, terrible in anger, and sudden in the execution of justice, but at the same time intrepid, persevering, patient in difficulties, fertile in expedients, and superior to all discouragement. He devoted himself to death if he should not succeed, and this from a sense of religion and loyalty." When the king acquainted him with the mission intrusted to his charge, Vasco replied that he had long aspired to the honor of conducting such an undertaking. Camoens makes da Gama thus describe his acceptance of the honor: "'Let skies on fire, Let frozen seas, let horrid war, conspire: I dare them all,' I cried, 'and but repine That one poor life is all I can resign.'" The most distinguished members of the Portuguese nobility were present at this interview. The king gave da Gama, with his own hands, the flag he was to bear,--a white cross enclosed within a red one,--the Cross of the military Order of Christ. Upon this he took the oath of allegiance. Emmanuel then delivered him the journal of Covillam, with such charts as were then in existence, and letters to all the Indian potentates who had become known to the Portuguese. Among these was of course one addressed to the renowned Prester John. [Illustration: MAP OF AFRICA DRAWN IN THE YEAR 1497.] A map of Africa had been lately designed, in accordance with the discoveries made by land, as we have mentioned, by Covillam. The accompanying specimen is a fac-simile of one which belonged to Juan de la Cosa--the pilot of Columbus. Upon it the principal cities are indicated by a roughly sketched house or church; the government is denoted by a picture of a king, closely resembling the royal gentry in a pack of cards; while flags, planted at intervals, indicate boundary lines and frontier posts. The winds are represented by fabulous divinities sitting round the world upon leathern bottles, whose sides they are pressing to force out the air. The celebrated statue of the Canaries is often seen flourishing his club at the top of his tower. Abyssinia figures with its Prester John, his head being adorned with a brilliant mitre. Other kingdoms are marked out by portraits of their kings in richly embroidered costumes. The inhabitants of Africa, in maps of the world, are represented as giraffes, black men, and elephants. Portuguese camps are denoted by colored tents, while groups of light cavalry, splendidly caparisoned, dotting the territory at numerous points, indicate that the Portuguese army is making the tour of that mysterious continent. These quaint specimens of chartographical art are, in short, the faithful expression of the geographical science of the age. The fleet equipped for da Gama's voyage consisted of three ships and a caravel,--the San Gabriel, of one hundred and twenty tons, commanded by da Gama, and piloted by Pero Dalemquer, who had been pilot to Bartholomew Diaz; the San Rafael, of one hundred tons, commanded by Paulo da Gama, the admiral's brother; a store-ship of two hundred tons; and the caravel, of fifty tons, commanded by Nicolao Coelho. Besides these, Diaz, who had already been over the route, was ordered to accompany da Gama as far as the Mina. The crews numbered in all one hundred and sixty men, among whom were ten malefactors condemned to death, and who had consequently nothing to hope for in Portugal. Their duty in the fleet was to go ashore upon savage coasts and attempt to open intercourse with the natives. In case of rendering essential service and escaping with their lives, their sentence was to be remitted on their return home. A small chapel stood upon the seaside about four miles from Lisbon. Hither da Gama and his crew repaired upon the day preceding that fixed for their departure. They spent the night in prayer and rites of devotion, invoking the blessing and protection of Heaven. On the morrow, the adventurers marched to their ships in the midst of the whole population of Lisbon, who now thronged the shore of Belem. A long procession of priests sang anthems and offered sacrifice. The vast multitude, catching the fire of devotion and animated with the fervor of religious zeal, joined aloud in the prayers for their safety. The parents and relatives of the travellers shed tears, and da Gama himself wept on bidding farewell to the friends who gathered round him. Camoens thus describes the emotions of the adventurers as they gazed at the receding shore: "As from our dear-loved native shore we fly, Our votive shouts, redoubled, rend the sky: 'Success! Success!' far echoes o'er the tide, While our broad hulks the foaming waves divide. When slowly gliding from our wistful eyes, The Lusian mountains mingle with the skies; Tago's loved stream and Cintra's mountains cold, Dim fading now, we now no more behold; And still with yearning hearts our eyes explore, Till one dim speck of land appears no more." The admiral had fixed upon the Cape Verd Islands as the first place of rendezvous in case of separation by storm. They all arrived safely in eight days at the Canaries, but were here driven widely apart by a tempest at night. The three captains subsequently joined each other, but could not find the admiral. They therefore made for the appointed rendezvous, where, to their great satisfaction, they found da Gama already arrived; "and, saluting him with many shots of ordnance, and with sound of trumpets, they spake unto him, each of them heartily rejoicing and thanking God for their safe meeting and good fortune in this their first brunt of danger and of peril." Diaz here took leave of them and returned to Portugal. Then, on the 3d of August, they set sail finally for the Cape of Good Hope. They continued without seeing land during the months of August, September, and October, greatly distressed by foul weather, or, in the quaint language of those days, "by torments of wind and rain." At last, on the 7th of November, they touched the African coast, and anchored in a capacious bay, which they called the Bay of St. Helena, and which is not far to the north of the Cape. Here they perceived the natives "to bee lyttle men, ill favored in the face, and of color blacke; and when they did speake, it was in such manner as though they did alwayes sigh." Camoens rhapsodizes at length over this approach to the land; and it must be remembered that, having followed in da Gama's track as early as the year 1553, his descriptions of scenery are those of an eye-witness: "Loud through the fleet the echoing shouts prevail: We drop the anchor and restrain the sail; And now, descending in a spacious bay, Wide o'er the coast the venturous soldiers stray, To spy the wonders of the savage shore Where strangers' foot had never trod before. I and my pilots, on the yellow sand, Explore beneath what sky the shores expand. Here we perceived our venturous keels had pass'd, Unharmed, the Southern tropic's howling blast, And now approached dread Neptune's secret reign: Where the stern power, as o'er the Austral main He rides, wide scatters from the Polar Star Hail, ice, and snow, and all the wintry war." Trade was now commenced between da Gama and the natives, and, by means of signs and gestures, cloth, beads, bells, and glass were bartered for articles of food and other necessaries. But this friendly intercourse was soon interrupted by an act of imprudent folly on the part of a young man of the squadron. Being invited to dine by a party of the natives, he entered one of their huts to partake of the repast. Being disgusted at the viands, which consisted of a sea-calf dressed after the manner of the Hottentots, he fled in dismay. He was followed by his perplexed entertainers, who were anxious to learn how they had offended him. Taking their officious hospitality for impertinent aggression, he shouted for help; and it was not long before mutual apprehension brought on open hostilities. Da Gama and his officers were attacked, while taking the altitude of the sun with an astrolabe, by a party of concealed negroes armed with spears pointed with horn. The admiral was wounded in the foot, and with some difficulty effected a retreat to the ships. He left the Bay of St. Helena on the 16th of November. He now met with a sudden and violent change of weather, and the Portuguese historians have left animated descriptions of the storm which ensued. During any momentary pause in the elemental warfare, the sailors, worn out with fatigue and yielding to despair, surrounded da Gama, begging that he would not devote himself and them to a fate so dreadful. They declared that the gale could no longer be weathered, and that every one must be buried in the waves if they continued to proceed. The admiral's firmness remained unshaken, and a conspiracy was soon formed against him. He was informed in time of this desperate plot by his brother Paulo. He put the ringleaders and pilots in irons, and, assisted by his brother and those who remained faithful to their duty, stood night and day to the helm. At length, on Wednesday, the 20th of November, the whole squadron doubled the tremendous promontory. The mutineers were pardoned and released from their manacles. The legend of the Spectre of the Cape is given by Camoens in full; and it is so characteristic of the age, and, as an episode, is itself so interesting, that we cannot refrain from quoting it entire. Da Gama is supposed to be relating his experience in the first person: "I spoke, when, rising through the darken'd air, Appall'd, we saw a hideous phantom glare. High and enormous o'er the flood he tower'd, And thwart our way with sullen aspect lower'd; An earthly paleness o'er his cheeks was spread, Erect uprose his hairs of wither'd red; Writhing to speak, his sable lips disclose, Sharp and disjoin'd, his gnashing teeths' blue rows; His haggard beard flow'd quivering in the wind; Revenge and horror in his mien combined; His clouded front, by withering lightnings sear'd, The inward anguish of his soul declared. Cold, gliding horrors fill'd each hero's breast; Our bristling hair and tottering knees confess'd Wild dread. The while, with visage ghastly wan, His black lips trembling, thus the fiend began: 'Ye sons of Lusus, who, with eyes profane, Have view'd the secrets of my awful reign, Have pass'd the bounds which jealous nature drew To veil her secret shrine from mortal view; Hear from my lips what direful woes attend, And, bursting soon, shall o'er your race descend: With every bounding keel that dares my rage, Eternal war my rocks and storms shall wage. The next proud fleet that through my drear domain With daring hand shall hoist the streaming vane, That gallant navy, by my whirlwinds toss'd, And raging seas, shall perish on my coast. Then he who first my secret reign descried, A naked corpse, wide floating o'er the tide, Shall drive. Unless my heart's full raptures fail, O Lusus, oft shalt thou thy children wail! Each year thy shipwreck'd sons shalt thou deplore, Each year thy sheeted masts shall strew my shore!'" [Illustration: THE SPECTRE OF THE CAPE.] The cut upon previous page--a copy from an antique original--represents da Gama's ship and the Spectre of the Cape. The table-land of the promontory is seen through the drift of the tempest, towards the east. The ship is broached to, her sails close-furled, with the exception of the foresail, which has broken loose and is flapping wildly in the hurricane. Both the engraving and the description we have quoted from Camoens are strikingly illustrative of those visionary horrors which pervaded the minds of the navigators of the period, and are also characteristic of that peculiar cloud whose sudden envelopment of the Cape is the sure forerunner of a storm. The artist seems to have chosen the moment when the spectre, having uttered his dreadful prophecy, is vanishing into air. [Illustration: PHOSPHORESCENCE.] [Illustration: THE MAN OVERBOARD, AND THE ALBATROSS.] CHAPTER XIX. DA GAMA AND THE NEGROES--THE HOTTENTOTS AND CAFFRES--ADVENTURE WITH AN ALBATROSS--THE RIVER OF GOOD PROMISE--MOZAMBIQUE--TREACHERY OF THE NATIVES--MOMBASSA--MELINDA, AND ITS AMIABLE KING--FESTIVITIES--THE MALABAR COAST--CALICUT--THE ROUTE TO THE INDIES DISCOVERED. Da Gama landed some two hundred miles beyond the Cape, and, discharging the victualling-ship of her stores, ordered her to be burned, as the king had directed. He then entered into commercial relations with the natives, and exchanged red nightcaps for ivory bracelets. "Then came two hundred blacke men, some lyttle, some great, bringing with them twelve oxen and four sheep, and as our men went upon shore they began to play upon four flutes, according with four sundry voices, the music whereof sounded very well. Which the generall hearing, commanded the trumpets to sound, and so they danced with our men. In this pastime and feasting, and in buying their oxen and sheep, the day passed over." Da Gama had reason before long to suspect treachery, however, and withdrew his men and re-embarked. It was in this place that a man falling overboard, and swimming for a long time before the accident was observed, was followed by an albatross, who hovered in the air just above him, waiting the propitious moment when he could make a quiet meal upon him. The man was subsequently rescued, and the albatross disappointed. Da Gama now passed the rock de la Cruz, where Diaz had erected his last pillar, and by the aid of a brisk wind escaped the dangers of the currents and shoals. Losing sight of land, he recovered it again on Christmas-day, and in consequence named the spot Tierra da Natal,--a name which it still preserves. From this point his course was nearly north, along the eastern coast of the continent. Farther on he landed two of his malefactors, with instructions to inform themselves of the character and customs of the inhabitants, promising to call for them on his return. On the 11th of January, 1498, he anchored off a portion of the coast occupied by people who seemed peaceably and honestly disposed. They were, in fact, Caffres,--the fleet having passed the territory of the Hottentots. One of the sailors, Martin Alonzo, understood their language,--a circumstance very remarkable, yet perfectly authenticated. As he had not been lower than the Mina, on the western coast, and of course never upon the eastern at all, the inference seems inevitable that some of the negro tribes of Africa extend much beyond the limits usually assigned them in modern geography. After two days spent in the exchange of civilities of the most courteous nature, the ships proceeded on their way,--da Gama naming the country _Tierra da Boa Gete_,--Land of Good People. He next found, at the mouth of a large river, a tribe of negroes who seemed to have made greater progress in civilization than their neighbors. They had barks with sails made of palm-leaves,--the only indication of any knowledge of navigation the Portuguese had yet met with upon the African coast. No one--not even Martin Alonzo--understood their language: as far as could be gathered from their pantomime, they had come from a distance where they had seen vessels as large as the San Gabriel, whence da Gama conjectured that the Indies were not far off. He gave to the river the name of _Rio dos bos Sinaes_, or River of Good Promise. The crew suffered greatly here from the effects of scurvy,--many of them dying of the disease and others succumbing under the consequences of amputation. The ships were careened and repaired: thirty-two days were spent in this labor. These incidents are thus graphically described in the Lusiad: "Far from the land, wide o'er the ocean driven, Our helms resigning to the care of Heaven, By hope and fear's keen passions toss'd, we roam; When our glad eyes behold the surges foam Against the beacons of a shelter'd bay, Where sloops and barges cut the watery way. The river's opening breast some upward plied, And some came gliding down the sweepy tide. Quick throbs of transport heaved in every heart, To view this knowledge of the seaman's art; For here we hoped our ardent wish to gain, To hear of India's strand,--nor hoped in vain: Though Ethiopia's sable hue they bore, No look of wild surprise the natives wore; Wide o'er their heads the cotton turban swell'd, And cloth of blue the decent loins conceal'd. Their speech, though rude and dissonant of sound, Their speech a mixture of Arabian own'd. Alonzo, skill'd in all the copious store Of fair Arabia's speech and flowery lore, In joyful converse heard the pleasing tale, 'That o'er these seas full oft the frequent sail, And lordly vessels, tall as ours, appear'd, Which to the regions of the morning steer'd: Whose cheerful crews, resembling ours, display The kindred face and color of the day.' Elate with joy, we raise the glad acclaim, And RIVER OF GOOD SIGNS the port we name. "Our keels, that now had steer'd through many a clime, By shell-fish roughen'd, and incased with slime, Joyful we clean; while bleating from the field The fleecy dams the smiling natives yield. Alas! how vain the bloom of human joy! How soon the blasts of woe that bloom destroy! A dread disease its rankling horrors shed, And death's dire ravage through mine army spread. Never mine eyes such dreary sight beheld! Ghastly the mouth and gums enormous swell'd; And instant, putrid like a dead man's wound, Poison'd with fetid steam the air around. Long, long endear'd by fellowship in woe, O'er the cold dust we give the tears to flow; And in their hapless lot forebode our own,-- A foreign burial, and a grave unknown." The fleet joyfully left the River of Good Promise on the 24th of February, and not long after discovered two groups of islands. Near the coast of one of these they were followed by eight canoes, manned by persons of fine stature, less black than the Hottentots, and dressed in cotton cloth of various colors. Upon their heads they wore turbans wrought with silk and gold thread. They were armed with swords and daggers like the Moors, and carried musical instruments which they called sagbuts. They came on board as if they had known the strangers before, and spoke in the Arabic tongue, repelling with disdain the supposition that they were Moors. They said that their island was called Mozambique; that they traded with the Moors of the Indies in spices, pearls, rubies, silver, and linen, and offered to take the ships into their harbor. The bar permitting their passage, they anchored at two crossbow-shots from the town. This was built of wood and thatch,--the mosques alone being constructed of stone. It was occupied principally by Moors, the rest of the island being inhabited by the natives, who were the same as those of the mainland opposite. The Moors traded with the Indies and with the African Sofala in ships without decks and built without the use of nails,--the planks being bound together by cocoa fibres, and the sails being made of palm-leaves. They had compasses and charts. The Moorish governor of Mozambique and the other Moors supposed the Portuguese to be Turks, on account of the whiteness of their skin. They sent them provisions, in return for which da Gama sent the shah a quantity of red caps, coral, copper vessels, and bells. The shah set no value upon these articles, and inquired disdainfully why the captain had not sent him scarlet cloth. He afterwards went on board the flag-ship, where he was received with hospitality, though not without secret preparations against treachery. The Portuguese learned from him that he governed the island as the deputy of the King of Quiloa; that Prester John lived and ruled a long distance towards the interior of the mainland; that Calicut, whither da Gama was bound, was two thousand miles to the northeast, but that he could not proceed thither without the guidance of pilots familiar with the navigation. He promised to furnish him with two. Discovering subsequently, however, that the strangers were Christians, the shah contrived a plot for their destruction. The vessels escaped, but with only one pilot, whose treachery throughout the voyage was a source of constant annoyance and peril. On departing, da Gama gave the traitors a broadside, which did considerable damage to their village of thatch. On the 1st of April, da Gama gave to an island which he discovered the name of Açoutado, in commemoration of a sound flagellation which was there administered to the pilot for telling him it formed part of the continent,--upon which he confessed that his purpose in thus misrepresenting the case was to wreck and destroy the ships. On the 7th, they came to the large island of Mombassa, where they found rice, millet, poultry, and fat cattle, and sheep without tails. The orchards were filled with fig, orange, and lemon trees. This island received honey, ivory, and wax from a port upon the mainland. The houses were built of stone and mortar, and the city was defended by a small fort almost even with the water. "They have a king," says the chronicle, "and the inhabitants are Moores, whereof some bee white. They goe gallantly arrayed, especially the women, apparelled in gownes of silke and bedecked with jewells of golde and precious stones. The men were greatly comforted, as having confidence that in this place they might cure such as were then sick,--as in truth were almost all; in number but fewe, as the others were dead." The King of Mombassa, however, was as great a rogue as the Shah of Mozambique, from whom he had heard, by overland communication, of what had happened in his island. During the night following a grand interchange of civilities and of protestations, da Gama was informed that a sea-monster was devouring the cable. It turned out that a number of Moors were endeavoring to cut it, that the ship might be driven ashore. Anxious to quit this inhospitable coast, the fleet profited by the first wind to continue their course to the north. They captured a zambuco, or pinnace, from which they took seventeen Moors and a considerable quantity of silver and gold. On the same day they arrived off the town of Melinda, situated three degrees only to the south of the equator. The city resembled the cities of Europe, the streets being wide, and the houses being of stone and several stories high. "The generall," we are told, "being come over against this citie, did rejoyce in his heart very much, that he now sawe a citie lyke unto those of Portingale, and rendered most heartie and humble thanks to God for their good and safe arrival." The chief of the captured zambuco offered to procure da Gama a pilot to take the fleet to Calicut, if he would permit him to go ashore. He was landed upon a beach opposite the city. The chief performed his promise, and induced the King of Melinda to treat the strangers with courtesy and respect. Camoens thus describes the festivities upon the alliance: "With that ennobling worth whose fond employ Befriends the brave, the monarch owns his joy; Entreats the leader and his weary band To taste the dews of sweet repose on land, And all the riches of his cultured fields Obedient to the nod of Gama yields. 'What from the blustering winds and lengthening tide Your ships have suffer'd, here shall be supplied; Arms and provisions I myself will send, And, great of skill, a pilot shall attend.' So spoke the king; and now, with purpled ray, Beneath the shining wave the god of day Retiring, left the evening shades to spread, When to the fleet the joyful herald sped. To find such friends each breast with rapture glows: The feast is kindled, and the goblet flows; The trembling comet's irritating rays Bound to the skies, and trail a sparkling blaze; The vaulting bombs awake their sleeping fire, And, like the Cyclops' bolt, to heaven aspire; The trump and fife's shrill clarion far around The glorious music of the night resound. Nor less their joy Melinda's sons display: The sulphur bursts in many an ardent ray, And to the heavens ascends in whizzing gyres, Whilst Ocean flames with artificial fires." During the interview which followed, the king remarked that he had never seen any men who pleased him so much as the Portuguese,--a compliment which da Gama acknowledged by setting at liberty the sixteen Moors of the captured pinnace. The king sent the promised pilot on his return; he proved to be as deeply skilled in the art of navigation as any of the pilots of Europe. He was acquainted with the astrolabe, compass, and quadrant. The fleet set sail from Melinda on the 24th of April. As they had now gone far enough towards the north, and as India lay nearly east, they bade farewell to the coast, of which they had hardly lost sight since leaving Lisbon, and struck into the open sea, or rather a wide gulf of the Indian Ocean, seven hundred and fifty leagues across. A few days after, having crossed the line, the crew were delighted to behold again the stars and constellations of the Northern hemisphere. The voyage was rapid and fortunate; for in twenty-three days they arrived off the Malabar coast, and, after a day or two of southing, discovered the lofty hills which overhang the city of Calicut. Da Gama amply rewarded the pilot, released the malefactors from their fetters, and summoned the crew to prayer. The anchor was then thrown, and a feast was spread in honor of the day. The route by sea had been discovered from the Tagus to the Ganges: da Gama had laid out the way from Belem to Golconda. [Illustration: CALICUT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.] [Illustration: WRECK OF THE SAN RAFAEL.] CHAPTER XX. THE MOORS IN HINDUSTAN--CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY UPON THE ARRIVAL OF DA GAMA--HOSTILITY OF THE MOORS--THEY PREJUDICE THE KING OF CALICUT AGAINST THE PORTUGUESE--CONSEQUENT HOSTILITIES--DA GAMA SETS OUT UPON HIS RETURN--WILD CINNAMON--A MOORISH PIRATE DISGUISED AS AN ITALIAN CHRISTIAN--A TEMPESTUOUS VOYAGE--WRECK OF THE SAN RAFAEL--HONORS AND TITLES BESTOWED UPON DA GAMA--AN EXPEDITION FITTED OUT UNDER ALVAREZ CABRAL--ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY OF BRAZIL--COMETS AND WATER-SPOUTS--LOSS OF FOUR VESSELS--A BAZAAR ESTABLISHED AT CALICUT--ATTACK BY THE MOORS--CABRAL WITHDRAWS TO COCHIN--VISITS CANANOR AND TAKES IN A LOAD OF CINNAMON--IS RECEIVED WITH COLDNESS UPON HIS RETURN--VASCO DA GAMA RECALLED INTO THE SERVICE BY THE KING--HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AT SOFALA, CANANOR, AND CALICUT--HE HANGS FIFTY INDIANS AT THE YARD-ARM--PROTECTS COCHIN AND THREATENS CALICUT--WITHDRAWS TO PRIVATE LIFE. Some two hundred years before this time, the Malabar coast of Hindustan was united under one single native prince--named Perimal--whose capital was in the interior. It was at this period that the Arabians discovered India. Perimal embraced the Mohammedan religion, and resolved to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and to finish his days there. He intrusted the government to other hands, and embarked for Arabia from the spot where Calicut now stands. The Arabians were led by this circumstance to regard Calicut with peculiar veneration, and by degrees abandoned the former capital: it was thus that Calicut gradually became the great spice and silk market of the East. In the time of Vasco da Gama, India Proper, or Hindostan, was divided into several independent kingdoms, such as Moultan, Delhi, Bengal, Orissa, Guzarate or Cambaia, Deccan, Canara, Bisnagar, and Malabar. The divisions of Farther India were Ava, Brama, Pegu, Siam, Cambodia, Cochin-China, and Tonkin. The Portuguese fleet had arrived upon the coast of Malabar, which is the edge of the southwestern promontory of Hindostan. It was here, and upon the western coast generally, that the Portuguese were now enabled to plant establishments and to form treaties of alliance and commerce. The Moors of Arabia had already, as we have said, a foothold in the country, and were alarmed at seeing Europeans arrive by sea at the scene of a trade of which they had hitherto held the exclusive monopoly. They succeeded in throwing obstacles in the way of the Portuguese admiral, and in poisoning the ear of the Indian zamorin, or king, against him. They even laid a plot for the destruction of the fleet and all on board, that no one might return to Europe to tell of the new route to the Indies. The native monarch was induced by them to testify dissatisfaction with the presents da Gama had brought, and to ask for the golden statue of the Virgin that ornamented the admiral's ship, as a more suitable offering to one of his rank. Da Gama replied that it was not a golden Virgin, but a wooden one gilt; that it had nevertheless preserved him from the perils of the sea, and that he could not part with it. After many proofs of the hostility of the Moors and the treachery of the natives, da Gama obtained from the zamorin the following laconic epistle to his sovereign:--"Vasco da Gama, a gentleman of thy house, has visited my country. His arrival has given me pleasure. My land is full of cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and precious stones. What I desire to obtain in return from yours is gold, silver, coral, and scarlet." With this missive da Gama set sail upon his return early in September. The zamorin sent sixty armed barks to attack him, but a broadside or two and a favorable wind enabled him to make good his escape. Upon a neighboring island some of the crew discovered a large forest of wild cinnamon. Not far from here, da Gama discovered the Angedive, or Five Islands, and in the vicinity had a brush with Indian pirates. An elderly person, differing in appearance from the natives, came on board and represented himself as an Italian Christian. He had come from the Indians of the island of Goa, he said, to beg the admiral to go thither and trade. This well-behaved old gentleman proved to be a sort of Moorish buccaneer, and, upon being put to the torture, confessed that he was a spy, and that he had been sent to reconnoitre the fleet and count their numbers. Da Gama retained him as a trophy to present to King Emmanuel. He finally left the Indian coast on the 15th of October. When they were fairly out at sea, the pirate-prisoner made a complete confession, and his evident sincerity quite won da Gama's heart. He gave him clothes and a supply of money. The Moor repented of his evil ways and of his pagan faith, and forthwith embraced Christianity. He was baptized by the name of Gaspardo da Gama. The voyage back to Melinda, across the gulf, was disastrous in every sense. The weather was tempestuous and hot. The scurvy carried off thirty men in the first week, and consternation seized the officers and crew. After four months' navigation, when hardly sixteen men able to work were left on each vessel, they descried the African coast, thirteen leagues above Melinda. Descending to the latter city, they were received with joy by the king, who was anxiously awaiting their return. They took on board an ambassador sent by him to King Emmanuel. The San Rafael was lost upon this coast, and the fleet thus reduced to two vessels. Da Gama discovered the island of Zanzibar, and received offers of service from the sovereign. He doubled the Cape successfully on the 20th of March, and anchored soon after at the Cape Verds. Here, during the night, Nicolao Coelho, the captain of the caravel, slipped away, and made all haste to Portugal, in order to be the first to carry to Europe the intelligence of the grand discovery. Da Gama now found that he could prosecute the voyage no further in his disabled vessel, the San Gabriel, and chartered a caravel in which to proceed to Lisbon. On the way his brother Paulo died, and was buried at the island of Terceira. Vasco arrived at Belem in September, 1499, two years and two months after his departure. The king, informed of his approach by the previous arrival of Coelho, sent a magnificent cortège to conduct him to court. He overwhelmed him with honors, wealth, and distinctions. He himself took the title of Lord of the Conquest of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and the Indies. Coelho was ennobled, and a pension of one thousand ducats secured to him. Of the one hundred and sixty men who departed upon this voyage, only fifty-five had returned, and all these were munificently rewarded for their share in the brilliant achievements of their commander. The king ordered a series of public festivities, which were preceded by a solemn service of thanksgiving to Heaven for the glory vouchsafed to the Portuguese name and nation. Emmanuel allowed not a week to pass before he directed the necessary preparations to be made for fitting out another and more powerful fleet, to follow in da Gama's track and attempt to colonize the Indies. He determined that da Gama should enjoy his dignities and renown in peace, however, and intrusted the command to one Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a gentleman of merit and distinction. The fleet numbered thirteen vessels, manned by twelve hundred men, among whom were eight Franciscans to convert the pagans, and some thirty condemned malefactors to undertake communications with the savages. Cabral carried a hat blessed by the Pope and deemed to possess miraculous virtues. Among the captains were Bartholomew Diaz and his brother Diego. The specific object of the expedition was to obtain permission from the Zamorin of Calicut to establish a trading station there, the Portuguese promising in return to furnish him the same articles which the Moors furnished him, and on more advantageous terms. The squadron set sail on the 9th of March, 1500. It will appear almost incredible that, in order to avoid the calms known to prevail at that season off the coast of Guinea, they proceeded so far to the west that, late in April, they touched at the continent now known as South America; where, however, Yanez Pinzon had been before them. Cabral gave to it the name of Land of the Holy Cross; but this, as well as the name given by Pinzon, was subsequently changed to that of Brazil, from a species of dye-wood which grew in abundance there. The inhabitants were friendly, and exchanged parrots of brilliant plumage for bits of paper and cloth. Cabral put two of his criminals ashore and left them, with instructions to inquire into the history of the country and the customs of its inhabitants. He also sent one of his vessels back to Lisbon with intelligence of the discovery. The fleet left Brazil on the 2d of May, steering to the southeast, in order to double the Cape. A terrible comet visible day and night, a storm which lasted three weeks, a water-spout reaching to the clouds,--this latter being a phenomenon which the Portuguese had never before seen,--now menaced and harrassed them in quick succession. Four vessels were lost, and among them that of Bartholomew Diaz, with all on board. The rest were severely injured; but Cabral was rejoiced to find that during the storm he had weathered the redoubtable promontory. Encountering some Moorish vessels laden with gold, he seized them, but not until the crews had thrown a portion of the precious metal into the sea. At Mozambique he took a pilot for the island of Quiloa, three hundred miles to the north, whose sovereign was enriched by his gold-trade with the African port of Sofala. Here he attempted to enter into a treaty of commerce; but the prejudices entertained against Christians prevented any concessions on the part of the Moors. At Melinda Cabral landed two criminals and the presents for the king sent out by Emmanuel. Obtaining pilots for the Indian coast, he departed on the 7th of August, and arrived at Calicut on the 13th of September. From this point dates the first European establishment in the East Indies. Stimulated by considerations of interest, the zamorin, after many delays, granted the admiral an interview, in which the latter stated the ardent desire of his master, the King of Portugal, to furnish the zamorin's subjects with all articles of European production or manufacture, taking in exchange the spices and jewels of the East. A market or bazaar was at once opened, and the cargoes of the ships, being transferred to it, were rapidly converted into cinnamon, diamonds, and drugs. The Moors now became seriously jealous of the activity, power, and success of their rivals. They resorted to every means to excite the hostility of the zamorin and his subjects against them. They attacked and destroyed the Portuguese market, plundering it of goods to the amount of four thousand ducats. The inconstant zamorin offering neither apology nor restitution, Cabral determined on vengeance. He boarded two large Moorish vessels, killed six hundred men, and salted down three elephants for food. He then bombarded the town: palaces, temples, and store-houses crumbled to dust beneath the thunders of the artillery. The zamorin fled, and Cabral withdrew with his victorious fleet to Cochin, a rich capital one hundred and fifty miles to the south of Calicut, where pepper was abundant and the king was poor. Trimumpara, the monarch, was informed of the summary vengeance wreaked by the fleet upon his brother of Calicut, and at once offered the strangers hospitality and protection. The admiral sent him a silver basin full of saffron and a silver vial filled with rose-water. Trade and barter rapidly loaded the ships with the fragrant commodities of the country. A fleet of twenty-five sail now appeared in the offing, and Trimumpara told Cabral that their object was to attack him, and that they were sent by the zamorin of Calicut. Cabral, having been separated from his most efficient ship, determined not to venture a combat, and made for the north, casting anchor before Cananor, a town a little above Calicut. Here he found a commodious roadstead, an independent prince, and a soil abounding in ginger, cardamom-seeds, tamarinds, and cinnamon. Of the latter article he took four hundred quintals. The king, judging, from the insignificance of this purchase, that he was short of money, offered him a further supply upon credit. Cabral expressed his sense of appreciation of this generosity, but declined the proposition. The fleet now sailed homewards: one of the vessels was lost upon the African coast, and, taking fire, was destroyed with its contents. The six ships remaining of the twelve which had left Brazil, arrived at Lisbon on the 31st of July, 1501. Cabral was received with coldness by the king, partly on account of the loss of ships and men he had met with, and partly on account of his failure at Calicut, to which place he,--the king,--relying on Cabral's success, had sent out, three months previous to his return, a fleet of four vessels under Juan de Nueva. This expedition was singularly happy in its results,--Nueva lading his vessels to great advantage at Cananor, and discovering the island of St. Helena upon his homeward voyage. [Illustration: DA GAMA'S FLAG-SHIP.] It was now evident to the Portuguese that without the employment of force it would be impossible to obtain a permanent foothold in the Indies. After listening to a deliberation as to whether it were not best to abandon the attempt altogether, Emmanuel ordered the equipment of a grand fleet of twenty vessels, to be placed under the command of Vasco da Gama, who consented to resume active life. It was to be divided into three portions: the first, consisting of ten sail, under da Gama, was to undertake the subjugation of the refractory kings of Malabar; the second, of five sail, under Vincent Sodrez, was to guard the entrance of the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean, and thus prevent the Turks and Moors from trading with the ports of Africa and Hindostan; and the third, of five vessels, under Stefano da Gama, was to be detailed upon any service the admiral might direct. They sailed early in 1502, and formed a treaty of alliance and commerce with the king of Sofala, without difficulty. Da Gama obtained from the king of Quiloa an engagement to pay to the crown of Portugal an annual tribute in gold fresh from the mine. Upon the Indian coast near Cananor, he fell in with an Egyptian vessel of the largest size, laden with costly merchandise and crowded with Moors of high rank on their way to Mecca. He attacked, plundered, and burned her: three hundred men and women perished in the flames, in the sea, or by the sword. Twenty children were saved and conveyed to the ship of da Gama, who made a vow to educate them as Christians, in atonement for the apostasy of one Portuguese who had become a Mohammedan. After this sanguinary lesson, da Gama found no obstacles to the establishment of a trading station at Cananor, where his fleet landed a portion of their cargoes. He then sailed to Calicut, determined to inflict summary vengeance upon the faithless and treacherous zamorin. Not far from the coast he seized a number of boats in which were fifty Indians. He sent word to the zamorin that, unless satisfaction were given for the late destruction of the Portuguese bazaar before noon, he would attack the city with fire and sword, and would begin with his fifty prisoners. The time having expired, the unfortunate captives were hung simultaneously at the yard-arms of the various vessels. The town was then reduced to ashes. A squadron was left to sweep the Moorish vessels from the seas, and da Gama proceeded down the coast to Cochin, the city of the friendly Trimumpara. Presents and compliments were here exchanged,--the offerings of the King of Portugal being a golden crown, vases of embossed silver, a rich tent, a piece of scarlet satin, and a bit of sandal-wood, while those of his majesty of Cochin were a Moorish turban of silver thread, two gold bracelets set with precious stones, two large pieces of Bengal calico, and a stone said to be a specific against poison, and taken from the head of an animal called bulgodolph,--a fabulous creature, declared by some to be a serpent and by others to be a quadruped. An apology was now received from the zamorin, and da Gama returned to Calicut with only one vessel. Seeing him thus single-handed, the zamorin sent thirty-three armed canoes against him, and, without the prompt assistance of Sodrez' cruising squadron, da Gama would inevitably have perished. The zamorin now threatened Trimumpara with his vengeance if he continued to harbor the Portuguese and to trade with Christian infidels. Da Gama promised Trimumpara the assistance and alliance of the King of Portugal, and set sail with well-laden vessels. He met the zamorin's fleet of twenty-nine sail, and, having captured two, put the rest to flight with great slaughter. In the two that were taken he found an immense quantity of porcelain and Chinese stuffs, together with an enormous golden idol, with emeralds for eyes, a robe of beaten gold for a vestment, and rubies for buttons. Leaving Sodrez and his fleet to defend Cochin against Calicut and to exterminate the traders from Mecca, da Gama returned with thirteen vessels to Portugal. The king conferred upon him the titles of Admiral of the Indian Ocean and Count de Vidigueira. He again withdrew to privacy, and did not a second time emerge into public life till the year 1524, when the interests of the country under John III. again reclaimed his services in the East. [Illustration: VESSELS EMPLOYED IN THE SPICE-TRADE: SIXTEENTH CENTURY.] CHAPTER XXI. SPREAD OF THE PORTUGUESE EAST INDIAN EMPIRE--ALPHONZO D'ALBUQUERQUE--IMMENSE SACRIFICE OF LIFE--ANCIENT ROUTE OF THE SPICE-TRADE WITH EUROPE--COMMERCE BY CARAVANS--REVOLUTION PRODUCED BY OPENING THE NEW ROUTE--FRANCESCO ALMEIDA--DISCOVERY OF CEYLON--TRISTAN D'ACUNHA--THE PORTUGUESE MARS--HIS VIEWS OF EMPIRE--AN ARSENAL ESTABLISHED AT GOA--REDUCTION OF MALACCA--SIAM AND SUMATRA SEND EMBASSIES TO ALBUQUERQUE--THE ISLAND OF ORMUZ--DEATH OF ALBUQUERQUE--EXTENT OF THE PORTUGUESE DOMINION--ORMUZ BECOMES THE GREAT EMPORIUM OF THE EAST--FALL OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE. Having narrated, in the preceding chapters, the incidents which led to the circumnavigation of Africa, and having described the several voyages which introduced the Europeans into the East, by the new route of the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Tempests, we must briefly allude to the sequel,--the spread of European commerce among the islands and seaports of this highly favored region. Alphonzo and Francesco d'Albuquerque, with a fleet of nine vessels, and Edoardo Pacheco, with three vessels, carried terror and revenge to the Malabar coast: forts were built to protect the Portuguese commerce, kings were forced to pay tribute, fleets were swept from the seas; and, as a proverb of the time expressed it, pepper began to cost blood. Again the King of Portugal sent out a formidable squadron,--thirteen ships of the line, the largest yet constructed, under Lopez Soarez. Sea-battles now took place, in which the proportions of the slain were one thousand infidels to seventy-five Portuguese,--in which a single European vessel contended successfully with myriads of the native barks. The sacrifice of life was truly awful; but gradually the whole eastern coast of Africa, and, opposite to it, the whole western coast of India, fell under Portuguese sway. The entire commerce of this quarter of the world was of course revolutionized by these discoveries and conquests. Before this period the productions of the East had been carried to Europe in the following manner. The city of Malacca, in the peninsula of the same name, was the central market to which came the camphor of Borneo, the cloves of the Moluccas, the nutmegs of Banda, the pepper of Sumatra, the gums, drugs, and perfumes of China, Japan, and Siam. These products were taken by water, either in the clumsy boats of the natives or the more solid vessels of the Moors, to the ports of the Red Sea, were landed at Tor or at Suez, whence they were transported by caravans to Cairo, and thence by the Nile to Alexandria, where they were placed on board of vessels bound to all the ports of Europe. Those intended for Armenia, Trebizonde, Aleppo, Damascus, were taken by the Persian Gulf to Bassorah, and thence distributed by caravans. The Venetians and Genoese took their portion at Beyrout, in Syria. The East Indians preferred the manufactures of Europe to gold and silver, and consequently the trade was generally in the form of barter and exchange. In addition to the products of Farther India which we have mentioned must be added those of India Proper,--the fabrics of Bengal, the pearls of Orissa, the diamonds of Golconda, the cinnamon of Ceylon, the pepper of Malabar. Thus, not only thousands of laborers, sailors, conductors of caravans, saw themselves suddenly deprived of their livelihood by this diversion of the traffic into the hands of the Portuguese, but rich cities lost their revenues and princes lost their tribute. While the Venetians resolved to appeal to arms, the Sultan of Egypt addressed a protestation to Rome. But the King of Portugal tranquillized the Pope by declaring his intention of extending the jurisdiction of the apostolic faith, and he prepared to resist violence by sending out, in 1507, Don Francesco Almeida, with twenty-two ships and fifteen hundred regular soldiers: he bestowed upon the new commander the title of Viceroy of the Indies. Almeida deposed the King of Quiloa, and crowned another of his own appointment; he built a fort in twenty days, garrisoned it with one hundred and fifty men, and left a brigantine and a caravel to scour and protect the coast. He bombarded Mombassa, killed fifteen hundred men and lost five. He erected forts and established trading stations at Onor, Cananor, Surat and Calicut, upon the Malabar coast. To the important point of Sofala, upon the African coast, Emmanuel sent a distinct expedition of six ships, under Pedro da Nayha and Juan da Quiros, who compelled the king to admit their nation to a share in the famous gold mines which constituted his kingdom and his wealth. In 1508, Lorenzo, the son of Almeida, while chasing the flying Moors with six men-of-war, discovered the island of Ceylon, to the south of Hindustan. Here he found the Moors and natives loading vessels with elephants and cinnamon. Again King Emmanuel, drawing upon resources which seemed almost inexhaustible, sent out thirteen vessels, with thirteen hundred men, under Tristan d'Acunha. This fleet was driven to the coast of Brazil, and upon the way thence to the Cape of Good Hope the commander discovered the islands which now bear his name. He burned and pillaged the town of Oja, near Melinda; he reduced a neighboring shah to the payment of an annual tribute of six hundred golden ducats. His soldiers would not give the captured women of Brava time to remove their bracelets and ear-rings, but in their ruthless haste cut off their arms and ears. It was now evident to the King of Portugal that his rule in the East could not be consolidated and extended by the same means which had obtained him his first foothold upon the coast,--chance, intrepidity, and unscrupulous violence. What was required was a carefully conceived system of government, and a man capable of administering it. Emmanuel's choice fell upon Alphonzo d'Albuquerque, whose services in the East had already been meritorious, and to whom, in 1509, he gave the title and power of viceroy. Albuquerque, whose courage obtained for him the name of the Portuguese Mars, ranks, by his talents, his severe virtues, and his disinterested zeal, among the greatest men whom the world has produced. He at once formed the plan of founding an empire which should extend from the Persian Gulf to the peninsula of Malacca; and, determining to abandon Calicut, which had thus far been looked upon as the best point for an arsenal, he selected the island of Goa, a little to the north, captured it, and made its admirable harbor a Portuguese roadstead and its town a Portuguese capital. He built bazaars and citadels along the coast from north to south, and then turned his eyes towards Malacca,--a magnificent country, ruled by a despot and inhabited by slaves. As we have said, its principal seaport was the central resort of the ships of China, Japan, Bengal, the Philippines and the Moluccas, Coromandel, Persia, Arabia, and Malabar. The Portuguese had first visited Malacca two years previously, Emmanuel having sent one Siguiera to make a treaty with the king. He had been perfidiously treated, and Albuquerque now, in 1511, appeared before the city to call the monarch to account. A long and obstinate battle resulted in the defeat of the natives and the unconditional surrender of the peninsula. The Kings of Siam, Sumatra, and Pegu sent ambassadors to Albuquerque, asking the honor of his friendship. He built a citadel and returned to Cochin. But, as he left one spot to repair to another, revolt was sure to follow; and, as the Venetians now joined the Moors to repel the Portuguese, he saw that his dominion could not be complete till he controlled the navigation of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The city of Aden, in Arabia, was the key to the Red Sea, commanding, as it did, the Straits of Babelmandel; and the island of Ormuz was the key to the Persian Gulf. He failed to take Aden, but he succeeded easily with Ormuz, whose king acknowledged himself the vassal of Emmanuel. Albuquerque then formed a gigantic plan in reference to the Red Sea. Unable to command it by the capture of Aden, he determined to ruin Suez, at the other extremity of the sea, by forming an alliance with the King of Ethiopia, and inducing that monarch to dig a new course for the Nile and make it empty into the Red Sea instead of into the Mediterranean, thus rendering Egypt uninhabitable and Suez desert. The invasion of Egypt by the Turks, however, prevented the accomplishment of this undertaking. Thus the people and kings of the East everywhere gave way before the grand plans and deeds of Albuquerque, whom they both feared for his energy and loved for his justice. When, in 1515, he died at Goa, disgraced by his king and worn out by a thankless service, the heathen monarchs wept over his grave, and for many years went in pilgrimage to his tomb, asking his protection against the cruelty or injustice of his successors. The Portuguese, in little more than fifty years from the first expedition of Vasco da Gama, had established an empire in these seas of truly wonderful extent and power. They held exclusive possession of the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India Proper, were masters of the Bay of Bengal, ruled the peninsula of Malacca, and held tributary the islands of Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, and the Moluccas. To the westward, towards Africa, their authority extended as far as the Persian boundary, and over all the islands of the Persian Gulf. In Arabia, even, they had tributaries and allies, and no Arabian prince dared confess himself their enemy. They exercised an influence in the Red Sea: and upon the eastern coast of Africa, they were the masters of Quiloa, Sofala, Mozambique, and Melinda. As Albuquerque had foreseen, Ormuz--from its fortunate situation, as an emporium of trade, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf--became the most important of the Portuguese conquests. The island was by nature little more than a barren rock, and was entirely destitute of water. Its wealth and splendor, however, during the period of its commercial supremacy, gave the world an example of the power of trade which had never yet been witnessed. The trading season lasted from January to March and from August to November: during these months, the houses fronting on the streets were opened like shops, and decorated with piles of porcelain and Indian curiosities, and perfumed with fragrant dwarf shrubs set in gilded vases. Camels laden with skins of water stood at the corners of the streets. The richest wines of Persia and the most costly odors of Asia were offered in profusion to those who visited the city to trade. Thick awnings stretched from roof to roof across the promenades, excluding the rays of the sun. The luxury and magnificence of the place seemed to flow rather from the lavish extravagance of an idle prince than from the legitimate pomp of a stirring and active commercial population. In 1580, Portugal was conquered and annexed to Spain, and the Portuguese Empire in the East at once declined, and the Dutch Empire sprang up upon its ruins. Ormuz was plundered by the Persians and English united in 1662: the very stones of which its edifices were built were carried away as ballast, and it speedily sank back into its primitive state--a barren and desolate rock. Hardly a vestige of the proud city now remains to vindicate history in its record that here once stood one of the most famous emporiums of commerce and most frequented resorts of man. [Illustration: PONCE DE LEON AND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.] CHAPTER XXII. PONCE DE LEON--THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH--DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA--THE MARTYRS AND THE TORTUGAS--THE BAHAMA CHANNEL--VASCO NUÑEZ DE BALBOA--HE GOES TO SEA IN A BARREL--MARRIES A LADY OF THE ISTHMUS--HIS SEARCH FOR GOLD--HEARS OF A MIGHTY OCEAN--UNDERTAKES TO REACH IT--PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION--LEONCICO THE BLOODHOUND--BATTLE WITH A CACIQUE--ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAINS--BALBOA MOUNTS TO THE SUMMIT ALONE--THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE PACIFIC--CEREMONIES OF TAKING POSSESSION--BALBOA UP TO HIS KNEES IN THE OCEAN--EVERY ONE TASTES THE WATER--A VOYAGE UPON THE PACIFIC, AND A NARROW ESCAPE--IGNOMINIOUS FATE OF BALBOA--JUAN DIAZ DE SOLIS--DISCOVERS THE RIO DE LA PLATA--HIS HORRIBLE DEATH BY CANNIBALS. We now return, in due chronological progression, to the discoveries of the Spaniards in the West. We have not space to describe, or even to mention, all the successive expeditions made to various points of the great American Continent: we select, therefore, only the more important and interesting episodes among the Spanish maritime achievements. Three heroes will occupy our attention from 1510 to 1514,--Ponce de Leon, Juan Diaz de Solis, and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. Juan Ponce, surnamed de Leon from his native province, was one of the Spanish captains who emigrated to Hispaniola shortly after its discovery by Columbus. After an active and prosperous career, he found himself, in 1510, by the withdrawal of the king's favor, without place or occupation. He was, however, rich, and resolved to attempt to regain his credit by means of discoveries. He was avaricious, too, and would willingly have augmented his already large possessions. He had heard from the Indians of Cuba of the existence, to the north of Hispaniola, of an island named Bimini, where, they asserted, was a spring whose waters had the virtue of restoring youth to the aged and vigor to the decrepit. Ponce thought that if he could discover and seize this fountain it would be an inexhaustible source of revenue to him, as he could levy a tax upon all who derived benefit from its influence. He determined to set out in search of it, and fitted out two stout ships at his own expense. With these he left St. Genevieve, in Porto Rico, on the 1st of March, 1512, and steered boldly through the intricate group of the Lucayos. Wherever he stopped, he drank of all the running streams and standing pools, whether their waters were fresh or stagnant, that he might not miss the famous spring. He inquired of all the natives he met where he could find the wondrous Fountain of Youth. At last he discovered a land till then unknown to Europeans. Early in April, and in Easter week, he touched what he supposed was an island, but what in reality was a portion of the continent. As the landscape was covered with flowers, he named the spot "Florida." He had several severe fights with the Indians, one of whom he made prisoner, that he might learn Spanish and give him information concerning the country. He now sailed to the south and doubled Cape Florida on the 8th of May, which, on account of the currents, he named Cabo de las Corrientes. On the 15th, he sailed along a line of small islands as far as two white ones, and called the whole group Los Martyros, or The Martyrs, from the high rocks at a distance which had the appearance of men undergoing crucifixion. The name was singularly applicable, for the large number of seamen who have since been wrecked upon these islands has made them in reality a place of martyrdom. He discovered another group to the southwest, which he called the Tortugas, as his men took one hundred and seventy tortoises upon one of them in a short time, and might have had more if they would. Ponce de Leon continued ranging about here till September, when he returned to Porto Rico, sending one of his ships to Bimini--the smallest of the Bahamas--to see if he could discover the spring. The vessel went and returned, the captain, Perez de Ortubia, reporting that the island was pleasantly diversified with hills, groves, and rivers, but that none of the latter possessed any unusual charm. One great advantage which resulted from the voyage of Ponce de Leon was the discovery, by his second captain, Ortubia, of the passage now known as the Bahama Channel, by which ships bound from Havana to Spain pass out into the Atlantic Ocean. This new passage became the universal track even during Ponce de Leon's life. Upon his return to court, he was well rewarded for his discoveries both by land and sea, but his gathering years caused him often to regret that he had missed the Fountain of Youth. We have now to relate the manner in which the Pacific Ocean, which had rolled for centuries in its accustomed bed, unknown to Europeans, was first seen by Continental eyes. The islands discovered by Columbus were still under the exclusive dominion of the Spaniards; Hispaniola was the central point of their operations of discovery and conquest. Settled here, upon a farm, was a man, still in the prime of life, named Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. He was a native of Xeres, in Spain, and had eagerly enlisted in the late voyages of adventure. He was known to be a mere soldier of fortune, and of loose, prodigal habits, and is described as an "egregius digladiator," or adroit swordsman. His farm had involved him in debt; and, to escape his embarrassments and elude his creditors, he caused himself, in 1511, to be nailed up in a cask, to be labelled "victuals for the voyage," and to be conveyed on board a ship starting upon an expedition to the mainland. When the vessel was out of sight of the shore, he emerged from the cask, and appeared before the surprised captain, Hernandez de Enciso. Being tall and muscular, evidently inured to hardships and of intrepid disposition, he found favor with the captain, especially when he told him that a venerable priest had asserted "that God reserved him for great things." In the course of two years, Balboa had acquired authority over a tract of the Isthmus of Darien, and had married the young and beautiful daughter of the Cacique of Coyba. After a victory obtained over one of the neighboring monarchs, from whom four thousand ounces of gold and a quantity of golden utensils had been extorted, Balboa ordered one-fifth to be set apart for himself and the rest to be shared among his followers. While the Spaniards were dividing it by weight, a dispute arose respecting the fairness of the award, when the Indian who had given the gold spoke to the disputants as follows: "Why should you quarrel for such a trifle? If gold is to you so precious that you abandon your homes for it and invade the peaceful lands of others, I will tell you of a region where you may gratify your wishes to the utmost. Beyond those lofty mountains lies a mighty sea, which from their summits may be easily discerned. It is navigated by people who have vessels almost as large as yours, and, like them, furnished with sails and oars. All the streams which flow from these mountains into the sea abound in gold: the kings who reign upon its borders eat and drink out of golden vessels. Gold, in fact, is as common there as iron among you Spaniards." [Illustration: BALBOA AND THE INDIAN.] Fired by this discourse, Balboa inquired whether it would be difficult to penetrate to this sea and its golden shores. "The task," the prince replied, "is arduous and dangerous. Powerful caciques will oppose you with their warriors; fierce cannibals will attack you, and devour those whom they kill. To accomplish your enterprise, you will require at least a thousand men, armed like those you have with you now." To prove his sincerity, the prince offered to accompany Balboa upon the expedition, at the head of his warriors. This was the first intimation received by a European of the splendid expanse of water which was so soon to receive the name of Pacific. It exerted an immediate and radical change upon the character and conduct of Balboa. The soldier of fortune became animated by an honorable and controlling ambition; the restless and reckless desperado saw before him a glorious path to immortality. He baptized the prince who had given him information so priceless, and proceeded to Darien to obtain the means of accomplishing his scheme. For a long time he was baffled. A terrific tempest laid waste the fields and devastated the harvests. He sent to Hispaniola for men and provisions; but the emissary was wrecked upon the coast of Jamaica. He wrote to Don Diego Columbus, who governed at San Domingo, informing him of the existence of a new ocean, bordered with shores of gold, and asking for a thousand men with whom to prosecute its discovery. He forwarded the sum of fifteen thousand crowns in gold, to be transmitted to the king as his royal fifths. Many of his followers, too, sent sums intended for their creditors in Spain. While waiting for a reply, Balboa learned indirectly that he had fallen into disfavor with the king. One brilliant achievement might restore him to consideration and forever fix him in the good graces of the monarch. He chose one hundred and ninety of the most vigorous and resolute of his men, and took with him a number of bloodhounds. His own peculiar bodyguard was a dog named Leoncico,--one of the numerous progeny sired by the famous warrior-dog of Juan Ponce de Leon. Leoncico was covered with scars received in his innumerable fights with the natives. Balboa often lent him to others, and received for his services the same share of booty an able-bodied man would have claimed. Leoncico had earned for his master in this way several thousands of dollars. [Illustration: BALBOA DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN.] On the 1st of September, 1513, Balboa embarked with his followers in a light brigantine and nine canoes, and ascended a stream which was navigable as far as Coyba. Here he received accessions of men, and, having sent back those who were ill or disabled, prepared to penetrate the wilderness on foot. In a battle with a cacique named Quaragua, he slew six hundred of the natives. Some were transfixed with lances, others hewn down with swords, and others torn to pieces by the bloodhounds. He advanced hardly seven miles a day, but at last reached a village lying at the foot of the mountain that commanded the long wished for prospect. Only sixty-seven men out of two hundred remained to make this last grand effort. Balboa ordered them to retire early to repose, that they might be ready at the cool hour of dawn. They set forth at daybreak on the morning of the 26th of September. In a short time they emerged from the forests, and arrived at the upper regions of the mountain, leaving the bald summit still to be ascended. Balboa ordered them to halt, that he might himself be alone to enjoy the scene and the first to discover the ocean. He reached the peak, and there the magnificent sight burst upon his view. The water was still at the distance of two days' journey; but there it lay, beyond the intervening space, grand, boundless, and serene. He fell upon his knees, and returned thanks to God. He summoned his followers to ascend, and thus addressed them:--"Behold, my friends," he said, "the glorious sight which we have so ardently longed for. Let us pray to God that he will aid and guide us to conquer the sea and land which we have discovered, and in which no Christian has ever entered to preach the holy doctrine of the Evangelists. By the favor of Christ you will thus become the richest Spaniards that have ever come to the Indies." The priest attached to the expedition chanted that impressive anthem, the Te Deum; and the Spaniards, in whom religious fervor and the thirst for pillage seemed to be mingled in equal proportions, joined in the chorus with heart and voice. Balboa now called upon all present to witness that he took possession of the sea, its islands and surrounding lands, in the name of the sovereigns of Castile; and the notary of the expedition made a record to that effect, to which all present, to the number of sixty-seven men, signed their names. Balboa then caused a tall tree to be cut down and fashioned into the form of a cross: this he erected on the spot whence he had first beheld the ocean. A mound of stone was likewise piled up as a monument, and the names of Ferdinand and Juana were carved upon the neighboring trees. A scouting party under Alonzo Martin, sent by Balboa to discover the best route to the sea, came after two days' journey to a beach, upon which were two canoes, stranded as it were, and apparently out of the reach of water. But the tide soon came rushing in, and floated them; upon which Alonzo Martin stepped into one of them, and was thus the first European who embarked upon the ocean which Balboa had discovered and which Magellan was to name. Balboa soon arrived upon the coast: the tide had ebbed, and the water was nearly two miles distant. But it soon returned, invading the place where the Spaniards were seated. Upon this Balboa arose, and, taking a banner representing the Virgin and Child and bearing the arms of Castile and Leon, marched knee-deep into the water, and, waving the flag, pronounced the following act of taking possession: "Long live the high and mighty monarchs Don Ferdinand and Donna Juana, sovereigns of Castile, Leon, and Aragon, in whose name I take real and actual and corporeal possession of these seas, and lands, and coasts, and ports, and islands of the South, and all thereunto annexed; and of the kingdoms and provinces which do or may appertain to them in whatever manner or by whatever right or title, ancient or modern, in times past, present, or to come, without any contradiction; and if other prince or captain, Christian or infidel, or if any law, condition, or sect whatsoever, shall pretend any right to these lands and seas, I am ready to maintain and defend them in the name of the Castilian sovereigns, whose is the empire and dominion over these Indies, islands, and terra firma, Northern and Southern, with all their seas, both at the Arctic and Antartic poles, on either side of the equinoctial line, whether within or without the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, both now and in all time, as long as the world endure, and until the final day of judgment of all mankind." [Illustration: BALBOA TAKING POSSESSION OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.] As may be supposed, no one appeared to dispute these formidable pretensions, and no champion entered the lists in behalf of the original owners of the seas, islands, and surrounding lands in question; so that Balboa called upon his companions to bear witness that he had duly and uninterruptedly taken possession. The notary drew up the necessary legal document, which was signed by all present. Then they all tasted the water, which, from its saltness, they felt assured was the ocean. Balboa carved a cross on a tree whose roots were below high-water mark, and, lopping off a branch with his sword, bore it away as a trophy. Balboa now wished to perform a voyage upon the bosom of the new-found ocean. In spite of the advice of friendly Indians, who represented the season as stormy, he embarked with sixty of his men in nine canoes. A tempest compelled them to seek refuge upon an island. In the night the tide completely submerged it, and rose to the girdles of the Spaniards. Their canoes were broken to pieces, and at low tide they managed with great difficulty to effect their escape to the mainland. After numerous forays against the caciques ruling the neighboring tribes, Balboa arrived at the Darien River, on the 19th of January, 1514, after having accomplished one of the most remarkable feats on record, and after an expedition which must ever be memorable among deeds of intrepidity and adventure. The king created him Adelantado of the South Sea, and Governor of Panama and Coyba, but subject to Pedrarias, the Governor of Darien. The latter regarded him as his rival, and, by a successful series of treacherous arts, brought against him a well-contrived charge of treason to the king. He was reluctantly found guilty by the alcalde, and by Pedrarias condemned to be beheaded, as a traitor and usurper of the territories of the crown. The execution took place in the public square of a small town near Darien, and was witnessed by Pedrarias from between the reeds of the wall of a house some twelve paces from the scaffold. Balboa and four of his officers were beheaded in quick succession during the brief twilight of a tropical evening. Pedrarias confiscated Balboa's property, and ordered his head to be impaled upon a pole and exposed upon the public square till decomposition should ensue. Thus perished, at the age of forty-two years,--the victim of the meanest envy and the most odious treachery,--a man who will be ever remembered as one of the most illustrious of the early discoverers. Events transformed him from a rash and turbulent adventurer into a discreet and patriotic captain; and, from the moment when he felt that he had drawn the attention of the world upon him, his conduct was that of a man born and predestined to greatness. He fell in the zenith of his glory, a worthy contemporary? of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan. Juan Diaz de Solis, who, with Yanez Pinzon, Amerigo Vespucci, and Juan de la Cosa, the pilot of Columbus, was a member of the Spanish council appointed to deliberate upon discoveries yet to be made, sailed to South America in 1514, and, doubling Capes St. Roque, St. Augustin, and Frio, entered the bay upon which now stands the city of Rio Janeiro, and was probably the first European to set foot upon the coast thus far to the south. He supposed the bay to be the mouth of a passage through to the South Sea so lately discovered by Balboa. He proceeded to the south, ascertaining the position of every headland and indentation with all the precision the instruments and science of the time would permit. At last he found a great opening of the sea towards the west: he took possession of the northern coast for the King of Spain, and named the gulf Fresh-Water Sea. Subsequently, finding that it was a river, and that silver-mines existed there, he named the stream Rio de la Plata. The Indians called it Paraguaza. He found the country fertile and attractive, and an abundance of the wood which had given to the whole region the name of Brazil. He went on shore with a small party, but soon fell into an ambuscade laid for them by the natives. Solis and five of his companions were taken, killed, roasted, and devoured by the horrible cannibals who inhabited the country. The Spaniards who remained on board the ships witnessed the shocking catastrophe, which so appalled and horrified them that they fled in dismay and sailed hastily back to Spain. [Illustration: FATE OF DE SOLIS AND HIS COMPANIONS.] [Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN.] CHAPTER XXIII. REMARKABLE FORESIGHT OF THE COURT OF ROME--A PAPAL BULL--FERDINAND MAGELLAN--HE OFFERS HIS SERVICES TO SPAIN--HIS PLANS--HIS FLEET--PIGAFETTA THE HISTORIAN--AN INAUSPICIOUS START--TENERIFFE AND ITS LEGENDS--ST. ELMO'S FIRE--THE CREW MAKE FAMOUS BARGAINS WITH THE CANNIBALS--HEAVY PRICE PAID FOR THE KING OF SPADES--PATAGONIAN GIANTS--PIGAFETTA'S EXAGGERATIONS--THE HEALING ART IN PATAGONIA--THE TRAGEDY OF PORT JULIAN--DISCOVERY OF A STRAIT--THE OPEN SEA--CAPE DESEADO--THE OCEAN NAMED PACIFIC--RAVAGES OF THE SCURVY--A PATAGONIAN PAUL--THE NEEDLE BECOMES LETHARGIC--DISCOVERY OF THE LADRONES--THE FIRST COCOANUT--A CATHOLIC CEREMONY UPON A PAGAN ISLAND. The Pope of Rome, whose authority was at this period supreme among the princes who were in communion with the Church, now thought proper to anticipate a possible collision between Spain and Portugal, the two monopolists of commerce and discovery. He declared by a bull, or papal decree, that all new countries which should be thereafter discovered to the east of the Azores were to belong to the crown of Portugal, while all that were discovered to the west should be the property of Spain. Thus, a potentate who claimed to be infallible issued a decree based upon the pontifical conviction that the world was flat, even after the very solid arguments to the contrary of Columbus and da Gama. His Holiness, in his wisdom, imagined that one nation might sail to the right, the other to the left, and go on forever: he did not foresee, what was now almost palpable to every eye but that of Roman infallibility, that the Spaniards and the Portuguese would at last meet at the antipodes. There, in time, they did meet, and the very pretty dispute which arose in consequence we shall narrate in the sequel. But a more immediate effect of the decree was this:--a Spaniard, if he felt himself neglected or maltreated by his own sovereign, would offer his services to the Portuguese king, confident of employment at his hands, as the latter would thus weaken Spain and profit by discoveries made by her subjects. A Portuguese, if similarly aggrieved, would in the same way desert to the Spanish king and accept service from the Spanish crown. It so happened that one Fernâo Magalhaens, known in English as Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese by birth, and who had served with distinction in the East Indies under Albuquerque, addressed himself to the court of Lisbon for the recompense which was his due. His application was treated with disdain. He forthwith withdrew to Spain with a learned man who had been similarly neglected, one Ruy Falero, an astronomer, whom the Portuguese regarded as a conjurer and charlatan. Magellan made overtures for new discoveries to Cardinal Ximenes, then Prime Minister of Spain, and in reality its ruler during the absence of Charles V. The Portuguese ambassador sought by every means in his power to baffle his designs, and demanded of the court that he and Falero should be given up as deserters. He even offered Magellan a reward if he would desist from his purpose, or, at least, execute it in the service of Portugal. But the cardinal listened with favor to the plan presented by Magellan, which was briefly as follows: Columbus, who started upon his voyage to the west in order to reach the East Indies by a western route, had failed in his object, discovering instead an intermediate continent. Magellan now proposed to seek the Portuguese Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by sailing, if possible, from the Atlantic Ocean into the South Sea, discovered by Balboa five years before. His idea was to attempt to find a passage through the mainland of South America by the Rio de la Plata, or some other channel opening upon its eastern coast. Should this succeed, Spain would possess the East Indies as well as the West, since, if the Moluccas were discovered by way of the west, even though situated to the east, they would fall expressly within the allotment made by the late papal bull. Magellan thought the world was round, in defiance of the pontifical declaration that it was flat. In accordance with this proposal, the Spanish crown agreed to equip a fleet of five vessels and to give the command of it to Magellan. It was furthermore agreed that he should have a twentieth part of the clear profit of the expedition, and that the government of any islands he might discover should be vested in him and his heirs forever, with the title of Adelantado. The five vessels were accordingly fitted out at Seville, Magellan's flag-ship being named the Trinidada. They were manned by two hundred and thirty-seven men, thirty of whom were able-bodied Portuguese seamen, upon whom Magellan principally relied. The astronomer Falero declined accompanying him, having, in his astrological calculations, foreseen that the voyage would be fatal to him. A certain San Martino, of Seville, who went in his stead, was, as will be seen, assassinated in his place at the island of Zubu. An Italian gentleman, named Pigafetta, was permitted by the cardinal to form part of Magellan's suite. He afterwards became the historian of the voyage. The fleet set sail from Seville on the 10th of August, 1519, its departure being announced by a discharge of artillery. Seville is nearly one hundred miles from the sea, by the river Guadalquivir, the seaport of which is San Lucar, whence they finally departed on the 20th of September. It would be difficult to imagine circumstances more inauspicious than those under which Magellan left the shores of Europe. The course he was to follow was unexplored: so rash was the attempt considered, that he dared not communicate to his men the real object of the expedition. The season was already advanced, and he would in all probability arrive in high southern latitudes at the coldest period of the year. To the perils naturally incident to such a voyage was to be added the unfortunate fact that the commanders of the other four ships were Spaniards, and consequently inimical to Magellan, who, though in the service of Spain, was of Portuguese birth. In six days the squadron reached Teneriffe; of this island Pigafetta relates several curious legends current at that time. It never rained there, he says, and there was neither river nor spring in the island. The leaves of a tree, however, which was constantly surrounded by a thick mist, distilled excellent water, which was collected in a pit at its foot, whither the inhabitants and wild beasts repaired to quench their thirst. Early in October the fleet passed between Cape Verd and its islands, and coasted along the shores of Guinea and Sierra Leone. Here they met with contrary winds, sharks, and dead calms. One dark night, during a violent tempest, the St. Elmo fire blazed for two hours upon their topmast. This, which is now known to be an effect of electricity, which the ancient idolaters believed to be Castor and Pollux, which Catholics in Magellan's time regarded as a saint, and which English sailors call Davy Jones, was a great consolation to the Portuguese during the storm. At the moment when it disappeared it diffused a light so resplendent that Pigafetta was almost blinded and gave himself up for lost; but, he adds, "the wind ceased momentaneously." Passing the equinoctial line and losing sight of the polar star, Magellan steered south-southwest, and in the middle of December struck the coast of Brazil. His men made excellent bargains with the natives. For a small comb they obtained two geese; for a piece of glass, as much fish as would feed ten men; for a ribbon, a basket of potatoes,--a root then so little known that Pigafetta describes it as resembling a turnip in appearance and a roasted chestnut in taste. A pack of playing-cards was a fortune, for a sailor bought six fat chickens with the king of spades. The fleet remained thirteen days at anchor, and then pursued its way to the southward along the territory of the cannibals who had lately devoured de Solis. Stopping at an island in the mouth of a river sixty miles wide, they caught, in one hour, penguins sufficient for the whole five ships. Magellan anchored for the winter in a harbor found in south latitude 49° and called by him Port Julian. Two months elapsed before the country was discovered to be inhabited. At last a man of gigantic figure presented himself upon the shore, capering in the sands in a state of utter nudity, and violently casting dust upon his head. A sailor was sent ashore to make similar gestures, and the giant was thus easily led to the spot where Magellan had landed. The latter gave him cooked food to eat and presented him, incidentally, with a large steel mirror. The savage now saw his likeness for the first time, and started back in such fright that he knocked over four men. He and several of his companions, both men and women, subsequently went on board the ships, and constantly indicated by their gestures that they supposed the strangers to have descended from heaven. One of the savages became quite a favorite: he was taught to pronounce the name of Jesus and to repeat the Lord's prayer, and was even baptized by the name of John by the chaplain. This profession of Christianity did the poor pagan no good, for he soon disappeared,--murdered, doubtless, by his people, in consequence of his attachment to the foreigners. The whole description given by Pigafetta of these savages, whom Magellan called Patagonians,--from words indicating the resemblance of their feet, when shod with the skin of the lama, to the feet of a bear,--is now known to be much exaggerated. It is certain that they were by no means so gigantic as he represented them. He adds that they drank half a pail of water at a draught, fed upon raw meat, and swallowed mice alive; that when they were sick and needed bleeding they gave a good chop with some edged tool to the part affected; when they wished to vomit they thrust an arrow half a yard down their throat. The headache was cured by a gash in the forehead. A fearful tragedy was enacted in Port Julian. The four Spanish captains conspired to murder Magellan. The plot was discovered and the ringleaders were brought to trial. Two were hung, another was stabbed to the heart, while a number of their accomplices were left among the Patagonians. Magellan quitted Port Julian in August, 1520, having planted a cross on a neighboring mountain and taken solemn possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain. On the 14th of September, he discovered a fresh-water river, which he named Santa Cruz, in honor of the anniversary of the exaltation of the cross. Here the crew, by Magellan's order, made confession and received the holy communion. On the 21st of October, Magellan made the great discovery which has immortalized his name. He reached a strait communicating between the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea: consulting the calendar for a name, he called it in honor of the day, the Strait of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. It is now Magellan's Strait. It was enclosed between lofty mountains covered with snow; the water was so deep that it afforded no anchorage. The crew were so fully persuaded that it possessed no western outlet, that, had it not been for Magellan's confidence and persistence, they would never have ventured to explore it. The strait was found to vary in breadth from one mile to ten, and to be four hundred and forty miles in length. During the first night spent in the strait, the Santo Antonio, piloted by one Emmanuel Gomez, who hated Magellan, found her way back into the Atlantic, and returned at once to Spain. The pilot's object was principally to be the first to tell the news of the discovery, and to carry to Europe a specimen of a Patagonian giant, one of whom he had on board of his vessel. On his way he stopped at Port Julian and took up two of the conspirators who had been abandoned there. The Patagonian was unable to bear the change of climate, and died of the heat on crossing the line. [Illustration: CAPE VIRGIN--THE EAST ENTRANCE OF MAGELLAN'S STRAIT.] One of Magellan's remaining four vessels was sent on in advance of the others to reconnoitre a cape which seemed to terminate the channel. The vessel returned, announcing that the strait indeed terminated at this cape and that beyond lay the open sea. "We wept for joy," says Pigafetta: "the cape was denominated Cabo Deseado,--Wished-for Cape,--for in good truth we had long wished to see it." The sight gave Magellan the most unbounded joy, for he was now able practically to demonstrate the truth of the theory he had advanced,--that it was possible to sail to the East Indies by way of the west. He now named the famous strait the Strait of the Patagonians, but a sense of justice induced the Europeans to change its name and to call it the Strait of Magellan. At every mile or two he found a safe harbor with excellent water, cedar-wood, sardines, and shell-fish, together with an abundance of sweet celery,--a specific against the scurvy. On the 28th of November, the squadron, reduced to three ships by the loss of the Santiago, left the strait and launched into the Great South Sea, to which, from the steady and gentle winds that propelled them over waters almost unruffled, Magellan gave the name of Pacific,--a name which it has ever since retained. They sailed on and on during the space of three months and twenty days, seeing no land, with the exception of two sterile and deserted islands which they named the Unfortunate. During all this time they tasted no fresh provisions. Their biscuit was little better than dust and smelled intolerably, being impregnated with the effluvia of mice. The water was putrid and offensive. The crew were so far reduced that they were glad to eat leather, which they were obliged to soak for four or five days in the sea in order to render it sufficiently supple to be broiled, chewed, and digested. Others lived on sawdust, while mice were sought after with such avidity that they were sold for half a ducat apiece. Scurvy now began to make its appearance, and nineteen of the sailors died of it. The gums of many were swollen over their teeth, so that, unable to masticate their leathern viands, they perished miserably of starvation. Those who remained alive became weak, low-spirited, and helpless. The Patagonian taken on board the Trinidada at Port Julian was attacked by the disease. Pigafetta, seeing that he could not recover, showed him the cross and reverently kissed it. The Patagonian besought him by gestures to forbear, as the demon would certainly enter his body and cause him to burst. When at death's door, however, he called for the cross, which he kissed: he then begged to be baptized, and was received into the bosom of the Church under the name of Paul. The vessels kept on and on, seeing no fish but sharks, and finding no bottom along the shores of the stunted islands which they passed. The needle was so irregular in its motion that it required frequent passes of the loadstone to revive its energy. No prominent star appeared to serve as an Antarctic Polar guide. Two stars, however, were discovered, which, from the smallness of the circle they described in their diurnal course, seemed to be near the pole. "We traversed," says Pigafetta, "a space of from sixty to seventy leagues a day; and, if God and His Holy Mother had not granted us a fortunate voyage, we should all have perished of hunger in so vast a sea. I do not think any one for the future will venture upon a similar voyage." It was, indeed, nearly sixty years before Drake, the second circumnavigator, entered the Pacific Ocean. Early in March, 1521, Magellan fell in with a cluster of islands, where he and his men went ashore to refresh themselves after the fatigues and privations of their voyage. The inhabitants, however, were great thieves, penetrating into the cabins of the vessels and taking every thing on which they could lay their hands. Magellan, exasperated at length, landed with forty men, burned a village and killed seven of the natives. The latter, when pierced with arrows through and through,--a weapon they had never seen before,--would draw them out by either end and stare at them till they died. Magellan gave the name of Ladrones to these islands,--a name which they retain in modern geography, though, in the time of Philip IV. of Spain, they were called the Marianne Isles, in honor of Maria, his queen. At another island the crew received from the inhabitants the first present of cocoanuts made to a European of which any record exists. Pigafetta describes this now world-famous fruit in a manner which shows that he considered it a most wonderful novelty. We extract a portion of his description:--"Cocoanuts," he says, "are the fruit of a species of palm-tree, which furnishes the people with bread, wine, oil, vinegar, and physic. To obtain wine, they make an incision in the top of the tree, penetrating to the pith, from which drops a liquor resembling white must, but which is rather tart. This liquor is caught in the hollow of a reed the thickness of a man's leg, which is suspended to the tree and is carefully emptied twice a day. The fruit is of the size of a man's head, and sometimes larger. Its outward rind is green and two fingers thick: it is composed of filaments of which they make cordage for their boats. Beneath this is a shell harder and thicker than that of the walnut. This they burn and pulverize, using the powder as a remedy in several distempers. Within, the shell is lined with a white kernel about as thick as a finger, which is eaten, instead of bread, with meat and fish. In the centre of the nut, encircled by the kernel, a sweet and limpid liquor is found, of a corroborative nature. This liquor, poured into a glass and suffered to stand, assumes the consistence of an apple. The kernel and liquor, if left to ferment and afterwards boiled, yield an oil as thick as butter. To obtain vinegar, the liquor itself is exposed to the sun, and the acid which results from it resembles that vinegar we make from white wine. A family of ten persons might be supported from two cocoanut-trees, by alternately tapping each every week, and letting the other rest, that a perpetual drainage of liquor may not kill the tree. We were told that a cocoanut-tree lives a century." At another island, Pigafetta asserts that, by sifting the earth he found lumps of gold as large as walnuts and some as big as eggs even, and that all the vessels used by the king at his table were of the same precious metal. These are believed to have been gross falsehoods of Pigafetta's invention, in a view to procure for himself the command of a subsequent voyage of discovery. Magellan gratified two island-kings with the spectacle of a grand Catholic ceremony. He sprinkled them with sweet-scented water, and offered them the cross to kiss. On the elevation of the host he caused them to adore the Eucharist with joined hands. At this moment a discharge of artillery, arranged beforehand, was fired from the ships. The entertainment concluded with a hornpipe and sword-dance,--an exhibition which seemed to please the two kings highly. A large cross was then brought, garnished with nails and a crown of thorns. It was set up upon a high mountain, as a signal to all Christian navigators that they would be well treated in the island. The kings were also assured that if they prayed to it devoutly it would defend them from lightning and tempests. They had evidently suffered severely from the vagaries and violence of the electric fluid, and were delighted to be thus easily protected against its pernicious and destructive influence. [Illustration: LAMONARIA.] [Illustration: THE NATIVES OF BORNEO PREPARE TO ATTACK MAGELLAN.] CHAPTER XXIV. DISCOVERY OF THE PHILIPPINES--THE KING OF ZUBU WISHES THE KING OF SPAIN TO PAY TRIBUTE--HE FINALLY ABANDONS THE IDEA--A WHOLE ISLAND CONVERTED TO CHRISTIANITY--MAGELLAN PERFORMS A MIRACLE--A DUMB MAN RECOVERS HIS SPEECH--MAGELLAN INVADES A REFRACTORY ISLAND--HIS DEATH--ATTEMPTS TO RECOVER HIS BODY--THE CHRISTIAN ISLAND RETURNS TO IDOLATRY--THE SHIPS ARRIVE AT BORNEO--THE SAILORS DRINK TOO FREELY OF ARRACK--FESTIVITIES AND TREACHERY--VIVID IMAGINATION OF PIGAFETTA--THE FLEET ARRIVES AT THE MOLUCCAS--THE KING OF TIDORE--A BRISK TRADE IN CLOVES--THE SPICE-TARIFF--THE VITTORIA SAILS HOMEWARD--PIGAFETTA IS AGAIN IMAGINATIVE--ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE VERDS--LOSS OF ONE DAY--COMPLETION OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION--PIGAFETTA'S ROMANCE BECOMES VERITABLE HISTORY. On the 7th of April the squadron entered the harbor of the island of Zubu, one of a group which has since been named the Philippines. Magellan sent a messenger to the king to ask an exchange of commodities. The king observed that it was customary for all ships entering his waters to pay tribute, to which the messenger replied that the Spanish admiral was the servant of so powerful a sovereign that he could pay tribute to no one. The king promised to give an answer the next day, and, in the mean time, sent fruit and wine on board the ships. Magellan had brought with him the king of Massana, a neighboring island, and this monarch soon convinced the king of Zubu that, instead of asking tribute, he would be wise to pay it. A treaty of peace and perpetual amity was soon established between his majesty of Spain and his royal brother of Zubu. Pigafetta here introduces a ridiculous and incredible story of the conversion of these islands to Christianity by Magellan. It is as follows:--Magellan, being much displeased at learning that parents attaining a certain age in this island were treated disrespectfully by their children, told them that the Almighty, who created heaven and earth, had strictly commanded children to honor their parents and had threatened with eternal fire those who transgressed this commandment. He added other observations from Holy Writ, which afforded the islanders much pleasure, and inspired them with the desire of being instructed in the true religion. Magellan assured them that before departing he would baptize them all, if they could convince him that they accepted the boon, not through any dread with which he might have inspired them, or through any expectation of temporal advantage, but from a spontaneous emotion, and of their own will. They convinced him easily of the spontaneity of their feelings, whereupon Magellan wept for joy and embraced them all. Sunday, the 16th of April, was fixed upon for the ceremony. A scaffold was raised and covered with tapestry and branches of palm. A general salute was fired by the squadron. Magellan then told the king that one of the advantages which would accrue to him from embracing Christianity would be that he would be strengthened, and would more easily overcome his enemies. The king replied that even without this consideration he felt disposed to become a Christian. Eight hundred persons were then baptized, the queen receiving the name of Jane, after the mother of the Emperor of Spain. She begged an infant Jesus of Pigafetta, with which to replace her idols. This remarkable story concludes with a statement that one village of idolaters absolutely refused to be converted, and that Magellan therefore burned their houses, erecting a cross upon the ruins. Not content with this, Pigafetta next makes Magellan perform a miracle. The king's brother was very sick, and had totally lost his speech. The admiral said that if all the idols remaining in the island were burned, and if the prince were baptized, he would pledge his head that he would recover. Magellan then baptized the invalid, together with his two wives and ten daughters. The captain "then asked him how he found himself, and he answered, of a sudden recovering his speech, that, thanks to the Lord, he found himself very well. We were all of us ocular witnesses of this miracle. The captain then, with greater fervor than the rest of us, returned praise to God." Idols were now committed to the flames in vast numbers, and temples built upon the margin of the sea were demolished. The new Christians went about the island crying, at the top of their voice, "Viva la Castilla!" in honor of the King of Spain. On the 26th of April, Magellan learned that a neighboring chief, named Cilapolapu, refused to acknowledge the authority of the King of Spain, and remained in open profession of paganism in the midst of a Christian community. He determined to lend his assistance to the converted chiefs to reduce and subjugate this stubborn prince. At midnight, boats left the ships, bearing sixty men armed with helmets and cuirasses. The natives followed in twenty canoes. They reached the rebellious island--Matan by name--three hours before daybreak. Cilapolapu was notified that he must obey the Christian King of Zubu or feel the strength of Christian lances. The islanders replied that they had lances too. The invaders waited for daylight, and then, jumping into the water up to their thighs, waded to shore. The enemy was fifteen hundred in number, formed into three battalions: two of these attacked them in the flank, the third in the front. The musketeers fired for half an hour without making the least impression. Trusting to the superiority of their numbers, the natives deluged the Christians with showers of bamboo lances, staves hardened in the fire, stones, and even dirt. A poisoned arrow at last struck Magellan, who at once ordered a retreat in slow and regular order. The Indians now perceived that their blows took effect when aimed at the nether limbs of their foe, and profited by this observation with telling effect. Seeing that Magellan was wounded, they twice struck his helmet from his head. He and his small band of men continued fighting for more than an hour, standing in the water up to their knees. Magellan was now evidently failing, and the islanders, perceiving his weakness, pressed upon him in crowds. One of them cut him violently across the left leg, and he fell on his face. He was immediately surrounded and belabored with sticks and stones till he died. His men, every one of whom was wounded, unable to afford him succor or avenge his death, escaped to their boats upon his fall. "Thus," says Pigafetta, "perished our guide, our light, and our support. But his glory will survive him. He was adorned with every virtue: in the midst of the greatest adversity, he constantly possessed an immovable firmness. At sea he subjected himself to the same privations as his men. Better skilled than any one in the knowledge of nautical charts, he was a perfect master of navigation, as he proved in making the tour of the world,--an attempt on which none before him had ventured." Though Magellan only made half the circuit of the earth on this occasion, yet it may be said with reason that he was the first to circumnavigate the globe, from the fact that the way home from the Philippines was perfectly well known to the Portuguese, and that Magellan had already been at Malacca. An attempt was made in the afternoon to recover the body of Magellan by negotiation; but the islanders sent answer that no consideration could induce them to part with the remains of a man like the admiral, which they should preserve as a monument of their victory. Two governors were elected in his stead, Odoard Barbosa and Juan Serrano. The latter, together with San Martino, the astronomer, and a number of officers, having been decoyed on shore by the converted king, were murdered by him in cold blood. He had seen the inferiority of Christians to savages in war, and, being doubtless disgusted with the boastful pretences of Christianity, had, upon Magellan's death, renounced it and returned again to idolatry. Juan Serrano was seen upon the shore, bound hand and foot: he begged the people in the ships to treat for his release; and, upon this being refused, he uttered deep imprecations, and appealed to the Almighty to call to account on the great day of judgment those who refused to succor him in his hour of need. They put to sea, leaving the unfortunate Serrano to his miserable fate. Odoard Barbosa, now sole commander, ordered the Concepçion, one of the three ships, to be burned, transferring its men, ammunition, and provisions to the other two. After landing at various islands, he came to the rich settlement of Borneo, on the 9th of July. The king, who was a Mohammedan and kept a magnificent court, sent out to them a beautiful canoe, adorned with gold figures and peacocks' feathers. In it were musicians playing upon the bagpipe and drum. Eight officers of the island brought to the captain a vase full of betel areca to chew, a quantity of orange-flowers and jessamine, some sugarcane, and three goblets of a distilled liquor which they called arrack, and upon which the sailors became intoxicated. Permission was granted the visitors to wood and water on the island and to trade with the natives. An interview with the king was likewise accorded, which took place with every possible ceremony,--processions of elephants, presents of cinnamon, and illuminations of wax flambeaux. Notwithstanding these professions of friendship, the squadron was obliged to leave Borneo very suddenly, in consequence of the appearance of one hundred armed canoes, which they imagined to be bent upon a hostile expedition. Among the wonders of Borneo, Pigafetta mentions two pearls as large as hens' eggs, and so round that if placed upon a polished table they never remained at rest, and cups of porcelain possessing the power to denote the presence of poison, by breaking if any were put into them. At a neighboring island where the fleet remained undergoing repairs for six weeks, Pigafetta saw a sight which he thus describes:--"We here found a tree whose leaves, as they fall, become animated and walk about. They resemble the leaves of the mulberry-tree. Upon being touched they make away, but when crushed they yield no blood. I kept one in a box for nine days, and, on opening the box, found the leaf still alive and walking round it. I am of opinion they live on air." Pigafetta's mistake here was in stating that a leaf resembled an insect: he should have spoken of the curiosity as an insect resembling a leaf. It is now known to naturalists as a species of locust. On the 6th of November, they espied a cluster of five islands, which their pilots, obtained at their last station, declared to be the famous Moluccas. They had therefore proved the world to be round, for vessels sailing to the west from Spain had now met vessels sailing thence to the east. They returned thanks to God, and fired a round from their great guns. They had been at sea twenty-six months, and had at last, after visiting an infinity of islands, reached those in quest of which they had embarked in the expedition. On the 8th, three hours before sunset, they entered the harbor of the island of Tidore. They came to anchor in twenty fathoms' water, and discharged all their cannon. The king, shaded by a parasol of silk, came the next day to visit them, said he had dreamed of their approaching visit, had consulted the moon in reference to this dream, and was now delighted to see it confirmed. He added, that he was happy in the friendship of the King of Spain, and was proud to be his vassal. This potentate, whose name was Rajah Soultan Manzour, was a Mohammedan: he was "an eminent astrologer," and had numerous wives and twenty-six children. [Illustration: TIDORE.] On the 12th, a shed was erected in the town of Tidore by the Spaniards, whither they carried all the merchandise they intended to barter for cloves. A tariff of exchange was then drawn up. Ten yards of red cloth were to be worth four hundred pounds of cloves, as were also fifteen yards of inferior cloth, fifteen axes, thirty-five glass tumblers, twenty-six yards of linen, one hundred and fifty pairs of scissors, three gongs, or a hundredweight of copper. As the stock of articles brought by the strangers diminished, however, their Value naturally rose, and a yard of ribbon would buy a quintal of cloves: in fact, every thing with which the ships could dispense on their return voyage was bartered for cloves. They were soon so deeply laden that they hardly had room in which to stow their water. The Trinidada, becoming leaky, was left behind, Juan Carvajo, her pilot, and fifty-three of the crew, remaining with her. The Vittoria bade adieu to her consort on the 21st of December, the two vessels exchanging a parting salute. The number of Europeans on board of the Vittoria was now reduced to forty-six; and the fleet, which formerly consisted of five sail, was now reduced to one. As the Vittoria made her way through the thick archipelagoes of islands which dot the seas in these latitudes, her Molucca pilot told Pigafetta amazing stories of their inhabitants. In Aracheto, he said, the men and women were but a foot and a half high; their food was the pith of a tree; their dwellings were caverns under ground; their ears were as long as their bodies; so that when they lay down one ear served as a mattress and the other as a blanket! In order to double the Cape of Good Hope, the captain ascended as high as the forty-second degree of south latitude: he remained wind-bound for nine weeks opposite the Cape. The crew were now suffering from sickness, hunger, and thirst. After doubling the Cape, they steered northwest for two months, losing twenty-one men on the way. Pigafetta noticed that, on throwing the dead into the sea, the Christians floated with their faces turned towards heaven, while the Mohammedans they had engaged turned their faces the other way! At last, on the 9th of July, 1522, the vessel made the Cape Verds. These were in the possession of the Portuguese; and it was a very hazardous thing for the Spaniards to put themselves in their power. However, they represented themselves as coming from the west and not from the east, and made known their necessities. Their long-boat was laden twice with rice in exchange for various articles. On its third trip the crew was detained,--the Portuguese having discovered that the Vittoria was one of Magellan's fleet. She was compelled to abandon the men as prisoners, and sailed away,--her whole equipment now numbering eighteen hands, all of them, except Pigafetta, more or less disabled. The latter, to discover if his journal had been regularly kept, had inquired at the islands what day it was, and was told it was Thursday. This amazed him, as his reckoning made it Wednesday. He was soon convinced there was no mistake in his account; as, having sailed to the westward and followed the course of the sun, it was evident that, in circumnavigating the globe, he had seen it rise once less than those who had remained at home, and thus, apparently, had lost a day. On Saturday, the 6th of September, the Vittoria entered the Bay of San Lucar, having been absent three years and twenty-seven days, and having sailed upwards of fourteen thousand six hundred leagues. On the 8th, having ascended the Guadalquivir, she anchored off the mole of Seville and discharged all her artillery. On the 9th, the whole crew repaired, in their shirts and barefooted, and carrying tapers in their hands, to the Church of Our Lady of Victory, as in hours of danger they had often vowed to do. The captain of the Vittoria, Juan Sebastian Cano, was knighted by Charles V., who gave him for his coat of arms the terrestrial globe, with a motto commemorating the voyage. Pigafetta presented to Charles V. of Spain, to King John of Portugal, to the Queen Regent of France, and to Philippe, Grand Master of Rhodes, journals and narratives of the expedition. From the latter, the most complete, we have extracted the foregoing account,--taking care, however, to correct its errors, and to point out the numerous instances in which its author was indebted to his imagination for his facts. Section IV. FROM THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD TO THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN; 1519-1616. CHAPTER XXV. VOYAGE OF JACQUES CARTIER--MARITIME PROJECTS OF FRANCIS I. OF FRANCE--GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE--A QUICK TRIP HOME--SECOND VOYAGE--CANADA, QUEBEC, MONTREAL--A CAPTIVE KING--VOYAGE OF SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY AND RICHARD CHANCELLOR--DISCOVERY OF NOVA ZEMBLA--DISASTROUS WINTER--FATE OF THE EXPEDITION--MARTIN FROBISHER--HIS VOYAGE IN QUEST OF A NORTHWEST PASSAGE--GREENLAND--LABRADOR--FROBISHER'S STRAITS--EXCHANGE OF CAPTIVES--SUPPOSED DISCOVERY OF GOLD--SECOND VOYAGE--A CARGO OF PRECIOUS EARTH TAKEN ON BOARD--META INCOGNITA--THIRD VOYAGE--A MORTIFYING CONCLUSION. It would appear natural for the Spaniards to have sought to derive immediate profit from their discovery of a western passage to the South Sea. They did not do so, however; and a generation was destined to pass away before a second European vessel should enter Magellan's Strait. We must for a time, therefore, leave the Spanish and Portuguese in quiet possession of their Indian and American commerce, and turn to the several transatlantic and Arctic enterprises undertaken at this period by the French and English. [Illustration: SCENE ON THE CANADIAN COAST.] Jacques Cartier, a native of St. Malo in France, had, in 1534, finished his apprenticeship as a sailor. He conceived the idea of seeking a passage to China and the Spice Islands to the north of the Western Continent, and in the vicinity of the Pole. This was the origin of the various efforts made in quest of the renowned Northwest Passage. He also thought it incumbent upon France to assert her right to a share in the explorations and discoveries which were making Portugal and Spain both famous and rich. He caused his project to be laid before Francis I., who had long viewed with jealousy the successful expeditions of other powers, and who is said once to have exclaimed, "Where is the will and testament of our father Adam, which disinherits me of my share in these possessions in favor of Spain and Portugal?" He at once approved the proposition; and, on the 20th of April, 1534, Cartier left St. Malo with two ships of sixty tons each. No details of the outward voyage have reached us. It was rapid and prosperous, however, for the ships anchored in Bonavista Bay, upon the eastern coast of Newfoundland, on the twentieth day. Proceeding to the north, he discovered Belle Isle Straits, and through them descended to the west into a gulf which he called St. Lawrence, having Newfoundland on his left and Labrador on his right. He thus assured himself of the insular character of Newfoundland. He discovered many of the islands and headlands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and some of them bear to this day the names he gave them. He had interviews with several tribes of natives, and took possession of numerous lands in the name of the King of France. In the middle of August east winds became prevalent and violent, and it was impossible to ascend the St. Lawrence River, at the mouth of which they now were. A council was held, and a return unanimously decided upon. They arrived safely at St. Malo, after a rapid and prosperous voyage. Francis I. immediately caused three ships, respectively of one hundred and twenty, sixty, and forty tons, to be equipped, and despatched Cartier upon a second voyage of exploration, with the title of Royal Pilot. He started in May, 1535, and after a stormy voyage of two months arrived at his anchorage in Newfoundland. From thence he proceeded to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, which, he calls by its Indian name of Hochelaga. Here he was told by the savages that the river led to a country called _Canada_. He ascended the stream in boats, passed a village named Stadacone,--the site of the present city of Quebec,--and arrived at the Indian city of Hochelaga, which, from a high mountain in the vicinity, he named Mont Royal,--now Montreal. He went no farther than the junction of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, and then returned. He remained at Stadacone through the winter, losing twenty-five of his men by a contagious distemper then very little known,--the scurvy. Cartier returned to France in July, 1536, taking with him a Canadian king, named Donnaconna, and nine other natives, who had been captured and brought on board by compulsion. They were taken to Europe, where Donnaconna died two years afterwards: three others were baptized in 1538, Cartier standing sponsor for one of them. They seem to have all been dead in 1541, the date of Carrier's third voyage. The king ordered five ships to be prepared, with which Cartier again started for the scene of his discoveries. The narrative of this expedition is lost; but it appears to have resulted in few or no incidents of interest. Cartier was ennobled upon his return in 1542, and lived ten years to enjoy his new dignity. His descriptions of the scenery, products, and Indians of Canada are graphic and correct. In the year 1553, "the Mystery and Company of English merchants adventurers for the discovery of regions, dominions, islands, and places unknown"--at the head of whom was Sebastian Cabot--fitted out an expedition of three vessels, and gave the chief command to Sir Hugh Willoughby, "by reason of his goodly personage, as also for his singular skill in the services of war." King Edward VI. confirmed the appointment in "a license to discover strange countries." The fleet consisted of the Buona Speranza, of one hundred and seventy tons, commanded by Sir Hugh, with thirty-eight men, the Edward Buonaventura, of one hundred and sixty tons, commanded by Richard Chancellor, pilot-major of the expedition, with fifty-four men, and the Buona Confidentia, of ninety tons, with twenty-four men. The ships were victualled for fifteen months. On board of them were eighteen merchants interested in the discovery of a northeast passage to India,--a route, therefore, attempted by the English previous to that by the northwest, as the voyage of Sebastian Cabot can hardly be considered a serious effort. A council of twelve, in whom was vested the general direction of the voyage, was composed of the admiral, pilot-major, and other officers. The squadron sailed from Deptford on the 10th of May, 1553, and fell in with the Norwegian coast on the 14th of July. On the 30th, while near Wardhus, the most easterly station of the Danes in Finmark, Chancellor's vessel was driven off in a storm, and was not seen again by the two others. The latter appear to have been tossed about in the North Sea for two months, in the course of which they landed at some spot on the western coast of Nova Zembla, being the first Europeans to visit that uninhabited waste. On the 18th of September they entered a harbor in Lapland formed by the mouth of the river Arzina. Here they remained a week, seeing seals, deer, bears, foxes, "with divers strange beasts, such as ellans and others, which were to us unknown and also wonderful." It was now the 1st of October, and the Arctic winter was far advanced. They resolved to winter there, first sending out parties in search of inhabitants. Three men went three days' journey to the south-southwest, but returned without having seen a human being. Others who went to the west and the southeast returned equally unsuccessful. This is the last positive intelligence we have of the fate of these hardy and unfortunate explorers. A will, however, alleged to have been made by one Gabriel Willoughby, and signed by Sir Hugh, bearing the date of January, 1554, shows, if authentic, that at least two of the party were alive at that period. Purchas, one of the oldest authorities upon navigation and travels extant, says that the Buona Speranza was discovered in the following spring by a party of Russians, who found all the crew frozen to death. In 1557, a Drontheim skipper told an Englishman, at Kegor, that he had bought the sails of the Buona Confidentia; but it is not known where she was lost, or what was the fate of the crew. The will of which we have spoken, and a fragmentary diary attributed to Sir Hugh, were found by the Russians, and were restored to the kinsmen of the adventurers in England. The Edward Buonaventura, commanded by Chancellor, and which was separated from her consorts off Wardhus, reached Archangel, on the White Sea, in Russia, in safety, and laid the foundation of a commercial intercourse between Russia and England. On his return, his ship was lost on the coast of Scotland, and he himself, with several of his crew, drowned. Thus, of the three ships despatched, not one ever reached home; and of the officers, merchants, and men, none survived to revisit their country, except a few of the common seamen of the Edward Buonaventura. The advantages acquired at such a cost of human life were limited to the barren discovery of the ice-clad coast of Nova Zembla. Nothing had been effected towards the accomplishment of a Northeast Passage. Martin Frobisher, a seaman of experience and enterprise, was the first Englishman to cherish the project of attempting to penetrate to Asia by the channel supposed to exist to the north of America. He communicated his design to his friends, and spent fifteen years in fruitless efforts to enlist capital and energy in the cause. Sailors, financiers, merchants, statesmen,--all regarded the scheme as visionary and hopeless. At last Lord Dudley, the favorite of Elizabeth, interested himself in Frobisher's success, and from that moment he experienced little difficulty in accomplishing his object. He formed a company, amassed the requisite sums of money, and purchased three small vessels,--two barks of twenty-five tons each, the Gabriel and the Michael, and a pinnace of ten tons. This valiant little fleet weighed anchor at Deptford on the 8th of June, 1576, and, passing the court assembled at Greenwich, discharged their ordnance, and made as imposing an appearance as their limited outfit would allow. Queen Elizabeth waved her hand at the commander from a window, and, bidding him farewell, wished him success and a happy return. On the 25th he passed the southern point of Shetland,--known as Swinborn Head. He anchored here to repair a leak and to take in fresh water. On the 10th of July, he descried the coast of Greenland, "rising like pinnacles of steeples, and all covered with snow." The crew made efforts to go ashore, but could find no anchorage for the vessels, or landing-place for the boats. On the 28th, Frobisher saw dimly, through the fog, what he supposed to be the coast of Labrador, enveloped in ice. On the 31st he saw land for the third time, and on the 11th of August entered a strait to which he gave his name. He ascended this strait a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. It was not till the eighth day that he saw any inhabitants. He then found that the country was sparsely settled by a race resembling Tartars. He went ashore and established friendly relations with a colony of nineteen persons, to each one of whom he gave a "threaden point,"--in other words, a needle and thread. A few days afterwards, five of the crew were taken by the natives and their boat destroyed. The inlet in which this happened was called Five Men's Sound. The next morning the vessels ran in-shore, shot off a fauconet and sounded a trumpet, but heard nothing of the lost sailors. However, Frobisher caught one of the natives in return, having decoyed him by the tinkling of a bell. When he found himself in captivity, we are told that "from very choler and disdain he bit his tongue in twain within his mouth: notwithstanding, he died not thereof, but lived until he came to England, and then he died of cold which he had taken at sea." On the 26th of August, Frobisher weighed anchor and started to return to England, the snow lying a foot deep upon the decks. He arrived at Yarmouth on the 1st of October. One of Frobisher's sailors had brought with him a bit of shining black stone, which, upon examination, was found to yield an infinitesimal quantity of gold. The Northwest Passage became now a matter of secondary interest, the mines of Frobisher's Strait promising a more speedy and abundant return. The society he had formed determined to send him out anew, in vessels better equipped and provisioned for a longer period. He left Blackwall on the 26th of May, 1577, in her Majesty's ship Aide, of one hundred and eighty tons, followed by the Gabriel and Michael, his ostensible object being to discover "America to be an island environed with the sea, wherethrough our merchants may have course and recourse with their merchandise, from these our northernmost parts of Europe to those oriental coasts of Asia, to their no little commodity and profit that do or shall frequent the same." The fleet passed the Orkneys on the 8th of June. For a month they sailed to the westward, the season of the year being that when, in those latitudes, a bright twilight takes the place of the light of day during the few hours that the sun is below the horizon; so that the crew had "the fruition of their books and other pleasures,--a thing of no small moment to such as wander in unknown seas and long navigations, especially when both the winds and raging surges do pass their common and wonted course." Throughout the voyage they met huge fir-trees, which they supposed to have been uprooted by the winds, driven into the sea by floods, and borne away by the currents. On the 4th of July they made the coast of Greenland. The chronicler of this voyage, who had doubtless lately visited tropical latitudes, remarks that here, "in place of odoriferous and fragrant smells of sweet gums and pleasant notes of musical birds, which other countries in more temperate zones do yield, we tasted in July the most boisterous boreal blasts." In the middle of the month they entered Frobisher's Strait. On either side the land lay locked in the embrace of winter beneath a midsummer sun. Frobisher would not believe that the cold was sufficiently severe to congeal the sea-water, the tide rising and falling a distance of twenty feet. Ten miles from the coast he had seen fresh-water icebergs, and concluded that they had been formed upon the land and by some accidental cause detached. He reconnoitred the coast in a pinnace, and penetrated some distance into the interior, returning with accounts of supposed riches which he had discovered in the bowels of barren and frozen mountains. A cargo of two hundred tons of the precious earth was taken on board of one of the vessels. On the 20th of August, says the narrative, "it was high time to leave: the men were well wearied, their shoes and clothes well worn; their basket-bottoms were torn out and their tools broken. Some, with overstraining themselves, had their bellies broken, and others their legs made lame. About this time, too, the water began to congeal and freeze about our ships' sides o' nights." The fleet, which had troubled itself very little with the Northwest Passage, at once set sail to the southeast, and arrived in England towards the end of September. The specimens of ore were assayed and found satisfactory, and Frobisher's report's upon the route to China were received with favor. The queen gave the name of _Meta Incognita_, or Unknown Boundary, to the region explored. The Government determined to build a fort in Frobisher's Strait and send a garrison and a corps of laborers there. In the mean time, Frobisher was despatched a third time with the same three vessels, and with a convoy of twelve freight-ships which were to return laden with Labrador ore. They set sail on the 31st of May, 1578, and made Greenland on the 20th of June. In July they entered the strait, where they were in imminent danger from storms and ice. The bark Denis, being pretty well bruised and battered, became "so leaky that she would no longer tarry above the water, and sank; which sight so abashed the whole fleet that we thought verily we should have tasted the same sauce." Boats were, however, manned, and the drowning crew were saved. The storm increased, and the ice pressed more and more upon them, so that they took down their topmasts. They cut their cables to hang overboard for fenders, "somewhat to ease the ships' sides from the great and dreary strokes of the ice. Thus we continued all that dismal and lamentable night, plunged in this perplexity, looking for instant death; but our God, who never leaveth them destitute which faithfully call upon him, although he often punisheth for amendment sake, in the morning caused the wind to cease and the fog to clear. Thus, after punishment, consolation; and we, joyful wights, being at liberty, hoisted our sails and lay beating off and on." At last, at the close of July, such of the vessels as had not been separated from Frobisher's ship entered the Countess of Warwick's Sound, and commenced the work of mining and lading. The miners were from time to time molested by the natives, but lost no lives. They put on board of their several ships five hundred tons of ore, and, on the 1st of September, sailed with their precious freight to England, where they arrived in thirty days. The ore turned out to be utterly valueless,--a result so mortifying, that it disgusted the English for many years with mining enterprises and with voyages of discovery. We shall hear of Frobisher again, in connection with Francis Drake, and in the conflict with the Spanish Armada. The engraving upon the opposite page, which is copied from an original of the period, represents a portion of the royal fleet of England in the time of Henry VIII. The king is embarking at Dover previous to meeting Francis of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. This pageantry at sea was a fitting prelude to the festivities which followed upon the land. [Illustration: HENRY VIII. EMBARKING AT DOVER.] [Illustration: FRANCIS DRAKE.] CHAPTER XXVI. ORIGIN OF ENGLISH PIRACY--SIR JOHN HAWKINS--FRANCIS DRAKE--HIS FIRST VOYAGE TO THE SPANISH MAIN--COMMISSION GRANTED BY QUEEN ELIZABETH--EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS--EXPLOITS AT MOGADOR AND SANTIAGO--CROSSING THE LINE--ARRIVAL IN PATAGONIA--TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF DOUGHTY--PASSAGE THROUGH MAGELLAN'S STRAIT--ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM PITCHER AND SEVEN MEN--CAPE HORN--ARRIVAL AT VALPARAISO--RIFLING OF A CATHOLIC CHURCH. We have thus shown that, while the Spanish and Portuguese had succeeded triumphantly in their maritime expeditions, the English had disastrously failed in theirs. The tropics were held in exclusive possession by the two former nations; and the only two known routes by which ships could sail thither were also in their power. These two nations were Catholic: England was Protestant, and disinherited therefore, as it seemed, of her lawful share in the riches of the world. She had thus far wasted her means and endangered the lives of her citizens in fruitless attempts to find a route for herself, by the northwest or the northeast, to the lands of gold and gums. Baffled in these efforts, she permitted, if she did not encourage, a certain class of her subjects to engage in a system of warfare against Spain which can be characterized by no milder term than piracy. Still, those who resorted to it adduced ready arguments to prove that, so far from engaging in piratical practices, they were employed in open warfare and an honest cause. Spain and England were in a state of manifest enmity, they urged, more bitter on both sides than if they had been avowedly at war. No English subject trading in the Spanish dominions was safe unless he were a Roman Catholic, or unless, being a heretic, he succumbed to the menaces or the tortures of the Holy Inquisition. These outrages were resented by the English people before they were taken up by the British Government; and the injured parties, calling to their aid all persons of adventurous spirit or shattered fortunes, set out upon the sea, if not with the commission, at least with the connivance, of the crown, to avenge their wrongs themselves. They did not consider themselves to be pirates, because of this tacit sanction given by the Government, because of the fact that they carried on hostilities, not against all who traversed the sea, but against the Spaniards only, and because of the risk they ran,--for if taken by the enemy they had no mercy to expect. It thus became the fashion in England for men of desperate fortunes and damaged character to seek to retrieve the one and redeem the other by cruising against the Spaniards. Among the earlier adventurers of this stamp was one Sir John Hawkins. His exploits were for a time brilliant and successful: at last, however, they were disastrous, and one of his young kinsmen, Francis Drake by name, was discreditably involved. The latter had embarked his whole means in this adventure, and lost in it all his money and no little reputation,--for he disobeyed orders and deserted his benefactor and superior in the hour of need. He brought his vessel,--the Judith, of fifty tons,--however, safely home. Drake now resolved to engage permanently in the lawless but exciting career of which he had lately witnessed several interesting episodes. It was long before he could obtain the means of fitting out an expedition under his own command. He at last bought and equipped two vessels,--one of two hundred and fifty tons, the other of seventy,--manned them with seventy-three men, and sailed for the Spanish dominions in America. He attacked and took the town of Nombre de Dios, on the Isthmus of Darien, but was soon obliged to retreat. He afterwards took Venta Cruz, on the same isthmus, and had the good fortune to fall in with three convoys of mules laden with gold and silver, going from Panama to Nombre de Dios. He carried off the gold and buried the silver. From the summit of a mountain he obtained a sight of the Pacific Ocean or South Sea, which so kindled his enthusiasm that he uttered a fervent prayer that he might be the first Englishman who should sail upon it. He was already the first Englishman who had beheld it. On his return to England with his treasure, he entered for a time the volunteer service against Ireland, while waiting an opportunity to execute the grand project he had formed. At last, Sir Christopher Hutton, Vice-Chamberlain and Counsellor of the Queen, presented him to Elizabeth, to whom Drake imparted his scheme of ravaging the Spanish possessions in the South Sea. The queen listened; but whether she gave him a commission, or merely assured him of her favorable sentiments, is a disputed point. It is alleged that she gave him a sword and pronounced these singular words:--"We do account that he which striketh at thee, Drake, striketh at us!" He fitted out an expedition, at his own cost and with the help of friends and partners in the enterprise, consisting of five ships,--the largest, the Pelican, his flag-ship, of one hundred tons, and the smallest of fifteen. These vessels were manned by one hundred and fifty-four men. They carried out the frames of four pinnaces, to be put together as occasion required, and, after the example of the Portuguese in their first Eastern voyages, took with them specimens of the arts and civilization of their country, with which to operate upon the minds of the people with whom they should come in contact. They sailed in November, 1577, but were driven back by a tempest. The expedition finally got to sea on the 13th of December. At the island of Mogador, off the coast of Barbary, Drake attempted to traffic with the Moors, and in an exchange of hostages lost a man, who was taken by the natives: they then refused to trade, and Drake, after a vain effort to recover the sailor, left the island, and followed the African coast to the southward. Between Mogador and Cape Blanco he took several Spanish barks called canters,--one of which, measuring forty tons, he admitted into his fleet, sending his prisoners off in the Christopher, the pinnace of fifteen tons and one of the original five vessels. He landed on the island of Mayo, where the inhabitants salted their wells, forsook their houses, and drove away their goats. Off the island of Santiago he took a Portuguese vessel bound for Brazil, carrying numerous passengers and laden with wine. He kept the pilot, Nuno da Sylva, gave the passengers and crew a pinnace, and transferred the wine to the Pelican. The prize he made one of the fleet, having given her a crew of twenty-eight men. At Cape Verd Drake left the African shore, and, steering steadily to the southwest, was nine weeks without seeing land. When near the equator, he prepared his men for the change of climate by bleeding them all himself. He made the coast of Brazil on the 4th of April, 1578,--the savage inhabitants making large bonfires at their approach, for the purpose, as he learned from Sylva, of inducing their devils to wreck the ships upon their coast. On the 27th he entered the Rio de la Plata, and, sailing up the stream till he found but three fathoms' water, filled his casks by the ship's side. The same night, the Portuguese prize, now named the Mary, and commanded by John Doughty, parted company, as did two days afterwards the Spanish canter, which had been named the Christopher, after the pinnace for which she had been exchanged. Drake, believing them to have concealed themselves in shoal water, built a raft and set sail in quest of them. [Illustration: DRAKE AND HIS RAFT.] Early in June, Drake landed on the coast of Patagonia, where he broke up the Swan, of fifty tons, for firewood, having taken every thing out of her which could be of any use,--his object being to lessen the number of ships and the chances of separation, and to render his force more compact. His men easily killed two hundred and fifty seals in an hour, which furnished them with very tolerable eating. They entered into very pleasant relations with the natives, delighting them with the sound of their trumpets, intoxicating them with Canary wine, and dancing with them in their own savage and extravagant manner. The natives gave Drake a vexatious proof of their agility and address, by stealing his hat from his head and baffling every effort made to recover it. Shortly after sailing from this spot, named by Drake Seal Bay, the fleet fell in with the Christopher again, which Drake ordered to be unloaded and set adrift. He soon met the Portuguese Mary, and on the 20th the whole squadron anchored in the harbor named Port Julian by Magellan. Intercourse was attempted with the Indians, but was stopped on account of a fray begun by the savages, in which two of the English and one of their own party were killed. The natives made no further attempt to molest the strangers during their two months' stay in the harbor. [Illustration: DRAKE AND THE PATAGONIANS.] A very tragical event now followed. Magellan had in this place, as we have stated, quelled a dangerous mutiny, by hanging several of a disobedient and rebellious company. The gibbet was still standing, and beneath it the bones of the executed were now bleaching. Drake apprehended a similar peril, and was led to inquire into the actions of John Doughty. He found, in his investigations, that Doughty had embarked in the enterprise rather in the hope of rising to the chief command than of remaining what he started,--a gentleman volunteer: he had views, it seemed, of supplanting Drake by exciting a mutiny, and of sailing off in one of the ships upon his own account. The company were called together and made acquainted with the particulars; Doughty was tried for attempting to foment a mutiny, found guilty, and condemned to death by forty commissaries chosen from among the various crews. Doughty partook of the communion with Drake and several of his officers, dined at the same table with them, and, in the last glass of wine he ever raised to his lips, drank their healths and wished them farewell. He walked to the place of execution without displaying unusual emotion, embraced the general, took leave of the company, offered up a prayer for the queen and her realm, and was then beheaded near Magellan's gibbet. Drake addressed the company, exhorting them to unity and obedience, and ordered them to prepare to receive the holy communion on the following Sabbath, the first Sunday in the month. [Illustration: DRAKE CONDEMNING DOUGHTY.] This tragedy has been embellished by many fanciful additions on the part of Drake's apologists, and upon the part of his calumniators by many false statements. It is said by the former that Drake, after Doughty's condemnation, offered him the choice of three alternatives,--either to be executed in Patagonia, to be set ashore and left, or to be sent back to England, there to answer for his acts before the Lords of her Majesty's Council; and that Doughty replied that he would not endanger his soul by being left among savage infidels; that, as for returning to England, if any one could be found willing to accompany him on so disgraceful an errand, the shame of the return would be more grievous than death; that he therefore preferred ending his life where he was,--a choice from which no argument could persuade him. These assertions can hardly be correct, as nothing of the kind is set forth in the account of the voyage given by Fletcher, the chaplain of the expedition. It is highly improbable that Doughty, if conscious of innocence, would have rejected the offer of a trial in England; while it is unlikely that the offer was ever made, as Drake could ill spare a ship in which to send the prisoner home. Different opinions are held in the matter by different writers. Admiral Burney thought the statements too imperfect for forming, and the whole matter too delicate to express, an opinion. Dr. Johnson wrote thus on the subject:--"What designs Doughty could have formed with any hope of success, or to what actions worthy of death he could have proceeded without accomplices, it is difficult to imagine. Nor, on the other hand, does there appear any temptation, from either hope, fear, or interest, that might induce Drake, or any commander in his state, to put to death an innocent man on false pretences." Southey, in his Lives of the Admirals, is disposed to consider Drake as justified in making a severe example. Harris is of opinion that the act was "the most rash and blameworthy of the admiral's career." Sylva, Drake's Portuguese pilot, once said that Doughty was punished for attempting to abandon the expedition and return to England, and thus evidently thought that a sufficient motive existed for his execution. And it is worth remarking that the Spaniards, who never neglected an opportunity of loading Drake with obloquy, extolled him in this case for his vigilance and decision. Doughty was buried on an island in the harbor, together with the bodies of the two men slain in the fray with the savages. The Portuguese prize, being now found leaky and troublesome, was broken up, the fleet being thus reduced to three. On the 21st of August, Drake entered Magellan's Strait,--being the second commander who ever performed the voyage through it. He cleared the channel in sixteen days, and entered the South Sea on the 6th of September. Here the Marygold was lost in a terrible storm, and the Elizabeth, being separated from Drake's vessel, wandered about in search of him for a time and then sailed for England, where her captain was disgraced for having abandoned his commander. Drake was driven from the Bay of Parting of Friends, as he named the spot in which he lost sight of the Elizabeth, and was swept southward to the coast of Terra del Fuego, where he was forced from his anchorage and obliged to abandon the pinnace, with eight men in it and one day's provisions, to the mercy of the winds. The miseries endured by these eight men are hardly equalled in the annals of maritime disaster. They gained the shore, salted and dried penguins for food, and coasted on till they reached the Plata. Six of them landed, and, of these six, four were taken prisoners by the Indians. The other two were wounded in attempting to escape to the boat, as were the two who were left in charge. These four succeeded in reaching an island nine miles from the coast, where two of them died of their wounds. The other two lived for two months upon crabs and eels, and a fruit resembling an orange, which was the only means they had of quenching their thirst. One night their boat was dashed to pieces against the rocks. Unable longer to endure the want of water, they attempted to paddle to land upon a plank ten feet long. This was the laborious work of three days and two nights. They found a rivulet of fresh water; and one of them, William Pitcher, unable to resist the temptation of drinking to excess, died of its effects in half an hour. His companion was held in captivity for nine years by the Indians, when he was permitted to return to England. Drake, after the loss of the pinnace, was driven again to the southward, and, in the quaint language of the times, "fell in with the uttermost part of the land towards the South Pole, where the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meet in a large and free scope." He saw the cape since called Cape Horn, and anchored there: he gave the name of Elizabethides to all the islands lying in the neighborhood. As he neither doubled nor named this cape, it remained for the daring navigators Schouten and Lemaire to demonstrate its importance, by passing around it from one ocean into the other, which Drake, it will be observed, had not done. He went ashore, however, and, leaning over a rock which extended the farthest into the sea, returned to the ship and told the crew that he had been farther south than any man living. He anchored at the island of Mocha on the 29th of November, having coasted for four weeks to the northward along the South American shore. He landed with ten men, and was attacked by the Indians, who took them for Spaniards. Two of his men were killed, all of them disabled, and he himself badly wounded with an arrow under the right eye. Not one of the assailants was hurt. Drake made no attempt to take vengeance for this unprovoked attack, as it was evident it was begun under the mistaken idea that they were Spaniards, whose atrocities had made every native of the country their enemy. He sailed for Peru on the same day. Early in December he learned, from an Indian who was found fishing in his canoe, that he had passed twenty miles beyond the port of Valhario,--now Valparaiso; and that in this port lay a Spanish ship well laden. Drake sailed for this place, where he found the ship riding at anchor, with eight Spaniards and three negroes on board. These, taking the new-comers for friends,--for the Spaniards had never yet seen an enemy in this ocean,--welcomed them with drum and trumpet, and opened a jar of Chili wine in which to drink their health. Thomas Moore, the former captain of the Christopher pinnace, was the first to board the unsuspecting craft. He laid lustily about him, upon which the principal Spaniard crossed himself and jumped overboard. The rest were easily secured under the hatches. The prize was rifled, and one thousand seven hundred and seventy jars of Chili wine, sixty thousand pieces of gold, and a number of strings of pearls, were taken from her. The miserable town, consisting of nine families, who at once fled to the interior, was next ransacked. A poor little church was robbed of a silver chalice, two cruets, and a cloth with which the altar was spread. A warehouse was forced to disgorge its store of Chili wine and cedar planks. Thus did Drake, armed with the sanction of Elizabeth, Queen of England, plunder a handful of inoffensive men securely anchored in a peaceful roadstead, who saluted their coming with music and with wine. Thus did Drake commit sacrilege in a Christian church, and furnish the mess-room of his ship from the spoils of a Catholic altar. Even Southey admits that, in this affair, Drake deserves no other name than that of pirate. And we shall see that he deserved it equally well throughout his stay upon the coast. [Illustration: SEA ANEMONES.] CHAPTER XXVII. DRAKE'S EXPLOIT WITH A SLEEPING SPANIARD--HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AT CALLAO--BATTLE WITH A TREASURE-SHIP--DRAKE GIVES A RECEIPT FOR HER CARGO--INDITES A TOUCHING EPISTLE--HIS PLANS FOR RETURNING HOME--FRESH CAPTURES--PERFORMANCES AT GUATULCO AND ACAPULCO--DRAKE DISMISSES HIS PILOT--EXCEEDING COLD WEATHER--DRAKE REGARDED AS A GOD BY THE CALIFORNIANS--SAILS FOR THE MOLUCCAS--VISITS TERNATE AND CELEBES--THE PELICAN UPON A REEF--THE RETURN VOYAGE--PROTEST OF THE SPANISH AMBASSADOR--HE STYLES DRAKE THE MASTER-THIEF OF THE UNKNOWN WORLD--QUEEN ELIZABETH ON BOARD THE PELICAN--DRAKE'S USE OF HIS FORTUNE--HIS DEATH--THE VOYAGE OF JOHN DAVIS TO THE NORTHWEST. A fortnight after leaving Valparaiso, Drake anchored at the mouth of the Coquimbo. The watering party sent ashore had barely time to escape from a body of five hundred horse and foot. At another place, called Tarapaca, the waterers found a Spaniard lying asleep, and took from him thirteen bars of silver of the value of four thousand ducats. Southey states, as if it were a trait of magnanimity, that no personal injury was offered to the sleeping man. They next captured eight lamas, each carrying a hundred pounds of silver. At Arica they found two ships at anchor, a single negro being on board of each: from the one they took forty bars of silver, and from the other two hundred jars of wine. As the Pelican was more than a match for the two negroes, the latter wisely offered no resistance. Drake arrived at Callao, the port of Lima,--Lima being the capital of Peru,--before it was known that an enemy's ship had entered the waters of the Pacific. He immediately boarded a bark laden with silk, which he consented to leave unmolested on condition that the owner would pilot him into Callao, which he did. Here Drake found seventeen ships, twelve of which had sent their sails ashore, so that they were as helpless as logs. He rifled them of their silver, silk, and linen, and then cut their cables and let them drift out to sea. Learning that a richly-laden treasure-ship, named the Cacafuego, had lately sailed for Paita, he at once gave chase. He stopped a vessel bound for Callao; and such was his thirst for gain, that he took from it a small silver lamp, the only article of value on board. In a ship bound to Panama he found forty bars of silver, eighty pounds of gold, and a golden crucifix set with large emeralds. Soon after crossing the line, the Cacafuego was discovered ten miles to seaward, by Drake's brother John. The Pelican's sailing qualities were now improved by what Sylva, the pilot, calls a "pretty device." Empty jars were filled with water and hung with ropes over the stern, in order to lighten her bow. The Spaniard, not dreaming of an enemy, made towards her, whereupon Drake gave her three broadsides, shot her mainmast overboard, and wounded her captain. She then surrendered. Drake took possession, sailed with her two days and two nights from the coast, and then lay to to rifle her. He took from her an immense quantity of pearls and precious stones, eighty pounds of gold, twenty-six tons of silver in ingots, a large portion of which belonged to the king, and thirteen boxes of coined silver. The value of this prize was not far from one million of dollars. Then, as if he had been engaged in a legal commercial transaction, Drake asked the captain for his register of the cargo, and wrote a receipt in the margin for the whole amount! The prize, thus lightened of her metallic cargo, was then allowed to depart. Her captain received from Drake a letter of safe conduct in case he should fall in with the Elizabeth or the Mary. This letter is remarkable for its deep and touching piety. After recommending the despoiled captain to the friendly notice of Winter and Thomas, Drake concludes thus:--"I commit you all to the tuition of Him that with his blood hath redeemed us, and am in good hope that we shall be in no more trouble, but that he will help us in adversity; desiring you, for the passion of Christ, if you fall into any danger, that you will not despair of God's mercy, for he will defend you and preserve you from all peril, and bring us to our desired haven: to whom be all honor, and praise, and glory, forever and ever. Amen. "Your sorrowful captain, Whose heart is heavy for you, FRANCIS DRAKE." Drake now considered his object in these seas as accomplished: the indignities offered by the Spaniards to his queen and country were avenged, and their commerce was well-nigh annihilated. He next examined the various plans of returning home with his booty. He thought it impossible to go back by the way he had come: the whole coast of Chili and Peru was in alarm, and ships had undoubtedly been despatched to intercept him. Moreover, the season (for it was now February, 1579) was unfavorable either for passing the Strait or for doubling the Cape. He might have followed the course of Magellan, and thus have circumnavigated the globe; but this seemed but a paltry imitation to his daring and inventive mind. He conceived the idea of discovering a Northwest Passage and returning to England by the North Polar Sea. He therefore sailed towards the north, making the coast of Nicaragua in the middle of March. Here he captured a small craft laden with sarsaparilla, butter, and honey. A neighboring island supplied him with wood and fish: alligators and monkeys also abounded there. A vessel from Manilla, which he captured while her crew were asleep, contributed to his stores large quantities of muslin, Chinese porcelain, and silks. A negro taken from this vessel piloted him into the haven of Guatulco, on the coast of Mexico, inhabited by seventeen Spaniards and a few negroes. Drake ransacked this place, but boasts of no other booty than a bushel of silver coins and a gold chain that Thomas Moon took from the person of the escaping governor. At Acapulco he found a few Spaniards engaged in trying and condemning a parcel of the unhappy natives. He broke up the court, and sent both judges and prisoners on board his vessel. [Illustration: DRAKE INTERRUPTING THE COURSE OF JUSTICE AT ACAPULCO.] Before leaving Acapulco, Drake put the pilot, Nuno da Sylva, whom he had taken at the Cape Verds, on board a ship in the harbor, to find his way back to Portugal as best he could. He then sailed four thousand five hundred miles in various directions, till he found himself in a piercingly cold climate, where the meat froze as soon as it was removed from the fire. This was in latitude forty-eight north. So he sailed back again ten degrees and anchored in an excellent harbor on the California coast. This harbor is considered by numerous authorities as the present Bay of San Francisco. The natives, who had been visited but once by Europeans,--under the Portuguese Cabrillo, thirty-seven years before,--had not learned to distrust them, and readily entered into relations of commerce and amity with Drake's party. From the Indians the latter obtained quantities of an herb which they called _tabak_, and which was undoubtedly tobacco. The Californians soon came to regard the strangers as gods, and did them religious honors. The king resigned to Drake all title to the surrounding country, and offered to become his subject. So he took possession of the crown and dignity of the said territory in the name and for the use of her majesty the queen. The Californians, we are told, accompanied this act of surrender with a song and dance of triumph, "because they were not only visited of gods, but the great and chief god was now become their god, their king and patron, and themselves the only happy and blessed people in all the world." Drake named the country New Albion, in honor of Old Albion or England. He set up a monument of the queen's "right and title to the same, namely, a plate nailed upon a fair great post, whereon was engraved her majesty's name, with the day and year of arrival." After remaining five weeks in the harbor, Drake weighed anchor, on the 23d of July, resolved to abandon any further attempt in northern latitudes, and to steer for the Moluccas, after the example of Magellan. On the 13th of October he discovered several islands in latitude eight degrees north, and was soon surrounded with canoes laden with cocoanuts and fruit. These canoes were hollowed out of a single log with wonderful art, and were as smooth as polished horn, and decorated throughout with shells thickly set. The ears of the natives hung down considerably from the weight of the ornaments worn in them. Their nails were long and sharp, and were evidently used as a weapon. Their teeth were black as jet,--an effect obtained by the use of the betel-root. These people were friendly and commercially inclined. Drake visited other groups, where the principal occupation of the natives was selling cinnamon to the Portuguese. At Ternate, one of the Moluccas, the king offered the sovereignty of the isles to Drake, and sent him presents of "imperfect and liquid sugar,"--molasses, probably,--"rice, poultry, cloves, and meal which they called sagu, or bread made of the tops of certain trees, tasting in the mouth like sour curds, but melting like sugar, whereof they made certain cakes which may be kept the space of ten years, and yet then good to be eaten." Drake stayed here six days, laid in a large stock of cloves, and sailed on the 9th of November. At a small island near Celebes, where he set up his forge and caused the ship to be carefully repaired, he and his men saw sights which they have described in somewhat exaggerated terms:--"tall trees without branches except a tuft at the very top, in which swarms of fiery worms, flying in the air, made a show as if every twig had been a burning candle; bats bigger than large hens,--a very ugly poultry; cray-fish, or land-crabs, one of which was enough for four men, and which dug huge caves under the roots of trees, or, for want of better refuge, would climb trees and hide in the forks of the branches." This spot was appropriately named Crab Island. On the 9th of January, 1580, the ship ran upon a rocky shoal and stuck fast. The crew were first summoned to prayers, and then ordered to lighten the ship. Three tons of cloves were thrown over, eight guns, and a quantity of meal and pulse. One authority says distinctly that no gold or silver was thrown into the water, though it was the heaviest part of the cargo; another authority asserts the contrary in the following passage:--"Conceiving that the best way to lighten the ship was to ease their consciences, they humbled themselves by fasting, afterwards dining on Christ in the sacrament, expecting no other than to sup with him in heaven. Then they cast out of their ship six great pieces of ordnance, threw overboard as much wealth as would break the heart of a miser to think of it, with much sugar and packs of spices, making a caudle of the sea round about." The ship was at last freed, and started again on her way. Her adventures from this point offer no very salient features: she stopped at Java, the Cape of Good Hope, and Sierra Leone. In the latter place Drake saw troops of elephants, and oysters fastened on to the twigs of trees and hanging down into the water in strings. Drake arrived at Plymouth after a voyage of two years and ten months. Like Magellan, he found he had lost a day in his reckoning. He immediately repaired to court, where he was graciously received, his treasure, however, being placed in sequestration, to answer such demands as might be made, upon it. Drake was denounced in many quarters as a pirate, while in others collections of songs and epigrams were made, celebrating him and his ship in the highest terms. The Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, who called him the Master-Thief of the Unknown World, demanded that he should be punished according to the laws of nations. Elizabeth firmly asserted her right of navigating the ocean in all parts, and denied that the Pope's grant of a monopoly in the Indies to the Spaniards and Portuguese was of any binding effect upon her. She yielded, however, so far as to restore, to the agent of several of the merchants whom Drake had despoiled, large sums of money. Enough remained, however, to make the expedition a remunerating one for the captors. The queen then, in a pompous and solemn ceremony, gave to the entire affair an official and governmental ratification. She ordered Drake's ship to be drawn up in a little creek near Deptford, to be there preserved as a monument of the most memorable voyage the English had ever yet performed. She went on board of her, and partook of a banquet there with the commander, who, kneeling at her feet, rose up Sir Francis Drake. The Westminster students inscribed a Latin quatrain upon the mainmast, of which the following lines are a translation: "Sir Drake, whom well the world's end knows, which thou didst compass round, And whom both poles of heaven saw--which north and south do bound,-- The stars above will make thee known, if men here silent were: The sun himself cannot forget his fellow-traveller." The ship remained at Deptford till she decayed and fell to pieces: a chair was made from one of her planks and presented to the University of Oxford, where it is still to be seen. [Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH KNIGHTING DRAKE.] Such was the first voyage around the world accomplished by an Englishman. Drake's success awakened the spirit and genius of navigation in the English people, and may be said to have contributed in no slight degree to the naval supremacy they afterwards acquired. If, in accordance with the manner of the times, he was quite as much a pirate as a navigator, and mingled plunder and piety, prayer and pillage, in pretty equal proportions, and is to be judged accordingly, he at least made a noble use of the fortune he had acquired, in aiding the queen in her wars with Spain, and in encouraging the construction of public works. He built, with his own resources, an aqueduct twenty miles in length, with which to supply Plymouth with water. He died at sea, while commanding an expedition against the Spanish West India Islands. He wrote no account of his adventures and discoveries. A volume published by Nuno da Sylva, his Portuguese pilot, whose statements were confirmed by the officers, has served as the basis of the various narratives in existence. We may briefly allude here to an attempt made in 1585, under the auspices of the English Government, by John Davis, a seaman of acknowledged ability, with two ships,--the Sunshine and Moonshine,--to discover the Northwest Passage. After a voyage of six weeks, he saw, in north latitude 60°, a mountainous and ice-bound promontory. It was the southwestern point of Greenland, and he gave it the name of Cape Desolation, which it still retains. He now sailed to the northwest, discovered islands, coasts, and harbors, to which he gave appropriate appellations. He thus was the first to enter the strait which bears his name, and beyond which Baffin, thirty years later, was to discover the vast bay which, in its turn, was to bear his name. Davis made two subsequent voyages to these waters in search of a passage across the continent, but, with the exception of the discovery of Davis' Strait, effected nothing which needs to be chronicled here. This single discovery, however, was one of the utmost importance, as it served to stimulate research and to encourage further effort in this direction. More than two centuries were nevertheless destined to elapse before success was to be attained. [Illustration: BRITISH SHIP OF WAR OF 1578 FROM TAPESTRY IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.] CHAPTER XXVIII. POLICY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH--THOMAS CAVENDISH--HIS FIRST VOYAGE--EXPLOITS UPON THE AFRICAN AND BRAZILIAN COASTS--PORT DESIRE--PORT FAMINE--BATTLES WITH THE ARAUCANIANS--CAPTURE OF PAITA--ROBBERY OF A CHURCH--REPEATED ACTS OF BRIGANDAGE--CAPTURE OF THE SANTA ANNA--THE RETURN VOYAGE--CAVENDISH'S ACCOUNT OF THE EXPEDITION--THE SPANISH ARMADA--PREPARATIONS IN ENGLAND--THE CONFLICT--TOTAL ROUT OF THE INVINCIBLES--PROCESSION IN COMMEMORATION OF THE EVENT. Queen Elizabeth had found it to her advantage to encourage displays of public spirit in private individuals, and to excite the nobles and persons of fortune who were ambitious of distinction, as well as the indigent in search of employment, to hazard, the one their wealth, the other their lives, in the national service. She thus derived benefit from a class of people who had been of little use in any other reign. Many gentlemen of rank and position devoted a portion of their means to harassing the Spanish at sea, to prosecuting discovery in distant quarters, and to planting colonies upon savage coasts. Among the most distinguished of these was Thomas Cavendish, of Trimley, near Ipswich. [Illustration: CAVENDISH IN BRAZIL.] This gentleman was of an honorable family, and possessed a large estate. He equipped, in 1586, three ships of the requisite burden,--the largest, the Desire, being of one hundred and forty tons, the lesser, the Content, being of sixty, and the least, the Hugh Gallant, a bark of forty tons. He provisioned them for two years, and manned them with one hundred and twenty-three officers and men, some of whom had served under Sir Francis Drake. His patron, Lord Hunsdon, procured him a commission from Queen Elizabeth, thus assimilating his vessels to those of the navy, and rendering his contemplated piracies legitimate. Cavendish sailed from Plymouth on the 21st of July, directing his course to the south and touching upon the coasts of Guinea and Sierra Leone. Here the crew destroyed a negro town, in revenge for the death of one of their men, whom the inhabitants had killed with a poisoned arrow. Their course across the Atlantic to the Brazilian shore offers no remarkable features. They erected their forge upon an island, where they healed their sick and built a pinnace. Anchoring in a harbor on the Patagonian coast, Cavendish named it Port Desire, after his flag-ship,--a name which it still retains. He seems to have considered the savages to be giants, and asserts that he saw footprints eighteen inches long. He entered the Strait at the commencement of January, 1587, and soon discovered a miserable and forlorn settlement of Spaniards. These numbered twenty-three men, being all that remained of four hundred who had been left there three years before, by Sarmiento, to colonize the Strait. They had lived in destitution for the last eighteen months, being able to procure no other food than a scanty supply of shell-fish, except when they surprised a thirsty deer or seized an unsuspecting swan. They had built a fortress, in order to exclude all other nations but their own from the passage of the Strait, but had been compelled to leave it, owing to the intolerable stench proceeding from the carcasses of their unhappy companions who died of want or disease. Cavendish took the survivors on board, and named the spot upon which the fortress was built Port Famine. [Illustration: PORT FAMINE.] Cavendish entered the Pacific late in February, after a tempestuous passage from the Atlantic side. Landing upon the Chilian coast, in the country of the Araucanians, he received a warm reception from the natives, who mistook his men for Spaniards, by whom the territory had been repeatedly invaded in search of gold. He afterwards undeceived them, and found them willing to satisfy his wants when convinced that they did not belong to that avaricious and cruel people. In another place, inhabited by a Spanish colony, he fought a pitched battle with two hundred horsemen, driving those who were not slain back to the mountains. At another spot farther north, the Indians brought him wood and water on their backs. In May he captured two prizes, taking out of them twenty thousand pounds' worth of sugar, molasses, calico, marmalade, and hens, and then burning them to the water's edge. He seized upon the town of Paita, which he ransacked and burned, carrying off a large quantity of household goods and twenty-five pounds' weight of pieces-of-eight, or Spanish dollars. Off the island of Puna he fell in with a ship of two hundred and fifty tons; but, being disappointed at finding her empty, he sank her out of sheer spite. The inhabitants of Puna were Christians, having followed the example of their cacique, who had married a Spanish woman and had thereupon made a profession of her religion. They were rich and industrious. Cavendish pillaged the island, burned the church, and carried off its five bells. Being attacked by the Spaniards and natives combined, he fought a long and bloody battle, after which he ravaged the fields and orchards, burned four ships on the stocks, and left the town of three hundred houses a heap of rubbish. He took a coasting-ship, rifled and scuttled her, and compelled her captain to become his pilot. He continued this course of brigandage and piracy all along the South American and Mexican coasts, destroying towns, pillaging custom-houses, and burning vessels. Early in November, Cavendish, who had been told by the pilot he had taken that a vessel from the Philippines was expected, richly laden, at Acapulco, lay in wait for her off the headland of California. She was discovered on the 4th, bearing in for the Cape. She was the Santa Anna, of seven hundred tons, belonging to the King of Spain, and commanded by the Admiral of the South Sea. Cavendish gave chase, and, after a broadside and a volley of small-arms, boarded her. He was repulsed, but renewed the action with his guns and musketry. The Spaniard was soon forced to surrender, and her officers, going on board the Desire, gave an account of her contents,--which they stated at thirty thousand dollars in gold, with immense quantities of damasks, silks, satins, musk, and provisions. This glorious prize was divided by Cavendish, a mutiny being very nearly the result: it was, however, prevented by the generosity of the commander. The prisoners were set on shore with sufficient means of defence against the Indians; the Santa Anna was burned, together with five hundred tons of her goods; and Cavendish then set sail for the Ladrone Islands, five thousand five hundred miles distant. He arrived at Guam, one of the group, in forty-five days, and from thence prosecuted his homeward voyage, through the Philippine Islands and the Moluccas, to Java. He passed the months of April and May, 1588, in crossing the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. He touched at St. Helena early in June, and, when near the Azores, in September, heard from a Flemish ship the news of the total defeat of the great Spanish Armada. He lost nearly all his sails in a storm off Finisterre, and replaced them by sails of silken grass, which he had taken from his prizes in the South Sea. The voyage of Cavendish was the third that had been performed round the world, and was the shortest of the three,--being accomplished in eight months' less time than that of Drake. Cavendish at once wrote a letter to Lord Hunsdon, in which occurs the following brief relation of his achievements:--"It hath pleased the Almighty to suffer me to encompass all the whole globe of the world. I navigated along the coasts of Chili, Peru, and New Spain, where I made great spoils. I burned and sank nineteen sail of ships, great and small. All the towns and cities that ever I landed at I burned and spoiled, and, had I not been discovered upon the coast, I had taken a great quantity of treasure.... All which services, together with myself, I humbly prostrate at her majesty's feet, desiring the Almighty long to continue her reign among us; for at this day she is the most famous and victorious prince that liveth in the world. Thus, humbly desiring pardon for my tediousness, I leave your lordship to the tuition of the Almighty." Cavendish spent his immense wealth in equipping vessels for a second voyage, which ended disastrously, and in which, after being beaten by the Portuguese off the coast of Brazil, he died of shame and grief. He ranks as one of the most enterprising, diligent, and cautious of the early English navigators, though, of course, he must be regarded as an arrant buccaneer. From what we have said of the piracies of the English, and of their encroachments upon the domain of the Spanish, and of the ardent desire of the latter to retain the monopoly of the trade with the natives of America and to hold the exclusive right to rob and slay them at their pleasure, the reader will be prepared for the imposing but bombastic attempt made by Spain against England in 1588. Philip II. determined to put forth his strength, and his fleet was named, before it sailed, "The most Fortunate and Invincible Armada." It was described in official accounts as consisting of one hundred and thirty ships, manned by eight thousand four hundred and fifty sailors, and carrying nineteen thousand soldiers, two thousand galley-slaves, and two thousand six hundred pieces of brass. The vessels were named from Romish saints, from the various appellations of the Trinity, from animals and fabulous monsters,--the Santa Catilina, the Great Griffin, and the Holy Ghost being profanely intermixed. In the fleet were one hundred and twenty-four volunteers of noble family, and one hundred and eighty almoners, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits. Instruments of torture were placed on board in large quantities, for the purpose of assisting in the great work of reconciling England to Romanism. The Spaniards and the Pope had resolved that all who should defend the queen and withstand the invasion should, with all their families, be rooted out, and their places, their honors, their titles, their houses, and their lands, be bestowed upon the conquerors. Elizabeth and her councillors heard these ominous denunciations undismayed, and adequate preparations were made to receive the crusaders. London alone furnished ten thousand men, and held ten thousand more in reserve: the whole land-force amounted to sixty-five thousand. The fleet numbered one hundred and eighty-one vessels,--fifty more in number than the Armada, but hardly half as powerful in tonnage. Eighteen of these vessels were volunteers, and but one of the one hundred and eighty-one was of the burden of eleven hundred tons. The Lord High-Admiral of England, Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham, commanded the fleet, with Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher in command of the various divisions. A form of prayer was published, and the clergy were enjoined to read it on Wednesdays and Fridays in their parish churches. In this, Elizabeth was compared to Deborah, preparing to combat the pride and might of Sisera-Philip. The country awaited the arrival of the Spaniards in anxiety, and yet with confidence. [Illustration: HULL OF A VESSEL OF THE ARMADA.] The Armada sailed from the Tagus late in May, with the solemn blessing of the Church, and patronized by every influential saint in the calendar. A storm drove it back with loss, and it did not sail again till the 12th of July. It was descried off Plymouth on the 20th, "with lofty turrets like castles, in front like a half-moon; the wings thereof spreading out about the length of seven miles, sailing very slowly, though with full sails, the winds being as it were weary with wafting them, and the ocean groaning under their weight." The English suffered them to pass Plymouth, that they might attack them in the rear. They commenced the fight the next day, with only forty ships. The Spaniards, during this preliminary action, found their ships "very useful to defend, but not to offend, and better fitted to stand than to move." Drake, with his usual luck, captured a galleon in which he found fifty-five thousand ducats in gold. This sum was divided among his crew. Skirmishing and detached fights continued for several days, the Spanish ships being found, from their height and thickness, inaccessible by boarding or ball. They were compared to castles pitched into the sea. The lord-admiral was consequently instructed to convert eight of his least efficient vessels into fire-ships. The order arrived as the enemy's fleet anchored off Calais, and thirty hours afterwards the eight ships selected were discharged of all that was worth removal and filled with combustibles. Their guns were heavily loaded, and their sides smeared with rosin and wild-fire. At midnight they were sent, with wind and tide, into the heart of the invincible Armada. A terrible panic seized the affrighted crews: remembering the fire-ships which had been used but lately in the Scheldt, they shouted, in agony, "The fire of Antwerp! The fire of Antwerp!" Some cut their cables, others slipped their hawsers, and all put to sea, "happiest they who could first be gone, though few could tell what course to take." Some were wrecked on the shallows of Flanders; some gained the ocean; while the remainder were attacked and terribly handled by Drake. The discomfited Spaniards resolved to return to Spain by a northern circuit around England and Scotland. The English pursued, but the exhausted state of their powder-magazines prevented another engagement. The luckless Armada never returned to Spain. A terrific storm drove the vessels upon the Irish coast and upon the inhospitable rocks of the Orkneys. Thirty of them were stranded near Connaught: two had been cast away upon the shores of Norway. In all, eighty-one ships were lost, and but fifty-three reached home. Out of thirty thousand soldiers embarked, fourteen thousand were missing. Philip received the calamity as a dispensation of Providence, and ordered thanks to be given to God that the disaster was no greater. [Illustration: PROCESSION IN HONOR OF THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA.] A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed in England, inasmuch as "the boar had put back that sought to lay her vineyard waste." Some time afterwards, the queen repaired in public procession to St. Paul's. The streets were hung with blue cloth; the royal chariot was a throne with four pillars and a canopy overhead, drawn by white horses. Elizabeth knelt at the altar and audibly acknowledged the Almighty as her deliverer from the rage of the enemy. The people were exhorted to render thanks to the Most High, whose elements--fire, wind, and storm--had wrought more destruction to the foe than the valor of their navy or the strength of their wooden walls. [Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH.] CHAPTER XXIX. THE FICTION OF EL DORADO--MANOA--DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABLED SPLENDORS--ATTEMPTS OF THE SPANIARDS TO DISCOVER IT--SIR WALTER RALEIGH--HIS VOYAGE TO GUIANA--HIS ACCOUNT OF THE ORINOCO--HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENERY--HIS RETURN--HIS SECOND VOYAGE--EXPEDITION TO NEWFOUNDLAND--HIS DEATH--MODERN INTERPRETATION OF THE LEGEND OF EL DORADO. The mines of the precious metals which the Spaniards had discovered in Peru, the wealth which they annually brought home in treasure-ships to the mother-country, together with the exaggerated accounts given by Spanish authors respecting the splendor and the civilization of the empire of the Incas, had now begun to excite the cupidity and inflame the imagination of every other people in Europe. It was known that, at the time of the conquest of Peru by Pizarro, a large number of the natives escaped into the interior; and rumor added that one of the sons of the reigning Inca had withdrawn across the continent to a region situated between the Amazon and the Orinoco and called by the general name of Guiana. Here he had founded, it was added, an empire more splendid than that of Peru: its capital city, Manoa, only one European had seen. This was a Spaniard, a marine on board a man-of-war, who, according to the legend, had allowed a powder-magazine to explode and was condemned to death for his carelessness. This penalty was commuted, however, and he was placed in a boat at the mouth of the Orinoco, with orders to penetrate into the interior. He stayed seven months at Manoa, and then escaped to Porto Rico. He gave the following account of the city and kingdom, the latter being called, he said, El Dorado, or The Gilded: The columns of the emperor's palace were of porphyry and alabaster, the galleries of ebony and cedar, and golden steps led to a throne of ivory. The palace, which was built of white marble, stood upon an island in a lake or inland sea. Two towers guarded the entrance: between them was a pillar twenty-five feet in height, upon which was a huge silver moon. Beyond was a quadrangle planted with trees, and watered by a silver fountain which spouted through four golden pipes. The gate of the palace was of copper. Within, four lamps burned day and night before an altar of silver upon which was a burnished golden sun. Three thousand workmen were employed in the Street of the Silversmiths. The name of El Dorado, as applied to the kingdom of which Manoa was the metropolis, may refer to its wealth and splendor, or it may be derived from a habit attributed by some to the emperor, by others to the high-priests, and even to the inhabitants generally when in a state of intoxication. This custom was to cause themselves to be anointed with a precious and fragrant gum, after which gold-dust was blown upon them through tubes, till they were completely incrusted with gold. This attire was naturally considered sumptuous, and, in connection with the abundance of precious metals afforded by the country, may have given rise to the title of El Dorado. The legend, in either case, is a worthy companion to Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. No geographical fiction ever caused such an expenditure of blood and treasure as this. The Spaniards alone lost, in their attempts to discover the city of Manoa, more lives and money than in effecting any of their permanent conquests. New adventurers were always ready to start, upon the discomfiture or destruction of those who had gone before; and no disappointment suffered by the latter could daunt the hopes of those who believed the discovery reserved for them. The Spanish priests regarded the mania as a device of the Evil One to lure mankind to perdition. The greater portion of these persons were adventurers, soldiers of fortune, and Quixotic knights-errant. The most distinguished of the converts to a belief in the existence of an El Dorado, however, it would be unjust to class among them. Sir Walter Raleigh, an Englishman of the highest talent and character, after having enjoyed the favor of Queen Elizabeth for twenty years, lost it by an intrigue with a lady of the palace. Though he repaired the injury by marrying the lady, he found he could not expect to be restored to grace except by performing some exploit which should add new lustre to his name. He had long been filled with admiration at the courage and perseverance exhibited by the Spaniards in the pursuit of their romantic and brilliant chimera. As he himself firmly believed it to be a reality, he determined to make an attempt himself. A part of his design was to colonize Guiana, and thus to extend the sphere of the industrial and commercial arts of England. He was familiar with the sea, as he had already sent out several expeditions for the colonization of Virginia in America. He sailed from Plymouth in February, 1595, with five vessels and a hundred soldiers. In order to reach the capital city of Guiana, it was necessary to ascend the Orinoco, the navigation of which was completely unknown to the English. As the ships drew too much water, a hundred men embarked with Raleigh in boats and proceeded up the stream. In these they remained for a month, exposed to all the extremes of a tropical climate,--sometimes to the heats of a burning sun, and again to violent and torrential rains. Raleigh's account of their progress through the labyrinth of islands and channels at the river's mouths, of their precarious supplies of food and water, the appearance of the country and the manners of the natives, and, finally, of their entrance into the grand bed of the superb Orinoco, has been admired for its descriptive beauty as well as ridiculed for its extravagant credulity. Indeed, it is doubted by many whether Raleigh really believed the stories which he put in circulation. We quote a passage: "Those who are desirous to discover and to see many nations," he writes, "may be satisfied within this river; which bringeth forth so many arms and branches leading to several countries and provinces, above two thousand miles east and west, and of these the most either rich in gold, or in other merchandises. The common soldier shall here fight for gold, and pay himself, instead of pence, with plates of gold half a foot broad, whereas he breaketh his bones in other wars for provant and penury. Those commanders and chieftains who shoot at honor and abundance shall find here more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled with treasure, than either Cortez found in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru; and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those so-far-extended beams of the Spanish nation. There is no country which yieldeth more pleasure to the inhabitants, for those common delights of hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling, and the rest, than Guiana does. I am resolved that, both for health, good air, pleasure, and riches, it cannot be equalled by any region in the East or West. To conclude: Guiana is a country that hath yet her maidenhead, never sacked, turned, nor wrought. The face of the earth hath not been torn, nor the virtue and salt of the soil spent; the graves have not been opened for gold, the mines not broken with sledges, nor the images pulled down out of their temples. It hath never been entered by any army of strength, nor conquered by any Christian prince.... I trust that He who is Lord of lords will put it into her heart who is Lady of ladies to possess it. If not, I will judge those most worthy to be kings thereof that by her grace and leave will undertake it of themselves." Raleigh ascended the stream nearly two hundred miles, when the rapid and terrific rise of its waters compelled him to return. He took formal possession of the country, and made the caciques swear allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. He returned to England during the summer, having been but five months absent. It was then that he published the narrative from which we have quoted. His restoration to favor precluded any further prosecution of his designs on Guiana during the reign of Elizabeth. He was imprisoned for thirteen years during the reign of James, her successor, for the crime of high-treason and supposed participation in the plot to place Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne. In 1617, he equipped a fleet of thirteen vessels in which to proceed to Guiana for the purpose of again seeking El Dorado. The fleet arrived in safety, but Raleigh was too unwell to ascend the Orinoco in person. Captain Keymis led the exploring party, and, upon being compelled to return to the ship without success, and with the news of the death in battle of Sir Walter's eldest son, committed suicide. Raleigh sailed to Newfoundland to victual and refit; but a mutiny of the crews forced him to return to England, where he was beheaded for the crime already punished by thirteen years' confinement. Modern historians and travellers, and men of judgment and intelligence who have inhabited the regions at the mouth of the Orinoco, have not hesitated to avow their opinion that the story of El Dorado is not without some sort of foundation in fact. Humboldt accounts for it geologically, and holds the ardent imagination of the Indians to be answerable for the fable. He conjectures that there may be islands and rocks of micaslate and talc in and around Lake Parima, which, reflecting from their surfaces and angles the glowing rays of the sun, may have been transformed by the extravagant fancy of the natives into the gorgeous temples and palaces of a gilded metropolis. He attempted to penetrate to the spot, but was prevented by a tribe of Indian dwarfs. No European has ever yet visited this celebrated locality: its great distance from the sea, the trackless forests, the wild beasts and barbarian inhabitants, have repelled both the conqueror and the explorer, so that it is not known to this day what degree or what kind of authority exists for the extraordinary story in question. But, inasmuch as Cortez passed within ten miles of the wonderful city of Copan without hearing of it, the supposition that there may be aboriginal cities in the unexplored regions of South America, affording, perhaps, basis sufficient for the tale of El Dorado without its exaggerations, is neither impossible nor improbable. The magnificent ruins lately discovered in Yucatan, where they were not expected, seem to argue the existence of others in regions where positive and persistent tradition has located them. [Illustration: NATIVE OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.] CHAPTER XXX. DISCOVERY OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS BY MENDANA--HE SEEKS FOR THEM AGAIN THIRTY YEARS LATER--QUIROS--THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS--THE WOMEN COMPARED WITH THOSE OF LIMA--STRANGE FRUITS--CONVERSIONS TO CHRISTIANITY--ARDUOUS VOYAGE--SANTA CRUZ--MENDANA EXCHANGES NAMES WITH MALOPÉ--HOSTILITIES--WAR, AND ITS RESULTS--DEATH OF MENDANA--QUIROS CONDUCTS THE SHIPS TO MANILLA. The progress of discovery now recalls us to Spain. About the year 1567, one Alvaro Mendana de Neyra, who had thus far lived in complete obscurity, followed his uncle Don Pedro de Castro to Lima, in Peru, where he had been appointed governor. Mendana, disdaining commerce, and feeling little inclination to lead a monotonous life on shore, after the taste he had had during the passage of a roving existence upon the water, resolved to undertake the discovery of new lands in the name of the King of Spain. His uncle encouraged him in his design and furnished him with the necessary funds. Mendana set sail from Callao on the 11th of January, 1568. He proceeded fourteen hundred and fifty leagues to the west, and discovered a group of islands in about 10° south latitude. One of them, to which he gave the name of Isabella, is distinguished as having been the scene of the first celebration of a Catholic mass in the Pacific Ocean. He sailed round another of the group, St. Christopher, and, after several disastrous encounters with the natives, returned to Callao. This voyage, the most important undertaken by the Spanish since the discovery of America, gave rise to multitudes of fables, with which the historians and chroniclers of Spain filled the minds of the people during the century which followed. The islands discovered by Mendana were represented as enormously rich in gold and the precious metals. The name of Solomon was given to the group,--a name which was thought to be eminently suited to so luxurious an archipelago, having formerly been that of a luxurious prince. As in those days the art of scientific navigation was in its infancy, and as latitude and longitude were not fixed with any great degree of precision, the position of the Solomon Islands was very loosely marked down by Mendana, and the question of their locality became, and for a long time remained, one of the most puzzling questions in geography. Mendana sent home to the Spanish Government brilliant accounts of his discoveries, and solicited the means of prosecuting them still further. War and other engagements prevented the ministry from attending to his requests till the year 1595, when he obtained the command of an expedition having for its object the colonization of St. Christopher. He sailed from Callao in April with four ships carrying four hundred men: his wife, Isabel de Barretos, and three of his brothers-in-law, accompanied him. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, of whom we shall afterwards speak more particularly, was the pilot of the fleet. They stopped at Paita, where they watered and enlisted four hundred additional men, and on the 16th of June finally started in quest of the long-lost islands. A month afterwards, being in latitude 11° south, Mendana discovered a group of three islands, to which he gave a collective name as well as individual names. He called them Las Marquesas de Mendoça, in honor of the Marquis of Mendoça, a Spaniard of distinction. They are still known as the Marquesas Islands. The natives manifested a remarkably thievish disposition, and received several rounds of grape for pilfering the jars of the watering party who had gone ashore. Though the chronicler draws a comparison in speaking of the women, he yet skilfully contrives to compliment all parties mentioned. He says, "Very fine women were seen here. Many thought them as beautiful as those of Lima, but whiter and not so rosy; and yet there are very beautiful at Lima. They have delicate hands, genteel body and waiste, exceeding much in perfection the most perfect of Lima; and yet there are very beautiful at Lima. The temperament, health, strength, and corpulency of these people tell what is the climate they live in: clothes could well be borne with night and day; the sun did not molest much; there fell some small showers of rain. Our people never perceived lightning or dew, but great dryness, so that, without hanging up, they found dry in the morning the things which were left wet on the ground at night." A singular fruit was noticed, which the men eat green, roasted, boiled, and ripe. It had neither stone nor kernel, and the Spaniards called it blanc-mange. They likewise admired another fruit "inclosed in prickles like chestnuts, and which resembled chestnuts in taste, but was much bigger than six chestnuts together." Mendana ordered a grand mass to be said, during which the islanders remained on their knees with great silence and attention. Mendana took possession of the islands in the king's name, and sowed maize in many spots which he thought favorable to its growth. The chaplain taught one of the natives to bless himself and say Jesus Maria. This being done, the shallop being refitted, three crosses erected, and wood and water having been stored, the squadron set sail again for the still-missing archipelago. The soldiers soon became despondent, and the crews were placed upon short allowance. Fourteen hundred leagues from Lima they saw a desert island, which they called St. Bernardo; and at fifteen hundred and thirty-five leagues' distance they named an island the Solitary, "as it was alone." Thus they continued their course, "many people giving their sentiments, and saying they knew not whither they were going nor what they were coming to, and other such things, which could not fail of giving pain." At last, when eighteen hundred leagues from Lima, they fell in with a large island, one hundred miles in circuit, which Mendana named Santa Cruz--since called Egmont Island by Carteret. Here was a volcano, "of a very fine-shaped hill, from the top whereof issues much fire, and which often makes a great thundering inside." Fifty small boats rigged with sails came out to the ship. The men were black, with woolly hair, dyed white, red, and blue. Their teeth were tinged red, and their faces and bodies marked with streaks. Their arms were bound round with bracelets of black rattan, while their necks were decorated with strings of beads and fishes' teeth. Mendana at once took them for the people he sought. He spoke to them in the language he had learned upon his first voyage; but they neither understood him, nor he them. Without provocation, they discharged a shower of arrows at the ship, which lodged in the sails and the rigging,--without, however, doing any mischief. The soldiers fired in return, killing one and wounding many more. Friendly relations were soon restored, and a savage, apparently of high rank, visited the admiral in his ship. He was lean and gray-headed, and his skin was of the "color of wheat." He inquired who was the chief of the new-comers. The admiral received him with cordiality, and gave him to understand that he was. The Indian said his name was Malopé. The admiral replied that his was Mendana. Malopé at once rejoined that he would be Mendana, and that the admiral should be Malopé. He manifested much gratification at this exchange, and, whenever he was called Malopé, said, "No: Mendana;" and, pointing to the admiral, said that was Malopé. This was probably the first instance of an exchange of names--one of the most solemn acts of friendship with certain tribes of the Pacific Islanders--being effected between a European and a savage. The natives soon learned to shake hands, to embrace, to say "friend," to shave with razors, and to pare their nails with scissors. This state of amity did not last long, however, and a trivial circumstance caused suspicion, and finally hostility. The savages commenced with arrows, and the Spaniards retaliated with fire and sword. In the evening, Malopé came to the shore, and, in a loud voice, called the admiral by the name of Malopé, and, smiting his breast, declared himself to be Mendana. He said the attack had been begun by another tribe, not his, and proposed they should all sally forth against them. To this Mendana did not accede, but, landing his men, proceeded to found a colony. At this point the details furnished by the several chroniclers of the expedition become vague and unsatisfactory. It appears that Malopé was killed in a skirmish; that the natives were not content with merely lamenting his death, but withheld all supplies from the Spaniards; that Mendana caused two mutineers to be beheaded and another to be hung. A war of extermination now commenced, and a state of sedition, misery, and want ensued, which brought Mendana rapidly to the grave. He died of disappointment and regret, in October, 1595. His successor, being wounded, died in November. The crew, worn out with fatigue and sickness, and being reduced to such an extent that twenty resolute Indians could have destroyed them, resolved to suspend the enterprise and re-embark. They took in wood and water, and sailed on the 7th of November. Quiros maintained discipline among a mutinous crew, and, after almost superhuman efforts to navigate his crazy ships upon an unknown sea, arrived with the remains of the expedition at Manilla. From thence Quiros--whose adventures and discoveries we shall soon have occasion to narrate--returned to Acapulco, in Mexico, and thence to Lima, where he petitioned the viceroy for the means of continuing the researches of Mendana. As he did not set sail till 1606, we must first attend to the various enterprises undertaken in the interval. [Illustration: THE ISLANDERS BEFORE A BREEZE.] [Illustration: THE DUTCH AT WALRUS ISLAND.] CHAPTER XXXI. ATTEMPTS OF THE DUTCH TO DISCOVER A NORTHEAST PASSAGE--VOYAGE OF WILHELM BARENTZ--ARRIVAL AT NOVA ZEMBLA--WINTER QUARTERS--BUILDING A HOUSE--FIGHTS WITH BEARS--THE SUN DISAPPEARS--THE CLOCK STOPS, AND THE BEER FREEZES--THE HOUSE IS SNOWED UP--THE HOT-ACHE--FOX-TRAPS--TWELFTH NIGHT--RETURN OF THE SUN--THE SHIPS PROVE UNSEAWORTHY--PREPARATIONS TO DEPART IN THE BOATS--DEATH OF BARENTZ--ARRIVAL AT AMSTERDAM--RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE. In the year 1514, the Dutch resolved to seek a northeast passage by water to the Indies, across the Polar regions of Europe. Their first two attempts were attended with so little success that the States-General abandoned the undertaking, contenting themselves with promising a reward to the navigator who should find a practicable route. In 1596, the city of Amsterdam took up the matter where the Government had left it, and equipped two vessels, the chief command of which was given to Wilhelm Barentz. He started on the 10th of May, and passed the islands of Shetland and Feroë on the 22d. Not long after, the fleet saw with wonder one of the phenomena peculiar to the Arctic regions,--three mock suns, with circular rainbows connecting them by a luminous halo. On the 9th of June, they discovered two islands, to which they gave the names of Bear and Walrus Islands. They kept on, to the usual Arctic accompaniment of icebergs, seals, auroræ boreales, whales, and white bears, till they came to a land which they named Spitzbergen, or Land of Sharp-peaked Mountains. On the 17th of July, they arrived at Nova Zembla,--discovered in 1553 by Willoughby,--and here the two ships were accidentally separated. In August, the vessel of Barentz was embayed in drifting ice, and no efforts could release her from her dangerous position. Winter was coming on, and the crew, despairing of saving the ship, which was now groaning and heaving under the pressure of the ice, resolved to build a house upon the land, "with which to defend themselves from the colde and wilde beasts." They were fortunate enough to find a large quantity of drift-wood, which had evidently floated from a distance, as the icy soil around them yielded neither tree nor herb. The work began and continued in the midst of constant fights with bears and the arduous labor of dragging stores from the ship upon hand-sleds. The cold was so extreme that their skin peeled off upon touching any iron utensil. Snow storms interrupted the progress of the house, for which they were soon obliged to obtain materials by breaking up the ship. One of the men, being pursued by a bear, was only saved by the latter's waiting to contemplate the body of one of his fellow-bears, which the sailors had killed and left to freeze stiff in an upright position. On the 12th of October, half the crew slept in the house for the first time: they suffered greatly from cold, as they had no fire, and because, as the narrative quaintly remarks, "they were somewhat deficient in blankets." The roof was thatched, by the end of October, with sail-cloth and sea-weed. On the 2d of November, the sun raised but half his disk above the horizon: the bears disappeared with the sun, and foxes took their place. The clock having stopped, and refusing to proceed, even with increased weights, day could not be distinguished from night, except by the twelve-hour-glass. The beer, freezing in the casks, became as tasteless as water. Half a pound of bread a day was served out to each man: the provisions of dried fish and salt meat remained still abundant. The chimney would not draw, and the apartment was filled with a blinding smoke,--which the crew were obliged to endure, however, or die of cold. The surgeon made a bathing-tub from a wine-pipe, in which they bathed four at a time. They were several times snowed up, and the house was absolutely buried. Though half a league from the sea, they heard the horrible cracking and groaning of the ice as the bergs settled down one upon the other, or as the huge mountains burst asunder. On one occasion, unable to support the cold, they made a fire in their house with coal brought from the ship. It was the first moment of comfort they had enjoyed for months. They kept up the genial heat until several of the least vigorous of the men were seized with dizziness and with the peculiar pains known as the hot-ache. Gerard de Veer, the chronicler of the expedition, caught in his arms the first man that fell, and revived him by rubbing his face with vinegar. He adds, "We had now learned that to avoid one evil we should not rush into a worse one." [Illustration: THE DUTCH IN WINTER QUARTERS.] They set traps all around their cabin, with which they caught on an average a fox a day. They eat the flesh, and with the skins made caps and mittens. They had the good fortune to kill a bear nine feet long, from which they obtained one hundred pounds of lard. This they found useful, not as pomatum, but as the means of burning their lamp constantly, day and night, as if it were an altar and they the vestal virgins. On the 19th of December, they congratulated themselves that the Arctic night was just one-half expired; "for," says the narrative, "it was a terrible thing to be without the light of the sun, and deprived of the most excellent creature of God, which enliveneth the entire universe." On Christmas eve it snowed so violently that they could not open the door. The next day there was a white frost in the cabin. While seated at the fire and toasting their legs, their backs were frozen stiff. They did not know by the feeling that they were burning their shoes, and were only warned by the odor of the shrivelling leather. They put a strip of linen into the air, to see which way the wind was: in an instant the linen was frozen as hard as a board, and became, of course, perfectly useless as a weathercock. Then the men said to each other, "How excessively cold it must be out of doors!" The 5th of January was Twelfth Night, and the hut was buried under the snow. In the midst of their misery, they asked the captain's leave to celebrate the hallowed anniversary. With flour and oil they made pancakes, washing them down with wine saved from the day before and borrowed in advance from the morrow. They elected a king by lot, the master gunner being indicated by chance as the Lord of Nova Zembla. On the 8th, the twilight was observed to be slightly lengthening, and, though the cold increased with the returning sun, they bore it with cheerfulness. They noticed a tinge of red in the atmosphere, which spoke of the revival of nature. They visited the ship, and found the ice a foot high in the hold: they hardly expected ever to see her float again. The difficulty of obtaining fuel was now such, that many of the men thought it would be easier and shorter to lie down and die than make such dreadful efforts to prolong life. To save wood during the daytime, they played snow-ball, or ran, or wrestled, to keep up the circulation. On the 24th of January, Gerard de Veer declared he had seen the edge of the sun: Barentz, who did not expect the return of the luminary for fourteen days, was incredulous, and the cloudy state of the weather during the succeeding three days prevented the bets which were made upon the subject from being settled. On the 27th, they buried one of their number in a snow grave seven feet deep, having dug it with some difficulty, the diggers being constantly obliged to return to the fire. One of the men remarking that, even were the house completely blocked up fifteen feet deep, they could yet get out by the chimney, the captain climbed up the chimney, and a sailor ran out to see if he succeeded. He rushed back, saying he had seen the sun. Everybody hastened forth and "saw him, in his entire roundness," just above the horizon. It was then decided that de Veer had seen the edge on the 24th, and they "all rejoiced together, praising God loudly for the mercy." Another season of snow now set in, while, at the same time, the ice that bound the ship began to break up, so that the men feared she would escape and float away while they were blockaded in the house. They were obliged to make themselves shoes of worn-out fox-skin caps, as the leather was frozen as hard as horn. On the night of the 6th of April, a bear ascended to the roof of the house by means of the embankments of snow, and, attacking the chimney with great violence, was very near demolishing it. On the 1st of May, they eat their last morsel of meat, relying henceforth on what they might entrap or kill. It was now decided that even if the ship should be disengaged she would be unfit to continue the voyage. Their only hope lay in the shallop and the long-boat, which they endeavored to prepare for the sea, in the midst of interruptions from bears, who "were very obstinate to know how Dutchmen tasted." As late as the 5th of June, it snowed so violently that they could only work within-doors, where they got ready the sails, oars, rudder, &c. On the 12th, they set to work with axes and other tools to level a path from the ship to the water,--a distance of five hundred paces. On the 13th, Barentz wrote a brief account of their voyage and sojourn, placed it in a musket-barrel, and attached it to the fireplace in the house, for the information of future navigators. They then dragged, with infinite labor, the boats to the water, together with barrels and boxes of such stores as their now impoverished ship could yield. They bade adieu to their winter quarters on the 14th, at early morning, "with a west wind and under the protection of Heaven." Barentz, who had been a long time ill, died on the 20th, while opposite Icy Cape, the northernmost point of Nova Zembla. His loss was deeply regretted; but their "grief was assuaged by the reflection that none can resist the will of God." The men were often obliged to drag the boats across intervening fields of ice; and sometimes, when the wind was contrary, they drew them up on a floating bank, and, making tents of the sails, camped out, as if on military service. The sentinels frequently challenged bears, and, on one occasion, three coming together and one being killed, the surviving two devoured their fallen companion. Through dangers and difficulties then unparalleled in navigation, they struggled hopefully on, descending the western coast of Nova Zembla towards the northern shores of Russia and Lapland. On the 16th of August, they met a Russian bark, which furnished them with such provisions as the captain could spare. On the 20th, they touched the coast of Lapland upon the White Sea, where they found thirteen Russians living in miserable huts upon the fish which they caught. On the 2d of September, they arrived at Kola, in Lapland, where they found three Dutch ships, one of which was their consort, which had been separated from them ten months before. Having no further use for their boats, they carried them with ceremony to the "Merchants' House," or Town-Hall, where they dedicated them to the memory of their long voyage of four hundred leagues over a tract never traversed before, and which they had accomplished in open boats. They started at once for home, and arrived on the 1st of November at Amsterdam, twelve in number. The city was greatly excited by the news of their return, for they had long since been given up for dead. The chancellor and the "ambassador of the very illustrious King of Denmark, Norway, the Goths and the Vandals" were at that moment at dinner. The voyagers were summoned to narrate their adventures before them,--which they did, "clad in white fox-skin caps." No voyage had hitherto been so fruitful in incident, peril, and displays of persevering courage and fortitude. Though it resulted in no discovery except that of the western coast of Nova Zembla, it served the useful purpose of demonstrating the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of effecting a northeast passage. [Illustration: FEMALE OTTER AND HER YOUNG.] [Illustration: THE FUNERAL OF MAHU AT BRAVA ISLAND.] CHAPTER XXXII. THE FIVE SHIPS OF ROTTERDAM--BATTLE AT THE ISLAND OF BRAVA--SEBALD DE WEERT--DISASTERS IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN--THE CREW EAT UNCOOKED FOOD--THE FLEET IS SCATTERED TO THE WINDS--ADVENTURES OF DE WEERT--A WRETCHED OBJECT--RETURN TO HOLLAND--VOYAGE OF OLIVER VAN NOORT--BARBAROUS PUNISHMENT--THE EMBLEM OF HOPE BECOMES A CAUSE OF DESPAIR--FIGHT WITH THE PATAGONIANS--ARREST OF THE VICE-ADMIRAL--HIS PUNISHMENT--DESCRIPTION OF A CHILEAN BEVERAGE--CAPTURE OF A SPANISH TREASURE-SHIP--A PILOT THROWN OVERBOARD--SEA-FIGHT OFF MANILLA--RETURN HOME, AFTER THE FIRST DUTCH VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION. The Dutch, who had now succeeded the Portuguese in the possession and control of the East Indies, had, up to the year 1598, made all their voyages thither by the Portuguese route,--the Cape of Good Hope. In this year, two fleets fitted out by them were directed to proceed by the Strait of Magellan and across the South Sea. The first of these expeditions is known as that of the Five Ships of Rotterdam, one of the five, however, becoming separated, and forming a distinct enterprise, under Sebald de Weert: the second was the voyage of Oliver Van Noort. We shall narrate them in order of time. The Five Ships of Rotterdam were equipped at the charge of several merchants called the Company of Peter Verhagen. The flag-ship, commanded by Jacob Mahu, was named the Hope; another, commanded by Sebald de Weert, was the Good News, or Glad Tidings, or Merry Messenger,--all these names being given in the various translations. They sailed from Goree, in Holland, on the 27th of June, 1598. They were off the island of Brava--one of the Cape Verds,--on the 11th of September, and sent boats ashore with empty casks in search of water. The men were accosted by some Portuguese and negroes, who told them that French and English ships were accustomed to water there, but always remained under sail. Sebald de Weert noticed four or five ruinous huts, and found them full of maize, which he at once proceeded to appropriate,--an act which the Portuguese endeavored to resent; but the Dutch flag-ship silenced their feeble resistance with her guns. The death of Mahu now caused a transfer of captains, by which Sebald de Weert left the Glad Tidings for the Good Faith. The fleet lost thirty men by the scurvy during the passage across the Atlantic. They anchored off the Rio de la Plata early in March, 1599, and observed the sea to be as red as blood. The water was examined, and found to be full of small worms, which jumped about like fleas, and which were supposed to have been shaken off by whales in their gambols, as the lion shakes dew-drops from his mane. On the 6th of April, they entered the Strait of Magellan, and were compelled to pass the Antarctic winter there,--that is, till late in August. Gales of wind followed each other in quick succession; and the anchors and cables were so much damaged that the crews were kept in continual labor and anxiety. The scarcity of food was such that the people were sent on shore every day at low water, frequently in rain, snow, or frost, to seek for shell-fish or to gather roots for their subsistence. These they devoured in the state in which they were found, having no patience to wait to cook them. One hundred and twenty men were buried during this disastrous winter. On the evening of September the 3d, the whole fleet, including a shallop of sixteen tons, named the Postillion, which had been put together in the Strait, entered the South Sea. A storm soon separated them, leaving the Fidelity and Faith as consorts, and scattering the rest in every direction. The adventures of the Fidelity and Faith, however, require that we should follow them in their fortunes around the world. De Weert found his ship almost unseaworthy, without a master, short of hands, and with two pilots quite too old to be efficient. After weathering another storm, which nearly sent the vessels to the bottom, both captains resolved to return to the Strait and to wait there in some safe bay for a favorable wind. On the 27th, they arrived at the mouth of the Strait, and were drifted by the current some seven leagues inland. As the Antarctic summer was now approaching, they were in hopes of fair weather; yet during the two months of their stay they hardly had a day in which to dry their sails. The seamen began to murmur, alleging that there would not be sufficient biscuit for their return to Holland if they remained here longer. Upon this de Weert went into the bread-room, as if to examine the store, and, on coming out, declared, with a cheerful countenance, that there was biscuit enough for eight months, though in reality there was barely enough for four. On the 3d of December, they succeeded in leaving the Strait, but, by some mismanagement, anchored a league apart, with a point of land between them which intercepted the view. A gale of wind forced the Fidelity from her anchors, and she was compelled to proceed upon the voyage alone. On her arrival at the Moluccas she was attacked and captured by the Portuguese. Sebald de Weert was thus left without a consort and almost without a crew. When leaving the Strait, and towing the only remaining boat astern, the rope broke, and the boat went adrift and was not again recovered. The next morning they saw a boat rowing towards them, which proved to belong to another Dutch fleet, under Oliver Van Noort, bound to the South Sea and the East Indies. De Weert endeavored to sail in company with them; but the reduced condition of his crew--but forty-eight men remaining out of one hundred and ten--rendered it impossible. He finally abandoned all attempts to prosecute the voyage, and, profiting by the west winds, returned through the Strait to the Atlantic. He anchored at the Penguin Islands, where a large number of birds were taken and salted. Some of the seamen who were on shore discovered a Patagonian woman among the rocks, where she had endeavored to conceal herself. The chronicle thus speaks of her:--"A state more deeply calamitous than that to which this woman was reduced, the goodness of God has not permitted to be the lot of many. The ships of Van Noort had stopped at this island about seven weeks before, where this woman was one of a numerous tribe of Patagonians; but they were savagely slaughtered by Van Noort's men. She was wounded at the same time, but lived to mourn the destruction of her race, the solitary inhabitant of a rocky, desolate island." De Weert presented her with a knife, but left her without any means of changing her situation, though she made it understood that she wished to be transported to the continent. On the 21st of January, 1600, he left the Strait by the eastern entrance, and bent his course homewards. Six months afterwards he entered the channel of Goree, in Holland, having lost sixty-nine men during the voyage. The ship had been absent two years and sixteen days, the greater part of which had been misemployed. She had been only twenty-four days in the South Sea, and had spent nine months in the Strait of Magellan and the remainder in the passage out and back. The Faith was, nevertheless, more fortunate than her companions; for she was the only ship of the five which sailed under Jacob Mahu which ever reached home again. The Charity was abandoned at sea; the Hope was plundered by the Japanese at Bungo; the Glad Tidings was taken by the Spaniards at Valparaiso; and, as we have said, the Fidelity fell into the hands of the Portuguese at the Spice Islands. The Postillion shallop, which had been launched in the Strait, was never heard of after she entered the Pacific Ocean. The plan of the South Sea Expedition under Oliver Van Noort was in all respects similar to that of Mahu and de Weert, and the equipment was made at the joint expense of a company of merchants. The vessels fitted out were the Mauritius, whose tonnage is not mentioned,--in which sailed, as admiral, Van Noort, who was a native of Utrecht, and an experienced seaman,--the Hendrick Frederick, and two yachts, the whole being manned by two hundred and forty-eight men. The instructions to the admiral were to sail through Magellan's Strait to the South Sea, to cruise off the coast of Chili and Peru, to cross over to the Moluccas to trade, and then, returning home, to complete the circumnavigation of the globe. He sailed on the 13th of September, three months after the departure of the Five Ships of Rotterdam. At Prince's Island, near the coast of Guinea,--a station held by the Portuguese,--Van Noort's flag of truce was not respected by the garrison, and two Hollanders were killed and sixteen wounded. Van Noort revenged this outrage by burning all the sugar-mills which he dared to approach. He set one of his pilots ashore upon Cape Gonçalves for mutinous practices. He made the coast of Brazil early in February, 1519; but it was determined in council that, as the Southern winter was so near at hand, they would hibernate at St. Helena. They sailed eastward, and spent three months in searching for the island; but in vain. At the end of May, they unexpectedly found themselves again upon the coast of Brazil; but the Portuguese opposed their landing. On the 18th of June, the council of war sentenced two men, a constable and a gunner, "to be abandoned in any strange country where they could hereafter be of service," for mutiny; and another seaman was sentenced to be fastened, by a knife through the hand, to the mast, there to remain till he should release himself by slitting his hand through the middle. This barbarous sentence was carried into execution. After burning one of the yachts which proved unfit for service, the fleet proceeded towards the Strait, and, on the 4th of November, anchored off Cape Virgin. Here Van Noort's ship lost three anchors, and the admiral wrote to the vice-admiral to furnish him one of his. The latter refused, saying that he was as much master as Van Noort,--a piece of impertinence which the admiral declared he would punish upon the first convenient opportunity. The vessels entered the Strait four times, and were as often forced back by the violence of the wind. On the 27th, they arrived at the two Penguin Islands. It was here that the transaction occurred to which we have alluded under Sebald de Weert. It happened as follows: On the smallest of the islands some natives were seen, who made signs to the Dutch not to advance, and threw them some penguins from the cliffs. Seeing that the strangers continued to approach, they shot arrows at them, which the Dutch returned with bullets. The savages fled for refuge to a cavern where they had secreted their women and children. The Dutch pursued them, and used their fire-arms with unrelenting ferocity, receiving little or no damage from the feeble missiles of the natives. The latter continued to fight in defence of their women and children with undiminished courage, and not till the last man of them was killed did the Hollanders obtain an entrance. Within they found a number of wretched mothers who had formed barricades of their own bodies to protect their children. Of these they killed several and wounded more. Seven weeks after, as has been said, Sebald de Weert found the tribe exterminated and but one woman surviving. Six children were taken by Van Noort on board of the fleet. One of the boys afterwards learned to speak the Dutch language, and from him were obtained several slender items of information respecting the tribe to which he had belonged, but which were far from compensating for the flagrant act of cruelty which had led to the capture of his fellow-exiles and himself. [Illustration: AFFRAY BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND PATAGONIANS.] The men went ashore near Cape Froward, and some of them ate of an herb which drove them "raging mad." During an anchorage here, the carpenters built a boat thirty-seven feet long in the keel; the blacksmith set up his forge, while the wooders made charcoal from trees which they felled. A light wind springing up, the vice-admiral, without receiving orders, fired a gun and got under way, and, though the admiral remained stationary, continued sailing on and firing guns, as if he had been commander-in-chief. Such, said Van Noort, is the effect, upon a vice-admiral, of having a larger number of anchors than his superior. He caused him to be arrested and to be tried upon the charge of exciting mutiny by insubordinate conduct, and allowed him three weeks to prepare his defence. At this period the number of deaths in the fleet had amounted to ninety-seven persons. When the three weeks expired, the vessels were still in the Strait, and the council was assembled on board the admiral's vessel, to hear the defence of the prisoner, which proved insufficient for his acquittal, and he was condemned to be set on shore and abandoned in the Strait. This sentence was publicly read on board the different ships, and, on the 26th of January, 1600, Jacob Claesz was carried in a boat to the shore, with a small stock of bread and wine. He was thus left to shift for himself among the wild beasts and still more savage inhabitants. Van Noort ordered a prayer and exhortation to be read in the fleet during the execution of this terrible verdict. Being still at anchor in the Strait in the middle of February, the admiral announced his determination to persevere two months longer, and, if it were still impossible to reach the Pacific by the west, to turn eastward and reach it by the Cape of Good Hope. On the 29th, the wind having veered, Van Noort, with two ships and a yacht, after a tedious navigation of a year and a half, finally entered the Great South Sea. A storm compelled the admiral to cast loose and abandon the long-boat which had been built at Cape Froward, and forced the new vice-admiral to part company. His ship was never seen again. During an anchorage upon the coast of Chili, one of the sailors whom we have already mentioned as sentenced to be abandoned upon any coast where they could be of service, was sent ashore to open negotiations with the natives. If he succeeded and returned in safety, his sentence was to be remitted. He was favorably received, and a regular trade was established. The official narrative of the voyage thus describes the hospitality of the people:--"An elderly woman brought us an earthen vessel full of a drink of a sharp taste, of which we drank heartily. This drink is made of maize and water, and is brewed in the following manner: old women who have lost their teeth chew the maize, which, being thus mixed with their saliva, is put into a tub, and water is added to it. They have a superstitious opinion that the older the women are who chew the maize, by so much will the beverage be the better. And with this drink the natives get intoxicated and celebrate their festivals." Soon after, Van Noort's ship gave chase to a Spaniard, which it was important to take, lest she might spread the alarm along the coast. She proved to be the Good Jesus, and to be stationed there expressly to give early notice of the arrival of strange sails. She was taken, and a prize-master placed on board to navigate her. One of the prisoners stated afterwards, that ten thousand pounds' weight of gold had been thrown overboard during her flight; and this was corroborated by the pilot, who at first denied it, but, upon being put to the torture, confessed. Van Noort now steered for the Philippines, by way of the Ladrones. On the 30th of June, the pilot of the Good Jesus, who ate at the admiral's table, was taken ill, and accused Van Noort of wishing to poison him, and maintained the charge in presence of the officers. He was sentenced to be cast head foremost into the sea,--the established Dutch mode of punishing pirates. "We therefore threw him overboard," says the journal, "and left him to sink, to the end that he should not ever again reproach us with any treachery." The Good Jesus now lost her rudder, and, being very leaky, was abandoned in mid-ocean. While Van Noort was thus making his way towards Manilla, preparations were making at that place for defence. Cavite, the port, was fortified; two galleons were ordered to be armed and equipped. The Dutch squadron arrived off the entrance of the bay on the 24th of November, and Van Noort determined to remain there till February, to intercept all vessels bound in. He soon stopped a Japanese vessel, laden with iron and hams. He allowed her to proceed, having first purchased a wooden anchor. He remarks in the journal that he saw Japanese scimetars which could cut through three men at a blow, and that slaves were kept for the purpose of furnishing the necessary proof of their temper to purchasers. He next took a Spanish vessel laden with cocoanut wine, and a Chinese junk laden with rice. The cargoes were transferred and the vessels sunk. Early on the morning of the 14th of December, the two galleons were seen bearing down upon the Dutch squadron, now reduced to two sails,--the Mauritius, with fifty-five men, and the Concord, with twenty-five. The Spanish ships are supposed to have had two hundred men apiece. They steered directly for the enemy, but could not return their fire, as the wind from the starboard compelled them to keep their lee ports shut. The Spanish admiral ran his ship directly upon the Dutch admiral, and his men at once overpowered the latter by the mere force of numbers. The Dutch retreated from the deck, and harassed the Spaniards from their close quarters. The colors of the Mauritius were struck, upon which the captain of the Concord, thinking his superior had surrendered, endeavored to escape, being closely pursued by the Spanish vice-admiral. The Dutch admiral, however, was not captured yet. The Spaniards having remained masters of the open deck for six hours, Van Noort told his men they must go up and expel the enemy, or he would fire the magazine and blow up the ship. The Spanish account says that they were at this moment themselves forced to disengage their ship and withdraw their men, as the after-part of the Hollander had taken fire. At all events, the two vessels were cleared and the engagement renewed with cannon. The Spanish vessel took in water so fast that she went down not long after. The Dutch rowed about in boats among the struggling Spaniards, stabbing and knocking them on the head. In retaliation for this, the officers and crew of the Concord, which was easily taken by the Spanish vice-admiral, were conveyed to Manilla and executed as pirates and rebels. In Van Noort's ship only five men were killed, twenty-six being wounded more or less severely. He continued on his way with one vessel only, touching at Borneo, Java, and Mauritius. At the latter place, where he found other vessels at anchor, his men met with very pleasant entertainment, and on one occasion ten of them dined in an inverted tortoise-shell, the first inhabitant having withdrawn to furnish the new occupants with both soup and sitting-room. [Illustration: THE TWO ADMIRALS AT CLOSE QUARTERS.] Van Noort arrived at Rotterdam on the 26th of August, 1601, where he was received with the utmost joy, having been absent a fortnight short of three years. His was the first Dutch vessel that circumnavigated the globe, and the only one of the nine ships that sailed from Holland in 1598 in that design which succeeded in fulfilling it. The voyage contributed nothing to geography, but, in spite of the instances of barbarity with which it abounded, added to the warlike and commercial reputation of the country, and therefore met with favor from both Government and people. [Illustration: A DUTCH PICNIC IN THE MAURITIUS.] [Illustration: HEAD OF A TURTLE.] [Illustration: WOMAN AND CHILD OF ESPIRITU SANTO.] CHAPTER XXXIII. QUIROS' THEORY OF A SOUTHERN CONTINENT--HIS ARGUMENTS AND MEMORIALS--HIS FIRST VOYAGE--DISCOVERIES--ENCARNAÇION--SAGITTARIA, OR TAHITI--DESCRIPTION OF THESE ISLANDS--MANICOLO--ESPIRITU SANTO--ITS PRODUCTIONS AND INHABITANTS--QUIROS BEFORE THE KING OF SPAIN--HIS BELIEF IN HIS DISCOVERY OF A CONTINENT--HIS DISAPPOINTMENT--RENEWED SOLICITATIONS--DEATH OF QUIROS--DISCOVERIES OF TORRÈS--THE MUSCOVY COMPANY OF LONDON--HENRY HUDSON--HIS VOYAGES TO SPITZBERGEN AND NOVA ZEMBLA--HIS VOYAGE TO AMERICA--CASTS ANCHOR AT SANDY HOOK--ASCENDS THE HUDSON RIVER AS FAR AS THE SITE OF ALBANY--HIS VOYAGE TO ICELAND AND HUDSON'S BAY--DISASTROUS WINTER--MUTINY--HUDSON SET ADRIFT--HIS DEATH. We have said, in a preceding chapter, that Pedro Fernandez de Quiros was the pilot of Mendana's second expedition. During the voyage he had reflected deeply upon the probability of the existence of a Southern continent: on his return to Peru, he asserted it, and devoted the remainder of his life to the prosecution of a plan of discovery. He was the first to bring forward scientific arguments in support of the theory,--one which, by the way, was destined to agitate and interest the world for two centuries, till its final overthrow by Cook. He presented two memorials to Don Luis de Velasco, the viceroy, praying for ships, men, and other necessaries, with which "to plough up the waters of the unknown sea, and to seek out the undiscovered lands around the Antarctic Pole, the centre of that horizon." His arguments were many of them profound, and made a deep impression upon the viceroy, who replied, however, that Quiros' desires exceeded the limits of his authority. He nevertheless despatched him with strong recommendations to the court of Spain. Philip III. gave favorable attention to his projects, and ordered that Quiros should go in person upon an expedition "among these hidden provinces and severed regions,--an expedition destined to win souls to heaven and kingdoms to the crown of Spain." Quiros returned to Lima "with the most honorable schedules which had ever passed the Council of State." He presented his papers to the viceroy, and, forgetting the obstacles and discouragements he had met with during eleven years, entered on his new and arduous labors. He built three ships, and embarked on the 20th of December, 1605, holding his course west by south. One thousand leagues from Peru, he discovered a small island which he named Encarnaçion: to others, of little importance and uninhabited, he gave the names of Santelmo, St. Miguel, and Archangel: the tenth he called Dezena. On the 10th of February, 1606, land was seen from the topmast-head, and, to the joy of all, columns of smoke--an unmistakable sign that the land was inhabited--were perceived ascending at numerous points. A boat advanced to the surf, through which it seemed impossible to gain the shore. A young man, Francisco Ponce by name, stripped off his clothes, saying that, if they should thus turn their faces from the first danger which offered, there would be no hope of eventual success. He threw himself into the sea, and, after a fierce struggle with the receding waves, clambered up a rock to a spot where one hundred Indians were awaiting him. They seemed pleased with his resolution, and frequently kissed his forehead. Peace was made, and a safe anchorage was pointed out. The island thus discovered subsequently became, for many reasons, the most famous in the whole Pacific Ocean. Quiros called it Sagittaria; but it is now known as Tahiti or Otaheite. We shall have occasion hereafter to describe at length this lovely oasis in the desert of the waters. [Illustration: SCENE IN TAHITI.] The fleet stayed here but two days, and then continued on its way. Quiros discovered several islands which have not been seen again from that time to this. To one of them he gave the name of Isla de la Gente Hermosa,--Island of Handsome People. Convinced that the mainland must be near, he kept on in search of what he called the "mother of so many islands." At one named Taumaco he seized four natives to serve him as guides and interpreters, and carried them away. He has been much blamed for this act of treachery towards a people who treated him with kindness and hospitality. Three of the four jumped overboard during the two days following, and escaped to islands in the vicinity. The chief of the island where he had taken them had informed him that, if he would change his course from the west to the south, he would come to a large tract, fertile and inhabited, named Manicolo. Following this advice, he discovered the islands of Tucopia and Nuestra Señora de la Luz. It is doubtful whether either of these has been seen by subsequent navigators. On the 26th of April, he made a land which he took to be the continent of which he was in search, and to which he gave the name of Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo. Bougainville and Cook, who arrived here a century and a half afterwards, thought themselves justified, by acquiring the certitude that it was a group of islands and not a continent, in christening them anew,--Bougainville naming them the Grandes Cyclades, and Cook the New Hebrides. Quiros has left an admirable picture of this fertile and delightful spot. "The rivers Jordan and Salvador," he says, "give no small beauty to their shores, for they are full of odoriferous flowers and plants. Pleasant and agreeable groves front the sea in every part: we mounted to the tops of mountains and perceived fertile valleys and rivers winding amongst green meadows. The whole is a country which, without doubt, has the advantage over those of America, and the best of the European will be well if it is equal. It is plenteous of various and delicious fruits, potatoes, yams, plantains, oranges, limes, sweet basil, nutmegs, and ebony, all of which, without the help of sickle, plough, or other artifice, it yields in every season. There are also cattle, birds of many kinds and of charming notes, honey-bees, parrots, doves, and partridges. The houses wherein the Indians live are thatched and low, and they of a black complexion. There are earthquakes,--sign of a mainland." The Spaniards found it impossible to make peace with the natives, and the few days which they spent there were passed in wrangling and bloodshed. The achievements and discoveries of Quiros properly end here. His ships were separated, and his own crew disabled by the effects of poisonous fish which they had eaten. He called a council of his officers, and asked their opinion upon a choice of courses,--a prosecution of the voyage to China, or a return to Mexico. The latter was decided upon. Quiros arrived at Acapulco nine months after his departure from Callao. He soon returned to Spain, where he presented a memorial to Philip III. upon the results of his voyage, and the advantage of further efforts in the same direction. His grand argument in favor of the theory that he had discovered an Austral continent was drawn from the statements of Pedro,--the only one of the four kidnapped savages of Taumaco who had remained on board. A subsequent memorial shows the fate with which all his representations to Philip met:--"I, Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, say that with this I have presented to your majesty eight memorials touching the country of Australia Incognita, without to this time any resolution being taken with me, nor any reply made me, nor hope given to assure me that I shall be despatched,--having now been fourteen months in this court, and having been fourteen years engaged in this cause without pay or any other advantage in view but the success of it alone; wherewith, and through infinite contradictions, I have gone by land and sea twenty-two thousand leagues, spending all my estate and incommoding my person, suffering so many and such terrible things that even to myself they appear incredible: and all this has come to pass, that this work of so much goodness and benevolence should not be abandoned. In whose name, and all for the love of God, I beg your majesty not to neglect these innumerable benefits, which shall last as long as the world subsists, and then be eternal." Quiros then enters into a detailed description of the islands and the continent he had seen. Their extent, he said, was as much as that of Europe, Asia Minor, England, and Ireland. They had no such turbulent neighbors as the Turks or the Moors. The people were intelligent and capable of civilization. Bread grew upon the trees. The palm yielded spirits, vinegar, honey, whey, and toddy. The green cocoanut served instead of artichoke; when ripe, for meat and cream; and, when old, for oil, wax, and balsams. The shells furnished cups and bottles. The fibres afforded oakum, cordage, and the best slow match. The leaves furnished sails, matting, and thatch. The garden-stuffs of the country were pumpkins, parsley, "with intimation of beans." The flesh was hogs, fowls, capons, partridges, geese, turkeys, ringdoves, and goats, "with intimation of cows and buffaloes." The riches were silver, pearls, and gold. The spices were nutmegs, mace, pepper, and ginger, "with intimation of cinnamon and cloves." There was ebony, and infinite woods for ship-building. At daybreak the harmony of thousands of birds trembled upon the air,--nightingales, blackbirds, larks, goldfinches, and swallows,--besides the chirping of grasshoppers and crickets. Every morning and evening the breeze was laden with fragrant scents wafted from orange-flowers and sweet basil. This enthusiastic document concludes thus:--"I can show this in a company of mathematicians, that this land will presently accommodate and sustain two hundred thousand Spaniards. None of our men fell sick from over-work, or sweating, or getting wet. Fish and flesh kept sound two or more days. I saw neither sandy ground, nor thistles, nor prickly trees, nor mangrovy swamps, nor snow on the mountains, nor crocodiles in the rivers, nor ants in the dust, nor mosquitos in the night. "Acquire, sire, since you can with a little money, which will be required but once,--acquire heaven, eternal fame, and that new world with all its promises. Order the galleons to be ready, sire; for I have many places to go to, and much to provide and to do. Let it be observed that in all I shall be found very submissive to reason, and will give satisfaction in every thing." These stirring appeals were disregarded by the feeble successor of Charles V.; and Quiros, who, though a Portuguese by birth, is often styled the last of the Spanish heroes, died at Panama on his way back to Lima. We mentioned the dispersion of Quiros' fleet after leaving Espiritu Santo. We must recur for a moment to this incident, in order to follow the ship of Luis Vaez de Torrès, the second in command. He proceeded on his voyage to the southwest, and saw enough of Espiritu Santo to convince him that it was not a continent. He would have circumnavigated it had the season permitted. Standing finally to the northward, he fell in with numerous islands rich in pearls and spices, and "coasted for eight hundred leagues along the southern shore of some land to him unknown." This can have been no other shore than that of Papua or New Guinea; and it is considered positive that he was the first European to see this since famous and remarkable island. He found this whole sea to be filled with groups of islands producing spices and the usual tropical fruits. He made his way to the Philippines, where he rendered an account of his adventures since his separation from Quiros. While these distinguished navigators were thus searching the regions lying about the equator, another adventurer, equally enterprising, was endeavoring to reach the Pole. Henry Hudson, a seaman renowned for his hardy and daring achievements, was appointed, in 1607, by the Muscovy Company of London, to the command of a vessel intended to penetrate to China by the Arctic seas to the north of Europe. His crew consisted of ten men and a boy. He advanced as far as Greenland, and returned by Spitzbergen,--being convinced that the ice formed an insurmountable barrier against farther progress. He again set out in 1608, and, keeping more to the eastward, passed to the north of Norway, Sweden, and Russia as far as Nova Zembla. The ice again stopped him, and he returned,--persuaded that the northeastern passage did not exist. The next year he was again sent upon the same errand; but, being still unsuccessful, he crossed the Atlantic to America. He coasted along the continent as far as Chesapeake Bay, and then returned to the north, entering Delaware Bay and arriving in sight of the highlands of Neversink on the 2d of September. This he pronounced a "good land to fall in with, and a pleasant land to see." The next morning he passed Sandy Hook, and came to anchor in what is now the Lower Bay of New York. "What an event," says Everett, "in the history of American population, enterprise, commerce, intelligence and power, was the dropping of that anchor at Sandy Hook!" [Illustration: HUDSON'S VESSEL, THE HALF-MOON, OFF SANDY HOOK.] "Here he lingered a week," continues the same author, "in friendly intercourse with the natives of New Jersey, while a boat's company explored the waters up to Newark Bay. And now the great question:--Shall he turn back, or ascend the stream? Hudson was of a race not prone to turn back, by sea or land. On the 11th of September, he raised the anchor of the Half-Moon, and passed through the Narrows, beholding on both sides 'as beautiful a land as one could tread on;' the ship floating cautiously and slowly up the noble stream,--the first that ever rested on its bosom. He passed the Palisades, Nature's dark basaltic Malakoff; forced the iron gateway of the Highlands; anchored on the 14th near West Point; swept around and upwards the following day, by grassy meadows and tangled slopes, hereafter to be covered with smiling villages, by elevated banks and woody heights, the destined sites of towns and cities,--of Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Catskill; on the evening of the 15th arrived 'opposite the mountains which rise from the river's side,' where he found 'a very loving people and very old men;' and, the day following, sailed by the spot hereafter to be honored by his own illustrious name. One more day wafts him up between Schodac and Castleton; and here he landed and passed a day with the natives, greeted with all sorts of barbarous hospitality,--the land 'the finest for cultivation he ever set foot on.' On the following morning, with the early flood-tide, the Half-Moon ran higher up, and came to anchor in deep water, near the site of the present city of Albany. Happy if he could have closed his gallant career on the banks of the stream which so justly bears his name, and thus have escaped the sorrowful and mysterious catastrophe which awaited him the next year." He soon after returned to England; and, not being discouraged, nor finding it difficult to obtain the means of continuing his maritime adventures, he set sail, in 1610, in a vessel of fifty-five tons' burden, manned by twenty-three men and victualled for six months. He touched at the Orkneys and anchored at Iceland. Mount Hecla revealed to him the magnificence of a volcano in travail, and the Hot Springs obligingly cooked his food. He passed Greenland, where the sun set in the north. In the course of June and July, he passed to the northward of Labrador, and followed the strait which now bears his name. In spite of ice and disturbances among his crew, which at times assumed the character of a mutiny, he pushed on into the great inland sea known as Hudson's Bay. For a long time he did not know that it was a bay, and naturally was led to hope that he was on the point of attaining the object of all his efforts,--a passage by the northwest to China. The extent of its surface amply justified him in these expectations, for it is the largest inland sea in the world, with the exception of the Mediterranean. On the 1st of November, after seeking winter quarters, his men found a suitable spot for beaching their vessel. Ten days afterwards, they were frozen in, with provisions hardly sufficient to last, upon the most meagre allowance, till they could expect a release from the ice. A reward was offered to those who added to the general stock by catching either birds or fish, or animals serviceable for food. A house was built; but the season was so far advanced that it could not be rendered fit to dwell in. The winter was severe, and the men lived at first upon partridges, then upon swans and teal, and finally upon moss and frogs. They assuaged the pain of their frozen limbs by applying to them a hot decoction made from buds containing a balsam-like substance resembling turpentine. Towards spring, they obtained furs from the natives, in exchange for hatchets, glass, and buttons. When the ice broke up, they prepared to return,--the last ration of bread being exhausted on the day of their departure. A report was circulated among the crew that Hudson had concealed a quantity of bread for his own use, and a mutiny, fomented by a man named Green, broke out on the 21st of June. Hudson was seized and his hands bound. Together with the sick, and those whom the frost had deprived of the use of their limbs, he was put into the shallop and set adrift. Neither he, nor the boat, nor any of its crew, were ever heard of again. The wretched mutineers made the best of their way home in the ship they had thus foully obtained. Not one of the ringleaders lived to reach the land. The rest, after suffering the most awful extremities of famine, finally gained the shore. [Illustration: DUTCH VESSEL TRADING AT THE LADRONES.] CHAPTER XXXIV. THE FLEET OF JORIS SPILBERGEN--ARRIVAL IN BRAZIL--ADVENTURES IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN--TRADE AT MOCHA ISLAND--TREACHERY AT SANTA MARIA--TERRIBLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND SPANISH FLEETS--RAVAGES OF THE COAST--SKIRMISHES UPON THE LAND--SPILBERGEN SAILS FOR MANILLA--ARRIVAL AT TERNATE--HIS RETURN HOME--THE VOYAGE OF SCHOUTEN AND LEMAIRE--LEMONADE AT SIERRA LEONE--A COLLISION AT SEA--DISCOVERY OF STATEN LAND--CAPE HORN--LEMAIRE'S STRAIT--ARRIVAL AT BATAVIA--CONFISCATION OF THE SHIPS--GENERAL RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE--THE VOYAGE OF WILLIAM BAFFIN--ARCTIC RESEARCHES DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. We have said, in a former chapter, that the Dutch succeeded the Portuguese in the possession of the East Indies. During the struggle between these two powers for supremacy over the Spice Islands, the Dutch East India Company resolved to make a vigorous effort to reach the Moluccas by the Strait of Magellan. They equipped a fleet of six ships, for the purpose of exploring a new route. These vessels were named the Great Sun, the Half-Moon, the Morning Star, the Huntsman, and the Sea Mew, and were placed under the command of Joris Spilbergen as admiral, who had already conducted a Dutch fleet to the Indies. He received his commission from their Mightinesses the States-General. He sailed from the Texel on the 8th of August, 1614. While upon the South American coast, a mutiny broke out in the Sea Mew, and the two ringleaders were condemned to be cast into the sea,--a sentence which was rigorously executed. They entered the Strait of Magellan on the 28th of February, 1615, but were forced out again by adverse currents. They entered again on the 2d of April, and saw men of gigantic stature upon the hills, dead bodies wrapped in the skins of penguins, and shrubs producing sweet blackberries. The mountains were covered with snow, yet the woods were filled with parrots. Water-cresses, and a tree whose bark had a biting taste, induced them to give to an inlet the name of Pepper Haven. The natives bartered ornaments of mother-of-pearl for knives and wine. The vessels entered the South Sea on the 6th of May, and on the 25th anchored off Mocha Island, half a league from the coast of Chili. The natives were delighted to learn that the strangers were the enemies of the Spaniards their oppressors, and to see that their ships were so large and well armed. The chief of the island visited the admiral's ship and remained his guest all night. A hatchet was the price fixed upon for two fat sheep; and a hundred were obtained at this rate. The natives would not permit the Dutch to see their women, and at last, when they had disposed of all the provisions and live stock they had to spare, made signs for them to re-enter their ships and depart, with which reasonable request Spilbergen at once complied. On the 29th, the vessels anchored off the island of Santa Maria, and, though there were Spaniards upon it, negotiations were opened. The Dutch officers were invited by a Spaniard to dine on shore, and, having accepted and assembled for the purpose, were either led to suspect treachery, or were convinced that they were strong enough to help themselves without negotiation. They summoned soldiers from the ships, burned a number of houses, and carried off five hundred sheep. The Spaniard who was to have been their host, but who was now their prisoner, informed them that the Viceroy of Peru had been for some months aware of their approach, and that a strong force was prepared at Lima to attack them. Spilbergen determined to go in search of the Spanish fleet: the gunners were ordered to have every thing in readiness for battle, and military regulations were promulgated,--every one, from the admiral to the swabs, being determined to do or die. One of the orders was that "during the action the decks were to be continually wetted, that accidents might not happen from ignited powder." At Concepçion, the Dutch landed and set fire to a number of houses; at Valparaiso, the Spaniards burned one of their own vessels, that she might not fall into the enemy's hands. At Arica--the seaport to which the Potosi silver was brought to be shipped to Panama--they took a small ship laden with treasure. On the evening of the 16th of July, the Spanish fleet, of eight sail, appeared in sight. The Jesu Maria, the flag-ship, had no less than four hundred and sixty men, and mounted twenty-four guns; and the whole squadron were in the same proportion better provided with men than artillery. Don Rodrigo de Mendoça was the commander. He insisted upon an immediate attack by night, saying that "any two of his ships could take all England, and much more these hens of Holland, who must be spent and wasted by so long a voyage." About ten at night, the Spanish admiral and the Dutch admiral closed,--the Jesu Maria and the Great Sun. They hailed each other, and some conversation passed before a shot was fired. The attack was then commenced by the musketry, seconded by the great guns. The ships of both fleets came up in succession and joined battle. The pomp and circumstance of war were not neglected, for the braying of the cannon was accompanied by the sounding of tambours and trumpets. The Spanish San Francisco received a broadside which the Great Sun could spare from the Jesu Maria, and soon after went to the bottom. The Sun sent out one of her boats for a rescue; but it was mistaken by the Huntsman for an enemy's boat, and was blown out of the water by a cannon-shot. The night becoming very dark, the fleets were gradually separated. The next morning five of the Spanish ships sent word to their admiral that they were going to escape if they could. The Spanish admiral and vice-admiral were lashed together for mutual support, and were, in this condition, attacked by the Great Sun and the Half-Moon. The Spanish seamen several times hung out a white flag in token of surrender, which was as often cut down by their officers, who chose rather to die than yield, especially as they had sworn to the Viceroy of Peru to bring him all the Hollanders in chains. At nightfall, the Jesu Maria cut herself loose and fled from pursuit; but her leaks and damages were so serious that she went to the bottom before dawn. This decided the victory in favor of the Dutch, who are accused of allowing many of the enemy to drown who might easily have been saved. The victorious fleet sailed directly for Callao; but the Spanish shipping in the port was so well protected by batteries that it was not thought prudent to attack them. Soon after, a vessel laden with salt and sugar was captured and the cargo distributed. The town of Paita was plundered and burned. No money or treasure is mentioned among the booty. Keeping a sharp watch for the fleet of Panama, which the Dutch did not care to meet or engage, they proceeded to the north, and, on the 11th of October, entered the harbor of Acapulco, in Mexico or New Spain. Negotiations were entered into and a treaty was made, the Dutch agreeing to release all their prisoners, and the Spanish to furnish them with oxen, sheep, poultry, fruit, water, and wood. Thus the Spaniards saved their town at a small expense, and the Dutch found refreshments which they could have obtained in no other way. [Illustration: CONFLICT BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND SPANISH FLEETS.] On the 10th of November, they anchored at the mouth of a river reported by their prisoners to abound in fish, while its banks produced citron and other fruit trees. Boats were sent to examine it. The Dutch noticed that the footprints upon the shore were the prints of shoes, and not of feet as Nature made them. Suspecting, therefore, the presence of Spaniards, they did not disembark, but returned to the ship. The next day the admiral landed with two hundred men, and was at once attacked by a strong body of Spaniards concealed in the woods. The latter were repulsed with loss, but Spilbergen withdrew his men to the ships, as his ammunition was nearly exhausted. [Illustration: THE DUTCH SURPRISED BY THE SPANIARDS.] On the 2d of December, the fleet left the American coast and directed their course west by south for the Ladrone Islands. The next year--1616--was ushered in with distempers that proved fatal to many of the seamen. On the 23d of January, they came in sight of the Ladrones, where they stopped two days to traffic with the natives for flesh, fish, fruit, and fowl. The savages were, as usual, treacherous and given to thieving, and at times required the chastisement of powder and ball. The fleet touched at the Philippines early in February, but the Indians refused to trade with them, as they were enemies of the Spaniards. They entered the Straits of Manilla, and anchored before the island of Mirabelles, remarkable for two rocks which tower to a vast height into the air. The Dutch took several barks laden with the tribute of numerous adjacent places to the city of Manilla. They gained intelligence of a fleet of twelve ships and four galleys, manned by two thousand Spaniards, besides Indians and Chinese, sent to drive their countrymen from the Moluccas and to reduce those islands to the dominion of Spain. On this news, they discharged all their prisoners, and made preparations to meet the Manilla fleet and to proceed to the assistance of their friends. They arrived on the 29th of March at Ternate, one of the principal islands of the group, where the Dutch possessed a trading-station. They were received with joy by their countrymen. Spilbergen was now detained nine months in the Molucca and neighboring islands, in the service of the East India Company. A narrative of his transactions here would be foreign to the purpose of this work. He left the ships in which he had hitherto sailed in India, and returned to Holland in the Amsterdam. His voyage produced no new discoveries in the South Sea; but the Directors of the Company bestowed upon him the highest praise for his prudent management and timely energy. The Company may be said to have dated their grandeur from the day of his return, both as regards power and wealth,--the first resulting from his successful circumnavigation of the globe, the latter from their conquests in the Moluccas, in which he took a prominent part, and of which he brought home the first intelligence. The Dutch East India Company held from the Government the exclusive privilege of trading in the Great South Sea,--all private citizens being prohibited from entering those waters by the Cape of Good Hope on the east or the Strait of Magellan on the west. This prohibition stimulated rather than checked the commercial ardor of the country, and it soon became the study of navigators and merchants to discover some safe means of eluding the law, it being hard, they said, that Government should close up the channels which Nature had left free. Isaac Lemaire, a rich trader of Amsterdam, was the first to whom the idea occurred of seeking another passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific than the Strait of Magellan. He imparted his views to William Cornelison Schouten, who had been three times to the East Indies in the different capacities of supercargo, pilot, and master. He too was convinced that to the south of Terra del Fuego lay another passage from one ocean to the other. Could they find this passage, they might legally trespass upon the monopoly held by the Company. They determined to attempt the discovery, and Lemaire advanced half the necessary funds, Schouten and his friends furnishing the other half. Two ships were fitted out, the larger,--the Concord,--of three hundred and sixty tons, being manned by sixty-five men, and pierced for twenty-nine guns of small calibre; the Horn, of one hundred and ten tons, carrying eight cannons, four swivels, and twenty-two men. Schouten was master and pilot of the expedition, and James Lemaire, the son of Isaac, supercargo. The object of the voyage was kept a profound secret, the officers and men being bound by their articles to go wherever they should be required, and, in compensation for this unusual condition, receiving a considerable advance upon the ordinary wages. The little fleet was equipped in the port of Horn, and left the Texel on the 14th of June, 1615, proceeding towards the coast of Africa. On the 30th of August, they cast anchor in the roads of Sierra Leone, where they drove a brisk trade in lemons, easily purchasing a thousand for a handful of worthless glass beads. Fresh water was obtained by holding casks under a bountiful cascade, and thus easily were the materials for lemonade procured in this favored spot. They then made directly for the southwest. While in the middle of the Atlantic, the crew of the Concord were startled by her receiving a violent blow upon her bottom, although no rock was visible. The color of the sea around them changed suddenly to red, as if a fountain of blood had been discharged into it. A large horn, of a substance resembling ivory, and solid, not hollow, was subsequently found in the ship's side, having passed through three of her planks and entered the wood to the depth of a foot, leaving at least a foot more upon the outside. The vessel had evidently been in collision with a narwhal or sea-unicorn, and the broken horn and the crimsoned water plainly showed which had suffered most from the shock. Late in October, the ships' companies were informed of the design of the voyage, and readily consented to engage in a scheme which promised both distinction and emolument. Early in December, they made the coast of Patagonia, some three hundred miles to the north of Magellan's Strait. Here the Horn, the smaller of the two vessels, caught fire by accident and was destroyed. Her iron-work, guns, and anchors were transferred to the Concord. On the 24th, the Concord passed the Strait of Magellan, and was soon in the latitude where Schouten and Lemaire hoped to make their grand discovery. While Terra del Fuego was still in sight upon their right hand, they noticed a high, rugged island upon their left, which they named Staten Land, or Land of the States. The ship passed between the two, and soon after rounded the promontory which advanced the farthest into the sea, to which, in honor of the port from which the expedition had sailed, Schouten gave the name of Cape Horn. He then launched into the South Sea, being the first who passed completely round the South American continent. Lemaire claimed the honor of giving his name to the strait which had brought them to the Cape,--one which clearly belonged to Schouten, as the leader and pilot of the expedition. The strait is still known by the name of the supercargo, geographers having consecrated, by silence, this manifest act of injustice. [Illustration: CAPE HORN.] Altering their course to the northward, they soon recognised the mouth of Magellan's Strait,--which rendered their discovery complete. They returned thanks to God for their success, and passed the wine cup three times round the company. Schouten then made for the island of Juan Fernandez, where he hoped to give rest and refreshment to his sickly and wearied crew. The currents and the winds would not permit him to land; and he was compelled to start across the Pacific in a crazy ship and with a disabled company. Like Magellan, who traversed this ocean without seeing any of the important islands which, just below the line, extend from America to Asia, forming, as it were, a girdle from shore to shore, Schouten discovered but a few insignificant rocks and reefs, passing between and at a distance from the great archipelagoes which dot the Pacific in this latitude. At one of these spots his men met an enemy more numerous and formidable than any tribe of savages. Innumerable myriads of flies followed them from the shore to the ship, so that they came on board absolutely black with the winged and buzzing infliction. The flies enveloped the vessel in a thick and melodious cloud, from which the sailors were glad to escape with the first favoring breeze. Schouten consulted geographical propriety by naming the scene of this adventure Fly Island. [Illustration: THE CONCORD AT FLY ISLAND.] Early in July, 1616, they arrived at the Moluccas, and went ashore upon the island of Gilolo, where they procured poultry, tortoises, rice, and sago. They next touched at Ternate, where they were kindly entertained by the Dutch authorities. They sold their two pinnaces, still upon the deck of the Concord, together with what had been saved from the Horn; they received in return thirteen hundred and fifty reals. With this they purchased a large quantity of rice, a ton of vinegar, as much Spanish wine, and three tons of biscuit. They then sailed for Java, and cast anchor in the harbor of Jacatra--now Batavia--sixteen months after quitting the Texel, having lost but three men upon the voyage. The expedition properly terminates here; for Jan Petersen Coen, President for the Dutch East India Company at Bantam, in Java, confiscated their ship and cargo as forfeited for illegally sailing within the boundaries of the Company's charter. He sent Schouten and Lemaire to Holland, however, that they might plead their cause before a competent court. Lemaire died on his way home, overcome with grief and vexation at the disastrous end of a voyage which had been so successful till the seizure of the ship. Schouten made several subsequent voyages to the East Indies, and died, in 1625, in the island of Madagascar. His name is little known, and his memory has almost passed away, although to him clearly belongs the credit of improving upon Magellan's discovery by furnishing a safer route to the commerce of the world and substituting the doubling of Cape Horn for the threading of the Strait. During this same year, the English made their last attempt for nearly two centuries in the Arctic waters of America. William Baffin, who had accompanied Hudson in one of his earlier voyages, embarked in the capacity of pilot on board the Discovery,--a vessel bound for the northwest and commanded by one Robert Bylot. The crew consisted of fourteen men and two boys. Passing through Davis' Strait, they came to the vast bay which now bears Baffin's name. They found it to be eight hundred miles long and three hundred wide. They ascended to the north as far as the seventy-eighth degree of latitude, where the bay seemed to taper off in a strait or sound, which they called Thomas Smith's Sound. Here Baffin observed the greatest variation of the needle known at that time,--fifty-six degrees to the west. The charts of Baffin are lost; but several of his journals are extant, and contain numerous astronomical and hydrographic observations, which have since been fully verified by the superior instruments of modern science. Baffin saw the opening to the west which Ross, two centuries later, was to call Lancaster Sound, and through which Parry was to penetrate to Melville Island and to the Polar Sea. He was convinced that a northwest passage existed, though he never made a second voyage in search of it. For one hundred and sixty years, now, the Arctic waters of the American continent were left undisturbed by adventurers from Europe. Their icy coasts remained unvisited till the middle of the eighteenth century, when the energies of English navigators were roused into activity by the reward offered by Parliament,--twenty thousand pounds to him who should sail to China by the northwest. [Illustration: ARCTIC GULL IN PURSUIT.] Section V. FROM THE DISCOVERY OF CAPE HORN TO THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION; 1616-1807. CHAPTER XXXV. A FAMOUS VESSEL--THE MAYFLOWER--HER APPEARANCE--THE SPEEDWELL--DEPARTURE OF THE TWO SHIPS--ALLEGED UNSEAWORTHINESS OF THE SPEEDWELL--THE MAYFLOWER SAILS ALONE--THE EQUINOCTIAL--CONSULTATIONS--A REMEDY APPLIED--FIRST VIEW OF THE LAND--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY AND FATE OF THE MAYFLOWER. We have now to narrate the incidents of a voyage without precedent, in one point of view, in maritime annals, and to chronicle the adventures of a ship which may be safely said to have achieved a fame beyond that of any other that ever ploughed the ocean. When we mention the name of the Mayflower, in which the Pilgrim Fathers proceeded from Southampton Water to Plymouth Rock, we are sure that the distinction which we claim for this feeble vessel will be contested by none,--not even by those who would gladly accord the supremacy of the seas to the Nina of Columbus or the Vittoria of Magellan. The details of the voyage are few and unsatisfactory; but the vivid imagination of historians and orators has amply supplied their place. [Illustration: SPEEDWELL AND MAYFLOWER.] The Mayflower was built in England, at a time when English commerce could bear no comparison with that of Holland, and when the trade with the latter power employed six hundred Dutch ships to one hundred of English build. They were picturesque in appearance, though tub-like and clumsy, the hull being broad-bottomed and capacious, while the lofty cabins, towering high both fore and aft,--a style now obsolete in Europe, but still prevailing in the Red Sea and the Levant,--caused them to roll heavily in rough water. The Mayflower was a high-sterned, quaint, but staunch little vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, and was built for one of the trading companies lately chartered by the Government. The Dutch portion of the emigration had already embarked at Delfthaven in the Speedwell, of sixty tons, and both vessels were, on the 1st of August, 1620, anchored before the old towers of Southampton. The pilgrims were then regularly organized for the voyage, being distributed according to rules laid down and accepted by all. The larger number were of course received on board the Mayflower. On the 5th of August, both vessels weighed anchor, and sailed down the beautiful estuary of Southampton Water: passing the Isle of Wight and the rocks known as the Needles, they entered the English Channel. They were no sooner launched upon the fretful waters of this confined strait than their disasters began. The captain of the Speedwell, who had engaged to remain a year abroad with the vessel, actuated either by cowardice or by dissatisfaction with the enterprise, declared that his ship was leaky, and that she could not proceed to sea. Dartmouth Harbor offered an opportunity for effecting the necessary repairs, and here a week was spent: the Speedwell was then pronounced quite sound by the carpenters and surveyors. They again set sail; but the captain of the Speedwell soon profited by the vicinity of Plymouth to assert a second time that he was ready to founder. He ran into port, and the Mayflower followed. No special cause was discovered for the apprehensions of the captain; but it was decided that the Speedwell should be sent back to London as unseaworthy, with such of her passengers as were disheartened, the remainder being transferred to the larger ship. One hundred and one persons--some of them aged and infirm, and several of them women soon to become mothers--were thus imprisoned, as it were, in a vessel much too small to accommodate them; while the delays resulting from the treachery or stratagem practised by the captain of the Speedwell had already proved so serious, that it was the 6th of September before the Mayflower, with her crowd of suffering passengers, could continue the voyage thus inauspiciously commenced. The wind was east by north, blowing, according to the journal, "a fine small gale," when the Mayflower started from Plymouth upon her lonely way. The solitude of the ocean--in this latitude almost a trackless waste--lay stretched out before them. The prosperous gale soon gave way to the equinoctial storm, and a terrible head-wind from the northwest compelled the little bark to struggle anxiously with waves which threatened to engulf her. She was soon sorely shattered: her upper works were strained, and one of the main beams amidships was bent and cracked. A consultation was held between the seamen and passengers, and the question was seriously debated whether it would not be better to put back. It was fortunately discovered, however, that one of the Dutch pilgrims had accidentally brought on board a large iron screw, and this served to rivet the defective beam. The ship proceeded on her course, struggling with westerly gales and tempestuous seas. For whole days together she was compelled to lie to, or to scud with bare poles. "Methinks," says Everett, "I see the adventurous vessel, the Mayflower of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a future State and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, tedious voyage. Suns rise and set, weeks and months pass; and winter surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the wished-for shore. I see them now, scantily supplied with provisions, crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison, delayed by calms, pursuing a circuitous route, and now driven in fury before the raging tempest on the high and giddy waves. The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging; the laboring masts seem straining from their base; the dismal sound of the pumps is heard; the ship leaps, as it were, madly from billow to billow; the ocean breaks and settles with engulfing floods over the floating deck, and beats, with deadening, shivering weight, against the staggered vessel." Only one death occurred during this terrible voyage,--a loss in numbers which was made good by the birth of a boy, to whom was given the name of Oceanus Hopkins. Sixty-four days had passed, and the 9th of November had dawned. Upon this date the tempest-tossed pilgrims obtained their first view of the American coast. "To the storm-ridden voyager," writes one of their descendants, "exhausted by confinement and suffering, the sight of any shore, however wild, the aromatic fragrance that blows from the land, are inexpressibly sweet and refreshing: Lovely seems any object that shall sweep Away the vast--salt--dread--eternal deep! And thus we find that the low sand-hills of Cape Cod, covered with scrubby woods that descended to the margin of the sea, seemed, at the first glance, a perfect paradise of verdure to the eyes of these poor sea-beaten wanderers." The orator and statesman from whom we have already quoted thus eloquently alludes to the providential circumstances attending the arrival of the Mayflower upon the American shore:--"Let us go up in imagination to yonder hill and look out upon the November scene. That single dark speck, just discernible through the perspective glass on the waste of waters, is the fated vessel. The storm moans through her tattered canvas, as she creeps, almost sinking, to her anchorage in Provincetown Harbor; and there she lies, with all her treasures, not of silver and gold,--for of them she has none,--but of courage, of patience, of zeal, of high spiritual daring. So often as I dwell in imagination on this scene,--when I consider the condition of the Mayflower, utterly incapable as she was of living through another gale,--when I survey the terrible front presented by our coast to the navigator who, unacquainted with its channels and roadsteads, should approach it in the stormy season,--I dare not call it a mere piece of good fortune that the general north and south wall of the shore of New England should be broken by this extraordinary projection of the Cape, running out into the ocean a hundred miles, as if on purpose to receive and encircle the precious vessel. As I now see her, freighted with the destinies of a continent, barely escaped from the perils of the deep, approaching the shore precisely where the broad sweep of this most remarkable headland presents almost the only point at which, for hundreds of miles, she could with any ease have made a harbor, and this perhaps the very best on the sea-board, I feel my spirit raised above the sphere of mere natural agencies. I see the mountains of New England rising from their rocky thrones: they rush forward into the ocean, settling down as they advance; and there they range themselves, a mighty bulwark, around the Heaven-directed vessel. Yes! the everlasting God himself stretches out the arm of his mercy and his power in substantial manifestations, and gathers the meek company of his worshippers as in the hollow of his hand." "I see the pilgrims," he continues, "escaped from their perils, landed at last, after a two months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth, weak and weary from the voyage,--without shelter, without means, surrounded by hostile tribes. Shut now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers. Tell me, man of military science, in how many months were they all swept off by the thirty savage tribes enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how long did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures, of other times, and find the parallel of this. Was it the winter's storm, or disease, or labor and spare meals, or the tomahawk--that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope? Is it possible that from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, an expansion so ample, a reality so important, a promise, yet to be fulfilled, so glorious?" The Mayflower remained in Plymouth Harbor, and was the home of the women and children during the severe winter of 1620-21. She rode out the storm at her anchorage,--though she was placed in great danger by a gale upon the 4th of February, her want of ballast--unladen as she was--rendering her light as a cockle-shell. With the opening of spring, the captain determined to return to England, and offered to carry back any of the colonists who might be disheartened by the calamities which had overtaken them,--for they had buried half their number. But their sufferings had endeared the soil to them, and not one embraced the opportunity of returning. The Mayflower left Plymouth on the 5th of April, 1621, and made the run home to London in thirty days. She seems to have performed several voyages back and forth, and, in 1630, arrived in the harbor of Charlestown, with a portion of Winthrop's company of emigrants. Her subsequent history is very uncertain; and all attempts to ascertain it have been baffled by the circumstance that several ships bore the name of Mayflower, and no reliable means exist of distinguishing her of Pilgrim celebrity from others of obscurer fame. [Illustration: THE COD.] [Illustration: TASMAN'S VESSEL,--THE ZEEHAAN.] CHAPTER XXXVI. DISCOVERY OF NEW HOLLAND--TASMAN ORDERED TO SURVEY THE ISLAND--DISCOVERY OF VAN DIEMEN'S LAND--OF NEW ZEALAND--MURDERERS' BAY--THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS--THE FEEJEES--NEW BRITAIN--AN EARTHQUAKE AT SEA--A COPIOUS LANGUAGE--CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF NEW HOLLAND--RETURN TO BATAVIA--RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE--DUTCH OPINIONS OF TASMAN'S MERIT. The Council of the Dutch East India Company thought proper, in 1642, to order a complete and precise survey of the lands accidentally discovered during the previous fifty years by vessels trading between Holland and Batavia, in Java. These had touched, at intervals, at numerous points upon the continental island of New Holland,--Hertog at Endracht's Land in 1616, and De Witt, Van Nuyts, and Carpenter at other points, somewhat later. It was eminently desirable that a scientific navigator should visit and render an account of this region, of which only casual glimpses had thus far been obtained. Captain Abel Jansen Tasman was intrusted with this duty by Van Diemen, Governor-General of the Company. He left Batavia in August with two vessels, the Zeehaan and the Heemskirk, and proceeded towards the south and southeast. During this portion of the voyage the needle was in such continual agitation, unwilling to remain in any of the eight points and boxing the whole compass in twenty-four hours, that Tasman was led to believe large mines of loadstone to exist in the vicinity. On the 24th of November he discovered land, and gave to it the name of Van Diemen's Land,--a name which it has retained, though in honor of its discoverer it is often, of late years, called Tasmania. He saw no inhabitants, though he fancied he heard human voices. He noticed two trees, fifteen feet in girth and sixty feet in height from the ground to the branches. Up the trunks of these trees steps, five feet apart, had been cut in the bark. By these the natives, apparently of prodigious size, had climbed into the foliage and robbed the birds' nests of their eggs. Though a sound resembling that of a trumpet had been heard, though tracks of wild beasts were fresh in the sand, and though smoke ascended from the interior in several places, no living creature was seen. Tasman set up a post, upon which every man of the company cut his name, and upon the top of which a flag was hoisted, and then set out in quest of the Solomon Islands, which he supposed to lie to the east. On the 13th of September he discovered a high, mountainous country, to which he gave the name of Staten Land,--Land of the States, [of Holland.] Its present name is New Zealand. He coasted along the shore to the northeast, and anchored in a fine bay, though he did not disembark. The savages, who were shy at first, at last ventured on board the Heemskirk, in order to trade. Tasman, suspicious of their intentions, sent a boat with seven men from the Zeehaan, to put the crew of his consort upon their guard. These seven men, being without arms, were attacked: three of them were killed, and the other four forced to swim for their lives. The two vessels opened their fire upon the canoes of the islanders, and Tasman branded the spot with a name which still exists upon the charts,--Murderers' Bay. [Illustration: MURDERERS' BAY.] On the 21st of January, 1643, he saw three islands, in latitude 21° south: he named them Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Middlebourg. The inhabitants were peaceable and friendly, were unacquainted with the use of weapons, and very skilful in stealing. The natives called Amsterdam Tonga-Tabou; Rotterdam, Ana-Mocka; and Middlebourg, Eoa. These are now the principal members of the group known as the Friendly Islands. They remained unvisited by Europeans from the time of Tasman, in 1643, to the second voyage of Cook, in 1773,--a space of one hundred and thirty years. Cook found traditions still existing respecting Tasman's ships; and a nail was shown him which had been left by the Dutch navigator. Proceeding to the north and then to the west, Tasman discovered a group of twenty islands, girt with shoals and sands. He named them Prince William's Islands and Heemskirk's Shallows. These now form the eastern portion of the Feejee archipelago. They remained unvisited for a century and a half, until the people of the Friendly Islands spoke of them to Cook and his successors and induced them to visit them. Tasman now feared that the currents and winds had driven him more to the westward than he had supposed; for he had not seen the sun for many weeks, and was consequently without reliable observations. He resolved to make for the north, and then for the western coast of New Guinea, in order not to be driven to the south of the island and pass it without seeing it. [Illustration: NATIVES OF MURDERERS' BAY.] On the 1st of April, he saw the coast of what he supposed was New Guinea, but which was in reality New Britain. Here an earthquake terrified the seamen, for the shock caused them to fear they had struck upon a rock; but the lead did not reach the bottom. On the 20th, they passed a burning island, noticed by late navigators, and perceived flames issuing from lofty mountains. The water was full of shrubs, bamboos, and small trees, carried by the rivers to the sea. The discharge of fresh water by these rivers was such that it almost corrected the salt of the ocean. The natives showed Tasman some ginger, and sold him hogs and cocoanuts. At the island of Moa he found the inhabitants speaking a language so copious, that they could at once repeat, intelligibly, the words of any other language. Tasman did not find it so easy to speak theirs, however, as the letter _r_ occurred once or more in every syllable. He purchased, for knives made of the iron hoops of water-casks, six thousand cocoanuts and a hundred bunches of bananas, or Indian figs. On the 18th of May, Tasman reached the western extremity of New Guinea, having sailed entirely round the continent or island of Australia. He arrived at Batavia, whence he had started, after an absence of ten months. His expedition was the clearest and most precise of the several voyages which had been made for the discovery of the Terra Australis Incognita: few voyages, since that of Magellan, had contributed more to geographical science; for, by reducing the limits of the Terra Australis, as he did by circumnavigating the supposed continent, he did much to rid geography of its most important error. Tasman made a second voyage in 1644; but his journals and his track have been completely lost,--probably by design, as the Dutch did not make geographical researches in the interest of the world, but exclusively in that of the East India Company. By his second voyage he is believed to have determined the extent of the great Gulf of Carpentaria, which so profoundly indents the northern coast of New Holland. The portion of his discoveries relative to New Zealand and the Friendly Islands has been completed by Cook; that relative to Van Diemen's Land by d'Entrecasteaux, in his voyage in search of Lapérouse. The fragments which remain of Tasman's journals attest his reasoning powers, his nautical experience, and his unerring judgment. The Dutch never published his own account of his adventures, and the few extracts which have become public crept by accident and stealth into later works and journals of discovery. A Dutch writer thus alludes to the indifference manifested by his countrymen in regard to Tasman:--"We do not know when he was born, when he went to India, or when he returned. In our grand biographical dictionaries, where you will find every puerile detail respecting such and such musty savant, only known as a professor at some university or as a quarrelsome skirmisher of the Republic of Letters, there is no room, it seems, for the first navigator of his age." The English have proposed of late to substitute a name of their own for that of Van Diemen's Land; but the appellation of Tasmania is beginning, as we have said, for evident reasons of propriety to find a place upon modern charts and maps. [Illustration: A BUCCANEER.] CHAPTER XXXVII. PIRACY--ORIGIN OF THE BUCCANEERS--THEIR MANNER OF LIFE--DRESS--OCCUPATION--THE ISLAND OF TORTUGA THEIR HEAD-QUARTERS--THEIR RELIGIOUS SCRUPLES--MANNER OF DIVIDING SPOILS--THE EXTERMINATOR--THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH--EXPLOITS OF HENRY MORGAN--IMPOTENCE OF THE SPANIARDS--CAREER OF WILLIAM DAMPIER--HIS FIRST PIRATICAL CRUISE--ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA--DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANTAIN-TREE--LINGERING DEATHS BY POISON--REPROACHES OF CONSCIENCE--THE NEW-HOLLANDERS--DAMPIER'S DANGEROUS VOYAGE IN AN OPEN BOAT--PIRACY UPON THE AMERICAN COAST--WILLIAM KIDD SENT AGAINST THE PIRATES--HE TURNS PIRATE HIMSELF--HIS EXPLOITS, DETECTION, AND EXECUTION--HIS BURIED TREASURES--WRECK OF THE WHIDAH PIRATE-SHIP. It is necessary to pause at this period in our review of the grand maritime expeditions which successively left the various seaports of the world, in order to refer to a practice which was now rendering commerce hazardous and the whole highway of the seas insecure,--piracy. Besides the numerous isolated adventurers who preyed upon the vessels of any and every nation which fell in their way, a powerful association or league of robbers, who infested particularly the West India Islands and the Caribbean Sea, and who bore the name of Buccaneers, became, during the century of which we are now speaking, the peculiar dread of Spanish ships. We shall describe this fraternity in some detail. The term buccaneer is a corruption of the French word boucanier, which in its turn was made from the Caribbean noun _boucan_, being the flesh of cattle dried and preserved in a peculiar manner. The French also called them flibustiers, this word being a corruption of the English word freebooters; and this French word has been still further tortured into "Filibusters,"--a term now applied to such Americans as desire violently to extend the area of freedom. The buccaneers were principally natives of Great Britain and France, and first attract notice in the island of St. Domingo. The Spaniards would not allow any other nation than their own to trade in the West Indies, and pursued and murdered the English and French wherever they found them. Every foreigner discovered among the islands or on the coast of the American continent was treated as a smuggler and a robber; and it was not long before they became so, and organized themselves into an association capable of returning cruelty by cruelty. The Spaniards employed coast-guards to keep off interlopers, the commanders of which were instructed to massacre all their prisoners. This tended to produce a close alliance, offensive and defensive, among the mariners of all other nations, who in their turn made descents upon the coasts and ravaged the weaker Spanish towns and settlements. A permanent state of hostilities was thus established in the West Indies, independent of peace or war at home. After the failure of the mines of St. Domingo and its abandonment by the Spaniards, it was taken possession of, early in the sixteenth century, by a number of French wanderers who had been driven out of St. Christopher; and their numbers were soon augmented by adventurers from all quarters. As they had neither wives nor children, they generally lived together by twos for mutual protection and assistance: when one died, the survivor inherited his property, unless a will was found bequeathing it to some relative in Europe. Bolts, locks, and all kinds of fastenings were prohibited among them, the maxim of "honor among thieves" being considered a more efficient safeguard. The dress of a buccaneer consisted of a shirt dipped in the blood of an animal just slain, a leathern girdle in which hung pistols and a short sabre, a hat with feathers,--but without a rim, except a fragment in guise of a visor to pull it on and off,--and shoes of untanned hide, without stockings. Each man had a heavy musket and usually a pack of twenty or thirty dogs. Their business was, at the outset, cattle-hunting; and they sold hides to the Dutch who resorted to the island to purchase them. They possessed servants and slaves, consisting of persons decoyed to the West Indies and induced to bind themselves for a certain number of years. They treated them with great severity. The following epigrammatic conversation is reported as having taken place between an apprentice and a buccaneer. "Master," said the servant, "God has forbidden the practice of working on the Sabbath: does he not say, 'Six days shalt thou labor; and on the seventh shalt thou rest'?" "But I say unto thee," returned the buccaneer, "six days shalt thou kill cattle; and on the seventh shalt thou carry their hides to the shore." The Spaniards inhabiting other portions of St. Domingo conceived the idea of ridding the island of the buccaneers by destroying all the wild cattle; and this was carried into execution by a general chase. The buccaneers abandoned St. Domingo and took refuge in the mountainous and well-wooded island of Tortuga, of which they made themselves absolute lords and masters. The advantages of the situation brought swarms of adventurers and desperadoes to the spot; and from cattle-hunters the buccaneers became pirates. They made their cruises in open boats, exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather, and captured their prizes by boarding. They attacked indiscriminately the ships of every nation, feeling especial hostility and exercising peculiar cruelty towards the Spaniards. They considered themselves to be justified in this by the oppression of the Mexicans and Indians by Spanish rulers, and, quieting their consciences by thus assuming the character of avengers and dispensers of poetic justice, they never embarked upon an expedition without publicly offering up prayers for success, nor did they ever return laden with spoils without as publicly giving thanks for their good fortune. They seldom attacked any European ships except those homeward bound,--which were usually well freighted with gold and silver. They pursued the Spanish galleons as far as the Bahamas; and if, on the way, a ship became accidentally separated from the convoy, they instantly attacked her. The Spaniards held them in such terror that they usually surrendered on coming to close quarters. The spoil was equitably divided, provision being first made for the wounded. The loss of an arm was rated at six hundred dollars, and other wounds in proportion. The commander could claim but one share,--although, when he had acquitted himself with distinction, it was usual to compliment him by the addition of several shares. When the division was effected, the buccaneers abandoned themselves to all kinds of rioting and licentiousness till their wealth was expended, when they started in pursuit of new booty. The buccaneers now rapidly increased in strength, daring, and numbers. They sailed in larger vessels, and undertook enterprises requiring great energy and audacity. Miguel de Baseo captured, under the guns of Portobello, a Spanish galleon valued at a million of dollars. In Europe, immense editions of books were published, giving accounts of the barbarities committed by the Spaniards and of the holy reprisals waged against them by the buccaneers. A Frenchman by the name of Montbars, on reading these narratives, conceived so deadly a hatred for the Spaniards, and, after becoming a buccaneer, killed so many of them, that he obtained the title of "The Exterminator." His audacity was only equalled by his love of shedding Spanish blood, by which he believed himself to be avenging the unhappy victims of Spanish colonization. Other men joined the "Brethren of the Coast"--as they were sometimes called--from less ferocious motives. Raveneau de Lussan joined the association because he was in debt, and in consequence of a conviction entertained by him that "every honest man ought in conscience to pay his creditors." Many of the buccaneers were men of a religious temperament; or, at least, they thought that proper respect should be paid to appearances, and that due deference should be had towards the prejudices of society. It was doubtless from such sentiments as these that Captain Daniel shot one of his crew in church for behaving irreverently during mass, that Captain Sawkins threw a pair of dice overboard on finding them contributing to a game of chance on Sunday, and that Captain Watling ordered his men to regard, as the very first rule of their association, that which instructed them to keep holy the Sabbath day. But the fame of all the buccaneer commanders was eclipsed by that of Henry Morgan, a Welshman. The boldest and most astonishing of his exploits was his forcing his way across the Isthmus of Darien from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. His object was to plunder the rich city of Panama: his expedition, however, opened the way to the great Southern Sea, where the buccaneers laid the foundation of much of our geographical knowledge of that ocean. He first took the castle of San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the river Chagres, where out of three hundred and fourteen Spaniards he put two hundred to death. He left five hundred men in the castle, one hundred and fifty on board of his thirty-seven ships, and with the rest--who, after deducting the killed and wounded, amounted to about twelve hundred men--began his progress through a wild and trackless country which was then known only to the native Indians. On the tenth day, after a desperate combat with the Spaniards, he took and plundered Panama, which then consisted of about seven thousand houses. His cruelties here were abominable. He imprisoned one of his female captives, with whom he had fallen in love but who repelled his advances, causing her to be cast into a dungeon and to be insufficiently supplied with food. But his men murmured at the delay, and he was compelled to depart. He returned to the mouth of the Chagres with an enormous booty, and, after defrauding the fleet of their share of the spoils, sailed for Jamaica, which was already an English colony. He was made Deputy Governor of the island by Charles II., by whom he was also knighted. He proved an efficient officer, and gave no quarter to the buccaneers! Morgan's expedition had pointed out a short way to the South Sea; and in 1680, some three hundred English buccaneers started from the Atlantic side to cross the isthmus. They formed an alliance with the Darien Indians, who furnished them a quantity of canoes upon the Pacific side. They launched out in these into the Bay of Panama, attacked three large armed ships, took two of them, and began cruising in them. They captured vessels and plundered towns along the coast. Some of them remained a long time in the South Sea, and made many discoveries of undoubted benefit to mankind. The Spaniards never dared to defend themselves unless they greatly outnumbered their assailants, and even then they were usually routed with ease. They had become so enervated by luxury that they had lost all military spirit and had well-nigh forgotten the use of arms. They had acquired from the monks the idea that the buccaneers were devils, cannibals, and beings of monstrous form. They revenged themselves upon the enemy whom they dared not meet by mangling and subjecting to mimic tortures such dead bodies of the invaders as were left behind,--an exhibition of impotent rage which only excited the buccaneers to fresh cruelties. One of the English buccaneers--William Dampier--became subsequently an eminent discoverer, author, and philosopher. After receiving a collegiate education, he went to sea in northern latitudes, which for a time disgusted him with a maritime life. A voyage to the East Indies, the superintendence of a plantation in Jamaica, and three years spent among the logwood-cutters of Campeachy, gave him a strong bias for the tropical waters. In Campeachy he became acquainted with some of the buccaneers, whose descriptions of their adventures kindled in him a fondness for a roving and piratical life. He joined an expedition under Captain John Cooke: an English pilot named Cowley was engaged as master, and embarked in complete ignorance of the nature of the voyage. They sailed in August, 1683, in the Revenge, mounting eight guns and manned by fifty-two men. Cowley was told the first day that the vessel's mission was trade and her destination St. Domingo; on the second, he was informed that piracy was her object and Guinea her market. Stopping at the Cape Verd Islands, they resolved to go to Santiago, in the hope of finding some ship in the road, and intending to cut her cable and run away with her. They saw a ship at anchor, and approached her with hostile intent. They were not far off when her company struck her ports and ran out her lower tier of guns. Cooke bore away as fast as he could, convinced that he was unable to cope with a Dutch East Indiaman of fifty guns and four hundred men. Some time after, when off Sierra Leone, they fell in with a newly built ship of forty guns, well furnished with water, provisions, and brandy, which they boarded and captured. They named her the Revenge, and continued their voyage in her, destroying their original vessel. From here they crossed the Atlantic, to the Patagonian coast. They doubled Cape Horn during a tremendous storm of rain, which furnished them with twenty-three barrels of fresh water. The weather was at this time so cold that the men could drink three quarts of burnt brandy in twenty-four hours without being intoxicated. They joined company in the Pacific with the Nicholas, of twenty-six guns, Captain John Eaton, and started together upon an attempt against the Peruvian coast. They captured three flour-ships, and learned from the prisoners that their presence was known to the Peruvian authorities. Their design upon the coast was therefore abandoned. They carried their prizes to the Gallapagos or Tortoise Islands, where they might store their captured provisions in a secure place. They arrived and anchored there on the 31st of May, 1684. Proceeding to the northward, they descried the coast of Mexico early in July, where Cooke, who had been ill for some months, died and was buried. Edward Davis, quartermaster, was elected captain in his stead. The two ships separated on the 2d of September, the Nicholas withdrawing from the partnership. Davis and Dampier remained in the Revenge, and were soon joined by the Cygnet, a richly-loaded vessel designed for trading on this coast. Her captain lightened her by throwing his unsalable cargo overboard. They attacked Paita in the month of November, but found it evacuated. They held the town for six days, hoping the inhabitants would ransom it; but, as this hope was disappointed, they set the town on fire. On the 1st of January, 1685, they captured a package of letters sent by the President of Panama to hasten the captains of the silver-fleet from Lima, as the coast was believed to be clear. Being particularly desirous that the silver-fleet should share this belief, they suffered the letter-bearers to continue their voyage and resolved to lie in wait for the ships. In the mean time they captured several prizes, and manned them with buccaneers that they met, from time to time, engaged in small enterprises on separate accounts. By the end of May, their fleet consisted of ten sail, two of them being ships of war, carrying fifty-two guns and nine hundred and sixty men. The Spanish fleet--consisting of fourteen sail, eight of them men-of-war, and two of them fire-ships, the whole manned by three thousand men--now hove in sight. The admiral of the fleet deceived the buccaneers at night, by hoisting a light upon the topmast of an abandoned bark, by which they were decoyed into a position which gave the Spaniards the next day all the advantage of the wind. Thus was the grand scheme adroitly frustrated. Having thus failed at sea, they agreed to try their fortune on land, and chose the city of Leon, on the coast of Nicaragua. Four hundred and seventy men were landed for this purpose. They were met and opposed by five hundred foot and two hundred horse, both of which arms of the service retreated in confusion at the first collision. As they refused to ransom the city for thirty thousand dollars, it was set on fire. A Spanish gentleman, who had been captured by the buccaneers, was released upon his promise to deliver one hundred and fifty oxen at Realejo, the next place which they intended to attack. Realejo was taken, but yielded them little of value except five hundred bags of flour, with some pitch, tar, and cordage, and the one hundred and fifty promised oxen. Captains Davis and Swan now agreed to separate,--the former wishing to return to Peru, and the latter desiring to visit the northern coasts of Mexico. Dampier remained with Swan in the Cygnet. Towards the middle of September they came in sight of the city and volcano of Guatemala. Dampier landed at the port of Guatulco with one hundred and forty men, and marched fourteen miles to attack an Indian village, where they found nothing but vanilla beans drying in the sun. They endeavored to cut out a Lima bullion-ship lying off Acapulco, but failed. Not far from here they robbed a caravan of sixty mules, laden with flour, chocolate, cheese, and earthen-ware. They found and appropriated an abundance of maize, sugar, salt, and salt fish. Dampier, being afflicted with the dropsy, was cured--or, at least, much benefited--by being buried up to his neck for half an hour in the sand in California. A profuse perspiration, which was thus brought on, was the commencement of his convalescence. Swan and Dampier were now convinced that the commerce of this region was not carried on by sea, but by land, by means of mules and caravans. They therefore resolved to try their fortune in the East Indies. They sailed from California on the 31st of March, 1686. They made the island of Guam, after a voyage of six thousand miles, in seven weeks, having but three days' provisions left, and the men having begun to talk of eating Captain Swan when these were exhausted. They found the island defended by a small fort mounting six guns, and containing a garrison of thirty men with a Spanish governor,--this being solely for the convenience of the Manilla galleons on their annual voyages from Acapulco to Manilla. The governor, being deceived as to the character of the ship, sent the captain some hogs, cocoanuts, and rice, and fifty pounds of Manilla tobacco. [Illustration: BOATS USED IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.] They learned here, from the friar belonging to the garrison, that Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, was very fertile and productive, and that the natives, who were Mohammedans, were at war with the Spaniards. They therefore resolved to go there, and left Guam on the 2nd of June. After seeing Luzon, (Matan,) where Magellan was killed, they anchored off Mindanao, the largest of the Philippines with the exception of Luzon. Though mountainous, Dampier found its soil "deep, black, and extraordinary fat and fruitful." The valleys were moistened with pleasant brooks "and small rivers of delicate water, and in the heart of the country were mountains that yielded good gold." Dampier's description of the plantain-tree is often quoted as a fine specimen of descriptive writing. "It is," he says, "the king of all fruit, not excepting the cocoanut. The tree is three feet round and twelve feet high: it is not raised from seed, but from the roots of old trees. As soon as the fruit is ripe the tree decays; but suckers at once spring up and bear in a twelvemonth. It comes up with two leaves, within which, by the time it is a foot high, two more spring up, and in a short time two more, and so on. When full grown, the leaves are seven or eight feet long and a foot and a half broad. The stem of the leaf is as big as a man's arm. The fruit-stem shoots out at the top of the full-grown tree,--first blossoming, and then bearing. The Spaniards give it the pre-eminence over all other fruit, as most conducive to life. It grows in a cod about seven inches long and three inches thick. The shell or rind is soft, and, when ripe, yellow. The fruit within is of the consistency of butter in winter. It has a very delicate flavor, and melts in the mouth like marmalade. It is pure pulp, without kernel, seed, or stone. A large plantation of these trees will yield fruit throughout the year, and will furnish the exclusive food of a family. The markets of Havana, Carthagena, Portobello, &c. are full of the fruit; and they are sold at the price of threepence a dozen. When used as bread, it is roasted or boiled before it is quite ripe; and sometimes a roasted plantain is, as it were, buttered with a ripe raw plantain. An English bag-pudding may be made with half a dozen ripe fruit; and, again, plantains sliced and dried in the sun taste like figs, and may be preserved in any climate. Green plantains dried and grated furnish an excellent flour for bread or puddings. The Mosquito Indians squeeze a plantain into a calabash of water and drink it: they call it mishlaw, and it resembles lambs'-wool made of apples and ale. It drinks brisk and cool, and is very pleasant." Such was the plantain two centuries ago. The Sultan of Mindanao received the strangers with favor, and would gladly have induced them to settle upon the island and form the nucleus of an English trading station. Dampier would have remained, but the majority were against him. After a time, a mutiny broke out,--the principal cause being the want of active employment; and, as Captain Swan manifested no energy or address in quelling it, he and thirty-six men were left at Mindanao, the rest escaping with the ship. Dampier here remarks that they had buried sixteen men upon the island, who had died by poison,--the natives revenging the slightest dalliance with their women with a deadly, though lingering, dose or potion. Some of the mutineers that ran off with the vessel died of poison administered at Mindanao four months afterwards. [Illustration: SURF BATHING BY NATIVES.] Read, the new captain, and Dampier, cruised for some time among the Philippine Islands. At one of these they saw an extraordinary display of surf-bathing on the part of the natives. The art seemed to be practised as well by the women as the men, and children in arms were taught to gambol in the water as if it were their native element, and as if they were born web-footed. On the 4th of January, 1688, they touched at New Holland,--then known to be a vast tract of land, and by all except the Dutch supposed to be a continent. Here they found a miserable race of people, compared to whom Dampier declares the Hodmapods, though a nasty race, to be gentlemen and Christians. They lived wretchedly on cockles, muscles, and shell-fish. They were tall, straight-bodied, and thin, with small, long limbs. They had bottle noses, big lips, and wide mouths. They held their eyelids half closed, to keep the flies out. Their hair was not long and lank, like that of Indians, but black, short, and curled, like that of negroes. A bit of the rind of a tree and a handful of grass formed their only clothing. The crew landed several times, and brought the natives to some degree of familiarity by giving them a few old clothes; but they could not prevail upon them to assist them in carrying water or any other burden. When the savages found that the ragged jackets and breeches which had been given them were intended to induce them to work, they took them off and laid them down upon the shore. Dampier was now tired of wandering about the world with this mad crew, none of whom--not even the captain--had any settled purpose or object in view. Read was afraid that Dampier would desert, and when off Sumatra executed a scheme which he hoped would render it impossible. He gave chase to a small sail which was discovered making for Acheen in Sumatra. Taking on board the four Malays who manned her and the cocoanuts with which she was laden, he cut a hole in her bottom and turned her loose. This he did in order to render Dampier and any others who might be disaffected afraid to trust themselves among a people who had been thus robbed and abused. At one of the Nicobar Islands, however, Dampier escaped, and two Englishmen and one Portuguese followed him. The four sailors of Acheen were also put ashore. The whole eight joined company, purchased a canoe, for which they gave an axe in exchange, and set off to row to Acheen. They had not proceeded half a mile before the canoe overset. They swam ashore, dragging the canoe and their chests, and spent three days in making repairs. The Acheenese fitted the canoe with that universal Polynesian apparatus,--an outrigger, or balancer, on each side,--by which capsizing is rendered impossible. They felled a mast in the woods and made a substantial sail with mats. They put off again, following the shore for several days. At length they ventured forth upon the open sea, with one hundred and fifty miles of dangerous navigation before them. They rowed with four oars, taking their turns,--Dampier and Hall, one of the Englishmen, relieving each other at the tiller, none of the rest being able to steer. The current against them was very strong, so that, when looking in front for Sumatra, Nicobar, to their dismay, was still visible behind them. A dense halo round the sun, portending a storm, now caused great anxiety to Dampier. The wind freshened till it blew a gale, and they reefed the sail one-half of its surface. The light bamboo poles supporting the outriggers bent as if they would break; and, if they had broken, the destruction of the boat would have been inevitable. Putting away directly before the wind, they ran off their course for six hours, the outriggers being very much relieved by this change of direction. [Illustration: POLYNESIAN CANOE, WITH ITS OUTRIGGER.] [Illustration: DAMPIER'S BOAT IN THE STORM.] Dampier's description of this storm is graphic and quaint. "The sky looked very black," he writes, "being covered with dark clouds. The winds blew hard and the seas ran high. The sea was already roaring in a white foam about us,--a dark night coming on, and no land in sight to shelter us, and our little ark in danger to be swallowed by every wave; and, what was worst of all, none of us thought ourselves prepared for another world. I had been in many eminent dangers before now; but the greatest of them all was but a play-game compared to this. I must confess that I was in great conflicts of mind at this time. Other dangers came not upon me with such a leisurely and dreadful solemnity: a sudden skirmish or engagement or so was nothing when one's blood was up and pushed forward with eager expectations. But here I had a lingering view of approaching death, and little or no hopes of escaping it; and I must confess that my courage, which I had hitherto kept up, failed me here. I had long ago repented me of my roving course of life, but never with such concern as now. I composed my mind as well as I could in the hope of God's assistance; and, as the event showed, I was not disappointed of my hopes." The preceding representation of the storm is copied from an engraving one hundred and fifty years old, which appeared in the narrative published by Dampier himself. Were it not for this fact, we should not have reproduced it,--as it is very inaccurate, and does not give the outriggers, by which alone the canoe was maintained afloat. About eight o'clock in the morning one of the Malays cried out, _Pulo Way_, which Dampier and Hall took to be good English, meaning "Pull away." He pointed to the horizon, where land was just appearing in sight. This was the island of Pulo Way, at the northwest end of Sumatra. It lay to the south; and, in order to make it with a strong west wind, "they trimmed their sail no bigger than an apron," and, relying upon their outriggers, made boldly for the shore, which they reached the next morning, the 21st of May. The supposed island turned out to be the Golden Mountain of Sumatra. They landed, and, after being hospitably received by the natives, arrived at Acheen early in June. At this point the history of Dampier's adventures as a circumnavigator comes properly to an end. He published a narrative of his career, which he dedicated to Charles Montague, President of the Royal Society, and which brought him into favorable notice. His descriptions have been long admired for their graphic force; while his treatises on winds, tides, and currents show a remarkable degree of observation and science for that age of the world. His account of the Philippine Islands and of New Holland is still printed complete in the numerous collections of voyages that are constantly thrown off by the English and Continental presses. Such was the remarkable career of a man who, though without the ferocity and barbarous habits of the buccaneers, was in every sense of the word a pirate and a freebooter. We shall shortly have occasion to mention him again. We must now refer to another species of piracy,--privateering. This did not enjoy the same repute as in the days of Drake and Hawkins; but several circumstances conspired to render it a calling permissible, if not legitimate. England and France were at war; and private armed vessels, bearing commissions from James II. and William III. against the French, roved the seas and robbed all defenceless ships which fell in their way. They attacked even the vessels of Great Britain, and from privateers became pirates. Many of the Colonial Atlantic ports of America received them and shared in their spoils. Fletcher, the Governor of New York, was bribed to befriend and protect them, while the officers under him were regular contributors to the funds with which corsairs were bought and equipped. The English Government determined to suppress this nefarious practice, and removed Fletcher in 1695, sending the Earl of Bellamont to replace him. The latter suggested that a frigate be fitted out to assist him in the attempt; but England could spare none of her naval force from the war with France. A proposition, however, to purchase and arm a private ship for the service was received with favor, and several nobles, together with Bellamont and Colonel Richard Livingston, of New York, contributed a fund of six thousand pounds sterling. Livingston recommended, to command the vessel, one William Kidd, who had been captain of a merchant-vessel sailing between London and New York, and of a privateer against the French. Kidd was placed in command, and Livingston became his security for the share he agreed to contribute,--six hundred pounds sterling. To give character to the enterprise, a commission was issued under the great seal of England and signed by the king, William III., directed to "the trusty and well-beloved Captain Kidd, commander of the ship Adventure Galley." This vessel carried thirty guns and sixty men. Kidd departed from Plymouth in April, 1696, and arrived off the American coast in July following. He occasionally entered the port of New York, where he was cordially received, as he was considered useful in protecting its commerce. For this service the Assembly voted him the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds sterling. He now added ninety-five men to his crew, who shipped to go to Madagascar in pursuit of pirates. He then sailed for the East Indies, and, while on his way, resolved, possessing as he did a vessel manned and equipped like a frigate, to turn pirate himself. He seems to have found ready listeners in the licentious creatures of whom he had composed his crew. He arrived off the Malabar coast, in Hindostan, where he pillaged vessels manned by Indian, Arab, and Christian crews. He lay in wait for a convoy laden with treasure, but, finding it well guarded, abandoned the attempt. He landed from time to time, burned settlements, murdered and tortured the inhabitants, and placed a price upon the heads of such persons as he thought their friends would ransom. He was once pursued by two Portuguese men-of-war, whom he fought and then contrived to elude. He captured a merchantman named the Quedagh, and, refusing the offered ransom of thirty thousand rupees, sold her and her cargo at a pirates' rendezvous for forty thousand dollars. He exchanged the Adventure for a larger vessel, and established himself at Madagascar. Here he lay in ambush, plundering the flags of every nation. He made himself dreaded, as a bloody, cruel, and remorseless bandit, from Malabar and the Red Sea across the Atlantic to the West Indies and the American coast. He arrived at New York in 1698, laden, it is asserted, with more spoil than ever fell to the lot of any other individual. He found Bellamont Governor in place of Fletcher, and deemed it necessary to conceal his treasures. He sailed along the shore of Long Island as far as Gardiner's Island, at the eastern end. He here disembarked, and, in the presence of Mr. John Gardiner, the owner of the island, whom he placed under the most solemn injunction to secrecy, buried a quantity of gold, silver, and precious stones. After satisfying his crew by such a division of the remainder as they considered equitable, he dismissed them, and had the audacity to appear in the streets of Boston in the dress of a gentleman of leisure. Bellamont, who was Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire as well as of New York, met him, caused his arrest, and sent him to England for trial. He was arraigned for the murder of the gunner of his ship, whom he had killed with a bucket. Being convicted, he was hung in chains at Execution Dock on the 12th of May, 1701. The ballad which was written upon his death has survived, and is a favorable specimen of doggerel versification. We subjoin the most striking stanzas: My name was William Kidd when I sail'd, when I sail'd; My name was William Kidd when I sail'd; My name was William Kidd, God's laws I did forbid, And so wickedly I did, when I sail'd. I cursed my father dear when I sail'd, when I sail'd; I cursed my father dear when I sail'd; I cursed my father dear, and her that did me bear, And so wickedly did swear, when I sail'd. I'd a Bible in my hand when I sail'd, when I sail'd; I'd a Bible in my hand when I sail'd; I'd a Bible in my hand, by my father's great command, And I sunk it in the sand, when I sail'd. I murder'd William Moore as I sail'd, as I sail'd; I murder'd William Moore as I sail'd; I murder'd William Moore, and left him in his gore, Not many leagues from shore, as I sail'd. And being cruel still, as I sail'd, as I sail'd, And being cruel still, as I sail'd, And being cruel still, my gunner I did kill, And his precious blood did spill, as I sail'd. My mate was sick and died as I sail'd, as I sail'd; My mate was sick and died as I sail'd; My mate was sick and died, which me much terrified, When he call'd me to his bedside, as I sail'd. And unto me he did say, See me die, see me die; And unto me he did say, See me die; And unto me he did say, Take warning now by me, There comes a reckoning day: you must die. I thought I was undone, as I sail'd, as I sail'd; I thought I was undone, as I sail'd; I thought I was undone, and my wicked glass had run, But my health did soon return, as I sail'd. My repentance lasted not as I sail'd, as I sail'd; My repentance lasted not as I sail'd; My repentance lasted not; my vows I soon forgot; Damnation's my just lot, as I sail'd. I spied three ships of Spain as I sail'd, as I sail'd; I spied three ships of Spain as I sail'd; I spied three ships of Spain, I fired on them amain, Till most of them were slain, as I sail'd. I'd ninety bars of gold as I sail'd, as I sail'd; I'd ninety bars of gold as I sail'd; I'd ninety bars of gold, and dollars manifold, With riches uncontroll'd, as I sail'd. Then fourteen ships I saw as I sail'd, as I sail'd; Then fourteen ships I saw as I sail'd; Then fourteen ships I saw, and brave men they were, Ah, they were too much for me, as I sail'd. Thus being o'ertaken at last, I must die, I must die; Thus being o'ertaken at last, I must die; Thus being o'ertaken at last, and into prison cast, And sentence being pass'd, I must die. Farewell the raging sea, I must die, I must die; Farewell the raging main, I must die; Farewell the raging main, to Turkey, France, and Spain, I shall ne'er see you again: I must die. To Newgate now I'm cast, and must die, and must die; To Newgate now I'm cast, and must die; To Newgate now I'm cast, with a sad and heavy heart, To receive my just desert: I must die. To Execution Dock I must go, I must go; To Execution Dock I must go; To Execution Dock will many thousands flock, But I must bear the shock: I must die. Come, all you young and old, see me die, see me die; Come, all you young and old, see me die; Come, all you young and old, you're welcome to my gold, For by it I've lost my soul, and must die. Bellamont, having in some way learned that treasure had been concealed upon Gardiner's Island, sent commissioners to secure it. They found a box containing seven hundred and thirty-eight ounces of gold, eight hundred and forty-seven ounces of silver, a bag of silver rings, a bag of unpolished stones, a quantity of agates, amethysts, and silver buttons. For this they gave a receipt to Mr. Gardiner, which is still preserved by the family. Other sums were discovered at various periods in the possession of persons who had had relations with Kidd; but the soil of Long Island never yielded up any other booty than the box which we have mentioned. It was natural that the knowledge that Kidd had buried a portion of his spoil, that his companions had shared his good fortune according to their rank, that the vicinity of New York was the rendezvous of pirates for years,--it was natural that this knowledge should induce the prevalent belief that it was the custom among them thus to conceal their booty, and that the spot chosen by Kidd was, perhaps, the scene of the deposits of the entire gang. It was evident, too, that, unless rumor had greatly exaggerated the value of Kidd's ill-gotten gains, the box of gold and silver reckoned in ounces was but a tithe of what he had buried. It was thus that was created that feverish excitement which stimulated eager searchers for piratical store along the coasts of New York and Massachusetts, and particularly among the islets of the Sound. This search has been again and again renewed, and even now, at the distance of a century and a half, the hope of discovering the abandoned wealth of the great pirate is not altogether extinct. Romances, ballads, and tales without number have been written upon the adventures of Captain Kidd, his fate, and his money. The most remarkable of these is the "Gold-Bug" of Edgar A. Poe, which details the incidents of an imaginary effort made to recover the treasure the corsair had entombed. [Illustration: WRECK OF THE PIRATE-SHIP WHIDAH.] Piracy did not disappear with Kidd. The coasts of the Carolinas were for a long time infested with freebooters, though at various times some fifty of them were hung in Charleston. In 1717, the famous and dreaded privateer Whidah was wrecked upon the shores of Cape Cod. This vessel carried twenty-three guns, one hundred and thirty men, and was commanded by Samuel Bellamy. The dead bodies of all but six floated ashore: these six were taken alive and executed. This was a severe loss to the pirates. But the decisive blow against them was not struck till 1723. The British man-of-war Greyhound captured a craft with twenty-five men and carried them into Rhode Island. They were tried, found guilty, and hung, at Newport, in July. This was the end of piracy in the American waters. [Illustration: HOME OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK.] CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE VOYAGE OF WOODES ROGERS--DESERTION CHECKED BY A NOVEL CIRCUMSTANCE--A LIGHT SEEN UPON THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDEZ--A BOAT SENT TO RECONNOITRE--ALEXANDER SELKIRK DISCOVERED--HIS HISTORY AND ADVENTURES--HIS DRESS, FOOD, AND OCCUPATIONS--HE SHIPS WITH ROGERS AS SECOND MATE--TURTLES AND TORTOISES--FIGHT WITH A SPANISH TREASURE-SHIP--PROFITS OF THE VOYAGE--THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE--ITS INFLATION AND COLLAPSE--MEASURES OF RELIEF. A company of merchants of Bristol fitted out two ships in 1708--the Duke and Duchess--to cruise against the Spaniards in the South Sea. The Duke was commanded by Woodes Rogers, the Duchess by Stephen Courtney. William Dampier, whose name had long been a terror to the Spaniards, was pilot to the larger ship. They left Bristol on the 14th of July, with fifty-six guns and three hundred and thirty-three men, and with double the usual number of officers, in order to prevent the mutinies so common in privateers. Nothing of moment occurred till the vessels anchored at Isola Grande, off the coast of Brazil. Here two men deserted, but were so frightened in the night by tigers, as they supposed, but in reality by monkeys and baboons, that they took refuge in the sea and shouted till they were taken on board. The two ships passed through Lemaire's Strait and doubled Cape Horn, and, on the 31st of January, 1709, made the island of Juan Fernandez. During the night a light was observed on shore, and Captain Rogers made up his mind that a French fleet was riding at anchor, and ordered the decks to be cleared for action. At daylight the vessels stood in towards the land; but no French fleet--not even a single sail--was to be seen. A yawl was sent forward to reconnoitre. As it drew near, a man was seen upon the shore waving a white flag; and, on its nearer approach, he directed the sailors, in the English language, to a spot where they could best effect a landing. He was clad in goat-skins, and appeared more wild and ragged than the original owners of his apparel. His name has long been known throughout the inhabited world, and his story is familiar in every language. We need hardly say that his name was Alexander Selkirk, and that his adventures furnished the basis of the romance of Robinson Crusoe. Alexander Selkirk was a Scotchman, and had been left upon the island by Captain Stradling, of the Cinqueports, four years and four months before. During his stay he had seen several ships pass by, but only two came to anchor at the island. They were Spaniards, and fired at him; but he escaped into the woods. He said he would have surrendered to them had they been French; but he chose to run the risk of dying alone upon the island rather than fall into the hands of Spaniards, as he feared they would either put him to death or make him a slave in their mines. "He told us," says Rogers, "that he was born in Largo, in the county of Fife, and was bred a sailor from his youth. The reason of his being left here was a difference with his captain, which, together with the fact that the ship was leaky, made him willing to stay behind; but when at last he was inclined to go with the ship the captain would not receive him. He took with him his clothes and bedding, with a firelock and some powder and bullets, some tobacco, a knife, a kettle, a Bible, with other books, and his mathematical instruments. He diverted himself and provided for his sustenance as well as he could, but had much ado to bear up against melancholy for the first eight months, and was sore distressed at being left alone in so desolate a place. He built himself two huts of pimento-trees, thatched with long grass and lined with goat-skins,--killing goats as he needed them with his gun, as long as his powder lasted. When that was all spent, he procured fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento wood together. He slept in his large hut and cooked his victuals in the smaller, and employed himself in reading, praying, and singing psalms,--so that, he said he was a better Christian during his solitude than he had ever been before, or than, he was afraid, he should ever be again. "At first he never ate but when constrained by hunger,--partly from grief, and partly for want of bread and salt. Neither did he go to bed till he could watch no longer,--the pimento wood serving him both for fire and candle, as it burned very clear and refreshed him by its fragrant smell. His fish he sometimes boiled, and at other times broiled, as he did his goats' flesh, of which he made good broth; for they are not as rank as our goats. Having kept an account, he said he had killed five hundred goats while on the island, besides having caught as many more, which he marked on the ear and let them go. When his powder failed, he ran them down by speed of foot; for his mode of living, with continual exercise of walking and running, cleared him of all gross humors, so that he could run with wonderful swiftness through the woods and up the hills and rocks. [Illustration: SELKIRK AND HIS FAMILY.] "He came at length to relish his meat well enough without salt. In the proper season he had plenty of good turnips, which had been sowed there by the crew of the ship and had now spread over several acres of ground. The cabbage-palm furnished him with cabbage in abundance, and the fruit of the pimento--the same as Jamaica pepper--with a pleasant seasoning for his food. He soon wore out his shoes and other clothes by running in the woods; and, being forced to shift without, his feet became so hard that he ran about everywhere without inconvenience, and could not again wear shoes without suffering from swelled feet. After he had got the better of his melancholy, he sometimes amused himself with carving his name on the trees, together with the date of his arrival and the duration of his solitude. At first he was much pestered with cats and rats, which had bred there in great numbers from some of each species which had got on shore from ships that had wooded and watered at the island. The rats gnawed his feet and clothes when he was asleep, which obliged him to cherish the cats, by feeding them with goats' flesh, so that many of them became so tame that they used to lie beside him in hundreds, and soon delivered him from the rats. He also tamed some kids, and, for his diversion, would sometimes sing and dance with them and his cats. So that by the favor of Providence and the vigor of youth--for he was now only thirty years of age--he came at length to conquer all the inconveniences of his solitude, and to be quite easy in his mind. "When his clothes were worn out, he made himself a coat and a cap of goat-skins, which he stitched together with thongs of the same cut out with his knife,--using a nail by way of a needle or awl. When his knife was worn out, he made others as well as he could of old hoops that had been left upon the shore, which he beat out thin between two stones and grinded to an edge on a smooth stone. Having some linen cloth, he sewed himself some shirts by means of a nail for a needle, stitching them with worsted which he pulled out from his old stockings; and he had the last of his shirts on when we found him. At his first coming on board, he had so much forgotten his language, for want of use, that we could scarcely understand him, as he seemed to speak his words only by halves. We offered him a dram, which he refused, having drunk nothing but water all the time he had been upon the island; and it was some time before he could relish our provisions. He had seen no venomous or savage creature on the island, nor any other animal than goats, bred there from a few brought by Juan Fernandez, a Spaniard who settled there with a few families till the opposite continent of Chili began to submit to the Spaniards, when they removed there as more profitable." Captain Rogers remained here a fortnight, refitting his ship. The "governor," as his men called Selkirk, never failed to procure two or three goats a day for the sick. They boiled up and refined eighty gallons of seal-oil, in order to save their candles. On the 13th of February, it was determined that two men from the Duke should sail on board the Duchess, and two from the Duchess on board the Duke, to see that justice was reciprocally done by each ship's company to the other in the division of prizes; and on the 14th the anchors were weighed, Alexander Selkirk shipping on board the Duke as second mate. When off the Lobos Islands, they took a prize, which they named The Beginning. They learned from their prisoners that the widow of the late Viceroy of Peru was soon to embark at Callao for Acapulco, with her family and riches; and they determined to lie in wait for her. In the mean time they landed and took the town of Guayaquil, but consented to its ransom for thirty thousand dollars. They also seized thirteen small vessels, from which they took meal, onions, quinces, pomegranates, oil, indigo, pitch, sugar, gunpowder, and rice. [Illustration: CATCHING TURTLE.] At the Gallapagos Islands they laid in a large stock of sea-turtles and land-tortoises, some of the former weighing four hundred pounds, while the latter laid eggs in profusion upon the decks. Some of the men affirmed that they had seen one four feet high, that two of their party had mounted on its back, and that it easily carried them at its usual slow pace, not appearing to regard their weight. This monster was supposed to weigh seven hundred pounds at least. Having made the coast of Mexico, and having determined to wait only eight days either for the Manilla galleon or the ship of the viceroy's widow, they were rejoiced to descry, on the morning of the 22d of December, the Spanish treasure-ship on the weather bow. Preparations were made for action, and a large kettle of chocolate was boiled for the crew in lieu of spirituous liquor. Prayers were then said, but were interrupted, before they were concluded, by a shot from the enemy. She had barrels hung at her yard-arm, which seemed to warn the English of an explosion if they attempted to board. The engagement commenced at eight, and lasted an hour, after which she struck and surrendered. She bore the imposing name of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnaçion Disenganio, and mounted twenty guns. Nine of her men were killed and nine wounded. Of the men of the Duke--the only ship of Rogers' fleet engaged--but two were wounded, Captain Rogers himself, who lost a portion of his upper jaw and two of his teeth, being one. The name of the prize was changed from Our Lady, &c. to The Bachelor, and she was equipped as a member of the squadron, which now sailed immediately for the Ladrone Islands. They arrived at Guam on the 10th of March, 1710, where their wants were amply supplied, cocoanuts being furnished in abundance at the rate of one dollar a hundred. Captain Rogers bought one of the sailing proas of the islanders, which he had seen sail at the rate of twenty miles an hour. He carried it to England, intending to put it in the canal at St. James' Park as a curiosity. At the Cape of Good Hope they joined a number of homeward-bound ships, and sailed in company, early in April, forming a fleet of sixteen Dutch and nine English ships. Rogers and his consorts anchored at Erith, in the Thames, on the 14th of October. This voyage is the last in which Dampier is known to have been engaged, and what became of him afterwards has never been ascertained. It would not be easy to name, before the time of Cook, a navigator to whom the merchant and mariner are so much indebted. His style was unassuming, as free from affectation as was the narrative itself from invention. Dean Swift made Captain Lemuel Gulliver hail Dampier as cousin. The outfit of this voyage amounted to £15,000, and the gross profits to £170,000. One third of this, or £57,000, was divided among the officers and seamen. In view of this enormous return for a two years' voyage, we can hardly wonder at the fact that in this age, and during a long succeeding period, nearly all navigation was privateering, and that all ventures upon the seas appear to the reader of the present day as little better than the marauding excursions of corsairs and buccaneers. This is the proper place for speaking of the famous Company formed for carrying on trade with the Spanish possessions in the Pacific, which received, upon its calamitous failure, the name of South Sea Bubble. This Company was formed, chartered, and prospered and fell, soon after the return of Rogers and Dampier. It originated in 1711, with Harley, the Lord Treasurer, his object being to improve public credit, and to provide for the payment of the floating debt, amounting to £10,000,000. He allured the nation's creditors by promising them the monopoly of trade with the Spanish coast in America. They greedily swallowed the glittering bait, and dreamed of El Dorado and Peruvian Golcondas. This spirit spread throughout the nation, and, in 1719, rose to a fever heat of speculation. Sir John Blunt, once a scrivener, now a prominent South Sea Director, conceived the idea of consolidating all the public funds into one, and made the proposal to the Government. The Bank of England and the South Sea Company displayed the utmost eagerness to outbid each other in the offers made for this magnificent privilege. The South Sea Company finally bid seven millions and a half, and the bill then passed the two houses of Parliament triumphantly. The Directors immediately opened a subscription of a million, and then a second, both of which were eagerly filled. Every engine was set at work to delude the public: mysterious rumors were rife of secret treasures in America, of overtures made to Stanhope to exchange Gibraltar for a diamond-mine in Peru, and of inexhaustible piles of wealth which were only waiting to be snatched up by the fortunate subscribers to the South Sea stock. The Directors began to quote dividends of twenty, thirty, fifty per cent. They claimed that, being the only national creditor, they could soon dictate to Parliament and rule the country. The stock rose from one hundred and twenty-six to one thousand. The mania was universal,--statesmen, washerwomen, Churchmen, Dissenters, ladies of high and low degree, being all smitten alike. Other bubbles were started by other companies, some of them for the most extravagant objects, such as The Company to make Salt Water Fresh, to Build Hospitals for Bastards, to Obtain Silver from Lead, to Extract Oil from the Seeds of Sunflowers, to Import Jackasses from Spain and thus improve the Breed of English Mules, to Trade in Human Hair, and for a multitude of other equally absurd purposes. The subscriptions thus opened amounted at one period to no less than three hundred millions sterling. These projects, which rose rapidly one after another and danced in prismatic radiance before the public view, were regarded with jealous eyes by the South Sea Directors, who wished to have a monopoly of the trade in public credulity. They therefore applied for writs of "scire facias" against their managers, and, by showing them to be frauds, suppressed them. But in thus destroying the national confidence in bubbles generally they seriously undermined that enjoyed by their own. Distrust was now excited, and every one became anxious to convert his bonds into money; and then the enormous disproportion between the promises to pay on paper and the means to redeem in coin became evident to all. The stock fell at once, as the basis which sustained it was proved to be altogether imaginary. Thousands of families were reduced to beggary, and the rage, resentment, and disappointment were bitter and universal. The Company sank into nothingness as rapidly as it had risen to notoriety. Parliament passed a bill by which public confidence was in a measure restored, while the estates of the Directors and officers were confiscated and applied to the relief of the sufferers. The proposed commerce with the Spanish American provinces was naturally never opened, and the next expedition of the English to that quarter, so far from being a voyage for trade, was a very formidable excursion for plunder,--that of Lord Anson, in 1740. We shall refer to this at length in its proper place. [Illustration: HAMMER HEAD SHARK.] [Illustration: THE EAGLE AND THE PIRATE.] CHAPTER XXXIX. THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY--RENEWED SEARCH FOR THE TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA--JACOB ROGGEWEIN--HIS VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY--BRUSH WITH PIRATES--ARRIVAL AT JUAN FERNANDEZ--EASTER ISLAND--ITS INHABITANTS--ENTERTAINMENT OF ONE ON BOARD THE SHIP--A MISUNDERSTANDING--PERNICIOUS AND RECREATION ISLANDS--GLIMPSE OF THE SOCIETY ISLANDS--A FAMINE IN THE FLEET--ARRIVAL AT NEW BRITAIN--CONFISCATION OF THE SHIP AT BATAVIA--DECISION OF THE STATES-GENERAL--VITUS BEHRING--BEHRING'S STRAIT--DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE--DEATH OF BEHRING--SUBSEQUENT SURVEY OF THE STRAIT. The monopoly of the Dutch East India Company had been somewhat disturbed, as early as the year 1621, by the formation and charter of the Dutch West India Company. The latter held the exclusive commerce of the African coast from the tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and that of the American coast both upon the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1674, its power and influence were somewhat extended by a fresh grant of privileges and an increase of capital. It was necessary for any one proposing a new scheme of commerce within the limits under their control, to apply to the Company for permission to execute it. A mathematician by the name of Roggewein, a native of the province of Zealand, formed a project, in 1696, for the discovery of the vast continent and islands supposed to exist in the South under the name of _Terra Australis Incognita_. He died, however, before any step was taken by the Company in furtherance of his designs. His son, Jacob Roggewein, renewed the application in 1721, presenting a memorial, in accordance with which immediate orders were given for equipping three vessels,--the Eagle, of thirty-six guns, the Tienhoven, of twenty-eight, and the African galley, of fourteen. Roggewein was made admiral, and two hundred and seventy-one men were embarked upon the three ships. They sailed from the Texel on the 21st of August, 1721. When approaching the Canaries, they saw a fleet of five sail, carrying white, red, and black colors, which caused the admiral to suspect them to be pirates. He gave the signal for action, when the enemy struck their red flag and hoisted a black one, on which was a death's-head with a powder-horn and crossbones. A brisk encounter succeeded; and, after two hours, the pirates spread their canvas and bore away with all speed. Roggewein did not follow them,--as all ships of the West and East India Companies had strict orders to pursue their course and never to give chase. He had a long and painful passage across the Atlantic,--the crews suffering from heat, hunger, thirst, and the scurvy. Many of the men had high fevers, and some of them fits like the epilepsy. During a terrible hurricane on the 21st of December, the Tienhoven parted company, and the Eagle and the African galley kept on together as far as the Strait of Magellan. In this latitude, Roggewein saw the group of islands which a French privateer had named Islands of St. Louis, but which some Dutch traders had subsequently called the New Islands. Roggewein baptized the group anew, and, thinking that if it should ever be inhabited the people would be the antipodes of the Dutch, gave it the name of Belgia Australis. He determined to make the passage through Lemaire's Strait, and, being propelled by a favorable wind and rapid currents, attained the western coast of America in six days' time. Whenever the weather was clear the nights were exceedingly short; for, though it was the middle of January, the Antarctic summer was at its height. On arriving at the island of Juan Fernandez, Roggewein was surprised and rejoiced to see the Tienhoven safe at the rendezvous. The three captains dined together the next day, and made merry over their mutual convictions of each others' unhappy shipwreck. After a considerable run to the westward, Roggewein discovered, on the 14th of April, 1722, an island sixteen leagues in extent, to which he gave the name of Easter Island, in commemoration of the day. This was one of the most important discoveries ever made in the Pacific; and Easter Island is, for many reasons, one of the most famous oases in that desert of water. Roggewein thus speaks of his first adventure there:--"One of the inhabitants came out to us, two miles from shore, in a canoe. We gave him a piece of cloth, for he was quite naked. He was also offered beads and other toys: he hung them all, with a dried fish, about his neck. His body was all painted with every kind of figures. He was brown: his ears were extremely long and hung down to his shoulders, occasioned, doubtless, by wearing large, heavy ear-rings. He was tall, strong, robust, and of an agreeable countenance. He was gay, brisk, and easy in his behavior and manner of speaking. A glass of wine was given to him: he took it, but, instead of drinking it, threw it in his eyes, which surprised us very much. We then dressed him and put a hat upon his head; but he wore it very awkwardly. After he was regaled with food, the musicians were ordered to play on different instruments: the symphony made him very merry, and he began to leap and dance. We sent him back with presents, that the others might know in what manner we had received him. He seemed to leave us with regret, praying with great violence and uttering the word 'Odorraga! odorraga!' The next day large numbers of his countrymen came to our new anchorage, bringing us fowls and roots. At sunrise they prostrated themselves with their faces towards the east, and lighted fires as morning burnt-offerings to their idols, of which there were many upon the coast." Of these supposed idols we shall speak hereafter. During the landing, in which one hundred and fifty of the crew took part, an islander was accidentally shot; and subsequently, as some of them touched, from curiosity, the Dutch fire-arms, a volley of bullets was discharged at them, and among the killed was the man who had first gone on board the admiral's ship. The consternation and grief of the natives was very great: they brought all kinds of provisions as ransom for the dead bodies. They threw themselves upon their knees, and offered branches of palms in sign of peace. The Dutch carried their outrages no further, but exchanged assurances of good will. They gave sixty yards of painted cloth for eight hundred fowls, some bundles of sugarcane, and a large quantity of plantains, cocoanuts, figs, and potatoes. Roggewein was of opinion that the island might be colonized to advantage, as the air was wholesome and the soil rich: the low lands seemed fitted to produce corn, and the higher grounds well adapted to vineyards. He intended to land with a sufficient force to make a general survey; but, in the mean time, a west wind forced him from his anchorage and drove him out to sea. He soon found himself in the wide tract which had obtained the name of Bad Sea, on account of the brackish water of one of its islands. Through this region he sailed eight hundred leagues, and, by a change of wind, was driven with his consorts among a number of islands, by which they were considerably embarrassed. The Africa, which drew the least water, was sent in advance, but soon got upon the rocks and fired signals of distress. Night came on, and the natives, alarmed by the reports, kindled fires and came in crowds to the shore. The Dutch, whose confusion of mind seems to have been extreme, fired upon them without ceremony, that they might have as few dangers as possible to contend with at once. In the morning the Africa was found to be jammed between two rocks, from whence she could not be disengaged. She was therefore abandoned. The island upon which she was lost was named Pernicious Island. Five men deserted here, and were left behind. Eight leagues from Pernicious, an island, discovered at daybreak, was named Aurora; and another, seen at sunset, was called Vesper. At another, which they named the Island of Recreation, a party sent on shore for salad and scurvy-grass for the sick had so desperate an encounter with the natives, that, when a second landing was proposed, not a man could be prevailed upon to make the dangerous attempt. Roggewein was now convinced that no Terra Incognita was to be discovered in the latitude he had kept, and therefore resolved, in accordance with his instructions, to return home by way of the East Indies. His crews were so reduced that a further loss of twenty men would compel him to abandon one of his remaining vessels. The officers regretted this decision; for they were anxious to visit the lands named Solomon's Islands by Mendana on account of their supposed wealth; but they were now compelled to return by way of New Britain, the Moluccas, and the East Indies. Not far from Recreation Island, a group was discovered by the captain of the Tienhoven, and was named, from him, Bowman's Islands. The natives came off to the ships with fish, cocoanuts, and plantains. They were generally white, except that some were bronzed by the heat of the sun. They appeared gentle and humane: their bodies were not painted, and were clothed from the waist downward with fringes of woven silk. Around their necks they wore strings of odoriferous flowers. Roggewein describes them as altogether the most civilized and honest nation he had seen in the South Sea:--"Charmed with our arrival, they received us as divinities, and testified afterwards great regret when they perceived we were preparing to depart: sadness was painted in their countenance as we left." These islands are supposed to have been the most northerly of the group now known as the Society Islands. During the long run to New Britain, the frightful effects of bad provisions were made painfully manifest, for the salt meat had long been decayed, the bread was full of maggots, and the water intolerably putrid. The scurvy began to cut off four and five men a day. Cries and groans were incessantly heard in all parts of the ship: those who were well fainted at the stench of the carcasses. Some were reduced to skeletons, so that the skin cleaved to their bones, while others swelled to a monstrous and disgusting size. The journal says that "an anabaptist of twenty-five years old called out continually to be baptized, and when told, with a sneer, that there was no parson on board, became quiet, and died with great resignation." At last the high land of New Britain put an end to their miseries,--for which there was no cure on earth except fresh meat, green vegetables, and pure water. The expedition intrusted to Roggewein having proved abortive by the failure to find a Southern continent, we shall follow his adventures no farther. It will suffice to say that his ships were confiscated at Batavia by the Dutch East India Company,--a proceeding which the West India Company resented by commencing an action for damages. After a long litigation, the States-General decreed that the former Company should furnish the latter with two ships better than those confiscated, should refund the full value of their cargoes, should pay the wages of both crews to the day of their return to Holland, together with the costs, and a heavy fine by way of punishment for having so manifestly abused their authority. We come now to the first expedition at sea made by Russia for the purpose of extending and promoting the science of geography. Vitus Behring was a Dane in the Russian service, having been tempted by the encouragements held out to foreign mariners by Peter the Great. He had risen to the rank of captain in 1725, when the Empress Catherine, who was anxious to promote discovery in the Northeast of Asia and to settle the question, then doubtful, as to the existence of a strait between Asia and America, appointed him to the command of an expedition fitted out for that purpose. During a period of seven years, having travelled overland to Kamschatka, he explored rivers, sounded and surveyed the coasts, and sailed as far to the northward as the season and the strength of his very inferior boats would permit. In 1732, he was made captain-commander, and the next year was ordered to conduct an expedition fitted out on a very extensive scale for purposes of discovery. In 1740, he reached Okhotsk, where vessels had previously been built for him. He sailed for Awatska Bay, where he founded the settlement of Petropaulowski, known in English as the Harbor of Peter and Paul. Sailing to the northward, he landed upon the American coast, giving name to Mount St. Elias, and then, returning to the westward, struck the continent of Asia, finding a strait fifty miles wide between the two continents at the point where they approach each other the nearest. This, in honor of its discoverer, is called Behring's Strait. The following description of this scene of desolation, as it first broke upon Behring's eye, is due to the imagination of Eugene Sue:--"The month of September," he says, "is at its close. The equinox has come with darkness, and sullen night will soon displace the short and gloomy days of the Pole. The sky, of a dark violet color, is feebly lighted by a sun which dispenses no heat, and whose white disk, scarcely elevated above the horizon, pales before the dazzling brightness of the snow. To the north, this desert is bounded by a coast bristling with black and gigantic rocks. At the foot of their Titanic piles lies motionless the vast ice-bound ocean. To the east appears a line of darkish green, whence seem to creep forth numerous white and glassy icebergs. This is the channel which now bears the name of Behring. Beyond it, and towering above it, are the vast granitic masses of Cape Prince of Wales, the extreme point of North America. These desolate latitudes are beyond the pale of the habitable world. The piercing cold rends the very stones, cleaves the trees, and bursts the ground, which groans in producing the germs of its icy herbage. A few black pines, the growth of centuries, pointing their distorted tops in different directions of the solitude, like crosses in a churchyard, have been torn up and hurled around in confusion by the storm. The raging hurricane, not content with uprooting trees, drives mountains of ice before it, and dashes them, with the crash of thunder, the one against the other. "And now a night without twilight has succeeded to the day,--dark, dark night! The heavy cupola of the sky is of so deep a blue that it appears black, and the Polar stars are lost in the depths of an obscurity which seems palpable to the touch. Silence reigns alone. But suddenly a feeble glimmer appears in the horizon. At first it is softly brilliant, blue as the light which precedes the rising of the moon; then the effulgence increases, expands, and assumes a roseate hue. Strange and confused sounds are heard,--sounds like the flight of huge night birds as they flap their wings heavily over the plain. These are the forerunners of one of those imposing phenomena which strike with awe all animated nature. An aurora borealis, that magnificent spectacle of the Polar regions, is at hand. In the horizon there appears a semicircle of dazzling brightness. From the centre of this glowing hemisphere radiate blazing columns and jets of light, rising to measureless heights and illumining heaven, earth, and sea. They glide along the snows of the desert, empurpling the blue tops of the ice-mountains and tinging with a deepened red the tall black rocks of the two continents. Having thus reached the fulness of its splendor, the aurora grows gradually pale, and diffuses its effulgence in a luminous mist. At this moment, from the fantastic illusions of the mirage, frequent in those latitudes, the American coast, though separated from that of Asia by the interposition of an arm of the sea, suddenly approaches so near it that a bridge might be thrown from one world to the other. Did human beings inhabit those regions and breathe the pale-blue vapors which pervade them, they might almost converse across the narrow inlet which serves to divide the continents. But now the aurora fades away, and the deceptive mirage sinks back into the shadowy realms from whence it came. Fifty miles of sullen waters roll again between the continents, and a three months' night settles over the ghastly and appalling scene." [Illustration: MIRAGE AT BEHRING'S STRAITS.] It is not improbable that Behring passed to the north of East Cape, the promontory on the Asiatic side, into the Arctic Ocean beyond. He was soon compelled to return, owing to the disabled condition of his vessel, which was wrecked upon an island on the 3d of November, 1741. This island, which was little better than a naked rock, afforded neither food nor shelter; and Behring, suffering from the scurvy and sinking from disappointment, lay down in a cleft of the rock to die. The sand collected and drifted about him, half burying him alive. He would not suffer it to be removed, as it afforded him a grateful warmth. He died in this wretched condition on the 8th of December. The next summer, the few of his crew who survived the winter built a vessel from the timber of the wreck: in this they reached Kamschatka and made known the miserable fate of their commander. Though Behring settled the fact of the existence of the strait which bears his name, it was reserved for Captain Cook to survey the entire length of both coasts. This he did with a precision and accuracy which left nothing for after-voyagers to perform, and which has made the geography of this remote and barbarous region as familiar as that of the Atlantic shores of America. The island upon which Behring died, and which was then uninhabited and without a shrub upon its surface, is now an important trading station, and affords comfortable winter quarters to vessels from Okhotsk and Kamschatka. [Illustration: LORD ANSON.] CHAPTER XL. PIRATICAL VOYAGE UNDER GEORGE ANSON--UNPARALLELED MORTALITY--ARRIVAL AND SOJOURN AT JUAN FERNANDEZ--A PRIZE--CAPTURE OF PAITA--PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK THE MANILLA GALLEON--DISAPPOINTMENT--FORTUNATE ARRIVAL AT TINIAN--ROMANTIC ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND--A STORM--ANSON'S SHIP DRIVEN OUT TO SEA--THE ABANDONED CREW SET ABOUT BUILDING A BOAT--RETURN OF THE CENTURION--BATTLE WITH THE MANILLA GALLEON--ANSON'S ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND--THE PROCEEDS OF THE CRUISE. The statesmen of England had now become penetrated with the idea that, in order to consolidate their territorial supremacy, they must make their country the undisputed mistress of the seas. War was declared against Spain in 1739, and the king determined to attack that power in her distant settlements and deprive her, if possible, of her possessions in America, and especially in Peru. It was supposed that the principal resources of the enemy would be by this means cut off, and that the Spanish would be reduced to the necessity of suing for peace, deprived as they would be of the returns of that treasure by which alone they could be enabled to support the drains of a foreign war. A fleet of six vessels, manned by fourteen hundred men and accompanied by two victualling-ships, was placed under the command of George Anson, a captain in the naval service. The flag-ship was the Centurion, mounting sixty guns and carrying four hundred men. On their way out from Spithead, on the 18th of September, 1740, the fleet was joined by an immense convoy of trading ships, which were to keep them company a portion of the way,--numbering in all eleven men-of-war and one hundred and fifty sail of merchantmen. The squadron passed through Lemaire's Strait on the 7th of March, 1741. "We could not help persuading ourselves," writes Anson, "that the greatest difficulty of our voyage was now at an end, and that our most sanguine dreams were upon the point of being realized; and hence we indulged our imaginations in those romantic schemes which the fancied possession of the Chilian gold and Peruvian silver might be conceived to inspire. Thus animated by these flattering delusions, we passed those memorable straits, ignorant of the dreadful calamities which were then impending and just ready to break upon us,--ignorant that the time drew near when the squadron would be separated never to unite again, and that this day of our passage was the last cheerful day that the greater part of us would ever live to enjoy." The sternmost ships were no sooner clear of the Strait, than the tranquillity of the sky was suddenly disturbed, and all the presages of a threatening storm appeared in the heavens and upon the waters. The winds were let loose upon the unfortunate fleet, and for three long months blew upon them with unrelenting fury. The Severn and Pearl parted company and were never seen again. During the month of April, forty-three of the crew of the Centurion died of the scurvy; and during the passage from the Strait to the island of Juan Fernandez the flag-ship lost, by this disease, by accident, and by tempest, two hundred and fifty men; and she could not at last muster more than six foremast-men capable of doing duty. On the 22d of May, all the various disasters, fatigues, and terrors which had previously attacked the Centurion in succession now combined in a simultaneous onset, and seem to have conspired for her destruction. A terrific hurricane from the starboard quarter split all her sails and broke all her standing rigging, endangered the masts, and shifted the ballast and stores. The air was filled with fire, and the officers and men upon the decks were wounded by exploding flashes which coursed and darted from spar to spar. Thus crippled and disabled, with five men dying every day, and not ten of the crew able to go aloft, the Centurion, separated from her consorts, and supposing them to have perished in the storm, made the best of her weary way to the island of Juan Fernandez, where she arrived at daybreak on the 9th of June, after losing eighty more men from the scurvy. "The aspect of this diversified country would at all times," says Anson, "have been delightful; but in our distressed situation, languishing as we were for the land and its vegetable productions,--an inclination attending every stage of the sea-scurvy,--it is scarcely credible with what transport and eagerness we viewed the shore, and with how much impatience we longed for the greens and other refreshments which were then in sight, and particularly the water. Even those among the diseased who were not in the very last stages of the distemper exerted the small remains of strength which were left them, and crawled up to the deck to feast themselves with this reviving prospect. Thus we coasted the shore, fully employed in the contemplation of this enchanting landskip." In his description of the island, Anson speaks of the former residence of Alexander Selkirk upon it, and says, "Selkirk tells us, among other things, that, as he often caught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and let them go. This was about thirty-two years before our arrival at the island. Now, it happened that the first goat that was killed by our people had his ears slit; whence we concluded that he had doubtless been formerly under the power of Selkirk. He was an animal of a most venerable aspect, dignified with an exceeding majestic beard and with many other symptoms of antiquity." The Centurion was soon joined by the Tryal sloop of war, by the Gloucester, and the victualler Anna Pink: the other members of the squadron were never heard of again. Upon the island, which was entirely deserted, Anson thought he discovered appearances which indicated the recent presence there of a Spanish force; and, as they might return, every effort was made to get the ships and the men in position to cope with them on equal terms. While refitting, a sail was discovered upon the distant horizon, and the Centurion started out in pursuit of her. Anson took her for a Spanish man-of-war, and ordered the officers' cabin to be knocked down and thrown overboard, and the decks to be cleared for action. She proved, however, to be an unarmed merchantman sailing under Spanish colors. She surrendered without delay, and proved to be the Monte Carmelo, bound from Callao to Valparaiso, with a cargo of sugar and blue cloth, and, what was infinitely more acceptable to Anson and his crew, eighty thousand dollars in Spanish coin. The Centurion then returned with her prize to Juan Fernandez. The spirits of the English were greatly raised by this capture, and their despondency dissipated by so tangible an earnest of success. The repairs upon all the vessels were hastily completed, and, while they were sent to cruise in different directions in search of Spanish merchantmen, the Centurion and the Carmelo sailed, on the 19th of September, for the general rendezvous at Valparaiso. [Illustration: BOMBARDMENT OF PAITA.] In November, Anson determined to attack, with the force of his two vessels, the unfortunate seaport of Paita, in Peru,--which, as may be seen from our narrative, was invariably attacked by every successive depredator. The town was taken with the utmost ease,--the governor, who was in bed at the time of the surprise, running away half naked in the utmost precipitation, and leaving his wife, hardly seventeen years old, and to whom he had been married but three days, to take care of herself. The custom-house, where the treasure lay, was seized upon and its contents transported to the ship. Anson, not satisfied with this, sent word to the governor, who had come to a halt on a distant hill, that he would listen to proposals for ransom. The governor, who was somewhat arrogant for a magistrate who had made so signal a display of poltroonery, did not deign to return an answer to these overtures: he collected together his people, however, and prepared to storm the city, but, upon second thoughts, prudently abstained. Pitch, tar, and other combustibles were now distributed by Anson's men among the houses of Paita; the cannon in the fort were spiked, and fire was then set to the town, which was speedily reduced to ashes. The loss of the Spaniards by the fire, in broadcloths, silks, velvets, cambrics, was represented by them to the court of Madrid as amounting to a million and a half of dollars. Anson's ships carried away with them, in plate, coin, and jewels, about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars more. Soon after leaving Paita, they fell in with a launch laden with jars of cotton. The people on board said they were very poor; but, as they were found dining on pigeon pie served up in silver dishes, it was thought advisable to search for the sources of this opulence. The jars of cotton were found to contain sixty thousand dollars in double doubloons. Anson now determined to steer for the southern parts of California, there to cruise for the galleon due at Acapulco from Manilla towards the middle of January. He did not arrive there till the 1st of February, 1742; but, being assured by some of his Spanish prisoners that the galleon was often a month behind her average time, he stood on and off, waiting with feverish impatience for an arrival whose value he estimated in round millions. He soon learned, from some negroes whom he captured, that the galleon had arrived on the 9th of January. They added, however, that she had delivered her cargo, and that the Viceroy of Mexico had fixed her departure from Acapulco, on her return, for the 14th of March. This news was joyfully received by Anson and his men, as it was much more advantageous for them to seize the specie which she had received for her cargo than to seize the cargo itself. It was now the 19th of February, and the galleon was not to leave port till the 14th of March, or, according to the old style followed by Anson, the 3d of March. The interval was employed in scrubbing the ships' bottoms, in bringing them into the most advantageous trim, and in regulating the orders, signals, and positions to be observed when the famous ship should appear in sight. The positions held were as follows: The squadron was stationed forty miles from shore,--an offing quite sufficient to escape observation: it consisted of the Centurion, the Gloucester, and three armed prizes: these were arranged in a circular line, and each ship was nine miles distant from the next, the two vessels at the extremes being, therefore, thirty-six miles apart. As the galleon could be easily discerned twenty miles outside of either extremity, the whole sweep of the squadron was seventy-five miles, the various vessels composing it being so connected by signals as to be readily informed of what was seen in any part of the line. The Centurion and the Gloucester were alone intended to come to close quarters, or, indeed, to engage in the action at all: they were therefore strengthened by accessions from the others. The calls of hunger and all other duties were neglected on the 3d of March: all eyes were strained in the direction of Acapulco, and voices continually exclaimed that they saw one of the cutters returning with a signal. To their extreme vexation and dismay, both that day and the next passed without bringing news of the galleon. A fortnight went by; and Anson at last came to the melancholy conclusion that his presence upon the coast had been discovered, and that an embargo had been laid upon the object of all their hopes. He afterwards discovered that his presence was suspected, but not known, but that the wary Spaniards had frustrated his schemes by detaining the galleon till the succeeding year. With a heavy heart, the admiral gave orders for the departure of the fleet from the American coast, in prosecution of the plans drawn up previous to his leaving England. He sailed early in May with the Centurion and Gloucester only, having scuttled and destroyed his three prizes on the enemy's coast. A terrible attack of scurvy soon reduced both vessels to half their working force, and a storm of unusual violence completely disabled the Gloucester. She held out, however, till the middle of August, when her stores, her prize-money, and her sick were with great difficulty removed to the Centurion, which was herself in a crazy and well-nigh desperate condition. The Gloucester was set on fire, lest her wreck might fall into the hands of the Spaniards: she continued burning through the night, firing her guns successively as the flames reached them: the magazine exploded at daylight. The Centurion kept on her way, losing eight, nine, and ten men every twenty-four hours. A leak was discovered, which all the skill of the carpenters failed to stop. The ship and men were in a condition bordering on positive despair. Under these circumstances, the sight of two distant islands revived for a time their drooping spirits. But these islands were bare and uninhabited rocks, affording neither anchorage nor fresh water. The reaction produced by this disappointment was evident in the renewed ravages of the relentless scurvy. "And now," says Anson, "the only possible circumstance which could secure the few of us which remained alive from perishing, was the accidental falling in with some other of the Ladrone Islands better prepared for our accommodation; but, as our knowledge of them was extremely imperfect, we were to trust entirely to chance for our guidance. Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of an approaching destruction, we stood from the island-rock of Anatacan, having all of us the strongest apprehensions either of dying of the scurvy, or of being destroyed with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps, might in a short time be expected to founder." On the 27th of August, the Centurion came in sight of a fertile and, as Anson supposed, inhabited island, which he afterwards found to be one of the Ladrones and named Tinian. Fearing the inhabitants to be Spaniards, and knowing himself to be incapable of defence, Anson showed Spanish colors, and hoisted a red flag at the foretopmast head, intending by this to give his vessel the appearance of the Manilla galleon, and hoping to decoy some of the islanders on board. The trick succeeded, and a Spaniard and four Indians were easily taken, with their boat. The Spaniard said the island was uninhabited, though it was one of an inhabited group: he affirmed that there was plenty of fresh water, that cattle, hogs, and poultry ran wild over the rocks, that the woods afforded sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, and cocoanuts, besides a peculiar fruit which served instead of bread; that, from the quantity and goodness of the productions of the island, the Spaniards of the neighboring station of Guam used it as a storehouse and granary from whence they drew inexhaustible supplies. A portion of this relation Anson could verify upon the spot: he discovered herds of cattle feeding in security upon the island, and it was not difficult to fill, in imagination, the rich forests which clothed it, with tropical fruits and all the varied productions of those beneficent climes. On landing, he at once converted a storehouse filled with jerked beef into an hospital for the sick: in this he deposited one hundred and twenty-eight of his invalids. The salutary effect of land-treatment and vegetable food was such that, though twenty-one died on the first day, only ten others died during the two months that the Centurion remained at anchor in the harbor. [Illustration: ANSON'S ENCAMPMENT AT TINIAN.] Anson gives a romantic account of the happy island of Tinian. The vegetation was not luxuriant and rank, but resembled the clean and uniform lawns of an English estate. The turf was composed of clover intermixed with a variety of flowers. The woods consisted of tall and wide-spreading trees, imposing in their aspect or inviting in their fruit. Three thousand cattle, milkwhite with the exception of their ears, which were black, grazed in a single meadow. The clamor and paradings of domestic poultry excited the idea of neighboring farms and villages. Both the cattle and the fowls were easily run down and captured, so that the Centurion husbanded her ammunition. The hogs were hunted by dogs trained to the pursuit, a number of which had been left by the Spaniards of Guam: they readily transferred their services and their allegiance to the English invaders. The island also produced in abundance the very best specifics for scorbutic disorders,--such as dandelion, mint, scurvy-grass, and sorrel. The inlets furnished fish of plethoric size and inviting taste; the lakes abounded with duck, teal, and curlew, and in the thickets the sportsmen found whole coveys of whistling plover. On the night of the 22d of September a violent storm drove the Centurion from her anchorage, sundering her cables like packthread. Anson was on shore, down with the scurvy; several of the officers, and a large part of the crew, amounting in all to one hundred and thirteen persons, were on shore with him. This catastrophe reduced all, both at sea and on land, to the utmost despair: those in the ship were totally unprepared to struggle with the fury of the winds, and expected each moment to be their last; those on shore supposed the Centurion to be lost, and conceived that no means were left them ever to depart from the island. As no European ship had probably anchored here before, it was madness to expect that chance would send another in a hundred ages to come. Besides, the Spaniards of Guam could not fail to capture them ere long, and, as their letters of marque were gone in the Centurion they would undoubtedly be treated as pirates. In this desperate state of things, Anson, who preserved, to all outward appearance, his usual composure, projected a scheme for extricating himself and his men from their forlorn situation. In case the Centurion did not return within a week, he said, it would be fair to conclude, not that she was wrecked, but that she had been driven too far to the leeward of the island to be able to return to it, and had doubtless borne away for Macao. Their policy, therefore, was to attempt to join her there. To effect this, they must haul the Spanish bark, which they had captured on their arrival, ashore, saw her asunder, lengthen her twelve feet,--which would give her forty tons' burden and enable her to carry them all to China. The carpenters, who had been fortunately left on the island, had been consulted, and had pronounced the proposal feasible. The men, who at first were unwilling to abandon all hope of the Centurion's return, at last saw the necessity of active co-operation, and went zealously to work. The blacksmith, with his forge and tools, was the first to commence his task; but, unhappily, his bellows had been left on board the ship. Without his bellows he could get no fire; without fire he could mould no iron; and without iron the carpenters could not rivet a single plank. But the cattle furnished hides in plenty, and these hides were imperfectly tanned with the help of a hogshead of lime found in the jerked-beef warehouse: with this improvised leather, and with a gun-barrel for a pipe, a pair of bellows was constructed which answered the intention tolerably well. Trees were felled and sawed into planks, Anson working with axe and adze as vigorously as any of his men. The juice of the cocoanut furnished the men a natural and abundant grog, and one which had this advantage over the distilled mixture to which that name is usually applied,--that it did not intoxicate them, but kept them temperate and orderly. When the main work had been thus successfully started, it was found, on consultation, that the tent on shore, some cordage accidentally left by the Centurion, and the sails and rigging already belonging to the bark, would serve to equip her indifferently when she was lengthened. Two disheartening circumstances were now discovered: all the gunpowder which could be collected by the strictest search amounted to just ninety charges,--considerably less than one charge apiece to each member of the company: their only compass was a toy, such as are made for the amusement of school-boys. Their only quadrant was a crazy instrument which had been thrown overboard from the Centurion with other lumber belonging to the dead, and which had providentially been washed ashore. It was examined by the known latitude of the island of Tinian, and answered in a manner which convinced Anson that, though very bad, it was at least better than nothing. On the 9th of October--the seventeenth day from the departure of the ship--matters were in such a state of forwardness that Anson was able to fix the 5th of November as the date of their putting to sea upon their voyage of two thousand miles. But a happier lot was in store for them. On the 11th, a man working upon a hill suddenly cried out, in great ecstasy, "The ship! the ship!" The commodore threw down his axe and rushed with his men--all of them in a state of mind bordering on frenzy--to the beach. By five in the afternoon the Centurion--for it was she--was visible in the offing: a boat with eighteen men to reinforce her, and with meat and refreshments for the crew, was sent off to her. She came happily to anchor in the roads the next day, and the commodore went on board, where he was received with the heartiest acclamations. The vessel had, during this interval of nineteen days, been the sport of storms, currents, leakages, and false reckonings; she had but one-fourth of her complement of men; and when, by a happy accident of driftage, she came in sight of the island, the crew were so weak they could with difficulty put the ship about. The reinforcement of eighteen men was sent at the very moment when, in sight of the long wished-for haven, the exhausted sailors were on the point of abandoning themselves to despair. Fifty casks of water, and a large quantity of oranges, lemons, and cocoanuts were now hastily put on board the Centurion. On the 21st of October, the bark (so lately the object of all the commodore's hopes and fears) was set on fire and destroyed. The vessel then weighed anchor, and took leave of the island of Tinian,--an island which, in the language of Anson, "whether we consider the excellence of its productions, the beauty of its appearance, the elegance of its woods and lawns, the healthiness of its air, and the adventures it gave rise to, may in all these views be justly styled romantic." After a smooth run of twenty days, the Centurion came to an anchor on the 12th of November, in the roads of Macao,--thus, after a fatiguing cruise of two years, arriving at an amicable port and in a civilized country, where naval stores could be procured with ease, and, above all, where the crew expected the inexpressible satisfaction of receiving letters from their friends and families. The Centurion remained more than five months at Macao, where she was careened, thoroughly overhauled, and refitted. The crew was reinforced by entering twenty-three men, some of them being Lascars, or Indian sailors, and some of them Dutch. On the 19th of April, the admiral got to sea, having announced that he was bound to Batavia and from thence to England, and, in order to confirm this delusion, having taken letters on board at Canton and Macao directed to dear friends in Batavia. But his real design was to cruise off the Philippine Isles for the returning Manilla galleon. Indeed, as he had the year before prevented the sailing of the annual ship, he had good reason to believe that there would this year be two. He therefore made all haste to reach Cape Espiritu Santo, the first land the galleons were accustomed to make. They were said to be stout vessels, mounting forty-four guns and carrying five hundred hands; while he himself had but two hundred and twenty-seven hands, thirty of whom were boys. But he had reason to expect that his men would exert themselves to the utmost in view of the fabulous wealth to be obtained. The Centurion made Cape Espiritu Santo late in May, and from that moment forward her people waited in the utmost impatience for the happy crisis which was to balance the account of their past calamities. They were drilled every day in the working of the guns and in the use of their small-arms. The vessel kept at a distance from the cape, in order not to be discovered. But, in spite of all precautions, she was seen from the land, and information of her presence was sent to Manilla, where a force consisting of two ships of thirty-two guns, one of twenty guns, and two sloops of ten guns, was at once equipped: it never sailed, however, on account of the monsoon. On the 20th of June, at sunrise, the man at the mast-head of the Centurion discovered a sail in the southeast quarter. A general joy spread through the ship, and the commodore instantly stood towards her. At eight o'clock she was visible from the deck, and proved to be the famous Manilla galleon. She did not change her course, much to Anson's surprise, but continued to bear down upon him. It afterwards appeared that she recognised the hostile sail to be the Centurion, and resolved to fight her. She soon hauled up her foresail, and brought to under topsails, hoisting Spanish colors. Anson picked out thirty of his choicest hands and distributed them into the tops as marksmen. Instead of firing broadsides with intervals between them, he resolved to keep up a constant but irregular fire, thus baffling the Spaniards if they should attempt their usual tactics of falling down upon the decks during a broadside and working their guns with great briskness during the intermission. At one o'clock, the Centurion, being within gunshot of the enemy, hoisted her pennant. The Spaniard now, for the first time, began to clear her decks, and tumbled cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, and poultry promiscuously into the sea. Anson gave orders to fire with the chase-guns: the galleon retorted with her sternchasers. During the first half-hour he lay across her bow, traversing her with nearly all his guns, while she could bring hardly half a dozen of hers to bear. The mats with which the galleon had stuffed her netting now took fire, and burned violently, terrifying the Spaniards and alarming the English, who feared lest the treasure would escape them. However, the Spaniards at last cut away the netting and tossed the blazing mass into the sea among the struggling and roaring cattle. The Centurion swept the galleon's decks, the topmen wounding or killing every officer but one who appeared upon the quarter, and totally disabling the commander himself. The confusion of the Spaniards was now plainly visible from the Centurion. The officers could no longer bring the men up to the work; and, at about three in the afternoon, she struck her colors and surrendered. [Illustration: THE CENTURION AND THE TREASURE-SHIP.] The galleon, named the Nostra Signora de Cabadonga, proved to be worth, in hard money, one million and a quarter of dollars. She lost sixty-seven men in the action, besides eighty-four wounded; while the Centurion lost but two men, and had but seventeen wounded, all of whom recovered but one. "Of so little consequence," remarks Anson, "are the most destructive arms in untutored and unpractised hands." The seizure of the Manilla treasure caused the greatest transport to the Centurion's men, who thus, after reiterated disappointments, saw their wishes at last accomplished. The specie was at once removed to the Centurion, the Cabadonga being appointed by Anson to be a post-ship in his majesty's service, and the command being given to Mr. Saumarez, the first lieutenant of the Centurion. The two vessels then stood for the Canton River, and arrived off Macao on the 11th of July. On the way, Anson reckoned up not only the value of the prize just captured, but the total amount of the losses his expedition had caused the crown of Spain since it left the English shores. The galleon was found to have on board one million three hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred and forty-three dollars, and thirty-five thousand six hundred and eighty-two ounces of virgin silver, besides cochineal and other commodities. This, added to the other treasure taken in previous prizes, made the sum total of Anson's captures in money not far from two millions,--independent of the ships and merchandise which he had either burned or destroyed, and which he set down as three millions more; to which he added the expense of an expedition fitted out by the court of Spain, under one Joseph Pizarro, for his annoyance, and which, he learned from the galleon's papers, had been entirely broken up and destroyed. "The total of all these articles," he writes, "will be a most exorbitant sum, and is the strongest proof of the utility of my expedition, which, with all its numerous disadvantages, did yet prove so extremely prejudicial to the enemy." At Macao, Anson sold the galleon for six thousand dollars, which was much less than her value. He was very anxious to get to sea at once, that he might be himself the first messenger of his good fortune and thereby prevent the enemy from forming any projects to intercept him. The Centurion weighed anchor from Macao on the 15th of December, 1743: she touched at the Cape of Good Hope on the 11th of March, 1744, where the commodore sojourned a fortnight, in a spot which he considered as not disgraced by a comparison with the valleys of Juan Fernandez or the lawns of Tinian. The fortuitous escapes and remarkable adventures which had characterized the career of his famous ship continued till she saluted the British forts. The French had espoused the cause of Spain; and a large French fleet was cruising in the Chops of the Channel at the moment when the Centurion crossed it. The log afterwards proved that she had run directly through the hostile squadron, concealed from view by a dense and friendly fog. She arrived safe at Spithead, on the 15th of June, after an absence of three years and nine months. Anson caused the captured wealth to be transported to London, upon thirty-two wagons, to the sound of drum and fife. The two millions were divided, according to the laws which regulate the distribution of prize-money, between Anson, his officers and men,--the crown abandoning every penny to those who had suffered and fought for it. Anson was now the richest man in the naval service. The sympathy and applause bestowed upon him by the public may be imagined from the fact that the narrative of his voyage went through four immense editions in a single year, was translated into seven European languages, and met with a far greater success than had ever fallen to the lot of any maritime journal. [Illustration: BYRON AT KING GEORGE'S ISLAND.] CHAPTER XLI. THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION--THE DOLPHIN AND TAMAR--BYRON IN PATAGONIA--FALKLAND ISLANDS--ISLANDS OF DISAPPOINTMENT--ARRIVAL AT TINIAN--BYRON VERSUS ANSON--THE VOYAGE HOME--WALLIS AND CARTERET--THEIR OBSERVATIONS IN PATAGONIA--WALLIS AT TAHITI--A DESPERATE BATTLE--NAILS LOSE THEIR VALUE--A TAHITIAN ROMANCE--PITCAIRN'S ISLAND--QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLANDS--NEW BRITAIN--THE VOYAGE HOME--A MAN-OF-WAR DESTROYED BY FIRE. In the year 1764, England was at peace with all the world, and his majesty George III. conceived an idea which till then had penetrated no royal brain,--that of sending out vessels upon voyages of discovery in the single view of extending the domain of science and contributing to the advance of geographical knowledge. Voyages had previously been undertaken for purposes either of conquest, colonization, pillage, or privateering; and discovery had usually been the result of accident, and was generally subordinate to the grand business of plunder and rapine. The king at once executed his design by giving the command of the Dolphin and Tamar--the former a man-of-war of twenty-four guns, and the latter a sloop of sixteen--to Commodore John Byron, who had been one of the wrecked captains of Anson's fleet in 1740. The vessels sailed from Plymouth on the 3d of July. Nothing of moment occurred during their passage to Rio Janeiro, if we except the fact that Byron noticed that no fish would come near his ship, though the sea was alive with them at a little distance,--a circumstance which he attributed to the Dolphin's copper sheathing. She was the first vessel upon which the experiment of coppering the bottom had been tried. Upon the Patagonian coast, Byron saw a party of the natives on horseback, one of whom, who dismounted, he describes as follows:--"He was of a gigantic stature, and seemed to realize the tales of monsters in human shape: he had the skin of some wild beast thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander wears his plaid. Round one eye was a large circle of white; a circle of black surrounded the other, and the rest of his face was streaked with paint of different colors. His height could not be less than seven feet. This frightful Colossus and his whole company conducted themselves in a peaceable and orderly manner which certainly did them honor." Byron entered Magellan's Strait in December. During an anchorage here, a part of the men slept on shore: they were always awakened from their first slumber by the roaring of wild beasts, which the darkness of the night and the loneliness of their situation rendered horrible beyond description. The animals were prevented from invading the tent by the kindling of large fires. Having determined to await the arrival of the Florida,--a store-ship which was to follow him,--Byron returned into the Atlantic and discovered a group of islands, of which he took possession for King George III. by the name of the Falkland Islands. Here the seals and penguins were so numerous that it was impossible to walk upon the beach without first driving them away. The men were also compelled to do battle and fight hand-to-hand encounters with enormous and formidable sea-lions, and with animals as large as a mastiff and as fierce as a wolf. On returning to Port Desire, in February, 1765, the whales about the ship rendered the navigation dangerous, and one of them blew a jet of water over the quarterdeck. The Florida arrived about the same time, and the Dolphin and Tamar took from her all the provisions they could store. They then entered the Strait, and, for seven weeks and two days, struggled with the terrible weather which at the period of the spring equinox prevails in that tempestuous region. They made Cape Deseado on the 8th of April, and soon after entered the South Sea. Turning to the north as far as Juan Fernandez, and then making a long stretch to the west, Byron discovered, on the 7th of June, in 14° 5' south latitude and in 145° west longitude, a group of islands covered with delightful groves and evidently producing cocoanuts and bananas in abundance. Turtles were seen upon the shore; and the whole aspect of the island was tropical and attractive in the extreme. But a violent surge broke upon every point of the coast, and the steep coral rocks which formed the shore rendered it unsafe to anchor. The sailors, prostrated with scurvy, stood gazing at this little paradise with sensations of bitter regret; and Byron accordingly named the group the Islands of Disappointment. Two days later, however, he discovered another group, to which he gave the name of King George's Islands. Here the savages, in attempting to repel an invasion of their domain, provoked reprisals, and two or three of them were killed: one, being pierced by three balls which went quite through his body, took up a large stone and died in the act of throwing it. Byron obtained several boatloads of cocoanuts and a large quantity of scurvy-grass. After discovering and naming Prince of Wales' and Duke of York's Islands, Byron bore away for the Ladrones, a month's sail to the west. In due time, and after a voyage accomplished without incident, the two vessels arrived at the Ladrone island of Tinian, already famous from the glowing description given of it by Lord Anson. They anchored not far from the spot where the Centurion had lain, and in water so clear that they could see the bottom at the depth of one hundred and forty-four feet. Byron gives a very different account of the island from that furnished by Anson,--a fact attributable to the circumstance that he visited it during the rainy season. The undergrowth in the woods was so thick, he says, that they could not see three yards before them: the meadows were covered with stubborn reeds higher than their heads, and which cut their legs like whipcord. Every time they spoke they inhaled a mouthful of flies. In the Centurion's well they found water that was brackish and full of worms. Centipedes bit and scorpions bled. The ships rolled at anchor as never ships rolled before. The rains were incessant. The heat was suffocating, being only nine degrees less than the heat of the blood at the heart. Anson's cattle were very shy; for it took six men three days and three nights to capture and kill a bullock, whose flesh, when dragged home to the tents, invariably proved to be fly-blown and useless. After a stay of nine weeks at Tinian, Byron weighed anchor on the 30th of September, with a cargo of two thousand cocoanuts. On the 5th of October, he touched at the Malay island of Timoan. The inhabitants were inclined to drive hard bargains and to part with as few provisions as possible. They were even offended at the sailors hauling the seine and taking fish upon their coast. Leaving this ungenerous island, they met with a fortnight of light winds, dead calms, and violent tornadoes, accompanied with rain, thunder, and lightning. On the 19th of October, they hailed an English craft belonging to the East India Company and bound from Bencoolen to Bengal. The master sent them a sheep, a turtle, a dozen fowls, and two gallons of arrack. With this assistance Byron easily reached Java, where he took in stores of rice and arrack. Nothing of moment occurred during the run home, except the incident of a collision between the Dolphin and a whale, in which the latter appeared to be the greatest sufferer, as the water was deeply tinged with blood. Byron arrived at Deal on the 7th of May, 1766. Each ship had lost six men, including those that were drowned. This number was so inconsiderable that it was deemed probable that more of them would have died had they remained on shore. Byron, having discharged all the duties devolving on him during this voyage with prudence and energy, could not be held responsible for the poverty of the scientific results obtained,--a circumstance owing to the absence of scientific men, naturalists, mathematicians, astronomers, &c. The Government resolved to make another effort, and to equip the expedition in a style more adequate to its necessities. The Dolphin was immediately refitted and furnished for a voyage to be made in the same seas under Captain Samuel Wallis. The Swallow, a sloop of fourteen guns, was appointed to be her consort, instead of the lumbering Tamar, and Captain Carteret, who had accompanied Byron, was ordered to command her. The Prince Frederick was appointed to accompany them as store-ship. They left Plymouth in company on the 22d of August, 1766. The run to Magellan's Strait offers no points of interest. They entered into amicable relations with the Patagonians. These people, who, from Magellan's and Byron's accounts, had obtained the reputation of being giants of seven feet, were measured with a rod by Wallis. The tallest were six feet six, while their average height was from five feet ten to six feet. He invited several of them on board, where, following the example of Magellan, he showed one of them a looking-glass. "This, however," he says, "excited little astonishment, but afforded them infinite diversion." The Prince Frederick took on board, by Wallis' order, several thousand young trees, which had been carefully removed with their roots and the earth about them, and transported them to the Falkland Islands, where there was no growth of wood. Captain Carteret climbed a mountain in the hope of obtaining a view of the South Sea: he erected a pyramid, in which he deposited a bottle containing a shilling and a paper,--a memorial which, he remarked, might possibly remain there as long as the world endured. At other points the land was bare, covered with snow, or piled to the clouds with rocks, looking like the ruins of nature doomed to everlasting sterility and desolation. A storm now disabled both ships, and Carteret found the Swallow to be almost unmanageable. From this time forward, during the passage of the Strait, the inhabitants they met seemed to be the most miserable of human beings,--half frozen, half fed, half clothed. After four months' dangerous and tedious navigation, they issued from the Strait into the ocean on the 11th of April, 1767, bidding farewell to a region where in the midst of summer the weather was tempestuous, "where the prospect had more the appearance of chaos than of nature, and where, for the most part, the valleys were without herbage and the hills without wood." A storm here separated the Dolphin and the Swallow, and from this point the adventures of Wallis and Carteret form two distinct narratives. We shall follow the course of the Dolphin, and then return to that of the Swallow. Wallis sailed to the northwest for two months without incident, discovering Whitsun Island and Queen Charlotte's Island in mid-ocean. At last, on the 19th of June, he touched at Quiros' island of Sagittaria: it had been lost for a century and a half, and its existence even was doubted. The Dolphin was soon surrounded by hundreds of canoes, containing at least eight hundred people. They did not manifest hostile intentions, however, contenting themselves with petty thefts. Wallis sent his boats to sound for an anchorage, and, observing the canoes gather around them, fired a nine-pounder over their heads. A skirmish followed, which resulted in the wounding of several on both sides. But, on Wallis' attempting to enter the Bay of Matavai, the islanders offered a determined resistance: three-hundred canoes, manned by two thousand warriors, surrounded him and attacked him with a hail of stones. Repulsed for a time, they twice rallied, and hurled stones weighing two pounds on board, by means of slings. At last a cannon-ball cut the canoe bearing the chief in halves, whereupon canoes and warriors disappeared with the utmost precipitation. The ship was now warped up to the shore, and the boats landed without opposition. Mr. Furneaux, the lieutenant, took possession of the island for his majesty, in honor of whom he called it King George the Third's Island. The water proving to be excellent, rum was mixed with it, and every man drank his majesty's health. The natives choosing to make a demonstration at midnight, Wallis cleared the coast with his guns, and sent the carpenters ashore with their axes, to destroy all the canoes which in their precipitation they had left. Fifty canoes, some of them sixty feet long, were thus broken up. These measures brought the savages to terms, and boughs of plantains were soon exchanged and vows of friendship pantomimically expressed. Trade was established, and a tent erected at the watering place. The crew now lived sumptuously upon fruits and poultry, and in a fortnight the commander hardly knew them for the same people. This, as we have said, was the island which Cook was to render famous under the name of Tahiti. It was not long before it was discovered that nails, the principal medium of exchange, seemed to have lost their value with the islanders. Bringing forth large spikes from their pockets, they intimated that they desired nails of a similar size and strength. It was now ascertained that the sailors, having no nails of their own, had drawn all the stout hammock-pins, and had ripped out the belaying cleats. Every artifice was practised to discover the thieves, but without success. On the 11th of July, a tall woman of pleasing countenance and majestic deportment came on board. She proved to be Oberea, sovereign of the island. She seemed quite fascinated by Wallis, who was recovering from a severe illness, and invited him to go on shore and perfect his convalescence. He accepted the invitation, and the next day called upon her at her residence,--an immense thatched roof raised upon pillars. She ordered four young girls to take off his shoes and stockings and gently chafe his skin with their hands. While they were doing this, the English surgeon who accompanied Wallis took off his wig to cool himself. Every eye was at once fixed upon this prodigy of nature. The whole assembly stood motionless in silent astonishment. They would not have been more amazed, says Wallis, had they discovered that the surgeon's limbs had been screwed on to the trunk. Oberea accompanied Wallis on his way back to the shore, and whenever they came to a little puddle of water she lifted him over it. It was now discovered that one Francis Pinckney, a seaman, had drawn the cleats to which the main-sheet was belayed, and had then removed and bargained away the spikes. Wallis called the men together, explained the heinousness of the offence, and ordered Pinckney to be whipped with nettles while he ran the gauntlet three times round the deck. To prevent the ship from being pulled to pieces and the price of provisions from being disproportionately raised, he directed that no man should go ashore except the wooders and waterers. Oberea now became romantic and tender. She tied wreaths of plaited hair around Wallis' hat, giving him to understand that both the hair and workmanship were her own. She made him presents of baskets of cocoanuts, and of sows big with young. She said he must stay twenty days more; and, when he replied that he should depart in seven days, she burst into tears, and was with great difficulty pacified. When the fatal hour arrived, she threw herself down upon the arm-chest and wept passionately. She was with difficulty got over the side into her canoe, where she sat the picture of helpless, unutterable woe. Wallis tossed her articles of use and ornament, which she silently accepted without looking at them. He subsequently bade her adieu more privately on shore. A fresh breeze sprang up, and the Dolphin left the island on the 27th of July. [Illustration: PARTING OF WALLIS AND OBEREA.] On his way to Tinian he discovered several islands, one of which the officers did their commander the honor of calling Wallis' Island. At Tinian they found every article mentioned by Lord Anson, though it required no little time and labor to noose a bullock or bag a banana. When they left, each man had laid in five hundred limes. On the passage to Batavia, and thence to Table Bay, the sick-list was very large, and several men were lost by disease and accident. At the Cape, the crew were attacked by the small-pox, and a pest-tent was erected upon a spacious plain. The infection was not fatal in any instance. The Dolphin anchored in the Downs on the 20th of May, 1768. Wallis was enabled to communicate a paper to the Royal Society in time for that body to give to Lieutenant Cook, then preparing for his first voyage, more complete instructions by which to govern his movements. We must now return to the Swallow, commanded by Philip Carteret, and, as far as the Strait of Magellan, the consort of the Dolphin. A storm, as we have said, separated them; and, while Wallis sailed to the northwest, Carteret was driven due north. He was surprised to find Juan Fernandez fortified by the Spanish, and did not think it prudent to attempt a landing. Sailing now due west, he discovered an island to which he gave the name of Pitcairn, in honor of the young man who first saw it. This island we shall have occasion to mention more particularly hereafter, as it became the scene of the romantic adventures of the mutineers of the Bounty. The vessel had now become crazy, and leaked constantly. The sails were worn, and split with every breeze. The men were attacked by the scurvy; and Carteret began to fear that he should get neither ship nor crew in safety back to England. At last, on the 12th of August, land was discovered at daybreak, which proved to be a cluster of islands, of which Carteret counted seven. Ignorant that Mendana had discovered them in 1595, nearly two centuries previously, and had given them the name of Santa Cruz, Carteret took possession of them, naming them Queen Charlotte's Islands and giving a distinctive appellation to each member of the archipelago. Cocoanuts, bananas, hogs, and poultry were seen in abundance as they sailed along the shore; but every attempt to land ended in bloodshed and repulse. They now steered to the northwest, and, on the 26th of August, saw New Britain and St. George's Bay, discovered and named by Dampier. Anchoring temporarily, and again wishing to weigh anchor, Carteret found, to his dismay, that the united strength of the whole ship's company was insufficient to perform the labor. They spent thirty-six hours in fruitless attempts, but, having recruited their strength by sleep, finally succeeded. They had neither the strength to chase turtle nor the address to hook fish. Cocoanut-milk gradually revived the men, who also received benefit from a fruit resembling a plum. The wind not allowing Carteret to follow Dampier's track around New Britain, the idea struck him that St. George's Bay might in reality be a channel dividing the island in twain. This the event proved to be correct. On his way through, he noticed three remarkable hills, which he called the Mother and Daughters, the Mother being the middlemost and largest. Leaving the southern portion of the island in possession of its old name, New Britain, he called the northern portion New Ireland. On leaving the channel, the vessel was in such a state that no time or labor could be any longer devoted to science or geography: the essential point was to reach some European settlement. Carteret discovered numerous islands and groups, and, after touching at Mindanao, arrived at Macassar, on the island of Celebes, in March, 1768. He had buried thirteen of his men, and thirty more were at the point of death: all the officers were ill, and Carteret and his lieutenant almost unfit for duty. The Dutch refused him permission to land, and Carteret determined to run the ship ashore and fight for the necessaries of life, to which their situation entitled them, and which they must either obtain or perish. A boat, bearing several persons in authority, put out to them, and commanded them to leave at once, at the same time giving them two sheep and some fowls and fruit. Carteret showed them the corpse of a man who had died that morning, and whose life would probably have been saved had provisions been at once afforded him. This somewhat shocked them; and they inquired very particularly whether he had been among the Spice Islands, and, upon receiving a negative reply, which they appeared to believe, directed him to proceed to a bay not far distant, where he would find shelter from the monsoon and provisions in abundance. He proceeded, therefore, to Bonthain, where he altered his reckoning, having lost about eighteen hours in coming by the west, while the vessels that had come by the east had gained about six. He stayed here two months, with difficulty obtaining natives to replace the many seamen he had lost. On the passage from Bonthain to Batavia, the ship leaked so fast that the pumps, which were kept constantly at work, were hardly able to keep her free. He arrived at Batavia on the 2d of June. Here the Dutch authorities again placed every obstacle in his way; and it was the last week in July before he could heave down the ship for repairs. These being completed, he set sail for England. On the 30th of January, 1769, he touched at Ascension, where it was the custom, as the island was uninhabited, for every ship to leave a letter in a bottle, with the date, name, destination, &c. With this custom Carteret of course complied. Three weeks afterwards, he was overhauled by a ship bearing French colors and sailing in the same direction as himself. Carteret was very much surprised to hear the French captain call him and his ship by name: he was still more surprised to hear that the Dolphin had already returned to England, and had reported his--Carteret's--probable loss in Magellan's Strait. "How did you learn the name of my ship?" shouted Carteret through his trumpet. "From the bottle at Ascension," was the reply. "And how did you hear of the opinion formed in England of our fate?" "From the French gazette at the Cape of Good Hope." "And who may you be, pray?" "A French East Indiaman, Captain Bougainville." The vessel was La Boudeuse, whose voyage round the world we shall narrate in the following chapter. The Swallow anchored at Spithead on Saturday, the 20th of March, having been absent three years wanting two days. No navigator had yet done so much with resources so insufficient: Carteret's discoveries were of the highest interest in a geographical point of view. He was a worthy predecessor of Cook; and his achievements with a crazy ship and a disabled crew prepared the public mind for the researches which his already distinguished successor would be enabled to make with the carefully equipped expedition which had lately started under his command. A harrowing incident which occurred at sea about this time produced a painful sensation throughout Europe. The French man-of-war Le Prince, being on her way from Lorient to Pondicherry by way of Cape Horn, was discovered to be on fire. Smoke was noticed ascending almost imperceptibly from one of the hatchways. The usual measures were promptly taken, eighty marines being placed on duty with loaded muskets to enforce obedience from the crew. The pumps and buckets were totally inadequate to master the now raging flames; while the fresh water, set running from the casks, was of equally little service. The yawl, by the captain's orders, had been lowered: seven men seized it and rowed rapidly away. Of the other boats, two were burned, and one was swamped as it touched the water. The consternation now became general; and the despairing shrieks of the dying, mingled with the cries of the affrighted animals on board, rendered the scene one of terrible confusion. The chaplain went about, granting a general absolution, and extending the remission of their sins even to those who, to avoid death by fire, committed suicide by leaping into the sea. There were six women on board, two of them the cousins of the captain. They were lowered into the water upon hen-coops, the captain bidding them an eternal farewell, as it was his duty and his determination to perish with the ship. [Illustration] The water was now alive with human beings, clinging to spars, oars, barrels, and other floating materials. Upon one spar were nine men, who had escaped the fury of one element, and were calmly awaiting the fate which they were expecting from another. They were destined to die by neither, but in a manner, if any thing, more horrible. The flames, reaching the cannon, which by some fatal coincidence were loaded, discharged them one by one. A ball, striking the spar by which these nine devoted men were kept afloat, ploughed its way through them all, killing several outright and mortally wounding the rest. Not one escaped. The mast now fell into the sea, making terrible havoc among those within its reach; while at every moment a gun launched its reckless metal upon the water. The chaplain, clinging to a bit of charred wood, edified all who heard him by his piety and resignation. Once he tried to sink, but was brought back by the first lieutenant. "Let me go," said he; "I am full of water, and it cannot avail to prolong my sufferings." "In his holy company," says the lieutenant, in his narrative, "I passed three hours: during which time I saw one of the captain's cousins give up the effort to keep herself afloat, and fall back and drown." This lieutenant, surviving the rest, hailed the seven men in the yawl, by whom he was taken in, as were also the pilot and the quartermaster. These ten persons were all that were saved out of the three hundred who composed the vessel's crew. The frigate soon blew up; and, after this frightful scene of her expiring agony, all relapsed into silence. The lieutenant assumed the command of the boat, and, rowing to the remains of the wreck, ordered a search for stores and other articles of which they had pressing need. They found a keg of brandy, fifteen pounds of salt pork, a piece of scarlet cloth, twenty yards of coarse linen, and a quantity of staves and ropes. With the scarlet and an oar they made a mast and sail, with a key they made a pulley, and with a stave a rudder. With this equipment, and without astronomical instruments, they started upon their adventurous voyage, being six hundred miles distant from the coast of Brazil. Favored by a brisk breeze, they sailed during eight days, making seventy-five miles every twenty-four hours. They were nearly naked, and suffered terribly from exposure to the rays of a tropical July sun. On the sixth day, a light rain gave them the hope of satisfying their devouring thirst. They licked the drops from the sail, but found them already bitterly impregnated with salt. They suffered as much from hunger as thirst; for the salt pork, which had been found to cause blood-spitting, had been abandoned on the fourth day. A draught of brandy from time to time revived them somewhat, but burned their stomachs without moistening them, causing them pain rather than satisfaction. On the eighth night, the lieutenant passed ten hours at the helm, not one of the remaining nine having the strength to relieve him. It was not possible they could survive another day. The dawn of the 3d of August brought with it the blessed sight of land, and, collecting all their strength, to avoid being wrecked by the currents, tides, and reefs, they landed in safety late in the afternoon. The men rushed upon the beach, and, in their joy, rolled in the sand, and mingled thanksgivings with their shouts of joy. They no longer appeared like human beings, suffering having rendered their faces frightful to behold. The lieutenant twisted a piece of red cloth about his loins to show his rank to such inhabitants as they might fall in with. A rapidly-flowing stream being discovered, they all rushed into it, and lapped, rather than drank, its beneficent waters. The place where they were was a Portuguese settlement, and they were hospitably received by the colonists, who gave them shirts and manioc in abundance. Proceeding to Pernambuco, where a Portuguese fleet was stationed, they were welcomed with kindness by the officers, the lieutenant being admitted to the admiral's mess, and the men being distributed among the ships and placed on full pay. They were soon restored to their country, and the lieutenant communicated to the Government an official account of the disaster. [Illustration: CHAIN OF PHOSPHORESCENT SELPAS.] [Illustration: BOUGAINVILLE.] CHAPTER XLII. COLONIZATION OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS--ANTOINE DE BOUGAINVILLE--HIS VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD--ADVENTURE AT MONTEVIDEO--THE PATAGONIANS--TAKING POSSESSION OF TAHITI--FRENCH GALLANTRY--CEREMONIES OF RECEPTION--SOJOURN AT THE ISLAND--AOTOUROU--THE FIRST FEMALE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR--FAMINE ON BOARD--REMARKABLE CASCADE--ARRIVAL AT THE MOLUCCAS--INCIDENTS THERE--RETURN HOME. Several years before the period of which we are speaking, the French Government had colonized the Falkland Islands, lying off the eastern coast of Patagonia. The establishment lasted barely three years, and, in an agricultural point of view, was a complete and disastrous failure. The Spanish crown subsequently claimed these islands as belonging to the continent of South America, and the King of France was easily induced to abandon them. Captain Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was instructed, in 1766, to proceed to the islands, and there, in the name of his French majesty, cede them to the Spanish authorities who would be sent out for the purpose. He was then to continue on, by the Strait of Magellan and the Pacific, to the East Indies, and thence to return home. Should he accomplish this task, he would be the first French circumnavigator of the globe. Bougainville received the command of the frigate La Boudeuse, carrying twenty-six twelve-pounders, and was to be joined at the Falklands by the store-ship l'Étoile. He sailed from Brest on the 5th of December, the Prince of Nassau-Singhen, who had been allowed to accompany the expedition, being on board. They arrived at Montevideo early in February, 1767, and found there the two Spanish frigates to whose commander Bougainville was to surrender the Falkland Islands, and with whom he sailed in company on the 28th of the month. They met with severe weather, but arrived safely at their destination towards the close of March. The settlement was made over to the Spaniards on the 1st of April: the Spanish colors were planted and saluted at sunrise and sunset. The French inhabitants were informed they might either remain or return: a portion embarked with the garrison for Montevideo, on their way back to France. Bougainville waited at the islands till the end of May for the store-ship, which was to join him at this point, and then returned to Rio Janeiro, where he hoped to get tidings of her. She had but just arrived, bringing salt meat and liquor sufficient for fifteen months, but no bread or vegetables. So he was forced to go, in quest of these provisions, back to Montevideo. From here he went to Buenos Ayres, on the opposite side of the bay formed by the mouths of the La Plata, making the journey, however, overland, as a contrary wind prevented his proceeding by water. At night, he and his party slept in leathern tents, while tigers howled around them on every side. Coming to the river St. Lucia, which is wide, deep, and rapid, they were at a loss how to cross it. At last their guide procured a hollow canoe, the master of which fastened a horse on each side of the bow, and then boldly assumed the reins. He supported the heads of the horses above the water and drove them safely across it. The Frenchmen landed on the opposite side dry-shod. [Illustration: A FERRY BOAT AT BUENOS AYRES.] It was not till the 14th of November that the Boudeuse and Étoile, having taken in supplies of biscuit and bread, sailed, for the last time, from Montevideo. They made the entrance of the Strait of Magellan a fortnight afterwards. On the 8th of December, they saw a number of Patagonians, who had kept up fires all night, hoisting a white flag on an eminence,--a flag which some European ship had evidently given them as a pledge of alliance. Bougainville went on shore, where some thirty natives received him with every mark of good will. They embraced him and his party, shook hands with them, and imitated the report of muskets with their mouths, showing that they were accustomed to fire-arms. They aided the botanist in collecting plants and simples, and one of them applied to the physician for a prescription for his inflamed eye. They asked for tobacco, and swallowed small draughts of brandy, blowing with their mouths after the draught and uttering a tremulous inarticulate sound. They begged them to remain over night, and, upon the invitation being politely declined, accompanied them with ceremony to the shore. [Illustration: BOUGAINVILLE IN MAGELLAN'S STRAIT.] Bougainville, with three of his officers, spent some hours in taking soundings near Cape Froward. Perceiving a small flat rock, which barely afforded them standing-room, they mounted upon it, hoisted their colors, and shouted Vive le Roi! The coast now resounded for the first time, says Bougainville, with this compliment to his majesty. Upon which an English commentator remarks "that it is a striking instance of the vanity by which the French nation is distinguished." The vessels, being retarded by constant head-winds and harassed by violent storms, occupied fifty-two days in threading the channel, and the month of January, 1768, was well advanced before they discovered the boundless expanse of the Pacific. Sailing to the northwest, they passed several low, half-drowned islands, one of which Bougainville called Harp Island. A cluster of reefs he called the Dangerous Archipelago. Sore throats now troubling the crew, he attributed them to the snow-water of the Strait, and cured them by putting a pint of vinegar and a dozen red-hot bullets into the daily water-cask. He combated the scurvy by employing lemonade prepared from a concentration in the form of powder. He made fresh water from salt water by means of a distilling apparatus which furnished a barrelful every night. In order to economize their drinking-water, their bread was kneaded with water dipped up from the sea. On the 4th of April, they discovered land; and fires burning during the night over a wide extent of coast showed them that it was inhabited and populous. In the morning a canoe propelled by twelve naked men approached. The chief, with a prodigious growth of hair which stood like bristles divergent on his head, offered the commander a cluster of bananas, indicating that this was the olive-branch in use in Tahiti,--the island at which the ships had now arrived. Presents were exchanged and an alliance effected. The vessels were now surrounded with canoes laden with cocoanuts and bananas, and a brisk and tolerably honest trade was driven by the natives and the strangers. The aspect of the coast--the mountains covered with foliage to their very summits, the lowlands interspersed with meadows and with plantations of tropical fruit, cascades pouring down from the rocks into the sea, streams flowing among lovely clusters of huts situated upon the shore--offered an enchanting scene to the wearied crews. While the Boudeuse was casting her anchor, canoes filled with women came around her. "These," adds Bougainville, with characteristic French gallantry, "are not inferior for agreeable features to most European women. It was very difficult, amidst such a sight, to keep at their work four hundred young sailors who had seen none of the fair sex for six months. The capstan was never hove with more alacrity than on this occasion." The captain and several officers now went on shore, where they were received with high glee by all, with the exception of a venerable man, apparently a philosopher, "whose thoughtful and suspicious air seemed to show that he feared the arrival of a new race of men would trouble those happy days which he had spent in peace." A poet, reclining beneath a tree, sang them a song to the accompaniment of a flute which a musician blew, not with his mouth, but with one of his nostrils. In return for this entertainment, the strangers gave, at night, an exhibition of sky-rockets, witch-quills, and other pyrotechnics. The chief, learning that the Prince of Nassau was a man of royal blood, offered him a wife; but, as the lady was advanced in years and correspondingly mature in appearance, the prince plead a previous union and escaped. The vessels stayed here a fortnight, cutting wood and drawing water. They lost six anchors during their sojourn, and twice narrowly missed utter shipwreck,--"the worst consequence of which would have been to pass the remainder of their days on an isle adorned with all the gifts of nature, and to exchange the sweets of the mother-country for a peaceable life exempt from cares." The islanders expressed infinite regret at their departure,--one of them, Aotourou by name, being unable to endure the separation, and asking permission to go with them. He gave his young wife three pearls which he had in his ears, kissed her, and went on board the ship. Bougainville quitted the island on the 16th of April, no less surprised at the sorrow the inhabitants testified at his departure than at their affectionate confidence on his arrival. He directed his course so as to avoid the Pernicious Isles, warned by the disasters of Roggewein to avoid them. Aotourou pointed at night to the bright star in Orion's shoulder, indicating that they should guide their course by it, and that in two days it would bring them to a fertile island where he had friends and children. Being vexed that no attention was paid to his advice, he rushed to the helm, seized the wheel, and endeavored to put the ship about. In the morning he climbed to the mast-head, and sought, in the distant horizon, the favored land of which he had spoken. The vessels kept on steadily to the westward, passing through Navigator's Islands and the group which Quiros had named Espiritu Santo. To the latter Bougainville gave the name of Grandes Cyclades,--one, however, not destined to be long retained. He was at this time informed that Baré, the servant of M. de Commerçon, the botanist of the Étoile, was a woman. He went on board the store-ship to make investigations. He thought the report incredible, as Baré was already an expert botanist, and had acquired the name, during his excursions with his master among the snows of Magellan's Strait,--where he carried provisions, fire-arms, and bundles of plants,--of being his beast of burden. The first suspicion of him occurred at Tahiti, where the natives, with the keen intuition of savages, cried out in their dialect, "It is a woman!" and insisted on paying her the attentions due to her sex. When Bougainville went on board the Étoile, Baré, bathed in tears, admitted that she was a woman. She said she was an orphan, had served before in men's clothes, and that the idea of a voyage around the world had inflamed her curiosity. Bougainville does her the justice to state that she always behaved on board with the most scrupulous modesty. She was not handsome, and was twenty-seven years of age. She was the first woman that ever circumnavigated the globe. It was not long before the provisions began to give out, and the crew were put upon half rations. The commander was soon obliged to forbid the eating of old leather, as it was becoming as scarce as biscuit and was quite as necessary. The butcher shed tears upon sacrificing a favorite goat, and Bougainville turned away his head as that sanguinary personage, with equally cruel intent, whistled to a young Patagonian dog. Breakers, reefs, and channels, where the tide ran fast and dangerously, indicated the presence of land, to which was given the name of Louisiade. This is a group of islands inhabited by Papuans. On the coast of New Britain, at an uninhabited spot which Bougainville named Port Praslin, he obtained a supply of inferior provisions, such as thatch-palms, cabbage-trees, and mangle apples. A species of aromatic ivy was likewise found, in which the physicians discovered anti-scorbutic properties; and a store of it was therefore laid in. An immense cascade, which furnished the vessels with fresh water, is enthusiastically described by Bougainville. After a stay of eight days at Port Praslin, during which time the heavens were black with continual tempests, the vessels profited by a change of wind and continued their westerly course. The field-tents were cut up, and trousers made from them were distributed to the two ships' companies. Another ounce was taken from the daily allowance of bread. From time to time canoes would shoot out from the coast of New Britain; but the hostility and treachery of the natives rendered all efforts to obtain food from them unavailing. [Illustration: CASCADE AT PORT PRASLIN.] On the 1st of September, Bougainville made the island of Boero, one of the Moluccas, where he knew the Dutch had a small factory and a weak garrison. All his men were now sick, without exception. The provisions remaining were so nauseous that, as he says, "the hardest moments of the sad days we passed were those when the bell gave us notice to take in this disgusting and unwholesome food. But now our misery was to have an end. Ever since midnight a pleasant scent exhaled from the aromatic plants with which the Moluccas abound; the aspect of a considerable town, situated in the bottom of the gulf, of ships at anchor there, and of cattle rambling through the meadows, caused transports which I have doubtless felt, but which I can not here describe." It was found that the Dutch East India Company reigned supreme, and that the governor was disposed to keep to the letter of his instructions, which forbade him to receive any ships but those of the monopoly. Bougainville was obliged to plead the claims of hunger and considerations of humanity before the authorities would listen to him. They then furnished him with rice, poultry, sago, goats, fish, eggs, fruit, and venison, the latter being the flesh of stags introduced and acclimated by the Dutch. Henry Inman, the Dutch governor, though placed in a critical position by this arrival, behaved as became an honorable and generous man. He first did his duty towards his superiors, and then towards fellow-creatures in distress. Aotourou, the Tahitian, not being taken ashore by the commander on his first visit, imagined that it was because he was bow-legged and knock-kneed, and begged some of the sailors to stand upon his legs and straighten them out. During the run back to France, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, and the Cape Verd Islands, nothing happened which requires mention here. Bougainville entered the port of St. Malo on the 16th of March, 1769, having been absent two years and four months, and having lost but seven men during the voyage. He was the first Frenchman who ever went round the world in one ship,--one Gentil de la Barbinais, a pirate, having accomplished a voyage of circumnavigation in several ships, some fifty years before. He sustained his claim to this honor by publishing, two years afterwards, a narrative of his expedition, written in an animated and graceful style, and which established his reputation as a sailor and explorer. [Illustration: CAPTAIN JAMES COOK.] CHAPTER XLIII. EXPEDITION DESPATCHED AT THE INSTANCE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY--LIEUTENANT JAMES COOK--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE--A NIGHT ON SHORE IN TERRA DEL FUEGO--ARRIVAL AT TAHITI--THE NATIVES PICK THEIR POCKETS--THE OBSERVATORY--A NATIVE CHEWS A QUID OF TOBACCO--THE TRANSIT OF VENUS--TWO OF THE MARINES TAKE UNTO THEMSELVES WIVES--NEW ZEALAND--ADVENTURES THERE--REMARKABLE WAR-CANOE--CANNIBALISM DEMONSTRATED--THEORY OF A SOUTHERN CONTINENT SUBVERTED--NEW HOLLAND--BOTANY BAY--THE ENDEAVOR ON THE ROCKS--EXPEDIENT TO STOP THE LEAK--A CONFLAGRATION--PASSAGE THROUGH A REEF--ARRIVAL AT BATAVIA--MORTALITY ON THE VOYAGE HOME--COOK PROMOTED TO THE RANK OF COMMANDER. In the year 1768, the Royal Society of England induced the Government to equip and despatch a vessel to the South Seas. The reader may perhaps imagine--and, from what has preceded in this volume, he would be amply justified in so doing--that its purpose was plunder, and its object either the capture of the Manilla galleon or the sack and pillage of the luckless town of Paita. Thirty years, however, have elapsed since the voyage of Anson,--the last of the royal buccaneers. The vessel whose career we are now to chronicle sought neither capture, nor spoil, nor prize-money. It was a peaceful ship, with a peaceful name,--the Endeavor: her commander bore a name to be rendered illustrious by peaceful deeds, and he was bound upon a peaceful errand. James Cook, an officer of forty years of age, who had rendered efficient service in America, at the capture of Quebec, and who had shown himself a capable astronomer, was instructed to proceed to the island named Sagittaria by Quiros, and King George the Third's Island by Wallis, there to observe and record the transit of the planet Venus over the disk of the sun. The position of the island as reported by Wallis was deemed to be exceedingly favorable for such an observation. Cook was promoted to the rank of lieutenant; Charles Green was attached to the ship in the capacity of astronomer, Joseph Banks and Solander--the latter a Swede and a pupil of Linnæus--in that of naturalists, Buchan as draughtsman, and Parkinson as painter. The vessel sailed from Plymouth Sound, with a fair wind, on the 25th of August. The voyage to Rio Janeiro was enlivened by many incidents now of quite ordinary occurrence, but novel and interesting to navigators one hundred years ago. They saw flying-fish whose scales had the color and brightness of burnished silver. They caught a specimen of that species of mollusk which sailors call a Portuguese Man-of-War,--a creature ornamented with exquisite pink veins, and which spreads before-the wind a membrane which it uses as a sail. They observed that luminous appearance of the sea now familiar to all, but then a startling novelty. They were of opinion that it proceeded from some light-emitting animal: they threw over their casting-net, and drew up vast numbers of medusæ, which had the appearance of metal heated to a glow and gave forth a white and silvery effulgence. At Rio Janeiro the viceroy regarded them with strong suspicion, and refused to allow Mr. Banks to collect plants upon the shore. He could not understand the transit of Venus over the sun, which he was told was an astronomical phenomenon of great importance,--having gathered the idea from his interpreter that it was the passage of the North Star through the South Pole. On Wednesday, the 7th of December, they again weighed anchor, and left the American dominions of the King of Portugal, the air at the time being laden with butterflies, and several thousands of them hovering playfully about the mast-head. Towards the 1st of January, 1769, the sailors began to complain of cold, and each of them received a Magellanic jacket. On the 11th, in the midst of penguins, albatrosses, sheer-waters, seals, whales, and porpoises, they descried the Falkland Islands, and, soon after, the coast of Terra del Fuego. On the 15th, ten or twelve of the company went on shore, and were met by thirty or forty of the natives. Each of the latter had a small stick in his hand, which he threw away, seeming to indicate by this pantomime a renunciation of weapons in token of peace. Acquaintance was then speedily made: beads and ribbons were distributed, and a mutual confidence and good-will produced. Conversation ensued,--if speaking without conveying a meaning, and listening without comprehending, can be called so. Three Indians accompanied the strangers back to the ship. One of them, apparently a priest, performed a ceremony of exorcism, vociferating with all his force at each new portion of the vessel which met his gaze, seemingly for the purpose of dispelling the influence of magic which he supposed to prevail there. A botanical party under Solander and Banks attempted an excursion into the interior, for the purpose of obtaining specimens of the plants of the country. The snow lay deep upon the ground, and the weather was very severe. An accident rendered it impossible for them to return to the ship; and they were compelled to pass the night, without shelter, among the mountains. Solander well knew that extreme cold, when joined with fatigue, produces a torpor and sleepiness which are almost irresistible: he therefore conjured the company to keep moving, whatever pain it might cost them. "Whoever sits down," said he, "will sleep; and whoever sleeps will wake no more." He was the first to find the inclination, against which he had warned others, unconquerable, and he insisted upon being suffered to lie down upon the snow. He declared that he must obtain some sleep, though he had but just spoken of the perils with which sleep was attended. He soon fell into a profound slumber, in which he remained five minutes. He was then awakened, upon the reception of the news that a fire had been kindled. He was roused with great difficulty, and found that he had almost lost the use of his limbs, his muscles being so shrunk that his shoes fell from his feet. Richmond, a black servant, slept and never woke: two others, overcome with languor, made their bed and shroud in the snow. Such are the terrible effects of cold in the Land of Fire. On the 22d of January, Cook weighed anchor and commenced the passage through the Straits of Lemaire; on the 26th, he doubled Cape Horn and entered the Pacific Ocean. He sailed for many weeks to the westward, making many of the islands which had been discovered the year before by the French navigator Bougainville, and himself discovering others. On the 11th of April, he arrived at King George's Island, his destination, and the next morning came to anchor in Port Royal Bay, in thirteen fathoms' water. The natives brought branches of a tree, which seemed to be their emblem of peace, and indicated by their gestures that they should be placed in some conspicuous part of the ship's rigging. They then brought fish, cocoanuts, and bread-fruit, which they exchanged for beads and glass. The ship's company went on shore, and mingled in various ceremonies instituted for the purpose of promoting fellowship and good-will. During one of these, Dr. Solander and Mr. Markhouse--the latter a midshipman--suddenly complained that their pockets had been picked. Dr. Solander had lost an opera-glass in a shagreen case, and Mr. Markhouse had been relieved of a valuable snuff-box. A hue and cry was raised, and the chief of the tribe informed of the theft. After great effort and a long delay, the shagreen case was recovered; but the opera-glass was not in it. After another search, however, it was found and restored. The savages, upon being asked the name of their island, replied, O-Tahiti,--"It is Tahiti." The present mode of writing it, therefore,--Otaheite,--is erroneous: Tahiti is the proper spelling. Cook now made preparations for observing the transit of Venus. He laid out a tract of land on shore, and received from the chief of the natives a present of the roof of a house, as his contribution to science. He erected his observatory under the protection of the guns of his vessel, being somewhat suspicious of the object of such constant offerings of branches as the inhabitants insisted upon making. Mr. Parkinson, the painter, found it difficult to prosecute his labors; for the flies covered his paper to such a depth that he could not see it, and eat off the color as fast as he applied it. The music of the country, as the party gathered from a serenade played in their honor, was at once eccentric and laborious. The favorite instrument was a sort of German flute, which sounded but four semitones. The performer did not apply this apparatus to his mouth, but, stopping up one of his nostrils with his thumb, blew into it with the other, as Bougainville had already had occasion to observe. One day Mr. Banks was informed that an Indian friend of his, Tubourai by name, was dying, in consequence of something which the sailors had given him to eat. He hastened to his hut, and found the invalid leaning his head against a post in an attitude of the utmost despondency. The islanders about him intimated that he had been vomiting, and produced a leaf folded up with great care, which they said contained some of the poison from the fatal effects of which he was now expiring. He had chewed the portion he had taken to powder, and had swallowed the spittle. During Mr. Banks's examination of the leaf and its contents, he looked up with the most piteous aspect, intimating that he had but a short time to live. The deadly substance proved to be a quid of tobacco. Mr. Banks prescribed a plentiful dose of cocoanut-milk, which speedily dispelled Tubourai's sickness and apprehensions. On the 1st of May, the astronomical quadrant was taken on shore for the first time and deposited in Cook's tent. The next morning it was missing, and a vigorous search was instituted. It had been stolen by the natives and carried seven miles into the interior. Through the intervention of Tubourai it was recovered and replaced in the observatory. Thus far the integrity of Tubourai had been proof against every temptation. He had withstood the allurements of beads, hatchets, colored cloth, and quadrants, but was finally led astray by the fascinations of a basket of nails. The basket was known to have contained seven nails of unusual length, and out of these seven five were missing. One was found upon his person; and he was told that if he would bring back the other four to the fort the affair should be forgotten. He promised to do so, but, instead of fulfilling his promise, removed with his family to the interior, taking the nails and all his furniture with him. The transit of Venus was observed, with perfect success, on the 3d of June, by means of three telescopes of different magnifying powers, by Cook, Dr. Solander, and Mr. Green. Not a cloud passed over the sky from the rising to the setting of the sun. A party of natives contemplated the process in solemn silence, and were made to understand that the strangers had visited their island for the express purpose of witnessing the immersion of the planet. The ship was to leave Tahiti on the 10th of June, and the time was now spent in preparations for departure. On the evening of the 9th, it was discovered that two marines, Webb and Gibson, had gone ashore, and were not to be found. It was ascertained that they had married two young girls of the island, with whom they had been in the habit of having stolen interviews, and to whom they were very much attached. They were recovered with much difficulty, and compelled, by the stern laws of the naval service, to leave their wives behind them. The vessel sailed on the 13th, an Indian named Tupia having been gratified in his desire to accompany Cook upon his voyage. As the anchor was weighed, he ascended to the mast-head, weeping, and waving a handkerchief to his friends in the canoe. The latter vied with each other in the violence of their lamentations, which was considered by the English as more affected than genuine. Lieutenant Cook now discovered, successively, the various islands which he regarded as forming an archipelago, and to which he gave the name of Society Islands. He left the last of them on the 15th of August, and on the 25th celebrated the anniversary of their leaving England by taking a Cheshire cheese from a locker and tapping a cask of porter. On the 30th, they saw the comet of that year, Tupia remarking with some agitation that it would foment dissensions between the inhabitants of the two islands of Bolabola and Ulieta, who would seem, from this, to have been peculiarly susceptible to meteorological influences. On the 7th of October, they discovered land, and anchored in an inlet to which they gave the name of Poverty Bay. This was the northeast coast of New Zealand,--an island discovered in 1642 by Tasman, and which had not been seen since, a space of one hundred and twenty-seven years. The natives received them with distrust, and several of them were somewhat unnecessarily killed by musket-shots. All efforts to enter into amicable relations with them failed, and Cook determined to make another attempt at some other point of the coast. Here a bloody fight took place, which resulted in the capture of three young savages by Cook's men. They expected to be put to death, and, when relieved from their apprehension by the kindness with which they were treated, were suddenly seized with a voracious appetite, and seemed to be in the highest possible spirits. During the night, however, they gave way to grief, sighed often and deeply, and sang low and solemn tunes like psalms. The next morning they were brilliantly decorated with beads, bracelets, and necklaces, and displayed in this guise to their countrymen on shore. The negotiation totally failed: the boys were sent home, and the ship stood away from the inhospitable shore on Wednesday, the 11th. Cook coasted along the island to the south, now alarming the natives by a single musket-shot, now dispersing a hostile fleet of a dozen well-armed canoes by a discharge of a four-pounder loaded with grape-shot, but aimed wide of the mark. At another time Tupia would be ordered to acquaint a party of shouting and dancing savages that the strangers had weapons which, like thunder, would instantaneously destroy them. Cook was badly worsted in a bargain he made with a species of New Zealand confidence-man, who came under the stern and proposed to trade. Cook offered him a piece of red baize for his bear-skin coat. The savage accepted. Cook passed over the article, upon which the islander paddled rapidly away, taking with him the baize and the bear-skin. An attempt made by a party of the natives to kidnap Tupia's servant, Tayeto,--a Tahitian like himself,--and which was near being successful, induced Cook to name the deep indentation of the sea at this point of the coast, Kidnapper's Bay. Somewhat farther to the south they found the natives more disposed to be friendly, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went ashore and shot several birds of exquisite beauty. Some of the ship's company returned at night with their noses besmeared with red ochre and oil,--a circumstance which Cook explains by saying that "the ladies paint their faces with substances which are generally fresh and wet upon their cheeks and were easily transferred to the noses of those who chose to salute them. These ladies," he goes on to say, "were as great coquettes as any of the most fashionable dames in Europe, and the young ones as skittish as an unbroken filly. Each of them wore a petticoat, under which was a girdle made of the blades of highly-perfumed grass." At another point they set up the armorer's forge, to repair the braces of the tiller. They here met an old man who insisted on showing them the military exercises of the country, with a lance twelve feet long, and a battle-axe made of bone and called a patoo-patoo. An upright stake was made to represent the enemy, upon which he advanced with great fury: when he was supposed to have pierced the adversary, he split his skull with his axe. From this final act it was inferred that in the battles of this country there was no quarter. It was also ascertained that cannibalism was a constant and favorite practice. They here saw the largest canoe they had yet met with. She was sixty-eight feet and a half long, five broad, and three deep: she had a sharp keel, consisting of three trunks of trees hollowed out: the side-planks were sixty-two feet long in one piece, and quite elaborately carved in bas-relief: the figure-head was also a masterpiece of sculpture. [Illustration: A NEW ZEALAND CANOE.] The expedition had thus far been sailing to the southward. Dissatisfied with the results, and finding it difficult to procure water in sufficient quantities, Cook put about, determining to follow the coast to the northward. He named a promontory in the neighborhood Cape Turnagain. Another promontory, more to the north, where a huge canoe made a hasty retreat, he called Cape Runaway. On the 9th of November, the transit of Mercury was successfully observed, and the name of Mercury Bay given to the inlet where the observation was made. Two localities, for reasons which will be obvious, were called Oyster Bay and Mangrove River. Before leaving Mercury Bay, Cook caused to be cut, upon one of the trees near the watering-place, the ship's name, and his own, with the date of their arrival there, and, after displaying the English colors, took formal possession of it in the name of his Britannic Majesty King George the Third. On the 17th of December, they doubled North Cape, which is the northern extremity of the island, and commenced descending its western side. The weather now became stormy and the coast dangerous, so that the vessel was obliged to stand off to great distances, and intercourse with the natives was very much interrupted. At one point, however, the English satisfied themselves that the inhabitants ate human flesh,--the flesh, at least, of enemies who had been killed in battle. An Indian, to convince Mr. Banks of the truth of this, seized the bone of a human fore-arm divested of its flesh, bit and gnawed it, drawing it through his mouth, and indicating by signs that it afforded him a delicious repast. The bone was then returned to Mr. Banks, who took it on board ship with him as a trophy and a souvenir. He was afterwards told that the New Zealanders ate no portion of the heads of their enemies but the seat of the intellect, and was assured that as soon as a fight should take place they would treat him to the sight of a banquet of brains. By the end of March, 1770, the ship had circumnavigated the two islands forming what is now known as New Zealand, and had therefore proved--what was before uncertain--that it was insular, and not a portion of any grand Southern mainland. The whole voyage, in fact, had been unfavorable to the notion of a Southern continent, for it had swept away at least three-quarters of the positions upon which it had been founded. It had also totally subverted the theory according to which the existence of a Southern continent was necessary to preserve an equilibrium between the Northern and Southern hemispheres; for it had already proved the presence of sufficient water to render the Southern hemisphere too light, even if all the rest should be land. The vessel left New Zealand on the 31st of March, sailing due west, and, on the 18th of April, Mr. Hicks, the first lieutenant, discovered land directly in the ship's path. This was the most southerly point of New Holland, and was called, from its discoverer, Point Hicks. Cook followed the coast for many days to the northward; and it was only on the third that he learned, from ascending smoke, that the country was inhabited. On the thirteenth, he saw a party of natives walking briskly upon the shore. These subsequently retired, leaving the defence of the coast to two persons of very singular appearance. Their faces had been dusted with a white powder, and their bodies painted with broad streaks of the same color, which, passing obliquely over their breasts and backs, looked not unlike the cross-belts worn by civilized soldiers: the same kind of streaks were also drawn round their legs and thighs, like broad garters. Each of them held in his hand a weapon two feet and a half long. The landing party detached by Cook numbered forty men; and one of the musketeers was ordered to show the two champions the folly of resistance, by lodging a charge of small shot in their legs. The wooders and waterers then went ashore, and with some difficulty obtained the necessary supplies. Early in May, Cook landed at a spot to which, from a casual circumstance, he gave the name of BOTANY BAY,--a name now famous the world over. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander collected here large quantities of plants, flowers, and branches of unknown trees; and it was this incident that furnished the pastoral appellation to the Retreat for Transported Criminals. They found the woods filled with birds of the most exquisite beauty; the shallow coasts were haunted with flocks of waterfowl resembling swans and pelicans; the mud-banks harbored vast quantities of oysters, muscles, cockles, and other shell-fish. The inhabitants went totally naked, would never parley with the strangers, and did not seem to understand the Tahitian dialect of Tupia. At a place which, in consequence of the difficulty of procuring fresh water, received the name of Thirsty Sound, the watering party met with singular adventures. They found walking exceedingly difficult, owing to the ground being covered with a kind of grass, the seeds of which were very sharp and bearded backwards, so that when they stuck into their clothes they worked forward by means of the beard till they pierced the flesh. Mosquitos stung them at every pore. The air was so filled with butterflies that they saw, smelt, tasted, and breathed butterflies. Black ants swarmed upon the trees, eating out the pith from the small branches and then inhabiting the pipe which had contained it; and yet the branches, thus deprived of their marrow and occupied by millions of insects, bore leaves, flowers, and even fruit. They saw a species of fish resembling a minnow, which appeared to prefer land to water: it leaped before them, by means of its breast-fins, as nimbly as a frog; when found in the water it frequently jumped out and pursued its way upon the dry ground; in places where small stones were standing above the surface of the water at a little distance from each other, it chose rather to leap from stone to stone than to pass through the water. They saw several of them proceed dry-shod over large puddles in this ingenious and unusual manner. The ship left Thirsty Sound on the 31st of May. On the night of Sunday, the 10th of June, the vessel struck at high tide upon a rock which lay concealed in seventeen fathoms' water, and beat so violently against it that there seemed little hope of saving her. Land was twenty-five miles off, with no intervening island in sight. The sheathing-boards were soon seen to be floating away all around, and the false keel was finally torn off. The six deck-guns, all the iron and stone ballast, casks, staves, oil-jars, decayed stores, to the weight of fifty tons, were thrown overboard with the utmost expedition. To Cook's dismay, the vessel, thus lightened, did not float by a foot and a half at high tide,--so much did the day tide fall short of that of the night. They again threw overboard every thing which it was possible to spare; but the vessel now began to leak, and it was feared she must go to the bottom as soon as she ceased to be supported by the rock,--so that the floating of the ship was anticipated not as a means of deliverance, but as an event that would precipitate her destruction. The ship floated at ten o'clock, and was heaved into deep water: there were nearly four feet of water in the hold. The leak was held at bay for a time; but the men were finally exhausted, and threw themselves down upon the deck, flooded as it was to the depth of three inches by water from the pumps. The vessel was finally saved by the following expedient, proposed and executed by Mr. Markhouse. He took a lower studding-sail, and having mixed together a large quantity of oakum and wool, chopped pretty small, stitched it down in handfuls upon the sail as tightly as possible. The sail was then hauled under the ship's bottom by ropes; and, when it came under the leak, the suction which carried in the water carried in with it the oakum and the wool. The leak was so far reduced that it was easily kept under by one pump. The vessel was finally got ashore and beached in Endeavor River: the surrounding localities were fitly named Tribulation Bay, Weary Point, and the Islands of Hope. The repairs of the vessel occupied many weeks,--the officers and crew occupying themselves in the mean time in fishing, in endeavors to obtain interviews with the natives, and in excursions for botanical or geological purposes. On the 14th of July, Mr. Gore killed an animal which had excited the interest and curiosity of the English in the highest degree, being totally unlike any animal then known. The name given by the natives to this creature was "kangaroo." He was dressed the next day for dinner, and proved most excellent fare. A party of natives in the neighborhood having been rendered hostile by the refusal of a pair of fat turtle belonging to the ship, they snatched a brand from under a pitch-kettle which was boiling, and, making a circuit to the windward of the few articles on shore, set fire to the grass in their way. This grass, which was five or six feet high and as dry as stubble, burned with amazing fury. The fire made rapid progress towards a tent where the unhappy Tupia was lying sick of the scurvy, scorching in its course a sow and two pigs. Tupia and the tent were saved in the nick of time: the armorer's forge, or such parts of it as would burn, was consumed. The powder, which had been taken ashore, had been transported back to the magazine but two days before. At night, the hills on every side were discovered to be on fire,--the conflagration having spread with wonderful celerity. On the 3d of August, the ship sailed from Endeavor River, the carpenter having at last completed the necessary repairs. The ship now coasted along the edge of a reef which stretched out some twenty miles from the shore. This became suddenly of so formidable an aspect, and the winds and waves rolled them towards it with such sure and fatal speed, that the boats were got out and sent ahead to tow, and finally succeeded in getting the ship's head round. The surf was now breaking to a tremendous height within two hundred yards: the water beneath them was unfathomable. An opening in the reef was now discovered, and the dangerous expedient of forcing the ship through it was successfully tried. They anchored in nineteen fathoms' water, over a bottom of coral and shells. The opening through the reef received the name of Providential Channel. They sailed to the northward many days within the reef, till they at last found a safe passage out. Cook then for the last time hoisted English colors upon the eastern coast, which he was confident no European had seen before, and took possession of its whole extent, from south latitude thirty-eight to latitude ten. He claimed it, in behalf of his Majesty King George the Third, by the name of New South Wales, with all its bays, rivers, harbors, and islands. Three volleys of small-arms were then fired, and the spot upon which the ceremony was performed was named Possession Island. The ship passed out to the westward, finding open sea to the north of New Holland,--a circumstance which gave great satisfaction to all on board, as it showed that New Holland and New Guinea were separate islands, and not, as had been imagined, different parts of the supposed Southern continent. On Thursday, the 24th of August, the ship left New Holland, steering towards the northwest, with the intention of making the coast of New Guinea. Early in September they arrived among a group of islands which they supposed to lie along the coast of New Guinea. As they attempted to land, Indians rushed out of the thickets upon them, with hideous shouts, one of them throwing something from his hand which burned like gunpowder but made no report. Their numbers soon increased, and they discharged these noiseless flashes by four and five at a time. The smoke resembled that of a musket; and, as they held long hollow canes in their hands, the illusion would have been perfect had the combustion been accompanied by concussion. Those on board the ship were convinced the natives possessed fire-arms, supposing that the direction of the wind prevented the sound of the discharge from reaching them. Cook determined to lose no time in this latitude, having accomplished what he considered as of paramount importance; that is, he had sailed between the two lands of New Holland and New Guinea, and had thus established their insular character beyond any possibility of controversy. He now sailed to the west, and anchored, on the 8th of October, at Batavia, in Java. Here he laid up the ship for repairs. "What anxieties we had escaped," he writes, "in our ignorance that a large portion of the keel had been diminished to the thickness of the under leather of a shoe!" But the ship's company, which had been so wonderfully preserved from the perils of the sea, were destined to undergo the rude attacks of disease upon land. Markhouse, the surgeon, Tupia and Tayeto, the Tahitians, and four sailors, were rapidly carried off by fever. On the 27th of December, the ship weighed anchor, the sick-list including forty names. Before doubling the Cape of Good Hope, she lost Sporing, one of the assistant naturalists, Parkinson, the artist, Green, the astronomer, Molineux, the master, besides the second lieutenant, four carpenters, and ten sailors. Cook was forced to wait a month at the Cape; and on the 12th of July, 1771, he cast anchor in the Downs, after a cruise of three eventful years. His crew was decimated and his ship no longer sea-worthy. The skill and enterprise displayed by Cook, and the important results attained by the voyage, induced the Government to raise him to the rank of commander. We shall follow him upon his second voyage, in the next chapter. [Illustration: CAPE PIGEON.] [Illustration: COOK'S SHIP BESET BY WATER-SPOUTS.] CHAPTER XLIV. COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE--A STORM--SEPARATION OF THE SHIPS--AURORA AUSTRALIS--NEW ZEALAND--SIX WATER-SPOUTS AT ONCE--TAHITI AGAIN--PETTY THEFTS OF THE NATIVES--COOK VISITS THE TAHITIAN THEATRE--OMAI--ARRIVAL AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS--THE FLEET WITNESS A FEAST OF HUMAN FLESH--THE NEW HEBRIDES--NEW CALEDONIA--RETURN HOME--HONORS BESTOWED UPON COOK. The English Government now determined to despatch an expedition in search of the supposed Southern or Austral continent. A Frenchman, by the name of Benoit, had seen in 1709, to the south of the Cape of Good Hope, in latitude 54° and in longitude 11° East, what he believed to be land, naming it Cape Circumcision. Cook was placed in command of the Resolution and Adventure, and instructed to endeavor to find this cape and satisfy himself whether it formed part of the great continent in question. He left Plymouth on the 13th of July, 1772, and the Cape of Good Hope on the 22d of November. A terrific gale soon drove both vessels from their course, washed overboard their live-stock, and well-nigh disabled the Resolution. The cold increased suddenly, and drawers and fearnaughts were served in abundance to the crew. Immense ice-islands now occupied the horizon, and the sea, dashing over them to the height of sixty feet, filled the air with its ceaseless roar. On Sunday, the 13th of December, they were in the latitude of Cape Circumcision, but ten degrees east of it. For weeks they kept in high Southern latitudes, now menaced by towering peaks of ice, now enclosed by immense fields and floating masses, till, towards the 1st of February, 1773, Cook came to the unwelcome conclusion that the cape discovered by Benoit was nothing more than a huge tract of ice, which, being chained to no anchorage and subject to no latitude, he had no reason to expect to find in the spot where the credulous Frenchman had discovered it sixty years before. On the 8th of February, the Resolution lost sight of the Adventure, and cruised three days in search of her, firing guns and burning false fires, but without success. On the 17th, between midnight and three in the morning, Cook saw lights in the sky similar to those seen in high Northern latitudes and known by the name of Aurora Borealis: the Aurora Australis had never been seen before. It sometimes broke out in spiral rays and in a circular form; its colors were brilliant, and it diffused its light throughout the heavens. On the 24th, a tremendous gale, accompanied with snow and sleet, made great havoc among the ice-islands, breaking them up, and largely increasing the number of floating and insidious enemies the ship had to contend with. These dangers were now, however, so familiar to the crew, that the apprehensions they caused were never of long duration, and were in some measure compensated by the seasonable supplies of water the ice-islands afforded them, and without which they would have been greatly distressed. On the 16th of March, Cook found himself in latitude 59°, longitude 146° East. He now determined to quit this quarter, where he was convinced he should find no land, and proceed to New Zealand to look for the Adventure and to refresh his crew. On the 26th, he anchored in Dusky Bay, New Zealand, after having been one hundred and seventeen days at sea, and having sailed eleven thousand miles without once seeing land. This point, the most southerly of New Zealand, had never been visited by a European before. While coasting to the northward, towards Queen Charlotte's Sound, where he expected to find the Adventure, Cook suddenly observed six water-spouts between his vessel and the land. Five of them soon spent themselves; the sixth started from a point three miles distant, and passed within fifty yards of the stern of the Resolution, though she felt no shock. The diameter of its base was about sixty feet: within this space the sea was much agitated and foamed up to a great height. From this a tube was formed, by which the water and air were carried up in a spiral stream to the clouds, from whence the water did not descend again, being dispersed in the upper regions of the atmosphere. "I have been told," says Cook, "that the firing of a gun will dissipate water-spouts; and I am sorry that we did not try the experiment, as we were near enough and had a gun ready for the purpose; but as soon as the danger was past I thought no more about it." On the 18th of May, the Resolution discovered the Adventure in Queen Charlotte's Sound: the crews of the two ships were overjoyed at meeting each other after a separation of fourteen weeks. The captain of the latter had seen upon the coast some natives of the tribe which had furnished Tupia to Cook's vessel upon his first voyage. They seemed quite concerned when informed that he had died at Batavia, and were anxious to know whether he had been killed, and whether he had been buried or eaten. Before leaving the island, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips were planted in spots favorable to their growth, and the natives were made to understand their value as esculent roots. A ewe and ram were sent ashore from the Resolution,--the last pair of the large stock put on board at the Cape of Good Hope; but they probably ate a poisonous plant during the night, for they were found dead in the morning. The Adventure put ashore a boar and two sows, in the hope that they would multiply and replenish the island. The two ships sailed in company from New Zealand on the 7th of June, their purpose being to proceed to the eastward in search of land as far as longitude 140° West, between the latitudes of 41° and 46° South. During a long cruise, Cook saw nothing which induced in him the belief that they were in the neighborhood of any continent between the meridian of New Zealand and America. A fact which militated against it was, that they had, as is usual in all great oceans, large billows from every direction in which the wind blew a fresh gale. These billows never ceased with the cause which first put them in motion,--a sure indication that no land was near. They constantly passed low and half-submerged islands,--now consisting of coral shoals fretting the waves into foam, and now of islets clothed with verdure. On the 17th of August they arrived at Tahiti, after an entirely fruitless voyage. The thieving and cheating propensities of the natives appeared in bold relief during the sojourn of the English upon their coast. The latter sometimes paid in advance for promised supplies of hogs and fowls, in which case they were sure never to get them,--the wary trader making off with his axe, shirt, or nails, and dispensing with the necessity of fulfilling his engagement. The practice of overreaching was not confined to the underlings of society, but extended even to the chiefs. A potentate of high warlike renown came one day to the side of the Resolution, and offered for sale a superb bundle of cocoanuts, which was readily bought by one of the officers. On untying it, it was found to consist of fruit which they had already once bought, and which had been tapped, emptied of the milk, and thrown overboard. The dishonest dignitary sat in his canoe at a distance, indicating by the glee and vigor of his pantomime that he enjoyed in a supreme degree the brilliant success of this mercantile fraud. [Illustration: KING OTOO'S SISTER DANCING.] At another part of the coast, Cook and his officers were invited by Otoo, the king, to visit the theatre, where a play was to be enacted with music and dancing. The performers were five men and one woman, who was no less a personage than the king's sister. The instruments consisted of three drums only, and the music lasted about an hour and a half. The meaning of the play was not apparent to the English, except that it abounded in local allusions,--the name of Cook constantly recurring. The dancing-dress of the lady was very elegant, being ornamented with long tassels made of feathers, hanging from the waist downwards. [Illustration: RECEPTION OF COOK AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.] Cook left Tahiti early in September, taking with him a young savage named Poreo, who was smitten with a desire to visit foreign parts. At the neighboring island of Huaheine, a native named Omai, belonging to the middle class, was also taken on board. Cook thus speaks of him two years later:--"Omai has most certainly a good understanding, quick parts, and honest principles: he has a natural good behavior, which renders him acceptable to the best company, and a proper degree of pride, which teaches him to avoid the society of persons of inferior rank. He has passions of the same kind as other young men, but has judgment enough not to indulge them to an improper excess." Omai was taken back to Huaheine by Cook when he started upon his third voyage of discovery, in 1776. We shall have occasion hereafter to chronicle the incidents of this restoration. Cook arrived at Middlebourg, one of the Friendly Islands, early in October. Two canoes, rowed by three men each, came boldly alongside; and some of them entered the ship without hesitation. One of them seemed to be a chief, by the authority he exerted, and accordingly received a present of a hatchet and five nails. Tioony--such was this potentate's name--was thus cheaply conciliated. Cook and a party soon embarked in a boat, accompanied by Tioony, who conducted them to a little creek, where a landing was easily effected. Tioony brandished a branch of the tree of peace in his right hand, extending his left towards an immense crowd of natives, who welcomed the English on shore with loud acclamations. Not one of them carried a weapon of any sort: they thronged so thickly around the boat that it was difficult to get room to land. They seemed more desirous to give than receive; and many threw whole bales of cloth and armfuls of fruit into the boat, and then retired without either asking or waiting for an equivalent. Tioony then conducted the strangers to his house, which was situated upon a fine plantation beneath the shade of shaddock-trees. The floor was laid with mats. Bananas and cocoanuts were set before them to eat, and a beverage was prepared for them to drink. This was done in the following manner:--Pieces of a highly-scented root were vigorously masticated by the natives; the chewed product was then deposited in a large wooden bowl and mixed with water. As soon as it was properly strained, cups were made of green leaves which held nearly half a pint, and presented to the English. No one tasted the contents but Cook,--the manner of brewing it having quenched the thirst of every one else. In this island, as well as in the neighboring one of Amsterdam, the people--both men and women--were observed to have lost one or both of their little fingers. Cook endeavored in vain to discover the reason of this mutilation; but no one would take any pains to inform him. Cook noticed with interest the sailing canoes of these islands. A remarkable feature was the sail,--which, being suspended by its spar from a forked mast, could be so turned that the prow of the boat became its stern, and _vice versâ_. They sailed with equal rapidity in either direction. [Illustration: CANOES OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.] On his return to New Zealand in November, Cook found that his efforts to introduce new plants and animals had been frustrated by the natives. One of the sows had been incapacitated by a severe cut in one of her hind-legs; the other sow and the boar had been sedulously kept separate. The two goats had been killed by a fellow named Gobiah, and the potatoes had been dug up. Cook here had the satisfaction of beholding a feast of human flesh. A portion of the body of a young man of twenty years was broiled and eaten by one of the natives with evident relish. Several of the ship's crew were rendered sick by the disgusting sight. The Adventure separated from her consort at this point; nor was she again seen during the remainder of the voyage. Cook left New Zealand early in December for a last attempt in the Southern Ocean. On the 12th he saw the first ice, and on the 23d, in latitude 67°, found his passage obstructed by such quantities that he abandoned all hopes of proceeding any farther in that direction, and resolved to return to the north. As he was in the longitude of 137°, it was clear that there must be a vast space of sea to the north unexplored,--a space of twenty-four degrees, in which a large tract of land might possibly lie. Late in February, 1774, Cook was taken ill of bilious colic, and for some days his life was despaired of. The crew suffered severely from scurvy. On the 11th of March, they fell in with Roggewein's Easter Island, which they recognised by the gigantic statues which lined the coast. They noticed a singular disproportion in the number of the males and females, having counted in the island some seven hundred men and only thirty women. Early in April, Cook arrived among the Marquesas Islands, discovered in 1595 by Mendana. On the 22d, he arrived at Point Venus, in Tahiti, where he had observed the transit in 1769, and of which the longitude was known: he was able, therefore, to determine the error of his watch, and to fix anew its rate of going. The natives, and especially Otoo, the king, expressed no little joy at seeing him again. On leaving Tahiti, Cook visited in detail the islands named Espiritu Santo by Quiros and Grandes Cyclades by Bougainville. As he determined their extent and position, he took the liberty of changing their name to that of the New Hebrides. [Illustration: NEW CALEDONIAN DOUBLE CANOE.] Cook now discovered the large island of New Caledonia, whose inhabitants he mentions as possessing an excellent character. Subsequent navigators, however, ascertained them to be cannibals. They were much lower in the scale of intelligence than the Tahitians. Their canoes were of the most clumsy description, and were generally propelled in pairs by poles. Cook was unable to obtain provisions; and, as his crew were now suffering from famine, he returned to New Zealand, where he arrived on the 18th of October. He left again on the 10th of November, and anchored on the 21st of December in Christmas Sound, in Terra del Fuego. He doubled Cape Horn, discovered numerous islands of little importance, and finally headed the vessel for the Cape of Good Hope. He anchored in Table Bay on the 19th of March, 1775. He here found news of the Adventure, which had already passed the Cape on her way home. On the 30th of July, Cook landed at Plymouth, after an absence of three years and eighteen days. During this space of time he had lost but four men, and only one of these four by sickness. He was promoted to the rank of captain, was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, and received the Godfrey Copley gold medal in testimony of the appreciation in which his efforts to preserve the health of his crew were held by the Government. He was now forty-seven years of age. [Illustration: A SANDWICH ISLAND KING PROCEEDING TO VISIT COOK.] CHAPTER XLV. COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE--THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE--OMAI--HIS RECEPTION AT HOME--THE CREW FOREGO THEIR GROG--DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS--NOOTKA SOUND--THE NATIVES--CAPE PRINCE OF WALES--TWO CONTINENTS IN SIGHT--ICY CAPE--RETURN TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS--COOK IS DEIFIED--INTERVIEW WITH TEREOBOO--SUBSEQUENT DIFFICULTIES--A SKIRMISH--PITCHED BATTLE AND DEATH OF COOK--RECOVERY OF A PORTION OF HIS REMAINS--FUNERAL CEREMONIES--LIFE AND SERVICES OF COOK. Cook might justly have retired at this period to private life, to enjoy his well-earned reputation. But the grand question of the Northwest Passage, now agitated by the press and the public, induced him once more to tempt the perils of foreign adventure. As every effort to force a passage through Baffin's or Hudson's Bay had signally failed, it was determined to make the experiment through Behring's Straits. On the 9th of February, 1776, Cook received the command of the sloop-of-war Resolution,--the vessel in which he had made his last voyage,--the Discovery, of three hundred tons, being appointed to accompany the expedition. Both ships were equipped in a manner befitting the nature of their mission: they were well supplied with European animals and plants, which they were to introduce into the islands of the Pacific. Omai, the young Tahitian whom Cook had brought to England, was placed on board the Resolution, as it was not likely another opportunity would occur of sending him home. He left London with regret; but the consciousness that the treasures he carried with him would raise him to an enviable rank among his countrymen operated by degrees to alleviate his sorrow. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, and was followed, on the 10th of August, by the Discovery: both vessels joined company, early in November, at the Cape of Good Hope. As we have already been frequently over the track now for the third time traversed by Cook, we shall merely give his route, without detailing his adventures, which did not materially differ from those of his former voyages. He arrived at Van Diemen's Land in December, and passed a fortnight of the month of February, 1777, in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand. Soon after he discovered an island which the natives called Mangya: he noticed that the inhabitants, for want of a better pocket, slit the lobe of their ear and carried their knife in it. At another island of the same group, Omai extricated himself and a party of English from a position of great danger by giving the natives an exaggerated account of the instruments of war used on board the two ships anchored in the offing. "These instruments," he said, "were so huge that several people could sit conveniently within them; and one of them was sufficient to crush the whole island at a shot." Had it not been for this formidable story, Omai thought the party would have been detained on shore all night. At one of the Society Islands Cook planted a pineapple and sowed some melon-seeds. He was somewhat encouraged to hope that endeavors of this kind would not be fruitless, for upon the same day the natives served up at his dinner a dish of turnips, being the produce of the seeds he had left there during his last voyage. The Resolution soon anchored off Tahiti, and Cook noticed particularly the conduct of Omai, now about to be restored to his home and his friends. A chief named Ootu, and Omai's brother-in-law, came on board. There was nothing either tender or striking in their meeting. On the contrary, there seemed to be a perfect indifference on both sides, till Omai, having taken his brother down into the cabin, opened the drawer where he kept his red feathers and gave him three of them. Ootu, who would hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be friends. Omai assented, and ratified the bargain with a present of feathers; and Ootu, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. But it was evident to the English that it was not the man, but his property, they were in love with. "Such," says Cook, "was Omai's first reception among his countrymen. Had he not shown to them his treasure of red feathers, I question much whether they would have bestowed even a cocoanut upon him. I own I never expected it would be otherwise." The important news of the arrival of red feathers was conveyed on shore by Omai's friends, and the ships were surrounded early the next morning by a multitude of canoes crowded with people bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first a quantity of feathers not greater than might be plucked from a tomtit would purchase a hog weighing fifty pounds; but such was the quantity of this precious article on board that its value fell five hundred per cent. before night. Omai was now visited by his sister; and, much to the credit of them both, their meeting was marked by expressions of the tenderest affection. Cook foresaw, however, that Omai would soon be despoiled of every thing he had if left among his relatives: so it was determined to establish him at the neighboring island of Huaheine. A large lot of land was obtained there from the chief, and the carpenters of the two ships set about building him a house fit to contain the European commodities that were his property. Cook told the natives that if Omai were disturbed or harassed he should upon his next visit make them feel the weight of his resentment. Omai took possession of his mansion late in October, and on Sunday, November 2, bade adieu to the officers of the ship. He sustained himself in this trying ordeal till he came to Cook, and then gave way to a passionate burst of tears. He wept abundantly while being conveyed on shore. "It was no small satisfaction to reflect," writes Cook, "that we had brought him back safe to the spot from which he was taken. And yet such is the strange nature of human affairs that it is probable we left him in a less desirable situation than he was in before his connection with us. He had tasted the sweets of civilized life, and must now become more miserable from being obliged to abandon all thoughts of continuing them." The career and destiny of Omai were perhaps more remarkable than those of any other savage: he was cherished by Cook, painted by Reynolds, and apostrophized by Cowper. During the stay of the vessels at the Society Islands, Cook induced the crews to give up their grog and use the milk of cocoanuts instead. He submitted it to them whether it would not be injudicious, by drinking their spirits now, to run the risk of having none left in a cold climate, where cordials would be most needed, and whether they would not be content to dispense with their grog now, when they had so excellent a liquor as that of cocoanuts to substitute in its place. The proposal was unanimously agreed to, and the grog was stopped except on Saturday nights. [Illustration: OMAI.] Early in February, 1778, Cook made a most important discovery,--that of the archipelago now known as the Sandwich Islands, so named by Cook in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. He visited five of these islands, one of which was Oahu. He found a remarkable similarity of manners and coincidence of language with those of the Society Islands, and in his journal asks the following question:--"How shall we account for this nation having spread itself in so many detached islands, so widely separated from each other, in every quarter of the Pacific Ocean? We find it from New Zealand in the south to the Sandwich Islands in the north! And, in another direction, from Easter Island to the New Hebrides! That is, over an extent of three thousand six hundred miles north and south, and five thousand miles east and west!" From the Sandwich Islands Cook sailed to the northeast, and on the 7th of March struck the coast of America, upon the shores of the tract named New Albion by Sir Francis Drake. The skies being very threatening, he gave the name of Cape Foulweather to a promontory forming the northern extremity. Late in March the two vessels entered a broad inlet, to which Cook gave the name of King George's Sound; but it is better known now by its original name of Nootka Sound. Cook found the natives friendly and willing to sell and buy. They were under the common stature, their persons being full and plump without corpulence, their faces round, with high prominent cheeks, noses flattened at the base with wide nostrils, low forehead, small black eyes, thick round lips, and well-set though not remarkably white teeth. The color of their skin, when not incrusted with paint or dirt, was nearly as white as that of Europeans, and of that pale effete cast which distinguishes the Southern nations of Europe. A remarkable sameness characterized the countenances of the whole nation, the expression of all being dull and phlegmatic. It was not easy to distinguish the women from the men; and not a female was seen, even among those in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to being called handsome. Cook gives a very long and detailed account of the manners and customs of these people, their habitations, weapons, food, domestic animals, language, and religious views, and concludes by remarking that they differ so essentially in every respect from the inhabitants of the various Pacific islands that it is impossible to suppose their respective progenitors were united in the same tribe, or had any intimate connection when they emigrated from their original settlements into the places where their descendants were now found. [Illustration: HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.] Cook left Nootka Sound on the 26th of April, and early in May entered a deep inlet, to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. Proceeding on his course, as he supposed, toward Behring's Strait, he was surprised to find various indications that he was no longer in the sea, but ascending a wide and rapidly-flowing river. He was, however, encouraged to proceed by finding the water as salt as that of the ocean. Having traced the stream a distance of two hundred miles from its entrance, without seeing the least appearance of its source, and despairing of finding a passage through it to the Northern seas, Cook determined to return. Mr. King, one of the officers, was sent on shore to display the flag and take possession of the country and river in his majesty's name, and to bury in the ground a bottle containing some pieces of English coin of the year 1772. The vessels left the river--afterward named, by order of Lord Sandwich, Cook's River--on the 5th of June. On the 9th of August, Cook arrived at a point of land, in north latitude 66°, which he called Cape Prince of Wales, and which is the western extremity of North America. Had he sailed directly north from this spot, he would have passed through Behring's Straits. But the attraction of two small islands drew him to the westward, and by nightfall he anchored in a bay on the coast of Asia, having in the course of twenty-four hours been in sight of the two continents. On the 12th, while sailing to the north, both continents were in sight at the same moment. On the 17th, a brightness was perceived in the northern horizon, like that reflected from ice, commonly called the blink. But it was thought very improbable that they should meet with ice so soon. Still, the sharpness of the air and gloominess of the weather seemed to indicate some sudden change. The sight of a large field of ice soon left no doubt as to the cause of the brightness of the horizon. At half-past two, being in latitude 71° and in twenty-two fathoms water, Cook found himself close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact as a wall and twelve feet out of water. It extended to the north as far as the eye could reach. A point of land upon the American coast obtained the name of Icy Cape. The season was now so far advanced that Cook abandoned all attempts to find a passage through to the Atlantic this year, and directed his attention to the subject of winter quarters. Discovering a deep inlet upon the American side, he named it Norton's Sound, in honor of Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons. At Oonalaska, an island some distance to the south, he fell in with three Russian carriers, who had some store-houses and a sloop of thirty tons' burden. They appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the attempts which had been made by their countrymen, Kamschatka, Behring, and others, to navigate the Frozen Ocean. On the 26th of October, Cook left Oonalaska for the Sandwich Islands, intending to spend the winter months there, and then to direct his course to Kamschatka, arriving there by the middle of May in the ensuing year. On the 26th of November, the two ships anchored at the archipelago of the Sandwich Islands and discovered several new members of the group. At Owhyhee, Cook found the natives more free from reserve and suspicion than any other tribe he had met; nor did they even once attempt a fraud or a theft. Cook's confidence, already great, was still further augmented by a singular, if not grotesque, incident. [Illustration: MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.] [Illustration: WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.] The priests of the island resolved to deify the captain, under the name of Orono. One evening, as he landed upon the beach, he was received by four men, who immediately swathed him in red cloth, and then conducted him to a sort of sacrificial altar, where, by means of an indescribable ceremony, consisting of rapid speeches, offerings of putrid hogs and sugarcanes, invocations, processions, chants, and prostrations, they conferred upon him a celestial character and the right to claim adoration. At the conclusion, a priest named Kaireekeea took part of the kernel of a cocoanut, which he chewed, and with which he then rubbed the captain's face, head, hands, arms, and shoulders. Ever after this, when Cook went ashore, a priest preceded him, shouting that Orono was walking the earth, and calling upon the people to humble themselves before him. Presents of pigs, cocoanuts, and bread-fruit were constantly made to him, and an incessant supply of vegetables sent to his two ships: no return was ever demanded or even hinted at. The offerings seemed to be made in discharge of a religious duty, and had much the nature of tribute. When Cook inquired at whose charge all this munificence was displayed, he was told that the expense was borne by a great man, named Kaoo, the chief of the priests, and grandfather of Kaireekeea: this Kaoo was now absent, attending Tereoboo, the king of the island. The king, upon his return, set out from the village in a large canoe, followed by two others, and paddled toward the ships in great state. Tereoboo gave Cook a fan, in return for which Cook gave Tereoboo a clean shirt. Heaps of sugarcane and bread-fruit were then given to the ship's crew, and the ceremonies were concluded by an exchange of names between the captain and the king,--the strongest pledge of friendship among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands. It was not long before Tereoboo and his chiefs became very anxious that the English should bid them adieu. They imagined the strangers to have come from some country where provisions had failed, and that their visit to their island was merely for the purpose of filling their stomachs. "It was ridiculous enough to see them stroke the sides and pat the bellies of our sailors," says King, the continuator of Cook's journal, "and telling them that it was time for them to go, but that if they would come again the next bread-fruit season they should be better able to supply their wants. We had now been sixteen days in the bay; and, considering our enormous consumption of hogs and vegetables, it need not be wondered that they should wish to see us take our leave." When Tereoboo learned that the ships were to sail on the next day but one, he ordered a proclamation to be made through the villages, requiring the people to bring in presents to Orono, who was soon to take his departure. On the 4th of February, 1779, the vessels unmoored and sailed out of the harbor, after having received on board a present of vegetables and live stock which far exceeded any that had been made them either at the Friendly or Society Islands. The weather being, however, extremely unfavorable, they were compelled to return for shelter, and on the 11th dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as before. The foremast was found to be much damaged, the heel being exceedingly rotten, having a large hole up the middle of it capable of holding four or five cocoanuts. The reception of the ships was very different from what it had been on their first arrival: there were no shouts, no bustle, no confusion. The bay seemed deserted, though from time to time a solitary canoe stole stealthily along the shore. [Illustration: FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.] Toward the evening of the 13th, a theft committed by a party of the islanders on board the Discovery gave rise to a disturbance of a very serious nature. Pareea, a personage of some authority, was accused of the theft, and a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives immediately attacked the crew of the pinnace with a furious shower of stones and other missiles, and forced them to swim off with great precipitation to a rock at some distance from the shore. The pinnace was immediately ransacked by the islanders, and would have been demolished, but for the interposition of Pareea, who, upon the recognition of his innocence, joined noses with the officers and seemed to have forgotten the blow he had received. When Captain Cook heard of what had happened, he expressed some anxiety, and said that it would not do to allow the islanders to imagine that they had gained an advantage. It was too late to take any steps that evening, however. A double guard was posted at the observatory, and at midnight one of the sentinels, observing five savages creeping toward him, fired over their heads and put them to flight. The cutter of the Discovery was stolen, toward morning, from the buoy where it was moored. At daylight, Cook loaded his double-barrelled gun and ordered the marines to prepare for action. It had been his practice, when any thing of consequence was lost, to get the king or several of the principal men on board, and to keep them as hostages till it was restored. His purpose was to pursue the same plan now. He gave orders to seize and stop all canoes that should attempt to leave the bay. The boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were therefore stationed across the mouth of the harbor. Cook went ashore in the pinnace, obtained an interview with the king, satisfied himself that he was in no wise privy to the theft committed, and invited him to return in the boat and spend the day on board the Resolution. Tereoboo readily consented, and, having placed his two sons in the pinnace, was on the point of following them, when an elderly woman, the mother of the boys, and a younger woman, the king's favorite wife, besought him with tears and entreaties not to go on board. Two chiefs laid hold of him, insisting that he should go no farther. The natives now collected in prodigious numbers and began to throng around Captain Cook and their king. Cook, finding that the alarm had spread too generally, and that it was in vain to think of kidnapping the king without bloodshed, at last gave up the point. [Illustration: DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.] Thus far, the person and life of Cook do not appear to have been in danger. An accident now happened which gave a fatal turn to the affair. The ships' boats, in firing at canoes attempting to escape, had unfortunately killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his death arrived just at the moment when Cook, after leaving the king, was walking slowly toward the shore. It caused an immediate and violent ferment: the women and children were at once sent off: the warriors put on their breastmats and armed themselves with spears and stones. One of the natives went up to Cook, flourishing a long iron spike by way of defiance, and threatening him with a large stone. Cook ordered him to desist, but, as the man persisted in his insolence, was at length provoked to fire a load of small shot. As the shot did not penetrate the matting, the natives were encouraged, by seeing the discharge to be harmless, to further aggression. Several stones were thrown at the marines: their lieutenant, Mr. Phillips, narrowly escaped being stabbed by knocking down the assailant with the butt end of his musket. Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with stones and a discharge of musketry immediately followed. The islanders, contrary to the expectations of the English, stood the fire with great firmness, and, before the marines had time to reload, broke in upon them with demoniacal shouts. Four marines were instantly killed; three others were dangerously wounded; Phillips received a stab between the shoulders, but, having fortunately reserved his fire, shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat the blow. The last time that Cook was seen distinctly, he was standing at the water's edge, calling out to the people in the boats to cease firing. It is supposed that he was desirous of stopping further bloodshed, and wished the example of desisting to proceed from his side. His humanity proved fatal to him; and he lost his life in attempting to save the lives of others. It was noticed that while he faced the natives none of them offered him any violence, deterred, perhaps, by the sacred character he bore as an Orono; but the moment he turned round to give his orders to the men in the boats, he was stabbed in the back and fell, face foremost, into the water. The islanders set up a deafening yell and dragged his body on shore, where the dagger with which he had been killed was eagerly snatched by the savages from each others' hands, each one manifesting a brutal eagerness to have a share in his destruction. "Thus fell," writes King, "our great and excellent commander. After a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature, since he lived to finish the work for which he seemed designed, and was rather removed from the enjoyment than cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely his loss was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation in their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor possible for me to describe: much less shall I attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and dismay which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity." When the consternation consequent upon the loss of their commander had in some measure subsided, Clarke, the captain of the Discovery, assumed the chief command of the expedition. The ships were in such a bad condition, and the discipline became so relaxed upon the withdrawal of the master-mind, that it was decided to employ pacific measures, rather than a display of vigorous resentment, to obtain the restitution of the remains of Cook and of the four massacred soldiers. The moderation of the English produced no effect, however, the natives using the bodies of the marines in sacrificial burnt-offerings to their divinities. As they considered that of Cook as of a higher order, they cut it carefully in pieces, sending bits of it to different parts of the island. Upon the evening of the 15th, two priests brought clandestinely to the ship the portion they had received for religious purposes,--flesh without bone, and weighing about nine pounds. They said that this was all that remained of the body, the rest having been cut to pieces and burned: the head, however, and all the bones, except what belonged to the trunk, were in the possession of Tereoboo. The natives on shore passed the night in feasts and rejoicings, seeking evidently to animate and inflame their courage previous to the expected collision. The next day, about noon, finding the English persist in their inactivity, great bodies of them, blowing their conch-shells and strutting about upon the shore in a blustering and defiant manner, marched off over the hills and never appeared again. Those who remained compensated for the paucity of their numbers by the insolence of their conduct. One man came within musket-shot of the Resolution and waved Cook's hat over his head, his countrymen upon the water's edge exulting in his taunts and jeers. The watering-party sent upon their daily duty were annoyed to such an extent that they only obtained one cask of water in an afternoon. An attack upon the village was in consequence decided upon, and was executed by the marines in a vigorous and effective manner. A sanguinary revenge was taken for the death of their commander: many of the islanders were slain, and their huts were burned to the ground. This severe lesson was necessary, for the natives were strongly of opinion that the English tolerated their provocations because they were unable to suppress them, and not from motives of humanity. At last, a chief named Eappo, a man of the very first consequence, came with presents from Tereoboo to sue for peace. The presents were received, but answer was returned that, until the remains of Captain Cook were restored, no peace would be granted. On Saturday, the 20th, a long procession was seen to descend the hill toward the beach. Each man carried a sugarcane or two upon his shoulders, with bread-fruit and plantains in his hand. They were preceded by two drummers, who planted a staff with a white flag upon it by the water's edge and drummed vigorously, while the rest advanced one by one and deposited their presents upon the ground. Eappo, in a long feathered cloak, and with a bearing of deep solemnity, mounted upon a rock and made signs for a boat. Captain Clarke went ashore in the pinnace, ordering Lieutenant King to attend him in the cutter. Eappo went into the pinnace and delivered to the captain a quantity of bones wrapped up in a large quantity of fine new cloth and covered with a spotted cloak of black and white feathers. The bundle contained the hands of the unfortunate commander entire; the skull, deprived of the scalp and the bones that form the face; the scalp, detached, with the hair cut short, and the ears adhering to it; the bones of both arms, the thigh and leg bones, but without the feet. The whole bore evident marks of having been in the fire, with the exception of the hands, the flesh of which was left upon them,--with several large gashes crammed with salt, apparently for the purpose of preventing decomposition. The lower jaw and feet, which were wanting, had been seized by different chiefs, Eappo said, and Tereoboo was using every means to recover them. The next morning Eappo came on board, bringing with him the missing bones, together with the barrels of Cook's gun, his shoes, and several other trifles that had belonged to him. Eappo was dismissed with orders to "taboo" the bay--that is, to place it under interdict--during the performance of the funeral ceremonies. This was done: not a canoe ventured out upon the water during the remainder of the day, and, in the midst of the silence and solemnity of the scene, the bones were placed in a coffin and the service of the Church of England read over them. They were then committed to the deep, beneath the booming thunders of the artillery of both vessels. "What our feelings were on this occasion," says King, "I leave the world to conceive: those who were present know that it is not in my power to express them." No one man ever contributed more to any science than did Captain Cook to that of geography. We have seen that on his first voyage he discovered the Society Islands, determined the insular character of New Zealand, discovered the straits which cut that island in halves, and made a complete survey of both portions. He explored the eastern coast of New Holland, gave Botany Bay its name, and surveyed an extent of upward of two thousand miles. In his second voyage he resolved the problem of a Southern continent, having traversed that hemisphere in such a manner as to leave no probability of its existence, unless near the Pole, out of the reach of navigation and beyond the habitable limits of the globe. He discovered New Caledonia, the largest island in the South Pacific except New Zealand; he settled the situations of numerous old discoveries, rectifying their longitude and remodelling all the charts. On his third voyage he discovered, to the north of the equator, the group called the Sandwich Islands,--a discovery which, all things considered, and from their situation and products, may be said to be the most important acquisition ever made in the Pacific. He explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the western coast of America,--an extent of three thousand five hundred miles,--and ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and America. "In short," says King, "if we except the Sea of Amur, and the Japanese Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known to the Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe." After Christopher Columbus, Cook acquired, and now, at a distance of nearly a century, still enjoys, the highest degree of popularity which ever fell to the lot of a navigator and discoverer. [Illustration: LAPÉROUSE.] CHAPTER XLVI. LOUIS XVI. AND THE SCIENCE OF NAVIGATION--VOYAGE OF LAPÉROUSE--ARRIVAL AT EASTER ISLAND--ADDRESS OF THE NATIVES--OWHYHEE--TRADE AT MOWEE--SURVEY OF THE AMERICAN COAST--A REMARKABLE INLET--DISTRESSING CALAMITY--SOJOURN AT MONTEREY--RUN ACROSS THE PACIFIC--THE JAPANESE WATERS--ARRIVAL AT PETROPAULOWSKI--AFFRAY AT NAVIGATORS' ISLES--LAPÉROUSE ARRIVES AT BOTANY BAY, AND IS NEVER SEEN AGAIN, ALIVE OR DEAD--VOYAGES MADE IN SEARCH OF HIM--D'ENTRECASTEAUX--DILLON--D'URVILLE--DISCOVERY OF NUMEROUS RELICS OF THE SHIPS AT MANICOLO--THEORY OF THE FATE OF LAPÉROUSE--ERECTION OF A MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY. Louis XVI., King of France, became at this period deeply interested in the study of the science of geography and navigation. Upon the perusal of the voyages, discoveries, and services of Cook, he conceived the idea of admitting the French nation to a share in the glory which the English were reaping from maritime adventure and exploration. He drew up a plan of campaign with his own hand, ordered the two frigates Boussole and Astrolabe to be prepared for sea, and gave the command of the expedition to Jean-François Galaup de la Pérouse,--better known as Lapérouse. The vessels were supplied with every accessory of which they could possibly have need. The instructions and recommendations received from the Academy of Sciences fill a quarto volume of four hundred pages. The fleet sailed from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785, and arrived at Concepçion, in Chili, late in February, 1786. After a short stay here, the two frigates again put to sea, and, early in April, anchored in Cook's Bay, in Easter Island. Here the two commanders landed, accompanied by about seventy persons, twelve of whom were marines armed to the teeth. Five hundred Indians awaited them at the shore, the greater part of them naked, painted, and tattooed, others wearing pendent bunches of odoriferous herbs about their loins, and others still being covered with pieces of white and yellow cloth. None of them were armed, and, as the boats touched the land, they advanced with the utmost alacrity to aid the strangers in their disembarkation. The latter marked out a circular space, where they set up a tent, and enjoined it strongly upon the islanders not to intrude upon this enclosure. The number of the natives had now increased to eight hundred, one hundred and fifty of whom were women. While the latter would seek, by caresses and agreeable pantomime, to withdraw the attention of the Frenchmen from passing events, the men would slyly pick their pockets. Innumerable handkerchiefs were pilfered in this way; and the thieves, emboldened by success, at last seized their caps from their heads and rushed off with them. It was noticed that the chiefs were the most adroit and successful plunderers, and that though, for appearance' sake, they sometimes ran after an offender, promising to bring him back, it was evident that they were running as slowly as they could, and that their object was rather to facilitate than to prevent their escape. Lapérouse was not saved from spoliation by his rank: a polite savage, having assisted him over an obstruction in the path, removed his chapeau and fled with the utmost rapidity. On re-embarking to return to the ships, only three persons had handkerchiefs, and only two had caps. Lapérouse stayed but a day on this island, having nothing to gain and every thing to lose. There was no fresh water to be found, the natives drinking sea-water, like the albatrosses of Cape Horn. In return for the hospitality with which they had been received, Lapérouse caused several fertile spots to be sown with beets, cabbages, wheat, carrots, and squashes, and even with orange, lemon, and cotton seeds. "In short," says Lapérouse, "we loaded them with presents, overwhelmed with caresses the young and children at the breast; we sowed their fields with useful grains; we left kids, sheep, and hogs to multiply upon their island; we asked nothing in exchange; and yet they robbed us of our hats and handkerchiefs, and threw stones at us when we left." The following reflection, which concludes Lapérouse's account of Easter Island, could only have proceeded from a Frenchman:--"I decided to depart during the night, flattering myself that when, upon the return of day, they should find our vessels gone, they would attribute our departure to our just resentment at their conduct, and that this conclusion might render them better members of society." Lapérouse now sailed to the northeast, intending to touch at the Sandwich Islands,--a distance of five thousand miles. He hoped to make some discovery during this long stretch, and placed sailors in the tops, animated by the promise of a prize to discover as many islands as possible. In the furtherance of this design, the two frigates sailed ten miles apart,--by which the visible horizon was considerably extended. Lapérouse was destined, however, to owe his celebrity to his misfortunes and not to his discoveries: he arrived, on the 28th of May, at Owhyhee, without once making land. "The aspect of the island," he writes, "was charming. But the sea beat with such violence upon the coast, that, like Tantalus, we could only long for and devour with our eyes that which it was impossible for us to reach." This prospect was aggravated by the sight of one hundred and fifty canoes laden with pigs and fruit which put out from the shore: forty of them were capsized in attempting to come alongside while the frigates were under full sail. The water was full of swimming savages, struggling pigs, and tempting cocoanuts; but the necessity of making an anchorage before nightfall compelled them to seek another portion of the island. On the 30th of May, Lapérouse landed upon the island of Mowee, where he found the savages mild, polite, and commercially inclined. Exchanges of pigs and medals were made with great success. Lapérouse abstained from taking possession of the island in the name of the King of France,--Cook not having visited Mowee,--inasmuch as he considered European usages in this respect extremely ridiculous. "Philosophers must often have wept," he writes, "at seeing men, simply because they have cannon and bayonets, count sixty thousand of their fellow-creatures as nothing, and look upon a land which its inhabitants have moistened with their sweat and fertilized with the bones of their ancestors for centuries as an object of legitimate conquest." On the 23d of June, in latitude 60° north, Lapérouse struck the American coast: he recognised at once Behring's Mount St. Elias, whose summit pierced the clouds. From this point southward as far as Monterey, in Mexico, lay an extent of coast which Cook had seen but not surveyed. The exploration of this coast was a work essential to the interests of navigation and of commerce; and, though the season only allowed him three months, he undertook and executed it in a manner creditable to the navy of France. He discovered a harbor that had escaped the notice of preceding navigators. This harbor or bay seems to have been a remarkable place. The water is unfathomable, and is surrounded by precipices which rise perpendicularly from the water's edge into the regions of eternal snow. Not a blade of grass, not a green leaf, grows in this desolate and sterile spot. No breeze blows upon the surface of the bay: its tranquillity is never troubled except by the fall of enormous masses of ice from numerous overhanging peaks. The air is so still and the silence so profound that the noise made by a bird in laying an egg in the hollow of a rock is distinctly heard at the distance of a mile and a half. To this wonderful bay Lapérouse gave the name of Frenchport. A painful accident occurred as the vessels, after a somewhat prolonged stay, were about departing from the spot. Three boats, manned by twenty-seven men and officers, were sent to make soundings in the bay, in order to complete the chart of the survey. They had strict orders to avoid a certain dangerous current, but became involved in it unawares. Two boats' crews perished, consisting of twenty-one men, the greater part of them under twenty-five years of age. Two brothers, by the name of Laborde, whom their superior officers never separated, but always sent together on missions of peril, were among the victims of the disaster. A monument was erected to their memory, and a record buried in a bottle beneath it. The inscription was thus conceived:-- "At the entrance of this bay twenty-one brave sailors perish'd: Whoever you may be, mingle your tears with ours." [Illustration: LAPÉROUSE'S DISASTER AT FRENCHPORT.] On the 13th of September, Lapérouse arrived at Monterey, after a cursory examination of the coast, determining its directions, but without exploring its sinuosities and inlets. The Spanish commander of the fort and of the two Californias had received orders from Mexico to extend all possible hospitality to the adventurers. He executed his instructions to the letter, sending immense quantities of fresh beef, eggs, milk, vegetables, and poultry on board, and then declining to hand in the bill. On the 24th, every thing being in readiness, the vessels started upon their route across the Pacific, the intention of Lapérouse being to make for Macao, on the Chinese coast. He hoped on his way to make many discoveries of islands upon this unknown sea,--the Spaniards, in their single beaten track from Acapulco to Manilla, never varying more than thirty miles to the north or south of their usual and average latitude. He also hoped not to find, in the longitude marked against it, a very doubtful island named Nostra Señora de la Gorta, that he might erase it from the charts. This he was unable to do, for the winds did not allow him to pass within a hundred miles of its supposed position. When half-way across the Pacific, he discovered a naked, barren rock, to which he gave the name of Necker, after the French Minister of Finance. He arrived at Macao on the 3d of January, 1787, after a voyage entirely free from incident or adventure. He spent three months here and at Manilla, and finally, on the 10th of April, started for the scene of the most important portion of his mission,--the coasts of Tartary and of Japan,--the waters which separate the mainland of the former from the islands of the latter being very imperfectly known to Europeans. Early in June, Lapérouse entered a sea never before ploughed by a European keel; and, as it was only known from Japanese or Corean charts, published by the Jesuits, it was his first object either to verify their surveys or to correct their errors. As the Jesuits travelled and made their calculations by land, Lapérouse added hydrographic details and observations to their data, which he found quite generally correct. His voyage in these latitudes set many doubts at rest. After several months spent in these labors, the expedition arrived at Petropaulowski in September of the same year. The officers were grievously disappointed in not finding letters and despatches from France, but one evening, during a Kamschatka gala ball, the arrival of a courier from Okhotsk was announced, and the ball was interrupted that the mail might be opened and delivered. The news was favorable for all, though, after so long an absence, it was natural that there should be evil tidings for some among so many. Lapérouse learned that he had been promoted in rank; and the Governor of Okhotsk caused this event to be celebrated by a grand discharge of artillery. M. de Lesseps, the interpreter attached to the expedition, was detached from it at this point by Lapérouse and sent across the continent by way of Okhotsk, Irkoutsk, and Tobolsk to St. Petersburg, and thence to Paris, with the ships' letters and Lapérouse's journal. It is from this journal, published at Paris, that we have obtained the details of the expedition as we have thus far chronicled them. The track of Lapérouse was now directly south, through the heart of the Pacific Ocean. He touched, on the 9th of December, at Maouna, one of Navigator's Isles. The vessels were at once surrounded by a hundred or more canoes filled with pigs and fruit, which the natives would only exchange for glass beads, which in their eyes were what diamonds are to Europeans. Delangle, the captain of the Astrolabe, went ashore with the watering party. The islanders made no objection to their landing their casks; but as the tide receded, leaving the boats high and dry upon the beach, they became troublesome, and finally forced Delangle to a trial of his muskets. For this they took a sanguinary vengeance. Delangle was killed by a single blow from a club, as was Lamanon, the naturalist. Eleven marines were savagely murdered, either with stones or heavy sticks, while twenty were seriously wounded. The rest escaped by swimming. Lapérouse did not feel himself sufficiently strong to attempt reprisals. The natives hurled stones with such force and accuracy that they were more than a match for as many musketeers. Besides, he had lost thirty-two men and two boats, and his situation generally was such that the slightest mischance would now compel him to disarm one frigate in order to refit the other. It was late in January, 1788, that he arrived at Botany Bay, in New Holland,--the last place in which he was ever seen, alive or dead. His last letter to the Minister of Marine was dated at Botany Bay, the 7th of February. In this he stated the route by which he intended to return home, and the dates of his anticipated arrivals at various points. His plan was to visit the Friendly Islands, New Guinea, and Van Diemen's Land, and to be at the Isle of France, near Madagascar, at the beginning of December. His letter arrived in due course at Paris, where the public mind was too much agitated by the throes of revolution to pay much heed to matters of such remote interest. At last, in the year 1791, the Society of Natural History called the attention of the Constituent Assembly to the fate of Lapérouse and his companions. The hope of recovering at least some wreck of an expedition undertaken to promote the sciences induced the Assembly to send two other ships to Botany Bay, with orders to steer the same course from that place that Lapérouse had traced out for himself. Some of his followers, it was thought, might have escaped from the wreck, and might be confined on a desert island or thrown upon some savage coast. Two ships were therefore fitted out, and placed under the command of Rear-Admiral d'Entrecasteaux. The ships returned in two years, without having obtained the slightest clue to the fate of Lapérouse: their commander had died of scurvy at Java. At the Friendly Islands, the first landing that Lapérouse was to make after leaving Botany Bay, the inhabitants, who remembered Cook perfectly, and who knew the difference between French and English, declared that Lapérouse had not visited them. As they were the most civilized and hospitable of all the Pacific islanders, it was thought improbable that he had ever sailed as far as the very first station of his route,--an opinion which was confirmed by finding no trace of him at any subsequent point of his intended track. No floating remnants of wood or iron work were anywhere discovered; and the public mind gradually settled into the conviction that the two unfortunate vessels were lost upon their passage from Botany Bay to the Friendly Islands. The cause was supposed to be neither fire, nor leakage, nor the effects of a stress of weather,--causes which could hardly be fatal at the same moment to two vessels. It was generally believed that, as the Boussole and Astrolabe were accustomed to keep as near each other as possible during the night, they both simultaneously dashed upon a hidden quicksand. In this manner, one vessel would not have been able to take warning in time by the disaster of the other. In the year 1813, one Captain Dillon, in the service of the British East India Company, putting in at one of the Feejee Islands, found there two foreign sailors, one of whom was a Prussian, the other a Lascar. At their request he transported them to the neighboring island of Tucopia, where he left them, the natives expressing no hostility toward them nor objections to their stay. In 1826,--thirteen years afterward,--Captain Dillon again touched at Tucopia, where he found them comfortable and contented. The Lascar sold the armorer a silver sword-hilt of French manufacture and bearing a cipher engraved upon it. It resulted from Dillon's inquiries that the natives had obtained many articles of iron and other metals from a distant island named Manicolo, where, as they said, two European ships had been wrecked forty years before. It immediately occurred to Dillon that this circumstance was connected with the loss of the vessel of Lapérouse, whose fate still remained involved in uncertainty. Aware of the interest felt in Europe in the fate of the unfortunate navigator, he sailed with the Prussian to Manicolo, but, being prevented from landing by the surf and the coral reef, bore away to New Zealand and proceeded on his voyage. [Illustration: REMNANTS OF THE WRECK.] In 1827, Dumont d'Urville was sent out by the French Government in the sloop-of-war Astrolabe to explore the great archipelagoes of the Pacific, with incidental authority to follow up any clue he might discover to the fate of Lapérouse. At Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land, he heard some account of the efforts made by Dillon, and determined to conclude what he had begun. He sailed at once for Manicolo, and, after examining the eastern coast of the island without success, proceeded to the western. Here he found numerous articles of European manufacture in possession of the savages, who steadfastly refused to say whence they had obtained them or to point out the scene of any catastrophe or shipwreck. At last, the offer of a piece of red cloth induced a painted islander to conduct a boat's crew to the spot which is now regarded as that at which the lamented commander and his vessels met their untimely fate. Scattered about in the bed of the sea, at the depth of about twenty feet, lay anchors, cannon, and sheets of lead and copper sheathing, completely corroded and disfigured by rust. They succeeded in recovering many of them from the water,--an anchor of fourteen hundred pounds, a small cannon coated with coral, and two brass swivels, in a good state of preservation. Thus possessed of evidence which after the lapse of forty years must be considered as conclusive, d'Urville erected near the anchorage a cenotaph to the memory of the hapless navigator. It was placed in a small grove, and consecrated by a salute of twenty-one guns and three volleys of musketry. [Illustration: CONSECRATION OF THE CENOTAPH.] The islanders were now profuse in their explanations of the circumstances attending the calamity. As far as d'Urville could interpret their language and their pantomime, the ships struck upon the reef during a gale in the night. One speedily sank, only thirty of her crew escaping; the other remained for a time entire, but afterwards went to pieces, her whole crew having been saved. From her timbers they constructed a schooner, in which labor they occupied seven moons or months, and then sailed away and never returned. What befell them after their second embarkation, what was the fate of their daring little vessel,--if indeed any such was ever built,--no one has survived to tell. It is safe to believe that both vessels were lost upon the island of Vanikoro, now one of the archipelago of the New Hebrides. It is supposed that Lapérouse was the first European navigator that visited it, Dillon the second, and d'Urville the third. [Illustration: SCENE IN TERRA DEL FUEGO.] CHAPTER XLVII. THE TRANSPLANTATION OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE--THE VOYAGE OF THE BOUNTY--A MUTINY--BLIGH, THE CAPTAIN, WITH EIGHTEEN MEN, CAST ADRIFT IN THE LAUNCH--INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE FROM TAHITI TO TIMOR--TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS AND A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE--ARRIVAL OF THE MUTINEERS AT TAHITI--THEIR REMOVAL TO PITCAIRN's ISLAND--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY--VOYAGE OF VANCOUVER--ALGERINE PIRACY--BURNING OF THE PHILADELPHIA--PROUD POSITION OF THE UNITED STATES. In the year 1787, the merchants and planters of England, interested in his Majesty's West India possessions, petitioned the king to cause the bread-fruit tree to be introduced into these islands; and, in accordance with this request, the armed transport Bounty, of two hundred and fifteen tons, was purchased and docked at Deptford to be furnished with the proper fixtures. Lieutenant William Bligh, who had been round the world with Cook, was appointed to command her. Her cabin was fitted with a false floor cut full of holes sufficient to receive one thousand or more garden-pots. She was victualled for fifteen months, and laden with trinkets for the South Sea Islanders. Her destination was Tahiti by way of Cape Horn. She sailed late in December, 1787. After a three months' tempestuous passage, she made the eastern coast of Terra del Fuego. She contended thirty days here with violent westerly gales, seeking either to thread the strait or double the cape. Finding either course impossible, Bligh ordered the helm to be put a-weather, having resolved to cross the South Atlantic and approach Tahiti from the westward,--a determination which was successfully executed. Bligh gave directions to all on board not to inform the natives of the object of their visit, lest, by the natural law of supply and demand, the price-current of bread-fruit trees should suddenly rise. He contrived to make the chiefs believe that he was doing them a favor in conveying specimens of their plants to the great King of England. A tent was erected on shore to receive the trees, some thirty of which were potted every day. On the 4th of April, 1789, the vessel set sail, with one thousand and fifteen roots in pots, tubs, and boxes. It was now that an event took place which rendered the cruise of the Bounty one of the most extraordinary in the annals of the sea. A mutiny, which had been planned in secrecy, broke out on the 27th. The whole crew were engaged in it, with the exception of eighteen men. Bligh, with these eighteen,--most of them officers,--was hurried into the launch, which was cut loose, with one hundred and fifty pounds of bread, twenty-eight gallons of water, a little rum and wine, with a quadrant and compass. A few pieces of pork, some cocoanuts, and four cutlasses, were thrown at them as they were cast adrift. Some of the mutineers laughed at the helpless condition of the launch; while others expressed their confidence in Bligh's resources by exclaiming, with oaths, "Pshaw! he'll find his way home if you give him pencil and paper!" "Blast him! he'll have a vessel built in a month!" Bligh was convinced that, defenceless and unarmed as they were, they had nothing to hope from the inhabited islands of the surrounding waters. He told the crew that no chance of relief remained except at Timor, where there was a Dutch colony, at a distance of three thousand five hundred miles. They all agreed, and bound themselves by a solemn promise, to live upon one ounce of bread and a gill of water a day. They then bore away across this unknown and barbarous sea, in a boat twenty-three feet long from stem to stern, deep-laden with nineteen men, and barely supplied with food for two. There is nothing in maritime annals more worthy of a place in a work treating of "Man upon the Sea" than is this marvellous voyage from Tahiti to Timor. The first thing done was to return thanks to God for their preservation and to invoke His protection during the perils they were to encounter. The sun now rose fiery and red, foreboding a severe gale, which, before long, blew with extreme severity. The sea curled over the stern, obliging them to bale without cessation. The bread was in bags, and in danger of being soaked and spoiled. Unless this could be prevented, starvation was inevitable. Every thing was thrown overboard that could be spared,--even to suits of clothes: the bread was then secured in the carpenter's chest. A teaspoonful of rum and a fragment of bread-fruit--collected from the floor of the boat, where it had been crushed in the confusion of departure--was now served to each man. They constantly passed in sight of islands, upon which they did not dare to land. They kept on, alternately performing prayers, dining on damaged bread, and sipping infinitesimal quantities of rum or other cordial. On grand occasions, Bligh served out as the day's allowance a quarter of a pint of cocoanut-milk and two ounces of the meat. One half of the men watched while the other half slept with nothing to cover them but the heavens. They could not stretch out their limbs, for there was not room: they became dreadfully cramped, and at last the dangers and pains of sleep were such that it became an additional misery in their catalogue of sorrows. A heavy thunder-shower enabled them to quench their thirst for the first time and to increase their stock of water to thirty-four gallons; but, in compensation, it wet them through and caused them to pass a cold and shivering night. The next day the sun came out, and they stripped and dried their clothes. Bligh thought the men needed additional creature comfort under these dismal circumstances, and issued to each an ounce and a half of pork, an ounce of bread, a teaspoonful of rum, and half a pint of cocoanut-milk. They kept a fishing-line towing from the stern; but in no one instance did they catch a fish. Bligh now became convinced that in serving ounces of bread by guess-work he was dealing out overmeasure, and that if he continued to do so his stores would not last the eight weeks he had intended they should. So he made a pair of scales of two cocoanut-shells, and, having accidentally found a pistol-ball, twenty-five of which were known to weigh a pound, or sixteen ounces, he adopted it as the measure of one ration of bread. The men were thus reduced from one ounce to two hundred and seventy-two grains. Another thunder-shower now came on, and they caught twenty gallons of water. The usual consolation of a thimbleful of rum was served when the storm was over, together with one mouthful of pork. The men soon began to complain of pains in the bowels; and nearly all had lost in a measure the use of their limbs. Their clothes would not dry when taken off and hung upon the rigging, so impregnated was the atmosphere with moisture. On the fifteenth day they discovered a number of islands, which, though forming part of the group of the New Hebrides, had been seen neither by Cook nor Bougainville, and thus, in the midst of their agonies, the barren satisfaction of contributing to geographical science was, as it were in derision, awarded to them. The men now clamored for extra allowances of pork and rum,--which Bligh sternly refused, administering his bullet-weight of bread with the severest ceremony. "At dawn of the twenty-second day," says Bligh, "some of my people seemed half dead: our appearances were horrible, and I could look no way but I caught the eye of some one in distress. Extreme hunger was now too evident; but no one suffered from thirst, nor had we much inclination to drink,--that desire, perhaps, being satisfied through the skin. Every one dreaded the approach of night. Sleep, though we longed for it, afforded no comfort: for my own part, I almost lived without it." Bligh now examined the remaining bread, and found sufficient to last for twenty-nine days; but, as he might be compelled to avoid Timor and go to Java, it became necessary to make the stock hold out for forty days. He therefore announced that supper would hereafter be served without bread! A great event happened on the twenty-seventh day. A noddy--a bird as large as a small pigeon--was caught as it flew past the boat. Bligh divided it, with the entrails, into nineteen portions, and distributed it by lots. It was eaten, bones and all, with salt water for sauce. The next day a booby--which is as large as a duck--was caught, and was divided and devoured like the noddy, even to the entrails, beak, and feet. The blood was given to three of the men who were the most distressed for want of food. On the thirtieth day they landed upon the northern shore of New Holland, and gave thanks to God for his gracious protection through a series of disasters and calamities then almost unparalleled. They found oysters upon the rocks, which they opened without detaching them. A fire was made by the help of a magnifying-glass; and then, with the aid of a copper pot found in the boat, a delicious stew of oysters, pork, bread, and cocoanut was cooked, of which every man received a full pint. Spring water was obtained by digging where a growth of wire grass indicated a moist situation. The soft tops of palm-trees and fern-roots furnished them a very palatable addition to their mess: After laying in sixty gallons of water and as many oysters as they could collect, they re-embarked, after having slept two nights on land and having been greatly benefited thereby. Keeping to the northwestward, and coasting along the shore, they landed from time to time in search of food. On the 2d of June, the watch of the gunner, which had been the only one in the company successfully to resist the influences of the weather, finally stopped, so that sunrise, noon, and sunset were now the only definite points in the twenty-four hours. On the next day, having followed the northeastern shore of New Holland as far as it lay in their route, they once more launched into the open sea. On Thursday, the 11th, they passed, as Bligh supposed, the meridian of the eastern point of Timor,--a fact which diffused universal joy and satisfaction. On Friday, at three in the morning, the island was faintly visible in the west, and by daylight it lay but five miles to the leeward. They had run three thousand six hundred and eighteen miles in an open boat in forty-one days, with provisions barely sufficient for five. Though life had never been sustained upon so little nourishment for so long a time, and under equal circumstances of exposure and suffering, not a man perished during the voyage. Their wants were most kindly supplied by the Dutch at Coupang, and every necessary and comfort administered with a most liberal hand. On his return to England, Bligh published a narrative of his voyage and of the mutiny, which was soon translated into all the languages of Europe. He ascribed the revolt to the desire of the crew to lead an idle and luxurious life at Tahiti, though subsequent developments, and his own outrageous and brutal conduct when Governor of New South Wales, proved quite conclusively that his cruelties and tyranny had rendered him odious and intolerable. The British Government could not allow such a transaction upon the high seas to pass unpunished, and despatched the frigate Pandora, Captain Edwards, to Tahiti in the month of August. Only ten of the mutineers were found, the rest having withdrawn to another island through fear of discovery, as we shall now relate, merely stating that the ten persons taken were conveyed to England, where they were tried and executed. [Illustration: COLONISTS OF PITCAIRN'S ISLAND.] John Adams, one of the mutineers, being apprehensive that the English Government would make an attempt to punish the revolt, resolved to escape to some neighboring and uninhabited island, and there establish a colony. With eight Englishmen, one of whom was Christian, the ringleader in the mutiny, their Tahitian wives, and a few islanders of both sexes, he sailed in the Bounty to Pitcairn's Island, which had been lately seen by Carteret. They arrived there in 1790, and, having unladen the vessel, burned her. A settlement was formed, which prospered in spite of the continual quarrels between the males of the two races. This hostility resulted, in three years, in the extinction of the savages, leaving upon the island Adams, three Englishmen, ten women of Tahiti, and the children, some twenty in number. One of the Englishmen, having succeeded in distilling brandy from a root which grew in abundance, drank to excess and threw himself headlong from a rock into the sea. Another was slain for entertaining designs upon the wife of the only remaining Englishman except Adams. Thus, in 1799, Adams and Young were the only males of the original colony surviving. They began to reflect upon their duties toward their children and those of their companions: they commenced holding religious services morning and evening, and instructed the rising generation in such rudimental branches of education as their own learning would permit. Young died in 1801, and Adams became the administrator and patriarch of the colony. He was assisted by the Tahitian women, who showed a remarkable capacity for civilization and aptitude for refinement. An English frigate, the Briton, touched at Pitcairn in 1814, and her captain offered to take Adams back to England, promising him to procure his pardon from the king. But the forty-seven persons, women and children, forming the settlement, besought their patriarch not to leave them. In 1825, Captain Beechey visited the island, and found the population increased to sixty-six. Adams was sixty years old, but still vigorous and active. He begged Beechey to marry him, according to the rites of the English Church, to the woman with whom he had lived, and who was now infirm and blind. Beechey gladly acceded to the request. Soon after, an English missionary, named Buffet, went out to Pitcairn to assist Adams in the discharge of his duties and to succeed him upon his death. The latter event occurred in 1829. Vessels occasionally stopped at Pitcairn, and the English Government was thus kept informed of the progress of its interesting colony. In 1856, the descendants of the original settlers, having increased so much as to outgrow the resources of their sea-girt home, abandoned Pitcairn's Island, and transferred themselves, with their goods and chattels, to Norfolk Island, directly west and toward New South Wales. They numbered one hundred and ninety-nine in all, the oldest man being sixty-two, and the oldest woman eighty. Charles Christian is the grandson of Christian the ringleader. Their new home contains about fourteen thousand acres, and is well watered, fertile, and healthy, the soil producing abundantly both European and tropical fruits, vegetables, grains, and spices. The history of the present colony, the offspring in the third generation of European fathers and Tahitian mothers, is as remarkable as any tale in romance or any legend in mythology. In the year 1790,--to return to chronological order,--the British Government determined to make one more attempt to discover a channel of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific to the north of the American continent, and selected to command the expedition Lieutenant George Vancouver, who had accompanied Cook on his second and third voyages. He was raised to the rank of captain and placed at the head of an expedition consisting of the sloop-of-war Discovery and the armed tender Chatham. He left Falmouth on the 1st of April, 1791; and, as the Admiralty had designated no route by which to proceed to the Pacific, he decided to go by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived here without adventure in July, and, late in September, struck the southern coast of New Holland at a cape to which he gave the name of Chatham, from the President of the Board of Admiralty. The two vessels coasted to the eastward, surveying the indentations and giving names to all points of interest. A harbor being discovered, it received the name of King George the Third's Sound, and Vancouver took possession of the land in the name of his Gracious Majesty. A wretched hovel, three feet high, in the form of a bee-hive cut through the centre from the apex to the base, and constructed of slender twigs, here revealed the presence of inhabitants; while the singular appearance of the trees and the vegetation, which had evidently undergone the action of fire,--the shrubs being completely charred and the grass having been shrivelled by the heat,--showed that, miserable as they certainly were, they were acquainted with the uses and abuses of fire. At last they discovered a deserted village, consisting of some two dozen huts or hives, which had apparently been the residence of a considerable tribe. They gratified their curiosity by contemplating and investigating these humiliating efforts of human ingenuity. [Illustration: A DESERTED VILLAGE.] Continuing to the eastward, Vancouver touched at New Zealand, and arrived at a spot where he had been with Cook eighteen years before. An inlet which Cook had been unable to explore, and which he had named in consequence "NOBODY KNOWS WHAT," was explored by Vancouver and called by him "SOMEBODY KNOWS WHAT." Running to the north, he discovered an island whose inhabitants spoke the language of the great South Sea nation and who seemed perfectly acquainted with the uses of iron, though they had little or none of that metal. A Sandwich Islander, whom Vancouver had brought from London as an interpreter, and who was named Towerezoo, was of very little assistance; for he had been so long absent that he now spoke English much better than his mother-tongue, and spoke the latter no better than Vancouver. The island appeared to go by the name of Oparo, by which Vancouver thought fit to distinguish it till it should be found more properly entitled to another. The two vessels arrived in December at Tahiti, and anchored in Matavai Bay. The chronometers were landed, in order to correct them by the known longitude of the island; the sails were unbent, the topmasts struck, for a thorough examination of the rigging. The Discovery went by accident upon a rock, and was for a while in great danger. On Sunday, the 1st of January, 1792, every one had as much fresh pork and plum-pudding as he could eat, and a double allowance of grog was served in which to drink the time-honored toast. The formula, however, was slightly altered to suit the state of the case: the gunner of the Discovery being the only married man of the party, the toast given was SWEETHEARTS AND WIFE! [Illustration: THE SHIP DISCOVERY ON A ROCK.] On the 24th of January, the two ships turned their head to the northward, now for the first time commencing the voyage in view of which the expedition had been equipped. They ran the two thousand five hundred miles that lay between them and the Sandwich Islands in the space of five weeks, and anchored off Owhyhee on the 1st of March. They touched the American coast, or that part of it known as New Albion, in 39° north latitude, which Vancouver now explored and surveyed. In August he entered Nootka, where, in accordance with his instructions, he was to receive from the Spanish authorities the formal cession of the colony they had established. He found his Catholic Majesty's brig Active already there, commanded by Señor Don Juan Francisco de la Rodega y Quadra. The two commanders agreed to honor each other by a mutual salute of thirteen guns, which was done; while other courtesies were cordially exchanged. The ceremony then took place. Vancouver now returned to Owhyhee, and the king, smitten by a sudden and vehement attachment for the English, proposed to make over the island to the dominion of the King of England. All the insular dignitaries assembled on the decks of the Discovery, and the surrender was made in the midst of speeches and cannonades. Vancouver did not seem to have been deeply impressed with the importance of this event. The solemnity of the transaction was not increased by the circumstance that it took place upon the spot where Cook had so recently been massacred. Returning to the north, Vancouver continued his surveys and explorations of the American coast as far as the fifty-sixth degree of latitude. He terminated his operations on the 22d of August, at Port Conclusion, where an additional allowance of grog was served, that the day might be celebrated with proper festivity. He returned to Europe with the certitude that no passage existed from the North Pacific across the American continent into the Atlantic. His surveys remain as a monument of his activity, skill, and perseverance. The present charts of the coast of North America upon the Pacific are based upon them. More than nine thousand miles of shore, with its headlands, capes, rivers, bays, promontories, and labyrinths of islands, had been carefully explored by surveying parties in boats, in superintending which Vancouver injured his health and brought on the decline which terminated in his death, in the year 1798, at the early age of forty-eight. We have now to record the remarkable series of acts by which the United States of America, in the twenty-fifth year of their existence as a nation, put an end to a humiliation to which the commercial powers of Europe had submitted for centuries. From the time when the Spanish Moors, driven out of Granada by Ferdinand the Catholic, settled on the opposite coast and commenced the practice of piracy, the Barbary States, Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, had been united against all Christian commerce in the Mediterranean. Emboldened by impunity, they extended their operations into the Atlantic, seizing the vessels of all nations who did not pay them tribute. England under Cromwell, and France under Louis XIV., however, caused their flags to be respected. The Dutch, Danes, and Swedes, by paying an annual tax, purchased exemption from seizure,--thus giving the sanction of a treaty to the outrage and consenting to wear an odious badge of servitude. Russia and Austria were protected by special agreements. During the early years of the American Republic, Tripoli intimated to the Government the propriety of paying tribute. Jefferson replied, in 1800, by declaring war against Tripoli, and sent out an armed naval force under Commodore Dale. This officer, with two frigates and a sloop-of-war, blockaded Tripoli, preventing the cruisers from getting to sea, and thus protecting our commerce. Commodore Preble followed with seven vessels in 1803. In October, one of his ships,--the Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge,--engaged in reconnoitring the harbor of Tripoli, grounded and was forced to surrender. The officers were treated as prisoners of war, the sailors as slaves. The vessel was floated and moored in the harbor, strongly manned by Tripolitans, whose naval force was thus unexpectedly augmented. The American squadron rendezvoused at Syracuse, in Sicily,--somewhat over a day's sail from Tripoli. A young lieutenant under Preble, named Decatur, formed a plan for destroying the Philadelphia and thus reducing the Tripolitans again to their ordinary naval strength. Preble consented to the scheme, and Decatur armed a ketch which he had captured, and with it entered, in February, 1804, under cover of the night, the harbor of Tripoli. He had with him an old pilot who spoke the Tripolitan language. On approaching the Philadelphia, they were challenged; but the pilot replied that he had lost his anchor and merely wished to fasten his vessel to the frigate till morning. A boat was sent ashore by the Tripolitans to ask permission, and then Decatur and his men leaped upon the deck. They rushed upon the affrighted corsairs, fifty in number, and drove them into the sea. They set fire to the Philadelphia, and, by the light of the blaze, escaped without the loss of a single man. One sailor was wounded by receiving upon his arm a blow from a sabre with which the turbaned pirate meant to decapitate Decatur. The Tripolitans were enraged at the loss of their prize, and treated Bainbridge and his enslaved crew with greater severity than ever. Three times did Preble enter the harbor of Tripoli with his fleet and open his broadsides against the town, destroying some of the shipping, but making no material impression. At last, a series of brilliant actions upon land under General Eaton, whose army consisted of nine Americans, twenty Greeks, and five hundred Egyptians, and the arrival of the frigate Constitution in June, 1805, forced the Bashaw of Tripoli to come to terms; and he released his prisoners and abandoned forever the levying of tribute upon American ships. Peace was at once concluded. In 1812, the United States being at war with England, the Dey of Algiers thought our Government would be unable to cope with two enemies upon the ocean, and determined to resume piracy on our vessels. He pretexted the unsatisfactory quality of a cargo of military stores furnished by our Government, and ordered the American agent to leave the capital. Depredations were immediately recommenced: our vessels were plundered and confiscated and their crews enslaved. The President suggested the importance of taking measures of prevention, in his message to Congress in December, 1814, and, after the signing of the treaty of peace with England, despatched two squadrons to the Mediterranean, under Decatur and Bainbridge, both now commodores. The former captured, in June, an Algerine frigate of forty-four guns and a brig of twenty-two. He then sailed for Algiers. The American navy had earned an enviable distinction in the war with England, and the sight of our gallant fleet inspired the Dey with a salutary terror. He consented to the terms imposed by Decatur, which were to give up all captured men and property, to pay six million dollars for previous exactions, and to exempt our commerce from tribute for all time to come. A treaty was signed on the 4th of July,--an auspicious date for so honorable an achievement. [Illustration: BURNING OF THE PHILADELPHIA.] The proud position thus attained by the United States attracted the attention of Europe. Our Government had extorted expressions of submission from the corsairs such as no other power had ever obtained. The Congress of Vienna discussed the subject, and it was resolved that from that time forward Christian slavery in Algiers was suppressed. The English sent Lord Exmouth to bombard that city, and compelled the dey to submit to conditions like those imposed by Decatur. The Algerines were not yet broken, however. They placed their city in a formidable state of defence, and then proceeded to intercept the trade of the French. The French Government declared war,--a measure which resulted in the capture of Algiers in 1830 and in the seizure of Abd-el-Kader in the winter of 1847-48. These events have led to the colonization of the territory by the French and to the partial extinction of the Algerine people. Piracy in the Mediterranean may safely be said to be at an end forever. [Illustration: THE CLERMONT: THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.] CHAPTER XLVIII. APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION--ROBERT FULTON-CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON--LAUNCH OF THE CLERMONT--SHE CROSSES THE HUDSON RIVER--HER VOYAGE TO ALBANY--DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE--FULTON'S OWN ACCOUNT--LEGISLATIVE PROTECTION GRANTED TO FULTON--THE PENDULUM-ENGINE--CONSTRUCTION OF OTHER STEAMBOATS--THE STEAM-FRIGATE FULTON THE FIRST--THE FIRST OCEAN-STEAMER, THE SAVANNAH--ACCOUNT OF HER VOYAGE--MISAPPREHENSIONS UPON THE SUBJECT. In the year 1807, a new agent was introduced into the science of navigation,--one which was destined to effect as great a change in the duration of a voyage at sea as the compass had effected in its practicability. Steam was applied to a boat upon the Hudson, and the Clermont, propelled by wheels, steamed from Jersey City to Albany. Though this was an event that immediately concerned river-navigation, and though twelve years were to elapse before the accomplishment of the first ocean steam-voyage, we cannot with propriety omit an account of the conception, construction, and success of the first river-steamboat. Robert Fulton was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1765. He manifested a genius for mechanics at an early age, though portrait-painting was his first profession. He spent many years in England and France, and conceived the idea of a vessel propelled by steam in 1793. He received no countenance from Napoleon, and returned to the United States in December, 1806. His mind was now occupied with two projects,--the invention of submarine explosives and the construction of a steamboat. He published a work entitled "Torpedo War," with the motto, "The liberty of the seas will be the happiness of the earth." He renewed his acquaintance with Chancellor Livingston, whom he had known when ambassador to Paris. This gentleman had long had entire faith in the practicability of steam-navigation, and as early as 1798 had obtained from the Legislature of New York a monopoly of all such navigation upon the waters of the State, provided he would within twelve months build a boat which should go four miles an hour by steam. When they met in America, in 1806, the two entered into a partnership and commenced the construction of a boat. Finding the expenses unexpectedly heavy, they offered to sell one-third of their patent; but no one would invest in an enterprise universally deemed hopeless. The boat was nevertheless launched, in the spring of 1807, from the ship-yard of Charles Brown, on the East River. She was supplied with an engine built in England, and was driven by steam, in August, from the New York side to the Jersey shore. The incredulous crowd who had assembled to laugh stayed to wonder and applaud. The Clermont soon after sailed for Albany, her departure having been announced in the newspapers as a grand and unequalled curiosity. "She excited," says Colden, in his Life of Fulton, "the astonishment of the inhabitants of the shores of the Hudson, many of whom had not heard even of an engine, much less of a steamboat. There were many descriptions of the effects of her first appearance upon the people of the bank of the river: some of these were ridiculous, but some of them were of such a character as nothing but an object of real grandeur could have excited. She was described, by some who had indistinctly seen her passing in the night, as a monster moving on the waters, defying the winds and tide, and breathing flames and smoke. She had the most terrific appearance from other vessels which were navigating the river when she was making her passage. The first steamboat--as others yet do--used dry pine wood for fuel, which sends forth a column of ignited vapor many feet above the flue, and whenever the fire is stirred a galaxy of sparks fly off, and in the night have a very brilliant and beautiful appearance. This uncommon light first attracted the attention of the crews of other vessels. Notwithstanding the wind and tide, which were adverse to its approach, they saw with astonishment that it was rapidly coming toward them; and when it came so near that the noise of the machinery and paddles was heard, the crews--if what was said in the newspapers of the time be true--in some instances shrunk beneath their decks from the terrific sight and left their vessels to go on shore, whilst others prostrated themselves and besought Providence to protect them from the approaches of the horrible monster which was marching on the tide and lighting its path by the fires which it vomited." Fulton himself wrote the following account of the trip up the river and back, and published it in the American Citizen:--"I left New York on Monday at one o'clock, and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor Livingston, at one o'clock on Tuesday: time, twenty-four hours; distance, one hundred and ten miles. On Wednesday, I departed from the chancellor's at nine in the morning, and arrived at Albany at five in the afternoon: time, eight hours; distance, forty miles. The sum is one hundred and fifty miles in thirty-two hours,--equal to near five miles an hour. "On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the chancellor's at six in the evening: I started from thence at seven, and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon; time, thirty hours; space run through, one hundred and fifty miles,--equal to five miles an hour. Throughout my whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead: no advantage could be derived from my sail: the whole has therefore been performed by the power of the steam-engine." In a letter to one of his friends, Fulton wrote:--"I overtook many sloops and schooners beating to windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor. The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York there were not perhaps thirty persons who believed that the boat would even move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility; and while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way in which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers and projectors.... Although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to me, yet I feel infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantage that my country will derive from the invention." The Clermont was now advertised as a regular passenger-boat upon the Hudson. She met with numerous accidents during the season; and her obvious defects would have been remedied by the application of as obvious improvements by Fulton himself, had not other persons anticipated him by taking out patents for improvements which they themselves proposed. They thus caused him infinite annoyance, and even contested his right as an inventor. Shipmasters, too, who looked upon his boat as an intruder upon their domain, ran their vessels purposely foul of her on more than one occasion. The Legislature saw fit to counteract the effects of this hostility by passing an act prolonging Livingston and Fulton's privilege five years for every additional boat established,--the whole time, however, not to exceed thirty years. It also made all combinations to destroy the Clermont offences punishable by fine and imprisonment. Thus protected, the Clermont ran throughout the season, always well laden with passengers. In the winter she was enlarged and improved. The wheel-guards were strengthened, and became a prominent and essential feature of the boat. The rudder was replaced by one of much larger dimensions, and a steering-wheel towards the bow was substituted for the ordinary tiller. The accommodations for passengers were made much more comfortable,--luxurious even,--and the public taste was consulted in the application of numerous coats of rather gaudy paint. She then commenced her trips for the season of 1808. She started regularly at the appointed hour,--at first much to the discontent of travellers who had before been waited for by both sloops and stages. At the end of the season the Clermont was altogether too small for the crowds who thronged to take passage. Two boats, the Car of Neptune and the Paragon, were therefore soon added to the line. Fulton, menaced by constant contestation of his rights, took out a patent in 1809 from the General Government, and another, for improvements, in 1811. His system was so simple--the adaptation of paddle-wheels to the axle of the crank of Watt's engine--that it seemed then, as it has proved since, almost impossible by any specifications effectually to protect it. The famous Pendulum Company caused Fulton for a time much trouble. They built a boat the wheels of which were to be moved by a pendulum. While she was upon the stocks and the wheels were resisted only by the air, the labor of a few men made them turn regularly and rapidly; but when she was launched, and the pendulum encountered the resistance of the water, neither pendulum, wheels, nor boat would stir. The Pendulum Company were aghast at this phenomenon, and clearly saw that if the boat was to be moved by the wheels, and the wheels by the pendulum, something must be devised of sufficient power to move the pendulum. There was nothing, evidently, but the steam-engine; and so they copied Fulton's. Lawsuits followed; and in his argument in behalf of Fulton Mr. Emmet thus spoke of the Pendulum gentlemen:--"They are men who never waste health and life in midnight vigils and painful study; who never dream of science in the broken slumbers of an exhausted mind; who bestow upon the construction of a steamboat just as much mathematical calculation and philosophical research as on the purchase of a sack of wheat or a barrel of ashes." Fulton gained his cause, and the boat which was to go by clock-work was prohibited from going even by steam. In 1812, Fulton built the Fire-Fly; and, as the town of Newburgh, half-way to Albany, offered sufficient traffic to support at least one boat, she was placed upon that route. In the same year he constructed two ferry-boats for crossing the Hudson, making them with rudder and bow at either end. He also contrived floating docks for their reception, and a method of stopping them without concussion. In 1813, he built a steam-vessel of four hundred tons and unusual strength, to ply in Long Island Sound between New York and New Haven. She was the first steamboat constructed with a round bottom. We quote a passage referring to her from a work published in 1817:--"During a great part of her route she would be as much exposed as she could be on the ocean: it was therefore necessary to make her a perfect sea-boat. She passes daily, and at all times of the tide, the dangerous strait of Hell-Gate, where for the distance of nearly a mile she often encounters a current running at the rate of at least six miles an hour. For some distance she has within a few yards of her, on each side, rocks and whirlpools which rival Scylla and Charybdis even as they are poetically described. This passage, previously to its being navigated by this vessel, was always supposed to be impassable except at certain stages of the tide; and many a shipwreck has been occasioned by a small mistake in the time. The boat passing through these whirlpools with rapidity, while the angry waters are foaming against her bows and appear to raise themselves in obstinate resistance to her passage, is a proud triumph of human ingenuity. The owners, as the highest tribute they had in their power to offer to his genius, and as an evidence of the gratitude they owed him, called her the Fulton." Early in 1814, the United States and England being at war, Fulton conceived the idea of a steam vessel-of-war, capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for red-hot shot, and sailing four miles an hour. Congress authorized the construction of such a floating battery, and the keel was laid on the 18th of June. The vessel was launched on the 27th of October the same year, in the midst of excited and applauding throngs. Before she sailed, however, her engineer and builder had been removed to another sphere: Fulton died on the 24th of February, 1815. The Legislature paid an unusual tribute to his memory: they resolved to wear mourning for three weeks. This manifestation of regret for the loss of a man who had never held office nor served his country in any public capacity was entirely unprecedented. On the 4th of July, the steam-frigate made a trial trip, and, with her engines alone, sailed fifty-three miles in eight hours and twenty minutes. The following description of the Fulton the First, as she was called, is given by the committee appointed to examine her in behalf of Congress:--"She is a structure resting on two boats and keels separated from end to end by a channel fifteen feet wide and sixty-six feet long. One boat contains the caldrons of copper to prepare her steam; the cylinder of iron, its piston, lever, and wheels, occupy part of the other. The water-wheel revolves in the space between them. The main or gun deck supports the armament, and is protected by a parapet, four feet ten inches thick, of solid timber, pierced by embrasures. Through thirty port-holes as many thirty-two pounders are intended to fire red-hot shot, which can be heated with great safety and convenience. Her upper or spar deck, upon which several thousand men might parade, is encompassed by a bulwark, which affords safe quarters: she is rigged with two stout masts, each of which supports a large lateen yard and sails: she has two bowsprits and jibs, and four rudders, one at each extremity of each boat, so that she can be steered with either end foremost: her machinery is calculated for the addition of an engine which will discharge an immense column of water, which it is intended to throw upon the decks and through the port-holes of an enemy and thereby deluge her armament and ammunition. If in addition to all this we suppose her to be furnished, according to Mr. Fulton's intention, with hundred-pound Columbiads, two suspended from each bow so as to discharge a ball of that size into an enemy's ship ten or twelve feet below her water-line, it must be allowed that she has the appearance, at least, of being the most formidable engine for warfare that human ingenuity has contrived." Such was the first step towards the establishment of a steam-navy. Forty years afterwards, George Steers built the propeller-frigate Niagara; and the reader, by comparing the two vessels, will have an adequate idea of the immense strides made in naval mechanics and engineering during the lapse of less than half a century. In Europe the size and qualities of the Fulton the First were at the time ludicrously exaggerated, as will be seen from the following passage from a Scotch treatise on steamships. After magnifying her proportions threefold, the author continues:--"The thickness of her sides is thirteen feet of alternate oak plank and cork wood: she carries forty-four guns, four of which are hundred-pounders; quarterdeck and forecastle guns, forty-four-pounders; and, further to annoy an enemy attempting to board, can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute, and, by mechanism, brandishes three hundred cutlasses with the utmost regularity over her gunwales, works also an equal number of heavy iron spikes of great length, darting them from her sides with prodigious force and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute!" The frigate made a second experimental trip, on the 11th of September, with her armament and stores on board, her draught of water being eleven feet. She changed her course by reversing the motion of her wheels. She fired salutes as she passed the forts, and performed manoeuvres around the United States frigate Java. The machinery was not affected in the slightest degree by the detonation of her guns. Her average speed was five and a half miles an hour,--Fulton having contracted to obtain three miles an hour only. The city of New York now felt itself invulnerable; but the cessation of hostilities, which occurred soon after, precluded the necessity of employing her as a means of defence. It is probable that such a contrivance, even in the present advanced state of naval warfare, would be found useful in protecting the mouths of harbors,--not as a frigate, but as a floating battery or movable fortress. The fact that this vessel was built by Fulton makes him the father not only of steam-navigation, but of the steam-navies of the world as well. We shall have occasion to chronicle at intervals, as we progress in our record, the successive steps of improvement in the science, till we arrive at the era of steam floating palaces upon American rivers, of steam pleasure-yachts owned by American merchants, of commercial steam-leviathans, American and English, bearing the names of continents and oceans, and of the peerless steam-frigate to which we have already alluded,--"a noble ship with a noble name, bound, in 1857, upon the noblest of missions." The history of the first ocean-steamer is very incompletely and unsatisfactorily told in the annals of the time. The following is the substance of all that has been preserved of the first transatlantic steam-voyage on record: The Savannah, a steamer of three hundred and fifty tons, intended to ply between New York and Liverpool, under the command of Captain Moses Rodgers, was launched at New York on the 22d of August, 1818. She made a preliminary voyage to the city whose name she bore, in April, 1819, where she arrived in seven days, after a very boisterous passage. She was several times compelled to take in her wheels--having machinery for the purpose--and rely upon her sails, which was done with all the promptitude and safety anticipated. This trial trip left no doubt that she would successfully accomplish the object for which she was built. She left Savannah for Liverpool soon after, and the New York newspapers of the second week in June announced that she had been spoken at sea, all well. In the log-book of the Pluto, which arrived soon after at Baltimore from Bremen, occurred the following passage: [Illustration: THE SAVANNAH: THE FIRST OCEAN-STEAMER.] "June 2.--Clear weather and smooth sea: lat. 42°, long. 59°, spoke and passed the elegant steamship Savannah, eight days out from Savannah to St. Petersburg by way of Liverpool. She passed us at the rate of nine or ten knots; and the captain informed us she worked remarkably well, and the greatest compliment we could bestow was to give her three cheers, as the happiest effort of mechanical genius that ever appeared on the Western ocean. She returned the compliment." Niles' New York Register of the 21st of August contains the following paragraph in italics at the head of its column of foreign news:--"The steamship Savannah, Captain Moses Rodgers,--the first that ever crossed the Atlantic,--arrived at Liverpool in twenty-five days from Savannah, all well, to the great astonishment of the people of that place. She worked her engine eighteen days." The next record of her movements is that she sailed in August for St. Petersburg, passing Elsinore on the 13th, and that the British "_wisely_ supposed her visit to be _somehow_ connected with the ambitious views of the United States." She arrived back at Savannah in November, in fifty days from St. Petersburg _viâ_ Copenhagen and Arendal in Norway, all well, and, in the language of Captain Rodgers, "with neither a screw, bolt, or a rope-yarn parted, though she encountered a very heavy gale in the North Sea." She left Savannah for Washington on the 4th of December, losing her boats and anchors off Cape Hatteras. It is a singular fact, and one not creditable to the English, that many of their works treating of inventions and the progress of the arts and sciences entirely overlook this voyage out and back of the Savannah, and uniformly make the British steamers Sirius and Great Western the pioneers, in 1837, in the great work of ocean steam-navigation. The authors of these works err either through design or ignorance, and in either case display a marked unfitness for their vocation. Were they to consult the London and Liverpool newspapers of the time, they would find ample record of the accomplishment of a steam-voyage nearly twenty years before the period to which they assign it. We have said enough, however, to prove that the first steam-vessel that crossed the ocean was built in New York, and that Moses Rodgers, her captain, was an American citizen. When we arrive at the year in which the two British steamers inaugurated steam commercial intercourse between the hemispheres, we shall record it, with due acknowledgment of its importance; but we repeat the assertion that, as the first river-steamer was the Clermont, the first Atlantic steamer was the Savannah: both one and the other were built in New York. [Illustration: HEAD OF WHITE BEAR.] Section VI. FROM THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO NAVIGATION TO THE LAYING OF THE ATLANTIC CABLE: 1807-1857. CHAPTER XLIX. ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS--RUSSIAN RESEARCHES UNDER KRUSENSTERN AND KOTZEBUE--FREYCINET--ROSS--THE CRIMSON CLIFFS--LANCASTER SOUND--BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN--PARRY--THE POLAR SEA--WINTER QUARTERS--RETURN HOME--DUPERREY--EPISODES IN THE WHALE-FISHERY--PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE--BOAT-SLEDGES--METHOD OF TRAVEL--DISHEARTENING DISCOVERY--82° 43' NORTH. We have now entered the nineteenth century. From this time forward we shall find little or no romantic interest attaching to the history of the sea, with the single exception of that of the Arctic waters. The epoch of adventure stimulated by the thirst for gold has long since passed: there are no more continents to be pursued, and few islands to be unbosomed from the deep. There was once a harvest to be reaped; but there remain henceforward but scanty leavings to be gleaned. The navigator of the present century cannot hope to acquire a rapid fame by brilliant discoveries: he must be content if he obtain a tardy distinction by patient observation and minute surveys,--a task far more useful than showy, and, while less attractive, much more arduous. Our narrative, therefore, of the remaining maritime enterprises will be correspondingly succinct. The reader's interest, as we have said, will attach almost exclusively to the Polar adventures of the heroes of the Northwest Passage: of Ross, who saw the Crimson Cliffs; of Parry, who discovered the Polar Sea; of James Clarke Ross, who stood upon the North Magnetic Pole; of McClure, who threaded the Northwest Passage; of Franklin and of Kane, the martyrs to Arctic science. Though we shall dwell more particularly upon these voyages, we shall nevertheless mention in due order those undertaken for other purposes in all quarters of the globe. In 1803, Alexander of Russia determined to enter the career of maritime discovery and geographical research. He sent Captain Krusenstern upon a voyage round the world, in the London-built ship Nadeshda. Nothing resulted from this voyage except the augmented probability that Saghalien was not an island, but a peninsula joined to the mainland of China by an isthmus of sand. [Illustration: RECEPTION OF KOTZEBUE AT OTDIA.] In 1815, the Russian Count Romanzoff fitted out an expedition at his own expense for the advancement of geographical science. The specific object of the voyage was to explore the American coast both to the north and south of Behring's Straits, and to seek a connection thence with Baffin's Bay. The command was given to Otto Von Kotzebue, a son of the distinguished German dramatist Kotzebue. In Oceanica he discovered an uninhabited archipelago, which he named Rurick's Chain, from one of his vessels. In Kotzebue Gulf, northeast of Behring's Straits, he discovered an island which was supposed to contain immense quantities of iron, from the violent oscillations of the needle. Upon a second visit to Otdia, one of the Rurick Islands, in 1824, the inhabitants remembered him upon his shouting the syllables _Totobu_,--their manner of pronouncing his name. They received him with great joy, rushing into the water up to their hips: they then lifted him out of his boat and carried him dry-shod to the shore. In 1817, Louis XVIII. sent Captain Freycinet upon the first voyage which, though undertaken for the advancement of science, had neither hydrography nor geography for its object. Its purpose was to determine the form of the globe at the South Pole, the observation of magnetic and atmospheric phenomena, the study of the three kingdoms of nature, and the investigation of the resources and languages of such indigenous people as the vessel should visit. The expedition was conducted with skill; but its results, being purely scientific, do not require mention here. In the winter of 1816, the whalers returning from the Greenland seas to England reported the ice to be clearer than they had ever known it before. The period seemed favorable for a renewal of Arctic exploration; and in 1818 the Admiralty fitted out two vessels--the Isabella and Alexander--for the purpose. Captain John Ross was sent in the first to discover a northwest passage, and Lieutenant Edward Parry in the second, to penetrate if possible to the Pole. Their instructions required them to examine with especial care the openings at the head of Baffin's Bay. Sailing on the 18th of April, they reached the coast of Greenland on the 17th of June. They saw tribes of Esquimaux who had never seen men of any race but their own, and who felt and testified an indescribable alarm at the sight of the adventurers. It was subsequently proved that what they feared was contagion. Quite at the northern extremity of the bay, Ross observed the phenomenon which has given so romantic, almost legendary, a character to his voyage,--that of red snow. He saw a range of peaks clothed in a garb which appeared as if borrowed from the looms and dyes of Tyre. The spot is marked upon the maps as "The Crimson Cliffs." The color was at the time supposed to be a quality inherent in the snow itself; but subsequent investigations have established its vegetable origin. The ships were now at the northern point of Baffin's Bay, among the numerous inlets which Baffin had failed to explore. They all appeared to be blocked up with ice, and none of them held out any flattering promise of concealing within itself the long-sought Northwest Passage. Smith's Strait, where the bay ends, was carefully examined; but it proved to be enclosed by ice. Returning towards the south by the western coast of the bay, they arrived at the entrance of Lancaster Sound on the 30th of August, just as the sun, after shining unceasingly for nearly three mouths, was beginning to dip under the horizon. The vessels sailed up the sound some fifty miles, through a sea clear from ice, the channel being surrounded on either hand by mountains of imposing elevation. It was here that Ross committed the fatal mistake which was to cloud his own reputation and to put Parry, his second, forward as the first of Arctic navigators. He asserted, and certainly believed, that he saw a high ridge of mountains stretching directly across the passage. This, he thought, rendered farther progress impracticable, and the order was given to put the ships about. Ross returned to England, convinced that Baffin was correct in regarding Lancaster Bay as a bay only, without any strait beyond. It was destined that Parry should thread this strait and find the Polar Sea beyond. [Illustration: SEA LIONS UPON ICE.] In the same year the British Government sent an expedition under Captain Buchan and Lieutenant--afterwards Sir John--Franklin, to endeavor to reach the Pole. The objects were to make experiments on the elliptical figure of the earth, on magnetic and meteorological phenomena, and on the refraction of the atmosphere in high latitudes. The two vessels--the Dorothea and Trent--sailed in April, 1818, and made their way towards Magdalena Bay, in Spitzbergen. In latitude 74° north, near an island frequented by herds of walruses, a boat's crew was attacked by a number of these animals, and only escaped destruction by the presence of mind of the purser. He seized a loaded musket, and, plunging the muzzle into the throat of the leader of the school, discharged its contents into his bowels. As the walrus sinks as soon as he is dead, the mortally-wounded animal at once began to disappear beneath the water. His companions abandoned the combat to support their chief with their tusks, whom they hastily bore away from the scene of action. [Illustration: ATTACKED BY WALRUSES.] The climate here was mild, the atmosphere pure and brilliant, and the blue of the sky as intense as that of Naples. Alpine plants, grasses, moss, and lichens, flourished in abundance, and afforded browsing pasturage to reindeer at the height of fifteen hundred feet above the sea. The shores were alive with awks, divers, cormorants, gulls, walruses, and seals. Eider-ducks, foxes, and bears preyed and prowled upon the ice; and the sea furnished a home to jaggers, kittiwakes, and whales. Having ascended as high as 80° 34' N., and finding it impossible to penetrate farther to the north, Buchan resolved to quit the waters of Spitzbergen and stand away for those of Greenland. A pack of floating icebergs, upon which the waves were beating furiously, beset the ships. The Trent came violently in collision with a mass many hundred times her size. Every man on board lost his footing; the masts bent at the shock, while the timbers cracked beneath the pressure. This accident rendered a prosecution of the voyage impracticable, and the two ships returned to England, where they arrived in October. The expedition thus failed of the main object it was intended to accomplish. As we have already remarked, Ross neglected the opportunity afforded him of penetrating to the interior of Lancaster Sound,--thus leaving for another the glory of attaching his name to the discoveries to be made there. The Government, being dissatisfied with his management, and being encouraged by Lieutenant Parry to believe that the supposed chain of mountains barring the passage had no existence but in Ross's imagination, gave him the command of two ships, strongly manned and amply stored, for the prosecution of discovery in that direction. He left England on the 11th of May, 1819, with the ship Hecla and the gun-brig Griper. On the 15th of June he unexpectedly saw land,--which proved to be Cape Farewell, the southern point of Greenland, though at a distance of more than a hundred miles. The ships were immovably "beset" by ice on the 25th: their situation was utterly helpless, all the power that could be applied not availing to turn their heads a single degree of the compass. [Illustration: WHITE BEARS.] The officers and men occupied themselves in various manners during this period of inaction. Observations were made on the dip and variation of the magnetic needle, and lunar distances were calculated. White bears were enticed within rifle-distance by the odor of fried red-herrings, and then easily shot. On the 30th the ice slackened, and, after eight hours' incessant labor, both ships were moved into the open sea. On the 12th, Parry obtained a supply of pure water which was flowing from an iceberg, and the sailors shook from the ropes and rigging several tons' weight of congealed fog. The passage to Lancaster Sound was laborious, and was only effected by the most persevering efforts on the part of all. An entrance into the sound was effected on the 1st of August; and Parry felt, as did the officers and men, that this was the point of the voyage which was to determine the success or failure of the expedition. Reports, all more or less favorable, were constantly passed down from the crow's nest to the quarterdeck. The weather was clear, and the ships sailed in perfect safety through the night. Towards morning all anxiety respecting the alleged chain of mountains across the inlet was at an end; for the two shores were still forty miles apart, at a distance of one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the channel. The water was now as free from ice as the Atlantic; and they began to flatter themselves that they had fairly entered the Polar Sea. A heavy swell and the familiar ocean-like color which was now thought to characterize the water were also encouraging circumstances. The compasses became so sluggish and irregular that the usual observations upon the variation of the needle were abandoned. The singular phenomenon was soon for the first time witnessed of the needle becoming so weak as to be completely controlled by local attraction, so that it really pointed to the north pole of the ship,--that is, to the point where there was the largest quantity of iron. Ice for a time prevented the farther western progress of the vessels, and they sailed one hundred and twenty miles to the South, in a sound which they called Prince Regent's Inlet. Parry suspected, though incorrectly, that this inlet communicated with Hudson's Bay. Returning to the mouth of the inlet, he found the sea to the westward still encumbered with ice; but a heavy blow, accompanied with rain, soon broke it up and dispersed it. They proceeded slowly on, naming every cape and bay which they passed: an inlet of large size they called Wellington, "after his Grace the Master of the Ordnance." Being now convinced that the passage through which they had thus far ascended was a strait connecting two seas, Parry gave it the name of Barrow's Strait, after Mr. Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty. The prospects of success during the coming six weeks were now felt by the commander of the expedition to be "truly exhilarating." An island--by far the largest Parry had seen in these waters--appeared early in September, and the men worked their arduous way along its southern coast, till, on the 4th, they reached the longitude of 110° west. The two ships then became entitled to the sum of £5000,--the reward offered by Parliament to the first of his Majesty's subjects that should penetrate thus far to the westward within the Arctic Circle. The island was called Melville Island, from the First Lord of the Admiralty. In a bay named The Bay of the Hecla and Griper, the anchor was dropped for the first time since leaving England; the ensigns and pennants were hoisted, and the British flag waved in a region believed to be without the pale of the habitable world. The summer was now at its close, and it became necessary to make a selection of winter quarters. A harbor was found, a passage-way cut through two miles of ice, and the ships settled in five fathoms' water: they were soon firmly frozen in at a cable's-length from the shore. Hunting, botanizing, excursions upon the island, experiments in an observatory erected on shore, and amateur theatricals, afforded some relief from the unavoidable inactivity to which officers and crew were now condemned. Parry had named the group of islands of which Melville is the largest, the North Georgian Islands, in honor of King George; and during the days of constant darkness a weekly newspaper, entitled "The North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle," was edited by Captain Sabine, the astronomer. [Illustration: CUTTING IN.] [Illustration: CUTTING OUT.] The sun reappeared on the 3d of February, 1820, after an absence of ninety-one days. The theatre was soon closed and the newspaper discontinued. The ice around the ships was seven feet thick, though by the middle of May the crews had cut it away so as to allow the ships to float, and had sawed a channel for their boats. On the 1st of August, there was not the slightest symptom of a thaw; on the 2d, the ice broke up and disappeared with a suddenness altogether inexplicable. Parry determined to return home at once, and arrived at Leith, in Scotland, towards the close of October. He was received with great favor, and was rewarded for his signal services by promotion to the rank of captain. Parry made a second voyage in 1821, with instructions to seek a passage by Hudson's Strait instead of by Lancaster Sound. It was totally unsuccessful. He made a third attempt, in 1824, with the Fury and the Hecla. The Fury was lost in Lancaster Sound, and Parry returned baffled and for a time disheartened. In 1822, a French captain, named Duperrey, made a voyage, under the orders of the Government, which is in many respects the most remarkable on record. He sailed seventy-five thousand miles in thirty-one months, without losing a man or having a single name upon the sick-list; nor did the ship once need repairs. The discoveries made were not important, but the surveys effected and the observations upon terrestrial magnetism recorded were interesting and valuable. At about this period, the perils incident to the whale-fishery were strangely augmented by a circumstance which we cannot forbear mentioning. The whale, whose intellectual faculties had been sharpened by the warfare waged against him for two hundred years, was suddenly found to be animated by a new and vehement passion,--that of revenge. "Mocha Dick," who earned a terrible reputation for ferocity, only succumbed after many years of successful resistance. His body proved to be covered with scars, his flesh bristled with harpoons, and his head was declared to be wonderfully expressive of "old age, cunning, and rapacity." Not long after this, a sperm-whale was wounded by a boat's crew from the Essex. A brother leviathan, eighty-five feet long, approached the ship within twenty rods, eyed it steadfastly for a moment, and then withdrew, as if satisfied with his observations. He soon returned at full speed: he struck the ship with his head, throwing the men flat upon their faces. Gnashing his jaws together as if wild with rage, he made another onset, and, with every appearance of an avenger of his race, stove in the vessel's bows! This was the first example on record of the whale's displaying positive design in seeking an encounter. He certainly acted from the promptings of revenge, and, moreover, directed his attacks upon the weakest part of the ship. [Illustration: THE WHALE OF CAPTAIN DEBLOIS.] The whale of Captain Deblois, of the ship Ann Alexander, was a still more remarkable animal. When harpooned, instead of seeking to escape, he turned upon the boat, and, in the language of an eye-witness, "chawed it to flinders." The second boat met the same fate. The whale then dashed upon the ship, and broke through her timbers, letting the water in in torrents. In an hour the vessel lay a wreck upon the ocean. Four months afterwards, the crew of the Rebecca Sims captured a whale of large size but of enfeebled energies. He was found to have a damaged head, with large fragments of a ship's fore-timbers buried in his flesh; while two harpoons, sunk almost to his vitals, and labelled "Ann Alexander," designated him as the fierce but now exhausted antagonist of Captain Deblois, of New Bedford. In 1827--to return to the Arctic explorations--a new idea was broached with reference to the Pole and the most likely method of reaching it. Captain Parry, despairing of getting there in ships, conceived the plan of constructing boats with runners, which might be dragged upon the ice, or, in case of need, be rowed through the water. The Government approved of the idea, and two boats were specially constructed for the service: each one, with its furniture and stores, weighed three thousand seven hundred and fifty-three pounds. They were placed on board the sloop-of-war Hecla; and the expedition left the Nore on the 4th of April, 1827, for Spitzbergen. At Hammersfeld, in Norway, they took on board eight reindeer and a quantity of moss for their fodder. After experiencing a series of tremendous gales, being beset in the ice till the 8th of June, the Hecla was safely anchored on the northern coast of Spitzbergen, in Hecla Cove. Parry gave his instructions to his lieutenants, Foster and Crozier, and on the 22d left the ship in the two boats, having named them the Enterprise and Endeavor, with provisions for seventy-one days. The ice appeared so rugged that the reindeer promised to be of little assistance, and were consequently left behind. The following is an abridged account of the extraordinary method of travelling adopted upon this singular voyage: "It was my intention," says Parry, "to travel by night and rest by day, thus avoiding the glare resulting from the sun shining from his highest altitudes upon the snow; and proceeding during the milder light shed during his vicinity to the horizon,--for of course, during the summer, he never set at all. This practice so completely inverted the natural order of things that the officers, though possessing chronometers, did not know night from day. When we rose in the evening, we commenced our day by prayers; after which we took off our raccoon-skin sleeping-dresses, and put on our box-cloth travelling-suits. We breakfasted upon warm cocoa heated with spirits of wine--our only fuel--and biscuit: we then travelled five hours, and stopped to dine, and again travelled four, five, or six hours, according to circumstances. It then being early in the morning, we halted for the night, selecting the largest surface of ice we happened to be near for hauling the boat on. Every man then put on dry stockings and fur boots, leaving the wet ones--which were rarely found dry in the morning--to be resumed after their slumbers. After supper the officers and men smoked their pipes, which served to dry the boat and awnings, and often raised the temperature ten degrees. A watch was set to look out for bears, each man alternately doing this duty for one hour. It now being bright day, the evening was ushered in with prayers. After seven hours' sleep, the man appointed to boil the cocoa blew a reveillé upon the bugle, and thus at nightfall the day was recommenced." The difficulty of travelling was much greater than had been anticipated. The ice, instead of being solid, was composed of small, loose, and rugged masses, with pools of water between them. In their first eight days they made but eight miles' northing. At one time the men dragged the boats only one hundred and fifty yards in two hours. On the 17th of July they reached the latitude of 82° 14' 28",--the highest yet attained. On the 18th, after eleven hours' exhausting labor, they advanced but two miles; and on the 20th, having apparently accomplished twelve miles in three days, an observation revealed the alarming fact that they had really advanced but five. The terrible truth burst upon Parry and his officers: the ice over which they were with such effort forcing their weary way _was actually drifting to the south_! This intelligence was concealed from the men, who had no suspicion of it, though they often laughingly remarked that they were a long time getting to this eighty-third degree. They were at this time in 82° 43' 5". The next observation extinguished the last ray of hope: after two days' labor, they found themselves in 82° 40'. The drift was carrying them to the south faster than their own exertions took them to the north! In fact, the drift ran four miles a day. It was evidently hopeless to pursue the journey any farther. The floe upon which they slept at night rolled them back to the point they had quitted in the morning. Parry acquainted the men with the disheartening news, and granted them one day's rest. The ensigns and pennants were now displayed, the party feeling a legitimate pride in having advanced to a point never before reached by human beings, though they had failed in an enterprise now proved beyond the pale of possibility. They returned without incident of moment to England. Parry did not totally abandon the idea of eventually reaching the Pole over the ice, and as late as 1847 was of the opinion that at a different season of the year, before drifting comes on, the project may yet be realized. Still, no mortal man has ever yet set foot upon the pivot of the axis of the globe; and it is not venturing too much to predict that no man ever will. [Illustration: NAVIGATORS FROZEN IN.] CHAPTER L. ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE--THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE--D'URVILLE--ENDERBY'S LAND--BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR--THE GREAT WESTERN AND SIRIUS--UNITED STATES' EXPLORING EXPEDITION--THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT--SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE IN THE EREBUS AND TERROR--EFFORTS MADE TO RELIEVE HIM--DISCOVERY OF THE SCENE OF HIS FIRST WINTER QUARTERS--THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION--THE ADVANCE AND RESCUE--LIEUTENANT DE HAVEN--DR. KANE--RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION. In the year 1828, Sir John Ross applied to the Government for the means of making a second voyage to the Arctic waters of America, and was refused. The next year, Mr. Sheriff Booth, a gentleman of liberal spirit, offered to assume the pecuniary responsibilities of the expedition, and empowered Ross to make what outlay he thought proper. He bought and equipped the Victory, a packet-ship plying between Liverpool and the Isle of Man. She had a small high-pressure engine, and paddle-wheels which could be lifted out of the water. She sailed in May, 1829. We shall give but a brief account of the incidents of the voyage till we arrive at the event which has made James Clarke Ross, the nephew of Sir John, illustrious,--the discovery of the North Magnetic Pole,--that mysterious spot towards which, forever points the needle of the mariner's compass. While in Baffin's Bay, in June, the Victory lost her foretopmast in a gale; two of the sailors who were reefing the topsails had barely time to escape with their lives. Proceeding through Lancaster Sound, and then descending to the south into Prince Regent's Inlet, Ross arrived, after coasting three hundred miles of undiscovered shore, at a spot which he thought would furnish commodious winter quarters. The whole territory received the name of Boothia, in honor of the patron of the expedition. Here they remained eleven months, beset by ice; not even during the months of July and August, 1830, did the ship stir from the position in which she was held fast. At last, on the 17th of September, she was found to be free, and the delighted crew prepared for a speedy deliverance. The unfortunate vessel sailed only three miles, however, when she was again firmly frozen in. The engine, which had proved a wretched and most inefficient contrivance, was taken out and carried ashore,--an event which was hailed with pleasure by all. "I believe," says Ross, "that there was not a man who ever again wished to see its minutest fragment." Another year of monotony and silence now stared the weather-bound navigators in the face. Six months elapsed before even a land-excursion could be attempted; but in May, 1831, occurred the great discovery to which we have referred. [Illustration: THE VICTORY IN A GALE.] Commander James Clarke Ross was the second officer of the ship. He started in April, with a party, to make explorations inland. The dipping-needle had long varied from 88° to 89°,--thus pointing nearly downwards,--90° being, of course, the amount of variation from the horizontal line of the ordinary compass which would have made it directly vertical. Commander Ross was extremely desirous to stand upon the wonderful spot where such an effect would be observed, and joined a number of Esquimaux who were proceeding in the direction where he imagined it lay. He determined, if possible, so to set his foot that the Magnetic Pole should lie between him and the centre of the earth. Arriving at a place where the dipping-needle pointed to 89° 46', and being therefore but fourteen miles from its calculated position, he could no longer brook the delay attendant upon the transportation of the baggage, and set forward upon a rapid march, taking only such articles as were strictly necessary. The tremendous spot was reached at eight in the morning of the 1st of June. The needle marked 89° 59',--one minute from the vertical,--a variation almost imperceptible. We give the particulars of this most interesting event in the words of the discoverer himself: "I believe I must leave it to others to imagine the elation of mind with which we found ourselves now at length arrived at this great object of our ambition: it almost seemed as if we had accomplished every thing we had come so far to see and do,--as if our voyage and all its labors were at an end, and that nothing now remained for us but to return home and be happy for the remainder of our days. "We could have wished that a place so important had possessed more of mark or note. It was scarcely censurable to regret that there was not a mountain to indicate a spot to which so much of interest must ever be attached; and I could even have pardoned any one among us who had been so romantic or absurd as to expect that the Magnetic Pole was an object as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain of Sinbad,--that it even was a mountain of iron or a magnet as large as Mont Blanc. But Nature had here erected no monument to denote the spot which she had chosen as the centre of one of her greatest powers. "As soon as I had satisfied my own mind, I made known to the party the gratifying result of all our joint labor; and it was then that, amidst mutual congratulations, we fixed the British flag on the spot and took possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in the name of Great Britain and King William the Fourth. We had abundance of materials for building, in the fragments of limestone which covered the beach; and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude, under which we buried a canister containing a record of the interesting fact,--only regretting that we had not the means of constructing a pyramid of more importance and of strength sufficient to withstand the assaults of time and the Esquimaux. Had it been a pyramid as large as that of Cheops, I am not sure that it would have done more than satisfy our ambition under the feelings of that exciting day. The latitude of this spot is 70° 5' 17", and its longitude 96° 46' 45" west from Greenwich." We must remark in this connection that the fixation of the _latitude_ of the Magnetic Pole was the only important element of this discovery; for, as the Magnetic Pole revolves about the North Pole at the rate of 11' 4" a year, it consequently changes its annual _longitude_ by that amount. A quarter of a century has elapsed since its longitude was settled for the year 1831; and this lapse of time involves a change of place of between four and five degrees. It requires no less than eighteen hundred and ninety years to accomplish the cycle of revolution. The latitude of the Pole of course remains unchanged. It will always be sufficient glory for Ross to have stood upon the spot where the Pole then was: the fact that the spot then so marvellous has since ceased to be so is assuredly no cause for detracting from his merit. After this discovery the party returned to the ship. In September the ice broke up, and the Victory, which had the previous year sailed three miles, this year sailed four. She was again immediately frozen in: the men's courage gave way, and the scurvy began to appear. Their only hope of a final deliverance seemed to be to proceed overland to the spot where the Fury had been lost under Parry in 1824, and to get her supplies and boats. The distance was one hundred and eighty miles to the north. They drank a parting glass to the Victory on the 29th of May, 1832, and nailed her colors to the mast. After a laborious journey of one month, they reached Fury Beach, where they found three of the boats washed away, but several still left. These were ready for sea on the 1st of August, when the whole party embarked. They were compelled to return in October, and made preparations for their fourth Polar winter. The season was one of great severity: in February, 1833, the first death by scurvy took place. Ross himself and several of the seamen were attacked by the disease. It was not till August that the boats were again able to move. They reached Barrow's Strait on the 17th, and on the morning of the 26th descried a sail. They made signals by burning wet powder, and succeeded in attracting the stranger's attention. She was a whaler, and had been formerly commanded by Ross himself. Thus they were rescued. After a month's delay, the vessel, now filled to its utmost capacity with blubber, sailed for Hull, in England. There Ross and his officers received a public entertainment from the mayor and corporation. The former then repaired to London, reported himself to the Secretary of the Admiralty, and obtained an audience of the king. His Majesty accepted the dedication of his journal, and allowed him to add the name of William the Fourth to the Magnetic Pole. He learned that he had been given up for lost long since, and that parties had been sent out in search of him. All concerned in this interesting expedition were rewarded by Parliament. Mr. Booth was shortly after knighted; Commander Ross was made post-captain; the other officers received speedy promotion; and Government paid the crew the wages which had accrued beyond the period of fifteen months for which they were engaged,--amounting in all to £4580. A select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider the claims of Captain Ross himself, and concluded its labors by recommending that a sum of £5000 be voted to him by Parliament. In 1825, Captain d'Urville was sent by Charles X. of France upon a voyage similar to those performed by Freycinet and Duperrey. As we have already had occasion to say, this officer was fortunate enough to return to France with the positive proofs of the destruction of the vessels of Lapérouse upon the island of Vanikoro. He surveyed the whole of the Feejee archipelago, and restored upon French maps its native name of Viti. The results of d'Urville's labors are comprised in twelve octavo volumes, sixty-three charts, twelve plans, eight hundred and sixty-six designs representing the various island nations, their arms, dwellings, &c., and four hundred landscapes and marine views. Admiral d'Urville ranks as the first French navigator of this century. In 1830, two rich shipping-merchants of London, by the name of Enderby, sent Captain Biscoe to the Antarctic Ocean to fish for seals, in the brig Tula and the cutter Lively, giving him directions to seek for land in high southern latitudes. In February, 1831,--being then as far south as the sixty-ninth parallel and in 12° west,--he saw distinct and positive signs of land. On the 27th, in 66° of latitude and 47° of longitude, he convinced himself of the existence of a long reach of land; but huge islands of ice prevented his approaching it. The magnificence of the aurora australis, appearing now under the forms of grand architectural columns and now as the fringes of tapestry, drew the attention of the sailors so constantly towards the heavens that they neglected to watch the ship's track amid mountains of floating and tumbling ice. Captain Biscoe gave to the discovery the name of Enderby's Land. Farther to the west he discovered an island, which he named Adelaide, in honor of the Queen of England. It presents an imposing appearance,--a tall peak burying itself in the clouds and often peering out above them. Its base is surrounded with a dazzling girdle of snow and ice, which extends, though sapped and excavated by the action of the waves, some nine hundred feet into the sea. In 1836, the English Government appointed Captain George Back--who had lately been upon a land-expedition in the American Arctic regions in search of Captain and Commander Ross--to the since celebrated ship Terror, for the purpose of determining the western coast-line of Prince Regent's Inlet. The voyage, though entirely unsuccessful, is one of the most remarkable on record,--showing as it did a power of resistance and endurance in a ship which till then was not believed to belong either to iron or heart of oak. Back proceeded no farther than Baffin's Bay, the Terror remaining for ten months fast in the gripe of its "cradle" or "ice-wagon," as the men called the huge floating berg upon which she rested. He was knighted on his return, and his sturdy ship was put out of commission and docked. It is a subject of regret that so splendid a specimen of marine architecture, as far as strength and solidity are concerned, should have met the fate which she has encountered. Where she is no mortal knows, except perhaps a few inaccessible Esquimaux; for she has perished with her lost consort, the Erebus, and their hapless commander, Sir John Franklin. In the year 1838, on the 23d of April, two ocean-steamers--the first with the exception of the Savannah--entered the harbor of New York. They were the Sirius and the Great Western. They had been expected, and their arrival was the signal for general rejoicings and the theme of universal congratulation. Crowds of people--men, women, and children--assembled along the wharves to view the unwonted spectacle. The Sirius was a vessel of seven hundred tons and three hundred and twenty horse-power, and had previously plied between Liverpool and Cork. She had left the latter port on the 4th of April, and had therefore been nineteen days upon the passage. The Great Western was a new ship: she was of thirteen hundred and forty tons; her extreme length was two hundred and thirty-six feet; her depth of hold, twenty-three feet; breadth of beam, thirty-five feet; diameter of wheels, twenty-eight feet; length of paddle-boards, ten feet; diameter of cylinder, six feet; length of stroke, seven feet. She had four boilers, and could carry eight hundred tons of coal,--sufficient for twenty-six days' consumption. She had left Bristol on the 8th of April, and had accomplished the voyage in fifteen days and five hours. Her mean daily rate was two hundred and forty miles, or nine miles an hour, with unfavorable weather and strong head winds. She was expected to stop either at the Azores or at Halifax, but succeeded in making the passage direct. She consumed but four hundred and fifty tons of coal out of six hundred. This event was looked upon by all as an earnest of the complete triumph of ocean steam-navigation; and the Great Western is regarded by the people of the two countries as the pioneer ship among the many noble vessels that have plied upon the great Atlantic ferry. The Britannia--the first vessel of the Cunard line to cross the ocean--arrived at Boston on the 18th of July, 1840, after a passage of fourteen days and eight hours. In this same year, (1838,) the United States' Exploring Expedition,--consisting of the Vincennes, a sloop-of-war of twenty guns, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, commander-in-chief; the Peacock, eighteen-gun sloop-of-war, William L. Hudson, commanding; the Porpoise, ten-gun brig; the Relief, exploring vessel; and the schooners Flying-Fish and Sea-Gull,--sailed from Hampton Roads. Its objects were to explore the Southern and Pacific Oceans; to ascertain, if possible, the situation of that part of the Antarctic continent supposed to lie to the south of New Holland, and to make researches and surveys of importance to ships navigating the Polynesian seas. The squadron was absent four years, and accomplished a vast amount of arduous labor interesting to science and invaluable to commerce. We propose to speak only of what became afterwards its prominent feature,--the supposed discovery of an Antarctic continent. On the 15th of February, 1840, land was seen in longitude 106° 40' E. and latitude 65° 57' S. The next day the ships were within seven miles of it, and, "by measurement, the extent of the coast of the Antarctic continent then in sight was made seventy-five miles." The men landed on an ice-island, where they found stones, boulders, gravel, sand, and clay. Everybody wished to possess a piece of the Antarctic continent; and many fragments of red sandstone and basalt were carried away. The island was believed to have been detached from the neighboring land. Subsequent voyages, however, have thrown great doubts upon the accuracy of these assertions. James Clarke Ross, who was sent with the Erebus and Terror, in 1839, to the South Pole, was informed at Van Diemen's Land of Wilkes' alleged discovery. He reached the spot in January, 1841, and, instead of an Antarctic continent, found water five hundred fathoms deep. The existence of such a continent, therefore, must be regarded as altogether hypothetical. "It is natural," says the London Athenæum, "that a commander of his country's first scientific expedition should wish to make the most of it; but Science is so august in her nature and so severe in her rules that she declines recording in her archives any sentence as truth on which there rests the slightest liability of doubt: in all such cases she prefers the Scotch verdict,--'Not proven.'" Though at this period the discovery of a Northwest Passage--if one existed--was no longer expected to afford a short and commodious commercial route to the Indies and to China, yet the scientific and romantic interest of the subject still exerted a powerful effect on both nations and Governments. Great Britain resolved to make one last attempt, and, selecting two vessels whose fame was now world-wide, appointed Sir John Franklin to their command,--the Erebus being his flag-ship, with Captain Crozier, as his second, in the Terror. The officers and crew, all told, numbered one hundred and thirty-eight picked and resolute men. The instructions given to Franklin were to proceed, with a store-ship ordered to accompany him, as far up Davis' Straits as that vessel could safely go, there to transfer her provisions and send her home. He was then to get into Baffin's Bay, enter Lancaster Sound, thread Barrow's Straits, and follow Parry's track due west to Melville Island, in the Polar Sea. Here the instructions, with an assurance which seems incredible now, begged the whole question of a Northwest Passage, and directed him to proceed the remaining nine hundred miles which separate that point from Behring's Strait,--a region which it was hoped would be found free from obstruction. He was not to stop to examine any opening to the northward, but to push resolutely on to Behring's Strait, and return home by the Sandwich Islands and Panama. He sailed from the Thames on the 19th of May, 1845. He received the store-ship's cargo in Davis' Straits, and then despatched her home. His two ships were seen by a whaler named the Prince of Wales on the 26th of July: they were in the very middle of Baffin's Bay, moored to an iceberg and waiting for open water. Two years passed away, and, nothing being heard from them, the public anxiety respecting them became very great. The Government determined to attempt their rescue, and sent out three several expeditions in 1848. The two first--one overland to the Polar Sea, under Richardson and Rae, another by Behring's Strait, in the ships Herald and Plover--totally failed of success, as they were founded upon the supposition that Franklin had advanced farther westward than Parry in 1820,--a supposition altogether unlikely. The third--consisting of the Enterprise and Investigator, under Captain Sir James Clarke Ross--was equally unsuccessful, though conducted in a quarter where success was at least possible. At Port Leopold, at the mouth of Prince Regent's Inlet, Ross formed a large depôt of provisions,--the locality having been admirably chosen, being upon Parry's route to the Polar Sea, and upon any track Franklin would be likely to take on his way back, in case he had already advanced beyond it. His men built a house upon shore of their spare spars, and covered it with such canvas as they could dispense with. They lengthened the Investigator's steam-launch, so that it would be capable of carrying Franklin and his crew safely to the whalers' rendezvous, and left it. They then made their way through the ice to Davis' Straits, and arrived in England early in November, 1849. The probable fate of Franklin now absorbed all minds, and the Admiralty, Parliament, the public, and the press eagerly discussed every theory which would account for his prolonged absence, and every means by which succor could be sent to him. The Admiralty offered a reward of one hundred guineas for accurate information concerning him. Lady Franklin offered the stimulus of £2000, and a second of £3000, to successful search; and the British Government sought to enlist the services of the whalers by announcing a bonus of £20,000. A vessel was sent to land provisions and coal at the entrance to Lancaster Sound. Three new expeditions were sent out in 1850 by the Government, besides one by public subscription, assisted by the Hudson Bay Company, under Sir John Ross, and another by Lady Franklin. They accomplished wonders of seamanship, and their crews endured the most harassing trials; but we have no space to chronicle any thing beyond the finding of a few distinct but unproductive traces of the missing adventurers, which occurred in the following manner: Captain Ommaney, of the Assistance and Intrepid, landed on Cape Riley, in Wellington Channel, late in August. There he observed sledge-tracks and a pavement of small stones which had evidently been the floor of a tent. Around were a number of birds' bones and fragments of meat-tins. Upon Beechey Island, three miles distant, were found a cairn or mound constructed of layers of meat-tins filled with gravel, the embankment of a house, the remains of a carpenter's shop and an armorer's forge, with remnants of rope and clothing; a pair of gloves laid out to dry, with stones upon them to prevent their blowing away. The oval outline of a garden was still distinguishable. But the most interesting and valuable result of these investigations was the finding of three graves with inscriptions, one of which will show the tenor of the whole: "Sacred to the memory of William Braine, R.M., of H.M.S. Erebus, who died April 3, 1846, aged thirty-two years. _Choose ye this day whom ye will serve._--Josh. xxiv. 15." This and one of the other inscriptions, dated in January, seemed to fix at this spot the first winter quarters of Franklin,--for 1845-46. They also show that but three men died during the winter; and three out of one hundred and thirty-eight is not a high proportion of mortality. The seven hundred empty meat-tins seemed to show that the consumption of meat had been moderate; for the ships started with twenty-four thousand canisters. This was the substance of the intelligence obtained during this year of the fate of the wanderers; and it was, as will be noticed, already five years old. An expedition was also fitted out for the search in 1850, under the combined auspices of Henry Grinnell, Esq., a merchant of New York, and the United States Navy Department,--the former furnishing the ships and the means, the latter the men and the discipline. Two hermaphrodite brigs,--the Advance and Rescue,--of one hundred and forty-four and ninety tons respectively, manned by thirty-eight men, all told, and strengthened for Arctic duty beyond all precedent, were prepared for the service. They were placed under the command of Lieutenant De Haven,--Dr. E. K. Kane, of the Navy, being appointed surgeon and naturalist to the squadron. They sailed from New York on the 23d of May, and in less than a month descried the gaunt coast of Greenland at the moment when the distinction between day and night began to be lost. The Danish inhabitants of the settlement at Lievely made them such presents of furs as their own scanty wardrobes permitted. Two sailors, complaining of sickness, were landed at Disco Island, thence to make the best of their way home. [Illustration: DR. KANE.] [Illustration: DR. KANE PASSING THROUGH DEVIL'S NIP.] Thus far the weather had been favorable, and they passed the seventy-fourth degree without meeting ice. On the 7th of July, being still in Baffin's Bay, they encountered the pack. It was summer-ice, consisting of closely-set but separate floes. They could not make over three miles a day headway through it,--which they considered a useless expenditure of labor. They remained beset for twenty-one days, when the pack opened in various directions. The ships now reached Melville Bay, on the east side of Baffin's Bay,--Lancaster Sound, through which they were to pass, being upon the west. Melville Bay, from the fact that it is always crowded with icebergs, and presents in a bird's-eye view all the combined horrors and perils of Arctic navigation, has received the appellation of the "Devil's Nip." Across this formidable indentation the two vessels made their weary way, occupying five weeks in the transit. A steam-tug would have towed them across in forty-eight hours. In the middle of August the vessels entered Lancaster Sound, and, on the morning of the 21st, overhauled the Felix, engaged in the search, under the veteran Sir John Ross. The next day, the Prince Albert, one of Lady Franklin's ships, was seen, and, soon after, the intelligence was received of the discovery of traces of Franklin and his men. The navigators of both nations visited Beechey Island and saw there the evidences which we have already mentioned. The Advance and Rescue now strove in vain to urge their way to Wellington Channel. The sun travelled far to the south, and the brief summer was rapidly coming to a close. The cold increased, and the fires were not yet lighted below. On the 12th of September the Rescue was swept from her moorings by the ice and partially disabled. The pack in which they were enveloped, though not yet beset, was evidently drifting they knew not whither. The commander, convinced that all westward progress was vain for the season, resolved to return homeward. The vessels' heads were turned eastward, and slowly forced a passage through the reluctant ice. On the evening of the 14th of September, Dr. Kane was endeavoring, with the thermometer far below zero, to commit a few words to his journal, when he heard De Haven's voice. "Doctor," he said, "the ice has caught us: we are frozen up." The Advance was now destined to undergo treatment similar to that suffered by the Terror under Captain Back. For eight mortal months she was carried, cradled in the ice, backwards and forwards in Wellington Channel, wherever the winds and currents listed. At first, before the ice around them had become solid, they were exposed to constant peril from "nips" of floating and besieging floes; but these huge tablets soon became a protection by themselves receiving and warding off subsequent attacks. Early in October, the vessels were more firmly fixed than a jewel in its setting. They now made preparations for passing the winter. The two crews were collected in the Advance. Until the stoves could be got up, a lard-lamp was burned in the cabin, by which the temperature was raised to 12° above zero. The condensed moisture upon the beams from so many breaths caused them to drip perpetually, till canvas gutters were fitted up, which carried off a gallon of water a day. The three stoves were soon ready, and these, together with the cooking-galley, diffused warmth through the common room formed by knocking the forecastle and cabin into one. Light was furnished by four argand and three bear's-fat lamps. The entire deck of the Advance was covered with a housing of thick felt. On the 9th of November their preparations were fairly completed. The sun ceased to rise after the 15th of November: after that, the east was as dark at nine in the morning as at midnight; at eleven there was a faint twilight, and at noon a streak of brown far away to the south. The store-room would have furnished an amateur geologist with an admirable cabinet, so totally were the eatables and drinkables changed in appearance by the cold. "Dried apples and peaches assumed the appearance of chalcedony; sour-krout was mica, the laminæ of which were with difficulty separated by a chisel; butter and lard were passable marble; pork and beef were rare specimens of Florentine mosaic; while a barrel of lamp-oil, stripped of the staves, resembled a sandstone garden-roller." The crews soon began to suffer in health and spirits: their faces became white, like celery kept from the light. They had strange dreams and heard strange sounds. The scurvy appeared, and old wounds bled afresh. Dr. Kane endeavored to combat the disease by acting upon the imagination of the sufferers. He ordered an old tar with a stiff knee to place the member in front of a strong magnet and let it vibrate to and fro like a pendulum. A wonderful and complete cure was thus effected. He practised all sorts of amiable deceptions upon his patients,--making them take medicine in salad and gargles in beer. Not a man was lost during the voyage. From time to time fissures would open in the ice around them with an explosion like that of heavy artillery. It became necessary to make preparations for abandoning the vessel, and sledges, boats, and provisions were gotten ready for an emergency. The men were drilled to leave the ship in a mass at the word of command. The crisis seemed to be upon them many a time and oft; but the Advance held firmly together, and the ice around her gradually became solid as granite again. Dr. Kane lectured at intervals on scientific subjects, till the return of light brought with it a return of hope and animal spirits. On the 29th of January, 1851, the sun rose above the horizon, after an absence of eighty-six days. "Never," says Dr. Kane, "till the grave-clod or the ice covers me may I forego this blessing of blessings again! I looked at him thankfully, with a great globus in my throat." The ice-pack did not open till the close of March. Previous to this, all the successive symptoms of the coming thaw presented themselves. The ice began to smoke, and the surface became first moist and then soft. It was soon too warm to skate, and the cabin-lamps, that had burned for four months without cessation, were extinguished. The mercury rose to 32°; the housings were removed from the Advance, and the Rescue's men returned to their deserted ship. The saw was put in motion early in May; but the grand disruption of the ice, which was either to free the ships or crush them, did not occur till the 5th of June. It was five o'clock in the afternoon when the first crack was heard, and the water, spirting up, was seen following the track of the fissure. In half an hour the ice was seamed with cracks in every direction, some of them spreading into rivers twenty feet across. The Rescue was released at once: the coating of the Advance held on for three days more, parting at last under the weight of a single man. The liberated ships soon made the Greenland coast, at Godhavn, where they spent five days in reposing, in celebrating the Fourth of July, and in splicing the main-brace,--this latter being a convivial, and not a mechanical, operation. The vessels arrived safely at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard on the 1st of October, 1851. The vessels were restored to Mr. Grinnell, with the stipulation that the Secretary of the Navy might claim them, in case of need, for further search in the spring. [Illustration: THE SEAL.] CHAPTER LI. KENNEDY'S EXPEDITION--SIR EDWARD BELCHER--McCLURE--DISCOVERY OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE--JUNCTION OF McCLURE AND KELLETT--EPISODE OF THE RESOLUTE--COMMODORE PERRY'S EXPEDITION--DECISIVE TRACES OF THE FATE OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN--THE LEVIATHAN. Encouraged by the discovery of traces of her husband, Lady Franklin caused the Prince Albert, upon her return with the intelligence, to be at once refitted for another Arctic voyage. The expedition, though conducted with consummate skill by William Kennedy, late of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Lieutenant Bellot, of the French Navy, his second, totally failed of success. It returned in October, 1853. In the mean time, another and more imposing expedition--that under Sir Edward Belcher--had sailed for the Polar regions. The squadron consisted of five vessels,--the Assistance, with the steamer Pioneer, the Resolute, with the steamer Intrepid, and the North Star store-ship. They sailed on the 28th of April, 1852, and arrived at their head-quarters at Beechey Island--the scene of Franklin's hibernation in 1846--on the 10th of August. The North Star remained here with the stores, while the two ships, with their respective tugs, started upon distinct voyages of exploration,--Sir Edward Belcher, in the Assistance, standing up Wellington Channel, and Captain Kellett, in the Resolute, proceeding to Melville Island. The latter was instructed to seek at this point for intelligence of Captains McClure and Collinson, who had been sent to Behring's Strait in 1850, in order to force their way eastward from thence, and who had not since been heard of. As the interest of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition centres entirely in the junction effected by Kellett with McClure, we revert to the adventures of the latter explorer, now distinguished as the discoverer of the Northwest Passage. Collinson and McClure sailed in the Enterprise and Investigator for Behring's Strait _viâ_ Cape Horn on the 20th of January, 1850. They arrived at the strait in July. The Enterprise, being foiled in her efforts to get through the ice, turned about and wintered at Hong-Kong. McClure, in the Investigator, kept gallantly on through the strait, and, during the month of August, advanced to the southeast, into the heart of the Polar Sea, along a coast never yet visited by a ship, and on the 21st of August arrived at the mouth of Mackenzie River, discovered by Mackenzie in his land-expedition in 1789 to determine the northern coast-line of America. He had now passed the region visited and surveyed in former years by Franklin, Back, Rae, and others, in overland explorations, and on the 6th of September arrived at a point considerably to the east of any land marked upon the charts. He now began to name the islands, headlands, and indentations. On the 9th, the ship was found to be but sixty miles to the west of the spot to which Parry, sailing westward, had carried his ship in 1820. Could he but sail these sixty miles his name would be immortal. "I cannot," he writes, "describe my anxious feelings. Can it be possible that this water communicates with Barrow's Straits and shall prove to be the long-sought Northwest Passage? Can it be that so humble a creature as I am will be permitted to perform what has baffled the talented and wise for hundreds of years?" On the 17th, the Investigator reached the longitude of 117° 10' west,--thirty miles from the waters in which Parry wintered with the Hecla and Griper in a harbor of Melville Island. Alas! the vessel went no farther east: the ice drifted perceptibly to the west, and it was fated that these thirty miles should remain, as they had remained for ages, as impassable to ships as the Isthmus of Suez. The Investigator passed the winter heeled four degrees to port and elevated a foot out of water by a "nip," in which position she rested quietly for months. Late in October, a sledge-party of six men, headed by McClure, started to traverse on foot the distance which it was forbidden their ship to cross. On the 25th, they saw the Polar Ocean ice. The next morning, before daybreak, they ascended a hill six hundred feet high, convinced that the dawn would reveal them the previous surveys of Sir Edward, and make them the discoverers of the Northwest Passage, by connecting their voyage from the west with his from the east. The return of day showed their anticipations to be correct: Melville Strait was visible to the north, and between it and them, though there was plenty of ice, there was no intervening land. They had discovered the Passage,--that is, an ice-passage, which of course involved a water-passage when the state of the atmosphere permitted it. Though they regretted bitterly that they could not get their ship through, their only remaining course was to send one of their party home by the well-known route through Barrow's Straits, and thus prove the existence of the passage by the return of one who had made it. They erected a cairn and left a record of their visit, and then commenced their homeward journey to the ship. McClure became separated from his companions, and nearly perished in the snow. He arrived in safety, however, and the grand discovery was duly celebrated and the main-brace properly spliced. Numerous searching-parties were now from time to time sent out, and in the middle of July the ice broke up and the Investigator was released. She drifted five miles more to the east,--thus reducing the distance of separation to twenty-five miles. Here she was again firmly and inextricably frozen in. Another and another winter passed; and it was not till the spring of 1853 that relief reached them. In order to make a consecutive story, we must return to that portion of Sir Edward Belcher's squadron which, under Captain Kellett, was sent to Melville Island, and which arrived there late in 1852. At this period, Kellett, in the Resolute, and McClure, in the Investigator, were about one hundred and seventy miles apart. A sledge-party sent out by Kellett discovered, with the wildest delight, in October, 1852, a cairn in which McClure had deposited, the April previous, a chart of his discoveries. They were compelled to wait the winter through; and it was not till the 10th of March that Kellett ventured to send a travelling-party in quest of the Investigator. The communication was effected on the 6th of April, 1853. McClure thus describes it: "While walking near the ship, in conversation with the first lieutenant, we perceived a figure coming rapidly towards us from the rough ice at the entrance of the bay. He was certainly unlike any of our men; but, recollecting that it was possible some one might be trying a new travelling-dress preparatory to the departure of our sledges, and certain that no one else was near, we continued to advance. The stranger came quietly on: had the skies fallen upon us we could hardly have been more astonished than when he called out, 'I'm Lieutenant Pim, late of the Herald, now of the Resolute. Captain Kellett is in her, at Dealy Island.' "To rush at and seize him by the hand was the first impulse; for the heart was too full for the tongue to speak. The news flew with lightning rapidity: the ship was all in commotion; the sick, forgetful of their maladies, leaped from their hammocks; the artificers dropped their tools, and the lower deck was cleared of men; for they all rushed for the hatchway, to be assured that a stranger was actually among them and that his tale was true. Despondency fled the ship, and Lieutenant Pim received a welcome--pure, hearty, and grateful--that he will surely remember and cherish to the end of his days." It was now decided to abandon the Investigator, immovably fixed as she was in the ice. Her colors were hoisted on the 3d of June, and she was left alone in Mercy Bay. The officers and crew arrived on board the Resolute on the 17th. McClure sent Lieutenant Gurney Cresswell, with despatches for the Admiralty, by sledges, down to Beechey Island, where he found a Government vessel and at once sailed for England. Though he had not made the Northwest Passage, he had at least crossed the American continent within the Arctic Circle; and this had yet been done by no mortal man. Kellett and McClure remained for many months in the Resolute and Intrepid, beset in the ice. They received instructions from Belcher, in April, 1854, to abandon their ships. The latter were placed in a condition to be occupied by any Arctic searching-party,--the furnaces of the steamer being left ready to be lighted. Sir Edward Belcher had also been compelled to abandon his vessels, the Assistance and Pioneer: the four crews met at Beechey Island, and embarked on board their storeship, the North Star, which had been laid up for two years. They arrived in England late September. The reader will at once recognise the Resolute as the ship which was found in Baffin's Bay, in 1855, by Captain Buddington, of the New London whaler George Henry. She had forced her way, unaided by man, through twelve hundred miles of Arctic ice. The incidents of her arrival at New London, of the abandonment to the American sailors of all claim upon her by the British Government, of her purchase by the United States Congress from her new owners, her re-equipment at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, and her restoration to the English Navy by Captain Hartstene, U.S.N., are still fresh in the mind of all. [Illustration: JAPANESE VESSEL.] In the year 1853, an expedition sent by the United States under Commodore Perry ventured into waters never before ploughed by vessels of a Christian nation. On the 8th of July, the precipitous southern coast of Niphon--the largest island of the Japanese group--loomed up through the fog. The American steamers entered the Bay of Jeddo, eight miles wide at the mouth but spreading to a width of twelve beyond. They were now land-bound, with the shores of an empire almost fabulous enclosing them on every side. Though peremptorily forbidden to anchor, though surrounded by myriads of boats filled with men eager for a conflict, though menaced by forts which seemed formidable till examined through the glass, the fleet kept on, and finally, by dint of persistence and several salutary displays of power, the commodore, having at his disposal the national steamers Susquehanna, Mississippi, and Powhatan, the frigate Saratoga, and the ships Macedonian, Vandalia, Lexington, and Southampton, wrung from the sullen monopolists a treaty opening to American trade the port of Simoda, in Niphon, and that of Hakodadi, in Jesso. It now remains for the Americans to lead the Japanese, by judicious and honorable treatment, to experience and acknowledge the benefits of commerce and intercourse with the nations of Christendom. [Illustration: THE LEVIATHAN.] To return once more to the Arctic researches. Soon after the return of Belcher and McClure to England, decisive intelligence of Franklin and his party was received in England. Dr. Rae, who had been engaged for a year past in a search by land, had met a party of Esquimaux who were in possession of numerous articles which had belonged to Franklin and his men. They stated that in the spring of 1850 they had seen forty white men, near King William's Land, dragging a boat and sledges over the ice. They were thin and short of provisions: their officer was a tall, stout, middle-aged man. Some months later the natives found the corpses of thirty persons upon the mainland, and five dead bodies upon a neighboring island. They described the bodies as mutilated; whence Dr. Rae inferred that the party had been driven to the horrible resource of cannibalism. The presence of the bones and feathers of geese, however, showed that some had survived till the arrival of wild-fowl, about the end of May. Dr. Rae purchased such articles of the natives as would best serve to identify their late possessors. All furnished decisive testimony; but a round silver plate gave peculiarly strong evidence, bearing as it did the following inscription:--"Sir John Franklin, K.C.B." The slight clue thus yielded of his fate was the last which has thus far been obtained; and it will doubtless be the only one till the Arctic seas give up their dead. The expedition of Dr. Kane had, however, already sailed from New York. It was while these events were transpiring that the keel of the mammoth steam-vessel--known at first as the Great Eastern, and afterwards as the Leviathan--was laid, at Milwall, on the Thames. We refer the reader to the engraving on the opposite page for a view of this "village adrift." [Illustration: CAPE ALEXANDER: THE ARCTIC GIBRALTAR.] CHAPTER LII. THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION--THE ADVANCE IN WINTER QUARTERS--TOTAL DARKNESS--SLEDGE-PARTIES--ADVENTURES--THE FIRST DEATH--TENNYSON'S MONUMENT--HUMBOLDT GLACIER--THE OPEN POLAR SEA--SECOND WINTER--ABANDONMENT OF THE BRIG--THE WATER AGAIN--UPERNAVIK--RESCUE BY CAPTAIN HARTSTENE--DEATH AND SERVICES OF DR. KANE--ATTEMPT TO LAY THE ATLANTIC CABLE--CONCLUSION. The Government of the United States forwarded to Dr. Kane, in the month of December, 1852, an order "to conduct an expedition to the Arctic Seas in search of Sir John Franklin." The brig Advance was again placed at his disposal by Mr. Grinnell, and manned by eighteen picked men. Dr. Kane's plan was to enter Smith's Sound at the top of Baffin's Bay,--into which, alone of the Arctic explorers, Captain Inglefield had penetrated in August, 1852, in the Isabel,--to reach, if possible, the supposed northerly open sea, where he hoped to find traces of the missing navigators. He sailed from New York on the 30th of May, 1853, touched at Fiskernaes, in Greenland, on the 1st of July, where he engaged the services of Hans Cristian, a native Esquimaux of nineteen years. Through ice and fog the vessel forced her way, and on the 7th of August doubled Cape Alexander, a promontory opposite another named Cape Isabella,--the two being the headlands of Smith's Strait, and styled by Dr. Kane the Arctic Pillars of Hercules. The vessel closed with the ice again the next day, and was forced into a land-locked cove. Every effort to force her through the floes was tried, without success, and, after undergoing the most appalling treatment from the wind, waves, and ice combined, the brig was warped into winter quarters, in Rensselaer Bay, on the 22d of August, and was frozen in on September 10. There she lies to this hour,--"to her a long resting-place indeed," writes Kane; "for the same ice is around her still." This was in latitude 78° 37' N.,--the most northerly winter quarters ever taken by Christians, except in Spitzbergen, which has the advantage of an insular climate. An observatory was erected, a thermal register kept hourly, and magnetic observations recorded. Parties were sent out to establish provision-depôts to the north, to facilitate researches in the spring. Three depôts or "caches" were made, the most distant being in latitude 79° 12': in this they deposited six hundred and seventy pounds of pemmican and forty of meat-biscuit. These operations were arrested by darkness in November, and the crew prepared to spend one hundred and forty days without the light of the sun. The first number of the Arctic newspaper, "The Ice-Blink," appeared on the 21st. The thermometer fell to 67° below zero. Chloroform froze, and chloric ether became solid. The air had a perceptible pungency upon inspiration: all inhaled it guardedly and with compressed lips. The 22d of December brought with it the midnight of the year: the fingers could not be counted a foot from the eyes. Nothing remained to indicate that the Arctic world had a sun. The men during this their first winter kept up their spirits wonderfully; but most of the dogs died of diseases of the brain brought on by the depressing influences of the darkness. [Illustration: "CHAOS."] The first traces of returning light were observed on the 21st of January, when the southern horizon had a distinct orange tint. Towards the close of February the sun silvered the tall icebergs between the headlands of the bay: his rays reached the deck on the 28th, and perpetual day returned with the month of March. The men found their faces badly mottled by scurvy-spots, and they were nearly all disabled for active work. But six dogs remained out of forty-four. "No language can describe," says Kane, "the chaos at the base of the rock on which the storehouse had been built. Fragments of ice had been tossed into every possible confusion, rearing up in fantastic equilibrium, surging in long inclined planes, dipping into dark valleys, and piling in contorted hills." A sledge-party was sent out on the 19th to deposit a relief cargo of provisions; on the 31st, three of its members returned, swollen, haggard, and almost dumb. They had left four of their number in a tent, disabled and frozen. Dr. Kane at once started with a rescue of nine men, and, after an unbroken march of twenty-one hours, came in sight of a small American flag floating upon a hummock. They were received with an explosion of welcome. The return with the sledge laden with the weight of eleven hundred pounds was effected at the expense of tremendous efforts of energy and endurance. While still nine miles from their half-way tent, they felt the peculiar lethargic sensation of extreme cold,--symptoms which Kane compares to the diffused paralysis of the electro-galvanic shock. Bonsall and Morton asked permission to go to sleep, at the same time denying that they were cold. Hans lay down under a drift, and in a few moments was stiff. An immediate halt was necessary. The tent was pitched, but no one had the strength to light a fire. They could neither eat nor drink. The whiskey froze at the men's feet. Kane gave orders to them to take four hours' rest and then follow him to the half-way tent, where he would have ready a fire and some thawed pemmican. He then pushed on with William Godfrey. They were both in a state of stupor, and kept themselves awake by a continued articulation of incoherent words. Kane describes these hours as the most wretched he ever went through. On arriving at the tent, they found that a bear had overturned it, tossing the pemmican into the snow. They crawled into their reindeer sleeping-bags and slept for three hours in a dreamy but intense slumber. On awaking, they melted snow-water and cooked some soup; and on the arrival of the rest of the party they all took the refreshment and pushed on towards the brig. Their strength soon failed them again, and they began to lose their self-control. Kane tried the experiment of a three minutes' sleep, and, finding that it refreshed him, timed the men in their turns. Doses of brandy, and, finally, the distant sight of the brig, revived and encouraged them. The last mile was accomplished by instinct, as none of the men remembered it afterwards: they staggered into the cabin delirious and muttering with agony. [Illustration: WILD DOG TEAM.] [Illustration: KANE'S OPEN POLAR SEA.] Death now entered the devoted camp: Jefferson Baker died of lockjaw on the 7th of April. A meeting with a party of Esquimaux now enabled Kane to reinforce his dog-team, and encouraged him to start, late in April, upon his grand sledge-excursion to the north. It failed, however, completely. Kane became delirious on the 5th of May, and fainted every time he was taken from the tent to the sledge. He was conveyed back to the brig, and from the 14th to the 20th lay hovering between life and death. Short as the expedition was, however, several remarkable discoveries were made. "Tennyson's Monument" was the name given to a solitary column of greenstone, four hundred and eighty feet high, rising from a pedestal two hundred and eighty feet high,--both as sharply finished as if they had been cast for the Place Vendôme. But the most wonderful feature was the Great Glacier of Humboldt,--an ice-ocean of boundless dimensions, in which a complete substitution had been effected of ice for water. "Imagine," Kane writes, "the centre of the continent of Greenland occupied through nearly its whole extent by a deep unbroken sea of ice that gathers perennial increase from the water-shed of vast snow-covered mountains and all the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own surface. Imagine this moving onward like a great glacial river, seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, rolling icy cataracts into the Atlantic and Greenland seas, and, having at last reached the northern limit of the land that has borne it up, pouring out a mighty frozen torrent into unknown Arctic space.... Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass, obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and ploughing its way with irresistible march through the crust of an investing sea." Other sledge-parties were from time to time sent out. One of six men left the brig on the 3d of June, keeping to the north and reaching Humboldt Glacier on the 15th. Four returned to the ship on the 27th, one of them entirely blind. Hans Christian and William Morton kept on, and finally, in north latitude 81° 22', sighted open water,--an open Polar sea. To the cape at which the land terminated Morton gave the name of Cape Constitution. A lofty peak on the opposite side of the channel, but a little farther to the north, and the most remote northern land known upon our globe, was named Mount Edward Parry, from the great pioneer of Arctic travel. A second winter now stared the explorers in the face. "It is horrible," says Kane, "to look forward to another year of disease and darkness, without fresh food or fuel." Still, preparations were made for the direful extremity. Willow-stems and sorrel were collected as antiscorbutics. Lumps of turf, frozen solid, were quarried with crowbars, and with them the ship's sides were embanked. During the early months a communication was kept up with the nearest Esquimaux station, seventy-five miles distant, and thus scanty supplies of fox, walrus, seal, and bear meat were occasionally obtained. These failed, however, during the months of total darkness. Early in February, Kane wrote in his journal:--"We are contending at odds with angry forces close around us, without one agent or influence within eighteen hundred miles whose sympathy is on our side." On the 4th of March, the last fragment of fresh meat was served, and the whole crew would have perished miserably of starvation, had it not been for the successful issue of a forlorn-hope excursion to the Etah Esquimaux station undertaken by Hans and two dogs. Dr. Kane ate rats, and thereby escaped the scurvy. The bunks were warmed by oil-lamps, after the Esquimaux fashion: the beds and the men's faces became in consequence black and greasy with soot. The sufferings endured by the party were perhaps the most dreadful to which Arctic adventurers have ever been subjected. The abandonment of the brig had been resolved upon before the setting in of winter, and the misery of the hours of darkness had been in some measure alleviated by the progress of the preparations for that event,--in making clothing, canvas moccasins, seal-hide boots, and in cutting water-tight shoes from the gutta-percha speaking-tube. Provision-bags were made of sail-cloth rendered impervious by coats of tar. Into these the bread was pressed by beating it to powder with a capstan-bar. Pork-fat and tallow were melted down and poured into other bags to freeze. The three boats--none of them sea-worthy--were strengthened, housed, and mounted on sledges rigged with shoulder-belts to drag by: one of them they expected to burn for fuel on reaching water. The powder and shot, upon which their lives depended, were distributed in canisters: Kane took the percussion-caps into his own possession, as more precious than gold. The 17th of May was fixed upon for the departure. The farewell to the brig was made with due solemnity. The day was Sunday, and prayers and a chapter of the Bible were read. Kane then stated in an address the necessities under which the ship was abandoned and the dangers that still awaited them. He believed, however, that the thirteen hundred miles of ice and water which lay between them and North Greenland could be traversed with safety for most and hope for all. A brief memorial of the reasons compelling the desertion of the vessel was fastened to a stanchion near the gangway, to serve as their vindication in case they were lost and the brig was ever visited. The flags were hoisted and hauled down again, and the men scrambled off over the ice to the boats, no one thinking of the mockery of cheers. [Illustration: SEEKING EIDER DOWN.] We have not space to detail the perils, adventures, and narrow escapes from starvation of this hardy party in their romantically dangerous escape to the south. On the 16th of June, the boats and sledges approached the open water. "We see its deep-indigo horizon," writes Kane, "and hear its roar against the icy beach. Its scent is in our nostrils and our hearts." The boats, which were split with frost and warped by sunshine, had to be calked and swelled before they were fit for use. The embarkation was effected on the 19th: the Red Eric, the smallest of the three boats, swamped the first day. They spent their first night in an inlet in the ice. Sometimes they would sail through creeks of water for many successive hours: then would follow days of weary tracking through alternate ice and water. During a violent storm, they dragged the boats upon a narrow shelf of ice, and found themselves within a cave which myriads of eider had made their breeding-ground. They remained three days in this crystal retreat, and gathered three thousand eggs. They doubled Cape Dudley Digges on the 11th of June, and spent a week at Providence Halt, luxuriating on a dish composed of birds sweeter and juicier than canvas-backs and a salad made of raw eggs and cochlearia. The coast now trended to the east; the wide expanse of Melville Bay lay between them and Upernavik,--that Danish outpost of civilization. The party was at one moment in the actual agonies of starvation, when a lucky shot at a sleeping seal saved them from the dreaded extremity. They soon saw a kayak--a native boat--in which one Paul Zacharias was seeking eider-down among the islands. Not long after, the single mast of a small shallop--the Upernavik oil-boat--loomed up through the fog. They landed the next day in the midst of a crowd of children, and drank coffee that night before hospitable Danish firesides. [Illustration: THE TELEGRAPHIC FLEET.] A Danish vessel--the Mariane--was to return to Denmark on the 4th of September, and at that date Kane and his party embarked on board of her, the captain engaging to drop them at the Shetland Islands. On the 11th they arrived at Godhavn, and there, at the very moment of their final departure, Captain Hartstene's relief-squadron was sighted in the offing. With the rescue of the adventurers closes our record of Arctic peril and discovery. Dr. Kane fell a victim to his zeal in the arduous paths of science. He died, on the 16th of February, 1857, at Havana, where he was seeking to recuperate his debilitated system beneath a tropical sun. His loss was sincerely lamented by the whole country. No commander was ever better fitted by nature for the task confided to him; and no historian ever chronicled the results of his own labors in language more enthralling or in a style more commanding and picturesque.[A] In the summer of 1857, an attempt to unite the two hemispheres by means of a submerged electric cable was made under the auspices of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, assisted by vessels furnished by the Governments of Great Britain and the United States. Of this undertaking--unsuccessful as it was, and fresh as it is in the minds of all--our account will properly be brief. The idea was first conceived in the year 1853, in America, and was earnestly pursued in defiance of all obstacles,--Cyrus H. Field, Esq., Vice-President of the Company, being one of its most zealous and indefatigable champions. Surveys and deep-sea explorations, made by Captain Berryman, U.S.N., in the Dolphin and Arctic, in 1853 and 1856, resulted in the discovery of a submarine ledge or prairie, at a depth varying from two to two and a half miles, extending from Cape Race, in Newfoundland, to Cape Clear, in Ireland. This tract received the name of the Telegraphic Plateau. Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, inferred, from observations made in the Atlantic during a long series of years, that both sea and air would be in the most favorable condition for laying the wire between the 20th of July and the 10th of August. The telegraphic fleet consisted of the U.S. steam-frigate Niagara, Captain Hudson, to lay the first half of the cable from Valentia Bay, in Ireland, of H.B.M. steamer Agamemnon, to lay the second half of the cable, and of six other auxiliary steamers of both nations. [Illustration: HAULING THE CABLE ASHORE.] The Niagara commenced shipping the cable from the factory at Birkenhead, near Liverpool, late in June, and completed the work in somewhat less than a month. The share of each of the two vessels was twelve hundred and fifty miles of wire,--the wire itself being an elaborate combination of fine copper strands and gutta-percha coatings. The whole fleet was assembled in Valentia Bay on the 4th of August. The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland was already upon the ground, the guest of the Knight of Kerry. The next evening, the shore-end of the cable was hauled from the stern of the Niagara to shallow water by an attendant tug named the Willing Mind, and from thence taken ashore, in the midst of the cheers of the spectators, by a boat's crew of American sailors. The expedition set sail on Thursday, the 6th. It was understood that the first message was to be the following, from Queen Victoria to President Buchanan:--"Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace and good-will towards men." [Illustration: LANDING THE CABLE.] All went on favorably for several days: a constant communication was kept up between the Niagara and the shore. At four o'clock on the following Tuesday, the signals suddenly ceased. The return of the squadron confirmed the fears entertained: the cable had broken in deep water. Three hundred and thirty-five nautical miles had been laid, and the last half of it in water over two miles in depth. The Niagara was making at the time four miles an hour, and the cable running out at a greater speed,--from five to six miles an hour. This was more than could be afforded, and the retard strain upon the brakes was increased to three thousand pounds. The cable bore the augmented pressure for a time, but finally parted, to the dismay of the whole fleet. The vessels returned to England; and the enterprise was abandoned for another year. Though thus postponed, little or no doubt existed upon its ultimate success. The exhilarating triumph which eventually attended the efforts of the Company will form the subject of the next chapter. [Illustration: A HOLLOW WAVE.] [Illustration: THE CABLE IN THE BED OF THE OCEAN.] CHAPTER LIII. SECOND AND THIRD ATTEMPTS TO LAY THE ATLANTIC CABLE--THE FAILURE IN THE MONTH OF JUNE--DESCRIPTION OF THE CABLE--THE VOYAGE OF THE NIAGARA--THE CONTINUITY--ALL RIGHT AGAIN--CHANGE FROM ONE COIL TO ANOTHER--THE KNIGHTS OF THE BLACK HAND--UNFAVORABLE SYMPTOMS--THE INSULATION BROKEN--THE THIRD OF AUGUST--AN ANXIOUS MOMENT--LAND DISCOVERED--TRINITY BAY--MR. FIELD VISITS THE TELEGRAPH STATION--THE OPERATORS TAKEN BY SURPRISE--LANDING OF THE CABLE--IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY--CAPTAIN HUDSON RETURNS THANKS TO HEAVEN--THE VOYAGE OF THE AGAMEMNON--THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE--THE SIXTEENTH OF AUGUST--DEEP-SEA TELEGRAPHING--THE EQUATOR AND THE CABLE. The Atlantic Telegraph Company, undeterred by their failure to lay the cable in 1857, resolved to make another attempt in the summer of the following year, the American and English Governments again placing the Niagara and the Agamemnon at their disposal. It was decided, however, in order to lessen the chances of unfavorable weather, that the two vessels should proceed to mid-ocean, should there splice their respective ends of the wire, and that the Agamemnon should then steam to Valentia Harbor and the Niagara to Trinity Bay. They were each furnished with an ingenious contrivance for paying out the cable,--the invention of Mr. Everett, of the United States Navy. June was the month selected, and the ships departed upon their errand. They were absent much longer than was expected, in the event of a successful accomplishment of their purpose. When they returned to Queenstown, it was to tell of storm, disaster, and failure. Still undaunted, the Company again dispatched the ships. The Niagara and Agamemnon met in mid-ocean on the 28th of July: the splice was effected, and the task began. The Niagara had eight hundred and eighty-two miles to sail, and eleven hundred miles of cable; the Agamemnon, with the same quantity of cable, had but eight hundred and thirteen miles to sail. The Niagara had three hundred tons of coal, the Agamemnon five hundred. At one o'clock the wire began to reel over the stern of the Niagara, westward and homeward bound. The following engraving will give a correct idea of the manner in which the cable is formed. The core, or conductor, is composed of seven copper wires wound tightly together. [Illustration: 1. Wire--eighteen strands, seven to an inch. 2. Six strands of yarn. 3. Gutta percha, three coats. 4. Conducting wires, seven in number. 5. Section of the cable, eleven-sixteenths of an inch in diameter.] The flexibility of this cable is so great that it may be tied in a knot round the arm without injury. Its weight is eighteen hundred and sixty pounds to the mile, and its strength such that six miles of it may be suspended vertically in water of that depth without breaking. "The sea is smooth,"--we quote the extremely interesting journal of an eye-witness[3], writing upon the first day,--"the barometer well up; and, if we can only do for the next seven days as well as we have done since one o'clock, we shall be at Newfoundland by the 5th of August, and in New York some time between the 15th and 20th of the same month. But we have been somewhat too hasty in our calculations, for our ship has just slowed down, and the propeller has ceased working for the last ten minutes. There must be something wrong to cause this interruption. Let us take a look at the machine. The cable still goes out, which certainly would not be the case if it had parted. Ah! the continuity! That's it: there's where the difficulty lies; and, as the electricians are the only parties who can inform us on that point, we at once go in search of them. A visit to their office explains the whole matter. The continuity is not gone altogether, but is defective,--so defective that it is impossible to get a signal through the cable. Still, there is not 'dead earth' upon it, and all hope, therefore, is not lost. When dead earth, as it is termed, is on the conductor, then, indeed, the difficulty is beyond remedy; for it shows that the conductor must be broken and is thrown under the influence of terrestrial magnetism. But the continuity is not gone; and, although with darkening prospects, we are still safe while it remains, imperfect as it is. It would be absurd to say that the occurrence was not discouraging: it was painfully so; for the hopes of some of us had really begun to revive, and we were gaining confidence every hour. Now nothing could be done. We must wait until the continuity should return or take its final departure. And it did return, and with greater strength than ever. At ten minutes past nine P.M., the electrician on duty observed its failing, and at half-past eleven he had the gratifying intelligence for us that it was 'all right again.' The machinery was once more set in motion, the cable was soon going out at the rate of six miles an hour, and the electrical signals were passing between the ships as regularly as if nothing had occurred to interfere with or interrupt the continuity." The change of the wire from the forward main-deck coil to that on the deck immediately below, on the third day, is thus described, the operation being a most delicate and perilous one:--"At least an hour before the change was made, the outer boundaries of the circle in which the cable lay was literally crowded with men; and never was greater interest manifested in any spectacle than that which they exhibited in the proceedings before them. There were serious doubts and misgivings as to the successful performance of this important part of the work; and these only served to increase the feeling of anxiety and suspense with which they silently and breathlessly await the critical moment. The last flake has been reached, and as turn after turn leaves the circle every eye is intently fixed on the cable. Now there are but thirty turns remaining; and, as the first of these is unwound, Mr. Everett, who has been in the circle during the last half-hour, gives the order to the engineer on duty to 'slow down.' In a few moments there is a perceptible diminution in the speed, which continues diminishing till it has reached the rate of about two miles an hour. "'Look out now, men,' says Mr. Everett, in his usual quiet, self-possessed way. The men are as thoroughly wide-awake as they can be, and are waiting eagerly for the moment when they shall lift the bight, or bend, of the cable and deliver it out safely. One of the planks in the side of the cone has been loosened, and, just as they are about taking the cable in their hands, it is removed altogether; so that, as the last yard passes out of the now empty circle, the line commences paying out from the circle below, or the 'orlop' deck, as it is called. The men--who are no other than the coilers, or 'Knights of the Black Hand,' as they have not inappropriately been termed--have done their work well; and the applause with which they have been greeted by the crowd of admiring spectators is the most gratifying testimony they can receive of the fact. They have hardly passed the cable out of the circle before they are received with as enthusiastic a demonstration of approval as the rules of the navy will permit. "Confidence is growing stronger,"--this is the fourth day,--"and there is considerable speculation as to the time we shall reach Newfoundland. The pilot who is to bring us into Trinity Bay is now in great repute, and is becoming a more important personage every day. We are really beginning to have strong hopes that his services will be called into requisition and that in the course of a few days more we will be in sight of land. But the sea is not at all so smooth as it was the day before: it is, in fact, so rough as to favor the belief that there must have been a severe gale a short time since in these latitudes. The condition of the vessel is such as to alarm us greatly for the safety of the cable should it come on to blow very hard, as the large amount already paid out and the quantity of coal consumed have lightened her so much as to render her rather uneasy in a heavy sea. The wind is increasing, and, although it has not yet attained the magnitude of a gale, it is blowing rather fresh for us in the present unsettled state of our minds. Both wind and sea are nearly abeam; and the rolling motion which the latter creates brings a strain upon the cable which gives rise to the most unpleasant feelings. The sea, too, seems to be getting worse every minute, and strikes the slender wire with all its force. Every surge of the ship affects it; and as it cuts through each wave it makes a small white line of foam to mark its track. The sight of that thread-like wire battling with the sea produces a feeling somewhat akin to that with which you would watch the struggles of a drowning man whom you have not the power of assisting. You can only look on and trust either that the sea will go down or that the cable may be able to resist the force of the waves successfully. Of the former there is very little prospect, but of the latter there is every reason for hope. The contest has been going on now for several hours, and there is no more sign of the cable parting than when it commenced. The electricians report the continuity perfect; and the signals which are received at intervals from the Agamemnon show that that vessel is getting along with her part of the work in admirable style. What more can we desire?" An incident occurring upon the fifth day is thus described:--"I have said that, despite the bad weather and heavy sea, the paying-out process was going on well; but during the night the continuity was again affected; and although it was restored and became as strong as ever, yet it was for about three hours a very unpleasant affair. It was subsequently found that the difficulty was caused by a defect of insulation in a part of the wardroom coil, which was cut out in time to prevent any serious consequences. There were only a few on board the ship, however, aware of the occurrence until after the defect was removed and the electrical communication was re-established between the two ships. Both Mr. Laws and Mr. De Santy--the two electricians on the Niagara--were of the opinion that the insulation was broken in some part of the wardroom coil; and, on using the tests for the purpose of ascertaining the precise point, they found that it was about sixty miles from the bottom of that coil, and between three or four hundred from the part which was then paying out. The cable was immediately cut at this point and spliced to a deck coil of ninety miles, which it was intended to reserve for laying in shallow water and was therefore kept for Trinity Bay. About four o'clock in the morning the continuity was finally restored, and all was going on as well as if nothing had occurred to disturb the confidence we felt in the success of the expedition." Upon the sixth day--the 3d of August, the anniversary of the day upon which Columbus sailed from Palos--the great work took place of the change from "the fore-hold coil to that in the wardroom, which are at least two hundred feet apart. This occurred at eight o'clock in the morning; and, as the time was known to all on board, there was even a larger crowd assembled to witness it than I observed at any of the other changes. It was considered a most critical time; and, although the operation turned out to be very simple, it was anticipated by some with considerable uneasiness. The splice between the two coils had been made some hours in advance, and men were stationed all along the line of its course from the hold to the wardroom. Mr. Everett and Mr. Woodhouse were both on hand; the best men had been picked out to pass up the bight, when the last turn should be reached; and one man, named Henry Paine, a splicer, was specially appointed to walk forward with the bight to the after or wardroom coil. As the last flake was about to be paid out the ship was slowed down, and by the time the last three or four turns came to be paid out she could hardly be said to be moving through the water. The line came up more slowly from the hold, until we were nearing the bight, where it could not have been going out faster than half a mile an hour. One more turn and the bight comes up. There is not a sound to be heard from the crowd who are watching it with eager and anxious faces from every point of view. No one speaks, or has ventured to speak for the last minute, except the engineers, and they have very little to say, for their orders are conveyed in the most laconic style; and the quick 'ay, ay!' of the men show that they understand the full value of time. 'Now, men,' says Mr. Everett, 'look out for the bight,' as those in the hold hand it up to the men on the orlop deck, and it is passed from hand to hand till it reaches the platform and long passage which has been built upon the spar-deck for this part of the work. Here the bight arrives at last, and Paine takes it in his hand, paying out as he follows the line of the cable to the wardroom coil. How anxiously the men watch him as he walks that terrible distance of two hundred feet, and think that if he should happen to trip or stumble while he holds that bight in his hand the great enterprise may end in disaster! It is not a difficult task; but how often have things that are so easily performed been defeated by want of coolness! There is, however, such an easy self-possession about the man, as he comes slowly aft with the long black line, that inspires confidence. All hands have deserted the decks below, and follow him as he walks aft, and one, in his impatience to get a glimpse of him, has nearly fallen through the skylight of the engine-room, in which he has smashed several panes of glass in the effort to save himself. 'Pick up the pieces,' says Paine, in a vein of quiet humor, as he proceeds on his course without interruption, and, coming up to the wheel, which is immediately above the wardroom, he straightens the bight, and the cable begins to run out from the top of the coil on the deck beneath. His work is done; and, as the line passes out of his hands, he receives a round of applause from the hands of the spectators, who, but for those terrible navy rules, would have greeted him with a cheer that would have done his heart good. As it is, they must give vent to their feelings in some way; and the exclamations of 'Well done!' 'That's the fellow!' 'Good boy, Paine!' are not a bad compromise, after all. Besides, it might be rather premature at this time to indulge in any triumphant expression of feeling before we are even in sight of land." Upon the seventh day land was discovered from the mast-head. "It is now half-past two o'clock, and we are entering Trinity Bay at a speed of seven and a half knots an hour, paying out the cable at a very slight increase on the same rate. The curve which it forms between the ship and the water proves that there is little or no strain upon it, and proves also another thing,--that it can be run out at eight, nine, and, I believe, ten miles with the greatest safety. This, however, as I have previously stated, cannot be done with old cable that has been coiled so often as to have a tendency to kink; and there is--as has been already intimated--some of this kind which we shall be obliged to pay out before landing. A signal signifying 'all well' has been received from the Agamemnon, which must now be on the point of landing her cable at Valentia Bay, Ireland, which is about sixteen hundred and forty miles from our present position." [Illustration: THE TELEGRAPHIC PLATEAU.] At eight o'clock in the evening, while the Niagara was proceeding up Trinity Bay and was yet some eighteen miles distant from the landing-place, Mr. Field left the ship for the purpose of visiting the telegraph station and sending a despatch to the United States. "It was near two o'clock in the morning before he arrived at the beach; and, as it was quite dark, he had considerable difficulty in finding the path that led up to the station. There was no house in sight, and the whole scene was as dreary and as desolate as a wilderness at night could be. A silence as of the grave reigned over every thing before him; while behind, at a distance of a mile, he could see the huge hull of the Niagara looming up indistinctly through the gloom of night, and the light of the lamps on her deck making the darkness still darker and blacker by the contrast. He entered the narrow road, and after a journey of what appeared to be twenty miles he came in sight of the station, which stands about half a mile from the beach. There was, however, no sign of life there; and the house in its stillness looked strangely in unison with every thing around. It had a deserted look, as if it had long since ceased to be the habitation of man. In vain he looked for a door in the front; but there was no entrance there. He looked up at the windows, in the hope, perhaps, of being able to enter by that way; but the windows in the lower story were beyond his reach; and the house, having been partly built on piles, had the appearance of being raised on stilts. A detour of the establishment, however, led to the discovery of a door in the side; and through this he finally succeeded in effecting an entrance. The noise he made in getting in, it was natural to expect, would arouse the inmates; but there seemed either to be no inmates to arouse, or those inmates were not easily disturbed. He stopped for a moment to listen, and as he listened he heard the breathing of sleepers in an apartment near him. The door was immediately thrown open, and in a few seconds the sleepers were awake,--wide awake, and opening their eyes wider and wider as the wonderful news fell upon their astonished and delighted ears. They could hardly believe the evidence of their senses, and were bewildered at what they heard. The cable laid, when, but a few short weeks before, they had received the news of disaster and defeat, and they had looked only to the far-distant future for the accomplishment of the great work! The cable laid, and they unconscious of it!--they, who had waited and watched so many weary days and weeks for the ships they had begun to believe would never come! And they were now in the bay,--those same ships,--within a mile of them! Can they be dreaming? Dreaming! No. What they have heard is true,--all true; and there is the living witness before them. "'What do you want?" was the exclamation of the first who was awakened, as he endeavored to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "'I want you to get up," said Mr. Field, "and help us to take the cable ashore." "'To take the cable ashore?" re-echoed the others, who were now just awakening, and who heard the words with a dim, dreamy idea of their meaning; 'to take the cable ashore?' "'Yes,' said Mr. Field; 'and we want you at once.' "They were now thoroughly aroused; and, directing Mr. Field to the bedrooms of the other sleepers,--for there were four or five others in the house,--they prepared themselves with all haste to assist in landing the cable. Mr. Field found that the telegraph office would not be open till nine o'clock that morning, and that the operator of the New York, Newfoundland, and London telegraph was absent at the time. He also ascertained that the nearest station at which he could find an operator was fifteen miles distant, and that the only way of getting there was on foot. Now, fifteen miles in Newfoundland is about equal to twice the distance in a civilized country, and is a tolerably long walk; but it was something to be the bearer of such news to a whole continent, and so two of the young men willingly volunteered for the journey, bearing with them, for transmission to New York and the whole United States, the despatch which contained the first announcement of the successful accomplishment of the work." Upon the eighth day the cable was landed, the ships being dressed with flags in honor of the occasion. Sixty men from the Niagara, and forty from the British ships Gorgon and Porcupine, took part in this task and the attendant ceremonies. "The landing-place for the cable is a very picturesque little beach, on which a wharf has been constructed. A road, about the dimensions of a bridle-path, has been cut through the forest, and up this road, through bog and mire, you find your way to the telegraph station, about half a mile distant. Alongside of this road a trench has been dug for the cable, to preserve it from accidents to which it might otherwise be liable. "When the boats arrived at the landing, the officers and men jumped ashore, and Mr. North, first lieutenant of the Niagara, presented Captain Hudson with the end of the cable. Captain Otter, of the Porcupine, and Commander Dayman, of the Gorgon, now took hold of it, and, all the officers and men following their example, a procession was formed along the line. The road or path over which we had to take the cable was a most primitive affair. It led up the side of a hill a couple of hundred feet high, and had been cut out of the thick forest of pines and other evergreens. In some places the turf--which is to be found here on the top of the highest mountains--was so soft with recent rains that you would sink to your ankles in it. Well, it was up this road we had to march with the cable; and a splendid time we had. It was but reasonable to suppose that the three captains who headed the procession would certainly pick out the best parts and give us the advantage of the stepping-stones; but it appeared all the same to them; and they plunged into the boggiest and dirtiest parts with a recklessness and indifference that satisfied us they were about the worst pilots we could have had on land, despite their well-known abilities as navigators. "This memorable procession started at a quarter to six o'clock, and arrived at the telegraph station about twenty minutes after. The ascent of the hill was the worst part of the journey; but when we got to the top the scene which opened before us would have repaid us for a journey of twenty miles over a still worse road. There beneath us lay the harbor, shut in by mountains, except at the entrance from Trinity Bay; and there, too, lay the steamers of the two greatest maritime nations of the world. On every side lies an unbroken wilderness, and, if we except the telegraph station, at which we will soon arrive, not a single habitation to tell that man has ever lived here. "Never was such a remarkable scene presented since the world began. Even now, at the very point of its realization, it does not seem as if the work in which we have been engaged has been accomplished. The continuity, however, without which the cable would be utterly valueless, is as perfect now as it ever was. Mr. Laws and Mr. De Santy, the two chief electricians who have accompanied us from England, have 'tasted' the current, and about a dozen others at the head of the procession have done the same thing. The writer himself is a witness on this point, and will never forget the singular acid taste which it had. Some received a pretty strong shock,--so strong that they willingly resigned the chance of repeating the experiment. "On the arrival of the procession the cable is brought up to the house and the end placed in connection with the instrument. The deflection of the needle on the galvanometer gives incontrovertible evidence that the electrical condition of the cable is satisfactory. The question now is, How shall we properly celebrate the consummation of the great event? How, but by an acknowledgment to that Providence without whose favor the enterprise must have ended in disaster and defeat? Captain Hudson took up his position on a pile of boards, the officers and men standing round amid shavings, stumps of trees, pieces of broken furniture, sheets of copper, telegraph-batteries, little mounds of lime and mortar, branches of trees, huge boulders, and a long catalogue of other things equally incongruous. "'We have,' said the captain, 'just accomplished a work which has attracted the attention and enlisted the interest of the whole world. That work,' he continued, 'has been performed not by ourselves: there has been an Almighty Hand over us and aiding us; and, without the divine assistance thus extended us, success was impossible. With this conviction firmly impressed upon our minds, it becomes our duty to acknowledge our indebtedness to that overruling Providence who holds the sea in the hollow of his hand. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name, be all the glory." I hope the day will never come when, in all our works, we shall refuse to acknowledge the overruling hand of a divine and almighty Power.... There are none here, I am sure, whose hearts are not overflowing with feelings of the liveliest gratitude to God in view of the great work which has been accomplished through his permission, and who are not willing to join in a prayer of thanksgiving for its successful termination. I will therefore ask you to join me in the following prayer, which is the same, with a few necessary alterations, that was offered for the laying of the cable.'" This prayer was then offered at the throne of grace by the captain, the auditors responding at its close with an "Amen" which showed with what profound emotion they regarded the scene in which they were such prominent actors. [Illustration: THE AGAMEMNON IN A GALE.] In regard to the voyage of the Agamemnon we find little to say which would not be a repetition of that of the Niagara, with the exception that she experienced much less favorable weather, and that the admirable paying-out machine invented by our countryman, Mr. Everett, performed its delicate duty under more trying circumstances than those to which it had been subjected on the American frigate. The Queen's Message was transmitted over the wire on the 16th of August; and, intelligence of the fact being made known the same evening throughout the Northern and Western States, the people gave themselves up to the wildest demonstrations of joy. Few persons of an age to appreciate the significance of the triumph will forget that memorable night. We have not to follow the inventors, electricians, and commanders to the land, and detail the ovations of which they were the honored objects. The public will long remember the eloquence of the orators who dilated upon the theme, the inspired language in which the newspapers held forth to their amazed subscribers, and the prophetic vein in which the clergy felt justly entitled to indulge. Fifty years from now, those who were boys on the 16th of August will tell, with undiminished interest, of the tar-barrels and bonfires, the salutes and fireworks, the illuminations and torchlight processions, which, from one end of the country to the other, welcomed the inspiring tidings and made the summer night gorgeous with flames and clamorous with artillery. The cable is at length laid through the bed of the Atlantic Ocean. Over what jagged mountain-ranges is that slender filament carried! In what deep oceanic valleys does it rest! Through what strange and unknown regions, among things how uncouth and wild, must it thread its way! Still, in spite of this first magnificent success, deep-sea telegraphing must be regarded as in its very infancy; and doubtless many new and even more marvellous feats will yet be performed claiming admission among the achievements of Man upon--or rather beneath--the Sea. Perhaps the best among the numerous good things suggested by the happy return of the Telegraphic Fleet was the following sentiment:--"THE EQUATOR AND THE CABLE: the former an imaginary line which divides the poles, the latter a veritable line which connects the hemispheres!" "Far, far below oceans heaving breast, Where the storm-spirit ever is hush'd to rest, The cable now lies on its snowy bed,-- The glittering ashes of ocean's dead; And storms shall not break nor tempests sever This arch of promise, for ever and ever, Till an angel shall stand with one foot on the sea And swear that time no longer shall be." The continuity of this cable was shortly afterwards broken, but it had so successfully demonstrated that it was possible to lay one that another attempt was soon organized. For this purpose the Great Eastern, which had been found too large a ship to be ordinarily used in trade, since her great depth prevented her from entering any but the very deepest harbors, was engaged. Her size enabled her easily to take in the cable for the entire distance, and, starting from Ireland, she kept up telegraphic communication with that station, without interruption, throughout the whole of the voyage. This cable has worked continouslysince that time. Beside this, another Atlantic cable, connecting France with the American Continent, has been laid successfully and has worked without interruption. From England fifteen submarine wires, laid across the beds of the Channel or the North Sea, connect that country with France, Belgium and Holland. Sweden and Norway are connected with Germany by marine cables across the Baltic, while Sicily and Sardinia are connected with Italy by a cable in the bottom of the Mediterranean. In Europe, in 1872, it was estimated that at an expense of about $100,000,000 more than 1,300,000 miles of telegraphic wire had been erected, and counting the double and multiple wires used on the most important lines, that a length of 621,000,000 miles had been stretched, a length sufficient to encircle the entire globe, at the equator, some twenty-five times, while the yearly increase of new lines consumed enough wire to again encircle the earth. A telegraphic cable is also proposed from Lisbon to Rio Janeiro. France has been also connected with Algeria, and lines connecting the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, have been laid, though they have frequently been injured. The Pacific Ocean has also its cable connecting California with India, bringing Calcutta, San Francisco, New York, London, Vienna, Constantinople and Bagdad within a circuit measuring about 12,400 miles in length. The cables which have been laid in the beds of oceans and seas, connecting islands, peninsulas and continents, are estimated to measure about 12,400 miles in length. There are now three Atlantic cables connecting Europe and America. These are the Anglo-American, the New York, Newfoundland and London, and the French. Of these the French one is singular from its method of conveying intelligence. A minute mirror is placed on the needle, and a beam of light from a lamp is reflected from this upon a screen. As the current of electricity affects the needle, this light moves in curves upon the screen, and the meaning of these curves is read off by the observer, according to a prearranged code of symbols. Beside these three companies, there is a fourth proposed line, to be known as the American Atlantic, and which it is proposed to lay this coming summer, 1873. The rates of ocean telegraphing have recently been raised, and it is found that the lines contemplate combining with each other, and forming a monopoly. They have been acting in concert for some time, but without any formal agreement. As ocean telegraphing has become a necessity, this promptness on the part of the companies to combine into a monopoly gives greater force to the proposition that the telegraph, in the public interest, should be owned and controlled by government. Especially is this becoming more apparent, since the telegraphic reports of weather observations, which in the hands of the Signal Bureau have become of such practical public service, have recently been extended, so as to embrace Europe and this country in a single circuit. [Illustration: THE SEAL.] CHAPTER LIV. DIVING--THE FIRST DIVING-BELL--FIXED APPARATUS SUPPLIED WITH COMPRESSED AIR THE SUBMARINE HYDROSTAT--OPERATIONS AT HELL GATE--DIVING APPARATUS--SUBMARINE EXPLOSIONS--IMPROVED DIVING DRESSES--THEIR USE--WORK OF VARIOUS KINDS DONE WITH THEM--INSTANCES OF THIS--SEEKING THE TREASURE OF THE HUSSAR--SUNKEN SHIPS IN SEBASTOPOL--OPERATIONS IN MOBILE--THE DRY DOCK AT PENSACOLA BAY--THE BEAUTIES OF THE SUBMARINE WORLD--HABITS OF THE FISH--POSSIBLE DEPTH OF DESCENT. Not only have men in modern times sought to extend their knowledge of the sea by dredging and sounding, but with the appliances of modern science they have attempted to plunge themselves into its depths, and provide the conditions there for not only remaining alive but for working. We have seen that the divers for coral and for pearls are enabled to remain under the surface only at the very outside two minutes, and that even this is such a strain upon the organs of the body that their lives are materially shortened by engaging in such work. Air is so indispensable to human life, that before any one can hope to remain any time under the water, some arrangement must be provided for supplying him with air. [Illustration: DIVING-BELL.] The ancients, of course, knew that man was a breathing animal, they saw that each of themselves carried on this process constantly, but what they breathed they did not know, and they were equally ignorant of why they breathed. The discovery of what the air is belongs purely to modern times. About a century ago the astronomer Halley first proposed the use of the diving-bell, and went down in one he had built, to the depth of about fifty feet. The diving-bell was named from its original form, which was that of a bell, and this name is still retained, though the form of the vessel is changed. The supply of air is kept up by an air-pump worked above water. This is, however, a clumsy appliance in which the diver is limited only to that portion of the bottom on which the bell rests. Where there is either a strong current, or the bottom is very shelving, the diving-bell is embarrassing if not dangerous. In one case it is said that the diver was taken from the bell by a shark. Expert swimmers can dive from the outside, and, passing under the lip of the bell, rise suddenly inside of it, a feat which always surprises those who are in the bell. There is also sometimes danger that the bell may settle in the soft mud, and be held there by suction. Such a case once occurred in New York harbor, when a party had gone in the bell as a sort of pleasure excursion. The difficulty looked threatening, but one of the party proposed rocking the bell, and doing so the water was forced under, and the bell was lifted from the ooze. [Illustration: FIXED APPARATUS SUPPLIED WITH COMPRESSED AIR.] As the workmen cannot leave the bell, this difficulty if possible is obviated by moving the bell. Frequently, however, submarine operations are to be carried on only in one spot, as in building bridges, when the foundations of the piers are to be laid, or in building breakwaters; laying the foundations of light-houses, or other similar work. In such cases, structures which in principle are the same as the diving-bell, are frequently employed. The one which was used to build the piers of the magnificent bridge over the Rhine, near Strasbourg is represented in the cut. Each of the piers of this bridge rests on a foundation composed of four large iron caissons, of great weight. Each caisson was open at its lower end. The upper part supported three shafts--a middle and two lateral ones. All three shafts arose above the water of the river. The middle shaft communicated with the open air, and the water rose in it to the level of the river. In this a dredging machine, driven by a steam-engine above, worked at the bottom of the river. The other two shafts were closed at the top. The workmen entering above the stream, closed their means of ingress air tight, and then air was forced in until the water was forced down, and out below, leaving the shafts free. The workmen then descended and filled the buckets of the dredging machine. When they wanted to ascend, they mounted to the upper part of the shafts; the air was let off, the water mounted in the shafts and they stepped into the open air. The abutments of the bridge over the East River, which is to connect New York and Brooklyn by a suspension bridge, with a span high enough to not interfere with the navigation of the river, were built with a somewhat similar device. The towers upon each side of the river had to be so high that a very deep foundation, going down to the original rock, had to be laid, and the workmen engaged in building it worked in a submarine apartment, supplied with air forced down by a steam engine. The submarine hydrostat, as it is called, is one of the most ingenious and recent applications of the diving-bell principle. Thirty men may work in it at once, for a number of hours, without any inconvenience; while beside this it enables them at will, to float or sink. Externally, as will be seen from the upper structure in the cut, the machine is a rectangular box, surmounted with another smaller one, entirely closed except at the bottom. The interior of the hydrostat consists of three principal compartments; the lower figure in the cut represents these in section. The lower one, or hold, is open below, and communicates by a shaft with the upper compartment. Between the upper and lower compartments is a third, communicating with the others only by stop-cocks. The upper compartment is called the between decks, and the middle one the orlop deck. All round the hold and the orlop deck runs an air-tight gallery connected with the other compartments only by stop-cocks. The lower part of this gallery contains the ballast, while its upper part is filled with air or water, according as it is desired to float or sink. [Illustration: PAYERNE'S SUBMARINE HYDROSTAT.] When the hydrostat floats, the hold and a portion of the shaft are filled with water; while the orlop deck, its gallery and the between decks are full of air. The workmen are in the between decks, where are lifting and forcing pumps. When it is desired to sink the hydrostat, the door of the shaft and the hatch of the between decks are closed water and air-tight. The pump is then worked so as to draw water from the outside and fill the orlop deck and its gallery. At the same time the force-pump is used to force air into the hold through a pipe connecting the hold and the orlop deck, and furnished with a stop-cock. As the orlop deck, with its gallery, fills with water the machine gets heavier and sinks, while the hold becomes at the same time filled with air. Though the air thus forced into the hold would tend to float the hydrostat, this tendency is counterbalanced by the filling of the orlop deck with water. When the hold is filled with air, the workmen in the between decks open the shaft and descend to the bottom. A sufficient number remain in the between decks to haul up and dispose of the material excavated, and to attend to the pumps which maintain the supply of air for those in the hold. When they want to rise again, the men ascend from the hold by the shaft to the between decks, closing the shaft again. The air is then let from the hold to the orlop deck and gallery; the hold fills with water, while the orlop deck and gallery become filled with air, and the hydrostat rises to the surface; the men open the hatch of the between decks and obtain free communication with the outer world again. The dimensions of the hydrostat are as follows: The hold is square, the sides measuring each 26 feet, and being 6 feet 6 inches high. The orlop deck is of the same size. The between decks have the same depth, but are only 16 feet in the sides. The base of the hold therefore covers 676 square feet. This ingenious machine has been already used with the most perfect success in performing various work, such as cleaning out and deepening harbors; searching for lost treasure; removing obstructions in channels, and so on. One of the most important and interesting pieces of submarine engineering ever done in this country was that undertaken for removing the rocky obstructions in Hell Gate, at the entrance, through Long Island Sound, of New York harbor. The first attempt to remove these was by drilling and blasting, as in an ordinary quarry. This work was, however, quite slow, since the current is there so rapid that operations could be carried on only a few minutes each day at the turns of the tides. The next plan was proposed by a French engineer, M. Maillefert, who had used it with great success in the harbor of Nassau. This plan was entirely new, and had the great merit of being surprisingly cheap compared with those then in use. It dispensed with the costly and difficult process of drilling, but exploded the charges on the surface of the rocks to be removed, while they were covered with the greatest depth of water. Gunpowder burnt in the open air explodes without anything but a harmless flash. The pressure of the atmosphere is not enough to restrain the dispersion of the gases suddenly generated. Under water, though, it is different; its pressure confines the gases and makes them act with destructive effect on all sides. For a couple of years operations were carried on by M. Maillefert with considerable success. But he was hampered by want of means, the money that was spent being raised by private subscriptions; and though the channel was greatly improved, operations were suspended. It was found, too, that this method was of great service in breaking off isolated pinnacles of jagged rock, but when the bed was reached, and the rock reduced to a large, smooth, flat surface, progress in the work became slow, doubtful and costly. This process, however, of exploding charges of gunpowder, under water, by means of an electric battery is very valuable in certain situations. In 1868 Congress appropriated $85,000 for the needs of Hell Gate, and bids for the work were opened to the public. The contract was awarded to Mr. S. F. Shelbourne, of New York, who proposed to do the work by drilling and blasting, the machinery to be placed on the bottom and worked by a steam pump placed on a vessel above. The rock was to be drilled by mushroom drill, as it was called, a diamond drill worked by a small turbine wheel, driven by steam. This drill was tried on the Frying Pan, one of the worst rocks obstructing the channel, but was found to be too delicate and uncertain of continuous action under the trying requirements of the rough work at Hell Gate. A striking drill was then tried, and a machine was built and put in position, but the very day it was to commence to work it was run against by one of the craft so constantly crowding through Hell Gate, and destroyed. Mr. Shelbourne then retired from any further attempt, and the Government has undertaken it, and placed the management of the operations in the hands of General Newton. [Illustration: MUSHROOM DRILL.] The plan now undertaken is to undermine the whole bed of the river at this point, with a series of galleries connected by transverse galleries, leaving only so much rock standing in columns as shall insure stability to the roof above. When this work is completed, these submarine channels are to be charged with the requisite number of thousands of pounds of nitro-glycerine, and blown up with one grand explosion. This enormous work is now well under way, and is being rapidly pushed to completion. Work is carried on day and night, three sets of workmen being engaged in it, each working eight hours. The drilling has thus far been done chiefly by hand, and is very laborious. The workmen are chiefly Cornish miners, who alone can stand the severity of such mining. They are hardly ever dry while at work, and in the winter their clothes are frequently stiffened by ice. Preparations are however making to use machine drills operated by compressed air. The operations of this mining under the channel of the East River have to be conducted with great care. Every inch of the way has to be critically explored. Seams of decomposed mica have been met, through which the water of the river ran as through a sieve. In one of the shafts such a seam was met, through which the water poured at the rate of six hundred gallons a minute, and could be stopped only by building a strong shield. The floor of the shaft follows a level about thirty feet below the low-water line. The roof follows of course the general contour of the reef, and to determine this, soundings of a special kind have to be taken. The bed of the stream is covered, except on the highest points of the reef, with a deposit of boulders, marl and organic matter from the sewers of New York, sometimes to the depth of ten or twelve feet. As the exact profile of the solid rock must be known before the miners can proceed, every sounding for determining this--and more than 15,000 have been already made--must be carefully done. The sounding apparatus consists of a float, or raft, supporting a machine like a guillotine or pile driver, by which a three-inch iron tube is driven through the overlying matter to the rock bed. The contents of the tube are then pumped out and an iron rod is used to determine the nature of the rock below. If it is a boulder, a dull thud is heard, and the rod does not rebound. Solid rock returns a sharp clink, and the rod springs back. The bearings of the tube are then taken by instruments from the shore, and the position of the rock calculated by a simple process. [Illustration: READY TO GO DOWN.] Under the direction of General Newton, other submarine operations are also carried on in New York Harbor for the removal of the rocky and dangerous obstructions known as Diamond Reef, and Coentie's Reef, which lie in the busiest part of the harbor, directly in the track of the numerous ferry boats plying between New York and Brooklyn, and are not only troublesome, but dangerous, especially at low water. To perform this work, General Newton has had a special boat built, a scow, a low-lying, box-like craft, with a confusion of timbers, ropes, chains, and machinery surrounding a huge dome in the center. This vessel is very solidly built, and anchored so firmly that the waves strike against its sides as against a wharf. This strength is important for the work, and also to protect the machinery against the chance collision of the constantly passing vessels in the harbor. The general purpose of the scow is easily comprehended. Its object is to guard the drilling machinery while it is at work; to transport it when necessary, and to support the engines for working the drills. In the center of the scow is an octagonal well, thirty-two feet in diameter, in which is supported an iron-wrought dome for protecting the divers. At the top of the dome is a "telescope," twelve feet in diameter, with a rise and fall of six feet to adapt it to the various stages of the tides. When the dome is in working order, it stands clear of the scow, resting on self-adjusting legs, which adapt themselves to the inequalities of the reef. When the drills are working, the dome is down, out of sight, and the machinery, which at the first glance seems in disorder on the scow, is arranged in order, and is level with the deck. The engines which drive the drills are supported on moveable bridges, thrown back when the dome is up; and the drills work in stout iron tubes passing through the dome, one in the center, and the others arranged round it in a circle about twenty feet in diameter. The dome, when down, serves to protect the divers, so that at any time they can go down to regulate the working of the drills, or perform any other service. Without this protection, the divers could not keep their feet, so strong is the current on a rising or falling tide. The divers are protected by a diving suit; the air is furnished them by a pipe to the back of the helmet they wear, and is forced down by an air pump. When a set of holes are drilled, they are charged with nitro-glycerine, and simultaneously exploded by electricity. This simple statement serves to show how much the modern methods of conducting such submarine operations are dependent upon the advance in chemistry of modern times. In fact, hardly a single appliance used in such operations, from the steam-engine which drives the drills, to the gutta-percha tubes, and the india rubber suits which enable the divers to descend below the water, but what are inventions or discoveries which belong entirely to modern times, and enable men to-day to perform operations which to the ancients would have really been impossible. [Illustration: PUTTING IN THE CHARGES.] The nitro-glycerine is contained in tin cartridge cases, like mammoth candle moulds, ten feet long and from four to five inches in diameter. They are connected with the battery by wires. The divers go down and place these in the holes which have been drilled, first pulling out the wooden plugs which have been placed in them after they were drilled, to keep them from getting filled with dirt. As soon as the charges are placed, the diver returns to the boat, and it drops far enough from the spot, to be safe from the effects of the explosion, and then, with a few turns of the battery, the nitro-glycerine explodes. Two muffled explosions are heard, the one transmitted through the water and the other through the air, and on the instant a volume of water is hurled perhaps fifty feet into the air, while through the mass jets of water are hurled in all directions two or three times further, together with fragments of rock. The water subsides quickly, and round the spot dead fish come floating to the top, killed by the shock of the explosion. At each blast the rock is broken up over an area of four or five hundred square feet, and the fragments are removed by a grappling machine. [Illustration: GRAPPLING MACHINE.] In these submarine operations the divers use the armor which the discovery of india rubber and the process of vulcanizing it has made possible, enabling the diver to descend, and leaving him liberty of movement enough to work. In this, as in almost every other new method, there have been gradual steps of improvement and development. During the latter part of the last century the plan was proposed for the diver to carry down with him a supply of air, compressed into a reservoir which he wore on his back, inhaling the air through a tube. Modified arrangements of this method were in use until, in 1830, the discovery of india-rubber afforded the opportunity which was immediately made use of, to improve the diving apparatus. Various improvements, some of them protected by patent rights, have been made in the construction of this submarine armor, but as perfect a method of making it as any is that designed by two Frenchmen, M. Rouquarol, a mining engineer, and M. Denayrouze, a lieutenant in the French navy. One of the chief merits of this arrangement is that by which the supply of air is furnished the diver. This apparatus the diver carries on his back, and it consists of a reservoir made of steel or iron, capable of resisting great pressure, with a chamber on its top constructed to regulate the influx of the air. A tube from this chamber, terminating in a mouthpiece, is held between the diver's teeth. This pipe is furnished with a valve permitting the expulsion of air, but opposing the entrance of water. The steel reservoir is separated from the chamber by a conical valve opening from the air chamber in such a way as to open only by the force of exterior pressure, that of the air in the reservoir tending to close it. The air from the air-pump is forced into the reservoir, and from this the diver supplies his needs as follows: The air-chamber is closed by a movable lid, to which is attached the tail of the conical valve. The diameter of the lid is a little less than the interior diameter of the chamber, and it is covered with india-rubber so as to be air-tight. It yields to both interior and exterior pressure, rising and falling as the case may be. When exterior pressure is exerted on it, the valve is affected, communication is opened between the air-chamber and the reservoir and a portion of the compressed air from the latter flows into the chamber. Should there be too much air in the chamber its pressure against the movable lid keeps the valve closed. [Illustration: DIVERS DRESSED IN THE APPARATUS DESCRIBED.] When in use under water its operation is thus: The diver by drawing his breath takes air from the chamber; exterior pressure is exerted on the movable lid, it falls, causes the valve to open, and air comes from the reservoir to establish the equilibrium, when the lid rises and shuts off the communication between the air-chamber and the reservoir until another inspiration on the part of the diver repeats the action just described. When the workman expires, the valve in the respiratory tube allows the expelled air to escape into the water. This apparatus works automatically; though the air-pump may be worked irregularly, its action is regular. The diver receives just the quantity of air enough for a respiration, and this reaches him at a pressure equal to that to which the rest of his body is subjected, and he is therefore able to breathe without effort or attention. The compression of air heats it, and the breathing of air thus heated is bad for the diver. This has been remedied by the same gentleman, by the modification of the pumps by which the air is forced in the reservoir. The air is cooled by being forced to pass through two layers of water before it reaches the reservoir; and expanding in its passage into the air-chamber it becomes again cooled. [Illustration: DIVERS FINDING A BOX OF GOLD IN THE PORT OF MARSEILLES.] With the use of this apparatus another advantage is gained. When the diver is down the air he expires rises in bubbles to the surface, and by the regularity with which they rise his condition can be easily known. If they cease, it is known that something must have happened, and that he should be instantly hauled up. In the old diving dress the expired air passed into the space between his body and the clothing and out at a valve in the helmet, but as the excess of air supplied to him escaped in this way also, it could not be told from this whether the diver was alive or dead. So common has the practice of diving become, that in all countries it is a regular profession. A few instances of the advantages gained by it will prove interesting. In February, 1867, a collision took place in the port of Marseilles between two steamers, the Ganges and the Imperatrice. The last of these lost one of her wheels, and a box of gold in the officers' quarters fell out and sank in the mud. The exact spot where it fell was not known. The box was black and not very strong. The next day an attempt was made to recover it. A lead was sunk at the supposed spot where the box was lost: and two lines attached to it were knotted at distances of a yard along their length. The two divers having descended, took each of them one of these lines in his hand, and, using the lead as a centre, walked round in gradually increasing circles, searching carefully every foot of their way. After working three hours in this way they found the box, and restored it to the delighted owner. Another most interesting case is that of the Hussar, an English navy vessel, which was wrecked in Hell Gate, in New York Harbor. On the 23d of November, 1780, during the war of the Revolution, and while New York was in the possession of the English, a British fleet entered the harbor. Among them, as convoys, were the Mercury and the Hussar. The first had on board £384,000, mostly in guineas, and the second £580,000, together amounting to about $4,800,000. This large sum was intended to pay the English troops then in this country. The next day the whole of this money was placed on board the Hussar, and she got ready to proceed to New London, Connecticut, which was then a place for the British rendezvous. Before starting she also took on board seventy prisoners, from the prison hulks in the bay, who were confined with irons on the gun deck below. What it was intended to do with these unhappy prisoners is not known, nor does it appear from the records. However, thus freighted the Hussar hauled from the dock, and under the charge of a negro pilot, who, a few days before, had safely carried a frigate through Hell Gate, started on her way through that dangerous passage. When she was almost through, when open water lay only a few rods before her, she struck, drifted off, commenced to fill rapidly, and while the question of backing her was being discussed, she struck again, and soon settled, and sliding from the rocks, sank in ninety feet of water. The officers and crew escaped, but the seventy prisoners, chained below to the gun deck, sank with the vessel, without an attempt having been made to save them. The vessel herself was a large one, carrying thirty-two guns, and measuring two hundred and six feet in length by fifty-eight in width. In 1794 an expedition from England came over to New York, and for two seasons attempted in vain to raise the wreck by grappling, when they were forbidden to work any longer by the Government of the United States. In 1819 another attempt was made by an English company, who prosecuted their work with a diving bell. The strength of the current here made their efforts of no avail, and they abandoned the attempt. Since then the possible chance of the four million dollars has tempted various other companies to try, and in turn they each abandoned the attempt in despair of success. Within the past four years, however, a new company has been at work, using the newly-invented submarine armor, and during this time a sloop has been lying, dismantled but firmly anchored, about a hundred yards from the New York side of the East River, three-quarters of a mile above Ward's Island. This is the spot where the Hussar sank, with her prow pointing north. [Illustration: ARMING THE DIVER.] [Illustration: CASTING OFF THE DIVER.] The diver's suit consists of, first, a pair of thick rubber leggings and boots combined. These end at the waist in an iron band furnished with iron clamps. Straps of lead weighing together ninety pounds, and which are made to fit about his ankles and waist, are intended to give him weight enough to withstand the current. On the upper part of his body he wears a large copper helmet, with a strong ring-bolt on the top, and below which, securely fastened to it, is a rubber jacket, ending in an iron band, so constructed as to meet that of the leggings and be tightly fastened to it. The sleeves of this jacket are gathered round his wrists and tightly tied. The jacket is of a more pliable stuff than the leggings, so as to enable him to more easily use his hands and arms. The diver puts on his leggings, and then a hook, attached to the end of a rope passed over a pulley, and worked by the engine, is hooked into the ring on the top of the helmet, and this, with the jacket, is hoisted and let down over his head. Having worked himself into the sleeves, he is as helpless, with the weight of his armor, as an old knight encased in iron was. The front of his helmet has a glass door, covered with wire, in it, which is opened for him, while his companions complete his toilet by tying his jacket sleeves round his wrists; adjusting the iron bands of his leggings and jacket, and screwing them firmly together; and then fitting on his leaden anklets and girdle, screwing on the pipe through which his supply of air is provided, and then shutting the door of his helmet, and securely fastening it, he is ready to be cast off. In his hand the diver carries down a slender cord, with which he signals his wants when below. He is slowly lowered down to the bottom, ninety feet below, where his work is pressing, since he has only the hour before and the hour after the turn of the tide. [Illustration: DIVER DOWN.] While he is down those above are as intent upon his welfare as he is himself. He who has the signal cord, holds the most responsible position. There is a prearranged code of signals, for "more air," "pull me up," "more tools," "pull up the bucket," and so on. His work below has been the destruction of the heavy frame work of the vessel, and right well has it been done; there is but little left of her but the worm-eaten and water-logged knees and beams which formed her bottom, and the chief task of the diver now is, with pick and shovel, to break up the hard conglomerate of sand and gravel which has been compacted by the action of the water and the rusting iron. The only sense the diver has to guide him in these depths is that of feeling, for at this depth it is as dark as midnight. The material he thus collects is brought to the surface in a bucket and carefully looked over. This work is done at the cost of the Frigate Hussar Company, an incorporated company, with a capital stock divided into forty-eight thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, corresponding to the amount of treasure said to be in the run of the Hussar, and since 1866 it has been steadily carried on. The mass of gold has not yet been found, but from time to time in the loads of mud and sand a gold-piece is found. A lump of silver made of various coins, agglomerated by the action of the water, has been brought up, having some gold coins set in it. Cannon, cannon balls, chains, manacles, piles of gun-flints, silver plate, pewter dishes, the ship's bell, and quantities of glass and earthen ware, with numbers of human bones, have been rescued from the deep. Various museums in the country have specimens of relics brought up from this historic ship. One day a brass box was brought up, and when opened found to be full of jewels, necklaces, ear-rings, and pearls of great value. Being left for a moment on the deck of the salvage schooner, it disappeared, and the second search for it has proved more fruitless than the first. During the Crimean war, a line of ships and frigates was sunk by the Russians in the harbor of Sebastopol, in the passage between forts Catharine and Alexander. When forced to leave the town, others remaining in the harbor were sunk, so that at least 100 vessels, representing an estimated value of between fifty and sixty millions of dollars, were sunk. To prevent if possible the action of the sea upon their machinery and metallic portions, these were covered with tar or tallow. When the war was over, an American engineer, named Gowan, went to Russia and undertook the job of raising these vessels, after having gone down himself in a diving suit, and satisfied himself of their condition, and that he could recover some of them entire and others in parts. In this work use was made of an enormous pump, raising nearly 1,000 tons of water a minute. With this, after closing as well as could be, the port holes and other openings, another pipe for the introduction of air was arranged, and the pump set in action. This powerful machine emptied the vessel of water in a very short time, so that the air flowed into it by the other pipe, and the vessel rose of itself to the surface. An enormous chain, each link of which weighed over two hundred pounds, was used to help lift them, when necessary, or alone when it was found most easy to use alone. [Illustration: CANNON, BELL AND BONES BROUGHT UP FROM THE WRECK OF THE HUSSAR.] [Illustration: SALVAGE OF RUSSIAN SHIPS SUNK AT SEBASTOPOL.] A very important use to which the submarine armor is often put, is that of enabling the diver to clean the bottom of a vessel, below water, while she is moving. This is a great convenience, as it saves the delay and expense of being obliged to place her in a dry dock. A rope ladder, with rungs of wood or iron, is stretched under the ship, passing down one side and up the other. It is thus drawn tight, and the diver descends. A bar, tied at each end with a rope, ending in a hook is hung by the hooks to the rungs, and gives him a seat, leaving his hands free. He may also fill his air-tight suit with air, and thus be partially sustained against the side of the ship. The sailors of the U.S. ship Colorado repaired, at Cherbourg, the injuries suffered by the monitor Miantonomoh, in five days, though the weather was rough. The French iron-plated ram, Taureau, had her bottom scraped and entirely cleaned of sea-weed and shells in 109 hours of labor, with a great increase of her speed. [Illustration: CAULKING A VESSEL.] In Mobile Bay some of the most successful diving operations have been carried on. About a sunken vessel there, it became necessary to sink a row of piles, into the bed of quicksand which had gathered round her. On trial the ordinary pile-driving machine was found incompetent to do this. Under the strokes of the falling weight the elastic sand rebounded, and the pile was thrown out. This unexpected difficulty was met in a simple, but most effective way. A suction-pump was rigged up, and the hose tied to the end of a pile; when the pile touched the bottom the pump was set to work, and the suction bored a hole in the sand, into which the pile fell with a rapidity that was startling. When the pile had been sufficiently sunk, the hose was withdrawn, and the sand settling round the pile, held it as fast as though it had been cemented in. During the late civil war the monitor Milwaukee was struck by a concealed torpedo in Mobile harbor and sunk. During the war these torpedos sunk three of the monitors in this harbor, besides several dispatch boats, which met the same fate. The Milwaukee was sunk nearly due east from the city, and during the continuance of hostilities an effort was made to rescue her armament and her machinery. Her guns cost the Government $30,000 each. A party of divers were engaged, who were chiefly mechanics and engineers, who were exempt from military service in the Confederacy, but who sympathised fully with its cause. The duty was one of singular danger, since it had not only those peculiar to submarine diving, but as she lay within range, and hostilities still continued, the divers while below, though safe there from being hit, were yet in danger of even a worse death, from the injury which might be done to the air-pump above, upon which their supply of air depended, and which was of necessity exposed. The work below was also peculiarly arduous. The hulk was crowded with the entangled machinery of sixteen engines, cuddies, posts, spars, levers, hatches, stanchions, floating trunks, boxes, and the confusion worse confounded by the awful, mysterious gloom of the water, which is not night or darkness, but the absence of any ray of light to touch the optic nerve. The sense of touch is the only reliance, and the life-line is the only guide of the diver. The officers and men of the ship were anxious for the recovery of their baggage, and offered the divers salvage for its rescue. One of the officers was very anxious to obtain his trunk, which was in a remote state-room, and offered fifty dollars reward for it. The diver who undertook the task has described the difficulties he encountered in its execution. To find the state-room required that he should descend below the familiar turret-chamber, through the inextricable confusion of the tangled machinery in the engine room, groping among floating and sunken objects. By touch alone he was to find a chest, to handle it in that thickening gloom, to carry it, push it, move it through that labyrinth, to a point where it could be raised, and through all this he had to carry his life-line and his air-hose. Three times the line became entangled in the machinery, and three times he had patiently to follow it up, find the place, and release it. Then the door of the state-room shut when he was in it, and round and round that little chamber he groped, in the dark, before he could find it again. All parts of the chamber seemed the same, a smooth slimy wall, glutinous with the jelly-like deposit of the sea-water. The line, entangled, became, instead of a guide, a further source of error, and the time was passing away, and life was dependent upon the continuity of the tube. There was no chance to hasten; with tedious and patient care he must follow the life-line, find its entanglements and slowly loosen them, then carefully taking up the slack follow the straightened line to the door. Nor must he forget the chest, slowly he heaves and pushes, now at the box, now at the line, which catches on every projecting knob, handle, peg or point of the machinery. Finally, however, his cool-headed patience is rewarded with success. He gets the chest to the open air and restores it to its owner; but in so doing he has made the worst mistake of all; he has mistaken the character of the man; he never paid, or offered to pay, the fifty dollars. Another instance of cool determination in the unforeseen dangers of submarine diving occurred to a diver who was engaged in the recovery of the valuable dry dock at Pensacola Bay. In the passionate destructiveness which was so violently manifested by the South at the commencement of the civil war, as children in their rage destroy their own playthings, this structure was burned to the water's edge and sunk. Afterward a company was formed to raise it. It was built in compartments, and this method of construction, which originally was intended to prevent it from sinking, now served to prevent it from floating. Each one of the small water-tight compartments, now they were filled, kept it down. It was necessary to break into the lower side of each of them, and allow the water to flow evenly into them. The interior of the hull was full of these boxes. Huge beams and cross-ties intersected each other at right angles, forming the frame-work of this honeycombed interior. It was necessary to break through the outside of these, and it was a most difficult and tedious job, under water. The net-work of beams was so close that the passage between barely admitted the diver's body. Into one of these holes the diver crawled. The work of tearing off the casing occupied him an hour or more, and when it was done, he thought to back out of his place. But he found he could not. The armor about his head and shoulders, acting like the barb of a hook, caught him; he could pass in, but he could not pass out. In vain attempts to twist himself out he spent so much time that the men above began to be alarmed and increased their work at the pump. The air came surging down, and swelled up his armor, so that he was more effectually caught than ever. He signalled for the pump to stop. The cock at the back of his helmet, to let the air out, was out of his reach. His only chance was to open his dress round the wrists, where the sleeves were tied. This he set out to do, but suddenly found himself affected by breathing over the air in his armor. The carbonized air began to affect him, making his mind dreamy, and inducing an intense desire to sleep. This he could overcome only by a resolute effort of his will. Meanwhile his tugging at his wrists had been successful; the air had escaped and lessened his bulk. With the energy of despair he makes one more supreme effort. It is successful, and he was drawn to the surface dazed, drowsy and only half conscious of the peril he had undergone. These instances, however, are exceptional, and arose only from their peculiar conditions. At other times there is a pleasure in diving, thus protected; and the divers consider it, as it is, the only true way to visit the submarine world. The first sensation in descending is the sudden, bursting roar of cascades in the ears, caused by the air driven into the helmet from the air-pump. As the flexible hose has to be strong enough to bear a pressure of twenty-five to fifty pounds to the square inch, the force of the current can be estimated. The drum of the ear yields to the strong external pressure. The mouth opens involuntarily, the air rushes in the eustachian tube and strikes the drum, which snaps back to its normal state with a sharp, pistol-like crack. The strain is for a moment relieved, to be again renewed, and again relieved by the same process. Peering through the goggle eyes of glass arranged about his helmet, the diver sees the curious, strange beauty of the world about him, not as the bather sees it, blurred and indistinct, but clearly, and in its own calm splendor. The first thought is unspeakable admiration of the miraculous beauty of everything about him. Above him is a pure golden canopy, with a rare glimmering lustrousness, something like the soft, dewy, effulgence which is seen when the sun-light breaks through an afternoon's shower. The soft delicacy of that pure straw yellow, which pervades everything, is crossed and lighted by tints and glimmering hues of accidental and complementary colors, which are indescribably elegant. The floor of the sea rises like a golden carpet inclining gently to the surface, in appearance. This is perhaps the first thing which calls attention to the fact that he is in a new medium, and that the familiar light comes altered in its nature. Looking horizontally around him a new and beautiful wealth of color is seen. It is at first a delicate blue, but it soon deepens into a rich violet. As the eye dwells upon it, it darkens to indigo, and deepens into a vivid blue-black, solid and adamantine. It is all around him, he seems encased in the solid masonry of the waters. The transfiguration of familiar objects is curiously wonderful. The hulk of the ship seems encrusted with emerald and flossy mosses, and glittering with diamonds, gold, and all manner of precious stones. A pile of brick becomes a huge hill of crystal, decked with jewels. A ladder becomes silver, crusted with emeralds. The spars, the masts, and yards, whenever a point or angle catches the light, multiply the reflected splendor. Every shadow gives the impression of a bottomless depth. The sea seems loop-holed with cavities that pierce the solid globe. There is no gradation of perspective. In the mouth of a great river, the light is affected with the various densities of the different media. At the proper depth, the line is clearly seen where these meet, sharply defined. The salt water sinks to the bottom, and over it flows the fresh water of the river. If this last contains much sediment, it obscures the depths like a cloud. In freshets, this becomes a total darkness. Even on a clear, sunshiny day, and in clear water, the shadow of any object in the sea is unlike any shade in the atmosphere. It throws a black curtain over what it covers, entirely obscuring it. Standing within the shadow, is like looking out from a dark tunnel; around, everything is dark, while things in the distance can be seen clearly. The cabin of a sunken vessel is dark beyond any ordinary conception of darkness, nor do its windows, though they may be seen, alter this darkness. The distrust of his sight grows stronger in the diver with his experience. The eye is accustomed to judge of form, proportion and distance, in a thinner medium, and is continually deceived in a denser one, until experience has taught the diver how to estimate rightly the different impressions. Perhaps the most striking illustration of this difference, the diver finds in trying to drive a nail under water. If depending on sight, untaught by experience, he is sure to fail. He will instinctively strike just where the nail is not. For this reason, even the electric light below the water, does not furnish all that is wanting: the familiar medium of the upper world is wanting, and this the electric light does not supply. By practice, therefore, the diver learns to depend entirely upon the sense of touch, and with experience, becomes able to engage in works under the sea which require labor and skill, with the easy assurance of a blind man who finds his way with confidence along a crowded thoroughfare. The conveyance of sound through water is so difficult, that under the sea has been called the world of silence. But this is not strictly correct. Some fish have the power of making sounds, and they all have simple and imperfect auditory organs. To the diver, however, save for the cascade of air through his air-pipe, the sea is silent. No shout, or word from above, reaches him. A cannon shot is dull, and muffled, and if distant, he does not hear it. A sharp, quick sound, especially if produced by striking something on the water, can be heard. The sound of driving a nail on the ship above, or a sharp tap on the diving-bell below, can be heard. Conversation between two divers, below the water, is, by the ordinary methods, impossible, but by touching their helmets together, they can converse, the vibrations being transmitted through the metallic substance, and to the air inside. The diver has also a new revelation of the character and beauty of fish and other inhabitants of the sea when he thus meets them at home. The exudations covering them, is there a brilliant varnish. Their lustrous colors are beautiful in the fish market, but when in their native element, they are seen full of life, nimble and playful, they appear to be the most graceful creatures, and cannot be observed unmoved. The eyes of the fish are visible as far as the fish can be seen, and its whole animate existence is expressed in them. In the minnow and sun-perch there is a fearless familiarity, a social and frank intimacy with their novel visitor which surprises him. They crowd around him, curiously touch him, and regard all his movements with a frank, lively interest. Nor are the larger fish shy. The sheep-head, red and black groper, sea-trout and other well-known fish receive the diver with fearless curiosity. In their large, round eyes he reads evidence of intelligence and curious wonder, which at times is startling from its entirely human expression. No faithful dog, or pet animal could express a franker interest in its eyes. Their curiosity is expressed, not only in their eyes, but in their movements. They share with mankind the desire to touch what is novel to them. A diver was approached by a large catfish, who came up and touched him with its cold nose. The man involuntarily threw up his hand, and struck the palm on the fish's sharp fin. There was an instant struggle before the fish wrenched itself free, and then it only swam off a short distance, staring with its black eyes at the intruder as if it wished to ask who he was, and what he wanted. A long stay by the diver in a single place enables him to test the intelligence of the fishes who visit him. A diver, whose occupation kept him in one spot, was continually surrounded, while at work, by a school of gropers, averaging about a foot in length. Having identified one of them who had suffered from an accident, he noticed that it was a daily visitor. After they had satisfied their first curiosity, the gropers apparently decided that their novel visitor was harmless and clumsy, but useful in assisting them to get their food. They feed on crustacea and marine worms, which hide under the rocks, on mosses, and other objects on the bottom. In raising anything from the mud a dozen of these fish would thrust their heads into the hole for their food, before the diver had removed his hand. They followed him about, eying his motions, dashing in advance, or around in sport, and evidently displaying a liking for their new friend. Pleased with such unexpected familiarity, the diver brought food with him, on his return, and fed them from his hand as one feeds a flock of chickens. Sometimes two would get hold of the same morsel, and then would result a trial of strength, accompanied with much flashing and glitter of shining scales. But no matter how called off, their interest and curiosity remained with the diver. They would return, pushing their noses about him, with an apparent desire to caress him, and bob down into the treasures of worm and shell fish his labor disclosed. He became convinced that they were sportive, and indulged in play for the fun of it. This curious intimacy was continued for weeks: that they knew and expected the diver at his usual hour, was a conclusion he could not deny, since they, unless driven away by some other fish who preyed on them, were always in regular attendance during his hours of work. The depth at which men can descend in a suit of submarine armor, has been tested by experiment with the following results: The diver can breathe, and his organs may retain their normal condition, and he preserve his presence of mind, to a depth of 130 feet, but when he exceeds this depth by ten or twenty feet, the external pressure causes physiological effects on his organs, independent of his will. One hundred and thirty feet is therefore the depth which experiment has shown to be the greatest at which any prolonged submarine work can be performed. Within this limit, security to life is perfectly compatible with an attempt to recover any ship or sunken treasure which will pay the expenses. [Illustration: THE NORTHERN DIVER.] [Illustration: STAR FISH.] CHAPTER LV. THE OCEAN AS A FIELD--THE VARIOUS CROPS IT YIELDS--THE SPONGE--TRANSPLANTING SPONGES--CORAL FISHING--THE DISCOVERY OF THE NATURE OF CORAL--ITS RECEPTION BY NATURALISTS--OYSTER FISHERY--THE OYSTER A SOCIAL ANIMAL--THE YOUNG OYSTER--OYSTER CULTURE--DREDGING FOR OYSTERS--THE AMERICAN OYSTER FISHERY--PEARL OYSTERS--PEARL FISHERIES--THEIR VALUE--SHARK FISHING--CUTTLE FISHING. Though the ocean may appear to be a barren waste of water to the farmer, it has by no means this aspect to the fisherman. To him it is the field in which he labors, and the crops he gathers from it are as diversified in character, and as important for satisfying the demands of the world, as those which the farmer raises. And further than this, the labors of the fisherman have helped to increase our knowledge of the composition and character of the sea, of the habits of the organized beings found in it, as the labors of the farmer have done the same thing for the soil, and the products which it bears. In considering the various fisheries of the ocean, naturally that of the sponge, as one of the lowest forms of animal life, comes first in order. Science is hardly yet decided in its views concerning the organization and development of these obscure and complex creatures, and despite the investigations of modern naturalists, their position in the scale of animal life is still problematical, and their internal organization is still known only imperfectly. Dr. Bowerbank in his work on British Sponges, published in 1866, describes nearly 200 species, but this number by no means includes them all. They are of all sizes, and of all possible diversity of shape. At present the chief sponge fishing is carried on in the Grecian Archipelago and on the coast of Syria. The boat's crew consists of four or five men who, between June and October, seek the sponges under the cliffs and ledges of the rocks. Those obtained in shallow waters are considered inferior; the best are obtained at a depth ranging from twenty to thirty fathoms. The poorer sponges are taken from the shallow waters with harpoons, but are injured by this method of capture. The others are taken by hand. The diver descends to the bottom, and can stay there from a minute to a minute and a half, and carefully detaches the sponges from the rocks with a knife. [Illustration: SPONGE FISHING.] Sponge fishing is also carried on in other parts of the Mediterranean, but without any foresight, so that the sponges will, in time, be exhausted. To guard against this contingency, it has been proposed to transplant and acclimatize the sponges upon the coast of France and Algeria, where the composition of the water is the same as that upon the coast of Syria, and where the difference of temperature would prove no impediment to their flourishing. In fact, the farther north the sponges grow, the finer and compacter are their tissue. By use of a submarine boat, supplied with air by a force-pump, it was proposed to collect such specimens, as were best suited for the purpose, removing the rocks with them; and also to collect the young sponges, during the months of April and May, shortly after they have commenced their independent existence, and before they have anchored themselves to some permanent abode, and transport them to a favorable locality. The French Acclimatization Society, in 1862, gave a commission to M. Lamiral, who had passed years in the study of sponges, and who has published an excellent work upon their habits, to collect the germs, and transplant them to the coast of France. Though up to this time, the attempts which have been made to do this have not met with perfect success, yet the results already gained, show that with further experience, perseverance will attain its desired end. Sponges are also fished for in the Red Sea. On the Bahama Banks, and in the Gulf of Mexico, sponges are taken by Mexicans, Spaniards, and Americans, in shallow water. A mast is sunk at the side of the boat, and the diver descends this; gathering the sponges found near the bottom of the pole. Next in order of fishing in deep sea, comes coral fishing. The ancients believed that the coral was a plant, but it is now known that the coral is constructed by a family of polyps living together, and constituting a polypidom. It abounds in the waters of the Mediterranean where upon rocky beds like a submarine forest, the red coral, the most brilliant and celebrated of all coral, grows at various depths, rarely less than five fathoms, or more than one hundred. Each polypidom resembles a red leafless shrub, bearing delicate little star-shaped white flowers. The branches and trunk of this little tree, are the parts common to the family, the flowers are the individual polyps. The branches show a soft, reticulated crust, or bark, full of small holes, which are the cells of the polyps and they are permeated by a milky juice. Beneath the crust is the coral, hard as marble, and remarkable for its striped surface, its red color, and the fine polish it will take. The fishing is chiefly carried on by sailors from Genoa, Leghorn, and Naples, and is a very laborious occupation. The barks engaged in it are small, ranging from ten to fifteen tons. The coral is fished with an apparatus called an engine, consisting of cross bars of wood tied and bolted together at the centre. Below this is a large stone with nets or bags attached. Each engine has a number of these nets, and when let down into the sea, they spread out. The coral grows on the tops of the rocks, and the object is to scrape it off into these bags. By experience, the fishermen come to learn the favorable places for capturing the coral. When such a spot is reached, the engine is thrown overboard, and as soon as it reaches the bottom, the speed of the vessel is slackened, and the capstan, for hauling it up is manned. In this way the engine is dragged over the bottom, becomes entangled with the rocks, and the nets catch the coral. Sometimes rocks of large size are brought on board. [Illustration: CORAL FISHING OFF THE COAST OF SICILY.] Up to the last century the opinion of antiquity that coral was a vegetable product was accepted by all naturalists, though no one attempted an explanation how it grew. This opinion was confirmed when the Count de Marsigli announced his discovery of the flowers of the coral plant, and this announcement was considered the final proof of the vegetable origin of coral. In 1723, however, Jean André de Peyssonnel, a pupil of Marsigli's, and a student of medicine and natural history at Paris, was sent to Marseilles, his native place, by the Academy of Sciences, to study the coral in its living condition, and continued his studies on the northern coast of Africa, where he was sent by the French Government. He soon discovered, by a series of careful and delicate experiments, that the coral was an animal product, and that the supposed flowers were the expanded little animals who build up the coral, and who form one of the lowest forms in the series of organized life on the globe. Peyssonnel says: "I put the flower of the coral in vases full of sea-water, and I saw that what had been taken for a flower of this pretended plant was, in truth, only an animal, like a sea nettle or polyp, I had the pleasure of seeing the feet of the creature move about, and having put the vase full of water, which contained the coral, in a gentle heat over the fire, all the small animals seemed to expand. The polyp extended his feet, and showed what M. de Marsigli and I had taken for the petals of a flower. The calyx of this pretended flower, in short, was the animal, which advanced and issued out of his cell." This discovery was received by the naturalists of the time with contempt and ridicule; so much so that Peyssonnel, disgusted, retired into obscurity, leaving his manuscripts in the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where they still remain, unpublished. Before his death, however, in his retirement, he had the satisfaction of seeing his views accepted, and some of those who had most ridiculed them on their first presentation, become the most enthusiastic and effective advocates of them. Besides the coral fished for as we have described, the coral polyp constructs islands, and carries on labors which very materially affect the condition of the ocean and the form of the land, concerning which we will have occasion to speak else where. Another fishery which may be fitly mentioned here is the oyster fishery. There are several varieties of the oyster. Those usually eaten in France are the common oyster (_Ostrea edulis_), and the horse foot oyster (_O. hippopus_). The oysters of the Mediterranean are the rose-colored oyster (_O. rosacea_), and the milky oyster (_O. lacteola_), with the small and little known crested oyster (_O. instata_), and the folded oyster (_O. plicata_). On the Corsican coast the oysters are called foliate (_Olamleosa_). In France the Cancale and Ostend oysters are chiefly noted. When the first of these has been fed for some time in the parks or beds, and has assumed a greenish color, it is known as the Narenna oyster, from the name of the park in the Bay of Scudre. Natural oyster beds occur in every sea where the coast affords the proper conditions with a shelving and not too rocky bottom. In France the beds of Rochelle, Rochefort, the isles of Re and Oleron, the bay of St. Brieuc, Cancale and Granville are the most famous. On the Danish coast there are forty or fifty beds on the west coast of Schleswig, the best lying between the small islands of Sylt, Amzon, Fohr, Pelworm and Nordstrand. The oyster beds of England extend from Gravesend, in the estuary of the Thames and midway along the Kentish coast, and in the estuary of the Coluc and other small streams on the Essex coast. The Frith of Forth is also famous for its oyster beds. The product of these beds has diminished in recent times; according to some authorities from too improvident and persistent dredging, but Mr. Buckland attributes the decrease in the yield to sudden changes in the temperature at the critical period when the spat, or young oysters, are just formed, rather than to over-dredging. The United States is more abundantly furnished with oyster beds than any other country. They extend along almost the entire coast. Those of Virginia are estimated to comprise nearly 2,000,000 of acres. The sea-board of Georgia is famous for its immense supplies, while the whole 115 miles of Long Island is occupied with them. The oyster is one of the lowest forms of the mollusk. Its mouth opens right into its stomach, which is surrounded by its liver, permeated by a yellow liquid, the bile. It may thus be said that they have their stomach and intestine in the liver, the mouth upon the stomach and the opening of the intestine in the back. They have a heart which circulates a colorless blood. They breathe at the bottom of sea, having an organ which separates from the water the small amount of oxygen it contains. Their respiratory organs are two pair of gills, or branchiae, curved and formed by a double series of very delicate canals placed close together, resembling the teeth of a fine comb. This apparatus, like the mouth, is hidden under the fold of the mantle. They have no brain, but a ganglion of nerves, a whitish substance situated near their mouths. From this originate the nerves, which branch off to the region of the liver and stomach; here they re-unite in a second ganglion which is placed behind the liver. The nerves of the mouth and its tentacles originate in the first ganglion, those of the respiratory organs in the second. It has no sense of sight or hearing, the sense of touch is all that it has, and this resides in the tentacles of the mouth. Its taste, if it has any, must be very feeble. Its powers are most limited; imprisoned forever in its shell, it has no power of locomotion, and being without any distinction of sex, its wants or desires must be very few. Still the oyster appears to be a social animal, and loves to gather together in great numbers, so that despite their apparently low grade of intelligence, we cannot say that they have not sympathetic feelings. Uniting as they do both sexes in each individual, the oyster's organs of reproduction are visible only at the period they are in use. Their young are produced from eggs, which are produced between the folds of their mantle, and in the midst of their respiratory organs. The number of these eggs is prodigious. According to some authorities the number produced by a single oyster reaches 10,000,000. Naturalists, however, at present consider this estimate too high, and limit it at about 2,000,000 for each individual. The eggs are yellow, are hatched in the mantle, and when the embryo leaves its parent it can breathe. The spawning time is from June to September. The oyster differs from most shell-fish in that when the young leave the parent they can support themselves; ordinarily the shell-fish throw out their eggs committing them to chance for their protection. In the spawning season an oyster bed is the most interesting place; each oyster is throwing out a whole array of descendants, filling the water with a cloud of living dust, so that the sea is clouded with the _spat_ as it is called. Under the microscope the spat is seen to be provided with a shell, and with vibratory cils which enable it to swim. When the current carries it against any stationary body, it immediately adheres to it, the cils disappear and the young oyster, becoming fixed, commences to develop. It takes three years for them to attain their full size. While the spat is swimming about, before becoming fixed, it is said that if anything alarm them they seek refuge again within the maternal shell. Such prolific production would soon stock the whole sea, were it not for the fact that the young are feeble swimmers, and that millions of them are annually swept away and lost by the current, or fall a prey to the numerous animals which feed upon them. [Illustration: FAGGOTS SUSPENDED TO RECEIVE OYSTER SPAT.] The favorite place for the oyster is on the shore, in water not very deep and free from currents; here they are very prolific. The idea of breeding them is as old as the Romans, and to-day the planting of oyster beds, and fishing from them gives occupation to thousands. Some of the oyster beds of France which were nearly exhausted twenty years ago have been made again very productive by attention and care. The plan of suspending faggots upon which the spawn should adhere, has been found very successful. From the Bay of St. Brieuco two faggots, taken up at random, were found to contain about 20,000 young oysters, ranging in size from one to three inches in diameter. Their exhibition excited astonishment; they looked like leafy branches, each leaf being a living oyster. In the island of Re oyster farming is in full operation. It is calculated that the beds contain 600 oysters to the square yard, the majority of marketable condition, making a total of 378,000,000 in these beds alone. In the United States, the productiveness of the beds is almost inestimable, and yet, despite the immense number of oysters yearly brought to market, the demand continually outstrips the supply. The modern methods of canning have opened a so much wider market, the whole inland country being thus opened to the supply, it is almost impossible to overstock the market. The peculiar green color of the oysters in France, which have been planted in beds, or claries, and which is thought to make their flavor better, arises from some cause, concerning which naturalists differ. It seems, however, to be some kind of disease, arising from the condition of the water in these beds. Oyster fishing is pursued in different ways, in different countries. Around Minorca the diver descends with a hammer in his hand to knock the oysters from the rocks, and brings up generally a dozen or more with each descent. On the English and French coasts the dredge is used. This method is very destructive, since it tears the large and small together from their native spot, and buries many also in the mud. Oysters, as we know them, are of convenient size for making a mouthful; the largest may have to be separated into parts before a delicate person can swallow them, but it is only the largest which have to be submitted to this process, and your real oyster lover has too tender a regard for his favorite mollusk to so maltreat it. On the coast of Coromandel, however, the oysters grow to be as big as soup plates, and larger, the shells of some of them measuring almost two feet across. These shells are frequently used in the Catholic churches of Europe to contain the holy water, placed near the door for the use of the faithful, and are quite as large as big hand basins. A half-dozen such oysters on the half-shell, would make a feast even for the most voracious oyster eater. The oyster beds on the coast of the United States are generally in so shallow water that they can be readily reached with rakes furnished with handles fifteen to twenty feet long. A pair of these are mounted like a gigantic pair of scissors, the pivot being nearer the rakes than the other end of the poles. Taking an end of one of these poles in each hand, the fisherman sinks it to the bottom, opens it, and moves the handles until a supply of oysters is scraped up between the rakes. Then pulling up the instrument, he empties the oysters into the bottom of his boat, and uses his rakes again. Millions of dollar's worth of oysters is thus fished every year, and fleets of small sailing ships are constantly engaged in the traffic along the coast. To an European, the American oyster at first appears enormous, compared with those he is accustomed to. Their flavor also is different; they have not a peculiar coppery taste to which he is accustomed, and which most Americans in Europe dislike at first. A little practice, however, soon enables the European to recognize the merit of our oysters, and they become very fond of them. Both Thackaray and Dickens, during their visits to this country, were loud in their praises of the excellence of the oysters. [Illustration: DREDGING FOR OYSTERS.] The pearl oyster (_Meleagrina margaritifera_), is one of the most interesting and valuable of the varieties of the oyster. The pearls are formed of the same substance which lines the shells of so many shell-fish, and which as nacre, or mother of pearl, is so well known for its iridescent beauty. It is deposited by the animal in very thin layers, and it is the interference of the rays of light in their reflection from this varying surface which produces the phenomena of iridescence. It is easy for any one to satisfy himself of this. Press a piece of wax upon a piece of mother of pearl, or any other iridescent body, and the surface of the wax when removed will itself appear iridescent. It has reproduced the fine lines of the iridescent body. Soap bubbles, being formed of films of the soapy water, attain their brilliant coloring from the same cause. Brass buttons were once fashionable which showed the same colors. They were made by having the polished surface ruled with microscopically fine lines. It was, however, so costly to make them, they cost a guinea each, that they were soon abandoned. [Illustration: A SHELL CONTAINING CHINESE PEARLS.] Pearls are the secretion of nacreous material, spread, it is supposed, over some foreign substance which has been introduced into the shell, under the mantle of the mollusk. When the pearls are deposited on the shells, they generally adhere to it, when they originate in the body of the animal they are free. As a rule some foreign body is found in their centre which served as the nucleus for the deposit of the secretion. It may be a sterile egg of the animal itself, or of a fish, or a grain of sand, which was washed in. The Chinese and other nations of the East, take advantage of this fact in natural history, for purposes of profit. They take up the living mollusk, and opening the shell introduce into it glass beads, or small metallic casts, representing some one of their gods, or other objects, and then returning the mollusk to the water, in time the animal has coated them with mother of pearl. The illustration shows a shell into which small beads have been introduced, and converted into pearls, together with a dozen small figures of Buddha, the Hindoo divinity, seated, which have been covered over with nacre also. The pearls are at first very small, but they increase in size with the yearly deposit of a layer on the original centre. Sometimes they are diaphanous, semi-transparent, lustrous and more or less irridescent, at other times, however, they prove to be dull, obscure, and smoky even. The pearl fisheries are carried on in various places. They are found in the Persian Gulf, on the coast of Arabia, in Japan, on the shores of California, and in the islands of the South Sea. The most important ones are, however, those of the Bay of Bengal, the coast of Ceylon, and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. Previous to 1795 most of the Indian fisheries were in the hands of the Dutch, but in 1802, after the treaty of Amiens, they passed into the possession of the English. Sometimes the Ceylon fisheries are undertaken by the Government, while at others they are sold to a contractor. In either case, before they begin, the coast is inspected by a Government official, in order to see that the banks are not exhausted by too frequent fishing. The chief supply of mother of pearl is obtained from the fishery in the Gulf of Manaar, a large bay on the northeast of the island of Ceylon. It commences in February or March, and lasts thirty days. Some two hundred and fifty boats are engaged in it, coming for the purpose from all parts of the coast. At ten at night a gun gives the signal for them to set sail, and reaching the ground they commence as soon as the dawn affords sufficient light. Each boat carries ten rowers and ten divers, five of whom rest while the others are engaged. A negro to attend to the odd jobs and chores accompanies each boat. [Illustration: PEARL FISHER IN DANGER.] The divers descend from forty to fifty feet, seventy is the utmost they can stand. Thirty seconds is the time they usually remain under water, and the best cannot stay longer than a minute and a half. When the fishing ground is reached a staging, built of the oars, is rigged to project from the boat over the water, and to the edge of this the diving-stones are hung, weighing from fifty to sixty pounds. The diver stands in a stirrup upon this, or if this is wanting upon the stone itself, holding the cord attached to it between his toes, with his left foot he holds the net for the reception of the pearl-oysters. Then, pressing his nostrils firmly with his left hand, and with his right grasping the signal cord, he is let rapidly down to the bottom. As soon as he arrives there, he removes his foot from the stone which is immediately drawn up again. Then throwing himself flat upon the ground, he hastily gathers into his net all the oysters within his reach. When he feels he must return to the surface he pulls the signal cord with a jerk, and is pulled up as quickly as possible. A good diver seeks to avoid straining himself, and so stays under water only the shortest time, seldom more than half a minute, but he will repeat the operation sometimes as much as fifteen or twenty times. The work is very distressing, the increased pressure of the water affects the entire system, and frequently on rising to the surface the water which runs from their ears, nose and mouth is tinged with blood. The effect is also to induce pulmonary diseases, and the divers rarely attain old age. Sharks are also common in these waters, and the divers are not unfrequently destroyed by these rapacious monsters, who are the more attracted by the fact that the divers, for their own convenience, are naked. The work continues until noon, when a second gun gives notice for its cessation. The boats then return with the cargo they have gained, and are received by the proprietors on the shore, who personally superintend their discharge, which must be finished before dark, since anything left over night would most certainly be stolen. The fisheries of Ceylon were formerly very valuable, but at present the banks show signs of exhaustion, from over-fishing most probably. In 1798 they are said to have produced nearly a million dollars' worth of pearls, but now they seldom yield more than a hundred thousand dollars' worth. The inhabitants along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, the Chinese seas, and the islands of Japan, are also engaged in the pearl fishing. Together the yield is estimated at about four millions of dollars. Further west, on the Persian coast, the Arabian gulf and the Muscat shore, as well as in the Red sea, pearls are found. In these latter countries the pearl fishing commences in July, for during this and the next month the sea is usually calm. When the boats have arrived over the bed, they anchor, the water being eight or nine fathoms deep. The divers carry their bag tied around their waists, and plug their nostrils with cotton, then closing their mouths, are sunk by a stone rapidly to the bottom. The pearls obtained from the fisheries on the Arabian coast reach a value of over a million and a half of dollars. Pearl fishing is also carried on, on the coast of South America. Before the Spanish conquest of Mexico the fisheries were situated between Acapulco and the Gulf of Tehuantepec, but since that time other beds have been found near the islands of Cubagua, Margarita and Panama. The yield at first was so promising that flourishing cities grew up in the vicinity of these places, and during the reign of Charles V., pearls to the value of nearly a million of dollars were sent to Spain, but the present yield averages only about three hundred thousand dollars. When the oysters are taken from the boats, they are piled up on grass mats on the shore, and left in the sun. The mollusks soon die, and begin to decompose. In about ten days they are sufficiently putrified to become soft. Then they are thrown into tanks of sea water, opened and washed. The pearls which adhere to the shells are taken off with pinchers; those that are in the body of the animal are secured by passing its substance through a sieve, after boiling the flesh to make it soft. The shells furnish the nacre, which is split off from the rough outside with a sharp instrument, or the outside is dissolved from the mother of pearl by an acid. Three kinds of mother of pearl are known in commerce, as silver face, bastard white and bastard black; the first is the most valuable. The pearls are the most important part of the product. Those which adhere to the shell are always more or less irregular in their shape, and are sold by weight. They are called _baroques_. Those found in the body of the animal are called _virgin pearls_, or _paragons_, and are round, oval or pyramid shaped. These are sold generally singly; the price varying according to size, lustre, clearness, etc. Months after the shells have been examined, poor natives are seen diligently turning over the putrifying mass which has been cast aside, eagerly searching for some pearl that has been overlooked; as in our cities the ashes, barrels and gutters are searched by the same wretched class for the refuse of luxury. The pearls are polished by shaking them together in a bag with nacre powder. By this process they are smoothed and polished. Then they are assorted according to sizes by being passed through a series of copper sieves, placed over each other, and pierced with an increasing number of holes, growing smaller. Thus, sieve number twenty has twenty holes in it; fifty, fifty holes, and the last of the series of twelve, one thousand holes. The pearls retained between twenty and eighty are called mill, and are considered to be of the first order. Those between one hundred and eight hundred are vivadoe, and class second. Those which pass through all but the thousand are tool, or seed pearls, and are third. The seed pearls are sold by measure or weight. The larger ones are drilled, strung on a white or blue silk thread, and exposed for sale. In the American fisheries the oysters are opened each separately with a knife, and the animal is pressed between the thumb and finger in the search for pearls. This process takes longer, and is not considered as certain to find them all as that followed in the East, but the nacre and the pearls thus taken from the live animal are fresher and more brilliant than from those oysters which have died and decayed. Other mollusks also furnish pearls, but not in a regular enough supply to justify their fishing. In fact pearls are often found in our common oysters. [Illustration: SHARK FISHING.] Fishing for sharks is one of the most exciting kinds of sport, and has the further merit that its success is the destruction of the most destructive inhabitant of the sea; a predatory robber, who spares none that come in his way. The prey in which the shark most delights is, however, man himself. He even manifests, according to some authorities, a preference for Europeans over the Asiatic or the Negro races. A shark who has once enjoyed the luxury of human flesh is said to haunt the neighborhood where he obtained it. He follows a ship from some instinctive feeling, and has been known to leap into a fisherman's boat, or throw himself against a ship in an effort to reach a sailor who had shown himself over the bulwarks. The slave ships during their voyages were constantly followed by sharks, who battled eagerly for the corpses of the unhappy dead which were thrown overboard. In one case it is recorded that a corpse was hung from the yard arm, dangling twenty feet above the water, and was devoured, limb by limb, by a shark, who leaped that distance from the water to obtain his horrid repast. On the African coast the negroes boldly attack the shark in his own element. As his mouth is placed under his head, he has to turn round before he can seize anything, and taking advantage of this, the negro seizes the opportunity to rip him up with a sharp knife. Shark fishing is regularly followed off the coast of Nantucket, for their skins and the oil they furnish. The skins are used for various purposes in the arts. In Norway and Iceland portions of the flesh are dried, and serve as provision for the food of winter. The persistancy with which a shark will follow a vessel at sea leads to their frequently being caught. The hook is of iron, as thick as a man's finger, and six or eight inches long, the point made very sharp. It is fastened with a chain five or six feet long, to prevent the shark's teeth from severing it. Baited with a good sized piece of pork, and fastened to a long line, it is thrown over. Sometimes in his eagerness to catch it the shark will jump from the water, but oftener, having probably learned from experience something about the tricks of men, he is more cautious in taking it. Often he will examine it, swim round it, and manage to get it, without taking the hook also, as often as it is offered to him rebaited. If he, however, swallows the hook with the bait, it still requires some dexterity to catch him; the line must not be jerked prematurely; he must be given time enough to swallow it well, then a good jerk fixes the point of the hook, and the sport commences for everybody but the shark. In hauling him in it is not safe to trust only to the hook; his struggles are so violent and his strength is so great that he may break away. Being hauled therefore to the surface, the next thing is to get the noose of another rope round his body near the tail, or round one of his pectoral fins. This done he may be safely hauled on board, but even then he cannot be approached without danger, since a blow from his tail may prove fatal. In catching sharks off the coast of Nantucket, in smacks, the fishermen haul them to the surface at the side of the boat, and then kill them with blows on the head before taking them on board. [Illustration: CUTTLE FISH MAKING HIS CLOUD.] Among the monsters of the deep, none is more terrific in appearance than the cuttle fish. Terrible stories have been told of the magnitude of these sea monsters. Under the name of the Kraken marvelous tales were told of its destruction of ships, one of them, it being said, embracing a three-masted ship in its gigantic arms. Our illustration, however, shows a well authenticated case of the capture of an enormous cuttle fish. An account of the capture was made to the French Academy of Sciences by Lieutenant Bayer, the commander of the French corvette Alecton, who made the capture, and M. Sabin Berthelot, the French Consul at the Canary Islands. While on her course between Teneriffe and Madeira, the Alecton fell in with a large cuttle fish measuring about fifty feet in length, without counting its eight arms, covered with suckers. Its head, its largest part, measured about twenty feet in circumference: its tail consisted of two fleshy lobes or fins. Its weight was estimated at 4,000 pounds. Its color was brickish red, and its flesh was soft and glutinous. The shots which were fired at it passed through it without apparently producing any injury. After it was thus wounded, however, the sea was observed to be covered with foam and blood, and a strong odor of musk was smelt. Harpoons were also cast into it, but they took no hold. Finally, however, one of the harpoons stuck fast, and the sailors succeeded in getting a running noose round the lower part of its body, near the tail. On attempting to haul it on board, the rope cut it in two, the head part disappearing and the tail portion being brought on deck. [Illustration: IDEAL SCENE.--MONSTERS OF THE GREAT DEEP BEFORE THE DELUGE.] It is supposed that the animal was either sick, or exhausted from some cause, possibly a recent struggle with some other marine monster, and that on this account it had left its usual haunts on the rocks at the bottom of the sea, since otherwise it would have been more active than it was, or would have discharged the inky cloud, which the cuttle fish has always at its disposal for avoiding its enemies. [Illustration: RED CORAL.] [Illustration: DREDGING.] CHAPTER LVI. DREDGING IN MODERN TIMES--WHAT IT HAS TAUGHT US--DEEP SEA SOUNDINGS--FIRST ATTEMPTS--IMPLEMENTS USED FOR IT--THE CHANCE FOR INVENTORS. In modern times we have learned a great deal more of the ocean than the ancients knew, from dredging. By this means we have become acquainted not only with the outline of the bottom, but have also become acquainted with the temperature of deep seas, with the varied forms of animal and vegetable life which are present there, and have come to know, with far greater certainty and completeness than ever before, the part which the ocean has played and is still playing in the preparation of the land. By sounding, the ancients, of course, knew the depths of the shallow waters along their coasts. It would be the most natural thing for a sailor to tie a stone to a string, and let it down into the water, when he wanted to know whether it was deep enough to float his vessel, and the same means would also be used to discover whether there were any sunken rocks in such harbors as he was frequenting. But the ocean, to all antiquity, was unfathomable; they dared not attempt to cross it, and of course did not think they could measure its depth. Long after the ocean had been crossed by ships the belief was still current that it was impossible to measure its depth, and this belief was made the stronger by the unsuccessful attempts made in mid ocean to obtain soundings with the ordinary lead and line. Before we arrived at a positive knowledge of the depth of the ocean, scientific men attempted to calculate it by various methods. Laplace, calculating the mean elevation of the land, supposed the sea must be of about equal depth. Young, drawing his deductions from the tides, calculated the depth of the sea. This method has been recently used to calculate the depth of the Pacific. A wave of a certain velocity indicates water of such a depth. In the case of the earthquake of 1854, in Japan, which caused a wave that extended to California, the rate of its progress afforded an indication of the mean depth of the sea it passed over, and authentic soundings taken since have confirmed the general accuracy of the calculation. The ordinary lead used for soundings is a pyramid of lead, the bottom of which has a depression in it, which is filled with tallow; on striking the bottom a little of the sand or mud adheres to this tallow and is brought up to the surface. In this way something is learned about the depth and bottom of the sea, but not enough to satisfy the naturalists, who inquired whether it might not be possible to dredge the bottom of the sea in the ordinary way, and to send down water bottles and registering instruments to settle finally the conditions of the deep waters, and determine with precision the composition and temperature at great depths. An investigation of this kind is beyond the powers of private enterprise. It requires more power and sea skill than naturalists usually have. It is a work for governments. That of the United States has contributed fully its share. The coast survey has added a great deal to our knowledge of the deep sea, and the ships of the navy took part in the soundings by which the existence of the plateau across the bed of the North Atlantic, which has been used for the ocean telegraphic cable, was proved. In 1868 the English government provided the vessels and crews for the purpose of conducting deep sea dredgings, under the direction of Dr. Carpenter and Mr. Wyville Thompson. These expeditions have found that it is quite possible to work with certainty, though not with such ease, at the depth of 600 fathoms, as at a depth of 100; and in 1869 it carried on deep sea dredging at a depth of 2,435 fathoms, 14,610 feet, or very nearly three miles, with perfect success. Dredging in such deep water is very trying. Each haul occupied seven or eight hours, and during the whole of this time the constant attention of the commander was necessary, who stood with his hand on the regulator of the accumulator, ready at any moment to ease an undue strain, by a turn of the ship's paddles. The men, stimulated and encouraged by the cordial interest taken by the officers in the operations, worked with a willing spirit; but the labor of taking up three miles of rope, coming up with a heavy strain, was very severe. The rope itself, of the very best Italian hemp, 2 1/2 inches in circumference, with a breaking strain of 2 1/4 tons, looked frayed out and worn, as if it could not have been trusted to stand such an extraordinary ordeal much longer. The ordinary deep sea lead used for soundings weighs from 80 to 120 pounds. The samples of the bottom which it brings up are marked upon the charts as mud, shells, gravel, ooze or sand, thus 2,000 m. sh. s. means mud, shells and sand at 2,000 fathoms; 2,050 oz. st. means ooze and stones at 2,050 fathoms; 2,200 m. s. sh. sc. means mud, sand, shells, and scoriæ, at 2,200 fathoms, and so on. When no bottom is found with the lead it is entered on the chart thus:----3,200, meaning no bottom was reached at that depth. This method of sounding answers very well for comparatively shallow water, but it is useless for depths much over 1,000 fathoms, or six thousand feet. The weight is not sufficient to carry the line rapidly and vertically to the bottom; and if a heavier weight is used, the ordinary sounding line is not strong enough to draw up its own weight, and that of the lead from a great depth, and so breaks. No impulse is felt when the lead touches the bottom, and so the line continues running out, and any attempt to stop it breaks it. In some cases the slack of the line is carried along by currents, and in others it is found that the line has been running out by its own weight and coiling in a tangled mass on top of the lead. These sources of error vitiate the results of very deep soundings. Thus Lieutenant Walsh, of the U.S. schooner Taney, reported 34,000 feet without touching bottom; and the U.S. brig Dolphin used a line 39,000 feet long without reaching bottom. An English ship reported 46,000 feet in the South Atlantic and the U.S. ship Congress 50,000 feet without touching bottom. These are, however, known to be errors, so that no soundings are entered on charts over 4,000 feet, and few over 3,000. The U.S. Navy introduced the first great improvement in deep soundings. This consisted in using a heavy weight and a small line. The weight, a 32 or 68-pound shot, was rapidly run down, and when it touched bottom, which was shown by the sudden change in the rapidity with which the line was run out, the line was cut and the depth estimated from the length of cord remaining on the reel. This, however, cost the loss of the shot and the line for each sounding. One of the first attempts at deep sea dredging was made in 1818, by Sir John Ross, in command of the English navy vessel Isabella, on a voyage for the exploration of Baffin's Bay with a machine of his own invention, which he called a "deep sea clamm." It consisted of a pair of forceps, kept apart by a bolt, and so contrived that when the bolt struck the ground a heavy iron weight slipped down a spindle and closed the forceps, which retained a portion of the mud, sand, or small stones, from the bottom. With this instrument he sounded in 1,050 fathoms, and brought up six pounds of very soft mud, using a whale line, made of the best hemp, and measuring 2 1/2 inches in circumference. The cup lead is another invention. With this there is a pointed cup at the bottom of the lead, fastened to it with a rod upon which a circular plate of leather plays, serving as a cover to the cup. As it strikes the bottom, the cup is driven in the mud, and on hauling up the cover is pressed into the cup by the water, and brings up the mud it contains. The objection to this is that it is too crude; in its passage up, the water washes away the mud, so that only on an average of once in three times does the cup come up with anything in it; and deep sea soundings take too much time, and are too valuable, to admit so large an average of loss. About 1854 Mr. J. M. Brooke, of the U.S. Navy, who was at the time associated with Prof. Maury, so well known for his labor in gathering and diffusing a knowledge of the currents of the ocean, invented a deep sea sounding apparatus, which is known by his name. It is still in use, and all the more recent contrivances have been, to a great extent, only modifications and improvements upon the original idea, that of detatching the weight. The instrument is very simple. A 64-pound shot is cast with a hole in it. An iron rod, with a cavity in its end, fits loosely in the hole in the shot. Two movable arms at the top of the rod are furnished with eyes holding ends of a sling in which the ball hangs. The cavity at the end of the rod is furnished with tallow, and the apparatus is let down. On reaching the bottom, the rod is forced into the mud, the cavity becomes filled with it, and there being no more tension, on the rope holding up the movable arms, they fall, disengage the ends of the sling, and allow the ball to slide down the rod. The rod is then withdrawn, carrying up the portion of the bottom secured in the cavity at its foot, and leaving the ball on the bottom. This apparatus costs a ball each time it is used, and brings up but a small portion of the bottom, which is also apt to be diminished on its way to the top, by the water it passes through. [Illustration: STRIKING THE SEA BOTTOM. BROOK'S DEEP SEA SOUNDING APPARATUS.] Commander Dayman, of the English Navy, in 1857 invented an improvement upon Mr. Brooke's original invention. He used iron wire braces to support the sinker, as these detach more easily than slings of rope. The shot he replaced by a cylinder of lead, as offering less surface to the water in its descent, and he fitted the cavity in the bottom of the rod with a valve opening inward. Commander Dayman used the apparatus, with these modifications, in the important series of soundings he made in the North Atlantic, while engaged in surveying the plateau for the ocean telegraphic cable, and reports that it worked well. [Illustration: THE BULLDOG SOUNDING MACHINE.] The apparatus known as the bull-dog machine is an adaptation of Sir John Ross' deep-sea clamms, together with Brooke's idea of disengaging the weight. It was invented during the cruise of the English Navy vessel, the Bull-dog, in 1860, and the chief credit for it belongs to the assistant engineer during that cruise, Mr. Steil. A pair of scoops are hinged together like a pair of scissors, the handles represented by B. These are permanently fastened to the sounding rope, F, which is here represented as hanging loose, by the spindle of the scoops. Attached to this spindle is the rope, D, ending in a ring. E represents a pair of tumbler hooks, like those used so generally. C is a heavy weight, of iron or lead, hollow, with a hole large enough for the ring upon D to pass through. B is an elastic ring of India rubber, fitted to the handles of the scoops, and designed to shut them together as soon as the weight, C, which now holds them apart, is removed. When the bottom is reached, the scoops, open, are driven into the ground, the tension on the rope ceases, the tumbler hooks open and release the weight, which falls on its side, and allows the elastic ring to shut the scoops, inclosing a portion of the bottom in which they have been forced. The trouble with this apparatus is its complicated character; pebbles may get in the hinge and prevent the scoops from closing. In all apparatus to be used for such a purpose the greater the simplicity the better, and an invention, which shall at once be simple and effective, capable of bringing up a pound or two from the bottom at a depth of 2,000 fathoms or more, without fail, and without too much trouble, is still a desideratum, and its invention is well worth the attention of the ingenious. Another arrangement, called the Hydra sounding machine, is intended to bring up portions of the bottom and water from the lowest strata reached. It consists of a strong brass tube, which unscrews into four chambers, closed with valves, opening upward, so that in the descent the water passes through them, freely; but when it is commenced to haul up, the pressure of the water closes the valves. This apparatus is also furnished with weights to sink it, which are released, on reaching the bottom, by a similar method to those described. This instrument was used during the deep sea sounding cruise of the Porcupine, and never once failed. Its faults are its complication, and that it brings up only small samples of the bottom. Captain Calver, who used it, could always, when at the greatest depths, distinctly feel the shock of the arrest of the weight upon the bottom communicated to his hand. [Illustration: MASSEY'S SOUNDING MACHINE.] Various attempts have been made to construct instruments which should accurately determine the amount of the vertical descent of the lead by self-registering machinery. The most successful and the one most commonly used is Massey's sounding machine. This instrument, in its most improved form, is shown in the accompanying cut. It consists of a heavy oval brass shield, furnished with a ring at each end of its longer axis. To one of these a sounding rope is attached, and to the other, the weight is fastened at about a half fathom below the shield. A set of four brass wings or vanes are set obliquely to an axis, so that, like a windmill or propeller wheels, it shall turn by the force of the water as it descends. This axis communicates its motion to the indicator, which marks the number of revolutions on the dial plate. One of these dials marks every fathom, and the other every fifteen fathoms of descent. This sounding machine answers very well in moderately deep water, and is very valuable for correcting soundings by the lead alone, where deep currents are suspected, as it is designed to register vertical descent alone. In very deep water it is not satisfactory, from some reason which it is difficult to determine. The most probable explanation is that it shares the uncertainty inherent in all instruments using metal wheel work. Their machinery seems to get jammed in some way, under the enormous pressure of the water, at great depths. To ascertain the surface temperature of the water of the sea is simple enough. A bucket of water is drawn up, and a thermometer is placed in it. With an observation of this kind the height of the thermometer in the air should be always noted. Until very recently, however, very little or nothing was known with any certainty about the temperature of the sea at depths below the surface. Yet this is a field of inquiry of very great importance in physical geography, since an accurate determination of the temperature at different depths is certainly the best, and frequently the only means, for determining the depth, the width, the direction and general path of the warm ocean currents, which are the chief agents in diffusing the equatorial heat; and more especially of those deeper currents of cold water which return from the poles to supply their places, and complete the watery circulation of the globe. The main cause of this want of accurate knowledge of deep sea temperatures is undoubtedly the defective character of the instruments which have been hitherto employed. The thermometer which has been generally used for making observations on the temperature of deep water is that known as Six's self-regulating thermometer, inclosed in a strong copper case, with valves or apertures above and below, to allow a free passage of the water through the case and over the face of the instrument. This registering thermometer, consists of a glass tube, bent in the form of a U. One arm terminates in a large bulb, entirely filled with a mixture of creosote and water. The bend in the tube contains a column of mercury, and the other arm ends in a small bulb, partly filled with creosote and water, but with a large space empty, or rather filled with the vapor of the mixture and compressed air. A small steel index with a hair tied round it, so as to act like a spring against the side of the tube, and keep the index at any point it may assume, lies free in either arm, among the creosote, floating on the mercury. This thermometer gives its indications only from the expansions and contractions of the liquid in the large full bulb, and consequently is liable to some slight error, from the variations of temperature upon the liquids in other parts of the tube. When the liquid in the large bulb expands, the column of mercury is driven upward toward the half-empty bulb, and the limb of the tube in which it rises is graduated from below, upward, for increasing heat. When the liquid contracts in the bulb, the mercury rises in this arm of the tube, which is graduated from above downward, but falls in the other arm. When the thermometer is going to be used, the steel indices are drawn down in each limb of the tube, by a strong magnet, till they rest, in each arm, upon the surface of the mercury. When the thermometer is drawn up from deep water, the height at which the lower end of the index stands in each tube indicates the limit to which the index has been driven by the mercury, the extreme of heat or cold to which the instrument has been exposed. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the ordinary Six's thermometer cannot be depended upon beyond a very limited depth, for the glass bulb which contains the expanding fluid yields to the pressure of the water, and compressing the contained fluid, gives an indication higher than is due to temperature alone. This cause of error is not constant, since the amount to which the bulb is compressed depends upon the thickness and quality of the glass. Yet, as in thoroughly well-made thermometers, the error from pressure is pretty constant, it has been proposed to make a scale, from an extended series of observations, which might be used to correct the observations, and thus closely approximate the truth. A better plan has been proposed, and being practically applied, has been found to work very well. This consists in incasing the full bulb in an outer covering of glass, so that there shall be a coating of air between the bulb and the outside coating, and that this air being compressed by the pressure of the water outside, shall thus protect the inside bulb. Observations taken in 1869 with thermometers constructed in this way, as deep as 2,435 fathoms, in no instance gave the least reason to doubt their accuracy. A modification of the metallic thermometer, invented by Mr. Joseph Saxton, of the United States office of weights and measures, for the use of the coast survey, may be thus described. A ribbon of platinum and one of silver are soldered with silver solder to an intermediate plate of gold, and this compound ribbon is coiled round a central axis of brass, with the silver inside. Silver is the most expansible of the metals under the influence of heat, and platinum nearly the least. Gold holds an intermediate place, and its intervention between the platinum and silver moderates the strain and prevents the coil from cracking. The lower end of the coil is fixed to the brazen axis, while the upper end is fastened to the base of a short cylinder. Any variation of temperature causes the coil to wind or unwind and its motion rotates the axial stem. This motion is increased by multiplying wheels, and is registered upon the dial of the instrument by an index, which pushes before it a registering hand, moving with sufficient friction to retain its place, when pushed forward. The instrument is graduated by experiment. The brass and silver parts are thickly gilt by the electrotype process, so as to prevent their being acted upon by the salt water. The box in which the instrument is protected is open to admit the free passage of the water. This instrument seems to answer very well for moderate depths. Up to six hundred fathoms its error does not exceed a half degree, centigrade; at 1,500 fathoms it rises however to five degrees, quite as much as an unprotected Six thermometer, and the error is not so constant. Instruments which depend for their accuracy upon the working of metal machinery cannot be depended upon when subjected to the great pressure of deep soundings. For taking bottom temperatures at great depths, two or more of the thermometers are lashed to the sounding line at a little distance from each other, a few feet above the sounding instrument. The lead is rapidly run down, and after the bottom is reached an interval of five or ten minutes is allowed before hauling in. In taking serial temperature soundings, which are to determine the temperature at certain intervals of depth the thermometers are lashed to an ordinary deep sea lead, the required quantity of line for each observation of the series ran out, and the thermometers and lead are hove each time. The operation is very tedious; a series of such observations in the Bay of Biscay, where the depth was 850 fathoms and the temperature taken for every fifty fathoms, occupied a whole day. In taking bottom temperatures with a self-registering thermometer, the instrument of course simply indicates the lowest temperature to which it has been subjected, so that if the bottom stratum is warmer than any other through which the thermometer has passed, the result would be erroneous. This is only to be tested by serial observations; but from these it appears, wherever they have been made, that the temperature sinks gradually, sometimes very steadily, sometimes irregularly from the surface to the bottom, the bottom water being always the coldest. Several important facts of very general application in physical geography have been settled by the deep sea temperature soundings which have been recently made, and the theories formerly held on this subject shown to be erroneous. It has been shown that in nature, as in the experiments of M. Despretz, sea water does not share in the peculiarities of fresh water, which, as has been long known, attains its maximum density at four degrees, centigrade; but like most other liquids increases in density to its freezing point; and it has also been shown that, owing to the movement of great bodies of water at different temperatures in different directions, we may have in close proximity two ocean areas with totally different bottom climates, a fact which, taken along with the discovery of abundant animal life at all depths, has most important bearings upon the distribution of marine life, and upon the interpretation of palaeontological data. Mr. Wyville Thompson, who conducted the series of important deep sea soundings undertaken in the Porcupine, says very truly, "It had a strange interest to see these little instruments, upon whose construction so much skilled labor and consideration had been lavished, consigned to their long and hazardous journey, and their return eagerly watched for by a knot of thoughtful men, standing, note-book in hand, ready to register this first message, which should throw so much light upon the physical conditions of a hitherto unknown world." Up to the middle of the last century the little that was known of the inhabitants of the bottom of the sea beyond low water mark, appears to have been gathered almost entirely from the few objects thrown up on the beaches after storms or from chance specimens brought up on sounding lines, or by fishermen engaged in sea fishing or dredging for oysters. From this last source, however, it was almost impossible to obtain specimens, since the fishermen were superstitious concerning bringing home anything but the regular objects of their industry, and from a fear that the singular things which sometimes they drew up might be devils in disguise, with possibly the power to injure the success of their business, threw them again, as soon as caught, back into the sea. Such superstitions are dying out, and in fact so singular are many of the animals hid in the depths of the sea; their forms and general air are so different from anything which the fishermen were used to see, that we can hardly wonder at the fear they excited. When, however, the attention of naturalists was turned toward the sea, they used the dredge such as was used by the oyster fishermen, and all the dredges now in use are simply modifications of this. The dredge for deep sea operations is made with two scrapers, so that it shall always present a scraping surface to the bottom, however it may fall. The iron work should be of the very best, and weighing about twenty pounds. The bag is about two feet deep, and is a hand-made net of very strong twine, the meshes half an inch to the side. As so open a net-work would let many small things through, the bottom of the bag, to the height of about nine inches, is lined with a light open kind of canvas, called by the sailors "bread-bag." Raw hides have been used for making the dredge bag, but, though very strong, they are apt to become too much so to another sense than touch. It is bad economy to use too light a rope in such operations, and best to fasten it to only one arm of the dredge, the eyes of the two arms being tied together with a thinner cord. In case, then, the dredge becomes entangled at the bottom, this cord will break first, and thus releasing one of the arms of the dredge, may so change the direction of the strain upon the rope as to free the dredge itself. Dredging in deep water, that is, at depths beyond 200 fathoms, is a matter of some difficulty, and can hardly be done with the ordinary machinery at the disposal of amateurs. The description of the apparatus used in the Porcupine, in 1869 and '70, on her dredging cruise in the Bay of Biscay, will show what is necessary. These arrangements are also shown in the cut. This vessel, a gun-boat of the English navy, of 382 tons, was fitted out specially for this work. Amidships she was furnished with a double cylinder donkey-engine, of about twelve horse-power, with drums of various sizes, large and small. The large drum was generally used, except when the cord was too heavy, and brought up the rope at a uniform rate of more than a foot a second. A powerful derrick projected over the port bow, and another, not so strong, over the stern. Either of these was used for dredging, but the one at the stern was generally used for soundings. The arrangement for stowing away the dredge rope was such as made its manipulation singularly easy, notwithstanding its great weight, about 5,500 pounds. A row of some twenty large pins of iron, about two feet and a half long, projected over one side of the quarterdeck, rising obliquely from the top of the bulwark. Each of these held a coil of from two to three hundred fathoms, and the rope was coiled continuously along the whole row. When the dredge was going down, the rope was taken rapidly by the men from these pins in succession, beginning from the one nearest the dredging derrick, and in hauling up a relay of men carried the rope from the drum of the donkey-engine and laid it in coils on the pins, in reverse order. The length of the dredge rope was 3,000 fathoms, nearly three and a half miles. Of this, 2,000 fathoms were hawser-laid, of the best Russian hemp, 2 1/2 inches in circumference, with a breaking strain of 2 1/4 tons. The 1,000 fathoms next the dredge were hawser laid, 2 inches in circumference. Russia hemp seems to be the best material for such a purpose. Manilla is considerably stronger for a steady pull, but is more likely to break at a kink. [Illustration: THE STERN OF THE PORCUPINE.] The frame of the largest dredge used weighed 225 pounds. The bag was double, the outside of strong twine netting, lined with canvass. Three sinkers, one of 100 pounds, and two of 56 pounds each, were attached to the dredge rope at 500 fathoms from the dredge. A description of the sounding made in the Bay of Biscay on the 22d of July, 1869, will give an idea of the process. When the depth had been ascertained, the dredge was let go about 4:45 p.m., the vessel drifting slowly before a moderate breeze. At 5:50 p.m. the whole 3,000 fathoms of rope were out. While the dredge is going down the vessel drifts gradually to leeward; and when the whole 3,000 fathoms of rope are out, she has moved so as to make the line from the dredge slant. The vessel now steams slowly to windward, and is then allowed to drift again before the wind. The tension of the vessel's motion, thus instead of acting immediately on the dredge, now drags forward the weight, so that the dredging is carried on from the weight and not directly from the vessel The dredge is thus quietly pulled along, with the lip scraping the bottom, in the position it naturally assumes from the center of weight of its iron frame and arms. If, on the contrary, the weights were hung close to the dredge, and the dredge was dragged directly from the vessel, owing to the great weight and spring of the rope the arms would be continually lifted up, and the lip of the dredge be prevented from scraping. In very deep water this operation of steaming up to windward until the dredge rope is nearly perpendicular, after drifting for half an hour or so to leeward, is usually repeated three or four times. At 8:50 p.m. hauling-in is commenced, and the donkey-engine delivers the rope at a little more than a foot a second. A few moments before 1 o'clock in the morning the weights appear, and a little after one, eight hours after it was cast, the dredge appears and is safely landed on deck, having in the meantime made a journey of over eight miles. The dredge, as the result of this haul, contained 1 1/2 hundred weight of characteristic pale grey Atlantic ooze. The total weight brought up by the engine was as follows: 2,000 fathoms of rope, 4,000 1,000 " " 1,500 ----- 5,500 Weight of rope reduced to 1/4 in water 1,375 Dredge and bag 275 Ooze 168 Weight attached 224 ----- 2,042 pounds. In many of the dredgings at all depths it was found that while few objects of interest were brought up within the dredge, many echinoderms, corals and sponges came to the surface sticking to the outside of the dredge bag, and even to the first few fathoms of the rope. The experiment was therefore tried of fastening to a rod attached to the bottom of the dredge bag, a half dozen swabs, such bundles of hemp as are used on ship-board for washing the decks. The result was marvelous; the tangled hemp brought up everything rough and movable that came in its way, and swept the bottom of the ocean as it would have swept the deck. So successful was this experiment, that the hempen tangles are now regarded as an essential adjunct to the dredge, and nearly as important as the dredge itself, and when the ground is too rough for using the dredge, the tangles alone are used. The mollusca have the best chance of being caught in the dredge; their shells are comparatively small bodies mixed with the stones on the bottom, and they enter the dredge with these. Echinoderms, corals and sponges, on the contrary, are bulky objects, and are frequently partially buried in the mud, or more or less firmly attached, so that the dredge generally misses them. With the tangles it is the reverse, the smooth heavy shells are rarely brought up, while the tangles are frequently loaded with specimens; on one occasion not less than 20,000 examples came up on the tangles in a single haul. In the Porcupine both derricks were furnished with accumulators, which were found of great value. The block through which the sounding line or dredging rope passed was not attached directly to the derrick, but to a rope which passed through an eye at the end of the spar, and was fixed to a bitt on the deck. On a bight of this rope, between the block and the bitt, the accumulator was lashed. This consists of thirty or forty, or more, vulcanized india-rubber springs, fastened together at the two extremities, and kept free from each other by being passed through holes in two wooden ends like barrel heads. The loop of the rope is made long enough to permit the accumulator to stretch to double or treble its length, but it is arrested far within its breaking point. The accumulator is valuable in the first place as indicating roughly the amount of strain upon the line; and in order that it may do so with some degree of accuracy it is so arranged as to play along the derrick, which is graduated, from trial, to the number of hundred weights of strain indicated by the greater or less extension of the accumulator; but its more important function is to take off the suddenness of the strain on the line when the vessel is pitching. The friction of one or two miles of cord in the water is so great as to prevent its yielding to a sudden jerk, such as is given to the attached end when the vessel rises to a sea, and the line is apt to snap. The results which have been gained by deep sea dredging are so important that the English Government recently fitted out another vessel, the Challenger, for such a cruise, with every appliance. This vessel is now due in New York. [Illustration: AQUARIUM.] [Illustration] CHAPTER LVII THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHIP BUILDING--NEW MODELS FOR SHIPS--STEAM SHIP NAVIGATION--MONITORS--IRON-PLATED FRIGATES--TIN CLADS--RAMS--TORPEDO BOATS--THEIR USE IN THE CONFEDERACY--LIFE RAFTS--YACHT BUILDING--OCEAN YACHT RACE--THE COST OF A YACHT. From the oars, which were the only means of propulsion used in the galleys of antiquity, to the sails of a subsequent period, by which only favoring winds could be made use of, the advance was great, but not as great as the discovery of steam, by which in modern times the sea is traversed with but little regard for the condition of the wind. To suit the different means used for the propulsion of these vessels, modifications have been made in the manner of their construction, in their form, and with sailing ships in the arrangement of sails. When, with the successful termination of the war of the Revolution, the United States first took its place in the world as an independent nation, the commercial activity which was the natural result of the greater political freedom resulting from the issue of that contest, found its expression first in our commerce; and the self-reliance, which is the inevitable result of liberty; the spirit of inquiry fostered by a departure from old methods, and the abandonment of old traditions, were displayed in the construction, the rig and the general air of the vessels then built, as much as in the construction of the political organization of the new republic. So much was this the case that American vessels became known the world over for their trim and neat appearance. The blunt, rounded prows and heavy sterns of the English or Dutch vessels were replaced by American models, sharp, nothing superfluous, and riding the waters as easy as a bird. The American clipper ships became renowned for their quick passages, and in transporting teas from China made fortunes for their happy owners, by bringing to the markets the first cargoes of the new crops. The same thing occurred when steam-vessels first began to cross the ocean. The English in their first steamers followed the models of their largest sailing ships. They still preserved the heavy bowsprit, projecting twenty to thirty feet in advance of the prow, though it was not necessary, as in their sailing ships, for balancing the pressure of the other sails. Their steamers were therefore always heavy at the head, and when, in a rough sea, they were driven by the power of the engine, buried their bows in every large wave. Any one who has crossed the Atlantic in an English steamer of twenty years ago, must have noticed how heavily it labored in rough weather, and how the waves broke over her bow. To take in tons of salt water when the waves ran high, was usual; and in a passage across the Atlantic it was no rare thing to have the salt encrusted on the smoke-stack, from the waves which dashed over the bow and swept aft, reach a thickness of from one to two inches. [Illustration: PENNSYLVANIA AND OHIO ON THE STOCKS.] The American ship-builder, however, early saw that the model of his craft, which was to be propelled by steam, should differ from that of a ship depending upon its sails alone, and governed himself accordingly. He made her sharp, for speed, and ended her prow straight up and down, as he built the steamboats for river navigation. The consequence was that she rode dry through waves which would pour tons of salt water upon the deck of an English model. George Steers, of New York, a genius in naval architecture, and whose early death was deeply regretted, was the person who did the most to bring into use the present form used in the best models for ocean steamers. One of his first steamers, the Adriatic, built for the Collins line, excited great attention in Liverpool, when she first appeared there. The London _Times_ spoke of her in leading articles, calling upon the English ship-builders to contrast her with ships of their own construction. It spoke of how she glided up the Mersey, making hardly a ripple from her bows, so evenly and quietly she parted the water, while an English steamer of her size so disturbed the stream as to bring up the mud from the bottom. The _Times_ was also specially struck with the ease with which she was handled, turning almost in her length, while for an English steamer turning was an operation requiring so much more space, and making so much more disturbance in the water. From that time to this the English have followed the American models in the construction and equipment of their steamers, and their example has been imitated by most other nations. The latest specimens of American ship building are shown in the cut representing the Pennsylvania and Ohio on the stocks. These vessels are the pioneers of the new line between Philadelphia and Liverpool. Nor is this the only change which naval architecture has undergone. The material for ship-building, especially for sea going steamers, has in modern times come to be chiefly iron. Livingstone, in his book of travels in Africa, tells how, when he was putting together on the banks of one of the rivers there the pieces of a small iron steamer which had been sent out to him from England, the natives gathered round, and inspecting the work going on, jeered at him for thinking that a boat built of such a material would float. Their whole experience with iron was that it would sink. When, however, the steamer was completed and launched, they could hardly express their astonishment at finding that she floated. Though every school-boy, from his text-books on natural philosophy, can explain the reasons why a ship built of iron will float, yet our ancestors would have considered, a proposition to construct a ship from this material very much as the native Africans did. Even in the construction of wooden ships, iron enters now much more than it did formerly. The knees, or bent oak beams, by which the form of the ship was made, have become so scarce and dear that they are now frequently made of iron. It takes so long for an oak tree to grow, and the demand was so great for limbs of such a natural bend as could be used for ship-building, that even before the use of iron for such portions of a ship, the process was in frequent use of bending the beams, or knees, by steaming then and then subjecting them to great pressure. Iron as a material for ships has some very great and material advantages. It is on the whole lighter, so that an iron ship weighs less, absolutely, than a wooden one of the same size. Then as the knees and other timbers take up less space when made of iron, than when made of wood, and as the thickness of the sides is much less, more space is secured in an iron ship than in a wooden one for carrying the cargo. Besides this, a vessel built of iron can be divided into water-tight compartments, so that an accidental leak will damage only that portion of the cargo contained in that compartment in which it occurs. This method of construction is also another factor of safety in case of accident by collision or in any other way. One compartment may be injured so as to fill with water, while the others, being uninjured, their buoyancy will still keep the ship afloat. An objection, however, to the use of compartments lies in the fact that, as they must be riveted to the sides, the rows of holes for the rivets necessarily weaken the strength of the sides, so that a ship with compartments, which touches on a rock or other obstacle, at one end, is more apt to break apart than one without compartments, as the sides, unsupported by the buoyancy of the water, have the less strength to support her weight in the length. Still, all things considered, iron has come so much in favor for the construction of large ships, that it is in much more general use for that purpose than wood. In the construction of an iron ship, the naval architect draws his plans, and sends his construction drawings to the iron rolling mill, where each plate is made of the exact curve and dimensions. The holes for the rivets are punched by machinery, and the plates are then ready to be put together. The hull of the vessel is made of iron bars riveted together, and the plates are riveted to the iron upright ribs, each plate overlapping the preceding. The ribs are placed from ten to eighteen inches apart, and the whole structure is of iron. The simplicity of the construction of an iron ship is such, that when the plates are ready, it can be put together with wonderful rapidity. [Illustration: MONITORS.] [Illustration: PLANS OF THE MONITOR.] [Illustration: ST. LOUIS.] For constructing ships of war, iron is almost wholly used, and the experience of our late war has almost entirely changed the methods and theories of naval warfare. The enormous frigate, carrying a heavy armament of numerous guns, and manned by a thousand men, has been replaced by a small craft--so low in the water as to project above it only a few inches, carrying but a single gun, or at most only two, which are of very heavy calibre, and are mounted in a revolving tower in the middle of the craft. The general description of the Monitor, that it was a cheese-box on a raft, aptly describes their appearance. By the introduction of the monitor as a war vessel, a complete change was wrought in naval warfare. The large hulk of the old ships afforded only a better target for the heavy guns of this new craft, while its own slight projection above the water, and the fact that its engines and propeller were covered by the water, afforded it almost absolute security from the enemy's guns. Even if it was struck, the round shape of its iron clad deck, and its revolving tower caused the balls to glance off without affecting much injury. In October, 1861, forty-five days from the laying of her keel, the St. Louis was launched, being the first iron-clad ship owned by the United States. Other vessels of similar design were rapidly brought to completion, and these iron-clad river boats began their task of opening the navigation of the Mississippi. The St. Louis was built in the city of the same name, by Mr. James B. Eads, of that city. [Illustration: DOUBLE ENDER.] The cuts represent the shape of some of the iron-clads built for service in the western rivers, where the shallowness of the stream made it necessary that the craft should not draw too much water. For the same reasons the "tin-clads," as they were called from the thinness of the plates with which they were covered, were built. The "double-enders" were also thus constructed, in order to navigate, as necessary, either way, in the narrow and crooked streams, where our navy performed such admirable work during the War. The use of heavy artillery in naval warfare has also caused great modifications to be made in the construction of other naval ships than the monitors. To avoid the injury caused by heavy artillery, the idea was suggested of plating them with iron. The most extensive experiments of this kind were made in England, but not with the most gratifying success. It was found that the iron plating rendered the ships too heavy, if it was made thick enough to be of effective service. In a rough sea the vessels rolled so heavily as to be nearly unmanageable, while the weight of the plating on the sides acted with a leverage to tear the ships in halves, so that they were considered almost unsafe. One of them, also, on her trial trip, having capsized and sunk with her entire crew, public confidence in them as serviceable vessels was entirely lost; and the advantage of iron-plating large ships of war may be still considered as an open question. [Illustration: MINNEHAHA, OR TIN-CLAD.] It has also been suggested that ships of war should be furnished with a sharp beak of steel, and with such powerful engines as should secure for them great speed, and, without trusting at all to the use of their guns, should be used as rams to run into and crush their adversaries. This suggestion, which is practically returning to the practice of the ancients before the invention of either gunpowder or steam, has never yet, however, been carried out in fact. So far, therefore, the most serviceable modern ships of war are the monitors. The largest and most expensive of these, the Dunderberg, was not finished until after the war was over, and was sold, with the consent of the government, by her builder, to Russia for $1,000,000, and crossed the Atlantic safely, a feat which showed her to be sea-worthy, and more worthy of confidence than any of the armored vessels built by the English Government. In modern times attention has also been given to constructing vessels which should be navigated under the water. Fulton, whose name is so inseparably connected with the introduction of the steamboat, made an attempt, the first on record, in the harbor of Brest, on the west coast of France, in 1801, under the order of Napoleon I., to blow up an English ship with a torpedo, a weapon of warfare which is said to have been first suggested by Franklin, who experimented with them in the Revolution. Fulton used, in this attempt, a submarine boat of his own invention, the model and construction of which have never been made public. His attempt being unsuccessful the project was abandoned, as Napoleon withdrew his support from the scheme. [Illustration: THE RAM IRONSIDES.] During our late civil war, while the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, was blockaded by the ships of the national navy, and the bombardment of Fort Sumter continued, attempts were made by the besieged to destroy the blockading ships by torpedoes, which were to be fastened by a submarine craft. One of these boats, called a "cigar boat," though both ends were pointed, is thus described: She was thirty feet long and six feet broad, painted a lead color. Her propelling power consisted of a six-horse engine, geared to a shaft turning a propeller. At her bow was an iron bowsprit, so arranged that it could be lowered to the required depth, and at the end of this the torpedo was secured. When afloat only about fifteen feet of her length projected some fourteen inches above the water. For fuel she used anthracite coal, and attained a speed of about six miles an hour. Her tonnage was about seven or eight tons, and in this craft Lieutenant Glassells, of Virginia, volunteered to attack the iron-clad, the Ironsides, which was the most powerful ship at that time afloat in the navy, rated at from three to four thousand tons. The Ironsides was a very heavily armed ship, provided with eleven-inch guns, and capable of delivering the heaviest broadside ever fired from a single ship. On the night of the sixth of October, 1863, Lieutenant Glassells set out on his expedition from one of the wharves of Charleston. The sky was covered with clouds, and the night was very dark. His crew consisted of a fireman and a pilot, and his offensive armament of a torpedo, in position, and a double-barreled fowling-piece. Being asked why he carried a gun on such an expedition, he answered: "You know I have served in the United States navy, and I shall not attack my old comrades like an assassin. I shall hail and fire into them, with this, then let the torpedo do its work like an open and declared foe." This speech is a fair specimen of the singular mixture of honor and disloyalty which characterized the whole secession movement. This lieutenant could desert his navy, could take up arms against his country, but could not attack one of its ships without first giving its crew warning. [Illustration: TORPEDO EXPLOSION.] The "cigar boat" steamed silently on its course until within about fifty yards of the Ironsides, without being discovered. Everything on the immense ship seemed as quiet as the grave. Suddenly, in the still night, the lieutenant cries, "Ship ahoy!" "Where away?" is the answer. "We have come to attack you," cries the lieutenant, at the same time firing his fowling-piece, checking the engine, and directing the torpedo. It struck, but before the "cigar boat" could retire, with a gurgling roar it exploded. The explosion sounded like the discharge of a submerged gun. Water mixed with flame was forced by the explosion far up above the gunwales of the ship, and bearing up the bows of the smaller craft, poured back in torrents through the chimney, put out the fires, and rendered the "cigar boat" helpless. For a moment everything on board the Ironsides was in confusion; but the discipline of the navy was equal to the emergency. The drums beat to quarters, the guns were manned, and the marines poured a steady fire upon the little craft, now floating helplessly on the sea. Lieutenant Glassells jumped into the water, to escape death from the shower of balls; the pilot followed him, but the fireman remained at his post, as the boat drifted away from danger. Glassells then called for help; the marines ceased firing, and a small boat from the Ironsides rescued him from the water. The pilot swam back to the "cigar boat" and he and the fireman bailed her out, rekindled the fire, and escaped to Charleston. Glassells was afterwards sent North, and under confinement his health broke down. The Ironsides was sufficiently injured by the explosion to be sent from her station for repairs. Had the torpedo struck her further below, it is thought to be probable that she would have been sunk. Another torpedo boat was also built in Charleston, upon a different model. This was called the "fish boat." It was built of boiler-iron, was thirty feet long by five feet eight inches deep, and about four and a half feet wide, amidships. Its middle section was an ellipse flattening to a wedge shape at both ends, which were alike. It was intended to rise or sink in the water, like a fish, and in order to do this its specific gravity had to be kept equal that of water. In navigating under water the boat had also to be kept upon an even keel. On her bowsprit, which projected ten feet, the torpedo was secured, and in order to balance the hundred and fifty pounds this weighed, an equal amount of ballast was stowed at the stern. Ten feet from her bow she had two iron fins, one on each side, about four feet long, seven inches wide and three-eighths of an inch thick. These fins were fastened to an inch rod of iron passing through water-tight fittings in her sides, and provided with a crank inside, so that the fins could be worked in any direction, or at any angle, forcing the craft to the surface, or below, or forward or backward. By working them also in opposite directions the vessel could be turned as a row-boat is by pulling with one oar and backing water with the other. At the stern, midway between the top and bottom, she was provided with a propeller, worked by a shaft, fitted water-tight, and propelled by hand-power inside the hold. On her deck were two round hatches, or man holes, about ten feet apart, and fitted with plates of such thick glass as is used in side-walks, for cellar lights, set in iron frames, working upon hinges, fastened on the inside, and fitting water-tight when closed. Between these hatches were two flexible air pipes, with air-tight valves, so that when within a foot of the surface, by opening the valves, fresh air could be drawn into the hold. The crew depended upon the violent action of their hats, when the valves were open, for making a current sufficient to displace the foul air, and bring in a supply of fresh. When the boat was finished, in the first experiment made with her, she carried a crew of eight men, and a shifting ballast of iron plates. She moved from the wharf, passed down the river, just showing the tops of the hatches, dove under a ship lying in the stream, rose on the other side, and returned to the wharf. This was done successfully a second time, when the chief of the crew left her for some purpose, and the rest of the men, though unaccustomed to the work, undertook to perform the experiment alone. She moved out, dove down, but never came up. About a fortnight afterward she was found, raised, the dead removed, and the whole inside disinfected, cleaned and painted white. On the second trial she filled just as the crew had manned her, and sunk. The captain and one other saved themselves, but the rest of the crew, consisting of five, were drowned in her. Another crew volunteered to man her, and on the night of the 17th of February, 1864, she set out from Sullivan's Island, to which place she had run from her anchorage, to attack the blockading fleet, carrying a torpedo affixed to her bowsprit. During the whole night the bombardment of the city was kept up, and nothing was heard of the fish boat. The next morning a heavy fog hung over the coast, clearing up about eight in the morning, and the sloop-of-war Housatonic was discovered to be sunk in about six fathoms of water, her crew swarming in her rigging for safety. The fish boat had destroyed her, and destroyed herself in doing so. This was the first time that she had ever been used in exploding a torpedo, and the cause of her destruction is supposed to have been as follows: The weight of the torpedo, on her bowsprit, was balanced by the shifting ballast in her stern, and thus she was kept on an even keel. As soon, however, as the torpedo struck and exploded, the balance was destroyed, her bows were lifted by the weight in the stern, control was lost of her, and the Housatonic, sinking from the damage done her by the explosion, settled upon the "fish boat" and carried her and her crew to the bottom. Disastrous as these attempts at submarine navigation were, yet they are the most successful yet made. We have seen else where that men have, for other purposes than war, been able to descend under the surface of the sea, and stay there quite a time without injury; but their appliances are not vessels intended for navigation. Let us turn, then, from this record of how human ingenuity has been taxed to devise means to destroy men, to the consideration of the new devices made for their comfort or safety in crossing the sea. One of the most useful of these is a life raft or bolsa, one of which is represented in our cut. This consists of three elastic cylinders, made of india-rubber cloth, each twenty-five feet long. When empty they are easily packed in a very small compass. For use they are blown up, and fastened to a prepared staging. The cut represents one which crossed the Atlantic in 1867, arriving at Southampton July 25, having started from New York forty-three days before. She was rigged with two masts secured to the staging, and her crew consisted of three men, John Wilkes, George Miller and Jerry Mallene. A bellows to fill the cylinders, should they require it, was an important item in her cargo. The crew kept alternate watch, sleeping, by turns, in a tent spread on the staging. Their supply of water they carried in casks. The experiment of crossing the Atlantic was made to show the safety of a raft thus constructed. [Illustration: LIFE RAFT.] For attaining speed, and thus diminishing the tedium and the risk of an Atlantic voyage, Mr. Wynans, of Baltimore, has invented a cigar-shaped boat, as it is called, though it is pointed at both ends. Various causes have hitherto prevented his final experiment with his boat, but he hopes to be able to make with it an average speed of at least eighteen miles an hour. Crossing the Atlantic has become so common, and sea-sickness making the trip so disagreeable and dangerous to many people, attention has been turned to inventing a method of construction which shall destroy the cause for this malady, by keeping the saloon always on a level, notwithstanding the pitching and rolling of the ship in a high sea. Mr. Bessemer, the inventor of the new process for making steel, has invented a boat, which he is now constructing, and which he thinks will make it perfectly feasible to cross the Atlantic without the necessity of paying the usual tribute to old Neptune. The general idea of his ship may be thus described: The saloon for passengers is to be balanced upon a frame work similar in principle to that by which the lamps on ship-board are supported. An outer circle swings upon pivots at each end of its diameter, and within another circle supports the lamp, which is swung upon pivots at right angles with those in the first. However, then, the ship may pitch or roll, the lamp remains perpendicular, the circles adjusting themselves to meet the motion of the ship. This idea is to be applied in the construction of the saloon, so that it will remain constantly on a level, and as Mr. Bessemer has a plenty of money to construct a dozen of ships for an experiment, the public may expect before long to hear of a trial. The first ship of the kind is reported as on the stocks, and to be rapidly approaching completion. Nor is this the only style of ship suggested to obviate sea-sickness. A Russian, M. Alexandroiski, proposes a new form of stationary ship-saloon, which differs from that of Mr. Bessemer in having the cabin float in kind of a tank placed between the engines, instead of being hung on pivots. This invention, it is stated, has been tested by the Russian Naval Department, and is reported to have been found entirely satisfactory, the rolling motion of the vessel being completely counteracted. With the success of one or the other of these plans, an ocean voyage, even in a rough sea, will become a pleasure trip, like sailing in a painted ship upon a painted ocean; the wildness of a storm even may become merely an exciting spectacle, like looking at the representation of a hurricane in a theatre, with the further advantage of having it real and life-like. Perhaps the change which has been brought about in our feeling with regard to the ocean is shown more in the yachting of modern times than in anything else. The idea of making a trip across the Atlantic is no longer considered an almost foolhardy undertaking, but even our yachts have made it a field for their races, and a match across the Atlantic has become not an unusual thing. The owning of yachts has become so general among our rich men, that yacht-building has become a regular branch of naval architecture, and constant improvements are being made in their models, and greater luxury displayed in their fitting up. George Steers, who has been mentioned before for his improvements in the model of the steamship, made his first reputation by the construction of the yacht America, which was sent over to England, and proved the fastest vessel in the regatta on the occasion of the first World's Fair in London. This yacht, after her victory, was bought by an Englishman, and never used again, being left to rot at her moorings. However, she changed the yacht models of Europe. [Illustration: OCEAN YACHT RACE.--THE HENRIETTA, VISTA AND FLEETWING.] A yacht race across the Atlantic was one of the sensations of the year 1866. Three yachts entered the contest, the Henrietta, the Fleetwing and the Vista. They started from Sandy Hook one day in December, and though the season had been unusually stormy, and they encountered gales almost all the way, so that frequently they were forced to sail under bare poles, and the Fleetwing lost several of her sailors, who were washed overboard, yet they arrived safe at Cowes on the same day, after a fourteen days' voyage, the Henrietta winning the race by a couple of hours. This yacht was the property of James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the son of the owner of the New York Herald. During the war her owner freely offered her to the government, and she has done good service. After the victory Mr. Bennett sold her for $15,000, and purchased the Fleetwing for $65,000, re-christening her the Dauntless. This yacht, in another ocean race in 1870, was beaten by the Cambria, an English yacht. These prices show the cost of seeking one's pleasure in a yacht, and yet it is only one item of the expense. To keep one of the vessels costs more than the expenses of the majority of the households in the country. A crew of five men is needed, and it is a question whether, all things considered, more real substantial interest and enjoyment is not taken by a lover of the sea and of sailing in an ordinary sail-boat, which he and a friend or two are amply competent to man and manage, than is taken by the owners of the most luxuriantly furnished yachts in the world. As pleasure ships, however, the yacht is all that can be desired. Many of them contain spacious saloons; their cabins are almost always paneled in costly woods, and most luxuriantly furnished, and even gas has been provided for them. It is estimated that the yachts of the New York club alone have cost more than $2,000,000, and those of the whole country about $5,000,000. Much of this is the mere luxury of ostentation; but as the real pleasures there are in thus visiting distant lands come to be better appreciated, much of this foolish expenditure will be abandoned. [Illustration] CHAPTER LVIII. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARTH AND SEA--HOW IT HAS INCREASED--THE EARTH THE DAUGHTER OF THE OCEAN--THE OPINION OF SCIENCE--THE MEAN DEPTH OF THE OCEAN--THE EXTENT OF THE OCEAN--ITS VOLUME--SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF SEA-WATER--CONSTITUTION OF SALT-WATER--THE SILVER IN THE SEA--THE WAVES OF THE SEA--THE CURRENTS OF THE OCEAN--THE TIDES--THE AQUARIUM--THE COMMERCE OF MODERN TIMES--THE SPREAD OF PEACE. In the preceding pages the facts have been given in a comprehensive though succinct form, which enable us to see how, step by step, each one of which became possible only when those preceding had been taken. Mankind has gained a knowledge of the outlines of the sea; of the form of the earth itself; of the relative positions occupied by the water and the land; of their action upon each other, and thus the way has been prepared by the enterprise of preceding generations for the scientific methods of study which characterize the modern era. The adventurous voyagers of the early times, who, daring as they were, hardly were bold enough to venture in their open boats, propelled only by oars, out of the sight of land, could not be expected to conceive that it could be possible for men, like themselves, to ever become able to construct ships such as modern nations construct, in which, propelled by steam, voyages should be taken across oceans, and out of sight of land, their course over the trackless waters be guided with accuracy and certainty, to any desired point, by the compass and the observations of the motions of the stars. By experiment and observation the entire aspect and conception of the ocean has been changed in modern times from that which prevailed in antiquity, or even more recently, until within the few past generations. Though much has been done, in the study of the ocean, toward obtaining a proper conception of its influence in the general economy of the globe, yet there is still much to be learned. Among the ancients it was generally declared in their cosmogonies that the solid portions of the world were produced by the ocean. "Water is the chief of all," says Pindar; "the earth is the daughter of ocean," is the mythological statement common to the primitive nations. Though this poetical expression was merely based upon a vague tradition, and can hardly be taken as the result of any methodical study of the earth, yet modern science tends to show that it is really true. The ocean has produced the solid land. The study of geology, the skilled inspection of the various strata of the land--the rocks, sand, clay, chalk, conglomerates--proves that the materials of the continents have been chiefly deposited at the bottom of the sea, and raised to their present position by the chemical or mechanical agencies which are constantly at work in the vast laboratory of nature. Many rocks, as for instance the granites of Scandinavia, which were previously believed to have been projected in a molten and plastic state from the interior of the earth, where they had been subjected to the action of the intense heat supposed to exist in the centre of the earth, are now supposed to be in reality ancient sedimentary strata, slowly deposited by the sea, and upheaved by the contraction of the crust, or by some other force of upheaval acting from the centre. Upon the sides of mountains, or on their summits, now thousands of feet above the level of the ocean, unquestionable traces of the action of the sea can be found. And the scientific observer of to-day sees all about him evidences that the immense work of the creation of continents, commenced by the sea in the earliest periods of time, is to-day continuing without relaxation or intermission, and with such energy that even during the short course of a single life great changes can be seen to have been produced. Here and there a coast, subject to the beating of the serf, is seen to be slowly undermined, disintegrated, worn down and carried away, while in another place the material is deposited by the sea, and sandy beaches or promontories are built up. New rocks also, differing in appearance and constitution from those worn away, are formed. But beside this action of the sea upon the coasts, in constantly changing the configuration of the land, modern observation has shown us that animal life is an agent constantly at work within the sea itself, in the formation of new lands. The innumerable minute forms of life with which the sea swarms; the coral polyps, the shells, the sponges, and the animalculæ of all kinds, are constantly engaged in consuming the food they find, in reproducing themselves, and in dying. From the various matters brought down to the ocean by the rivers of the land, they secrete their shells or other coverings; and as generation after generation they die, these falling to the bottom form immense banks, or plains, which some future action of upheaval will bring above the surface to form the material for new continents or islands. Thus while the ocean prepares the materials for the future continents in its bosom, it also furnishes the waters which wash away the lands already existing. To the thought of modern science the granite peaks, the snow-clad mountains, immovable and eternal as they seem, are constantly disintegrating, and partake, with every thing else in creation, the eternal round of change which is constantly going on. From the sea, by evaporation, rise the vapors which, condensing against the sides of the mountains, form the glaciers; and these, slowly sliding down toward the plains, are such efficient agents in wearing away the mountains, grinding up their solid rocks and preparing the gravel which the mountain streams distribute over the plains. From the sea the atmosphere receives the moisture destined to return in rain from the clouds; to feed the brooks whose union forms the rivers, destined again to return to the sea the waters it provided, and thus keep up, in a single, mighty and endless circulation, the waters of the globe. Thus to the agency of the ocean we are indebted for our rivers, which have played such an important part in the geological history of the earth, in the distribution of the flora and fauna of various countries, and on the life of man himself. In the study also of the climates of the earth, and their effects upon life, we find the ocean bears a most important part. As the circulation of the atmosphere mingles the heated air from the equator with that of the frozen regions of the poles, so the currents of the ocean circulate about the earth, blending the contrasts of climate, and making a harmonious whole of all the different portions. Thus, instead of considering the ocean as the barren waste of desolation it appeared to the ancients, to the modern thinker the ocean has, layer by layer, deposited the land from its bosom, and now by its vapors provides the rains which support its vegetable life, upon which all other life depends, and creates the rivers and the springs, which play such an important part in the modification of the interior of continents, at the greatest distance from the sea. The mean depth of the whole mass of the ocean waters of the globe is estimated at about three miles, since measurements have shown that the basins of the Atlantic and Northern Pacific are deeper than this by hundreds of thousands of fathoms. The extent covered by the surface of the ocean has been estimated at more than 145,000,000 of square miles, and with this estimate, the sea is calculated to form a volume of about two and one-half million billions of cubic yards, or about the five hundred and sixtieth part of the planet itself. The highest point of the land raised above the level of the sea is much less elevated than the bottom of the sea is depressed from the same level, so that the mass of the land above this level can be estimated only at about a fortieth part of the mass of the waters. The specific gravity of sea water is greater than that of fresh. This comes from the various matters which it holds in solution. This difference varies with different seas; with the quantity of matters held in solution; with the amount of evaporation; the size and number of rivers flowing into the various seas; the ice melting into them; the currents, and various other causes. The average quantity of salts held in solution in sea water is estimated at 34.40 parts in 1,000, and this average is the same in all seas. The quantity of common salt held in solution is always a little more than three-quarters (75.786) of the total mineral matter held in solution. The salt of the sea averages, if the water is evaporated, about two inches to every fathom; so that, were the ocean dried up, a layer of salt about two hundred and thirty feet thick would remain on the bottom, or the whole salt of the sea would measure more than a thousand millions of cubic miles. This vast quantity of salt in the sea explains how the enormous beds of rock salt were formed, when the lands now exposed were covered by the waters. Beside the oxygen and hydrogen which constitute its waters, the sea contains chlorine, nitrogen, carbon, bromine, iodine, fluorine, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon, sodium, potassium, boron, aluminium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium. From the various sea-weeds most of these substances can be obtained. Copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel and manganese have also been found in their ashes. Iron has also been obtained from sea water, and a trace of silver also is often deposited by the magnetic current established between the sheeting of ships and the salt water. Though only a trace is thus found, yet it has been estimated that the whole waters of the ocean contain in solution two million tons of silver. In the boilers of ocean steamships, which use sea water, arsenic has also been found. Sea water also retains dissolved air better than fresh water, and the bulk of this in ocean water is generally greater by a third than that found in river water. It varies from a fifth to a thirtieth, and gradually increases from the surface to a depth of about three hundred and twenty-five to three hundred and eighty fathoms. The uniformity in the constitution of the waters of the sea is chiefly caused by the action of the waves, which finally mix and mingle the waters into a homogeneous mass. The waves of the sea are caused chiefly by the action of the wind, and the effect continues even after the wind has ceased. One of the grandest spectacles at sea is offered by the regular movement of the waves in perfectly calm weather, when not a breath of air stirs the sails. During to the Autumnal calm under the Tropic of Cancer, these waves appear with astonishing regularity at intervals of two hundred to three hundred yards, sweep under the ship, and as far as the eye can reach, are seen advancing and passing away, as regularly as the furrows in a field. Such waves are caused by the regularity of the trade winds. The height of the waves is not the same in all seas. It is greater where the basin is deeper in proportion to the surface, and also as the water is fresher and yields easier to the impulses of the wind. The height of waves has been variously measured. Some observers have claimed to see them over one hundred feet high, but from twenty to fifty feet is about the average of observations on the Atlantic. The breadth of a wave is calculated as fifteen times its height. Thus, a wave four feet high is sixty feet broad. The inclination of the sides of the waves varies however with the force of the wind, and with the strength of the secondary vibrations in the water, which may interfere with the primary ones. The speed of the waves is only apparent like the motion in a length of cloth shaken up and down. Floating objects do not change their relative positions, but slowly, except in rising and falling with the wave. The real movement of the sea is that of a drifting current, which is slowly formed under the action of the wind, and this is not rapid, but slow. The astronomer Airey says that every wave 100 feet wide, traversing a sea 164 fathoms in average depth, has a velocity of nearly 2,100 feet a second, or about fifteen and one-half miles an hour; a wave 674 feet, moving over a sea 1,640 fathoms deep, travels more than 69 feet a second, or nearly fifty miles an hour, and this last calculation may be taken as the average speed of storm waves in great seas. As, therefore, we can calculate the velocity of waves from their width and the known depth of the sea, we can calculate the depth of the sea from the known size and velocity of the waves. By this method the depth of the Pacific between Japan and California has been calculated from the size and speed of an earthquake wave, which was set in motion by an eruption in Japan. The accuracy of the calculation was afterward established by actual soundings. It was formerly supposed that the disturbance of the waves did not penetrate the depth of the water, below four or six fathoms, but this has been found, on further observation, erroneous. Sand and mud have been brought up from a depth of a hundred fathoms below the surface, and experiments have shown that waves have a vertical influence 350 times their height. Thus a wave a foot high influences the bottom at a depth of 50 fathoms, and a billow of the ocean 33 feet high is felt below at a distance of 1 3/4 miles. At these great depths the action of the wave is perhaps imaginary, but to this reason we can ascribe the heavy swells which are often so dangerous. A hidden rock, far below the surface, arrests some moving wave and causes an eddy, which, rising to the surface, produces the "ground swells" which suddenly rise in the neighborhood of submarine banks and endanger ships. This cause also explains the tide races, which, coming from the depths of the ocean, advance suddenly upon the beaches, destroying all that opposes them. It is this cause which makes the position of light-houses upon certain reefs so dangerous. The Bell Rock house, on the Scottish coast, stands 112 feet above the rock, and yet it is often covered with the waves and foam, even after the tempest has ceased to rage. Such light-houses are often washed away; as that at Minot's Ledge, on the coast of Massachusetts, has often been. In consequence the modern method of building these structures differs from that formerly in use. The custom was to build them of solid masonry, hoping to make them strong enough to resist the waves. Now they are generally built of iron lattice open work, making the bars as slender as is consistent with the proper strength, so as to offer the least resisting surface to the rushing water. This open frame work is raised up high enough, if possible, to place the house and lantern above the reach of the body of the wave. The force of the water in such positions is prodigious. Stephenson calculated that the sea dashed against the Bell Rock light-house with a force of 17 tons for every square yard. At breakwaters in exposed situations the sea has been known to seize blocks of stone weighing tons, and hurl them as a child would pebbles. At Cherbourg, in France, the heaviest cannon have been displaced; and at Barra Head, in the Hebrides, Stephenson states that a block of stone weighing 43 tons was driven by the breakers about two yards. At Plymouth, England, a vessel weighing 200 tons was thrown up on the top of the dike, and left there uninjured. At Dunkirk it has been found that from the dash of the breakers the ground trembles for more than a mile from the shore. Results of this kind, to which our attention is specially directed, since they affect man's work, show us what must be the effect produced by the sea, in constantly eating away the shore; altering the coast lines; changing continents, and building them up elsewhere; and suggest how much greater than what we see must have been the effects of the sea upon the land during the countless ages in which it has been at work. The currents in the ocean, which constitute the real motion of its waters, are very important in the study of the influence of the sea upon the land. By these the circulation of the waters of the globe is carried on. The warm water of the equatorial regions seeking the poles, and a counter movement from the poles to the equator, is established. By their means a constant mingling of the waters on the face of the whole earth is maintained, and the wonderful similarity of its different portions, in their composition, appearance, and the substances held in solution, is produced. The chief causes of this grand circulation are found in the heat of the sun and in the rotation of the earth upon its axis. By the evaporation of the waters in the tropics the surface of that portion of the ocean is estimated to be lowered more than fourteen feet yearly. By this means not only is the atmosphere provided with its store of vapor, to be dispensed in rain upon the land, and thus returned again to the sea, but this lowering of the surface of the ocean, in one part, leads to the currents flowing from the others to restore the equilibrium. The same cause leading also to the circulation of the atmosphere, produces the trade winds, which aid in producing the currents in the ocean. Now that by study and observation mankind have arrived at the conception of the form of the earth, at its general features, and can, in idea, grasp it as a whole, the opportunity is prepared for the methodical study of its parts, and their relation to each other; and this is the subject which for the first time in the history of mankind is offered to the physical geographer, with the certainty that none of his observations can be lost, but that they all are important, and can each be referred to its proper place. Another movement of the ocean is the tides. To the ancients, unacquainted with the form of the earth, its position in space, or its relations with the other bodies of the solar system, the tides were naturally inexplicable. It has been possible, only in modern times to attempt their explanation. Kepler first indicated the course to be followed; and Descartes and Newton each gave a theory; the first that of the pressure of the waters; the last, that of the attraction of the sun and moon upon the waters. This last theory is the one generally accepted, since it has been found satisfactory in most respects; yet it still has its opponents. Now, however, that the telegraph has been discovered, and a means thus afforded for instantaneous communication between observers at distant points, it has become possible to organize a simultaneous observation of the tides at various places, and eventually this will be done, so that the theory that the tides are caused by the attraction of the sun and moon will be entirely proved or rejected according as it will be found consistent with the facts observed. In this connection an interesting instance of the different manner in which the ancients regarded natural phenomena, from that in which the moderns regard the same occurrences, is found in the fear the ancients had of the two monsters Scylla and Charybdis, which were the fabled guardians of the Straits of Messina. At present there are no straits in the Mediterranean more frequented than those of Messina. By the soundings which have been made there, these monsters had been effectually destroyed, and the whirlpools are known to be produced by the ebb and flow of the tide, causing a greater flow of water than can be accommodated by the narrow channel. The width of the channel is hardly two miles, and at low tide it has often been crossed on horseback, by swimming. The rising tide tends toward the north, from the Ionian to the Tyrrhenian sea, and the falling tide in the opposite direction. There is a strife between these currents, and on their confines eddies are formed which ships avoid, but there is no danger unless the wind blows strongly against the tide. Besides the influence of the currents and the tides of the ocean in altering the configuration of the land, the sea is the home of innumerable forms of animal life, which are constantly laboring in the same direction. It has been truly said, that a beef bone, thrown overboard by a sailor on a ship, may form the nucleus of a new continent. The entire chalk cliffs of England were formed from the minute shells deposited by the small animals which secreted them. At their death these fell to the bottom, and thus slowly through the ages the deposit was formed. The recent deep sea dredgings have shown the sea, at all depths, is full of animal life; and as the steady fall of snow-flakes in a winter's storm, piled up by currents of wind, form the drifts, or falling quietly, cover the ground uniformly, so the sea is full of the minute shells, which, carried by currents, form banks, or, falling evenly, prepare the plains which in the future will appear, in some upheaval, to form new continents. In the United States the peninsula of Florida is an evidence of the land produced by the labor of the coral polyp. Florida has now ceased to increase toward the east, for on this side it touches the deep waters of the gulf, and the polyps can live only in shallow water. The peninsula increases only on its southern and western coasts. The cut at the end of this chapter represents the appearance of coral islands as they first rise to the surface, before the gathering soil provides the conditions for covering them with the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics. The cut at the head of this chapter, of an aquarium, represents a new appliance of modern times, which is a most valuable aid in our obtaining a knowledge of the habits of the animals living in the sea. In fresh water, as well as in salt, the mutual relations of the vegetable and animal life serve to keep the water from becoming stagnant. The plants secrete the carbonic acid gas, which the animals give to the water by breathing, and in so doing free the oxygen which the animals require. In keeping therefore an aquarium, the desired point is to provide such a natural proportion of vegetable and animal life as shall preserve this balance. In many of the larger museums of Europe, large aquariums have been built, and an opportunity thus afforded for the study of the various animal forms, the habits of the vegetable growths, and their relations. Some of these structures are so arranged that they surround a room which receives its light only through the water in the aquaria, and thus the spectator, without disturbing the fish, can watch them feeding and performing all their actions. From this arrangement of the aquaria, as the light passes from the water to the eye, the spectator is not disturbed in his vision, as he is by trying to look into the water from above, by the refraction of the light. A great deal that has been learned in modern times concerning the growth of the vegetation of the sea, of the habits of the animals, of their manner of life, their food and their growth, has been obtained from the chance of observation afforded by the various aquaria. Beside the positive benefits which have thus resulted from the public aquaria, those in smaller form afford for the lover of natural history a new and interesting way of carrying on his studies. In this way also the habits of observation are formed in the young, and it is fair to believe that the spirit of inquiry thus excited will tend to increase the knowledge of the phenomena of life, and its relations to the conditions of existence. It has been by this course that the race itself has risen from barbarism to its present degree of civilization, and with the new appliances of modern times, it is evidently impossible to limit the probabilities of advance in the future. A few facts about the extent of our commerce will show the difference of the spirit with which the ocean is regarded in modern times, compared with that prevailing in antiquity; and the different use we have learned to make of it, from the time when the exchanges of the world were confined to a few coasters, who hardly ventured out of the sight of land. To give even the most condensed summary of the world's commerce to-day would require a series of volumes; but a few figures taken from our own will enable the reader to judge of that which is now going on all over the world, uniting the most distantly separated nations; enabling them to become acquainted with each other; and impressing them with the fact that by industry alone are the material comforts of life to be attained, and that the task before humanity is to become acquainted with the products of the world, with the forces of which it is the theatre, and learn to control them for our own benefit. From the report of the Bureau of Statistics, for a portion of 1873, we learn that the imports and exports of the United States during eight months, ending with February, 1873, amounted to the following totals: Imported in American vessels, $104,891,248; imported in foreign vessels, $317,043,490; imported in land vehicles, $12,356,325. During the same period the domestic exports in American vessels amounted to a total of $108,246,698; in foreign vessels, $311,816,048; and in land vehicles, $5,282,949. At the same time the re-exportation of foreign products amounted in American vessels to $5,147,805; in foreign vessels to $10,938,300; and in land vehicles to $1,693,795. The number and tonnage of American and foreign vessels engaged in the foreign trade, which entered and cleared during the twelve months ending with February, 1873, was as follows: American vessels, 10,928, carrying 3,597,474 tons; foreign vessels, 19,220, carrying 7,622,416 tons. The report of the Bureau for 1872, gives the following totals of the number of vessels and their tonnage engaged in the commerce of the United States. Upon the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 21,940 vessels carrying 2,916,001,058 tons. On the Western rivers, 1,476 vessels carrying 354,938,052 tons. On the Northern lakes 5,339 vessels, carrying 726,105,051 tons. On the Pacific coast, 1,094 vessels carrying 161,987,050. From the port of New York alone there are now thirteen lines of steamships plying to Europe. Of these the Anchor line has 15 steamers, with a tonnage of 36,127 tons; the Baltic Lloyds has 4 vessels of 9,200 tons; the Cardiff (a Welsh) line has three vessels of 8,000 tons; the Cunard has 23 vessels of 59,308 tons; the Holland (direct) line has two vessels of 4,000 tons; the General Transatlantic (a French line) has 5 vessels of 17,000 tons; the Hamburg has 15 vessels of 45,000 tons; the Inman line has 12 vessels of 34,811; the Liverpool and Great Western line has 7 vessels of 23,573 tons; the North German line has 20 vessels of 60,000 tons; the National line has 12 vessels of 50,062 tons; the State line has 3 vessels of 7,500 tons; and the White Star line has 6 vessels of 23,064 tons. Beside these ships, the thirteen companies are building from 30 to 40 more steamers to meet the demand for freight. The ocean has thus become almost a steam ferry; almost every day a steamer leaves for Europe. With this knowledge of how far we have progressed in becoming acquainted with the ocean, it will be well to consider for a moment how much still remains for us to explore. In the middle ages, and even down to modern times, the maps of the world represented all unknown lands as inhabited by monsters; but every voyage made by discoverers has contracted the limits of these fables, until they have finally about disappeared. Still at the North Pole and in the Antarctic regions areas extending over a space of 2,900,000 and 8,700,000 square miles, respectively, have been, up to this time, unvisited. The icebergs and mountains of ice have kept them from our accurate investigations. The difficulties of such a sea are well shown in the adjoining illustration. Discoveries have also to be made in the interiors of Africa, Asia, South America and Australia before the civilized portions of the race can claim a complete knowledge of the earth, their common dwelling-place. Every year, however, the portions unexplored grow smaller and smaller, so that we are justified in believing that eventually the whole world will be known to us, from actual observation. [Illustration: APPEARANCE OF ICE.] [Illustration: LIGHT SHIP AND INCOMING VESSEL.] Another difference which our extended knowledge of the world has produced is this: The mariner now approaching an unknown coast does not fear to meet monsters, but looks out for the light-house, the light-ships, the buoys, and other evidences of civilization, by which the dangers of the coast are pointed out to the voyager. As a contrast with some of the pictures already given, representing the approach to the land of the early explorers, the illustration of the light-ship will show how differently to-day a voyage approaches its termination. Instead of looking out for enemies, and preparing weapons for use, a package of newspapers and letters is got ready, and the news boat, which lies ready at hand, is prompt to seize them, and hasten with these to spread the news of another safe arrival. It is thus that science, which is gradually preparing the means for converting the globe into one great organism for the benefit of mankind, points out the way for making it the abode of that harmony, peace and plenty which has been dreamed of by the poets of all time. For this it is only necessary that our moral progress should keep pace with our advance in knowledge. The globe will never become the abode of perfect harmony until men are united in a universal league of justice and peace. And in aiding toward the production of this most desirable consummation, what has been here written will show how important has been the part taken by the ocean. [Illustration: A CORAL ISLAND.] FOOTNOTES: [1] A late French biography of Columbus, a work of profound research and erudition, by M. Roselly de Lorgues, proves beyond a cavil the accuracy of this assertion. The work in question was published under the auspices of the Pope. [2] This tract, so thickly matted with Gulf-weed, and covering an area equal in extent to the Mississippi Valley, has since been called by the Portuguese the Sargasso Sea. It still exists in the same spot, and if we now hear very little of it, it is because navigators have learned to avoid it. Lieut. Maury accounts for its existence in the following manner:--"Patches of this weed are always to be seen floating along the Gulf Stream. Now, if bits of cork, or chaff, or any floating substance, be put in a basin, and a circular motion be given to the water, all the light substances will be found crowding together near the centre of the pool, where there is the least motion. Just such a basin is the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf Stream, and the Sargasso Sea is the centre of the whirl. Columbus found this weedy sea in his voyage of discovery, and there it has remained to this day." [3] Mr. John Mullaly. TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE -Obvious print and punctuation errors fixed.